THE ESCONDIDO THEOLOGY (Review)

 

“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Prov. 27:17, NKJV). The old butcher’s shops, when I was a kid, had sawdust on their floors. The sawdust, apparently, was to soak up any stray blood drippings. I was reminded of the butcher with his white (and red-streaked) apron sharpening his knife before filling your order. The Escondido Theology is John Frame’s (hopefully successful) attempt to sharpen “the countenance of his friend[s].” In essence, the book is about “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15b).

The issue being addressed is that which has come to the fore in (Reformed) Christian circles in light of the massive and sometimes brutal government overreach experienced in many nations during the era of COVID19. Where does the authority of government come from? Two Kingdom Theology holds that civil governments operate outside clear Bible revelation, instead relying on semi-opaque guidance from something called Natural Theology. This is where the idea of Two Kingdoms comes in. The former functions as an aspect of God’s redemption, while the latter according to God’s creation, i.e., nature. And never the twain shall meet (or something like that).

The book’s subtitle describes its intent and contents: A Biblical Response to Two Kingdom Theology. In foil fencing the sounds of iron hitting against iron can be heard. John Frame, in turn, as the “Irenic Polemicist”, deftly “touches” each of his opponents, his old friends, his former colleagues and mostly “faculty members of Westminster Seminary California which is located in the city of Escondido, California.”

This is a must read for anyone interested in Reformed theology and the issue of Two Kingdom Theology. Let us watch and learn from these theological heavyweights as they duel. 

THE DOUBLE-DECKER BUS

 (Excepted from The Kingdom, an upcoming book by D. Rudi Schwartz and Neil Cullan McKinlay.)

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We must understand that Christ’s Kingdom is one, into which family, church, and state, are to be exhorted, each in their respective sovereign spheres of operation, to conform to Christ’s royal law. One King. One Kingdom. One Kingdom Law.  

Up until perhaps the late 70s, smoking cigarettes was permitted on the upper deck of those gravity-defying double-decker corporation buses that fly round corners in Glasgow at breakneck speed without toppling over. Smoking upstairs. Non-smoking downstairs. 

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Indeed, a common and perhaps arguably blasphemous phrase is that of referring to Jesus/God as “the Man upstairs.” Heaven is upstairs and earth is downstairs. The sacred/secular dualism of Two Kingdom Theology, rather than having Him upstairs, would have Jesus in the driver’s seat driving the bus – with incense-burning Christians doing “spiritual things” and “soul stuff” on the upper deck while the non-Christians get to do non-spiritual things, stuff of the body, on the lower deck. Special grace upstairs. Common grace downstairs.

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However, the true picture is that of Christ driving a single-decker bus with the passengers mixing and mingling all according to the rules for riding on His bus. The non-Christians will not be ejected until the bus reaches the terminus, its final destination. Meanwhile on the journey, the Christians are to try to Christianise the non-Christians with the gospel and the law. William Edgar warns us against dualism,

The comprehensive lordship of Christ, rather than the divided sacred-secular philosophy, can be established from other places in the New Testament. One of them is from the earliest portions of Acts. The disciples asked Jesus just before his ascension, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). What was behind their question? Some would say they had mistakenly expected some kind of takeover of the Roman Empire and had to be reminded, again, that the true nature of the kingdom was spiritual, not political. But Jesus’ answer belies this view. He did not admonish them to think of the soul and not the body, but only that they were not privy to the divine timetable” “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7). Their task, in the meantime, was to receive power and be his witnesses (martyres, “trustworthy tellers”) in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).[1]  

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[1] William Edgar, Created & Creating - A Biblical Theology of Culture, 151-2.

MOTHER'S DAY

 

Mother’s Day

Big brother Stuart, mom, and wee me, Ontario 1957.

My old professor would often quote the old adage, ‘Always love your mother because you will never get another.’ But why should I love my mother? The short answer is because God says I should. But how should I show this love? Well, I could buy her a card and some flowers once a year for Mother’s Day! Or, as well as that, I could treat her with respect every single day of the year. ‘Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father.’ Leviticus 19:3a. This really is just the 5^th Commandment, ‘Honour your father and your mother…’ Exodus 20:12. Ordinarily, a mother’s bonding love is the first love we experience. So why not set a whole day aside specially to honour her?

Where did the idea of a Mother’s Day come from? Mother’s Day as we know it in its commercialised form is generally attributed to an American woman by the name of Anna Jarvis who held a memorial for her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis in 1908. From there it developed nationally, then, along with Mother’s Day cards, internationally.

Some churches observe something called Mothering Sunday. It falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter Sunday. The idea is that you attend your mother church or local parish on that day. Generally, this has been morphing into Mother’s Day by another name. Paul speaks of the mother church above, saying, ‘But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.’ Galatians 4:26.

Just before He went to the Jerusalem above, even as He was dying on the cross, Jesus honoured His mother: ‘Now there stood by the cross His mother… When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” From that hour that disciple took her to his own home.’ John 19:25-27.

The great societal benefit of honouring your mother is often missed, even among Christians. ‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honour your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”’ One church document puts it thus: ‘[This] is an express promise of long life and prosperity, as far as it shall serve God’s glory and their own good…’

It extends far beyond simply honouring one’s parents. It’s about showing respect to one’s superiors, inferiors and equals in all our dealings. From police officer to waiter, from teacher to student, from politician to reporter, from husband to wife, from prince to pauper, from plumber to bricklayer all are to be given the honour and respect they are due in their respective positions and roles in society regardless of your position. This is the picture of a prosperous society, and it all begins in the home, by you as a growing child honouring your mother (and your father).

Disrespect for parents translates into disrespect in society. Of course, there are some mothers (and fathers) who may disrespect their children which also results in disharmony in the wider community. Again, if all, whether parents or children, or butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers, would simply honour each other there would be a lot less violence and murder in society. Therefore, ‘Always love your mother because you will never get another.’ And don’t forget the card and the flowers for her on Mother’s Day.

 

RECONCILIATION

                                                                    Reconciliation

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Reconciliation is at the heart of the Bible. It is a long dissertation about three warring parties – God and humans, humans and humans, humans and their own consciences – being reconciled by Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the good news about this reconciliation. “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-19).

God forgives all our sins when He converts us. This is what is meant by Him “not imputing their trespasses to them.” For the conscience, this means that as God “pours oil on troubled waters” our war with our guilty conscience ceases. Thus, I am reconciled with myself. And I am reconciled with others, yes, those whom God also has reconciled to Himself. To be sure, even as Christians our conscience will accuse us at times (with Satan’s ready help!) if we wrong God and/or our neighbour. That’s why we are to confess our sins to Him. And, then there are those disputes among Christian that sometimes cause division. However, for the Christian his/her war with God, war with fellow believers, and with his/her conscience ceases, albeit imperfectly until Christ’s return.

Rainbows appear in puddles because oil and water do not mix. Oil, water, and light. Minus the oil, the rainbow in the water cloud in the sky after rain is a sign of God’s covenant, His covenant of grace. Another name for God’s covenant of grace is the Gospel, the gospel of reconciliation. We see a picture of this reconciliation every time we witness the water being sprinkled or poured on someone’s head at their baptism in church.

Rebellious humanity has corrupted His “very good” creation. So, God poured out His wrath in the global Flood and as it were started again with all that was in the ark with Noah. The ark is a type of saviour, the Saviour, the GodMan, Jesus Christ. Like oil and water that never mix, the two distinct natures of Christ are the perfect picture of reconciliation. Jesus is God and Man in one divine Person forever. He is God the Creator and man the creature united forever. He is our covenant with God (Isa. 42:6, 49:8), our rainbow in the cloud. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen” (Rev. 1:7). How wonderful is it to see a rainbow in the cloud? How much more wonderful to see the One to whom every rainbow points to coming with the clouds! – but only if God has reconciled you to Himself beforehand. Otherwise, it’s His wrath not His blessing that will be poured out on your head.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12) and that the Holy Spirit is the “living water” (John 8:39). Light and Water make up the covenant rainbow. On the Day of Pentecost, the Father and the Son poured out Their Spirit, as per the promise to “sprinkle many nations” (Isa. 52:15). The gospel of reconciliation is brought to the nations in accordance with the Great Commission. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matt. 28:18-20).          

CEATION REGAINED (Review)

 

This book ought to be compulsory reading at all theological colleges. It cleans our smudged spectacles. It washes off the dirt and grime from our windows and lets us see into the world, yes, it removes the lens caps from our Christian binoculars and gives us a clear Biblical worldview. It brings that far off horizon much closer, so much so, that we can see the future in the here and now!

If your gospel is still the size of a mustard seed, then read this book, and watch the gospel grow into a huge tree that brings shade to the whole earth! "Since the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom, that mission is as wide as creation." p. 130.

WHAT DO ANGELS EAT?

 (Excerpted and condensed from our upcoming book The Kingdom by Rudi Schwartz and me.)

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Perhaps we would immediately think of that verse of Scripture calling manna “angels’ food”? “Yet He had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full” (Psa. 78:24-25). Bread poured out from heaven, baptismal blessings! Whether the angels ate the manna themselves or were its agents of delivery, we’ll let the reader decide. It’s hard to know. However, there is a place in Scripture where we see a trinity of angels eating. “So he [Abraham] took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate” (Gen. 18:8). So, angels like a good steak!

These three angels that came to Abraham as he was sitting in his tent door are referred to as “men” (Gen. 18:2). It turns out that at least one of them was Jehovah Himself. Maybe even the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as each of the three angels? This sounds a bit too much like modalism. Clearly two of the men were angels and one was the Lord because we are told, “Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord” (Gen. 18: 22). “Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground” (Gen. 19:1). He is, after all, the One who dwells between angels, “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth” (Isa. 37:16)  NIV). So, we see then that the preincarnate Jesus ate beef and butter (the word is for curdled milk, so maybe cheese), and had some milk to drink. So did the angels. Now, the point here is that none of the three had to eat lest they die of starvation. They ate for a different purpose – as will we when we are resurrected and dine with the resurrected Lord in His not yet Kingdom.

Now here’s the thing. Will we need to ask that awkward question, “May I use the bathroom?” Clearly angels eat food. Clearly Jesus eats food. Clearly there is going to be a great wedding supper for the Lamb. Therefore, clearly Jesus, angels and all those present will be eating and drinking. But how will we manage if our stomachs have been destroyed? The answer surely lies in how different things will be when we live in a place where there is no curse, like Adam pre-Fall, and the King’s Kingdom come. We take it then that toilets are a sign of a fallen world, part of the curse on creation that is going to be fully lifted when the Master returns from the far country (Mark 13:32-37).

Sometimes while out in the field on army exercise there would be a mix-up with the “Port-a-Loo” delivery. Sometimes there would be a few hundred people needing to use that single outhouse. In tropical Queensland weather you can imagine how quickly the cubicle would fill with flies! As part of our army kit, we used to cart around an “entrenching tool”, which, due to environmental protection regulations, would only be used in “break glass” in case of emergency situations. Notice the purpose of the “entrenching tool” in the following,

Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you (Deut. 23:12-14).    

Therefore, our “refuse” or “excrement” (ESV) is unclean and is therefore part of God’s curse on creation that will be removed. The main purpose being that the King doesn’t want to be stepping on anything unclean. So, foods and stomachs being destroyed simply means that there will be major changes to our dietary systems and to the foods that we eat. It is so hard for us to imagine things on earth without seeing the effects of the curse everywhere.

Having briefly noted what Jesus and the angels eat, before we move on to ask what animals eat, let’s remind ourselves that the already of the Kingdom is progressively moving towards the not yet. Jesus gives us a brief description of how our present digestive system works while declaring that the Mosaic diet restrictions have been abolished or done away with or, if you will, “destroyed”.  “And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? [Greek: goes out into the latrine].” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)” (Mark 7-18-19 ESV). Therefore, eating and drinking is not an unclean thing. It has nothing to do with sin. We get to eat whatever the King allows us to eat. And so it will be when His Kingdom has fully come. We will eat, drink and be merry forever without any fear of death.

We’ve already mentioned that the Lord had shown Peter that He had done away with the temporary Mosaic dietary restrictions. It is interesting to note how Jesus did this. When we looked at baptism, we have already mentioned what the apostle John saw descending from heaven. “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:33). Luke in his Gospel says, “And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).

God had appeared to Abraham as a man and now He appears to John as a bird. Both were temporary bodily appearances. When it comes to Christ, however, He is the eternal Word who became permanently flesh. He came from heaven, and He returned to heaven, and He will come back again. He received His kingly crown in heaven, and He received a Kingdom (Dan. 7:14). Christians on earth when He comes, will meet Him in the air as He is descending, just like the Avian Spirit, just like Peter’s sheet, and just like John saw in His vision recorded in Revelation, “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev. 21:2-3). A voice from heaven accompanied the descending Holy Spirit, the descending sheet, and the descending Kingdom/bride. Therefore, each descension was a message. Something has taken place, is taking place, and shall take place. He has brought His Kingdom with Him. His Kingdom is progressively expanding; (now no dietary restrictions, animal sacrifice has been “destroyed”, females as well as males are now also to receive the sign of the covenant, i.e., water baptism etc.). In short, the church was coming of age – conception, birth, infancy, adolescence, adulthood. Yes, and then marriage – marriage to the King, complete with a wedding supper.

Now, to give us a bit of an idea as to how Peter must have felt when he was told to eat those things that had been declared unclean for centuries. He must have found things in the sheet revolting. You and I probably are hoping too that a lot of these things are not going to be on the great Wedding Feast’s menu! Let’s see what was in that big sheet.

Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. (Acts 10:10-16).]                      

This cancellation of the Old Covenant dietary law was also a New Covenant reiteration of an aspect of the Cultural mandate: “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (Gen. 9:2-3). No fear of pork now Peter! No fear of any of the fish, birds, or animals, especially if you are going to eat them.

In relation to culture and the Cultural Mandate, Scottish haggis has been on the banned list of imports to the USA since 1971. It seems that Americans are afraid to eat it because it contains livestock lungs! I like American hotdogs, but who really wants to know what the Americans allow in them? Of course, as haggis is to Scottish culture, so hotdogs are to American culture. Yes, Canadian culture too! I watched the Toronto Blue Jays play the Boston Red Sox with mustard and ketchup dripping off my hotdog and onto my shirt!

Culture is food and drink, song and dance, language and dress, art and architecture, and all of the other multifarious things included in the Cultural Mandate. The Mosaic dietary laws were part of humanity’s cultural progression towards and until the renewal of the Cultural Mandate as per the promulgation of the world-changing Great Commission. Christ’s law and gospel does not destroy culture. It simply Christianises it, as the nations and the people therein progressively apply all of God’s Word to all of life. Haggis and hotdogs, along with kilts and baseball caps, are part of the adiaphora (things indifferent) aspect of the Great Commission.

Brussel sprouts and broccoli were not my favourite vegetables when growing up. They’re still not. Neither, it seems, are they the traditional Eskimo favourites, whose diet consists mostly of meat, fish, and blubber with a 2% smidgin of fruit and vegetables. Could you imagine a Seventh-day Adventist advancing Christ’s Kingdom gospelizing the Inuit people? “If you want to become a proper Christian, you’ll need to change 98% of our diet. You guys need to become vegetarian, repent and believe in the gospel. Oh, and Saturday, not Sunday, is the Sabbath.”

The advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on earth has been hampered (humanly speaking) down through the ages by all sorts of isms. From Judaism (which attacked Christ when He walked on earth), the Judaizers (who Paul battled, especially in Galatians), all the way down to Seventh-day Adventism, that tells you that you must eat only vegetables.

A nation’s culture is influenced by its climate and its food supply (or lack thereof). Again, Christ’s law and gospel only destroys those aspects of a nation’s culture that are sinful. Eating and drinking is not sinful. It’s obsessive gluttony and habitual drunkenness that involves sin. Spreading Christ’s gospel of the Kingdom among the Eskimos does not include old administrations of the covenant of grace, such as Mosaic Sabbath and dietary prohibitions, but freedom that the shed blood of Christ has brought, for “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

Mankind’s diet menu, at least for those believers and their children with whom God has covenanted, has been increased to include whatever food and drink our own fickle tastes desire. Our own cultural traditions influence our preferences. Who knew what a pangolin was, never mind that they are edible, until the advent of COVID 19?

Inherited from the British military, there is a tradition in the Australian army of having ‘dining-in nights.’ Donning one’s finest uniform dinner-suit attire, a.k.a. ‘mess dress’, a meal was enjoyed in the Officers’ Mess with keynote speakers. The menu is for a fancy three-course meal, usually with beef and chicken for the main course. The servers would plop a full plate in front of each diner alternating between chicken and beef. Then there would be a whole lot of meal-swapping going on to suit personal preferences among the diners. Cultural awareness meant that there would also be vegetarian and pescetarian dishes available. And, as with weddings, there would be a head table with many other tables looking on. Among other things, the idea would be that the diners got to eat and drink with other members of the army that they don’t normally in their daily business interact with. A social gathering.

Lamb is a big favourite in Australia, and sometimes the roast beef or steak would be exchanged for lamb chops (which seemed to be huge!). When it came to accompanying wines, the old cultural tradition of ‘white with white meat and red with red meat’ was followed (sometimes!). Sometimes in the army there would be ‘mixed’ dining-in nights, whereby the members had their spouses accompany them. On one special evening my wife and I attended a Burns Night in the officers’ mess. Yes, haggis was the main course meal with whisky to wash it down. Some Christians would be aghast at the mere thought of whisky, never mind wine. However, the teaching of the Bible is that we are as free to drink as we are as free not to drink alcohol. Yes, sometimes like Noah and Lot Christians over-drink, and who hasn’t overeaten? We have already noted that some erroneously referred to Jesus as a glutton and a drunkard. Could Noah and Lot also be called drunkards? What about all the guests at the wedding in Cana? “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine” (John 2:3). Were the guest pouring the wine down their throats (or down the drain as they did in the great American Prohibition?) They were drinking the stuff as they celebrated the couple getting hitched. Did Jesus cry out, “Time! Gentlemen please!”?

Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” (John 2:6-10).      

Yes, there is lot going on in these verses of Scripture. But we must at least see that Jesus is no killjoy. He didn’t lecture the wedding guests on the evils of gluttony and drunkenness. It’s when these have become obsessive and habitual that the riot act needs to be read. However, at His great wedding supper, when He as groom and we as His bride get married to Him forever (with absolutely no possibility of divorce), we will eat, drink, and we will be merry! We will rejoice in Him and with Him in His Kingdom.

The truth of the matter is that angels and humans eat and drink the same things, i.e., whatever the King permits us to eat. We will sit down to dine with the Lord at His table as is repeatedly pictured every time we have the covenant meal of Communion. We will be rubbing shoulders (wings?!) with angels but not with fallen angels. “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:21). Yes, it is difficult to imagine what this may be like, but we should be mindful of the following verse, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Heb. 13:2).

In the case of Samson’s parents, Manoah and his barren (but nameless wife), though she thought she was seeing a man, she was on the right track when the preincarnate Christ appeared to her as a temporary Christophany, “So the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ” (Judg. 13:6-7). Christ told her what to eat and drink for a specific purpose. Manoah too didn’t know he was entertaining an angel, the Angel. “Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You.” And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the Lord.)” (15-16).

It was the same with Gideon who offered the Angel goat-meat, bread and broth thinking he was a man. “Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.” (Judg. 6:21-22).

We shall see the Lord face to face at the head table when we sit down with Him at the wedding supper. The Angel of the Lord dined with Abraham, eating what Abraham had prepared and set before Him. We dine with Him as His Spirit enables us at during Communion. Angels eat and drink whatever we eat and eat, which is whatever our Lord provides. “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25). We would do well to remember that as Christians we are the bride of Christ and that our resurrection is our transportation to that wedding, dressed in our best, to say a collective, “I do.”                  

CREATION, FALL, REDEMPTION

 The following is an except from a forthcoming book called The Kingdom coauthored with Rudi Schwartz. Give us a few more months to complete...

Creation, Fall, Redemption

Creation, Fall, and Redemption is, if you will, the macrocosm of that which happens to when a person first repents and believes in the gospel, viz., Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. We have already spoken of the “already but not yet” aspect of Christ’s Kingdom, which is to say (in that other set of trinities) that Christ’s Kingdom has come, is coming and shall come. Glorification is what takes place fully when Christ’s Kingdom has fully come, or, as we say, is fully consummated.

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To help us understand Creation, Fall, and Redemption please picture an underground water pipe, or, even, dare I say, a sewer pipe. Creation is when the pipe is first laid. It has the purpose of conveying its contents from one end to the other. Sometimes a leak or a blockage occurs, such as damage caused by tree roots or shifting ground. Picture this as the Fall. Then comes the plumber to fix the problem. When all is finished, this is Redemption.

When God had finished creating Creation, He looked at it and declared that “it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31). When God creates a new creation, you or me, e.g., “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17), His “very good” declaration is applied to the believer. That is what Justification means. To be Justified is to be in Christ; God the Judge declares you to be “very good” in Christ, just like He did at the end of the sixth day of Creation. The new creature is declared by God to be righteous, i.e., to be right with God, justified by the second Adam, Christ. This is simply a legal transaction. “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30)

Following this legal declaration (or simultaneously from God’s perspective) the person who has been Justified has also been definitively Sanctified, which same sanctification progresses until full consummation.

Notice that sanctification is not something that we do, but the Spirit. Yes, Christians notice what He is doing in us, and by extension, in the world: “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us…” (Heb. 10:12-15).

 Think of the earth as being progressively sanctified too. (Ps. 24:1). This is what we mean when we say that the Kingdom has come (past tense), is coming (present tense), and will come (future tense). Thus, both the “earthling” and the earth have been set apart by God for a noble use, i.e., for glory (read, gift from the Father to the Son as per Ps. 2:8; see also Rom. 9:23). Thus, Glorification has to do with glory, the King’s glory.

To be fully consummated is to be Glorified. Sanctification is to become what God has declared you to be. He looks at the new “very good” creation over whom the Holy Spirit has hovered as it were, and the Spirit with the Word speaks into the believer’s heart where He has lodged. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29–30).

We need to be Justified, Sanctified, and Glorified, because, like all of Creation, we too are fallen. When Creation had fallen, God judged and redeemed it along those on the ark. He opened the windows of heaven and baptised the household of Noah on the ark in covenant blessing, and by breaking open the fountains of the deep, He fully immersed His old creation outside of the ark in covenant curses for the wilful disobedience of humanity. As He did with Adam and Eve in the old creation, so God blessed Noah and his household as He reissued the Cultural Mandate. Hence, we see that the earth has been sanctified by the Flood, the global Deluge. To be Sanctified is to be cleansed, as pictured in covenant baptism.

In the following note the connections between covenant baptism, progressive sanctification (i.e., “the mortifying of sin”), and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 167. How is our Baptism to be improved by us?
A. The needful but much neglected duty of improving our Baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others, by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein; by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary to, the grace of the Baptism and our engagements; by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us in that Sacrament; by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace; and by endeavoring to live by faith, to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness, as those that have therein given up their names to Christ; and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.  

God signified His covenant with His new creation with a rainbow in the cloud (Gen. 9:12 & 16). Noah signified his and his household’s redemption by sacrificing that which was a picture of Christ’s promised redemption (Gen. 8:20).

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done (Gen. 8:20-21).

God’s Covenant of Grace was now being administered on His new creation by Noah and his faithful descendants all the way down till today. Those who are born of the Spirit are new creations. Again, the micro (us, as new creations) pictures the macro (Creation) and vice versa. Christ redeems both. The ark was a type of Christ. As everything in the ark was saved from God’s judgment, so is everyone and everything in Christ saved from God’s coming final judgment.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.” (Ps. 24:1-2), “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.” (Ps. 50:10-11), “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.” (Ps. 2:8). The baptised earth is progressively being sanctified and will be glorified along with all believers after the final judgment.

Without the Fall there would be no need of Redemption. Without the Fall we would not need to be Sanctified, set apart and cleansed. But Creation was washed with water in Noah’s day, and we are washed with water in our baptism. Glorification follows Sanctification. However, because Jesus’s humanity is made of the same material as Creation, that means that Creation is already being Glorified in Him. Therefore, as we await the redemption of our material bodies, we have been, are being, and will be Justified, Sanctified, and Glorified. Our acquittal on Judgment Day will prove that we have been declared righteous, set apart and cleansed, and blessed and glorified by God to His glory.

So, just as millions of dead things became fossilised in sediment after the Flood, as horrible as it sounds, so will that which does not belong to Christ and the new Earth. It will be immersed in the lake of fire forever beginning on Judgment Day.

See red chimney top right sector (Image from Web)

As youngsters growing up in Scotland, we lived next to a hospital. We could see a large chimney that would on occasion belch forth smoke like when the Roman Catholics elect their new pope! The older kids told us that the smoke from the hospital incinerator’s chimney meant that they were burning a dead body. Creepy! We thought we were living next to a crematorium. It seems that they did at least incinerate surgically removed body parts and other materials, medical waste, but not whole bodies.

Christ has removed all our sins. His Father incinerated them when He poured out His wrath upon Jesus on the cross, baptising Him with fire. His law-keeping righteousness is imputed to us, and our law-breaking unrighteousness is imputed to Him. It is as if we had never sinned, like we went from glory to glory, from Creation before the Fall to Creation after Christ’s return. Says John Witherspoon,

The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, among whom he had never been in person, at great length establishes the fundamental doctrine of the gospel that sinners are justified by the free grace of God through the imputed righteousness of a Redeemer. To this doctrine men do make by nature the strongest opposition, and are, with the utmost difficulty, brought to receive and apply it. We may well say of it in particular what the same apostle says of the truths of God in general, that “the natural man doth not receive them” (1 Cor. 2:14).[1]

An interesting but pertinent aside is, not that the American actress Reece Witherspoon is one of John Witherspoon’s descendants, or that, “John’s mother, Anna Walker, could trace her lineage through several pastors back to John Knox himself”, or that “In 1746, he led a group of militia volunteers from Beith intent on fighting for King George II against the pro-Catholic Jacobite uprising. Although Witherspoon was not engaged in any military conflict, he was captured and imprisoned for a short time in Doune castle.[2] The interesting fact is that Witherspoon, the Scottish Presbyterian who was invited to come over to America to be a professor at what became Princeton, he was the only clergyman to sign the American Declaration of Independence – in defiance of King George III. He had a major influence on many of the Founders, no less than one James Madison. The famous converted ex-slave trader, John Newton of Amazing Grace hymn fame, wrote,

This work has always been regarded as one of the ablest Calvinistic expositions of that doctrine in any language. I hope you approve Mr. Witherspoon’s books. I think his Treatise on Regeneration is the best I have seen upon this important subject.” John Newton (1725-1807) in a letter to Mr. Cunningham.[3]

Even that great Abolitionist, William Wilberforce, heaped praise on Witherspoon’s theological understanding, “Referring to the Treatise on Regeneration, Wilberforce gushed, “I am conscious, indeed, that the excellence of the Work is far too well established to render any eulogium of mine.”[4] Thus, the converting power of the Holy Spirit working with His Word in the hearts of men has a far greater impact than the mere individual. It goes far and and wide. It crosses oceans. It engulfs whole nations for good as the gospel, the heart of which has to do with Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification, works like leaven in the expansion of Christ’s Kingdom throughout the whole earth.

Back to the plumber fixing the damaged underground water pipe. The water of life has been turned back on by Christ and flows through our veins. Or, what about the time my old friend, (who is now with Christ in Paradise), had to have a damaged and decayed portion of his bowel removed. They simply cut out the offending piece of intestine, (and sent it to be incinerated?), and rejoined both ends. He lived a healthy life for many, many years after that. Being already glorified, my friend is awaiting the redemption of his body and then he will be fully glorified. God speed!

All of us became disconnect from God by the Fall. The Christian’s sins were removed with surgical precision by Christ. We are now reconnected to God. He remembers our sins no more. It’s as if the damaged part to our lives was never there, so good was the operation. All our transgressions have been incinerated. Gone. Amazing grace!

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[1] John Witherspoon, Justification & Regeneration: Practical Writings on Saving Faith, (Edited by Kevin DeYoung, Westminster Seminary Press, 2022), 5

[2] Kevin DeYoung, ibid., ix-x.

[3] John Newton, ibid., on dust jacket.

[4] Ibid., xviii.