War is Hell

I don’t know who said it originally, but they were not far off metaphorically speaking. All the good things that life has to offer are removed or restricted by war. Often, even the necessities are out of reach. As I write this, there are thousands of people in Ukraine who are experiencing just that. Then there is the mourning of families over the 780 civilian deaths – especially for the 58 children. From our perspective in America, it seems that Vladimir Putin is inflicting this hell with no provocation whatsoever. Innocent Ukrainians are paying the price for an evil man’s lust for power.

Throughout history, that has been the case in every war I know anything about. I can’t think of a time when two nations mutually agreed to go to battle. No two peoples faced off and said let’s fight over this and see who wins. There has always been an aggressor and an aggrieved. The first instance of this would have to be when Cain killed his brother, Abel. Ever since then, time after time someone has thought they deserved something that was worth killing for. Even though Jesus came to bring peace, He promised nothing but wars and rumors of wars until the end of time. The book of Revelation predicts the end will come in a final bloody battle.

Although we grieve and pray for those who are caught in the midst of war, we shouldn’t be surprised it is happening. We might ask why. The answer requires us to pull back the curtain on human history and look behind it. I believe God created our universe in the aftermath of a cosmic battle that spills over into our existence to this very day. The Bible tells of a rebellion in Heaven that resulted in one third of the heavenly host battling against the King of Heaven. Because of God’s infinite power, the rebels inevitably lost the fight.

After the attempted coup failed, I suspect that the Earth was created as a proving ground for God’s eternal love and boundless mercy. The rebellious host was banished from Heaven and exiled to Earth. I call Earth a proving ground because it seems that the human condition has been one of both blessing and curse since the beginning. God placed Adam and Eve in the perfect environment, but He didn’t keep the nasty serpent out of the Garden. The Bible reveals that the serpent was none other than the leader of the failed heavenly rebellion, Satan aka the Devil.

The titles given to God’s archenemy give a clue to his character: Deceiver, Accuser, Tempter, Adversary, Evil One. One might hope that God would put His beloved ones in a safer environment. He might have given them a wonderful place to do His bidding without interference. The truth is that without the opportunity to disobey, obedience is meaningless. Enter the concept of free will. The same condition was repeated when God promised His chosen nation, Israel, the land of Canaan. Instead of helping them to completely drive out all the pesky former inhabitants, a few survivors were left. In the beginning of the book of Judges, God tells Israel that He left the enemies purposely to test their faithfulness. As we know, they failed miserably.

As believers on this side of the cross of Calvary, we are in almost the same territory, with one important difference. We still have an enemy who “walks around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” The difference in our situation is that our battle has a sure outcome. “We are more than conquerors,” Paul shouts in Romans’ beautiful eighth chapter. This declaration comes one chapter after describing the battle and concluding, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The answer follows immediately: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus …. who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Paul cements the reality of our spiritual battle in his letter to the Ephesians. He says, “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.” And yet, as Romans seven painfully describes, we still battle our own flesh. It is as Paul told the Galatians, “For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that whatever you want, you may not do.”

So even though the ultimate victory is assured, the enemy has not been fully vanquished. According to Paul, he still uses the world system and our fleshly desires in an attempt to pry us from our faithful devotion to Christ. This need not be a hellish war for us. We have the resurrection power of God’s Holy Spirit living within us. We have only to follow His lead to conquer our temptations. The enemy is tricky – he is called the deceiver – but God promises to, “make a way out together with the temptation, so that you may be able to endure it.” If we are being led by the Spirit, Paul assures, “you will never carry out the desire of the flesh.”

I began by saying that war is hell; so is addiction; so is guilt; so is living in the flesh with no hope of escaping its slavery. Hell is also the eternal destiny of our enemy, the Devil and all those who reject the offer of deliverance God provides in Jesus Christ. The Bible tries to help us imagine it by calling it a lake of fire or a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Someone has suggested that hell is a place where people have all the normal human desires but no way to satisfy them. Ever. What’s going on in Ukraine right now is bad, but eventually it will end. There’s something coming that is much worse, and it will never end: Hell.

Yes, pray for Ukraine. More important, pray for and witness to everyone you know who hasn’t heard the good news about the end of all war. And give yourself permission to rest in the fact that God is still in charge; war doesn’t surprise Him; Putin can’t outmaneuver Him. Things might look very dark for a while, but the final outcome is never in doubt. Just as surely as the sun returns to the sky every morning, the Son, the Prince of Peace, is also going to return. “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.” That’s a promise.

 Related posts: It’s Not About You; Working All Things for Good

What happens to people who never hear about Jesus?

The Apostle Peter made a statement to the Sanhedrin that has caused serious confusion among Christians over the years. Peter declared, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” Many people believe that in order to be saved, a person must say the name of Jesus. This thought has given rise to a number of imaginative solutions to the problem facing those who never hear the name of Jesus.

One obvious dilemma is the state of the millions of people who lived before the time of Christ. We feel sure that Enoch and Noah and Moses and David and countless other Old Testament saints will be found in Heaven. If it were required that they say the name of Jesus to attain salvation, there must be a way for that to happen. Some have suggested that the credal statement taken from Peter’s words that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison solves the problem. Perhaps Jesus went to a place where those whom God would invite to Heaven were waiting. While this answer has some credibility, it may be a stretch too far.

Another class of people numbering in the millions is all those born after Calvary who have not heard a witness of Christ. Some take solace in the thought that Jesus miraculously presents Himself to those who are chosen so they can say His name. I have heard missionary tales of whole tribes being discovered with knowledge of Jesus even though no human witness to His saving grace was found. At some point, the risen Jesus made Himself known to them, and they believed. I won’t say that couldn’t happen. It is unlikely that every person without a personal witness of Jesus will have experienced this miracle though.

The third class of people who we all hope are going to be found in Heaven without ever saying the name of Jesus are the unborn, the very young or others mentally unable to comprehend what salvation is, let alone say the Name. We simply cannot believe that God would allow people to go to hell who never reached a point of belief or unbelief. In all my years of study, I have never found a Bible verse that unequivocally says babies go to heaven when they die. Now I am going to suggest something that may shock some people and might sound sacrilegious to others. Just because the Bible doesn’t say something doesn’t mean it can’t be true. There is an infinite repository of facts that are true but have no biblical address.

Before I give my answer to what happens to people who die without saying the name of Jesus, I want to anchor that answer in the truth of Scripture. No human being descended from Adam and Eve (that’s all of us) can look forward to anything but hell when they die. Adam and Eve spurned God’s care and direction and earned for themselves (and us) an eternity separated from God. That is unless God provides a way for them to be reconciled. Which He did. The Way is Jesus. Immediately after the fall from grace, God promised that the Seed of woman (aka Jesus) would crush the evil serpent’s head and bring an end to the curse that was initiated by our First Parents. For  thousands of years that promise remained in the future. We now look back a couple millennia at the fulfillment on Calvary.

It is my contention that the three classes of people I identified a bit ago were all destined for hell. The Bible says that God in His great mercy graciously reaches into lives of those He chooses and provides them a ticket to a new destination. That ticket was purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross. Whether your name is Adam, Moses, or Billy Bob, you must be pulled off the hell-train and put on the heaven-train by God Himself. Because God is just, He can’t just ignore what people have coming due; so, He bought back (redeemed) the souls of certain people from Adam’s legacy. God unilaterally applies the blood-price paid by Jesus to those who will be saved.

The question of the ages is how that transaction is accomplished. The Bible is very clear that there is only one door that leads to the heavenly destination: that door is faith. The clearest exposition of that fact is made by Paul in the third and fourth chapters of the Roman epistle. Paul cites Abraham as the chief example of salvation by faith, but it is apparent that he means to include everyone in that class since as he says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” None is made righteous (gains heaven), he says, except by faith.

The natural follow-up question is faith in what. Paul answers that too: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.” The author of Hebrews puts it this way: “Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and is a rewarder of those who seek him.” Just prior to his exposition on salvation by faith, Paul made the point that everyone can know God exists if they don’t “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” In other words, there is no excuse for ignoring God.

The Apostle also said in chapter two of Romans that even people without the Law of Moses to guide them can see what’s right and wrong, and their consciences would serve to either accuse or excuse them at judgment. I am not suggesting that I believe in universal salvation. On the contrary, I see faith as the determining factor in this class of people who believe a higher power exists, and they believe that He will reward their belief. That condition puts them where God can apply the blood of Jesus and effect their salvation – salvation through the name of Jesus as Peter announced. Those who see what’s right and do wrong instead remain on the wrong train, and their destination is sure.

This method is what I believe assures the salvation of all those who don’t or can’t say the name of Jesus, but we would think it cruel of God to condemn them to hell. If God chooses to apply Jesus’ saving blood to an unborn child or a mentally deficient person, who are we to deny that He can justly do that? If God looks into the conscience of a person and discovers saving faith, but that person never had a chance to hear Jesus’ name, would it be unjust for God to unilaterally apply the blood of redemption? I say no; in fact, I say it demonstrates the justice of God expressed in the love of God.

One more thing must be said. I have written about God’s sovereign election before. I will repeat this much here. God does choose those upon whom He wishes to grant favor. I believe He grants that favor (aka grace) on the basis of a heart attitude – the attitude of faith. I am not going to take up the argument whether a degree of prevenient grace is required for a person to express saving faith. To me, that question is moot as it is beyond our ability to comprehend. I do know this: once a person has an option to believe or not, the die is cast. If God had my name written in His book before the creation of the world, it matters little to me: I don’t know what’s in that book. All I can do is make my choice to believe or not. That is also your choice. What do you say?

Related posts: Election: God’s Choice; Many Called; Few Chosen; God’s Choice or Man’s; Through the Bible in Seven Minutes

Look in the Mirror

In the days of Moses, the glory of the Lord was restricted to a geographical location: first on Mt. Sinai, then in the tabernacle holy place. The children of Israel had a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to signify that God was with them. Often, they carried the Ark of the Covenant before them into battle as a symbol of God’s victorious presence in the fight. On the negative side, God also made His presence known in judgment when they failed to follow His commands: fatal fire coming from heaven; giant sinkholes swallowing thousands; poisonous snakes invading the camp; plagues of deadly diseases causing havoc. God made Himself know to the five senses in those days.

The writer of Hebrews opens the letter with the acknowledgement that God previously revealed Himself at various times in various ways. In contrast, the main point of the letter demonstrates that Christ Jesus is now the complete revelation for all who would believe. “In these last days he has spoken to us by a Son… who is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence.” (Heb. 1:2-3) The word “radiance” in this translation could well be rendered “reflection.” Christ reflects the glory, the goodness of God for all to see. The word “representation” is taken from a word that means a stamp or die that produces and exact likeness of a thing. The ESV renders this phrase as, “The exact imprint of his nature.” I prefer “nature” to “essence,” although the literal translation is substance or foundation.

What I am getting at here is that looking carefully at Jesus gives us a true picture of who God is essentially. If the translators had transliterated “representation” it would sound like the English word character (χαρακτήρ). We see God’s character when we see Jesus properly. By “properly” I mean that we don’t get to invent a picture of who Jesus is, hence, who God is. We have to look for the Jesus of the Gospels as interpreted by the Holy Spirit inspired New Testament authors. The picture we get is that of a loving, self-sacrificing judge and king. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, when God, “Had made purification for sins through him [Jesus], he [Jesus] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:3)

Some people like the thought of a loving Jesus; they forget that while He walked in Palestine, He had many seriously judgmental things to say to the Jewish leaders (who would eventually kill Him). The Jesus is love people also have to ignore the many New Testament references to Jesus’ role as judge. Jesus told John that He was coming on the clouds in judgment of Jerusalem, specifically to “Every one who pierced him.” Him. He did that in 70 AD, and He will complete the judgment of all humanity when He returns at the end of the age. If we want the “exact imprint of [God’s] nature,” we have to be honest with Scripture.

Paul explained the problem with those who don’t recognize Jesus’ representation of God: “But if indeed our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they would not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:3-4) “Light” is used consistently in the Scripture as a metaphor for knowledge. Unbelievers simply can’t see the light. It is often proven that what the world thinks is obviously true is painfully wrong. I love what Ronald Reagan said of the opposition party in 1964: “The problem with the Democrats is they know so much that just isn’t true.” The Preacher said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Prov. 1:7) When people don’t fear (aka respect) God, they fall into error.

We should also remember that Scripture encourages us to conform to the “exact imprint of [God’s] nature.” To the Corinthians, Paul suggested believers, “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” James used a similar metaphor when he chided people who read God’s Word but don’t apply it to their lives. “If anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone staring at _⌊his own face_⌋ in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.” If Jesus is the Mirror, I will have to admit that I fall far short of conforming to the exact imprint of God’s character.

This same principle applies to how we view the world around us. If we are being conformed to God’s character, we must try to see things as God would see them. When the explanation for events escapes us, we should look up not out. One of my favorite preachers used to say when we look at the problems, they get bigger; when we look at God, they disappear. The world situation that resulted from the misguided pandemic policies of recent years did not surprise God or leave Him behind. (See “Finding God in COVID 19”) This is true of the current deplorable situation in Ukraine. Jesus promised there would be wars and rumors of wars until the very end of the age. When He told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world, He didn’t mean that this world was not of concern to Him. He loves the world so much that He gave His life for it.

And here we stand. Some believers are literally giving their lives for the sake of Jesus. Most of us are only giving more money at the gas pump and maybe dodging critics who disagree with our perception of who God is and what He does. In Paul’s metaphor, Jesus is the Mirror (capital M). WWJD is just a wrist band for some or a trite question for others, but it should be the first thing we ask. Is Jesus Lord of the whole earth, or just the parts of it we are comfortable with? Are we being transformed by the renewing of our minds, or are we conforming to the world?

Related posts: Where’s My Cloud?; Defending Resurrection Faith; Friendship With the World

Paging Phinehas Eleazar

Paul told the Corinthians that the things that happened to the Israelites were intended by God to be lessons for us. The incidents Paul refers to took place during the desert wanderings Israel endured on account of their disbelief. At the end of their 40-year desert penance, the disbelieving generation’s children poised to enter the promised land would have been 40- to 60-years-old. These men in their prime, having witnessed all the miraculous things God did to get them to where they were then fell prey to the seduction of the Moabites and their sensuous worship of Baal which involved ritual prostitution.

It's no surprise that the enemy would use sex to entice God’s children, first because it is one of the strongest human drives. Second, if God’s people can be drawn into illegitimate sexual relationships, a major purpose of God in creation can be perverted. God created male and female so that they could participate in His plan to fill the earth with His image-bearers. God created the first two; then they were supposed to continue the process by procreation. God’s chosen people were forbidden to marry people from other nations because God wanted His people pure. This sounds like racial prejudice to our modern sensibilities, but the separateness of Israel was intended to be a picture of God’s holiness carried on through flesh and blood.

Israel’s dalliance with Baal also occasioned the use of a frequent metaphor. God often referred to Israel as His wife, so idolatrous worship was a type of adultery. This figure is most poignantly displayed with the prophet Hosea whom God commanded to marry a woman who would be repeatedly unfaithful. Because the marital relationship is the most intimate humans can experience, using it to show how idolatry affects God and our relationship with Him is especially meaningful. The imagery does not end with the Old Testament, as Christ is pictured taking the church as His bride in the heavenly wedding ceremony at the close of this age.

Now I am back to the lesson Paul would like us to learn from the incident in Numbers when the Israelites succumbed to the temptations of Baal. I don’t suppose there are many golden calves representing the god of the Moabites sitting reverently in our modern homes. However, I am quite certain that for many, the homes themselves are pretty close to the center of the proud owner’s heart. For others, like me for instance, it is hard not to think of the beautiful machine in the driveway as the fulfillment of our fantasy and lust. American popular society has made sex the center of everything. Or maybe it’s the career or the family or some hobby or pastime that creates the gravity of a black hole sucking all our wealth and affection into its orbit.

None of those things are bad in themselves as long as they do not take the place of God at the center of our being. But the man who spends every spare moment primping his lawn and shrubbery or dolling up his patio, measuring his worth by his address has fallen prey to idolatry every bit as much as the dallying Israelites. I am going to offend now, but I believe that churches who spend the lion’s share of their budget on glamorous buildings and facilities are likely building idol temples.

When the Israelites went after Baal, God was so incensed that He struck them with a deadly plague and tens of thousands died. Moses and a faithful few went to the tabernacle and began weeping for the wayward people. The priest Eleazar’s son, Phinehas, watched as an arrogant backslider pranced through the camp with his foreign mistress. Overcome with righteous zeal, the young man picked up a spear, followed them to their tent and impaled them both. Phinehas’ actions convinced God to stop the plague, “because he was zealous among them with my zeal.” The righteous indignation of one man brought a halt to the destruction of an entire nation.

And what are we to learn from Phinehas? First, we see that God is pleased with righteous behavior. We might also conclude that being angry with others is not necessarily wrong; Phinehas’ motivation was in line with God’s will. We also know from the laws God gave in Exodus that foreign wives were not acceptable, so the young man was operating on an established principle, even if his unilateral act was outside of standard protocols. This too may offend our delicate, modern sensibilities, but God did sanction what we would call murder on several occasions.

I am not suggesting that we take up Phinehas’ spear against idolatry in the church. However, I do think there is a place for a more aggressive church discipline than we are accustomed to. We have biblical precedent for this in the New Testament. On one occasion, Paul recommended tossing a wayward member out of the church so that the sinner might be driven back to faith by the expulsion. Paul also told Titus that a divisive person should be excommunicated. He likewise told the Romans to avoid such people. The goal of this kind of church discipline is always toward reconciliation, as Paul stressed to the Galatians.

Our present-day Phinehas needs to be armed not with a spear but with the sword of the Spirit. As we encounter the wave of persecution that our pagan society is forcing on us, we have greater need than ever to be pure in our faith. God’s righteousness is vindicated by discipline which also bears righteous fruit according to the author of Hebrews. Recent failures by well-known evangelical figures have shown what damage can be done by one man’s dalliance. The pagans rightly charge that we are no better than anyone else. We truly are not. We know that. But we must be better at disciplining those who stray so that we may show what it means to be faulty but forgiven. Given the price He paid for her, Jesus deserves a bride, “not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she may be holy and blameless.” Phinehas, where are you?

Related posts: Bringing the Kingdom; The Winnowing Fork of God; Defending Resurrection Faith; I Don’t Believe in God; Not Our Father’s God; Do We Really Need God

Content in Whatever State I Am

The young nation of Israel certainly wasn’t content after God miraculously rescued them from Egypt. Everybody knows about the forty years of desert wandering God gave Israel as penance for unbelief. They had over two years of preparation – law giving and tabernacle building – and miraculous provision before they started toward the promised land. And still, they were complaining almost all the time. They couldn’t wait to get to the promised land. The record of the Israelites checking out Canaan and refusing to believe God would give it to them is a classic tale of failure to believe. I wonder if ten out of twelve being doubters is a normal ratio. I hate to say it, but I doubt many of my Christian friends would be with Joshua and Caleb; I’m not sure if I would be most days.

The Bible has plenty of other stories of people who had to wait for God. Job went through a lengthy trial before God restored his health and wealth. Abraham waited twenty-five years for Isaac. He never saw a permanent home in the land God promised him. Joseph was in Egypt for ten years or more before he was reunited with his family. Moses spent forty years as an Egyptian prince; forty years as desert shepherd; and finally, forty years as Israel’s leader. Then, like Abraham, he wasn’t permitted to enter the promised land. Joshua had to wait forty-seven years after spying Canaan to see the promised land conquered. The Jews taken captive to Babylon had to wait seventy years to go back home. Mary and Joseph had to wait thirty years and nine months to see the Messiah revealed

The passage of time is a strange thing. It has been five months since we moved to Arizona. (Pun alert: I am content in the state I am in.) Some days I feel like we have been here forever; then it seems like we just got here yesterday. It’s the same with the rest of my life: I have no sense of being seventy years old, yet all the things I have been through seem to fill several lifetimes. It strikes me that God uses our time for His purpose; that must be why the phrase “wait upon the Lord” is so common in Scripture. The problem most of us suffer with is being content to wait.

I don’t think it is always clear why God puts us in a waiting pattern. Looking at the list of Bible characters who had to wait for God, it is clear that not all waiting was due to failure to take God at His word, though some definitely was. Sometimes we can look back and see a reason. It is obvious how Joseph’s ten-year preparation set him up to save his family. Moses’ forty-year shepherd experience in the backside of the desert of Midian clearly prepared him for taking Israel through that same desert years later. The Babylonian captivity was a God-given sentence for Israel’s unbelief. Perhaps one day hindsight will give a clue to why we experience periods of waiting. Perhaps not.

The key to why we wait may be found in something Paul told the Philippians: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” He learned something. Paul mentioned on occasion that he was waiting to visit one church or another; he had to be content to wait until God provided a way there. The context of Paul’s recommendation to the Philippians was related to his personal circumstances which at times must have been difficult to wait through. The list of exciting adventures in the second letter to the Corinthians contains some things anyone would want over quickly: “in afflictions, in distresses, in difficulties, in beatings, in prisons, in disturbances, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in going hungry.” Paul must have wondered how long he would have to put up with situations like those.

I wonder how Paul could claim he was content in all that. I would certainly be looking for a quick and easy way out if those were my circumstances. Or if I was Job or Moses or Joseph. Apparently, faith has a time stamp on it. Paul believed he was doing exactly what God wanted him doing, so he was content, “whatever the circumstances.” That is something I need to keep working on.

My life story is filled with waiting periods. At eight years old, I discovered cars. I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license, but I had eight years to wait – a literal lifetime. My high school sweetheart and I couldn’t wait to get married, so we rushed through our four-year degrees in three years. We wanted children, but there was a miscarriage and four years of waiting before our first. Another miscarriage and four additional years passed before our second came along. Almost four years later we were “surprised” by our third child.

My career has had numerous fits and starts. I decided to become a teacher, but when I graduated, there were hundreds of applications for every opening, so I had to wait a few years doing other things before I landed my first teaching job. I decided I wanted to become an administrator, so I waited through a couple years of graduate school only to discover that the stresses of private school administration were not to my liking. I changed course and began looking for a post-graduate program that would earn me a doctoral degree so I could teach in a teacher college. That wait lasted about ten years.

After burning out in classroom teaching, I took what was to be a two-year sabbatical to finish a novel I had been writing for several years. I remained away from teaching (driving a truck) for twelve years. The novel did finally get published, but I am still waiting to move from the bottom of the Amazon book list. When the 2008 recession forced my small trucking company into bankruptcy, I returned to teaching at a college where after twenty years of waiting, I finally realized my dream of teaching teachers. I had periods of peace of mind throughout my career, but I never reached the Pauline standard of contentment in “whatever.”

All of this says nothing of the fact that I have wanted to customize every car I ever owned (over 250 and counting); I wanted to remodel every house we ever owned (6 – 7 if you count my current stationary RV); I constantly tinker with projects large and small with an eye toward improving function or efficiency. Doubtless the most damaging aspect of my discontent is how it affects people around me. My wife long ago quit telling me to stop trying to “fix” her when all I wanted was to help her in some way. My children will testify that I was impossible to please. Even my sincere compliments usually went something like, “That was really great, but….” It seems I was never content.

There is one aspect of my discontent that I am happy with – sort of a contented discontent. (I know that’s an oxymoron.) I am not content with my conformation to the image of Christ. I am not content with my knowledge of God. I am not content with my understanding of the Bible. If I understand the message the Bible teaches about life hereafter, I won’t ever be content with the praise I can offer God. These are all good things.

If you are content with the Bible sitting on your coffee table, I recommend you pick it up and read it every day until you find my level of discontent. If you think you know God perfectly well, I recommend you reexamine your idea of who God is. If you are content with your progress toward the likeness of Christ in all your life and behavior, I recommend you stop right now and confess your failure and pray for discontent. I am learning, as Paul suggested, to be content in whatever my earthly circumstances may be, but my spiritual contentment is yet in the future. I might wish a little contented discontent for you as well.

Related posts: Through the Bible in Seven Minutes; The Knowledge of Good and Evil; Why Heaven Matters

Take the Bible Literally?

My childhood home was overseen by a mother who was born in England and grew up in Canada with parents who never completely abandoned their British heritage. Because of this lineage, my mother was careful to impress the use of proper grammar and pronunciation on my sisters and me. Perhaps this explains why I did well in elementary and secondary school English and literature classes. It may also explain why I eventually chose English as my major (and initially, French as a minor) in my secondary education curriculum in college. More to the point, my concentration was grammar and linguistics. Over the years, I have been referred to as a “grammar Nazi” by my students and a few friends who chafed under my constant correction.

When I entered Bible college in my early twenties, I was thrilled to study koine Greek, the language of the New Testament. Having inherited my mother’s love of precise language, I was keen to know exactly what the Bible writers had said. As a witness to my enthusiasm, near the end of the first term, my first-year Greek professor told me not to bother with a second year because my capabilities were already beyond most of his second-year students. Had circumstances not intervened, I would have gone straight into the study of Hebrew so that I could apply the same diligence to Old Testament study, but it was not to be. I have done some self-study, but I must rely on commentaries to fully understand ancient Hebrew.

I lay all of this background so that my penchant for interpreting the Scripture in the most diligent fashion might be understandable. As I wrote recently in “Where’s My Cloud,” knowing who God is must be the primary goal of any sincere Christian. Following closely behind this is knowing what God expects of His people. To learn these things from texts that are thousands of years old, one must take care to interpret them in the context in which they were written. The Bible says plainly that God does not change, but languages and cultures do. The most reliable interpretation of Scripture is one that first attempts to understand the original intent and meaning of the ancient author.

Seeking original meaning also entails knowing the genre in which the original was composed. As I wrote in “Understanding the Bible as Literature,” “The Old Testament, particularly the wisdom literature and the prophets, is full of metaphor, imagery and symbolism. The original readers were accustomed to literature that was not meant literally.” Not literal does not mean not true. Nor does it mean not inspired. It certainly does not mean that we can ignore the lesson it teaches. It simply means that modern readers must get into the heads of the original authors and audience to grasp the significance of what was written.

Now I come to the point which inspired me to write about this subject again. My through-the-Bible reading schedule has me in Numbers these days. As its name suggests, Numbers is a record of counting things. God ordered Moses to count the people by tribes and clans. The total was a surprising 603,550 males over the age of 20. This would mean that there were between 2-3 million people when women and children were added. That number of people, if it is literal, is going to present problems.

The actual numbering is problematic for those who want the Bible to be literal in every word. Ancient language scholar, Dr. Michael S. Heiser, says that several factors mitigate against the Numbers count being a numerical value. The amount of food needed for the 45 days after leaving Egypt before manna arrived would have been unmanageable; millions of animals and thousands of pounds of grain would have been necessary. Also, the time for a phalanx of that magnitude to cross the Red Sea would have been a week or more not one night as Scripture records.

Additionally, according to Heiser, the area outlined as their camp on the Jordan before crossing into Canaan could not be realistic. He says, “At 2 million, the population density would be over 40,000 people per square mile—13,000 people per square mile greater than the city of New York in 2010.” Remember, there were no high-rise tents in ancient Israel making that density beyond unlikely. Then too, the Israelites were said to be the smallest ethnic group of all those in Canaan, yet there is no archeological evidence that there were any cities large enough to make that true. I suspect one could also rebut this claim with the counts of enemy dead during the conquest of Canaan even if we believe those numbers were numerically accurate.

Something inside me struggles with this information. I want to believe the historicity of all the Bible, but as Heiser points out, the ancient Mideastern literary practices were not the same as ours. As Westerners (Greeks) we think only of numbers having numerical value. The ancients considered them to have metaphoric value perhaps more important than their actual value. Example: God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Since no one thinks there were exactly 1,000 hills where cattle existed when that was penned, neither does one assume that there were other cattle on other hills that God did not own.

I would easily buy the idea that numbers were taken metaphorically until I come to a spot where God was numerically specific. When counting heads of Israel to balance numbers of Levites for redemption of the first born, God uses the exact number to be redeemed, 22,273. Since there were only 22,000 Levites, the Israelites had to add 273 animal redemptions to make up the difference in the actual numbers. (Num. 3:39-48) I feel like I am way out on a limb to say that the number is a metaphor, but the concept of one-for-one redemption is accurate. It works, and it maintains the truth of Scripture without being literal. Nonetheless, it makes me quiver slightly, metaphorically speaking.

To quote myself again, “A slavish, literal interpretation of all Scripture leads to gross misinterpretation. At one point in church history, people were put to death because they suggested the earth revolved around the sun. The church leaders thought this contradicted the clear teaching of the Bible that the sun rose and set (revolved) around the earth. Again, the Bible frequently uses the idea of the earth having ‘foundations’ because the cosmology of the day pictured the earth as a table with legs or foundations.” I would add that people who are expecting the heavenly Jerusalem to be a 1,500 cubic mile floating city with transparent gold streets and gates made of giant pearls may also have been influenced by misinterpretation of figurative language.

I will attempt an analogy from secular culture. Many children in our culture believe that a mythical character named Santa Claus delivers presents in a magical sleigh on Christmas Eve. As I have written elsewhere, the legend upon which Santa is built is not indisputable. It remains, however, a good reason to be charitable at Christmas time, so there is no reason to scrap the practice just because we outgrow our belief in the myth. Since the Bible is so much more believable than myths due to its authenticated historicity, borrowing principles from metaphors, images and symbols found in Scripture is a sound practice.

It may be my mother’s voice echoing in my head that says numerals must be numbers. I can fully relate to people who insist that creation took exactly six twenty-four-hour days, and the Messianic reign will last 1,000 years of 365 ¼ days each. What I cannot do is join the doubters who will reject the entire Bible because the numbers don’t work. I will try to get comfortable with the numbers being metaphors alongside all the other beautiful imagery of Scripture. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of literal death, I will fear no evil because I know God loves a good metaphor.

 

Related posts: Understanding the Bible as Literature; Rain on the Parade; Not Our Fathers' God

Where’s My Cloud?

The Israelites had the cloud by day and fire by night to assure them that Yahweh was with them. They stayed when the cloud stayed and moved when the cloud moved. That probably doesn’t seem relevant to a Christian today, but there may be a reason to look for “clouds.” I think Jesus could “see” the cloud when He was on earth. He said He only did what He saw His Father doing. When the Father moved, Jesus moved. Paul says each believer is a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we should be conscious of a cloud-presence around us. If we are sensitive to the moving of the Spirit, we will move the tabernacle when the Spirit moves.

If we are going see what our Father is doing, we have to know Him. Jesus said true life (zoe) is found in knowing God and Jesus. (Jn. 17:3) Paul said everything else is rubbish compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. (Phil. 3:8) Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10) David told Solomon, “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (1 Chron. 28:9). Similarly, God told Jeremiah, ““You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).

In The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer, one of my favorite 20^th century authors said, “The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason, the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”

There can be no argument that the Bible recommends getting knowledge about God. Nor can there be any doubt where to find that knowledge. Sadly, not many people are making the effort these days. George Barna, the Christian pollster, reports that only one in six adults in the United States reads the Bible  at least once each week. LifeWay Research finds that although Americans express admiration for the Bible, more than half of them have read little or none of the Scripture. Lifeway also reported that, “Less than a quarter of those who have ever read a Bible have a systematic plan for reading the Christian scriptures each day. And a third of Americans never pick it up on their own”. 

Another LifeWay study found that the level of Bible reading among people who attend Protestant churches regularly is not encouraging. While three in ten people surveyed say they read the Bible every day, a disappointing four in ten read it only once a week or less. Even more discouraging is the rising number of people, even among believers who don’t consider the Bible to be the literal Word of God. According to a Gallup poll in 2017, only 35% of Protestant Christians believe the Bible is to be taken literally. Another 51% say it is, “the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally.”

I doubt that the Gallup poll required a careful definition of the word “literal.” In my experience, I have found that people who speak of taking the Bible literally usually mean that we should believe it and do what it says. Those who question the literal nature of the Scripture are often looking for a way to dodge the more uncomfortable passages regarding certain pet behaviors (aka sins). Mature students of the Bible know that it contains more than one genre of literature; as such, some things are not meant to be taken literally. This does not give license to downplay the lessons those passages teach or to ignore them completely. It certainly does not lessen the conviction that the Bible is meant to be a guidebook for knowing God and discovering His intentions for us.

Commenting on the results of a survey done several years ago, George Barna said, “Many Christians are hard-pressed to convert their beliefs into action. The ultimate aim of belief in Jesus is not simply to possess divergent theological ideas but to become a transformed person. These statistics highlight the fact that millions of people who rely on Jesus Christ for their eternal destiny have problems translating their religious beliefs into action beyond Sunday mornings.”

While I agree with Tozer that our conception of what God is like is more important than our behavior, our behavior must be instructed by our conception of God. If a believer is not regularly in God’s Word endeavoring to know God personally, one must question the authenticity of that person’s faith. John MacArthur said, “Spiritual growth progresses from knowing you are a Christian to knowing the Word of God to knowing God Himself.” Because our chief end in life is to glorify God, it is essential that we know who God is so that our behavior will bring glory to Him. I cannot expect the cloud of God’s presence to inhabit the tabernacle of my life if I don’t know the God I am inviting in. With that in mind, I am praying for more cloudy days in my life.

Related posts: Daily Bible Reading; That’s Not God