John McArthur's Easter 2010 Message - a Response

I owe it to John McArthur, when I was still a professed Calvinist, for pointing me to the truth of "Lordship salvation". He is right on although he fails to explain it properly mainly because his theological foundation (which obviously is Calvinist) clashes squarely with what McArthur himself believes that the Bible says about this concept.

With all due respect to John, and perhaps I misunderstood what he really meant, he took a shot at the last lines of the hymn, "He Lives" during one of his 2010 Easter week messages:

"You ask me how I know He lives.

He lives within my heart."

He somewhat criticized the hymn as inadequate in demonstrating the truth of the resurrection of Christ, stating that this statement was quite subjective and not measurable in terms of proving that Christ rose from the dead.

Sadly, I think this is where classical exegetes completely miss out on the "Kingdom of God among us". The world does not need any more objective proof of Christ's resurrection in order to be convinced and converted to Christ. If that was all they needed, we would have more committed Christians today. What they really need are evidences that faith in Christ works on individual Christians. It is when Kingdom citizens and Kingdom children actually live the life depicted in the Sermon on the Mount to prove that the Kingdom of God is a real kingdom that the world starts to take notice and some actually turn from their wicked ways, repent and turn to Christ.

In Luke 16:31, Abraham's response to the rich man is instructional, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

History showed that the world marveled that Christians "turned the world upside down" in the book of Acts. "Behold, how they love!" was another documented reaction to the first century church. The Holy Spirit PLUS transformed lives: these are the only factors needed to bring the world's attention to Christ!

CrossCulture Mission Statement

We seek to build a community of believers within the Greater West Covina area and surrounding cities and communities that will deliberately seek to know and understand God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as revealed in and through Scripture in a very personal way, live and practice being Kingdom-minded with Kingdom values according to Christ's Sermon on the Mount, obey the Greatest Commandment as a way of life. This culture is what we call Cross-culture.

It's intellectual foundation is the Bible which is the basis and source of knowledge for understanding and experiencing true personal and corporate relationship with God and as seen and understood through the eyes of a Jew like the Apostles. It's social thrust will primarily be based on attracting the world to Christ and the Kingdom of God through this kind of culture and by presenting the gospel of salvation through Christ in a truthful and simple way, letting the Holy Spirit have His way as to timing and level of conviction. We win the world to Christ by WHO WE ARE and not WHAT we DO or SAY and, "if necessary, use words" per St. Francis of Assisi

All commands of Christ in the New Testament and all commands of God in the Old Testament that have not been superceded nor revoked in the New Testament are to be obeyed as evidence of devotion to Christ, not in a legalistic "keep your nose clean" sense, but in a relational "Is who I am based on what I am doing, pleasing my Lord?" sense.

...[work in progress]...

They Shall Inherit the Earth!

"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." (Matt 5:5).

"But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." Psalm 37:9b.

In this blog, I would like to explore why, if heaven, spiritual things and eternity are a Christian's priorities, why does God in the OT with the Jews always promise earthly (not worldly) pursuits like the garden of Eden or Paradise, "a land flowing with milk and honey".

[Work in progress....more soon...]

Relational Prayer that gets Answers vs. the Vending Machine God

To be discussed:

Asking vs. Obedience.

Faith speakers emphasize asking. The Bible emphasizes obedience=love.

There is a context for answered prayer in Scripture:

1. Relationship with God
2. Faith according to your understanding of the Word and the Holy Spirit's illumination

Relationship:

Kingdom-mindedness in Matt 7:7-11

Abiding in the Vine John 15, 16

Understanding and knowing God like Elijah in James 5

When it comes to healing, if God does not get the credit, divine healing rarely occurs. There is truth to the saying that "Man's extremity is God's opportunity".

"Be it done according to your faith". Does your reading of Scripture lead you to importunate prayer with God like David did for his son's life? or does it lead you to resign and accept whatever God has dispensed your way? "Be it done according to your faith".

Other related topics:

• God's "Trial-and-Error" Attempts to Create a People of Faith for His Kingdom
• Covenant-Relationship Theology in a Nutshell
• Relational Theology Makes Prayer Meaningful
• Relational Prayer that gets Answers vs. the Vending Machine God
• Prayer that God does NOT answer, NORMALLY
• The concept of Faith from a Relational/Biblical Perspective
• Relational Theology Makes Evangelism Meaningful and Critical
• Relational Theology Makes Finding God's Will a Meaningful and Useful Experience

The Definition of Defeat and Victory - The Relational View

The world has many concepts for success and failure, victory and defeat. It measures these outcomes using different yardsticks like popularity, riches and power, winning or overpowering your enemy or opponent, etc.

However, the teacher from Galilee explained these concepts from almost the opposite angle but nonetheless, from a higher perspective but showed, as well as demonstrated, not only how they are measured but how they were realistic and do-able.

No other passage of Scripture illustrates these concepts as clear as those from the Sermon on the Mount.

In it's simplicity Jesus calls the successful, victorious person - BLESSED. He goes through pains to contrast the other side labeling them explicitly or implicitly as either mediocre, defeated or failures.

So, what is success? What must one be or do to be called blessed?

[work in progress....more soon...]

Oaths and Covenant-Relationship

The essence of "Let your Yes be Yes, and your No be No" and everything else is from the evil one!

Ecclesiastes 5

Praying According to God's Will - The Right and Wrong Interpretations

What did John really mean in 1 John 5:14 when he said God hears us "if we ask anything according to His will..."?

This is the only exact greek instance for

κατα		το		θελημα		αυτου
according to		⋄		his will,		♦
κατά		ὁ		θέλημα		αὐτός
2596		3588		2307		846
P		TASN		NASN		RP-GSM

The only other passage in the NT that translates to this phrase uses a different Greek word for "according" and is found in Luke 12:47:

προς		το		θελημα		αυτου
according to		⋄		his will,		♦
πρός		ὁ		θέλημα		αὐτός
4314		3588		2307		846
P		TASN		NASN		RP-GSM

Lest we be guilty of splitting hairs here, we accept that they are the same and so are the contexts in which they are used.

Most interpretations of this passage in Scripture turn out to be classical and useless for practical applications. The phrase, "according to His will" is meant to say "according to His prescribed manner of conduct" but most commentaries state "according to His purpose" and is subsequently distorted by Greek scholastic thought. They are viewed and subsequently interpreted from the viewpoint of a Hellenist Gentile instead of a Jew in a Hellenistic environment. Perspective makes all the difference in the world for good and true hermeneutics.

It is true that the Bible was written for the whole world to understand. However, there are nuances of language and context that can only be properly dissected using the right perspective. One has to put himself in the shoes of the "immediate" author and audience of the scripture context. John was one of those "uneducated" fisherman who captured the heart of Jesus and was called the "Beloved" disciple.

John's lack of formal Hellenistic education much less Jewish education is key here. John must have only learned from the Rabbi's the "simple" truths of the Torah. John later learned from the Greatest Communicator, Jesus Christ, the unfolding revelation of His heart. Note that in Acts 1:3, Jesus spent 40 days with His inner circle of disciples in His resurrected body to open and break forth the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Note also that John's learning process could not have been, in any way shape or form, distorted by Hellenistic thought during these 40 days. God forbid, and Jesus would have seen to that! Yes, they were using Aramaic or Koine Greek to communicate but this was the common "street" or "market" Greek. This was the Greek for and of the uneducated (Hellenistically speaking).

That is how we should approach the interpretation of Scripture whether Old Testament or New Testament...through Jewish eyes.

According to a classical interpretation of this passage, we can only pray what is in the purpose of God and that pupose is fixed and unmovable. Hence, our prayers can only be "heard" by God within a narrow scope of requests. If you analyze this interpretation, it does not mean anything sensible or practical other than an expression of Hellenistic philosophy. Hellenistic philosophy always ends up with almost everything about God being a mystery, EVEN WHEN IT HAS ALREADY BEEN REVEALED IN SCRIPTURE! Talk about the blindness of wisest of man and the wisdom of the world being mere foolishness to God. This is one example.

How often do we hear classical prayers utter, "if it be Your will..." and it degrades to a prayer of unbelief. Classicists would cross-reference this with phrases like, "if the Lord wills..." (1 Corinthians 4:19) or "God willing" (Acts 18:21). They are further intimidated and limited by the warning from James 4:15, "Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ". But these statements are related to plans and not prayers. The attitude we ought to have when we declare our plans should be different from the expression of our inner desires and longings when we are on our knees before our Loving Heavenly Father. Prayer is where we can let ourselves go and come as we are before God, open and candid but with godly fear and reverence.

Let us look at two key cross references for the phrase, "according to His will". The first will be the other exact "english" translation passage of Luke 12:47.

The Luke 12 parable of Jesus illustrates one alternative meaning of the phrase. Here is the definition of Enhanced Strong's Lexicon:

[

2307 θέλημα [thelema /thel·ay·mah/] n n. From the prolonged form of 2309; TDNT 3:52; TDNTA 318; GK 2525; 64 occurrences; AV translates as “will” 62 times, “desire” once, and “pleasure” once. 1 what one wishes or has determined shall be done. 1a of the purpose of God to bless mankind through Christ. 1b of what God wishes to be done by us. 1b1 commands, precepts. 2 will, choice, inclination, desire, pleasure.

Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the text of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurrence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (G2307). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.

]

"1b of what God wishes to be done by us." This is the closest to the sense of the phrase and passage which is the object of our study.

The servant was guilty of not following the mandate of proper conduct by his master and "shall be beaten with many stripes". Note that this mandate of proper conduct is fixed by his master and yet he still had the free will not to comply. Reward and punishment is a result of his behavior and his behavior alone. Reward and punishment had little to do with the mandate apart from setting a guideline.

Likewise when we "ask anything according to His will", that means we come to God with our petitions with the right heart ("pure in heart", Matthew 5:8), the right spirit (we are the branches constantly abiding in and completely dependent on the Vine, John 15:5), conscious that we are standing on holy ground and knowing that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). In other words, we approach God in the context of a covenant relationship knowing that we have fulfilled our part of the covenant so that He is moved to fulfill His part in a relevant way to us.

Recall that in the OT, God issued a series of blessings for faithfulness, and curses for disobedience to His own chosen people the Jews (Deuteronomy 28-30). Recall also that the seven churches in Asia in the first 3 books of the Revelation received its own dose of verbal commendations and warnings of curses and judgment (Revelation 2,3).

Covenant relationship is God-initiated-and-signed but is two-way. God explicitly declares that He will fulfill His end of the covenant if we are faithful to fulfill our end. There is absolutely no middle ground or fence-sitting in the covenant. Hence, God is NOT a vending machine to get what we want when we need it. However, God DOES promise to grant us anything when we are in fulfillment of our covenant relationship with Him, and God DOES NOT and CANNOT lie!

The 2nd passage that will help explain the meaning and context of God's will (thelema) comes from The Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:10. Here is a plea for God's will to be done. That plea does not make sense if God's will would be done anyway without that plea. So the concept of the unchangeable and unmovable will of God in many ways is Hellenistic and unbiblical (even non-sensible). We are not talking about the absolute and ultimate will of God for all of creation and man, here. We are simply talking about day to day prayer items. There is no reason for anyone, classicism, especially to apply God's absolute will on any item in this world that has to do with His will and even purpose.

In fact, the prayer for God's will to be "done on earth as it is in heaven" is a plea to do His will quickly, and that was prayed over 2,000 years ago and has been prayed millions of times in various ways ever since. So even to interpret it in a generalized sense does not make sense at all. From a simple mind approach, that prayer illustrated by Jesus really meant that it is our prayer that we taste a little of heaven on earth that applies to our immediate situation. And that my friends has been answered by God millions of times as well, but only when we come to Him in prayer, "according to His will" as interpreted in this blog.

I believe such interpretation shows the difference when we read the Bible with a simple, Hellenistically "uneducated" mind like John, from a Jewish perspective compared to a Classical Hellenistic "educated", but philosophically-distorted viewpoint.

Finally, the best explanation of the concept of "according to His will" comes from the very same person and author, John himself. In 1 John 3:21,22, he writes,

"21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

Now let us talk Greek for a moment. The Greek word for confidence is this verse is exactly the same as 1 John 5:14, parresis, meaning courage or boldness. The Greek word for "ask" even connotes "demand" aside from request but is used in the Greek more for demand than request. It means to ask for with urgency, even to the point of demanding. Not only are we to have boldness in approaching God but we can almost demand with due respect to His Deity. The Greek word, in fact, is used when requesting something of someone more superior...and yet it hints of demand?

Note also that the word for "know" in 1 John 15:15 comes from the Greek word "oida" in contrast to "gnosis". Although they are often used interchangeably, they have different flavors depending on context. gnosis speaks of knowing as a result of seeing or observation while oida actually speaks of understanding of the process and inner workings of its object. Isn't that fascinating that "uneducated" but "inspired" John picked that word!

John was actually talking about getting assurance that our prayerful requests are truly answered in a timely (sometimes, immediate) and relevant manner.

Let us recap what we said earlier.

When we "ask anything according to His will", that means we come to God with our petitions with the right heart ("pure in heart", Matthew 5:8, or according to John, "if our heart does not condemn us,"), the right spirit (we are the branches constantly abiding in and completely dependent on the Vine, John 15:5), conscious that we are standing on holy ground and knowing that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). In other words, we approach God in the context of a covenant relationship knowing that we have fulfilled our part of the covenant so that He is moved to fulfill His part in a relevant way to us.

Let us now address a specific passage of Scripture which on the surface seems troublesome and contradictory to what we just proposed. Observe the story of leper Jesus healed in Matthew 8:1-3:

1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Now, one would ask, "Isn't this a literal example of praying according to God's will?". The leper did say, "Lord, if you are WILLING...", right? Rewind for a moment, take a step back and let us see this from the viewpoint of relational theology.

The leper, before he met Jesus, had almost no relationship with Jesus. Hence, he is an "outsider" and should pray like an outsider! The same is true for a Christian that prays that way, he only betrays that fact that there is something lacking or missing in his relationship with God which is why he could pray that way. It is a prayer of uncertainty. It is a prayer of no-faith, if you will.

Let us now examine the Lord's response to the leper. "I am WILLING!" Yes, it is a Biblical fact that God is ALWAYS WILLING! It is a principle in His nature. An good analogy is what St. Peter said in 2 Peter 3:9:

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

The Lord is not willing that any should perish BUT MANY HAVE PERISHED!!!

Applying this to prayer and/or healing, the Lord is willing to heal but many are NOT HEALED; The Lord is willing to ANSWER PRAYER but many prayers are NOT answered at all, and... for exactly the SAME reason that many perish...THEY DO NOT BELIEVE! THEY DO NOT HAVE FAITH! Because, they do NOT have a REAL RELATIONSHIP with the Living God! No ifs, buts, or other excuses!

The prayer of faith is different and the difference is night vs. day!

The Bible clearly declares in the last testament of Christ before He faced the cross, starting in John 15 and following that if we are in relationship with Him and behave like the branches abiding in the Vine (i.e., in such an attached and vital relationship with God), Jesus GUARANTEED that if we ask ANYTHING in His Name, he will respond with solid answers...so that your joy may be full! Read it again! You may have missed it because you were reading with the wrong lens.

May you pray according to His will indeed, so that your prayers get heard!

May your prayers be rewarding and always answered in covenant relationship with God!

Other related topics:

• God's "Trial-and-Error" Attempts to Create a People of Faith for His Kingdom
• Covenant-Relationship Theology in a Nutshell
• Relational Theology Makes Prayer Meaningful
• Relational Prayer that gets Answers vs. the Vending Machine God
• Prayer that God does NOT answer, NORMALLY
• The concept of Faith from a Relational/Biblical Perspective
• Relational Theology Makes Evangelism Meaningful and Critical
• Relational Theology Makes Finding God's Will a Meaningful and Useful Experience

Theology and "...according to your Faith..."

"According to your faith be it unto you." - Matthew 9:29

Matthew 9:27-29 (NIV) is a lesson packed story on the application of faith in a believer's life.

" 27As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"
28When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"
"Yes, Lord," they replied.
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this." 31But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region."
Note that we have been very passionate about teaching the rudiments, essentials and tenets of Relational Theology. We have gone through great lengths to refute and "almost" condemn classical theology as mostly irrelevant to living a vital relationship with God, and which is the road that Calvinism has taken with great names like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas in the list even preceeding John Calvin himself.
However, it is important to note that in the ultimate analysis, because our "complete" understanding of the infinite God will always be incomplete in this life, we have to make the warning that peripheral issues like these are things we can passionately disagree on and whether or not one is right and the other is wrong does not mostly affect one's road to salvation (although it may affect how one end's up finally saved or not!???).
Nevertheless, in this life, the words of Christ ring true. Although it matters little cardinally what a believer believes peripherally, it matters much how his beliefs are applied to reality and his life's journey on earth.
It will be done to us exactly ACCORDING TO OUR FAITH. If we believe that God never changes His mind in response to our prayers, so will it be done to you. If you believe that you can never persuade God in your prayes, so will it be done to you precisely "according to your faith". Your prayers will NEVER be answered since God will not change His mind for you anyway. If you believe that all God wants is to get glory for Himself from us, so will it be done to you. Since God's getting glory has really nothing to do with you, you will have to live a life that is satisfied with everything God dispenses your way, good and bad and just accept it.
For those of us who are relational, however, when we find ourselves in a bind, we plead with God because we believe God has a heart and will change His mind according to our requests WHEN WE ARE IN Covenant RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM CONSTANTLY ABIDING, then so will it be done to us according to our faith. God WILL respond. If we believe that we can persuade God the same as David's belief (and theology) when he pled for the life of his first son by Bathsheba, or better yet like the importunate widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18:1-8. I emphasize verse 8:
"I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
I have personally been a witness several times of divine intervention even up to the point of death. My father-in-law underwent triple bypass heart surgery with a valve replacement at the young age of 90. What was supposed to be a 4 day confinement ended up to be 5 weeks. Just when he was going to be released on the 4th day, he had a heart attack of some sort which the doctors never finally determined (perhaps because they may have been so embarrassed at the way things turned out). Embarrassed because, they declared him fit to leave the hospital on the 4th day and that did not go right. Embarrased because he was flat line for 23 minutes and the attending physicians told us to give him up for dead but we refused because we said that God answers prayer and even if it was supposed to be his time to go, we could still move the hands of God through prayer (remember Hezekiah in Isaiah 38?). Embarrased because they said that if he survived the flat line he would be a vegetable anyway and at 96 he is still laughing with us as of this writing. Embarrassed because he was 8 hours in a coma at the Intensive Care Unit and they were still waiting for him to die. Embarrassed because when he awoke after my wife said good-bye to him for the night, he was fully conversant as if he just woke from a normal sleep.
A month later my own father had congestive heart failure. We met as a family because the only solution the doctors would give is a triple-bypass and valve replacement surgery. He was 83 and we encouraged him with the results of my father-in-laws own ordeal at age 90. What was supposed to be a 5 hour operation turned into 8 hours. For 5 hours, he was bleeding to death. The heart membranes would tear as soon as the doctors tried to suture a new valve into place. One after the other, the surgeon told us there was nothing they could do to save him. The heart surgeon himself went down to us at the waiting area to tell us that he was just going to die on the operating table and asked us if we wanted to view him there to say our last farewells. I thanked the good doctor, but specifically told him that we were a praying family who believed that God answers prayer and that if he could do his best to keep him alive, we would do our best to move God's hands through prayer. He seemed an unbeliever but doctors normally humor their clients request especially if they believe it would be the last request made.
I phoned my wife and kids, my mother, my brother in Canada to inform them to prepare for the worst. But I told them it was not over yet and there was room for us to knock on the doors of heaven to get to God's heart and tell him what we really desire to happen.
After telling us to wait for 20 minutes so the heart surgeon could prepare my dad's sedated body with the chest still open (they could not close it because the swelling from blood substitute products to replace the blood he was losing), 20 minutes turned into 30 minutes and 30 minutes turned into 45 minutes and then 1 hours and then after 15 more minutes, the surgeon popped his bewildered head into our waiting room. We looked each other in the eye for what he was about to say, but all he could utter was that the bleeding had stopped while he was preparing my dad's body for viewing. So he shifted gears and actually prepared my Dad to go to the ICU.
My sister who was with me is a graduate of Medicine and all of us in the room knew what the doctor meant. We were so elated, we didn't know what to say but we did not forget to thank God and the doctor for doing his best to save my dad (instead of giving up completely). At 89, my dad still drives for errands to the groceries and he and my mom are living alone but close to my sisters' homes. We are still enjoying his fellowship and his company.
God dealt with us ACCORDING TO OUR FAITH. What if we just surrendered to the natural consequences of failed operations or surgeries? Yes, we could do that. We could just accept what God has dispensed to us and "surrendered to His will" and there is absolutely nothing theologically and Biblically wrong with that position. However, both my Dad and Father-in-law would have long passed away if that were our position because God would deal with us ACCORDING TO OUR FAITH, most of the time, nothing more and nothing less.
Why do I say this? Because God is a relational God. He framed two covenants to illustrate that - the Old Testament (covenant) and the New Testament. He desires to interact with us on a real and personal level and the only way that can happen is if He releases absolute control over many things (which means He takes quite a few risks for our sakes). That means we can pray and plead. That means, like in the case of Hezekiah and Jonah with the people of Ninevah, He can relent (Hebrew, literally, change His mind about a previous decision) if it were His will and then change it in our favor.
What a wonderful God! He doesn't have to do it. He could refuse to take any risks. BUT...He loves! and true love entails risk. Glory, Hallelujah!!! Amen! God is Love. His lovingkindness is without limit,
"Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds." - Psalm 36:5.
Were these isolated incidents? Was I just lucky? God forbid! Only an infidel could say such a thing! I have prayed for a friend about to undergo angioplasty only to have her appointments cancelled because the blockage could not be found after our prayer! Note that the initial diagnosis had to be confirmed with 2nd opinions and it was verified.
I have prayed for a couple who had a miscarriage and had difficulty having a baby. Their own church prayed for them without success. What was the difference? We believed that it would be done according to our faith! We assured the couple that God was a relational God despite everything they may have been taught (or mistaught!). That God was the same yesterday, today and forever. That God desires to be in relationship with His people and that His people need to be in the same mode needing God, wanting God, desiring His presence, hungry to seek His face constantly. In relationship with God as the branch abides in the vine, the promise of Christ holds true, "Ask anything and it shall be done".
It took only 9 months to prove that God responds in relationship and they are now enjoying their baby boy. There were absolutely no issues with the pregnancy despite all those doctors warnings because of the prior miscarriages. They are enjoying as of this writing, their healthy baby.
Today we are still experiencing God's responses to our prayers according to our faith. Oh, believer, please DO NOT lose out on the goodness of God. Whatever your previous beliefs, launch out on this new adventure with the God which perhaps you have never known this way...God is truly relational. He is a real person.
I've had an old classmate who was at the hospital preparing for surgery for a brain tumor half-way around the globe. I pled with God for her. Her surgery didn't go through because the tumor disappeared! Perhaps it was not just my prayer. Perhaps others were praying for her the RIGHT way too. But this is too much of a coincidence. She was already in the hospital room getting prepared for the surgery, which means that there were already 2nd, 3rd opinions on her tumor. Then there is the final scan before the actual surgery...and there was no tumor!
I have another friend, a medical doctor who is dealing with His own lung cancer. I tried to admonish him to refuse both chemotheraphy and radiation not because I was like those Christian Scientists who do not believe in medicine, but because I have read medical research and journals that prove that there is no statistical difference between those who get these treatments and those who don't (I am a mathematician, by the way, and statistics do NOT lie!). In fact, it will only weaken his immune system and lessen his capacity to fight any disease and even the cancer itself if it recurs, not to mention all the side-effects that make even most oncologists unwilling to undergo the procedure themselves were they or their loved ones to be stricken with cancer).
All I wanted was to spare him the agony. I wanted to suggest that he get treatments in Mexico or Germany which have better success with cancer treatments in a less invasive and toxic way, but I did not want to confuse him at his time of need so I kept quiet. Right now, I have a hard time praying for him, not because I have unbelief, but because he is further subjecting himself to worsen his case. It is like tempting God. "Lord, heal me. I am going to make it worse for me so you can heal me". Well, if he ever gets healed, guess who will get the glory? Will it be God or the toxic theraphies that he is going through. I believe people will glorify these cancer treatments instead of God and hence it is hard to pray to God for something where His work will be completely overshadowed by human effort.
In such cases, if he is granted deliverance from God, it will be despite everything bad he has allowed to be done to himself. However, it is doubtful that God will get the glory here and that is what makes me struggle to pray for him. When God does not get glory, He rarely answers or responds to prayer.
My only assurance is that it will be done to him --- ACCORDING TO HIS FAITH. If he believes that God will heal him through his cancer treatments, then perhaps God will. Unfortunately, I just do not see any concrete Biblical assurance for this where I can hang my faith on.
In the case of those Christian Scientists who "killed" their son suffering from diabetic attacks, note that they were a cult and have the wrong belief and hence the wrong God - an idol that they themselves created. Hence, the child died. This is both Bibilical and natural. They had a god with no ears or heart or life.
But we believe in the God of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, David - - - the RELATIONAL and loving God!!! The God who is the same yesterday, today and forever! The God who has "no shadow of turning" according to James.
He loves you and will NOT impose His will upon you under normal circumstances, so...IT SHALL BE DONE TO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH!

Other related topics:

• God's "Trial-and-Error" Attempts to Create a People of Faith for His Kingdom
• Covenant-Relationship Theology in a Nutshell
• Relational Theology Makes Prayer Meaningful
• Relational Prayer that gets Answers vs. the Vending Machine God
• Prayer that God does NOT answer, NORMALLY
• The concept of Faith from a Relational/Biblical Perspective
• Relational Theology Makes Evangelism Meaningful and Critical
• Relational Theology Makes Finding God's Will a Meaningful and Useful Experience

Complementarianism vs. Charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:11-16 says, "11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

Those of you who have been following my blogs may derive that I am an egalitarian in almost all things except when it is about marriage and divorce. Hence, I am strictly egalitarian when it comes to the charismatic gifts of the Spirit, especially as listed down in verse 11.

Complementarians are quick to say that the Greek for "pastor" and "teacher" are both masculine. My quick response is for them to note the words I highlighted in red in the above passage. ALL of these are in the masculine gender. Hence all the gifts in verse 11 are MASCULINE. Well and good for the complementarians who consider it anathema to see women preaching or teaching from the pulpit much less pastoring their own churches.

My response is simple as you can see. Note that the Greek words for "saints", "we", and "children" are masculine if you check your Greek Bibles. So should one be therefore strict and say that women are not part of the edification process in verse 12, since the word "hagios" for saints is masculine???? Does the phrase, "that WE may no longer be CHILDREN" only apply to men since they too are of masculine gender??? Or when verse 13 talks about "mature manhood" or "perfect man", does this ONLY apply to men and NOT women???

So you see, here is one argument where the gender of the words have no relevance to whether or not women should be pastors and teachers. The defining line is how the Jews practiced genderism in their religious and social affairs and what the coming and outpouring of the Holy Spirit has changed.

The Jews of course did not allow women to be priests. This was as much the implied commandment of God when He assigned priests and Levites to serve in the temple as it was a socio-religious differentiation of their time and age. Women priests during that time were associated with women gods of sexual fertility and the abominations of Ashtoreth and Baal. They were more of temple prostitutes but they were called priestesses.

The people of God had to be different, and God wisely chose a way to show the rest of the world that He was and is a different God. This direction, however, seems to be applicable only as far as differentiation was necessary between the people of God and the people of other gods.

Complementarians, however, stretch their beliefs to women in leadership or women pastors and teachers without the authority of some male leadership. This is such a faulty application of the design of God. Had this been true, there would never have been a Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel, who led the nation during the time of nation building. And Christians would then never have a Margaret Thatcher, or an Indira Gandhi.

Even the Jews had their Deborah during the time of the judges to whom Barak submitted to redounding to victory for the Hebrews. And the Jews had women prophets like the prophetess Anna in Luke 2:36. Since there has never been a clear declaration of when women could become prophets, though there was a preponderance of men prophets in the Old Testament, it seems quite clear that the office of prophet by God's choice and by Israel's acceptance have NEVER BEEN LIMITED to MEN. But remember that the Greek word for "prophet" is masculine!

To the credit of the Holy Spirit alone, (no thanks to the complementarians) do we have great Christian women leaders in the Church of Christ. I believe, complementarianism in this situation is an offspring of Roman Catholic practice which is an offspring of the Roman Empire Senate (simply changed external clothing by Emperor Constantine) which is dominated by male (oftentimes homosexual) rule. Most if not all cultures of the pagan world during this time (except perhaps for the Amazons, but who really knows?) were dominated and led by men.

It is clear that the coming of the Holy Spirit which happened during the era of the great Roman Empire, had to now differentiate between the Christian church and the rest of the world. In this case, it was the giving of charismatic gifts to the church WITHOUT RESTRICTION AS TO GENDER. It was time to show that women had as much value to God as men, that women had the same rights and privileges under the Holy Spirit as men do and that there are times that women had the better brains than men did - - - especially in the ekklesia of the Lord Jesus Christ!!!

The spiritual and practical implications of one's understanding and practical application of this passage and concept are bigger than normally thought. Point to me a complementarian denomination or church, and I will show that MOST PROBABLY this group does not believe in the healing gifts of the Holy Spirit nor in tongues. It is also most probable that there is very little excitement in these churches and the excitement they have is limited to church growth (they may rejoice in evangelism mostly because it grows their church, and not necessarily because it make God and heaven rejoice). I will guess that in these churches, only a few are really givers and perhaps not because of the teachings of the church but just out of their own personal walk with God! I will will show a church that may be busy with evangelism and activities but motivated by an intellectual belief instead of being pushed and prodded by the joy and excitement of the Holy Spirit in their midst.

On the other hand, show me the egalitarian churches and denominations and I can show you people who rejoice and marvel at people being healed, people praying and praising in tongues, people serving sacrificially with joy, and people giving beyond their means. And a majority of members "admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs".

Why do I make such sweeping conclusions and judgments you say. Well, it is not really my own but the Bible tells us NOT to quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19-20). If one quenches the Spirit in any ONE of His gifts, he opens the door to quenching the rest of what the Holy Spirit can dispense. Worse, if a whole church or denomination does just that - - - quench the Spirit in ANY ONE of His gifts, the church suffers the consequence of the Holy Spirit aborting His ministry in the church. This is why Holy Spirit revivals where men fall on their knees in surrender to their Savior and people are healed physically or freed from the shackle of their many "prisons" of addiction and fetishes, are few and far between.

It would be good practice NOT to limit our studies to just simple word studies in Scripture but to expand it to include the works and acts of the Holy Spirit in the history of the Israel, the church and the world. Then perhaps, we can interpret parts of Scripture like this correctly.

The First Century Meaning and Implications of Baptism

Baptism is one of only two "sacraments" which the Protestant Orthodox tradition recognizes as biblically mandated. We agree. This two are not just ceremonial activities. They are sourced in the very commands of Christ and the apostles and they are symbolic of relational reality in which everyone who claims to be a child of God should be doing.

The Holy Communion or the re-enactment and commemoration of the Lord's Last Supper as Incarnate Christ is commanded both by Christ and reiterated by St. Paul. They depict a close bonding between Christian and Christ which is very deeply relational.

Water baptism is another very relational sacrament. The act signifies a willful identification and intimate union of the believer with Christ to follow Him in obedience and newness of life in the power of the Holy Spirit characterized by personal holiness.

It is quite unfortunate that many baptisms or baptismal ceremonies fail to emphasize what the sacrament declares. What even makes it worse is the failure to realize the context wherein the first century Christians underwent water baptism. The following would be a list of their particular circumstance:

1. The Christian faith was classified as an illegal and anti-government sect
2. As such, Christians were not only persecuted but hauled away to jail, fed to the lions or burned at the stake. Their children were killed in front of their eyes and their property confiscated.
3. The Jewish converts knew that undergoing water baptism would permanently ostracize them from their Jewish relatives and friends.

In contrast to today, Roman Catholic baptism for one is a status symbol. Being baptized in that Church entails the very opposite environment that the first century Christian would face. It is small wonder that the religion is taken very much for granted by its converts. The pope bans abortion, but Roman Catholics are notoriously undergoing abortion in droves.

The same is true of so many other churches whether Eastern Orthodox or Protestant in all its flavors. Contemporary Christianity has lost sight of its origins. Church history is not even taught in any pulpit or Catechism or Confirmation class or Sunday School. Contemporary Christianity has deteriorated into a symbolic religion instead of a dynamic faith and relationship with the Living God through the Resurrected Christ.

Another relational meaning of baptism is analogous to a loved-filled relationship where the couple passionately desires to fulfill their wedding vows and display their wedding ring proudly. Baptism is our "wedding cermony" and "wedding ring" with God. We should desire to have it and display it proudly and passionately.

....more later...

Is It Wrong to Lie?

The Biblical record shows the occasions when Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David lied, but they were never condemned by God! In fact, the record shows that God was even on Abraham's side when he lied to Pharoah AND when he lied to Abimelech.

If God unequivocally banned man from lying, He could have made the 9th commandment, "Thou shalt not LIE", but He didn't. What He disliked was bearing false witness. Although bearing false witness is lying, not all lies are meant to bear false witness.

....under development. Come back soon and be less dis-oriented toward the concept of lying....