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On October 19, 2023 By In Church, Theology, Worship

The Ritual of the Lord’s Supper: The Command

The Lord’s Supper is a gift of God in Christ given to the church. In it Jesus memorializes his death for the sake of people. We touch, taste, and imbibe Christ himself in body and blood broken and poured out for our sins. In the meal the benefits of the once-for-all death of Christ are applied to us as often as we share this meal. At times the reality of the grace of Christ overwhelms us. We consider what great sinners we are and we wonder how he could love us that way that he does. A deep sense of unworthiness begins to overtake us.

As we feel that sense of unworthiness, the words of Paul to the Corinthians resonate in our minds: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord” (1Cor 11:27). Our feelings of unworthiness must mean that we are not ready to share in this Table. We’re sure that there are hidden, unresolved sins somewhere. We may be unconscious of them, but they must be there. Then there was that dispute with my wife this week. There was that tension with my children. The anger that I displayed at the office wasn’t right. We have some real problems. Surely we’re not worthy to come to this Table. If we participate in this condition, then the fate of the Corinthians might be our own: sickness or even death.

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On October 16, 2023 By In Church, Theology

The Church is our Mother: Why our doctrine of the church is limping along

The 3rd century church father and theologian Cyprian once wrote: “You cannot have God as your Father unless you have the church for your Mother.”

You cannot have God as your Father unless you have the church for your Mother.”

Cyprian, De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate sect. 6

Before you question the authority of Cyprian in making this statement, realize that he is simply using Biblical language for the Church. Paul writes to the Church in Galatia: “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” (Gal. 4:26) Similarly, the Book of Revelation frequently uses the language of Jerusalem to speak of the Church, language that Paul uses to refer to our mother: “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.” (Rev. 3:12) The language of church as mother might bring some light to the Apostle Paul’s words about the ministry of him and his colleagues in 1 Thessalonians 2:7–8: “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.”

I will begin with this statement (thesis) then. A Churchless Christianity is an impossibility. My Biblical definitions and arguments below should back this statement up sufficiently.

In response, the modern-day evangelical will turn on the smoke machines, and the above statement will likely be surrounded by hazy smoke and fog of rebuttals. Well, what do you mean by the church? Are you referring to a building? Why can’t I have ‘church’ with a couple friends out in the woods? Billy will read a few verses of Scripture, pray together, sing a few songs and church is over. I’m spiritual but not religious. Do you mean the visible or the invisible church? Do you mean the local church or the universal church?

We should be clear that the church has been clear on various truths about the church all the way from Cyprian too Calvin to the Reformed theologians who followed Calvin. This has been the message of the church throughout the ages as she responds to the Word of God. 1200 years after Cyprian, in the days of the Reformation, John Calvin also used the language of the church as our mother, assuming what Cyprian wrote:

“I will begin with the church, into whose bosom God is pleased to collect his children, not only that by her aid and ministry they may be nourished so long as they are babes and children, but may also be guided by her maternal care until they grow up to manhood and, finally, attain to the perfection of the faith. What God has thus joined, let not man put asunder (Mark 10:9): to those whom he is a Father, the church must also be a mother. This is not merely under the Law, but even now after the advent of Christ; since Paul declares that we are the children of a new, even a heavenly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26).”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.1.1

John Calvin continues:

“But as it is now our purpose to discourse of the visible church, let us learn, from her single title of Mother, how useful, no, how necessary the knowledge of her is, since there is no other means of entering into life unless she conceive us in the womb and give us birth, unless she nourish us at her breasts, and, in short, keep us under her charge and government, until divested of mortal flesh, we become like the angels. (Matt 22:30)… Moreover, beyond the pale of the church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for, as Isaiah and Joel testify (Isa 37:32; Joel 2:32).”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.1.4

If you read Cyprian and Calvin among the various theologians of the first 1900 years, it is clear then that in the 21st century, our corporate understanding of the church is at best, slowly limping along. Our collective view is definitely not traveling clearly within the boundaries of Scripture.

It is then useful for our intents and purposes here to consider what the Scriptures say about our mother. We should dig deep into the Scriptures to discern who she is and what God’s will is with regards to her authority. It is clear from the Scriptures that the Church is our mother, but what else does it say about the church? After all, if the Bible speaks of her as our ‘mother’, it would be useful for Christians to at least discover who our ‘mother’ is.

What I lay out below is a brief definition and overview of her government, her fellowship, her preaching and her sacraments. Much more could be said from the Scriptures.

What is the Church?

Jesus Himself instituted the Church in Matthew 16:18–19 when He said: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Similarly, Jesus speaks of the church as a visible entity in Matthew 18:17 when describing the process of dealing with sin: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” The Greek word for “church” is used in Acts 2:47 when Luke puts on the record that many were saved on the day of Pentecost. It is used soon aer in Acts 5:11 when we hear that fear came upon the church. It is used many more times throughout the New Testament, both in the singular and the plural, that is, “the church” and “the churches.” In fact, my Greek lexicon records its use about 193x in the New Testament. If you look back into the Old Testament for types or pictures of the church, you will find it referred to many more times. St. Augustine once stated: “The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.” To paraphrase Augustine: “The church is in Israel concealed; Israel is in the church revealed.” We should also refer to Israel or Israel/Judah as the Old Testament Church.

So what exactly is the church then? Well, the Greek word “ἐκκλησία” can be translated as “the assembly, the congregation.” It can mean “called out” or “called together.” In the Old Testament, the equivalent word would be “qahal,” which is referred to in I Kings 8:65. It does not refer necessarily to a meeting place, but too a gathering, a group of people who have been called together. In the New Testament the word “ecclesia” most frequently refers to the New Testament Church as a totality (Eph. 3:10) or in a specific location (Col. 4:15), it can also refer to the Old Testament assembly of believers (Acts 7:38), or even a riotous mob (Acts 19:32). But essentially, it refers to a group of believers who love Jesus Christ. Consequently, when you read in Matthew 18:20 about “when two or three gather” in His Name, Jesus is not necessarily referring to the assembly for worship, but to the process of church discipline, which in the New Testament as in the

Old would have to be confirmed by at least two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15, Matt. 18:16, 2 Cor. 2:21–3:1-2, I Tim. 5:19).

So Matthew 18:20 is not sufficient reason in and of itself to separate from the church as Christ has instituted it in the Scriptures, to have a private or informal gathering.

As you dig deeper into the Old and New Testaments, you will find that there is also a government that is connected with the church (I Tim. 3, Titus 1-2, I Peter 5, Heb. 13:18). Her ministry is identified (marked out) by preaching (I Cor. 2, II Tim. 4:1-5, I Peter 1:22-25), the celebration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (I Cor. 1, 11), and Christian fellowship of which spiritual church discipline is an crucial part (Matt. 18, I Cor. 5, I Cor. 16:21).

In fact, much of the New Testament is instruction to the church on how to be a church, how to live together as a church. It is full of theological and practical instructions for how to think about her covenantal bond to the groom, Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:25-33). Most of the letters are addressed to a church or to a group of churches. Only a couple are addressed to a Christian to Christian leaders. It is likely that Paul’s letter to Corinth was one of the first books of the New Testament, in chronological order of writing. You should regard Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth as a sort of initial church order or church constitution to instruct the church in regards to her duties with regards to the preaching (I Cor. 1-4), to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (I Cor. 1, 11), and spiritual church discipline (I Cor. 5). This is in light of the desire of Christ that His Church act in a unified (I Cor. 1:10) and peaceable (I Cor. 14:33) and orderly (I Cor. 14:40) manner. The early church was also to have a moral code in relation to adultery and idolatry (I Cor. 5-11) as well as other matters of the Old Testament Law. But she was also to have a clear understanding of the authority of officers or office-bearers in the church as we see throughout Paul’s instruction to Timothy and Titus, wise men, full of the Holy Spirit, who are able to properly handle the Word of truth and instruct the assembly (II Tim. 2:15).

All theology, the writings of Scripture is tied into our understanding of what the church is, what her function is in this world, her worship, her preaching, her sacraments, her discipline, her fellowship, her government. We should not talk about the doctrine of salvation in total isolation from the doctrine of the church. This is neither done in

Scripture or in church history. It is clear then that a close study of Scripture should help the believer discern between a faithful church and an unfaithful church, a true church and a church that is either corrupt or apostate. But the believer is driven to love the church and to serve her and seek her upbuilding nonetheless, even if it is a basket-case church like in Corinth (I Cor. 14:12). For this, reason it is the duty of leaders in our current ecclesiastical confusion to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:12). We must not just be taught to love one another, but how to love one another.

How God describes the Church:

It is impossible to understand the church as a heavenly institution apart from God’s sovereign designation of the church as the object of our love in this world. Above all, we should see the beauty of the church by faith even when it is “with schisms rent asunder, by heresies oppressed.” We find a command in Psalm 48:12-14: “Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.” We read in Psalm 87:1–3: “On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah”

In the Scriptures, the Church is described as God’s temple (I Cor. 3:16-17, I Peter 2:5), as God’s field, God’s building (I Cor. 3:9), as the Body of Christ (I Cor. 12:27, Eph. 4:12), the Bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7-8, 21:9, II Cor. 11:12, Eph. 5:31-32), The family of God (II Cor. 6:18, Eph. 2:19, Gal. 6:10, I Tim. 5:1), the household of God (I Pet. 4:17). We should see the church from the eyes of God, the eyes of faith, and not through the lens of this world. The Church is folly to the world. But to those who are being saved, we see it from the perspective of Christ who is reigning in the heavenly places. We should see the church through new eyes, with all its warts and flaws, as a Church that Christ loves and is purifying through water and the Word.

If we despise what Christ loves, separate from it and especially persecute it, then He will break out against us in His hot anger and holy indignation (I Cor. 3:16-17, Revelation). He did not come primarily to save an individual. He came to save a church (Eph. 5:31-32). It is of this church that I as a saved individual am a member. The Church is the primary object of Christ’s redemption. I get to join in on that grand project of

restoring sinful humanity to a new community in His cross and resurrection. He saves dead men. But unto what? He calls out. But He also calls together. If you love Christ, it is impossible to not love His Church, wherever He has called it together, and is moving with His Spirit within it. If you love Christ, it is impossible to not hate heresy, error, schism, and sin. It is impossible not to have mercy on those who doubt and to save others by snatching them out of the fire (Jude 22-23). Together, we are the church militant. We express that militance primarily when we gather together to worship Christ. As He heads down the warpath, Christ stops for a moment and looks back at His Church following in their orderly ranks and says with Solomon in Song of Solomon 6:10 “Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?” We look forward to the day when we will be the church at rest.

Conclusion:

Cyprian and Calvin argued in this way, because Christians must be taught to love what God loves. Why would you not love what God loves? We must be taught to avoid and flee from the desires of our sinful hearts. This includes the desire to escape the oversight of the church. I also hope that you see why I would describe the modern day church as “limping along.” I also hope that some of the theology that I lay out in here drives you to find a godly Christian Church that is repenting of its sins daily and growing in holiness, that is seeking to preach the pure gospel from the entirety of God’s Word, that is seeking to maintain the sacrament of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in holiness, and seeking the salvation of sinners and the purity of the church and beauty of godly Christian fellowship through the holy practice of spiritual discipline. All the extra programs of modern day evangelicalism, should disappear until we can do these things well. In fact, as Christians we should simply focus on worship, fellowship and service to one another and ultimately to Christ. Let’s get to work. Let’s worship Christ who bought us with His blood. Let’s be the Church.

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

This post was initially posted here on Rev. Nathan Zekveld’s Substack account.

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On October 12, 2023 By In Culture, Politics, Theology

IS ISRAEL THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD?

THIS DISPENSATIONAL MOMENT

Every time a rocket is launched from the Gaza strip, a dispensationalist gets his wings. And by wings, I mean like Red Bull, in that he will receive a rather large boost of courage, enough, in fact, to crawl up and out of the hole he has been hiding in from his last failed prediction and to flood the internet with a panoply of reasons why the end times are really here this time and happening right before our eyes. This confusion is entirely unhelpful and could be cleared up if any of my former 28 articles and podcast episodes on the topic of eschatology were seriously engaged with. Shameless plug intended.

Along with this, I have also seen a litany of social media posts proclaiming solidarity with Israel in their current war with Hamas, because they are God’s chosen people and we do not want to be on the wrong side with God. For this reason, before getting on to our topic today, I thought it might be wise to mention a few things to consider regarding the covenantal status of modern-day Israel.

STILL GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE?

Perhaps the best place to start would be with what the word Israel means. From the Scriptures, the first time the word is used is when God wrestles with Jacob and then renames Him Israel, which means “the one who wrestles with God.” Knowing this, it is obvious that “Israel” is not a genetic term that is passed through bloodlines down through families in the same way “Egyptian” would be. To be a member of Israel was a spiritual activity, of knowing God and wrestling with Him in intimate fellowship, not just merely inheriting the right DNA.

We know this is true, because God calls all kinds of ethnic peoples “Israel.” For instance, when the Israelites leave the land of Egypt, escaping from the slavery to be a free people serving their covenant God, the text tells us that a “mixed multitude” went out with them (Exodus 12:38). Apparently, there was a contingency of Egyptians who were so impressed by Yahweh, that they abandoned the empire of the Pharaohs and joined themselves with Israel, becoming followers of Jehovah. Just like the ethnic born sons of Abraham, they too were accounted as Israel.

Moses also reiterates that Israel was a spiritual distinction, when he admonishes the people to “circumcise their hearts” (Deuteronomy 10:16). All of the men of Israel had performed the physical sign of circumcision on their genitals, but there were many of them who were not true Israel in the heart (Romans 9:6). This is because being a member of true Israel was never about biology or physicality, but of spiritual allegiance to Yahweh.

Thinking also of the lineage of Christ, from the genealogies recorded in the Gospels, we can ascertain that Ruth the Moabite was a part of His lineage and was grafted into Israel. Along with Ruth, Rahab the Canaanite prostitute was a part of His line as well as Bathsheeba, who was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and could have been a Hittite herself (the text is unclear). Regardless, the Servant of the Lord, whom Isaiah calls “true Israel” was the one who assimilated people who were far off, and foreigners to His covenant promises, and brought them into Him as one people. This is why Paul says that there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28) because all are one in Christ, made one through His finished work (Ephesians 2:14-16), to be children of Abraham by faith (Galatians 3:29), and have been made into a new nation, the “Israel of God” which includes slaves and free, male and female, Jews and Gentiles together as one unified people of God (Galatians 6:16).

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On October 12, 2023 By In Church, Theology, Worship

Ruminations on the Lord’s Supper: The Ritual

God is a God of rituals. He reveals his ritualistic nature in his actions in creation and his prescriptions for his people. Though there are variations on themes, fundamental rituals provide a stable context in which change moves history forward. Ten times in the opening chapter of history, we hear, “and God said.” Evening turns to morning in a ritualistic pattern forming a day. Seven days form a week, weeks form months, months form seasons, and seasons form years. Over and over again, the ritual continues.

As God forms new creation and moves the creation project forward through worship, he does so through prescribed rituals. From the details of offerings to the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rituals, God’s people were called to be ritualistic. This doesn’t change in the New Covenant. Jesus reshapes the rituals of baptism and feast to reflect the new age, but both are still ritualistic.  

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On October 2, 2023 By In Postmillenialism, Theology

When Do The “Last Days” Really Begin? (Part 2)

INTRODUCTION

As you will remember from Part 1, a great noise exploded from the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Within those walls, a hurricane-like wind came rushing in, a torch-like flame settled onto the crown of each disciple’s head, and a crowd began forming to make sense of the confusion. Amid this pandemonium, all of the elect believers in the group, meaning everyone whom God had chosen for salvation, began hearing Peter preaching in their native language, causing wonder to come over the crowd. For the ones whom God chose and poured out His Holy Spirit, this was an exhilarating affair, watching the plague of Babel dissolve right before their very eyes. 

But, men and women were standing there that day who were not elect. There were some whom God did not pour out His Spirit and for whom this dramatic display was patently absurd. They even began hurling the accusation that the recipients of the Spirit must be inebriated from drinking too liberally of spirits. This was a terrible mischaracterization. And suggesting the Holy Spirit’s work was on the same level of foul inebriation was likely a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that Jesus previously warned about. 

Against this context, Peter began preaching from a text in Joel that perfectly fit the situation and precisely addressed both groups. Last week, we saw the situation. God was bringing the Old Covenant period of a temple, a priesthood, a sacrificial system, kosher laws, and clean and unclean statues to an abrupt halt. He ended that transitional era to bring about the final epoch of human history, where His Son, the true and better Adam, would recapture everything the first Adam lost. Because of this, that old Kingdom of types and shadows needed to go away because our Lord would not allow any rival kingdoms to become a distraction from His purposes. 

With that, Joel also declares that there will be dramatic signs in the heavens, on the earth, and among the people of God, showcasing exactly when the last days began. According to Joel, “the last days” were not a future end of human history but the final moments of the Mosaic era, and when that glorious era faded away, there would be undeniable signs proving it was happening. As we saw last week, some of those signs applied to the believers, to the ones who experienced the outpouring of the Spirit, spoke in tongues, prophesied, had visions, and dreamed dreams. These signs would confirm that the old boat was sinking and they were on the new covenant raft. Today, we will look at the five remaining symbols, the ones that are signs of judgment for all those who have rejected Christ, and we will understand how all of this proves the last days Peter, Luke, and Joel were speaking about already occurred. 

A NOTE ABOUT EARTHLY SIGNS AND HEAVENLY WONDERS

For many, Acts 2:19 guarantees that the events described concern things that have not already occurred. They will tell you that the first-century sky over the top of Jerusalem wasn’t filled with any significant wonders, the earth during those forty years was not full of various perturbations and signs, that the blood, fire, and smoke have no historical referent, and the sun and moon did not go dark and stop casting their light. Because, they say, these things have not yet happened; we cannot be living in the last days, and anyone who says so is full of malarkey. 

One need only reply to that assertion with: “Hold my beer.”

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On September 22, 2023 By In Postmillenialism, Theology

When Do The “Last Days” Really Begin? (Part 1)

SWING AND A MISS

When Christians hear the phrase “The Last Days” or “The End Times,” what images come to mind? For some, a clandestine government laboratory where a pseudo-scientist whose name rhymes with Dr. Ouchie is busily brewing the next super woo-flu that will kill a quarter of the population is well in view. For others, it could be a one-world cryptocurrency, planes falling from the sky, a maniacal and blood-lusting monarch, or the Romish pope (if you’re really old school). Whatever the case, for the vast majority of evangelicalism, we have utterly missed it. 

Now, when I say we have missed it, I don’t mean a booming foul ball ovah tha Green Monstah, kid! No. We missed it like an undersized middle schooler trying to make contact against a Randy Johnson slider. It wasn’t even close. 

Instead of the final fleeting moments at a cataclysmic end to human history, when the Bible talks about the “Last Days,” it means the last days of the old covenant era. It refers to the winding down of that redemptive epoch where priests mediated between God and us, temples were where you traveled to meet with God, and animal blood sacrifices stood between you and the almighty. The “Last Days” picture the close of that significant era and the dawning of the final chapter of human history, where the world will know God through His one and only Son. 

We are not waiting for that great eon to materialize in the uncertain future. The old covenant has been closed already, the new and final covenant era is fully here, and the events we will look at today, from Acts 2:17-21, will overwhelmingly confirm this. 

THE TEXT:

17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. – Acts 2:17-21 KJV

TEN PROOFS THE “LAST DAYS” ARE IN THE PAST

A BIT OF BACKGROUND:

Whenever one of the three great pilgrimage feasts prescribed in the Law occurred, Jerusalem’s population would swell from a couple hundred thousand to well over a million. This is because all Jewish males were required by the Law of God to attend these three festivals every year. And, since most Jewish males were also married with sizable families, the city would balloon up rather quickly. 

Intriguingly, history reveals that numerous Jewish pilgrims embarked on journeys from the farthest reaches of the known world to partake in these festivals. While some hailed from nearby Judea and Galilee, a significant contingent had settled in the distant corners of pagan cities, towns, and nations across the vast reaches of the Roman empire. This widely scattered group bore the title of “diaspora Jews,” they arrived in Jerusalem, each carrying the rich history and traditions of their native people and the languages from their far-flung homelands.

Now, on the morning of Pentecost, downtown Jerusalem would have been packed with no shortage of extra bodies. Once-quiet city blocks, home to only a handful of families, now teemed with hundreds, even thousands, of individuals pressed tightly together. According to the account of Luke, as the Spirit descended, a deafening crescendo of sound erupted, undoubtedly piquing the curiosity of neighbors, onlookers, and the naturally inquisitive. 

They found a group of very ordinary, a run-of-the-mill assortment of blue-collar Galileans. But, with one extraordinary twist. Instead of those Galileans praising God in Aramaic, the common tongue of the Jews, everyone present heard them praise God in their native tongue. For instance, picture those from Rome hearing hymns sung in Latin or Greek while those from Egypt listened to Peter’s preaching in the elegant flow of Coptic. Even pilgrims journeying from as far as Seluecia, modern-day Iraq, were met with the disciples speaking fluently in their Parthian tongue. They all collectively saw the ancient curse of Babel being miraculously reversed before their very eyes. Well… Not all of them.

Among them stood a few who remained untouched by the Holy Spirit’s power, hearing only an incomprehensible babel crescendoing from a cacophony of gibberish. Instead of recognizing the nature of this event as a fulfillment of eschatological prophecies, they hurled derision and ridicule upon the disciples, accusing them of inebriation. 

For the one group, God had chosen to freely give them the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That outpouring caused them to praise Him, to hear His praises in their own dialects and languages, and to go on to serve Him for a lifetime. For the skeptical party, God intentionally chose to withhold His Spirit, leading them from skepticism to utter ruination, poignantly demonstrating His total sovereignty over election and regeneration. 

To clear up any confusion between these two groups and let everyone in earshot know what was happening, Peter stood up and declared precisely what was happening from the prophet Joel. Within those very poignant words from Peter, we will see ten undeniable proofs that the end times have already come. 

This week, we will look at the first five that Peter mentions, describing the situation for those who love Christ and receive Him. They are the ones who will experience the Holy Spirit’s power, inherit the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, and they are the ones who will endure to the end, and be saved in those last days. 

Next week, we will look at the final five signs that Peter mentions from Joel’s prophecy, which concern those who hate Christ and reject Him. For them, incredible signs and wonders will demonstrate they are on the wrong side of the end-times debate. They will not make it alive into Jesus’ Kingdom; they will be buried in the ashes of Jerusalem, along with all of the other old covenant trappings and shadows. 

With that, let us look at the first five proofs that the “last days” concern the events in the first century, focusing on how that applies to believers and Christians. 

PROOF 1: PENTECOST SETS THE TIME FRAME

Peter addresses the concerns that they were drunk before the second breakfast by saying: “in the last days” God will pour out His Spirit “upon all flesh” (v. 17). Peter is acknowledging the loud sound they just heard and the miraculous gifting of this group to speak in each other’s languages, is proof that the outpouring of the Spirit had just happened, which makes this an eschatological event. Peter isn’t overlooking the scene unfolding beside Him to opine about something that will happen in the distant future. He claims that the last days had come upon them, and His chief evidence for this is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as Joel describes, just happened. Based on this, we can confidently say that the last days are not something we are waiting on but something that has already occurred. 

PROOF 2: YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTER WILL PROPHESY

Along with the loud whooshing clamor in the Upper Room and the Holy Spirit’s miraculous appointment of tongue speaking among the crowds, Peter also claims that young men and women will prophesy in the last days. According to Luke, Joel, and Peter, the onset of male and female prophets in the first century was one of the sure signs that the Old Covenant era was drawing to a close because, in these last days, God had chosen to speak through His Son (Hebrews 1:2). 

These men are clear: when you see young women and young men prophesying in the Spirit, then you will know that the temple, the priesthood, the ceremonial law, and the sacrificial system are on their last leg and the final chapter of redemption, where the world will be conquered by God’s reigning Son, will be fully inaugurated. For some time, both redemptive eras coexisted simultaneously. Meaning the new covenant era of Christ’s advancing Kingdom lived alongside the waning Herodian temple, the Aaronic priesthood, and the Mosaic system of sacrifice for about forty years (from the time of Christ’s ascension in AD 30 or 33 until the destruction of the temple in AD 70). 

That Biblical generation (about 40 years) was the God-appointed season where men and women could prophesy, which is precisely what occurred in the first century. For instance, when Jesus was born and brought into Jerusalem to be circumcised, he was greeted by an elderly woman named Anna, and an elderly man named Simeon, who were called prophets and ones with whom the Spirit of God was speaking (Luke 2:25, 36). Paul also alerts us that young men and young women were prophesying in the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:1-6) and needed specific instructions on how to implement this gift appropriately (1 Corinthians 11:4-5). Luke also tells us that Philip, who was one of the seven Hellenistic deacons, had daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:8-9) and that there was a man named Agabus in the Christian Church who prophesied (Acts 11:27-28 and Acts 21:10-11).

Do not miss the fact that prophets had been notably missing from Judah since the death of Malachi, the final prophet. For four hundred years, God was silent, refusing to raise up new prophetic voices to speak to the people until the birth of His Son. When Christ was born, God unleashed the prophetic tongue once more and brought both men and women to speak prophecies in the early church, which again is a sign that the last days were occurring in the incredible events described in the first century. 

There is one last point to consider before moving along. When God raises up prophets, especially female prophetesses, it is always in transitional periods during the waning of epochs. Think about it like a book with various chapters. The nation of Israel went through a chapter called slavery, a chapter about being set free and given a new covenant, a chapter about the occupation in a new land, a chapter of rule by judges, a chapter that describes the rule by various kings, an exile, a homecoming, and a period of silence that lasted 400 years. During each of these chapters near the closing moments of each, God raises a prophetic voice to bring that chapter to a close. For instance, God raised up Moses and Miriam (both described as prophets) in the waning years of the slavery period, just before a new era of communal Torah observance, called the Mosaic covenant, began. The same is true for Deborah, a prophetess before the Lord, presiding over some of the final years of theocratic rule by judges just before the Jewish Monarchy was installed. This was also the case for Huldah, a prophetess who had a significant role to play in the life of Josiah, a mere 30-40 years before the end of the Monarchy and the beginning of exile (2 Kings 22). 

As the final grains of sand in the Old Covenant hourglass fell, it is not surprising that a proliferation of the prophetic occurred. It is also clear that this was a specific prophecy given by Joel, recounted by Luke, that confirms this would happen when the last days of the Old Testament had come. All of this points us to the fact that these prophets and prophetesses were a forty-year sign to the first-century believers and us that the last days had already begun and that a new era was dawning. That era is the epoch of Christ and His Kingdom, which we live in today.

PROOF 3: YOUNG MEN WILL SEE VISIONS

In the same way that a rise in prophetic activity would signal the last days of the Old Covenant era, visions among young men would also be used by God as a powerful testimony that the changing of ages was occurring. This is precisely what we see going down in the New Testament, and we do not need to speculate whether this sign was fulfilled in the first century. We know unequivocally that it was. 

For instance, while Paul was on his way to kill the believers hiding in Damascus, he was confronted by a dazzling vision of the resurrected Christ (Acts 9; 26:18-20), where he was told to go into the city and wait for a man named Ananias to pray for him. When he arrived, the Lord also gave Ananias a vision as well, comforting the reluctant disciple that it was His will that Paul be healed (Acts 9:10-18). Beyond this, Cornelius the centurion saw a vision (Acts 10:2-4), Peter saw a vision (Acts 10:9-23; 11:5), Paul had multiple additional visions (Acts 16:10; 18:9), and John the apostle wrote an entire book of the Bible, which is the book of Revelation, based on a vision (Revelation 9:17).

Peter cited visionary experiences as critical evidence that the last days of the Mosaic period were occurring in the first century. By the Lord’s grace, we have a plethora of evidence pointing to this being true. 

PROOF 4: OLD MEN WILL DREAM DREAMS

In addition to noises, tongues, the outpouring of the Spirit, prophesying, and visions, God continued piling up evidence that the last days were happening more than 2000 years ago by citing the fact that the old men would be dreaming dreams. This also occurred in the New Testament period, with examples such as Joseph, who, like his Old Testament counterpart, had many dreams (Matthew 1:20-24; 2:13, 19, 22), the Magi (Matthew 2:12), and even Pilate’s wife, who is not a man, but was given a specific dream by God as a warning to her husband, Pilate (Matthew 27:19). Once more, we see a proliferation of these events in the first century, not so we will be confused on the timing of the last days, but so God can give us exacting clarity. 

PROOF 5: A JEWISH REVIVAL

Peter’s quotation from Joel 2 also states, in verse 18,: “On my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit.” When we realize that “my servant” is a common way for God to refer to Israel and Judah as a nation (Isaiah 41:8-9; 44:1; 49:3; 53:11; and Jeremiah 30:10), then we can understand that the prophecy of Joel is a prophecy, not just about the salvation of the nations, but also about the events beginning with a revived Jewish people who will have the Holy Spirit poured out upon them in the first century. 

This certainly did not happen in full at the events of Pentecost, nor during this forty-year window we have been describing. And, for that matter, Joel does not predict a monolithic revival in Judah where everyone is converted to Jesus. That did not happen in history, and that is not at all what Joel says. When he describes the revival of Judah, he talks about it like there is a remnant that survives while the majority of the unfaithful Jews will perish. For instance, in Joel 2:32, the prophet says: “For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.” 

Joel tells us that God will set apart a remnant of Jews to be a part of His elect people that will eventually take over the entire world. This happened most assuredly since the vast majority of the first-century church was Jewish converts to Jesus, beginning with the 3000 who were cut to the heart while listening to Peter preach (Acts 2:41). A future revival of Israel may still be coming. We pray to the Lord it does. But, it is no small matter that droves of Jewish people began worshiping a resurrected man named Jesus Christ in the first-century city of Jerusalem. Let us not take for granted how shocking that would have been at that time and in that context. 

CONCLUSION

As we have seen from this text, Joel lays out five initial pieces of evidence that the first-century people were living in the last days. These passages have proven that the “last days” are not esoteric events in OUR future but clear events within the forty-year future of Peter and the first-century church. We have seen how the glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit caused men and women to hear Peter, who was preaching in a foreign language, perfectly and clearly in their mother tongue. We have seen how the Holy Spirit’s outpouring caused His people to prophesy, His elect young men to dream dreams, predestined old men to hear visions, and a remnant of Judeans to come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ for their salvation. 

The last days began in the first century and ended with the end of Jerusalem and her temple. That isn’t to claim that the Bible contains nothing in our future; it does. But when we consider this text and the ones that have come before, we can conclusively conclude that these events have already happened. Until next time, enjoy living in the last chapter of human history and get to work building Jesus’ Kingdom.

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On September 15, 2023 By In Culture, Theology

An Eschatology Of Pentecost

ESCHATOLOGICAL BLUE DIAMONDS

All diamonds are beautiful and rare. They are formed as a collection of carbon atoms, subjected to unimaginable heat and pressure over the space of time, melding into one of nature’s greatest crystalline masterpieces that has ever captivated the eyes of man. Some diamonds, such as the standard white diamond, are easier to find, occurring nearer to the surface of the earth in the alluvial deposits and within volcanic pipes, which makes them more abundant and affordable in the market. Other diamonds, however, such as the elusive blue diamond, are buried much deeper within the earth’s strata, making them not only harder to extract but also rarer and more costly. 

In the same way, every truth learned from Scripture is precious and essential. Some truths hang right on the surface of the text and do not take much digging to lodge them loose. Other truths, however, take a bit of digging. Yet, the reward for peeling back the layers of Scriptural strata is most definitely worth the reward for all who will venture into its depths. 

This is a good way of thinking about our passage today. Many of you will be familiar with some truths on the surface. These truths are precious and glorious, and I do not want to minimize them. But, if you will grab your shovel and pickaxe, I’d like to take you down just a bit further, below the surface and into the eschatological crust of the text, as we hunt for the Biblical equivalent of blue diamonds. 

THE TEXT: ACTS 2:1-12

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” 12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 

To understand this text, let us first consider what eschatology is and how this text is eschatological. 

EXPANDING OUR DEFINITION 

First, eschatology is not merely about the final climactic moments of human history. That is a futurist’s perversion. Instead, eschatology is about what life will look like during the final age of man. Eschatology is about how the history of planet earth will be brought under the rule and dominion of Jesus Christ in these last days we are living in. That end-time age began when Jesus Christ rose from the dead and poured out His Spirit upon all flesh, which we will see in greater detail next week. 

But for now, it is crucial to understand that everything within the old covenant, all of the promises of God, all of the types and shadows, will either pass away under the rule of Christ or will soar to its climax in the rule of Christ. In this way, eschatology has just as much to do with fulfilling the past as it does with the future. Thus, eschatology is trying to understand how all of the old forms and norms will find their ultimate realization and transformation in the new covenant that Christ has ushered in. To say that in shorthand: eschatology is how Christ ushers in His end-time Kingdom, now in part, one day in full.

To that end, let us explore a few examples, beginning with Pentecost. 

PENTECOST AND THE FESTAL CALENDAR

Pentecost comes from the Greek word πεντηκοστή, which means “the fiftieth” or “the fiftieth day,” referring to the fact that the miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit happened fifty days after the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Yet, the origins of Pentecost and the other key events during Holy Week run much deeper than the first century AD. 

For instance, underneath the events of Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost are buried Old Covenant feasts that directly and chronologically correlate with what Christ is doing. Take, for example, the festival called Passover. This feast was the first among the final three feasts in the Jewish year. During that feast, a lamb was slaughtered for the people’s sins, and its blood was painted on the doorpost of every home so that the angel of death would pass over them. As Christians, we look to Christ as the final and perfect Lamb, whose blood was painted over the mantle of our own hearts, causing the angel of death to pass us over so that we may inherit eternal life in the Son. 

Likewise, underneath the events of Easter and Christ’s resurrection was a Jewish festival immediately following Passover called “First Fruits.” In that feast, the people would praise and worship God for the first sign of the harvest, that once more He had caused the seeds that went down into the earth dead to sprout and break through the ground again, symbolizing new life and resurrection from the dead. When Jesus rose from the dead, during the celebration of this festival, He was not only claiming to be God; He was fulfilling an Old Covenant rite with precision and beauty. 

In the same way, underneath the events of Pentecost was an Old Covenant norm that must be explored if we are going to understand what God is doing in Acts 2. After the Passover and the festival of First Fruits, the Israelites hightail it out of Egypt and travel ferociously towards the Red Sea. After God’s final and glorious showdown with Pharoah, the Israelites continue to Sinai, where God leaves His throne in heaven and descends upon the mountain to dwell with His people. The journey from celebrating the First Fruits in Egypt to seeing Yahweh descend upon the mountain and deliver His law to Moses took exactly fifty days (Just like Pentecost). 

To commemorate that arduous fifty-day journey, God established a feast called the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew), which would become one of the three mandatory pilgrimage festivals that all Jewish males were required to attend once a year in Jerusalem. Furthermore, within the ordinary annual calendar of the Jews, this feast was the last and final celebration of the year, spiritually symbolizing how God’s ultimate and final purpose in redemption was to condescend and draw His sojourning people into His presence forever. 

This is why the timing of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 is so rich and eschatologically significant. All of the events that happen during holy week and Pentecost track perfectly along with the Old Testament Festal calendar. This is not by accident or mere coincidence. God is purposefully taking His Son through each of the final feasts of Israel to show His people how His Son is the end and point that each of these feasts was pointing to. 

In the same way, God rescued His people from the Pharaoh and their taskmasters in Egypt, Heaven’s spotless Lamb came and offered Himself during the final Passover, freeing the people of God from a far worse tyrant than Pharoah. In Christ, we have been set free from the wicked rule of Satan, the slavery of our own sinful flesh, and the bonds of death that once accosted us. He is the hope the Passover was always pointing to. 

Immediately after Christ fulfilled the Passover, He fulfilled the feast of First Fruits, being the first fruit of a new creation, being the first to rise from the ground, breaking out of the earth like the first barley harvest the people were worshiping God for. In this, Christ (the bread of life) became the first one to rise in the new covenant Kingdom. And through His power, He is bringing all His people back to life and out of the grave until the entire harvest has come in. He is the hope the feast of Firstfruits was always pointing to. 

Then, fifty days later, in the same way God descended from heaven to dwell with His people in Sinai, God Himself descended again to dwell with the people of God at Pentecost. But unlike the Old Testament version, where the people needed to remain far off from God because of the finished work of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God would not remain distant but would live even within the heart of every believer. This was the chief end that the Festival of Weeks always pointed to: God living with His people forever. 

These events are not eschatological because they speak about the final moments of history. They are not eschatological because they concern modern-day Apache helicopters, Antichrists, or marks of the beast. These events are eschatological because old covenant trappings were fulfilled through Christ’s faithful work, and the final end-time Kingdom was inaugurated. Passover, Firstfruits, and the Festival of Weeks reached their glorious crescendo in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is our forever Lamb! He is our resurrection and first fruit! And in His Spirit, He is the one who ensured God’s people would dwell in God’s presence forever! In Christ, we are not waiting for these realities to come, but because of Him, they are already fully here. 

Before concluding, there are a couple of other examples of Christ doing this same thing in this passage. Let us dig a bit deeper.  

ESCHATOLOGICAL WIND

While the disciples were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come, just as the Lord Jesus promised, they were huddled together and hiding in an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. This made sense for a variety of reasons:

  1. Jesus told them to wait, and they would have needed to stay somewhere.
  2. This room was apparently spacious enough to hold 120 of them and private enough to where they would not provoke any undue suspicion.
  3. This was so critical because waiting out in the open, in the town that just killed your master for insurrection and who was likely on the lookout for you, would not have been the best way to stay alive.

Yet, while they were in the safety and seclusion of the upper room, God brought the full fury of His hurricane-like breath, which is essential for a host of reasons.

The main reason is theophanic. When God physically reveals Himself to the people of Old Testament Scripture, He usually does so through a phenomenon called theophany. If you are not familiar with the term, it simply means God using material means to reveal Himself to people in a physical form. Notable examples include God appearing as a burning bush to Moses, a smoking pot to Abraham, a cloud to Israel, and a sparring partner to Jacob. 

In addition to those common theophanies, God often appeared physically as a wind or cloud in various places. First, since the Hebrew word for Spirit (Ruach) also translates as wind, the Holy Spirit hovering over the chaotic primordial waters of pre-creation in the first two verses of the Bible would count as the earliest example of a wind theophany in Scripture (Genesis 1:1-2). More salient to our discussion would be how the Lord appeared during the Red Sea episode, hovering over a different set of waters, blowing back the waves into walls with theophanic fury. In that scene, God delivered His people by His own breath, which indeed connects to Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit. 

Yet, another wind theophany blows closer to the point of Pentecost. If you remember a few paragraphs before, I said the Old Testament equivalent of Pentecost was the Festival of Weeks in Exodus. This festival occurred after Passover and Firstfruits, and it commemorated how the people traveled for fifty days and settled at the base of God’s mountain waiting for Him to descend. When He did descend upon the mountain, the text tells us that He came as a furious storm that shook the mountain so fiercely that the people and the mountain trembled! In the middle of that storm cloud that lowered itself down upon the mountain’s apex, the wind was so intense that it was described as God blowing trumpets with the magnitude of His breath. Is this not precisely what is occurring at Pentecost?

The twelve disciples, like the twelve tribes of Israel, are in an elevated place waiting on their covenant God to come down and make His dwelling place among them. And in much the same way that God descended upon Mt. Sinai with a breathy storm, God filled the upper room with His glorious divine breath, with one notable exception. Instead of the people being barricaded from going into the eye of God’s theophanic hurricane, Christ the better Moses ascended the mountain and made atonement for our sins. Because of that atonement, God would descend and live with us forever. In that way, the wind rushing into the upper room was the definitive sign that God was making His dwelling place, without restrictions or distance, with His people forever. No longer relocated to the tops of mountains or the back room of a Jerusalem temple, but dwelling within His people’s hearts, filling them with His life-giving windy breath. 

ESCHATOLOGICAL FIRE

You will also notice that when the Spirit comes upon God’s people at Pentecost, He came as a tongue of fire that sat aloft on each of the disciples’ heads and did not consume them. This should remind us of how God first revealed Himself to Moses, coming as a fire that did not consume the dusty wilderness bush at Mt. Sinai. In addition, when Moses led God’s people out of Egypt, wasn’t it God who appeared both as a cloud to lead the people by day (wind theophany) and as a tongue of fire to lead them by night (fire theophany)? And, wasn’t it also God, who when His divine cloud descended upon Mount Sinai (wind theophany), that He also appeared through bursts of intense, white-hot lightning at the apex of Sinai (fire theophany)? 

Without belaboring the point, when God drew His people out of Egypt and settled upon the mountain to be their God and them be His people, He used fire and wind as the physical phenomena signifying His genuine spiritual presence. This is, again, precisely what happened in the upper room. The same God who blew His wind and cracked His fiery lightning on Sinai was now inhabiting the Upper Room with wind and flame. And this time, there was no safe distance between the people and their God. He was descending with wind and flame directly onto them – and praise be the Lord Jesus Christ – for this is what our Lord accomplished. 

There is one final Old Testament reality going on in the text that Christ’s Kingdom will not only intersect with but also undo.  

ESCHATOLOGICAL BABEL AND THE TABLE OF NATIONS

The first command in Scripture is for the people of God to be fruitful, to multiply, and to spread out into the uninhabited world (Genesis 1:28). Yet, under the perniciousness of prevailing sin, the people staunchly refused the commands of God and chose rebellion instead. Rather than spreading out and carrying faithful God-glorifying living to the remotest deserts and deepest bogs, sinful man multiplied their iniquities. Then they huddled together in a single plain where they sat stubbornly in disobedience. 

Echoing their creator God, who said: “Let us make man in our image,” this gaggle of future babblers declared: “Let us make a city,” Let us make a tower,” and “Let us make a name for ourselves.” In this threefold repetition of the “let us,” this group quoted God. Yet, their hearts couldn’t be farther from His. Instead of making a name for God, the entire point of our creation, they were consumed (like Lucifer) with making a name for themselves. Instead of spreading out in obedience, they built a tower that so dominated the ancient skyline that no one could get separated from them (Genesis 11:4). They erected a mud-brick skyscraper to ensure no one accidentally obeyed God and ended up scattering.

Ironically, the tower was so slight and unimpressive from God’s vantage point that He described Himself having to come down in order to see it (Genesis 11:5). Picture God squinting and mocking their effort. Then, once God comes down and scrambles their alphabets, they all become so mired in linguistic confusion that everyone ends up scattering anyway, which is another rather humorous aspect of this narrative. Ultimately, the peoples of the earth are subdivided into seventy nations separated by many languages. 

Now, think about what is going on at Pentecost. Instead of God coming down to confuse the people’s languages, God unloosened the various tongues so the people would no longer Babel (pun intended). Instead of one people being divided into all nations on earth (as was the case on the Shinar plain), in Jerusalem that day, people from “all the nations under heaven” came back together as one people under the one true King. In both scenes, the people are confused and bewildered. Yet, in Christ, everything that afflicted the people of God before is now melting away. 

HOW SIGNS WORK

Before drawing this to a close, one additional element to this passage needs to be dug into. If you are tracking, we have dug down under the surface into the layers of Old Testament feasts to see the eschatological truths buried within. We went further down into an understanding of wind and fire theophany to find the gems embedded into the text at that level. Then, we dug further down into the typological level, seeing how Jesus was undoing one of the most profound elements of the curse at Babel by reunifying the nations at Pentecost. Now, we are ready to find blue diamonds. 

When God gives a sign to His people, He gives it to encourage us because He loves us. He uses temporary physical means like water applied in baptism, fire mounted on the apostle’s head, wind rushing into a room at Pentecost, bread and wine at the Lord’s Table to point to eternal spiritual realities that never end. While the physical manifestation of fire on the apostle’s head and wind in their chamber was a singular and non-repeatable event, the spiritual reality that each signified remains. Every time a man or woman believes the Gospel, the fire and breath of God descends upon them, igniting and fueling new life in the Spirit, which makes every believer on earth a walking, talking Mount Sinai. We do not need the physical phenomena to continue. That was only a sign that the spiritual realities had come. 

In the same way, the gift of a unifying tongue that brings the disparate nations back together in Jerusalem is a one-time physical sign from God that need not be repeated in the modern world. In this passage, God was not encouraging an ongoing physical Pentecostal-style tongue babbling because this passage says Christ has cured and will continue to cure the problem present at Babel. Instead, this passage is a physical sign from God that communicates a powerful spiritual truth. At Pentecost, God unloosed their tongues to bring the fractured world back together in His Son. And while the physical manifestation of the miraculous language speaking does not continue to this day, the spiritual consequence of God unifying the Babel-broken world in His Son does continue. In Christ, the scattered, fractured world will be reintegrated. There will one day, and I hope soon, one people, washed with the same baptism, feasting at the same table, joyfully serving their one King. Pentecost was a one-time event that showcases that God is doing that work, and He will not stop until it is finished. 

CONCLUSION

Eschatology is a much larger topic than what concerns the last and final moments of human history. Rightly understood, eschatology speaks about the entirety of Jesus’ end-time Kingdom. It includes things that happened in the very beginning of His reign, such as His Passover completing death, His Firstfruits accomplishing resurrection, His Daniel 7 fulfilling Ascension, His Festival of Weeks closing Pentecost, and His undoing of the curse of Babel. Eschatology includes events in the apostles’ lifetime, such as the Gospel going out and advancing into the Roman world, the downfall and destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the temple era, the sacrificial system, and the priesthood. Eschatology concerns what happened after the canon was closed, how Jesus’ Kingdom eventually overtook the Roman Empire, experienced a Reformation in Europe, and how that Kingdom is alive and well today. 

Eschatology concerns future events, but those events are the minority. More accurately, it is the theological discipline that examines how all the promises of God, from salvation and redemption to His worldwide Kingdom, will come to fruition under the rule and reign of His Son. And when you understand that, you will not only see that you are living in the end times but also that the final era of human history is upon us. This means that we are living under the end-time rule of Christ, and there are end-time things Christ has commanded us to be doing. The apostles were only commanded to sit and wait for a season. Once the Spirit came upon them, they sat and waited no longer.

In the same way, far too many people treat eschatology as something long into the future that is either irrelevant to where we stand or something we have to wait to arrive. Dear ones, our end-time King has come. His end-time kingdom is here. And His Spirit has come upon you, christening you for the end-time service He has commissioned you to. 

With that, do not be the kind of Christian who sits down and does not get involved. Do what the apostles did and turn your city upside down for Christ. Start Bible studies. Host prayer groups. Do some street preaching. Be present and active in your local congregations. Get married to a godly spouse. Have children and disciple them. Use your life to see His end-time Kingdom advance. 

And one last thing: remember what Jesus did at Pentecost. For a moment, He made all the peoples from all the nations in Jerusalem that day speak in one voice. Let that be an encouragement that our work is not in vain. One day, Christ will complete that work. He will make of all the nations on earth one people under God, indivisible, with perfect liberty and perfect justice for all. We labor to see that true and better nation come in full, even as our nation withers around us.

God bless you! 

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On September 7, 2023 By In Church, Discipleship, History, Theology

Disciple The Nations

“Christian Nationalism” has been a hot topic and a mixed bag over the past year or so. Intramural debates and social media wars are fought over theological foundations, hermeneutical presuppositions, implementation of Christian Nationalism, and even race concerning what constitutes a nation. While the answers to all those questions are important, I believe it is inarguable that Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth and was promised the nations for his inheritance (Ps 2), not only desires but also commands that nations be Christian.

Before he ascended to heaven after his resurrection, Jesus, standing on a Galilean mountain, told his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him. He is Lord over all creation. The nations of the earth are to acknowledge and submit to his lordship. Kings and all those in authority are to pay him tribute as vassals; that is, they are to acknowledge his lordship through offerings that are, in effect, a tax that recognizes that he owns everything and that they exist by his sovereign grace (Ps 72:10-11; Rev 21:24).

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On August 23, 2023 By In Theology, Women

Uncovering the Headcovering Movement, pt. 3

When exploring the practice of headcovering, it is of utmost importance to deal with the exegesis of 1 Corinthians 11. Part 2 of this series attempted to do just that. By process of elimination, we were able to determine which interpretations are the most biblical and which ones are lacking in biblical evidence. It is my position that 1 Corinthians 11 in no way requires headcovering as a universal command for the church.

Beyond 1 Corinthians 11, headcoverers frequently appeal to history to defend headcovering. Indeed, some headcoverers focus on this aspect more than the biblical aspect. If your position on headcovering doesn’t match the historical consensus, it can be disregarded right away. “Two-thousand years of church history can’t be wrong,” you might hear. Or, “All Christians were pro-headcovering until the 1960s.” Are these claims accurate? The history isn’t as simple as you might think.

Female (and male) coverings, and not just in church

Yes, it was very common for women throughout history to wear headcoverings (scarfs, hats) as part of their regular attire. There is much evidence for this – written and photographic – even into the early 1900s. The claim is true, as far as it goes, and we need not say otherwise. But merely asserting this truth does not justify the headcovering movement. There are problems with this line of thinking.

First, the evidence shows that women wore coverings as regular attire in daily life. Headcovering wasn’t only for Christian activities, which works against the headcovering position. Most headcoverers do not require coverings all day, every day. They acknowledge that Paul was not teaching such in 1 Corinthians 11. Instead, they limit the practice to corporate worship. But this exposes the inconsistency of their argument: They are appealing to historical practice without actually following historical practice.

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On August 16, 2023 By In Theology, Women

Uncovering the Headcovering Movement, pt. 2

In my previous article, I attempted to show that 1 Corinthians 11 is one of the more difficult passages in the Bible. There are at least 10 questions posed by the text that aren’t immediately answered for us. While I’m certain that the Corinthians knew exactly what Paul meant by his words, we don’t have the same luxury. Every theory on 1 Corinthians 11 must rely on assumptions from outside the text. The task before us is to examine those assumptions and see which ones are the most biblical.

What follows are my conclusions on each of the 10 questions. Please remember that I acknowledge the impossibility of proving every point with certainty. In fact, my goal is not to provide the definitive interpretation of headcovering. As we examine the assumptions, we’ll find that there are multiple valid interpretations. But each of them come to the same conclusion: that artificial headcovering is not an on-going practice for the church.

My hope is to sort through the questions in the most logical order possible. We will start with some of the easier ones and move to harder ones. (Don’t miss the footnotes along the way.)

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