Category: Theory

The Three Stages to Doing Something

1-2-3
1) The Romantic Stage

Here is where we first get an idea and dream about it. And of course our dream is big and awesome. Also, our dream has “me” at the center, even when our goal is to help others. That is okay because if we wait until our motives are unselfish, we’ll never do anything. But, at some point we have to get past the Romantic Stage and into reality.

2) The Reality Stage

After we’ve begun to pursue our dream, we soon discover that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine; it’s hard work! Not everything goes as planned. In this stage we actually learn how to do what we’ve dreamt about. Lots of trial and error.

3) The Quality Stage

In this stage we have finally accomplished something of our goal where we can step back and see that the dream has become manifest. It might not be perfect, but what we set out to do is indeed being done.

Whatever happens, the trick is to not get stuck in any of the three stages. We must always be building up, going through all three stages over and over again as we grow and learn.

The Four Stages Prophetic Fulfillment

Biblical prophecy ps

When we read the bible and find prophesy we want to know when the prophecy will be fulfilled. Has it been fulfilled already? Still to come? Or, will there be a double fulfillment? I have even heard the term “the law of double fulfillment”, stated as though every prophecy must be fulfilled at least twice.

While listening to lecture by James B. Jordan I learned a different way to look at the fulfillment of prophecy.

Often there is a fourfold fulfillment:

1) Anticipatory

The prophecy is given and there is a near fulfillment of it. The purpose of this stage is to confirm the word of the prophet. It’s way of saying, “This prophecy hasn’t been definitively fulfilled yet, but here’s a small fulfillment to prove that the prophetic word is true.”

2) Definitive

This is the actual definitive fulfillment of the prophecy. All biblical prophesy is definitively fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

3) Progressive

This is the full effect of the prophecy coming to pass through the Church. The Church is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Church, therefore whatever is fulfilled in Christ will also happen in the Church.

4) Cumulative

This is the full effect of the prophecy coming to final fruition on the Last Day.

One example we can look at is the Temple:

In 2 Samuel 7:1-16 we read of how David decided he wanted to build a temple for God.* When David told the prophet Nathan of his idea, Nathan told him to go ahead and do it. But then God said, “You’re going to build a house for me David? No, I will build a house for you. Your descendent will build a house for me.” If you read the text, it is clear that God is talking about Jesus. God gives the prophesy here of Christ’s kingdom and the true temple of God which Jesus will build.

In 1 Chronicles 22:7-11 the exchange between God and David about the temple is elaborated a bit more. David told Solomon that he wanted to build the temple but his hands were too bloody. He also said that God would give him a son, a man of rest, and that son would build the temple. God also said the son’s name would be Solomon, which means peaceful. Then in verse 11 and following, David tells Solomon to go ahead and build the temple and that he had provided resources and plans for it. Again, read the text and you will see that the words God spoke were referring to Jesus.

In 2 Samuel 12:24-25 it is interesting to see that David named his son Solomon, but God named him Jedidiah.

So, God gave a prophecy that He would provide a king of peace, whose kingdom will last forever, and that this king would build a temple for God.

1) The prophecy was fulfilled in an anticipatory way with king Solomon building the first temple.

2) The prophecy was fulfilled definitively when Jesus built the true temple: the Church.**

3) The prophecy is being fulfilled progressively as time goes on and more and more people are brought into the kingdom.

4) The prophecy will will reach its final complete state on the Last Day when the bride (the Church) is married to her Groom (Jesus). From that point on, the temple will grow more and more glorious for all eternity.

There are several examples of prophecy being fulfilled in this fourfold manner in the bible. It doesn’t have to be this way every time, but when it is done this way we need to take notice of it.

*Notice from the text how it was David’s idea to build the temple, not God’s. God was happy with the continued use of the tabernacle — which was a temporary structure. David wanted to make the temporary structure more permanent. God wasn’t interested in that because He had a whole new structure in mind for the temple: the Holy Spirit filled Church. But, God allowed the temple to be built, He wasn’t against it. God can knock down a stone building just as quickly as a tent.

**Old Testament Israel was always the Church. I don’t believe Jesus created something new called the Church. But, because of His work on the cross, the law was fulfilled and God was no longer confined to the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. The curtain was torn. Also, with the barrier of the law out of the way, the Gentiles were able to enter.

Morality Wars

Within Buddhism there is a thing called Karma. Karma is based on good or bad deeds which then translates to future happiness or future suffering. If you build up bad Karma in this life you will pay for it with suffering in the next life. If you build up good Karma you will be rewarded. This system is the framework for Buddhist morality.

Christian morality is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Because He first loved me, I must love others. Because He has forgiven me, I must forgive others. Because He stripped Himself of His power to come save poor humans, I must work to help the poor.

A Buddhist will be reluctant to help the poor. The poor person may be paying for something horrible he did in a past life, and if someone were to alleviate his suffering, that someone would be going against the Karma system and will put her own future happiness at risk. “Live and let live” is the Buddhist moral standard. This actually creates a kind of tolerance that many western Humanists would be envious of. But where the Buddhist would be tolerant of something like homosexual lifestyles, a tolerance which would be celebrated by the Humanist, the Buddhist would also be tolerant of allowing the poor to stay poor, a tolerance which the Humanist would rail against. This is because Humanist morality is a bastardized version of Christian and anti-Christian values.

I remember telling someone how I was helping poor children in Cambodia to get a proper education. She thought that was wonderful. But then her face dropped and she asked if I was also teaching the people about Christianity. “You’re not trying to convert them are you? Don’t they already have their own religion?”

Sigh. So your morality praises me for helping poor children, but then, that same morality scolds me for opposing a religion (Buddhism) which has a moral system that actually prevents Cambodians from helping their own poor children? But to her, her thinking was completely logical, and that is because she has no idea where her Humanist morality comes from.

Humanism is doomed. So what will be the next moral battle fought in the western world? Nihilism versus Humanism? Islam versus Humanism?

Will Christians wake up to the fact that Christendom fell a long time ago and join the fight?