Reading/Teaching With A Purpose

It is vain to read Scripture like you would a novel to only get the storyline and not let God speak to you in a personal way--which only happens when you know the Author!  You do apply all the normal rules of reading books to reading the Bible, but so much more.  You cannot make illogical deductions or infer nonsense or fabrications.  It is dangerous to get into subjectivism and listen to the "inner voice" as Quakers like to call it, the "burning in the bosom" as Mormons term it, or the "God within" as New Agers term it.  No Scripture is of any private interpretation (cf. 2 Pet. 1:20). We can also know so much or be so educated that we miss the point!  This is called being educated beyond our ignorance (or being so smart we're dumb), and we must also beware lest we become eggheads, who just want to know all the answers or be more informed than the next guy.  We can indeed have an existential encounter with the Word, but it does not become the Word upon the encounter--it always was and is the Word of God, whether we understand and relate to it or not.  God can speak through any passage and doesn't need for us to be educated or in the know to get a Word from Him.

What I'm hinting at without being too obvious is that some believers take an academic or textbook approach to reading and are attempting to get info or be informed, without being spoken to with a message from the Lord.  "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land--not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it" (Amos 8:11-12, ESV).  An academic approach is akin to reading a textbook for information and is something an unbeliever can do--real spiritual perusal can only be done in the Spirit and with His guidance and illuminating power. God enlightens the open mind, willing spirit, and needy heart if he is teachable, obedient, and receptive!

Let me mention in passing that Bible teaching is not like being in a lecture hall, or a military classroom. where one is forced to listen up! There are more variables and types of people to cater to and accommodate. There is no one-size-fits-all way to teach and one has to realize his purpose and make it known.  I do not agree with outlines of the Bible in general, though there are exceptions, simply because they can give too much detail and discourage some students. There is a danger in overwhelming or going over their heads--one certainly doesn't want to "wow" them with your scholarship either.  If one really believed in outlines he would outline everything and the student would get into the habit of doing it whenever he reads and not just for curiosity sake. If one does resort to outlines he should keep them simple and to the point; however, it is better to just make introductions and summarize what one desires to teach, sparing unnecessary details.  

I've seen teachers who painstakingly outline the books of the Bible as if it can be done and God's Word can be analyzed mechanically--one needs to delimit and show restraint and reservation. This seems to be a very dry approach to me and bores me rather than spares me the details I am unconcerned with and don't relate to or are pertinent to me as an individual.   Socrates said, "Woe to the teacher who teaches faster than his students can learn."  

When we try to learn too much we end up learning less because true learning is purpose-oriented, and puts the person in focus so that he sees a reason for reading for his personal delight and insight. The fewer facts (not ideas, though) you present and the more you put the person into the text, the better a teacher you are and the student learns to study on his own and not get bogged down with the details. Getting back to outlines, there is no perfect or inspired one. and they can be misleading and give false confidence that you understand the passage. Remember, the goal is to get the student to risk a personal encounter in the Word, getting his own experience in the Word, not yours.  

The more generalized the interpretation, the more effective: In other words, a good quick summation of the main point of the book to introduce the points of study is highly recommended because it sticks, and the student can focus on it without getting in over his head. We ought to make things as simple as possible, but not more so (Einstein)!  The principle I learned in the Army stands true and making things unnecessarily complicated defeats the purpose: Keep it simple, stupid!  If you cannot make it simple, you probably don't understand it yourself--what is it saying in a phrase; can you put it in a nutshell?  What's the gist of it all and how does it apply to your personal life--no application infers no reason to study!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Present Your Credentials, Please!...

It goes without saying that Jesus was not the Messiah of conventional wisdom--a military prince to deliver Israel from Rome; instead, they got a pacifist with a whole new way of living. No one had the unique character of Christ that forgave His enemies and had compassion on the multitudes; no one had exhibited such unprecedented conduct like turning the other cheek or practicing what He preached to such a magnitude; no one demonstrated such unparalleled claims like being the incarnation of God--yet people were puzzled as to His very identity:  He didn't go around advertising that He was the Son of David, neither did He ever deny it.  He did speak in figures of speech at first but didn't always beat around the bush--His enemies knew full well what He was claiming.  He didn't have a publicity agent to promote Him, but the word sure got around that He couldn't escape the adoring crowds and curiosity seekers.

In short, no one has ever had His credentials, just like George Gordon, Lord Byron said, "If ever a man were God, or God was a man, Jesus was both."  For instance, he despised duplicity and hypocrisy in others and yet he was so straightforward and guileless Himself.  This is notable because normally familiarity breeds contempt, and the closer the disciples got to Him the more they saw their sin, not His and respected Him to the point of worshiping.

Jesus is unique and cannot be pegged or put in a box to be analyzed:  No one ever spoke like Jesus; He is easily the most outstanding personality of all time and easily the dominant figure of Western Civilization; His ethic is unheard of to the time in formulating the Golden Rule; He is the greatest teacher, lived the holiest life, has the most adherents, made the biggest impact on history, and He is by far the leader par excellence of mankind (John Stuart Mill, atheist, called Him the "guide of humanity") and the greatest man of letters, William Shakespeare called Him his Lord and Savior in his will. Without an army He has conquered more hearts, without going to formal school or penning anything He has inspired more songs, books, poetry, and sermons that can be counted!  Even Napoleon wandered at His influence over man and said, "I tell you, I know men, and Jesus was no mere man!"

Let's examine some credentials of the God-man:  His enemies concede more than you might realize in saying He was innocent blood, truly the Son of God, having no fault to crucify for, and did nothing worthy of death.  His friends like Peter testified that He was the Son of the living God, and Thomas cried, "My Lord, and my God."   The thief on the cross unwittingly said that "He saved others."  The chief priests and elders couldn't deny the miracles (it was common knowledge!) that He wrought and even plotted to kill Lazarus because of his testimony. Some of the strongest credentials are the 333 prophecies He fulfilled to the letter of at least 456 details.  He had all the witnesses you could ask for John the Baptist announced the inauguration of His ministry; the Holy Spirit was there at His baptism; the soldier at the cross realized He was the Son of God; Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus; a heavenly chorus of angels sang at His birth;  More than 500 eyewitnesses saw Him in His resurrected body at one time; He was showered with gifts by magi; (the books couldn't all be written) ad infinitum.

The sign of His virgin birth, given as fulfillment of prophecy (Is. 7:14) was a biological anomaly, but is wholly consistent with His character:  If a man lived the kind of life He did and died the way He did, you would believe Him when He claimed a virgin birth, unlike Alexander the Great, who claimed his real father was a snake!

To mention in passing that His historicity is vouched for by pagan as well as religious or spiritual sources is only common sense.  Pliny the Younger, the Talmud, Suetonius, Tacitus, Josephus, et al mention vital facts about Christ inadvertently and what seems fortuitously.  One can no longer dismiss the Scripture record as legend or myth because these didn't have time to develop and the timeline places them in the first century mostly before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

We would have no reason to believe in His deity had He not risen from the dead to prove it as the ultimate credential--this is a historical fact that can be vouched for by more various sources than any antiquarian fact.  His miracles were not denied but attributed to Satan--even the historian Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews claimed miracles done and the Jews never denied this.  The point is that He didn't just do fantastic miracles to attract attention, on-demand, or for selfish reasons, but only as signs of His nature and out of compassion.  In multiplying the loaves He was proclaiming Himself as the Bread of Life; in raising Lazarus as the Resurrection and the Life, etc.

In application, we have to realize that we present Jesus to the world and people look at our personal credentials:  What manner of person are we or what are we really made of in a crisis?  Our testimony shows our true colors and there comes a time when our actions may speak louder than our words.  To some people, Jesus would never measure up because He isn't what they are looking for; and likewise, we will be rejected by the world and we must learn that the world hated Him and will hate us also. We have the honor to bear our cross, which pales in comparison to His, and to suffer for Jesus in ways that He never did to complete them and so that we can share the fellowship of suffering as Paul did and said in Philippians 3:10 (ESV) which says, "[T]hat I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings [the fellowship of His sufferings] ...."

In sum, John couldn't have said it more clearly:  "This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true" (John 21:24, ESV).  I appeal to no higher authority than Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, because He is the highest authority and is self-attesting.  This means that Jesus measures up and to appeal to any other authority than to Him is to dethrone Him and exalt that authority to God-like status.  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Gateway To Hades

"Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin" (Romans 7:24-25, ESV).

"A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back" (Proverbs 29:11, NKJV),

"I see the better things and I approve them, but I follow the worst."  (Ovid, a Roman poet of antiquity).
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."  --C. S. Lewis
Note:  From this post, I hope to show you that the sin crescendo is the malady spiraling out of control and that Christ is the only cure and answer.

They say that all who entered here (hell) should give up all hope. They toyed with the devil and reaped what they sowed.  They have made the final decision, step by step to go the way of the devil by the exercise of their own will and cannot blame God for their fate, that they claimed they didn't see coming. They made their decision one step at a time knowing what they were doing and not being forced to do anything they didn't want to do.  Sin is like that:  It is like a gateway drug that leads to dangerous drugs and further addiction, seeming harmless at first, but then there's no turning back after the point of no return--you become enticed as it's slave (you are now a confirmed and possibly  a hardened sinner) and the only hope is to be set free by Jesus, who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (cf. John 14:6).  A. W. Tozer said, "Jesus is not one of many ways, nor the best way, but the only way!"

An example of the progression of sin from Colossians 3 is lying leading to abusive speech, leading to slander or character assassination, leading to malice, then wrath, then finally outbursts of anger, and Jesus equated anger with murder (cf. Matt. 5:22)!  How do people get addicted to sex?  Greed leads to evil desire, then passion or lust, then impurity, then acted out sexual immorality itself.  The problem arises as to how to defuse the time bomb of escalating sin before we do something that will get us in trouble with the law or what have you. Psychologists have a term that may be helpful: Opposite action.  To neutralize greed, for example, be thankful!  To neutralize anger, forgive! Sin is a contrary spirit to God (man's declaration of independence from God) and we must learn to undo it by reversing its appeal with "opposite action."  Sin may seem harmless in incubation, but when hatched it is dangerous and must be recognized for what it is:  Calling it by other names or denying it will do no good (some believers are in denial, when the first step to recovery is simply admitting you are powerless to overcome it alone), and denial will only compound or postpone the problem.  Call a spade a spade and don't invent or concoct pretty names for your sin.

Everyone has some trigger sin that leads to a chain reaction if not checked. Sometimes there may be cues that we need to avoid and flee immorality like it is written.  We can even have pet sins that we tend to be lax about and tolerate, but fail to realize their danger and nip it in the bud like they say in slang wording.  We all have a sin which easily besets us according to Hebrews 12:1 and needs to recognize and admit this.  Sin at any level is a dangerous thing to flirt with and to experiment with. "The eye is never full of seeing," and that is how innocent looking [which isn't necessarily sin, but letting the imagination get carried away is], and curiosity and finally addiction to boot can take over a person's life, and he ends up becoming a pervert--there will be no perverts in heaven.  I've heard people admit to being a "dirty old man" and thought nothing of it, but God frowns and condemns any such acting out of perverts' fantasies.  There is only one solution:  "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16, ESV).

All this means this:  You must learn to walk with the Lord in fellowship by keeping short accounts of your sins and confessing them per 1 John 1:9 in the ESV ("If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unmentioned ones]"). Remember we all have our individual issues and all of us have feet of clay (flaws not readily apparent), and Jesus sees through the veneer.  We have two natures: The one that gets fed the most will dominate your behavior!  You cannot be spiritually starved and expect to get the victory!  In sum, the antidote to sin is a close walk with the Lord and a spirit of gratitude and praise: "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise!" (Psalm 100:4, ESV). But note well:  "If I regard iniquity in my heart the LORD will not hear me" (cf. Psalm 66:18).

How does a person become a slave to his own sin?  He thinks it's okay to fudge a little and become lax, i.e., he doesn't see it coming and lets the little sins slide not taking holiness and sanctification seriously.  Three people didn't see their sinful downfall coming on the day of Christ's crucifixion:  Pilate had long given in to public pressure and expediency and finally caved to public opinion and compromised his own morals and Rome's standards to boot; Judas had been flirting with Satan and listening to his ideas, like when Mary anointed Jesus, and it was only a small step after already opening the door to Satan to give in to the temptation to betray him; Peter was impetuous and compulsive and didn't think before he spoke often and thought too highly of himself and his flesh got the best of him on that night.  So the three gave in to the world, the devil, and even the flesh: The big three are our enemies also!  In fact, we are our own worst enemy just like the cartoon character Pogo of Walt Kelley fame said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."  Sometimes we have to reach rock bottom before we realize our own nature and repent or find God like Peter did when Christ reinstated him. If we don't know what God is like we will never know what we are really made of either.  Judas felt remorse, but not true repentance, and did not match it with faith in forgiveness from Christ, because he didn't know Him.

We all have to know ourselves and our weaknesses because others may figure us out and learn how to push all the wrong buttons.  The Greeks sought to "know thyself" as well as to "know God."  The two go hand in hand and compliment each other.  Knowing God helps you know yourself and see yourself for what you really are and in the true light.  The fool gives full vent to his rage according to the Bible. We all need an outlet but we must learn to be angry and not sin or do something we'll regret. Most of us have experienced losing it, or giving someone a piece of our mind, or letting them have it at some point. Some believers have anger management problems but don't realize they are nurturing sins that feed into this vicious cycle of anger and regret over it. Personally, I have learned to know myself well enough to know how the devil tempts me and to avoid those situations (i.e., watching certain TV channels), and so nip it in the bud--don't open the door to Satan or given him a beachhead or opportunity to use you for his will or to be captive to his spirit.  It is easy to get carried away when you don't know yourself and how the devil uses you when you are at your weakest--he likes to catch you on a "spiritual high" and whenever you've done something for the Lord he will counterattack to neutralize you and put you out to pasture, so to speak, being of no benefit to God's will.

Sin is like a chain reaction or a domino effect that must be stopped dead in its tracks!  It could also be pictured as a roundabout that you cannot get off or a vicious circle that goes for infinity.  The only escape is to be delivered by Christ who paid the price to set you free--we have the power to live in the Spirit, not permission to live in the flesh!  Sin is slavery and bondage, and there is no freedom but in Christ.  No other religion names sin as the issue to man's evil and offer the solution of atonement--other religions offer philosophy, works, enlightenment, or meditation.  There's only one Savior given among men under heaven (cf. Acts 4:12) though. "... [And] you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21, ESV).  You don't need to be enlightened or turn over a new leaf or make a New Year's resolution, but to repent and this can only be done by God's grace as you come to Him in sincerity and throw yourself at His mercy, realizing your helpless and hopeless state without Him.  You have to realize your spiritual bankruptcy.  Einstein said that it is easier to denature plutonium than the evil nature of man!  Jeremiah had a lot to say about how evil man is: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand  it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV) and "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to doing evil"  (Jeremiah 13:23, ESV).  Even Moses said, "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" (Genesis 6:5, ESV).

There is a way to avoid the gateway to your personal "hell":  You must make an honest assessment of yourself (as Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living") and you must be accountable, aboveboard, frank, and straightforward; this means no hypocrisy or semblance of holiness under the guise of your walk--going through the motions, memorizing the Dance of the Pious, or talking the talk without walking the walk. Why?  We Christians are held to a higher standard and it is like living in a glass house once the world figures out you are a Christian--life gets complicated, inconvenient, uncomfortable as we have to move out of our comfort zones. This is called the "buddy system" or having a sponsor in AA's 12 steps.  Every believer should have someone they can level with and be honest with without any pretense from a faux friend.  Your spouse has you pegged and may be partial!   Mates (they are often your chief critic or sparring partner!) can be good, but often they just know how to push each other's buttons.  It is counterproductive to put such a burden on them alone--you may need a circle of friends or church you can call home and be involved in.

Don't be like a fish out of water or a Lone-Ranger Christian trying to fight the devil all on your own--we are not his match and woe is us when we get on his hit list if we are unprepared. We all have different thresholds of sin tolerance; however, remember, sin doesn't just happen: Satan knows our foibles, weaknesses, and faults and exploits them to the max--so beware of his schemes, especially mind or psychological games!  Let me quote Paul:  "... I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices [schemes]" (2 Cor. 2:11, NKJV).

The only way to defeat the enemy is to be outfitted with the full armor of God per Ephesians 6:10ff, ESV:  "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might...."  Note that keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus will keep you out of trouble (cf. Hebrews 12:2)!  Finally, for survival purposes, I challenge you with the five necessary K's:  Know Scripture; know thyself; know your enemy; know the will of God, and finally, know God!  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Legitimate Fear Of God

"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil...." (Proverbs 8:13a, NKJV).
"Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another,
And the LORD listened
and heard them;
So a book of remembrance
was written before Him
For those who fear the LORD
And who meditate on His name" (Malachi 3:16, NKJV).

What does it mean to put the fear of God into someone?

The fear of the Lord and knowing Him go hand in hand.  Our intimacy with the Almighty depends upon our ongoing relationship as we learn to fear Him and give Him the reverence He deserves in every aspect of our lives as we give Him complete ownership of them.  Fearing God does include a healthy awareness that God can destroy both body and soul in hell, but we are to love Him at the same time.  

You can distinguish the two but not separate them because they are both necessary to a healthy respect and reverence.  We don't live our lives in terror of punishment but in view of God's benevolence and love. Love is a greater motivator than fear! Perfect love casts out fear!  

As A. W. Tozer said, "What we think about God is the most important thing about us,"  So we must have a doctrinally accurate view and interpretation--a saving faith entails correct or sound doctrine--we cannot have a false image of God or put Him in a box, as if we could label or define Him! God deserves our fear and no man does!  Without fearing God you can know nothing for certain and everything would be relative:  "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge..." (Prov. 1:7a, ESV).

Fearing God recognizes the seriousness of sin and a quickened conscience that doesn't want to take advantage of grace.  Fearing God is also defined as having a sense of awe in much the way a child is awed by the world he is discovering and asks many questions out of curiosity.  Job 28:28 says, "... Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding."  

Indeed, to fear God is to hate evil or hate what He hates and love what He loves.  The closer we walk with God the more we learn to fear Him and don't want to abuse or take advantage of His grace.  God isn't looking for a people who serve Him out of fear, but out of love and if we do fear God in the right way, we have no fear of man. We don't become Christians just for a ticket out of hell!     Soli Deo Gloria!

Now Concerning Visions And Gifts

Paul was upset at the Colossians for letting deceivers disqualify them by "going on in detail about visions" (cf. Col. 2:18, ESV).  It is easy to get sidetracked from the exposition and preaching of the Word as commanded by relating personal experiences.  The Bible is complete and everything we need to know is written and canonized. ("[P]reach the Word ..," says 2 Tim. 4:2a, ESV.)  I have been in fellowships believers got carried away about visions of angels and revelations.  I have met believers who convincingly can relate personal encounters with the Lord or their guardian angel, yet our personal experience is meant to strengthen our faith, not someone else's.  

What I'm saying is that this is not the right track to go down for a Bible-based church--though it is widespread among charismatics wherein spiritual gifts are stressed in excess and have a tendency to downplay sound doctrine.  We have to learn that God doesn't exist to provide us with experiences and experience isn't the measure of maturity or growth. Oswald Chambers said the the true measure of faith is obedience, not experience or ecstasy. 

God speaks through the Word and doesn't need our help to make it more colorful or real--the Holy Spirit illumines just fine. A prophet is one that speaks forth to the people what God has told him and Pentecostals believe this gift is still intact and alive; however, our faith must rest on the Word of God and not on personal revelation.  

It is immature and naive to share subjective experiences without being asked to and unsolicited, because the recipients will get the impression of being inadequate or that they are missing out on something; this is why Jesus said that "those who have not seen and yet believe" (cf. John 20:29) are blessed.  In my understanding of Scripture, the measure of a man of God is not his experiences, but his faithfulness:  For it is written, "...'The just shall live by his faithfulness [or faith]'" (cf. Rom. 1:17; Hebrews 10:38; Habakkuk 2:4). We must not divorce these two concepts. 

The conclusion would be that we don't need expositors, biblicists, or exegetes of the Word if we have people getting it right from God--how do you think cults get started?  People wonder what they are missing and are tempted to follow suit into mysticism and reject sound doctrine.  You cannot trust a person's charisma or personality to lend any credence to what they say.  A rivalry between believers and personalities in a church can lead to forms of spiritual one-upmanship, and it is hard to argue against the perceived clout of someone saying that God told him such and such.  

One believer will say, "I don't need to study the Bible because God will tell me something if I listen to Him more--He will tell me what I need to know! This attitude is a rejection of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding and is anti-Christian, spiritual suicide, and not an option for the believer.

It must be emphasized that God speaks through His Word and we need to heed it, even though He is not obligated to only do so; and this does not preclude God's audible voice--even dreams have not been retired, rescinded, or made void but are still in effect.  In other words, dreams cannot be ruled out, but we shouldn't depend on them or put more stock in them than the Bible, which is the ultimate authority. Sometimes dreams and visions are the best vehicles to get a point across.  As we can see that Joel prophesied about young men seeing visions and old men dreaming dreams, but nowhere does he say they are to make them public; however, I concede this is a judgment call.

Churches should refrain from "strange fire unto the Lord," i.e., worship or testimony that is unwarranted by Scripture or the church. There isn't anything mystical about a living relationship with Christ. Bear in mind that the Bible is always the standard of truth.  "But all things should be done decently and in order," (1 Cor. 14:40).  Some people are out to promote their personal agenda, or get into the limelight by relating their subjective, personal experiences--even Paul hesitated to boast but was compelled to do so.  To this day, I'm suspicious of excessive charismatic expression in the church meeting. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet and this goes for all gifts. 

Some people erroneously believe that effectiveness in prayer is how much effort or spirit you put into your prayers; indeed I concede that "a heart without the words is better than the words without a heart" though (source unknown). Some people are more stoical, others more demonstrative by nature. Obedience is the key factor in love as Jesus said you would obey Him if you love Him.

[Biblical Prayer formula: It must be to the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, done in faith according to the will of God per Eph. 2:18.]  God looks at the heart, and faith is what pleases God, though we ought to obey wholeheartedly and have compassion;  our faith is not emotionalism, maudlin sentimentality, or personality.  Matt. 9:29 says, "Be it done unto you according to your faith [not feelings]."   Soli Deo Gloria!

History's Climax

It was Josh McDowell who said that the resurrection is either the greatest fact of history and to be reckoned with, or the biggest and cruelest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind.  Paul really did say that if Christ isn't risen our faith is in vain.  He also said that Christ "was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead..." (Rom. 1:4, ESV).  Because He lives we can be sure that we, too, will live with Him in eternity.  

The Jews had no clear cut-and-dried theology on the afterlife, and Jesus' resurrection transformed the disciples from cowards unwilling to stand up for Jesus to being fearless in the face of persecution.  Now they had reason to believe and had evidence to boot. Jesus also did say that blessed is the one who believes and hasn't seen after Thomas' doubts.

We don't need to see Jesus in order to believe because we have the Holy Spirit resident in us and it bears witness with us.  We have it better in this arrangement with God than if Jesus were just walking around the earth still teaching.  We have the complete canon of Scripture and the filling of the Spirit which is a superior blessing than to have been there and sat under His teaching! We are more blessed than they were! Jesus changed the disciples and He is still in the business of changing lives--you might say He is still in the resurrection line and business!

The resurrection has profound theological significance because it proves the Father accepted His blood atonement and it proclaimed His final victory over Satan and over death.  It gives us a rationale to believe in the afterlife and heaven.  We don't just have philosophical or theological reasons to believe in the resurrection, but a historical and experiential one--we can experience the power of the resurrection too.  It is historical fact supported and proved more variously by circumstantial evidence than any in antiquity.

Jesus is with us today in Spirit because He said that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, there He is (cf. Matt. 18:20). His victory is now ours and Satan is a defeated foe who has no power over us. Jesus proclaimed His salvation as a done deal and we are to tell the wonderful news concerning Him was known as the gospel.

We have a sound reason to believe, not based on myth or cleverly devised story, as Peter said. Dr. Luke said, there were "many infallible proofs," Acts 1:3    Believing Christ lived, died, and rose to live is really just history; believing and realizing His resurrection in you and that He lives in you is salvation.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Doubting The Concept Of Truth

Pilate said to Jesus at His trial:  "What is truth?"  Of course, he didn't wait around for an answer! Jesus had said He came to bear witness of the truth and those of the truth would hear Him.  In those days, might was right and Rome deemed no truth as absolute or universal--it was an idea ahead of its time.  Today's skeptics mimic Pilate and scoff at the very idea that something could be true for everyone all the time everywhere (universally true)!  In today's postmodern culture "truth is a short-term project" and New Age adherents just say whatever feels like the truth to you is the truth.  Gandhi said truth is God, and God is truth on the other end of the spectrum.  Without God, no truth can be established and everything is conjecture and speculation.

William James, the founder of pragmatism, believed you couldn't judge the truth of an idea, only its results.  Today people are just interested in what's practical or what works for them--or what's true for them ("That may be true for you, but not me!").  There is danger in this philosophy because many false ideas do seem to work and are deceptively practical:  TM and yoga seem to work for some and they believe they're true because they work.  Christianity is different:  It works because it's true; it's not true because it works.  Christ claimed to be the incarnation of the truth and the way itself and the problem is that it goes untried and not trusted because people are to results-oriented and look at stats or benefits versus risks or pros versus cons.  The point is that the truth does indeed work, the fault is that it goes untried due to so many false philosophies that are more alluring and enticing to the popular mindset and way of thinking.  As they say nowadays:  "It works for me!"

Truth is absolute and not relative as they teach nowadays because Jesus is the personification of it and said, "I am the truth...."  Therefore, we can know Him and also what is true.  Augustine said that all truth is God's truth or you may say, "All truth meets at the top." His motto was Credo ut intelligam or "I believe in order to understand."  He was saying that all knowledge begins in a step of faith. Faith is the essential ingredient to learning truth.  In order to know anything, you must assume something you cannot prove--everyone must take this leap of faith and do as Augustine said.

In order to know anything you must know something for sure, and since the only way to know something for sure is by divine revelation and what God tells us, only God knows anything for sure, but He has revealed it to us so we can.  The reason only God can know anything for sure is that He knows everything.  Skeptic philosophers say you must know everything to know anything!  Well, we do know something, and the reason we do is that God has told us.  If there was no God, all things would be up for grabs and you could know nothing for sure because everything would be relevant in a world without absolutes. Truth would then be irrelevant and unknowable, having nothing to start from.

Many statements can be true and the relationship between them is either valid or invalid, not true or false--conclusions are dependent upon the hypothesis.  But Scripture is unique in that Jesus called it truth:  "Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17).  The reason we have an explosion of knowledge today is that we know something (essentially the scientific method) and a way to find what is true.  In the last days, Daniel said that knowledge would increase.  What they say is that nature forms you, sin deforms you, school informs you, prison reforms you, but truth (Jesus) transforms you!  Jesus is in the business of changing lives and He said that we are sanctified by the truth in John 17:17. Believers are those who have a "love of the truth" according to 2 Thessalonians 2:10 while unbelievers are those who "reject the truth" (Rom. 2:8).

Jesus said that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free:  These famous words are often misquoted to think that education sets you free, but it is in reference to knowing the embodiment of truth itself, Jesus.  There were skeptics in antiquity as well as today who deny that you can know anything for certain:  One prof told his class on the first day:  "You can know nothing for certain."  One bright student quipped:  "Are you sure?"  He fell into the trap of logic and replied, "I'm certain!"  To say that truth is only relative is a statement without any truth value and only nonsensical as well as illogical.  What they really want to say is that only the truths regarding Christianity are relative and their secular humanistic philosophy is the only absolute truth.

When we say that all truth is God's truth it is because truth is what is consistent with God and His nature:  Truth is whatever God says it is! The whole cosmos is not chaos but like one vast mathematical equation (one astronomer asserts) run by intricate laws throughout according to nearly 50 constants such as gravity, the speed of light, the strong and weak nuclear forces, the charge of the electron, etc.  If there were no God there would be no governing authority by definition (God is the one sovereign or in control of all) and we most likely wouldn't see the uniformity of the universe to God's laws or the laws of nature as some call them.  What kind of God would be out of control, merely reigning but not ruling?

You cannot say that you know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth unless you are God--we see dimly only as God reveals to us and only know in part like Deut. 29:29 and 1 Cor. 13 say, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God...." And "For now we see in a mirror dimly...."  Men have a curious desire to delve into the unknown or what is called the occult but God has given us all we need to know in Scripture for every need we face.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Hermeneutics Made Simple

Fundamentalists are those who believe in the fundamental doctrines by definition, but they were known from the 1925 Scope's monkey trial as those who took the Bible literally, whatever that means.  We believe that the Bible is literally true, but not everything is meant to be taken literally.  This is a loaded question and you lose either way:  Do you take the Bible literally?  They want to make a fool of you and prove you don't know how to read a book!  We are to learn the basic principles of interpretation and avoid what is called subjectivism.  We are to take the Bible at face value and not spiritualize it or think there is some secret or hidden interpretation that God has revealed only to us ("no Scripture is of any private interpretation" means you don't have a monopoly on truth or a secret revelation)--it God doesn't show this to the church body it is not truth and it must stand the test of time as orthodox and not contradict anything already accepted.

lSt. Bonaventure taught that there were seven ways to interpret Scripture and Thomas Aquinas taught four (historical, allegorical, moral, and anagogical).  Way back to the church fathers, Origin taught three ways (literal or what happened, moral or how it applies, and spiritual or what it teaches regarding our faith).  Erroneous interpretation results when people insist on spiritualizing or not taking something literal that was obviously meant that way.  Jesus believed in a literal Jonah, for example.  Even the ancient Jews didn't regard Hosea's narrative as an allegory but literal too.

The Word of God is alive but today's understanding of a "living document" like the US Constitution, doesn't apply--truth is timeless!   According to Hebrews 4:12, that means it is always relevant and never gets dated or becomes obsolete or passe, and it works on the believer's heart.   It doesn't mean that it is alive in the sense that we are free to indulge in modern-day interpretations that are clearly not what the writers meant--you must ask what the writer meant by what he said and not take it out of context (context of the language, the customs, the history, the paragraph, the chapter, the book, and even according to what the whole analogy of Scripture teaches).

There are no special methodologies to interpreting Scripture that you wouldn't use in any other book, except that you interpret it as it is written (this is called genre analysis:  regarding poetry as poetry, parables as parables, history as history, didactive portions as teachings, etc.).  Sometimes the Bible does use poetic license for instance, but in historical accounts, it is meticulous to be exact and mention details to show how much attention the writer paid to them.   All the laws of logic apply to the Bible just as to any book we cannot make illogical deductions on presuppositions or what is called eisegesis or reading into the Bible instead of exegesis or reading out of the Bible what it really means to say.  You can make any book say anything you want it too if you ignore the principles of hermeneutics, much more the Bible.  Satan was adept at taking verses out of context and trying to use the Word to his advantage.

The Bible is said to be its own Supreme Court because "Holy Scripture is its own interpreter" (or sacra Scriptura sui interpres in Latin):  If you don't understand an implicit passage or obscure one, check out an explicit or clear one that is parallel. That's why we have to cross-reference and study Bibles and commentaries: to take advantage of centuries of scholarship by God's people.

There are many basic principles one should heed:  We interpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament and vice versa--you can distinguish but not separate them (before the New Testament was written for the first 20 or so years they considered the Old Testament the Scriptures).  We must learn not to make false inferences by taking a verse out of immediate context--it is easy to jump to the conclusion that it is plain as day when that isn't the rest of the story on the subject matter.  We must guard against forcing our prejudices into the passage and make it a proof text for what we want to believe--especially if our interpretation depends upon a certain translation and not the Greek text itself.

There are many errors because students don't realize that only the original texts are authoritative in any doctrinal dispute or misunderstanding.  We must realize that the Bible uses virtually every figure of speech known and they are to be interpreted appropriately:  For instance, a parable cannot be interpreted to the nth degree, but is only meant to teach one main idea.  It is a good idea to make sure your interpretation is not way out in left field by checking commentaries of reputable scholars you know you can trust.

NB:   Remember that no Scripture is of any private interpretation. The New Testament trumps the Old in case there is a question of authority:  For example, if something is repeated in the New Testament it is doubly important, and if ignored, not so (like the example of the Sabbath Day command not being repeated in the New Testament and therefore we are not under obligation to observe it).  Gross error often results from not recognizing the recipient and what the author meant to say.  Never, and I mean never, make deductions based on isolated texts! Never pit one text against another ("The sum [entirety] of your Word is truth" according to Ps. 119:160).

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the first condition of interpreting Scripture is to know the Author!  The Word must not just be important to us, but take precedence.  God will not speak to you unless you are teachable: Possessing a willing spirit, an open mind, and a needy heart.  It is not the mental faculties that are as important as the condition of the person spiritually.  Above all, read with a purpose and pray for God's Spirit to do His job of illumination because we all have the anointing to teach us according to 1 John 2:27.

Remember, as Protestants, we believe in the right to dissent, disagree, and protest and we are not at the mercy of church dogma like Catholics are; however, we are exhorted to "rightly divide the Word of truth" in 2 Tim. 2:15.  The key to understanding Scripture is the one it is about--Jesus.  You should be able to see Him as the scarlet thread or common motif running throughout the Bible and on every page.   One caveat:  You will never know the truth if you think you have arrived and have nothing to learn or won't admit you could be wrong--the first step to learning is admitting ignorance!

In principle, one shouldn't rely too much on any one commentary or translation, or make your doctrines dependent upon them.  Learn comparative reading if you don't know the original languages. Commentaries are not inspired, though they can indeed br inspiring!  Johnny Cash said the Scriptures shed a lot of light on the commentaries!  Having a working knowledge of the original tongues or knowing ones way around using a lexicon and dictionary can be invaluable and give you an advantage.  It is vital to know what teachers you can trust and teach sound doctrine so you don't err from the truth or go off on a tangent.  In resolving a doctrinal dispute don't proof-text or trust some gifted teacher just because he says so--challenge them and learn to think independently.  As you grow in your reading you may become partial to one translation and this is all right, as long as you realize that God speaks through all of them and you don't become a student of one version. When you get Bible fatigue or have lost the pizzazz from reading one version too much (overexposure and over-familiarity), it may be helpful to try a new version and see what insights and "Aha!" moments God may give you as you encounter Him personally in the Word.

Interpreting the Bible has no special rules that you wouldn't apply to any book, but hermeneutics is a special problem for us since we live two thousand years after the fact and are of a foreign culture and language and might not know the historical backdrop they were immersed in--so there is a lot of work that may go into interpretation and we are not to think it is some mystical thing that we have a special connection to the Almighty to understand things by "experience" or existential encounter.  God may speak to us in an "Aha!" moment but we must be careful to make teachings and doctrines this way. The Bible doesn't "become Word of God" upon an "existential encounter," as Karl Barth believed, but it is the Word believed and experienced or not.   Many cults have started because believers felt God was speaking exclusively to them and they were enlightened.  The Gnostics taught that you had to have special secret knowledge that only they had and this was one of the first heresies that St. John the Elder refuted.

The conclusion of the matter is that I would be missing the mark if I failed to mention in passing how important it is to see the big picture, i.e., survey the entire Word of God (don't just casually peruse)  and be able to put everything into its perspective  in the light of the whole analogy of Scripture or the big picture, as it were: Psalms 119:160, NKJV, says, "The entirety [or sum] of Your word is truth...." The NIV says, "All your words are true...."

FINAL CAVEAT:  DON'T BASE SOME FAR-OUT OR FAR-FETCHED TRUTH BASED ON SOME ISOLATED PASSAGE!  ("NO SCRIPTURE IS OF ANY PRIVATE INTERPRETATION!")    

Soli Deo Gloria!
  

From High To High?

We are supposed to walk "from faith to faith" (increasing in a living, saving faith) and not walk according to feeling from high to high.  Some Christians get addicted to that "just-born-again" feeling or high and seek it in their daily walk as much as possible, even paying admission at so-called Christian concerts done by professional musicians and vocalists making money off of them.  They shouldn't charge admission if led by God but only take freewill offerings.  Sincere, but immature believers think that ecstasy is the measure of faith, but it is obedience only--Christianity is not emotionalism!  Some are going for comfort, assurance, or even entertainment, and this is the wrong motive. 

Worship isn't entertainment and it isn't done vicariously as if it is a performance.  If worship is the missing ingredient in their life they need to find a church that worships God in Spirit and in truth like Jesus said in John 4:24.   We don't just go to concerts to supplement our experience in God or to find Him and they are no substitute for and a parody of the real thing.   They should find out that you cannot walk in the glow of some religious experience for long--sooner or later you need to have the faith that pleases God and come down to reality.

The Christian life is not about living on Cloud Nine or on some perpetual religious high, but learning to know God and having a relationship with Him in obedience to His will.  Growth only comes from true experience in the school of hard knocks of adversity, trials, discipline, and suffering for Christ, not religious highs.  Believers must learn that it's not about them and about Christ and not get their eyes off of Him and onto a "worship leader, which can be idolatry." 

God isn't looking for celebrities or star power, but plain folk and even the outcasts, the riff-raff, and scum of society. The seeker must examine his own heart and find out his real motive to know whether it is God's will to support such professional worship of which there is no precedent in Scripture.

In sum, we don't need a lift; however, we do need edification, though.  Emotional faith won't stand the test of adversity either.  I think Paul would say, "Show me your emotions and I'll show you my faith!" The divine order:  Fact, faith, then feeling. We love with our whole heart, including our minds and wills.    Soli Deo Gloria!

At The Crossroads

"... We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.." (Acts 14:22, NIV).

We all have to go through the refining fires of God's trials and tribulations or confront our hour of trial and decision in God's crucible to prove our faith is genuine, and to find out what manner of people we are.   Don't break faith in crises, because we all have to pay our dues.  To be rewarded you must endure to the end and follow Jesus through thick and thin, regardless the cost--we have committed ourselves to taking up our cross. Jesus faced His great confrontation between Himself and the cross at Gethsemane, knowing what He was getting into, He had second thoughts and besought the Father for another way, if at all possible. It was like having a moment of truth spiritually and He found out who He really was (and may have suffered an identity crisis)--the only way for our salvation.   His prayer of relinquishment, committing Himself to the Father's will and ratifying it (i.e., not using His divine powers independently), settled matters for Him and assured that His sacrifice would be totally voluntary and not coerced.  It was the Father's plan and purpose to be fulfilled in Christ and the Lord's accomplishment and work, and there was no Plan B!

The three members of the Trinity all collaborated in this and each had a necessary role to play.  If Jesus had to pray for the Father's will to be done, how much more do we?  We can be assured that Jesus identifies fully with the weaknesses of our flesh and can adequately intercede on our behalf--for he recognized that the flesh was weak, even though the spirit can be willing, meaning we're only human.  Jesus didn't rely upon his supernatural powers to make it through the Garden of Gethsemane experience and was immediately strengthened by an angel after he had sweat like drops of blood to show what angst He was experiencing.  We can be assured that Jesus was tempted in all manners as we are, yet without sin (cf. Heb. 4:15), and no one has surpassed the way He defeated Satan's temptations.

A silversmith refines his metal until he can see himself in it, getting out all the dross.  God does so with us, and when He can see the reflection of Himself in us He is pleased with our sanctification process.  Once a famous sculptor was asked how he could make a horse out of an odd piece of stone; he replied that all he had to do is take away everything that didn't look like a horse!  God does likewise with us, taking away our human shortcomings and perfecting virtue and godliness in our character and takes away everything that doesn't resemble Jesus.

Jesus was honest enough to warn us of the trials we would face, possibly even the test of martyrdom and our crosses pale in comparison to His.  He didn't ask us to do anything He didn't do Himself, for He always practiced what He preached and preached what He practiced. It is the trials, adversities, temptations, divine discipline,  and suffering from calamity et al. that God brings into our lives that is for our own good (Rom. 8:28 says:  "... [Al]l things work together for good...").  We do not build character by an easy life without these difficulties and this is God's way of building our character.

Experience is not what happens to you, but in you, it is well said.  What do you do with your experiences?  The reason bad things happen to good people (and bad people!--and there are no good people!) is that the same sun melts the butter, hardens the clay or people either become bitter or better by the same experience!  There is such a thing as negative stress that works for our benefit and keeps us from becoming weak people. It was discovered by Viktor Frankl during WWII that, if a prisoner in a concentration camp knew the "why," he could endure any "how." Modern psychology denies that suffering can have meaning and be beneficial to our character.

And so we must expect a difficult life, not a bed of roses!  It's is the sign of God's love letters sent in mysterious envelopes.  Oftentimes they come so we can find out what kind of person we are because God already knows.  Job courageously and patiently said, "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold"  (Job 23:10).   We can endure any trial if we realize this and that there is a reason for it.  No cross, no crown!   Jesus didn't exempt Himself from the rough roads and will be with us in ours.  "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest" (cf. Ex. 33:19).  Isaiah says, "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction" (Is. 48:10, ESV).

When we suffer for Christ, consider it an honor to suffer for His name's sake and there is a great reward.  Let's thank God for the manifold opportunities trials bring to witness and share in the sufferings of Christ.  "... [E]ven Christ learned obedience from what he suffered"  (Heb. 5:8).  Lay out the welcome mat and rejoice in sufferings like Paul and Silas in jail singing unto the Lord--they are friends and opportunities to find new ways to trust God's providence in all circumstances.  The trials are inevitable and no one is promised an easy path to heaven as in the book I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.  We could not grow without this negative stress and it is God's pruning process--not punishing process!  "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" (Job 2:10). "... [F]or he does not willingly afflict, or grieve the children of men" (Lam. 3:33, ESV).  Our faith is more precious than gold or silver and must be tested to see if it is the genuine article.

Jesus didn't have to go to the cross because He knew all things are possible with God; He asked for a way out, but in the end, He exercised faith in the Father in His commitment to His will.  His prayer was not answered in the affirmative, but God assured Him that He would be with Him throughout it.  So don't be surprised if God doesn't answer all your prayers as "yes!"  "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you..." (Isa. 43:2a, ESV).  But His hour of trial guaranteed it would be voluntary and He ratified the agreement He made in heaven to secure our salvation.  Jesus was a man on a mission and was born to die and He knew that only He could accomplish our salvation--He could then proclaim, "Mission accomplished!"  He did this at Calvary after His cry of dereliction ("tetelestai," "Paid in Full," or "It is finished.").  The reason He asked for a way out, is because He knew what He was getting into--a taste of hell itself on our behalf, or a separation from the Father. Jesus suffered this punishment of hell so we wouldn't have to--this is called penal substitution.  He is our substitute and now represents us to the Father interceding at His right hand.  Soli Deo Gloria!