Years ago I read a book by a well-known Christian author in which he said that Israel was the regional superpower.  I quickly recognized the spin the writer was engaged in but the proliferation of nonsense has reached catastrophic dimensions, with secular and religious authority seemingly in sync.  Christ never jockeyed to put himself or any of his apostles into Jewish or Roman government.  He also made it quite clear that his disciples did not need to draw attention to themselves by claiming to be exclusively his, one, by saying, by saying that it was neither in Jerusalem nor in Samaria where  worshiping the true God happens

Way too many Christians are setting up themselves to be “higher than” everyone else, a designation that was at the core of the Sinai Covenant.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; Exod 19:5

Hown many nations could God reasonably invite to be a treasured possession?

“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deut 7:6

Wannabe victors of death and nothing else

People with little reverence for God can create an idol of deathless conquering believers who have no growth in grace to show. Twice in my life I have heard a preacher – obviously not a sent preacher – decree the end of death. One has to suppose that all the people who have died were outside of God’s “new” will. Humans being are mortal and immortality arrives at the end of the age. It is a fool, a fool, who instead of fixing their hopes on a new mind in his age and a new body in the next, dangle perfect ignorance in front of believers. We forgive them for their scattershot prophecy of reversal of fortunes and know that they only want to appear to have authority, when in fact they are mere storytellers. Stories in the Bible can inspire faith, but neither the ancient peopel of God nor their neighbours saw the end of death for any family. What a silly thing to say! the oldest people on the planet are less than 150 years old. How many Christians have died in faith? Even if the One with the Keys to Death and the Grave interruptred more than a dozen funerals death is still the last enemy to be sent packing. A premature immortality is a thirteen dollar bill. The death of every believer is preciius in God’s, so what preacher is going to make death a general shortcoming?

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Ps 116:15

Is it a new sin when bereavement touches us? What happens to all those people who do not die in accordance with the PREACHER’S DECREE?

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” Rev 14:13

Who are we elevating? Is it Christ or our ancestral and tribal ignorance? It must be a new kind of humility that eludes the rest of Christ’s disciples, and even Christ himself. The crown of life is immortality, a gift without preamble, because in the resurrection of the dead death gets swallowed up. No-one can announce or predict the end of the age or resurrectioin morning. We ought to be magnifying the promise of Christ regarding the end of the mystery, not offering people deathlless, painless, trouble-free lives in the name of faith’s victory. We ought to be preaching the renewing of our minds after the image of love and humble service, not a fig leaf of irrational victories.