The salvation equation, “believe on the LORD Jesus Christ and you will be saved” is elementary. It is one of many faith sayings which, due to the lack of precision, have become part of the confusion of modern pharisaism.
The standard proclamation “whoever believes in Christ has everlasting life” cannot reasonably be parallel to “believe and go to heaven”. Having eternal life is not the same as getting eternal life. Going to heaven is not the same as passing from death to life. Having life is not the same as living forever, but no one tells us these things.
Church Growth and Conflict
Messiah assured the disciples that Hades’ pillars would not sway the church and it was not long after His resurrection that He gave them evidence of church dominion. Contrary to popular theology, the Church’s ascendency does not consist of ecclesiastical power over the secular organs of governance: that has been tried in ancient Israel, the Roman church and to some extent in the world – ruling empires all the way down to the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The so-called theocracies, whether Israelite, Islamic, or Christian, have not, advanced the cause of faith in God, the brotherhood of man, or justice. The conspiracy against Christ (Psalm 2) fell through without the Jewish authorities being aware of the effect of their actions on the success of the Messianic mission. The preoccupation with their monopoly over the lucrative temple services and the propagation of their brand of the Mosaic law by means of the alliance between Sadducees (priestly power), Scribes (academic power), and the Pharisees (popular examples of orthodoxy) helped to blind them to God’s moves and contributed to church progress.
The death of Christ provided an end to the embarrassment of the Jewish power triad and it effectively terminated the temple services and the sway of Mosaic Judaism. The shape of the conflict between God and all pretenders to the throne was decided and the later skirmishes between Judaism and the Way represent a lot of bark with no bite. The rise of opposition against the church would only foster growth.
If Sadducee pride came from the example of Zadok the resistance to Davidide power was ignorant, pitiful, and egotistic. Zadok was the anointer of Solomon. If scribal acumen had anything to do with Moses and the prophets (including David and Daniel) the world of Judaism was standing on its head and the scribes’ refusal to see past the rituals and interests of the temple served to make the Messianic doctrine take wings. What Christ had to say provided what the people had never found in all the Mosaic literature: grace.
This is what the deacon Stephen had that brought some African and Asian Jews to contend for Mosaic orthodoxy: grace plus wisdom and spirit (Acts 6:11). Luke tells us that “… they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.”
They incited “the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council”. In the face of false witnesses and charges of blasphemy Stephen defended the Biblical record of Jewish resistance to God’s will. His accusers showed that they had no intention of allowing God to take charge of the temple and Jewish religious life. Change was the last thing they wanted.
They chose Moses instead of their Creator who had proved that if they had believed Moses they would have believed Him (John 5:46-47). The truth about what was really happening was too much for the council (Acts 7).
(51) Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
(52) Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
(53) Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
They plugged their ears even though Stephen’s defense was a recitation of the Biblical record. They had started a fight and showed that they could not fight fairly.
The death of Christ had brought accelerated growth to the number of disciples. The death of Stephen would have the same effect. A great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem followed, and the outcome was that the expansion into Gentile communities began in earnest.
Acts 8:4 tells us that “they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”
They lit up Samaria and made a connection with Ethiopia, and when the Jewish authorities ramped up their persecution one of their most ferocious agents, one Saul of Tarsus, ran headlong into the Risen Lord. This encounter resulted in Saul’s conversion and the successful gospel outreach of Saul and his companions into Asia and Europe.
The Church cannot be overcome. Conflict and persecution only increased the energy with which the disciples pursued their call. Like the attempt by Satan to bring about a regime change in heaven the attempts to impose non-messianic principles on the church have failed and will fail. Under such circumstances the Church can only grow and be strengthened.
New Testament Prayer
An increasing number of believers have been expressing their conviction that prayer is an essential element of Christian life and spirituality. When we neglect prayer or pray without regard to the Biblical call and the crucial instruction offered by our Lord we miss a large portion of our heritage as children of God. Please see the document “Prayer in the New Testament” for a biblical survey (link below).
The Kingdom is like a Royal Person
Of course the kingdom of heaven shares qualities with royalty. Yeshua was very specific when he said that the kingdom of heaven was to be likened to an anthropos basilei. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants (Mat. 18:23)
What did Yeshua mean by adding king (basilei) to the definition of man’s likeness to the kingdom? To be specific, it is not a man or king that is like the kingdom of heaven, it is the actions of the man and the outcomes that help us see what the kingdom of heaven is like. We can see a that the kingdom of heaven is also not merely like a person, but is usually likened to a person who does certain things. In this case, the person whose activities mirrors or explains the kingdom of heaven is a king.
The pressure to make this a male ruling person is reduced by the very presence of an’thropos. Our Lord was not referring to a male ruling person but to a king-type of person whose actions help us understand kingdom accounting processes.
The details are quite ordinary and regular but the recommendation is strong and unwavering :the servant who could not pay received compassion, the loosing of his bonds, and the forgiveness of his debt. (27).
Our freedom is at stake if we withhold forgiveness from our contemporaries. The heavenly Father is watching this very thing.
The heavenly Father will lock you up until you pay what you owe if you do not forgive your debtors (32).
The divine accounting is more often linked with punishment than with pardon and release, but this parable establishes divine priorities with the idea that we must be ready to forgive because our own status depended (and depends) on divine forgiveness. This is royal character at its best. Christ on the cross and his followers on the road to life forgive. This is the spirit that defines the king and his children.
The Parable of Unbelief
Even though the story of a rich man and a poor man has given life to several fables and apparently granted license for reports about death, Luke 16:19-31 is concise and conclusive Christian teaching about unbelief. The twists and turns of this fascinating parable do not obscure our Lord’s concluding remarks.
The challenges in interpreting this passage include the absence of God, the conclusions of the authority figure of Abraham, the contradiction about communication between the living and the dead, and the notion of rewards at death. Evangelicals are on some kind of theological crack drug which allows them to believe and make idols of fantasies that have been written by once-trusted pastors and thinkers.
Consider the fable that one is said to die (depart this life) and immediately unite with Christ but not with the resurrection body. If one knows anything about the Lord’s promises about the end of the age and the final victory the report is immediately filed under fabulous and phony. Death unites man with his origins not his destiny. There is no theology behind the “absent – present” deception. Believers are already seated with Christ in heavenly places. Resurrection unites man with his immortal body and this unites him with Christ who already has (is in fact the only person who does) an immortal body.
No one is departing this life to be with Abraham because that would be a godless destiny. This is a well placed jab at the notion of sleeping with ones fathers. Here one gets to sleep it the father of the nation.
Still it is Abraham who is the authority in the parable. He pronounces judgment on the tormented rich person, affirms the unbridgeable gap between the dead and the living, and denies request for the poor man to be messenger to the rich person’s siblings, reminds the tormented rich person of the pivotal roles of Moses and the prophets, and seals the fate of those who had not listened to Moses and the prophets by pouring cold water on the notion of someone returning from the dead as convincing evidence.
Since they had not listened to Moses a resurrected person would be of no effect. This was the other hit on the audience’s fun (vs 14).
To properly interpret this parable the gospel must be the workbench. There is no Abraham’s bosom in the gospel. There is no tormenting fire at death in the teaching of the apostles. Abraham is not the judge of humans neither in this life nor the next.
For the Jewish audience Moses and the prophets were the authority. For people who follow Christ the gospel takes the place of Moses and the prophets and unbelief has no excuse once one has heard the message of Messiah and the kingdom of God.
The stories about life in death seem to be grounded in the life “you shall not surely die”. If people can be directed to ignore God’s earliest warming then there is no reliable foundation for belief in a quality life in fellowship with God.
If creative and figurative language about human destiny can ignore the evidence about death and dying then we have no chance of being convinced about Messiah. The whole of Judaism’s pride was phony and ineffective. Belief in Moses was rare. Unbelief irrevocably sinks the boat every time and this parable sinks Judaism’s floating juggernaut. Yet Christian commentators have bought Yeshua’s creative genius but have rejected what He taught through the mouth of the fictitious Abraham. The love of money and the demise of the Law and the Prophets (vss 14-18) are the reasons for this parable and we will miss the benefit of a Living Witness if we are going to focus on fables and traditions. The risen Christ appeared only to chosen witnesses and there was only one Jewish official among them, Saul of Tarsus, whose witness established the sad unbelief of his Jewish contemporaries. Faith in God’s Son is still the only way to avoid torment .
Elbert Joseph, PhD
Helping God’s People Stay Connected
Quasi-theology
Quasi-theology Under the Microscope
There is a lot of theology in the Bible and those who do not want to study it ought to stop pretending that they have a spiritual alternative. How many of us would like to be a Peter, always putting his foot in his mouth, or an Apollos who got a whiff of John the Baptist’s message and thought he was now in the Way? It seems to have taken a long time and the exposure of Peter’s Jewish biases for him to begin his journey to be a healthy pastor. For Apollos God sent Prisca and Aquila. Sadly there is no supervision of the pulpits today. People who say they are pastors, preachers, and teachers say whatever feels right, and especially what tickles the ears of the audience’s ear. God is not mocked. Ignorance of the text is no excuse: the apostles were at first mostly unschooled, but they quickly learned to speak and write with accuracy. The Church is more than a sideshow for worship and miracles. Mutual edification is the reason for the church to assemble, and the central and pervading message is the gospel: the Lamb for sinners slain. When we neither preach the gospel, nor teach the kingdom principles that Christ imparted to the apostles the church is in grave danger. Church has become in many places a place of get what you can, gain and profit, instead of humble service.
Here are two examples of quasi-theology that have come to my attention. It is not clear how widespread these are but they certainly call attention to pastoral skill-sets.
Grace is God Believers and Mercy is what Assists Unbelievers?
To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 1Tim 1:2 (NRA)
To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 2Tim 1:2
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. 2Joh 1:3
*Raised is for Non-Final Resurrection, *Resurrected is for the Final Resurrection? (Greek verbs egeiro and anistemi)
- and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” Matt 14:2 (NRA)
- Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” Matt 28:7
- And immediately the girl got up (anistemi) and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. Mark 5:42
- because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9
- But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 1 Cor 15:20 (and vss 4, 12, 15, 16, and 17, 42-44)
- when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. Col. 2:12
ANISTEMI
- because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:31
- and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, Luke 24:46 (NRA)
- not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Acts 10:41
- As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, Acts 13:34
It is the writer’s prayer that you are not saying “Amen” to nonsense like this and this was written with the hope that you will alert your friends to these types of timewasting dangers.
If you have ever heard that salvation and healing were purchased at the cross, then watch this space for more on the atonement, the verb sozo (I save), therapeuo, ( I heal), and iaomai (I cure).
Elbert Joseph, PhD
Helping God’s People Stay Connected
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Forgiveness: a necessary relief
When Cain found himself facing the consequences of the murder of his brother he confessed that he was incapable of bearing his punishment. Like the Hebrew term for guilt and guilt-offering (asham, <v^a**) the idea of bearing (nasa, ac*n*) also designates the relief from bearing the burden of punishment and certain other things. To “forgive” is to “bear” and this is the intent of Christ’s mission: He bore our sins because for us to bear our own sins would be to die without remedy. We have therefore from earliest times an indication that human guilt and punishment find their solution in a divine act.
We are familiar with Alexander Pope’s saying that to forgive is divine, and we think that this means that real forgiveness is patterned after God’s character. Yeshua holds out this pattern of forgiveness from the cross, asking the heavenly Father to forgive the hostile and ignorant. In His instruction on prayer He points to our forgiving one another as a means of assuring of divine acceptance and offer of forgiveness. He says in Matthew 6:14-15 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
We must now consider what is meant by forgive in the teaching of the apostles. Again, the teaching of our Lord is vital. In an encounter with Peter who sought to understand the power of forgiveness by asking “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” our Lord responded “490 times”. The one who is ready to forgive 490 times shows kingdom citizenship: the kingdom of heaven is like a king who readily forgives huge amounts of debt whereas humans are loath to forgive even a tiny amount (Matt. 18:23-35). This truly a high standard to which one does not come easily or with human willpower or natural capacity.
Apostolic instruction exhorts in this direction with Christ as the example. Consider the following examples which show that forgveness is a display of grace. The term chariz’omai (karIDzoma-ee carivzomai) is what Paul uses for forgive. This term is from the charis root, that is the grace family of New Testament words.
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Colossians 3:13
To what extent is forgiveness a matter of memory? We ask this question because we often say to someone who has violated us “Forget it” and we also hear frequently “Forgive and forget”. If the hurt is sufficiently deep one cannot but remember the violation, and it is in recalling the event or events that we are asked to not hold our fellowman liable. In forgiving we are not at liberty to retell the sin against us, but rather to treat the violator as innocent. In forgiving our fellowman we turn away from thoughts of revenge and any desire to exact punishment, for this is what Christ did for us. In forgiving others we appropriate the character of the heavenly Father, and we should especially seek to dismiss any notion that men have to give us an account of their wrongdoing before we can forgive them. It should be enough that they ask and we set them free. Since divine forgiveness brings about reverence or deep respect it is to be expected that human forgiveness also gives birth to a new respect for the one who readily forgives.
Now there forgiveness with You, that You may be revered. (Psalm 130:4, my translation)
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 