The New Bereans

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!

1. Unknown

If you have ever been caught in a back-eddy, after having been tossed from a raft, then you know the terror of struggle, and the panic you feel when all of your effort is required to get back into the current again.  Metaphorically this is the same result as a conversation between believers that I hear not infrequently.  Without fail there will be a brother or a sister who is grieving over the current state of things in the church and they will lament that we need to get back to the way things were during Christianities formative years.  The more “mature,” wineskin will respond to this requiem cynically by asking, “Which early church would you like to get back to…the Corinthian church with all its carnality…or how about the Galatian believers with all of their legalism?  Or what if we were more like the Thessalonian church; they were a bunch of louts and layabouts…”  Bla bla bla, around the death eddy the conversation swirls until hope is suffocated and the old wineskin cavorts away, skipping with glee, while his twin daggers of discernment and rebuke reflect a glimmer of pale light as he twirls and sheathes them.

With all of the precision and diligence of a grammatical Samurai, Arthur Katz dashes headlong into this vicious circle of puerile reasoning, hacking its foolish carnal logic to tatters.  The issue, he tells us, is with the term Apostolic, a term which was little more than an entitlement to me before I read this book.  Men like titles, so by nature when we see one, we automatically think in terms of hierarchy.  It takes a few hundred pages, but once done, Brother Katz has completely waylaid all misconceptions you may have had about this hierarchy whatsoever.

Early on in the book he says, “There is no man more qualified than the one who believes in his deepest heart that he is without qualification.  The whole preliminary work of God is to disqualify us before we can be qualified.₁“ He would then go on to point out that Moses was at a pinnacle in life when at 40 he had everything going for him, God would have nothing to do with it though as brother Katz would go on to say, “and yet God does not think it lavish, wasteful or extravagant to give Moses another forty years of waiting in the wilderness until he is completely emptied out–and then He calls him.₂”

You may be thinking…uhhhhh wait, Moses wasn’t an Apostle, and what does he have to do with the term Apostolic?  Everything!  Art had great concern that people today have no idea what it means to be sent by God, rather than sent by themselves, or their own efforts.  In a world of fast food, fast love, and quick religion, the joy of patience and the glory of Godly contentment has been lost.  Brother Katz takes off his kimono and drops the sword in favor of playing a violin with a rose in his teeth as he romances deeply with the idea of being patient for God’s calling.  Taking every discipline the Father sends for the joy that it itself is worth.  He asks, “Will we be willing to submit to waiting and to conditions of trial and preparation for true service when the whole religious world clamors for action?₃”

While ruminating upon Leviticus 8:15-17 he points out that: “God is not interested in the outer hide and the flesh; He counts that along with the dung.  The inside, in the inner man, worked by Him in the hidden places, born of inward wrestling, are the offerings of a sweet and pleasing savor before God.  We have been guilty as contemporary Christians of offering our personalities, our winsomeness and our fleshly abilities to God, simply because we do not have the inward parts to offer, never having learned to rest or wait before God.  We have despised the suffering, reproach and obscurity in which alone the sweet offerings are formed deep within us.  We have not esteemed such things as God esteems them, and have preferred to do without them.  We need the obedience and vision that will enable us to take our hide and flesh outside the camp and to exclude it from the holy place, as well as from the pulpit.₄”

If you have read many of our posts, you can obviously see that this man is right up our alley.  I have to thank sermonindex for first placing a sermon from Arthur Katz on my iPod.  After nearly having to pick myself up off of the floor because of the forcefulness and earnestness of his message, I soon started reading all that Google could muster about this man.  I bought his autobiography, “Ben-Israel, Odyssey of a Modern Jew.”  Having read it in only a day or so, it left me pacing to know what happened to him after he was born again.  Apostolic Foundations answered that question for me. I would suggest that this was probably his Opus.  Not having read any of his other books, I find it hard to believe this book could be topped.

There is no way this book could have been written, had it not been lived.  I am suspicious that Apostolic Foundations was only a perpetuation of what Arthur lived out.

I definitely recommend “Apostolic Foundations” to anyone at all who has a care to serve God in any capacity.  I would also suggest placing this book into the category of revival.  I do not know if that was exactly his intent, but I see revival written on every single page.  I was sent to my knees in prayer so many times reading this book that it took me a month to read.  I could hardly get through a paragraph without having to repent and ask for God’s grace to help me overcome.  I hope this review will inspire even one person to purchase this book and pray for its application.  Arthur Katz was a burning man with a precise vocabulary.  May his words catch others on fire. You can order the book here.  I only wish I had had the opportunity to hear him preach in person before he went home…

1.)    Arthur Katz, Apostolic Foundations, Burning Bush Publications, Third Printing: January 2002 © 1999 by Arthur Katz page 12

2.)    Ibid page 12

3.)    Ibid page 14

4.)    Ibid page 29

We endorse this message with all of our hearts.  All true Bereans should.  For within this message is the heart of Christ.  And the heart of Christ is trampled under the foot of men when his heart-rending sacrifice is turned into debauchery.  Knowing the grace of God, I pray His people would repent and He would forgive us, I pray that God raises a generation of young men and women who are willing to contend for the faith, rather than rolling over and letting this misrepresentation continue.  Please consider the heart of what Pastor John Piper is saying here.   With a sword in one hand, and a trowel in the other, Pastor John defends the faith and builds upon Paul’s foundation well.   My prayer is that this will inspire and bless you at the same time.  Praise God for the people who put this video together.

“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, (debauchery) and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

-Jude 1:4

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

-Psalm 90:12

Psalm ninety is likely to bring out the dispensationalist in most of us, and how can it not with statements like, “For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told…”₁ This psalm is arguably unique in that it was written by Moses.  It asks open ended questions like, “Who knows the power of thine anger?”  Moses states in verse ten “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”  The first eleven verses are somewhat gritty to the grace-oriented mind.  Yet without them, the conclusion of the Psalm makes no sense.

In learning to number our days, we must first be told our years, as Moses does.  For emphasis on establishing a need for numbered days he articulates the importance of the meaning of life, contingent upon the wrathful aspect of Gods divine nature. Arthur W. Pink in his book on the Attributes of God says, “It is sad indeed that many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or who at least wish there were no such thing.”  (Page 82)  We cannot disconnect this important concept of numbering our days from a healthy fear of God, a fear for which I am learning more and more to embrace.   Without a firm solid understanding of the wrath of God, there can be no thorough understanding of His grace.

Chuck Missler made a comment on this concept of numbering days, which compelled me to write out an excel spreadsheet to help me in a very practical way.  I am thirty-one years of age so these numbers apply to me were I to live to the age Moses describes, eighty.  I have 2,557 weekends left.  I have 5,114 days on weekends left.  If I live for God three days out of each week I have 7,670 days left.  If I serve Him four out of seven days each week I have 10,227 days left.  If I serve Him every day during the work-week only I have 12,784 days remaining.  If I dedicate myself to the penultimate and give every day of my remainder to this God I serve I have 17,897 days remaining.  Now in your mind place a dollar sign in front of each of those numbers and think about how quickly you could spend that money if someone just gave it to you contingent upon you spending it all.

“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men: but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”₂ The wrath of God was something that motivated Paul heavily in his evangelism.  May a combination of knowing His wrath and a numbering of our days persuade us to evaluate our lives this day.   Just remember, Gods attributes are not bound by dispensations, he is the same yesterday today and forever…wait I think that was a biblical statement!

We need to simply recognize the brevity of life.  We get only one shot.  We are only one bullet leaving the chamber of the womb.  Our vector is unrelentingly directed toward death.  A healthy recognition of this fact may help us consider how then we ought to live.

1. Psalm 90:11

2. II Corinthians 5:11

Days Well Numbered

The above link is the Excel Spreadsheet I used to calculate the remainder of my days.  To use just input your age into the appropriate cell and you will quickly learn how much time you have left to serve the Lord.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Marvel not that I said this unto thee, ye must be born again.   – John 3:5-7

He only gets one chapter of scripture dedicated to him.  His exploits were scandalous, but only to those with an eye to discern.  He certainly lived in the shadow of others, yet he earns a judgment from on high rarely witnessed.  As a matter of fact, the judgment he receives is almost entirely unique.

His name was Belshazzar.  His great sin…a party.  However, this festive occasion was unlike anything ever witnessed on earth.  In a cosmic effort to not just keep up with the Joneses, but rather flatten any chance of their future competition.  Belshazzar breaks out the furniture stolen from the temple in Jerusalem prior to the Jewish captivity in Babylon.  Those in attendance drank wine from the temple vessels and carelessly caroused; slaking their lusts with the items that Hebrews calls, “Shadow(s) of heavenly things.₁”

What could be so wrong?  Does not God want his blessings on display for the world to see?  Would you not marvel, walking into the great dining hall and seeing the altar of sacrifice, with its blood tipped horns?  Would you not think that maybe the King would find a degree of purification by washing his hands in the laver?  What about the menorah?  Its light would add a great degree of needed direction to a dark kingdom!

Unfortunately, for poor Belshazzar, things are about to get serious.  With a great need for a new pair of pants and with his knees knocking, his party face turns a pale retched sickly color as he witnesses one of the single most unique events in the entire Bible.  A hand, disconnected from any other apparatus, begins to write on the wall.  After a series of events, our man Daniel tells Belshazzar what just happened.  God had decided that He was done with Belshazzar, as a matter of fact, He was done with Babylon.  He had been weighed, measured, and found WANTING…to top it all off the kingdom was going to be divided.  As to be expected, Belshazzar was slain that very night.  I guess he probably really didn’t want to know what that mean old hand had to say after all did he?

Before our eyes glaze over with the repetition of a popular passage of scripture, I think it is worth noting that, to the untrained eye, Belshazzar had all the accoutrements and trappings of religion in his possession.  They were on display for everyone to see.  To the modern “Christian,” I think this concept could fly past blind eyes.  How happy we can be if we externally display our religion like a peacock, just to find that it is all feather and fluff.  We can have all the right things to say, and can have all our pet doctrines, a license plate that says “Sav3d,” or a bumper sticker warning of the rapture.  You may even be the happiest person in the world and tell everyone you know that it was Jesus that made you so, and if they would just accept Jesus they could be happy too.  Happy just…like…you.

I would define the trappings of Christianity as the fruits of the Spirit, if I could do so with absolute reverence.  However, the strange thing about the fruits of the Spirit, “Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith,” is that they can be imitated.  Not a single one of these fruits are exclusive to Christianity.  I know some people are shouting at me right now…wondering how I could possibly suggest such a thing.  You may even be reaching up to delete Newbereans.com from your bookmark list.  Please just bear with me a moment longer.

The problem with Belshazzar’s usage of the temple vessels was that they were used from a wrong motivation and most assuredly in the wrong context, and not according to the divine “pattern ₂” God had established, not to mention they were used in a sinful fashion.  The Bible calls believers the temple of the Holy Spirit in 1st Corinthians 3:16.  In order for the fruits of the Spirit to work according to the dictates of the Spirit, that fruit has to be budding in a Temple.  Just like the furniture was only meant to be used in the ancient Temple.  This process has to be done according to Gods pre-ordained pattern.  In order to be the temple of the Spirit you first have to be born again.  You must become a new creation in Christ, all the old things must pass and you must be made new.  Without this authentic step through the narrow gate, all the “trappings” will quickly fade; your leaves will whither away if you were not really born again.  This process is spiritual and must be so according to Gods pattern. If this progression of new birth is circumvented, the most terrifying truth is that we can actually pretend to be Christians our entire lives and all that will await us is the same sentiment afforded to Belshazzar. Weighed…measured…wanting.  How is this possible?  Because in the king’s court there was no blood, there was no sacrifice there was no priest, worst of all there was no kabod, and without any of these, there is certainly no atonement.

The furniture has to be in the Temple, under the blood, and washed clean by spirit and water, then and only then will the fruits of the spirit be nourished in a proper fashion.  The only way you can be not weighed, measured and found wanting is to be in Christ.  Marvel not that this has been said unto thee.

1.Hebrews 8:5

2. Hebrews 9:21-23

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!

What purpose could be greater than a heartfelt attempt to capture a sense of wonder at the glory and majesty of the Almighty?  To this purpose and design we have chosen to pursue, unashamedly, the truth of God’s word.  For age upon age, people have pondered and have been dramatically altered upon the altar of scripture.  There is no other writing like it on earth, it transcends human effort, yet still it is able to be understood.  The intent of scripture is clear, resolute, absolute and unapologetic.

Often we will pursue topics of scripture as they relate to current waves of thought and ideology, we also may combat falsehood with scripture.  We believe the Old and New Testaments of the Bible contain answers to nearly every dilemma ever faced and ever to be faced by human kind.  If this was all it contained, it would be beyond amazing, however it transcends even human need and displays the glorious wonder of who God is and what his nature is.  With this in mind we desire to be New Bereans.

In no way do we claim to be the only Bereans, just new ones, in new skin.  As many great and amazing Bereans have gone before us, you may just find us quoting them as there are many worth quoting.  There is a saying amongst engineers… “If a bridge is already built, then there is no need to swim across the river.”

“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”  -Psalm 138:2

“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One.  Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness.  Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight.  Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.”

-A.W. Tozer, “The Pursuit of God,” (1976, Horizon House Publishers, pp 20)

Contributors:

Austin Maloney – Austin Maloney – Christian, Husband, Father, Bible Teacher, CNA, Oregonian.  Grew up in the church, converted at 16; wrestled with God ever since.  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:  That no flesh should glory in his presence. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Jeremiah Dusenberry – Resident of the Pacific Northwest, Christian of over fourteen years, husband of ten years to a wonderful wife, father of one daughter and a passionate stalker of truth.  I believe far too many Christians today emphasize life prior to Christ and their moment of conversion.  After which many of us have been content to rest upon our moral laurels and let someone else decide scriptural meaning for us in an ironic reversal of ex cathedra.  I believe fervently that far too many believers have given their lives so that we can have scripture today.  With every mote of dust gathered upon the bibles on our shelves I can almost hear the blood crying from the ground pleading with us to not make their sacrifices be in vain.  “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:  that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Willis Spires – Web geek, master admin, and the fire under our seats.  Without his drive, this never would have gotten started.  Thank you Willis!

As a side note, for a while I was considering starting a forum, but to be honest there are better Christian websites out there that already have established forums.  I would like to recommend using the forum on sermonindex.net as there is a plethora and wealth of information to peruse at your leisure.   There you may find a lot of views that you do not necessarily agree with, nor that I myself may not as well.  But it is a great sounding board and apart from the occasional fanatic it is often kept on the level.