The Glory of God & Kings

In this episode I interact with comments made by Jamin Hubner in his debate with an Eastern Orthodox priest at episode-83-god-bless-the-child. The full second 1/2 debate can be heard here: episode-84-when-you-believe

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How would you answer someone who asks whether or not the Bible has any relevance for today? It has to be more than mere platitudes and principles by which to live. How would you answer someone who asks what the Bible is all about? It has to be more than "Jesus." If you would like to be able to open your Bible to any book and feel at ease in reading it, not intimidated by all those confusing parts, then give this episode and those to follow a listen!!

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The great debate about the proper subjects of baptism is hampered by the sin of talking passed one another. One side (hence, the Baptist) says one thing and the other (hence, the Presbyterian) another and neither side is listening. Well, except for me. I am listening and what I hear is a lot of arguments against straw men. All of the ins-and-outs of this or that errant teaching on baptism are irrelevant. Don’t bring them up. Don’t bring up Rome, EO, or any other faction with which one might disagree. As a reformed Christian who believes the proper subjects of baptism are infants and those more mature, the arguments against Rome and the East won’t do here. Their arguments for baptism are not mine. Here is the fundamental issue: the nature of the covenant. What one believes about the nature of the covenant is what is at stake. It is an issue of hermeneutics, interpretation, and application of the two. For instance, how does one interpret Jesus’ words in Matthew about his parousia? Jesus does not simply come to the issue for the first time in chapters 23-25. He has been addressing his audience on his parousia from the beginning. When Jesus talks about the sun, moon, and stars in upheaval, to what is he referring? This is an issue of hermeneutics and there is only one right answer. After hearing my presentation of my hermeneutics on the passage above another might simply disagree with my methodology and that is the same with the baptism issue. It is an issue of definition and terms. History is a helpful guide but she is not the master. What the second or third century generation did and practised is basically irrelevant to the discussion for both parties. Both sides of the debate have quotable authorities from the early church. What of it? Much of what is used in the debate is actually an argument from silence on both sides, so let’s not do that. Let us argue from the scriptures and by that I do not mean let’s look at the NT and note where it mandates baptizing infants. Don’t even go there. Don’t bring it up. I already concede it’s not there. What is there? Silence. There is silence for both parties. For the Baptist, there is a silence as a mandate for the baptism of infants. For the Presbyterian there is a silence for change in protocol from the application of the covenant sign to infants (that is, the NT does not change what the OT establishes). Both must argue, then, from better cornerstones.

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"It is no longer possible today to say that Jews are unsaved and need to turn to Christ, unless you are willing to be called an anti-Semite. Any Christian, therefore, must be willing to live with this hateful slur; and facing that fact, we might as well be honest and say what really needs to be said.

The Jews are no longer God’s special people. They are also no longer any kind of curse, because the curse they took upon themselves when they crucified Jesus was fulfilled in ad 70 (Matthew 27:25). Since that time, Jews are no different from any other pagan people.

The Jews have no special part in God’s future plans for history. They will be converted, because all nations will be converted. But there is nothing special about their conversion. The promises of Romans 11 were fulfilled in the ad 60s (Revelation 7). Sadly, many Medieval and Reformation theologians, and virtually all the Puritans, all Dispensationalists, and many regular premillennialists, amillennialists, and postmillennialists today — all were/are fixated on the Jews. The Jews must be provided special prayers and attention, because they are still the center of history. Their conversion will be "life from the dead" for history. Or, when the Church is raptured, the Jews will take over. Everyone who thinks this way is still thinking in Old Creation categories. He does not understand the meaning of the coming of the New Creation in history.

The religion of Judaism carries forward the oral law tradition that Jesus said was authored by Satan, and that plagued the earliest Church in the form of the Judaizers. Yet, we find Christian theologians turning to the Mishnah and Talmud to explain serious theological matters, seemingly oblivious to Jesus’ condemnation of it. Those who want to deny the Lord’s Supper to children regularly turn to these demonic books in order to justify their position. It is, frankly, amazing. Why not quote from the Quran or the Book of Mormon?

Today, of course, mainline Christian theologians declare that Jews do not need to convert to Christianity to be saved. This is the position not only of liberals, but of supposedly conservative people as well.

Christians should view Jews the same way they view Moslems and humanists. Liberal Jews are basically secular humanists, and conservative Jews are like Mormons and Moslems: They have a false Bible that has nothing to do with the real Bible.

Obviously, we must sympathize with the European Jews who suffered so horribly 50 years ago. But we must also sympathize with the Bosnian Moslems and the Palestinian Moslems as well, both of which have been rather badly treated. We must sympathize with pagan Hutus and Tutsis and Buddhist Tibetans, Cambodians, and South Viet-Namese. From our perspective as Christians, the Jews are no different from any of the rest of these.

We need to wake up, look in the mirror, have a cup of coffee and three ibuproffn, and get over this hangover if we are going to give our grandchildren something better. The only people who need to study the Mishnah and Talmud are historians." http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/biblical-horizons/no-75-the-great-hangover-part-2/

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'Nuff said.

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Should we as Christians expect a future large scale conversion of Jews to faith in Christ? Not any more than we would of any other nation as James Jordan points out. Romans 11 is no longer a future expectation for the follower of Christ. It was future for Paul, but it is past for us. The jealousy to which Paul refers was only psychologically possible within the first century per se. The church was infantile and newly growing with Gentile conversions happening all over the place. This catalyst for jealousy for the Jews would either drive them to hate or love the Gospel.

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The catalyst for the next series of podcasts was a call I placed into a Christian talk radio program called The Line Of Fire with Dr. Michael Brown. Dr. Brown is a Christian and he is Jewish and I think he over emphasises that last point too much. Sound anti-semitic? It's not. Is the Bible about Jews or is it about the true Jew, Jesus of Nazareth? I think it is the latter. I begin this series with my own thoughts on the matter and then proceed in episodes 18-21 back to today's preeminent theologian, James B. Jordan.

www.lineoffireradio.com

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So this lawyer walks up to Jesus.... Hey, that sounds like a joke. "There was this lawyer and he passes the bar...." Hmph. Nevermind. But to the point. Does life have "dos" and "don'ts"? If so, which is most crucial? Which can be left less important? Jesus was asked this once: What is the greatest thing anyone could do? Here was his answer....

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If you knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow, what would you do? (Harold Camping need not reply.) This question is very profound but even more profound-er is the answer that Martin Luther gave over 400 years ago. When asked, Brother Martin, what would you do if you knew Jesus would return tomorrow?" He replied, "Brother, I'd plant a tree." Do you sense the weight of that answer? Give a listen.

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How would you like someone to give you a load of $%^&? Have you ever been given a load of $%^&? I bet you have. If you have ever heard someone say, "God is not here to make you happy" or "God is not interested in your personal fulfillment," you have been given a load of $%^&. It's just not true. God is all about making you happy. Do you believe me? It's true.

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