Spirtual Truth

18 February 2018

Dear Phyllis,

I have said this many times before, but when it comes to understanding spiritual truth, we must leave our natural yard stick or measuring tapes at home. We cannot measure spiritual truth with human understanding. We must accept that the Lord has the same problem in explaining spiritual truth to us as a scientist would have in explaining electronics to a savage in Irian Jaya. They don't have denki (electricity) in the jungles. Without exception, in the Bible, when the Lord attempts to explain heavenly things to us He must use the word “like” (it is like) . Ezekiel and John are the two prophets who tell us more about spiritual, or heavenly, things than any other writer. In every case in their writings when they attempt to share with us what they saw they preface the nouns with “it was like”, or “the likeness thereof”, or “it was as”. The reason for that is because we don't have those same things here on earth. In describing the streets of heaven John says, “the streets were paved with gold transparent as glass” (Rev. 21:21). Now that is ridiculous. Gold is not transparent. Gold is as opaque as any substance on earth. How can you explain transparent gold? You can't.

I am greatly intrigued with quantum physics. In the quantum world the rules of classical physics simply don't apply. If you will not accept that in the quantum world things are different than what we are use to in our natural world it is impossible to understand anything. And yet we are indebted to quantum physics for half the appliances in our daily living from laser beams to computers.

I say this because we cannot understand the godhead unless we are willing to leave our measuring tapes at home and accept what the Lord tells us about Himself as true. This is never more applicable than in understanding Christ. There is a Christian denomination that rejects the Trinity as such because they cannot accept that three can actually be one. And so they come up with Jesus only. I have several friends who are Jesus only and they are very fine Christians. They passionately believe the Bible, they fiercely believe in the deity of Christ, the resurrection, and every major doctrine, but they cannot understand with their human reasoning how three can be one. Consequently they defiantly declare, “There are not three Gods but one!” Yes that is true. There is only one God. But that God is three different Persons. Bye bye.

Until recently I never realized that Jesus was born of God. Time and again the Bible tells us that Jesus was begotten of God. Jesus Himself used that expression in talking to Nicodemus in John 3:16. Jesus was born (begotten) of God. When? Gomen nasai (I'm sorry), I can't explain that. We don't have that occasion on our tape measure. There was a period before what we now know as time. In the beginning God created time, but there was something before the beginning. We don't have that either. And that was when Jesus was born. Jesus was with the Father before the beginning and Jesus created the beginning. Does that make sense?

In our discussion about the four aspects of Jesus as we see it in the four living creatures before the Throne, and depicted in the four gospels, we have seen that Jesus is both King and Servant and now both Man and God. Liberals will own that Jesus was a man but they refuse to accept that that Man was also the Creator God. As no other writer John sets Jesus forth in His deity. Jesus Himself made that claim about Himself and that was the reason He was killed. For a man to claim that he is God is blaspheme – unless it was true. And Jesus both claimed it and proved it by the resurrection. I will stand with the conservative position and fight to the death defending the deity of Christ. If a man will not accept that Jesus is God he flat isn't saved. That is because he rejects what the Lord has to say about Him in His Word. The Bible clearly declares that Jesus is the creator. John made that very clear in the first thing he said about Jesus in the opening statement of his book when he declares “all things were created by Him and without Him was nothing created” (Jn, 1:2). Paul also declares that when he writes “all things were created by Him … and for Him” (Col. 1:16). I cannot go any further in establishing the deity of Christ than to say the Bible clearly makes that claim. If a person will not accept what the Bible and the Bible writers say about Jesus I can't help them.

Rather than spend my time arguing for the deity of Christ I would like to discuss His Sonship. It is also correct that the Bible calls Christians sons of God. Unbelievers like to claim “we all are the children of God”. They are wrong is saying everyone is a child of God, as only those who are born of God are sons of God (Jn. 1:13). But in this we must differentiate between Jesus being the Son of God and us. The Bible makes this very clear is stating He is the only begotten Son (Jn. 3:16). We too might be begotten sons of God but not like Jesus.

There is no subject that warms my heart like considering the relationship within the Godhead. How I love to think about the love that exists between the Father and the Son. Oh how the Father loves the Son! And well He should. How proud the Father is of His Son! The Son was spectacular. The Son came here as a Man and as a man he conducted Himself to utter perfection. This has never been stated more beautiful that what Paul wrote when he said, “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men: and being fashioned as a man He humbled Himself and was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.” (Phil. 2:6-8). There is nothing I can add to that. That says it all. And there is nothing that warms my heart more than to realize that, “God has highly exalted Him and given Him a Name that is above every Name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). Oh hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Oh thank You, Father, for honoring Your Son. Lord honor Him in my life. Honor Him in my family. Honor Him in my community. Honor Him in Thailand. Honor Him in the earth. Haste the day when the mouths of liberals and CNN are closed. and every liberal professor in universities and every brain dead TV announcer says that Jesus is the Lord. Oh Lord let it be so. I cannot say that loud enough or strong enough. Oh the frustration of it. It drives me crazy to see Jesus put down or poorly spoken of. Thank God the day will come when every mocker will bow and confess that Jesus is truly the Lord. It kills me to wait. But the Lord has ordained that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. The devil will have his day. I am mad that Bill and Hilary Clinton aren't in jail. The only reason I know why they haven't been given a well fitting orange suit and government housing is that the Lord has given them an enormous length of rope to hang themselves with.

Ceasar Maylin was a famous street preacher in England many years ago. The story is told of a time when he was standing on a street corner preaching to an empty crowd and a well dressed stranger walked up to him and said, “The Father is pleased to see you speak so well of His Son”. May this be our experience. How it warms my heart to think how the Father loves His Son. Thank God Jesus is honored in heaven and I am tremendously encouraged to know that He will be honored here as well. But it is a serous concern how I conduct myself during this brief moment of time and how well I hold up His banner. Of course I want to see people saved. But that is not the point. I want to see Jesus honored. That is the problem. That is what I pray for my son. That is what I am praying for in Sangha and his family.

Oh Father, let it be so. When my short day is over let it be said of me that “he spoke well of Your Son” in both words and life. Lord if You will do that for me I will praise You forever.

                                                       bill

Christ as King III

11 February 2018

Dear Phyllis,

Two weeks ago I started a series on Christ as depicted by the four living creatures before the Throne as seen by Ezekiel and John – the Lion, Ox, Man, and Eagle. We have seen in Matthew Jesus is presented as King, and Mark presents Him as Servant. This week we see Him in His humanity as Man.

In Luke, more than any other book, we see Jesus in His humanity. Matthew and John were among the 12 disciples - Mark and Luke were not. Whether or not Luke actually knew Jesus while He was here on earth is open to debate. In his first letter to Theophilus Luke says that, “Many have taken in hand to set forth in order the things which are most surely believed among us ... who were from the beginning eye witnesses”. Then he adds, “It seemed good to me also, having perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write them unto thee in order”. But in his second letter to Theophilus (Acts) Luke does not appear until until chapter 16: 10,11 where, for the first time, he uses the plural first person pronoun WE or US. From there on Luke uses the plural first person pronoun all the way to the end of Acts. Theologians have suggested that while he was with Paul for two years in Caesarea (Acts 23:23,33: 24:27) that he had access to Jesus' mother Mary. This is highly likely as the inner thoughts of Mary are recorded in Luke as no where else (Lk. 2:19, 52). Only Luke talks about His birth and childhood (Lk. 2). There are two genealogies of Christ in the gospels. Matthew begins with Abraham and sets forth Jesus birthright to be King of Israel as being the Son of David (Mt. 1:1-17). But Luke's genealogy is different going backwards from Joseph to Adam (Lk. 3:23-38). The genealogies part at David where Matthew established the royal monarchy through Solomon and Luke parts company listing Jesus blood line through another one of David's son Nathan (2 Sam. 5:14; Lk. 3:31). In this Matthew establishes Jesus as the King of Israel and Luke shows that He also was a descendant of Adam.

I detest liberalism. Blatantly liberalism is doctrines of demons. The dividing line between liberalism and conservatism is their respective positions concerning the Word of God. Conservatives accept the Bible as the inspired inerrant Word of God and liberals reject the Scriptures as simply the collection of prophet's writings several thousands of years ago that modern science has now proven to be inaccurate. Liberalism teaches that much of scripture is myths, that Jesus was not virgin born, and did not rise from the dead. He was just an ordinary man – although a very unusual and good man. I was raised in liberalism and never heard the Gospel until I was 21 years old. One of the biggest surprises to me when I was born-again was to discover that indeed the Bible is the Word of God and every thing it says about Jesus is true. But there is one item where I feel liberals are closer to the truth than conservatives. In our rejection of the liberal position denying the deity of Christ we have watered down His humanity. In Luke we see Jesus as a genuine man who was born as a baby and lived and died as a man. Conservatives are reluctant to make limitations on Christ in order to emphasize His deity. But the Man Christ Jesus does not fit the attribute of God. When we teach the doctrine of God we set forth His three OMNIs. Omni is the Latin word meaning ALL. God is Omni-potant (All power), Omni-science (All knowledge), and Omni-present (All present).Then we have the forth character of God as being Immutable (without change). To start with, when Jesus was in His Body He certainly was not omnipresent. Martha and Mary could protest, “Lord if You had been here...” (Jn. 11:21, 32). Obviously Jesus was not there. Jesus was not omnipotent as He physically could not carry the Cross (Mk. 15:21). Jesus got hungry, thirsty. and tired just like the rest of us. For the third Omni theologians tend to argue that Jesus was omniscient as He had supernatural knowledge (Jn. 2:25). I will admit that Jesus certainly was clairvoyant, but so are many others. However I like to believe Jesus was honest when He asked questions because He didn't know (Mk. 9:21). When Luke says Jesus GREW in spirit and wisdom (knowledge) it is obvious that Jesus was not born 6 feet tall, neither could He do calculus when He was three. He started out with a limited vocabulary and His knowledge increased just like us.

The 5^th Cry from the Cross – “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mt. 27:46)- is a problem for some theologians. Why did Jesus say this? Didn't He perfectly know the answer? To start with, while Jesus was on the Cross He was not an actor reciting proper lines. This was a new experience for Him – something He had never experienced before. It was like something that took Him by surprise. Jesus certainly knew the Scripture and certainly knew Ps. 22:1. But that cry is not the cry of a God. This is the cry of a Man. Jesus was not acting out a play on the Cross but died as a 100% total human being. In our concern to refute the liberals challenge to the deity of Christ, we limit ourselves to appreciate who Jesus really was as a human being.

What I'm trying to say is that in Jesus' humanity He was 100% human with all the limitations on Him that any other human being has. It has been said when Jesus divested Himself of His deity He did not retain any attribute that is not available to any other descendant of Adam. He came here totally as a man with all our limitations, He lived a life as God intended that humans should live, took on the devil and trounced him as a man.

Let me try one more time. Please don't misunderstand me. Let me say unequivocally, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD. All things were created by Him” (Jn. 1:1,2). and “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). Jesus was with God and Jesus was God. That fact stands alone. But for a very brief period of 33 years Jesus divested Himself of the attributes of His deity to become a man. He lived a life not as God and He didn't die as God. That was not a god that walked those dusty roads in Galilee and that was not a god that bled on the Cross. That was a total human being. In the liberals rejection of the deity of Christ they have reduced to Him to being an ordinary man. In this they are right with the exception that they also charge Him with sin like us. He was a man, but He was spectacular. He lived the perfect life that God intended for Adam. And because of that life He was qualified to die as our representative. In our rejection of their Christ-denying heresy we have weakened one of the foundational characteristics of Christ that He restricted Himself to all the limitations that are encumbered upon us. Somehow we think of Jesus walking on water as being a super-human being, a cut above angels.

But how does all this apply to us? Along with Jesus restricting Himself to all our limitations, He also had to live by faith. After His baptism the first two things that are recorded about Jesus was that He was filled with the Holy Spirit and led of the Spirit. It is doubtful that He was as tall as Saul (1 Sam. 10:23). I doubt that He could bench press any more than any other ordinary carpenter in Nazareth. Cerebral it is questionably that His brain was as elaborate as Einstein. Unless it was revealed to Him by His Father, He probably didn't know about quantum physics and couldn't carry on a conversation about quarts, fermions, and leptons. Obviously He did extremely well with such facilities as He had, but after the flesh He was just an ordinary man. He told us that He did nothing of Himself but only the things He saw His Father do (Jn. 5:19)

In speaking to the Jews about eating His flesh and drinking His Blood, He explained this by saying, “As I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me shall live by Me” (Jn. 6:57). Or in other words, Jesus lived by faith and that is exactly the same type of life that He intends for us to live. We might protest, “I'm not Christ.”, but Jesus can reply, “I was just like you and now with My Spirit in your heart, I want to relive that Life living in you.”

Oh my goodness, Jesus was just a total human man not availing to Himself anything that He does not extend to us. Knowing this, all I can say is that it encourages me, humbles me, and makes me marvel even more; “Lord Jesus, how wonderful You are”.

Gratefully, bill

Christ As King II

4 February 2018

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I began a series on the character of Christ. I am totally convinced that the four living creatures before the Throne as seen by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John are the image of the character of Christ that we see in the presentation of Christ in the four gospels. The LION, the OX, the MAN, and the EAGLE clearly represent the KING, SERVANT, MAN, and GOD. This is exactly what we see in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I see things but I don't understand them, and I can scarcely describe what I see. What we have here are two twos that are opposite – the King and Servant, and Man and God. Very clearly this is Christ. He is both King and Servant, and Man and God. I see this and know it is true, but I am utterly incapable to explain it. I know that God made man in His own image, but sin destroyed that image. Four thousand years later the earth was visited by another Man who was the perfect image of God, and the Lord intends that we should bear that image. Or in other words, we should be like Christ.

Last week we considered that Matthew presents Christ as King. It is amazing that more than any other gospel, in Mark, we see Jesus as the Servant. Mark is by far the shortest gospel but in Mark we see more detail than in the other gospels. Kings are concerned with the big picture, servants take care of the detail. Servants are the ones who make sure the tables are all set properly. Both Matthew and Luke discuss the temptation in the wilderness but only Mark mentions that Jesus was there with the wild beasts (Mk. 1:13). Both Matthew and Mark cover the incident of a storm at sea but only Mark inserts, “also with Him other little ships” (Mk. 4:36). These are little details that only the servants cover. (I got all this from Dave Lanum who was the greatest Bible scholar I ever met.)

But regardless of which gospel record we read, the basic character of Christ as having the heart of a servant comes out conspicuously. Here we have a glaring an example of the Inverted Kingdom where the laws of the Kingdom of God are reversed from natural laws of the world. More than that, here again we see contradictions co-existing. Here we have the King is the Servant.

This was never more clearly demonstrated than at the Last Supper before the crucifixion. The disciples had gone ahead and prepares everything necessary for that last supper. But one embarrassing detail had been left uncovered. For an occasion like this it was necessary that someone wash the feet of the guests. This, of course, was the bottom task relegated to the lowest servant. Everyone was seated but no one had had their feet washed. The disciples were probably looking at each other suggesting that the other guy should do it. When no one volunteered, Jesus stood up, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around himself as the lowest servant, and washed the disciples feet. You can't get much lower than that.

Thailand is probably the most monarch sensitive country in the world. As an American it was a shock to me to see the extreme respect the entire country has for its king. If the king of Thailand ever held a door for a lessor dignitary it would be the event of the century. But for the king of Thailand to take his robe off to wash the feet of others, that would burn the fuse box out of every social minded person in Thailand. Only the lowest servant would do this.

Jesus was every inch a King. And yet the most descriptive word we have for Him is, “He had the heart of a servant”. Of the many different types of Christ we see in the OT, Joseph is unchallenged as the closets to Christ. He was sold by his brethren for 20 coins. He was lied about and sent to prison. He was promoted from prison to being the number two man in the country. He started his ministry when he was 30. He was the quintessential model of a forgiving spirit, and he took care of his brothers. Joseph is the closet model of Christ we have in the Bible. If there is one word to describe Joseph it would be “servant”. His entire life was devoted to serving. The first view we have of Joseph is where he was feeding his fathers flock (Gen. 37:2). The next view that we have of Joseph is in Potiphar's house where it is recorded that “he served” (Gen.39:4). Even when we was in prison the scripture says that “he served” (Gen. 40:4). The Bible does not use the word serve in connection to his job as Prime Minister but that was clearly what he was doing administratively. He provided for his family when they came to Egypt, and even after his father died he committed himself to taking care of his brothers. More than any other person in the Bible Joseph was a servant and that is why he was the most like Christ.

It is ironic that the most dominant characteristic that we see of the 12 disciples while following Christ was disputing among themselves who was going to be top man (Mk. 10:35-41). It is sad that even the Last Supper was marred by that dispute (Lk. 22:24). On more occasions than one Jesus warned them that in His Kingdom the system was different. He said the top man must be the servant. And to emphasize that Jesus said, “I came not to be ministered unto (served), but to minister (serve) (Mk. 10:45). Every motion we see in the life of Christ was that of a servant. On two occasions when there was a large group of people who had come a long ways to hear Him, He was concerned about feeding them – the 5,000 (probably more than 15,000) and 4,000 (Mk. 6:34-44; 8:1-9). When Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, what He is doing is pointing to His ministry as a servant. And even when nailed to the Cross His first three utterances were directed to the needs of others – concerning those who nailed Him, the thief, and His mother (Lk. 23:34, 43; Jn. 19:26,27).

It should be self-evident that anyone who claims to be filled with the Spirit of Christ should manifest the same Spirit of Christ – that of a servant. But I find it odd that many of those who are the most vocal about being Spirit filled, what they display is anything but that of a servant. Even after Jesus clearly told us on several occasions that if a man wants to be on top he must take the low position (Mk. 9:35; 10:42-44); of the many mission leaders and big men in Christianity that I have met there is only one man that stands out as truly being a servant. That is Neil Verwey. Neil was absolutely unique. He told me that in the early days of Japan Mission – before cars were available – he always rode the junkiest bicycle in the mission. When we were building the Joy Corral, he told me it was so hot in his bedroom that he couldn't sleep until 1:00 AM but he would not put air conditioning in his own bedroom until everyone in JM had air conditioning in theirs. When it came to 3:00 PM for afternoon tea, you couldn't beat Neil to the kitchen to fix tea. He would always walk around the room pouring tea for everyone there. And it was impossible to beat Neil to washing the dishes. This was not a display. This was who he was. There was no one in Japan Mission who was a greater servant to do the lowest job than Neil Verwey.

It causes me intense grief to write on this subject – that Jesus is the Servant. Lord, no, No, NO!!! Jesus is not the servant! Jesus is KING!!! Jesus is Lord!!! Let everyone prostrate flat before Him. Had I been with the disciples in the Upper Room the night of the Last Supper I would have been far more vocal than Peter when he balked at having Jesus wash His feet (Jn. 13:6-9). I don't know what I would have done. Crawl under the table? I can't endure the thought of Jesus giving me His chair or washing my feet.

I find it utter insanity that most of the Christian world considers Jesus as an ATM machine or that His main job in heaven is to serve them to keep them supplied and happy. And they get bent out of shape when things go against them. When 9-11 happened, the cry went up, “Where was God?”. The better question that should be asked is, “Why should He help us?”. If any country has thumbed its nose at God and shown Him to the door it is America. And the rank an file of many Christians are not much better in expecting Jesus to serve them.

I'm out of time and space, and I haven't even mentioned the main subject. It is one thing to think of Jesus as the Servant, but it is a totally different subject when we realize that He also is the sacrificial Lamb; who took our place, traded garments with me (Zech. 3:1-5; 2 Cor. 5:21), and died in my place.

What can I say? I'm sorry. There are no words. All I can do is hang my head and weep.

                                                           bill