Think Outside the Box

2 May 2010

 Dear Phyllis,

 The rainy season has come to Thailand. Thailand has two seasons – dry and wet. They sure are distinctive. For five months, from December to April I doubt that we had two hours of rain. For three or four months we had zero rain. But now, from the end of April until October or November, we will have rain every day. But the rainy season isn’t that bad. When flying over this country in the summer time, the cloud coverage is about 50%. That means we get a lot of sun. And when it rains it is only for half an hour or so. Basically it is thunder storms or squalls.

The Thai’s attitude to rain while riding a motor bike is more or less to ignore it. A couple of years ago I was riding my Honda up to Burma in the summer. I knew I was going to get wet, so I took my rain gear. When I saw rain in front of me I stopped and put my rain gear on. But then I noticed that very few others were wearing rain gear. I got so tired of putting it on and off every twenty minutes, I finally joined the crowd and just got wet. No big problem as you will dry off in about the same time. Last night, coming home from work, I rode through heavy rain. I was soaked to the skin when I got home. But it was Saturday and I was going to wash my clothes anyway, so I just wore them in the shower to wash them.

 

Several months ago I was preaching in the local Thai church and had a bad time. I really felt bad when I sat down. I make no apology for what I said. I am satisfied that my message was scriptural sound, but that wasn’t the message those people needed to hear. I doubt that very many had any idea what I was talking about. It is possible to have a subject that interests the speaker very much, but that is not where the folks in the church are at that time of their development. What I was trying to share with them is a subject that has been very meaningful to me.

I believe it is safe to say in order to understand spiritual things we must think outside the box. 1 Corinthians 2 tells us clearly that the natural man cannot understand spiritual things. It is only by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that we understand spiritual truth. Therefore the Holy Spirit must be our teacher. He must be our master – not our own intellect. When the human intellect steps forward to take the chair of the sensei (teacher), the Holy Spirit is sidelined. There are some things that anyone with an IQ of over 75 can understand. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to understand that there is a God who made all things. If man will accept it, anyone should be able to understand that God sent His Son to this world to save it. But to understand the deep things of God, this can only be gained by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

I believe most people will accept that heaven is much different than this earth. When we read Ezek. 1 and Rev. 4 & 5 we are confronted with a description of things that goes well beyond our imagination. In one sense we are confronted with a problem similar to what a Stone Age savage in the Amazon might face if someone was to describe to him life in America today. How could you explain a computer to him? In order to understand spiritual truth, I believe we must accept that there are things that don’t make a lick of sense to us here. If we were restricted to living in a two dimensional world, how could we understanding a three dimensional world? In a two dimensional world a dot does not have a dimension. In a three dimensional world a dot can be a line which has a dimension. If we were restricted to only having four senses rather than five, and no one on this earth had eyes, how could you explain some things to them? There would be some things true in one world that are not true in the other. In the world of the blind the number five can only have one meaning. But in the world of sigh it can be different colors, that makes it different. Red and green lights mean nothing to a color blind person but they have a radically different function in a traffic light. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that there are things in the spirit world that are true that don’t make sense to us here.

To a limited degree all Christians will accept the doctrine of the Trinity. It is impossible for three to be one. And yet we all accept that there is one God Who exists in Three Persons. By the rules of this world that is impossible. To get around that problem we use the illustration of water existing in three different states. That is; the same cup of water can be solid, liquid or gas, depending on the temperature. Or a woman can be a daughter, wife or mother. But the doctrine of the Trinity goes well beyond our natural explanation.

I have found so many things in the Bible that seem to be contradictory that I have come to the conclusion that in the world of the spirit things are different and all these things are true – even if they don’t make sense here.

One of them is the contradictory doctrines of the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. Naturally speaking you can’t have it both ways at the same time. You can’t have a totally sovereign God who can do anything He wants. He can save or not save anyone He wants; and at the same time have the total unrestricted will of man who can thwart the grace of God, reject the pleadings of God, and refuse His salvation. And yet I see both arguments presented with equal clarity in the Bible. You can take either side of the argument and establish an irrefutable case. I have come to the position that both sides are absolutely correct. In this world it is impossible but in the realm of heaven I see where both sides equally exist.

 Another issue is the age old controversy of Calvinism verse Armenianism. Theologians have disputed this issue and fought like tigers over their respective positions for centuries. Again I see where both sides have equal validity. The problem with choosing sides is that in order to espouse one side you have to explain away a tremendous amount of very clear scripture and say “This cannot be true because the Bibles says… (then you insert your favorite verses)”. I find this extremely difficult as you must reject a great deal of very plain scripture.

Recently I have come to a new position in my Christology. First of all, may I adamantly declare that I see Christ in His deity in the highest sense of the word. I totally believe what John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” … All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made” (Jan. 1:1, 3). There is no question about Who John is talking about when he further says, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (Jan. 1:14). The Word is Jesus. There are numerous verses in the Bible that clearly teaches that Jesus was the creator. Not only was He the creator but He was also with the Father from eternity past. You can’t get any more clear than what John said “In the beginning was the Word”. Christ was there with the Father in the beginning and the first act of creation was done by Christ.

And yet I have recently been shocked when I began to consider what the word “begotten” means. This is clearly the verb used in most of the genealogies that talk about someone’s son (or child). In reading my Japanese Bible the other day, I was very surprised when I saw in Heb. 1:5 – in quoting the 2^nd Psalm ‘This day have I begotten Thee’ – the translators used the Japanese verb “umu”; which means to give birth. In that they are correct as this is exactly what “begotten” means. That means that Christ was born of God. This could be difficult. Andrew Murray brings out that there are clearly two begottens in scripture. In his message in Acts 13:33, Paul quotes the 2^nd Psalm – This day have I begotten Thee – and applies it to the resurrection of Christ. But the use in Heb. 1:5 applies directly to Christ relationship with the Father establishing that He is the Son of God, and considerably more than an angel. Some commentators suggest that the two begottens are referring to His incarnation and His resurrection. But Andrew Murray forwards the position that Christ was literally born of God. That argument makes more sense of the claim Jesus made of Himself in talking to Nicodemus when two times He refers to Himself as “the only BEGOTTEN” (Jan. 3:16, 18). When did this happen? That is a date and an event that we cannot discuss on this earth as it precedes eternity. It precedes “the beginning”.

The reason this came to the surface was what Andrew Murray had to say about Heb. 2:11 – “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all OF (literally out of) One”. This clearly teaches that the sanctifier – Jesus – and those who are sanctified – us – are both out of the same source. That is; we both are born out of God – born of His Spirit. That one rocked me. But it does make sense. No one will argue what the new-birth is. That is nothing less than the very Spirit of God being born, or coming into, our heart. All Christians agree that when a person is born again, the very Spirit of God comes into our heart. And this birth is the same as Jesus was born of God. It is because we both are born out of the same source Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren.

 

This has given me a new perspective of Jesus and His relation with the Father. Again, if you try to understand this by the tools of earthy understanding it is impossible.

But by accepting the position that things are much different in heaven, and the laws of heaven go beyond the rules that govern earthly understanding, I have become very comfortable in taking the entire Bible in and believing every verse is true just as it says.

If you think this letter is hard to swallow, you should have seen the perplexed looks on the faces of the poor Thai people who had to listen to a small modified version of this thesis. But may I again declare that Jesus is real and someday He will make all of this plain to us.

Shu ni kansha shimasu (thank the Lord),  bill