Left with them. Given to them. Left with us. Coming with more to come.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Month: February 2020
Alone and still dead without the gospel
We suppose that we are all certain that our feet are on solid ground until it becomes obvious that ancient things do not necessarily take the lead. This pattern is established in the election of Jacob over Esau and Joseph and Judah over Reuben. The unique history of Israel does not make it either to first place nor do any of the attempts to make Israelite life the foundation for spirituality. To be the one and only is not a goal and existing in a state of never achieving – compliance with the covenant – is the same as being dead.
The end of the fulfilled
When solutions are needed for what to eat and drink we search the Bible. When correction is needed for interpersonal problems we search. If we wanted to learn how to build and maintain the ancient symbols of God’s dealings we search the law. If we want to be hip to salvation and searched the law we would find that salvation and its happiness lie decidedly outside and apart from law and prophets. Israel is without controversy the unique vessel of God’s dealings with humanity in preparation for Messiah. The chosen people are still alone and unique but certifiably dead. The fulfillment of divine sayings arrives when death, its sting and power are shown the door.
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
2 Timothy 1:10
Loose cannons
A child’s game of we win and you lose has become the standard of good governance. No just person creates a narrative to make the same point for every defence and expect respect. Preachers do it and it gets amens. Christians are not taken in by cleverly designed political or religious talking points. Who gets these loose cannons?
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2 Peter 1:16
This is Peter’s affirmation of the gospel over the traditional narratives which have no eternal outcomes. The usual defence of faith in Peter’s experience was not based on glory and virtue but law and personal performance. Peter had a contrasting message of divine power and promises as the operational elements. It was not law and prophets that brought revelation and redemption, and no argument, long or short, can turn law and prophets into functional components of eternal salvation. Christ calls them all thieves and robbers.
The boom from infancy
The church was young when a fabulous talking point was introduced. The attempt to circumcise people turning to Christ and compel them to observe Mosaic tradition failed, and the church has ever since been drifting into the same rejected and one-way lanes. We reject circumcision but we keep grounding morality in the same eclipsed law and by adopting symbols of Jewish life and by building concepts even from the planks in a wide range of political views.
Patriotism – reverence for flag and country – turns out to be abominable foundation for a healthy society because it is idolatrous. Nationalism is a shallow pool in which many are swimming. No talking point can ever bring Christ and any secular power into an intimate partnership. The kings of the earth are all in Herod’s image. They oppose the virtue and interests of the Saviour of the world even though at times there seems to be mutual aspirations and methods.
3. According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these all of you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:3-4
The freedom that Peter’s generation claimed was a hollow shell. The bondage that followed them around could not be denied, yet they proclaimed that they had never been in slavery. They boasted about the perpetual condemnation of the law as if it was a key that opened prisons. The law is not a document arising from free choice and it is not a document that makes men free moral agents.
Repeat until they think it is true
We have escaped. Real freedom and real life come from Christ. His gifts are not loans or trials. We do not have to prove anything to anyone. God has taken charge of his work, and the mystery of salvation is unfolding just as it should with no real help from anyone. Salvation is of the Lord. The lies we have told ourselves are coming out to haunt ua. The hateful policies of the GOP and the shallow sloganism of the evangelical church are out in plain sight with the sudden recognition that words matter.
Our best words are chiseled and dangerous slogans. The cannons of the truth warriors are sounding like popcorn. They do not have the distinct certain sound of good news.
- die and go to heaven
- once saved always saved
- perfect obedience to all God has said
- walking in victory
- love is a thing we do
- God is love is commandment-keeping
- Grace and faith save us
- Grace, faith and works save us
- The new covenant is identical to the old
There is no national repentance coming. 2 Chronicles 7 is a fake revival model. People have been justifying lying, rape and abuse for so long that now the cannons are firing blanks. So little of what they say has a straight line to the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua we wish they did not want to talk. So little of what the sworn officers of state say stands the test of fact and constitution we know that many are unaware of their perjured condition. Let them pop away. Ear plugs anyone?
John wants to know
You might, like me, have a favourite Bible book but the man who demands the most of us has no book. In fact we could say all Christians are his book, to take an analogy from Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians (3:1-3). The revolutionary zeal that moved John the Baptist and gripped the men who answered Yeshua’s call has practically disappeared into the crookedness of every generation since the apostles fell asleep. Can today’s movements and religious sects have any integrity without renouncing their so called prevailing truth and empty traditions and change their minds? Are our generations – the older and the younger – turning to each other? John wants to know.
John died apparently discarded by his generation, but rich in experience. He had seen a hypocrite mob come out to the Judean desert (Matthew 3:7, Luke 3:7). He had heard that the never-seen were happening. His authority was still deceptively debated as the end of Yeshua’s public ministry approached. When John was preaching the axing of the tree was not conditional.
The never-seen-before
And [Yeshua] answered and said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings preached to them.
Luke 7:22
I cannot imagine any one, least of all theologians familiar with the theme of Messianic teaching, doubling down on grasping at the straws of Judaism with the popular and pernicious doctrine of saved by works and faith. Even Jews do not believe that any more.
John’s repentance rejected
If we want to prove how bankrupt we are we only need to join the chorus of ruling priests, elders and scribes that all one needs is a return to Moses and the cherished (and actually quite empty) traditions of the Jewish people. We cannot say we have changed our minds and still trot out the Pentateuch, the proverbs and prophecy, as if the pimps and prostitutes, tax-collectors had not conscientiously turned to John and Yeshua.
The Way – with its straight paths for our feet – is a long way from the tabernacle, the genocidal possession of Canaan process, the exclusionary provisions in the statute and judgments, and the merciless execution of accused persons. The church is a different creation than the insular twelve tribes. The church must not become a nepotism-laden priesthood or develop money-making temple quasi-services. If there is pride in copying Israel-Judah John wants to know how you got there. John wants to know who asked the families of the earth to become Jews. John wants to know why does anyone- even a Jew – need either circumcision or the law of Moses, since Abraham was justified and made father of many nations in a state of uncircumcision.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
Romans 4:11
Wallowing in mud after a bath is great to a pig!
Reading my Bible
Ask God. The answer may be delayed or simply unheard. Read the Bible and the answer is never far.
Boss Hogg and the Gipper
Many who laughed when the bigot in the White House announced his racist campaign are not laughing now. The United States is headed for a competition with the abominable, the corrupt and evil, even the despotic.
Now that the entourage of military men has all but vanished, the bigot and the Gipper can only hope to win votes by increasing the already bloated military budget or start a war. Watch out America. Keep your pants on Canada!
Looking for the counterfeit is not rocket science
Searching an English Bible for the following terms may result in one hit.
SEARCHES
“sinful nation”, “evil nation”, “sinful people”, “corrupt* people”
There are many entities that humans define as sinful, evil, corrupt, but only one appears on God’s list.
ISAIAH LABELS – No afterthought
Ah (Woe) sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isaiah 1:4
Anyone in bed with this entity is going to be sinful, laden with injustice, full of bad actors and corrupt (perverse).
Highlights
- Green – the ones doing evil (bad guys); the ones being destructive (corrupters)
- Blue (not merely actions)- the complete deserting; the complete insulting; the complete turning backward
Sorry, Uncle Sam. That title is taken.
A Common Regression in Holiness (part 2)
The voices calling for your holiness to be based on the same things as the prophets said are proof that attacks on the church are still happening, and the assaults come from entities that identify themselves as church. I love what Peter has to say about how we got it and how we certify it. Holiness is not stuff that puts the individual in better light with God than others. Make no excuses. Make no mistake! The tradition, no matter how grand, is inadequate.
I am confident that my holiness comes from Christ’s sacrifice. By that sacrifice alone – he by himself – removes my guilt, and he infuses life to the dead. That is primary holiness. It is a change of identity: new creation, redeemed and justified. It is the core of Christ’s mandate: to brings sons (children) to glory. The holiness we pursue is not identity. The holiness that is required – if we are expecting to see the Lord – is the cooperation we give to the avalanche of truth that the Holy Spirit makes available to us. We have infinitely many more days of journeying into the heart of God than those we spent coming to him. One has to have a low view of God to think that covering our bases with signs, symbols, festivals, prophecies and miracles can be the progress of Christian holiness.
18) Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20) Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
1 Peter 1:18-20
Our redemption and consequent holiness stand out in stark contrast to silver and gold and any other corruptible thing in anyone’s tradition.
Simply Faith, Hope, and Love
When either our identity or activity is shaped by how we treat people we can be certain our holiness (purity) does not need accusations or
21. Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22. Seeing all of you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto sincere love of the brethren, see that all of you love one another with a pure heart fervently:
1 Peter 1:21-22
Dis this and die
Having seen that loving people is God’s example and expectation how did those New Testament Pharisees dare to keep slapping loving God and circumcision on everything?
Sinai was not a love-in if we are measuring human love. They did not want to hear God’s words.
Commandments and obedience is what builds empires, cults, corrupt societies, and sin-laden peoples.
They did it with darkened minds, and all who try to cover their Christlessness with an obedience culture are swimming in deception.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 