Excerpt: The Potter’s House 8/4/2013
“Furthermore, let us not depart this point without acknowledging the redeemed heart of the apostle Paul that is on display here. A redeemed heart loves the Jews, period. A redeemed heart, like Paul’s, wishes for the salvation of Israel. This stands in stark contrast to Reformed writings that go forth like vomit spewing from gluttonous stomachs. ”
Excerpt: The Potter’s House 8/4/2013
“Romans 9-11, especially chapter 11, is perhaps the most difficult in the Bible to preach on because there is nothing to study—it is what it is. However, it supplies a basic interpretive framework from which the rest of the Bible is interpreted. Salvation begins with the Jews and their King, and ends with the Jews and their King. The Reformed rejection of Israel’s election by the sultans of election displays the kind of confusion that transpires when you rebel against God’s revealed choices. The Reformers criticize the Jews for rejecting the Messiah while downplaying the remnant of Israel. Meanwhile, they arrogantly inform Christ that they accept Him, but not His chosen people. In chapter 11, Paul makes the eternal standing of those who posit such ambiguous at best.”
Excerpt: The Potter’s House; 8/4/2013
“Paul warns the Gentiles at Rome to not posit the idea that the unnatural branches have replaced the natural branches. Of course, the Western church has broken that commandment with malice and all tenacity. Moreover, this approach will turn understanding of the Bible completely upside down. A proper understanding of the Jewish covenants is the paramount threat to Western clergy because if you have a proper understanding of God’s relationship to the Jews, you don’t need them to interpret the Bible for you.”
Interpretation
Christians like information. Between church, K-Love radio, and cable, we receive information nonstop. We also live in the Information Age. Never before has mankind received so much information.
But all information has a source, and the source of any given information is disseminating the information with a goal in mind, and that goal will depend on how the disseminators interpret realty. They have an agenda. Sure, some Hollywood producers merely want to entertain, but most want to educate according to their own good intentions. In Religion, agenda-driven education is always the goal. That’s us.
So, all information that we hear as Christians has an agenda. There is no exception here in this venue. And there is an all pervasive belief among Christians in regard to discernment: knowing how the teacher interprets reality is not important, I can take from the shelf what is true and leave on the shelf what isn’t true. The goal of the teacher based on how he/she interprets reality is not important. Every teaching has good and bad in it, but we can benefit from what is good. Hmmmm, really?
This shows a fundamental lack of understanding in how words work in communication. If you do not know how a teacher interprets reality, regardless of agreement on elements, through word replacement, and emphasis on certain words over others, you can be led to a functioning belief of the teacher’s choosing. I have watched this happen in Reformed circles firsthand. I know of churches that gleefully follow men that they would have run out of town ten years prior. I have watched this concept in action.
All of the words that form the ideas of any teacher you are listening to are framed according to his/her interpretation of reality. In the English language, the alternative use of words to put forth an idea are literally innumerable. No pun intended. Anybody’s best guess is that the English language has about 470,000 primary words. Generic words can be used to put forth an idea that would normally be dismissed out of hand in a certain venue by avoiding the specific word etc.
A classic example in Christian venues is the use of the word “gospel” to put forth certain ideas about justification that would be dismissed out of hand if the word, “justification” was used. Initially, that is. Once the idea is assimilated into the group’s minds, “justification” can then be freely used which seals the deal. If a teacher doesn’t believe in a particular biblical truth, he/she can simply never teach on it while assimilating nuanced antithetical ideas into the general curriculum. Hence: “One man’s account seems convincing until another comes forward.” Well, the other guy never comes forward, and you are therefore convinced.
The idea that we can glean helpful truth from any message is naïveté on steroids. Every word is an accomplice to that teacher’s interpretation of reality and the goal’s thereof. That is what “teaching” is. It is purpose-driven. 900 people liked what the words of Jim Jones seemed to say, but didn’t understand that his interpretation of realty would leave them dead and rotting in the hot sun of Guyana.
This also speaks to the scandalous reality of systematic theology not being taught in the churches. Congregants are left to accept whatever caveats are dished out from the pulpit.
Which can lead to anywhere.
paul
Feelings
When the Bible speaks of “sinful desires,” that is best interpreted as “emotions,” and better yet, “feelings.” Sin makes its appeal through the emotions. Christians must learn to separate feelings from truth. The wise Christian is an investor. He/she will decline an immediate payoff for the pure gold of good feelings based on truth. Often, the Christian will endure suffering for the sake of truth that produces the “joy set ahead.”
When I was a teenager, my stepdad tried to teach me how to fly his Piper Cub. My problem was that I could not disassociate my feelings of how the plane was flying from what the instruments were actually telling me. Have you ever noticed that airplane pilots tend to be emotionally level? That’s why. If you were a passenger in the plane at the time, the bickering between my stepdad and I would have undoubtedly made you very nervous. “We are coming in nose down.” ‘No we aren’t.’ “yes we are, look at the horizon gage.” ‘The gage is wrong.’ “You better let me take over.” ‘Why? This is fun.’ “I’m taking over before it’s too late.” ‘Whatever.’
And the Bible is not wrong. God has not left his children without a full philosophical statement for life and godliness. It has a self-sustaining power source, and communicates reality through words and their arrangement. God set the standard for epistemology when he created the metaphysical world with words. Feelings don’t interpret reality, words do. Feelings are not our authority; feelings must be brought to the court of law for a hearing and a judgment.
Feelings can invoke thinking and thinking can invoke feelings. It works both ways. A feeling arises, like maybe chest pain, and we think, “I could be having a heart attack.” That thought brings a feeling of fear, and then we think, “I’m going to die.” That might be true, and then again it might not be true. As Christians, we must function by truth. More times than not, worry is a lie. An extremely small amount of what we worry about actually happens. The apostle Paul tells us to bring every thought into captivity and bring it under the authority of Christ. Then we are to “dwell” on what is true.
The world dresses up lies to appeal to our desires. “If it feels good, do it.” Therein, feelings are the authority and not truth. I have noticed in our day that Christians rarely bring pithy truisms into the court of truth. There is simply no mental discernment policeman to arrest the thought and interrogate it. Pithy truisms are designed to stimulate the chemistry of the brain with an entertaining poetic ring. “If it feels good, believe it.” Then, eventually, you will do it. Perhaps the most apt example is Doris Day’s rendition of Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). Who can watch that video and keep from humming that lie to ourselves throughout the rest of the day?
In all of this, God’s word teaches us an important principle: Christians can change their desires through investment. “Where your treasure is, your heart will be there also” Our treasure needs to be the truth. Paul said to “hate what is evil and cling to what is good.” Can you learn to hate someone or something? Sure you can. You ignore it, and you focus on the truth regarding it. That thing you are thinking of may make you feel good, but what is the truth regarding it? Not investing in it and thinking truthfully about it will eventually change our feelings about it. Often, how we feel about something is the only good thing about it, and that has death written all over it. Right doing leads to right feeling (Philippians 4:9).
Joy does not always walk with obedience at every moment, but it will always show up later, if not sooner.
paul
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