Tribute to The God of Liberty

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

We are created, not massed produced on some assembly-line in the sky. But made in the image of God Himself, we are endowed with a God-given dignity and value that only He can determine.

The best thing of all about Biblical Christianity, and in fact the seal of its presence in human lives everywhere, is that it is a message of the One Mediator between God and man that has Himself the power to set a human heart free to serve the Living God.

Celebrate the dignity and the freedom.

Saying Goodbye to Saint Paul

Sadness of Coming to the end:  The Year of Saint Paul

This has been a wonderful year for me to be involved with the larger Christian community in celebrating the 2000th birthday of the Apostle Paul. Of course we’re really not saying goodbye to the Apostle of Liberty, how could we without saying goodbye to the Holy Scriptures themselves. But I do have a certain sadness in seeing yet another golden opportunity to celebrate our Christian unity with the universal community of faith pass into history.

So as I post my final attempt to look at Saint Paul’s influence on the Christian Church, I’ve decided to return to an old friend mentioned early in this series, James S.Stewart, author of “A Man in Christ“, first published in London in 1935.

The Vital Religion of Jesus Christ

One thing I’ve been able to do in this ‘Year of Saint Paul’, through my own study as well as looking at countless blogs and essays, including those of Pope Benedict XVI, is put to the test a working hypothesis regarding what Saint Paul contributes to the whole narrative of Holy Scripture- the unfolding drama of redemptive history.

Thank you for taking an interest in my personal journey of faith. So once more I come back to that hypothesis: that the Apostle Paul does play a rather decisive role/function in the Biblical narrative that centers on Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, I’m now ready to advance that hypothesis a step further, and say that Paul the Apostle is in himself and his writings the greatest interpreter of what James Stewart calls, “The Vital Religion of Jesus Christ“.

Paul or Paulism: The Great Dilemma

When Saint Paul composed his great hymn of Praise to Love (I Corinthians 13), he began by distinguishing between the vital religion of Jesus Christ, as it had gripped his own experience, and certain more or less imperfect and unbalanced forms of religion, which from that day to this have sheltered themselves under the name of Christianity.”

This is the dilemma for the Christian Church today in the age of the international blogging community just as it has been down through the years of Christianity: the distortions of “the vital religion of Jesus Christ” in all the different views of that religion that are out there in the real world of hurting, lonely, lost, suffering, humanity. These distortions is what the world sees and feels around them instead of the authentic Christ of the New Testament Gospel. And frankly, this frustration at times almost overwhelms me. This is why I came to the place almost ten years ago, after a great deal of experiencing much of this frustration, where I intentionally made the decision to stop promoting any one “imperfect and unbalanced form of religion” as found in the religious ideologies of Christendom, and instead try to model and encourage everyone I could to get back to the original as found in the Biblical narrative itself. So I will leave you and the year of celebrating Saint Paul’s birth (even that is arbitrary) with these remarks with which James Stewart opened his book in 1935:

Gifts and graces which God intended to be the adornment of the Christian community may cease to be its adornment, and become its snare. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels”- that is religion as ecstatic emotionalism. “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and undersand all mysteries, and all knowledge”- that is religion as gnosis, intellectualism, speculation. “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains”- that is religion as working energy. “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor”- that is the religion of humanitarianism. ” Though I give my body to be burned”- that is the religion of asceticism.

All these one-sided and patently inadequate representations of the Gospel, Paul expressly repudiates. Yet history, which has been unjust to many of its greatest men (and women), has given us from time to time, by the strange irony of fate, a Paul who is himself the type and embodiment of the very things against which he strove with might and main.

We have had Paul the ecstatic visionary, Paul the speculative theologian, Paul the organiser and ecclesiastic, Paul the humanitarian moralist, Paul the ascetic (mystic). Of these portraits which have appeared at different times in the course of Pauline study, by far the most unfortunate in its results has been the second- Paul the dogmatist, the doctrinaire thinker, the creator of a philosophy of religion, the constructor of a system. This is history’s greatest injustice to its greatest saint. It is the blunder which has ruined Paul for thousands. . . Paul’s worst enemy down through the centuries has not been Paul: it has been Paulinism. (from A Man in Christ, James S.Stewart, Harper & Row)

May we dedicate ourselves afresh to avoid (and repudiate) with all our might these distortions of this passionate lover of Jesus Christ  whom he served in life and by many sufferings and finally, death.

Related readings & downloadable essays at Christ in You, Ministries,see “Christianity is NOT a religion“, by James A.Fowler

The Source of Christianity’s Vitality

 

Kenneth Scott Latourette

The Perspective from a 20th Century Historian

Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1968)

This is just one of many outstanding Christians waiting for me to introduce here on E4Unity blog- my wish list for the Saint’s Gallery. But I want to go ahead and introduce him so I can put up a quote from a little book published in 1948 on what I believe is now coming to pass in Christianity and what we’ve already introduced in several previous blogs: a radical re-evaluation (heart-searching) of how the people of the Christian Faith should function in today’s world.

Dr. Latourette was perhaps the most recognized historian of Christianity in the twentieth century. An expert on China and the Orient, author of volumes on the history of the Christian Faith down through the centuries. He taught at Yale University from 1921 to 1953, served as Department of Religion Chairman, and Director of Graduate Studies at the Divinity School. The man was an intellectual giant. We really should know something about men and women of the past like this if we hope to know what’s going on in our world today.

In his Presidential Address to the American Society of Church History in 1945, he spoke on “The Future of Christianity in the Light of it’s Past”, considering the mid-century following two world wars an urgent time for the Church to do an evaluation of where they had been and what the future may have in store. In the years 1946 and 1947 he spoke at more than a dozen Seminaries and Universities on the subject which was later published in a book which I am fortunate to have on my desk, “The Christian Outlook“.

I have already brought up the theme for some of my posts in the coming year, the 100th celebration of the great World Missionary Conference held at Edinburg in 1910 and the celebrations in various parts of Christendom scheduled to take place to commemorate this most significant date in the History of Christian missions.

I will begin with some quotes from the book above that I think you will find most timely some  sixty years later. 

The word ‘Christianity’ never occurs in the New Testament. Gospel is there and it is the Gospel which gives rise to Christianity and which is the source of its vitality. So long as any branch or expression of Christianity is a channel of the Gospel it lives. When it ceases to be a channel for the Gospel it becomes sterile and withers.

Latourette than spends a number of pages, reluctantly, describing for us his own convictions regarding the Gospel, for he was convinced that it was only from the vantage (perspective) of the Gospel as presented in Holy Scripture that ” we can presume to look into the future to the near and far outlook for Christianity and for humankind”.

At the outset we must remind ourselves of the meaning of the word ‘Gospel‘ . It is simply the Anglo-Saxon, for Good News, or Joyful message. . .The New Testament rings the changes on that note. The stories of the birth are filled with it. It is the spirit of the Magnificant, of the Benedicdus, of the Nunc Dimittis, of the announcement to the shepherds, and of the angelic song.

Jesus compared himself and his disciples to a wedding party. There is joy over the sinner who repents; the feasting and the joy over the return of the lost son; the joy of one who, seemingly by chance, when not looking for it, discovers the treasure hidden in the field; the joy of the pearl mercahant who has made it his business to seek and then finds; the joy of which we hear on the eve of the crucifixion and which was left as legacy to the disciples. There is the joy of the resurrection, when the disciples were so full of it that they could scarcely believe what they had seen. After they could no longer meet their Lord in the flesh, the early disciples continued that same experience of joy. They rejoiced with “joy unspeakable.” One of the outstanding ‘fruits of the spirit’ which they found working in them was joy.

So, through the centuries since, men and women of many different races and cultures have found this same joy. Martin of Tours, who as a soldier gave himself wholly to the Christ of the Gospel and left his occupation to be a pioneer in the monastic way to which he believed that dedication called him, impressed by his joy those who were attracted to him. Bernard of Clairvaux sings of ‘ Jesus thou joy of loving hearts’. Francis of Assisi and his early band were troubadours of God, joyous in spite and in part because of their elf-assumed poverty. Luther is a herald of joy. . .

Moody is captured by the ‘Good News’ and in unlearned language tells it to the masses. In simple, unsophisticated ‘Gospel hymns’ his associates and thousands since have sung of the wonder which they have glimpsed. This joy is our privilege today. Through all the ages to come it will continue to be part of the Gospel.

READ Biography  at History of Missiology: ” Classic writings in the history of Protestant Mission thought.”

 

 

 

The Real Danger within Christianity

Neglecting the Greatest Gift

I want to continue the subject of the last post, which as you remember, was the concern voiced by internetmonk that an unhealthy emphasis on the Glory of God was having on “all things human”. I agreed with the spirit of that discussion, especially the confusion among Christians that is undermining our unity of calling and purpose in the world. And to me this is the real danger that indeed faces us today: the neglect of the great salvation/redemption which is the Biblical narrative.

I think the subject has everything to do with all that we have been finding as we have focused on the Apostle Paul and his unique contribution to that narrative, especially as he interprets what God really accomplished in the Christ Event, the cycle just celebrated with Advent, Passover, and Pentecost. We have seen in this “Year of Saint Paul” that nothing short of a new humanity in Christ, a humanity that would succeed where the old had “come short of the Glory of God” and could not please God in the flesh is the message of the Gospel of the grace of God.

Is that salvation only (exclusively) about a prepared place referred to as “heaven” beyond death, or is much more included involving “all things human” in this life, which directly relates to the life beyond? There is no doubt that the Biblical narrative is about the Glory of God as it is revealed progressively to the human race on planet earth in history. But that revelation is always in the context of that humanity and its history. God indeed wants to be known and worshipped as the only true God by his creation, especially humankind made in His own image and for that very purpose. And the meaning and quality of human life is in turn always related to the right relation to the True God- qualities like peace and harmony, blessing, or strife, conflict, and cursing.

So when we fail to keep these two essential parts of the whole narrative balanced, we are not only in serious danger of missing the purpose for which we were created but the purpose for which the Redeemer has fought and won the great battle for freeing us from our former bondage into “the glorious liberty of the Children of God”, as Paul says it. In fact this is the over-all vision that the Apostle lived with from the time that he was confronted on the Road to Damacus and later had as long as three years in the Syrian desert to think out.

“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many Sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (letter to the Hebrews 2:10)

God’s eternal plan involves the promise to make “all things new’; both a new earth and a new heaven. Thankfully there have always been those among us who have seen that the Glory of God is forever intertwined with His creation, humankind and the material creation. So internetmonk is raising a legitimate warning that we are not keeping the proper balance. Once again in this generation, as in those that have gone before, parts of the Body of Christ are speaking into this imbalance. Will we keep fighting oneanother from our own faith traditions precious heritage, or will we practice the UNITY of God’s New humanity in Christ and let every contribution be received which will result in the “Growing up into the fullness of the Body in Jesus Christ”? Will we finally grasp the full intent of God’s mighty once-for-all work of redemption when “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”?

I intend to mention three major ways that this “seeking a holistic salvation” took within Christianity in the 20th century, as we continue this discussion. To wet our appetites I will simply introduce a phrase that I think we can look at from the past- CHRISTIAN HUMANISM.

 

Are we in danger of being “Too God-focused”?

Stirring up the pot in the blog world

One of the blogs I occasionally check out to see what’s going on is internetmonk.com. On May 27th he posted about something he evidently had mentioned before. It really struck a nerve in his followers and he has had over 175 comments posted. Because I think the subject and the interest represents a very real wrestling going on with one particular theme with religious people today, I want to say something about it myself. (who knows, someone might actually post a comment or two)

“It still concerns me. Not whether all things are centered in, related to, dependent on, destined for and exist to glorify God, but whether some expressions of Christianity can become so God-focused that the significance of what is not God- including all things in human experience- are devalued and even distorted to the point of confusion in the minds of God loving/God believing people.” (emphasis added)

The crux of the discussion centers on this sincere concern that Michael has, a concern that finally led him to put it on  the net. By the way, he enjoys a pretty large audience and is said to be one of the most recognized bloggers in the “Christian” community. I think if I understand him at all, the main point of his concern is the phrase, “some expressions of Christianity“ that place such an emphasis on God-centerness (as in the Calvinistic resurgence within Southern Baptist churches and others), that ” all things in the human experience” are neglected or even distorted. Because I too recognize the reality of this danger-a danger that for that matter, has always existed in Christianity, I am very interested to know what your own first-reaction is.

First, I will place here one of the responses to give you some idea of just how some were able to dialogue from their own life-situation.

30 May 2009 at 6:09 pm grimtraveller
To Patrick Lynch at post 105 {or thereabouts}

“I’ve been thinking about your response and I have a couple of thoughts in reply. First off, while I understand the analogy with one’s lover {and scripture points to it sometimes}, it has certain limitations. Personally, I don’t think in those terms. I dig being with my wife but there’s never been a time when she was the only thing on my mind. When you’re part of one another’s world and being, for me such a thought just can’t be quantified. And so it is with our Lord. He wants to be our all in all. But what does that mean exactly ? I think good relationships ebb and flow. They bounce from weak to strong to intense to slow to fast to complacent to still to whatever else, you know ? Whatever my struggles, doubts, joys, frustrations, etc, I know he’s always with me. I really mean that.

“There’s this song that’s been kicking around church circles for yonks, called “Draw me close” and it has this chorus of “You’re all I want – You’re all I’ve ever needed”. I love the melody, the way the chords interact with the lyrics and the build up and all that……but I can’t stand the words because for me, it’s simply not true. I’ve been causing a bit of a ruckus over the last 12 or so years when I say things like “I don’t like the words of that song. I find them shallow or not steeped in real life” in relation to many of the big church hits. For the record, I do that with all songs ! Those lurve songs that declare “limitless undying love” or “I would climb mountains and swim across oceans for yooooooouuuuu!!!” are lyrically ridiculous to me, even though I might love the actual song. But going back to “Jesus, you’re all I want”…..for me that’s not true. Paul the apostle gave the impression that was how Christian life was meant to be lived, but then, we don’t really know what he thought of many things because in the letters of his that we do have that are part of the NT, feelings on art, politics, and a whole range of other things weren’t his brief.

“I might want lots of things. I wanted a wife, kids, friends, family, recording equipment, a job, albums, the list is endless. None of that is incompatible with being in Christ because he is number one. None of the things I want or like or have to do are the centre of my existence. I can make loads of decisions myself – that is not incompatible with being led by the Spirit. I can dig many things in the world and equally detest many things in the world. Hating horror movies or porn doesn’t mean that I’m God centered. Not subscribing to the standard Christian norms of daily bible study or one hour prayer or whatever doesn’t make a person a reprobate. It’s been hard, but I’ve learned over the years to cultivate a relationship with the Lord on the move and in the stillness and quietness and in the hubbub of company. I’ll talk with him anytime and anywhere about football, music, war, sex, his church, history, my kids, my wife, buses, the shower, politics, pain, things I understand, things I don’t, telly, friends, attitudes, work, riding a bike, you name it. Nothing is verboten. I’ll talk and try to listen as I drive, walk, watch TV, listen to music, joke with the kids, play the guitar, read, argue, work – you name it. Is that God centered ? Sometimes, we won’t chat extensively or with depth for days and days. That does not mean that he plays second fiddle or that “the world” has or is crowding him out. In fact, I think that when we have to think of life with the Lord in this way, maybe we’re the ones who really haven’t really grasped what it is to be led by him. There is one powerful NT example {among many} that stands out to me and that’s when Paul brought back to life the kid that fell out the window and died. In the record written, there is no mention of God. But that Paul simply went and confidently prayed for the guy says something. He often moved in the life of God within him. But this is the same guy who, when the disciples in Tyre urged him through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem, he ignored them and went. This indicates to me that being led by the Spirit is what the Lord truly desires for us because I doubt many of us would argue that Paul wasn’t God centered. But he was a bloke like half of us and human like all of us and didn’t get it always right. I also realize that for the rest of our days we’ll be learning, ebbing, flowing, but hopefully closer to and more led by our God. I don’t want “Heaven” to be the place where I tell him I love him and know I mean it. I want Kingsbury in London or wherever I am at the time {regardless of what I’m doing or how I feel} to be that place.”

 

Saint Paul Celebrates Pentecost at Jerusalem

” Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost.”                  – ACTS 20:16

Following a three month stay in Greece encouraging the disciples, Luke tells us that Paul set sail for Jerusalem: ” We sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.” (20:6) So Luke begins the narrative of Paul, as on a pre-determined schedule that he had carefully thought out, leaving Greece at Passover and heading for Jerusalem and the Day of Pentecost.

Why was he so determined to be in Jerusalem at Pentecost? Why was he deliberately heading in to the very heart of the camp from which his most violent opposition was coming from? We can never know for sure, but considering what is given us in Luke’s narrative together with what the Apostle tells us in his letters, we can make an educated but tentative suggestion.

One thing is fairly obvious to the honest reader of the New Testament documents and that is this: all the writers were in agreement that what had come to pass in the Christ Advent- his forerunner’s unusual birth and revival ministry (John the Baptist), his own miraculous virgin birth, his teaching, his miracles, his sin-lessness, the manner of his crucifixion and resurrection, everything together convinced the writers that all that was promised and anticipated by the Old Covenant Scriptures found their fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth. 

In our last post we saw how Paul’s concept of the Law had been radically altered by the revelation he received from Christ himself. He explains in detail in the Roman letter, that the Law could never make God’s People holy, and that is the crux of the matter. So instead of bringing the untold blessings of the promised Kingdom, the inheritance promised Father Abraham, it could only reveal the “coming short of the glory of God” of the human race; in place of blessing it brought condemnation and curse. At the close of the seventh chapter he crys out: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

The Law fulfills the purpose intended when it produces the same cry from the heart of those seeking to please God and leads them to look outside of themselves for a worthy redeemer. Paul had in essence already answered his own cry as he started this section of his letter (Chapters 5-8). I urge you to take time to read 5:5-10  before finishing this post. I’ll put the link on the verses so all you will have to do is click and read. Verse 5, however, is the one I want to zero in on: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the HOLY SPIRIT who was given to us.”

This I think, is why Paul was so determined to go to Jerusalem for the very Feast which the Jewish nation on one hand was celebrating with the giving of TORAH utmost on their minds, while the heart of the Gospel Paul risked his life to preach was that on the very day of the ancient celebration, after Christ had been exalted in heaven, he together with the Father now gave something even more precious than the Law; the very thing the Law could not do for the worshipper of the Holy God. Pentecost is the very time for Paul to declare once again that God has given the Life giving Spirit of Christ.

There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ (i.e.from chapter six-those who have been baptized into Christ death and resurrection), who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death”.

What Christ the redeemer, accomplished for God’s people and finished once and for all (see the message of the book of Hebrews), was poured out at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit Himself was given to the disciples. 

Undoubtedly Paul was hoping that the collection he had taken up from the Gentile churches for the Saints in Jerusalem would provide an opportunity to declare the faithfulness of God in keeping His word to the Fathers, and the promises made through the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others. As he sailed on toward Jerusalem I can almost sense that against all the warnings his friends uttered trying to persuade him not to go to what seemed like sudden death, he said : “None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God”.

This then is how Saint Paul celebrated The Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. How will you spend this date on the church calendar?

Compare the Biblical solution to the human predicament to one very popular version today: Oprah’s Version

The Celebration begins in Israel

The Gift of TORAH (Jerusalem May 2007)

There will be many Christians joining the People of Israel at the wailing wall celebration tonight. For a video of Shavuot 2007 at Jerusalem click the link above.

I found this message by Rabbi Max Fox at Jewish Times of South Jersey today: ” Shavuot is not only the shortest festival in duration, but is devoid of any symbols or mitzvot that must be fulfilled. Yet, Shavuot is not a minor holiday. This festival celebrates “Z’man Matan Toratenu”, the giving of Torah on Mt.Sinai.” He continues saying,

Shavuot celebrates the birthday of our Jewish Faith- a Faith that has given meaning and purpose to our existence. Unlike the other holidays, Shavuot celebrates the giving of Torah, and there is no symbol for Torah. There is only one way to celebrate this festival that commemorates that awesome moment in history when G-d revealed Himself and gave our People a most precious gift the Torah. And that is, by practicing and living in accordance with the precepts and moral teachings of  the Torah. . .the true celebration of Shavuot lasts more than a day or week. It should be observed 365 days a year and in a lifetime of practicing and living a life of Torah.

As the great Saadyah said, ‘ Our People are a nation only by virtue of the Torah’.

The rabbi trained by the great Gamaliel, Saul of Tarsus would have thoroughly agreed with these statements. In fact much of what he tells us in his writings almost two thousand years ago shows the same great respect and praise for Torah and its gift to the Jewish people. He asked a pointed question at one point: “What advantage then has the Jew?” And he answers immediately his own question by stating, ” Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of G-d”.

We said earlier that Saul was very zealous for the Law, making himself as a Pharisee, personally responsible as guardian for its purity exactly because he rightly understood what a precious gift it was and that it was indeed central to the very existence of the Jewish nation.

Because men like Rabbi Fox and Saul of Tarsus understood that the gift to Israel was in turn to bless the Gentile nations as well with what I believe to be the highest moral and ethical standard even known to Adam’s race, non-Jews should celebrate with Israel this holiday and indeed many will do so even in Jerusalem.

But of course Saul became known as Paul, the Christian Apostle to the Gentiles. And in the very letter to the Romans, quoted from above, he goes on to develop a precise thesis. And this is not only highly practical and precisely aimed at the way we live our lives seeking to be approved by G-d but also seeking to be the very best world-citizen we can be. For Paul also knew of a yet future Day taught in the Law and the Prophets, when humankind would be held responsible for their deeds in this life on earth. Here is only one example of his teaching: “The righteous judgment of G-d, who will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor,and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness- indignation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Made in the image of G-d Himself, and for the purpose of living in harmony with the Creator and bringing praise and honor to Him, it makes all the sense in the world that conformity to the Law of G-d would not only guide humankind to fulfill that role but would in turn produce untold bliss and delight fulfilling the good and perfect will of G-d.

Paul’s thesis and thus his life following and serving Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Anointed One of G-d made perfect sense to this zealous defender of the Law. It goes like this, “The commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death. . .the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. . .for sin, that it might appear to sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment  might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

Paul’s thesis is the Law, precious gift that it is, can never on this earth produce the godly living that is harmony with G-d and our fellow human beings and the problem is NOT with the Law, which as he says numerous times, is perfect, and holy. Its greatest worth is not only to give the world the highest moral and ethical standard but also to reveal to us our basic human predicament: the predicament of our very nature which because of rebellion, can NOT keep the Law.

Listen to what he says, as he sums up what I believe is the situation not only of the non-religious but also of religious Jews and Gentiles alike: “What I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; (remember the words today of Rabbi Fox) but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the Law that it is good. . .For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”  

So for Saul, now Paul, if we were ever to be delivered from this human predicament, G-d Himself would have to do it for us. He would have to send someone from “beyond” the race of Adam who Himself could obey the Law perfectly. And that is the other half of the Apostle’s thesis and basis of all his letters. To the Christian churches of Galatia, for example, he wrote in relation to the promises made to Father Abraham and his seed, “Is the Law then against the promises of G-d?” And emphatically replies, “certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the Law.”

“But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the Law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” 

So as a Christian, I celebrate with the Jewish People tonight, thanking G-d that the gift of Torah was indeed at a very special moment considered by some as the “birthday” of the Nation, given through Moses, the servant of G-d. And I express for all Christians our great debt to the Jewish People for preserving this priceless treasure for the rest of us. We celebrate tonight Chavuot but soon we will also celebrate the Christian Pentecost.

There remains then at least one post for me to explain why the Apostle Paul had absolutely no trouble seeing how the two celebrations are in fact one. One parting thought from Paul, also in the letter to the Galatians:

“When we were children, (we) were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of the time had come,  G-d sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons”.

 

 

 

 

Celebrate Shavuot with Saul,the Pharisee

The Festival of Weeks also known as Pentecost

For the Christian of the Twenty-first century, trying to get a handle on the major feast days of ancient Israel can be a difficult undertaking. But the Biblical Christian also recognizes just how important and necessary these festivals are to understanding the flow of the narrative. I’ve decided that in keeping with the “Year of Saint Paul” (which will come to an end June 30th), perhaps it would be helpful to see Shavuot through the eyes of the Apostle. First as a Pharisee before he became a follower of the Christ, and later, perhaps as long as twenty-four years,as he approached Jerusalem to observe Pentecost with the Jewish Church.

Originally Shavuot was an agricultural festival. The barley harvest that had ripened around Passover would have ended, but the wheat harvest would have just begun. When the Temple still stood, Jews celebrated the harvest by offering its first sheaves back to God. But  celebrating the harvest was only one layer of meaning for Shavuot. Over the years, it was endowed with another: the anniversary of the giving of Torah.

The Book of Exodus is read on Shavuot, including the chapter containing the Ten Commandments. The general theme of the day is our traditional love of learning…More commonly, Shavuot has become a time for Confirmation. (”What is a Jew”, p.227, by Rabbi Morris N.Kertzer, 1996 revised edition by Rabbi Lawrence A.Hoffman) 

This book has been a great help to me in understanding through the eyes of twentieth century Rabbis the beliefs, traditions,and practices of Judaism including the ancient Biblical roots. I have posted earlier that Saint Paul was a highly trained Jew himself, and specialized on the Torah and its interpretation. Since his earliest childhood, he knew that there were three times (festivals) all Jewish males were expected to be present in Jerusalem: Unleavened Bread and Passover, Shavuot, and the Feast of Tabernacles. At Shavuot, the focus for him was undoubtedly on the anniversary of the giving through Moses of the Law to Israel which constituted the covenant agreement between their God, the God who had recently redeemed them from Egypt (Passover). It was also all about the promises of God that begining with Father Abraham,He commited to give them a “promised land” if they would keep covenant with Him by obeying the Law, by “walking in the steps of the faith which Abraham had when he was yet ‘uncircumcised’.”

John Bright in his book, The History of Israel writes, ” They (the Festivals) ceased to be mere nature festivals and became occasions upon which the mighty acts of Yahweh toward Israel were celebrated. “  Saul’s conversion is sometimes dated as early as 34 a.d. which means he most certainly would have been at these great Feast days in the last year of Jesus life at Jerusalem and the first Pentecost just ten days after the Ascension. But as a non-Christian Jew he would be celebrating Shavuot as his foreFathers had done for centuries unaware that a dramatic and non-reversable change in the history of God’s redemptive acts with Israel was even then taking place. He was still a part of the “old” creation and the “old” covenant of which he would have a great deal to preach and teach about following his dramatic conversion.

Now, following over twenty years of taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles in obedience to the specific commission the risen and exalted Christ chose him for, he was on the voyage back to Jerusalem with the offering from the Gentile churches for the poor saints at Jerusalem. Undoubtedly he had plenty of time to relive those earlier years when he was convinced that this “sect” inside Judaism was a dangerous heresy and he had personally taken a major role in persecuting and trying to stomp it out. He was proving how zealous he was for the Law of God as he understood it and its importance at the heart of being faithful to the covenant that made Israel a distinct people in the midst of all the nations of the earth.

Yes, this was no ordinary Pentecost celebration he was headed for. But that will have to be in the next post. One other additional piece of the puzzel of God’s narrative. It is almost certain that when Luke wrote his second volume of early Christian history, the Book of Acts,he had these festivals utmost in his mind. I would even venture that one of the major factors in the organization of the Acts, is Pentecost. He begins with the events leading up to “when the Day of Pentecost had fully come“-his words, not mine; and then spends almost the final one-third of Acts around this last voyage to Jerusalem, the attempt there in the Temple on Paul’s life, his life-saving arrest by the Roman Centurion, his awaiting justice for more than two years, and finally his trip to Rome in chains to face Ceasar.

In the next post I will begin to connect some dots to the Saul of the Old Covenant and to the Christ event which all the shadows look to for their fulfillment, the fulfillment of God’s promises to His People and the establishing of the New Covenant. I hope you are seeing what I am seeing: we definitely cannot afford to neglect the Day of Pentecost!

Ralph Winter has died

Author of “The twenty-five Unbelievable Years 1945-1969” and many other contributions to the work of Christian missions has gone to be with his Lord. Here is the preliminary report I received only today:

“On May 20, 2009 at 9:05 p.m., Ralph D. Winter passed away in his home in Pasadena, CA.

“He went peacefully, surrounded by three of his four daughters, his wife Barb, and a few friends.

“Many of the staff of the U.S. Center for World Mission and William Carey International University had just finished two days of prayer and fasting when they received the news of his passing. Soon, many friends and staff members gathered at the house. It was a bittersweet moment as they reminisced, sang many of his favorite hymns, and prayed together.

“U.S. Center for World Mission general director Greg Parsons felt prompted to read 1 Corinthians 15. As Dr. Winter’s body was being taken away, Greg came to verses 54 and 55:

 “Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”

Read his obituary in today’s L.A.TIMES

Saint Paul and the New Earth

Have we really listened to what he said about the Age to Come?   

The Apostle Peter left no doubt about what he was hoping for when  he wrote a final message of encouragement near the end of his life: ” …We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter3).

But the Apostle who wrote the great “resurrection” chapter of the Bible is not quite so clear about the “new earth”. He gives us his vision in pieces in his various letters such as when he says of creation: “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8).

For Saint Paul, the new earth is the whole accomplishment of the redemptive work of God in Christ. He actually says very little about “heaven” as it is commonly understood by many Christians today.

“The passages where Paul’s thought climbs to its most stupendous heights and reaches a climax are those in which he speaks of Jesus as the origin and the goal of all creation. Believers have always found, in the words of Professor Strachan, that ‘it is impossible for a Christian who thinks at all to have Christ in his heart and to keep Him out of the universe’.

“The one whose own life has suddenly leapt into meaning beneath the touch of Jesus, who has seen his own experience transformed from a chaos into a cosmos by some never-to-be-forgotten Damascus encounter, has a right to claim that he has found the clue to the riddle of life and destiny.”

“The fact of Christ is the key to the meaning of the universe; and Christian experience will never consent to be robbed of the conviction that the Redeemer who has shown Himself of absolute and final worth in the experience of the individual soul must be ablsolute and final all along the line of God’s creation.” ( A Man in Christ:the Vital Elements of St.Paul’s Religion, 1935, by James S.Stewart)

These thoughts come in the middle of some of those passages scattered through Paul’s letters and it would be too cumbersome to include them all here. The point is Paul was not silent about the future state of life on earth in God’s plan of redemption and if we make the biblical narrative our guide book rather that tradition, folk religion, or anything else, we get a glimpse of what awaits us. For instance, the First Epistle to the Corinthian Church is full of such things, here is just one sample:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”

The Spirit of Paul and this post is captured on this video on YouTube, “Victory in Jesus“.