Today, I talked to Tony (and his partner Buddy), the "Jehovah's Witness" (I use quotation marks because, although the members of this cult claim to be witnesses of YHWH, the God of the Bible, they are false witnesses as they distort the plain truth of the Bible and impose false doctrines of man, dishonoring Him). We talked about what happens when we die, which is a big issue for JWs, who deny that man has an immortal soul and vigorously resist the truth of the existence of Hell (good JWs, they say, will be recreated by god on a perfect earth later). Since the Watchtower (the organization in charge of the cult) can't escape the fact that the word "soul" is evidently in the Bible, they have gone back to the Hebrew and Greek in an attempt to redefine it. In the Hebrew nephesh, which is properly translated soul in many places can also mean creature (Genesis 1:21 "And God created great whales, and every living nephesh that moveth..."), it can also refer (as can the English word soul) to (1) the immaterial part of a person which persists after death distinct from the body (Genesis 35:18 "and it came to pass, as her soul [nephesh] was departing (for she died)..."), (2) the "inner man" (2 Kings 4:27 "Let her alone, for her soul [nephesh] is vexed within her..."), (3) the seat of emotions and passions (Psalm 86:4 "Rejoice the soul [nephesh] of thy servant..."), and the person as a whole (Genesis 14:21 "Give me the persons [nephesh] and keep the goods thyself."). The Watchtower has deceitfully takes the first definition (creature) and the last (whole person) and claims that those are the only things that the word soul can mean in the Bible. Tony started our talk my saying it was important for us to first have a Biblical definition for soul and that the only way to do that was to examine the way it was used in the Bible. He went through some classic Watchtower verses showing only their chosen definitions in play. I warned against limiting the word to this, that it might mean creature, person, and the immaterial part of a person that persists after death. I showed him an example of it being used differently (as the seat of emotions, I was building up to other definitions, but was cut off), but he interrupted saying that he could not see how in the Bible soul could mean both living being (creature or person) and the immaterial part of a person that survives after death (so now his perceptions determine what the word must mean, rather than how it's used in the Bible?). I went to Matthew 10:28, which reads, in part: "do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." True, this is Greek, not Hebrew in the New Testament, but the word for soul in Greek, psyche, has all the same meanings as nephesh.
Well, there it was in black and white, staring at us: Jesus was telling people that the soul could survive someone killing the body--which the Watchtower absolutely denies. How did Buddy and Tony react? They dismissed the verse with an explanation that of course Jesus only meant that no man can deny us the hope of resurrection/recreation. The soul, they maintained--with the verse right in front of their face--is always killed when the body dies. Did they think Jesus was lying then? Did they think hope for the resurrection was another definition of soul? They denied both: Jesus always told the truth and soul only always means something that dies with the body, making their position logically impossible. Then they rushed off to another verse and the discussion deteriorated into further frustrating stupidity from there.
By the time they had to go and I walked back to the dorm, I was about ready to scream. How could a man be so blinded and deceived so as not to see the plain words on a page? I settled into my chair and tried to cool off. About that time, the guy next door came back, talking on his cell phone to a friend. I could hear him through the wall, struggling with what advice to give to his friend. From the snatches I overheard, I gathered that he was trying to advise his friend about his friend's girlfriend getting an abortion (in his mind, it came down to her choice, "because it's her body"--ignoring the fact that the most affected body in the procedure does not belong to the woman: the fetus/baby is a separate entity with a unique complete human genome). I was about ready to scream again and took a walk so I could do just that if I chose. What kind of a world do we live in? Why is it that a man can be so blind to the truth that he cannot recognize it in black and white on the page before him? Why is it that two men consider cutting a pregnant woman open and ripping her child from her womb, killing it, a legitimate option--and can discuss it as if it were little more than getting a nose piercing or tattoo? Why is it that we live in a world were guys getting their girlfriend's pregnant is considered normal? What kind of a messed up world is this anyway? Evil is so prevalent and so strong. "Why?" I asked.
Then, I considered God, and the heroes of stories. In stories there is a reason why dragons are huge, evil, clever, and powerful--and there is a reason why heroes will go out of their way (or else be dragged out of their way by fate) to face the meanest and most ferocious dragons of them all. The reason is simple: the greater the dragon, the greater the hero is proven to be when he defeats it. So then God also allows great evil to exist in the world. He allows it to spread, to grow, to show it's full power of depravity and darkness in the world. He does all this in order that He might battle it and defeat it in the end, thus proving two things. The first is the greatness of His majesty, power, and goodness (as with Pharaoh in Exodus 7:3-4). The second, which is also a part of the first, is His great love for us, whom He rescues from all our ills (Isaiah 27:2-4). Then let us remember to glorify God when we see the evil in the world He vows to conquer!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Only Thing That Matters
So, I was at Eikon (a special worship assembly at Faith Evangelical Free Church, all the Navs went to it this weekend instead of having NavNight), enjoying the worship songs and singing along, but I felt somewhat out of place. My mind was elsewhere, for one, which was wrong. I was distracted by recent happenings (silly ones, let me warn you). I'd been playing an online strategy game called Astro Empires. It's a persistent, real-time strategy game where you own a colony on a planet and build ships to go out and conquer the universe by building other ships, etc. Well, anyway, in the game you can only see what's going on in your own region. To see what the neighbors are up to, or even who the neighbors are, you have to build a ship and fly it over into their region. The problem is, you can't see anything about the planets of those regions (excepting where they are) until you land your ship on them. You cannot see, for instance, that the planet you've chosen to land your brand new scout ship on has a small battle fleet sitting on it--and they look like they want to eat your scout! That's what happened to me, basically. I was sending a scout (I was actually using a corvette, not a scout ship, per se--it's a little slower, but cheaper, better armed, and unlocked sooner in the game) to a neighboring region and when it landed on the planet, I found that a frigate with a full compliment of fighters was already there. I panicked and quickly moved the corvette, lest it get eaten, and then took a quick look around the region before running away. The quick look compounded the fright of coming out on top of a frigate when I saw that the player who dominated this region had a fleet he'd named "Colony Fleet." I assumed this meant he had a fleet sitting around, with which he could colonize other worlds. This boded ill for me, because I had my heart set on a rare and valuable little moon right next door to his region. I couldn't yet claim it, because I hadn't unlocked my own colony ships, nor did I have the resources to build them. But if he had a fleet of colony ships just sitting around and he spotted this moon, surely he would pounce on it and claim it long before I could get my colonization program off the ground!
Anyway, thus were the thoughts that distracted me, thoughts of my corvette's close call, and frantic plans to put together a colony ship ASAP so I could claim that precious moon. Irrelevant thoughts, I know. But God used them to make a relevant point. From thinking about how precious that moon was and what I was willing to do to secure it, my mind went to thinking of what Jesus had been willing to do to secure me. I chided myself for thinking of such foolish things as a game while I should be remembering what Christ had done for me. "The only thing matters," I told myself, "is that Jesus loves you." I then thought of all the things I should be doing, in light of that. I should be concentrating on worship instead of on a game, of course. I should be a more holy person. I shouldn't allow myself to fall into habitual sins. I thought of a whole laundry list of things I should do, but had failed to do--or just plain failed at. I felt ashamed--a failure, a sinner, unworthy of the love I was shown. But God reminded me of how He had forgiven all my sins, shames, failures, and unworthinesses--the whole list of things I've done wrong and failed to do right--, putting them away forever by the blood of His Son (Colossians 2:13-14). The only thing that matters is that He loves me, and I love Him. Oh for grace to love Him more!
Anyway, thus were the thoughts that distracted me, thoughts of my corvette's close call, and frantic plans to put together a colony ship ASAP so I could claim that precious moon. Irrelevant thoughts, I know. But God used them to make a relevant point. From thinking about how precious that moon was and what I was willing to do to secure it, my mind went to thinking of what Jesus had been willing to do to secure me. I chided myself for thinking of such foolish things as a game while I should be remembering what Christ had done for me. "The only thing matters," I told myself, "is that Jesus loves you." I then thought of all the things I should be doing, in light of that. I should be concentrating on worship instead of on a game, of course. I should be a more holy person. I shouldn't allow myself to fall into habitual sins. I thought of a whole laundry list of things I should do, but had failed to do--or just plain failed at. I felt ashamed--a failure, a sinner, unworthy of the love I was shown. But God reminded me of how He had forgiven all my sins, shames, failures, and unworthinesses--the whole list of things I've done wrong and failed to do right--, putting them away forever by the blood of His Son (Colossians 2:13-14). The only thing that matters is that He loves me, and I love Him. Oh for grace to love Him more!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The Image of Holiness
So these are some thoughts I had while John Meyer was preaching on Genesis a couple weeks ago, and afterwards while doing my study with the Navigators on the first few chapters of Jerry Bridge's The Pursuit of Holiness. I really wanted to journal them, so I could see what they were, and then as I said my blog is a public journal, so the rest is history.
First of all, John made some really good points about how we as humans are special creatures. Two points particularly affected me. The first was that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). This isn't a new idea to me, really, but it is one that I've struggled to understand. What exactly does it mean that we're made in God's image? I often picture it like a mirror: we are not God, but God made us to reflect something of Himself--His character, His nature. Then, John made a second point by comparing the commands God used to create things. He when He made fish, He said, "Let the waters bring forth [fish]" (Genesis 1:20). When He made animals, He said, "Let the earth bring forth [animals]" (Genesis 1:24). But when God created man, He said, "Let us make man" (Genesis 1:26). This is significant to me. Although animals and fish are alive, ultimately they belong to the earth. They came from it, consist of it, and will return to it. But humankind is different. Though our bodies are composed of dust, our souls come forth from God, consist in Him (Acts 17:28), and return to Him--whether for welcome or condemnation (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Thus, we are more than a simple mirror. We are the likenesses and ambassadors of God--made by Him of His own power, love, and ingenuity (and probably no small part of His sense of humor, too :) --built into Creation to represent and resemble Him.
The second thing, then, should have come as no surprise. It was this, that God calls us to be holy. This was one of the main points of the Jerry Bridges study. Again, this was nothing new to me. I knew that God demanded perfect holiness and could stand nothing less. Sometimes I wondered why, but never really understood. He was good enough to explain Himself in the Bible, in various ways, among them Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:14-16: which say "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Still, I didn't get it. Why was God so keen on having us be like Himself? Then, I put two and two together: God wants us to be holy because He's holy, our being holy is meant to reflect His own holiness--and He wants us to reflect this aspect of His character and nature because that is our primary purpose, our designated function from creation. God designed us to operate as images of His own self, and is naturally concerned that we live holy lives. Not only is that our designed function, but also it is His image and character that we represent--consciously or unconsciously, accurately or slanderously. He also is in love with us. Truly, He has quite a stake in the venture of our personal holiness!
How greatly we disappoint Him! We have each of us fallen short of His glory--His holiness--and fallen short drastically (Romans 3:23 and 3:10-18). We sin daily, in ways big and small, too numerous to count. It is not only the obvious sins (greed, envy, murder, hatred, lust, etc) that count against us, but even more subtle sins--whatever fails to accurately reflect and represent the holiness of God Himself, whose image we are made to be. How marred His image is in us! God cannot abide sin and unholiness in us, not simply because of His distaste for all things evil, but because the slightest sin in us is a slander against His character. We were meant to be His ambassadors in the world, our every action, thought, and feeling representing Him. When we sin, we slander Him. We are essentially telling the world: "See, this is what God is like: God is a liar," or "God is greedy and uncharitable," or "God is lustful," or "God is proud and scornful." How can God, whose actual character is holy above all reproach--who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:15-16)--stand to have His character so maligned? We have marred His masterwork, ourselves, and in the process mocked and spat upon the face of Him whose shoes we are not worthy to remove (John 1:27, spoken by John the Baptist, whom of whom Christ said, "Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John"--Matthew 11:11). God cannot allow such sins to go unpunished. He cannot allow such vile effigies of His holy character to survive. In His holy justice, He must destroy us all with hellfire.
But God has a problem. For reasons only He can understand, He has fallen in love with us. Yes, we're vile and despicable in our sins, but His heart is compassionate and--perhaps--He sees beyond the vile things we are and sees what beings He can make us into. Whatever the cause, scripture is clear on the fact of God's love for us even while we were sinners, and its astounding magnitude (Romans 5:8). Our faults are incurable and our just fate is inevitable, but with God nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26). Moved by His great love, the Father sent the Son, fully God, to take on the role of a man. Where we had been misrepresenting God in so many horrible ways, God Himself stepped onto the stage and became His own representative, His own image (Colossians 1:15). To say the least, He was a natural. He showed us how it was done, and truly He was the only one who could. No one could teach fallen man how to live as the image of God except God Himself, living as His own image. Jesus fully and perfectly fulfilled the original design for man, and then, He showed us something new. He showed us His love for us by the most graphic public display of affection in the history of the world (remember Romans 5:8?). He gave Himself up to be scourged, beaten, mocked, and crucified--dying the most torturous death mankind has ever devised. In so doing, He took the full measure of the just wrath of God. All the punishment that God had been reserving for us, who defiled His image in the world, He poured out on His Son--the only one who had perfectly displayed His image. Instead of smashing all the disfigured statues of Himself, He smashed the one perfect representation. When He looks on us now--who put our faith in this--, that's what He sees: He sees His Son, the image of perfect holiness, giving His life for ours (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But God (that's one of my favorite phrases, have you noticed?) isn't satisfied with that. It isn't enough for Him to leave us as distorted images of His holiness, reconciled to Him through a perfect sacrifice. He wants us to be what we were meant to be. He wants us to be like His Son. So he still commands us: "Be holy for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). We still sin, we can't seem to help it, but God has not left us helpless in our sins. He has given us His Spirit--fully divine--to mold us into the holy ones He wants us to be. Truly, the Christian quest for personal holiness is vain without the Holy Spirit--for how can we learn to represent God in His perfect holiness unless He teaches us Himself (John 14:26)?
Well, I finally finished it! It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but most of that was just not taking the time to write it up. Thanks for reading!
First of all, John made some really good points about how we as humans are special creatures. Two points particularly affected me. The first was that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). This isn't a new idea to me, really, but it is one that I've struggled to understand. What exactly does it mean that we're made in God's image? I often picture it like a mirror: we are not God, but God made us to reflect something of Himself--His character, His nature. Then, John made a second point by comparing the commands God used to create things. He when He made fish, He said, "Let the waters bring forth [fish]" (Genesis 1:20). When He made animals, He said, "Let the earth bring forth [animals]" (Genesis 1:24). But when God created man, He said, "Let us make man" (Genesis 1:26). This is significant to me. Although animals and fish are alive, ultimately they belong to the earth. They came from it, consist of it, and will return to it. But humankind is different. Though our bodies are composed of dust, our souls come forth from God, consist in Him (Acts 17:28), and return to Him--whether for welcome or condemnation (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Thus, we are more than a simple mirror. We are the likenesses and ambassadors of God--made by Him of His own power, love, and ingenuity (and probably no small part of His sense of humor, too :) --built into Creation to represent and resemble Him.
The second thing, then, should have come as no surprise. It was this, that God calls us to be holy. This was one of the main points of the Jerry Bridges study. Again, this was nothing new to me. I knew that God demanded perfect holiness and could stand nothing less. Sometimes I wondered why, but never really understood. He was good enough to explain Himself in the Bible, in various ways, among them Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:14-16: which say "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Still, I didn't get it. Why was God so keen on having us be like Himself? Then, I put two and two together: God wants us to be holy because He's holy, our being holy is meant to reflect His own holiness--and He wants us to reflect this aspect of His character and nature because that is our primary purpose, our designated function from creation. God designed us to operate as images of His own self, and is naturally concerned that we live holy lives. Not only is that our designed function, but also it is His image and character that we represent--consciously or unconsciously, accurately or slanderously. He also is in love with us. Truly, He has quite a stake in the venture of our personal holiness!
How greatly we disappoint Him! We have each of us fallen short of His glory--His holiness--and fallen short drastically (Romans 3:23 and 3:10-18). We sin daily, in ways big and small, too numerous to count. It is not only the obvious sins (greed, envy, murder, hatred, lust, etc) that count against us, but even more subtle sins--whatever fails to accurately reflect and represent the holiness of God Himself, whose image we are made to be. How marred His image is in us! God cannot abide sin and unholiness in us, not simply because of His distaste for all things evil, but because the slightest sin in us is a slander against His character. We were meant to be His ambassadors in the world, our every action, thought, and feeling representing Him. When we sin, we slander Him. We are essentially telling the world: "See, this is what God is like: God is a liar," or "God is greedy and uncharitable," or "God is lustful," or "God is proud and scornful." How can God, whose actual character is holy above all reproach--who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:15-16)--stand to have His character so maligned? We have marred His masterwork, ourselves, and in the process mocked and spat upon the face of Him whose shoes we are not worthy to remove (John 1:27, spoken by John the Baptist, whom of whom Christ said, "Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John"--Matthew 11:11). God cannot allow such sins to go unpunished. He cannot allow such vile effigies of His holy character to survive. In His holy justice, He must destroy us all with hellfire.
But God has a problem. For reasons only He can understand, He has fallen in love with us. Yes, we're vile and despicable in our sins, but His heart is compassionate and--perhaps--He sees beyond the vile things we are and sees what beings He can make us into. Whatever the cause, scripture is clear on the fact of God's love for us even while we were sinners, and its astounding magnitude (Romans 5:8). Our faults are incurable and our just fate is inevitable, but with God nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26). Moved by His great love, the Father sent the Son, fully God, to take on the role of a man. Where we had been misrepresenting God in so many horrible ways, God Himself stepped onto the stage and became His own representative, His own image (Colossians 1:15). To say the least, He was a natural. He showed us how it was done, and truly He was the only one who could. No one could teach fallen man how to live as the image of God except God Himself, living as His own image. Jesus fully and perfectly fulfilled the original design for man, and then, He showed us something new. He showed us His love for us by the most graphic public display of affection in the history of the world (remember Romans 5:8?). He gave Himself up to be scourged, beaten, mocked, and crucified--dying the most torturous death mankind has ever devised. In so doing, He took the full measure of the just wrath of God. All the punishment that God had been reserving for us, who defiled His image in the world, He poured out on His Son--the only one who had perfectly displayed His image. Instead of smashing all the disfigured statues of Himself, He smashed the one perfect representation. When He looks on us now--who put our faith in this--, that's what He sees: He sees His Son, the image of perfect holiness, giving His life for ours (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But God (that's one of my favorite phrases, have you noticed?) isn't satisfied with that. It isn't enough for Him to leave us as distorted images of His holiness, reconciled to Him through a perfect sacrifice. He wants us to be what we were meant to be. He wants us to be like His Son. So he still commands us: "Be holy for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). We still sin, we can't seem to help it, but God has not left us helpless in our sins. He has given us His Spirit--fully divine--to mold us into the holy ones He wants us to be. Truly, the Christian quest for personal holiness is vain without the Holy Spirit--for how can we learn to represent God in His perfect holiness unless He teaches us Himself (John 14:26)?
Well, I finally finished it! It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but most of that was just not taking the time to write it up. Thanks for reading!
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