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I am officially launching my podcast! Click the image below to open iTunes and subscribe.

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The One Verse Podcast

The podcast is called the “One Verse Podcast.” In it, I am seeking to liberate Scripture from the shackles of religion, one verse at a time.

Beginning with Genesis 1:1, I plan on taking you verse by verse through the Bible to explain it from a historical-cultural perspective, and in a way that exposes how religion has forced Scripture to become its errand boy, when in reality, Scripture should be leading us away from religion and into a deeper and more intimate relationship with God.

Right now, there are five episodes published (not counting the introductory episode) and I plan on trying to publish one episode each week.

I am thrilled at the way these podcasts have been turning out. I have already learned so much, and am excited to share with you what I have learned, so that hopefully, you can teach these things to others also.

Ultimately, of course, I hope that as you listen to these podcasts, you will learn to think, look, and live more like Jesus Christ.

After you listen to the first several episodes, please consider leaving a review at iTunes as this will help other people find the Podcast as well. Thanks!

Now You Can Understand Prophecy

By Jeremy Myers

1 Comment

In the opening paragraph to Understanding Prophecy, Alan Bandy and Benjamin Merkle say that “Prophecy is something with which most people are either obsessed ad nauseum or about which they feel so inadequate they avoid it altogether” (p. 17).

This has been my exact experience as well. People sometimes leave comments on my blog about prophecy, and almost without fail, these comments are thousands of words long, full of Scripture quotations and links to current events about Obama, Putin, Area 51, and chem trails. I usually delete these comments. These are the self-proclaimed prophecy experts who are not doing prophesy or Christianity any favors, and their obsession with prophecy makes the rest of us feel rather queasy.

Then there are those who try to read prophecy, such as the book of Revelation, and are so confused by what they read, they throw up their hands in frustration, and turn on ESPN. I understand this feeling. To be honest, that approach is probably better than if they had decided to persevere and opened up a few commentaries on the book of Revelation, for then they would have become really confused. Every commentator is so certain about their interpretation of Revelation, but every commentator contradicts each other on nearly every point. How can so many people be so certain about the interpretation of Revelation, but at the same time, so different? It is very confusing for the normal student of Scripture.

This is why a book like Understanding Prophecy by Alan Bandy and Benjamin Merkle is so important. Though they differ on some interpretations of prophecy, they have written a book to help you and I read and study prophecy for ourselves. The book does not so much explain the various prophetic texts in Scripture, as provide a framework to read and study it on our own.

It is sort of the “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime” approach to biblical prophecy.

Overall, I think that Alan Bandy and Benjamin Merkle did a fine job in the book. They point out that prophecy should be filtered through the lens and grid of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ, and that prophecy is not so much about telling the future as it is about calling people back into faithfulness to their covenant relationship with God. They also point out the difference between conditional and unconditional prophecy, and how to know which is which.

My primary complaint about this book is that despite their desire to filter the interpretation of prophecy through the lens of Jesus Christ, they still believe in and hold to a violent, bloody, vengeful, and wrathful second coming of Jesus Christ. They say that although Jesus came with peace, love, and forgiveness in His first coming, the second coming will be with fire and blood and war (cf. p. 27), though to be fair, this position does not present itself much in the rest of the book.

The book takes the various sections of prophecy in Scripture and presents them in their literary and cultural contexts, providing a brief summary of the various views and interpretations that are available for each section. All in all, it is an excellent summary of how to understand and study biblical prophecy on your own, and I highly recommend it.

Get your copy today at Amazon or CBD.

A theological parable about oysters and ballerinas from Robert Farrar Capon

By Jeremy Myers

14 Comments

Some like to say that theology is the queen of the sciences. But I am beginning to think theology is not so much a science as it is a form of entertainment.

I mean, don’t these guys look like a barrel of laughs?

Seriously though, we theologians often take ourselves way too seriously.

But if historical theology and church tradition teach us anything at all, it is that many of the ideas we have held to most dearly have been the same ideas that have cost the church and the world most dearly.

So let all the shouting, yelling, and finger pointing cease. Let us all sit down and take a deep breath. Let us loosen our ties and untuck our shirts. Let us relaaax.

Then, let someone stand up and tell us a joke. Or a story.

Then let us all start laughing more, and not just laughing, but laughing at ourselves. Let us remember how ludicrous our carefully packaged systems of theology really are.

When we teach and write about theology, we know next to nothing regarding the topic about which we speak, but we speak about it as if we know everything.

If you cannot laugh at your own hubris when you teach theology, you should not be teaching theology.

If God truly is as infinite as we claim, then all the compiled knowledge and ideas about God are nothing more than a speck of insight compared to the infinity of God. Yet we speak with such certainty and arrogance, as if we have all knowledge of God.

I am reminded of a parable about theology from Robert Farrar Capon in his book, Hunting the Divine Fox. Here it is for your enjoyment:

Once upon a time, in the mud at the bottom of a tidal pool, there lived an oyster. By oyster’s standards, he had a good life: the sea water was clean, and full of plankton, and the green warmth of the light at low tide made him grow and prosper.

Next to him lived a stone with whom he sometimes talked. It was very much the same size, shape and color as he, and was good, if undemanding, company. As a matter of fact, their conversations gave the oyster a definite feeling of superiority. He loved to dwell at length on the differences that underlay their apparent similarity. Rocks, he would say, are merely mineral. Oysters may be mineral on the outside; but inside, they are bona fide members of the animal kingdom.

One day, however the stone surprised him by coming up with a rejoinder. It pointed out that there were nonetheless some advantages to being further down the evolutionary scale. Rocks have fewer enemies than oysters. Starfish and oyster drills, it observed, were no threat to stones; to the oyster they were a matter of life and death. Furthermore, the stone told him, it was getting just a little tired of being put down by an oyster with airs. He might get a lesson in humility if he would listen to some of the things the starfish say about oysters — things which the oyster never heard because he was too busy being mortally afraid, but which the stone heard regularly, and with amusement.

Starfish, it seems, have a very low opinion of oysters. They eat them, but they always refer to them as ‘nothing more than a rock with a stomach.’ In fact, what passes as starfish humor…invariably has to do with how stupid it is to be an animal and not be able to move about. The worst thing one starfish can call another is ‘sessile creature.’

The oyster terminated the discussion huffily and went into a state of profound depression. To have everything he had been so proud of become the butt of underwater ethnic wisecracks made life not worth living. Existence, he concluded, was nothing but a cruel joke. All the faith he once had in a grand design of the evolutionary scheme forsook him. Better to believe in nothing than dignify this farce of a world with its pretensions of order. He became an anti-evolutionist, and stopped saying his prayers.

For a while, righteous indignation made the losing of his religion rather fun, as it always does; but as summer wore on into fall and the water began its slow progress to winter’s cold, he became merely sour- angry at the universe, but even more angry at himself for having let it turn him into a grouch. Finally, in desperation, he decided he would pray once again; but this time with a difference. No more mumbling of set pieties. He saw himself as a Job among oysters; he would open his shell and curse his day.

And the oyster spoke and said, “Let the day perish wherein I was spawned, and the night in which it was said, A seed oyster has appeared. Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul? Why do I live my days in doubt and darkness? O, that one would hear me, and tell me openly of the glories above. Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me.”

And, to his utter astonishment, a voice said, “All right, all right. But I have to make it short. It’s Friday afternoon.

“It’s all true. There are things you never even dreamed of. All kinds of stuff. And with moves you couldn’t imagine if you tried. As a matter of fact, that’s your problem. There you sit with a rock on one side and a starfish on the other. My apologies. It’s a limited field of vision, I admit, but in the evolutionary scale business, you’ve got to put a lot of things near the bottom. Spoils the effect if you don’t.

“Anyways, the moves. I’ll tell you a few. Basketball. College basketball, especially. The best ones are so flashy, they make you laugh for not being able to believe the guy actually made the shot. And squirrels going through trees. One of my best effects. You know the last time a squirrel missed his footing? I keep track of such things. It was May 3rd 1438. Definitely a record.

“And it’s not all slapdash, either. I’ve got creatures so graceful, they almost break your heart. When it comes to exquisite moves, my favorite maybe is girls’ knees. Lovely. Some people think that’s a funny thing to get excited about, but in my line of work, there’s no substitute for enthusiasm.

“Seriously. If you take the knee thing and really go all the way with it, you get my absolute favorite for loveliness, a prima ballerina. Talk about moves. It’s like Ernie DiGregorio, Marcel Marceau, and Squirrel Nutkin all rolled together- but as a girl, which makes it that much better. Terrific.

“Listen, though. It’s almost sundown, and I have to set a good example. As I said, your basic problem is your point of view. There really are all these great moves, but you unfortunately don’t know from motion. If you’re going into business as the world’s first philosophical oyster, its o.k. by me. But just so you shouldn’t get it all wrong, I’ll give you one piece of advice: Think very carefully. Remember that all this stuff really is, but it can’t possibly be the way you think. Or, to turn it around: The way you think about things will never be exactly the same as the way they are. But enough. I really have to run. Mazel tov.”

And with that, the voice ceased and the oyster was left alone with his thoughts. He felt both humbler and more elated than ever before. He resolved to philosophize no matter what the difficulties, and, in order to make the best use of the voice’s advice, he decided to put himself into a methodical frame of mind. What follows is a transcript of his train of thought.

1. There is motion. I, as an oyster, can distinguish two sorts. The first is being moved (e.g., both the stone and myself can be moved by oystermen). The second is moving on one’s own. The stone cannot do this at all. I can move the part of myself within my shell, but I cannot move my whole self from place to place. The starfish can move from place to place.

2. The voice was quite clear on the existence of more mobile creatures than the starfish. Let me see what I can say about the prima ballerina:

Starfish move; ballerinas move.
Starfish attack oysters.
Can starfish attack ballerinas?

This is problematical. Perhaps a tentative solution would be that since the ballerina’s motion is apparently far more eminent than the starfish’s, a ballerina would invariably move in such a way as to avoid starfish. There are unresolved difficulties, however:

a. I do not know whether starfish and ballerinas occupy the same medium.
b. I do not know whether starfish have any interest in attacking ballerinas.

3. Let me begin again:

Starfish move; ballerinas move.
Starfish are deadly to oysters.
Are ballerinas deadly to oysters?

One line of approach would seem to be that, since the voice says that ballerinas are his absolute favorite for loveliness, and since loveliness and deadliness do not seem to be compatible, the ballerina cannot be deadly to the oyster. (This depends, of course, on what is meant by loveliness and deadliness. It also might depend on whether a ballerina’s possible deadliness to the oyster proceeds out of her nature, as the starfish’s does, or out of some accidental or acquired taste, as it were. If the latter were true, then it might be that not every ballerina is deadly to oysters.) In any case, there is not enough evidence to resolve the question.

4. Even though the voice’s enthusiasm for the world of higher motion seems to have suspended my own doubts, it is disturbing to think how easily a skeptical oyster could argue from all this that ballerinas do not exist, but rather are nothing more than a distracting hypothesis invented by oysters who cannot face the grimness of existence without flinching.

5. Tentatively, I shall list the following as the chief properties of the prima ballerina:

a. Mobility (like the starfish’s, but better.
b. Invulnerability to starfish (likely).
c. Loveliness (on faith).
d. Deadliness (possible, but not certain).

There is a good deal unresolved here. Perhaps it would be useful to consider next what ballerinas are for. This is fascinating but tiring. At least, though, the seawater seems refreshing again.

I love this parable from Robert Farrar Capon (and everything he writes) for it perfectly represents human theology.

We are the oyster. The Bible is God’s revelation to us about ballerinas. And our theology is like the oyster’s methodical philosophizing about the nature and character of ballerinas.

This is why we must never take our theology too seriously. Sure, it is enjoyable. It can be fun. It is a healthy pastime. It can even be entertaining.

But we must remember that this is all theology is. Some people play basketball. Some people plant gardens. Some people watch TV. Some people discuss God.

As soon as we begin to think that we have figured out God and the mysteries of the universe, we are just like this oyster who thinks he has figured out a few things about ballerinas, but really, knows absolutely nothing about them.

When we approach theology this way, theology can be an enjoyable pursuit, and even a healthy pastime. But as soon as we take our methodical philosophizing too seriously and start demanding that everyone else agree with what we have figure out about God, well, that’s when theology is not longer healthy, good, or enjoyable.

So do you like theology? Great! So do I. Let’s talk about ballerina knees a bit.

Forget the balanced life. Embrace your madness for Jesus.

By Jeremy Myers

26 Comments

It is popular to talk about living balanced. Everywhere you turn, people are talking about the balanced life.

We need to have balanced diets, balanced budgets, balanced work life, balanced emotions, and balanced families.

I am not opposed to any of that, I suppose, but recently I have begun to wonder if our lives as followers of Jesus are supposed to balanced?

I suspect not.

There are a couple things that got me thinking about this.

The Unbalanced Life

The first thing that got me thinking about the unbalanced life is my own life as a follower of Jesus, especially in comparison to my wife’s life as a follower of Jesus. My wife, Wendy, is a lover and a server. I am a thinker and a reader.

For many years in our marriage, my wife felt guilty that she did not spend as much time “in the Word” and reading theology as I did. I, on the other hand, always felt guilty that I did not spend enough time getting to know our neighbors, taking baked-goods over to friends, or playing with children down at the park the way my wife did.

But recently, we have both come to the realization that God made us who we are, and rather than fight who God made us to be, we must revel in it.

Wendy shines when we have people over to our house. She almost literally glows, especially when the company includes children. She is specially gifted by God to love and serve others with her whole being. She bakes, cooks, talks, serves, and loves people in a way I have never seen matched by anybody.

When there are people in our house, especially when they are young people, visible light and energy almost radiate from my wife.

I, on the other hand, can sit for hours with my nose in a pile of books, chasing down insights into various Greek words, information about the historical background of a biblical event, and ideas about how to understand a particular text.

Wendy looks at me and says, “How can you sit and study so long?” I look at her and say, “How can you love to bake and entertain children so often?”

If someone told Wendy that she needs to “be more balanced” and spend less time cooking and with children and more time reading books, she wouldn’t do so well. She likes to read, but she prefers to be with people.

If, on the other hand, someone told me that I need to “be more balanced” and spend less time thinking and studying and more time talking with others, I wouldn’t so well. I like to talk with people, play with kids, and cook the occasional … hot dog … but all the while, my mind will be on the ideas and insights that are running through my head.

Neither one of us lives “balanced” very well, and I am beginning to think that maybe we are not supposed to.

Don’t Live the Balanced Life

God made us who we are, and we need to embrace our giftings, interests, desires, and abilities, and throw caution to the wind, flinging ourselves into these full-bore, with wild abandon.

Of course, since we are married, I will be helping Wendy cook and clean and enjoying many conversations with friends and neighbors. And Wendy will be hearing some of my ideas and insights into Scripture as we discuss what is going on inside my head.

So as different as we are, we need each other, and we help each other do things that we could not do on our own.

I need her to lead me in practical ways to put my ideas into practice, and she needs me to help theologically affirm and encourage her actions in loving others.

Ironically, my wife (the lover) is the one who helped me (the thinker) see and understand this. For my entire life, I have always been … how can I say it? … more comfortable in a book than in a crowd. It is not that I mind crowds; it is just that they wear me out. Quickly. Books and thinking, however, invigorate and excite me. I am an internal person. Much of my life takes place inside my head.

For a long time, I used to feel guilty about this. I used to think that a “true” follower of Jesus, an “on-fire” Christian, a passionate disciple, would be out volunteering at the soup-kitchen, chatting with the neighbors about tomato-growing tips, and learning the names of the children down at the local park. I used to think that a “true” follower of Jesus would go about with a spirit and attitude of prayer and grace as they spend their days washing, serving, scrubbing, praying, befriending, and talking.

That was never me. Not ever.

I tried.

As a pastor, I tried.

As a seminarian, I tried.

Having left seminary, I tried.

In my current place of work, I tried.

Part of the difficulty is that my wife was so good at all these things. Within a week of moving into a new neighborhood, she has taken fresh-baked loaves of bread and cookies to our neighbors and has had hour-long conversations with all of them, learning about their dogs, their jobs, and their children.

Me? When I talk to the neighbors, I can barely talk about anything more than the weather. I fear going to get the mail, because I am afraid I will meet a neighbor and forget their name or what we talked about last week. I dread running into a coworker at Wal-Mart because I will probably forget their name or not know what to say.

If Wendy goes to the local park, she will have a crowd of children around her in ten minutes, all of them laughing, cheering, and giggling. In a few minutes more, she will know their names. She will know their dog’s names. They even ask her when she is coming back to the park. I call her a modern-day Pied Piper (but in a good way).

Me? I sometimes think I scare kids. I am pretty sure I scare their parents. Last time I tried to talk to a kid in the park, I didn’t get through half a sentence before the parents yelled out, “OK, Tommy, time to go home!” I am not making this up.

When Wendy stands in line at the Supermarket, people just talk to her about things. She sometimes strikes up conversations with them, but more often than not, they start conversations with her.

Me? Nobody ever starts a conversation with me. I have tried to start a conversation with others, and they usually look at me like I’m some sort of freak. I mean, who talks to strangers these days?

I discovered though, that my wife often felt guilty for not spending more time reading and studying books. She saw me doing this, and despite how easily she could talk with people and build relationships with them, she often felt that she wasn’t spending enough time “in the Word” or reading theology. She went to Bible college too, and she was taught (along with the rest of us) that “disciple” means “student, pupil, learner” and so she always thought that if she was a fully-committed disciple, she needed to be studying and learning.

Recently, though she has realized (and I concur) that both of us are who God made us to be. We need to accept who God made us, and rather than fight it, revel in it.

It is like Eric Liddell saying, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” My wife feels God’s pleasure when she bakes for other people, plays with children, ministers to the neighbor, and laughs with friends. Me? I feel God’s pleasure when I discover something new about a certain Greek word in Luke 4:18 which I can then share with others through teaching or writing.

My wife is not me, and she shouldn’t try to be me. Similarly, I am not my wife, and shouldn’t try to be her. Yet we both need each other. I do the studying for her and she learns from me. She does the love and service and helps me make friends and love others in ways I could never do on my own.

This is a long and roundabout way of saying this:

It’s the same with the church.

Rather than a bunch of clones running around who all look, act, and talk like the pastor, each person is to be as fully themselves as they can possibly be. Only then does the Body of Christ develop in healthy and beautiful ways.

If we can talk about “biblical balance” it is not found so much in the lives of individual Christians, but rather in our ability to let others be who God made them to be while we seek to be who God made us to be. We must be who we are while rejoicing in who others are. I must not expect others to tirelessly read and study, and they must not expect me to be invigorated by baking a cake or listening to our neighbor talk about his dog.

What would the church be like if everybody just loved and served others, and nobody studied or learned? Well, for one thing, we wouldn’t have any English translations of the Bible. In fact, we wouldn’t have any Bible at all, for the work of writing and transmitting the Bible through the centuries was painstakingly carried out by committed and dedicated scholars.

But think what Christianity would be like if everybody was a scholar, and nobody loved or served? If that were the case, Christianity would have become just another philosophy and probably would not have lasted more than a century or two before it was replaced by something else.

So the truth is that we need each other. The hands-on Christians keep Christianity moving forward (usually). The heads-on Christians keep us moving in the right direction (mostly).

Where is the balance? There is no balance. Forget about balance. Don’t try to be balanced. Know you are are, and who God made you to be, and run after that with all your energy. Be the best “You” that you can be, for you cannot be anyone else, and nobody else can be “You” either.

God created you to do something, so go do it! Don’t turn to the left or the right by pious-sounding talk about “balance.”

Find your divine spark of “madness” and fully embrace it until it turns into a raging inferno. Then people will come from miles away just to watch you burn.

The beauty of Christianity is not that we are all the same or that we are all “balanced,” but instead, that we are all so dissimilar and opposite, and that in Christ, we are unified and can celebrate the differences and insanities of others rather than calling them to “become like us.”

What is your particular insanity?

Did you know you are insane? Yes. And it’s a good thing. Embrace it. Enjoy it. Live it.

If you are not sure where your particular insanity lies, ask yourself what causes people to look at you and say, “Try to be more balanced”?

In this post, I have only talked about loving others (my wife) and studying books (me), but I imagine there are other passions and interests that some of you might have. What are they? How can you fling yourself into these whole-heartedly for your own personal satisfaction and ultimately for the glory of God?

Possible Ways to Live the UN-Balanced Christian Life

Here is a list of possible areas that you can pour yourself into wholeheartedly without expecting all other Christians to do the same: (Note: you might have more than one area. That’s fine!)

Loving your friends and neighbors (like my wife)
Taking care of children
Cooking, baking, and hospitality
Ministry to prostitutes
Loving the homeless
Serving the elderly
Conservation of nature
Caring for animals
Political activism
Studying and Teaching Scripture
Learning and researching theology
Helping others live a healthy life
Financial stewardship

This, obviously, is not a comprehensive list. But as you let God make you more like the “you” that you were meant to be, He will show you your particular “insanity,” the are of special madness that nobody else can replicate because it belongs to you alone.

Does God want us to live a balanced life? I am not so sure. God made each of us insanely unique, so maybe He want us to reveal in our insanity.

Do you know what your madness is? Have you embraced it? Share in the comments below!

[#05] Genesis 1:5 – The First Day of Creation

By Jeremy Myers

11 Comments

Do you think the world was created over millions and billions of years? Or do you think that everything that exists was created in six 24-hour periods?

In this episode of the One Verse podcast, we will look at Genesis 1:5, I will share my view.

And just as a fair warning, if you hold strongly to one view or the other, you will probably be somewhat offended by what I say.

The text of Genesis 1:5

Genesis 1:5. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

In this discussion of Genesis 1:5 we look at:

Why Moses borrowed from Pagan Creation Myths to tell the story of Creation
The truth about why and how God redeems the darkness
The theological importance of “naming”
Whether the days of creation were 24-hour days or not.

Resources:

Logos Bible Software
Free Book of the Month at Logos
Sailhamer on Genesis – Buy it on Amazon or at CBD
Victor Hamilton on Genesis – Buy it on Amazon or at CBD
Gordon Wenham on Genesis – Buy it on Amazon or at CBD
Read The Enuma Elish for yourself
Compare Creation Accounts from other religions
My New Categories for Theology
Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

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In Matthew 16, Jesus asks His disciples who they thought He was. It was Peter who answered that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt 16:16). As a result, Jesus said this:

I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church (Matt 16:18).

Of course, in the very next paragraph, Jesus was calling Peter “Satan” and telling Peter that he knew nothing about why Jesus had come or what He was doing (Matt 16:23).

I think that this little exchange in Matthew 16 perfectly describes the history of the church.

The church is like Peter. We know who Jesus is, but we haven’t a clue about why He’s come.

We think Jesus has come to rule the world. To dominate. To control. To manage people’s sin. To stop people from disobeying God. To set those of us who follow Him up as rulers over others.

And when we begin to talk and act like this, we ignore Jesus telling us that although we know who He is, we are listening to Satan regarding what Jesus wants to do in this world.

But I am hopeful.

I am seeing great changes in the church today.

We are beginning to awaken to the reality of why Jesus came and what Jesus stood for.

We are beginning to see what Peter eventually saw.

In a way, Peter’s life is a prophetic summary of the history of the church.

The Calling of Peter

The calling of Peter to be a follower of Jesus is similar to the birth of the church in Acts 2. The church is born and sets out with gusto and bravery to follow Jesus wherever He leads.

In these early years, the church sometimes says and does some dumb things, but we don’t let this stop us from loving Jesus. While we might stick our foot in our mouth, we keep our feet on the path of following Jesus.

The Confession of Peter

Peter is the one who first publicly stated that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.

This seems parallel to the early creeds and confessions that were developed by the church. As the church grew and expanded, they wrestled with the question about who Jesus truly was. They debated about whether Jesus was fully God and fully man.

Eventually, we ended up with the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Chalcedonian Creed all set down what the church believed about the identity and nature of Jesus Christ.

The Craving of Peter

Almost immediately after Peter makes his confession in Matthew 16 about the identity of Jesus, Peter reveals that he doesn’t have a clue about why Jesus came to be the Messiah. He thinks Jesus came to rule and reign over the entire world with strength, power, glory, riches, and might. Peter wasn’t alone in this, of course. This is what every Jewish person expected of the Messiah. Peter craved power, and he saw Jesus as the ticket to the power.

And so it is interesting that almost at the exact same time the church was debating about the identity and nature of Jesus Christ, they were also consolidating their power in the world.

After the conversion of Constantine, the church leaders saw that using the power of the Roman Empire and the threat of the sword would help them gain glory, riches, honor, prestige, land, and wealth. To their credit (like Peter), they believed that such things would help them spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But it didn’t. And it hasn’t. Such things only hindered the gospel. This was especially true when the church started using violence to advance their cause.

The Violent Cause of Peter

Peter is the one who struck out violently to defend Jesus when He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He took off the ear of Malchus, the servant to the High Priest. I believe Peter was actually trying to take off his head…

Why did Peter do this? Because he wanted to protect Jesus. He wanted to defend the honor of Jesus. He was also looking out for his own cause, that he had invested three years of his life into. That he had abandoned his lucrative fishing business for. He had forsaken all to follow Jesus, and if Jesus got arrested and condemned, all the work and sacrifice would be for nothing.

It has been the same with the church. We work. We labor. We invest. We serve. We tithe. We build. We follow. We sacrifice.

And we want it to pay off.

And we are willing to exhort to violence if necessary.

It is a clear fact that most of the violence carried out in Europe and the Middle East from about 400 AD to 1900 AD was violence done in the name of Jesus. It was violence to “defend Jesus” and they carry the gospel to the heathens. Like Peter swinging his sword at Malchus, we swung the sword at heathens in the North, and Muslims in the East, and Jews in Jerusalem.

Frequently, we also swung the sword at each other, because “they” did not follow Jesus or believe the same thing about Jesus as “we.”

The Cursing of Peter

When Jesus was finally arrested and brought to trial, Peter followed Him. But when challenged and questioned about whether he was a follower of Jesus, Peter ended up denying Jesus and cursing Him.

This is exactly what the church has done as we have carried the Gospel and spread the name of Jesus with violent and greedy methods. In seeking to spread the name of Jesus with the use of money, power, domination, control, manipulation, and the sword, we have only ended up cursing and denying Jesus, and have led many other people to do the same.

Today, when most people reject Jesus, they are not rejecting Him as He truly is, but are instead rejecting and denying the Jesus which the church has presented to them. The Jesus who builds monstrous buildings on the backs of the poor. The Jesus who looks out for the rich and the powerful. The Jesus who kills others in the name of power. The Jesus who doesn’t forgive. The Jesus of rules, regulations, and rituals.

When we present Jesus this way to the world, we are saying, with Peter, “No, I never knew Him.”

The Contrition of Peter

After the cock crowed, Peter realized what he had done, and went into mourning. I believe that while Jesus died on the cross, and was buried in a tomb, and stayed in the grave for three days, Peter was repenting and wailing and crying about what he had done.

The church is beginning to do this over the past ten to twenty years.

We have begun to awaken to the fact of how we were complicit in much of the violence of this world. How we have contributed to the abuse of the poor, the neglect of children and women, the trampling of nature, and the overall condition of the world today.

I believe that many churches in the West have not yet come to his realization, but I see signs every day that more and more people are doing so.

The Conversion of Peter

Acts 2 reveals a completely different Peter. He has awakened to a new reality, and a new understanding of Jesus. He not only understands who Jesus is, but He now understands why Jesus came: Not to rule, but to serve. Not to live, but to die. Not to be powerful, but to be powerless.

For Peter, Jesus turned the world upside down, and once Peter aligned Himself to Jesus, he began, for the first time, to see the world right side up.

And as Christians around the world awaken to the reality of how we have maligned the gospel and blasphemed the name of Jesus by using Him to defend our violent causes, we too are beginning to see our place in the world. We are beginning to see that we are here, not to rule, but to serve. Not to live, but to die. Not to be powerful, but powerless.

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[#05] Genesis 1:5 – The First Day of Creation

The text of Genesis 1:5

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The One Verse Podcast

The Unbalanced Life

Don’t Live the Balanced Life

It’s the same with the church.

What is your particular insanity?

Possible Ways to Live the UN-Balanced Christian Life

The text of Genesis 1:5

In this discussion of Genesis 1:5 we look at:

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The Unseen Realm

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The Calling of Peter

The Confession of Peter

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The Violent Cause of Peter

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