April 12, 2012

Top 10 Misunderstood Verses about Heaven and Eternal Life

Below is a list of 10 specific verses/discourses in the New Testament that I believe are some of the most misunderstood verses pertaining to the topic of heaven and eternal life. Roger Olson, professor at Baylor University’s prestigious seminary, wrote a blog article in light of Easter on how the doctrine of the resurrection is very misunderstood despite the fact that it’s one of the foundational truths of Christianity. Read his article here entitled, “Truly he is risen!…He sure is! An Easter Meditation” (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/?p=1257), and check out the verses below and reply if you agree, disagree, or have other verses in mind.

  • 2 Peter 3:1-13: often interrpreted to say that creation will be totally annihilated upon Christ’s return so thus all physicality.
  • 2 Cor 4:16-5:10: often interrpreted to say the very opposite of what Paul is really saying against the dualistic thinking of the popular culture.
  • John 14:1-4: often interrpreted to say that God has homes for us in the sky
  • 1 Thess 4:16-17: often interrpreted to say that we will stay with Jesus in the clouds
  • John 18:33-38: often interrpreted to say that heaven or the kingdom is not meant to be on earth
  • 1 Cor 15:50: often interrpreted to say that the resurrection body is not going to be literally flesh and blood but “spiritual” (i.e. immaterial). This verse is highlighted because of its significant history of interpretation since the early church till today.
  • 1 Cor 15:1ff: same as above.
  • Rom 8:18ff: often interrpreted “spiritually” to say that creation’s resurrection or release into freedom is really its annihilation.
  • Rev 21:1-22:5: a difficult passage for anyone to interpret but again often interrpreted “spiritually” while overlooking its heavy use of Old Testament and apocalyptic references and imagery.
  • 1 John 3:1-3: one of many passages often understood to mean that we really can’t know what to expect about heaven till we get there.

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April 9, 2012

A Long Walk on the Beach: The Road to Assos

In the summer of 2010 Alan and I went to hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina. We had 2 days to hike 24 miles and get back home. This was my first true hike carrying a big back pack, sleeping in the woods, and drinking fresh spring water. This was something I wanted to do ever since I read the book “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson as a newly graduated high school senior. By the end of it I was exhausted, my feet were sore, and I had never been so hungry. I had a great time! And McDonald’s never tasted so good. But I also had a great opportunity to reconnect with God walking in the midst of his woods in silence and solitude.

Paul had a similar opportunity to take a long walk with God in his final journey back to Jerusalem in Acts 20-21. This entire journey took place between Passover (20:6), in Philippi, and Pentecost (20:16). Paul had 50 days to make it from Philippi in Macedonia all the way to Jerusalem in Judea in time for the feast of Weeks or Firstfruits. There are several major beach scenes that stand out along the way to Jerusalem: the meeting with the Ephesian elders on the beach of Miletus (20:17-38), the prayerful farewell on the beach of Tyre (21:3-6), and the possible journey along the beach from Ptolemais to Ceasarea on foot (21:7-8). In fact, the only specific mention of the beach in these 2 chapters of Paul’s trip is when he and the Christians in Tyre knelt down in the sand on the beach to pray and say goodbye (21:5).

But there is one more beach scene on Paul’s final journey to Jerusalem, and this one definitely includes a long walk with God. If you are not careful you can miss it quite easily. When Paul and his companions visit Troas they stay 7 days (20:6). Paul raises Eutychus from the dead his last night in town. He also preaches and teaches through the night until daylight when he leaves to continue on his journey. But Paul didn’t get back into the boat with his friends, rather, he arranged to meet them in the port city of Assos and walk there by himself. The distance between Troas to Assos is 21 miles as the crow flies. There was even a Roman road connecting the cities that is still there today. This road ran along the beach south of Troas overlooking the Aegean Sea until cutting inland southeast to go down into Assos. It was a journey that would have taken Paul 7-10 hours and thus just 1 day to complete (see www.stpaulsroutes.com for a proposal of his route). His companions in the boat had to take a longer route, about 50 miles by sea around Cape Lectum into the mouth of the Gulf of Adramytium where Assos was the only good port for some 80 miles. The situation thus allowed Paul to be able to catch up with the boat in Assos and not delay his journey (Polhill, Acts: New American Commentary, 420).

But the question is: what was on Paul’s mind that made him want to take this long walk on the beach with God to Assos?  We get an idea of what Paul was mulling over in his mind on this hike when he arrived later on in Miletus and spoke to the Ephesian elders on the beach. Paul would have been about halfway into his 50 day limit journey. He tells them, “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me…And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again” (2o:22-23, 25). Paul knew something bad was going to happen when he got to Jerusaelm. He knew he was never going to see his children in the faith again. He knew he may die. So for those 7-10 hours Paul was wrestling with God with the fact that he may be going to his death in Jerusalem.

This sounds very similar to another final journey to Jerusalem by Jesus in Luke’s first volume (9:51-19:44). Luke writes, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51). In fact, I can imagine Paul praying on his hike like Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethesemane: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will…your will be done” (Matt 26:39, 42). Due to Jesus and Paul’s similar situation, the hike from Troas to Assos is often referred to as Paul’s “Gethsemane walk.” Paul had Christians and even his own traveling companions try to stop him from going to Jerusalem, just like Jesus’ apostles tried to prevent him. Paul’s response was similar to Jesus’: “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (21:13).

Paul’s friends gave up trying to persuade him and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” And that’s exactly what Paul was doing. That’s exactly what Jesus did. The will of God was the very thing the sleep deprived (and fasting?) Paul was wrestling with and trying to figure out on his long walk on the beach like Jesus in Gethsemane. It’s quite ironic that this lesson happened to fall on this week right after Resurrection week and Easter. I didn’t plan it this way. But it helps to see what gave Paul the courage to finish his journey to Jerusalem. Paul could look imprisonment and death in the face and not be scared because he knew Jesus conquered death for him. So, even if he should die in Jerusalem, which he didn’t, God would give him his life back in the resurrection to come (1 Cor 15:50-58).

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March 31, 2012

Resurrection Week 2012: 8 Family Activities to Celebrate Easter

Lipscomb University is observing Resurrection week this year with a series of contemplative activities and worship entitled “The King[dom] Resurrected.” http://www.lipscomb.edu/news/Archive/Detail/13/23957. These activities begin tomorrow on Palm Sunday and run through the week ending on Easter Sunday.

This series got me thinking, not only as a youth minister, but as a husband and father of two striving to be the spiritual leader of my family. What activities could I implement with my family to build lasting faith in the resurrected Jesus? Below are 8 activities, one per day, that I am going to introduce to my family this week with that goal in mind. My hope is that these will blossom into annual traditions for our family during Resurrection week.

You can Google to find the reasons behind these suggested activities.

Palm Sunday, April 1

Read the story of the Triumphal Entry

Find real palm branches or create your own using construction paper and recreate a triumphal parade

Monday, April 2

Read the story of the Cleansing of the Temple

Make hot cross buns or soft pretzels at home

Tuesday, April 3

Read the story of Jesus Washing the Disciples Feet

Wash one another’s feet

Wednesday, April 4

Read the story of Judas Betraying Jesus

Spend the day spring cleaning

Maundy “Command” Thursday, April 5

Read the story of the Last Supper

Have a seder meal for dinner

Good Friday, April 6

Read the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus

Plant seeds or small plants in a resurrection garden

Saturday, April 7

Read a parable Jesus spoke his final week in Jerusalem

Decorate several candles or a large cross cut from poster board

Easter or Resurrection Sunday, April 8

Read the story of the Resurrection

Wear new clothes to church, early Christians often waited till Easter to be baptized and put on a white robe after being immersed

Other Ideas:

Volunteer with Easter Seals this week

Visit art museums with collections of artwork portraying the passion week

Watch The Gospel of John or other related movies

Create a tomb out of clay or playdough depicting the scene of the resurrection

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March 29, 2012

Enemies Like Grains: Outnumbered on the Beach

Last night at softball practice we were getting some batting practice in when all of a sudden someone came up and said that Bat’s car had been trashed just moments before by a truck in the parking lot. The guy had side-swiped his car, stopped to check out the damage, and then got back in his truck and raced away. It was your classic hit and run. And it turns out that the guy had stolen the truck as well. Plus, he was an African American. It seems like all the components of this story added together can lead one to consider this guy, from our place in this culture, as an enemy.

There several instances in Scripture where the vast numbers of Israel’s enemy armies are described  “like the sand on the beach.” The northern coalition of Canaanite armies put together by the king of Hazor to fight Joshua and the Israelite army are said to be ” a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots” (Josh 11:4). The raiding army of the Midianites and Amalekites against Gideon and his 300 soldiers is described “like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance” (Judg 7:12). And finally, the Philistine army that came up against Saul is said to have “mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude” (1 Sam 13:5). These are the 3 times this phrase is used to describe the enemies of Israel and God, but there are several other times it is used in the context of warfare (2 Sam 17:11; Jer 33:22; Hab 1:9).

As for the New Testament, there is only one place where an enemy army is described using this phrase. It is found in Revelation 20:7-10…

  •  And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.  And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heavenand consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

My concern in this lesson is not so much to discuss how, “if we deny Satan he will flee from us” like the enemy armies of Israel despite having great odds, but rather to see who or what is God’s enemy and therefore who  our enemies are as Christians. Is it the guy who swipes our car and runs? Or is it the homosexual living in our “Christian nation” that many Christians, like the radical Westboro Baptists, point out specifically as especially bad sinners and enemies of God?

The New Testament has to say something about who or what is the enemy of God. It actually mentions 3 specific things which are God’s enemies: Satan, death, and ourselves. Jesus calls Satan literally “the enemy” in Luke 10:19 as he was sending out his 72 disciples to preach the gospel with the power to overcome the many forms of evil. Paul, in his lengthy discussion about resurrection, mentions that death is “the last enemy” which is to be destroyed at Jesus’ second coming (1 Cor 15:26). This truth was hard for the teens to wrap their minds around because we hear a lot of times how death is spoken of as a welcomed transition into a better existence. But that’s not how the Bible depicts death. Death is an intruder and enemy and is one thing Jesus came to save us from. For, resurrection is the reversal and defeat of death (1 Cor 15:50-57).

A third enemy we find in the New Testament is ourselves. Paul says in Romans 5:10-11 that “for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” And it is with this understanding, that we are all enemies of God due to our sin being like the grains of sand on the beach, that we should approach someone like a homosexual. All sins being equal, we are all enemies of God. The girl who lies to her parents, the guy who cheats on a test, the girl who talks about another girl behind her back, the guy struggling to find his identity and experiments with his homosexual feelings, the guy who messes around with his girlfriend, the people who send sexting messages to others, and so on…  Our enemy is not the homosexual. Rather, we are one of our own worst enemies behind Satan and death.

But different from Satan and death, Jesus tells us to treat our fellow enemies of God, people, as if they were our best friends. Jesus gives us a great picture of what that looks like in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:43-48 and Luke 6:27-36. Paul tells us in Romans 12:19-21 to, “never avenge yourselves, but leave itto the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Even the brother in Christ who falls back into living like an enemy of God, Paul says to “not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (2 Thess 3:15; cf. Phil 3:18).

Psalm 110:1, the most frequently quoted and referenced psalm in the New Testament, mentions how in the end all God’s enemies will become the footstool of the Messiah. In other words, Jesus wins. Yes, homosexuality is a sin. But that doesn’t mean we treat them like they are not made in the image of God. “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). The question then is, are we an enemy of God due to our behavior toward our fellow enemies? Friends of the world treat their enemies like their enemies. Jesus tells us to do the opposite. The guy who swipes my car is not my enemy. And neither is the man or woman struggling with homosexual tendencies anymore than the heterosexual man or woman struggling with online purity, whether that be sexual or otherwise (i.e. Facebook).

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March 27, 2012

Where I [Really] Belong: “Home” in the New Testament

Building 429′s latest song, ”Where I Belong,” has become a big hit on the radio and in church worship services.  I recently attended Winterjam 2012 in Atlanta back in January and this band was one of the performers. They played “Where I Belong” (album “Listen to the Sound”) and everybody seemed to love the song. I, however, have somewhat of a problem with it as I “listened to the lyrics.” B429 likes to sing about heaven using the imagery of home quite a bit. There is “Coming Home” on their album Iris to Iris, and “Home” on their album Rise on top of “Where I Belong.”

The idea of home or homecoming to communicate our presence with God for eternity is found in scripture. That I do not have a problem with. In the ESV, the translation home is found 31x in 31 verses in the New Testament mostly coming from the two Greek words oikia and oikos: 23x in the gospels, 1x in Acts, and 7x in Paul. 5 out of those 31 translations are the most relevant to the idea of home in relation to eschatology or eternal life with God. They are found in 2 chapters: John 14 (see v2, 23) and 2 Corinthians 5 (see v1, 6, 8, 9). The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery cites John 14:1-4 as the go to verse for both the image of home pertaining to heaven and for the believer’s homecoming to heaven. Paul’s words in 2 Cor. 5 use the idea of home to describe both the resurrection body and one’s direct presence with Christ upon death for the believer. Plus, the Parable of the Prodigal Son is probably the best known example relating the idea of home or homecoming in relation to one’s relationship with God without actually using the word home.

But what I do have a problem with is seen in the video with this article. And the problem is associating the idea of heaven as our home with the dualistic notion that heaven is some other place than earth or this creation. The lead singer tries to explain the meaning of the song in the video, especially the chorus lyrics, “All I know is I’m not home yet this is not where I belong. Take this world and give me Jesus this is not where I belong.” He basically says it means that “something’s missing,” and that something is communion with God. At the end of his explanation he says that there are “a few things I do know: 1) I’m not home yet, 2) this is not where I belong, 3) All I want is Jesus.” I believe the Bible teaches us that we are not home yet or back into the full communion and fellowship with God enjoyed in the Garden of Eden. But to take it a step further and conclude basically that earth cannot be the place where this full communion and fellowship with God can take place for eternity is not good theology. To say that earth is not our home because it is not God’s home or because bad things happen here really misses the mark.

Now the artist’s song lyrics are vague, his explanation is vague, and vagueness is one enemy of good theology. But I know that he makes this connection (i.e. I’m not home yet = earth is not my home) because of something he said at the beginning of the video that happened in a Bible study. He said how another person related to him that atrocities that occurr in this world remind us that “this is not our home.” So basically God is going to take everyone out of the creation he made because bad and awful things happen in it, and take us to His home (“heaven”) outside of the created cosmos where bad things don’t happen. I think that is the exact opposite of what God is trying and going to do through the work of his Son Jesus Christ. I think the atrocities that occur in life remind me that this is our home, that this is God’s intended home with mankind, and that He is fighting to get it back for good from the defeated powers of evil. As God originally made his home with Adam and Eve in the garden, he will one day make his home again with people in this creation. Our eternal home is wherever God is, and God, from the beginning, comes down. People don’t go “up.” This completely changes tragedies and atrocities for me. Not the fact that God is going to get me outta here, but the fact that God is going to resurrect me and his creation and allow us to live for eternity in a world unmarred by sin and its consequences. So that no matter what happens in my life pre-second coming, I know that a life cut short now is a life regained and made full in Christ for eternity. Unfortunately, songs like “Where I Belong,” though they sound great and can be used for good purposes, continue to prolong a very unChristian big-picture concept of resurrection, heaven, and salvation in believer’s minds.

“Where I Belong” by Building 429

  • Sometimes it feels like I’m watching from the outside
  • Sometimes it feels like I’m breathing but am I alive?
  • I won’t keep searching for answers that aren’t here to find
    (Chorus)
  • All i know is I’m not home yet this is not where I belong
  • take this world and give me Jesus this is not where I belong
    (Verse 2)
  • So when the walls come falling down on me
  • and when I’m lost in the current of a raging sea
  •  i have this blessed assurance holding me.
    (Chorus)
  • All i know is I’m not home yet this is not where I belong
  • take this world and give me Jesus this is not where I belong
    (Bridge)
  • When the earth shakes i wanna be found in you when the  lights fade i wanna be found in you
    (Chorus)
  • All i know is I’m not home yet this is not where I belong
  • take this world and give me Jesus this is not where I belong x2

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March 21, 2012

Church on the Beach: The Parables of the Mustard Seed and Leaven

  The Armed Forces uses impressive images in the their current commercials to inspire and motivate individuals to enlist. They show battlefield simulations with helicopters, tanks, foot soldiers, landing crafts, and fighter jets on their way to fight evil and bring aid to the world. The slogan at the end of one ad said that their branch was “a global force for good.” It was inspiring and made me want to get up and fight! But what if the Armed Forces tried using such images in their ads like “we are like a mustard seed!” or, “we are like yeast leavening dough…it takes forever for us to accomplish good!” Not very impressive or motivating is it? No, they would not get many recruits that way.

Well, ironically, that is what Jesus pictures the kingdom of heaven like as he sought to recruit people into his “global force for good.” In Matthew 13, Jesus presents two parables to a crowd standing on the beach of the sea of Galilee. The message of these two negative images of the mustard seed/tree and leaven could be compared to our modern idioms of “watching the paint dry” or “the grass grow.” These people wanted their Messiah to storm a Roman garrison in dramatic fashion and make sweeping and instant change. Jesus, however, gave them bad gardening and woman’s work. Here are the 2 parables:

Matthew 13:31-32 (cf Mk 4:30-32; Lk 13:18-19)

  •  He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like  a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Matthew 13:33 (cf Lk 13:20)

  •  33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in  three measures of flour, till it was  all leavened.”

In essence, Jesus presents like a comedian 2 one-liners that would have made the people laugh. The tiny mustard seed produced an evergreen shrub (not really a tree and not where we get our French’s Mustard). This shrub could get as tall as 20 feet and as wide as its height. It was used for shade due to its low growth. Its fruit, seeds, and shoots are edible for humans and animals. It’s branches have also been used as toothbrushes, thereby also going by the name “the toothbrush tree.” The one problem was that it was actually considered to be an invasive weed in Jesus’ day. It gets everywhere, and sheep and goats don’t eat it. And Jesus said that a gardener intentionally planted this tree in his field! And then when the tree fully matured, birds rested on its branches. So the kingdom is like a stupid gardener who both planted weeds and invited birds into his field.

Then leaven, a second negative image in the minds of the people, is used by Jesus in a positive way to describe the kingdom. Leaven is a small piece of dough set aside from an earlier baking used to ferment an entirely new batch of flour. A woman takes this leaven, flour, and water, which comes to over 100 lbs of dough altogether, and kneads it and sets it aside to rise. This woman is a serious baker! So the kingdom is like a woman making bread and watching the dough rise.

And so in both cases, the parables are about waiting. It takes a long time for a mustard seed to mature into a tree. And it takes a long time for 100 lbs of dough to rise. The kingdom is not about helicopters, fighter jets, tanks, landing crafts, and foot soldiers crying “out with Rome” in order to dramatically and instantly bring the kingdom to fruition. It’s not about the impressive and forceful. No, the kingdom of heaven is about the unexpected accomplishing the unprecedented and unpredictable. It’s not very flashy or impressive in its inconspicuous beginnings and growth, but it is the only way to truly and fully bring good back to God’s world and to people of every nation.

Ezekiel 17:22-24 (cf 31:2-18; Dan 4:19-27)

  • Thus says the Lord God:  “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out.  I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and  I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar.  And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. 24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord;  I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up  the green tree, and make  the dry tree flourish.  I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

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March 17, 2012

St. Patrick’s Day 2012

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone. I saw this very cool infographic about the holiday on History Channel’s website and thought I’d share it. Here it is:

http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/interactives/st-patricks-day-by-the-numbers

From a missional perspective, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of as a Christian and as his church to present Christ in a unique way to our culture and communities. For this man and his holiday, now 1,551 years since his death on March 17, 461 AD, has had an enormous national and international influence on people’s lives. Probably the best book I’ve read about St. Patrick is called “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill; which is the first installment of his Hinges of History series. It gave me a newfound respect for the man Patrick as both a minister and an aspiring scholar.

Check out the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Saved-Civilization-Hinges-History/dp/0385418493/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331990754&sr=1-1

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