Jeremiah 32:27, God can do anything! Except this…
“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
//Omni-everything is our God! Matthew 19:26 says all things are possible with God. Luke 1:37 promises nothing is impossible with God. In today’s verse, God himself makes the claim. Well, actually God poses a rhetorical question. He doesn’t actually say he can do anything.
Because it turns out one thing is too tough for even God to handle: Chariots of iron in battle.
And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron (Judges 1:19).
John 17:3, What is eternal life?
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
//The Greek word aionios appears seventeen times in John’s Gospel, always translated in the King James Version to either “eternal” or “everlasting.” It’s a key theme to the Gospel. But what does it really mean?
What it doesn’t mean is life in heaven. It’s unfortunate that the word John uses over and over has been translated as it has, because the words “eternal” and “everlasting” don’t manage to convey the bliss intended. In actuality, the word speaks not of the quantity of life, but the quality. It means, specifically, “the life in the age to come.” Bible scholars typically retranslate “eternal life” as “life in abundance” or “fullness of life.”
This does not mean John denies an afterlife up in heaven, it just means his focus is elsewhere. John never mentions living up in heaven. His concern is that, by knowing God, we will share a richer life on earth.
With that in mind … we’ve just completed the editing stage on my book about John’s Gospel, and we’ll soon be looking for media willing to review! Anybody interested? http://thewayithappened.com/john.shtml
Book review: Faith in the Public Square
by Robert Cornwall
★★★★★
From the introduction: Nearly three decades ago Richard John Neuhaus wrote a book with an arresting title—The Naked Public Square. Neuhaus’ argument was simple—religion is in danger of losing its traditional place in the public square, or rather the public square was in danger of losing the leavening agency of religion.
The title of Cornwall’s new book intrigued me, and the writing didn’t disappoint. How is it that religion remains a constant presence in our public lives, yet is disappearing from public conversation? Robert helps out with this collection of short, two-page essays written for publication in the Lompoc Record (Lompoc, California). I can picture the Record lying open to his column on a Lompoc park bench, two men holding it down between them against the brisk wind. They are reading and discussing the day in 2007 when Congress convened, witnessing several American religious firsts, including the seating of two Buddhists and a Muslim as congressional representatives. Does this mean we’re witnessing the realization of America’s promise as a land of freedom for people of every religious background?
Cornwall’s passions seem to be religion and politics, and he loves writing about where the two overlap (whether beneficially or not), but the topics aren’t limited to this. Toward the end of the collection he strays to other controversial issues such as stem cell research, the source of sexual preference, and “enhanced interrogation techniques” (torture). Cornwall’s writing is piercing, yet engrossing because it’s both intelligent and balanced. Of religious differences, he is respectful, sharing his own beliefs without elaboration or evangelism.
I really enjoyed this one. But hopefully I’m allowed one complaint: Guys, when you put together an anthology of writings like this, could you please date each one? Our world is changing so fast, and I’m one of those readers who begins every book by noting the publication date, so I can match the writing to the atmosphere and knowledge of the day.
Philippians 2:5-11, The Divine Christ Hymn
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
//What I’ve just quoted was written by Paul, in a book which is universally considered authentic … that is, penned by Paul’s own hand. He appears to be quoting a hymn of some sort, and in so doing, claiming Jesus’ divinity “in the form of God.” Some translations even present it as a direct claim: “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.” – NLT.
But did Paul really think of Jesus in these terms, as God Himself coming down to earth? Or even as a pre-existing, divine being? This is a hotly debated topic; critical scholars are nearly unified in believing that the idea that Jesus was God developed later in Christianity, so how should we interpret this hymn? What does it mean about early Christian beliefs? Earlier even than Paul, who quoted an already-existing source expecting it to be recognized.
There are some problems with the “Jesus is God” interpretation. The text is actually quite clear that Jesus was in the form of God, not God himself. And it is God who exalts Jesus, apparently exalting him higher than he was before … meaning, Jesus wasn’t God beforehand. So what was he? The scholarly opinions are legion.
Many scholars do not think it means Christ existed before birth. They think it is talking about Christ as the “second Adam,” who was like the first man, Adam, but who acted very differently.
The first Adam is made in the image of God (compare to “in the form of God”), and so is the second Adam. The first Adam wanted to be “equal with God,” and reached for the fruit of the tree of knowledge that would make him like God. The second Adam, by contrast, denied himself that status, humbly submitting even to death. Therefore, God exalted him to a higher status than before.
Ezekiel 45:18-19, Ezekiel Changes the Law
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In the first month on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court.
//In these verses, Ezekiel describes the new Temple in God’s glorious new age (which he expects to occur as soon as the Jews are released from captivity in Babylon and allowed to return to Judea), and explains how a young bull is to be sacrificed as a sin offering in the first month of the year (Springtime, on the Jewish calendar). The odd thing about this is that this atonement sacrifice is supposed to be made in the Fall, during the Day of Atonement. Instead, Ezekiel moves the sacrifice to around the time of the Passover celebration. It is as if he merges the Fall and Spring festivals into one, with Passover absorbing the Day of Atonement.
Scholars argue about the reason for Ezekiel’s change of instructions. Some feel it illustrates nothing more than Ezekiel feeling free to creatively describe multiple Old Testament rituals with a single brush stroke. Others note that the instructions for applying the blood of the bull to the “upper ledge” and “gateposts” sounds an awful lot like the instructions God gave Israel for the blood of the lamb at Passover time.
I see the same thing in John’s Gospel. John doesn’t write chronologically, but purposefully tells the story of Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem over and over, under the banner of different festival themes: The Feast of Booths, Hanukkah, Passover. It’s as if all of the feasts have been merged into one. Why?
Perhaps because nearly every feast has at the core of its tradition an expectation of the Messiah’s arrival. A dream of the Messiah arriving during that feast. But Jesus can’t come during them all, can he? He can only come once.
So, John, and Ezekiel before him, combine the major feasts into one.
Got an opinion? 0 commentsBook review: The Time is at Hand
by Jay E. Adams
★★★★
This book is sort of a “recent classic,” first copyrighted in 1966 and reprinted four times since then. It’s a discussion of Bible chronology, leaning heavily upon a historical analysis of the book of Revelation.
Adams is a “realized millennialist,” meaning he believes the 1000-year millennium spoken of in Revelation (an “age” not necessarily meaning precisely 1000 years) has already arrived. It began in early New Testament times, and continues till the present. This is the period in which Satan is bound in chains. “Binding” doesn’t mean total inability, of course, for then one could hardly believe Jesus when he claimed to bind the strong man (Satan).
Now, since Adams is also a post-millennialist, meaning he believes Jesus will arrive after the millennium, he is able to reconcile the fact that Revelation’s horrors mimic precisely the age in which its author lived (the first century) and still look forward to Christ’s second coming. The “real” golden age, with eternal life, is just around the corner. The time is at hand.
I applaud the way Adams takes seriously the references in Revelation to the first century and the urgency of its message. Still, this interpretation always feels to me a little like having your cake and eating it too.
Job 5:17, The Advice of Job’s Friends
Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
//Yesterday, I pointed out that the richest, holiest man on earth was not an Israelite but a hated Edomite. His name was Job.
But what about Job’s friends? They arrive to comfort Job in his suffering.
So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. –Job 2:13
When they feel it’s appropriate to speak, they tell Job that if he will only recognize his sin and repent of it, God will surely forgive him. Round and round they go for many long chapters as they explore Job’s apparent sin as the reason for his misfortune, while Job insists he has done nothing wrong.
The friends are, in John Dominic Crossan’s words, “Deuteronomic fundamentalists.”* Their certainty about Job’s sin comes direct from the Torah, the law of God:
But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God … Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks … The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. –Excerpts from Deuteronomy 28
The friends are by-the-book Deuteronomists who believe that God rewards virtue and punishes evil. Job must have sinned; that is why God killed Job’s cattle, his family, his servants.
Of course, we know differently from the story. It turns out the friends are wrong, Deuteronomy is wrong, and though Job is never told the reason for his suffering, everything is restored. Job, the anti-Jew, is in the right.
What is this book doing in our Bible??
[*] see The Power of Parable, by John Dominic Crossan
Job 1:1, Job’s Holiness
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job.
//I’ve never been a real big fan of the book of Job, but someday I hope to get in and really study it. I confess, the premise is fascinating. A bit of atmosphere will help explain why Job is considered such a great piece of literature. Bear with me, here.
Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom … “Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You shall be greatly despised. … I will bring you down,” says the LORD. “Will I not in that day,” says the LORD, “Even destroy the wise men from Edom, And understanding from the mountains of Esau?” –excerpts from Obadiah.
Yes, Edom, the land of Esau, was hated. Guess where Uz, Job’s homeland, was located?
So the subtle introduction to Job contains a kicker, for in God’s own words, “there is none like [Job] on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.” Job is the greatest man on earth, but he is not a Jew. He is a Gentile. The holiest and richest man on earth is a hated Edomite.
Yeah, sometime I need to get in and really study this book. Maybe today … check my blog tomorrow for more.
Book review: 21st Century Science & Health
by Cheryl Petersen
★★★★
Allow me a few clarifications before I begin this review. Then forgive me for a much longer review than I usually prepare.
[1] This book is about Christian Science (The First Church of Christ, Scientist), not Scientology. Don’t confuse the two! The former was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, while Scientology was founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1953. Sorry, People magazine readers, this will not be a discussion about the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (Cruise is a celebrated member of Scientology).
[2] Cheryl Petersen undertakes the ambitious and somewhat frightening task of updating Mary Baker Eddy’s book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, rewriting it in contemporary language. Science and Health is, after all, the “voice of Truth to this age,” containing the full statement of Christian Science and the Science of healing through Mind. I asked Cheryl about her authority to rewrite a religion’s founding document, and she replied with some humility in an email that I will hopefully be able to share in a later post.
[3] My review is neither an endorsement nor condemnation of Christian Science, or of any controversies surrounding its healing practices. I do not have an opinion on Christian Science health care or any other contemporary issue relating to the religion, for I have not studied any statistics or the present-day practice. This is a review of only Petersen’s book.
So what is Christian Science? You may have heard only that it emphasizes healing, and this is not off the mark at all. Indeed, physical healing is inextricably intertwined within the core of the belief system. Christian Science “teachings are confirmed by healing. When, on the strength of these instructions, you are able to banish a severe illness, the cure shows that you understand this teaching and therefore you receive the blessing of Truth.”
And how do Christian Scientists heal? Well, not by slight-of-hand or by human mind over matter. Certainly not by surgery, drugs, or hypnotism. Healing is a matter of convincing the patient—providing a proper scientific argument, if you will—of the reality of Mind and its superiority over the illusion of matter. The cause of all so-called disease is mental. One disease is no more real than another. Mary Baker Eddie states that she never knew a patient who did not recover when the belief in the disease was gone. Quiet the patient’s fears, and show the patient that the conquest over sickness, as well as over sin, depends on mentally destroying all belief in temporal pleasure or pain. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, your patient is healed.
It may be possible to garner hints about Christian Science beliefs by noting the words that Petersen chooses to capitalize, implying divinity: Science, Life, Soul, Mind, Truth, Love, God, Infinity, Principle. But in each case, the words must be examined carefully in how they are used. The term “Science,” properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to Spirit’s government of the universe, including all people. Divine Science isn’t connected to what is called the hard or soft sciences (e.g. chemistry, biology, physics, and psychology). Divine Science rises above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of physical sense with spiritual ideas. “Soul” is not an individual entity trapped within your body. It is part of a greater whole. “Life” is, well, where do I begin?
I cannot tell whether Mary Baker Eddy was 100 years ahead of her time or 1700 years behind. In many ways, Christian Science borders on both Gnosticism and New Age, though MBE had heard of neither and would denounce both. She marched to her own drummer, and quite successfully I might add. I think I understand correctly that she imagines humanity on a journey to enlightenment. Today, we eat right and exercise to retain our health, and she considers it foolishness to do otherwise. But we are learning about the living Spirit. Tomorrow, in that perfect day of understanding, we shall neither eat to live nor live to eat. Death will be conquered, eternal life begun, for we will no longer retain the mindset that we must die.
It should be also emphasized that Christian Science builds atop the foundation laid by the Bible. Mary Baker Eddy claims the Bible as her only authority, though her understanding differs from most Christians. Jesus, for example, is not God, but a human being who presented Christ, the true idea of God by healing the sick and the sinner and overcoming the power of death. Says MBE, “I will not lose faith in Christianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold on me.” Indeed, Christ’s resurrection lays the foundation for Divine Healing, for it is the ultimate proof. Jesus did not die, for Spirit is eternal, he merely overcame the illusion of matter. Hidden in the narrow tomb, Jesus remained alive, demonstrating the power of Spirit to overrule mortal materialist perceptions. Here we arrive at that troublesome question again: What is Life? The short answer: “Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter.” Another hint: “You will know Life when you stop knowing time.” Eeek, I better go open my Eastern Meditations book.
MBE reasons that she has proven the ultimate Truth in Divine Science because of her success in healing. The premises of Christian Science, including the unreality of matter and the reality and singularity of the Divine Mind, must be accepted then by deductive reasoning. “We admit the whole, because a part is proved and that part illustrates and proves the entire Principle.”
As to Petersen’s efforts, her book is well-written and captivating, managing to both highlight the origins of a religious movement and strike a chord with my own life and beliefs. I did feel a little frustrated at its redundancy. I think 150 pages could be pulled from the center without losing any substance. This repetition (as intentional as it may be) is what drops my rating from five stars to four. I also do not believe anyone can fully grasp the nature of this religion from a book; it’s unlikely that an outsider trying to understand will be fully sated.
In closing, I confess I’m no expert on Christian Science though I’ve tried to convey the basics as described herein, so I invite practitioners to correct me where I have misrepresented your teachings! Thank you for sharing, Cheryl!
Nahum 3:19, Two Views of Nineveh
Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?
//Sometime when you’re bored, pick up your Bible and read the books of Jonah and Nahum side-by-side. Both of these books concern the fate of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. One is a humanitarian plea to recognize God’s love even for a hated enemy, and the other is a gleeful telling of that enemy’s destruction.
In Jonah, the people of Nineveh believe in God, engage in acts of penance, and repent. God decides to spare the city, proving their repentance to be genuine, and serves as an example for us to love our enemies and recognize the universal nature of God’s own love.
Nahum, however, openly taunts Nineveh, celebrating God’s avenging wrath against them. Nineveh’s destruction is sung in psalm:
Could any two books of the Bible be any more different? Is there any question about differing human motives and emotions in the Bible? This is the sort of stuff that makes the Bible alive to me … its very human fingerprints.
Fantasy Football, Anyone?
Put on the whole uniform of the Team, that ye may be able to stand against the blitz of oncoming linebackers. Don the hip pads of truth, the shoulder pads of righteousness, the cleats of preparation. Don’t forget the facemask of faith and the helmet of salvation. Then clutch the pigskin with much Spirit, for that is what the Play Book of your Coach in Heaven demands.The River of Life
Twice before Lee Harmon has written about Christian topics, once on the gospel of John and once on the book of Revelation. But the question people keep asking him is this: As a liberal Christian, why do you care so much about the Bible? Others wonder whether he is truly a Christian at all.
The Way It Happened
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| Revelation: A love story gone awry. | The Gospel: A love story set aright. |
What really happened 2,000 years ago? How did a persecuted minority of end-time believers known as Christians, with their dreams of Armageddon and a conquering Messiah named Jesus, evolve into the largest religion in the world? Author Lee Harmon explores the period in which the New Testament was written in his books about John's Gospel and Revelation.
(Bloggers: you may be eligible for a free review copy! Just contact us.)
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The God Show
Lee Harmon interviewed on The God Show about the History Channel's miniseries The Bible and Lee's latest book, John's Gospel: The Way It Happened.
About Lee
Hello! I'm an author, historical Jesus scholar, book reviewer, and liberal Christian, which means I appreciate and attempt to exercise the humanitarian teachings of Jesus without getting hung up on any particular supernatural or religious beliefs.
The Bible is a magnificent book that has inspired and spiritually fed generations for thousands of years, and each new century seems to bring a deeper understanding of life’s purpose. This is true of not only Christianity; through the years, our age-old religions are slowly transforming from superstitious rituals into humanitarian philosophies. In short, we are growing up, and I am thrilled to be riding the wave.
I avidly read all thought-provoking religion titles. New authors: I'd love to read and review your book!
Contact me here.
About Leslie
Hi! While Lee writes the articles and reviews the books, I edit, organize, and maintain the blog. The views expressed here are Lee's but I'm his biggest supporter! :-)
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