Who Will Be King Over Us?

As Christians we must be very careful what we ask for. After watching political events unfold over the last 20 years, especially the last year, I have been reminded of what will happen if we reject Yahweh as King and seek someone (or something) else to protect and rule over us. He (Yahweh) may give us what we ask for.

I don't know much about politics and don't pretend to be a political analyst or commentator. But this, by the Word of God, I know -- If we, as God's people, look to the State and not to God to save us, then the State will TAKE from us and enslave us.

Listen to these words from 1 Samuel chapter 8: Yahweh says - "... they have rejected me from being king over them. ....... warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." Then Samuel says, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons ..... He will take your daughters ..... He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and your female servants and the best of your cattle and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves."

This is what we can expect if we reject Yahweh our God and look to the State for our salvation. The State will take and take and take, and ultimately we will become slaves of the one we have chosen to rule over us. By what I have observed, I have to say we are well on our way.

Wade

Gnostic Christianity

Too many Christians view the gospel as a massage of escape from the world God has created. They see the world as corrupt and dying and think that one day Christ will return to take us away from this world to a "spiritual" place called heaven. This is nothing less than evidence that gnosticism is alive and well in the Church in our day.

To understand the gospel more correctly or more fully, we must begin to see that the core message of the gospel is not one of escape, but one of resurrection. God does not abandon His creation -- He takes it up and transforms it. This is most clearly see in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

This is the 'newness' of life that we hope for -- that God will completely transform this world into what He always intended it to be and that, in Christ, we will be a part of that totally transformed world.

Wade

A Christian Against "Christianity"

I am a Christian - but I am often times against "Christianity". I know this sounds strange to many, but let me try to explain.

"Christianity" is often defined (either by actual words or actions) as a particular set of doctrines or a system of ideas. I do not believe that this is what the Church is or was ever meant to be.

"Christianity" is sometimes, more rightly, defined to embrace not only her beliefs (doctrines), but also the practices of the Church. Her liturgies and ways of living in community. -- This is far better, but insofar as the beliefs and practices of Christianity are seen as "religious" beliefs and practices over against "secular" or "political" or "social" practices -- insofar as "Christianity" is seen as a "religious" layer added onto human life -- this definition still misses the mark.

This is the error of "Christianity"!

The Church is a new creation and Christians are those who participate in this new creation. All of the Christian's life is transformed, not just the "religious" part.

Wade

Irenaeus on Faith and The Church

"The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations¹³² of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father "to gather all things in one,"¹³³ and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, "every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess"¹³⁴ to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all;...."

"As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth."

From Irenaeus' Against Heresies, Chapter 10

Is this what the Church looks like today?

Wade

Questions That Only You Can Answer

There seems to be so much discontentment among Christians. I think that much of what we see in the Church today comes from this lack of contentment. Have you noticed all of the different 'programs/ministries' that are offered by local congregations?

One thing that is central to modern philosophies of ministry is that we must offer enough ministries in our local Churches to keep all of our members "plugged in". Modern pastors are scared to death that their members will get bored and go across town to the hip Church with all of the cool ministries that will keep everyone from 'little jr'. to grandma occupied and entertained. ....................phooey!

Someone asked me a question once that really impacted me and the way I evaluate the Christian life (both individually and corporately). It's one of those questions that, I am convinced, is foundational to checking ourselves to make sure our focus is right as Christians. It's foundational to and absolutely necessary for real contentment in the Christian life. And I want to share it with you.

Ready? ........
If everything you have come to know and love about life in the local Church was stripped away, ... (all of the programs: Sunday school, choir, committee meetings, building programs, children's church, VBS, ladies this, men's that, teen whatever.) ... if all of the 'stuff' we do "at Church" was to disappear or be taken away ....................... would Christ alone be enough for you? Would you be content or would you go looking for another Church that had all of the stuff?

Think about this question and be honest with yourself.

Wade

WHAT is 'The Gospel'?

What is the Gospel?

Seems like an easy enough question, right? Ask this question of most Christians and you will probably get an answer that goes something like this:

"It is the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. - And, by grace through faith, if you believe in Him (Jesus), God will credit Jesus' righteousness to you and your sin to Him so that you will have had your sins atoned for on the cross and you will be justified in the sight of God." --(At this point some may add that this is what qualifies you for heaven when you die.)

All things being equal, I don't think that statements like this are all together wrong or unbiblical. What I do think is that this statement (or some variation of it) doesn't answer the question that was asked. Statements like this are better suited for questions of HOW God has achieved His gospel purposes (IMO). The how of the gospel and the what of the gospel, while inextricably linked, are simply not the same thing.

If my premise is correct, this still leaves the original question unanswered. So I'll ask it again. WHAT is the Gospel?

Wade B.

What is man?

What a question: "What is man?". This is the question the Psalmist asks in Psalm 8. Depending on who you ask, you are likely to get very different answers. Some 'reformed' folk tend to take the position that man is, always was and always will be nothing more than "a worm", scum or dung. 

These teachers keep whole congregations in a constant state of introspection, examining and re-examining themselves for sin. They do this because they are convinced that in order to maintain a proper view of God's exalted position and holiness, all Christians must continually view themselves in as lowly and miserable a way as possible. These teachers will interpret Psalm 8 to prove man's lowly place in God's created order. 

Is this a Biblical view? ..... I am convinced otherwise. The Bible teaches that man is the pinnacle of all of God's creation. 

The Church has been commanded to sing Psalm 8 in order to teach us of our exalted place among all of God's wonderful creation -- not to beat us down and make us feel worthless.  We are to praise, honor and glorify YHWH because He has made man "a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor" (Ps. 8:5).  Did you catch that? The Psalmist, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, affirms the lofty position of man, not the lowly position. He then goes on to sum up the work which God gave man to do in verse 6 when he says, "You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands.". This only affirms what we already should have known from Genesis 1:26, that man was created in the "image" of  God and that we were to "rule" over His creation.

So, what is man? Well, the "new man" (the Church), is that new creation of God that is to be all that God has always intended man to be. In Christ we are to be servant-rulers, and guardians. We are to be king-priests. We are to reflect the one in whose image we have been recreated. In short, we are to be like Jesus. 

To the extent that the Church fails to see "who we are", we will fail in our mission to transform this world for the glory of God. We will fail to properly reflect the true image of God. 

But if we will begin to see ourselves rightly, as the pinnacle of creation, created to serve, rule and guard all of God's works, then we can begin to answer the question: "what is man?".

Wade B.

Resurrection and the Covenant

Another thing the resurrection teaches us is how God normally operates. Not that raising people from the dead is a common occurrence, -- what I'm speaking of is how God ordinarily works in redemptive history to accomplish His will or the common patterns of God's working that we can discern from the scriptures.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus teaches us that God doesn't abandon a work previously started. This is clear in the Psalms where God promises not to abandon His servant to the grave or "let your Holy One see corruption" (see Psalms 16:10) (and Act 2:27). And it is also seen in His promise to all believers to finish the work He has begun in us (see Phl 1:6). Our God starting a work and then seeing it through to completion should not come as a surprise to us because this is the pattern of God throughout all of scripture. God does not change. When He makes a promise, the promise will be kept. When He says He will do something, we can be sure that it will be done.

In the context of the Biblical Covenant(s) this is important because of the tendency we have to separate the Old Covenant (OC) from the New Covenant (NC) in such a way as to make it seem that the OC and NC are not vitally and organically connected to one another. We treat the OC and NC as Plan A and Plan B respectively.

The question is: "To what extent are the OC and NC connected"? The resurrection of Jesus teaches us that they are so connected that they are really ......... the same covenant. They are really both Plan A. Jesus didn't do away with the OC, He took it up in Himself, fulfilled it and made it what it was always intended to be. The OC died, was buried, and then was resurrected and transformed(as the NC) with Jesus. In Christ, the OC was was made perfect.

Jesus alludes to this when He says "Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them" (Mat 5:17). We (Christians) are fond of quoting this verse, but I'm convinced we don't grasp what Jesus is really saying, because after quoting it we go on with life as if the OC scripture has nothing to teach us about how to live our lives before a Holy God. And we conceive of OC and NC saints as not being vitally connected to the same body of Christ. We teach, preach and live as if the OC has been abolished. 

In maintaining this false dichotomy between the OC/NC and OC saints/NC saints, modern pastors/preachers/teachers have short-changed the Church by only teaching us one-third of our identity. We are not "New Testament Christians" only, we are the Biblical people of God whose story begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. For the Church to understand who She is we must tear down the wall that we have built between the OC and NC. We must learn to think "Biblically" by seeing all of scripture as one continuous story of God's love for and redemption of His people.

To be sure there is much mystery involved here. There are certainly many differences in the Covenant now that Christ has appeared and the NC has been inaugurated. Our Father continues to work in us, transforming us from glory to glory. Because of the resurrection, you can have hope that "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phl 1:6).

Wade B.

What the Resurrection Teaches Us

One thing we learn from the bodily resurrection of Jesus is that God is concerned about His creation. God is concerned about the real, physical world (the entire cosmos) that He created. Salvation reaches far beyond any concept of the "individual" and "spiritual", to embrace all of God's created works (Rom. 8).

What does this teach us about the full content of the Gospel?

Wade B.

Old Covenant vs. New Covenant ... or is it?

Is it possible that the modern Church holds to a dichotomy between the Old Covenant people of God and the New Covenant people of God because we hold to a dichotomy between the Old covenant and the New Covenant?

Not infrequently, we hear Christians make statements that separate The people of God in the Old Covenant(OC) from the New Covenant(NC) people of God. The statements usually go something like this; "The OC relationship with God was 'outward and physical' where the NC relationship is 'inward and spiritual' ".

Is this a Biblical view?
What's your take on this?

Wade B.

A Question

Question: Is the gospel about saving individual souls or is it about building a Christ honoring culture (Kingdom) on the earth?

Answer: Both.

This type of question creates false dilemmas that I believe are responsible for disagreements in many areas of evangelicalism today. Most (not all) disagreements come about because the parties involved take opposing sides of an either/or dilemma ("It's either the Word preached or the Sacraments", "It's either the family or the Church", etc.). If only we could recognize that to some degree the truth usually involves both, and we have probably placed too much emphasis  on one side or the other. 

I think this is what has happened with the question posed above. In our modern hyper-spiritual, individualistic, introspective, even hyper-evangelistic Church culture we have gone too far in focussing on the individual and if we can "get them saved".  For these new converts and even for our own children, our focus in discipleship normally consists only of making sure they go to Church, read their Bibles, and have their personal "quiet time". The modern Church's focus is almost totally on what we consider to be personal piety.

We have forgotten that the gospel, while it certainly includes the salvation of individuals, is more about the restoration of man as a community. The gospel is more about restoring how we, as the people of God, relate to God and to one another. The gospel is about how God, in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ has kept His promises to reconcile fallen humanity to Himself. We, the Church, are that new humanity! 

Wade B.

What Battle?

If the Church is to be a new culture (which she is), doesn't it seem likely that we would be at odds with any culture that 'competes' with us? If we are proclaiming the gospel rightly, then isn't a battle inevitable? Didn't Jesus tell us that the world would hate us?

As we have it, the Church is at peace with the world around us. What does this say about the manner in which we are proclaiming the gospel?

Wade B.