“So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 16:22 NIV)
The kids are safely ensconced in their individual schools, Sara at Farrand and Casey at Central, and I have met with the Teacher Consultant regarding Casey’s IEP. It looks like Central will not be able to give him the support he needs for his cognitive impairment which means he’ll have to move over to Discovery. Life goes on, its struggles never far from mind and its demands never ceasing in my ear. Sorrows and heartaches beat in tune with my heart……the future doesn’t look bright, even without shades.
A friend of mine on Facebook, Kimberly Cash-Tate, writes a devotional “Colored in Christ” and the most recent was “I’ve got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy…..” She references the verse above and says this, “God didn’t give us joy just to feel giddy. It fortifies us. It helps us endure. Like Jesus, believers know that this life on earth isn’t all there is, no matter the trial. We’ve got an eternity set before us.”
I look at the life that I have lived so far upon this world and I, quite frankly, am amazed that I have survived so far…even still today…both life in general and the attempts that I made to try and exit out early. Sometimes, it isn’t amazement but a sullen sorrow that I have. Sometimes I wonder if God is playing some cosmic game where I am the pawn with the big old red target plastered on my back…..customized for everything possible that could go wrong, be difficult or painful. It is very natural for me to withdraw from the world, to protect me and my children from the difficulties that are presented to us and the ignorant attitudes that can be so viciously applied from those who seem to have no regard for the well-being of those they should. Others, brave enough to step into the chaos of the life that this part of the Hutson family lives, are disrupted and don’t seem to fare too well for too long because of the myriad of complexities and relational defects that plague my children and break my heart. They fall away into the annals of the past, sad reminders of what could have been and what is not.
Sometimes, stumbling around in this darkness that permeates the world…..not so much casting out the junk, that ‘stuff’ that God is working on, but moving it around so that, in my own broken, dysfunctional way I can move….for the sake of my children…I break further and feel more and more unable to overcome the major mountains of my life, straddled as they are with the Goliaths of my deepest fears. Even as I fall to my knees, overwhelmed with depression and heartbreak, as that anvil of living slams into me again and again to bury me in the dirt from whence I was formed…..I cannot escape that knowledge that God is good, merciful and graceful…..even in the depth of my despair, I cannot escape that fact that God is…..GOD.
At times like those, that knowledge haunts me….doesn’t give me peace….doesn’t give me strength…it hangs like that undesired diagnosis from the Doctor: incurable cancer, stage 4, and only months to live.
You can’t escape its complications, its connotations….God exists and isn’t going away, even if you move to that state down south of the everglades called Denial.
He is unmovable, unshakeable and totally undeniable……there is no way to ignore that pink elephant that sits in the corner of the room…..even denying His voice doesn’t do any good….in the middle of the tempest, battered back and forth by the mighty waves, pummeled by the merciless gale and listening to the stressed joints of your vessel straining to the point of sheering….you can’t deny Him.
That knowledge keeps you fighting against the gales of this life; struggling even as the ship fills to the bottom of the gunwales with icy cold, black water of the depths….even as the masts of your dreams come crashing upon the deck of harsh reality….even as your world is reduced to a small life raft bobbing on the vast open waters…..even when it seems all hope is gone…..it drives you beyond yourself and its hopelessness.
Some call it the unshakeable ‘human’ spirit….that essence of humanity that has driven us from the protoplasmic wiggly mess to grow legs, grow through the centuries’ march to that complex form that we currently inhabit as a ‘twenty-second century’ construct of mankind….or, to be PC, Humankind…
According to those, it is such ‘drive’ that has brought us through the dark ages and the industrial age into the technological age…..it is the driving force that causes us to invent, to question and to divine our place in this universe……That ‘human spirit’…..it is the reason why abortions continue to decimate entire populations and races, why abnormal and psychological/physiological behaviors continue to destroy the fabric that stitches the myriad of complex human personalities and cultures together and pulls apart the entire cohesiveness of the ‘societal’ makeup of the species called homo sapiens.
It’s ugly, broken and corrupted head was first reared in the Garden and it has been slowly killing itself ever since. It’s driving force isn’t ‘being’, ‘who am I’ and ‘why am I here,’ it is to create a way so that it can deny the truth, that we are created beings who corrupted ourselves through sin and are in need of salvation that only that Creator can effectively deliver to us. If we can only prove the illogical probability of our own ‘chance’ existence, we will have effectively proven the concept of a Creator is false and therefore our own corruption is a figurative thing, individually defined. We will be the unlikely, undesigned Masters of the Universe……and the source of our own destruction when such illogic becomes logical.
Some call it the ‘collective consciousness’, that massive cerebral mystical being….made up of all of us, mini-gods, self-aware, self-evolved and self-determining. It is what brought humanity from the oozing fields of prehistoric life into the upright forms today, highly intelligent and socially evolved. It is the “CC” that is driving humanity to the ‘next level’ of consciousness…..when we will become one with the cosmic and float among the stars in a mental/spiritual return to that protoplasmic organism of our creation……the ultimate circle of life; birth, life, evolution, expansion into the cosmic……never-ending and definitely non-fatal.
Those who fail to achieve the higher consciousness will simply be absorbed.
None of it answers everything….nothing explains its existence in the primordial ooze before words could be shaped to explain its concept. It is there, as if designed and grafted into our being, the fiber of our physical/mental/spiritual totality of our being collectively called human---which works independently and co-dependently together for a purpose designed by something other than ourselves. It drives us to supersede our ‘animalistic’ instincts for the sake of the other, to seek beyond ourselves and to care for the wounded, hurting and broken of our species…..beyond the ‘conscious human spirit’ that calls for survival of the fittest….
As if, in our design there was given a measure of this stuff…..that drives us to find more of it within ourselves, our world and those around us.
It isn’t love; unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another or the warm attachment, enthusiasm, devotion or affection for another……
It isn’t hope, for hope without it is nothing except a statement, a wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment that is absent of any life…..
It isn’t peace, for without it peace is nothing but a fragile individualized inner contentment or serenity that is unsustainable in the harsh light of day…….
It entices us into places we have been hurt before, if only to feel it’s temporary and brief warmth again for a short time…….
It dares us to love, to hope and to be peaceful in this midst of being in a self-serving, individual world that cuts us daily, wounds us weekly and demands everything from us............
It rallies against our ‘human spirit’, is indefinable by our ‘consciousness’ and defies our attempts to create it unreliant upon anything else that may cause its collapse. It exists where it shouldn’t, moves us into places we may not want to go and propels us to do more than we might be comfortable doing; for others and the society as a whole. And sometimes it is a deep river within the protected walls of our heart.
But, when we experience it…..it is an intense, ecstatic and exultant happiness that renews our hope, sweetens our love and brings peace in the chaos. It allows us to experience an undeniable reason to keep fighting, keep struggling and keep working towards its embrace again….laughing madly in the face of the tempest. When felt, it vibrates within the fibers of our being, physiologically and psychologically, as if we’ve touched upon that which we were designed to continually feel, to be in a state of each and every moment of our lives…..it makes us feel ALIVE
It’s name is Joy…………………
From the joy of our Father, we were created…..to live and to be in relationship with Him. From the joy of the Father and the Son, the sorrow of the Cross was endured…..for the joy that would be reborn from its sadness and corruption would bring humanity back into His arms, in relationship with Him.
From joy, we strive to live a ‘Christ-like’ life, forsaking our comfort; peace and measure for the sake of helping others find that joy….a sustained, living and breathing happiness that comes from an indefinable source….God. Even in the midst of our sorrows, it is the smile that comes to our face as we;
Hear the whispered words, “I love you”, from our children……………………………………….
Think of the beating heart of a unborn child that beats within a woman’s body.........................
Feel the tender embrace of another after the brutality of our peers……………………………..
Know we are truly, deeply and powerfully loved in measures we do not deserve…………….
It brings us to a group of fellow ‘like-minded’ fellow human beings, in various sizes and shapes, to lift our voices (and sometimes our hands) above the impoverished state of our world to raise high our thankfulness, hopefulness and happiness to a Father who loves us, a Son who died for us and a Spirit that struggles for us each day of our sorrowful lives.
It is what creates, breathes life into and endures the ability to struggle through the trials, tribulations and sorrows because of the knowledge of its existence in a God who created us, died for us and beckons us back to His arms. Who holds, for a little while, His righteous wrath so that His desire that none should perish but all know the happiness of eternal life.
It is that knowledge that, even as we live in sorrowful grief, that sustains the hope and belief that we will be back in those arms again…..as soon as we see the face that is it source and we know upon that day………..
Our Joy will never cease………
because our Savior has come back to make it complete.
I have joy, joy, joy, joy deep in my heart….deep in my heart….deep in my heart
Wednesday, September 9
Monday, September 7
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.
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.
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