Sleeping Sheep?

Once, there was a time in which everyone lived in what is considered “The Enchanted World.” Now, why this time was called enchanted, I don’t quite know, for it was full of hard labor, illiteracy, and fear. This period of time existed from roughly 100 A.D., to the early middle ages. Now, why would these times be called enchanted? Well, think of it: no science, no major life choices. You followed in your parents work, you didn’t need to read, and you believed whatever the church told you. Aha! Perhaps that was the key: following what the church taught. What did they teach? Ten commandments, the Apostle’s creed, the Lord’s prayer, and the lives of the saints. That was all. Wow, would that be boring. Still, If you could follow all of this, wouldn’t you lead a very good life?

Here the Moral influence theory comes up again. The people were living out what God wanted – helping the poor (though technically that would be helping themselves since they were all so badly off), and having faith in God for their lives. They also realized that Jesus had forgiven their sins, and waited, just hoping for the day that they would be in heaven with him. So this enchanted world combined both the theories of Moral Influence and Christus Victor. They understood that Christ had forgiven them through their faith, but they also realized that some actions were called for as well.

The Bible verse(s) of the week: Matthew 25:3-46. Here it is:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison and come to see You? And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Okay – long passage, so here’s what its saying: work to help others, or God will judge you and send you to Hell. Alright, wait, let’s explain that a little more nicely. When we put our faith in Christ, we become his sheep, and he our shepherd. We follow him wherever, and produce snowy white wool that we give to him to show our appreciation. (Sorry if this is a bad metaphor, but stick with me here.) However, if a sheep chooses to not serve the shepherd by giving its coat, then the shepherd has no use for it anymore, and may as well put it with the goats. Likewise, in our Christianity, we start out with Jesus as our shepherd; but we must follow him, or risk being judged and sent over with the unbelievers once we die.

Frankly, this makes me a tad nervous: my faith being judged by how good my works are? That wasn’t something I ever learned. What about “It is faith that saves you, not works?” Well, take a look at this, James 2:20-22, which says: “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Issac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” So, simply stated, you need both: faith and then works that follow.

So why would people still not be comfortable with being judged by God, as recorded in the Matthew 25 passage? Well, alot of people think its just plain unfair. They say: “We are judged by our faith, not our works.” (Hey, not everyone knows the verse mentioned above.) Some people believe the mere title of being “a Christian” is enough to go to Heaven. As for me personally, I don’t want to be judged by my works. I’m afraid of what I’ll see. I fear it will be like when your parent buys you books, spends time explaining some school concept to you, and then comes back to discover you’ve done nothing. You let them down; disappoint them. Frankly, in real life, the disappointing of my parents is worse for me than the punishment – not because their punishments are easy, but because I feel I have been blessed, but then haven’t done my best.

So many dismiss works as second in importance to faith, but as James said: they are both equally important. We as Christians should be comfortable with being judged by God, with taking out the dirtiest content of our hearts and spilling them out before Him. We should be comfortable, but we’re not. I’m not. I miss the mark so often in doing God’s work. Because of this, I don’t want to be judged (as I am a sinning human), but I am willing to be judged. I accept all Christ wants me to do, and I’ll keep trying. God realizes we will never be perfect until we reach heaven. But he does ask just a few things of us: that we have faith in him, and that we love him through our works. Those living in the enchanted world realized this. They accepted the teachings stated in the apostle’s creed which said: “From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” They knew one day they would have to account before God – and as people who were willing to work and help a brother in need. They knew that there were noblemen who claimed Christ as Lord, but yet never raised a finger to lift the oppression on those who worked around them. You can’t have real faith, without showing your love for Christ through your works, and you can’t have true, godly works without doing it because of your faith in God. Hand in hand, these work together to show love.

The Influence of Morality

I’ve spent the last half hour trying to start this blog with something interesting, but have come up empty-handed. So lets just dive right in.

There is a theory, still held by many, called the moral influence theory. It states that Christ’s Atonement was in order to motivate us towards morality because of his example. For thousands of years before Christ came, we were all deep in sin. There were no perfect examples to show us what to do. However, with Jesus, everyone saw a living and breathing perfect man. He was an example.

For years I put off healthy eating. I thought, “the rest of my family eats unhealthy food, and they are all great. If they are great, they must be doing the right things. Therefore, eating unhealthy food is the right thing.” Wrong. Faulty logic there. First off, I needed to eat healthy, and second of all, my family being great has nothing to do with the food they eat. I was eating the food because I had a lack of an example. Point is, with Moral influence, we see why people were so far in sin. They had no perfect example to guide them. But when Christ came, he brought the people out of that pit of immorality, and into a time of trying to do what was right.

Notice how I only used the word “trying”, not doing. The problem with the idea of moral influence is that the fight with sin has only just begun being fought by sinful humans. However, when you look at the ransom theory, where Christ sacrificed himself to pay for our sins, you see sin battled against by a Holy God, and ultimately vanquished.

Lets flip over to Hebrews 6:4-6. It says: “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”

Also here are some verses, Matthew 13: 3-8. It says: “And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.’”

In essence, what these verses are saying is that once you’ve made a willful sin, and turned your back on Christ, that salvation cannot be gotten back. Harsh. Still, it does make sense. Those seeds among the rocks and thorns aren’t bearing alot of grain. And they wither away in the end, still having borne no grain. The other stalks however bear much grain. And though they may be cut down, others will benefit from their good produce.

Still though, how do these verses apply to the atonement of moral influence? Well, in Moral Influence, you are trying to attain sanctification, holiness, in God. But truly, where does mere morality get you? Take Gandhi for example. He was a brave and moral man. He was kind, a leader, humble, all in all a great example. But where is he now? Dead and in Hell. Sad but true. Face it. Moral influence cannot save your soul. Christ atoned for us so that we would one day be free of our sins. He brought us salvation, not just a moral life, even though morality is one of the things we are called to as believers. Before Christ came, we were utterly depraved and unmoral. But after Christ came, we were still utterly depraved and immoral, but we were saved. That is why the moral influence theory doesn’t get you anywhere. In the verse of the sower and the seeds, imagine what was being sown around was moral influence. Gandhi sowed alot of it, and what he got was moral influence. However, God is sowing his true salvation, and those who accept it become his followers. They bear his fruit, not just mere morality. We will not stop being depraved until we are made new in Christ in Heaven. We constantly miss the mark. That is only to be expected in a fallen world. However, if you completely turn your back on God, it will be impossible to return to him again in your sinful spirit. That is when you have true salvation. Morality constantly misses the mark, every day in us sinful humans. Every day, I deliberately turn my back on the morality God wants me to live, but not on him. Morals are things that are hard to snatch as they flit about in this world. They fly fleetingly past as we often miss our target in grabbing them. However, God’s salvation is a steady rock that will always be there for us, and we can cling to that forever instead of forever trying to uselessly grasp permanent morality.

The View

Everyone has opinions. Everyone has views – quite alot of them actually. What is right? What is wrong? In our secular world now, “wrong” has become a little gray line, smashed between the galaxies of white and black. As Christians, we tend to define sin more clearly. The Westminster Confession of Faith says sin is when we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good. However, there are so many situations, even as Christians, where we don’t know if something is sin.

Is it a sin to keep land, taken by your ancestors from the Indians years ago? You didn’t do it. You don’t want to hurt the Indians or steal their land. You just want to keep your house. What if the government took your house and gave it to the Indians to help them out? Is that wrong? These are big questions that seem highly unlikely to ever hapen. So let’s put another scenario out there. Say a poverty-stricken woman stole a computer for her daughter, so  she could move ahead in the world. You saw her do it, and you know where she lives. Is it a sin to report her? Is it a sin to not report the crime? Ah, here we come to some gray areas. James 4:17 says: “So when you know the good things you should do and don’t do them, you sin.” The woman sinned – she stole the computer when Exodus 20:15 explicitly says: “Do not steal.” But is it right to bring punishment onto a mother who just wanted to help her child? Sin should be confronted, but in many situations, grace should be given as well. Here I would say: confront her, return the computer, and then help the mother. If possible, buy the computer for her. Don’t approve of the sin, saving she needed it – but be good and show God’s love.

We can figure out what to do with sin in individual situations. But what about large cases of sin? Problems that aren’t your fault? Do we still take responibility for those sins? Christ took the punishment our sins should have brought us. He brought atonement for our iniquities. At least, thats how I see it. I see sin as when I am opposite to what is good; disobeying God. As a Christian, when determining right and wrong we reference the Bible. We know to turn the other cheek, to show grace, to correct but to forgive. Truth  be told, I have no problems. No major ones anyways. I have everything I need and more. 1 Timothy 6:8 says: “If we have food and clothing, we will be happy with that.” So I have alot. But one thing I have but don’t want is my sin. That is what I need deliverance from. So I see Jesus’ sacrifice as atonement for my sins and soul.

But thats just me. That’s not the millions of impovrished people who have nothing. That’s not the young children who’s bellies are swollen with worms. That’s not the men who slave all day, every day just to see their families slowly starve. Those people want deliverance from the oppression they live under. They want to be free of their terrible pain and suffering. Their view of atonement is entirely different from ours. Is stealing food for their families wrong? They are disobeying God, but they are just trying to do good to their families.

They understand sin as the oppression they suffer. We understand sin as our disobedience and evil doings. These different views affect how we understand the atonement. God gives us atonement from our sins, and he gives us a better life in him. “Better” doesn’t mean easier, but in Christ we can live our lives honoring him. Honoring Christ is obeying his commands.  Again – as James 4:17 says: “So when you know the good things you should do and don’t do them, you sin.” By obeying this, we bless the opressed and unfortunate. And by blesssing them, they will have to worry less about the opression they suffer. When they are shown love in God’s name, they also can be free to realize that he not only can rescue from physical suffering, but also from the burden of sin.

Once we realize that God atoned for our sins because he loves us, we will be glad to suffer opression, for you cannot truly suffer it when you are free.

Imaginary Image?

A bride stands sparkling before the altar. She has been preparing all her life for this glorious day, and waits for the groom. He smiles at her through the veil, and she smiles back, happy for their joy. The groom lifts the veil, but stumbles back in shock and utter disgust. Where the bride’s face should be is a massive maggot. A squirming mass of white looks back at him. The groom gasps out: “This is not who I thought you were”, before running out the doors. The bride screams out: “But I am your bride!” before crumpling to the floor, sobs racking her shoulders.

A bride is a beautiful image. White, clean, pure and happy. But the bride mentioned above, though she looked fine on the outside, was truly disgusting once you saw her true face, her true image.

Way back in semester one, we learned about tselem, which was an idol, or image of a god. The idols, in ancient days were believed to do the god’s work in whatever place they were at, because the god “lived” in the idol. At the beginning of man, Christ created him in his image, and as his representation. However, after the fall, man lost that image of God, and fell away from him.  But when Christ died for our sins on the cross, He gave us the opportunity for a new life with him. And if we accept to live out that life with him, we are his image on earth, his followers that are his representation.  With a tselem, or idol, it had to be present in a community in order for the god to be able to work through it. But the god could not work through that idol if it was broken. We  were dead in  our sin before Christ came to save us. And if we were dead in our sins, we were essentially broken, unable to do what God wanted us to. God gave us atonement because He loves us, but also because He wants us to use the opportunity He gave us so we can recover our identity as his icon.

We know now we are here as representation for Christ, but now comes the question as to just how we should represent him. In Acts 1:8 Jesus says: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This is a rather contrasting verse to Matthew 11:28, which says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Which command is the one to follow? Can both be done at the same time? The answer is: they can be. God gives us rest from our sin. He does bless us, but that doesn’t mean that we should kick back and disregard his other command of witnessing, and being his image. God gives us rest, he gave us atonement, he gives us eternal life. But that doesn’t mean that we can select the best and easiest of his commands. What He tells us to do applies to all Christians, and all of the things He says apply.

Like the bride mentioned above, we may have that “image” of Christ on the outside, but will our real face turn out to be as beautiful as our outside? We are still not perfect images. But   God has entrusted us to be his image, and so it is up to us to live that out.

I have some extremely close friends. I would do just about anything for them, for they are close to my heart. I want to be an image that they will love, not one that they will look with disgust upon. So why would I not be willing to be an image for Christ? I could go into reasons( which in reality are pathetic excuses): its uncomfortable, I’ll look odd, yada yada. But the fact of the matter is, if I truly love Christ, i will be thrilled to be his image, to recover my identity as his icon because of his atonement. If I’m not willing to do that, then I have to stop and think: am I truly a Christian?

In John 21:17, Jesus is talking to Peter, saying: “Do you love me? And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’” We, no, I cannot ignore what God wants from me any longer. I don’t want to be like the bride, hiding under the tidy white veil. I want to have myself as a clean bride for Christ, with an image he will not be repelled by. I want to be his icon in the world – not because I’m afraid of what will become of me; but because I want to show my love to Him- because He showed his love to me.

Confessions of a Laziholic

Scot McKnight once said “The gospel we preach shapes the communities we create, and the communities we create shape the gospel we preach.” The gospel can change people greatly, and affect large communities. However, the communities we are in also can change the gospel that we preach. “What?” you may ask, “Isn’t the gospel always the same message?” Well, in essence it is always the message of salvation, but as to other specifics of what God wants for our lives, it varies greatly with the different communities. For example, in impoverished and oppressed countries, things like liberation and ultimate blessing will really appeal to the people there. However, you won’t really see things like that in our wealthy American society. We already have “everything” we could possibly need.

Some messages that were common in the Jewish day were liberation from the Romans, and salvation from God. When Mary was told that she would give birth to the son of God, she gave this praise in Luke 1:46-55: “And Mary said: ‘My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has regard for the humble state of his bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart, He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.”

There is alot in those verses up there. Before I expound upon what Mary is saying, an important thing to know about the times that they were living in is this: the average Jewish family, after paying taxes to the Roman government was left with only 30% of their income.    They were extremely oppressed and downtrodden. So, when Mary is saying things like, “God will scatter the proud and exalt the humble” and “He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy”, it is a message of hope to the Israelites. Mary recognizes right away that Jesus’ birth will be an act of salvation. Now, imagine if someone like a Roman soldier heard this song. It sounds treasonous – that Mary’s God will bring kings down from their thrones, and help Israel. But even though Mary is proclaiming some potentially dangerous things, she still shouts loud and proud what is in her heart. At the birth of his son, John the Baptist, Zacharias prophesies many of the same things that Mary was saying. Jesus was taught this growing up. We see later how it comes out in his ministry.

Luke 4:16-21 shows Jesus’ first impression of what His ministry will be. Here is what He does here: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up ; and as was His custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because he anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’ And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

This is a big statement to be making. He is stating that His main purpose is to “preach the gospel to the poor, and to set free those that are downtrodden.” When we think of our mission for Christ, we tend to think “sharing the gospel”, and “reaching out”. What if these terms are directly compatible though? What if our reaching out to other communities is our way of sharing the gospel? In Christ’s statement of his ministry, He doesn’t talk about sin or hell. He talks about freedom to the oppressed – help to the poor and blind. A well known (and completely true) quote I am reminded of is this: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Though hell is a fact, Christ is showing his love to others first – he is shaping his community. One comment about Christ’s community: in previous blogs I have discussed the hardship of following Christ, his community that includes pain, ridicule and hurt. Why would we want to suffer for someone? What many Christians see their sacrifices as are as a way to get into heaven. That is so messed up! Christ should not be reduced to a mere mechanism to save us. In Mary’s song she sees the birth of Jesus as salvation, an act of mercy. Christ’s community, while it may contain pain, is one of mercy, of outreach to all of the physically and spiritually needy.

Another thing Jesus is saying that He will “release the captives.” Would people have seen this statement as Jesus claiming that he would free them from the Romans? Some would have. We may tend to see this statement as something entirely different though – as a freedom from our sin, which holds us captive.

This can be a huge issue – how we interpret and apply the Bible to our lives. A verse brought up in class, Luke 6:24 says; “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.” We were reminded of the rich young ruler, who Jesus told to give everything away. Is this often preached to us? I’ve never heard it. We are told things like “Be wise with your posessions” and “Don’t let them rule you”, but how often are we told to give everything? Sometimes verses like this can be twisted into something such as “God wants us to give our everything (as in heart, mind and soul) to him. While this is true, it doesn’t apply to the translation of this verse, which can be taken literally. Now, we do need certain possessions to survive, but there are hundreds, no, thousands of items in my house right now that we don’t need.

In Mary’s song, she says that God brings people up and tears them down. He gives and takes wealth away at his discernment. So why are we chosen to have this wealth, and others are left poor? Let’s read some more Bible verses. Luke 6:20-22 says: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and cast insults at you, and spurn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.” Wow. People say so many loaded things in the Bible. So here a lot is explained – those who suffer through hard times on earth will be rewarded in heaven. When Jesus was saying this, he was speaking to many, many people. I can with certainty say that most of these people were not super rich. So this would be an encouraging statement to them.

Christ stands for mercy. But there are things we need to realize. We cannot just play Monopoly, get the “pass go” card, and expect to win the entire game. We are given that gift of mercy and salvation, but we are required to go around the whole board, and live out all of its challenges. If we receive a card telling us to distribute our money, don’t we follow the rules? So if God is telling us that if we are rich now, but will suffer later, shouldn’t we take that into consideration, and make at least some sort of effort above and beyond to put others above ourselves?

In Acts, we see the church of believers formed, and the community Christ built being lived out. As much as you had – it was given to those who had less, all in the love of Christ.

My church preaches this community – but in a moderate way. A church that is extremely “radical” in this way tends not to get as much of a following, because people are too comfortable in their lives. Once again: being a Christian is NOT about being comfortable. Concerning all of what I just said – being rich now does not mean that you will go to hell for it, but not obeying Christ in what he is telling you to do with the many things he has blessed you with will affect his assessment of you.

Matthew 6:19-21 says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth an rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” We are wealthy in so many ways. We can use our treasure – wealth, faith, and opportunity – to help others who may not have treasure. God has blessed us; therefore we should live out his community and bless others.

Commissions?

There I was, running. The air was acrid with smoke and I stumbled about, looking for an escape. My feet slapped against the cobblestones as buildings tumbled to ash all around me. Then with a powerful, hideous blast of fire, a great chasm opened up, splitting the street in two. I was sucked down into a pit of fire and pain, never to escape.

To explain the above paragraph, this was a dream I had some years ago. In the dream, for whatever reason, I was sent to hell. Though I don’t know why it happened, I know that when I woke up I was plain terrified of going there. I mention this because in class we talked about hell. The passage we discussed is found in Luke 16:19-31. It recounts the tale of a rich man, and of a poor man, Lazarus. The rich man doesn’t help Lazarus, who is so destitute that the dogs lick him. The dog’s licking is mentioned because dogs, in Jewish times, were considered unclean creatures, and by them licking Lazarus, he is now unclean and may not enter the temple. To move on with the story, both men eventually die, and the rich man is sent to hell while Lazarus goes to heaven. In verses 24-31 we see the rich man in Hades: “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then he said ‘I beg you therefore father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them,lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded through one rise from the dead.’”

These verses say alot. They acknowledge that there is, in fact a Hell, and that people go there, eternally. The verse talks about a “great gulf” between heaven and hell. Once you come into one, you don’t leave. Mark 9 also talks about this place. Verses 43-44say: “And if your hand makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where ‘their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” The verses continue on to say on how you should cut off your arm or pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin and go to hell. It mentions this phrase – “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” –  three times. There must be some significant meaning Jesus is trying to make here. Looking at my footnotes, I finally found the Old Testament passage that this phrase responds to. It is found in Isaiah 66:24 which says: “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

So now I’ve thrown out a bunch of verses at you – why are they being mentioned? Well, In the verses about the worm and the fire, Jesus is describing Satan and hell. Why? How could this affect the opinions of the people around him? Well, though they couldn’t see Satan or hell, they could see Gehenna. What exactly was Gehenna? It was a valley outside of Jerusalem where people used to sacrifice children to Moloch. It then was turned into a garbage dump, and used to burn the dead. The sick and dying would go and sit there, just to waste away. So when Jesus is using the term Gehenna, he is describing a desolate place that all of the people around him are aware of. Christ is warning people of their sin, and what that sin will lead to.

Yesterday I learned about the concept of annihilationism. People who believe in this believe that those who reject Christ will be sent to Hell. However, they think they will be punished according to how bad they were on earth. So a nice old lady would not get as severe a punishment as Hitler. When the punishment is done, then you just…..disappear. Though it may seem like an out-there idea, it is widely believed, even by people like Billy Graham. And though the idea may seem to make sense, so far I have found no proof for it. I believe that hell is an eternal place of torment. With the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we see the great gulf between heaven and hell. No one passes from one to the other. And if Abraham will not let Lazarus, who is in heaven, return to earth, then it would make sense that those in hell would never be allowed to leave either. I don’t know, however, if people are punished according to how they behaved on earth. I do know though, that we all have sinned, and will be punished in some way for it.

Hell is a fact. It is stated directly in the Bible, and needs to be acknowledged. Matthew 28:19-20, otherwise known as the great commission says: ” Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you, even to the end of the age.” That is a huge command right there. We are called to bring ALL nations to know Christ, not just our friends and family. Salvation is not getting right with God, getting all of our friends and family right with God, and then kicking back and relaxing. We are called to serve and sacrifice. Mr. Bryant gave an excellent example of this, comparing it to the army. You wouldn’t, when ordered by your commanding officer to man a post refuse, saying “I’m a soldier, and I want to be in your army, but I think that its better to let someone else man that post, someone who’s better qualified.” You don’t say that. But yet we say it to Jesus – we let others go and do mission work, while we stay home and take the easy jobs.

In class I learned another fascinating thing: that on judgement day, all will be judged, not just the sinners. 1 Corinthians 3:13 says: “each one’s work will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.”I suppose I’ve always known this in the back of my head, that we’d all account for our sins one day. However, when I heard that we’d be punished, well, that was a new fact. What is most important though, is that we, as followers of Christ, will have God supporting us. We will still have our salvation as believers, but our actions on earth will be called into account.

To conclude: hell is real, and we need to follow Christ’s commission for us as believers, so that we do not sentence others to damnation because of our own inadequacies. Christians will be judged for their beliefs, and on judgement day, they will be judged for their actions as Christians. But we believe in Christ because he is the one who has given us the salvation we didn’t deserve, and because he has spared us from his wrath, and hell.

Criss-Cross

In class, we talked for a while about Roman culture. Though I have studied this for a while, many of these facts that Mr. Bryant revealed are profoundly fascinating.

Sallucius says: “The Roman empire made the boundaries of the empire, the boundaries of the earth. In another place, it is recorded that when Judea fell in 70 A.D., “Some 500 or more Jews were captured daily by the Romans….the soldiers amused themselves by nailing them in different postures. There were so many, that there was not enough wood for the crosses or land to put them on.” The Romans were violent people, intent on conquering everyone no matter the cost. Another little-known fact about crosses is that they were not huge, 15 feet affairs, but rather were short, little things. A person’s feet were bent back, nailed, and they were put on a cross maybe six feet high, that faced the road. This was so that everyone could see, at eye level, their torture and pain. The cross was not truly used as a way of killing someone. It was more so used as a symbol of terror, as something to inspire fear into all whom the Romans ruled over. Once, when certain Jews rebelled, the Romans nailed 2000 of them on crosses, and placed them all in a line along the road that stretched three and a half miles. This line of crosses would have been visible to Jesus of Nazareth as a boy.

The Romans are famously known for their “Pax Romana” – “The peace of Rome”, but it isn’t often said how they got to that peace. Well, to be honest, not all that the Romans did was violent. When Caesar came back from Gaul, the senate didn’t want to deal with him, left, and he took control of Rome. And then he tracked down and killed the senators. But that’s not important right now. So, anyways, Caesar starts to claim that he is descended from the goddess Venus. He makes a statue of himself, inscribed “to the unconquered god.” There is a special priesthood set up for him as well. he makes a coin that says “Caesar is Lord” and “There is no name under which men can be saved other than Caesar’s.” As is well known, Caesar is killed, and after 17 years of civil war, his adopted son Augustus takes over. Now Augustus also plays up the whole “descended from gods” thing as well. He says if his “father” was a god, then he is the “son of god.” Blasphemy, anyone? Augustus also said of a comet in the sky: “That is my father Julius, ascending to the right hand of his father, Jupiter.” He hires Virgil to writer the Aeneid, and makes all these prophecies, such as: “Augustus will establish an empire of peace, and will annihilate the evil of the past, and will free the people of fear.” Then Augustus starts making coins that say “Augustus is the savior to come.”

These titles that Augustus is using are the ones that show up all the time in the New Testament! So what are we to make of this? What we can see from Mark using all of Augustus and Caesar’s titles is that he is making a  bold statement against them. He is in essence shouting to all people: “Your rulers are fakes and are not gods, rather, a Rabbi is, and he deserves all the titles of the emperor.” Mark is beginning open conflict here.

Time for another history lesson. In Roman times, when soldiers came to a town, the people there had two choices: 1. Surrender and pay taxes, or 2. Fight and be killed. Most decided to surrender, for obvious reasons. So, for some people however, they would be given a small position of power in that town if they would just say this: “Caesar is lord, Caesar can save.” Then they were established as Ekklesia. However, they would not be too popular as this, and people would dislike them for being in a position of power. Ekklesia, ironically, is the word for church.

Think on this. Those people who choose to become Ekklesia were in essence turning their back on their town and were following a new kind of government. What does this say then, when Mark is calling us, the church, Ekklesia? It means that we are called to say that Jesus is all of the things Augustus and Caesar claimed to be – Son of God, savior of people. Jesus is Lord, Jesus can save. We need to turn our backs on the culture we have become used to, and turn to the one who can truly save. However, we will stand out if we do this. We will be Ekklesia – the odd ones out.

A true but sad fact that I came to realize on Monday, is that most people don’t know you are a Christian unless you say something about it. Just about everyone I know is aware that I am a Christian, but that isn’t because of my outstanding example and witness. That is because, well: 1. I pretty much only know Christians and 2. My family is all Christian. Now, for those that I do know that are not Christians, I am not a witness. Being a witness is not behaving well. Good non-Christian kids do that. Being a witness is not being afraid to go up to a person, and tell them who the real savior in the world is. Being a true witness is not going away when they don’t want to hear it.

I’ve grown up my whole life learning how to take hints. You’ve got to learn if you don’t want to constantly offend or make people uncomfortable. So this has happened before: I have mentioned my faith to someone I know, and they just steer out of the topic. I’ve taken the hint, and not mentioned it again, because I hate causing tension. But only now am I realizing this fact: CHRISTIANITY IS NOT ABOUT BEING COMFORTABLE! We are called to stand out, to be ridiculed, to be uncomfortable. We have a choice: to be accepted into a sinful culture, or to stand out and tell people the truth about life. You might have a nice relationship with someone on earth, but having that nice relationship isn’t worth letting them go to hell, simply stated.

To conclude, Hebrews 10:39 says: “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”