THE CULTURED CHRISTIAN

 

As one who was greatly influenced early on after Christian conversion in my early thirties by a lot of this Neo-Calvinism business, I would like to give my very brief two-cents worth on its positive impact on my life. Now, no doubt, what I’m about to say in the following will be very bewildering to many Christians. They will have no idea what I’m talking about. Other Christians will simply balk at it. While yet others will take umbrage and some may even gnash their teeth! This is where we quote that oft-quoted verse of Scripture about iron sharpening iron (Prov. 27:17).

Is that sabre-rattling I’m hearing already? Do claymores rattle? 

Now, very broadly speaking, and I mean broadly, I equate Calvinism per se with what is/was seen in Scotland from the time of its Reformation onwards. And I view Neo-Calvinism[1] with what is/was seen in the Netherlands and some other parts of Europe from the time of its Reformation, but more especially in the Netherlands in the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. The former (i.e., Scottish Calvinism) being culture destroying (e.g., in the arts, the Gaelic language, and from its lack of hymn-writers and great composers [probably on account of the promotion of - though truly beautiful as it is in its own right! - exclusive psalmody without musical accompaniment} etc., and the latter culture enhancing (Rembrandt et al, all the great hymnwriters and composers {including all the English and Welsh ones}, etc.) 

The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1668

Yes, big brush strokes, really big, I know, (but it’s for the sake of brevity). Now, here’s the thing…

I hear it said that “politics is downstream from culture.” Like Francis Schaeffer used to always do, I suppose we need to define our terms. Romans 13 governs our definition of politics – in that it is basically about promoting good and deterring evil in every area of society, from the individual, the local, municipal through national. (I’ve lifted the following basic but useful definition of culture from the Net): Culture = “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.”

The Church in Scotland, in its politics, i.e., in its promotion of good and deterring evil, for all the good it did in its past, also impacted Scottish culture negatively – by hamstringing linguistic, artistic, musical development, etc. yes, by stifling culture rather than cultivating it (as per Holland in the good old days).

So, the Church (i.e., Christians), with its salt and light (Matt. 5:13-14), influences culture which, in turn, influences politics, which influences how we all get to live our lives. However, like the mini tsunami of the Severn bore, in our own day we see an inversion of this. The Church now seems to be downstream to politics and culture and is being poisoned. (When we were kids we were taught not to drink water from a burn/creek downstream if it had a dead sheep in it! Drinking upstream from dead things is far better for health. But what went wrong with the Church that she now imbibes from a poisoned chalice? How does the Church fix it? Do we retreat, sit back and pray and let God fix it or is there something the Church is supposed to be doing to fix it as well as praying?

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Australian Christianity seems essentially to be disengaged from politics. As a Neo-Calvinist living Down Under, as I verbalise these observations, I’ve even heard someone say to me that I sound just like those American Evangelicals! Yet, the American Evangelicals are in the death-grip of culture-dodging-Earth-escaping Dispensationalism – those with the “why polish brass on a sinking ship” type of theology. Then, there are those who like-minded with the Dispensationalists, i.e., those Amillennialists, the ones that hold to the immanent return of Christ and the “it’s all going to burn up anyway” type of theology. (Is anyone hyperventilating yet? Try the paper bag solution!)

Bottom line to my extremely broad-brushed pontifications? I’ve adopted a Covenant Theology approach that is both Postmillennial and Christian Reconstructionistic.[2] Let’s just call it Neo-Calvinism for short. To be sure, there will be those who hold to different nuances in these areas, but basically all will hold to the famous Kuyper quote:

"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry ‘Mine.’"[3]  

As redeemed individuals, as the Church, i.e., as Christians, we are to be about the business of redeeming the societies in which we live, community by community, nation by nation. Hence, why I am Neo-Calvinist. In other words, I have built my worldview upon a Three forms of Unity, Westminster Standards type of theology, i.e., Covenant Theology – which is a theology that holds to a TFU, WS view of Law and Gospel. This I implement with an optimistic “Christ, not Satan, will progressively win the Earth before His return” type of an eschatology.

This means that the “Last Days” may go on for thousands of years before Christ returns. Therefore, we Christians must plan and must work towards the future, be it educating our children, building and architecture, agriculture… yes, all that cultural stuff! Thus, (as it seems to me) Christianity, like mustard seeds and yeast cultures grows in society and influences it best by adopting and cultivating a Neo-Calvinist understanding and approach among Christians (who dwell and participate in society) rather than stifle it as per ye olde Scottish Calvinist approach. (Count to ten if your heart is starting to race!)

Without meaning that we use a fawning winsomeness when Gospelising, think of the old proverb that we get more flies with honey than vinegar: Whereas, Neo-Calvinism = honey with its hoes, lawnmowers, ploughs, pruning hooks etc. approach to culture, Scottish Calvinism = equals vinegar with its “tying up the weans’s swings on Sundays” etc. approach. Whereas, a smile begets a smile, a screwed-up face will stay like that if the wind changes! One influences culture. The other stunts it.

Yes indeedy, I have used huge generalisations in my endeavour to provoke you to sample the food for thought I have given you, but’s it’s either a “Keep off Grass!” of ye olde Scottish Presbyterianism or a “Newly Planted Seedings. Please Keep off Grass” approach of the Neo-Calvinist. Which one do you think would help to better grow a God-honouring culture which in turn would influence Godlier politics?

 “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days

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That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,Neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2:2-4).                 

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[1] Neo-Calvinism is broadly associated with Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), theologian, journalist, and Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1901-5). It is also called Kuyperian Calvinism or Kuyperianism.

[2] Of the three, Covenant Theology, Postmillennialism, and Reconstructionism, perhaps the most maligned and misunderstood is Reconstructionism. In simple terms, Covenant Theology is the view that Scripture is not piecemeal but revelation and progressive applications on Earth in historical time of the eternal covenant that the members of the Triune Godhead made in eternity past. Postmillennialism is simply the view that God’s Word reveals the optimistic view of the progressive success of God’s Law and Gospel among the nations prior to Christ’s return. Reconstructionism has to do with the Biblical view of the implementation of God’s Law and Gospel in the lives of redeemed individuals and nations. Essentially the applications of the summary of God’s Law are spelled out in detail in, e.g., the much-neglected Westminster Larger Catechism Q&As 91-153. These can hardly be considered controversial. See also the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards for a greater understanding of the Gospel as per Covenant Theology.   

[3] James D Bratt, Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, (Eerdmans Publishing, 1998), 488.

FUTUREPROOF How to live for Jesus in a culture that keeps on changing (Review)

 

Futureproof: How to live for Jesus in a Culture that keeps on changing is very readable. McAlpine is an excellent writer, always keeping the reader engaged. I appreciate the shortish chapters with their various subheadings; like water stations along the route for runners, these are refreshing, encouraging the reader to keep on going. No, the book isn’t a hard slog. It is an easy read. However, call me old fashioned, but I’d like to hear a wee bit more about the “Church Militant” and the “Church Triumphant” than mostly “hospitality evangelism”. Yes, we live for Jesus in a culture that keeps on changing, but how is the “Church Militant” supposed to recapture lost ground apart from, as nice as it is, being nice to single mums, etc.?

McAlpine mentions that the Lord’s return is immanent, while at the same time helping to equip Christians now and for the decades ahead in, what apparently has become, an alien culture. He gives the impression that any success of the Great Commission up till now has peaked and has since been tossed into the dustbin of history. Like Dispensationalism’s errant (and the cruel hamstringing of Christian’s) “Rapture” teaching, apparently Christians are now dependent on the Lord’s return for His Gospel to succeed on earth. So meanwhile, like the WWII troops at Dunkirk awaiting the great rescue flotilla, we are just to be nice to the enemy in friendly engagement during the “culture wars” which we always seem to be losing if we have not already lost.

Doesn’t this earth belong to God? And aren’t those who belong to a culture that keeps on changing not inhabiting and defiling our inheritance as Christians, i.e., the earth? Is the Church Militant not supposed to be “pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God”? Yes, of course, Christians are to do Gospel outreach even over cups of coffee. Or course, Christians are to engage people as they find them wherever they are dwelling in their alien culture. But surely, Christ’s idea is that we, Onward! Christian soldiers… are to transform and reform their deformed culture?

Futureproof is a good book for what it intends, i.e., to give a summary with some brief pointers on how to live for Jesus in a culture that keeps on changing.       

MORAL INJURY Towards a Theology

 MORAL INJURY: Towards a Theology

Moral Injury pertains to having ones view of the world violated resulting in an adverse effect of feeling guilt and shame. A worldview is that aspect of our humanity that focuses on things in the world that are (in our own personal opinion) right or wrong, and true or false. Thus, morals relate to who you are as a person. Morals are rules. They are a set of laws by which we police the world in which we live. They govern our interactions with others and our behaviour towards them and they determine how we perceive the interactions between others, whether as individuals or in groups.

Moral Injury occurs when as individuals we go against our own set of moral values and cause harm. It is important to note that this harm may or may not involve other parties (whether human, animal, objects or anything else).

Sample of what readers are saying:

‘Moral Injury Towards a Theology’ is fantastic! It is easy to read and very logical. It explains nitty gritty doctrine and shows why it is necessary for effectual life application. The style is very similar to Martyn Lloyd-Jones in that respect. Also, the personal testimony is very impactful. I hope many people read it and are blessed by it as I have been. Peter Humphreys, PhD candidate.

Available at Amazon in your own country. Here is AU Amazon: MORAL INJURY: Towards a Theology : McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Amazon.com.au: Books

BOOKS DESIGNED NOT TO WEARY THE READER

First appeared on Caldron Pool (29 Nov 2024). 

https://caldronpool.com/books-designed-not-to-weary-the-reader/ 

Caldron Pool · News, Opinion, Commentary

From plumbing to preaching, Neil McKinlay’s journey reveals how engaging writing and accessible theology can transform lives.

Books Designed Not to Weary the Reader

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.” Ecclesiastes 12:12b-13

God by His grace alone converted me in a basement in Winnipeg at the tail end of 1988 while I was reading His Word. No offence intended to those lovers of ye olde KJV, but not having been brought up in a church-attending household in Scotland, I was having great difficulty understanding the King Jamesian (apparently Elizabethan!) English. Yes, God is sovereign in the salvation of His elect, but I can say (tongue-in-cheek) that I would’ve been converted sooner if I had been given a NKJV or even an NIV to read instead of the KJV!

Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I began studying as a candidate for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church of Australia in the early 90s. It was then that I began noticing two different styles of book writing. For the sake of simplicity, let’s call them formal and informal, as in theological textbooks versus Bible sermons. As a new Christian I was having trouble understanding why anyone would write in such a dry and dusty manner, when, instead, they could just simply say what they mean. That’s when I discovered the difference between the written and the spoken word. Why didn’t everyone write as, e.g., Martyn Lloyd-Jones does in his commentaries? Old 100-watt light bulb moment! I discovered that these were written beforehand as sermons.

This newly hatched bookworm began to study books on homiletics, which, as I discovered, is just a fancy word to do with preaching. I had read in one that it is a good idea is to give out printed copies of your sermons after preaching them. I had won the Homiletics Award upon graduating from Theological College PCQ in 1996. A few years later my old theological professor told me that he wished he could write like me. This astounded me! Was he kidding? He had eleven or twelve earned doctorates under his belt. In the early 2000s, he was asked by a fellow PhD-ian what I was like as a theologian. My old professor replied, “Not bad – for a plumber.” How does that old Mac Davis song go? “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble.” Well, maybe it’s not so hard for me. I’ll never forget that once a plumber always a plumber!  

I began to put my theory into practice, of always consciously attempting to present deep truths in an engaging way. This isn’t that much different to sermon preparation. Sure, exegeting a Bible text while consulting the Hebrew/Greek are the heart of it. However, Systematic and Biblical Theology books (among others) are perused too. The finished product being something that an average congregation could hear/read, understand and apply, yes, even plumbers like me! Now I use the same method when writing articles and books.

For example: I read my old professor’s lengthy article “Quarterly Communion at Annual Seasons” and then condensed its contents into a couple of easily readable pages. Wrote my old theological professor: “On February 17th 2002, it was my joy to preach in the North Pine Presbyterian Church in Brisbane Australia. At the end of the service the Minister, Rev. Neil MacKinlay, [sic.] gave me his own Session’s handout for his congregation at the door of his kirk. Frankly, Rev. MacKinlay’s [sic.] handout is so good, that I decided to incorporate it now at the end of this third edition of this article of mine on Quarterly Communion at Annual Seasons.” See chapter 30 of the 5th edition.

While at the same church on a Sunday evening, after the service I was approached by a visitor from Sydney. He asked my if I’d like to write for his monthly magazine for writers! I’ve been writing a short article based on the Bible every month now for over twenty years, in which I try to engage the reader who, though not necessarily a Christian, generally is also a writer. I collected thirty of these articles and self-published my first book in 2006 called The Song of Creation and Other Contemplations. My old theological professor kindly wrote its foreword. The rest, as they say, (whoever “they” are), is history.

We Christians have the message of life, eternal life in Christ Jesus. It is imperative that we get the law and the gospel out there in an understandable way. The Ethiopian Eunuch was reading  the Bible, but Philip the Evangelist asked him, “‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?’” Acts 8:30-31. I write so that even a plumber like me can understand.

Allow me to be opaque for a second: I’m an eschatological optimistic presuppositionalist! And, more simply, I believe my old professor’s car’s bumper-sticker was correct in saying “God’s Law or Chaos!” I believe that mustard seedly and leavenly more and more sinners will be converted, yes, even whole nations, before the Lord’s physical return. My two cents worth in this Great Commission includes all my books. Some of my titles include:

The Gospel: Simply yet Profound (2021) at Tulip Publishing in Australia; From Mason to Minister: Through the Lattice (2011) and Jefferson’s Tears (2018) at Nordskog Publishing Inc. in the U.S. (now closing down); Jesus for the Layman (2019) at Neetah Publishing in Scotland (published as Weemac Publishing); On the Lord’s Table (2020), On the Church (2022), Socialism: My Part in its Downfall (2020), I Believe! The Apostles’ Creed (2020); The Covenant: Simple yet Profound, Holding Fast Our Confession: Westminster Confession of Faith and its Biblical Teaching (2021) and many others self-published at Amazon. I have coauthored with Rudi Schwartz, a fellow PCA minister, The Unfaithful Bride & The Faithful Groom: Covenant Making, Breaking, & Renewal and The Kingdom: Every square inch, both also self-published at Amazon.  

Being the Bad Guys (Review)

 

Though I found this to be a very engaging and good read – in which I was learning that our Western cultures now have been taken over by non-Christians holding vastly different ideas of morality to those taught clearly in the Bible, I must admit that I was hoping to find a way of regaining any ground we may have lost as Christians. 

Sure, applying those principles of how to live in such an ungodly culture as taught in this book, may help towards that end, however, I didn’t get the impression if what we Christians have ceded to the “world” will ever become unceded – unless and until the Lord returns. 

Is there no hope for the West in the here and now before the “Second Coming”? Can we put the toothpaste back in the tube by which as Christians we mean putting Satan back on his chain (as we trample him underfoot)? If so, I missed it! Good book nevertheless for what it addresses. For all that, please read “Being the Bad Guys” and be blessed.  

CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM

Cherubim and Seraphim

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Is it just me or does this happen to everyone? I was “triggered” as the preacher was preaching. Sometimes I’m sent soaring in the heavens. This time my mind was sent back to stand at the gate to the garden of Eden. In his sermon, the pastor had mentioned “the God who dwells between the cherubim.” This, of course, has to do with the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies; first in the tabernacle then in the temple. It also got me thinking about Nadab and Abihu. “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:1). We can see something of why it says in Hebrews, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb, 12:29).

If we were to add together what we’ve seen so far, and to state the obvious, we might say that the God who dwells between the cherubim is a consuming fire.

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Meanwhile back at the garden gates. “So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). Unlike Aaron’s son’s, Nabab and Abihu, God did not consume Adam and Eve. Instead, He put in place cherubim and a flaming sword, which, like the wheels Ezekiel saw in his vision of God (Ezek. 1:15-217), "turned every way”.

So, now we have a flaming sword between cherubim.  

Who doesn’t love singing the old hymns? The following are a couple of verses that will help us work our way to the heart of what I would like us to see. Reginald Heber wrote the brilliant Holy! Holy! Holy! hymn. The Triune God is thrice holy. Here’s verse two:

2 Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore Thee,

casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,

which wert and art and evermore shalt be.

Then there’s that great old hymn, O Worship the King by Robert Grant. In verse two he writes:

2 O tell of His might and sing of His grace,

whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.

His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,

and dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

So, we’ve got cherubim and seraphim falling down before God and we see, as it were, God riding on the wings of the storm. Poetic pictures lifted from Isaiah and the Psalms illustrating the holiness and the mightiness of the Triune God.

Now, and here’s the rub: If we keep in mind that we know about God analogously, such as Him riding on the dark thunderclouds of the storm as it moves across the earth. We never see God as He is, but always through a Mediator, a go-between. “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). And if we will agree that Christ has always been the Mediator, yes, even “the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), then we will see that He is the One “Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind” (Psa. 104:3b).

So, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). He is the God who dwells between the cherubim, Who walked in the garden with Adam and Eve, Who is a consuming fire, and consumed Nabab and Abihu when they tried to fob Him off with profane fire. Yes, God is Triune, and is holy, holy, holy. Just like the flaming sword, He is the One everyone needs to go through to get to God. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). He is the eternal Word who came from heaven to earth and became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14). 

Now, we know that when God “came down” to give His Law to Moses on Mount Sinai “that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain … Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly … And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish” (Exo. 19:16,18,21). “And He came with ten thousands of saints; from His right hand came a fiery law for them” (Deut. 33:2b). Instead of “fiery law" the ESV has “flaming fire”. However, Strong’s Concordance agrees with “fiery-law” (See Hebrew 799). One is reminded here of what Abraham saw when God cut a covenant with him, “It was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (Gen. 15:17 ESV).

So, after all that, in the words of that old Matthews Southern Comfort song, “we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.”

It’s the word “flaming” as in “flaming sword” and “fiery” as in “fiery law or “flaming fire” that we need to focus on. The words fiery and flaming as used here are the same in the Old Testament Hebrew language.

Now, the preacher I mentioned above, also mentioned the “snake on the stake”, i.e., the one that King Hezekiah destroyed. “He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan) (2 Kings 18:4b NIV). (Nehushtan means copper. Depending on percentages, copper mixed with tin gives you bronze and brass.) What does this have to do with the cherubim and the flaming sword at the gate to the garden of Eden? It’ll become clearer in a moment.

Moses & Brass Serpent
Engraving by Jacques P Migne 1864

The reason Moses had made the bronze snake was because “the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (Num. 21:6-8; cf. 1 Cor. 10:8-10).). The NIV changes the word “fiery” to “venomous snakes”, we can’t have the reader thinking that these are anything other than regular poisonous snakes! The OT Hebrew word here is saraph, which, yes, means “burning” as perhaps happens when bitten by a poisonous snake. However, that word saraph as in fiery, is the exact same word for seraph, as in the seraphim that Reginald Heber in his Holy! Holy! Holy! hymn has us mention as we are singing.

We’ll use the NIV for the following vision of Isaiah, “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:1-7).

Whether Israel in the wilderness or Isaiah in the temple, seraphim are messengers, angels, of God for judgment and for healing. "Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire" (Psa. 104:4). Now, one more verse before we look at the cherubim and the seraph (a.k.a. the flaming sword) at the gate to the garden. The NIV misses the boat with its “adders and darting snakes” instead of the NKJV’s and ESV’s more accurately descriptive “the viper and fiery flying serpent”, “the adder and the flying fiery serpent” in Isaiah 30:6; (cf. 14:29). Keep in mind the idea of the Lord riding on the wings of the wind surrounded by His cherubim (clouds) and His seraphim (lightning bolts, yes, fiery flying serpents).

“He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). John Calvin offers the following,

Moses … speaks of punishment, when he relates that man was expelled and that cherubim were opposed with the blade of a turning sword, which should prevent his entrance into the garden … Moses uses a word derived from whiteness or heat … God had commanded two cherubim to be placed at the ark of the covenant, which should overshadow its covering, with their wings; therefore he is often said to sit between the cherubim … In this place angels are called cherubim … that it is referred to angels is more than sufficiently known. Whence also Ezekiel (Ezekiel 28:14) signalizes the proud king of Tyre with this title, comparing him to a chief angel.

Now, Calvin has mentioned Ezekiel 28, in which chapter we read about the king of Tyre being compared with the Devil, Satan. “You were in Eden, the garden of God … You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones … And you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones” (Ezek. 28:13a,14,16b). So, we see Satan being referred to as “the anointed cherub who covers … the covering cherub.” The word “covering” means to fence in, cover over, protect, defend, hedge in etc. (Strong's Concordance, Hebrew 5526). (May we be permitted to add "cloud", as in cloud-covering, to the list?) So, like the cherubim on the seat of atonement “covering” the ark of the covenant, Satan (like Adam who was to tend and keep it) (Gen. 2:15), the “anointed cherub” was to guard things in the garden. But, as we know, Adam broke covenant with God (Hos. 6:7), instead entering into a covenant with the rebellious chief angel.

How did the Devil deceive Eve and slither his way into convincing Adam to join him in his rebellion? “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made” (Gen. 3:1). Yes, we’re back to cherubim and seraphim, serpents. Because of the serpent, shouldn’t we have expected Satan to be a seraph rather than a cherub? If we keep in mind that he was a chief angel with respect to the garden, we can see how he had command over all the angels that were under him, whether cherubim or seraphim, even those angels (now become demons) that had joined him in his great rebellion. Satan spoke through the serpent, (or perhaps even transformed himself into a serpent), and by so doing, he became "that serpent of old."

Salvador Dali, Christ of St. John of the Cross

Though I prefer the idea that the fiery flying serpent pictures the Messiah, could it be that the snake on the stake that God commanded Moses to make was simply picturing a dead snake - prefiguring God's gospel promise of the Seed of the Woman crushing the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15) and healing, yes, saving His people from His fiery judgment? “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).

However, when we understand “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14), then the idea that the flying fiery serpent on the pole was representing the preincarnate Anointed One, the Mediator, begins to make more sense. And, keeping in mind that the Devil was a chief angel, then we can see why the "anointed cherub" would try to impersonate and even try to usurp the princely role of the One who was to be the Anointed, anointed as the everlasting King of kings and angels.

There is only one angel in the Bible referred to as an Archangel, even Michael. Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator, commenting on the war in heaven recorded in Revelation 12, says,

The parties—Michael and his angels on one side, and the dragon and his angels on the other: Christ, the great Angel of the covenant, and His faithful followers; and Satan and all his instruments. [And, on Daniel 10} Here is Michael our prince, the great protector of the church, and the patron of its just but injured cause: The first of the chief princes, v 13. Some understand it not of a created angel, but an archangel of the highest order, 1 Thess 4:16; Jude 9. Others think that Michael the archangel is no other than Christ himself, the Angel of the covenant, and the Lord of the angels, He whom Daniel saw in vision, v. 5 … Christ is the church's prince; angels are not, Heb 2:5. [On Daniel 12] Michael shall stand up in His providence ... Christ is that great prince, for He is the prince of the kings of the earth, Rev 1:5. And, if He stand up for His church, who can be against it? But this is not all: At that time (that is, soon after) Michael shall stand up for the working out of our eternal salvation; the Son of God shall be incarnate, shall be manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Christ stood for the children of our people when He was made sin and a curse for them, stood in their stead as a sacrifice, bore the curse for them, to bear it from them. He stands for them in the intercession He ever lives to make within the veil, stands up for them, and stands their friend. And after the destruction of antichrist, of whom Antiochus was a type, Christ shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, shall appear for the complete redemption of all His.

Keep in mind that the “anointed cherub” was thrown out God’s holy mountain, the garden of Eden (Ezek. 28:14) as seen in the following, “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down” (Rev. 12:7-10). “And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).

So, the One who excommunicated Adam and Eve from His garden and posted angels on piquet duty at its gate, even, cherubim and seraphim, is the One who dwells between the cherubim, is the One rides upon the thunderclouds, “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); “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matt. 16:27).

Yes, "Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29) - as we've seen with the "flaming sword" and the "fiery flying serpents", "cherubim and seraphim" etc., but He gives grace to all who "Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

Let us end with a couple of verse from the old Horatius Bonar hymn, Glory be to God the Father:

3 Glory to the King of angels, glory to the Church’s King,

glory to the King of nations; heav’n and earth Your praises bring!

Glory, glory, to the King of glory sing!

4 Glory, blessing, praise eternal! thus the choir of angels sings;

Honour, riches, pow’r, dominion! thus its praise creation brings.

Glory, glory to the King of kings!

BRAX AND THE SOMEWHAT OLD TREEHOUSE (Book review)

This Granddad loves the Brax book. I got one copy for my grandson and another for my wee granddaughter. I hope I’m even as half as good an example to my grandies as Brax’s gramps was! This is an excellent wee book. Its pages of rhymes are beautifully illustrated. It even includes a “How to Draw Brax” in five easy steps.

Brax (a tenacious young pup) is an Australian production written and illustrated by Ben Davis. (Non-Australians will be surprised to hear that “saw” and “floor” do actually rhyme, at least as spoken in the Land Down Under!)

It is suitable for ages baby to ten.

After reading Brax a couple of times, the book’s rhymes have now got me thinking in rhyme!

The essence of the book is:

                                                                            Christ the Lord is the rock-solid foundation, 

                                                                            upon which to build for the next generation.

(Available at Amazon and Reformers Bookshop.)