Jeff Weddle Theories – anti-itch meditation

Is Jesus the Same Substance With the Father? I Have No Idea

I have long thought that arguing over Trinitarian nuances is often a waste of breath. I understand bad things can be said about the Trinity, to the point of blasphemy, but it’s also pretty impossible to explain it correctly, so relax a little bit.

I know an egg with the yoke, white, and shell is not an adequate description of the Trinity, it’s called Modalism and was considered heresy by the Early Church. No problem, I get it, it’s not adequate to the task. At the same time, it’s not a bad way to get the idea across to a kid. But yeah, it lacks strict accuracy.

The problem is that the Bible doesn’t articulate it, so there’s no succinct way to explain it. It’s an extrapolation from many verses.

One of the approved views of the Trinity is in the Athanasian Creed. When someone gives a theological, big worded explanation of the Trinity, it’s usually borrowing from the Athanasian Creed.

For instance, Legonier ministries, RC Sproul’s outfit, has a quote in an article about the Trinity saying this:

“The content of the Athanasian Creed stresses the affirmation of the Trinity in which all members of the Godhead are considered uncreated and co-eternal and of the same substance.”

You will also find this in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

“There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory”

So you’ll hear this word “substance” in official sounding definitions of the Trinity.

You should know that many people have found fault with the word “substance.”

As far as I can tell, “substance” is a word that Augustine used in relation to the persons of Jesus Christ and God the Father. He said that the Son was of the “same substance” as the Father.

Arianism, a classic Early Church heresy, said that Jesus was not divine but was rather a created being. Saying Christ was of “the same substance” as the Father is the way they defended the person of Christ from Arius and his boys.

But guys like Isaac Newton and others found fault with the use of the word “substance.” God is a spirit, how is there a “substance?” Substance is sort of a philosophical word. Newton said it wasn’t a biblical word; therefore, we shouldn’t use it to define the person of God.

I like that! I am a firm believer that as much as possible we should say things the way the Bible does with the Bible’s terms. Unbiblical words to describe biblical things always make me nervous.

Because Newton challenged the idea of “substance” in definitions of the Trinity, you will often see Newton described as an Arian heretic. Don’t be so quick! Just like anyone who questions Calvinism is immediately called a Pelagian, when in reality they are just questioning Calvinism. The opposite of Calvinism is not heresy and the opposite of using “substance” in the Trinity is not heresy.

Be careful of that trap: anyone who doesn’t agree with me is a heretic.

Here’s a quote from an article about Newton’s views of the Trinity on this issue:

He . . . embraced the straightforwardly biblical position that the Father and Son are one. What Newton did not believe, however, was that the Father and Son were one in the sense that they were consubstantial or of the same substance. According to Newton, the Father and Son were one, but this unity was not a metaphysical unity; rather, it was one of dominion and purpose.

I applaud his efforts to want to be biblical! Please, more of this!

“Substance” is a word related to Greek philosophy. Augustine was steeped in Greek philosophy. When he uses words that are not biblical, you must assume he is using a Greek philosophical term. Thus, I have no idea what “substance” means to him, and whoever hears you use the term also has no idea what you mean.

What “substance” does do is make you think of a physical object, a thing with, well, substance. This seems misleading.

I prefer to stick with the Bible, like Newton, and just say that the Lord is one, and Jesus and the Father are one. Simple. Leave it there. When theologians start using many words they complicate the issue and often to the point of not helping.

Keep it simple. Keep it biblical. The end.

Why Did Jesus Tell People to Keep Quiet About Him?

After Jesus asks the disciples who the people think He is, He asks them who they think He is. Peter gives the answer, “You are the Christ.”

It’s recorded different ways in the Gospels. In Matthew Jesus compliments Peter on his answer and says the Father revealed that to Peter. Mark and Luke skip that and instead tell us that Jesus instructed them not to tell anyone who He was.

Mark 8:29-30 says,

And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

That’s fascinating. Jesus finally has a disciple who talks some sense, and He responds by commanding silence!

You’ll notice this throughout the Gospels, Jesus will do a miracle and then tell the recipient of the miracle not to tell anyone.

Mark 5 has an exception to the rule. The guy who had the legion of demons that went into the pigs wanted to follow Jesus. Jesus tells him he can’t follow, but he should go home and tell his friends what a great thing Jesus did for him (Mark 5:18-20).

Even more amazingly, the guy did! In other places Jesus tells people to be quiet and they tell everyone anyway (Mark 7:36 for example).

It seems odd. What’s going on with this?

Obviously I don’t know the full answer since the Bible never explains it directly. But I have a theory. I believe it has something to do with Jews and Gentiles.

Jesus was doing some incredible stuff. There’s no way He could do this stuff in a corner, the news would spread.

Part of Jesus’ instructions might be to downplay attention. He’s not doing these things for publicity. Don’t turn His ministry into a marketing campaign, let His words and deeds speak for themselves. When He multiplied food to feed the crowd, He later chastises them for only following Him for food and a show. Miracles seem to get in the way at times, a distraction from His words.

In Matthew 13, Jesus explains that He addresses Jews in parables so they don’t get His point. This fulfills the prophecy spoken by Isaiah that although they have ears, they won’t hear, and although they have eyes, they won’t see.

Jesus came with a bit of a death wish. He came to fulfill His Father’s will, which ultimately was to die for the sins of the people.

The one guy He told to broadcast the miracle was a Gentile. A careful reading of the Gospels will show you that the people who understood who Jesus was the most clearly were usually Gentiles. The Gentile woman who said she would eat the crumbs like a dog and the centurion who didn’t even need Jesus to come to his house, just say the word. Those powerful examples of faith were from Gentiles. Meanwhile, Jewish people, including the disciples, seemed to miss what He was talking about.

Jesus was hiding things from the Jewish people even while revealing things.

Paul explains the idea in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8;

but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

God knows that people mess up stuff! If Jesus had fully revealed Himself with all the possible power and glory and spectacularness, there’s no way they would reject Him. So when He does spectacular stuff He tells them to keep it quiet.

Unless it’s a Gentile, because Gentiles believing won’t make any difference about His own people, Jews, not receiving Him. In fact, Gentiles calling Jesus the Christ might annoy the Jews even more, which it seemed to do. Paul talks about this further about Gentiles provoking Jews to jealousy.

It’s possible there’s more to this, but this seems the most reasonable explanation for His commands of silence.

Did God Create the Alphabet?

We all know Genesis 1:1. We can quote it, been hearing it since Sunday School days. But do you know you don’t know all of it?

This isn’t a trick question either. There’s a Hebrew word left out of our English translations. After “In the beginning God created” there is the Hebrews word ayth, a combination of the Hebrew letters Aleph and Tav.

This word, or some say it’s more of a symbol, denotes completion and is often placed close to the Hebrew word Yahweh. In other words, whatever it’s talking about in the context, God did it fully.

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and Tav is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s a word that encompasses the whole alphabet, as the Greek idiom puts it, “Alpha and Omega.”

If you include this word in the translation it would say “In the beginning God created A-Z.” He created all things to a point of perfection.

So, that’s one way to look at it.

Another way is the Hebrew traditional view that the first thing God created was the Hebrew alphabet! Now, that might sound weird, but is it?

This all sounds intriguing when you include John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word!” Or Hebrews 11:3, “The worlds were framed by the word of God.”

These verses could support the idea that the ayth in Genesis 1:1 might actually be talking about letters in the alphabet, God creating all things with words.

The alphabet is the building block of words and thus language. Creation had to start somewhere, and the Bible is clear that it started with the words from God’s mouth.

I don’t know that this is definitely the case, but is cool to contemplate. Goes to show you that even the verses you already know everything about you don’t know everything about!

Wonder what else we’re missing?!

Your Biggest Hurdle to Understanding the Bible

I was listening to the author of a book on statistics for the layman. He talked about how a little bit of education is a dangerous thing.

There is a new movement to have statistics taught in high schools to supposedly help people recognize fake news better. The author said more than likely these classes are taught by people who don’t know statistics, and all they are doing is making students think they know what they are talking about.

Therefore, they become even harder to show the truth to. They already think they know, so to teach them accurately you have to unteach what is in their head and then reteach them. The blank slate is gone. He basically thinks it’s impossible to reteach something to someone who already thinks they know it.

He then, and this is a secular author, likened it to people who know the Prosperity Gospel and thus can’t deal with the real Gospel.

I thought that was fascinating for him to go there!

Because that’s where my head was going!

The hardest people to teach right doctrine to are people who grew up in church.

Everyone who grew up in church thinks they have right doctrine, “I’ve been in church my whole life, of course I know what I’m talking about.”

It’s easier to teach an atheist or agnostic or just someone who is outside the sphere of Christian influence correct doctrine than those who’ve been in Christianity their whole life.

Even harder to convince are those who are now in positions of leadership in Christianity who have taught others. They arrogantly think that obviously they know what they are talking about or else they wouldn’t be teachers. On top of that, now lots of people know what the teacher believes. The teacher’s reputation is now on the line. They have to be consistent. They’d have to eat lots of crow if they changed.

If you want to understand the Bible, you seriously have to forget everything you’ve ever heard about it.

There’s a guy I listen to who talks about the Bible a lot who doesn’t claim to be a Christian and has no real Christian background. Yes, some of his takes on the Bible completely miss the point.

Yet I’ve learned more insightful and practical truths from him about the Bible than from any pastor I’ve heard.

I’m not kidding.

This isn’t just a theory either. Many years ago I became convinced I didn’t know what I was talking about doctrinally. I was unable to coherently defend what I thought I believed. It got to a sleep loss kind of state.

So, I acted as though I had no idea what was going on in the Bible, which wasn’t entirely an act. Then I just began to read it and read it and read it. Much of this blog tracks my thoughts as I read and read.

My doctrine changed immensely. But now I fight the urge to claim I know it all now. What else am I missing because I think I know it all now?

I encourage you highly to forget everything and inundate yourself in the Bible.

This will be the best thing you’ll ever do. It’s scary to admit you don’t know, to perhaps go against your past stands, or against the family or church doctrine.

But you’ll learn so much and probably, for the first time ever, learn who Jesus Christ is. You might even end up getting saved. I did.

Conversations, Control, and Free Will

I listened to a podcast about conversations and how many of them turn into arguments. The Conversation Expert said the reason arguments happen is because people want control.

They want to control the conversation, but they also want to control the other person and what they believe. When two people are like this, arguments ensue. He said seeking control is a fundamental characteristic of human behavior.

This got me to thinking.

Our desire for control, which we all have due to pride, is clear evidence that we have free will. When we know we are not in control we have a reaction, often a reaction that attempts to reassert control.

How would humans have this incredible drive for control in them if they were fully controlled to the point of not having free will?

Furthermore, I’m always curious about why Calvinists argue so much. If God has ordained everything, why are most Calvinists so argumentative? I know their answer is because God ordains the means and the ends, but that explains nothing.

Why do they get so angry? Anger is not something someone with no free will would do. God has free will. God gets angry.

Perhaps people who want to believe in a God who is in meticulous control of all things are people who really like control.

That has been my experience.

I know many Calvinist dads who rule their little roosts and their kids go nuts. Their hyper-control authoritarianism drives the kids away in the end, even though the kids may be in fearful subjection while at home. Or, if they don’t rebel, they remain unhealthily submissive to the guy they are terrified of.

People who go all in on Calvinism are people who like to be in control. I think that’s why Calvinism has become so popular recently—our world is spinning out of control. We feel lost, so it helps us to remember that “God is on the throne” and “there’s nothing happening down here that He’s not doing.”

It might soothe you in the moment, but long term you’re undermining Scripture and the character of God, which will lead to much bigger problems.

Our desire for control, to assert our pride, is what drives people apart. People who truly trust God will deny themselves; they will let their rights get trampled. The will relinquish control. Read the Sermon on the Mount and pretend Jesus meant it.

People who argue and fight and cause drama are proud people desiring control. Don’t be one of those. Study to be quiet. Work with your own hands. Pray for those in authority. Fear God. Keep the commandments of Jesus Christ.

Submit yourself to Him and watch how love, joy, and peace enter your life.

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!

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.

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.

Why Your Bible Study Curriculum Is So Lame

I’ve heard many Christians complain about their small group Bible study materials, or their devotionals, or Sunday School and youth group curriculum.

Most people say these materials are shallow, ask stupid questions, and rarely seem concerned about Scriptural faithfulness.

There is a reason for this: money.

Once Christian organizations turn into businesses, their focus on teaching the Word faithfully diminishes and their desire to make money increases.

In order to make money, these materials have to sell to customers with money.

As you might know, Christianity is a tad fragmented and divided. If a Christian publisher wants to have lots of customers so they can make money, they have to pander to the widest audience possible.

Attracting a wide Christian audience means leaving out doctrinal distinctions and controversial takes. In other words–they have to ignore most of the Bible.

Another factor in this is that these publishers have to pander to what is popular in Christianity right now. This might be a shock to you, but deep biblical study is not popular in Christianity.

There is an immediate payoff to selling what’s popular: It works in the short term. Over time, however, all these organizations will go out of business as they continue to sell out. Once they’ve chucked Christian distinctives, there is eventually no point for them being around anymore. I’m sure you can think of once great Christian organizations that are shells of themselves today, or even non-existent.

There are two primary popular influences Christian publishers are selling right now: Calvinism and self-fulfillment.

The Calvinist/Reformed movement gained steam since John Piper and his ilk have gotten popular. It’s still a small part of Christianity, but it’s a cohesive group. It’s still a wide swath of the market.

Self-fulfillment is also popular. What I mean by this is self-help with Jesus. God wants your dreams to come true, for you to be happy, and for you to have health and wealth. It’s the suburban happy shiny people that mega-churches are made up of and another huge swath of the market.

Most modern Christian material is geared for the mega-church stereotypical person. Very little appeals to the rural and poor, because rural and poor don’t have as much money. You have to be a cool, hip suburbanite. All Christian material is geared to them right now.

I firmly believe Christianity should avoid becoming businesses. Keep things small. The local church is the best place to get quality Bible Study. It’s a shame to me when local churches shirk their responsibility to teach the Word and instead farm it out for prepackaged, marketed, curriculum. No one will gain spiritual maturity with a diet of this drivel.

Almost all children’s ministry is farmed out to publishers. Our kids are not learning the Bible. We’ve been doing this for about 50 years now and the results are in. We’ve really messed up.

Para-church organizations have done more to harm the Body of Christ than edify it.

Be careful not to farm out your spiritual growth to people who are in it for money and to maintain their business organization. Instead, do your part to learn the Scripture, edify the Body, and foster a local church environment that encourages people to use their spiritual gifts and grow itself in love.

It took years to ruin the church and it will take years to restore it. Do your part by growing and studying the Word and encourage your church to do the same.

The End Doesn’t Come Because of the Evil of the World but Because of the Evil of the Church

As this world winds down to a disastrous end, we find ourselves thinking about what the Bible says The End will look like.

I don’t think sin will get worse necessarily. Sin has always been bad. I don’t think morality will be worse, because morality has always been bad. Ecclesiastes says there’s nothing new under the sun. It also says not think that the former days were better than our day (7:10).

It’s always been bad. In fact, at one point it was worse—the days of Noah.

Certainly there are certain places that are worse off. You can notice declines in certain locales, but on a global scale it’s always been bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not saying it’s not bad! It’ll be bad all right, but I don’t think the badness is the main issue.

It seems to me the main issue is the covering up of the good. The lamp of truth will be under a bushel. There just won’t be anywhere to turn for truth and righteousness.

That’s as it was in the days of Noah. It’s also how it was at the destruction of Israel. The truth was gone. They lost the Book! No one was upholding it.

OK, not “no one.” There’s always been a remnant.

When the New Testament talks about things getting worse and worse, it’s referring to the number of evil men and seducers, deceiving and being deceived. There will be tons of deceivers out there. This theme is reiterated several times.

The location of the seducers and deceivers is in the church. It’s not that the world will get worse; it’s that the church will pretty much lose the Gospel and all semblance of righteousness, truth, and God’s Word.

That Old Testament was written for our learning. We are not learning.

We assume Israel was goofy, really blew it, what a bunch of morons!

In reality, we’re repeating their mistakes in the exact same way.

We have exchanged the truth of God’s Word for false messages of peace. We think that because we show up to church sometimes and got baptized that we’re good to go.

Just like circumcision in the OT, we base our assurance on a one time act. We don’t live by faith. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. Israel lost God’s Word for a time. We’re getting close.

There is a ton of deception in the church today. The Health and Wealth Gospel does many in. Easy Believism ranks up there as a top contender. Calvinism with its fatalistic views of life and choice are deceiving many.

Judgment begins with the house of God. It’s time Christians stop ripping on public schools and abortion and LGBTQ and all the other sins the world is wrapped up in and start dealing with our sin. It’s time we stop thinking politics is the answer. It’s time we stop making peace with materialism and worldliness and come out from among them and become separate.

If the truth were upheld, followed, obeyed, and proclaimed, most of these other issues would take care of themselves. The answer is and always has been the Gospel and its power to transform hearts.

We’re losing the Gospel. We’re losing it while fully convinced we have a solid grasp on it. We are largely deceived. This deception is what leads to The End. There will be so few people left to uphold the truth, the remnant will be so tiny as to be equivalent to Noah and the eight souls saved on the ark.

Satan is a deceiver and one day all those whom he has deceived will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). This is no joke. It’s time to wake up. This isn’t other people’s problem; this is your problem. It’s my problem. We’re all deceived at some level. Wake up to this. Get your mind in the Word and make the necessary corrections. Few are doing this. Many have theological reasons to justify why they aren’t.

The truth of God’s Word is being lost, just like it was in Israel. Now it’s happening on a global scale and the church is failing just like Israel did. This is not a political problem. This is a spiritual problem. The solution begins in each of us. Get to work.

Many Christians Should Not Be Listened To

Scripture is clear that we can grow and attain more and more Christ-like behavior. We can indeed pursue the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

You wouldn’t know that by listening to Christians though.

Christianity has gotten carried away with some of their doctrines about sin and it’s not helping anything.

Christians repeatedly say that we are tainted with Original Sin, we’re guilty before we’ve even done anything. Want to remove all encouragement to get better? Tell people no matter what you do and even before you did anything you were horrible, worthless scum deserving of hell.

Original Sin has been stretched into saying that everything we do is sinful. All our righteousness is as a filthy rag, even after salvation. There’s nothing you can do that is free from sin.

The problem with the results of this stuff is that 1) it eliminates any desire to pursue righteousness and 2) it minimizes the seriousness of sin.

If all I do is tainted with sin and if I’m guilty even while not doing sin, oh well. What’s the big deal? If I can’t help it, then the thing that can’t be helped becomes expected.

If, however, righteousness is possible for us, if we actually can do good, then the desire to pursue that good is restored and it also puts us in a fighting stance against sin.

The emphasis on the horribleness of you has also resulted in a massively happy self-help oriented Christianity that veers into the opposite ditch. As with most extreme teachings, we don’t find the truth, we merely go as far away from the wrong side as possible resulting in wrong in the other direction.

If Christians make too much of our nastiness, the best way to correct that is to constantly talk about how wonderful and awesome we are, right? Aren’t we special and happy being us?!

Constantly telling people God loves them just the way they are and pumping them up with self-esteem boosting sanctimony still leaves people devoid of pursuing righteousness and downplaying the seriousness of sin.

Here’s the deal:

You are a sinner. This is bad. All your efforts without Christ will only result in filthy rags and you will be unable to please God. However, with Christ by faith, you are fully equipped to do righteousness. Add in the ministry of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God, and you can now grow into the perfect man Christ Jesus and be fully equipped to every good work.

You have to keep this in balance. Throwing it out of balance, either by moping in your awfulness or rejoicing in your awesomeness, will keep you lethargic and apathetic.

If, however, you go with Scripture (always a good idea) you will be encouraged to pursue what is good and leave behind what is evil. You will lay hold on eternal life and set aside every sin and weight that slows you down.

You’ll see there is a fight to be fought and a victory to be won. You’ll also see that in Christ by faith you have all you need to fight that fight and get victory. Not only that but our progress will be rewarded in this life and in the life to come.

This is all great stuff. Don’t let weird Christians keep you from pursuing righteousness and fighting sin. There’s way too much at stake for that nonsense!

Two Influences to Beware of: Politics and Self-Righteous Religion

Conformity to the world is pressed on us continually. We are told by Scripture not to conform to the world.

But it’s so hard!

It’s hard because there are many worldly pressures and influences surrounding us, it’s hard to be mindful of all of them.

In Mark 8:15 Jesus tells His disciples to “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”

I like the doubt call to action. “Take heed” literally means to stare at, attend to, be discerning, open your eyes and pay attention! He follows it with “beware,” which is another word that means to look at, perceive, to understand and mentally discern. The first has more to do with the physical sense of seeing, whereas the second might have more to do with the mind’s eye.

I don’t know, I probably made that up.

That’s what I’ll go with anyway.

Clearly the two-fold warning is to pay attention, keep your head on a swivel, walk circumspectly, and be sober minded. We really need to pay attention down here. We are being sucked into all manner of bad stuff.

Leaven is always used as a negative influence. Let a little bit in and next thing you know it will take over everything. Open your eyes, don’t even let one little grain of worldliness get past you.

Jesus warns about two specific leavens to beware of.

The Leaven of the Pharisees—this has to do with their self-righteous rule making, and supposed law keeping. A fastidious concern with external behavior. They were overly rigorous in their religious dealings, never bothering with the internal, only caring about external conformity. Watch out for religious conformity that leads to being like other people not like Christ.

Leaven of Herod—Herod was a bad dude. This could be referring to his nasty, sinful way of life, or perhaps it has to do with being driven by politics and earthly power. More than likely it’s both. Our culture is slipping deeper and deeper into nasty sin. Our government and laws are shifting to meet the new standards of right and wrong and exerting pressure to get you to change with them. Don’t let that influence you. In fact, don’t let any government or political force influence you. We have one King and one Lord, serve Him and ignore all others. Seek first the Kingdom of God. Let the heathen fight over temporal worldly power.

These are two of the forces working against you in the world. They both seek to distract you from following Jesus Christ and get you to follow them. Religious types want you to obey their rules. Political types want your vote and your allegiance. (They also both want your money!)

Beware of both.

Why Self-Help Advice Prevents Spiritual Success

When I was a young, insecure man I read a lot of self-help books. There are bits of good advice to be had in these books. Many of the bits of advice were tied to Scripture, usually in an odd way. Like manifesting: if you put a dream into words the dream will happen. The Scripture they use for this is “The word became flesh.” Gag.

From time to time I dabble in self-help stuff again, often just for reminders of priorities, time management, and how to spend time as the stages of life progress. Inevitably I get fed up with the self-help advice just like I did in the past.

Their idea of success is a core reason why their advice falls flat to someone who knows the Bible. Their success is usually money and winning, maintaining a standard of living that doesn’t jive with NT Christianity.

Oh sure, they talk about making all that money so you can be generous, but it’s kind of tacked on, the rich man’s guilt, a thing they have to say so as not to be one of those evil rich people you hear about.

Achieving their success requires selfishness, that is, in fact, why it is called “self-help,” because you are only helping yourself. Often the motivation to achieve is based on showing up people, being better than others, winning at all costs, being better than your parents, lots of anger and resentment, etc.

“Pay yourself first” is typical advice. You have to sacrifice relationships to do your goals and achieve your dreams. You have to be a bit of a jerk to really achieve. One standard self-help advice says to remove yourself from people who bring you down.

That’s pretty much everyone at some point or another isn’t it?! NT Christianity says to esteem others better than yourself. The strong should bear the infirmities of the weak. Self-help says to get rid of the weak to get more strong.

Worldly success requires selfishness.

Spiritual success requires self-denial.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

So, now we have to define what spiritual success is.

As I understand it, spiritual success is being conformed to the image of Christ. Growing up into the perfect man Christ Jesus. In order to grow you actually have to do some stuff.

This is a controversial statement in Christianity with our rampant Calvinism that says God does it all, we’re just passive blobs. And with the over-emphasis on faith alone without works, we’ve come to believe that all works, even Spirit led works after salvation, are somehow bad and antithetical to grace.

Some think spiritual success means you go away from people. You just go work on yourself. Monks do this. So do people who isolate from church because all those weird, hypocritical Christians are in there and we’re totally better than them.

Others go the opposite direction and think spiritual success looks like number of followers, how many conversions you’ve done, how many people are in your church, how much money and size of the church building you have, etc. Something that can be counted.

Both of these are nothing but conformity to the world. This is just Christian self-help selfishness.

True spiritual success looks like Christ. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of love and He lived that out by dedicating His body and will to the will of His Father. What did that look like? Sacrificial loving service.

You can’t do sacrificial loving service alone in a cave separated from others. You can’t do that if your focus is attracting more people to adore you. You can’t love an individual because you’re so concerned about getting the next one.

Sacrificial loving service like Christ did will make you be around undesirable people, people the world has cast aside as not worth the trouble. It will put you in opposition to many who are going after worldly success, and especially those who are going after spiritual success in a selfish manner (isolation or attracting a crowd).

Spiritual success does not look successful by worldly, measurable standards. But nor is it a denial of all people either though, because being alone eliminates the possibility of loving sacrificial service.

Spiritual success, growth in Christ, is a worthy goal, it is the mark we are pressing forward to. The race we are running, the fight we are fighting. There are things you can do to advance and obtain. But they’re not selfish! They’re not even done primarily for you.

Ultimately they are done for your Father in heaven, other people can benefit from this, but your primary goal is to please your heavenly Father and your commander, Jesus Christ.

The result of Jesus’ loving sacrificial service was crucifixion. People didn’t like it. You won’t get worldly acclaim or win many friends by actually following and growing into Christ. Marvel not if the world hates you.

But the number of people you influence is not the measure. The praise of others is not the goal. Living with the destination of standing before God and giving an account is the motive. Hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant” is the goal. All of this is based on love for the Lord your God and loving your neighbor.

Live for that measure of success and you will not have any eternal regrets.

The Relationship Between the Word of God and Sin

Here’s another facet of Christ being made sin for us that may or may not be part of the deal! It’s just a thing I noticed that I thought might have more depth to it.

Romans 5:13 says, “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Romans 3:20 says, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” And for the capper, Romans 4:15 says, “for where there is no law, there is no transgression.” In other words, if there is no word of God, no law of God, there is no sin.

Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If God never said anything, there would be no sin, and thus, there would be no faith.

But God did say something! “Don’t eat from that tree” was one of the first things He said. Adam and Eve ate from the tree, showing no faith and committing sin.

So, Galatians 3:21 says that Scripture has concluded all under sin. The link between God’s word and sin is tight. No God’s word? Then no sin.

Jesus Christ is described by John as being “the Word made flesh.” The appearance of Jesus Christ is a revelation of the righteousness of God apart from the law (Romans 3:20-22). The mere appearance of Jesus Christ put people in a spot!

Believe Him or be guilty of sin! Rejecting Him was rejecting the righteousness of God, a more full revelation than just rules written in stone. This was the living Word of God.

John 12:48 quotes Jesus talking, “He that rejects me, and receives not my words, hath one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”

Whatever Christ said is the Word of God, it becomes the standard, the law by which humans will be judged. Serious stuff.

So, how does this relate to Christ being made sin for us in 2 Corinthians 5:21? Probably not at all! It’s just a little tangent my head went off in.

Jesus was a revelation of the righteousness of God, He is the Word made flesh, the living righteousness God revealed by words in the law.

The appearance of a word from God gives the potential for sin. We eliminated the potential by making it real. We rejected God’s word and were made sinners.

Jesus Christ confronts each of us with that choice. Faith is by hearing. Satan’s temptation is always based on “Did God really say?”

If there is no word there is no sin. Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. If there is no Jesus Christ there is no sin. Any revelation from God is righteousness, any bad response to that is sin.

There is a powerful link between the two. The only way God could have made humanity and have them not sin is if He refused to reveal Himself in any way! That would defeat the entire purpose of creating humanity. Dogs maybe, but not humans.

This has nothing really to do with 2 Corinthians 5:21 really, but the thought intrigued my brain. The Word gave us a choice. We chose wrong and brought sin into existence. The same Words is made flesh specifically to take away the sin of the world. There’s coolness here.

Comfort Others as God Comforts You

Christians are not always good at comforting those in pain. Several times, ok, many times, I have shared some pain or struggle with a Christian and instead of comfort and empathy, I’ve received a lecture.

I’m supposed to have more faith, or my problems are nothing in comparison to theirs, or “just leave it with God” dismissiveness. Typically you’re told to be thankful and “blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Certainly those things may have some truth in them, but I find it very difficult to lecture in such ways when someone shares their pain with me. My typical response is, “Bummer.” And then I listen. I look for ways to help in action if there are no words.

I’m not patting myself on the back here either. I’m doing what I find comforting to me. There have been others who have comforted well and by observing them I learned how to be a better comforter myself.

1 Corinthians 1:4 says, “who [the God of all comfort] comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

A phrase in there stuck out to me, we can comfort others “with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

What if different people are comforted in different ways? Maybe the way I find comfort is not the way you do. Perhaps that’s why it takes a body of believers, many members who don’t all have the same gift, to edify the body in love.

But also, where do people get their comfort from? The world certainly doesn’t seem to get comfort from God. They get it from substance abuse, therapy, whining on Facebook, etc. If they find that to be comforting, don’t be surprised if they do that to you!

Also, I think some people feel that God comforts them by making them feel inadequate through lecturing verses. God seems silent, except for a giant book of commands. Maybe when people lecture you it’s because they feel that’s how God comforts them!

Another factor is the depth of pain a person has felt. Some have suffered more than others. As a young man I was a bad comforter. “Suck it up” was my go to mindset when people shared their problems with me.

But having a handful of close people die and various other trials, I feel I am a better comforter just because now I know more what pain is. You can’t comfort if you’ve never truly been comforted, and you can’t truly be comforted unless you’ve been hammered pretty good by bad stuff.

Paul says the Father is a “God of comfort.” From my experience within Christianity, observing how others comfort people in pain, it doesn’t seem like many have gotten their comfort from God.

Next time someone lays their problems on you, how do you respond? Is that the way you think God comforts you in your problems? It’s an interesting thought exercise.

Isolated Christians Get Weirder and Weirder

One thing I’ve noticed in my years in the church are people who get tired of church and leave it. They “worship God” in nature or with their family. I don’t know what that means exactly, but the basic idea is that they sit by themselves on Sunday mornings.

It’s a free country. You can do what you want on Sunday mornings. It’s also true that you should not be deceived, God is not mocked, you will reap what you sow.

People who leave the church and sit alone without regular Christian fellowship get weirder and weirder. They get more convinced they are superior and righter than anyone else, way better than your dumb church. Their ideas run rampant as there is no feedback to check the weirdness. The weird grows and grows.

I’ve seen several people do this and boy howdy, without fail they end up believing weird stuff, all the while letting you know they are better than you and maybe someday, if God is gracious to you, you’ll get to their elevated levels of spiritual awesomeness.

It’s quite the thing to watch.

Although I have seen this scenario play out a number of times, I was greatly encouraged to see a verse in the Bible that says the same thing. I’ve been reading the ESV this year. It’s a fine version and has some different translations, especially in the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs is a very hard book to translate because there is no real context for many of the verses to help with the translation. You only have that sentence to work with. There can be wide variation in the different translations on some of these verses.

Proverbs 18:1 stuck out to me this time through.

“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.”

Well, there ya go! That was my observation and now I have biblical support to back it up. Guess it must be true then.

Is Pleasing God Legalism?

Many Christians warn you not to try and get God’s approval by doing good things for Him. They will warn you that this is legalism and will feel like duty bound drudgery.

It certainly can be this for some people, no doubt about that. And, if you’re doing these things so God will save you, then yes, you are indeed missing something.

But to warn a believer not do good works for God’s approval seems really dumb.

So, why do some say this?

Mostly it rests on the idea that our identity is in Christ. You will hear, “When God looks at you, he sees Christ and not you,” or, “Christ’s works are accredited to you, so God only sees Christ’s works and not yours.” If you seek to do good for God, you are allegedly denying Christ and His provision and grace.

There are no verses in the Bible that say that Christ’s works are added to you, or that God doesn’t see you, only Christ. If these verses aren’t in the Bible, why do so many Christians maintain these ideas?

Think about it. Why would a person not want God to see their life?! Why would someone desire a doctrine that tells them what they do doesn’t matter?

The only possible answer I can come up with is that they don’t think their life is very righteous. I personally don’t mind God seeing my life. Even when I sin and I’m wrong, I want God to know that so He can correct me, maybe even discipline me, so I will knock it off.

Sin is bad. It hurts people. It’s not doing you any favors. I want God to know what I’m doing because I want Him to help me overcome these sins that so easily beset me and the weights that slow me down from pursuing Him.

The only people who desire an unseen life are those who are ashamed of their life. Men love darkness and hate the light, remember?!

Instead of developing non-biblical doctrines that convince you your sin is undetected by God so don’t worry about it, perhaps cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God like 2 Corinthians 7:1 says.

If doing what God says feels like duty and begrudging tasks, then yes, you do have a problem! The solution to this problem is not devising doctrines that tell you not to worry about it and stop worrying about doing good. The answer is to get saved.

This isn’t my opinion, this is the Bible.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
–1 John 5:2-3

Yes, doing good can be a checklist mentality resulting in drudgery. Doing what God says can make life harder, less fun, and potentially draining. Yet for the believer, this is all totally worth it! It doesn’t bog down the believer because the believer knows that Jesus Christ emptied himself, was made a servant, lead a hard life that wasn’t much fun, and lead to Him being called a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He did all this for us!

As Paul said, “That I may know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” This is not drudgery for the believer; this is what leads to spiritual fruit, holiness, and the end everlasting life.

So, yes, if doing what God says is a burden to you this should alert you to a problem. The problem is that you’re approaching God’s word and God Himself from the wrong foundation.

If you come to God on the foundation of the Gospel, truly understanding not only what Christ did for you, but also what you did with Him (Romans 6—we were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and raised up with Christ to new life where we now present our members as instruments of righteousness and not sin) we will desire to do what God says, not out of drudgery, but out of love.

The vast majority of false doctrine comes from people trying to deny personal responsibility. We want to sin and get away with it. We want our fleshly fun with no guilt. We want to revel in worldliness and have God smile at us too.

It doesn’t work that way. The reason you came to the Gospel to begin with, supposedly, was to be freed from sin, the world, and the flesh. The true believer desires to please God, a thing he could never do before but now through the Gospel he can!

If you struggle with the idea of pleasing God or doing things He approves of, more than likely it’s because you know your sin and you really don’t want to give it up. You want smooth words to cover your shame rather than the work required to live a new life, to work out what Christ has worked in you through the Gospel.

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
–2 Timothy 2:3-4

If you have no desire to endure hardness and live your life apart from worldliness pursuing what pleases God, then you are not saved. That doesn’t mean that for the believer enduring hardness is fun, it does mean he endures it for the joy set before him, just like Christ did coming to the cross for us.

Your attitude toward pleasing God reveals your heart. Get this issue right.

Do Believers Need to Seek God’s Approval?

Many Christians reject the idea of having to please God.

The thinking goes like this:

We’re accepted in the beloved. God approves of us because we are in Christ; not because of what we do. God loves us unconditionally; therefore you always have His approval and should never do anything to get His approval because this is rejecting His love, mercy, and grace.

It all sounds good and there are bits of truth in there. True believers are accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). There is a sense in which, once a person is saved God does approve of them. This primarily relates to their eternal, spiritual state, not necessarily what they do from minute to minute.

And that’s where this whole thing falls apart.

If thinking “accepted in the beloved” and being approved by God for eternity means your actions no longer matter, you’ve taken a biblical concept out of context and turned it into heresy.

Paul says “study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed.” “Study” means to be zealous, put some effort into it. If you are approved by God, then zealously pursue those things which show you’ve been approved. This all happens, incidentally, by rightly handling God’s Word, which is not what you’re doing when you take “accepted in the beloved” to mean you can sin now and God is cool with it.

The New Testament is filled with commands that believers are supposed to do (look at how Colossians 3:20 is phrased). This makes no sense if God automatically approves everything you do. Why would He tell me to stop sinning and do good then? Thought He didn’t care? 1 John 3:22 says my prayers will be answered if I do things that are pleasing in His sight.

We will all, including believers, give an account to God for everything done in the body and for how we built on the foundation of Christ (1 Corinthians 3). Judgment certainly implies that what I do matters to God and He doesn’t automatically approve of all that I do.

We are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit. “Grieve” means to cause to mourn. How would it be possible to grieve the Holy Spirit if God always approves of what I do?

The real bummer of thinking God approves of everything you do so don’t bother trying to please Him, is that you’ll try to please someone else then.

If you’re not living for God’s approval; you will live for someone else’s.

A thing I’ve noticed among Christians is that those who adamantly maintain they don’t have to please God because He already approves of them, are highly concerned with other people’s opinions of them.

They are constantly trying to get people’s approval. They will lie about everything in order to save face. They are motivated solely by pleasing others. They will smile and act Christian. They will live their lives to be respectable. Or, some go the other way and will deny respectability, but will conform to some group. They will find it impossible to stay out of sins that their group does. They will talk and act and look like whatever group they think they need the approval of.

You have to serve someone. That’s who we are as people. God made us to serve Him. When you don’t think you have to, you’ll by default serve someone else.

When you do something good, do you need people to praise you? Our culture’s habit of “virtue signaling” proves this. Why do so many people who reject God in our culture need to post their virtues on social media for likes? Because they need approval.

Conformity to the world is driven by our need for approval. We have to fit into our group. The group becomes the judge, the one you seek approval from. This will destroy your soul.

Living in the fear of God, in light of coming judgment, and in the full realization that God is not a senile old grandfather who approves of all the little things your cute little self does, is the only way to resist conformity to the world.

You either conform to Christ or to the world. Christ does love you. If you knew that and responded to it out of sincere faith, you would do all in your power to lead a life pleasing to Him.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God

Colossians 1:9-10

Can a person rely on prayer too much?

Typically when Christians talk about prayer, they make one of these two points:

1) You don’t do it enough you heathen scum, do it more!

2) If you pray, God will give you stuff.

Often these points go together. The main motivation people give for guilting you into praying more is that prayer allows you to get what you want.

And you might, who am I to say? But is getting stuff actually why you pray? Probably for most. Listen to most people’s prayer requests, most are about getting stuff. Getting healed, getting a job, getting repairs done, closing on a house, etc.

They can’t stop praying about the fixing and the getting.

Makes me think that it’s entirely possible for a person to rely on prayer too much.

Here’s a random example:

A severely obese person praying that God will heal their knee problems.

Perhaps your joints not having to carry around extra weight each step is the thing that would help the knees. Not exactly sure what you expect God to do.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked, you will reap what you sow.

How many of our prayers mock God?

When you eat at McDonalds and ask the Lord to “bless this food to our bodies.” Really?

When you ask for the promotion but are a lazy bum who isn’t even doing the current job.

When you have a test but aren’t studying or paying attention.

The list goes on.

Even when we do get around to praying, it’s usually a last minute plea to save us from our choices.

Prayer doesn’t work that way. Maybe shut up for a minute and listen to God’s Word. He hears us when we ask according to His will. If you’re not doing right, don’t expect right results.

I know this is probably blasphemous to many, but I actually think there’s a time to not pray. Or at least I’ll put it like this: there’s a time not to ask for certain things.

Next time you have a physical need, pray about ways maybe you can address the issue. Don’t ask God for a miracle, ask Him where you might need to repent and do better.

Is It Good that Christians are Better at Apologetics?

I heard someone say the other day, “We are in a golden age of apologetics. There are so many great apologists right now.”

I guess that’s a good thing, but I have a theory.

Perhaps we have so many apologists, people who explain basic Christianity to unbelievers, because we are so weak on actual Christian theology.

At the same time there are reportedly a great number of great apologists, there is a dearth of good biblical preaching. The church is probably at its height of biblical illiteracy.

The robust apologetics of our day might be the result of the Seeker Sensitive church growth movement. We’re more interested in adding to our numbers than we are in edifying and building up believers.

Is it a good thing to concentrate so heavily on apologetics? Ravi Zacharias is my prime example. He was the top apologist in Christianity for about 30 years. He was excellent at showing how Christianity was different from other religions and philosophies, great at arguing with atheists.

But after listening to him for about 10 years I noticed he pretty much said the same 15 things over and over. There was no discipleship. The only thing he told people to do after bowing to his arguments was to “read the Gospel of John.” I came to think his knowledge of Christianity was a mile wide and an inch deep.

Lo and behold, some news came out that showed his understanding of Christianity was intellectual and hypocritical. He confirmed my worst suspicions. I know all apologists are not doing Ravi Zacharias things, but shallow Christianity doesn’t work. Most apologetics is shallow Christianity, Seeker Sensitivity to its core.

Another theory of mine is that I don’t think apologetics is even a biblical concept.

I’m not going to say it’s wrong, but I will say there isn’t much proof in the Bible for such things. I know, we are to be ready always to give an answer. But the fuller phrase is that we are to give a reason for the hope that is in us. It’s not “give a reason evolution is wrong” or delving into arguments about the multiverse.

The hope that is in you should make people ask why you have it. When was the last time an apologist was asked for a reason for the hope in them?

Can people see a Christian’s hope if the Christian is not built up in sound doctrine and are not participating in the new life of Christ or being led by the Spirit and applying Scripture?

How can a Christian have hope if the Christian hasn’t been built up in the faith?

I’m not convinced that being in a great age of apologists is necessarily a good thing. Most of the arguments I’m hearing from apologists are about science and using lots of things other than Scripture.

The words of Scripture are the words of eternal life. They have the power to convert the soul. Should we major an arguing with atheists or should we major on knowing these words of eternal life?

I think we’re missing something. I think the next step, once the golden age of apologists is over, is that there won’t be anything left. All our logic and reason and scientific rationales will be debated and muddied and in the end no one will know the Scriptures.

So, that’s my theory. Slightly pessimistic? Probably, but just thinking it through. I might be wrong and I feel no need to stop an apologist from apologeticing, but I will endeavor to learn and think through God’s word and live with more hope as the days slip into more darkness and do what I can to help others get hope too.

Would People Die for a Lie? Yup!

A popular apologetics line says, “People wouldn’t die for a lie.” This is stated about the disciples and the accusation that they lied about seeing the resurrected Christ.

To defend the historical veracity of the resurrection, apologists say that the disciples wouldn’t have stuck with their lie to the point of martyrdom. Since they were martyred, we know they weren’t lying.

This isn’t a convincing argument to me. People die for lies every day! Not even just extreme examples like Muslim bombers blowing themselves up, but for everyone stuck in materialism and humanism. We’re all stuck in lies to some degree.

Don’t forget that the heart is deceitful above all things. Satan, our foe, is a liar and his lies fill our world system, even our churches are filled with lies and bad interpretations of Scripture.

Lies are everywhere including in our heart. We give our lives for many of these lies and until Judgment Day may not even be aware of them and the power they held over us.

I’ve seen people give their lives for lies. This argument doesn’t work for me.

A slight variation comes from Paul Little, who wrote the evangelistic classic, “How to Give Away Your Faith.” He stated it like this:

“Men will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.”

His nuance is that yes, people die for lies, but they think they are living for the truth. They think the lie is true, therefore they give their life for it. On the flip side, if they knew a thing were a lie they would check out of the charade before death took them out.

I like the clarification and think this quote is better, but I’m still not convinced!

There are a lot of people who know the truth of the Gospel, they know it’s true and it deserves their life, but they also really like sin. They will invent false doctrines to assuage the guilt and the truth they don’t like. They will indeed give their lives for a lie.

I know several people who clearly understand the Gospel and the demands it makes on them, yet they fight it with all their energy. In moments of clarity they even see what they are doing. But they can’t stop their sin, and in fact, don’t really want to.

They know the Gospel might even grant power to overcome sin and kill off temptation, but nope, sin has them trapped. They will, and some I know already have, go to the grave clinging to their lie.

There are many proofs for the historical reality of the resurrection. I don’t think this “the disciples wouldn’t die for a lie” is a strong one. It might have a small point, but in reality, I think it completely misunderstands human nature, which has knowingly lived and died for lies for thousands of years now!

Christian Theology has Eliminated the Power of the Gospel

Many Christians emphasize Christ’s death as taking care of our sins. They will say things like: “Jesus died to take the penalty for our sins,” or, “Jesus paid the price for our sins.”

There may be some truth to these summation statements of the Gospel, but I don’t think they capture the New Testament’s stress about the Gospel.

I prove my point in two ways.

The first way is that the New Testament doesn’t really talk about Christ’s death as a payment for sins or taking the penalty or punishment for my sin. I know Christians say that all the time, but it’s not really in the Bible.

Even if you look these words up in the NIV you won’t find them used in relation to the Gospel! There are mentions of “punishment” toward sinners in the present, as in punishments handed out by those in authority, and also of punishment in hell. If you believe in Christ as Savior you will not go to hell, thus you will not get punishment. I see that logical conclusion, but does it imply that “Christ took the punishment for our sin?” I don’t think so.

As far as Jesus “paying the price for our sins,” I don’t even know what this means. We are told twice in the New Testament that we were bought with a price, but that refers to redemption, me being bought out of slavery to sin, it’s not about Jesus paying the price for my sins.

Yes, the wages of sin is death and Christ died when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. But “wages” and “price” are two different things! Wages are what I get for what I do; a price is what I give for a thing. What is the price of sin? I don’t even know how to answer that.

It is always best to explain biblical concepts the way the Bible does. These kinds of statements are not how the Bible describes the Gospel; therefore I don’t think we should use them.

The second point is that when the New Testament talks about the Gospel it isn’t so much about what Christ did to or for my sins, as it is what Christ did for us.

My sins are not paid for. Jesus didn’t take the penalty or punishment for our sins. Jesus made sin a non-issue.

Sin is a symptom of our greater disease. Our greater disease is that we are in the flesh, part of a fallen world with a propensity to sin. Jesus didn’t die to handle sin; Jesus died to make me a new creation in Christ Jesus where I would be set free from the power of sin. He didn’t just take care of the symptom; He cured the underlying disease!

This freedom from sin can be experienced in part even while on this earth through the regenerating power of the Gospel, the work of the Spirit, and the sanctifying ministry of the Spirit-taught Scriptures.

In Christ believers aren’t just people who don’t go to hell now because Jesus did something or other with our sin. Believers are new creations in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away, behold all things are new. I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who lives. I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me.

Jesus didn’t just die to do something to sin. He died to give us new spiritual life, a new life where we are overcoming sin. Yes, we are freed from punishment for sin through this, but that’s not because Jesus did something to sin; it’s because Jesus did something to us!

Two thousand years of Christianity have distorted the Gospel and eliminated its power. This is very unfortunate. One thing the modern talk about the Gospel does is it almost entirely skips the resurrection. Jesus didn’t just die to pay the penalty for our sin; He rose again to give us new life. If there’s no resurrection we are yet in our sins.

But there is a resurrection and because of it believers are raised up to newness of life. Believers are no longer in sin, no longer sin’s slaves, but now Christ’s.

This is great stuff. Not sure why we eliminate it. Probably because a new life in Christ means responsibility and having to do new things when we still find the old things so captivating and fun. No one likes giving up what they enjoy.

So, instead we’ve invented a Gospel where Jesus does it all and we just keep on in our sin.

All heresy is a result of eliminating personal responsibility. When you understand this, you can see heresy everywhere. You can also understand why it’s there.

Skip all that noise and get your head in the Word. It’ll keep you straight and change your life, which is precisely why you’re not in it now.

What Does “The Joy of the Lord Is Your Strength” mean?

I was reading in Nehemiah this week. It’s one of my favorite books. It has so much real emotion and his prayers that wind through the book are a great example of what “pray without ceasing” means.

The book is very emotional. Sadness has overtaken Nehemiah because of the state of his previous home. Jerusalem and the temple have been wiped out. Through rebuilding the walls and the temple some joy returns, but it’s always mixed with sorrow.

In the midst of all this is the phrase, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” This is undoubtedly the most famous verse in the book, one which is repeated often by happy Christians.

I actually posted on this phrase and the peril of happy Christianity about eight years ago, which is cool because it shows I haven’t changed much on this subject, which clearly means I’m right then!

The thing that struck me in this reading was wondering exactly what “the joy of the Lord” is. We’re obsessed with joy and happy in our day, so I imagine most just think it’s happy feels because Jesus. But it has to mean something more specific.

MacArthur’s Study Bible says the joy of the Lord Is based on the fact that although God judges sin, and had done so in a terrific way against Judah and Jerusalem, He also blesses obedience. It’s a call to return to the covenant relationship and enjoy God’s blessings if they obey. Joy of the Lord is God’s blessing for Judah’s obedience.

Keil and Delitzsch say the joy of the Lord is in the joyous festival they were encouraged to participate in. Yes, the past has been terrible and you all messed it up royally. And yes, the future will be difficult with the rebuilding and intent to return to the covenant, but today! Today is to be a day of joy.

Most commentaries combine these two ideas: God is still with them and will bless them and all this is being marked out by this festive day of rejoicing. This fits the context quite well.

Nehemiah 8 shows the people crying over their nation’s sins and the terrible results it has had. When they heard the law, they saw how terrible they were and were devastated. The point going forward of reading the law is to encourage them to return and be blessed by God in their rebuilding project.

“This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law” (8:9).

Then they are told, “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10).

This phrase is not meant as a general call to life, as in every day should be a riotous, happy feast. It’s in the context of a mourning people in a tough spot being encouraged.

We drop the context and keep the happy appeal, a typical affluent church tactic. We use it to buck up our lives of comfort and entertainment and claim that all our comfort and entertainment is what God wants us to have!

But their joy was not in comfort and entertainment; it was in the Lord, in obedience to His covenant promises, and His protection and safety at a time when they did not feel these things.

Whenever you hear happy phrases from the Bible repeated over and over by happy Christians, look up the context. We happy people do not need any reminders to be happy. We’re happy enough.

However, we’re heading toward a time of total destruction in the church and the world, so I think we’ll need this verse as a reminder pretty soon. Times are getting darker.

This will be a good thing even though it’s going to hurt and will include much sorrow. But it’s in the dark where light shines brightest. It’s coming. Get ready and when it happens, don’t forget that the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Should Christians Worry About Being No Earthly Good?

Lately I’ve been going on Twitter and getting immediately depressed or annoyed by what I see there. I actually have several accounts, one is mostly Christian stuff while the other is sports and news and hobbies.

I typically only go on the one that follows Christian accounts. Rarely do I check the other one. Can’t take it. Even sports is all about politics and scandals and weird sex stuff.

Unfortunately, most of the Christian feed is filled with this junk too. Either with actual scandals in Christianity, or at least Christians pontificating and giving their “hot take” about the latest worldly news: transgender Bud Light cans to political scandals.

It’s really annoying and gets me down.

I know, the easy answer and the advice I’ll get is: Well, doesn’t happen to me because I don’t go on those sites.

And that’s fine. The problem is I’ve really gained a lot from these sites. I’ve met cool people and been edified repeatedly. I just hate big news days when all the good stuff is covered by the worldly stuff.

It got me to thinking about Colossians 3:2, “Set your affections (sometimes translated “minds”) on things above, and not on things of the earth.”

Great verse. One I quote frequently. I don’t think we’re supposed to know this much about what’s going on in the world. I don’t think it’s healthy.

I looked up “affections” in Strong’s Dictionary. The definitions were fascinating! Here are a few that caught my attention:

to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion—we’ll see this idea a few definitions down, but note this one is about entertaining opinions, considering them, listening to other people’s opinions! I imagine this includes the Opinion section and the “talking heads” with their jokes and insights.

intensively to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience)—how intensely do you go after worldly information? Being overly concerned with such things makes you concerned and eventually obedient to those issues. Soon the Gospel is lost as a priority because you have so many social fights to arm up for.

Here are a few definitions from Thayer’s Greek Definitions:

to think or judge what one’s opinion is—knowing enough about a subject to develop an opinion about it is too far according to this verse! How many opinions do we have on things we shouldn’t even know about?

to be of one’s party, side with him (in public affairs)—and here’s ultimately where it will lead—you will shack up with your party. You’ll pick sides and Us vs. Them talk and actions will follow.

This verse is making it very clear that Believers should avoid fixations on worldly subjects. We should be ignorant about such things. Remember Paul elsewhere: be simple concerning evil; wise concerning what is good? “Simple” means unmixed, not tainted, no evil is mixed in with your brain activity. Wow.

Now the objection to all this is that we won’t be relevant. We have to know what’s going on around us, how will we ever have discussions with people? Which will inevitably lead someone to quote the old trope, “Christians are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.”

First, I doubt anyone would ever achieve such heavenly mindedness to not do anything good on the earth. Fearing this prospect seems a waste of time. Second, who says we have to be considered earthly good? Where’s the verse that says our priority is getting the world’s approval?

Heads explode here.

But seriously, do we build bigger barns? Do we go after the things the unbelievers go after, fighting and quarrelling for it, or do we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? Why are their wars and fightings, James? Because you’re going after earthly things. No man can serve two masters.

The church has gotten too sucked into earthly things. I think the abortion issue has largely caused this. I’m against abortion and think it is evil, and murder, and a consistent demonstration of the Devil’s devices. I have no qualms about calling it evil and disgusting.

But the abortion issue has been hijacked by politics. So now Christians have to be politically involved. We have to “win the culture war.” The “culture war” is nothing more than earthly things.

So, what am I saying? Am I saying we just turn our backs on the unborn and on cultural rot?

Nope, I’m saying we confront it appropriately: we become more heavenly minded and live by the Gospel and Jesus Christ and continually present it as the ONE AND ONLY ANSWER TO ALL EARTH’S PROBLEMS.

Politics cannot win this issue or any other issue. The Gospel, the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness are what do any heavenly good and I’m guessing the earth would benefit by default, but the earthly good is not the goal, it’s a mere byproduct.

But instead we’re getting sucked into cultural issues and believing the lie that trust in princes will work better than trust in God.

Study to be quiet, work with your own hands, mind your own business, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without and will have lack of nothing (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).

So many verses on this subject, you’d think we’d hear about this more. But we don’t because we have to win the next election and get everyone fired up to win the culture war.

Easter Cliches

Easter brings about many Christians saying many things that may or may not be entirely helpful.

For some reason, people saying “He is risen,” all over the place annoyed me this year. It’s not like He just rose today. He’s been risen for quite some time now.

I know it’s a good reminder, I’m just saying. Do you really understand the power of the resurrection if you need to be reminded of it? I don’t know, maybe. It just annoys me that there’s a suddenness to the statement, as though it just happened. As though we weren’t aware of the resurrection before Easter Sunday, but we can talk about it today now until we forget again.

I don’t know. I have a bad attitude about such things.

I also see many people saying how great the resurrection is because “now my sins are taken away.” I’m not saying the resurrection didn’t take away your sins, it certainly played a huge part in that, but that’s not all there is to it.

I fear that most Christians think the only thing the resurrection does is forgive sins and “save us.” Now I can die and go to heaven.

When you read how the New Testament talks about the resurrection, it has to do with new life in Christ. A new life that begins at salvation and continues to mature, grow, and bring forth fruit until it fully blossoms in blessed righteous perfection for eternity. The power of the resurrection isn’t just about getting sins forgiven; it’s about getting new life.

Old things are passed away, behold all things are new. It’s no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. We were buried with Him and now raised up with Him to newness of life.

It saddens me that this is ignored when this is a huge part of the resurrection’s power. We’re told to remember what Christ did and be happy our sins are forgiven. For some reason we drop out when it comes to living a new life raised up to look like Christ’s righteous life. Easter rarely has applications about putting off the old man with its lusts and putting on the new man and walking in righteousness, even though that is exactly what the resurrection equips us to do.

People get lost there. “Sounds like legalism and hard work. Jesus died and paid it all so I don’t have to do anything. He said “it is finished,” which means I don’t have to do anything.”

This is where I get annoyed.

Many of Easter’s clichés sound a lot like easy believism and people turning grace into license, rather than a true appreciation for the power of the resurrection.

So anyway, I guess I’m just an old man muttering in the corner at this point. Carry on.

“What Does Hallowed By Thy Name” Mean?

I was thinking about this phrase this morning. “Hallowed” means purify, make holy, consecrate, venerate. The Greek word is used more times in the New Testament and is typically translated with words dealing with sanctification.

It’s curious to me that most other translations stick with “hallowed” when few know what it means. Even the NIV uses it! I imagine that’s because these words are so familiar no one wants to mess with them.

The Jewish people, in an attempt to not use the Lord’s name in vain, wouldn’t say His name. This is silly. Whatever “hallowed” means, it doesn’t mean some sanctimonious ritual action. I get the idea, if you don’t use His name then you can’t use it in vain, but still.

This reminds me more of the Parable of the Talents. The last guy, knowing his master was harsh, buried the talent and didn’t do anything. How is not using God’s name different from that?

Also interesting that the OT Law tells them not to do something with God’s name, whereas the NT says to do something with it. I find that interesting even if I have no further point!

I think the basic idea is similar with fearing God.

Names represent the person and often their character. The name of God isn’t just a title for a thing; it’s expressing who He is. If you understand who He is and His name represents who He is, then use it in a sanctified manner.

Being too afraid to use it sounds like sanctimonious legalism rather than the intent. Only use His name in ways that are consistent with who He is.

That would be my take.

David’s Anger Toward God for Killing Uzzah

2 Samuel 6 is the account of Israel bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem on a cart. Uzzah reaches out to steady it and God smites him dead.

2 Samuel 6:8 says, “And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah.” The KJV says David was “displeased.” That’s a wimpy translation of the word.

The word literally means to be hot with anger, burning anger is kindled within a person, to be incensed.

It seems to me the simplest reading is that David was angry with God. He didn’t understand, in the midst of their joy, why God would do such a drastic thing. Kind of a buzz kill.

The note on this verse in the MacArthur Study Bible says, “Probably anger directed at himself because the calamity resulted from David’s own carelessness. He was confused as to whether to carry on the transportation of the ark to Jerusalem and would not move it, fearing more death and calamity might come on him or the people.”

OK, it’s possible David’s anger was at himself, but come on! Really?

Maybe this isn’t the best example, but I get annoyed when people skip the simplest sense of words for a sanctimonious interpretation. David was human. The guy wrote about his anger quite a bit. I can’t recall one Psalm where David expressed anger at himself! Plenty where he was angry with other people and well, a little ticked at God too.

That’s the way I would interpret the verse. There’s no need to over spiritualize Bible characters and make them non-human.

Again, maybe I’m wrong, there’s a chance David wasn’t angry at God but at himself or Uzzah, or someone else. But the simplest reading sure makes it sound like he’s mad at God, and that’s the common sense direction of anger here.

I’m not saying the anger was righteous. I’m not saying that David was without sin for feeling that way, but it sure seems like that’s what’s going on.

I think David is burning in anger toward God. I think God is big enough to handle that. God was still right. David was still wrong. But ask yourself, last time it was pointed out to you that you were wrong in the midst of your happy time, did you feel a little anger toward the person who rained on your parade?!

David was angry with God. No need for dehumanizing an otherwise very emotionally expressive guy. David is human. Leave him that way.

Presumption, Faith, and Good Seats

There’s a fine line between presumption and faith.

Two disciples asked Jesus if they could sit on His right and left hand in His kingdom. It’s a pretty bold ask. Usually we interpret it as being wrong, although Jesus didn’t rebuke them. He told them they didn’t know what they were talking about! But He never rebuked them.

Their timing is what gets them judged. Jesus had just told them He was going to be betrayed, beaten, crucified, and resurrected. To follow that up with requests about seating arrangements doesn’t come across well!

But still!

Jesus is the one who told them, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”

Here’s two of them agreed and asking! When Jesus multiplied bread the disciples later never thought to ask Him for bread. They got rebuked for not asking!

This question reminds me of Peter asking if he could walk on water. I mean, who comes up with that? Joshua asking the sun to stand still. We look at that as tremendous faith.

Why do we bash these two for asking about good seats? I wouldn’t mind good seats in the kingdom! Why not ask?

When David ran after Bathsheba and caused all that problem, God said to him, “Why didn’t you just ask me for another wife if you wanted one?”

Here’s God telling a married man to ask Him for another wife! I mean, you can’t even justify that one with Scripture! At least the disciples asked a sensical question, even if they didn’t understand fully the implications.

We hit the disciples awful hard. We who don’t even read God’s word with attention all that regularly. We can learn from their mistakes and sins, and the Bible is open about such things for our learning. But to bash them for not understanding things is even going beyond what Jesus Christ did who was sitting there with them!

It is funny that in another Gospel it was the disciples’ mom who asked Jesus about their seats. Now that’s pretty creepy! It reminds me of sitting on the bench in high school basketball games and the kid who always sat next to me all of a sudden gets put in games. “What’s up with that?” I asked. “Oh, his mom told the coach to put him in more.”

I was a little miffed. I get the other disciples being annoyed, but yeah. I don’t know.

There’s a fine line between presumption and faith.

Category: Jeff Weddle Theories

Is Jesus the Same Substance With the Father? I Have No Idea

Why Did Jesus Tell People to Keep Quiet About Him?

Did God Create the Alphabet?

More Answers to Why Bad Things Happen to People

Your Biggest Hurdle to Understanding the Bible

Conversations, Control, and Free Will

The Resurrection of Jesus Changes Lives

Don’t Forget the Resurrection!

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

Costly Sacrifice

Why Your Bible Study Curriculum Is So Lame

The End Doesn’t Come Because of the Evil of the World but Because of the Evil of the Church

Many Christians Should Not Be Listened To

Two Influences to Beware of: Politics and Self-Righteous Religion

Why Self-Help Advice Prevents Spiritual Success

The Relationship Between the Word of God and Sin

Comfort Others as God Comforts You

Isolated Christians Get Weirder and Weirder

Is Pleasing God Legalism?

Do Believers Need to Seek God’s Approval?

Can a person rely on prayer too much?

Is It Good that Christians are Better at Apologetics?

Would People Die for a Lie? Yup!

Christian Theology has Eliminated the Power of the Gospel

What Does “The Joy of the Lord Is Your Strength” mean?

Should Christians Worry About Being No Earthly Good?

Easter Cliches

“What Does Hallowed By Thy Name” Mean?

David’s Anger Toward God for Killing Uzzah

Presumption, Faith, and Good Seats

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