Dealing with Bible Errors the Right Way!

Posted on 09/02/2008 by Paul Pavao

The authority of the inspired scriptures resides, not in an intrusive control of the writing process, nor in an error-free presentation, but in a reliable expression of the faith in the unique period of its earliest gestation. (James Tunstead Burtchaell CSC, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden, A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, from William Sykes, The Eternal Vision)

I’m sure this was written by someone who does not believe that the Scriptures are “error-free” in the traditional sense. The person who gave the above quote probably knows that there are number differences between Chronicles and Kings (e.g., 1 Kings 4:26 & 2 Chr. 9:25) and between Ezra and Nehemiah (e.g., Ez. 2:29 & Neh. 7:33). He probably knows that one Gospel says that Jesus encountered blind Bartimaeus on the way into Jericho, and another says he encountered him on the way out (Mk. 10:46-52 & Luk. 18:35-43). He probably knows that it’s foolish to quote the Bible as scientifically accurate because it says the world hangs on nothing (Job 26:7) without also mentioning that it also says the earth sits on pillars (1 Sam. 2:8) and has a sky as hard as metal (Job 37:18).

James Tunstead Burtchaell’s answer to these errors, whether they are real or imagined, is to argue that the Scriptures are “a reliable expression of the faith.” Personally, I don’t believe that’s enough. I believe that’s “caving in.”

I want to give a different answer in two parts. One, the inspiration and usefulness of the Scriptures has nothing to do with whether there are errors in the Bible. Two, I want to explain what inspiration is and what we miss today because we don’t understand inspiration.

Watchman Nee believe that all such errors were only apparent. They could be explained by the careful Bible student so that they could be shown not to be errors. However, he didn’t think explaining the errors was a solution to the problem. Instead, he wrote:

There was once a brother, who, not long after he had believed in the Lord, was confronted by another person who told him that there were errors in the Bible. He was so exasperated that he nearly cried. … He laid this matter before an elderly sister, for he reckoned that since this sister loved the Lord and loved the Bible so much she certainly would be agitated if she realized there were these errors in the Bible. The strange thing was, however, that after this sister heard him out, she was calm as could be. Her reply to his presentation was: This is no problem. … All she said was, that knowing God did not depend on the solving of these questions! (The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, pp. 7-8)

Nee adds, “This brother spent an entire year searching the Scriptures with regard to these questions. Upon finding out the evidence that the Bible passages in question were correct and not in error, the heavy burden upon his heart dropped away” (ibid., p. 8). Nee does not agree there are errors in the Bible, but he also does not agree that it matters. What does matter, he explains right afterward:

People may attempt to prove this or that thing, but we Christians can prove one very important thing—that God is indeed God and that we know Him who is so real. And by knowing Him, all problems are solved. Such knowledge does not rely on how logical are the reasons or how clear the doctrines; it relies only on revelation. (ibid., pp. 8-9)

Recently I gave a teaching on the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. I had noticed how the prayers of the apostle Paul focused on knowing God through revelation. For example, the first prayer Paul prayed for the Ephesians was “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ … may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Eph. 1:17). When he prayed for the Colossians, whom he had never met, his prayer was similar. “Since the day we heard, we do not stop praying for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9).

Paul’s major concern for churches, whether ones he formed like the Ephesians or ones he’d never met like the Colossians, was that they would have a spiritual wisdom and understanding.

We need the same thing. Today anyone with an internet connection can find a list of all the contradictions in the Bible and hear all the arguments against the historicity and scientific accuracy of the Bible. I have talked to many whose faith has been shaken or completely lost once they heard those arguments. Statistics indicate that up to 80% of college students lose their faith during their years in college. It’s likely that the teachings they hear in history and science classes are as much to blame as the temptations of the world.

The answer is not to know all the arguments for the scientific accuracy of the Bible. The answer is to know God. A rich and real experience with God and with the Scriptures would remove all doubt! Wouldn’t you love to be able to answer, “Well, if the Scriptures are so full of error, then why have they repeatedly provided timely answers to the issues of my life? If God is not real, then why are my prayers answered and why has the direction God has given me proven useful and accurate again and again and again? You can show me all the contradictions in the Bible that you want, but it is simply impossible for me not to believe in it because it has been so powerfully effective in my life. Truly, God has proven his Word, both the Word in my heart and the Word on the pages of the Bible, to be alive and powerful. I cannot disbelieve. I can only believe; experience demands it.”

We do not need more intellectual arguments. We need more spiritual experience. Personally, I believe that most of the people I have met who have lost their faith lost it not because of the arguments they heard but because their spiritual experience agreed with the arguments against their Christian faith. They didn’t have their prayers answered. They didn’t have a close walk with God. The Bible was already cold and dead to them. Thus the intellectual arguments that there are errors in the Bible simply reinforced what they were already experiencing—that there is no power and life in the Scriptures or in walking with God.

Nothing will shake the faith of the man or woman who knows God. Such a man or woman will either say “I don’t care what you think about errors in the Bible; I know the Bible is powerful and from God,” or they will answer with arguments of their own. Either way, their faith will stand, because it is based on a knowledge that God is real, alive, and powerful, and that the Scriptures are true and effective. I promised a second part to this blog, explaining what inspiration is and what we’re missing out on by not understanding it. However, this post is long enough. I will save section two for tomorrow or the day after (or maybe the day after that; I’ll try to get to it quickly!).

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Following God: The Made Hard Way

Posted on 08/19/2008 by Paul Pavao

Today I saw a book advertised at Christian Book Distributors called Following God: The Made Easy Handbook. Wouldn’t that be great, I thought. Following God made easy. I could sure use a book like that.

Unfortunately, the person who made following God hard was Jesus Christ, and he says his is the only way. The path, he said, that leads to life is ‘pressed hard, like grapes in a winepress, troubled, afflicted, and distressed.’ Oh, you thought he said the way was “straight” or “narrow.” He didn’t.

First of all, Jesus never said anything about the way being straight. That’s just a mistake based on the fact that the old English word for narrow was strait, as in “the Straits of Gibraltar.” So, not “straight”; “strait” is the word.

Second, “strait,” which means narrow, is what he said the gate was. It’s the Greek word stenos. The path, however, is thlibo. That’s not nearly so nice a word. It’s used 10 times in the New Testament, and only in Matthew 7:14 is it translated narrow. Everywhere else, it’s translated with words like troubled, afflicted, and suffering tribulation. One time, in Mark 3:9, it’s translated by the KJV as “throng.” It’s what the crowd was doing when they were crowding Jesus into the sea.

Oh, and it’s a verb, not an adjective. The way is crushing or troubling, not narrow.

There’s other comments that Jesus makes about following God. For example, he said things about denying yourself, hating your own soul, and taking up the cross. The cross, you know, was not just an instrument of execution. It was an instrument of torture. It often took people three days to die on it. That’s why Pontius Pilate was so surprised to find out Jesus was dead that afternoon. It’s why the soldiers broke the lower leg bones (ouch!) of the two men crucified with him. On a cross, you normally die by slowly suffocating to death as your chest muscles cramp and tighten until you can’t breathe. Good legs allow you to push up on the nail and ropes, relieving the pressure on your chest and allowing you to breathe. Break the legs, and the victim can’t do that. Then they die faster.

Now take up your cross and look for the “Made Easy” way.

Paul told his churches that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). I looked up that word “tribulations.” It’s the noun form of thlibo. Apparently Paul agrees with Jesus on this. The way is full of trouble.

There’s more. Paul’s idea of following God involved “I die daily,” and “I discipline my body and bring it under subjection.” In Colossians we find him “striving” and “in great conflict.” Peter used some form of suffer 15 times in the short letter we know as 1 Peter. I don’t have to look suffering up in Greek to know that it’s not easy.

So why then did Jesus say that his yoke was easy and his burden light? I guess I could tell you that it’s one of those mysteries, but I don’t want to do that. Instead, because he’s talking about those that are working and are heavy laden and because he speaks of giving them rest, I think he’s talking about spiritual things. The Law is a heavy burden to those that do not have the Spirit of God. Christ calls us from the Sabbath of man that rests the flesh to the Sabbath of God that rests the spirit. Our spirits can live constantly in that rest, and we find our Sabbath rest in him (Heb. 4). He will keep us in his hand. We will find rest in him. We will find that for the true disciple, there is no way but Christ’s. Truly. he is the rest of our souls that eases our heavy burden so that our spirit soars. “In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Amen, it is true.

But look at whom he gives that rest and pleasure to. Is it just anyone? No. Read through the letters of Revelation 2 and 3. He gives his rest to those who suffer for him. He gives his rest to those who are worthy and have stood against the spirit of the age. Those who find their reward in the flesh and who find ease in this life will find that God has no reward for them in the next life. They’ve received it here. Worse, the rich man who was comforted in this life not only lost his comfort in the next one, but he was tormented as well.

I have not read the book Following God: The Made Easy Handbook. Perhaps the author knows all these things and is giving real insight into resting in Christ. Somehow I doubt it, but maybe. It is hard to imagine, though, that any English speaker will benefit by hearing that there’s an easy way to follow God. Americans, I know, are always looking for the easy way. Well, there’s not an easy way to follow God, my fellow Americans. God’s looking only for the hardy and committed, those who will forsake this world, their comforts, and their own lives to follow his Son.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Modern Doctrines | 3 Comments

Odds ‘n Ends and the “Pastoral” Epistles

Posted on 08/13/2008 by Paul Pavao

One of the things I’ve always found irritating is when Bible translators hide things from us. I remember the shock I got when I decided to research the Seraphim of Isaiah 6. Amazingly enough, the Hebrew word “seraphim” is used in more than Isaiah 6. It is found twice in Numbers 21, and once in Deut. 8:15, Isaiah 14:29, and Isaiah 30:6. However, outside of Isaiah 6 our Bible translators have actually translated it for us. The word means serpent or snake.

Now why don’t they bother to translate the word in Isaiah 6? I can only assume that they’re embarrassed to tell us that there are snakes in heaven. However, hiding things from us because they’re embarrassed or disagree is not a power I think any of us want to give to Bible translators.

It may seem strange that the snakes in Isaiah 6 have wings and are praising God, but in Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6 those snakes fly as well. At least the KJV thinks so, and the Hebrew word uwph used as an adjective in those two verses indicate those snakes fly as well. I like to call flying serpents dragons, and I think it’s neat that God has them in heaven. You’d think at least our Chinese brethren would like it, too.

One other place Bible translators decided to hide a word from us is in 1 Timothy 3. There we are introduced, for the first and only time in the Scriptures, to “the office of a deacon” (1 Tim. 3:10, KJV). The NASB, which just a chapter earlier considers it important to inform us in a note that “modestly” (2:9) is literally “with modesty,” doesn’t bother to mention that “serve as deacon” in 3:10 is one word, not three, and is translated serve, minister, or wait upon. Nor do they bother to tell us in 3:12 that the word “deacons” is found 29 other times in the New Testament but almost always translated servant. Somehow, though, it is important to tell us that, in the same verse, “good managers” is literally “managing well.” I suppose we might have been confused by the difference between “modestly” and “with modesty” or “good managers” and “managing well.” However, the difference between the invented word “deacon” and “servant” is apparently not of importance to us.

Well, now that I’ve gotten my complaints out about the things Bible translators hide from us and given my reasons for thinking they do it on purpose, let me get to the real point of this post. The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus are commonly called the pastoral epistles. Dr. Henry Clarence Thiessen, in his Introduction to the New Testament says, “It was in the 18th century that they were first called ‘Pastoral Epistles,’ and this title has been generally applied to them since that time” (p. 253).

Despite acknowledging this, though, I was delighted to find that Dr. Thiessen is aware that Timothy could not have been a pastor (p. 262; he says “bishop,” but I’ll address this in a moment). There are really only three words applied to “offices” in the church in the New Testament. The churches were led by episkopoi, variously translated as bishop or overseer and the equivalent of our English word “supervisor.” Their job is to shepherd (Gr. poimaino) the churches (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:4). Thus, they are clearly the ones referred to as shepherds or pastors (another unique translation of a common Greek word) in Eph. 4:11, because they are the ones told to shepherd.

In the New Testament, “elder” is used interchangeably with “overseer.” For example, the elders of Ephesus are told in Acts 20:28 that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers. In Titus 1:4, Titus is told to appoint elders in Crete, but two verses later he’s given the qualifications of an overseer. In 1 Pet. 5:2 elders are told to “exercise oversight” (NASB), which is the Greek episkopeo, the verb form of the noun “overseer.”

Thus, New Testament church leadership is limited to elders, who filled the “office” of overseer by shepherding the churches, and servants. Timothy and Titus were not elders; they were men who appointed elders. Dr. Thiessen calls Timothy “Paul’s temporary representative in his apostolic capacity at Ephesus” (p. 262) However, Paul had no problems simply referring to Timothy as an apostle (1 Thess. 1:1 with 2:6). Tertullian, around A.D. 200, refers to the companions of the apostles as “apostolic men” (Prescription Against Heretics 32; Against Marcion IV:2). Dr. Thiessen writes, “Zahn notes that Timothy’s position cannot be described as that of a bishop, for that was an office for life and confined to the local church” (p. 262) Timothy and Titus are best referred to as apostles, which appears to be Paul’s usage, or “apostolic men,” a later usage. Their job was to appoint elders to run the churches they were temporarily caring for so that they could move on to their next area of ministry.

It would be comfortable to say that this twofold leadership structure of elder/overseers and servants is what the Bible teaches, but history indicates things are not so simple. There is indication even in the Scriptures that John’s churches were structured differently, with individual rather than corporate leadership (3 Jn. 9,12; Rev.1:20), and the testimony of later history is even more firm. It is the universal testimony of the early Christians that Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna were appointed overseers of their respective churches by the apostle John and that as overseer, they were the chief elders of their churches.

The evidence that John really did appoint them as individual overseers in their churches is pretty interesting, so I’m going to tell you about it.

Both Ignatius and Polycarp left us letters. Polycarp left just one, to the church at Philippi, but Ignatius left us seven. All of Ignatius’ letters are to other churches that were founded or watched over by the apostle John but one. Ignatius wrote very early. His letters date from A.D. 110. John’s letters and Jesus’ letters (Rev. chs. 2 & 3) deal with gnostic influence in the churches, and Ignatius was still dealing with the gnostics just two to three decades later. Ignatius’ answer was to exhort the churches to stick closely to their overseer. Overseers should approve baptisms, be aware of love feasts, and in general be a source of unity and sound doctrine. This was Ignatius’ answer to heretical gnostic doctrines, and he emphasized it in all his letters.

All but one, that is. He wrote a letter to the church in Rome, where Paul had spent time and where Peter had settled down to serve as elder (1 Pet. 5:1,13 and the universal testimony of early church writers). In his letter to Rome, Ignatius never even mentions an overseer, one of those cases where the silence is deafening. Scholars have suggested that perhaps Rome’s overseer was either gnostic or had gnostic leanings, so Ignatius could not support him. The answer, though, is easier and not difficult to spot. Rome didn’t have an overseer. Rome was Peter’s church, and it was led by elders, not by an overseer.

Fortunately, we don’t have to guess if this was true. The church in Rome wrote a letter to the church at Corinth around A.D. 95. Supposedly, this letter was penned by the Roman overseer, Clement, and so it is named First Clement. However, the letter clearly states it is from the church at Rome, not from an individual, and it clearly described Paul and Peter’s form of leadership, not John’s. Chapter 42 of that letter, for example, says, “The apostles…appointed the firstfruits [of their labors]…to be overseers and servants.” Chapter 44 continues, “Our apostles also knew…there would be strife on account of the title of overseer….Our sin will not be small, if we eject from oversight those who have blamelessly…fulfilled its duties. Blessed are those elders who, having already finished their course, have obtained a fruitful and perfect departure [from this world], for they have no fear that anyone will deprive them of the place now appointed them.”

The church at Rome, writing to another Pauline church, Corinth, uses overseers and elders interchangeably and speaks of both in the plural, just as we find Paul and Peter using the terms in the New Testament. Thus, it seems obvious that Ignatius, when writing to Johannine churches, spoke of an individual overseer, but did not mention such a person in his letter to Rome because there was no such person in Rome.

Polycarp, too, though he is addressed as an overseer in one of Ignatius’ letters, makes no reference to an overseer in his letter to Philippi, another Pauline church. Instead, he introduces himself to the Philippians as “Polycarp, and the elders with him,” and speaks of “being subject to the elders and servants.”

Thus, it seems clear enough that John had a different leadership structure in his churches than Paul and Peter. John’s churches had one overseer, “ranked” above the elders, and servants with them, while Paul and Peter’s churches had only elders and servants, the elders also being known as overseers.

The interesting sidelight of this is that Rome was Peter’s church. The Roman Catholics assert that the Roman bishop (or overseer) is the pope, God’s representative on earth, and Peter was the first pope, while Clement was the third, after Linus, who was between them. However, Rome had no overseer to be pope, and both Peter and Clement–assuming he wrote the epistle given his name on behalf of the church in Rome–left us writings so that we would know.

My blogs are usually long, but this one’s ridiculous. I hope that if you made it this far you found some of it interesting or useful. It’s one of my favorite subjects, though I’m not sure why.

Posted in Bible, History | 1 Comment

Knowing What You Believe

Posted on 08/05/2008 by Paul Pavao

Recently I bought an Old Testament Survey on clearance from christianbooks.com. “Surveys” give the background, culture, and other details of the books of the Bible. I’ve never read one before, but I’ve been intrigued ever since Noah told me some history he’d read on the minor prophets. I’d recognized by reading, for example, that Micah uses a lot of the same terminology as Isaiah (e.g., cf. Is. 2:2ff with Mic. 4:1ff*). I’d never thought, until Noah mentioned it, that Micah might actually have listened to Isaiah prophesy, but there’s a good chance he did.

So I bought this inexpensive Old Testament Survey, hoping to find little facts like that. There are some, but this survey is really a lot closer to a commentary than what I expected. It’s called Encountering the Old Testament, and it’s by Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer.

Actually, I hate mentioning their names, because I have a complaint. I don’t know why I am always astonished at the lack of honesty or scholarship in Evangelical writing, but no matter how often it happens, I’m always surprised. I must be pretty dense. I can’t imagine that so many people are just purposely dishonest, so I’m hoping that most of them are just blind.

Page 454 of Encountering the Old Testament has a text box titled “What about those who have never heard?” They write, “Some people suggest that those who never hear the gospel might still receive salvation if they respond to God’s spiritual light in nature.” They then proceed to argue against this viewpoint. Their first argument reads like this:

Salvation by works is impossible. If we can earn our salvation, then Christ did not need to die (Gal 2:21).

If this statement were made by a high school student or by a co-worker down at the office, I would understand. However, this statement is in a hardcover textbook that claims “first-rate scholarship” on the back cover. The Publisher’s Preface says, “In these two series, Baker will publish texts that are clearly college-level…They will not be written for laypeople or pastors and seminarians…Rather, they will be pedagogically oriented textbooks written with collegians in mind.” There’s an introductory note “To the Professor” and “To the Student.” The Publisher’s Preface refers to “curriculum for Christian colleges” and “textbooks” as the standard this book is living up to. At this level, the statement above is simply inexcusable.

Galatians 2:21 says nothing at all about earning salvation or about works. It speaks of a righteousness that comes from the law. While your average evangelical, brainwashed and ignorant (sorry), can confuse law, works, and earning your salvation as though they are all the same thing, it is inexcusable for something that claims “first-rate scholarship” to confuse terms like that.

The Bible does say that salvation is not by works, but not in Galatians 2:21. It says it in Eph. 2:8. Unfortunately, it also says in Rom. 2:6-7 that eternal life does come by works. Galatians never addresses works alone; it only addresses the works of the law. It clearly says that the works of the law will not produce righteousness, though it never discusses whether the works of the law have anything to do with eternal life or going to heaven.

Again, it is not necessary for the average evangelical sitting in the pew to notice these things. It should be thoroughly embarrassing, however, that a college textbook would pay no attention to these matters. Arguments like these are an introduction to ignorance and poor scholarship, not an introduction to studying the Old Testament.

Now if this were a purely academic matter, it wouldn’t be that important. We’d just be dealing with academic ignorance. While that’s bad, it’s not as bad as deception and following a false gospel. It is exactly this sort of ignorance that causes people to believe that they can be Christians, disciples of Jesus Christ, without meeting any of the requirements that Christ himself laid down for his disciples.

There’s a lot of work in sorting through salvation, justification, eternal life, judgment, works, law, faith and grace. You have to pay attention not just to the terms but even to the authors. James and Paul, for example, use almost exactly the same terminology to make exactly the opposite statements. Paul says we can’t be justified by the works of the Law, while James says we are justified by works and not faith alone (Rom. 3:28; Jam. 2:24). While Paul mentions “works of the Law,” and James mentions “works,” that’s only the minor difference between those two verses. The major difference is Paul and James’ use of the word “justification.” They mean two different things when they use it, which is obvious from context.

Studying those things can be a lot of work. There is a way around all of that. You can choose someone to believe. Most of my readers, I think, have been influenced by the evangelicals and are thus using Martin Luther’s explanations of terms. Personally, having been an evangelical for over a decade, I found the fruit of that path to be sadly lacking. There were good people who knew God on that path, but overall it fell far short of the New Testament description of the church, where “he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Instead, only the deeply committed and strong of will grew on an ongoing basis. Most just slowly grew cold. Buddhists, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses can claim those kind of results; in fact, probably better results because, being older and more accepted, it’s much easier to be lazy and comfortable in an evangelical church.

I’ve chosen to believe the 2nd century church. United and holy, they possessed an amazing power that carried them through in the midst of intense persecution. Minucius Felix, in The Octavius, was able to boast that “many of us have given…our whole bodies to be burned without any cries of pain…Among us, even women and young boys treat crosses, tortures, wild beasts, and every bugbear of punishment with the inspired patience of suffering…Can’t you wretched Romans see that they couldn’t endure these without the power of God?”

The fruit of their lives would be enough to make me choose their theology over the theology of others, but I enjoy study. I like the work of separating the verses on grace from the ones on faith, of sorting verses on eternal life from verses on salvation, and finding out if there’s any consistent and obvious pattern. As a result, I know that early church theology leaves the follower of Christ without almost none of the “difficult” verses that are an inherent part of evangelical theology.

Learning who to believe based on the fruit they produce is something Christ commanded, and it can save you from a lot of the work involved in strenuous theological study. That can be good because I don’t think all of us are supposed to devote ourselves to study and teaching. The church needs teachers, but even more, it needs workers who are out doing what is taught. Workers don’t need to waste their time doing the study that God has called teachers to do.

However, if you’re going to do the work of study, you should do it in such a way as to find the right answers. The sort of poor scholarship I ran across in Encountering the Old Testament is a sure-fire way to continue in traditions that make the Word of God void.

I can’t resist voicing one other complaint. I suppose I want evangelicals to see what their teachers are like and pursue something better. The argument I addressed above is on a page devoted to the book of Jonah. That page, 454, has this statement on it, “Probably to Jonah’s great surprise, the people [of Nineveh] believed God’s message!”

Probably to Jonah’s great surprise? Aren’t these people writing a college textbook? In Jonah 4:2, Jonah says to God, “Wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my country? That’s why I fled to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you repent of the evil you intended.” Jonah didn’t flee because he was scared of public preaching. Jonah fled God because he knew that Nineveh might repent and avoid judgment. Jonah wanted them to be judged. He sat outside the city in the hot sun waiting in vain hope that God might judge Nineveh anyway, despite their repentance.

Please understand, I’m not trying to be picky. I believe my complaint here is valid and important. If you’re just the average person and you missed the fact that Jonah wanted Nineveh to be judged and regretted their repentance and salvation, that’s understandable. If you’re a scholar, however, you’re supposed to be helping people learn what’s true. In order to do so, you pay careful attention to what you’re studying and teaching. My complaint is not this book’s mistakes. My complaint is their lack of diligence in pursuing what is true, and my statement you, my reader, is that this is common. It’s not uncommon; it’s the standard in popular evangelical works. They are not pursuing what is true, but simply continuing on in dead traditions, and that course of action will reap you no better results in the 21st century than it did the Pharisees and their followers in the 1st century.

You are not going to be able to depend on your evangelical teachers to enlighten you. You are going to have to be more diligent yourself. I’m not afraid to ask that diligence of you, because the first and greatest commandment includes the command to love God with your mind and strength and as well as your heart and soul. An effort to find out what’s true fits well into that command. “In all your getting, get wisdom,” the Proverb says.

Footnote:

*What a mess of abbreviations! “e.g.” means “for example.” It’s short for the Latin exempli gratia. “cf.” means compare, and I’ve always wondered why. I googled it, and it’s short for the Latin confer, which means compare or consult. Finally, “ff” means “and forward.” I’m not sure why there’s two f’s rather than one.

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The Time Changer

Posted on 06/26/2008 by Paul Pavao

I saw a Christian movie last night called “The Time Changer.” It was very thought provoking, even though the acting was mediocre at best. This post is not really about the movie, but I need to give you a brief synopsis to get into my subject.

In the movie a Bible school professor from 1890 writes a book. One of his colleagues then sends him 100 years into the future so he can see what effect his sort of ideas have on society. The movie does a great job at making us look at our American lifestyle in the light of past values. However, what I want to talk about is the strange and unthinking application of the filmmaker’s pet doctrine to the situation in the movie.

The professor from 1890 is shocked at the behavior of both society and Christians in 1990. By his standards, they have lost morality to such an extent that he is certain it must be the last days. He compares 1990’s America to 2 Timothy 3, where Paul says that in the last days people will be “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,” etc. Amazingly, however, when he discusses the source of the problem with a 1990’s Christian, she says, “People are beginnig to rely on their own goodness to achieve salvation, as if they could earn their way to heaven when it’s a free gift from God through Christ.”

I was so surprised I laughed out loud. The reason that people are lovers of their own selves, covetous, etc. is because they’re trying to earn their way to heaven by goodness? Has anything more ridiculous ever been said?

The problem is that evangelicals only know one doctrine. “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” So even though their doctrine has no application to the problem they’re discussion–not even remotely–they apply it anyway. Ridiculous.

What’s even more ridiculous is that their doctrine, a false one sent from hell, is a large cause of the problem. It’s not that people today are selfish and sinning because they believe the evangelical doctrine of going to heaven apart from works; it’s that the doctrine, false as it is, does not produce Christians or obtain grace from God. Therefore, the Christianity that holds that doctrine is pitiful and brings shame and not glory to the name of God. Thus, the society around that religion abandons God and goes their own way. There is no salt to preserve nor light to guide society where the evangelical doctrine of “no works” holds sway.

Paul did indeed say that a man is justified by faith apart from works. What Paul did not ever say is that people would go to heaven apart from works. In fact, he says quite the opposite over and over and over again. Those who practice the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, he says in Gal. 5:19-21. Evangelicals don’t get it, so he says the same thing in 1 Cor. 6:9-11 and Eph. 5:5. They still don’t get it, so he tells them that if they want eternal life, they need to patiently continue to do good in Rom. 2:6-7 and Gal. 6:8-9. They still don’t get it, so he tells them that they will be judged for their works, whether good or bad, in 2 Cor. 5:10. They still don’t get it, so Peter tells them that they need to add numerous qualities to their faith if they hope to enter the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:5-11). They still don’t get it, so the Lord himself out and out says that those who do not do the will of his Father in heaven will not enter the kingdom (Matt. 7:21).

They still don’t get it, and they don’t get it so badly that they suggest that people with no interest in morality whatsoever are that way because they’re trying to get to heaven by morality?

This was not a mistake or loose slip of the tongue. It was the central theme of the film. In another spot, one of the characters says, “People are deceived into thinking that if they lead a good life they will receive God’s approval and attain heaven.” I have to think that since Peter said that God accepts every person who fears him and works righteousness (Acts 10:35), and Paul said that God will repay eternal life to those who seek it by patiently continuing to do good (Rom. 2:7), that the movie character meant that Peter and Paul are the ones deceiving people.

God will judge everyone according to their works, even Christians (1 Pet. 1:17), and it is knowing that good works are required to enter heaven that should drive a person to Christ. People don’t need us to tell them that everyone’s a sinner. They know it. We don’t have to tell them to cry out, “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death.” As soon as they know righteousness is required of them, they will see their need for help in righteousness. You will never find an apostle preaching to the lost that they are sinners. They teach the church how those things work, so you will find plenty of mention in letters to churches that all men are sinners. However, scour Acts as you may, you will not find them having to teach sinners their need of being forgiven. They preach that Christ is the Judge of the living and the dead, and the lost figure out quickly, without help, that they are in need of favor from that Judge!

Realizing their need of favor, they are quick to cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” Their question is the exact equivalent of Paul’s “who shall deliver me from this body of death?” They are asking what will forgive their past sins and change their future conduct enough to face the Judge of all. The answer is faith in Christ. The answer is only faith in Christ. If you wish to be justified, transformed, and sanctified, it is only grace that will do that, and grace is only obtained by faith.

However, none of this changes the fact that there is a Judge and a judgment to be feared. Peter says, “If you address as Father him who impartially judges according to each man’s work, then conduct yourself throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Pet. 1:17).

I’ll quit there. There are a number of long, clear passages that state the things I’ve just said outright. Romans 6, the whole chapter, is one of them, and Romans 8:1-14, the answer to Romans 7, is another. The open-minded will see these things are obviously true. However, I will address a couple of other false ideas taught in the movie.

One idea that leads to this whole doctrine of going to heaven apart from works is that God requires perfection at the judgment. This is not true. It is nonsense, and it makes a monster of God, for he made it so that it was impossible for men to be perfect, yet he will torture them eternally in flames for their imperfections. Ridiculous. God is a just Judge, the Scripture says, and a just Judge does not torment a person eternally even for a crime like stealing, much less for a white lie.

Another fiction, this one not addressed in the movie, is that God requires blood to be merciful. Once we sin, according to this bizarre doctrine, God requires something or someone to die. He doesn’t even care who it is, as long as some person or animal dies. What sort of god this is, I do not know, but it is not the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor the God of the prophets. The prophets tell us that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is and always has been merciful, extending mercy and lovingkindness to thousands, abundant in pardon, and forgiving iniquity and sin. Ezekiel makes it clear that he will do this in return for simple repentance. No one need die.

In fact, David, who sinned so grievously that he not only committed adultery but also murdered the husband, said that God wasn’t interested in sacrifice. “For you do not want sacrifice, or else I would give it…The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart; these, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:16-17).

There is so much wrong with what the evangelicals say about God that it is hard to know where to begin. For years it seemed that every time I turned around I was discovering some new fiction that had been handed to me in Protestant churches. A lot of this turned up as I studied the earliest church writings, from the era immediately after the apostles. At first, I thought it was they who were in error and not us. As time went on, though, it was clear that they lived in unity and holiness, something we evangelicals were merely longing for. Like Paul, they could be confident that he who had begun a good work in them would continue it until the day of Christ Jesus down to the last member of their congregation. We were fortunate if 5 or 10 percent of our congregations continued growing in the Lord throughout their lives.

One of the things they pointed out was the problem with Cain’s sacrifice. As an evangelical I heard and taught that the problem was that Cain offered grain and Abel offered livestock, a blood sacrifice. This didn’t deceive the early Christians, who knew that God isn’t interested in sacrifices (Jer. 7:22-23). It’s the purity of the person sacrificing that purifies the sacrifice, not vice versa. So they knew that the problem was not the sacrifice, the problem was the heart. Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because Cain was wicked, not because his offering was grain.

Scripture, as has almost always been the case, backs the early Christians. John tells us that Cain slew Abel because Cain’s deeds were wicked (1 Jn. 3:12). It’s clear then that Cain was wicked before he slew Abel. In fact, Genesis tells us that Cain was angry because his sacrifice was rejected and that’s why he killed Abel. So it’s clear that Scripture ties Cain’s wickedness and the rejection of his sacrifice together. Genesis 4:7 makes it even more clear. “If you do good, will you not be accepted?” God asks. Why was Cain’s offering rejected? Because his deeds were not good; they were evil.

The problem American society has is not that it is trying to get to heaven by good works. The problem American society has it that it doesn’t care about nor believe in heaven because Christians are not trying to get to heaven by good works. Because Christians are not crying out to God for the grace that breaks the power of sin (Rom. 6:14), being content to slide into heaven on the strength of a sacrifice that was actually meant to purify and transform them (Rom. 8:3,4), there is no proof being offered to the world that a God of power, the Ruler of Heaven, exists. The proof Christ offered was the unity and love of his disciples (Jn. 13:34,35; 17:20-23), but the power to live in that unity and love is lacking because the gospel being proclaimed in America is, in general, a false one.

Don’t get me wrong. I know there are good Christians even in America, though they’re relatively rare, being not much more–or perhaps no more–common than good people among atheists and Buddhists. There are people who have experienced the power of Christ and know that they must live for him. However, the proof Christ offered to the world was not a few isolated disciples, it was disciples that were as united as he and the Father.

That, my friends, will take a faith that fears God.

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Back from Kenya

Posted on 06/11/2008 by Paul Pavao

Well, I’m back from Kenya, Uganda, and England. If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s how desperately the message of the church is needed. God constantly teaches the church, and the world is in desperate need of what he’s taught it.

If you’re a Christian, then what you think of when I say God teaches the church is almost surely doctrinal. It’s matters of theology he must be teaching us, solving the things that divide Christians. However, theology doesn’t divide Christians. Carnality divides Christians. Divisions, schisms, and factions are works of the flesh, and theology is just an excuse denominations use for carrying out the dictates of the flesh. What God teaches the church is the marvelous way that he overcomes the flesh…through love.

We had incredible power in Kenya and Uganda. Pastors showed up asking us what made us different from all the other muzungus (white men) that visit and preach to them. Hearts were opened, and no one could deny the power or the need of our message. What did we do? What did we say?

We didn’t say anything. We lived the way God taught us to live, which is to be a friend to everyone, and people who saw it were moved. They knew that it was good, and they knew that it was from God, and they showed up and asked us how we learned to live with such power. What power? It was nothing more than the power of love.

Please don’t get me wrong. We are not the only loving people who have shown up in Kenya and Uganda. Wonderful, kind, and powerful men of God have shown up and helped struggling Africans in all sorts of ways, digging wells, passing out mosquito nets, starting businesses, and numerous other great acts of kindness and hard work. Lots of  them have done this, and many have done much more work, sacrificed much more,  and are much more worthy of praise than we are. I’m not talking about us in this blog. I’m talking about the life of God.

What people noticed is that we were different from other preachers. The difference is that we knew we weren’t there for words. We were there to bring the life of God because that Life can teach Africans just as well as it has taught us. So we simply showed up and did what we always do. We fellowshipped with the people we met. Since we are God’s people, this allowed the people we met to fellowship with God, and they liked it. They asked how they could have this life, and our words weren’t just words. They were to a purpose, explaining how they could have and be taught by the life of God as we have been.

God’s life hasn’t taught us theology. It has taught us how to get along with one another. Humans can fly to the moon, but they don’t know how to get along. Self-consciousness, emotions, fears, and a myriad of other things stand in the way of us simply being what God is: love. Entering God’s Life is entering a life-long process of learning how to deny ourselves and love. Every one of us has a very long way to go, but every one of us who has lived church life knows what it means to be taught by God to love. This trip taught us once again the immense power of that love. It breaks down every door, opens hearts, and paves a path not just for the Gospel of Christ, but for the Spirit of God that makes that Gospel effective.

In England we met some rather extraordinary members of a small Baptist church. They were godly, loving people who had hurt their careers and social status in order to minister to people. I was impressed. They are much better people than someone like me. They’re harder working, more caring, and certainly run their lives a lot better than I’ve ever run mine. Yet, when we showed up, they told us that we taught them something about ministering to the very people that they have devoted their lives to ministering to. How is that even possible?

It’s because of the power of church life. Modern Christians devote themselves to ministry. Ancient Christians devoted themselves to Christ unless they were specifically called to ministry.  When they were called to ministry, they devoted themselves to learning the ministry they were called to. The power, however, that created the need to minister came from their devotion to Christ. Devotion to ministry is a distraction.

Paul, the apostle, was a student of theology. It’s clear from his letters that he devoted himself to the theology of Christ. The need, however, to teach theology sprung from the life of God at work in the people of God.

Have you ever noticed that those who heard the apostles teach didn’t go anywhere until persecution forced them to? Nonetheless, when persecution spread them out, their faith was infectious. Even after spreading out, as new communities of disciples formed, word spread about the love and faith of those communities (1 Thes. 1:6-10).

This created a need to explain the departure from the typical Jewish faith. These new followers of Messiah, both Jew and Gentile, lived differently than the typical interpretations of the Old Testament would lead you to live. Messiah taught a new way of life, and it had little to do with sacrifices and rituals. As one early Christian put it, “We embrace chastity…dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God…share with everyone in need…live familiarly with men of different tribes…and pray for our enemies” (Justin, Apology 14, c. AD 150). Not much there about ritualistic religious practices, temples, and priests.

I don’t want to get lost in making my point here. God has things to teach us in church life. They are subtle, but they are powerful. They have nothing to do with words, so often they are hard to explain. The fact is, though, that what happened in England is simply typical of the fruit of what God teaches. Where we showed up, everyone had time for fellowship, for prayers, for the discussing of the apostles doctrine, and for prayer. In fact, it’s almost all they wanted to do. They were drawn to it as by some unseen power. That power was the life of God, the very power that draws us as well, that creates the church, that teaches the saints, and that produces a power that will cause the sons and daughters of God to flock to the Gospel rather than having to be chased down by it.

I hope even a little of that is clear. I hope that I don’t sound like I’m boasting about something we did. The things that are learned in church life are powerful. They’re not even to be compared to what you might learn in Bible school, which is almost all completely useless (sorry, but it’s true). All I want is that all who name the name of Christ get to partake in the school of Christ, the church, which is the pillar and support of the truth. All by itself it will produce what people are not obtaining through study, diligent discipline, and toilsome ministry. “It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors,” says the Scripture (Ps. 127:2). Why? Because he gives to his beloved even in their sleep, but only where the Lord has built a house for himself.

“Behold, children are a gift from the Lord,” that Psalm goes on to say. That verse is not a verse on birth control for Protestants, Catholics, Mennonites, and environmentalists to argue about. It is a statement that if you want to reach the world, allowing Zion to bring forth children, it will be the gift of the Lord, not the product of “painful labors.” Modern Christians have never seen the power of church life, so they don’t believe in it. The devil gave the true and Biblical doctrines of the authority and truth found in the church a bad name during the Dark Ages. People are scared of them now, but experience testifies that what the apostles taught and passed on to their churches is true. The church is the pillar and support of the truth, it is the mother of the saints, and God will lead it into things that are true, and not a lie. I would add, into things that are powerful beyond what we could know in our schools, Sunday meetings, and Bible studies.

This is way too long for a blog, but I want to add one more thing. I’ve been saying over and over on this trip that growth does not come from Bible study and prayer in our rooms alone. Growth, according to the Scripture, comes as we speak the truth to love in one another and as every part does its share (Eph. 4:11-16). If you want to grow, you have to be with others to do so, and you have to be with them daily. Sorry, that’s what Scripture teaches (Heb. 3:13). You can pray and read the Bible all you want, but it’s not going to make you grow in ways that will allow you to be an effective minister. Those things are learned in church life. They are learned in the need to get along, having to work things out, having to put yourself aside, and not having the option of separating from Christians you disagree with. Division is death.

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Reaching the World

Posted on 06/07/2008 by Paul Pavao

I am sitting in a hotel room in Kenya. Why am I here? I am here to preach the Gospel to the longing masses of Kenya. Just yesterday I heard a woman announce loudly with great zeal and joy, “Until these brothers came from the USA, I was in darkness. I was depressed and saddened by what I was seeing in the church around me. I was without hope. But now they have brought the light, and I am ready to shine.”

 

Keep that in mind. Do I believe in evangelism? You bet I do, and that’s why I’m over here in Kenya, some eight thousand miles away from my six children, crying out of missing them, but also crying because I’m going to miss my new brothers and sisters here in Nakuru when I leave tomorrow. I have been laid out flat in a European airport with my back thrown out, trying to be out of pain enough to get on an overnight flight to Nairobi and out of the way enough not to have airport security carry me off on a stretcher. I have kissed and hugged children with dirty noses and open sores, shared a 10×10 room with five other men, and bounced my way across 120 kilometers of a dirt road we nicknamed “The Eternal Road” for the vigorous shaking it gave us.

 

Okay, with that out of the way, I want to complain about the American emphasis on evangelism. It is destroying Christians, it has already completely destroyed the church, and it is working on destroying the world.

 

Twenty years ago, I was in a group called the Navigators. They are ministry mainly to college students and young military. They emphasize discipline, service to others, Scripture memory, and discipling others. What they do is generally good, and their founder, Dawson Trotman, was an exceptional and wonderful man.

 

They have a publishing company called NavPress that has now, apparently, spawned another called NavPress Deliberate. NavPress puts out some of the best books in the Christian market. _The End of Religion_, by Bruxy Cavey, is the first book I’ve read from NavPress Deliberate. It is excellent.

 

However…

 

I read the introduction or preface or something that describes NavPress Deliberate. It says Navpress Deliberate “encourages readers to embrace this holistic…Christian faith.” What holistic Christian faith? The one that includes “caring for  the poor, widow, prisoner, and foreigner…and redeeming the world.”

 

That’s it? That’s the holistic Christian faith? What about the Church? You know, the thing that’s called the fullness of God (Eph. 1:23), the body and bride of Christ, and in which God receives glory forever. Nothing too important, just the very purpose that he died, at least according to Eph. 5:25-27 and Tit. 2:14.

 

Today we taught the newborn church in Nakuru to look inward and not outward; to focus on ministering to one another rather than on ministering to the world. That is heresy to evangelical Christianity. On the other hand, evangelical Christianity is a horrendous failure (re: _The Scandal of Evangelical Christianity_ by Ronald Sider), so they’d better start looking at the things that are heresy to them to find out what they’re doing wrong.

 

Galatians 6:10 says that we’re to do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. Why? Because the only way we are going to reach the world is to show them Christ. And Christ has said that the way we will show them Christ is to be perfectly united in love (Jn. 13:34,35; 17:20-23). This is what the Thessalonians did, and it was so powerful that Paul no longer needed to preach in the area of their influence! (1 Thess. 1:7-9).

 

Paul preached. He did it to start churches, which would then be the light of the world. They are the city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. It’s not your little light that must shine, believer. The good works God wants us to show are to be done by the church together, so that  the great light of the city of God will shine (Matt. 5:13-16). When that happens, my friend, the nations will gather, and they will bring the children of the kingdom on their shoulders (Isaiah 60:1ff).

 

This is not theory, we are seeing it happen, even in the deadness, greed, and unbelief of American society. It is now beginning to happen in a place much less closed to the Gospel than America is.

 

Search somewhere for a command in any letter to any church for believers to evangelize. You will find not even one! The closest you will find is Peter’s exhortation to be prepared to answer those who ask you about your hope in Christ. When was the last time you were asked about your hope in Christ? Chances are, that’s exceptionally rare. People do not want to be corralled by a member of the Christian sales force that Evangelicals have mobilized to hide the fact that their Christianity has lost all its power.

 

I get asked about my hope regularly. At least every week or two. Really. That’s the product of living in the kind of environment that the Thessalonian church lived in, where brothers dwell together in unity. There God has commanded the blessing of eternal life (Ps. 133:3).

 

Paul knew that words were useless. He wasn’t interested in the being the kind of peddler of wise words and arguments that we evangelicals are (2 Cor. 2:17, where the Greek word means “retail” or “peddle”). He said, “Don’t preach unless your sent” (Rom. 10:15). He said, “Mind your own business!” (1 Thess. 4:11). He knew that it was important that the Gospel be preached only by ministers who adorned it with good works, and who relied on the power of God and not on words (1 Cor. 4:20).

 

The church is important. Today I heard children singing, “Read your Bible, pray every day,” and then some words that basically said, “This is the way you grow.” It is not the way you grow! That is the lie, my friends, that has allowed wonderful people like those who created NavPress Deliberate to completely ignore the church, the fullness of him that fills all in all, while declaring that they have a holistic Gospel.

 

Read Ephesians 4:11-16. Really read it. The way we grow is together, speaking the truth in love to one another. You will not grow sitting in your room reading your Bible and praying. You will grow, together with other saints, as every part does its share, as you are trained by your leaders to build the body of Christ by speaking the truth to one another in love. This is the only way you’ll grow. We should teach those children to sing, “Exhort your brother, don’t miss a day,” in accordance with what the Bible actually says (Heb. 3:13).

 

It is a saying here that African Christianity is a mile wide but only an inch deep. I heard it both in Kenya and in Uganda. Of course that’s so. It’s not just the children who think that we will grow by reading our Bible and praying every day. We need to read our Bibles enough to find out that’s not so.

 

God is restoring his people, binding them together under his rule so that they can grow like they’re supposed to. Please join the revolution. As a dear Kenyan brother here likes to say, “It is powerful, my brother; powerful!”

 

If you have a chance come to our conference on June 27-29. Details are at http://www.rosecreekvillage.com/conference.

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Enduring Forever: The Word of God and Eternal Life

Posted on 05/05/2008 by Paul Pavao

A voice says, “Call out.”

Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”

…The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever

~Isaiah 40:5,8 (NASB)

The exchange given above is part of a passage in Isaiah that describes the Message of God. There is a command to call out, a request for what to call out, and the answer is to cry out that only the Word of God will endure forever. Everything else will decay and go away.

Christians today don’t understand the Word of God. As an example, the NASB, quoted above, consistently capitalizes all the he’s and him’s that refer to God, but it never capitalizes “word” in “the word of God.” Somehow, we’ve forgotten that Christ is the Word of God, or we’ve relegated that truth to some second place behind “The Scriptures are the word of God.” The fact that Christ is the Word is not second place to anything. It is the primary Message of the Scriptures.

Three times in the Acts the Word of God is said to multiply, increase, or grow (6:7; 12:24; 19:20). This doesn’t make any sense the way we currently understand the Word of God (as Scripture). It only makes sense when we understand that Christ is the Word and that he is Spirit. As the number of the disciples increased, then the Word increased, grew, and multiplied, because it was in more disciples, and it was growing in those disciples. James tells us that the Word is to be “implanted” in us if our souls are to be saved (1:21, NASB). It goes in us like a seed and grows in us.

It is this sort of understanding of the Word, as alive in us and powerful, that allows our passage from Isaiah 40 to make sense. The very heart of the Message of God, according to that chapter–that which is to be called out to the world–is “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.”

Friends, this is the proclamation of eternal life. Only the Word of God will last forever. Get inside of it. Get it inside of you. Then you will possess eternal life, and you will never die. This is the only way. There is no other.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him….The world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 Jn. 2:15,17)

The one who does the will of God is the one who has the Word of God inside of him, because the will and the word of God are the same. Receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your soul. This is the command of Scripture.

How does this happen? Look at how it happened to Peter. In Luke chapter five Peter is told to throw his nets out for a catch. Peter is not happy about this because he has already been fishing all night. But Peter knows there is something special about the Man who is telling him to cast out his nets. So his response is, “Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5, KJV).

Nothing is ever the same for Peter again. After he hauled in the fish, Jesus did not need to preach a sermon to Peter about the sinfulness of man. The Word of God had gotten inside of Peter, and Peter already knew his own sinfulness. “Depart from me,” he cries out, “for I am a sinful man.” When the boats got to shore, Peter forsook his huge catch, his business, and his life and followed Christ.

Do you want to receive with meekness the implanted word? Obey the one who is the Word, and it will bury itself in your heart and begin its work of transforming your life. Hebrews tells us that Jesus has become the author of eternal salvation to everyone who obeys him (5:9). Do you hear his call? Then obey it. Repent, be baptized, and he will give you the Holy Spirit. Sell what you have, give alms to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow him.

Isaiah 40 says there is one thing to cry out. “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.” Nothing else will last, but if you will become a part of the Word of our God, you, too, can live forever. Only the Word endures. You must be in him, and he must be in you. Everything else is temporary.

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Why Are We Together?

Posted on 04/06/2008 by Paul Pavao

I’ve been surprised to find out how much we don’t understand the answer to this question.

We are together because the church is the light of the world.

That’s an overly simplified statement, of course, and there’s a lot of similar statements we could make that would be true. But let me explain what this statement means.

We sing “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” However, God doesn’t want to shine a little light. He wants to shine a great light, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. In Matthew, we are told to let our good works be seen so that our Father can be glorified. The context of that command is the city set on a hill. It’s our good works–ours together, not yours individually–that causes the world to glorify God.

This is because what God wants to show the world is the unity and love of his people. John 13 tells us that the world will know we are Christ’s disciples is because we love one another, not because we love the people of the world. Yes, we are to do good and be charitable even to those of the world. We are to be like our Father, who causes the sun to shine on the unjust as well as the just. However, the proof to the world that we are disciples is by our ability to get along with one another, something that American Christians, for the most part, are proving they cannot do.

Not only does our love for one another prove we are Christ’s disciples, but it also proves that Christ is sent by God. Jesus says several times in his prayer in John 17 that our unity will cause the world to know that the Father sent him.

It is for this reason that the apostle Paul teaches us not only that we should do good, but that we should do good especially to those who are of the household of faith. That seems a strange verse to those who are trying to shine their own little light by doing good works to the world. However, to those who know that the testimony of God is the love for one another that he has put inside his disciples, it is apparent that good works should be done first to one another. We are indeed the household of faith, the family of God, and family takes care of one another.

It is a great miracle for human beings to get along without dividing. Division, factions, and schisms are works of the flesh, and it is typical of our flesh to divide. However, the salvation of God comes with the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Love is the perfecting bond of unity, and so a spiritual people is a united people.

There is a practical application to all of this. Division in the church is a big deal. Thus, we are not free to simply “go to the church of our choice.” We cannot look at our brother, find some small thing we disagree with, and then move on to find someone who agrees with us.

What indeed are we to do? The promise of God is that he will teach his disciples. 1 John tells us that the anointing will lead us into all things, and that leading will be true and not a lie. Ephesians 4 tells us that as the leaders of the church equip the saints to do the work of ministry and to build the body of Christ, then the “speaking the truth in love” that the saints do with one another will lead to a unity of faith that protects us from varying winds of doctrines and from the deception of false teachers.

Together we can learn. Apart, we have no such promises. Indeed, we are told that if we are not exhorted each and every day, we are likely to have hard hearts, deceived by sin (Heb. 3:13).

There is much more to be said about all of this that could never be said in a short blog. However, we need to know the importance of being together. Being together is no guarantee that we are good or right. The Laodiceans were together, but Jesus was fed up to the point of nausea with them. However, if we are going to go forward and grow, it will be together. If you think that going forward means going off on your own and teaching the great insights that you have had on your own, then you are mistaken. You, too, need the daily exhortation of the saints to avoid being hardened and deceived, no matter how much you believe your faithfulness or Bible reading will be what protects you from deception.

I need to add one more thing to all this because I really want you to understand both the importance and the purpose of being together.

Ephesians says some absolutely amazing things about the church. For example, in Eph. 1:23, we are told that the body of Christ is “the fullness of him that fills all in all.” The fullness of God? Dare the Scriptures say such a thing? They do.

Shortly after, Paul begins describing a mystery that has been hidden for ages. In Eph. 3:2-11, he describes this mystery. The short form is given in Colossians one, where Paul tells us that mystery is “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” Ephesians uses more words, but the mystery is the same. Christ has come to live in people, binding Jew and Gentile into one body, which is the church. The church then makes known to “principalities and powers in the heavenlies” what is the manifold wisdom of God.. This, says Paul, is an eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ.

The church is not a mere building that we attend on Sunday or a club we join. The church is the binding together of disciples into one family, caring and taking care for one another, a body for the Son of God to live in so that he might fulfill the eternal purposes of God, testifying both to the world and to powers in heavenly places that his grace is able to unite human beings in love, producing a people for himself, the church, that is zealous for good works.

In future posts we’ll talk about the practicalities of living this out not only in a corrupt and fallen world, but also in an age where the faith and the church are greatly misunderstood and the saints are scattered throughout pseudo-churches.

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Your “immortal” soul

Posted on 03/18/2008 by Paul Pavao

Note: all Scripture quotes on this post are from the NASB Updated version.

A lot of traditions have crept in over the last 2,000 years. Some of them have become a basic part of our assumptions that we never question.

One of those is our “immortal” soul. American Christians assume that all souls will live forever. Perhaps this is true. Jesus does say that he will call “all” from the grave (Jn. 5:28). On the other hand, it is not uncommon for the Old Testament Scriptures to say things like, “There is no mention of you in death; In Sheol who will give you thanks?” (Ps. 6:5) and “His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish” (Ps. 146:4). Either way, whether all souls live forever or only some do, we miss much of the impact of the promise of eternal life because we tend not even to think about such things.

Paul begins his letter to Titus with, “…for the faith of those chosen of God…in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago” (Tit. 1:1-2).

Eternal life has always been a pursuit of mankind. I read a book once–the name of which, unfortunately, I cannot remember–that talked about some common themes in religions all over the world. One of those was the attainment of eternal life. In all religions around the world, this book argued, there was some sort of required way to live in order to ascend to the sky and live forever.

This is no surprise. All of us, at some time in our life, see people die. We see their energized and living bodies, and then we see their bodies dead, cold, and devoid of life. Is that the end? Is that all there is? As the Psalmist says, do their thoughts perish in that day? None of us want that, and we would be delighted to hear that there is some way to live forever.

I have to believe that Paul had this in mind when he said “in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago.” Look at something else he said. In Romans 2, after telling us that God will render to each person according to his deeds, he writes, “…to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life” (v. 7).

There in Romans 2, he speaks of people who are seeking immortality. He tells them that perseverance in doing good will lead to their obtaining eternal life. (For those whose theology on faith and works is threatened by this, see my page on the Gospel and grace, and see Gal. 6:8,9, which says the same thing from a different perspective.) This is clearly written to people who care whether they will live forever or not.

I believe it would do us good to understand and feel that same hope. Look at Gal. 6:8-9. It promises eternal life, as Rom. 2 does, to those who do not grow weary in doing good, though it adds that this doing good is done by the Spirit of God. However, it also tells us that those who live by the flesh will inherit “corruption.” What does the word “corruption” mean? Well, in Acts 2:27 and following, Peter uses the word “corruption” to refer to the decaying of the body in the grave. (The Greek words in Gal. 6:8 and Acts 2:27 are slightly different. One is diaphthora and the other is just phthora, but the difference is only a prefix, and it appears clear from other uses, such as 1 Cor. 15:42, they are referring to the same thing.)

I do not want to present an argument for “soul-sleep” here, the doctrine that souls sleep in death until the judgment, nor an argument for the destruction of the soul after death. In fact, I don’t want to present any theological arguments. I want to put a thought in your mind that I believe is Christian and important. Paul tells us, “If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13). We assume everyone will live after they die, so we are not moved by this passage. Where are those who “by perseverance in doing good seek for…immortality”? Paul clearly believes this a good attitude, because we have found three passages now that recommend this attitude. That doing good is done by the Spirit, true; nonetheless it is clearly a recommended attitude of Scripture.

Immortality. What a glorious thought. It is the promise of God to those who will, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body. Let us not grow weary, then, brothers, in doing good, because in due season we will reap…if we do not lose heart.

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