Paradigm Shift

I began this blog in 2009 to chronicle my paradigm shift. It came about because I was concerned with the way that current evangelical dogma caused such bondage and fear. I had grown tired of people manipulating others for power, prestige, and to perpetuate a system that was very likely incorrect, and had been developed after the first century to keep people under control. I dedicate this to those who have been victims of spiritual abuse, and for those who have not yet realized they are.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Why current evangelical doctrine is off the mark; looking at law and grace; part II

Have you ever told some fellow believer about the extent of God’s grace only to have them tell you that no one should think that they could take advantage of God’s grace and get away with it? It seems to me that there is a fear of encouraging sin by most Christians when it comes to acknowledging grace. On the other hand, D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, a Welsh preacher of the twentieth century, once made the comment that if one is not accused of being too easy on sin they are not preaching the gospel. I personally agree wholeheartedly with D. Martyn Lloyd Jones and I think that there is a misunderstanding of law and grace by most evangelicals.

In all this fear and caution about being too liberal with grace, the real point of the gospel is missed. One of the main problems with current evangelical dogma is the importance the law holds in the life of a believer. Here is the most common view that evangelicals teach and believe. Once a person is truly converted by faith in Christ, they then receive, supernatural power to become more law abiding or live closer to the commandments. Further, they believe that law obedience demonstrates that a person is truly converted. Martin Luther, the great defender of grace said it this way; “faith alone saves but, faith that saves is never alone”--- meaning that one will see law obedience form a truly converted person. This has been the “party line,” if you will allow me to use the phrase, for most of the history of the Christian Church.

Actually, I think the New Testament teaches something very different from this. Now this difference may sound like it is without distinction but, let me assure you that it is not and, that it is a very important distinction in the growth of a believer toward being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. That… being formed into the image of Christ… ought to be the goal.

So then, here is the reality of the situation as I read the New and Old Testaments. Jesus Christ paid the price for *all* sin… one time… for all. That is past, present and future sin. Truly believing this fact brings peace with God, that is, all enmity is gone! The peace is the result of not having to worry about judgment. In Christ all have been adjudicated righteous. By faith, one must apprehend this peace, hold on to it and persevere. That is what brings about the peace. Peace with God is the catalyst for love for God. The love for God that is generated by having peace with God is the catalyst for obeying God. If the peace is broken for any reason the love automatically breaks and obedience stops as fear ensues. Fear is the opposite of peace. One cannot have peace with God when fear is present. The law brings fear. When one is forced to find acceptability to God through law they immediately loose the peaceful effect of grace.

Resting in the finished work of Jesus no matter what is the only thing that over time brings and sustains peace with God in the mind of the believer. Renewing the mind is a constant shifting of focus to God’s grace in Christ and the peace that it brings. The peace as stated earlier brings love for God and the love for God brings love to others and love does not easily violate God’s law. In this state of love the believer is slowly but ever so surely being conformed into the image of Jesus which is apape/love.

Here is why the false system has worked for so long. Some people’s sin is easier to see, more socially unacceptable than others. People can separate themselves from the big issues, sex, drugs, alcohol… they can change their manner of speaking…. They can easily look converted to the eye of another but, down in their heart they are full of fear and hatred. No matter how much they say they love they cannot really truly love. You know this is speaking to you don’t you?

Only peace with God from unlimited grace can truly produce love!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Why current evangelical doctrine is off the mark; looking at law and grace

While there are a multitude of differing doctrinal positions within evangelical Christianity, there are essentially two positions that are always at odds, and result in most of the overwhelming confusion that besets would be saints. The two mutual exclusive views can best be defined by asking the following two questions. What is the position taken on the tension between law and grace and which is the over-riding concept? To further define the two positions, it offers clarity, to explain the view they hold for law and/or grace. The positions in these two divisions are simply put… (1) those who emphasize law and (2) those who emphasize grace.

The ones who emphasize law, at the end of the day, are called legalists by those who emphasize grace, and the ones who emphasize grace are called easy believers and their doctrine is called easy believism or anti-nomianism by those who emphasize law. So, which position is right? The answer is really quite simple when you sit back and look at it.

In the New Covenant, the only covenant that Gentiles are under GRACE is the driving force. Grace is the motor that runs Christian doctrine. Grace has the first and foremost position. Here are three biblical reasons:

The law was given through Moses… but… grace and *truth* came through Jesus Christ
Where sin abounds…. Grace abounds all the more
You are *not* under law… you are under *grace*

First off, John 1:17 tells this. The law is neither grace nor truth. Grace and truth was something that had to come later and it came through Jesus. This alone should assure one that grace is the prime mover, grace drives the gospel train. Grace has priority over law and that is just a fact. Many do not want to hear it but just because they have plugged their ears does not mean that they are right. The opposite is true they are plain wrong and it is a woefully sad truth. The reason is that in their law emphasis, they damage those who have been set free from guilt by grace. This is precisely why the law kills and the Spirit gives life.

Secondly, Romans 5:20 further explains that grace is the prime mover, that *grace*… not law… drives the gospel train metaphorically speaking. Here is the fact plain and simple. One cannot out-sin grace! This may offend the sensibilities of the legalist camp but it still remains an indisputable truth. Even when Paul goes on to ask if one should sin so that grace can abound… even that… does not overthrow the simple truth that one cannot out-sin grace.

Finally, Romans 6:14 states it so plainly that anyone with the slightest command of language can understand that grace… not law… is the prime mover; it is driving the gospel train so to speak. Paul’s admonition in Romans 6:15 notwithstanding, grace is the catalyst. It is the ground. It is the foundation for faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

This all goes to establish peace with God and love for God. Faith in the grace message is the catalyst for loving God and truly loving God is the prime mover in transformation. It will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, ever be the law. The Law will not ever provide peace with God and it therefore CANNOT produce the fruit of the Spirit.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

What does a solely redemptive hermeneutic mean to faith and practice?

So far, the articles of this blog have established the fact that Jesus, his apostles and, first century followers redefined the phrase word of God and put a totally redemptive focus on the scripture. With this in mind; what should it mean to our faith and practice?

First and foremost, it changes the method of obedience. It shifts from a read and do obedience to what Paul called the obedience of faith. The exact meaning of the phrase can best be understood by examining the original language. This phrase is found in Romans 1:5 & 16:26. It is HUPAKOEN PISTEOS and it means the attentive hearing of faith. Paul uses a similar idea in Romans 6:17 when he says you have “obeyed from the heart” HUPAKOUO KARDIA.

It seems to me that the obedience of faith and obeying from the heart are essentially the same concept. It is interesting and informative that Paul uses this term to describe obedience. It is a contrast to read and do, law obedience. How does obeying from the heart and the obedience of faith differ from read and do obedience? Actually it is in the motivation for the obedience… you could even go so far as to call it the catalyst for the obedience. To explain further… it is the source of the obedience. In the first instance, read and do obedience-- it is merely the cognitive awareness of what needs to be obeyed and the expectation that the knowledge will result in obedience.

In the case of the obedience of faith-- faith… not the law is the focus. In the obedience of faith the prime method of obedience is believing; believing is the obedience. All other obedience grows from faith and belief. This is where the redemptive focus comes into play. When one shifts the definition of the word of God to gospel instead of scripture, the focus automatically goes from law obedience to faith obedience. This is precisely why the Lord and his apostles changed the definition and the hermeneutic. It was in anticipation of the redemption that had drawn nigh.

Further, the obedience of faith puts the emphasis on the promises and the performance of God. It directly removes it from the performance of humans. This allows us to have peace with God and rest in his mercy and grace. The mercy and grace of God is the source of growing obedience, but the obedience has all been fulfilled in trusting God in Christ. Trusting God’s mercy and grace promotes the development of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness goodness, kindness and temperance flow from trusting God’s grace with the obedience of faith.

So then, why does current church doctrine put such great emphasis on read and do obedience? I believe that the answer is prophesied in Matthew 16:12 and 2Thess 2:11. Much of current church doctrine is the leaven of the Pharisees and the strong delusion. This is precisely the reason that there is so much burn out in people that are on a tread mill trying desperately to please each other and subsequently please God. The leaven of the Pharisees works to abrogate the gospel of God’s grace.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The hermeneutics of Jesus and his followers VI

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to interpret the scripture just as Jesus did? Wouldn’t it be helpful to use Jesus hermeneutic in all biblical interpretation? Is it possible to understand and employ Jesus hermeneutic? If Jesus had a specific hermeneutic and, if we could understand it, why wouldn’t the followers of Jesus use his hermeneutic only? The answers to all of these questions should be a resounding yes/of course. Jesus most definitely taught his followers a unique distinctive hermeneutic so I will try to uncover it.

Looking at Jesus and his followers presuppositions:

#3 The scribes and Pharisees –- the rulers of the Jews were apostate and in danger of the imminent day of the Lord’s wrath, foretold of in the prophets, which would come to their generation. Ultimately, the hermeneutics of Jesus would overthrow the specularia of Moses and establish but one covenant… the new covenant. Jesus of Nazareth was the unique promised Messiah.

All of the history of the scripture…. the entire story was pointing to one grand plan of God. God was going to set to rights the creation by bringing forth the Messiah. If one missed the Messiah, they missed God and his plan. Missing the Messiah was the ultimate example of missing the mark -- sin. When the Jews incited the Romans to crucify Jesus, they in effect killed their only Messiah and that is the ultimate apostasy. Rejecting and killing God Incarnate was the ultimate final apostasy.

Using scripture as a justification (John 7:46-49) the Jews rejected Jesus for religious and hermeneutical reasons. This was after God proclaimed this to them:

Exo 25:8-9 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. (9) According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

God had become the tabernacle and dwelt among them and they rejected him. This is the ultimate apostasy.

Hebrews the Rosetta Stone of the New Covenant:

One of the ways that God could speak clearly to the Jews was to employ their hermeneutical devices in speaking to them. The bulk of the New Testament writings are made up of DRASH that helps to interpret the Old Testament Prophecy. Of all the books in the New Testament, Hebrews is directed at Jewish believers who were in danger of joining the unbelieving Jews in the apostasy of rejecting Jesus as Messiah.

One of the main presuppositions of the scribes and the Pharisees was called the specularia of Moses. By this they meant that all of the scripture must be filtered through Moses writings. They used Numbers 12:5-8 as the proof text for this Mosaic Specularia. DRASH uses phrases from the scripture to show interpretation. Hebrews chapters one through three establish the supremacy of Christ. Chapter three explains the supremacy of Christ over Moses and there is DRASH in the passage as the writer of Hebrews uses the language of Numbers 12:7 in referring to Moses being faithful in all of God’s house, and then the writer goes on to say that Jesus was greater than Moses thus overthrowing the earlier Mosaic Specularia.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The hermeneutics of Jesus and his followers V

Looking at Jesus and his followers presuppositions:

#2 The end of the age was nigh i.e, it was within the first century time frame. All of the Old Testament prophecies were about to be fulfilled in the first century time frame

Were Jesus and his first century followers expecting the end of the age to be the end of the space time continuum? Why would anyone think they were? You can lay it partially at the feet of the King James translators and partially at the use of metaphor and hyperbole.

Matt KJV 24:3 “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

The above verse from the KJV translates the Greek word aeon to be world when it should have been translated age. Aeon is an age not a world. So then, Jesus and his followers like all the Pharisees and many other Jews were expecting an imminent (within their generation) end of the age. Likewise they were looking forward to Olam Ha Ba, the age to come. It is safe to say that none of them were expecting a cataclysmic end of the world. Even though you see language like the elements burning and melting it was not meant to be literal. In Jewish prophecy it was metaphoric and hyperbole. Stars falling, coming on clouds etc. were merely prophetic figures of speech.

They were however, expecting a regeneration of the world. They were expecting God to make all things new and establish the age to come. One of the principle prophecies of the time that pointed to this was Daniel 9:24-27. The seventy weeks put the fulfillment of the prophecy in their time frame.

Here is Daniel 9:24 in bulleted form:

Dan 9:24 "Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city,

to finish the transgression,
to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal both vision and prophet,
and to anoint a most holy place.

This is one of the main reasons that there is so much imminent expectation in the New Testament writings. Here are a list of some of the blog posts that have dealt with the end of the age.

On whom the end of the ages has come

You will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes

This Generation Part I

This Generation Part II

When will these things be?

Check these posts out and you will see the presuppositions that Jesus and his followers brought to their understanding of scripture concerning the end of the age.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The hermeneutics of Jesus and his followers IV

Looking at Jesus and his followers presuppositions:

#1 Jesus and his followers redefined the phrase/term word of God, word, word of truth, word of the truth, from scripture to either Himself the living word or the gospel.

I have already written several posts on this subject. I will list them all below so that you can look at them one by one. I would suggest that before you do that you read through this post completely so that you do not need to be clicking backward and forward.

If you read these posts you will see that overwhelmingly Jesus and his followers defined the phrases word of truth, word of God, word of his grace and word as the gospel or Jesus the living gospel. So here is the point of this post…. If Jesus and his followers defined the word of God, word of truth and word as the gospel or himself the living word… why would his followers define the word of God, word of truth, word as the scripture?

The fact is that this presupposition changes our view greatly. First, not every message of the scripture has equal value. Some messages of the scripture take precedence over others. Even the Pharisees taught that. For them, Mose and the five books of the Torah had preeminence and precedence over all others. Interestingly, the book of Hebrews, chapter three overthrows the preeminence of Moses. So then, Moses has to be viewed through the lens of Jesus and his followers.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The hermeneutics of Jesus and his followers III

In the last couple of posts I have looked at Luke 24:27,44-47. I have shown that first and foremost Jesus and his followers used a hermeneutic that showed that He was the Messiah and the complete focus of the scripture. This is especially reinforced in John 5:39-40.

John 5:39-40 You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. (40) And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.

Therefore Jesus taught that the sole purpose of the scripture was to direct the reader to him so that they could come to him for life. This is evidence of one of the presuppositions that Jesus brought to scripture interpretation and it is a good time to answer the following question; what were the presuppositions that Jesus brought to his interpretation of scripture?

Jesus and his followers redefined the phrase/term word of God, word, word of truth, word of the truth, from scripture to either Himself the living word or the gospel.
He, Jesus was uniquely the promised Messiah
The end of the age was nigh i.e, it was within the first century time frame
He, Jesus was installing and instituting the New Covenant
He, Jesus was instituting the Kingdom of God
The scribes and Pharisees –- the rulers of the Jews were apostate and in danger of the imminent day of the Lord’s wrath, foretold of in the prophets, which would come to their generation
All of the Old Testament prophecies were about to be fulfilled in the first century time frame
After the resurrection, the Spirit continued to teach the hermeneutic of Jesus to his followers who wrote the New Testament.
Ultimately, the hermeneutics of Jesus would overthrow the specularia of Moses and establish but one covenant… the new covenant

Each of these presuppositions will be examined in greater detail as these posts move along. Interestingly, these presuppositions have led to the establishment of presuppositions that I in turn bring to the entire text of the bible. It is my view that these presuppositions must be used in any hermeneutic that claims to be Christian.

The definition of the term/phrase word of God is Jesus or the gospel in the New Testament writings
Progressive revelation is a rule of thumb for all Christians
The Old Testament must be viewed based upon progressive revelation
Progressive revelation found in the New Testament must alter the understanding of things written in the Old Testament
Redemption was the basis for creation
Jesus and his followers interpretation of Old Testament passages preempts earlier interpretations.
Jesus alone is the Israel of God and all *in Christ* inherit that same position
Obedience under the New Covenant is the obedience of faith -- Paul called it obeying from the heart also.