DeeperStudy Blog

Christ "Pitched His Tent" Among Us

2009-10-29T22:32:00.008-05:00

In a pivotal verse of the Fourth Gospel's prologue, the Apostle John writes,"The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us" (John 1:14 NIV). Lying behind the italicized words is the Greek verb skēnoō, one member of a whole group of words that share the root skēn- ("tent"). This root is the origin of our word 'scene'--the original scenery in plays was made of canvas, just like tents. The NIV translation attempts to convey the temporary nature of a tent dwelling by adding to 'lived' the phrase 'for a while.' But is transient the symbolism intended in this passage?

A couple of times in the New Testament, a skēn- word does have this transitory connotation. For evample, in 2 Cor. 5:1,4, Paul uses 'tent' (skēnos) to describe the mortal human body in contrast with the immortal resurrected body, which he calls a building. Likewise, Peter can refer to his own physical body as "this tent" (skēnōma, 2 Peter 1:13-14).

But at other times, the temporary aspect seems to be lacking. Besides John 1:14, all of the other occurrences of the verb skēnoō occur in the Book of Revelation, and those contexts can help us to clarify the meaning in John's prologue. Rev. 7:15 says that the martyrs serve God day and night in his sanctuary and that "he will spread his tent" over them. The significance is shelter, protection. Rev. 12:12 and 13:16 refer to those who "dwell" (literally "tent") in heaven. Rev. 21:3 once more refers to God, whose "tent is with people, and He will dwell with them."

Of all of these verses from the Apocalypse, we must ask whether their contexts indicate a temporary housing situation. The answer is consistently no. The shelter God gives to the martyrs is permanent (7:15). Those in heaven are there permanently (12:12 and 13:6), and Rev. 21:3 is referring to the permanent communion of God with His children, as confirmed in 22:5's "forever and ever."

The nouns in the skēn- word group sometimes lead us in the same direction, for Jesus counsels his hearers to "make friends for yourselves with unrighteous Mammon [money] so that when it is gone, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings (pl. of skēnē)." Impermanence is certainly not the point here. In Acts 7:46, Stephen speaks of David asking to find "a dwelling [literally, 'tent' skēnōma] for the God of Jacob." In the next verse, Stephen says Solomon was the one who built a house for Him. The context seems to make 'tent' and 'house' synonymous.

So what is the meaning of skēnoō in John 1:14? If impermanence is not the point, what is? Another possibility arises from the use of 'tent' in the Synoptic accounts of the transfiguration. Peter, seeing Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah, offers to build three shelters (literally, 'tents'--pl. of skēnē) for them (Mark 9:5; Matt. 17:4; Luke 9:33). Peter's motivation seems to be the opposite of impermanence; he wants to prolong the meeting. His purpose was to facilitate the fellowship the three were having by giving all three of them some shelter from the elements.

This idea of sharing a common existence may be the point of John 1:14. All human beings among whom Jesus came have pitched their "tents," and Jesus did too. He came to be, not just among them, but also one of them.

Nor is this a temporary identification. His oneness with us, begun in the virginal conception, continues through all eternity. At the resurrection, He received a transformed, immortal, glorified body--His flesh became incorruptible, yes, but it was, and is, still flesh. Jesus became human, became one of us, and He remains human, remains one of us (2 Tim. 2:5--the man Jesus Christ is [present tense] mediator between God and humans; see also Phil. 3:21). It is a profound mystery, but one of the wonders of redemption.

Want to go deeper?

Recommended to purchase:

Millard J. Erickson. The Word Became Flesh: A Contemporary Incarnational Christology (1991).

The church first answered conflicts over the deity and humanity of Christ at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. But Erickson finds Chalcedon's definition too narrow and negative a response to the "Christs" of liberation, feminism, blackness, functionalism, universalism, and postmodern theologies, among others. There must be a new Chalcedon - a doctrine that confesses what Jesus is not, but also affirms all that He is. The Word Became Flesh returns the theological discussion to what Christ said about himself and what Scripture deems important to stress. Erickson is a research professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His Ph.D. is from Northwestern University, with postdoctoral studies at the University of Munich.

Recommended for online reading:

Wayne A. Grudem. "Jesus Will Be a Man Forever," 542-543 in his Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (1994).

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

* * * Copyright ©2005 Steve Singleton, All rights reserved. Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has been a book editor, newspaper reporter, news editor, and public relations consultant. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean. Go to his DeeperStudy.com for Bible study resources, no matter what your level of expertise.
Explore "The Shallows," plumb "The Depths," or use the well-organized "Study Links" for original sources in English translation.

Sign up for Steve's free "DeeperStudy Newsletter."

Hyperabundantly: Paul's Challenge to Move Beyond

2009-10-23T19:40:00.014-05:00

In three passages Paul uses a very unusual Greek word. The adjective perissos, perissē, perisson means "abundant" or "going beyond" what is necessary (e.g., John 10:10). If you prefix the preposition ek to it, you intensify the meaning, yielding the adverb ekperissōs, "excessively" (e.g., Mark 14:31). Add another prepositional prefix, this time huper (meaning with the accusative, "over and above, beyond" the source of our word "hyper"), and you intensify the word even more, resulting in the adverb, huperekperissou or in some manuscripts huperekperissōs, defined in the Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker lexicon (840) as "quite beyond all measure," adding "(highest form of comparison imaginable)."

Paul uses this adverb twice in First Thessalonians. While expressing his intense concern for the welfare of the Christians in Thessalonica, Paul says in 3:10 that night and day he is petitioning (God) beyond all measure for permission to see them again. What is the adverb expressing about Paul's prayers? Is it the frequency with which he makes this request, or the intensity and depth of passion he infuses into each one of them. Perhaps we do not have to choose between the alternatives, for the one certainly goes with the other, at least when the Apostle Paul is concerned.

Then near the end of the epistle, Paul tells his readers how they should treat their leaders: "Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work" (5:13). The word "highest" falls short of expressing the degree of amplification that huperekperissou conveys. Paul is speaking of a respect that borders on reverence, conditioned of course by his description in the previous verse of the work these leaders are doing: "they are laboring among you," connoting strenuous effort.

Years later, Paul wrote Ephesians, concluding the first half of the epistle with this doxology: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen" (3:20-21). God's ability to work through us, His power at work within us, Paul says is limitless. It is, as the King James Version says, "exceeding abundantly above" the limits our small minds place on it.

God's hyper-abundant power was what was at work within Paul when he offered those 24/7 hyper-abundant prayers for the Thessalonians. And Paul was hopeful that the same hyper-abundant power would work among them as they paid hyper-abundant respect to their hard-working leaders.

That same power is available to us today. It is a power that bursts through all barriers we would place on it, that stretches any confines, and that challenges us, rather than resisting its dynamism, to "go with the flow" and become radical Christians. It inspires us to invest our brain power, our passions, our muscular force, our time, money, talents, interest, and our imagination--to intensify what we are doing for Christ. By the word "hyper-abundantly," Paul urges us to step it up, not a notch, but peg it out, all the way to the top and beyond.

Want to go deeper?

Recommended to purchase:

Shane Claiborne. The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (2006).

During college, a professor remarked, "Being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life." Taking up that challenge, Shane's faith led him to dress the wounds of lepers with Mother Teresa, visit families in Iraq amidst bombings, and dump $10,000 on Wall Street to redistribute wealth. This book challenges you with a radical Christianity passionate for peace, social justice, and alleviating the suffering found in the local neighborhood and distant reaches of the world. Live out your faith with little acts of radical love as you join the movement of God's Spirit into a broken world.

Recommended for online reading:

Charles H. Spurgeon. "Paul's Doxology," 661-672, in his Metropolitan Tabernacle Sermons, vol. 21 (1875).

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

Truthing One Another in Love

2009-10-18T16:06:00.005-05:00

When Paul wanted to explain to the Ephesian Christians what it means to reach maturity in Christ, he uses a term that strictly has no English equivalent. Instead of the Greek noun for "truth," alētheia, he employs the corresponding Greek verb, alētheuō, which literally translated would mean "to truth someone."

I suppose you could translate it "to tell the truth" or "to speak the truth," which is in fact the translation we encounter in most English version of this verse, Eph. 4:15: "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is Christ." But it's possible that "truthing one another" means something more.

Alētheuō might suggest communicating truth in all of the others ways besides just words, such as (to name a few): body language, intonation, facial expression, actions (which "speak louder than words"), intentions, attitude, and spending habits ("put your money where your mouth is"). In his article on truth for the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, A. C. Thiselton comment about the use of alētheuō in Eph. 4:15: "It is possible that alētheuō here entails integrity of life in addition to truthful speech" (3:887).

Look at the context. In contrast to the charlatans who, in their cunning and craftiness, deceive people with their teaching, Paul anticipates a time when Christians have the maturity to be so open and honest with each other, they "truth" one another--they invest all that they are in what they are saying. Their sincerity is unimpeachable.

The only other time this verb occurs in the New Testament is in Gal. 4:16, where Paul asks, "Have I now becoming your enemy by truthing to you?" Once more, the idea in context suggests telling the truth in a that goes far beyond words. The Galatian opponents of Paul were telling lies to win over his converts. Paul refused to mince words; he truthed them. This was the best proof he had that his deep friendship with them was unbroken.

God wants all of His children to "truth" to one another. He wants us to be honest through and through, to have a unquestionable consistency between our lip, our heart, and our life. That's what it takes to reflect the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, who once "truthed" this: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).

Want to go deeper?

Do you own Bible word study on the related terms "truth" and "true." When does "true" actually mean "real," and when is it closer to "faithful"? You will discover some great texts, like John 8:32, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." What does Jesus mean by this promise? Is He speaking about truth in general, or some specific truth? Ask probing questions of other verses you will find.

Recommended to purchase:

Daniel Berger. Speaking the Truth in Love: Christian Public Rhetoric (2007).

Approaches public communication from a liberal arts point of view and provides a distinctly Christian perspective of rhetoric. Written and oral rhetoric are interwoven throughout the text. Two foundational ideas control the majority of the text. The first is from Plato's Phaedrus as stated by Paul in Ephesians 4:15, "speaking the truth in love." The second is from the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4:11, "if anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God."

The spiritual responsibility of communicating truth in accordance with the nature of God, especially the virtue of love, is an awesome privilege and opportunity. Sound content spoken or written eloquently with charisma will enable words to have a maximum impact. Beginning with a philosophy of language, meaning, and interaction, argument is built against secular deconstructive thought where everyone has a different truth based on language. Alongside philosophy we explore ethics and theology from an evangelical perspective. Following this a brief history outlines rhetorical thought from pre-testament classics to today. Based upon these ideas we take a closer look at communication theory as it relates to public communication.

Recommended for online reading:

Henry Ward Beecher. "Sovereignty & Permanence of Love," 117-134 (esp. 121), in his The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn (7th series, 1871-1872).

The Blame Game Goes Into Overtime

2009-09-21T15:24:00.011-05:00

Shirking responsibility is as old as the first man, the first woman, and the first Humble Pie no one wanted to eat. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the Serpent, and the Serpent didn't have a leg to stand on (Genesis 3:9-19).

Where did Bart Simpson learn his famous semi-self-incrimination, "I-didn't-do-it-nobody-saw-me-do-it-you-can't-prove-anything"? From his shift-the-blame father, Homer? Or maybe from watching the press conferences of accused politicians?

At work people repeat the adage, "Fix problems, not blame," even while they back-pedal and ask leading questions, like, "What did you know and when did you know it?" No one wants to 'fess up and admit, "It was my fault, and I'm gonna make it right." We all want to avoid the blame, which is really not the same as being truly blameless.

Yet there has been One among us who, though innocent Himself, was willing to take on our sins, to bear the burden of our mistakes, and to suffer the penalty for our crimes. We who accused really thought He was guilty, but it was our guilt that was laid on Him, our punishment He suffered.

God made Him, who knew no sin, to be made the sin offering for us, so that through Him we might become God's righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

His willingness to bear our sins, however, does not take away the necessity for us to own up to our failures. His voluntary sacrifice prompts us to confess our sins, to renounce them, and to forsake them (see 1 John 1:7-10; 2:1-6). As long as we say, "I didn't do it," or "I'm not to blame," or "I'm not responsible for my actions," we cannot receive the forgiveness He has paid for. It is too precious for us to deny its necessity, too dear for us to squander.

Our pardon is available only when we are willing to plead guilty to our crimes, when we are ready to declare to anyone who will listen, "Yes, I did it. God saw me do it. He can prove everything."

--Steve Singleton
DeeperStudy.com

Want to go deeper?

The Greek adjective amemptos, -on ("blameless, faultless") and its related adverb apply to Christians, not because they are sinless, but because they are forgiven and walk after Jesus, having their sins cleansed by His blood (see Philippians 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 John 1:7). The eighth-century BCE prophet Isaiah predicted Christ's role as sin-bearer (Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 10-12), a role celebrated again and again in the New Testament (see John 1:29; Acts 8:30-35; Romans 3:25-26; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:26-28; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:1-2).

Recommended to purchase:

Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. It's Not My Fault: The No-Excuse Plan for Overoming Life's Obstacles to Enjoy God's Best (2006).

We've all said it, but who is to blame? Other people? Circumstances beyond our control? Genetics? Challenging you to stop hiding behind excuses, Drs. Cloud and Townsend offer eight principles to empower you to overcome self-defeating behavior, accept responsibility for your actions, and implement solutions instead of clinging to empty rationalizations. 272 pages, hardcover.

Recommended for online reading:

Eric Berne and Thomas Harris. "Blame Game".

Description of self-justifying behavior to cope with guilt feelings: blame someone else.

Does God appoint some for salvation and not others? An examination of Acts 13:48

2009-04-18T10:53:00.019-05:00

Steve!

R. here. My wife and I are studying the Bible with a young couple, and J. has been heavily influenced by Calvinism. Predestination, Total Depravity, Irresistible Grace -- the whole nine yards. His weak points are his children. It bothers him that one of them might be predestined to be lost. You get the idea. If you have any words of wisdom or insight I am your eager student (again). I love your website. It looks good and keep up the good work.

Take care, R.

R., thanks for the update. I just have a minute, but I think I may be able to help you. On DeeperStudy.com, on my systematic theology page, and some study material on Calvinism (which I label "Reformed Theology").

Many of my other links on the Systematic Theology page are from reformed writers, probably because of their tremendous respect for the authority of the Word of God. But on the T-U-L-I-P- part, I just can't reconcile it with Scripture. Look especially at the "Weighed & Found Wanting" article.

I think you should be asking yourself, what is the common ground I can find with what they are saying? Each of the points has an important truth that it would have contributed if it hadn't taken it too far. Focus on that truth and show how the Calvinist teaching went beyond what the Bible really says on the subject. Example: Irresistible Grace, see John 6:44--God draws us through the winsome message of the gospel, though not irresistibly.

I would be happy to dialogue with you as you work your way through this material.

Look also at the available books, especially the two views book. The first one listed, by Hanko, et al., is pro-Calvinist.

Steve,

Thank you for the input. I have just done considerable reading this evening since getting home from our study. He actually wants to put off further discussions on this till a little bit later. However, I have a question about Acts 13:48. This was the passage brought up last week. I studied the Greek a little bit from a few commentaries but could you give me some of your input on this passage?

Thanks, R.

(Actually Tyndale commentary was pretty good on this, as was Alexander Campbell.)

Stange. I read Acts 13 this week and was already thinking about "As many as were in the state of having been appointed unto eternal life believed." (That is a literal rendering of the periphrastic construction of "was" combined with a perfect participle.)

How can we reconcile these passage, which certainly seems to imply predestination and irresistible grace, with the "whosoever" passages like Mark 16:16, John 3:16, and others, as well as passages that clearly say Jesus died for all, not just some, and that God's desire is for all to experience salvation (e.g., 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 2:4-5, and 2 Peter 3:9)? One way to harmonize them is to use the analogy of invitations to a class party. All the members of the class are invited, but only a few attend.

Yet we can say that only the invited are at the party without saying those to didn't come weren't invited. Am I talking in circles or guilty of sophistry? I hope not.

Those who responded to Paul's preaching "believed" (in the comprehensive sense of responded to the gospel, for everything involved in responding is prompted by faith in Christ and inspired by His most excellent sacrifice and power to redeem). By "believing," they were demonstrating that God included even them in the invitation.

Keep in mind that this is before the Jerusalem conference in which Paul's "way-out-there," radical teaching of accepting Gentiles as legitimate Christians without demanding that they be circumcised was confirmed by the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem mother-church. Why did the conference make this decision? Because they had substantial proof that it was God's will. What was the proof?

1) Peter's testimony about the conversion of Cornelius and his household, which involved a number of guiding and confirming miracles, as well as the willingness of Cornelius and the others to respond to the gospel.

2) The testimony of Paul and Barnabas about the success of their missionary journey, in which they consistently pursued this policy with regard to the Gentiles. Not only did God empower them to work miracles, something He would not have done if they had been misleading their converts, but He also blessed them with many responsive hearts. In other words, if at the conference they had been forced to admit that their preaching of salvation based on grace through faith met with an icy reception, the brothers in Jerusalem might have relegated the entire discussion to a matter of hypotheticals. But the Gentiles gladly accepted the message of salvation, which demonstrates that God wanted them to be saved, and we can even say "appointed them for eternal life."

The use of the perfect participle suggests that this was a long-standing appointment, as far as God was concerned. That takes us back into the Old Testament to such passages as Isaiah 49:6 (which Paul quotes to the disaffected Jews just before our target verse, see Acts 13:47), and many others, leading all the way back to the "fountainhead," Gen. 12:3. It had been God's intention for Israel to lead the Gentiles to salvation, and when they failed (see Isa. 26:18 and 52:5), God was determined to bring salvation to the Gentiles anyway, through the Messiah (see Isa. 59:1-20). No one else would do it, so He had to do it Himself.

He had appointed the Gentiles for eternal life. So when they heard the gospel, it was possible for them to respond to it, even though they weren't Jews. The forgiveness and salvation Paul offered them was a bonafide offer from God. Their openness to the message was a demonstration that God had a hand in their conversion. But His work was not an election (of some and not others), followed by an irresistible calling of that "chosen few." His work was the gospel "God's power unto salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).

Response? How does this compare with the other things you read? Also, is it OK, if I put this on my blog?

Steve

Steve, Amen! Put it on the blog! I'm loving it! At first I wasn't sure where you were going (actually in the middle) but you developed the concept extremely well and then brought in the OT passages about God having this in mind from the beginning. With everything put in context it is the best argument I have read.

Actually Tyndale went into the Greek word for appointed and brought up an alternate understanding. That the term can be used (and has, I guess) as a military term meaning "To be set in place," i.e., as a military general would set his troups in place for a certain position in the battle line for instance. The meaning would then take on the idea that the Gentiles by receiving and glorifying the Word of the Lord with joy, they were 'set in place' (a.k.a. ‘appointed’) to receive eternal life. Tyndale makes their action of joyfully receiving the Word a deciding factor that sets them in place for salvation. I may be drawing too much out of his argument but that seems to be the gist of it. I did not do a Greek study to confirm this rather unexpected tack. Anyway, I am going to print off and study your full argument and study it.

Thank you, Steve.

Want to Go Deeper?

Consider the following passages regarding whether individuals are predestined for salvation or for destruction. Our goal is not to pick passages that teach what we want to truth to be and ignore passages that seem to conflict with them, but to go deeper and seek a way to reconcile and harmonize them all without doing violence to the context of each passage.

John 3:16 – The "whoever" or "whosoever" of this famous verse leads us to believe that salvation in Christ is available to everyone who responds to it, not just a select group.
Mark 16:16 – "Whosoever" in this text is as wide as the "all creation" of the previous verse. The risen Lord places no limitation of who could respond to the gospel proclamation. Other "whosoever" texts to consider include: Mark 3:35 (parallel: Matthew 12:50); Mark 8:34-35 (par. Matthew 16:25; Luke 17:33); Mark 9:37 (par. Matthew 18:4); Mark 9:41; Matthew 13:12; Luke 6:47; 7:23; 8:35; John 11:26; 12:46; Acts 2:21 (quoting Joel 2:32); Romans 9:33 and 10:11 (both quoting Isa. 28:16); 1 John 4:15; and Revelation 22:17.
Mark 13:20, 22, 27 (parallels: Matthew 24:22, 24, 31); Luke 18:7 – Jesus calls his followers "the elect," which means the Chosen Ones. This theme of election recurs in the epistles: study Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:2, 6; 2 Peter 1:10. Does this mean that those who don't respond aren't "the chosen"? Who does the choosing, God or we? He has chosen HOW, not WHO.
An important cluster of elections verses occurs in Romans 9 - 11, dealing with God's choice of Israel: Rom. 9:11 and Romans 11:5, 7, 28.

For online reading:

F. Furman Kearley. "The Biblical Doctrine of Predestination, Foreordination, and Election". – Kearley was one of my mentors and an excellent biblical scholar. His take on Acts 13:48 is similar to the Tyndale commentary.

Recommended for purchase:
Robert Shank. Elect in the Son: The Biblical Doctrine of Election. Westcott, 1970; Reprint: Baker, 1989. – This is a thorough study of election throughout the Bible, treating every passage in its context. Shank studied his way out of Calvinism and shares with us what he discovered.

In the last few years, more and more books have appeared discussing crucial biblical doctrines from different points of view. Here are some helpful books if you want to consider the arguments on both sides regarding election:

Dave Hunt & James White. Debating Calvinism: Five Points, Two Views (Multnomah, 2004).

Robert A. Peterson & Michael D. Williams. Why I am Not an Arminian (InterVarsity, 2004).

Jerry L. Walls & Joseph R. Dongell. Why I am Not a Calvinist (InterVarsity, 2004).

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

G-Harmony: Just who--or what--are you looking for?

2009-01-12T10:18:00.011-06:00

Seeking that Special Someone?
Are you looking for a special relationship with the Divine Being but are not sure where to find it or if having such a relationship is even possible? Well, then, G-Harmony is for you! You can be confident that God is eagerly seeking a relationship with you as well.

Just answer this simple, five-question survey, and you are well on your way to experiencing the spiritual relationship you have longed for.

G-Harmony Questionnaire

How easily can you admit that you were wrong and need forgiveness, and are you willing to accept forgiveness when it is offered?

Is it easy or difficult for you to receive guidance regarding how to improve your life, enhance the effectiveness of your actions, and make your thinking more positive?

Are you willing to be flexible regarding your budget, your work habits, and your schedule?

Are you willing to try new things, go new places, and meet new people?

How willing are you to get involved in the lives of people around you?

About Question 1
God has found that many people either have a hard time admitting they have sinned or feel so overwhelmed that they can't conceive of the possibility of forgiveness. Both are self-centered responses. One of the first gifts God offers you is Grace--His willingness to forgive you through the sacrifice of Jesus, despite what you have done wrong. But if you want to save yourself or sense no need to be forgiven, then God can't help you (Luke 5:31-32).

All He asks is that you trust Him and allow Him to do for you what you are incapable of doing for yourself. He calls this saving experience "the new birth" or identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 3:3-5; Rom. 6:1-7; Col. 2:12-13; Titus 3:5). He wants to make you one with Him, or "in Christ" (Romans 8:1-2).

About Questions 2 - 5
The other four questions turn from Jesus as Savior to Jesus as Lord. A transformed life is possible, but only because God empowers you through His Holy Spirit as a response to your willingness to change (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). God has established a support network called Christ's church to make it easier for you to move from worthless to worthy (Galatians 6:1-5). He makes everyone in genuine relationship with Him a part of this support network (1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:18-23).

Some aspects of your new relationship you will immediately find deeply satisfying, such as receiving from God a profound sense of value and acceptance (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:3-8). Other aspects may cause you concern, at least at first, such as His firm demand that you participate in his program for your continuous improvement (Philippians 3:10-16) and His insistence that you connect with those around you (Romans 12:9-13).

You will discover that these requirements, though they be unsettling at first, are in fact, some of the most endearing parts of the relationship.

G-Harmony Caveat
I need to say up front: God is seeking a long-term relationship. There's no guarantee that if you back out, you can regain your former self-centered personality or life-style, at least not right away. These things take time.

Want to Go Deeper?

Here are some of the major biblical passages about the husband-wife metaphor describing God's bittersweet love-relationship with human beings:

Song of Solomon – An old tradition applies this celebration of married love to God and Israel (Jewish version) or Christ and the church (Christian version). The entire approach is questionable as probably not part of the original author's intent, but many hymns draw imagery from this source, e.g. "Lilly of the valley," "I'm my beloved's and He is mine," and "His banner over us is love."

Isaiah 50:1 – God divorces His people because of her sins.

Hosea, chapters 1 through 3 – The prophet's compassion for his adulterous wife corresponds to God's love for His people.

Ezekiel, chapters 16 and 23 – Israel's unfaithfulness to God is told as allegories of an adulterous wife.

John 3:25-30 – John the Baptizer sees his purpose as ensuring that Jesus and Israel consummate their union.

Matthew 22:1-14 and 25:1-13 – Christ's first and second comings are both pictured as a man getting married.

Ephesians 5:22-32 – Christ's faithful love for His wife, the church and its benefits to her.

2 Corinthians 11:2-3 – Paul says he presented the Corinthians to Christ as a pure virgin to her husband.

Revelation 19:6-9; 21:2-5 – Christ, the One who is "faithful and true," receives His bride, pictured as "the New Jerusalem" and identified as "His holy ones."

Recommended for purchase (at discount)

Gene Edwards. The Divine Romance Tyndale, 1993. – Combines the simplicity of storytelling art with the profound depths of the Christian faith. This sweeping saga spans from eternity to eternity, revealing some of the deepest riches afforded the believer. Like a mighty symphony, here is a majestic rendition of the love of God. The story concludes at the consummation of the ages, when a victorious Lord takes his bride to himself. Truly the greatest love story ever told.

James Bryan Smith. Embracing the Love of God: The Path & Promise of the Christian Life. HarperOne, 2008. – Let God's immense love for you sink into your heart and soul like never before! These days when it seems many Christians are overcome with activities and trying to please people, their faith often becomes legalism. The only way to stop the cycle is to let God's love and approval embrace you, now and every day. Banish feelings of fear and insignificance, and develop a lifestyle of love and acceptance.

Recommended for online reading

John H. A. Ebrard. Commentary on 1 John 3:1-3 from his Biblical Commentary on the Epistles of St John. Trans. W. B. Pope. Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1860.

G. G. Findlay. "Christ and His Bride", pp. 91-95 in his The Epistle to the Ephesians from An Exposition of the Bible, ed. by Marcus Dods, et al. Hartford, CT: S. S. Scranton, 1903. – Exposition of Ephesians 5:22-32.

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

Is questioning a so-called prophet blaspheming against the Holy Spirit?

2008-12-05T18:54:00.017-06:00

Q. What is the "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit"? Why is it called an unforgivable sin? Is there any way for a person to commit this sin today? Is the person who questions a self-appointed prophet guilty of committing this sin?

Jesus taught about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as recorded in Mark 3:20-30 and the parallel passages in Matthew 12:25-32, Luke 11:14-20, and 12:8-10. The people were amazed that Jesus had the power to exorcize demons, but the teachers of the law claimed that he was possessed by Beelzebub himself and that He cast them out by the power of "the prince of demons."

After making several arguments against this claim, Jesus said:

I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin. --Mark 3:28-29

Mark then adds, "He said this because they were saying, 'He has an evil spirit.'" (v. 30).

The miraculous power Jesus demonstrated was from the Holy Spirit. Here's how the Apostle Peter explains it:

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and... he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. --Acts 10:38

The Holy Spirit used the miraculous powers He gave to Jesus as a means of testifying to His divine nature. He authenticated the words of Jesus as having come from God. That's what the anonymous author of Hebrews says:

This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. --Hebrews 2:3-4

In other words, the very signs God provided to validate Jesus the Jewish leaders acknowledged as genuine, but they denied the power was from the Holy Spirit, opting instead for a diabolical source. This Jesus will not tolerate. This, he says, God cannot forgive.

The short answer to the question about why this sin is unforgivable, is simply, because Jesus said it was. The person on whom all forgiveness depends is sovereign over sin and over its forgiveness. Jesus takes this offense personally. His eternal, intimate love-bond with the Holy Spirit is at stake. The Spirit is selfless, always pointing to Jesus and lifting Him up. For someone to see the signs and acknowledge their power, yet deny their obvious origin is to insult the Spirit and slander his very character.

Why did the Jewish leaders take this stand? It was because Jesus refused to conform to their preconceptions of what the Messiah would be like and to their traditional way of interpreting the law of Moses. Rather than admit they might be wrong about one or the other or both, they concluded Jesus must be wrong, and therefore His obvious power must be from Satan, not from the "Giver of every good and perfect gift."

Denying or explaining away the very signs that should have prompted faith to grow in their hearts, they turned their backs on their only hope for deliverance.

This volley of rejection against Jesus and the Spirit continued. Later rabbinic writings refer to Jesus as Balaam, the prophet whom the Moabite king hired to curse Israel (Numbers 22 - 24). Try as he did, Balaam could only bless the Israelites. To compare Jesus to Balaam continues the blasphemy of the first century through later generations.

Is it possible to commit this same sin today? Certainly, though people who want to reject Jesus seldom take that approach. Rather than acknowledging his power but explaining it as diabolical, they either deny the historicity of the gospel accounts, or they attempt some rationalistic explanation of his miracles. Often these attempts are made with a self-satisfied pomposity that congratulates its own intellectual elitism: "Of course, no one believes that those poor people were really possessed by the boogy-man. Either they had epilepsy or some form of mental illness." "People were so gullible and superstitious back then. I'm amazed that they could accept at face value a young girl's claim about the Holy Spirit getting her pregnant or that what happened to an even younger girl behind closed doors was a resurrection instead of a fever breaking."

Such a response to the Good News is wrong--it is certainly damning--but it is not unforgivable. It is simply arrogant and closed-minded.

Some would apply the warning about blaspheming against the Spirit to any would would seek to debunk self-appointed prophets, modern-day tongues-speakers, and faith healers. While we should all examine our own hearts and ensure that our motives are pure, a number of passages urge us to put prophecy to the test, and by extension, the same would apply to the other claims of miraculous gifts.

Here's a sampling of such passages, listed in chronological order:

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 – Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. Paul is addressing a problem that arose quite early. Some were treating prophecies with contempt. Paul said this should not be done, but neither does he say everything that passes as prophecy should be automatically accepted as such. It all must be put to the test: what passes should be accepted, and what fails should be rejected.

2 Corinthians 12:11-12 – I am not in the least inferior to the "super-apostles," even though I am nothing. The things that mark an apostle--signs, wonders, and miracles--were done among you with great perseverance. Paul is willing for his own powers to be tested, confident that he will pass the test.

Ephesians 4:14-15 – Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. – Paul realizes how credulous his fellow Christians are, and he looks forward to the time when they will be more mature, undeceived by charlatans.

1 John 4:1 – Dear friends, do not believer every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. – After this solemn warning, the apostle immediately gives a doctrinal test to determine who is a legitimate prophet. This is similar to the warnings Moses and Jesus himself delivered (see Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:20-22; and Matthew 7:15-23).

In a future blog, I hope to show how we can test modern prophets, tongues-speakers, and faith healers.

Want to Go Deeper?

Recommended for purchase (at discount)

Graham H. Twelftree. In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism Among Early Christians Baker, 2007. 352 pp. – Can evil spirits invade and control individuals---and be expelled? For many biblical scholars, says Twelftree, this is akin to believing in "elves, dragons, or a flat earth." But for Christians worldwide, especially in developing countries, exorcism unlocks the bonds of spiritual captivity. A reliable and historical discussion of exorcism within the early church.

Todd Klutz. The Exorcism Stories in Luke-Acts: A Sociostylistic Reading. Cambridge University, 2004. 314 pp. – Integrates detailed, literary criticism of the exorcism stories in Luke-Acts with wide-ranging comparative study of ancient sources on demonology, spirit affliction and exorcistic healing. Explores the implied author's relationship with Judaism in relation to the stories' original context of reception. Probes largely neglected interfaces between Luke's representation of exorcism and emerging academic discourse about religious experience, shamanism, health care in antiquity, ritual performance and ancient Jewish systems of impurity to shed fresh light on this supremely alien part of the Lukan writings.

Stanley N. Gundry and Wayne A. Grudem. Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views. Zondervan, 1996. – Are the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and healing for today? No, say cessationists. Yes, say Pentecostal and Third Wave Christians. Maybe, say a sector of open-but-cautious evangelicals. What's the answer? Is there an answer? This discussion takes you to the heart of the charismatic controversy by providing an impartial format for comparing the four main lines of thinking: cessationist, open but cautious, third wave, and Pentecostal/charismatic. The authors present their positions in an interactive setting that allows for critique, clarification, and defense. Through this dialogue, you'll find guidance to better understand your own position and the positions of others. 368 pp.

Recommended for online reading

Benjamin B. Warfield. "Mysticism and Christianity." From The Biblical Review, 2 (1917):169-191.

Henry Barclay Swete. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament: A Study of Primitive Christian Teaching. Macmillan, 1904. – Scholarly and balanced presentation of the New Testament teaching about the Holy Spirit. See especially pp. 268-279, 320-321, and 376-388.

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

His heart is with us

2008-11-30T08:08:00.008-06:00

Have you ever been the guest at a holiday dinner where you weren't sure you were welcome? You try to sneak a glance at the wealthy host to gauge his attitude, but he seems to be avoiding looking directly at you. His greeting was friendly enough, but was it a little forced? And neither he nor any of his close friends are urging you to take seconds or making sure your glass stays filled. You ask yourself, "What am I doing here?" and you start to squirm and sweat.

This verse from Solomon comes to mind:

Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost. "Eat and drink," he says to you, but his heart is not with you. --Proverbs 23:6-7.

Every time we share in the Lord's Supper, we are guests of a wealthy host. At this dinner, however, we never have to wonder whether we are wanted or whether our host "is always thinking about the cost." He has gone through the great storehouses of heaven, and out of "His abundant riches," He has found the greatest treasure he had and then gave it to us as a present.

That's what Paul says in Romans 8:32:

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Receiving this greatest of treasures, Jesus Christ our Savior, gives us confidence that we are welcome at the Lord's table, that He has truly accepted us, and that, in contrast to Solomon's scenario, "His heart is with us."

Want to Go Deeper?

Recommended for purchase (at discount)

John Mark Hicks. Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord's Supper Leafwood, 2002. – From all we can glean, early Christian practice of the Lord's Supper was radically dissimilar from the the silent, solemn, individualistic eating of bread crumbs and drinking sips of wine that many churches practice today. Hicks asserts that our practice of the Supper should be a joyous communal meal as it was then. He advocates "revisioning" our contemporary practice of the Supper according to biblical values. Combining careful Bible study with gentle, practical suggestions, this book provides a valuable resource for enriching and renewing a central practice of Christian faith.

Greg Allen & Dennis Kaufman. Come to the Table: 52 Meditations for the Lord's Supper. Heartspring, 2007. – Often the prelude to communion is repetitive or lacks creative and meditative thought. Come to the Table was written to help orient your thoughts and offer ideas in order to promote a reflective time of self-evaluation. Allen and Kaufman offer a full year of communion meditations that will nourish your hungering spirit.

Lee Magness. The Longest Table: 52 Meditations for Communion. Standard, 2007. – The Lord's table stretches around the world, unifying all who remember and have been changed by Christ's death and resurrection. Use the 52 meditations in this book at the Lord's table, or whenever you want to remember the sacrifice of Christ.

Recommended for online reading

Josephine Fletcher with preface by C. J. Ellicott. Prayers & Meditations for the Holy Communion. New edition. Rivingtons, 1875.

Philip L. Barclift. "Uniting in Christ at the Lord's Table". Encounter, Spring 2004. – In-depth discussion of the tension Disciples of Christ have experienced between their call for Christian unity and their concern that "open communion" may debase the Lord's Supper.

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

Jesus the Magician? Archaeological Find is Unlikely as Earliest Reference to Jesus Christ

2008-10-14T10:54:00.050-05:00

Underwater find
A bowl newly discovered in Alexandria, Egypt, and dated to the period from the late second century BCE to the early first century CE bears an engraving that may be the world’s earliest known reference to Jesus Christ. The engraving reads dia chrstou o goistais, translated by the excavation team as “through Christ the magician.” According to French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Center of Maritime Archaeology, and Egyptologist David Fabre, the phrase could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, since he was one known as a primary exponent of white magic.

The team found the bowl during their underwater excavation of the ancient harbor of Alexandria. They speculate that a first-century magus may have used the bowl to tell fortunes. They note that the bowl is very similar to one depicted on two early Egyptian statuettes that are thought to show a soothsaying ritual. Ancient soothsaying manuals describe a technique in which the fortune teller poured oil into water and then entered an ecstatic state while studying the whirling mix. In the hallucinatory state, the fortune-teller hoped to meet mystical beings that could field questions about the future. The inscription, the archaeologists theorize, may have served to legitimize the soothsaying by invoking the name of Christ, acknowledged to be a wonder-worker.

How weighty is the evidence?
• Is it "Christ" or "Good"? – The archaeologists may have mistaken one Greek word for another in their interpretation. A glance at the photograph of the cup reveals a letter between the rho ("P") and the sigma ("C"). The letter, though poorly formed, seems unmistakably the letter eta ("H"). If this identification is correct, then the lexical form of the Greek word inscribed is not christos, but chrēstos, meaning "kind, loving, good, merciful."

The prepositional phrase, then, probably indicates that the bowl was a gift, given "through kindness" from some benefactor. It seems obvious that chrēstou is much more likely than christou for the engraved word. Rather than referring to the power of Christ, the word chrēstou might be a reference to the person who gave the cup as a gift—as we might write on a gift “from Donald with best wishes.” This explanation seems as plausible as its alternative is unlikely.

• References to christos too vague to reach certainty – Yet even if christou is the correct word, we are still far from reaching certainty that it is a reference to Jesus Christ. We must remember that the word christos was not a personal name of Jesus but a title, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word mashiach ("Messiah, anointed one"). Like its Hebrew counterpart, this Greek term could apply to any number of people. It occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures more than 60 times, designating priests, prophets, and kings, as well as the anticipated Messiah. It even describes the pagan ruler Cyrus of Persia (Isa. 45:1, LXX). Calling someone christos does not necessarily identify that person with Jesus. Even the Greek Scriptures warn that many would claim that title (Mark 13:21-22).

• The meaning of goistais – In Theological Dictionary of New Testament, Gerhard Delling defines goēs, the lexical form behind goistais, as “imposter, charlatan, one who performs magic through formulae.” Its only New Testament occurrence is in 2 Timothy 3:13: “…evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Delling says that among ancient people, those who believed in demon possession tended to hold the goēs in high respect, while the educated people tended to look down on such a person. (See also the entry for goēs in the Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon, which defines it as "sorcerer, wizard" and secondarily as "juggler, cheat.")

If this term goistais, therefore, were a reference to Jesus Christ, it would be most inappropriate. Jesus did not perform miracles through such formulae as abracadabra, alacazam, or presto. When He did speak, he gave simple commands, such as “Be healed!” or “Rise and walk!” Even the words ephphatha and talitha koum of Mark 5:41 and 7:34, respectively, are merely “Be opened!” and “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”, spoken in Aramaic, Jesus’ native tongue. Rather than using formulae, Jesus constantly varied the means by which he healed people—sometimes touching (e.g., Mark 1:31), or saying a few words (e.g., Mark 2:11), or healing without touch (e.g., Matthew 12:13) or even without being present (e.g., Mark 8:13). Some scholars believe He probably varied His healing procedures for the very purpose of avoiding magical associations.

The archaeologists have apparently forced their translation, as if goistais is genitive singular, like chrēstou, and functions in the phrase as an appositive. Goistais, however, is dative plural, making their suggested translation impossible. The phrase dia chrēstou goistais probably means "[Given] through kindness for the magicians."

• The dating is probably too early – At the time of Jesus, tens of centuries before the printing press, and two millennia before the digital age with its instant communication, events in one part of the empire often had little impact beyond the immediate vicinity. For the ripple effect of the ministry of Jesus to reach Alexandria would take some years, and at first would be felt only in Christian and then Jewish circles. For it to sweep across to pagans like the owner of the soothsayer's bowl would take even longer. And not only would the magician have to know of the miraculous power, but enough time would have to elapse for to convince him or her that customers would also be aware of Jesus.

Yet the latest date assigned for the bowl is the early first century. Given that the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ happened no earlier than 30 CE, that only allows 20 years before we reach mid-century. One hundred years or even more might be needed for the ripple to flood the pagan consciousness of Alexandria.

What can we conclude?
If the engraving did refer to Jesus Christ, it would constitute an extrabiblical confirmation that Jesus was a miracle-worker. This is similar to the impact of what is now known as the Paris Magical Papyrus, dated to about 300 CE. It describes an elaborate exorcism ritual, which begins, “I adjure you by the god of the Hebrews,” and then lists a number of mystical names, of which Jesu is the first. The adjuration continues with numerous references to biblical events and persons, some of which are garbled. The point for New Testament studies is the confirmation that in Egypt about 150 years after the resurrection, Jesus was known as a successful exorcist and called “the god of the Hebrews.” This latest discovery would make a similar argument from evidence much, much earlier.

Such evidence opposes against claims skeptics have made for generations that Jesus' miracles all have rationalistic explanations. The eyewitnesses found sufficient proof in Jesus' works to discern the all-powerful hand of God. In the words of the Apostle Peter, Jesus "went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him" (Acts 10:38). Even if legitimate, this evidence would not constitute proof that Jesus was a magician, despite the claims of such books as Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? by Morton Smith, published in 1978. (See Barry Crawford’s largely negative review, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion [10/26/1978].)

The problem, however, is that the evidence is too early and that it is too ambiguous to be credible. It seems to be another example of archaeologists attempting to grab headlines by placing their latest discovery in the same sentence with the words “Jesus Christ.” Such unwarranted coupling often contributes to unjustified conclusions about Jesus among the ignorant and the credulous.

NOTE: The Franck Goddio Society has responded to this blog.

Want to Go Deeper?

Recommended for purchase (at discount)

Howard Clark Kee. What Can We Know About Jesus? Cambridge, 1990. – Explores both the biblical accounts of Jesus' life and works and the extrabiblical material touching on this. Extrabiblical references to Christ include the writings of non-orthodox Christians, pagan authors, and Jews. Kee analyzes all the relevant material to determine what precisely can be deduced about Jesus from these diverse accounts, written by both friend and foe.

Craig L. Blomberg. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels. 2nd ed. Inter-Varsity, 2008. – Reveals the faulty analysis and presuppositions that have led to mistaken conclusions about the Gospels, providing scholarly criteria for judging these books and biblical answers to our hard questions. Thoroughly updated in light of new developments. Readers will find that over the past twenty years, the case for the historical trustworthiness of the Gospels has grown vastly stronger.

C. K. Barrett. The New Testament Background. HarperOne, 1989. Contains a discussion of the Paris Magical Papyrus along with its text in English translation (pp. 34ff). Also contains a wealth of other material relevant to New Testament studies.

Recommended for online reading

Details about the Paris Magical Papyrus in G. A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East. Hodder & Stoughton, 1910. pp. 254ff.

Gary R. Habermas, The Late Twentieth-Century Resurgence of
Naturalistic Responses to Jesus' Resurrection. Trinity Journal, 2001.

Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ. Eerdmans, 2005. – A short discussion of the title “Christ” (“Messiah”).

You may want to study the earliest charge that Jesus was a magician, leveled by the anti-Christian debater Celsus in the third century. The church father Origen ably defended the orthodox view by pointing out that in contrast to magicians, Jesus' miracles all had a moral purpose. See Origen, Against Celsus, book 1, chapter 68. In the century before, Justin Martyr anticipated such a charge in his First Apology, chapter 30.

If you are curious about Morton’s Smith’s book, take a look at the exchange Professor Smith had with Frank Kermode over the latter’s review of Smith’s book in the New York Review of Books. This exchange includes a summary of Smith’s main points and the essentials of Kermode’s critique. Be sure to read all four essays, the first two published on Dec. 21, 1978, and the second on Feb. 8, 1979. Unfortunately, the original review is unavailable without a subscription to the Review. Here is a brief review by Terrance Callan from the Library Journal (June 15, 1978).

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

Beware of the Fall

2008-10-01T08:10:00.010-05:00

I leaned forward and swallowed hard. It wasn't easy to say, "I think God was trying to get your attention," I told her. Patrice whispered, "Maybe so. . . ."

She had fainted while trying to get a good camera angle of a beautiful waterfall near Ithaca, New York. Unconscious, she rolled over the edge and fell 100 feet to the floor of the gorge. Now she was in a body cast with two broken legs, several broken ribs, and a broken back. Also most of her teeth had been knocked out, but she was alive, and doctors expected her to walk out ot the hospital.

Patrice had suffered another fall a couple of years before her tumble into the gorge: a fall from grace. Shortly after her baptism into Christ, she had just stopped coming to church. When urged to come back she replied, "I know I ought to come. Maybe I'll surprise you one of these Sundays." No one could make an X-ray or MRI of the spiritual damage inflicted by that fall; there were no broken bones or knocked-out teeth. But her spiritual life was spurting out like blood from a severe laceration.

Speaking from the experience of his own spiritual nosedive, the Apostle Peter pleads with us, "Be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall" (2 Peter 1:10). "These things" refers to the ongoing development of the Christian virtues listed in verses 5-7--qualities the Holy Spirit builds into our character as we cooperate with Him. This development process cannot happen to us isolated from the family of God. It takes place through constant interaction and encouragement from fellow Christians.

I wish I could tell you that when Patrice walked out of that hospital, she walked right back into the fellowship of the local church. But it didn't happen. Her temporary resolve to come back to Christ evaporated soon afer she left the hospital. The fractures of her body had healed, but her soul remained shattered and bleeding. She serves as a warning for us: stay away from the edge of the chasm.

Want to Go Deeper?

Despite such reassuring passages as Romans 8:31-39, John 10:27-29, Ephesians 1:13-14, and 1 John 5:11-15, nearly every book of the New Testament warns us of the possibility of falling from grace. Here is a sampling:

Recommended for online reading...
You may be aware of the long-standing debate between Calvinists and Arminians. Here are the arguments on both sides:

John Calvin
Calvinist: Loraine Boettner, Perseverance of the Saints."
James Arminius
Arminian: John Wesley, "Perseverance of the Saints."

Recommended for purchase...

Steve Singleton. Possibility of Apostasy: Those who know the risk climb more carefully – E-book of 42 passages in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament regarding whether a saved believer can fall from grace. Also provides similar summaries for 11 passages supporting the security of Christians in their salvation. Only $1.

Dale Moody. Apostasy: A Study in the Epistle to the Hebrews & in Baptist History (1991). – Against the prevailing opinion of his own denomination, Moody presents the case for conditional election that takes seriously the warnings of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

J. M. Pinson, ed. Four Views on Eternal Security (2002). – Four scholars present their views and dialogue with their critics. The four views are: Classical Calvinism, Moderate Calvinism, Classical Arminianism, and Wesleyan Arminianism. If you believe in listening to both sides of a controversial issue, this book is for you.

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

Crown of Life or Crown of Death?

2008-09-05T10:44:00.014-05:00

Sensational Discovery
In August 2008, Greek archaeologists discovered a priceless gold wreath in what is regarded as the ancient city of Aigai, the original capital of Macedonia and the place where Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, was assassinated in 336 BCE.

The crown of golden oak leaves was included along with human bones inside a golden cylinder, which itself was secured within a large copper vessel. Archaeologists have assigned its date to the fourth century BCE, at about the time when Philip and Alexander reigned. The excavation lies just outside of modern Verghina, a few miles east-southeast of Verea/Berea and about 320 miles (520 km) north of Athens.

Cultural Background
Such crowns were common in ancient times as symbols of success in a variety of contests, including military conflict, athletic contest, political election, academic achievement, business triumph, or trial at court. Often the crown (Greek: stephanos) was constructed from the leaves of plants such as the oak, olive, laurel, and pine trees, or even celery stalks.

The Christian's Crown
At the close of his life, the Apostle Paul describes what he had accomplished by God's grace: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." He confidently adds, "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:7-8). The "crown of righteousness" is a stephanos.

In the Apocalypse, Jesus Himself urges us, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Rev. 2:10, again stephanos). In the heavenly throne room vision that follows, the Apostle John reports seeing 24 elders dressed in white wearing golden crowns. Soon each throws down his crown (stephanos) before the One on the throne, apparently symbolizing their dependence on Him for their victory. They confess that as Creator, He is worthy of glory, honor, and power (Rev. 4:4, 10-11). These same elders remain throughout the rest of the prophetic vision as witnesses of God's awesome deeds (see Rev. 5:8, 14; 7:13-17; and 19:4). Later Christ ("the Word of God") is pictured as wearing many crowns (Rev. 19:12), but this word for "crown" is diadema, the circlet of silver or gold worn by royalty.

Our Contest
Like the military conflict, the Christian life is a battle. Sometimes the salvos come at us unexpectedly, all hot and heavy. Sometimes we get wounded from friendly fire. Like the athletic competition, we are running hard and sometimes getting exhausted. The things that make a big difference are training, teamwork, confidence, and persistence. Like the political campaign, our opponent is a determined fighter and slings mud. We suffer innuendo, slander, and gossip.

Like students, we must prepare ourselves if we want to pass the exam. Like the businessperson, we must anticipate the competition and strive to add value to what we offer. Like the defendant, we have to gather the evidence and present our case, relying on the Judge's integrity to render a fair verdict. And when the bell of the final round has rung, when we stand with Paul at the finish line, still holding the baton, we look forward to those words, "Well done!" and to receiving that crown.

We don't expect to go to the grave wearing a wreath of golden oak leaves. Scripture's crown is a crown of life, not of death. What we are hoping for is resurrection to an eternal life in intimate fellowship with the Father, with His Son, and with the Spirit! Our triumph, our victory, our success-it will all be due to the Father's grace, the Son's redemption, and the Spirit's empowerment. After all the trials, when the contest is over and the campaign has wound down, victory at last will be sweet.

Want to Go Deeper?

Take a look at the other passages in the New Testament that describe the stephanos, which the overcomer will receive. They include: 1 Cor. 9:25; Phil. 4:1; 1 Thess. 2:19; James 1:12; and 1 Peter 5:4. All verses in the gospel accounts refer to the crown of thorns Jesus wore on the cross, ironically symbolizing His bloody and agonizing victory.

In another passage, Paul uses the verb form of stephanos to warn that Christians might not be crowned unless they compete according to the rules (2 Tim. 2:5; see also 1 Cor. 9:24, 27). Not everyone who starts out the race crosses the finish line. Many things hinder and sin "so easily entangles." We must "run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb. 12:1). How do these warnings mesh with texts like 1 John 5:13 that reveal that Christians can know they have eternal life?

Recommended for online reading...

Steve Singleton. "The Isthmian Games" (includes some images of stephanoi).

Walter Grundmann, "Stephanos" in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (7:615-636); see also the condensed version (only some of which is available online).

Recommended for purchase...

Robin Osborne. Archaic and Classical Greek Art (1998).

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

What is the central claim of Christianity?

2008-07-30T22:04:00.018-05:00

Prepare an "Elevator Speech"
Near the first day of sales training your trainer will ask you to give "an elevator speech." It's called that because there's tremendous value in being able to explain your product or service in the time it takes to ride in an elevator. To do so, you have to cut all of your usual verbiage down to the bare essentials. Also, you must tell your story from the point of view of the listener, explaining things in terms of W-I-I-F-M ("What's in it for me?"). When those elevator doors open up and the person you've been talking to walks away, he or she should have a fairly good idea of what you offer and why it is worth the price.

Just the Essentials
Let me give you my "elevator speech" about Christianity. These are the essentials. Although God created us human beings to share in His nature and to have a close relationship with Him, every one of us has rebelled against Him, choosing instead to go our own way and suffer the consequences. Those consequences are bad, including purposelessness, a sense of worthlessness, isolation and animosity, suffering, and, yes, death.

But God was willing to do something about our predicament. What He did was to send us His Son, who became a human being, modeled for us what it means to be pure, to love God, and to lovingly serve our fellow humans. More than that, He took upon Himself our guilt and paid the debt we owed by dying on the cross. Arising from the dead, He demonstrated that He has the power and authority to offer us His forgiveness and His righteousness in trade in exchange for our sins and defilement.

He wants us to trust Him with all of our being. This trust includes repudiating our rebellion, declaring before others our allegiance to Him, joining in a re-enactment of His death, burial, and resurrection so that the exchange can be made. Then He calls on us to follow Him for the rest of our lives in humble submission to the lifestyle and the mission He has in mind for us.

Not only do we experience a closer relationship with Him, but we also have a close fellowship with all other human beings willing to obey Him like we have. His promise is that our relationship will just get better and better until He transforms our mortal bodies for glorified ones that are just like what Jesus received when he arose from the dead.

Christocentric Message
That's pretty much it. As the elevator doors open, did you notice that Jesus Christ Himself is the central theme of the "elevator speech"? Someone long ago noticed that when you take "Christ" out of "Christian," what do you have left? I-A-N, which stands for "I am nothing," or in the Texan dialect, "I ain't nothin'."

Without Christ, I am nothing. But with Him, I am all I was meant to be, all God designed me to be. With Him, "I can do all things through Him who enables me" (Philippians 4:13).

What About W-I-I-F-M?
What's in it for me? How about forgiveness and a high and noble a reason for living? How about a world-wide support network and a burning message of hope and healing? How about confident anticipation that pierces the dark grave and an expectation of eternity in union with a loving God? What about discovering glimpses of His likeness in your personality even now, and the secure promise that as you follow Him, those glimpses will coalesce into His likeness? What's in it for you? Getting to where you no longer ask such an ego-centric question and ask instead, every day for the rest of your life, "What's in me for Him?"

Now It's Your Turn
See if you can write your own "elevator speech" about being a Christian. Or if you are not a Christian, write about what you are instead. Your own personal elevator speech will help you clarify your thinking regarding who you are and what you're about.

Want to go deeper?

The New Testament authors furnish us with several succinct summaries of the gospel message similar to what I call the "elevator speech." Examine each of the passages in this sampling:

Now see if you can find some on your own.

Recommended for purchase:

Dennis E. Johnson. Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures P & R, 2007.

Edmund P. Clowney. Preaching Christ in All of Scripture. Crossway, 2003.

Edmund Clowney. Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament. P & R, 1989.

Matthew Paul Turner.The Coffeehouse Gospel: Sharing Your Faith in Everyday Coversation. Relevant, 2004.

Robert G. Tuttle. Can We Talk? Sharing Your Faith in a Non-Christian World. Abingdon, 1999.

Recommended for online reading:

Gordon Cooke. The God of Glory Thunders: A Christ-Centered Devotional Exposition of Psalm 29 (Evangelical Movement of Wales, 2006).

Benjamin Franklin (1812-1878) – "What Must Men Believe to Be Saved?"

As always, I don't necessarily agree with everything these books teach. Part of "going deeper" is developing your own spiritual discernment. It's good to "taste-test" before swallowing.

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

Judgment Day: Ready for That First Knock?

2008-07-10T13:25:00.016-05:00

If the preacher got up next Sunday and announced, “Today’s sermon is on Judgment Day, the Day of Reckoning,” would you flinch, or at least slump a little in your pew? We usually think of the “Day of Reckoning” or “Judgment Day” in a negative way.
But if you are a Christian, forgiven of your sins, and dedicated to loving and serving the Lord, why should you have this reaction? For you, and for all others throughout the world who “walk in the light as He is in the light,” the Day of Reckoning will be a bright day, a glorious day, a day of joy, something to anticipate with even more gladness than your high school graduation or your wedding day.

In Luke 12:35-37, Jesus uses a wonderful illustration to describe the Day of Reckoning for believers. He describes servants waiting for their master to come home from a party. They have their lamps burning. They have tucked the ends of their long robes into their belts so they can run quickly. And they are eagerly waiting because they want to open the door for their Lord at His first knock.

They wait and wait. They have to retrim their lamps. But the Master has not come home, and their beds are calling to them. Yet they stay up, and they keep each other awake when one gets drowsy.

What does this tell you about these servants? Isn’t it enough for them to go to bed as usual and then jump up as soon as they hear noise at the front door? What difference does it make if the Master has to wait a few moments longer? Their self-imposed vigil tells us that they love their Lord. They are thinking about His needs and what would please Him, even give Him as pleasant surprise. So they stay awake, maybe pinching themselves to do so, as the long hours slowly pass.

When they finally hear that knock, they are ready. They fling open the door to find the Master with his fingers still closed into a fist, raised to knock again. With joyful smiles one ushers him in while a second leads the way to the couch by the table as the third brings out the tasty meal they have prepared for Him.

But the Master has His own surprise. Touched by their evident love, He refuses to recline at the table. Instead, He makes them sit down, and the Master becomes their Servant, attending to them as they eat!

What a beautiful picture of the dynamics of love that operate in the relationship between the redeemed and their Redeemer! What a day to look forward to!

How are you trimming your lamp today? What are you doing to anticipate your Master’s return? What can you do to demonstrate to Him the love in your heart? For all of Christ’s servants, the Day of Reckoning is a wonderful coming-home. Are you ready to open the door on His first knock?

Want to go deeper?

This parable of love and anticipation occurs paired with its opposite (Luke 12:42-48), a servant who showed disdain for the Master by abusing both his position and his Master's other servants. We cannot use the positive parable to justify universalism; the two balance each other. Yet we too often focus on the negative.

Recommended for online study:

Godet's commentary on Luke 12:35ff: Godet, rightly I believe, resolves the apparent discrepancy between this parable at that in Luke 17:7-10 by different perspectives.

Plummer's commentary on Luke 12:35ff: Plummer rejects as a parallel to this parable the custom of the Saturnalia in which masters and their slaves trade places. He also discusses the varying ways Jews and Romans counted the night watches.

Recommended for purchase (in order of increasing depth):

William Barclay. The Parables of Jesus (1999) – A good introduction and a quick explanation of the major parables. Barclay is provides the Jewish background and for makes helpful, practical applications. His readability is uniquely superior.

Robert H. Stein. An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus (1981) – Investigates how the parables have been interpreted begining with the early church fathers, continuing through the Middle Ages and the Reformation, and concluding with recent critical discussion. He establishes basic principles for interpreting parables, demonstrates how to apply these principles, and organizes the parables under four major themes: the Kingdom of God as a present reality, the Kingdom of God as demand, the God of grace, and final judgement. Excellent resource!

Klyne Snodgrass. Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus (2007) – Introduction provides a historico-cultural context for Jesus' parables by surveying similar literary forms found in the Old Testament, other Jewish writings, and the Greco-Roman world. Also discusses whether parables have allegorical features. Snodgrass then covers 31 of the parables found in the Synoptics and discusses parallels in the Gospel of Thomas. In appendices, Snodgrass discusses the meaning of the Greek word parabole and its corresponding Hebrew term "mashal" and then classifies the parables of Jesus accordingly.

As always, I don't necessarily recommend everything these books teach. Part of "going deeper" is developing your own spiritual discernment. It's good to "taste-test" before swallowing.

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

Lord's Supper: Communion Means We're One, Right?

2008-06-14T21:09:00.016-05:00

All of us share
In First Corinthians chapter 10, verses 16 and 17, the Apostle Paul asks, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. Look at the word "participation" that comes up twice in this short passage. The Greek word that the NIV translates as “participation” is the word koinonia, which means sharing, fellowship, participation, communion.

The description of the Lord's Supper as "communion" comes from this passage. To call the Lord’s Supper “communion” is to indicate a oneness. It signifies oneness with the Lord, certainly. But it also denotes oneness with each other. “We who are many,” Paul says, “are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Unity at the Last Supper
This theme of unity or oneness is central to the Lord’s Supper. That is quite clear when you look at the passages in the Gospels that report to us the dinner conversation around the table on the night it was instituted. The big theme of the evening was unity: developing a servant’s heart willing to wash feet; not lording it over your brothers and sisters, but finding ways to help and encourage them; learning what it takes to become one, united in love, one to such an extent that we even share in the oneness the Son has with the Father; and then coming to witness the awesome effect this oneness has on a world that is divided, splintered, fragmented, even schizophrenic.

Disunity in Corinth
When Paul spoke to the Corinthians about the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34), his central focus was unity. Some were going ahead and eating before the others arrived, so that when they finally did arrive, they had to go hungry. Others were actually so self-indulgent that they were using the wine to get drunk. Paul rebukes them, urging them to “discern the Body” which again and again in First Corinthians refers to the Christians themselves. In vv. 27-30, he warns that if they don't discern the Body, in other words, if they ignore or work against their oneness, they are eating and drinking themselves into damnation.

Is unity a problem for us?
So if unity was such an issue among the original apostles, and if it was a central concern with the Corinthian church, what about us? Is unity a problem for us? Is it?

Look around your church assembly. Is there someone you don’t know? Is there someone you avoid? Someone you look down on or hold a grudge against? We all know that’s not how it’s supposed to be, but is that how it is? Is it?

“We who are many, are one body, for we all share, participate in, have fellowship with, enjoy communion with the one loaf. We who are many, are one body, for we all participate in, share, have communion with the one cup. That’s what the Lord has in mind, but is that how it really is? Is it?

Covenant for oneness
Whether it is or not is up to each of us. By eating this bread and drinking this grape juice you are making a covenant that you want this oneness--oneness with the Lord and with each another. It is also a pledge: that you will do what it takes to make this oneness happen. If you don't agree, don't eat. If that is not your pledge, don't drink.

Look around you once more. These are people you have fellowship with. They are your brothers and sisters, your family. Each of us that is tied to the Lord is also tied in unity to one another. That’s the way it ought to be, but is it? Is it?

Want to go deeper?

Rather than unity on the night of the Last Supper, the disciples had a spirit of rivalry. Take a look at Luke 22:24-30, where Jesus has to tell them, "Stop acting like pagan rulers." Even Peter was not exempt from this attitude, for he said, "Even if everyone else denies you, I won't" (Matthew 26:33). That statement creates a rhetorical separation between him and the others. Of course, Judas Iscariot was acting independently and counter to what the rest intended (see John 13:21-30).

In the face of all of this jockeying for position and individualistic words and deeds, Jesus' words and deeds were designed to draw them together again. Study the significance of washing their feet (John 13:1-17), giving them an unforgettable common experience. It was doubly humbling in that they had to receive this service from their Master and they had avoided doing it themselves. In the "Farewell Discourse" (John 14 - 16), Jesus outlined their common mission, resources, and destiny. He concludes with his "High Priestly Prayer" (John 17), with unity as its central theme.

Recommended for purchase:

Dennis Smith. From Symposium to Eucharist: Banquets in the Early Christian World (2002) – A survey of the importance of table fellowship from Plato to Paul, including an analysis of the relationship between the Lord's Supper and the agape meal.

Frank Carver. When Jesus Said Good-bye (1996) – Exposition of the Farewell Discourse (John 14-16).

Marcus Rainsford. Our Lord Prays for His Own (1985) – A verse-by-verse exposition of Christ's prayer in John 17.

As always, I don't necessarily recommend everything these books teach. Part of "going deeper" is developing your own spiritual discernment. It's good to "taste-test" before swallowing.

Steve Singleton, DeeperStudy.com

The Christian's Call to Huddle

2008-05-19T08:49:00.025-05:00

Limited Huddle Time
National Football League rules assign a maximum of 40 seconds between plays, which means that huddles have to be quick and efficient. Imagine the following four teams.

Red Team
After the play, most of the players stagger and limp toward the quarterback, arriving late and talking among themselves. Two of the players don't huddle up at all--one lines up again while the other just stands on the field, paying no attention to the game. The frustrated quarterback begins to describe the next play, but two of the players doze off, while two more are distracted by the other team. Furthermore, because three more haven't stopped talking among themselves, they haven't clearly heard the instructions. The only person paying attention is the linebacker. Which of the following would best describe this team?

Purple Team
The entire team hustles in to the huddle and listens quietly to the quarterback. Each huddle is a little different. In one huddle, the quarterback expounds on the rules of the game, such as staying within the boundaries, what constitutes a penalty, how many points for a field goal, etc. In another huddle, he explains that the football must be carried in the right direction and not dropped to make a touchdown. In a third huddle, the quarterback explains the importance of coming to the huddle every time the huddle comes together, and how wicked it is not to huddle. In a fourth huddle, he tells the team how important it is to become a team member and goes over the contract-signing procedures. Oops! Our 40 seconds are almost up. Better line up for the play. What do you think of this team?

Yellow Team
All of the players on this team arrive at the huddle on time and dressed in their brand new uniforms. Their helmets and pads are adjusted properly. The quarterback explains the play clearly and concisely as everyone listens carefully. When the huddle is over, they all run off the field to the locker room, ready for all of their individual pursuits--shopping, eating out, playing with their kids, going water-skiing. They've had their football for the week in that huddle, which was a little longer than they are comfortable with, but they can handle it, as long as the quarterback doesn't make a habit of it. What are the chances this team will make the play-offs?

Gold Team
Players move quickly into the huddle, though some are sore and some are bleeding. They listen as the quarterback explains the play. A few ask pertinent questions, but most nod that they understand. The huddle takes most of the 40 seconds, but no time there is wasted. When the players break, each goes to his assigned spot ready for the snap. None of them are thinking about how great the huddle was. They are focused on the play. There will be another huddle later on, when the team is farther down the field. How well will this team do in the upcoming season? Would you care to be a devoted fan?

It's Not Just Huddles
We Christians play as a team in the greatest game of our lives. Our assemblies are our huddles. Huddles are essential to the game of football, but they are not the game itself. Let's make it to the huddles, yes. But let's remember what huddles are for: to help us win the game. Let's structure the huddles to accomplish that goal. Then when the huddle is over, let's play together as a team and win this!

I understand this is a simplistic view. The Christian assembly is multi-dimensional. But still, we are not the fans in the stands; we are the players on the field. And if that is true, huddles are not the game. The game is our entire lives. The assemblies have their proper place, and they are essential to winning. But what happens in the huddle is only secondary to what happens in the game. We have to be the best we can be. Our opponent is out for blood.

Want to go deeper?

Here are some passages to study in more depth about the purposes of Christian assemblies:

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 -- to participate in the Lord's Supper and proclaim His death (see also Acts 20:7).
1 Corinthians 14:3-5, 12, 17, 26 -- to build up one another.
Acts 2:42-47 -- to learn, to pray, to share needs, to praise God.
Hebrews 10:24-25 -- to stimulate each other to love and good deeds and to encourage each other.

Here are passages that describe the purpose of the Christian's life:

Matthew 5:13-16 -- to illuminate, to preserve, to cause other to praise God.
Luke 9:23 -- to deny self, to take up your cross, and to follow Jesus.
Philippians 1:21 -- to live with Christ at the center of our being (see also Galatians 2:20).
Colossians 3:1-4 -- to focus your thinking on Christ and "things above."
Philippians 2:12-13 -- to allow God to work on you and through you.
Many other passages, such as Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; Titus 2:11-14; and Titus 3:8.

Now compare the two lists. Are they incompatible or complementary? Even the passage about the Lord's Supper has a theme of team spirit and unity to it. The modern concept of individualism and self-imposed isolation is contrary to the Scriptures.

Ecclesiastical quarterbacks will say they are forced to preach Purple-Team sermons because that's where their "players" are. That could well be true. But those players have to change into the Gold Team. And the sooner the better.

Recommended for purchase:

Wes Roberts & Glenn Marshall. Reclaiming God's Original Intent for the Church (2004) – Character, servanthood, discipleship, and walking in the Spirit were the focus of the primitive church. Is it ours?

Keith Wilhite. Preaching with Relevance (2001) – 10 strategies for crafting and presenting sermons that will help listeners understand the meaning of the passage, affirm the sermon's message, and apply God's truth.

Gail Ramshaw. Every Day and Sunday, Too (1997) – Explores, for children and adults, the relationship between the Christian's daily life and the Sunday assembly.

As always, I don't necessarily recommend everything these books teach. Part of "going deeper" is developing your own spiritual discernment. It's good to "taste-test" before swallowing.

Prince Caspian: Our Inner Child Finds A New Hero

2008-05-15T21:41:00.018-05:00

"Prince Caspian," the sequel to the 2005 Disney hit, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," does not pick up the story where its predecessor left off, in Narnia's exhilarating Golden Age, but in a time of fear and despair. From this deep dip on the cinematic roller-coaster, it offers to lift us to the heavens, with many a rise and fall and a twisty turn between. In its masterful blend of fast pacing, exciting action, dazzling special effects, and thrilling musical score, "Prince Caspian" does not disappoint.

Back to the Narnian Beach
With the next school term looming ahead, the Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, wait gloomily at a railway station in 1941 England. Suddenly, they feel something like a sharp sting at their backs and the next instant find themselves on a seaside beach bordered by a thick forest. Could they be... back in Narnia?

Soon they discover that they have indeed returned to Cair Paravel, the castle where they had reigned as kings and queens. Now, however, it is in ruins and overgrown, as if a thousand years have passed. Yet the Pevensies have only been away from Narnia for a year by our calendar.

A dwarf named Trumpkin, whom they rescue from two would-be executors, tells them the bitter truth: Cruel Miraz the Telmarine now rules Narnia. Having seized the throne by murdering his own brother, King Caspian IX, Miraz now wants to slay his nephew, Prince Caspian, the true king. The Pevensies are dismayed to learn that the Telmarines have driven all of the Talking Beasts into hiding and that even the trees have fallen into a deep sleep.

Trumpkin tells them that Caspian seeks to reclaim the throne with the help of the Talking Beasts, the dwarves, and a few giants. Though noble and courageous, his soldiers are no match for Miraz's troops. After a particularly bloody battle, Caspian has just turned to his last resort. He would blow Queen Susan's magic horn, hoping it would summon help from an unexpected quarter, as its legend promised. Caspian, in fact, had sent Trumpkin ahead to Cair Paravel, not to be captured by sentries at a Telmarine outpost, but to serve as guide, in case the horn should summon the Pevensies, or even Aslan the Lion, legendary ruler of all Narnia.

Now the two "sons of Adam" and the two "daughters of Eve" understand how and why they got back into Narnia. Once they know how desperately Caspian and the "Old Narnians" need them, they willingly begin their difficult journey to join the prince in his war against Miraz. The story reaches its climax as its characters are forced to ask and answer vital questions like, "Whom can we trust and why?" and "Does achieving a high and noble goal justify using a desperately wicked means?"

Lewis's Original Series
Prince Caspian is actually volume four of The Chronicles of Narnia, the seven-book series by C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963). Lewis was a professor of Medieval literature at Oxford and later at Cambridge who wrote many books on Christian apologetics as well as novels with Christian themes. He was enamored with the classical Graeco-Roman mythology as well as the chivalry of medieval knights.

In Chronicles he crafted a world peopled with such creatures as fauns, centaurs, and dryads. Then he asked himself, "How do you suppose the Christ would represent Himself in such a world?" How else but as Aslan, the giant lion who is awesome and powerful, gentle yet frightening, nearby yet hidden, and not at all tame? This scheme of "supposal," as he called it, explains the Christian symbolism in The Chronicles in a more satisfactory way than regarding it as a this-for-that Christian allegory.

Lessons for the Teachable
The main messages of "Prince Caspian" are these:

You cannot determine who is right and who isn't by merely taking a head-count. True heroes must often struggle as a few against a numberless multitude.
Every individual in such a struggle has latent resources--his or her own unique talents, skills, and abilities--to lend to the cause, and each one of them, no matter how short, stupid, or feeble, can make a valuable contribution.
The fight for the right is a team effort, demanding that we set aside all of our differences and pull together.
Winning is not everything. How you win is just as important, or more so, for it reveals the wisdom of your choices, your strength of your loyalties, and the worth of your comrades.

Minor Themes Include:

Ecology - the Telmarines are afraid of the forest, they have hacked and chopped away until the trees hate them bitterly.
Racism - The Telmarines hate everyone that does not belong to their homogeneous race. The dwarfs have suffered at the hands of other races so that now they find it hard to trust anyone, including all who are only half-dwarf. Those of "old Narnia" accept each other despite their diversity of races and species.
Sexism - the two girls are as vital to the outcome as the boys, perhaps more so.

If you are willing to set aside your cynicism, willing to immerse yourself in an awesome world with formidable foes and surprising allies, this movie is yours to enjoy, not just as a viewer, but as a participating hero.

Movie Facts
2 hrs. 24 min., rated PG. Andrew Adamson directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Chistopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Cast: Ben Barnes stars as Prince Caspian. The Pevensies all reprise their roles in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe": William Moseley as Peter, Anna Popplewell as Susan, Skandar Keynes as Edmund, and Georgie Henley as Lucy. Peter Dinklage plays Trumpkin and Sergio Castellitto, Miraz. Liam Neeson supplies the voice of Aslan. Original music is by Harry Gregson-Williams, with cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub. The castles and forests of the Czech Republic near Prague prove a serviceable Narnia. Disney has already announced the next installment of the "Chronicles of Narnia" franchise, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," scheduled for release on May 7, 2010.

--Steve Singleton
DeeperStudy.com

Want to go deeper?

One of the main issues with which "Prince Caspian" wrestles is whether the use of despicable means is legitimate for accomplishing a worthy goal. This issue is relevant to our current situation, as U.S. citizens debate the legitimacy of the Guantanamo prison and the use of waterboarding and other tortures to extract information from suspected terrorists. Here are some biblical passages that grapple with the same issue:

Goal: To get the son of promise. Means: Taking Hagar as a wife – Genesis 16:1 - 17:22

Goal: To provide water for Israelites. Means: Striking rock and not giving God the glory – Numbers 20:1-12

Goal: To keep troops from scattering. Means: Offering sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to do it – 1 Samuel 13:7-14

Goal: Making treaties with other nations. Means (apparently): Marry foreign wives – 1 Kings 11:1-13

Goal (one suggestion): To get Jesus to proclaim Himself king. Means: Get him arrested – Matthew 26:14-16, 47-56; 27:1-10

For purchase:

"Prince Caspian" audiobook (unabridged on CD - 4 hrs. on 4 CDs)
The Chronicles of Narnia (boxed set of 7 vols.)
- Full-color collector's edition
- Slip-cased, soft cover set
- Deluxe edition set
- One-volume edition (with Prince Caspian on cover)

You might want to use the "Prince Caspian" movie as an opportunity to discuss Christian Ethics with young viewers. Here are some recommended resources:

Sean Covey. The Six Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make: A Guide for Teens (2006) for teens
Kenneth Taylor. Right and Wrong for Kids. (1999) for ages 4-7

Adults should take a look at:

Craig V. Mitchell. Charts of Christian Ethics (2006) 100+ charts
Roger H. Cook. An Introduction to Christian Ethics, 5th ed. (2006) 320 pp.
James Childress & John Macquarrie, eds. Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics (1986) 700 pp.

Folded napkin at the Empty Tomb does not mean "I'll be right back"

2008-05-02T08:49:00.019-05:00

Folded, not wadded

You may have seen the essay circulating the 'Net that states the folded "napkin" found at the Empty Tomb of Jesus signified what it did at any meal in that culture: it told the waiter (a slave back then) that the person was not finished eating and would be right back. This in contrast to the wadded napkin that signaled the meal was over and that the diner had left for good. The argument is that Jesus folded his napkin to show (drum roll) He's coming back!

Dubious proof of the Second Coming
I find this interpretation dubious in the extreme for the following reasons:

It appears to be dependent on the King James Version's translation of the Greek word soudarion (John 20:7) as “napkin” and then runs with the associations 21st-century culture has with that English word. For soudarion my Greek-English dictionary suggests the renderings "handkerchief, facecloth (used for the dead)." An online Greek-English lexicon defines it: “a handkerchief; a cloth for wiping perspiration from the face and for cleaning the nose and also used in swathing the head of a corpse.”

Renderings of modern English translations: towel (Weymouth), handkerchief (J.B. Phillips), face-cloth (NASB, ESV [without the hyphen]), burial-cloth (NIV), cloth (EVD, NAB, NRSV, WEB), piece of cloth (CEV). Both the KJV and the ASV have “napkin,” but Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language offers five definitions of "napkin," in addition to that associated with eating: “2. a small towel of linen or cotton cloth. 3. Chiefly Brit. a diaper. 4. North Eng. and Scot. a handkerchief. 5. Scot. a kerchief or neckerchief."

A handkerchief-sized piece of cloth could be rendered “napkin” in a context involving a meal, but that is lacking in this case. The immediate context of John 20:7 has nothing to do with a meal, interrupted or otherwise. It is definitely a context of burial in a tomb, where soudarion would refer to a cloth covering the dead person's face or perhaps a bandage-like tie around the top of the head to keep the jaw closed.

Soudarion also occurs in John 11:44, where it describes the face-covering of Lazarus immediately after Jesus restored him to life. Once again, no association with eating is present, only with the burial of a corpse. Lazarus walks out with the soudarion still in place, which means either his face was covered or his jaw was tied up.

A much more likely explanation for the folded napkin is available that suits the immediate and broader context much better. Grave robbers would not bother to fold the napkin. They would be in a hurry and would toss it aside. That it was folded (or rolled up) is one proof that Jesus truly was raised from the dead.

Much better proofs of the return of Christ include the testimony of Jesus Himself in passages such as Matthew 7:21-23; 24:26-31 (but you have to explain vv. 32-35); 24:36-51; 25:19; and 25:31-33. Added to that is the testimony of the angels at His ascension, Acts 1:10-11, and the testimony of Paul, the apostle and prophet, 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:11 and 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10. These are so much more reliable than the speculative and ill-founded folded-napkin argument.

Test claims carefully
We should be careful about uncritically accepting Internet-circulated Bible interpretations, even if they conveniently support our own beliefs, like the truth that Jesus really is coming again. Let’s all commit ourselves to "Going Deeper."

Oh, and if you are interested in HOW to fold napkins, may I recommend Robbie's Kitchen for the fundamentals? Also check out Diana Eng's Origanimals. She folds napkins into the shape of animals, including a bear, a bunny, a peacock, and a snail.

Want to go deeper?

To investigate more about the significance on the "napkin" or "face cloth," consult any good commentary on the Gospel of John (at 20:7). For instance, check out what R. A. Whitacre says.

On the one hand, the text can be understood to mean that at His resurrection, Jesus' glorified body passed through the graveclothes, including the facecloth without disturbing them at all, leaving them as a shell kept in place by the spices administered at the time of interrment. This would certainly constitute strong proof of the resurrection in contrast to the graveclothes being torn and scattered across the floor in disarray, or missing altogether.

On the other hand, if the facecloth was neatly folded, and perhaps the rest of the grave-clothes as well, it suggests that there was no hurry to get away. This is the conclusion most commentators have reached, e.g., William Milligan (Note 9) and B. F. Westcott.

If you want to learn more about the proofs of Christ's resurrection, here are some recommendations:

For purchase:

Charles Foster. The Jesus Inquest: The Case For and Against the Resurrection of the Christ (2007)

William Barclay. We Have Seen the Lord! The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1998)

Lee Strobel. The Case for Easter: A Journalist Investigates the Evidence for the Resurrection. (1998)

Online Resources:

William Lane Craig. "Contemporary Scholarship & the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1985)

Violin lost on train: Wake-up call for us all?

2008-04-23T13:47:00.024-05:00

Crisis on the footbridge
As the 12:18 from Paddington pulled in to the Great Bedwyn station on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, Rob Napier, 67, gathered his coat and briefcase as usual and prepared to disembark. Only when Rob was on the footbridge and the train was pulling away did he remember the violin he had left on the luggage rack above his seat. And not just any violin: it was fashioned in 1698 by the Venetian master craftsman Matteo Goffriller. Its bow, made by Eugene Sartory of Paris, had been in Rob’s family for more than a century.

Rob explained: “It was the first time I had been on one of the new, fast trains to Bedwyn, and as I got off I was just thinking about the train and whether it would fit on the platform. I just wasn't thinking about the violin. I half thought of jumping over the bridge on the roof of the train, but thought better of it.” Rob immediately alerted the staff of the railway’s lost property office, who telephoned ahead to Taunton, the next stop. A search there revealed the violin was already gone.

Violin had a history
Rob, his two brothers, and two sisters inherited the valuable instrument from their mother, Elizabeth Hunt, who died in 2006 at age 93. As a professional violinist, she had been a member in the 1930s and 1940s of the well-known all-female Ebsworth String Quartet. She had purchased the instrument in 1945 because she wanted an instrument matching the quality used by her colleagues. Elizabeth took the Goffriller with her on trips to India, Africa, and Germany.

Normalcy was costly
Rob had just retrieved the violin from a London expert who had valued the instrument at £180,000 (about $390,000 or €225,000). As he got on the train for the 70-mile (115-km) journey, Rob explained, “I put it on the luggage rack above my seat. I thought I couldn’t possibly forget it, and I didn’t want to appear different. I was trying to behave normally. I’m not a particularly forgetful person.”

“It was one of those terrible moments when I realised, as the train was steaming off, that I had left it on the train,” Rob said. “I think you can imagine the awful, kind of pit-in-your-stomach feeling.”

The frantic, futile search
“We went hunting for it,” Rob continued. “My wife and I drove through all the stations and left notices for it, and my sister and my cousin did the whole journey on the train the next day, but time has gone by and nothing's happened. My brothers and sisters have been very understanding, but that doesn't hide the disappointment."

Taking a new approach
After months of discrete inquiries, many phone calls, and much correspondence, the violin is still missing. That’s why Rob and the insurance company, Allianz, decided to go public, offering a £10,000 reward (about $20,000 or €12,000) for the return of the violin, even though they risk alerting the thief to its real value.

“The chances are that somebody has it without realising quite what it is,” Rob said. “We just want it back. Quite aside from its value, it has tremendous sentimental value.” Rob was about to lend it to his cousin, Libby Wallfisch, also a professional musician.

“It is very sad,” said Rob’s wife Clare. “In fact, it’s a disaster. We are just praying it turns up.”

Can you relate?
Put yourself on that train as the countryside whizzes past at more than 100 miles per hour. You sit down focused on your mission of getting the prized violin back home to Kingsbury Street, Marlborough. You try to act normal, though you are very nervous, hoping no one is watching and plotting to steal it. You look around. No one seems to take any notice of you or the battered violin case on the rack above you. You open The Times and begin to read. The vibration of the speeding train lulls you into a stupor, just like the commutes you have done for years and years. You turn the page. Oh, this looks interesting, you tell yourself. By the time the train begins to slow to a stop, you are mentally asleep, prisoner to your travel routine, forgetting what made this journey special. You pick up your briefcase and coat, and step onto the platform, eager to get to your auto.

This incident prompts me to wonder what other valuable things we let slip through our hands through inattention or neglect.

Losing your valuables
Here is your spouse, your companion through triumph and trial, with whom you have not had an evening’s conversation in weeks. There are your two kids, who seldom get your full attention, even when they address you directly and passionately. Your Bible (now, where is it, again?) you have set aside, though you are a voracious reader. Your reputation, your integrity, and your values are all strewn here and there around you. Your spirituality, which seemed so promising and enriching when it was young, you toss onto the overhead rack as you settle into your seat. All the while, the train of your life shakes and rattles you into a stupor, as it streaks toward eternity. You yawn. Your routine is giving you amnesia to what is precious.

Make your own list. What is priceless but neglected in your life? What would you spend the rest of your days trying to regain if you let it slip away due to careless inattention?

Preventable tragedy
How differently the story would have ended if Rob had placed the violin case in his lap instead of on the luggage rack! What’s the lesson for us? Stay in constant contact with whatever you value. Spend time conversing with your spouse every day. Get down on the level of your kids, and stop the multi-tasking. Devote yourself to reading, reflecting on, memorizing, and sharing the Scriptures regularly. Evaluate you reputation, assess your integrity, explore and refine your values constantly. Take time to invest in your spiritual life, every day. Keep in constant contact with what is precious to you. Don’t let anyone or anything steal them away.

The biblical warning is clear: “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away…. How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1, 3).

Want to go deeper?

Here are some passages to look at regarding "watching" and "guarding":

Neglect: Psalm 119:16; Matthew 23:23, par. Luke 11:42; Acts 6:2; 1 Timothy 4:14.

Staying spiritually awake and paying attention: Matthew 25:13, par. Mark 13:33, 35, 37 & Luke 21:36; 26:41, par. Mark 14:34, 37, 38; Acts 20:31; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 5:8-17; 6:18; Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8; 2 Timothy 4:5; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 4:7; 2 John 1:8; Revelation 3:1-3; 16:15.

Recommended for purchase:

Victor E. Frankl. Man's Search for Meaning (Rev. ed., 2000) – Between 1942 and 1945 psychiatrist Viktor Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the stories of his many patients, he argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. He outlines his resulting unique method of therapy, known as "Logotherapy," designed to help subjects to discover what is their purpose for living.

Note: A quick survey of the following two books tells me they have forms you can use to keep up with how you are doing spiritually. As always, I don't necessarily recommend everything they teach. Part of "going deeper" is developing your own spiritual discernment.

Craig Groeschel. Chazown: A Different Way to See Your Life (2006) – Packed with storytelling, graphics, in-your-face honesty, bite-sized chapterettes, step-by-step guidance, surprising self-assessments, and irresistable energy in a fast-paced style that will drive you forward with purpose.

Rick Warren. The Purpose-Driven Life Journal (2003) – Featuring quotes from The Purpose Driven Life, space to record your daily prayers, and a host of inspiring Scripture readings. Each of the journal's five sections ends with a topical "spiritual health assessment" to encourage you onward towards a life of purpose.

Online Resources:

Harold G. Koenig, M.D. "Spiritual Assessment in Medical Practice" (2001)

Gowri Anandaraja, M.D., & Ellen Hight, M.D. "Spirituality and Medical Practice: Using the HOPE Questions as a Practical Tool for Spiritual Assessment" (2001)

As inadequate as these are from a biblical perspective, they at least provide a starting place for spiritual self-assessment. See 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Text and Context: Can we understand the Bible?

2008-04-22T12:43:00.022-05:00

Have you ever had an argument about the meaning of a biblical text, and the other person complained, “You’re taking it out of context.” What does that mean? Does it really make that much of a difference?

Context defined
It is true: the meaning of a biblical passage is largely determined by its context, which we usually understand to be the words, clauses, and sentences surrounding the “target text.” A better way to think of it, however, is as a series of rings that surround the “target text” and become ever wider as they move away from it.

Internal and external contexts
Context consists of internal context, internal to the Bible, which includes the paragraph in which the target text occurs, then the section of the book it is in, then the entire book, the other writings of the same author, the entire testament, and the other testament. But context also consists of an external context, which includes the geographical, historical, and cultural circumstances at the time the text was composed.

The more you know about each of these rings, the easier it will be for you to interpret the “target text” correctly. Of course, by “correctly,” I mean the way the author intended it to be understood.

Example: Jesus the warrior?
Here’s a brief example. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus says, “Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Does this mean that He intends to raise an army of warriors and start a political revolution? The context is against that interpretation. In the immediate context, we find him saying that the decision of whether or not to follow Him will divide families, and those who choose to become His disciples must take up a cross (Matt. 10:35-39), not a sword.

Parallel passage illuminates
As we go farther away, in Matt. 26:51-56, we find Jesus rebuking a disciple for using a sword to try to prevent Him from being arrested. Jesus tells the man to put away his sword, warning, “All who draw the sword will die by the sword.” He then asks the mob, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?” The obvious answer is no.

Evidence from the Semon on the Mount
At about the same distance from the target text is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 through 7). In chapter 5, Jesus tells his disciples to love their enemies, do good to those who abuse them, and pray for those who misuse them. Specifically he speaks of going two miles with one who forces them to go one, which the historical background informs us was just what the Roman occupying force was doing in Palestine.

No armed resistance in the Garden
Going out a little further, we encounter the passage in Luke that is parallel to the target text--Luke 12:51: “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” We know this is a true parallel passage because Jesus goes on to talk once more about division within a family (verses 52-53). When you put the saying in Matthew side by side with the one in Luke, you will see that instead of ‘sword,’ Luke has ‘division.’ In other words, in Matthew’s version, Jesus uses ‘sword’ as a metaphor with the meaning of “division.” Luke just has the literal meaning without the metaphor. You can understand why he might have wanted to avoid the confusion.

Range of meanings with degrees of probability
The more we explore the context, and the more every piece of evidence points in the same direction, the more confident we can be about our interpretation. Of course, sometimes a passage is more ambiguous than Matt. 10:34, forcing us to investigate both the internal and the external contexts long and hard. In such cases, we may lay out a range of meanings and assign to each a degree of probability relative to its alternatives. Many or all of the rules of interpretation might come into play before we can make a confident decision.

Deciding not to decide
Rarely, the probabilities are fairly even, driving us to say with a shrug, “At this point, with the level of spiritual maturity that I have and knowing what I know, I can’t decide which interpretation is correct.” But even this unsatisfying result is better than saying it doesn’t matter or they are all equally valid. It matters, and perhaps later on, when you return to a passage with more information and more experience as an interpreter, the meaning will become clear.

Consult a commentary?
In the mean time, you might take a look at a good biblical commentary, which will lay out the options and walk you through the reasoning process of making a good choice among them. As a spiritual exercise, however, it is best to start with your own analysis, rather than running to a commentary whenever you want to understand a passage. Over-dependence on commentaries stunts your growth as a thinking believer and exposes you to the danger of swallowing everything a commentary feeds you, even if it is wrong.

If you do your own thinking first, then you can dialogue with the commentary, finding either confirmation or correction of your own conclusions, or else telling yourself that the arguments the commentary is making are bogus for reasons x, y, and z.

--Steve Singleton
http://deeperstudy.com

Want to go deeper?

The area of hermeneutics (the art and science of interpretation according to established principles) is the subject of a great deal of scholarly work right now, and hot controversies rage regarding which principles are legitimate and which are not.

Recommended for purchase:

Can We Solve the 666 Puzzle? Using Interpretation Principles to Illuminate One of the Darkest Verses of the Bible by Steve Singleton. Read excerpt. This is an example of how I apply hermeneutics to interpret a difficult passage.

Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., and Moisés Silva An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics (1993) Read excerpt.

Grant Osborne. The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (2nd ed., 2006) Read "Context" chapter.

Online Resources:

Beau Abernathy. "Principles of Interpretation" (2005?)

Frederic W. Farrar History of Interpretation (1886)

Pastrick Fairbairn. Hermeneutical Manual: Intro. to Exegetical Study of NT (1859)

The Real Issue of 666: Not the Mark of the Beast but How Will Your Handle Your Money?

2008-03-12T11:18:00.010-05:00

666 only a diversion
In the Garden of Eden, Satan diverted Adam and Eve from the real issue—obedient trust—to secondary concerns: Adam’s pleasing his wife and Eve’s gaining wisdom through a new experience. Ever since, Satan has been diverting and distracting human beings away from the main point again and again and again. The worldwide interest in 666 is just another example. The central issue in Revelation 13:16-18 is not 666, but, “Who will be your master, God or Money?” Many years before, Jesus had announced how impossible it is to serve both (Matt. 6:24).

Tempted to sell out
Not all Christians in first-century persecutions lost their lives by martyrdom. Some lost their souls by selling out.

“You don’t understand,” they might have explained. “I’m just about to get sacked for being a Christian. My business is floundering because my pagan customers are dropping out. I’m getting ostracized at the trade guild, and my name is about go on the blacklist. My property will be confiscated. How will I be able to buy or sell without making a few compromises?” (see Heb. 10:32–34).

Easy to miss the point
It is easy when studying Revelation to “miss the forest” while minutely examining the bark. If you take a step back, you will see that this economic theme is elsewhere in the Apocalypse. To the believers of Smyrna, the Lord of the churches says, “I know… your poverty—yet you are rich!” To the Laodiceans He observes, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich” (Rev. 2:9; 3:17–18). The eyes of the Christians in both cities seem to be focused on their economic situation. Also, the vision at the end of the book concerns a city in which pure gold replaces what would normally be concrete or asphalt. No one who lives there is in need of anything worth having.

Economic risk increasing today
Living in an era when genuine Christianity is more and more being misunderstood, misrepresented, slandered, and ridiculed, we do not find it difficult to extrapolate to a future in which being a Christian is not only unpopular, but also an economic risk. Even today, Christians in every honorable occupation daily have to choose which master they will serve. Some have rationalized themselves by tiny steps into dishonorable though lucrative pursuits.

The spiritual battle
The Lord’s challenge is clear: “If you want to follow Me, you must walk with Me on weekdays as well as on Sundays. With every dollar you earn, you fight a spiritual battle. With every dollar you spend, you make a moral decision. Will you align your values with Mine, or will you sell out to the Enemy?” Sin’s pay-out is accelerating wickedness leading to death, but the incomparable riches of God’s treasury belong to all who choose loyalty to Him over friendship with the world (Rom. 6:16–23; Eph. 1:7, 18; 2:7; 3:8; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15–17).

—Steve Singleton
DeeperStudy.com

Want to go deeper?

The following are recommended to help you look deeper into the mystery about 666 and the real issue: financial stewardship.

Recommended for purchase:

Can We Solve the 666 Puzzle? Using Interpretation Principles to Illuminate One of the Darkest Verses of the Bible by Steve Singleton. Read contents and excerpt

Ronald J. Sider Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity (rev. ed., 2005) Read contents and excerpt

Rich Brott. All the Financial Scriptures in the Bible with Commentary
(2007) Read contents and excerpt

Online Resources:

Prof. Doris Donnelly. "The Needle's Eye: Christians and Their Money" (1983)

Audience of One: A New Take on the Sunday Assembly

2008-02-25T10:33:00.013-06:00

Free event
Spying the “Free Concert” poster, I just couldn’t pass up free entertainment. I arrived way early and knocked loudly at the main entrance. A janitorish man let me in.

“Welcome,” he said. “Your first time? You’re in for an unforgettable experience.”

In the concert hall, the orchestra chairs were arranged in concentric semicircles, all facing a small, raised platform. A few musicians were already taking out instruments, adjusting stands, and warming up.

No one had bothered to set up the audience chairs yet. Except for one folding chair set smack in the middle of the hall, the large area was empty.

“We have players at all levels, from rank beginners to virtuosos,” my janitor-guide explained. “If you assume that won’t work so well, are you in for a surprise.”

More players came in every moment now, and the chaos was building, with all the chatting and tuning up, arranging stands, and taking out music. I was getting antsy to sit down, but no one was busy arranging the audience chair. I was quite unwilling to sit in that isolated, central seat.

Special seating
The janitor, who had been helping the percussion section set up, sensed my unease and walked over. “Remember I said ‘unforgettable’? You are not going to sit out there but up here. I’ve already picked a spot for you in the woodwinds.”

He showed me my seat, introducing a female oboe player to my right. “That empty seat beside you,” he said, “belongs to one of our first-year clarinetists.” She’s a little squawky sometimes. I hope you don’t mind.” He gave my arm a gentle squeeze as I sat down. “Ah, here Francine comes now.”
“Not a problem.” I could already feel the excitement begin to rise inside of me.

Audience of One
At the top of the hour everyone was in place. I noticed others without instruments, sitting here and there throughout the orchestra. Then I looked out to where the audience would be, just as an elderly man seated himself in that one chair.

Conductor surprises me
My interest got an upgrade into astonishment, because the man I took for a janitor stepped onto the platform. Every member came to immediate attention as he raised his baton.

“Him?” I gasped, just as everyone became hushed. The conductor smirked at me.

“Surprised?” whispered the oboist.

I caught myself and dropped my voice. “I’m flabbergasted! But where’s his sheet music?”

“Doesn’t need it,” she answered. “Got it all memorized.”

The concert begins
Then instantly we launched into a wonderful symphony, rich with chords, arpeggios, trills, melodic lines established and then echoed from section to section in various octaves. At first the music was thunderous and majestic, then it softened to a heart-rending whisper. A few times I could hear Francine’s missed, off-tune notes, but it didn’t seem to matter. Somehow even the worst of them naturally harmonized with the rolling chords and lyric melodies and made the whole just that much more beautiful.

I looked out to the audience of one. The old man was leaning forward, watching intently, his eyes roving around the orchestra as each instrument came in on cue. I could tell he was delighted, his eyes glistening.

When the long symphony was over, the old man stood up with amazing gusto, applauding loudly and yelling out, “Bravo! Bravo!”

The conductor made a deep bow and turning to the players, motioned for them to stand. The oboist gave me a nudge and urged me to stand with them. Then everyone bowed, as the old man continued clapping and crying, “Encore! Encore! Encore!”

Encore
At the conductor’s direction, all resumed their seats. They shuffled their music and launched into a snappy march. Its repeating stanzas built to a tremendous crescendo in which it seemed everyone in the orchestra was playing at once, loudly and furiously. Then suddenly they fell silent, though the echo of that final chord bounced around the walls a few seconds.

The old man once more took to his feet with the energy of a youngster, clapping and yelling, “Bravo! Bravo!” He continued in this manner for some minutes, prompting the conductor and the orchestra to bow time and again.

When he finally became quiet, he did not sit down again. In fact, everyone remained standing, myself included.

Post-concert conversation
The conductor bowed low once more. “I hope you enjoyed the concert, Father,” he said.

“I did. It’s the best yet. Thank you! Thank you so much, all of you, guests included.” At this point I was surprised when, for a lingering moment, he looked straight at me.

As all the musicians packed up to leave, the conductor strolled over. “I hope our concert kept you awake,” he said with a chuckle. “We put on one of these every Sunday, case you’re interested.”

“Every Sunday? Same set-up?”

Week-day activities
“Yup, and the same audience. He never tires of it, and we never tire doing our best to please him.”

I was puzzled. “But what about the rest of the week? Given over to practice, practice, practice, I suppose? Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse?”

“Actually, no,” the conductor said. “We do have some training sessions, but mostly we’re out performing more concerts. In fact, daily concerts, but not here, and not everyone together like this. Some ensembles perform—octets, quartets, trios, duets. And quite a few are solo performers. Maybe you have seen them on the streets of the city. In fact, to a man and to a woman, all of them are street musicians Monday through Saturday.”

“Now that you mention it,” I said, “I have seen some of them perform.” I recalled for him the saxophone player at the Cross-Central train platform, who was especially good. Always cheerful, always smiling, and strangely, always refusing tips.

“They play for the joy of it,” he responded, “Not for tips. The music fills them up and just has to spill out. All week they play, from the time they wake up until just before they fall asleep. They play and they recruit more members, help them pick out an instrument that suits them and then tutor them on the fundamentals.”

I am recruited
The conductor leaned over close. “I think you would be a good clarinet player,” he said. “At least as good as Francine, that teen who played next to you today.” Remembering her squawks and screeches, but also recalling how the symphony deftly absorbed and accommodated each one of them, I nodded and murmured, “Perhaps so.”

And that’s how I became a member of the orchestra on Sundays and a street musician Mondays through Saturdays. Although my playing has gotten better over the years, it seems I cannot delight the Old Man any more than I did during my first performance.
* * * *
Parable Postscript
A matter of covenants
In the Old Israelite Covenant, when all of the symbols were trotted out for everyone to see and hear, the temple orchestra had cymbals, ram’s horns, lyres, trumpets, and other instruments (see Psalm 150). All of this pleased the Father and were done at His command (2 Chron. 29:25). But in the New Christian Covenant, the multiracial one, the only instrument in worship is played on heart-strings: “Sing and make music in your heart, always giving thanks to God the Father” (Eph. 5:19; compare Col. 3:15-17).

For the first thousand years of Christianity, a cappella music was standard. In fact, the phrase ‘a cappella’ itself means “like in church.” All of those old-covenant, external symbols—instruments, incense, robes, priests, temples, sacrifices, drink offerings—the Lord internalized in the New (see Rom. 12:1-2; 13:14; Eph. 2:19-22; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; 1 Peter 2:4-5, 9; Rev. 5:8; 19:8). Slowly but surely, however, the medieval church brought back the Old Covenant externals. That was a mistake, indeed a heretical relapse. Making them external hollowed out the internal, spiritual life of the Christian.

New perspective on the Sunday assembly
It would be a mistake, therefore, to take my little parable too literally. I mean for the musical fusion between musicians and their instruments to stand for all Christian attitudes and actions. In addition, I am attempting to offer a perspective on the Sunday assembly that may be new to you, perhaps even seem bizarre. Despite all our disclaimers, I’m suggesting that in one sense, at least, it really is a performance after all! But our role in this concert is not to be the audience but the performers.

God is the audience. We offer him “the sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess His name” (Heb. 13:15; see the praise sections of Revelation, especially 4:8-11; 5:8-14; 7:9-12; 11:15-19; 12:10-12; 15:2-4; 16:5-7; 19:1-10).

On Sunday, we all perform together. The rest of the week we perform in small groups or alone. But our audience remains that same Person and His Son, our beloved Maestro.

Want to go deeper?

The following are recommended to help you look deeper into the nature of worship and the place of the Sunday assembly. Of course, I cannot endorse anything carte blanche outside of Scripture. Be disciminating in your judgment! That's a big part of what it means to Go Deeper.

Recommended for purchase:

Everett Ferguson. Early Christians Speak, Vol. 2 (2002) – See especially chapter 10: Spiritual Worship: Spiritual Sacrifice and Priesthood. View Table of Contents

John L. Girardeau (Presbyterian seminary professor & preacher). Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church (Reprint: 2006)

Allen P. Ross. Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation –View Table of Contents

Geoffrey Wainwright and Karen Westerfield-Tucker, eds. The Oxford History of Christian Worship (2005)

Online Resources:

Neil Lightfoot. "Exegesis of Ephesians 5:19 & Colossians 3:16"

Wayne Jackson. "What is A Cappella Music?" (2007) – See Jackson's list of additional resources.

John L. Girardeau. "The Discretionary Power of the Church" (sermon published in 1907) – see especially pp. 36-40.

The Christ Child: Burst of Light Out of the Darkest Midnight

2007-12-11T19:11:00.000-06:00

Conquering the deepest darkness
The Scripture says, "Get up, O sleeper, arise from out of the dead, and the Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:14). The context is the wonderful transformation that takes place at baptism, when someone spiritually dead suddenly receives spiritual life, the sinner becomes the saint, and an awesome, profoundly powerful light penetrates and conquers the deepest darkness. But what now happens in scriptural baptism has happened before.

Mountaintops often come with cliffs
Sometimes, the greatest woes fall upon people immediately after the happiest time of their lives. Job thought the blessings of his life would go on and on. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned a thousand sheep for each son, and a thousand camels for each daughter, not counting the oxen and the donkeys. He was the greatest man in the East, but in a day he had lost it all.

Just two weeks ago, the nephew of one of the Christians in our congregation was preparing for his wedding, set for December 15. Tony was 19 and his fiancée Kelcy was 21. Then, suddenly and without any warning, Kelcy died. That may be the risk of a mountaintop experience: many mountaintops come with cliffs. They buried Kelcy in her wedding dress.

At the peak of prosperity

During the reign of Jeroboam II, from 793 to 753 B.C.E., the northern nation of Israel was at the peak of its prosperity. This happened despite Jeroboam's wickedness. The biblical text offers this explanation: "The LORD had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them. And since the LORD had not said He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash" (2 Kings 14:26-27). Jeroboam even conquered Damascus and "restored the boundaries of Israel from the entrance to Hamath" (way north of Damascus) "to the Sea of the Arabah" (known to us as the Dead Sea), "in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher" (2 Kings 14:28, 25).

This is the same Jonah who preached in Nineveh. You may not be familiar with his hometown, a tiny village in Galilee, as a matter of fact very near to what would later be Nazareth. The land was so prosperous that a few years later, King Menahem was able to buy off Tiglath-Pileser and stop his invasion by paying the Assyrian king a thousand talents of silver-that's 37 tons-an astounding sum that he was able to raise by extracting 50 shekels from every wealthy man in his realm. 50 shekels is 1-1/4 pounds, which means that the northern nation of Israel at that time had 59,200 wealthy men! Of course, this was a foolish thing to do, for it only convinced Tiglath-Pileser that he could extract more money from the prosperous kingdom.

Doomed self-indulgence
You can read descriptions of Israel's self-indulgent prosperity under Jeroboam in the prophet Amos: "You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph" (Amos 6:4-6).

Earlier the prophet describes the Israelite women as "cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria." (Bashan was the lushest pastureland in the nation, which grew the fattest livestock.) He addresses them as "you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, 'Bring us some drinks!'" (Amos 4:1). The prophet predicts their doom: "The Sovereign LORD has sworn by His holiness: 'The time will surely come when you will be taken away with fishhooks. You will each go straight out through the breaks in the wall" (Amos 4:2-3).

Great instability
Over the next 50 years, the nation that had basked in the sunlight of prosperity plunged into darkness. Politically, it was a time of great instability: of the six rulers that succeeded Jeroboam II, four of them were assassinated.

Spiritual bankruptcy
While all of this was going on in Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah had issues of its own. It too was experiencing physical prosperity but also spiritual bankruptcy. Idolatry, witchcraft, sexual immorality, and even child sacrifice were commonplace. Priests and prophets had their hands in the till and habitually got drunk on the job. God's true prophets were ignored, or ridiculed, or persecuted, imprisoned, and slain. The kings were often wicked, and even the righteous ones like Azariah were flawed.

Approaching war machine
All the while, approaching from the Northeast, was the largest, most formidable and cruel army the world had ever known: the Assyrians, seeking to expand their empire in all directions. Over generations, the Assyrians had perfected their weapons, war machines, battle horses, fighting men, and tactics to the point that all fell before them. Isaiah speaks of the king of Assyria as the man "who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities" (Isaiah 14:16-17).

Two coups and perhaps a third
The Arameans or Syrians, whose capital Damascus was closest to the threat, grew desperate. In a coup their king was murdered by Rezin, who began to organize the resistance to the Assyrian danger. When Rezin could not get Israel to join him, he orchestrated the assassination of Israel's king Pekahiah, replacing him with Pekah, a man under his complete control. Then the two of them, Rezin and Pekah, approached the king of Judah, Ahaz, proposing an alliance. Behind their proposal was the threat that if he refused, they would stage a third coup, assassinate him and replace him with their own man on the throne in Jerusalem.

First prophecy: A sign for a frightened king
Ahaz was frightened out of his wits. He was strongly tempted to join the Syro-Ephaemic coalition. But the prophet Isaiah warned him it would mean his doom, offering a sign from God that he should hold out. When Ahaz refused to suggest a sign, the prophet gave him one anyway.

Isaiah said (Isaiah 7:14-17):

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah-he will bring the king of Assyria.

In a time desperately wicked, with the darkening clouds looming on the northeastern horizon, the prophet speaks of a virgin, symbol of purity. Her child would not eat the normal food, for it would all be gone. All the vineyards and farmlands would be covered with briars and thorns. Only a few livestock would survive to graze on what they can find and only honey from the wild would be available for food. Yet his name would be Immanuel: "God is with us."

How do we interpret the virgin prophecy?
Assuming that Isaiah's prophecy had some literal fulfillment, I can conceive of five different options: two in which only one baby was born, and three involving two babies.

Only one baby was conceived

1. A miraculous conception in Isaiah's time, none in first century. This fits the context of Isaiah but contradicts the New Testament testimony that the prophecy was fulfilled in the conception of Mary, and it ignores the uniqueness of Jesus.

2. No conception in Isaiah's time, but a miraculous conception in the first century. This confirms the New Testament testimony and the uniqueness of Jesus, but it contradicts the context of Isaiah.

Two babies were conceived

1. A natural conception in Isaiah's day and another natural conception in the first century. This fits the context in Isaiah well enough, but it contradicts the New Testament testimony and ignores the uniqueness of Jesus.

2. A miraculous conception in Isaiah's day and another miraculous conception in the first century. This fits the context in Isaiah and agrees with the testimony of the birth of Jesus, but it ignores the uniqueness of Jesus.

3. A natural conception in Isaiah's day and a miraculous conception in the first century. This is the only alternative that both takes seriously the context of Isaiah, confirms the New Testament testimony of the conception of Jesus, and affirms the uniqueness of Jesus. It also explains the ambiguity of the Hebrew text, which uses the term almah of the woman conceiving the child. Almah can mean 'virgin,' but it can also refer to a maiden with no specification regarding her virginity. The usual word for virgin in Hebrew is bethulah. The New Testament, however, was written in Greek, which uses the unambiguous term parthenos to refer to the virgin was became Jesus' mother by miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit.

Second prophecy: A ruler's birthplace
At about the same time, an older prophet, Micah, also delivered his oracle (Micah 5:1-5):

Marshall your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.

Bribes seldom work
Ahaz wouldn't listen to these reassurances. Rather than relying on the LORD's deliverance, he sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser, "I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who are attacking me." The record says that "Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift of the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death" (2 Kings 16:7-9). This Tiglath-Pileser probably would have done anyway, without the bribe from Ahaz. Plus, as in the case of Menahem, the bribe of Ahaz would only have convinced the Assyrians that Jerusalem was a prize worth having.

Galilee emptied
It must be that during that same campaign, the Assyrians overran "Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and deported the people to Assyria" (2 Kings 16:29). The devastation of Galilee was so complete that archaeologists have found no evidence that it was even occupied for at least two hundred years. In site after site they have discovered an obvious gap in the sherds and occupation levels they have found throughout Galilee-almost none from the seventh and sixth centuries (Iron III). The land lay desolate and virtually empty until well into the Persian period, confirming Micah's prophecy. Right in the place where, a few years earlier, Jonah's prophecy of prosperity had been fulfilled, what few people remained truly "sat in darkness."

Third prophecy: The four names of the coming ruler
Yet Isaiah predicted (Isaiah 9:1-7):There will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, but the way of the sea, along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.... For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

In a time when the rulers were senseless, Isaiah looked forward to a King whose wisdom was so great that he would be known as "Wonderful Counselor." In a day when the leaders were weak and fearful, the prophet predicted one to be called "Mighty God." In a period when ruler succeeded ruler in swift succession, the seer foretold of a Sovereign who would be the "Father of the Ages." And during fifty years of constant war, terrible atrocities, and unspeakable cruelty, Isaiah foresaw the coming Messiah, who would be "Prince of Peace." In such unfathomably deep darkness, no more brilliant light could shine forth.

In the darkest midnight
Seven hundred years later, the land writhed under an even stronger oppressor. Israel had lost her independence because one of the quarreling rivals to her throne had called in the Roman general Pompey. He came all right, but took the land for Rome and never gave it back. Another great darkness settled over the land, until the star of Bethlehem arose in the east. "Glory to God in the highest," sang the angelic host. "And on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests." Once more, in the darkest midnight, a great light shone forth.
And to all of us, who stumble through our own times of darkness, the word of the Lord announces, "Immanuel! God is with us!"

There is no foolishness that the Wonderful Counselor cannot set aside.

There is no weakness that the God called "Mighty" cannot overcome.

There is no ongoing trial that the Father of the Ages does not outlast.

And there is no turmoil in this war-weary world that He who is called the 'Prince of Peace' cannot bring to an end.

No more should we sit in gloomy darkness. Look up! Your salvation draws near!

"Get up, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

Want to go deeper?

The following are recommended to help you look deeper into these things.

The prophecies about the birth of Jesus:

Edward J. Young. The Book of Isaiah (3 vols.) – Excellent commentary by a conservative scholar.

Gresham Machen. The Virgin Birth of Christ

Archaeology of Galilee:

Jonathan L. Reed. Archaeology and the Galileean Jesus: A Re-examination of the Evidence (2000)

The Assyrian Crisis in Israel and Judah:

John Bright. A History of Israel, 4th ed. (2000)

Brevard Childs. Isaiah and the Assyrian Crisis (1983)

The Assyrians as warriors (available online):

Philip Henry Gosse. Assyria: Her Manners and Customers, Arts and Arms: Restored from Her Monuments (1852)

Evel Knievel proves no one is immortal

2007-12-03T15:04:00.000-06:00

With the passing of stunt rider/daredevil Evel Knievel the world is reminded once again that no one is immortal. Evel survived so many mishaps that some might call him unbreakable. Yet when he died of natural causes on November 30, 2007, it reminded all of us of the truth of the text in Hebrews 9:27: "...man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment."

Twenty-something young people--young men in particular--seem to assume that they are immortal, unbreakable, invulnerable to injury, disease, or death. Actuarial tables and even the college buddies who "bought it" would argue otherwise, but no one seems to be listening. Fact is, all of us are hurtling at break-neck speed toward a brick wall, which none of us will get past. It doesn't matter whether we get there on a souped up motorcycle, or sky-diving, or free climbing, or reading in a quiet library; we'll get there no matter how. Unless the Lord comes for us, we'll all be going to Him.

Meanwhile, what do we do with the time we have until then? Time is precious. Don't waste it. Be careful what you trade it for. You can always get more money, but you will never get back one minute you have already spent. Spend it well!
Here are seven activities that are almost never time-wasters:

Training--For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come (1 Timothy 4:8).

Learning--Whenever I set aside my know-it-all arrogance, the people around me can teach me a lot. Can you relate?

Loving--Love is one of the only things in the world that doesn't run out the more you exercise it. In fact, it increases!

Serving--Love is not a noun. It's a verb. It takes action for it to be real. Look around you! Someone needs your help, even right now.

Attacking--So much injustice, ignorance, and deception surrounds us that we can get intimidated. But if we confront it, much of it dissipates with very little resistance.

Defending--What are your core values? What do you think it worth fighting for? Take up a worthy cause, and don't back down!

Teaching--As you come to understand the world as it really is, perhaps you can help someone else to understand. Great teaching does not involve spoon-feeding, at least not for long. It inspires people to think for themselves.

Appreciating--Virtually none of us invests enough time simply appreciating the beauty and wonder of our world or the huge number of blessings with which we have been endowed. More gratitude will lighten your heart and open your eyes to possibilities you would miss in a more sour state.

Maybe right now you feel like you are in the middle of a jump over fourteen buses (Evel's last stunt, back in 1980). You're not sure you will sail past the fourteenth or crash somewhere in the middle. You stomach is sinking more quickly than your bike.

Here's the word of the Lord for mid-jump: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). There's a promise for now, for when you get to "the wall," and for beyond.

True Guilt or Guilt Feelings? What's Your Spiritual Diagnosis? What's the Remedy?

2007-11-21T08:44:00.000-06:00

Audio version:

The Distinction Between Feeling Well and Being Well
There's a big difference between feeling better and BEING better. Yesterday, I was at the clinic suffering from an upper respiratory infection. The doctor told me, "We'll have you feeling better right away." I wanted to tell her, "I'm not so interested in feeling better. I want to BE better."

It used to be that the way you felt physically had a close resemblance to your true medical condition. They used to call those feelings "symptoms." I'm told that doctors were trained to look at the symptoms to diagnose the malady. But these days, many doctors and a giant portion of the pharmaceutical industry have found dozens of ways to divide how we feel from our true medical condition so that we feel healthy and full of energy once more even if something is terribly wrong with us. And sometimes, the only way they can diagnose what's wrong with us is to take us off all of the meds and find out our... there's that word again, "symptoms."

You may say to me, "What's the difference? If you feel better, you are better, right?" Not necessarily.

...And Between Feeling Innocent and Being Forgiven
This whole thing has a profound, spiritual application. When you feel guilty about something, which do you want more than anything, to FEEL better or to BE better? Which do you really, deep down, desire, to feel innocent, or to know you are forgiven (whether you feel it or not)? You may say to me, "What's the difference? If you feel forgiven, you are forgiven, right?" Not necessarily.

Does True Guilt Exist? Does Sin?
It used to be that the way you felt spiritually had a close resemblance to your true moral condition. They used to call that "guilt." I'm told that all Christians were trained to examine the guilt to diagnose the sin. But these days, psychiatrists, psychologists, philosophers, and members of the tele-religion industry have tried to divide the guilt we feel from our true spiritual condition. What they prescribe is designed solely to block all of those guilt feelings from our conscience so that we feel clean and pure once more.

"There's no such thing as sin," the agnostic shrink tells us, "and therefore, no such thing as true guilt. All you have are 'guilt feelings,' the residuals of the fairy tales the nuns told you in that parochial school. Or maybe you thought you shouldn't love your mother and resent your father THAT much, and you have carried that childish baggage on into your adulthood. Forgive your inner child and ignore your guilt feelings. Then get on with your life."

Tele-evangelists (of course, not the hell-fire and brimstone ones, but when have you seen any of them lately?) may claim that because God is loving, He would never reject any human being, but will welcome all into His kingdom some day. They quote, "He is not willing that any should perish" but leave out the rest of the verse, "but everyone to come to repentance." And the very next verse describes "the day of the Lord" in all its wrathful fire, on the basis of which Peter urges us to "make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him" (2 Peter 3:9-10,14). God is loving beyond anything we can imagine, and in His infinite love, He wants us to avoid the punishment of our rebellion. Carlton Pearson is an example.

True Guilt Has Real Consequences
The Bible says there really is such a thing as guilt, and that guilt has true, deep, and lasting consequences. Guilt started in Eden, not because Eve and her husband wanted something not on the menu. Despite their daily fellowship with God and receiving all He provided, they wanted something more, wanted to be more. Rather than waiting on the Lord to fulfill those desires His way in His time, they rebelled. They thought they would benefit, gaining much more than they would lose, but they were so wrong! They fell for the lies of the Deceiver, and they deceived themselves.

All of their sons and daughters who have matured past tikes have chosen to participate in the same rebellion. We have all been deceived. We have deceived ourselves. Paul's indictment sticks on all of us: "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22). Later he laments, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

The Six Kinds of Sin Bury Us All
All of us are guilty of sinning in all six categories of sins.

Six Kinds of Sin

Sins of commission:
- Things we do that are wrong (e.g., stealing or murder).
- Things we say that are wrong (e.g., slander, lying).
- Things we think that are wrong (e.g., malice, hatred, lust).
Sins of omission:
- Things we should have done but didn't (e.g., not helping someone injured, not paying our bills).
- Things we should have said but didn't (e.g., allowing the wrong person to get blamed by keeping quiet; not talking to our kids about avoiding premarital sex, tobacco, alcohol, crime, or drugs).
- Things we should have thought but didn't (e.g., not considering the needs of others around us, not wanting any help when we need it).

When you consider all of those ways to sin, you start to get an inkling of the mountain of guilt under which each one of us is buried. Jesus compared it to a debt of millions of dollars a servant tried to pay back to the king at a time when the going wage was 25 cents a day (Matthew 18:23-26). It will never get paid off, never. Never ever. Yet, like the servant, we glibly say to others and to God, "Patience, please! Don't rush me! I'll pay you back." Yeah, right! In 164,383 years! And that's with no interest, no weekends off, and no vacations!

Don't Fool Yourself!
Scripture says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure" (Jeremiah 17:10), and "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 14:12). We can listen to the pop-psychology or the smiling, winking preachers and retrain our conscience not to prick our hearts (Acts 2:37), but that will not take away our guilt.

Some Guilt Feelings Are Baseless, But Not All of Them
Sure, there can be "guilt feelings" beneath which no real guilt exists. Christians are prone to this problem as much or more than anyone, because our Lord has trained our consciences to be sensitive. In fact, unbelievers often manipulate Christians by trying to generate those guilt feelings within them. Yet we also must mature to the point that we can distinguish the true guilt from the false. We serve a God who has promised to "hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). We who are submissive to the Lord Jesus can have confidence even "when our hearts condemn us" (1 John 3:19-20), because we know Who owns us. And, when we turn back to Him and submit once more to His loving authority, He stands ready to forgive us.

Only One Way for True Guilt to Find Forgiveness
That readiness to forgive comes from the cross, from the only One not deceived into joining the rebellion, whose perfect, sinless life He was willing to trade in exchange for ours, muddied and bloodied by our own sin (see Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21). For all those who have repudiated Satan's mastery, put their trust in Christ, confessed His name, joined in a reenactment of His death and resurrection, and are now willing to walk in His steps, the forgiveness is a continual washing in His blood (see Acts 3:19; Romans 10:9-10; Romans 6:1-7, 11-14; 1 John 2:6; 1 John 1:6-7).

Is Forgiveness Objective or Only Subjective? Is It Real?
Another way of saying all of this is, where does forgiveness happen, outside of you or inside? Is it wholly subjective or is there an objective dimension as well? Does forgiveness happen when you forgive yourself, or when you say to yourself, there's no such thing as sin in a post-modern world? No, forgiveness happens when the offended One accepts your confession, adopts you into His family, and covers you with the righteousness of His Son.

Only then are you forgiven, whether you feel forgiven or not. Only then can the divide dissolve between how you feel and what you are, and your angst and guilt feelings can make room for the "peace which transcends all understanding" that "will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). Christ's death and resurrection for you was an objective, space-and-time-anchored event in the real world. And because of that historical reality, the consequences of his death and resurrection can be real in your life: forgiveness, salvation, the indwelling, fruit-bearing Holy Spirit. Receiving and perceiving that forgiveness empowers us to forgive one another (see Matthew 18:26-35; Ephesians 4:32).

What Does True Forgiveness Do to Your Self Esteem?
By His death Jesus Christ makes this statement that should transform your self esteem: "When I look at you, your life, your potential, I think you are precious, and I'm willing to prove it by trading my life for yours. I'm willing to die so that you can live the life your were meant to live--a life of selfless service that manages guilt and doesn't hide or deny it. You are worth it to Me. Come, let's walk together--forever after." [TOP]

Want to go deeper?

The following are recommended to help you look deeper into the nature of guilt, sin, forgiveness, and the work of the Cross. I cannot endorse anything carte blanche outside of Scripture. Be disciminating in your judgment! That's a big part of what it means to Go Deeper.

Recommended for purchase:

Jack Cottrell. Baptism: A Biblical Study (1989)

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The Cross (1986)

Alister McGrath. Self Esteem: The Cross and Christian Confidence (2002)

Leon Morris. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (1955, reprinted many times)

John R. W. Stott. The Cross (2006)

Online resources:

John Mark Hicks. "Down in the River to Pray: Revisioning Baptism as God's Transforming Work" (intro. to his book)

Jim McGuiggan. "The cross or the Christ on it?"

Greek Text Behind the King James (Authorised Version)

2007-10-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

Question: Steve, I have been trying to find which Greek manuscripts underlie the Textus Receptus and KJV of the New Testament. I have read numerous articles that say Erasmus relied on only a few manuscripts, primarily on two, but none of them name the manuscripts he used. Can you tell me what they are please? Thanks very much. —Tom

Answer: It's hard to give you an answer in a sentence or two. The basic facts are these:

Only six manuscripts
I found this in Bruce M. Metzger's The Text of the New Testament (Oxford, 1968): "Thus the text of Erasmus' Greek New Testament rests upon a half-dozen minuscule manuscripts. The oldest and best of these manuscripts (codex 1, a minuscule of the tenth century, which agrees often with the earlier uncial text) he used leased, because he was afraid of its supposedly erratic text!" (102). (Much of the rest of my answer is from the same source.)

After Cardinal Ximenes' Greek text came out a couple of years after Erasmus, Erasmus made corrections based on it. Then numerous printers reproduced the text of Erasmus in their own editions, sometimes making their own changes. One of these, the text of Robert Estienne, Latinized as Stephanus, issued four editions (1546, 1549, 1550, and 1551). His third edition was the first to have a critical apparatus, in which he entered variant readings from 14 Greek codices, including the famous Codex Bezae, as well as readings from Ximenes' text.

Best manuscripts little used
The reformer Théodorè de Béze, or Beza, published four editions (1565, 1582, 1588-9, and 1598) and several reprints. His editions contained textual information from Greek manuscripts he personally collated, including his own Codex Bezae and Codex Claromontanus. Beza made little use of these manuscripts, however, for they deviated too far from the text generally received. He also garnered information from the Syriac and Arabic translations of the New Testament. All of this information Beza put into the margins of his editions; the text itself was the 1551 edition of Stephanus. Metzger says: "The King James translators of 1611 made large use of Beza's editions of 1588-9 and 1598."

Underlying text reconstructed
Only after the revision that culminated in the Revised Version of 1881 (=the ASV of 1901 with only minor differences) did F. H. A. Scrivener reconstruct the Greek text behind the KJV (The New Testament in the Original Greek According to the Text Followed in the Authorized Version Together with the Variations Adopted in the Revised Version [Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1894). I happen to have a copy of his Greek Testament. In the preface he says, "[T]he Authorised Version was not a translation of any one Greek text then in existence, and no Greek text intended to reproduce in any way the original of the Authorised Version has ever been printed" (vii).

He goes on to say that they probably used Beza's 1598 edition "more... than any other Greek text" but...

There are however many placed in which the Authorised Version is at variance with Beza's text; chiefly because it retains language inherited from Tyndale or his successors, which had been founded on the text of other Greek editions. Wherever. the Authorised renderings agree with other Greek readings which might naturally be known through printed editions to the revisers of 1611 or their predecessors, Beza's reading has been displaced from the text in favour of the more truly representative reading. It was manifestly necessary to accept only Greek authority, though in some places the Authorised Version corresponds but loosely with any form of the Greek original, while it exactly follows the Latin Vulgate. All variations from Beza's text of 1598, in number about 190, are set down in an Appendix at the end of the volume, together with the authorities on which they respectively rest. (viii-ix)

It took strong convincing on the part of Westcott and Hort to move the revision committee away from the Textus Receptus in pursuit of an earlier text, found mainly in Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. That brought the underlying text of the New Testament back to a date of around 350-400 CE.

Modern text more ancient
Since about a hundred years ago, earlier and earlier manuscripts have been discovered, more than 100 papyri mainly from Egypt, taking the text back to around 175-200 CE.

Textual critics have found that the earlier manuscripts sometimes agree with Vaticanus and Sinaiticus against the medieval manuscripts, and sometimes disagree, but sometimes yield a third reading, not like either.

In trying to discern the original text, modern textual critics do not just count manuscripts as one would count votes in a popular election. If they did, the later manuscripts would win nearly every time, since there are more of them. Rather, they "weigh" the manuscripts, giving more weight to manuscripts that are older and those that generally have a better quality of text, based on established canons of internal criticism.

Eclectic textual critics
For the most part, however, modern textual critics are eclectic, which means they do not carefully follow one text family over its rivals but select variant by variant, verse by verse, which readings claim priority over their alternate readings.

There is a great deal of subjectivism in this process, for the hardest decisions are when the pros and cons are fairly evenly balanced.

The vast majority of textual decisions, however, make little or no difference in the overall meaning of the text. The UBS committee selected only 1200 readings for the entire New Testament that were both translationally significant and there was some degree of uncertainty about which reading to choose. This is a tiny number, and many of these involve word order, the absence or presence of an article, or other trivial differences.