Authority

One of the most well-known Bible passages quoted by evangelicals is found in Matthew 28:16-18, usually spoken of as the Great Commission. In it Jesus claims that "all authority in heaven and earth" had been given to him. He continued with "go and make disciples of all nations ...". This he told them on "the mountain" in Galilee where he had instructed them to go.

But before this, on the day he rose from the dead, he had appeared to the ten (Thomas was absent) in Jerusalem (John 20:21-23). There he said "As the father sent me, I am sending you". He followed that up by breathing on them saying "Receive Holy Spirit" and giving them authority to forgive sins.

Clearly the idea was not that they could willy-nilly give eternal life to anyone who asked for it. Forgiveness of sins goes together with the commission to preach the gospel. That is why he first said "I am sending you". When the ten received the Holy Spirit on that day, they were the first of millions who came after to receive the Spirit when we "accepted Christ as our Saviour", "gave our hearts to the Lord" or "asked Jesus to forgive our sins" or "became Christians". All these phrases are attempts to put into words what it means to be "born from above" (John 3:5-8).

We are born again through the "living and enduring word of God" (1 Peter 1:23). When Jesus' death and resurrection is proclaimed, the preacher makes use of the authority given to believers to forgive sins. The gospel contains imperishable seed. When we believe and confess that his payment for our sins by his blood makes us clean, because he said so and rose from the dead to prove it, we receive eternal life.

On 25 March 1973 I was having lunch with two friends. They had planned to listen to a radio broadcast of a Billy Graham crusade after lunch (No TV in 1973). I told them I was not interested and was going to leave as soon as he started preaching. I was not keen on listening to a "Christian celebrity" telling me the gospel which I had already heard and accepted. But I was curious to just hear his first words. After hearing them, however, I was arrested by the authority in his voice as he preached the simple gospel. It was very compelling.

Billy Graham wrote in his autobiography that there was a time when he doubted the reliability of the Bible. His doubts were resolved after he had prayed, saying: "Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word - by faith!" (Just as I am, p139). From that time on his preaching had more effect. By firmly believing in what he read and preaching it with confidence he was able to bring salvation to thousands.

In his book The Holy Spirit Graham states "I do not see from Scripture that this filling by the Holy Spirit constitutes a second baptism." However, after the ten apostles had received Holy Spirit and the eleven had been commissioned to make disciples, they were instructed to wait in Jerusalem where they would receive "power from on high". Their experience, speaking in tongues, has been replicated over and over. It is not only documented in the book of acts but believed in by Pentecostals and Charismatics worldwide.

Without any intention of detracting from the impact of Billy Graham I think it is instructive to compare his campaigns with those of Reinhard Bonnke. The latter has not only reached millions with the gospel but has also seen remarkable healings in his meetings. There is clearly a difference between the authority given to every believer by the indwelling Spirit on the one hand, and the power available through the baptism in the Holy Spirit on the other hand. It is illustrated most vividly in the life of Peter before and after the day of Pentecost.

Under Construction

 Most humans regard a call to obedience in a negative light - except for the person making the call, requiring obedience from a subordinate. We want others to obey us but are not so keen to blindly follow instructions given to us.

This trait which we often exhibit can sometimes be attributed to bad parenting. Unfair treatment by a caregiver can cause one to have difficulty in submitting to rules, especially those of a father figure. But is it not possible that our abhorrence of authority has a deeper cause?

Adam and Eve must have known that there were things they needed to learn. Of course they were discovering wonderful aspects of God’s creation for themselves and by themselves. After all, they were "copies" of God, made in his image. But they were not omniscient, knowing all things like their Creator. Surely there was much the Lord wanted to still teach them.

To be made in the image of God must mean, amongst others, that our first parents could think and talk. They also experienced feelings, like their Creator. Most importantly, they had a free will. If they did not have a free will, they would have been just like the animals who live by the instinct programmed into their DNA, not very different from machines. And because God is love, humans would have been very distorted "copies" of him if we did not have the capacity to love him from the deepest of our being. Machines and animals cannot give or receive such love.

Creation did not stop after Eve had emerged from Adam's rib. Babies are created in their mothers' wombs to this day. They are completely helpless when born and in need of care by an adult. Similarly, the first humans must obviously have been quite ignorant of much, including loving relationships, which are "better caught than taught". In other words, their Creator would have to model the proper behaviour.

Before showing them how to act toward one another, God tested whether they would respect the way in which he wanted them to engage with him. They failed the test spectacularly. They needed to be shocked into appreciating the implications of their disrespect. This was hopefully achieved when they observed an innocent animal being slaughtered and its skin used to clothe them. 

Adam and Eve wanted to discover everything for themselves, especially the knowledge of good and evil. Don’t we all have a tendency to learn for ourselves rather than be taught what’s right and wrong? We hate being treated like machines which just operate according to fixed sets of rules. No-one likes to be told: "Don't think, just follow orders". We like to have a say in what we do and in how we discover and learn.

The early humans did not do very well in the relationships department. The Lord decided to wipe them all out, except for the eight on Noah's ark. After the flood our Creator made a covenant with Noah and us, his descendants. The most salient obligations under the Noahic covenant relate to the significance of blood as the essence of life. As a token of our respect to the Giver of life we are commanded not to eat blood. Regarding fellow humans, the blood avenger is allowed, maybe even responsible, to execute a murderer.

Later a description of the perfect human being was given to Moses in the form of the 10 commandments which can be summed up in the words: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbour as yourself."

To date only one person has been able to live up to the 10 commandments. He was under the severest scrutiny by the custodians of the Law of Moses but they could not make one of the trumped up charges against him stick. The Creator was actually joining his creation in a form not recognised by the majority of those who lived at that time.

But sincere seekers of truth acknowledged that his doctrine was in agreement with that of Moses and the prophets. His close followers were slow to see the significance of fellowship with the One who drove Adam and Eve from the garden. The night before his death he told them that whoever had seen him, had seen their Creator.

The way human nature reacts to God's demands can be inferred from history. People of integrity have been persecuted from the day of Abel to our day when many truthtellers censor themselves to avoid getting cancelled. The Israelites treated their prophets shamefully, the Athenians put Socrates to death, the Roman Catholic Church burnt John Huss at the stake. 

There are thousands of examples of how we are inclined to put the lid on voices of conscience. When our Creator was born as a baby, the king of Judah felt threated enough to kill all the infants in Bethlehem in his attempt to eliminate competition for his throne. When the rightful king of the Jews became influential, those who set themselves up as rulers of the Jews connived with their Roman overlords to silence him.

Today one can say without fear of contradiction that Jesus of Nazareth is the most famous person of all time. Throughout the ages his followers have been relentless in spreading his fame. This is hardly surprising since we believe our Creator really wants us to be with him in an environment which will be superior to that of the garden of Eden. He is training us to connect with him and one another in the way that was modeled by him when he lived among us.

The Kingdom of God

God's kingdom (the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew's gospel) is a widely misunderstood concept in our day. The most common misconception is the identification of the Kingdom of God with the Church. Neither the first Christians nor the Jews understood it like that. And Jesus never encouraged that idea.

It is instructive to start by looking at the instances when Jesus was talking about it. He started his Galilean ministry "preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God, saying, the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:14-15). The Kingdom was present because its king was present. The time was fulfilled because Jesus had recently been baptised, and the Holy Spirit had descended on him to anoint him for his task of spreading the good news (gospel).

The Jews had reasonable consensus on what the Kingdom of God was to be like. From many passages in the Old testament they concluded that a king, not too different from David, would inaugurate a time of peace and prosperity for Israel which would impact the whole world. "The word of the Lord would be proclaimed from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3). Jesus did not at any time contradict this notion. The teachers of the Jewish Bible taught that the Messiah would be known as the "son of David" (Mark 12:35) and that title was given to Jesus by those who believed in him (Matthew 9:27; 12:23;15:22; 20:30; 21:9,15).

In Bob Mumford's exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, he called that sermon the constitution and bylaws of the Kingdom of God. Jesus told many parables to explain aspects of the Kingdom of God but only on two occasions did he mention the church (Matthew 16:18; 18:17). He taught us to pray that the Father's kingdom would come. A week before going up onto the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus said that some of the disciples would not taste of death before they had seen the Kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9:1).

The antagonistic Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. Jesus never encouraged morbid curiosity about future events and certainly would not entertain his enemies with his knowledge of the future just to tickle their ears. In essence he told them the Kingdom of God had already come but they did not recognise it (Luke 17:20-21). To his disciples he explained what he meant by "in your midst". The King was in their midst right then, he would be gone for a long time, and would come again for every eye to see him (Luke 17:22-24; Revelation 1:7).

Every opportunity Jesus used to let the apostles understand he had to die and rise again they misunderstood. They thought he meant the Kingdom of God would be coming to earth right then. They were all bashful when he told them not to be jockeying for position in the Kingdom, maybe because it showed up their complete insensitivity to the ordeal he had to face (Mark 9:31-35). Just before they reached Jerusalem he spoke about his passion again. This time James and John decided to use the occasion to ask for the best posts in the Kingdom (Mark 10:33-37). Even on the Last Supper they were still arguing about their positions in the coming kingdom (Luke 22:24).

When the multitude following Jesus approached Jerusalem on Palm Sunday they thought the Kingdom of God was "about to appear"(Luke 19:11). The crowd would have crowned him king there and then. The Pharisees knew that (John 12:19).

Finally, when Jesus was ready to ascend into heaven, the apostles still did not get it (Acts 1:3-7). It is important to notice that Jesus did not "correct" them by telling them that their concept of God's kingdom is all wrong. The kingdom will be restored to Israel as many present day Jews believe. Christians who trust the reliability of the Old Testament believe so too. Messianic Jews believe it will happen when the rulers in Jerusalem say: "Baruch Haba B Shem Adonai", Hebrew for "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:37-39).

But first they will accept as a ruler "one who comes in his own name" (John 5:43). That is the one who will declare himself a god (2 Thessalonians 2:4). But when Jesus appears he will get rid of the antichrist "by the breath of his mouth" (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

Christmas Message

After God had made a human body out of the "dust of the ground", he breathed into his nostrils the "breath of life"'. This caused God's image to be created in Adam. His Spirit was living in the body of Adam.

But on the day Adam sinned the Spirit of God departed from him; he died spiritually and lost his intimate relationship with his Maker. Adam's biological life continued but God was no longer at home in him like before the Fall.

Later Adam fathered Seth "in his own likeness and after his image". All people born after that had the images of their parents. I am a copy of a copy ... of a copy of the original image of God. I was born flawed both spiritually and biologically.

But the Lord knew all this would happen. He inspired the Psalmist to prophesy "a body you have prepared for me" concerning the coming Redeemer. This was in accordance with the promise he had given Eve that her seed would "crush the head of the snake". About 4000 years later that seed was planted into the womb of a Jewish virgin who would become the mother of the "second Adam". God's original plan to live in a human body was finally realised in this "last Adam" who is the "fulness of God in bodily form".

We were created to have fellowship with God. After Adam had sinned God still had the desire to be with him and called out to him: "Where are you?" Just like Adam and Eve we have a tendency to avoid our Creator. Another tendency we have is to try and behave in the way we think God requires, while keeping him at a distance. Our self-righteousness can so distort our perception of good and evil that we don't recognise the agents of God in our midst.

Herod was an Idumean who converted to Judaism to curry favour with the Jews. He was so paranoid about his title as king of the Jews that he murdered innocent children in his attempt to get rid of the newly born rightful owner of that title. The depth of depravity we humans had sunk to became glaringly obvious through the actions of the religious authorities and the government of the day. It culminated in the crucifixion of the King of kings, the notice "king of the Jews" cynically attached to the instrument of his execution.

But the second Adam could not stay dead. By rising from the grave he paved the way for humans to once again be indwelt by the Spirit of God. The invitation to "buy without money" is open to "whosoever will" (Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 22:17). The "righteous shall live by faith", trusting that their sins are forgiven because of the "once for all"  sacrifice made on their behalf (Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews 7:27). The virgin did conceive, and her Son gives those who believe in him the authority to become children of God (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; John 1:12). They may also freely receive the Spirit who was given after the glorification of the Son (John 7:39).

Love and be loved

In a Google search of the "attributes of God" the following sentence appeared first: "In Western (Christian) thought, God is traditionally described as a being that possesses at least three necessary properties: omniscience (all-knowing), omnipotence (all-powerful), and omnibenevolence (supremely good)."

The apostle John made the statement "God is love". He did not just add love as one of the characteristics of God. Rather, he maintained that love is the very essence of God. The implication is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have an eternal love relationship with one another. In the two creation narratives (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7) reference to God is made both in the singular and plural. Also, Adam became a living soul after God blew into his nostrils the "breath of lives". The word "chaiyim" which is translated "life" in most English translations is plural. It can be taken to mean that the life of Adam included many lives which were to be passed on from him to later generations.

If God is love and Adam was made "in his image" it follows that love should play a predominant role in Adam's life. That is why it was "not good for Adam to be alone". In the first creation narrative it is recorded that "in his image he created him, male and female he created them" and that "it was very good". After the creation of Eve the possibility existed for humans to give and receive love among one another. In fact, the procreation of the race depended on acts which were identified with love.

Is it any wonder that the enemy of God and of the human race should pervert what was to be acts of love into the satisfying of selfish desires? Over the centuries various physical defects have been transmitted by parents to their children. Also, behavioural patterns are learned by children from their parents and from the culture they find themselves in. Unnatural sexual desires had become commonplace among the nations where Christianity was first propagated. By unnatural I mean desires which are contrary to the purpose for which they were designed. The aberrant sexual habits of the heathen were suppressed when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire in 380 AD. After hundreds of years those practices have again become acceptable in Western Society.

Every person, made in the image of God, has a deep desire to love and be loved. The pervasiveness of popular love songs can be taken as proof of this fact. The ten commandments can be summed up in the words: "love God and love your neighbour" (Matthew 22:37-40; Luke 10:27). They are intended for our wellbeing.

When we look for love in places we are not intended to find it, we must not expect to be fulfilled in the way our Creator meant us to be. The results of such behaviour include unwanted pregnancies, the spread of STDs and gender dysphoria. Persons suffering from these are at a higher risk of anxiety, depression and victimisation. 

You may ask why there is so much hatred and animosity in the world. We are supposed to hate sin. But we are more inclined to hate sin in others than in ourselves (Luke 6:41-42). By doing so we then feel justified in hating the person, something which God never condoned. Instead, Jesus commanded his followers to love their enemies (Luke 6:27).

How to express love in the 21st century can be tricky to say the least. We used to have a bull terrier who loved rough playing. Several items of my clothing can be used as evidence of that fact. But the dog we got after Nosey had died was abused by previous owners. I dare not even make a threatening gesture or she turns compliantly on her back. No sense of humour. Nevertheless, we had to train her not to mess in the house, using treats as a bribe; we keep her on a choker chain when we go for a walk; and when she was unwell we forced medicine down her throat. I think some parents and legislators could rethink how children should be loved from our treatment of dogs.

The God who serves

I listened to a lecture in a free online course of Hillsdale College on the religion of Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses. It was different from all other religions of the day. The gods of other religions required their adherents to serve them. But Abraham's God entered into covenants with his worshippers. He made promises which did not depend on the performance of those who believed in him. The blessings of other so-called gods were dependent on the sacrifices that were brought to them.

It reminded me of Jesus' words that he did not come to be served (Mark 10:45). I was also reminded of Peter's relationship with Jesus. At first he regarded himself to be too sinful to associate with Jesus (Luke 5:8). When Jesus told the twelve that he was to be condemned to death Peter reckoned he would not let that happen to Israel's Messiah (Matthew 16:22). He did not quite understand that the Father and Son had made this agreement long before (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 53:10; Revelation 13:8). To have known that would probably have caused him great anguish. This could be the reason why many people reject the good news message. In the words of Jordan Peterson: "I don't even know what would happen to you if you fully believed it".

My instinctual reaction to the idea that God would sacrifice his Son for my salvation is: 'That is cruel, I don't agree with it; if you cannot find another way to save me, I'll rather remain lost'. But I did accept his offer, maybe because I was desperate and saw no other way to a meaningful life. Peter came to the same conclusion.  He became so attached to Jesus that he would not leave him for anything in the world (John 6:67-69). Nevertheless, I have difficulty in believing how the Father can be compassionate, since it was his will for his Son to suffer like that.

Peter didn't fully grasp the implications of following Jesus, nor the love of God for him. When Jesus wanted to wash his feet, he first refused. Then, typical Peter, he went overboard and requested Jesus to wash his whole body (John 13:6-9). Yet, he still didn't quite know what was in his own heart when he swore to be loyal to Jesus even unto death (John 13:37). After he had denied to have known Jesus, he must have been utterly devastated. He could have reverted back to his initial reaction of feeling to sinful to be called a disciple of the Lord.

But Jesus dealt with Peter very gently. First of all Peter must have remembered that Jesus had prayed for him (Luke 22:32).  Then the women must have told him the Lord had wanted the disciples AND Peter to know they had seen him resurrected (Mark 16:7). Finally, the most persuasive gesture Jesus made to assure Peter of his reinstatement was in his final words of commission to tend his sheep and follow him (John 21:15-19).

A sinners' market

In the year 2022 Christians in any city in the Western World could hardly have a good excuse for not going to church. There are churches of every flavour and persuasion available within close range. But fussiness about religion is not unique to our age.

John the Baptist and Jesus were quite different in their styles of preaching. Their upbringing and occupations also differed greatly. John was in all probability an only child, brought up as a Nazarite by old parents. He lived in the desert, quite possibly in an Essene commune where studying the Hebrew Bible was an important part of his daily life. Jesus, on the other hand, grew up with brothers and sisters, and most likely had a trade. After their Bar Mitzva Jewish boys often got involved in their fathers' business.

Whereas John "grew and became strong in spirit" (Luke 1:80), Jesus "progressed in wisdom and maturity and favour with God and people" (Luke 2:52). John had a very non-indulgent lifestyle and there is no record of him ever doing a miracle. Jesus spent a lot of time among 'ordinary people' and even outcasts of society. He healed people who suffered from demonic oppression, diseases and disabilities.

One could say the message of Jesus was characterised by him inviting all those who would to become citizens of the Kingdom of God. He came to call sinners rather than the righteous, to seek and to save the lost (Luke 5:32; 19:10). John's main message was for his hearers to turn from their sins and live righteously (Luke 3:8).

Jesus berated the people of his generation for their failure to act on his message or the message of John. They found fault with both of the preachers. One's lifestyle was too severe and the other too easy-going for their liking (Luke 7:31-35). Today there are preachers who emphasise repentance and righteous living and others who emphasise God's forgiveness and restoration. There is a wide variety of churches for sinners to pick from!