Full Blog
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Let me make it unmistakably and superabundantly clear that this post is not about a general desire for more of the Presence and Witnessing-Power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Praise God for the atmosphere in many Christian circles in which there is a general desire for more of the Presence and Witnessing-Power of…
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When the Spirit of God looked upon the church of Ephesus and saw that they had “abandoned the love [they] had at first” (Rev 2:4), precisely what declension in action, attitude, thought, and/or behavior did He actually see among them? Was it simply an intensity gauge — their love for the Lord and/or for each…
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I wish every Christian in the world would read Preston Sprinkle’s Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire. I highly recommend it as hands down the best exposition of Biblical political theology I have yet to run across. One foremost strength is his approach: letting the unfolding of the Kingdom of God through redemptive…
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The Kingdom of God is an actual Kingdom and Jesus is its actual King. When we ignore the politics of Christ’s Kingdom we are missing the main point of Messiah’s political revolution. Much of the key terminology in the New Testament is deeply immersed in political imagery and evocations of that day, for example: The Bible’s reappropriation…
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Bu konuda, kullanılan terimlerin çağrışımlarını daha iyi kavrayan Türk arkadaşlardan geri bildirim almaktan memnuniyet duyarım. Ancak Kutsal Kitap çevirisinin genel olarak tartışmalı doğası göz önüne alındığında, iki ana dili Türkçe olan kişinin bile farklı sonuçlara varması mümkündür. Bu nedenle, burada mevcut kanaatlerimi sunuyorum. “ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ / τῶν οὐρανῶν” ifadesinin Yeni Çeviri’de “Göklerin/Tanrı’nın egemenliği”…
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This post intends to be the fifth/final installment in a series: Thus far we have seen that one major category of “sent ones” in the New Testament are apostles sent by God to preach the gospel of the Kingdom in public, performing miraculous attestations such as demonic deliverance and supernatural healings, in order to establish…
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This post intends to be the fourth in a series: Let’s say you buy into the thesis presented thus far that we still (desperately) need church-founding apostles. But you look around and see zero, or at most very few, people equipped by God to establish the foundation of new churches in new territory by preaching…
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This post intends to be the third in a series: Having given the explanation of what a “church-founding apostle” is, I would set forth two reasons, two Biblical arguments, as to why we need them today. We need church-founding apostles because we need “Paul-like missionaries” Most Protestants today, with thanks in no small part to…
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This post intends to be the second in a series: We previously saw that there are about as many senses of the Greek word “apostle” as there are for the English phrase “sent one.” The type of apostles we are concerned with in this series are those who are sent, authorized, and equipped to lay…
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This post intends to be the first in a series: In Koine Greek an “apostle” is a “sent one,” the same idea as expressed in the Latin word “missionarius.” In particular, the sender sends out an “apostle” to fulfill a specific task, authorizing and equipping them however necessary to do so. Perhaps the point that…
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A predominant expectation for the coming Messiah in first century Judea was that of a military leader who would raise up an army, overthrow the regional Roman occupiers, and rule Israel from Jerusalem in a rebirthed continuation of the Davidic dynasty. The gospels and early Acts indicate that Jesus’ own disciples followed him with the…
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Ὅτι ὑμῖν δέδοται γνῶναι τὰ μυστήρια τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἐκείνοις δὲ οὐ δέδοται. To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Mt 13:11 God shouts some things so that all are without excuse, but whispers other things that only…
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Any student of the Holy Bible knows that Israel is at the center of God’s relationship with the nations of this world, His-Story of global affairs. Being “firstborn” carries both privilege and responsibility. So let’s start there: In sum: All the countries of this world are stupid and evil. Thank you for your attention to…
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It is not hard to find support for the idea that the Bible intersects politics. What is difficult, however, is to find any consensus on what the political implications of the Bible properly are. A wide spectrum of possibilities offer themselves regarding the potential relationship between religion and government: Count me among those who consider…
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In sixish days I return to Asia, with high chances that it is a permanent move this time. Well-meaning family and friends, who are all very kind and supportive folks that I love(!), may be inclined to say, “I’m excited for this next stage of your journey.” Well, thank you! And certainly you are free…
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The Kingdom of God is the central storyline of the Bible. Key developments of the story are found in accounts of the Garden (1:28), Abraham (12:1-3), Moses (Ex 19:6), David (2 Sam 7:12ff, Ps 2), and Daniel (chps. 2 & 7), but the theme permeates the entire Hebrew Bible. The Kingdom of God is the…
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[Let me admit right off the bat that I don’t presently have a compelling Biblical argument for this one. A large number of Biblical passages and principles arguably point in strongly favor of this idea being true, but I’ll admit that I don’t have a text that seems to be explicitly directing us toward understanding…
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Therefore devotion, allegiance, and/or obedience to any other political entity is a provocation unto jealousy against Him.
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I’m fascinated by what appears to be a renaissance in Biblical hermeneutics that has been semi-quitely underway for the last generation or so. Most of the activity has been limited to academic circles, but facets of it have begun emerging in more lay-level websites such as BibleProject, AlephBeta, and the Theopolis Institute. There are a…
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A better title might have been, “The Never-To-Be Finished Work of Christ.” I glory in “the finished work of Christ” and the fact that “the cross was enough” as much as any Evangelical. Yet, like any truth, removed from their proper context those statements can become not only fallacious and harmful but indeed heretical. At…
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As I taught my sons from the time they were young, “God’s greatest present is His Presence.” That is The Main Thing. Ezekiel closes his book by revealing the glorious name of the glorious city he just spent nine chapters describing: “Yahveh-is-There.” The last two chapters of the Christian canon likewise confirm that what makes…
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God placed His image-bearing living-icons in the original Edenic garden-temple and commissioned them to participate as helpmeet in His creative work by extending and globally disseminating the “goodness” He had set in place through six days of providing structure and fullness to overcome the chaotic emptiness and void. Note well(!) that even before the Fall,…
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This world long ago betrayed my trust. In an idealist heart such as mine it aroused fantastic hopes for happily ever after, endless summer nights, a rainbow connection waiting to be found, and possibly even a secret path leading back to Pooh Corner (where the mommas sang us to sleep before we got stressed out!).…
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Demonic Christian Nations – YouTube I apologize for the poor production quality, personal grooming, coughs and sniffles, amateur speaking and teaching skills, etc. But I believe the Biblical content is so important and well-substantiated that it is worthwhile to endure all those inadequacies.
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The church of Acts was characterized by (what theologians call) an eschatological urgency. The end of all things was at hand. The Son of David had come to usher in the Kingdom of God. The Second Adam had fathered a new creation which would finally fill the earth with the glory of God through His…
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It is hard for the rich and powerful to find true love. The question will always be: do they love me for me or just for my stuff? God is the Ultimate rich and powerful Being and so He faces this problem to a degree immeasurably beyond any human tycoon or royalty figure. Ezekiel 16…
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the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. … and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” Revelation 13:3-4 provides two descriptions of the actions of the earth-dwellers with respect to the beast: (1) they worship it, and (2) they say words that show their…
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A straightforward reading of Romans 11 indicates that Israel and the Church in some sense “should be” one people — Jew and Gentile united in Messiah, and indeed ultimately will be one. But due to various forms of disobedience there is lopping and pruning and grafting which occur in the meantime, such that the unified…
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Given the reality of loss of lampstands, how shall one move forward? This is probably the question which has remained most at the forefront of my concern for several years. The Christian life and ministry are “Not by [human] might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of Hosts. How then shall…
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And I used to think that it was somehow stupid and even wicked to dream of Heaven and to long for Heaven. And now I see the kind of a horrible place earth really is. And I go hiking and I go, this could be so beautiful. I met the guy last night sweeping the…
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Patrick Henry famously made a similar statement regarding liberty. I don’t share that dude’s passion for political and civil freedoms in the present world, but “To each his own,” as my mom would say. In any case, I at least understand the logic of his reasoning. It actually becomes even more clear when we distinguish…
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Once again, the Bible comes in and turns upside-down man’s thinking completely right-side up. The Christian people nowadays, including the missionally-oriented ones, tend to think that the menacing Beast of the Sea (even if they don’t know it by that name), with his scary intimidation threats, is a barrier to the advance of the message…
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Two different religions currently live together in the same house called “Christianity.” There are a number of ways to describe and delineate the distinction between the two different “Christianities.” One way to distinguish between them is in terms of which world is in focus. One form of “Christianity” is primarily concerned with this world (Heb.…
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[L]ight has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (John 3:19) In such a dark world as this one, there is no “clean” path to the introduction of powerful illumination. Light is disruptive to darkness. The gospel of the kingdom will not be proclaimed…
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We need apostles. To complete the Great Commission task Jesus left His church to occupy herself with until His return, we need apostles. To truly reach the Muslim world with the genuine gospel message, not the distorted message of historic Christendom, but the true gospel of forgiveness and new life in Christ as we eagerly…
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If possible, please view the fully hyperlinked and better formatted pdf version of this post instead. Greetings! Shalom aleichem = Peace be upon you = As-salamu alaykum. Zekeriya Harrıs here writing to you today from İzmir Province in Türkiye, site of ancient Ephesus — prototypical city of lost lampstands. To friends and to prospective friends.The…
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Two different religions.
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What is the distinction between the first and second of the Ten Commandments? For many years the two subconsciously blurred together in my mind. My assumption was that when you make an idol you are worshipping a false god, and so I basically just heard both commandments to be saying, “Don’t do that.” Puritan authors…
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Fulfillment of Jesus’ Great Commission, which missionary-minded (i.e. Biblically-minded) Christians long to see, simply will not happen without far greater manifestation of Acts 1:8 martyr-witness empowerment than most of us modern Western believers are used to seeing. Indeed, the Spirit of Pentecost was bestowed for this purpose: to grant POWER for Christ’s disciples to serve…
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Constantine’s goal in convening the Nicene council was to resolve some disputes among Christians, in order to attain ecclesiastical unity, in service of (presumably his ultimate goal) of political unity within the empire. One problem with that program is that ideas about Jesus (e.g. homoousios) are not what bind the body of Christ together. Rather,…
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There are many different people named “John Smith.” Using probabilistic modelling, ChatGPT estimates that we should expect more than 50,000 John Smiths worldwide, and LinkedIn produces 97,000 hits for people with that name (although that number could easily be inflated for various reasons). I likewise propose that a number of entirely different things go by…
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Although “peace” is a commonly stated translation of “shalom,” and legitimately so, the Biblical concept is far richer than a mere absence of war and conflict. My favorite definition of shalom is “the way things are supposed to be,” that is, according to God’s original design for this world. There is supposed to be a…
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Humans crave intimacy. Most of us have tasted the sublimity of at least one very close, mutually satisfying relationship, such as in the early stages of romance. But most will also concur that it is dismally difficult to find deeply intimate relationships which are robust, stable, and secure enough to thrive long-term. In the Platonic…
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It is important to understand the times in which one lives. These, I propose, are the days of Elijah and Moses. Many of Revelation’s commentators have noted that the “two witnesses” in chapter 11 have clear parallels to Moses and Elijah. “Power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall” and “power over the…
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Christianity today is not the 29th chapter of Acts. A better label for us might be Acts chapter 47, or something like that. Since the time of Paul’s house imprisonment in Rome some paradigm-shifting things have happened in this world and the spiritual realm which bear significant effects on the outworking of the dynamics of…
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God’s people standing next to a “sea” and singing “the song of Moses” in victory over a defeated foe. What does that sound like? You got it, Revelation 15 represents the final exodus of God’s people, a recapitulation and ultimate fulfillment of Exodus 15. The comfortable first-world reader of the book of Revelation as a…
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There are a number of literary peculiarities in the way the story of Elijah is presented in Scripture. I believe that Biblical “peculiarities” are intentional on the part of the Divine Author, serving as hints that there is an opportunity for the seeker of truth to search further and dig deeper to find hidden gems…
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I have no prediction regarding when the end of the world will come, but I do have a goal for it: seven years. Starting now. (Not joking.) Eh? Man setting a “goal” for the end of the world? Weird? Blasphemous? Arguably so. But I will argue instead that it is Biblically proper, suitable, and appropriate.…
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Judgment is a major theme in the book of Revelation. An earlier post stated that while the object of such judgment is clearly the world as a whole, within that global scope the text puts a particular emphasis on God’s judgment of the worldly church which conforms to the overall worldly system. Indeed, that is…
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Because God Himself is a perfectly happy society of mutually loving Persons, when He reconciles a throng of men to Himself He thereby simultaneously reconciles all of them to each other in One Holy and Harmonious Society. The good news that God has made a way to redeem mankind into joint membership in the “Society…
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Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. I’ve recently realized how profoundly my life has been…
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Everyone (with any interest in the matter) knows that judgment is a major theme in the book of Revelation. Whereas numerous Scriptural texts portray judgment upon individuals (e.g. Herod in Acts 12:23), cities (e.g. Sodom and Gomorrah), and nations/kingdoms (e.g. Egypt), Revelation addresses The Big One. The Final One. The Ultimate One. Judgment Day itself.…
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I’ve never been interested in angels or angelology. Rather, I never was interested until I read the following quote in Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus: But what is this presence of Christ in church-assemblies?…If by Christ’s presence, we mean the presence of his angels, I shall then say, we have said enough; as a king…
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Assuming that a specially appointed angel watches over each local church that heaven recognizes as legitimate, let us then continue the line of thought experiments from the last post with questions such as the following: I know many people will think I’m being silly or frivolous. Many will think that such questions are like the…
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The epistles often give the impression that there was no more than one congregation of Jesus-followers per city at that time, e.g., “To the church of God that is in Corinth….” Or, if more than one congregation met in different parts of a large city, there was such unity among them that an apostle could…
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Viewing genuine, Spirit-indwelt, local churches as embassies for the Kingdom of Heaven scattered throughout the world is an analogy that works well on many levels. Here’s a couple helpful posts that work out some of the connections: Churches: The Embassies and Geography of Heaven and Planting an Embassy of the Empire. And while there is nothing…
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Many a scholar and lay-reader alike has noted the palpable eschatological imminency of the New Testament. If Crystal Lewis had lived at the time, the most popular lyrics might have been, “People get ready. Jesus is coming. Soon we’ll be going home.” The early disciples were not mistaken to feel that way. The Bible itself…
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Some things that stick out to me as highlights from the post-Pentecostal advance of the gospel in the New Testament:
hasteningthecomingofthedayofGod 