SLEEPWALKERS OF THE NETHERWORLD

Plato had likened humanity to people chained in a cave, thinking that reality was little more than the shadows they had always observed. Perhaps we too live in a world of shadows.

While watching an infant being baptized at an Episcopal church, the preacher pronounced:

·       Now I baptize you with the living waters which seal you for eternal salvation by the Holy Spirit.

During the coffee fellowship after the service, I asked a greeter whether she believed that water baptism saves infants as the preacher had proclaimed. She answered that she did not, but that this wasn’t important to her. I then asked, “How then are we saved,” as I looked towards her 10-year-old daughter.

She answered that she didn’t know and wasn’t really that concerned, insisting that it was enough to be a good person. Clearly, she thought herself to be a “good” person. But isn’t this self-righteousness, I thought – the conviction that she is entitled and divinely deserving of certain benefits, perhaps more so than other people. And perhaps this also reflected a hardness on her part – an unwillingness to humbly acknowledge her own moral failures and spiritual need.

I wanted to ask her if she was concerned about this question of salvation for her daughter’s sake. However, she excused herself and walked away.

I find it puzzling that even church people are unconcerned about their eternal destiny. Don’t they need to answer this all-important question? Doesn’t she need the assurance of knowing that she will be with the Lord for all eternity?

After this, my wife and I sat down at a table for a snack. A gentleman in his mid-seventies joined us. After I had asked him about his life and work, he reciprocated by asking this of me. I jumped at the opportunity to tell him about how I had come to a faith in Jesus as a Zionist and a Jew.

I then explained that I had been tormented by the question of salvation. He responded that I probably wouldn’t find anyone in his church who was struggling with this question.

I was incredulous. “But isn’t the question of God, salvation, and an eternity with Him the one question that people need to confront?” I asked. He repeated that his co-congregationists aren’t too concerned with these issues.

How could they not be concerned! They are concerned about their childrens’ clothing and immunizations. Why not their eternal destiny? Many are even facing death without any certainty of where they and their families will be for eternity.

I asked the gentleman across from me how he answered these questions. Unflustered, the gentleman explained that he felt content with the answers given by his Episcopal church. However, he couldn’t answer what they were or even why they should be accepted as true, in light of the many other opinions that people hold.

I was shocked to observe that he remained undisturbed by his failure to provide any coherent answers. He remained the gentleman, but he was sleeping at the wheel as his life careened out of control.

I explained to him that as I grew in the certainty that the Bible is the Word of God and in my understanding of it, I also grew in the assurance that I was beloved for all eternity. However, the gentleman explained that he was confused by the Bible. I had explained to him that I was a teacher of the Bible and would be glad to answer any of his questions, but he had none. Nor did he seem to be concerned about his biblical confusion. Nevertheless, he seemed to enjoy the exchange even though it had exposed his nakedness.

My wife reflected that there were no Bibles in the pews, just the hymnal and the Book of Common Prayer. The gentleman acknowledged that they had disappeared some years ago along with any concern about what God thought about them.

The people at this church claim to believe that there is a God, but He is little more than a three letter word – something that contributes to their identity and affiliations but not to their hopes, dreams, thoughts, or plans. However, they are convinced that they are “good” people.

Plato had explained that those who lived in the cave would naturally be uncomfortable in the light and want to run from it. However, he was confident that once they got used to the light, they would prefer the light.

However, this had not been my experience. I too had been a sleepwalker. I had turned my mind off to the things that I didn’t want to see – disturbing and confusing things. The sun might have been shining, but I preferred the darkness of self-deception. I wanted to feel good about myself. Thinking correctly about myself was simply irrelevant to my pressing needs.

I had to be born from above like the Prophet Ezekiel had described:

·       And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

It is not enough to go to church. Nor is it enough to hear the liturgy. We remain dead even as we walk, talk, laugh, celebrate, and even shed tears.

SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

 I never understood how profound and life-controlling that spiritual blindness could be. Let me try to illustrate this by using the account of Jesus' miraculous feeding of the multitudes. They weren't so blind that they failed to see that a great miracle had just taken place:

• When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (John 6:14 ESV)

They even recognized Jesus as the Prophet that Moses had prophesied would come (Deut. 18:15-18) and even wanted to make Him king! 

So far, this seems reasonable. However, after they had time to think and had found Him on another side of the Sea of Galilee, their thinking had radically changed. After Jesus instructed them to believe in Him instead of another free meal:

• So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” (John 6:14, 30-31)

Jesus had just performed a great sign! Had they forgotten that they had declared Him the Prophet and wanted to make Him king? Demonstrating their near-complete blindness, they demanded the sign of Moses and his feeding the people with manna from heaven! However, this had been the very sign that Jesus had ALREADY performed in the miraculous feeding of the multitudes!

Then, they degraded Jesus from Prophet-hood to a mere Galilean:

• They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (John 6:42)

Eventually, they rejected Him entirely and wandered off. 

As perplexing as this biblical account might seem, there are many like it highlighting spiritual blindness. They are jarring because, ordinarily, we don't think of our peers, especially the educated ones, as blind. We tend, instead, to regard them as reasonable. 

Therefore, I had been troubled by these many accounts of irremediable evil and blindness, especially in the Psalms. I was convinced that their view of humanity was a little too dismal. Even Jesus' teachings were troubling:

• “They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” (John 16:2)

How could people kill the righteous and believe that they are serving God? Spiritual blindness! And it seems that we are now surrounded by it. Our world leaders continue to call Islam a "religion of peace," while all of the evidence - Koran, Hadiths, history, and nearly everywhere Islam has gone - proclaims otherwise. 

Even now, as Islam rapes and beheads its way across the West, our leaders - the ones elected to protect us - continue to chant the same mantra, a reflection of spiritual blindness.

Bible Interpretation: More than a Seminary Degree

For many reasons, Bible interpretation can be challenging. I was talking to bright lawyer about the Patriarchs. Although she doesn’t believe in the God of the Bible, she likes the Patriarchal accounts and appreciates the way that the Bible portrays Patriarchs and their wives as very morally flawed humans:

• Through revealing their moral lapses, the Bible is giving us permission to also cheat and lie. 

I protested, but she seemed to like this interpretation. She argued that through these accounts, God was also giving us the green light to act immorally.

I was horrified by this interpretation, but I could see that if we regard these Patriarchal accounts apart from the light of the rest of the Scriptures, it would be easy to make such a mistake. However, when we encounter the “thou shall nots” in Exodus through Deuteronomy, it becomes impossible to conclude that God is okay with cheating and lying.

What is the lesson here? Just as we have often heard it said – we must interpret Scripture by Scripture. This means that we have to have a command of the entire body of Scripture in order to be able to competently interpret. It helps us understand why God has given pastors and teachers to the church for its edification.

This doesn’t mean that we cannot understand a verse that tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. However, as we grow into the entirety of Scripture, we will also grow in our understanding of the nature of love.

There is also another challenge to interpretation that was illuminated by this exchange. We often see what we want to see. If we want to start a revolution, we see Jesus as a revolutionary. If we want freedom to live our lives that way we want, we emphasize the point that Jesus received everyone who came to Him and leave out the repentance part.

This is the way I too had been. I wanted to find in Scripture those verses which would make me feel good about myself, and I therefore would avoid the uncomfortable verses. What ultimately made the difference? The Spirit, and it required many years! Through many painful circumstances, He taught me to read His Words with a different eye. Now that I just want His Word and understanding, I can see what I had been unable to see.

Jesus claimed that before we judge another, we first have to judge ourselves and remove the plank (blindness) from our eyes:

• "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)

What is this plank? It is our self-imposed blind spots. We can’t judge others, since we refuse to see, let alone judge, ourselves. And if we are so blind in regards to ourselves and others, we are also blind in regards to Scripture. We only see what we want to see, what fits into our purposes.

Well, what do we do about our all-controlling blindness? After admonishing us to not throw our wisdom before those who have no regard for it, Jesus then returns us to the Spirit:

• "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

Sound interpretation requires far more than a seminary degree. It requires the work of the Spirit. Without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:4-5)! Let our continual prayer be, “Lord, you teach me!”

The Thrust of Jesus’ Teachings

Jesus is a master doctor – the great diagnostician of the soul. He not only points the way to salvation – He is even its Author – but He pinpoints our worldly barriers, which hold us back.

Our main barrier is our priorities. We want other things more than we do God! Jesus exposed this barrier in many of His parables. During His Sermon on the Mount, He proclaimed:

·        "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

What is our preoccupation? Heaven or earth? The rewards of heaven or the rewards of earth? Reason should tell us to set our hearts on eternal treasures.  But we are not reasonable creatures. We tend to prefer earthly treasures, but our lust for them will interfere with the more valuable “treasures in heaven.”

If we are confused about our spiritual status, Jesus gives us a test to resolve the confusion. If what we really treasure is earthly, we can infer that this is where our heart and soul are invested. If this is the condition of our heart, then we need to confess and ask God to forgive and correct us, trusting that He will (1 John 8-9; John 6:37).

Jesus then uses another analogy to bring this foundational truth home. Our eye – that which focuses on our hearts’ desires – will determine how wise we become about the important things:

·        "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad [“evil,” KJV; Greek – “poneros”] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

The light of wisdom depends upon the light we allow to enter. Whether light can enter depends upon where we focus our eyes. This focus reflects our hopes and desires. If our prime focus is upon the things of this world, our eyes are evil and idolatrous and do not allow light to enter.

If our eyes lust after self-fulfillment rather than service to our Redeemer, our eyes are evil. But how can doing what comes so naturally be considered evil? We already know the truth of God and yet suppress it in favor of our own self-centered agenda (Rom. 1:18-32). The darkness or ignorance within comes as a result of hardening our hearts against the truth:

·        They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Ephes. 4:18-22)

Jesus describes this blindness as a “log in the eye,” and if this blindness is not removed, we lack the wisdom to judge others, even ourselves (Mat. 7:1-5). If we attempt to judge while our eyes are primarily focused on the things of this world and not truth, we make ourselves into hypocrites. After all, how can we proclaim truth, when we don’t cherish truth above all else! How then can we correct others when we are blind?

According to Jesus, we can see, we do have access to the light, and therefore, we are without excuse when we reject the light:

·        This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

We are willfully blind in many other ways. Jesus teaches that we cannot expect to receive the forgiveness of God when we are unwilling to forgive others. This too is hypocrisy, a rejection of the light:

·        For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)

It is not possible to truly trust that our Lord forgives us while we refuse to forgive the sins of others. If we understand forgiveness, we understand that we are totally unworthy. How then can we refuse to forgive another, who, like us, is unworthy! If we truly believe that our brother is ineligible of forgiveness, even after he repents, then we must also believe that God is ignorant in forgiving the ineligible! This is what it means to have an evil eye – an eye that refuses to behold God’s truth above all else.

We need to be careful about what we desire, not because we won’t get it, but because we will. Jesus points out that some do charitable acts for the wrong reason – to gain the esteem of men:

·        "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” (Mat. 6:2)

Our Lord not only allows us to pursue our desires, but He also allows us to obtain them. But at such a great price!

Is it possible to maintain our worldly concerns at the same level as our commitment to God’s truth? Jesus then answers that it is not:

·        "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:24-25)

Jesus must become Lord of all – supreme over every other consideration. He must be the apple of our eye. If we attempt to “serve both God and Money,” we will experience internal warfare until one master wins out.

However, Jesus never hints that our material needs aren’t important. Rather, it is a matter of our priorities. If we set our focus on God before all else, He will supply all our needs (Mat. 6:33). However, if we “worry about [our] lives,” we will not only torment ourselves, but through the worry, we embrace a competing and demanding master. Serving our worries will interfere with faithfulness to our Lord.

Having other lords can kill us, or at least torment us. These other lords or idols can be crafty. They can disguise themselves in the robes of the highest spiritual service. Pastors, teachers and evangelists can pursue their calling to impress others and to fulfill ourselves.

Admittedly, we will never be completely free from these deceitful lords, not here at least. However, we need to continually cry out for His understanding, confessing our sins, knowing that we stand only in the grace of our Lord. Once we give into these false masters, they bear nauseating fruit – pride, bitterness, resentment and jealousy. By these, we discern between the fruits of the Spirit and those of the flesh.

I thank God that He can change our hearts. However, we must first see our brokenness and cry out for His mercy. He has given me a love of His Church. Through this gift, I can more readily set my eyes on the things above and away from my own needs and demands. I praise His holy Name!