The New Bereans

It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, . . . But ye shall receive power . . . and ye shall be witnesses . . .  Acts 1:7-8

At the induction of the church age Christ clearly instructs the disciples that it is not for them to know the times and the seasons (Eschatology) but their job is to be his witnesses, to spread the gospel.  In light of this knowledge is it not ironic that the church completely disobeys His command?  We are addicted to prophesy and fascinated by the signs of the times, but apathetic concerning the gospel.

Why do we behave this way?  We flagrantly disregard our commission while simultaneously obsessing about things that are not for us to know.  Why do we love knowledge so much?  Do we so easily forget which tree was behind our first parents fall?

There seems to be some strange mix of sloth and curiosity at work in the church today.  We do not want to spread a message of hope to a dieing world, no, we would rather spend years reading mainly Daniel and Revelation, then sifting through news clippings trying to deduce the identity of the Antichrist.  We really need to heed Jesus’ warning.  Don’t obsess over prophesy at the expense of everything else, study it yes, but devote your life to the gospel.

The scripture tells of no crown awaiting the man who correctly interprets Daniel’s 70 weeks, but plenteous rewards for the man who wins souls.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  I Corinthians 5:17-18

He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.Psalm 126:5-6

We ought to tarry long on this verse and plumb the depths of it’s meaning.  It’s message clearly ties together brokenness and fruitfulness, weeping and reaping.  Although it’s terminology is agrarian and not theological, it is the exact same terminology Jesus used in his parables about  evangelism.  And since interpreting this verse in a strictly agricultural way makes absolutely no sense, I will interpret it using the parable of the sower as a cheat-sheet of sorts.

Jesus referred to the word as “seed” and and evangelism as “sowing seed”, so interpreting it through Christ’s teachings the message would go something like this: ” He who goes out weeping. bearing the word for evangelism, shall come home bringing many people with him.”  When you interpret this verse through Christ’s lens you draw a strong and immediate conclusion, a bountiful harvest of souls is the fruit of a weeping evangelist.  A fruitful harvest requires  a grief-stricken messenger.  Unless the man is broken the fruit will be nonexistent or sparse.  Leonard Ravenhill put it this way “It takes a broken man to break men.”

The necessity of brokenness for fruitfulness should surprise none of us.  Jesus mission on earth was to come and be broken in our place, so that we could be saved.  The prophet Isaiah described Christ’s ministry this way “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 1 Jesus mission on earth could never have been completed without his being broken for us; why would we think we could successfully spread his message by any other means?

1: Isaiah 53:5

I have come to the conclusion that we have the concept of success all wrong.  Which could be defined as the ability to reach a said goal.  In the West we may  understand the definition of success, but not the measure of it.  Though we may have the concept right, we have the goal wrong.  In America our goals are things like home ownership, retirement, or attaining happiness.  But our time-line is far too short, and our perspective is far too close, to know what our goals really ought to be, or where true success really lies.

Since it is before God that we will be judged we need to measure ourselves by His standards.  His value system is far different form ours because He is far different from us, “For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 1 God is all good, all powerful, and all knowing.  He measures us by our faith, which is seen in how closely we’ve followed his commands.  Jesus told us the greatest commandment is  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 2 These should be our two primary success gauges; how we respond to God, and how we treat people.  If we are failing in these area’s we are failures no matter how much money we have or how high we’ve climbed our career ladder.  So we ought to calibrate our gauges well.

Are we loving God with all our heart, or with lip-service?  Are we loving him with all our soul, our favorite activities and pastimes focused on him?  Are we loving him with all our mind; is our thought life focused on sports, sex, or God?  Do we love him with all our strength?  How much effort are we putting into establishing His kingdom.

Do we value our spouse and treating them as God commands?  Are we raising up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?  Are we being faithful employees?  Are we helping others practically, and not just saying “God bless you”?  These are the standards by which our “success” will be judged, and we ignore them at our own peril.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  Joshua 1:8

1. Isaiah 55:9

2. Luke 10:27

But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

Call me naive or simplistic but I cannot for the life of me understand how someone could claim their plot to overthrow the government is based on scripture.  Christ makes it clear that if his kingdom were an earthly kingdom his servant’s would be fighting to defend it.  I’m not one to believe every single thing the media reports.  But if these men were indeed plotting to murder police officers in cold blood then they are far from Christ indeed.

Nothing Jesus or the apostles taught tells us that murdering civil authorities is good or godly in any way at all.  We are told that we will be persecuted for our faith at times, and our response to persecution is to turn the other cheek (non-violent resistance).  We are not told to overthrow the government in order to avoid persecution, we are told to rejoice in persecution, because our patient endurance in persecution is the most powerful testimony we can share.  If we are fighting to avoid persecution here and now, we are displaying a complete lack of faith,  we are declaring we don’t really believe in heaven by trying to craft our little christian kingdom here and now.

When Jesus stood before Pilate he gave the crowd’s a choice, did they want Barabbas the political revolutionary or Jesus who was declaring a heavenly kingdom.  I am convinced that many self identified Christians today would choose Barabbas again.

In reading through Genesis 46 today I again ran across one of those great scriptural themes, division.  And it struck me because I’ve never thought of it as a major scriptural theme like faith or love, but it most definitely is.  Joseph instructs his father and brothers to tell Pharaoh they are just shepherds, because “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”₁ This is quite important because their very livelihood caused a deep and immediate rift with their Egyptian hosts.  They were completely separated from the world around them.  This kept them from eating with or marrying, the Egyptians; it kept them from being absorbed into Egypt.

The world as in the Tower of Babel is always emphasizing unity but God wants no part of it.  He is always dividing, separating and creating disharmony, case in point . . . the Jews.  Out of the entire world God chooses one man, and from him, he builds a new nation, through which he will reveal himself to the world.  He didn’t work through an existing nation he separated one man from his nation; He is a God of separation.

Jesus put it this way . . .

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.  Matthew 10:34-36

If we are his disciples, we should expect division to follow in our wake.  If no one hates or maligns us we should be quite worried, for Christ promises us that these are the natural fruit of following him.  We are not to go out of our way to pick fights and be Jerks for Jesus, but need to realize that if we are living for Him, opposition and division will always follow.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  John 15:18

1. Genesis 46:34

In the modern western world we are a curious breed. We are neither strict idolaters nor iconoclasts (destroyers of idols), we are both. We love to take a normal human being like Tiger Woods and confer godlike status upon them; then we wait for a character flaw or misstep to occur, as soon as they falter we destroy them. It can be a sweet old lady like Susan Boyle or an oversexed ego driven athlete like Tiger. We are willing to deify then destroy almost anyone.

This begs the question, why? Why do we engage in this bizarre behavior? Is there something in the water? A cursory glance around makes it plain that none of us meet the high standards we hold our heroes to. Is the media to blame? Is it some sort of mass psychosis? I don’t think so.

I believe that Paschal was right, there is a “God shaped hole” in the human heart and nothing but God can fill it. What fools we are. We vainly attempt to make men into gods, and then we despise them once they fall short. If we seek perfection there is but one place to look. Only Christ qualifies.

“For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!”  The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. Deuteronomy 32:3-4

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  Colossians 3:2

We are here instructed to set our minds on things above, this implies 2 truths.  1. Our minds are not naturally set on things above.  2. If our minds are to be set on things above i.e. heavenly things, we must set them there.

This is not an idea, or a suggestion, it is a command.  Notice Paul does not say “God sets the minds of his elect on things above when, and where, and to the degree he wishes.”  No!  He commands us to set our minds on these things.  This is no monergistic act of God; it is either a willful or synergistic act of ours.  This is not something we wait for God to do; this is something he is waiting for us to do.

Now herein lies the challenge for 21st century Americans,  there are innumerable things vying for our attention, attempting to draw our eyes away from the eternal and onto themselves.  We must intentionally separate from these things in order to focus on the eternal.  What am I getting at?  Merely listening to contemporary Christian music, praying before meals, or reading a 5 minute daily devotional will not give you an eternal mindset or perspective.

So how do we set our minds on things above?  Reading your Bible and prayer are a good start but there’s more to it than that.  In the following verses Paul lists sins to put away, and godly things to replace them with, this is getting closer.   Then he adds the final piece of the Puzzle, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you . . .“ To have a heart for God you must have a heart occupied by God.  Without His indwelling, a heavenly mindset is impossible to gain or maintain.  If we desire to be his disciples, and see things as he does, we must have a relationship with him.

I have come to the conclusion that no matter what denomination you find yourself in, the way you study God (theology) falls into one of two camps Equation Theology or Revelation Theology.

Equation Theology is a theology which attempts to flatten the revealed Word of God into a mathematical formula which can be proven true, all conflicting scriptures are usually explained away, contextualized away, or ignored. Let me emphasize that Equation Theology is not one particular branch of theology; rather, it is an approach to understanding the scriptures.

Revelation Theology is a theology which strictly adheres to all clear teaching of scripture without attempting to resolve every nuanced tension.  A theological structure which fights to the death for orthodox doctrine, but doesn’t quarrel over matters where the scripture is unclear.

I have spent time in both camps but I am joining the latter camp for good.

As I’ve considered these distinctions one thing has really struck me.  Men seem to fall the most easily into equation oriented thinking, yet if we were asked to create mathematical equation or algorithm which perfectly explains our wives, which would anticipate every action, and fully define them in every way; we would never attempt to undertake so foolish an endeavor.   Who are we, who cannot fully understand women, to think we can fully understand God?

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29

James Cameron’s newest film Avatar is taking the world by storm literally.  It tells the story of a future corporation’s pillaging of a planet and the resistance they encounter from the pantheistic alien population (The Navi).

In considering the success of Avatar, one thing strikes me; it’s success illustrates man’s hunger for an authentic solid connection to a real and powerful God. This generation is not hungry for ethics, apologetics, or theories. They want spiritual reality, and they don’t expect to find any of that in church, so they look elsewhere. The Church, who’s job it is to display authentic spiritual reality to the world, has largely become a Christian country club.

The Church’s response to James Cameron’s jaw-dropping, breathtaking, and dauntless sci-fi epic will mainly fall into one of 2 camps.

1. Some will denounce it as evil, say it is opening people up to demon possession, or teaching them Gaia worship. 2. Others will try to put a Christian spin on it , making Angeltar comics, having “How to be an Avatar for Jesus” conferences, or some such nonsense. But neither of these addresses the real issue, the church has drifted far away from true spiritual communion with God.

I can almost guarantee that our response will not be the correct one. Which would be to return to authentic spirit filled Christianity. To stop imitating the world, or finding ways to increase attendance. Instead the church needs to pursue, seek, and serve God. To live lives of simplicity, humility, and prayer. To live a passionate life of love for God and our neighbor. Pouring ourselves out as an offering to God.

Here is the gauntlet that lays at the foot of the Church . . . The fake world and religion of the Navi appeals to people because of their passionate pursuit of, and relationship with their fake God. Which looks much more real and appealing than our fake pursuit of, and relationship to the true God.

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. . . I Corinthians 1:3

When talking about the Corinthians spiritual immaturity and their inability to handle the meat of the word, all Bible teachers seem to handle it the same way; The Corinthians couldn’t understand deep theology, or had no interest in it, therefore he couldn’t give it to them. I am starting to think that this interpretation may be missing Paul’s point completely.

What if his point was this, I cannot give you the meat scripturally because, you will become more inflated with pride and distort doctrine to your own ends. I have seen many of us theological types take doctrine and distort it by magnifying one truth and explaining away another A theologically astute fleshly Christian, can often do far more damage than an ignorant fleshly Christian.

Concerning the doctrines of Grace I like the way Spurgeon puts it.

“No man ever learns anything aright, unless he is taught of the Spirit. You may learn election, and you may know it so that you shall be damned by it, if you are not taught of the Holy Ghost; for I have known some who have learned election to their soul’s destruction; they have learned it so that they said they were of the elect, whereas, they had no marks, no evidences, and no works of the Holy Ghost in their souls. There is a way of learning truth in Satan’s college, and holding it in licentiousness; but if so, it shall be to your souls as poison to your veins and prove your everlasting ruin.”₁

I agree with him thoroughly, doctrine in the hands of a fleshly man can wreak havoc. I have a personal theory that divine sovereignty and election may have been the very doctrines Paul avoided with the Corinthians for this very reason. When we zealous young Calvinists believe it is our God given duty to explain TULIP to every carnal Christian, and heathen we can find, and insist on working it into every presentation of the gospel, we often do more harm than good.

1. A Sermon (No. 5) Delivered on Sabbath Evening, January 21, 1855, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark