Still in Chains?

Over the last several months, I have been pondering a trend in our churches:  that of calling believers in Christ "sinners."  Listen to your own pastor, pull up any of the famous pastors on Youtube like Matt Chandler, John Piper, and the like, and you'll likely hear the same message preached over and over:  you're a wretched sinner in need of the Gospel.

Now, in one sense, this is true.  We still have the flesh, and the flesh is still subject to temptation.  Paul says as much in several different letters:

Not that I have already obtained this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Jesus Christ took hold of me (Philippians 3:12).

Notice that Paul says he has not "already been made perfect."

So I find this law at work:  When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am! (Romans 7:21-24).

What's he saying?  That, even as he desires to obey God, he also finds the desire to sin in his body.  So we see that in a real sense we do still struggle in the flesh, and we do still sin, but to stop our view of reality right there is to miss one of the most wonderful parts of the Gospel:  we don't have to sin.  Check out how Paul finishes his thought in Romans 7:

What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! (24-25).

It doesn't end with the bad news of struggle with temptation.  Who will rescue us from the struggle?  Jesus Christ.  But to end it here, too, is also incomplete.  To throw our hands in the air whenever we sin and say, "Well, I struggle, but at least I'm saved!" is to also miss out on one of the points of redemption.  Notice, throughout the Scriptures, how those who trust in God for salvation are described:

-Clean (Leviticus 16:30, John 15:3, Acts 10:15)
-White/Pure (Psalm 51:7, Isaiah 1:18, II Corinthians 11:2, Revelation 3:4)
-Holy (Exodus 31:13; Leviticus 11:44-45; Romans 6:19,22; Romans 11:16; Romans 12:1; II Corinthians 1:12; Ephesians 3:5; Ephesians 5:3; I Thessalonians 3:13; II Thessalonians 1:10; Hebrews 10:10; Hebrews 12:10; Revelations 20:6)
-Anointed (I John 2:20;27)

"Anointed" comes from the terms "Christ" (Greek) and "Messiah" (Hebrew).  When the Scriptures call us "anointed," they aren't saying that we are our own saviors, but they are saying that we are holy, separated for the work of God, and pronounced clean and righteous.    

Now, what are we to say, then, about our sin?  We do sin, but not because sin is still our "default" mode:  one cannot be pronounced "clean" if one is still "dirty."  If we still live in our old way of thinking - which is "futile," "foolish," and "wicked" - then we are not clean, pure, or holy.  We do still sin, but not because we are "sinners in need of Grace" who are still so totally depraved that we often have no choice.  If we're believers, this is a direct contradiction of the Scriptures and a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit.  It sounds super-spiritual to call yourself a "wretched sinner," but it's unbiblical to leave it at that.  Those who preach such things, and encourage their congregations to believe such things, are those who have a form of godliness but deny its power.

How do I know this?  The Bible:

I want you to stress these things [see Titus 1:1 - 3:7], so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good (Titus 3:8).

Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (II Corinthians 4:16).

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  Behold, the old is gone, and the new has come! (II Corinthians 5:17).

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6:6-7).

In Titus, Paul is telling his friend that one can devote oneself to doing what is good.  Therefore, to tell believers that their "default mode" is sin is anti-biblical.   But if we still have the struggles of the flesh, how is it possible to devote oneself to doing good?  Some days it does feel as if our default setting is sin, but only - I think - because we're being told it is.  If we are in Christ, our new default mode is righteousness, and temptation becomes something we fight and resist, because it threatens to re-enslave us.  But this begs the question:  how is it possible to live sinless lives, if that's what I'm claiming the Bible tells us to do?  It's possible because, inwardly, we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we are now new creations who are no longer slaves to sin, but have, rather, been freed from sin. 

The wording Paul uses is unmistakable.  II Corinthians 5:17 is present-tense:  "The new has come," not "will come"; "the old is gone," not "the old will be gone."  We are being renewed and transformed - if sin is still the default mode, then no transformation has occurred.  "Our old self was crucified," Paul writes in Romans 6.  That means it was put to death.  So if your old self still rules your body, then it was never put to death with Christ.  And if sin is still a default mode over which you have no control, then you're not "freed from sin."  Or, you have been, but you just don't believe it, which is the central point of understanding here.

 As with almost everything else with God, one of the main reasons we still sin is because we don't trust Him.  We build up a theology in which God and God alone is responsible for our spiritual development, we build up a theology in which our natural, fallen minds are incapable of knowing God, and we develop a theology in which God does not take away our sin because He "has a plan and a purpose," and so, rather than trust that we can set aside sin in our lives, we continue on in our sin, making excuses.  All of these views - all of them - are wrong.

To say that God refuses to take away our sin because He has a plan and purpose for it is to shift the responsibility of sin onto God.  This is blasphemous, for God is neither tempted with sin, nor does He tempt us to sin (James 1:13).   If we think about this for a moment, we realize that if God desires us to commit the very sins He commands us not to commit, then He is a liar.  Right?    If I tell my daughter not to throw a tantrum, but secretly desire that she does (because I "have a plan"), what would that make me?  Untrustworthy, at best.  So, no, to say that we still sin because God has a plan and purpose for it - and therefore refuses to keep us from stumbling - renders God untrustworthy.

To believe that sinning because it's our default mode, while also claiming to believe that God's call to obedience is sincere, is contradictory.  And how do we worm around that?  By claiming that God is so far above us, contradictions don't matter because we don't understand God.  Yet to say that we are incapable of knowing God in our fallen, natural minds is to deny the words of Christ:

"I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well.  From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him . . . Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father . . . Believe Me when  I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves" (John 14:6-7; 9; 11).

Can we know and understand everything about God?  No, of course not, but to deny our ability to know God and what He has revealed about His character is to deny both the words of Christ, as well as the work of the Holy Spirit.  To ask why God would still want us to sin, and answer it with, "our natural fallen minds can't be satisfied on this point" (as John Piper is fond of saying) is to, once more, commit blasphemy (yes, I did just accuse Piper of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  More on that in a later post).  I want to repeat this, because this is a grievous thing to believe:  if we say that God refuses to keep us from sinning because He has a "plan" for it is to blame God for our continual sin; don't do that!

God never, ever takes sole responsibility for a person's spiritual development.  Why?  Sort of like the first point, if He is solely responsible for our positive development, then that would make Him solely responsible for our spiritual failures.  More than that, though, God commands His people in Leviticus not to sin, and He does so by giving them the Law, but it is they who have to trust Him and obey His teachings (see Leviticus 11:44-45; 18:1-5; 18:26-28; 18:30; 19:1-2; 19:3; 19:19; 19:37; 20:7-8; 20:22-24; 20:26; 22:31-33;26:3-4; 26:11-13; 26:14-17; 26:18-19; 26:21; 26:23-24; 26:27-28; 26:40-42; see also Deut. 26:16-19; 28:1-6; 28:9-10; 28:14; 28:15; 28:58-59; 30:1-6; 30:10; 30:11-20).

See the problem?  God commands the Israelites to live holy lives, which means two things:  He knows they can, and He wants them to.  If either of these is untrue, then God is a liar.  Deuteronomy 30 makes it even clearer:  "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult or beyond your reach" (11).  Some would say, "Well, He was talking about Jesus there."  Nice thought, but He wasn't; He was addressing the nation of Israel, the nation to whom He had just given a great deal of commands.  In no way, shape, or form, do we see God saying, "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult or beyond your reach because of something coming in the future."  God enters into a covenant with Israel, giving them the outline of holiness, and telling them that obedience is "not too difficult or beyond [their] reach."  Notice, they weren't obedient - I'm not claiming they were - but their disobedience was because they had full control of their faculties, and used them for evil, rather than obedience.

At this point, the charge of "legalism" usually gets thrown about, as if obeying - and desiring to obey - God is disdainful.  Somehow, God's commands have been relegated to rules by which we shouldn't live, as if He gave the Law because He didn't want people to obey it.  Again, that would make Him untrustworthy, for how could we ever hope to know which commands He wants us to obey, and which ones He wants us to disobey?  This makes God double-minded.

"But Christ did away with the Law!"

Yes, He did, but He didn't do away with obedience.  You see, when Christ came and brought the New Covenant, He entered into the same type of agreement as the Law:

If you love Me, keep My commands.  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever - 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.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.   Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me.  The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them and show Myself to them. . . .

"Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching.  My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home in them.  Anyone 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" (John 14:15-21; 23-24).

Same type of covenant, isn't it?  The difference is that we are no longer under the Law, for Jesus' sacrificial death was the final sacrifice needed to take away sins once and for all (see Hebrews).  The sacrifices of the Law did take away sins, but only until the person sinned again (e.g., Leviticus 4:26; Hebrews 10:1-18).  Jesus' life, death, and resurrection became an everlasting covenant that cannot be undone, not even by sin.  Yet . . . the requirements of personal responsibility are undeniably present.  In just nine verses, Jesus tells His disciples three different times that anyone who loves Him will obey His commands, and He tells them once that those who do not obey do not love.  That's almost half - almost half of the verses deal with the relationship between our love for Him and our obedience to His commands.  Now, obviously, one of His commands is to trust Him (see John 6:1-40), but His commands don't stop there, so neither should our obedience, and Jesus is clear that our obedience is tied directly to whether or not we love Him.

John says the same thing in his first letter:

We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands.  The man who says, "I know Him," but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him.  This is how we know we are in Him:  Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did (I John 2:3-6).
 
That is a covenant: a relational agreement between two parties.  Now, we can talk about grace and faith versus works, we can discuss James 2:24, and so on - and maybe we will in another post - but for the purposes of this post, let's stop and think for a moment.  Does Jesus say, "If you love Me, I will make sure you never sin again"?  Nope.  Does Jesus say, "If you love Me, I will still sometimes cause you to sin, in order to make you dependent on Me?"  Absolutely not!  Does He say, "Once I come to you and make My home in you, I will know you love Me, even if you don't obey"?  Nope.  Jesus is clear:  obedience is our responsibility, and it is tied directly to whether or not we love Him.  Now we do still sin, which is why His death is so enormously glorious, but Jesus is reiterating what we read in Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Titus, Romans, II Corinthians, and so on:  we don't have to.  We still do, but that is only because we don't trust one of God's most important promises in all of Scripture, I Corinthians 10:13:

God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (13).

Check out the first part of the verse:  "He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear."  God knows our boundaries, He knows our weaknesses, and He knows what we can endure.  God allows us to be tempted, but He sets the parameters in which Satan must act.  Why?  Well, if we are able to bear whatever temptation we are facing at that moment, then those parameters are obviously put there in order for us to "stand up under it."  We see this play out in the story of Job.

One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.  The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"

Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."

Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job?  There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." 

"Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied.  "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?  You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.  But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger" (Job 1:6-12).

God gave Satan permission to do whatever he wanted, but He set parameters and boundaries, boundaries which Satan was not allowed to cross.  The result?

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing (1:22).

If you know the story, you know that in the next few verses, Satan comes back, and this time God widens the parameters a bit.  I suppose this is a bit of speculation, but I believe that God's parameters are set where they are at the beginning because He knows at what point Job will not stand and, once Job perseveres and his faith increases, God allows the temptation to hit a little closer to home, become a little more intense, because He knows Job's limits of endurance have expanded a bit.

Which means He knows where your limits are, too.  When you are facing that temptation, whatever it is, you can know that God does not want you to fail, and He is faithful to provide a way out.  The positive side, of course, is that this means that you do not have to sin.  The negative side?  If you do, it's because you willingly chose to ignore that way out (not because it's your "default" mode).  My advice - and I have to give this to myself, too - is to repent, turn, and remind yourself of God's promises every single day. Need a real world example, something beyond speculation and theological niceties?

I don't discuss it regularly, but I haven't exactly hidden the fact that lustful thoughts are an enormous struggle with me, a struggle whose roots go very, very deep.  As such, these thoughts have physically, emotionally, and mentally manifested themselves in various ways over the years, and while I may be able to deal with many of these side effects, dealing with the main issue was never on my radar.  Why?  Because I believed the lie that I'm a guy, and it's what we do; I believed I was imprisoned by my own gender in this regard.  "God made me visually in-tune to women, so it's just who I am."  That's a lie that ultimately blames God for my sin, and denies any possibility of obedience.

But we are, if we are in Christ, set free from sin, and so I resolved to trust God at His Word and to actually look for the way out the next time I was faced with the temptation to lust.  I must be honest, it was touch and go for a while.  Sometimes I withstood, sometimes I didn't, but each time I did withstand, my faith in God and His promise was strengthened, and I was much more likely to withstand the next time. And so, gradually, I began to walk free - not just from the physical manifestations of sin, but from the sin itself.

Then, one day, I was taking my daughter to the grocery store.  As we approached the glass doors, I could see the person coming out of the store, and she was alarmingly attractive.  It wasn't even a matter of make-up and fancy clothes - I think she had on jeans and a flannel shirt, or something like that, and she may not have even been wearing make-up.  But looking through the glass, I couldn't help but notice how naturally stunning she was.

It was then that I had a choice.  I could move from noticing (impossible to prevent, since I can see) to thinking (very possible to prevent), or I could look for the way out that God promised.  I decided to look for the way out, because walking free and following Christ was becoming more important.  You know what happened?  At that moment, I noticed how horribly I had brushed and combed my daughter's hair.  You see, after nearly four years of brushing my daughter's hair, I honestly still have no idea how to style a little girl's hair; I'm miserable at it.

But, thank God, I suddenly had something upon which I could focus, and my daughter's crooked hairline became the most interesting thing in the world to me.  Man, did I study her hair, every unkempt strand.  And, eventually, the temptation to lust was gone.  Now, many would read this and say, "Oh, you're just being self-righteous!"  But that's because we only have two options in our churches:  be sinners who happen to be saved (but still trapped in sin), or be obedient because we're self-righteous and legalistic.  Listen, both of these are wicked ideas and condemned by the Scriptures.

Which is why we find the third option - the one few people ever talk about - in so many pages of the Bible:  it's entirely possible to walk in obedience, because Christ has saved you.  Whatever righteousness I may have had in my body died when I devoted my life to sin.  But now . . .

. . . I have the righteousness of Christ, given to me by being born again of the Spirit.  Now, I am a new creation, set free from sin by Jesus Christ - and if Christ has set me free, then I will be free indeed.

I didn't fall to temptation because falling is my default mode; I resisted.  However, I didn't resist temptation that day because I'm self-sufficiently righteous, either.  No, no, no, I resisted temptation because I resolved to, and God provided the way out.  The "sinner saved" doesn't resist, just feels bad about it later and resolves to do better next time (but rarely, if ever, does).  The "self-righteous saint" thinks he or she resisted because of some sort of inner strength and holiness, completely apart from God.  But if we revisit I Corinthians 10:13, we see Paul promising that 1) We have the strength to endure what God allows to come our way, and 2) He provides a way out.  This is the "relationship" aspect of relationship:  both parties are involved.  God willingly - faithfully, as Paul puts it - provides us a way out, and limits the boundaries of our temptation, but we have to willingly stand up against it and take His way out.

So when we sin, it's not because we are too weak, it's because we simply don't trust.  When we sin, it's not because He is faithless and leaves us to face our temptations alone.  We don't trust that God's way is better, we don't trust that He is setting parameters around our temptation, and we don't trust that He has provided a way out.  Just like Abram pimping out his wife, we fear that God's promises won't be fulfilled.  Just like Lot's wife, we fear that missing out on this world will leave us empty and hollow.  Just like Judas, we fear that God can't meet our expectations.  But God - praise Him! - always keeps His promises, His Will is always better than the way of the world, and God far exceeds our expectations, if we trust He is Who He says He is.  This is also good news for when we do sin, because He says He is faithful to forgive, because of the work of Christ.  However, the fruit we bear for Christ should never be bad fruit, and Christ has given us everything we need to bear constant and consistent good fruit.

So don't believe the lie that you are still in a default sin mode; that view keeps you enslaved to your sin.  Don't believe the lie that sometimes temptations are just more than you can handle; that denies the promise of God to never allow you to be tempted beyond what you can endure.  By all means, eagerly await the day when your body will be made whole and you will no longer have this flesh to contend with, but do not deny the fact that you are already a new creation; this denies the Word of God, which tells us that the old way of sin is gone, and the New has come.

I do not write this to you to make you feel guilt and shame over your lack of trust in these areas.  The Bible is very clear that Christians still sin.  My point here is that when we do, it's not because we're still wretched sinners - it's because we momentarily stop trusting God.  Yet we can, even today, forget what is behind, and press on to what is ahead.  No, brothers and sisters,

I write all of this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anybody does sin, we have One Who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world (I John 2:1-2).

For Some Storms, Not Just Any Port Will Do

It's been a while since I've done an off-the-cuff post; most of my posts are planned out, and I work on them for weeks - even months.  But this one is being typed up now, Friday the 23rd, at 6:09am.  So if it appears rough, sorry.

Only I'm not really sorry.  Not really.  Sometimes it's good to remove a polished veneer.

The last several months have been rough.  Really, really rough.  There is so much being called into question in my life:  I'm seeing false teachings growing in the Church; I'm seeing false teachings growing in my local church; there are family issues (when are there not, especially with kids?); and the more I walk with Christ, the more I am spiritually attacked.  Add onto that my own normal battle with the flesh . . . there's a lot.  And I'm questioning.

I'm not questioning God, or His existence, or His goodness.  I'm not even questioning my salvation (though I am examining it and working it out with more careful attention these days).  The problem is the voices (ha ha ha!).  I don't mean I'm hearing voices in a mental illness sort of way, I just mean there are so many viewpoints and voices in this world - both within the Church and without - and that I take Paul's admonition to test the spirits quite literally.  But it seems as if for every spirit and voice I test, two or three more get in queue.

And one of those is always, most certainly, mine.  Frankly, it's exhausting.

The upshot is that it has driven to my knees in prayer more times just in the last week than I think I typically spend in a year, and I have all but given up on reading what everyone tells me the Bible says and means, and have cut out the middle man - as it were - and have spent my time reading the Bible itself, instead.  And it's difficult, as a believer who has the Holy Spirit, to read God's Word constantly and not have your viewpoint and perspective change.  It makes testing the spirits a little easier, but it also reveals more spirits to test.

Like I said, exhausting.

What is really happening, though, is a lot of the beliefs that I grew up with have been called into question.  There are aspects of my faith that I am now realizing are in direct opposition to what the Bible actually says.  There are pitfalls that are old, but their pull is getting stronger.  There are pitfalls that are new, and I'm rather alarmed at their presence.  

But then there's Jesus.  One thing that I am (still way too slowly for my personal tastes!) learning is that He is faithful.  Paul assures us that He will ever allows us to be tempted beyond the measure of what we can endure, and, when we are tempted, will always provide a way out, in order that we might stand under the temptation and not sin.  This is a very exciting thing, especially when I learned to start trusting that promise and look for the way out. 

And the way out is always there. 

I don't always take it (hence the "slow" part of the slow learning), but it is always there, and the times when I resist the devil, he does flee.  So, while there are many, many questions storming and swirling around me, and many, many frustrations in life, there is a Rock - a foundation - upon Whom I can build.  And the really good news?  He can be your Rock, too. 

If you don't know Jesus, I'd like to offer you a challenge:  this week, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  All four Gospels - it's more than doable (I didn't think that was a real word, but spellcheck isn't flagging it, so. . . . .).  After you do that, feel free to post comments or questions, even negative ones.  God is an immovable Rock, a sure salvation, and your questions will not shake Him.      

Isis and Ra

Geb and Nut, the children of Ra, had children as well.  These children were the younger gods whose time to rule had come.  Among these gods were Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.  Isis was wiser and more knowledgeable than anyone who had preceded her.

In this day, Ra had saved earth from the destruction of Sekhmet, and, though ancient, he ruled over the land of Egypt.  As he passed through the land of Egypt, his head trembled and he drooled from the mouth, as is common with the ancient men.  As long as he kept his Secret Name, however, none could rule in his stead, and so he continued to be Pharoah.

Isis, who was wise, desired to rule, and though she knew all things in the heavens and on earth, she did not know the Secret Name of Ra, and so could not take the throne.  So she devised a clever scheme by which she could learn the name.

Isis took the mud from the earth into her hands, and, kneeding it as a baker might kneed dough, she formed for herself a new snake:  the cobra (the cobra was, ever after that, the symbol of the Pharoah and his Queen).  Isis placed the new serpent on the road so that, as Ra passed through his kingdom, the cobra bit him and disappeared into the tall grass.  The venom coursed through Ra's veins, and he could say nothing, save for a shout of pain and alarm.  His courtiers, who followed him, asked what had happened.  Ra was speechless for a time, because of the pain, but when he could finally speak, he said, "You gods, whom I have created, help me!  Something has bitten me, something I did not create.  It's poison burns as fire and flows as water, and causes a fever in me."

The gods wept, and called Isis, who was a healer and the Queen of Magic.  She knelt beside him and asked, "What has harmed you, oh Ra?  If a creature has lifted its head against you, I will destroy it with my magic."

"I went, as is custom, through the Upper and Lower lands of Egypt.  As I surveyed all that I had made, a serpent - one not of my creation - raised itself and bit me.  Now I burn and shiver, and I sweat as if it were the heat of summer."

Isis, in a soothing voice, said, "If you tell me your Secret Name, I can heal you, for my spells will only work if I use your name in them."

Ra gave her many of his names:  Creator of Heaven and Earth, Spring of Waters, Builder of Mountains, Light and Dark, Khepera in the morning, Ra at noon, and Tum at sunset."  But he did not give her his Secret Name, and so Isis remained silent.  The poison flowed through his veins, destroying his body.

As she watched, she finally spoke, saying, "You have not given me your Secret Name, as you well know.  Give me the name, and I will bring the poison out of you, and bring an end to your pain."

Ra, who could endure the fire in his body no more, cried, "I will let my Secret Name pass from my heart to yours!  But you must guard it and keep it within you, telling no one, save your future son, whom you will name Horus.  But you must make him promise on oath that he will keep the Name secret, telling neither gods nor men."

Isis pledged her promise, and Ra's Secret Name passed to her.

She said to him, "By this name, may the poison pass from Ra forever!"

So Ra had peace, and he was healed.  He did not reign on earth any longer, however, but took his place in the high heavens, traveling across the sky; he became the very sun itself.  He passed through the twelve kingdoms of Duat, and, at night, he passed through the Underworld.  He carries the souls of those who die in his boat, that those who know the words may pass safely through the dangers of the afterlife.

These things are found in the Book of the Dead, which has been buried in a secret place so that even the common men who find it may know how such things work.

-Egypt


There is a remarkable parallel between this week's myth and many of the other myths we find throughout the world.  The parallel, however, is not in the fact that a man is bitten by a snake, but that the gods of Egypt had children who took over the kingdom after their parents.  We find this idea of rulers who lose control of the kingdom to their children in Greek mythology (what is popularly called The Clash of the Titans).

What is interesting in the Greek version is that the children of the Titans fought a physical battle against their giant progenitors.  Gods fighting giants . . . this brings to mind the remarkable Norse stories of the gods of Asgard taking their kingdom from the Frost Giants.  Now, the idea of ancient giants ruling the earth, becoming famous, is also found in the Hebrew Scriptures:  "It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth - when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring.  They were the heroes of old, the men of renown."

Literary analysis would tell us that this is the archetypal story of fighting against authority, coming-of-age, et cetera.  This may be the case, but the similarities between the versions indicates that there may be something more under the surface.

It's the End of the World As We Know It: The 144,000

Then I looked and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads.  And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder.  The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.  And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.  No one could learn the song except for the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.  These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure.  They follow the Lamb wherever He goes.  They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.  No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless (14:1-5).

This is one of the more enigmatic passages of the Scriptures.  I love the Bible, don't get me wrong, but every so often there's a passage that frustrates me, and this is one of them.  Why? Oh, let us count the ways. . . .

All joking aside, this is a fairly bizarre interlude, mostly because it has no place in any of the narratives - the 144,000 haven't shown up prior (we'll look at that in a moment), and they do not appear to show up again; they are simply here, and with no explanation at all.

Now, having said that, there are many who say that this group of people is the same group of 144,000 Messianic Jews who show up in Chapter 7 (vs. 1-8), but other than the number, there is no reason to believe that.  There is nothing in the text of Chapter 7 that indicates that the Jews who accept Jesus during this time were sexually pure and completely honest.  Nothing.  And there is nothing in this text to indicate that these men are Jews.  Again, nothing.  So there is very, very little foundation for making this assumption.

Now let's talk about their characters.  We're not told much, but what we're told is pretty loaded.  The first thing we're told is that they had not defiled themselves with women.  I'm not sure whether this means they were celibate (though sex in a Godly marriage-covenant is certainly not defiling), or that they had somehow managed to avoid all forms of sexual immorality.  My Bible commentary says that it's "symbolic," and means they had not defiled themselves with the idolatrous world system of the Beast.  The thing with that, of course, is that if this is symbolic, then "they follow the Lamb wherever He goes" would also be symbolic.  So would, "purchased from among men," and "offered as firstfruits."  They also would not actually be found without lies, and would not be considered blameless, which renders this entire description of them a moot point, because none of it would actually be descriptive; undefined and unexplained symbols are completely useless.  The easiest explanation, therefore, is that John wrote what he meant, and he meant what he wrote.  These were clearly men who were absolutely, one hundred percent devoted to God during their lives.

Now, we see that they are on Mount Zion, with Jesus.  I don't know if it's physical - at which point we're looking at a point in time after Christ has returned, or if John is seeing something in the spiritual realm, at which point this could be at any time.  It is also interesting that we are told that they sing their new song "before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders" (3).  This would indicate that they were also present in the throne room of God (see Chapter 4).  My guess - and that's all this is - is that these are 144,000 specific, very special people who have lived and died over the many centuries, and, having returned with Christ when He sets up His kingdom (or been resurrected at the final judgment), they stand on Mount Zion, singing their unique song in praise of Jesus.

On a side note, I'm a big Rich Mullins fan, so when I hear that this is a "new song" that roars like "rushing waters" or a "loud peal of thunder," and sounds "like that of harpists playing their harps," I sort of hope this is a new Mullins song, being sung to a rock ensemble of hammered dulcimers.  Wishful thinking, no doubt, but still a cool idea.

I know this is short, and relatively unhelpful, in terms of interpretation, but the fact is that I cannot interpret the Scriptures beyond what they say.  I can offer a guess, certainly, and I can form a reasonable guess based on what little information we have, but that's all I can do.  If any of you have insight into this passage, maybe some other parts of Scripture that I have overlooked, please feel free to share that insight in the comments below!

Okay, next time, we'll take a look at the Bowls of God's Wrath.