Theology for the Masses

One of the things about the Christmas narratives in Matthew and Luke that has always baffled me has been the fulfillment passages where Matthew will say that event X fulfills prophecy A. But when I read prophecy A in its OT context it doesn’t make any sense. What Matthew records as the fulfillment isn’t what is being promised by the prophet. Last Christmas I covered Matthew’s use of Hosea 11:1 (see Part 1 and Part 2). This Christmas I want to cover Matthew’s use of Jeremiah 31:15 in Matthew 2:18. continue reading…

Having surveyed the story of God in the Bible, I began to work towards a definition of the gospel. Starting in the Old Testament and moving into the New Testament, I looked at how the Gospels and Acts looked at the gospel. Then we moved into Paul and how he looked at the gospel. Having done that and really tried to expound what I mean by the gospel, I want to conclude this series with a final post that simplifies the gospel definition and speak to the response of faith and repentance to the gospel. Hopefully this series has been helpful to those who have read it because it has been helpful to me in trying to re-articulate the gospel in light of my paradigm shift away from so much of the traditional Protestant justification = forgiveness of sin = gospel. Reading the story of Jesus by Matthew, Mark, Luke-Acts, and John has really altered the way I read the New Testament as a whole. Reading the story of Jesus against the backdrop of the story of Israel has changed how I read the Bible as a whole, God’s story of creation and redemption. continue reading…

In my previous post I defined the gospel in terms of how the Gospels and Acts looked at the gospel. That is to say, they viewed the gospel as God fulfilling his promises made to Israel to establish a new creation by his Spirit, ruled by his Servant-King from the house of David, ending Israel’s exile, and drawing the Gentiles out of their pagan darkness into the light of this new Israel in this new creation. God fulfilled these promises by raising up Jesus of Nazareth, who came and took dominion over the present evil age and creation, offered up his life as an atoning sacrifice for his people’s transgression, and was resurrected as the firstfruit of the new Spirit-wrought creation and the king over that new creation.

Now how does the Apostle Paul fit into this picture? When one reads his letters one does not see a lot of talk about a kingdom. He rarely speaks about Jesus earthly life and ministry, his teachings and healings that demonstrated him to be the Spirit-indwelt Servant-King from the stump of Jesse. Paul speaks minimally about the kingdom, though it is not absent from his theology. He talks about the gospel in terms of Jesus’ person, death and resurrection and their meaning. He is combating a certain form of Judaism that requires Gentiles to convert to Judaism to be accepted into the people of God. So how does his battle’s over the meaning of justification and the gospel fit into the picture seen in the gospels? continue reading…

Having examined both the Old Testament story, that serves as the background, and the story of Jesus of Nazareth, I feel it is time to begin to define the gospel, the εὐαγγέλιον. Within this framework that I established, I observed everywhere in the New Testament where εὐαγγέλιον or εὐαγγελίζω (“I bring good news”) appears. In the Gospels and Acts, the most common theme that was attached to “gospel” is that of “kingdom.” Paul attaches it to Jesus Messiah, both in Jesus’ person and work. In the Gospels and Acts, God’s fulfillment of the promises made about a Davidic Messiah as well as Jesus’ resurrection are also tied into the use of the term “gospel.” Paul most often seems to use “gospel” as a technical term more than anything, thus it is important to see this term as encompassing both Jesus’ person and work. The following is my attempt to define the gospel as the New Testament defines it. continue reading…

Four hundred years of history transpires between the last promises made by Yahweh to his people and Yahweh’s next move. Yahweh has promised to completely reverse the current world order that his people, Israel, are living in. No longer will they live on a planet that his hostile against them. No longer will the nations rule over them. No longer will they be a nation that is a point of laughter to their neighbors. No longer will they be ruled by a king who leads them astray from blessing and into curse. No longer will they disobey their covenant, and bring upon themselves the wrath of their God. God is going to recreate the world, raise up a Servant-King-Priest who will reign over Israel in this new earth. And Israel will be a light that will draw the Gentiles out of their pagan darkness and back to their Creator. Yahweh has promised and Yahweh is about to deliver. continue reading…

Lord willing I might be teaching my old youth group back in KC over Thanksgiving. As such I figured I would teach on Mark 5:1-20. I am wondering if anyone has the time if they could provide some constructive feedback to the sermon/message. I’ll warn you that the sermon is in manuscript form–it’s what helps me preach most effectively–so it’s a little long, 10 pages in Microsoft Word. So if you don’t have time to read all ten pages before the holiday it’s okay. continue reading…

I present to you McNaughton Fine Art’s One Nation Under God.   Yes, some people still think we were and are the new israel a shining city upon a hill.  If you click though, be sure to read the artist’s interpretations.  (They’ll make you curse.)  For an interpretation of the interpretation, see Greg Boyd’s commentary on the painting.

Thanks to JR via Tom.

P.S. I am totally not reading Resident Aliens this week or anything.

Yes.  Some people still think we were and are the new israel a shining city upon a hill.

The Closing Prayer at my BSU talk:

Father, we come to you tonight asking you to help us see your will through that which you have reveal to us in the Bible and to help us listen to the promptings and direction of THE SPIRIT.

You value justice. You ask, no, demand that your citizens seek justice for the oppressed. You have blessed us corporately beyond belief. You have blessed us individually according to your purposes. You have done this so that we might in turn bless others. Lord, OUR God, guide us.

Lord, God of Isaiah, we have seen that dumping does not work. You reveal to us in your Wisdom Literature that toil is valuable. Work is a good. It is not good for a [hu]man to be alone and it is not good that she does not work.

So, LORD, God of James, be a light unto our minds. Help us seek out the ways in which justice is being served. Help us to creatively close the gaps between those that horde and those that suffer because of it.

LORD, God of the Poor, we bring another request. Please help us see that your gift of grace is not just a get out of hell free card.

LORD, God over Boone County, help us to see that you are Lord of All.

LORD, God over Missouri, help us to respond to your grace in accordance with your will.

LORD, God over India, help us to submit our entire lives to your will, not just the parts that are easy.

LORD, God of Time, thank you for the blessings you bestow upon us.

LORD God of the Universe, help us to bless others as you have blessed us.

In our LORD Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

I was asked to give a short talk concerning the Rich Young Ruler at the BSU.  The following is the first part of the talk:

(You can listen to the audio here)

Good evening everyone! Welcome to the first night of the “Jesus said WHAT?!” series. Tonight’s topic is Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler. I was kinda scared when the topic was assigned to me because I have not heard a interpretation of the passage that sounded good to me. Either they seemed naïve and unrealistic or they seemed to gloss over Jesus’ challenge. Maybe because this is because I am a rich white male and I like my stuff and don’t like to be challenged OR Maybe this is because I am a snobby seminary student who colors all of Jesus’ sayings with early Christian witness. To tell you the truth, it is really probably a mix of both.

Before we start, let’s get to the text of the matter. I’m gonna start a bit earlier in the passage than usual discussions on the rich young ruler (I’ll tell you why in a second).

Text: Luke 18 (NLT)

So, our passage has three major sections. First, we have Jesus reprimanding the disciples for shooing away the children, culminating with the charge that

“[T]he Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

Woah, what does that even mean? Entering like a child? That could be our Jesus Said What moment right there!

Then, enter the rich young ruler. He comes up and wants to be in the kingdom too. He says that he is fully living within the Abrahamic/Mosaic covenants, living by all of the laws that God revealed to Moses.

Jesus issues the rich young ruler a challenge. He says if you wanna be in my kingdom, you have to do two things. First, give away all your possessions. Second, Follow me.

Confronted with the action-oriented challenge, the Rich Young RULER sulks away – it was too great of a commitment. Jesus, loving the guy, gives us our second “JESUS SAID WHAT!” moment. He says:

“How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

This blows the disciples minds.

They start freaking out. They start to worry, they gotta be saying to themselves, “We gotta come like children, and he rejected this guy? What chance do we have? What did he mean, children? And what about that rich guy? He followed the whole law. Jesus did not deny that. And still he was not worthy enough.”

Peter asks who then can be saved, saying that they have given up everything for Jesus. Jesus responds with our last candidate of “WHAT?!” sayings. Jesus says:

and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, ³⁰ will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.

So, what do we make of all of this?

First, the story about the Children sets the stage. This is about entrance and behavior within the kingdom. Children can’t do anything. One of the Gospels even talks about infants. I got one. Lemme tell you, infants are completely dependent upon their parents for life.

So, Jesus was talking about how you have to come to the kingdom of god like a child – completely dependent upon God. Then this guy comes up and asks to be in it! (The Gospel writers were good at writing Gospels – eh?) He has everything that people of that time (and our time) think is valuable. He was rich. He was young. He has political power – oh how we worship political power in this country! Thus, , the rich man is thematically contrasted with children/kingdom.

As a person with such external security, the Rich Young Ruler already had a savior. His name was Caesar. The Roman Emperors set themselves up as saviors of the world. . It was Caesar that created and sustained the Pax Romana. The Rich were Rich because of Rome’s stability. The Rulers were Rulers because of Rome’s security. He was savior.

How hard it is for the secure to give up their security!

Behavior within the Kingdom of God is no light matter. The gospel is not about liking someone (Jesus) a whole bunch and then getting a get out of Hell free card. No, instead, the Gospel is the proclamation that the Kingdom of God has come! Repent! JESUS IS LORD. (Opening of Mark on the Screen)

What does this mean, Jesus is lord? When we enter into the Kingdom of God, we acknowledge that everything is HIS. We live to serve the King who serves others.

Living in the Kingdom of God means submitting everything to Him. This means everything. All facets of your life. The Rich Young Ruler was Rich and a Ruler.

As I said before, he already had a savior, Caesar.Thus, the Rich Young Ruler would have to give up his allegiance to Caesar and the two things that allegiance provided him – Money and Power. And yet, He. Could. Not. Can we?

The Disciples freaked out when they saw Jesus’ challenge –

²⁶ Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?”

²⁷ He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

²⁸ Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”

²⁹ “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, ³⁰ will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”

And then Jesus reassures them – they have left their allegiance to this world and given it to Jesus. They are living kingdom lives.

Notice that in response to their freaking out, Jesus tells them not to worry about their own efforts to enter the kingdom but to worry about our response to God’s salvation.

And our response should be to place JESUS AS LORD above our

- Families – do you realize how hard this is – if it comes down to Jesus or your brother – you pick Jesus.

- Wealth

- Governmental allegiance – do you worry about politics more than you worry about the Goals of the Kingdom of God?!

- But most importantly – Self.

Examine your life – what are you holding back from the king?

Let us pray….

WAIT A SECOND! LETS NOT KID OURSELVES

Jesus said WHAT? “Sell all that you have and give it to the poor.” And “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!

Wait – lets not kid ourselves the secondary theme in this passage is the place of money in the Kingdom of God. Yes, the main theme is attitudes in the kingdom but the theme of MONEY IN THE KINGDOM is not far behind.

As a rich man, the Young Ruler was hoarding his wealth. In a day and age where 95% of the population was living hand-to-mouth, this man was hoarding his wealth.

Today we are taught from birth to hoard wealth. You can’t escape the messages we receive from the media, from advertisements, from our governments, from our Churches, from our families, from our friends, from our selves.

A study was released not long ago which found that the average urban person views an average of 5,000 ads a day. Each one of these ads promise the buyer spiritual, material, and emotional satisfaction though their products.

So, what the world is saying is that [point to screen]

All you need is more.

But God says that: [point to screen]

I AM all that you need.

We are a nation, a people who have been blessed with a wealth that is beyond comprehension.

So how do we react to this ridiculous blessing? Look at the history of Israel as remembered in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, few things upset God more than people hoarding wealth. Listen to the words of Isaiah: [Show Isaiah 3:13-15]

¹³ The Lord takes his place in court
      and presents his case against his people!
¹⁴ The Lord comes forward to pronounce judgment
      on the elders and rulers of his people:
   “You have ruined Israel, my vineyard.
      Your houses are filled with things stolen from the poor.
¹⁵ How dare you crush my people,
      grinding the faces of the poor into the dust?”
      demands the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

When Israel would turn away from the LORD they started to oppress the poor. This would always lead to judgment and foreign rule for Israel. Latter on in Isaiah: [3:16-26]

¹⁶ The Lord says, “Beautiful Zion is haughty:
   craning her elegant neck,
      flirting with her eyes,
   walking with dainty steps,
      tinkling her ankle bracelets.
¹⁷ So the Lord will send scabs on her head;
      the Lord will make beautiful Zion bald.”

¹⁸ On that day of judgment
      the Lord will strip away everything that makes her beautiful…

²⁴ Instead of smelling of sweet perfume, she will stink.
      She will wear a rope for a sash,
      and her elegant hair will fall out.
   She will wear rough burlap instead of rich robes.
      Shame will replace her beauty.
²⁵ The men of the city will be killed with the sword,
      and her warriors will die in battle.
²⁶ The gates of Zion will weep and mourn.
      The city will be like a ravaged woman,
      huddled on the ground.

How the LORD is concerned for the poor! These are societal sins – sins that the structures of the society create and are maintained by all the people that participate in the system. Societal sins are notoriously hard to see while they are happening. They are best viewed in hindsight. One of the best examples of a societal sin is the institution of slavery during the first 100 years in the United States.

This is the kind of thing Isaiah is decrying. Slavery, exploitation of the poor – these are societal sins. God above almost everything else, desires justice for his people – and all people are his people.

What out US? The USA? How just of a society are we? I invite you to join us afterwards to talk about this. I don’t think we are as much as we like to think we are. How much are you, your family, your church, your friends participating in these societal sins? How much am I? Just because you can’t see the oppression does not mean that it is not there, that our corporate actions don’t have repercussions that impact real people.

OK, enough talk about the vague and the invisible. Let’s turn this back to our individual lives. Your life. My Life. Your money. My money. The Bible has a lot of interesting, if not complicated things to say about wealth on the individual level. Lets look at a couple of quick passages that deal with individuals and wealth.

[Proverbs 14:31 and Proverbs 29:7 ]

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,

but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

The righteous care about justice for the poor,

but the wicked have no such concern.

James 5

¹ Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. ² Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. ⁴ Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. ⁵ You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.^{[a] 6} You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

Now, before you say – God hates wealth! Let me say that God does lift up wealth as a blessing to the righteous. God has revealed through the Bible that wealth and blessings do follow from following Him. However, success and prosperity is defined by the created order, not by materieriality.

Wealth is not something to horde, but something to give. The God makes it clear in Proverbs 29:7 that the righteous are to care about the poor.

We are called to live not for the accumulation of wealth and property, but for God and for the flourishing all people. Some of you here came to college to get rich. My advice: Don’t.

Having wealth is not a sin – hoarding it and refusing to help those in need is.

Today billions around the world live hand to mouth. Christians hold most of the world’s wealth.

So… How do we contribute to the solution rather than further the oppression? We have over 75 bright young minds here in this room – I encourage you to seek out a solution – there are many ways that people are helping – seek them out, fill the gap. If you want, join me and a few others downstairs afterwards to talk about how this can be done.

Remember: Our God is a God of Justice. We are his agents in this world. We are stewards of this creation. The poorest among us are of infinite worth. Instead of seeking only our own good – we are commanded to seek theirs as well.

Let us pray.

My people are intimately concerned with creating and fostering community, or a strong and vibrant local Body of Christ within which its members participate fully in the Kingdom of God.  We want to develop a theology and praxis of community, but we are sometimes unreflective on what community really means, that is, we have uncritically accepted the notion of community as some open-ended utopia. 

While I was organizing some books in the Imler-Malloy library, I came across Jantzen’s Becoming Divine.  In the chapter “Trustworthy Community” she critiques Welch’s notion of a beloved community: [1]

‘Community’ is not automatically ‘beloved.’  On the contrary, communities can close ranks against outsiders, and set norms and enact traditions which are oppressive to some of their insiders…

How much of that is necessarily true of communities?   Jantzen reminds us that often community is lifted up uncritically as an utopia. 

In order to form a community a lines have to be drawn.  People, ideas, resources, attention, actions are all divided by that line.  Such lines are either implicitly implied [2] or are explicitly defined. [3]

But lets not judge the line so harshly, shall we?  These lines are necessary for both the creation and the fostering of individual and communal identity. Communities imply boundaries – they must or they fall apart, eviscerated by outsiders or evaporated by individualism.

The nitty-gritty of community[ies] are just that – gritty and nitty.  Rights afforded and responsibilities upheld are necessary to maintain the house of cards; but the lifeblood of community is communication, through it information is passed to each organ, conflicts are mediated and expectations are satisfied. 

Just some thoughts.  Do you have any?

1. which, I want to note is different from the notion of the Kingdom of God for Welch: “The Kingdom of God implies conquest, control, and final victory over the elements of nature as well as the structures of injustice.  The ‘beloved community’ names the matrix within which life is celebrated, love is worshiped, and partial victories over injustice lay the groundwork for further acts of criticism and courageous defiance. (221).  However, Welch’s notion of beloved community is not what I wanna talk about specifically, but the notion of community in general.  [↩]
2. i.e. defined by exclusion, and ridicule, disinterest in the stories of the some, in the un-invitation to events, etc… [↩]
3. through contracts, agreements, arguments [↩]

Before moving on in the narrative of the Bible, I want to look at new creation, union with Christ, and how they play into Obtaining the shalom that was forfeited by Adam. Adam rebelled against the creator I AM in the garden of Eden. A curse was placed upon Adam and his posterity. I AM then set up a community, a kingdom, called Israel. But this community failed to bring back shalom. A king was promised by I AM who would come and restore peace to I AM’s creation. I AM fulfilled this promise, many centuries later, in the person of Jesus Christ. He was that king who purchased shalom by his death and resurrection here on earth. For humanity to gain back that peace we saw that humanity must submit themselves to Jesus and trust wholly in what he did to achieve peace. I AM unites that believer to Jesus so that they can take part in the new community centered around a new covenant and exist in shalom. Before we move on from this pause in the action, I want to look at new creation and the role it plays here in humanity and the created order returning to shalom. continue reading…

Paul once wrote to a church in a city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) called Colosse. In that letter he said, about I AM and Jesus,

[God] delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins…For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven (Colossians 1:13-20 NET).

In Jesus I AM has brought peace, shalom, back to his creation. Jesus has constituted a kingdom through which I AM returns peace by his death, burial and resurrection. The question that we must ask is how does a human experience this peace that Jesus has secured in his kingdom by his death and resurrection? continue reading…

The King came…and died…and was raised from the grave.

Having died the most gruesome death and lying lifeless in the grave for days, Jesus rose to life and walked out of the tomb. He was indeed king, king over all life. But what had Jesus done, what was accomplished in dying and rising from the dead? What does it have to do with the need to get shalom back? The question needs to be addressed to make sense of it all. Jesus demonstrated he was the coming king who was to speak peace to the nations, whose kingdom was to extend from sea to sea. But how does he bring back shalom? continue reading…

It didn’t work. Shalom, “peace,” did not return to I AM’s creation through the community of Israel. The laws, the sacrificial system, the priesthood, and the kings all failed to bring Israel back to shalom. Yet here is an interesting fact, some people saw that shalom was gone. Psalm 72 is a prayer either by King Solomon or for King Solomon for the king to bring back shalom. He prayed to I AM that the king would reign in righteousness and justice and fairness. The Psalmist wanted the king to liberate the oppressed and to extend forth godliness in his kingdom. This return to a place where peace will extend from sea to sea, from coast land to coast land, and the land will be at peace. This is a prayer for I AM to move the king to guide the people back to shalom, but not just the people of Israel but to extend Israel universally. This prayer concludes with the Psalmist’s faith in I AM to answer this prayer. Through his prophets, I AM does promise to raise up a king who will deliver the people from the chaos and destruction that happened when I AM cursed the created order with the removal of shalom. continue reading…

I’m a member of a local community of Christians who reject eschatologies that posit a rapture, an antichrist, all that jazz.  We read the Apocalypse of John along with other ancient Christian, Jewish, and Roman apocalypses and find that it points to a veiled (read: symbolic) critique of the Roman empire and about the Christian’s place in that context. [1]

We see one full and final 2nd coming of Jesus, no half-coming where the good are raptured.   [2]

We perceive ourselves as a minority in the larger local church, Columbia, Missouri, and Midwestern Christian Communities.  Also, many of us personally used to buy into a rapture view, myself included. 

I bring all of this background information up because I see a disturbing trend in my community and I am not sure how exactly to constructively confront it.  We have a tendency to belittle Christians who stand within a raptural pale with a disturbing frequency.  And our group disdain is not limited to those that differ from us in terms of eschatology.  Among others, we belittle those who think violence can be justified, those who think that the republicans are a good voting option, and those that hold the myths in the Old Testament as literal history. 

We are not merely stating our disagreement.  With our internal rhetoric, we bemoan their ignorance, laugh at their theologies, and demean and ridicule behind their backs. [3] You see, we consider ourselves holders of the secret flame, as wise women in the midst of fools.  That is how we carry ourselves.  And that is wrong of us to do.

I am sure some of this comes from coping methods.  Some of us feel as though we have awoken from a lie (or series of lies) and we therefore project our feelings of past foolishness onto those similar to our past selves.  Additionally, since we perceive ourselves as a minority, our actions function as defense mechanisms. However, this is not a good way to deal with either our past theologies nor our perceived minority position.

What we need is a helpful and constructive way to engage these Christian others. Now, I agree completely that our interpretations are better interpretations. [4]   What we need to avoid is criticizing the people instead of their viewpoints. Also, we need to remember that these viewpoints help create and maintain our sisters’ and brothers’ identity. When we flippantly disregard their viewpoints, we are flippantly disregarding their identity.

What we need to do is to engage and dialogue with the Christian other instead of demonizing them. They have good reasons for thinking what they think, whether it be past experiences or past interpretive histories, etcetera.

I don’t know how to do that effectively nor how to help my community to do the same. Any suggestions? [5]

 

1. See the following:

   · Borgen, Peder. “Moses, Jesus, and the Roman Emperor Observations in Philo’s Writings and the Revelation of John.” Novum Testamentum 38, no. 2 (April 1996): 145-159.

   · Callahan, Allen Dwight. “The Language of Apocalypse.” The Harvard Theological Review 88, no. 4 (October 1995): 453-470.

   · Clemen, Lic. Carl. “The Jewish Apocalypses.” The Biblical World 34, no. 1 (July 1909): 33-44.

   · Frankfurter, David. “Apocalypses Real and Alleged in the Mani Codex.” Numen 44, no. 1 (January 1997): 60-73.

   · Maier, Harry O. “Staging the Gaze: Early Christian Apocalypses and Narrative Self-Representation.” The Harvard Theological Review 90, no. 2 (April 1997): 131-154.

   · Porter, Frank C. “The Place of Apocalyptical Conceptions in the Thought of Paul.” Journal of Biblical Literature 41, no. 1/2 (1922): 183-204.

   · Shodde, George H. “The Jewish Apocalypses.” The Biblical World 6, no. 2 (August 1895): 97-104.

   · Smith, Marian W. “The Apocalypse of John.” College Art Journal 9, no. 3 (Spring 1950): 295-307.

   · Votaw, Clyde Weber. “The Apocalypse of John: I. Jewish Apocalyptic Literature.” The Biblical World 31, no. 1 (January 1908): 32-40. [↩]

2. For instance, we explain two classical rapture passages, 1Thess 4:15-17 and Matthew 24:32-44, as follows. 

   · 1Thess: When a king would come into one of his cities in ancient times, he would ride up and stop just outside.  Then the leaders of the city would come out to greet him and then they would all go into the city together.  The King was always escorted into a city.  This is the imagery the readers would have recognized and we should pattern our interpretation of the text after. 

   · Matthew:  Notice a) the reference to the Flood and b) who is taken and who is left.  Who was taken away in the flood of Noah?  The unfaithful.  If it is to be the same as then, then those left behind when the son of man returns will be the righteous instead of them being raptured away!  This also fits well with Jesus’ imagery of the weeds being thrown into the fire and the wheat being left. [↩]

3. I am not just pointing the finger at everyone else in my community.  I am sometimes an active participant in this. [↩]
4. or I would hold other ones [↩]
5. If you are a part of my community, let me know if you think I am being fair here or not. This is how I perceive things currently. I am not trying to attack any one person. I just want us to grow ourselves and the Kingdom of God. [↩]