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Friday, October 23, 2009

More From R. T.


Ever wonder what Jesus was up to for the thirty or so years before he worked miracles and taught in public? R.T. France helps me see how strategic it was of God that Jesus WAS NOT taught in the best seminaries of his day nor was he raised the son of a priest or a prophet. NOR was he born in a prominent city. And to top it all off, history has most certainly NEVER gotten his birthday right (not the day, the month or even the right year)!

I Came to Set the World on Fire!

"His family was probably what we'd call middle class. The carpenter was a skilled craftsman perhaps employing labor, and certainly an important figure in the village economy. But they were not wealthy. ... Jesus was born into such a family about 6 BC. Jesus was born before the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC.

Back home in Nazareth, Jesus was brought up in almost total obscurity. His later teaching shows that he had a full and sound grasp of the Hebrew scriptures, but that is no more than any pupil of the village synagogue-school could gain if he took his opportunity seriously. The level of literacy and formal education among the Jews was probably as high as in any other part of the Roman Empire, and a good grounding in the Old Testament Scriptures was the primary goal of this education.

With at least four younger brothers and an unknown number of sisters to be brought up (Mary's husband, Joseph, had passed from the scene before Jesus' adult years), the hope of formal education beyond the normal level must have been remote. At least Jesus, for all his remarkable grasp of the Old Testament, could not compete in paper qualifications with the scribes. To the superior eyes of Jerusalem he was uneducated.

Yet from this long hidden period of Jesus' life that many of the most effective features of his later teaching are no doubt derived. Most of Jesus' parables focus on the experiences and events of life in a village setting - farms, vineyards, village houses, shepherds on a hillside, fishermen by a lake.... They include many unforgettable portraits of people like shrewd managers, eccentric employers, a power-drunk local magistrate cut down to size by a nagging widow!

One of the secrets of the appeal of Jesus' teaching to such a variety of cultures over so many centuries is its firm earthing in ordinary everyday life and in the unchanging features of human characters.

It is not difficult to recognize yourself and your neighbors in many of Jesus' parables. If he had grown up in monastic isolation or the academic remoteness of Jerusalem, his teaching might not have been very widely appealing." pp 31-36

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posted by Tim Perry at 7:16 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

If You Understand Jesus You Can't be Neutral


I started a new book yesterday. Actually it's not a new book, but an old one. But you've noticed that Starting a Book feeling before and how fun it can be to launch into something you haven't read before.

Well, for R.T. France fans, this is a classic book on Jesus packed with inspiring insight about the life of history's greatest heart-and-mind. I'll throw you some R.T. in the days ahead - tell me what you think!

Can Anything Good Come From Nazareth? - Chapter One

"Jesus is a divider, a disturber of the peace. People's reactions to him cause some of the deepest divisions this world knows. If you understand Jesus, you can't be neutral about him.

This is the Jesus of the Gospels, the only Jesus history can recover. Many other Jesuses have been invented. The liberal theologians of the last century invented a sentimental Jesus ... the great preacher of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. The modern humanist invents a Jesus who is the supreme example of self-giving service to fellow men. Many of us have been brought up on an anaemic Jesus, friend of little children, incapable of any angry thought or divisive action.

All these Jesuses contain some genuine features, of course. Jesus did preach the virtues of love and forgiveness; he did attack exploitation and injustice; he is the supreme example of self-sacrifice for others...

But we gain nothing by suppressing the other, sterner aspect of the Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus men were prepared to kill, and to die for, the Jesus who was sufficiently dynamic and controversial to start the most lasting revolution the world has seen." pp 13-14.


How about your Jesus, reader? Who do you say that he is? Even when you've landed on who he is...what do you do with him? The greatest heart-and-mind that ever walked the face of the earth will offend the sentimentalities of smaller heart-and-minds like yours and mine. You either love him or hate him! Sometimes I wish it could be different!

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posted by Tim Perry at 6:57 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

What Happens to Me Directly After My Death?

A great question here sent in via e-mail:

First Name: Willie
City: Omaha
State: NE
ZIP: 68127

Question(s): I am a little confused about what happens to me directly after my death. Does whatever is the real me (my spirit) stay in the ground until the rapture (being a sleep) or does my spirit go directly to "Paradise". Then when Jesus comes does the spirit and body reconnect? If this is true where do I find it in the Bible?

This email was generated by a form on the Christ Community Church website

Willie,
Thanks very much for your question you posted on e-mail last week. Let me give you a brief answer with some scripture references. I’ll also post this question to my blog later in the week and answer it there…

The best indication we have, as to what happens to us when we die as believers/ followers of Jesus, is that we will be somehow present with the Lord (but without our bodies). Here are a couple of references:

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Paul seems to hint pretty strongly that being absent from our body means we’ll be present with the Lord and vice versa.

Luke 23:39-43 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

When Jesus is dying on the cross, he tells the believing thief that he will be with him in paradise (his spiritual part of his being, obviously not his physical part of his being.

You also asked when the spirit and the body reconnect. Paul seems to indicate that this will happen when the Second Coming takes place. Here’s a passage from Thessalonians that bears this out:


1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

So I think you’ve got if figured out, Willie! I’m a little fuzzy on some of the details – exactly what we’ll be doing till we’re reunited with our bodies is a bit of a mystery. When Jesus is coming back is not really spelled out anywhere either. But I think you have the second coming of Christ hooked up with the resurrection of the believers in the right way and here are the verses most theologians cite as pointing to those claims.

Thanks for your question!

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posted by Tim Perry at 12:14 PM 0 Comments

Apocalypse Continues...


Just thought I'd better get this pic out to you revealing the crossword puzzle clues from my previous post. All you have to do to read it in most browsers is just click on the image and it will enlarge.

Next post I'll try to put some of the questions we're getting from our sessions. Here's the link to week one's presentation An Introduction to Eschatology. Hope you'll make your way to Gathering as we continue for another couple of weeks.

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posted by Tim Perry at 11:12 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Can Prophecies be Fulfilled Multiple Times?

Here's an interesting question a reader raised. Anyone else have an idea out there?

First Name: Tom
City: Waterloo
State: NE
Question(s): Concerning the Gathering topic on 10/04/09 The sign of "The Day of the Lord" is described in Isaiah 13:9,10. Is this also the same exact event that is mentioned in Rev. 6:12,13 and Matt. 24:29,30 and Mark 13: 24,25?
Thanks, Tom


Tom,
Thanks for submitting a question! This is one of the most fascinating things about eschatology and biblical prophecy. A single prophetic statement may actually have multiple layers of fulfillment. Let me explain. The Isaiah passage is communicating on three levels! It speaks to Isaiah’s immediate historical and literary audience. People in Isaiah’s time would have been challenged by the message – Israel and Judah were on the edge of entering the exile – an experience of God’s judgment on their generation. The fall of Samaria (Israel’s capital city) and the fall of Jerusalem (Judah’s capital city) at the hands of Assyrians and Babylonians would have been the immediate fulfillment “the dreadful day of the LORD” in their generation.

However, as you’ve hinted, it could be that the same prophecy re-echoed through salvation history and became relevant to the early church. The first century church reading John's apocalypse was about to experience the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (again). Further down the time-line, though, there will be another awful Day of the LORD when Jesus returns.

The third level meaning is for believers today! Isaiah's prophecy legitimately points us forward in God's salvation timeline to a similar event or time in the future relative to us. Some might refer to this as the tribulation. Some would interpret this as the modern church and it's persecution.

So these prophecies don’t necessarily refer to the exact same event ... but they do refer to the same kind of event. An event with eschatological significance for those who await it and those who actually witness and experience it. That could be happening today. That could also happen in the future. Prophecy finds fulfillment on multiple levels!

Great question!

Tim Perry
Pastor of Spiritual Discovery / 402.938.1505 / cccomaha.org
Christ Community Church / 404 S. 108 Ave / Omaha, NE 68154

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posted by Tim Perry at 11:47 AM 0 Comments

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Apocalypse Starts Tomorrow!

posted by Tim Perry at 9:22 PM 0 Comments

Friday, October 2, 2009

Words Can't Describe It


One of the challenges we'll have over the next four weeks at Gathering is a shared vocabulary for what we'll be talking about. The apocalypse. Eschatology. Millennium. Rapture. On and on it will go! Let me recommend a couple of resources as we get started, then let's plunge in head-first!

InterVarsity Press publishes a very helpful set of very tiny dictionaries called The Pocket Dictionary of.... The reason I really like these tools is how brief the entries are and how quickly you can find stuff in them. Here's a quick link to this series:

IV Press Theological Dictionaries

Let's take a look at just two entries that will help us get started. If you would do me a huge favor and swat me your questions about end-times words and ideas. We can start getting some definitions out to you. In fact this week, we're planning on the first installment of a running glossary of terms you'll find helpful as we study end times and the apocalypse.

Eschatology

A Greek-derived term that means the study of (or belief about) the last times (Gk eschatos, "last [things]"). In the OT we find eschatological thought especially in the Prophets, with their use of the phrases "day of the Lord" or "in that day." For Israel’s prophets, that day would be a time of judgment by God for the disobedience of Israel (Amos 5:18-20). However, the prophets also saw a time of restoration from the judgment when a remnant would return to the land of Israel in faithful obedience to God (Hos 14:1–7). NT eschatology picks up on these images and, by combining them with apocalyptic thought, extends them to speak of the time when God will bring about the end of the old age and the beginning of the new, when even death itself will have no power and God will dwell in the midst of creation (Rev 21:1–5).

Patzia, Arthur G. ; Petrotta, Anthony J.: Pocket Dictionary of Biblical Studies. Downers Grove, Ill. : InterVarsity Press, 2002, S. 43


Apocalypse

Literally, an "unveiling" or "revelation." The term is employed in the opening words in the last book of the Bible, "The revelation [apokalypsis] of Jesus Christ" (Rev 1:1). It is also used by interpreters to describe certain "revelatory" parts of the book of Daniel, such passages as Isaiah 24–27 and Mark 13, and some noncanonical books.

Patzia, Arthur G. ; Petrotta, Anthony J.: Pocket Dictionary of Biblical Studies. Downers Grove, Ill. : InterVarsity Press, 2002, S. 13

Hit reply and send me your questions or swat me an e-mail. See you Sunday! Don't forget...bring your crossword puzzle (see previous post)!

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posted by Tim Perry at 7:07 AM 0 Comments

Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Gospel of the Kingdom - G. E. Ladd


A great read I'd highly recommend for understanding Eschatology. He develops a theology of the Kingdom from a historic, pre-millennial perspective. Here's a summary of chapter one: What is the Kingdom of God?

1 - A present Spiritual Reality.
2 - What people experience when they give their lives to the rule of the Spirit.
3 - An inheritance that God will fully give his people at a point in the future.
4 - A realm of power or dominion into which true followers of Jesus have entered.
5 - Anywhere the king is present and his subjects recognize his authority.
6 - An inner redemptive blessing experienced only by spiritual re-birth.
7 - The rule of God.

Why is the kingdom so important? In order to understand how and why God will bring the present age to a close, one has to have some starting point of what the rule of God in our world is like. The apocalypse is all about the handing over of this age to the next by the power of God on his time-table. It really should be thought of as the in-breaking from the future into our world as we know it now in order to fulfill the plan of God.

Send me your questions! Let's get this thing rolling now.

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posted by Tim Perry at 9:29 PM 0 Comments

Yes I Can Read a Book at 9 Km per Hour

posted by Tim Perry at 9:25 PM 0 Comments

6:05 Every Morning in my Basement

posted by Tim Perry at 9:23 PM 0 Comments

Time-line Sanity


Here's my first shot at an eschatology time-line. This comes from a great book I've been Nordicizing called The Gospel of the Kingdom by G.E. Ladd. Of all the numerous end-times schemes, this one actually seems sane to me (eschatology timelines get crazy real fast). We'll explain it on Sunday at Gathering when we begin our series called Apocalypse.

I offer this sketch to preview the conversation we'll have this week. The best starting point in my opinion in talking about the end times is the overlap between "this age"...and "the age to come". See Chapter III - The Kingdom is Today. Ladd's book is so refreshing because he keeps it simple.

When Jesus came announcing the Kingdom of God, he started to connect the time frame human history has always happened in (the bottom line) with the age to come in which the Kingdom of God overtakes all human history and the rule of Jesus is made complete.

The age we live in now - is a time of transition - a huge overlap let's call it between the world as we know it and the world to come in which all things will be made new. The first half of that overlapping history is called the church age and the second half of that time scripture calls the millennium.

Enough for now. We'll add more to the diagram as we talk about it from week to week at Gathering. I'll try to get you a few more posts before Sunday comes and start defining some helpful terms. I'll show you the book in the next post.

PS - you can ignore the stamp.

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posted by Tim Perry at 8:43 PM 0 Comments

Apocalypse Crossword Is Here


Check out this sweet little eschatalogical crossword puzzle for all you end-times buffs. Fabulous prizes for the first two people to hand me a completed, fully accurate puzzle. Download the puzzle by clicking here. Print it, fill it in and bring it to me at Gathering this next week (Oct 4th, 12:30pm at the Student Center on the Old Mill Campus). I'll check it and give you your prize on the spot!

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posted by Tim Perry at 4:01 PM 0 Comments

Nordicize-it!


Just thought I'd offer a random life-enrichment idea for my readers. Want a way to get a healthier mind and a healthier body at the same time? Yes you can be the simultaneous owner of a mind as sharp as a steel trap, and buns of steel with the same routine!

Try Nordicizing a great book! Check out the pic above. You'll need a Nordic Track, a music stand and bunch of those aggressive paper clips people use who should put things in 3 rind binders instead.

As I've been ramping up for Apocalypse starting this week in Gathering I've been Nordicizing some great titles. I'll swat something out to you later today. I'm off to an all-day management team meeting, so I'll have to catch you this afternoon.

Send me a comment if you're one of those scholar-athletes who reads and sweats at the same time....

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posted by Tim Perry at 5:15 AM 0 Comments