Uri Brito

On April 14, 2020 By Uri Brito In Politics, Theology Like

Easter: The ABC of our Faith

We need to continually return to the root of our faith, to those first historical events that propel us to move forward as a people. The Church Calendar helps us to never outgrow the life of our Lord from his birth to his Ascension.

The Resurrection is the foundation of our faith. In modern evangelicalism, we tend to view the Resurrection of Jesus merely as validation or proof that the crucifixion accomplished what it was supposed to. In other words, the Resurrection is lovely because now the death of Jesus means something, and we get to spend eternity in heaven. But the Bible ascribes more significant value to the empty tomb.

The Four Gospels navigate us through the life of Jesus and give us a glimpse into the meaning of the Resurrection. But if we simply build our thinking around the Four Gospels, we will have an incomplete view of who we are and who Jesus is. The Four Gospels are not enough. We need the entirety of God’s Revelation. In other words, “If our gospel begins and ends on Good Friday, it is impoverished.”^a

Though we glory in the cross, though we preach the cross, though we love the old rugged cross, the cross is not enough! And I make that statement very carefully. As one scholar stated, “If the story of the prodigal son was only based on cross-theology, there would have been only forgiveness, but no joy and feast.” The message of the cross is incomplete without the Resurrection. The cross and the Resurrection can never be separated.

The Resurrection not only validates the cross, but it is a sure sign that we are shadows of our future selves. We are now partly what we shall be. This reality is apparent as we enter into the Acts of the Apostles: the early Church began to live out their Resurrection among the nations. In fact, “the preaching of Jesus’ Resurrection is arguably more pervasive than the cross in the book of Acts (Acts 2:31; 3:26; 4:2; 33; 10:41). The Psalms most quoted in the New Covenant are Psalms 2 and 110, which speak directly of Jesus’ Resurrection and exaltation. Cyprian once wrote: “I confess the Cross, because I know of the Resurrection…since the Resurrection has followed the Cross, I am not ashamed to declare it.” This is back to basics! We are a cruciform people, but if we overemphasize the cross, our identity is incomplete.

So, let us consider a few implications of the Resurrection, keeping in mind that the Resurrection is more than a confirmation of the cross, but it is the foundation of our faith. Paul makes this point when he says that without the Resurrection, we are of all people most to be pitied. He does not say this about any other event in the life of Jesus.

First, the Resurrection is the objective grounds of salvation. We often look at the cross as the grounds of our salvation, but God saves us by, in, and through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul makes this explicit when he says in Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” In I Corinthians 15:17, Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” But aren’t we justified and forgiven on account of Jesus’ death? Of course! Romans makes that clear! For the Apostle Paul, the Resurrection is the vindication of Jesus as the Faithful Son and as the righteous sin-bearer.

It is “the creative power of God that imparts life to soul and body.” This is who we are. We are nothing more, nothing less than saints united to the Resurrected Christ. This is the objective ground of our salvation.

Secondly, the Resurrection is not only the source of our justification, our right-standing before God, but the Resurrection is also the power that drives our sanctification; that is our growth in King Jesus. Some theologians have referred to this as anastasity, from the Greek anastasio, meaning Resurrection. Anastasity is the way the Resurrection flows into our lives. I confess this is in many ways is revolutionary to Christians who have never considered the Resurrection in this light. What the cross of Jesus does for us is to bankrupt our pride, it sobers our minds when we become full of ourselves, and it pulls the plug on any naïve triumphalism. When we are tempted to be proud of any accomplishment, we need to look no further than the cross of Jesus to give us an enlightened view of what Jesus had to suffer to take our sins.

But the Resurrection is the other necessary and prominent part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and part of God’s people. We cannot only have a theology of the cross because a spirituality that meditates only on the cross could potentially reduce us to self-loathing, spiritual insecurity. The impression, then, is that we remain, pathetic, lowly sinners, miserable wretches, unable to do one good thing for God even though we are justified by the event of the empty tomb.

I suggest this is a pietistic simplification of the Christian life? Anglican scholar Michael Bird summarizes best our status:

Some Christians might feel humble when they tell everyone how pathetic they are; a form of self-deprecation. Rightly so, we should be the first ones to share our struggles with others, but let us not think less of ourselves that how God thinks of us. “If God thinks well of his Son, He thinks well of you. If God loves His Son, He loves you, for you are partakes not just of his sufferings, but also of his glory.^b

Finally, the Resurrection calls us to a new way of living. Paul says in Colossians: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, not on earthly things.” Some have interpreted this to mean that we are to be so heavenly minded, that we ought to abandon our earthly concerns. After all, this world is merely passing by. But I think this interpretation lacks a fundamental understanding of the role of the Resurrection in the mind of Paul. Who are we? We are resurrected saints. This is the most basic foundation of our humanity as Christians. And if we are resurrected saints, where does the resurrected Christ now abide? He abides at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Where Christ is we are. We are to act and live as if we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. We are to have a heavenly perspective on our earthly life. This reality is to have an impact on our present. Our status in Jesus Christ calls us toward the goal of faithfulness.

Easter is the most basic fact of our humanity. It is who we are. It is because of the bodily Resurrection that we live, breathe, and have our being in a Christ who shows mercy, rather than a Christ who condemns us. The Resurrection of Jesus vindicated Jesus as the bearer of the ugliness of sin, so when he looks at our Lord sees beautified saints. We can never take that for granted. Our standing before the Father causes us to love one another more fully, to serve one another more sincerely, to embrace a more robust view of hope, to feast more abundantly, and to worship the Risen Christ with greater passion. Easter is the abc of our faith. If it is anything less, we are most to be pitied, but thanks be to God, Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Michael Bird, Evangelical Theology, 436. (back)
Michael Bird, Evangelical Theology, pg. 445 (back)

On April 10, 2020 By Uri Brito In Politics 1

When the Serpent Came Back to the Garden

There is a venomous snake in the garden. While the Messiah and his disciples enter the garden, a certain snake-like figure named Judas knows precisely where the faithful are. Judas enters the garden knowing that this was a place of constant fellowship and peace. But he is not a man of peace and his fellowship with the Messiah has been broken. He is now a man at war and his loyalty is with the darkness.

In the Garden of Eden, the Great Serpent entered the garden to bring about chaos; to tempt the first Adam. Indeed he was successful. The first Adam failed in his loyalty to Yahweh, being deceived by the serpent in the garden, and thus, thrusting all mankind into a state of sin and misery. Now in John 18, a new serpent re-enters the garden. He is possessed by the same devil that possessed the serpent in Genesis. It is this precise battle that is unfolding before us in this text.

Who Owns the Garden?

Does Judas with his newfound commitment to darkness and evil own the garden or does Jesus own the garden? As the text reveals, the son of perdition seems to have the upper hand in this sacred dispute. In verse 12 we read:

So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him.

Jesus is arrested and bound. They take him out of the garden bound like a defeated enemy. Now, in every conceivable scenario, this would be the historical determination that Jesus lost his rights to the Garden. After all, if the Messiah is to bring this unshakable kingdom, how does this apparent defeat in the garden fit into the messianic agenda? The answer is paradoxical because the coming of the kingdom is paradoxical. The kingdom does not come in the way and in the expression that many expected.

The kingdom of Jesus comes in an unexpected way to the first century. The binding of Jesus in the Garden confounds the reader. In this text, Jesus is not being bound because of defeat, he is being bound because of victory. Paradoxically, Jesus’ arrest is his release. His arrest is not his binding, it may appear to be, but it is ultimately the binding of the father of lies, Satan himself. This is why the gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus is the One who bound the strong man (Mat. 13) He is the One who arrested the Serpent and dragged him out of the garden. Jesus owns the garden, not Judas or His master, Satan.

This arrest and this binding of Jesus in the garden is not a plan gone awry, it is exactly what has been planned. In one sense, this arrest is the Trinitarian conspiracy against the kingdoms of this world. When evil leaders and governments think they have the Son of Man trapped, he fools them. As Psalm 2 says, “God laughs at their plans.” The conspiracy of the cross is that the cross is Christ’s sword to defeat evil. But the serpent does not know this. He is virtually blinded to the Messianic plan and nothing will stop Jesus from conquering evil and bringing in his new creation.

The garden belongs to Jesus because the garden is where his people gather and eat, and fellowship. The garden is the sacred space of peace for God’s people. In the garden, the King says, “The gates of hell shall not prevail.” Death dies once and for all and victory will come and we will celebrate it this Sunday. Today, though we fast, it is only a prelude to our coming feast. Jesus’ death marks the end of the serpent’s sting of death.

On April 6, 2020 By Uri Brito In Wisdom 1

Fear: America’s Best Sold Drug

As I write this, British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is in Intensive Care. Our hope and sincere prayer are that God would spare him and hasten his recovery. Covid-19 is no joke! Today, however, some good news painted our computer screens. Bill Gates says that if people continue to practice social distance, cases “should begin leveling off towards the end of the month.” He also offered a smaller number of deaths than the White House’s estimate. Over at the Wall Street Journal, we were greeted with some encouraging economic speculation. The author argues that our economy is strong enough to sustain whatever is ahead. Due to our creativity, we should be back in business soon. I pray this all becomes prophetically fulfilled.

But not all is wine and roses. There are apocalyptic voices everywhere. The Drugde Report has bathed their hideous white screens with bad news for the last four weeks. They have painted such a dreadful picture that at one time, they covered every available space with unimaginable scenarios, all of which determined the end of the world in some capacity. As I have tweeted, their hype has probably given them immense attention. Even now, though some numbers are changing, the message is still the same whether during Covid-19, Hurricane Season, Wars and Rumors of Wars: Fear sells.

Fear! Fear! Give me some of that ol’ time religion! It’s been there since the days of Genesis. When Eve ate the fruit, she allowed her fears to consume her. “Did God really say?” When the first mother suspended her belief for a second to contemplate the Serpent’s words, she gave in to fear.

Will Yahweh keep his promises? Shall the Creator of all the earth give me the knowledge to endure? Perhaps this serpent is right. If I doubt God’s ability to come through, I might as well accept this offer. If I doubt that God can intervene and do just as His Word promises, then fear settles.

To settle in fear is easy. But the Christian faith is not an easy faith. Again and again, we are called to count the cost. The Bible gives us difficult imperatives to challenge our faith. James says, “Count it all joy, when you meet various trials.” Paul says, “rejoice, and again, I say rejoice.” Is this the message you are hearing on the news today in opposition to the ubiquitous apocalypticism? Is this the exhortation from our political figures? No. Fear sells easily but joy is something we must fight and strive for in this world.

Make no mistake: I do not wish for anyone to minimize concerns. I have stressed that not taking the necessary precautions is naive and assumes a stupid hubris. However, we are not addressing the obvious. We are talking about taking a certain posture as Christians. We are talking about rejoicing that the King has come on this Holy Week, and he is not like other kings who forsake the throne when things are not going his way. Jesus does not step down for even a second during the Spanish Plague and certainly not the Covid-19 crisis. We do not worship a king who sees the cross from afar and runs away in fear. We exalt a King who sees the cross and draws even nearer.

Our expectations are framed around the current view of Jesus we have. We instinctively know that he enters our lives daily, hourly, repeatedly by his Spirit, but the manner of his entrance is usually interpreted according to our current view of Jesus. When we are living in fear, surely everything taking place is reason to succumb to fear’s power. Then, we adopt a minimalistic view of the Messiah’s work which is why so many are content with a small Jesus. The audience of fear is always more eager to hear than the audience of fear not.

It is clear especially in our day that fear is the most sold American drug! To some extent, we have all taken it and to some extent, we are all addicted to it. But Jesus comes to break our addictions this Monday of the Passion. When everything is not as it should, he says, “Rejoice; fear not!”

On April 5, 2020 By Uri Brito In Podcast Like

Episode 73, Ministering to Saints During Separation, Conversation with Rev. Justin Borger

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In these difficult days, many are in need. The elderly community has suffered the most with the isolation. But we also remember the single mother and individuals whose families are not close at this time. How does the church move towards faithful ministry in these times?

On this episode, Pastor Brito interviews Pastor Justin Borger from St. Paul’s Presbyterian in Orlando, Fl. to discuss pastoral ministry in this Corona Virus times. We hope this is encouraging to some and motivates others to join in this needed ministry of mercy.

On April 5, 2020 By Uri Brito In Theology Like

A Palm Sunday Meditation

Matthew 21: 8-9
Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

The Triumphal Entry is one of the few events in Jesus’ life that is mentioned in all four gospels. This should call our attention to the significance placed on this event.

The Father sent His Son into the world that He might embrace the pain and suffering of humanity. On the cross, He took our sorrow to become The Man of Sorrows. Palm Sunday is another example of Christ coming for us. He comes as the One who cleanses the corruption of the temple, and who ultimately offers His own temple-body as a sacrifice.

In this text, Jesus comes to Jerusalem as the Paschal Lamb who will give His life to deliver His people. As He enters Jerusalem the response of the people is symbolically rich. Matthew 21 states that the crowd spread their garments on the road. In the Bible, garments represent people. When Jesus sits on their garments and rides over them, they are saying that Jesus is enthroned over them. Jesus is re-enacting the Jehu narrative when Jehu was anointed as King and destroyed the temple of Baal. In II Kings 9, we read that when Jehu was anointed King, that in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.” Jesus arranged His entrance because He was symbolically declaring His kingship. He is the greater Jehu who rode over his followers’ garments into Samaria to destroy the temple of Baal (II Kings 9:11-13; 10:18-28). The antithesis is clear: we either lay down our garments and bless the Son of David or we are trampled by the Coming King.

The King who destroys the temple of Baal and is exalted above all does not come bearing a sword into the Holy City. The time of judgment is not now; now is the time of suffering. Now is the time to act as King, and Kings give their lives for their people, and Jesus is coming to Jerusalem to give His life. Now Jesus comes in peace, to be reconciled with His enemies; but on that final day, He will judge His enemies.

Application:

The response of the crowd was initially one of joyful submission. How often do we display this joyful submission? How is this reflected today?Do we display a profound sense of joy as we submit in heart, mind, soul, and strength to the One who rides over us?

Prayer
O God, Giver of all good gifts, we thank you for Jesus who gave Himself for us. We pray that our lives will be as the garments of Palm Sunday, laid down so that Christ might rule over us. Teach us to see the way to the cross as t

On April 1, 2020 By Uri Brito In Worship 3

Can we do communion at home during this time?

There are numerous discussions on the Lord’s Supper today. But they are not the common discussions among Reformed, Lutheran, and Evangelicals. Those distinctions are pronounced historically and we debate the objective merits of each position. Rather, the shape of modern debates on the Supper has to do with how we partake of the elements when we are not gathered together doing worship on Sunday.^a It’s safe to assert that most congregations in America are wrestling with this question. No one is immune to it. Even evangelical traditions that practice the Lord’s Supper infrequently (monthly or quarterly) have to tackle the matter since none of us can determine how long this virus will plague the country.

There are still some churches meeting on Sundays, though with limited numbers and with abundant caution, but I am not speaking to those rare groups. I would like to address the thousands of churches that moved to some form of virtual practice. At the outset, it’s important to note that I am not aware of any pastor who is taking these decisions lightly. Some have wrestled with these questions in profound ways. Some sessions have not reached a consensus, adding another layer to the headache. These are difficult days. But every decision has consequences.

In large evangelical churches with hundreds of households, it is likely that members will take matters into their own hands. A pastor or a group of pastors cannot be sacramental policemen. People will adjust and their adjustment will be a clear manifestation of their theological paradigms.

I recall meeting an old Episcopal deacon about a decade ago. He attended a fairly well-known parish in town. In our conversation, he shared with me how excited he was to do the Lord’s Supper with the youth group that night. When I inquired, he related that instead of bread and wine, he was going to bring Pepsi and crackers. He was thrilled with the prospect of doing communion in a “fresh new way.” I did not take the time to protest. My disappointment was too great.

That dreadful story, unfortunately, is an illustration of the kinds of creativity we are seeing in some churches today among parishioners. I have heard countless stories of families partaking of the Lord’s Supper alone at night, or even of pastors encouraging their people to drink and eat in their separate homes after hearing the pastor deliver a sermon on-line.^b. Dr. Scott Swain summarizes the case against such practices:

A sacrament, at the most basic level, is a symbolic action ordained by Jesus Christ to which he has attached the promise of his presence and blessing (Exod 20:24; Matt 28:18-20; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 10:1-4, 16; 11:24-25). The “sign,” on this understanding, is not simply the “elements” of water, bread, and wine. The sign is the entirety of the symbolic action which, in the case of the Lord’s Supper, is a shared meal (1 Cor 10:17). Moreover, when it comes to the Lord’s Supper, the symbolic action of a shared meal has a specific, divinely ordained context: “when you come together” (1 Cor 11:33).

This apostolic imperative of togetherness is all over the Epistle to the Corinthians. It is not a spiritual togetherness but a fleshly togetherness. When individual families or individuals are taking upon themselves the ritual of the Supper they are forsaking this crucial Pauline imperative. Further, they are diminishing the significance of the meal. Extraordinary times do not justify trivializing the Supper or taking it out of its original setting.^c. The church is deeply impoverished when it takes this perspective and the Supper takes a back seat to theological pragmatism.

Many comments today echo a form of Gnosticism when it comes to church. Some will boldly state that the church is not a building, but the people. While that statement may seem innocent, it has serious implications. First, because the Apostle Paul calls us a building:

For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

The Apostle compares God’s people to a foundation. It does not mean that if a hurricane came and hindered us from meeting in a particular location, therefore we would not be the church, but it does mean that we are building blocks, stones, and furniture in God’s holy temple.

But secondly, we must be cautious lest we embrace a view of life that takes the Christian away from sacred space to form our own autonomous spaces. We meet together to eat together in a building together, a building which however small or great stands for the space that God calls us to unite as one body eating one loaf, not twenty loaves.

These days offer us moments of great reflection. The Church is scattered in the city. Families and friends cannot hug, kiss, or shake hands and the Lord’s Supper, that meaningful grace to the Church, is far from reach. Our approach should not be to take it at all costs or adjust as we see fit but allow the Supper to maintain its proper role in the life of the Church. We eat and drink when we are together as a body ordinarily led by the physical presence of an ordained minister. When we are apart, and this pattern is not present, we wait. If we decide to eat and drink alone, the very purpose of the Supper is thwarted. We must all wait in anticipation for the first Sunday when we will join with our bodies the corporate assembly. Then, we will feast again as God intended.

Some may opine that we do worship anytime, but this is a silly analogy. The Bible places the corporate worship as the primary act of worship among other acts of worship through the week (back)
There is a case for a drive-through system where saints take the elements from an ordained minister and take it as they receive on the church’s parking lot. We can say they are eating together as one, rather than in isolation (back)
There is also a case for having various ordained ministers administering the Supper to folks in nursing homes or in regular homes in times of great trial. Note that this is not a household communion, but the proper administration comes from men called to serve the body. These exceptions are offered in most denominations manuals. What I am arguing against is the individualization of the sacraments apart from the togetherness of the body and the presence of a church officer (back)

On March 27, 2020 By Uri Brito In Books 1

How to Keep Writing During Quarantine

I love writing! I confess it has not always been a love affair. Through most of my youth, I treasured sports. It was a lot easier to put on a pair of shoes…well, to be clear, it was much easier playing soccer bare-footed with my friends in northeastern Brazil. Like any Brazilian, futebol was my life. It was the judge of our national mood. On Monday morning, anyone could decipher my emotions simply by knowing whether my soccer team won or not in the weekend round. Those days were simple and happy.

On the other hand, my educational habits were decent but left much to be desired. I have written and spoken about my late literary flourishment. When I attended high school in the U.S. in my eighteenth year of age, I was forced to read through The Tale of Two Cities. I read it in two days. It was quite a feat for someone who barely if ever read prior to that. Since that time I gained an enormous appreciation for reading. I am a personal testament to the fact that those who didn’t treasure reading in their early years can have a massive shift in their habits.

The Genesis of Writing

In my senior year, I attended a Brethren congregation in Pennsylvania. The pastor, now deceased, was a lovely man who encouraged me to pursue my studies. They had a morning and evening service on Sundays which allowed me to do a few things on Sunday night. On occasion, I offered my testimony and played my guitar and at least once I preached. I can’t recall the content of that sermon, but I remember taking some notes with me to the pulpit. It was my first official sermon. Though I was interested in theology, I had no interest in pursuing my father’s footsteps in the pulpit.

When college came around I began to write papers fairly consistently. They were functional papers. I wanted a good grade and therefore wrote them with no intention of making it precise and purposeful, just pragmatic. Then, came my election to student body chaplaincy. Suddenly I had to address 700 people in a 10-minute sermon. But before I spoke to the student body, I was invited to address a youth group. It was a great test before addressing a massive crowd. I used a prepared manuscript and read it to them with all the gusto I had. They were my first intentional words to an audience 21 years ago.

I pity those first listeners but I don’t pity the lessons I learned that day. It was the first time I wrote succinctly. I’ve probably written over 500 sermons since plus a few books and thousands of articles.^a That first practice allowed me to hone my writing and think carefully about everything I say and write publicly.

Writing Habits

After one of my sermons in college, someone asked me for a copy of the manuscript. I had the brilliant idea of starting a Geocities account. Yes, it was that long ago. I posted my first sermon manuscript there and since then I have started at least five websites as venues for my writing. I began blogging in 2004 before it became a societal phenomenon. Blogging has forced me to articulate my thoughts. Some times they weren’t clear, but it forced me to think through my words carefully.

Yesterday a friend asked how I am able to write so often. I honestly have not stopped to think about it, except to say that writing is a habit that I have worked on for two decades. And still, I find myself so incomplete as a writer. I still have insecurities which is why I edit my work dozens of times before it goes live and still I find incoherencies and inconsistencies.

I have had the privilege of participating and writing a few published works. Looking back, I am sure they could receive another share of editing. But I am glad I wrote them because they removed the perfectionism so common in good writers who never write anything.

Writing Principles

There is so much to say, but I wanted to lay at least three principles for writing that have helped me through the years.

The first is the principle of plodding articulated in Douglas Wilson’s latest book, Ploductivity: A Practical Theology of Work. Wilson writes:

Productivity is more a matter of diligent, long-distance hiking than it is one-hundred-yard dashing. Doing a little bit now is far better than hoping to do a lot on the morrow. So redeem the fifteen-minute spaces. Chip away at it.

Doug’s productivity is phenomenal. I think he’s way past his 100th book. As an additional note, I’d encourage carrying a book everywhere with you on kindle or a physical copy. I once estimated that I lost over 30 minutes a day waiting for people or in transition when I could be reading or writing. Also, it’s a good practice for writers to take a little notebook to write down phrases or ideas that you may use for a future article. Life itself provides themes and I always find that those articles I least expected to write are most meaningful to me.

The second is the principle of reading broadly. I try to read about a novel a month. It does not come naturally to me, but these days I try to read whatever novels my kids are reading at school. It’s been more enjoyable than I expected. I have found lovely phrases and use of language that inspired me to write more creatively. It also encourages us to go outside our comfort zone in writing about subjects that we may not be experts in. There is no law against creativity.

Finally, I urge the principle of courage. One of the greatest hindrances to writers today is their timidity. They write not, so they publish not. They may be incredibly gifted rhetorically but don’t have the discipline to sit down and re-write a talk for public consumption. They prefer to imagine a time when life will provide them the perfect island for writing or when their children are grown. But there is no better time to write than now. There is no better time to make mistakes than now. There is no better time to hit the Publish button than now.

We may not all write well and surely most of us will get very few followers on our blogs or writing journeys. But if you treasure writing, don’t waste your time. There is a blank word document waiting for you.

http://uribrito.com/10-questions-every-preacher-should-consider/ (back)

On March 26, 2020 By Uri Brito In Podcast Like

Episode 72, Lent in the Age of Corona: A Conversation with Dustin Messer

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In this episode, Uri and Dustin team up to discuss a few topics related to his recent article at Breakpoint entitled The Age of Corona of the Season of Lent. We discuss why the church has abdicated her task of speaking about to death to the cultural voices of our day.

On March 24, 2020 By Uri Brito In Culture, Theology Like

The Eschatology of Covid-19: When the Stars Fall! Part 3

It’s the end of the world as they knew it! Matthew 24 speaks of a particular timeframe in history. It will not be repeated again. At this point, we might be tempted to delve into a conversation about what the future looks like from a perspective of a past Great Tribulation. But the point in this series is not to consider the future of the future but to consider what the Bible does not say about the future.

In the affirmative, we could say, “The Olivet Discourse is a prophecy about things shortly going to take place.” It is attractive to specialize in modern events comparing notes with the Bible. But history makes clear that this habit leads to bad Christian practices and expectations.

Summary of Interpretive Principles

In a previous article, I argued that the two key principles to understanding Matthew 24 are context and the language of the Bible. When we distance the Bible from its immediate context and language, we can make it say whatever we want. And much of this is happening now with speculations about the role of the Coronavirus in the prophetic calendar.

The faithful interpreter, however, will see this present crisis in our culture as an opportunity for the work of God in history. Israel wandered in the wilderness and learned lessons that guided the remnant to green pastures. We, too, have an opportunity to see this event as an opportunity to learn and disciple one another in the ways of Yahweh. But before we do that, we need to understand the Bible.

Coronavirus, Tribulation and Falling Stars, oh my!

Towards the end of the first section of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus says,

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

There is no gap between this verse and the previous one. Remember that the disciples’ questions were not about the end of the world as we know it, but about the end of their world as they knew it. Assume for a moment that Jesus was living today and we asked him the same questions from the opening verses of Matthew 24. Now, 2,000 years from now people were reading a record of our questions. Would they say, “Wow, these questions referred to our world!” or would they say, “These questions referred to their world.” The latter seems most likely especially since Jesus uses the same language to speak of imminent destruction as the prophets used to speak of the destruction of their world.

I deliberately chose to discuss the prophecy of “falling stars” because modern prophetic voices envision such descriptions to be only true if they happen literally. They will say, “Since we have never witnessed a literal star falling and shaking the heavens, therefore this is still in the future.” But before we look at how the language of “falling stars” is dealt with in the Old Testament, let me raise a simple question. “How can stars fall to the Earth and the Earth survive?” Think of the sun, which is far from the biggest star. You can fit 1,3 million planet earths into the sun. If we take this literally, the descent of any star to this world will destroy the earth as we know it. So, for many reasons, we are dealing here with symbolic language.^a

Twinkle, Twinkle!

Have you ever looked at the flags of nations? It’s a remarkable thing to see how beautiful and diverse they are in color and symbols. Do you ever notice how many of these flags include stars—a solitary star or multiple stars? The U.S. flag, Brazil, Papua-New Guinea, and many others all contain multiple stars. These flags with all their stars represent the people who live in it. In Genesis 22, Yahweh promises to bless Abraham’s offspring and what does he use as an analogy? The stars of heaven. In Deuteronomy, people are again associated with the stars. Historians, exegetes, and even modern scholars who would take a different interpretation would agree that St. Matthew uses the imagery of “falling stars” to refer to the destruction of a group, people, or nation. A perfect example of this is found in Judges 5, which says:

“The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver. From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.”

This is war language! Whether the sun, moon, or stars, the heavenly body is used in the Bible to refer to judgment, almost in every case. It indicates that something new is about to happen in history. Even the star which guides the magi is an indication that a war is coming between the new king and Herod, the false king.

In sum, Matthew 24:29 in its context, speaks of “Israel in decline as the nation that rejected her Messiah.” Eschatology scholar, Gary Demar, says the following:

“The allusion in Matthew 24:29 is unmistakable: “Israel’s judgment was to take place before that generation passed away.” ((Last Days Madness, 147.))

Falling Stars and Falling on Our Knees

Often we isolate such passages from its context, but more importantly, we isolate such passages from the act of worship of the True Messiah. When the earthly powers are shaken, stars are falling, the sun is darkened and the moon will not give its light, the Christian must respond in worship.

However you take this imagery, one thing is clear: God changes the world’s systems. He doesn’t allow unrighteousness to carry on forever. He doesn’t allow his name to be mocked forever. He does not permit the kingdoms of this world to continue spilling lies against the Lord and his anointed. Everything, every nation, every system, every kingdom that opposes God will be shaken and torn. The Coronavirus will pass away, but the righteousness of God does not have an expiration date. His kingdom will not be shaken. As Hebrews says,

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe…”

The unshakable kingdom of God ought to lead you to offer acceptable worship before God (Rom. 12:1-2). If we think about it, our view of the kingdom is miserably small. We have not because we ask not. We have so individualized our prayer life that even our petitions are small. We pray small because our view of the kingdom is small. We pray small because we live as if the kingdom can be easily shaken like a tree in the midst of the storm.

While we quarantine ourselves in one way or another, imagine if an angel came to your front door and gave you a manuscript of your prayers in the last 12 months. What would they reveal? Would it reveal that the manuscript is a one pager? Would it reveal that your prayers are entirely self-centered? Would it reveal prayers that ask for too little? Would it reveal a powerless view of the kingdom; one that can be shaken at any moment? More directly, what kind of worship would your prayers reveal? Worship of a small Christ? A convenient Christ or worship diminished because of our fears of sickness?

The author of Hebrews says the kingdom of God cannot be shaken, therefore, let us worship! Can you ask God as Augustine did: “Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.” Can you pray that?

What will it take for you to worship this God whose kingdom cannot be shaken? What will God have to do in your life for you to change your view of God’s kingdom? This is ultimately the end-times question. For the kingdom of God to be as great in your life, your reverence and awe of God need to be just as great. The unshakability of the kingdom is connected to the unshakability of God. The Coronavirus cannot dictate how a Christian worships.

The End Times…for this Series.

We will always be tempted to bring our assumptions into the text. We let the assumptions that the kingdom of God works according to our plans, or that it can be managed by the works we do, or that it can be manipulated to fit our schedule or that the kingdom works in accordance to our will and want or that a virus will pause its movement. It’s time to let these assumptions die! Jesus changed Israel’s assumptions through destruction. May he change our assumptions by his grace and truth. And should some of our kingdoms have to crumble in the process, let it be so! Whatever it takes for us to bow down in reverence and awe of our Lord and Savior will be what we need to exalt Christ and his unshakable kingdom. Let it be the end of our world of sin and the beginning of a new world where worship regulates all we do.

Read Part 1
Read Part 2

See Gary Demar, 142, Last Days Madness. (back)

On March 23, 2020 By Uri Brito In Culture, Politics, Theology 1

The Eschatology of Covid-19: End-Time Misinformation, Part 1

The end is near! Or at least it was when Jesus prophesied in the first-century. We, 21st-century citizens of heaven, live after the Great Tribulation. In fact, about 2,000 years after those events. These statements may seem a bit troubling to some, so let me make two caveats:

First, affirming the Great Tribulation was a past event does not mean we live in some utopian era. In fact, Covid-19 is a reminder that the repercussions of Genesis 3 will be with us until “he shall come to judge the living and the dead” at the end of history.

And second, affirming that the events in Matthew 24^a is in the past does not negate our responsibility to understand the times in confusing days. In fact, we need more wisdom in these days.

We need a healthy dose of reverent fear in our day; not because we are at the end of history but because in such a time as this God calls us to be extra valiant and courageous to do his will.

Modern-Day Prophets

One of the things I don’t want to do is to give insanity more air-time than necessary. So, I am not going to link these folks and I won’t quote them. The evidence is abundant in any modern crisis. I refer to these prophetic isolationists as thrill-seekers because they remind me of storm chasers who travel around the country in caravans seeking the latest storm. They want to get close to the action. It’s not just twitterdom that offers you a buffet of such cases, but even in the published world, you will find such people.

Some took advantage of the year 1988, the year 2000 and now they left their hibernating stage to offer the world their new and clever view of the Bible. What’s more troubling is that many folks who “specialize” in prophecies reveal in a very brief time their incompetency to understand the most basic principles of biblical prophecy.

For instance, many asserting this is “the beginning of birth pains” (Mat. 24:8) have a history of cutting and pasting texts to whatever flavor of catastrophe consumes the news today. We want to avoid this attitude and embrace the language of the Bible vigorously, even when it may challenge our long-held beliefs. And I have found over the years, especially living in the South, that the belief that Jesus can come back at any moment is crucial to the identity of many evangelicals. In fact, one can have a faulty view of the Trinity, but as long as he espouses some variation of a futuristic end-time scenario, he’s considered safe and may even get a platform to opine about revelations.

Now, context matters. It matters in this Covid-19 era as information is disseminated. And it most certainly matters when we are reading giant portions of the Bible like the Olivet Discourse (Mat. 24). If I look at that passage and see that “famines” will happen in the end and conclude that due to our milk shortage at the local grocery we have ourselves a fulfillment of prophecy, I am hermeneutically blind. That is to say, you should return to your cave.

The Olivet Discourse

Matthew 24 is used for all sorts of events. In my 40 years of life, I have seen it use to support the supposed fulfillment of prophecy in the Gulf War, that Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama were the antichrists, that the Mayan prophecies were to be fulfilled at Y2K, and currently that Donald Trump is setting the stage for the new world order.

But what some fail to see is that Matthew 24 has a long-established tradition of interpretation; one that avoids such reckless distractions from the text. Now, the question of whether a position or an idea has a long-standing history doesn’t always solve the issue at hand. However, I think it’s important to say that the beliefs you hold grow more in legitimacy if other orthodox Christians have held them for the last two millennia. To be precise, the interpretation of Matthew 24 advocated here is held by most of the Puritans, both Anglicans and Presbyterians, well-known Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, and the Reformed.

What is at stake in this conversation is the ability to either think carefully about this Coronavirus scenario or be bogged down by endless speculation when the next virus comes along carried by a vagabond vermin. We need to see that Matthew 24 opens our eyes to see the Bible clearly without dependence on newspaper exegesis^b.

Interpretational Keys

I cannot dissect the entirety of Matthew 24^c in these two articles. But others like Gary Demar have already done a real service to the church in his classic work, Last Days Madness. The book must be in its 20th edition. What I can do is offer a couple of interpretive keys to guide the reader through Jesus’ words in Matthew 24.

The first interpretive key is that Matthew 24 demands context. Again, the temptation is to cut a verse and paste it into our preferred panic situation. But the prophecy of Jesus has something very specific in mind. In chapter 23, Jesus has a full-scale indictment of the Pharisees. When Jesus finished his warnings to the Pharisees, he was going out of the temple and the disciples were pointing out the buildings of the temple. And that is where Jesus makes this remarkable prediction in chapter 24, verse 2:

Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Early on, we begin to get some indications as to whether these prophecies were referring to the present first-century temple or some rebuilt temple in the distant future. The key is found in one little crucial word, and it is the word here. There will not be left one stone….where? Here. This is a crucial word that we should not overlook. The reason Matthew 24 is referring to that first-century temple and that temple only is because nowhere in the entire New Testament do the authors say one word about a rebuilt temple sometime in the future. Nowhere. The temple under discussion throughout the Olivet Discourse is the one that was standing during the time of Jesus’ ministry, the same temple that would be destroyed some 30 years later by the Roman Army.^d

If the identity of the temple is clear, then any attempt to futurize the words of Jesus are in vain; any attempt to connect Covid-19 to Matthew 24 suffers a thousand deaths. What we are left with are words that apply to something very specific in the early church and ought to be understood only in that way.

Probably stunned from Jesus’ statement, the disciples ask Jesus a series of questions about the present temple and Jesus will take the rest of the Olivet Discourse to answer those questions.^e But what is imperative to learn is that Jesus’ answers to those questions are guided by the principle of context which is very much dependent on the present structures of the first-century.

The second interpretive key is that Matthew 24 depends on its own language. In short, when we hear something strange in the Scriptures, we should compare it with other texts where similar language is used.

We must read the Bible as it is intended to be read. The Bible possesses its own language; its own interpretive guide. We should not allow our feeds to dictate how the Bible should be interpreted. We seek to understand the Bible in its own terms. As we read through Matthew 24 you will quickly discover that the language Jesus uses in his prophecies is not anything new, but it’s the way prophets have been speaking for hundreds of years. Jesus is continuing that prophetic tradition by using the language of the prophets. His words were not meant to be fodder for prophetic thrill-seekers but understood in its own context and its own language.

Closing Words

Matthew 24 is a difficult text. It requires us to look at the bigger picture of redemption to see why Matthew wrote Jesus’ words as he did. The end result is a beautiful picture of the righteous. God has not forsaken his people. His purposes shall prevail. His kingdom shall prevail, even if it means destroying the most sacred space of the Jewish people. God will make all things new.

Jesus was not predicting the end of times for the 21st-century world, but the end of times for the 1st-century religious system that prevailed in the day. Our Lord was not predicting the consequences of a virus coming into the world, but the destruction of the pervasive and venomous religiosity of a system that needed to end. Indeed, that generation suffered the Great Tribulation just as Jesus predicted.

we could also add Mark 13 and Luke 21 and a few scattered texts (back)
I believe Greg Bahnsen was the first to use this expression (back)
though I have preached through it; leave a comment with your email if you would like a link to those sermons (back)
Demar, Gary. Last Days Madness, 68. (back)
Again, I deal with them in my sermon series, but an even more academic work is found in Gary Demar’s book (back)