//Have I blogged about this topic before? I can’t remember.

It’s a question that often comes up: When did Israel switch from polytheism to monotheism? And the answer is, there was no abrupt change in beliefs; it gradually evolved, from polytheism (worshipping many gods) to monolatrism (worship of only one of these gods) to henotheism (recognition of one supreme god, far above all the rest) to monotheism (belief that only one god exists).

Yet we do have a sort of “enlightenment” age in the Bible, as seen in the second part of Isaiah. Monotheism comes of age here, during the exile in Babylon (the second half of Isaiah was written much later than the first, by one or two different authors).

At this point, the author seems to delight in the discovery of a single God, repeating multiple times in the chapters from 43 to 45 words like There is no God besides Me. Chapter 41:29 reads exultantly, about other gods, Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.

Ray Vincent calls this stage a “kind of liberating atheism,” reducing the powers-that-be to a single God. See his book here.

//Hebrews is a fascinating book, one of the deeper theological works of the Bible. While the New Living Translation is not my favorite by any stretch, it seems to be the only translation which makes clear the point of this verse. Consequently, many readers gloss over this verse without reaching its conclusion:

Jesus was not initially perfect, but was made perfect through suffering.

That does not mean he sinned! Indeed, verse 4:15 makes it clear he did not. Rather, as verse 5:8-9 explains, Jesus learned obedience through his suffering, and “once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

Interesting theology from an anonymous author, a book that even conservative scholars struggle to assign authorship to.

//One time a Samaritan woman asked Jesus whether it was appropriate to worship God on the holy mountain of Samaria or the holy mountain of Judea? It was paramount to asking whether the Jews or the Samaritans had the right religion.

Jesus’ answer was neither.

One time the disciples of Jesus came to him, distraught that another person they didn’t know was baptizing in his name. Couldn’t Jesus make him stop?

Jesus’ answer was that the man was not against him, so he must be on Jesus’ side.

There is, in fact, only one “religion” that Jesus ever condemned. One worship that is unquestionably wrong.

It is the worship of money.

//While there is no mention of tithing in the New Testament—instead, the apostle Paul boasted about preaching the gospel freely—many churches today continue to request donations in terms of a tithe. So, how much should you put in the plate? What’s the Biblical answer?

First, don’t put money in the plate. Bring one tenth of your garden, as today’s verse commands. The word “tithe” literally means one tenth. But that’s not all you should bring. That’s just the general tithe.

Deuteronomy 14:22 says you should give another 10% of your crops in the tithe of the sacred meal.

Deuteronomy 14:28 then says every third year you need to bring another tenth for the poor.

That’s 10% + 10% + another 10% every three years, for a tithe of about 23%. That’s an awful lot of produce, so make sure you join a church with very large collection plates.

But here’s good news. Deuteronomy 14:24-26 explains that if turns out to be too much for you to carry, you may convert it into cash. Bring the money in your hand to the place “the Lord chooses,” and there exchange it for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or whatever you wish so that you will have an appropriate tithe to give.

//Let me lead into this topic with an odd verse in Revelation.

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. –Revelation 11:8

This verse has long puzzled scholars, because by its context it’s clearly speaking of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is often compared to Sodom, but where is Jerusalem “spiritually called Egypt?” No such scripture has been found, leading to some wild speculation.

It’s with this question in mind that I approach today’s verse about the kingdom of Solomon.

I’ve long known that King Solomon used slave labor for the construction of God’s temple. But I had never paid attention to today’s verse, telling how he also built three cities with the help of slaves.

What’s the big deal? It’s this.

They’re military bases. Solomon used his massive wealth to construct the House of God in Jerusalem, and then he used his massive wealth to protect it. God’s holy home required slaves to build it, and then slaves to construct military bases to protect it. Then Solomon used his wealth to secure “fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses” for his army, which he stationed in the cities and with him in Jerusalem.

Know where these military chariots and horses came from? Egypt. The nation that kept the Hebrews as slaves for 400 years, and then pursued them as they escaped, using … yes, chariots and horses.

In less time than it took Israel to escape from the Pharaohs, Jerusalem had become the new Egypt. Could this be what Revelation is referring to?

//Here’s a different way of looking at the Tower of Babel.

In the days of Babel, the people of the earth had one religion, one goal, and were sharing together in their reach toward heaven. God had intended that mankind would “fill the earth,” and instead, mankind had consolidated in religious agreement.

God wasn’t happy. This was not what he had in mind. So, he scattered the people and confused their language. This scattering was not a curse … it was redirecting people away from a unified system, toward God’s purpose for humankind. The pluralism that resulted was a divine act of God. Now, people had to accommodate their differences and rely upon God, accepting the challenge of different thinking, different religion. This pluralism is God’s plan for human flourishing, so that we can see God at work in many and various ways.

What do you think? This line of thought comes from Prodigal Christianity, by David E. Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw.

//Jesus, as I’ve pointed out before, is the most human in the Gospel of Mark. In today’s verse, he is unable to heal, presumably because of the people’s unbelief. But when Matthew gets hold of the story, he rewrites it like this:

And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. –Matthew 13:58

So in Matthew’s rendition, Jesus chooses not to do miracles in his hometown of Nazareth. My question for you is, which do you prefer? That Jesus could not or would not heal? Which is better: that Jesus tried, but failed, or that he decided to leave people in their misery?

I side with Mark on this one. The problem of evil is a serious deterrent to Christianity for some, including myself, and I would much rather believe God could not prevent the holocaust, or AIDS, or Japan’s tsunamis, or any other catastrophic evils rather than that he callously chose not to.

//That’s how this book of the Bible ends: with praise to God and an exhortation for the church to give glory to God through the ages…”all generations, forever and ever.”

Huh? What happened to Paul’s admonition that people not bother to get married, or make any major changes in their life, because the present world was about to end? (1 Corinthians 7:25-31). Where is the Paul who wrote that many of the people around him would live to see the return of Christ? (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

Has Paul changed his mind? It’s possible, but this is just one of many passages that cause critical scholars to doubt that Paul was the author of the book of Ephesians. The seven epistles universally considered authentic to Paul are these:

Romans

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Philemon

Galatians

Philippians

1 Thessalonians

//It’s hard in today’s enlightened world to appreciate the wonderment of the ancients. Imagine them looking up to the sky in bafflement. What makes the sun and moon trek across the sky? What holds the earth up? Or perhaps my favorite question of all: where is all of the snow and hail kept up in the sky, for when it is time to fall? In today’s verse, God asks Job if he’s ever visited the storehouses.

Small wonder that the “sky gods” of various cultures reigned supreme. One cannot truly appreciate the Bible without transporting yourself back into the age of wonderment.

//The above verse was a favorite of preacher John Murray in the late 18th century. It was a time when Calvinism ruled, and many people fatalistically accepted its doctrine of predestination. God had appointed some people “to prosperity, others to labor; some to ease, others to pain; some to fame, others to obscurity; some to salvation, others to be damned.” Murray couldn’t stomach this idea, and preached a dangerous alternative, using the words of Paul. God didn’t plan his wrath upon anyone, but appointed everyone to salvation.

Shades of Universalism? How do today’s Calvinists (who rely heavily upon other teachings of Paul) counteract this verse? Paul was an enigma who seemed to preach contrary messages depending upon what his listeners needed to hear, in order to embrace Christ. Did Paul believe that we were all predestined–destined to salvation?

Certainly there are a plethora of verses used by Universalists to support their stance that everybody goes to heaven. There are also a plethora of contrary verses quoted by exclusivists. It’s this smorgasbord of contrary Bible interpretations that keep my blog alive.

Ah, who really knows the nature of God?

//One day, not too long after Jesus ascended into heaven, Philip is instructed by the Spirit to journey into the desert, where he meets an influential eunuch from Ethiopia. A eunuch, in case you’ve forgotten, is someone who has been castrated.

The eunuch asks Philip what hinders him from being baptized? The answer is obvious to us, the readers, but apparently not to Philip. This quaint rendering of the law in the King James version explains:

He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD. –Deuteronomy 23:1

Baptism, then, at least in the Jewish sense of a ritual cleansing, was inappropriate. But how would Philip know about the man’s “privy member?” So Philip baptized him, and God apparently approved, for immediately afterward “the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”

//I happened to mention in an off-hand comment during a radio interview that if you lived in Asia Minor at the time Revelation was being written, you wouldn’t be able to buy or sell without confessing allegiance to the Caesars. I realized afterward that I hadn’t explained the situation at all.

Many of Revelation’s passages are directed against Caesar worship, and the prominence of the Imperial Cult (the Cult of the Caesars) in Asia Minor (current-day Turkey). It was to seven Christian churches there that John addressed Revelation, encouraging them to stay true. Today’s verse hints that they may not be have been able to even “buy or sell.”

Indeed, it was so for strict Christians. Commerce and religion were intertwined, in the trade guilds and the market places. If you did not give an offering acknowledging Caesar as God, then you were distrusted and unable to participate economically. You would eventually starve. Some scholars hypothesize that a system was instigated in order to identify who had made an offering to Caesar and who hadn’t, by leaving some sort of mark on your person. Thus, the “mark of the beast.”

In my book about Revelation, I suggest a different interpretation of the “Mark of the Beast” as Roman coinage, with Caesar’s image imprinted and described as a god (a “mark” is an imprint.)

Whatever the intended meaning of the “mark of the beast,” it’s clear that economics were directly influenced by the cult of the Caesars; particularly so in Asia Minor, where Revelation was directed.

//This is an absolutely fascinating prediction made by Isaiah. The “highway” language of Isaiah surely influenced the Christian language of “the way” in the New Testament and early church, but where does this prophesied highway run?

From Egypt to Assyria, through the middle of Jerusalem. Surely, these were Israel’s two most hated enemies, and Isaiah says they will meet together, serving God together. Israel will be the blessing in the midst of the land.

But there’s more. God calls these two hated enemies his “blessed people” and the “work of his hands.”

“In that day,” Isaiah says, the most hated enemies will become friends. What day do you think he means? Has it come yet? Have all people come together, across the earth, in mutual respect and love and peace? Or is this something we’re still supposed to be working on?

//This may look like a strange verse to introduce the topic of purgatory, but this is in part where the idea derives. Purgation is a purifying of our souls, after we die. Paul used a similar metaphor:

Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. –1 Corinthians 3:13-15.

This passage seems to read more this-worldly than as a description of the afterlife, but again the concept is there. Burn away the chaff to retain the good. Now, put these two verses together with many other verses that hint of fiery pain, like the lake of fire in Revelation, and the idea of purgation surfaces.

When would be better for this purging, then, than in the time between when you die and when Christ returns to welcome you to heaven? Such ideas began to surface among the church fathers as early as the second century. It took some time before the fire was considered a sort of penance, but by the twelfth century, it became a fixed doctrine. The spirits of the dead did penance until they were purified, in a place called purgatory. By 1300, purgatory was so established that Dante (1265-1321) could write his portrait of the afterlife in the Divine Comedy … and, as they say, the rest is history.

So is purgatory real? Dunno. I hope not.