BC2AD

The Conundrum Of Human Fallenness

2010-01-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

We launched the new series of BC2AD at Grace Community Church in Auburn last night. I don’t usually bring this problem up in the first session, but I’ve found in the past that students need a head start to begin figuring out this perplexing riddle. Here it is: Scripture tells us clearly that we have all inherited a sin problem from Adam, so,

What is “fallenness”?
How is it passed down from generation to generation?
Why didn’t Jesus get it?

One of our ladies came to me after class and suggested that perhaps the problem is passed down by the male of our species. That sounds sexist to me, though, ha, ha, so I look forward to what others will have to say as we touch on this problem from time to time in our next few sessions.

BC2AD On Target For Starting Jan 5, 2010!

2009-11-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

Our new cycle of BC2AD begins soon at Grace Community Church in Auburn, WA.

Though we didn't formally hold the BC2AD course in 2009, I am never mentally far away from the material. Since BC2AD covers the entire Bible and Christian History, all the other courses I teach are in a sense segments of BC2AD. The beauty of this is that whatever I teach, and whatever I research, eventually feeds into the BC2AD material. BC2AD students benefit from the "cream" of my ongoing studies.

So, what have I been working on lately? Well, most recently I've been doing major research on how the early severing of the Church from all things Jewish (by AD 160), and the prevalence of Mystery Religions in the early Christian centuries, shaped the church Fathers' understanding of Christian baptism. Losing touch with the Hebraic background of Christian baptism, while also thinking in the mental categories of the magic-infused worldview of Hellenism, led the Fathers rapidly into a sacramental understanding of baptism, according to which water baptism actually regenerates the believer. Some Christian denominations have not yet recovered from the early misconceptions of the Fathers, but an understanding of the Ante-Nicene evolution of Christian doctrine can help us avoid false interpretations of Scripture today!

FREEDOM!

2008-02-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

Remember that there are two aspects of biblical redemption:

Redemption of a person sold into bondage (Lev 25.47-49)
Redemption of property sold to another landlord (Lev 25.23-26)

In both cases, a person can redeem himself or his own property if he has a windfall and can afford to. The person who cannot afford his own redemption must rely upon a kinsman-redeemer.

In the eschatological parallels to these laws, we realize that we needed a Redeemer, because in Adam we had “sold out,” as Christine Bender put it. We had sold ourselves into bondage to sin, and “sold out” our dominion over the earth to Satan. We needed a Redeemer who was both a kinsman (i.e., born of a woman, born under law, Gal 4.4), and someone who could afford the redemption price of a perfect life sacrificed in death -- and yet live. Jesus Christ, uniquely brought these qualities together in one person as the sinless God-Man.

It’s because Jesus Christ has successfully paid the redemption price on Golgotha, that we can be set free and expect to win our spiritual warfare. Because of Christ’s redemption we can expect demons to obey us when we cast them out of our friends or command them to stop blinding our loved ones (Col 2.15; 2Co 4.4), and we can expect to see cities transformed as we apply ourselves to reclaiming the land for God’s kingdom (Mat. 6.9). Hallelujah!

These wonderful truths generated two brilliant questions as we concluded our class session:

Stephanie Dupea asked, “How then could Jesus and his disciples cast out demons before the crucifixion?”
Bill Siems asked, “Could Adam have redeemed Eve before he also ate the fruit?”

Wow! Before I comment on these questions, please send me your thoughts, or post them here on our BC2AD blog by clicking the n comments link below.

Lex Rex

2008-02-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

Among other things last night, we talked about “the rule of law.” The rule of law is something we enjoy and take for granted in our country. The rule of law means that even the highest human authorities in our nation are themselves subject to the law and cannot break it with impunity. It’s because of the rule of law that we don’t have to fear police officers raping us or governors confiscating our land for themselves.

But much of the world during much of history did not enjoy the rule of law. Most nations had laws, but often the kings and governors were themselves above the law. The king was law (Rex Lex) rather than the Law being king (Lex Rex). This changed for the nation of Israel when God gave them the rule of law at Sinai. Even Moses and Aaron, along with the judges and kings that would follow, were subject to the law of Israel given by God. The rule of law doesn’t mean that kings always obey the law, only that even kings are subject to penalties when they break the law. Thus, king David suffered a severe penalty for breaking the law in the incident of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.

Things also changed for the better in Media-Persia when it was decided that once a king made a law, that law could not be changed, that is, the king could not change his mind and alter or amend the law (Dan 6.15). Depending upon his political and military clout at the time, however, a king of Persia could still break his own laws with impunity.

This latter scenario was finally addressed in England with the Magna Carta. English noblemen forced the king to sign this big document, giving them the right to make war on the king if the king were to break his own laws. This finally established the rule of law (Lex Rex) in England, and our nation inherited this blessing.

However, the rule of law only makes sense if there is an ultimate law Giver! Israel understood the ultimate law Giver to be the God of Sinai. The Persians (like Hammurabi in Babylon) understood their own gods to be the ultimate law givers. At the time of the Magna Carta England still assumed the biblical God as the ultimate law Giver, and of course the United States inherited this assumed biblical basis for law. It is symptomatic of our present culture’s blindness, therefore, that while we continue to enjoy the rule of law (eroding though it is), we are so ready to discard the law Giver upon which the rule of law ultimately depends!

Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
Psa 74.22

What Is Fallenness?

2008-01-30T10:21:00.000-08:00

If you missed our Numbers session last night (Jan. 29th), you missed a foundational discussion on the matter of original sin. The question was: What is fallenness (our propensity to sin), how is it passed down from Adam, and why didn’t Jesus get it?

Several people mentioned that “sin is a choice.” We soon realized, however, that though sins often involve choices, that fact doesn’t explain why “all have sinned” (Rom 3.23). If fallenness were only a matter of each individual choosing to sin, it would (theoretically) be possible to have some people in the world who had never sinned; each individual would be born sinless like Adam and Eve and then get to choose one way or the other.

But David confessed to having been “sinful at birth” (Psa 51.5), and Paul confirms that even infants sin (because even infants die – Rom 5.12). So we had to ask if fallenness was like a germ that gets passed down from generation to generation. The germ theory fails to explain why Jesus didn’t “catch it,” though. Someone suggested that sin (fallenness) is passed down through the human father and Jesus didn’t “catch it” because He had no human father. Well, we Christian men aren’t going to stand for this kind of sexist thinking! (I’m kidding.) But frankly, there is no biblical basis for the “germ” theory. It’s true that fallenness derives from our relationship to Adam (1Co 15.21,22), and it’s also true that Jesus, though a true son of Adam, was not born in a fallen state (1Jo 3.5), but nowhere does the Bible present fallenness as a disease that is transmitted by a biological (or spiritual) substance. So, if it’s not a “germ,” what is fallenness?

I didn’t hear anyone mention the Augustinian view of original sin last night. That view states that we all sinned seminally (biologically) while we were still “in Adam” in the garden of Eden. Nor did I hear mention of the Reformation era Federal theory which states that God simply imputes sin to the whole race because their federal head (Adam) sinned. These two longstanding and orthodox ideas unfortunately raise more questions than they answer (neither of them explains why Jesus was not born fallen).

So, what is fallenness? Rick Dupea won the Dove Bar award last night for explaining that fallenness is a spiritual deficiency. The moment that Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually. That component of the human person that was designed to respond to God and sit in the driver’s seat of man’s whole nature, the spirit, died. That spiritual death rendered Adam and Eve forever unable to bequeath a living, vibrant spirit to their progeny. Everyone — but Jesus — has since been born with a deadness of spirit, a deadness that is only deepened each time the unregenerate person sins. That’s why Paul describes the human condition apart from Christ as being “dead in [our] transgressions and in the uncircumcision of [our] flesh” (Col 2.13). That’s also why the cure for human fallenness begins with the new birth; “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of ... the Spirit.... the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3.5,6).

Why wasn’t Jesus born fallen, with a propensity to sin? Because though His mother was unable to give Him spiritual life, His Father, God, was able to fill Him with vibrant spiritual life from birth!

Dan Thompson asked an important follow-up question: If the new birth of the spirit is the cure to human fallenness, why can’t born-again parents give birth to sinless children? This is a great question. The observed fact that even the children of born-again parents are sinful, tells us that there’s more to the story. We realize that the new birth is not the whole cure for the fall of man, but only the beginning of the cure. Though our spirit is born again, we still inhabit fallen bodies and still battle with the flesh. The rest of the cure awaits the Resurrection (Romans 8.23)!

This discussion was foundational because in coming BC2AD sessions it will help us understand a number of other biblical truths. For example, a clear understanding of our fallenness and its cure will eventually help us more fully grasp what happened (and what didn’t happen) when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. I look forward to that discussion!

What The LORD Passed Over

2008-01-18T20:20:00.000-08:00

Exodus 12.23 explains the dynamic of the Passover event:

When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

I've emphasized the words in this verse which state that it is the doorway that the LORD would pass over, in the sense of entering the house and passing through the blood in a sign of covenant kinship.

However, the Scripture uses the idea of passing over in a couple of different ways. In an earlier verse, Exo 12.13, God emphasizes that He will pass over (in the sense of upon) the Israelites themselves (the Hebrew is aleichem, as in the familiar greeting shalom aleichem, Peace be upon you). This meaning of God's passing over is beautifully reiterated in Isaiah 31.5 (NIV):

Like birds hovering overhead,
the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem;
he will shield it and deliver it,
he will 'pass over ' it and will rescue it.

Looking back to the original Passover in Egypt, this second idea pictures the LORD passing over each covenant home and hovering there like a great, shielding canopy.

Thank you, LORD!

To Teach Warfare (Judges 3.1-4)

2006-02-27T21:04:00.000-08:00

Our most recent discussion of warfare insights from Joshua and Judges produced the following thoughts from our group meeting in Gig Harbor:

God's battle plan is often counter-intuitive. Who would have thought to conquer Jericho by marching around it blowing trumpets and shouting?
God is willing to give us specific instructions on how to approach a battle.
These first two points imply the necessity of being able to hear from God. While the Scriptures remain our touchstone by which we test all things (Isaiah 8.20), there are times in the spiritual battle when we must receive specific instructions from God for our unique circumstances. In those times God is able to make His will known to us through counsel, signs or prophetic revelation.
Winning the battle requires that God's agenda be preeminent in our hearts and minds. Any selfish human motives or goals will jeopardize the battle's outcome.
It is our faith that overcomes the world (1John 5.4). Without faith we can neither please God (Hebrews 11.6) nor win our spiritual battles. It behooves us, then, to understand what faith is!
The principle of consecration looms large in the historical books. We cannot expect to win spiritual battles if we are not holy, that is, if we have not made certain that we are in a personal spiritual state that is pleasing to God. True consecration before a strategic battle requires self-examination, repentance where called for and time spent listening to God.
There is a defensive action that can be summarized by the idea of "locking our doors." Just as chains and dead bolts can keep unwanted troublemakers from entering our physical homes, appropriate safeguards can keep immoral influences from polluting our spiritual landscape.

Angels Ex Nihilo

2006-01-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

In our first session of 2006, Peter Smith astutely asked if angels existed "before the beginning" of Gen 1.1. After all, as Rus Sleeger noted to me in an e-mail, "the angels shouted for joy" when God laid the cornerstone of the earth's foundation (Job 38.4-6).

However, Gen. 1.1 is a merism (or merismus), "a rhetorical device that refers to the extreme parts ... of something to represent the whole." (Copan and Craig in Creation Out of Nothing, Baker, 2004.) For example, the common expression 'from Dan to Beersheba,' in passages like Judges 20.1, is a merism indicating the entirety of Israel by reference to the nation's northern and southern boundaries. In Genesis 1:1, the author is likewise telling us -- by reference to creation's two extremes -- that God made the entire universe. This is how Christianity has historically understood Gen 1.1, as stating that God created the totality of everything. This first verse of the Bible "is an independent sentence that constitutes a formal introduction to the entire section, and expresses at the outset, with majestic brevity, the main thought of the section..." (Cassuto, quoted in ibid.) In other words, Gen 1.1 does not say that God's first two steps in creation were to make the heavens and then the earth, but rather it summarizes the narrative to follow by saying that "In the beginning, God made everything." The rest of Gen 1 details the actual formation of entities from the primordial, formless matter that God made ex nihilo in creation's first moment.

Please note that the merism, "heavens and earth," includes in its expression of totality all spiritual entities as well as material ones. The Scriptures never propose two creations, as though there were first a creation of spiritual beings and then a subsequent creation of the material universe. On the contrary, passages like Col 1.16 emphasize the totality of the Creation Event as including "things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible..."

So, by definition, if "the beginning" of Gen 1.1 is the point at which, or after which, all created things came into existence, then as created beings the angels (Psa 148.2-5) could not have existed before "the beginning."

Nevertheless, I agree with Rus that the angels were created before the planet earth was formed. Students of the Bible have generally believed that the angels were created on the first day, immediately after the creation of the heavens. It is logical that angels were not created until God made "the heavens" for them to inhabit (see Col 1.16; Neh 9.6). However, since Gen 1.1 is an introductory, summary statement, it is possible to interpret verses 6-8 as describing the actual formation of "heaven" (the angelic habitation) along with "heaven" (the earth's sky) on the second day; note that the text speaks of "heavens" plural (cf. 2Co 12.2). What seems certain though, is that the angels were created before the third day when God gathered the waters under the firmament and shaped the planet of land and seas that we inhabit. I understand "the earth's foundation" mentioned in Job 38.4-6 as probabloccurringng on this third day.

What's New in the New Testament?

2005-08-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

"What is new in the New Testament?" Here's what you said in response:

The completed history of the incarnation.
Fulfilled prophecies, particularly relating to Messiah (but also regarding the Holy Spirit, see below).
A new emphasis on grace (without negating the value of the law, but only renouncing the law as means of justification).
A cross-cultural scope for God's redemptive plan (no longer just for Israel).
A "charismatic" empowering for all God's people (not just a few prophets as in OT).

Isn't that a great list of new things? I think it actually sums up the "new" aspect of the New Testament pretty well. I'm only surprised that no one added, "the Church." Is the Church new? Or does it reach back to the Garden of Eden? To help answer that question, I need you to work on page 31 in our Household of God notes.

The Cumulative Fulfillment of Prophecy

2005-06-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

This is a copy I painted of a masterpiece by Corot. An artist begins a work like this by first painting the background on his canvas. Background features are painted with softer lines and often employ bluish colors to make them look distant. The middle ground items follow next, painted with a little sharper focus and perhaps more vibrant colors. Finally the subject of the picture is painted in the foreground in sharp focus and perhaps using high contrast colors. The canvas was [ful]filled by the background, but the picture was not complete. The background and middle ground of the painting provide important context and perspective for the true subject, but the canvas is not ultimately [ful]filled, i.e., finished, until the final touches of the foreground subject are added.

In like manner, biblical prophecies are often fulfilled cumulatively. Instead of only one complete fulfillment per prophecy, prophecies can be fulfilled by a progression of events that occur over a long time. Thus, the prophecy of the virgin birth in Isaiah 7.14 receives its first fulfillment in Isaiah 8.3, but this is only a “background” fulfillment. The ultimate fulfillment does not occur until the virgin birth of Jesus recorded in Matthew 1.20-25. A prophecy can have several background and middle ground fulfillments, but the prophetic “canvas” is not finished (ultimately fulfilled) until the final event to which all others pointed occurs. We diagram the cumulative fulfillment of prophecy this way:

P represents the original prophecy, f1 and f 2 represent background fulfillments and f T stands for the Telos (ultimate) fulfillment.

Prophecies of the Holy Spirit's Outpouring

2005-06-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Many Christians today don’t realize how active God’s Holy Spirit was in the OT era. Some are surprised at the thought that people could be “born again” before the day of Pentecost. The confusion arises from the idea that the giving of the Spirit on Pentecost was the inauguration of all the Spirit’s ministries. In fact, the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost was only for the explicit purposes declared by Joel. Consider these observations about the OT prophecies of the Spirit’s outpouring:

(1) The OT prophecies of future outpouring or manifestation of the Holy Spirit fall under two great themes: The Coming of Messiah and The Restoration of Israel (see Plumb Lines pages 19 and 20).

(2) All the predicted ministries or manifestation of the Holy Spirit were already known, at least in part, in the OT era, having been witnessed in the lives of Moses and other Judges and prophets.

(3) Only Isaiah 59.20,21 (implicitly) and Joel 2.28-32 (explicitly) predict a prophetic or charismatic empowering of a large group of people. Both of these passages fall under the greater theme of Israel’s ultimate restoration.

(4) Joel’s prophecy stands out as unique among OT predictions of the Spirit on several counts:

A. While looking to the ultimate restoration of Israel, it applies to “all flesh,” grammatically the most general designation for people possible. Joel specifies the outpouring of the Spirit as upon both genders, all ages and all social stratas.

B. Joel’s prophecy specifies charismatic gifts and manifestations as the result of the outpouring, in contrast to the usual repentance from idolatry that is in view in the other prophecies of the Spirit and Israel’s restoration.

C. Rather than looking only to Israel’s restoration following the Apocalypse, Joel speaks of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that precedes the Apocalypse! We noted that while Peter on the day of Pentecost quoted Joel 2 to the middle of verse 32, Peter cut off his quotation in mid verse (like Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth) for Pentecost only brought fulfillment of the prophecy up to that point: Pentecost brought the pre-apocalyptic outpouring and a fresh opportunity for Israelites to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation, but Pentecost was not the Apocalypse and had no reference to Armageddon “survivors.”

(5) It becomes clear that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, was not a general outpouring for repentance and salvation; those ministries of the Spirit were already active and manifest. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was specifically for charismatic empowering. Furthermore, that charismatic empowering was for accomplishing the great harvest that would occur in the course of obeying the Great Commission. It was no accident that the outpouring occurred on the day of the harvest festival of Weeks.

(6) Therefore, we really have no business celebrating Pentecost Sunday if we have no interest in the charismatic empowering of the Spirit. To think of the Pentecost outpouring as the beginning of the Spirit’s salvific ministries is false pneumatology. Israelites did repent and get saved by the power of the Spirit on Pentecost, but they could have experienced the new birth before that time: what was not previously available to them (unless they were specially chosen prophets) was access to the charismatic gifts.

(7) Finally, understanding the unique and specific purpose of the Pentecost outpouring helps us realize that salvation (new birth) and charismatic empowering are distinct ministries of the Spirit and can be distinct events in the life of the believer. The chronological relationship between salvation and empowering by the Spirit is a topic we will take up at another time.

God Explodes Our Ideas In Job's Story

2005-04-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Class participant, Wendy Palmer, writes:

It would be great if we had at least three sessions on Job wouldn't it? I love that book every time. It intrigues me.

My thought this time around was stimulated from the text book, last one or two paragraphs of the chapter on Job. The text presented the idea of there being three topics that had to be reconciled in the minds of the participants in the book of Job. They were; God Himself (upholding His perfect justice, holiness and love), Job (approving or disproving the possibility that he was "perfect") and the theology of retribution (that seemed to be a given in all their minds). The text says one of these ideas had to be abandoned because they can't all be maintained [at once]. The friends canceled out Job and maintained retribution theology and God. Job "all but gives up on God, while he vigorously maintains retribution theo. and his innocence." In the end God eliminates their understanding and application of retribution theology. Job's experience puts someone or something in jeopardy.

I really thought this defined the struggle so well that they were having then and that we often struggle with now. We have some dearly cherished ideas, theologies about God and how He works or is supposed to. Some go way deep into our church history and most, many of them are great and helpful to us (human beings) who feel such a deep need to have a structure to hold us together. We seem to have to have ways of explaining the unexplainable; I believe God made us to be that way for a purpose. But when we hold to those structures or boxes that we create for our own stability, certainly not for God, then we are baffled when something happens to us or around us as it did to Job.

Though retribution theology in general seems to be a "regular" way that I see God working, does that mean He has to stick to it or He totally blows it? The theology becomes the idol and God is dethroned. But He is not threatened by our little rules. He blows up our ideas now and then through suffering, disaster, loss, or undeserved blessings, or through violent grace and we are reminded that He can act and do whatever He so chooses and is not necessarily concerned that He fits into our explanation or that we can even explain it. And we are left with nothing left to say. I love who He is.

Silenced, Wendy Palmer.

Thanks, Wendy. I love who He is, too, and that He will never be put in a box of our making!
RG

Grace & Idolatry

2005-03-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

One of the most important theological words for us as Christians is grace (Greek: Xaris). We are very familiar with one important connotation of grace, and that is unmerited divine favor (e.g., Luke 1.30). What we must not lost sight of is the additional meaning of the word grace, which is the spiritual power that flows from divine favor (see Acts 4.33; 6.8; 2Cor 9.8; 12.9; Eph. 3.7; 2Tim 2.1; Heb. 13.9; 1Pet 5.10).

Putting these ideas together, we may define grace as: Unmerited divine favor and the spiritual power that flows from it.

Another important word for us as we study the OT is idolatry. We tend to think of idolatry as the worship of a thing rather than of the Creator of all things, and this accurately describes the external event (Rom 1.25). Considering the internal event, however, helps us get to the true essence of idolatry. Here’s a practical definition of idolatry gleaned from the practices of the Old Testament era:

Idolatry: The worship of a god who makes no moral demands upon me, leaves me in control and allows me to manipulate him for my benefit.

When we think of idolatry in these terms, we realize that even as professing Christians we fall into idolatrous attitudes when we resist God’s call to moral transformation and perform our religious rituals in the hope of manipulating God into giving us what we want. A person who refuses to yield to Christ’s lordship, but engages in Christian rituals in the hope of escaping hell, is no Christian at all, but in fact an idolater, worshipping a Christ of his own imagination!

Insights On Spiritual Warfare from 1 & 2 Kings

2005-03-06T19:06:00.000-08:00

Our class discussion on 1 & 2 Kings surfaced these insights on spiritual warfare:

Compromise with the enemy weakens us for the continuing battle.
Compromise with the enemy is disobedience toward God and can bring swift and severe chastening
When the true God is rejected, a false god will fill the spiritual vacuum. This is true both for the individual and for a society.
We should seek biblical guidance and counsel if we wish to win our spiritual battles (Prov 20.18)
Wisdom is supremely important in spiritual warfare (Prov 4.7), but the biblical writers never conceived of a cerebral “wisdom” apart from personal relationship with God (Prov 9.10). Superior intellect alone will never win spiritual battles.

Warfare Insights from Joshua and Judges

2005-02-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

As Pastor Kaj Martin led our discussion, BC2AD participants shared the following insights from Joshua and Judges.

The enemy uses people.
There is no victory without obedience.
In biblical times, God dealt swiftly with disobedience.
God has a strategy for the battle and is willing to give us specific instructions.
God will help us pick the right battles.
God's guidance is sometimes counterintuitive.
God is with us in the battle.
Making any agreement with the enemy will bring lasting consequences.
There is power in unity.

Theodicies from Georgia and Bob

2005-02-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Back to the philosophical Problem of Evil:

If God is all good, and God is almighty, why is there evil in the world?

We learned that an attempt to answer this problem and exonerate God (in view of the fact that evil is present) is called a theodicy.

After class, Georgia suggested that the answer to the Problem of Evil might have something to do with God’s creating us in His own image, and giving us the power of choice. Bob speculated about the answer perhaps having something to do with God having turned over the dominion of the earth to us. Excellent preliminary thoughts!

Keep the theodicies coming!

Ultimate Humility

2005-02-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Wendy Palmer shared an important insight on humility. She said something like this:

Humility involves knowing who you really are before God.

If we have relationship with God through His Son, and understand God’s love for us, along with His plans and purposes for us, that should help us step away from self-absorption and self-protection and really begin to put others first. That’s what Moses did when he prayed for Miriam’s healing, even after Miriam had affronted her little brother (Num. 12).

Marina Ochman e-mailed about Philippians 2.5-8. This passage describes the ultimate demonstration of humility, that of Jesus, and calls us to become conformed to it:

...being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death -- even death on a cross! (NIV)

What Is Fallennes & How Is It Passed Down?

2005-02-02T08:36:00.001-08:00

We tentatively concluded that the fallenness problem is a deficiency rather than a substantive thing. Sin is not something we pass down from generation to generation. Rather it is a healthy, living spirit that we are unable to pass down. Because we are born without a healthy, living spirit, our flesh takes over and our every inclination is selfish and sinful. Even as Paul emphasized, we were “dead” in our sins (Eph. 2.5; Col 2.13). When we understand our fallenness as a deficiency, it helps us appreciate the necessity of the new birth (John 3.3), not only for people today, but for everyone since the time of Adam. To have relationship with God and enter His kingdom, our spirits (the part of us that that enables us to respond to God) must be regenerated, made alive again, by the intervention of God’s Spirit.

Jesus Christ did not have the sin problem because His Father did not have our deficiency. His Father was able to “beget” Him with a fully living and healthy spirit. That vibrantly healthy spirit was able to keep Christ’s soul and body perfectly subject to God’s will.

Truth Sets

2005-01-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

I propose that there is such a thing as Pure Biblical Truth; it’s the truth as our Lord Jesus would have understood it. That Pure Biblical Truth is a subset of that larger set of beliefs we call Christian Orthodoxy. Christian Orthodoxy includes all the ideas that a person can believe and still be considered a Christian by historical definition. Many ideas that are orthodox are not biblically correct, but they are taught by whole denominations and considered acceptable ideas for Christians to hold. For example, there are churches who teach that certain spiritual gifts (charismata) have passed away, and other churches who teach that those spiritual gifts continue operating legitimately among believers to this day. Both beliefs fall within the circle of Christian Orthodoxy, but since the two beliefs contradict each other they cannot both fall within the set of Pure Biblical Truth.

Our goal is to bring our Personal Beliefs more and more into conformity with the Pure Biblical Truth, but some of our beliefs inevitably fall outside that circle. That’s okay so long as they still fall within the circle of Christian Orthodoxy AND we are continuing to seek the Lord for better understanding. However, sometimes our beliefs fall both outside of the Pure Biblical Truth AND outside of Christian Orthodoxy. Then we have a spiritual-theological problem, and we used to call it Heresy. Heresy happens too often in American Christianity today. Respected evangelical (or pseudo-evangelical) theologians are proposing, for example, that God’s punishment of the wicked after the judgment will not last forever. Others are proposing that God is not omniscient, for He does not foresee the choices that humans will make. These ideas fall outside the circle of Christian Orthodoxy, and we must reacquaint ourselves with the Scriptures that invalidate them.

The relationship between our different Truth Sets is illustrated below. Notice how the set of our beliefs (the red circle) overlaps both the set of Pure Biblical Truth and the set of Christian Orthodoxy. Unfortunately, our Personal Beliefs sometimes stretch outside of Orthodoxy -- before we realize it!

Appearance of the Crank

2004-11-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

St. Polycarb

2004-10-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

You laugh, eh? There is a St. Polycarb, patron of coffee breaks! He is readily recognizable in medieval art by his distinct nimbus (halo), in the shape of a buttermilk cruller.

Satan Bound and Loosed!

2004-09-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

I invite you to ponder one of the toughest questions raised by the book of Revelation (Rev. 20.7): Why will God allow Satan to be released again at the end of the Millennium? Would we release an unrepentant, psychopathic serial killer once we had him imprisoned? It is clear from the text that Satan will emerge from his prison just as rebellious and evil as ever. God clearly knows beforehand that Satan will raise a new rebellion among humans when turned loose. Why will God allow this?

Give it some thought and post your comments here.

Thank YOU, BC2AD Participants

2004-09-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everyone, for your gift of a 3-night getaway for Kaaren and me. Here's the beautiful rainbow that greeted us on our first evening at the B&B on Camano Island.

Problem of Evil Solved!

2004-09-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the Friday BC2AD class for successfully solving the philosophical Problem of Evil. Good work, people! I only regret that Chad Johnson and others weren’t there to experience the discussion and the amazing answer to this conundrum. I also regret that we won’t have a chance to revisit our theodicy this coming Friday, since we’re already behind on our material and we need to plow ahead, but hey, what a great class we had!

Questions Raised by the Acts & Epistles

2004-08-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

As we rocket through our New Testament survey, important questions pop out of familiar passages:

When was The Church born; when did it begin?
What is a biblical definition of “The Church” (Greek Ekklesia)? What does the definition of Ekklesia have to do with the Rapture Question?
How did the first-century church keep the New Commandment (John 13.34) and pursue the Great Commission?
Should we strive to imitate the first-century church, or should we feel totally free to reshape the church into something more relevant to our generation?
What are the danger signs, if any, that a local congregation is losing the character of what can rightly be called a “Christian” church?
What is the Gospel?
What is sin, and what is implied about sin by the fact that infants die?
Does God still have a purpose for the nation of Israel in the Christian era?
Is the God of the New Testament really the same God as the God of the Old Testament?
Why did an all-powerful God allow evil to enter His universe (The Philosophical Problem of Evil)?

Click on the comments link and post your thoughts -------->

Principles of Good Relationship Reprise

2004-07-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

The Principles of Good Relationship (i.e., of Authentic Fellowship)

1. Attach yourself to godly mentors who can disciple you in the skills of good relationship (Titus 2.4; Prov 13.20). Good relationship, like good thinking, is a skill that must be learned.

2. Recognize God as the ultimate standard of good relationship (Exo. 34.6; Prov 6.16-19; 16.7). The Trinity is relational from eternity, and as omniscient Creator, God knows perfectly what makes human relationship work.

3. Receive Christ. Only Christ can give us the necessary grace (power) to become “others oriented” (John 7.38; Philip. 2.4; 1John 3.23). A person who has learned this others-orientation will be known as a giver, not a taker.

4. Decide to pursue relationships for redemptive rather than selfish motives (Prov 14.20-21, 31; 16.2; 19.6-7).

5. Tap into God’s relational insight by prayer and study of Scripture. Only He fully understands what’s going on inside the other person (Prov 15.11; 20.27; John 2.25). If we humbly ask God’s help with a relationship, He takes us into His confidence (Prov 3.32).

6. Prioritize people over things (Prov. 23.6-8; Luke 16.9).

7. Good relationship begins with my good character (Prov, 22.11).

8. “Forgive others as the Lord forgave you” (Col. 3.13). [Thanks for prompting this one, Linda!]

9. Befriend the whole person, including their spirit (Eph. 5.19). [Thanks Rachel, for prompting this one.]

10. Live accountably under authority (Eph. 5.21). [Thanks Rachel, for prompting this one.]

11. Give and receive counsel. Good relationship is characterized by this discipline (Prov. 27.9).

12. A good relationship, like a good surgeon, causes pain when necessary (Prov. 27.6). Share a painful truth with your friend when love demands it.

13. Persist in your loyalty. Faithfulness to your friends is essential even when they err (Job 6.14; Prov. 17.17; 27.10). Friendship progresses to a point at which it is tantamount to a covenant, even if an unspoken one, and that covenant should not be broken (Psa 55.12-21).

14. Make sacrifices. The best relationships are built on a mountain of little sacrifices, made consistently over time, and will sometimes require ultimate sacrifice (John 15.13; 1John 3.16).

15. Practice the art of listening well (Psa. 22.24; Prov. 1.5; 4.20; 12.15; 15.31; 18.13; 19.20,27; 20.12). This is one of the sacrifices of good relationship.

16. Be honest, tell the truth (Prov. 6.16-19; 12.19,22; 13.5; 16.13; 24.26).

17. Practice the progression of intimacy. Servanthood precedes friendship, authentic friendship precedes brotherhood (John 15.13; 20.17).

18. Risk transparency. Relationship can’t go deep if we never confess our failings (Prov. 28.13). We value most those friends who are “real.”

19. Learn to recognize a relational dead end; some relationships should never begin (Prov. 12.26; 22.24,25).

Please share your comments and add to this list ------>

PSCC Interns Participate in BC2AD

2004-07-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a fantastic blessing having the Puget Sound Christian Center summer interns participate in our Friday session of BC2AD. Congratulations to them all for learning the Greek alphabet song and earning their Krispe Kremes!

Abigail Joy Gunn born today!

2004-07-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

At 12:30 p.m. today, Sonia gave birth to a beautiful 8 lb., 15 oz. girl. Baby is doing well, and Sonia and James are ecstatic! Abigail’s conception was nearly miraculous and certainly the result of many prayers. I believe God has special redemptive plans for this child. May your blessing, Holy Father, continue to rest upon her and increase!

The Spirit Not Yet Given???

2004-07-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

John 7.37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The Spirit of God has been active in the earth at least since Genesis 1.2. Since the time of Adam, people had to enter the Kingdom by being born again of the Spirit just like us. Before the time of Jesus, people were miraculously healed and prophets prophesied. How can John say that “the Spirit had not [yet] been given”? In what possible sense had the Spirit not been given yet?

Post your comments here! ----->

Take Up Your Cross?

2004-07-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

You know Aunt Bruinhilda, and how she always pinches my cheek and says, "My how you've grown," even though I'm 40 years old? I just can't hardly stand it, but I guess she's just the cross I have to bear...

We're familiar with the saying of Jesus in Luke 9.23, "take up your cross," but what does it mean? Does it just mean that we should bear up under the little irritations of life?

Post your comments and insights here!

The Prayer of Faith and Healing In James 5

2004-07-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks, fellow students, for wonderful insights in tonight's discussion. If you're interested in a technical study on the prayer of faith in James 5, please download my article on this topic:

The Prayer of Faith and Healing In James 5

Faith Without Doubt

2004-07-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

In Mark 11, Jesus said,

23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

How does a person attain this faith without doubt? Is such a faith even possible? Share your comments with us!

Receive The Holy Spirit

2004-07-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

I'm convinced that the fourth imperative of the Great Commission, the command of Jesus to "receive the Holy Spirit," has become a great omission for much of the church. We have agreed that John 2.22 is smack in the middle of a Great Commission context: in the preceding verse, Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." It is also clear to all that the active presence of the Holy Spirit was — and is — prerequisite to anyone being able to fulfill the Great Commission. Nevertheless, the precise significance of Jesus breathing upon the disciples and telling them "Receive..." has been much debated.

Many have argued over whether the Spirit was given twice, once on this occasion before Christ's ascension, and again on Pentecost after Christ's ascension. Some have even suggested that John's gospel contradicts Acts, and that the Spirit was really given before Pentecost. All such arguments, sane and foolish, are settled for me by the realization that this was not a giving but a receiving of the Spirit. It's true that the act of Jesus breathing upon the disciples was significant. This is the only place in the NT where this Gk word breathe upon is used, but it appears in the LXX version of the OT in Gen. 2.7 and Eze. 37.9. By this act, Jesus was communicating that all the life-giving presence of the Spirit would come from Himself as the Source. But still, the most important part of this verse is Christ's explicit command: "Receive the Holy Spirit."

Remember that Hebraic thought is distinctly relational. By His command, Jesus called His disciples into a conscious, volitional relationship with the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit was given is irrelevant to this command. The Spirit was already given to God's people in some aspects of His ministry, but was not yet given in the sense Jesus spoke of in John 7.38,39. That was beside the point at this moment in Christ's ministry to the disciples. Christ's command was an appeal to the will, pure and simple, and He makes the same appeal to all His disciples today: "Say yes to a conscious, purposeful relationship with the Holy Spirit."

Don't take this lightly. Jesus said, "As the Father sent Me, I also send you." The Father sent Jesus out from His natural dwelling place and into a fatally hostile environment. The disciples who said Yes to the Holy Spirit were led to crosses, shipwrecks and beheadings for the sake of the gospel. There is no guarantee that saying Yes to the Spirit today will lead us into a less sacrificial life than that of the first Christians. On the contrary, volitionally receiving the Holy Spirit is apt to cost us dearly with regard to our own agenda and personal comforts. But, fellow believers, do we have a choice? (Luk. 9.23)

Battlefield Redemption: Why?

2004-07-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

We didn't get to our warm up question this week, so will carry it over to next week's class. The question is related to The Problem of Evil, and it's this: Why did God choose to work out His redemptive plan in a war environment? In other words, why didn't God bind Satan at the outset of the Great Commission so that we could evangelize without resistance from the Satanic hosts? Please share your thoughts with our blog!

The Kingdom of God: Past, Present or Future?

2004-07-02T18:50:00.003-07:00

Our working definition for The Kingdom of God is: the rule of God. On the basis of that definition, when did the Kingdom begin?

We all agree that some NT passages refer to a future (coming) realization of the Kingdom. Nevertheless, God's reign was recognized since OT times:

"...the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim." (1Sa 4.4)
"The LORD reigns!" (1Ch 16.31)
"The One enthroned in heaven laughs..." (Ps 2.4)
"The LORD reigns forever, he has established his throne for judgment." (Ps 97)
"The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty." (Ps 93.1)
"Say among the nations, 'The LORD reigns.'" (Ps 96.10)
"The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad." (Ps 97.1)
"The LORD reigns forever..." (Ps 146.10)
"O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth." (Isa 37.16)
"You, O Lord, reign forever, your throne endures from generation to generation." (Lam 5.19)

On the basis of such passages, we recognize that the Kingdom of God has, at least in some sense, existed since the beginning. I welcome your comments!

Yom YHWH

2004-06-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've sure enjoyed exploring "The Day of the Lord" with our BC2AD participants. Here's the final definition we came up with in class:

Yom YHWH: The epoch of the Lord's exaltation, when God makes visible His rule of righteousness with His saints and restores (1) His intimacy with man, (2) man's dominion, (3) the [purity] of the heavens and the earth, and (4) Israel's ministry of blessing the nations.

We discovered that Yom YHWH will be preceded by The Age of the Spirit (Joel 2.28-29), and immediately signaled by the sign of the darkening of the sun and moon (Joel 2.31).

THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD RELATIONSHIP

2004-06-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

As we completed our OT survey with the book of Malachi, we discussed our responsibility to safeguard and prepare future generations with wisdom and righteousness (Mal 4.6; Luk 1.17). We realize we must train the upcoming generation by word and example. Among other things, we must teach our biological and spiritual children the principles of good relationship. We didn't have time in class to list those principles, but we can do it here on our blog! Let me start the list off, and urge you to add items to it:

The Principles of Good Relationship

1. Attach yourself to godly mentors who can disciple you in the skills of good relationship (Titus 2.4; Prov 13.20). Good relationship, like good thinking, is a skill that must be learned.

2. Recognize God as the ultimate standard of good relationship (Exo. 34.6; Prov 6.16-19; 16.7). The Trinity is relational from eternity, and as omniscient Creator, God knows perfectly what makes human relationship work.

3. Receive Christ. Only Christ can give us the necessary grace (power) to become “others oriented” (John 7.38; Philip. 2.4; 1John 3.23). A person who has learned this others-orientation will be known as a giver, not a taker.

4. Decide to pursue relationships for redemptive rather than selfish motives (Prov 14.20-21, 31; 16.2; 19.6-7).

5. Tap into God’s relational insight by prayer and study of Scripture. Only He fully understands what’s going on inside the other person (Prov 15.11; 20.27; John 2.25). If we humbly ask God’s help with a relationship, He takes us into His confidence (Prov 3.32).

6. Prioritize people over things (Prov. 23.6-8; Luke 16.9).

7. Good relationship begins with my good character (Prov, 22.11).

8. “Forgive others as the Lord forgave you” (Col. 3.13). [Thanks for prompting this one, Linda!]

9. Befriend the whole person, including their spirit (Eph. 5.19). [Thanks Rachel, for prompting this one.]

10. Live accountably under authority (Eph. 5.21). [Thanks Rachel, for prompting this one.]

11. Give and receive counsel. Good relationship is characterized by this discipline (Prov. 27.9).

12. A good relationship, like a good surgeon, causes pain when necessary (Prov. 27.6). Share a painful truth with your friend when love demands it.

13. Persist in your loyalty. Faithfulness to your friends is essential even when they err (Job 6.14; Prov. 17.17; 27.10). Friendship progresses to a point at which it is tantamount to a covenant, even if an unspoken one, and that covenant should not be broken (Psa 55.12-21).

14. Make sacrifices. The best relationships are built on a mountain of little sacrifices, made consistently over time, and will sometimes require ultimate sacrifice (John 15.13; 1John 3.16).

15. Practice the art of listening well (Psa. 22.24; Prov. 1.5; 4.20; 12.15; 15.31; 18.13; 19.20,27; 20.12). This is one of the sacrifices of good relationship.

16. Be honest, tell the truth (Prov. 6.16-19; 12.19,22; 13.5; 16.13; 24.26).

17. Practice the progression of intimacy. Servanthood precedes friendship, authentic friendship precedes brotherhood (John 15.13; 20.17).

18. Risk transparency. Relationship can’t go deep if we never confess our failings (Prov. 28.13). We value most those friends who are “real.”

19. Learn to recognize a relational dead end; some relationships should never begin (Prov. 12.26; 22.24,25).

THE MOST IMPORTANT PRAYER QUESTION

2004-06-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

Having learned why that we should pray now for the things God has already said He would do, the important question becomes:

What things should we be praying into fulfillment now, that the Lord has previously told us He would do?

My temptation is to say, "Great, the Lord has said He would do 'thus and such,' and that will be nice when it happens." And, I don't pray for it to come to pass.

Why Pray?

2004-06-14T23:52:00.000-07:00

Why should we pray? The question becomes pointed in those instances when God declares beforehand what He is going to do. If God announces that He is going to do something, as He did when He told Elijah He would send rain, why should Elijah then go up on Mt. Carmel and pray 7 times that God would send rain (1Kings 18)?

Here are the insights collated from our class discussions:

1. God's promises presuppose certain conditions, the first of which is often ... prayer.

2. God invites us to join in His work; prayer is the first responsibility of that partnership.

3. Joining in God's work involves removing barriers to His purposes (see Dan. 10.12-14). Warfare prayer removes those barriers.

4. Praying God’s promises expresses trust (faith), and allows the world to see God work as He answers our prayers.

5. Praying until God answers reveals His heart to us and conforms our will to His.

6. Deepening our knowledge of God’s heart draws us into intimacy with Him (John 17.3; 1 Cor 13.12).

When To Not Pray

2004-06-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

We noted in class that God told Jeremiah to stop praying for his people:

Jeremiah 7.16 "So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you..."

Jeremiah 11.14 "Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress..."

Jeremiah 14.11 Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the well-being of this people..."

God told Jeremiah to stop interceding for Judah, because He could not justly answer Jeremiah's prayer. It had become necessary for God to keep the terms of His covenant with the Israelites and bring upon them the curses He had promised for persistent disobedience (Deut 28-30).

God's explicit command to not pray provides a very practical lesson for us: God does not say no with silence. Remember that when God said no to Paul's prayers, it was with clear revelation:

2Corinthians 12.8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Likewise, when God needs to say no to us, He will do so by unmistakable direction, not with silence. As with the Canaanite woman (Mat 15.23), the Lord's silence does not mean no, it means "keep praying until I answer"! (Compare Luke 18.1-8.)

Only stop praying when God tells you "stop!" and tells you as clearly as he told Jeremiah and Paul.

Moses and Satan

2004-06-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

If Ezekiel 28.13-14 and Isaiah 14.3-20 are about Satan, why wouldn't Moses have provided these details about our Enemy much earlier in his writings? Well, as we see in the preceding posts on this topic, Ezek 28 and Isa 11 probably allude to Satan but they're not formal teachings about him; they are first and foremost warnings to earthly kings.

Moses did provide the fundamental information we need about Satan in Genesis, chapter 3. But as you know, this brief account of the deception and fall of man doesn't exhaust the Bible's teaching on the subject of Satan. Remember the principle of progressive revelation. As the need for understanding increased among God's people, God gave further revelation on the nature of our spiritual enemy and on the cosmic spiritual war we are in. The biblical teaching on Satan continues right up through the book of Revelation. Therefore, it is plausible that Ezekiel and Isaiah could have received some insights about Satan's fall that Moses did not know. Still, the important thing for us is not to nail down the fine points of demonology, but rather to get the message the prophets intended us to get: Don't rebel against God!

Lucifer in Isaiah 14?

2004-06-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Now, let's look at Isaiah 14.3-20. Similarly to the dirge for the king of Tyre in Ezek 28, this is a "taunt" (v. 4) against the king of Babylon. Why then does it mention Lucifer (Day Star or Morning Star) falling from heaven in v. 12? Is this taunt about an earthly king or about Satan falling from heaven? The answer is the former, the earthly "king of Babylon," for he is identified as a "man" in verses 16 and 17. In ancient literature, to be "cast down [from heaven] to earth" was poetic imagery for ultimate humiliation, and it didn't necessarily refer to a literal fall from heaven. The Sibylline Oracles 3, Jewish prophetic utterances from the 2nd century BC, speak of the fall of Rome in this manner. In our Isaiah text, the focus is upon the total humiliation of the king of Babylon, and not upon a literal fall from heaven by Satan, Lucifer or whomever.

However, I think there is an allusion to Satan's fall here, and I have a suggestion about it and the allusion to the devil in Ezek 28: Is it possible that Ezekiel and Isaiah were pointing to the Satanic (demonic) spirit(s) that were energizing and motivating the kings of Tyre and Babylon? The prophets were certainly warning the kings of antiquity not to make the fatal mistake of arrogance toward God that Satan had made. Were they also warning those kings that it was the devil whose desires they were carrying out? (Compare John 8.44.)

Here's a further question: The context of Isaiah 14 hints at a yet future fulfillment; is it possible that this "Lucifer ... man" is a reference to the coming Antichrist?

Satan in Ezekiel 28?

2004-06-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

A BC2AD Participant writes:

I am curious to know how you interpret Ezekiel 28:12-19.

Last fall my Bible study group was doing Job by Kay Arthur and now I am doing a seeker study by John Cross with my neighbor. Both Arthur and Cross point to Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 as being a description of the character of Satan and how/why he lost his place in Heaven. But I'm just not buying it. Aside from the fact the passages are direct prophecies of the king of Babylon and Tyre - why would Moses not have told us about Satan in his books?

What great questions! Let's tackle Ezek 28 first. The prophecy is for the king of Tyre, but it's not about him. Literally, God says in Ezek 28.12, "Take up a dirge on behalf of the King of Tyre..." Ezek 28.12-19 is a funeral song about the "anointed covering cherub" (v. 14) that was cast out of "the mount of God," i.e., God's dwelling place (v. 16). The intent of the dirge is that the king of Tyre would take a hint from what befell the "anointed covering cherub" and repent!

Who was this "anointed guardian cherub" who was "in Eden, the garden of God"? In the final analysis we cannot prove his identity from the sparse scriptural data. That he was Satan is probably our best guess because Satan was in Eden and Satan is cast down from God's dwelling place (Rev 12.9). But ultimately the cherub's identity is not crucial; what's most important is that the king of Tyre, and all who read this prophecy, take heed of the consequences of pride and arrogance toward God (Ezek 28.17)!

Great Idea

2004-06-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

Whoever thought of this should be commended. I've never heard of blogs for classes etc. I tend to listen more than talk (usually), so I may read more than write. More than anxious to see what people have to say, and ask. Good starter Rod! Jo, my wife, and I sure do love the classes. Looks like this will be a new place to look each day for good stimulating comments! Thanks everyone.

Where's The Throne of David?

2004-06-12T09:43:00.001-07:00

This is the first time I've ever joined one of these 'blogs'!! I think this is a great idea. Perhaps easier for me to speak up here than in class (grin). I was pulled to another ward to work Thursday nite, and spent a majority of that night discussing the Bible and our BC2AD course, the Minor Prophets, and The Day of The Lord with this person. It was great, because normally we don't get to do that! We got into a discussion as to where we think the Throne of David is located. Referring back to the scripture Isaiah 18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strage speech, whose land is divided by rivers - the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty.The Bible mentions Cush (Ethiopia) and 'the land beyond the rivers of Ehiopia' (Assyria). I think that Christ's True Throne is in Assyria. In I Kings 8:25 God tells us that the throne is "in my sight"; He knows where it is. I just found it exciting to try and 'solve the puzzle' as it were. I may be way off, but it's fun to try and figure it out. A nice little 'mystery' for us to ponder.
There are many Christians working out at Western State Hospital, and it is officially frowned upon to discuss religion or pray with residents; however, we staff occasionally get blessed by being able to openly talk about this amongst ourselves. And, to date, no one has complained about us reading the Bible or doing Bible studies.
And that's a blessing, in itself!!

Where will the "Great Tribulation" occur?

2004-06-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

I interpret the Bible using a historical-grammatical method. I accept the Scriptures as historical and as written in a real historical context. I also believe that within that historical context, the Scriptures were intended to be read and understood according to the normal rules of grammar employed by their original audiences.

Therefore, when passages like Rev 13.3 say that "all the world ... followed the beast (= Antichrist)," I take it to mean that the whole Mediterranean world, i.e., the whole world as understood by a first-century audience, will fall under Antichrist's spell. It is within the geographical boundaries of this first-century, "Roman" world where the heat of the tribulation will be centered.

I welcome your comments!

Welcome

2004-06-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the BC2AD weB LOG! This is your forum to share your thoughts with the BC2AD instructor and with other BC2AD participants. All comments and questions are welcome, on any topic relating to the Bible and Christian history. We do ask that you make your postings concise: that will encourage others to read them. The instructor does reserve the right to edit postings. Have fun!