Sinner Friend Shedding

I have noticed striking differences between Christians and Christ. I find this ironic because you would think that people who would preface a name-tag that they are known as with Christ, (Christ...ian) would live like and find their identity in Christ rather than living like a religionist and finding their identity in denominationalism.

One problem that a lot of Christians have that Christ didn’t have is developing a relational friendships with people who believe different than they do or who are not believers at all. And in most cases Christians have only a superficial relationship with people who believe the way they do.

When Christians try to befriend others, including nonbelievers, the doctrine of hell looms large. Fear of God sending people to hell propels most Christians into such an unloving state of mind that it renders them unable to relate to the very people they feel so cocksure are going to hell.

Christian religionists say in some shape or form to sinners, “Jesus loves you and died for you, so you don’t have to go to hell,” or “Jesus went to hell so you don’t have to go” or “God hates you sinners you are going to hell,” or “the Glory Train is at the station, get on board to escape God’s wrath!” The essence of the Gospel to the religionists is: turn or burn. Needless to say that these folks turn more people off from God than they “win to God.” They have near zero capacity to have meaningful friendship relationships with non-Christians, the very ones they should have genuine relationships with.

I wonder, how many non-Christians would consider people who are Christians their friend? Mm-mm...a sobering question. Why is it that once a person becomes a believer in Christ, he or she loses contact with all unbelieving friends within a short time. Where did this “sinner friend shedding” come from...not from Jesus. This “sinner friend shedding” at least in part, has been due to a misinterpretation of 2 Corinthians 6:14 that is used for “sinner friend shedding” justification, it reads; “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” Therefore, many believe that as a  Christian we should shun the “sinning sinner”. But this religious interpretation is wrong. Paul is not telling us not to have unbelievers as friends, but not to join together with unbelievers in their practices in the world system way of doing things. In other words, the yoking together means to join with them in their lifestyle and belief system, and, therefore, becoming like them. This does not mean that we are not to have relationships with them. Christians should have unbelieving friends. JESUS  DID!

Seeing Christ eating and drinking with and showing grace to unbelievers in His befriending them, the religionists of His day began to look down in scorn upon Him. Sadly, religionists  today treat Grace believers with contempt for loving and giving hope to the sinner and in some cases assign the grace believer to the same hell they assign the sinners.

The Warfare We Have Inherited

Jesus’ miracles over nature, as well as his healings, exorcisms and especially his resurrection, were definite acts of war that accomplished and demonstrated his victory over Satan. These acts routed demonic forces and thereby established the kingdom of God in people’s lives and in nature. But their primary significance was eschatological. People are still obviously being demonized; all people still get sick and die; storms still rage and destroy lives; famines are yet prevalent and starve thousands daily. But Jesus’ ministry, and especially his death and resurrection, in principle tied up “the strong man” and established the kingdom of God and the restoration of a new humanity in the midst of this war zone. In doing this, Jesus set in motion forces that will eventually overthrow the whole of this already fatally damaged Satanic assault upon God’s earth and upon humanity.
Gustaf Wingren expresses this “already/not yet” dynamic well when he argues that with Christ’s resurrection

The war of the Lord is finished and the great blow is struck. Never again can Satan tempt Christ, as in the desert. Jesus is now Lord, Conqueror. But a war is not finished, a conflict does not cease with the striking of the decisive blow. The enemy remains with the scattered remnants of his army, and in pockets here and there a strong resistance may continue. That is the position of the church. (The Living Word: A Theological Study of Preaching and the Church)

Jesus’ miraculous ministry, therefore, was not simply symbolic of the eschaton–in principle it achieved the eschaton. He in principle won the war, struck the decisive deathblow, vanquished Satan, restored humanity, established the kingdom; yet some battles must still be fought before this ultimate victory is fully manifested. Hence Jesus did not just carry out his warfare ministry; he commissioned, equipped and empowered his disciples, and the whole of the later church, to do the same. He set in motion the creation of a new humanity, one that again exercises dominion over the earth, by giving us his power and authority to proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom just as he did (e.g., 2 Cor 5:17-21; Mt 16:15-19; Lk 19:17-20; cf. Jn 14:12; 20:21).

Jesus thus gives to all who will in faith receive it his authority to break down the gates of hell and take back for the Father what the enemy has stolen, just as he himself has done (Mt 16:18). Now that the strong man has been bound, it is a task we can and must successfully carry out. In doing all this, we the church are further expanding the kingdom of God against the kingdom of Satan and laying the basis for the Lord’s return, when the full manifestation of Christ’s victory, and of Satan’s defeat, will occur.


God at War, pp. 213-214

Isn't the World Unsafe if God Doesn't Control Everything?

If God isn’t in control of everything, the world feels unsafe. If the future is open and if things can happen outside of God’s will, what guarantee is there that there is a point to a person’s suffering? Maybe it’s all just bad luck.

My experience has been that many of those who honestly examine the evidence for the open view and choose to reject it do so not because the evidence is weak but because they fear its implications. It is true that according to the open view things can happen in our lives that God didn’t plan or even foreknow with certainty (though he always foreknew they were possible). This means that in the open view things can happen to us that have no overarching divine purpose. In this view, “trusting in God” provides no assurance that everything that happens to us will reflect his divine purposes, for there are other agents who also have power to affect us, just as we have power to affect others. This, it must be admitted, can for some be a scary thought. I am sympathetic to the reaction, but I also believe there are several considerations that can effectively address it from an open perspective.

Fear and Truth

First, how is the scariness of a view relevant to the question of whether or not the view is true? There is no reason to conclude that something is true to the extent that it conforms to our wishes. Indeed, the fact that the open view doesn’t conform to what we might wish were true actually provides one more reason for thinking that it is true, for reality rarely conforms to our wishes. If we are honest, our core belief in the world—manifested not by what we say but by what we do—is that it is sometimes a scary place.

Divine Control and Comfort

Second, I do not see how affirming an all-controlling God provides any real comfort in the face of the scary aspects of the world.
I would submit that your belief actually makes the world a scarier place. For one thing, if God controls robbers, for instance, and these robbers victimize godly and ungodly people alike (which no one can deny), then it might be that God has decided to have one of these robbers victimize your family. If God has decided this, there is nothing you can do about it. If God is the sort of God who is capable of ordaining such evils, then you can’t trust God’s character. If God controls all things, there’s nothing you can do about it if he has, in fact, decided this.
If God chooses not to control all things, however, then there is something you can do about it. As a morally responsible free person, you can make choices that maximize your safety and minimize your vulnerability against other free people who have chosen evil. The world is perhaps still scary, but less so than if the Creator himself had the kind of character that made him willing to ordain the robbery of your house.

Find Comfort in the Trials

Finally, and most importantly, in the face of a scary world, the open view offers the same comfort that the NT offers. With Scripture, the open view affirms that God’s character is unambiguously loving and thus he is on your side. He doesn’t ordain evil. This view affirms that, regardless of what happens to you, your eternal relationship with the Lord is secure (Rom 8: 31-39).
Furthermore, the open view affirms that Christ will be with us to provide a peace that “surpasses all understanding” whatever may come our way (Phil 4:7). It affirms that whatever happens, God will work with us to bring a redemptive purpose out of the event (Rom 8:28). The open view also affirms that God can alter your destiny, precisely because the open view holds that the future is in part not settled. Finally, the open view affirms with Scripture the central hope that when God’s kingdom is established, it will have been worth it.

The world is still scary. It is in a state of war, under siege by the enemy of our souls, and this is not a comforting thought (1 Jn 5:19). The open view grants this. Even God takes risks. But the world is less scary in this view than if we try to find consolation in the belief that everything that occurs is controlled by God and thus reflects his dubious character.


—Adapted from God of the Possible, pages 153-156

Living Sacrifice - what is it?

Romans 12:1-2

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The earlier chapters in the book of Romans, up to chapter 11, deal  primarily with what God has done for us (the indicatives) whilst chapters 12-16 deal with people's actions in response to God's (the imperatives). 

Our conduct or what we ought to do must stem from our knowledge of what God has done, otherwise our imperatives are just  pious morality adherence's. It is in this context that we want to understand what living sacrifice means.

As a born-again Christian, we are in Christ and Christ is in us (Jn. 6:54-56;.Gal. 2:20). These are our main indicatives. Our response in Christian living is as in Acts 17:28  ‘… for in Him we live, and move, and have our being…’. Christian living is simply living an exchanged life  ‘not I, but Christ liveth in me’ (Gal. 2:20). What it basically means is that all our actions, whether the words we speak, the things we do or our very being, be an expression of the Son of God living through us.Paul aptly described it in this way: ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ (Phil. 1:21).

When we are born again, we are dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6:11).  Hence, our Christian living is  of Him, through Him and to Him. Period.  Our flesh count for nothing.

A living sacrifice is a body that has been sacrificed (dead) but kept alive by the life giving Spirit.  Hence, we present to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence on the life giving spirit, nothing of ourselves (the flesh is dead, sacrificed!).

In summary, Christian living is a living sacrifice, beautifully expressed by Paul in Galatians 2:20:

‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

A Christian, armed with this understanding, can exude the fragrance of Christ so needed in Christianity today so that we can bring Christ out to the world and the world can be attracted to the true God living in and through us….it is evangelism at its best.

We are kindly reminded of what Ghandi said :

‘I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.’― Mahatma Gandhi

 Rejoice.

ReThinking the Sabbath with Frank Viola

Those who have read my books Revise Us Again, Jesus: A Theography, and From Eternity to Here, are aware that those who follow Jesus Christ are not under the Law. Instead, we’ve been given the Spirit of the living God who fulfills the Law in and through us.

Consequently, the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament era have been done away with in Christ. The New Testament is clear that those laws were merely “shadows” pointing to Jesus.
That said, those who have not read the aforementioned books sometimes write us and ask, “Are

Christians obligated to keep the Sabbath like the Old Testament Jews were?”

In this post, I will answer that question in some detail.

In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul actually answers this question. He writes,
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

In this passage, Paul mentions several Old Testament ordinances and warns us against judging one another concerning their observance.

He argues that because the ordinances are shadows that have been fulfilled in Christ, we must not allow anyone to judge us concerning them.

Biblically speaking, a shadow is an illustration of an aspect of Christ. Old Testament shadows are usually physical people, events, stories, or ordinances that typify spiritual things relating to Jesus.
Just as a physical shadow resembles the physical object in which it reflects, a biblical shadow resembles the spiritual things that Christ has provided for us in the New Covenant. For example, the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb was a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ, the real Lamb of God (see 1 Cor. 5:7).
Therefore, we no longer sacrifice lambs because the shadow of the real Lamb has been fulfilled in Christ.

The principle of biblical shadows dictates that when the reality of the shadow appears, the actual shadow is no longer kept.
Hebrews 10:1 states that the Law (that is, the first five books of the Old Testament known as “the Torah”) contains many shadows.
In our book Jesus: A Theography, Leonard Sweet and I trace numerous Old Testament shadows that are often ignored, explaining how they are fulfilled in Christ.

Sabbaths, New Moons, and Feasts

The five shadows Paul mentions in Colossians 2:16 are the ordinances of 1) meats, 2) drinks, 3) festivals, 4) new moons, and 5) Sabbath days.
All of these ordinances are contained in the Law of Moses. The first two relate to eating (Heb. 9:10), while the last three refer to the keeping of sacred days.
In this post, we will pay specific attention to the ordinances of Sabbaths, new moons, and festivals.
Colossians 2:16-17 settles the question regarding the nature of the Sabbath, and its demand. If the Sabbaths mentioned in Colossians 2:16 refer to the seventh day Sabbaths, then the passage clearly teaches that the seventh day (the Sabbath) is a shadow which has been fulfilled in Christ, and we are not obligated to keep the shadow.

However, some have suggested that the Sabbaths referred to in this passage do not refer to the seventh day Sabbaths, but to the Sabbaths of the yearly feasts mentioned in Leviticus 23. In other words, they say the text is talking about the festival Sabbaths.
Really?

In order to determine which Sabbaths this passage is speaking of, let’s take a closer look at the last three ordinances mentioned in the passage, i.e., Sabbaths, new moons, and festivals.
The Greek word for festivals is heorte which means feasts or feast days. Therefore, festivals refer to the seven feasts found in Leviticus 23.
These feasts are: 1) the feast of Passover, 2) the feast of Unleavened Bread, 3) the feast of Firstfruits, 4) the feast of Pentecost, 5) the feast of Trumpets, 6) the Day of Atonement, and 7) the feast of Tabernacles.

On these feast days, Israel was to rest, assemble, and give offerings. Because these were rest days, they are also called Sabbaths.

The new moons were monthly celebrations accompanied by sacrifices and offerings. The new moons were kept once a month.

Lastly, the Sabbath was a weekly day of rest and offerings. The Sabbath was the seventh day.
Now look at the passage again:
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Since Paul has already mentioned the feast days of Leviticus 23 by the word “festivals,” it makes sense for Paul to repeat himself by referring to the festivals again and calling them “a Sabbath day.”
In addition, the fact that the seventh day Sabbaths are weekly is significant. In Colossians 2, Paul’s argument is a continuous flow.

Paul explains that Christ has fulfilled the entire spectrum of Jewish sacred days, that is, the yearly (festivals), the monthly (new moons), and the weekly (the Sabbath).
If we say that the Sabbath in this passage refers to the festivals, this flow is broken, and we charge Paul with being needlessly redundant.

Nevertheless, by comparing the Old Testament passages that Paul so frequently drew from in his teachings, we see further evidence that the Sabbath in Colossians 2 must refer to the weekly Sabbaths on the seventh day.

Consider the following Old Testament passages:
1 Chronicles 23:31
And to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the Lord in THE SABBATHS, in THE NEW MOONS, and on the APPOINTED FESTIVALS, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before the Lord.
2 Chronicles 2:4
Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on THE SABBATHS, and on THE NEW MOONS, and on THE SOLEMN FESTIVALS of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.
2 Chronicles 8:13
Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on THE SABBATHS, and on THE NEW MOONS, and on THE SOLEMN FESTIVALS, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.
2 Chronicles 31:3
He appointed also the king’s portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for THE SABBATHS, and for THE NEW MOONS, and for THE APPOINTED FESTIVALS, as it is written in the law of the Lord.
Nehemiah 10:33
For the showbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of THE SABBATHS, of THE NEW MOONS, for the ANNUAL FESTIVALS, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.
Notice that these passages refer to the same three sacred days that Paul mentions in Colossians 2:16. Like Paul, they all mention the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the festivals (some translations use “feasts”).

Given the fact that Paul frequently makes reference to the Old Testament, and the wording of these passages and Colossians 2:16 are identical, it is clear that Paul is referring to the same sacred days of which these Old Testament passages speak.
(In addition, Numbers 28:9-11 shows us that the Sabbaths mentioned in 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3, and Nehemiah 10:33 are clearly seventh day Sabbath days.)
Clearly, we can have confidence that Paul’s words in Colossians 2:16 make reference to the weekly Sabbath day, not to the yearly festivals.

The Shadow of the God’s Rest

So Colossians 2:16-17 teach us that along with the monthly new moons and the yearly festivals, the weekly Sabbath is a shadow fulfilled in Christ.
But what was it a shadow of? And how did Christ fulfill it?
Hebrews 4:3-11 answers this question.

For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

This passage teaches us that both the seventh-day rest of Genesis and the land of Canaan described in the Book of Joshua speak of the rest of faith that we now enter into through Christ.
The rest of God is available to God’s people now, for the writer of Hebrews says, “we who have believed do enter into rest,” and “he who has entered into God’s rest has ceased from his own works.”

This rest of faith is found in God’s kingdom.

Although the kingdom of God will be manifested in the future during the glorious display of Christ’s coming (2 Tim. 4:1), we enter into His kingdom now (Luke 17:20-21; Col. 1:13).
The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).
The kingdom is our inheritance. It is the heavenly places in Christ Jesus mentioned in Ephesians, which was foreshadowed by Israel’s inheritance of Canaan (Josh. 11:23; Eph. 1:18; 5:5).
Just as the Israelites had to fight the inhabitants of Canaan to enter into their promised kingdom, so we must enter into God’s kingdom through the fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12).
For does not the Scripture say “let us labor with diligence to enter into that rest,” and “the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12)?
In addition, Acts 14:22 tells us that we enter into God’s kingdom through much tribulation.
God’s people must press into His kingdom through faith (Luke 16:16; Heb. 4:3).
Paradoxically, when we enter into God’s rest of faith, we cease from our own labors just as God did from His. The spiritual principle of the Sabbath, then, is that humans must rest before we work. Adam’s first full day was God’s day of rest.

In Ephesians, Paul teaches the same principle. We must first sit with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6) before we can walk in righteousness (Eph. 4:1) and stand against the enemy (Eph. 6:11).
Resting in the finished work of our Lord is the basis of all spiritual life and work. Only those who rest in God’s promises and cease from their own efforts can receive God’s righteousness, peace, and joy.
Only those who rely on God’s Spirit by faith, not depending on their own strength, can please the Lord. Romans Chapters 7 and 8 teach us that our own efforts will never bring righteousness, but only faith in Christ will.

Christ brought the kingdom of God, and He is the king.

Since the preaching of John the Baptist, the kingdom of God has been made available to mortals (Matt. 11:11-12). Therefore, the shadow of the Sabbath has been fulfilled by Christ.
The true Sabbath is the kingdom of God that is among us right now, and it will one day be manifested for all to see.

The Sabbath and the Decalogue

If the Sabbath is a shadow as Colossians 2 and Hebrews 4 clearly explain, then why was it a part of the ten commandments? This is a valid question. But the answer is quite simple.

The Decalogue is a short-hand summary of all 613 commandments contained in the Law of Moses. Consequently, it contains examples of the moral law toward God (do not take His name in vain), the moral law toward others (stealing, lying, etc.) and the ceremonial law (keeping the Sabbath holy).
In addition, according to Exodus 31:13 and Ezekiel 20:12, the Sabbath was a sign of God’s covenant with Israel. The Sabbath was a sign of God’s covenant to Israel in much the same way that circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham.

Both circumcision and the Sabbath are said to be everlasting covenants in the Old Testament (Ex. 31:16; Lev. 24:8; Gen. 17:13), yet they are no longer binding today because they were fulfilled in Christ, who is the Eternal Sabbath and the Eternal Circumcision of the heart.
What is important to God is the keeping of the real Sabbath and having the real circumcision which are found in Christ.

Since the Sabbath was a shadow pointing to Jesus, worshipping God on Sunday, Tuesday, or Friday, for example, does not violate God’s character or harm others.
For these reasons, there is no New Testament Scripture that commands us to keep “the letter of the Law” as it pertains to the fourth commandment.

In his treatise against judging fellow Christians, Paul writes the following in Romans 14:5-6,
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone

Paul says that every person should be “fully convinced in their own mind.”
So those whose consciences lead them to rest on the Sabbath are perfectly free in the Lord to do so. But they are not to judge those who does not share that same conviction, for again, Israel’s sacred days were shadows that have been fulfilled in Christ (Col. 2:16).

The First Day of the Week

Although the early Christians did not observe the literal Sabbath, they did routinely meet together on Sundays.
Acts 20:7 says that the disciples came together to break bread on the first day of the week, and 1 Corinthians 16:2 exhorts believers to store up their financial offerings on the first day of the week.
Sunday is the first day of the week. The Sabbath — Saturday — is the seventh day of the week.
In addition, the Bible never teaches or implies that the Sabbath day changed to Sunday. Rather, the Bible teaches that the Sabbath is a shadow that has been fulfilled.
Interestingly, the early Christians called Sunday “the Lord’s day.” This is based on Psalms 118:22-24:

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.

This text is referring to the day that Jesus rose from the dead (see Acts 4:10-11). Jesus rose again on the first day of the week, therefore, this is the day that He became the head of the corner (Mark 16:9).
Some have suggested that the apostles kept the Sabbath day because we read about them going into the temple courts and the synagogues, preaching the message of Christ on the Sabbath.
But the apostles went to the temple courts and the synagogues on the Sabbath day to preach to unconverted Jews. Since the Jews resided in the temple area on the Sabbath, as well as some Gentiles, Paul and the others went there to prove to them that Jesus was the Messiah.
A careful reading of Acts 13:14-48; 14:1-7; 17:1-14 and 18:4 show that these meetings were evangelistic outreaches during Paul’s apostolic trips. They were not church meetings.

Note Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 9:19-21:
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law, but I am in law to Christ), so as to win those not having the law.

A Look at Church History

According to church history, the early Christians routinely assembled on the first day of the week. The early Christians also called Sunday “the eighth day.”
This testimony does not come from those believers living in Rome and Alexandria only (as some suggest), but from other parts of the world such as Antioch, Lyons, and Asia Minor.

Consider the following witnesses to this fact:
Ignatius of Antioch (A.D. 30-107) states that Christians “no longer observe the Sabbath, but are living in the observance of the Lord’s day.”

The Didache (A.D. 80) says “But every Lord’s day do you gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving.” (7:381)

In the Epistle of Barnabas (2nd century), we read, “I will make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world, Wherefore, also we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day that Jesus rose from the dead.” (Ch. 15)

In his first apology, Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-167) writes, “On the day which is called Sunday we have a common assembly of all who live in the cities or in the outlying districts, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the Prophets are read …” (Ch. 67)

In the Teaching of the Apostles (A.D. 105), we read, “The apostles therefore appointed … on the first day of the week let there be service and reading of the holy scriptures, and the oblation [communion] because on the first day of the week our Lord arose upon the world, and ascended to heaven. (8:668)

In the Apostolic Constitutions (2nd-3rd centuries) we read, “Break your fast … the first day of the week, which is the Lord’s day … After eight days let there be another feast observed with honor, the eighth day itself.” (7:447)

Both Tertullian (A.D. 160-225) and Justin Martyr stated that the Sabbath was a shadow which was abolished under Christ just as circumcision was. (As far as I know, Tertullian was the first to declare the idea of resting on Sunday.)

In addition, Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 174) stated that “the old seventh day has become nothing more than a working day,” and Theophilus (A.D. 163) said that “we should honor the Lord’s day, seeing on that day it was that our Lord completed His resurrection from the dead.”

Finally, church historian Eusebius wrote, “From the beginning Christians assembled on the first day of the week, called by them the Lord’s day, for the purpose of religious worship, to read the Scriptures, to preach and to celebrate the Lord’s supper.”
Eusebius explained that Sunday has the preeminence over the seventh day because of Jesus’ resurrection.

This by no means suggests that Christians must gather on Sunday, for there is no such law in the New Testament. Paul also makes clear that there are no “sacred days” on God’s calendar (see Rom. 14).
It does demonstrate, however, that both the primitive church and the ancient church — before Constantine — did not observe the Sabbath for rest or for worship.

Tying All the Threads

In conclusion, the Sabbath day command was an ordinance that foreshadowed the coming rest in God’s kingdom that Jesus Christ would bring (Heb. 4). Christ, in essence, is our Sabbath rest.
God’s desire is that we enter into this spiritual rest now, rather than trying to keep the letter of the seventh day command. His aim is that we keep the substance of the Sabbath rather than its shadow.

The Sabbath is about a Person, not a day.

For this reason, Christians who are convicted by their conscience that they are to observe the Sabbath as holy are never to judge those who do not share that conviction (see Col. 2).
As Paul said, concerning sacred days, let each person be persuaded in his own mind, and see that he or she does not judge another in these matters (Rom. 14).

You Are Free

All told, if a person is going to insist that Christians must observe the Sabbath as specified in the Old Testament Law, then they are also obligated to be circumcised (if they are male).

They are also obligated to offer blood sacrifices.

They are also obligated to follow the temple worship rituals.

They are also obligated to rid their homes of all forms of yeast (leaven) during the specified times of the year.

They are also obligated never to wear clothes that are made of mixed fabrics.

And they are also obligated to follow every other ceremonial ritual in the Law of Moses.

If that’s you, recall the words of Peter in Acts 15:10:
Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

I’d also encourage you to re-read the Book of Hebrews.

New Testament revelation is unmistakably clear that Jesus has circumcised our flesh with the knife of His Spirit. It is unmistakably clear that Christ is our blood sacrifice. It is unmistakably clear that Jesus is the Temple of God of which we are a part. It is unmistakably clear that Christ has empowered us to rid ourselves of the “old yeast” of sin, and to be separate and unmixed from the world.

It is also unmistakably clear, as we’ve seen in this post, that Jesus is our Sabbath rest.

You're Not Alone

“The desperate need today is not for a great number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”

~ Richard Foster

In this post, I want to provide a platform for the sentiments of those who have moved “beyond evangelical” and are part of “the deeper journey.”

Countless Christians I’ve met have uttered these statements in face-to-face conversations, over emails, over coffee at conferences, and on this blog. I’ve compiled them all, editing them slightly for consistency.

Together, they form a collective confession of sorts reflecting the thoughts and feelings of those of us who are on “the deeper journey.”
–
*We have grown tired of the media routinely characterizing “evangelicals” as if we were all part of “the Christian Right.”

*We have become weary of Christian progressives deeming themselves to be the “new evangelicals” in reaction to “the Religious Right.”

*We are turned off by the left vs. right posturing and the left vs. right political/theological debates.

*We’ve looked to the right and do not wish to venture there. We’ve looked to the left and do not wish to venture there either. The direction we feel pulling our hearts is above and forward.

*We believe that both the Religious Right and the Religious Left have vital truths to contribute. We also believe that they are both missing vital truths. We believe their focus is mainly “issues” rather than Jesus Christ.

*We want to see the Christian Right and the Christian Left learn from one another as well as learn from those of us who are not part of either stream. We feel that all Christians should be open to learn from one another, for we are all parts of the Body of Christ. None of us has the lock on all truth. Each member of the Body has a portion of the riches of Christ.

*We are sickened that so many evangelical Christians are either legalists or libertines. We want Christ’s lordship and we want His liberty as well. We wish to follow Jesus without being legalistic or libertine.

*We hold to the orthodox teachings of Scripture regarding the Person of Christ, His work on the cross, the inspiration and truth of the Bible, the Triune nature of God (the Godhead), but we are weary of Christians dividing over peripheral doctrines and their own private interpretations of Scripture on non-essentials. We passionately agree with Augustine’s sentiment: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”

*We’ve grown weary of the way that Christians routinely mistreat their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, being quick to judge their motives, thinking the worst of them, condemning them, slandering them, gossiping about them, etc. We believe that being a Christian means treating others the same way you want to be treated (Matt. 7:12)—the forgotten words of Jesus. With deep remorse, we empathize with the words of Gandhi: “If it weren’t for the Christians, I’d be a Christian.”

*We’ve grown tired of the shallowness that marks so much of evangelical Christianity today. The same sermons, the same principles, the same teachings, etc. We are looking for depth in the Christian life. We know there’s more to Jesus Christ, more to His church, and more to the spiritual life than what’s been promoted in establishment Christianity. There is a cry in our hearts that says, “There’s got to be more than this.”

*We are saddened that the doers, feelers, and thinkers of the body of Christ have separated and isolated themselves from one another instead of learning from each other.

*We’ve grown sick of the entertainment-driven, duty-driven, guilt-driven message that’s laced in most Christian sermons and books today. Human-induced guilt and the conviction of the Holy Spirit are two very different things.

*We are tired of the tendency of some Christians to elevate certain sins that others commit while minimizing or justifying their own sins.

*We’ve grown tired of Christian leaders attacking and competing with one another, instead of networking together and supporting one another.

*We’re weary of the “good ole’ boy system” that’s present in much of establishment Christianity today because it ends up elevating and protecting the status quo and silencing the voices of the
prophets.

* We’ve grown sick of Christians saying nasty things about their fellow brethren (whom they don’t know personally) on social media networks. And then justifying it in the name of God.

*We are saddened that so many Christians will believe what they hear about other believers second or third-hand, instead of going to those believers themselves and simply asking them questions in good faith.

*We’ve grown weary of some Christians falsely branding their fellow sisters and brothers in Christ with the words “heretic” and “apostate” when those same believers actually uphold the orthodox creeds of the faith.

*We’ve grown tired of Christians trying to rope us into the liberal vs. conservative battles of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

*We abhor elitism and sectarianism. We are open to all Christians of all stripes, receiving all whom Christ has received (Rom. 15:7).

* We stand for the unity of the Body of Christ. At the same time, we fiercely and passionately stand firm on our convictions regarding the absolute and unvarnished supremacy of Jesus, His indwelling life, God’s timeless purpose, and the church as a Christ-centered community.

*We want the Lord. We want spiritual depth and reality. We want HIM in all of His fullness. Everything else is secondary to us, and often, we find them to be largely a distraction.

If you resonate with any of the above sentiments, then be encouraged: You are not alone.

Your Gospel is to Small

“A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small.

A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small.

A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small.

A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small.

A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small.”

— Fred Sanders

Honest Answers

CharismaNews has just published an article entitled “Some honest questions for Joseph Prince.” In it Michael Brown puts 11 questions to “Pastor Prince and those who embrace the modern grace message.” Unlike Pastor Prince, I’m not a busy man. I don’t have to preach four or five times this Sunday. So I have taken it upon myself to respond to these questions on behalf of all who embrace the gospel of grace.

Regular readers will know that this is not the first time I have responded to something Michael Brown has written against the grace message. “Paul, why do you keep taking the bait?” Because I genuinely enjoy it. I appreciate the opportunity he gives me to proclaim the gospel of grace.

Plus, as an author, I can tell you that January is a quiet month for selling books and there’s nothing like a bit of controversy to boost sales. Michael mentions a couple of his titles, so permit me to mention mine. The timing is propitious since my book The Hyper-Grace Gospel: A Response to Michael Brown and Those Opposed to the Modern Grace Message has just won a Silver Medal at the 2015 Illumination Book Awards. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the academy and Dr. Michael Brown, without whom this award would not have been possible.

Okay, advertising over, let’s get down to business. Below are shortened versions of Michael’s eleven questions along with my brief responses to each.

1. Does God require anything from you as his child, other than receive his grace? If so, are there spiritual benefits that come through obeying these requirements and spiritual losses that come from ignoring them?

Ephesians 1:3 tells us that every spiritual blessing comes to us through Christ. There are no extra blessings that come to us separately from Christ and in response to our obedience. All is grace.

2. Is it possible for us to displease the Lord? Is he always pleased with us? Can we grieve the Holy Spirit?

As I say elsewhere, the notion that “Hyper-grace preachers say God is not grieved by your sin” is a myth. Your choices and behavior can grieve the Holy Spirit, but only because he cares for you and wants you to prosper in every area of your life. Your behavior matters because you matter. But don’t confuse behavior with identity. You are not defined by what you do. Your identity is Christ and in him you are and always will be 100 percent pleasing and acceptable to God.

3. If the Lord always sees you as perfect, is there any way for you to disappoint him? I’ve heard it said that we can only grieve or disappoint him by not trusting his grace, but according to your message, hasn’t that sin been forgiven as well?

Yes, every sin was carried on the cross and in Christ we are completely and eternally forgiven. Still, there are things we can do that make the Lord sad, such as being slow of heart to believe the good news of his grace.

4. If God has pronounced your future sins forgiven in the same way he has pronounced your past sins forgiven, why do Paul and other New Testament writers address these very sins in their letters? Why does God bring our present sins up to us in the New Testament, even warning us about the dangers of walking in those sins, if they have also been forgiven and forgotten in advance?

God will never judge or punish you for the sins that Christ bore on the cross. The audacious claim that he chooses not to remember or record your sins comes straight from scripture (Rom 4:7-8, 2 Cor 5:19). In Christ, you have received redemption and the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7, Col 1:14). So why do Paul and the other NT writers talk about sin? Because sin is destructive. Sin can hurt you. Your Father loves you too much to say nothing while you ruin your life. Your sin won’t undo the work of the cross, but it could undo you, your marriage, and your family.

5a. A leading hyper-grace teacher claims that the doctrine of progressive sanctification is a “spiritually murderous lie”…

Clark Whitten makes this claim (on page 28 of his excellent book Pure Grace) and I agree with him. The “saved by grace but perfected by human effort” teaching has produced a church that is, in Whitten’s words, “judgmental, angry, hopeless, helpless, dependent, fearful, uninspired, ineffective, and perpetually spiritually immature.” He’s right. The idea that sanctification is something we produce is a stone cold grace-killer.

5b. If “progressive sanctification” simply means to walk out our holiness with the help of the Spirit, what is so dangerous about this teaching?

There is nothing dangerous about it, since that is what scripture and hyper-grace teachers teach. In Christ we are 100 percent holy. The message we preach is “be who you truly are.” But this is not progressive sanctification as most understand the phrase, or as Michael himself describes in his Hyper-grace book when he says our sanctification is positional (ie: not real) and something to pursue. Michael insists “sanctification is a process!” (p.100) and he interprets New Testament exhortations as demands and requirements that must be obeyed, but I smell carrots and sticks.

6. We agree that the Holy Spirit never condemns us for our sins as believers, but does he ever make us uncomfortable when we sin?

Jesus called him the Comforter, not the Discomforter, so I guess not (John 14:16). I have written elsewhere on how God deals with us when we sin.

7. We agree that we do not need to confess every sin we commit each day in order to “stay saved,” but is any type of confession and request for forgiveness appropriate? For example, is it appropriate for believers to say, “Father, I’m sorry for sinning and I ask you to wash me clean”?

It’s not wrong to ask God for forgiveness and grace in your hour of need. If asking helps you to receive what God has already provided, have the freedom to ask. What’s not okay is telling people that God only forgives them because they ask, confess, repent, or do anything. The Bible teaches that we are forgiven in accordance with the riches of his grace (Eph 1:7), not our asking.

8. I know that you are against certain types of self-examination lest you become “sin conscious”... (But) if I understand you correctly, you would question the salvation of someone who demonstrated no change of life and continued to walk in unrepentant sin. But doesn’t this mean that, on some level, you are looking at your “performance” to verify your salvation?

Not performance, but fruit. Performance suggests a show put on to impress others; spiritual fruit can only be produced by the Lord. If you want to know if someone has been apprehended by the love of God, look for the fruit. Fruit are not sin. Fruit always point to Jesus.

9. Do you think there’s any danger in claiming that the teachings of Jesus before the cross don’t apply to us as believers today?

In his book Michael suggests that hyper-grace preachers claim “The teachings of Jesus are not for us today” (p.203). This comes in a chapter entitled “Why are we running from the words of Jesus?” But who’s running? Who is dismissing the pre-cross words of Jesus? Certainly not Joseph Prince or any other prominent grace preacher. These are scurrilous claims which may be why Michael doesn’t repeat them here. Instead, we get the watered-down hypothetical: Is it dangerous to dismiss the pre-cross teachings of Jesus? Of course it is, Michael, which is why we don’t do it. Please stop suggesting that we do.

10. What does it mean to walk in the fear of the Lord? What do you make of verses like this: “And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear… (1 Pet. 1:17).

What does it mean for the wives of unbelieving husbands to live in “purity and reverence” (1 Peter 3:2)? I only mention this because the word for reverence is the same word for fear Peter uses in chapter 1. If Michael is suggesting that we fear the Lord, is he also suggesting wives fear their husbands? Surely not. Jesus says that to fear the Lord is to worship him.

11. Do you see any possible danger in emphasizing that it is impossible for a believer to lose his or her salvation? On a practical level, do you feel it’s important to add any scriptural caveats to your teaching of eternal security and, if so, how can you do this without putting an emphasis on “performance”?

There is no danger in reassuring believers that Jesus keeps his promises. Instead of preaching “scriptural caveats” I recommend we preach the gospel. Instead of judging the performance of others, I recommend we preach the performance of Jesus. This is what Joseph Prince and every other grace preacher does.

Grace and peace to you all.

- Paul Ellis

What Really Controls and Guides Christians - Fear and Guilt

Christians like to claim that we are guided by Scripture and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

But I was recently talking to my insanely wise and beautiful wife, Wendy, and she pointed out that the two things which seem to guide and control Christians are actually fear and guilt.

We are guided by fear and controlled by guilt.

My wife used the example of a typical church-missionary relationship. When raising support, some missionaries use guilt to get others to support them. They shows pictures of starving children, or tell stories about how people without the gospel are headed for hell. But then, when they are on the missionary field, and not much is happening through their ministry, they feel compelled to embellish what they are doing so that it the money which people are spending on them is well-spent. They are afraid that if they “tell it like it is,” the money will stop.

But when they send glowing reports of all that God is doing on the mission field back home, those in the pews feel even more guilty because they don’t see God “working” in their own life in the same miraculous ways. They feel guilty that they are not following Jesus overseas.

The missionaries also get put up on a pedestal so that when they return home on furlough, they have to conform to a certain standard of holy behavior which matches the pedestal that has been built for them. Furthermore, even though the missionary may be exhausted from working overseas, they feel compelled to visit people in their homes and go speak in a myriad of churches just so that they can maintain their financial support.

And on and on it goes, in an endless cycle of fear and guilt.

Fear and Guilt in Church

Of course, this cycle goes beyond just the relationship between churches and the missionaries they support. Guilt and fear are at the heart of preaching, of doing what our pastor says, of attending church regularly, and of putting on the smiley face for Sunday services.

The pastor wants to prove that he is worthy of his pay (even though he is afraid he is not), and so must use manipulative practices to keep people coming to church and giving their money. He fears that if he does not keep this up, he will lose his job. He also fears that his sermons are not as good as the ones the pastor down the street preaches, and fears he will lose his people to that other church. The pastor, robbed of life by fear and guilt, uses fear and guilt to control others.

People fear displeasing their pastor, since his is “the man of God,” and so often do what he says without question, because he speaks for God and knows what God wants better than they do themselves. The people, living under fear and guilt of what will happen if they do not obey, do not have the freedom to follow Jesus for themselves.

People are afraid to miss a Sunday service because of what others will think or say about them. Fear and guilt keep us returning to situations where only more fear and guilt get piled upon us.

People are afraid to let others know about their sins, temptations, struggles, and doubts, and so put on a smiley face for church services and Bible studies. Since everybody is doing this, nobody realizes that everybody is afraid that others will discover who they really are, and feel guilty that they seem to deal with issues and temptations that nobody else faces. Fear and guilt keep us from being honest and from opening up to others about our struggles.

What’s the solution?

I think we all struggle with fear and guilt in numerous ways. We experience fear and guilt in our jobs, our marriages, our families, and our finances.
But I also believe that Jesus wants to free us from both. I do not think we were meant to live life wrapped in the chains of fear and guilt.

How do we break free?
We follow Jesus.
He will lead us into freedom. The journey is long, but it is a journey worth taking. As we walk with Jesus, we will discover that the one person who knows everything about us is also the one person who loves and accepts us completely. When we come to that realization, the fear and guilt begin to wash away, and we are able to begin to live in freedom with other people as well.
If you are struggling with fear and guilt, let me recommend three things.

First, don’t become fearful or guilty about struggling with fear and guilt. Just recognize the fear and the guilt.

Second, let Jesus know that you want to be led by Him instead. Just tell Him. And keep telling Him.

Finally, trust that Jesus will lead you. Over the course of the next couple years, as you learn to live in recognition of your fear and guilt, and as you learn to trust that Jesus is leading you to where He wants, you will look back over your life and see how much more liberated and free you have become. You will be shocked at how much more forgiven, loved, and accepted you feel.


Do you struggle with fear and guilt? Do you even know that you struggle with it? Do you use it to control others? What sort of strategies have you found helpful in seeking to liberate yourself and others from fear and guilt? Please share below!

Chicken Like Fears

According to the chicken-little fear-monger's mongering fear tactics “The Sky Is Falling In”. The gloom and doom say-ers have more faith in Islamic power to bring destruction and chaos and give rise to “the antichrist” than in God’s power of love and grace.

These gloomers and doomers sing their song of “gloom, doom, despair and agony on me” and encourage people to take a stand against what is happening on the world scene, if not we will be overthrown by the terrorists, our cities will be flattened by tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and typhoons brought on by God because of the sins of the people. Should not the gloomers and doomers know, if the Bible...a book they believe is error-less...prophesy's such, is not standing against all the perceived evils the Bible prophesies will happen, standing against the Bible and God?

I understand that it is easy to get people to believe their fear-mongering tactics; the choir of voices out there singing the “gloom, doom, despair and agony on me” song is convincing because of: racism, violence, greed, pain, bigotry, selfishness, hatred portrayed by people is convincing, to say the least.

These gloomers and doomers parade the bad news across the T.V. screens and internet feeds. We hear it in politician's speeches, and through many gloom and doom preachers.

They preach that the society has fallen apart, the devil is in control and that God is kicked out of town. They tell us that God’s grace and love has no power to stem the tide of evilness, and unless God pours out judgement and wrath to destroy people He created the devil will win. They show us how awful it is and tell us it is only going to get worse because the Bible predicts it. If the Bible says it is only going to get worse...isn’t fighting against it, fighting against God’s will?

It is easy to assume they’re right. I mean, I am not as dumb as some people think, I have eyes and ears. I watch and listen to the news. I see what people are posting on the internet. Yes it is enough to make you throw in the towel, to run fast and far until by breath and body fail. Some days, In the natural it is tough and to admit defeat and just give up would be easy.

But then I remember a TRUTH; GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!

I am reminded that God who started the show, runs the show and will wrap-up the show by tweaking it until it’s perfect.

And when my mind and heart settle on that truthful truth, I can take my focus off of the religious gloom and doomers and their incessant noise of fear and doubt and distraction and  realize that all is not lost, and I can rest in His Grace and Love.

If God is who He says He is; if He is a God worth worshiping at all, then I have no right to be taking things into my own hands or be lost in hopelessness. Pessimism is not an option. Giving-in to the gloom and doomers simply will not do. Why? Because God is:

Greater than sin...
Greater than the economy...
Greater than the governments...
Greater than the Obama's of the world...
Greater than religious fear-mongering...
Greater than natural disasters...
Greater than stock market crashes...
Greater than job losses and downturns...
Greater than the judgmental and condemning people on facebook...
Greater than the mess that you and I create that we find ourselves in...

God’s GRACE and LOVE is GREATER than it ALL!

So, do not despair or worry when they tell you that the sky is falling and the anti-christ is about to appear, either they don't know or need to be reminded…Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 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. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:27-31)

People, the sky is not falling, because our loving Father God is holding up the sky.

The gloomers and doomers...as in the past...will slink away with their tail between their legs and their heads hung in shame for such a shallow view of our ALL POWERFUL GOD and the POWER of HIS NEVER FAILING LOVE AND GRACE! Things are going to work out, His plan for humanity will prevail despite the gloom and doom fear-mongers.

In the words of God Himself..."BE NOT AFRAID." He has all the bases covered.

- Glenn Regular

God Hardens Hearts - What Does That Mean?

Some argue that passages which speak of God hardening human hearts (Jos 11:19-20; Ex 7:3; 10:1; Rom 9:18) demonstrate that God controls everything, including people resistant to this declared intentions. He hardens whomever he wills, they argue. He could just as easily have softened their hearts, but for his own sovereign reasons he chose not to. Thus even the apparent conflict between God and Satan and rebellious humans is part of his sovereign will.

It’s difficult to reconcile the notion that God hardens people’s hearts so they won’t believe with Jesus unqualified love for the world. When we see Christ—hanging in love on the cross to reconcile us to himself—we see the Father (Jn 14:7-9). This self-sacrificial love is what God looks like. Christ is God’s “exact imprint,” his enfleshed icon (Heb 1:3). How is this revelation compatible with the frightful suggestion that God arbitrarily hardens people’s hearts to keep them from coming to him?
Moreover, how do we reconcile a God who intentionally hardens people in damnable wickedness with the biblical teaching that God “does not willing afflict, or grieve anyone” (Lam 3:33)? Can we reconcile this frightful idea with the consistent biblical teaching that God desires everyone to turn to him (1 Tim 2:3-4; 2 Pet 3:9) and that evil flows from humans’ own hearts (Matt 15:19)? There is no adequate answer to these questions. Fortunately, there is no reason to suppose that this is what these passages mean.

The root meaning of the Hebrew word translated “to harden” is “to strengthen.” God hardens people by strengthening the resolve they have formed in their own heart. For example, six times Scripture says “the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Ex 9:12; 10:1; 10; 27; 11:10; 14:8). But it also notes that Pharaoh hardened his own heart seven times before the Lord took his action (Ex 7:13-14, 22; 8:15, 19; 32; 9:7). Similarly, centuries before God hardened the Canaanites’ hearts (see Judges 11), he had been tolerating their freely chosen wickedness and hardness toward him (see Gen 15:16). The unsurpassable love of God strives to turn humans toward himself, but there is a point when they become hopeless (Gen 6:3-8; Rom 1:24-32). At this point God’s strategy changes from trying to change them to using them in their wickedness for his own providential purposes.

God justly responds to people’s wickedness by strengthening their resolve against him. In every instance where Scripture speaks of God hardening someone, it’s an act of judgment in response to decisions these people had already made. God simply ensures that these rebels will do what their own evil hearts desire and not alter course for ulterior motives. But it’s altogether unwarranted to suppose that God unilaterally hardens people’s hearts against himself in the first place—all the while pretending to offer them the hope of salvation! When God decides to harden someone’s heart, we can be assured that God wishes it didn't have to be that way.

—Adapted from Is God To Blame

Not Faith, But Christ

“Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.

Our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith maybe: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’”

— Horatius Bonar

C.S. Lewis on Masturbation

Here is What C. S. Lewis said about Masturbation

I agree that that the stuff about ‘wastage of vital fluids’ is rubbish. For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: sending the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides.

And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifice or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival.

Among these shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification is ever imposed on his vanity. In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself.
Do read Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell, and study the character of Mr. Wentworth. And it is not only the faculty of love which is thus sterilized, forced back on itself, but also the faculty of imagination.

The true exercise of imagination, in my view, is (a) To help us to understand other people (b) To respond to, and, some of us, to produce art. But it has also a bad use: to provide for us, in shadowy form, a substitute for virtues, successes, distinctions, et cetera which ought to be sought outside in the real world — e.g., picturing all I’d do if I were rich instead of earning and saving.

Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters (which I think bad in itself) and thereby encourages a similar abuse of it in all spheres.
After all, almost the main work of life is to come out of our selves, out of the little, dark prison we are all born in. Masturbation is be avoided as all things are to be avoided which retard this process. The danger is that of coming to love the prison (Lewis, Yours, Jack, 292-293).

In a later letter to a different man, C. S. Lewis wrote this about masturbation:

The evidence seems to be that God sometimes works such a complete metamorphosis and sometimes not. We don’t know why: God forbid we should presume it went my merit.

He never in my unmarried days did it for me. He gave me–at least and after many ups and down, the power to resist the temptation so far as the act was concerned. He never stopped the recurrent temptations, nor was I guarded from the sin of mental consent. I don’t mean I wasn’t given sufficient grace. I mean that I sometimes fell into it, grace or no.

One may, I suppose, regard this as partly penal. One is paying for the physical (and still more the imaginative) sins of one’s earlier life. One my also regard it as a tribulation, like any other. The great discovery for me was that the attack does not last forever. It is the devil’s lie that the only escape from the tension is through yielding.

… Disgust, self-contempt, self-hatred–rhetoric against the sin and (still more) vilification of sexuality or the body in themselves–are emphatically not the weapons for this warfare. We must be relieved, not horrified, by the fact that the whole thing is humiliating, undignified, ridiculous; the lofty vices would be far worse.
Nor must we exaggerate our suffering. We talk of ‘torture': five minutes of really acute toothache would restore our sense of proportion! In a word, no melodrama. The sin, if we fall into it, must be repented, like all our others. God will forgive. The temptation is a darn nuisance, to be born with patience as long as God wills.

On the purely physical side (but people no doubt differ) I’ve always found that tea and bodily weariness are the two great disposing factors, and therefore the great dangers. Sadness is also a danger: lust in my experience follows disgruntlement nearly always. Love of every sort is a guard against lust, by a divine paradox, sexual love is a guard against lust. No woman is more easily and painlessly abstained from from, if need be, than the woman one loves. And I’m pretty sure purely male society is an enemy to chastity. I don’t mean a temptation to homosexuality: I mean that the absence of ordinary female society provokes the normal appetite (Lewis, Yours, Jack, 307-308).

Its a Hurrying Bustling Age

The best writing is writing that transcends times and ages. This morning I found myself reading some brief thoughts from J.C. Ryle on the importance of self-examination, and though his words were written in the late nineteenth century, they are perfectly appropriate to our day. They offer an important challenge.

Let me counsel every true servant of Christ to “examine his own heart” frequently and carefully as to his state before God. This is a practice which is useful at all times: it is especially desirable at the present day.  When the great plague of London was at its height people [noticed] the least symptoms that appeared on their bodies in a way that they never remarked them before. A spot here, or a spot there, which in time of health men thought nothing of, received close attention when the plague was decimating families, and striking down one after another! So it ought to be with ourselves, in the times in which we live. We ought to watch our hearts with double watchfulness. We ought to give more time to meditation, self-examination, and reflection. It is a hurrying, bustling age: if we would be kept from falling, we must make time for being frequently alone with God.

I was also struck by another of Ryle’s warnings, this one against being drawn in by false teachers.

Let me entreat every true hearted servant of Christ “not to be deceived by the superficial disguise” under which false doctrines often approach our souls in the present day. Beware of supposing that a teacher of religion is to be trusted, because although he holds some unsound views, he yet “teaches a great deal of truth.” Such a teacher is precisely the man to do you harm: Poison is always most dangerous when it is given in small doses and mixed with wholesome food. Beware of being taken in by the apparent earnestness of many of the teachers and upholders of false doctrine. Remember that zeal and sincerity and fervor are no proof whatever that a man is working for Christ, and ought to be believed. 
Peter no doubt was in earnest when he told our Lord to spare Himself, and not go to the cross; yet our Lord said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan.” Saul no doubt was in earnest when he went to and fro persecuting Christians; yet he did it ignorantly, and his zeal was not according to knowledge. … It is an awful fact that, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Of all the delusions prevalent in these latter days, there is none greater than the common notion that “if a man is in serious about his religion he must be a good man!” Beware of being carried away by this delusion; beware of being led astray by “serious-minded men!” Seriousness is in itself an excellent thing; but it must be seriousness in behalf of Christ and His whole truth, or else it is worth nothing at all. The things that are highly esteemed among men are often abominable in the sight of God.

The Hell of Hell is Hell

People, what can we to do about all our sinning sin?
Strive to keep the rules of religion so God will not condemn?
And when we fail at keeping the rules and feel the guilt and shame
As religion on us lays, by playing the blame game.
Oh...you didn't read your Bible enough, pay enough tithes or say the "sinners prayer"
And now hell fire stares you in the face, causing you much despair.
In it you will spend year after year, world without end...no wonder the religious gospel causes so much fear.


The gospel of hell-fire is not the Gospel of Grace,
Don't despair from fear that you will go to such a religious place.
Jesus did not teach such a despicable cruel doctrine.
That was devised by man, and is man's concoction.
Don't be trapped in religious deception used to keep you under its control.
God loves you with a love that can never be bought or sold.


God has dealt with the issue, there is nothing for us to do about sin.
So discover God's Ocean of Grace and Love, launch out into the deep and swim there-in.
Instead of being a Hater and a Judg-er, you will be be a Grac-er and a Lover,
Your judging judgement will no longer condemn, because Grace and Love covers sin.
Relax in His Grace and Love because He no longer has an issue with the sin of sin,
Realize that hell does not await you on the other side for you to suffer in

Recognize that on the cross Jesus paid the price for you to be free,
Turn from your haughtiness and selfishness in acknowledgment of what He finished on the tree.
Don't be like the religious people of His day and refuse to accept His Love and Grace
Accept it, and the hell-fire that you imagine will melt right before you face.
You will stop fearing the God who loves you for He has your sins covered,
So break free from all man-made doctrines and deceptions that has you smothered.


Rejoice that Christ the Savior did not come to condemn you in your sin,
He came to destroy the effects of sin in your life and the hell that it causes therein.
That God should love such a sinner as I that He would on a tree die,
To remove the fear of death and the fear of the religious hell-fire lie.
Rejoice in Him that you are not going to that religious place,
And minister to the people you meet the good news of His Wondrous Love and His Amazing Grace.

Jesus did not die so you could manage you sin...He died to DESTROY sin!

 

- Glenn Regular

The Future is Not Like the Past for God (or us)

Everyone agrees that we are not free to change the past. No sane person would claim, for example, that I can now make any free choices about whether John F. Kennedy will be assassinated or not on November 22, 1963. This deed, like all past deeds, has already been accomplished.

Now consider, if God has always foreknown what I will do in the future, then he certainly knew this on November 22, 1963. His knowledge of my future would thus have been among all the facts of reality that God knew on November 22, 1963.

Suppose for the sake of argument that God decided to reveal to us everything he knew to be true on November 22, 1963. Suppose that on this date God sent down a book from heaven containing all of this information entitled God’s Book of Known Facts. Now, if everything you will ever do in the future is listed in this book given on November 22, 1963, and if you are not free in relation to anything in the past, is it not obvious that you could not be free with regard to anything in your future as well? Your whole future is settled in the past—right there in God’s Book of Known Facts.

Suppose you read about your future in this book. Let us suppose that among many other things, you read that you will choose to cheat on your taxes on April 12, 2017. This was written on November 22, 1963. Wouldn’t you now feel the truth that you are no more free to decide your future than you are free to change the past—for you now see your future is past? How could you possibly believe that it was still up to you to resolve whether or not you would cheat on your taxes on April 12, 2017, when you know it is not up to you to resolve any settled fact about November 22, 1963?

Think of it this way. Freedom is the ability to choose between various possibilities. You are free to cheat on your taxes or not only because it is possible for you to cheat on your taxes or not. But if the fact that you will cheat is written in God’s Book of Known Facts, and God can’t possibly be wrong, then it is not possible for you not to cheat on your taxes. Hence you cannot be free to choose between the possibilities of cheating or not cheating. In other words, you can’t be free.

Someone might respond by claiming that God would not reveal such information precisely so that we will remain free. But this response is simply admitting that we only feel free because we are ignorant of the truth. If we are truly free, morally responsible agents, our freedom cannot simply be a feeling based on ignorance. If we are truly free, our ability to determine our future must be rooted in reality. It must really be the case that you could choose to cheat or not cheat on your taxes. And this means that what we will freely do cannot be among the facts recorded in God’s Book of Known Facts on November 22, 1963.

If we are truly free, God’s Book of Known Facts must be open to additions recorded with each free decision we make, just as God “added” fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life in response to his prayer (2 Kings 20:6). If we are truly free—if this is in fact part of the way reality really is—there can be nothing beyond possibilities to be recorded until we choose to act on one of those possibilities. We freely create the fact and then God records it.

If we possess authentic self-determining freedom, then our future must be fundamentally different from our past. The past is unalterable. There are no options for us, which is why we are not free in relation to it. There are not “ifs” or “maybes.” Everything about the past is definitely this way and definitely not any other way. If we are free, however, our future must be different from this. It must in part consist of realities that are possibly this way or possibly that way. Our future must be, at least in part, a realm of possibilities. And the God who knows all of reality just as it is and not otherwise must know it as such. He is not only the God of what will certainly be, he is also the God of possibility.

—adapted from God of the Possible, pages 120-123

The False Sinister Religious Doctrine

The false sinister religious doctrine that is propagated that says: If I am faithful God will bless me…If I do this, God will do that for me… If I serve him, then my business is going to prosper… if I tithe, I will be blessed of God… The doctrine of “Divine Retribution” is the idea that God will return blessings for good doing and vengeance for wrong-doing. In short, God rewards people for being good and punishes people for being bad. In simplistic terms, divine retribution sees all negative situations as God’s punishment, and all positive situations as God’s blessings. This thinking is a spillover from the pre-cross law keeping gospel.

Retribution is defined as recompense for merits. Sadly many religionists approach God’s faithfulness with the mindset of self-righteousness and retribution. We fear that something will happen to the things that we love the most, and so we stand on God’s side only to be blessed in everything. The truth is that if we love God for who He is, then He will take care of the rest. We are not in relationship with Him because we want to be blessed; but because we love Him. A lot of people, serve God because they fear suffering, they fear losing their possessions, these people don’t have their hearts fixed on God, and their love is on the material things.

When we serve God only because He can bless our do's and don'ts, then what we are really doing is trying to manipulate God for the good of the things that we love. But God is not interested in that, He wants us to love Him because of Who He is and wants a love relationship with us, not because of everything that He give us. The doctrine of retribution says that God is only faithful when we are faithful to Him. This means that God’s faithfulness is limited to our own capabilities of being faithful. If this were true God would never be faithful to us. But! God is always faithful and can never be unfaithful!

The Bible says in 2Tim 2:13 that even when we are unfaithful God remains faithful, because faithful is Who He is, not just merely something that He does. God would still be called faithful even if we had never been created. We are the object of God’s faithfulness, and what we give back to Him is gratitude, thankfulness and love. God is faithful to us based on the completeness of what Jesus has done, as His righteousness is imputed in us by God’s grace. Thus our faithfulness is because of God has already done, not merely because of what He will do.

Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of the fear-inspired and performance-based religion..."you do" or "else." The burden of life under the yoke of the Lord Jesus becomes light and when our living life is gratitude and thankfulness for His love and grace. When we understand that, we’ll be able to declare the words of Habakkuk 3:17-18, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

God’s nature is unchangeable (despite what we do or not do), Jesus’ was the express image of God and His work was complete, and we can rely only on His righteousness, His love and His grace. God’s love and care for us is, and will always be, based on the obedience of His only Son that bore the cross for us. Because we disobey does not diminish His love for us one iota, we think it does because we distance ourselves from God instead of running to His open arms of love and forgiveness!

The wrath of God is satisfied...the retribution of God is finished and to fear-monger people with your fear-mongering that God sends natural disasters or terrorist attacks because He is mad and upset, is a diabolical lie and an affront to God's goodness and character.

- Glenn Regular

Why Does God Need Prayer?

The main purpose of talking to God (that’s all prayer really is) has little to do with asking for things. It’s to build a faith-filled, loving relationship with our Creator and Redeemer. What kind of relationship would I have with Shelley (my wife) if the only time we ever talked was to make requests of each other? Not much of one, I suspect. And so it is with God. The main function of prayer is simply to be with someone you love: to talk, to listen, or to simply “commune” with your Creator.

Asking for things—what’s called “petitionary prayer”—is simply one minor aspect of this total relationship. It’s not that God needs our petitions to be informed or empowered to do anything. He’s already as good, as concerned, as informed, as powerful as He can be. But because a loving relationship with Him is His highest agenda for us, He constructs the order of things such that a loving relationship with Him will be facilitated. And thus He ordains that some things will only be done through prayer.

Because God has love as His highest agenda, He gives us some say-so in the universe. We must have this if we are to be self-determining persons, and He must have self-determining persons in His creation if He wants to love to be creation’s goal. We humans have a good deal of power to determine the outcome of things, to have some say-so in our little corner of the universe.

Petitionary prayer is simply the spiritual aspect of the “power to influence” that God gives us. In the same way that God ordains that He will not do everything He’d like to do on a physical level—in order to give us freedom—so too He ordains things so that He will not always do what He’d like to do on a spiritual level. And he gives us this spiritual say-so for the same reason He gives us say-so on a physical level: to facilitate our freedom, our personhood, and thus a real, loving relationship with Him.


A genuine relationship, I believe, can only occur where there is personal interaction between two persons, where there is give-and-take between both parties. In other words, any genuine relationship requires that both parties are to some extent empowered over and against the other. This is as true in our relationship with God as it is in our relationship with other people. God doesn’t want to be the only one calling the shots. Monopoly by one person—even if that “person” is God—always squashes the personhood of others. So God ordains things so that we are to some degree empowered in our relationship with Him. He ordains things so that we can actually influence the Creator, not because He needs us, but because He wants us. And petitionary prayer, in my view, is the principle means of this human-to-divine influence.

- Greg Boyd

Break Out

Many people in the Commuity of the Redeemed have become bound within the limitations of denominational man-made doctrines and imprisoned within the shell of traditional ideologies and religious concepts until they are locked into a pattern of thought and life, thinking they have reached a fullness of stature in Christ. When in reality all they are full of is denominational pride and traditional arrogance!

The life that has been hidden in the believer behind the walls of ecclesiastical religion has to break out and and allow the Christ life within to come into a new life where there is resurrection life flowing through the Community of the Redeemed and benefit the Community of Humanity.

Believers need to stand up and move forward in the power of grace and love, allowing resurrection life of Christ to flow. We need to allow the the Spirit to project Christ through us until the across-our-path people are catching a true vision  of "WHO" God is and what it means to be a follower of Christ and not religion.

The Danger of Rejecting Conscience

God was very wise when he created the world and human persons. He gave humanity the faculty of conscience, so that we could have direction and guidance within our very selves as to how we ought to act. Our conscience tells us when something we are considering (or perhaps have already done) is bad; on the other hand, it also prompts us to do things which are good, which nevertheless may be difficult in some way or another. In any case, it is essential to a healthy human life lived according to the design plan of God that human beings follow conscience.

What a danger, then, when a person ignores conscience! It is worse still if a person should turn off their conscience, shutting its voice for good. At that point, the final power for good that God has put in a person is gone, and there is no more restraining the expression of the evil within. You may listen to other persons' advice and moral remonstrances, but only if you have a conscience yourself. If you lose your conscience, and in this way lose any connection or understanding with those who would advise you to act differently, you will have no reason to follow them. There will be no more impulse for good working within you, but only the impulse for evil.

If you manage to do this, you are certain to destroy your faith. A person cannot go on believing in God if he lives as if there are no reasonable and authoritative boundaries on his behavior. Plotinus once said that without virtue, God is merely a word. That is exactly right, and Paul shares the same sentiment here when he writes to Timothy. Those who ignore their conscience -- which is God's voice within them, telling them that they ought to live differently -- have cut themselves off from God and from his truth. What faith is left for them? What can they believe in, who reject God's voice and his commands?

On the other hand, it is the testimony of not a few persons that, during the process of becoming Christians, they experienced a reactivation of their consciences. Once more, for the first time in a long while if not ever, they felt that the lives they had been living were wrong. They heard the voice within them telling them that what they do is not right, that they are guilty of sin.

In these ways, we can see that conscience is a tool of which God makes use to bring human beings to salvation. It is vitally important to hear its voice, to heed its directions and guidance.

We can go about this a different way, too. For myself, I find it preferable to live a life with as few troubles and worries as possible. That is simply the way I enjoy to go through my days -- not worrying so much. Why should I pile on to all the other troubles which life inevitably brings, this particular trouble of my own making -- that of disobeying my conscience and incurring the sentiments of shame and guilt which follow thereupon? Why shouldn't I save myself from a trouble that depends entirely on me and no one else?