“For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” –Matthew 5:45b
While it is patently obvious this passage is in scripture to emphasize true Godly love, I want to meditate for a while about a fish named Elijah. My daughter gave this Beta-Fish that name when we first hung him in a sconce on our wall. It turns out that his name seems to fit his fiery personality.
Almost every night when I feed Elijah, he flares his gills out at me as if I were an enemy to intimidate, rather than a hand that feeds. No matter how much care my wife or I give him, whether that be feeding him or cleaning his water, he responds with the same fear every time. He has failed to recognize that we are his line to life, without our nurture and care he would cease to be. Yet in spite of all his spite, I feed him anyway…
Every single human being is a recipient of the love of God in some fashion, while Christians alone are uniquely capable of appropriating and maximizing this love, many people are just like little Elijah. With every blessing He pours down upon them, they return his love with a sneer, a cynical attitude, an excuse to deny his goodness. They see him as an invasion, and a threat to their personal hegemony.
I guess the only way (supposing there was a way a fish could understand like a man) I could get Elijah to not see me as a threat, would to be born into his world…wash his fins as he slaughtered me for invading his aquatic domicile, and forgive him as he did it. Still there would be the risk that he would feel vindicated for killing me in spite of all the food, cleansing, humility, kindness, servitude, and even the promise of resurrection I offered him.
“For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.” –Romans 5:10
Chris White from Nowhere To Run compiled this sermon from David Guzik on the First Word of the Gospel. Guzik, as many preachers before him, have re-connected missing aspect of today’s gospel preaching. If you leave repentance out of your evangelism, you are simply ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not typically a fan of Christ being represented in art, however I think this is a video worth posting.
Why do so many modern Christians formulate their doctrines about conversion by completely ignoring Jesus’ teachings on the subject? He said entering the Kingdom was “difficult”, we say “it’s easy”. He warned us to “count the cost,” we push, cajole and manipulate anyone with sweating palms or an increased pulse to “receive Christ,” and thereby inflate the value of the currency in the economy of heaven. He warned that it would cost us everything; and we act like it will cost us nothing. Is a five minute long, four step message, comprised of John 3:16 and a peppering of verses from Paul’s epistles really The Gospel?
Working in a nursing home, I regularly spend time with the dead and dying. I was thoroughly converted before I began working there, yet it has had a huge impact on the way I live my life day by day. Considering ones death, can give you wisdom in life. After all, how can you know which path to take, if you don’t even know where you’re going? Living like a demon does not make one a saint, any more than swimming through sewage teaches you to fly!
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, . . . Jesus Christ . . . gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14
In the above verses we are instructed that Christ’s end in dying for us was to make us a purified, good-work performing people; and Paul exhorted us to deny our ungodly lusts so that we can live self controlled, upright, and Godly lives. And we are told that God’s will for our justification, is not to live a sinful life in order to show how good grace is, rather, it is to live a godly life, in order to show the world what God is like! Do you get it? To the thinking Christian one thing should be obvious, by commanding us to live like this; we know it is possible for us, and expected of us. It has been said, and it bears repeating, “Gods commandments are his enablements.” 1
So where do we want to end up? Our lives don’t end at death, our bodies temporarily stop there, but our life goes on. Our time-line passes through death and turns one of two directions. Which destination do we wish to arrive at? I am frightened for many, by their continual purposeful indulgence in the flesh, followed by a proclamation of “It’s all grace bro.” I can see no honest way of untangling Christ’s extensive teachings on the requirements of discipleship from salvation. I could be wrong, maybe God wants us to live carnal lives in order to showcase his grace: But if I’m correct and Jesus’ commands are meant to be obeyed, many will say to him on that day, “let me in” only to hear “I never knew you, depart from me.” And like the sons of Korah they will see the dark maw of hell open underneath them and consume them into the fiery darkness and blackness forever!
Situational ethics, modernism, and pluralism have infiltrated the mindsets of many who call themselves believers in Jesus Christ. These mentalities are massive roadblocks to true biblical discernment. If we approach the word of God predetermined to these mentalities, we will never pass through the gates of truth. Ever they will elude us, and ever we will meander down dank pathways.
One of these pathways is paved with the word, “Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG.)” For years I had an addiction to this false reality, and for two years I have been praying about why it is that I am supposed to take a stand against it, and expose this darkness to the light of God’s word.
I was kept in darkness for years about this issue because I did not come to God’s word with an honest heart about it. I placed my hands over my ears and eyes by claiming that since the Bible does not explicitly talk about entertainment like MMOG’s that I was vindicated from biblical accountability. (As a word to the wise, you will never find any light or truth in the word of God about yourself and your circumstances if you have a prideful heart like I did.)
After fellowshipping with a dear brother in Christ today I knew it was time I finally get this off my chest and onto my hard drive. MMOG’s operate on probably the single most cunning principle, which keeps young men (and even increasingly young women) by the droves, coming back day after day, week after week, ad infinitum to an unreal world.
This singular principle governs probably every single MMOG on the market. I am sure I would be challenged to find even one that does not, whether it is Eve Online, World of Warcraft, or Guild Wars…or any number of others has, in the kernel of their design, a central hub of operation known as covetousness.
How is this so? Every single decision you make within these false realities is dictated by how it will benefit you or your “avatar,” or your brood/collective of avatar friends. Each one of these people shed whom they are in the flesh to take upon themselves a digital alter-ego, and run a nearly galactic rat race to get ahead of all competition through gaining 1.) unreal money which allows for the purchase of character modifications, and 2.) unreal character attribute upgrades. Both of these principles of covetousness are governed by two other principles, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Each upgrade or modification (mod) is more attractive to the eyes than the last was, and every attribute upgrade which applies to the avatar itself appeals to the pride of life, as the false character becomes increasingly more powerful.
So covetousness works through the lust of the eyes and the pride of life; however, these are just foundational concepts, not necessarily the fruit reaped. Rather, it is with raging frequency that one will find ensconced within the social structure of MMOG’s an endless trail of enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, (believe it or not you can actually get your avatar drunk in many games) sexual immorality, impurity and sensuality, and if it were possible, orgies, (often imitated through raucous gesticulating) and certainly last but particularly most common…sorceries. These happen to be listed in Galatians 5:20 as the “works of the flesh,” which Paul warns that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. So the game itself subjects you to the principalities of the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…and those two principles manifest themselves through each person’s avatar toward every other avatar as the lust of the flesh.
James 4:6 says that “He (God) giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.” Pride is the one element which grace cannot penetrate. One must become humble to see the application of this truth from the word of God. On bended knee admit your digital sin; confess that Christ Jesus the son came to deliver you from your sin, to set you free from your unreal captivity (Luke 4:18.) If we do not repent of this we may just find ourselves gaining an unreal world, yet losing a very real soul. Do not let the principality of pluralism tell you that these things are OK because it is a gray area in scripture, or that you have the “liberty.” Though on the outset MMORG’s may seem innocuous, I would remind you that the whole of creation was subjected to its current tyranny and slavery to sin through the fear of death, (Hebrews 2:15) by one simple bite of a seemingly innocuous piece of fruit…fruit that tasted like godhood!
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?
His life was a tumultuous tapestry woven with the warp and woof of spiritual low-lights and physical high-lights. His exploits can disgust us, and at the same time, offer hope of eternal salvation. He was a man who sinned hard, but to the degree that he did so…I think he repented even harder. For some reason, this passionate king was given probably more insight toward the hope of resurrection than anyone before him. If he was not given more insight, he certainly saw it with profound clarity.
Post Nathan’s parable to David, we see that God tells David that the son of his sin with Bathsheba will not live. (II Samuel 12 & 13) The depths of David’s sins with Bathsheba then become eclipsed by the gravity of his repentance. For seven days he fasted, roaring on the ground, held down to the earth making mud with his tears, sapping his body of moisture until it was as the drought of summer (Psalm 32:4.) This…is repentance. It was not a show, it was not monastic piety, evidently this man understood the earthy roots of repentance.
When David’s attendants asked why he stopped mourning as soon as the child was announced dead, David responds almost cryptically, “…But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (II Samuel 12:23)
Is it a coincidence that David gets a glimpse of the idea of resurrection right after a prolonged period of deep repentance? Is it possible that God revealed this to him during all of his roaring? I am not sure it was during this occasion, but David wrote another Psalm where he most certainly saw prophetically the clearest Old Testament prophecy concerning the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
“I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:8-11)
It is here that David is given the knowledge that he will not stay in hell after he dies, and neither will the Holy One see corruption. This is an obvious reference to Jesus being raised from the dead, and is quoted by Paul in Acts 13:35, and confirmed as a prophecy fulfilled by the Christ.
What is the point? The resurrection was clearly prophesied, yet the prophecy is veiled in a Psalm that I imagine would have been difficult to decipher its meaning prior to the Messiah actually accomplishing it. Secondly, there is a synergy between repentance and resurrection. For the moment I am making a tentative connection between resurrection and repentance, we will lock this idea down with steel jaws later on. But just as prophecy is tentative, until the fulfillment of the prophecy locks down the impact of its prediction, so also we will soon begin gleaning the locked down measure of the fullness of Christ’s resurrection power.
A few other passages where David sees Resurrection is:
Psalm 17:15, “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, (more than likely from the grave) with thy likeness.”
Psalm 49:15, “God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: (hades) for he shall receive me.”
The first allusion to the resurrection of Christ comes prior to the first mention in scripture of His death. Right after the fall of Adam and Eve, God tells the serpent how the “seed” of the woman would bruise his head, and that the serpent would bruise his “seed’s” heal. (I have often wondered what the seed of the serpent was exactly, but I would not be surprised if it has something to do with 1Cor 2:8.)
So we are faced with a prophetic ultimatum. This is chronologically before the time of Job’s conclusion which I discussed in the last post, and from a Christian perspective we know what this means. While we have insight into this prophecy now, for thousands of years, God was content and absolutely patient in waiting for the actual event to unfold before declaring (I will explain later what I mean by this) what it meant. What does this say about the nature of God? It is arresting that the resurrection is mentioned first, and the death of Christ (at the hand of the serpent’s seed) occurs second. It is of interest that this is one of the first major prophecies in the Bible. From the time this prophecy was given no-one could have known it spoke directly of the Resurrection of Christ unless the Holy Spirit had revealed it to them. Though I may be wrong (and if anyone knows please tell me) I do not think there is any revelation on this at all anywhere until the actual event.
The next allusion to the concept of resurrection that I know of (my study will not be exhaustive because I am flawed, I am sure there will be many I miss) is found in Exodus 3:6. This was when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and said, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.” If you know your bible well, you are not scratching your head…
In the gospel of Matthew, in the 22nd chapter, the Sadducee’s think they have the Christ in a corner with their willy question about the woman wedded to seven brothers. According to Alfred Edersheim in his book, “Sketches of Jewish Social Life,” the Sadducee’s were a reactive sect*. Their way of thinking was the result of being anti-Pharisee. Who held to the concept of resurrection, but the Sadducee’s contrarily postulated that, because the Pentateuch never mentioned resurrection, it could not be true. The living Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob evidenced resurrection. This is likely why Jesus quoted from Exodus and not from the Psalms or the Prophets in Matthew 22:32. This tells us a few things as a side-bar: 1) be very careful about filtering all of scripture through one lens of thinking (aka systematic theology, I am not saying don’t use them, just be very cautious.) 2) Don’t raise men (like Moses) on a pedestal above Christ, not even Paul. 3) If Christ were sought sincerely, and He so desired, He could annihilate sectarian beliefs without batting an eye or opening a concordance. 4) This point is a bit mystical maybe, and I will understand if some disagree with me, but it is no irony to me that the mention of the truth of resurrection through God being the God of the living and not the God of the dead is the point which basically dissolved all of the Sadducee’s theology/doctrine/dogma, whatever you want to call it. In one stroke, Jesus made being a Sadducee rather pointless. I suspect that if the Church began walking in the fullness of Christ’s resurrection power, all of our prideful differences and divisions would also dissolve. To look at it more micro-cosmically, when we die to self and Christ’s resurrection is manifest through us as individuals, our tendency to backbite, strive, be bitter, and react to others in an un-spiritual fashion will also dissipate.
Now I am getting a bit ahead of myself. Consider that an allusion and a taste of things to come in this series of posts. Stay tuned for the next blog!
* “Sketches of Jewish Social Life,” -Alfred Edersheim, Hendrickson Publishers – 1994, Seventh Printing, March 2003.
The internet is vividly abuzz with the supposed “Evidence,” or proof of the resurrection of Christ. It is obvious that the debate around the shroud of Turin is heating up once again, but my purpose is not to debate the authenticity, or the validity of these claims. I have not seen the documentary from the History Channel, and to be honest, I have little interest in it. The fact that this documentary was released so close to Easter is obviously to generate as much hype about it as possible, and who can blame them? It is great marketing.
However, I have to say that the whole premise of needing a “scientific” proof of the resurrection is symptomatic of quite the consistent modern problem concerning genuine faith. The Bible proves the point over…and over…and over…and over…that genuine saving faith is not generated in the realm of the miraculous. Nor is it generated through scientific reasoning. The wonders of the exodus resulted in most of its witnesses dead in the desert, for when the gospel was “preached, the word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2) Elijah saw God consume a soaking wet altar with fire, and soon after he doubted Gods ability to save him from Jezebel. Jonah saw an entire nation repent at his few words…and still wanted to see them consumed in wrath. The disciples were told numerous times by their own Lord that He would die and rise again on the third day! How many of those disciples were twiddling their thumbs outside the tomb waiting for him to fulfill that promise? Judas saw all the miracles a human had ever had the privilege of seeing, yet he found his guts spilled all over the place for his selfish treachery and wickedness.
If God wanted to give us rationalistic evidence of Himself…he would have done it. We ought to be FAR more concerned about Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Our lives, when transformed by the resurrection power of Christ, are the only valid proof we need of the resurrection. If that be lacking, then maybe the shroud will make you feel a bit better about yourself and your intellectual comforts.
In the midst of ash and accusation, boils and belligerent philosophy, a spark of trouble flew upward, beyond the lowly crags of mountain heights, into the deep blue etherium of divine contemplation. His name was Job, which means “hated, or persecuted.” According to his accusers, he must have done something to offend the Almighty. His suffering dictated that it must be so. It is no wonder that the oldest book of Hebrew lore deals with the deepest questions humans have tried to apprehend. In the midst of extreme suffering, we have all inevitably questioned the point of life. Job’s bitter query did not proceed until after seven days and seven nights of silence amidst the conjoining of dust, ash, rending, and “friends.”
There he sat in silence so long…I am sure the day of visitation was fresh in his mind…being replayed like a video again and again and again. No doubt his silence was one of agonizing mental anguish. Once the silence is broken, Job basically says that the day of his birth ought to be cursed into eternal blackness. (Job 3) His deep pondering begs the question. WHY LIVE??? Why live if suffering is our bread, if misery is our drink?
Once Job finally broke his silence…Eliphaz was quick to speak the abundance of his heart and accusation against Job. He starts off with a few quick words of flattery, probably out of cultural respect, then promptly begins to develop a thread of thought that Job must not be innocent, of course his suffering must be the result of sin because, “Who ever perished, being innocent?” Or, “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” (Job 4:7-8)
Like so many councilors that lack any form of humility, Eliphaz completely ignores the questions Job raises, and displays the true motive behind why he sat seven days and nights on Job’s pile of ash. His motive was to bring accusation against his friend. Job had asked why it was that he did not just die when he was born. Then he would have moved on to the indomitable vault of equalization…the grave. Where the, “Prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.” (Job 3:17-18) Job was concerned with the deeply subterraneous questions of his soul. Eliphaz was concerned with emanating his own religious pomposity via his theology.
The temptation to give a ringside, blow by blow account is difficult for me to withstand; however, for succinctness sake we must jump forward numerous arguments later, after Job has received jabs, hooks, uppercuts and below-the-belt accusations from his “friends.” In the midst of his suffering and incrimination Job raises one of the single most important questions that suffering must force someone to ask. Keep in mind this is probably the oldest book of the Bible, if not one of the oldest written manuscripts ever. In Job 14:14, he laments, “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” God had not yet been fully manifest and in the Son, so total revelation about life and death had not yet occurred to humanity. Job did not know yet that eternal life was knowing the Father, and the one whom he would send.
Eliphaz proves his religious ignorance once again by calling Job’s questions an, “uttering of vain knowledge and a filling of his belly with the east wind.” Why think deeply about your pain Job? Just repent for your ox-dumb pride.
Job then responds to this indictment and receives one more from Bildad. It is at this point in chapter nineteen where Job reaches a crescendo of angst. He points out that his miserable councilors have accused him ten times, and he begins to lament that he has been forsaken by every last person whom he valued. He first laments deeply of God forsaking him, and how God had stripped him of his glory and crown. (Job 19:9) Job was destroyed on every side…troops had been raised against him, his brethren were put far from him, every acquaintance of his had become completely estranged from him. His kinsfolk failed him, and his familiar friends forgot him. Those most intimate with him, his maids and dwellers of his home, now viewed him as an alien and a stranger in their sight. His breath even became strange to his own wife. The word strange in the Hebrew is metonymous with the word for adultery. So it could be said that his very breath was as the breath of an adulterer to his own spouse. This gives us a sense of just how disgusting Job’s suffering was to his kin. His own children also rose up and despised him and spoke against him. All this would be bad enough but the dagger in his back is twisted a little bit more when he says that even his “inward friends” have turned on him as the hand of God touched him.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death by George Inness
It is as if the veil of fellowship had been drawn and stitched. It was woven from the fabric of solitude, and the stitches were the condescending glances of accusation he received. No man is more forsaken in the midst of people than this man. He was so alone that his bones clove to his skin and flesh. This was likely due to malnutrition from prolonged fasting. Eating no longer meant anything to him.
Finally, it is within this broad context that Job laments, “Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever. For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
Was it not Christ our Lord, whom upon the cross asked from the bottom of the deepest well of trepidation ever probed, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Did not all of Christ’s sheep scatter into hiding? Did not Jesus become as an adulterer to them? Were they not completely ashamed of His suffering? Was Peter not in the valley of the shadow of death?
By now, I hope you have noticed the parallel between Job being forsaken by all, and Christ being forsaken by all, even His Father. These continuities are absolutely staggering. I will let your imagination continue to connect these concepts. It is at this point, of Job’s deep suffering, where deep calls unto deep. Some divine tremendous light has perforated the subterranean expanse of his tragedy, and he concludes the only thing an open mind, a humble heart, and a suffering soul can conclude…there must be, there has to be, I know there will be…a resurrection from the dead! My Savior will stand upon the earth someday and I will stand with him. So it was that He (our Lord), for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The broadest depths of human suffering when contemplated with a view of God in mind, require resurrection to be true. Were it not, sanity would become pointless…
For the last three or four months I have had a singular obsession as I study the Word…the resurrection of Jesus Christ. My (spiritual) curiosity had been peaked because over the years I have noticed that among a great deal of the Easter sermons I have attended, I have noticed very little discussion about the meaning of the empty tomb. All too often I have heard sermons preached out of the end of one of the gospels, and we are reminded often about how the women beat the disciples to the tomb, that it was early in the morning…no-one was waiting there. All the details are often commented on, but I have often been left feeling as empty as the tomb Christ vacated when the sermon is over.
The purpose of this blog series is not to debate the technical validity of celebrating the resurrection on Easter. If eating meat sacrificed to Idols bothers you, then don’t celebrate it on Ishtar, my emphasis is rather on the fact that on the day we do commemorate the resurrection, so often the point of it is missed. Our Christian life is un-arguably to be one of resurrection power and the tendency to celebrate this concept only once a year is a very distilling tradition. I find it to be a bitter irony that many Americanized religious folk only go to church twice a year and one of those days is Ishtar.
All the while I was studying this I was completely oblivious to the fact that Easter was once again coming about on the calendar, so I thought it would be fitting to share some of the insights I feel the Lord has shown me in His word that may help to take you deeper in your walk with Christ. This is going to take numerous entries because the nature of the study does not lend itself to a blog post very well as it has been a long, prayer-filled meditation on this powerful truth from the word. Please be patient as I will build up the thesis to a crescendo over an estimated 10 – 12 blog posts. This may take me a month or more to complete.
It is my hope that my blogging silence over the last few months will be noted as I have given very little time to the usual little nuggets I proffer. My silence has been due primarily to this obsession.
For the purpose of maintaining only the things I think are important to us as believers during the following blogs, I will take the remainder of this post to state that if you have been bit by the Zeitgeist Tom-Foolery and think that somehow the resurrection of Christ is not a unique concept to Christianity, I would ask that you consider watching this documentary. While the concept of a god being resurrected may not have been entirely unique in a technical sense…I would propose that the meaning of the empty tomb, to Christians, is hands down, the singularity around which the entire galaxy of Christian sanctification doctrine gravitates. And I would propose that all the “meaning” around the technical god-resurrections of mythos-gone-by does not hold an inkling of meaning by means of comparison. For example, if you think that Osiris being reconstructed by Isis for the purpose of demi-god near necrophilia has much meaning to compare to the Krakatoa of purpose behind Yeshua Hamashiach rising
and conquering the power of death, then certainly the meaning of Christs death-resurrection-and ascension has not been articulated well enough (not as the fault of scripture, but ours to portray it.)
The tendency to view it alone as an historical event has probably invited and begged mythological criticism. I suspect that all this mythos has been a result of such a lack of the display of Christ’s resurrection in us. We ought to take note of the winds of criticism…even the murmurings of dark hearts can be an exhortation for us to seek deeper meaning, and to discover our own failures. If you do not know what Zeitgeist is all about…don’t waste your time. I am only saying this for the benefit of those who have had their flesh exposed to the poison Zeitgeist’s fangs excrete. Please stay tuned or read the next post; I think it will be of great value to many.
-Your brother in Christ (if you are born of the Spirit)…Jeremiah Dusenberry.
