The Appearing

Here is a look at the Sacagawea dollar coin that I held up for the children to see this morning. We sometimes think, "if only I could actually see an undeniable, biblical type of miracle, I could easily believe." The evidence clearly shows that many saw just those miracles but still didn't believe. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus said, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead" (Luke 16:31).

The Jesus' Appearing slide show this morning was a rather embarrasing look at how desperate we humans are to have physical, tangible proof that Jesus is really with us. As I said this morning, all such "evidences" make Christianity look silly.

What we have is the evidence of a created world working in perfect order (as opposed to a random mess) , historical witnesses to many of the events, people, and places we read about in the Bible, the trustworthy Word of God as preserved in the Bible, and the evidence of transformed lives. The most powerful witness to the truthfulness of the Bible's message of Christ is the change that occurs in the lives of Jesus' followers. May people see Jesus living in all of us this week.

Don't Be Afraid

I hope that the revelation of Barney, the cute purple dinosaur, as the anti-Christ was not too disturbing for young children. Of course, many adults have long suspected the Great Purple One was exerting an unusual influence on their young.

On a more serious note, this sermon gave me no small amount of struggle. Normally in dealing with difficult texts in the Bible there is enough that can be known to give one a good grasp on what is being taught. However in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 there is little to grab on too. More than once I wondered why in the world I was feeling the need to preach on this obscure text. In my limited experience I don't recall ever hearing a sermon on anti-Christ or any serious attempt in a sermon to explain the "man of lawlessness" in 2 Thessalonians.

What drove me in deciding to tackle this theme, was the End Times drama that is so popular today in books and movies. The anti-Christ figures are so frightening that I thought I should at least do something to help keep people from being alarmed at such presentations. Hopefully, that task was successful.

By the way, I did double check my math to make sure my calculations were correct: Barney is the anti-Christ! Math has proven it to be so.

The Revealing

Every Sunday morning at 8:15 I meet with a group to pray. We are especially mindful of all the events that will be happening that particular day. I have developed a routine of praying over the passage that I will be preaching that morning. This morning as I was reading the text aloud in the presence of God I was struck with how often this particular text (2 Thess. 1:4-10) has been misused and misapplied.

In my study during the week I was impressed with the fact that Paul was writing these words to be an encouragement to these new Christians. It was his desire that this image of Jesus coming in fire with powerful angels taking care of evil doers would help this struggling church to continue to persevere and not lose heart. Is it acceptable to preach a text written for this purpose as a means of "scaring" people into baptism or reminding the people who sit in our pews how evil their hearts really are? To be sure there is a time to warn people in an effort to help them over the hump in making Jesus Lord (see, for example, Acts 2:40 "With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.') It is certainly also appropriate at times to let people know that we think too much of ourselves and are in reality "unworthy servants" at best. However, using a text like 2 Thess. 1:8-9 for such purposes surely constitutes misuse or even abuse!

One of our teenagers commented after the sermon that she liked it. When pressed she said that what she liked best was that when Jesus comes he still loves people but that he will let some people have it; and she agrees that those people need to get it! I think that's where Paul was leading his original readers; not to a cringing fear of the Lord's coming but to a joyful anticipation of his coming when those who have been inflicting pain and suffering on others will be justly punished.

When Jesus' glory is revealed every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Until he is revealed let's keep encouraging one another to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Jesus is Lord, my Redeemer
How he loves me, how I love him
He is risen, He is coming
Lord come quickly, Hallelujah!

The Arrival

After the sermon today someone asked me when the doctrine of the rapture began. The person who developed the teachings that today are called The Rapture was John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), a British preacher and founder of the Plymouth Brethren. While Christians have always taught that Jesus would return to earth, Darby taught that Jesus would come twice! Darby invented a grand timetable for world events that included a series of seven dispensations (or ages). He popularized his system in the Scofield Reference Bible which was first published in 1909.

The best refutation I have read of the doctrine known as The Rapture is found in The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation by Barbara R. Rossing. Dr. Rossing, who teachings New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, wrote the book to answer the popular Left Behind series of books (and movies). In her words, "..., I have underscored the central image of Jesus as the nonviolent Lamb, who triumphs not by killing people but by giving his life in love.... Love and healing--not Armagedoon and war--are the messages people of faith must keep lifting up as God's vision for our world. The message of the biblical book of Revelation is not of despair or war, but of transformation and justice."

The message of Jesus' return is of central importance to the writers of the New Testament. We must strive to avoid all sensationalism and seek to understand what those writers had in mind when they wrote about The Arrival (or Parousia). May we all remain viligant as we contantly remind ourselves that The King is Coming!

The Second Coming: It's Not the End of the World

One of the difficult tasks of all Bible students is to harmonize texts that seems, at first glance, to say contradictory things. When comparing the following texts which one determines the meaning of the other?

" . . . the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God." (Rom. 8:21)

"The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." (2 Pet. 3:10)

I have chosen to buck the seemingly predominate view of the total annihilation of the earth, by teaching that the fire of 2 Peter 3 (literal or not, I don't know) will purge all evil thus enabling the liberation of the earth to finally be what Isaiah, 2 Peter, and Revelation all refer to as the "new earth." The End Times pictures that I get most excited about come from the book of Isaiah. The new earth is seen as a place where fear has no presence, where current unnatural alliances are completely natural, where war is no longer a reality, and the predominate emotion is joy. Peter seems to have no quarrel with this as he borrows Isaiah's phrase "new heavens and new earth" when speaking of what happens after Jesus returns (See 2 Peter 3:13 and Isaiah 65:17).
No wonder the earliest Christians prayed, "Maranatha!", which means "Come, Lord Jesus!"