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There are about 10 million tithing Christians in America who give an estimated $50,000,000,000 annually to their churches and other charitable causes. That’s $50 billion!

Arthur Sido at The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia alerted me to this study, which was originally reported on Christianity Today, and he asks how churches spend this money. He says this:

This gets back to the broader of issue of our love and indeed worship of money in the church, an idolatry that is a near perfect reflection of the broader American cultural obsession with money. I absolutely affirm that we have a serious problem with how money and the church relate but I don’t think it is the same problem we hear about so often. We don’t so much have a giving problem in the church, what we really have is a spending problem. Where is our spending as the church focused? Is it outward or inward and which is more Biblical?

The New Testament church was outward focusing in….

Caring for the needy, such as widows among the church.

Concerned for the welfare of Christians in other locations that were suffering.

Supporting the evangelistic work of apostles/missionaries/evangelists who were traveling and preaching the Gospel.

The New Testament church was not concerned with…

Mortgages, interest payments, building projects, utilities.

Salaries for religious employees.

Material and curriculum for Sunday school.

Supporting the hierarchy of religious organizations like denominations and seminaries.

That is right on target! (Go read the rest of the article here: Are We Outward Focused or Inward Focused? Follow The Checkbook To Find Out)

Tithing and Money

I have written similar ideas before about how the church spends money it receives from tithing, and what could be done with this money instead (e.g., How the Church Can Solve the World Water Crisis, Liquidating our Property, and Money, Missions, and Ministry.

What if the churches around the country took JUST ONE TENTH of the tithing money they bring in in tithes every year, and put it toward rescuing young girls caught in human trafficking? If we tithed on our tithing income, we could give $5 billion every single year to some cause. What sorts of causes?

Though there are thousand things we could do with this tithing money, just take one example that has been heavy on my heart in recent years… rescuing girls from human trafficking.

A rescue center was recently started in Seattle called “The Genesis Project.” (It is featured in the movie, Rape for Profit.) As far as I can tell from their financial statements, they started the project and funded it for well under $1 million (2011 Tax Return, 2012 Balance Sheet). To date, they have rescued 87 human trafficking victims.

So imagine with me…. if churches around the country decided to use just 10% of the money they bring in to help start and run other centers like The Genesis Project, we could start 5000 of these centers…. in just one year!

There are only about 600 cities with populations of over 50,000 people, which means we could put one center in every single city with a population of over 50,000, and still have 4,400 centers that could be started in cities with larger populations.

This is just one example. Obviously, there are large number of worldwide needs that could be addressed. World hunger. Water needs. Health and humanitarian disasters. Schools. Orphanages.

Churches often look at these worldwide problems and say, “It’s too large!” But then we go spend billions of dollars on buildings, parking lots, and soundboards.

I am convinced that most of the world’s problems could be solved if we in the church just spent our tithing money in different ways.

Imagine what the church could do with $50 billion if we decided that nicer buildings, better parking lots, and newer soundboard were not a priority? If Jesus had $50 billion every year, how would He spend it?

The Flood According to Jesus (Matthew 24)

By Jeremy Myers

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In Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus provides insight into the causes and events of the flood.

Matthew 24:36-44 is not about the Rapture

This is a popular proof text for teaching on the rapture of the church. Note, however, that if this passage is about the rapture of the church, the previous context indicates that it is “after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29) that Jesus “will gather together His elect” (Matthew 24:31). So this would seem to argue against the “pre-Tribulation” view of the rapture.

Furthermore, in the specific context of Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus equates those who are “taken” in this future event with the people who were taken away by the waters of the flood (Matthew 24:39). If this passage is truly about the rapture of the church, it seems strange for Jesus to equate the rescue of the church with the destruction of the people at the time of the flood.

So it seems more likely that Jesus is not describing the rapture at all, but some other future event. What future event?

Matthew 24:36-44 and Revelation 19–20.

The imagery Jesus uses in Matthew 24:36-44 fits best with similar imagery used by the Apostle John in Revelation 19–20. In these chapters, John describes a Satanically-inspired rebellion which results in fire destroying those who side with Satan (Rev 20:9). Both Jesus and John describe the Son of Man coming from heaven on the clouds to conquer (Matthew 24:30; Rev 19:11-16), carrion birds gathering to feast on the carcasses (Matt 24:28; Rev 19:17-18), and the passing away of heaven and earth (Matthew 24:35; Rev 21:1).

We will look at much of this imagery in a later post when we consider the violence in the book of Revelation, but the imagery is only brought up here to show that when Jesus talks about the flood in Matthew 24, He likens it to a similar form of world-wide judgment that falls upon the earth at the end of days.

The Attitude of People at the time of the Flood

Why does this second judgment come? Curiously, here in Matthew 24, Jesus does not mention any sort of sinfulness. Jesus says that at the time of the flood, “they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (Matthew 24:38).

There is nothing wrong with these things, as Jesus Himself ate and drank during His ministry. At one point, He was even accused of being a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:19). And while He did not get married, He attended weddings (cf. John 2:1-12) and did not forbid His followers from getting married.

So Jesus is not describing sin in Matthew 24:38, but is rather revealing an attitude or behavior that characterized the people at the time of the flood and which will also characterize the people He is describing in Matthew 24:36-44.

What is this attitude? What is the failure? It is living life as if nothing else matters beyond this life. It is when people fill their lives with some of the blessings of life—such as eating, drinking, and marrying—so that they ignore the signs of the times in which they live and the testimony from God about what is coming unless they all heeded the warnings and followed the ways of God (Matthew 24:32-33).

At the time of the flood, Noah served as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5) who proclaimed and warned the people of the flood that was coming. But they were too busy with eating, drinking, and getting married to pay any attention or to make any changes in their lives. As a result, they were caught unprepared when the flood waters came and took them all away. So shall it be at the end of days when the Son of Man comes.

The Flood of Fire

In Matthew 24, Jesus does not describe exactly how the people will be taken away, but the parallel passage in Revelation 20:9 indicates that fire will come down from God out of heaven (cf. also 2 Pet 3:7).

Here again, however, we must be careful not to read something into the text that is not there. The imagery of “fire” in the Bible is widely misunderstood by most Christians.

It is commonly thought that whenever the Bible mentions “fire” it refers to the “hellfire” or the fire of wrath and judgment. Yet how can it be that the God revealed in Jesus Christ, who refused to rain down fire on the Samaritans and condemned such an idea when it was suggested (cf. Luke 9:54-56), would then turn around and rain down fire on those who reject Him at His second coming? It seems highly unlikely.

I will suggest another way of reading Revelation in a later post which allows Revelation to highlight and emphasize the love and grace of Jesus Christ, rather than portraying Him as a vengeful deity who comes to earth to bathe in the blood of His enemies, but suffice it to say for now that the fire which comes down out of heaven in Revelation 20:9 is related to the image of the flames of fire that burn within the eyes of Jesus (Rev 19:12), and the sharp sword which comes out of His mouth with which He strikes the nations (Rev 19:15; cf. Rev 1:14, 16).

The sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus and His eyes of flame are not instruments of death. God is not in the business of incinerating His foes.

Instead, the sword that proceeds from the mouth of Jesus most naturally represents the Word of God, by which He creates, restores, and redeems the world. The eyes of flame represent the glory and purity of God, whose eyes burn with love and passion for all people. Though the Lord is a consuming fire, it is not that He burns with rage toward sinners, but that, as discussed above, the all-consuming love and holiness of God burns away anything that draws near which is not filled with the righteousness of God.

Scripture is clear that the fire which brings healing and restoration to the righteous people of God is the same fire that brings destruction and devastation to those who have set their ways against God (cf. Isa 33:10-16; Mal 3:2-3; 4:1-2; 1 Cor 3:12-15).

The fire of God is like the fire of the sun. Just as all the oceans of the world would do no more to quench the fires of the sun any more than would a single drop of water, so also, all the sins of all the people of all the world can do no more to quench the inferno of God’s holiness than would a single unkind thought from one person. Sin cannot taint God, for all sin is incinerated by the fire of God’s love, holiness, righteousness, and glory.

When God comes to finally and ultimately bring healing and restoration to the earth, everything that is in opposition to God is consumed by His purifying fire. The refining fire brings out the gold, jewels, and precious stones so that the wood, hay, and stubble are no more. What this means for the people who are in stubborn rebellion against God will be considered in later posts as well when we look at the topic of hell.

Jesus Brings Redemption and Renewal

The point here is that when Jesus returns to set right all wrongs, to heal all hurts, and to restore all that is crooked, He comes with healing, love, and righteousness, calling all people to Himself to be redeemed and renewed.

This call for deliverance is exactly what God did for the people who lived in the days of Noah. But they would not heed the warnings, and when the flood came they were carried away by the waters.

So also, when the Son of Man comes, if people will not heed the warnings, rather than being rescued by God’s purifying fire, they too will be carried away.

In Matthew 24, Jesus is not saying that when He comes again, He will be coming to obliterate and incinerate people. Just as God wanted to rescue as many as possible from the waters of the flood, so also, God wants to rescue as many as possible from the fire that will come upon the earth.

This is one reason He is delaying His coming and why He asks preachers of righteousness like Noah to go out and spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all who will hear and believe.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!

How to Be the Church In Your Community

By Jeremy Myers

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It is popular today for people to say, “Don’t go to church; BE the church.” Everybody nods their heads at this, but few actually know what it means or how to truly “be the church.” With this post, Sam Riviera is starting a series of posts on how to be the church in your community. If you have ever wondered how to be the church in your community, you don’t want to miss a post. I will try to put one up each Monday for the next several weeks.

When most people in our culture think of church, what comes to mind?

Most people think of church as a location with buildings and property, or as an organization. When asked about our relationship with “church”, people usually ask us “Where do you go to church?”, “What church do you belong to?” or “Where is your church”?

While that understanding of church is common, my wife and I think of church as “those people who follow Jesus.” For some, that may include properties, buildings, programs, staff, and all the other accouterments that go with the organizational, institutional understanding of church. For some of us, it does not.

While we find it important to gather with other believers to share the common hope we have in Jesus, we do not limit that to the organizational, institutional scenario. We try to “be the church” in the community – every single day.

What Does It Look Like To “Be The Church In The Community”?

As we proceed through this series, I will give various examples of what this looks like for us and encourage you to share examples of what this looks like for you in your community. None of these examples are intended to be a model for you to follow. Instead, they are only instances that will not only help us to dream of what it looks like to be the church in our communities, but also help us to live out our calling to follow Jesus in our communities.

A Day in the Life of Being the Church

What does a typical day of “being the church in the community” look like for us? I doubt that there is such a thing for us as a typical day, but I will describe what it looked like for us today.

After spending the morning on jury duty, I came home and changed to go running. First, however, I watered plants and pulled weeds for a neighbor who is out of town. Then I talked with another neighbor whose wife recently left him. I invited him to our upcoming block party.

After running, I talked to another neighbor about some details for the upcoming block party that she is helping us organize, then greeted another neighbor, a widow who told me her phones had not worked for two days and she could not call anyone because she had also lost her cell phone. A couple of hours later, we had determined that there was a problem with her phone system, and had found her cell phone so she could report the problem with her landline to her landline provider.

After my wife came home from work we walked through our neighborhood before leaving for our evening class. We greeted several neighbors, then drove to class. After class, we discovered a backpack in the parking lot next to our car. We opened it (No, it didn’t explode) and found a driver’s license, credit card and other personal items for a person vacationing from out of the area. With the help of a friend who has a smart phone app that found a phone number for the address on the driver’s license, we reached the owner of the backpack and arranged for her to pick up her backpack.

It Takes Nothing Big to Be the Church.

As you can see, nothing about our day would be material for a book or a mini series. It would never be the sermon illustration for a mega-church sermon. Yet we see days like this as a somewhat typical day of being the church in the community.

To be the church, all we do is keep our eyes and ears open to the people around us, and try to show them love in whatever way we can.

In future posts we will look at various other ways we have sought to be the church in the community, will give examples of other people we know who are being the church in their communities, and will encourage you to give examples from your experience.

Be the Church in Your Community

Want to be the church in your community but don't know? Here are some posts which not only explain what it means to be the church in your community, but also gives concrete, practical examples of what it looks like and how to be the church whatever you do and wherever you go. Remember, you ARE the church, and wherever you go, Jesus goes with you!

If you have questions about how to be the church in your community, please let us know in the comment sections below, and we will try to write a post which answers your question.

Rape for Profit

By Jeremy Myers

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Did you know that men all over our country are paying money to rape young girls?

Worse yet, if these men get caught, they won’t go away to prison. They might get a slap on the wrist and spend a night in jail. The young girl will probably get arrested as well.

You haven’t heard about this? It sounds bizarre?

That’s because you know about it under a different name: prostitution. Or as we like to call it here in the United States: “Hiring an escort.” Essentially, prostitution is rape for profit.

Most people seem to think that prostitution is not so bad because the girls are willing. But the tragic truth is that the vast majority of them are not willing.

These young girls are out on the streets because they are in bondage and in chains. They are there against their will. They are being coerced, forced, and threatened. Sometimes, a guy they thought was their boyfriend got them hooked on drugs so that they have to go “turn tricks” for him just to get more drugs.

No matter what, prostitution is a form of rape. But since people are selling these girls, it is rape for profit. It is allowing other men to rape girls in exchange for money.

Some people seem to think the girls want to do these things, but no girl wants to be a prostitute. (See some others posts on the topic of human trafficking here.)

My wife and I have been trying to champion the needs of these poor girls for several years now, and have been trying to raise awareness of their plight in our own small ways, but we watched a documentary last week week which reiterated our need to stand up and raise the call once again.

Rape for Profit

The movie is called Rape for Profit Here is a preview:

If you are unaware about this dire issue in our own country (and around the world), I strongly recommend you watch this movie. You can watch it on iTunes here: Rape for Profit.

The stories you hear and the things you hear in this documentary will break your heart for these poor young girls who are caught into the darkest and most evil web on earth. They truly are trapped in hell.

I strongly encourage you to watch the movie.

Also, think about getting involved with some of the organizations and ministries around the country that are seeking to help rescue these young girls and show them how precious and valuable they truly are. Two groups we support are Children’s Hope Chest in Colorado Springs, and The International Justice Mission in Washington D.C. I see that Jamie (the very worst missionary) recommends a few resources as well.

And hey! As I was just visiting the website of the International Justice Mission to get the link above, I noticed that if you donate to them in the month of September (ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT), your donation gets doubled!

How aware are you of this great problem in our country (and around the world)? How did you hear about it, and what do you think can be done about it? Let us know in the comment section.

To learn more about Human Trafficking and sex slavery, check out some of these posts:

Human Trafficking Posts

The Flood According to Isaiah 54:7-9

By Jeremy Myers

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One Old Testament passages which sheds light on what happened at the flood is Isaiah 54:7-9. Though not much is said in this text to explain the cause or reasons for the flood, the text does reveal God’s activity during the flood.

Lots of people believe that God was the one who sent the flood to kill all the people on earth, but Isaiah 54 suggests otherwise.

Isaiah 54 and the Flood

In Isaiah 54, Israel is feeling as if they have been abandoned and scorned by God. God likens them to a woman who has borne no children, and is facing the shame and disgrace of being barren (Isaiah 54:1, 4).

God tells them to sing for joy, to forget their shame, and to remember their reproach no more (Isaiah 54:4). Why? Because God Himself is Israel’s husband (Isaiah 54:5). And since He is God the whole world, He will give more children to Israel than she ever could have had in any other way (Isaiah 54:1-3).

God does admit that his wrath came upon Israel for a while, and that for a mere moment He turned away from Israel (Isaiah 54:6-7). But God then promises that with great mercy and everlasting kindness, He will gather them, protect them, provide for them, love them, and take care of them (Isaiah 54:7-8, 11-15).

God’s wrath is not God’s anger at sin, but is rather the natural consequence of using God’s good gifts in a wrong way. God gave us the ability to love and make free choices, but when we abuse love, and use our freedom to make bad choices, we experience the natural consequences of these decisions. Future posts on the wrath of God explains this concept in more detail and looks at several key biblical texts.

Why the Flood Came Upon the Earth (Isaiah 54:16)

For now, notice something quite surprising in this text. In Isaiah 54:16, God explains why the flood came upon the earth. Using the imagery of “the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire” God says, “I have created the spoiler to destroy” (Isaiah 54:16).

The Hebrew word translated as “spoiler” is the Hiphil participle from shachat. It could also be translated as “the destroyer” (cf. NAS, NIV, NET). More interestingly still, the Hiphil participle of shachat is also used in Genesis 6:13 and 17 in reference to the destruction that came upon the earth. By using such imagery, God explains why the flood came upon the earth: it came because the destroyer destroys. This is the fourth principle of the Chaos Theory.

But what does it mean when the text say that God created the destroyer to destroy? Is not the destroyer opposed to all that is good and Godly? Yes! God is not a destroyer, but a Creator. Nor does God “send” the destroyer to destroy. The destroyer destroys because he is a destroyer. And since everything that exists has it origin in God, it can be said that God created the destroyer. This idea is troubling to some, but note carefully how God explains this.

How the Destroyer Came to Be

Before God mentions that He created the destroyer, God says that He created the blacksmith (Isaiah 54:16a). The blacksmith blows on the coals and brings forth the instruments for his work. Though God created the blacksmith, it is the blacksmith who does his work and brings forth the tools and instruments from his forge.

While many tools that come off a blacksmith forge are used for good purposes, some blacksmiths create tools and instruments that can be used for evil. Sometimes, an instrument or tool which the blacksmith created for good could be used to cause great harm to others. Take a knife, for instance. If a blacksmith makes a knife to cut vegetables, but someone else uses it to kill humans, it is not the knife’s fault, the blacksmith’s fault for making the knife, or even God’s fault for making the blacksmith.

This is how to understand the statement by God in Isaiah 54:16b that He created the destroyer. It is not that God was out for bloody revenge, or because God wanted someone else to do His dirty work for Him. The destroyer is not God’s super-secret hit man who does what needs to be done so God can keep His hands clean.

No, Scripture is clear. When God creates, He only creates good things for good purposes. There is no evil intent in the heart of God. The destroyer was not created to be evil, or to do bad things. In fact, it might be best to realize that the destroyer was never created at all as “the destroyer.” Just as God did not create humanity sinful, but we became sinful through our rebellion, so also the destroyer became destructive, also as a result of rebellion.

Death, decay, and destruction are the natural consequence of disobeying God and going against His will. The only way that God can be said to have created the destroyer is by saying that He created a being with genuine free will, and in so doing, restricted Himself from intervening when that free being chose to depart from God’s perfect will.

God did not make or create death and destruction, but did allow for their possibility when He created life and gave freedom to His creation.

It is the same with human beings. When God created humanity with the freedom to go against His will, this freedom necessitated the possibility that history would go bad if we went against His will, which is exactly what happened in Genesis 3, and the negative consequences of this decision are felt in Genesis 4 when Cain murders his brother, in Genesis 5, where the phrase “and he died” is repeated over and over and over, and then in Genesis 6 when people become so evil that the destruction of all mankind becomes inevitable and God steps in to save and rescue Noah and his family.

This brings us back to what God says about the flood in Isaiah 54. Just as when Israel became evil and departed from God, He sought to gather them to Himself and show mercy to them (Isaiah 54:7-8), so also this is what God says He did in the flood. The flood came upon the earth, but God worked to rescue people from it, and when it was over, He promised that such a thing would never happened again (Isaiah 54:9).

In the end, Isaiah 54 shows us once again that behind the terrible death and destruction of the flood, there is a beautiful theme of God’s love, grace, and mercy as He seeks to rescue and deliver people from the storms of life. God promises that even if the mountains crumble and the hills disappear, God will lever depart, and His covenant of peace will never be removed (Isaiah 54:10).

God Does Not Forsake His People

Isaiah 54:9-10 is similar to what God said elsewhere: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). Though Israel may leave and reject God, God will not leave or reject them. In fact, though it appears from various events in her history that He has abandoned them, it is they who abandoned Him, and though He walked with them, calling them back, pleading with them to return to His righteous ways, they walked straight into the maws of destruction.

In those catastrophic events brought upon them by the destroyer when they left the protective hand of God, it seemed to them that God was angry with them, that God had left them. But quite to the contrary, God was there all along, suffering alongside them, helping them bear up under the crushing burden of pain and loss, and waiting with them until the heavy cost of justice had been poured out by the destroyer. Then God led them forth, back into righteousness and life, restoring unto them light, liberty, freedom, and joy.

The promise of God in Isaiah 54 is that even if Israel abandons Him, He will not abandon her. Even if destruction comes, He will try to rescue as many people as He can from this destruction, and bring them back from it as quickly as possible, just as He did in the days of Noah. According to what God says in Isaiah 54 about the flood, He did not bring the waters of destruction; the destroyer brought them. Instead of bringing death and destruction upon the world in the flood, God was involved in three other activities.

God Rescues, Redeems, and Delivers

The first thing God did in the flood was call people back to Himself so that they might be delivered. He did this through the preaching of Noah.

The second thing God did was that when the flood waters came upon the earth, He sought to rescue, redeem, and deliver as many people from the flood as He would come. In the end, only eight were saved.

Finally, when the destruction was over, He sought to bring light, hope, healing, and restoration back to the earth as quickly as possible. He did this by sending the wind to push back the waters, and then by blessing Noah and his family in their efforts to be fruitful and multiply upon the face of the earth.

What then does God say about the flood through the prophet Isaiah? That although He created the mechanism by which the flood came (Isaiah 54:16b), His commitment before, during, and after the flood was to never depart from His children, even though they may try to depart from Him (Isaiah 54:8-10).

When the text says that God had forsaken his people, and hid His face from them (Isaiah 54:7-8), this does not mean that He had abandoned them, but that the people had strayed so far from God that when destruction came at the hand of the destroyer and as a consequence for their sin, it seemed to the people that God was absent, that He was punishing them, or that He was no longer involved in their lives.

If there is one thing we learn from Isaiah 54 about the flood, it is that although it appears as if God sent the flood as punishment, it actually came as a result of humanities departure from the protective hand of God, and because the destroyer had set out to bring destruction upon the people of the earth as the just consequence for their great sin.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

The Flood According to Job 22:15-18

By Jeremy Myers

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I am finally returning to my series on the violence of God in Scripture. We left off in the middle of a discussion about the violence of the flood. This post is going to look at the account of the flood in Job 22:15-18. If you need a refresher on some of what we have looked at previously regarding the flood and the violence of God in Scripture, feel free to brows through some of the articles listed at the bottom of this post.

There are biblical passages outside of Genesis 6–8 that refer to the flood. One of the earliest of these is Job 22:15-18. In fact, since many scholars believe that the events described in the book of Job occurred long before the author of Genesis was alive [1], what the book of Job records about the flood may well be the earliest description of what happened in that cataclysmic event. [2]

Nevertheless, some may take exception with Job 22:15-18 as saying much of anything reliable about the flood. Why? Because Job is not the speaker in Job 22:15-18. Instead, Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, is speaking.

However, even though Eliphaz is the one speaking, this does not mean we should automatically discredit everything he says. We will consider the book of Job in more detail later in posts and see that Job is in basic agreement with most of what his friend Eliphaz says. So although Eliphaz was wrong about the reasons for Job’s suffering, this does not mean he was wrong about everything he said. Most of what Eliphaz and Job’s other friends said is true in other circumstances; their fault was that what they were saying was not true in Job’s situation.

Job 22:15-18 and the Flood

So notice what it is that Eliphaz says about the flood in Job 22:15-18:

Will you keep to the old path that the wicked have trod?
They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood.
They said to God, “Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?”
Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things… (Job 22:15-18a, NIV) [3]

According to Eliphaz, God’s role in the flood was to give good things to the people who lived prior to the flood (Job 22:18a), but in response, all they wanted was for God to leave them alone. They told God to depart from them!

How they told God to leave them alone is not made clear in Job 22. Maybe it was simply through their persistence in committing great evil. Maybe they said this in response to the preaching of Noah (2 Pet 2:5). Regardless of how it happened, the explanation of Eliphaz for why the flood came upon the earth is that sinful humanity pushed God away.

Eliphaz is stating the sixth principle of the Chaos Theory: that God departs from us when we depart from His protective hand. God never actually departs from us, but He has given to mankind such a high degree of autonomy and freedom, that if we choose to continue down a path of death and destruction, He will let us go, even though it pains Him greatly, and even though He does everything possible to warn us about where such paths lead.

What we see in this earliest explanation of the flood account, is that God did nothing but woo people to Himself by filling their houses with good things (Job 22:18a).

But the people thought they knew better than God, and wanted to live their own way, despite the fact that He poured out His love and care upon them, and even sent righteous Noah to warn them about the flood that was coming. Yet they did not listen, and told God to just leave them alone.

So when the destruction of the flood waters came upon the earth, God had no choice but to do what they had requested, and leave the people alone. When “alienation becomes incurable, God does, in fact, depart.” [4]

[1] Evidence for an early date of the events of Job is seen in several ways. First, Job raised two complete families and died 140 years after his testing (Job 42:16). The LXX says that he died at age 248. This puts him in the age range of Peleg (Gen 10:25), who some think might have been Job’s uncle (if Job is the Jobab of Gen 10:29). Second, Job’s wealth is listed as measured in livestock and possessions, not money, which is further evidence for an extremely early date of the events in Job. Finally, the events recorded in Job were probably events he was familiar with. This includes the post-Flood ice age (38:29-30), cave men (24:4-10; 30:1-8), and the violent aftermath of the Flood which includes earthquakes, volcanoes, windstorms, and the raiding parties which decimated his first family.

[2] Though the events of the book of Job may have occurred before Moses lived, they were probably not written down in their present form until after Moses lived, and obviously, some of the events described in Genesis occurred long before Job lived. Confused yet? The order of events is something along these lines: (1) Creation. (2) The Flood. (3) Job Lived. (4) The story of Job was passed down orally. (5) Moses lived. (6) Moses composed the Pentateuch (No, I do not hold to the JEDP documentary hypothesis), which includes Genesis 6–8. (7) The story of Job was recorded in written form, probably during the reign of King Solomon.

[3] Not surprisingly, there are a few translation problems with Job 22:17-18. The two main issues are where the quotation ends and whether the last words of Job 22:17 should read “to us” or “to them.” See the various translations for how different scholars handle this text. In my opinion, the two issues are connected. If one goes with the textual variant which ends Job 22:17 with the words “to us” (as with the NIV above) then the quote of the people who lived at the time of the flood concludes at the end of Job 22:17. But if one goes with the textual variant which ends Job 22: 17 with the words “to them,” then the quote mark should end half way through Job 22:17 where the people before the flood tell God to “Depart from us” or “Leave us alone.” The last half of Job 22:17 would then be Eliphaz’s aside about what they said. If they tell God to leave them alone, what can the Almighty do? Regardless of how one translates the text, these issues do not affect in any way the main point I am arguing here, that the people at the time of the flood told God to depart from them, to leave them alone. All translations agree on this point.

[4] Campbell, Light through the Darkness, 99.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

How to Make friends by Hosting a New Year’s Eve Party

By Sam Riviera

Lemon Meringue Pie and Wasabi Peanuts

Last year’s New Years Eve party was literally a last-minute effort thrown together that day and the day before. One of our neighbors was dying. She was very discouraged. We knew she wouldn’t be here for another New Year’s Eve. When she agreed to drop by for a few minutes, we quickly invited other neighbors to join us. But what to cook? We settled on take-and-bake pizzas from Costco, complemented by other prepared foods. Our guests loved it!

This year’s menu was somewhat expanded, but take-and-bake pizza was still the centerpiece. Almost everyone, on their own, brought along pie, cookies, wine, breads, cheeses and so on. The big hit: lemon meringue pie. The big dud: my personal stash of Wasabi peanuts. Although clearly labeled, some people ignored the label (they thought they were getting green Jordan almonds maybe?) and took some anyway. Consequently, all but one person (a true Wasabi fan) happily put their Wasabi peanuts on my plate when they figured out what Wasabi peanuts are.

Eating and Talking

We have no agenda for our neighborhood parties. We set them up and let them happen. Once neighbors get together, they love to eat and talk. Unless the food is bad or there is not enough food, they don’t remember a few weeks later what they ate. However, they do remember who they talked to and what they talked about. We hear people comparing previous places they have lived and worked, what wars they fought in, what’s happening in the neighborhood and various other topics. For the most part, they’re just getting to know each other better.

Moving to Hawaii?

Here are some of the comments people give us in between parties:

”When you have another one of those neighborhood parties, we’d like to be invited.”

“We missed the block party, but plan to come next year.”

“We got to know some of our neighbors better. Even though we’ve lived on the same street for over thirty years, we really didn’t know each other very well.”

“Great party, just a great party!” “Don’t move away! Who’d organize our parties? We love them!”

Most people love getting to know their neighbors. We do! Though we had planned to move to a warmer climate when we retired, we recently decided to stay right where we are. Why? We have lots of really great neighbors!

We care about our neighbors and they care about us and each other. We’re choosing that instead of Hawaii or Florida. If you’re wondering about the spiritual significance of all of this, I will close out this series with a post on that very topic.

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Jesus Facepalm

By Jeremy Myers

9 Comments

I saw this “Jesus facepalm” over at Greg Boyd’s blog and thought it was funny…. enjoy!

I also agree with what Greg said on his blog… Jesus doesn’t do this, but sometimes it would be understandable. The way we mess up over and over, and walk straight into sin fully knowing what we are doing…

So thank Jesus for His unconditional and infinite forgiveness today!

Best Movie I’ve Seen in a While – And only 3 Minutes Long!

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

This short Thai commercial is better than most movies I’ve watched recently, and it’s only three minutes long!

If you watch it, you won’t have time for popcorn, but you will probably need a Kleenex…

I Go Now to Prepare a Place for You?

By Jeremy Myers

30 Comments

A reader sent in this question about Jesus’ statement in John 14:2, “I go now to prepare a place for you.” Here is the question:

If Jesus is all powerful, why does he say, “I go now to prepare a place for you”?

On a related note, I remember watching old movies when the white colonialist looks down on natives who believe their God will return and thinks they’re simple; but isn’t that what we are doing when we say Jesus will return?

Also, I’ve sometimes heard people say that the reason Jesus is waiting to return is because He wants to save more people, but if that is true, why doesn’t He just wait forever?

I started to look at these questions yesterday, and gave a broad-brush answer to the questions. This post will look in more detail at the statement of Jesus in John 14:2 where He says, “I go now to prepare a place for you.”

John 14:2 in Tradition

John 14:2 is part of the Upper Room Discourse, and is usually understood to mean that Jesus is going to go back to heaven, where He will be at work to prepare mansions or dwelling places for the church, and when He is done, He will come back and take us to live with Him forever.

In fact, it is often taught (and I have taught it this way myself) that Jesus has in mind the Jewish wedding tradition where after a man and woman were betrothed to be married, the man would go off and build a home for his new bride.

The construction of this new home would take several months, or even up to a couple years, and the bride-to-be did not know exactly when the groom-to-be would be finished. Her only option was to wait and to be prepared.

When the man finished building his home, he would gather his friends and family and begin a wedding procession from his new home through town to his bride’s house. By the time they arrived, it would be a huge parade and party. The bride would go out to meet her husband, and they would return to his new house, where there would be a big Jewish wedding, full of food and festivities.

So it is often taught that when Jesus says, “I go now to prepare a place for you” this is what He had in mind. He is the Groom and the church is His Bride, and He has gone off to prepare a dwelling place for us, and we do not know how long it will take or when He will come for us, but we need to be ready and wait patiently. When he returns, He will take us to be with Him, and there will be a big party.

That is how John 14:2 is often read, interpreted, understood, and taught.

Honestly, I don’t have too much of an issue with this understanding of Jesus’ future return. I do think that Jesus will return physically in the future, and that since we do not know exactly when this will be, we need to be ready and wait patiently. Having said this, however, I do not think that this is what Jesus was referring to in John 14:2 when He said, “I go now to prepare a place for you.”

What did Jesus Mean when He said, “I go now to prepare a place for you”?

To understand what Jesus means when He says, “I go now to prepare a place for you” we must look at the context. In the first half of John 14:2, Jesus says, “In My Father’s House are many mansions.”

Mansions is not the best translation of the word used here. It might be best translated as “dwelling places.” It is not exactly referring to buildings, but to rooms within a building.

Many people hear this, and think, “What? All I’m going to get in heaven is a room? What about the mansion I was promised?” Well… the truth is that Jesus is not promising to pass out mansions. Sorry! Of course, if you were only a follower of Jesus because you wanted to get a mansion, you probably were not following Him for the right reasons.

So okay, what does Jesus mean by “dwelling places?” Well, it is critical to understand first what Jesus means by “My Father’s House.” The Jews to whom Jesus was talking would have understood Him to be talking about the temple in Jerusalem. This is also how Jesus referred to the temple on occasion, as in when He cleansed the temple in John 2:16.

Furthermore, it is important to know that there were many rooms, or “dwelling places” in the Jerusalem temple (cf. 1 Kings 6:5-6; Jeremiah 35:1-4). From this, it seems that when Jesus says, “In My Father’s House are many dwelling places… and I go now to prepare a place for you,” He is saying that He is going to prepare a place for His disciples in the temple.

But why would He do that when He has prophesied that the temple is going to be destroyed? And why would the disciples want a room in the temple precincts? Those rooms were generally reserved for priests and temple servants. The disciples were not priests, and they already had families, jobs, and homes of their own.

Here we get into the New Testament teaching about how we as believers in Christ are the new temple (1 Corinthians 6:19), and how we are the new priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).

Though it would take time for His disciples to understand all this, Jesus was not talking about preparing a place for His followers in the temple on a hill in Jerusalem. No, Jesus was talking about preparing a whole new Temple and a whole new Priesthood. The true Father’s House was about to be revealed to the world, and Jesus was going to prepare it. Jesus was going to reveal it.

How, when, and where did Jesus do that? He did it on the cross, and through His death, burial, and resurrection.

When Jesus said, “I go now to prepare a place for you,” He was not talking about going to heaven so that at some future date He would return and bring us to be with Him. No, when Jesus said, “I go now to prepare a place for you,” He was talking about making a new temple, a new priesthood, and a new way of living as God’s family.

When Jesus said, “I go now to prepare a place for you,” He was talking about going to the cross.

Again, this fits with the entire context of the Upper Room Discourse. John has been telling them that He is going to suffer and die, and that they are going to deny and betray Him (John 13). The disciples are understandably upset about this, and so Jesus begins his Upper Room Discourse with some encouraging words: He is doing this for their benefit. He goes to prepare a place for them so that they can be with Him forever.

What does this Mean for Us as the Church?

What does this mean for us as the church? Does this mean that Jesus is not going to return? Of course not! He will return.

But here is the thing. In some sense, in and through the church, Jesus has already returned! He returns in us. We are the ongoing incarnation of Jesus Christ. We are His hands and feet the world. We are the Body of Christ on earth.

Yes, Jesus is still going to return physically at some point in the future, but between His resurrection and His future second coming, the church is to live and love others like Jesus did.

The world needs Jesus, and Jesus sent the church to be Himself to the world. So what happens to the world if the church just sits around and waits for Jesus to return?

Jesus went to the cross to prepare a place for us. His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is His coming in Spirit and power into our lives, showing that the place for us has been finished. And where is our place? Not in heaven, sitting on a cloud, strumming a harp, enjoying eternal bliss. No, the place that Jesus prepared for us is right here on planet earth. This is our place. This is our home. This is our “mansion.”

Jesus, through His death, burial, and resurrection, creation a new people of God on earth to be the living temple of God, which is filled with the Spirit of God, so that all people on earth have unmediated access to God. Because of how Jesus made dwelling places for the church in the Father’s House, people no longer have to travel to a building on a hill in Jerusalem to meet with God. The temple of God is wherever the church is, because we are now the temple of God, and God’s dwelling place is with us and we with Him.

If you are a follower of Jesus, please understand that Jesus did not give us eternal life simply so we could wait around on earth until we die so we can finally be with God forever in heaven. No!

We are not waiting for Jesus to finish preparing some dwelling place in the sky so that when He is done, we can escape this sinful earth to be with Him forever. No, the dwelling place is already finished. He finished it through His death and resurrection. And since He rose from the dead, He received us to Himself so that we are in Him and He in us, and together, we go out to batter down the gates of hell, to set the captives free, and to proclaim liberty to the oppressed.

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Job 22:15-18 and the Flood

Lemon Meringue Pie and Wasabi Peanuts

Eating and Talking

Moving to Hawaii?

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

John 14:2 in Tradition

What did Jesus Mean when He said, “I go now to prepare a place for you”?

What does this Mean for Us as the Church?

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