Don’t Put the Symbol Before the Horse

In Genesis, the creation account talks about the passage of days before the sun was created. There was a light time and a dark time: a full day.

Now, when God did create the sun, He did not then spin the earth, wait to see how long it took to spin once, and then decide to make a day 24 hours long. God determined that a day would be 24 hours long before He made the first day. The sun and the rotation of the earth were set to conform to what God had already determined. We need to be sure we don’t get that backward.

It is the same with biblical symbolism. Biblical symbols are not like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates. Forest wanted to describe life, so he chose an object close at hand and used it. The object he chose was not created to be a symbol for life, but it was able to be used as such with some imagination. Biblical symbols, however, are specifically created to represent something else that already exists.

An example is marriage. When God wanted to describe the relationship between Christ and the Church, He did not say, “The relationship between Christ and the Church is like marriage,” in a ‘Forest Gump box of chocolates’ kind of way. No, God created marriage because the concept of the relationship between Christ and the Church already existed, and marriage is an image of that pre-existing reality. This is the first reason why Christians oppose gay marriage. Jesus isn’t marrying another Jesus, therefore men don’t marry men — the created symbol has to follow what it’s imaging of the Creator.

When a man is opposed to the idea of a woman being a pastor, it is not because he is a male chauvinist. Rather, it is because he believes that gender matters. Gender is symbolic; not in a ‘box of chocolates’ kind of way, but in a ‘something pre-exists about God and this is an image of that’ kind of way. A man standing before his congregation is a symbol of Christ standing before His bride. A man protecting his church is a symbol of Christ protecting His wife. A woman can not do that; not because she isn’t smart enough, or talented enough, but because she doesn’t fit the symbol. The ‘Beauty and the Beast’ story would quickly lose its appeal if the beauty decided to switch roles with the beast — the symbols wouldn’t match.

Bread and wine exist because they image pre-existing things about God. Baptism, circumcision, the temple, birds, trees, clouds, stars, and even people themselves are symbols following after something which was real before any of them ever existed. Biblical symbols are directly connected to that which they image. Gump’s box of chocolates is not.

Symbols matter. They are not interchangeable. God sets them in place, and we benefit when we follow them and use them as He intended.

The Three Part Great Commission

We can assign three parts to the Great Commission.

1) Preach the Gospel as a witness to all the nations.

2) Make individual disciples in each nation.

3) Make whole nations disciples.

I think many christians would read #1 and stop there. I’ve had christians declare to me that the end is near because the gospel has been preached throughout the whole world, and Jesus said, “(T)his gospel…will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

I would argue against that reasoning, firstly and simply because, the Great Commission, as given to us in Matthew 28:18-20, does not say “go and preach the gospel as a witness to all nations.” It says to “go and make disciples of all nations.” There is a large difference between getting the gospel out there to be heard (a witness) and getting whole nations of people to conform their entire lives to it (discipleship).

Secondly, I would argue that, with the statement Jesus made in Matthew 24, He was not referring to the Great Commission, nor was He referring to the end of the world. Again, His wording did not imply the fullness of the Great Commission when He referred to the gospel as going out as a witness to all nations; that is part of the Great Commission, yes, but only the first part. Also, when Jesus used the word “world” in vs 14 (through the Holy Spirit inspired author), He used the Greek word oikoumené, which means “the portion of the earth inhabited by the Greeks, in distinction from the lands of the barbarians”; so arguably, He was referring to the Roman Empire only, not the entire planet 2000 years into the future.

The conversation in Matthew 24 between Jesus and the disciples was about the destruction of the temple, or more broadly, the end of the Judaic age, temple sacrifice, and the Mosaic priesthood. When Jesus said the gospel would go out to all the Roman Empire and then the end would come, I would argue that He was primarily thinking about all the Jews scattered throughout the empire at that time. Jesus wanted the Jews to hear the gospel before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. He wanted them to understand what was happening and why the temple was destroyed. It was destroyed because there was no longer any need for it and because judgment had come on the unbelieving Jews. The “end” which Jesus referred to is that destruction and judgement.

So, back to the Great Commission. Jesus said that all authority has been given to Him, and that is the reason we are to go out and make disciples of all nations. He did not say, “People are dying and going to hell, so go and preach to as many as possible and then I’ll come back”. Jesus is king, and we are to declare that fact to the world, and teach people how to serve the king. To do this, we have to do all three parts of the Great Commission. We can’t stop after #1 thinking we’ve finished the job. The bible does not teach that or allow it.

Victorious Eschatology (Book Review)

This book is what I’d call a “nuts and bolts” approach to eschatology. Other books I’ve read on the subject take a more broad look at Biblical prophesy and try to give the overall sense of what the big story of the Bible is without making any definitive statements. This book takes the reader through a verse by verse exposition of the prophesies and the authors are not afraid to come to some profound conclusions.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and while I am still kicking the tires of the different eschatological view points, this book seriously pushed me in some new directions. It is interesting that a lot of Christians will just assume that what they’ve always heard is true. Premillennial Dispensationalism is true, right? Well, read this book and you might change your thoughts on the subject. Or, perhaps, it’ll newly get you thinking on eschatology when you’ve never considered the topic a worthwhile use of your time.

The viewpoint is a partial preterist one. Preterism is the opposite of futurism, and so, in this book, the authors argue that much of the Biblical prophesies currently believed by many to not have happened yet, have indeed already happened — prophesies that were future for the original readers, but now fulfilled and in the past for us. No future anti-Christ figure taking over the world, no microchips implanted in foreheads, no secret rapture of the Church, no revived Roman empire, 666 refers to Nero, the Olivet Discourse mainly refers to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD — these are the kinds of points you’ll find in this book, and the authors present a strong case.

But, as the title suggest, the main point of this book is to present a hopeful vision of the future. Jesus has already established His kingdom, His kingdom is growing and will one day fill the earth, and our future is getting brighter and brighter, not darker and darker. And before you cry heresy, understand that many prominent church fathers held to the same view as the authors of this book, and the authors quote some of these past theologians throughout.

Read the book if you want to be challenged and perhaps learn some new exciting things about God’s great plan for humanity, heaven, and earth.

Click here to buy from Amazon: “Victorious Eschatology” by Harold R. Eberle and Martin Trench

Click here for a related article I wrote about a similar book.

Some Methods and Tools to Read the Bible

There are two ways, I think, we should read the Bible. One is to study it deeply. This means choosing a chapter or a couple of verses at a time and reflecting on each word carefully. The second way is to read it in a more general fashion, like how you’d read a novel. The first way is to get you to understand fully what each specific author wanted to get across to his readers. The second is to get you intimately involved with the whole overarching plan of God.

One handy way to deeply study the Bible is to use a Hebrew and Greek lexicon. This way you can look up the original meaning of the words you’re currently reading in English. I wouldn’t recommend getting too caught up in this though. The people who translated the different versions of the Bible were experts in the Greek and Hebrew, and so, took great care in getting the proper meaning of the original into English. But still, if you’re curious about a word, you can look it up, and you might be surprised at what you find.

Here’s an example:

Romans 8:15 says,
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!'”

We read the word ‘adoption’ and assume that it simply refers to kids with no parents getting parents. But it means something different. The Greek word, ‘uihothesia’, means the establishing or setting in place a male child into the position of being a son. And what Paul was likely referring to is the Roman practice where a father would officially set his oldest son into the place of being the legitimate heir to the family. A male child didn’t automatically become an heir simply for being the oldest biological offspring, and the father could cast him out of the family if he wanted to. It wasn’t till the boy was older, and had proven to his father that he was worthy of the family name, that the father would officially name him the heir. Once the boy was set in place he had all the rights, privileges, and burdens of that family. He was seen as being one with his father and having the authority of his father.

Now when we apply this analogy to the modern Christian, the term ‘son’ becomes gender neutral, and the ‘adoption’, or setting in place one as God’s heir who has rights and authority as His heir, appertains to all believers. This changes our understanding of adoption from being, “I was an orphan and now I have a daddy who loves me” to being, “I was not rejected by my Father, and now I have all the rights and privileges of being His son, His heir.” And when you begin to study what having His authority means, you will begin to understand how profound this ‘adoption’ really is.

A tool I use for this kind of study is “eSword“. It is free for PC, and there is an app for iPad, which is not free, but I bought it and use it all the time.

A tool I use for my general reading of the Bible is a reading plan called “Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System”. This plan is designed to get you to read from all over the Bible each day. The plan suggests you read ten chapters per day, but you can set your own pace. Click here to read about the plan. I like this plan because it gives you a good bird’s eye view of the whole Bible and you will see scripture supporting scripture — all of the Bible tied together.

Another tool is, as you’re reading the New Testament, when an author quotes an Old Testament passage, you may have a Bible which gives you what that OT verse is. For example, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:27, quotes Psalm 8:6. Now if you flip to the Psalm verse you won’t see in your Bible a reference to 1 Corinthians. So, write it there yourself. Now, every time you read the NT and see a reference to the OT, go to the OT and write in the NT verse yourself. Once you’ve done that for awhile you’ll find as you’re reading the OT all sorts of references to the NT. Why is this helpful? Because then you’ll have Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, and the other NT writers teaching you how to understand the OT passages. Every time you come across one of your written references in the OT to the NT, go and look it up, and the NT writer will tell you what that OT verse is really saying. Now, again, you have a tool to give you a clear overarching view of the plan of God.

There are lots of good ways to read and study the Bible. I love studying the Bible and can spend hours doing it. These are just a couple of ways I do so.

Four Pinheads or Why We Need Human Teachers

When you listen to and read one thinker, you become a clone… two thinkers, you become confused… ten thinkers, you’ll begin developing your own voice… two or three hundred thinkers, you become wise…
~Tim Keller

But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.
~1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 (NASB)

One of the gifts God gave to us is teachers (Ephesians 4:11). And He gave teachers to equip the saints for the work of service and to build up the body of Christ. The bible tells us to appreciate and highly esteem these teachers in love. This, of course, applies to the living breathing teachers in our lives now, but also to our teachers long since passed.

In 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 Paul is rebuking four kinds of pinheads…

Pinhead #1: “I am of Paul!”

Paul: “That’s very flattering, but you’re being an idiot.”

Pinhead #2: “I am of Apollos!”

Paul: “I like Apollos, but you’re being an idiot too.”

Pinhead #3: “I am of Peter!”

Paul: “Peter is a good man, but knock it off!”

Jimmy: “I like turtles.”

Paul: “Thanks for your input Jimmy.”

Pinhead #4: “I am of Christ!”

Paul: “Well, you might think you’re the right one here, but perhaps you’re the biggest idiot of them all.”

Pinheads 1 to 3 were elevating human teachers to too high a level. Pinhead #4 was doing away with human teachers all together.

The bible teaches us we need teachers, because we’re not going to get it right, off on our own, with just our bibles. We need guidance. The problem isn’t simply “I am of Paul”, because we’re all “of Paul”, he wrote most of the new testament. The problem is elevating Paul to a position that he is unworthy of and then vicariously claiming that unworthy status for ourselves.

We do need to be only “of Christ”, of course, but under Christ we can safely also be of Paul, Peter, James, Wesley, Calvin, Piper, Keller, and Pastor __________(fill in the blank), and we can be safely not guilty of what Paul was rebuking the Corinthian church for.

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