Technorati Tags: christian carnival, meta-blogging

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I will deal with the first charge by examining if the letters in Revelation 2-3 have only one purpose for one audience.

First: These are real churches with real problems and the letters were addressed to each of them. They contained warning or praise and the encouragement to either correct or carry on. This was important to the life of these specific local bodies and that’s why Christ tells John to write to them (Rev 1:20).

Second: The seven churches weren’t meant to receive only their respective letters but also the letters of the other churches since the book traveled as a whole. This isn’t a matter to update one church on the doings of the other six but it does seem to indicate that Christ is warning all seven (Rev 2:11, 23) with the warnings of the other seven. The problems in Ephesus could just as easily be the problems in Philadelphia: so he who has an ear let him hear.

Third: The book opens with the Lord speaking addressing the contents of the book to these seven churches (Rev 1:11) followed by a vision. The Lord explains the vision (Rev 1:20) by saying he stands in the midst of these seven churches (not more churches, as I mentioned in Point 3) and capped off with the words “write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things” (Rev 1:17) and then an explanation of Christ in the midst of The Seven Churches (Rev 1:19).

As stated,  the book was to travel as a whole. It would not only be seen by Pergamos, Smyrna, Thyatira, Ephesus, Philadelphia, Laodicea,  and Sardis—it would also be seen by Corinth, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, Jerusalem and Antioch.

Does the Church of Jerusalem not have a lamp stand (Matt 5:14)? Is it only these churches to the exclusion of all others? Are all other churches immune from the dangers that these seven are being warned about?

The warning of Rev 2:23 then applies to all local bodies showing the possibility of error (and proper activity) by each local body.

Fourth: If we were to stop for a moment and, with the knowledge that this book is to travel as a whole in our back pocket, consider all of history since the writing of the letter and noticing how the church started to operate (not only as local bodies but as a region wide entity with certain color across those regions and space) then we see that the application can transcend the local bodies. The Church of the first century (generally) functioned exceedingly differently from the Church in the fourth century and both are very different from the Church of the sixteenth and twenty first century, respectively.

In other words, generally speaking, even with a sticky history, the Church across time has, as a whole, acted in different ways and has participated in some of the very activities that some of these local bodies were warned of.

Indeed, the letters speak of judgment (Rev 2:5, 16: 3:3, 16), near-future events (Rev 2:10,22 ) and distant future events (Rev 2:17,23, 25-28; 3:4-5, 9, 10-12, 21). The local churches of yesteryear may long be gone—but the speaking of future events remains.

I’m not even sure how someone can contest that the events spoken in those last verses are distant future: they refer to others sitting on Christ’s throne, His coming, His clothing of the righteous in white, His giving of a secret name—all things that the book, incidentally, records in the later chapters . But, unless all these things happened in secret, they’re just things that haven’t historically happened.

Christ, the Speaker (and not John the amanuensis) would have known that and these letters to these seven churches would have stood as a testimony against the broad church across history.

Fifth: The letters contextually stand in a stream of a apocalyptic writing with a lot of intense pictures: often very hard to understand. This is, after all, the Lord in Glory, the Son of God with power, speaking and not John and with all four purposes being explicit who knows if it has some sort of other level that was recorded with intentionality that we don’t know about.

By the time the Revelation of Christ was recorded, the other books of the New Testament were already written—including all those words that the authors recorded of Jesus’ earthly ministry. The Lord would surely know this (so would John) and that would, I think, encourage people to read the words of Christ and find where things might correlate.

So the text might be doing something else but whatever it is doing, the reader is likely encouraged to see how the Lord speaks here correlates with how he speaks elsewhere. Indeed, this point might even be able to be expanded by noting the imagery that Christ shows John (lights, trees, squares, temples, angels, etc).

Concluding thoughts: This all then shows that the letters to the churches have at least four and maybe even five purposes: (1) to address the situations  in the specifically mentioned local bodies, (2) to serve as a warning and encouragement for the other churches that  were addressed (3)to travel and serve as a warning to all the churches abroad (4) to function as a warning and encouragement to the church as a whole throughout time (5) to be read in conjunction with the other messages of the Lord and discover correlations.

And  although I think those five purposes are operative I don’t think it justifies some of the wilder things done with the text: like counting numbers to find a code, or digging up root words and their meanings to discover a label of the activity or the reason the local body was picked (I think the order of the local bodies was in a semi-circle starting from the nearest city to Patmos, up and around to the furthest inland city—but who really can say: the Lord was walking in the midst of the Churches so he was nearby all of them).

So, as to the churches in this section being a preview of Church history, or a recapitulation of all history since Eden, or something else—I don’t know. But I do think that flattening the purpose of the text here to one time locale (be it historic or futuristic) or one audience (be it Ephesus or Jerusalem or New York) is problematic.

Technorati Tags: letters, revelation

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

He comes up three times in the New Testament, and always with a negative view as a prototype for a specific type of teacher.

• Says Jud 9-11, be careful with these false teachers who rail against what they don’t understand—these False Teachers who for money plunge willingly into the error of Balaam.
• The Apostle Peter (2 Peter 2:13-16) brings up a similar point speaking about these false teachers who for the love of money in payment of wrongdoing, up and leave the Right Path.
• And you have Rev 2:14 where our Lord is speaking to the Church at Pergamum and he states that one of the things he has against them is that there are some among them who hold to the teaching of Balaam. Now whatever that teaching is in the church at Pergamum, the Lord states the point by reminding them of what Balaam did: he taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.

The two previously mentioned passages deal with a similar negative quality: the false teachers (like Balaam) willingly go the wrong way for money. The third New Testament passage focuses, not on the money, but on the teaching to embrace and use idolatry and immorality.

In the Old Testament, Balaam comes up several times but it’s usually a reiteration of what occurs in the Numbers 22-24. The details of the story, I think, are important but a lot of commentaries tend to cut up the story as if it is silent to the character of Balaam. One commentary I read (I can’t remember which) says that Balaam is actually pretty admirable in these chapters and it is only years later, after the Old Testament is written, that Balaam is finally an example of an openly evil character. Weird reading of the text, that.

Anyway, some notes of how Balaam looks, at first blush, as doing the right thing.

• He checks with God, twice, before going to Balak. (Num 22:8, 19)
• He refuses to speak a word outside of what God says. (Num 22:18; 23:12, 26; 24:12-13)
• He stands firm stating that whatever money is sent, God is the one who decides. (Num 22:18-19; 24:12-13)
• He moves when God tells him to move (Num 22:13; 21, 35)
• He repents (Num 22:34)
• His prophecies contain personal hopes that recognize God’s goodness towards Israel (Num 23:7-10)

Several commentaries I’ve read also take the story of Balaam, the Angel of the Lord, and his ass as some random story that was (mis)inserted in the middle of the Balaam story to add some extra information—but it really has nothing to do with anything except for maybe building tension. That just strikes me as strange and ignoring the use of story in ancient literature.

Story, when place next to story, illustrates a Point without outright stating the point. In this story, Balaam drives his ass forward three times, with beatings, driving her down the road to meet Balak  (Num 22:23, 24, 26) and each time the ass is being beaten for saving Balaam’s life: the angel of the Lord is standing in Balaam’s way. It’s ironic because soon, Balak will be driving Balaam to curse (three times) and the Lord will be standing in Balak’s way.

Another bit of irony: the last time, when the Lord makes the ass speak, Balaam says that if there was a sword nearby he would use it to kill the donkey: there is a sword nearby but it’s not for the donkey, it’s for Balaam!

Be that as it may, the Lord is angry with Balaam because he is going to Balak ( Num 22:22) and that is after God tells Balaam to go (Num 22:20) and even ends this story with telling him to go (Num 22:35)

I think that the passage highlights something off about Balaam’s character and it brings up questions to my mind.

• If the Lord already gave a firm no (Num 22:12), why did Balaam feel the need to ask twice (Num 22:10, 19)?
• Why would he abuse the animal the way he did if it never has acted that way before (Num 22:30)?
• The angel was planning to kill Balaam—why is he wonder “if” the way of Balaam is displeasing? Isn’t it obviously displeasing (Num 22:34)?

To me, it points to a man who is accustomed to having his own way, even if he passively ingratiates himself with requests and conditional statements. The commentators would tell me I’m reading into the text with this point but I think that this comes out later as well.

When Balaam prophesies the first three times, he has Balak set up an altar with offerings (Num 23:1-3, 13-15, 29-30). It is the forth time, not at the request of Balak, and giving up on the omens for divination, he just starts speaking what the Lord has him say (Num 24:1-2). What’s interesting here is that the giving up of the omens indicates that the man was trying to grease the wheels to still get his own way. His responses to Balak, therefore, don’t sound like mere defense of a man dedicated to speaking the words of God but an ass of a man realizing that to say otherwise, even noting that the gifts of appeasement aren’t helping things, would result in his death.

So in this story, Balaam is refused payment (Num 22:17; 23:37,  compared to  Num 24:11) and goes home his separate way (Num 24:25) but, later on, Israel winds up killing Balaam in the process of killing the Moabites and Midianites (Num 31:8).

I have to ask: if Balaam had parted in bad company, why and how was he numbered with the dead leadership? I think that’s where the next verse is helpful:

“Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord.” (Nu 31:16 // NASB95)

The passage is speaking about the Israelite failure in Numbers 25 where they were joined in idolatry and immorality with the surrounding nation. It looks like Balaam wound up having his own way. He didn’t get a chance to curse (for money) like he wanted to, but he got a chance to set up a trap that resulted in a cursing and a slaying of some 22,000 Israelites: that’s a success for the enemy of the People of God.

This all helps me think about the false teachers that can creep in: the kinds that are seeking their own desires for money, fame, reward and prestige. The kind that do not bend their will to the desires of God but consistently seek what’s right in their own eyes, to the detriment of the People of God.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou shinest on us by thy word, we may not be blind at midnight, nor wilfully seek darkness, and thus lull our minds asleep: but may we be roused daily by thy words, and may we stir up ourselves more and more to fear thy name and thus present ourselves and all our pursuits, as a sacrifice to thee, that thou mayest peaceably rule, and perpetually dwell in us, until thou gatherest us to thy celestial habitation, where there is reserved for us eternal rest and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Technorati Tags: Calvin, prayer monday

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live (originally die) to make men free;
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

Technorati Tags: battle hymn of the republic, julia ward howe, prayer mondays

Bookmark It

Hide Sites