I rode passed a young woman wearing a t-shirt that said 'I love sin.' Presumably the sin is something she delights in which runs contrary to the moral norm. It's likely to be sexual but it could be stealing from her boss.
It's when it turns against her that her love for sin goes south. She's left for someone else or she's caught with her hand in the till. She loves sin until it hurts and then she hates it as she should.
But there are sins she could never love. Being fired from a job she desperately needs just so her boss could pay himself more, or being falsely accused, or having a family member violently assaulted.
On those occasions, she could rightly expect the moral norm to speak out in her defense, whether from a church pulpit or in a court of law. On such occasions her t-shirt might read 'I hate sin' and others not knowing, might think her a religious prude.
It can be rightly said of most of us that we love sin until it turns on us and when it does we hate it. We expect it to be decried in our churches and in our courts of law. We are angry when neither speak up, we are betrayed when both are silent.
Monday, July 8, 2013
The Harbinger and other false prophecies
Wrote this in response to a video a dear friend sent me entitled:
"Rabbi Jonathan Cahn - The Harbinger - Prophetic Events Point to the Tribulation Tetrad in 2015!"
Click here to see.
Dear Muncie:
Compelling television but bad theology.
America is not contemporary Israel. The contemporary Israel, indeed the eternal Israel is the church of Jesus Christ.
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:10-13
The old covenant was with the people of Israel, those in the genealogy of Abraham.
The new covenant is with the people of God, people of every nation, culture and language whose connection to Abraham is not one of genealogy but one which shares the same faith in God and in particular faith in God's promised 'seed' which is Christ. (See Galatians 3:16)
The new covenant is in place forever. The old covenant as the writer to the Hebrews affirms: 'is obsolete and outdated and will soon disappear.'
As my Judaism professor in 3rd University year taught me, there is no possibility that any Jew in our time can claim direct lineage to Abraham. Mathematically speaking, we are all related within 500 years. Anyone who claims to be a Jew, does so based on his/her belief in the Old Testament which may be a carry-froward of several generations but not because they can lay claim to being a direct descendent of Abraham. The tracking of Abraham's descendants was maintained until Christ came. Since then there has been no need, since it is solely through Christ we become God's children.
He (Jesus) came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:11-13
Nor is America the recipient of God's special favour, anymore than Britain was, or Germany was, or the Holy Roman Empire was.
America is an empire, as much as any worldly empire in past. It is no more Christian than Rome or Greece was and will indeed experience the same fate as other empires. In the end as even now, there is only one eternal empire, the kingdom of God. It is this kingdom Jesus identifies in his beatitudes - the poor, the mournful, the persecuted, the meek, the oppressed, the forgotten; in short - Christ among 'the least of these', the only kingdom which prevails.
As captivating as identifying harbingers to America's demise, or the future of the state of Israel or the linking of biblical prophecy with current events, it is no more than mere speculation.
We are no closer to interpreting prophecy rightly than were the Jewish scholars in Jesus time to rightly identify the Messiah.
Remembering similar prophetic writings like Hal Lindsay's 'The Late Great Planet Earth' and Tim Lehaye's 'Left Behind' series - this stuff sells like hotcakes and has a shelf life of less than 5 to 10 years. It makes millions for its authors, but over time leaves its readership bewildered and confused. In many instances it shipwrecks the faith of many, who eventually think Christianity as just another superstition, no more reliable than the latest horoscope.
Like most false prophecy, it is important to note this stuff has an agenda which is self-serving to its proponents. In this instance it is the vain hope that America can return to a place of past 'righteousness' where people like Pat Robertson are revered: an America predominated by white, conservative, libertarian values, America before the civil rights movement, America before women came into their own, America when she was on top, America before she had a black President.
Muncie, this trait within many evangelical circles to pursue prophetic fantasies, drives me crazy. It has Christians who are meant to be advancing the kingdom. instead wrapped up in escapist notions of what our country could be were we 'to return to Christian values.' It is an idol, indicative of a trait very much in evidence in both the Old and New Testaments - a tendency which has us looking backwards when God is calling us forward to something new.
No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62
There is nothing to be gained in looking back other than to remind ourselves of the mistakes we make whenever we think God is to be retrieved, rather than to be followed. He is ever ahead of us, calling us to something better, something new. something he longs us to fulfill in our time - the present day evidence of Christ's kingdom in the world.
Thanks for hearing me out in this!
Love,
John
"Rabbi Jonathan Cahn - The Harbinger - Prophetic Events Point to the Tribulation Tetrad in 2015!"
Click here to see.
Dear Muncie:
Compelling television but bad theology.
America is not contemporary Israel. The contemporary Israel, indeed the eternal Israel is the church of Jesus Christ.
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:10-13
The old covenant was with the people of Israel, those in the genealogy of Abraham.
The new covenant is with the people of God, people of every nation, culture and language whose connection to Abraham is not one of genealogy but one which shares the same faith in God and in particular faith in God's promised 'seed' which is Christ. (See Galatians 3:16)
The new covenant is in place forever. The old covenant as the writer to the Hebrews affirms: 'is obsolete and outdated and will soon disappear.'
As my Judaism professor in 3rd University year taught me, there is no possibility that any Jew in our time can claim direct lineage to Abraham. Mathematically speaking, we are all related within 500 years. Anyone who claims to be a Jew, does so based on his/her belief in the Old Testament which may be a carry-froward of several generations but not because they can lay claim to being a direct descendent of Abraham. The tracking of Abraham's descendants was maintained until Christ came. Since then there has been no need, since it is solely through Christ we become God's children.
He (Jesus) came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:11-13
Nor is America the recipient of God's special favour, anymore than Britain was, or Germany was, or the Holy Roman Empire was.
America is an empire, as much as any worldly empire in past. It is no more Christian than Rome or Greece was and will indeed experience the same fate as other empires. In the end as even now, there is only one eternal empire, the kingdom of God. It is this kingdom Jesus identifies in his beatitudes - the poor, the mournful, the persecuted, the meek, the oppressed, the forgotten; in short - Christ among 'the least of these', the only kingdom which prevails.
As captivating as identifying harbingers to America's demise, or the future of the state of Israel or the linking of biblical prophecy with current events, it is no more than mere speculation.
We are no closer to interpreting prophecy rightly than were the Jewish scholars in Jesus time to rightly identify the Messiah.
Remembering similar prophetic writings like Hal Lindsay's 'The Late Great Planet Earth' and Tim Lehaye's 'Left Behind' series - this stuff sells like hotcakes and has a shelf life of less than 5 to 10 years. It makes millions for its authors, but over time leaves its readership bewildered and confused. In many instances it shipwrecks the faith of many, who eventually think Christianity as just another superstition, no more reliable than the latest horoscope.
Like most false prophecy, it is important to note this stuff has an agenda which is self-serving to its proponents. In this instance it is the vain hope that America can return to a place of past 'righteousness' where people like Pat Robertson are revered: an America predominated by white, conservative, libertarian values, America before the civil rights movement, America before women came into their own, America when she was on top, America before she had a black President.
Muncie, this trait within many evangelical circles to pursue prophetic fantasies, drives me crazy. It has Christians who are meant to be advancing the kingdom. instead wrapped up in escapist notions of what our country could be were we 'to return to Christian values.' It is an idol, indicative of a trait very much in evidence in both the Old and New Testaments - a tendency which has us looking backwards when God is calling us forward to something new.
No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62
There is nothing to be gained in looking back other than to remind ourselves of the mistakes we make whenever we think God is to be retrieved, rather than to be followed. He is ever ahead of us, calling us to something better, something new. something he longs us to fulfill in our time - the present day evidence of Christ's kingdom in the world.
Thanks for hearing me out in this!
Love,
John
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