The New Bereans

“Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.  And I said, should such a man as I flee?  And who is there that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life?  I will not go in.  And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.  Therefore was he hired that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me. My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets that would have put me in fear. So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.”  Nehemiah 6:10-15

This prayer has multiple noteworthy elements contained within it.  Nehemiah here is far from using supercilious piety, instead he expresses shameless honesty before the Lord.  Tobiah and Sanballat had been up to their old games, and rather than finding consolation or pity from people, Nehemiah jumps from his account about what they had just done to him into a simple stun gun of a prayer.  (Highlighted above in blue.)

Nehemiah’s detractors had just attempted to use fear to drive him to a decision lacking moral integrity, which was to enter the temple for selfish reasons motivated by fear.  This would have put a stain upon his reputation in the long run and would have discredited what he was doing.  Somehow this charlatan Noadiah was in on the whole thing.  She must have somehow known that to enter the temple was wrong, so for hire she conspired against the Lord’s chosen leader.  How did she know?  Her name is Jewish in every sense and the proper enunciation of her name is No-ad-yah, which means convened of the Lord.  Not only was she a false prophetess, but also a traitor to her own people.  Apparently she had a coven of co-conspirators and lackeys known infamously as, “the rest of the prophets.”  This tactic, by the way, is often one of Satan’s main modus operandi.  Discredit, disqualify, and dismember Christians reputations limb by limb until they are unable to consciously represent their Lord any more.  We must not be ignorant of his devices.

What motivates people like Noadiah and her cronies?  Peter tells us (2 Peter 2:1-3) that false prophets operate out of a few basic moral principles: covetousness, sneakiness, denial of God, and hypocritically deceitful conversation.  He warned that they had harassed the children of Israel and they would also heckle the church.  These were the types of impish individuals Sanballat and Tobiah worked with to try to topple the pillars of Nehemiah’s character.

Nehemiah simply prays that God would think upon these people according to their works.  We must read between the lines to recognize the depth of humility and the prevalence of faith in Nehemiah.  He recognizes who it is that can really deal with wickedness.  Rather than take these people to Artaxerxes’ court and sue them over an attempt at defamation of character, or whine incessantly about how provocative it was that someone thought they could pull the wool over his eyes.  He simply turns to God and asks him to deal with them.  Nehemiah also had expressed great discernment in figuring out that they were trying to deceive him.  This was a man of much character.  I could only hope to be a sliver of this mans tree. His prayer was also an efficient way of dealing with the hecklers.  Nehemiah could have wasted inordinate amounts of time trying to shoo them away, but prays instead and just gets back to work.  Also, Nehemiah had the wisdom to recognize the enemy had cornered him by trying to get him to make a rash decision based on fear.  As a general rule, fear is never a good emotion upon which to make most decisions in life.  Nehemiah had the discernment to recognize this fear for what it was…a bald faced lie!

Finally what Nehemiah actually asks God to do is revealing about Nehemiah’s trust in God’s absolutely perfect judgment.  We ought to pray like this, succinctly, confidently, and trustingly.  God knows if we have integrity or not, so if we have integrity we can pray from that integrity, and ask God to be the judge about our provocateurs.  There could be nothing more nettling than for saints to pray that God would deal with our, and ultimately His enemies, according to their works.  For what judgment is more perfect than that of the perfect judge?

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.   – II Corinthians 7:1

Revival starts with me.  It starts with holiness, with genuine repentance, and prayer.  It starts with an individual or small group seeking only to bring God glory, through obedience to, and humility before Him.  There is a price to pay; forsaking comfort, safety, respectability, and luxury.  One must be ravenously hungry for God to be glorified.  They must seek Christ as an end, not a means.  They cannot care whether the revival spreads any further than their own heart.  God will share his glory with no man!  Just like Christ’s parable in Luke, after tirelessly serving, we must realize . . . we are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.  Luke 17:10

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

Here in Second Chronicles God manifests himself to Solomon and declares that for sins to be forgiven and the land to be healed; certain things must be done.  Humility, prayer, seeking God, and Repentance must first occur.  But we want happiness without holiness, answers without prayer, manifestation without seeking, and revival without repentance.  Like the prodigal son we demand; Give me the inheritance!  We spend hour’s watching television and minutes in prayer.  We can speak for hours about the latest group of rejects from American Idol, yet cannot even recall the prophet Micaiah!  Do we wonder why the world calls us hypocrites?  Humble yourself, pray, seek the Lord, and repent.  Prayer proceeds passion!  Seeking proceeds finding!  Humility proceeds holiness.  And repentance precedes revival.

If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.  John 14:23

. . . In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men . . . Full well you reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. . ..making the word of God of none effect through your tradition. -Mark 7:7-13

One great roadblock to Revival, and Biblical Christianity, is tradition. We have traditions that make behaviors not identified as sin, sinful. Yet we rarely preach against socially acceptable sins. I can’t remember the last time I heard a sermon decrying covetousness. Fierce nationalism is preached, but the Bible tells us we are pilgrims and strangers on this earth. Wearing hats is sinful, but gossip is fine. Tattoos are sinful, but divorce and remarriage is fine. Drinking alcohol in moderation is sinful, but covetousness . . . that’s not only fine, it’s the American way. We haven’t thrown out the baby, but we haven’t thrown out the bathwater either, instead we preach and extol the virtues of the bathwater, and minimize the baby. I’ve heard it taught that “we shouldn’t try to be like Jesus, we just need to like Jesus”; but Jesus said, I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. *

You may protest; if we don’t look to ecclesiastical tradition as our model, how will we know what the church should look like? How do we know what an authentic Christian looks like? The answer is radically simple. The scriptures! The Sermon on the Mount is a good start; Jesus clearly tells us how to act, how to think, how to pray, and how to treat our fellow man. A study through the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament will fill in the rest of what true Christianity is, and how it works. Don’t go rooting around the Old Testament to find church practice; because much of the practice of the Jews was concerned with fulfilling ceremonial law’s which as Christians we are no longer bound by.  Examples of these would be sacrificing an animal when we sin, not lighting a fire on the Sabbath, and circumcision. We need to study our Bibles, to ensure that every doctrine we hold is scriptural, not merely cultural.

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  -II Timothy 2:15

* John 13:15

Wait?  What Did You Say Sodom’s Sin Was?

To willingly place ones head on the proverbial chopping block is not really what I intend to do with this post.  However, knowing human nature, some will instantaneously misinterpret what I am about to say.  He who has ears to hear, will hear Gods heart from His Word, and not words according to men’s fallacious thinking.

What exactly was Sodom and Gomorrah punished for?  The reactionary with an incorrectly divided viewpoint, will bring out the boiler plate and hide the china by stating, “Sodom was punished for the sexual abominations committed therein.”  Granted, I understand why we jump to this conclusion so quickly, the activity of the men in the city was so obstinately rapacious towards the very angels of God, strange flesh indeed ₁!  And while there is truth to this general observation, it is not the whole truth. This is a passage of scripture in dire need of commentary from God himself.  Chapters eighteen and nineteen of Genesis do not offer it in spite of great want.

The word of the Lord came to that fascinating prophet Ezekiel, we read in chapter 16:49-50 the commentary from God on the scenario at Sodom.  “Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.  And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.”  It is strikingly clear from this passage that God had a view of Sodom we do not so quickly gather from the passages in Genesis.  As is so often the case with scripture, we really need to rightly divide God’s word, and not jump to the first conclusion we draw.  Here we see that our first impressions are only interlaced with partial truth.  The whole truth is far worse!  Pride…hedonism, and lack of compassion upon the unfortunate preceded abomination.  The abomination was only the tip of the iceberg.  All over the media, the internet, and from pulpits Christians are decrying homosexuality as the great sin of Sodom.  In no way am I saying it was not a great sin; however, I am saying that we need to pull the tree out of our own eye and realize that we have been attacking the tip of the iceberg with a machete, using the grace, precision, and tact of blind zoo-monkeys.  All the while, below the placid surface dwells this lurking monstrosity of iniquity.  Upon which many ships are being wrecked ₂. They litter the ocean floor in a jagged watery mausoleum.

Christians, pastors, activists, radio show hosts, bloggers, and anyone who cares about this issue, I plead with you.  I beg that you would hear Gods heart.  We need to repent; we need to take the log out of our own eye.  Judgment begins in the house of God, not outside of it.  Are we hedonistic in all of our pursuits?  Are we filling endless hours consuming idle mediocrity? Have we forgotten to give to the cause and plight of the poor?  Do we stand in the gap through prayer as much as we attempt to legislate our morality?  Is legislating our morality even what we are called to do for that matter?  Daniel is a man of whom the Bible mentions no sin or iniquity yet what was his prayer filled with?  Repentance! Daniel pleaded Gods forgiveness for the iniquity of his people, he begged God to turn His anger away from His children, and away from Jerusalem.  He was an intercessor, a man who stood in the gap, a man whom we all could learn a lot from. And certainly he was not a man pointing fingers outside himself but rather, upon his knees he took upon himself the sins of his people.  This is the attitude most like our Lord, who was silent before his accusers, cognizant of the fact there was no excuse for the sin he was about to take upon himself for the sake of all those who would call upon his name.

_{1. Jude 7}

_{2. 1 Timothy 1:19}

God the Builder

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. Hebrews 3:1-4

God is a builder. He has not only built galaxies, stars, planets, oceans, trees, plants, and animals . . . but also man. I’m not sure if he is still building other universes somewhere, but apparently he is still building men. In American Christianity with its highly Armenian tendencies, we view Godly men, with impressive achievements, as being somewhat self made. Due to their self control, biblical knowledge or innate goodness, they got somewhere, or achieved something grand. But this verse in Hebrews totally disassembles that theory.

When I first noticed this verse and was telling a friend about it, his first reaction was to take notice of the obvious point “God made everything, so God is great”, but in this instance, regarding this discussion, my focus is on the easily missed, initial point of the verse “God built Moses”! I’m not just saying God picked his eye and hair color, or decided on a height for him; I’m saying the abilities he had, the personality he had, the trials he faced, everything he was, was all due to God’s sovereign determination. God built Moses! Therefore God get’s all the credit for everything Moses achieved. Truly Moses did obey God and submit to Him, but it was God who gave him this ability and desire. God prepared good works for Moses to walk in. This is why we are to pray Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,* we want his will in our lives. And we should have great humility concerning any good thing that comes into and through our lives.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

* Matthew 6:10

As my beloved sons I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers.  I Corinthians 4:14-15

The modern church has many members but few converts, many psychologists but few prophets, many teachers but few fathers.  We have beliefs we don’t believe, practices we don’t practice, and a master we don’t obey.  A pastor was never intended to be a cross between a comedian, a motivational speaker, and a psychologist.  Paul never instructed Timothy to tell jokes, make people feel good, and explain away the Scriptures.  Pastors are to glorify Christ, preach the gospel, exhort the body, and guard the flock.

The Lord declares, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word”.1   Christians have lost their respect for the Lord, and who can blame them when Jesus is portrayed as  some kind of  young Jewish  Santa Clause.  He who created all things by, and for himself, is conspicuously absent in their theology.  He is portrayed as being insecure and co-dependent, knocking at the doors of our hearts, and then waiting for us to let him in.  Either unwilling or unable to influence us, he just stands there knocking like an imbecile.  I have heard countless evangelical appeals that go something like this; “Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart, he won’t force himself in, he’s waiting for you to decide, just raise your hand and repeat this prayer after me. . . “  No wonder some have left the faith!  I don’t worship some co-dependent spiritual pacifist; I worship the sovereign Lord of the universe.   Rarely do they speak of the true nature of Christ; not breaking a bruised reed, yet driving merchandisers out of the temple with a whip.  He doesn’t ask your permission to save you.  He conceals the gospel from some, and reveals it to others.  He turns away crowds of followers, but knocks his enemy to the ground, blinds him, and violates his will completely, resulting in the conversion of the Apostle Paul.

Instead of proclaiming the truth, some explain it away. They call it heresy to interpret dragons, locusts, and beasts allegorically, and then in the next breath, they allegorize the gospel itself.   Their gospel has been greased, the word has been blunted, and the message distorted.  Repentance is redefined as changing your mind about God, or feeling sorry for your sins.  Turning from your sins taking up your cross and following him is alien to their message.  Those attempting to live a holy life are marginalized and called legalists, then, they proclaim that living a holy life is impossible, so why even try.  In fact by attempting to literally follow Christ, they say you are insulting him and suggesting the price he paid wasn’t enough.  No need for a holy life; just sin and let grace abound.  Their gospel comes neither in word nor in power.

The idea that a church should practice discipline of any kind is now considered archaic.  Members can have affairs, leave their spouse, marry their lover and go right on attending.  I’m not exaggerating at all.  I attended a church where a woman got a breast augmentation , left her husband for the plastic surgeon, and was allowed to perform songs from her new album (available in the bookstore), practically before the ink had dried on the divorce papers.  Does anyone else have a problem with that?  You can be a known liar, thief, or adulterer, and be not only allowed in church.  If you tithe enough, you may even get a spot on the board.  Those charged with raising the sheep, are raising cash to build bigger buildings, all the while the sheep starve.  The converts have few to care for, or disciple them.  Those trying to grow in their faith are continually suppressed.  Where are the spiritual fathers?  Who will care for the sheep?  Are all the pastors’ too busy building barns to care for the flock?

1 Isaiah 66:2

Part III A Personal Experience that Fostered Nobility

When in Junior High, I had a biology teacher who taught me a vivid lesson.  This was not a lesson on cells, frog guts, or osmosis, rather it was one of the single most valuable life lessons a public teacher could ever offer their students.  We will call her Mrs. T for the duration of the story.

It was the first day of class when Mrs. T launched into the litany of statements about an ice age creature known as the “Cattywampus.” She told us it was an ancestor to the lemur family and had all sorts of fanciful attributes we were to take note of, in preparation for a test the very next day.  I vaguely remember being a bit shocked by her down to business attitude, and was somewhat resentful that I would already have a test on the second day of class.

The lecture passed and I proceeded toward my next classes, which I ironically have no memory of.  The night came and went, and I found myself in Mrs. T’s classroom once again the next day circling the best answers to the multiple choice questions about this legendary lemur.  When required to fill in the blanks, I did so to the best of my recollection.  Again I proceeded to classes I have no memory of, and another night passed.

Day three of class brought a shock to every student in but one.  There was only one “A” distributed, and every one else had obtained an “F” on the test.  Mrs. T held up the test that had an “A” on it and there were no answers filled out any where on it.  The proud owner of the “A” had only written one sentence above all the questions, right below her name.  The sentence said, “There was no such animal as a Cattywampus.”

Beaming with pride, Mrs. T handed the student back her test and she proceeded to tell the rest of the class that the “F” was a permanent mark against us.  We would have to work the rest of the quarter to make it up.  With thunderous authority she admonished all of us to never ever trust what a teacher tells you.  She warned that we were responsible to evaluate truth.

I often think of this when I listen to any teaching of scripture, or any ideological viewpoint, supposed scientific statements, and I even consider it in my daily problem solving at work.  Mrs. T gave me a graphic example of a Berean attitude.  Now for certain, the Bereans were commended for their spiritual pursuit of truth, but I believe that all worthy truth ultimately leads one to spiritual awakening.  This was an experience validated by scripture, and I thank God for his sovereign design in placing me in that class.

Mrs. T told me years later that some of the students parents from her class tried to get her fired for what she did.  I often feel sorry for those children; their parents obviously had no clue Mrs. T was presenting a lesson on life rather than a micro waved T.V. dinner of public education nuked for one minute on high.

Part Two – A Noble Application

This nobility attributed to the Berean’s, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is a double pronged assertion of truth from scripture.  We find in the book of proverbs the origin behind the Berean nobility.  “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2.  Solomon never knew his proverb would find a fulfillment in a group of people in Berea, hundreds of years post his demise.  The Holy Spirit did.  How thankful I am that scripture proves its consistency, and its worthiness of our pursuit.

Worth noting in this historical narrative is how many believed in Berea, as opposed to some who believed in Thessalonica.  I feel the Spirit placed this statement in Acts seventeen for a reason.  Wherever the word of God is being poured over, and studied, in order to prove that which is truthful in teaching, we will find an atmosphere conducive to salvation.  The student of God’s word is typically a catalyst for the movements of the Holy Spirit.  It is within this field that we find those Bereans acting as mighty spades, churning the soil, all the while oxygenating, and fertilizing the ground in order to create an environment where the seeds of truth can be broadcast to fruition.

We are told by the Apostle John that we are to “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.₁” Satan wants to sow tares among the wheat, I believe he does so in order to inhibit movements of God, and to prohibit true Christian growth. There are few ideas more dangerous than ideas mostly true, and partially subversive, and if a message is partially subversive, it is truly entirely subversive.  Christians who do not throw out water tainted with sewage do no one any good by drinking the contaminated water themselves.  How much worse is it when a Christian drinks raw theological sewage from a fire hose as it were? ­

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”  -Jude 3

What better way to contend for the faith than to be Bereans?  A Berean is not going to be easily swayed by every wind of doctrine, every smattering of satanic sewage.  Instead they will foster an atmosphere of salvation.

_{1. 1John 4:1}

Part I – A Noble Pursuit

“And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.  Therefore many of them (the Berean’s) believed; also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.”

Acts 17:10-12 KJV

For some, the term “Berean,” may be strange upon the tongue, and for others it may be a cliché’.  Amongst Bible believing Christians, this term is commonly chucked around. To many who study the Bible; these individuals have almost become legendary.  A simple Google search under the heading of “Berean” will yield copious amounts commentary (I am not recommending you develop your theology via Google) on this topic.  It is a term that has been used for inspiration, and a term yielded to desecration (as is so often the case with powerful biblical terminology.)  Some hyper-sectarian groups have adopted the name in the past in such a fashion that it directly and ironically contradicts the very nature of what being a Berean means.

Before perusing this meaning, it is worth noting that one likely reason the Berean’s have obtained a certain romanticized stature in the minds of many, is due to the noble pattern they established.  This is a pattern I think we will find radical, essential and ought to be unwavering in the lives of those who crouch on bended knee to enter through that slim and narrow gate of Christ.

These Berean people are set, by the Holy Spirit, in contradistinction to the people whom Paul had preached to in Thessalonica. We find in Acts 17:4 after Paul reasoned with the Thessalonians in their synagogue that some of them believed and associated with Paul.  After which he gets chased out of town yet again by the Jews who hated what he had to say about Jesus due to envy.   When Paul then ventures to Berea (now known as Veria) he happens upon a group of would be believers who set themselves apart from others.  Rather than simply accepting what someone, no less than Paul the Apostle, said about scripture at face value, the Bereans chose, with readiness of mind, to search the scriptures to see if what PAUL said was true or not.  Before we move on it is worth noting, that they verified the teaching of one who wrote the majority of the New Testament.  Was this a rebellious tendency?  Was it bare naked skepticism?  No…this was true nobility!

I often speak of Cultural Christianity, and I thought it could be helpful for me to clarify what this means. An authentic christian is one who has a relationship with Jesus; A cultural christian is involved in christian activities, going to church, listening to christian music, tithing, etc, without having been converted.

I can best explain this by way of illustration; Over a year ago a young girl I know had a transformational experience, while watching a video she became entranced with it’s subject and decided to follow it’s path. She began listening to it’s music, wearing it’s t-shirts, proclaiming the message that it communicated, watching it’s video’s, and I’d venture to guess if a group of others with an interest in the same said entity, gathered every week to sing songs, and talk about this one who has changed their life she would probably attend, and even drop some money into some kind of collection plate to put toward the expenses this gathering requires.

But the girl of which I speak did not have a religious experience, she discovered Hannah Montana. She became entranced in the culture of Hannah Montana, she was not adopted into Hannah’s family, she did not experience the infilling of Hannah. She merely joined a cultural phenomenon; But if she went to Nashville and knocked on Hannah’s door she would not be welcomed in. Billy Ray would call the police and have her hauled off.

Are you beginning to understand? Christian conduct does not a christian make. Jesus didn’t ask us to join his club, said unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.* You can go to church, sing the song’s, and even financially support it’s activities without being born again.

*John 3:3 NLT