The Rest of the Old Old Story

This week’s through the Bible reading through Leviticus, which we will chew through in a week.

Mon: Ch. 1-6
Tues: Ch. 7-11
Wed: Ch. 12-16
Thur: Ch. 17-21
Fri: Ch. 22-27

Exciting goal in front of me this week! Keep Leviticus interesting! It’s one of the more complained-about books among new Bible readers. I’ll try to give hints to keep it simple and to dissect that collection of laws into something not only memorable, but worth remembering.

I’m only a day ahead right now. Tomorrow’s post is done, and I’ve moved from the "get sicker and sicker" phase of my treatment to the "get better and better phase."

That’s a way to say please pray for me. I love doing these things. It would be great to get ahead and have a couple days leeway … actually, preferably a week.

Please give me feedback! For any of you that are scared to give me negative feedback, know that I handle constructive criticism very well. I’m really not looking for, "You’re an arrogant jerk," or, "I completely disagree with everything you teach." If that’s the case, it’s more polite to just move on to someone you agree with. But, "Wasn’t that a little extreme?" or "Is it really okay to say that so confidently?" is input I’m looking for.

Your own idea that you might think is important would be great, too.

Today’s Bible Reading is Exodus 29-32.

Overall year’s plan is here.

This Week Is Readers Week!

We’ve covered a lot in these first four weeks through the Bible, and I’ve gotten great feedback and input from y’all. Now I need some space to rest. I believe a week will let me get caught up.

You have two (and many more) answers for yourselves:

• Ask questions in the comments about today’s reading.
Answer other people’s questions when you see them

And I will pitch into the discussions as I am able, though I am going to be working on the following week’s blogs already.

Don’t give up on the Bible reading! That is the point, to make the Scriptures comfortable to understand (though once you understand they provide their own discomfort), so that you become practiced at loving all the Words of God, digging deeper into them, and obeying them.

So "pay it forward"; share your thoughts with one another.

I was asked about early Christian meetings in an email, and I thought that more of you would be interested in what the meetings of the early church were like.

Here’s where to find more on the early church meetings. The passages from Justin and Tertullian are given in full at the bottom of this post.

The earliest description of an early Christian meeting (or church service) is in Justin’s First Apology, ch. 67.

Tertullian describes an Agape (a love feast) and he calls it by that name (Agape). That’s in his Apology, ch. 39. Justin’s is from c. A.D. 150, and Tertullian’s is from c. A.D. 210.

If you ever have to look anything like these up yourself, you can find these and most other pre-Nicene writings at http://www.ccel.org/fathers.

There’s more liturgical descriptions of worship and church practices in Hippolytus’ Apostolic Tradition (difficult to find and may need to be purchased) and the Apostolic Constitutions. Hippolytus wrote in the early third century, and the Apostolic Constitutions is a composite document, some of which is from the late third century, and the rest later.

That’s about it, which I suppose should stand out to us. The early churches did not emphasize the weekly meeting, though they surely considered it important. Their writings emphasize daily life, their commitment and care for one another, their honesty, their bravery in the face of adversity, etc. When they speak of theology, they emphasize that there is one God, that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and that he is a Lord and Teacher worth following. The weekly meeting is not their emphasis at all. They are not looking for ways to improve it, and they don’t spend much time even discussing it. It’s primarily an opportunity to hear the Scriptures with some explanation, for none of them would have owned Bibles, and to eat the fellowship meal together.

Justin’s c. A.D. 150 Description of an Early Church Meeting

nd on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

Tertullian’s c. A.D. 210 Description of a Love Feast

Our feast explains itself by its name. The Greeks call it agape?, i.e., affection. Whatever it costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit the needy; not as it is with you, do parasites aspire to the glory of satisfying their licentious propensities, selling themselves for a belly-feast to all disgraceful treatment,—but as it is with God himself, a peculiar respect is shown to the lowly. If the object of our feast be good, in the light of that consider its further regulations. As it is an act of religious service, it permits no vileness or immodesty. The participants, before reclining, taste first of prayer to God. As much is eaten as satisfies the cravings of hunger; as much is drunk as befits the chaste. They say it is enough, as those who remember that even during the night they have to worship God; they talk as those who know that the Lord is one of their auditors. After manual ablution, and the bringing in of lights, each is asked to stand forth and sing, as he can, a hymn to God, either one from the holy Scriptures or one of his own composing,—a proof of the measure of our drinking. As the feast commenced with prayer, so with prayer it is closed. We go from it, not like troops of mischief-doers, nor bands of vagabonds, nor to break out into licentious acts, but to have as much care of our modesty and chastity as if we had been at a school of virtue rather than a banquet.

I can’t take any credit for this idea. I got a text from a brother today saying:

I was reading in Acts this morning, and in 2:38 Peter tells them to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Remission has a whole new meaning since following your experience with leukemia.

By this, he means that my leukemia is in remission. We don’t know whether it might return, but right now I have no symptoms or effects of leukemia.

Initially, I assumed that this use of "remission" is a great spiritual lesson but that it would have no grammatical validity.

My mistake:

From my Online Bible program, which attributes this definition to Thayer’s Lexicon (I incorrectly attributed this to Strong’s earlier):

1. To release from bondage or imprisonment.
2. forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty

Okay, I’m going to ignore the temptation to complain about the ridiculous, redundant parentheses in that second definition and stick to my subject matter here. Notice that the first definition of the Greek word aphesis is the release from bondage or imprisonment, not forgiveness.

Now, I’m not denying that Acts 2:38 is talking about forgiveness. Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. It’s just that it’s not only forgiveness as we are prone to think about forgiveness.

When I became sick with leukemia, I had symptoms. I had ugly lesions on my back; I was short of breath; I couldn’t play sports; I worked slowly and tired quickly.

When my leukemia went into remission, I was able to spend 3 weeks building up stamina so that I could jog, exercise, play sports, work without tiring, and sleep normally. Each day of exercise paid off in additional energy for the next day, the exact opposite of what I experienced under the power of blood cancer.

From experience I can tell you that remission from leukemia is truly a "release from bondage."

I’ll try to keep this short. You can make your own analogies, and you’ll get more from those analogies creating them yourself than if I do it for you. I’ll probably spend all day thinking about this.

The deliverance that Jesus Christ wrought in our lives (for it is Jesus Christ and not baptism that does the work) is truly a remission, in just the same sense that my deliverance from leukemia is a remission. Everything changes. Sin doesn’t have power over us anymore (Rom. 6:14). Where we used to be in bondage to our own desires, unable to overcome them and choose to do the will of God, now we are empowered by the Spirit to actually walk in the will of God that is revealed to us through the Spirit.

Even the exercise analogy applies. Now that the leukemia is in remission, I can exercise and get stronger. Before you were a Christian, your attempts to live in the righteousness of God would just exhaust you. The commands of Jesus Christ were overwhelming; they could not be done except by the rare few, like Mother Theresa or Gandhi.

No longer. Once we made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:3-4), our obedience to the commands of Christ builds strength. We grow stronger in the Spirit, not exhausted from overwhelming service.

You’re in remission from sin! Get up and run!

If you’re not, you can be. Find someone where you are who is in remission from sin, and ask them how you can come to Christ for his healing.

I haven’t had much time to write lately. This is only the 2nd post in about 4 weeks.

I’m in the process of moving to California—temporarily—to preach the Gospel and to help a couple families learn to live it despite the temptations of living in modern America. (The ultimate temptation? "All my needs are met; who cares about anyone else?")

It got busy trying to make things were going to be okay while I was gone and getting myself ready to have an office on the road. (I’m very impressed with GoToMyPC.com, by the way—and that’s not an ad; I’m not an affiliate, and I get no commission if you sign up.)

But it’s not the light difficulties that come up in life that I thought might interest you.

It’s this …

Wandering Through Colorado

As we made our way across the US in an RV towing a van packed with stuff while our dear friends David and Ari drove our Suburban with a trailer attached, I kept remembering the words of a couple children, now grown into impressive young adults, saying, "Traveling with you was a lot of fun, papa Shammah."

So, in the spirit of fun and adventure for the kids we brought along, I—and my brave as well as beautiful wife—opted for a windy, mountainous, and hopefully scenic drive on I-70 over the Rockies, rather than a tamer and less scenic trip on I-80.

We woke up Monday morning to reports that a snow storm was rushing over our route. We almost changed our minds, but weather reports indicated the I-80 descent into Salt Lake City might be treacherous as well. So …

I rushed everyone, and we headed out the door hoping to get to the Vail pass before the snow did.

Nope.

We didn’t get anywhere before the snow did. It hit us 20 miles into the trip, which was over a half hour into the trip because the RV couldn’t climb the hill any faster than 30 or 35 mph. (And I was still passing trucks doing that!)

Is This a Good Idea?

As the snow increased, we began wondering if this was a good idea.

We had two issues. One, David was slipping and sliding in our Suburban, and even had to pull over at one point because he couldn’t keep going …

That’s David standing next to the Suburban in the background of that picture.

Two, there was the issue of chain laws.

For those that haven’t heard of chain laws, it sounds pretty sinister. But what it means is that at certain times in the snow in the mountains, Colorado requires either snow tires or snow chains on all vehicles—beginning with commercial vehicles and moving on to everyone if conditions warrant it—and you can be ticketed for not complying.

We didn’t have chains or snow tires.

Worse, we were in the mountains. The towns are spread out in the Rockies, 20 and 30 miles apart or more, and as we were driving 15 MPH in the snow now, that meant the towns were spaced one or two hours apart.

Where we were going to get chains?

Tackling the Problem

A snowplow resolved our first problem. It came along a couple minutes after David had to pull over and cleared enough snow for David to press on.

By the way, his neophyte snow driving was astounding. He kept a cool head, never panicked, and never stomped on the brake or accelerator. Very, very impressive.

We also took a shot at helping our spirits by getting at least a little joy out of the snow …

The second problem scared us a bit. The conditions got worse and worse, and we were hearing on 511—the number to local state’s department of transportation—that there were road closures ahead of us.

I kept wondering, "So, if they pull us over for no chains, what will they do with us? Will they ask us to park on the side of the road and slowly freeze and starve to death until winter’s over in March, April, or May?"

We decided to press on to exit 205, which was Silverthorne, Colorado, and get chains there. We really weren’t certain the Suburban would make it that far, though the RV was handling just fine … at 15 MPH.

As it turned out, we simply drove for an hour and reached Silverthorne. The only incident, though that incident was heart-stopping to David, Ariel, and their 4 kids, was the Suburban and trailer beginning to jackknife on one of the downhills.

Hillbillies in the Rockies

It’s a crime that we took no pictures in Silverthorne, though our excuse that there were other things on our mind is valid.

The temperature in Silverthorne was 15, and the wind chill was 3.

The snow had just fallen, and so the roads weren’t cleared. Neither were the parking lots. Just as badly, snowplows were clearing the parking lots while we were in them, leaving huge mounds of snow that created an obstacle course for the RV.

We had to buy a first class set of chains for the Suburban, costing us about $40 extra, because the auto parts store was out of the normal kind. They did, however, have one very large set for the RV, so we were set.

The pictures I wish I had are pictures of me in tennis shoes, trekking through calf-deep snow, carrying heavy tire chains at 9,000 feet elevation and of the kids running into Target in sweaters and light jackets, then emerging in winter coats.

Chains on Tires?

Have you ever put snow chains on tires?

Yeah, neither have I.

Somehow, David and I managed to read the directions, melt snow onto our knees and hips and we knelt and lay in the Big Bass parking lot, freeze our fingers in wet cloth gloves or no gloves at all, and get the chains on.

The other picture I wish I had was a local who got out of his pickup truck in a t-shirt, stood there with a smile and without shivering, and warned us that we needed to secure the extra little length of chain that hung down after we tightened them on the tires.

If you don’t know what I mean by that extra, little length of chain, then enjoy your ignorance and pray that you never have to find out.

We couldn’t get it quite secured on the Suburban. We pulled over once on the freeway, then exited at 203, just 2 miles from Silverthorne, to buy clips at some grocery store.

Those worked.

Of course, by the time we left that exit, it was something like 2 pm. We had left at 8 in the morning. We had traveled around 70 miles in 6 hours.

Not fast going.

Was It Worth It?

When we got past Vail, Colorado, we were able to take off the chains. The sun came out, and we were treated to some of the best scenery in the world … mile after mile, turn after turn, all afternoon.

Cresting Vail Pass at 10,662 feet

It was worth it.

Admittedly, pictures don’t come close to doing the job, and they’re all the less sufficient when sized down for a blog.

You can look at some better ones on my Picasa Web Album, but even those are only a small glimpse. I’ll try to keep expanding those albums over the next couple days, though we’re still getting set up in California at the moment.

Here’s some blog-sized ones, though …

Driving with chains on

More while the chains were on

I was really having a hard time getting anything out of day 2 of creation. Maybe Answers in Genesis can deal with the science of having water above the firmament which holds the sun, moon, and stars, but I can’t. How do you have water above the stars?

And I don’t think Genesis one is about science. What does God care about whether we understand science? We didn’t know about galaxies being millions and billions of light years away until the last few decades. Surely that isn’t important.

God cares about transforming us into his image, making us sons and daughters. So what do the waters above the firmament and the waters below the firmament have to do with that?

As I looked at it this morning, that was a mystery to me. So I waited, hoping God would give me something.

I think he did. Here’s my best shot. That’s what teachers do on subjects like this. They ask God and give it their best shot. Teachers need to get the important traditions of the Church right; those are the basic teachings of Scripture. Then, afterwards, if teaching is really their gift from God, then God will give them some insight into deeper things for one purpose: the building up of the saints.

It’s good for us to be excited about God and excited about the Scriptures. Teachings like these help that happen.

One Day Wasn’t So Good

What God showed me (I hope it was God) is that day 2 is the only day where nothing is said to be good.

Is that interesting, or what?

Now the typology is simple. Water can represent people, and it can represent purity and washing. In this case, I think it represents both. God separated heavenly wisdom and heavenly beings from earthly wisdom and earthly beings.

And this wasn’t good.

It wasn’t good, but it was necessary.

What encouraged me this morning was the tremendous full feeling I got as I saw that God had everything under control from the beginning. He had a plan, and nothing on earth was a surprise to him.

Now, I already knew that, of course. All of us Christians know that. But it was really driven home for me in this passage, and I hope I can pass that feeling on.

God knew there would be a rift between him and the earth. Right at the beginning he separated the waters above from the waters below. He knew there would be problems on earth, so he preserved heavenly beings and heavenly wisdom by pulling them far away from us … beyond the sun, moon, and stars, in fact.

That was not good. It was just necessary.

Heavenly Wisdom, Heavenly Things, and Heavenly Places

Those things were preserved. Seemingly, they are far away, but God doesn’t deal in distances. Science is discovering that space and time are not necessarily what they seem. They can be bridged in ways we don’t yet understand.

God understands, though. He’s beyond space and time, and heaven is not a planet in some solar system. Its distance cannot be measured in light years. It is further than the stars, but it is also near at hand.

(Okay, my explanation is just my guess. But the idea, the idea that heaven is not a matter of space and time and is not a planet–I think that’s a given; we Christians know it to be true.)

Here we are now. Earth has already fallen. All of creation is groaning, waiting for the deliverance that will one day come with the glorious revelation of the sons of God.

While we wait, there are things that did not fall. They are preserved. There is a heavenly wisdom. There are “things above,” where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of the Father. Those things are accessible to us who have been born again.

This is just one more evidence that “you must be born again.” You will not be able to access the pure waters that come from above by good works. You will not pull things down from heaven by your own righteousness.

There is a righteousness that comes from God, and if we will walk in that righteousness, much comes with it. The things that come with it are from above, from the Father of Lights, which home there is no shadow of changing.

The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, and willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. (James 3:17)

Before we go to day 3, I need to do a short, interim post on righteousness being a gift to the upright in heart and the difference between righteousness and uprightness in heart. Maybe I’ll make a web page and link it from here. I can’t do that right now, though. I have to go grade a friend’s son’s math exercise so he can pass his next test …

For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all. – James 2:10

I am going to write two blogs today. The first will be about what this verse does not mean, and the second about what it does mean.

Do We Have To Be Perfect?

James 2:10 is used in all evangelism programs to teach that we will go to hell if we are not perfect. Is this true?

I believe there is nothing true about it. As I said, we’ll talk in the next blog about what this verse means, but I want to argue strenuously that it does not mean that God will burn people in torment forever for the slightest sin.

God the Just Judge

The Scriptures say repeatedly that God is just. It also says that we are made in his image. Does anyone really think it’s just to torture people for eternity because they lost their temper once? Or told a lie once? Or were vain once?

Of course we don’t. In America today, we don’t believe it’s right to torture people for an hour even if they are planning the murder of thousands of people in a terrorist act. How can we also believe that it’s okay for God to torture people for eternity because they gave in to some small temptation once?

The context of James 2:10 is showing preference to a rich person over a poor person (vv. 1-9). That sin deserves eternal torment in the same way that Hitler’s sins do???

There’s something wrong with the person who thinks that is just.

That servant who knew his lord’s will and did not prepare himself nor do his will shall be beaten with many stripes. But the one that did not know, yet did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few, for to whom much is given, much will be required. - Luke 12:48

Look some time at Romans 3. There it tells us, as all evangelicals know and as is emphasized in every evangelism program, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But what is that sin?

Look at Romans 3. It is not some small, one-time transgression. There it tells us that our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, that our feet are swift to shed blood, and that destruction and misery are in our ways.

That is how we sin and fall short of the glory of God, not by stumbling in some small way.

 Our God of Mercy

The LORD … proclaimed, “The LORD … merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but he will by no means clear the guilty. - Ex. 34:6-7

God said this about himself before Jesus died. He also said, “As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness” (Ezek. 33:12). Actually, he makes statements like that throughout the book of Ezekiel.

God has always been willing to give life to those who repent. He did not require the death of his Son, the sinner, or anyone else in order to forgive sin. He has always forgiven sin if people would just repent.

An example of this was Cain. Cain’s sacrifice of grain was rejected by God. Contrary to modern  myth, it was not because Cain’s offering was a grain offering. It was because Cain was wicked (1 Jn. 3:12; Gen. 4:7).

God tells Cain, despite his already being rejected for sin, that if he does good, he will be accepted (Gen. 4:7).

And King David tells us quite plainly that God doesn’t need sacrifice to forgive sin. In  fact, he doesn’t even want them for that purpose!

You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would offer it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. - Ps. 51:16-17

Jeremiah adds:

I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.” - Jer. 7:22-23

God doesn’t need death to be merciful. That is a myth invented by Anselm–God bless his soul, as he was just trying to be a good theologian–in the 11th century.

Jesus Didn’t Die for God

Somehow, evangelicals have developed a theology that Jesus’ death changed God.

God doesn’t change because he doesn’t need to change. He has always been perfectly just, perfectly merciful, and perfect in every other way. God did not need Jesus to die for him.

We needed to change. We needed Jesus to die for us.

Jesus died so that we could repent and live a life of holiness.

For what the Law could not do, God did. By sending his Son … he condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk by the flesh but by the Spirit. - Rom. 8:3-4

For to this end Christ both died and rose and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead. – Rom. 14:9

He died for all so that those who live would live no longer for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again. – 2 Cor. 5:15

Our Savior Jesus Christ … gave himself for us to purify for himself a special people, zealous for good works. – Tit. 2:14

The Scriptures also say specifically that if we could have been righteous on our own, then there would have been no need for Jesus to die. He would not have had to pay for the sins that are past because if people had become righteous, then all their sins would have been forgotten (Ezek. 18:21-22).

Is the Law against the promises of God? God forbid. If there had been a Law that could have produced life, surely righteousness would have come by the Law. - Gal. 3:21

However, the Law could not produce righteousness because of the sin in our flesh. Therefore, “What the Law could not do, God did.” Christ had to die to break the power of sin over us.

Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under Law but under grace. - Rom. 6:14

The Judgment

Jesus did not have to die to change the judgment either.  The judgment was already just, and it was already abounding in mercy.

Nor did the judgment change. The New Testament says repeatedly that the judgment is still according to works. The judgment is not according to faith, it is according to works!  (Matt. 25:31-46; John 5:27ff; Rom. 2:6-8; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 20:11-15)

(I’m sure there’s many other verses. Those are just off the top of my head.)

There are no exceptions. The judgment is said to be according to works 100% of the time in the New Testament.

And don’t think that it’s just for rewards. Rom. 2:6-8 states clearly that the issue is eternal life.

If you want to argue that Rom. 2:6-8 only applies to non-Christians—which is foolish, but understandable because deception abounds today—then you need to read Gal. 6:7-9, which doesn’t mention the judgment but clearly states that eternal life hinges on walking by the Spirit and not growing weary in doing good.

The Fear of God

I know this may make you afraid. It makes me afraid.

Good, we are commanded to fear the judgment! (2 Cor. 5:10-11; 1 Pet. 1:17; and by inference 2 Pet. 1:5-11)

I’m sorry. It would be nice to have a free ticket. It would be nice to have no requirement to “be diligent to make our calling and election sure.”

It would be nice, but it ain’t so.

It’s worse for me. Here I am teaching these things, and James says that people like me will receive a stricter judgment (Jam. 3:1).

Wow.

Fortunately …

God Is Still a God of Mercy

Jesus didn’t have to die for God because God was already merciful. He’s still merciful.

We can’t live the like the world and expect to go to heaven (Matt. 7:21; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5-8). We can’t claim to know God if we don’t keep his commandments (1 Jn. 2:3-4).

But God has made a way for us. Jesus did die for us! Grace does abound to us!

We have a resource for living a holy life: the Spirit of God.

For those that walk by the Spirit of God, there are wonderful, incredible promises of mercy. As we walk in the light with Jesus Christ, “his blood cleanses us from every sin” (1 Jn. 1:7).

If we stumble and fall, we do not have an enemy in God or in his Son. If we sin, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One” (1 Jn. 2:1). If we confess our sin, “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).

Notice that he will not only forgive our sin, but he will also “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He will restore us to grace, and under grace “sin will not have dominion” over us (Rom. 6:14).

Summation

It is a glorious thing that God has done. He has taken those who were slaves to sin and condemned to judgment, and he has made them sons of God who can overthrow the flesh by the power of the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:13).

Let us never lessen this Gospel. Let us never reduce it to some legal transaction that strips the Gospel of its power to transform the sons of darkness into the children of light.

As for those who do reduce that Gospel, their condemnation is just.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation … For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. - Rom. 1:16-17

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog on the ten commandments. There I argued that the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) split “You shall not covet” into two commands in order to draw attention away from the command they omit, which is “You shall not make any graven image.”

My son came to me last week to tell me that he looked in a Catholic Bible and the ten commandments there are the same as in a Protestant Bible.

This is true. The problem with the ten commandments by Roman Catholic (RCC) standards is not in their Bible translation. They have left the Bible unchanged. The problem is in the list they publish and teach to their followers.

Here is the description of the difference between the RCC ten commandments and the list made by Protestants according to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

The system of numeration found in Catholic Bibles, based on the Hebrew text, was made by St. Augustine … and was adopted by the Council of Trent. It is followed also by the German Lutherans … This arrangement makes the first commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject and a single class of sins to be guarded against. (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04153a.htm)

In other words, they are claiming that the reason that they make “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make any graven images” into one command is because this is all one class of sin: false worship.

The reason they give for dividing “You shall not covet” into two commands is:

It seems, however, as logical to separate at the end as at the beginning, for while one single object is aimed at under worship, two specifically different sins are forbidden under covetousness; if adultery and theft belong to two distinct species of moral wrong, the same must be said of the desire to commit these evils. (ibid.)

The problem, as I pointed out, is the Biblical text.  The ten commandments are the ten commandments. The proper way to divide them into ten commands is the way God divided them through Moses. We cannot simply make up our own divisions.

Here is how Moses gave the last commandment to Israel:

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. (Ex. 20:17)

Perhaps you will notice that the command not to covet your neighbor’s wife, which the RCC claims is a separate commandment, is in the middle of all the other things we are not to covet. The RCC makes the 9th commandment to be “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.”

As you can see, the problem is that my neighbor’s goods are listed  both before and after my neighbor’s wife. It’s not very hard to figure out that Moses, and thus God through Moses, was not counting the command not to covet your neighbor’s goods and the command not to covet your neighbor’s wife as two separate commands. No theology degree is needed to see that this is completely illogical, no matter how logical the Catholic encyclopedia claims it to be.

In fact, it requires an advanced theological degree to become blind to something so obvious.

Roman Catholic Justification for Their Ten Commandments

The RCC argument for combining “You shall not have any gods before me” and “You shall not make any graven images” is not bad. They state:

This arrangement makes the First Commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject. (ibid.)

That’s fine. The Jewish list of ten commandments does the same. They make the first command–which, strangely enough, is not a command at all–to be “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” They then combine the command to have no false gods and not to make any graven images into one command.

That’s strange, but at least it doesn’t require pulling a tenth commandment right out if the middle of the ninth.

Also, the Jews are opposed to making graven images and bowing down to them.

The Roman Catholics, however, are not. The Catholic Encyclopedia says this about the making of graven images:

… the prohibition [is] directed against the particular offense of idolatry alone. (ibid.)

Okay, let’s talk about that. What exactly is idolatry? Is it not God who gets to define this as well?

God says, “You shall not make for yourself any graven image … You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them” (Ex. 20:4-5).

Do Roman Catholics not bow down to graven images? I know that as a 6th grade student at a Catholic elementary school I was made to bow down and kiss the feet of a statue of Mary. Everyone knows that Catholics bow down in front of statues of saints and pray to those saints all over the world. It happens every day at Lourdes in France.

Do they really expect us to believe that it is just an accident of interpretation that their list of commandments says nothing about not making or bowing down to graven images?

Exodus 20 vs. Deuteronomy 5

I need to point out that while Exodus 20 says not to covet your neighbor’s house, then your neighbor’s wife, and then his other goods, Deuteronomy 5 lists the coveting of your neighbor’s wife first. Thus, if you wish to divide “You shall not covet” into two commands, Deuteronomy 5 does allow you to do so without destroying the text.

Um … does this matter?

The RCC claims to base their numbering of the ten commandments on a list given by Augustine in his work Questions on Exodus. I can’t seem to find a copy of that online, and The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers doesn’t contain it. However, I read enough references to it online to be confident they’re telling the truth.

Those references point out that Augustine was using Deuteronomy 5 to make his list, which is a very strange thing to do in a book entitled Questions on Exodus.

Oh, well. This blog is not about Augustine, who lived before the catholic churches were “Roman Catholic,” though he did not live before images of saints were being made and adored by almost-but-not-quite converted pagans.

(The pagan emperor Julian the Apostate, who reigned over three decades before Augustine was bishop, said that the saint worship of the Christians of his day was greater than the hero worship of the pagans before them. Even he scoffed at it and called it idolatry.)

Despite all this, it has been over 1600 years since Augustine wrote his book. No one considered during that time that his list doesn’t make sense if you read Exodus?

Someone needs to state the obvious. The making of statues fosters idolatry in general. In particular, the making of statues of saints not only can foster idolatry, but it already has created rampant idolatry throughout both the modern and historical Roman Catholic Church.

In fact, according to Exodus, bowing down to a statue is already idolatry.

Throughout the reign of the Pope as a civil authority (a time known as “the Dark Ages”) and until the 1960′s, the RCC discouraged the reading of the Bible. As long as this was so, they could simply publish a list that never mentions a prohibition against making and bowing down to graven images.

Over the last 40 years, however, the RCC has conceded and encouraged the reading of the Scriptures. Some of those RCC members need to petition their leaders to correct their dishonest rendering of the ten commandments.

Until it’s corrected, no matter what is written in the Catholic encyclopedia, their ten commandments are a loud testimony that the RCC has not only practiced idolatry, but allowed and promoted it.

Good Search

GoodSearch is a Yahoo-powered search engine that donates 50% of its proceeds to charity. Better yet, it lets you choose the charity.

Their 50% works out to approximately 1 penny per search conducted on their page. Think of it! You can contribute to the kingdom of God without spending a dime. Just do what you’ve always done, but do it at GoodSearch.

Rose Creek Village Ministries

Rose Creek Village Ministries is devoted to speaking about, demonstrating, and spreading the life of God. As I write this, we have three people in Nakuru helping establish a church walking in the unity Christ prayed for, bound together by the Spirit of God.

Our missionaries stand out overseas. Unlike most preachers, they have not shown up simply to teach. They have shown up to fellowship.

The church we are starting there is based in a slum area of Nakuru, Kenya. The destitute families there are constantly astonished to find “Muzungus” (white people) coming into their houses to visit. They are thrilled, and they go out of their way to show all the hospitality they can.

Here in America and overseas, we want to bring far more than church services. We want to bring the life of God and teach the followers of Christ to live that life together, taking care of one another. Like the churches the apostles started, we teach the followers of Christ to share everything with one another, taking care of one another like we are more than family to one another–which we are. We are one Spirit in Christ.

Combining the Two

Rose Creek Village Ministries is listed with GoodSearch.

RCV Ministries doesn’t waste money. We have no paid employees, so no one profits from the ministry. What we have extra goes to orphans in India and Myanmar through Voice of Gospel’s Mercy Homes and through Orphan’s Tear.

I’m asking you to consider doing your searches with GoodSearch, and don’t forget GoodShop as well! No extra cost, you simply get to the places you’ve always shopped using GoodShop as your portal.

Thank you!

In 2 Cor. 11:3, the apostle Paul says that he doesn’t want our minds to be “destroyed” from the simplicity of Christ.

You have to be careful about making too much of Greek definitions, but in 2 Cor. 11:3, I think the Greek is important.

“Simplicity” is haplotes, which primarily means “single.” In fact, even Wikipedia, in its entry on haplotypes or haploid genotypes, mentions that the word means “onefold, single, simple.”

We are to be one-minded for Christ.

What Is the Simplicity of Christ?

So what’s the point?

There’s a verse that I believe illustrates the concept well:

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3)

We may have lots of ideas about how to grow in Christ, but there’s only one.  We grow by the Spirit. We walk by the Spirit. Our mind is to be set on one thing–the Spirit of Christ.

What about keeping the Sabbath? Nope. Circumcision? Nope. How about self-control? Prayer? Bible study?

Nope.

Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Everything that is good is a fruit of the Spirit. You’ll notice that the passage about the fruit of the Spirit ends with “against these kind of things there is no law” (Gal. 5:23, my paraphrase). That list of the fruit of the Spirit is not exhaustive.

What’s the Practical Application of the Simplicity of Christ

The practical application is that you can’t do this on your own. You can’t follow Christ on your own.

You don’t know what to do. You can’t study enough to know how to behave in this life.

You can only walk in the Spirit.

This is the singleness of Christ, and it works.

If you walk by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. If you walk by the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal 5:16-18.

What About All That Important Stuff You Talk About on This Blog?

I like to talk about unity on this blog. Jesus definitely said it was important (Jn. 17:20-23).

I like to talk about the fact that we need each other to grow. In fact, I’m prone to saying Jesus and the Bible aren’t enough. The Bible says we grow as each of us does our part and as we speak the truth in love to one another (Eph. 4:11-16). On the negative side, it says we’re in danger of deception and hardening of the heart if we don’t exhort one another (Heb. 3:13).

How does all that relate?

Our unity is a unity of the Spirit. We are simply to maintain it (Eph. 4:3).

If you walk by the Spirit, you will do all those things, because all those things are a product of love, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).

All those other things are descriptions of what should be happening if you’re walking by the Spirit. If you want to do those things, you should walk by the Spirit, obtaining Christ’s guidance and Christ’s grace by doing so.

Ours Is NOT a Religion of Rules and Principles

Our religion is a spiritual one. It is powerful because it is spiritual.

The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and love is the fulfillment of the Law.

Yes, true religion is to take care of the widows and the orphans. But which ones?

I like to think of a “doorstep ministry.” Whom has Christ put on your doorstep? If you are walking by the Spirit, and the love of God is filling your heart, then compassion will fill your heart–as it did Christ’s–and you will meet the need of those on your doorstep.

Look at the judgment of Christ in Matt. 25:31-46. Jesus tells the goats in that prophecy that he was hungry and they didn’t feed him. They knew he was hungry, and they didn’t meet his need.

In James 2:15-16, James tells us that we can’t just hope and pray for the needs of our brothers and sisters. We have to meet them. Which ones? The ones you can talk to. The ones on your doorstep. 1 Jn. 3:17 says that we don’t have the love of God if we close off our feelings of mercy. To whom is it addressed? To those who “see their brother in need.”

Our doorstep has gotten a lot bigger. Compassion International–and favorites of ours, Heaven’s Family and Voice of Gospel–put overseas needs right on our doorstep.

Ministries like that tug at our heart. Don’t “shut up” those feelings of mercy.

You don’t have to live your life thinking about how you’re going to minister to the whole world. In fact, that can be a distraction.

Walk by the Spirit, and you won’t need a law. You will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. You will have the love of God in your heart, and you will show compassion when those needs fall on your doorstep.

And if God knows you’re there, a child of his because you are led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14), he’ll drop those needs on your doorstep. God knows where to go for help, and he is well able to send people to you for help.

Your job is to walk by the Spirit and in this way make sure there’s a godly heart of compassion waiting for those in need.

The Simplicity of Christ

This is the simplicity, or single-mindedness, of Christ.

You don’t have time to figure out how to save the world. In fact, it’s not very smart to do so. God’s already figured it out.

He just needs tools.

Walk by the Spirit, and you’ll be one of those tools.

“Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by your (supposedly righteous) self?

Sorry, I took some liberties with the translation there. I think, though, that’s exactly what he meant.