What I Wish I Could Say (a.k.a. Ugh, the Most Unpopular Blogpost Ever)

Things I wish I could say...

I wish Christians would be just as passionate in fighting for currently-existing traditional/biblical marriages as they are in opposing the legality of gay unions. I support traditional/biblical marriage, and am confessionally Baptist (both the 1689 Confession 25.1 and the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 art. 18). But don’t lose sight of marriage in fighting for marriage. Pray for the married couples in your congregations. Men, hold men accountable for being bullies, jerks, absent, unloving, adulterers, etc. Women, hold women accountable for bad-mouthing their husbands to others (or the children), never being content, thinking happiness (which they think God wants for them at any cost) is with another man, etc. Churches, hold members accountable for unrepentant sin in marriage. Couples, seek help sooner rather than later. Provide examples of a loving marriage by being open about your love for each other. I’ve heard complaints over the years that this couple or that couple was a little too affectionate in worship (“he was playing with her hair,” “they sure were snuggled up,” “they were just distracting”). Wish I could’ve seen it. I’m personally distracted by couples who grow in bitterness the longer they’re married. Show off your love for each other – we desperately need those role models, Church! I am my brother and sister’s keeper. I will fight for your marriage with you. I will rejoice with you, and be broken-hearted with you. I am passionate about it.

I wish Christians would be just as excited about “Jesus Christ, Who having not seen you love...yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:7,8) as they are pissed off at the bogeymen on the political stage. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: most of the political stuff we throw out there is “preaching to the choir,” and will not do a single blasted thing to change anyone’s mind about how they’ll vote. Both sides have their witty little sayings that make the other side look small and stupid. The argument "you're a total idiot" never convinced anyone. Promote Jesus. We could do with a little more apostle Paul (“I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” 1 Corinthians 2:2) and a lot less...well, you know (I’m not even going to talking about the theological compromise we’re willing to engage in to be on the same side politically). I’m politically conservative (not a compromiser or moderate). I vote. I pay attention to what’s going on and stay informed. I get frustrated by injustice and game-playing. I truly admire and support my dear brothers and sisters who are fighting the fight at considerable personal sacrifice. But I also try to maintain relationships with liberals because I care more about their eternal fate than anything else, and making fun of how stupid and logically inconsistent they are doesn’t serve that care for them.

Along that same trajectory, I wish Christians would talk more about Jesus than Israel. I support Israel. I dig Netanyahu. But those two things have nothing to do with religion, faith, or theology (though I recently saw someone use one's attitude toward the State of Israel as a test of Christian orthodoxy...something utterly alien to all of Church history!). Without Christ, the citizen of Israel will “be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:8). So will the prime minister (and I’m thankful he was re-elected). He’s not my hero or my hope. He’s a part of “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1). Because apart from faith in Jesus Christ they’re not, even if we agree politically.

I remember a professor in my first semester of college saying, “if you want to know what’s most important to a person, listen to what they talk about the most.” I have never forgotten that (though I’ve forgotten a lot else about college). I would love to hear Christians talk about the glories of Christ, salvation through Him alone, and the display of Christ’s love for His Church in Christian marriages. Yes, and be engaged to see a biblical Christian ethic brought to bear on legislation, leadership, and justice in our country and in the world...but that should be the fruit, not the root. And it ought to be done in a way always glorifies and rejoices in the root, Jesus Christ. Where is your joy, hope, glory, peace, passion, life? Please, oh please, let it be in Jesus Christ alone, and, I beg you, let that become what you talk about the most!

Wish I could say that. And I love you more than I can say, so I just did.

The Apostasy and the Hammer

I had thirty minutes between things this morning, and took the chance to do some background reading in preparation for next Wednesday night’s survey of 2 Thessalonians. In 2:3, the apostle Paul mentions “the apostasy.” This, and other language, echoes some things mentioned in Daniel and 1 Maccabees. In reading about the lead-up to the Maccabean rebellion, I came across the following extended passage and thought it worth sharing. The narrative begins in the midst of the “abomination of desolation” (Daniel 11:31; cf. Daniel 12:11; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14) in Jerusalem’s temple by Antiochus IV, “Epiphanes” (215-165 B.C.).

“Then the king [Antiochus IV] wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that all should give up their particular customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the towns of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane Sabbaths and festivals, to defiled the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and other unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they would forget the Law and change all the ordinances. He added, ‘And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.’ In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. He appointed inspectors over all the people and commanded the towns of Judah to offer sacrifice, town by town. Many of the people, everyone who forsook the Law, joined them, and they did evil in the land; they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had. Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year [167 B.C.], they erected a desolating sacrilege [“abomination of desolation”] on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah, and offered incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. The books of the Law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. Anyone found possessing the Book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the Law, was condemned to death by decree of the king. They kept using violence against Israel, against those who were found month after month in the towns. On the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering. According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants’ from their mothers’ necks. But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. Very great wrath came upon Israel. In those days Mattathias son of John son of Simeon, a priest of the family of Joarib, moved from Jerusalem and settled in Modein. He had five sons, John surnamed Gaddi, Simon called Thassi, Judas called Maccabeus [“the Hammer”], Eleazar called Avaran, and Jonathan called Apphus. He saw the blasphemies being committed in Judah and Jerusalem...then Mattathias and his sons tore their clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned greatly. The king’s officers who were enforcing the apostasy came to the town of Modein to make them offer sacrifice. Many from Israel came to them; and Mattathias and his sons were assembled. Then the king’s officers spoke to Mattathias as follows: ‘You are a leader, honored and great in this town, and supported by sons and brothers. Now be the first to come and do what the king commands, as all the Gentiles and the people of Judah and those that are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons will be numbered among the Friends of the king, and you and your sons will be honored with silver and gold and many gifts.’ But Mattathias answered and said in a loud voice: ‘Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him, and have chosen to obey his commandments, everyone of them abandoning the religion of their ancestors, I and my sons and my brothers will continue to live by the covenant of our ancestors. Far be it from us to desert the Law and the ordinances. We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or the left’” (1 Maccabees 1:41-2:6,15-22).

Welcome Home

How our Psalmist defines “Israel”: “God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart” (Psalm 73:1).

I know my heart. Not as well as God, but I know my heart. This would be a definition excluding everyone (especially me), were it not for the message of the Gospel of a God Who gives new hearts to His people.

• “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10).
• “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
• “After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the Word of the gospel and believe. And God, Who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are’” (Acts 15:7-11).

So, whereas once I was “separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12), now I hear this promise: “...in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ...for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in Whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in Whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (2:13,18-22).

The Psalmist’s first line is, for those in Christ, a definition of absolute exclusion made possible only by the grace found by faith in Christ alone. Welcome home.

A Loving Plea to Would-Be Sons of Issachar

“...the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times” (1 Chronicles 12:32).

With events in the news, Church, there are many who fancy themselves “sons of Issachar.” Let me plea for care with two points:

• Don’t be a Harold Camping (or even a Hal Lindsey). When we link modern events in the world to Scripture and tomorrow the world hasn’t ended, what have we done to the veracity of Scripture in our pronouncements (until recently one of Camping’s damnable billboards was on the Interstate claiming he was right because “the Bible says so”)? You do realize that every generation since Jesus ascended to His throne has thought theirs was the last generation and that things couldn’t get any worse, right?
• The Six-Day War (June, 1967). Things have escalated before in the Middle East (many, many times in the last 2,000 years, but especially in relatively recent history, with which the would-be “sons of Issachar” should familiarize themselves) and will again. I am not proclaiming “peace, peace,” when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11; Ezekiel 13:10,16). I am saying tumult is the way of this Christ-hating world, even when the headlines are not aflame with rockets.

Can we stand as witnesses to the calm fearlessness, peace, hope, and joy found in Christ alone before the storms of the world?

Let me share some of my favorite verses in the Bible with you: “For thus the LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, ‘You are not to say, “It is a conspiracy!” In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, and you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the LORD of hosts Whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. Then He shall become a sanctuary’” (Isaiah 8:11-14).

Who Are You, Church?

“‘Behold, the days come,’ saith the Lord, ‘that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, the which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them,’ saith the Lord. ‘But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days,’ saith the Lord, ‘I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord”: for they shall all know Me from the least of them unto the greatest of them,’ saith the Lord: ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sins no more’” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Geneva Bible).

With whom does “the Lord” make the New Covenant?

“But now our high Priest hath obtained a more excellent office, inasmuch as He is the Mediator of a better Testament, which is established upon better promises. For if that first Testament had been unblameable, no place should have been sought for the second. For in rebuking them He saith, ‘Behold, the days will come,’ saith the Lord, ‘when I shall make with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah a new Testament: Not like the Testament that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt: for they continued not in My Testament, and I regarded them not,’ saith the Lord. ‘For this is the Testament that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days,’ saith the Lord, ‘I will put my Laws in their mind, and in their heart I will write them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord”: for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more’” (Hebrews 8:6-12).

Who is the sole Mediator of the New Covenant (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5,6; Hebrews 9:15; 12:24)? Given the context here, Who made the Old Covenant and led the recipients of it “out of the land of Egypt” (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:4)? With whom does the Mediator make the New Covenant?

Again – be patient - who do these texts tell us are the recipients of the New Covenant?

Now, see yourself, beloved Church, at the Table. Hold the cup. Hear the words: “Likewise also after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is that new Testament in My blood, which is shed for you’” (Luke 22:20). “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ...after the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, ‘This cup is the New Testament in My blood: this do as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me’” (1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:25).

The cup we bless and drink together by faith is the New Covenant in the Mediator’s blood. Who partakes of this cup, beloved Church? With whom is the New Covenant made?

Who are you? Say it. This is the fullness of biblical theology, “the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not opened unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be inheritors also, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel” (Ephesians 3:4-6).

Who are you? “Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, and called uncircumcision of them, which are called circumcision in the flesh, made with hands, that ye were, I say, at that time without Christ, and were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and were strangers from the covenants of promise, and had no hope, and were without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, ye which once were far off, are made near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, which hath made of both one, and hath broken the stop of the partition wall, in abrogating through His flesh the hatred, that is, the Law of commandments which standeth in ordinances, for to make of twain one new man in Himself, so making peace, and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by His cross, and slay hatred thereby, and came, and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were near. For through Him we both have an entrance unto the Father by one Spirit. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners: but citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God. And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Cornerstone, in Whom all the building coupled together, groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. In Whom ye also are built together to be the habitation of God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:11-22).

Hold the cup of the New Covenant in His blood, hear the promise of the New Covenant to Israel, and know who you are in Christ, beloved Church: the true Israel.