Secret and Unsearchable Things

The past year and a half or so, I've been working on several articles, each of which involved biblical questions without a completely satisfying answer. In fact most of these questions have been debated for centuries. This is not surprising in that, a deity of whom we could completely comprehend would not be much of a god. Of course, the true and living God is not like that. The late Ravi Zacharias once opined that, God revealed to us enough information to come to him, but not so much information that we could get by without faith.

Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us that, The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

This was hammered home to me time and again as I attempted to work on these articles for a time, then get frustrated, back off for a while, and finally attempt to look at them from a different perspective, then rinse and repeat. During these projects, I felt much like Job must have when questioned by the Lord Almighty in Job chapters 38 through 41. I was also constantly reminded of a number of verses:

Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit (Ps 147:5).

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. (Ps 145:7).

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. (Is 40:28).

Another one that entered my mind quite often was Isaiah 55:8-9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

My number one go-to verses when I run into “unsolvable” obstacles remains the Doxology in Romans 11:33-36:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and i knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Recently, I finally published the articles linked below:

Could Jesus Have Sinned when He took on a Human Nature?

The Sovereignty of God and the Free Will of Man

The Sovereign Power of God - Historical Development of the Doctrine

Who was Melchizedek? His Identity and Importance

Logic of the Cross

Like clockwork every Easter, we see stories from various TV shows and magazines attempting to discredit the Bible account of Jesus’ death and/or resurrection. Never mind that these stories have been debunked over and over by the evidence, the media continues to pull them out, re-warm them over and breathlessly promotes them as new scientific discoveries that supposedly signals the death knell for Christianity.

Since the Cross is a central foundation of Christianity, it is also a prime target of those who attempt to discredit the Faith. There have been many excellent books written over the years greatly detailing the evidence for the resurrection. Indeed, the evidence supporting the Biblical accounts of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is much stronger than many of the other historical events that we take for granted. Therefore, even though we have a historically based article in progress, we decided to examine the Cross from a logical viewpoint based upon 1 Corinthians 1:18.

The preaching of the cross is, I know, nonsense to those who are involved in this dying world, but to us who are being saved from that death, it is nothing less than the power of God (Phillips NT).

The first thing Paul notes is that the message of the Cross, that is Jesus dying for the sins of all who would believe in Him as Lord and Savior so that we might be forgiven and spend eternity with Him in Heaven (Jn 3:16, 17:24) is foolishness to those unbelievers dying in their sins. But even though it is considered foolish or even absurd to this group of people, let’s examine the message to determine if it actually makes sense.

I think we can all agree that most people have a built-in conscience that can tell right from wrong, justice from injustice, and good from evil. Even though postmodern thinking has blurred many of the lines of separation between good and evil, most would agree that evil should be punished while good should be rewarded. Most civilized people would not want an evil person to go unpunished so that he would feel free to continue to steal, murder etc.

The cross is God’s rightful and just punishment for the evil (sin) among mankind. Every person has sinned (lied, stolen, lusted, coveted etc) in attitude, thought or deed, and as a result, is deserving of death (Rm 3:23, 6:23). Furthermore, there is no forgiveness of our sins without the shedding of lifeblood (Heb 9:22). In the OT, the priests made continual animal sacrifices as a temporary covering of sin, but these sacrifices could not remove the stain of sin. But the Christ, being the God-Man, voluntarily sacrificed Himself once for all the sins (past present and future) of all those who would believe in Him (Heb 10:11-14). In fact, Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice that had the infinite value required to satisfy God’s righteous wrath against sin and pay the penalty to restore our relationship and judicial status (we are credited with living a perfect life and fulfilling the law – Rm 8:4) before God the Father. There was no other way for us to be reconciled with a Holy God. Thus, the events of the cross were entirely logical.

Of course, only those who believe (trust in, rely on) the work of Christ will be saved (Jn 3:16, Ac 4:12). Those who reject Jesus as Lord and Savior are already condemned (Jn 3:18) and the message of the cross remains illogical. For a more detailed discussion on our topic and subject verse (1Cor 1:18), including its context within Scripture (1Cor 1:18 – 2:5), the historical context of the Jews and Greeks, and Godly vs human wisdom, see The Cross - Foolishness or the Power of God?

Before we end this post, I’d like to address a couple of questions that some may be asking. The first, typical asked by unbelievers and even by some new believers is, “Why couldn’t God just forgive and forget? Why do we have to be perfect to get into heaven? Couldn’t God lower His standard just a bit or grade on the curve?” The thinking here is that, if God is good and He is a God of love, couldn’t He at least ignore the minor stuff.

To answer these questions, we must understand the simplicity of God. By simplicity, we don’t mean that God is a simple God. God is undeniably beyond our comprehensive understanding. By “divine simplicity”, we’re merely referring to His unity of being (or unity of His nature or character), primarily with respect to His attributes. God’s attributes are irreducible in that we can’t separate them or temporarily take one away. We can distinguish between them, but they always work together. Therefore God, whose eyes are too pure to even look upon evil, can’t tolerate sin (Hab 1:13) because His Holiness, Truth and Justice won’t allow it. However, because His Love is also working, He provided a substitute, His own Son. Thus, He is able to punish wrongdoing while still saving those who believe without compromising His Holiness.

The second question that might be asked by anyone is, “Why would God sacrifice His only Son for me?” I must admit that, on the surface, this seems very illogical. I certainly would not allow either of my sons to be sacrificed for anyone. The only rational explanation for God’s actions according to His eternal plan is His great love for each of us (Rm 5:7-8). It has often been said that neither the Roman soldiers nor the nails could have kept Jesus on the cross since He had legions of angels at His disposal (Mt 26:52-54). He voluntarily laid down His life (Jn 10:17-18) and the only thing holding Him to the cross was His great love for us. In light of what He did, shouldn’t we live for Him?

God with Us – Not Just for Christmas

During the holiday season near the end of each year, I always seem to be a step behind. This year followed the same familiar pattern. I begin with good intentions, but due to an overly full work schedule, I don’t complete and upload the Thanksgiving or Christmas articles as planned. I then promise myself to get an earlier start and finish them for next year’s postings, but the cycle repeats.

Yet, as I prepared to shift my emphasis from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I kept reflecting on the many connections between the two holidays (the word holiday derives from “holy days”). Many secular sources recognize Christmas and Easter as Christian holidays, but very few do so with Thanksgiving. Indeed, many Christians are not aware of the true basis of the American celebration, which led to my decision to finish and upload the Biblical Roots of Thanksgiving article a few days late. Even though it was late, the message is timeless.

In the article, we noted that America’s modern Thanksgiving is derived from the Pilgrim celebrations in the early 1620s. In addition, we demonstrated that the Pilgrims based their celebrations in many respects on the Hebrew Biblical festival of Sukkot (Booths, or Tabernacles).

I used to think that it might be better if Thanksgiving and Christmas were not so close together on our calendar. In many aspects, the Christmas season begins weeks or even months before Thanksgiving, so we have a tendency to downplay the latter, even fast-forwarding through Thanksgiving to get to Black Friday (that now appears to start prior to Thanksgiving also). From a work standpoint, it would be nice to spread out our time off rather than rush through the hustle and bustle at the end of the year, then not have another holiday (unless one works for the government) until Memorial Day in late May.

Yet, from a spiritual point of view, it makes perfect sense that the two holidays occur only a few weeks apart. Both are days of thanksgiving and celebrations of pure joy. In general, we celebrate and give thanks for God’s physical protection and provision at Thanksgiving, and for God’s eternal spiritual protection and provision at Christmas.

At Christmas, we celebrate the Incarnation of the Christ (or Messiah). We get the word “incarnation” from the Latin (incarnatio) translations of “became flesh” in John 1:14, beginning about 300AD. The Incarnation is the act of grace whereby the Christ voluntarily assumed a human body and nature in union with His Diving Person, and became the God-Man. This was predicted about 700 years earlier by the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah (Is 7:14) as confirmed by the Apostle Matthew in his account of Jesus’ birth, All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” - which means, “God with us” (Mt 1:22-23).

Yet, the holiday of Thanksgiving also has its “God with us” connection via its linkage with Sukkot. In fact, we can even say that this is the prevalent underlying theme of the true past, present and future meaning of Sukkot.

Of course, God has always been “with us” in one sense or another. All three members of the Godhead were present and involved in the Creation (Gen 1:1-2, Jn 1:1-3). God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:8) and spoke multiple times with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He even wrestled with Jacob (Gen 32:22-32) before changing his name to Israel (struggles with God). A few centuries later, He appeared as a burning bush and called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery (Ex 3).

After God brought His people out of Egypt, the Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. The festival of Sukkot (Hebrew for “booths”) commemorates this time during which God protected and provided for them as they lived in temporary dwellings (Lev 23:33-43). In building the Sukkah (booth – singular form of Sukkot) as part of the Jewish celebration today, the covering should be sparse enough to see any clouds or stars in the sky. This is a reminder of God’s guidance in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night (Ex 13:21-22, 40:36-38) on their way to the Promised Land.

Moving forward about 1400 years from the wilderness wanderings, we arrive at the time of the aforementioned Incarnation of Jesus, where the meanings of Christmas and Thanksgiving / Sukkot intersect in the fullness of time (Gal 4:4-5). The eternal, incomprehensible God of the Universe took on a human nature and physically dwelt (or tabernacled) with us (Jn 1:14).

After Jesus’ ascension back to heaven, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the believers at Pentecost (Ac 2:14) as Jesus had promised before His death and resurrection (Jn 14:15-18, 16:7). Christians continue to experience God’s divine presence through the indwelling Holy Spirit today (Rom 8:9-16, Eph 1:13-14).

Finally, we look forward to the New Heaven and the New Earth (Rev 21:1-4) when God will also dwell (or tabernacle) with us. Cognates of the same Greek verb “skēnoō” (to live, dwell or tabernacle) are used in both John 1:14 (indicative aorist active) and in Rev 21:3 (indicative future active). Just as Jesus physically dwelt with us, all believers will actually find ourselves before the Coram Deo (face or presence of God). The Apostle John wrote of this day, See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! …Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1Jn 3:1-2).

So, let us carry the spirit of Thanksgiving with us through the Christmas season. During Christmas, we thank God for the greatest gift ever given, the life of His Son so that we can be adopted into His family and be co-heirs to a Kingdom. Yet, while we’re looking forward to the future with eager expectation, let us also continue to thank Him for His provision and protection in this life. Actually, the spirit of Christmas and Thanksgiving should not be limited to a day or a season, but should be an attitude, indeed even a lifestyle. In all circumstances, we can give thanks that, because of His great love for us, He is always with us… always has been… always will be.

The Study of Bible Prophecy - in Perspective

In our last post, the first of a trilogy on End Times Prophecy, we examined the question, Are we living in the last days? If, as we determined, we can’t know the time or exact circumstances of Jesus’ return, would our study time be better spent on other Biblical doctrines rather than studying prophecy? In this second blog post, we’ll answer this question and discuss the study of prophecy within the context of our overall Bible study practice.

Before we go any further, I’d like to clarify the meaning of "prophecy" as used in this post. The chief Biblical use of the word “prophecy” entails forth telling, that is to accurately proclaim God’s message or Word, with primary application on the present times. Thus, anyone who can properly interpret and elucidate God’s word by the illumination of the Holy Spirit is a prophet. In this article however, we’re referring to the other Biblical meaning of prophecy, that of foretelling or predicting the future.

The Bible tells us that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2Tim 3:16-17). This statement alone confirms the importance of studying Biblical prophecy. Over one-fourth of the Bible was prophetic at the time each book was written. Over half of the roughly two thousand documented prophecies have already been fulfilled without error, so we can be confident that the others will likewise be fulfilled in the future. Therefore, the study of prophecy familiarizes us with God’s plan for the ages, protects us from the deception of false teachings, and gives us confidence for the future. It is also evangelistic and apologetic in that, our studies impart in us the urgency to share our faith in whatever time we have left, and enhances our knowledge of doctrine which further equips us to defend the Faith. In addition, much of the proof of Jesus as the Messiah rests upon fulfilled OT prophecy.

So, we easily see that we should not neglect the study of Biblical prophecy. Nevertheless, we’d like to offer a few comments on balancing the study of prophecy with the study of other Biblical doctrines.

When studying systematically, we generally maintain a pretty good balance between most of the topics such as the Bible, God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Man, Sin, and Salvation; although some erroneously minimize the essential study of the Church. With the study of Eschatology (last things) however, many tend to go to one of two extremes, either outright neglect or becoming so preoccupied with prophecy that the other doctrines are practically ignored. We’ve already mentioned several reasons not to overlook the study of prophecy, so we'll make a few remarks on the latter case.

One glance at the number of teachers and internet sites devoted exclusively to prophecy (some Biblical, others not so much) gives us a hint of its popularity. Most people are fascinated by the unknowns of the future, so it’s easy to see how we can easily become engrossed in the study of prophecy while overlooking the other Biblical doctrines, but we must be careful to avoid this trap. For one thing, our understanding of prophecy will be sorely lacking without a good working knowledge of the other essential doctrines.

Some folks might ask, what about those scholars who specialize in the study of prophecy. We are grateful for those who have dedicated a good part of their research time to Bible prophecy, but keep in mind that the more orthodox ones had already developed sound doctrine based upon all Scripture prior to their decision to specialize. For example, well known pastor and author Tim LaHaye, who has written many books on prophecy including the Left Behind series, had already researched and written many other books on a variety of other Biblical topics, and continued to study the entire Scriptures while concentrating on prophetical writings. Therefore, before anyone decides to “specialize”, they should become very familiar with the whole of Scripture.

This last statement also applies to other Biblical and related subjects other than prophecy. Many times, I’ve been in a Christian bookstore and overheard a customer ask for books on a topic such as predestination, non-Christian cults, or some gray area that doesn’t affect any major doctrines. After a minute or two, it often becomes obvious that the customer has little overall Bible knowledge. While a few these areas of study can be somewhat profitable after we obtain a solid Biblical foundation, they will be of little use to anyone with limited understanding of the Scriptures and, in some cases, can be outright dangerous. For example, David Jeremiah, a very respected pastor and author once testified that he was never so relieved to finish a project because, as he researched the occult for an upcoming book, he could feel the dark forces attempting to draw him in. We must be firmly anchored in historically orthodox doctrine prior to venturing into secondary topics.

I can speak from experience about wasting a lot of study time during my younger days. I began seriously researching Biblical doctrine about twenty years ago. Rather than consulting with experienced orthodox pastors and teachers, I set out on my own. I would often gauge a topic based upon interest rather than importance or truth. Unlike many others that fall into this trap, I had read the Bible most of my life, so I was fortunate enough to discern that many things that I was reading were not correct, but because I had yet to spend enough quality time studying the basics, I had no idea how to respond to these errors. Therefore, I decided that I must first become very familiar with orthodox Biblical doctrine before branching out into these side issues. Even today, I study the Bible daily, adding the study of an additional four to six books on rotating days. In an attempt to stay well rounded, I choose books from different categories such as Systematic Theology (includes prophecy), Church History, Apologetics, Prayer, Hebrew Heritage, Christian Philosophy, Evangelism, Christian Living, Spiritual Warfare etc.

In summary, we recommend that everyone first become well grounded in the historical Biblical doctrines of the Faith (which also includes the basic study of prophecy). Then, for those who are called to devote additional study time to Biblical prophecy, go for it. Just remember however, while you are spending time trying to determine who or what the third toe on the right foot of the image in Daniel 2 represents, don’t neglect your other Bible studies.

Speaking of Daniel, his OT book is filled with various prophecies given during the sixth century BC, some that came to pass over the next several centuries (primarily during the Intertestament period) and others that still await their fulfillment during the last days. In the final chapter, Daniel asks the angel for more information concerning the end times prophecies. The angel basically tells Daniel to go his own way (Dan 12:9) and not concern himself with the extra details that are sealed up until the end. This does not mean that we should not have a healthy interest in prophecy, but we should not become so obsessed with the future that we fail to faithfully carry out our faithful duties in the present. This will be the subject of our third and final post in this trilogy.

Update: Part 3, Present Living in Light of Prophecy is loaded.

Are We Living in the last Days?

This is the first of a planned trilogy of posts regarding the “end times” or “last days”.

With so much war, turmoil, disease, natural disasters, and economic uncertainty in the world today, a common question being asked is, “Are we living in the end times?” Theologically speaking, the “end times”, or “last days” began about 2000 years ago with the first advent of the Christ (Heb 1:1-2, 1Jn 2:18). I believe what most people mean by the question however, is “Will Jesus return during our lifetime, or soon thereafter?”

When Jesus’ disciples inquired about the time and circumstances of his return, He replied, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Mt 24:4-8). He then elaborates and illustrates further throughout the chapter, including making references to the OT book of Daniel.

Looking at history, we find many wrong predictions regarding the end of days. In the second century, a Roman priest predicted Jesus would return in 500AD based upon the dimensions of Noah’s ark. Many predicted the end would come at the beginning of 1000AD and 2000AD simply because of the year number. Others predicted 1033AD or 1533AD based on a crucifixion date of 33AD (Christ was crucified either 30AD or 33AD). Archbishop Ussher forecast a particular day in 1644 while others predicted 1666 because of the number of the beast. Jehovah’s Witnesses guessed 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984 before announcing they would make no further predictions. In our modern times, a popular book in the 80s gave 88 reasons why Jesus would return in 1988. When this failed, the same author wote another book offering 89 reasons why the rapture would occur in 1989 (which didn’t sell many copies for some odd reason). Just this year, Harold Camping set his latest date for the rapture when his previous predictions failed to come true. This is just a few of the predictions that have been made throughout history, so maybe we should look instead at what Jesus himself had to say on the subject.

Regarding the time of his return, Jesus says “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” Mt 24:36-41.

Just before his ascension, they asked Him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority” (Ac 1:6-7).

So, we know that Jesus will definitely return (1Th 4:16-17), but we can only speculate whether the Second Advent will take place in our lifetime, shortly afterward, or at a date in the distant future. The signs are certainly evident, and there are no additional events that have to occur before His return. In addition to those already mentioned, we’ve witnessed a great increase in knowledge (primarily from technology) and the resettling of the Nation of Israel in the Promised Land. We’ve also seen more major wars in the last hundred years than in the past two millennia. Furthermore, just in the last ten years or so, we seen an unprecedented amount of natural disasters and human crisis such as war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, hurricanes (Katrina), tsunamis (Japan), earthquakes (China), AIDS, Swine flu, famines, and economic collapses. We also see the current administration in America virtually abandoning Israel as other countries line up against her. With the current conditions surrounding us, it’s difficult to imagine the world lasting much longer.

On the other hand, many men who were much smarter than me, such as Martin Luther (early 1500s) and Jonathan Edwards (mid 1700s), thought Christ would return in their lifetimes. Therefore, while I believe Jesus’ return is likely to be relatively soon, it could still be hundreds of years away. This uncertainty however, should make us no less diligent in our Christian walk. As I once heard it so well stated, we should prepare for a journey of a thousand years, but be prepared to abandon ship at any moment.

Update: Part 2, The Study of Bible Prophecy - in Perspective is loaded. In this post, we discuss the study of prophecy within the context of our overall Bible study practice.

Update: Part 3, Present Living in Light of Prophecy is loaded.

Christmas within the Big Picture

I ran across an article entitled The Big Picture in the December 2009 of Tabletalk magazine, published by Ligonier Ministries. It was written by Robert L Reymond, a Reformed theologian and Professor of Systematic Theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In this excellent article, Dr Reymond challenges the next generation to view the Christmas story as part of the bigger picture, in the context of redemptive history within the whole of Scripture.

Since my article is appearing in this issue of Tabletalk magazine, I have a great opportunity to tell you young folk of the next generation about a pet peeve of mine with my generation when it comes to the reason for celebrating Christmas. Many people, as you know, celebrate not much more than “roasting chestnuts by an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at their noses.” But Christians surely know enough to know that Christmas means more than that. It surely has something to do with Jesus, doesn’t it? But what?

This month a lot of sermons will be preached about Jesus’ incarnation. And taking its cue from the angel’s announcement to the shepherds on the plains of Ephrathah, my generation simply celebrates the “good news” that some two thousand years ago, in the words of the announcing angel, “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11). My generation tends to concentrate its attention in their worship services throughout the Advent season on the fact that Christ was virginally born a babe in Bethlehem. And that is about as far as they go in their thinking as they reflect upon the momentous fact that God became man through the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

But why did Jesus do that? If I were to ask my generation why Jesus came, I would very likely get answers such as these: “He came to be my Savior,” “He came to die for me,” and “He came to pay the penalty for my sins” (you get the picture) — all answers correct in themselves, but all answers that fail to place Christ’s coming within the broader context that the Bible places it. And when one fails to place His coming in the Bible’s broader context, he fails to appreciate its full significance.

Don’t misunderstand: There is nothing wrong with Christians celebrating the birth of our Lord at Christmas time. Indeed, it is appropriate for the church universal as well as local individual congregations during the Christmas season to think about the incarnation of God the Son and the means whereby that great event was effected, namely, His conception in His mother’s virgin womb. But I submit that something larger and grander than Christ’s birth should seize our minds and set the bells of our hearts pealing with joy at Christmastime. I’ll explain.

My generation of evangelical pastors has not done a good job at teaching Christian people that the isolated events of the Christian proclamation such as Christ’s incarnation, His death, His resurrection, and so on did not occur in isolation from the “meta-narrative” of Holy Scripture (by this I simply mean the “big-picture story” that provides the redemptive-historical significance of all the “lesser stories” of Scripture). When one fails to place the gospel events within the context of the Scripture’s meta-narrative, he will miss nuances that he should not miss, and he will fail to appreciate the unity of scriptural teaching. Let me say this another way: Since the facts of Jesus and His life, death, and resurrection are what they are only within the framework of the biblical doctrines of creation, fall, redemption, and the consummation of history, we must place the message of the cross within the framework of Scripture as a whole if we would properly understand the significance of that message. And if we don’t do this, we will not understand the gospel in its fullness.

So let me ask my question again: Why did Jesus come two thousand years go? When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was going to be the virgin mother of the long-awaited Messiah, in her Magnificat in Luke 1:54–55, she declared among other things: “[God] has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

And when Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, prophesied about his infant son’s future ministry as the one who would go before the Lord to prepare His way, he said this: “[God] has shown] the mercy promised to our fathers [by remembering] his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:72–75).

What have we just witnessed? We’ve seen both Mary and Zechariah place the Christ event within the context of the Abrahamic covenant and extol the covenant faithfulness of God to His people in sending His Son. In their awareness of the broader significance of the incarnation and the words of praise that that awareness evoked from them we see biblical theology being beautifully honored and redemptive-history magnificently depicted. It is little wonder that God selected such a maiden as Mary to be the mother of the Christ and Zechariah to be the father of the Baptist. They were both “covenant theologians”!

So I would urge you young folk of the next generation to celebrate not only the isolated events of the Christmas miracle but also to do more than my generation has done in celebrating at Christmastime God’s covenant fidelity to us His people, for this is the “big-picture” reason for the season!

Introduction to Theology Series

I'm back after being out of touch for a couple of weeks. First, I had a minor reaction to a flu shot. I had taken this shot every year for about twenty years, but then missed the last two years, so this was probably a contributing factor. Switching to some good news, we just got word that our son, serving in the marines in Afghanistan, should be on a plane out of there in the next week or so. God has graciously protected him thus far, and we greatly appreciate all who have been praying for his safe return.

I was only out of commission for three days from the shot, so during the remainder of this time, I was able to complete and upload our Introduction to Theology Series. Many Christians today question the importance of studying theology, considering it boring, irrelevant and divisive. Many argue that we should just love God and love one another. While this is very important, can we even love God and our neighbor without a certain amount of theological knowledge? We explore this question along with many others in this five-article series.

Our introductory series opens with What is Theology? which surveys the various theological disciplines. Our Why Study Theology? article discusses the importance of theology and sound doctrine, and addresses the reasons why we shouldn't just skip to the practical teachings. We've also included an article detailing the Benefits and Blessing of Studying Theology. Next, we've outlined typical Approaches, Process and Methods with helpful hints and instructions on doing theological studies. Finally, because of the importance of loving God and loving our neighbor, we've concluded the series with Theology, Doxology and Biblical Love. We pray that this series will encourage everyone to study theology and develop sound Biblical doctrine.

To read the Introduction to Theology series, just follow the link to our Theology page and look under the "General & First Principles" heading.

Was Jesus Perfect?

A couple of months ago in our Sunday School class, Allan came up with the idea to have an open forum in which all attendees could ask any questions related to Christian doctrine, difficult passages in the Bible, or any other moral, ethical or family related issues. This actually went on for several weeks and provided some very interesting discussions and debates. I’ve written one article featuring some of the questions and have a second one almost completed.

Some of these inquiries pose a different challenge than the ones limited to Bible doctrine. While Bible interpretation almost always requires some reasoning, these discussions involve a bit more speculation than normal. So, in the spirit of an open forum, I’ll be posting a lead-in to each article on our blog, allowing any reader wishing to add their own opinion or comments to return here and do so.

The first article centers on a question regarding Jesus’ humanity while on earth. We know that Jesus was sinless, but “Was He perfect”? In this discussion, we examine the various meaning of the term “perfect”, Jesus’ humanity, His blood (normal or supernatural?), results of the fall, and more.

Read the entire Was Jesus Perfect article.