Confessions of A Moving Target

“Maybe Jesus was just really fun to hang out with. Maybe the true mark of a christian is someone you would eat chicken wings with and shoot pool with or throw darts with or go to the game with. Not just if they could exegete the Greek text and beat you in Bible Jeopardy like some Sunday School Jerk…”

-Mark Driscoll

This quote was taken from the sermon ‘Humor’ which can be found at http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/religionsaves/humor

Check it out!

I grew up being taught that hell was separation from God; a place of eternal torment for those apart from God.  But as I have begun to step out from those things that I simply assumed to be true because they have been taught to me from my youth and pursued biblical truth I have formed some different views of hell. Mainly that hell is not and cannot be separation from God. God is omnipresent.  There is NOWHERE where God is not. Heaven, hell, the wings of the morning or the depths of the sea, God is there.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Heb. 4:13

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:7-10

If this is true then how does one justify the “sheep and the goats” passage of Matthew 25? I have been pondering this and think that I have come up with something. One cannot deny that God says, “depart from me”. This much is, indeed, true. But how can one depart from God if He is with us, even in “sheol”? I think the answer for this lies in a common theme throughout scripture.

From the moment of the fall, God has offered a chance to gain back, in part, one of the things we lost in the garden: communion and fellowship. One of the important ways God did this was through the tabernacle. In the wilderness the Israelites had a way to fellowship God though only in part. As a consequence of the fall only a certain person could have this fellowship as a representative of the nation.  Another consequence was that this fellowship was tainted with fear. Through our head we had destroyed peaceful fellowship with God and now required atonement and right worship to come before YAWEH.  So each year the priest went before God within the tabernacle  to offer a sacrifice in order to keep God , whose very presence was represented by the tabernacle itself, appeased.

Enter Jesus. “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:11-15) Christ a picture of God’s fellowship with his creation came as high priest, among that very creation in order to offer himself as the spotless lamb. As the veil in the temple was torn so was the need for the temple itself.  The tabernacle was and is now in our hearts as believers.

So, what does this all have to do with hell and the sheep and the goats? Well it is my belief that God’s command to “depart” as well as the final judgment in general is a removal of the gift of this tabernacle. As God had invited us in to fellowship with him he is now saying that the time   to return and abide will be over. God’s offer of fellowship will be complete. We were invited in and now  those who never repented will be cast out. “These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shepherds them, and leads them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:14-17 (emphasis mine).

God is the chief good. God is the fountain of all goodness, from which all goodness flows to the creatures and by which it is continued in them, and to them. Whatever goodness or perfection, natural as well as moral, is in any creature– it is from God, and depends upon Him, as the light is from, and depends on, the sun. For every created being, as such, is a dependent one. Through common grace he has extended many benefits to those who reject him. At this moment of departure, however, common grace will be erased. It is this common grace that I believe the goats are told to depart from.

To a man that rejects God, being separated from him is what he wants. Therefore, separation from God will not be a punishment for him. Rather than being fully separated from God the reprobate will be separated from God’s goodness; separated from all those benefits God so graciously offered. In return God will place on the sinner the entire weight of his wrath. God’s wrath is often described as a winepress. And so it shall be for the sinner that he will for all eternity be wrung through the winepress of God’s wrath with no hope for mercy.  Through it all God will remain just. And this is the final nail in the coffin. Each sinner will have no excuse, no word to utter that might cause this punishment to be seen as unjust.

In the end, God’s presence will be the worst punishment for those that rejected him. But for those to whom he gave the gift of life his presence will be the opposite…

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:22-27

James Bond (007) is Britain’s top agent and is on an exciting mission, to solve the mysterious murder of a fellow agent. The task sends him to Jamacia, where he joins forces with Quarrel and a loyal CIA agent, Felix Leiter. While dodging tarantulas, “fire breathing dragons” and a trio of assassins, known as the three blind mice. Bond meets up with the beautiful Honey Ryder and goes face to face with the evil Dr. No.

While it contains all the classic elements of Bond films ( A beautiful woman, egomaniacle baddy …etc),  this movie is very anti-climactic. This can be attributed to several things. First, the soundtrack is incredibly sparse. It does have the classic Bond theme which is very important but apart from several variations on that theme the soundtrack is very forgetable. This sparsness also bleeds over into the foly and sound design. Outside of a few basic special effects like explosions and gun fire, when a character isn’rt speaking, all you hear is silence. Second there is no real tension built up and when what little tension there is comes to a head it gets resolved quicky and without any real problem.

All in all it was a good intro to the Bond series. My wife attributed the sparseness and the anti-climacticity to the era. I told her that Hitchcock was doing incredible suspense and climaxes as many as 5-6 years before Dr. No, so era is no excuse.

Side note: I’ve noticed a plot divice in Bond movies that I will keep track of through the retrospective. I’ve noticed that Bond is usually knocked over the head and unconscious in order, plot-wise, to get him to the enemy’s secret base.

America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet on her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world; she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit. . . . Her glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

- John Quincy Adams’ address as Secretary of State to the U.S. House of Representatives.,Independence Day 1821.

- Einstein Bros. six cheese bagel with onion and chive cream cheese.

- Rogue Brewing Co.’s Dead Guy Ale

- Macs

- P.F. Chang’s

- my iPhone

- A good French Press pot of coffee

Music:

I used to buy into the propaganda. “Democrats kill babies.” But as I grew up and moved on into the “real world.” I started to meet some democrats. They weren’t the incarnation of evil after all.  I eventually became a huge fan of a TV show that had, as it’s main character, a Democratic President. Slowly and thankfully My eyes have been opened. And while I may not agree with some basic democratic principles there are a good many areas where the GOP would do well to sit down, shut up and take notes. As I look at Fox News and other people who represent the Republican Party (inside my family and out) I become more and more sickened. So many Republicans that claim to be so devout seem to leave their faith at the door when it comes to dealing with people with different political views. I have heard insults, lies, exaggerations and downright slander from supposed Christians that would make a sailor blush. Put it on FOX news and it must be true. Have O’Reily spin it his way and that spin must be true. Obama or Hillary said it …. it must be a lie.

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I believe that in the day of our full deliverance we shall lift up, every one of us, such a song of praise as we are not capable of here. We shall sing with all our powers of heart and tongue at the sight of what we have been delivered from. Even then this will be the sum and substance of the song—“Salvation is of the Lord.” He has wrought it all, and brought us safely through. The hymn of Miriam, and of all the children of Israel at the Red Sea, when they had passed through it, and all the Egyptians were drowned, was a very exultant song, but what will ours be when the gates of hell shall have been overthrown, and all our enemies destroyed, and we shall find ourselves before the eternal throne saved for ever! Shall we not exclaim, “Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously”? Shall we not, each one, tell out his own ex-perience, and bid our fellow-believers sing yet more and more rapturously unto the God of salvation? Will not some of you take up that note which Miriam dwelt upon when she could not see a single Egyptian? Pharaoh’s chariots and horses were all sunk in the sea, his chosen cap-tains also were drowned in the Red Sea; and so she struck her timbrel, and with all the maidens she danced right joyously as she sang, “The depths have covered them. There is not one, not one, not one of them left.” Thus will we sing in heaven. “ There is not one, not one of them left. Not one of all the sins, and all the trials, and all the temptations, and all the vexations of life: the Lord has removed them all. There is not one of them left. Salvation is of the Lord.” - C.H. Spurgeon

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough — more than enough — of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on — not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.

- J.F.K.