Can You Trust Your Bible?

I have been having an online discussion with a former friend who was educated in a fundamental Bible college and served as a youth pastor for several years. Sadly, he has fallen under the spell of modern intellectuals who have convinced him that the Bible texts we have today cannot be trusted to deliver the truth of the original authors. Their argument is that after centuries of copying and recopying the text, and with the influence of human thinkers down through the years, the Bibles we read today bear no resemblance to the original text. They are not truly God’s Word.

When we began our interchange, I quoted 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” I argued that if God was invested in the original writing through His Holy Spirit, it was only reasonable to assume that He would continue to superintend the transmission through the years. His response was (I paraphrase) that evil men developed the concept of inspiration to prompt obedience to their version of the truth. Naturally, since I was arguing from the Scripture as we have it today, he rejected the idea completely. He doesn’t believe our Bibles are reliable, so using them to prove a point is pointless.

I also used a defense of the Bible that is common today; we have thousands of very ancient manuscript fragments that in total represent every New Testament book. The sheer volume of manuscript evidence leads honest Bible scholars to the conclusion that while we don’t believe we have any copies of the originals, the fragments we do have push their reliability to a very high degree of confidence. We also have the written records of men we call the Apostolic Fathers, many of whom were acquainted with men who either came from the same generation as the Apostles, or they knew someone of that age. The Apostolic Fathers quote from most New Testament books, and their writings agree conceptually with the ancient fragments of Scripture we do have.

Even that defense of the Scripture failed to sway my friend; he believes the modern apologists who say the Gospels were written many decades after the events they record and therefore have no basis for belief. In his opinion, the authors could not have been eyewitnesses as they claim to be. The fact is that a contemporary of the Apostle John, Polycarp of Smyrna, (writing around 110-140 AD) is known for quoting or alluding to about 20 out of the 27 New Testament books. The textual arguments in favor of the reliability of our New Testament are decisive. Other ancient texts lack this volume of documents, yet scholars accept their writings without question.

I can see only one reason for choosing the modern dismissive view of the text of Scripture over the testimony of numerous ancient writings which give credence to its validity. God’s arch enemy has been using intellectual arguments ever since God first created Adam and Eve. The Serpent basically said to Eve, “Use your intellect woman; did God really say that?” Instead of looking to her heart and choosing to believe God, she fell for Satan’s intellectual ploy. She reverted to her soulish, fleshly appetite and disobeyed. Sadly, Adam joined her in her deception. Because of their disobedience, their spiritual connection with their Creator was severed, and they were left with nothing but worldly, soulish wisdom which James identifies as demonic.

You will note that the Bible record, which I choose to believe, paints a sad picture of the results of following worldly wisdom. First, things got so bad that God had to destroy virtually the entire human race and start over with Noah and his family. Soon after, the people became so proud of their worldly accomplishments that God had to confuse their language and leave them to their own devices as scattered nations. God chose one man, Abram, to become the father of a chosen nation which was supposed to become the people of God. They repeatedly chose to ignore the wisdom of their Creator and “did what was right in their own eyes.” The results were disastrous.

Paul tells us that God’s chosen people were never simply physical descendants of Abraham. The faith of Abraham, his choice to believe God, is what prompted God to call him righteous. Paul continues to identify faith – belief in God – as the sine qua non of God’s people. Without faith, the Hebrew writer says, it is impossible to please God. What my former friend has done is to disbelieve God by dismissing the Bible as authoritative in its present translations. He is saying no to God and yes to his intellectual friends.

I should clarify something at this point. It is not my opinion that the modern translations of the Bible are identical to the original manuscripts. All you have to do is read one passage in several different versions, and you will notice that many words are translated differently from version to version. This is inevitable when going from the original language (Hebrew or Greek) into the target language. Often, there is no exact English word for the original word. Translators use a word that they believe best represents the meaning of the original. Even though the different words are usually synonymous, the connotations of each word may differ. For example, “work” and “labor” are virtually synonymous. However, their meaning varies slightly depending on the context they are used to describe.

Versions also differ due to the underlying purpose of the translators. A direct word-for-word translation will sometimes sound quite different from a thought-for-thought version. When translators move away from direct literal translation, the occasion for commentary increases. (For a more detailed discussion of Bible versions, see “The Best Version of the Bible.”) It is also likely that the personal views of the translator will come into play, especially when deciding whether a passage is meant to be taken literally, or if it is figurative in some sense. I have covered this aspect of translation in several previous articles. (See Related Posts)

My deluded friend accused me of gatekeeping; he believes that we who trust that the Bibles we have today are sufficiently accurate to demand belief are closing our gates to people of different opinions. I suppose he is correct in a way. The Bible recommends discernment; it says we should have nothing to do with those who deny its truth. The Bible cautions us to beware of those who will believe anything that fills their itching ears. Paul warns Timothy that people will come to the church bringing teachings of demons. It’s hard to imagine anything more demonic that undercutting a person’s belief in the trustworthiness of Scripture. When I shared that idea with my fallen friend, he accused me of being the one who is misleading people.

I am sorry that my friend has lost his faith in the inspiration and accuracy of the Word of God as it is recorded in our modern Bibles. I still believe that with discernment and careful study, a modern version of the Bible can lead a person to saving faith and the truth about who God is and what He requires. As I wrote previously, “The Bible is a supernatural book. Reading the Bible without seeking the Holy Spirit’s help is a waste of precious time. Not reading the Bible at all is a waste of life.” The reason I can say this with confidence is that I believe the same Holy Spirit who inspired the original authors can use the words of today’s Bibles to convey God’ truth. Jesus did say the Holy Spirit will be our guide to the truth. That is a faith statement I am willing to die for. I will have to wait for the resurrection to know how my friend fares with his opinion.

Related Posts: Take the Bible Literally; The Vulture Has Landed

Thy Kingdom Come

The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is not well understood by most Christians. There are two primary reasons for that in my opinion. First, many misunderstand what the word used in the New Testament for kingdom (βασιλεία) means. It is not a physical thing with borders, hills, plains, rivers, cities, etc. The best translation of βασιλεία would be rulership or dominion. This is why Jesus could tell Pilate that while He is a king, His kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom consists of all those who choose to come under His dominion – His kingship.

The second misunderstanding that many people have is that we are waiting for Jesus’ second coming for Him to establish His kingdom. If you read Jesus’ words carefully, you will discover that He spoke of His kingdom as if it already existed. “The kingdom is within you,” He said, using the present tense. He could say that because even while He walked the earth, people were putting their faith in Him as their king; they were subjecting themselves to His rulership. True, His main purpose was to announce the coming of the kingdom, but those who chose to follow Him then were “charter members” of the coming kingdom.

The formal commencement of the Kingdom of God took place through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished” on the cross of Calvary, they were loaded with centuries of meaning. The beginning of what He “finished” was in the Garden of Eden when Adam chose to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. Adam’s disobedience brought death to the entire human race. Paul put it like this: “Just as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned.” Everyone born of Adam (that’s all of us) is born under the curse of death. This is why Paul often refers to people as dead before they come to Christ. Death reigned from Adam until Christ.

God did not abandon His children after Adam brought death into the world. He immediately announced a plan to redeem them from the curse through the “Seed of woman.” In the fullness of time, Paul tells us, God sent His Son, born of a virgin (to escape Adam’s curse) to redeem those who were under the curse. The result of that curse was a death sentence, and Jesus nailed it to His cross, removing it from our record. He disarmed those who had ruled us, namely death and the devil, and triumphed over them. He led captivity captive, Paul told the Ephesians, and gave gifts to men. Foremost among those gifts is the grace-gift of salvation: the removal of the curse.

Ever since that day, there have been two kingdoms coexisting on earth: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of the light. They coexist, but they are not coequal in power. The king of darkness, Satan, has no power over those who are subjects of King Jesus. Greater is He who is in us… resist the devil and he must flee… the strongman is bound in order to wrest the power to rule on earth from Him. Believers in Christ walk the earth as ambassadors from another realm – a spiritual realm – another kingdom. Unbelievers still walk the earth too, bound to their king, Satan, the god of this age. They are still under the curse of death.

This is why Paul calls us ambassadors from another kingdom. We must tell those still bound by death that God has provided deliverance from death and reconciled them to Himself through Christ. All they have to do is renounce their allegiance to the kingdom of death and step into the kingdom of life. Those of us in the Kingdom of God have no fear of death because when we pass from this earth, we move immediately into the presence of God. “Absent from the body is present with the Lord.” “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” These promises and more tell me that death is not an end; it is a blessed new beginning.

There is still the issue of those alive at the second coming who have not trusted Christ and remain under the curse of death. Jesus may have been referring to them when He said, “At the end of the age, the Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all the causes of sin and those who do lawless deeds and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” This may coincide with the judgment scene in Revelation 20. Like most of the events pictured in Revelation, the timing is open for debate, but I see this as a real possibility.

There is another curious feature of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that the Father gave Him the people the Father chose. He said that no one could come to Him unless the Father drew them. Paul says that when Christ has abolished the enemy’s power and conquered the last enemy, death, He [Jesus] will hand the kingdom over to the Father. He will give back to the Father the people the Father gave to Him.

This adds a dimension to the Father/Son relationship that I had not seen before. Jesus became the first fruits of a new race of people: kingdom people. He is the eldest of many brothers (and sisters.) I believe that ever since Jesus’ resurrection from the grave, He has remained in His exalted, divine/human state, dwelling in His spiritual body while seated at God’s right hand. At the end of this age, the church age, He will give the fruit of His labor (and sacrifice) to His Father, just like the High Priest He is. Amazing!

John says that upon our resurrection, we will be like Jesus because we will see Him as He is. I think this means we will be walking the New Earth with the same Jesus who walked the dusty roads of Palestine centuries ago although we will all have new spiritual bodies. A perfect world filled with perfected people ruled by a perfect Brother/King in the Kingdom without end. May the Kingdom come indeed!

P.S.

My belief – shared by some, not by all – is that when we “die,” we pass out of time. Time is an integral part of God’s creation of this universe. When we leave this reality, we step into a different reality where time has a completely different meaning. I believe that when I die, I will step into eternity with everyone who has died before me and all those who may die after me all at once. We will all enter God’s presence at the same “time.” At that “moment,” Jesus will turn with all believers who died toward those who remain on the earth, and with a shout and the sound of a trumpet, those who remain on earth will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and the redeemed who are alive at His coming will meet Jesus “in the air.” And thus, we shall ever be with the Lord.

Pray Like You Mean It

In my last post, I suggested a way to add richness to your prayer life. In this post, I want to share what I do to give as much meaning as possible to my prayers. I am not saying this is the best way for everyone, but it is one way to build a habit of prayer. Jesus told His disciples that they should always pray; Paul told his readers to pray constantly. I don’t think they meant that we should be saying prayers every waking hour but that an attitude of prayer should undergird all our activities. Whatever happens in our daily lives, we must be aware that God is in it, and we should respond accordingly.

Along with an attitude of constant prayer, I believe Christians should have set times of prayer every day if possible. For the person who claims to have no time for prayer, I must ask if their relationship with God is genuine. Can anyone honestly say they love another deeply but refuse to communicate with them when the means are readily available? If the daily schedule truly is full, I suggest setting the alarm a little earlier; God will reward the effort far beyond the loss of a few minutes of sleep.

I will admit that being retired allows me the privilege of spending considerably more time in prayer than I could while working. However, anyone who really wants to can carve out a bit of time to attempt something like I am going to suggest. I am going to draw from my book, A Life of Prayer, for these suggestions. I adapted them from the well-known acronym ACTS for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. I added an “I” for intercession. I follow the ACTSI pattern every day with the people and circumstances currently on my heart.

“A” is for adoration. I have expanded this to include several more “A” words. I begin my prayer time expressing my adoration for God because of all He has done for me. I acclaim Him as my Lord. I admire Him for His excellence. I often use Scripture passages such as 1 Chronicles 29:11-14 or Revelation 5:12-13 or others to recite the glory due to God. I then turn inward to accept God’s grace and mercy I so badly need; I affirm His authority over my life and my family; I align myself with His will for my life. I often pray Scripture that supports each of those actions. That’s a bunch of “A” words to ground my prayers in God’s Word and His will for me.

The “C” in ACTS is for confession. I begin by agreeing with Scripture that I am not worthy to receive all the wonderful things God has granted me. I confess that without the robe of Jesus’ righteousness upon me, I am a needy, fallen creature. I try to recall any faulty actions or inactions that occur to me and ask for forgiveness. I confess that without the Spirit’s help, I am powerless to live as I am supposed to as Christ’s brother. This is the essence of confession: we tell God what He already knows about us. This act has a cleansing effect for me.

What follows naturally from confession is the “T” for thanksgiving. I thank Jesus that He bore my sin – paid the penalty that I owed. I thank the Lord for His time on earth demonstrating how I am supposed to live. I thank the Father for being willing to send His Son. I thank God for giving us the Word so we can get to know Him and learn what He expects of us. I thank God for the innumerable blessings He has bestowed throughout my life: my wife, my children and grandchildren, our financial security, our health (relative though it may be), my opportunities to serve Him, the air I breathe, the beauty of the earth, and even the trials He sends because I know they are designed to help me grow up into Christ.

The “S” in ACTS is for supplication. As you might imagine, by this point in my morning prayers I have already spent a bit of time. I believe this is important because I need to have the right attitude before I ask God for anything. The “A” and the “C” and the “T” should have put me in my place relative to my Heavenly Father: His humble servant expecting nothing but reveling in His incredible grace. I try to follow the advice of Graham Cooke who said we should seek God’s will concerning our requests before we begin to pray for them.

This practice should be used before praying for someone’s healing, I ask God several questions before I begin to pray for healing. Is He calling the person home to be with Him; healing would postpone that wonderful reality. Has He allowed the sickness to bring about growth in the person or someone around him. If you are praying for a person’s deliverance from another type of trial, the same approach would be appropriate. If you are asking for a material blessing – a car, a new home, or anything physical – you should wait to hear from God whether it is something He wishes you to have. If you truly believe prayer is a dialogue, you can wait for God’s response before you pray for anything specific.

While you are waiting for clarity about a request, you can still pray “generic” prayers such as God’s blessing or the person’s openness to whatever God is doing or for peace within the circle of the person’s family and friends. It is possible to pray that God’s will be done even when we don’t know what it is. That is how we align ourselves with whatever God wants to do in the situation. This underscores the need to be listening as well as speaking during our prayer time.

 I once had a dear friend who had terminal cancer. Our whole church prayed fervently that God would miraculously heal him. He did not. In the midst of those prayers though, we saw our friend’s witness grow immeasurably as he testified to God’s grace in his life, and we turned our prayers into thanksgiving. That man undoubtedly affected more people in his last couple years than in all the time before that. We still miss him, but we marvel at the living lesson of God’s grace that he showed everyone he came in contact with because of the cancer he ultimately succumbed to.

I have added an “I” to ACTS to emphasize the intercessory nature of many prayers. It is a form of supplication, but it involves asking on behalf of someone else. When someone else is undergoing a serious trial, I can intercede on their behalf by asking God to strengthen them. When someone is seeking God’s will about a life circumstance, I can ask God to make His plan known. When someone is undertaking a vital ministry task, I can pray for God’s special anointing on their work. As my prayer life has grown over the years, I find myself asking less for myself while increasingly interceding for others. There is nothing wrong with asking God for personal blessings. However, as the Spirit grows agape-love in your heart, you will find you are more concerned with the welfare of others than of your own.

There is another type of intercession that my sister introduced me to years ago. I think it perfectly fulfills the command to pray continually. My sister told me she prayed what she called prayer bombs. For example, when she hears a siren, she immediately prays that the blood of Jesus would cover the situation whatever it may be. When she sees people arguing or being difficult in public, she prays God’s peace upon them. I took the idea to heart, and as one example, every time I drove past an abortion clinic on my way to school, I prayed that the women inside would change their mind and keep their baby. I admit I also prayed that the whole place would go out of business. (No, I did not pray for a real bomber to make that happen.)

There is one other type of prayer that I occasionally use: warfare prayer. The Apostle Paul often uses warfare imagery to describe our lives as believers. One of the clearest examples is in Ephesians: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We are in a cosmic battle against God’s arch enemy. There are times when rather than praying for something, I feel led to pray against something. Sometimes I must pray against the enemy’s efforts in my own life. Other times, often lately, I feel compelled to pray against the powers of darkness at work in our society either specifically or generally. These prayers are a necessary part of our work on behalf of the Kingdom of God.

That is how I make prayer meaningful in my life. I have a prayer prompter in my computer version of the Faithlife/Logos Bible study program that presents my list of prayer concerns daily, weekly, or on a custom schedule. I pray for each of them as they come up and add whatever else God lays on my heart. I am not suggesting you copy my practice exactly. However, I can testify that being intentional in my prayers and being disciplined to do something every day has been a blessing to me, and I trust that many others have also been blessed because I prayed. Whether you have only a few minutes each day or you have hours to give to prayer, doing so will make your life better, and the kingdom of God will advance if you pray like you mean it.

Related Posts: A Prayer Primer; In Jesus’ Name; Moving Mountains

Tri-Power God

I recently wrote an article mentioning that some people don’t believe in the three-fold nature of God. They correctly point out that the word “trinity” is not in the Bible. What they seem to ignore is the repeated mention either by name or by appearance of three entities represented also God. I asked in that article if refusing to believe in the trinity was sufficient cause to exclude one from God’s saving grace. I’m not sure, but I do know that there are some basic facts that must be accepted for salvation. (See How Wrong Can You Be )

I also know that denying what the Bible clearly describes as the three-fold nature of God hinders one’s ability to experience the fullness of the godhead. Understanding that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit provides three distinct avenues of access to the one God. We see glimpses of multiple approaches in the Old Testament. The Yahweh God of Israel declared Himself to be one; at the same time, He gave or withheld His Spirit at various times. There are also mentions of the Angel of the Yahweh which in context can be seen to be God Himself. The Psalms and the prophets often speak of the coming of a Servant or a Son who would have the attributes of God as well.

In the New Testament, the distinctiveness of each presentation of God becomes more easily understood. For example, Jesus, the self-declared Son of God, prayed often to His Father. He directed His disciples to ask nothing more of Him after He left, but they were to ask the Father in His name. James encourages asking for wisdom from God and a few verses later identifies “the Father of lights” as the one who gives “every good and every perfect gift.” In his epistles, Paul uses the phrase “God and Father” a dozen times; James, Peter, and John use the same phrase once each. If you search for “God and Father” in the New Testament, you will find numerous ways to bless and be blessed by your heavenly Father.

None of that is to say that you cannot pray to Jesus. When you remember all that He did as the Incarnate Son of God, you will find many things to say to Him. First and foremost is naturally to thank Him for His unbelievable willingness to go to the Cross to bear your sins. The shame and pain He endured was for the joy set before Him; that joy was knowing that the curse of Adam’s sin had been removed – the curse that you bore as Adam’s descendant. As if that isn’t enough, think of all the things He demonstrated by living a human life perfectly pleasing to God. As Paul says, we have a model to imitate to please God as Jesus did. Finally, you cannot forget the teachings recorded in God’s Word, without which we would have little guidance on the path of righteousness. Those things and more should lead you to speak to Jesus Himself with awe and thankfulness.

What I am about to suggest may sound foreign to some, but I believe it is part of experiencing the fullness of God: we should also pray to the Holy Spirit. First, He is a being with personhood – a person with mind, emotions, and a will. Most anti-trinitarians deny this aspect of the Holy Spirit; they consider the Spirit to be an “it,” a power or force. I will grant them that in the Greek of the New Testament the pronoun used for “Spirit” is neuter in gender. However, a deeper knowledge of the language reveals that pronouns must agree in gender and number with their antecedent. Because “spirit” is neuter, the pronoun referring to spirit must also be neuter.

But gender is only a linguistic matter; it has nothing to do with the reality the word represents. The truth is that the Holy Spirit is neither masculine nor feminine. Shockingly, neither is God the Father. We attach masculine attributes to “Father” because in our human mind, a father must be male. In truth, that is just another way that our infinite Yahweh God bows down to our level so that we might get a peek at who He is. (See God Made Small) In eternity prior to His incarnation, the Son was not masculine either, in my opinion. However, He now exists in eternity future as the exalted, glorified human Son. Whether He will appear masculine is unclear. His disciples certainly recognized the man they spent three years with when He returned after His resurrection. I don’t know if that will be the case when we join Him in Glory.

I hope I made the point that the Holy Spirit is a person. As such, we can speak to Him as we would speak to any other person. And we should have much to say. Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide us into truth; thank you, Spirit. Paul asserts that the Spirit grants us the fruit necessary to live a godly life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Thank you, Spirit. Paul also says several times that as Christians, we are all given supernatural gifts to do the work God requires of us in the body of Christ. Thank you, Spirit. We are told that the Holy Spirit confirms to our spirit that we are God’s children. Thank you, Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us is the down payment on our eventual glorification. Thank you, Spirit.

Because it is impossible to please God apart from the Holy Spirit’s presence in us, and because we are told time and again to walk in the spirit, pray in the spirit, be led by the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, and more, asking the Spirit directly to help us is a legitimate request. I don’t mean to suggest that if we ask the Father for help from His Spirit or thank God for Jesus it won’t be accepted. I imagine you can pray a “generic” prayer, and Heaven will direct it to the correct person. What I am saying is that your prayer life can be enriched by a fuller understanding of to Whom you are praying. Our God is infinitely powerful to answer any prayer offered within His will. For me, imagining the tri-power of God adds another dimension to my prayers. Why not tri it?

 

Fear God Much?

The fear of God is absent from modern society for the most part. The reason is obvious: many people today are either atheistic or agnostic about the existence of a supreme being. The atheist denies God’s existence; the agnostic often imagines a god who is nothing like the one true God of the Bible. Either way, there is nothing to fear. Although Christians are frequently told that biblical fear of God is just another word for respect, one cannot ignore the element of shaking-in-your-boots fear that is revealed from cover to cover in the Word.

I am not aware of any Bible passage that records a face-to-face encounter with God or His holy ones that did not involve falling down or trying to run away in fear. True, Moses had a unique relationship with Yahweh; he spoke directly with God, and at one point was allowed to get a glimpse of God’s glory as He passed by. However, the Israelites displayed a more normal reaction to God’s presence. When God offered to speak directly to them, they begged Moses to run interference and spare them the frightening prospect. Admittedly, a smoking, flaming mountain would be a fearsome sight. It is no wonder that they begged for an intermediary.

I believe Moses understood the good things Yahweh had in store for His people. Delivering them from slavery in Egypt was certainly a good omen. Even the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai was intended for good. In her book, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Carmen Joy Imes suggests that the Ten Words, as she correctly translates “Ten Commandments”, were intended to describe a correct relationship with God and with one another. They were the outline for living a good life under a good God.

 Imes remarks, “It seems contradictory to say that Yahweh is both good and dangerous. Yet both are facets of his character. Because he is loving, he cannot tolerate wickedness…. When we approach God humbly, repentant for our sin, he is gracious to forgive us. But if we enter his presence unaware of our sin or in a state of rebellion, his holiness demands purification.” (Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019, p. 69.) As we see repeatedly in the Old Testament record of Israel’s failures, God’s “purification” can be fearsome indeed!

I wonder if we are missing something when we gloss over the dangerous side of Yahweh God. It is so much more comforting to focus on His love which moved Him to send His One-and-only Son to die on our behalf. Some popular preachers (ie. Rob Bell) go so far as to deny that God still has a dangerous side. They cannot fathom a loving God who is also a holy God who demands that unrighteousness be punished. That is a tough sell when you realize that the concept of God’s wrath is mentioned as many as forty-five times in the New Testament. Honestly, if God does not judge sin, our love and obedience lose most of their meaning. If the wicked get the same treatment as the righteous, what’s the point?

But the wrath of God is real. It has to be if we are going to see Him as the Bible pictures Him. Paul certainly saw Him that way: “The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness,” he wrote to the Romans. Peter thought so too as he wrote: “The present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people.” Think of all the parables of Jesus that warned of the return of a king in judgment. The King is coming back, and it won’t be happy days for everyone.

So, where should we be, those of us who have trusted Christ, on the subject of fearing God. Fearing God, I would say. I don’t mean to say we preach Jonathon Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” every Sunday, but it wouldn’t hurt to ring that bell once in a while. My own testimony is one of fearing my eternal destiny if I did not follow Christ in believer’s baptism, proclaiming Him as my Lord and Savior. What is the point of trusting Christ if there is no downside to ignoring His grace? Fear of God is a legitimate motivational message.

But we don’t preach fear alone. As Imes said, there is goodness inherent in the dangerous God we worship. It is by His grace we are saved without question. However, we risk danger if we ignore the fact that true faith, saving faith must include repentance and obedience. Those who pluck “believe and be saved” out of the larger biblical context preach a truncated gospel. All we really need is to hear Jesus’ word, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Paul certainly heard that with his repeated calls for righteous living, not for our salvation, but for the working out of our salvation.

I must admit it was several years before I understood that the Jesus who saved me was seriously interested in my obedience to His Word. Some might ask if you can claim Jesus as Savior if you don’t recognize Him as Lord. I’m not sure. I am pretty sure I came up out of the water as a new creature; it just took a while for eleven-year-old me to realize what that creature was supposed to become. Once I grasped it, I never let go. I’m not saying I’m perfect – no way! I’m saying I’m being perfected: “The one began a good work in [me] will finish it.” For many years, I was that “living sacrifice” who kept crawling off the altar. It took some time for me to learn that God would have me only one way: humble and obedient.

Imes got it right in my opinion. We don’t need to fear God unless we are living in sin and rebellion. The Word is clear: “If we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries.” The Hebrew writer closes the argument with this: “For you have need of endurance, in order that after you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” Only those who persevere to the end will be saved. It is as Eugene Peterson said: the Christian walk is “a long obedience in the same direction.” Follow that advice, and you need not fear God.

Related Posts: Necessary Obedience; Merely Christian; Who’s Your Daddy?

Holy Cow!

When you read through the requirements for sacrifices under the Mosaic law, you might be overwhelmed by their complexity. It is understandable that the priests would have to butcher the larger animals. Even a whole 60–90-pound sheep or goat would be quite a lift onto the 7.5-foot square altar surface since it was roughly 4.5 feet high. No way a man could heft a 600–800-pound steer that high. The complex butchery comes from the detailed instructions for getting the animal ready for sacrifice. Various parts were set aside for different treatment before anything could be offered to God.

For example, some parts were reserved for consumption by the priests and their servants, the Levites. Since they had very limited flocks or herds, they needed to be fed by the contributions of the worshippers. That makes sense. But it has always puzzled me why God commanded such care be taken with the offal. Depending on the type of sacrifice, the entrails were treated differently. Sometimes they were to be burned outside the camp; sometimes they were offered as a special sacrifice.

The one that has always intrigued me is the frequent designation of the “lobe of the liver” as a dedicated offering. Today, we know this as the caudal lobe, and we know that it has a significant purpose in animal function. We also know that in Canaanite religions, the liver, and especially the caudal lobe, was used for divination. Even the ancients realized the crucial function of the liver, and they apparently surmised that the caudal lobe was special. One assumption that scholars make is that God didn’t want any confusion as to where the Israelites were to get their information: from Yahweh not from the caudal lobe of the liver.

Did you ever wonder why Jews, even today, are known for their beef brisket? Admittedly, the traditions surrounding the brisket stem from the Ashkenazi Jews (the diaspora) of the tenth century and beyond, but that connection has its roots in the regulations regarding sacrificial offerings. From the regulations in Leviticus, we learn that the brisket was often set aside for the priests. Once the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and ritual sacrifice ceased, the Jews retained an element of the beef brisket’s special significance.

One aspect of the Levitical priestly regulations is really a mystery. Holy items were not to be taken out of the tabernacle (temple) as they retained an aura of holiness that God did not want to spread abroad indiscriminately. It is as if there was a tangible essence of holiness that could rub off on things that were not supposed to be holy. This is doubly hard for me to understand because all through the Levitical directions, Yahweh repeats the assertion that the people are to be holy. More than that, He says, “You shall keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who makes you holy.” God says that numerous times throughout Leviticus. God says He makes them holy.

I struggle with the idea that God makes His people holy but restricts the movement of holy items from the tabernacle (temple). Perhaps it is just a way to emphasize the distinct holiness of the ritual furniture and furnishings. Perhaps it was meant to discourage unsanctioned worship outside of the holy place. Perhaps the holy implements and the holy garments on the one high priest were supposed to remind the people that there is only one God, and one means of access.

Obviously, none of this has any significance for twentieth century Christians. Does it? Hmm. If Christ’s body is the temple corporately, and if believers are a “a royal priesthood,” how many of the details of the temple/tabernacle regulations are we meant to reflect? One thing is obvious: there is still only one God and one way to Him. That is a message that is not accepted by many in modern cultures. There are even so-called Christians who are “offended” by the exclusivity of the biblical assertion that Jesus is the only Way to God. They can’t imagine the loving god of their own creation rejecting pious Buddhists or Hindus or Muslims. That is the same trap the Israelites fell into when they dabbled in the religious practices of the people around them.

It may also be important to remember today that to be holy means to be set aside for a particular purpose. Just as the Old Testament priests were uniquely charged with guiding people to proper worship of Yahweh, the purpose of the church (the New Testament kingdom of priests) is to represent God as the only being worthy of our worship. (See “Thanks for the Complement”) This is no small thing since moderns are just as likely to practice idolatrous worship as the ancients. (See “Who’s in the Temple”) It should make us proud to be chosen but overwhelmed with the importance of the charge we have been given. The church is supposed to reveal the mystery of God to everyone, including the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.

The New Testament is pretty clear about the necessity of Christian witness. We are commanded to glorify God at all times in all we do. My favorite definition of “glorify” is “make God look good.” In other words, we should live in such a way that people watching us will want to get to know the God we represent. There are ways to simulate the OT priest’s outfit. Instead of a turban with “Holy to Yahweh,” we wear ball caps with crosses or biblical messages. Instead of a breastplate with twelve gems attached, we wear T-shirts with inspirational printing. Rings and bracelets and necklaces can portray Christian symbols. However, none of these things can take the place of living our faith out loud.

Evangelical Christianity does not have the ritualistic formalities of ancient Judaism. It is easy to forget the holy purpose of worshipping and living for a supremely holy God. There are Christian sacraments. The root of “sacrament” is the Latin word “sacer” which means holy. Catholics recognize seven sacraments and elevate the eucharist to an astonishing level of holiness. Most protestants hold two things as sacred: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We are expected to participate in those rites with respect for their holy nature. But the truth is, our entire life is supposed to be a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.” Instead of exclaiming, “Holy cow!” I should be able to say, “Holy You!”

Related Posts: Holy Moly!; Sanctify Them

Thanks for the Complement

Because I taught English composition for most of my teaching career, I am more sensitive than most to the little quirks in the language. If you share my sensitivity, you may have thought I misspelled the last word in my title. I didn’t. Complement and its homophone compliment come from the same Latin word, yet they have notably different meanings. Complement – with an “e” – shares meaning with its root word, complete. Compliment – with an “i” – means to offer praise. How they could descend from the same Latin word yet differ so widely in meaning – and narrowly in spelling – is one of the mysteries of the English language.

This little linguistic oddity came to my attention after writing “God’s Design,” in which I mentioned that the Apostle Paul said he rejoiced to “fill up in my flesh what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ.” The next day John MacArthur’s devotional I read, “The church is in fact “the fulness of Him who fills all in all.” The implication is that the incomprehensible, all-sufficient, all-powerful, and utterly supreme Christ is in a sense incomplete—not in His nature, but in the degree to which His glory is seen in the world.

“A synonym for ‘fulness’ is ‘complement.’ The church was designed to complement Christ. He is the One who ‘fills all in all’— the fullness of deity in bodily form…. (Col. 2:9) Yet He chooses to reveal His glory in and through the church. Therefore, until the church is fully glorified, Christ will not be fully complemented.” (John F. MacArthur Jr., Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993, p. 43.)

There’s a challenge. Paul said God’s completeness was displayed in Jesus. I like to say that everything we can know about God we can see in Jesus. That’s what Jesus told Philip. Our challenge is to complete Jesus’ revelation of God to the world – not just the physical creation, but to the heavenly realm as well, as Paul told the Ephesians. We are commanded and predestined to grow into the perfection of Christ. We often hear this preached as necessary for our personal benefit. That is true as far as it goes. Here we see that there is a much larger purpose: we are meant to complete Christ’s mission.

As I wrote in “God’s Design,” suffering may be a part of our mission to complete Jesus’ revelation. James described our complementary situation, although he used a different Greek word. “Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you encounter various trials, ³ because you* know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” If we become “mature and complete,” as James says, we will fulfill the larger mission of our faith: reveal Christ to the world.

This is similar to what Paul told the Ephesians. The goal of church ministry is that “we all reach the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to a measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ.” If you read the rest of chapter four, you find that the purpose for attaining “the [completeness] of Christ” is not just to perfect the Body of Christ but also to perfect our witness to the world. The same idea can be found in Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14. Although he does say that self-edification is possible, he stresses that edification of the Body is more important because the purpose of the gifts is for the witness to unbelievers – revealing Christ.

Carmen Joy Imes writes in her dissertation on the Ten Commandments that “God bestowed titles on his people like treasured possession, kingdom of priests, holy nation. As his treasured possession, Israel’s vocation—the thing they were born to do—is to represent their God to the rest of humanity.” (Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019, pg. 51) The church, the New Testament continuation of Israel, has the same task.

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him where He found something to eat at the well in Samaria, He said, “My food is that I do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete His work.” There is that idea again – complete God’s work. John uses a different word for complete, but the concept is the same. Jesus was representing God to people; we are to represent Jesus. A street preacher today might put it like this: “Represent, Bro!”

The church’s failure to do this properly is evident. There are many people in our society who have experienced “church” or “church people” but are turned away rather than drawn in. Many of them point out the hypocrisy of people who claim to be following Christ, but they live like the devil. There are no perfect churches nor any perfect Christians. But the sad truth is that few “followers” of Christ are representing Him in a way that might make someone who watches them want to follow Him too.

Every follower of Jesus should be living in such a way as to earn His compliment when our complementary work is done: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Another way to put it is to imagine Jesus saying, “Thanks for the complement.”

God’s Design

Is everything that happens part of God’s design? The Bible, the only true revelation of who God is, records many less-than-wonderful events that are said to be part of His design. I can’t imagine Noah enjoyed the long years building the ark only to have to spend months confined to the stinky floating zoo.  Some people think the story of Job’s troubles may be an allegory, but historical or not, God is portrayed as having specific intent in the affair. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery where he languished in prison for years before ascending to Pharoah’s side. He eventually told his brothers that although they intended to do him harm, God intended their actions for good.

The most egregious of these evil-intended-for-good events is the crucifixion of our Savior. The Jewish religious leaders intended to do Jesus great bodily harm, but in the first gospel sermon, Peter declared that God purposely used them to save the world through their evil intentions. One of the most astounding things found in Scripture is the revelation that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. God knew a costly redemption would be necessary before He spoke the first word of creation.

When the Apostle Paul was beaten with rods (multiple times) or stoned (once to the point of death) or chased by wild animals or shipwrecked in a storm, it is reasonable to assume that he suffered real, physical trauma. Yet he said that he rejoiced to “fill up in my flesh what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His body which is the church.” One marvels at the oversized faith of the first disciples who faced suffering with supreme confidence that their trust in God’s intentions would result in their deliverance – if not from physical death, then certainly from eternal death. It is an act of faith to remember during a difficult time that God said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” but that doesn’t make the way any less painful.

Although I can only hope I have that kind of confidence if I ever have to face recant-or-die challenges, I suspect I fall short (woefully short) of the measure of faith demonstrated by the early saints in the little trials I do encounter. When I don’t get that hoped-for job; when I get that flat tire; when I suffer the excruciating pain of a colitis attack; when the wicked prosper while I struggle to make ends meet; then do I rejoice that I am counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. I have to ask if God is really in all the little things that make up my life.

Years ago, I was driving a school bus along a highway when I saw some gravel that had been tossed onto the pavement. I thought about the significance of the gravel. Was it there because someone drifted off the road? Did they lose control and crash? Did they regain control and move safely back onto the roadway in a “Jesus Take the Wheel” moment? Was God responsible for whatever happened? I began asking myself how deeply God is involved in the seemingly inconsequential things in our lives. I realized something crucial that day: nothing is without significance.

I must believe this. To deny God’s hand in one thing is to question His part in everything. If even one piece of gravel lands outside of God’s sovereign control, it would leave open the possibility that any of His plans could fail. Don’t think that the enemy of our souls won’t take every opportunity to thwart God’s design for His people. He has throughout history. Just look at Israel’s track record. Satan tried again and again to deceive them or destroy them. Only the relentless mercy and power of the Sovereign God kept a remnant alive to accomplish their mission to bring forth the Messiah.

 The Apostle Paul said that God is at work in us “to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Notice it says, “His good pleasure,” not yours. Not mine. Paul is saying God will do whatever He wants, however He wants to accomplish His will. It is curious that the verse before this says, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Here we face the historic dilemma of God’s sovereignty contrasted with man’s free will. This is in the context of Jesus being exalted so that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. Paul says that being the case, believers must get to work on their salvation. The “work” he recommends is obedience – obedience to the sovereign will of God.

I think one of the hardest things about this is accepting that our trials, our pains, our suffering are the conditions of God working in us for His good pleasure. It will often not be pleasurable for us, this working of God. Job’s words in the midst of his terrible suffering keep coming back to me: “Though he kill me, I will hope in Him.” When our suffering is at its worst, it is tempting to wish that God would indeed kill us. “Put me out of my misery,” we might say. Yet, we are told that Jesus was able to endure the shame of the cross, which included the worst pain imaginable, because of the joy that was set before Him. He knew with absolute certainty that He would be going back to His place at the Father’s side after His full obedience to God’s will.

Did the nails hurt less because He knew His future? Did His foreknowledge reduce the shame of hanging like a common criminal for all to mock and gawk at? I doubt it. It may be scant comfort in the dark night of the soul to remember the encouragement given to the Hebrews: “For consider the one who endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary in your souls and give up. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood as you struggle against sin.” No matter how close we may come to shedding our blood, there can only be one response to trials: surrender to God’s design. What else can we do?

Related Posts: Necessary Obedience; The Knowledge of Good and Evil; Rolling Thunder 

How Wrong Can You Be

I have been having a stimulating discussion with a neighbor recently. He has a slightly unorthodox view of exactly who or what Jesus is. By calling his view unorthodox, I place myself firmly in the orthodox or historical position of the church over the centuries. It is his sincere belief that orthodoxy left the truth behind at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The main purpose of that gathering was to discuss the teachings of a priest from Alexandria named Arius. He had begun to teach that Jesus was a created being subordinate to the Father and neither co-equal nor co-eternal with Him. This became known as the Arian heresy after the Council declared the teaching to be unbiblical.

Before you fall asleep or discount this as an irrelevant historical dispute, let me assure you that it is extremely important today. Arian thought rears its ugly head across all denominational lines occasionally, but especially in the American West where Mormonism thrives. Mormons teach that Jesus is a product of the Heavenly Father’s conjugal relations with one of his many wives. They imagine that Lucifer is his brother, created in a similar fashion. This is pure Arianism, and it should be treated as the heresy it is.

Another movement that leans heavily into Arianism is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. JW’s, as they are commonly called, teach that Jesus is “a god,” subordinate to Jehovah god, hence their name. They believe that Jesus is actually the archangel, Michael, who is obviously a created being. This thinking places them clearly in the Arian camp. Like the Mormons, they reject the idea of God as a trinity with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all being equally God and equally eternal uncreated beings. They believe they are returning to the first century beliefs of the original church. They are, if you count Arius.

There is another more subtle movement abroad today to which my neighbor has become attached. These people believe that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, teaches a strict monotheism which precludes the possibility of a co-equal Son of God. They also dismiss the idea that the Holy Spirit is a third member of the godhead by suggesting that His mention in the New Testament refers to the spirit of God or the spirit of Christ. They also devalue the position of Jesus as “Son of God” by making that mean something different from “god the son.” They insist that there can be only one god, and he cannot exist in multiple forms of separate but equal divinity. To them, the concept of the trinity is anathema, and those who believe in it are not eligible for God’s saving grace.

This is where my heart stopped. This means millions of sincere believers who have accepted the concept of a three-fold godhead throughout church history would be destined for Hell for their “misunderstanding” of God’s nature. STOP! Has anyone who seriously studies the Bible ever come to a full understanding of who God is? This is the God who said, “My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts.” This is the God who challenged Job with a series of questions beginning with, “Where were you when I created the world?” This is the God who said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.”

Paul says, “We have the mind of Christ,” referring to born again, spirit-led Christians. But he also says, “Now we see through a mirror indirectly, but then face to face.” I believe Paul’s “then” refers to the time when we will be present with the Lord and, “know completely, just as [we] have also been completely known.” Until “then,” none of us will know God in His fulness. But we can know a great deal about Him if we study His Word carefully. The differences in our understanding of who God is, like mine with my neighbor, stem from our different interpretations of the Scripture.

While there is only one true meaning of any particular Scripture, that truth must be extracted using proper means of interpretation. Even then, it is possible for two sincere Bible students to come to different conclusions. In matters not essential to salvation, brothers can agree to disagree. However, some things are not debatable: Jesus’ existence as God’s chosen Messiah whom the prophets foretold; His divine yet human nature, which He attained by His virgin birth; His physical death and subsequent resurrection to His former glory which confirmed the efficacy of His substitutionary sacrifice. I believe these are essential truths without which no salvation is possible.

The question that plagues me is whether it is possible to be mistaken in our understanding of these essentials and still achieve saving faith. If so, how deep a misunderstanding is too deep. How wrong can we be? I fear some may find themselves in the position of the Jewish rabbis at the time of Jesus appearance in Israel. According to Michael S. Heiser, they had a binary understanding of their “one” true God. He was indeed one, yet He appeared to His people throughout their history in several forms. There was God; then there were the epiphanies of God to men. Heiser identifies four: El/Elohim; Yahweh or Jehovah; The Angel of Yahweh; and simply, The Name.

When Jesus came to the Jews proclaiming Himself to be the Son of God and referring to God as “His” Father, they became incensed. He did not fit their binary concept. They correctly took his claims to mean that He had a unique relationship with God, ultimately making Himself out to be God. To them, this was blasphemous, and they ultimately had Him executed for His presumption. From our vantage point alongside the risen Christ, we can see their fatal error. My question is whether modern expositors of Scripture who devalue Christ’s unique position fall into the same category as the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day.

I have been mildly tormented by this question ever since I did the research for my book on Mormonism. I concluded then that a person could not be saved if fully immersed in Mormon theology because it is thoroughly Arian – heretical. The discussions I have been having with my neighbor have dredged up the question again. My conclusion is this:

1.) I must believe that Jesus is fully God as that made it possible for Him to be a sinless sacrifice

2.) I must believe that Jesus was fully human because only a human sacrifice could atone for human sin

3.) I must believe that Jesus rose bodily from the grave and ascended to His Father’s side as proof that His sacrifice was accepted.

I believe this is the gospel Paul delivered. I believe if you can’t say those three things, your understanding of the gospel is wrong. You can be wrong about many things in the Bible, but if you are wrong about those three, you may get an unwelcome surprise on judgment day.

Related Post: That’s Not God

The Cry of Sin

Have you ever read Romans 8:22 and wondered why creation groans: “For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers agony together until now.” Like many other curious passages, I have wondered about this one, giving it little thought. Recently I read the words of God to Abraham when He was about to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. “Then Yahweh said, ‘Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very serious, I will go down and I will see. Have they done altogether according to its cry of distress which has come to me? If not, I will know.’” (Ge 18:20–21)

I was struck by the phrase, “Its cry of distress.” I asked myself what was crying in distress. Pardon a brief grammar lesson, but I discovered that “its cry” used a feminine pronoun meaning the antecedent had to be feminine as well. Then I discovered that “outcry” is also feminine.  The cities are not feminine. The closest possible feminine antecedent is the word “sin.” The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was making a distress cry. Being a feminine, singular pronoun, the cry was not from the cities or the people which would be plural; it was the sin that cried out to God. Huh!

Something was happening in those cities that was so terrible that it raised an SOS to heaven. MAYDAY! MAYDAY! rang through the halls of heaven, and God felt it necessary to go down and see what was happening. I know, God is omniscient; He knew exactly what was going on. But as I have written before, God must make Himself human sized occasionally to make a point about His character and His actions. This is one of those frequent interactions between God and His creation that reveals the nature of His relationship. We know that God is holy, so we can imagine that “very serious” sin would concern Him.

When we look at what sin is in essence, we might understand why it bothers God so much. The original sin – the sin of Adam and Eve – was rebellion. At its core, that rebellion was an attempt to move away from the order God had established for His creation. Creation itself is an ordering of all things into their divine place. God spoke order into chaos, and the universe came to be. Anything that disturbs that order is sin – chaos.

A look at the Hebrew word God spoke to Abraham about Sodom and Gomorrah shows this. Chata (חָטָא), means to miss; to go wrong.  The most frequently used New Testament Greek word for sin is hamartanō (ἁμαρτάνω) which also means to miss the mark. God’s “mark” is perfection; whatever misses that mark is sin; it brings chaos into the order God intends for His creation. If you think of creation as a symphony, as Scripture sometimes does, sin is a sour note in the otherwise beautiful music.

I played in band throughout my high school career. When a wrong note was played somewhere in the band, I couldn’t always detect it from my seat in the third row playing my horn. In one of the schools where I taught years later, I was drafted as the director of a musical ensemble. From my position up front, I could easily tell when a note was off, and I could usually pinpoint the location quite easily. I imagine this is what God experienced when the cities of the plain cried out in distress. I sounded off tune – chaotic.

Look again at Romans chapter eight. The two verses before the mention of creation’s groaning read: “For the eagerly expecting creation awaits eagerly the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its servility to decay, into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” What happened to cause creation to be “subjected to futility?” Genesis 3:17 tells us: “And to Adam [God] said, ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from the tree from which I forbade you to eat, the ground shall be cursed on your account.’” Adam sinned and chaos ensued. Darn!

We generally tend to think that the salvation wrought by Jesus on the cross was for us. Of course it was, but now I see that human redemption is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a number of Bible passages that begin to come alive with this expansion of redemption. The stars sang at creation. The trees of the field clap their hands. The stones cry out at the coming of their Redeemer. The creation groans eagerly awaiting the revelation of the sons of God. These passages which personify creation force me to see that the Earth is not just a hunk of space rock with organic life struggling to survive on its surface. Creation itself communes with its Creator.

John Mac Arthur reminds us, “We sometimes flirt with sin, but God hates it. The price He paid to redeem us from it speaks of the seriousness with which He views it. After all, ‘[We] were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold … but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.’” (John F. MacArthur Jr., Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993, 24. Quoting 1 Peter 1:18–19).

As the crown of God’s creation, those created in His image, believers are foremost in the things God has redeemed. But let us not forget that sin stains God’s creation, and it grieves the Father deeply, especially when it is our sin. The next time you revel in a beautiful sunset, or enjoy the song of a mockingbird, or whatever you find precious in God’s creation, remember you are witnessing a foretaste of what it will be like when all creation is redeemed and its groaning ceases. Remember the price God paid for that blessing. Hopefully, that will stop you from making God cry again.

Related Posts: What Happened in the Fall; Helping Haiti

What Really Counts

The first and most important principle of Bible interpretation is taking the context into consideration. I should say “contexts” because there are four aspects of context to consider: historical/cultural, literary/genre, linguistic/grammatical, and global/whole Bible view. There are quite a few popular doctrinal notions that are founded upon poor interpretation arrived at through failure to consider one aspect of context or another.

In our day, we have significant historical information about the people and cultures of Bible times. Because God’s chosen people, Israel, were Mesopotamian, the culture and practices of that time and region are of special importance. If we try to understand Abraham, for example, as a twenty-first century father, we will be mystified. We will never grasp the significance of God’s orders to Joshua for conquering the Canaanites if we disregard the cosmic religious circumstances. The story of Ruth, David’s family problems, Israel’s Babylonian captivity will all be impossible to understand without considering the cultural context. That failure leads to faulty interpretation and often, bad doctrine.

One important aspect of the culture of the ancient Mesopotamians is their use of numbers. Especially now in the digital age, digits, numbers are critical to our society. Our weights and measures, chronological ages, historical events, and our computer processes are all tied to numbers with specific numerical values. Seven is one more than six and one less than eight. One thousand is ten times one hundred or nine hundred ninety-nine plus one. But to the ancient Mesopotamian mind, the Hebrew mind, seven was a symbol of completeness; one thousand was a metaphor for a large, indeterminate quantity. Our modern Western mindset wants to attach numerical significance to things that were primarily symbolic to the original audience.

I realize that with the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, the Gentiles were grafted into God’s family. However, every Bible author (with the possible exception of Luke) was a Jew writing to a mostly Jewish audience until Paul was sent specifically to the Gentiles. But even Paul emphasizes his own Jewishness. And though the New Testament was written almost exclusively in Greek, it was still an extension of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures. The only “Bible” the authors could quote was in Hebrew; the culture out of which Christianity sprang was Jewish. Jesus was a Jewish prophet. John, though a convert to Christianity, wrote Revelation as the last book of Hebrew prophecy; his heavy reliance on the Old Testament proves this.

Speaking of Revelation, there is a cultural/literary overlap that deserves attention. Jewish literary tradition included what we call apocalyptic literature. The name comes from a Greek word meaning revelation, hence the name of John’s prophetic book. The main characteristic of apocalyptic literature is its intense use of imagery and symbolism. The Jews knew better than to try to make literal sense of apocalyptic prophecies. They understood that the outlandish, figurative imagery represented something that existed in reality.

This unspoken understanding also applied to numbers in apocalyptic writing. The threes, the fours, the sevens, the twelves, and the thousands would not have been numerical values to them. In fact, in the linguistic context, each number had a corresponding character in the Hebrew alphabet. Hebrew is a picture language like Egyptian hieroglyphics or Chinese Hanzi. This means the Hebrew letter has a meaning that transfers to its corresponding number. For example, the number six is represented by the Hebrew character vav which stands for man. Thus, repeating the number three times, a method of emphasis in Hebrew literature, 6-6-6 emphasizes the utter and complete humanness of the one being identified.

The same can be said for the number 1,000 we find in Revelation 20. Ancient Mesopotamian legends often attributed reigns of 1,000 years to their ancestral dynasties. They did not mean 999 +1; they meant to magnify the might and glory of the king with the symbolic 1,000-year reign. It is completely inappropriate to assume that there will be 1,000 periods of 365 days when Christ will reign while Satan is bound. Assigning the number 1,000 to Christ’s reign refers to its glory and power, and to Jesus’ complete victory over His enemies.

This same approach can be taken with the seven-fold cycles of judgment mentioned in Revelation 5-19. Some people see a literal application in the seven-year Roman siege of Jerusalem prior to its destruction in 70 AD. Whether that will be repeated at some future time is up for debate. It is worth noting that the number seven in Hebrew numerology is represented by the character zayin which is a weapon implying warfare or judgment. Seven also signifies completeness which may explain the three sevens of God’s judgment we find in Revelation (seals, trumpets, bowls). God’s judgment of apostate Israel was fully completed when the city and the temple were destroyed.

Three is another number that appears throughout Scripture. Gimel is the Hebrew character associated with the number three. It signifies being lifted up; it is the number of God Himself, the three-fold God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man, created in God’s image, is three-in-one: body, soul, and spirit. Abraham had three visitors who are revealed as Yahweh Himself. There were three main feasts of Israel: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Jesus’ ministry lasted three years, and He was in the grave for three days, and so on. When a Jew saw three, he knew God was involved somehow.

One of the greatest dangers in Bible interpretation is assuming a text means something without seeking to understand it in all its contexts. This must include looking at the global/full Bible context of a passage. No one denies that the book of Revelation is a prophecy of God’s impending judgment. The Bible records that from the beginning of Israel’s establishment as a nation, God warned that disobedience would cause them to lose their land. The win/loss record in the book of Judges began to reveal how true this was. God foreshadowed how complete His judgment could be with the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. When the Jewish leaders executed the promised Messiah, God took their land and their temple from them as His final judgment on them.

On the other side of Israel’s prophetic judgment, God always promised a kingdom ruled by one of David’s descendants. Enter King Jesus. His reign will last a thousand years, but that doesn’t mean 999+1; it means a very long time – in this case, until the end of time. The Bible language literally says the kingdom will last until the end of the age – the church age. I believe after that comes the final judgment then the new heaven and earth. Scripture says we should number our days; that’s a reminder that life here will end someday. Whatever we believe about the countdown to the end, what really counts is what we do while we are here. God is watching us; you can count on that.

Related Posts: Understanding the Bible as Literature; God Made Small