Gods Character Blog

In Defense of Freedom

dorothee — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:49:25 -0800

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." Benjamin Franklin

Since 9/11, our world has changed dramatically. It may not be so obvious in the average person’s life but it is nonetheless profound. America is changing. The Patriot Act signed in 2001 gave our government “authorization of indefinite detentions of immigrants; searches through which law enforcement officers search a home or business without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge (1); the expanded use of National Security Letters, which allows the FBI to search telephone, e-mail, and financial records without a court order, and the expanded access of law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records” (2). On December 31, 2011, the American president signed the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) which gives him (as well as members of the Armed Forces) authority to indefinitely hold U.S. citizens arrested on American soil without probably cause and thus without trial (3). Internet censorship is a hot topic as both the Senate and House of Representatives are working on bills that could shut down offending websites. Concerns over this issue led many website such as Wikipedia to shut down for a day in protest. Finally, surveillance via drones is not only used overseas but also domestically to ensure our safety. Security is competing with liberty and the latter seems to be losing. Is this constraint on freedom a Christian issue?

Americans did not hesitate to give up their lives for the cause for liberty just over 200 years ago. Do they feel less passionate about it today? Why are so few citizens aware, much less bothered, when the most beautiful document ever devised in the history of government, the American Constitution and Bill of Rights, is losing authority? Or do we need security at the expense of liberty? It was for the sake of security that “the president has made clear, in one of his signing statements, that he retains the power to engage in torture regardless of congressional statues to the contrary” (4). How do Christians today view these developments? A 2009 survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that it was white evangelical Christians who are most likely to support torture, compared with people who rarely or never attend religious services (5). Isn’t a Christian “one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ” (6)?

The tightening of our liberties, increasing surveillance, and the use of force seem to be accepted as “unavoidable” and even “necessary” by most American citizens. How is it possible that Christ’s followers not only condone but support such measures? Are we Christians embarrassed by Jesus’ statements? Is Jesus’ ideology unrealistic for our lives? Our world? Was Thomas Jefferson right when he said that, “In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty” (7)?

God’s Son refused all forms of violence (8). He never inflicted physical or emotional pain on his listeners; instead he fed the hungry, healed the sick and even protected his enemy from violence (9). He warned Peter that those who live by the sword would die by the sword (10). He himself was tortured and did not retaliate. He did not allow the violence of his enemies to define him. Instead, he steadfastly lived by God’s law of love, honoring our freedom to accept or reject him. Our freedom was so paramount for him that he gladly paid the price for it—his own life at our hands. God’s love for us is so great that he limited his own freedom to assure ours.

The way God has chosen to deal with evil confirms that freedom is at the foundation of his government. The Almighty could have chosen to wipe out his enemy, Satan, from the very beginning. But he allowed the opposition a voice; he knew that evil could not be defeated by force but only by the truth given with love, leaving people free. Only persuasion by demonstration can evoke love, force and coercion have no place in God’s government.

Love. Freedom.

One can’t be without the other. If God cannot enforce love, we can’t either. Whatever the prevailing principles of our respective country, of our world, Christians can’t afford to compromise on God’s principles. Violence, force, and deception are not part of God’s kingdom. We can only bring his kingdom to this earth when we are faithful to his principles. And freedom is one of those fundamental principles that distinguishes God’s ways from those of his enemy. As Christians, let us emulate Jesus by forsaking violence and coercion as means to gain control over others. Faithfulness rather than effectiveness; Liberty rather than force; Truth rather than lies; Love rather than fear.

“Everyone has become a captive of a fateful illusion that believes itself able to drive out evil by force. In this world where we everywhere marshal force against force, we must learn that force at best may succeed in containing a few manifestations of evil, but it can never conquer or eliminate evil. On the contrary, the force with which we fight evil has mainly the consequence that we ourselves become the victims of evil. As we resort to force against others, evil attacks us from behind and makes us evil ourselves.” Helmut Gollwitzer

References:

(1)The Fourth Amendment of the American Constitution states that, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act

(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act for_Fiscal_Year_2012

(4) Paul, Ron. The Revolution, 2008: p. 119.

(5) http://articles.cnn.com/2009-05-22/us/torture.christian_1_support-torture-god-and-country-new-testament?_s=PM:US

(6) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/christian

(7) http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/TJ.html

(8) One could argue that Jesus showed violence when he overturned the furniture or sent the spirits into the pigs which then drowned in the water. However, it’s noteworthy that during Christ’s “violent” act, children came running to him and tortured human beings were given back their dignity.

(9) Luke 12:51

(10) Matthew 26:52

Ezekiel's Vision: Who is on the Throne?

brad — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 06:54:16 -0700

Ezekiel’s vision of the four living creatures and the “wheel within a wheel” contains some of the most complex imagery in the entire bible. Some have even speculated that what Ezekiel actually saw was a UFO! Is this vision a literal depiction of heavenly realities or is it rather symbolic of something? What was the meaning to the people of Ezekiel’s time? What is the meaning for us? What does this vision contribute to our picture of God’s character?

The single most helpful method of biblical interpretation is to allow every story to be filtered through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ revelation of God’s heart, mind, and character is the gold standard that should be used to illuminate every other passage of scripture. For example, many have been rightly troubled about the “eye for an eye” rules in the Old Testament (OT). If we bring this concern to Jesus we discover that this command was far from the ideal. Jesus said that the difficult stories in the OT were “a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended” (Matthew 19:8). Jesus’ words lead us to take a harder look at the OT and to see that during that time, the system of justice was based on escalating vengeance: You insult me, I punch you, you burn my field down, I hit you with an axe, and on and on. Escalating violence was the rule. “Eye for an eye” was actually a way of limiting violence during that time, but it is light years from the ideal. Jesus tells us to “grow up” and that we should instead love our enemies and pray for them. We should bring every question about the OT and about God (including Ezekiel’s vision) to the life of Jesus.

So what does Jesus have to do with Ezekiel’s vision? First of all, it is somewhat surprising that above all the complex descriptions of the living creatures with four faces and wheels within wheels sits a throne and that the One on the throne “was a figure that looked like a human being” (Ezekiel 1:26). Since the only imagery that could be used to describe what is “under” God’s throne is so bizarre we can hardly wrap our minds around it, I would think that when the “camera” shifts up to the throne the scene would be a thousand times more complex - - something like a gaseous multicolored light with a million dimensions of prisms that rotate in all directions. But instead, what we see on the throne is someone that looks like a man. Is God a man? Is the Almighty God a human being with eyes, ears and toes?

God’s humble condescension throughout the bible to meet our needs is quite remarkable and I think Ezekiel’s vision of the One on the throne portrayed as a human being is a part of that picture. A case can be made that the God of the OT was the Son of God, Jesus – though not known by that name until he became a helpless baby. At the burning bush, God declared that he is the “I Am”, a title that Jesus used of himself: “Before Abraham was born, ‘I Am’” (John 8:58). Jesus’ audience understood what he was saying and were so outraged at this blasphemy that “they picked up stones to throw at him” (John 5:59). As another example of this, when the angry mob came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, “Who is it you are looking for?’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they answered.’ I am,’ he said…When Jesus said to them, ‘I am,’ they moved back and fell to the ground” (John 18:3-6). Most translations of the bible add the word “I am he” but the “he” is supplied. Jesus literally said to them “I am” and when he declared himself to be God in human form, they collapsed to the ground.

Paul said that the God who traveled with the Israelites through the desert was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). It was Jesus who came to Hagar, Jacob, Moses and Gideon as “The Angel of the Lord” and if you read on in those stories, each of these individuals later claimed to have seen the face of God. If we are offended that God would stoop to be referred to as an “Angel” it gets much worse. Jesus called himself the “Son of Man” – a Man of Nazareth, a place of which it was said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)

God meets us where we are, and what we have needed is a God that we can identify with. Jacob needed a God who would wrestle with him in the dirt all night and we desperately needed a God who would reveal the true nature of his kingdom not merely with words proclaimed from a distant throne, but in human form. The question for now is, what need was Jesus meeting during the time of Ezekiel?

This was one of the lowest times in the history of Israel. The ten northern tribes were lost in the Assyrian captivity and now the Babylonians were taking the rest captive. A terrible siege of Jerusalem was just a few short years away. Jeremiah warned the people that if they did not surrender to the Babylonians, starvation would reach a point that parents would even eat their own children (Jeremiah 19:9). Life seemed chaotic and God appeared to have completely abandoned his people. The mindset was, “The LORD doesn’t see us! He has abandoned the country” (Ezekiel 8:12). Even Jeremiah would ask God, “Have you rejected us forever? Is there no limit to your anger?” (Lamentations 5:2).

In order to address this need, God revealed to Ezekiel a vision that was complex, but yet far from chaotic. The four living creatures orderly move in perfect symmetry without having to turn their heads. The wheels within wheels are covered by eyes and are themselves controlled by the creatures. In the midst of the creatures are flaming torches and lightening and all of this was ruled over by God who sits above it all on his throne. In other words, God is not chaotic and weak despite the earthly circumstances that might lead one to that conclusion.

It is also worth noting that Ezekiel had the same vision a second time, but with a significant additional detail. In chapter 10, a man wearing linen clothes is told to “Go between the wheels under the creatures and fill your hands with burning coals. Then scatter the coals over the city” (Ezekiel 10:2). To the concern that God had abandoned his people and was disengaged, this vision reveals a God who is fully involved as the four living creatures with their wheels and even God on his throne descend on the city.

I’d like to think that this vision was an encouragement to the people of that time. “God is not weak and he has not abandoned us.” It’s true that life in that time was chaotic, but that doesn’t mean that God has lost control. God is constantly adapting to our rebellion and working to bring something good out of it.

This interpretation of a powerful God who is in control (even if we can’t appreciate that from our perspective) has meaning for us as well, but if we take the bible as a whole and if we allow Jesus to reinterpret the imagery, this vision has an additional, unfolding reality. About 700 years later, John received essentially the same vision which is recorded in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. John also saw God on his throne and, like the vision of Ezekiel, he “gleamed” and was surrounded by a rainbow. Both visions with the four living creatures with wings, flashes of lightening and burning torches are unmistakably described in parallel.*

If you were Ezekiel or John and had the opportunity to ask questions about the vision and to have some clarification as to the meaning, what would you ask? Would you want to know more about the eyes, the four living creatures or the flaming torches? The most important questions always have to do with God and I like the fact that the camera lens in Revelation has a distinctive focus to clarify something of great importance about the Person on the throne.

In Revelation, the four living beings in God’s presence continually praise God with the words, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty…” Then there are twenty-four elders that fall down and worship God saying, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power…” But then in the midst of all the brilliant light, color, music and enthusiastic praise a question is asked that quite frankly seems ridiculous!

“Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: ‘Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?’” (Revelation 5:1-2)

What is strange about this question is that God is on his throne holding the scroll. Isn’t he worthy to open it? Also, we just heard the enthusiastic praise for God from the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders, “Holy, holy, holy….you are worthy…” and on and on. If God is already declared to be worthy, why would a “strong angel” ask “Who is worthy to break the seals?”

Shouldn’t at least one angel (or perhaps even John himself) have said, “You open it God. If you aren’t worthy to open it then no one is!”

But no one said a word. Instead, as the “Almighty”, “holy” and “worthy” God holds the scroll in his hand, “No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it.” (Revelation 5:3-4)

Suddenly a solution presents itself, and this is the additional unfolding meaning that we do not receive in Ezekiel’s vision. A new figure comes onto the stage and stands in the midst of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders:

“But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne.” (Revelation 5:5-7)

What is the meaning of all this? First of all, who is the first individual sitting on the throne and receiving all the praise? Although we might assume that this represents the Father, his title is, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.” (Revelation 4:8). This is the title used for Jesus both in the beginning and end of the Revelation:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8)

“Listen!’ said Jesus…‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:12-13)

The meaning of the brilliant “Lord God Almighty” handing the scroll to the slaughtered Lamb is not the Father handing something to his Son. Rather, I think what is being described is a dramatic transition in our understanding of who God is.

In other words, after a description of praise for God from the four living creatures and then the twenty four elders, there is essentially a challenge to God’s worthiness to be enthroned as God. Jesus rose to the challenge and vindicated God’s character and worthiness. The result of Jesus' life and death is a “new song” and a dramatic amplification of praise for God:

“They sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.’ Again I looked, and I heard angels, thousands and millions of them! They stood around the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders, and sang in a loud voice: ‘The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, and strength, honor, glory, and praise!’ And I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, in the world below, and in the sea---all living beings in the universe---and they were singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor, glory and might, forever and ever!’” (Revelation 5:9-13)

The amplification of praise is key to understanding this vision. First four and then twenty four praise the One on the throne. After the Christ event, however, “thousands and millions” of angels and “every creature in heaven, on earth, in the world below, and in the sea---all living beings in the universe…” giving their praise to God because of what Jesus revealed about God!

Instead of focusing primarily on the identity of the four living creatures and the twenty four elders, John’s vision is constructed in a way to reveal this message about God: prior to the life and death of Jesus, God received praise from four and twenty four; after the life and death of Jesus, a “new song” (a new understanding about God) and praise from countless millions both in heaven and on the earth. All of this is possible because of Jesus’ revelation of who God really is.

During Ezekiel’s time, a vision was needed to show that God was still present and powerful. Ezekiel’s vision attempted to address that concern, yet there were still questions about his character. God himself would say during Ezekiel’s time that his character had been grossly misrepresented:

“Wherever they went, they gave me a bad name. People said, ‘These are GOD’s people, but they got kicked off his land.’ I suffered much pain over my holy reputation, which the people of Israel blackened in every country they entered. ‘Therefore, tell Israel…I’m not doing this for you, Israel. I’m doing it for me, to save my character, my holy name, which you've blackened in every country where you’ve gone. I’m going to put my great and holy name on display, the name that has been ruined in so many countries, the name that you blackened wherever you went.” (Ezekiel 36:20-23 MSG)

God took a great risk by involving himself with such a rebellious people during the Old Testament. God’s reputation was dragged through the mud time and time again. Even today, critics line up to declare that the God of the OT is a vindictive and angry monster. Is God really worthy? Something had to be done to reveal that God was more than the most powerful being in the universe. And so, onto the universal stage comes Jesus, the violently slaughtered Lamb. Jesus reveals that God is anything but a vindictive monster. Jesus is the clearest revelation of God’s character – a God whose heart cries out for the suffering, the poor, the outcasts, and the mistreated. Jesus reveals that the deepest core of God’s character is self-sacrificial love personified. In Jesus we see that God IS worthy!

This vision would not have played well during the time of Ezekiel. Imagine being held captive in Babylon and you are told of a vision that revealed God to be a slaughtered Lamb? Would that be good news? Surely this would have mystified and discouraged the people of that time. Because of the life of God in human form, however, we are allowed to experience an unfolding reality. Perhaps we are now attracted to living out the kind of self-sacrifical love that Jesus revealed and to follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Our message as Christians is much more important than revealing God to be powerful – we get that message from Ezekiel. The message for Christ-followers today is that God is exactly as Jesus revealed him to be:

"The historic Christian doctrine of the divinity of Christ does not simply mean that Jesus is like God. It is far more radical than that. It means that God is like Jesus." D. Elton Trueblood

* There are slight variations in John’s vision. The creatures in Revelation, for example, have 6 wings instead of 4 and this time the wings are covered with eyes instead of the wheels.

God's Kingdom vs. Transformers

Admin — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:27:39 -0700

We recently had the unenviable "opportunity" to watch Transformers 3, a movie that Roger Ebert gave one star and described as "a visually ugly film with an incoherent plot, wooden characters and inane dialog. It provided me with one of the more unpleasant experiences I've had at the movies." For us, however, the movie served as a reminder of how different God's kingdom is from any kingdom of the world.

At the very end of the movie, the "hero" Optimus Prime has the inevitable showdown battle with the deceiver, Sentinal Prime. Sparing the details, the fight ends with Sentinal lying on the ground pleading for mercy. Optimus refuses to listen and shoots him in the back of the head - execution style.

Problem solved, wild applause from the audience, THE END.

This is the basic formula used for most action movies. A villain uses treachery to gain power, rules with cruelty and an iron fist, and then is defeated by a humble, underdog hero. The theological point of all this is to consider a basic question: by what means do the heroes in popular movies defeat the villain? In virtually every case, it is through violent methods using weapons that range from swords and guns to light sabers and phasers. With only slight variation in terms of plot, this is the only option available to the good guys.

It seems that we have been brainwashed by everything from real world history to fantasy movies to believe that this is the only way to defeat a violent enemy.

God's kingdom, however, is nothing like this.

God's kingdom looks entirely different.

Unlike the heroes in action movies, God is not an underdog who is slightly outmatched by his Adversary in the power arena. God has all the power and could vanquish all evil forces with a thought. Yet his means of defeating the ultimate enemy was not through violent means. His weapon was unthinkable: to become a baby, humbly serve, and finally to lay down his life instead of using his power to eliminate the enemy.

We need to take another look at God's kingdom as revealed by Jesus and to discover that the power of his kingdom is not in the arena of bright lights, muscle, "wind, earthquake and fire."

"Everyone has become a captive of a fateful illusion that believes itself able to drive out evil by force. In this world where we everywhere marshal force against force, we must learn that force at best may succeed in containing a few manifestations of evil, but it can never conquer or eliminate evil. On the contrary, the force with which we fight evil has mainly the consequence that we ourselves become the victims of evil. As we resort to force against others, evil attacks us from behind and makes us evil ourselves." - Helmut Gollwitzer

The Christians and Their Spineless God

brad — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:28:45 -0700

About the year 175 in the Christian era, perhaps in the year 177, a new book hit the bookstores in the Roman World. The emperor at that time was Marcus Aurelius, notable for his enlightened beliefs but also for allowing persecution of Christians in many places in the empire. The author of the book was the philosopher Celsus, and the title was On the True Doctrine, hardly a title destined to make the book a bestseller.

But the book is remarkable for a number of reasons, the first of which is that it was written at all. Why would a non-Christian author like Celsus, a philosopher of some note, write a book on the Christians and their beliefs? Part of the answer is no doubt that Celsus did not like the teachings of believers in Jesus. But this is not the whole answer. Admitting that we know very little about Celsus, we can be sure that he disliked many things that did not bother him enough to become the subject of a book.

The other element that helps explain Celsus’ book, therefore, is the growing influence of Christianity. The new faith was impacting the Roman world; it could no longer be ignored; its influence was reaching the educated tier of the empire. Celsus’ book set for itself the task of countering the influence of the Christian message. In this sense his book was the first of its kind. It would not, as is well known, be the last.

click here to download the rest of the article by Dr. Sigve Tonstad

A Note on "Silence in Heaven"

brad — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:17:56 -0700

A Note on ‘Silence in Heaven’

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour (Rev 8:1).

This is a strange text, to say the least. It is also a text that knows more than it says, a detail from the panoramic mural depicting the end of all things in Revelation. If ever there was a need to grasp the whole in order to make sense of the parts, this text would be it.

Consider the following elements:

1. When the sealed scroll is introduced in the heavenly council (5:1-2), it is understood that the scroll represents a reality that weighs heavily on the heavenly councilors. Moreover, drawing on the allusion to Ezekiel 2:9-10, it is evident that the scroll to a large extent represents a known reality, a reality of “lamentation, and mourning, and woe” (Ezek 2:10).

2. No one has what it takes to open the scroll (5:3). This is the moment of silence at the beginning. I think this moment should be understood in the following way: First, a mighty angel calls out in a loud voice, “Who has what it takes to open the scroll and break its seals?” The question focuses the problem facing the heavenly council. And what is the answer? There is no answer. Or rather, the answer is silence, “unaccustomed silence,” as one commentator has put it.

Why is it so hard to find anyone who has what it takes to open the scroll? Why, and I am imagining this, is everyone staring at the floor? Why are all squirming in their seats, including the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders? Why isn’t anyone saying anything? Why do the members of the heavenly search committee return to session, having screened potential candidates in heaven, on earth, and in the netherworld only to report back to the committee that they found no one who could do it (5:3)?

Let us imagine that the sealed scroll represents a proposal that comes before the heavenly council for a vote. Will anyone vote for it? Will anyone even ask to speak on its behalf? The answer is ‘no’ on both counts. Will anyone vote against it? Silence is the answer to this question because silence is tantamount to a ‘nay’ vote. Silence is a de facto vote against human reality in its present form and a vote against the divine plan of action with respect to present human reality.

We have a workable analogy in The Brothers Karamazov. Ivan Karamazov has argued that the suffering of innocent children is not worth the price whatever high and inscrutable purpose God may have in mind. Toward the end of his tirade, he extracts from Alyosha the concession that if it were up to him, he, no more than Ivan, would not agree to let the tears of even one little child be one of the building blocks of future harmony. “Would you agree to be the architect on such conditions?” Ivan demands to know. (1) “No, I would not agree,” Alyosha answers softly. (2)

The four living creatures, the twenty-four elders, and the multitude of voting members in the heavenly council say even less, but their silence has the same meaning. No, they would not agree to be the architects of present human reality. Specifically, they find the divine plan of action to be woefully inadequate. The silence at the beginning of the proceedings in the heavenly council is therefore the silence of disapproval. We could also call it the silence of distress.

What we have, in so many words, is a crisis in the heavenly council. We are witnessing a crisis of confidence in the divine government.

3. The Lamb that has been brutally slaughtered, now appearing in the middle, is God’s solution to this crisis. He has “won the war;” he has what it takes to take the scroll and to break its seals (5:5). Can we break this down to some of its constituent elements?

First, the Lamb does not change present human reality. The content of the scroll, the source of the distress, is not altered. The first four horses are not sent out to pasture in meadows of green; the content of the scroll is still “lamentation, and mourning, and woe” (Ezek 2:10).

Second, the Lamb’s ability to open the scroll is inseparable from the reality of “being slaughtered” (5:6). This is the most important fact in the immediate context; indeed, the most important scene in the entire book. Why is it that Jesus, himself a victim of violence, has what it takes for the heavenly council to come to terms with a reality that threatens its confidence in God? We cannot afford not to have some sense of why this revelation makes the difference.

Third, then, the slaughtered Lamb should be seen both as a fact of history and as a divine commitment. I’ll take a shortcut here, but I do not think I am running much of a risk: God has not authorized suffering in its excruciating particularity, but He has authorized freedom. The distress (and disgust) in the heavenly council cannot be seen only as a repudiation of suffering. It must also be seen as a critique of the ideology that made suffering possible. And what is that ideology? It cannot be anything other than freedom. God has authorized freedom, to be sure. Is the heavenly council telling him to surrender this commitment? Revelation, as I understand it, actually says that the heavenly council has lost confidence in the principle and policy of freedom.

But now, in the presence of the slaughtered Lamb, the council has second thoughts. The members are reconsidering their vote. The slaughtered Lamb, therefore, is both an act of revelation and of persuasion. God has in Christ entered human history in defense of His ideology of freedom. Freedom, we are told, will not be surrendered. God has not, as the usual story goes, mainly paid a high price for our salvation. He has also paid a high price for freedom. He has, as it were, drawn a line in the sand, insisting that He will not retreat on freedom.

This statement is not lost on the heavenly council (5:8-14). The impact is profound and immediate. Admitting imperfection as to how this should be expressed, we might say that Jesus has championed the cause of freedom to such an extent that the heavenly councilors decide to change their vote.

Fourth, looking downstream in the story, freedom is writ large on other features in Revelation. At the end there is a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem (21:1-2). Readers have wondered whether the city represents ‘place’ or ‘people,’ often opting for ‘people’ as the preferred interpretation (cf. 21:2, 10; 19:7, 8). But the city is also a place. And it is a place espousing a certain ideology to the point that it will check would-be entrants at the gate as to whether they want to live in such a city. A city where the gates are never shut and where there is no night (21:25) must be a place that has staked its future on freedom – trusting its inhabitants to make it a safe place apart from any external constraints or surveillance.

4. It is now time to move to the seventh seal and to the silence at the end (8:1). What lies between the introduction of the sealed scroll and the breaking of the seventh seal cannot be seen only as a reality that unfolds along a temporal axis in a simple linear action. To the extent that we keep our eyes on a linear or sequential action in history, we must relate it to the problem that the story is addressing. And the primary purpose of this story is not to foretell history but to solve the deepest problem of theology and existence. The ‘silence at the end’ will not resonate –if silence can resonate – unless we relate it to the silence at the beginning.

It should be quite easy to anticipate that the silence at the end is different from the silence at the beginning. Silence of doubt and disapproval has been replaced by silence of awe and wonder. Why, however, does this silence occur only at the end of the revealing reality? Why does it not happen until we get to the seventh seal?

This brings us to the reason why I believe the seventh seal (8:1) is the worthiest text for the ending of Revelation, better than other worthy candidates. I’ll break this down into four points:

First, on the point of structure, neither a scheme of recapitulation nor a scheme of sequential events is adequate for the relationship between the seals, trumpets, and bowls. Calling ours a ‘revelatory view’ (in contrast to recapitulation or sequential view) is better, but its structure defies simple spatial categories, three parallel lines for recapitulation and three cycles of seven lined up in sequence for the sequential view. A better image is the notion of a “wheel within a wheel” (Ezekiel 1:16; 10:10). This notion accommodates a more complex and dynamic relationship between these cycles, and it is respectful of the character of the divine action that comes to view in Ezekiel, a very important background text for the setting of Revelation. Our attempt to represent this is too simple, but I think it is a step in the right direction. In the representation below, the silence at the end occurs at the tip of the arrow.

Second, on the point of narrative, the seventh seal is unique in making silence its ‘content.’ All the other seals refer conspicuously to events in the arena of history. ‘Silence in heaven,’ however, is a response and not an event, or rather, it is a response to things that have been revealed. The sixth seal (6:12-17), for instance, seems to denote a reality that roughly corresponds to the second coming of Jesus, or the ending of the seventh bowl (16:20), or the judgment (20:11), or all of them together. The seventh seal is subsequent to the sixth, and is, in my proposal, subsequent to everything that is revealed in Revelation. It is the ultimate scene and the bottom line for the revealing intent of the book. The seventh seal unveils the response to all that has been revealed, and the response is one of awed approval and stunned silence. To be sure, the silence of disapproval at the beginning has been turned into a silence vastly exceeding what the tame notion of ‘approval’ is able to convey. Phrasing this in terminology that might resonate in Loma Linda, we might say that at the beginning we have the question, ‘Can God be trusted?’ At the end we have the answer, and the answer is ‘yes.’ “Just as there were many who were astonished at him—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals—so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate” (Isa 52:14-15).

Third, between the appearance of the Lamb in the middle (5:6) and the breaking of the seventh seal (8:1) human and cosmic reality have been fully revealed. On this point it will be necessary to modify my earlier contention that the sealed scroll contains a known reality only. Obviously, it contains more than that. Specifically, looking at its content from the point of view of the ending, it also contains the resolution of the cosmic conflict: the attempt of the demonic to steal the identity of the Lamb (13:1-18), the battle of Harmagedon (16:12-16), and the demise of the forces of evil on the outskirts of the beloved city (20:7-10). The silence at the end is exactly that, silence at the end, when the cosmic conflict is over.

We are not making this up. To the attentive re-reader of Revelation, it will be evident that the entire story of the book has been sketched before the opening of the seventh seal within the context of the seven seals. Consider the following texts, all appearing in Revelation’s narrative before the opening of the seventh seal.

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands (Rev 7:9).

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:13-14).

“They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 7:16-17).

In these passages we witness the redeemed “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (7:9). We learn that they “have come out of the great ordeal” (7:13; cf. Dan 12:1; Rev 16:12-16). And we have the sweeping depiction of the end that will never end, here including a detail that is not even found in the last two chapters of Revelation: the Lamb (always to be seen as the slaughtered Lamb) “at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life” (7:17). It is therefore not in the least contrived to suggest that the seventh seal conveys the response of the heavenly council when the whole story of God’s ideology and action has been revealed.

Fourth, however, we must return to the point of ideology that is at the center of the conflict. Jesus persuades the heavenly council to his point of view (for freedom) when he appears as the slaughtered Lamb ‘in the middle.’ At that point he has, as it were, successfully defended the ideal of freedom. But at the end of the story there is more, and I’ll state it like this: When the din of battle dies down outside the beloved city (20:7-10), a battle happening entirely within and among the forces of the losing side of the conflict, freedom has defended itself. In the context of the cosmic conflict story of Revelation, Satan said that there was a freedom deficit in the government of God (3:1). This outrageous lie has now been exposed for what it is and was. Instead of God being hostile to freedom, we have seen that to the heavenly council, the problem has been too much freedom and too little restraint on evil. At the end of the story, certainly contrary to what the members of the council would have done, there is a new burst of freedom for the opposing side in the conflict (20:1-10). We discover that in God’s way of doing things, “Satan must be released” (20:3). And we realize that it is the logic of freedom that leads to Satan’s release at the end (20:3, 7). It is within the logic of freedom, precisely the quality said to be lacking in the divine government that Satan goes forth to work his own demise (20:1-10). Freedom, the occasion for all evil and suffering (note that I do not say ‘the cause’), has worked in such a way that it is also the solution. In this sense, I suggest, freedom has defended itself. God has not backed down from the ideal of freedom at any of the crisis points in the story.

In conclusion, the seventh seal reveals the response of the heavenly council to the most vexing problem of cosmic reality. It is fitting, extremely fitting, that our text says that “there was silence in heaven” (8:1) because it was in heaven that it all began, and it is in the halls of heaven that God has presented and defended His case. The slaughtered Lamb in the middle of the throne has indeed won the war. At the point when everything in human and cosmic reality has been fully exposed, we read that “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Rev 8:1).

Let there be silence on earth, too.

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (Pevear and Volokhonsky translation), 245.

2. Ibid.

Joel's Locusts and "The Divine Destroyer"

brad — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 20:44:38 -0700

The book of Joel is an intimidating little book of only three chapters. Despite the brevity, it is a difficult book to ignore considering the frequent New Testament references to Joel. Peter quotes Joel to explain the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel…” (Acts 2:16) Paul uses Joel to show that “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek” (Romans 10:13). Jesus used Joel’s description of the "Day of the Lord" with the darkening of the sun and moon (Mark 13:24; Luke 21:25; Joel 2:10, 31). And, the book of Revelation echoes several images from Joel, including the destroying locusts.

Interpreting this book requires that we take a position on the locusts. They are an “army of locusts” that are “too many to count” and that have “teeth as sharp as those of a lion” (Joel 1:6). It seems that most Bible commentators believe that these either represent literal locusts or as a symbol of present or future military powers of conquest. Some interpretations blend the two and see this as descriptive of God’s wrath on the final “Day of the Lord.”

“Who's their leader?” is perhaps the most fundamental question to ask. Locusts do not naturally have a king, “Locusts: they have no king, but they move in formation” (Proverbs 30:27). The locusts in Joel, however, do have a leader and it first glance it appears to be God:

“The day of the LORD is near, the day when the Almighty brings destruction. What terror that day will bring” (Joel 1:15). I was surprised to read the NET Bible translation of this verse as “it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer.”

“It will be a dark and gloomy day, a black and cloudy day. The great army of locusts advances like darkness spreading over the mountains. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again...They rush against the city; they run over the walls; they climb up the houses and go in through the windows like thieves. The earth shakes as they advance; the sky trembles. The sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars no longer shine. The LORD thunders commands to his army. The troops that obey him are many and mighty” (Joel 2:1,2,10,11).

Some ambiguity is presented, however, when God is described as destroying the very army that he sent:

“I will remove the locust army that came from the north...Their dead bodies will stink. I will destroy them because of all they have done to you...I will give you back what you lost in the years when swarms of locusts are your crops. It was I who sent this army against you” (2:20,25).

Principles of Biblical Interpretation

Before trying to answer the question of God’s involvement, we need to return to a framework of Biblical interpretation that we have referred to many times.

A. Read the Bible as a Whole

Watching bits and pieces of any book, especially the early parts, will often lead to false conclusions. In the same way, reading the Bible piece-meal and not taking in the climax and the ending of the story will have the same result. We must read the book of Joel in the context of the Bible as a whole.

B. Jesus is the climax of the Bible

Most books end with a summary or conclusion. In mystery books, we don’t find out until the very end “who did it?” Jesus is the climax of the Bible and in some ways he is also the ending of the Bible. He is the final word on God’s heart, character and motives. Many questions will come up as we read the Bible, but we must elevate the life and death of God in human form as the pinnacle of what is true. The book of Joel needs to be read in the light of Jesus’ revelation of God’s character. With this principle in mind, do we imagine Jesus, who came to serve and to lay down his life for sinners to represent “The Divine Destroyer?” Is Jesus the commander of the mighty locust army?

C. The Cosmic Conflict

In the Bible, God is frequently described as actively doing, what he instead allows to take place. Particularly in the Old Testament, the Enemy is veiled and God seems to take responsibility for almost everything. “I create both light and darkness; I bring both blessing and disaster. I, the LORD, do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). It isn't until the life and death of Jesus that Satan is revealed, exposed and defeated.

There are notable rare exceptions, however, where we do see the demonic creep into the Old Testament. In one account of David’s census, “The LORD was angry at Israel again, and he made David think it would be a good idea to count the people in Israel and Judah” (2 Samuel 24:1). This is a troubling passage if read in isolation. Does God tempt to evil? It is fascinating to read another telling of the same story, written much later, where Chronicles pulls the curtain back on a much deeper reality, “Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David decide to take a census” (1 Chronicles 21:1).

Another example of Satan’s involvement in the Old Testament occurs in the book of Job where the reader is aware that Satan is the one who brought the calamities on Job. This reality was not evident to Job or to the lone survivor who ran to tell of the destructive events, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” (Job 1:16)

Aside from these few examples of Satan's involvement, the Old Testament gives God the "credit" for everything good and bad that happens in life. The book of Samuel alone is filled with many examples of this. Hannah’s womb was felt to be closed by supernatural means, “...the LORD had kept her childless” (1 Samuel 1:6). When God intervened so that she could have children, we again see the ancient mindset that God was responsible for everything, “The LORD kills and restores to life; he sends people to the world of the dead and brings them back again. He makes some people poor and others rich; he humbles some and makes others great” (1 Samuel 2:6-7). Does God really micromanage who will be poor and who will be rich?

A few verses later, a prediction for the death of Eli’s evil sons (who were killed in battle) was expressed this way, “But they would not listen to their father, for the LORD had decided to kill them” (1 Samuel 2:25).

In Samuel, God repeatedly sent evil spirits to torment Saul, “One day an evil spirit from the LORD took control of Saul...” (1 Samuel 19:9; see also 16:14 and 18:10-12). Does God dispatch evil spirits? If so, what chance in life did poor Saul have?

After wicked Nabal mistreated David he “suffered a stroke and was completely paralyzed” (1 Samuel 25:38). Even with the technology of modern medicine, the mortality rate for strokes that cause complete paralysis is higher than 80%. A superficial reading of Samuel, however, suggests that Nabal needed divine intervention to end his life since, “Some ten days later the LORD struck Nabal and he died” (1 Samuel 25:29).

David had this same paradigm about God’s involvement in human reality. As he considered the demise of Saul he concluded that God would kill him, either through natural death or at the hands of his enemies.

“By the living LORD,’ David continued, ‘I know that the LORD himself will kill Saul, either when his time comes to die a natural death or when he dies in battle’” (1 Samuel 26:10).

The story of Saul concludes with his own suicide, yet the Bible defines God's involvement with these words, “So the LORD killed him…” (1 Chronicles 10:14)

This concept is pervasive throughout the Old Testament. God is described as hardening Pharaoh’s heart and, even within the 10 commandments where we might assume that there would be nothing that is slightly misleading, God would say this:

“I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5).

The Old Testament forces us to address these questions. Does God punish to the fourth generation? If a child is born with a disability, was this a result of some heinous sin committed by his great-great grandfather?

This was the mindset of Jesus’ disciples. When they looked at the man born blind, their only question was whether it was his sin or the sins of his parents. “Whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents’ sin?” Jesus was quick to set the record straight, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins...” (Luke 4:2, 3)

Finally, as a last example, during the most rebellious period of the wilderness wanderings, “the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many Israelites were bitten and died” (Numbers 21:5).

In this case, the people had been miraculously preserved through the wilderness. They were provided with food and water and not even their shoes wore out. Despite all of this, they repeatedly told God to leave them alone so that they could return to Egypt. Finally God was left with no choice but to respect their free-will choice and to remove his protecting hand. Predictably, “all hell broke loose” when this happened. It is also interesting to note that serpents bit the people since God’s Adversary described in Genesis 3 and Revelation 12 is the “ancient serpent of old.”

With this background in mind, we return to “The Divine Punisher” and the king of the locust army in the book of Joel. The best case for the identity of the Locust King is in the book of Revelation, but I would first like to make two smaller points.

Thieves

On the Day of the LORD, these locusts are described as going “through windows like thieves” (Joel 2:9). Although the “Day of the Lord” in the Bible is described as coming suddenly, “like a thief that comes in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2, see also Revelation 16:15) is Jesus the thief that “breaks into [the] house”? (Matthew 24:43) One of the most compelling images of Jesus is that he stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20) rather than breaking the door down.

In the gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as the “good shepherd,” the “gate for the sheep” and the one “who is willing to die for the sheep” (John 10:7, 11). In contrast to this, “All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them...The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:7, 8). In the context of Jesus’ description, “thieves and robbers” applied to the Pharisees, but is there an ultimate “thief” who is behind it all?

Jesus’ description of the good and “thief” shepherds echo from the book of Zechariah where the good shepherd is “paid thirty pieces of silver as my wages” (Zechariah 11:12). In contrast to this, another shepherd who also comes to "kill, steal and destroy" (John 10:8) is described:

“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Once again act the part of a shepherd, this time a worthless one. I have put a shepherd in charge of my flock, but he does not help the sheep that are threatened by destruction; nor does he look for the lost, or heal those that are hurt, or feed the healthy. Instead, he eats the meat of the fattest sheep and tears off their hoofs. That worthless shepherd is doomed! He has abandoned his flock. War will totally destroy his power. His arm will wither, and his right eye will go blind.’” (Zechariah 11:15-17)

Locusts from the North

Joel's locust army comes from the north (Joel 2:20). The north is contested territory in the Bible. The King of Babylon, “the bright morning star” of Isaiah 14 has his sights set on the north. “You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on the mountain in the north where the gods assemble” (Isaiah 14:13). It is significant then that in Psalm 48:2, Mount Zion is also on the sides of the north, “Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”

Satan’s desire is to reside as king on Mount Zion. His conquest of Planet Earth led Jesus to give him the title, "the prince of this world" (John 12:31, 14:30). Satan is "the god of this age", and "the ruler of the kingdom of the air" (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2). Even after the Cross, John would say that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). To be worshiped as God is the end-game for Satan who even asked Jesus to worship him in the wilderness of temptation. The war between God and Satan comes to a climax at "Harmageddon" and a case can be made that this refers to the contested mountain in the north described in Isaiah 14:13 (see "Armageddon", Charley Torrey). This would suggest that the final battle does not primarily involve tanks and fighter jets but rather the issue of worship - - will we worship the Lamb or the dragon?

The book of Ezekiel describes another army that comes from the north. Gog, who personifies the forces that are hostile to God, is the leader of this army. He “will set out to come from your place in the far north, leading a large, powerful army of soldiers from many nations, all of them on horseback” (Ezekiel 38:14, 15).

There are many parallels between Gog's army, the locust army, and the figure of Satan and the demonic activity in the book of Revelation. When God destroys Gog’s army it takes “seven months to bury the corpses where they are buried east of the Dead Sea” (Ezekiel 39:11-14). When the locust army in Joel is destroyed, “Their front ranks will be driven into the Dead Sea…Their dead bodies will stink” (Joel 2:20). Birds are called to a "huge feast" on the dead bodies of Gog's army (Ezekiel 39:17). When the army in Revelation is destroyed, birds are again called for "God's great feast!" (Revelation 19:18-21). The locust army of Joel, the army led by Gog in Ezekiel, and the army in Revelation are all describing this end-time conflict between God and Satan from different perspectives.

Rather than focusing on a literal army, however, we should see worship as the real issue in these armies that come from the north. Satan’s aspirations in Isaiah 14 are to conquer the North where God resides. "Everyone worshiped the dragon" in Revelation (13:4). Again and again in the New Testament, we are reminded that we are the temple of God and that this should be the dwelling place of God alone. Our mind, or temple, is contested territory, "The Day will not come until the Wicked One appears, who is destined for hell. He will oppose every so-called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God's Temple and claim to be God" (1 Thessalonians 2:3, 4).

Locusts in Revelation

In the book of Revelation, the 7 trumpets reveal that God is not the only one who is involved in human affairs. God has an Adversary and his fingerprints are all over the trumpet sequence. 28 times the phrase “one-third” is used in the 7 trumpets. This “one-third” is more helpful as an identifying mark of demonic agency rather than as a quantity. When the details of the war in heaven are described in Revelation 12, one-third of the “stars” are thrown down to earth with Satan. The repeated destruction of one-third of the earth, living creatures, and almost everything else in the trumpet sequence then is meant to create a link to the dragon who deceived one-third of the angels in heaven (Revelation 12:4).

When the third trumpet was blown:

“A great star, burning like a torch, dropped from the sky and fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. (The name of the star is "Bitterness.") A third of the water turned bitter, and many people died from drinking the water, because it had turned bitter (Rev 8:10-11).

The fall of this “great star” is a reference to Isaiah 14, “the bright morning star,” and is another identifying mark that directs our attention to Satan.

While the third trumpet describes the bright star that fell from the sky, the fifth trumpet uses the past-tense to give a sense of a story-line that is moving forward,

“I saw a star which had fallen down to the earth, and it was given the key to the abyss”

(Rev 9:1).

When this fallen “star” opens the abyss, locusts come out:

“The star opened the abyss, and smoke poured out of it, like the smoke from a large furnace; the sunlight and the air were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. Locusts came down out of the smoke upon the earth, and they were given the same kind of power that scorpions have” (Rev 9:2-3).

The description and the activity of these locusts is remarkably similar to Joel:

“The locusts looked like horses ready for battle; on their heads they had what seemed to be crowns of gold, and their faces were like human faces. Their hair was like women's hair, their teeth were like lions' teeth. Their chests were covered with what looked like iron breastplates, and the sound made by their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have the power to hurt people for five months” (Revelation 9:7-10).

And now we come to the end of the murder mystery, so to speak. Who did it? Who is the leader of the locust army? Who is the real destroyer? Revelation leaves us with no doubt:

"They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning "The Destroyer")" (Revelation 9:11).

The locust army in Joel is "too many to count" (Joel 1:6). The 6^th trumpet puts a number on this army and also details the ensuing destruction:

"I was told the number of the mounted troops: it was two hundred million. And in my vision I saw the horses and their riders: they had breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulfur. The horses' heads were like lions' heads, and from their mouths came out fire, smoke, and sulfur. A third of the human race was killed by those three plagues: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur coming out of the horses' mouths." (Revelation 9:16-18)

What does the locust army represent?

Now that we have proposed a demonic reality to the locust army, what does this all mean? Does this represent a literal army of demon's, led by Satan, that will scorch the earth and crush everything in their path?

It is interesting to consider that the power of the "locusts that looked like horses" (Revelation 9:7) is "in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people" (Revelation 9:19).

What kind of power resides in "mouths" and "snake head tails?" In Isaiah, God "...will cut them off, head and tail. The old and honorable men are the head - and the tail is the prophets whose teachings are lies" (9:15). Is it possible that the locust army destroys by lies and deception?

There have been countless wars throughout human history, but the war of real importance goes on in the minds of all God's children. Before the nation of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians, they were first deceived by priests and prophets who led people away from a true knowledge of God. "My complaint is against you priests. Night and day you blunder on, and the prophets do no better than you...My people are destroyed because they do not know me. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests" (Hosea 4:4-6). Was there also a military conquest of Israel? Yes, but they were first deceived away from a true knowledge of God.

Deception about God's character is the recurring theme in human history from the tree in Eden to our current day. Before Judah was taken captive by the Babylonians, they were first deceived, "The priests did not ask, 'where is the LORD?' My own priests did not know me" (Jeremiah 2:8). Was there a military conquest of Jerusalem? Yes, but the battle was first lost in hearts and minds.

The Pharisees also, despite their rigorous attempts to obey and despite all of their Bible reading and tithe paying, were deceived about God. They looked at God in human form and said, "He has a devil." Was there also a military conquest? Yes, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, but only after Jesus gave the terminal diagnosis that referred to the state of their decieved minds and their false object of worship, "You are of your father, the Devil" (John 8:44)

Looking forward to our time, the book of Revelation warns us that Satan's methods are imitation and deception. The central image of God in Revelation is "the violently slaughtered Lamb" (Revelation 5:6). That is what our God is like. Though all powerful, his character is self-sacrificial love personified. Satan is a Dragon, not a lamb, but he tries to put on lamb-like clothes to deceive. The same phrase in the Greek used for God as the "violently slaughtered lamb" is used of the Adversary, "I saw one of his heads as if it had been slaughtered, and his fatal wound was healed. And the who earth was amazed and followed after the beast. Everyone worshipped the dragon..." (Revelation 13:3, 4).

This is describing the dragon as he attempts to imitate the slaughtered Lamb. In other words, the people who worship the dragon in Revelation are not into Halloween and Ouija boards. They are a religious people who believe they are worshiping the Lamb.

The next beast on the scene in Revelation 13, "...had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon" (Revelation 13:11). Once again, imitative of a lamb, but still a dragon on the inside.

Conclusion

It would be terrible to be have your crops consumed by a swarm of locusts or to have your house and family destroyed by an army of military conquest. Those things have happened and will continue to happen throughout human history. I don't think this is what the Bible is warning us about, however. The battleground is the human mind, and if we want to close all the doors and windows to the locust army that come to deceive, we must permeate our minds with the selfless loving character of God as revealed by Jesus. Are we worshiping the "violently slaughtered Lamb" or the cleverly disguised imitation?

The Bible and Ecology

Admin — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 06:53:35 -0800

We were excited about Dr. Richard Bauckham's visit to Loma Linda University primarily because we wanted to hear what he had to say about the book of Revelation and the Gospel of John. We were surprised, however, to discover that his talk, "The Bible and Ecology" was particularly moving for us.

Dr. Bauckham made a great case that the "dominion" over the earth given to Adam and Eve in Genesis was not a mandate for humanity to manipulate, control and exploit the earth but rather a command for caring stewardship and love for all of God's creation.

The condition of our earth and all of God's creation are not often as appreciated by many Christians. What mainly matters is that we get to heaven. What happens to the panda bears and the rain forest is relatively inconsequential. Dr. Bauckham, however, made a compelling case that God desires to make all things new, not all new things.

The video of Dr. Bauckham's presentations at Loma Linda should be available soon, but here is an audio of the same talk that he gave recently. We would also strongly recommend his recent book on this subject.

download the audio

The Christmas Message

Admin — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:49:16 -0800

It isn’t easy to avoid the 21st century rat-race machine. This is especially true during the holiday season. Our three children have Christmas concerts, parties, and plays… and they even expect some gifts on Christmas morning. We have family staying for the holidays which requires a house that is cleaner than usual, and it doesn’t help that this year all of this is happening in the setting of record rainfalls, a leaky roof and water in our basement.

In this context, it is remarkably easy to forget that this season should remind us of the most significant event in universal history. Whatever conception we have of God’s character, the fact that he became a tender and helpless baby is the most defining image of what God is like. Of course, it is difficult to argue that the cross is not the greatest testimony of God’s character but it seems that the incarnation is at least of equal significance. God’s descent from heaven’s throne to Mary’s womb is staggering and certainly rivals his descent from the cross to the grave.

Let’s center our thoughts on God’s descent to the womb. Picture God in all his glory as described in Isaiah 6 and many other passages, and then imagine God as a baby, dependent on Mary for food and diaper change. Let’s remain focused on the fact that our God is powerful beyond understanding, yet also the most humble, self-giving and self-sacrificial being in the universe. Perhaps it is a lowly feeding trough that convinces us that God is love personified.

Lord Acton on Freedom

Admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:31:40 -0800

During the last 2 weeks, Dr. Sigve Tonstad, in his class on the book of Revelation, has extensively quoted the words of Lord (Sir Harold) Acton. Lord Acton had a keen understanding of freedom, a word that is frequently championed, but yet not often understood.

click here to download Lord Acton's book "Essays on Freedom and Power" - a book that Dr. Tonstad referred to as one the the best 10 books he has ever read.

Here are a few Lord Acton quotes:

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely

And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern; every class is unfit to govern.

The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by the majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people, there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.

The Bible: Story or List of Doctrines?

brad — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:02:25 -0700

The Bible is often read as a book that provides a compilation of doctrines - - do this and don't do this. Reading the Bible in this way can easily become a process of trying to make an air tight list of the "right" verses (called "key texts") that support this or that belief system.

The problem is that this doesn't actually work. In fact, no one that I have ever known actually follows many of the clear Bible statements about "do's and don'ts." For example, Paul seemed to make very clear statements about women wearing a head covering and even that it is a shameful things for a women to speak in church. Why don't we follow this advice? Jesus told a man to sell everything he had and to give it to the poor. Shouldn't we do the same? What about the Old Testament commands that Sabbath breakers and gluttonous children should be stoned to death? Should we make a doctrine out of the proverb that "Alcohol is for people who are dying, for those who are in misery. Let them drink and forget their poverty and unhappiness" (Proverbs 31:6,7)?

Another way of reading the Bible is as a story that reveals God as meeting people where they are at various times in history. The overall purpose of the story is to reveal God to us. Do we find God to be trustworthy, faithful, dependable and reliable? This story climaxes, of course, with God becoming a member of the human race - born as a baby into a poor family, living the life of a humble carpenter, healing, telling stories, caring for the social outcasts, and finally allowing his own creatures to crucify him. Now do we find God to be trustworthy, faithful, dependable and reliable? The Bible comes alive when it is read in that way.

The New Zealand Book Council made this video to illustrate a book "coming alive" - perhaps we should give the Bible another read as well:

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