People often ask me how biblical counseling differs from other approaches to soul care. Here’s a summary I’ve been teaching for almost two decades, which I hope will help you grow in understanding sanctification. This week, look up the Scriptures listed and meditate on God’s abundant provision through the Spirit and the Word. See how each piece fits together. This study will be a healthy meal for your soul.
Biblical counseling believes:
1. The Bible is the all-sufficient source of Truth.
Scripture is pure truth (Ps. 119:140, 160).
Scripture is sufficient to identify the deepest needs of our soul, and meet them (Ps. 19:7-11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Scripture is the instrumental means the Spirit uses to transform us from the inside out, even sanctifying our motivations (John 17:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 4:12).
Scripture is the judge of all man-made philosophy and theory, as to whether or not it is accurate, corrupts the gospel, or diminishes Christ (1 Cor. 2:11-16; Col. 2:8-10; 2 Cor. 10-4-6).
2. Man is totally depraved, accountable to God, and responsible for his thoughts and actions.
Man’s heart is wicked and deceitful (Jer. 17:9).
Man’s heart is motivated by love for self, and is addicted to sin (Gen. 6:5; Rom. 6:13).
Man will give an account of himself to God (Rom. 14:12; 1 Pet. 4:4-5).
Man is responsible for his own temptation and sin (James 1:13-16).
But man can be rescued and redeemed by Jesus Christ—becoming a new creature in Him (2 Cor. 5:17).
3. God’s goal for every believer is to be like Jesus Christ.
The Christian life begins with regeneration, being born-again by the Spirit through the Word of truth, the gospel (John 3:1-8; 1 Pet. 1:3).
God has predestined believers to become conformed to the image of His Son, thus this is God’s goal (Rom. 8:29).
God is renewing the believer’s self into the image of Christ, as we put off the old and put on the new (Col. 3:9-10; Eph. 4:17-32).
4. The Holy Spirit is the agent of heart change, which produces change of behavior.
The Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ as we behold Him in the Word (2 Cor. 3:18).
The Holy Spirit progressively trains us in godliness and develops new attitudes and lifestyle as we walk in the Word (Gal. 5:22-25).
5. Every Christian is fully equipped in Christ for godliness, but submission to God’s training is required.
God’s power is sufficient to live a life that is pleasing to Him, having already been accepted in Christ (2 Pet. 1:2-7; Eph. 1:6).
God will finish the sanctifying work which He began at conversion, but not without the personal discipline of the believer (Phil. 1:6; 2:12-13).
Suffering is one of the chief means the heavenly Father employs to train us in godliness and discipline (Heb. 12:4-11).
6. Sanctification is a process requiring ongoing repentance and personal discipline toward godliness.
Discipline the thoughts of the mind (Rom. 12:1-2).
Discipline the desires of the heart (James 4:1-3).
“Art of Salvation” is the Art section of DivineCouncil.org’s new online store!
Believing Artists celebrate the wonder of salvation in art. By their gifts — through the eyes of the Spirit — God is glorified. And with the work their hands find to do, another view of the Art of Salvation is revealed.
Our first offerings are from Angel (Isaiah McCann) with her “Eden Tree Collection” and J9 who’s been able to “realize on canvas” some long-held visions by working with Angel.
Mark 8:24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.”
“It may be that my imagination gets carried away on this verse, but it inspired me to create people who look like trees.
Another inspiration for my trees, was an article titled “Sacred Trees in Israelite Religion”, that was later put in the book, “The Bible Unfiltered, Scripture’s Sacred Trees”, by Dr. Michael S. Heiser.”
— Angel Isaiah McCann
(NOTE: There are 14 available sizes for each work and please make sure to see the preview for your choice before ordering.)
Collaborations with J9
J9 describes how the collaboration with Angel came about:
It was in early 2017 that the Lord led me to what has become a very fruitful relationship with an Artist Lady, who co-incidentally goes by the name Angel.
Needing a way to describe the vision which I had in my mind for over a decade, I drew a rough sketch and, after some email exchanges containing “what-if’s” and “tweaks,” was presented with the finished product as you see it here.
Stay tuned for more inspiring and useful things to be added to the Store!
Humility is so not something we work on. It really is what we are, what it means to come to trust Jesus, to need Jesus, because our own works are a crumbly mess.
Thinking that the church at Corinth had the same basic theology as Paul. He calls them saints. He says that they have all things, that they are Christ’s, and that they, like him, have nothing they didn’t receive. Basically they both have received the gift of the gospel. They are Christ’s people, his church.
But then he really goes after them for not living it out. For what kind of theologians they are. He paints this incredible contrast in chapter 4. The “Corinth-way” of being theologians is that they are rich, they have all they want, they are wise in Christ, they are strong, they are held in honor. They are leveraging the gospel to affirm their self-righteousness, their standing.
I’m struck by how amazing this is. You can hear the gospel, believe in Jesus, and live it out in a way that doesn’t go to the core of what the gospel is. You can, as a Christian, see the Christ and the cross as a means to self-improvement.
Against that way, Paul illumines another way of living out the theology of the gospel. He calls it the apostles’ way. They are a spectacle to all, sentenced to death, fools for Christ’s sake, weak, held in disrepute, considered scum of the earth, refuse. No leveraging, no honor, no climbing some ladder to self-improvement through the gospel.
I’ve never seen this passage used as support by Forde or Luther, but this passage fits right in with the contrast of being a theologian of glory or being a theologian of the cross. Do you see through the cross to a grander purpose for yourself, to be honorable, strong, improved, and not to die? There you are, the way of Corinth, the theologian of glory.
Or do you see the cross… and stop. The hidden mystery of God in suffering and death. It proclaims our total unworthiness. And we identify with this Jesus, and we await the resurrection from the dead that brings no status here, no strength that the world is attracted to.
Being a theologian of the cross, it seems to no small degree, is essential humility, because it is being struck with the suffering and death of Jesus for me. All is him, naught is me. And in my own suffering, in my own death, in the insufficiency of all I do, is not futility to be railed against, but a trust that, in Christ, I will be raised. There is no hope in me; there is no hope but Christ.
I’m coming to see you, Paul says to the church in Corinth, we will see. The issue is, where is the power? Is it in us, seeing through the cross, stronger and better now? Or is it in our identification with Jesus, because the power is the resurrection? May we all be theologians of the cross.
“Son of Man” has been a confusing term for a long time. Now here comes this 5-minute video from The Bible Project to explain the term and tell a fairly complete story of redemption at the same time!
What is the relationship of the Son of Man to the divine council?
The Son of Man is distinct from the Ancient of Days, who is Yahweh, yet of the same divine essence, as he is described as coming upon/with the clouds, a description used only of Yahweh elsewhere in the Old Testament, and is given everlasting rule over all nations, a description used of the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity,c who rules from God’s right hand, exalted above all powers, visible and invisible.1
Douglas Van Dorn, The Unseen Realm: A Question & Answer Companion (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015). ↩
The excerpts, below, are a sample of the transcript.
God Exists
And as we look at the rise of science in the 16th and 17th centuries, Alfred North Whitehead and many others commented, that men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not ashamed of being both a scientist and a Christian because, arguably, Christianity gave me my subject.
What I am amazed at is that serious thinkers today continue to ask us to choose between God and science. That’s like asking people to choose between Henry Ford and engineering as an explanation of the motor car.
When Newton discovered his law of gravity he didn’t say I’ve got a law, I don’t need God. No, he wrote the Principia Mathematica, arguably the greatest work in the whole history of science, because he saw that God is not the same kind of explanation as a scientific explanation. God doesn’t Compete. Agency does not compete with mechanism and law.
It reminds me a little bit of GK Chesterton who said, “It is absurd to complain that it is unthinkable for an unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing and then to pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.”
Leading philosopher Alvin Plantinga of Notre Dame says, “If atheists are right that we are the product of mindless, unguided natural processes then they have given a strong reason to doubt the reliability of human cognitive faculties, and therefore inevitably to doubt the validity of any belief that they produce including their atheism.” Their biology and their belief in naturalism would, therefore, appear to be at war with each other in a conflict that has nothing at all to do with God.
As modern science sprang from Judeo-Christian sources, so did the concept of human equality. Listen to atheist Jurgen Habermas, arguably one of Germany’s leading intellectuals. He said that “Universalistic egalitarianism from which sprang the ideals of freedom and collective life and solidarity, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love.”
This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of continual critical appropriation and reinterpretation. To this day there is no alternative to it. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk.
Scholars theorize that the word-for-word similarities between Matthew, Luke, and Mark are too great to be coincidental. A possible lost fourth document (named ‘Q’) might explain the similarities if it were:
Written in Greek.
Written before Matthew and Luke (and possibly Mark.)
Circulating about the time the Synoptic Gospels were composed (i.e., between 65 and 95 AD).
Consistent with the sayings of Jesus as put forth in the Synoptic Gospels.
An entire scholarship industry has cropped up to find, reconstruct, or explain Q. The International Q project put together scores of scholars to sift through the similarities and differences between Matthew and Luke to establish the wording and order of this possible common source (which they believe to be ~4500 words.) The project has produced 12 volumes, so far, with 19 more in the works. When finished, the series will be 11,000 pages and cost ~$2700.
But, what if the solution were much simpler than most scholars currently suspect?
Matthew Conflator Hypothesis (MCH)
Alan Garrow put forth the MCH in a paper presented at King’s College which is summarized in five brief videos on his website. Alan observes that “Streeter made two logical mistakes, often repeated in subsequent discussion. When these errors are corrected, however, Streeter’s ‘other’ solution emerges: the Matthew Conflator Hypothesis (MCH)” … From which “a very different understanding of ‘Q’ emerges … and with it the possibility that examples may, after all, be extant.”
The following post is by Dr. Dale Brueggemann, Contributing Editor at Faithlife Corporation.
Christ in the OT
Do we know for certain that Jesus can be found in the OT? In our efforts to “read backward,” are we finding Christ where perhaps he should not be found? Or do we have license as Spirit-led interpreters of Scripture to allegorize as we see fit, and as it benefits our listeners?
In this post, I’m going to address these questions by discussing the biblical mandate for a method of interpretation called “Christotelic” hermeneutics. Look with me first at the evidence from the NT directing the church to engage in Christ-centered exegesis of the OT.
How Paul and Jesus Interpreted Scripture
Paul aimed to “preach the gospel,” to “preach Christ” (Rom 15:20; 1 Cor 1:17, 23; 2 Cor 2:12; Eph 3:8; Phil 1:15). But he directed Timothy to “preach the word” (2 Tim 3:16; 4:2), which meant the OT. For the early church, that meant preaching the gospel of Christ from the OT.
On the Emmaus road, Jesus modeled an approach to expositing the OT Christologically: “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).
Jesus’ key statement was this: “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44, italics added).
Two questions come to mind: 1) did the church continue to follow Jesus’ example? and 2) what example did they follow, if we don’t have the actual transcript of his exposition to the unnamed disciples?
I’m going to show you how the church historically attempted to follow Jesus method of interpretation, and argue for one in particular as especially valuable today.
Christotelic Hermeneutics in the Church
Historically, the church has employed three methods to discern “everything written about [Jesus] in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.”
The First Indictment of the gods of the Nations & its Theological Significance for Everyday Life
Deuteronomy 6:4-15 (ESV):[The Shemah] 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates… 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”
The Lower g gods are Real
We tend to think the lower g gods are make believe. That they are idols of wood and stone. While the idols they inhabit are wood, stone, and sometimes gold or silver, the lower g gods that people worship are real, just ask anyone in India. If you know where to look, the Bible confirms this all throughout scripture. The best example, however, is Psalm 82:
Psalm 82 (ESV): God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations!
God pronouncing judgment of other gods??? And why does God seem to be angry that they have ruled unjustly over mankind (v.2-5)?
Because behind every evil nation is a pantheon of lower g gods (fallen angels) entertaining their fantasy to be worshiped as divine:
Deuteronomy 32:8-9 (ESV):“When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.”
But when did God disinherit, divide up mankind and fix the borders of the nations?
The Importance of the Tower of Babel
At the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) God divides a united and rebellious mankind and confuses the language of humans who then go on to form the nations of this world (Genesis 10 Table of Nations).
Note: there are 70 nations listed in Genesis 10. We’ll come back to 70 later
The Tower of Babel was a ziggurat. What’s a ziggurat?
Ziggurat
Ziggurats were man made, stepped buildings, in the shape of a mountain. In the Ancient Near East, deity was thought to inhabit mountain tops. The gods descending from the heavens would surely want the best real estate far away from pesky humans and so it was believed that they lived atop mountains.
Humans wishing to barter a deal with the lower g gods would build ziggurats with a temple at the top for worship of that deity. They would bring the god to them, instead of going to the god. God told Noah after the flood to “fill the earth”. Humans responded:
Genesis 11:3-4 (ESV):And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
Notice how the bricks are sealed with tar (bitumen)? That means that The Tower of Babel was not only going to reach the heavens… it was also going to be waterproof! Mankind didn’t believe God’s promise never to flood the earth again and sought to build a waterproof tower to protect themselves as they bartered for a better deal.
So God comes down and essentially says, “you want to worship other gods, go ahead. You can have each other. Israel/the Church will be mine.” God disinherits the nations and then IMMEDIATELY sets about bringing them back to Him. That is why Abraham is called in the very next chapter… to bless the nations. They are not forgotten about.
This brings us to The Exodus
Each plague in Exodus 7-12 is aimed at the Egyptian pantheon of gods to show the Egyptians, their gods, and Pharaoh that only YHWH is God:
Exodus 12:12 (ESV):For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
10 Plagues Jehovah vs gods
The number 10 is USUALLY a very bad number in the Old Testament as it most often was thought to symbolize judgment. There are 10 generations from Adam to Noah and the flood. There are 10 generations between Noah and the judgment at Babel. How many plagues were visited on Egypt? 10. How many of the 12 tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians never to be heard from again? 10. How many horns does the beast nation have in Revelation? 10.
The fact that these 10 plagues of judgment happen at Passover is NOT a coincidence.
We are LITERALLY Exodused out of the nations of this world to the children of God.
Passover, the Firstborn & Jesus
At Passover, YHWH delivers the children of Israel out of the evil nation of Egypt as the firstborn of Egypt are buried.
On their way out of Egypt, Israel/the Church is given gold and silver from the Egyptians as Israel’s wedding gift, a dowry before its marriage ceremony to YHWH at Mt. Sinai:
Exodus 12:35-36 (ESV):…for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
Israel is the bride and YHWH is the bridegroom. At Mt. Sinai a marriage will take place.
On their way out of Egypt, Israel also vacates the Tomb of Joseph to bury Joseph’s bones in the promised land:
Genesis 50:24-26 (ESV):And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
400 years later…
Exodus 13:19 (ESV):Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.”
This foreshadows the New Testament where WE—the Church, Israel—are saved at Passover… as the firstborn of God is buried and the Tomb of Joseph is vacated.
[see chart for Typological below connections between Joseph and Jesus]
The Israelites will forever live in the shadow of the enormous cost of their freedom. After the all the firstborn of Egypt are killed in Exodus 12, God IMMEDIATELY claims the firstborn of Israel in Exodus 13:1-3:
Exodus 13:1-3 (ESV):The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” 3 Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
The firstborn was to be circumcised on the 8th day and bought at a price ranging from a Lamb to two turtle doves depending on the economic status of the parents. It served as a constant reminder of what was done for the children of Israel. Israel was delivered from an evil nation ruled by gods that were hostile both to humans and to YHWH.
Jesus the Bridegroom, the Wedding Ceremony & the First Lord’s Supper
After the Exodus out of Egypt, God leads Israel to Mt. Sinai, also known as the “mountain of God” (Exodus 3:1, 18:5). But why bring Israel to a mountain?
Remember, deity lives atop mountains in the Ancient Near East. But most importantly, to the Israelites, the Garden of Eden was thought to be on top of God’s mountain. This can be seen when Ezekiel calls the King of Tyre, none other than Satan incarnate:
Ezekiel 28:13-14 (ESV):“You were in Eden, the garden of God… 14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God…”
In the Garden of Eden, what do you have? You have water flowing from sacred space. You have a man’s side being opened up (blood) as he receives his bride. On the Cross, what do you have? Blood and water flowing from sacred space as Jesus, the new Adam, His side is opened up and He receives His Bride, the Church. Jesus is arrested in a garden. On the hill where he is crucified there’s a garden. He’s laid to rest in that garden. After the resurrection he’s confused for a gardener. The NT writers are clear. Jesus is the new Adam, succeeding where Adam failed. We are going back to Eden. Back to the Garden of God.
Adam and Eve were the Bible’s first arranged marriage. God’s original plan, to make all the earth Eden, had been delayed through sin but would not be thwarted.
In Exodus, God is bringing Israel to Mt. Sinai because Israel, like Adam and Eve, will be charged with spreading Eden to the ends of the earth. Heaven and earth would be reunited. But in order to save the world and humankind on the Cross, YHWH would need to protect the bloodline through which He would one day redeem all of mankind. This would be done through a covenant with Israel in another arranged marriage ceremony.
Jeremiah makes this explicit in Jeremiah 31:32:
Jeremiah 31:32 (ESV):“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, THOUGH I WAS THEIR HUSBAND, declares the Lord.
Israel arrives at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19:1 where God immediately announces his upcoming marriage to Israel:
Exodus 19:3-6 (ESV):…“Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Israel consecrates itself to prepare for its marriage to YHWH by washing their clothes and abstaining from marital relations with one another.
Then something interesting happens…
In Exodus 24:9-11, 70 ELDERS (the same number of nations that were disinherited at Babel) ascend the mountain and have a wedding feast with the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ:
Exodus 24:9-11:“Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.”
This is the first Lord’s Supper in the Bible and it occurs right after the marriage ceremony at Sinai. It will be repeated in the upper room before Jesus’s death, and again at the end of Revelation as the Church celebrates the return of her bridegroom, Jesus Christ, in the most massive cosmic wedding reception recorded in all of scripture.
Israel remains at Sinai for 1 year before their journey into the wilderness. Why? Because…
Deuteronomy 24:5 (ESV):“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
We Are The Bride Of Christ Called Out Of The Nations To Be In Communion With Our King
“Politics is the church’s worst problem. It is her constant temptation, the occasion of her greatest disasters, the trap continually set for her by the prince of this world.”
—JACQUES ELLUL
Contrary to popular belief, the OT takes a very dim view of earthly kings…
1 Samuel 8:4-19 (ESV):Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
The book of Judges ends with a woman being raped and chopped up into 12 pieces before a fratricidal war breaks out in Israel. Why? Because “25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” Judges 21:25 (ESV). This is a Messianic prophecy. Son of God, Prince of Peace, Savior of the World, Gospel. Those of us who grew up in Christian homes have just always accepted these titles of Jesus without knowing their origin. Every single one of these titles was used of caesar. Caesar was the son of god, the prince of peace, the savior of the world. Rome spread peace through war, and after victory in battle was achieved, messengers were sent throughout the empire to proclaim the good news… to proclaim the “gospel.” Afterwards Caesar would send apostles to the newly conquered territory. The sole job of an apostle was to get a conquered nation ready for a new system of government.
When NT authors steal these titles, and apply them to Jesus and the Church, they are making politically treasonous statements. This is a death penalty offense. As long as the Church is pledging allegiance to this or that president or adhering to a republican or democrat plan for salvation the Church will be divided.
We tend to bifurcate politics and salvation. We have our Jesus over here in one box and we are going to heaven and that allows us to have our politics over here in another box and so we can have our spiritual salvation and our earthly politics. We can have our cake and eat it too. Unfortunately, the Bible itself does not allow this.
Be it Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome or America scripture is clear…
Revelation 18:5 (ESV):“come out of her my children lest you share in her plagues…”
This is Exodus language and a warning to those of us who live as immigrants, foreigners and exiles in Babylon. Remember…
John 18:36 (ESV):“My Kingdom is not of this world.”
After the marriage at Sinai, Israel and Judah would be judged by YHWH for political adultery. Ezekiel 23 graphically and undeniably portrays how God views sharing his Church with the governments and militaries of this world. Israel and Judah’s involvement in politics and militarism is described as an insatiable adulterous wife whoring herself out to men with genitalia the size of donkeys and ejaculate like that of horses…
Ezekiel 23:4, 11-27 (ESV):Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem…. 11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. 12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. 14 But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, 15 wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. 16 When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust. 18 When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. 19 Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt 20 and lusted after her lovers there, whose members [genitalia] were like those of donkeys, and whose issue [ejaculate] was like that of horses. 21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.
22 Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. 24 And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. 25 And I will direct my jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire. 26 They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. 27 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.
This is how the Word of the LORD describes political idolatry and the judgment the Church heaps on Herself as a result of failing the test of Luke 4:5-6:
Luke 4:5-6 (HSBC):[The Temptation of Jesus by Satan] 5 So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 The Devil said to Him, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. 7 If You, then, will worship me, all will be Yours.”
both parties same demons
Deuteronomy 32:8-9 (ESV):When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
Isaiah 34:2 (ESV):For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.
Isaiah 40:17 (ESV):All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Revelation 11:18 (ESV):The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
The early Church didn’t have this problem. They suffered and died violent deaths to avoid politics. The entire book of Revelation is written to these people, to warn them that they cannot deny Jesus and enter the Kingdom of God. To remain faithful until death. And they were. Anyone coming the Jesus Christ having worked in government had to renounce their office or be rejected by the Church…
“In us, all zeal in the pursuit of glory and honor is dead. So we have no pressing inducement to take part in your public meetings, nor is there anything more entirely foreign to us than the affairs of State.” — Tertullian to the Romans circa 195 AD
Taitian, in AD 160, agreed when he said: “I do not wish to be a King. I am not anxious to be rich.
I decline military command. I detest fornication. I am not impelled by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea. I do not contend for military honors. I am free from a mad thirst for fame. I despise death. Die to the world, repudiating the madness that is in it! Live to God!”1
Origen also wrote to Celsus in an attempt to explain the peculiar Christian practice of noninvolvement with Roman politics, saying: “It is not for the purpose of escaping public duties that Christians decline public offices, but that they may reserve themselves for a diviner and more necessary service in the Church of2
Clement of Alexandria, in 195 AD, said, “We have no country on earth. Therefore, we can disdain earthly possessions.”3
And Tertullian wrote, in 212 AD: “As for you, you are a foreigner in this world, a citizen of Jerusalem, the city above. Our citizenship, the Apostle says, is in heaven. You have your own calendar. You have nothing to do with the joys of this world. In fact, you are called to the very opposite. For the world will rejoice but you will mourn.”4
“The new ones to be accepted are questioned by the teachers about the reason for their decision before they hear the Word. Those who bring them shall say whether they are ready for it and what their situation is…Whoever has a demon needs purification before he takes part in the instruction. The professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined. The nature and type of each must be established. A pander, one who keeps a brothel, shall give it up or be rejected. A sculptor or an artist must be warned not to make idolatrous pictures; he shall give it up or be rejected. If anyone is an actor or impersonator in the theater, he shall give it up or be rejected. A charioteer, an athlete, a gladiator, a trainer of gladiators, or one who fights wild beasts or hunts them or holds public office at the circus games shall give it up or be rejected. A pagan priest or guardian of idols shall give it up or be rejected. A military constable must be forbidden to kill. If he is commanded to kill in the course of his duty, he must not take this upon himself, neither may he swear; if he is not willing to follow these instructions, he must be rejected. A proconsul or a civic magistrate who wears the purple and governs by the sword, shall give it up or be rejected.
“Anyone taking part in baptismal instruction, or anyone already baptized who wants to become a soldier shall be sent away, for he has despised God. A prostitute, a sodomite, one who has mutilated himself or who does unmentionable things shall be rejected because he is defiled. A magician shall not come up for examination either. An enchanter, an astrologer, a diviner, a soothsayer, a seducer of the people, one who practices magic with pieces of clothing, one who speaks in demonic riddles, one who makes amulets: all these shall desist or be rejected. The slave who is a concubine and who has reared her children and has no relationship except with her master may become a hearer. If it is otherwise she must be rejected. Whoever has a concubine shall leave her or marry her legally. If he refuses he must be rejected. Should we have missed anything here, practical life will teach you, for we all have the spirit of God.
—Hippolytus, Church Order in The Apostolic Tradition 16; ca. A.D. 218.
So if we accept the Bible as God’s word, and God’s word tells us that the nations of this world are given over to the devil (Luke 4:5-6) and his angels (Deuteronomy 32:8-9), and that is enraged at all the nations (Isaiah 34:2) and counts them less than nothing (Isaiah 40:17) and that on the last day the nations and those who destroy the earth will be judged (Revelation 11:18) because Jesus’ Kingdom is truly not of this world, why then do we feel the need to vote for this or that caesar? Why then to do we talk circles around God’s word in a futile effort to exalt practicality over and above obedience?
It’s because we have forgotten the words and the practice of Early Church. Since Constantine, the Church has been pledging it’s allegiance to Rome, to Babylon. Again this is why Revelation 18;5 tells us to “Come out of her my children, lest you share in her plagues.”
I’ll close with a quotation from Preston Sprinkle’s Fight: A Christian Case for Non-Violence…
“But allegiance to Jesus’s kingdom often clashes with all earthly ones, and the Philippians feel the tension. This is why Paul commands them, “Live out your citizenship [polistheuamai] in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1: 27, author’s translation). Some translations interpret this command as “walk in a manner worthy” rather than “live out your citizenship in a manner worthy,” but the Greek word polistheuamai does not simply mean “walk” or “live” but has to do with citizenship. 3 Even if you don’t know Greek, you can probably tell that the word polistheuamai has something to do with politics. The word contains the root polis, which means “city” and gives us words like politics and metropolis. Polistheuamai is a verb, so it means something like “act like a citizen,” “be a good citizen,” or “live out your citizenship” as I translated it above.
But notice what Paul is doing here. He does not encourage the believers at Philippi to be good citizens of Rome, but to live out their citizenship in allegiance to Jesus. Many in the church probably have Roman citizenship. They are tempted to find their pride and identity in Rome instead of in God’s kingdom. In the same way, it’s tempting for American Christians to find their pride and identity in American citizenship rather than in their heavenly one. Such allegiance to Rome (or America) makes good sense to the world but finds no support in the New Testament.5
I’ll refer to the author as Rosenberg to distinguish him from the apostle Paul.
“Again I am raising a difficult subject, but again, it’s something that needs to be said. And my title is true. The Bible – the holy book of more or less all Christians – has become an idol. And yes, I do mean idol as in “false god.”
A book, no matter how good, remains a book and should be treated as a book. A deity is something far different.
Not every Christian uses the Bible as an idol of course, but many millions do – probably a majority in North America – including nearly all of the TV preachers.
The Bible is 66 books with ~40 authors written over ~1500 years put between one cover and referred to as “a book”. None of the books are deities nor are they above, or outside of, Reality.
A Christian may hold the Bible to be the most important “book” in the world but it’s not a substitute for God unless He’s absent from their lives (which is probably the crux of the matter, here).
What is an Idol?
An idol is something you hold above reality.
The Bible uses the word “idol” to refer to that which a man holds above, or in place of, God. Since only that which created Reality could be above (outside, beyond) it, Rosenberg’s use of the word is roughly the same.
A true God – a creator of the universe, for example – should be held above reality, since he created reality. If, however, we hold something else above reality, we make it an idol. A created thing should be considered a part of reality, not held above it.
So, when I say the Bible has become an idol, I mean people hold it above reality, putting it into the position of a god.”
The Bible refers to the gods being worshipped in the OT and NT (represented in stone, wood, or gold idols) as real and created by God.1 These created gods, as well as the Bible, “should be considered to be part of reality, not held above it”.
Not a Book-Based Religion?
As long as the relationships between people and their Creator are replaced (avoided) with rituals we’ll be stuck with the word, “religion”.
“Christianity very clearly did not start as book-based. When Jesus “preached the good news,” he quoted just a small number of scriptures and usually as a necessity, answering people who questioned him. And several of those were of the “you’ve heard it said… but I say” variety. He read a few lines from Isaiah in his hometown synagogue once, but we see very little more than that.
Even the very literate Paul uses Greek poets in his sermons almost as much as Old Testament passages. (He uses some scriptures in his writings.)”
The New Testament refers to the Old Testament 2,572 times including allusions, echoes, citations, and quotations.2 Here’s the total breakout as well as that for Jesus and Paul.
Jesus’ use of the OT is consistent with, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mt 5:17) One astounding aspect of that fulfillment was His abiding by the laws while supplanting them with grace.4 His scripture was the Septuagint (A Greek translation of the Hebrew canon made in 250 BC.).
While Jesus fulfilled the laws, Paul documented much of that fulfillment in canonical extension, later to become known as the New Testament. Paul’s use of the Septuagint is consistent with writing eight to thirteen of the 27 books of the NT.
Stating the Obvious, Extrapolating the Unnecessary5
Those writing, copying, and assembling books of the New Testament did not, themselves, have access to completed copies. To therefore conclude, somehow, that books not yet written were unimportant to those writing them is to extrapolate the unnecessary after stating the obvious.
In that sense, neither is Judaism a book-based religion. The Old Testament was written and assembled into canon over a period of ~1000 years. It was then translated into Greek to make it accessible to Jews who had been in exile so long they’d lost touch with their own language. Does a project requiring 33 generations to complete imply apathy?
The first Christians valued Christ over everything. Their first independent actions were to spread the word about Him and what He’d just done. They weren’t apathetic about writing things down. A remarkable aspect of the NT is how little time had passed from the actual events to the time the 27 books were written and then assembled into canon. They were documenting what they’d witnessed while simultaneously risking their lives to spread a faith that would become the largest in the world.
I do agree with Rosenberg that the apostles and first Christians weren’t risking their lives for a book (or books) but for what they’d just seen. Also, even without completed copies of what has become the New Testament the early Christians were, no doubt, more effective and consistent than most modern Christians.
Facing the Bible
Those of us who’ve read the book know the laws in the Old Testament that no one follows anymore. We know how the apostles disagreed. But – and this is where idolatry comes in – millions of us pretend that we saw nothing and move on. Or if we’re trying to be very religious, we come up with creative interpretations to resolve the flaws.
Conjuring up “creative interpretations to resolve the flaws” is worse than a waste of time. It degrades integrity and faith. It also avoids some of the best opportunities for spiritual growth.
Do the “Bible is the word of God people” think the Author needs their help in deflecting attention away from weak parts of an otherwise stellar attempt to reach mankind?
The Laws that No One Follows Anymore
I’m no expert on Judaism. Still, I doubt that anyone, other than Jesus and a few prophets and priests, managed to abide by all 613 commandments of the law.
There are orthodox Jews who still believe they must abide by most of the laws. They claim to be excused from the sacrificial laws (159 of the 613) because the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. But, how were they released from the remaining 454? If they don’t recognize Jesus as their messiah how (and when) did these laws become inactive?
And let me be clear on this: Trying to prove everything by the Bible is a deviation from actual growth. If you’ve done this for any length of time, you’ve hindered yourself.
Rosenberg may be referring to the often lazy habit of quoting Biblical text as self-proving. To a non-believer this is recursive reasoning. It’s much more effective to quote applicable verses and explain why you think they’re true in the context of the discussion.
A larger point to understand is that the Bible doesn’t contain all knowledge. Such would be like a map with a scale of 1-to-1: accurate but useless. There are no microwaves, jet planes, toasters, CAD design programs, or even hidden codes in every 70th (or whatever) letter predicting the third Reich. Neither does Ezekiel contain the design plans for an alien spacecraft. The sooner a Christian is disabused of the notion that everything is in the Bible, the better.
The Bible is what God deemed sufficient for the realms it covers. It was not intended to be exhaustive. Exhaustive knowledge is a utopian myth. Humans have to work for knowledge just as they have to work to get food from the ground.
Doing, Or Not Doing?
Readers of the book really should know these things. The core of the New Testament – the recorded words of Jesus – require people to do the things he taught. The “Bible as word of God” people, on the other hand, spend endless hours arguing about who Jesus was, comparing scriptures, finding hidden meanings, proving their interpretations right, and proving the interpretations of others wrong. And so they bypass doing.
Though admonished by one commenter to “stick to subjects he knows about”, Rosenberg could just as well be paraphrasing Paul in 1 Timothy 1:3–7:
“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.”6
The Sad Part
“The central requirement for any follower of Jesus is to love. Everything else comes second. Jesus not only taught this again and again; he exhibited it in his life. Christians, however, consistently push it aside in favor of other things. (I could tell you stories, but you probably have your own.)”
Indeed, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Ga 5:14)
“The really sad part of this is that the Bible idolaters – or at least a great number of them – do have experience with the divine impulse, of contact or at least innate yearning for a transcendent ultimate. But they never develop these things, because they’re busy idolizing a mere book, following the traditions and commandments of men.“
Jesus condemned the Pharisees for treating the OT in exactly this way. How much worse for a Christian to do the same with the completed Bible?
What’s Rosenberg Getting At?
Rosenberg sees the Bible as a valuable resource. He greatly appreciates the impact that Judeo-Christian ethics have had on western civilization. He believes there’s a creator of the universe distinct from the created. He has a “divine impulse” and “innate yearning for a transcendent ultimate”. So, why would someone so philosophically, though not theologically, aligned with Christianity be frustrated enough to write about Christians using the Bible as an idol?
At the risk of being presumptuous I’ll put into my own words what I think are some of Rosenberg’s points. If doing so would make fellow Christians consider them then it will have been worth the effort:
Because of the enormous, yet squandered, human potential of a third of humanity. If a small fraction of that number patterned their thoughts, will, abilities, beliefs, and expectations on the full range of Jesus’ teachings the world would be so dramatically transformed it might be mistaken for heaven.
Because millions of Christians who claim Jesus as their role-model either don’t take him seriously enough, or are afraid to discover, let alone implement, the full breadth of His teachings.
Because the Book of Acts describes the behaviors and experiences of Christians before there was a Book of Acts. And yet, the first Christians were more Christ-like, with limited access to fragments of text, than modern Christians are with a completed New Testament.
The Christian Difference
Voltaire is credited with saying, “Show me your redeemed life, and I’ll believe in your Redeemer”. And then there’s the rhetorical question that, “If you were jailed for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?”.
There’s nothing different about people living inconsistently with their own stated beliefs. You can find them in every house and on every street-corner in the world. Christians are supposed to stand out in such a way as there’s no doubt that something is different about them. Why else would anyone care to learn more about their beliefs?
Can we blame non-believers for concluding that a redemption without fruit is no redemption, at all?
The Christian difference occurs in believers who call Jesus a role model and have the courage to act consistency with the goal of becoming more like Him.
That means diving into his teachings and exposing yourself to the full-spectrum of what you find. No picking and choosing what you, or those around you, might be comfortable with. No strip-mining the supernatural out of the events. No arrogant presumptions that God needs your protection of His Bible because someone sent you a list of “flaws” on Facebook.
Set a goal of nothing short of putting on the mind of Christ. “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”7
Faith without Works
Faith without works is trust without transformation. It’s an attempt to be oriented towards the Creator without “power according to his glorious might”. (Col 1:11) In daily life, it’s hope without joy.
Transformation of Character and Supernatural Power
Dallas Willard, speaking on “Being Church” said:
“When the kingdom of God is present, power flows. And what characterize the people of Christ throughout the ages is transformation of character and supernatural power. Those two things always follow. When Jesus brought the kingdom he brought manifestation.”
That’s what the early Christians had and what many of today’s Christians don’t have. That’s what’s at the core of Judeo-Christian ethics that have transformed the world.
The early Christians weren’t risking their lives for unfinished scrolls on parchment or papyrus. And they weren’t risking their lives because Jesus was a smart guy who’d just laid some awesome philosophy on them. They risked their lives to remain true to what they’d just witnessed: Jesus performing miracles all over the place, raising people from the dead and then rising, himself, from being dead. And if that wasn’t enough, walking around and eating meals with them while detailing how He’d just fulfilled their scriptures. It was the resurrected Jesus that told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”8
In that sense, I agree with Rosenberg, that Christianity is not a book-based religion. It’s a relationship with God centered around His presence in our actual lives. Without transformation of character and supernatural power there will be no great works. But, with them?
“My contention is that, if our theology really derives from the biblical text, we must reconsider our selective supernaturalism and recover a biblical theology of the unseen world. This is not to suggest that the best interpretation of a passage is always the most supernatural one. But the biblical writers and those to whom they wrote were predisposed to supernaturalism. To ignore that outlook or marginalize it will produce Bible interpretation that reflects our mind-set more than that of the biblical writers.” Heiser, M. S. (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (First Edition, p. 18). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ↩
Jackson, J. G. (Ed.). (2015). New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife. ↩
There are four relationships that are used: Citation, Quotation, Allusion, and Echo. These terms are understood as: Citation: An explicit reference to scripture with a citation formula (e.g. “It is written,” or “the Lord says,” or “the prophet says”). Quotation: A direct reference to scripture, largely matching the verbatim wording of the source but without a quotation formula Allusion: An indirect but intentional reference to scripture, likely intended to invoke memory of the scripture. Echo: A verbal parallel evokes or recalls a scripture (or series of scriptures) to the reader, but likely without authorial intention to reproduce exact words. ↩
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 6:14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. ↩
“Yes – as I have said many times in classes: Scholars have a habit of embracing the obvious (redaction) and then extrapolating to the unnecessary (XYZ “universally accepted” critical theory that actually has significant weaknesses – as though there were no other options).” http://drmsh.com/does-higher-criticism-attempt-to-destroy-the-bible/ ↩
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Ti 1:3–7). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. ↩
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 28:18–20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. ↩
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 1:28). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.” ↩
