TheoPerspectives

First Quasi-Cause: Uncaused Timeless Nature

2011-12-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

INTRODUCTION
John Philoponus, a Christian philosopher, scientist, and theologian in the sixth century, challenged Aristotle's theory of infinite past time.1 Philoponus argued that infinite past time could never have passed, so time needed a finite origin. Philoponus also modified Aristotle's cosmological argument of a Prime Mover / First Cause by saying that the First Cause was originally timeless, which this essay calls a timeless-to-time cosmological argument. Since the time of Philoponus, numerous scholars developed timeless-to-time cosmological arguments.2 Furthermore, Immanuel Kant in his 1781/1787 Critique of Pure Reason noted that infinite past time could never have passed while a timeless cause of time is empirically irrational because both cause and effect must exist within time.3 For example, How could something exist before time when the notions of before and after require time? This brief article responds to Kant's conundrum about original timelessness and the finite origin of time by clarifying that time's arrow originated from not the first cause but the first quasi-cause. This piece also (1) explores various positivist and theistic constructions of the first quasi-cause and (2) conjectures monotheism.

The term first quasi-cause indicates that not a cause within time but a timeless quasi-cause began time. Furthermore, the first quasi-cause is the uncaused timeless nature. Also, the observed spacetime continuum might be the universe or a verse within a multiverse, while the universe or multiverse necessarily had a finite beginning of time.

INFINITY AND BEYOND
The conundrum of time's beginning involves the controversial notion of infinity because an infinite sequence of events would never end in at least one direction. For example, assuming the observed spacetime continuum began fourteen billion years ago and the continuum never ends with a Big Crunch or Big Rip,4 then the continuum always continues with an ever-increasing finite age.

Similarly, there could not have been an infinite past time's arrow. For example, if there was infinite past time, then an infinite past time would precede every point in continuum history while an infinite sequence could never pass for any point in history to exist. Likewise, there was no (1) infinite past sequence of vacuum fluctuations or (2) infinite past cycles in a cyclic universe.

Some scholars stated to me in personal communication that infinite past time is possible because of different theories of time. For example, various philosophers challenge all empirical observations of cause and effect while proposing that all appearance of such sequences is essentially an illusion in an eternalist/block universe. Such eternalist theories ultimately propose radical simultaneousness of all supposedly past, present and future events while denying all distinction between the past, present, and future.5 This rejection of sequences disputes the proposed impossibility of infinite past time, but at the expense of rejecting the notion of time's arrow. Also, rejecting the notion of time's arrow incidentally disputes every theory involving cause and effect, which includes all scientific theory. In this case, nobody can possibly disprove that the universe is an eternal block while the appearance of time is merely an illusion, but such philosophical theories are incompatible with the notion of science.

NATURE OF TIMELESSNESS
As stated in the introduction, this theory proposes that the first quasi-cause is the uncaused timeless nature. Timelessness is changelessness such as absolute inactivity or absolute simultaneousness of all activity in a changeless unit. For example, timelessness has no sequence of events that are empirically observed in waves, particles, and vacuum fluctuations. Likewise, since observed spatial dimensions inevitably have sequences of events, then a timeless nature evidently has no spatial dimensions comparable to observed space. In other words, a timeless nature is a dimensionless nature beyond empirical observation. The uncaused timeless nature is an extraordinary nature in that it has no dimensions and no sequence of events while it is able to generate the beginning of time.

The observed spacetime continuum might have originated from a dimensionless substrate. Another possibility is that the observed spacetime continuum is a verse preceded by dimensionality within a multiverse while the spacetime of the multiverse originated from a dimensionless substrate. In any case, the apparently fine-tuned spacetime continuum that enables DNA-based life had inexplicably originated from no dimensions.6

Positivist options for analyzing dimensionless origins include (1) insistence that time began by accident or (2) continuing the exploration of the impossible assumption of an infinite past time's arrow. Positivism also lacks a scientific theory for the beginning of time. For example, Anthony Aquirre and Steven Gratton in 2003 developed a speculative physics model that included a timeless generation of time. However, in their model, the timeless generation of a "bubble" (verse in a multiverse) had a probability of zero for time to ever begin.7 Additionally, Aquirre in 2007 argued against his 2003 model of timeless origins while conjecturing the notion of an infinite past time's arrow.8 In any case, positivism has only philosophy and speculative scientific hypotheses while attempting to explain the inexplicable origin of time's arrow from inanimate timelessness.

Objective analysis indicates the uncaused nature's constitution and ability is extraordinary in comparison to empirically observed nature. This extraordinariness such as dimensionless nature with the ability to generate the beginning of time and life-enabling space justifies the reasonableness of calling the uncaused nature a supernature. The extraordinariness of this supernature also justifies a reasonable conjecture that the uncaused nature is not inanimate supernature but deity with will.

Deity with will has knowledge and power. Some might debate if the uncaused deity is (1) God with omniscience (all knowledge) and omnipotence (all power) or (2) a potentially conquerable deity with finite knowledge and finite power. For example, key characteristics of omniscience include exhaustive self-awareness and knowledge of all possibilities (natural knowledge), while the key characteristic of omnipotence is unlimited power constrained only by consistency. In this case, God with omniscience and omnipotence is able to generate the beginning of time and life-enabling space. However, an uncaused finite deity might have no ability to manage the unlimited knowledge of all possibilities and never generate the beginning of time. Likewise, the problems faced by finite deity justify a reasonable conjecture that God generated the beginning of time and life-enabling space.

Stay tuned for a follow-up article on theodicy—that is, the problem of evil.

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1. Wildberg, Christian. 2007. "John Philoponus." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/.
2. Reichenbach, Bruce. 2008 "Cosmological Argument." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmological-argument/.
3. Williams, Garrath. 2009. "Kant's Account of Reason." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-reason/.
4. See Big Crunch and Big Rip in Caldwell, Robert R., Marc Kamionkowski and Nevin N. Weinberg. 2003. "Phantom Energy and Cosmic Doomsday." http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0302506.
5. See Markosian, Ned. 2008. "Time." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/.
6. See "Cosmic Fine-Tuning" in Ratzsch, Del. 2010. "Teleological Arguments for God's Existence." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/.
7. Aquirre, Anthony, and Steven Gratton. 2003. "Inflation without a beginning: a null boundary proposal." http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0301042.
8. Aquirre, Anthony. 2007. "Eternal Inflation, past and future." http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.0571.

Copyright © 2011 James Edward Goetz

Devotional 1

2011-06-02T19:47:00.005-04:00

Praise the one true Lord God Almighty; praise the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Lord loves us with an everlasting love. The love of the Lord sent his Son the Lord Jesus Christ to become a human and die for our sins. All who believe and call on the Lord receive salvation in every area of their life. And the Lord sends his Spirit to saturate and empower all believers.

Lord I dedicate to love and serve you in every circumstance. Fill me with your Spirit. Saturate and purify my innermost thoughts and desires. Empower me to always love and serve you.

Thank you Lord for making me a new person, a participant in your divine nature. Thank you Lord that I will forever enjoy your presence.

Updated 10/25/2011

Copyright © 2011 James Edward Goetz

The Christian Code of Honor for Men

2011-05-11T23:50:00.002-04:00

01. Men understand the love and forgiveness of the Lord.
02. Men trust and obey the Lord in every circumstance.
03. Men love the Lord above all else.
04. Men act with courage and honor.
05. Men speak with courage and honor.
06. Men respect all authority without disobeying the Lord.
07. Men respect and care for all humans.
08. Men never take advantage of females.
09. Men reserve sexual intimacy for marriage.
10. Men stand against injustice.

updated 05/12/2011

Copyright © 2011 James Edward Goetz

Simple Divine Partnership and Functional Limits of the Incarnation

2011-03-06T00:32:00.013-05:00

INTRODUCTION
This brief article outlines development of my partnership law model of the Trinity and my restrained power (functional limits) model of the Incarnation.[1] [2] Also, this brief perspective of the Trinity and Incarnation is consistent with the ancient church ecumenical creeds and my creed I Believe that includes the following:

I believe in one God, the only uncreated, always existing with maximal power, knowledge of all possibilities, unlimited love, justice, and as three distinct persons of one indivisible divine nature. The three divine persons eternally and equally share the same indivisible glory, honor, and ability.[3]

SIMPLE DIVINE PARTNERSHIP
I briefly described how United States general partnerships provide an analogy for the Trinity. [4] A general partnership is a single entity with multiple persons who each represent all of the contractual powers of the partnership. In the case of a partnership with three partners, one partner has the same powers as any two or all three of the partners. Likewise, in some sense, each partner is identified as the single partnership. Moreover, this analogizes the ancient church fathers understanding of God as one indivisible divine essence existing as three distinct persons.

The analogy of a general partnership helps to explain the mystery of the Trinity with caveats. For example, general partnerships are a complex composite union with a beginning in time and an end while the Trinity is primarily simple with no beginning in time and no end. I describe the Trinity as "primarily simple" instead of the classical belief in absolute divine simplicity because primary simplicity evidently describes God and his relationship to creation. For example, Christ incarnated, which involved a person of the Trinity unifying with a specially created human nature. Likewise, the incarnation is a complex revelation of God to humanity. The divine nature never changed while God related to humanity with complex revelation.

This model imagines God apart from creation always existing as one simple God, three distinct persons, perfect love, justice, complete self-consciousness, exhaustive knowledge of all possibilities, and almighty power within physical consistency. All of these attributes of God are not parts of God, but God is a primarily simple entity. Also, God created the substance of everything else that exists while God personally relates to creation.

FUNCTIONAL LIMITS IN THE INCARNATION
I also briefly compared the Incarnation to a power ratchet wrench with variable power settings for torque:

For example, a particular power ratchet wrench has a maximum torque of seventy foot-pound force while the wrench torque adjusts from one to seventy foot-pound force. In some uses of the wrench, the seventy foot-pound force would destroy the bolt so the wrench is sometimes set to a lesser torque such as ten foot-pound force. Likewise, for a particular job, the wrench operates at no more than ten foot-pound force while the wrench was fully compatible with working at seventy foot-pound force. The wrench never lost its full power, but temporarily used a setting of a lesser power. Also, when the wrench goes back to it full power, it never loses its ability to operate at lesser powers.

The example of the adjustable power ratchet wrench is a powerful analogy for the incarnation. The Son of God, the Almighty, temporarily limited his power to human limits on earth while remaining fully capable of creating new universes and knowing all possibilities. There is no impossibility, self-contradiction, incoherency, absurdity, or unintelligibly in this analogy of the Incarnation. In fact, it appears absurd to insist that a maximally powerful deity could not temporarily limit himself to a finite human life on earth. [6]

The particular power ratchet wrench always has the same potential while functioning at different modes of power at different times. Likewise, the wrench is always a seventy foot-pound force wrench regardless of the foot-pound force in use.

I still need to clarify various details of my perspective of the Incarnation. I'll begin by looking at biblical visions of Christ in Philippians 2:5–8 and Hebrews 1:1–4:

(5) Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
(6) who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
(7) but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
(8) he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
(Philippians 2:5–8 NRSV)

Philippians 2:5–8 teaches that Jesus Christ was both God and human. He also emptied himself to servanthood and obedience to the Father.

(1) Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, (2) but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. (3) He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (4) having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:1–4 NRSV)

Hebrews 1:1–4 teaches the following: the Son of God and the Father created the worlds; the Son sustains all things by his powerful word; the Son sat at the right hand of the Father after the Son made purification for sins. This vision of the Son as creator and sustainer of all worlds indicates that the Son is omnipotent (almighty power within physical consistency), omniscient, and omnipresent.

These biblical visions also include tension:
1. The Son of God is omnipresent yet took on human nature in the image of God with a finite-sized human body.
2. The Son of God is omniscient yet during his earthly ministry professed ignorance compared to the Father (Mark 13:32).
3. The Son of God created all things and sustains all things yet during his earthly ministry professed ignorance compared to the Father.

THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE SON
In the case of the omnipresent Son, some may suppose that omnipresent nature is logically incompatible with a finite biological human body. However, the incarnate Son in no way was composed only of his biological body. There is no inherent incompatibility with an omnipresent nature joined to a finite biological body. Also, there is no inherent incompatibility with a human nature in the image of God extending omnipresently, regardless that human nature typically belongs to a finite creature.

My favorite analogy that helps to explain the mystery of the Son's omnipresence involves gravity. Gravitational force exists omnipresently in the spacetime universe while the root source of gravity is undetectable to science. In this case, theoretical physics speculation includes that the source of gravity exists in an empirically undetectable hyper-dimension. Also, the ubiquitous empirical evidence of gravitational force in the universe with an undetectable source resulted in science designating gravity as one of the four fundamental forces. Additionally, gravitational force from a body with a finite mass extends without limits.

THE OMNISCIENCE OF THE SON
In the case of the omniscient Son, some may suppose that omniscience is logically incompatible with temporary functional limits of knowledge (ignorance). However, there is no reason why an omniscient person cannot figure out how to temporarily function with limited knowledge for a special mission.

My model of functional limits in the incarnation pictures the ancient creedal interpretation of the Son incorporating human nature to his divine nature, which consequently resulted in the Son having a mind with two unified natures. The earthly life and death of the Son served multiple purposes that include exemplifying genuine dependence and obedience to the Father. The Son could always access to his omniscience but restrained his mind to limited knowledge while modeling dependence to the Father for our example. Also, a lack of temporary limits on the Son's omniscience might have trivialized his biological and emotional human experience.

Human long-term memory provides a powerful analogy for the temporary functional limits of the Son. Healthy adult humans have a large storage of long-term memory while most of that memory is never consciously thought about on a day-today basis. This vast storage of typically unconscious long-term memory helps to analogize how the Son remained omniscient while functioning with limited knowledge in his human body.

THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE SON
The mystery of the Son sustaining the universe during his earthly ministry remains unclear. The Son temporarily emptied himself and knew less than the Father about cosmic rule. Eventually, the Son mysteriously ascended back to consciously ruling and sustaining all things.
__________

1. James Goetz, "The Partnership Law Model of the Trinity" (2010) URL = http://theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2010/03/partnership-law-model-trinity.html.

2. James Goetz, "Restrained Power Model of the Incarnation" (2011) URL = http://theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/02/restrained-power-model-incarnation.html.

3. James Goetz, "I Believe" (2011), URL = http://theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-believe.html.

4. Goetz, "The Partnership Law Model of the Trinity."

5. Goetz, "Restrained Power Model of the Incarnation."

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2011 James Edward Goetz

Restrained Power Model of the Incarnation

2011-02-22T01:51:00.013-05:00

The mystery of the Incarnation is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, remained fully divine while becoming fully human. Almighty divinity became a human.[1] Many philosophers say that such an incarnation is "impossible, self-contradictory, incoherent, absurd, and unintelligible" because the divinity that supposedly created the universe with almighty power cannot also be a human with finite power.[2] This brief introduction of the "restrained power model of the Incarnation" proposes an analogy of how an almighty deity can temporarily restrain himself to use only finite power.

As stated above, many philosophers claim that an almighty deity is incapable of temporarily limiting himself to human finiteness. However, there are many examples of power with temporary restraints. For example, a particular power ratchet wrench has a maximum torque of seventy foot-pound force while the wrench torque adjusts from one to seventy foot-pound force. In some uses of the wrench, the seventy foot-pound force would destroy the bolt so the wrench is sometimes set to a lesser torque such as ten foot-pound force. Likewise, for a particular job, the wrench operates at no more than ten foot-pound force while the wrench was fully compatible with working at seventy foot-pound force. The wrench never lost its full power, but temporarily used a setting of a lesser power. Also, when the wrench goes back to it full power, it never loses its ability to operate at lesser powers.

The example of the adjustable power ratchet wrench is a powerful analogy for the Incarnation. The Son of God, the Almighty, temporarily limited his power to human limits on earth while remaining fully capable of creating new universes and knowing all possibilities. There is no impossibility, self-contradiction, incoherency, absurdity, or unintelligibly in this analogy of the incarnation. In fact, it appears absurd to insist that a maximally powerful deity could not temporarily limit himself to a finite human life on earth.
__________

1. The term almighty requires a caveat. Almighty means "all power within the context of consistency." For example, an almighty deity cannot make an unbending rod that he cannot bend because this scenario is logically impossible and physically inconsistent. In other words, an almighty deity has maximal power, all possible power.

2. Murray, Michael and Rea, Michael, "Philosophy and Christian Theology", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/christiantheology-philosophy/.

3. Murray, Michael and Rea, Michael, "Philosophy and Christian Theology."

Copyright © 2011 James Edward Goetz

I Believe

2011-02-14T16:35:00.012-05:00

I believe in one God, the only uncreated, always existing with maximal power, knowledge of all possibilities, unlimited love, justice, and as three persons of one indivisible divine nature. The three divine persons eternally and equally share the same indivisible glory, honor, and ability.

I believe God made the substance of all creation. And God revealed the three divine persons as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ remained fully divine while becoming fully human. He ministered teaching, prophecy, and miracles. He died on a cross for our salvation from sin, resurrected from the dead, ascended to the heavenly dimensions, and poured out the Holy Spirit while establishing the church of saints. Christ will return, judge the living and the dead, and fully establish his glorious kingdom on earth.

updated 5/17/11

Copyright © 2011 James Edward Goetz

Divine Omniscience and Probabilistic Events

2011-02-06T08:46:00.003-05:00

I submitted a question to William Lane Craig (http://www.reasonablefaith.org):

Dear Dr. Craig,

I'm a trinitarian and assume Molinist divine omniscience (middle knowledge (MK) and exhaustive definite foreknowledge [EDF]). My Molinist assumption recently included that EDF in a universe (spacetime continuum plus possible hyper-dimensions for the heavenly realms and perhaps gravity) with probabilistic mechanics is possible for an omniscient deity when the deity creates the universe with static time, but EDF is not possible when the deity creates the universe with dynamic time. For example, I suppose that God could foreknow the outcome of a fair coin toss only if the fair coin toss occurred in static time. Moreover, if God doesn't know the outcome of probabilistic events such as a fair coin toss, then God doesn't know what circumstances his free will creatures would face unless God actually determines the outcome of most probabilistic events. Additionally, I assume that there is no middle ground between EDF and open theism. Given these assumptions, I felt surprised when I read your God, Time, and Eternity (2002) speech and saw that you're a Molinist who holds to a dynamic theory of time. Could you help to explain how God knows the outcome of probabilistic events in a universe with dynamic time?

I will clarify that I hope to find a better answer than saying that the Bible clearly teaches that God knows all truth about the future while philosophical evidence points to a dynamic theory of time. Perhaps somebody might argue that God knowing all truth about future events doesn't necessitate EDF, but I would need an explanation of that. I will also clarify that until I recently reread your 2002 article, I supposed that a dynamic theory of time necessitated open theism while a static theory of time necessitated closed theism, while Molinist closed theism appears to me as the best description of divine omniscience. However, I agree that there are major problems with static time according to your critique and the critiques of others. Likewise, I will try to humbly broaden my imagination of divine omniscience and time.

I suppose that I would reject Molinism if it insisted that most apparently probabilistic events are actually determined. (Hey, I made a counter factual prediction about myself.:) For example, Molinism implies that that God knows the truth about all future probabilistic events. Perhaps we should merely accept this mystery, but I suppose that the cat is out of the bag and the paradox needs an attempt of an explanation.

On my part, I'm contemplating a model that combines MK, EDF, and a dynamic theory of time. I also suppose that since the creation decision, God exists both transcendent to and immanent in the universe. I additionally suppose that God's decision to create the universe included foreordination of all divine intervention during the literal endless temporal progression of the creation that endures. Furthermore, this decision occurred in an instant, while decision making of an omniscient deity in regards to a universe with a literal endless temporal progression would never take longer than an instant. For example, no amount of time and temporal experience could ever help an omniscient deity make a better decision. Given these assumptions, perhaps in some way the creation is in quasi-static time only in the perspective of God's transcendence while the creation is in dynamic time in the perspective of God's imminence. Granted that I need a lot of work on this, but at least I have a thesis statement. Anyway, as I asked above, Could you help to explain how God knows the outcome of probabilistic events in a universe with dynamic time?

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

James Goetz

Conditional Futurism: New Perspective of End-Time Prophecy

2010-07-26T00:52:00.019-04:00

Updated 1/17/12
Wipf and Stock is selling my book Conditional Futurism: New Perspective of End-Time at https://wipfandstock.com/store/Conditional_Futurism_New_Perspective_of_EndTime_Prophecy.

Original Post
Wipf and Stock Publishers contracted me to complete the working title Conditional Futurism: New Perspective of End-Time Prophecy. Prior to this contract, I already posted some blog articles related to the book. See below:

The Conditional Apocalypse of King Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar and the Kings in Revelation

The Kings of the Earth in Heaven

See the Table of Contents below:

1: Conditional Futurism in Sum
2: Interpretation of End-Time Prophecy
3: Genesis and the Mosaic Covenant
4: The Davidic Dynasty and Psalms
5: Isaiah
6: Jeremiah
7: Prince Gog from the Land of Magog
8: Zechariah
9: Daniel
10: The Gospels
11: Acts
12: The Letters of Paul and Hebrews
13: The Letters of Peter, Jude, and John
14: The Eighth King in Revelation
15: Judgment, the Kings of the Earth, and the Nations in Revelation
Subject Index
Author Index
Ancient Document Index

The Partnership Law Model of the Trinity

2010-03-10T17:14:00.009-05:00

This essay briefly introduces the partnership law model of the Trinity, a social and legal model of the Trinity. The model helps to resolve the logical problem of the Trinity, also known as the threeness-oneness problem.

United States corporate general partnerships with three general partners help to model both the threeness and the oneness of the Trinity. For example, in the case of a partnership with three general partners, each partner has complete powers to make binding contracts for the entire partnership. And the three partners are not three partnerships, but only one partnership

Caveats to the partnership law model include the following. First, general partnerships have a beginning in time and face dissolution while the inseparable Trinity has always existed and will always exist. Second, each of the general partners has contractual powers that represent the entire partnership but nothing else about each of the partners represents the entire partnership while the partners in the Trinity always represent the entire Trinity in everything. Third, general partners have equal contractual powers that represent the entire partnership but each partner has different strengths and gifts in other areas while the partners in the Trinity have equal strengths and gifts in everything. Fourth, general partners might work disharmoniously while the partners in the Trinity always work harmoniously.

The partnership law model of the Trinity improves traditional social trinitarianism. For example, a traditional social trinitarian might say that Peter, Paul, and Mary were three members of one group. The three members were not three groups, but only one group. However, none of Peter, Paul, and Mary had powers of the entire group in any area of the group, unless they formed a general partnership with each other. Likewise, partnership law presents a limited analogy of how each person of the Trinity represents the entire tripersonal deity while preserving fundamental Christian doctrine such as monotheism, the original deity of the Son of God, and the social relationship of the Father and Son.

Copyright © 2010 James Edward Goetz

The Kings of the Earth in Heaven

2010-02-03T23:28:00.017-05:00

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. (Revelation 21:24 NRSV)

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. (Revelation 22:14 NRSV)

INTRODUCTION
This essay briefly explores the implications of "the kings of the earth" getting slaughtered by the sword while opposing the return of Jesus Christ (Revelation 19:19-21) before "the kings of the earth" enjoy the bliss in the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:24). This article concludes that John the Revelator used these images to teach that various kings of the earth and other people in heaven died lost before enjoying salvation.

John the Revelator borrowed the phrase "the kings of the earth" from various Old Testament passages. For example, 1 Kings 10.23 says Solomon possessed more riches and wisdom than all the kings of the earth. And Psalm 2:2 says the kings of the earth oppose the Lord and his anointed one. And Psalm 89:27 refers to King David as the firstborn among the kings of the earth. And Psalm 102:15 says the nations and the kings of the earth will fear the Lord. And Psalm 138:4-5 says the kings of the earth will praise and sing to the Lord.

The New Testament uses the phrase "the kings of the earth" nine times while John the Revelator used it eight of those times. First, a prayer in Acts 4:24-30 refers to the kings of the earth opposing the Lord while quoting Psalm 2:2. Second, Revelation 1:5 declares Jesus Christ the ruler of the kings of the earth. Third, Revelation 6:15 says that the kings of the earth hide in caves to dodge the wrath of God. Fourth, Revelation 17:2 says the kings of the earth have sex with the great whore. Fifth, Revelation 17:18 says the great whore, Babylon the great, rules over the kings of the earth. Sixth, Revelation 18:3 repeats that the kings of the earth have sex with the great whore. Seventh, Revelation 18:9 says that the kings of the earth will weep and wail over the destruction of the great whore. Eighth, Revelation 19:19-21 says the beast and the kings of the earth gather to fight against the return of Christ before the army of Christ throws the beast into the lake of fire and kills the kings of the earth. Ninth, Revelation 21:24 say the kings of the earth bring their glory into the New Jerusalem in heaven.

The Bible teaches remarkable paradox about the kings of the earth. For example, the Old Testament teaches on one hand that the kings of the earth oppose the Lord and on another hand they will sing praises to the Lord. And Revelation paradoxically implies the following: Christ rules over the kings of the earth while the great whore rules over them; Christ rules over the kings of the earth while they fight against the return of Christ; the kings of the earth transition from getting slaughtered by the returning Christ to enjoying the bliss in heaven.

REVELATION 19:11-22:5 & 22:14-15
Revelation 19:11-22:5 teaches about the culmination of human history with vivid images. These verses teach about the return of Christ, the Battle of Harmagedon, the first resurrection, the thousand-year banishment of Satan into the bottomless pit, the thousand-year reign of Christ and his saints, the final satanic battle, the great white throne judgment, and the nations enjoying the bliss in heaven.

Revelation 19:11-16 teaches about Christ and his heavenly armies preparing for the triumphant return of Christ. And Revelation 19:17-21 describe the notorious Battle of Harmagedon (Armageddon), which gets its name from the satanic plot against the Lord in Revelation 16:13-6. Verses 19:17-18 say an angel prophesies that many people great and small who oppose Christ will die. Verse 19:19 follows by quickly describing the demonic beast (Antichrist) leading the kings of the earth with their armies while they gather to battle against Christ. Then verse 19:20 quickly describes the capture of the beast and the false prophet, which finishes with the two of them getting thrown alive into the lake of fire. And verse 19:21 describes the destruction of the kings and armies that oppose Christ.

Revelation 20:1 describes the appearance of an angel holding the key to the bottomless pit and a chain. And verse 20:2-3 says that the angel captures Satan, binds him with the chain, and throws him into the bottomless pit for a thousand years.

The first sentence of Revelation 20:4 describes various thrones with authoritative judges. And the second sentence of 20:4 says that those martyred by the forces of the beast resurrect back to life and reign with Christ for a thousand years, the Thousand Year Reign. And verses 20:5-6 clarify that this is the first resurrection and the rest of dead come to life after the Thousand Year Reign, and those in the first resurrection receive an extraordinary blessing.

Revelation 20:7-10 describes a release of Satan after the Thousand Year Reign. Satan emerges from the bottomless pit and again deceives the nations of the earth to attack the saints of Christ, an attempted repeat of Harmagedon. A satanic army as numerous as the sands of the sea attack the saints in Jerusalem while fire falls from the sky and consumes the satanic attackers. Satan gets thrown into the lake of fire along with the beast and false prophet, and the three of them suffer torment day and night forever.

Revelation 20:11-15 teaches about Judgment Day. God appears on a great white throne while the earth and heaven disappear from the presence of God and his throne. God judges all people according the record of their life. And all people without record in the book of life get thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:1-8 teaches about the bliss in the new heaven and the new earth. God makes all things new. And God lives with his people while God brings an end to death, mourning, crying, and pain. And outside the new heaven and the new earth are unrepentant sinners in the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:9-27 teaches more about the bliss in heaven while using images of a glorious city. For example, each of the four city walls measure one thousand four hundred miles long and high while they shine like the glory of God. Each wall had three gates made of pearls while the great street of the city was made of pure gold. The city temple is the Lord God and the Lamb while they light the city. The nations walk in the light of God. The kings of the earth bring their glory into the city. And nothing impure ever enters the city.

Revelation 22:1-5 compares the bliss in heaven to the Garden of Eden. The river of the water of life flows from the throne of God down the middle of the great street of gold. And each side of the river stood the tree of life with twelve kinds of fruit bearing fruit each month. And the leaves of the tree bring healing to the nations. And the people will see God while they worship him, and they will reign forever.

Revelation 22:14-15 quotes Christ speaking in the epilogue of Revelation:

[14] Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. [15] Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practises falsehood. (Revelation 22:14-15 NRSV)

JUDGMENT AND THE KINGS OF THE EARTH
Focusing on the phrase "the kings of the earth" in Revelation illuminates the paradox of the kings of the earth opposing Christ and getting slaughtered during Harmagedon before the kings of the earth enjoy the bliss in heaven. The juxtaposition of these images implies the postmortem salvation of the kings of the earth and other lost dead. And the paradox in Revelation thickens when comparing the images of postmortem salvation with images of Judgment Day and everlasting torment in the lake of fire.

A literal interpretation of Revelation 19:11-22:5 leaves various gaps in the details of sequential events. For example, the kings of the earth go from getting slaughtered during the return of Christ to enjoying heaven while events between the slaughter and heaven include the Thousand Year Reign, the satanic battle after the Thousand Year Reign, and Judgment Day. This sequence of events never clarifies if the kings of the earth would enter salvation before or after Judgment Day.

Revelation never clarifies the chronology of the salvation for the kings of the earth in regards to Judgment Day while the epilogue of Revelation quotes Christ teaching about salvation. For example, Revelation 22:14-15 teaches that "those who wash their robes" enter the gates of heaven as opposed to those outside heaven and presumably inside the lake of fire. This implies that people must wash their robes to enter heaven. Likewise, God requires the condition that people must wash their robes to enter heaven. And this washing of robes relates to Revelation 1:5, which teaches that Christ frees believers from their sins by his blood. Likewise, those who wash their robes accept the gift of salvation from Christ. And those who accept the gift of salvation from Christ genuinely repent from disobedience to Christ such as murder and falsehood.

As stated earlier, various kings of the earth get slaughtered during the return of Christ and enjoy heaven after Judgment Day. And Revelation never clarifies if these kings of the earth accept salvation before or after Judgment Day. If some of them accept salvation before Judgment Day, then they would accept salvation while suffering in Hades during the Thousand Year Reign. And if some of them would accept salvation after Judgment Day, then they would accept salvation after suffering in the lake of fire.

CONCLUSION
The biblical prospect of various kings of the earth accepting salvation in Hades or the lake of fire emphasizes the symbolism of biblical images related to finality during Judgment Day and never ending punishment. And John the Revelator juxtaposes the kings of the earth suffering judicial wrath and accepting salvation. This suggests the possibility of all people eventually accepting salvation, which this essay calls "quasi-universalism". Likewise, John the Revelator taught quasi-universalism.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2010 James Edward Goetz

Nebuchadnezzar and the Kings in Revelation

2009-05-05T02:22:00.029-04:00

INTRODUCTION
Revelation refers to the city of Babylon and Babylonian Kings, which presumably includes the prominent Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. For example, Revelation symbolically uses the word Babylon a total of seven times while describing the evil capital city of all nations on earth. Revelation moreover describes a beast with seven heads who represents a succession of seven kings followed by an eighth king who eventually rules the earth from the city symbolically called Babylon.

THE FALL OF BABYLON THE GREAT
Revelation (14:8, 18:2) declares, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!" These verses declare the final destruction of the capital city of political and religious forces that oppose God's people while these verses refer to Old Testament judgments against the city of Babylon.

The Old Testament describes two falls of Babylon. First, in 689 BC, Assyrian King Sennacherib sacked Babylon. Second, in 539 BC, Persians ruled by Cyrus the Great overthrew Babylon. Isaiah (13,14:1-23, 21:1-10) presumably describes Sennacherib sacking Babylon while 2 Kings 17:24-28 describes Sennacherib exiling conquered Babylonians to Samaria. Also, Isaiah (46:1-2, 47:1-5), Jeremiah 50-51, Habakkuk 2, and Daniel (2, 5, 7) describe Cyrus overthrowing the Babylonian coregency of King Nabonidus and King Bellshazer.1

THE RISE OF ANCIENT BABYLON
Accounts in Genesis about "Babel" might refer to Babylon while no other known ancient writing or artifacts corroborate these accounts. For example, Genesis 10:8-12 says that "Nimrod" established Babel and six other cities such as Akkad and Nineveh. And Genesis 11:1-9 describes the people of Babel defiantly building a tower or ziggurat to reach the heavens in the sky while the Lord stopped the building plans.

Remains from ancient Babylon lie beside the Euphrates River in modern day Babil Province, Iraq, about fifty-five miles south of Baghdad. The city of Babylon lain in Lower Mesopotamia, which is also southern Iraq. Cities developed in Lower Mesopotamia by 4000 BC while civilization developed in Lower Mesopotamia by 3100 BC. According to the short chronology of the Near Eastern Bronze Age, the earliest discovered written records about Babylon date to the twenty-third century after Sargon of Akkad conquered Mesopotamia. Babylon developed into a polytheistic holy city with many temples while priests ruled the city. Second millennium highlights include the rise and fall of the Old Babylonian dynasty. In 1830, Sumuabum established the Babylonian dynasty. King Hammurabi, the fifth successor, reigned from 1728-1686 while extending his rule and laws in the Code of Hammurabi over all Mesopotamia. Finally, in 1531, the Hittites overthrew the last successor of the Babylonian dynasty.

During the first millennium BC, the Assyrian Empire mostly dominated Babylon and the rest of Mesopotamia until 626 when Nabopolassar led Babylon in a successful revolt. In 612, Nabopolassar allied with the Medes from Persia and sacked the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Nineveh, which lain beside the Tigris River near modern day Mosul, Iraq. This victory inaugurated the Neo-Babylonian Empire, also called the Chaldean Empire.

The last of the Assyrians fled to Harran, in modern day southeast Turkey. In 608, Nabopolassar captured Harran. Then the last of the Assyrians fled to Carchemish on the bank of the Euphrates River near modern day Aleppo, Syria. These Assyrians allied with Pharaoh Neco II of Egypt against the Babylonians in the 605 Battle of Carchemish. Babylonian Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, commanded the Babylonian army while defeating the Assyrians and Egyptians at Carchemish. The Battle of Carchemish turned large parts of southwest Asia into the hands of Babylon. Nabopolassar died around this time and the conquering Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon to assume the throne of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Nebuchadnezzar became a renown ruler in southwest Asia and the most powerful Neo-Babylonian king. He built many temples and his famous hanging gardens, which historians declared as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar also collected tribute from many vassal kings in his empire.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR AND THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH
Habakkuk 1:2-11 and Jeremiah 25-26 prophesied the Babylonian conquest of Judah. And Jeremiah (25:9, 27:6, 43:10) says the Lord sovereignly made Nebuchadnezzar a servant to punish the wicked Kingdom of Judah. In 604, one year after the Battle of Carchemish, King Jehoiachim of Judah paid tribute to Nebuchadnezzar. But three years later, Jehoiachim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar (2 King 24:1). Nebuchadnezzar proceeded to organize attacks against Judah until the 597 conquest of Judah (2 Kings 24:2-17). Eleven years later in 586, King Zedekiah of Judah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Judah including the Temple in the capital city Jerusalem.

DANIEL AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR
Daniel (2, 4) says that the man Daniel held court positions for Nebuchadnezzar. These chapters describe apocalypses dreamed by Nebuchadnezzar and interpreted by Daniel. Daniel 4 also teaches that apocalyptic judgments are conditional2 while Nebuchadnezzar eventually came to his senses and repented.3

THE BEAST IN REVELATION
Revelation (11:7, 13:1-15, 17:1-18, 16:10-16, 19:19-20, 20:10) describes a beast with seven heads and ten horns who will rule the earth from the city of Babylon. Here is a summary of these verses.

Revelation 11:7 says that the beast who comes from the bottomless pit wars against and conquers two powerful prophets. And nothing more is written about the beast until Revelation 13.

Revelation 12 says that the devil, also called Satan, appears as a great red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns. This dragon wars against holy angels and humanity. And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.

Revelation 13:1-5 says that the dragon with seven heads and ten horns stood on the sand of the seashore while the beast rose out of the sea. The beast also had ten horns and seven heads while each horn had a crown and the heads had blasphemous names written on them. The beast with seven heads looked like a leopard with feet like a bear and mouths like a lion. The dragon gave its power, throne, and authority to the beast. One of the heads of the beast appeared to die from a deathly wound, but the head recovered from the deathly wound. The recovery from the deathly wound amazed multitudes of humans while all of them worshiped both the dragon and the beast. Nobody thought that they could fight against the beast.

Revelation 13:6-10 says that the beast spoke proud and blasphemous words while exercising authority over all the nations of the earth for forty-two months. And the beast made war against the saints.

Revelation 13:11-18 describes a second beast with two horns like a lamb and the voice of a dragon. The second beast rose out of the earth while exercising all the authority of the first beast while performing miraculous signs. And the second beast made all people worship the first beast, make an idol in the image of the first beast, worship the idol, and receive a mark on their right hand or forehead, which regulated all commercial trade. And the number of the beast is 666.

Revelation 16:10-11 says that the fifth angel of seven angels of wrath poured his punishment on the throne of the beast while the kingdom of the beast plunged into darkness. The people cursed God because of the pain from the punishment while they did not repent of their evil deeds.

Revelation 16:12-16 says that the sixth angel of seven angels of wrath poured his punishment on the great river Euphrates, which dried up the river. Then three foul spirits came from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. These foul spirits performed miraculous signs and gathered the kings of the earth to battle in a place called Harmagedon.

Revelation 17:1-6 says that an angel describes the great whore who is seated on the many waters. Then a vision shows a woman sitting on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns. Also, the woman was finely dressed and drunk on the blood of saints.

Revelation 17:7-8 says that the angel started to explain details about the mystery of the whore and the beast with seven heads and ten horns. The beast once existed, stopped existing, will reappear by ascending from the bottomless pit, and then go to destruction. Also, all of the unsaved people on earth will be amazed when they see the beast who stopped existing and then reappeared.

Revelation 17:9-14 explains more details about the mystery of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads are both seven mountains and seven kings. Five of the seven kings have already died, and one of the seven kings is living, and the last of the seven kings is yet to come. And the beast that once existed and no longer exists is an eighth king that will come from the seven and go to destruction. Also, the ten horns represent ten regional kings who serve the beast. These ten kings will receive their governmental authority for one hour while joining the beast in a war against the Lamb who is the Lord of lords and King of kings. The Lamb conquers the beast and ten kings.

Revelation 17:15-18 explains that "the waters" where the whore is seated are the nations of the earth and the multitudes of people. And the beast with his ten regional kings will turn with hatred toward the whore and devour her. And the whore represents the great city that rules over the nations of the earth.

Revelation 19:19-20 says that the beast and the regional kings gathered their armies to make war against the returning King of kings and Lord of lords. The beast and the false prophet who is identified as the second beast were captured and throne into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

Revelation 20:10 says the the devil was thrown into the the lake of fire that burns with sulfur along with the beast and the false prophet. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

TYPOLOGY AND REVELATION 17:8-11
Revelation 17:8-11 quotes an angel who helps to interpret the fluid symbolism of the beast with seven heads while establishing a scriptural precedent for typology:

8The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

9This calls for a mind that has wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; also, they are seven kings, 10of whom five have fallen, one is living, and the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain for only a little while. 11As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. (Revelation 17:8-11)

Revelation 17:8 summarizes the fate of the beast that is described in Revelation 11:7-20:10. For example, the first sentence in verse 17:8 implies that that the beast appeared, apparently ceased to exist, reappeared, and finally faced destruction.

Revelation 17:9-10 teaches that the "seven heads" of the beast represent both "seven mountains" and "seven kings" while "seven mountains" refers to the seven hills of Rome. And the seven kings formed a succession of kings. This suggests that "Babylon" in Revelation refers to both Babylon during the Neo-Babylonian Empire and Rome during the Roman Empire while the "seven kings" refers to both Neo-Babylonian kings and Roman emperors.

Revelation 17:11 teaches that the prophecy about the beast resurrecting from physical death and ultimately facing destruction describes an eighth king. Likewise, the activities of this eighth king describes the fate of the beast in according to verses 11:7, 13:1-10, 17:8, 19:19-20 and 20:10.

The eighth king also appears to fit the bill of "the lawless one" in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10. For example, the lawless one is destined for destruction (2:3), sets himself to be worshiped (2:4), is accompanied by supernatural signs and wonders from Satan (2:9-10), and is destroyed by the return of the Lord (2:8) . Likewise, the lawless one is evidently referred to as "antichrist" in 1 John 2:18, commonly called the Antichrist. Also, Revelation 13:1-10 says that the beast reigns for forty-two months (Daniel 9:37),4 sets up an idol of himself, and attacks the saints, which refers to the desolating sacrilege (abomination) described by Daniel and Jesus (Daniel 8:1-25, 9:20-27, 11:31, 12:11; Matthew 24:15-21; Mark 13:14-23; Luke 21:20-24).

All of these verses help to establish a scriptural precedent for typology. Typology involves "prefiguration" (type) and "postfiguration" (antitype). A prefiguration foreshadows a future person, place or event while a postfiguration analogizes a previous person, place, or event. For example, Babylon and the Babylonian kings are a prefiguration of Rome and the Roman emperors. Likewise, Rome and Roman Emperors are a postfiguration of Babylon and Neo-Babylonian kings. Also, the seven kings described in Revelation 17:9-10 are a prefiguration of the eighth king.

Notable ancient prefigurations of the eighth king include Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus IV Epiphanies, Nero, and Titus. For example, as stated earlier, Nebuchadnezzar was the most prominent king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and he organized the 597 BC sack of Jerusalem and the 586 destruction of both Jerusalem and its temple. Likewise, Antiochus IV Epiphanies led the 171 BC overthrow of Jerusalem while slaughtering tens of thousands of Jews and desecrating the temple altar. Also, Roman Emperor Nero sadistically persecuted Christians and reigned until AD 68 during the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War. And Revelation 13:3 and 17:11 apparently alludes to the Nero Redivivus Legend. Moreover, Titus commanded the Roman military in the First Jewish-Roman War during the 70 destruction of Jerusalem while Titus slaughtered an estimated six hundred thousand to one million two hundred thousand Jews and desecrated the Jewish temple.

THE NATURE OF THE EIGHTH KING
The eighth king who is the beast and the final Antichrist will exist, cease to exist, and reappear. This beast ascends from the bottomless pit. The ascent from the bottomless pit teaches about the demonic nature of the beast. Revelation also says that the eighth king comes from the seven kings, which teaches about the human nature of the eighth king. Likewise, the eighth king is both demonic and human while controversy surrounds interpreting the nature and mechanics of the eighth king.

Different interpretations of the demonic nature of the beast include rejecting that Revelation and 2 Thessalonians 2 teach about the final individual human Antichrist. For example, some say that the beast represents Rome and no individual person while they say Rome represents a demonically controlled worldly system that opposes God. This interpretation helps to explain some of the symbols in Revelation while it appears to miss important teaching about the seven kings and the eighth king.

Some interpretors might conclude that Nero is the eighth king because Revelation 13:3 and 17:11 refer to the Nero Redivivus Legend. This would make Nero a prefiguration of the eighth king while I see no strong argument that says Nero fulfilled all prophecy about the eighth king. And if 13:3 and 17:11 refer to the Nero Redivivus Legend, then these verses would have been written after the origin of the legend while Revelation implies that the eighth king is a future person.

Some interpretors might conclude that the eighth king is an ordinary human leader possessed by an archdemon. However, I doubt that Revelation teaches that the eighth king is merely possessed. For example, both Revelation 16:12-16 and 20:10 imply strong similarities with the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. They appear as a twisted triumvirate or trinity of evil while organizing Harmagedon and suffering in the lake of fire. This strongly suggests that the beast and the false prophet are more than possessed humans while they are archdemons themselves.

I propose that both the beast and false prophet are an archdemon who incarnated into an angelic-human hypostatic union. I borrow the phrase hypostatic union from the Third Ecumenical Council teaching about how Jesus Christ is the union of a divine nature and a human nature while Christ is both completely God and completely human.

I proposed that Genesis 18:1-19:25 teaches about angelic humans.5 For example, Genesis 18:1-19:25 begins with the Lord appearing to Abraham while Abraham sees three men. These men are three angels (or the Lord and two angels) visiting Abraham. The angels conversed, ate, and drank with Abraham. Later, the men from Sodom wanted to sexually rape two of the angels. These details teach that the angels had a digestive tract and sex appeal, which implies that these angels appeared in human bodies. Since angels in the Old Testament tended to suddenly appear and disappear, then I suppose that these adult human bodies were suddenly created instead of conceived in a woman. Regardless of the origin of these human bodies, we see people who are both angel and human while I believe these are examples of an angelic-human hypostatic union.

Other possible Old Testament cases of angels appearing as men include Genesis 6:1-4 and Numbers 13:33. Apocryphal interpretation of these verses teach that fallen angels had sex with human women while producing hybrid giant "Nephilim". However, the Apocryphal teaching about angel-human hybrids is inconsistent with Numbers 13:33 saying that the Anakites descended from the Nephilim, because mammalian hybrids have little or no ability to reproduce. Likewise, the case of the Anakites implies that the Nephilim had both a human father and a human mother, which would be the case if the father were an angelic human. Also, I suppose that Genesis 6:1-4 and Numbers 13:33 teach that fallen, angelic human men impregnated the human mothers of the Nephilim.

The Mosaic tradition of fallen angels appearing as human men helps us to understand the nature of the beast and the false prophet apart from the difference that the beast and false prophet supposedly have human parents. Also, I suppose God sovereignly allows the union of an archdemon with a human zygote, which results in an fallen, angelic human in the cases of the beast and false prophet.

TYPOLOGY AND THE REPENTANCE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR
I find Nebuchadnezzar the most interesting prefiguration of the beast because Nebuchadnezzar repented according to Daniel 4. Most futurists assume that the beast cannot repent and has no choice but to fulfill his or her scriptural destiny of doom. However, as stated in the section "DANIEL AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR", Daniel 4 teaches that apocalyptic judgments are conditional. Likewise, we see that apocalyptic judgments are subject to conditions and Nebuchadnezzar is a repentant prefiguration of the beast.

The dynamics of apocalyptic judgments implies that we do not know if the beast or the false prophet will repent instead of facing their apocalyptic doom while we learn some important lessons from this. For example, there is a lot of dogmatic teaching in evangelical circles that ignores the conditional dynamics of apocalyptic judgments while some of this misdirected dogma generates misdirected hype. Likewise, we want to avoid misinterpreting scripture. Also, this teaches us more about 1 Timothy 2:1-4:

1First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4 NRSV)

Paul wrote this during the reign of Nero and it applies for every generation of Christians. Christians need to pray for the salvation of every political leader, even if the leader turns out to be the beast. In sum, the Lord desires that the beast and every prefiguration of the beast will be saved.
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1Controversy surrounds the dating and authorship of many verses in Isaiah, Daniel, and the rest of the Old Testament. See William Sanford LaSor et al., Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament, 2nd Edition, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996).
2James Goetz, "The Conditional Apocalypse of King Nebuchadnezzar", (TheoPerspectives, 2009), http://theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2009/02/conditional-apocalypse-king.htm.
3James Goetz, "Conditional Futurism in Sum", (TheoPerspectives, 2008), http://theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/11/conditional-futurism.html.
4Forty-two months refers to the "half of the week" (half of seven years) of "abomination that desolates" in Daniel 9:37.
5James Goetz, "Orthodoxy and Gregory of Nyssa's Universalism", (TheoPerspectives, 2009), http://theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/10/orthodoxy-and-gregory-of-nyssas.html.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2009 James Edward Goetz

The Conditional Apocalypse of King Nebuchadnezzar

2009-02-11T19:20:00.020-05:00

Many Christian scholars hold to futurism, which teaches that apocalyptic judgments such as the judgments in Revelation are unconditional future prophecy. However, careful Bible study indicates that the outcome of prophetic judgments are conditional. For example, the apocalypse in Daniel 4:19-27 along with classical prophecies in Jeremiah 18:5-10 and Ezekiel 33:12-16 teach that the outcome of prophetic judgments are conditional. When the Lord speaks a prophetic judgment against a nation or individual human, then genuine repentance of the nation or human will alter the outcome of the judgment. The word and purposes of the God never alter while the outcome of the word of the God can vary.1

This brief article examines the scriptural precedence in Daniel 4:19-27, which indicates that apocalyptic judgments are subject to conditions:

Then Daniel, who was called Belteshazzar, was severely distressed for a while. His thoughts terrified him. The king said, "Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or the interpretation terrify you." Belteshazzar answered, "My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies! The tree that you saw, which grew great and strong, so that its top reached to heaven and was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and which provided food for all, under which animals of the field lived, and in whose branches the birds of the air had nests--it is you, O king! You have grown great and strong. Your greatness has increased and reaches to heaven, and your sovereignty to the ends of the earth. And whereas the king saw a holy watcher coming down from heaven and saying, 'Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze, in the grass of the field; and let him be bathed with the dew of heaven, and let his lot be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him’--this is the interpretation, O king, and it is a decree of the Most High that has come upon my lord the king: You shall be driven away from human society, and your dwelling shall be with the wild animals. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen, you shall be bathed with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you, until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals, and gives it to whom he will. As it was commanded to leave the stump and roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be reestablished for you from the time that you learn that Heaven is sovereign. Therefore, O king, may my counsel be acceptable to you: atone for your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged." (Daniel 4:19-27 NRSV)

Daniel interpreted the symbols in the apocalypse dreamt by Nebuchadnezzar. The Most High, who is God Most High, decreed that Nebuchadnezzar would live like a wild animal for seven periods of time until he would acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of the earth. This implies that Nebuchadnezzar would lose his throne for seven periods of time. Many scholars interpret that the seven periods of time mean "seven years" while the seven periods of time could mean "seven indefinite periods of time". Daniel also interpreted that Nebuchadnezzar could repent and alter the outcome of the decree of God in this apocalyptic judgment. For example, Daniel advised Nebuchadnezzar to turn from sin to righteousness and mercy for the oppressed so that Nebuchadnezzar might avoid the judgment decreed by God. This agrees with Jeremiah 18:5-10 and Ezekiel 33:12-16 teaching that genuine repentance of a wicked nation or a wicked person alters the outcome of a prophetic judgment. Likewise, this scriptural apocalypse dreamt by King Nebuchadnezzar teaches a precedent that the outcome of apocalyptic judgments with apparent set periods of time are conditional.

1James Goetz, "Conditional Futurism in Sum", (TheoPerspectives, 2008), http://theoperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/11/conditional-futurism.html; F. Furman Kearley, "The Conditional Nature of Prophecy: A Vital Exegetical and Hermeneutical Principle", (Montgomery: Apologetics Press, undated), http://www.apologeticspress.org/rr/reprints/Conditional-Nature-of-Prophecy.pdf.

Copyright © 2009 James Edward Goetz

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Conditional Futurism in Sum

2008-11-18T21:32:00.017-05:00

My eschatology turned upside down after I studied the Bible verses referenced in the F. Furman Kearley article, "The Conditional Nature of Prophecy: A Vital Exegetical and Hermeneutical Principle".1 For example, Hebrew prophets such as Jeremiah (18:5-10) and Ezekiel (33:12-16) clearly teach that the outcome of prophetic judgments are conditional. The word and purposes of the Lord never alter while the outcome of the word of the Lord can vary. When the Lord speaks a prophetic judgment against a nation or individual human, then genuine repentance of the nation or human will alter the outcome of the judgment. And this conditional nature of prophecy applied to all the divinely inspired prophetic judgments written in the canonical books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Kearley also applies the conditional nature of prophecy to end-time prophecies. He says, "If the conditional element were accepted, this would constitute a giant step toward the unity of classical premillennialists, dispensationalists, amillennialists, and postmillennialists."

Before I carefully studied the nature of prophetic judgment according to the Hebrew prophets, I loosely held to premillennialism. I believed in the Millennial Reign after the return of the Lord while I saw a lot of symbolism in Revelation and never insisted that the Reign had to literally last one thousand years. And I strongly believed that 2 Thessalonians 2 clearly teaches about a final human Antichrist who would manifest before the return of the Lord. Likewise, I held to futurism. My futurism also incorporated preterist and postbiblical typologies. For example, I saw Hitler as a postbiblical type of the final Antichrist.

After I carefully studied the nature of prophetic judgment according to the Hebrew prophets, I remained a futurist and embraced the conditional nature of prophetic judgments, which I call "conditional futurism". For example, I still believe that a final human Antichrist will manifest before the return of the Lord. And this Antichrist can read about his pending doom and decide to repent in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not saying that we can depend on the final Antichrist repenting before the return of the Lord, but we need to understand the nature of prophetic judgments and pray for the salvation of all political leaders according to 1 Timothy 2:1-4.

On one hand, the Bible teaches about a type Antichrist who repented. For example, Revelation refers to the Babylonian Kingdom while describing Antichrist forces. This suggests that Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar was a type Antichrist. And Nebuchadnezzar repented (Daniel 1-4). On the other hand, we cannot depend on the repentance of the final Antichrist before the return of the Lord because Acts 3:19-23 teaches that some people can choose to reject Christ and face destruction. According to Conditional Futurism, the final Antichrist could repent or fulfill his destiny of doom.
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1F. Furman Kearley, "The Conditional Nature of Prophecy: A Vital Exegetical and Hermeneutical Principle", (Montgomery, AL: Apologetics Press, undated), http://www.apologeticspress.org/rr/reprints/Conditional-Nature-of-Prophecy.pdf.

Copyright © 2008 James Edward Goetz

The Evangelical Universalist

2008-09-19T17:09:00.003-04:00

Gregory Macdonald pseudonymously wrote (2006) The Evangelical Universalist. And Macdonald started a blog http://evangelicaluniversalist.blogspot.com, which spawned a forum board http://www.evangelicaluniversalist.com/forum/index.php.

I like Macdonald's approach to evangelical universalism, for example, (4/30/2008) Responses to evangelical objections to the orthodoxy of universalism:

'So what do the "evangelical" universalists believe? Much the same as any other evangelical. They believe that God is triune and created the world ex nihilo; they believe that humans are created in this God's image; they believe that human rebellion separates us from God and deserves punishment; they accept the final authority of the Scriptures for matters of Christian faith; they believe that the Father sent his one and only Son as a human being (who did not cease to be divine) to live as our representative, to reveal the Father and to atone for our sins through his death on the cross; they believe that through his resurrection eternal life is available to those who trust in Christ; they believe in salvation by grace (not merit), through faith in Christ (not works); they believe in the return of Christ and the coming day of judgment; they even believe in hell!'

Please visit and comment on the forum board The Evangelical Universalist.

The Restoration of the City or Locality Church and Apostolic Leadership

2008-06-05T22:46:00.043-04:00

This is the seventh post in a chain blog on the restoration of the New Testament model of the city church. Alan Knox kicked off the chain blog with The Assembling of the Church: City Church - A Chain Blog.

I've had a vision for the restoration of city or locality churches and apostolic leadership since 1985. I caught the vision a few months after I was gloriously saved and attending an independent Pentecostal church which taught about the restoration of city churches and apostolic leadership. I heard various pastors and itinerant ministers describe New Testament church government in terms of five-fold ministry. Some of those teachings stuck with for over twenty years through both encouraging and disillusioning church experiences.

I must admit that at one point I developed an arrogant attitude while I thought that churches which rejected five-fold ministry would quickly fall apart while fellowships that governed themselves according to five-fold ministry would take over the world-wide church. For example, I graduated an Assemblies of God (AG) Bible college in 1989 while I rejected a part-time AG ministry position and thought that God would never again start a revival in an AG church. Then, I spent a few years with a church governed by five-fold ministry while I had some encouragement and also experienced disillusionment. The kickers came in 1995 when the Brownsville Revival started in an AG church and in 1996 when my home town State College Assembly of God in Pennsylvania began to show signs of renewal. God strongly spoke to me about these events. I needed to repent of my view that God wouldn't pour out revival in churches with a less than perfect New Testament model of church government. And I went as far as getting ministry credentials with the AG for a few years.

Now I'll back up and explain what five-fold ministry means to readers who never or barely heard of five-fold ministry. It's based on various passages including Ephesians 4:11-13, "The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ."

Many proponents of five-fold ministry say that the above passage teaches about five types of ministry: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. On the other hand, many interpretors say Ephesians 4:11-13 teaches about four types of ministry because "some pastors and teachers" refers to one type of ministry, a pastor-teacher. And three of the four types of ministries are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28. I lean toward seeing four types of ministry in Ephesians 4:11-13 and call it four-fold ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13 teaches that apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers prepare and bring unity to the body of Christ. There's little controversy about the roles of evangelists and pastor-teachers in most evangelical churches, but great controversy surrounds claims of modern day apostles and prophets.

Some evangelicals such as evangelical Methodists attend churches with an episcopal government while episcopal governments assume an unbroken apostolic succession going back to the New Testament church. In this model, episcopal bishops are supposed apostolic leaders.

On the other hand, most evangelicals reject the legitimacy of unbroken apostolic succession. I see this rejection broken down into two categories: one, apostolic government ceased with the New Testament apostles; two, apostolic succession miserably backslid while God is restoring genuine apostolic leadership in the church.

I never saw an argument which opposed the idea that the Early Church unanimously accepted apostolic succession. And the NT apostles included more than Paul and those who witnessed the ministry of Christ. For example, Acts 14:14 and 1 Corinthians 9:1-6 teach that Barnabas was an apostle. And 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2:6 teaches that Silas and Timothy along with Paul had apostolic authority in Thessalonica. And Titus 1:5 describes Titus carrying out apostolic ministry in Crete. And Romans 16:7 implies that Andronicus and Junias were outstanding apostles or outstanding companions of apostles.

The Early Church eventually developed a three-tier government with bishops, presbyters/elders, and deacons. And the bishops were the supposed successors of the original apostles while the presbyters were the second level of church government. However, the New Testament teaches that elders/presbyters are also bishops/elders per Acts 20:25-28 and Titus 1:5-7. So the distinction between elders/presbyters and bishops/elders is a church tradition apart from the Bible.

Here I'll briefly describe my interpretation of NT church governmental tiers. The NT church described a four-tier government: 1) apostles, 2) elders/bishops, 3) deacons, 4) the congregation. For example, Acts 6:1-6 says that the apostles appointed deacons who were selected by the congregation. And Acts 15:22 says that the apostles and elders with the consent of the whole congregation made a church government decision. Likewise, Acts 6:1-6 teaches that apostles and deacons and the congregation are different levels of government while Acts 15:22 teaches that apostles and elders and the congregation are different levels of government. And this adds up to the four-tier church government listed above.

The four-tier government integrates with the four-fold ministry. For example, a prophet could be an elder or an apostle. In the case of Silas, Acts 15:32 says that Silas was a prophet while 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2:6 implies that Silas also became an apostle. And I suppose that the four-fold ministries of evangelist and pastor-teacher could be at the level of elder or apostle.

I briefly outlined the NT teachings about four-fold ministry and four-tier government to set a foundation to see basic structures in the city church. And many Christians look forward to the restoration of the city or locality church before the Lord returns.

I see controversy in any attempt apply NT city church government to the contemporary church. For example, I reject unbroken apostolic succession while I understand that many of my brothers and sisters in the Lord believe in unbroken apostolic succession. On the other hand, while I reject that church tradition, I also acknowledge that a bishop selected according to the tradition of unbroken apostolic succession could also be a genuine apostle.

I heard many people say that the apostleship of Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and Titus are merely examples of people called to missions. I don't see that interpretation flowing from the Bible. These apostles were Ephesians 4 apostles while Ephesians 4 apostles didn't cease after the death of Paul and those who witnessed the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Now, we'll answer the following question. Who is a contemporary apostle? First, apostles are called by God to be apostles (1 Corinthians 12:28 and many other verses). Second, apostles meet the Pauline requirements for elders/overseers (1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1, 2 John 1, 3 John 1). Third, apostles are leaders of elders (Titus 1:5, 1 Peter 5:1, and many other verses).

Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:12 also wrote that apostles are marked by miracles. And James 5:14-15 says that elders minister healing to the sick. And a modern day restoration of biblical miracles and healings should be part of the restoration of apostolic ministry and the city church.

Some ministerial fellowships recognize apostles (apart from the claim of unbroken apostolic succession) who oversees various pastors and ministry leaders. And this represents a small fraction of the church. But there are many other leaders of pastors and ministry leaders in various denominations using various structures of church government which do not use the title "apostle". Many of these leaders of pastors are apostles regardless of official title.

All of these modern day apostles need to reach across doctrinal and cultural lines while learning to work together in unity. For example, Ephesians 4:11-13 says that apostles and other four-fold ministers equip the saints and bring unity to the body of Christ. Likewise, unity in the body of Christ should be a primary goal of all modern day apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors.

Both Paul and John the Revelator wrote to seven city churches. And modern day congregations in the same city or locality need to work together in unity. The apostles and elders in each locality need to look at the bigger goal of building up the church and reaching the lost in their locality instead only building their congregation with little concern for the growth of the locality church.

Does this mean that one day there will be only one senior apostle or senior elder per locality? God help us if locality churches focus on a senior apostle or elder (Mark 9:45-48, 10:35-45). Apostles in Acts typically ministered in teams. For example, an apostle such as Barnabas may switch back and forth from the roles of senior ministry leader and associate ministry leader. And little if any fanfare went to the ranking of the apostles. And Paul details qualifications for elders/overseers while he never describes the selection of a senior elder/overseer.

The restoration of locality churches will coincide with the rise of apostolic leaders working in unity. And this restoration of unity will prepare the body of Christ and help lead many more people to Christ (John 17:20-21, Ephesians 4:11-13).

I thank the late John Carr for his clear and passionate preaching and writing about the restoration of the city church and apostolic ministry.

Copyright © 2008 James Edward Goetz

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Links and Chain Blog Guidelines

Chain blog rules:

1. If you would like to write the next blog post (link) in this chain, leave a comment stating that you would like to do so. If someone else has already requested to write the next link, then please wait for that blog post and leave a comment there requesting to write the following link.
2. Feel free to leave comments here and discuss items in this blog post without taking part in the actual “chain”. Your comments and discussion are very important in this chain blog.
3) When you write a link in this chain, please reply in the comments of all previous links to let everyone know that your link is ready. Also, please try to keep an updated list of links in the chain at the bottom of your post, and please include these rules at the bottom of your post.

1. Alan Knox, The Assembling of the Church: City Church - A Chain Blog
2. Charlie Wallace, City Church: Meeting
3. David Rogers, Roadblocks on the Path to City Church
4. Steve Sensenig, The Major Roadblock to a City Church
5. Paul Grabill, The Resurrection of the City Church: Who Will Move the Stone?
6. Jon Amos, A City Church Thought Experiment
7. James Goetz, The Restoration of the City or Locality Church and Apostolic Leadership
8. Alan Knox, The Assembling of the Church: Unity and the Church in a City

Day by Day Renewal and Truth

2008-04-18T21:38:00.018-04:00

INTRODUCTION
Day by day, God renews the inner nature of believers (2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:16). I learned how to overcome obstacles to my day by day renewal when I experienced and accepted God's loving truth about various memories in my life. God renewed my thinking and set me free when I experienced God’s loving truth.

DAY BY DAY RENEWAL
The great mysteries in Scripture include that in some ways our salvation in Jesus Christ is instant while in other ways our salvation is progressive. For example, Romans 5:1-2 teaches that God instantly justifies new believers while Romans 12:2 teaches about a progressive transformation and renewal. And 2 Corinthians 5:17 teaches that every believer is a new creation while 2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:16 teaches about a progressive, day by day renewal.

God leads us in a day by day renewal that makes our inner nature more like God's Spirit. We learn from 2 Corinthians 3:18 that God takes us from one degree of glory to another. This means that God is always bringing His people from one level of glory to a higher level of glory. God has unlimited glory, and we will forever grow into higher levels of glory as we become more like God's Spirit. For example, Galatians 5:22-23 says, ... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.... And our inner nature will forever develop more love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE
Jesus taught in John 8:32, "... you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." And the Greek word for "know" in 8:32 implies more than "cognitive knowledge” while it suggests "personal experience". The ancient eastern concept of personal experience in knowledge implies an experiential knowledge. Likewise, Jesus taught in 8:32 that the experiential knowledge of divine truth makes people free. Believers are made free by experiencing truth from Jesus Christ and God's Spirit.

OBSTACLES TO DAY BY DAY RENEWAL
False beliefs or sinning can hinder a believer's day by day renewal. As stated above, Jesus said that the truth will make believers free. And the opposite can be true. False beliefs can bind believers. And false beliefs that bind believers could have been learned earlier today or many years ago in the childhood of the believer.

False beliefs and sin can go hand in hand. For example, deceit instigated many false beliefs that resulted in sin. And humans face deceit from the devil's forces, the fallen world, and our own fallen heart.

Sin and the devil's deceit form a vicious cycle. The devil deceived the first humans into sin while all other humans apart from Jesus inherited a sinful nature. This resulted in humans facing their own deceitful heart, a world filled with deceit, and ongoing deceitful attacks from the devil. And Ephesians 4:22-27 teaches that sins such as bitter anger makes room for the devil. This implies that the vicious cycle of sin and deceit opens humans to greater deceit from the devil.

Scripture asks believers to renew all of their thinking regardless of their age, culture, social status, or family background. And many believers discovered that thinking patterns learned during childhood or disturbing experiences needed to change. One of the problems is that thinking patterns learned during childhood or disturbing experiences sometimes become second nature. And many believers never question some of their second nature thinking patterns while many of these thinking patterns are based on false beliefs.

LONG-TERM PROBLEMS
Long-term problems by definition have a root cause that originated in the past. And some root causes of long-term spiritual problems involve painful memories. Believers can respond to painful memories in various ways: believers can bottle the painful memories; believers can dwell their thoughts on the painful memories; believers can use their own strength to confront the painful memories; or believers can experience and accept God's loving truth, redemption, and peace for the painful memories.

Scripture never teaches believers to bottle, dwell their thoughts on, or merely use their own strength to confront painful memories. And 1 Peter 5:7 teaches believers to cast their anxiety on God. And Philippians 4:6-7 teaches believers to bring all of their worries to God in prayer. This casting anxiety on God and bringing worries to God in prayer is the opposite of bottling painful memories or dwelling on painful memories. And these passages clearly teach believers to go beyond merely using their own strength to confront painful memories.

I recently experienced God's truth, redemption, and peace for various issues that instigated anxiety in me for several years. Mature Christian prayer counselors prayed with me while I asked God to show me His truth about some painful experiences in my past. And I experienced the presence of God's Spirit while God healed parts of my past memories. I went beyond mere cognitive knowledge of God redeeming all of my past to experiential knowledge of God redeeming specific painful memories from my past. And I soon learned how to accept God's truth and peace for issues that come to my mind during my private devotions. And that healing process greatly helped my day by day renewal.

TEMPTATION
Day by day, we need to surrender our thoughts and desires to God. We can struggle with temptations from within, the world, and the devil. But 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 teaches that we have divine power to control our thoughts for Christ. We have God's power within us to demolish every thought that opposes God. We cannot always change the spiritual and physical world around us, but we can always maintain godly thoughts and desires regardless of our circumstances. And Philippians 4:11-13 teaches that we can learn to be content in every circumstance.

And per Ephesians 4:22-27, we make no room for the devil's temptations when we repent of all sin. And believers with no room for the devil can proclaim the Lord's resistance against the devil's attacks. (See Luke 10:17-20, James 4:7, and Jude 9.)

THE PRIORITY OF LOVE
We must always remember that loving God is our first priority in day by day renewal. For example, Matthew 22:37-38 says that the most important commandment is to love God.

BLIND SPOTS
God sees everything, but by definition we cannot see our own blind spots. And our ignorance of our blind spots can hurt us, so we always need to humble ourselves before God and ask God to lead us out of our blind spots. Occasionally, we should revisit the prayer in Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Regardless of the pain in our hearts and thoughts, each of us needs to ask God to test our heart and thoughts. We need to ask God to reveal to us His loving truth about anything that blinds us. And God will continue to lead us in our path of eternal love, joy, and peace.

KEY PASSAGES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

2 Corinthians 3:18, And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4:16, So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 5:17, So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

2 Corinthians 10:3-5, 3Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; 4for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments 5and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Ephesians 4:22-27, 22You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil.

Galatians 5:22-23 says, ... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control....

James 4.7, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

John 8:31-32, 31Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

John 15:5, [Jesus said,] I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

Jude 9, But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

Luke 10:17-20, 17The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" 18He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Matthew 22:36-38, 36"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37He [Jesus] said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38This is the greatest and first commandment.

Philippians 4:6-7, 6Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:11-13, 11... I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Psalm 139:23-24, 23Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. 24See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Romans 5:1-2, 1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

Romans 5:10, For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

Romans 12:2, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God―what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Copyright © 2008 James Edward Goetz

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

My Freedom from Witchcraft

2008-02-27T20:03:00.016-05:00

adapted from various speeches

This paper describes my former addiction to witchcraft and most importantly my freedom from the powers of witchcraft. And the paper briefly teaches a scriptural perspective of witchcraft, demon possession, and most importantly deliverance from demons in the name of Jesus.

We begin by quoting the Gospel of Matthew 8:16-17:

That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Matthew 8:16-17 NRSV)

Here we see a mini revival. Jesus ministered deliverance and healing to many people with sicknesses including afflictions from demons. “... he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick” In some cases, demon affliction causes various types of sicknesses. And Jesus cured all demonic sicknesses. And Matthew 8:17 quotes a prophetic reference to the ministry and death of Jesus, a prophecy that Isaiah wrote centuries before the birth of Jesus.

God’s healing starts with eternal salvation. And the reading in Matthew teaches that this healing also includes physical healing and deliverance from demons. In sum, God’s healing includes our body, mind, and spirit.

Now that I briefly outlined a scriptural view of healing, I will share about my experience with witchcraft, psychotic delusions with audio and visual hallucination, and deliverance in the name of Jesus. My family background included struggles related to my father dying a few months before my birth. I believe that these struggles helped to instigate my search for happiness in the wrong places.

I grew up going to the Roman Catholic Church, but sometimes I found witchcraft more interesting than God. My earliest memory of experimenting with witchcraft was in the summer of 1971 when I was nearly eight years old. I watched television commercials for the movie The Exorcist. And by the way, the movie The Exorcist is a pathetic portrayal of deliverance ministry. Not only that, the brief television commercials for the movie inspired me to pray to Satan when I was a couple months shy of my eighth birthday.

I saw the demon possessed girl in the television commercials for the movie make several objects float near her. I wanted her power. One night that summer, I ignored the laws taught to me by the Roman Catholic Church, knelt before my bed, clasped my hands, closed my eyes, and I asked Satan to come inside me and give me power like that girl on television.

According to the best of my childhood memory, after I laid myself in bed, I felt as if my bed shook and spun in the room while I couldn’t move my body. My heart raced. My head flushed. I tried to stop it by both closing and opening my eyes, but the jolting persisted. I screamed, “Help me.”

Sometimes that night my mother and a brother of mine would recline beside me in bed while I felt myself shaking and spinning around the room. They felt no movement except my fear.

At one point, I started to feel peaceful and then felt a warm body recline beside me. Thinking that it was my mother, I put my arm around it. To my surprise, I saw a middle‑aged mannish figure with a black tuxedo, black hair, black eyes, and a pastel white face. I tried closing my eyes, but I saw him whether my eyes were open or shut. I trembled with fear, but he gained my confidence while he offered me supernatural powers.

I recall that I eventually feared damnation according to my Roman Catholic school teachings. And I called out to God for help. My terrifying experience stopped, but I did not yet start a personal relationship with God.

Later as a child, I heard about tribal cultures and ancient mythologies from children’s literature and television documentaries. I discovered that many tribes throughout history in various regions of the world had healers that consulted spirits, a form of witchcraft. I developed a belief in witchcraft by studying such tribal religions in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and various islands. I often tried casting spells, a primary activity in either Satanism or white witchcraft.

In the summer of 1978 when I was fourteen, I meditated about the spiritual world and considered the role of Satan. I had read that some tribal religions still try to appease evil spirits by worshiping them. They believe that the primary God rarely bothers with the earth. And they say God is beyond human reach, and God’s meager interventions only bring good blessings. Since they think God never causes harm and no one can invoke God, they only attempt to gain the favor of demons because demons have an active role in human events. They encourage the evil forces not to destroy, but to protect them.

I was already a skeptic, and didn’t believe the traditional Christian doctrine that says fallen spirits are bent on evil. I thought everyone had the potential to be good, including all spirits. And I liked how dozens of tribal religions sought the good side of demons, but I differed with their belief that no one could seek the primary God.

I came to an inclusive belief. I thought that all religions might have some grain of truth. I sought the favor of all potential spiritual forces. Sometimes in prayer, I called to a pantheon of names, Buddha, Vishnu, Allah, Zeus, Jupiter, Poseidon, Neptune, Thor, spirits of nature, Great Spirit, Christ, and Satan.

My spiritual search also led me to chemical highs. In fifth grade, I had my first alcohol binge. I chugged a large glass of port wine that I found in my mother’s liquor closet while my Mom was out for the night. In seventh grade, I started smoking tobacco. And in eighth grade, I started to smoke marijuana. By the end of ninth grade, I started to smoke marijuana daily. I estimated that during a seven-year period, I smoked about seven thousand joints.

Back to around the age of twelve, I felt sad to the point that I wanted to kill myself. I recalling writing a note that I would kill myself after everybody in my family was yelling mad at me. Somehow, by God’s grace, I changed my mind and wanted to live.

And again as a teen, I tried to kill myself. One night, I felt sad and smoked a lot of marijuana. I went to the local railroad tracks and laid my body across the tracks. I fell asleep. I woke up to loud honking and saw bright lights and dust swirling all around me. And a man kept yelling at me. By the grace of God, the train conductor saw me laying on the tracks and had enough time to stop for me. The train with its bright lights and loud horn stopped a few feet before me. The conductor kept yelling at me, but I recall that I felt glad that he cared about me.

These stories indicate that my life was a mess. Now I describe more of my problems with witchcraft. As a teenager, I totally rejected the Catholic Church. Some of my relatives also left Catholicism, and some converted to born-again Christianity. For example, one of my cousins was a former acid-dropping rock-and-roll drummer who converted and became a minister. He told me, “Those spirits that you call neutral are really deceptive demons. They temporarily have great power in this world, but their end is destruction.”

I heard the same from other people. However, I still wanted to keep certain aspects of my lifestyle that conflicted with Christianity. I kept my direction. And I thought that if Satan is the source of all spells, he could not be as evil as Christianity teaches. He had a few character flaws, but Christians gave him a bum rap.

At times, I cast spells to make my career goals come true. The ambition of my youth was to be a producer and director and writer of music, videos, and movies. My first inspiration was Disney and Warner Brothers, then, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd. Spielberg and Lucas movies began to fascinate me too. I loved the special effects. Even more, I too wanted to make tens of millions of dollars per movie. I started at a community college in the fall of 1981 and studied math, but for my second semester I changed my major to communications to fulfill my longtime desire of making music and movies. Around that time, I began to pray, “Oh Satan, I’ll give you my soul if you make me a famous movie maker.” I also prayed for things such as seducing women.

The New York University School of Film accepted me for the fall semester of 1983. Meanwhile, I became more of a wretch.

The August before I would start at New York University, I ended up in a mental hospital. My psychiatrist diagnosed me with substance abuse and psychotic delusions with audio and visual hallucinations. I believed that I was an incarnation of God because many voices and visions told this to me. For example, several times I saw and heard a man in a vision tell me that he was my half brother and the reincarnation of Satan. And this vision of Satan told me that he was trying to help me get back my former divine powers. So I was saying prayers to this vision of Satan, thinking that Satan was trying to help me.

The doctors at the hospital asked me to stay for a few weeks, and they prescribed me antipsychotic medications such as Thorazine. I reluctantly agreed.

After a few months, the psychotic symptoms disappeared. But by August of 1984, I again started to hear voices. The voices and thoughts in my mind tried to convince me that I was God and that I would soon regain my supposed former almighty divine powers. After a couple of weeks of debating with myself about my thoughts and voices, I agreed with them.

I also thought that demons ruled the universe. And I decided to pray for all demons to come inside me, thinking that if they were inside me, I could once again control the universe as I believe that I did in past existences. I saw this as the only possible way to get the world out of its big mess: rampant poverty, disease, and violence.

I tried going to a county college that fall. After one week of classes, I twice left my car on campus and walked twelve miles to my home. And my head hurt as if I had a clamp on my head. And I would strike my head with the palm of my hand, which would temporarily take the pain away from my head. And I did not sleep for two days. My family had deep concern about my lack of sleep, the way I would repetitively strike my head, and that I couldn’t remember that I drove my car to classes. They encouraged me to go to another hospital, and I went to a hospital in September of 1984. Again, the doctors diagnosed me with substance abuse and psychotic delusions with audio and visual hallucinations

I want to summarize that both times when I went to a hospital, I heard voices and had strong mental ideas that encouraged me to pray to demon spirits. And this praying to demon spirits is a form of witchcraft. And around the time of my mental hospitalizations, I was convinced that I needed to pray to demons for help.

On the other hand, during my second hospitalization, I tried to read the Bible, which I had tried for about six months. Sometimes I read the Bible to see what I supposedly wrote in past existences. Other times I thought Bible reading might help me. About a week into this hospital stay, I read a verse an aunt of mine highlighted for me in a King James Bible, 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given you a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. I typically prefer modern translations of the Bible, but that passage worked for me in the King James. From then on, I developed a growing conviction that God would deliver me from my fears and anxieties, and that he would give me strength, the ability to love, and sanity.

Later one Sunday, a sister of mine took me from the hospital to visit an independent Pentecostal church. Because of my medication, I walked as if I wore an invisible straight jacket and my eyes were glossy and half shut. The pastor, a Marine vet, prayed for me. He looked into my eyes and placed his hand on my shoulder. He said, “Lord Jesus, deliver Jim from demonic spirits, generational curses, and drugs.” After a few minutes of praying, I felt something inside my neck break off, drop to my feet, and go outside of me. I felt freedom as I never had before, but I soon feared that whatever left me was an important part of me. I asked all the spirits to come back inside me. Fortunately, dozens of people at the church began to pray for my healing.

I went back to the hospital and experienced a vision while lying in my bed. In my vision, I sat as the skipper of a sailboat during a race while I controlled the rudder and mainsail. This was a familiar setting for me. I sailed in over a hundred races and was the skipper for a couple. The first leg of every race points directly into the wind. Buoys, called marks, determined the course of the race. The sailboats zigzag upwind at roughly forty-five degree angles toward the first mark.

This race in my vision had a strong wind, about thirty to forty miles per hour. Sometimes during a race with strong winds, inexperienced sailors gain little ground upwind. It once happened to me when I crewed in a race, and I felt both frustrated and humiliated. In my vision, other sailboats surrounded me. I periodically changed my tack from the right side of the boat facing the wind to the left side of the boat facing the wind, while trying to zigzag toward the upwind mark. Other racing boats always surrounded me, and I noticed that I never got closer to the mark. I kept misinterpreting the wind shifts, failing to gain ground. After a while, I felt so frustrated that I gave up and yelled, “God, I missed the mark.”

Immediately after my yell, the boat transported passed the first mark. Instead of holding the mainsail and the rudder, I sat as a crew. I looked at the mainsail and rudder and sensed an invisible being--God--took control. I don’t know how I knew that he was God, but I just knew. Soothing warmth traveled through my body, and I knew that everything would be okay. The sails looked perfectly trimmed, and the boat balanced at a perfect keel. I thought: oh great, all I have to do is keep the boat in balance. However, I floundered and tripped all over the place while the boat kept its perfect keel. Finally, I relaxed and enjoyed the ride. After the trance-like vision, I knew that God would eventually heal me.

A couple of years later, I learned more about the vision while studying theology. I was reading my class assignment about the doctrine of sin. One New Testament Greek word for sin is hamartia, which compares the idea of sin to an archer that misses the mark. While reading my textbook, I felt ecstatic as I remembered the vision from a couple of years earlier. Before I knew anything about Greek, I confessed to God with a yell in a vision that I sinned by missing the mark. I did not hit the purpose of my life. After I acknowledged my failure to God, he put my life back together better than I could imagine.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital I felt inspired by my Bible reading. I said to some of my fellow patients, “This is not the way I am going to live. No, I’m not going to have one breakdown after another. God will heal me, take away my fears, and give me a sound mind according to the verse in the Bible. I just have to figure out how to get his Spirit. I know it has something to do with faith in Jesus and him dying on the cross, but I’m not sure.”

Sometime in early October, my psychiatrist thought I was well enough to go home from the hospital. I sensed that I would soon convert to Christianity, but a couple of days after I left the hospital I wanted one more night of heavy drinking while carousing New Jersey go-go bars where I had a few dancing girlfriends that purchased me drinks.

The following Sunday, I went back to church. The pastor prayed for me again, and in a one-on-one conversation he talked to me about my condition. He said to me, “Jim, Jesus died to give you spiritual and physical healing. However, your rebellion is separating you from God and his healing. You need to acknowledge your sins, commit yourself to obeying him, and trust that God will forgive you, give you his Spirit, restore your life, and bring you to heaven when you die.”

I thought about what he said for a couple of days. Later that week I read my Bible in the basement of my house. A strong impression came to my mind. The strong impression said that if I didn’t turn from my rebellion and ask Jesus to forgive me, I would have another breakdown every year for the rest of life, then die, and go to hell. However, if I would turn to Jesus and ask him to forgive me and be my God, he would heal me.

I prayed from the depths of my heart. I said, “Jesus, I know you are God and became a human to die, taking the punishment for my sins. You rose from the dead to show your power over death. Please pardon me of my sins: spiritism, drugs, self-centeredness, manipulation, premarital sex…. Deliver me from the evil spirits that came inside me. Thank you that I’m beginning a father-child relationship with God, and I’ll live in heaven forever.”

Before this prayer, I felt as if a clamp pressed on my brain. Afterwards, I felt as if the clamp fell off and warm oil soothed the wounds of my heart and mind.

Then I went to church every Sunday, every Wednesday night for a prayer meeting, and every Saturday night for a young adult fellowship. My friends at church spent much time with me going to restaurants, the beach, and just shooting the breeze. They loved and accepted me with all of my problems while continuously prayed for my recovery.

Every day after my conversion, my family, friends, and doctors said I looked better than ever. I was free from witchcraft, drugs, drunkenness, sleeping around, and psychosis. I even quit tobacco after three months. After six months, my psychiatrist said I no longer needed therapy or medication--I never relapsed.

The next fall, I went back to college. Two weeks after my graduation, I married the beautiful Laurie Craig. My family’s Doctor who referred me to the various mental hospitals gave me a premarital exam. He said to me, “Jim, you’re one in a million.”

Since then I learned that several other people who practiced witchcraft had developed mental illness. For example, Cynthia Ramirez was the director of Manatee Palms in Bradenton, Florida. Manatee Palms was a Christian psychiatric hospital. And it had a wing specializing in treating psychotic teenage Satanists. Ramirez spoke at a nursing conference and said, “Seventy percent of the Satanists in Manatee Palms say they have heard or seen some form of demonic spirit.”

I also read Telling the Truth to Troubled People by William Backus, a clinical psychologist and Lutheran minister. He says, “Occasionally, demonic possession will mimic psychosis, and where this is the case, deliverance in the name of Jesus will result in the freedom from all symptoms.”

I found both how demons can mimic psychosis and the freedom from them through Jesus Christ. Consequences of activities that take place while influenced by demons may take time to heal. God, however, can heal anything in body, mind, and spirit.

God was gracious with me. But many who practice witchcraft do not accept God's gift to escape the consequences of witchcraft. One famous example is Adolfo Constanzo. Constanzo was a drug gang leader in the late 1980’s in Mexico. Constanzo was also a master practitioner of an African voodoo magic. And the Constanzo gang murdered dozens of people with rituals that included magical spells.

These magical ritualistic murders were supposed to invoke demons to protect the drug dealers from legal authorities. Despite the magical rituals, Constanzo could not escape the Mexican police on May 6, 1989.

In the last few weeks of his life, Constanzo had so much fear that he could not sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. On May 6, 1989, the police searched his neighborhood for a missing child that had nothing to do with Constanzo. But the police spooked Constanzo, and Constanzo started to fire his Uzi submachine gun at the police. Soon, one hundred eighty police surrounded Constanzo’s apartment. Constanzo said that the police would never take him alive so he gave his Uzi to his associate called El Duby. Then, Constanzo ordered his own execution so that the police could not take him alive. El Duby followed Constanzo’s orders by shooting Constanzo with the Uzi.

Constanzo believed that his ritualistic murders would magically protect him from the police. But Constanzo believed a lie. He could not escape the police. Constanzo trusted demons that were supposed to protect him, but these demons actually led Constanzo to his destruction.

Several people died or developed mental illness from witchcraft. And Scripture forbids casting spells and consulting spirits, for examples, see Deuteronomy 18:9-12 and Galatians 6:16-21. And everybody who experimented with witchcraft needs a touch from God.

A summary of three scriptural points,

1) Demons are deceptive; for example, 2 Corinthians 11:14 teaches that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” NRSV
2) Demons can cause destructive illnesses and habits; for example, at the beginning of this paper, we saw Matthew 8:16-17 describe that many sicknesses are caused by demons
3) We can stand up to the devil and his demons by God’s grace; for example, James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” NRSV

By God’s grace, we can overcome the work of the devil in our lives when we submit to God. God can help everybody addicted to witchcraft or addicted to anything else. Here are four steps that I followed, and I recommend these four steps to everybody,

I) I asked Jesus into my life and repented of my sins: and I continue to repent of my sins
II) I started to regularly pray to God and read the Bible; and I meditate on Bible verses throughout the day
III) I got help from a good Bible believing church; people in the church prayed for me, became my friend, and taught me the Bible
IV) I continually ask God to fill me with His Spirit

Please visit my devotional website “Divine Reading” to learn about Bible reading and meditation. Please click "here".

Copyright © 2008 James Edward Goetz

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Orthodoxy and Gregory of Nyssa's Universalism

2007-10-31T19:41:00.008-04:00

I: INTRODUCTION
Gregory of Nyssa famously defended the doctrine of the Trinity in the Second Ecumenical Council in AD 381, and Gregory of Nyssa also defended the doctrine of universalism with the restoration of all things. Ironically, the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 condemned Origen's universalism according to the wishes of Emperor Flavius Justinian, who wanted to condemn all universalist teachings, but the Fifth Ecumenical Council also commended Gregory of Nyssa, calling him a holy Father who wrote about the true faith. And universalism has been heterodox in most of Western Christianity since then.1

On the other hand, universalism was an orthodox option during the Early Church and the first four Ecumenical Councils. For example, four of the six known theological schools during the Church's first five centuries taught universalism.2

Gregory of Nyssa had exemplary trinitarian credentials and taught that the unsaved dead suffer punishment in hell while he also taught that hell is purgatorial and temporary. He taught that hell is purgatorial in that the punishments in hell purge the sinful dispositions of the unsaved dead. And he taught that hell is temporary in that the unsaved dead suffer punishment in degree and duration according to their sinfulness. And this implies that the unsaved dead will eventually repent in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and get liberated from hell.3

Modern evangelical denominations typically forbid doctrines of purgatorial hell. For example, the Assemblies of God credentialed me a few years ago, but I had to resign my credentials or waive my right to teach my recently modified interpretations of future prophecies in Scripture.

This paper contends that Christian Scriptures teach that the unsaved dead can eventually repent in the name of Jesus to get saved out of hell and accepted into heaven. And this paper contends that such formerly orthodox teachings should be orthodox within evangelical churches. And here is a review of some relevant Scriptures and various opposition.
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1Pierre Batiffel, "Apocatastasis", The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume I, (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907), http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01599a.htm.
2George T. Night, "Universalists", New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. XII: Trench – Zwingli, ed. S. M. Jackson, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1950), 96.
3Batiffel.

II: I PETER 3:18-20, 4:6 AND PATRISTICS

18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. (1 Peter 3:18-20 NRSV)

For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does. (1 Peter 4:6 NRSV)

Many Early Church fathers taught that Christ descended to hell with the gospel according to 1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6. Second and Third Century Church fathers teaching the descent to hell with the gospel included Polycarp of Smyrna, Ignatius of Antioch, Hermas, Justin, Melito of Sardis, Hyppolytus of Rome, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. Fourth Century Eastern Church Fathers teaching the descent to hell with the gospel included Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, Jacob Aphrahat, and Ephrem the Syrian. Later Eastern Church Fathers teaching the descent to hell included Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus the confessor, and John Damascene. These patristic authors agreed that Christ delivered the gospel to hell between his death and resurrection. The only dispute among them was if Christ preached the gospel to all the dead or only a particular category of the dead such as those imprisoned from the days of Noah or the Old Testament believers.4

Augustine wrote extensively on the topic. For example, in Letter 164, he opposed a common Christian doctrine of his time by saying that it is absurd to think that anybody who rejected Christ in life would get a chance at salvation in hell. And he proposed that 1 Peter 3:18-20 teaches that the preexistent Christ preached through Noah.
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4Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, "Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent of Christ into Hades in Eastern and Western Theological Traditions", (A lecture delivered at St Mary’s Cathedral, Minneapolis, USA, 2002), http://orthodoxeurope.org/page/11/1/5.aspx.

III: EXEGESIS AND I PETER 3:18-20, 4:6
Utley's exegetical Bible study of 1 Peter represents common modern evangelical views of 1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6.5 Utley notes that three items should be linked together: 1) Jesus was "in the spirit" per verse 18; 2) Jesus preached to the spirits in prison per verse 19; 3) these spirits did not obey in the days of Noah per verse 20.

Utley also notes six theories about the preaching to the imprisoned spirits according to 1 Peter 3:18-20:
1) the preexistent Christ preached through Noah
2) Christ ascended through the heavens and announced his victory over the angelic realms, which relates to Rabbinic tradition from the apocryphal II Enoch that says fallen angels are imprisoned in the second of seven heavens
The next five theories are in the context of Christ preaching between his death and resurrection.
3) Christ preached "condemnation" to the imprisoned humans of Noah's day
4) Christ preached good things to Noah and his family in Paradise in the view of the imprisoned humans of Noah's day in Tartarus
5) Christ preached "condemnation" to the fallen angels of Genesis 6:1-4
6) Christ preached "condemnation" to the "half-angel, half-human" creatures of Genesis 6:4
7) Christ preached "salvation" to the imprisoned humans of Noah's day

The context of 1 Peter 3:18 indicates that the preaching takes place after the physical death of Christ. So we can eliminate the interpretation of the first theory.

Utley contends that "was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit" implies that the preaching took place after the resurrection, and he chooses the second theory. Utley says that both phrases "was put to death in the flesh" and "made alive in the spirit" are a parallelism while both phrases are aorist passive participles, and the tense implies that this is a historical event performed by an outside agency. And in this case, "made alive in the spirit" implies the resurrection.

We agree that this is an example of parallelism that is common in the Bible, and we agree that the phrases are aorist passive participles. But "made alive in the spirit" does not have to imply the resurrection. For example, the death by crucifixion forced the spirit of Christ to temporarily leave his physical body, so Christ was made alive in the spirit.

And in regards to the theory of fallen angels imprisoned in the second of seven heavens, we see no essential difference between angels in "chains of deepest darkness"6 in the second heaven or some region in hell. Likewise, we see little difference between the second and fifth theories apart from whether Christ preached between his death and resurrection or after his ascension.

Concerning the third theory, we see no reason for Christ to preach unconditional condemnation to the unsaved humans that lived in Noah's days. This is inconsistent with Hebrew prophecies of judgment. For example, the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel teach that prophecies of judgment to both nations and individual people are always conditional, which we will see in Section V. And the fourth theory is similar to the third theory in that the unsaved hear preaching with evidently no conditions for repentance.

Christ preaching unconditional judgment to the fallen angels in the fifth theory has the same problem as the third and fourth theories because prophecies of unconditional judgment are inconsistent with the teachings in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The sixth theory has all of the problems of the fifth theory, plus the sixth theory contains the apocryphal I Enoch teaching of half-angel, half-human creatures, which needs correction. For example, if incarnate angelophanies had sex with women, then it would be incorrect to say that the offspring are half-angel, half-human. The argument for this correction will examine scriptural teachings of human-like angelophanies, teachings about the incarnation of God the Son from the Fourth Ecumenical Council in 451, and mammalian hybrids.

The account in Genesis 18:1-19:25 teaches important details about human-like angelophanies. The account begins with three human-like angelophanies visiting Abraham. The angelophanies conversed, ate, and drank with Abraham. And later, the men from Sodom wanted to sexually rape two of the angelophanies. These details suggest that the angelophanies had a digestive tract and sex appeal. We assume that these angelophanies manifested in a human body. And we propose that each of the angelophanies were a hypostatic union of an angel and a newly created human adult body without mother or father or genealogy, which we call a "fiat angelic incarnation". We also consider that some angelophanies were a hypostatic union beginning with an angel fusing to a human zygote or new embryo, which we call a "progressive angelic incarnation". We favor the former scenario because good angelophanies tend to suddenly appear in scriptural accounts and the former scenario avoids Adam’s curse on holy incarnate angels.

We propose that the wicked sons on God that produced children with human women according to Genesis 6:1-4 were angelic incarnations. And other interpretations have contextual problems according to Utley.7

Now we will look at the biology of the purported descendants of angelic incarnations and human women, which from the scriptural context includes the "Nephilim" per Genesis 6:4 and the "Anakites" who descended from the Nephilim per Numbers 13:33. The example of the Anakites indicate that at least some of the Nephilim had no trouble producing fertile children. And the biological definition of "hybrid" in regards to mammals implies that hybrids such as mules rarely if ever produce offspring. And the "biological species concept" implies that interbreeding between different mammalian species rarely if ever produces fertile offspring. This implies that the Anakites did not descend from a hybrid. And this implies that the angelic incarnations had Homo sapiens chromosomes. Many of the angelic incarnations and their children may have been physically taller or stronger than the average human, but their biological bodies were completely human as the body of the Lord Jesus was completely human.

Rejecting the apocryphal theory of hybrids also fits the rest of the New Testament. For example, 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 use apocryphal descriptions for the punishment of fallen angels, but do not suggest that the angels are hybrids.

The seventh theory that Christ preached salvation to the imprisoned humans of Noah's day has trouble because the phrase "spirits in prison" in 1 Peter 3:19 alludes to the fallen angels from Genesis 6:1-4. And Utley associates the seventh theory with Clement of Alexandria. But Clement of Alexandria noted in Stromata, Book 6 that Christ also preached to those who were chained after perishing in the flood, which implies the fallen incarnate angels of Genesis 6:1-4. And Clement of Alexander supported universalism that included the restoration of fallen angels. Likewise, the seven theory options are insufficient.

We propose that 1 Peter 3:18-20 teaches that Christ preached the gospel to the imprisoned incarnate angels from Noah's days. This has advantages: 1) the interpretation represents sound exegesis; 2) it works with the teachings in Jeremiah and Ezekiel in regards to the conditions of prophetic judgments; 3) it rejects the erroneous apocryphal teaching about half-angel, half-human creatures.

Clement of Alexandria and other Early Church fathers such as Gregory of Nyssa also believed that Christ preached salvation to all dead humans. And we assume that this is an implication of combining 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 4:6. And this suggests that the preaching to the wicked angelic humans from Genesis 6:1-4 represents the universality of the preaching during the descent to hell. For example, these wicked angelic humans lived before the origin of Hebrew messianic prophecies, the Mosaic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Noahic Covenant. Likewise, we propose that 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 4:6 imply that Christ preached salvation to all dead humans, including fallen incarnate angels.
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5Bob Utley, The Gospel According to Peter: Mark and I & II Peter, (Lubbock, Texas: Bible Lessons International, 2001).
6See "chains of deepest darkness" in 2 Peter 2:4 and "eternal chains in deepest darkness" in Jude 1:6. NRSV
7Bob Utley, How It All Began - Genesis 1-11, (Lubbock, Texas: Bible Lessons International, 2001).

IV: COLOSSIANS 1:15-20

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20 NRSV)

Colossians refuted a heresy in the church of Colossae that evidently was related to various gnostic beliefs. Part of the heresy involved a belief in a hierarchy of angels that included the belief that physical matter such as the human body is evil. For example, it taught that matter and spirit are antithetical.8

Colossians 1:15-20 teaches about the superiority of Christ over everything "visible" that represents matter and everything "invisible" that represents spirit. It also teaches that Christ shed blood on his cross to reconcile everything to God, which includes everything on "earth" that represents matter and everything in "heaven" that represents spirit. And this refutes the heresy that matter and spirit are antithetical.

We also propose that Christ shedding his blood to reconcile everything in heaven to God according Colossians 1:20 suggests that Christ shed his blood for fallen angels in heavenly places. For example, the context of 1:16 and 2:15 implies fallen angels. And a related passage in Ephesians 6:12 teaches that evil angels are in heavenly places. Likewise, Christ shed his blood for fallen angels and preached the gospel along with the consequences of rejecting the gospel to the fallen angels. And presumably many of the fallen angels chose to hold onto their worldly powers as long a possible instead of surrendering to Christ.
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8Bob Utley, Paul’s Prison Letters: Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon and Later, Philippians, (Lubbock, Texas: Bible Lessons International, 1998).

V: PROPHETIC JUDGMENTS
If we believe that all of the original books in the Old Testament and the New Testament are the Word of God while contending that 1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6 teaches that Christ preached salvation with liberation from hell to the unsaved dead, then we need to apply the Analogy of Faith and offer suggestions that explain the consistency of Scripture. We propose that a careful examination of Old Testament prophetic judgements helps to reconcile Scriptures that describe everlasting punishment with Scriptures that imply possible liberation from hell. For example, Jeremiah 18:5-10 and Ezekiel 33:12-16 teach that prophecies of blessing or judgment to nations or individual people are conditional.9 And most Scriptures related to hell are apocalyptic, and apocalyptic Scriptures by definition are mostly symbolic instead of literal.

Here is Jeremiah 18:5-10:

5Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. (Jeremiah 18:5-10 NRSV)

Jeremiah 18:7-8 teaches that prophetic condemnations to nations are conditional. For example, according to the Book of Jonah, Jonah prophesied the overthrow of Nineveh to the people of Nineveh. And Jonah tried to avoid delivering the prophecy of doom because he knew that the Lord would relent of his plans for Nineveh's doom if the people would repent after Jonah prophesied. And the Book of Jonah never explains this conditional element of the prophecy. But we see that the Lord delayed his punishment of Nineveh after the people of Nineveh repented. And the Jeremiah also contains various prophecies of doom to several nations while all of the prophecies were conditional with no conditions directly stated within the respective prophecies.

And here is Ezekiel 33:12-16:

12And you, mortal, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not save them when they transgress; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, it shall not make them stumble when they turn from their wickedness; and the righteous shall not be able to live by their righteousness when they sin. 13Though I say to the righteous that they shall surely live, yet if they trust in their righteousness and commit iniquity, none of their righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. 14Again, though I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” yet if they turn from their sin and do what is lawful and right— 15if the wicked restore the pledge, give back what they have taken by robbery, and walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity—they shall surely live, they shall not die. 16None of the sins that they have committed shall be remembered against them; they have done what is lawful and right, they shall surely live. (Ezekiel 33:12-16 NRSV)

Ezekiel 33:14-16 teaches that prophecies of doom to individual people are conditional. And the Book of Ezekiel contains several prophecies to individual people and nations while all of the prophecies were conditional with no conditions directly stated within the respective prophecies.

Kearley compiles several other examples of conditional prophecies in the Old Testament, and he concludes that all predictive prophecies are conditional. For example, prophecies with unfulfilled conditions can be repealed, altered or delayed according to God's eternal purposes. And Kearley applies this to end-time prophecies when he says: "If the conditional element were accepted, this would constitute a giant step toward the unity of classical premillennialists, dispensationalists, amillennialists, and postmillennialists."10

Such conditional eschatology also applies to Christ offering salvation to the unsaved dead. The prophecies of everlasting punishment depend upon the condition that the unsaved continue to reject Christ forever.

We also consider that many prophecies describing everlasting punishment are apocalyptic, which by definition is mostly symbolic instead of literal. For example, many classify the Book of Daniel as an Apocalypse. And during the Olivet discourse, Jesus says that Daniel is a prophet. And Daniel 12:2 predicts that many people will be resurrected to disgrace and everlasting contempt. But given the conditional nature of prophecy and the symbolic nature of Apocalypses, we should not insist that these verses teach about everlasting punishment with no chance of liberation.
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9F. Furman Kearley, "The Conditional Nature of Prophecy: A Vital Exegetical and Hermeneutical Principle", (Montgomery, AL: Apologetics Press, not dated), http://www.apologeticspress.org/rr/reprints/Conditional-Nature-of-Prophecy.pdf.
10Kearley.

VI: OPPOSITION FROM HODGE
In 1871, Charles Hodge represented many in the Reformed tradition by appealing to the Analogy of Faith to assert that 1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6 cannot teach that Christ preached the gospel to spirits in prison because such an interpretation is contrary to the rest of Scripture and "the faith of the whole Church, Latin, Lutheran, and Reformed". Hodge also says the whole Church teaches that preaching the gospel for salvation is confined to this present life. And he says, "It is certainly a strong objection to an interpretation of any one passage that it makes it teach a doctrine nowhere else taught in the Word of God, and which is contrary to the teachings of that Word, as understood by the universal Church."11

We respect Hodge's enormous contribution to systematic theology, but Hodge is mistaken about the Early Church and Eastern Church Father's in regards to the limits of the gospel. And Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev says that contemporary Eastern Orthodox churches believe Christ preached the gospel to the dead.12

Rejecting that Christ preached the gospel to unsaved dead requires more than Hodge appealing to the Analogy of Faith while denying the truth about the first five centuries of Church doctrine. And it requires more than Augustine saying that Christ offering salvation to those who rejected him in earthly life is absurd. Both Church history and Scriptures referenced in this paper indicate that the possibility and hope of universalism is orthodox.
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11Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology II, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1940), 615-21.
12Alfeyev.

VII: THE POSSIBILITY OF UNIVERSALISM
Hebrews 9:27 says that humans are destined to die once and then face judgment. And this is consistent with Gregory of Nyssa's view of hell. Those who die lost suffer in hell according to their sins, but they still have the possibility of salvation.

Many modern universalists claim that everybody's salvation is guaranteed. For example, various preachers claim that Acts 3:21 teaches that all people including the final Antichrist will be restored before Christ returns. But that is not the context according to 3:22-23.

Here is Acts 3:19-23:

19Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, 20so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, 21who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. 22Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. 23And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.' (Acts 3:19-23 NRSV)

Acts 3:21 implies that the restoration of all things will occur before the return of Christ while 3:23 implies that all who do not heed Christ will be utterly destroyed. Likewise, the context of 3:21-23 does not necessitate that this restoration of all things must include everybody's salvation. On the other hand, if 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and various passages in Revelation teach about a final personal Antichrist who is a progressive or fiat incarnation of a fallen archangel, then that Antichrist could get saved according to conditional eschatology in Section V.

There are several scriptural passages about God's love and desire for the salvation of all people, for examples, John 3:16 and 1 Timothy 2:1-4. These passages along with 1 Peter 3:18-20 & 4:6, Colossians 1:20, Jeremiah 18:5-10, Ezekiel 33:12-16 and an understanding of scriptural Apocalypses can encourage us with the possibility and hope of universalism. Humans and angels have the free will to continually reject Christ forever, but literal foreverness is a long time.

VIII: VARIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
We conclude by addressing various philosophical considerations that are all part of the big picture. For example, many devout Christians struggle with the Augustinian doctrine which implies that billions of people including everybody's loved ones that died lost have no chance of liberation from the torments of literal everlasting punishment. We contend that Scriptures do not ask us to carry the burden of this interpretation. And we are free to approach theodicy and console mourners including ourselves with the possibility and hope of universalism. And many people think that Gregory of Nyssa's representation of God is more just and more loving and more powerful than Augustine's representation of God.

Some evangelicals complain that if Christ evangelizes the dead, postmortem evangelization, then there is no need for Christians to sacrificially dedicate themselves to the Great Commission. But this as an immature attitude that has nothing to do with the universalism and evangelistic zeal of the Early Church. That immature attitude essentially says, "Let the world go to hell because Christ evangelizes hell." Regardless of our interpretation of hell, Christ told us to preach the gospel to all ethnic groups. And we obey Christ.

Some evangelicals are concerned with the problem that immature Christians and the lost will take hell lightly if we admit that Scriptures indicate the possibility of liberation from hell. And some people may think like that. This is analogous to some people deciding to murder only in states that do not have a death penalty. However, we can decrease the problem by emphasizing teaching that God gives extra punishment to those who purposefully abuse God's grace. Likewise, the unsaved dead suffer punishment in degree and duration according to their sinfulness. And nobody gets out of hell without genuinely repenting of their sins.

Gregory of Nyssa went as far as saying that the punishments in hell are purgatorial instead of judicial. We propose a middle ground where the punishments for the lost in the afterlife are both purgatorial and judicial. And we clarify that all cases of salvation are initiated by the Holy Spirit and require the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, many people say that all theological systems that include universalism teach that all paths lead to God. This is not the case with scriptural Early Church approaches to universalism. For example, there are many wrong paths that lead away from God. And this paper strictly holds to the belief according to John 14:6 that nobody comes to the Father apart from Jesus Christ while nobody comes to Christ without repenting from wrong paths.

Copyright © 2007, 2008 James Edward Goetz

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Updated 1/28/8

Messianic Prophecy and the Words of Jesus

2007-09-22T15:23:00.005-04:00

I: INTRODUCTION
During the third decade of the first century AD, Jesus claimed that he was the Messiah1 of the Hebrew Bible.2 And his Messianic claims were the reason why the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem accused Jesus of blasphemy and devised plans to kill him.3

When Jesus began his teaching and miracle ministry, the Jewish people were subject to the Roman Empire and many Jews had great expectations for a kingly political Messiah to overthrow the oppressive Roman government. And prophetic predictions from the Hebrew Bible gave the Jews good reason for their belief that they would see a kingly Messiah.4 But the Hebrew Bible also contained predictions of a prophetic Messiah5 and a suffering priestly Messiah.6 The Jews at this time, however, primarily focused on the prophetic predictions of a political Messiah while Jesus was a master of multitasking and claimed that he was the prophetic Messiah, the priestly Messiah, and the kingly Messiah.
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1The Hebrew word "Messiah" was translated to the Greek word "Christ". And the words "Messiah" and "Christ" derive from the word "anointed one", which means that a person is divinely empowered for a special task.
2The Hebrew Bible (The Jewish Bible) is also the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.
3See Matthew 26:62-66, Mark 14:60-64, Luke 22:66-71.
4The predictions of a kingly Messiah include Psalm 110:1, Isaiah 9:6-7 in the Christian Bible/Isaiah 9:5-6 in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 11:1-12:6, Daniel 7:13-14, Micah 5:2-4, Zechariah 14:1-21. Also see Isaiah 2:1-4, Micah 4:1-5.
5The predictions of a prophetic Messiah include Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (with references in John 6:14, 7:40; Acts 3:22-26, 7:37) and Isaiah 61:1-4 (with a reference in Luke 4:14-21).
6The predictions of a suffering priestly Messiah include Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

II: THE PROPHET
Jesus identified himself with the prophetic Messianic ministry described in Isaiah 61. He stood up amongst a group of Jewish worshippers, and he read out loud from Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then Jesus claimed that he just fulfilled those prophetic verses in the presence of the respective audience.7 And during the next three years, Jesus powerfully preached the good news of God’s kingdom while he miraculously ministered to the poor, to prisoners, to the blind, to the oppressed, and to many other needy people.
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7See Luke 4:14-21 NRSV.

III: THE PRIEST
A primary job description for the priests in the Hebrew Bible was the management of animal sacrifices that were used in worship.8 Some of the sacrifices were part of a thanksgiving and fellowship celebration, but most of the sacrifices were related to requirements for the forgiveness of sins. This sacrificial system foreshadowed9 the sacrificial death of the Messiah. And the sacrificial death of the Messiah was predicted centuries earlier in Isaiah 53, which describes a suffering servant who dies for the sake of others and then eventually succeeds to greatness.10 11

Jesus frequently predicted his eventual suffering and violent death. For examples, Matthew, Mark, and Luke show that Jesus used straightforward language to predict his death and resurrection to his disciples on at least three occasions.12 And all four Gospels record a few cryptic teachings of Jesus that predicted his eventually death and resurrection.13
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8See Leviticus 1:1-9:24, 16:2-34.
9In Biblical studies, a person or event or institution that foreshadows is called a "prefigurement" or a "typology". For example, 1 Peter 3:18-22 teaches that the flood in the days of Noah prefigured new covenant water baptism.
10The original date and the authorship for many chapters of Isaiah is a common subject of academic debate. Many scholars say that some chapters of Isaiah were written in the eighth century BC while other chapters were written in the sixth or fifth century BC, and some claim that parts of Isaiah were written as late as the second century BC. However, regardless of when Isaiah 53 was written according to these debates, the predictive prophecies in Isaiah 53 were written centuries before the life and death of Jesus.
11Various sources of Jewish tradition say that the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 is a symbol that represents the nation of Jewish people, but a literal interpretation of Isaiah 53 describes an individual person who dies for the sake of others and then eventually succeeds to greatness. And various translations of the Targum Jonathon (an ancient source of Jewish Bible tradition) say that Isaiah 53 describes the Messiah.
12See Matthew 16:21-23, 17:22-23, 20:17-19; Mark 8:31-33, 9:31-32, 10:32-34; Luke 9:21-22, 9:44-45, 18:31-33.
13See Matthew 12:39-40, 16:1-4, 21:33-40; Mark 12:1-11; Luke 11:29-30, 20:9-16; John 2:18-22, 3:14-15, 8:28-29, 10:11-18, 11:25-26, 12:23-33, 16:17-28.

IV: THE KING
Jesus identified himself as a kingly Messiah. For example, Jesus quoted Psalm 110:1 while saying that the Messiah is Lord of King David.14 And seventy-seven verses quote Jesus refering to himself as the "Son of Man". The term "Son of Man" refers to Daniel 7:13-14, which describes "one like a human being" or traditionally "one like a son of man" who comes from God through the clouds in the sky to rule all of the nations on earth. For example, Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man while citing from Daniel 7:13 that describes the Son of Man as "coming with the clouds of heaven".15 Likewise, Jesus identifies himself as the kingly Messiah destined to rule all of the nations on earth.

We will now refer to the predicted Messiah of Daniel 7:13-14 as the "Danielic Messiah", and the Danielic Messiah has interesting implications. First, the title "Son of Man" possibly suggests that the Messiah has a human birth. Second, the divine description of "coming with the clouds of heaven" suggests that the Messiah comes to the earth from the sky. At first glance, these two implications may appear as a puzzling combination. But Jesus clarified the issue when he frequently taught two concepts about the Son of Man: 1) Jesus taught that he was the "Son of Man" during his three years of ministry;16 2) Jesus taught that he would gloriously appear in the future.17 And the glorious appearance in the future is commonly called the "second coming".
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14Matthew 22.41-46, Mark 12:35-37, Luke 20.41-44.
15See Matthew 24:30, 26:64; Mark 13:26, 14:62.
16For examples, see Matthew 8:19-20, 9:1-8, 11:16-19, 12:39-40, 17:22, 20:17-19, 26:1-2, 26:45-46; Mark 2:1-11, 8:31-33, 9:30-31, 10:32-34, 10:42-45, 14:21, 14:41; Luke 5:17-26, 6:22, 7:31-35, 9:57-58, 11:29-30, 17:24-25, 18:31-32, 19:9-10, 22:47-48.
17For examples, see Matthew 19:29, 24:27-31, 24:36-51, 25:31-32, 26:63-64; Mark 8:38, 13:26, 14:61-62; Luke 21:25-26, 22:66-70.

V: THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM TODAY AND TOMORROW
Jesus claimed that he initiated the Messianic Kingdom,18 but Jesus also taught that the fulfillment of the Messianic Kingdom would occur in the future. This means that the Kingdom of God is both now and also will be completed in the future.19 This helps to explain why the New Testament claims that we are living in the new covenant of the Messianic Age while we still do not see the fulfillment of all Hebrew Bible prophecy related to the new covenant/Messianic Age. For example, Jeremiah prophesized about the "new covenant" and said that the Lord would put His laws in the hearts and minds of His people so that no one would need a teacher to learn about the Lord.20 In the present age, believers have the Holy Spirit as a teacher,21 so that prophecy from Jeremiah is partially fulfilled. But we still need the New Testament ministry of teachers until the Lord returns.22 Furthermore, Jesus was the complete Messiah from when he was in Mary's womb to his death by Roman crucifixion, but the fulfillment of all Messianic prophecy will occur when Jesus returns.
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18See Matthew 4:17, 11:12, 12:28, 13:31-32, 19:13-15; Mark 1:14-15, 4:30-32, 10:13-16, 10:29-30; Luke 13:18-19, 18:15-17, 18:29-30.
19For a detailed explanation about the Kingdom of God being both now and in the future, see George E. Ladd (1959) Gospel of the Kingdom.
20See Jeremiah 31:31-34.
21See John 16:5-15, Romans 8:16.
22See 1 Corinthians 13:8-12.

VI: MESSIANIC PROPHECY WITH MULTIPLE FULFILLMENTS
Some Messianic prophecies have multiple fulfillments, and sometimes the original fulfillment did not involve the Messiah. For examples, Psalms 22 and 41 and 69 describe suffering in the first person while they are traditionally associated with David, and Jesus also quoted verses from those Psalms in relation to his own suffering.23 We may refer to these Psalm verses as "secondary Messianic prophesies" because the Messianic fulfillment came after the original fulfillment while the other Messianic prophesies may be called "primary Messianic prophesies".
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23Jesus (Matthew 27:46/Mark 15:34)quoted Psalm 22:1; Jesus (John 13:18) quoted Psalm 41:9; Jesus (John 15:25) quoted Psalm 69:4.

VII: MESSIANIC TYPOLOGY
Jesus told his opponents that he would show them the "sign of Jonah" while referring to Jonah’s three days and nights in the stomach of a large fish that was followed by Jonah preaching to the wicked city of Nineveh.24 Jesus alluded to his eventual death and resurrection when he compared himself to Jonah, and Jonah is an example of a typology or prefigurement, which as described in note number nine is a person, event or institution that foreshadows.
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24See Jonah with references in Matthew 12:38-41, 16:4; Luke 11:29-32.

VIII: CONCLUSION
This brief introduction helps us to understand the structure and content of Messianic prophecy and typology in relationship to the words of Jesus. In sum, Jesus referred to primary and secondary Messianic prophecies and typologies when he taught about the events in his first and second coming. Furthermore, we pray that this introduction will help us to gain a better understanding of all Biblical prophecy and typology.

APPENDIX OF KEY BIBLE QUOTATIONS

The Lord says to my lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." (Psalm 110:1 NRSV)

In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; 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 any more. (Isaiah 2:2-4 NRSV)

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6-7 NRSV, Isaiah 9:6-7 in the Christian Bible is Isaiah 9:5-6 in the Hebrew Bible.)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6, George Frideric Handel, 1741)

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:1-9 NRSV)

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6 NRSV)

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:10-12 NRSV)

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; (Isaiah 61:1-2 NRSV)

As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being* coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14 NRSV)
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*Aramaic one like a son of man (Note from NRSV Anglicized Edition, 1989, 1995.)

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. (Jesus quoted in Matthew 12:35-45.)

Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Jesus speaking in Mark 8:38 NRSV.)

While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet."' David himself calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?" And the large crowd was listening to him with delight. (Mark 12:35-37 NRSV)

Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. (Jesus speaking in Mark 13:26 NRSV.)

Then Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled." (Mark 14:48-49 NRSV)

... Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Jesus said, "I am; and 'you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power,' and 'coming with the clouds of heaven.'" (Mark 14:61-62 NRSV)

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:14-21 NRSV)

Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again." (Jesus quoted in Luke 18:31-33 NRSV.)

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Jesus quoted in Luke 24:44-47 NRSV.)

Copyright © 2007, 2008 James Edward Goetz

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Updated 1/30/8

Divine Purpose

2007-09-21T14:49:00.006-04:00

If we are searching for our purpose in life, we can look to the teachings in the Christian Scriptures. For example, Jesus taught that the most important commandment is, "... you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."1 And the most important commandment according to Jesus is a key to understanding our purpose in life. In other words, our most important purpose is to love God with all of our life.
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1Mark 12:30. See Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5 in Mark 12:28-30 and Matthew 22:36-38.

This all-encompassing love of God is not necessarily a perpetual fuzzy feeling about God, but a devotion that focuses on trust and faithfulness. This love of God includes all of our relationships and activities. For example, Jesus taught that the second most important commandment is, "... you shall love your neighbor as your self."2 And loving our neighbor involves forgiveness,3 ethical living,4 helping needy people,5 and bringing Jesus to every human in the world.6
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2See Jesus quoting Leviticus 19:18 in Mark 12:31 and Matthew 22:39.
3See Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 6:12-15.
4See Mark 12:32, Matthew 22:40.
5See Luke 10:25-37.
6See Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 24:46-48, Acts 1:6-8.

When considering our divine purpose in life, we should also understand the first commandments that God spoke to the first humans as written in Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." Here we see that God’s first commandment to humanity was to have children. This does not mean that everybody should rush to impregnation, which is impossible for many people. But everybody should value the importance of parents7 and the divine institution of marriage.8
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7Deuteronomy 5:16, Ephesians 6:3.
8See Genesis 2:23-24, Matthew 19:3-9.

For the second commandment to humanity, God told us to fill the earth and subdue it. In other words, God commanded humanity to migrate throughout the earth and to develop technology from nature for our advantage. The commandment for us to subdue the earth does not mean that we are to trash our planet, but we are suppose to use nature for human advantage.

When we look to find our purpose in life, we should also consider God’s design of humanity. For example, Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." This means that the created spirit and mind of humans are a finite representation of the infinite God. And this divine image in humans helps to explain why humans have priority over the rest of creation, as described in Genesis 1:28. And this divine image in humans is part of what allows us to have a parent-child relationship with God, which brings us back to our most important purpose of loving God.

However, there is a problem. The first humans disobeyed and rebelled against God, which caused corruption in the original design of the human spirit. And since then, all humans have inherited a corrupted spirit and have continued to rebel against God.9 But God provided an answer for that problem by sending Jesus to restore us from our corruption and disobedience.10
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9See Genesis 3:3:1-24, Roman 5:12.
10See John 3:16.

Believing in Jesus is the first step in restoring the original plan for our parent-child relationship with God. And all true believers have a portion of the Holy Spirit of God living inside of them.11 And it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit within us that we can fully love God with all of heart and soul and mind and strength.
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11See John 14:16-17, Acts 1:8, Romans 8:14-16, Ephesians 1:13-14.

The Holy Spirit of God within us gives us greater character. For example, Galatians 5:22-23 says, "... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control...." Here we see that the Holy Spirit within us helps to develop important character qualities that we need for a successful life. And this spiritual development will progress for our entire life while we continue to trust and devote ourselves to God.

We must remember that the same Spirit who gives us joy also gives us patience, and patience is synonymous with long-suffering. And we need patience because we sometimes suffer, some people more than others. We may hope for a life without suffering and a wise person will try to avoid unnecessary suffering, but our Lord Jesus suffered and all of us will suffer in our learning experiences.12
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12See Romans 5:1-4; Hebrews 5:7-10, 12:2-8.

The Holy Spirit of God within us also helps us to fulfill our divine purposes by giving us spiritual gifts. For example, 1 Corinthians 12 says that the Holy Spirit gives some believers a message of wisdom, and others a message of knowledge, and others special faith, and others gifts of healing, and others miraculous powers. Here we see that the Holy Spirit gives gifting such as special wisdom and faith that can help us to succeed in every situation.

We also learn from the teaching about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 that God does not give all of the spiritual gifts to lone rangers, but the Spirit of God will disperse all of the spiritual gifts to a group of believers. God did not design us to fulfill all of our purposes by ourselves, and many important accomplishments in life require teamwork.

In sum, we see that our most important purpose is to love God and our second most important purpose is to love humans. And God designed humans to rule the earth while loving God and each other. And God gives His Spirit to live inside believers so we can develop character and gifting that help us to succeed in all that we do.

Many of us have great dreams and goals. This is good because God gives goals and dreams to all of His children.13 We must make sure that we are humble before God and that we allow God to adjust or change our goals.14 We also must be willing to do anything that God asks us to do. We need to be faithful in all of our circumstances if we want God to give us greater responsibilities.15
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13See Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17-18.
14See James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6.
15See Matthew 25:14-30.

I pray that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit will bless all who hear and all who study these teachings.

For additional reading and meditation, see Romans 12:1-21.

Copyright © 2007, 2008 James Edward Goetz

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Updated 1/27/8

Sexual Purity and Scripture

2007-09-19T14:19:00.006-04:00

What Does Scripture Say about Second and Third Base?

I appreciate that many teens and adults have taken a pledge to abstain from sex apart from marriage. Some make this choice primarily for health reasons while others make the choice because they honor God by obeying Scripture.

I wish that I did not have to write this embarrassing article, but everybody does not have the same definition for "sex". For example, there are a growing number of teens who pledge to abstain from coitus (genital-to-genital sexual penetration) before marriage while they compensate for their sexual desires by giving and receiving second or third base sexual favors with their sweethearts, which we will call partner masturbation or alternative sexual favors. And many married people avoid coitus apart from marriage while they compensate for their sexual desires by practicing alternative sexual favors with people other than their spouse.

Partner masturbation is the erotic manipulation of genitals apart from coitus. This erotic manipulation may involve manual fondling or oral contact or lap dancing or clothed dry humps. And the participation in these alternative sexual favors may be either heterosexual or homosexual. And in some cases, people participate in group alternative sexual favors.

Former United States President Clinton made the definition of "sex" a world headline when he claimed that the oral sexual favors performed on him by Monica Lewinsky were not part of a sexual relationship. Clinton swore under oath that he had no sexual relations with Lewinsky. Evidently, Clinton believed that his avoidance of coitus apart from marriage meant that he never had sexual relations with Lewinsky while she performed oral sexual favors on him.

I am not sure of the statistics, but I conjecture that the majority of adults in the world associate alternative sexual favors with sexual relations. And a careful study of Scripture implies that sex includes all types of sexual favors. This means that single men and women can avoid coitus without lusting for coitus and still live a sexually immoral life. Likewise, a single woman may claim that she is a virgin who kept her hymen intact, but she is unchaste herself if she participated in alternative sexual favors. And married people can avoid coitus apart from marriage and still live a sexually immoral life.

I felt challenged by people who claimed to keep their virginity while they would participate in sexual favors with their friends. Scripture is crystal clear in its commandments against sex apart from marriage. And Scripture is clear in its commandments against lusting for sex apart from marriage. But Scripture never clearly describes partner masturbation. This can lead to challenging questions. For example, someone might say, "I am a single virgin, what could be wrong when I masturbate my sweetheart?"

The lack of details in Scripture about some alternative sexual relations does not condone any alternative sexual relations. And Scripture never teaches to compensate for sexual tension by practicing masturbation. And Scripture teaches to flee any potential sexual compromise.

Romans 1:24-27 teaches about sexual immorality. Here is Romans 1:24-27:

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:24-27 NRSV)

These verses teach that sexually immoral relations degrade the body. And these verses also include the only passage in Scripture that specifically mentions lesbian sex, which is women having sex with each other. For example, Romans 1:26-27 says that some women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and then these relations are compared to men who committed shameful acts with other men. We mention this because lesbian sex can never possibly involve coitus, but it typically involves partner masturbation. This is a clear example of sex apart from coitus. In fact there are many who practice lesbian sex but are virgins in the sense that they never participated in coitus. These are clear examples of virgins who live sexually immoral lives. And by no means does God wink his eye at heterosexual immorality and only condemn homosexual immorality. Everybody who participates in sexual relations apart from marriage lives an immoral life.

Apart from the reference in Romans 1:24-27, the original context of Scripture implies that sexual immorality includes all sexually orgasmic relations apart from marriage. Keeping premarital virginity and marital fidelity are priceless treasures, but we are tricking ourselves and possible others if we believe that alternative forms of sexual relations apart from marriage are moral. Incidentally, this leads to an oxymoron, sexually degraded virgins or unchaste virgins.

The pledge to abstain from sex before marriage is not enough. Single people must follow through with a life of sexual abstinence except for marriage. And all people who marry must remain faithful to their spouse. And if people are widowed or divorced, they must resume abstinence. Scripture gives all humans two options to fulfill their sexuality: abstinence while single or heterosexual marriage. And if we have fallen from sexual purity, God can cleanse and restore us through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Since we are discussing partner masturbation, we also want to briefly mention self masturbation, which typically includes sexually immoral fantasies. Many Christian leaders acknowledge that most pubescent males cannot initially control themselves from practicing self masturbation. And many people who convert to Christianity from a sexually promiscuous lifestyle cannot initially control themselves from practicing self masturbation. But through devotion to God and Scripture, any devout Christian can prevail over sexually immoral fantasies that may lead to self masturbation.

We also want to briefly discuss homosexual orientations. Studies of mammals indicate that a small percent of mammals are abnormal in that they have a homosexual orientation. Various criminal and cultural and religious influences may also cause homosexual orientations. And some people have both a homosexual and a heterosexual orientation, which is a bisexual orientation. Whatever orientation we have, we need to abstain from sexual immorality. We have heard reports that some homosexuals who converted to Christianity had eventual lost their homosexual orientation. And other homosexuals who converted to Christianity did not lose their orientation but live happily in a life of sexual abstinence.

We also want to briefly discuss marital sexual relations. For those of us who marry, in private we may kiss and caress our spouse however we mutually agree. And apart from our other responsibilities in life, we have no limits in how we healthfully express our love to our spouse.

Jesus lived his earthly life to the fullest, and Jesus lived all of his life in sexual abstinence. And whether we are single part of our life or single all of our life, while we are single we may live life to the fullest in all purity. And for those of us who marry, we may live life to the fullest in all purity. And for all of us who have sinned sexually, God can cleanse and restore us to our full potential.

Additionally, to live our life to the fullest in all sexual purity, we need to prepare ourselves to say "No" to sexual advances from the dreamiest partner that could tempt us. And we must never let the dreamiest partner intentionally or unintentionally deceive us into thinking that alternative forms of sexual stimulation apart from marriage are moral. Offers and accepting offers of going to third base but not going past third base are not acceptable to God. Without this knowledge, someone may trick us into immorality.

On the other hand, offers and acceptance of offers of discreet platonic hugs are often appropriate. And platonic hugs are absolutely necessary for most people.

For many of us, the only possible way to live a life of sexual purity is to live our life close to God. The all powerful and all wise Spirit of God who created the universe and resurrected Jesus from the dead indwells the lives of all believers. And we need to live our life with the strength and guidance of the indwelling Spirit of God to conquer every temptation.

The temptation from someone offering us a sexual favor is not sin. We sin only if we accept the offer or if we let our thoughts dwell on the offer.

We also want to make sure that we are not carelessly or purposely provoking others to sexually lust for us, which is also immoral. But if we live a pure life while dressing appropriately, we are not sinning if others are lusting for us. We cannot control other people. We can only control ourselves.

If anybody struggles with sexual purity, reading relevant articles and books from a scriptural perspective may help. In some cases, counseling may help. And Scripture meditations are critical. We will end this article with quoting Titus 2:11-12 in two translations. And meditating on this passage will help any Christian to live a pure life. Here is Titus 2:11-12:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.... (Titus 2:11-12 NRSV)

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.... (Titus 2:11-12 TNIV)

Copyright © 2007, 2008 by James Edward Goetz

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY'S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.

Updated 1/27/8

Theistic Evolution and Christian Orthodoxy

2007-09-17T18:12:00.002-04:00

ABSTRACT
Some concepts of theistic evolution are compatible with Christian orthodoxy when we consider a topical and figurative interpretation of Genesis 1-11. And we are not obligated to enforce the false dichotomy that implies that the divinely inspired ancient Near Eastern literature of Genesis 1-11 is either a literal history or a string of figurative stories with no historical basis. We may refer to Genesis 1-11 as a divinely inspired string of figurative stories with a historical basis. And Christian orthodoxy is compatible with all scientific discoveries while it is incompatible with philosophical materialism.

INTRODUCTION
Despite the twenty-first century hype of the creation-evolution debate, prominent Christian orthodoxy theologians from as early as the nineteenth century had no theological or biblical problem with some concepts of evolution and universal common descent. For example, in 1888, Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield gave a lecture to his students and said, "if we condition the theory [of evolution] by allowing the constant oversight of God in the whole process, and his occasional supernatural interference for the production of new beginnings by an actual output of creative force... we may hold to the modified theory of evolution and be Christians in the ordinary orthodox sense."1

Warfield stated that Christian orthodoxy is consistent with a theistic model of universal common descent as long as the evolutionary model included divine interference, also known as divine intervention. And in 1899, Augustus Hopkins Strong held to both Christian orthodoxy and a belief in divine guidance during the evolutionary origins of human (Homo sapiens) anatomy.2

On the other hand, some denominations oppose all theistic interpretations of universal common descent. For example, the Assemblies of God (AG), and the AG has a 1977 position paper "The Doctrine of Creation" that says that Genesis 2:21-22 is inconsistent with any theory of evolutionary origins of humanity because these verses teach that the first woman was made from a piece of flesh that was removed from the first man. And no theory of evolution would incorporate a literal interpretation of this event.3

CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY AND CREATION
We see above that there are different ways of dealing with a Christian orthodoxy interpretation of creation. In regards to creation, common pillars of faith in Christian orthodoxy include the following: 1) God created the material universe from nothing; 2) God has miraculously intervened in the material universe; 3) God has specially created human souls.4 And Christian orthodoxy also maintains that the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament are the word of God written accurately through humans and are true in all that they teach. And for the rest of this paper, we maintain a perspective of Christian orthodoxy.

TOPICAL AND FIGURATIVE INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 1-11
Maintaining a belief in the truthfulness of all Bible teachings while incorporating scientific inferences related to the timeline of the universe and prehistory5 has challenges for some interpretations of Genesis 1-11 and all other Bible verses that refer to Genesis 1-11. For example, some Bible interpreters teach that the ancient Near Eastern writing of Genesis 1-11 is a literal history, which has conflict with scientific inferences related to the timeline of the universe and prehistory.6 7 On the other hand, some Christian orthodoxy interpreters hold to a topical and figurative view of Genesis 1-11, which means that the respective ancient Near Eastern writing focused on the topic and used rich symbolism instead of focusing on the chronology and literal history.8 9 This implies that God never taught that all of the symbolic details of the respective verses are a literal description of prehistory. Likewise, a topical and figurative interpretation of Genesis 1-11 has minimal scientific limitations and implies that the Bible is not teaching any specific timeline of the universe and prehistory or any specific model of creation, for example, six-solar-day creationism, the gap theory, old earth creationism, or theistic evolution.

William Sanford LaSor and colleagues present an excellent Hebrew Bible survey that describes a topical and figurative interpretation of Genesis 1-11,10 and the authors maintain that the Bible is the word of God written accurately through humans and is true in all that it teaches.11 LaSor and colleagues call Genesis 1-11 the "primeval prologue". And they recognize a strong use of literary devices that were common in the ancient Near East while they also explain that all of the events have a historical basis. Likewise, the primeval prologue does not teach many historical details or chronology, but the primeval prologue teaches several important truths that include the following: God created everything in the universe; God intervened to form the original humans; God created and formed a good universe; God designed and instituted marriage; humans fell from their original paradise through the disobedience of the original humans; humans continued to live in depravity; and humans migrated throughout the earth.

In other words, we are not obligated to enforce the false dichotomy that implies that the divinely inspired ancient Near East literature of Genesis 1-11 is either a literal history or a string of figurative stories with no historical basis. We may refer to Genesis 1-11 as a divinely inspired string of figurative stories with a historical basis.

PROBLEMS WITH A LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 1-11
A literal interpretation of Genesis 1-11 that fails to recognize the purpose of the literary devices has problems. For example, in 419, Augustine published City of God while noting some problems with a literal interpretation of Genesis 1. Augustine said that a literal interpretation might struggle with an internal inconsistency by claiming that there was a literal day and night during the first three days of creation (Gen 1:1-13) despite the verses that say God created the sun and the other stars during the fourth day (Gen 1:14-19). And in the context of the geological record and animal phylogeny, a literal interpretation might insist that the origin of sea mammals and birds (Gen 1:20-23) preceded the origin of all land amniotes (Gen 1:24-25). We affirm that Genesis 1 describes six solar days and nights, but as noted by Meredith Kline, these days are a literary framework that teaches about topics instead of chronology.12

Kline also notes that a traditional literal interpretation of Genesis 1 causes conflict by pitting Scripture versus Scripture. He explains that Genesis 2:5 teaches that God did not form vegetation until there was a natural means to preserve the vegetation. For example, Genesis 2:5 says that there was no vegetation until there was a water supply that could preserve the vegetation. And this conflicts with a literal interpretation of the third day in Genesis 1:9-13 that implies that God formed vegetation before the formation of the sun, which would literally mean that a source of light and heat other than the sun had preserved the original vegetation.13

A literal interpretation of the primeval prologue is also inconsistent with population genetics studies that estimate past (long-term) population sizes of various extant species. For example, the study of genetic diversity within a species can infer if the respective lineage had a population bottleneck in the last few million years. And population genetics studies of various mammals such as humans14 15 16 and orangutans17 conclude that in the last few million years there have been no ancestral bottlenecks with the effective population size18 that was less than ten thousand individuals. Likewise, unless there is a major flaw in the respective research methodologies, these studies imply that the lineages for these mammals in the last few million years never had a population size that was less than an order of ten thousand individuals. And these population sizes are incompatible with a literal interpretation of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:4-3:24 and a literal interpretation of the global flood in Genesis 6-8.

These estimated population sizes, however, are compatible with Genesis 2:4-3:24 if Adam and Eve in some ways figuratively represent the first group of humans. We are not claiming that these verses suggest that Adam and Eve represent a group of people with a community/tribal leader, but the figurative structure of these verses do not prohibit the possibility. And in the case that there are no major flaws in the population genetics methodologies that estimate past population sizes in humans, then is some ways Adam and Eve represent all of the original humans. And in this case, we may assume the human fall from paradise would have been a unanimous community/tribal decision.

The above population sizes are also compatible with various interpretations of a regional Noahic Flood.19 And the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 primarily describes Caucasian populations, which might be a clue within the primeval prologue that both the flood and the following migrations were regional events. And Mark Isaak compiled several potential scientific problems with a global flood in the days of Noah.20

HEAVENLY ARCHETYPES AND PHYSICAL HISTORY IN GENESIS 1-11
Two-level hermeneutical principle
We noted earlier that Kline interprets Genesis 1 as a literary framework. Kline also explains that the Bible in several passages teaches about a two-level (two-register) cosmology, which involves a heavenly level and a physical level. And Kline explains that in the case of Genesis 1:1-2:3 there is a metaphorical relationship between the archetype in the heavenly level and the history in the physical level. In other words, the days of creation are a heavenly archetype while a figurative physical history. And Kline also explains that the figurativeness in the physical history is no problem for the doctrine of the Sabbath taught in Exodus 20:8-11.21 And this models an important hermeneutical principle, which we call the "two-level hermeneutical principle".

This principle helps to explain how a Bible writer could have formulated doctrine while making a literal reference to Bible verses that are figurative in the physical level. For example, Exodus 20:11 affirms the teaching of the Sabbath while saying that the Lord made the heavens and the earth in six days while resting on the seventh day. The doctrine of the Sabbath flows from a literal understanding of Genesis 1:1-2:3. But the literalness is in the reference to the heavenly archetype instead of the physical history. And we assume that God had the prerogative to inspire the writing of the ancient Near Eastern Bible in any way that God pleased. And as described above, God gave clues within the Bible that affirms the use of the two-level hermeneutical principle.

The two-level hermeneutical principle can apply to other verses in Genesis 1-11 and other verses that refer to Genesis 1-11. For example, as stated earlier, if we assume that there are no major flaws in the population genetics methodologies that estimate past effective population sizes of humans and other mammals, then we may consider assuming that there was at least an order of ten thousand humans in the original human rebellion. And some Bible interpreters might think that this is incompatible with Pauline references to Adam and Eve (Rom 5:12–21, 1 Cor 11:3-16, 1 Tim 2:13-14). But we can extend the two-level hermeneutical principle to all of these verses. And we can also extend it to the Petrine references to the Noahic Flood (2 Pet 2:5, 3:6) and the primordial waters in Genesis 1:2-10 (2 Pet 3:5).

Two-level principle and Romans 5:12-21
We will begin by applying the two-level hermeneutical principle to Romans 5:12-21. These verses refer to a literal Adam while teaching that all humans inherited a destiny of sin and death from "one man". However, based on the two-level principle, this could be a literal reference to the heavenly archetype. So regardless if the number of original humans that fell from grace was two or ten thousand in physical history, there was one man in the heavenly archetype. And all humans born after The Fall inherited a destiny of sin and death.

Two-level principle and 1 Corinthians 11:3-16
Paul teaches about men and women and the cultural importance of head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 while appealing to Genesis 2:20-25. For example, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:8-9 (NRSV), "Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man." These Pauline verses flow from a literal interpretation of God forming Eve from a piece of flesh from Adam’s side (Gen 2:21-23). However, these verses could be a highly symbolic physical history while a literal reference to the heavenly archetype. And regardless if this event was literal or figurative in the physical history, the biblical doctrine about men and women and head coverings are the same.

Two-level principle and 1 Timothy 2:11-14
Paul teaches in 1 Timothy 2:11-14 about the precedence of male leadership in the church. And Paul supports this doctrine by appealing to a literal interpretation of Genesis 2:4-3:24 by citing that God formed Adam before God formed Eve and Eve sinned before Adam sinned. However, these verses could be a figurative physical history while a literal reference to the heavenly archetype. And regardless if these events were literal or figurative in physical history, the teaching about male leadership is the same.

Two-level principle and 2 Peter 2:5
Peter teaches about God’s saving grace and judgment while referring to God saving eight people from the Noahic Flood (2 Pet 2:5). However, the respective verses could be figurative in the physical level while a literal reference to the heavenly archetype. And regardless if the Noahic Flood in Genesis 6-8 was physically regional and never touched distant human populations or physically global and wiped out all but eight humans, the doctrine about God’s saving grace and judgment are the same.

Two-level principle and 2 Peter 3:5-6
Peter teaches about the return of Jesus in 2 Peter 3:5-6 while referring to the primordial waters in Genesis 1:2-10 and the flood waters in Genesis 6-8. Again, these verses could be figurative in the physical level while a literal reference to the heavenly archetype. And regardless if the primordial waters and the quantity of the flood waters are figurative in the physical level, the doctrine of the return of Jesus is the same.

Two-level principle and natural science
If we assume that science has no major flaws in the methodologies that infer the timeline of the universe and evolutionary phylogenies and past population sizes of humans, then the above applications of the two-level hermeneutical principle have no conflict with these scientific discoveries. And we may conclude that God decided to teach the respective doctrines with powerful figurative stories that people of all cultures throughout history could understand. Likewise, God ensured that people would need no scientific knowledge to understand these doctrines.

And we caution against an excessive use of the two-level principle. For example, we are not affirming ancient traditions of an allegorical interpretation for every verse in the Bible. But if we see compelling evidence in the Bible or nature, then we may consider applying the two-level principle. However, a physicalist speculation such as "there never was a supernatural miracle" is no reason for concluding that a particular Bible verse must be figurative.

OPPOSITION TO A FIGURATIVE INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 1-11
If we assume an interdisciplinary approach to the two-level hermeneutical principle and natural science, then some people may ask why God never inspired a Bible writer to clarify the truth about the timeline of history and evolution and the original population size of humans. But we can think of some reasons why God avoided this. For example, explaining the basics about the timeline of the universe and prehistory take a long time. And God decided to teach important eternal truths about physical origins and prehistory in just eleven chapters of the Bible while using powerful figurative stories that require no knowledge of scientific discoveries. And there was no theological reason for God to have inspired an extraordinarily large book of Bible that would have explained the basics of the timeline of the universe and prehistory so that it would have been comprehendible to the ancient Hebrews. And such a book would not have served God’s purposes for the Bible.

Noel Weeks opposes a figurative interpretation of Genesis 1-11.22 And he asks, "Is there any explicit teaching within the Bible itself that suggests its details are not to be pressed in matters of the physical creation?"23 And we agree that there is no explicit teaching within the Bible that suggests that any of Genesis 1-11 is a figurative description of the physical creation and prehistory. However, we noted earlier that both Augustine and Kline describe clues within the Bible that "imply" that some verses in Genesis are figurative in physical history. So we cannot claim that it is explicit, but we can claim that it is implicit. In other words, the Bible implies that some verses in Genesis are figurative in the physical history.

Weeks also argues that various Bible verses that assume a literal interpretation of the respective verses in Genesis would suffer if we insist upon a figurative interpretation of Genesis 1-11.24 But we suppose that the above explanation of the two-level hermeneutical principle refutes that opposition.

ANATOMICAL EVOLUTION AND THE HUMAN SOUL
Evolutionary theory proposes to explain the origin of human anatomy, but Christian orthodoxy teaches that humans contain more than physical anatomy. Ironically, there are no Hebrew or Greek words that refer exclusively to the nonphysical soul. For example, the Hebrew and Greek words for both "soul" and "spirit" have multiple meanings.

The Hebrew word for "soul" is nephesh. The word nephesh primarily means "possessing life", and sometimes refers to animals. And the word nephesh sometimes refers to the seat of human physical appetite, the source of emotions and will and moral action, an individual person, and a dead body. And the Hebrew Bible teaches that the soul departs at death. And the word nephesh has overlapping meanings with other words that mean "heart" and "spirit".25

The Greek word for "soul" is psyche. The word psyche has various similar meanings to nephesh.26 And Matthew 10:28 teaches that killing the human body does not kill the psyche while Revelation 6:9 refers to the psyche of the martyrs below the heavenly altar. Likewise, depending on the context, psyche can refer to everything in human life or specifically the nonphysical soul.

The Hebrew word for "spirit" is ruah while the Greek word for "spirit" is pneuma. These words have various meanings that include wind, breath, divine power, human spirit, and divine spirit. And several times the word pneuma refers to angelic or demonic spirits.27 So sometimes we refer to the nonphysical world as the spiritual world.

Also, the Hebrew Bible teaches that humans exist in Sheol after death.28 And the Greek equivalent to the word Sheol is “Hades” while the New Testament teaches that humans exist in either Hades or Paradise after death and before the end-time resurrection. And these references to human existence after death and before the end-time resurrection imply that humans have a nonphysical soul.

Despite the lack of biblical words that refer exclusively to the nonphysical soul, all of the above imply that humans have a nonphysical soul. Perhaps part of the reason for this lack of exclusive terms is because the mind and will and emotions of living humans are a dichotomy of the physical and nonphysical. For example, humans have neurological wiring that facilitates spirituality.29

THE NONPHYSICAL IN A MATERIAL WORLD
Methodological materialism (the scientific method) does not imply philosophical materialism.30 For example, methodological materialism assumes that all physical and chemical and biochemical properties reduce to the fundamental laws of nature (reductionism). But this type of reductionism does not indicate whether or not nonphysical elements (the supernatural) interact with the physical world. In other words, methodological materialism has no opinion about the supernatural. On the other hand, philosophical materialism is a concept that insists that there are no nonphysical elements in the universe. Likewise, Christian orthodoxy is compatible with methodological materialism while incompatible with philosophical materialism. And Christian orthodoxy believes that God created the fundamental laws of nature.

As stated above, reductionism implies that physics and chemistry and biology reduce to the fundamental laws of nature. Some people take reductionism to an extreme and also say that human psychology reduces to the laws of nature. But Christian orthodoxy believes in a nonphysical soul, so this implies that psychology reduces to both the laws of nature and the laws that govern the nonphysical.

Christian orthodoxy also believes that God and various angels have miraculously intervened in the material world. And as previously stated, methodological materialism has no opinion about the supernatural.

DIVINE SUPERVISION AND INTERVENTION
God supervises everything in the universe (Ps 139:1-18, Heb 4:13). And God intervenes in the material universe according to divine purposes (Gen 50:20, Rom 8:28). And some periods of biblical history experienced more miraculous intervention compared to other periods. So in some ways, God periodically intervenes. However, in some ways, God constantly intervenes. For example, God constantly intervenes in the lives of New Covenant believers through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:9).

God also constantly intervenes in the spiritual world. For example, the New Testament calls Satan "the ruler of this world" and "the god of this world" (John 12:31, 1 Cor 4:4 NRSV). And Satan presumably held this position since the fall of humanity. But God intervenes to limit the malevolent activity of Satan and his demons (Job 1:12, 1 Cor 10:13).

CONCLUSION
Prominent Christian orthodoxy theologians since the nineteenth century have affirmed that there is no theological or biblical conflict with a theistic model of evolution and universal common descent. And the Bible itself implies that some verses in the primeval prologue and the respective Bible verses that refer to the primeval prologue are figurative in physical history. And we affirm that the two-level hermeneutical principle stems first and foremost from the Bible with no knowledge of scientific discoveries. Likewise, the Bible has no conflict with scientific discoveries that include inferences of evolutionary relationships and past population sizes of humans.

We should never pit the Bible against firmly established scientific evidence. And we should never confuse scientific discoveries with physicalist speculations because physicalist speculations are philosophy instead of science. We may conclude that Christian orthodoxy is compatible with all genuine scientific evidence while incompatible with physicalism.

And Christians who hold to both orthodoxy and universal common descent have various views based upon the evidence in evolutionary science. For example, I propose that the Creator or related agents occasionally intervened in probabilistic evolutionary mechanisms.31 And this is consistent with Warfield’s 1888 lecture. On the other hand, some Christians hold to both Christian orthodoxy and Darwinism.32 33

We reject Darwinism without occasional intervention from the perspectives of both the evidence in evolutionary science34 and biblical theology. However, many Darwinists hold to the central pillars of Christian orthodoxy faith, which include the following:
1) The Bible is the word of God written accurately through humans and is true in all that it teaches
2) God created the material universe from nothing
3) God specially created human souls
4) God intervened in the universe by accurately speaking through the Prophets and Apostles according to the biblical records
5) God intervened in human history according to the biblical records, which include the divine incarnation and bodily death and bodily resurrection of Jesus

Among the central pillars of Christian orthodoxy faith, the primary pillar is the divine incarnation and bodily death and bodily resurrection of Jesus. And the resurrection of Jesus has amazing implications. Jesus physically died on a Friday late afternoon and physically resurrected the following Sunday early morning. This means that his corpse was dead for roughly thirty-six hours, which suggests that his corpse experienced rigor mortis and then physically resurrected. Belief in this amazing divine intervention sets apart Christian orthodoxy from liberal Christianity.

The Bible has many important teachings, and most of them are secondary to the central pillars of faith. And there are many disagreements about secondary Bible teachings that have no consequences concerning eternal salvation. For example, Warfield teaches that Christian orthodoxy implies that God occasionally intervened beyond divine superintendence during the formation of biological species, presumably interpreted from Genesis 1-2. We agree with Warfield, and we rank this as a secondary teaching.

1B.B. Warfield, Evolution, Scripture, and Science: Selected Writings, ed. M.A. Noll and D.N. Livingstone (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2000), 151.
2A.H. Strong, Christ in Creation and Ethical Monism (New York: Griffith & Rowland, 1899).
3The above position paper does not represent a fundamental truth for the AG or I never would have received AG ministry credentials.
4We believe in the immediate divine creation of each human soul, but this paper is also compatible with the doctrine of traducianism.
5The scientific view of the timeline of the universe and prehistory includes inferences about the chronology of energy/mass creation and the expansion of the universe and star formation and planetary formation and biological evolution and prehistoric human migrations.
6N. Weeks, "Problems in Interpretation of Genesis: Part 1", Ex Nihilo 2/3 (1979), 27-32.
7N. Weeks, "Problems in Methods of Interpretation—Genesis 1-11: Part 2", Creation 2/4 (1979), 22-6.
8B. Ramm, The Christian View of Science and Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954).
9B. Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1970).
10W.S. LaSor, D.A. Hubbard, and F.W. Bush, Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), Chapter 2.
11Ibid., Chapter 45.
12M.G. Kline, "Space and Time in the Genesis Cosmogony", Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 48 (1996), 2-15.
13Ibid.
14N. Takahata, Y. Satta, and J. Klein, "Divergence Time and Population Size in the Lineage Leading to Modern Humans", Theoretical Population Biology 48 (1995), 198-221.
15S. Sherry, H.C. Harpending, M.A. Batzer, M. Stoneking, "Alu Evolution in Human Populations: Using the Coalescent to Estimate Effective Population Size", Genetics 147 (1997), 1977-82.
16A.G. Clark, K.M. Weiss, D.A. Nickerson, S.L. Taylor, A. Buchanan, J. Stengard, V. Salomaa, E. Vartiainen, M. Perola, E. Boerwinkle, and C.F. Sing, "Haplotype Structure and Population Genetic Inferences from Nucleotide-sequence Variation in Human Lipoprotein Lipase", American Journal of Human Genetics 63 (1998), 595-612.
17Y. Zhang, O.A. Ryder, and Y. Zhang, "Genetic Divergence of Orangutan Subspecies (Pongo pygmaeus)", Journal of Molecular Evolution 52 (2001), 516-26.
18The "effective population size" is the hypothetical equivalent to the number of randomly breeding adults in a population.
19C.A. Hill, "Noachian Flood: Universal or Local?" Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 54 (2003), 70-83.
20M. Isaak, "Problems with a Global Flood", Talk.Origins (1998), www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html.
21Kline.
22Weeks, "Problems in Interpretation of Genesis: Part 1"; Weeks, "Problems in Methods of Interpretation—Genesis 1-11: Part 2".
23Weeks, "Problems in Methods of Interpretation—Genesis 1-11: Part 2".
24Ibid.
25W.J. Cameron, "Soul", New Bible Dictionary, 2nd ed. J.D. Douglas and N. Hillyer (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1982), 1135.
26Ibid.
27J.D.G. Dunn, "Spirit, Holy Spirit", New Bible Dictionary, 1136-42.
28D.K. Innes, "Sheol", New Bible Dictionary, 1103.
29A. Newberg, E. D’Aquili, and V. Rause, Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief (New York: Ballantine Books, 2001).
30E.C. Scott, "Science, Religion, and Evolution", Evolution: Investigating the Evidence, eds. J. Scotchmoon and D.A. Springer, The Paleontological Society: Special Publications 9 (1999), archive www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/6366_science_religion_and_evoluti_6_19_2001.asp.
31J. Goetz, "The Extravagant Creator of Junk DNA", Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design (in review), www.iscid.org/boards/ubb-get_topic-f-10-t-000105.html.
32K.R. Miller, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution (New York: HarperCollins, 1999).
33M. Ruse, Can a Darwinian be a Christian? The Relationship between Science and Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
34Goetz.

Copyright © 2007, 2008, 2011 James Edward Goetz

Updated 6/25/11