I’m trembling, both at the horror, but also at the possibility for changed minds and lives. Even agreeing, I wanted to look away. We cannot afford to do so.

ACTS 27:41 …striking a reef where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern began to be broken up by the force of the waves. 42 The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, so that none of them would swim away and escape; 43 but the centurion, wanting to bring Paul safely through, kept them from their intention, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, 44 and the rest should follow, some on planks, and others on various things from the ship. And so it happened that they all were brought safely to land.

In both this passage, in Acts (the entirety of which is well worth reviewing) as well as the recent wreck of the Costa Concordia of Carnival (literally ‘fleshly’) Cruise Lines, we see a powerful and direct parable for our time on this earth under the ruler of this world (e.g., “the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, so that none [could]… escape”). We also see a parable relating to who captains the ship of our life, whose orders we listen to (or don’t) and how we endeavor to get from the proverbial ship to the proverbial shore through the proverbial storm, without being dashed to pieces on the proverbial rocks.

Pictured above is cover of the inaugural (January, 1990) issue of Minerva: The International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology (pdf), a British publication. (And no, until this afternoon, researching this post, I’d never heard of it either.)

The Corinthian helmet, dating from no later than 600BC, serves to illustrate lead article: “In Search of An Etruscan Wreck”. The caption under the picture adds, “off the island of Giglio,” the same island where the Costa Concordia wrecked ten days ago (see below). The most authoritative and comprehensive book on the subject (the multi-volume, 1983 book, ‘The Giglio Ship’, by Mensun Bounds, published shortly after the first serious recovery work on the ship was completed, more than twenty years after its discovery), is quite understandably out of stock at major booksellers, the price for used copies already bid up over $50. The detail is unnecessary for our purposes, but here’s an excerpt, as well as a snippet from the original 1983 academic article, ‘A wreck of possible Etruscan origin off Giglio Island’, published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration.

Etruscan. Hold that thought. It’s important.

Note, from the map above, that the Costa Concordia’s usual route runs several miles to the east of Giglio, taking it much closer to Porto Santo Stefano, literally, in Italian, “the port of Saint Stephen”. The name Stephen means ‘crown’ and derives, not surprisingly, from the disciple, Stephen, who was said to have been “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5) as well as, “full of grace and power… performing great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8) and who was stoned to death for boldly proclaiming the gospel, as we read in Acts 7 and briefly into Acts 8, where his burial is recorded by Luke.

The significance of the captain of the Costa Concordia (the decks of which are named after thirteen different European nations) steering well clear of Santo Stephano so as to show off in pride and eat a sumptuous meal with a woman not his wife, only to have his ship effectively ‘stoned’ from below should require no further unpacking! The world (including much of modern Europe) does not like to get near the true church, of which Stephen was the crucial first martyr (literally: ‘witness’) after Christ himself.

The Minerva article begins as follows:

“The discovery of the wreck on Giglio Island, near Elba off the west coast of Italy, goes back to a blustery day in August, 1961, when a British diving instructor, Reg Vallintine, who ran an underwater centre on the island, took his students to Campese Bay in search of shelter. There in the Bay he dropped anchor over the crest of a reef called ‘Secca I Pignocchi’, a vicious piece of granite that rises like a broken tooth to within only a few feet of the surface, ready to lacerate the hull of any unsuspecting ship that might be passing. They were almost at the maximum limit for safe diving, when Reg and two of his students happened upon the wreck.”

Campese Bay sits on the northwest side of Giglio Island (Isola del Giglio) about two miles, as the crow flies from where the Costa Concordia came to rest on the east side, just outside Giglio Porto. The Etruscan wreck is the oldest shipwreck in the world. Note that it was discovered the same month that Barack Hussein Obama was born. That may or may not be important, but in light of what I’m about to explain, it takes on extra dimensions.

In his book, ‘The Comets of God…’ (eye-opening and useful for reasons well beyond the astronomical), Dr. Jeffrey Goodman, a Messianic believer (saved in the eighties, when he was in his forties, and with whom I have spoken by phone) makes what is, to my mind, a compelling case, based on multiple lines of evidence (linguistic, archaeological, Biblical, biological, historical and others), for why Gog and Magog are not Russia.

Instead, they were a distinct people group that migrated from Asia Minor (modern Turkey, e.g., near Pergamum, “where Satan has his seat”; Revelation 2:13; home country of one of just five world leaders (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) with whom Obama says he has the closest/warmest relationship) westward to the Italian peninsula before the Romans.

Those people were more commonly known as… the Etruscans. Their descendants still reside largely on the Italian peninsula, having blended in over time.

It is supposed that, under the Etruscans, Isola del Giglio was “a military stronghold.” The ancient ship which wrecked on its rocks was carrying olives and olive oil (not uncommon, but symbolic, in scripture, of the Holy Spirit) as well “Corinthian perfumes” (again, not uncommon but, in scripture, symbolic of the prayers of the saints). And of course the helmet of Corinth, recalling the “helmet of salvation“ which Paul wrote about in Ephesians 6:17, picking up on a word from the prophet Isaiah 59:17, and echoed in his second letter to the Thessalonians 5:8). Inherent in the ancient wreck is the idea of those two worlds colliding: worldly military strength with Holy Spirit, prayer and the renewing of one’s mind through the salvation of Christ Jesus (helmet).

Writing about about the Etruscans, after several pages of calm, fact-based myth-busting in regards to Russia and the Scythians, Dr. Goodman observes (p. 342-344):

Recall that Gog is the Hebrew spelling of the name of the militant leader from western Asia Minor who was known as Gyges of Lydia to the Greeks. Migrants from Lydia called the Etruscans took control of the struggling local population of central Italy and put them on the fast track to becoming the powerful Roman Empire. The Penguin Dictionary of Archeology says “the influence of the Etruscans on Roman civilization was enormous.” Grahame Clark in World Prehistory states “Roman civilization was deeply indebted to the Etruscans.”

In the 5th century BC the famed Greek historian Herodotus, who is called the Father of History, told how the Etruscans came to Italy as a result of a migration from Lydia. Herodotus in The History (1.94) wrote that the Lydians set sail across the Mediterranean and colonized Etruria (Tuscany) because of a severe eighteen year famine in Lydia. To relieve the strain upon their food supply, half of the Lydian residents left with the King’s son, and called themselves the Etruscans after his son, Tyrrenius. Lydian oriental customs were at the heart of the Etruscan culture of Italy. According to Plutarch, Livy and Vergil, when Romulus (twin of Remus) founded Rome in 753 BC, he sent for men of Etruria (Tuscany) who directed him in all sacred ceremonies, ordinances and religious rites according to the Disciplinia Etrusca. These same ceremonial rites were used when Rome began establishing its own colonies in the fourth century BC and later.

By 600 BC the Etruscans took control of Rome and became the ruling aristocracy in a new society with an economy based on trade and commerce. The Etruscans were responsible for the urbanization of Rome, as well as it’s army and its economic advancement. They made Rome the leading state in Latium. Between 753 and 509 BC Rome was ruled by seven kings; the last three were Etruscan. Then in 509 BC the Romans revolted and overthrew the monarchy and established Rome as a Republic. The Etruscan king on the throne at this time was a tyrant called Tarquinius Superbus.

During the Etruscan rule of Rome, the king served as commander of the army, judge and priest. The Etruscans built temples, introduced the worship of the mother goddess and even began the wearing of the purple embroidered toga. The eagle or falcon was a symbol of Lydia, which the Etruscans also used, and in time the eagle headed scepter became a symbol of Rome. The symbol of Rome’s political power was the “fasces” (a tightly bound bundle of rods enclosing a double edged ax – see the 1916-1945 US Mercury dime reverse) also came from the Etruscans. Thus, both of the favored symbols of the Roman Empire, the fasces and the eagle were of Lydian origin.

From fancy pottery to oriental style burial tombs, the culture of Lydia was lifted and replanted just to the north of the city of Rome. As Gog’s descendents became the Kings of Lydia, their Etruscan cousins became the Kings of Rome (Herodotus 6:22), and they even used the word “Etruria” as a synonym for Italy. Now we can see the genius in using Gog and Magog as types of the antichrist and the final expression of the Roman Empire. Gog from Magog represents the rightful legal heir to the throne of the Roman Empire, since it was an Etruscan who last sat on the throne of Rome, and the Etruscan right to rule traces back to Lydia, whose eponym during Biblical times was Magog which means “the land of Gog.”

Brother Jeffrey goes on from there for several pages, in equally authoritative fashion, backed by sober and copious research.

The inescapable conclusion: Rome was/is Gog and its rulers: Magog.

All of which makes an article like the following more interesting in light of the Concordia parable avoiding Stephen in favor of an Etruscan military stronghold: Vatican Seeks Control Over Jerusalem Holy Sites (The Trumpet, January 19, 2012; H/T: Rob at In That Day)

JOHN 10:30 I and the Father are one… JOHN 14:15 If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — 17 the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you… 23 If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me… 26 the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you… JOHN 15:26 When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me… JOHN 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

DANIEL 12:10b — none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.

1st CORINTHIANS 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

What I am about to write will make great sense to some… and virtually no sense to others, seeming trivial, or completely at odds with the ‘practicalities’ of ‘real’ life.

I mean that on two levels.

First, the content. Any discovery like this, in scripture, ought to feel ‘neat’ in and of itself if we’re in Christ. Why? Because it points to Him. It helps us grow closer in relationship to Him. I’ve begun to appreciate how the revulsion I used to have for scripture… the utter contempt in which I once held it, was diagnostic of where my heart was with regard to Jesus, just as my love for it now flows not from any love for a flat, dead book, but out of thanks for what amounts to a love letter that I could never deserve to receive. As Chuck Missler likes to say, with an emotional catch in his voice, that letter, the Word of God, was penned for me, in blood, on a wooden cross, in Judea, 2000 years ago.

Second, in terms of process. I’ve only recently begun to see how I’ve been following a method for understanding scripture in greater depth that may be useful to others. It may seem whimsical to those who don’t credit the power of the wind unless they can see where it’s coming from and where it’s going, but such are the ways of the Holy Spirit, we’re told. (See John 3:8.)

The process is not new or ‘fad-ish’ but relies on the basic, conservative tenets of, a) letting scripture interpret scripture, b) it all points to Jesus and, c) expositional constancy. I.e., a word, scene, symbol, action or relation indicates not only literally what it says but also the same concept or pattern throughout all of scripture, from the first line of Genesis all the way through to the end of Revelation. E.g., the ark “is” the ark is the ark in a spiritual sense, the rock is the rock is the rock, etc.

With those three things in mind, with the Holy Spirit guiding, and with a heart of eager diligence, scripture can positively explode in you into multi-dimensional color, light, sound, taste and movement. It begins to live. The Word becomes flesh.

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God is One (Deuteronomy 6:4). Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30). His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, speaks only on the authority of the Father (John 16:13). I.e., He too is One, with Jesus and the Father. By contrast, the kingdom of this world is inherently divided against itself (Matthew 12:25-26, Mark 3:24, Luke 11:17-18).

Thus, if you find this impenetrable, strange, difficult, or offensive, it forces a hard but very logical conclusion: we are not of the same spirit. That should be cause for both of us to humbly invite the singular Holy Spirit of YHWH to examine our hearts and minds more deeply, according to the Word of God, Jesus, the Messiach (Christ/King), His Son, of whom the Psalmist writes (re-quoted in Hebrews 10:7):

PSALM 40:7 “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

We are to let the Word of God and His Spirit examine each matter for us, as did the Bereans who Luke writes were “more noble” (i.e., more fit for kingdom service) not only because they “received the word with all eagerness” but also for their reverent diligence in spirit-testing (1st John 4:1), “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). For to jump too quickly, on instinct, to what we think, is folly… a sin of which I have been routinely guilty and to which we all fall victim far too readily, I’m afraid, in this age of hyper-available, instant, fast-moving information and personal expression.

PROVERBS 18:2 — A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

None of which, I hope, puts a damper on the comment threads, which often do lead to at least my pleasure in increased understanding of God and what He would have us do as my brothers and sisters in Christ reflect in the same Spirit, bringing three to the table.

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So… I was just a few verses into my newish daily Bible reading program (pdf) this morning (of which I can’t say enough good things — one being that just a few weeks of this practice utterly demolishes the notion that God ‘evolved’ or otherwise changed His mind or plan between the Old and New Testaments), when a familiar phrase in a familiar story leaped off the page at me (proverbially speaking).

MATTHEW 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’

I’ve usually read this passage with my business ‘hat’ on, thinking of worldly finances. Most of us have been employees at one time. We’ve gotten paid for our labors — sometimes fairly, sometimes not. (In about 90% of the studies I’ve been in on this passage, someone gets totally derailed on the unfairness of what Jesus seems to be proposing.) As most know, the story continues to the “eleventh hour,” in verse nine (i.e., the end of things), when each of those called to the vineyard receives a denarius, a coin of the time.

Simple enough. Yet my eye wouldn’t move beyond that phrase: ‘Whatever is right…’ Where had I heard that before? I went and looked it up on-line, surprised that the phrase turned up not only where I was expecting, but in another place also, with the two shedding a kind of stereoscopic light on the parable from both Old and New Testaments:

DEUTERONOMY 12:8 You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

PHILIPPIANS 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me–practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

We often read the Philippians verse in the abstract. At least I have. We can each think of things which satisfy one or two of these adjectives, e.g., a lovely flower or an admirable gesture of charity. And those things are good to a degree, for they are part of God’s creation (both physical and moral), reflecting Him. He made all things good. Yet they were and are corrupted. As such, I can’t help reading this passage now and seeing Paul as referring to Jesus who alone removes that corruption by His blood. Only One person satisfies all of these “think about” criteria in Himself and to the fullest degree imaginable.

In other words, the phrase “whatever is right” takes on a whole new meaning if we make it personal. Whoever is right… think about Him. And who is right? Certainly not us, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, doing what seems right in our own eyes. Or as Jesus puts it, in a conversation recorded in Marks’ gospel:

MARK 10:18 Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Whoever is right and pure and true and noble and lovely and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy (eight items, indicative of overflowing abundance), think about Him. And He is Christ Jesus, the coming king. Which is an insight that I find makes Song of Songs a whole lot easier to understand. We’re meant to dwell on our beloved because he so loved us that he laid down his life for us, even while we were yet sinners.

Shifting back to the parable of the laborers in the vineyard then, we are told that,

MATTHEW 20:4 …whatever is right I will give you…
…9 each of them received a denarius.

Listen to Jesus in another scene, teaching about how we should deal with taxes:

LUKE 20:24 Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

He’s not saying money cannot ever be an important expression of our devotion (it can), just that in and of itself, the world’s money means nothing. (The key to understanding the parable of the widow’s mite, in Matthew 12:41-44.) The thrust is entirely consistent with the Old Testament, as we would expect it to be.

PSALM 50:9-10 I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

PSALM 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

So, follow the logic here…

If we’re to render payment to God in His currency, i.e., in a manner sharply different from how the world conducts its commerce — beyond and above earthly currency, (i.e., if generosity with earthly currency is merely one reflection and symptom of a humble spirit, wildly in love with Jesus) — then would we not also expect that the payment rendered from God to the laborers in the vineyard (i.e., disciples) would also not be of an earthly coin (the false “prosperity gospel”), prone to losing its value and getting stolen (not to mention the fact that we can’t take it with us), but the singular coin of everlasting value, the fullness God Himself and the right to live with Him in His house forever as full heirs?

I.e., God renders unto his laborers (and certainly unto his bride) the spiritual coin of His realm not merely that of Caesar’s. (He can give that too, of course, in abundance, should it suit His purposes, for His glory, for He is the Creator of all things, including all Caesars, but in the full light of Him, who would care to have only that?)

Whatever is right, I will give you, says Jesus. And who alone is right (good)? God, Who gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him [i.e., whoever should place faith in His currency as the only coin of lasting value] should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The only alternative, Jesus makes clear, is reliance on Mammon (the god of money, the coin of all Caesars) the beast’s system of toil and death. (For more, see here.)

Sometimes a parable is just so plain that even the skeptics need to pause and ask themselves if what we’re seeing can be chalked-up to mere coincidence, or if a perfect and holy God really does rule in the affairs of men.

The case of the cruise ship Costa Concordia is just such a parable.

We’d all do well to ask also what it can teach us about what else is coming.

The Concordia collided with an unseen rock just minutes before major bond rating agencies (such as Standard and Poor’s) downgraded the sovereign (i.e., national) debt of several (but not all) European countries.

That action raised their borrowing costs, ripping a hole in the concord* (i.e, the harmony; the agreement) that has kept the EU’s demographically unsupportable fantasy lifestyle and finances afloat. (Don’t get smug, my fellow Americans. We’re now following closely in their footsteps.)

Specifically:

The Concordia hit a granite outcrop off Giglio Island at 9:42PM CET (Central European Time). The first press release regarding the sovereign debt downgrades was issued by S&P at 10:36PM CET, moments after the U.S. financial markets closed at 4:30 PM EST.

I.e., the beginning of the highly visible parable of the cruise ship’s slow-motion wreck, leading to chaos, panic, death, loss and total abandonment by leadership — as well as, (in a few cases) selflessly inspiring, life-giving, 1st John 3:16 heroism (see below) — preceded the financial action by less than an hour.

Brother Joseph Herrin has more.

*(Concord (Massachusetts) is where the second battle of the American Revolutionary war took place, on April 19th, 1775, breaking the concord between the American colonies and Britain.)

H/T to both Joseph and to ‘CD’ for lighting a fire under my chair on this one.

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Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because he laid down his life for us:
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

From The UK Daily Mail (Jan 17th):

Frenchwoman Nicole Servel, 61, said Francis Servel, 71, gave her his lifejacket before they leapt off the sinking cruise ship.

She said: ‘I owe my life to my husband – it’s obvious he saved me.’ She managed to swim for shore, while Mr Servel was swept underwater and drowned.

Speaking from her home near Toulouse, south west France, Mrs Servel said: ‘He shouted ‘jump, jump, jump. I can’t swim so he gave me his life jacket.

‘I froze and couldn’t jump, but he jumped off the ship and shouted upwards ‘Come on, don’t worry.

‘I jumped off and the last thing I heard him say was that I would be fine. Then I never saw him again.

‘The water was only eight degrees (about 47F). When I was alone in the water I thought of my children, my grandchildren. The thought of them kept me afloat. It kept me living. I do not know how I did it.

‘I swam for several minutes. I am unable to say exactly how long. And then I found myself on a rock. Villagers came to pick us up. They led us to a church. I was very cold, frozen. In the sacristy we found a cassock. I took it. It made me warm.’

UPDATE (H/T: Joseph Herrin): Respected, long-time Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens begins his January 17th column (entitled, ‘What Is Europe Sinking About?’) as follows. (The mere fact of a hard-hitting business column starting with the words “The Lord” is itself a sign of how ordinary folks may be starting to wake up):

The Lord works in mysterious ways, or so it is often said. But in an era when few can read His signs, those signs have a way of becoming a bit more obvious. Like 45-10 [Patriots-Broncos score; Tim Tebow being shut down]. Or how about another Titanic-type event, right on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the first one, as a way of prefiguring some great European disaster? [WWI began 28 months later.]

OK, probably better to leave Him out of it. [maybe not such a good idea] But as metaphors go, Friday night’s tragic-ridiculous shipwreck of a cruise liner off the Italian coast is an apt one for a continent in which nine countries had their credit ratings downgraded earlier that same day. Even the biggest ship can founder in calm waters if the captain is negligent. Even a rescue operation 50 feet from shore can turn into a fiasco if nobody has conducted a drill and the crew have no idea how to steer a lifeboat.

In light of recent comments, both published and not*, as well as a few e-mails with dear brothers and sister in Christ, I thought it worthwhile to re-post, a ‘classic’ from two years ago edited and augmented just a bit. *(Reminder: One of the minimum requirements to have your comment considered for publication is a real e-mail address.)

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(Originally posted January 6, 2010)

This may be the most important post I’ve ever written. I don’t say that lightly. Over the past five and a half years, I’ve had multiple blogs and, on average, posted daily.

You will find no prophecy in this post. No references to headlines, public figures or current events. No date calculations, speculations or scenarios.

My purpose here is simply to lay out some things that came to me in a grace-filled flash as I prepared (far too hastily) to lead a Bible study several weeks ago. (Thankfully the Holy Spirit bailed me out — again. He’s good with that.)

This may seem basic to some, contrived to others. I urge you to ‘camp’ on it, pray, and see what emerges. If I’m effective at conveying what was handed to me, then you may begin to look at the world in a whole new (and amazingly integrated, awe-filled, God-fearing, joyful) way. Here goes…

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I’ve always had trouble with the whole “word” thing as it relates to the Christian faith. If you’re honest, you probably have too. No need to be insecure about it. God can take it. As can his word. I’ve often wondered, for example…

Do I capitalize the word ‘Word’ the same way I do God, or Jesus or Holy Spirit or Lord? Does Word (or word) refer to the Bible? In which language? In which version? And when I use the term, does that then chain me to a narrow kind of literalism?

There are dozens of genres of scripture, many of which were clearly intended to be poetic, symbolic, mysterious or simply inspiring, even as the obviously literal-historical ones serve double duty, beyond their immediate context, via symbols, patterns, allegories, metaphors, parables and types in a much larger context (i.e., the whole counsel of scripture).

Does The Word of God refer strictly to Jesus? Directly, or just metaphorically? Or to both Jesus and the Bible, in some relationship? Is it only about words on a page and/or the man-God Jesus, or is The Word-of-God idea evocative of something much larger?

In my ~8-year walk with the Lord, including deep, diverse and increasingly voracious reading and listening, I’ve found satisfactory answers to most of those questions individually, but never one holistic enough to take in the scope that seems to positively leap off the page from one the most awesome passages in all of scripture:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

Oh man, I just love that one. Love it!! If I could sneak into a hospice ward and whisper just one thing into the ears of dying unbelievers, that would be it. And in a spiritual sense, the entire world is one giant hospice ward, so really: what are we waiting for?

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In lesson number 22* of “DNA From the Beginning, an animated primer on the basics of DNA, genes and heredity,” (i.e., the building blocks of all life) we read that:

The genetic code had to be a “language” — using the DNA alphabet of A, T, C, and G — that produced enough DNA “words” to specify each of the 20 known amino acids. Simple math showed that only 16 words are possible from a two-letter combination, but a three-letter code produces 64 words.

Talking about DNA in this way — as words, alphabet and language — is something very much in the mainstream of science, as sites like this attest. In the context of history however, DNA is a very recent discovery. It was unknown for most of Biblical history.

In the late 1940′s, the members of the scientific community were aware that DNA was most likely the molecule of life, even though many were skeptical since it was so… simple. They also knew that DNA included different amounts of the four amino acid bases (adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, usually abbreviated A, T, G and C), but nobody had the slightest idea what the molecule looked like.

Likewise, many today are “aware” in a vague way, that the so-called Judeo-Christian ‘ethic’, or maybe Jesus the man and his teachings provide generally positive, life-enhancing guidelines compared to the alternatives, and maybe in some combination with other neat-sounding “spiritual” ideas, yet they’re skeptical of this whole Word of God thing because the cross and the prescription for accepting grace are so… simple:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. (1st Corinthians 1:19, cited from Isaiah 29:14 and echoed in Jeremiah 8:9, among other places)

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:3-8)

Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1st Corinthians 1:18)

How can such a simple set of actions be the source of all life? And what is this life in the Spirit anyway? How can a man (of flesh) really be “born again”?

I ask in reply:

How can the act of sexual intimacy between husband and wife be the source of a person? Why is the church described as the ‘bride’ of Christ? How can the planting of a seed in the ground in May be source of tomatoes in August? How can the planting of a simple idea be the source of great evil (e.g., National Socialism)… or great good (e.g., the Golden Rule)?

Answer: The words of life — DNA and words on a page, written by men made from DNA.

Similarly, how can a simple alphabet, e.g., the Hebrew “alephbet”, (e.g., as outlined in the 22-part Hebrew-alphabetic acrostic Psalm 119) be the source of this other, larger kind of spiritual, eternal life with the Creator himself and His Christ, Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, who was, is and is to come, the Aleph-Tav who appears all over the Hebrew scriptures as well?

In Genesis, chapter one, we learn that God speaks into being all Creation, including all life. The first mention of life comes in Genesis 1:11-13 (KJV), in which it’s hard not to see DNA, the “words” through which the variety of life forms are all expressed:

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Here’s a modern take on how man is seeking to preserve that seed:

Though they are taking extreme measures (and it’s hard to argue with what may well be good stewardship), it’s been observed (by Bullinger, among others) that pre-flood mankind tried to do the same thing, even as it was precisely the corrupt seed of mankind (both DNA and ideas and their behavioral-social-moral outworkings) which the Lord God wiped out. The effort to preserve seed (men or ideas) will only be effective if God wants it to be.

The word ‘seed’ (Strong’s H2233, pronounced zeh’-rah) shows up four times in Genesis — not unlike the four living men (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, not unlike the four living creatures of prophetic scripture) who testify, in different ways, to the good news of the Word Himself, Jesus Christ. Not unlike the four compass points of the Israelite camp in the desert… or the four points of the cross which it likely foreshadowed.

Flash ahead a bit to God’s creation of humankind. We see the corruption, not only of God’s words of verbal instruction as they are twisted and taken out of the context of the whole counsel of God by the serpent (“Did God actually say…?”) but we also see the corruption of DNA strongly implied by the birth of Cain, a murderer.

(As I have cautioned before, that piece on Cain is only for the mature. I recently learned that a core doctrine of Wicca, even today, is to seek sexual ‘congress’ with Satan. It’s an abhorrent idea, obviously, as is any sex outside of holy matrimony, however its centrality in that evil context explains a lot about the Genesis scene, as well as the ways in which holiness and corruption stand in opposition.)

Was the Fall the result merely of an idea — a flawed spoken word — or was it something else also — a flawed word of DNA? Jesus himself gives us a clue:

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go , and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.  (Genesis 3:14-15)

A brief but important side trip…

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My brother got leukemia five years ago (2005). One day one teensy-weensy little piece of just one strand of his DNA, in just one cell went bad — one little piece of a word of his literal lifeblood. It multiplied and finally, killed him… in the physical sense.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18)

Now if you have a knowledge of biology, you know that DNA goes bad all the time in millions of cells in our bodies. And yet we don’t all get cancer and die from it.

That’s because we have these amazingly complex, living systems to clean up and correct that stuff up and get rid of it. Eventually of course, those mechanisms are overwhelmed and we die, but in the meantime, a jot of DNA broken here, or a scripture misplaced or misused there and… no biggie. There are correctives.

Exercise, a good diet, plenty of sleep and other such measures work to keep our living bodies healthy in the physical. Healthy churches and Godly-obedient, Word-adhering pastors, the study of the whole of scripture, the Holy Spirit, and wise, mature brothers and sisters in Christ. They all play roles, respectively, in our physical and spiritual immune systems. (And yes, of course they are linked). They provide correctives to corruption until, in some parts of the body, they too are corrupted, weakened or overwhelmed. Then the body dies.

 

He [Jesus] put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30)

For those who already pine for The Only One Who Is Truth, such corruption gets easier and easier to see, both around us and within ourselves. I’ve heard that a very healthy person may sense cancer or other disease much sooner than one who is not. This has certainly been true of my life as an endurance athlete. When I was at the peak of competitive fitness, running marathons, ‘ultras’ and Ironman triathlons, one tiny thing could be ‘off’ and I could tell within minutes of starting a workout.

I don’t mean any of that to sound elitist or judgmental, much less to condemn anyone. It’s just a fact. With eyes opened in Christ… with greater spiritual health and more ‘workouts’, one begins to see stuff… then more… and more… and more, not the least of it being one’s impossibly dirty, fallen, corrupted state compared to a perfectly Holy God.

It has been characteristic of the early portion of my Christian walk (as was true of the early part of my athletic career) that I would think that the latest insight or “oh wow!” sense of God’s presence, or new insight into Who He Is was the ultimate — that I’d plateaued. Some do, and I’ve been one of them. But each time that I genuinely seek to obey and ask to be brought even closer, He has obliged. The plateau has turned out to be merely a pause.

The plain things remain the main things, and the main things the plain things. The basics remain the basis for salvation. Yet with the healthy growth of God’s seed of Truth in us, it is unnatural, even sickening to remain stunted, going round and round as malnourished Christian midgets on some circular track of obligation and ritual.

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Sliding back to our main theme, Jesus unlocks the meaning of the ‘weeds’ parable, privately, for his disciples, in Matthew 13:36-43:

He [Jesus] answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Awesome enough. The one sowing the good seeds (which I always interpreted as words once spoken, but now on a page), is the Son of Man, Jesus himself. Now here’s the kicker that blasted me into the glorious, holistic thought that I tried to capture in the title to this post. In Luke’s treatment of the same scene (Luke 8:11, KJV) Jesus’ words are rendered:

The seed IS the word of God.

Camp on that for a moment. Read it again. It has blown me away since I let it and its implications begin to sink in.

The seed (hark back to Genesis and DNA) IS the word of God. It’s both a metaphor AND a literal-physical statement. (Being ‘born again’, I suspect, is more than just a ‘head’ thing. Our spiritual selves, stored up in heaven, are being built up as well.)

The Word of God is Jesus HIMSELF, as well as his words spoken while here on earth as well as the Father’s words of life-creation (DNA). They are ALL the Word of God.

And they’re in perfect relationship to one another, as is the Godhead: both united and distinct. No words of mine can adequately convey this.

The closest I can come it to think of Jesus (the Word of God) as the ultimate and infinite source of pure, holy ‘stem cells’ (seed) at every level of Creation.

One word gives precious physical life in this world. The other gives spiritual life in the eternal (which begins here and now). We must cherish BOTH forms of life for they are BOTH the Word of God.

Created human beings are precious in the physical and in the spiritual. Children need to be given a chance to breathe and they need to be raised well. Any given politician will tend to tilt at this more from one side than from the other, as if they were in opposition to one another. Christ looks at the whole. Both are essential: physical DNA life and the climate of ideas in which the child is raised. It’s what makes the Christian faith distinct: resurrection not just of the spirit but of the body also.

Most things are impossible without God. With Him though, crazy stuff like a twenty-year-old legally adopting and raising twelve desperately sick, abandoned kids in Uganda becomes not only possible but REAL. (Praise GOD!)

A third aspect (the Holy Spirit) provides the conditions for new life to thrive, much as our physical environment does for our physical bodies. (No wonder the Holy Spirit is described in atmospheric terms, even as He is a person. No wonder then, that the many references to God being spiritual LIGHT also help us reflect on the necessity of physical light to the growth of plants, which in turn are THE essential, foundational building-block of all ecosystems and all animal life.)

I could go on and on. The implications are myriad.

I haven’t even touched the digital nature of reality at the sub-atomic level and how that also points to a Creator speaking and organizing “words” as the quanta of Creation itself.

A few parting thoughts…

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Since the fall, we humans have sought to control and manipulate our environment and our destiny to suit our own desires, on both large and small scales. This can be seen in the corruption and manipulation not only of DNA, but in the corruption and manipulation of the Word of God. The two are corrupted in tandem, in a cycle, the one justifying the other and thus the fulness of life, just as was true in the Garden, where lies (false ideas) were necessary to implant the bad seed of DNA which (most likely, IMHO) led to Cain and beyond, in a cycle. The common wisdom that men lie to get sex is not altogether different from how men and women lie (to one another, and to ourselves) about what God said in order to justify ourselves and flee from a perfectly holy God. Andrew Murray captures some of this in his book, “The Spirit of Christ,” chapter ten:

…the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Himself through Him, will teach us… Beware of misunderstanding these words. We always connect teaching with thoughts. We want the Spirit to suggest to us certain conceptions of how Jesus will be with us and in us. And this is not what He does. The Spirit does not dwell in the mind, but in the life. Not in what we know, but in what we are does the Spirit begin His work.

Do not let us seek or expect at once a clear apprehension, a new insight, into this or any Divine truth. Knowledge, thought, feeling, action, all this is a part of that external religion which the external presence of Jesus had also wrought in the disciples. The Spirit was now to come, and, deeper down than all these, He was to be the Hidden Presence of Jesus within the depths of their personality. The Divine Life was in a newness of power to become their life.

And the teaching of the Spirit would begin, not in word or thought, but in Power. In the Power of a Life working in them secretly, but with Divine energy; in the Power of a Faith that rejoiced that Jesus was really near, was really taking charge of the whole life and every circumstance of it; the Spirit would inspire them with the faith of the Indwelling Jesus. This would be the beginning and the blessedness of His teaching. They would have the Life of Jesus within them, and they would by faith know that it was Jesus: their faith would be at once cause and effect of the Presence of the Lord in the Spirit.

It is by such a faith–a faith which the Spirit breathes, which comes from His being and living in us–that the Presence of Jesus is to be as real and all-sufficient as when He was on earth. But why then is it that believers who have the Spirit do not experience it more consciously and fully! The answer is very simple: they know and honour the Spirit who is in them so little. They have much faith in Jesus who died, or who reigns in heaven, but little faith in Jesus who dwells in them by His Spirit.

It is this we need: faith in Jesus as the fulfiller of the promise, ‘He that believeth in me, rivers of living water shall flow out of him.’ We must believe that the Holy Spirit is within us as the Presence of our Lord Jesus. And we must not only believe this with the faith of the understanding as it seeks to persuade itself of the truth of what Christ says. We must believe with the heart, a heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells. The whole gift of the Spirit, the whole teaching of Jesus concerning the Spirit, is to enforce the word: ‘The Kingdom of God is within you.’ If we would have the true faith of the heart, let us turn inward, and very gently and humbly yield to the Holy Spirit to do His work in us.

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ADDENDA

A portion of what I wrote about here is echoed in a book (‘Enmity Between the Seeds’, by Bill Cloud). Also note Ephesians 3:13-17:

I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole FAMILY in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love… [Rooted and grounded, like good, well-planted seeds. For human beings, love in Christian community i.e., the church is of God, providing our ultimate “soil”.]

The word “family” (caps & italics added) comes from the Greek ‘patria’, which occurs in scripture in just two other places (Luke 2:4 and Acts 3:25), each of them incredibly rich in meaning as it relates to this post.

It’s also worth noting that people (and other living things) are “named” with words of text, but also of DNA. Several places in scripture (e.g., Revelation 2:12 and 3:17), Jesus tells us that we will receive a new name, as did Abram and Sarai in becoming Abraham and Sarai — inserting a new letter, not unlike what happens when DNA is modified to form a new organism, and new life.

Which brings me to something I hope should be obvious from all of this, but bears clarification just in case…

When Jesus was incarnated here on earth, he was formed from DNA that had been carefully shepherded through dozens of generations down to Mary as well as from DNA “written” directly by God the Father at the immaculate conception of Jesus. All of this so as to make Christ in the Perfect image of the Father.

Since God the Father/Creator wrote everything (including that lineage; the mathematical probabilities against Matthew’s genealogy alone being constructed by human hands are staggering) and since He is outside of time, Mary’s involvement does not detract in the least from the amazing nature of what God accomplished.

In fact it adds to it immeasurably, because not only did Mary have a choice AND a child, Satan had thousands of years to try and thwart her contribution from arriving holy at that place and time or even corrupting the mind of her, Jesus or anyone else involved through temptation (words as ideas)… and yet Christ still succeeded in his mission of being born (DNA) and going to the cross on our behalf (as foreordained in the word of God text).

Most are now amply familiar with the living testimony of Denver Bronco’s quarterback, Tim Tebow, especially the way in which his consistent personal comportment has helped to pierce the deep, idolatrous darkness of the world of professional sports, giving power and credibility to his “John 3:16″ eye-black.

Just this morning, for example, a brother shared how a worldly-crass radio sports talk-show had played, “Our God is an Awesome God” [turn it up loud!] as a back-track to a Tebow discussion, sparking ridicule but also witness in the most unlikely of places. Some will most assuredly come as a result. Thus the rest are without excuse…

Then there is the marvelous fact of brother Tim (and I must say, it’s pretty cool being able to call him that… though I have never met him and don’t expect to, at least down here) having thrown ten passes for 316 yards total (and a big win) with an average of 31.6 yards. It’s become a ‘buzz’ item in the most unlikely circles.

Throwing 100 passes for 3.16 yards average would have been mathematically neater, perhaps, if the pointer is solely to John 3:16, as most think it is, but unnecessarily strange and intrusive into our perceived ‘reality’ — no less so than throwing for 3160 yards would be, for example. (My shoulder hurts just thinking about it.)

Yet we mustn’t too quickly assume that John 3:16 was the sole object of this set of events. Another verse to keep in mind, for example, is the Messianic chapter thirty-one of Jeremiah, which is read in synagogues worldwide at the time of Rosh Hashanah.

For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. (Jeremiah 31:6)

Awake, O sleeper!, writes Paul in Ephesians 5:14, paraphrasing several separate pronouncements of Isaiah (51:17, 52:1, 60:1) not to mention echoing Revelation 3:3 (If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you... Implying that those who are awake will know the hour, and that Jesus will not come against but for and/or with them.) I digress…

I’ve never been much of a betting man, but I would urge the intellectually honest sports fan, odds-maker, gambler, bookie, point-shaver or game-thrower to consider how difficult it would be to pull off such a feat by any kind of conscious effort or plan short of the divine.

Yet ultimately, it’s not about the miracles themselves but about God — about responding to that cry and “going up” to the heavenly Zion, unto YHWH our God. He can and does rouse even hard hearts via the ordinary — things such as sports stats which the world remains free to dismiss as  mere ‘coincidence’. (Chance is a concept hard to contain once you give it quarter. Your very existence, for example: it’s either from God, or you’re just a bundle of atoms… a bio-mechanical ‘coincidence’ no more meaningful than a rock.)

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In seeking to understand this whole thing, I think it’s useful to recall that John penned not one, but five books of the Bible. Three of them contain a third chapter; each of those has a sixteenth verse. Revelation was written by John. The title to the book puts him squarely in the picture. “The Revelation to John” says the chapter page in my ESV. Verses 1:1 and 1:4 provide supporting witness. As such, let’s consider a possible larger ‘frame’ for the Tebow phenomenon:

John 3:16 — For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

1st John 3:16 — Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

The Revelation to John 3:16 — …because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

The first verse is the offer. It’s what God, in his grace and love, has done for us. The two ‘that’s in the sentence help us understand its logic God’s love of the world was the reason for sending and giving up His Son, on the cross. The objective of that was so we would “not perish”. Willfully ignoring the stark fact of death as our physical and spiritual destination is what keeps many from seeing this amazing promise for what it is.

The second verse is our response. For the believer, this should not feel like a burden. As we begin to recognize our fragility, depravity and mortality, and set it alongside the fulness of Jesus’ offer of eternal life, giving up one’s life begins to look like a privilege. We get to participate in His plan and carry His name as we walk in his footsteps. Howevermuch suffering that may entail, we are told to “consider it pure joy” (James 1:2).

We came into this world naked and will leave the same way (clothed only in His blood-washed garment of God’s righteousness). The things of this world grow strangely dim to us. Its offers, and our self-centric plans begin to look increasingly false and fleeting: vulnerable to moth, rust and thievery of all kinds.

The degree to which we may feel that laying down our life for the brethren is, or is not, a burden is a test of our state of faith. (This is borne out also by context. E.g., see ‘That You May Know’ regarding First John, chapter two.)

Are we so cold to Jesus that the whole idea of laying down our lives (for him or anyone else) seems revolting and preposterous?

Those $%^&*g Christians… Again. Get this guy Tebow and all of his religiosity off of my television screen so I can go back to football.

God can work with that. He did with me.

Are we so on fire for Jesus that the sleights, odd stares and rebukes of men pale in light of the pleasure of the Almighty God? Are we so hot for Him and what he would have us to be and do that the thousand small, gradual social and familial ‘deaths’ at our foolishness fade down to naught in the joy of His Spirit and gratitude at His sacrifice?

I don’t really care who wins the game, or even what happens to Tebow. I’m cheering for God. It is so awesome that He’s breaking in like this!!

The LORD works with that, by definition.

Or are we somewhere in between?

I like God. Some days I think it’s love. I go to church. Sometimes the preacher is exciting, and that’s nice, but sometimes I’m turned off. I also like football [poker, baseball, running, triathlon, basketball, fishing, water-skiing, snowboarding, etc.] They’re exciting too. Some games/days are better than others. I’m cheering for ___ this weekend. It’s going to be great, isn’t it? Did you see what ___ did last week?

On several occasions, I’ve observed groups of men whom I know and love in the church (less often women, but it’s not unheard-of) — and in too many cases, I’ll admit, I’ve been among them — turn within seconds from a deep study of the Word of God to an excited discussion of the big game (whatever it is). Their faces light up. They smile. They relax.

Such discussions are often more intense than the just-concluded discussion of scripture and its application, as if these individuals felt relief at getting back to a worldly subject in which they felt more at home. Which they may. And I’ve been there. All of which raises the scary prospect that that may in fact be where they are setting up their spiritual home.

I’ve allowed myself to be swept up in such rapid shifts, in hopes of being perceived as one of the guys, and not some otherworldly, out-of-control Jesus freak. On two memorable occasions it brought the most crushing conviction within hours. Not fun, but thank God for it. I’d rather get his yellow card now than a red one at the judgment seat.

Listen. I’m a sports guy. I’m a long-time competitive athlete. I’m even a coach. I love a good contest. I’ve been known to run until I collapse… to cheer until I’m hoarse. The kind of enthusiasm I’m talking about is not inherently wrong.

What’s problematic is the degree to which it is allowed to overshadow our excitement at what God has done for us, muffling the voice which may tell us to move on. I’m no Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire), but his case is instructive and highly inspirational. To anyone not steeped in Track and Field lore, it’s difficult to convey the extent of his dominance and thus the extent of his commitment to Christ when he dropped it all in favor of a gritty and thankless overseas mission posting, the end of which involved war, separation from family, imprisonment, deprivation, and death.

Which brings us back to the third “3:16″ which John wrote. Here’s the context:

Revelation 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed , and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten : be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

This third ’3:16′ verse of John is the consequence. I.e., the natural result of not accepting God’s offer. Being God, Christ and King, He does not accept partial or conditional (i.e., ‘lukewarm’) “acceptances”. As in, I need to balance this Jesus stuff with the rest of my life; I’ll wait and see what happens after I die, or whether I really need God later in life, or whether Buddha makes me a better offer, etc.

First verse: offer. Second verse: diagnostic response (am I hot, cold, or lukewarm?) Third verse: consequence. If lukewarm: I will ‘spue’ thee out of my mouth.

Think coffee that’s sat in the pot for 3 hours with the switch off, or soup right out of the can, from the cupboard. Or warm, flat Coke with bees buzzing around it, or the questionable stuff at the lemonade stand that’s sat in the sun all afternoon without ice. You get the idea.

The Greek word is ‘emeo’ from which we get the English, ‘emetic’ (e.g., syrup of ipecac).

In other words: Puke. Hurl. Vomit.

It’s not a nice word.

Our dog did this all over the floor last week; it was not pretty. In fact, it stank. I’m sorry if this disgusts you, but Jesus Himself is saying, in the third ‘John 3:16′, that the lukewarm church is so utterly disgusting to Him that it makes Him sick to his stomach. By implication, it will no longer be in Him, but scattered (or perhaps more precisely, splattered). Again, sorry to be gross, but it’s in the Word and it applies to today. We’d best not shy away.

If that seems remote and overly dramatic, unrelated to the football context from which this post sprang, consider the verse which follows it (17):

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked… [Consider that as you watch the commercials, pondering the exorbitant price which some are willing to pay for playoff tickets and ad time...]

Bottom line: Even as the visibility of Tim Tebow’s 316, 31.6 and John 3:16 draw us to that first, familiar verse — as they should, for God’ offer’s still ‘good’ — we need to keep in mind that Jesus can taste the difference between a real and a half-hearted commitment, hedging Jesus against the things of this world. Question to ponder: Have you gone all-in for Jesus in the big game of life?

DANIEL 6:3 …Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. 4 Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful , neither was there any error or fault found in him. 5 Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. 6 Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.

7 All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed , according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. 9 Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.

10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

11 Then these men assembled , and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. 12 Then they came near , and spake before the king concerning the king’s decree; Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. 13 Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed , but maketh his petition three times a day. 14 Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him. 15 Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed. 16 Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee. 17 And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. 18 Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him. 19 Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. 20 And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?

21 Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. 22 My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. 23 Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.

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The event in the video took place January 4th at the Wellington (New Zealand) zoo. Wellington sits at the south end of NZ’s North Island, about 200 miles, as the crow flies, from Christchurch, on the South Island. The two are separated by the strong, cold currents of the Cook Strait. (Hold that thought). Christchurch, of course, is the NZ city which has been shaken by repeated earthquakes, (a powerful and important parable all by itself, and one on which I hope to expand soon).

More on the child-lion face-off here, here, and here.

Note carefully the fearless three-year-old girl’s name: Sofia.
Note also the name of the seven-year-old male lion: Malik.

Let us take each in turn.

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SOFIA

In the Septuagint (a.k.a., the ‘LXX’, written in Greek, the 2nd century BC, well prior to the Hebrew Masoretic text from which most modern Bible translations are taken), first use of the word ‘sofia’, meaning ‘wisdom’ (G4678, σοφία, pronounced, so-fē’-ä) comes in Exodus 28:3 as Jehovah is speaking to Moses –

And you speak to all the wise in thought! whom I filled [with] a spirit of wisdom [sofia - σοφία] and perception. And they shall make the holy apparel for Aaron for the holy place, in which he shall officiate as priest to me.

In the next two uses of the word, we see this divine manufacturing order for holy things fulfilled via relatively ordinary (i.e., non-priestly) individuals:

Exodus 31:3 (Jehovah speaking to Moses, regarding Bezalel, whose name means ‘in the shadow or protection of God’) — And I filled him [with] a divine spirit of wisdom [sofia - σοφία], and understanding, and higher knowledge, in every work to consider…

Exodus 35:26 (Mosaic narrative) –  And all the women to whom it seemed good in their consideration with wisdom [sofia - σοφία], spun the hair of the goats.

First use of the term in the New Testament comes in Matthew 11:19 –

The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom [sofia - σοφία] is justified of her children.

The next two uses are instructive also:

Matthew 12:42 — The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom [sofia - σοφία] of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 13:54 — And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom [sofia - σοφία], and these mighty works?

Scripture makes clear that Solomon had greater wisdom than any (mere) man (1st Kings 4:29-31). It therefore follows that these verses portray, respectively: 1) one of Jesus’ outrageous claims of Divinity, albeit ‘cloaked’, and 2) the logical question in response: Whence? (I.e., from where does he get his sophia?)

One greater in wisdom than the man Solomon would logically have to be God Himself, even though he was also a man. And he was. And is. God Himself. He (Jesus, the Son) forever shall be. For He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Word of God (logos), reflecting the fullness of the Father. He was in the beginning, with God and was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3). Therefore, he was not made either, for He is eternal. The Most High, Living God, Jehovah, YHWH.

And yet we have this profound mystery, which half the world just got done celebrating, at Christmas, even many who don’t follow Jesus: he came as a babe… a little child!

ISAIAH 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom* [sofia - σοφία] and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

*(This is the second of just two uses of the word ‘sophia’ in the LXX version of Isaiah. The other comes in the previous chapter (10:13) as part of Jehovah’s judgment on arrogant Assyria. Its leader at the time, Sennacherib, serves as a type for the end-times antichrist. The 2x use of this word by the prophet to refer to Christ and antichrist is a useful clue as to its importance elsewhere — in scripture and in the world.)

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MALIK

Malik is an Arabic word (ملك‎) meaning “king or chieftain”. It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized, Asian languages for their ruling princes or kings… ‘Al-Malik’ (literally ‘The King’) is one of the Names of Allah. (Wikipedia)

`Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān (Arabic: عبد الملك بن مروان‎; 646–705) was the 5th Umayyad Caliph. He was born in Mecca and grew up in Medinah. (Wikipedia)

Malik was also responsible for constructing the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem. This superb 1998 study, at Philologos (‘Red Beast/Islam/Ottoman Empire’), describes his motivations, plus implications for today. Here’s one tiny excerpt:

Quite obviously, the magnificent Dome of the Rock was erected on that particular spot not only in an attempt by Abd-al-Malik to gain potentially vast revenues from pilgrims, but also to prevent the Jews from ever rebuilding the Temple. No doubt it was thought that without that sacred structure the Jews would have no reason for regathering in Jerusalem. Thereby the stage was set more than a millennium ago for a future conflict which today threatens us all with a Third World War–a war over Jerusalem from which earth might very well never recover. (Jerusalem is mentioned over 800 times in the Bible.) …

Vatican II makes this surprising statement:

“But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Moslems: these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

If the Vatican II statement is correct, then Muslims should have no problem with Jews rebuilding the marble temple, or with Jesus (who referred to his own body as the temple) coming to reign in power over all the earth, from the same spot. Since this is clearly not the case, someone is misled, or lying… or both…

PSALM 10:9 [The wicked] lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. 10 He croucheth , and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. 11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

AMOS 3:12 Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch. 13 Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off , and fall to the ground. 15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish , and the great houses shall have an end , saith the LORD.

So, who or what is Malik? Well, a beast at least. Clearly. But let’s continue. It’s gets better. (Or, more precisely: worse.)

The Arabic word ‘malik’, meaning ‘king’, after which the Kiwi lion Malik is named, traces its etymology to the Biblical Hebrew word H4432, מֹלֶךְ, pronounced mō’·lek, also meaning ‘king’ but, more specifically referring to the proper name ‘Moloch‘:

“The god of the Ammonites and Phoenicians to whom some Israelites sacrificed their infants [and children] in the valley of Hinnom.”

(I couldn’t help but noting the visual similarity between how the Kiwi lion Malik, reared up with its front paws as it clawed at the glass in front of little Sofia, and the posture in which this 18th century German drawing portrays the ancient Canaanite idol-abomination.)

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CONCLUSIONS

What more needs to be said? The typologies in this real-life viral-news drama-parable are about as clear and consistent as they come… for those with eyes to see (which some won’t). This small vignette has much to say to us. Both believers and skeptics ignore its lessons at their peril.

If you are a believer, what I hope you are left with is a sense of peace, fearlessness and security. How’s that? Sofia was not harmed. She didn’t flinch. True Wisdom comes from God. Incarnated in by and through Jesus (who indwells the believer, through His Holy Spirit), holy and sanctified Sofia (recall the Exodus verses) has nothing to fear at all from rage and folly and the threat of death. It has been defanged, declawed and thoroughly tamed. (It has ‘lost its sting’, writes Paul).

Those who trust and follow the Christ (Jesus — Messiah Y’Shuah) can be absolutely, utterly certain of the saving power and sufficiency of his righteous blood sacrifice of himself, on our behalf, each and all, on the cross. The spiritual glass is thick and sturdy. Though the beast of this world may rage and claw just inches from us, he cannot harm us in any real sense. If we die in the physical, there is no real harm, for we will be with Jesus, made whole in and through Him, sure in our bodily resurrection, forever.

If you are not a believer… if you are not trusting entirely in Jesus for your eternal salvation, following Him as Lord and Master, whatever the cost, then what I hope you are left with is a greater sense for what the zoo scene might have looked like had the glass evaporated or broken all of a sudden. Such a scene was in fact portrayed, with a lying twist, in one of the Harry Potter films, when a supposedly good-natured serpent slithered out to mix with the zoo’s visitors. The story’s clear implication was that the beast of this world (Satan) isn’t really so bad, just misunderstood. (A generation back, one might cue the tape for The Rolling Stones’ song, ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. Same story.)

No, let’s get real for a moment. Had the glass broken, the little girl would have been torn to shreds — killed and (perhaps) consumed, just as were the 329,445 infants killed by Planned Parenthood alone, last year alone. (Specifically one child sacrifice for every 1,000 U.S. residents, at about $1,500 a pop, of your tax dollars. H/T: John McTernan.)

This is the fate which awaits those who do not trust in Jesus for their salvation. The rest of the Daniel 6 lions-den story, which I did not quote above goes on to relate how those who schemed to put Daniel to death (“All the presidents… governors… princes… counsellors, and… captains”, i.e., those relying on their own earthly power, influence, strength, wealth and wisdom, small ‘w’, and thus, by definition, denying inhabited not with an “excellent spirit”, i.e., the Holy Spirit, as was Daniel, but by the spirit of this world, antichrist) are thrown in by the King instead, their flesh eaten right off their bones.

They died a horrific death — the same one they’d planned for Daniel. He lived.

As Jesus says of the separation between the rich man, in Hades, and Lazarus (Luke 16:26):

…between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.

Which side of the glass do you want to be on when the lion rages?

PSALM 15:1 A psalm of David. Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? 2 Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. 3 Those who refuse to slander others or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. 4 Those who despise persistent sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the LORD and keep their promises even when it hurts. 5 Those who do not charge interest on the money they lend, and who refuse to accept bribes to testify against the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.

I had occasion to listen recently — for at least the 2nd, and perhaps the 3rd time — to an exceptionally solid, convicting, useful sermon by Alistair Begg, based on Psalm 15.

Originally preached on October 13th, 1991, it’s entitled “Take the Test”.

Don’t expect to get an ‘A’.

In fact, if you’re quick to imagine you’ve even passed it, you’ve probably failed.

Conversely, if you’re dreading the prospect, recognizing that on the best day of your life you might hit 49%, and you come to recognize that Jesus is your ONLY hope of passing, then that’s a good indicator that you are, and you will. Here are:

Part One (mp3), and
Part Two (mp3)

Less than an hour in total. I recommend both parts without reservation.

I was particularly attuned to the message this time because of a close study I’ve been doing recently in 1st John around the same theme: How can we know we are really in Christ? The apostle writes, in the Spirit, seven times:

1st John 2:3-6 — And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

This is one of those texts which, if it were to be preached every week for an entire year in the average church until everyone could recite it from memory would work wonders.

1st John 3:16 (easy to remember!)– By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Or this one! (I can see why Jesus loved John so much.) Just unpacking applications of the simple phrase, “we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” for 52 weeks straight in the average church would change those in and around it in profound ways.

1st John 3:24 — Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

1st John 4:6 — We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Note that the proof-confidence tests for being “from God,” which John lays out in the previous verses, serve as prerequisites for this test being valid. In other words, being able to point to some folks who don’t want to listen to you is not, in and of itself, a proof of one’s righteousness. (As Francis Chan likes to say, you may just be a jerk.  )

1 John 4:13 — By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

1 John 5:2 — By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

1 John 5:13 — I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

Ah, the glorious, over-arching purpose! “that you may know that you have eternal life“ For in this — in really, truly KNOWING, in the depths of our soul — that this life is only the warm-up act, and that the worst that man or circumstance can do is to kill the body and send us on to the next act, in the presence of God, we are truly free.

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 called for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. It was approved on November 29, 1947. (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, including full text and audio of the resolution and vote.)

“[On] December 7, 1947 the American astronomer K. G. Carpenter accidentally photographed UV Ceti while it was flaring. UV Ceti increased in brightness by a factor of 12 and returned to normal within a three minute time span. The word didn’t get out to the astronomical community until 1948, and the next flare star discovered, AD Leo, was in 1949.” (p. 406, ‘The Comets of God…’ by Dr. Jeffrey Goodman)

In other words, on the eighth day after the modern state of Israel was voted into existence by the UN, a man named ‘Carpenter’ discovered a sudden, super-bright light in the heavens of a type never observed before.

Other sources credit Dutch astronomer Willem Jacob Luyten with the discovery, in September, 1948. Either way, the names and timing are evocative. Hold that thought.

This particular ‘UV Ceti’, (a.k.a., L762-8, or Gliese 65), is arguably the first ‘flare star’ ever observed with precision, the archetype for an entire class of variable stars which came to carry the same moniker. The original was so named due to its location in the constellation Cetus — “the sea monster” (Leviathan) according to E.W. Bullinger who, writing in 1893, added:

The band that unites these two fishes [in Pisces] has always formed a separate constellation… Its ancient Egyptian name was U-or, which means He cometh. Its Arabic name is Al Risha, the band, or bridle. It speaks of the Coming One [Messiah Jesus], not in His relation to Himself, or to His enemies, but in His relation to the Redeemed… (Hosea 11:4)… But it speaks also of His unloosing the bands with which they have been so long bound. The fishes are bound to Cetus; the woman (Andromeda) is chained; but the Deliverer of both is near. Cepheus, the Crowned King, the Redeemer, “the Breaker,” the Branch, is seen coming quickly for the deliverance of His redeemed… Israel now is bound. The great enemy still oppresses, but deliverance is sure.

The connections go even deeper.

UV Ceti is one of earth’s closest neighbors, just 8.7 light-years away (about fifty trillion miles). In other words, the sudden flare of bright light which K.G. Carpenter saw, on December 7th, 1947 started towards earth in late March or early April, 1939.

The Passover began on the evening of April 3rd that year. It was to be the last Passover before Hitler embarked, in earnest, on his wholesale round-up and slaughter of Jews in Europe. On March 25th, 1939, “500,000 people watch[ed] 20,000 protestors march in a ‘Stop Hitler’ parade held in New York City”. [ouch]

Light from the second observed flare, of the same star, which Willem Jacob Luyten saw nine months later, began its trek to us in January, 1940, a watershed time in Hitler’s ramp-up to the so-called “Final Solution”. Selected low-lights of that month include:

The Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher [editorializes]: “The time is near when a machine will go into motion which is going to prepare a grave for the world’s criminal – Judah – from which there will be no resurrection.”

January 14-16: The forced march of 880 Polish prisoners of war–all Jews–results in the shooting deaths of more than 600.

January 18-24: 255 Polish Jews arrested at random in Warsaw are taken to the Palmiry Forest outside the city and shot.

January 25: The Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) is chosen as the site of a new Nazi concentration camp.

January 30: The British Embassy in Bucharest pressures the Romanian government to prevent its ships from carrying Jewish refugees. [double ouch]

The next flare star to be discovered — AD Leonis, in 1949 — takes its name from the constellation Leo where it resides, sixteen light-years away from us. In other words, its light began the journey to us in 1933, the year Hitler rose to power. ['AD' means something else in the context of this star's name, however it's useful to recall that, in Latin it stands for 'Anno Domini': in the year of our Lord.] Bullinger summarizes the significance of Leo, the last chapter in the twelve-part Mazzeroth as:

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah aroused for the rending of the Enemy:
1. HYDRA (The Serpent). That old Serpent— Devil, destroyed.
2. CRATER (The Cup). The cup of Divine wrath poured out upon him.
3. CORVUS (The Crow, or Raven). Birds of prey devouring him.

The point of this post is not mainly about dates, but one thing this set of celestial facts seems to suggest (or rather, to reinforce, for it is hardly a novel idea) is that this process of final rending and judgment of the Enemy/enemies of God may have begun with Israel’s founding. The possibility of that process taking place over a seventy-year generation (i.e., concluding in 2017-18) is both scary and exciting.

Which is why it’s nice to be reminded, by the long-before-it-happened precision of it all, that THE Living God, YHWH, father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — the only True and Most High God who, by grace and grace alone, gave his Son Jesus Christ to die in our place for our sins on the cross — is so utterly, amazingly sovereign, powerful and perfect that we can scarcely even begin to imagine what that means.

Praise Him for Jesus who literally stooped to our level so we could be saved to see, know, dwell with, and live to glorify our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be His name, forever and ever. May His Kingdom come. May His will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

UPDATE: Reading my Bible this morning (Wed., Jan. 4th) as part of the new reading plan which a friend tipped me off to (Professor Grant Horner: here-html service, here-scribd summary or here-pdf summary), and reflecting further on this post, the following verses struck me as especially relevant:

ROMANS 1:18 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Part I (This Little Light of Mine)
Part II (Corruption: How Deep That Darkness!)
Part III (Removing the Light)

Jenny Lake, gateway to the Grand Tetons

The late Jenni Lake, with her son, Chad Michael

[NOTE: I am in no way suggesting that any of the characters in the following news story are Biblical principals (i.e., prophetic characters), only that they and their recent sad saga help point us to some important Biblical principles (i.e., foundational ideas and issues).]

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. 17 Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” (John 10:11-17, NKJV)

Jesus spoke these words at the Jerusalem Temple at Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication for it, or more precisely, the celebration of its re-dedication.

The Jerusalem Temple was known, at that time, as the light of the world. The city in which its remains lie is still regarded, by many Jews as being in and of itself a light to the nations, instead of the empty vessel it is, awaiting the return of that Light (Jesus Christ) who will reign in power from there. Hanukkah, of course, is also known as the Festival of Lights, and thus, as we’ve discussed before, it is profoundly significant that Jesus declared, a few hours (or days) earlier at that same festival and location:

“I AM the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12, NKJV)

Hanukkah ends today, the eighth day, December 28th.

Jesus, “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29), knew that “the temple of his body” was shortly to be torn down, having said as much in John 2:21 (though his disciples didn’t quite ‘get’ it at the time). So too would be the marble temple, a grace-filled forty years later, after many other signs and portents. Only one temple would be resurrected.

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.” 3 And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place… 13… all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14 So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ (Exodus 13:1-3a, 13b-15, NKJV)

Note the apparent paradox of the firstborn ‘males’ being sacrificed (all species), while firstborn sons are redeemed. Only in Christ Jesus is this resolved, he being fully a ‘male’, i.e., a man, a son of Adam with an earthly nature, yet also the True Son of God, redeeming both male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and free in and through his body.

Chad Michael Lake Wittman, b. Nov 9, 2011

Jenni [Lake] didn’t show regret for her decision, not in the final weeks of her pregnancy as she grew weaker, and not when she started to lose her vision as the cancer took its course, her family said.

Jenni’s last words were about her son as he was placed beside her a final time, her father said. As she felt for the baby, she said: “I can kind of see him.”

————

Then He [Jesus] came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. 23 So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. 24 And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” 25 Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. (Mark 8:22-25, NKJV)

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1st John 3:1-3, NKJV)

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1st Corinthians 13:11-13, NKJV)

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Jenni Lake gave birth to a baby boy the month before her 18th birthday, though she was not destined to become just another teenage mother. That much, she knew.

While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled her nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear… “I’m done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe.”

1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. (Revelation 12:1-6, NKJV)

Christian College Sues Over Abortion Pill Mandate (December 22nd, Washington Times)

Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, As when at first He lightly esteemed The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward more heavily oppressed her, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, In Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined.

3 You have multiplied the nation And increased its joy; They rejoice before You According to the joy of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden And the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, As in the day of Midian. 5 For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, And garments rolled in blood, Will be used for burning and fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given;

[Note the fully-man / fully-God dual-nature parallels with Exodus 13, above.]

And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. 8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob, And it has fallen on Israel. 9 All the people will know– Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria– Who say in pride and arrogance of heart: 10 “The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.” (Isaiah 9:1-10, NKJV)

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A day after the Nov. 9 birth, [Diana] Phillips learned that her daughter’s decision to forgo treatment for tumors on her brain and spine so she could carry the baby would have fatal repercussions. The cancer had marked too much territory. Nothing could be done, Phillips said. It was only 12 days past the birth — half spent in the hospital and the other half at home — before Jenni was gone.

At least one of Jenni Lake’s friends had a tattoo done in her honor:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another. (John 15:7-17, NKJV)

Thank you Jenni, for reminding us all of what we should have known…