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My Conversations with Numerous Exvangelicals

Exvangelical sounds like either a misspelling or a bit too much cleverness, I would agree, but for the sake of this post, I’m sticking with a word of which I’m reading its contemporary usage.  Of all the words in the title, it gets your attention because it doesn’t sound like a word.  Perhaps I’ll help you in future Scrabble endeavors.I regularly knock on doors of young, ex evangelicals, who grew up in church or a Christian home.  Now they aren’t going to church and a large majority of the time, they don’t have the faith any longer.  It is occurring and even as many of you readers know at an epidemic level.  Churches are hemorrhaging their young people.  Social media spreads the idea like a virus, and all the new forms of communication instantly create an interconnectedness in these exvangelicals that strengthens them against repentance or a return.  They bind together and encourage one another in their apostasy.  For those related, this is very, very sad, as sad an occurrence as they experience in their lives, putting new wrinkles on their faces and more grey in their hair.I’ve had many long conversations with some of these young exvangelicals.  I haven’t gone out of my way to talk with them.  It’s just happened.  Even though they may come from varied backgrounds and situations and different types of evangelical churches, they are all very similar.  For two reasons, I’m writing on this subject:  the long talks with young exvangelicals in person and an article that was written by a Grayson Gilbert at Patheos, entitled, “I’m Not All That Impressed With Exvangelical Deconstruction Stories.”  Gilbert is the polar opposite in that he started where exvangelicals have ended, so he was where they presently are, except seeing it from a unique perspective.I don’t write this post to critique Gilbert’s piece, although I may refer to it, but to write mainly what I have found myself, and then discuss my approach to these exvangelicals.  When I meet one of them, I don’t know they’re there.  I haven’t targeted them.  They just appear without notice and the conversation starts like all the other ones I have.  In the midst of it, they start telling me some of their backstory usually to explain why it is that they might not need to listen to what I have to say.  They say they’ve already heard and thought about it a lot, and they turned away from it for various reasons.  Almost always part of their narrative is some kind of injustice in the group they left, that justifies their having left it.  In other words, something also happened that they didn’t like, so they can’t go back to it for personal reasons, which also serves to validate their decision.  If they were to return, they now contend would support the evil of the former group.What I have to say to them doesn’t bring back exvangelicals, but it has resulted in longer conversations, where it seems to me that they’re giving my preaching at least a consideration.  Like what we read in scripture, the real reason for their defection is why they are very difficult to persuade, so I see myself as just planting seed, giving them the best possible opportunity to come to the truth.  That’s all we can do anyway.Why would exvangelicals eject from Christianity or biblical Christianity at least, if biblical Christianity is the truth?Assume that not every exvangelical will want to talk with you.  They might be hostile.  Many times they will talk though.  I’ll ask, what happened that you left your group?  Or, why aren’t you in the church any more?  Many times they’ll give an answer.  I sympathize with them.  A lot of churches and groups have real problems.  One of the reasons that we can say they’re wrong though is because we can know the truth about what’s wrong, which also means we can know the truth about what’s right.  It would bother me though if the wrong thing was just normally or regularly allowed.  I understand why someone would want to leave, it’s like you’re paddling out to an island that has little to do with the mainland.  Why should you keep putting in that effort?However, just because your church or group went off or way off the rails, that doesn’t mean that the Bible or Christianity itself are not true.  I am here to say that Jesus Christ is the best, really the only valid explanation for why we’re here and what we’re supposed to be doing.From here, I treat exvangelicals a bit like people who say they’re atheists.  I ask, “So do you think all of this, all of this around us, got here by accident?”  It is very, very rare that I have anyone answer, yes, to that question.  I remind them that everything getting here by accident is the view taught in the state schools and it still can’t even be challenged there.  The viewpoint that represents, naturalism, the more we know from science, the more it’s proven to be false.  Darwin looked at a cell and it was just a blob.  Now we can see it under a microscope, and even the cell is irreducibly complex, let alone the human eye or any of our bodily systems.Science now agrees everything must have a beginning.  There can be no eternal regression of causes. Since the explanation for everything is supernatural, what is the true story?  What is the first cause?  When we look at what is caused, because we know it’s caused, it matches with the Bible.I talk to many, many religions, and I believe that every time I talk to one, I’m open to it being the truth.  Nothing comes close to comparing to biblical Christianity.  Christianity is different than everything else, because it is objective truth.  It has proof.  The Bible is historical, scholars agree with that.  Then there is prophecy and fulfilled prophecy.Greater than every other evidence of Christianity is Jesus Christ Himself.  How do you explain Him?  More has been written about Him than about all other historical figures combined.  There is more historical attestation of Jesus than Julius Caesar.  We date our calendars based upon Him.  In His writings, He speaks with absolute authority.  Who could say, Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?  What He said could not have been said by someone who was just a man.  Then He rose from the dead just like He said He would, and after walking around for forty days so thousands of people could see Him, who were alive when the New Testament was written, He ascended into heaven before over 500 of witnesses.Everything in the Bible fits together.  It fits what we know to have happened.  When people have based their lives upon the Bible, they have thrived.  Its principles bring the success of a nation.You’ve finally got to bite down on something.  You’ve got to make a choice and Christianity blows away the other choices.  You could say that you don’t like the kind of proof of Christianity.  I like to say that the knowledge of the existence of God and the truth of the Bible is not like the knowledge of the existence of your right foot.  You don’t need to seek after your right foot.  God wants you to seek after Him.  You won’t find Him if you don’t want Him, and that’s how He’s designed it.  But the proof is there.Faith according to the Bible is not a leap in the dark.  It’s based on evidence.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:6).  God does want you to know Him.  The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day wanted an astronomical sign, and Jesus said He wasn’t providing any more (Matthew 16:1-4).  He was saying, there’s enough.  I like to say, for anyone who cares, there is enough.If the proof isn’t the reason for rejection, then what is the reason?  Romans 1 says men have enough proof to justify God’s wrath.  They are holding fast or suppressing the truth in their unrighteousness.  2 Peter 3 says it’s because of their lust. They want what they want to do more than what God wants them to do.  They want to be in charge of their own lives.So exvangelical, just because you had a bad experience, you think, as a child or young adult, doesn’t mean Christianity is false.  For there to be hypocrisy, there needs to be a belief in something. If there is no belief, no one can be a hypocrite.  Don’t be upset at hypocrisy when you can’t even be a hypocrite.So why not bite down?   You’re not open minded unless you are willing to believe something.  If not, then you’re just closing your mind to everything.   You can always say that you don’t have enough evidence, but you’re just rejecting what is by far the best explanation.  Really, it’s the only explanation.Why take God’s free air, food, your circulatory system, your brain, all the good things, and be unthankful?  Use them all up for yourself without any kind of gratefulness to God?  That’s just rebellious.  You’re not going to get away with it.  You’ll get to the end and you’ll be separated from God and His goodness forever.  It won’t be over for you.  You’ll regret for all eternity.

PATAS, Philippine Atheism, Agnosticism, and Secularism (Society) Debate live: Does History Validate the Accuracy of the New Testament Gospels? Ross / Maisonet

I am pleased to inform What is Truth? readers that the Thomas Ross – Benjamin Maisonet debate, “Does History Validate the Accuracy of the New Testament Gospels?” is now live and can be watched on YouTube.

 

Click here to watch the Ross-Maisonet debate, “Does History Validate the Accuracy of the New Testament Gospels?”

 

The debate took place in Manila, Philippines, in 2019, where I was teaching a class on the preservation of Scripture and preaching for Bro Billy Hardecker of Mt. Zion Baptist Mission in Manila, but issues with the audio and video lining up kept the debate from going live until now. The quality is still not absolutely amazing, but considering the non-first-world setting and the equipment used, I am thankful for the quality that is present. Mr. Maisonet was (and I assume still is) the president of the Philippine Atheism, Agnosticism, and Secularism (Society), or PATAS.  He told me that he replaced the previous president because that person had been stealing money from the organization.  Atheism and agnosticism are much less common in the Philippines than they are in the United States, which may be one reason that the president of PATAS was born in the United States and moved to the Philippines.  In any case, Mr. Maisonet, as the president of PATAS, was a good representative of atheism in the Philippines.  He made the sort of popular-level arguments that one will run across in personal evangelism, rather than the more scholarly type of arguments against the accuracy of the New Testament made by Islamic apologists such as Shabir Ally.  I confess that I did not find his argumentation particularly convincing, but he seems to have thought he made a good case, and I will allow those who watch the debate to evaluate what was said based on facts and logic in God’s world.

 

PATAS Philippine Atheist Agnostic Society

 

The PATAS debate was set up at short notice, so I employed a lot of the material from my debate with Dr. Ally on “The New Testament Picture of Jesus: Is It Accurate?” which is also in my study on evidence for the New Testament from archaeology, prophecy, and history.  In my view, which is admittedly biased in favor of God and His Word, the arguments made for the historicity of the New Testament have now stood up well against both Muslim and atheist apologists.

 

Feel free to subscribe to my KJB1611 YouTube channel,”like” and comment on the debate, and share it with others, if you believe it deserves it. Also, if you would be interested in sponsoring a debate with a non-Christian philosophy or a pseudo-Christian cult, please contact my church.

 

TDR

How Jesus Relates Persecution to the Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount and His Example to Us In Doing So

In what is called “the Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7, Jesus preaches salvation to a Jewish crowd of people and pulls down with supernatural wisdom and authority their unique strongholds.  For instance, in the very first statement, one of the Beatitudes, He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The Jews didn’t see themselves as spiritually poor, but spiritually wealthy.  They were by rights, God’s chosen people.  Of course, they were already “blessed” through the Abrahamic covenant, and even in their own eyes, the Mosaic covenant, according to the Deuteronomic code.  None of their thinking was true on this, so Jesus eviscerated it in the Sermon.

Another Jewish thought is “the kingdom.”  They would have considered themselves already the beneficiaries of the kingdom through the Davidic covenant.  “Heaven” is the abode of God and they saw themselves as the children of God, so wherever God was, they would be, even as God resided in the tabernacle through the wilderness.  Jesus confronts their wrong thinking when he shows the rich man is in Hell, not in heaven in Luke 16.  None of this, the kingdom or heaven, was theirs, however, unless they were poor in spirit, which meant that they acquiesced to their own spiritual poverty, that they really were lacking and in dire need.  They needed to do what the Apostle Paul did and count their own spirituality as loss and as dung for them to win Christ or find themselves under the reign of the Messiah in His kingdom with all its promised blessings.

The Jews already saw themselves as sadly and badly not receiving their just desserts, their appropriate reward.  According to their own assessment, they were persecuted by the Romans as they had been by many other various empires previously.  This would fly in the face of being a blessed people and a kingdom people.  It was an unacceptable circumstance that should be turned around and would be reversed by a true Messiah.  That’s not what Jesus said though.

Just like the people in the kingdom of heaven would be first poor in spirit, they would also be persecuted for righteousness sake (Matthew 5:10).  Persecution is the guaranteed cost of a truly saved person and Jesus frontloads this in His gospel presentation in Matthew 5:10-12.  As people enter into true salvation through Jesus Christ, they need to expect persecution.  They need to count the cost.  Jesus said in Luke 9:23, that if any man will come after him, let him take up his cross daily.  Jesus issues that understanding right up front to those who might receive the kingdom.  It’s a narrow road with few on it.

Churches today do not give their targets for attendance or membership the impression that they will suffer or be persecuted by joining up.  That’s a way to shrink the numbers.  However, it is the method of Jesus.  He included that in His gospel presentation and more than once.  Do not expect to have it easy if you’re a Christian, and that’s not why you’re receiving Christ, for what you’ll receive in time, because that’s going to be persecution.  Very likely why less are truly converted today is because they do not see the Christian life as worth suffering for.  They would choose a Christianity full of pleasure, but not the one with guaranteed pain, so they reject genuine Christianity for the placebo.  Churches offer the placebo, because that’s what people want.  Then the entire program of the church revolves around various pleasures, especially for the young people.

The Jews thought they were persecuted already, but they were were persecuted for unrighteousness.  Daniel prophecies why Israel would be dominated by the Romans.  He was downhearted by the lack of enthusiasm for God among the captives in Babylon, comfortable to just stay and not return to the land for true worship of God.  They would keep being chastised because of their faithlessness and then they took that as persecution.  Actual persecution is for righteousness and not unrighteousness.  Just because the Jews of Jesus’ day were suffering didn’t mean they were persecuted and neither did it mean they had a future kingdom for them.  No, that kingdom was only for those persecuted for righteousness.

People in the future kingdom do not fit into the present one, the kingdom of this world.  The people under the future reign of Jesus are those who want a present reign of Jesus.  People who want Him to be king in the future have got to want Him to be king in the present.  Those over whom Jesus reigns will be persecuted. They will not fit in. They will be despised, reviled, and accused falsely by men.  That will be the norm for those following Jesus Christ into the kingdom and He wants them to know that right up front.

Jesus isn’t going to take away persecution in the short term.  He offers the future kingdom as a motivation for present rejoicing.  The basis for being exceeding glad now is the reward in heaven for all eternity.  There is a lack of joy in churches and in professing Christian families because of something far less than persecution.  The church and family members are not getting their way and they don’t like the discomfort now.  They expect to be treated better and have their rights protected.  When they get hard preaching from scripture they become easily offended.  When they are required to live like a Christian, they are put off and threaten to quit, if not just to find another church where they’ll be treated like they want.

Professing Christians aren’t looking for a church where they will suffer.  They are looking for a place of creature comforts with lots of friends.  This is not what Jesus told true believers to expect.  He told them just the opposite and He included it in His gospel presentation.

The Misuse of James 1:20 and the Wrath of Man

Does the wrath of man work not the righteousness of God?  It would seem that this was true because of James 1:20 and it’s saying that explicitly:  “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”  How could anyone question that?  It’s the entire verse.

You see someone get angry, this verse comes to mind, and you quote it to the angry person.  Yet, what if I saw that you weren’t angry, and I quoted instead, Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not”?  This verse seems to require anger not to sin.  James 1:20 seems to require no anger not to sin.  Are they contradicting one another?

2 Corinthians 7:11, a classic passage on repentance, includes as part of repentance over sin, “indignation.”  It’s obvious that the indignation is over someone’s personal sin, which is also what Ephesians 4:26 is about.  Anger at one’s own sin is useful for not sinning.

John 2 doesn’t say that Jesus was angry when He cleansed the temple, but of his disciples, who were present and witnessing this occurrence, John 2:17 says, “And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”  Jesus reached down, picked up strands of leather to form into a make-shift whip, and started whipping people, animals, and overturning tables.  It looked like He was angry.  The Greek word translated, “zeal,” which is a quotation of Psalm 69:9, BDAG calls “an intense negative feeling.”  There was sin all over that temple, and Jesus was angry over it.  He had an intense negative feeling about it.

Let’s return to James 1:20 and look more at the context, seeing verses 18-22:

18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

James lays out tests of faith so that someone can know that he’s been converted, that he has saving faith.  Saving faith proceeds from the “word of truth.”  See that in verse 18?  God begat us “with the word of truth.”  A test of faith is what someone does with the word of truth.  The context is about hearing scripture and doing it.  It is obvious that the hearing of scripture is the preaching of the Word of God.

In the context, when the Word of God is preached, since it is the agent of our regeneration, our conversion, turning us into a ‘firstfruits of God’s creatures,’ every man should “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (v. 19).  There is one positive and there are two negatives.  If someone is receptive to the Word of God being preached in a positive way, he is “swift to hear,” and then in a negative way, he is “slow to speak” and “slow to wrath.”  He is listening and not debating or getting angry with what he is hearing.

James directs his writing to “beloved brethren.”  Are these saved people?  I believe they are unsaved and saved Jews, a mixed multitude attending a church.  “Brethren” in this case refers to Jewish brethren, people in the nation Israel.  Some of them are saved and some of them are unsaved.  If they are unsaved, listening to the preaching of God’s Word could result in their being saved, or in other words, ‘work the righteousness of God.”  On the other hand, if they were to debate and get angry with the preaching of scripture, that would not work the saving righteousness of God.

If these are saved Jews hearing James’s epistle, they could acknowledge that they have a saving response to preaching.  They are swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.  Their response to scripture is a test of their faith, and they pass that test.

The “wrath” of verse 20, that “worketh not the righteousness of God,” is the wrath of verse 19, “slow to wrath.”  It’s not just any wrath.  It is anger at the preaching of scripture.  That anger, that wrath, worketh not the righteousness of God.  It results in a person not receiving imputed righteousness by faith.  If this is a saved person, it results in his not receiving sanctifying righteousness.

A man, who is angry with the preaching of scripture, will not “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness” (v. 21).  As a result, he will not receive the saving of his soul.  He’s not listening to scripture.  He’s arguing with it and angry with it.  As a result, he is not begotten by the Word of Truth.

James continues in verse 22 on the same theme.  A true believer will not just hear but also do what the Bible says.  He will hear it and practice it.  This all connects to his relationship to God.  God is the source of every good and perfect gift (v. 17a).  He spoke the world into existence by His Word and He doesn’t change (v. 17b), so He is still giving good things through His Word, including His righteousness.

When someone uses James 1:20 in a general way to say that no wrath works the righteousness of God, that is false.  We know that some wrath, righteous indignation, does work the righteousness of God.  This is the wrath of man against the Word of God when it is preached. That is the wrath of James 1:20 and that is how James 1:20 should be used or applied.  When it is isn’t used that way, it is being twisted or perverted.  You could even say it isn’t working the righteousness of God.

The Command in Scripture and in the Real World

The Bible is full of commands.  A command is an order from authority.  In a colloquial way, it is being told what to do.  It is distinguished by telling, not asking.  In the military, it is a statement that might be followed by “and that’s an order.”  In a grammar, the command is an imperative mode of verb.  When studying commands, it’s under the heading of imperatives.  Out of all the imperatives in the Greek New Testament, there are 1357 commands, which include prohibitions or negative commands.  A command is the language of superiors in authority to subordinates.

The fact that the Bible uses so many commands justifies commands or commanding.  Commands need to be made.  The first statement of God to mankind is from the Lord God and Genesis 2:16 says, “And the Lord God commanded the man.”  With the command comes a consequence, disobedience to the command results in death.

With the above being said about just the New Testament, we live in an era, even when someone is superior in authority, he doesn’t tell, but he asks nicely.  A command implies authority.  It also calls for subordination and obedience.  It says that someone can tell someone else what to do.  It implies that someone might know more than someone else too.  Someone should be listening to someone else and doing what he says to do.One of the greatest commands in the New Testament is the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.  I start with verse 18, because Jesus says that “all power,” which is all authority, is given unto [Him] in heaven and in earth.”  Therefore.  Based upon that authority, verse 19, “Go ye, and teach all nations.”  In the Greek, only “teach” is a command, and “go” is a participle.  Jesus has all authority and He commands those that day, “Teach,” which is to “make disciples.”  With all authority, Jesus commands, “Make disciples.  “Have you “made a disciple”?  Why not?  Some professing Christians, who barely even try to make a disciple, put very little effort to obey that command, still judge themselves to be superior spiritually for other reasons.  They are still not obeying that command.What are other New Testament commands?  Follow me, Jesus commanded.  Rejoice.  Fear not.  Bless them that curse you.  Love God.  Love thy neighbor.Jesus used commands all the time, because He has and had authority.  He speaks with authority in part as seen in His commands.  He also showed His authority by the consequences He guaranteed.  In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.”  Who could make that statement except the Person who owns the earth?  That is who we should listen to.  He speaks with authority.We live in a world where people don’t want commands.  They don’t want someone in command.  They chafe at being commanded.  This is not the atmosphere or environment well-suited to follow Jesus Christ, because He commands all the time in the New Testament, and then even those who call themselves Christians don’t obey what He commanded.I am not going to command you, but I ask you to think about your relationship to commands and, therefore, to authority.  Can you be told what to do?  When you are told what to do and by authority, do you obey it?  Do you become angry with it?When people are children, parents and other adults need to start commanding.  “Give me that.”  “Stop it.”  “Come here.”  “Don’t touch.”  “Eat.”  “Pick that up.”  “Make your bed.”  “Go get me that.”  “Mow the lawn.”  “Pull those weeds.”  “Finish your homework.”  “Put that down.”  As children, they need to start learning to obey commands.If someone, who says he is a Christian, is going to obey the New Testament, obey God’s Word, and obey Jesus Christ, he needs to be fine with commands.  He needs to embrace them.  God works through authority.

The Detection and Correction of Doctrinal and Practical Error

Not meant as an understatement, detection and correction of the coronavirus has become serious to the whole world and the nation.  I don’t remember anything treated as importantly in my lifetime.  Coronavirus kills the body.  It doesn’t kill everybody or even necessarily a large percentage of those who get it, but the fear of it is that it destroys the body.  The importance of detecting it and correcting the coronavirus relates to its killing people’s bodies.  The Lord Jesus said the following in Matthew 10:28:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

With eternal knowledge, which includes eternity past all through eternity future, the Lord Jesus can judge with perfection what to fear.  Jesus says that we should fear the one who can destroy body and soul more than the one who can destroy just body.  The detection of that which can destroy both body and soul in hell forever is far more important than the one who can destroy just body.  With this contrast Jesus reveals the truth about the priority of detecting and correcting doctrinal and practical error.  Even though people do not treat it as such, there is so much more at stake with it.People stress personal protective equipment.  When the virus first started its spread, there was a shortage on this, and it was a big deal to have it for obvious reasons.  It was very important to protect people.  The virus kills.  But it only kills body.  Doctrinal error specially, which is also practical, is more important to detect and stop or correct.  Much doctrinal error and a diverse, large variety of it, is enough at least to destroy both body and soul in hell forever.  Forever.  This is very serious.  If Jesus says it is this serious, it is this serious.  Destruction of body and soul forever blows away mere destruction of body.  Jesus said in Mark 9:47 it would be better to pluck out your eye and enter into the kingdom than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.False teachers (Matthew 7:15) are the first reason people take the broad road to destruction.  They aren’t pointing to the narrow road with their false teaching, but to the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).   Jesus says they’re wolves in sheep’s clothing and they want to destroy sheep, obviously by destroying their souls with all sorts of what 2 Peter 2:1 calls, “damnable heresies.”  Jude 1:11 calls this destruction of the soul, perishing in the gainsaying of Korah, which in the next chapter of 2 Peter (3:17), Peter speaks of those who will fall from their steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked.Those who save those from the damnable teaching of false teachers, James says convert from the error of their way and save their souls from death (5:20).  Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:16 says that by taking heed unto true doctrine, they will save themselves and those who hear them.  Those who abide not in the doctrine of Christ, John says they have not God (2 John 1:9).  In some cases, believers are deceived through the false teaching of false prophets, which is enough to distract them from service or at least effective service (1 Cor 15:33, Col 2:9).The detection and correction of doctrinal and practical error has eternal ramifications for the souls of men.  An error in need of detection and correction from the onset is one of proportion, when the fear of him who can destroy only body extinguishes or overshadows the fear of Him Who can destroy both body and soul in hell forever.

Straining at Gnats, Rearranging Deck Chairs, Fiddling While Rome Burns, and Trading Your Birthright for a Mess of Pottage

Can you agree that life is seventy to a hundred years, sometime less and very seldom more, and it goes by fast?  We know it goes by exactly sixty seconds a minute, but the point is what James wrote:  life is a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  On the other hand, eternity is forever.  Even in a lesser, albeit significant way, the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a thousand years.

The title brings two biblical metaphors and two secular ones.  Let’s go through them.  They relate to the first paragraph.  Please think about it.

The first one says, you “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24).  It’s from Jesus.  The gnat was the smallest unclean animal in the Old Testament dietary restrictions, and the largest was the camel (Leviticus 11:4, 42).  Straining something was the use of a filter.  When you went to drink something sweet that attracted gnats, you made sure you got your gnats out with a filter in order to eliminate the unclean thing.  There’s obviously hyperbole here, because the filter should get a camel too, but in this metaphor, it doesn’t.

The gnat metaphor compares to Paul’s teaching to Timothy that bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is great gain.  Everyone on earth has to focus on physical things, living in a physical world, but these physical things are temporal things, like bodily exercise is.  I watch people, who call themselves Christians and they take care of the gnat, but they miss the camel.  Their focus is on this life, on temporal things, even when it comes to the problems in this world.  How do you see it?

You can see the wrong emphasis on social media.  It’s all about this life, and it isn’t important.  What are you eating?  What car are you driving?  What kind of fashion are you wearing?  All of this is less than gnats.  They are nothing.  They are the dung, the Paul uses for a kind of temporal things in Philippians 3:8.

Let’s move on.  The phrase, “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” describes a futile, meaningless activity in the face of doom or catastrophe.  The Titanic compares to the real catastrophe, lost souls going to Hell.  Most of mankind missing Paradise, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and heaven.  Greater than that, men please themselves and not God, because they do not receive His Word.

Rearranging deck chairs brings some temporal order and symmetry perhaps, better than what it might for the next cold few hours before the ship disappears in the icy ocean.  Imagine while the ship is sinking, the person taking charge of deck chairs announces to signal his virtue, that “he’s going to rearrange the chairs” messed up maybe from the new tilt of the deck.  This is the kind of virtue being signaled today.   Look at me, I’m tithing of mint and cummin, my little garden herbs (Matthew 23:23), while souls all around are going to Hell, and not once is the gospel ever mentioned, let alone preached.

Nero apparently fiddled while Rome burned.  Shame on Nero.  It reminds me of Jesus’ allusion in the Sermon on the Mount, not casting pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6).  Pigs can’t appreciate the beauty and significance of pearls.  Appreciating pearls takes a minimal level of discernment.  A particular brand of baseball cap or footwear supercedes eternal life for a lost soul.  Is my hair in style?  Did I purchase the appropriate brand name of trousers?  Are they ripped enough?  Can you see the right amount of skin?  Rome is burning, and you’re talking about your play list of pop rock tunes, sensual and  worldly.  This is insane like Nero.  There was a reason he was fiddling.  You’re fiddling too.  Think about it.

Esau famously in Genesis 25 sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, essentially some lentil stew.  Sure, he was hungry.  Sure, he wanted to tour Europe. Sure, he wanted to fill his bucket list. Sure, he wanted more instagram followers.  What about God?  What about his parents?  Obedience to them?  Honoring them?  What about the Word of God?  What about the work of the church?  What about the things that God loves and He wants you to value?  This is where the terminology arises, throwing your life away.  Esau threw his life away.  You are throwing your life away, but posing like your mess of pottage matters.

The Apostle Paul instructed (Ephesians 5:16), “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”  What are you doing with your time?  Are you just straining at gnats, rearranging deck chairs, fiddling while Rome burns, and trading your birthright for a mess of pottage?  You don’t have to.  Turn to the Lord now.  Like Paul, count these other things as dung for the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

AUTHORS OF THE BLOG

  • Kent Brandenburg
  • Thomas Ross

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