It
=s been some time since I first dealt with this subject and that was little more than a suggestion for us to call the traditional understanding of this phrase into question. The scope of this newsletter and my limited understanding of things make it unlikely you will ever see a fully satisfying dissertation on the subject here. Still, we can make a beginning at recovering what I believe is the correct understanding of the passing of heaven mentioned here, and elsewhere in scripture.The immediate context is what is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. It is first and foremost a kingdom message. That alone makes it essential to study. From beginning to end it is packed with important information which, properly understood, must underpin our concept of God
=s kingdom and our place in it. At the same time, we must not forget it was preached to a specific audience in a specific setting and that it had specific application to them. How it applied to them is important instruction for us if we are to understand the time in which we live. I pray you will give the matter serious attention. Rather than spending pages to set the background for the passing of heaven and earth, let=s consider just one passage of scripture: Isaiah 51. Take the time to stop and read it right now.It is tempting to go verse by verse through this chapter to point out the type/anti-type picture to be seen here. Isaiah
=s prophesy certainly applied to his hearers but it had spiritual implications which tend to be shortchanged because of our focus on the physical. To be really brief, God operates in the physical realm but His purposes are always spiritual. Israel was Ahewn out@ of Abraham as God=s instrument for the reconciliation of mankind to Himself.To that end, He entered into a covenant with them alone. Pay close attention to how He describes that work,
AAnd I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, >You are My people.=@ [my emphasis]. Do not miss the importance of this language. Here and elsewhere in scripture, Aheaven and earth@ is a reference to an established order or system, not the physical planet and skies above! Keeping that in mind, turn now to 2 Peter 3 and let=s follow Peter=s thoughts. Remember, this letter was written about 64 A.D. as the Afiery ordeal@ was already upon Christians in Jerusalem. Again, let=s pay careful attention to his references to heaven and earth.The first heaven and earth appears in verses 5-6 where., to answer scoffers, he writes,
AFor when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.@ We are all familiar with the story of the flood. Perhaps it will amaze you as much as it has me how we have long missed the importance of the language here. Peter says the world was destroyed by flooding. I hope it is abundantly obvious to all of us that though the world was destroyed the physical planet was not. God promised He would never again destroy the world because of man.Uh oh . . . look at what Peter says in verse 7,
ABut the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.@ If God promised not to destroy the physical creation (Gen 8:21) and Aheaven and earth@ here mean the physical planet, God has a real credibility problem!Not to worry, notice the origin to which Peter ascribes
Athe present heavens and earth@ - Aby His word.@ Does Isaiah 51:16 shed light on this passage? You bet it does! The covenant people entered that Aheaven and earth@ relationship by the word of the Lord on Mt. Sinai. It was a fiery beginning which, in retrospect, was an omen of a fiery end. Peter=s Apresent heavens and earth@ was the old covenant system. In verse 10, Peter goes on to say A. . . the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.@Fire and brimstone preachers have majored on this passage (and 2 Thess. 1:8) in an attempt to terrorize people into walking an aisle.To be sure, the thought of standing in the presence of our Holy God naked (unclothed by Christ) should bring fear and trembling. But twisting these passages to terrify people is just bad evangelism; however, well intentioned those who use it may be. These passages talk about how God was going to deal with those who persecuted true Israel - spiritual Israel. God unleashed that fiery wrath and in A.D. 70 Jerusalem fell. The old covenant
Aheaven and earth@ were destroyed. (We=ve talked about Aelements@ before, but new readers should understand the word stoichea is a reference to the elementary or foundation principles of the Mosaic covenant, not the elements of the Periodic Table).If Peter
=s Apresent heaven and earth@ was destroyed, where does that leave us? Are we in some kind of spiritual limbo? No, Peter makes it clear what would happen. Read on. ASince all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.@Again, do not miss the importance of this passage. Peter said the heaven and earth in which they were living would be burned up because of
Athe coming of the day of the Lord.@ If Peter=s heaven and earth has been destroyed (and history clearly attests to that fact) it is patently obvious the day of the Lord came in that generation just as Christ and the Apostles said it would. It is tragically ironic, that most Christians view the Jews rejection of Christ with disbelief at their spiritual myopia, and at the same time reject a first century coming of the Lord because of their own physical expectations.It is a tragic irony, because as Matthew 5:19-20 makes clear, if the Mosaic law has not been removed we are still obligated to keep every
Ajot and tittle.@ Indeed, if Christ has not come, our salvation is still in question (Heb. 9:28). On the other hand, if we can begin to grasp the spiritual reality in which we exist, even while in these mortal shells, our vision of God=s glory covering the earth will fill us with awe. It is a glorious view to behold, but it is impossible to see what happened in the past if we continue to look for it in the future. I trust this thought will help you to understand the urgent nature of this study, and that you will be diligent in it.The Two Commandments
A lawyer once asked Jesus what the great commandment was. The answer should be familiar to all of us, A>YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.= This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, >YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.= On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.@ (Matthew 22:37-40)
Imagine, one known for his skill and understanding in the Old Covenant law, found it necessary to question a carpenter turned itinerant preacher on the subject. The answer may well have taken the questioner by surprise. Odds are, he was expecting to hear about one of the ten which God gave the people of Israel at Sinai. Like many Christians today, he was interested in Achecklist faith.@
Checklists are convenient things. They help us organize our work and minimize the possibility of something falling between the cracks. However, faith is first a matter of being, not doing. Nonetheless, it would be difficult to come to such an understanding with the teaching which issues from most pulpits these days. I know about checklist Christianity, I was raised with it. Jesus didn
=t focus on a checklist; he zeroed in on the real issue at hand, relationship. Of all the things He might have emphasized, He chose not things but how we are to relate: first to God, then to others. Then He makes an incredible observation, the old covenant checklist found its substance in these two levels of relationship.The Mosaic Law with all its trappings was never intended to be an end in itself. It was, as Paul told the Galatians,
Aa schoolmaster@ to bring them to the Christ. While the principles it embodied were timeless, the covenant was not; it was conditional and physical Israel failed to keep their end of the deal. Indeed, because of their fallen condition, it was impossible for them to keep it. God used it to show them their sinfulness and help them see their need - most never did. We are powerless to do anything until God touches our lives. Right relationship begins with Him reaching down to us. When we are at peace with Him we began to reach out to others because we long to share the grace we have received. We don=t need law written in stone because we have it written in our hearts.The law still exposes the nature of those who hate God, but the redeemed live on a higher plain. In his book, The Sermon On The Mount, Clarence Jordon describes the change of covenants with a simple analogy of a mean dog. He asks the reader to imagine an animal so mean it must be kept chained because to let it run free would be to endanger all in its path. Jordan compares the law to that chain. He brings his point home when he observes that nothing would be wrong if someone tamed the dog so that the chain was no longer necessary. The Mosaic Law restrained the people. But, in a similar manner, nothing would be sacrificed if man was given a new nature so that the restraints could be removed. That is what liberty in Christ is all about. It is not about freedom to break the law, but power to live out the principles on which its tenets rest, the two commandments.
Form, structure, and order are all good things, but they are not the substance of faith. That substance is found in relationships and it is futile to think form will ever generate proper relationships. It may bring conformity, it may even bring some semblance of peace and harmony, but form alone is lifeless and powerless. Yet, it is so much our tendency to enthrone form and subjugate relationships to it. That
=s what the Pharisees did and we do err when we follow in their footsteps. Once we see relationship as the central issue of faith, a proper world view begins to come into focus. I am blessed to have been delivered from the grip of form and granted the grace to taste the substance of Life from above. It is my prayer that you have been so blessed too.The Execution of Terri Schiavo
The recent events surrounding the death of Terry Schiavo are chilling. Joni Eareckson-Tada made the point well on Larry King Live when she said, AIf I did to my dog what they have done to Terry Schiavo, they would put me in jail.@ She is absolutely correct. In fact it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had someone complained to the SPCA that an animal was being intentionally starved to death. The first child abuse cases were tried under laws against cruelty to animals. I have to wonder if the SPCA would go to bat for a human Aanimal@ decades after those first decisions. One thing is for sure, the politicians certainly didn=t. Like Pilate, they stood on the sidelines and talked about what they couldn=t do instead of doing what it took to spare Terry=s life.
Either they were too ignorant to know what their power in the matter was, or they really wanted the outcome we witnessed. It is hard for me to believe they don=t understand their power when, on occasion, they use it to win points with voters. Any government official who claims they don=t have the power to protect innocent life is not fit to be in office and I hope we see a lot of them removed. It goes without saying that the judges need to be impeached and both the governor of Florida and the President share the blame. In spite of their protests to the contrary they could have stopped the madness, and should have stopped it regardless of what it cost them politically.
I=ll be the first to admit we are dealing with a complex issue here. But, I=ll quickly add that the issue is made complex because of government involvement in the wrong way. We=ve come to the place where people believe they are entitled to have every possible thing done to keep them alive. It=s really a pursuit of immortality, but that=s a discussion for another day. If people only received the care they could afford or what was voluntarily given them from the private sector, the demand for expensive and extreme lifesaving measures would be greatly diminished. Because civil government is willing to force society to underwrite such treatments, almost everyone believes they should receive it all whether they can pay for it or not.
The question can be asked as to whether care for people like Terry should have ever been started in the first place. It is a necessary discussion but it won=t help Terry. The issue, it seems to me, is that she was not a person with a terminal condition. All she was being given was food and water: essentials for life. How can anyone reason it is just to deny another person these things?
It is a barbaric situation and one which is a reproach upon this country. If the judges and politicians weren=t so afraid of image, they would have simply ordered her to be euthanized. However, they are much too merciless to consider that option. The simple fact is, perpetrators of capital crimes are afforded more mercy than Terry got. God demands mercy and justice and those who murdered this woman will be on the unpleasant side of that justice.
The Cross and Resurrection
Let=s do a little word study which befits this time of year when the world pays special attention to The Christ=s invasion of planet earth. In John 12:32, we are told that it was in Jesus death that Aall@ would be drawn to Him. There is a longstanding debate over just who Aall@ includes but that will not be our focus. Nevertheless, the text does not say Aall men@ and the evidence is clear that not every individual is drawn. Having said that, I realize that some would draw a distinction between drawing and responding. Like I said, it=s an ongoing debate in the Christian community and it is likely to continue for some time. So, let=s focus on the Alifted up@ part of the equation.
It is certainly clear from the text that the lifting up in view here is a reference to the cross, but it also has a higher view and purpose. The Greek word for cross is stauros (Strong=s #4716) which means a stake or pole. It comes from the root word histemi (Strong=s #2476) meaning, to stand [Aabide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set (up), stanch, stand (by, forth, still, up)@]. As you can immediately see, it is a word ripe with potential implications from a Christian perspective.
Prior to Athe fall,@ mankind had standing before God simply as a matter of God=s good pleasure. Our first parents considered that standing to be too restrictive and sought to stand alone. You know the rest of the story. Even as the darkness of that event unfolds there is a glimpse of Light for standing again. It is this standing which Jesus addressed in so many ways with His followers.
When He speaks of being the Abread of life@ in John 6:35, He went on to make the remarkable promise that, Ain the last day,@ He would Araise up@ all who believed in Him. Would it surprise you to know the Greek here is similar to John 12:32? The word this time is anistemi (Strong=s #450). It is a compound word, Aana-histemi@ (no, not anti-histamine!). The prefix Aana@ suggests a reversal of condition, an undoing or a repetition of what was before. In context, we can understand it as referring to a restoration of standing before God.
I hope you can see the unmistakable link between the stauros and anistemi. It is a glorious word picture, but we need to add more color to the pallette. In John 11, Jesus told Martha, AI am the anastasis and the life.@ If you are thinking there might be a connection between anastasis and anistemi you are already connecting the dots. While a different word form is used to conform to Greek usage in each passage, God=s purpose unfolding in the work of The Christ is evident in both. In case you haven=t made the mental connection, anastasis is the word we translate Aresurrection.@ Although it carries the same implications as the other form, Aresurrection@ has been largely misunderstood because of our focus on the physical rather than the spiritual. There is no question about it, Christ was physically raised from the dead. That is indisputable for anyone who is willing honestly to consider the evidence. While it is a critical issue in the Christian apologetic, we must allow ourselves to look beyond the physical to see the spiritual significance.
Appearing in human form of necessity meant Jesus= glory and power were veiled and limited. He only did what the Father desired when the Father desired it. He didn=t walk around exercising power when He chose. The Father made those decisions and He was obedient (see Luke 5:17 for one example - we=ll go down that rabbit trail another time). The point is, Christ=s standing was set aside for His tour of duty on planet earth and, in fulfillment of what the prophets spoke, His humiliation would be removed by His supreme exaltation over all principalities and powers.
So, in essence we find there are three Araisings@ if you will: 1) on the cross, 2) from the grave and 3) the ascension and glorification of Christ above all. The Araising up@ He suffered at the hands of men, was the means which the Father used to end His earthly ministry and restore Him to His former glory in the eternal kingdom. That is resurrection in its highest form and it is a resurrection in which people of faith have been made partakers in The Christ. To begin to grasp the significance of our position is Christ is to open the door to living in confidence in His presence. The next time you contemplate the significance of the cross, I pray you will consider the marvelous way the very symbol of death points to restoration and life.
The Apprentice=s Journal
The signs of spring are breaking though and the remnants of the winter months clutter the yard! It desperately needs attention but will have to wait until after April 15th. It continues to rain with all too predictable regularity and the garden is a complete mess. I
=m beginning to wonder if it will ever be dry again. The warmer days have the critters moving about more all the time.Lots of things are on hold right now, but it is only for a season and I look forward to having more time to devote to the other issues of life. Nevertheless, I am so blessed to be working again, and I appreciate your patience as I juggle my time to find a schedule that seems more natural. Joshua (grandson #2) has his 3rd birthday on the 26th but will celebrate it on April 2nd with his little brother David who was born April 1st. To see the next generation coming gives me great hope. Those whose world view is destructive to just government are not replacing themselves (for the most part), but an increasing number of Christian families are multiplying their presence. In the next two or three decades, I am optimistic the world will witness a transformation of our culture. We will tire of the selfishness which breeds gangster government and experience a new season of justice. That thought does much to brighten my days even as things continuing to decline.
Pray for the parents of these children. The distinction which will be drawn between them and the culture in which they live will only become sharper in the days of head. Pray that God will grant them faith and courage to stay the course regardless of the cost. Join me in looking for ways to help them remain true to what they have purposed. Be available to them. Befriend them and disciple them as God gives you opportunity - and pay attention to the opportunities! Most of us live at such a hectic pace that we find it tempting to collapse at the end of the day and use our time selfishly. While we certainly need to carve out time for ourselves, it is essential that we continue to share what we have gleaned from life with those who follow us.
They need to see us as real people who face the challenges of life with grace. In contrast to the attitude exhibited by many popular personalities, we must be role models. The fact is, we are modeling something for those whose lives orbit ours. Do we have the courage to honestly assess what kind of image we project? It is not enough to simply not be Abad.@ We are called to be an influence for good. We are to engage the world in meaningful ways which, by God=s grace, make this world not only a better place to live, but a world which glorifies Him.
One of the lessons I learned from my scouting days was to always leave an area where you camped cleaner than you found it. The idea was to think about those who came after you and to make their time at that location more enjoyable: build a bridge across a creek, blaze a trail and mark it well, and so on. The motto of spelunkers has always held some fascination for me, ATake nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints.@ That may be okay for caves, but it does not make for a satisfying life. There is much God wants us to glean from life and we should not hesitate to take what He graciously shares with us. By all means leave footprints, but be sure they mark the path to liberty in Christ. Where you made wrong turns, be sure to erect landmarks to point the way clearly. And by all means be sure to share the story of your journey!