We will never know everything about God. Really???

There is always a classical theology paradox which presupposes that man can NEVER know everything about God. While this may be absolutely true, I react to the logical repercussion in biblical interpretations that make that cliche a fallback for a lack of understanding of divine revelation.

Recall at least 2 key verses to expound this point.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV) states, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law".

Classical interpretations put too much emphasis on the first part of the verse, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God" and almost totally disregard the profound implications of the second part of that wonderful verse, "but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law"!

The "things revealed TO US (to Moses, to Israel, the Old Testament, even the New Testament!)" BELONG(!!!) to us! Belong means WE OWN IT! Belong means we SHOULD master it, we should be or have "doctorates" in it. For the things revealed, there should be no gray areas, no mysteries, no excuses!

Hence, man should be able to KNOW EVERYTHING about God in the very aspects of God that He has explicitly revealed in Scripture. The problem with the classical excuse is that it proposes to beg ignorance in all the so-called mysteries like the Trinity, God's Love, God's jealousy, God's change of mind in numerous occasions in Scripture when IN FACT, they have already been explicitly REVEALED or UNRAVELED, if you will. If you have been a reader of this blog, all of this items have been unequivocally addressed without excuses, and without any arrogance for that matter. Of what practical use is revelation if not much is revealed? What kind of logic proposes that revelation from the Divine can never be completed without completely insulting the Source of Revelation as lacking in communicating abilities????

A very important sub-point in the second part of that verse is that our "complete" understanding of God's revelation is the very foundation or basis for correct and true obedience to God's word, as well as the solid foundation for our faith to work. If we fail to interpret God's revelation correctly, then our obedience is not well-founded and may even redound to or be utter disobedience. Our faith will always have lingering doubts. The biggest interpretive failure in classical theological discussions is to deny that there is one correct interpretation of God's explicit revelations. This makes them doubly accountable to God for fundamentally teaching the wrong material and content of Scripture by leaving the right interpretation in limbo and dismissing things as "mysteries", that we will never know God or His will.

The second verse is one of my favorites, Jeremiah 9:23, 24:

²³ This is what the LORD says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
²⁴ but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD.

If we were to boast of anything or any accomplishment in this life, the Lord does not place much value in either wisdom, strength or power, or riches. What God values is that we UNDERSTAND and KNOW Him. Let us apply some common-sense logic to the assumptions of this verse.

First, God will never expect of us anything that we can NEVER do as humans. Obviously, knowing and understanding Him is NOT nor NEVER something we cannot do! It is, IN FACT, something we can DO and accomplish and even COMPLETE in this life! Think about it.

Second, God specified which areas of theology or "knowing God" we should be able to COMPLETELY know in this life. They are God's (loving-)kindness [kheced], justice (or judgment) [mishpat], and righteousness [tsadaqah]. According to this verse, if we know these three aspects of God, AND WE SHOULD, then we can claim to KNOW and UNDERSTAND GOD!!! [As a footnote, we should therefore avoid Bible teachers who never talk about sin and judgment or righteousness. Most modern day teachers simply dwell of knowing love and nothing else, that is not the complete revelation of God.]

Third, God declares that it is His particular DELIGHT that we know and understand Him in these specific areas. What better emphasis can anyone put than the very words that God used in this verse!

CrossCulture Mission Points

...This is work in progress...

My local church at CrossCulture in West Covina, CA is formulating its mission statement. We have always thought and taught that the foundation of the church should be a community that exemplifies the tenets of the Sermon on the Mount as delivered by Jesus Christ Himself. The following are some talking points that may find their way to the final form of its Mission Statement:

•Winning the World to Christ by WHO we ARE (NOT what we DO)

The first century church won the world to Christ because of who they were, their way of life and their culture based on both the teaching of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Modern churches try to win the world to Christ through fancy feeding or evangelism programs, structures, good preachers, training, methods, techniques - ALL without exception were NOT used by the first century church. Most of this methods are designed to hide the fact that most christian have in reality not been transformed by Christ into a new creation. These are programs created, promoted and pushed by "dead" christians.

The world is NOT attracted to Christ because it is not impressed by modern-day Christians whose actions and "normal" behavior speak louder than their words that the world is really saying, "Your actions are speaking so loud, I can't hear what you're saying!"

Modern Christian leaders tend to hide their UNTRANSFORMED lives behind programs, methods, training and structures and hoping that these would be used by God to reach the world. Unfortunately, though a few are reached, the ones reached tend to accept a caricature of true Christianity instead of the real thing. On the other hand, the first century Christians had NONE of those, all they had were lives submitted to and transformed by the Holy Spirit. History records that the non-Christian world looked at the first century Christians and exclaimed, "Behold, how they love!". Christians obviously had something that was different from the world and what the world wanted.

Today, Christians still have a great message but, unfortunately, live lives, have value systems, behaviors and a culture that are no different from the unbelieving world, if not, even short of obnoxious.

We reach the world by demonstrating our transformation, by showing how different our value systems, attitudes and behaviors are. And THEN, according to St. Francis, "...if necessary, use words."

•Through the Culture of the Cross, building an alternative society that is Kingdom-minded (lives and dwells in the Kingdom)

•Building a community that lives beyond the level of mediocrity.

Being a citizen of the Kingdom of God is not the same as casual membership in any organization. Citizenship demands responsibility and active involvement in the affairs of the Kingdom ACCORDING TO THE RULES or LAWS of the Kingdom.

•Faith developed by knowing the King

•Faith/service exercised naturally and from the heart

•Righteousness that exceeds

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ the King did not and never intends to micro-manage His subjects. This is fundamentally because He wants to establish a culture and value system that lives beyond keeping-your-nose-clean. On the other hand, the Lord intends for His subjects to live a way-of-life this is not passive but initiates righteousness and goodness that not only makes the world take notice (Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."), but includes the intention to transform the citizen's immediate environment and sphere of influence , "You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:12)... you are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)".

The unconventional rules of thumb of the Kingdom are supposed to be the visible manifestations of salt and light to the earth that demonstrates the radical difference between Kingdom culture and the world's culture.

Firstly, it is concerned with what occurs in the heart as stated in Christ's analogy of murder vs. anger and adultery vs. lust. Secondly, it emphasizes the value of marriage relationships and highlights the equality of man and woman in Christ's restatement of divorce and remarriage (sadly, something that most American Christians are so amiss at). Thirdly, it puts so much weight on personal integrity such that a citizen's word carries (or destroys) his honor. Fourth, it has a revolutionary approach to dealing with a citizen's reactions to the personal offenses of his fellow men. Fifth, it emphasizes the cost and effect of true love.

Sixth, it demeans self-glorification as a goal in doing good, but seeks only the approval of God. Seventh, it elevates prayer as a personal and private issue with God, that once prayer becomes a mere public display, it is no longer directed to God and has no value.

Eighth, it emphasizes that what should be personal and private with God MUST remain PURELY personal and private, as in the giving of alms and fasting. Ninth, in the Lord's prayer, it demonstrates how a Kingdom citizen addresses and speaks with the King.

Tenth, it highlights where a Kingdom citizen invests his time talent and treasure, not so much in this world but in and for the Kingdom of God. As a result, a citizen's concerns should be directed at pleasing God and seeking His righteousness. In response to this, the King takes care of the things of this world.

Eleventh, it demeans the imposition personal opinion upon others and elevates personal righteousness. Twelfth, it highlights the value of our good works whether material or intangible and the responsibility of dispensing it ONLY to those who can appreciate it.

Thirteenth, it promises that being a true citizen of the Kingdom and tangible benefits. Ask, Seek, Knock and the King will respond POSITIVELY.

Fourteenth,

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]...

Why Christians Miss the Main Thrust of God's Word

It is sad that in this day and age, too much emphasis is given to new Christians on the New Testament. Most modern day evangelicals (the average church attender) are New Testament Christians only and not Biblical (whole Bible) Christians. As a result we have produced a race of Christians who are formal, "keep-your-nose-clean", unexcited and unexciting, ultra-right-wing conservatives and very often, quite legalistic Christians.

One must have a big picture view of the Word of God in order to approach it the right way and to get not only maximum value from God's infinite wisdom but to bathe and immerse in loving communion with the God of the universe who is now OUR Father and OUR personal Shepherd.

Assume that there were no New Testament and we lived before Christ and the only source of God's revelation is the Jewish Scripture (which is the Christian's Old Testament). One would find the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who promised a covenant relationship with an elect group of His creation. Reading further one would discover the God of Joseph who can put down and raise up, the God of Moses whom we can communicate personally and directly with and sometimes argue with and yet although He is a God of mercy and will constantly forgive, many times He WILL NOT remove the consequences of our sin (Moses never entered the promised land he worked so hard to bring God's people to).

And so on and so forth, the God of Joshua and Gideon who can fight for His people, the God of David who can reward to the highest degree (David's line will be eternal) and punish to the lowest degree (humiliated David forever for his sin with Uriah and Bathsheba and killed the son that resulted from that sin despite David's efforts to beg for his life!). Read the major and minor prophets and discover a relationship with God that is beyond personal relationship.

So, to put the New Testament in perspective: It was meant to do just a few things

1. Demonstrate the extent of God's unconditional love. God also had to show that He exceeds Abraham's sacrificial gesture of sacrificing Isaac.
2. Clarify that salvation is by grace through faith resulting in inheriting the righteousness of God, or being reckoned righteous before God.
3. John 15 and the Sermon on the Mount clarifies that God is a relational God, that his objective for creating man in His image is to have a loving covenant-relationship with autonomous creatures out of their own free will, for them to surrender back to Him that free will willingly and completely.
4. To clarify that justification or salvation is just a step (albeit definitely necessary) in the big picture of relationship with God.
5. To explain the unique culture that a child of God and citizens of heaven must possess to be DIFFERENT from the world and normal men.
6. 
   

Christians should not approach the New Testament with a "what must I do to keep my nose clean" attitude, in much the same way as not approaching it with a "what should I do to get what I want" attitude (much like the health-and-wealth or name-it-and-claim-it aberrations of theology).

Christians should approach the New Testament as a culmination of the principles and demonstrations of God's relational objectives with those whom He "created in His image". To derive maximum value from the New Testament, one must view it as an addendum to the Old Testament and the completion of God's revelation to man. It must NEVER be viewed as God's NEW dispensation because the old covenant as written in the Jewish Scriptures have been changed.

This last point is quite important. The first century church which started as a mustard seed has grown to be the biggest tree in the garden consistent with the parable of Christ. It is God's Kingdom among us, as Dallas Willard puts it in The Divine Conspiracy. One can only appreciate the Spirit behind transformed lives in the first century when one realizes that their ONLY Scripture was the Jewish Scriptures or what we now know as the Old Testament. The church grew inspired by a risen Savior and a new enlightenment of what the Jewish Scriptures were all about. What we now know as the Gospels, Paul's letters and the other epistles were essentially just incidental letters of instruction that further explained what the Jewish Scriptures were all about. The main point I wish to draw from this important historical background is that it is necessary to read the Bible THROUGH JEWISH EYES in order to fully grasp and appreciate the the Author and the Spirit behind those Words.

Sadly, much of the influence of the later church fathers as well as some early church fathers looked at Scripture from the intelligencia Hellenistic perspective and the clouding of the relational aspects of Scripture gradually faded in favor of the classical Greek concepts of a more impersonal God ( the unmoved mover, lower case to me as it IN NO WAY describes the God of Israel!), an impassive God (pure Bible contradiction of God's personality), Absolute (and unbridled) Sovereignty (another Greek concept so devoid of love and relationship at its heart because it believes that God cannot and will not risk anything [a clearly empirical and experiential contradiction]), and other theological "garbage" (read that in French!).

[This is work in process....more soon]

When God Delays

The following is an outline of the Sunday message I gave at CrossCulture on April 19, 2008 on the death and temporary resurrection of Lazarus.

Title: When God Delays

Text: John 11:1-46

Supporting Text: Mark 5:22-43; Mark 4:35-41

God delays even after we pray. 6,12,21,39

cf. Jairus Mk 5:35;

At Sea Mk 4:37-38 - Even when Jesus is in the boat, storms may come. However, the problem-solver is in the boat with you.

God shows the basis of our faith may not be enough. 14,17,24-27,40

cf Jairus Mk 5:36-37, 39-40;

At Sea Mk 4:38,40-41 - The disciples knew to wake up Jesus so He could help empty the boat of water. They had faith but NOT that Jesus can calm the storm.

Gen 26-famine - God has a promise/goal and He leads us to it but rarely in a straight line. God's higher goal is for us to get to know Him intimately foremost.

Gen 41 famine vs. Manna in the Sinai desert. Will God solve everything and we just harvest the results? or does God want us to deliberately prepare (lots of human effort) for a situation He is bringing about?

We might have the right faith but the wrong scope of what God can do. We believe that God can heal but do we believe that God can raise the dead?

God experiences the same pain we do. John 11:35; Isaiah 63:9

God demonstrates a greater miracle. 43-44

cf Jairus Mk 5:41-43; At Sea Mk 4:39

God increases our faith as we witness that He can do greater things than we thought. 45-46

cf At Sea Mk 4:40-41

Sometimes, God wants us to stop praying and just start putting His will into action:

Exodus 14:15-16 - Stop praying and start taking action

Josh 7:10-11 - Stop praying and deal with sin first

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

Relational response to R.C. Sproul's "The Image of God"

I listened to Dr. R. C. Sproul's lecture through Ligonaire Ministries radio dated 4/7/2009 available for free through www.oneplace.com.

I agree with almost everything Sproul said. However, his concept is at best anemic and falls far short of true theomorphism. This is expected because he is a classical calvinist. Recall that theomorphism is a technical word to describe "in the image of God".

After the fall, he says that the image of God in man was shattered, and this I fully agree with. However, his anemic concept is tacitly derived from his unquestioning adherence to the T of the calvinist TULIP which stands for the TOTAL Depravity of man. As a 5-point Calvinist, his concept of theomorphism being shattered after the fall is one of being completely shattered and totally depraved and therefore unable to exercise true faith in God even when enlightened but still unredeemed. I was waiting for him to articulate this.

His main point was that man is a higher being than the rest of the animal kingdom or creation for that matter. He stops short of admitting that theomorphic man has free will ordained by the creator AND NATURALLY POSSESSES the inherent (in bold) ability to express love, hope, and just as important --- FAITH, albeit in imperfect form sometimes IN HIS FALLEN STATE! If these "natural attributes and abilities endowed by God" were also shattered (or shattered completely from the viewpoint of Hyper-Calvinism) then the fall of man made humanity just a tad higher than the animals which mostly function by instinct instead of intelligence and self-will.

Calvinists are somehow tunnel-visioned in imposing upon the text of Ephesians 2:8-9 the theory that even faith is NOT of ourselves, that even faith has to be the gift of God (and I have heard RC Sproul actually say this).

Now, a reading of any English translation (except the Living Bible, which is a paraphrase bias of the verses) or any Greek translation does not even come close to hinting that faith is not of ourselves. Importantly, the passage declares that salvation is NOT of ourselves which we completely subscribe to. Yes, salvation is the gift of God. Faith, however, and the capacity to exercise it is a clear part of theomorphism, i.e., faith and the exercise of faith was a designed and ordained human attribute which was bestowed on man at the creation. It is NOT a gift of God at the point of salvation. It can be called a gift of God, yes, but imparted thousands of years ago on the first man which we today simply inherit being THE SAME theomorphic beings, BUT NEVER at the point of salvation. Nowhere in the Bible is such a theory declared, not even by "chosen from the foundation of the world" which covers another aspect of the redeemed and/or the church.

Of what use is the image of God in man if all it is about is that man has a soul or spirit which the rest of creation does not have, or that he is higher than the animals? If the image of God is limited to that, then we have an anemic God, deficient in very important characteristics of independent, autonomous beings, unless, of course, the calvinist believes that man is just a glorified robot or a robot with a spirit -- a complete degradation of the image of God!

The concept of total depravity of man should be limited only towards his ability to please God and/or gain salvation without the provisions of God. However, it should be clarified that faith (inclusive of so-called SAVING FAITH) is and was NEVER a provision of God at the point of salvation. True theomorphism proposes that faith is part of the attributes of man inherited from God (being created in His image) in the original creation and the ability to exercise faith, hope, love, though volatile was never shattered by the fall.

We reiterate: Salvation is NOT of ourselves. However, the exercise of faith in the provision of God for our salvation is ENTIRELY of ourselves and of our human wills (free will being another attribute given to man at creation) and this is what consumates true redemption and the right to be related to God as His child.

Calvinists will point out one or two isolated verses to try to disprove this but they do so at the expense of the overwhelming preponderance of the rest of Scripture supporting the Relational Theology concept of Theomorphism. They commit this EXACT same hermeutical and exegetical error when they discuss predestination and election - - citing a few isolated verses at the expense of contradicting the overwhelming preponderance of the rest of Scripture which CLEARLY declares otherwise.

Paraphrases like The Living Bible are guilty of this erroneous translation, one reason I shy away from paraphrases which normally express the opinions of the translator but I insist on translations or better yet, parallel translations for real Bible study and exegesis. It is worth restating Ephesians 2:8 again using the ESV,

⁸ For ^zby grace you have been saved ^athrough faith. And this is ^bnot your own doing; ^cit is the gift of God

^z ver. 5

^a 1 Pet. 1:5; [Rom. 4:16]

^b [2 Cor. 3:5]

^c [John 4:10; Heb. 6:4]

The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Eph 2:8). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

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...]