On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.

Kuyper reads the Bible literally, in particular the Garden of Eden and mankind’s fall, and ponders some provoking issues about what the Fall meant for the development of science and art. His writing, while dated and in many places relevant only to the most conservative Christian, is intelligent and opinionated, and the translation is elegant. It’s a pleasure to read.

And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

//That’s Mark’s version. Jesus says it’ll crow twice, and it does crow twice.

Mark was the first Gospel written. Matthew and Luke both directly copied many of Mark’s stories, and the evidence seems to be piling up that John, also, had read Mark’s Gospel. Curiously, however, all three of these later Gospels contradict Mark. The cock crows just once in their versions.

So, how many times did the rooster crow? Probably, none. Roosters were not allowed in the city, according to Jewish ritual law. More likely, the Gospels refer to the trumpet call marking the changing of the guard at 3 a.m. This trumpet blast, heard city-wide, was called the cock-crow. All three later Gospel writers correct Mark’s embarrassing misunderstanding, knowing the trumpet blast couldn’t have been heard twice.

[C]oncerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.  

by Keith A. Giles

★★★★

For ye are the temple of the living God.

What was the temple that Jesus came to establish? It was you and I—the living temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did what David and Solomon and all the rest could never do. He built an acceptable temple for God that was cleansed with His own blood and purified by the Lamb of God.

And God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” -2 Cr. 6:16

This concept forms the basis of Giles’ book, This Is My Body. His emphasis on Christ, particularly the Christ dwelling within, renders today’s clergy (as a class separate from the laity) as a misdirected spinoff from first-century teachings. The early church knew nothing of the clergy class of leader we see today; in the New Testament, every Christian is a minister, everyone a priest. In arguing his case, Giles holds true to the traditionally understood authorship and dating of the New Testament.

Consider the controversy over the Pastoral letters: Timothy I, II, and Titus. Scholars recognize how the teachings of the Pastorals contradict the teachings of other Pauline letters and of the Gospels, addressing the hierarchical needs of the growing church (e.g.: the need for a clergy!), and assume that they are written later; possibly in the early second century. That would mean they are not written by Paul. Giles, however, takes the opposite approach; he takes Pauline authorship for granted, and argues instead that we are wrongly interpreting the meaning of the Pastoral letters. His book contradicts both conservative and liberal thinking, and while Giles would never put it quite this way, he probably comes closer to the message of Jesus than the New Testament writers themselves.

Says Giles, “I believe it’s time the Church went out of business. Close down the bank account, lay off the pastoral staff, cancel the utilities, sell the building, auction off the sound system and the digital projector and turn out the lights.” Time to become the church instead of attending one.

(This book may be purchased at http://wearethetemple.blogspot.com/)

He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever….”

//In today’s verse, God speaks to Ezekiel and tells him that a new Temple must be built as his holy house. God dictates to Ezekiel several chapters of precise building instructions, describing a magnificent picture of a second Temple.

Ezekiel was not the only one to dream of a second Temple. Here is Isaiah’s promise, written much earlier, from which Ezekiel surely finds inspiration.

In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

This will be quite a thing, won’t it? Except for one thing. Ezekiel, an “exile prophet” (he prophesied during the period of time the Jews spent in exile in Babylon) was describing the day when the Jews would be released from bondage, and allowed to travel back to their homeland. When that day came, a magnificent second Temple would be erected, and God would dwell there with his people forever.

Then the day came. Israel was allowed to go home, and the second Temple construction began. But it was such a poor, pathetic attempt that the elders, those who remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple, sat and cried. No way would God come and dwell there forever! They scanned the horizon for a descendant of King David to arrive and rule their new kingdom, but he never arrived. For hundreds of years the Jewish nation floundered, and eventually King Herod the Great began construction on a newer, grander Temple for the Jews, resurrecting the dream of a Davidic Messiah who would arrive and rule. But again the dream dissipated. Before the Temple was finished, in 70 A.D., it was destroyed by the Romans.

Two thousand years later, many people point to the prophecies that didn’t pan out and continue to dream of yet another Temple.

★★★★

Life is a journey, and author Ed Galisewski has been taking some big steps of late. He writes not as a theologian, but as an everyday guy, a “Joe Palooka” with a “view from the pew.” He tells, earnestly and frankly, about his trek away from denominationalism and where he is at on that journey. We need a simpler faith, he insists, brushing away all the dross until we’re back to the basics.

To be honest, Ed is convinced about many things that I am not. He claims to be a Christian, I claim to be a Christian, yet we don’t agree on even the basics. Here’s the funny thing: I can’t tell whether I’m ahead of Ed on the journey or whether he’s ahead of me! Maybe we’re just on different journeys.

Regardless, I enjoyed the glimpse at another man’s struggle with church, even as I realize I can’t relate to the direction the journey has carried Ed. His new opinion of how to get back to basics means stripping back to C-S-G … Creator, Savior, Guide (you may note the relation to the persons of the Trinity). Although he presents this as the solution to everyone’s church problems, this strategy doesn’t quite work for me. I stand in awe at the wonder of life and the universe, yet the role of a creator in all this remains pure speculation in my mind. I stand in awe at the unselfish sacrifice Jesus made, yet I don’t share Ed’s view of what we need to be saved from. He mentions talking with a rabbi and being astonished that this rabbi felt no need for a savior.  As a conservative Christian, Galisewski naturally thinks that everybody recognizes themselves as a horrible sinner in need of being saved.  As an example, at least three times, Galisewski bemoans the way men’s minds work, once making reference to a study that shows that men’s thoughts turn to sex about 30 or 40 times an hour. Oh, what evil beings we are for harboring within us that incredible, bewildering, life-giving chemical reaction that transformed homo sapiens into an evolutionary success! We shouldn’t be celebrating the miracle of life, we should be condemning it! Save us from this life-giving evil!

OK, I’m being dramatic, but the point is, Christians won’t see eye-to-eye on even what Galisewski considers “the basics” … and we shouldn’t! We are complex, thinking, environmentally-driven individuals with differing spiritual needs, so Ed’s solution isn’t universal, but it IS a good one! Ed advises taking a break from our church, stepping outside its “business plan” to think things through. It’s a scary thing to do … questioning long-held traditions and perhaps even embracing other rituals and worship atmospheres, but he’s surely right that this will contribute to our spiritual growth. Ed despises exclusivity, encouraging Christians to see across denominational lines.

Here’s the bottom line: While the differences of opinion between Ed and I are legion, he appeals to me as a person I would very much enjoy conversing with about Christianity. His approach is respectful and humble, and he and I could learn from one another. What we have within these pages is an everyman’s sincere struggle to be more Godly. Read his book for an insight into what worked for one man and his closest friends.

Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

//Here’s the story of today’s verse. The Syrian army had surrounded the city of Samaria, and its inhabitants were starving. But Elisha the prophet encouraged the king, promising that tomorrow food would become so plentiful that it would be sold at cheap prices.

At this, the king’s officer scoffed, saying the only way that could happen is if food rained down from heaven! To which Elisha retorted, you’ll see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any!

If the officer’s stomach weren’t rumbling, I’m sure his eyes would be rolling. Why wouldn’t he eat any if there was plenty?

The next day, some mysterious loud noises startled the Assyrian army, and they scuttled off, afraid for their lives. A few adventurous lepers wandered into the now-empty Assyrian camp, and after eating their fill, they came back to the city to report what they found. So the king stationed his officer, the scoffing one, at the gate of the camp to supervise. At which point, the starving city-dwellers stampeded toward the food, trampling and killing the officer.

Elisha was right. Moral: don’t mock God’s prophet.