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By In Theology, Worship

Why Sing the Bible?

Back in July Pastor Uri Brito wrote a post on ten reasons to sing the psalms. My article is similar, but different enough that I thought it was worth posting. I sent this to my congregation last year as part of a longer article on singing in worship. Point number four is paraphrase of a section St. Athanansius’  letter to Marcellinus on the interpretation of the Psalms. It can be found as an appendix in his book On the Incarnation. 

The major tool God has given us to cultivate music that honors him is the songs in the Bible, including the Psalms. The Lord saw fit to give us one hundred and fifty psalms along with numerous other songs in the Scriptures, such as Exodus 15, I Samuel 2, Isaiah 12, 26, Luke 1:46-55 and the songs in Revelation. The Lord did not intend for us to sing only these songs, but He did intend for us to learn these songs and use them as the foundation for newer hymns. Without making the songs of Scripture a priority, our worship is guaranteed to be impotent. It is odd that the evangelical church says they love the Bible, but most refuse to sing it.  One of great tragedies of the modern church is that she has left the Bible as the first source of her songs.

As we learn the songs of Scripture we will reap several benefits. First, we will sing words and phrases we have never sung before. There are not many contemporary songs that say things like, “You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.” (Psalm 3:7) Or, “He shall have dominion from sea to sea.” (Psalm 72:8) Or, “They have shed the blood of saints and prophets and You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.” (Revelation 16:6). Often our language is influenced by movies, pop culture, or our friends. If we want our language to be shaped by Scripture then a good place to begin is the songs of Scripture.

Second, as we sing these songs we will be reminded that we have enemies and are engaged in a battle which only ends with Christ’s second coming. 137 out of 150 Psalms either explicitly or implicitly refer to enemies. Most of the songs in the New Testament have a similar theme. Look at Mary and Zacharias’ songs in Luke and the songs throughout Revelation. These are fight songs, songs of an army going out into the world to wage warfare and conquer for (and with) Christ.  Could it be that the Church is losing the battle because she does not even know she is in one? Singing Scripture will help rid of this amnesia.

Third, as we sing the songs of Zion we will find a great amount of variety. It is odd how many hymns and choruses sound the same both in tone and words. Scripture has similar themes, but these themes are expressed in an assortment of ways. There are short songs. (Psalm 117 and portions of Revelation) There are long songs. (Psalm 18 and 119)  There are songs of grief and pain. (Psalm 3 and 137) There are songs of great joy and gladness (Isaiah 26 and Mary’s Song in Luke 1) There are songs about God’s great majesty. (Exodus 15 and Psalm 111) There are songs about how men are supposed to live. (Psalm 1, 112, 128) There are songs with a repeating chorus. (Psalm 136) There are songs by Moses, Solomon, David, Hannah, Mary, Asaph, Isaiah, Zacharias and the angels.  We could go on and on. This means the songs in worship should have a variety of lengths, tones, and themes. Scriptures songs rightly done should never be boring.

Fourth, the songs of the Bible give us words for any situation we find ourselves in. And not just any words. We will have God’s word in our hearts and in our mouths. If we are sad let us sing Psalm 137. If we are joyful let us sing Psalm 150. If we are about to do our quiet times, let us sing a section of Psalm 119. If we are walking in nature let us sing Psalm 8 or 19. If we are considering Christ’s work on the cross let us sing Psalm 16 or 22. If we are rejoicing at the downfall of our enemies let us sing Exodus 15 or Psalm 7 or Revelation 11:17-18. If we have sinned let us sing Psalm 6 or 51. When we do this we are not just singing, but we are singing God’s Word. And His Word is sharper than any two edged sword, mighty to save, comforting for our souls, and strong to tear down the fortresses of Satan.

Finally, as we sing the songs of Scripture we will find a truly majestic and holy God who is also our Father. One of the perpetual problems in the Christian faith, a problem expressed in our songs, is that Christians tend to see God as either very far off or very near. The first group views God as unknowable. He becomes so holy that we can barely know him. The second group makes God in our image. He becomes too knowable, like a buddy on our back porch. The songs in Scripture balance out these themes. First, God is certainly holy. Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4:8 have the angels singing “Holy, Holy, Holy.” God is not our buddy who comes along to have chats with us as we meet with Him in prayer. He is a man of war. (Exodus 15) But God is also our Shepherd (Psalm 23), who remembers our frame, (Psalm 103:14) and is near to the broken hearted. (Psalm 34:18) As we learn the Psalms and other Scripture songs we get a balanced picture of God’s character, which can help us from sinking into error.<>цена продвинуть

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By In Theology

Does God Care About Numbers?

church attendanceYes, he does.

Here is the prophecy he gave to Isaiah (chapter 49):

Listen to me, O coastlands,
and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The LORD called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the Lord,
and my recompense with my God.”

And now the LORD says,
he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
he says:
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

It is “too light a thing,” too small a thing” (NASB) for God to save a tiny remnant. After all, he didn’t call Abram/Abraham for the sake of a tiny remnant:

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3, ESV)

Thus, from the first time God spoke to Abram, he identified himself as the god who justifies the ungodly–who saves the entire world.

How do Christians avoid acknowledging this plan for the spread of the Gospel and the conversion of the human race? They find quotations like:

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ (Luke 13:23-25, ESV)

But this is not a reasonable application of what Jesus says. Jesus does not say that only few will be saved in all world history. He says that salvation is going to spread to the nations but that his own generation of fellow Israelites are in danger of being, uh, left behind.

He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22-30, ESV)

People will be gathered at the Table of the Lord from all points of the compass, but many who witnessed Jesus during his ministry are rejecting his message.

I submit that all remnant passages are of this nature. The majority rejects but the ones who repent and believe are the seed of a great multitude. Worldwide salvation follows from the crisis and judgment. Jesus’ own parables about seed and mustard seed and leaven teach this expectation.

Many people think it is shallow and superficial to “worry about numbers.” But obviously God is not shallow and superficial. Yet he would not tell us of “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7.9) if he had no concern for quantity.

Of course, they probably get the idea because some Christians who worry about numbers seem shallow and superficial. I agree–for many contexts in the Christian life but not all. Furthermore, identifying oneself with the “few who are chosen” can be just as shallow and superficial. People who act as it if is a matter of piety to be satisfied with a world going to hell because their small group is elect of God are not people who are obedient to the Great Commission. The Great Commission, I submit, cannot be obeyed by people who don’t believe it is possible:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and disciple of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The real reason I think some Christians are shallow in their numbers-fixation is because they have self-glorification goals corrupting their desire for the kingdom and/or they don’t really believe the Great Commission is about discipling all nations and training them to obey Jesus. Instead they believe the Great Commission is about getting professions of faith and then training them to get other professions of faith. That, while better than nothing, will tend to produce shallow Christians.

But the fact that God wants a countless number of trained disciples rather than a countless number of ignorant professing believers doesn’t give us any reason to think God doesn’t care about numbers. Concern for quality does not eliminate concern about quantity.

Accepting this basic Biblical mission probably won’t change as much as I would like it to change. God’s providence and timing are still a mystery. Once you believe in what God wants for history, you may, in fact, find you are now frustrated by the lack of results you see in your own place and time.

But it is good to be frustrated. That is the Spirit praying for you to God to end the discrepancy between how things are and how they should be (8.26). Anyone who reads the promises of God and is not frustrated when he looks around at his life and world is not reading carefully. Better to be frustrated than satisfied with a situation so far from what God has revealed he intends to bring about.

Sometimes we are sent to plant and sometimes to harvest (John 4.35-38). If you are sent to a time of planting, you might not see the fruit you long for. But that doesn’t mean it is not coming.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12, ESV)

One implication of this is you never have a right to consider your work for the Great Commission a failure. God does not promise a great rescue–Jesus has already done that part of the story. God promises to use your labors. He promises to accept your works just as he accepts you in Christ. He promises to say, “Well done.” So nothing was ever wasted. The seed vanishes and is forgotten and then later the tree grows. Most people will not notice the cause for the effect. Their eyes will be on the cause and effect relationships that are in close enough proximity to notice. But God never forgets. And he promises that nothing is without effect.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:53-58, ESV)

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By In Theology

Are We Blessing, Cursing, or Neither? Is “Neither” Even Possible? – Part 1

“Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be.” James 3:10

My question: “Are we blessing, cursing, or neither? Is the “neither” category even possible?”

Most Christians take special care to abstain from vulgarities and blasphemies. Vulgarities often put private matters on public display, such as bathroom or bedroom activities, which ought to remain private rather than becoming coffee-break humor or hammer-meets-thumb expletives.  Everyone knows what happens in the bathroom, but you’re supposed to leave it there, not bring it out with you. Everyone knows what happens in the bedroom, besides sleeping, but that is also meant to be a private matter. It is supposed to happen “off-stage.” Blasphemies, of course, take God’s name and use it in a less than hallowed manner. Number 3 on the Top 10, declares, “He will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (Ex. 20:7) If you had to choose one, then bring your filth out of the bathroom with you before you use God’s name carelessly or worse yet, pejoratively. However, when you do choose, choose to keep what’s private private and what’s holy holy. Vulgarities and blasphemies can hardly be considered blessings.

Another verbal matter to be considered is the direct curse. The word “damn” has a specific purpose. This is not a word that cannot be appropriately used, but it is one that commonly gets misused, and overly misused, in our culture, often preceded by a blasphemy as to Who is being called upon to do the damning. We teach our children that it is not our place to condemn someone else to eternal perdition, nor should it be our desire to do so. “Damn” and “hell” are neither vulgar nor blasphemous; rather they are words that ought not be tossed around.

So we abstain from careless speech, coarse jokes, and flippant curses. Now what? Are we to assume that refraining from a short list of words and phrases means that we are controlling our tongue? That we are blessing our brother?

While there are no neutral words, no words that don’t convey what’s going on in our hearts, there is a difference between words spoken with an implied blessing and those spoken with an overt blessing.  An implied blessing could be contained in the simple, “Good morning,” depending on one’s inflection. This can also be an overt blessing depending on you inflection, like “Good morning!”  This can also be a curse if said too loudly, too early. (Prov. 27:14) There can also be implied blessing in casual conversations. The mere fact that you take the time to speak to someone can mean more to them than you’ll ever know. That sounds sappy and cliché, but that doesn’t make it untrue. Even if you have nothing in common with the person except the current weather, there can be a blessing in making small talk.

Every sentence we say can be used as an implied blessing, but are we willing to go further than this? Are we willing to take the effort that it takes to use our words for overt blessings; blessings that would be hard to be mistaken as anything else? Are we willing to take our eyes off of ourselves and our personal problems in order to be an overt blessing to those around us today?

However, before we have something profitable to say, we must be aware of what’s going on around us. Wisdom is contextual, so wise words are typically only wise if spoken in due season. This requires listening before we speak. Listening takes effort and time. Listening means getting down off our soap boxes and actually considering what the other person is saying. We can view every conversation today as an opportunity to take our eyes off of ourselves, shut our mouths for a minute or two, and listen to our neighbor. Then, and only then, can we overtly bless them.

We can’t heal diseases with our spoken word, but we can speak words seasoned with salt. We can’t feed the multitudes with one order of fish and chips, but we can buy someone lunch and then let them do the talking. If we actually listen, maybe we’ll actually have something to say that matters.

More on overt blessings later…<>поисковое продвижение а топ

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By In Politics, Theology

Military Intervention & Islamic Terrorism, pt. 2

When Gov. Chris Christie criticized Sen. Rand Paul‘s non-interventionism, he inevitably appealed to the events of September 11th, 2001. Indeed, 9/11 is the go-to argument for anyone wishing to make non-interventionists look naïve, insensitive and weak. This was a common tactic against Congressman Ron Paul during his recent presidential campaigns and it will no doubt be used against libertarian Republicans as we near 2016.

So, how should a Christian view Islamic terrorism and what should our response to it be? The mainstream narrative is that we were attacked on 9/11 because of our freedoms. On the day of the attacks and in the weeks to come, President Bush promoted this theory in his speeches:

“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts…America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.”

“They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” (more…)

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By In Culture, Theology

Should we “Drop the Filioque?”

Drop the Filioque?

Drop the Filioque?

Drop the Filioque?

A group of Eastern Orthodox Christians are getting excited for the launch of a new project called, “Drop The Filioque.” One can presume it will intend to encourage the Western world to ditch the ancient creed’s inclusion of the “Filioque.” The new site is http://www.dropthefilioque.org.

The single Latin word means “and the son,” and is cited by many as one of the events leading up to the East-West Schism. Leading the charge, or at least purchasing the domain, is Gabriel Martini, an Eastern Orthodox blogger and marketing product manager for Logos Bible software. I first got wind of the project through Jamey Bennet, who put the project on twitter looking for allies in the Western tradition.

 

Why the Fuss?

The Western Church has held to the Filioque since its inclusion to the latin text of the Nicene Creed in the 6th Century. Maintaining that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father and from the Son as the standard view of the Trinitarian relationship. What theological implications does removing the Filioque have for our Trinitarian theology? In summarizing Abraham Kuyper’s thoughts, Edwin Palmer points to many.

“Abraham Kuyper has incisively pointed out, a denial of the filioque leads to an unhealthy mysticism. It tends to isolate the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives from the work of Jesus. Redemption by Christ is put in the background, while the sanctifying work of the Spirit is brought to the fore. The emphasis is more and more on the work of the Spirit in our lives, which tends to lead to an independence from Christ, the church, and the Bible. Sanctification can loom larger than justification, the subjective communion with the Spirit larger than the objective church life, and illumination by the Spirit larger than the Word. Kuyper believes that this has actually been the case to some extent in the Eastern church, as a result of the denial that the Spirit proceeds form the Son as well as from the Father.” (Thanks for this Greg Uttinger)

St. Augustine’s reasoning is more than adequate,”Why, then, should we not believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son, when he is the Spirit also of the Son? For if the Holy Spirit did not proceed from him, when he showed himself to his disciples after his resurrection he would not have breathed upon them, saying, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ [John 20:22]. For what else did he signify by that breathing upon them except that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from him” – Homilies on John 99:8 [A.D. 416].

It is important to remember that there is only one way to approach God – through the Son. Come to the Son, have him breathe the breath of the Spirit, so that you may be held in the arms of the Father. The difference between West and East remains an idea of “incarnational” living. The East prides itself in the traditions of monasticism and mysticism as attempts to escape the flesh, while the West models itself after the God made Man. The God-man who came into our reality to set the perfect example of righteous obedience. The Filioque centers our theology around the Spirit’s true purpose in filling the earth with the Kingdom of the Son. For dominion, not escapism.

The Orthodox “Drop the Filioque” website is set to launch in just over a week, perhaps we need to remind them why this creedal affirmation is so important.<>рекламa в директ

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By In Theology

Biblical Calvinists Acknowledge That God Loves All People: Refuting a Pseudo-Calvinist Fallacy

john calvinOne of the weird problems with correcting Arminianism and, to be crude about it, convincing Christians that Calvinism is true, is that they are easily vulnerable to other errors. I can’t prevent all such problems in one post, but I want to try to point the way forward.

 

For Further Reading

Before I write anything else, let me suggest for those who want a more philosophical/theological argument that they read R. L. Dabney’s “On God’s Indiscriminate Proposals of Mercy,” hosted by Phil Johnson’s website (for which I am grateful). Yes, I know Dabney believed some pretty ugly things on some issues. But when you read him arguing that God loves all mankind, you are getting as far away from those problems as possible. Indeed, you can appreciate the irony as you read.

 

Fallacy: Future Interprets Present

One major Calvinist fallacy is to decide that God’s present attitude toward everyone is simply equal to what God will do with them at the Final Judgment. If God will condemn them then, he condemns them now If God will welcome them then, he welcomes them now.

But does the Bible teach that God’s relationship and/or attitude toward an unrepentant sinner is the same as after that sinner repents and believes? Yes God intends from eternity to regenerate and pardon that person, and intends to pass over some others. But what is intended, by definition, cannot already be true—or else it would not be intended.

So the Apostle Paul writes:

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:2-5, ESV)

So, when someone is presently experiencing blessing even though he is continuing in unbelief and sin, is God:

  1. Increasing his guilt and condemnation at the Last Day when he will be judged for his ongoing sins?
  2. Offering him love and patience to give him the opportunity to repent?

Paul has no problem affirming both together. And, indeed, they are not possible apart from another. On the Last Day, God is not going to say to the reprobate, “I always knew you were bad and would turn out worse, so I’ve always hated you and everything I’ve done for you I’ve done so I could punish you for it.”

That’s not Calvinism; that’s Satanism.

No, God is going to say, “I gave you immense blessing, purchased by nothing less than the blood of my own son, and you spit on my efforts.”

 

God Loves; Man Hates

Or consider Isaiah 5.1-7. Reformed and Calvinist theologian, Rich Lusk writes:

At the heart of passage, God asks an amazing, deeply mysterious question: “What more could I have done to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?” (5:4). In other words, God has done everything on his side, but the vineyard – Israel – still has not borne good fruit. Thus, judgment must fall.

A non-covenantal Calvinist can think of a way to answer God’s question. God asks, “What more could I have done?” And the theologian has an answer: “Well, Lord, you could have exercised irresistible grace — you know, the ‘I’ in the TULIP – and that would have changed things. You have regenerated Israel – performed a secret and sovereign work of grace in their hearts, infallibly producing faith, obedience, and perseverance.”

To be sure, at some level that theological answer is correct. God could have done more. God is sovereign in salvation; his grace can and does operate irresistibly; and God can and does work in people in such a way that they inevitably believe, obey, and endure to the end. God could have prevented Israel’s apostasy; he could have granted them perseverance.

But it is noteworthy that this is not the “logic” of Isaiah 5. Isaiah indicates that God has given grace to the Israelites. Indeed, as the vineyard owner, he’s done everything needed to produce a good crop. The vineyard is well-loved (5:1). It is fruitful, so the soil must be rich in nutrients (5:1). All the rocks and stones have been removed from the soil, so the ground is broken in (5:2). The vine itself was choice; there was nothing wrong with what God planted (5:2). God was so sure of the vine’s eventual fruitfulness that he already put a tower and a winepress right there by the vineyard so the grapes could be pressed out into wine in due season (5:2).

It might help here if we remember that eternal damnation is not only described as God’s wrath, but as God’s jealousy. God’s love is not contrary to eternal punishment, but the Bible indicates that it is a reason for it:

Jealousy is as severe as Sheol; [or Hell]

It’s flashes are flashes of fire,

The very flame of the LORD (Song of Solomon 8.6).

Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood,

But who can stand before jealousy? (Proverbs 27.4)

These aren’t just extraneous passages. The reflect the central warning of the Second Commandment:

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands [of generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6, ESV).

And it is reiterated by Moses to the next generation of Israelites:

Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:23-24, ESV)

Because jealousy is experience by human beings who cannot make a spouse be faithful, it seems counter-intuitive to ascribe such feelings to God. But we are not in a better position to guess about the psychology of being God; He has to reveal his feelings to us.

 

We Don’t Know God Better Than What He Tells Us

Perhaps this is a second common Calvinist fallacy, deducing God’s feelings on the basis of what we imagine we would feel if we had omni- properties like God does. God tells us those are illegitimate guesses and that we, in our finititude, are actually more like what He really is, though infinite, than what we would guess about omniscience, omnipotence, and transcendence.

To return to the original fallacy I named, to infer that God’s present attitude toward everyone is simply equal to what God will do with them at the Final Judgment, it actually proves too much. Basically, since Calvinists know that all human beings are sinners, they figure that no one has a right to complain about how God treats them. But the logic of the position is not limited to sinful creatures. It applies to all creation, including unfallen angels and human beings. Are we really going to say that Adam and Eve were not loved by God when they were created? Or that, if they were loved, it was only because God planned to redeem them after they sinned?

 

A Creation Conversation

Imagine Adam and Eve, before they fell, having a theological conversation:

Eve: Adam, your face….

Adam: Huh? I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.

Eve: Lost in thought?

Adam: That’s a good metaphor.

Eve: Thank you. I wish I had one to describe your face.

Adam: Can’t you make a comparison?

Eve: Do you remember that pond we found and how still it was until you threw that rock into it?

Adam: Yes. It rippled out.

Eve: Right. At one moment it was still, but then it was disturbed.

Adam: “Disturbed.” That is an excellent word to use. Not only for my face but for my thoughts.

Eve: So what are your thoughts?

Adam: I am thinking of everything we have received from God. Each other. The trees. The animals. Everything.

Eve: But isn’t that wonderful?

Adam: Well, yes, but I’m thinking of it all in the light of the warning about that tree I told you about.

Eve: Well, the terms of that warning aren’t so wonderful, but we have everything else.

Adam: Yes, I know. But the warning presupposes the possibility that we might eat the forbidden fruit.

Eve: True.

Adam: And God, for a certainty, knows whether we will eat it or not.

Eve: OK, I’m with you so far.

Adam: So how can we take all these “good” things at face vaule as signs of God’s love and generosity?

Eve: Adam, I’m not following now.

Adam: Well, if we were to disobey, wouldn’t the seriousness of our offense be all the greater because of how good God has been to us?

Eve: Yes, which is why we should heed the warning.

Adam: Right, but if we do disobey, as God would have to know we are going to do, then all these things will have been given to us as means to make our crime more severe.

Eve: Oh.

Adam: So how can we say these things we’ve been given are signs of God’s love and generosity? It all depends on what he plans to do with them, doesn’t it? He may simply be making sure our crime is more serious than it would be otherwise. Even though I have no intention of disobeying, I can’t say I know the future the way God does.

Eve: Adam, I see your point.

Adam: Do you have any answer?

Eve: Only this: you say you don’t know the future like God does.

Adam: Right.

Eve: Wouldn’t it also be true that you don’t know God’s own mind in the way the He knows it?

Adam: But don’t we know God?

Eve: Absolutely. We know Him truly. But we don’t know everything there is to know about Him.

Adam: All right, but how does this help us?

Eve: Because if God tells us that he gives to us out of love and generosity, I think we should take Him at face value without worrying about what the future holds. Despite knowing and planning the future, God must be capable of also, in some real way, being in the moment here with us, giving us good things out of sheer grace without reference to the future.

Adam: Perhaps it is so.

Eve: I think it must be so. After all, if we were to seize the forbidden fruit, God might use it to some great advantage that he has planned all along. But that would make the trespass no less evil and rebellious. Likewise, this garden, and the Tree of Life, and we ourselves are good gifts no matter what is planned. We can take God at his word without worrying about His ultimate decrees. As His creatures, that is exactly what we are supposed to do.

So even though God has plans, it doesn’t mean that, in the here and now, there is any reason to doubt or explain away passages that declare God’s love for the world or God’s love for creation or God’s love for all people.<>как выложить рекламу в интернете

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Death of Death 2: more thoughts on J. I. Packer’s introduction

ji-packer=john-owenContinued from this post.

Frankly, if I write everything that I think is worth mentioning in Packer’s introduction, I am afraid I’ll never get to John Owen’s actual text. So I’m not sure how many more of these I will be posting before I jump into the book.

By the way, you can find Packer’s essay here (with one important difference I’ve noticed; see below).

Re-reading further, I am wondering how I could be so lacking in basic critical thinking or discernment.

Here is the point where I gave in to such an unholy thought:

The Spirit’s gift of internal grace was defined by the Arminians as “moral suasion,” the bare bestowal of an understanding of God’s truth. This, they granted—indeed, insisted—does not of itself ensure that anyone will ever make the response of faith. But Calvinists define this gift as not merely an enlightening, but also a regenerating work of God in men, “taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good; and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.” Grace proves irresistible just because it destroys the disposition to resist. Where the Arminian, therefore, will be content to say: “I decided for Christ,” “I made up my mind to be a Christian,” the Calvinist will wish to speak of his conversion in more theological fashion, to make plain whose work it really was:

“Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night:
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke; the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off: my heart was free:
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Clearly, these two notions of internal grace are sharply opposed to each other.

Packer sets up a basic theological contrast that I believe is correct. Because he is speaking at as a “Calvinist,” an Arminian might object. I haven’t kept up with Arminian responses lately, so you should bear that in mine. Nevertheless, from what I (think I) know, Packer isn’t saying anything too controversial.

But at the point where I inserted some boldface in the above quotation, his argument takes a surreal turn.

His argument can be summarized:

  • Arminians will say X
  • Calvinists will say Y
  • Those who say X rather than Y and vice versa are holding opposed theological convictions.

But Packer’s choice of Y is incredible. The hymn he quotes is from a notorious anti-calvinist and Arminian: Charles Wesley.

The web page of Packer’s essay unhappily leaves out the footnote wherein Packer acknowledges to the reader that he is quoting an Arminian. Here it is:

Granted, it was Charles Wesley who wrote this; but it is one of the many passages in his hymns which makes one ask, with “Rabbi” Duncan, “Where is your Arminianism now, friend?”

So then, with the footnote, here is the argument in all his glory:

  • Arminians will say X
  • Calvinists will say Y
  • And Y was said by a notorious and self-conscioius Arminian
  • But that just proves that he tended to speak like a Calvinist many times.

Hello?

What Packer has just shown us is that at least one firm Arminian is not only prone (not just once but in “many passages”) to give glory to God in a way that Packer not only approves, but holds forth a a great example of the piety which he wishes us all to emulate.

And yet he continues on as if he has demonstrated a point in his case.

And when I read this as a recent convert to Calvinism I extolled this essay as pure gold that every Arminian should read to see how wrong they are.

Did I not know how to read?

I may have some ideas about how Calvinists and Arminians find it difficult to talk to one another, but this will do for now.

(cross-posted)<>топодинчто такое оптимизация

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Do Evangelicals Need To Be Reborn? Reacting to D. A. Carson’s Article on the Kingdom

crosscrownI found this article by Dr. D.A. Carson really difficult to understand or profit from. I simply don’t think the Kingdom of God should be such a difficult problem. The fact that it spawns such verbiage is itself evidence that there is something wrong with Evangelicals.

Can I, off the top of my head, convince you, the reader, that you cannot possibly have a general grasp of the Bible if the Kingdom of God is a riddle that remains to be solved?

Like most things, it begins in Genesis One. God creates the world by his sovereign word, but he does so with the intention of ruling through delegated sovereignty.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

So Genesis 1 is a story about, yes, a God who has power. But it is the story of the beginning of the Kingdom of Humanity–a kingdom that is at the same time the Kingdom of God. The whole point of the story of the Bible is that God prefers for us to exercise authority on his behalf rather than doing it himself.

Mankind sins and is exiled from their palatial garden. Angels are put in their place to guard that garden. But, after Christ, Paul assures us that we will judge angels. God would not allow sin to foil his plan for humanity to be the mediator between heaven and earth. Angels were just a temporary stopgap.

In Christ, humanity is restored to his role as king under God. Christ’s exaltation is the exaltation of all believers–though they may experience their personal role in this reign differently. Thus, consider what Jesus writes of Psalm 2–a Psalm we would all tend to consider Messianic and never apply to ourselves. But Jesus applies it to us:

The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ (Revelation 2:26-29, ESV)

Likewise, when Daniel sees a vision of “one like a son of man” receiving a kingdom, he is told not that this is a prophecy of one man’s exaltation, but rather of the Kingdom being given to a group of people the saints. Daniel explains what he observed first:

I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14, ESV)

Then an angel explains to Daniel what his vision really means:

But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’ (Daniel 7:18, ESV)

And then Daniel 7 concludes with a song that reiterates the interpretation:

And the kingdom and the dominion
and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;
his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,
and all dominions shall serve and obey him.’ (Daniel 7:27, ESV)

Except that may not be the translation. The ESV offers another possibility in a footnote:

their kingdom shall be an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them

Jesus took upon himself the title of the figure Daniel saw. And he invoked this handing over of authority when confronted with the charge that he had blasphemed by telling a paralytic that his sins were forgiven. The crowd knows the story of Daniel’s vision and they conclude that humanity now has been delegated new powers.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9:6-8, ESV)

My point in these few passages is that the kingdom is exactly what the Bible is about, what it says it is about, what it begins and ends with, and what it repeatedly comes back to.

Genesis doesn’t just happen to end with the story of a man who becomes king of the world at the right hand of the emperor.

Or consider the book of Proverbs–a book I sometimes think intellectual Evangelicals are embarrassed by.

If you are a believer in a religion that is best expressed as four spiritual laws or a flow-chart or a chart about the dispensations of history, or a scheme of double predestination, or many other things (some of which may or may not be true–the issue is not veracity but primacy), then it will be a mystery to you why God wrote the book of Proverbs and put it in our Bibles.

But…

If you are a practitioner of a religion centered on a story that begins with how God made men and women to relate to Him and one another as they take dominion over the world, and move downstream from their garden home, and find gold, and start trading and have to raise children and eventually build cities that are supposed to further reflect the glory of God, then you will completely understand why the book of Proverbs had to be included as Scripture.

The kingdom of God (and of Humanity by creation and then redemption) is, in fact, what makes wisdom so important. This isn’t an association invented by Solomon; it again starts in Genesis. The first time wisdom is mentioned in the Bible, it is used to describe what tempted Eve about the tree–that it was desirable to make her wise.

This seems to be the equivalent of gaining the knowledge of good and evil, having one’s eyes opened… and being like God.

At the end of Genesis 3 God seems to agree with these equivalences:

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil…”

Adam and Eve are naked in the beginning of Genesis. Genesis ends with a man who, after repeatedly losing his robe of authority through injustice, gains authority over the whole world… precisely because he is wise.

This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck.

So nakedness means one has not yet been clothed in authority. God had prepared humanity to learn such wisdom and rule. In Christ that plan is restored and elevated. This is a basic image in the book of Revelation where priest-kings are given robes to wear.

The point of all this is simple: No one can possibly claim to understand the Bible and have it basically right, and yet treat the Kingdom as some kind of puzzle to be sorted out after all the really important stuff is settled. If Evangelicals are really puzzling over the Kingdom then they haven’t understood the Bible.<>продвижение веб ов

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Death of Death 1: Some thoughts on starting J. I. Packer’s introduction

ji-packer=john-owenI have decided to re-read John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. I’m reading the Banner of Truth paperback scan with the introduction by J. I. Packer.

J. I. Packer makes it clear that the Gospel is at stake in John Owen’s defense of “Limited Atonement.” This is the kind of thing where, if Packer is right, then the issue is really important. But if Packer is wrong, then he is being highly schismatic.

I may deal more with that later. What I want to notice in this blog post is that Packer has what a reader could interpret as two different versions of limited atonement in the first few pages of his introduction. On page 4 he sets out the five points:

(1.) Fallen man in his natural state lacks all power to believe the gospel, just as he lacks all power to believe the law, despite all external inducements that may be extended to him, (2.) God’s election is a free, sovereign, unconditional choice of sinners, as sinners, to be redeemed by Christ, given faith, and brought to glory. (3) The redeeming work of Christ had as its end and goal the salvation of the elect. (4.) The work of the Holy Spirit in bringing men to faith never fails to achieve its object. (5). Believers are kept in faith and grace by the unconquerable power of God till they come to glory.

However, on page 7 he specifies that, the redeeming work of Christ actually accomplishes the salvation of the elect in a significant way.

Calvinists, however, define redemption as Christ’s actual substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners, through which God was reconciled to them, their liability to punishment was forever destroyed, and title to eternal life was secured for them.

In my opinion, the most natural reading of the second description–the understanding I remember deriving from these words when I first read Packer in my youth–is plainly wrong.

When Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus he was chosen by God for eternal salvation, but he was also an enemy of God, liable to punishment for his sins, and had no title to eternal life. God had decreed to bring him to repentance and faith and union with Christ to grant him that title, but he had no claim on it yet. God had not given it to him yet.

On the formula offered above, if Stephen called out to Saul, as he saw him overseeing the garments of the Sanhedrin, and warned Saul he was under God’s wrath for his hardness of heart and violence against the Church, Stephen would be making a claim that was not true. The penalty for Saul’s past, present, and future sins had already been paid. The wrath of God was already satisfied for him.

The Westminster Confession contradicts this position:

God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect, and Christ did, in the fullness of time, die for their sins, and rise again for their justification: nevertheless, they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them. (“Of Justification” – Chapter 11, paragraph 4).

I remember reading the Confession and yet never really thinking about what this paragraph was telling me. If memory serves (and it may be inaccurate) part of the reason I couldn’t really acknowledge this paragraph was precisely because I had read J. I. Packer’s introduction to The Death of Death by John Owen. It blinded me. I remember the recruiter from Westminster Theological Seminary, talking to me at Houghton College (late 80s) and mentioning that Arminians had no theory of the atonement at all. And I of course thought that made perfect sense at the time. Now I realize I had implicitly denied justification by faith.

What I find odd is that Packer wants to affirm a Trinitarian salvation. On page 6:

For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners. God–the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power, and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of the Father and the Son by renewing.

But if Jesus has already given us title to eternal life, and made us no longer liable to eternal punishment, then I don’t see how this Trinitarian salvation holds up. The Spirit then, is not working to achieve salvation but is, in fact, simply an effect of salvation. He works to prevent unregenerate unbelievers from dying and going to heaven because God has already removed his wrath from them.

I have other problems with this second description. Allow me to quote it again with the next sentence included:

Calvinists, however, define redemption as Christ’s actual substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners, through which God was reconciled to them, their liability to punishment was forever destroyed, and title to eternal life was secured for them. In consequence of this, they now have in God’s sight a right to the gift of faith, as the means of entry into the enjoyment of their inheritance.

That is simply not what Calvinists believe, it is not logically demanded from Calvinism, and (unless John Owen can prove otherwise) it is not biblical. People are not adopted at the cross–in billions of case, before they actually exist–and then discover the enjoyment of this inheritance later in life when they are converted to faith by the Spirit. Anyone who has memorized the Westminster Shorter Catechism knows this is the case:

Q. 34. What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of, the sons of God.

And when are we adopted? The Catechism gives us the time frame:

Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.

Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Q. 31. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

Q. 32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?
A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.

No one has legal benefits, rights, or privileges before God as unbelievers who are not justified, even though God has chosen them for salvation and sent Christ to die and rise for them with their salvation as the end or goal of that work. We become heirs when we repent and believe. We don’t do this ourselves, God’s Spirit gives us faith by grace.

Since Packer is declaring what “Calvinism” is, I’m going to suggest it might be helpful to go to the source. Here is John Calvin, Book 3, of The Institutes of the Christian Religion:

THE WAY IN WHICH WE RECEIVE THE GRACE OF CHRIST: WHAT BENEFITS COME TO US FROM IT, AND WHAT EFFECTS FOLLOW

Chapter I: The Things Spoken Concerning Christ Profit Us by the Secret Working of the Spirit

1. The Holy Spirit as the bond that unites us to Christ. WE must now examine this question. How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son–Not for Christ’s own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us.

Calvin’s words immediately line up with the Westminster Standards from a century or so later. They don’t work that well with Packer’s description of the work of Christ–the one he insists all Calvinists believe in.

(Cross-posted)<>как написать текст для главной страницы ацена копирайтинга

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If you want to be an unbeliever at least don’t be an idiot about it: Reza Aslan and the parameters of historical Jesus theories

zealotThis is not a book review because I have not yet read Reza Aslan’s Zealot. Allan Nadler is no inerrentist, but he shows quite well many of Aslan’s intellectual shortcomings–though I might quibble with Nadler later on. What I want to do in this post is equip people, whether Christians or unbelievers, on how to talk and think about “the historical Jesus” so they aren’t taken in by pretenders by Aslan.

The basic historical question about Jesus is this:

WHY DO WE REMEMBER HIM?

That question can be asked in many different ways, but the bottom line is, even if he was only a genius at PR, or even if only he had some highly influential follower who promoted him, something has to explain the fact that, out of all the people who lived in Palestine at that time, his name is known to us.

When people do historical research, they don’t want to conclude that something “just happened.” They want to provide intellectually satisfying explanations. So any theory of how Jesus arose in history has to meet that challenge. Otherwise, it only amounts to the guess that Jesus somehow got lucky.

Furthermore, when people research a historical figure who stirred up followers and/or enemies in his own time period, we need to understand what those people found so compelling or challenging. Jesus, as a Palestinian Jew, had a message and/or did things to which his contemporary fellow Jews responded.

This means, for example, that we can be pretty sure Jesus did not preach generic abstract lectures about peace and love. He was not a roving hippy (though some have tried to import the alleged role of “Cynic” from the Greek world into Palestine in order to get him as close as possible). He wasn’t a roving systematic theologian either. If he had gone around the country declaring himself “the Second Person of the Trinity” the only fact that would be explained in the Gospels would be his family’s conviction that he was insane. But crowds do not gather to hear incomprehensible word strings. I fully believe Jesus is God incarnate, and that Trinitarian theology is the only way to integrate the truths of Scripture, including Jesus’ words in the Gospel. But we need to distinguish between our overarching views and what Jesus was dealing with in his own context.

Christians are quite capable of tracking context in some cases, but they have trained themselves to be comfortable with inconsistency. When a Roman Catholic appeals to John 6, the average Protestant suddenly becomes almost a source critic. But yet that same Protestant will tell us that Jesus, when he met Nicodemus (John 3), had a prepared lecture on monergism and the ordo salutis that he had to deliver (and that it had nothing to do with the immediate context of John baptizing a new Israel).

How did Jesus’ contemporaries see him? What did Jesus claim about himself that made him both a celebrity and an enemy? Nadler rather disappointed me at one point:

Depicting the religious mood of first-century Palestine early on in the book, Aslan asserts that there were “countless messianic pretenders” among the Jews (there were no more than an eminently countable half-dozen).

In the context of Aslan’s other exaggerations, this one seems relatively modest. And further, I’m not sure that we can know that the ones we counted are the only one’s who arose. Didn’t Jesus himself tell us there were many more pretenders coming?

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. (Matthew 24:23-26, ESV/ Mark 13:21-22/ Luke 17:23)

Unhappily, the vast majority of the people today who regard Jesus as God incarnate and the savior of the world have been trained to read these words and apply them to some mythical future “end times” scenario, rather than acknowledge the plain context that Jesus was warning of messianic movements that he expected to tempt his own disciples. So the fact that Jesus himself classified himself as one of many messianic claimants (albeit, the only genuine one) is completely overlooked.

But we can also see another example of how Jesus was classified by his contemporaries:

When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. (Acts 5:33-40, ESV)

So, there you have it. If Jesus’ followers are declaring him to be the Christ/Messiah, then of course he is to be classified with other insurrectionist leaders who fought the Romans.

If this sounds obtuse to you, be assured it is at the heart of debates over the historical Jesus. There is a whole publishing industry dedicated to the proposition that Jesus never declared himself to be the Messiah–that such a title was fraudulently given to him after he was gone from the scene. Here, the Christian belief in Jesus’ uniqueness actually provides cover for an otherwise ludicrous form of unbelief. Because Jesus is so unique, it is hard to think of the most obvious response: Why wouldn’t Jesus claim to be the Messiah at a time when it was being done by popular leaders in Palestine so often?

But that is the proper response. Jesus is not unique because he claimed to be Christ in that place and that period of history. He is unique because, as N. T. Wright points out, he retained loyalty after being killed. For all other Messianic claimants, being killed ended the movement because it demonstrated that the claimant was not only wrong, but that he was a pretender and thus worthy of condemnation.

So as much as it pains me to say it of a pretender like Reza Aslan, why is he not given more credit for presenting us a Jesus who was both Jewish and Messianic? He has at least popularized a book that fights against many others that are just as unbelieving–that want to make Jesus into a modern pacifist and guru. Thus I find Nadler’s response quite frustrating:

Aslan is, to be sure, a gifted writer. The book’s Prologue is both titillating and bizarre. Entitled “A Different Sort of Sacrifice” it opens with a breezy depiction of the rites of the Jerusalem Temple, but very quickly descends to its ominously dark denouement: the assassination of the High Priest, Jonathan ben Ananus, on the Day of Atonement, 56 C.E., more than two decades after Jesus’s death:

The assassin elbows through the crowd, pushing close enough to Jonathan to reach out an invisible hand, to grasp the sacred vestments, to pull him away from the Temple guards and hold him in place just for an instant, long enough to unsheathe a short dagger and slide it across his throat. A different sort of sacrifice.

There follows a vivid narration of the political tumult that had gripped Roman-occupied Palestine during the mid-first century, which Aslan employs to great effect in introducing readers to the bands of Jewish zealots who wreaked terror and havoc throughout Judea for almost a century. It seems like an odd way to open a book about the historical Jesus, who was crucified long before the Zealot party ever came into existence, until one catches on to what Aslan is attempting. The Prologue effectively associates Jesus, albeit as precursor, with that chillingly bloody murder by one of the many anonymous Jewish Zealots of first-century Palestine.

To address the obvious problem that the Jesus depicted in Christian Scriptures is the antithesis of a zealously political, let alone ignorant and illiterate, peasant rebel and bandit, Aslan deploys a rich arsenal of insults to dismiss any New Testament narrative that runs counter to his image of Jesus as a guerilla leader, who gathered and led a “corps” of fellow “bandits” through the back roads of the Galilee on their way to mount a surprise insurrection against Rome and its Priestly lackeys in Jerusalem. Any Gospel verse that might complicate, let alone undermine, Aslan’s amazing account, he insolently dismisses as “ridiculous,” “absurd,” “preposterous,” “fanciful,” “fictional,” “fabulous concoction,” or just “patently impossible.”

Let me start with what Nadler gets right. Any attempt to explain Jesus that leaves no explanation for the vast majority of the Gospels is doomed as a coherent theory. It ends up relying on “luck” as to why we remember Jesus. Jesus was just one of those defeated Christs, like Theudas or Judas the Galilean. So why is his name any more well-known than theirs? There is no explanation.

But Nadler does more. He gives the reader the unavoidable impression that Jonathan ben Ananus’ assassination has nothing to do with Jesus or the Gospels. And that is just crazy talk.

It doesn’t matter if “The Zealots” ™ didn’t exist as an official party during Jesus’ lifetime. The name wasn’t chosen at random. It had meaning and continuity with other “freedom fighter” groups. The Gospels all speak of the zealots and specifically contrast Jesus with them at the hour of his trial. Two decades before Jonathan ben Ananus there was his spiritual forefather:

After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber. (John 18:38-40, ESV)

I include this account because it designates Barabbas by the same word used for the two men crucified on either side of Jesus, as I’m sure Aslan made a great deal about (and as he should!). Barabbas’ behavior, however, was not simply what we American English speakers think of as robbery

But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”—a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will. (Luke 23:18-25, ESV)

So according to the Gospels, Jesus was a Messiah who didn’t measure up to what the people wanted. Jesus talked of the coming Kingdom, and the people were interested because they wanted the kingdom. But they eventually decided he wouldn’t get them where they wanted to go. He didn’t really have what it would take to bring in the kingdom, but Barabbas did.

Jesus not only is contrasted to Barabbas, but Luke’s Gospel (really all the gospels) show Jesus addressing the fate of Israel that will come about by future versions of Barabbas. Indeed, the very next scene in Luke after Barabbas is presented tells us of Jesus prophesying men like Jonathan ben Ananus

And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:27-31, ESV)

Jesus was being sent to his death as an insurrectionist while he is innocent of the charge. He is the green tree. But once these women’s children grow up and another crop of hatred is sown, in the resulting bloodshed there will be thousands of crosses outside a besieged Jerusalem.

Of course, many scholars don’t believe in any of this. They want the gospels written late enough to explain Jesus’ prophecies as after the fact revisionism. This is not without historical problems. Acts seems clearly written before AD 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem, yet it also seems clearly to have been written by Luke after he wrote his Gospel. Of course, there is another escape hatch for the person who wants an explanation that doesn’t involve Jesus being a supernatural prophet (or more): Perhaps it didn’t take prophetic insight to see where Israel was headed if it pursued the way of zealotry and rejected the way of peace. While I think that falls short of whom Jesus was and is, Jesus himself gives testimony that it didn’t take a weatherman to see which way the wind was blowing:

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 12.54-13.9)

Jesus said his hearers themselves should know what was coming if they did not change their ways. The Galileans slaughtered by Roman troops were only a foretaste of more of the same unless Israel stopped pursuing the Kingdom of God in Barabbas ways. More people in Jerusalem would be crushed under falling bricks if Israel did not repent. Jesus didn’t claim prophetic insight for seeing what was going to happen. He claimed to be a prophet when he told the Israelites that this fate was not glorious martyrdom for faithfulness to the Torah but rather God’s wrath on a nation of law-breaking terrorists.

Again, there are unbelieving scholars who read much of this and are not convinced to acknowledge that Jesus Is Lord. I’m not claiming I have proven it from what I have said in this post, either. But they have acknowledged more that Aslan was willing to acknowledge because they know that a historical explanation for Jesus has to account for why he is not forgotten like all the other Messiahs of his day.

Why does Aslan find his portrayal so satisfying? I don’t know. Since I am a believer I am sure he would discount my feelings on the matter. But I think there are plenty of non-christians, if they have any knowledge of the primary source documents, who would agree with me. It seems to me that Jesus’ popularity and then sudden unpopularity is quite credible and ought to be part of any account worth considering for the historical Jesus. So how can Aslan so readily discount it, along with most of the other information?

A theory comes to my mind that I am almost ashamed of. I don’t believe that all modern followers of Islam are terrorists, jihadist, or sharia advocates. Nothing about Aslan’s public life makes me think of him as some faithful follower of Mohammad. He just seems like some modern guy who identifies with Islam the same way a secular, atheist Jew identifies with Judaism. Maybe I’m wrong. And maybe what I see is just a secular game against Christians. Rather than a “self-justification” it is just another condemnation of alleged hypocrisy.

But whatever his motives, Aslan has decided to treat it as self-evident that Jesus was a terrorist. All other evidence just gets thrown out as self-evident “nonsense.” At this point, it seems far easier to explain Aslan’s intellectual decisions on the basis of modern politics rather than on the basis of the actual data from the first century.

What bothers me the most is how easily the entire public has been played. Hatred of Fox News combined with a sneering confidence in one’s own sophistication opens oneself up to believe anything that John Stewart of Bill Maher jokes about.

In case some things I wanted to make sure readers took away got lost in my verbiage about Aslan, let me end with an articulation of the basic questions of the historical Jesus (almost all of which I am badly remembering from the work of N. T. Wright).  Just remember two basic points.

  • Jesus needs to be both comprehensible and crucifiable within his own historical context (Aslan in this case leaves him half-crucifiable, but no explanation for any of the records about how he was rejected by the majority of his own generation)
  • We have two historical entities, First Century Judaism and First Century Christianity. Jesus is arrived at as the middle term who realistically fits in Judaism (which Aslan did) and then believably starts or at least causes Christianity (which Aslan left completely mysterious).

The historical Jesus is a fascinating pursuit for believer and unbeliever alike. Don’t be an idiot about it.

I’m not referring to Aslan of course. I’m referring to the people who were taken in by the Fox News fiasco.<>mobi onlineподдержка ов россия

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