John Armstrong, "Equipping Lives for the Ministry of the Gospel, Part 2"

ACT 3 Weekly E-mail : April 21, 2008

Equipping Lives for the Ministry of the Gospel, Part 2

April 21, 2008
John H. Armstrong

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Last week I began a mini-series on the life of the minister of the gospel based upon my teaching at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando in March of this year. I gave four points from my presentation. This week I begin with the fourth point and expand it and then go on to three more points.

1. Develop a Healthy Imagination

I grew up in the old South. I saw racism in the 1950s up close. I have never gotten over it really. But I soon adopted the attitude that I was not a racist since I never did any of these bad things myself. I hated the overt racism and spoke out. By this stance I felt I escaped all racism, personal and corporate. Through these developments I never owned up to what my own white people did and to the way I profited financially and intellectually because of their racism, overt or otherwise. I also used this cover to shield me from listening to the stories of my black brothers and sisters in the present era. I assumed that the problems could all be solved by well-intentioned hard working black people. Any appeal to race was new reverse racism and the equation I adopted was that this was quite simply the "race card" played by liberals. I believe that this is what was behind my recent blogs on Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright.

Many of my white brothers and sisters still do not understand my approach because they have not yet seen how racism has a insidious and systemic quality about it that requires me/us to admit my/our advantages and then to listen more carefully to the anger that some black Christians feel about white people in America. If the Church is still divided by race then we have a missional problem. Can anyone deny that it is and be serious about this issue?

If I am committed to reconciliation and mission, which I am very deeply, then I do not know any other way to approach this very real problem. In this case truly knowing the African-American story helps me a great deal. I get that story from film, art, books and a lot of listening to real people, not myself. My imagination about the black experience is growing and I am learning and this humbling process is important to my mission and leadership as a minister. I pray that more white Christians will join me in this journey. I hope I can influence them to do so.

As another example of using imagination well you need fiction. I confess that I did not read fiction until I was in my forties. Sadly, I was exposed to literature in prep school and college but it didn't grip me like it should have. It was not the fault of my teachers for I had some great teachers. It was because my mind is wired for propositions and arguments more than imagination. I only tolerated art and saw an occasional film. Our age is now a visually driven culture. Thus telling a good story is still a real challenge for me. I had to work at every one of these problems with real effort. I believe my life, and leadership ability, is much better for that hard work. I encourage ministers to develop a healthy imagination if they want to impact the lives of others at the deepest levels.

2. Maintain a Good Sense of Humor

I do not innately possess a sense of humor. I take myself far too seriously and thus tend to think everything is life and death serious. I was given a wife, however, who was born with a sense of humor. She has spent her lifetime developing it even further. She has been a lovely gift to me in so many ways but this is one that truly stands out. (It is not the only one I assure you.)

I can still recall the late Vance Havner telling ministers that if you would succeed in the ministry you must have a sense of humor. I have heard it said by many since. One mission used to tell future missionaries that two things were needed to succeed as a career missionary: (1) Profound piety, and (2) A great sense of humor. I agree. Without both you will never make it in the ministry.

Christians in general, and ministers in particular, must be able to see humor in so many moments and events that happen in life. Most of all, we must learn to take our work seriously but never ourselves. Some of the most neurotic Christian leaders I have known had no sense of humor. (Beware of such leaders!) Their followers do not pay attention to this problem and the results are often deadly. If a minister does not have a healthy sense of humor I now tend to avoid them, since I have found such ministers will generally become fierce foes of mine in the end. They do not make good friends, just allies in causes. A lot of those I thought to be my friends proved to be allies who left me when they disagreed with me. My best friends disagree with me but they also laugh at me, and with me, and then stay by me.

3. Friendship

The minister must have real friends. Yet the typical pastor is told that they can never develop close friends within their local congregation. I have mixed emotions about this counsel. I think I would say, after forty years of thought about it, that you can have close friends within a congregation, but you must be very careful about how quickly you develop such relationships and what you expect of them. I am sure of this, however - you must have friends beyond your congregation. You need peers who are truly good friends and you need relationships that have nothing to do with your work directly.

And if you have true friendships you must come to value them very highly. You can only have a few. Work at them. Make them a priority in your life. The friendless pastor is far too common. Pastors are some of the loneliest people that I've known. (They suffer silently in most cases.) They need to cultivate times with people who are their own age as well as people who are older and younger. (As you get older you should actually want younger friends more than ever. This may seem counterintuitive but my younger friends keep me very fresh and alive.) Someone once told me that you needed to have in your life: (1) People you are mentoring, (2) People who are your peers, and (3) People who are mentoring you. I would agree.

My best friend is my wife. She is my "soul-mate" in the truest sense. I will tell her things I would tell no one else. She is not so much my partner in the ministry, a term I have never liked since she was not called to the ministry with me, but she is my true friend. She knows me like no one else. She reads me like a book. She knows my weaknesses and yet she still loves me. She gives me the advice I need even when I do not like it. Most of all she loves me for who I am, not as a pastor with a ministry to many other people or an author or leader.

4. Cultivate True Piety and Toughness

Piety literally means "duty to God." We live in a time when the ideas of duty and honor seem missing. But duty was bred into me via an ROTC background in a high school military academy, something I am still grateful for to this day. I understand the word and the concept and believe that I have a "duty" to obey God because of the love of Christ and his sacrifice for me. Thus I know I must be trained and work hard at cultivating true piety.

I use the word "true" here because there is such a thing as false piety. False piety has it all backwards. It seeks to make duty a means to gaining favor or impressing others. True piety does not need to be seen or heard. It is the formation of the heart by the presence and power of God himself.

The minister who lacks true piety will soon fail. This is what will keep you from falling. It will keep you true to your vows to your wife, true to your ordination promises and true to your God. You must, however, cultivate it. Just as a diligent farmer cultivates his fields this spring for planting so you must cultivate your heart day-by-day. You do this by acts of true devotion, by worship, by reading the Bible not for a sermon but for your soul. Lectio divina, or sacred reading, has become a key for me. Lectio requires me to read with intensity and care. It puts the emphasis on how this word speaks to me. Spiritual formation is a new discovery for many evangelicals. I pray it is not another fad like so many others we've embraced.

The faithful minister must not only be pious but that piety has to be linked to toughness, both mentally and spiritually. When I was at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, the same week that I spoke to the seminary class, I took the tour of the African open lands. We saw a black rhino and they told us that there are only a few hundred left in the world since poachers want their valuable tusks. The speaker said they had a hide that was over a quarter inch thick. I thought to myself: "I think I have such a hide."

A few days later I had a nurse insert an IV into my hand before surgery and she said, "I've never had so much trouble. You have very thick skin." I said to her, "I got it from being in the ministry all these years. It is the only way I made it."

Next Week: I have several more items to share in Part Three, my final article in this series, on April 28.

Rick Phillips, "Advice for Sabbath-keeping"

http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2008/04/advice-for-sabbathkeeping.php

Advice for Sabbath-keeping

Posted by Rick Phillips

Having preached a sermon that touched in part on the Christian Sabbath (the text was John 5:9-18), I followed it up with a pastor's letter that gave advice to those learning to keep the Sabbath. I though it might be of benefit to our readers here as well.

I am persuaded that the Fourth Commandment, establishing the Sabbath observance, remains in effect for Christians. Not all Christians agree on this and some think Sabbath-keeping is a form of legalism. I am persuaded that this is mistaken, since Sabbath-keeping is one of the Ten Commandments, since the Sabbath ordinance is rooted not in the old covenant but in creation (see Gen. 2:2-3), and since as a sign and foretaste of God's eternal rest in glory, it is still needed on this side of Christ's Second Coming. As Hebrews 4:9 states, "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God."

The Fourth Commandment says that on the Lord's Day "you shall not do any work" (Ex. 20:10). This means that each of us should rest from whatever is our typical work. Students should set aside their books; businessmen should set aside their business; housewives should set aside their chores. We are to rest from our normal labor. Isaiah 58:13 adds that we are to refrain "from doing your pleasure on my holy day... not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly." This tells us that the day is to be set aside for worshiping, fellowshipping with God, and enjoying his spiritual blessings.

I know that many do not have experience in observing the Sabbath, so the idea is intimidating. The question is raised: "What are we supposed to do all day?" It is a good question and I would like to offer some practical advice:

· Our Lord's Day should normally be framed by morning and evening worship. If we simply do this, our Sundays will be generally structured around God and His blessings.

· This means that the key time is between the two services. A little planning and structure will make a big difference. For instance, the family may have its main meal after morning worship, and include more extended family prayers and singing. One of the best things to do is to get together with one or more families for this meal, using the time for especially spiritual fellowship.

· What about singles or widows? It is good to get together with friends for the Lord's Day meal. When I was a single new believer in Philadelphia, a group of us would spend the day together and then go together to evening worship. Often one would have a guitar and we would sing, we would spend time in prayer, and we would simply enjoy our Christian fellowship. Those are precious memories to me.

· The Lord's Day is a good time for devotional exercises. The family might read a Christian book together, set aside time for personal devotional reading, or spend time in hymn or psalm singing.

· Husbands/fathers should be especially concerned that their wives get rest and refreshment on the Lord's Day. Perhaps Dad might take the kids so that Mom can spend some time with the Lord or read a book. Perhaps he might prepare a meal so that Mom can rest.

· Some of us may be able to use the Lord's Day for acts of gospel mercy, such as visits to those in the hospital or shut-ins. As Jesus makes clear in John 5:, we are not violating the Sabbath by doing the work of the gospel.

· You can't sit still for five hours, so children especially will need exercise and activity. If they are going to attend evening worship, they are going to need to go to the playground - this is perfectly consistent with a day devoted to God. I find an afternoon nap to be a useful way of preparing for evening worship, too!

· Do not become legalistic about the Lord's Day. There are some kinds of work that are appropriate for the Sabbath, such as my work as a minister, the work of doctors and nurses, and others who do works of gospel ministry, mercy, and basic necessity. Still, how important it is that we be able regularly to worship in the church. Freeing up our Sundays as often as possible is one of the most important things in our lives.

Lastly, let me plead with you not to be intimidated by an emphasis on Sabbath-keeping. I am persuaded that God has given the Lord's Day as an essential component of our spiritual lives - therefore it is my duty to teach it. So if you have not practiced Sabbath-keeping, I urge you to think about making some changes in this direction. Simply adding one of the above activities between the Sunday worship services will have a big effect on your Lord's Day. You may not do it perfectly, but our gracious God will bless you. Let's not be legalistic or prideful about the Lord's Day, and let us not have a judgmental spirit among one another. Please do not fear that you will be judged for not observing the Lord's Day exactly as others do, and please do not judge others for differences of conviction or practice. But let us zealously seek the blessings that God offers through our devotion to him. He promises to those who call the Sabbath a delight:

You shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father (Isa. 58:14).

Jeff Meyers on "Lord, Language, & Liturgy" [On the use of "YHWH" in Christian readings of OT}

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffmeyers/YahwehLord.htm

Lord, Language, & Liturgy

Jeff Meyers

In our liturgy we read "Yahweh" when the Hebrew text uses the Tetragrammaton YHWH to refer to God. Most of our English translations continue to translate YHWH as LORD, distinguishing it from the Hebrew word adonay ("lord") by the use of small or large caps formatting. I am convinced that this perpetuates a very unhealthy tradition and makes for a muddled reading of Scripture. It's time to break that tradition and restore the divine covenantal name given to Israel to the public reading of Scripture.

It is better for us to read Yahweh rather than LORD in our translations, Scripture reading, and preaching for these reasons:

1. Yahweh was given to Israel as God's "memorial name" (Exod. 3:15). This personal name of God was revealed to Israel so that they might use it in prayer and thus remind God of his covenant so he would act for them. God's personal name for Israel was not "Lord" but "Yahweh." As Psalm 20 says, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will memorialize the name of Yahweh our God." The name of the God of Israel was not "Lord" or "LORD" but Yahweh.

2. "Lord" is a title not a name. You can make the word "Lord" into all caps, italicize it, bold it, or whatever, but that doesn't change the fact that it means "Master" or "Sir" and is not a name, certainly not God's revealed personal name. So when one translates passages like "Let them praise the name of Yahweh" as "Let them praise the name of the LORD" you muck up the meaning badly. His name is not "Lord" or "LORD" but YHWH.

3. The abbreviation YAH is not replaced with LORD in our English translations. We still say and sing "hallelujah," which means "praise Yah[weh]." Why don't we sing "hallelu-LORD"? Silly, you say? Just as silly as replacing YHWH with Lord. If saying the whole name is so spiritually hazardous, why isn't saying part of the name just as dangerous? But YAH was not even replaced by superstitious Jews who refused to say the whole name for fear of judgment. In addition to Hallelujah we still have all the proper names that include Yahweh in them, like Joshua (Heb: Yah-shua - "Yahweh saves"). The best we can say is this is inconsistent; the worst is that it's evidence of how stupid this superstitious avoidance of the name Yahweh really is.

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4. Later Jews superstitiously refused to vocalize the name. I'll get to when this happened in a moment. But the practice of replacing Yahweh with Lord was an act of rebellion. God gave this name for the Jews to use in memorial prayers, Psalms, and worship. Not using it means that they thought they were wiser than God. This is part and parcel with the Pharisaical "fencing of the law." In order to avoid transgressing the 3rd Word ("taking the name of Yahweh in vain") the wily Pharisaical Jews decided to just avoid the word altogether. And we want to follow that tradition?

5. What modern Jews think about what we do in our translations is irrelevant. This is a red herring anyway because we have enough in our Bibles to madden the Jews as it is. But more importantly, we need to remember that post AD 70 Judaism is a different religion than that practiced by OT believers before Christ. There are no simple "OT believers" around today. Adding Yahweh to our translations wouldn't make a difference at all. The superstitious avoidance of the vocalization of Yahweh didn't become "official" until after the first century AD, probably in response to the Christian argument that Jesus is Yahweh. Even so, why should we coddle them in their superstitious rebellion anyway? It seems to me that the real offense would be to Evangelicals who THINK the Jews would be offended. I doubt very much if most Jews would even bother to sigh.

6. Bible publishers want to make money and making such a widespread change in the way the OT is translated would mean loss of profit because it would be too much of a departure from KJV tradition. Follow the money trail. Bibles are the most profitable product for publishers. Above all, publishers want to make money on their new translations. It's not about accuracy but adding up currency.

7. Isn't it fascinating to learn that the KJV translators had the sense to know that YHWH absolutely needed its own translation in at least four places in the OT.

Ex. 6.3 - "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them."

Psa. 83.18 - "That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth."

Is. 12.2 - "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."

Is. 26.4 - "Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength."

Interesting, huh? In Isa. 12:2 and 26:4 they are evidently trying to get the reader to link LORD and JEHOVAH since the Hebrew text has only YHWH and not adonay. Even though that's an odd way to translate these verses, they at least recognized here that one had to alert the reader to the presence of YHWH for a proper understanding of the text. I would argue the same for just about every occurrence of YHWH in the text. What's the difference between these five passages and all the passages in the Psalms that say, "Praise the name of Yahweh"? If you don't put the actually name of Israel's God where it belongs, you end up with a translation that makes a completely different statement than the original.

8. Now here's something you may not know. The old Calvinistic Standard, the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV), is the only version to consistently translate YHWH as Jehovah throughout the entire OT. Check it out. I differ, of course, about the vocalization of Yahweh. It's not "Jehovah," but I would take that any day over the LORD/Lord lunacy we have now. Check out the ASV sometime:

http://www.bible-researcher.com/asv.html

9. The fact that we don't know the precise vocalization doesn't matter. How can this be used as an argument? Just as we say "Jesus" in English instead of the Greek "Iesous," there is no reason not to say Jehovah, Yahweh, Jahve, or something else similar. Getting the exact vocalization right is immaterial. The important thing is that we hear and see the personal, covenantal name of God in the text. From Hebrew, it seems clear that it was sometimes vocalized "yeho" or "yehu" from the names of the kings. So I don't think tonal precision to ancient Hebrew usage has any importance.

10. So what do we do with the fact that "the Jews did not pronounce the name YHWH"? When I read statements like that I ask, "Which Jews?" Too often, when these kinds of statements are made people think of the Jews living during the time of the OT. But there is very little evidence to suggest that Isrealites and later Jews living before the inter-Testamental period consistently practiced this superstition. In fact, there's lots of solid evidence to contradict such speculation.

Doing a little research on this uncovers the fact that the Jews were still pronouncing YHWH at the end of the OT period. Indeed, there is no solid evidence to suggest that the Jews did not pronounce this name at the time of Jesus. Most evidence points to the conclusion that the development of this superstitious avoidance of vocalizing the name of Yahweh comes after the destruction of the Temple. That doesn't mean that nobody was doing it before this time. But the practice doesn't appear to be the official policy of Judaism until after the destruction of the Temple. The superstitious avoidance of Yahweh is associated with the transformation of Judaism into a new religion after the NT period, an extension and intensification of apostate, Pharisaical Judaism.

And what about the Septuagint (LXX) translators? Well, it appears that the writers of the LXX were not yet under the spell of this stupid superstition.

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology notes: ""Recent textual discoveries cast doubt on the idea that the compilers of the LXX translated the etragrammaton YHWH by kyrios. The oldest LXX MSS (fragments) now available to us have the tetragrammaton written in Heb. characters in the Gk. text. This custom was retained by later Jewish translators of the OT in the first centuries A.D. One LXX MS from Qumram even represents the tetragrammaton by IAO. these instances have given support to the theory that the thorough-going use of kyrios for the tetragrammaton in the text of the LXX was primarily the work of Christian scribes. . . On the other hand, the Jews would have already replaced the tetragrammaton by kyrios in the oral transmission of the Gk. OT text (Vol. 2, p. 512).

"In pre-Christian Greek [manuscripts] of the OT, the divine name was not rendered by 'kyrios' as has often been thought. Usually the Tetragram was written out in Aramaic or in paleo-Hebrew letters. . . . At a later time, surrogates such as 'theos' [God] and 'kyrios' replaced the Tetragram . . . There is good reason to believe that a similar pattern evolved in the NT, i.e. the divine name was originally written in the NT quotations of and allusions to the OT, but in the course of time it was replaced by surrogates" (New Testament Abstracts, March 1977, p. 306).

This, then, raises the question of whether the NT writers really were accommodating themselves to the Jews when they translated YHWH as kyrios. They must have had some other reason for doing it. What might that have been?

Notice that the divine name YHWH was given to Israel. The name of God used by non-Israelite believers was most often "God Most High" or the "Most High God." Just do a concordance search and you'll see this, from Melchizedek in Gen. 14 to King Nebuchadnezzar in Dan. 4. With the exile, however, God does a new thing in the world. He sent the Jews (short for Judahites) into the whole world to be witness for him. They no longer have their own Davidic King. Now they are subject, by God's own decree, to the world emperors of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

This new world order is different than the old tribal and kingdom arrangement of the past. Now God begins a new work of international significance. Of course, this culminates in the work of Jesus and his apostles. I don't have time to go into all the details here. But interestingly, at this time God begins to speak in tongues (non-Hebrew languages), specifically Aramaic. And the name Yahweh is not used in the Aramaic sections of the OT.

It seems best to understand that the name YHWH was given specifically to Israel and the Jews and is particularly associated with the Mosaic and kingdom phases of their history. God is for the Israelites peculiarly Yahweh. The name YHWH is not used in the Aramaic and later in the Greek Scriptures because YHWH is for Israel and the Jews. Yahweh is "the name of the God of Israel" (Ezra 5:1, in Aramaic).

Even if the evidence seems to indicate that the people of God did not use the name Yahweh as much in the exilic and post-exilic period - a time when the kingdom of God expanded to include the world emperors as guardians of his seed people - that does not imply that they refused to say the name Yahweh anymore at all. Writing new things for a new situation is one thing, reading the received Scriptures is something else. In other words, when they read the Torah in their assembly they read Yahweh, but when they wrote and spoke to their Gentile neighbors in the wider world they used more generic titles for the true God.

If the NT writers, continuing the trajectory of the new covenantal arrangement after the exile, did not use the name Yahweh in their translation of OT texts, this does not necessarily imply that they refused to vocalize the world when they read the Scriptures publicly in their services. The revelation of God's name corresponded with the increasing revelation of his character and purposes so that finally God is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the specific "memorial name" for worship and prayer is now the name of God incarnate, Jesus.

This does not mean, however, that we should just go back and erase all the previous names of God and put Jesus or Lord in their place. Even if we don't use the name of Yahweh in the same way as the Israelites did, we need to be able to read the Scriptures in such a way that we can learn how that name functioned for them. After all, these things were written for our instruction. If hearers of the Scripture cannot discern the difference between God's personal name and the title "Master/Lord," then they will miss an important dimension of instruction concerning how the people relate to their covenant God.

The bottom line is the LORD/Lord business in English is confusing, especially when heard/sung in church and not simply in one's private reading. Even by making that distinction (LORD/Lord) the translators are conceding the battle. Why even do this? It just raises questions. When people read this odd translation they will look in the margin or in the explanation in front of their Bibles and see "Yahweh" anyway, so why not go the whole nine yards?

Moreover, the distinction is completely lost when the text is publicly read out loud and not just "studied." You see, for liturgical use the modern way of translation utterly fails. Hearers will have no idea when LORD or Lord is being used. Well, this is just par for the course. Not many in our tradition think about corporate/liturgical use when they do these translations. It's all about private reading and study. If we insist on not vocalizing YHWH, then we must at least do something to make the distinction audible in public reading - maybe if we use "Lord" for Yahweh, then "Master" should be used for adonay. At least the distinction could be heard. But again, why go through such linguistic contortions? Why not rather translate the text faithfully and allow God's people to hear and thereby understand the proper difference between the title Lord and the name Yahweh?

In conclusion, for reading the text in Church and for use in study Yahweh should be used. It is, after all, the unique name God revealed to Israel, and to say "by my name LORD I was not known by them" (Ex. 3:15) is grotesque and dangerously misleading.

John Armstrong, "Equipping Lives for the Ministry of the Gospel, Part 1"

ACT 3 Weekly E-mail : April 14, 2008

Equipping Lives for the Ministry of the Gospel, Part 1

April 14, 2008

John H. Armstrong

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I am often afforded the unique opportunity of teaching future ministers in a seminary setting. I was given such an invitation recently, by my good friend Steve Brown. I thus spent several hours in a class at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando in mid-March talking to future ministers. To prepare for this class I jotted down some thoughts and then spoke out of the experience of my own life from these simple notes on a hotel scrap. I then thought that I should write out some of what I spoke that morning and thereby share it now more widely. I make no claim to being profound in these insights. I do think there are some practical things here that might be helpful to many readers, whether you are in the ministry or not.

1. Develop and Maintain Intellectual Curiosity

Every real leader I know has a developing and growing intellectual curiosity. This means that they have an innate desire to know things and understand how the world works and why. Simply put, they are eager to learn and expand their knowledge base. Pastors, like almost everyone else who works in an environment where they must deliver messages and teach on a regular basis, can easily fall into a trap here. They become satisfied if they can give out what is expected of them week-by-week. They will have to study, for sure, but often this study has as its singular goal the production of something else for their ministry in public; i.e., for their congregation. By this means they often reduce the activity of their minds to producing content and writing sermons. This does not feed them personally and often fails others as well. Many pastors study because they have to do it not because they love it.

Every truly careful thinker that I have known has developed a deep, deep hunger for learning. They hunger to learn what that they do not know and they are eager to become better informed. And this goes well beyond knowing the Bible and preparing outlines. They remain life-long learners who are open and serious about the life of the mind. They will pursue truth in many places and contexts. They will learn from authors and people they disagree with and not simply read to reinforce their prejudice.

When I spend time with a pastor I look around his office/study and ask several questions. What is this person reading right now that is beyond their preparation for another sermon? What excites this minister about learning, period? What have they seen, experienced or read that has touched them and challenged them in a truly human way? What are they talking about and why?

2. Read, Read and Read Some More

This, following my first point, is rather obvious. Though reading is not the whole of intellectual curiosity it is clearly a major part of it. I learn from three sources: (1) The people I know, (2) The places I have been, and (3) The books I have read. I have found this saying is generally true: "Readers are leaders." Those who do not read do not learn, and those who do not learn do not grow and thus they do not become good ministers. John Wesley told his ministers to "read or get out of the ministry." I wonder what would happen if that counsel was applied today.

Every pastor will have to read some just to survive. The problem will come with what they read and why. Recently, a pastor friend was sharing with me about the experience of having interns (from a well-known conservative graduate school in this case) who were preparing and delivering sermons for the first time. He told me of his frustration with the fact that these interns knew a lot about church methodology and leadership principles but how they could not handle a biblical text and prepare a decent sermon. I fear this is all too common. And in this case the school sells itself on teaching people the Bible!

Ministers must be serious readers. They should be the very best student of the Bible in their entire congregation. But they should also read news, history, biography, literary works and poetry. They should, of course, read systematic and biblical theology as well as historical theology. Every minister, to some degree, ought to become a respectable biblical theologian. This does not mean they will simply master one textbook or repeat, like a parrot, the writings of one creed or one popular thinker. They need to have a wide exposure to the discipline of theology itself and learn how to discern good from bad. I will never forget asking Warren Wiersbe many years ago: "Why are you reading a Lutheran a-millenialist if you are a dispensational pre-millenialist?" He answered, "Why should I read what I already know?" I have carried that with me for years.

But ministers often read only a very narrow range of materials. I am suggesting that they go well beyond this and read very widely. Learn to understand the arguments of various sorts of theology and thought, and especially learning how to understand what makes people think and act they way they do, is priceless.

3. Study

Paul says, "Do your best to present yourself to God, as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). The phrase "do your best" is sometimes translated "study." The idea here is not so much "study" in the sense of sitting in a chair reading as it is "working" with all your being to understand things so that you can correctly use the Scriptures in your ministry.

Pastors today are not students like they once were. There was a time when the best-read, best-taught individual in a community was the local minister. He was the parson, the person who knew things widely and well. This is no longer the case. Most of us are not prepared broadly to think well and to lead. The emphasis today is on leadership as a technique, management as a corporate function, and on building the congregation so that it will grow numerically. The "bottom-line" is size and how the minister manages congregational developments day-to-day.

Fighting for time to truly study will always be a serious challenge for ministers. Most that do this well always have something with them and they are always listening to the best sources for what to read next. I suggest, as an example, that for every one modern book you read you read two older books. Everything about modern life and ministry wages war against this kind of study. You will have to dig and fight for the time and place to study as you ought. You have to make this a priority or you will surely fail.

4. Develop a Healthy Imagination

Imagination is the power to see things that are not, to create things that have not yet been seen, to form mental images of what is not actually present. A healthy imagination is one that is alive and growing. Few ministers develop their imagination, preferring rather to give out what they know from others. This is why sermons are dull and teaching is not vivid. Such sermons only urge people to listen to more information that does not grip their minds and souls at a profoundly imaginative level. Story telling is a lost art and preaching is, quite frankly, pretty boring in most places.

So how do you develop a good imagination? I think art, film, creative writing and story-telling work well. We have to learn how to use all of these, and more, to see what we do not readily see and to feel what we would not otherwise feel.

Kevin Johnson, "Recommended Reading List for Elder Wannabe's"

http://www.reformedcatholicism.com/?p=1578

Recommended Reading List for Wannabe Elders

April 13th, 2008

One of our readers asked me for a list of books that I might recommend for men thinking about entering the ministry so I've included a very tentative and quickly put together list below. There are a few caveats however:

1) I can't include every book I'd have potential ministers read and there are some books here that won't make it for one reason or another. What someone needs to read also may depend on where they are at as an individual. However, what you see below would be a good start. I'd also love to hear suggestions from others in the comment thread. You're going to find that there's a lot of history present in the following list and the reason for that should be somewhat obvious. If it's not obvious to you–please don't think about entering the ministry until you've spent a few years coming up with the right answer on that one as to why.

2) A few books can't really be classified as something to go out and buy. Take the hymnal being used by your church and learn as many of the hymns in it you can. If your church has a psalter, even better, go and learn them as well. If your church doesn't have a hymnal and you sing choruses through powerpoint, go find a new church–one that has proper respect for the music of the Church over the ages and don't waste your time.

3) In reading your Bible, use the morning/evening schedule in the Book of Common Prayer and read through the entire 150 Psalms once a month every month. Learn to sing the Psalms and sing them regularly. Become fanatical about it but don't go around pressing it on every congregant you find. Keep it to yourself until you're actually called to be a minister or elder somewhere.

4) The Book of Common Prayer deserves special mention. I like the Book of Common Prayer from the Reformed Episcopal Church because it echoes the 1662 Prayer Book. You don't have to be Anglican to appreciate it. You can find it as a pdf here (warning, a bit of a download). Morning and Evening Prayer in the Prayer Book should be reviewed and possibly adopted if you're not doing anything else and the Psalter is divided up to read morning/evening in a month. A good start for those working right now merely on good intentions.

5) Also, reading through the books below takes some amount of time and discernment. Don't just believe everything that comes across your eyes. Not everything in the books below should be taken as the gospel truth but when you recognize the gospel truth–put it in place in your life!

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martin. Preaching and Preachers -This is the best book on preaching on the planet. Outdoes them all. Read it once, twice, a hundred times.

Spurgeon, Charles. Lectures to My Students - Another classic "common sense" read for men going into the ministry by one of the great masters.

Stott, John R.W. Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the 20th Century - I was recently exposed to this work when I took a class on homiletics and was very impressed. Most all of what Stott has written is important for anyone to read and this volume is no exception.

Barth, Karl. Homiletics - This will revolutionize your thinking about preaching and teach you to focus on Christ.

Pilhofer, Michael. Music Theory for Dummies - Let's face it. If you're going into the ministry you likely know nothing about music. Learn it. Live it. Love it. It's indispensable in the ministry and getting good at music will help you in understanding the Bible and getting to know God.

Henry, Matthew. A Method for Prayer - There is more to prayer than saying grace at meals. This book will help you develop methods for prayer that rely heavily on the biblical text.

Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God - This book shows you how to see and recognize the divine in everyday life.

A. Kempis, Thomas. The Imitation of Christ - Another excellent classic.

Schaff, Philip, ed. The Early Church Fathers, 38 volumes - Yeah, 38 volumes. Take the hit, buy them at the link provided (since it is the cheapest I know about), and just read them. Don't read them like you have to understand everything they write about - just read them. Some you will appreciate more than others, some will blow your mind, and some you will wonder what planet were these men on. But actually reading them is important and will place you leagues ahead of others who won't do this spade work. What a heritage we have!

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion -The systematic foundation for the Reformation.

Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology -Turretin was Calvin's successor and his own Institutes is well worth adding to your understanding of Reformation doctrine. More exhaustive and complete than Calvin's, this set really sheds light on Reformed theology and practice.

Bierma, Lyle. An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology (Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought) -The Heidelberg Catechism is perhaps the warmest and most pastoral of the major extant Reformed confessions available to us and this historical introduction sets the stage for you to study it and learn to love it.

Ursinus, Zacharias. Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism - A classic commentary on perhaps the greatest confessional document of the Reformation.

Barth, Karl. The Theology of the Reformed Confessions - This book will outline for you the fact that the Reformational confessions were not mere documents and descriptions to subscribe to but that they stand as professions of a vibrant faith that the Reformers had - a needed complement to anyone who really wants to understand the purpose and nature of the Reformed confessions as they were actually produced hundreds of years ago.

Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics (Volumes I, II, III, IV [forthcoming]) - These volumes will help insulate you from people who claim there is only one stream of Reformed tradition worth your time.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1500 - An excellent and fairly up-to-date modern survey of Christendom.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, Volume 2: Reformation to the Present - The successor volume to the first.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition, A History of the Development of Doctrine (Volumes I, II, III, IV, V) - This amazing set of books traces the doctrinal history of the Christian church and its careful outline will immunize you against those who read history less carefully and use their understanding of history as propaganda for their particular understanding of what the Church should or should not be.

Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church, 8 volumes - A bit dated, but an excellent gloss of the history of the Christian Church.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition - An excellent introduction to the creeds of the Christian Church.

Bahnsen, Greg. Covenant Theology, audio series - If you read or hear nothing else from Greg Bahnsen, this concise overview of covenant theology outlines the Reformed understanding of God's plan for salvation. I'd also suggest his book on theonomy and his work in apologetics, but this is an introductory list. We can do advanced topics next time!

____________. BibleWorks 7 - BibleWorks is a huge timesaver in studying the Bible - but use it with care. Don't go too crazy in thinking you've understood a text because you've looked up how one word in a passage is used two hundred times via computer search. The value of BibleWorks is in the amount of information you can present on one screen and in an automated fashion instead of having twenty books open on your desk. Logos Bible Software is an alternative but my exposure to it is very limited. BW allows you to get well into the original language study required for getting deep into the biblical text and I highly recommend its use.

Congar, Yves Cardinal. The Mystery of the Church - Cardinal Congar's work on the mystery of the Church is outstanding and a helpful guide in viewing the Church and her work.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Obedient Rebels: Catholic Substance and Protestant Principle in Luther's Reformation - This is a helpful work in understanding the nature and substance of the Reformation–what was it really originally all about?

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) - Wow. Well, there are several reasons why I would include this book in a stack of others for Elder Wannabe's. The first and foremost reason is that men who assume a mantle of ministerial authority need to understand that they can influence and manipulate people for all the wrong reasons and that the men who committed their crimes in the Nazi era were often men who were as normal and unintentional as the next guy. Your processes and your work as a minister should never work against valid ministry but if you're not careful you can find yourself on the wrong side of true Spirit-filled ministry even though you're quite certain what you're doing is the right thing.

Filed under: Generally Speaking, Philosophy, Theology, and Faith, Prayer and Reflection
by Kevin D. Johnson |

Kevin Johnson, "Even More Radical and Controversial Advice for Elder Wannabe’s"

http://www.reformedcatholicism.com/?p=1576

Even More Radical and Controversial Advice for Elder Wannabe's

April 11th, 2008

Already following all sixteen points in my last post? Echoes of the Rich Young Ruler ought to be floating about in your head about now and rightly so. Don't know about the Rich Young Ruler? Turn your computer off and go read your Bible several times. Don't come back to any blog for a month or two. Just keep reading your Bible. Oh wait. I was supposed to provide a numbered list. Okay, well, anyway, that first one was a freebie.

Here are some more to think about implementing:

1) Go get a part-time job and give all the proceeds to your pastor without him knowing. Round your check off to the nearest twenty, put the cash in an envelope with a typed card that reads, "I'm so thankful you're my pastor". The amount is less important than making it completely anonymous but don't make it less than a hundred a week. Are you in one of those churches where your pastor makes way too much money? Get out. Or, alternatively, find someone who is financially hurting in your congregation and give them the money while still remaining completely anonymous. What?!? You don't have a job? Your living at home with Mommy? Quit reading this list. Go get a job or two, get your own place, and don't think about the ministry again EVER (or at least, not for another few years while you've been on your own and gainfully employed and promoted more than once). The last thing the Christian ministry needs is just one more slacker.

2) Learn everyone's name in your congregation. If you're in a congregation too big to do that, you're likely in a congregation too big to really learn how to do ministry or to really interact with elders who give a flying flip about you. Go find a smaller congregation–preferably one with less than a hundred people. Find one with lots of older people and an older pastor–the kind that you think is in decline or not worth your time. Truth is it will probably be much like the first congregation you pastor because older people have a lot of patience for someone who is likely going to really screw up the first time. Might as well get used to it early on and if you can't handle the bad music, the older folks, and especially your own failures–you're not even ready to think about ministry.

3) Invest in the lives of people you don't know and especially in the lives of people you don't like. Learn that their values and their understanding of things has good in it as well as bad. Do everything you can to understand issues and perspectives from their point of view. Give people the benefit of the doubt the first time around when conflict occurs. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. You get the idea, I hope.

4) Befriend the oldest person in your congregation. If that person is 29 or 35 go find a REAL church to minister in where people actually have gray hair. Take this person to get their medicines or get their medicines for them. Get to know them well enough to take them to the doctor or hospital whenever needed. Make them dinner. Clean their house even if they pay a housekeeper. Impose yourself gently upon them and put yourself on call for whatever they need. Pray for them and ask them how to pray for them.

5) Look for elderly widows in your congregation and do the same as #4 above. What was that verse about true religion? If you've never exercised any care for widows and orphans what makes you think you're really called to be a minister? Spend afternoons getting to know the widows of your church. Ask them about their lives, their children, their husband, and look at pictures with them. Tell them you want to know more and really want to know more. Be genuinely concerned with them and their future but don't stay so long that you make them tired when visiting. If you have kids, leave them at home unless they are thoroughly well-behaved. If they are riotous, undisciplined, and/or require constant attention from you–stop reading. Implement real parental discipline and get your family in order. Do not pass go and do not collect $200. Quit while you're ahead.

6) If you are married, ask your wife to follow in line with you doing numbers four and five above. If she's not already doing that with you or on her own or refuses, take some time to really consider if the ministry is for you and your family or not.

7) Abandon teaching an adult Sunday School class or other Bible Study you may be involved in. Go volunteer in the nursery (if your church has one) or teach primary grade children. Don't give into the temptation that others may present you with–any known ministerial candidate gets thrown into youth ministry. Don't do it. You don't have the skills and you're likely not mature enough to handle the real problems inherent in any church doing "youth ministry".

8) Tithe ten to twenty percent of your GROSS income to whatever church you are attending. Don't tell me you believe in ministry and ought to be a minister if you're not regularly giving to your church in the first place. As a minister, you're going to live your life off of the gifts of faithful Christians. You should know early what that sacrifice means on the part of your fellow Christians and learn to appreciate it.

9) Learn a trade or skill that will at the very least pay the bills when nothing else will. Consider the wisdom and place of bi-vocational ministry and remain open to it. Also, consider that if you're faithful, the ministry won't be a cakewalk and getting a secure position like a pastorate at a big church is likely never going to happen. You don't want a position like that anyway if you're a real minister.

10) Keep your desire to be in the ministry a real secret. Don't tell your pastor about it, don't ask him about what real ministry is like, don't ask people if they think that is what God's will is for your life, don't go around doing anything other than acting like a servant of the church. Keep Christ's footwashing of the disciples ever present in your mind and look for ways to serve others in the least rewarding and most humbling way possible. But, never let on that any of this has anything to do with thinking about or going into the ministry.

11) One caveat to number ten if you are married. Ask your wife what she thinks and learn to rely on her advice for the extent of your whole career. If she counsels against you entering the ministry–DON'T DO IT at least until she gives the go ahead without any pressure from you. Ask her if you are too selfish for the ministry–if you think you're doing it because you want to instead of other more appropriate reasons. Ask her where you fail and how you can do better. Ask her if she's ready to be a pastor's wife. Ask her if she can handle you not being around when she needs you and then ask yourself why you would want to sacrifice your family in that way. Talk with her about these things often and continually keep her advice and concerns in mind. If she's not for something, don't go there. Period.

12) Quit listening to Christian music and Christian radio. Tune your radio to other stations and listen to music you normally wouldn't on iTunes or elsewhere. Find the kind that really grates against your own musical tastes and ask yourself what the artist is trying to say and accomplish. Ask yourself how you would communicate the gospel to someone like that and what good is in that music.

13) Never go into a Christian bookstore again. Buy all your books online or used. Anything that's sold in a Christian bookstore today is likely garbage and not worth reading. Start cruising the Amazon lists of books to read by others but remember that many Christian bloggers and others easily fall into fashions and fads like any other group. Learn to read deeply into each of the major Christian traditions. Take the hit, buy the Eerdmans' Early Church Fathers set and actually READ the volumes on your shelf. Read Martin Luther. Read John Calvin. Not books about them. Not yet anyway.

14) Don't waste your money on Bible commentaries yet. You'll probably buy all the wrong ones anyway. Take the time to learn the original languages of the Bible instead and you'll be far ahead of anyone reading Bible commentaries. Bible commentaries are really for people who already know the biblical languages and can discern whether or not a commentator knows what they're talking about. Most of them don't.

15) Spend time in intimate conversation with God. Wherever you are, whenever you are. Especially when you're doing things you don't want to do or that are seemingly unpleasant at the time. Face the fact that things that are unpleasant for you to deal with are likely so because you are just exercising your own sinfulness. Go buy Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God. Implement it in your own life. Don't forget to do the common things of human existence (and do them well) but do them with the presence of God in mind.

Filed under: Generally Speaking, Philosophy, Theology, and Faith, Prayer and Reflection
by Kevin D. Johnson |

Ligon Duncan on Patristics for Busy Pastors

http://www.richardsibbes.com/Pastristics-for-Busy-Pastors-Ligon-Duncan-interview.mp3

A Few Notes:

Read some history, some biography, and some primary sources, in concert with one another. A few select suggestions:

HISTORY
F.F. Bruce, "The Spreading Flame."
Everett Ferguson, "Backgrounds in Early Christianity"

BIOGRAPHY
Peter Brown, "Augustine of Hippo"
JND Kelly, "Jerome"

PRIMARY SOURCES:
Athanasius, "On the Incarnation", esp. with introduction by C.S. Lewis
The Apostlic Fathers, ed. by Holmes published by Baker

Kevin Johnson, "A Guide for Elder Wannabe's"

http://www.reformedcatholicism.com/?p=1565

Guide for Elder Wannabe's

April 6th, 2008

Here are some suggestions for those wanting (or "feeling called") to enter the ministry. I've learned by experience that some of these items would be helpful to candidates and others pursuing ordination. Other items represent what I believe might be helpful. In any case, I offer them up for consideration for students and others to perhaps avoid some of the mistakes I've already made and many others have also perhaps made along the way:

1) Find the janitor in your church and offer to help him with his responsibilities–take the majority of them over if you can. Do the work he'd rather not do. If your church doesn't have a janitor, volunteer to take over the work in addition to other gainful employment you may already (hopefully) have. Hopefully, you'll be in a church where there is either a lot to vacuum or mop. Use this time to meditate on God's Word and how you can work humbly for others. If you're blessed enough to be the janitor of a church, don't take any money that the church would like to give unless they insist. If they do pay you, give everything back on Sunday in the offering and don't ever talk about it. Or, use a portion to buy good books or music for later study.

2) Do not go directly to seminary out of college or do not go to seminary at all. Spend two or three years working and saving money. Having a job while going to college doesn't count and don't pretend you work as hard as the average man just because you're going to college on your own and paying for it by working in the meantime. Don't quit this post-college job until you've gotten good enough at it to be promoted a couple of times. Realize that your job in the ministry is to deal with people who have to put up with everything you'd put up with in these couple of years and more–much more.

3) Remember that being ordained really doesn't do anything except confirm what is already a reality in your ministry–that is, if you even have a ministry or a reality that encompasses real ministry. Understand that the men who ordain you are just men and you all together don't add up to anything more than the one elderly lady in the back of the church who can't always make it because of her health but the prayers she offers to God after a life of service make her among the most important in your church.

4) Do not volunteer for pulpit supply in your church or in other churches. Volunteer for pulpit supply at nursing homes or hospital chapels. Not only will this provide you with the greatest way to learn how to speak in challenging environments, you will be exercising true religion by visiting "orphans and widows"–the forgotten of the church in this society–in their distress. Nothing could help your preaching more.

5) Find some set order of praying every morning and evening–noon too if there is room–and if there isn't room in your schedule for this just stop reading. Don't pursue the ministry. Don't curse a generation with the wickedness of your presence in the pulpit without prayer. In this day and age of funky spirituality–go with the old and proven stuff. No one drinks 2 year old Scotch. Don't think you can freestyle prayer with our Lord until it actually happens as an outflow of the Lord's work in your life. Try Morning and Evening Prayer via the Book of Common Prayer and steep in the wisdom of the Fathers on this one. Find a parish in your city that has at least one weekday where either Morning or Evening Prayer is offered on a weekday and do everything in your power to be there every week.

6) If you really feel called to the ministry or want to be an elder, put off your own desire to do so until people actually force you into it. Continue to say no for years and don't just accept leadership positions because they're offered to you. Don't buy the mantra offered to young men that you ought to be in the ministry because you're nice and intelligent and well-spoken. What a load of you know what. Some of the worst ministers in the world are the smartest and the sneakiest. Prove yourself by serving the congregation in ways that no one sees and few care about. Remember #4 above–and find other similar ways of working hard at it.

7) Any extra money you have after spending everything possible on your wife, use to buy the best in sacred music or books. For the first ten years, you'll likely buy all the wrong books but buy them anyway and read through them with the understanding in the next ten to fifteen years you may very well disagree with what they advocate. Start buying books by author and not by the publishing house where you find them. Learn the good authors to buy and read through everything they've written–then take the people they reference in their own works and read through their sources as well.

8) Read a good fiction book at least once a year and don't always busy yourself with reading theological history, philosophy, or theology. Take at least three months off every year and read nothing but your Bible (all at once or interspersed throughout the year).

9) Take a foreign language besides the biblical languages. A European language if possible but one which will force you to appreciate the best in other cultures.

10) Read your Bible more than you study it. Study one good passage or topic a month while you still have time. But always have your Bible open, reading, praying, and then thinking about it.

11) Live the lifestyle of a mendicant monk, but treat your wife like a queen. Don't make her financially support you through school. Do it yourself even if it takes three years longer than it would otherwise. Christ gave Himself up for the church and ministers should do likewise in spades for their wives.

12) Learn to read music. Sing in a choir regularly for years or learn to play an instrument. Go hear the best in music (note, this does not mean attend a rock concert) and find ways to support exceptional music in your community. Take the hit and buy season tickets to the symphony or the opera instead of drinking Starbucks every blasted day of your life.

13) If you decide you really have to go to seminary (and this decision you should weigh carefully because it's not for every minister), find a seminary that is intimately connected with and responsible to a local church. Make sure it's more like a monastery of very committed men instead of some place where academic concerns reign. The pastorate is not about being a scholar. If you want to be a scholar go to a good school and become a teacher but whatever you do don't become a seminary professor. Look at schools like Andrewes Hall here in Phoenix where men are taught in conjunction with a local REC church and guided spiritually by very wise men.  In fact, look very closely at any program the REC offers.  It's likely the right one.

14) Do not go to an undergraduate Bible school. Go to a State run school. Learn to value those who are completely different than you are and learn also to see the good in their ideas.

15) Move to a city if you are in a small town. You can go back to the small town later (DV) but you need the difference in the air that a large complex environment like a city provides. God's work is being done chiefly in the cities and we shouldn't forget that most of those we are called to minister to find themselves living in and among the cities of this world.

16) Ask yourself.  Are you really sure you want to become an elder or minister?  If the answer is yes you likely shouldn't.  Sounds unbelievable but true.  Not to say you can't, but spend your time serving in your church instead of trying to "confirm" a call by asking every person you respect what they think about it or what they think God's will is for you.  Let the people of God lift you up at the right time.  If you are truly called to the ministry, it will happen in due time as God ordains and the people of your parish desire.   Remember, though, to make sure to say no to them at least two or three times.  If you aren't called to the ministry after all, you will have still lived a life of service to our Lord and rightly so–that is no small thing and in fact it is likely the greater accomplishment.

By Kevin D. Johnson

Riddlebarger on "Jesus Christ: the True Israel"

 http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/the-latest-post/2008/4/1/amillennialism-101-jesus-christ-the-true-israel.html

 

Amillennialism 101 -- Jesus Christ: The True Israel

 

Jesus Christ: The True Israel

If we stand within the field of prophetic vision typical of Israel's prophets after the exile and captivity, and with them we look to the future, what do we see?  Israel's prophets clearly anticipate a time when Israel will be restored to its former greatness.  But will that restoration of the nation of Israel to its former glory mirror the days of the monarchy?  Or does the monarchy itself point us to the monarch?

Such a prophetic vision includes not only the nation, but the land of Canaan, the city of Jerusalem, the throne of David, as well as the temple in Jerusalem.  Since the nation had been divided and the people were hauled off into captivity in Babylon some five centuries before the coming of Jesus, the magnificent temple destroyed and the priesthood gone, such prophetic expectation related to Israel's future quite naturally spoke of a reversal of fortune and the undoing of calamity which had come upon the nation.  

But with apostolic hindsight Peter speaks of how "concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look." (1 Peter 1:10-12).

In Isaiah 41:8-9, the prophet spoke of a future restoration of Israel in these terms.  "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, `You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.'"  The same promise is reiterated in the next chapter of Isaiah (42:1-7), when the LORD declares of his servant, "I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations"( v. 6).  Isaiah continues to speak of this servant in chapters 44 (vv. 1-2) and 45 (v. 4).

Dispensationalists, given their so-called "literal hermeneutic," are bound to interpret such passages literally, thereby assign the fulfillment of these prophecies of Isaiah to a future earthly millennium in which Israel co-exists with Gentiles under the reign of the Davidic king (See Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom, 302-304; and Pentecost, Things to Come, 503-508).   In effect, this amounts to the restoration of the monarchy as Jesus takes his place on David's royal throne and rules the nations from this restored Israel.

But is this how the New Testament interprets these messianic prophecies regarding the servant of the Lord?  Who is this servant of the Lord?  It is the nation of Israel, or is it Jesus, Israel's Messiah?

In order to answer this questions, we must see that the gospel writers interpret these prophecies from Isaiah as fulfilled in the messianic mission of Jesus.    First, in Matthew 12:15-21, for example, when Jesus withdrew from the crowds who had followed him, Matthew reports that this event fulfilled what had been spoken in Isaiah the prophet.  This event serves to demonstrate that Jesus is the true servant of the Lord.

Second, as Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick, Matthew saw in this the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies of a suffering servant who would take upon himself our infirmities and carry our diseases (Matthew 8:17 with Isaiah 53:4).

Third, in Luke's gospel, Luke speaks of both Israel (cf. Luke 1:54) and David as the servant of God (Luke 1:69).  Yet in Acts, Luke pointedly speaks of Jesus as the servant of God (Acts 3:13).  After his crucifixion, God raised Jesus from the dead so that people everywhere might be called to repentance (3:26).

Fourth, when the Ethiopian eunuch hears a reading from Isaiah 53:7-8 and asks Philip about whom this prophecy refers, Luke tells us that Philip informed the Ethiopian that this passage does indeed refer to Jesus (Acts 8:34-35).

But this is not all that is in view here.  In Hosea 11:1, Hosea predicted a time when "Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son."  But in Matthew 2:15, the evangelist tells us that Hosea's prophecy was fulfilled when his parents took Jesus to Egypt to protect him from Herod's "slaughter of the innocents" (Matthew 2:3-18).  Yet, after Herod had died, God called Jesus and his family to return to Nazareth.  Matthew takes a passage from Hosea, which clearly refers to Israel, and tells his reader that this passage is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ!  He does this to prove to his largely Jewish audience that Jesus is the servant of the Lord, foretold throughout the Old Testament (especially Isaiah).

By now it should be clear that according to many New Testament writers, Jesus is the true servant, the true son and the true Israel of God.  Recall too that it was Isaiah who spoke of Israel and the descendants of Abraham as the people of God.  It as through the seed of Abraham that the nations of the earth would be blessed.  

Therefore, even as Jesus is the true Israel, he is the true seed of Abraham.  This is the point that Paul is making in Galatians 3:7-8, when he says "know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, `In you shall all the nations be blessed.'"  

Paul's words here, are important for several reasons.  First, Paul tells us that Abraham believed the very same gospel that he preached to the Gentile Galatians.  There has only been one plan of salvation and one gospel from the very beginning.  This, of course, raises very serious questions about the dispensational notion of "clearly distinct" redemptive purposes for national Israel and the Gentiles, as is evident when Paul goes on to say in Galatians 3:29, that "if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise."  

Second, the one gospel promise from the very beginning of redemptive history is that the true children of Abraham, whether they be Jew or Gentile, are heirs of the promise, if they belong to Jesus Christ, the true seed of Abraham.  But as Robert Strimple points out, an important word of clarification is certainly in order.  "We [amillennarians] say: `Yes, the nation of Israel was the people of God in the old covenant.  Now in the new covenant the believing church is the people of God.'  And thus we quickly run past (or we miss the blessed point entirely) the fact that we Christians are the Israel of God, Abraham's seed, and the heirs to the promises, only because by faith, we are united to him who alone is the true Israel, Abraham's one seed."  (See Strimple, "Amillennialism," in Bock, ed., Three Views of the Millennium and Beyond, 89).

The ramifications for this upon one's millennial view should now be obvious.  If Jesus is the true Israel of God, and if the New Testament writers apply to Jesus those Old Testament prophecies referring to Israel as God's son or servant, then what remains of the dispensationalist's case that these prophecies remain yet to be fulfilled in a future millennium? They vanish in Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled them!

 

Quote from Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse-Five"

"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from the things she found in gift shops."