A note about another blog I posted about Albert Pujols at this rally.  I did post the video of his speech, and do think he was clear and did a good job articulating the Gospel, so I hope I am not being contradictory in these two posts.  But Moore’s post really made me think.

Was the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament or was it brought when Jesus died?

As a member of the Triune God the Holy Spirit is eternal (always existed), omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent (everywhere).  The first time we encounter the Holy Spirit is in the second verse in the Bible (Genesis 1:2) as the Holy Spirit is active in the creation of the world.  From this point on the Holy Spirit is performing His work, but His relationship with people changes after the cross.

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit speaks to people, comes upon people, speaks through people, and does mighty works in people.  But the key difference is that the Holy Spirit does this work without becoming an indwelling and eternal presence in the life of the individual.  When David repents for his sin with Bathsheba he cries out to God asking Him not to take the Holy Spirit from him (Psalm 51:11).

As Jesus is teaching on this in John 14:16-18 he tells His disciples that they know the Holy Spirit because He has been with them, but will soon (after Jesus death and ascension) He will be in them.  The difference from the Old to the New Testament is the difference of the Holy Spirit being with people and the Holy Spirit setting up residence within followers of Jesus.  In another place Jesus describes this event as being baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5).  The word Greek word baptizo means to immerse or submerge.  In other words, Jesus is promising a point in which the Holy Spirit will indwell the follower of Jesus in such a way that he fills us and we are immersed in Him.  This level of relationship is made available because of the substitutionary atonement and forgiveness of Jesus.  Jesus death allows for a different level of relationship with God in the person of the Holy Spirit.

So, the Holy Spirit has always existed, and was at work int he Old Testament.  But our relationship with Him is deeper and greater because of the work of Jesus on the cross.  To God be the glory forever!

Stalin, Clinton, Churchill, Washington, Napoleon, Hitler, Lincoln, Caesar, Alexander the Great, Obama… Many  consider these (and other) leaders to be some of the great men of history.  Some of them used their opportunity to lead to make a positive difference and change history for the better.  Others were wicked men who used their time in the sun to kill, and destroy, and wreak havoc.  For many of them, because of their position, they believed they were masters of their own fate.  They thought that they were their own God and on top of the world.   In fact, some of the great leaders considered themselves to be God.  The Roman Emperors were often called “Lord and God” by the people.  These leaders believed they could do anything they wanted, and use their armies and power to advance their own cause.

God is sovereign, meaning that He is in control of all of history.  Everything that happens in human history takes place because God is accomplishing His ultimate purpose and plan.  Some leaders have realized that God is in control, and therefore, have followed Him in their time of power.  God has used some of these men to accomplish great things.  Abraham Lincoln was a man of faith who wanted to serve God in his presidency.  As he grew in his faith, he began to understand that God was the creator of all men, and that slavery was wicked.  As a result of God’s control in his life, he was the primary instrument God used to abolish slavery.

On the other hand, some leaders rebel against God and have a wicked heart.  But God still accomplished His plan through those men as well.  Hitler killed millions of Jews.  He propagated hate and was immoral.  Yet, it was because of Hitler that the Jews left Europe and returned to Israel.  In many Biblical prophecies there are references to the nation of Israel in the events of the last days.  From 70 AD until 1944 there was no nation of Israel.  Jews were scattered all over the world.  The area called Palestine, which is the land where Israel was in Bible times was inhabited by Muslim people.  Hitler’s persecution caused Jews to flee Europe and return to Israel, and in 1944, Jews organized themselves, started a new government, and the nation of Israel existed again.  While Hitler’s actions were evil, God used that wickedness to do what He wanted.  In the end, Hitler committed suicide and will spend eternity separated from God in hell.  Hitler was nothing more than a pawn in God’s ultimate plan.

Kings, presidents, princes, senators, dictators, and prime ministers are nothing more than instruments that God uses to fulfill His ultimate purpose.  In the end, they will either experience judgement because of their actions, or they will spend eternity with God because they trusted Him.  But in the long run, they are like a river that flows through a valley.  The river goes where the valley directs it.  Rulers hearts and actions are controlled by a sovereign God.  He will always accomplish His plan, even through the wickedness of men.

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What is the difference on the tongues that were spoken during the Day of Pentecost and in the book of Acts and the Tongues that are spoken in the rest of Scripture?

The role of the Spiritual gift of tongues is one of the most controversial doctrines in Christianity.  Basically put, this gift is the ability to speak in languages not understood by the speaker.  Tongues can either be in the context of mission as a powerful demonstration of God’s spirit crossing language and cultural barriers, but it can also be used in the church for edification or as a private spiritual prayer language.

Most of the controversy has to do with the use of this gift in the New Testament book of Acts, hence the question.  In Acts 2:1-4 the Holy Spirit comes upon the first believers in a miraculous and clear way.  His presence fills the room in the form of a wind, and tongues of fire rest on each of them, they are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in tongues as the Spirit enables.  But the scene quickly moves us from a room into the streets where thousands of Jewish people from all over the world are staying as they celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  Most of these Jews do not speak Hebrew well because they live in many other places and countries.  As the first Christians speak in tongues a miracle takes places as the languages that are unknown to the speaker are understood by these hearers and they hear the praises of Jesus voiced in their own language.  Interest is peaked in what is happening which leads to Peter preaching the Gospel and 3,000 people are saved and baptized on that day.  In this case the speaking in tongues was given to the entire group as evidence of the filling of the Spirit with the outcome being the conversion of many.

There are two other occurrences of tongues in Acts, one in Acts 10:44-46 and Acts 19:1-6.  In each of these situations people repent of sin and believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  The result is that they are given the gift of the Spirit with an evidence of speaking in tongues.  But the leap of logic here is to declare that the evidence for every person who believed in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues.  There are myriads of people who are saved, but nothing in the book of Acts states that all of them had this special demonstration of the Spirit.  Also, we are not told in these occurrences exactly what the tongues were and if there were others who understood the languages.  Furthermore, there are signs other than tongues in the book of Acts that demonstrate the filling of the Spirit (see Acts 4:31).

Groups who come to the conclusion that speaking in tongues is THE evidence (rather than an evidence) of the Holy Spirit do so by breaking a basic rule of Biblical hermeneutics, which is the art and science of Biblical interpretation.  That rule is that we should never from doctrine from the narrative sections of Scripture without that doctrine being developed elsewhere.  Acts is a story or narrative, which means that it is telling us events, not trying to teach doctrine.  Every narrative will contain events that are specific to the story, but not designed to teach as an eternal truth.  Let me illustrate what I mean.  In the story of Acts many of the earliest Christians sold all of their belongings in order to help the poor and live in deep community with each other (Acts 4:32-37).  We don’t hear voices of people calling for this sort of commune living as a doctrine of the church.  This is part of the story of Acts, but is not a binding thing on all Christians, even though the principles of caring for the poor, living in community, helping each other, etc., are specified in other places.  In the same way, the text of Acts is telling us the story of people whose lives are changed by the Gospel and are filled with the Spirit.  In some instances the evidence of the Spirit is speaking in tongues.  But Acts is not trying to build the doctrine that speaking in tongues is the evidence of the Spirit.  If it was we would also find this idea taught in other sections of the Bible where the writer is trying to teach doctrine.

The other major section of the New Testament that deals with this and other miraculous gifts is Acts 12-14.  Time here does not allow for a detailed explanation of these chapters but I would encourage your reading.  But a few things are clear.  First, God is the giver of all gifts as he shapes and forms the body of Christ.  Second, each gift is needed (1 Corinthians 12:21-26).  Tongues is one of those gifts.  Third, no one person has all the gifts and no gift is possessed by all people (1 Corinthians 12:27-31).  In these verses Paul asks rhetorically if all people have each of these gifts.  Of course the answer is “no”, so when he asks the question of tongues he expects the same answer.  Not all have the gift of tongues. In chapter 14 Paul then explains the use of the gift of tongues and prophecy in the context of the Corinthian church.  It is here where he shares that tongues can either be evidenced in church or in one’s prayer life.  In church it is to be accompanied by someone who can interpret the tongue so that the entire church can be edified (I Corinthians 14:11).  As a prayer language tongues takes the person with this gifting into a deeper level of spiritual prayer where his or her spirit communicates deeply with God (1 Corinthians 14:13-15).

Ultimately the answer to this question depends on what is meant by “difference”.  For the person exercising the gift, it seems that the experience would be the same, that the person is communicating in languages that are foreign to the speaker as a result of the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.  But depending on the circumstance, there can be a vast difference in the way the gift is used, either for the spiritual depth of the person, the edification of the church, or the advancement of God’s mission to people speaking other languages.

A final thought here about the gift of tongues.  In reading Scripture it is clear that the Bible teaches that tongues is a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, another question involves how that and some of the other miraculous gifts function today in the church.  Some hold a position called Cessationism which believes that the miraculous gifts were given by the Spirit during the era in Christianity when the church did not have the New Testament.  Since the New Testament has been given and put into a clear work we no longer need gifts of revelation, where God speaks on that level, and therefore these gifts have passed away.  We don’t see prophets or tongues as a gift because we don’t need them a cessationist would argue, we have the complete Bible.  A second position we will call the Charismatic view (the Greek word for Spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12-14 is charismata, meaning a gift of God’s grace).  While the viewpoint in this group varies, the basic idea is that all of the gifts are available to the church today.  The third view, the Pentecostal view not only holds that all the gifts are available, but they also teach that speaking in tongues is THE evidence that a person has the Holy Spirit.  As a church, we at Genesis would not agree with the Pentecostal view, but we are open handed on the other two views of gifts, meaning that we allow for a broad range of understanding in these areas.

There you go!  God bless.

What is the Holy Spirit’s role in the Trinity?

In his book Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem says the work of the Holy Spirit is “to manifest the active presence of God in the world, and especially in the church.”  This definition is helpful in understanding this question.  Throughout the Scriptures the work of the Holy Spirit manifests God’s presence in ways that demonstrate God’s power and purpose in the world.  In every act of God, all three members of the Trinity are involved and purposeful.  Clearly God is unified in purpose and in His acts, but His unity is expressed as each person within the Trinity fulfills roles.

Generally, the Father is the leader and sets purpose, the Son secures that purpose, and the Holy Spirit applies that purpose as he is the active presence of God.  A couple examples.  In Creation, God the Father speaks the worlds into existence, but the Bible also teaches that all things were created through and for the Son (Colossians 1:16, John 1:1-3, Hebrews 1:1-3).  We also find that the Holy Spirit is hovering over the face of the waters in the act of creation (Genesis 1:2), and Psalm 104:30 indicates that God creates by sending forth His Spirit (see also Psalm 33:6 understanding that the word breath – Hebrew ruach – also means Spirit).

A second example is the ministry of Jesus.  At Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:13-17), all three members of the Trinity are revealed.  Jesus, the Divine Son of God is baptized by John and the heavens open.  The voice of God speaks and the Spirit of God descends.  While Jesus did not divest himself of a single attribute of God, He did accept the limitations of humanity.  The Gospels show us that the ministry of Jesus was done in the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:28, Luke 4:1, Luke 4:21, John 3:34).

The third area we see the work of the Trinity is within the mission of God.  God is a sending God.  Within the Divine counsel of the Trinity and the mystery of God, the Father has decreed His purposes.  The sending of God in mission is one of the themes of the Bible and especially in the Gospel of John.  Jesus declares several time that the Father sent the Son (John 6:44, John 6:57, John 17:18) and that the Father and Son sent the Spirit (John 14:16, John 14:26, John 15:26).  As each member of the Trinity fulfills His aspect of God’s mission people are saved and the people of God are created.  God then sends His people as an extension of Trinitarian mission (John 17:18, John 20:21-22).

All of this relates to God’s purposes in redemption and salvation.  The Father decrees and initiates our Salvation for His purpose and Glory.  The Son secured our Salvation with His death on the cross.  The Holy Spirit applies our Salvation by giving us life (John 3:5-7, John 6:63), convicting us of sin (John 16:8-10), and making us new (Titus 3:5).

We live in a society that is consumed with alcohol.  The best commercials on TV are beer commercials.  Every restaurant has a bar, and people at almost every table are drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage.  The social life at most parties revolves around alcohol. Drinking is part of the American way of life.  For years there has been a debate over whether it alright for Christian to drink alcohol.  Traditionally, the denomination I was a part of have believed that the best approach to alcohol, and other drugs is abstinence, avoiding them completely.  Other Christians come to the conclusion from reading Scripture that consumption of alcohol by itself is not sinful if done in moderation, and that the issue is one of liberty and conscience.  At Genesis we believe this is an open handed issue meaning that we will have people who hold various positions on the Scriptural teaching of alcohol.  Still, no matter which position one holds, everyone would acknowledge that there are dangers in liquor and some people’s lives have been wrecked.

This verse has strong things to say about people and their abuse of alcohol.  The writer says that “Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is a brawler.”  He is stating something about people who are drunk that most everyone knows.  There are funny drunks and angry drunks.  People who overindulge in the use of drink will eventually make a fool of themselves or will get into fights and skirmishes they don’t need.    He goes on to say the person who is led astray by it is not wise.  The picture here is of a whiskey bottle carrying a leash and some poor dude us just being dragged behind it, away from the good things that matter.

Believe it or not, the Bible has several passages celebrating alcohol as part of the goodness of God’s creation, and any drink or food to be accepted with thanksgiving and praise to the Creator who has given it (see Psalm 104:14-15, John 2:1-11, Proverbs 3:9-10, Deuteronomy 14:26, Ecclesiastes 9:7). On the other hand, the Bible is full of warnings about the dangers (Proverbs 23:29-35, Isaiah 5:22, Romans 13:13, Galatians 5:21).  So whether you drink or not, here are a few thoughts on the dangers and Biblical principles that should guide.

(1)Being drunk is a sin – Ephesians 5:18 teaches that God’s desire is for us to be filled or controlled by the Spirit of God.  When a person gets drunk he or she will not be controlled by the Holy Spirit, because he or she will be controlled by the drug in the alcohol.  Most people, especially teenagers, who consume alcohol, do so because they want the drug.  They want to feel lightheaded.  They want to loose their inhibitions.  They want to let the alcohol change their behavior.  The Bible is clear, God does not want His children to be intoxicated, to be influenced by alcohol.

(2)Care should be taken concerning the  importance of one’s witness – As a believer in Jesus, it is important to realize we are called to be different from the world.  In some settings having a drink with some people may enhance relationship and provide opportunity for Gospel-centered conversation.  But bad decisions with alcohol can also destroy one’s witness.

(3)Caring for a weaker brother – Most of the arguments I heard in my religious heritage focused on this issue.  While the people would agree that the Bible does not forbid alcohol consumption, they argued that drinking will wreck the faith of new Christians.  In St. Louis culture I am not sure that this is true.  That being said, we always ought to exercise Christian freedoms in such a way that we keep newer and struggling believers in mind.  At the very least, the call is for prudence (see 1 Corinthians 8, Romans 14).  The same can be said about brothers and sisters in Christ who have a life-struggle with the issue.  We should show great care not to put them in hard situations or be a source of struggle.  Rather, we should support and love these people by choosing to abstain when our consumption could hurt them.

(4)Obedience to the law – The Bible is clear that believers are to obey the laws of the land unless they order a person to disobey God’s laws.  The laws prohibit people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol.  The laws (for obvious reasons) prohibit consumption of alcohol when driving a vehicle.  Whether a person is caught or not, a minor drinking alcohol is breaking the law, which means they are also violating God’s plan for their life.  A person drinking and then driving is a sin whether they are caught by earthly authorities or not.

(5)The issue of self-control as an evidence of grace – Galatians 5:19-20 teaches that one aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit is self-control.  Any area of life that we cannot control demonstrates our need for greater grace and the pursuit of God in a deeper way.  This is true of alcohol, food, video games, romance novels, etc.  Anything that gains control of our lives and that creates addictions will lead us away from Jesus.

No matter where you stand on the issue of alcohol, we do need to know that there are issues, and we should proceed with care.  But we also must be incredibly careful not to fall into another very serious sin, that of legalism.  In the end, we must build our convictions based on the Gospel and hold them in such a way that we demonstrate love for God and love for others in all of our actions.

Will the Jewish people be given a second chance as His chosen people?

This is a complicated question that a quick answer cannot due justice.  The Biblical texts that address this question are numerous, with several New Testament passages interpreting a myriad of Old Testament prophecies.  A little background here.  The Biblical story begins with the creation of everything including humanity followed by our Fall as a result of sin.  From this point God begins promising a “seed” that will crush Satan and his work and will redeem lost humanity (Genesis 3:14-15).  In God’s plan he called a man named Abram (God changed his name to Abraham) and made him several promises.  Those promises included making Abraham a great nation, even though he had no children at the time.  It also included a promise that all nations would be blessed because of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3).  God kept his promise to Abraham miraculously as he and his wife had a son when they were both in their 90′s.  These descendants of Abraham become a family, which becomes a people who are in slavery in Egypt.  God delivers them from slavery and redeems them to Himself.  The one true God will be their God and they will be his people (Exodus 19:4-6).  God is continually faithful to Him, and he makes them a kingdom and gives them a place, the land of Palestine.  He makes a myriad of promises to His people, some of which were fulfilled in the Old Testament, some of which were partially fulfilled, and some of which have not been fulfilled.  But, everything in the Old Testament with the Jews or Hebrews is there to lead us to the “seed” of Abraham, Jesus Christ.  God raised this Kingdom to send King Jesus as their Messiah.  We see this in the Revelation 4:10 where John tells us about the picture of the 24 elders worshiping Jesus around his throne.  Most theologians see this as an image of the fullness of God’s people as shown in the Old and New Testaments, with the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve Apostles.

After Jesus death and resurrection the full plan of God was revealed.  God’s people are not those who are physical descendants of Abraham, but are spiritual descendants, those who live by faith in Jesus (see Romans 4).  In this context there are several issues specifically about the Jews which theologians will disagree depending on which approach they will take to the End Times.  These positions are developed as people study the Old Testament promises, several passages in both the Old and New Testament on the End Times, and some of Paul’s thoughts in Romans 9-11.  So, once again I will give a few of my thoughts, but I hold the position lightly and encourage care in overemphasizing one’s view.

The first question is whether the Bible teaches that there are one or two people of God.  In other words, does the Bible teach that the Jews were God’s people in the Old Testament, but now Christians are God’s people in the New Testament?  I do not believe this is the case.  God’s plan always has been Jesus as the sacrifice for redemption.  The Old Testament rituals and religious activities of the Jews are there to demonstrate their need for a Savior and point forward to Jesus.  We now look back to Jesus as our atonement.  In several New Testament passages the Bible indicates that one of the beautiful things the Gospel has done is that it makes one people out of this diversity.  This is the clear message of Galatians 3:23-29 as Paul declares that there is neither Jew nor Greek, but that anyone who is in Christ is Abraham’s offspring and an heir of the promises of God.  The same message is echoed in Ephesians 2:11-22 as Paul uses the dividing wall between the Courts of the Jews and the Gentiles as an illustration.  Christ, Paul says, created one new man out of two (Jew and Gentile) bringing peace.  As a result, there is one building (a metaphor for the people of God), Christ is the cornerstone and we are the bricks.  The outcome is the Temple of the living God.

Therefore, I do not believe that the Jews are necessarily the people of God.  The New Testament is trying to show us that now and in the past, the people of God were those who lived by faith.  Romans 9:6 has an interesting phrase, as Paul says that “not all who are descended from Israel (a name given by God to Jacob who is Abraham’s grandson) belong to Israel.”  In this chapter Paul is making this very argument, that the children of promise by faith are the true sons of Abraham, whether they were children by birth or not.  Some will defend Israel as a nation no matter what they do, stating that these are the people of God and we must support them politically, even if they are wrong.  The danger here is that we as Christians can support Israel as a nation in such a way that we actually promote persecution of Palestinian Christians living in and around the Jews.  So I tend to reject a strong view of Zionism.

On the other hand the Bible contains a bunch of prophecies that were made to national Israel as physical descendants of Abraham.  Many of these promises have not reached ultimate fulfillment.  Those who hold an Amillennialism tend to see the fulfillment of these promises in growth of the church and the development of Christianity as a world-wide phenomenon.  I tend to believe that the Bible, including some thoughts from the mouth of Jesus (in Matthew 24), Paul in Romans 9-11 show that God’s work among the Jews is not done.  Two things here that Scripture may point us to.  First, there may be a day when God pours out his Spirit among the Jewish people resulting in a large number of Jewish people finding Jesus as their Messiah, and hence becoming part of the true people of God.  Some of this is happening in our day.  Second, the Scriptures present the possibility that God will work to keep promises God made to the Jews  through Abraham, David, and other significant Old Testament figures.  I am careful  to speak with a lot of certainty on how this will happen, but allow for the possibility that it is part of the Biblical storyline.

If Jesus is God, why doesn’t He know the time of His return (Matthew 24:36)?

The interplay between Jesus divine and human natures is one of the deepest theological issues in the Scriptures.  Jesus always has been and is fully God, and never divested himself of a single attribute of divinity.  This includes his omniscience.  But Jesus also became human, meaning that Jesus took on the limitations of being human.  He is the all-powerful God but had to eat in order to sustain himself.  He is the omnipresent God who lived in Palestine and was limited in his physical location.  He is the omniscient God who had to learn and grew in his wisdom and in his humanity took on voluntary limitations in his human intellect.  All of this is an incredible mystery, but it is the glory of God demonstrated in the incarnation of the Son.

At the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 the early church affirmed the divine and human nature of Jesus, saying that Christ was “perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man.”  The Chalcedonian Creed affirmed that Jesus was to acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved.”  The idea is that the nature of divinity and the nature of humanity were both preserved in Jesus in such a way that both natures expressed themselves in fullness and in complete union with each other.  In the ESV Study Bible on this passage, it says, “How Jesus could have limited knowledge and yet know all things is difficult, and much remains a mystery, for nobody else has ever been both God and man. One possibility is that Jesus regularly lived on the basis of his human knowledge but could at any time call to mind anything from his infinite knowledge.”

In Matthew 24, Jesus is warning his followers not to follow after teachers who try to convince their followers that they have everything figured out in their eschatology.   Throughout the ages crackpot prophets and crazed end times gurus have developed charts and graphs giving reasons Jesus would return at a certain time.  People have written books explaining why Jesus must return in a given year or on a given date, and cults have formed following leaders who claimed to have the inside track on when the events of Revelation would occur.  Sadly, many people have been duped into selling their homes and property and living in some commune to prepare for the great day, and found themselves broken when that date came and went and their so-called prophet proved to be false.  Jesus words in this passage are clear, if someone comes claiming to know the details and the date, that fact alone discredits them as a prophet or teacher from God and they should be ignored and labeled as a false teacher.  This is true because in his humanity Jesus is not aware of the date of his return.  And if Jesus cannot declare the “when” during his earthly ministry, that is a clear sign that the detail of the day and hour of the coming of Christ is something known only in the secret council of God.