The Mysterious Revelations of our Lord

Many of the Hebrew prophetic passages were purposely obscure. The Apostle Paul revealed one reason why this was so:

• No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8)

Nevertheless, the message of the Cross was present in cryptic glory:

• For this is what the LORD says: "You [Israel] were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed." (Isaiah 52:3)

Of what could this redemption consist? It had cost money to procure the sacrificial animal. However, the redemption that the Lord promised through Isaiah would be without cost. How could this be?

The redemption would consist of a message and a Messiah, and God would shoulder the entire cost:

• How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace [with God], who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he [God] has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52:7-10) 

How would Israel possibly be able to see “the LORD [when He] returns to Zion?” He was un-seeable. In fact, anyone who saw Him would be struck dead! This is answered by “his holy arm [revealed] in the sight of all the nations!” Well, what is His “holy arm?” Isaiah explains:

• Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:1-5) 

Sound familiar? More than familiar! This is our Savior, hidden in plain sight by His Father until the appointed time:

• Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor." (Isaiah 49:1-3)

I love these portraits! They were given for us who are weak in faith. In fact, even the Hebrew prophets were unable to fathom the depths of what they had prophesied. Instead, it was revealed that they were prophesying for us:

• Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. (1 Peter 1:10-12) 

Thank You, Lord, for revealing these glories to us! We need them!

Masochism, Western Elites, Sweden, and Rape

A recent video places Sweden as the rape capital of the world. 

A 2013 Front Page article had placed Sweden as number two:

• Sweden now has the second highest number of rapes in the world, after South Africa, which at 53.2 per 100,000 is six times higher than the United States. Statistics now suggest that 1 out of every 4 Swedish women will be raped.
  

• With Muslims represented in as many as 77 percent of the rape cases and a major increase in rape cases paralleling a major increase in Muslim immigration, the wages of Muslim immigration are proving to be a sexual assault epidemic by a misogynistic ideology.

When someone is seriously ill, he goes for testing to identify the source of the problem. Without accurate diagnosis, there can be no meaningful intervention. However, this isn’t happening in Western Europe. (See both the UK and Norway where Muslim rape of non-Muslims has also reached epidemic levels.) Instead, the diagnosis is strenuously avoided and even censured. It is as if the Western nations have a death wish or at least a virulent case of runaway masochism.

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)

Why has the West “lost all capacity” to appreciate its own heritage? Why does it punish itself? Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali Muslim turned atheist, shares this insight:

• Liberals in Western politics have the strange habit of blaming themselves for the ills of the world, while seeing the rest of the world as victims. To them, victims are to be pitied, and they lump together all pitiable and suppressed people, such as Muslims, and consider them good people who should be cherished and supported so that they can overcome their disadvantages. The adherents to the gospel of multiculturalism refuse to criticize people whom they see as victims. Some Western critics disapprove of United States policies and attitudes but do not criticize the Islamic world, just as, in the first part of the twentieth century, Western socialist apologists did not dare criticize the Soviet labor camps. Along the same lines, some Western intellectuals criticize Israel, but they will not criticize Palestine because Israel belongs to the West, which they consider fair game, but they feel sorry for the Palestinians, and for the Islamic world in general, which is not as powerful as the West. They are critical of the native white majority in Western countries but not of Islamic minorities. Criticism of the Islamic world, of Palestinians, and of Islamic minorities is regarded as Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Okay, victims are to be pitied, but why at the expense of the well-being of our own nations? What perverse psychological mechanism is preventing our elites from valuating and protecting their own people? Do they feel guilty for the benefits that the West has enjoyed?

Guilt and shame are life-controlling forces. In Healing the Shame that Binds, psychologist John Bradshaw perceptively wrote:

• When shame has been completely internalized, nothing about you is okay. You feel flawed and inferior; you have the sense of being a failure. There is no way you can share your inner self because you are an object of contempt to yourself…To feel shame is to feel seen in an exposed and diminished way. When you’re an object to yourself, you turn your eyes inward, watching and scrutinizing every minute detail of behavior…This paralyzing internal monitoring causes withdrawal, passivity and inaction. (13)

Bradshaw’s understanding of shame might explain why the West has been bending its neck before the sword of Islam. Perhaps the West feels ashamed of its privilege and must atone for it.

Shame had also been a life-controlling and life-diminishing factor for me. My feelings of unworthiness were so powerful that I couldn’t enjoy anything. I couldn’t take a shower for more than two minutes. I just didn’t feel worthy of it. Nor could I spend any money on myself. However, when I did go without, I felt more worthy. When I didn’t, I felt psychologically threatened, as if I had done the unpardonable. I was trying to redeem myself. However, when I came to know my Redeemer Jesus, this bondage began to loosen. Since He paid the price for my sins, I no longer had to redeem myself.

It seems that we are built with a moral law that tells us that we are unworthy unless a price is paid for our unworthiness. Some indulge in self-flagellation; others in self-mutilation; while others pay the price through compulsive do-gooding and people-pleasing. In any case, we are controlled by the slave-master “shame.”

I think that this problem has gone viral, as has rape in many of the Western nations. Why? We have rejected our only protection against internal accusations of shame and unworthiness – Jesus the Savior – and are paying the just price for this rejection.

A Life-Controlling Affliction: The Need for Self-Validation

The richest man in the world, John D. Rockefeller, had been asked, “How much money do you need to be happy?” He famously answered, “Always a bit more.”

His answer remains alive for us today because it illustrates something that we observe in ourselves. We are never satisfied, no matter how great the successes, recognition, or money we have accumulated. Self-validation is a monster that requires continuous feeding. Lady Gaga sings about this consuming fire:

• “I live for the applause, applause, applause…the way that you cheer and scream for me.” She adds in another song, “yes we live for the Fame, Doin’ it for the Fame, Cuz we wanna live the life of the rich and famous.”

Self-validation is a life-consuming quest, which will not let go. I always had to be the best. When someone else was better, I was jealous and resented his success. Although Christ has set me free from its controlling influence, the feelings are still there. They can get me down, but I get right back up and laugh these ugly feelings in the face.

Where do these feelings – these psychological addictions – come from? It seems that we are all, to some degree, afflicted with an underlying sense of unworthiness. It might manifest itself through shame or guilt or even self-contempt. This sense is so powerful that we have to do something about it. We have to validate ourselves not only to ourselves but to the rest of the world.

My way of self-validation was through being the best. Others seek to look the best or to be people-pleasers or to gain love and approval to the max – anything to silence the inner voices that tell us that we are unworthy, that they is something wrong or lacking within.

Well, where does this seemingly universal sense of unworthiness come from? What is the universal cause that is adequate to explain this universal brokenness?

God had created us to feel entirely comfortable within our own skin. In fact, Adam and Eve felt so comfortable that they went naked without any sense of shame. However, this all changed once they had sinned. Even if they didn’t quite understand their now life-controlling feelings of shame, they knew something was wrong and laughably covered themselves with fig leaves.

Today, not having a fig tree in reach, we cover ourselves with our attainments, university degrees, and successes, convinced that a mere covering will adequately address the underlying infection. But as a mere covering, it never does! Instead, as with any drug or addiction, we always crave more.

The addiction is so powerful that we will do anything to protect it. We deny the real issue and avoid and detest anything or anyone who might expose it. When God found Adam and Eve hiding from Him, He asked them what the problem was. Foolishly, they tried to divert Him with half-truths.

I could never admit my addiction – that I was self-consumed, had to be the best, and was jealous of anyone who had what I wanted. I tried my best to hide these obsessions away in a place of darkness. Anyone who might expose them was a threat.

Even after God revealed their sin and lies, they continued to validate themselves by blaming someone else. Eve blamed the serpent; Adam blamed both Eve and the God who had brought her to him.

What had started this cycle of unworthiness, addiction and lies? Sin and its rupturing of our vital connection with our Creator! As long as Adam and Eve had this connection, there was no sense of unworthiness but rather completeness and wholeness.

Why then are the redeemed still struggling with these feelings, now that the relationship with our Redeemer has been restored? We are only halfway home. We are still awaiting the glories that will be revealed in us:

• We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)

Yes, we have already been redeemed and adopted. However, not entirely! The sin in our unredeemed body remains our enemy and opposes us at every turn:

• So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. (Galatians 5:16-17)

Consequently, it does not feel like we are yet home. We still want to validate ourselves against the accusations of our flesh, even though Christ has validated us beyond anything that we might hope to do (Gal. 2:20). What then? We laugh at these cravings, convinced that they have already been decisively addressed by our Savior, and meanwhile seek to minister to the needs of others.

Pope Francis, Atheists, and Salvation

Huffington Post writes that during his homily at Wednesday Mass in Rome:

• Pope Francis rocked some religious and atheist minds today when he declared that everyone was redeemed through Jesus, including atheists.

What did the Pope mean when he asserted that “everyone was redeemed through Jesus?” Simply that He had died for the sins of the world? Most Christians already believe that! But did the Pope mean that Jesus had actually saved the world from eternal condemnation through His redemption? HP quotes the Pope further:

• “They complain,” the Pope said in his homily, because they say, “If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good.” And Jesus corrects them: “Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good.” The disciples, Pope Francis explains, “were a little intolerant,” closed off by the idea of ​​possessing the truth, convinced that “those who do not have the truth, cannot do good.” “This was wrong . . . Jesus broadens the horizon.” Pope Francis said, “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation”

Pope Francis is certainly right that the disciples were intolerant and judgmental. They were always drawing the line in the wrong place. However, Pope Francis went further in his sermon to say:

• "The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can... "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!".. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

While the Pope is correct that we all have the commandment to do good, it seems that the Pope is suggesting that Christ not only died for the sins of the world but that the world and has already received the benefits of this redemption, apart from faith, enabling everyone to live righteously.

Well, let’s put aside the question of what the Pope really meant and simply look at the question:

• What did Christ teach about the necessity of faith in Him? Did He teach that salvation and redemption could only be accessed through faith?

Jesus taught a lot about the necessity of having faith in Him:

• “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16; also 5:24; 3:36)

Clearly, Jesus taught faith in Himself. However, did He teach that faith is necessary for salvation? After telling the crowds that were following Him that they needed to labor for eternal life:

• Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)

Jesus gave no hint that there were any other good deeds that would take the place of faith. Nor did He ever suggest, as many do today, that the Jews had their own covenant and therefore didn’t need to find salvation through Him:

• “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.” (John 8:24; 12:44-48)

Even the Pharisees had to believe in Him to find salvation. There was no other means available (John 14:6)!

HP cites Reuters regarding other things that the Pope had stated:

• Atheists should be seen as good people if they do good, Pope Francis said on Wednesday in his latest urging that people of all religions - or no religion - work together.

However, none are good. That’s why, according to all Scripture, we need the Savior:

• As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one”…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:10-23) 

Can we ever be good enough to please God without faith – the acknowledgment that we need the mercy of God offered through the Savior? Scripture unequivocally tells us “no!”

• And without faith, it is impossible to please God. (Heb. 11:6)

Why is faith so critical to God? Without faith – the recognition of our utter spiritual poverty and need for His mercy – whatever good deeds we perform will simply make us arrogant and self-centered. A house can only be built on a solid foundation.

We do the atheist no favor by suggesting that they are good enough to obviate the need for faith in Christ. In fact, we simple enable them to continue to be hardened. In fact, one atheist Facebook group just wrote:

• Christians are furious at the Pope for saying that atheists can enter heaven. And I’m just sitting here not caring.

Perhaps they need to learn a lesson from Jodi Arias. When confronted with death, our self-confidence often evaporates.