Out of Step

"If a Christian parent is devoted to anything more than to raising godly children, that parent is seriously out of step with Jesus's kingdom vision. Jesus makes it clear this a matter of supreme significance." Rich Lusk, Paedofaith

Thoughts on Matthew 24: Part II

As we saw earlier, the language in Matthew 24 is not language about the end of the world, but rather language about the end of a world, the world of the Temple. We saw how Christ uses Old Testament de-creation language to describe the coming destruction of the Temple. I want to look now at another way this passage is twisted to fit certain theological paradigms.

Generation Means Generation

Here is Matthew 24:34: "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place." Anyone who believes this passage refers to the end of the world must find a way to redefine the word generation. (It is odd that Dispensationalists frequently say they interpret the Bible literally, but here they do not, indeed they cannot.) How is this word redefined? Usually they say this word means "race" or "this sort of people." By this interpretation, what Jesus would be saying is "Assuredly, I say to you, this race/group of people..." Is there any justification for interpreting the word this way? The best way to solve this is to look at other uses of the word, in particular those other uses by Matthew, thus allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture.

The word "generation", genea in Greek, is used 10 times in Matthew. I am not going to quote all of the references for you, but here they are: Matthew 1:17, 11:16, 12:39, 41, 42, 45, 16:4, 17:17 and 23:36, along with the verse used above. I encourage you to look up these verses. In every verse, there is no reason to interpret the word in any way other than it's normal usage. If you want to go one step further look at all the uses of this word in Luke. Here they are: Luke 1:48, 50, 7:31, 9:41, 11:29, 30, 31, 32, 50, 51, 16:8, 17:24 and 21:32. Again there is not a single passage where the normal term generation does not fit the context. The only reason to reinterpret the word in Matthew 24:34 is because of a preconceived theological idea. Those who do this are squeezing the Bible into their system, instead of revising their system based on what the Scriptures say. Jesus was not talking about the end of the world, but the destruction of the Temple, which occurred in the generation to which Jesus was speaking.

Thoughts on Matthew 24: Part I

Matthew 24 is a one of the more hotly debated passages in the Scriptures. It's bearing on eschatology is immense. In fact, one could say that the interpretation of this passage will influence how someone interprets almost every other eschatological section in the Scriptures. There are generally two options set before us; This passage is referring to the end of the world. It is referring to the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. There are two parts of this passage I want to dissect in order to get a clearer picture of what Christ is talking about. First, I want to look at the section most people think could only refer to the end of the world, verses 29-31. Here is what it says:

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. "

Surely this is talking about the end of the world! It is only at the end of the world that stars fall from heaven and the sun is darkened. However, the Old Testament tells a different story. Here are some OT passages with similiar language. I have bolded what nation the passage is referring to.

Isaiah 13:1, 9-10: The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw…Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

Isaiah 34:4-5 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

Ezekiel 32:2, 7-8 "Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him… When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord GOD.

Amos 8:2, 9-10 And he said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them...And on that day," declares the Lord GOD, "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

Joel 2:27-32 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. "And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

Several things should immediately strike us. First, the language Jesus uses in Matthew 24 is never used anywhere else in the Bible to refer to the end of the world. It is always a reference to a coming judgment upon some nation. Second, Peter explicitly says that the Joel passage was fulfilled in Pentecost. (Acts 2:16-21) He even quotes the language about the moon turning to blood, etc. Did this happen literally on Pentecost? The answer is no. So what in Matthew 24 demands a literal interpretation of 24:29-31? Nothing. So here is how Matthew 24 would line up with the above passages.

Matthew 24:1-3, 29-31 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?...Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The most natural reading of the passage is that Jesus is talking about the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. This not referring to the end of the world, but rather to the end of the Old Covenant era.

A Little Exercise....

Sometimes short books can be the best books. A long, windy writer can often simply be long and windy, not deep and profound. I have tried to read some shorter books/pamphlets lately. These are great fillers when you have a few spare minutes. The other advantage is you can actually finish them and feel like you are accomplishing something.

I recently read A Little Exercise of Young Theologians. It is an excellent book and worth a read by anyone involved in theological study. Also it is only 41 pages. You get the impression that the author believed in some liberal views of the Scriptures, but this is a minor part of the book and should not keep you away.

Professor Thielicke, like an expert surgeon, dissects the various diseases that afflict young theologians and pastors. He uses the illustration of a young man returning from his early seminary studies and a Christian friend asks him a question about the Bible. Here is how Thielicke describes the young theologian's response. "Under a considerable display of the apparatus of exegetical science and surrounded by the air of the initiated, he produces paralyzing and unhappy trivialities, and the inner muscular strength of a lively young Christian is horribly squeezed to death in a formal armor of abstract ideas." (p. 8) He goes on to describe how often young men use theology to destroy instead of build.

Later he describes what he calls "theological puberty." That stage when a young man has lots of ideas running around in his head, but little actual experience. He says, "There is a hiatus between the arena of the young theologian's actual spiritual growth and what he already knows intellectually about this arena." In other words, he knows a lot about weapons, but hasn't done much actual fighting. Thielicke goes on, "So to speak, he has been fitted, like a country boy, with breeches that are too big, into which he must still grow up...meanwhile they hang loosely around his body, and this ludicrous sight is of course not beautiful." (p. 10)

He ends by pointing to the need for a Spirit filled life if a man is to be true theologian. "Whoever ceases to be a man of the Spirit automatically furthers a false theology, even if in thought it is pure, orthodox and basically Lutheran. [Thielicke was a professor at Lutheran Seminary.] But in that case death lurks in the kettle." (p. 36) "But it is all the more important to insist constantly and almost monotonously that a person who pursues theological courses is spiritually sick unless he reads the Bible uncommonly often and makes the most of opportunities by which, in preaching and Bible classes, that cornerstone is made visible." (p. 40)

I found this book an excellent reminder of the dangers of theology. Theology is a great tool, which can be used for great good, but it must be used with wisdom, discretion and good dose of the Spirit. Thielicke's book exposes those sins masked as knowledge and virtue that theologians so easily commit. Read it with good dose of prayer and confession.

Growing Weary

G.K. Chesterton-Weariness is the enemy of all noble things.
Paul in Galatians 6:9-Let us not become weary in doing good.

Surveying the current cultural landscape a Christian is easily discouraged. All around, where there stood truth, there now stands lies. And we like it that way. Sociologists and others will study for years the demise the American Empire and how she got where she is. How did we reach a place where sodomy is right, where state's rights are destroyed by a tyrannical federal government, where nine men on a bench decide that killing children is not murder?

There are of course numerous factors. One could point to the failure of Christians to preach the Lordship of Christ in all areas. Certainly the lack of discipline in churches is one of the reasons our country has decayed. The fact that most believers send their children to government schools would also explain why the car is in the ditch. However, as I read the above quote by Chesterton a new reason for the decay struck me. We became weary.

We became weary of raising children for the Kingdom, so we sent them somewhere elsewhere or didn't have them at all. We became weary of preaching Christ and Him crucified, so we began to preach Jesus the great therapist who will cure all your ills. We became weary of not being accepted by the scientific establishment, so we accepted evolution and higher critical theories of the Scriptures. We became weary of being called irrelevant and boring, so we made our worship look like the world. We became weary of studying the Scriptures, so we turn to psychology, sociology and anthropology to learn theology. We became weary of shepherding the flock, so now we buy them and keep them like so many customers. We became weary of being called bigots, so we tossed out the Bible's teaching on gender roles. The world wore us down.

One of the trumpet calls in Scripture is to persevere. We find it in the words of our Lord , when He tells us to put our hand to the plow and not look back. (Luke 9:62) Paul tells his converts to "continue in the grace of God." (Acts 13:43) He tells the church at Philippi to "stand fast in the Lord." (Philippians 4:1) The writer to the Hebrews fills his book with encouragement to persevere. (Hebrews 2:1, 3:14, 4:14, 6:11-18, 10:23 and 12:1-13)

There are many virtues in the Christian life, but they all wither and die without perseverance. We must learn to not grow weary, but to continue in the faith, no matter what the personal toll is to us. And just as important we must train our children to do the same. For surely they will reap the bitter harvest of past Christians having given up. If we learn this lesson and keep heart, then there will be laid up for us a crown of righteousness, which this world knows nothing of.

Repentance, the New Birth and Good Works

"Throughout our life, then, we are to reflect on the fact that we are dead to sin and to ourselves, in order to live for Christ and his righteousness. And seeing that this process of rebirth is never completed as long as we are prisoners in this mortal body, we should be careful to continue repenting until we die." (John Calvin, Truth for All Time, p. 33)

"In short; we must conclude that the great value of union with Christ is found not only in the fact that we are freely justified because of it, but also in the fact that our works are considered as righteous and are recompensed with an eternal reward." (John Calvin, Truth for All Time, p. 35)