God in the Plural?

Posted on 10/08/2014 by Paul Pavao

Is God plural?

You will not understand the answer to that question if you don’t read yesterday’s post, “The Early Christian Definition of the Trinity.” If you don’t want to read two of my posts today, yesterday’s is more important … by far.

So, go there first.

I’m not going to argue for the early Christian definition of the Trinity today. I have written an entire book on it (Decoding Nicea). I have posted the Trinity chapters of my book online. I have also posted a scriptural defense of Nicea online.

The definition of the Trinity I gave yesterday is the definition given by the early Christians, and it is also the definition given in the Nicene and Apostles creeds.

There is no doubt that this was the teaching of the early churches, and it answers numerous Scriptural difficulties left to us by the modern definition of the Trinity (e.g., Jn. 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:6).

Today, I am going to point out one more way that the Nicene definition of the Trinity meshes with Scripture better than any other view.

God in the Plural

In preparation for this post, I asked my FB friends, over 500 of them, if they knew of any verses in which God is addressed with a plural you.

As I point out regularly, though modern English does not distinguish between a singular and plural you (except in dialect, such as “y’all” or “youse”), King James English did. In the King James Version, the words thou, thee, and thy are singular, and ye, you, and your are plural.

It’s been almost 30 years since I read a Greek interlinear New Testament that claimed that God is addressed as “ye” in Scripture. The book gave no reference, and in almost 30 years I have never found that verse. Admittedly, I don’t usually read the KJV, so it would be hard for me to find.

So, as I said, I got on Facebook and asked for help.

I didn’t think to ask about verses which refer to God as “they,” or the verses in which God says “us,” but my friends did, so I address those below.

Saying What Scripture Says

Today’s teaching is a side issue. The purpose of the Scriptures is to equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). I cannot imagine how this subject will affect the way you or I live.

So why cover it?

As I pointed out yesterday, we have forgotten what the apostles taught about the Trinity. The church held on to that teaching for centuries, finally codifying it in the Nicene and Apostles creeds. It was only afterwards, in the doctrinal battles with the Arians during the fourth century, that the definition of the Trinity was lost to the modern one. The reasons that happened don’t need to be recounted here, and they can’t be determined with certainty. Suffice it to say that the fourth century is when the definition of the Trinity began to change in the west.

It has never stopped amazing me that millions of Christians recite the Apostles Creed week after week after week without even knowing, much less believing, what it teaches about the Trinity.

Knowing what the early Christians taught makes the Scriptures significantly clearer, so I bring their Trinity teaching up here and there.

One of the principles I espouse, in this modern, divided, and confused age, is that we learn to say what the Scriptures say, without adjustment, even if we don’t know why the Scriptures say it.

My favorite example is James 2:24. It is not an ignored verse. It is mentioned regularly, but in the Protestant world, it is almost always mentioned in order to explain it away. It conflicted with Martin Luther’s theology so much that he called James’ letter “an epistle of straw.” He offered his doctor’s cap to anyone who could reconcile Romans 3:28 with James 2:24. (I make my bid for Luther’s cap at Christian-history.org.)

James 2:24 is never quoted, at least in the Protestant world, then left alone to say what it says. In many churches if you simply quote the verse, then argue that it is true “as is,” you could get yourself ejected from the church.

So today, I am hoping to make Scripture clearer.

Is God “They”?

By our modern Catholic/Protestant version of the Trinity, God can legitimately be referred to as “they.” The one God, we say, consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Thus the one God can be “they.” “Plurality in unity,” it’s been said to me.

I don’t think this is controversial. I think most or all modern Trinitarians would agree that is what they believe.

In Scripture, in early Christianity, and in the creeds, however, God would never be referred to as they, only “he.” The one God reveals himself though the Son and the Spirit, but the one God is the Father.

I believe in God the Father … and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord … (Apostles Creed)

We believe in one God, the Father, … and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, … (Nicene Creed)

For us there is but one God, the Father … and one Lord, Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 8:6)

One early Christian gave the reason for this terminology.

I shall follow the apostle [Paul], so that if the Father and the Son are alike to be invoked, I shall call the Father “God” and invoke Jesus Christ as “Lord.” But when Christ alone [is invoked], I shall be able to call him “God.” As the same apostle says, “Of whom is Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever” [Rom. 9:5].
   For I should give the name of “sun” even to a sunbeam, considered by itself. But if I were mentioning the sun from which the ray emanates, I would certainly withdraw the name of sun from the mere beam. For although I do not make two suns, still I shall reckon both the sun and its ray to be as much two things—and two forms of one undivided substance—as God and his Word, as the Father and the Son. (Tertullian. Against Praxeas 13. c. AD 210)

You will find this instruction by Tertullian to be universally followed in Scripture, in the pre-Nicene Christian writings, and in the Nicene and Apostles creeds. None of those sources will ever use the terminology “God the Son” or “God the Holy Spirit” even though, “when Christ alone is invoked,” the Scriptures and early Christians do call him God. None of those sources ever use the word “God” to refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together.

It wouldn’t take much to refute this teaching. All you have to do is find a reference to “God” as plural, though a New Testament reference would prove a much better defense of modern terminology concerning the Trinity than an Old Testament reference would.

Here’s why.

Plural References to God in the Hebrew Scriptures

My request on Facebook netted several decent replies. In particular, Brian Williamson (whom I don’t even know) directed me to a web page called “Trinity: Plural References to God in the Old Testament”. It’s on the Bible.ca site, which I consider a good reference.

The problem is, as I have pointed out, the early Christian definition of the Trinity is forgotten by almost everyone (except the Orthodox churches), so the article does not address their view.

Here’s why the plural references to God in the Hebrew Scriptures are not refutations of what I’ve written above.

Elohim and “Us”

As many of you may know, the Hebrew word for “God,” Elohim, is a plural word. In Hebrew, there are two ways to use plural words. One way is to indicate plurality, as we do in English, and the other is to indicate majesty or greatness.

Thus Elohim can mean “God” or “gods” or even “great men” or “rulers” in the Scriptures. (Here is one reference. I don’t usually use Yahoo! answers as a source, but in this case the first answer is given by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. It was hard to find good references, but if you want to research it further, you will find that what I say here is true.)

The article referenced by Mr. Willamson argues that the use of Elohim at least suggest plurality. He goes on to say that the use of “us” in Genesis 1 and Isaiah 6:8 is a reference to the Trinity as well.

That is all entirely plausible, but it really doesn’t address the early Christian definition of the Trinity. (In fact, how can anything in the article be a refutation of the early Christian view when it references the early Christians as authorities?)

Review of New Testament and Early Christian Terminology

Tertullian argued that proper terminology is to refer to the Father as God and Jesus as Lord when they are referenced together. When the Son is mentioned apart from the Father, only then should he be referred to as God.

Further, there are but six places in the New Testament where the “one God” is mentioned (Mark 12:32; Rom. 3:30; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6; 1 Tim. 2:5; James 2:19). In four of those cases, the phrase is a clear reference to the Father apart from the Son. In the other two, no determination can be made.

Thus, Scripture confirms the terminology of the early Christians while specifically disagreeing with our contention that the one God should be described as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together.

One last statement. I am repeatedly accused of denying the divinity of the Son by teaching what all the early Christians taught, but of course, I am not. I’m hoping that tomorrow’s post might establish that more firmly for you.

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The Early Christian Definition of the Trinity

Posted on 10/07/2014 by Paul Pavao

A friend of mine is very concerned about my position on the Trinity, despite the fact that I have proven that what I say is not only the view all the apostles’ churches, but also the definition confirmed in the Nicene Creed, formulated at the first Council of Nicea. It is also the view repeated, but not understood, by hundreds of millions of churches every week all over the world in the form of the Apostles Creed.

The definition of the Trinity found in the Nicene and Apostles Creed is difficult to understand if you cannot disengage yourself from modern adjustments made to the doctrine, but it is really quite simple if you can.

The early churches held to these tenets:

  1. There is one God, and that one God is the Father.
  2. The one God has a Son, who was begotten (or generated or emitted) in eternity past, before the beginning began. The Son is his Reason/Word, which was inside of God until he was begotten. God then created all things through the Word, his Son.
  3. There is a Holy Spirit.

For example:

When God wished to make all that he determined, he begot this Word, uttered, the firstborn of all creation, not himself being emptied of the Word [or Reason], but having begotten Reason, and always conversing with his Reason.And this is what the holy writings teach us, as well as all the Spirit-bearing men, one of whom, John, says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” [Jn. 1:1], showing that at first God was alone, and the Word in him. (Theophilus. To Autolycus II:15)

God and Matter

To the early Christians, there were two substances in the universe. One was the uncreated, eternal substance of God, and the other was matter, which at that time was a term for the material God used to create everything, whether angels, humans, animate organisms, or inanimate objects.

One apologist from the late second century wrote:

The multitude … cannot distinguish between matter and God, or see how great the interval is which lies between them … we … distinguish and separate the uncreated and the created, that which is and that which is not. (Athenagoras. A Plea for the Christians 15, AD 177)

Because, for the most part, Christians have long forgotten this teaching, we miss it when it is mentioned in Scripture:

Since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think divinity is like gold, silver, or stone, carved by art and men’s plan. (Acts 17:29)

This is the same context in which the early Christians point out the difference between divinity and matter. The worship of idols is forbidden because they are matter, like us. We must worship only what is eternal, only God, the only true divinity.

The Firstborn of all Creation

The Son of God, says Paul, was the “firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15). The creed so many of us recite every Sunday says he is “begotten, not made, one in substance with the Father.”

While the angels, humans, animals, and everything we see is created from matter, which had a beginning and is therefore temporary, the Word of God that was born “before the beginning began” came from inside of God.

At first God was alone, and the Word in him. (Theophilus, to Autolycus II:22, AD 168)

For before all things God was alone … He was alone, because there was nothing external to him but himself. Yet not even then was he alone; for he had with Him that which he possessed in himself … his own Reason. … even then, before the creation of the universe, God was not alone, since he had within himself Reason, and, inherent in Reason, his Word, which he made second to himself by agitating it within himself. (Tertullian. Against Praxeas 5. c. AD 210)

The Word (Gr. Logos) was not of temporary matter, but of the eternal substance of God because he was birthed from out of the heart of God.

Divinity and the Substance of God

The early Christians liked to refer to this substance as “divinity.”

Paul referred to the substance of God this way as well, as you may have noticed above.

For in him dwells all the fullness of divinity bodily. (Col. 2:9)

The King James Version has “the Godhead” here rather than divinity. “Godhead,” however, is just a 17th-century way to say “Godhood,” or divinity. (This dictionary is just one of many that can be found with a search for “define godhead.”)

If this teaching seems a little strange to us today, it is simply because we are not used to the explanation of it that is throughout the writings of the early Christians.

We employ language which makes a distinction between God and matter, and the natures of the two. … we acknowledge a God, and a Son his Logos, and a Holy Spirit, united in essence [or substance]. (Athenagoras. A Plea for the Christians 24)

Nor let anyone think it ridiculous that God should have a Son … The Son of God is the Logos of the Father. (ibid. 10)

The early churches claimed this teaching was passed to them from the apostles.

This post was actually supposed to be on a different aspect of the early Christians’ definition of the Trinity, but this foundation was necessary first. Tomorrow we will address the plurality of God.

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Is the Casual Approach to Church Producing Casual Christians?

Posted on 10/01/2014 by Paul Pavao

While our solutions won’t match, this blogger excellently portrays the problem inherent in post-Constantine churches, Protestant and Catholic alike. It is more accomodating than I would be, which may help those who disagree to be willing to consider the message.

Jim's avatarNot For Itching Ears

it's worseIt is worse than it looks!

It doesn’t  matter which study you read about the church, because they all say pretty much the same thing:  The church is in decline.

The church is in trouble.  I don’t need to read a study to know this.  I have observed it over the years in countless churches that I have visited.  Churches are weak and though they may have exciting services, they are largely failing to develop strong, grounded and mature Christians.  The church at large (there are exceptions, of course) is also failing to impact the lost around her.

The statistics on this are over-whelming and should stop every pastor and leader dead in their tracks so that we immediately fall on our knees to cry out to the Lord “What are we doing wrong?”  Sooner or later that will have to happen.  Let’s pray it is the former!

Is This…

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Finding the Next Step

Posted on 09/27/2014 by Paul Pavao

Yesterday I talked about working on the next step in church life with friends of mine, though friends far away in California. Today I want to tell you about searching for the next step for people I only heard about through the internet.

When I went to see this fellowship of only five main brothers and their wives, it was because one of them had wrote me feeling like their little church was settling down into a lively but unfulfilling Bible study group.

I asked if I could come help, and they said they’d be glad.

I’m going to be honest here, even though this honesty is pretty negative. I’ve been a reader and somewhat of a follower of Gene Edwards for years. I met Gene once in a very awkward situation. Gene was publishing a book, Open Church, and the author, James Rutz, had written that early Christian love feasts were a cross between a frat party and a Super Bowl celebration with a few cups of wine instead of a keg of beer.

Wow.

I was at a booksellers conference as a representive of Scroll Publishing, a publisher that specializes in books about and from the early Christians.

A colleague wanted to confront Mr. Rutz about his claim. I was confident my colleague was on a hopeless mission. I tried to tell him so, but he was determined, so I tagged along.

He was entirely unprepared to deal with our challenge, and he quickly blurted out, “Go see Gene Edwards. I got it from him.”

Really?

In 1992, Open Church became the most publicized Christian book in history. Gene had spent $250,000 promoting it, but the author couldn’t defend its content.

Wow.

We went to see Gene, and I laughed at my friend. “I have to go along, Dean,” I told him. “You are absolutely right in your complaint, so you represent an unstoppable force. Gene, however, never admits he’s wrong about anything, so he is an immovable object. You are about to empirically answer one of the most ancient puzzles of science.”

Gene was masterful. He had a couple of cronies who scorned and scoffed at appropriate moments. They would roll their eyes or chuckle whenever we suggested that an early Christian or a verse of Scripture should be taken for what it says. Gene told us we were too serious. We needed to throw away our Bibles. He supplied us with a couple outrageous interpretations of simple statements by appealing to God in eternity past and eternity future, then stopped abruptly to dismiss himself to buy juice for his low blood sugar.

That was 1992, and Gene was already towards the end of his time of greatest influence. As a storyteller, he is one of the greats, and his stories of the church and church life inspired at least tens of thousands, maybe millions, of Christians who were tired of “institutional” church.

The only problem is that his ideas don’t work. Hundreds or thousands of home fellowships followed his ideas, stagnated, then gave up in frustration to return to Protestant institutions or lose their faith entirely. Others simply repeated the process—grow to four or five families, get bored, start over—for decades.

Edwards admits all this, but he blames it on his hearers, not his message.

To this day, as I understand, there are a couple (or even four?) Edwards henchmen who go to struggling home fellowships to preach sermons in order to revive them and lead them into “the deeper life.”

I’ve heard some of these messages, great and glowing descriptions of the purpose of God, his revelation of the church, and the glory of the Lord Jesus as head of the church. Ephesians and Colossians are the main sources of these sermons.

They’re true, they’re important, they’re inspiring, and they’re very close to useless in changing the situations of home churches. Decades of experience have proven this method remarkably ineffective.

There’s a reason for that. When the apostle Paul launches into a glorious description of God, his purpose, his Son, and the church, he likes to end with some “therefores.”

At the beginning of Ephesians 4, Paul tells us “therefore”—because of all the glorious things that are true of God, his purpose, his Son, and his church—we should walk worthy of the calling with which we are called. Just a few verses later (v. 17), he tells us “therefore” we should not walk as the Gentiles walk. In verse 25, he tells us that we should “therefore” stop lying and stealing, humble ourselves, serve each other, stop bearing malice, etc.

Running around daydreaming of the glory of God doesn’t do too many people good. Maybe there are a couple. In the end, the purpose of the Scripture—and the incredible power and glory of God and his Son—is to equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and make us like his Son (Rom. 8:29). That boils down to diligent effort (Eph. 4:3; 2 Pet. 1:10), denying ourselves, calling out to God, and devoting ourselves to helping each other with the process of becoming like Jesus.

Gene never did like boiling Christianity down to those kind of basics.

Paul did it in every letter, though.

So when I went to visit this little house church, I didn’t do what Gene’s henchmen do. I didn’t preach any glorious sermons. I did the only thing I know to do, which is to join myself to fellow disciples, share their burdens, and listen to their hearts.

At the end, my message to them was not very glorious … at least to man.

I suspect that God found the message glorious.

“Love your wives. Save your marriages. If you can get your eyes off yourself and lay down your lives for your wives and rescue your marriages by loving your wives the way Jesus loved the church, then you will learn to love in such a way that God will send you others to be loved by you in just the same way.”

The message wasn’t difficult to find.

It is very difficult to implement.

I know that part of my job is to follow up. I call one of those brothers regularly to talk about how they’re doing, how their marriages are doing, and what they’re learning. I even have a friend in the area who was glad to devote himself to these brothers in the same way I did, not just talking to them, but sharing his life with them.

It is these things that cause churches to stagnate. We like to think it is other, more “spiritual” things, but it’s not.

Corinth and Falling Short

The church at Corinth is a great example. People talk about the first-century church in Corinth like its only problem was that it was overly charismatic, overboard in spiritual gifts.

Nonsense. Paul issues small corrections to their spiritual gift problem along with no rebukes at all. Too much tongues? Paul’s answer was “Hey, tongues are awesome, and I speak with tongues more than any of you, but they’re not for the church, brothers. In the church, you should want to prophesy. Be comprehensible. Speak in a language everyone can understand.”

That’s not a rebuke. That’s a minor correction.

Their real problem? Lack of love. Read Paul’s reaction to their neglect of one another at the Lord’s Supper (which was a supper, not a snack). He’s horrified. He warns them even of physical judgments such as sickness or death (1 Cor. 11:17-end).

All the other issues that alarmed Paul were matters of love for one another. He begins with division, the separation into denominations. He spends three chapters on this issue, and he tells them their behavior is carnal, the sort of behavior appropriate only for those who have not been freed from the race of Adam by being born again (1 Cor. 3:3 & cf. ch. 15).

1 Corinthians 5 addresses a situation of sexual immorality, and it is full of rebuke. In 1 Corinthians 6, he calls for shame because of their willingness to sue one another.

But on spiritual gifts? All he says is “I do not want you to be ignorant” (12:1). Then he explains the role of spiritual gifts, which should enhance unity, build love, and strengthen the body of the King.

The goal of the Scriptures is to produce men and women “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The goal of our fellowship together is the same. You say you don’t know what to do next? You say you’ve settled into the same ol’, same ol’?

Unless you’re perfect, you have things to do! There is something God wants to improve, something he wants you to learn or do. Find it. Obey him. He will give you more as you obey what he has given you now.

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My Life

Posted on 09/26/2014 by Paul Pavao

I’m not in Africa starting a new church every week. Most days, I face nothing remotely life-threatening. I’ve recovered from leukemia and a marrow transplant better than most people do, and my “new normal” is a lot like my old normal.

In other words, I don’t consider my life all that exciting. It’s great, but not exciting.

As a result, I don’t think much about writing about my life. I need to, though. I say a lot of things about the Gospel, the real church, and the life of a disciple. How do I live?

Not perfectly, and I’m pretty certain you would not be awestruck by my holiness.

But I am in the church.

I went to California for two weeks, mostly to provide some encouragement for the church in Rick’s house. They were feeling a need for direction.

I rushed to the rescue!

Well, no, actually I didn’t. I did what I always do, whether I am visiting a big church, a small church, a “building” church, or a house church. I showed up, tagged along with them as they tried to follow God around, and I joined whatever they were doing with my whole heart, providing whatever help God was able to provide through a marred vessel like me.

The first night, I sat with one of the leading couples, and we talked about direction. I’d felt led to read Ephesians that day, and I was explaining the grand picture I sawe there when the wife told me she’d been reading Watchman Nee’s Sit, Walk, Stand, which is based entirely on Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.

We, or at least I, left there pretty satisfied with what God was saying to us. The church is an eternal, grand, and glorious thing, and we should be aware of it, but our response to that knowledge is simple. We have to walk worthy of the calling with which we are called.

Don’t get distracted. Don’t despise the day of small things. Don’t entertain delusions of grandeur.

Instead, stop stealing and work so that you can give. Stop lying, and tell each other the truth. Honor each other above yourself. Forgive.

Diligently maintain the unity of the Spirit, and devote yourself to helping each other obey Jesus … in the simple things just mentioned.

This is sound teaching, according to the apostle Paul. Titus 2, which explains sound teaching, and it doesn’t get into glamorous things. Be sensible, love your wives, raise your children, work as unto the Lord, deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and look for the appearance of the One who gave himself to gather a unique people, zealous for good works.

I know that people like dissect the atonement, then explain why it gives them the right to sin. We prefer to give thanks for the atonement, then spend our time being careful to maintain good works. That’s borderline heresy in Protestant churches, but Paul called it a faithful saying that should be affirmed constantly (Tit. 3:8).

On the first Friday I was there, we talked about that idea. Yes, we talked about it. I didn’t preach it, nor did the sister who was reading Watchman Nee’s book, nor her husband who was part of that discussion. We brought it up, and God let it sink so deep that on Sunday morning, at least 3 people (I think 4 or 5) said they’be been thinking about Friday’s meeting all weekend.

On both Wednesdays I was there we wrestled (verbally) for hours with a brother who had some important questions. Each time, it took 2 or more hours to get to the root of the problem, to find out what was really bothering him. Both times, we found our point of misunderstanding, broke through into mutual joy and understanding, and left delighted at the answers the Lord provides and the work it sometimes takes to obtain those answers.

I did teach on the last Friday night. I got results that can be typical for me. Most folks are speechless. It takes minutes or even days for them to get around to talking. When I talk I get dead silence–with no one asleep, no eyes closed, and everyone looking at me–more than any speaker I’ve experienced.

Friends tell me it’s because there’s nothing to say. Everyone is thinking, “I guess I better go home and deal with this.”

I sure hope that’s true.

I live a lot of my life finding the next step. What’s next? What is God saying now? Where am I failing him?

Thus, when I show up somewhere, I don’t just sit down and teach. I get to know the people who are going to give me their precious time to listen to me. I pick their hearts to find out what God is saying to them. Then, when I’m in front of him, I simply put together what’s on their heart with what God has put on my heart, and I show them from the Scripture and from what’s going on around them what they ought to be doing next.

I’m not wrong very often. God is always talking to his people. If we will talk to his people, we’ll start finding what he’s saying to all of them. All I do is gather it up, put it together, and give it back to them cleaned up and easier to understand. Usually people are pretty excited about it because it’s what was already in their hearts.

I like exploring the will of God with his people, not telling them what to do. If they’re already at the point of realizing that God has called them to live just like their older brother, Jesus, then they’re as hungry to do nothing but the will of Jesus as Jesus was to do nothing but the will of the Father.

Sometimes those wonderful disciples don’t know there’s always a next step for them. I just work at helping them find it.

I am terrified of this post because I say “I” so many times in it. It’s what I feel like I was supposed to write, though. I suppose that if this post does nothing but expose how self-focused I am, then there’s benefit in that, too.

But maybe it will help someone else who is looking for the next step when our corporate or individual walk with God feels stagnant.

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Zealous for Good Works

Posted on 09/20/2014 by Paul Pavao

You won’t be able to tell right away, but this is a followup to yesterday’s post about Ephesians and what we should be doing as churches.

The title of this post comes from Titus 2:13-14 where we are told that Jesus died to obtain for himself a special people that are zealous for good works. The purpose of this post is to discuss a reason for an emphasis on good works that many of us do not consider.

A friend of mine wrote a book called Desperation, which deals with overcoming sin, in particular pornography. At the heart of the book, as you can tell from the title, is the issue of desperation.

Many of us are not desperate. We want to overcome sin the way the average person wants to buy a Rolls Royce. It would be great, but the actual doing of it seems so impossible we’re not even going to try.

In most cases, if we read apostolic (from the apostles) or divine (from Jesus) commands, we immediately turn to thoughts of mercy and grace.

That would be right if we didn’t apply it wrong.

Grammar Nazi excursus: I left the -ly off “wrong” because I liked the contrast with “right.”

Here’s how we usually apply it.

We hear, “Jesus commanded such and such.”

We feel guilty. We wonder how we’re going to achieve obedience. Then we remember mercy. We comfort ourselves with the thought that when we sin we have an advocate with the Father, King Jesus the righteous (1 Jn. 2:1).

So far, so good.

Grace is the power of God to overcome sin (Rom. 6:14). We think, and we even say, “By the grace of God I will (eventually) not do this anymore.”

Here is where the problem comes in.

The problem is that what we mean is: “It’s all up to God. Nothing I can do. God will forgive me over and over again, and hopefully, not likely, but hopefully, the grace of God will deliver me from disobedience to that command of Jesus … eventually, I’m sure. Just give me a decade or so, and I’m pretty confident things will be better.”

You can deny you think like that, and I will hope that you are telling yourself the truth. Reality is that most of us, and I’m being honest including myself, are naturally prone to thinking that way every time we are convicted; every time.

We are not desperate. Why should we be? We’re forgiven by the blood of Jesus. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, his blood will cleanse us from every sin (1 Jn. 1:7).

Among the many problems with this attitude is Paul’s warning that God will not be mocked by ongoing sowing to the growth of the flesh (Gal. 6:7-9). A more direct warning is from John, who tells us not to be deceived about the fact that only those who practice righteousness have the righteousness of Jesus imputed to them (1 Jn. 3:7).

We might be able to find some exegetical or hermeneutical tools to weasel our way out of that warning (thus proving that we fear man rather than God) except that John adds, “Those who go on sinning are of the devil.”

Wow. John is extreme! I’d imagine some of us think he is so extreme that his statements in 1 John ought to be taken with a grain of flavorless salt.

We’re not desperate.

The apostles go out of their way to make us desperate. They do this because the incredible grace of God that delivers us from sin and empowers us for service is for desperate people. They do this because it is to those who walk in the light that God does not impute sin (1 Jn. 1:7).

It takes effort, usually born of desperation, to stay in the blazing light of God.

We’re so used to life in the shadows that we don’t realize that most of us have tasted of the light and run from it.

That last statement is based on 32 years of experience as a Christian. The statements before that are based on Scripture. Since I’ve already explained my premise, I am going to finish with a boring list of Scriptures that only the desperate will want to read.

  • The foundation of God stands firm, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are his, and let those who name the name of the King depart from iniquity. (2 Tim. 2:19)
  • … who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. (Tit. 2:14)
  • This is a faithful saying, and I want you to affirm these things constantly, that those who believe in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable for people. (Tit. 3:8)
  • Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see God. (Heb. 12:14)
  • (Paraphrased for brevity): Add to your faith virtue, wisdom, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly-kindness, and love. If you don’t do this, you’ll be blinded and forget you were purged from your old sins. If you do these things, however, you will never stumble, you will ensure your calling and election, and you will be given a glorious entrance into Jesus’ eternal kingdom. (2 Pet. 1:5-11)
  • The works of the flesh are … (list of sins here) …; those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19-21)
  • But don’t let fornication, uncleanness, or greed be named among you even once. And walk in love as the King has loved us … For you know that no sexually immoral, unclean, or greedy man has any inheritance in the kingdom of God or the King. (Eph. 5:3-5)
  • Let us not grow weary in doing good for in due season we will reap [eternal life] if we do not lose heart. (Gal. 6:9)
  • Cramped is the way, and narrow is the gate that leads to life, and there are few that find it. (Matt. 7:14)
  • “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21)
  • If the righteous are saved with difficulty, where will the ungodly and sinner appear? (1 Pet. 4:18)
  • For to this end the King both died and rose, and lived again, so that he might be the Lord of both the living and the dead. (Rom. 14:9)
  • He died for everyone so that those who live should live no longer for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again. (2 Cor. 5:14)
  • So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for if we live according to the flesh, we will die. But if, by the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body, then we will live. (Rom. 8:12-13)
  • Those who are the King’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal. 5:24)

It is true that we should find that in our own effort we are incapable of pleasing God (Jn. 15:5). Heartbroken, we should cry out, “O, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24).

When we’re there, when we’re desperate, then we will seek, and then we will find there is an answer to our powerlessness: “Thanks be to God, through King Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 7:25). There, in our desperation, we will learn that what the Law could not do, God did, and the righteous requirement of the Law will be fulfilled in us when we walk according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:3-4; Gal. 5:16).

There we will also learn there is a reason that we are told to speak the truth in love to one another (Eph. 4:13-16), exhort one another every day (Heb. 3:13), and consider how to provoke one another to love and good works (Heb. 10:24-25). There is a reason that the Scriptures are said to be useful for “teaching, correction, rebuke, and instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). We need each other’s help, as well as the Holy Spirit’s help, to become “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17).

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Ephesians for House Churches: Why We’re Trying Too Hard

Posted on 09/19/2014 by Paul Pavao

This is not the only overall message of Ephesians, but it’s probably the most critical one for house churches.

Deep breath. Rub my hands together. Here’s my attempt at a short, to-the-point, yet helpful 400-meter dash through Ephesians. Ready? You might need to read this really fast to get the feel, then come back and read it more slowly for the content. 😀

This is written for little churches wondering how to progress, who already know they are supposed to be family, sharing their lives and their possessions as best they know how, abandoning their own will of Jesus, again as best as they can.

Okay, the specifics:

Ephesians 1-3

This is the glorious spiritual introduction to the church. Church life is not just a nice spiritual thing for us to do together. It was eternally purposed by God to be “in” King Jesus. From before the beginning God thought of us, and thought of how to call us and join us together inside of Jesus along with all the rest of creation.

Jesus is the great Ruler over everything, in this age and the next. Yet this great and glorious King has been given as head to the church, so that the church is “the fullness of him that fills all in all.”

We’re supposed to respond to this first chapter with, “Whew! Wow! Amazing! We have been called into a glorious, cosmic, Divine purpose planned by God before the foundation of the earth! Whoo whee, my head is spinning.”

I’m using facetious terminology, but I mean every word. That’s how we should respond to Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 2 and 3 bring some details to chapter 1, but the effect is the same. We’re seated in the heavenlies in Jesus despite the fact that we were all demonically influenced sinners (really, see 2:1-3). We are citizens now of heaven and part of a glorious mystery, hidden through all the ages, to join Israelites and Gentiles, all people, into a habitation for God.

Wow! Talk about stretching your head across eternity and the universe!

Ephesians 4

That’s all awesome, but what do we DO? What is the practical application of that?

I, THEREFORE, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. (v. 1)

What calling? The one described in Ephesians 1-3? We can walk worthy of THAT calling?

Yes, we can. Paul gives a route:

  1. Earnestly give youself to preserving the unity of the Spirit (v. 3). If you’re tied to someone by the love you feel by the Spirit, DON’T LET THAT GO!
  2. You have help. Jesus has given us gifts—gifts which are gifted men—to teach us how to work to build up the body of the King (4:11-12).
  3. Talk to one another. Do your part. Don’t sit alone. Together, you won’t be deceived, and you will grow into the full maturity of King Jesus, if you’ll just do your part, telling each other truth in love. (4:13-16)
  4. Put on the new man that is created in righteousness and true holiness, and put off the old man with all his unrighteousness.

What does that mean? What do we say to each other? What is the focus? What deep revelations out of the eternal mystery and purpose of God do we deliver to one another in the truth?

Stop stealing. Stop lying. Tell the truth. Work so you have money to give to others. Beware of your anger and don’t let it lead you into sin.

Huh?

Oh, and get rid of all your bad attitudes bitterness, complaining, and ill-will. Instead be kind, tenderhearted, and quick to forgive.

Pretty deep revelation, right?

Here’s even deeper revelation, from Ephesians 5 …

Ephesians 5

If you don’t do what you just learned in Ephesians 4 you won’t have any inheritance in the kingdom of God or of the King (5:5).

No matter how you interpret it, that’s bad. No matter how you interpret it, that’s something you want to avoid.

Some people want to say that this doesn’t apply to Christians, who are forgiven by the blood of Jesus for their willfull continuance in sin. That’s a pretty strange way to interpret a warning that’s in a book written to Christians, but Paul sees it coming nonetheless.

Do not be deceived. It is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Do not partake with them. (vv. 6-7)

God is not a respecter of persons. If he is going to judge the sons of disobedience for these things, he’s not going to let you off the hook, either. Jesus is the Savior of those who obey him (Heb. 5:9). If you’re not obeying him, something is wrong with the salvation you received (1 Jn. 2:3-4).

Usually what is wrong with a salvation that is ineffective is two things: 1. You haven’t been told about the Gospel of the kingdom and that you must acknowledge Jesus as King and Judge over everyone, especially including yourself. 2. You haven’t been told about the church, and that it has an obligation to exhort/encourage you every day and to watch over you like a shepherd over his sheep. Please let us know if you need help with that.

Ephesians 5 goes on with more details, much like the details in Ephesians 4. Don’t be like the world, be careful of what you do with your mouth and your time. Be filled with the Spirit. Sing spiritual songs … all the time. Give thanks. Love your wives; respect your husbands.

Summation To This Point

We are through what I would see as THE two key steps to the growth of a small church.

  1. Know the majesty of our calling, the power of God in us, and glorious inheritance awaiting us in God and for which God awaits as well. Know the church’s role in that, and the exceeding greatness of his power in us.
  2. As a result of that knowledge, don’t get overbearing or impressed with your knowledge. Instead, walk worthy of the calling with which you are called by simply doing what’s good in the Spirit. Don’t steal. Give. Don’t lie; tell the truth. Don’t complain and bear malice; give thanks, forgive, and be kind. Praise, sing, and give thanks.

Super simple. Don’t take over God’s job and focus on glorifying and entertaining yourselves with the latest wild notions. Glorify God and do good by being kind and honest and friendly and loving your wife and not angering your children and treating your employees well.

Simple, simple. Now let’s go to #3, the most complicated thing on earth.

Ephesians 6

The building of the church is not a human battle, it is a spiritual one. We may have a very poor idea of our role in the eternal purpose of God or of the incredible power he has released in the church if we walk in unity and obedience to Jesus, but the devil does.

Paul tells us that we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against a whole organization of spiritual forces in heavenly places.

Those forces know that you four or five families—timid, confused, and not really sure what to do in the modern environment of competing churches, mostly infested with worldlinnes, of competing messages, and of a scoffing and unbelieving modern culture—possess the power to dispossess them despite their high and lofty positions and their spiritual knowledge.

Paul spent a lot of time in the first three chapters describing his prayers that you and I would know that power as well.

So step #3, after you have learned of your power, and after you have THEREFORE joined together in unity to serve and love one another in kindness and to help each other on the route to obedience to Jesus, is to batten down for the assault that will follow.

Make yourself strong. Get ready. You need salvation, truth, the preparation of the Gospel of peace, righteousness, faith, and the Word of God. Work on those. Get those read. Faith is the shield that will knock away EVERY dart of the evil one. The rest is growing together in God, speaking the truth in love to one another, and thus preparing yourselves to present first by your lives and later by your tongue, the Gospel of peace.

Just as the devil’s minions will notice your devotion to the unity of the Spirit resulting in encouraging one another in simple obedience to the basic teachings of Jesus, so the world will notice your love (Jn. 13:34-35), and they will ask.

Repeatedly, when I point out that there are no commands in the letters to the churches to go out and evangelize, Protestants flip out. All of them. Almost no one, friend or foe, has much tolerance for my statement that the “great commission” applied only to the apostles. We don’t need to be running around preaching until we are sent like the apostles were sent (Rom. 10:15). I tell them that we are taught to be prepared to answer those who ask us, and they say, “Phthhh, when was the last time someone asked you about the hope that was in you.”

I’d guess it’s been a couple weeks, but it has happened at least tens of times, if not hundreds. I cannot imagine that I am the only one that has happened to.

Final Summation

Three things:

  1. Know the incredible power and importance and eternal significance of the church.
  2. THEREFORE, work hard at preserving the unity of the Spirit and departing from iniquity (cf. 2 Tim. 2:19)
  3. Hold on to your salvation, increase your knowledge of the truth, guard your heart with righteousness, walk in the Gospel, protect each other with faith, and win the war with the Word of God because you will find yourselves in a battle. DO NOT CONFUSE the weapons used on you with the source of those weapons and their power. The enemy will use people, but the enemy is spiritual. Do not be distracted by humans.

I hope that helps. I know it would have helped me a lot over the last 30 years.

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Unity and Denominations

Posted on 09/16/2014 by Paul Pavao

I began my last post with “I left all the denominations.” Although that is clearly a Protestant-type comment, for Protestants are the only one who have denominations and gladly belong to them, I got a couple Catholic responses.

One of those responses included the following:

If I allow my personal attempts toward holiness and obedience to the Word to determine what the Body of Christ should be, then I basically end up in my back yard with a handful of others calling it “church” (believe me, I know)… I would argue that this is the end result of Protestantism, even if we avoid Protestant terms.

Ah, right here is the difference between those who read the early Christian writings and wind up in an Orthodox or Roman Catholic Church and me. I don’t care about anything in this paragraph. All of it is completely irrelevant to me.

I only care about one thing. On the last day, I want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.” For that to happen, I need help.

Exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Heb. 3:13)

Honestly, I don’t think attending a meeting with a speech about the Bible once per week is much help to anyone, no matter what sort of reverence accompanies it. I think the only way we really help each other is by devoting ourselves, together, to fellowship, the apostles’ teaching, and the breaking of bread.

I’ve never been in a denomination that does that.

Show me people who are doing that, whether in a back yard or in a building, whether called a church or not called a church, and I will run not walk to wherever they are getting together in order to be a part of what they’re doing.

Not much else matters to me than that. We have our own little “backyard” church, and it’s exactly what I’m looking for. They seek God together with me. We know each other, help each other, and we exhort each other.

We would be glad to do that with any other Christian that wants to do that with us, but most of them are busy attending meetings with Christian speeches and holding Bible studies with people who are trained to absent-mindedly ignore any correction the Bible might have for their novel traditions.

Show me a LOCAL Catholic or Orthodox congregation that lives like the family of God and that doesn’t require me to do things I can’t conscientiously do, and I’ll stop what we’re doing, and we’ll all go there. Everyone I’ve talked to locally, though, is quite prepared to admit that their congregation is mostly nominal, just like Protestant denominations are.

Thanks, but no thanks. That’s of no use to me. I tried it for years, and after years I see that I’m no use to them, either.

I wrote a booklet once called How to Make a Church Fail. It’s my least popular book, still available on Amazon. No one has reviewed it that doesn’t already know me well. In fact, only my mom and one other person have reviewed it. (Thanks, mom!)

In it, I suggest that adding “the national religion” as an element in bringing people into the church ensured the division, not of the organization, but of the Christians in the organization. The sons of God now spent as much or more time with sons of the devil than with each other.

The organization known as the church has never stopped that practice, except in rare circumstances, so what the Scriptures portray as a church has been absent, except in relatively rare circumstances.

I know that one of the objections I will hear to this is something to the effect of, “You sure are confident of your own opinions that you would dare to suggest that all these denominations and organizations aren’t churches as described in the Bible.”

Yeah, I am. Sorry, I just can’t pretend that the local Baptist, Catholic, or Orthodox congregation even faintly resembles what I read about in the New Testament. It seem silly for me to say, “Yeah, I know that I read the New Testament, and these churches look nothing like what I read, but I guess I’ll just doubt myself, ignore the obvious, and go join one of them.”

Sorry, no. I’ve attended denominations for years, but only to find people who are willing to leave them like I and many others have.

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A Heavenly Examination

Posted on 09/15/2014 by Paul Pavao

Last night someone asked me what denomination we are. I answered by telling him why I left all the denominations. I talked about how much of the Scriptures are routinely ignored by everyone in pretty much every Protestant church. There are those of us who couldn’t take it anymore, and we are trying to live in obedience to the things most “Christians” ignore.

Then I listed a few for him. Turning the other cheek, forsaking all our possessions, loving with a heavenly love that produces a unity closer than any earthly family. As I quoted the words of Jesus and the apostles, he asked questions about how that is practically lived out.

Honestly, I have no idea of the effect our discussion had on him, but it took my breath away. I am giving myself to the teachings of Jesus, but how fully? Having to explain the call of Jesus highlighted areas where my diligence lags. It highlighted small, or not so small, compromises I make. The sword of conviction was deep and painful, but it’s a pain that must be embraced often by all of us.

If someone were to ask you what it means to hate your own life so that you might keep it for eternal life, do you know what you would tell them? And if you told them, would you be able to say, “That’s how I live my life”?

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Ephesians 1 Continued

Posted on 09/13/2014 by Paul Pavao

In the last post we talked about how incredible it is that God thought of us, planning to bring us all creation under and into his Son, before the foundation of the world.

Let’s continue that theme today.

Since I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love to all the saints, I do not stop giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Anointed Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling and the wealth of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, how exceptionally great his power is toward us who believe, comparable to the energy of his mighty power which infused in the King when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principalites, authorities, powers, and rulers, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one that’s coming. He has also put everything under his feet and gave him to be the overall head to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills everything in everything. (Ephesians 1:15-23)

Where do I start with this majestic prayer that is more than a prayer, but a proclamation?

The apostles wants us to have both wisdom and revelation concerning these things. He wants us to know him, and he especially wants us to know …

The hope of his calling and the wealth of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

What’s at the end of the road? He has called us in hope. That hope motivated Paul so much that he called everything behind him nothing but manure for the pile and pushed forward for the prize of the upward call of God in King Jesus (Php. 3:8-10).

The Scriptures do call what God has prepared for us has never been seen by any eye, nor heard by any ear, nor entertained by any heart (1 Cor. 2:9). They also say that God has revealed them to us by his Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10).

Knowing this, Paul prays that we will be spiritual enough to see it. Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that was set before him. We, too, have a hope laid up for us in heaven, and it should motivate us.

It is the first thing Paul prays we will understand by wisdom and revelation.

… how exceptionally great his power is toward us who believe, comparable to the energy of his mighty power which infused in the King when he raised him from the dead …

The second thing Paul wants us to know by wisdom and revelation is how exceptionally great the power of God is to us who believe. He says it is the same energy that powerfully raised Jesus from the dead. We don’t have a lesser power. We have that power of God constantly being exercised toward us.

May we believe it. May we search it out with wisdom, and have the knowledge and understanding of that power given to us by the revelation of God.

… his mighty power which infused in the King when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principalites, authorities, powers, and rulers, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one that’s coming. He has also put everything under his feet …

There is a tremendous exaltation of the power of God, which raised up the King and set him at God’s own right hand, and of the fearsome power and majesty of the Lord Jesus, who has been set over everything.

We find in chapter 6 of Ephesians that those principalities and authorities over which Jesus will rule are our enemies. We wrestle against them. We overcome them as ambassadors of Jesus’ kingdom, clad in the armor of salvation, righteousness, truth, and the preparation of the Proclamation of peace. We fight them with faith and the Word of God.

The reason that we can triumph, the reason that the shield of faith quenches all, and not just some, of the fiery darts of the wicked one, is because Jesus has been set by the mighty power of God over all principalities, authorities, powers, and rulers of this age and the next one. None is excepted.

Of course this is true. The whole universe leapt into being with that purpose in the Father’s mind. His Word would rule over all things and bring them together in himself. It is the purpose of the universe.

… and gave him to be the overall head to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills everything in everything.

Whoa! What is this! This glorious Rule of all, triumphant over every other rank or authority, in this age and the next one, this one is our Head? He’s the one who moves us? He’s the one who stretches forth his hand through us because we are his arms and hands, his body? This is our head?

Aye, the Lord God would tell us. Not only is he the Head of the church; not only is the church his body; but the church is his fullness. The one that fills everything in everything … we are his fullness.

Folks, let’s agree with Paul. Let’s cry out that we might receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation so we begin to understand just what it is we have entered into. How seriously we understimate the hope of our calling, the wealth of his inheritance in US, the exceptional greatness of the energy of his power toward us, and the majesty of the Ruler of the Ages who is our Head, our Lord, our King. Please, Father, open the eyes of our understanding!

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