Looking for a home....

“Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”- John 14:23 (NIV)

Since my family and I have left the ‘wilds’ of Holly, that quaint little village about a half hour from Flint in the southwestern area of Oakland county I have pondered the argument of finding another community in which to fellowship and belong. It has not been one I’m eager to impart upon again, with the recent string of mega-driven churches that seem to be more on size than on community relationships that have been the experience or that preach a doctrine that has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. Beginning at the ‘bottom’ again just fills me with frustration and discontentment that has plagued me since God called me to ministry some five years ago.

Yet, I cannot ignore the fact that I must be in a community of believers, not just for the edification of the journey but to have accountability and instruction. John tells us to gather together because of who we belong to:

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1John 1:7 NIV)

The example of the early church was to come together for instruction and fellowship….

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” ( Acts 2:42 NIV)

So, that is why I travelled with my kids to Berean Bible Church in Livonia.

The Bereans of the bible were mentioned in the book of Acts, in comparison with the Thessalonians, who had run Paul out of town with false accusations. They are said to be ‘of more noble character’ because they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true, rather than trying to incite a riot like the Jews in Thessalonica did ….they did not merely sit under the apostle’s teaching and swallow what he had to say with blind obedience. (Acts 17:11 NIV)

Paul would be followed by those Thessalonian Jews, Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea, and sneaked down to Athens, where he sent word for the others to follow, and during that wait, uttered the famous sermon about the ‘unknown God’ the Greeks had a statute for.

According to Wikipedia, many churches and ministries that follow the ‘Berean’ label are predominately evangelical protestant and place an emphasis on the primacy of Scripture.

The Berean Church is compromised of 60 independent congregations in the US, with features common to Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations. It is the ‘sola scriptura’ or ‘bible only’, that puts this denomination at odds with its other denominational brethren, predominately Catholic, because of the protestant doctrine that declares the Bible as the sole source of revelation, and judgmental authority on all Christian faith matters. Formed by Martin Luther, the ‘sola scriptura’ rejects the authority of the Church and the apostolic tradition according to popular theology.

Historically founded by John Barclay, a former Presbyterian minister, the early form of the Berean church was modeled on a modern form of Calvinism. Barclay’s church merged with the Congregationalists after his death.

A new group was formed under Dr. John Thomas, under the title of “Christadelphian". The Thomas group believed in obeying the Commandments of Christ and the Bible as the inspired word of God, and split into two groups, the Christadelphians and the Berean-Christadelphians, but retained the division with the denominations of Protestants, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox over the orthodox Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

The two groups of Christadelphians do not believe in the three-in-one Godhead.

Some groups, under the Bible Student movement, have also used the “Berean” title, such as the Berean Bible Students and the Berean Bible Institute. But, adding the “Berean” to a denominational group or church doesn’t necessarily mean it is a Barclay- or Thomas- or Luther-ian formation of the ‘sola scriptura’ group.

The Catholic dislike of the “Bereans” seems set in an argument about ‘more nobleness,’ pointing out that Paul preached for three weeks in Thessalonica and therefore the Jews there were allowed the time to compare to the Old Testament, soundly reject Paul’s teaching at the end of the third week.

The defense is that the Thessalonian Jews were right to be skeptical because of the myriad of heresies, cults and sects that were rampant in the Roman Empire, and the Jewish belief in the sole authority of the Torah, which the comparison was to have been made. This would have made the Thessalonians more of the “sola scriptura” mindset than the Bereans, who accepted Paul’s additional revelations as God’s word.

That argument falls on the face of the written word, as the Bereans are the only one of the two groups who were said to compared scripture for the discernment of God’s word in this new apostle, Paul, “to see if what he said was true.” This means Paul was preaching, at least in part, the Torah and bringing it in connection with the revelation of Christ’s sacrifice, overcoming death and ascension into Heaven. This we have evidence of throughout his teachings.

The Berean Bible Church I attended listed this as their beliefs on the website:

The Bible is God’s word and absolute authority in a believer’s life.

God is one, eternally existent in three Persons (Father,Son,Holy Spirit)

God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being.

Jesus Christ was born of a virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit,fully God and fully Man, satisfying divine judgment by the sacrifice of His death, from which He rose again and ascended to Heaven from which He will return.

The Holy Spirit convicts, regenerates, baptizes, indwells and seals the believer.

The need for salvation extends to all people, not earned by reformation of our life, morality or obedience to the sacraments but freely gifted to those who accept by faith the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as offered through the design of God for the redemption of His people.

They believe in the value of being a people who examine Scriptures for biblical truth and enjoy fellowship with like-minded believers on the essential beliefs stated, who seek to love one another and who look forward to the blessed return of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As far as the doctrinal creed goes, they believe in the triune God.

Two brothers in Christ, one whom I know personally, come from this group. Joe finished his chaplaincy training and left for the field. Tom belonged to the same work bible group and extended the invitation to attend his church group.

It is led by Dr. John McLean, Senior Pastor who has thirty years in ministry with a focus on biblical and theological teaching/studying through various Christian post-secondary schools according to his bio and is passionate about bible exposition and application. He is also serving as the Director of Distance Education for Heritage College and Seminary. I got to meet and talk to both the Pastor and his wife, Diana. Very nice people, with the calm air of a mature Christian. Dr. McLean has the following titles; B.R.E, William Tyndale College, TH.M., Dallas Theological Seminary, M.A. Near Eastern Studies and Ph.D. Near Eastern Studies (Biblical) both from the University of Michigan.

The ‘other’ side of the congregation, the youth, are led by Ben Luethy, associate pastor, who has a B.A. from Moody Bible Institute and M.Div. from Heritage Theological Seminary. He became the associate pastor of BBC in 2005 and has a passion for building community and discipleship through small groups and helping the youth to have a personal relationship with Christ through active participation in it. I have not met Pastor Luethy, or his family. We didn’t stay for the ‘Sunday school’ portion of the Sunday, so I only saw maybe twenty kids in the ‘Kid’s church’ portion of the day. They do have programs for all age groups.

This is an old congregation, with a generational feel to its membership. When I walked in, it felt like I was walking into the hallowed halls of another church from long long ago, Dunning Park Chapel. The majority of the group was in their older 40s with precious few children it seemed gracing the hallways. There didn’t seem to be a lot of young families, and there definitely (at first glance) weren’t any single fathers in the group. Of course, summer time, especially with the holiday of Labor Day right around the corner, doesn’t give one a sense of the true size of the group that meets under the banner of BBC.

And, apparently the congregation is looking for a new shepherd…..

One cannot gain a sense of the congregational life from one visit. But one can verify whether biblical teaching is taking place……

Dr. McLean taught from 2 Thessalonians….an ironic place to teach if you take into account the biblical reference to the Bereans…..as a part of a series concerning the Anti-Christ.

“And you know what is holding him back, for he can be released only when his time has come.” 2 Thessalonians 2:6 (NLT)

It was interesting to see Dr. McLean point out that it isn’t the church’s influence or even the power of the faithful that are keeping the power or coming of the Anti-Christ at bay; rather it is the power of the Holy Spirit that holds this manifestation of the end days in check, until such time as that authority is withdrawn and the final days are allowed to commence.

McLean pointed to several verses that show the convicting power of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:8 and 16:13). He refers to the time of Noah, when God said that “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time….” (Genesis 6:2 NLT) as a historical point when the Spirit’s authority was removed. It was shortly after that Noah’s ark was built and the Great Flood destroyed the whole of humanity beyond its wooden hull.

It is that moment in time, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, when God will allow “this man [who] will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe those lies. Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil rather than believing the truth.”

The world will be allowed its disillusionary savior……its conquering hero…..

Of course, as we progress as ‘human’ in a postmodern world, you cannot go long without coming face-to-face with the disillusions of this world….Evolution, Atheism, Secular Humanism, Individual rights v citizenship, Situational ethics, separation of Church/State, life begins at birth, and homosexuality…..as McLean named a few.
It would seem the ground is fertile for the ‘refusal of the truth’ today, as we progress towards a liberal, universalist government of individual rights over the sake of societal cohesiveness. The land of the ‘majority’ has become the fragmentation of the individualist. We have the steps that this Anti-Christ will take; treaty with Israel, sit of world government in Babylon, etc…..to say that our current President, like many others before him, is the anti-Christ is folly……there are too many things that he doesn’t fit that are prophesied. He may be a precursor to the fields being prepared for the ‘releasing’ of the Anti-Christ…..but, the whole world has worked itself into being fertile for the taking.

As Pastor McLean points out, we have the chronology of the end times prophesied and the signs of the false one. And we know the framework of what will be the last day of the end times….

“After all of this, I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with his splendor. He gave a mighty shout: ‘Babylon is fallen ----that great city is fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a hideout for every foul spirit, a hideout for every foul vulture and every foul and dreadful animal. For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of her passionate immorality. The Kings of the world have committed adultery with her. Because of her desires for extravagant luxury, the merchants of the world have grown rich.’ Then I [John] heard another voice calling from heaven: “Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God remembers her evil deeds. Do to her as she has done to others. Double her penalty for all her evil deeds. She brewed a cup of terror for others, so brew twice as much for her. She glorified herself and lived in luxury, so match it now with torment and sorrow. She boasted in her heart, ‘I am queen on my throne. I am no helpless widow, and I have no reason to mourn.’ Therefore, these plagues will overtake her in a single day----death and mourning and famine. She will be completely consumed by fire, for the Lord God who judges her is mighty.” And the kings of the world who committed adultery with her and enjoyed her great luxury will mourn for her as they see the smoke rising from her charred remains. They will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will cry out: ‘How terrible, how terrible for you, O Babylon, you great city! In a single moment God’s judgment came on you.’ The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods. She brought great quantities of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet cloth; things and objects made of expensive woods and bronze, iron, and marble. She also bought cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and bodies ----that is, human slaves. ‘The fancy things you loved so much are gone,’ they cry. ‘All your luxuries and splendor never to be yours again.’ The merchants who became wealthy by selling her these things will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will weep and cry out, ‘How terrible, how terrible for that great city! She was clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens, decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls! In a single moment, all the wealth of the city is gone!’” Revelation 18:1-17 NLT

There will be a time of prosperity in the economy and the overnight collapse of its system. The Anti-Christ will seem to be for the benefit of all, but will break a covenant with Israel halfway through its existence and will show signs, wonders and miracles to convict the weak of his authority and promise. And he will rein until the white horse is spotted in the skies, ridden by the Lord and Savior, who has come to reclaim His creation.

If anything else can be said of BBC, it cannot be considered to be a church without biblical teaching.

References:

http://bereanbible.us/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bereans

Reverend John McLean (PhD) sermon, 9-6-09.

God's work.....temple building while the people languish

"That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." Colossians 1:10-12 (NKJV)

It wasn't much of a surprise today when I recieved the email from my pastor, well one of them, about how the church had limited funds in which to answer the 'overwhelming' amount of the congregation that was in financial difficulties.

And, although I wasn't surprised, I was a little bit disappointed in the 'standard' line being given, though I have been places where I shouldn't be and have overheard the reasoning. The 'vision' is all, trump and king, to the expense of fulfilling the mission of caring for those under one's care. You see, the big 'capital' project, important to the vision of the lead pastor, trumps all....12 million dollars for a mega campus that would unite four campuses under his care. Not surprising really, in this economic climate to be under the magnifying glass. And, in the terms of 'mega' churches, not surprising to give it all to the accumulation of a 50 year dream.

Though another church I know of in West Virginia has been paying on their property for years, delaying the buliding of the new buliding until such time as the congregation is cared for. People over buildings, much like the Acts 2 church that started the Christian movement post Christ.

Biblically, one of the pastors has called out the congregation, speaking of 'sin in the camp' and coming on-board for this major step in ministry where the sign of the church's name and the 'full' parking lot would beckon to those wandering the highways and byways and entice them to come in. No longer to have to knock on doors, the ease of ministry wrapped up in a major outreach...within the arceage of the desired home.

Another church I know of still meets in a warehouse, having purchased the warehouse behind them to expand and meeting in the rented space of another community civic center. They have paid almost all of the property that they originally planned, first to build their church buildings on, then only a worship center......yet there is no building going on yet on that old donkey farm.....the associate pastor and his family live in the old farmstead house still standing. Though they preach a emergent doctrine....again, it seems to be people over buildings, to a degree.

I don't know why, beyond the obvious corporate mentality that seems to inhabit the churches beyond the size of a small household.....the numbers, the finances and the vision that seems to be controlled by a few 'prophets' that degenerates into a popularity contest because the pastor is a hunk or the doctrine is easy listening, that the provisions of the flock, whether of the congregation or the community surrounding it can be justified by the achievement of a 'vision' totally reilent upon the powerful charisma of the leadership and accounted to the hand of God....when moral and provisonal biblical authority points in other directions. But the power of the voice controls the listening of the masses, it would seem.

But the text referenced by the pastor Sunday last, meant obviously to excite and entice the congregation into the visionary reality of the dream, seemed to fall flat and be more of an incorrectly applied reference than a inspirational call-to-arms.
No doubt God answered the pastor's prayer to supply the text, but I think it was to mean something different than what he spoke. It was from the small minor prophet book of Haggai.


"In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts." (Haggai 2:1-9 KJV)

It was the last verse in the first section of the second chapter that the pastor equated the building of the 'campus' to, a building of the temple....to be greater than the one that was destroyed under the Babylonians. The pastor called to the congregation not to be complacent, otherwise God would leave them behind in this grand vision of ministry, on such a large scale that this pastor, who had been in outreach ministry specifically targeting a group that is part of his story, had ever been a part of.

The three prophets; Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi have the commonality of theme in speaking the encouragments, testimony of unfaithfulness, and the lack of relationship with God.

The temple, the glory of Solomon and the centre point of the jewish faith, was where the heart of a true, fearful and reverent people should be, these minor prophets declare. That was the outward form of which the piety of the people should be expressed as and insofar as God allowed the enfeebed and straying people to have. No matter in what condition the temple was, it was still the house of God and therefore the center of all levitical exercises.

The three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, set before us the encouragements which God gave the people, that they might be faithful in their new position; and the testimony against their unfaithfulness, called for by the decay of their piety, and the total want of reverence for Jehovah into which the people had fallen.

The temple was necessarily the centre of this imperfect and intermediate state of the people. It was there, if God allowed the re-establishment of their worship, that the hearts of the people should centre. That was the outward form in which their piety as a people should be expressed. It was thus that the return of their heart to God should be manifested. Whatever deficiencies there might be in the restored Levitical service, still, it was the house of God, to which was attached all that could be re-established, and was the centre of its exercise.

But the faith of the Jews was quickly handicapped, even though God provided evidence of HIs goodness and mercy towards the people by bringing a king of Persia to view them favorably. The lack of confidence in the mercies and kindness of God was hindered by their unbelief and so the furits that would have been achieved were lost in the dust of the feeble effort of rebuliding.

Yet God did not give up, providing in His own timing the necessary ingredients to encourage His people in their effortts; a prophet raised up to speak of God's kindness. But two characteristics of that timing, when looked at deeply, were based upon moral cosiderations and God's arrangements of events.

When God had provided morally and provisionally for their work, He sent the prophets to entice the people from their ease into that which they should have realized was always their duty. They leaned upon the ethic of work learned through the captivity, work only under the harshness of force instead of leaning upon God.

In the silence of the world, with no opposition or trials to endure, the people languished instead in their temporal interests of the flesh and the world. Even as the people moved in langid fahsion in the rebuilding efforts, the unbelief of their hearts burdened them to the point of difficulty and the peple leave god out of the excuses in their lackluster efforts. By neglecting God's house, they by omission neglect their worship to God. and excuses too that are apparently well founded: they have only this capital defect, that they leave God out. The vision of what once was drowns out the vision of what the remaining jewish people can achieve and thus the painful inferiority of their best marrs the vision to which God has called them. Human inferiority weakens spiritual faith.

John Darby points out that it is the grace of God that meets this difficulty of unbelief and inferiority with the rememberance from HIs prophet of God's provision, blessings, and worthiness of worship. Even as few as they were, God had made provisions for the efforts of HIs people and would be with them as He had always been.

In the effort of this church to build its own temple to God, a center of their focus and worship, it seems they have forgotten the pleasure of the Lord in what had already been achieved in His service because our all too human heart is too prideful to be pleased with what seems a minor step in the work of the kingdom. Whereas one might see a mobile, homeless church, God has seen the harvesting of the fields and the fulfillment of His declarations.

In that house, temporary and mobile, the glory of the Lord doesn't rest as it did in the wealth and craftsmanship of Solomon's vision but in the indwelling of God's spirit with His people. It is not the 'grand vision' of the leadership that brings praise and glory to the Father, but the honor in which the people give all they have to the provisions and convenant between the Heavenly Father and themselves. That is the richeness of which Haggai speaks, far above the gold and silver (or in this case, vision) of the people's handiwork.

But that seems to be the state of the church today, mega means richness and excitement while the relational atomsphere of the olden and oft maligned 'neighborhood' churches of a few hundred, where the pastors are aware of not only their sheep's names but the conditions in which the people struggle and need encouragment in.

Better to build epic cathedrals of exceptional craftsmanship than to go door to door in a relational effort to meet people in the darkness and call them by the essense of the testimony of God's provisional grace within the lives of those who follow Him. Better to centralize and broadcast an enticing message of corporate equality to the world than to trudge through the muck and mire in the efforts to be real in an unrealistic world.

The church today builds its tower of Babylon, grand scales of mankind's outward and easy worship to a God that desires relationship more than quantity or scale. If all the moral commandments of the Lord are not met, how can the provisional strength of God to bring into agreement the necessities of major movement be justifiably called upon.

It is that verse, first upon this page, that spoke to me in this time of crisis, where the impossibility of the mountain becomes paled within the shadow of my God; provisionally or not, where I go is in His promise to turn all trials into provisons for His work, all tribulation and rejection into the undeniable grace of His faithfulness and honor. And as the day sets upon the imcompleteness of His answer, the answer shines loud and clear. Be at rest, trust upon Me and where you go and into what building you endeavor, I shall provide more than gold even could measure and silver ever be desired. I will be within you as you are within me.

And there is the greater glory of the temple God calls all of His people to build.

Slopping for the pigs......

"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father." (Luke 15:17-20a ESV)

There is no time frame given in which the prodigal son is slopping the pigs, wishing for food that is only fit for them and their substance. This story is often used to help understand the process of salvation; we realized that we have sinned and are absent from the relationship with our Father, The repenting sinner turns with firmness and resolution from the bondage of Satan and his worldly lusts and returns to God through prayer...."notwithstanding fears and discouragements," Matthew Henry says. He returns to take the servant's role, to the Father's rejoicement and restoration to his place in the home.

But, as I have travelled this journey, slopping for the pigs who are placed so much more highly than myself in this world (who are of the world) I wonder if God didn't intend for the message contained there to stop with the repentant sinner and the joyful celebration of his return home. There is so much more contained within the story of his conversion. Pastor Jim Combs, of the River of Faith, brought another context a few Sundays ago, about the elder son and the prodigal and how that should be reflected between mature and newborn Christians (I'd recommend listening to it www.hissalt.net). But, even there I think lies a true message, but not the only one......

The world will, as the lesson clearly teaches, fool you into its embrace and promise wealth, glory, and relationship....until what you have to sustain the illusions is gone and then it will cast you upon the rocks of despair, leaving you valued less than the pigs, who are quite content to wallow around in fith and muck. Even those who have 'backsliden' from what they know is true.

What kind of home did he leave? Apparently a wealthy and prosperous one where he had experience with independence and authority, for he demanded his inheritance and was not stopped from leaving. Maybe there was a disagreement he had with his elder brother, the mother, or even the father...whatever the reason, he rejected the 'nature' of his home and went into voluntary exile. Steeped in selfish gratification, he held to a 'bondage and gloom' image of what home was like instead of its truest picture until even the illusion of such denial came to break under the Truth of reality; the world didn't want him unless he had wealth to give and in the 'empty, desolate, withered, perishing' (Jamieson, Faussett and Brown) situation he found himself in, the Truth found him once again and reminded him that even the lowest in the household were treated better than what the world offered him when nothing else was left that he had to give.

He came to 'himself', not as if he had gone mad but back to the person, I think, he was when he lived in his father's house. A house filled with peace, wealth, freedom, authority and dignity even for the servants of the family. A warm and living reality that breaks the bonds of his disillusionment and gives him the resolve to journey home.....he envisions the initial meeting and what he would say....and goes home, expecting only enough grace to become a servant under that remembered roof.

So heartening is even that lowly status, to serve those he once called family, is enough to make him journey non-stop back to the country of his birth, back to the home he had rejected. Hungry growled within his stomach, his feet were sore and dirty from the walking, and his heart was tired of the deceptions with which he had lived with for so long.

He was broken, yet he journeyed to become nothing more than a servant in his father's house.

Even when life doesn't work, our efforts are nothing more than dirt thrown into the fierceness of the wind to come back and cover us once more and the remembered grace of our Father's house becomes the only sustaining hope that we have left to push us back to our feet, back to our senses, and back home to be nothing more than servants placed in our own home to be the laborers for those who enjoy what we once did...even then, that hope remains.

There is no flipping back and forth for the prodigal; no question in his mind that his father will accept his request, either through pity or compassion. There is that assurance that, even with what he had done, squandering his inheritance, rejecting his home, and now coming back to his father smelling of filth and stained with the dust of his journey. He expects nothing more than his rightful due; to be a servant, nothing more.

As I got home last night from work, being touched once more by the grace of God and His love....oh my God....His love for even the lowest in His house....being broken again and lifting my hands high even in that humbling, that pain, and realizing how far I have come....servanthood is a dream to what I have come from....I came back to that "Amazing Grace" lyric...."I once was dead but now I live....now my life, to You I give.", I looked at the mail; the packet from Reverend Doctor John Gotberg arrived. As I read the commission that appointed and annointed me as an Ordained Community Chaplain, I felt that assurance that even in my Father's house....servants are fed and well-treated. In my Father's house.

In my Father's house, even the suffering is preferable to the illusionary happiness of the world. In my Father's house, even the hired servants are cared for and treated well. In my Father's house, once I had rejected and walked away from, there is an assurance I will be given an opportunity to be there...in whatever capacity...but I will be in my Father's house!
Even if I spend my life toiling away, indentured not as a son to a Father but as a servant to the family, I will be better off in my Father's house than what the world, absent from that home, would allow me to do.

In the group I've never felt I belonged to, unworthy and unqualified for the task and the scope of the mission God has complied these mighty giants to do in and for the Kingdom, it is far far better to be the lowly servant than to be absent from their presense. If I can do nothing more than perform the mudane task of a servant, in my Father's house, I will be far better treated than what the world could give me.

I don't know if I'll ever reach home; I'm faminished, tired, bruised and filthy with the illusionary stain that seems to never wash off ...........like a rape victim, I can't shower enough or be clean enough to seem to remove the stain, the filth of what the world has done to me.....but even if I don't make it home, the vision of what it will be like shall sustain me till that point I cannot go on.

And when I lie collasped in the sand, I'll try once again to get back up and continue...so that I can be a servant in my Father's house...........for they are treated better than the world offers, this lies within my heart to move me to move, get up when I want to stay down, and sustains me in my hunger...such small hope, such a small faith......

Even faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains.....

And I think I can see my father's house just over where the valley floor ends.....

A few more steps, and I'll be home.

Modern Corinthians

“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord'” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).

By human standards there is nothing among those called to purpose within the Body that would qualify or impress the worldly Christian. God equips and God provides for those to whom He has purposed and uses the seemingly weak to confound the ‘worldly wise’.

Paul confronted me during my morning time in fellowship for the past few weeks………….

Michael Horton, the J. Gresham Machen professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Seminary California (Escondido, California), host of The White Horse Inn national radio broadcast, and editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine, wrote an article in the Modern Reformation magazine (Issue: "Preaching Christ" March/April Vol. 2 No. 2 1993 Pages 22-24) which brought me to consider how far deeper God goes beyond the simple ' weakness of the humans instrumental' in the forwarding of the Kingdom.

I’ve taken a beating because of my position on the missed mission of the Western Church, which gives to mega-sizes, feel good doctrine, spiritual mysticism, post-modern theology and the Barney Gospel of “God loves you, God loves me. We’re a big, happy family.”

I am continually confounded by the increasing ‘hoo hum’ of the modern Christian, who can justify voting for a President based on his color of skin and not the contents of his character, and yet claim understanding and even power in the title of Christian. I am saddened, like Paul was in his Corinth, at the post-modern day Christian living in the gospel of man’s making, and yet claiming godly authority.

Today, most Western Christians are nothing more than ‘modern-day’ Corinthians.

Corinth was a prize in the world of Paul, placed in a strategic location. Following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., his successors struggled against each other for control of Corinth.

They regarded it as quite a prize, due to its strategic location directly south of the Corinthian Gulf on the Peloponnesian (southern Greece) side of the Isthmus of Corinth that allowed, through its two harbors, the city to control the isthmus between the two seas. Lechaeum was the westward harbor, facing the Corinthian gulf, and Cenchreae was the eastern one, looking out over the Saronic Gulf.

Not only was it a strategic point of control of the sea, but it had a variety of terrain; coastal plains (watered and fertile), flat areas further from the coast that were fairly well-watered, arable sloping hills and even mountainous regions.

From 198 BC to 146 BC, Corinth was nothing more than a bargaining chip between the Romans and the Greek Achaean League until 146 BC, when Rome finally destroyed the city and sold its inhabitants into slavery. Julius Caesar reestablished Corinth as a Roman colony in 44 BC and settled it with Italian lower classes, ex-soldiers of varying ethnicity and Greek, Syrian, Egyptian and Judean freed slaves.

But it is what this mix of various ethnicities created that brings me to believe that America and its 'christian' religious have become the modern-day equivalent of Corinth.

As it was the capital of the Achaia province, the city was a diverse cultural icon of social, cultural and religious beliefs. Even the Judean populations of this city were more cosmopolitan and multicultural than their Palestinian brethren.

The church in Paul's time existed as 'home' churches which reflected the city's diversity.

Much like America does today with its westernized Christianity. There is a place in which even false beliefs can be 'worshipped' in the communities of our country, where faith can be 'catered' to the system of belief we consider our 'world view'. Church is less of a fellowship and more of a social gathering, based on our individual taste.....this is not, in and of itself, wrong.

Just as Corinth was prosperous enough to be named as one of the three economic centers of Greece by Plutarch, a writer of the second century, so was America considered to be the vanguard nation in terms of wealth, security and economic might. Our economy, as has been recently experienced, affects to a large degree the economic status of many other nations.

Just as Corinth was considered a 'hot spot' in terms of prosperity, the many immigrants (both legal and illegal) consider America to be the 'land of milk and honey.'

America 'boasts' an population that considers itself to be 'Christian', though the consideration of what 'type' of Christian must be explored further to find a more complete and truthful number as many of the 'post-modern, emerging' cultural diversity of the religious movement that still bears the name of its Creator has diverted farther and farther from the shape and foundations of the original Judeo-Christian beginnings.

The Corinthian Christians were economically diverse, like much of the American Churches today, with a cross-section of society's rich, trades people, slaves and former slaves.

The modern day equivalents of ‘slave and former slaves’ are not defined by ‘color’ or ethnicity but in a modern sense of ‘slavery’, it is the fate of the modern Corinthian to be a 'slave' to the immoral and secular dictates of consumerism, the idol of the modern world---the "American Dream".

The "Modern day" Corinthian, who grows tired of the battles over such issues as homosexual ‘marriage’, the murder of the generations called ‘pro-choice abortion’, intelligent design, evolution and the insensitivity of the exclusiveness of the biblical Truth has mixed secularism with Christianity and called it 'good'.

These MDC’s believe a church is only as ‘godly’ as its technical finesse and ‘culturally-sensitive’ proclamation of the Gospel, we all get to heaven, works are the methods of a good god, and never speaks of the depravity of man, the sin and judgment of humanity and the guilt of mankind in the action of grace bore by the very Begotten Son of God Himself.

The 'practical' Corinthians liked to think that they were up on the latest ideas regarding the human experience; the Epicureans who believed a philosophy of " We live happiest when we are free from the pains of life, and a virtuous life is the best way to obtain this goal," the fatalistic Stoics who were 'guided' by logic, physics, and ethics in which morality is a life in accordance with nature and controlled by virtue, and the speculative mysticism of Greek philosophy which sought to combine Christianity, folk religion and esoteric wisdom into a 'new' faith.

Temple prostitution was big business at the shrine of Aphrodite (goddess of love), the shrine of Asclepius, the god of healing, was still frequented. This continued even when the twelve pagan temples were converted to "christian" churches.
Silver-tongued speakers put on seminars and promise the keys to success and happiness, making at least some appeal to Christ or the semblance of Him.

The best of secular wisdom and Christian beliefs are being brought together to make Christianity revelent.

To be acceptable, the adherents to the Christian faith have to find answers to questions that aren't contained in the biblical text and to solve riddles the God contained therein wasn't interested in inside their 'places of worship', the church.

Sounds like modern-day America, doesn't it?

This is the culture in which Paul came or wrote about in his Corinthian missals.
This modern "sophisticated" Christian, commonly labeled a post-modernist, enlightened and emergent, is "confident and self-assured" and fully engulfed by a "religion [that supplies the] social glue, [giving] people a philosophy of life and a way of living a happy and meaningful life," Horton writes in what to me is the 'dirge of the post-Christ Christian.'

"In bending over backwards to be relevant, we have actually become politely irrelevant, mumbling when we get to the bit about judgment, hell, wrath, condemnation, human helplessness and our utter dependence on the grace and righteousness of someone outside of us." Dr. Michael Horton notes about the modern-day church.

Much like those Corinthians of old, the modern-day religious movement that bears a curtsy semblance to Christianity are interested in anything but Christ and the absolute simplicity of the Gospel.

There is no room in the halls of worship for moral or ethical debates, or any dogma of "original sin, total depravity, guilt atonement, propitiation, substitution, justification, the sovereignty of God, regeneration and sanctification, judgment and heaven or hell," Dr. Horton notes.

The 'modern Corinthian' wants a 'god who shows us an example of greatness-power, virtue, wisdom [rather] than a god who dies for us.'

Too much of the theology of today's emerging religious movements, misleading labeled as 'spiritual' movements seem to be dressed up human philosophy, much like the Corinthians. It is bereft of suffering, consequences and the realities of living dead in a broken and sinful world.

"In Corinth, the super-apostles convinced some of the believers that they were simply bringing together the best of secular wisdom and Christian belief," Dr. Horton comments.

In our time, no longer is the simplicity of the Gospel truth enough for our appetites, our yearning for complete and utter knowledge to defy even the darkest of times. After all, from the time of mankind's assumption of church 'leadership,' the doctrine has been to leave no stone unturned and to bring enlightenment where the biblical accounts do not venture.

In essence, create the handbook for 'Christian living, thought and deed.' We express surprise and dismay over the fertile breeding grounds that we, the modern Christian, have created throughout the ages….that give birth to the emergent, post-modern and all-inclusive doctrine of a “Christ-less Christianity."

Our job within the 'missional' life of the Church isn't to teach the reality of original sin and the totality of mankind's depravity.

Rather than examine the guilt that all humanity has as a part of their heritage, the atonement and substitution played out upon the wooden cross as the fabric of our judgment and justified punishment or the sovereignty of God; the Church preaches felt needs, social service and the relevance of inclusion, compassionate acceptance because the desire of God is not to be boxed into a set 'label or character' but to appeal to all…regardless of their man-made religion. We have gone beyond the 'keep it simple silly' theology that ran supreme through the original Church.

Throughout the modernistic movement to ‘rescue’ the spiritual movement of Christ from the likes of evangelicals like me sounds like a laundry list of rehashed spiritual philosophy fresh from the Greek houses of ‘enlightenment’, complete with those ‘super-apostles’ with names like McLaren and Bell.

Staying far from the absolute authority in which Paul speaks directly to the Corinthian Christians, such leadership of the modern movement of ‘inclusive spirituality’ promote no longer the utter depravity of mankind and the absolute statements of Christ, who said He” is the Way, the Truth, and the Light” and that absolutely no one would be saved unless they claimed salvation through His sacrifice upon the Cross. The ponderable questions that the emerging, post-modern leadership postulates we have to answer is, “Is God working in all of the disasters and chaos of the world?” and “How do we make the Gospel appealing to those who believe another ‘religion’?”

The questions are no longer bringing people to a place of redemption but teaching them to bring healing (both physical and spiritual), justice (condemnation by commission) and equality (all have fallen short, no sin is greater than another; all are separation from God) for the world into their lives as the way of happiness, peace and prosperity; regardless of what the religious or spiritual movement they follow.

Is it a wonder why Christianity is no longer relevant to the modern world?

We spend our time in churches giving out theories and ‘quick fixes’ to the problems that are unsolvable in this world without a closer relationship with our Creator. Instead of dwelling within those problems and ‘seeing God’s movement’ in the problems, thereby helping people become more mature in the use of those problems to be closer with God, we ‘counsel’ prayer time, lifestyle changes and theories of theological empirialism.

We preach 'felt needs' to a people who are prone to selfishness and idolatry because of our fallen natures. We are like the blind leading the blind, hampered by our own depravity into believing we can define who, what and how God is. What is thought to 'help' ease the burden of this world is nothing more than justification of those 'felt needs' of people who love themselves, money and instant pleasure (gratification).

While Greek culture-Christianity, both in Corinth and America has turned Christian discourse into a combination of magic, self-reflection, and speculation, where understanding the esoteric mysteries of life and the 'secret' laws of the spiritual lead to power through the mystical and self-realized 'awareness' and the 'new nobility' of the Corinthian' who has the niceties of life, and comes from ‘higher’ learning is a Christ who is all about love and nothing about that considerations of what contributes to the salvation of one’s soul and how fear, self-service labeled ‘social activity’ and subjective truth can hinder the application of Grace. It is more about the ‘condition’ of life rather than the ‘calling’ of your life by God, more of the epicurean philosophy of 'living happiest free from the pains of life through a self-defined virtuosic lifestyle.

Where the Scriptures are silent, secular wisdom throws in its fix: calling itself Christianity because it seeks to be the 'social glue' that binds us together, giving us a philosophy of live and a method of living a self-defined, self-attaining way of life that is seemingly happy and meaningful. The sophisticated Corinthian, both in AME and modern cultures who is confident and self-assured, has little time for the definition of irrefutable definitions of sin and judgment, guilt and grace, as established by its Author and our Creator..

It is the philosophy of the ‘Greeks’ in this broken world that calls Christians from the close relationship with God into a more personal, private shadow of what we were meant to be. If you cannot speak some profound wisdom in today’s modern age, you must not be ‘of God.’

David Ben-Gurion, one of the founders of modern-day Israel, once said, “Courage is a special kind of knowledge, the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared. From this knowledge comes an inner strength that inspires us to push on in the face of great difficulty. What can seem impossible is often possible with courage.”

Is it any wonder that God has chosen to use the weakness of human instrumentally to convert the world, those people who are (by society’s standards) less than wise or powerful? Amazingly enough, it is the weak work of these ‘common’ people that has such wonderful and undeniable power in its movement for there is no ability within the reasoning and logical thought of man of the fact that God moved and did work within that person and through that person for the greater good of all mankind and the salvation of a few.

It is these ‘weak, common’ people who “recognize that [sin] is a power at work in the world that seeks to smother, dominate and oppress [and is more than making good choices],” as Josh Graves, minister at Rochester Church of Christ and author of the Jesus Feast blog states. Just because we all can state verbatim the obvious addictions, such as: “sex, gambling, porn, alcohol, drugs, and eating,” we don’t give voice to the less obvious which are no less deadly such as: “drama, anger, fighting, thrill, avoidance, shopping, TV., film, gossip, vanity, clothes, racial jokes, sports, gender exploitation, comfort, power, Internet, blogging, e-mail and funny you-tube videos.”

“An addiction is the place we go when we want to hide from God,” Graves blogs in a recent post, Addictions.

And that is what Christianity has become, an addiction. We want to get away from the desperation that life enfolds upon us, the suffering unexplained by the esoteric philosophies of the societal consciousness and yet we find nothing that we can come up with in the minds of our ‘greatest’ intellectuals, philosophers and psychologists can make the world bend to our wills.

We find, in the realization of our own depravity and inabilities, an emptiness that we long to fill with the addictions of this world; the obvious and the ‘covert’ as Graves labels the less-obvious ones.

It is those people, who are weak by the standards of an immoral, self-centered society, who come to the realization that to define God is to create a god of insufficient ability and power to control and define this broken world. They understand the absoluteness of God’s authority and the mystery of ‘knowing but not fully understanding’ a God who seems to allow babies to be killed by the millions throughout this broken planet for simplicity’s sake, who allows suffering of a young child who loses a cherished love one, or allows the American economy to tank; causing good and faithful servants to endure financial struggles and pitfalls.

It is these ‘weak’ people; considered ‘intellectually poor’, ‘mystically impaired’ and ‘psychologically impaired’ that fall upon the mercy of a God who has no moral or ethical reason to redeem, no human reason to restore or human designed authority to empower but who has, because of His righteousness and love deemed it His will to rescue from its own corruption a creation unworthy and unfit for its benefits. A God who, through the personal and effective sacrifice of His only begotten Son, gives…not grants nor offers….but gives to those who would ask the purchase price for sin’s commission….it is these people of ‘poor humanity’ that become its greatest orators of its salvation.

It is these people, who seek the simplest answers to the most complex problems and standing upon a absoluteness of a Creator’s authority regardless of the ‘perception’ of human mercies of a non-human God through the relational communication with that God, who are the ones who move in the spiritual battlefield of this world and conquer the enemy’s forces; creating a void in Hell and drawing the harvest of the Lord’s kingdom in.

These faithful, who are neither ‘ignorant’ by mental capabilities or ‘foolish’ by intellectual standards, who come to a realization of an inkling of what God truly is that are impacted to the point of boldness to impact the society around them. These warriors in the Army of the Most High have come to “fully experience Jesus as the One who liberates from the powers of this present darkness” those who believe.

These ‘common, broken and weary’ travelers have come to the understand of “Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone” is the only way to find joy and happiness in a world of human depravity and sin that will be as strong and uplifting in the days of the storms of life as it will be in days of ‘good times’. They surrender a power that they never were granted by a society driven by materialism, post-modernism and emergent philosophies that are becoming more and more legalistic as they were in Jesus’ time and work on advancing the church to affect an increasingly self-absorbed culture through the respectability and authority of the Gospel message.

In a culture which idolizes self, it is these people to whom wealth, wisdom, strength and nobility fall victim to the authority and absolute Truth of the biblical text and the God who wrote it through human hands. They have come to the realization of the utter dependence of humanity upon the grace and righteousness of a God who is not humanly defined or fully understandable.

As quoted earlier, a God ‘who dies for us’ and tells us how to live through the example He Himself set.

It is these ‘people of simple faith’ that address the culture with familiarity only as a bridge for communication rather than accommodation, who love as purely as fallen beings can under the authority and training of the Spirit and who come in absence of an agenda to be a servant to their fellow human beings. It is these who move the Gospel into the culture by living through the hope established, the inherited riches realized and the power of a righteous, holy, loving, wrathful and compassionate Creator, rejected of society’s ‘magic’ solution of ‘self-gratifying, self-defined and self-serving Christianity of the modern-day Corinthian.’

It is these simple, common and humble servants of the most High that remember where they came from and by who’s sacrifice on the Cross and resurrection from the dead have been granted the eternal gift. It Is these humble servants of Christ that will benefit of His promise that if we will depend on Him the way He depended on the Father, then He will be that power, wisdom, holiness and motivation of self-sacrifice that God was to Him.

"For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).

These humble servants don’t seek out the modern Corinthian’s explaination of what makes a ‘good’ chrisitan for they know that they cannot ever attain such a goal, Christ Himself said we would never be able to do it. They know that the God who called them to the Christian life is also the God who wants to live through them and gives them the power and effective strength to live within His will, His purpose and for His glory.

"The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" (1 Thess. 5:24).

These are the modern-day Pauls, Moseses, Jeremiahs, Peters, Abrahams, Isaacs, Jacobs and Matthews. It is here that the redemption of the strayed, the lost and the broken are found, in the incapable hands of broken, struggling and purposeful servants of the most High God.

Major Ian Thomas expressed who these disciples were in his book The Saving Life of Christ,

“The Lord Jesus Christ claims the use of your body, your whole being, your complete personality, so that as you give yourself to Him through the eternal Spirit, He may give Himself to you through the eternal Spirit, that all your activity as a human being on earth may be His activity in and through you; that every step you take, every word you speak, everything you do, everything you are, may be an expression of Christ, in you as man....

That is what Paul meant when he said 'For me to live is Christ.'... It is for you to be — it is for Him to do. Restfully available to the Saving Life of Christ, enjoying the richest measure of the Divine Presence, a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself, instantly obedient to the heavenly impulse — this is your vocation, and this is your victory!"

It is these disciples who are empowered to speak the truth of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not for the defeat of the enemy already vanquished, but for the edification of the saints, redemption of the strayed and the repentance of the lost with the unconditional and unconquerable love of their Lord and King!

"I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father. And I will do [I Myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son (John 14:12-13, Amplified).

So, the question begs to be asked and dared to be answered.

Are you a modern-day Corinthian or a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Your answer just might save your life.

http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/corinthians/cityhistory.stm
http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=783&var3=main
http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=820
"Apart from Me... Nothing." Article by Austin Pryor, Sound Mind Investing

What kind of God is that?

"From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." (II Kings 2:23-24)

The poster on AFA's site on Facebook said that it is things like this moment in the biblical text that caused him to realize that "because the God that's described in the Bible is cruel, arbitrary, humorless, vengeful, and impossible" is not a God "worthy of worship, or of any consideration whatsoever" after a 'misspent' youth in a fundamentalist church that he was 'born into.'

I decided to post my response to it here on my blog. I'll post an invite to read it, but thought it should be written here where I am solely responsible for its contents.

Of course, without digging further (as the poster claims to have done more than most believers) we wouldn't discover those things that would bring this circumstance into possibly a more 'understandable' light.

The word used for 'children' here means idolatrous or infidel young men. We'll look into why these men were 'idolatrous' or 'infidel' in a moment. Also, the retort of the 'children' of 'baldhead'(‏קֵרֵחַ‎) was a epithet of contempt in the East, viciously applied even to people with a full bushel of hair, which was mostly meant to imply the person was 'unclean like a leper', if we look at the requirement that a priest examine the bald spots on people's heads (Leviticus 13:40-44) and see if they were suffering from leprosy.

So, these young men were being very vicious in their slander of a prophet of God.

And, the 'go up' is a reference to this prophet's Master and is a case of modern-day religious persecution……

But, let's not stop there. Going back further, into Genesis, we discover more on our 'deeper' discovery of what 'extenuating circumstances' could lay behind the outcome of this incident.

Bethel was established by Jacob (who was renamed Israel and the patriarch of the Twelve Tribes) and means "House of God". Jacob named it Bethel because this is where God spoke to him after he fled the wrath of his brother Esau. A deeper search into the history of Jacob is for another discussion, surely which a person who seeks understanding of the character of God would endeavor to undertake.

Now, there was an altar built, El-Bethel, which means "God of the House of God," so labeled by Jacob for the "God, who answered me when I was troubled and who has been with me wherever I've gone." So Bethel has a historical spiritual significance that doesn't get portrayed in the account our poster cites as one of many examples of a God who is bitter to swallow and mean-spirited.

Now, the books of Kings (1&2) chronicle the 'royalty' of Israel's early history, another example of God's chosen people not believing that they should be different from the other nations of the world and demanding from Samuel that they be given a "real King to rule over them" rather than the 'judge' format of government that was established from the time of Moses. Even in the context of human experience, the history isn't that great with the majority of the kings being wicked and evil in the sight of God.

But it is Jeroboam that we want to pull from the histories of the Israel kings. Jeroboam was the son of Nebat and an Ephrathite named Zeruah and an officer in Solomon's kingdom appointed to oversee the forced labor of the tribe of Joseph in Jerusalem, who was chosen by God to punish Solomon for turning to the pagan worship of Astarte (the goddess of the Sidonians), Chemosh (the god of Moab), and Milcom (the god of Ammon) and not following God's ways in doing what was right and established through the Mosaic law as King David, his father, had done. Again, the story of Solomon deserves more than a curtsy glance, but that isn't part of this discussion.

God chose the prophet Ahijah to tell Jeroboam that he would take 10 tribes from Solomon's legacy, for God was going to divide the kingdom but spare Solomon total defeat due to the faith of his father, David. As with each decree, commandment or law of God, God gives an opportunity for doing the right thing to those He has given them to.

Solomon's son, Rehoboam and Jeroboam are no different; Rehoboam is offered a chance to abandon the pagan worship of his father by the people of Israel.

Jeroboam was told at the time of the division prophecy that "If you will do all I command you, follow My ways, and do what I consider right by obeying My laws and commands as My servant David did, then I will be with you. I will build a permanent dynasty for you as I did for David. And I will give you Israel."

God gives many chances for us to return to what is right. Much like a human father and mother are oft to do.

Rehoboam, rejecting the wise counsel of elders who had serve his father in the past and instead accepting the foolish and inexperienced counsel of his peers, proclaims that he will be far worse than his father was. Israel rebels and proclaims Jeroboam King, and Rehoboam is left with Jerusalem, as prophesied by Ahijah.

Jeroboam, who rebuilds Shechem in Ephraim, is afraid if the Israelites return to Jerusalem to worship God, he will be rejected and killed in favor of Rehoboam. So he seeks to protect his newfound status as King by giving the Israelites two pagan calves to worship, much like they did in the wilderness when Moses was receiving the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, and proclaiming "You have worshipped in Jerusalem long enough. Here are the gods who brought you out of Egypt." A festival, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month is established for these 'gods' with priests established from non-Levite tribes.

Worshipping these gods became a national sin, with the Israelites rejecting God's favor and commandments to follow these new gods. It is in Bethel where Jeroboam goes to burn an offering to the pagan calf-gods on the appointed day of his invented festival. (1 Kings 11 & 12 GW)

So, we have a people in a state of national sin and corruption and from these people comes a large crowd of idolatrous and infidel young men. They are very proud of, and fond of, this calf of Jeroboam's and hate those who reprove them of their pagan worship. So, a very angry and hate-filled gathering comes against God's invested prophet Elisah, who has purified the water so that the deaths and crop failures from the corrupted water supply would cease. He proclaims God's word, and yet this crowd comes against him.

They mock God through His prophet and Elisah speaks a Spirit-inspired curse. Only 42 of the gathered are killed, in an undeniable fashion through God's punishment, for the course they had undertaken and the deliberate mocking of God's blessing and the prophet who delivered it.

So, far from "simply [making] fun of a "prophet's" baldness", this exposes a "supposedly just and merciful deity" that holds not only His chosen people, but Himself to "the highest standards of all." And, the 'differentiation between the Old and New Testaments" doesn't exist. God was, in the context of this moment in the story, far more merciful than He had the justification to be.

"Perhaps some of you who take that book literally can tell me what I ought to be thinking..." the poster comments......

I would venture that you should dig deeper for understanding.

Far from the "grisly death as [an] appropriate punishment from poking fun at a chrome-domed holy man, it shows an absolute authority and mercy even in the Old Testament. The Creator shows very high patience between the sin and the punishment, giving ample time for repentance and restoration.

The poster claims that the bible "is cruel, arbitrary, humorless, vengeful and impossible." I would stipulate that the argument that he gives against those who believe in the authority and literal interpretation of the Biblical text is far more 'cruel, arbitrary, humorless, vengeful and impossible' than he wants to admit.

This event, and the poster's comments behind it, shows the completeness that goes far beyond any human capability of achieving, in any societial context or culture, of the authority and fullness of God and highlights the difference between the 'wages of sin' and the 'evil nature of a wicked humanity'as opposed to the righteousness and moral authority of a loving and just God.

But I'm not here to refute this poster's argument, I think the biblical story itself brings an understanding to linear human thinking of a possible justification of such a brutal punishment. God shows us higher standard and tells us to follow the example shown....Of course, there are those who would still say that even in the light of the full story, there was no reason for delivering such punishment.

I, obviously, would have to disagree.

When a sixteen year old decides to engage in sexual relations, and becomes pregnant…what is the 'just' punishment? Beyond the aspect of 'you play, you pay?'

For the mother-to-be or the child that grows inside her? Who loses, and who has the 'higher' standard for the right to live?

What about a wife who decides to engage in an extra-martial affair…..what is the just punishment? She made a choice, and lives with the consequences, but why do the husband and the children suffer as well? Were is the justification in punishing the children?

Far better is a religion that tells it's faithful to kill those who don't convert or kill those who have the misfortune to belong to a family that practices such 'religious' decrees and decides it is their right to believe what they want, not what they are told?

Far better then the allowance of that unfaithful wife to be beheaded under the dictates of that religion? What if that 'unfaithfulness' is the fact the husband doesn't think she makes a good wife?

There is no such dictate under the Christian faith, even the fundamentalist denomination to which the poster claims to have had wasted his youth by being 'born' into.

If we apply human standards and moral authority to the Biblical text, we find ourselves afraid of this God who seems far more evil than He has a right by our standards to be. And not in the least desirous to know Him. We subject the truth to our view, our thoughts and our character to explain a God we cannot explain in our sinful nature.

We reject such a deity because we have the human condition of wickedness, evil and atrocities against each other as our standards, where truth is subjective to the culture, the national image or the desire of the individual.

But when we take in the fullness of God and His eternal character, all of it, releasing the boundaries of human condition to an un-human deity, we discover that God, far from being just cruel, humorless, vengeful and impossible is a complete packet of love, mercy, grace and compassion as well as being faithful to deliver (as well as capable) upon the decisions of His people. For good or bad, our choices are but God brings both good and bad into an eventual 'good' outcome to which only He can know.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty and only a human condition that is placed on a non-linear God.

The absoluteness and proven authority of God, to be just, fair and loving to a created people who don't deserve it is far more worthy of respect and investigation than what has been given. Even if I know I will never truly understand, in this place, the God who allows humanity to destroy itself through its own invention. As a human father, I wouldn't do so.

And, in return for His salvation, bought and purchased for a people (all of humanity) who don't show worthiness for its commission because of His love…all that is asked is that we believe in Jesus Christ and His Truth.

Where is the justification in that, I would ask? Far less than the righteous justification God has in this context.

There's only love.