A Zeal Not Based on Knowledge

Romans 10:1-3, KJV

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Zeal here means honorable emulation and consequent imitation of that which is excellent.

Knowledge (epignosis) is an interesting term. Used here it means complete comprehension after the first knowledge gnosis of a matter. If that is the case, then we should find out what gnosis means.

Gnosis – a seeking to know, an enquiry, an investigation. In the NT, it denotes knowledge, especially of spiritual truth.

Epignosis – bringing one to be better acquainted with something known previously; a more exact viewing of something beheld before. It is a strengthened form of gnosis. Finally, it means a greater participation by the “knower” in the object “known,” thus more fully influencing him (the knower, that is).

So if that is the case and there is an order to knowledge, then the person who seeks to know God and goes after God must first enquire or make an investigation as to Who God is what What He stands for.

You will find that most people know something of God. These are not the most dangerous people. No, the most dangerous people are those who know a little something of God, but have not come into the full knowledge of Who He Is. You know the people who are able to quote a few Scriptures, but usually take them out of context. These are the people who can tell you a little bit of why God does what He does, but now why. These are the people who are quick to say not to judge them, but think all judging is the same.

These people are dangerous because they try to use Scripture to justify their actions, but when called on it have only a passing understanding (if that) of what that Scripture truly means.

This hearkens back to the blog on being a mature Christians. This is starting to move from milk to meat. This is being identified as a Christian by right living. You can begin to see how this all ties together.

Anyway, let’s move on.

Romans 10:1-3, NIV
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

So what we have here is a desire from God, but it has no roots in the full knowledge of Who He Is. It is a form of godliness because it is incomplete. There is a desire to know God, but not in His Fullness and so this incompleteness is rooted in a superficial knowledge of the Master. So this person seeks God for selfish reasons – more money, increased skills for the workplace or the playing field, longer life. These are all reasons rooted in self. If they do want something for others, it is for those who they are close to – no praying for enemies and such.

There is a reason we are to seek the Kingdom of God first and His Righteousness. We have to get to know Him in the Fullness. Now recognize that the fullness is as full as we can possibly know Him since no man can ever know God in all His Capacity.

And this semblance of God’s Righteousness leads to a perversion of what is right: we call it self-righteousness. If you were to ask a self-righteous person why he does what he does, he will give an answer that (sometimes) seems to be based in Scripture, but upon closer examination, is rooted in self and what self believes to right and wrong.

Romans 10:1-3, Amp
BRETHREN, [with all] my heart’s desire and goodwill for [Israel], I long and pray to God that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a [certain] zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to [correct and vital] knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness that God ascribes [which makes one acceptable to Him in word, thought, and deed] and seeking to establish a righteousness (a means of salvation) of their own, they did not obey or submit themselves to God’s righteousness.

Ah – now it gets better. It is the righteousness of God that makes the believer acceptable to Him. Knowing, living, and operating in the righteousness of God that He approves of. Instead, the self-righteous person (that person who uses that perverted sense of righteousness we just spoke of) that seeks to save themselves. If you could save yourself, there would be no need for Christ to be crucified.

Further, they do not submit to the righteousness of God. Why? To do so would mean that their thoughts and actions would now be defined by and bound to a sense of right and wrong that comes from Someone else. A full knowledge of the Word means any justification that comes is from the Bible and not one’s own emotions, aspirations, desires, convictions, and motivations.

Romans 10:1-3, MSG
Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what’s best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time. I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God—but they are doing everything exactly backward. They don’t seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God’s business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily hawk their wares. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.

Wow. I said before that a person cannot save himself. To believe so and to try to do so is backwards. So right across the street from righteousness, they have set up shop. In these shops they sell self-righteousness to any foolish enough (or inexperienced enough) to purchase it. You will pay the price for doing things your own way. And you are wasting (spiritual and emotional) money since Jesus Christ already paid the price for you and me.

Instead, some of us who claim to be Christians act like we are still in the world.

2 Timothy 3:1-5, KJV
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

This is not just referring to unbelievers. I can think of too many Christians who act proud, who boast, who are false accusers, who are heady and highminded and are disobedient to their parents. If these are the so-called believers, then they are worse than sinners because they should know better.

This form of godliness is so dangerous because to have a form of godliness is have an outward semblance of only. There is nothing of substance on the inside to back up what is on the outside. And in having this form of godliness, there is no power to back it up, because that power has been denied.

John Gill puts it this way:

[Al]though in words they profess religion and godliness (that is the fear of God, and the pure worship of him) … they deny all. And though they may have a set of notions in their heads, yet they feel nothing of the power of them on their hearts…Though they profess the Scriptures to be the word of God, yet they deny the use, the power, and efficacy of them…They are not able to make men wise, or give them a true knowledge of what is to be believed and done without them.

The Amplified translates it this way:
2 Timothy 3:5, Amp
For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].

They reject the power and in fact are strangers to the power because they have God in (an outside) form only. The worst lies are the out-an-out bold lies, but rather the lies that are made up half-truths. The worst lies are those that involve Scripture, but in fact turn the Word of God around to fit the circumstance and the worldly justification. Look at the person who says “don’t judge me.” Well why can’t we judge you? “Because the Bible says so.” Well, have you actually studied that Scripture? Do you know what judging means? Do you know what it means in this context? If not, then you need to study what is actually going on and you will see that some types of judgment are perfectly acceptable according to the Bible.

So all of that brings up two questions:
1. Your zeal for God is based upon what kind of knowledge?
2. Do you have God for only a form of godliness?

Please don’t be hasty in answering. Check yourself with the Word.

Brief Thoughts on Heb 7-10

Just read a wonderful blog posting at Theological Musings.  Kvidahl couches his thoughts on Old vs. New Covenant with the idea that there may not be a future for the nation of Israel since the Old Covenant is defunct.  While that certainly is a concept worth exploring, for me this issue resonates differently because I know so many Christians who based their lives on living with aspects of both Covenants.  So on the one hand they claim Christ, who as Kvidahl reminds us, make His Sacrifice once and for all.  However on the other hand, these Christians still adhere to the practice of tithing, which is firmly rooted under the Old Covenant and in no way renewed in the New Testament.

I agree with Kvidahl that the language in Hebrews 7-10 its strong language concerning that which is obsolete. To that I will also add that many Christians would be enlightened by a detailed study of the epistle.

The Insufficiency of Scripture

From a book I am reading off and on regarding African American theology and how it has devolved over the centuries. The writer says:

First, the Bible continued to be revered but no longer trusted as sufficient for all matters of faith and conduct in the African American church…the Bible could no longer speak to the needs of contemporary society and no longer possessed a relevant message…And with the Bible deemed insufficient (whether explicitly or implicitly through indifference), fads and wrong ideas about how to govern itself preyed upon the vulnerable church while sometimes radical, sometimes subtle hermeneutical approaches undermined any objective authority possessed by the Bible (Anyabwile 60).

This reminds me, somewhat, of the conversation I had with a friend yesterday regarding how some think that because we live in the modern, electronic age, that the Bible cannot cover what we have to endure today. I remember telling him that people are the same, it is just that we have made sinning more convenient with “advances” in culture, politics, and technology.

Ecclesiastes 1:9, NIV
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

This guy goes on to say: “With the insufficiency of Scripture established in practice, even taught explicitly in some cases, who could oppose the entrance of heretical ideas and claims? Without an objective standard or rule against which teachers were judged, disputes over doctrine seemed to many a wearisome exercise in futility with no possible solution and no obvious benefits” (Anyabwile 61).

Now doesn’t that seem familiar?

For some reason, it brings this Scripture to mind:

Matthew 13:24-29, NIV

The Parable of the Weeds

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 ” ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29 ” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ “

I am continually amazed, though perhaps I shouldn’t be at this point, by the number of Christians who accept how man has changed the Apostles’ doctrine into their own doctrine. The reasons behind it become repetitive: the church is living and operating in a new age. They argue that since the church is facing different and modern foes that the church must adapt in new and better ways. But I said before that while culture and technology change, they are simply outward manifestations of flawed human beings and human beings have not changed. Those same sins outlined in the Bible are the same sins we commit today. And yet we have seen fit to change how we operate in the church. So what you end up with is more sin, thanks to more people in the world, and more convenient settings for that sin thanks to technology, but a church ill-equipped to combat it. We have taken authority away from most of the preachers. We have handicapped the deacons and wrested power away from the men of the church. The result is a church with a few men preaching a watered-down gospel instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In essence, we made it easy for the enemy to come in and plant weeds. We might as well have sent an invitation. So we have wheat and weeds growing up together, in this case we have proper and false doctrine growing up together. And while it may seem a simple matter to combat false teaching, I have discovered that the opposite is, in fact, true. When I look back at Anyabwile’s words, I have to admit that my own experience mirrors his thoughts. “Without an objective standard or rule against which teachers were judged, disputes over doctrine seemed to many a wearisome exercise in futility with no possible solution and no obvious benefits” (Anyabwile 61). I have friends who have grown tired of fighting the war against false teachings. But this is a war too important to ignore or weary of. Too many preachers are preaching lies as truth and too many people are accepting those lies and trying to govern their lives accordingly.

References

Anyabwile, Thabiti M. (2007). The Decline of African American Theology. From
Biblical Faith to Cultural Captivity. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic

That I May Know Him

Phillipians 3:10, KJV

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

Albert Barnes writes:

“That I may be fully acquainted with his nature, his character, his work, and with the salvation which he has wrought out. It is one of the highest objects of desire in the mind of the Christian to know Christ.”

Gill says that “by faith” I may know Him.

Notice in nowhere did I say “stuff” or “things.” Not a house, not a car, not money, not toys, not clothes. That I may know Him for who He is. I need to know his nature, that is His essential character. The qualities that make Him Who His Is; His Essence and inborn character; innate disposition; His inherent tendencies. This is what I need. Let’s get on with it.

That I may know the power of His Resurrection, that is the fact, Barnes says, that Christ has risen from the dead, when fully believed (when I get that fact fully seared into my spirit), will produce a sure hope that we also shall be raised, and will animate us to bear trials for his sake (I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me – that is what that verse is talking about), with the assurance that we shall be raised up as he was.That I can latch on to the truth that with Christ, nothing and nobody has to remain dead. That He is eternal life. There’s nothing dead in Him.

And the fellowship of his sufferings. Multiple. More that one suffering. How strange to link fellowship and suffering. Here “fellowship” means participation or social intercourse – denoting an intimate relationship. Fellowship means having a common partnership. One way it is used is in the participation in the sufferings of Christ, that is undergoing hardship and pain – the affliction of Christ – that is Christ’s sufferings. If I am going to know Him, then I need to know as much of Him as I can. I can know it all, my mind can never encompass it all, but I have to know as much of Him as I can.

The writer says: “That I may participate in the same kind of sufferings that he endured; that is, that I may in all things be identified with him.” In order to truly know someone, I must go through what they go through with the same mind they had when they went through it. Let this mind be in me that was also in Christ Jesus.

I need to participate in the same kind of sufferings – that is I have to go through what He went through. I have to rejected by the elders, I have to be plotted against, I have to be misunderstood and mistreated, I have to be dishonored and disrespected at home by people who think they know me, I have to be judged by those who have no right to judge me, I have to be betrayed by those I picked to be by my side, I have to be beaten by my oppressors and finally put to death that God might be glorified. Now who would choose to do and to go through all of that? Not me, but certainly the Christ in me.

But the final part of that verse says: “being made conformable unto his death.”

Conformable means similar to, having the same form as another, to make the same or similar. It also means to bring into harmony or agreement.

Being made conformable means to be in harmony or agreement with Christ and having is same form – that is ways or manners or mind – even unto the point of death.

Barnes says:

In all things, being just like Christ—to live as he did, and to die as he did. There can be no doubt that Paul means to say that he esteemed it so desirable to be just like Christ, that he would regard it as an honour to die in the same manner. He would rejoice to go with him to the cross, and to pass through the circumstances of scorn and pain which attended such a death.

I need to know Him. I’ve got to know Him like I’ve never known Him before. Let’s get on with it.

The Problem With The Weekly Sermon

“How can the pastor learn from the other members of the body of Christ when they are muted? How can the church learn fully from the pastor when its members cannot ask him questions during his oration? How can the brothers and sisters learn from one another if they are prevented from speaking during meetings?” Frank Viola & George Barna, Pagan Christianity, p. 98

If you came to me and said you had an issue or that you were very angry, what would you say if I replied by saying you need to be lectured for 45 minutes to an hour? What if I said you would not be allowed to interact with me other than nodding your head or briefly agreeing with what I say? And what if I said you were not allowed to ask questions while I speak? Finally I tell you that at the end of my lecture we will pray for you. You might not react too favorably to that.

That is what we do to people in the church weekly. And then we wonder why so many of them are not getting past their problems.

Christianity is designed to be interactive. Passivity is the enemy to increased faith and works. I started with the opening quote because Viola and Barna make their point so very well: the weekly sermon can do more harm than good.

Now don’t get me wrong: the Word of God is powerful and is more than enough to save souls. The problem is not with the Word, but rather with its delivery and with its audience. It was never designed to be sermonized week after week to a sitting, passive audience. Because the Christian faith was created to be interactive simply sitting and listening is not enough for most listeners. We put so much stock in the sermon that too many times we forget that many listeners retain the emotions, not the information, from the service. And then there are those who are sitting in room, but are not listening. They are disengaged and no amount of lecturing at that moment is going to bring them back, however a little personal interaction might be just what they need.

In 1 Corinthians 14:29 Paul speaks of the listeners judging, or debating, what has been spoken by the prophets. There is no silent witnessing to what is said in worship. Teaching and prophecy must be debated and rationalized to ensure it matches up with the Word of God. In fact that whole section is the foundation for the Christian worship service and it says nothing about one man standing and delivering a sermon on Sunday.

End of Story, For Now

It seemed like the thing to do at the time, but as you can see, I have put no effort or love into this blog.  I may one day, but not now.  Still, I do want to keep the name so the blog is here but I won’t post anything anytime soon.

Emotion & Reason

I just read an interesting blog post at Church Tithes & Offering.  The writer speaks on how difficult it is to change someone’s mind on tithing because of strong, sometimes life-long emotions.  I find that funny not because it only applies to tithing, but just about everything with a strong emotional attachment.  Of course it is stronger for tithing because so many have been taught time and again that tithing is the only way to financial blessing.

I also like how the author scours the Web for all blogs that mention tithing.  That is quite commendable; I would never be able to do such a thing.  It is all I can do to keep up with the blogs assembled in my [Google] reader.

Come Along For the Ride

Welcome to the new blog Theology Addict.  I guess the best way to kick off this blog is to tell you a little bit about myself and what I will write about in this space.

I’ve been blogging off and on since 2003.  For a long time, I wrote a blog called Faith Walk in which I dabbled in a number of issues concerning Christianity in general and the black church in particular.  However for the past year, I have been so caught up in finishing my dissertation that I let the blog lapse.  It finally occurred to me that I could blog if I did not have to spend so much time doing all the research and the heavy thinking.  And yet I love reading and discussing theology, so I decided to dedicate this blog to commenting on what others have written in this field.  And oh, what a vibrant field it is.

What is my background?  I have been a born again Christian for fourteen years and a Baptist preacher for six.  I am also an academic.  My main research area is Christianity and video games and I am currently completing my dissertation where I examine how moral choices in gaming affect Christian identity in players.

So come along for the ride.  I have a passion for reading and sharing.  Let’s see where this passion takes us.