End times Revisited...

I am reading a couple of commentaries concerning eschatology from the “Reformed” perspective. I have never been comfortable with my own eschatology and those of you who may have been under my tutelage while teaching through the book of Revelation, I made it clear that I was NOT comfortable. I often said something like, “I am not sure what this means but let me ask you this: “If you are a Christ follower, does this sound Good or Bad?” 

In one sense my uncertainty was not due to a lack of Biblical knowledge in one sense but in fact, because of it. In other words, it was because of my numerous comprehensive readings through the whole Bible that caused me to question the classic Premillennial take on End Times. Here is one example. We say we believe in the doctrine of imminence ie., “The ANY MOMENT return of the Savior.” And yet as  premillennialists we get all hyped up about the political goings on in Israel, the breeding of “red heifers” for the resumption of sacrifices in the rebuilt Temple, etc. Just this by itself isn’t a minor problem for me but a deal killer. One cannot believe in the “any moment return of Christ while maintaining X Y Z must happen BEFORE Jesus returns. And in saying this, why in Heaven’s name would there EVER be a resumption of the sacrificial system when Jesus was very clear that He came to FULFILL every jot and tittle of the Old Covenant legislation? Even Hebrews chapter 10:1 states plainly that “…the law was only ever a “shadow” of the good things to come and NOT the very form of them.” So what to do with the book of Revelation? That is not the purpose of this small piece today.                                 The purpose here is 2 fold:

1. To encourage Christ followers that as messed up as the world AND the USA is, it is not occurring by happenstance, sheer stupidity, or by corruption and perversion at levels never before seen in my lifetime in our country. Rather I am seeing anew just how meticulously the Creator of all things is not merely “allowing” this degradation of society but in fact, is enabling, facilitating and even orchestrating it. In my reading through the Bible multiple times in the past couple years I am seeing the Lord on High is and always has been immanently involved in the affairs of the world from the beginning. He is NOT just a casual bystander choosing to get involved sporadically here and there. When you understand this it is everywhere on the pages of Scripture! 

2. To apprise the 2 or 3 people who may read this, that everything is taking place just as the Sovereign Creator of the universe has determined. Stolen elections, perverted justice, twisted science, incompetent and corrupt leadership at the highest levels, perversion being mainstreamed to elementary school children, parent’s rights being removed, financial collapse looming. In short, good is now bad and bad is now good as Isaiah warned us: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20) Your retirement funds may be in the toilet but our God is the SAME one who took care of His people throughout history. Do you not think He is the same God who can/will miraculously provide for His children if/when necessary? The words of Biblical theologian and scholar Dennis Johnson as well as our pastor’s oft repeated truths of God’s word about these things, are life changing. Prof. Johnson writes,”As Christians see societies crumble and collapse, our response should not be terrified alarm, as though our security were bound up with a fragile human network of law and order, but anticipation and confidence: the Lamb is now on the throne, with God's plan for history firmly in hand.” 

I cannot say I am Mr. Chill in these days of evil but I have a renewed and more practical confidence in the God of the Universe who loves all those whom He has called. 

Preaching Politics? To Avoid it is to Avoid Teaching "...All things pertaining to life and godliness..." 2 Peter 1:3

A very well known and deservedly respected Christian authority recently stated: "I've never encouraged anyone to vote Democrat or Republican. Ever.  While I believe all Christians should be active in politics, it is unwise to identify Christianity with any particular political party. If you don't see how Christianity cuts across all political ideologies, you may not see the deep problems within the one you prefer."    A link provided with the above statement noted this premise; "The historical Christian positions on social issues don't match up with contemporary political alinements."

That premise is flawed out of the gate.  Ineffable truth, in the end, is not determined by "historical Christian positions" on anything. Truth is only ever determined by the rightly divided inspired Word of God. What lies at the heart of this side-stepping nonsense is the fear of giving offense to anyone listening who may not "be there" yet with respect to the Christian faith. I understand and I sympathize. However, done appropriately, it is the shepherd's responsibility to teach ALL things to one's flock regardless of whether they are received or not. If the prophets of God in the Bible operated on this basis they would have spent the majority of their lives in silence...

Now let's get real. Here is a list--and certainly an incomplete one--of issues or ideologies in play in today's affairs. 

Sanctity of life--meaning all life is sacred and to be protected and preserved except in the situations where the Creator has stipulated [eg. capital punishment.] 

Greed--This is not identifiable by net worth but by stewardship of one's possessions

Hard work--The necessity of man working is a creation ordinance. It is the norm for mankind. It is not the responsibility of the hard working laborer to provide for the able but unwilling one who will not work. 

Compassion--Generosity by definition is a free choice of the heart, it cannot and should not be mandated by force.

Equality--Means all have been created in the image of God. It never means that everyone is guaranteed equal ability, talent, privilege, or outcome of one's efforts.

Sexual purity--Sex is a gift of God to be experienced solely within the bonds of holy matrimony with one man and one woman (as determined by genetic creation) joined until death separates.

Crime--wrong doing as prescribed by God Almighty is to be punished for the sake of the common good. (One of the greatest purposes of government is to create and enforce a system of justice that reflects God's character punishing bad and rewarding good.)

Lawfulness--Government has been endowed by God with the prerogative of establishing, enforcing and practicing godly rules and regulations which underscore the holy character of God Himself. 

Now let's get even more real: On balance, not with perfection obviously, which political affiliation supports, condones, encourages, understands, and makes decisions/laws/edicts/mandates which tend greatly towards punishing evil behavior, as defined biblically,  while rewarding good behavior as defined biblically?

One can spit into the wind, huff and puff, and snit and fume with all their might in defense of their political selection.  But at the end of the day, when the lights of the Divine are turned on in everyones' hearts the truth will be revealed and everyone will be judged according to their belief system.

Shame on pastors who do not give clear direction to those under their care warning them to flee from the wrath that is to come. 

He works in the midst of daily refuse.

This morning I grabbed my hatchet which was razor sharp as I had sharpened it after the last time I used it.  I grabbed the first piece of wood a simple, symmetrical 1"x5"X 15" piece of pine to split for kindling. I whacked off one piece and then the second one missed and took a major piece of my left index finger flapping it over.  I knew I had about 5 seconds before it would start gushing blood. In that moment I inspected the digital architecture and didn't see any bone or tendon involvement although the joint/bone was clearly visible.

Off to the ER... After the 2 hour wait, the ER Doc, a very personable man, came in and we were yucking it up. As he worked on me, I find out he lives in S.C. but comes up here 4 months a year in the winter to help out Maine. Back home he has a wife JUST Dx'd with cancer and children allowing him to do this.  

Anyway, as I am interrogating him I find out his father (now departed) was a pastor in NY and he is a believer. So we invite him over to break up the monotony of the long 4 months away from family, and I truly hope he takes us up on it. 

So the bigger point?  Would the Lord of the universe allow me, in my ineptitude, to whack my finger nearly in half for the sake of bringing us in contact with this man?  I don't know.  But here is where I am coming from, "...do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own..."  (1 Corinthians 6:19)

He is GOD; His ways are not our ways, His purposes are grander than ours, He is good whether we understand that at every turn or not.  So--YES, I am quite certain that He "could" do what I suggest and I would not put it past Him to do such a thing. Barbara and my souls were lifted up in the presence of this affable ER Doc and he seemed equally blessed.  "God works all things for good..." 

The rest of this story is yet to be written but one thing is certain; yesterday was unpleasant, and the aftermath is still playing out with discomfort, hindrance and inconvenience. But if the Lord wants to salvage a normal "day of small things" for His glory, what can we say but "Amen."

Can we preach too much grace???

The book of Jeremiah is not something you will hear preached as a matter of course in these wayward times. I took our congregation, page by page, through the book a number of years ago. The warnings of Jeremiah are many and just as applicable today as they were then. The knee-jerk reaction of our current Christian culture --myself included-- is to ascribe the rampant evil of the day to the unbelief of the culture at large.  A cursory reading of Jeremiah seems to say something quite different. Rather than excoriating "they, them and those," this prophet points the accusing finger at those uniquely called the Children of God. 

"Amend your ways and deeds and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’" (Jeremiah 7:4)

The Temple worship had become so casually understood as to the depth of meaning of what took place, that the redemptive pictures and promises of hope in the coming Savior were trampled underfoot. The result was as flippant, thoughtless, and robotic attendance becoming the be-all, end-all, of the measure of saving faith; of true faith.

Putting it in today's parlance, it would be akin to the staunch priority of making sure one is in attendance at church every Sunday, come Hell or high water, clutching their weekly attendance badge as their security and definition of what it means to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart..." As long as one meets their self-determined "religious requirement," they can quite literally live the rest of the hours of their week however they see fit. 

Sadly, today the "art" of exhortation is too often omitted in the preacher's task for fear of offending and--gasp--someone leaves the church. So with gushing words of affirmation, week in and week out, the self-satisfied "Christian" walks out every Sunday feeling like they are God's gift to the world.

"“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?"  (Jeremiah 7:8-10)

What follows in the rest of Jeremiah ought to put the fear into anyone who is putting their confidence in their "walk of faithfulness" as determined on an individual basis. 

The balance:  The God of the New Testament is the same God of the Old Testament.  He has not changed for He is unchanging. It is certainly true that no one is secure before a Holy, sin-hating God, except the one who IS PUTTING their confidence in the imputed righteousness of the Savior. Notice I did not say, "....who HAS PUT their confidence in the imputed righteousness of the Savior. 

Saving faith is not a punctilliar--once in the past action--but an active, continuous action that is moment by moment. The reformers understood this as "perseverance of the saints." In other words it is not the one who has believed in the past, but the one who has believed, is believing and will believe... And lest this be misunderstood as a self-generated, strength of grip, fortitude, this continuing in faith is purely by the magnanimous grace of the One who has called out the Redeemed. 

"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand."  (John 10:28-29)

Understood on balance, a little more fire and brimstone could be vital to the health of the Church. For  "...God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"  (Romans 2:4) 

"Happy" New Year?

"When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”"  (Genesis 6:1-7)

I have heard some pretty bizarre readings of this passage so only a word on what it isn't. The Nephilim were not fallen angels, demons, aliens or anything else "other-worldly." Enough on that for now.

What should jump out to us is the fact that the ludicrous assertion which has become unquestioned truth in many sectors, is that mankind is "basically good." All evidence to the contrary. This single fact topples the foundations of most of current day sociological and psychological theory and practice. 

The biblical understanding: The Lord created mankind at the outset--meaning Adam and Eve--not merely "good" but perfect. It was God's goal from the beginning for His children to enjoy intimate, communal relationship with each other and with their Creator. But that quickly changed as the prototypical family blew off the perfect counsel of their Creator exercising their inherent right of autonomy. The first family exchanged their own whims, desires, and wisdom over the very One who made them. The consequence was worldwide upheaval affecting everything in creation. Worse still, all life proceeding from Adam and Eve now entered the world inherently evil!  Happy New Year? Well only potentially.  

For before the foundations of the universe were even formed, the Lord God knew all of this would happen and had already set a plan of redemption in place.  He would become human, would live on the now sin stained planet, and would satisfy His original intention for man kind to be perfect so that we may enjoy that perfect communion with each other and the Creator Himself. 

We just ended the "Christmas" season 1 week ago. How distressing it is to see the annihilation of the celebration of our redemption turned into crass sentimentality replacing the birth of "God With Us" with empty sentiments of peace on Earth, love of family, and being excellent to each other. It plays well and even feels good but it is the broad way to eternal destruction God incarnate spoke of in Matthew: "“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."  (Matthew 7:13-14)

So it's pretty straight forward; you want a truly NEW year, with the promise of perfect peace (eventually) and eternal life with the Almighty (now) again Jesus speaks unambiguously. "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  (John 14:6)

If you "get that," embrace that, and accept God's Truth a peace-filled, and contented, New Year can indeed be yours, Now and Forever more. 

There will be a day of justice--it's just not today!

Malachi is a brief but sobering book. In 4 chapters we are given the immediate state of God's people with a foreboding message for all future generations who follow the same courses of rebellion as the people of Malachi's day. 

""Your words have been arrogant against Me," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against You?' "You have said, 'It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts? 'So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape.'" 

A quick tally of all the indictments against "God's people" ought to be a wake up call to people of faith today.

1.  Pride causes the "clay" to dare push back against the "Potter." "Thus saith the Lord" is routinely dismissed out of hand today is it not? 

2.  God's people argue with HIS assessment of their sin. 

3.  God's people contend it is pointless to live by the Word of the Lord. 

4.  God's people's rebellion empowered the wicked to continue and increase in their wickedness.

"Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name."

The truly faithful Jews, not merely the "religious Jews" caught the Lord's attention by their fidelity to their Lord.  The Lord is obviously pleased.

"They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him." So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him."   (Malachi 3:13-18)

THE day of fairness, of justice, of equity, is not yet upon us. This is frustrating to us to say the least. But the promise of that Day is assured by the very character of the Creator. You can stake your life on it!

"We esteemed Him stricken..."

"He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.   (Isaiah 53:3-5)

This is one of my earliest memory verses dating back to the mid 70's. It is a well known passage to most Christians and one of the more pointed prophecies of the coming One who is the One and Only. But in this morning's annual trek through the Word, I caught a different glimpse of this wonderful assurance of our salvation.

When Jesus was walking the Earth there were those who were enamored by His various uniquenesses, he was tolerated by the curious, worshipped by a few, but overall he was despised by the majority. Hence, when given the offer to release him, the multitudes chose a known murderer. 

Our view from after-the-fact is easy; He was our substitute, He was the Righteous One taking the place of we the GUILTY. But in real time, that was not what played out. The most plausible, explanation for the brutality he suffered was that he had it coming to him. He deserved what he was receiving. I mean after all "we" (Rome) are a civil society with laws, and protections and rights for the innocent. If he were not guilty as charged he certainly would not have suffered the string of injustices and brutal tortures he did. 

There is only one obvious explanation; he had it coming. "Shall not the Judge of the whole earth do right?" Of course. Bottom line, he is under the judgement of God who knows all things, therefore, "...we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted." He had it coming.

This sticks in my craw and I'm not even sure where that is but it is uncomfortable... How many times have I judged people I know, people I have heard of or read of in the news? "C'mon, this wouldn't have gone this far if he wasn't guilty as sin..." But it's worse than that. I see someone walking the street, I size them up based on next to nothing other than my first impressions by their appearance. I have a check in my spirit tempering my wretched judgementalism. I wonder, "What tragedies, what horrors have they lived through that has so obliterated their sense of worth and meaning?" I pray.  

      OK, I strike up a minor victory.................. only to "return to the vomit." (Prov 26:11)  

Isaiah continues:  "BUT!  He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed."

He didn't have "it" coming. Far from it. He is the only one born of woman NOT to have it coming and I, who have it coming, am absolved only because "[GOD] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  (2 Corinthians 5:21)   And I cry out,       "Oh wretched man that I am. who shall deliver me from this body of death?"

                             "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans 7:25)