Month: October 2012

In the article Does God Want You To Be Rich David Van Biema and Jeff Chu highlight the life of George Adams who, at that time, attended Lakewood Church with Joel Osteen. They quote Adams,

I’m dreaming big–because all of heaven is dreaming big,” Adams continues. “Jesus died for our sins. That was the best gift God could give us,” he says. “But we have something else. Because I want to follow Jesus and do what he ordained, God wants to support us. It’s Joel Osteen’s ministry that told me. Why would an awesome and mighty God want anything less for his children?

The authors explain,

“In three of the Gospels, Jesus warns that each of his disciples may have to “deny himself” and even “take up his Cross.” In support of this alarming prediction, he forcefully contrasts the fleeting pleasures of today with the promise of eternity: “For what profit is it to a man,” he asks, “if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” It is one of the New Testament’s hardest teachings, yet generations of churchgoers have understood that being Christian, on some level, means being ready to sacrifice–money, autonomy or even their lives.

But for a growing number of Christians … the question is better restated, “Why not gain the whole world plus my soul?”

Jesus has become an enterprise. He is not worshiped. He is used like a charm, magic spell, and elixir to get what people really want. The cross has become the rung on the ladder to success. If Jesus can lift us up as we step on Him, we will succeed.

Giving to God (tithing) is yet another rung on the ladder to success. “Give more to God so He will give more to you!” Tithing is no longer an act of worship but a chant, a waiving of the wand if you will, replacing “abra cadabra!” to make the great door of success open wide.

God Himself is no longer our goal, but merely a means to another end. God becomes the telescope that leads us to the very thing upon which our heart is set. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” He said this on the heals of, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys” (Luke 12:32-34).

Jesus proclaims something entirely different

Think on these words of Paul:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel– not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-10).

“The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes … For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

From Osteen’s perspective, Jesus is not a Savior, as much as, an Enterprise–a gospel that is no gospel at all.

Paul emphasizes the land promise is fulfilled as Christ (and his body) have gospel dominion and fill the whole world. The original creation mandates retold to Abraham are fulfilled in the interadvental, world-wide family of Christ in the earth. Christ’s rule is on earth, as well as in heaven. If this is so, we might expect Paul to apply a practical component of the land promise to Gentile believers outside the “land” (of Palestine).

Lo and behold – we find that Paul urges the same fullness of Gentile participation in covenant promises (including the land) elsewhere. In Ephesians 2, while not speaking explicitly of the land, it does refer to full participation. Gentiles were excluded from “the commonwealth of Israel,” “the covenants of promise” and there was a “wall of separation.” Now in Christ there is “access” and you are “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” and part of the “the whole building,” growing into a “holy temple in the Lord,” “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” These key concepts overflow with land connections. The term “commonwealth” refers to “citizenship” elsewhere (Acts 22:28)².

See Matthew 5:5; Romans 4:13, 16; Ephesians 6:1-3

Notice that the meek inherit the earth (a quote from Psalms 37:9-11, 22, 27). The very promise given to Abraham concerning the land is promised to his spiritual descendants. And also the Gentile Ephesian children are promised long life in “the land” (or “the earth” as the NASB has it). Compare Ephesians 6:3 with the promise as stated in Exodus 20:12b: “that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” Paul holds up this promise for the Ephesian Christians.¹

Gentile believers also have a share in the “covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:12). In Galatians, Paul speaks singularly of the Abrahamic covenant, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”(Galatians 3:29). But in Ephesians (2:12) he implies the full participation in the covenant life of Israel which unfolded in covenants (plural) of “the promise” (singular). This is exactly the point of the argument in Romans 4 and Galatians 3, also. This is not replacement theology, but inclusion theology.

That Christ’s body of believers are a Temple or Dwelling of God is emphasized by virtually all NT authors. In 1 Peter 2:4-6, Gentile aliens and strangers who were dispossessed of a land with a temple, yet they are “being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” However to speak of the “temple” is to speak of Jerusalem and thus the land. Poythress observes that the meaning of tabernacle, which is God dwelling with His people, is itself a “land” type. God dwells in a place with His people².

This NT understanding of the land promise certainly seems to spiritualize the promise [should the Ephesians really expect to live long in Canaan? or should the meek expect to inherit Canaan?] or more properly, to expand it to include the whole world (Rom. 4). And indeed the promise that God would be with Abraham’s descendants, dwell with them and be their God (see Genesis 17:7-8, also Exodus 29:45, Leviticus 26:12, and Ezra 37:27) is repeated and realized in Revelation 21:3: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them”. Certainly the New Testament seems to indicate that the land promise points us to this ultimate reality¹.

It is instructive to note that Peter’s “the cornerstone” references were first used by Christ after a prophetic “destroying of the temple” in the “cleansing of the temple” events of Matthew 21:42f. “Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” Hence there is an explicit connection between the covenant breaking of that Cornerstone-[Christ]-rejecting generation and the new building of the people of God².

“The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former … and in this place I will give you peace.” (Haggai 2:9)

“The house [that is] to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries.” 1 Chronicles 22:5) “The glory of the Lord … filled the Lord’s house.” (2 Chronicles 7:2)

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (John 2:19, 21)

Thus, all three aspects (commonwealth, covenant, temple) of the Gentile-included new people of God overlap with the covenant land promise. Even more, however, at the end of Ephesians, the “land” is explicitly referenced. It provides confirmation of the expansion motif even in pastoral and familial categories. An original promise regarding “the land” is expanded to outside the land – to the “earth.” Paul writes, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1-3)

The term “earth” certainly could be translated “land” (as in Palestine). Is this what Paul meant? Paul could hardly be telling Ephesian Christian children that obeying their parents will bring them blessings of long life in Palestine! Or is Paul simply spiritualizing the land promise? It is strange that Paul would quote the promise component of this, rather than just the moral command (cf. Colossians 3:20)².

Especially since he’s writing to a Gentile dominated group of people.

Given the sustained argument of covenantal inclusion in Ephesians 2, it is warranted to take the greek word here as “the earth,” since Ephesus is outside the “holy land.” The KJV, ASV, NAS, NIV, NKJ, RSV, NRS versions agree. Thus, “the land” has become for the new people of God, “the earth.” This was the original purpose for Abraham’s promise, after all. Our Lord taught that “the meek inherit the earth,” (Matthew 5:5). God has called his new covenant people to be ruled from heavenly Jerusalem, but to be a temple in all the earth.

Over against premillennial views, the specific restoration of Israel to the land was a preparation for new covenant fulfillment in the work of Jesus. True Israel was raised and all united to Him in faith have such life. Now all ethnic peoples, including Jews and Arabs, have access to the rule from Mt. Zion above, but only through Jesus (Hebrews 12:22ff). From which we take our marching orders for life in the current cosmos of inheritance.

The meaning of “heaven” in the NT is not an ethereal space, it is about the “rule from heaven” — “on earth as it is in heaven.” NT Wright observes, As any reader of the book of Daniel could have told you (and Daniel was very popular in the first century AD), the one who dwells in heaven is the one who rules on the earth. As any watcher of the Roman Imperial cult could have told you (and the Imperial cult was the fastest-growing religion in the first-century Mediterranean world), the one who is seen being taken up into heaven is the one who is thereby revealed as divine, as the ruler of the present cosmos…The point is that from heaven he is ruling the world, ruling it through the faithful lives, the suffering and the witness of his Spirit-driven apostolic followers, calling it to account, demonstrating that there is a new way of living, a way which upstages all Caesar’s pretensions to have saved the world, or united it, or brought it genuine justice, freedom and peace.”

Abraham’s promise aimed to get back to Adam’s original mandate: dominion in the earth. Paul’s use of the “land” is grounded in creation (Adamic dominion), fulfilled in the new creation (Last Adam). God’s purposes were to bless all the nations. So in the preceding covenant era, the location of Palestine was ideal. It was a narrow land bridge connecting the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia. It was ideally situated for the extension of God’s covenant blessing to the entire world. It was “at the center of the earth” (Ezek. 38:21; 5:5). Changing the world started at this center. Now we must paint it into the corners. We must go further up and deeper in².

References

¹ Understanding the Land Promise: Part 1
² “The Land Promise: Exegetical Evidence for a Postmillennial Reading (PDF)

For further reading
Previous discussion of The Land Promise.

A new study says “nones” are on the rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation.

Alan Jacobs expresses an interesting thought in light of this new research,

The question I would ask is this: Has there been an actual increase in religiously unaffiliated people, or do people who are in fact unaffiliated simply feel more free than they once did to acknowledge that fact?

USA Today explains, “Protestant” is no longer America’s top religious umbrella brand. It’s been rained out by the soaring number of ‘Nones’ — people who claim no faith affiliation.”

The USA Today article alludes to Jacobs’ point:

Rev. Martin Marty, a historian of religion and professor emeritus of the University of Chicago, says he wrote a book half a century ago on varieties of unbelief and has long thought that religious cohesion “has long been overstated.”

Says Marty: “The difference is now we have names for groups like Nones.”

J. R. R. Tolkien explains our fantastical writing (i.e. the writing of fantasy literature) flows from and because of Whose image we bear,

We make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”

C. S. Lewis furthers the point and relaying it specifically to Christ:

Now as myth transcends thought, Incarnation transcends myth. The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens-at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle. – C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, “Myth Became Fact”

The peculiar quality of the ‘joy’ in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a ‘consolation’ for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, ‘Is it true?’ . . . In the ‘eucatastrophe’ we see in brief vision that the answer may be greater–it may be a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium in the real world . . . The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels–peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: ‘mythical’ in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story [i.e. the Christian Story] has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation [those who write and enjoy fanatasy literature] has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the ‘inner consistency of reality’. There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true. ~J.R.R. Tolkien

In Letter 89 by Tolkien to Christopher Tolkien (pp. 99-100):

…I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of truth…. It percieves– if the story has literary ‘truth’…–that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest fairy story– and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love…

So it may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks. ~J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to Camilla Unwin – May 20, 1969

The Gospel unifies, and at the same time, it enhances diversity without enforcing uniformity (see Romans 14; 1 Corinthians 8; Revelation 5:9; which reflect that there are different kinds of people, and because of these differences, Scripture explains how we should handle those differences in the Gospel). The fruit of the Gospel is a reflection of Who God is in Himself.

God in Himself is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each is fully God (unity), yet they are distinctly different in role (diversity).

Some folks see the terms “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God” as two different kingdoms.

I am not so sure. Here are parallel passages using the two different phrases for the same accounts. If they are different “kingdoms” then we should never see the phrases as interchangeable, yet when different Gospel authors use the different phrases for the same accounts, we can recognize they are interchangeable.

This is significant in many ways of which we get into at a later time.

Ian McConnell has graduated into my favorite preachers list.

Man oh man. So good.

Take a listen – Reading Genesis Like Jesus Taught (Luke 24:13-47)

Some highlights

Jesus teaches how to read Genesis. He teaches us how to look at Genesis through the eyes He wants us to see. Genesis needs to be read with the full Gospel in view.
When Genesis was written, God’s intention was to point readers forward to the coming day of the Messiah; now that Jesus has come, we read the book through the eyes of fulfillment.

On the basis of Jesus instructions, I submit it is wrong for a Christian to ignore the Good news of Christ in the act of interpreting the Old Testament. We must not ignore the Gospel of Jesus Christ while reading Genesis.

After you watch a movie once, you know you can’t watch it a second time without knowing what’s been revealed the first time you watched it. You can’t go back and watch it again without knowing the things you watched the first time.

Now that we know what Genesis is pointing to, we should read it with “that’s what it’s talking about!” “That’s where it’s leading!” We must study it with the whole storyline of the Bible in view.

“Once Christ had fulfilled the Old Testament, a Christian cannot and should not resist seeing how he fulfilled it. The Christ event enriches our understanding of the message of the Old Testament.”

Jesus enables us to understand what we naturally are unable to understand. We do not naturally get it.

Theme of Genesis – God relentlessly pursues relationships with broken people. Relationship = Covenant – not because they deserve but because God is gracious.

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for:
     If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
     if we endure, we will also reign with him;
     if we deny him, he also will deny us;
     if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself. ~2 Timothy 2:8-13

Because you are in Christ and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, even though you are faithless many times, God is yet faithful to you. Because you are enjoined by the Holy Spirit in Christ, God remains faithful.

God cannot deny Himself

Because the Holy Spirit is the Seal of our Salvation (2 Corinthians 1:22), God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Life Who is enjoined with us (Romans 8:2), God will not leave us as orphans.

God cannot deny Himself

Superheroes are cultural icons. Every kid wants to become a superhero. Growing up, I wanted to be Superman or Batman.

There are superheroes of all kinds: the invincible Man of Steel, the Dark Knight, and Warrior Princess, also known as, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. They have captivated audiences for decades.

The problem with every superhero is, they all have a weakness

Not by their choice, mind you. Superheroes would rather give up their inherent weakness.

In the television series, Wonder Woman’s magic belt allowed her to retain her powers when she was not on Paradise Island; removing it weakened her. Batman is human, which means he has no inherent superhuman powers. He must rely on “his own scientific knowledge, detective skills, and athletic prowess.”

The Man of Steel is the perfect superhero: He can move faster than a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings in a single bound, and his hair never falls out of place while flying. However, “the only thing capable of harming Superman is Kryptonite, a piece of his old home world¹.”

The weakness of humans is mortality–The inevitability of death is the ultimate weakness

[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ~Philippians 2:6-11

Jesus, who had no weakness, put on weakness–in human form–became obedient in weakness even to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus put on weakness by choice.

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him (Romans 8:34; Romans 10:9; Romans 6:9).

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (in Christ).

Jesus said these things to you, “in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ~Hebrews 4:14-16

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. For if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

I’d rather have a Savior than a Superhero

References
¹ Pevey, Timothy Aaron “”From Superman to Superbland: The Man of Steel’s Popular Decline Among Postmodern Youth” PDF (3.14 Mb). April 10, 2007 URN: etd-04172007-133407