I will be taking a break from posting weekly articles as I work on the howtoenjoythebible.com project. I don't expect to post any new articles until after the first of next year, which Lord Willing, will see the launch of howtoenjoythebible.com.
Thanks for your patience!
Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said,
"Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me."
And Jesus answered and said unto her,
"Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
-- Luke 10:38-42
What is the "one thing" that was needful? Hearing His word! We can't sit at Jesus' feet today, but we still have His Word from which to learn "that good part".
The vast majority of professing Christians are caught up in what A.W. Pink described as the "snare of service". They have "programs", "ministries", and "communions". There is "church service" on Wednesdays and Sundays, vacation Bible school in the summer, and Christmas plays in December. Though these things are foreign to the Bible, they pursue them as if commanded by God from the terrible thunderings of Sinai.
These services cannot be supported by Scripture, but they do require another kind of support: There are fund raisers, sermons on the tithe, and all manner of "money changers" that are ripe to feel the sting of the "scourge of small cords" that Jesus wielded in John 2:15. And with Christ removed as the Head of the Body, the Church, the "leaders" of modern Christianity are free to devour widows' houses and starve the sheep of God.
Many Christians are shackled to these activities as surely as Israel was bound to the Law. In trying to do the right thing, they have failed to do the right thing. The great irony, of course, is that it is the neglect of the Word -- this one needful thing -- that has snared Christians in the law of "service". But listen to what the Bible says:
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. -- Colossians 2:8
Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? -- Colossians 2:20-22
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath [days]: -- Colossians 2:16
And He said unto them, You are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. -- Luke 16:15
For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together. -- Romans 8:13-17
[Note that we are NOT servants as was Hagar, but children of promise as was Isaac; Galatians 4:25 says: For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.]
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? -- Galatians 3:1-3
But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage? -- Galatians 4:9
The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. -- 1 Corinthians 16:19
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. -- Matthew 18:20
The word "cumbered" in Luke 10:40 is perispao (per-ee-spah'-o) (G4049) and means "to drag all around", "cumber" or "distract". If you are a distracted Martha, hear what Jesus says: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away". (Matthew 24:35) We need not be distracted by things that will "perish with the using", but one thing is needful.
There is an ever increasing fascination in both the secular and religious worlds with "the future". From the vague and malleable predictions of Nostradamus to the wild interpretations of Scripture by sensational televangelists and writers -- there is universal appeal in knowing the future.
I believe there are many reasons for the morbid fascination with apocalyptic visions of the future. In the secular world, this is based purely on ignorance -- the Bible is used only as a prop for adding the supposed weight of its authority to a particular argument. There are movies, books, television shows -- all garbage, even if they make reference to the Bible.
Then there are the various interpretations -- read, mutilations -- of Scripture among Christians that have long represented ignorance, division, and the faithlessness of professing Christians. It doesn't take an extended visit to a "Christian" bookstore for one to realize something must be wrong. C.H. Spurgeon once said the bookshelves bow under the weight of all that had been written on the book of Revelation.
I believe the Bible was written for our learning:
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. -- Romans 15:4
We ought to receive Biblical prophecy on faith, accepting those things as literal events that are not otherwise announced as "signs" (though even signs may be both literal and yet represent something as well). Hardly a Christian could be found to deny that the plagues of Egypt were literal plagues, and so we should accept the judgements of Revelation as literal judgements -- even if we don't understand them completely.
However, it is not my aim to expound upon the principals of eschatology. I will now come straight to the point and say: Biblical prophecy is NOT prediction.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost. -- 2 Peter 1:21
The first occurrence of the word "prophet" is nabiy' (H5030, naw-bee'), meaning "a prophet or (generally) inspired man:--prophecy, that prophesy, prophet".
Now therefore restore the man [his] wife; for he [is] a prophet, and he shall pray for you, and you shall live: and if you restore [her] not, know you that you shall surely die, you, and all that [are] your. -- Genesis 20:7
There is no connection whatever to prediction, but rather to prayer and the work of an advocate or spokesman. When Moses said he was of a "slow tongue" (Exodus 4:10) and therefore could not go back to Egypt, Jehovah said that Aaron would be the "spokesman".
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, [Is] not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he comes forth to meet you: and when he seeth you, he will be glad in his heart. And you shall speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. And he shall be your spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, [even] he shall be to you instead of a mouth, and you shall be to him instead of God. -- Exodus 4:14-16
Compare this with:
And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet (H5030, nabiy'). -- Exodus 7:1
The work of a prophet was to declare "says the Lord". Here's an example:
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I the LORD have spoken [it], and performed [it], says the LORD. -- Ezekiel 37:12-14
Prophecy is not prediction because it is the declaration of God, and when He says it, He will perform it. "Thus says the Lord, there will be light" is the same as "And God said, Let there be light". The result is ultimately the same: "and there was light".
Prophecy is not prediction because God is infinite. He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He is outside of time.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. -- 2 Peter 3:8
Prophecy is not prediction because God does not change. He is the same "yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8) and therefore His plan does not change.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. -- James 1:17
God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do [it]? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good? -- Numbers 23:19
And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he [is] not a man, that he should repent. -- 1 Samuel 15:29
These are blessed truths. If God changes, our hope is built upon an unstable foundation, but instead He is our Rock. Through faith our sins are broken upon this rock, but the unrepentant is destroyed in unbelief:
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. -- Matthew 21:44
It goes without saying that this phrase is not in the Bible, but we'll look at the first half of the statement before criticizing the meaning of the second. We should most certainly "let go", not in the sense of "letting God" do anything, but rather in the sense of consciously relying on His power and providence.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? -- Matthew 6:25,26
For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counsellor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? -- Romans 11:34, 35
If we believe not, [yet] he abides faithful: he cannot deny himself. -- 2 Timothy 2:13
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. -- 1 Peter 4:19
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: -- 1 Peter 5:6
"Letting go" in every day life is resting on God's power knowing that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose." (Romans 8:28) "Letting go" for salvation is believing that Christ died for your sins.
But the notion that we should "let go and let God" implies that we are somehow a hinderance to the infinite Creator of the Universe. This defies logic and undermines the very meaning of the word almighty. We may attempt to be a hinderance, but we are no match for Jehovah even at our wisest:
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness. -- 1 Corinthians 3:19
To the contrary, Paul wrote that he took pleasure in his own infirmities:
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. -- 2 Corinthians 12:10
The word infirmities is the Greek word atheneia (G769) meaning "feebleness of mind or body".
Now consider a few examples, where God Almighty is clearly "almighty".
Consider Jonah. He literally fled from God's purpose, but the "great fish" of God's providence swallowed up Jonah (1:17) and brought him to the very place he did not wish to go, and this not only for the purpose of preaching to Nineveh, but for the "sign of the prophet Jonah" in Matthew 12:39. Jonah tried to subvert the will of God.
Consider Pharaoh.
For the scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. -- Romans 9:17
Pharaoh, as the representative of The Enemy, refused the command of "let my People go", yet it was God that hardened his heart Exodus 9:12,35; 10:1,20,27; etc.). Though he was King of mighty Egypt, he was as "rivers of water" in the hand of God.
The king's heart [is] in the hand of the LORD, [as] the rivers of water: he turns it whithersoever He will. -- Proverbs 21:1
Consider Paul's conversion. At one moment he was "consenting" unto Stephen's death (Acts 8:1), the next he was faced with The Light on the road to Damascus:
And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecutest: [it is] hard for you to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will you have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told you what you must do. -- Acts 9:5,6
His response was immediate: "what will you have me to do". What does Paul later say of this experience?
But when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called [me] by His grace, -- Galatians 1:15
The simple fact is that we are "without strength" and powerless against the Almighty God.
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. -- Romans 5:6
God "works all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11) and we are as stumble before His wind. Some will contend and resist these words, but the answer is:
Nay but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why have you made me thus? -- Romans 9:20
Finished "The Missionary" last night, a screenplay about the experiences of a man returning from a mission trip.
Since it doesn't do much good to sit on a project like this, I've submitted the work to the Kairos Prize screenplay competition. Winners are announced in January 2010.
We'll see!
