Liberating you from bad ideas about God
Arthur Sido alerted me to the fact that Francis Chan’s books are available for free download today. Thanks, Arthur! And thanks, Francis!
I am not sure how long they will remain free, so go download your copies right away!
UPDATE: The books are no longer free… But if you subscribe to my newsletter, you can get a free ebook, and all future ebooks will be given to newsletter subscribers for free.
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A reader recently sent in this question about whether or not Christians should celebrate Jewish feasts such as Passover.
Some families in my church like to observe the Passover and other Jewish feasts. Is this okay?
(I should have been a politician…)
It all depends on whether or not your Passover Meal includes meat that has been sacrificed to idols. If you are pretty sure your Passover Meal is “idol meat” free, you still might want to read on…
My family and I do enjoy a Passover Meal (sometimes called the Seder). We have the horseradish, lettuce, salt water, unleavened bread, boiled eggs, lamb bone (though we use a chicken bone…), and wine (the kids drink grape juice).
And we do most of the activities also. We put three pieces of Matzoh in a napkin, take out the center one out, break it, hide it, and let the kids find it. We go open the door for Elijah. We tell the story of the first Passover, and we read Scripture. It is a wonderful time, and the family looks forward to it every year.
Of course, we do something else during our Passover meal that you will not find in any Jewish Passover. We not only tell the story of the first Passover, but we also tell the story of the Last Supper with Jesus, and talk about how every element in the Passover meal pictures and represents Jesus Christ and what He did for us.
The Passover meal is full of rich symbolism about Jesus, as are all the Jewish feasts.
So in this sense, I am fine with Christians celebrating Passover and the other Jewish feasts, especially if they take the time and effort to not just celebrate the feast, but to show how it reminds us of Jesus and points to what He did (or will do) for the world.
Now let’s look at the other side of the coin.
The only time I would ever counsel Christians to not celebrate the Passover is when they think they have to, and think that all other Christians must celebrate it also.
And sadly, this sort of thinking is becoming increasingly prominent in some Christian circles and churches.
There are numerous forms this argument takes, but one or more of these points are usually brought up:
When I hear these sorts of arguments for observing Passover and other Jewish feasts, alarm bells begin to sound, and a whole host of Scriptures from the New Testament begin the “Hora” (the Jewish circle dance) inside my head.
First, people who argue that we must obey the Mosaic Law do not understand what Jesus Christ accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection, do not understand the Gospel of grace, and do not understand the difference between Israel and the Church. Each of these are weighty theological subjects and explaining them would require a much longer post.
Second, people who argue that Christians must celebrate the Passover seem to forget that the Passover is a Jewish holiday. It is not a Christian holiday. I often hear Christians say, “But Jesus celebrate Passover! Therefore, we should too!” Yes, but Jesus was Jewish.
Jesus celebrated the Passover, not because the Passover is one of God’s sanctioned holidays, but because the Passover is a Jewish holiday and Jesus was Jewish.
I firmly believe that if Jesus had not been Jewish, He would not have celebrated the Jewish holidays. Instead, He would have celebrated whatever holidays were part of the culture He was in, and rather than show how He fulfilled the Jewish holidays, would have shown how He fulfilled these other cultural holidays of whatever culture He was in.
Let’s say Jewish was born in the United States sometime during the last century. Jesus would have celebrated Thanksgiving, Independence Day, President’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday, and other similar holidays. On Thanksgiving, He would have reminded us to give thanks to God for all the blessings we have been given. On July 4, Jesus would have told His disciples about the freedom we have as His followers, and the independence from sin and slavery to the devil. On President’s Day He would have spoken about how our only true Lord and Ruler is Himself, Jesus Christ. On Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, He would have reminded us about the hope and dreams He shared with Martin Luther about equality for all in the Kingdom of God.
You see how this goes? Jesus is about the redemption of all things. He shows us how He is the fulfillment of all hopes and dreams and expectations. Jesus fulfilled the Jewish holidays, yes, but He also fulfills the United States holidays, the German Holidays, the Japanese holidays, the Brazilian holidays, the Russian holidays, etc, etc. (This is some of what I wrote about, by the way, in Christmas Redemption). I could write so much about this, but will refrain for now. (See posts about Hanukkah, Pagan Holidays, Easter, Mithras)
As far as the Scriptures dancing the Hora, some of them include Acts 15:20 where the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem gave instructions for what the Gentile believers should do, and they only gave them three things, none of which included the Jewish feasts. The three things they did include were simply to maintain fellowship between Jews and Gentiles, because these three were especially abhorrent to Jews.
I think of pretty much everything Paul wrote in the book of Galatians.
I think of Colossians 2:16-17 where Paul talks about Holy days, ceremonies, and Sabbaths, and says that we must not condemn others on the basis of whether or not they practice these things, because they were simply a shadow of the reality, which is Jesus Christ. In other words, if we have the real thing, Jesus Christ, why would we want to go back to the shadow? The answer is, we wouldn’t!
I think of 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 where Paul uses the symbolism of Passover to show that the physical meal is not what is important, but the spiritual reality that is in Jesus Christ and our unity together with Him.
I think of the book of Hebrews, where the author is intent to show that Jesus Christ is far superior to anything which was offered under the Mosaic Law, and after we have Jesus, to go back to such things is sheer folly.
There are other Scriptures as well.
So if you are invited to a Passover meal by a person who thinks the meal is required for followers of Jesus, and that if you do not go, you are a sub-par Christian and are missing out on a blessing of God, I recommend you take a pass.
Otherwise, if it is a Passover meal to remember Jesus Christ, do whatever you want. There is no harm in it, but it is not required either.
Ultimately, I think it comes down to your personal conscience. If you want to observe Passover, go right ahead. If not, that’s fine too.
But whichever way you decide, make sure you do not judge and condemn those who choose differently.
In the end, Passover and the other Jewish Feasts are like an issue that many Christians in the early church struggled with: meat sacrificed to idols (Romans 14). There were two basic approaches to this issue. Some thought it was okay, and others thought it was a sin.
In writing this letter to the Corinthians, Paul pretty much seems to shrug his shoulders and say, “Do whatever you want, but whatever you do, stop judging and condemning one another about it and love each other instead.” (Rom 14:13, 19).
Oh, and by the way… along with the Passover Meal, my family also decorates and hides Easter eggs, and we give each other jelly beans, chocolate, and other small gifts. This practice certainly isn’t biblical. To the contrary, it has pagan roots. But we think that along with Passover, Jesus has also redeemed the pagan holiday of Easter, which used to be a holiday for Ishtar, a sex goddess.
Redeemed! How I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed! By the blood of the Lamb!
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Jesus wasn’t saved.
That’s right.
And I have a Bible verse to prove it.
In Matthew 27:42, some of the people who were watching Jesus die on the cross said this: “He saved others; but He can’t save Himself!”
You see? Jesus wasn’t saved. He did not save Himself.
The people in Matthew 27:42 are talking about dying on the cross. They are referring to how Jesus rescued and delivered many people from sickness and even death, and they find it ironic that although Jesus rescued others, He cannot rescue Himself from death on the cross.
And of course, we all know that Jesus could have rescued Himself, but He didn’t. Jesus did indeed die on the cross. He was not saved (from death on the cross).
But does this say anything about His eternal destiny? Of course not! (Jesus always had eternal life, for in Him is life — 1 John 5:11).
Anyone with a little bit of sense understands that in the context of Matthew 27:42, the word “save” does not mean escape from hell and entrance into heaven, or receiving eternal life. The context clearly shows that the word “save” means deliverance from death on the cross.
So in the context, when people say, “He cannot save Himself” they are saying “He cannot rescue Himself from dying on this cross.”
I have been having numerous online (and offline) conversations recently about various theological topics (baptism, unpardonable sin, women in ministry, etc.), and in these discussions, people will often quote a verse to defend their view, and these verses often includes the word “save” (cf., Matt 24:13; 1 Pet 3:21, 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5; 2 Thess 2:10; 1 Tim 2:15; James 2:14-26).
They read these verses thinking that the word “save” means “deliverance from hell, entrance into heaven, justification, or receiving eternal life,” when in reality, the context indicates otherwise. But when we think the word refers to hell, heaven, justification, or eternal life, confusion and really bad theology are the results.
When Dr. Earl Radmacher used to go speak in churches, he often would open in prayer before he began to preach with these words:
Father, as I preach today to these fine people who have gathered together today, I pray that they would get saved, and I would get saved too. Amen”
He says that he always loved to pray this with his eyes open so that he could watch the reaction of the people in the pews. They would open their eyes and glance around at each other, apparently thinking, “What? Did we just bring in a guest speaker who is unsaved? Uh oh! This church is going liberal on us!”
Then Dr. Radmacher would go on to teach them something similar to what I am teaching in this post. Dr. Radmacher’s prayer did not mean that he thought his listeners and himself did not have eternal life. No, he was praying that they (and he) might get saved from some incorrect thinking about God, or saved from some misunderstanding about Scripture. This is a completely appropriate and biblical thing to pray for!
Dr. Radmacher knew that the word “save” in Scripture usually has nothing to do with receiving eternal life. (If you haven’t already, you should read his book, Salvation.)
I believe that somewhere between 99%-100% of the uses of the word “save” in Scripture (and it’s cognates: saved, salvation, Savior, etc.), do not refer to “deliverance from hell, entrance into heaven, justification, or receiving eternal life.” Instead, some other sort of deliverance is in view (cf. Matt 8:25). See a post I wrote about the word “save” here.
From the results of my own study, I believe there are only two likely candidates for places where the word “save” refers to receiving eternal life: Acts 16:30-31 and Ephesians 2:8-9. And to be honest, I am not fully convinced about these two either (But I’m not going to explain why in this post).
So next time you are reading Scripture and come across the word “save,” stop and think about what you are reading, and then look in the context to help determine what sort of deliverance is being discussed.
Yes. It is.
And when it comes to the Gospel, semantics are vitally important.
How many of us have told people, “Jesus Saves” or asked people, “Are you saved?” Not only is such a statement or question not found anywhere in Scripture, it is hopelessly confusing to most people. People who have not been raised on Christian lingo automatically think, “Jesus Saves? Saves me from what?”
Don’t believe me? The following pictures poke fun at Christianity, but they show you that the statement “Jesus saves” is confusing.
When telling others about the offer of the Gospel and how to receive eternal life, use the terminology most often found in Scripture: Jesus gives eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it.
Thankfully, this offer is backed up by Jesus through His death and resurrection. Jesus was not saved from the cross so that we can have eternal life through faith in Him.
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I occasionally write posts in response to questions sent in by readers. Read on to find out how to submit your question.
Here is a question that a reader sent in about the image of God in humans.
You invite questions; so here we go:
Genesis 1:27-27 says this: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 5:1-3 says this: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”
Were we created in God’s or Adam’s image or how do I understand this verse?
Good job noting the repetition of the “image” theme in Genesis 1:26-27 and 5:1-3.
The author of Genesis was not intending to show a distinction between the image of God in Adam and the image of Adam’s descendants, but rather their similarity.
Just as Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, so also, all their descendants also bear the image of God.
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The Lord’s Supper was not originally the way it is practiced today. It evolved.
Here is a brief summary on how this happened.
After the church became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the church leaders had time to develop approved theology and doctrine. Among the things that were debated were the ways that the grace of God was distributed to believers. They came up with numerous ways, all of which required the involvement of the priestly class. Very frequently, the priests said special prayers or required people to say special words when undergoing these sacred rituals, so that over time, people began to think that there was actual power in these rituals, so that the way they were done did not matter as much as simply doing them.
This is how, for example, baptism by sprinkling began. It was thought that the significance of baptism was not in the symbol of going under the water and then rising back up as though from the dead, but in the power of the water itself after it had been blessed by a priest. Therefore, if the power was in the sacred water itself, the amount of water used did not matter. Why use a whole container of water when a few drops would suffice? Why require people to get into a river, when the priest could simply sprinkle a few drops of water on someone’s head? So you see, once the ritual was boiled down to the spiritual power within the ritual, the symbolic nature of the ritual disappeared, and the force was in the ritual itself, whether done in large quantities or little.
The same thing happened with the Lord’s Supper.
Originally, as will be seen in future posts, the Lord’s Supper was an actual meal. It was an actual supper. But as Catholic theology progressed, it was decided that the power of the meal was not in what happened during the meal, or in the gathering of people for the meal, or really in the food itself, but in the bread and the wine after it had been blessed by the priest. Therefore, why require people to eat a whole meal, when any amount would do, no matter how small? The significance of the bread and wine was not in the elements themselves, but in the power of the spiritual presence that came with it. So just as baptism could be done with a few drops of water, so also the Lord’s Supper could be observed with a small bit of bread and a few drops of wine.
During the Protestant Reformation, as certain church leaders began to break away from the Catholic church, some of them dropped the idea about the mystical presence of Jesus within the bread and wine, but kept the practice the same. The Lord’s Supper continued to involve a tiny bit of bread and a few drops of wine. It was in the late 19th century that churches began to switch to grape juice, and this became the standard practice during Prohibition in the early 20th century.
That is pretty much where we are today. The tradition of using a tiny bit of bread and wine (or juice) has continued to be practiced, even though it does not even come close to what was practiced by Jesus and His apostles on the night He was betrayed, and reflects instead some sort of magical ceremony where some people believe that God is giving them special grace and power through the ritual elements of bread and wine. Those who do not believe this, still put great emphasis and significance upon the ritual, because they seem to think that this is what the Scripture teaches (even though it doesn’t), and that this is the way it has always been done (even though it hasn’t).
We will begin to look at some of the key Scriptures on the Lord’s Supper tomorrow.
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