Are you a "Godian" or a Christian?

Most people (including many pastors) who think of themselves as Christians make a distinction between God and Christ, often without realizing it. They speak of God, especially when reading or teaching from the Old Testament, as a sort of deity similar to Allah or Buddha only greater.

Let me be clear. God is not merely superior to Allah or Buddha, He is God and they are not. Allah is an evolution of the fabled moon god and Buddha was just an Asian philosopher. God is the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Creator of all that is. Jesus is His equal, and is a part of Him.

You see, God the Father is not Jesus, He is not the Holy Spirit, but He is God. God the Son is not the Father; He is not the Holy Spirit, but He is God. God the Holy Spirit is not the Father; He is not the Son, but He is God. To speak of one as noninclusive of the other is blasphemy and heresy.  

God manifests Himself Biblically in three persons, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but as only one God. He always has, does now and always will. He was present in three persons in Genesis 1:1; He was present in three persons in Revelation 22:21 and He is present in three persons now.

The function of the Holy Spirit is not to do things for us, but to point us to Christ. The purpose of Christ is not to perform miracles for us, but to intercede for us to the Father. The Father is referred to as the "Godhead." That includes Christ and the Holy Spirit.

When we close our prayers with the phrase "in Jesus' name," we are not just tacking an incantation on the end of our prayer, we are reaffirming that Christ is the one in whom we trust for our salvation and who brings us into right relationship with the Father; an eternal relationship.

⁹ Therefore, God elevated him (Christ) to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11)

That triune God made covenants with His chosen people, Israel. There were seven of them, collectively referred to as the Old Covenant. They were: the Edenic Covenant, the Adamic Covenant, the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Palestinian (Land) Covenant and the Davidic Covenant. 

Those covenants applied to Israel, not to Christians (whether Hebrew or Gentile). Christians have no relationship to God through the Old Covenant. Their relationship to God is through, and only through, the New Covenant, who is Christ.

When we preach or teach from the Old Testament (which is the record of the Old Covenant), we are preaching and teaching from the section that applied to the nation of Israel. That does not mean that it does not apply to Christians, but it applies to Christians in a very different way.

Hebrews 8:13 tells us that the Old Covenant is obsolete. Do you believe the whole Bible or just the parts you like? If you believe the whole Bible, you must accept Hebrews 8:13 and discover how it relates to the rest of Scripture. (If you don't accept Hebrews 8:13, which is a part of the Bible, you might as well throw the whole thing out, because if part of it is wrong, there is no part of it you can trust.)

The whole point of the "Hall of Faith" (Hebrews 11), as the logical conclusion of Hebrews 4-10, is that the Jews of the Old Covenant are saved the same way Christians are saved: by faith in Messiah (Christ). It was not their faith in Godianity that saved them. The Jews were saved by their faith in the coming Messiah. Gentiles and Messianic Jews are saved by faith in the Christ of the New Covenant (a concept Jews would readily understand). 

Every word, phrase, verse, chapter and book of the Old Testament is about the Christ of the New Covenant. When we preach or teach from it, we MUST discover and relate HOW that section applies to the coming New Covenant, or we miss the point, in effect, lying about its meaning and application.

For instance, the story of David and Goliath is not the story of good over evil. It is not the story of "one person plus God equals a majority." It is not the story of God enabling David to defeat Goliath with a stone. The story of David and Goliath is an Old Testament picture of how God would overcome sin (the Philistines) through His Christ of the New Covenant.

If one reads the story apart from the context of all Scripture, that will never be the point of the story. But when it is read in the context OF Scripture, it can have no other meaning.

So! Are you a "Godian" or a Christian? If you are a "Godian," you are lost. You need to come to Christ, the person who is the New Covenant. You must place your faith in, and only in, His finished work at the cross of Calvary. Only He can cause you to "...rise up on wings as eagles" and enable you to enter Heaven for all of eternity.

How Do We Form Biblical Doctrines?

Suppose you made a list of everything the Bible has to say about prayer, praying and prayed, as well as any and all related topics. You’d then be able to make a pretty accurate statement about the Biblical doctrine of prayer, right?

Wrong.

What you would have is a list, nothing more. You would not have context, meaning or proper application, all of which are essential to forming a Biblical doctrine. You could take your list and twist it one way or the other and draw many different conclusions. That’s what cults, heretics and false teachers do.

The proper way to arrive at a Biblical doctrine of prayer would be to read the Bible as a narrative, taking references to prayer as they come, in the context(s) of the word used, the verse it is in, the chapter it is in, the book it is in, the Covenant in which it is applied and the Bible as a whole.

For those who like “topical” preaching, don’t worry. As you read the Bible narratively, every topic you can possibly imagine will be addressed in context and its proper application will become apparent.

It is trendy and popular to use the phrase, “Let the Bible interpret the Bible.” That would be true if properly applied, but it is usually used to make the teacher’s particular point or the preacher’s particular theosophical agenda. Often the context of one section of scripture does, indeed, support the context of another, but not outside of its context.

You can’t say, “God blesses obedience and curses disobedience” outside of its proper context and application. Under the Old Covenant, that was the case. Under the New Covenant, however, obedience comes from the Word of God being written on our hearts and our disobedience is covered by the blood of Christ.

That does NOT condone disobedience. Paul wrote that we should not sin more so that we could experience more grace. In fact, he said, “God forbid.” Instead, Paul encouraged us to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts in such a way that we would not even WANT to stray from God’s will. In a given situation we would know what is right by our focus on how the Holy Spirit is leading.

It is impossible to be focused on Christ and the leadership of His Holy Spirit and to do something outside of God’s will. Behaving outside of God’s will occurs when we lose our focus. When Paul admonished us to pray without ceasing, that is exactly what he was writing about. To pray without ceasing is to keep our minds and desires focused on Christ in every situation.

The doctrine of giving is another doctrine in which context is essential. Under the Old Covenant with the Jews, the Law required a tithe (10%). Under the New Covenant, in Christ, the requirement is 100%. Why would a Christian under grace allow a Jew under the Law to give more than the Christian under grace? That is a disgrace to grace. This is not about Old Testament vs. New Testament, it is about the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

According to Hebrews 8:13, “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one OBSOLETE; and what is OBSOLETE and outdated will soon disappear.”

So, when you formulate a doctrine, be certain that it is really a Biblical doctrine, and not your own private interpretation of Scripture.

Preaching the Gospel/Bible?

Some pastors seem to think that if the read a lot of Bible verses and make comments on them, they have “preached the Bible” or “preached the gospel.”

Often they preach on some topic or another and then tag the sermon with a non-descript “invitation,” that nobody knows why or how to respond to.

That’s not preaching the Bible. That’s not preaching the gospel. That’s not even preaching. That’s just filling time.

Paul wrote, following his failed excursion into philosophy at Athens, “I have resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified…” (1 Corinthians 2:2). He didn’t say, “I have resolved to know not much more than Christ and Him crucified. He said, “I have resolved to know NOTHING but Christ and Him crucified. What does NOTHING mean? Does it mean “something,” “a little bit” or does it mean “NOTHING?”

Suppose a preacher takes a few Scriptures from the Old Testament, maybe one of the famous stories like Daniel in the lions’ den, David and Goliath, Joshua and the walls of Jericho or any of the other great stories, and reads them. Then suppose he reads about obedience and how “God blesses obedience and curses disobedience.” Then suppose he tacks on the gospel at the end. Has he preached the Bible? No, he has not.

The problem is that many preachers treat the Bible as though it is a bunch of unconnected, unrelated stories, rules, regulations and wise sayings. It is not.

The Bible is the most remarkably consistent, intertwined and amazing books ever written.

First of all, it is written by God. He used 40 different authors over thousands of years who wrote 66 books, each of which relates to every one of all of the others! That is astonishing!

What a total shame to not demonstrate in every sermon how the Bible is all about God’s character, His love of His creation and His plan for its redemption. What message could possibly be more powerful, more relevant and more important for any human being to hear?

Preachers wake up! Stop cherry-picking Scripture to put together a sermon that fits your agenda or your “theosophy.” Cults do that! Let’s not let the Word of God be treated like some legalistic bunch of do’s and don’ts.

Neither let us use Scripture to show how bad the church is or how bad some practices in the church are. The church is the BRIDE OF CHRIST!! Stop doing that! The church is not bad. The church is good! There might be some people who need Bible study, training or growing, but the church is GOOD. Get that through your backward thinking, legalistic heads!

Come on, preachers. Study before you speak. Find the gospel in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Stop taking the lazy way out in sermon preparation. Start finding Jesus in every verse of the Bible. He’s there! You just have to find Him there! Do it!

Don’t tag your sermon with a quick invitation. Make your message lead up to a great, positive, compelling and inspiring invitation. Make Jesus the whole point of your message. Make every word of your message be designed to introduce people to Jesus and to inspire those who already know Him.

If you don’t think He is worthy of that, you need to revisit your own salvation experience!

New Covenant Theology?

Jesus is the New Covenant personified. About that there can be no doubt. He is so identified in Scripture, especially in Hebrews (a book written to Jews to help them understand that Jesus is the Messiah fulfilled).

So, what is New Covenant Theology?

New Covenant Theology is a technical term referring to a theological view of redemptive history. It is often contrasted with Covenant theology and Dispensationalism.

Proponents of New Covenant Theology maintain that the primary thrust of the New Covenant is the recognition of a promise-fulfillment understanding of Scripture. The Mosaic economy is viewed as a temporal, conditional covenant that has been forever replaced by the glory of the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3).

New Covenant Theology dates back to just after the so-called “reformation.” The last twenty-five years have seen a great resurgence of Reformed theology in Baptist circles. As a result, many within this camp have sought to develop a more clarified system of the covenants that relate back to older thought. John Reisinger, Jon Zens, Peter Ditzel, Fred Zaspel, Tom Wells, Gary Long, Geoff Volker and Steve Lehrer are parts of this camp. The writings of Douglas Moo,Tom Schreiner, andD.A. Carson on the relation of the Christian to the law reveal their sympathies with NCT. However they have not wanted themselves to be so labeled. John Piper also has many points of contact with this movement, but an article at Desiring God carefully distinguishes his position from the Covenant, New Covenant and Dispensational theological systems.

Frankly, I have some issues with some of the teachings of New Covenant Theology. I do not believe that the church is “spiritual Israel.” Nor do I consider myself “Calvanistic,” as many New Covenant theologians do. (Neither am I Armenian, by the way). Like NCT, I do believe that the Mosaic Law is fulfilled with the advent of Christ and the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 9:21). New Covenant believers consider themselves to be under the Law of Christ, which is a law written on the heart, not on tablets of stone. I agree with that.

The traditional Reformed hermeneutic of the law argues that whatever is not abolished in Christ continues. New Covenant Theology says that the entire Law of Moses has passed away and only remains in so far as it passes through the hands of Christ.

Personally, I would think of  it differently. I believe that the Law is as pure and holy as ever, that I am totally incapable of keeping any aspect of it and that Christ has fulfilled the Law on my behalf through his grace and mercy. Therefore, I am no longer accountable to the Law.

That is not license to sin. As Paul wrote, “God forbid!” It is license to follow what Christ has written on my heart in all areas of my life. It is total followship of Him. It is the recognition that it is not about me, it is not about you, it is ALL about Him.

You might disagree with me, and that’s alright. This is America. You have the right to be wrong.

Real Giving

Any Christian who would let a Jew under the Law give more than the Christian under grace is a disgrace to grace (a paraphrase of a statement by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers).

The Law required three tithes, or up to 30% of one’s income. Under grace, Christ demands 100%.

The poor widow was not commended for giving 10% of what she had; she was commended for giving ALL she had (that’s 100%, by the way).

The rich young ruler was not told by Jesus to go sell 10% of what he had, give it to the poor and to follow Jesus. That would not have bothered any Jew. He was told to sell ALL that he had, give it to the poor and follow Jesus (that’s 100%, by the way).

Every single one of the New Testament references to giving puts it in the context of giving what God has laid on one’s heart. That’s because the New Covenant (as revealed in the New Testament) is 100% a matter of the heart.

Why would any preacher ask a Christian to cut back to giving only 10% (or 30%, as the case might be)? Why would any church be so short-sighted as to teach giving 10% instead of 100%? Why would a church require anyone in leadership to cut back to giving only 10%? How spiritually ignorant is that?

If every person tithing would remove the financial burdens of a church, how much more would every person giving as the New Covenant instructs yield?

“Well, what about Malachi?” I hear you ask. First of all, Malachi is under the Old Covenant(s). Secondly, the grain silos in Malachi are not analogous to the church (where on earth did THAT idea ever come from? There is nothing anywhere in Scripture that even HINTS of that.). Thirdly, Malachi is about Israel, not about Christianity.

The Christians of the New Covenant (as recorded in the New Testament) pooled all of their available resources to make absolutely certain that anybody who had need was provided for. (For those of you tempted to equate that with Communism, remember, giving was voluntary, not required; and it had nothing to do with the government).

It is so sad that so many have been told so long that Christians should tithe because the Bible says we should, that they have come to believe it. The Bible absolutely, positively does NOT teach that Christians should tithe. It just does not. It teaches that Jews under the Old Covenant(s) should tithe, but not Christians.

Christians are directly instructed to give what God lays on their hearts to give, cheerfully and enthusiastically, up to and including 100% of everything they are, do and have.

Parenthetically, there are those who think they are Christians who are so shallow that they think the New Testament “builds” on the Old Testament. IT DOES NOT. The New Testament is the revelation of the New Covenant, which is built on and lived out on a totally different basis from the Old Covenant(s). The New Testament is the record of the coming of Messiah, who fulfilled every aspect of the Old Covenant(s') Law.

Christians should not give ‘till it hurts. They should give until it feels real good!

A Little about the Law

If we are Christians, we are in the age of grace. If we are Christians, we are under a New Covenant with God.

Does that mean that for Christians the Law means nothing?

It does not mean that at all.

So what does it mean?

Let’s find out.

The first of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  There has never been a person (other than Jesus) who has kept that Law…never.

Under grace, has that Law been abolished?

The answer is, “No, it has been fulfilled in Christ.”

Does that mean we can have other gods before God?

No!

If we are Christians, we have recognized that Christ is Lord (Romans 10:9 & 10), and we have turned to Him in faith, trusting in, and only in, His finished work at the cross of Calvary. If we are Christians, we know Him. If we truly know Him, why would we want to put ANYTHING or ANYBODY ahead of Him? After what He has done for us, why would we want to give him second place or lower in our lives?

We wouldn’t.

If we want to give anything or anybody else first place in our lives, we need to reevaluate our relationship to God through Jesus.

Do you remember the song that went, “To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him and I do”? Well, that’s the way it must be with Christ. To know Him is to love Him. Conversely, NOT to love Him is not to know Him.

If you don’t know Him (and therefore love Him), you aren’t saved.

Meanwhile, back at the Law, Jesus proclaimed that He had fulfilled the Law. That means He has paid the price for our inability to keep the Law in-and-of ourselves. Our response to His fulfilling the Law, if we really realize what He has done for us, is to keep it in our hearts, just as Scripture tells us to.

Bible Study and Preaching

What passes for Bible study and “Bible based sermons” today is dismal. It is little more than pick-and-choose magnified to imitate Bible truth.

Bible study has been reduced to chopping the Bible up into little pieces to serve a particular topic of interest to the Bible study leader or the ones responsible for his “teaching manual.” This is the method used by every heretical cult that has ever been and is fraught with danger.

A case in point is the way the book of Proverbs is used to address certain topics, for instance, “Watching your words.”

Being careful about what you say is important. Words can hurt. Words can heal. Words can be neutral. But using some “proverbs” about words from one section of Proverbs and some from another completely misses the point of the book. Proverbs, in the Bible, is about growth. As we grow in Wisdom (Christ), we will understand how to use words better. That’s why the subject of how we use words is progressive in the book of Proverbs. Each time it is brought up, a little more of the subject is revealed and a proper response expanded.

Each section of Proverbs deals with the same group of topics, each time a little more in depth and a little more detailed. The topics are: Wisdom, the fear of the Lord, the company we keep, the value of money and things, and the results of choosing wrongly. Wisdom is a type of Christ in Proverbs and the point is that as we know Christ better we will exhibit more and more of His characteristics.

Sermons have been reduced to modified legalism. Most evangelical pastors would deny that they are legalistic, but then go right on preaching about lists of things that are right and things that are wrong. That IS legalism. And it is NOT what the Bible is about, no matter how many passages or verses are quoted.

The Bible is about the gospel of Christ. That’s its message from cover to cover. The gospel is the Good News that Christ has paid the penalty for sin and that if we repent and turn to Him in faith, trusting in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary, we will spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

Whether we are preaching from Exodus, Leviticus, Malachi the Gospels, or wherever, the message is the same: God is of the highest character; He loves His creation and has a wonderful plan for its redemption.

The Bible is not about how we behave (although if you need a behavioral guide, it is the best there is). It is not a history book (although if you need to know the history of Israel or of God’s movement in history, it is the best history there is). The Bible is not a psychology book (although it contains the best psychology that ever has been, is now or ever will be). Nor is the Bible a philosophy book (although it contains the only relevant philosophy in the universe).

The Bible is God’s revelation of His character, His love for His creation and His plan for its redemption.

Every Bible study leader should look for those three things. If he cannot find them in what he is preparing to teach, he should go back and study some more or he will be teaching the wrong thing.

Every preacher should look for those three things. If he cannot find them in what he is preparing to preach, he should go back and study some more or he will be preaching heresy.