God Personalized his kingdom in two personalities. First, John the Baptist. His arrival as Messiah’s forerunner roused excitement never seen in Israel since Malachi preached. Then, when Herod Antipas stilled his influence, the Christ he introduced Personalized God’s Kingdom as the eternal seismic Krakatoa of the Sunda Straits, as shattering Santorini of the Aegean, as explosive Vesuvius of Italy.
As this writer has repeatedly demonstrated in his four volume Their Own Best Defense, no explanation of Jesus Christ in the Gospels that differs from Their Explanation of Jesus Christ will ever explain the Jesus Christ of History! We understand Satan’s rabid hatred of Jesus. He’s the only person Satan hates with an equivalent fear. He knows that the historic Christ of the Gospels dooms him to Hell. The voices of every demon Jesus exorcised in his ministry proves that he also doomed them to Hell. Without exception they recognized Jesus as the lightning and thunder of damnation. Critics who discredit the supernatural origin of Jesus, who deny the supernatural acts of Jesus, who reject the supernatural death and resurrection of Jesus, have less awareness of Christ’s deity than demons; and less fear of the Christ than the devil! Who would want to have less awareness and fear of Jesus than they? Much more can be said on this point, but.... End Part IV
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Because Jesus Triumphs, the Christianity he embodies also Triumphs. This is seen in the Personalized Cause. Which features two personalities.
First, in Elizabeth’s conception of John the Baptist. His ministry had been forecast in Isaiah 40:3-5. Meaning: not even Elizabeth’s barren womb and Zechariah’s old age would be an obstacle to John’s birth. John faithfully served as Christ’s forerunner
Because Jesus Triumphs, the Christianity he embodies also Triumphs. Even as the Hidden Cause—from Creation to Malachi. Genesis 3:15 offers God’s first promise: his enmity--seed placed between the woman and the serpent would crush it while suffering slightly. Even then, while no effect of sin had been felt, God predicted Christ’s coming, the inevitable event since he had been “chosen before the creation of the world” I Peter 1:20.
Not until Abram’s call in Genesis 12 did God choose the human forefather of God’s enmity/seed. The effect of sin had been felt repeatedly by that time, including the catastrophic universal Flood of Noah that judged impenitent, fallen humanity, followed by the corruption of God’s Singularity into boundless idolatry and its accompanying wickedness. Following 430 years of Egyptian servitude, God’s chosen race left triumphantly, protected by the blood of the Passover Lamb—a type of Christ; led by the Pillar of Cloud and Light—types of Christ; fed by manna—a type of Christ; thirst quenched by the Rock—a type of Christ. All through those years of preparation, God’s ultimate Cause remained Hidden, awaiting the historical development when it would be Personally Embodied. End Part II With all hope gone of avoiding General Grant’s enclosing army, some of General Lee’s officers besieged him with requests to break into guerilla-sized units and continue the struggle. President Jefferson Davis favored the idea. General Lee refused that chimera and surrendered his entire army to General Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, 9 April, 1865. The unsuccessful effort to dismember the Union of States into a Confederacy of competing, and ultimately splintering, states remained in the Southern consciousness as the Lost Cause, the emphasis being on Lost.
It could never be won on battlefields since Lee refused the requests to continue as a guerilla war. Even that effort would have been doomed through exhausting the resources of willing states and counties. The Civil War—mis-called War Between the States by embittered rebels—was over and could be revived and nurtured only in the psyches of unrepentant confederates as the Lost Cause Which brings us to the subject of this series. The words Lost Cause never apply to Jesus and his Christianity; not to him, the Savior who saves; and not to Christianity, the embodiment of him in history through individual Christians. He and his Perfect FAITH remain in history as his Overcoming Spiritual Crusade. Nothing opposing him ever wins; nor can it ever exist as a noble experiment that history eventually dismissed as something good for its time but outgrown as society changes. Einstein might say the Bible is nonsense, but he’s dead and, while his cause continues in the humanist, it will one day be—not merely LOST but DEMOLISHED. As will every cause but ONE PERISH in the fires at the end. End, Part I Ancient Israel had recurring periods of commitment to God and apostasy from God. They never mastered persevering commitment and escaped permanent dismemberment from God by his merciful appointment of Judges and Kings to purify land and people.
Christians have a better hope, as the writer of Hebrews constantly reminded his readers. We’re not yet the people we can be. But we’re better than the people we used to be. And, by God’s grace, will in the future be far better people than we ever thought to be. Now, for daily life, the Holy Spirit empowers discipleship. Even now we can be the “more than conquerors” Romans 8:37 declares us and the “overcomers” Revelation 3:21 promises faithful disciples. Even now. And the Holy Spirit has just begun. When Jesus puts an end to history, incinerates the present world system and creates the new heaven and earth, all of God’s people will begin to perfectly be “more than conquerors” and “overcomers.” If God, in faithfulness to Israel, would provide them with saviors and judges, he won’t be less faithful to Christians who persevere in discipleship. If the Holy Spirit worked under the Judges to free sinful Israelites from oppressive foreign kings, he won’t less successfully plant, nurture and mature in Christians the fruit of the Spirit while minimizing in and banishing from us the works of the flesh! Therefore, Christians, lift up your heads and hearts. Be strong in faith and confident in hope. We’re presently better than anyone else by possessing the Holy Spirit of God. And the best is YET to BE! Family sickness under control, back to blogging.
When Union veterans discussed the battle of Antietam, 1862, which Union General McClellan criminally mismanaged, they regretted that he didn’t use 25,000 of them at all! Their use, in addition to better tactics, would have broken Lee’s army. That has a definitive spiritual meaning. Preachers may overlook the spiritual energy latent in their congregations. Which, by the way, often ignites unpleasant conflicts better controlled by putting Christians to work for Jesus in their communities. The Biblical basis of Christ’s method is his promise to the Twelve when they went out to preach by two’s. He gave them “authority to drive out demons.” The Markan text explains that: Jesus not only called the Twelve; he also commissioned the Twelve; and empowered the Twelve for success in his commission. He wouldn’t send them out prepared without gifting them to succeed Mark 3:13-15. Though Jesus projects success anytime we serve, our limitations may bring failure. But the fault lies in us, not in the spiritual potential within us. However, and this is Christ’s encouragement, by persevering in service, trying again when failing, never giving up when stifled, we eventually succeed. We ultimately bring honor to our Lord by consistently using his power in our discipleship. A January 12, 2020 Parade Magazine featured some of the healthiest places in America to live. They included small-population Breckenridge, Colorado, approximately 5000 people; big-population Minneapolis, Minnesota, approximately 432,000 people; and middle-sized population Charleston, South Carolina, approximately 130,000 people. They even listed five ways people anywhere can increase their life span, including better diets, walking as a habit and living away from sea level to higher elevations.
Longevity...adding a few month or a few years to the average life spans...the siren call of the age. Ignoring the certainty of mortality—the fixation of modern medicine—we seek to keep everyone alive LONGER, even at the expense of a quality-life. Just keep ‘em breathing! We have become so mired in this world that we CAN’T, not just WON’T, look to the next world. We’re like Simon Peter’s generation, having become so obsessed with, and accustomed to, this world—“the empty way of life handed down from your forefathers” I Peter 1:18—that we don’t find it possible to see up from the rut we’re in, or even think any other way but our rut exists. Why are we so obsessed with living longer with SO little interest in living eternally? How can we make a good life on earth but disbelieve God can make a PERFECT one in his Heaven? Can we be so spiritually impoverished to believe that? In July 1775, General Washington arrived in Boston to assume command of the American army. He faced shocking shortcomings of arms and ammunition. But nothing so nettling as the prickly personalities of his subordinates. And nothing so irritated them as his difficulty in distinguishing officers from privates. It also disturbed him that the officers exercised the egalitarian habits in military life that they had learned in civilian life. Flexner, Life of Washington I, p. 30
Jesus had no trouble distinguishing his disciples—one from the other, the more gifted from the lesser, the positive personality from the more pessimistic one. First of all, he knew that none by himself could be equal to his demands. That’s why he made discipleship, like salvation, by GRACE alone. Second, whatever their intentions, he knew he had to empower them to reach his aspirations for them. And, while he used disciples differently, as he knew they could best serve, he never valued one conscientious service over another. Great or small, privately or publicly viewed, he recognized every disciple’s servanthood. As the song says, that’s why “we love him and that’s why we sing. And that’s why we offer him our everything”. And that’s why we do whatever he commands or expects with few comments or complaints. He knows us each by name and values a child’s lisping his name as much as an adult’s adoration in song. II Corinthians 3:10-11 stresses Christ’s superiority to Moses: by his motivation and permanence. The Mosaic Covenant, based on 10 WORDS, came with unquestioned glory—see Part III. Though a God-appointed temporary expedient and stop-gap measure. Though it brought guilt by detailing the many ways we can sin. Though it had only corrective and judiciary powers.
Christ’s infinitely greater and eternal glory, see Part III, eclipses Moses’ transient glory: as love surpasses law, as expandable surpasses limitation; as delight surpasses terror; as openness surpasses secrecy; as people surpass stone. Recalling Paul’s words in Romans 7:7-25, the defect wasn’t in Law but in humanity. Nor any defect in Christ’s grace but in humanity’s invariable submission to temptation. What is the difference in Law and Grace, then, since humanity offends both? MOTIVATION and PERMANENCE! No one can perfectly obey all laws, especially God’s Perfect TEN. James 2:8-13 discusses that. And no one but Jesus ever surpassed ALL that Law demanded and ALL that Grace expected! That is forgiven humanity’s hope. While law and grace convict the sinner, only Grace goes beyond sin to justifying the sinner by faith in Christ’s ALL-SUFFICIENT perfection in both Law and Grace and his sacrifice on Calvary to declare righteous all who trust him and his sacrifice. Fini II Corinthians 3:7-9 perhaps can be summarized in the world GLORY. God’s revelation to Israel through Moses certainly came with glory...thick clouds billowing over Sinai, lightning and thunder shattering ear-drums, smoke on the summit accompanied by ever-louder trumpet blasts that terrified everyone on the plain, accompanied by quakes shaking the stony heights to their foundations. DOXA—GLORY! The person of God revealed in nature to gain their attention, to humble their mortality before his Almighty Presence.
And but a poor reflection of what Jesus revealed in his Transfiguration Matthew 17:1-13. What God through Moses demonstrated through his control of nature Jesus demonstrated by the inside-out revelation of himself on the mountain. Luke 9:32 indicates that the Transfiguration may have occurred after sunset, a not unlikely scenario. The trio of disciples fell exhausted as Jesus prayed, and still slept when he rose from kneeling and (writer’s opinion) extended his arms outward. Light suddenly began flowing from inside him through his pores and through his clothes. The disciples struggled awake through what seemed hordes of fire-flies swarming around their heads only to discover the light came from the standing Jesus. This was no dream, the trio knew, and flew upright to see Jesus pour out light rays from within himself until they turned dark to day and day to brilliance as far as their eyes could see. Overwhelmed as never before, they babbled something about a tabernacle. Only to be more terrified as two other august, but lesser brilliant, persons stood beside the Lord discussing with him his exodon—exodus—from this world in death, the brilliant three a few feet above, the stunned mortals three feet below. Flat on their faces, they wondered what would happen next. Only to hear the great whisper of God’s booming voice declaring Jesus the Son he loved and wanted heard! They crawled to their knees with outstretched arms, then wobbled upright to see Jesus ALONE gathering the returning rays to himself, now as long, broad and tapered pillars of light, each pole narrowing and shortening as it approached, then vanished somewhere inside him. Until all of them narrowed to sword-points, then disappeared, leaving but a nimbus around his entire body. That is a poor description of the Glory revealed that night on one of the vast shoulders of Mt. Hermon. To make the concept more workable, equate GLORY with BEAUTY. And, as the old chorus says, “Let the BEAUTY of Jesus be seen in me.” End Part III |
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