THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL—IT’S GROWTH AND IMPACT

•    According to a study from Lifeway Research, 52% of American Protestant churchgoers say their church teaches God will bless them if they give more money to their church and charities, with 24% strongly agreeing. This is up from 38% of churchgoers who agreed in a 2017 Lifeway Research study.

•    Additionally, churchgoers are more likely today than in 2017 to believe God wants them to prosper financially (76% v. 69%) Today, 3 in 4 churchgoers (76%) believe God wants them to prosper financially, including 43% who strongly agree. Fewer (45%) believe they have to do something for Him in order to receive material blessings from God, with 21% strongly agreeing. Package https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/oberlins-art-museum-projects-grandeur-in-a-gemlike-package/

 
It is in the darkness that the cults reign. None of them encourage the use of reason. If anything, they discourage it lest their manipulations come to light, and it be seen that their teachings fail to match up with Scripture. Those who lead false revivals often have counseled that the use of the mind is at odds with the operation of the Spirit. One visitor to the Anaheim Vineyard church reported this admonition:

•    “And above all, don't try to rationally evaluate the things you will see. God isn't trying to reach your mind; He wants to reach your heart. Analyzing spiritual phenomena through the grid of human logic or religious presuppositions is the quickest way to quench what the Spirit is doing. Subjecting the revival to doctrinal tests is the surest way to put out the fire. Don't try to find reasonable explanations for what is happening; just turn your heart loose and let the Spirit flow through your emotions. Only then can the Spirit have His way in your life.” http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil//articles/laugh.htm

According to this Vineyard church, our minds are worse than a hindrance; they are an insurmountable obstacle to God’s purposes! However, the false revivalists conveniently leave out a number of verses like the admonition to love the Lord with all of our minds (Mat. 22:37) and to exercise discernment – testing all things (1 Thes. 5:19-21). No wonder the Church has lost its influence wherever the PM has taken hold.

The Prosperity Ministry (PM) – the name-it-claim-it preachers – would have us simply ignore or dismiss the truth. Joel Osteen had taught:

•    “Our words are vital in bringing our dreams to pass. It’s not enough to simply see it by faith or in your imagination. You have to begin speaking words of faith over your life. Your words have enormous creative power. The moment you speak something out, you give birth to it.”  “Just look in the mirror and say ‘I am strong, I am healthy. I’m rising to new levels, I’m excited about my future.’ When you say that, it may not be true. You may not be very healthy today, or maybe you don’t have a lot of things to look forward to, but Scripture tells us in Romans we have to call the things that are not as if they already were.” (Christian Research Journal, Hunter)

Why then should anyone believe the miraculous claims of the PM! Scripture never gives us the license to play fast-and-loose with the truth. All truth is God’s truth. It belongs to Him and we are not at liberty to tamper with it. He tells us that He requires truth in the depths of our being:

•    Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. (Psalm 51:6)

Our Lord wants us to reside in the light – in the embrace of wisdom. Using our tongues to distort the truth is simply not part of His program for us. Telling others that we don’t have cancer, when we do, is a refusal to walk in His light. It will also bring disrepute upon the Church as it has!

Instead, our tongues must be servants of the light – the truths of God. Therefore, they must always speak the truth, as James instructed:


•    Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

When we use our tongues in a presumptuous manner by claiming that we will get rich through trading or that we will obtain a certain blessing that is not Scripturally guaranteed, we speak evil and “boast in arrogance.” Instead, what we say must always conform to the truth. According to James, we are a mere “vapor.” Therefore, we are in no position to make arrogant claims about the future!

Osteen claims that Romans 4 gives us the license to speak as if we have things that we really do not as yet have:

•    …as it is written, “I have made you [Abraham] the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17)

Indeed, God has the power to call things into existence by speaking. However, there is nothing in this verse to suggest that we are endowed with such power. Instead, James claims that we are not so endowed.

Prosperity preachers also resort to Proverbs 18:21 to prove that we have been given this power:

•    The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

However, this verse falls far short of affirming that our tongues have supernatural power to call things into existence. Yes, the tongue does have “the power of life and death,” but this is a psychological or interpersonal power. Our words can build people up or tear them down. We can instruct others in the way of truth or the way of deceit.

Prosperity preachers also claim that the promises of Scripture give us a blank check to get whatever we want. This is not true. Instead, God grants our requests according to His will (or “Name”):


•    And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

When I pray to be more Christ-like, I know that I will receive, because I am praying according to His will. However, if we pray for a fleet of Jaguars, Scripture informs us to not believe that we will receive:

•    When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

What are wrong motives? Self-gratification! This is not to say that our God will not provide gratifying blessings. He will! But this should not be our focus. Instead, our focus must be His kingdom and righteousness. As a consequence, He’ll give us everything we truly need:

•    “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

According to Jesus, receiving depends upon our intention to bear fruit for our Lord:


•    You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16)

Instead, prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar defined the Gospel this way:

•    “What’s the Gospel to those who are poor? Prosperity! What’s the Gospel to those who lack? Prosperity! And if you don’t preach it, then you won’t be able to do anything about it, then you won’t be able to do anything about the poverty situation.” (Hunter, CRJ, 24.)

However, the Gospel is not a matter of prosperity. The Book of Hebrews informs us that, often, the exemplars of faith fell far short of prosperity:

•    They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- the world was not worthy of them. (Hebrews 11:37-38)

These were the cream-of-the-crop, but they hadn’t achieved prosperity and evidently didn’t seek it. Instead, according to Paul, the Gospel is about contentment:

•    But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. (1 Tim. 6:6-9)

Contrary to the prosperity gospel, Paul wrote that the desire for prosperity is “harmful” and can “plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

The prosperity ministry also fails to recognize the need for suffering and brokenness. Paul wrote that:

•    Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. (2 Cor. 4:16-18; NKJV)

According to the Gospel, trials are necessary for growth into Christlike-ness. Our “renewal” can only take place as we look in faith towards the heavenly and not the hope of earthly prosperity.

However, prosperity preachers insist that Jesus has given us a blank check to receive anything we ask for. However, they leave out the part that it has to be according to His will or “in My Name,” which amounts to the same thing:

•    “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)

What are the fruits of this gospel? The prosperity ministry is popular – it promises to give us everything we want – but will it deliver? Will it build up the body of Christ? Does it arm us with truth or a set of unrealistic expectations? J. Lee “Akinwale” Grady is a Christian and a frequent visitor to Africa. He has observed the destruction accompanying the “prosperity gospel”:

•    Churches have been growing rapidly in many parts of Africa today, yet sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where poverty has increased in the past 25 years. So according to the statistics, the prosperity gospel is not bringing prosperity! It is a flawed message, but I believe God will use selfless, broken African leaders to correct it. https://www.charismamag.com/blogs/fire-in-my-bones/19113-5-ways-the-prosperity-gospel-is-hurting-africa

Why is this? Christ has exalted many nations. Why not Saharan Africa? Grady claims that the popular “Prosperity Gospel” has ravaged Africa and offers these reasons for it:

•    “It is mixed with occultism.
•    It fuels greed.
•    It fuels pride.
•    It works against the formation of Christian character.
•    It actually keeps people in poverty.”

Ironically, it seems that as the “Prosperity Gospel” has grown, so has poverty. Conrad Mbewe has pastored in Lusaka, Zambia, since 1987. He explains the effects of this false “Gospel”:

•    The Bible is primarily about salvation from sin and being sanctified into the image of Christ. We ought to be admiring those among us whose godliness shines like the sun in its noonday strength, but we are fast losing that view. Christians are instead admiring the few individuals with big houses, and flashy cars and clothes, even when such individuals are living in sin. Invariably this emphasis is resulting in churches being rocked with scandals once rare in evangelical circles…This teaching has become a religious pyramid scam, with the so-called “men of God” reaping a fortune while their blind followers are getting poorer. Every day we have to deal with disillusioned individuals who have woken up when it’s too late. This teaching is wreaking havoc in the lives of many Christians. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/prosperity-teaching-has-replaced-true-gospel-in-africa/

How should these problems be addressed? Mbewe advises:


•    It begins with a display of the true gospel and then exposes that which is false.

It is not enough to simply present the truth. The lie must also be exposed. Josephine Olatomi Soboyejo, Crowther Graduate Theological Seminary, Abeokuta, Nigeria, also has observed the destructive power of this false “gospel”:

•    Before the advent of African priests, expatriate missionaries in Africa were noted for their detached and abstemious ways of life. They upheld what is known as “Vow of Poverty”, which was taken prior to sacerdotal ordination. They toiled selflessly for their flock without caring for personal material benefits. This orientation has been discarded for prosperity vocation in this 21st century. Priests now use luxurious cars, fly expensive private jets and are escorted by well-armed military/police officers. The social-economy context of prosperity theology has become a great attraction to impoverished people of Africa…Africa has many Churches; growing rapidly yet remains the only region that poverty has increased in the past two decades. So there is no impact of the prosperity message on the people. Most Africans live on less than $1 a day and many proactive youths are still unemployed. http://file.scirp.org/Html/71957_71957.htm

Soboyejo adds:

•    the prosperity gospel is not bringing prosperity! It makes their followers poorer so it is a flawed message!...This gospel has been ascribed many names, such as the “name it and claim it gospel”, the “blab it and grab it gospel”, the “health and wealth gospel”, the “word of faith movement”, the “gospel of success,” the “prosperity gospel,” and “positive confession theology.”…Preachers of the prosperity gospel encourage their followers to demand of God everything from modes of transportation to homes, furniture, and large bank accounts. Prosperity gospel is bankrupt because it deviates from the “True gospel” and proclaim “false gospels”, which usually focus on the same basic fallacies by not matching up with Scripture. Any “gospel” which is inconsistent with or different from the clear teachings of the Bible is bankrupt-Gal. 1:6-10; 2 Cor. 11:3-4.

Where the “prosperity ministry” has gone, so has the corruption of the Gospel and even of society. Feumba Samen, an economics and statistics graduate of Université Marien N’Goubi in the Republic of Congo, has warned that in this ministry:

•    Prophets, pastors, and gurus take the place of God. They do not preach according to the vision of Christ whose sole mission for the church is to seek the lost and make disciples, according to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20). They do not preach Christ crucified—instead they proclaim healing, miracles, and support for the tired and overworked as a priority of the church. These so-called men of God divert the theological foundations of the church, using all the means of propaganda for manipulating their followers looking for social rank, honor, and money by means of miracles and healings. https://world.wng.org/2014/11/the_prosperity_gospel_in_africa

The Apostle Paul had warned:

•    But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)
The Prosperity Ministry’s impact upon the West is also grievous. For many it is a gross perversion of the Faith. How has this abomination spread? Not by an understanding of the Gospel, but by embellished claims of miraculous gain and healings, but where is the evidence?

DOES GOD DECEIVE?

 


Ultimately, God gives us what we want. However, many skeptics claim that “God deludes His unbelieving victim so that they will believe what is false so that God can condemn them for it.” To support their claim, they cite:

•    2 Thessalonians 2:9–12 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

While it might seem that God had directly partnered with Satan to delude those who “refused to love the truth and so be saved” and “had pleasure in unrighteousness,”  it is unlikely:

•    Those who were deluded had already committed themselves to self-delusion and had rejected the truth.
•    This passage doesn’t specify whether God had made a deal with Satan to delude those who had already rejected the truth or had simply allowed the deluded to have what they wanted.

The Bible tells us that Solomon built the Temple. Instead, he didn’t hammer a single nail or carve a single stone but had conscripted thousands to build it. However, indirectly, he did “build” the Temple. Likewise, God had only indirectly allowed those who hated the truth to have what they wanted. In this way, He did indirectly “deceive” these lovers of the darkness (John 3:19-20) simply by allowing them what they wanted.

Similarly, God had ordained a thorn in the flesh from Satan to afflict Paul to keep him humble (2 Cor 12:7-10). He didn't need to coerce Satan to do what Satan was already glad to do for his own evil purposes. He merely had to remove His protection from Paul, and Satan happily did the rest.

Likewise, God only needs to allow the rebellious to go their own way to achieve His just purposes:

•    Romans 1:24–28 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Consequently, God doesn't unjustly deceive anyone but surrenders them to their own chosen and stubborn self-deceptions as a last resort. Instead, He wants all to be saved:

•    2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

But didn’t God directly confer with Satan to afflict the most righteous man—Job—or was this a matter of anthropomorphic language (baby-talk) so we’d understand it?

Evil cannot enter God’s presence without God destroying it. Consequently, God the Father couldn’t be with Israel lest He destroy His Chosen People. Therefore, He sent the Angel of His Presence to lead them out of Egypt and throughout their sojournings:

•    Numbers 20:16 And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt…

•    Exodus 33:3, 14 “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people…My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Likewise, the Apostle Paul didn’t have to confer directly with Satan to torment those who the Church had excommunicated:

•    1 Timothy 1:19–20 …By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Could Paul have had a conference with Satan? Hardly! Paul meant this for salvation; Satan meant it to torment and to destroy (also see 1 Corinthians 5:5). There could have been no basis for a deal between the two! Besides, we are not to have any dealings with Satan. Instead, it seems that those who are excommunicated merely become fair-game for Satan. In light of this, when Paul directed the Corinthian church “to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:5), he was merely asking the church to excommunicate him rather than to the church collaborate with Satan.

This understanding agrees with the revealed righteous nature of God. It also agrees with a host of other Biblical revelations. For example, Paul had argued against divorcing an unbelieving spouse:

•    1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Jesus had also taught that for those who would receive His evangelists, a godly peace would surround them (Matthew 10:13). As the Church is a conduit for divine blessings and the Lord’s protection for the surrounding world (Genesis 12:3), so too is the believing family.

My interpretation might be incorrect that God merely allows the rebellious to have what they want. There might be a third interpretation that better fits the Bible. However, I am convinced that the skeptic’s interpretation of a malevolent God cannot stand scrutiny.

HOW CAN GOD BE JUST IF HE THROWS THOSE WHO COULD NOT BELIEVE IN HIM INTO HELL?

 

Seekers often ask how a loving God can throw unbelievers, who knew no better, into hell. However, there are sound Biblical reasons to believe that hell is largely self-chosen. Many hate God so much that they would rather experience torment than to live in the threatening and exposing light of God, as Jesus indicated:

•    John 3:17–20 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment [or “condemnation”]: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

Instead, the problem is that they do know better but harden their hearts against this knowledge:

•    Romans 1:18–21 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

As a child of 6-7, I would pray to Jesus and received some amazing prayer answers, but when I was 8 years, I realized that we Jews do not pray to Jesus, and I quit praying entirely. Oddly, I grew up hating Jesus because of the antisemitic attacks that I endured.

We even know that we deserve condemnation for rejecting Him:

•    Romans 1:32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Therefore, we spend our lives trying to prove that we are worthy or by cutting or burning ourselves to accomplish the condemnation we know we deserve. Having paid this price, we derive a moment of peace (stress reduction). However, the sense that there is something terribly the matter with us continues to return:

•    Romans 2:15–16 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness [to their sins], and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse [makes excuses for] them...

We know the truth, but we continue to suppress it—an endless tormenting battle!

NARCISSISM, SELF-ACCEPTANCE, AND SUICIDE

Scripture is full of wisdom, and it often contradicts the judgments of today. For instance, today’s wisdom equates blessedness and mental health with the elimination of suffering and negative symptomology. However, Jesus defines blessedness in a very different way:

•    “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:3–5)

The blessed are not the successful but those who are poor in spirit, mourners, and the meek. Likewise, we tend to admire those who have a high self-esteem and radiate self-confidence, while this is the very opposite of Scripture’s ideal:

•    Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil. (Psalm 36:1–4)

To flatter ourselves is not to engage the truth about ourselves, for we are all deeply flawed, our only hope is in the love and mercy of our Savior. However, self-flattery is a rejection of the truth and a retreat into the darkness of deceit, both self-deceit and the deceit of others. It is a hardening of the conscience, which enables the proud and arrogant to increasingly embrace evil. It is the antithesis of self-acceptance!

However, this is the wisdom of the day. Teachers are taught to give their students positive affirmations. Parents are warned to feed their children with messages that will build their self-esteem. Psychotherapists are likewise offering the same medicine to their clients in the form of unconditional-positive-regard, assuming that this will be a cure for all their problems. Instead, we have raised a generation of self-absorbed narcissists who have become addicted to the positive-affirmation drug and require increasingly high doses.

Do these strategies work? Matthew Sleeth argues that Suicide has become epidemic. He cites one university that had to close its doors because of suicides:
 
•    Classes were canceled in an effort to prevent a suicide outbreak — or “suicide cluster.” This year, 10 million Americans will wrestle with whether or not to end their lives. One and a half million will be seen in emergency departments for suicide attempts and ideation. Every 11 seconds someone attempts suicide. America’s suicide rate now ties the all-time high experienced in the Great Depression of the 1930s: 14.5 per 100,000 per year. https://www.christianpost.com/voice/the-next-epidemic-is-worse-than-the-first.html
 
Sleeth regards this epidemic as far worse than these stats reveal:
 
•    In the 1930s, they did not have the medical technology to reverse overdoses, dialyze off poisons, and mechanically ventilate those who temporarily lost their respiratory drive. They did not have in-school depression screening, a national suicide prevention hotline, or a 911 emergency system. No effective medical treatment for depression existed. Today, one out of every eight adults takes an antidepressant. In short, without the invention and intervention of modern medicine and trauma systems, our suicide rate would be 200 to 300 times higher than has ever been experienced at any time in recorded history.
 
What is the remedy? First, we must pinpoint the cause. What has changed? Is life more stressful and threatening? Or is it our inability to cope with our problems?
 
While the extensive interventions of the mental health community have failed to stem the problem, I think that they have even inflamed it. They have failed to provide real hope.
 
Why do people commit suicide? It is not just a matter of pain but a lack of hope that the pain will subside. If one has hope, one can endure. The late psychiatrist Victor Frankl observed, during his internment in a National Socialist death camp, that: “The prisoner who had lost faith in the future…was doomed.”
 
I think that this is our problem. We too have lost faith. Why hasn’t psychotherapy been able to fill the gap? Aren’t psychotherapists trying to inculcate hope in their clients? Of course, but perhaps this is the problem.
 
The hope of today is self-hope. However, when our hope is in ourselves, this is where we turn for hope to face our anxiety, depression, and stress. However, we are turning to ourselves, the source of our problems, in a vain attempt to find hope. It is like hiring a burglar to protect your home.
 
This spike in suicide is also associated with a decline of the influence of Christianity, especially among young adults. God used to be our hope when we found that we couldn’t cope with the pressures of life. When we felt ourselves inadequate failures, His Word would reassure us:
 
•    I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
 
What a comfort to know that our Lord is always with us. When we feel unlovable, He would remind us:
 
•    to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)
 
To know the love of Christ is to be filled with God. This includes hope that this God who had loved us, even when we were His enemies (Romans 5:8-10) and is working all things for our good (Romans 8:28), even amid suffering. To know this is to know whatever our pain might be, He is lovingly with us. It is like committing ourselves to a trusted surgeon to remove a tumor. It might entail a painful convalescence but believing in the doctor enables us to endure. How much more is this true with our all-powerful and loving God!
 
In Spirituality & Health Research: Methods, Measurement, Statistics, and Resources, Harold G. Koenig, MD has done more to survey the available research regarding the question of what is associated with positive mental and physical outcomes than perhaps anyone else. He has identified religion/spirituality (R/S) as the key element. Ironically, it is this very element that has been banned from the various forms of psychological intervention. Here is only a small sampling of what Koenig has found:
 
•    DEPRESSION: “At least 444 studies have now quantitatively examined relationships between R/ S and depression, and 272 (61 percent) of those found less depression, faster remission from depression, or a reduction in depression severity in response to an R/S intervention (ten studies at a trend level). In contrast, only 6 percent reported greater depression in those who were more R/ S. Of the 178 methodologically most rigorous studies, 119 (67 percent) found inverse relationships between R/S and depression.”
 
•    SUICIDE: “We identified 141 studies that had examined relationships between R/S and some aspect of suicide (completed suicide, attempted suicide, or attitudes toward suicide), and 106 (75 percent) reported significant inverse relationships; 80 percent of the best designed studies reported this finding.”
 
These same phenomena are paralleled by a plethora of anecdotal findings. The late psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, wrote, 15 years later, in Further along the Road Less Traveled about his journey from Zen Buddhism to Christianity. He had repeatedly observed that his Christian clients would improve, no matter how serious their psychiatric condition. Peck concluded:
 
•    The quickest way to change your attitude toward pain is to accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth…We cannot lose once we realize that everything that happens to us has been designed to teach us holiness…We are guaranteed winners!"
 
Daily, I remind myself of His overflowing love for me that I might enjoy the “fullness of God,” lest I slip into despair. I can no longer survive without the certainty and tangible presence of His love. I cannot understand how anyone else can. Ironically, it is the hope in our Savior Jesus that is disdained and banished from the public sphere.

THE BATTERED BRIDE

Alexis de Tocqueville, French statesman, historian, lapsed Catholic, and social philosopher, wrote Democracy in America (1835). It has been described as "the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written."

•    In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the [good] manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people.... Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate.

•    I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

After decades of systematic deconstruction of Christianity and the Church, these words have become unacceptable. Instead, today the Church and Tocqueville’s America has become buried by heaps of contempt. Consequently, those who are seeking answers and relief from their sorrows are turning instead to secularism and even witchcraft, dead ends that have never been able to offer hope or any tangible solutions. Nor have they built hospitals, universities, or havens for the broken.

Instead, it has been the Church alone which has built the West. However, to utter such a sentiment, despite how obvious it is, can cost one’s career.

Western self-hatred has also been termed pathological. Pope Benedict XVI wrote about this perplexing masochistic phenomenon. He notes how Western culture, en masse, has turned against itself and its Christian heritage:

•    This case illustrates a peculiar western self-hatred that is nothing short of pathological. It is commendable that the West is trying to be more open, to be more understanding of the values of outsiders, but it has lost all capacity for self-love. All that it sees in its own history is the despicable and the destructive; it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure…Multiculturalism, which is so constantly and passionately promoted, can sometimes amount to an abandonment and denial, a flight from one’s own heritage. (Quoted by Jean Bethke Elshtain, First Things, March, 2009, 36)

Pathological? Perhaps it is more illuminating to understand it as virtue-signaling. Lacking the assurance that God loves us (Romans 5:8-10), our worth now depends on our accomplishments and social approval. Dag Hammarskjold, a late Secretary General of the UN, observed:

•    God does not die in the day we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond reason. (Markings)

Death is the never-ending quest for self-acceptance. According to the Deist Ben Franklin, we even need God for a moral society:

•    If men are wicked with religion, what would they be without it? (Oz Guinness, The Journey, 119)

The benefits of the assurance of Christ’s love extend to our most intimate relationships, as former atheist, Patrick Glynn, reports:

•    A 1978 study found that church attendance predicted marital satisfaction better than any other single variable. Couples in long-lasting marriages who were surveyed in another study listed religion as one of the most important “prescriptions” of a happy marriage. (God: The Evidence, 64)

For most Christians, such observations are as predictable as night following day. We have long seen how the Lord and His wisdom salvage our relationships. Glynn also relates religious belief to better physical and emotional benefits:

•    Religious belief is one of the most consistent correlates of overall mental health and happiness. Study after study has shown a powerful relationship between religious belief and practice, on the one hand, and healthy behaviors with regard to such problems as suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, depression, even, perhaps surprisingly, levels of sexual satisfaction in marriage, on the other” (Glynn, 61).

I can also attest to this. My life in Christ had freed me from my narcissistic self-delusions (John 8:31-32), enabling me to face and to accept myself, and to navigate in an otherwise threatening world.

In contrast to this, the atheist experience is admittedly dismal, although it might commence with a sense of freedom from guilt and constraints. Jean-Paul Sartre confessed that, “Atheism is a cruel, long-term business.” Bertrand Russell described his atheistic religion in this manner:

•    The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain… Brief and powerless is mean’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way. (Why I am not a Christian)

H.J. Blackham, a former director of the British Humanist Association, wrote:

•    The most drastic objection to humanism is that it is too bad to be true. The world is one vast tomb if humans are ephemeral and human life itself is doomed to ultimate extinction… There is no end to hiding from the ultimate end of life, which is death. But it does not avail. On humanist assumptions, life leads to nothing, and every pretense that it does not is a deceit. (Oz Guinness, 106)

Has Christianity deluded us? Atheists claim that a belief in God is a matter of gross self-delusion. However, delusion is strongly associated with costs and not benefits. If we are deluded or simply mistaken about which roads to take to get to our destination, our trip will be more costly. Why then, if Christians are deluded, do they derive unmistakable benefits from their “delusion?”

Is it possible to flourish through distorted thinking? Delusions put us out-of-touch with reality, especially a “delusion” that lies at the foundation of our entire lives. Instead of assisting us to constructively manage our jobs, relationships, home, and even driving a car – and all of these endeavors require accurate feedback – delusions about a God should interfere with any prospect of a positive adjustment. Instead, we flourish even amid hardships.

Just consider riding your bicycle blindfolded. You would soon crash incurring great costs. Closer to home, consider someone who navigates life with rose colored glasses. He might think that all women secretly love him, and this will give him a high, at least for the short run. Consequently, he might not take “no” for an answer. I knew such a man who was arrested repeatedly for harassment because of this cognitive distortion.

Cognitive distortions inevitably exact a price. What if we believed that we were treating others with care when we really weren’t. Eventually, they lose their friends or become victim to Stalinist purges.

Distorted thinking comes with an unforgiving price-tag. In All in the Playing, Shirley MacLaine confidently explained her distorted faith:

•    I went on to express my feeling of total responsibility and power for all events that occur in the world because the world is happening only in my reality. And human beings feeling pain, terror, depression, panic, and so forth, were really only aspects of pain, terror, depression, panic, and so on, in me!

How would such distorted thinking affect her relationships? Wikipedia concluded its posting on MacLaine this way:

•    In 2015, she sparked criticism for her comments on Jews, Christians, and Stephen Hawking. In particular she claimed that victims of the Nazi Holocaust were experiencing the results of their own karma and suggested that Hawking subconsciously caused himself to develop ALS as a means to focus better on physics.

Understandably, her thinking created relational problems, among other things. Why then do those who believe in a “heavenly Christian sky-daddy” – an all-encompassing “delusion” – make positive adjustments, while others do not? How is it that the Christian West had once been the model for the other religions of the world?

Perhaps instead, Christians are onto something real. But how? By a Book written two thousand years ago? How would following the Bible written by “camel-drivers,” enable us to successfully navigate life? It would be like expecting a buggy-whip to help us drive our Audi.

It is a great pity that Westerners have battered the Source of their well-being in favor of their immediate pleasure and the drugs that now sustain them.
 

LEANING UPON OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING

Is the God of the Bible too severe? Even if it appears that way, we might be placing too much emphasis upon our own thinking. We can only perceive a very limited spectrum of reality, a narrow band of visual and auditory wavelengths. To illustrate our limitations, we can see the second hand moving but not the hour hand, and if the second hand was moving a thousand times faster, we wouldn’t be able to see it at all.

What we perceive of our physical world is very limited. This principle pertains especially to God’s ways:

•    “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Consequently, God had severely punished His faithful servant Moses by terminating his life, preventing him from entering the promised land.

Why? Israel had once again rebelled against their faithful God because He hadn’t yet provided them with water. Consequently, He instructed Moses to merely speak to a rock so that water would come forth. However, Moses had lost patience with his rebellious people and struck the rock in anger! However, in God’s eyes, this was a weighty sin:

•    And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”(Numbers 20:12)

How did Moses fail to uphold the holiness of the Lord? By striking the rock instead of speaking to it! However, approximately 39 years earlier, God had ordered Moses to strike a rock so that water would come forth.

Why is this difference so important? It seems that the revelation of God’s holiness was at stake. How? In much of the OT,  God communicated through symbols or shadows, especially regarding the Gospel of the Messiah:

•    Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)

The reality or substance casting the shadows is Jesus, the Father’s hidden plan to restore His creation. Jesus had also claimed that the OT is about Him:

•    “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,” (John 5:39)

These two verses, among many others, invite us to seek Jesus within the OT Scriptures. How then did these two accounts of God bringing forth water from the most unlikely place—a rock—present a portrait of Jesus. In the first account, the Messiah had to be struck down, while the second account only required that He be petitioned to receive blessing.

In both accounts, Israel angrily rebelled because they hadn’t yet received water. Consequently, in the first instance, the humble Moses sought Gods guidance:

•    So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Exodus 17:4-6)

Israel had brought indictments against their God. Therefore, God had Moses orchestrate a symbolic trial. He had Moses call the elders, as witnesses, and to bring his staff, which had been repeatedly equated with God’s judgments. God then curiously assumed the role of the defendant and stood in the defendant’s box. Then Moses brought his staff down where the Defendant stood awaiting judgment.

Instead of a curse falling upon Israel, it fell upon their Savior. Consequently, Israel received the greatest blessing, water, from the most unlikely source, a rock, a shadow of the Cross! (This is confirmed by 1 Corinthians 10:4).

In the second account, in his anger, Moses didn’t believe that God’s distinction was critical and instead struck the rock, failing to faithfully present the shadows of the Messiah and His holiness, His absolute hatred of sin and how His wrath had to be absorbed by His beloved Son:

•    [We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness [holiness], because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:24–25)

Since the Messiah had already been struck down (Exodus 17) to satisfy God’s holy nature, now we only need to make our requests known to Him.

•    He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:12)

If this interpretation is correct, it once again demonstrates that we must not modify God’s Word according to our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). His ways are above our own.

IS GOD’S JEALOUSY SINFUL OR A RIGHTEOUS LOVE?

She wrote to my Facebook group demanding Scriptural support that God’s jealousy was righteous rather than sinful. I responded:

“When you ask for Scriptural support, you are asking for the right thing:

•    Ezekiel 36:6–7 Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach.

God is so jealous for the well-being of His people that He will punish those who hurt them. Again:

•    Nahum 1:2 The LORD is a jealous [for the welfare of His people] and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

•    Zechariah 1:14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.

•    Zechariah 8:2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.

Likewise, those who love God are jealous for His honor and glory:

•    2 Corinthians 11:2–3 For I [Paul] feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Likewise, God becomes angry. However, His anger is not a reactive and sinful anger as our own but a righteous and needful anger of the moral guardian of our universe.

I am glad to have a God who is jealous and protective of my welfare, a righteous God who will take care of justice so that we are enabled to do what we are commanded to do—to love others.”

THE DIVINE COUNCIL—LITERAL OR FIGURATIVE?

 

God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment. (Psalm 82:1)

How are we to understand this “divine council” where He reprimands the unrighteous “gods?” Is there literally a council into which God the Father enters? This seems  unlikely for several reasons. Paul wrote:

•    [God] alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. (1 Timothy 6:16)

Besides, the Creator is a Spirit, and there is no room that could contain Him. Does this suggest that this council was not a literal council? Perhaps! It is especially important to recognize that figurative—non-literal—language is used throughout the Bible. Here is another example of this even within Psalm 82:

•    …they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. (Psalm 82:5)

Surely, the judges do not walk in literal darkness but in spiritual blindness, the result of their rebellion against God.

Likewise, the rock foundations of the earth are not literally shaken by the rebellion of the judges. It is their relationship with their Maker that is shaken.  And the result?  Disorder.

Jesus used figurative language more than anyone. For example, He likened Himself to a door to illustrate a point:

•    “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”(John 10:1-9)

Jesus wasn’t suggesting that He swung on hinges or was made of wood. Instead, He was providing a graphic illustration: He is the doorway to salvation.

There is another council in the Book of Job. The sons of God (probably angels) enter God’s presence (literally?), along with the devil where God provoked him to discuss the righteousness of Job. However, in another passage of Scripture, our righteous God had revealed that He would not accompany His chosen people as they made their way to the promised land, because He would be compelled to destroy them because of their sinfulness:

•    “I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Exodus 33:2-3)

Would Satan have had the courage to enter the presence of God? Unlikely! How much sooner would God the Father have destroyed Satan!

There are other reasons that should compel us to regard these councils as non-literal. On two occasions, Paul had mentioned turning unrepentant sinners over to Satan. Did this require an actual, physical meeting between Paul and Satan?

1.    …faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:19-20)

Did Paul have a conversation with Satan to discuss the fate of these two unrepentant sinners?  Would he have enlisted Satan: “Satan, I got a job for you?” Instead, we are to have no dealings with Satan. Rather, we must flee from this adversary of our soul.

2.    When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:4-5)

While Paul’s goal was godly—the salvation of sinners—the devil’s goal was their damnation. How then could the two parties ever come to agreement? This would preclude an actual meeting or council between the two. Therefore, I think that a non-literal interpretation is necessary so that it coincides with the Scriptures.
 
When the Church excommunicates the unrepentant—the very thing that Paul had asked the Corinthian church to do—those recalcitrant souls become fair-game for Satan. How? Jesus explained that excommunication has a heavenly component:

•    “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18-19)

If God withdraws His protection, then the unrepentant have no shield against the forces of evil. If such a person persists in refusing to repent, as Jesus had taught, their condition then becomes worse than it had been before:

•    “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:43–45)

Why should this be? Believers have a miraculous effect on those around them.  Therefore, Paul gives for his counsel against divorcing an unbelieving spouse:

•    If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. (1 Corinthians 7:13-14)

It is the glory of God to make His children and His Church His conduits of blessing to those with whom we are connected! Consequently, our children are blessed. In fact, the whole world is blessed by our presence in it. We can see this clearly in the promises that God made to the Patriarchs:    

•    Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Since we are children of Abraham and because of our faith in Christ, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Conduits of blessing—that’s what we are.

The very opposite thing happens to those who disconnect themselves from the blessings of our loving and just God. For, just as manifold blessings come through those who walk by faith, those who are disconnected through excommunication become targets of evil. In fact, according to the Abrahamic Covenant cited above, they are cursed: “…and him who dishonors you I will curse.” This does not require a literal divine council. Instead, God is able to guide the unrepentant, according to their chosen course of action, to do His will.

This same principle seems to be reflected in the account of the death of the evil king of Israel, Ahab. He had surrounded himself with prophets who only told him what he wanted to hear. However, he was pressured to also consult a true prophet of God:

•    And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.” (1 Kings 22:19–23)

Although this account proved accurate regarding the forthcoming events, was it literally true or was this vision seen and communicated in a non-literal way so that mere humans could understand it? Had God actually summoned a divine council to solicit the advice and assistance of questionable angelic beings? I think that if we intend to remain consistent with the rest of the Bible, we should opt, once again, for the figurative interpretation.

We shouldn't automatically opt for a figurative interpretation. However, when a literal interpretation violates the Scriptures, the figurative should be considered.

JESUS AND PAUL: DO THEY AGREE?

Kristy Burke admits she doesn’t like Paul and insists that he is a false teacher who contradicts Jesus in many regards. She correctly claims that Paul teaches a salvation by faith alone but also wrongly claims that Jesus teaches a salvation by good deeds:

•    Paul: Romans 10:13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

•    Jesus: Matthew 5:20 “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

There can be no contradiction here, because Jesus also taught that salvation is by grace through faith:

•    John 6:29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

•    John 8:24 “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

Consequently, we need to re-examine Matthew 5:20 to understand “righteousness” as the fruit or result of salvation and not its cause, as Jesus had taught two chapters later:

•    Matthew 7:17 “So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.”

The tree must first be healthy (saved and indwelt) before it can bear the good fruit of the Holy Spirit—the result of salvation and not its cause! Once again, Burke contrasts Paul with Jesus:

•    Paul: Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

•    Jesus: Matthew 5:19 “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

According to Burke, Paul is all about grace through faith while Jesus is about doing good deeds. Once again, this apparent contradiction is easily resolved once we understand that Jesus is focusing on the fruit (the result) of salvation and not its cause.  

Likewise, regarding their differing esteem for marriage, there is no contradiction between Paul and Jesus:

•    Paul: 1 Corinthians 7:6–9 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.  I wish that all were as I myself [unmarried]. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

•    Jesus: Mark 10:6–8 “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.”

While Jesus expressed a general principle about marriage, Paul didn’t contradict this the wholesomeness of marriage) but expressed some exceptions to marriage relative to the person and challenges in his time of great persecution.

Burke also claims that they held opposite views regarding enemies:

•    Paul: Galatians 1:8–9 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

•    Jesus: Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Is this a contradiction? Not if Paul is preaching the same message as Jesus:

•    Paul: Romans 12:14,18-21 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them…If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all…“if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

In view of this, how then do we interpret the Galatians verses? Paul did not ask his brethren to curse or to avenge themselves upon those false teachers. Instead, it is likely that he was asking God to avenge Himself upon those who had been harming his brethren with their false teachings. This does not at all contradict the teachings of Jesus who had taught more on the horrors of the final judgment than anyone else in the Bible.

One final contradiction. Burke alleges that Jesus had a very positive opinion of women while Paul wanted to keep them in servitude:


•    Paul: 1 Timothy 2:11–14 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

However, Paul also taught the essential equality of man and woman:

•    Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

•    1 Corinthians 7:4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

•    1 Corinthians 11:11–12 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.

Nor did Jesus ever teach anything against the traditional subservience of the wife to her husband. Nor did He appoint any women among his Twelve.

Burke’s contradictions look more like biases. It is not that Christians do not struggle with what appears as contradictions. However, we seek to resolve them while others revel in them. Why the difference? It is the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. The first seeks to exalt the Word of God, while others seek to denigrate it.

VICARIOUS ATONEMENT (PENAL SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT—PSA)

 

 

These terms represent the belief that Jesus had suffered death, the innocent for the guilty, for the payment of our sins, to satisfy God’s righteous nature. This is supported by these verses:

Isaiah 53:5–6 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 3:23–26—All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:21—For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 3:10, 13—All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.' ... Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree."

Colossians 2:13–15—And you, who were dead in trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.

1 Peter 2:24—He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

1 Peter 3:18—For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

However, there are other views on the atonement— the death of Jesus—despite the overwhelming Biblical testimony in its favor.

 

The first extensive criticism of the penal substitution came during the Reformation period from within the Anabaptist movement by Fausto Sozzini. (I will write my response in the bold):

1.     Perfect satisfaction for sin, even by way of substitution, leaves no room for divine forgiveness or pardon. There is no contradiction between PSA and divine forgiveness!

2. It is unjust both to punish the innocent and to allow the guilty to go free. Allowing the guilty to go free is grace. Besides, the innocent Jesus suffers the Cross in any event!

3. The finite suffering and temporary death of one is disproportionate to the infinite suffering and permanent death of many. The death of Jesus is also of infinite value!

4. The grace of perfect satisfaction would appear to confer on its beneficiaries a freedom to sin without consequence. Again, this is the Biblical grace of God! (Wikipedia) 

Christus Victor is the dominant atonement theory of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Michael Machuga, sums it up:

•        Satan has enslaved humanity with the fear of death (Heb 2:14–15). All manners of evil arise from this bondage. But Christ comes to set humanity free from Satan’s power, that is, “to destroy the devil’s work” (1 Pet 5:8). He does so by enduring the cross and by then being raised to life by God (Acts 2:23–25). In doing so, Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities, exposing them to public disgrace by leading them in a triumphal parade” (Col 2:15). Christ is made Lord (Rom 14:11; Phil 2:11), given the Name above all names (Phil 2:9), and will reign until death, the last enemy, is destroyed (1 Cor 15:24–26). Death will then be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10, 14) so that “God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). https://www.patheos.com/blogs/allsetfree/2018/01/saved-god-alternatives-penal-substitution-atonement-theory/

You might not find anything wrong with this summation. I don’t. It is entirely Biblical. However, it does not contradict the PSA. Instead, it serves as a useful addition. Why then the continuing opposition to PSA among the various Bible-believing churches?

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE CHURCHES OF ATHEISM?

In Why Atheism Kills Community, David Goodhew wrote:

•    A decade ago, the Sunday Assembly — a self-styled “Church for Atheists” — was lionized by publications from The New York Times to Huffington Post to Britain’s Guardian. The Assembly aimed to offer the good bits of church, without the theology. It rapidly spread from central London to major cities in the U.K., North America, Europe, and Australasia. It offered a mix of community singing, motivational talks, fellowship, and community action. https://covenant.livingchurch.org/2023/07/21/why-atheism-kills-community/

Although atheist congregations had burst upon the Western horizon starting in 2013, a decade later they are on life support:

•    the Sunday Assembly movement is a shadow of its earlier years. A handful of branches continue (22 worldwide). (Goodhew)

Why? Goodhew explains that atheism is unable to build community:

•    Robert Putnam’s classic Bowling Alone articulated a thesis that succeeding decades continue to prove right. The more modern, the more alone. Most recently, a study showed how Americans have far fewer friends now than 30 years ago. In 1990, 55 percent of U.S. men said they had six or more close friends; by 2023, that figure had halved. One study suggests that loneliness is as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. But we all know, instinctively, that loneliness is a curse. It is not good for men or women to be alone.

However, the problem seems to go beyond modernity itself:

•    a study by Richard Sosis, an anthropologist at the University of Connecticut who studied 200 American communes founded in the 19th century. Sosis found that 39 percent of religious communes were still functioning 20 years after their start, but only 6 percent of secular communes were alive after the same amount of time. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/secular-churches-rethink-their-sales-pitch/594109/

Another source digs for a deeper explanation for the failure of atheistic community:

•    Why this dramatic drop in attendance [in atheistic churches]? The fundamental answer seems to be the lack of a coherent binding force beyond the desire for community. Faith Hill, writing for the Atlantic about this decline, quotes one researcher as follows: ‘Being uninterested in something [i.e. religion] is about the least effective social glue, the dullest possible mobilising cry, the weakest affinity principle, that one can imagine.’ https://salt.london/articles/why-the-atheist-church-is-failing/

Building community requires more than merely rejecting religion and celebrating themselves as “brights.” The glue must be more than their slogan implies: “Our motto: live better, help often, wonder more. Our mission: to help everyone find and fulfill their full potential.”

A unifying vision must also require a rationale. Why should we “help everyone find and fulfill their full potential?” It might make us feel good and proud about ourselves, but morality based upon the personal returns soon grows old unless it is nurtured by deeper convictions regarding objective truths of right and wrong. However, atheism lacks such objective moral convictions, which can only be based upon a morality which transcends our own feelings—God Himself.

Besides, this motto also requires an anthropocentric (man-centered) worldview, which regards us as more valuable than mosquitoes and vipers. However, morally relativistic  atheism has no basis for making such a determination or that human population should not be reduced in favor of ticks or lice.

Nor can it affirm the equality of all humanity, another belief based upon God and His Bible. Materialistic atheism believes in the essential inequality of man—some are educated, some are not; some are likeable, some are not; some contribute to our welfare, some do not. Therefore, to be consistent, atheism should favor helping those from whom they can expect a return.

And why should atheism help others “fulfill their full potential,” since this worldview doesn’t acknowledge that this world of chance provides a meaning and purpose for our lives. Instead, we must arbitrarily decide on our own purpose. However, atheism has no justification to impose their concept of achieving our “full potential” upon others. Instead, this can be interpreted as condescending.

The same can be said about other secularized churches:

•    they don’t preach the same message you find in the Bible of God’s wrath against sin, and his peace deal brokered through the blood of his Son, Jesus. Instead, they preach a neutered and secularised version of Christianity, much more tame, and much more lame. They’re identifiable by their language of inclusion, their endorsement of all lifestyles, and their passionate embrace of all religions as essentially the same. But this is not Christianity, it’s just atheistic humanism with an organ and a few candles. They act as mere mirrors to the culture at large and so render themselves completely pointless, and devoid of interest. Their main message is about being nice, the very thing Jesus was emphatically not.

Therefore, is there any basis for shared convictions, moral beliefs, or any adequate basis for the unity required for community building? Certainly not. In contrast, The Bible-based community has been given an adequate foundation upon which to build:

•    Ephesians 4:1–3 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Even more importantly, it is impossible to live according to these teachings without the love and discipline of our Savior who trains and encourages us daily to persevere as we rely upon Him.

JOHN WALTON, THEISTIC EVOLUTION, PAGANISM, AND THE BIBLE

Our methods of interpretation determine our interpretations. For example, John Walton has written:

•    [The Hebrew Scriptures] was written to Israel. It is God’s revelation of himself to Israel and secondarily through Israel to everyone else. As obvious as this is, we must be aware of the implications of that simple statement. Since it was written to Israel, it is in a language that most of us do not understand, and therefore it requires translation. But the language is not the only aspect that needs to be translated. Language assumes a culture, operates in a culture, serves a culture, and is designed to communicate into the framework of a culture. (The Lost World of Genesis 1)

As uncontroversial as this statement might seem, it is highly biased. How? Much of what had been written wasn’t intended for Israelite understanding but for ours:

•    1 Peter 1:10–12 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Not only didn’t Israel understand much of what had been written, but even the writers themselves and the angels failed to understand much of it. However, Walton claims that to understand the OT, we must first understand the language of the OT, and this requires the interpreter to understand the culture of the ancient Israelites.

However, the writers of the NT never acknowledged this as a problem, even though during their 70 years of exile in Babylon, they had lost both their culture and their Hebrew language in favor of Aramaic. Yet they continued to quote extensively from the OT without lamenting that they first had to relearn the culture and the Hebrew language. Why not? Because they knew that they were receiving their teachings from the Lord:

•    2 Peter 1:20–21 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Walton adds:

•    The key then [to understand the Israelite culture] is to be found in the literature from the rest of the ancient world. Here we will discover many insights into ancient categories, concepts and perspectives. Not only do we expect to find linkages, we do in fact find many such linkages that enhance our understanding of the Bible.

However, the Bible never advises us to study ancient pagan literature so that we can better understand God’s Word. Nor do the NT writers suggest that we need to understand the writings of the rabbis in order to grasp post-exilic Israelite culture! Instead, they insisted that Scripture is enough:

•    2 Timothy 3:16–17  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

As if ancient pagan writings contain a vital key to unlocking the meaning of the OT, Walton insists that:

•    Comparing the ancient cultures to one another will help us to see those common [cultural] threads even as we become aware of the distinctions that separated them from one another.

Perhaps these writings might be help us understand their attraction to the Israelites, but this will give us no assurance that it will aid us in understanding the Bible.

While Walton admits that there are both commonalities and differences among the ancient near-eastern civilizations, how can he distinguish those aspects that will enable us to understand the Israelite language, culture, and Bible? However, Walton is convinced that:

•    the views of deity in the ancient world served as the context for Israel’s understanding of deity. It is true that the God of the Bible is far different from the gods of the ancient cultures. But Israel understood its God in reference to what others around them believed.

There is not a hint of this in the Scriptures despite Walton’s assurances:

•    For the Israelites, Genesis 1 offered explanations of their view of origins and operations, in the same way that mythologies served in the rest of the ancient world…

Walton doesn’t seem willing to acknowledge the extent to which God’s revelations to Israel had set the Biblical faith apart from those of the surrounding nations. Instead, he assumes that since these nations resorted to mythology to explain their origins and beliefs, so did the Israelites, even though the Bible consistently affirms that the Scriptures come from God and not from the pagan nations. Nevertheless, Walton claims:

•    [Israel] believed that the sky was material (not vaporous), solid enough to support the residence of deity as well as to hold back waters. In these ways, and many others, they thought about the cosmos in much the same way that anyone in the ancient world thought, and not at all like anyone thinks today. And God did not think it important to revise their thinking.

Did Israel think about the world as did the neighboring Pagan nations? It is true that when they rejected God and their Scriptures, they fell under the influence of their pagan neighbors. However, the teachings of the Scriptures were entirely a different matter. Would God therefore feel compelled to endorse their pagan “science” in order to communicate His spiritual truths to Israel? Certainly not!

Walton claims that God was uninterested in presenting an accurate and scientific account of creation. It simply wasn’t God’s intention. Nor was He interested in counteracting pagan worldviews, which Walton claims the Israelites had shared. In contrast to his account, the Bible tells us that He considered pagan religions as abominations and forbade Israel to partake in their beliefs and practices.

However, physical truths often supported spiritual truths. For example, that fact that His creation was “very good” supports the fact that He loves His creation.

Likewise, the truth that we had been created in the moral likewise of God (Genesis 1:26-27; Ephesians 4:24) provided the necessary scaffolding for understanding that human suffering hadn’t been part of God’s original glorious creation but resulted from human rebellion against the Creator.

Likewise, we cannot separate the physical reality of Jesus dying on the Cross from the spiritual reality of the proof of God’s love that He had died even for His enemies.

Walton denigrates the Bible to try to prove that God has no interest in factually teaching about the physical world:

•    Through the entire Bible, there is not a single instance in which God revealed to Israel a science beyond their own culture.

However, the Word does reveal many such truths:

1.    TIME IS NOT ETERNAL: 2 Tim. 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

2.    ENTROPY (DE-EVOLUTION) Hebrews 1:10-12 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” (also Isaiah 51:6; Psalm 102:25-26)

3.    FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS (Matter/Energy neither created nor destroyed): Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

4.    THE UNIVERSE HAD A BEGINNING: Genesis 1:1  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Contra the steady-state theory that had ruled science).

5.    THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE PHYSICAL WORD AREN’T VISIBLE: Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

6.    GENETICS SHOW THAT WE ALL CAME FROM A SINGLE SET OF PARENTS: Acts 17:26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

7.    OCEAN THERMAL VENTS: Job 38:16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?

8.    WATER CYCLE: Job 36:27 "He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams.” (Also Amos 9:6; Eccl 1:7)

9.    DINOSAURS?? Psalm 74:14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

10.    STARS AS GUIDES TO SEASONS AND GEOGRAPHIC POSITIONS: Genesis 1:14 lights in the expanse of the sky… [would] serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.”

11.    GOD WORKS THROUGH FIXED LAWS: Jeremiah 33:25 states that God accomplishes His purposes through “fixed laws of heaven and earth.”  (Although science demonstrated that phenomena operated according to laws, the Bible long before posited the operation of the God’s laws.) (Also Job 38:33)

12.    COUNTLESS STARS:  Jeremiah 33:22 states, “I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore. " (Also Job 11:7-8; 22:12)

13.    ROUND EARTH, EXPANDING UNIVERSE: “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in” (Isaiah 40:22; 42:5).

14.    THE EARTH DOES NOT SIT ON A PEDESTAL AS ANE COSMOLOGY HAS IT: Job 26:7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.

15.    HOMO SAPIENS ORIGINATED FROM A SINGLE, COMMON ANCESTOR Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

16.    STRESS NEGATIVELY IMPACTS HEALTH: Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

17.     NECESSITY FOR QUARANTENE: Leviticus 13:46 “He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

18.    UNHEALTHY QUALITY OF EXCREMENT: Deut. 23:12-13 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

19.    FOSSIL FINDS IN THE MOUNTAINS: Psalm 104:6 …the waters stood above the mountains. (Even Everest)

Nevertheless, Walton insists that:

•    ancient literature is the key to a proper interpretation of the text, and sufficient amounts of it are available to allow us to make progress in our understanding.

Walton does what theistic evolutionists do. They relegate the first several chapters of Genesis to mere myth to remove any conflict with the theory of evolution. They claim that evolution focuses on the physical world while the Bible’s focus is upon the spiritual, thereby hoping to remove any conflict between the two. However, whenever the NT quotes the OT, it acknowledges that certain physical events, whether historic or scientific, actually took place. Besides, without these events, Biblical theology would be without its designated foundation.