Are we Post-Christian?

How do you view hardship?
It depends on how you view God.

Sizing up today's culture, it would be easy to think that any "Golden Age" of the influence of Christianity is best seen in the rear view mirror, and that the faithful ought to live primarily on the defensive.

One of the things that practically leaps off the page as I read through the Pentateuch, Joshua and (especially) Judges is the Sovereignty of God even in the degree of success we have in what we do.

- The giving of the promised land to Israel was after the Amorites' sin demanded God's judgment.
- Rahab affirmed that she knew "that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you." The people in Jericho recognized the presence of the True God, and that any attempt to fight against him was hopeless. (Josh 2:9-11)
- The defeat at Ai was directly related to sin in Israel's camp.
- God chastened Israel for failing to possess the land, and refused to eject the remaining foreigners. (Judges 2:1-3):

¹ The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, ² and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? ³ Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you."

- Israel's cycle: Rebellion, the Rule of foreigners over them, Repentance, and Rescue happened over and over and over in Judges and beyond.

God explicitly, and repeatedly directed Israel to honor the covenant, and reject idolatry, lest the hand of God turn against them.

Here are two references:

^{Deut 28: 46-48} They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Another one, in the larger context of that famous passage where Joshua pledges his household to the service of God was Joshua 24: 14-24. Israel responded saying they would too. Joshua called them liars. They still insisted they would be faithful to God.

Then what happened? Did they man up and do it?

Nope. The godly leadership died. Joshua who had a vital relationship died. Then those who had been eyewitnesses to the hand of God on and through Joshua died. The very next generation were wicked and served the Baals.

This is where we find ourselves today. The so-called Post-Christian generation. People are panicking because God and his Word seem to have little cultural influence.

Has the gospel lost its power? Is the devil in charge? Is it the Last days? Is it time to hop on the Rapture bus?

Hang on just a minute.

Revisit the pattern. (It's outlined in Judges 2:11-23)
God's established people have a measure of comfort, wealth and stability.
They forget what it means to be a covenant people.
They begin to live in a way that forgets God.
They get smacked around by their enemies.
They cry out to God.
He rescues them.
They repeat the process.

Now: Who is responsible for the strength of the enemies?
It was not the world or the devil. It was God.
Why? Because he cared about Israel enough to chastise them. (Heb 12:6)

I hear the objection now... "How could a loving God do such a thing?"

Let's look at the list. There were raiders, Cuahan-rishathaim, Moabites, Jabin, Abimelech (not even a foreigner), Midians, Philistines, Ammonites, civil war with Ephraim, Philistines again, and the tribe of Benjamin. To say nothing of what happens AFTER the book of Judges: civil wars, wars with neighbors, Assyria, Babylon, Medes and Persians, Greece, Rome... and so on.

Did God do this?

He claims to have done it.
Judges 2:13-14, 3:8; 4:2; 6:1-10-- and so on.

So, how CAN we reconcile the picture of a loving God we see with this text?
-Some might take an OT / NT spin on this and dismiss it as irrelevant for today.
Nope. It doesn't address core questions, like what happens now when we are stymied by the enemies of the gospel. It also falsifies scripurtes like (2 Tim 3:16).
-Some might say God permitted it. No, it uses an active voice. God gave them into the hand of... in direct response to sin.
- If God is portrayed in any sense as a helpless observer to influences (whether human or demonic) that wreck things God would rather not see wrecked, then such a god cannot actively help us. You have effectively embraced deism. It is good that we do not preach such a god.
-So does this endanger God's love for us?
Never! We just need a more correct view of love.
A child being spanked for running into traffic without looking, or playing with matches is loved. The brief moment of painful reminder lovingly applied to jr.'s backside is a small price to pay for the larger goal of NOT being either flat or crispy.

If we fully accept the Biblical representation of eternal judgment of sin by the perfectly Holy Son of God, we put our present sufferings into context.

War, famine, displacement, disrupted families, and all those other things can serve to redirect a wayward people back to God. Some suffering here - however sharp - while being reconciled to God for eternity is infinitely better than a quiet life here and now followed by an eternity of judgment.

What is God's promise?, Christ guarded the little Church in Philadelphia (Rev 3:10), while the other ones suffered.
So he CAN actively protect us. But sometimes, it seems that such protection is not in our best interests, be it for our Christian witness, or for our character.

God is well-able to breathe life into ourselves, our congregations, and our nations.
But how much do we really WANT it?

Will we humble ourselves and pray?
Will you?

Mercy in the Midst of Judgment

There is a temptation to read the Exodus account with the showdown between Moses and Pharaoh, and to find satisfaction in the smackdown God is dishing out.

Keep in mind, Israel is a nation of slaves, who emigrated to Egypt in a time of famine, but who never did call Egypt their homeland. They came to Egypt (with the exception of Joseph) as free men. They became slaves over time. Much of Egypt's position of wealth and power was directly linked to the instructions Joseph gave to a previous Pharaoh in response to God's dream.

Adding insult to injury, Israel had no reason to be slaves.

During the famine, Egypt's people had traded their freedom for food.

Genesis 47:19-22. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate." So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh’s. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

Egypt had forfeited their freedom, but Joseph and his family were not impoverished or begging for food. They would have had no reason to submit to the Pharaoh as a servant.

The Bible lapses into roughly a 400 year period of silence. Things change, families grow. Politics shift. The new regime has forgotten the contribution of Joseph and his family. The Pharaoh sees only a group of people who have not assimilated, do not consider this their homeland, and are a significant wild card should Egypt's enemies rise up against them. What should he do?

His solution is to reduce their strength. Kill their male children. We know the story, about how this backfires and lands Moses in the royal household.

When the conflict between the godly and the wicked heats up, why shouldn't a righteous person cheer? Justice has been meted out. Vindication of the oppressed! After all, aren't the judgments by God himself? What's not to like? The good guys are winning!

God takes a moment in the midst of His judgments to narrate His own story. By this point, we've had blood, frogs, gnats, flies, a killing plague on livestock, as well as boils. God is now setting the stage for a killing hail.

He's done something else, too. The first few plagues were generalized, and affected all of Egypt. Later, however the flies and the plague on livestock did not affect Goshen, where the Hebrews lived. Now He is giving even the Egyptians advanced warning and instruction about the next plague.

Why?

Because despite the antimony between God and Pharaoh, God is using Pharaoh to accomplish His goals. (Refer to Romans 9) It's a lot like how He used Judas.

What goals?
To make His Name Great.

Look at the speech Moses gives Pharaoh just before the Hail falls:

Ex 9: 14-21
For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them."'" Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field. (emphasis mine)

God could have wiped Egypt out, but that did not suit His plan. Why? Some of the Egyptians began to "fear the Word of the Lord". (e.g. place confidence in what God said, and take action based on it.) When God's person is esteemed, and his Name is elevated, the outflow of that is an increased reverence for and obedience to His Word.

God is quick to show mercy. He seems to rejoice in it. Even to Egypt, the "enemy".

God patiently deals with them, and overcomes their objections to faith. Frogs and flies are gentle rebukes, but effective at getting attention. And some believed in time to respond in faith before the Killing Hail.

What response should this passage require of us?

We should be reminded to love our "enemies" and be prepared to extend God's mercy to them.
We should be aware of whether we esteem His Name, His Person, and His Word.
We should heed the commandments and warnings given in His Word.
We should be grateful for His patience in dealing with us, not according to His Justice, but according to His mercy.
We should be quick to accept his correction, before He has to use stronger methods of steering us away from sin.
We should seek to make His name great among those people who do not presently esteem it. For where it is Great, they will also esteem His Word, which will have a harvest of righteousness in their lives, for their eternal benefit.
And finally, we should see the parallel to the warning against the coming judgment of Hell. God seeks to get our attention in time to exalt His Name, and act upon the Word of the Lord.

How Eternal is Eternal Life?

I was asked an interesting question recently, which I will paraphrase this way:

Will there be Free Will and/or danger of falling again into Sin in Heaven?

There are two parts to this question. The first deals with our will, and the second deals with our security.

Let us begin with the will. Much is made of Free Will. Free will, in its truest meaning, is possessed only by God Himself. He has complete understanding of every situation, cannot be influenced by things 'outside of His control' (clearly), cannot be intimidated, bought, or act from a corrupt motive. He is free, every time, to make the best decision.

Nobody questions His free will, yet there are clearly things he "cannot" do. He cannot tempt or be tempted to sin(James 1:13), He cannot lie (Titus 1:2) He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim 2:13). Are we perhaps misunderstanding "free will"?

Luther said this about the free-will (so-called) in his famous 'Bondage of the Will"

You describe the power of "free-will" as small, and wholly ineffective apart from the grace of God. Agreed? Now then, I ask you: If God's grace is wanting, if it is taken away from that small power, what can it do? It is ineffective, you say, and can do nothing good. So it will not do what God or His grace wills. Why? Because we have now taken God's grace away from it, and what the grace of God does not do is not good. Hence it follows that "free-will" without God's grace is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself to good.

Our will is not so free as we suppose when we begin, because we cannot, as fallen man, decide to be redeemed. We are dead in ourselves and must be made alive in Christ.

Romans 6:17-18 puts it this way:

¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

It works this way: You were once completely independent of an appetite for righteousness (Rom 6:20) you sinned, willingly and gladly. Put differently - you sinned of your own free will. What happens when you are Redeemed? You experience a New Birth. There is an internal overthrow of the Old and it begins to be replaced by the New. (1 Cor 5:17) We have new affections. We desire different things. We desire His Goodness, His kingdom. We Cherish His Lordship. Do we stumble? Yes. We are not yet conformed to His Image. But it grieves us. We cry out to Him for forgiveness (1 John 1:6-10) and strength to walk in Union with Him. This process of being transformed by the renewing of our minds is Sanctification.

We have the Surety (or down-payment) of our Redemption, none less than the Holy Spirit Himself.

We will be transformed, not merely in our bodies, but in our understanding, also. This mortality will put on immortality. We will no longer see in the glass darkly, but then face-to-face.

So, once we have been redeemed, we look forward to that great day when the promise becomes the reality.

The question, again, is can we lose our salvation once in Heaven?

I will ask you a question: Which has greater effect? Sin or Grace?
Romans 5:20-21 answers that for us. Sin abounds but Grace abounds much more.

Sin reigns over the sinner. To what end? Death and Hell. For how long? Eternally.
Can the condemned sinner ever "lose" his damnation? No. "It is where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. " or again.. "the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day or night"

Romans 5:21 which tells us that sin reigns over the sinner to death, also tells us that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Quickly breaking this down, arguing from the lessor to the greater: If we are confident that the eternal punishment is unyielding, unrelenting and undiminished for all eternity, what are we to suppose is meant by Grace (God's gift, not our effort) ruling?
How long is this rule? Eternal.
What is the eternal gift? Life.
By who or what is this gift provided? Through Jesus Christ Himself.

Still need assurance?
How about this?

One is Daniel's prophesy (remember that Son of Man is what Jesus called Himself)

¹³ “ I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
¹⁴ Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.

His possession, which He bought with His blood cannot be taken from Him, and it will not be diminished or destroyed. It shall not pass away. We are that possession purchased with His blood (Rev 5:9; 1Pet 1: 18-19).

He said of us: (John 10:27-29)

²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: ²⁸And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Are you concerned that you may yet be tempted in a place that has no need of Sun or Moon but that God Himself will be its illumination? In a place where there will be no night!

Remember that it is given unto man to die ONCE, and after that judgment (Heb 9:27)

Consider: Rev 21:27 -- nothing that defiles, nor abominations, nor anything that causes a lie shall enter, but only those in the Lamb's book of life.

And again: Rev 22:3

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

[If you do not see a curse, sin must be absent, because Sin is linked to the curse throughout the Bible.]

And if that were not enough: Rev 22:4

They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

Be encouraged. Stand strong. Put on the armor of light.
Your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed.

New Birth

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. -- John 1: 12 & 13

Have you ever sat down to think about exactly what this means? This chapter has so much good meaty doctrine, that it is easy to scan past these lines without weighing their implications.

These verses depict relationship with Jesus (received Him), and show His authority in redemption (He gave).

Next, we are introduced to the concept of the "right to become children of God." This is an interesting phrase because of the ideas it links together. It does not say the right to be children of God, but the right to become. This subtle distinction places the emphasis not on the ongoing continuation of life as a child of God, but upon the very entry into it. Keep in mind the underscoring of Jesus' divinity in John's gospel, and this phrase makes more sense. This is, after all, the same gospel in which Jesus declares "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father except by Me." This squares neatly with the claim Jesus makes in John 5:21, that he gives life to whom he wills.

To whom did Jesus give this right? It tells us three times: (1) as many as receive him, (2) who believe in his name and (3) who were born. When the author said "believe in his name," what is meant? Five letters in English that together spell Jesus? No, something more. There is a step at this point that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish. We must go beyond simply affirming his divinity, death, resurrection, and ascension. Even Satan can affirm these things, but, clearly, he isn't a child of God. Those who truly believe will be aligning themselves with Him and His word (by thought, word, and deed), and allow Him to dictate the terms of rightly relating to Him, rather than trying to squeeze God into their world view.

If some can possess this right, it follows that some do not. Remember the banishment from Eden? Their purity gone, our first parents entered into toil and death. An angel with a flaming sword gave a sense of finality to their loss of rights previously enjoyed with God, particularly as relates to fellowship. Now, in the fourth gospel, the Son is restoring these rights (particularly relationship) to whosoever receives him.

They were born. This references John 3:3, and echoes 2 Cor 5:17. It is called birth, as it is the entering into life. This entails a life lived differently. There are different values, goals, ideas, purposes, passions that are not somewhat different from the old 'life', but radically and completely antithetical to the worldly way we once lived. By 'old life', I refer to being "dead in our trespasses".

Yes, this text fits the overall model -- believe, receive, confess -- and description of the convert's proper response to both the conviction of sin and the call to faith. He does not, as preachers today would, stop there. He sets boundaries. He explains what the new birth isn't before launching into what it is.

The new birth, sometimes called regeneration, is contrasted to three things which it is not.

1) The new birth is not of blood. You do not enter into life simply by reason of your family or (by extension) community relations. Being descended from Abraham isn't enough. Nor is it enough to be raised in a Christian home, or by being a preacher's kid. It isn't passed down like a surname or title. Similarly, attending a church, Christian school, Christian club, or even a Seminary does not necessarily equate to a genuine inward transformation. This is simply not how this happens.

2) The new birth is not of the will of the flesh. While flesh can mean several things in scripture, one meaning was covered by 'not of blood', and of the remaining uses, only flesh in the sense of carnality, or sin seems to fit the text.

We dare not approach God for any selfish reason and expect he will answer. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4.3) God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4.6; I Peter 5.5) Repentance is not merely a nice thing to include, it is pre-requisite to receiving grace.

If the reason you approach God is to be accepted in a group, or to assuage bad feelings about wrong behaviour, or to impress someone, or to appear less wicked, or even as a hedge against the possibility of Hell, you have not yet approached God. You remain in your sin and your soul is in peril.

Instead, approach God because, he is greater than we are. Approach him because there is no person, and no pursuit more worthy of our affections. When you do approach him, do so humbly because we have wronged him above all others by our thoughts, words, and deeds. He owes us nothing but judgment, but because of Jesus' work on the cross, he offers us grace.

3) The new birth is not of the will of man. You and I cannot decide one day to approach God. Jesus told us no man comes to the Father except by Him. (Redemption in Christ alone.) But Matthew 16:17 also states the necessity of revelation of who Jesus is by God the Father. We cannot choose today to ignore the call of God to repentance, and delude ourselves into thinking that once we are finished our own carnal living, just one more week-end, just one more shady business deal, just one more day of the shallow pursuits of life, and then turn back to God.

If this has been you, Today is the day of salvation. You have no promise of tomorrow. A man or woman with all this world has to offer, yet without God, has nothing.

What, then is the new birth?
The new birth is of God. It is God calling us to himself. All things are By him, to him, through him, for the praise his own glory. God, alone, exerts his right to give us life. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. It is God who regenerates the dead soul. It is God who chose us in Christ from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. He predestined some to be like his Son, and called, and justified, and glorified. None of these things are left to us. He does it. It is offered to you.

Take it, and live.