The Importance of Interpretation

In my last post, I stressed that interpretation is a necessary part of understanding what the Bible has to say. I listed three things that lead sincere Bible readers to different interpretations of the Scripture. The three sources of interpretive difficulty I mentioned were failing to properly discern between figurative and literal language; failure to consider how the original audience would have understood the passage; difficulties in translation from the original language.

Expanding on the last of these, I might add that translators always adopt a style of translation which significantly affects their word choices in the target language. I covered this in some depth in “The Best Version of the Bible.” To summarize, all English translations exist on a scale from strictly literal, word-for-word translation through what is often called thought-for-thought or dynamic translation to the extreme of what is essentially a paraphrase of the original.

Needless to say, Bible versions that range farthest from a literal translation of the original language are most susceptible to interpretive error. While I love the easy reading of The Message, its author, Eugene H. Petersen, took huge liberties with the inspired text and presented what he thought the author would have said if he were writing modern English. This makes it easy to follow the flow of the redemptive story without the impediments of linguistic difficulties inherent in word-for-word translation. However, I don’t recommend using The Message to support doctrinal positions.

Even on the mid-point of the scale of Bible versions, interpretive difficulties arise. The New International Version (NIV), a popular dynamic translation, often translates a word from the original text differently throughout a passage where the word is repeated. I believe this disguises the author’s intent to carry a thought through an entire discourse. While the synonyms chosen by the NIV translators may carry a meaning similar to the original, the varying connotations of each different word may or may not represent what the author intended.

(If a student is interested in seeing the different words translators might have chosen in a particular passage, The Amplified Version parenthetically inserts optional words the NASV translation committee considered. This gives readers an opportunity to form their own interpretation of the original author’s intention.)

Another source of misinterpretation comes from relying on uninspired writers to provide an interpretation of the Scripture. An extreme example of this is found in the interpretation of Joseph Smith which gave rise to the Mormon religion in the nineteenth century. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints give first place to Smith’s version of their religion rather than resorting to the Bible to explain itself. To Mormons, the Bible is just one of several “inspired” texts, and if there are contradictions, the Mormon Bible takes precedence. Roman Catholics have a similar situation, though not as radically heretical, with their elevation of the Magisterium. Catholics place the teachings of the pope and their bishops on the same level as the Bible. This has led to numerous misinterpretations and outright denials of biblical teachings that are accepted outside of Catholicism.

Even in protestant circles, uninspired men have been given prominence in doctrinal issues that rightly belongs to Scripture alone. The cry sola scriptura was foundational to the Protestant Reformation, but on some issues, they play follow the leader rather than follow the Bible. One argument often ascribed to John Calvin and Jacob Arminius concerning the free will of man in the matter of salvation actually goes back one thousand years before them to Augustine and Pelagius. The church today still has proponents who are called Calvinists and others called Arminians. I believe that if they interpreted Scripture correctly, they would find their answer in the teachings of the Apostle Paul. But, as I said earlier, that’s just my interpretation.

I believe some Christians today are led into misinterpretation through laziness. In the book of Acts, the Berean believers are praised for their commitment to search the Scriptures to see if what Paul preached was biblical. Blindly following leaders like Jim Jones or David Koresh led people to some seriously unbiblical beliefs and tragic consequences. Even with well-respected interpreters like R. C. Sproul or Dr. David Jeremiah or one of my favorites, A. W. Tozer, it is essential that each believer finds the source of their doctrine in the text of the Bible. It is not wrong to consider what godly interpreters have said in the past, but we must remember that they were not inspired and are subject to errors like any other believer.

Paul gave Timothy a stern warning about teachers who would pervert the truth: “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” The enemy of our souls is a master of deceit, purveying perversions of the truth which lead people to unbiblical conclusions. Evangelists who are more interested in making money than saving souls will make false promises to those who donate to their ministry. An unhappy husband who is convinced God wants him happy may justify an adulterous relationship. People who are led to believe their souls can be saved by a single declaration of faith without repentance or obedience are going to be surprised to hear Jesus say, “Depart from me; I never knew you.”

According to recent polls, there are millions of people calling themselves Christians who apparently believe that having a Bible on the coffee table or visiting a church occasionally secures their salvation in Christ. There are millions more who believe that their good deeds or kindly personalities will earn God’s favor; some of those people even call themselves Christians. There is no interpretation of the Bible that supports that kind of thinking. I will repeat what I have said many times: it is not sufficient for salvation to casually read the Bible or listen to someone preach. Those who are sincerely committed to Christ must read the Bible regularly and do their best to interpret it for themselves with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is fine to seek godly fellow believers to help one’s understanding, but ultimately, it is your interpretation that will save you or leave you lost. It is not wise to leave that determination in the hands of someone else.

Related Posts: Think, People!; What Do You Know?; What Were You Given?; Where Do You Find Truth?

That’s Just Your Interpretation

Bible interpretation is often a thorny subject among people who have some understanding of The Book. My title is a direct quote I have heard from people over the years. It is a legitimate comment. Sometimes it is used by honest Bible readers who stand by their interpretation based on their own scholarly efforts. Often, however, it is used by people with scant knowledge of the Bible or proper interpretive methods.

Anyone with even passing knowledge of the Scripture realizes that interpretation is required. This reality is recognized by Peter when he said that no Scripture is open to private interpretation. The implication of that statement is that interpretation will be required, but as Peter continues, he identifies the Author of Scripture as the Holy Spirit. The consequence is that that same Spirit must be accessed to obtain a proper interpretation. This is largely what Jesus meant when He said that after He left, He would send the Holy Spirit to guide His followers into all truth.

The problem arises when two sincere believers come to different conclusions. Often, the first thing that appears is a disagreement as to the figurative or literal nature of the passage in question. By its very nature, the Bible is full of figurative language. It is a false argument to say that the Bible must be taken literally to be believed. The inspired Scriptures often use language that is either intentionally figurative or language that borrows from the understanding of the original readers which may or may not be literally true.

A perfect example of this is the Bible’s use of the cosmology of the ancient audience to affirm God’s creative power and His ultimate sovereignty. For example, the Word plainly states that the sun rises and sets at God’s direction. We now know that that is an incorrect understanding of how the universe works. The absolute truth we infer from God’s statements about creation is theological not scientific. God is literally the Creator of all, but He uses figurative language to establish that.

Knowing when to accept figurative language as bearing truth and when to demand a literal interpretation presents the major difficulty. The most common way to make this determination is to say that if a literal reading agrees with the rest of the Scripture, and if it makes sense with reality as we know it, take it literally. If on the other hand, a literal reading contradicts another clear teaching, or if it offends our sense of what is real, assume it is meant figuratively. A good example of this would be Isaiah’s claim that the Messiah would be a shoot from the root of Jesse. Since Jesus was not a tree, we know this is meant to point to the Messiah as David’s descendant, thus fulfilling several prophecies.

Another commonly disputed literal/figurative issue is the six-day creation recorded in Genesis. Many conservative Bible scholars insist that the language of Genesis chapter one must be taken literally: six twenty-four-hour periods transpired during God’s acts of creation. While I can agree that six literal days may be the proper literal interpretation of Genesis, I am uncomfortable with people who insist that considering any optional interpretation damages the Bible’s credibility. I have written previously that the Hebrew word for day used in Genesis can properly be understood to mean time periods of indeterminate length. The Hebrew words for evening and morning can also be understood figuratively. It is unimportant to me whether the creative periods were exactly twenty-four hours long; what matters is that God is the Creator, and that He established a time ratio of work to rest. He even enshrined the concept in the Mosaic law concerning the Sabbath.

Interpretation is also the issue when people fail to consider how the original audience would have understood the Scripture in question. This is an essential principle in interpretation. As an example, when Paul told his Greek/Roman readers that there is no male or female in Christ, they would have been astounded. In the Mediterranean culture of the day, women were little more than property, good only for breeding and child-rearing. The Jews were slightly less strident in this, but Paul would have struck a chord with his pairings of Jew/Gentile and male/female; this would have brought to mind the temple court of the Gentiles and the court of the women. Only Jewish men could approach God at the higher levels. Paul’s assertion that men and women were equal in Christ was unheard of.

Where some people make an interpretative error is to assume that Paul meant there were no differences between men and women. Paul makes it clear in Ephesians and elsewhere that women are subordinate to men in marriage and in church offices. This has nothing to do with their equal standing in Christ or their ultimate worth; it is simply a matter of God-given role differences in certain areas. Radical feminism has infected the church causing some people to ignore this differentiation in the created order established by God.

Difficulties in translating from the original languages can also cause interpretative problems. The long dispute over the meaning of baptism might have been avoided had the translators of the early manuscripts of the Greek New Testament translated the Greek word instead of transliterating it. Translation involves finding a word in the target language that matches the meaning of the original. In the case of baptism, the original Greek word was baptizo (βαπτίζω). In Greek, the word clearly means immersion. Because there was already an ongoing debate as to the method and timing of the sacrament, translators punted by transliterating. This left the issue up to the theologians to debate.

I believe the Roman church wanted as many converts as possible, so they ignored the New Testament practice of believer’s baptism and replaced it with infant “baptism,” and since you couldn’t very well immerse an infant, sprinkling became the method of choice. In the Protestant Reformation, Luther and Calvin kept the practice and the timing despite its dubious Scriptural authenticity. Their defense was that baptism replaced the rite of circumcision as a sign of the covenant, thus retaining the possibility of bringing infants into the church. They invented the concept of confirmation (not Scripturally based) to allow older persons to “confirm” that their infant baptism had indeed brought them into Christ.

There are numerous other issues that have divided the church over the centuries. The baptism of the Spirit, the practice of miraculous gifts, the role of church hierarchy, the completeness of the canon of Scripture, the meaning of the sacrament of communion, the necessary and sufficient steps of salvation, the precise details of the end times, these and many more have their basis in interpretive differences. It may sound arrogant for me to say my interpretation of a disputable issue is correct, and someone else is wrong. All I can do is practice the best interpretive techniques and, above all, listen to the Holy Spirit. When that is done, I can confidently say it’s just my interpretation, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.

Related Posts: Take the Bible Literally; Understanding the Bible as Literature; The Vulture Has Landed;  The Importance of Being Right

Get Foolishness

The ancient wise king instructed his son: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” A few chapters later he added, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” So, to truly understand what wisdom is, we must begin with the fear of the Lord. To fear the Lord in this context means to honor and respect Him. The best way we mortals can do that is to delve deeply into His Word, perhaps meditating on it day and night as the psalmist recommended.

What we learn through the process of study and meditation is that there is more than one type of wisdom. When Paul described his approach to the Corinthians, he said his message was founded on Christ, “the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.” Human wisdom is described by James as, “earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” The word James used for “unspiritual” is usually translated as “soulish.” The human soul is comprised of intellect, emotion, and volition. James implies that the wisdom that appeals to the intellect is of this world as opposed to from heaven. More frightening is his assertion that human wisdom can be demonic. That is not surprising since the human soul is often the playground of the devil.

One of the devil’s favorite tricks is to mess with believers’ minds. According to Paul, we are supposed to be aware of his schemes, but too often, that is not the case. In the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis creates an imaginary dialogue between a demon and his protégé. The subtlety Lewis imagines is evidence of demonic wisdom. He doesn’t suggest tempting Christians with outright unrighteousness; rather he advises getting them to doubt the wisdom of God’s plan. It sounds like the serpent in the garden: “Did God really say…. Surely, he didn’t mean it.”

So, we have Paul saying that the gospel is the wisdom of God. I must admit, at first glance, the gospel seems like a crazy idea. I can’t imagine hearing God say, “I know; let’s send my only Son to earth and have Him killed.” It’s not just crazy; it’s inhumane. What human would sacrifice a child for a bunch of reprobates? We would be inclined to agree with Fredrich Beuchner: “If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as the hatter, and the Last Supper is the mad tea party.” (from The Faces of Jesus) But since we believe the Bible is truth, and God is all-wise, we must be missing something.

What is it in the monstrosity of the Cross of Calvary that makes it the epitome of wisdom? In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul announced that anyone “in Christ,” meaning anyone who identified with His death in Christian baptism, is a new creation: the old has passed away; the new has come. What does Paul mean by the old and new? The old way, the old covenant, is superseded by the new covenant initiated with Christ’s death. (Heb) The new covenant was instituted to reconcile the world to God, Paul says. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” Reconciliation implies a separation that must be reversed. That world-changing separation occurred when Adam rebelled against God and brought “death” to humanity. So, the act of reconciliation requires regeneration. Paul told the Ephesians, “We being dead in trespasses, he made alive together with Christ.” Paul made the astounding declaration to the Corinthians that God had entrusted the message of reconciliation “to us,” adding the analogy of us being ambassadors of Christ, begging the world (unbelievers) to be reconciled to God.

I have mentioned previously that we have the awesome privilege of revealing the age-long mystery of God to the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Add to this our status as ambassadors of Christ to the world and you have the complete answer to the universal question: why are we here? The church is a physical demonstration of God’s love for His creation and a platform for delivering the love-based message of reconciliation to the lost and dying world. Remember, God so loved the world that He [insanely] gave His only Son to save it. The wisdom of God is indeed foolishness to [some] men.

Paul used this idea sarcastically on the Corinthians when he pointed out their false wisdom: “We are fools for Christ’s sake,” he said, “But you are wise.” Satan was apparently using one of his favorite schemes on the Corinthians, inciting their pride so that God’s wisdom looked foolish to them. Here we see another possible meaning for the “new” thing Paul mentioned. Most people who read 2 Corinthians 5:17 believe that the new thing is the creation: us. This is clearly an honest reading. Although creation itself still groans under the weight of sin, Paul said believers rise from baptism to a new life. He counsels us to put off the old man and put on the new. He also makes it clear that this human newness is not a one-and-done deal; we are “being made new,” a present progressive reality.

So, if one of God’s first and best evangelists was considered foolish, even by some who called themselves Christians, it is no wonder that the twenty-first century world thinks believers are crazy or naïve or deluded. We must become firmly grounded in the wisdom of God so that we can stand against the fiery darts of the accuser when we are called foolish. We must take Paul’s approach: if we look foolish it is because we are fools for Christ’s sake. It would be a good thing if more of us embraced foolishness now and then.

Be Careful How You Pray

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto thee. (Matthew 6:33)

In my last post, I drew from this well-known verse from the Sermon on the Mount saying that we must seek God above all else. My devotional reading by A. W. Tozer this morning has this cautionary note: “Whoever seeks other objects and not God is on his own; he may obtain those objects if he is able, but he will never have God…. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with every power of our entire being. Where love like that exists, there can be no place for a second object.” (A. W. Tozer and Gerald B. Smith, Evenings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings,Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2015, 335.)

I might have titled this piece “Be Careful How You Preach.” There is a strain of evangelical Christianity sometimes called the prosperity gospel. These people preach that if you have enough faith or the right kind of faith you can receive all the things you pray for. I see a couple things wrong with this. First, it puts too much emphasis on material things. The kingdom of heaven is not about getting material possessions; it is about getting God (Luke 12:15). Second, this attitude focusses so much on faith that it becomes a matter of having faith in “faith.” Biblical faith always has an object: God Himself not what He can provide.

I have always thought this attitude is a bit presumptuous, treating God like a celestial vending machine. As Tozer says, “[God] will not aid men in their selfish striving after personal gain. He will not help men to attain ends which, when attained, usurp the place He by every right should hold in their interest and affection.” The message of Matthew 6:33 is that the material things we might pray for, at least the necessities, are the promised result of seeking God first. The true prosperity as taught in the gospel is that we are freed from our sins (like materialism) and adopted by God.

I titled this peace as I did because it occurred to me when I read Tozer that the error of the prosperity gospel can slip into my prayers if I am not careful. Many years ago, Jesus’ statement in Mark 11:24 was brought to my attention. In the King James it says, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them..” At the time, this was presented to me in the context of the prosperity gospel. It sounds pretty simple: pray for something and you will receive it as long as you believe. I struggled with that for years, especially when my prayers did not yield the desired result.

At some point in my study, I discovered that the KJV doesn’t properly translate the verb “receive.” A more accurate reading is, “Whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be done for you.” In the Greek text, the verb “receive” is in the aorist tense which should be translated as an action completed in the past. In other words, you must be so confident in your request that it is a done deal in your mind. I am reminded of Jesus telling His disciples that, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.” A more accurate translation is, “Whatever you have bound (aorist tense) on earth will have been bound (perfect passive tense) in heaven.” This means the action of the disciple has already been accomplished in heaven. The disciple is simply bringing God’s will in heaven to earth. That sounds familiar: “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

That attitude implies an intimate knowledge of God’s will. I can always pray with confidence when I know I am asking God to accomplish His will on earth. I am reminded of what Graham Cooke said in Crafted Prayer; we often pray right out of the gate for something without first seeking to know God’s will in the situation. My wife, Karen, and I had a harsh lesson on this recently. She was struck suddenly with intense pain from sciatica. Naturally, we began to pray for relief; it didn’t come until the Spirit reminded me of this verse in Hebrews: “Now all discipline seems for the moment not to be joyful but painful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.”

I asked Karen what righteous fruit God might be wanting to grow in us. After prayerful consideration she realized that she was not fully trusting God to handle our present situation. She confessed her failure, leaned completely on God, and the pain relented. We also learned about a treatment for sciatica from our daughter, and Karen had her doctor prescribe it for her. We are thanking God for both the natural and supernatural healing He has brought. I wonder if we had thought about the principle from Hebrews earlier if Karen would not have had to suffer for twenty-one days.

I believe the key to effective prayer is very subtle. It is no surprise that our perfect example is found in Jesus’ prayer in the garden the night before He was to face incredible pain and disgrace: “Not my will but yours be done,” He said to His Father. He had prayed previously that the Father might find an alternative to His suffering, but He ultimately left the situation in God’s hands. We also have Job’s response to the test he endured: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” It is not wrong to pray for things; Jesus gives us license to pray for anything “in [His] name.” That is the same as saying “in the Father’s will.” The key is whether our prayer is for the thing or the Father’s will regarding the thing.

Prayers of solicitation and intercession are a wonderful privilege we have as followers of Jesus. While I believe God hears all our prayers, He is not obligated to answer any that fall outside of His sovereign will. If we are uncertain about God’s will in a situation, we have the blessed promise Paul records in Romans: “The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” I believe this is part of what it means to “pray in the Spirit.” We may come to a point where all we can say echoes Ezekiel: “O Lord God, Thou knowest.” This is not an abandonment of our privilege to pray; it is the surrender of our will to God’s will in prayer. Truthfully, there is no more careful, effective way to pray.

 Related Posts: The Problem of Unanswered Prayer; In Jesus’ Name; A Prayer Primer

Kingdom Cravings

The longest recorded teaching of Jesus we have, the sermon on the mount, is all about the kingdom of God. Almost every line in that sermon describes the behavior of a person who belongs there. Matthew begins with Jesus’ depiction of the character traits of kingdom citizens, the nine beatitudes. They are called beatitudes because each of them starts with the word μακάριος (makarios), which is most often translated blessed. The Latin word for blessed is beatitudo, hence the beatitudes. What Jesus is saying, then, is that people who display these tendencies will find favor with God.

The core of Jesus’ teaching about kingdom people is found in Matthew 6:33. “But seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The blessedness here is that the physical necessities of life which Jesus had previously been discussing are promised to those who follow the command. It would seem to be a valuable bit of information to understand the commandment and learn how to obey it.

“Seek first” is the main verb; that is the behavior which identifies a kingdom person. Because Jesus had just been talking about physical necessities, it stands to reason that by “first” He meant before considering one’s physical needs. This idea is supported in the following verse when Jesus says, “Do not be anxious for tomorrow.” If we pray according to Jesus’ prescription, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and if we trust the promise of His provision given to seekers, we should be without anxious thoughts regarding physical needs. A few verses earlier, Jesus had touched the same idea reminding His listeners that if God cared enough to provide for the birds of the sky, He would surely care for His believing children.

The Greek word Matthew uses for seek is ζητέω (zeteo). The original language carries a stronger connotation than the English word seek; it means to strive after or to crave. The object we are commanded to seek is not just to be first; it must be that which inspires a consuming desire to find. It may sound circular to say, but a kingdom person is one who zealously seeks God’s kingdom. It is not a back burner issue; it is a priority.

Now we have arrived at the meat of the command: what is the thing that consumes the kingdom person? Of course, it is the kingdom. What does that mean? Although the Greek word for kingdom (βασιλεία) can refer to a geographical setting, throughout the New Testament, it carries a more basic meaning. A kingdom is essentially the people over whom the king rules. So, the command to seek first the kingdom of God means to be consumed with a desire to be ruled by God. If a kingdom person prays a personalized version of Jesus’ model prayer it sounds like this: Heavenly Father, I want your will to be done in my life as it is in Heaven. Echoing Jesus: not my will but Thine be done.

There is a second part to what the true kingdom person seeks diligently: [the Father’s] righteousness. Righteousness is simply that which is right. To fully understand what that is, one must know the standard of right and wrong being applied. I like the way the Strong’s Concordance puts it: righteousness is, “the way in which man may attain a state approved of God.” To seek righteousness is to strive continually to do only those things which please the Heavenly Father.

It all comes down to this: a person who is seeking God’s kingdom desires earnestly to be ruled by Him and to behave in ways that are in accord with His will. Around this central core, Jesus built numerous examples of what that would look like. A kingdom person will think differently about anger, lust, marriage, swearing, retaliation, giving, praying, fasting, and those things which are truly valued. In short, those who enter the kingdom will look different from those who don’t. It is their actions that prove their position in or out of the kingdom.

I must immediately add that it is not perfection in these things that qualifies one for the kingdom. It is diligently seeking, craving these things that gains entry into the kingdom. Perfection in this life is not within our reach according to the teachings of the New Testament. Even the Apostle Paul, whom many would consider a model saint, admitted that he had not achieved perfection near the end of his life. What he said was that he would, “Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” It is striving, yearning, aching for the end of each believer’s predestined goal, conformity to Christ’s image, that marks the true kingdom citizen.

Chuck Swindoll was right when he said the Christian life is not difficult; it is impossible – impossible without the Spirit’s help that is. Apart from the Spirit, no one can please God. Jesus gives another clue; He said, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God like a young child will never enter into it.” Childlike trust is one key. The Psalmist gives another: “See if there is in me the [way of an idol] and lead me in the way everlasting.” Idolatry has always been our greatest temptation. By this I mean the tendency to put something else first before God in our hearts. Seeking first the Father’s kingdom and righteousness corrects that misstep.

There is a catch. One cannot be ruled by or follow the wishes of someone unknown. There is only one way to know God and His will: read His Word. According to the polls, the majority of people calling themselves Christians get into their Bible two or three times a month when they go to church. That does not sound like a craving for God. We should not imagine that wanting to do something (seek God) is the same as craving it. It is obvious that idolatry has crept silently into the church just as it did with the children of Israel. What is the idol – that central thing in the heart – that keeps these people from truly seeking, craving God’s kingdom? What do you crave?

Related Posts: Bringing the Kingdom; Childlike not Childish; Happy Birthday to Me

Shameless Promotion Part Two

This is a reprint and update of a blog I published in 2011. My audience has grown dramatically since then, and I have added to my published books.

“I am going to take this opportunity to do something entirely selfish with this blog. If people take my suggestion, they and their friends may spend an enjoyable hour or two, but honestly, my motive is self-promoting. Please forgive me if I am violating the non-commercial nature of the blogosphere, but if we are not free to do something harmlessly personal, we are not truly free, are we.

“Many of you know I published a novel several years ago but had no success finding a major house to market it for me. It is now available on Amazon.com. Everyone who has reported reading it has told me they enjoyed it. They may have been trying to be nice to me, but I don't think so because so many of my friends have been perfectly willing to tell me what a jerk I can be, so I suspect my novel may actually be a good read.

“My novel defies exact description. It is an action, romance, fantasy, historical story about a Biblical character who has always fascinated me. (Actually, many Bible characters fascinate me.) Imagine how busy the host of heaven must have been when God chose a simple man to build an escape vehicle for the salvation of the human race. Wings of Mentridar follows the human and the angelic stories as they intertwine in this cosmic struggle. The search for and protection of wives for the chosen one’s sons provide drama and adventure, while the race to get the ark done and all aboard before the rain begins brings a compelling sense of urgency.

“I have tried not to imagine anything which the Bible narrative would exclude as impossible, but naturally, to tell a novel length story about Noah, I had to do considerable inventing. Then there is the part about the angels. I often wonder what they do all day long as our helpers in another dimension. This is where the real fantasy comes in. If you know me at all, you know I have a pretty wild imagination; I put it to good use dreaming up activities and weapons and such for the angelic host to occupy themselves. If you know Frank Peretti's Darkness series, it is something like that, only not as scary.

“So here is my shamelessly personal "friend request." Buy a copy of Wings of Mentridar and read it. Then tell me what you think. Better yet, post a comment on Amazon.com. If it is any good, encourage your friends to buy it too. It is available from Amazon.com or CBD in their discounted marketplace. I am not being entirely mercenary, honestly. People have found Wings to be an uplifting and encouraging read. My goal in writing it was to introduce people to the fact that God is working in our lives every day in ways we cannot imagine -- except I tried to imagine in Noah's case. There is a "message" to be found in the story. I have been frustrated that the message is not getting shared. I am shamelessly asking for your help. End of line.”

That was written in 2011. Since then, I have published four more books. These are non-fiction, written to help Christians in some aspect of their lives. Lead a Horse to Water: Making sense of the Great Commission in the twenty-first century offers suggestions for getting a gospel conversation started with your “neighbors.” In the book, I expand the concept of neighbors into several categories and provide possible discussion starters for each.

Just What the Doctor Ordered: Examining Mormons Today is an effort to help Christians outside of Utah understand the Mormon faith. This book is the result of two years of study, including several months living in Salt Lake City and experiencing the Mormon culture firsthand. I was able to interview a number of former Mormons and interact with some of them who are involved in missionary outreach to their unconverted brothers and sisters. I had a long conversation with a retired Mormon district leader. I visited countless Mormon web sites, both friendly and not so. I read books written by Mormon leaders and teachers as well as books by Mormons who became disillusioned with Mormonism and left the faith.

A Life of Prayer is a small booklet created from a Sunday School lesson I wrote several years ago. This booklet is not designed to convince you that you need to be more intentional in your prayer life.  The assumption behind this workbook is that you have already felt the need to do something more than you have been doing.  The fact that you are considering a method to organize your prayer life is a good sign; it means you want to be more effective in this important aspect of Christian discipline.  The ideas in this booklet are not unique or original, nor are they experimental.  They represent a composite of tested techniques which, if applied conscientiously, will add power and consistency to your prayer life.

If Two Agree is basically my transcription of the story told by two phenomenal men, Bill and Nate Johnson. It is almost bizarre how closely the trajectory of Nate’s life followed his father’s. They were products of somewhat dysfunctional homes, so some similarity is to be expected. But the parallels are striking. Both became involved with drugs when they were young, although Nate never became addicted. Each fathered a child while still a teenager. They followed nearly identical paths through the justice system landing in a maximum-security detention facility in their home state having been charged with basically the same felonies. It was in prison where each man came to the end of himself and surrendered to God.

If Two Agree paints a marvelous picture of God’s reckless love and unbounded grace: both Nate and Bill are involved in ministry to ex-offenders and recovering addicts. They are tackling the problem of recidivism from the outside and inside. As of this writing, both are going back to prison – this time through the auspices of Prison Fellowship – to teach and encourage currently incarcerated men what they have learned about the need for a biblical faith and a human support system when they are eventually released.

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Making Room for Mystery

In the third chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that he was made a steward of a mystery that no one before had been able to understand. The mystery as he states it in verse six is that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Beginning with the call of Abraham, God’s plan of redemption was carried out through Abraham’s descendants who eventually became the nation of Israel. It is important to notice that the continuation of God’s plan as revealed to Abraham was that ultimately “all families of the earth will be blessed in you.”

It seems probable that God had intended Israel to share their lessons about Yahweh’s sovereign rule and His covenant love for His people, but instead of spreading Yahweh’s fame, they abandoned Him and followed other gods. Time after time the prophets admonished wayward Israel for their idolatry, and for a while they would repent and return to the Lord. Ultimately, because of their serial disobedience, God had the northern tribes captured and relocated by Assyria and later the southern tribes were taken captive to Babylon. God told them in advance that they would spend seventy years in exile in Babylon before God would release them to return home.

Just prior to, during, and after the Babylonian exile, the prophets of Yahweh began to tell of a post-exile period when the temple at Jerusalem would be rebuilt, and God would once again be worshipped there. It is in this context that the mystery begins to unfold. Many of the prophets spoke of a servant who would come from the line of David and rule from Jerusalem. That part wasn’t hard for the Jews to imagine as they were fastidious about keeping up with their genealogies, and David was promised a king to sit on the throne forever.

The thing that began to mystify them was the scope of the coming king’s rule. While the coming king would rule “from Jerusalem,” the extent of his reign appears to cover all the nations of the world according to many of the prophecies. This should have made sense given the promise to Abraham that his descendants would eventually bring blessings to all nations. To further confound them, even before they could complete the temple, the people around them began to resist their efforts. They eventually completed the temple, but before long, they were once again trampled by more powerful nations. In the period between Malachi and Matthew, some 400 years, Israel was under some nation’s thumb almost continually.

I have been reading the minor prophets in my through-the-Bible reading program, and I am reminded of the many references to the “Day of the Lord.” The phrase has two distinctly different meanings. On one hand, it refers to that glorious day when God’s Servant rules in righteousness from Jerusalem. Other times, it ominously refers to God coming in judgment either to Israel or the other nations. We know that many of the nations called out for judgment were dealt with in the lifetime of the prophets who declared their doom: Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Edom, Moab, etc. The one judgment that didn’t fall was God’s prediction against post-exile Israel. Babylon exacted God’s judgment of Israel the first time, but the later prophecies foretold another catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

The final cataclysmic end of the nation of Israel and its temple was postponed until “the last days” according to the prophets. It is popular, especially in America, to think of the last days as the time before an expected rapture of the church and a seven-year tribulation which ushers in the millennial kingdom. While that may be a possible future scenario, I find the Scripture clearly proclaiming the last days had come at the culmination of the Messiah’s ministry. In the first gospel sermon, the Apostle Peter asserted that Joel’s prophecy of the last days had come to pass on that day. He was referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit and the initiation of the Church of Christ.

Zechariah, often quoted as an end times prophet, is clearly speaking about physical Israel in most of the book. The prediction details neatly fit what did happen when the Jewish religious leaders rejected their Messiah and had Jesus crucified. The mystery continues to unfold as Zechariah slips into apparently apocalyptic language in the later chapters. Jesus quoted 12:7 when predicting His disciples’ abandonment: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.” John uses Zechariah twice in reference to Jesus being pierced at His crucifixion, once in his gospel and again in Revelation. It is worth noting that the passage in Revelation is referring to Jesus coming in judgment.

This aspect of Messiah’s coming in judgment is also present in Malachi. They were anticipating Messiah’s coming as their deliverance, but Yahweh asks, “Who can endure the day of his coming…. For he is like a refiner’s fire.” The prophet Joel and Isaiah both told wayward Israel to wail, for the day of Yahweh is near. It will come like destruction from Shaddai! As already noted, Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, and no one doubts the messianic allusions of Isaiah. Finally, Malachi ends his prophecy promising that before the “great and awesome Day of the Lord, I will send you Elijah the prophet.” Jesus said that John the Baptist was the promised Elijah.

Another curiosity in Zechariah is Yahweh’s statement that the area of Jerusalem would be “lifted up.” It is at this point that people from many nations will come to “Jerusalem” where “living water” flows forth, and Yahweh will be king of all the earth. That all sounds very much like what John saw in his apocalyptic vision of the heavenly Jerusalem reported in Revelation. Couple this with the statements by Paul and the Hebrew writer that believers in their day “have come” (present perfect tense) to the New Jerusalem. In their minds, the New Jerusalem was present in their day. Knowing this, it is not hard to imagine that Zechariah’s prophecies have already come to pass.

This is the mystery that was not understood until Jesus revealed it to Paul and the other Apostles – and now to us. It has two mysterious aspects. The first is that even Gentiles (all nations) would be coming to the New Jerusalem. The Jews had resisted this idea throughout their history. The second mysterious aspect is the spiritual nature of the New Jerusalem and the Messiah’s reign. Like many people today, the Jews were stuck in temporal, earthly thinking about God’s kingdom. They didn’t understand that God intended to move from a physical Jerusalem and the physical descendants of Abraham to a heavenly Jerusalem and a spiritual people chosen from all nations, tribes, and tongues.

Although I am fairly confident in the truth of my position, I remain open to the possibility that I may be wrong. My confidence is based primarily on my own study of the Scriptures and the fact that it is in harmony with the doctrine of the church throughout history. Only recently (since the nineteenth century) has the idea of Israel’s special place in the end times become popular. That popularity is primarily an American occurrence, whereas most of the present-day church would agree that “Israel” in the New Testament is all faithful through the ages, not just the physical descendants of Abraham.

I like A.W. Tozer’s suggestion that we “make room for mystery.” There will always be some things about God that remain a mystery. When Jesus came preaching that the kingdom of God had come, there were many who were mystified. Jesus explained His use of parables to His disciples saying, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to those people it has not been granted.” A few verses later He continued: “The prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, ‘You will listen carefully and will never understand, and you will look closely and will never perceive.’ For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it.” Here is the message for us: don’t be like the unbelieving Israelites; make room for mystery but always seek to understand.

Related Posts: Who are the Other Gods? Heaven Can Wait; Isaiah as a Cautionary Tale

Post Script: The mystery that remains for me is whether God will once again deal with physical Israel in a unique way. I don’t think so, but I must admit that the situation in the Mideast today is curiously similar to the time of Israel’s prophets. Christian Zionists and those who teach a premillennial/dispensational eschatology believe God has a separate plan for Israel in the end times. These people believe the “last days” prophecies refer to a time yet to come. They believe Israel will once again be the focal point of God’s judgment on all nations.

They also believe Paul’s analogy of the olive tree teaches that broken branches (meaning unbelieving Israel) get grafted back into God’s tree. However, Paul makes it abundantly clear in Romans that God’s favor was not granted on the basis of genealogy but because of faith. The true root of God’s olive tree is not physical Abraham but faith like Abraham’s. Israel’s faithlessness (rejecting Messiah) caused them to be broken off the tree; if they (Abraham’s descendants) repent and believe in Jesus as their Messiah, they can be grafted back into the tree of faith.