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Fri, 24 May 2013 16:50:57 -0400

Israel Unbound: Historical Look at this Biblical Symbol [Pt. I]

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 08:00:33 -0500

Martin Jaffee proposes in his book Early Judaism that Judaism exists symbolically on a trifold vertical axis of God, Torah, and Israel (Jaffee 94), thus depicting a divine descent. I propose that the symbols of this same axis, when viewing it from a different angle, encompass one another in a concentric fashion, like the waves of a stone dropped in water. God lies at the heart. The Torah, then, ripples out from God as the divine manifestation of God in the written (or spoken) word; and Israel ripples out from the Torah as the living embodiment of that sacred word on Earth. Israel grounds the vertical axis to the horizontal axis, and it grounds the spiritual world to the corporeal world. In the same way, the Jews consider themselves to be a holy nation set apart in the world, a conjunction of the spiritual and the corporeal. An understanding of what Israel is lies at the heart of the Jewish identity, but what “Israel” actually is comes to mean different things as the history of Early Judaism unfolds. More importantly, how do Jews come to perceive Israel, and by extension themselves, as the tides of history change? Within the historical bounds of the period of Exile, the Hellenistic period, the Roman period, and the Rabbinic period distinctly different conceptions of Israel develop.

Why is any of this important? For several reasons.

Jewish Identity :: Christian Identity

As I mentioned in a previous post, Jewish identity is integral to the heritage of Christian identity. As Christians we know that our Bible (yes, both Old and New Testaments), our disciples, our apostles, our Jesus- they’re all Jewish! That said, short of the pure and divine revelation of God, it’s going to be pretty impossible to interpret anything written in the scriptures properly without a better understanding of Judaism.

What is Judaism?

By looking at a single, but crucial piece, we can get a better understanding of the (complicated) whole. What is Judaism? Why is Judaism? When is Judaism? These are all very complicated questions with multiple answers depending on what kind of answer you are looking for. When history and religion work together they can kind of have that effect. Never fear, an examination of the heart of Jewish identity, Israel, as it is perceived through the turbulence of four key historical eras will give us a better idea of what the big picture is as presented from the Jews themselves out of these formative times.

-AW

Judaism? (or: what do you plan on doing with that knife!?)

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:01:12 -0500

page du Talmud Source : scanner illustration libre Catégorie:Espace Utilisateur (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Judaism has always been a little confusing to me. To be fair, it is difficult to understand the religion when all you have to glean from it is the 1000s of obscure rules in the Law, the rest of the crazy stories in the Old Testament, and Jesus’ criticisms of the Pharisees in the Gospels. At least, that is what I once thought. My confusion was troublesome to me so I took up an effort to try and better understand these ancient people. As a Christian, I understand that Judaism is, to say the least, an integral part of my own understanding of my faith, my Jesus, and my own identity as a Christian. The Jewish people gave me the heritage of my faith. They gave me my Bible. A neglect of those people is wholly inexcusable.

I cannot distill here all the amazing things that I discovered at only the onset of my studies, and I can’t say that, after 6 months or so of study that I have even begun to see into all the complicated depths of Judaic culture and tradition. Nonetheless, I am excited and compelled to share some introductory thoughts, notes, and meditations if you will allow me the time and space to do so.

And spoiler alert: there’s just one all-consuming thought/note/meditation: Israel. This series of posts will take a look at what Israel means as a symbol to Early Jews and how that developed over history. We will look at four key historical periods: Exile, Hellenistic, Roman, Rabbinic.

Bibliography of upcoming posts:

Cohen. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Print.
Grabbe. An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism. Print.
Jaffee, Martin S. Early Judaism : Religious Worlds of the First Judaic Millennium. Bethesda: University Press of Maryland, 2005. Print.

-AW

Living 1 Peter in the New Covenant Age

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:21:00 -0500

I’ve started working on writing some form a a devotional on 1 Peter with the aim of understanding and applying this epistle to believers in the church age. Here’s a preview with two excerpts from the Introduction and one from the first devotional.

——————————————-

“Whether spoken or written, often times some devotions have nothing to do with life in the New Covenant age. Instead of seeking to apply God’s perfect Word to the lives of His people they often are mere catchy proverbs or sayings combined with encouraging and inspiring short stories appealed to in order to inject the listener with an emotional Five-Hour Energy Shot to start their day. Surely the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has more to offer than the latest trending motivational speaker, inspirational saying on Facebook with the most “likes” under its name, or newest catchy chorus from the current “feel-good” pop music hit.”-JAC

“Holding to one devotional and completing it may easily become simply a task one does with the primary purpose of completing a goal analogous to a New Year’s resolution that one must complete for their own “self-improvement”. While I suppose there are worse things one could resolve to complete over the course of a year, I hope that instead of studying God’s Word with a sense of task completion, the primary purpose of your study using this devotional is for growth in the Lord Christ as you walk with Him alongside His people. Furthermore, it is easy for devotions to become in a sense a “work of the Law”. Thinking that one can calculate their favor with the Lord by subtracting the days they missed out of the year from 365, using a devotional can easily become a source of either spiritual pride or guilt if one does or does not keep it. It is my hope that you are working through the book of 1 Peter and using this devotional not to obtain favor with the Lord but as a result of the favor you have found in Him already due to your belief in the perfect work of Jesus Christ on your behalf.”-JAC

——Concerning 1 Peter 1:1—

“Have you ever come to grips with the awesome reality that as a believer you are in an eternal covenant with the Sovereign Lord of all the universe? That God has set his covenantal, binding love upon you and this relationship has been sealed forever with the sinless blood of Jesus Christ? That God set you apart before your birth to be His in Christ?

Have you ever considered yourself, as a Christian, as one sojourning and only temporarily residing in this world? Have you ever considered yourself as part of the Dispersion: God’s New Covenant temporarily away from their Heavenly dwelling?

As you ponder and meditate upon the depths of these realities for those in Christ may they be truths of great comfort and assurance and means that the Lord uses to multiply grace and peace in your walk Him and His people in this foreign land.”-JAC

A Prayer to Both End & Begin the New Year

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:50:14 -0500

“Directing my attention toward this rule of faith as best I could, as far as you enabled me to, I have sought you and desired to see intellectually what I have believed, and I have argued much and toiled much. O Lord my God, my one hope, listen to me lest out of weariness I should stop wanting to seek you, but let me seek your face always, and with ardor. Do you yourself give me the strength to seek, having caused yourself to be found and having given given me the hope of finding you more and more. Before you lies my strength and my weakness; preserve the one, heal the other. Before you lies my knowledge and my ignorance; where you have opened to me, receive me as I come in; where you have shut to me, open to me as I knock. Let me remember you, let me understand you, let me love you. Increase these things in me until you refashion me entirely.”

- Augustine, The Trinity

I take this old prayer for these new times. As I pray, I find all my hopes and desires from the past year- my goals left unaccomplished, my questions left unanswered reconciled in my friendship with God. May this prayer stand before me in the coming year as well to remind me that my progress is no progress at all if not a relationship with my dear friend. Receive me as I come in.

-AW

A Life that Matters

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:47:00 -0400

C.S Lewis determines a comprehensive approach to the responsibility of man. Referring much to a principle that has been stirring within modern Christianity recently, he attacks the idea of vocations that are intrinsically “spiritual”. This resurrects Martin Luther’s archetype of vocation, “The works of monks and priests, however hold and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks” (Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church). The basis of this argument finds itself in that the essence of Godly work comes not in the form of work but in the attitude of the work. If the opposite were true, the seminaries would be bursting at the seams in an effort to acquire the holiest of professions. The consequence of this would be shattering to the world as the Christian influence weans from academia. Astutely observant, Lewis points out this flaw within Postmodernity and the mind of the Christian. He goes on, “A man’s upbringing, his talents, his circumstances, are usually a tolerable index of his vocation.” A careful examination of one’s passion and circumstance can place a vocation. Everyone has desires and dreams, however diverse or unconventional. The beauty is this: that all vocations, be it a “rustic laborer”, “mother”, etc.; have a place within the grand scheme of life. To the Christian, Lewis furthers, every man in his participation of his vocation of choice “advances the vision of God”. Interestingly he notes that within the pursuit of your task or research it is wise not to be so focused on the “ultimate relevance” but on doing the work well and in the greatest effort. When the moment comes where the research is finished or the answer found, then you may look on the fruition of your finished work with content. However, if this mindset is kept one may not see the final fruition of his work before death. This is not a problem to the one whose work does not depend on its finality but on the thorough and transient effort without regard for recognition or praise. His work is done for more than the satisfaction of completion and to the simple pursuit of the beauty of knowledge. It is this mindset and action that produces the greatest work. This appealing yet lofty concept is easily (and somewhat foolishly) shrugged off in an era of deadlines and dues. After all, the carpenter does not get paid as much as the realtor. However, our duty as ones who believe a vocation, or “calling”, is a role in eternity’s play are obliged to consider not just the obtainable goals but those that transcend a lifetime and perhaps more. A task too arduous for one man to complete ought not repel him from beginning. Futurity, Lewis says, is best left in God’s hands.

“In all things it is a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:51:00 -0400

“In all things it is a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted” -Bertrand Russel

“Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.” -1 Corinthians 11:28, The Message

In all things, it is a wise but daring pursuit to check motivation. Paul condemns the Corinthians for partaking communion in an apathetic manner and Simon the Magician is rebuked for the “intent of his heart” to extract a profit from the gifts of the Spirit. Often, the things we do can be and are corrupted by malintent. It is facile to spot this malintent when used to harm others but far more subtle are those which imply fear or selfishness.

Here they are hidden behind a veil of rationality, justification, and self-righteousness.

Here is where lies become deeply embedded and masked as true.

Here is where we prod to find much of who we are and much of what we do not wish to see.

“Search my heart, O God, see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” -Psalm 139:23-24

A U

"Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:07:34 -0500

“Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them. No man is competent to judge in matters of the kingdom, until first he has been tried; since there are many things to be learned in the depths which we can never know in the heights. He shall best meet the wants of God’s people who has had those wants himself; he shall best comfort God’s Israel who has needed comfort; and he shall best preach salvation who has felt his own need of it.”

- C.H. Spurgeon

3650 Bible Reading System

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:27:51 -0500

3650 Bible Reading System:

Though I am normally not a big fan of reading plans, this one is ripe for growing a disciple’s daily appetite for the word. It may require some personal development of your own and also the willingness to submit yourself to discipline.

My friend and I were discussing its strengths and weaknesses. He expressed his concern that following this strict plan also has the pitfall of becoming just an academic exercise. This is true. Be forewarned. He told me that he couples his reading of the plan with personal meditation and prayer, digging deep at night into a specific text. I adhere to this as well.

Here is my response to his concern: “On the academic side, it really provides me with the opportunity to view the entire biblical narrative, seeing in it the diversity of its stories and the unity of God’s sovereignty. Spiritually and personally I am opening myself up to encountering God in unique ways each day: one day in his songs, another in his history, another in his Son, another in the actions of my ancient Christian brothers, and so on. This equips me for the unique challenges that each day may bring.”

Worth considering.

-Winston Niles Rumfoord

“So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:54:00 -0500

“So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.”

2 Corinthians 5:9

This school with all of the homework, all of the vacations, and all of its newness often does not feel like home. For those with family and friends, foundation and familiarity, there prods a longing to return there—a longing to restore what was. Though as Christians this is not our goal. We make it our aim to please him regardless of familiarity or location. We are ones who focus on the present but are not near-sighted. We are ones commissioned as ambassadors to a place we generally do not call our home. Yea, we would rather be home; but, to live is Christ. The time of return is not certain but the return itself is. As we grown inwardly for redemption and look towards the coming of Christ, we do not lose sight of what is set before us: a world uncomfortable yet in desperate need of the Gospel.

“Therefore having this ministry…we do not lose heart. Though our outer-self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

2 Corinthians 4:16

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Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:08:20 -0500

”I read myself full [lectio], think myself clear...

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:07:36 -0500

”I read myself full [lectio], think myself clear [meditatio], pray myself hot [oratio], & let myself go [contemplatio]”- the mountain preacher

“We read (lectio)…

under the eye of God (meditatio)…

until the heart is touched (oratio)…

and leaps to the flame (contemplatio).” -Dom Columba Marmion (1858-1925) an Irish-Belgian monk

“As we listen to the Word (lectio), a word, a phrase, a sentence may well strike us, and we let it reverberate within, opening and expanding, forming and shaping (meditatio), calling forth varied responses (oratio) until finally we simply rest in the Reality to which it all leads (contemplatio).” - Trappist monk Basil Pennington

“In the ocean of this reading the lamb can paddle and the elephant swims.”- Bernard of Claivaux

"Our Lord would have all his people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning his blessed person. As..."

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:50:44 -0500

“Our Lord would have all his people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning his blessed person. As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is had in beyond, the skies. Think how God esteems the only Begotten, his unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of him, “as they, count it their highest honor to veil their faces at his feet. Think of the mighty love which drew him from his throne to die upon the cross! See him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before him as the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, for only thus will your love to him be what it should.”

- Charles Spurgeon

Ravi on Academia...

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:26:41 -0400

Education and Imbecility

“We have educated ourselves into imbecility,” quipped the noted English journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, as he bemoaned the many nefarious ideas that are shaping modern beliefs. Venting an identical disillusionment in his commentary on American culture, George Will averred that there is nothing so vulgar left in our experience for which we cannot transport some professor from somewhere to justify it.

Why this juxtaposing of aberrant behavior with the halls of learning? The answer is well worth pursuing if we are to deal with our present world cultural malaise by understanding its progenitors, and thwart what looms as a future with terrifying possibilities.

It is not unprecedented that as a young nation begins to reach its adolescent years, it craves freedom from any restraint. Emulating a legal proceeding in which an attorney tries valiantly to discredit witnesses who injure his or her case, secular thinkers unleashed a concerted effort to prejudice the minds of this generation. If even a slight doubt could be raised upon any minutiae of theistic belief, it was exultantly implied that the whole worldview should be deemed false. The goal was to forge a new breed of young scholars and opinion-makers who would be perceived as saviors, delivering society from the tyranny of a God-infested past and remaking culture in their own image.

The principal means to accomplish this was to take control of the intellectual strongholds, our universities, and under a steady barrage of “scholarly” attack, to change the plausibility structure for belief in God, so that God was no longer a plausible entity in scholastic settings. This assault on religious belief was carried out in the name of political or academic freedom, while the actual intent was to vanquish philosophically anything that smacked of moral restraint. Unblushingly, the full brunt of the attack has been leveled against Christianity as Eastern religions enjoy a patronizing nod and the protection of mystical license. As for Islam, no university dares offend. Hand-in-hand with this unmasked intellectual cowardice and concealed duplicity came mockery and ridicule of the Christian, which has now become commonplace, a “civilized” form of torture.

In such fashion came the onslaught of all that had gone before; the pen became the sword and the professorial lectern, the pulpit. If young, fertile minds could be programmed into believing that truth as a category does not exist and that skepticism is sophisticated, then it would be only a matter of time before every social institution could be wrested to advantage in the fight against the absolute.

However, over time the sword has cut the hand that wielded it, and learning itself has lost its authority. Today as we look upon our social landscape, the answers to the most basic questions of life, from birth to sexuality to death, remain completely confounded. The very scholars who taught their students to question authority are themselves disparaged by the same measure. No one knows what to believe as true anymore; and if anything is believed, the burden of justification has been removed.

Yet, all is not lost. In spite of the varied and willful attempts made by antitheistic thinkers to undermine the spiritual and to thrust it into the arena of the irrational, or at best deem it a private matter, the hunger for the transcendent remains unabated. After nearly two decades of lecturing on campuses around the world, it is evident to me that the yearning for the spiritual just will not die. In fact, at virtually every engagement I have found the auditorium filled to capacity and the appreciative response quite overwhelming, even in antagonistic settings. There is no clearer demonstration of this unrelenting hunger than the experiences of Russia and China as each has in its own way tried to exterminate the idea of God, only to realize that God rises up to outlive his pallbearers.

Our universities tell a similar story. Though proud skepticism is rife in academic bastions, the human spirit still longs for something more. This tension must be addressed, especially at this time of cultural upheaval, and it is imperative that the answers we espouse meet not only the intimations of the heart but the demands of the mind. The familiar adage rings true: the mind is too great an asset to waste, for it is the command control of each individual life. And it is my desire that each of us may come to recognize the greatest mind of all, even God Himself, whose existence or non-existence is essential to defining everything else.

Ravi Zacharias is founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

On Competing Worldviews: Life as an Evangelical in a Pluralistic and Postmodern Society-Part I

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:50:00 -0400

Whenever engaging unbelievers in conversation regarding the gospel, never be fooled into thinking that as a Christian you are somehow operating out of a perceptional framework that is apart from the “norm” and therefore illegitimate. In one sense yes, your perception of reality as a believer will be considered unusual or apart from “the norm” if defined simply by percentages in comparing the unbelieving and believing population. That is, as a believer in a world characterized by unbelief and in effect rebellion against the God of the bible (Romans 1:18-30; Eph. 2:1-5; 1 John 5:19), you will be in the minority laying hold to and operating out of a biblical worldview (Matt 7:14; Luke10:23-24). Although Christians may be in a mathematical minority as far as a biblical worldview goes, it would be error to infer that only “religious” groups are those that operate out of and make claims to truth derived from entire worldviews packages and the functional presuppositions that are derived from these worldview claims.

A number of those I have talked to about the gospel of Christ in recent months have all made this false assumption. Namely, these people who are not Christians, by virtue of their lack of belief in Jesus Christ perceive themselves as in some type of neutral position with regard to the things of God and His claims to truth in His Word. That is, if asked, they most likely will not outright and explicitly reject or embrace Christianity (or for that matter Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Marxism, etc). Rather, operating as a postmodern and pluralist will simply say something along the lines of not being able to reject or accept claims of religions because either 1) No one religion can claim supremacy 2) Humans cannot know objective and absolute truth, thus we cannot perceive reality as it truly is. The irony of these claims is that these operate out of a worldview they assume is true and typically have some type of belief in a god, fashioned after their own image, and construct their beliefs of this god from the research done in a couple minutes of Google searching “errors in the bible”, Dante’s Inferno, and the latest Discovery Channel program on the Mayan calendar. The sober reality is that these people are not in danger of encountering the hell of a fourteenth century Italian poet, rather are in danger of the Hell warned of by the King of the cosmos (Matt 13:40-43; John 3:18). Thus it is imperative as believers to meet these people with grace and mercy and gently speak gospel truth into their lives in order for the blindness of their natural state and captivity to Satan and sin to be revealed to them by the Spirit and the Word of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Not only is the lost postmodern enslaved to perpetual idolatry and isolation from the one true God (as well as Christians prior to salvation), they also posit a self-refuting position (Galatians 4:8). By making the statements that no faith can claim supremacy and humans cannot know truth, they are making a truth claim. Namely, disguised as “open-mindedness”, they are making a massive worldview claim in stating: the truth is that there is no truth or that truth is unattainable. As stated before, this position is self-refuting. Regardless, by rejecting the God of the bible and His claims, these people are operating with tremendous worldview presuppositions (the bible is not true, the God of scripture is not real, Jesus was not who he said he was, sin is not real, etc.). By rejecting Christ, these people are not neutral or in some type of “default” mindset, rather are refuting the truth claims of scripture and exchanging it for their own.

The truth is this: every human being has a worldview and operates according to the presuppositions they derive from it. For instance, on Thursday a professor at SBTS was speaking on biblical gender differences and cited the bible’s claims to gender versus the secular culture’s. Recently, the president of Harvard University was fired/forced to resign for making the observation that his baby girl preferred to play with girls’ toys rather than boy’s at an early age when she was offered both by her parents. The president of Harvard correlated the difference in toy choice to perhaps account for the reason why men gravitated to hard sciences and fewer females were observed in these programs at the university.Our professor made the point to say that in the setting of the secular university, the president of Harvard committed heresy. That is to say, by firing the president for making an observation in regards to gender which differs from that established by Harvard (and for that matter the secular world), the president challenged secular culture’s truth claims, thus he was ousted. Whereas Southern Seminary has the Abstract of Principles and the Southern Baptist Confession of Faith, Harvard University has its own version of these dictations, either explicitly stated or implicitly observed by its faculty. In essence, what we see are two competing worldviews, neither one is neutral. Southern Seminary posits that differences do exist between men and women and bases these claims from the revealed truth of scripture, while Harvard University claims that the truth of gender is that there is no such thing as gender and bases these truth claims from the attitudes and mores of the culture.

Both are small portions of competing worldview and truth package claims. One operates according to the presupposition that there is a God who is real, who is not silent, who is Creator and Lord of creation and has revealed Himself in His Word, while the other operates with the presupposition that these claims are false and replaces this with another worldview. One doesn’t have to be a professing atheist to call the God of the bible a liar, rather operate out of a worldview which isn’t that revealed by Christ. Those who aren’t for Him are against Him, but those who are against Him can be for Him with repentance and belief in the gospel.

1) http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-21-harvard_x.htm

-Sinner Saved By Grace Through Faith

"You will not be the person you want to be if you are not becoming him presently."

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:53:05 -0400

“You will not be the person you want to be if you are not becoming him presently.”

- Dr. Don Bowdle, Lee University.

"Doubtless the reader has been tried with the temptation to rely upon things which are seen, instead..."

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:28:28 -0400

“Doubtless the reader has been tried with the temptation to rely upon things which are seen, instead of resting alone upon the invisible God. Christians often look to man for help and counsel, and mar the noble simplicity of their reliance upon their God. Does this portion meet the eye of a child of God anxious about temporals, then would we reason with him a while. You trust in Jesus, and only in Jesus, for your salvation; then why are you troubled? “Because of my great care” Is it not written. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord?” “Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication make known your wants unto God.””

- Charles Spurgeon

Acts 17 has been rocking me lately. Breeding new posts up soon....

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:35:25 -0400

Acts 17 has been rocking me lately. Breeding new posts up soon.

"His death was the death of death"

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:56:00 -0400

““His death was the death of death””

- David Prince

Ownership

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:58:30 -0400

With all of the infirmity and weakness that surrounds this broken heart, it is kept and cared for under the mercy of grace. It is only this concept that can mend and withdraw the frustration of my inability to mend it myself. The more I take it within my hands, the more it crumbles. Only the maker of this heart can fix it; he is the only one who knows how to do so. It is not him who steals my heart from me but me who withholds it from its owner and fastener. Why then, do I claim ownership or rather act accordingly? Let me surrender not my heart, but my own folly. This heart is not mine to surrender. Do I have the ability to control love?