What is the “mystery” of Ephesians 3?

What is the “mystery” about which Paul speaks in Ephesians ch. 3? One can quickly think of several answers which, at first blush, seem promising. However, like poor Hosea’s wife, they soon prove faithless.

Background

Paul has written about God’s plan to reconcile all things to Christ, in heaven and on earth (Eph 1:10). To that end, he’s spoken about God’s grace in salvation, the impossible situation from which he rescued us, our responsibility as grateful believers, and about this new Jesus community he has formed in which Jews and Gentiles “are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household” (Eph 2:19). This is all part of God’s plan to remake the Genesis 1-2 paradise, which he achieves in Revelation 21-22. Through his covenants, God has made several sacred promises:

To gather a people to himself physically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
To place these people into a promised land of their own.
To make his people, Israel, a blessing to all the families of the earth.
To give them a king descended from David who will rule forever and whose kingdom will never end, and
To give them a Messiah as a new and better covenant who will give his people new hearts and new minds by a miracle of his Spirit.

Amidst the chaos of national collapse and apostasy, the prophets explain that this Messiah will nevertheless re-gather a remnant of the Israelite people from the four corners of the earth because of his covenant promises. He will usher in a golden age wherein righteousness, truth, justice, peace, and bliss will prevail. The Messiah will rule from Jerusalem as a signal flag of salvation to the nations, who will stream to Yahweh with joy in those days. In short, the prophets say these covenant promises will come to fruition in the millennium, which functions as a version in miniature, a microcosm, or prototype of the eternal paradise to which the story transitions by Revelation 21-22 (see esp. Jer 33:14-26; Micah 4:1-8; Zech 8; Isa 11-12, Isa 25).[1]

Back in Ephesians 3:1-12, Paul writes about a mystery which God has revealed to him:

… which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit: that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Ephesians 3:5-6; emphasis added).

So, somehow, this “mystery” news about Gentiles being “fellow heirs” of the Jesus promise is something new—a new thing in the unfolding of God’s great plan. Well, what’s new about what Paul says? What, exactly, is this mystery? Based on what Ephesians 3:5-6 says, several possible answers come to mind. We may dismiss some straightaway, while others are a bit stronger.

Wrong answers about this “mystery”

Nobody ever heard of this before!

With apologies to traditional dispensationalists, we can dismiss this immediately. This perspective sees a great discontinuity between the people of Israel and the church; one has an earthly future with earthly covenant promises, while the latter is a heavenly people.[2] I don’t believe this is the best way to frame the two groups in God’s plan. God tells Abraham that, in him, all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen 12:3), and the apostle Paul cites this as warrant for the revelation of the church (Gal 3:8). The bible is clear that Gentiles have a future in God’s family.

Wow! The nations are part of God’s plan!

This is closely related to the last perspective, and it is the response of the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem. Consider the apostle Peter’s prejudicial and foolish comments to Cornelius—remarks with no biblical support: “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him …” (Acts 10:28). Reflect, also, on the indignant reception the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem give Peter when he returns home (Acts 11:1-3, 18). They would have never responded this way if they had listened to Yahweh’s words in Isaiah 56:6-8. This passage says that foreigners may “take hold of My covenant,” and Yahweh promises to bring these believing Gentiles to his holy mountain “and make them glad in My house of prayer” (Isa 56:6-7). “‘For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.’ Lord Yahweh, who gathers the banished of Israel, declares, ‘Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered’” (Isa 56:7-8).

The nations have obviously always been part of God’s plan.

Gentiles aren’t at the back of the bus in God’s family—they’re equal!

This is a common view. One advocate writes: “God’s blessing of the Gentiles would involve the obliteration of the old line of demarcation which separated them from Jews, and the incorporation of Gentile believers together with Jewish believers, without any discrimination, in the new, comprehensive community of God’s chosen people.”[3] But, is this truly new news? Has this never been heard before? What about old covenant texts that clearly say this will happen—like Isaiah 56:6-8? What about Isaiah’s prophesy that, during the millennial age, “Yahweh of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain” (Isa 25:6)? What about his promise through Jeremiah: “the nations will be blessed in Him, And in Him they will boast” (Jer 4:2)?

Some bible teachers respond by leaning into texts that seem to suggest the nations are subservient to the people of Israel during what I believe to be Christ’s millennial reign,[4] and therefore Paul’s “mystery” here is a different thing entirely—it’s been taken to the next level.

But, study shows these passages are often depicting Israel’s triumph over her enemies (e.g., Mic 4:13) or, in the important case of Isaiah 60, it is Zion (not the people of Israel) whom the nations will serve (as metonymy for Yahweh). The Old Covenant scriptures clearly promise that all who are thirsty may come to the waters “without money and without cost,” that Yahweh has given the Messiah “as a witness to the peoples,” and declares this Rescuer will “call a nation you do not know” which “will run to you” (see Isa 55:1-7).

The Messiah will do this!

This one is clearly absurd. Yes, Paul does say in Ephesians 3:5-6 that this “mystery” (whatever it may be) concerns the promise about Christ Jesus. But, the Old Testament very clearly says the Messiah will be the one who saves and rescues Jews and Gentiles (see Isa 42:1, 6-7). It was known. It was expected. This cannot be the mystery.

Israel is replaced by the church!

This is a very common interpretation.[5] I cannot properly rebut that perspective here. I’ll just say that (a) if God gives us the covenant oaths and signs so that we’d have faith in his promises, then (b) this requires God to mean what he says, to speak clearly so we can understand him, so we therefore rely upon his promises.[6]

Mary and Zechariah, to take one example, surely understood Yahweh to mean what he said in his covenant promises through David about a king rescue them from their enemies and usher in righteousness (Lk 1). If God didn’t mean what he said through the prophet Nathan (1 Chr 17:1-15) and didn’t expect his people to understand and rely upon that covenant promise, then Gabriel wouldn’t have had any basis for a conversation with Mary! Instead, he assumes and expects that she knows what he’s talking about.

A better relationship with God by spiritual union!

This, also, does not work. The prophet Joel said that, in the last days (which Peter says have now arrived), God will pour out his spirit upon all mankind (Joel 2:28-29). Ezekiel said that, in the new covenant, God “will give them one heart and give within them a new spirit. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezek 11:19).

A probable answer

So, if the Old Testament clearly says each of these things, then what precisely is the “mystery”? It seems to me that the mystery is not about what will happen, but about how.[7] Yes, by the end of the whole story in Revelation 21-22, there will be one people of God consisting of two groups (Israel and the church) which have been made one. But, how will God make this promise a reality?

It seems that Jesus makes God’s covenant promises come true in two stages. First, by using the church now, during this present evil age. Second, during his 1,000-year millennium reign, by using the people of Israel (see esp. Jer 33:14-26; Micah 4:1-8; Zech 8; Isa 11-12, Isa 25). The apostle Paul’s analogy of the olive tree seems unanswerable along this line (Rom 11:17-36): God has broken off the “natural branches” (i.e., the people of Israel) from this tree now, and meanwhile grafted in “wild” and unnatural branches (the Gentiles) for a time.

For I do not want you, brothers, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB” (Romans 11:25-26).

Regarding how the whole bible story comes together, the apostle Peter tells us the prophets themselves had questions about the “how.”

… the prophets, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, made careful searches and inquiries, inquiring to know what time or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He was predicting the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (1 Pet 1:10-11).

I like to compare this issue to disagreements about eschatology today. Every true Christian believes that, one day, Jesus will return to punish the wicked, reward the righteous, defeat Satan forever, and bring in everlasting righteousness. But, we sometimes disagree about the precise details. The “how” questions about the Messiah’s advent were like that—of course he would arrive, but how would all the details about “the glories to follow” shake out?

Therefore, regarding Paul and the revelation of the “mystery” about Jews and Gentiles as “fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:6), the best answer seems to be about the how, and not the what. “Messianic days have dawned, albeit in a way not clearly anticipated in the prophesies. Rather than one grand age of fulfillment under the messianic reign, the prophetic fulfillment has been divided into two ages related to the two comings of Christ.”[8]

[1] Eugene Merrill, “A Theology of the Pentateuch,” in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, ed. Roy B. Zuck (Chicago: Moody, 1991), 27.

[2] Lewis S. Chafer is representative of this school (Systematic Theology (reprint; Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1976), 4:74-77). “The distinction between the purpose for Israel and the purpose for the Church is about as important as that which exists between the two Testaments. Every covenant, promise, and provision for Israel is earthly, and they continue as a nation with the earth when it is created new. Every covenant or promise for the Church is for a heavenly reality, and she continues in heavenly citizenship when the heavens are recreated” (Systematic, 4:47).

[3] F.F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, in NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 314.

[4] See Thomas Schreiner, The Letter to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2026), 152, for a list of passages. Lynn Cohick declares: “ … while the theme of gentile inclusion is found throughout Second Temple literature, Paul’s emphasis on the equal status of gentiles with Jews in the community is not obvious in these works, nor in the Old Testament itself” (The Letter to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020), 320). This is clearly incorrect.

[5] One representative example is John Stott, The Message of Ephesians (Downer’s Grove: IVP, 1979), 117-18.

[6] See especially Paul Henebury, The Words of the Covenant, vol. 1 (Maitland: Xulon, 2021), 13-52.

[7] I’m especially indebted to Robert Saucy, “The Church as the Mystery of God,” in Dispensationalism, Israel, and the Church, ed. Craig Blaising and Darryl Bock (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 137-51.

[8] Saucy, “Mystery of God,” in Dispensationalism, Israel, and the Church, 151.

The bible’s big story

In the last article in this series about Israel and the Millennium, we explained why good Christians disagree about the bible’s big story. Today, we sketch what we believe the true big story is.

The bible’s big story is God’s plan to remake the paradise that our first parents ruined in Genesis 3. It’s God’s plan to fix the world, to fix us, and to create a family he can love and which loves Him back. God promises to send His only Son, Jesus—our King—on a special mission. First, Jesus will defeat God’s great and evil adversary and schedule his destruction. Second, Jesus rescues and then transforms a special community to show and tell his Good News to the world and to themselves. Meanwhile we wait to be with him forever in his coming kingdom—when he makes all things new. We must read and interpret the bible in that light.

The simplest way to understand the bible’s big story is like a three-act play:

Paradise made (Genesis 1-2).
Paradise lost (Genesis 3).
Paradise regained (Genesis 4 to Revelation 22).

A better way to explain the bible’s story is to compare God’s covenant promises to individual “episodes” of an Amazon Prime or Netflix “season.” Together, these “episodes” string together to form a traceable and logical story—ending in a new creation paradise, where God’s people can worship him and exercise dominion over his good creation, where Satan and evil have been banished and defeated forever.

Let’s talk about these two ways to understand the bible’s story.

The “three-act play” way

At its simplest level, the bible’s “big story” in unfolds in three movements:

Paradise made. God made everything good and holy, as it was supposed to be. There was no sin, no rebellion, no imperfection. Our first parents and this world were wholesome and untainted. This is why Moses tell us: “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31).
Paradise lost. Everything falls apart. Satan tricked Eve into eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and she (in turn) persuaded her husband to do the same (Gen 3:1-7). “Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God.” As our representatives, their guilt was imputed and their corrupted nature conveyed to each of us—their descendants—by ordinary generation. And so, “death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body”[1] (see Rom 3, 5).
Paradise regained. God rescues a community of people, places them in a new land, and gives them a king to rule over them and be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Sin is banished. There is a new creation—a new heavens and a new earth, “and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Rev 21:4). Some Christians imagine eternity as a vague spiritual existence in heaven, contemplating God. The truth is that paradise is a “new creation” existence where God’s people fulfill the creation mandate that went haywire in Genesis 3. Paradise is an “Eden 2.0” that will not fail, because Satan, the antichrist, and sin itself are gone forever.

The key is to see that the story is about God fixing what has gone wrong. It culminates in a new creation paradise, on a true new earth in a truly new creation, where righteousness dwells forever. That’s the goal. That’s the plot.

The “episodes in a season” way

But that’s the quick version of the bible’s story. We get a deeper sense of the story by following the plot though its various twists and turns. We do this through the different covenants God made with his people. A “covenant” is a formal agreement God makes that has binding obligations. God always seals his covenants with an oath wherein he “solemnly swears” (as it were) to do what he promises to do. Each covenant also has a sign; a symbol that declares something about the covenant it represents. We should think of these covenants as “episodes” in God’s TV series. And, like every good show, it ends by resolving the issues that unfolded throughout the “season.”

Each covenant progressively sketches in what “paradise regained” will look like. Here’s how this deeper version of the bible “big story” shakes out:

Episode 1: The promise in the garden

Though this is not a covenant, it is the big event which follows right on the heels of “paradise lost.” God promises to send a man, descended from Eve, to destroy Satan (Gen 3:15). This descendant will be injured, but he will crush the serpent’s head. In other words, he will smash the snake and destroy the source of all evil. This promise is immediately in jeopardy when our first parent’s only two children are moved off the board—Cain murders Abel and is banished far away to the east (Gen 4). Where, then, are the children through whom this victorious son will come? God has grace and mercy to provide a new son—Seth.

Episode 2: The covenant with Noah and all creation

As generations pass, the growing human population ignores God’s special promise, and a moral darkness descends. God decides to act (Gen 6:5-8) and “reboots” creation with a dreadful flood that destroys all living creatures, except for a precious few. He orders a righteous man named Noah to build a lifeboat of sorts in which to rescue himself, his family, and various creatures (Gen 6:9-22). After this flood subsides, they exit the boat and the “reboot” begins (Gen 7-9). God makes a covenant to withhold another such judgment, so that there will be a people and a world for the Messiah to rescue (Gen 9:1-17; cp. Mt 1:21), according to the promise God made to Eve in the garden.

Episode 3: Covenant with Abraham and family

After the rebellion at Babel, God scatters men and women across the earth. He chooses one obscure man from nowhere to be the source of blessing to the world—the vehicle to make his promise in the darkness come true (Gen 12:1-3). God made three specific promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 and confirmed them by way of a covenant in Genesis 15; re-iterated in Genesis 17, and 22, and later to Isaac and Jacob.

This covenant is the fountainhead for all of God’s promises to come. It marks out the Jewish people (those descended from the Abraham-Isaac-Jacob line) as God’s special people, who are promised a specific land of Canaan in which to live, so they can be a blessing to all the families of the earth. This is why the Messiah is the son of Abraham” (Mt 1:1 This covenant is the basis for Mary’s hope (Lk 1:55) and for Zechariah’s, too (Lk 1:72-75).

The raw shape of “paradise regained” is coming into focus—a people, in a land, being a blessing to all the families of the earth.

Episode 3.5: Covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai

The Lord rescues His special people, Abraham’s descendants, from slavery in Egypt and brings them to their new home to wait for the promise. They agree to a covenant that will teach them how to love him and live holy lives until the Messiah comes (Ex 19:1-9; Deut 18:15-19). Unlike the others, this covenant doesn’t move the story forward. Like an airplane orbiting, waiting for permission to land, God’s people were in a holding pattern waiting for Jesus to arrive. So, God tells them how to live holy lives while they’re waiting.

It established rules and boundaries. Breaking the laws, in and of themselves, did not get you kicked out of the family, but disciplined within it. This covenant taught people about themselves—that they were sinful. It taught people about God—that he is holy and righteous and punishes sin. The ceremonial laws (the sacrifices and such) were object lessons to teach us about Christ. The civil laws (statutes about everyday life) were general principles of righteousness applied to their specific kingdom context. The moral laws were a mirror to show us our true nature, a general restraint on sin, and a vehicle for nudging his people towards greater holiness.

Episode 4: Covenant with David

The conquest and occupation of the Promised Land is haphazard. Many forsake God and go their way, and the High Priest and the judges cannot hold us together. God institutes a monarchy, and prophesies about a better King who will bring true holiness and justice to us and his world (2 Sam 7:1-17; 1 Chr 17:1-15). While they waited for God’s covenant promises to be fulfilled, God gave his people a king to rule over them. He established a dynastic line through a boy named David. He said a man from this line would rule over his people and be his royal representative on earth. God said this king would be like a son to him, and he’d be like a father to the king.

Now, our shape of paradise regained is a people, in a particular land, being a blessing to all the families of the earth, ruled over by a king whose reign would never end.

Episode 5: New covenant in Christ

This is the promise of a new shape to our relationship with God, and Jesus is the one who brings this new arrangement to pass. Generations have passed. A civil war has torn God’s people in two, and the dual monarchies of Judah and Israel have betrayed God again and again. Sin abounds. Externalism reigns. Under the looming shadow of an impending exile, God sends word of a new and better hope, built on better promises—a suffering servant who will set everything right (Jer 31:31-40; Ezek 36-37; Isa 52:12-53:13).

This messenger will love God, lead the people in righteousness, and bring a new shape to God’s relationship with his people—one in which all his people have full legal pardon and an interior renovation of their hearts and minds. Our shape of “paradise regained” now looks like a people, in a particular land, being a blessing to all the families of the earth, ruled over by a king whose reign will never end—and all his people are fixed inside and out.

The polaroid analogy

The bible’s story ends in Revelation 21-22 with new people in a new world. Through Christ, God will have “reconcile[d] all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col 1:20). The core of this are the people + land + be a blessing promises God made to Abraham, augmented by the covenant with David (an eternal king) and the new covenant about Christ (legal pardon + interior renovation). Jesus is the domino which triggers the chain reaction of these covenant promises that he fulfills by the very end of the story—a people, in a real paradise land, ruled by a king, having been cleansed by an interior renovation and been given full legal pardon for their sins.

This fulfillment fades in starting at Matthew 1:1 and concludes at Revelation 22:21 in four main stages:

Gospels. Jesus arrives and announces that he has come to fulfill all the covenant promises—this is the “good news” (Mk 1:15). The right response is to believe and trust in Jesus in order to be counted righteous by God.
This present evil age. The Jesus family, the church, declares this good news to the world and works to gather a people for him, while promising full legal pardon and interior renovation for all who repent and trust in Jesus.
Christ’s millennial reign. This is like a “spring training” version of eternal paradise, where Jesus will reign for 1,000 years. This will be a nearly paradise-like kingdom with its base in the land of Canaan, with a great nation of Jewish messengers and evangelists, who are a blessing to all the families of the earth as they preach the good news abroad, with Jesus ruling as king of the world. As we mentioned in the previous article, the millennium is a lengthy transition period between this present, evil age and the paradise to come.
Paradise regained. In which the great nation + land + be a blessing covenant promises reach their ultimate fulfillment in the one great people of God, in the land of the new creation, with Jesus the “son of Abraham” as the blessing to the nations.

These four stages are like a Polaroid that slowly develops—the image becomes clearer as time goes on:

Of course, this is not a defense of this premillennial outline; it’s just a brief statement of it. Why do we believe all this—especially the bit about the millennium and God’s promises about Israel’s role in the bible’s “big story”? In the next article, we’ll discuss some basics about how to read the bible the right way, then look at some scripture passages that speak about Israel’s role in God’s plan for paradise regained.

[1] 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, Art(s) 8.2, 8.3.

Revelation 5

This is a series of short expositions of Revelation 4-22 from a futurist perspective. Follow along with a timeline here.

John now looks up from the worship of the elders and the seraphim and fixes his eye upon the figure on the throne, who is the Father himself. In the Father’s right hand, he spies a “scroll written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals” (Rev 5:1). This “scroll” may indeed be a rolled-up scroll (compare Lk 4:16-20), or it may be a book like we’re familiar with today. The book or codex format didn’t become widespread until the 3^rd century, so this is probably a traditional scroll. You get the impression that John can tell the writing is on both sides, perhaps like how you can immediately tell that a sheaf of paper is printed double-sided.

This scroll is the trigger for everything that happens in the rest of the book of Revelation. What is this writing? What does it mean? It’s clearly a document of great importance: “And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?’” (Rev 5:2).

Whatever the scroll reads, only someone worthy can take the momentous step of opening it. Doing so will bring divine judgment upon the kingdom of darkness and those who follow it—this is why the powerful angel cries out his question in a loud voice. It’s a solemn event. The angel knows the answer. He doesn’t have to ask, but he does anyway—not for theater but to formally ask and receive the solemn answer.

And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it (Rev 5:3-4).

At this point, does John know what the scroll means? What does it represent? He weeps in frustration. How will Jesus’ kingdom come? How shall his will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, if judgment does not first cleanse his creation? If nobody worthy can be found, is the whole thing over, right here and right now? You get the impression of deliberate drama, a heightened tension—John is interpreting the vision after the fact as he writes it down, armed with reflective insight from the entire revelation of this book.

One of the 24 elders steps forward, perhaps with a hand on John’s shoulder: “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to be able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (Rev 5:5).

The “lion of Judah” statement refers to Jacob’s blessing of his son Judah at Genesis 49:9-10. The connection to our passage is that Jacob prophesied that his son, Judah, was a “lion’s cub” who would be fearsome and mighty. The scepter of royal authority, Jacob declared, would never depart from this “lion’s” hands “until Shiloh comes” (Gen 49:10).[1] Shiloh was the sacred site where the ark was kept during the period of the judges (Josh 18:1), and Jacob seemed to be prophetically identifying the place with God himself—the city of Shiloh personified YHWH’s rule. So, one day, this “lion from Judah” would rule until Shiloh (that is, YHWH) arrives. Evidentially, this “lion from the tribe of Judah” reference was shorthand for this event—and it is he who has conquered all enemies and may open the scroll!
The “root of David” reference is about the great descendant who will come from Jesse, King David’s father. Isaiah refers to “the root of Jesse” (Isa 11:1) which is the same thing (under different color) as “root of David”—it is Jesus, descended from David and, of course, also from Jesse (David’s father). It is this “root of David” who will one day rule the world in righteousness (Isa 11:1-5).
Too many Christians today will not recognize these references, because too many Christians don’t read their Old Testaments.[2]

Together, these two allusions act as flashing neon lights which read: “Messiah! Messiah!” for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. So, the kind elder says, there is no need to cry—because Jesus has won. The word the angel uses, which the NASB translates as “overcome,” means Jesus is victorious, he’s conquered, he’s prevailed against all obstacles.[3] And so, as a result,[4] he is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. Astonished, John looks up sharply at the throne once more and sees something new beside the seraphim— “a Lamb standing, as if slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (Rev 5:6). Jesus is both the lion who conquers and the lamb who allows himself to be taken and slaughtered.[5] The vision is bizarre, but it’s a vision communicating truth in a deliberately startling way. Just as the figure of “Uncle Sam” represents the United States in broad strokes, so too this curious mutant lamb represents the slain, powerful, and all-seeing Jesus—the eternal Son of God. The number “seven” suggests completeness; seven horns imply strength, and seven eyes convey omniscience; an “all-seeing” power.

Jesus is the “lamb” who has been slain to take away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:14).
In this way, Jesus has vanquished Satan and all his schemes and frees everyone who comes to him for rescue.
And yet, we cannot forget that the lamb was slain and yet stands there alive, beside the throne. The resurrection is strongly implied. Christians have a live savior, not a dead one.

This lamb moves immediately after John notices him, as if he’d been waiting for his cue. He strolls over, still bearing the marks of his own slaughter, and “took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne” (Rev 5:7). It’s as if he says, “I’ll take care of this. I’m the only one who can!”

Again, this is not a flippant thing. This scroll is extraordinarily important. When the lamb grabs hold of it, “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev 5:8). They bow down in worship, each cradling a bowl containing the prayers of saints or holy ones (i.e., God’s people). In fact, these bowls are the prayers themselves (cp. Ps 141:2), vessels ready to be offered to God upon a figurative altar.[6] John doesn’t tell us what God’s people are asking for in their prayers, but soon enough it will be clear they are begging for justice and relief from prosecution.

The elders and the seraphim cry out in worshipful song—a “new song” (Rev 5:9), because the time has divine judgment has come at last, bringing a paradigm shift with it:

Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Revelation 5:9).

In the previous chapter, the elders and the seraphim fall down before the Father on his throne (Rev 4:8-11). Now, they fall down before the lamb.[7]God is triune, which means within the one Being who is God, there eternally exists three divine Persons—Father, Son, and Spirit. Each Person is co-equal and co-eternal, and each divine Person receives worship—the Father in Revelation 4, and the lamb (i.e., the Son) here.

The KJV and NKJV translations render this as if the 24 elders have been purchased by God (“thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us …”), but no modern English version (except the NKJV) agrees with this reading[8]—it is believers whom God has ransom and “bought.”

Why, exactly, is Jesus the only one worthy to break the seals and open this scroll?

Because he was slaughtered. He died. The phrasing is in the passive voice, which means Jesus let himself be slaughtered. He saw it coming and let it happen. He didn’t resist. Jesus told his disciples in his final hours of freedom: “[T]he ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in regard to Me, but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me” (Jn 14:30-31). Satan has nothing on Jesus—no accusation to make, no legal charge into which he can sink his claws. Nevertheless, Jesus (in his human nature as our vicarious representative) obeyed his Father’s will and let it happen. This is why he told Judas: “What you are doing, do it quickly” (Jn 13:27).
As a consequence of his death,[9] Jesus bought or purchased people from God from everywhere on earth. This is a ransom motif (cp. Mk 10:45)—his blood (i.e., his vicarious death) is the means of payment[10] which “buys” people from spiritual slavery and legally pardons them in God’s eyes. This is why the apostle Paul told the believers in Corinth: “For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20).

Because nobody else can accomplish this, nobody else is worthy to unleash divine judgment on a world which rejects such amazing grace. It’s as if, when Jesus cracks open the seals, he is also saying: “I did everything necessary, and yet you still reject YHWH’s authority, and his offer of forgiveness and love!”

The elders and the seraphim continue: “You have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev 5:10). This is language from the old covenant ceremony at Mt Sinai (Ex 19:1-6), re-purposed and re-packaged for the new (and better) covenant. These people whom Jesus purchased for God (that is, all who “repent and believe in the Gospel,” Mk 1:15) are a kingdom and a collection of priests for him.[11] We are a kingdom and we are priests right now, and so we will one day reign on the earth. Elsewhere, scripture suggests this will happen during Christ’s 1,000-year millennial reign.

John perhaps startled, now sees the angelic chorus join the crowd around the throne: “myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing” (Rev 5:11-12). Jesus has not only died and thus purchased people from spiritual slavery—he is worthy to receive the kingdom and the divine worship he deserves!

As if in response, every living thing on, above, or under the earth (and everything in the sea) raises its voice and sings praise to the lamb as one: “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion forever and ever” (Rev 5:13).

The seraphim declare “Amen” in true independent Baptist fashion, while the elders fall down in worship. The ceremony is over, and the time has come for the lamb to open the seals and bring down judgment upon the kingdom of evil on earth.

[1] Hebrew: עַ֚ד כִּֽי־יָבֹ֣א שִׁילֹה. There is much discussion about what this phrase means. For our purposes, I’ll just say that it seems to refer to a place where the ark was kept during the time of the judges and, for some reason, the Holy Spirit (through Jacob) chose to use this place in Jacob’s blessing of Judah to personify YHWH’s personal presence. We know this is true, because the subject of this clause is Shiloh, which performs the action of the verb “until he comes.” A city cannot “arrive” anywhere, so it’s best to see “Shiloh” as standing for YHWH’s arrival.

[2] On this sad state of affairs, see Brent Strawn, The Old Testament is Dying.

[3] See BDAG, s.v., sense 1; GE, s.v., sense 1: “to conquer, prevail in a battle or in a contest.”

[4] The anarthrous infinitive (ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον καὶ τὰς ἑπτὰ σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ) expresses the result of the previous statement (ἰδοὺ ἐνίκησεν ὁ λέων ὁ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Ἰούδα, ἡ ῥίζα Δαυίδ).

[5] Swete, Revelation, 78.

[6] Grammatically, the true antecedent of the relative pronoun is probably the bowls, not the incense. φιάλας χρυσᾶς γεμούσας θυμιαμάτων, αἵ εἰσιν αἱ προσευχαὶ τῶν ἁγίων. The pronoun is a feminine plural, and the bowls are the same. But, the incense is a neuter. True, the relative pronoun is a nominative and so does not match the accusative case of the bowls. But, we can attribute this to (a) the accusative case of the bowls is because is an object of the participle, and (b) the pronoun is nominative because it introduces a relative clause.

[7] Schreiner, Revelation, 251-52.

[8] The KJV translation was completed in 1611 using a comparatively very small group of printed Greek manuscripts, and its translators did not have access to the wealth of data and manuscript evidence we now possess. This is why it (and its child, the NKJV) sometimes has different readings that, while odd, don’t change the meaning of bible doctrine in any meaningful way.

Nevertheless, Walvoord doggedly understands the text this way (Revelation, 118-19); perhaps because he wishes to see the 24 elders as the church because this would support a dispensational, pre-tribulational rapture.

[9] The conjunction in our phrase (ὅτι ἐσφάγης καὶ ἠγόρασας τῷ θεῷ ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου ἐκ πάσης φυλῆς καὶ γλώσσης καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔθνους) is likely a conclusion, not a simple additive. It would read something like this: “… because you were slaughtered, and so you purchased [people] for God by your blood from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation.”

[10] The preposition + dative here indicates means (ὅτι ἐσφάγης καὶ ἠγόρασας τῷ θεῷ ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου ἐκ πάσης φυλῆς καὶ γλώσσης καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔθνους).

[11] John records the elders and seraphim using the aorist tense-form throughout this song, which basically means John sees Jesus’ achievements as an undefined event happening in the past. The aorist has a perfective aspect, which means it’s often expressing past events as a whole. Anyone who presses the aorist tense-form too much here is missing the boat. The kingdom reference (and the rest of the aorist verbs in this song) is simply a constative aorist: “you made them a kingdom and priests for our God.” In other words, believers are a kingdom and priests right now. It is a present reality, and it has been one since Jesus’ ascension.

When bible teachers become weird

Too many otherwise solid, reliable, and trustworthy bible teachers become really strange when it comes to two things: Genesis 1-11, and prophecy. It doesn’t have to be this way! In this video, I describe this unfortunate problem and suggest a few pointers that will help you interpret Genesis 1-11 and prophecy in a more reliable way.

Revelation 4

This is a series of short expositions of Revelation 4-22 from a futurist perspective. Follow along with a timeline here.

After the revelation of Jesus’ messages to the churches (Rev 1:9 – 3:22), the apostle John sees something else. A door is open in heaven, like an invitation. A voice booms out at him—the voice of Jesus. It was he who ordered John to copy down the messages to the churches (“the first voice which I heard,” cp. Rev 1:10-13), and it’s him again who says: “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things” (Rev 4:1). Some bible teachers argue passionately that Revelation’s events here (Rev 4-19) focusses on Israel, because the church is in heaven, because the pre-tribulation rapture must have happened sometime between the end of Revelation 3 and the start of Revelation 4.[1] This is a weak argument from silence (see the article “Does Revelation 3:10 Teach a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?”), and instead we will simply take the text as we find it.

Immediately after receiving this open-door invite, John tells us he was “in the Spirit,” which likely means he felt as if he’d entered a different spiritual plane—this is an ecstatic vision given by the Spirit, not just shown to him but experienced, too. He sees, as if beyond the beckoning door, a strange figure seated on a throne in heaven. In words reminiscent of Ezekiel’s so long ago (Ezek 1:26-28), John tells of a man glittering as a jewel, surrounded by a rainbow that glinted and sparkled in deep emerald hues (Rev 4:3).

24 creatures sit on 24 thrones arrayed round about this mysterious man (Rev 4:4). John calls them “elders,” a word which could mean older men, or religious leaders (i.e., pastors). Here, it seems to refer to angelic creatures of some stripe[2] (we’ll come back to them soon). They’re clad in white robes and wear golden crowns.

As is his way, the apostle John borrows old covenant language to describe the scene. Just as when the people of Israel did when they came to Mt. Sinai (Ex 19:16), John sees “flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder” coming out from the throne (Rev 4:5).

Seven lamps of fire, which are God’s seven Spirits, flicker and burn before the throne (Rev 4:5). These seem to be the heavenly reality which the temple’s golden lampstand foreshadowed (Ex 25:37). Much ink has been spilt on these “seven spirits of God,” which are likely the Holy Spirit. John’s visions include letters to seven churches, seven Spirits before the throne of God above, seven seals on the judgment scroll which Jesus slowly cracks open throughout this book, seven trumpet blast judgments within the seventh seal judgment, and seven bowl judgments nestled within the seventh trumpet judgment. Elsewhere, Daniel tells us of that 70 “sevens” will elapse before the Lord’s program for this present evil age is complete (Dan 9:24-27). In short, “seven” is a number that inevitably calls to mind “fullness” or “completeness.” If the seven lamps are the Holy Spirit, then because we will shortly meet the Lamb who was slain standing between the elders and the throne (in ch. 5), then we have the Trinity in God’s throne room.

Also, in this scene there are images so fantastic that John scarcely knows what to make of them. We get the strong impression that he tries his best to describe the indescribable. Imagine an average American in 1850 trying to describe to his family a vision of a mobile phone with the Amazon app! He wouldn’t have the words or concepts to imagine such a thing—the conceptual distance is far too great. Perhaps the best he could do would be to liken it to a portable telegraph without wires—but even that would be inaccurate. John seems to be doing something like that.

There is a glassy sea, like crystal, surrounding the shimmering, rainbow-emerald throne. Around the throne are four bizarre creatures bursting with eyes all around, sporting faces of (in turn) a lion, a calf, a man, and that of an eagle. They each have six wings (Rev 4:6-8).

These are remarkably similar to what Ezekiel saw when he beheld an image of God’s throne room (Ezek 1:4-21). The figures he described are not identical to John’s, but they are close. They’re so close that surely they saw the same thing.
It’s not worth our time to object that Ezekiel’s creatures had four wings and different faces. Both John and Ezekiel are describing the indescribable in the best language they knew. To return to our 19^th century analogy: it doesn’t matter if one time-traveler from 1835 Kentucky describes a portable telegraph, while another tells of a glowing black brick with a burning silhouette of an apple on the back—they’re clearly seeing the same thing!
Isaiah saw and recorded almost exactly what John did and called these creatures “seraphim” (Isa 6:1-3).

The point is not what the seraphim are—they’re otherworldly creatures, accept it and move on! The point is what they and the 24 elders do and why they do it.

First, the four seraphim: “[A]nd day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come’ (Rev 4:8). This is precisely what Isaiah heard (and saw) during his own ecstatic temple vision (Isa 6:1-3). The seraphim praise God’s eternity—he always was, always is, and always will be. He has no beginning and no end.
Second, the 24 elders: As the seraphim sing their praise, the elders bow down to the figure on the throne, cast off their golden crowns, and declare: “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created” (Rev 4:11).

This is very dramatic, and it’s meant to be that way. If this were a movie, there would be haunting music, ratcheting tension, and expectation of some “big moment.” Jesus, the lamb slain to rescue his people and to reclaim a ruined world, is about to unleash judgment upon the kingdom of darkness. This vision of praise and solemn majesty is the backdrop for this unfortunate but necessary event.

YHWH is eternal—this means he has the jurisdiction and authority to move against a terrorist insurgency.
YHWH is the creator of everything—this means he has the power and justification to put down Satan’s rebellion.

Our dramatic scene continues in the next chapter with a ceremony of sorts that ends with Jesus taking the scroll of judgment. It is this document which, when slowly cracked open, unleashes divine fury upon the antichrist and his kingdom of evil (Rev 6-18).

[1] John Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966), 101-103.

[2] Walvoord suggests they represent the Body of Christ (Revelation, 106-107), but this is largely driven by his assumption that the church has been raptured away to heaven—an argument from silence.

Missing bible pages … found?

A church member recently asked me about a recent article which described of “42 missing pages” of St. Paul’s letters. So, I made a short video explaining why it isn’t a bad thing to find new (old!) copies of manuscripts of biblical letters. I talk about how we can know whether what St. Paul, or Peter, or Matthew wrote is actually what we have in our bibles. This is a very general overview! For more info on these topics (in both video and print formats), see the resources linked in YouTube in the video description.

Die, Dragon!

The traditional Advent theme is that Jesus is on the way. Old covenant prophesies tell us so. Today, I offer something a bit different—a sketch of how Jesus defeats Satan.

The scripture paints this in a grand, epic style. It’s very unlike the dense legal analysis of Jonathan Edwards or Francis Turretin … or the Book of Romans. Instead of logical outlines, Revelation (and good bits of Zechariah and Daniel) tells us its story in a style beyond earthly reality. There are bizarre, otherworldly creatures, vivid pictures, symbolism, and fantastic imagery. There are women in baskets, huge flying scrolls, women with the wings of storks, a seven-headed dragon, a ten-horned beast who crawls out of the sea, a two-horned lamb who bursts out of the earth like a vengeful orc, a woman with a crown of stars, and another who is a dolled-up prostitute with pearls and jewels.

This is a world of fairy tale-like vibes that invites us to experience its message as a fantasy world. It paints in cosmic, sweeping strokes—it is often not about communicating detailed timelines—just contrast the styles of Revelation 12-13 with 2 Thessalonians 2! We know Frozen isn’t set in a “normal” world, even though it communicates real and true things, and so we instinctively re-calibrate our hearts and minds accordingly. We ought to do the same with Revelation—we can’t read it like a legal brief.

The bible paints Satan as an evil dragon who loses a series of battles in the war against God.

We meet a holy woman, pregnant, glowing in white, with a crown of 12 stars. She cries out, ready to give birth (Rev 12:1-2).
A dragon stands beside her, waiting to kill the child. He is blood red, with seven heads (Rev 12:3-4). We know this isn’t a good character. Dragons never are. Perhaps we ought to picture a hydra-like creature—if one head is chopped off, another will spring up. His evil is unkillable. We can almost see the dragon flexing his claws, snorting bursts of flame, purring madly. Waiting.
The child arrives but is caught up to God and his throne. This child will rule the world with a rod of iron. Of course, he is Jesus—the child born at Bethlehem on Christmas morning. The dragon has failed. The woman, who likely represents God’s covenant people from whom Jesus hails, flees to the wilderness (Rev 12:5-6).

Meanwhile, in heaven, now that the child has returned to his throne of glory (Rev 12:7-9; cp. Jn 17:5; Acts 2:22-36) the dragon and his minions are tossed down to earth—a forced eviction (cp. Lk 10:18).

This is like the scene from an old Western movie where the hero tosses the bully who has been terrorizing the town out of the saloon and into the dirt in the street outside. The bad guy scrambles to his feet, shakes his fist, and vows revenge. He then rides off to gather his crew and start trouble.
This is what happens to Satan once Jesus accomplishes his work here—he is cast down and will now flail about like a crazed, wounded beast (Rev 12:10-12). He is angry. He is furious.
But we know the bad man has already lost and John Wayne will surely win—just like Jesus.

Enraged, the dragon races after the holy woman to destroy her (Rev 12:13). God gives her eagles wings (Rev 12:14)—just as he did for his people in the Exodus (Ex 19:4)—and she flees to the wilderness. The dragon breathes out a tidal wave of water to drown her before she can reach safety (Rev 12:15) This is a demonic reversal of the Exodus escape—then the water was a wall of divine protection that allowed God’s people to escape death, here the water is a tsunami intended to kill.

But once again God foils the dragon’s plans. Having failed to strangle the new covenant people (whom the holy woman represents) in the cradle, the dragon storms away “to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17). We are these children—in Jesus communities large and small. We come from this “woman,” who is God’s family—just as surely as the harlot of Revelation 17 represents Satan’s family.

This is the cosmic sketch of world history.

The dragon tries to destroy the Christ-child. He fails and is “kicked out” of the heavens above and cast down into the dirt. He is on borrowed time.
Enraged, he tries to kill the holy woman. He fails there, too. Once more, God carries his people on eagle’s wings away from the clutches of evil.
Now, more furious than ever, the hydra-dragon darts to and fro, trying to immolate the woman’s “children” with fire. Despite local successes, he cannot stamp them all out. Like a divine hydra, God’s new covenant family cannot be killed. There are too many of us.

John’s vision shifts to the dragon standing on the seashore, perhaps huffing and puffing, maybe melancholy. He has failed, but has he given up? Far from it. John shows us two frightening images of the last days, when “the great dragon … the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9) rolls the dice one last time and goes all in on his wicked schemes.

The first horror is a seven-headed beast who crawls out of the sea, spewing blasphemy against God and his people. Mimicking Jesus, he appears to die and is revived. “And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast” (Rev 13:3). The dragon gives his power and authority to this ghoul, just as God the Father gives his power and authority to Jesus in the incarnation. This creature is the antichrist—Jesus’ “evil twin.”
The second creature bursts out of the earth as a two-horned lamb (Rev 13:11)—perhaps a deliberate mockery of Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). Like the Holy Spirit, he too performs miracles and points everyone to his Christ-like figure (Rev 13:12-14). The true good news, properly understood, is accepted by willing faith. The kingdom of darkness operates by terror and coercion: “he makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast …” (Rev 13:12).

But the apostle John does not leave us there. The wicked woman, the alluring false front for evil, will be no more (Rev 17). God destroys Babylon, the city of darkness, from on high with great violence (Rev 18). Jesus returns with the armies of heaven, clothed in a robe drenched in his own blood, to slay the two beasts and cast them into the lake of fire to burn forever (Rev 19). An angel casts Satan into prison and shuts him up for 1,000 years, then afterwards the great red dragon joins his creatures in hell (Rev 20:1-3, 7-10). Jesus reigns with his people, “married” to them in an eternal union that will never be broken again (Rev 19:7-10).

What does this have to do with Christmas? Well, this is how it all ends for the serpent from the garden.

Satan loses. His great creature (the antichrist), the false prophet, his evil city, and his wicked woman are gone forever—never to return. The kingdom of darkness is no more. The dragon is cast down and will burn forever.
God wins. His eternal Son (the real Christ) reigns forever, heaven is here on a new earth, and the “holy woman” is safe forever in covenant union with him. “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in [the city], and His bond-servants will serve Him” (Rev 22:3).

This is real prophetic history painted in fantasy hues. And it all kicks off with the Savior born in Bethlehem on Christmas morning. This is how it will all end. This is what the boy from Bethlehem will do. This is why Christmas is so beautiful. This is when the dragon’s doom is sealed—it’s the beginning of his end.

Long live the king.

Loving Your Enemies

Matthew 5:43-48 is one of the hardest passages in the bible. People usually know two things about Jesus—that he said not to judge, and that he loved people! This is the “he loved people” bit.

The Passage

First, we have Jesus’ statement about a common idea floating around in culture at the time: “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy’” (Mt 5:43).

This is kinda right and kinda wrong. Yes, the bible does speak of loving your neighbor (Lev 19:17-18). And yes—if you squint just the right way you can twist it to support hating your enemies, too. The Psalms have some hard sayings like this: “Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies” (Ps 139:21-22).

There is a right way and a wrong way to understand these harsh psalms—but more on that later. For now, it’s enough to know that God has never wanted us to hate and loathe our enemies. But this is where popular piety was in Jesus’ day = love your neighbor, and feel free to hate your enemies if necessary.

This is wrong. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has combatted a lawyerly way of reading the bible. This is an approach that always wants to minimize personal responsibility and find loopholes that make compliance easier. It’s a rules-based approach to a relationship with God. It’s the same thing the lawyer tried to pull with Jesus that prompted the parable of the Good Samaritan.

As he does throughout this sermon, Jesus continues his “you have heard … but I say to you” pattern. How does he correct this misreading of scripture? He says: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …” (Mt 5:44).

This means what it says. There is no hidden meaning in the original Greek that can give you something easier to swallow. We’ll come back to this in a bit. For now, let’s think about why Jesus gives this command. What’s the purpose of this almost impossible task? Jesus tells us: “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven …” (Mt 5:45a).

What is Jesus saying?

He’s saying that if you don’t love your enemies, you’re not one of God’s children. If you don’t pray for your enemies, you’re also not one of his children.

Why does Jesus say this? “… for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Mt 5:45b). Jesus is saying that God has a common love (or common grace) for everyone—not just his adopted children. So, if we claim to be Christians, we must be the same way. We must have an authentic, baseline love for everyone, not just our covenant brothers and sisters in the faith.

Why is this important?

Jesus explains: “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same?” (Mt 5:46-47).

Being kind and loving to people who already like you doesn’t make you a Christian. There are plenty of non-Christians who do that all the time. Nice people. Kind people. Caring people. That isn’t counter-cultural. It isn’t revolutionary. So Jesus says this isn’t enough. Being a Jesus person means more than that. A lot more.

But this is the cultural attitude Jesus is up against. When a lawyer asked Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life, Jesus recited the two commandments which summed up a believer’s whole duty—love for God and your neighbor. The lawyer agreed, then immediately tried to minimize the command to make his target smaller: “But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Lk 10:29).

Jesus corrected this legalistic, lawyerly way of understanding scripture with his famous parable of the Good Samaritan. He said that your “neighbor” was anyone who was in distress—not just your covenant brother and sister.

So, Jesus sums it all up: “Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). He doesn’t mean “perfect” in the sense of “without fault” (e.g., “a flawless diamond”). Nobody is without fault! Instead, Jesus means “perfect” in the sense of “meeting the highest standard” (e.g., “my birthday was just perfect!”). The standard at issue here is this baseline, common love for everyone. One British translation does a good job by translating Matthew 5:48 like this: “Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete” (NEB).

Does Jesus contradict scripture?

There are several Psalms that show us raw, honest, unfiltered emotion. They ask why. They ask if God cares. They demand justice for evil. They complain about harm, injury, and heartache. They’re “real.” Read Psalm 109 and see for yourself. This all seems to contradict what Jesus says in our passage. Has something changed?

The best answer is that psalms like these teach us that we can be honest and open with God when we’re hurting. We don’t have to pretend we understand. We don’t need to pretend we accept everything without question. We can ask. We can plead. We can beg for justice. We can want evildoers to be punished. These psalmists almost never beg for the opportunity for personal retribution. Instead, they ask God for justice (see Rev 6:10).

There is a very small, but important, difference between (a) praying for God’s vengeance upon your enemies, and (b) hating them. Jesus is saying we must do more than just pray for justice. We must love our enemies, too.

What does it look like to love and pray for your enemies?

Here is where we need to set aside easy and cheap answers.

Some people say to love your enemies means giving them the gospel. Yes, but that’s a very safe answer. It’s Christianese. We can do better than that.
Others say that Jesus is really talking about “enemies” who persecute the church, so we ought to pray for our brothers and sisters who die for their faith around the world. Yes, but that’s too abstract and easy. It’s a cheap answer that doesn’t ask anything from you because you don’t know the people half a world away. This is correct, but it’s not good enough.
Still other Christians opt for half-measures and try to be kind to everyone, but that’s perhaps the cheapest cop-out of them all. Love is not kindness or a “bless your heart” facade. Jesus is demanding a whole lot more.

“Love” means a deep affection. It’s much, much more than being polite to someone. Jesus is speaking about our attitudes. He tells us to care about and have deep affection for the people who hurt us, who do us wrong. We only wrestle with what Jesus is saying when we apply his words here to the people in our life who are hurting us. Anything else is an evasion.

Jesus says to love and pray for the people who hurt you. As he was crucified, the bible tells us: “Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing’” (Lk 23:34). As Stephen was being stoned to death he called out: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).

Set aside the cheap and easy examples. This isn’t about praying for the person who cuts you off in traffic. This is about the people who actually hurt you, harm you, and are cruel to you.

We can each think of these people.
We can hold them in our mind’s eye.
We can see them right now.
We remember what they did.
What they’re still doing.
How they hurt us.
How they betrayed us.
The ramifications of it all.

We remember it, and a sour scowl comes on our face. We shake our heads to banish them from our thoughts. Jesus says these are the people we must love and pray for.

Will we pray for them? Not a gloating sort of prayer (“Lord, I pray for Steve because he’s a no-good son of a you-know-what who needs judgment!”), but a prayer for the person’s salvation and well-bring. For us to not hate. For us to be willing to forgive.

Why does Jesus want us to do this?

So he can change you from the inside out. So people know we’re different. We sometimes forget why we’re here and disconnect Jesus’ commands from the larger picture.

The Christian story is about God rescuing a family, through King Jesus, to love him and be with him forever. This is the sum of Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.
Our job is to be a living part of a local church, which is sort of a forward operating base in hostile territory from which we sally forth to convince outsiders to join the Jesus family.
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus telling us how to be countercultural—what it means to be Jesus people.

If there is no Jesus counterculture, then there is no Jesus culture at all. If that’s true, then what are we calling people to join?

Are we here to push truth, justice, and the American way? You don’t need the church for that. Just see the new Superman movie.
Is it our primary job to love immigrants, help poor people, and foster so-called “inclusion” in society? You don’t need the church for that—just go join an advocacy group.
Do you want to make a difference in your community? Run for city council.

It isn’t the church’s main job to do any of these things. It is the church’s job to call people to defect from Babylon and join the Jesus family, and that means being part of a Jesus counterculture which trumpets and lives out Jesus values, Jesus attitudes, and Jesus’ message.

If we claim to be Christians, then we must commit to the Jesus counterculture so his message of love and forgiveness has some teeth to it! One of the soldiers for whom Jesus prayed believed in him just after Jesus died! “When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mk 15:39).

The attitude behind everything Jesus says is in our passage: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44). If we claim to be God’s children, we must try to make this our attitude, too. It isn’t easy or pleasant. But it is our duty to try.

The Cosmic Civil War: A Palm Sunday Reflection

As Easter draws near, the Christian calendar presents us with a sequence of world-altering events—Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and later Pentecost. Each day tells a part of the greatest story ever told, and it begins with Palm Sunday: the moment Jesus Christ enters Jerusalem, hailed as a king, setting into motion the fulfillment of divine promises.

In Luke 19:28–44, we find the account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. But to fully grasp what’s happening, we need to step back and understand the broader picture.

The cosmic civil war

From the beginning of Scripture, humanity has been caught in a cosmic civil war. In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates a perfect world and places humanity under his authority. But in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve reject that authority and choose to go their own way. Genesis 4 onward tells the story of how we all, by birth and by choice, follow that path.

Think of the analogy of the American civil war.

Our spiritual rebellion is something like that. Our first parents founded this “confederacy.” This means we’re each born, by default, as citizens of this confederacy. Just as the southern states illegally broke away from the federal government, we have each broken away from God. Each of us, spiritually speaking, is born a citizen of this rebellion—a fraudulent kingdom opposed to its rightful ruler.

So this is the situation:

We can remain in the Confederacy (which is going to lose this war), or
We can choose to rejoin the Union.

When Jesus’ ministry begins—when he says that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that everyone ought to repent and believe the gospel (Mk 1:15), he’s basically asking: “what’s it gonna be?”

When Jesus enters Jerusalem one week before Passover, his three years of ministry nearly finished, he is asking: “Here I am. I’m your king. Will you choose to love me and swear an oath of allegiance to me and end this stupid war?”

This question is much more important than the American civil war, because this is a cosmic war—your very soul is at stake.

Jesus and the donkey

The turning point comes on Palm Sunday. Jesus approaches Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, and he tells his disciples to find a donkey. This detail might seem odd, but it’s loaded with significance. Jesus is deliberately fulfilling the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9:

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey … (Zech 9:9).

A donkey is not exactly the image of power and might. It emphasizes Jesus’ humility—his lowly status. He isn’t a warrior. He comes not to crush enemies but to extend a hand of grace. He is the King foretold in ancient Scripture, arriving not with overwhelming force, but with a gentle invitation. He’s come to proclaim peace to the nations, and to free prisoners from a waterless pit because of the blood-oath of the new covenant he’s come to launch (Zech 9:10-11).

The donkey is not a trivial detail. It’s Jesus’ way of showing the kind of king He is: one who offers peace, not coercion.

Jesus and the palm branches

As Jesus enters the city, people begin to respond. Crowds gather, laying their cloaks on the road and waving palm branches—an ancient sign of honor and victory. They shout:

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38; quoting Ps 118:26).

This isn’t spontaneous enthusiasm; it’s deliberate. They’re quoting Psalm 118, a psalm used in royal processions to the Jerusalem temple. This song is a well-known cultural cue, like the national anthem may be to us. They know what it means. They know what they’re singing and why. They’re acknowledging Jesus not just as a teacher or prophet, but as the rightful King of Israel. “[T]he whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen” (Lk 19:37). They recall His miracles: raising Lazarus, healing the sick, casting out demons. Everything Jesus has done points to this moment. He is the Messish and the king.

But not everyone is pleased.

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem

The Pharisees, standing in the crowd, hear the chants and understand their meaning. They demand that Jesus rebuke his followers. They know what this singing means—that Jesus is the fulfillment of all prophecy, the King who brings God’s kingdom. Jesus responds: “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40)

But Jesus knows the celebration is less than honest. This same crowd is nowhere to be found later in the week, on Good Friday. So as he draws near to Jerusalem, Jesus does something unexpected: he weeps. “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42).

Jesus offers peace with God. Peace for your soul. Peace for your heart. The apostle Paul wrote: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). This is the same peace the angels offered on Christmas morning: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Lk 2:14). His favor rests on those who come in from the cold and choose to love him.

The King who comes in peace now mourns, knowing that many will reject him. Within days, the same crowds shouting “Hosanna” will yell “Crucify him!” (Mk 15:13). Though peace is within their reach, they will choose rebellion. The city that celebrates him will soon betray him.

The Cosmic Amnesty

After the American civil war, President Andrew Johnson offered amnesty to any Confederate who wanted it.

Johnson specifically says this amnesty was a pardon. His proclamation said that to suppress the rebellion, to convince people to be loyal to the true government once again, and to restore Federal authority, he was offering a pardon if you swore a particular oath and sincerely mean it. Pardon does not mean you’re innocent—it means you’re released from legal liability.

This is exactly what Jesus is offering. We’re so-called “citizens” of a fraudulent nation in rebellion against lawful authority. To suppress this rebellion, to convince people to be loyal to the true government once again, and to restore his divine authority, God is offering a pardon if you swear an oath to his Son—if you repent and believe the good news and sincerely mean it.

As Jesus looks down upon Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, he’s making an offer: “Swear an oath of allegiance from your heart, and let’s get this done.” But it does not happen. Jerusalem will soon say: “I’ll take Option B.”

So, what will we do? You can do nothing and remain in the Confederacy (which will lose this war), or you can choose to rejoin the Union.

How Rome Distorts the Gospel: Atonement Misunderstood

This article argues that the Roman Catholic Church (“Rome”) is wrong about the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement. In fact, she is so incorrect that her teaching on this matter is grave error that distorts the gospel.

By “Christ’s atonement,” we mean the action by which Christ’s vicarious death reconciles us to God and restores fellowship with him. The dispute here is about the sufficiency of this atonement. Did Christ atone for the consequences of all our sins? Is his atonement permanent or conditional?

Some issues are “in-house” debates—things Christians disagree about “inside the family.” But, some matters are serious enough that they rise to another level because they present two different versions of the Christian faith. The sufficiency of Christ’s atonement is one of those issues. If Christ’s sacrifice does not fully purify, fully reconcile, fully satisfy divine justice for his people once for all and forever, then that means Christ does not “save forever those who come to God through him,” (Heb 7:25, NASB). The word “forever” at Hebrews 7:25 means for all time,[1]or perhaps completely and absolutely.[2] Because Jesus is a priest forever, the rescue he gives his people is total, complete, and forever.

NOTE: This article is a significant abridgement of a larger essay which you can read here. You can consult the larger article for extended discussions of each point.

The bottom line

Rome teaches that Christ’s atonement (a) does not make full satisfaction[3] for all his people’s sins, and so (b) does not make believers holy and perfect forever. Instead, Rome teaches that when a believer commits sins after baptism, a stain affixes which makes her unholy (though still in a state of grace if she has not committed mortal sin), and so she herself must make satisfaction to God for the temporal consequences of these sins. We make this satisfaction to God “through the merits of Christ.”[4]

In other words, a believer’s purity before God is conditional—it depends on our actions. For the temporal consequences of these sins, we can either pay God now by way of the sacrament of penance,[5] or we can pay him later by suffering in purgatory to make satisfaction for our sins.

On the contrary, Hebrews 6:13-10:22 teaches that Jesus is the great high priest who made one single, all-sufficient sacrifice that makes each believer holy and perfect forever. As part of the journey of progressive holiness, God does discipline believers who commit sins, but a believer’s legal purity before God is perfect and complete forever at the time of salvation.[6]

Zooming out to the bigger picture, Rome is wrong because, compared to the old covenant system, her false teaching presents us with a new covenant that isn’t better than the old one. Both consist of a sacrificial liturgy and a band of priests offering repeated sacrifices with temporary atoning effect. Therefore, Rome’s teaching on the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement is a lateral move, not a promotion, and that’s why it’s incorrect. Because the argument from Hebrews 6:13-10:22 is that the new covenant has a better high priest, who brings believers a better hope, built on better promises, who makes a better atonement for his people, Rome’s teaching about the atonement is wrong.

Different sources and methods

However, we have a roadblock to overcome. Roman Catholics and Protestants don’t answer religious questions the same way because they have different authorities.

Rome teaches that there is a “living transmission” from the Holy Spirit, called tradition (Catechism of the Catholic Church, “CCC,” Art. 78), that exists alongside scripture as a complementary vessel of divine revelation.
Protestants generally hold to what one writer has called suprema scriptura, which means “the Bible as the supreme or highest channel of religious authority.”[7] Under scripture’s authority, in an interpretive dialogue, are church tradition, reason, and personal religious experience in the divine-human encounter.[8]

The issue of authority deserves serious discussion,[9] but we will leave that for another time. For now, it’s enough to say that because Rome teaches that both scripture and tradition flow from “the same divine well-spring” (CCC, Art. 80), her teaching must find scriptural support.[10] In the matter of Christ’s atonement, it does not. I urge Roman Catholics to see if scripture squares with their church’s tradition. If it doesn’t, then you should leave Rome.

Why Rome is wrong

God has revealed his truth in revelation, and grave error is false teaching that leads people away from that revelation. Rome’s understanding of Christ’s atonement is grave error because it contradicts scriptural teaching and negatively affects your understanding of salvation and the gospel.[11] It teaches that Christ’s atonement does not fully purify believers and make them holy and perfect forever at the moment of salvation. Specifically:

Rome falsely teaches that there are “temporal consequences” from sins that Christ’s sacrifice does not fully fix—debts of temporal punishment still remain for sins committed after baptism.[12] The truth is that, in the new and better covenant relationship with God by faith in Christ which began at Pentecost, God promises: “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more,” (Heb 8:12).
Rome wrongly teaches that, after death, believers may need to be cleansed and purified from the temporal consequences of sins to have the holiness necessary to enter heaven. The truth is that scripture says believers have already been reconciled to God and have peace with him, because he has declared them righteous (i.e., justified) by means of faith in Jesus (Rom 5:1, 10). His “once for all” sacrifice makes us holy already (Heb 10:10).[13]
Rome falsely teaches a fictitious system of penance to restore the state of grace ex opere operato as a so-called “second plank of salvation,”and teaches a non-existent treasury of merit from which priests and bishops may apply merit to remit temporal punishment for sins. The truth is that “by one sacrifice [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy,” (Heb 10:14). This means this elaborate system is un-biblical and blasphemous to the sufficiency of Christ’s work.

Eight principles from Hebrews 6:13 to 10:22

Principle 1 (Hebrews 6:13-20): Because Jesus is a different and better priest who represents his people forever, he’ll always keep the “anchor of hope” fastened to God for those he reconciles. This suggests Christ’s atonement is effective for his people forever and always.

Principle 2 (Hebrews 7:1-3): Jesus is the king of righteousness, the king of peace, and is the “Son of God” because he shares the same nature and attributes as Yahweh—just like Melchisedec. This is why he is a better priest, and therefore the new covenant relationship with God is better, too. This suggests Christ’s atonement is also better.

Principle 3 (Hebrews 7:18-19, 10:19-22): The old covenant law never made anybody perfect—it never permanently purified or cleansed believers. So, God repealed it and cleared the way for a better hope, by which every believer draws near to God. This better hope is Jesus’ better priesthood, triggered by Jesus’ better sacrifice.

Principle 4 (Heb 7:11-17, 20-28): Because Jesus is a priest forever, he rescues his people completely and permanently, and this means he always intercedes for and protects his people. Jesus’ sacrifice was “once for all” and “forever,” and its atonement needs no re-application. It’s a permanent marker, not a pencil.

Principle 5 (Hebrews 8): The old covenant is obsolete because the better covenant has come, backed by a better priest, based on a better sacrifice, bringing better promises, securing a better arrangement for God’s relationship with his people.

Principle 6 (Hebrews 9:1-15): Jesus’ sacrifice is the concrete reality to which the old covenant sacrifices pointed. He’s set his people free from sins, has already paid the full ransom price to our kidnapper Satan, and the liberation he achieves for believers is everlasting and forever.

Principle 7 (Hebrews 9:16-28): Jesus’ “once for all” sacrifice has already invalidated, annulled, and repealed the power of sin for those who trust in him. He does not repeat or re-apply his sacrifice, or it would not be “better.” It is better because it is forever.

Principle 8 (Hebrews 10:1-18): Jesus’ sacrifice has already made believers holy once for all and forever, and it has already made us perfect forever. Therefore, he will never, ever consider our sins again, and sacrifice for sins is no longer necessary. It is all finished.

The new covenant isn’t a lateral move

In the job world, a “lateral move” is one where you get a new job, but the pay and duties are similar. It isn’t a demotion, but it isn’t a promotion either. The new covenant isn’t like that. It isn’t a lateral move. It’s better.

Yet, Rome believes that Christ’s atonement is essentially a lateral move from the old covenant because it teaches (a) the conditional purification of the believer, (b) resulting in potential temporal consequences for sin which Christ’s sacrifice did not cover, (c) requiring the probable need to suffer in purgatory to satisfy and atone for these temporal punishments, and (d) the existence of indulgences which waive the temporal punishment of our sins by debiting a so-called treasury of merit.

But the bible is a story that moves forward.

It begins with creation in Genesis 1-2,
catalogs the fall in Genesis 3,
and then to the divine rescue through Christ the king that God promised throughout the old covenant, foreshadowed in the temple liturgy and sacrifices, and fulfilled in the story of Jesus in the Gospels,
and finally, it concludes with the defeat of evil and the restoration of all things in Revelation 18-22.

But Rome says that Christ’s atonement does not make satisfaction for his people’s sins once for all and forever—so where is better hope by which we draw near to God (Heb 7:18)? Rome’s system offers a new covenant that’s stuck in neutral—one that is not better than the old covenant. Her story has run aground and hasn’t moved forward. Rome has exchanged a flat Diet Coke for a stale Pepsi. It’s a lateral move, not a promotion.

Hebrews 6:13-10:22 vaporizes all this. Rome offers nothing “new” or “better” in terms of practical effects. It isn’t a promotion, and that’s the bottom-line reason why it’s false, and so Rome’s teaching about the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement fails.

The truth is that: “when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy,” (Heb 10:14).

[1] BDAG, s.v., “παντελής,” sense 2, 754; see RSV, NRSV, NASB.

[2] LSJ, s.v., “παντελής,” 1300; see NET, KJV, NIV, NEB, REB, CSB, CEB.

[3] This means “[r]eparation or compensation for a wrong or a debt incurred,” (Millard J. Erickson, The Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology, rev. ed. (Wheaton: Crossway, 2001), s.v., “satisfaction,” 176).

[4] Tanner (ed.) “Trent,” Session 14, canon 13, in Decrees, 2:713.

[5] In fact, Rome says, if we believe that our penitential works are nothing more than the faith by which we grasp that Christ has already made satisfaction for our sins, then we’re damned to hell (Tanner (ed.) “Trent,” Session 14, canon 12, in Decrees, 2:713).

[6] Augustus H. Strong’s definition of “sanctification” captures the Protestant interpretation very well: “Sanctification is that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which the holy disposition imparted in regeneration is maintained and strengthened.” Strong explained: “Salvation is something past, something present, and something future; a past fact, justification; a present process, sanctification; a future consummation, redemption and glory,” (Systematic Theology (Old Tappan: Revell, 1907), 869). Emphases added.

[7] James Leo Garrett Jr., Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical, Fourth Edition., vol. 1 (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2014), 206.

[8] Garret, Systematic, 2.206; Thomas Oden, Life in the Spirit: Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (San Francisco: HarperOne, 1987), 330-44.

[9] For example, Bishop James Gibbons wrote: “… the Church is the divinely appointed Custodian and Interpreter of the Bible. For, her office of infallible Guide were superfluous, if each individual could interpret the Bible for himself … God never intended the Bible to be the Christian’s rule of faith, independently of the living authority of the Church,” (Faith of Our Fathers, 10^th rev. ed. (New York: John Murphy & Co., 1879), 94).

[10] One doctor of the church declared: “Holy Scripture is in such sort the rule of the Christian faith that we are obliged by every kind of obligation to believe most exactly all that it contains, and not to believe anything which may be ever so little contrary to it,” (Francis de Sales, The Catholic Controversy, in Library of Francis de Sales, vol. III, 3^rd ed., trans. by Canon Mackey (London: Burns & Oats, Limited, 1909), 88 (Part II, Article 1, Ch. 1).

[11] “The concept of heresy is grounded in the conviction that there exists one revealed truth, and other opinions are intentional distortions or denials of that truth. Absent such conviction, ‘heresy’ becomes little more than bigoted persecution. But the Christian belief in revealed truth means that heresy becomes not merely another opinion, but false teaching that leads people away from God’s revelation” (Daniel J. Treier and Walter Elwell (eds.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2017), s.v. “heresy,” 377-78).

Millard Erickson offers up this definition: “A belief or teaching that contradicts Scripture and Christian theology,” (Concise Dictionary, s.v. “heresy,” 88).

[12] Norman P. Tanner, S.J. (ed)., “Trent,” Session 6, Canon 30, in Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 1990), 2:681.

[13] The verb is present tense-form, and it can be rendered as “are being made holy” or “have been made holy.” Either way, Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice is the means by which (διὰ τῆς προσφορᾶς) the holiness happens.

The Eccentric Fundamentalist

Musings on theology, apologetics, practical Christianity and God's grace in salvation through Jesus Christ

Tag: Jesus Christ

What is the “mystery” of Ephesians 3?

Background

Wrong answers about this “mystery”

A probable answer

The bible’s big story

The “three-act play” way

The “episodes in a season” way

Episode 1: The promise in the garden

Episode 2: The covenant with Noah and all creation

Episode 3: Covenant with Abraham and family

Episode 3.5: Covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai

Episode 4: Covenant with David

Episode 5: New covenant in Christ

The polaroid analogy

Revelation 5

When bible teachers become weird

Revelation 4

Missing bible pages … found?

Die, Dragon!

Loving Your Enemies

The Passage

Does Jesus contradict scripture?

What does it look like to love and pray for your enemies?

Why does Jesus want us to do this?

The Cosmic Civil War: A Palm Sunday Reflection

The cosmic civil war

Jesus and the donkey

Jesus and the palm branches

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem

The Cosmic Amnesty

How Rome Distorts the Gospel: Atonement Misunderstood

The bottom line

Different sources and methods

Why Rome is wrong

Eight principles from Hebrews 6:13 to 10:22

The new covenant isn’t a lateral move

Musings on theology, apologetics, practical Christianity and God's grace in salvation through Jesus Christ

Background

Wrong answers about this “mystery”

A probable answer

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The “three-act play” way

The “episodes in a season” way

Episode 1: The promise in the garden

Episode 2: The covenant with Noah and all creation

Episode 3: Covenant with Abraham and family

Episode 3.5: Covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai

Episode 4: Covenant with David

Episode 5: New covenant in Christ

The polaroid analogy

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The Passage

Does Jesus contradict scripture?

What does it look like to love and pray for your enemies?

Why does Jesus want us to do this?

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The cosmic civil war

Jesus and the donkey

Jesus and the palm branches

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem

The Cosmic Amnesty

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The bottom line

Different sources and methods

Why Rome is wrong

Eight principles from Hebrews 6:13 to 10:22

The new covenant isn’t a lateral move

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