The Resurrection of Jesus Changes Lives

When people question the reality of Christ’s resurrection, Christian Apologetics says at some point, “Look at the disciples before the crucifixion. They were afraid and confused; they never seemed to know what was going on. But after the resurrection these guys totally changed! They lived new lives with confidence and boldness completely absent before the resurrection.”

In other words, one of the prime proofs for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the changed lives of the disciples.

I agree. Their lives were changed completely because of the resurrection.

What amazes me is that in all the sermons I’ve heard about the resurrection and when Christians talk about it, very few if any have ever said that the resurrection of Jesus Christ continues to change people.

Some have even said a person can be saved without any change or proof showing up in their life at all.

So, let me get this straight, the resurrection only changed the lives of the disciples, no one else?

If you read Romans 6 you very clearly hear Paul saying that the resurrection of Jesus Christ raises the believer up to newness of life where the believer will now yield the members of his body to righteousness and not sin.

He can’t say it any clearer. The resurrection continues to change the lives of people.

Many people say “He is risen;” very few live like He is risen.

One of the proofs that you believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that your life has changed.

If it hasn’t, have you really believed that Christ rose from the dead? Do you understand the power of the resurrection?

Christians make two points about why Christ rose from the dead:

1. it showed God approved of Christ’s sacrifice and

2. now when you die you will live again.

Neither of these is wrong, but oh, it’s so much more than that.

Paul says in his long chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15, that if Christ didn’t rise from the dead then our faith is vain and we are yet in our sins (15:17). Later in the same chapter, all about the resurrection, he says to awake to righteousness and sin not (15:34).

Christ did rise. You are not in your sins. So don’t sin!

Where is this part of our resurrection talk?

Why do we make it all about when we’re dead?

Romans 6 says if I truly believe the Gospel I am already dead, buried, and raised up to new life in Christ. My new resurrection life has already begun at the point of salvation.

We really don’t like the implications of the resurrection. Oh sure, we’re glad Jesus did all that suffering and dying stuff, and we like happy thoughts about us being in heaven someday, but when it comes to this life, we’d rather the resurrection of Jesus Christ just leave us alone.

I find this sad and troubling. We’re missing a huge aspect of the Gospel’s power.

In Philippians 3:10 Paul says he wants to know Christ, the fellowship of His sufferings, the power of His resurrection, and be conformed to His death. He follows that with this:

“If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

Before we go making bold statements about how because Christ rose from the dead I will go to heaven after I die, perhaps we should make sure we actually are going to.

If we were sure, the humility of what Christ has done for us would make us desire to experience as much Christlikeness as possible before we get there.

You don’t have to wait to see Christ to start being made like Him. He gives you the power of His resurrection right now. You can use it. It’s there. It’s why He rose from the dead. Not to leave you alone losing against sin until you croak, but to transform your life so that when you croak your transition into eternity is seamless.

It’s a beautiful thing. Don’t undermine the power of the resurrection.

Don’t Forget the Resurrection!

It’s Easter season, so Christians are posting lots of inane things on the internet. I’m always glad when Christian holidays are over.

Sheesh.

Here’s one I saw this morning:

Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath, offering his blood on the cross, as our propitiation declaring our sins “paid in full!” This is the gospel.

I’ll skip over the “cup of God’s wrath” deal since I’ve dealt with that before.

I’ll skip the “paid in full” thing simply because it’s probably right, just horribly worded. Not sure how sins are paid for, or who gets paid. But, alas, I’ll move on.

The reason I’ll move on is because there’s a much more glaring problem with this statement.

“This is the Gospel” is firmly stated and yet leaves out the biggest part of the Gospel. The part that Paul said if it didn’t happen, our faith is vain and we are still in our sins.

Paul wrote his longest chapter on this aspect of the Gospel.

The Resurrection. Like, the whole thing that happened on Easter Sunday.

I notice this a lot. Several years ago I noted it the first time, how often the resurrection is left off the Gospel. Since then, I’ve paid more attention to it and concluded that there are two groups who drop the resurrection most frequently when they talk about the Gospel:

1) Calvinists

2) Easy Believism people

Here are my theories as to why both do this.

1) Calvinism/Reformed Theology is just a slightly reduced Catholicism. Calvin just copied Augustine and Augustine is considered the father of Catholicism. Catholicism likes to leave Jesus on the cross. Crucifixes are a great way to inspire guilt in people. They like the death, the blood, the wrath, the guilt. Calvinism jumps on board that train. Puritans, the most serious of all Calvinists since Calvin’s day, are dour, judgmental people who like to talk about wrath and such things. Calvinism removes love from the Gospel and makes it all about wrath and justice. They miss the point completely. Resurrection stuff is too happy. Oh sure, they bring it up. Calvin wrote about it. They will mention it. But listen when they off the cuff talk about the Gospel, often the resurrection is just tacked on as an afterthought. The big deal is the wrath and death and blood and aren’t you a terrible, rotten sinner who should feel terrible? Indeed, I am a terrible, rotten sinner, but thank God the resurrection gives me a new life in Christ that will end in glorification. That’s a nice thought.

2) Easy Believism says that salvation is gotten by simply mentally agreeing that you think Jesus died and rose again. As long as you have faith, you’re good to go. Again, they will mention the resurrection, but listen when they off the cuff explain the Gospel. They won’t make much of the resurrection. The reason why, I think, is because the resurrection implies new life for the believer. It implies a life giving power at work in the believer. It implies a new, Spirit given, righteousness pursuing new life in Christ. Can’t make too much of new life, that sounds like works! They like to think any old sinner is saved as long as they said some words once. There’s no power in the Gospel, it just leaves you right where you were, which is fine with them because they do like their sin. No need to shed that old man; I kind of like what the old man does. I said the prayer, let me sin, I still get to go to heaven. They don’t like the resurrection because it implies that faith is always evidenced by a new life.

Those are my takes. You can disagree if you want. Doesn’t bother me. These are my theories I’ve come to after observing people for a long time. Just theories. My brain trying to make sense of people.

Again, all Christians will say they like the resurrection. If pressed, they will all state how important it is. But listen to people’s off the cuff statements of what the Gospel is and notice if the resurrection makes the cut.

You’ll be amazed how many times it gets left off. Ask yourself why. Why would this person keep forgetting to mention it? Hmm. My guess is they are in one of these two groups of people, and maybe even in both.

The resurrection is a big deal, both for this life on earth and the life to come. Emphasize the resurrection. Plenty of people were crucified back in the day; only one raised Himself from the dead. That’s the hard bit to believe. And believing the resurrection will change you fundamentally into a new person!

This is a great thing. Believe it. Then watch a new life grow in you!

Why The Secret Book of John is Not In Your Bible. Or mine, for that Matter

A few days ago I mentioned the Gnostic writing called, “Jesus’ Digestive System.”

The Secret Book of John, or sometimes called The Apocryphon of John, is another Gnostic book. Gnostics were people who felt they could gain secret knowledge through experiences and visions and so forth.

They were largely condemned as heretics, and, if you read what they wrote, you can quickly see why.

In The Secret Book of John, the disciple John is questioned by a Pharisee who doubts the validity of Jesus’ teaching. John is bummed and goes off to pray.

John sees a bright light that came down next to him. In the light he saw three forms: the Father, Mother, and Child.

Then things get weird. I can’t even summarize, so I’ll quote another summary:

From this divine principle came a thought, a feminine divine entity, named Barbelo. Though typically referred to as “she,” this thought is really the elemental father and mother, completely androgynous. She is known as the first of the Aeons and the consort of the Divine Principle (which is also a feminine word). Together, Barbelo and the Divine Principle, the Monad (the word means “one unit”) brought forth the other Aeons, which were actually further emanations of the Monad. Light (another word for Christ) and Mind were among the first to be created and, under the direction of the Monad and Barbelo, they, in turn, started creating other aeons. Eventually, there would be 365 aeons. The last one to be created was Sophia (Wisdom). Wisdom believed she was wise enough to try creating something on her own. Without any direction or consent from the Monad or Barbelo, she created Yaltaboath, who had “the form of a lion-faced serpent with eyes that flashed like lightning.”

You got that?

Yaltaboath made Adam eat the fruit. He sent Eve to make sure he would. Christ came to defeat the darkness of Yaltboath. Etc.

All very weird and confusing.

You will be told many times that there are other books of the Bible that “some Catholics” didn’t let in your Bible. You are missing out on so much revelation.

No you’re not. Your Bible is good. Catholics didn’t pick and choose what you could read. There weren’t really many good options, no matter what the documentaries on The Discovery Channel tell you every Easter and Christmas.

Read the Bible. You’ll be well cared for there.

What Would it Look Like if You Did Offer Your Body as a Living Sacrifice?

Rickson Gracie was a fighter from the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu camp. He is considered a legend of Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Some consider him the best of all time.

In order to achieve this level of performance, whether you like MMA fighting or not, you have to respect the dedication and discipline.

He said his key to athletic success was having complete control over his mind, body, and breath.

That made me think of what Jesus said about the Greatest Commandment:

“And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”

In order to achieve as he did, he needed all aspect of who he was devoted to his sport.

Paul tells us to copy athletes in our pursuit of spiritual growth (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Pick the greatest athlete in a sport, see how they live, how they train, how their mind is completely focused on being better.

Take that mentality into your spiritual life. Run it to win.

We’re not competing against other Christians, or trying to be better than other people. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Satan is out there getting ready to throw an Evil Day at you. Will you be able to stand in that day?

So much of Christianity tells you to take it easy. There’s an over-emphasis on grace, on Jesus doing it all, that we’ve become weak, apathetic, and afraid of effort or work.

It’s no surprise the church is the way it is. Biblical literacy is terrible. The morals and spending habits of Christians and the world are nearly the same. There is no real distinction in fruit between a group of Christians and the world.

I think much of this is because we’ve dropped off Paul’s encouragement to discipline ourselves. That’s for monks and crazy people, legalists who don’t know grace and liberty. Jesus did all that dying and suffering stuff, all I do is bask in the blessings!

So, we take it easy. We go with the easy believism and the easy grace and the don’t-do-anything mentality. Then we watch as more and more Christians fall away and delve into doubt and insecurity when life gets hard.

They didn’t do anything to prepare, of course they won’t stand in the evil day.

What would it look like if you did give your body as a living sacrifice as part of your reasonable service? What would it look like if you devoted your heart, soul, mind, and strength to loving the Lord?

When we mention “loving the Lord” in there it makes it sound soft. We’re just supposed to feel lovey feels really strong or something. But read 1 John. What does it mean to love God?

1 John 5:2,3 says that love for God means keeping His commandments. How well do we do that?

Are you training to get your life to look like the Sermon on the Mount? Are you loving others as Christ loved you, giving your life for them, dying daily?

Oh come on now, that’s too much. You don’t have to do all that. Better watch out for legalism, man.

I know, I know. I’ve been told that many times. I’m also watching Christians. I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” not “Nice job fitting in with the rest of the world down there.”

We are not to be conformed to the world. The road to destruction is broad.

It seems the majority of Christians I’ve run into all agree that we don’t have to do anything, life is easy breezy, and when we die we go to heaven because we did this one thing one time that showed we believed.

This is a lie. Let no man deceive you with vain words.

The church is filled with deceivers and they will grow worse and worse as time goes on. Expect to hear more of this sort of teaching. So much so that eventually no Christian will ever at any point do anything for fear of doing too many good works and being legalistic.

They call evil, good and the good, evil. We’re repeating biblical history. It ended the first covenant and will end the second one too.

Be like Job and Daniel. Stay faithful to what you’ve been given in Christ. Use all the resources provided you in the Gospel and fight the fight. Run to win. Don’t let the lazy, apathetic deceivers rampant in the church today slow you down.

You serve the Lord God. Serve Him well. It’s worth it.

Train Today for the Battles Tomorrow

Pretty much the only place in the world where I hear encouragement to be disciplined and work hard is in athletics. Athletes do unbelievable things to get in shape and prepare for competition. They give everything they have for the pursuit of victory.

This single-minded focus athletes have is why Paul tells us to copy them. We compete for an eternal crown, they only do it for a temporal crown. How much more should we discipline ourselves and bring our bodies under control (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)?

But we don’t.

See, because we are saved by grace! We don’t have to do anything! We can sin and waste time, live it up in comfort and entertainment because I’m saved, I’ll go to heaven when I die! Take it easy, man! Christ said He finished it, relax, take a seat, don’t get carried away into fanaticism and potentially legalism. Chill down here with us!

I’ve heard this message so many times in Christianity. It’s nauseating. It’s sickening and it’s so foreign to Scripture. But since Christians are taking it easy and chilling, they aren’t reading the Bible enough to know what it’s talking about.

Athletes do all this to defeat other people. I’ve heard a number of athletes say “I train all the time because I know there’s someone else out there working on it right now and someday I’ll face that guy. Better stay disciplined so when I do face him, I win.”

Our job is not to defeat other Christians. You don’t seek spiritual discipline to show up other people or be impressive. You do it to win, but you have to know who the enemy is.

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” We know this, but we also don’t know what to do with it. Usually when this verse is brought up it delves into some weird thing about spiritual warfare.

And granted it is talking about principalities, powers, and demonic forces. It is. But it’s not some weird out there thing; it’s incredibly real. Keep reading the context of Ephesians 6.

Paul says to put on the armor of God to withstand the wiles of the devil (6:11).

We do this because we wrestle against spiritual forces, not humans (6:12).

Take up the whole armor of God so you can withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand (6:13).

So stand (6:14)!

There is an evil day coming. The evil day is not death or Judgment Day. The evil day is when evil things happen to you, what will you do? Did you use your off time, days when nothing terrible is happening, to prepare? Or did you take it easy, watch some tv, and chill with the rest of Christianity?

Armor has to be tested. Remember David with Goliath? He didn’t use Saul’s provided armor because David hadn’t tested them. He went with what he had tested.

Are you in the Word? Are you hiding it in your heart? Are you seeking righteousness? Are you battling sin? Are you mortifying the deeds of the body?

If you aren’t doing this on the off days, what makes you think you’ll stand strong  in the evil days when life falls apart?

There’s a day coming when you’ll face the enemy who hasn’t taken one day off. Every day Satan is out there training, practicing, doing his thing, paying attention to how to derail you and defeat you.

He’s out there every day sharpening his arrows to bring you down. What will you do in that day? It probably depends greatly on what you’re doing today.

Don’t let the ease of today fool you into thinking some tomorrows aren’t going to have an evil battle for you. Train like there’s a battle coming.

You won’t hear this much in Christianity. I’ve been told every time I’ve brought this up that I’m being legalistic and treading on dangerous ground and denying grace and all manner of other things summed up with, “Dude, come chill with us.”

No thanks. I’ve watched many of those people who’ve said these things to me over the years. I’ve seen them in the evil days they’ve faced: they collapsed. Their house on the sane fell flat. I don’t want that for you or me.

The Bible tells me to be disciplined like a champion athlete and prepare for the day of battle. I’m going to go ahead and do my best to do that.

Saying “Peace, Peace” On Our Way to Hell

There are tremendous differences between the Old and New Covenant. But Paul also tells us the stuff written before was written for our learning (Romans 15:4).

Therefore, there has to be some commonality between the covenants.

Making too big of a difference between the covenants leads to severe theological error.

Throughout the Bible God has wanted people to listen to Him. God loves us, He made us, we are His kids. He wants His kids to listen. Any parent knows inherently what this is like.

It breaks your heart when your kids reject your wisdom and go do dumb stuff, yet that’s what kids do. Hopefully they learn before doing themselves in.

God wants us to listen. Everything He’s ever done in relationship to us has been to get us to listen to Him.

Israel had a clear cut covenant: listen to God and everything will be great. Don’t listen to Him and everything will be terrible.

Israel rejected that covenant. Even during the time of the Major Prophets, when all the terrible was coming on them, they continued to be obstinate and not listen.

But to make it worse, not only did they not listen, they lied about how terrible it was!

Therefore I will give their wives to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is greedy for gain; From the prophet even to the priest, Everyone practices deceit. They have healed the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.
–Jeremiah 8:10,11

All the terrible is dropping on them, instead of repenting, changing their ways and receiving God’s blessing, they turned to lying about it. Nah, it aint that bad. Peace peace, it’ll be fine.

One chapter later Jeremiah says:

Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing wrongdoing. Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.
–Jeremiah 9:5,6

The New Covenant does not carry physical curses and blessings. The New Covenant is primarily focused on the spiritual. So, how are we doing this same stupid thing in our day?

Many people are playing at Christianity. They do some churchy things, say some nice stuff, post a verse over a cute photo on Facebook. But their lives are a complete mess because they are not listening to God.

They are going through the motions. They are playing the game with no reality behind it. Their mouth says nice things about God, but there heart is nowhere near Him.

As their lives fall apart, as sin abounds, and sin’s terrible fruit comes home to roost, what does the church tell them?

Oh, it’s ok. You’re still saved. Remember when you were seven and you said the prayer? Don’t worry about it. Just remember God’s promises.

There’s no dealing with the sin, there’s no call to repentance. All they hear is “Peace, peace. Don’t worry about it. God loves you. You’ll still go to heaven because you did that thing that one time.”

This is the same stupid thing Israel did back then.

God wants you to listen to Him. He doesn’t want you sinning and living in lies that will destroy you.

Later in Jeremiah 9 we are told:

This is what the Lord says: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches;  but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.
–Jeremiah 9:23,24

Most people are playing a game with God. God is smarter than that; if you knew Him you would know that. You can’t lie your way out of reality. Reality and truth will always stand firm and your lies will break in pieces eventually.

Soothing and comforting and reminding people of promises that don’t apply to them will not help them on Judgment Day.

Saying pleasant thoughts and happy phrases over and over might make people feel good right now, but what will you do when you stand before God and His truth is brought before you?

The church is blowing this big time, just like Israel. It’s as if we aren’t even reading the Bible. Oh wait, we aren’t. We’re just going with the lies people tell us as we trip toward hell.

Enjoy the ride. The destination will be awful.

Costly Sacrifice

Anyone in Christianity has heard that the Old Testament sacrifices are a picture of the sacrifice of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The sins of the people were put on the animal, the animal shed its blood and died to atone for, or cover, those sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

God gave us life. When we disobeyed Him we chose death. The wages of sin is death. Going against the one who gave you life, moves you in the direction of death.

But the New Testament also tells us that the shedding of the blood of bulls and of goats can never fully take away sin. We needed a better sacrifice. Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the cross, died, and rose again for our justification.

He dealt with our sins in this way to make us right with God.

All very cool.

But there’s a flippancy I hear among Christians about this sacrifice stuff.

An aspect of these OT sacrifices I don’t hear mentioned much is that those animals cost the people! They were their animals, and were to be the best of their herd too. This was no small price.

Not only did you lose the value of the animal, but if it was the best one you would also lose the potential breeding capabilities. Usually you keep the best one and mate it with another best one so you have healthy offspring. Getting rid of the best ones would diminish the quality of your flock.

But that was part of the price of sin.

But we skip that.

This then leads to flippancy about the death of Jesus. Oh yeah, He took my sin, He did all the dying and stuff, I just get the forgiveness.

This is so overplayed we go so far as to tell people sin isn’t that big of a deal. You can still be saved and live in uninterrupted sin because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

If there was a cost for sacrificing animals to merely cover sin, is there not a cost for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who once for all put away our sin?

Sure seems like there would be.

But, but, but, Jeff! There is grace in the New Testament! Nothing is required of us. There is no cost. It’s all grace, man.

That’s what I’m told. But unlike a lot of people, I read the Bible as though it were written by the one who will judge me. I don’t just listen to crazy ideas of crazy people who are not my judge.

There’s one verse, a popular one, one you know, one that gets quoted all the time that tells you what the cost is for the life of Jesus Christ being laid down for your life. Shall I remind you of it? I shall. Romans 12:1, perhaps you’ve heard of it:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

The reasonable sacrifice is your body. Christ’s body was broken for you. It seems fair.

In fact, it still seems like an awesome deal for us! It’s no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

My flesh is already crucified with Christ with its affections and lusts. I want to put off this old man, this dying carcass. Giving up my body seems a very high cost, but when you understand all this in the light of the Gospel, it’s the exact thing the Believer wants to give up anyway!

Jesus told His followers to “count the cost.” His yoke is easy and His burden is light. There’s a cost, but the payoff is huge and eternal.

Valentinus and Jesus’ Digestive System

Gnostics were people who felt they could know things by secret revelation, usually attached to some spiritual experience. The early Charismatics of Church History.

They were largely condemned as heretics because they just made up stuff and most of that stuff was straight crazy.

But some was also highly entertaining.

Valentinus was an Egyptian trained in Alexandria, and rose to some fame in the Roman Church, almost considered for pope.

Valentinus was a good writer and speaker. He wrote quite a bit, but most of it has been lost. There are fragments of his writings that have survived, including one fragment entitled, “Jesus’ Digestive System.”

Now, early church heresies were largely about the person of Christ. Was He divine of human? Some thought Jesus was so divine He had no flesh body. Others thought He was so human there was no divinity at all, He’s just a guy used by God. Then there are heresies all in between those extremes.

Valentinus leaned toward Jesus is more divine than human. This conclusion then led him to pontificate upon Jesus’ digestion. If He wasn’t much human, did He, like, go to the bathroom?

I mean, I think we’ve all had our minds wander there a time or two. Did He mess His diapers when He was a baby? Hard to imagine the Son of God doing that. That’s where Valentinus came down on the issue. I’ll let his fragmentary writing say the rest:

“He was continent, enduring all things. Jesus digested divinity; he ate and drank in a special way, without excreting his solids. He had such a great capacity for continence that the nourishment within him was not corrupted, for he did not experience corruption.”

So, there ya go!

Jesus wouldn’t see corruption in death, therefore, there is no corruption in Him and therefore, food can’t decompose in His system. Sounds logical to me.

And also straight crazy.

Ah yes, Gnosticism. Sure am glad we’ve advanced past this goofy stage.

What Was Noah’s Wife’s Name?

The standard Christian answer to that question is: we don’t know, the Bible doesn’t tell us.

However, the Bible not telling us stuff has never stopped us from answering such questions before, why let it stop us now!?

According to Gnostic lore, we do know Noah’s wife’s name: it was Norea.

I kid you now. Look it up.

You can type “Noah’s wife Norea” into any search engine and you will get more information than you ever cared to get about this dear lady.

Apparently, due to my extensive skimming of several sources, Norea was a daughter of Adam and Eve according to Gnostics.

(Gnosticism, by the way, is a group of people who find hidden knowledge through personal religious experience. They were the early Charismatics of the church. They developed a rather colorful mysticism around biblical stories, for instance, everything about Norea. Typically their myths seemed to try as hard as possible to be counter to typical Christian understandings. They were trying to be weird, and succeeded wildly.)

Anyway, back to our tale.

Norea was the daughter of Adam and Eve, and there’s another Norea who is the wife of Noah’s son, Shem. Somehow or another, the historian Epiphanius reported that Norea was Noah’s wife, and that is how she’s largely remembered by those who remember such things.

You can read all you want about her elsewhere. I won’t go into all the crazy details.

There are at least three Gnostic books that mention Norea: The First Book of Norea, The Thought of Norea, and The Reality of the Rulers. You can look them up, probably even read them. I’m not one who is afraid of people reading such things. It won’t take you long to realize how silly it all is.

The top thing you should know about her is that she burned down the ark three times because Noah wouldn’t let her in.

Yup.

There are many Gnostic tales out there about the Bible. Every Easter the History Channel and such places put out documentaries about how goofy Christianity is and always bring up Gnostic Gospels to throw you off about whether you can trust the Bible and how come evil dead white guys didn’t include Gnostic Gospels in the Bible? What did they know and when did they know it? It’s a cover-up! Probably involved Leonardo Di Vinci paintings and aliens and boy howdy, aren’t Christians the stupidest people in the world for believing this stuff?

So, yeah. Good luck out there.

My advice is to ignore Norea. Stick with the Bible, people! All other ground is sinking sand.

How Much Supernatural Activity Should be in a Christian’s Life?

My answer would be, It depends. What do you mean by “supernatural?”

It also depends on who you ask I guess. I’m reading a book about abuses in the Charismatic church written by someone in the Charismatic church.

He actually uses the Bible and thinks it is authoritative, which is nice. Very rarely, in my experience with Charismatics, is this the case. Most would probably say it, but their insistence that God is revealing things to them undermines their claim.

Even though he uses the Bible, he’s still Charismatic, which means he’s going to use the Bible weirdly at some point. Here’s a prime example:

“The statistics show that one-third of the Book of Acts deals with supernatural activity, and one-tenth of the Book of Acts tells of people who received personal direction for their lives through some supernatural means.

“The Book of Acts was meant to be a pattern book, not just a history book. If this is so, one-third of our Christian life should be comprised of supernatural experiences, and one-tenth of all the personal direction we receive should come from supernatural sources.”

Couple things:

1. Again, I don’t know what “supernatural activity” is. That’s a very squishy term, easily warped into who knows what. I’d like to see his list, which he did not provide. I doubt he includes preaching and teaching as supernatural activity.

2. Exactly who did those statistics and how were they devised? He said nothing about that. Is it by verse, by chapter? I don’t know. Nothing about the method used is revealed.

3. The Book of Acts is about a lot of people, it’s not a book about one person’s life. In no way can these “statistics” from Acts that covers history over many years and many people, be extrapolated into a normative experience for every believer’s individual life.

4. Although he admits that apostles were special people, he never takes the next step that perhaps that had something to do with their supernatural activity (see Acts 2:43, 5:12; 2 Corinthians 12:12), he then makes zero distinction between apostles and you and me or him. To ignore this is pretty careless.

5. The majority of his book is about Charismatics saying and doing completely ridiculous things in the guise of supernatural activity. Telling these people that even more of their life should be supernatural is not going to reduce the amount of ridiculous things Charismatics do.

In the end, I’m not a Charismatic. I am a Cessationist, I believe the sign gifts ceased with the completion of Scripture and the end of the apostolic age.

However, this is an inference, not specifically stated in the Bible. Therefore,I am always concerned about quenching the Spirit due to an inference, so I read Charismatic things every once in a while to see where they are coming from. Their use of Scripture is typically what does me in.

This is another example. This doesn’t mean they are wrong necessarily, but it does mean that they use Scripture terribly and this helps them none at all.

I appreciate the author’s desire to bring the Bible into consideration in the Charismatic church and his desire to correct the wrongs. But when he uses the Bible like this, I can’t imagine how he will end up helping.

He is sincere and I applaud his efforts to a point, but grieve that he appears to be grieving the Spirit in sloppy use of Scripture.

5 Points about Seeking A Multitude of Counselors

“In a multitude of counselors, there is safety” is a phrase from Proverbs I hear thrown around quite a bit.

Most applications are that you should get as many people’s input as possible. Often, from what I’ve seen, people just keep asking for counsel until they get permission to do what they wanted to do!

But a multitude of counsel leads to some other stuff too, even according to the Bible.

Isaiah 47:13 says, “You are wearied in all your counsels.” Hearing everyone’s opinions is exhausting. It can go on and on. Paralysis by analysis. And ultimately, does no good and only wears you out trying all the stupid options.

This is especially true if you are asking for counsel from morons, which is the point of the Isaiah verse.

The Chaldeans/Babylonians were used by God to defeat nations including Israel, but they thought it was them. They ignored the God of Israel who enabled them and resorted to their Gentile superstitions. Here’s the whole verse:

“Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.”

They were asking all the wrong people.

As if there was no God in Israel, they sought help from every other possible source. The counsel of these sources was exhausting. So many words; so little deliverance.

Here are a few thoughts on getting counsel:

1. Many times, instead of seeking counsel, just get to work taking care of the situation. This is especially true if your own actions caused the stupid situation to begin with.

2. Stop talking about it. Stop basking in the drama of telling everyone your juicy problems in the guise of seeking help. Seeking counsel has more to do with listening that you going on and on with your drama.

3. Stop listening to people whose lives demonstrate they have no idea how life works or what the Bible says (these go together incidentally).

4. Yes, there are times you need to bounce something off other people. Some situations are complex and it’s good to check yourself. But find good people to do that with. Seek counsel from people who know God’s counsel.

5. In the end, most biblically minded counselors should be in general agreement (with some exceptions). Then stop talking and getting more insight, hear God’s Word, and get busy!

6. Often God’s Word is pretty clear cut and requires no additional counsel. We need to obey what He says if we want to reap good fruit. Fear God. Do what He says. The Scripture was written by many people. The Bible is essentially a multitude of counselors in itself! Don’t ignore this perfect guide while following heathen scum, Gentile, unbeliever wisdom!

Anyway, that’s my counsel for you!

What is the Origin of Godparents?

I’ve always thought the idea of a godparent was a little weird. I never had any. I had humanparents.

Now most people separate the term from its religious origin to just mean the people who will care for a kid if their parents die.

But that’s not at all the idea from the beginning.

Godparents are directly related to the invention of infant baptism. There was no infant baptism in the church for the first two centuries after Christ’s ascension.

Infant baptism was done to allegedly free the infant from the taint of original sin. If the kid died, which many kids back then did, they would go to heaven if they were dunked in water.

This infant baptism was a means of regeneration. But does the kid know what’s going on? He does not. Infants know, like, nothing.

So, godparents were invented.

Godparents literally lifted the child out of baptism, and when the child was questioned about doctrinal issues, the godparents answered for him all the stuff he was not able to confess.

Weird.

Anyway, that’s what godparents originally were. I think more people should stop using this term because it’s a dumb term and also has nothing to do with anything that is actually real or biblical or common sensical.

That’s my two cents on that. Carry on.

Obey the Gospel

The New Testament speaks three times about obeying the Gospel: Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8 and 1 Peter 4:17.

When people think about receiving the Gospel, most think believing it. Faith is our thing we do to access the Gospel and its benefits. “By faith alone” some have said, in fact.

So what’s up with the Bible talking about obeying the Gospel? I thought we just believed it?

The Greek word translated obey is hupakuou. It’s a compound of two Greek words hupo and akuou. Hupo  means under and akuou means to hear. Put them together and you get to hear under.

Strong’s Definition’s says “to hear under (as a subordinate), that is, to listen attentively; by implication to heed or conform to a command or authority: – hearken, be obedient to, obey.”

Here are a few other times this Greek word is used to give the idea most clearly: Children obey your parents. Servants obey your masters. Obey in these verses is hupakuou. It’s putting yourself under the authority of another person’s words and obeying what you were told.

Brings to mind Jesus’ parable about the father telling his sons to go work in the field. They both heard and one even said he’d go do it! But he never did. The other said he didn’t want to, but later went and did the work. Which one did the will of the father? Which one hupakuoued? The one who did it.

When I told my kids to go do stuff, I didn’t care if their ears registered what I said, that’s not what I was going for. I wanted them to get moving! Go do what I said! That’s hupakuou. Children obey your parents. Amen.

Sure sounds pretty worky. I thought we weren’t saved by works and doing what we were told; I’ve been told my whole life salvation is just faith.

Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing. Akuou means to hear. There is no disagreement between obeying the Gospel and believing the Gospel. They are both talking about hearing. And, not just the fact that your ears work, that you’re not deaf, but that you hear, understand, and carry out what you were told.

The problem is not between these verses in the Bible, they fully agree. The problem is when you run this into what Christians say and what the Bible says!

Christians have been saying that faith is basically mental assent. Yeah, ok, I’ll believe the story about Jesus. And then they carry on in their sin. They didn’t understand the Gospel, its implications, and certainly not its commandments (summed up in LOVE).

They just jumped through the hoop. Yeah, I heard it. I nodded my head, get off my back! What else do you want?

Obey it.

This isn’t salvation by works; this is understanding what the Bible means by FAITH.

We’re playing a dangerous game by not getting this right. We’re telling a lot of lost people that they are saved because they nodded their head to the Jesus story. We haven’t told them to obey the implications of the Gospel, to count the cost, to present your body a living sacrifice, etc.

This is what “obey the Gospel” is talking about. It’s not just a story that brings presents later, like believing in Santa Claus. It’s a life-altering power you’re dealing with; it will change you if you truly receive it. People don’t want to change, they don’t want to give up their fun and their sin and selfishness.

So they continue to sin, resting on something they did when they were 6 or whatever when they “believed” the Gospel. This is dangerous ground. If there is no obedience there was no faith. Faith doesn’t stop with your ears; it changes your heart and your whole being. Old things pass away, all things become new. It raises you to new life. You become a partaker of the divine nature. No way all that happening in you won’t produce obedience to that awesome, life-giving Gospel!

If you say you believe the Gospel and yet never obey anything it stands for, you never believed it. You “believed in vain” as 1 Corinthians 15:2 says.

One of the verses that talks about obeying the Gospel puts it right up front for you. Kind of scares ya if you take it seriously. I suggest we all do.

“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”

–2 Thessalonians 1:8

John Marco Allegro and Mushroom Jesus

There’s a title for ya.

What a tale we have for you today.

Allegro was preparing to be a Methodist minister, but got sidetracked into studying ancient languages like Hebrew and Greek. I have heard that around there he also renounced his faith and became agnostic.

But, as a scholar in ancient texts, he was invited to be on the team of scholars looking at the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was the only non-Christian on the team.

And, wouldn’t you know it, he came up with some pretty non-Christian ideas while studying them there scrolls.

Through a series of gymnastical leaps with ancient languages and etymology, Allegro came to believe that Christianity was a mix of fertility religions and the result of tripping on mushrooms.

He “proved” that the word Christ is etymologically related to the word mushroom. And, for added measure, so are the names Cephas and Petros. This pretty much proves it.

Christ was a mushroom. You were to “eat his body,” and get high and have your own little trip with God.

And, yes, I am summarizing his conclusions to highlight the ridiculousness of them and putting them in a bad light. You can study his findings if you like. I’m just saving you time.

He wrote a book entitled The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. It caused quite the stir, what with it being insane and all. There were many accusations thrown about that The Church moved to silence him and his book. None of this was proven.

What was proven is that all other scholars of ancient languages rejected his work. The publishers of his book later apologized for publishing it and refused to publish any more copies.

One of Allegros’ friends was F. F. Bruce, who is a well-respected Evangelical scholar. Bruce apparently tried helping his embattled friend out, at one point getting him a new job at the University of Manchester where Bruce worked as well. I don’t know if this was a Christ-like friend service or not. Hard to say since I know neither man. I can see it being good or bad, I suppose.

Whenever I hear about people who reject The Faith and then go on to write crazy stuff about The Faith, it always strikes me as ramblings of insane, tortured men trying to justify their rejection of Christ. This sounds like what happened.

Allegro died in 1988 and now knows that Jesus is not, was not, and never will be a mushroom.

Jose Gabriel da Costa and Uniao do Vegetal Church

This church is literally and figuratively a trip.

Uniao do Vegetal is a church that was founded by Jose Gabriel da Costa, also known as Mestre Gabriel, in Brazil.

The reason it was founded in Brazil is because this is where Mestre Gabriel ran into ayahuasaca tea. This is a hallucinogenic substance found in mariri and chacrona leaves in the Amazon.

After playing around with this tea, Gabriel developed a religion. Here’s the official description of it:

[It] “blends traditional Christian theology with indigenous beliefs, and a central tenet of the faith is the drinking of a tea known as hoasca. According to church doctrine, members can fully perceive God only by drinking the tea”

“The doctrine of Mestre Gabriel teaches love for our fellow man and the faithful practice of goodness, according to the principles of spiritual evolution through reincarnation, and in communion with the teachings of Jesus as the divine master”

According to the church, their ideas are “based on the conviction that through successive incarnations, the spirit evolves, gradually developing faithfulness to the practice of Goodness, until reaching Purification – or ‘sainthood’ for western traditions.” In keeping with Christian doctrine, UDV considers Jesus Christ to be the Son of God.

You can go here to read more about it if you’re so inclined.

They sued for the usage of ayahuasaca in their worship services in the US. The Supreme Court sided with them and there are currently a couple of these churches in America, the first being in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

So, that’s nice.

So, we have indigenous beliefs, soul evolution, hallucinogenics, total purification, along with Jesus being the Son of God.

I have heard a number of people rip 1 John 4:15 out of context and say that all a person has to do to be saved is say that Jesus is the Son of God.

That’s clearly one of the things a believer does, but 1 John contains many other things as well. Things that don’t involve hallucinogenics and soul evolution incarnations, etc. In fact, if a person is doing all that weirdness, I’ma go ahead and make the call: they aint saved and they don’t know Jesus.

Just because someone mentions Jesus in a positive way does not mean they have any idea who Jesus is. John goes to great pains to make this point in 1 John. Don’t undo his pain!

After Mestre Gabriel took the hallucinogenic, “the visions, spiritual revelations and sense of personal mission he discovered came together in a coherent belief system and he began to gather a group of followers.”

If there is a religion formed in his head while on a drug trip, I’m going to assume the Angel of Light, otherwise known as Satan, is probably behind it.

The fact that a spiritual thing happened, doesn’t mean God was the Spirit behind it.

Be careful out there. Make sure you know where your tea comes from, eh.

God’s Glory Will Embarrass the Sun

Saw a beautiful verse at the end of Isaiah 24; get a load of this one:

“Then the moon will be confounded
    and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts reigns
    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders.”

One reason I love the Bible is for the language and word use. God is a genius writer!

In describing the shining, brilliant glory of God, Isaiah could have just said, “God will be bright then.” Instead he doesn’t even mention God being bright, he points out that the sun and moon will be totally embarrassed when the Lord reigns!

Their light will be nothing, totally over matched with the brilliant glory of God in His full majesty. So cool.

Revelation 22:5 says that when the Lord reigns in the New Jerusalem,

“And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

That’s what Isaiah is talking about. The moon is completely bummed because there’s not even night anymore! That’s the moon’s time, man! Not anymore.

The sun will have no function either during the day, because the glory of the Lord will provide the eternal daylight.

Awesome stuff. I really can’t wait to see all this and be a part of it and have a glorified body that can handle it.

Right now, since I have retina issues, I tend to get headaches in bright sunshine. If I were to see the glory of God in this old body, I’d definitely get a headache!

Bring on that new body, new retinas, and the full glorious brilliance of God.

Love is a Big Deal for God

For about 500 years the church has been telling people they are justified by faith alone.

The church over the years has tortured these words.

Faith is clearly a huge issue, but there is a huger issue. The huger issue is often ignored or forgotten.

“By faith alone” has warped into “as long as you at one point in your life believed the story about Jesus’ death and resurrection and stuff, you are saved.”

Faith becomes mental assent. A nod of the head in the direction of Jesus. Often this nod of the head is done after great manipulation. “You want to go to heaven don’t you?” “God has a wonderful plan for your life, don’t you want that?”

People nod their head, “Yes, I would like a wonderful life followed by heaven.” Then the manipulator says, “Wonderful, just believe the Jesus story and then you’re saved.”

For 500 years people have done a version of this and assumed they were saved.

But the Bible never says we are justified by faith alone. In fact, there’s a huger thing than faith the Bible talks about repeatedly.

Love.

Even the demons believe. They even tremble. But they don’t love God.

Love is a big deal. Love, according to 1 Corinthians 13, is better than faith.

It is possible to believe someone and not love them. There are many creepy people in the world I do not love, yet I can believe what they say. The demons toward God, is a perfect example.

I do not think it is possible to love someone and not believe them though. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love “believes all things.” Faith is a part of love; love is not a part of faith.

Love is tricky too though. Many think love is a mushy gushy feeling. Biblically speaking love is pretty tough. Listen to the words of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).

“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:23-24).

I don’t see how it could be any clearer. Jesus repeats Himself to His disciples, almost as if He knows that people will struggle with this teaching.

He concludes John 14 by saying, “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31).

Jesus loves His Father. How do we know that? Because Jesus kept the commandment His Father gave Him: namely His suffering and death (John 14:28).

Love pays attention to what the other person is saying and love endeavors to do what that person desires. This is especially true of us toward God, our Savior and Creator.

Faith is easy to pretend; love is not. Love is easily tested; faith is easily faked.

Now abides faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. If you have all faith that you could move mountains and have not love, it profits you nothing.

Love is huge.

Faith is easy in comparison, which is why the church has decided to major on faith. We’ve decided the level of demons is our ambition rather than sons of God.

It’s a sad thing. It’ll be even more sad on Judgment Day when untold millions will say to Him, “Lord, Lord, look at all the stuff we did for you.” And He will say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of iniquity.”

Don’t fall for Satan’s deception in the church today: that all God desires is a moment of mental assent we call “faith.”

God is love. The proper response to love is love.