“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you quite briefly.
I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.
Greet all your leaders and all the Lord’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.
Grace be with you all.” -Hebrews 13:20-25
We have made it to the end of the book of Hebrews! This is is the final section of verses, and it serves as a conclusion through the use of a doxology and some greetings from the author to his audience.
Verses 20-21 serve as a doxology. A doxology is simply praising God; the word doxology comes from the Greek word doxa, meaning glory. It’s interesting that the author calls God “the God of peace” here, as that’s a phrase often used by the Apostle Paul. Some scholars do suspect that Paul wrote this letter, but there is also support for the fact that Paul did not write it. (See this post for more on this letter’s author.) The peace referred to here is not just an absence of conflict but it’s a sense of well-being, reminding the audience that all of life depends on God.
“The blood of the eternal covenant” is one of the main themes of this letter, so it’s fitting that the author brings it up here. Much of the letter has compared and contrasted the old covenant that God had with the nation of Israel with the new covenant that all people now have through Jesus Christ.
However, this is the first place in the entire letter where Jesus is referred to as a shepherd, though there are many other times in the Bible where the shepherd imagery is used – Psalm 23, Isaiah 63:11, John 10, and 1 Peter 2:25 just to name a few. Jesus as a shepherd showcases His care for people; sheep are pretty helpless (and dumb) without their shepherd. Shepherds also had complete sovereignty over their flocks, which is something that we tend to gloss over today. Jesus should have complete rule over our lives, as He is our great shepherd.
The author’s prayer for his audience is that God would equip them with what they need. The verb for “equip” has the idea of mending something that is broken. His prayer is that God will make right whatever is not right in the spiritual lives of the readers and that they will lack nothing.
It’s interesting to see the idea of doing God’s will right next to the phrase of “may he work in us.” We are to desire to do God’s will, but doing so is only possible as a result of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We do good works because we have faith in Jesus, and it’s that faith that allows us to do good things that are unselfish in nature (see James 2 for more on that). When we love God and desire to follow Jesus with our entire lives, our desire should be to do exactly what this doxology says – “what is pleasing to Him.” We should love God so much that our own desires are not worthwhile to dwell on, but our focus should be on pleasing God.
The last few verses of this letter are greetings to its readers, which is one way that we know it is a letter that was sent by an author to a group of people.
Verse 22 shows that the author calls this letter an “exhortation.” Exhorting simply means to communicate with emphasis, urging someone to do something. The author has clearly spent a lot of time on this letter, so he wants his readers to take it to heart. It is interesting in that the author says that he has written “quite briefly.” A 13-chapter letter like this one definitely does not fit my definition of “brief”! Some scholars take this to mean that perhaps the last chapter or two was a separate document initially that was attached to the rest of the book at some point in history.
The Timothy referred to in verse 23 is very likely the Timothy to whom Paul wrote the letters of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, as there is no record of any other Timothy associated with the early church in this time period. The word “released” is curious, as its meaning is unclear whether Timothy is being released from prison, released from some other obligation, or released as in starting on a journey of some sort. The Greek word could mean any of these. But whatever the situation, the writer is clearly expecting Timothy to arrive at the place where he is, and then the two of them would journey on to see the recipients of this letter.
The author has written about leaders a couple of times already in this chapter, so it’s no surprise that he encourages the greeting of the leaders in verse 24, along with all the Lord’s people. It is unclear what the author means by “Those from Italy send you their greetings.” Scholars do not know enough about the author or his geographic location to make sense of that.
Finally, the author ends with, “Grace be with you all” in verse 25. This is very appropriate given that the author spent much of this letter talking about the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice and how we are freely given the gift of God’s grace. He does not exclude anyone who might read this letter from receiving God’s grace, just as God excludes no one.
I thank you for joining me on this journey through the letter to the Hebrews! It has been quite an adventure over the past year to write through this entire book, and if you haven’t read through all the posts, I continue to go back and do so.
And on that note, I’ll end as the author does: Grace be with you all!
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Jesus lambasted the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and false teachings that not only showcased their own problems but made their followers the two-fold sons of Hell than they were. The Pharisees were bad enough, but their students were even worse. Why? Because when a sinful person sees someone deemed a righteous man open the door for liberalism and some sin, that person will take that door and open it even further.
This will be my final post on the deadly consequences of getting sin wrong before I return to the true definition of sin and go into the proper response to sin. I am going to make a bold and seemingly harsh statement: ANY PERSON who does not have a Biblical understanding of sin – knowing full well what it is, how severe it is, what it does, and what the consequences are – has absolutely no business being in any form of ministry. The results of any kind of ministry that does not understand nor take sin as the Bible describes it lead to utter failure and destruction. Jesus warned anyone against leading the youth astray and James said anyone in any teaching position is going to be held to a higher standard. That standard means they will be held responsible for anyone who listens to what they say and follows them. This is why Paul said to “imitate me just as I imitate Christ” but that also gives a hint that we are not to imitate him in any other way. If I am not pointing towards Christ, I don’t want people following me.
I understand that no one has a perfect understanding of sin, but anyone who has a remote working knowledge of the Bible should know enough to know what sin is. They also should know to have warnings go off anytime someone attempts to excuse sin, cover it up, or to literally re-define it to mean something else. I just spent blog posts #6-11 of this series going over examples so you would know the flavors of this we are currently dealing with.
Ultimately, the situation is like this: people have a deadly disease with only one possible cure. Doctors know what the cure is supposed to be, and because they know people won’t like the diagnosis or the medicine, they soften the diagnosis and tell them it is actually something else. Then to make it worse, they give medicine that fits the new diagnosis instead of what fits the actual disease. Now, sin is NOT a disease that one simply contracts, but the analogy works here for this purpose. We have preachers, missionaries, and evangelists who tell people how great they are and how much God loves them but never actually addresses their malady and what is wrong with life. And that person will hear the message, thinking they are safe, but will continue to go through life without ever getting a real solution. And to make it worse, those people will become hardened to any real presentation because the last “Christian” who spoke to them told them a flat out lie.
When we get sin wrong, we get evangelism wrong. But let’s get more practical here on earth too. What about counseling? What about identity politics? Why are states trying to ban churches and pastors from sex conversion therapies? The answer is because the root of every one of these problems is sin, and the answer to every one of these problems is the cross. So if we get sin wrong, we get the root of the problem wrong, and thus any attempt to solve the problem will only be a band aid at best.
People who hear false teachings and are impressed by the opinions of this world will ask: “How will you get the experts to listen to you when you know they reject your secondary teachings?” Usually this question is asked about origins. How can we possibly evangelize the scientific community when they believe that a 6-day creation and a 6000-year history is utterly impossible? My answer is, “If they are going to reject creation, what makes you think they are going to accept the cross? And why are we worried about what they think? They are sinners and they are LOST. Why are you taking counsel from a lost person?” Frankly, those people are ashamed of the Gospel and of Christ before men. I seriously ask them, if that is their approach, why bother believing the rest of what the Bible says that “modern science” doesn’t agree with either? That’s in academics. What about in practical life?
A marriage starts to fall apart, and the world is only going to offer trivial solutions if not break it apart. A friend of Worldview Warriors president Jason DeZurik was a musician in a Christian band who came out as a homosexual and abandoned his wife and kids to go public about it. As bad as that is, I had an indignation rise up in me like I rarely get when I found out that two pastors (one was a Progressive Christian) encouraged him and advised him to do this instead of dealing with his real issue – sin. They had a false view of sin and did not consider homosexuality to be a sinful lifestyle, so they gave him bad counsel which led that young man into further sin.
While I don’t want to boast about myself, but my book Biblical Foundations has already saved a marriage and I didn’t even write about marriage. How did I do that? I didn’t do anything but write about what being a Christian really entails and what it means to have your foundation in Scripture. This couple read my book, got their lives back in order with God, and out of that their marriage was saved. That was not me; that was God who used me because I was not ashamed of the Gospel and not ashamed to speak of what sin is and what the solution to sin is.
It is the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. How was the thief on the cross saved? By recognizing his own sin and also recognizing that Jesus, being without sin, was the Savior. He didn’t use theological language, but he realized his need for a savior even in death. The Gospel’s power lies in correctly identifying sin as being sin and that the hope from that sin is found only in Christ Jesus. I believe I speak for all of us at Worldview Warriors when I say that we are not ashamed of the Gospel. We are not ashamed of the message that Christianity teaches, and we will speak that message no matter what it may cost us. We love the truth, and we love people enough that we will tell them the truth no matter what they may think of it. And that means that we have to tell people what their sin truly is and what it is like. That is what I will do next week. I will go back to what sin truly is and how utterly and completely wicked it is; only when we understand that can we have a proper response to it.
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“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.” -Hebrews 13:15-19
The verses right before this section focused on the sacrifice of Jesus, and these verses continue that thought with more insight about sacrifices.
It is only through and because of Jesus’ sacrifice that we can offer God our praise (verse 15). We are to offer that sacrifice continually, not just occasionally. This brings to mind the idea of offering our lives as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2) and continually living our lives for the good of others (James 1:27). Just as 1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, we should always be giving thanks to God for everything, in all circumstances.
Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, there is no longer any need for the people to kill animals as sacrifices to God. Jesus took care of that once and for all, as the perfect sacrifice for all humanity at all times and in all places. The only sacrifice that is needed now is the sacrifice of praise, which we do when we praise God’s name openly. Our praise of God is not something that is supposed to be hidden, but rather it is to be done openly. Jesus openly died on the cross for us; that fact is not hidden, and neither should our praise to Him be hidden.
Even though blood sacrifices are no longer needed, there are times when we need to make sacrifices in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. The author gives two examples in verse 16: doing good to others and sharing with them. The word for doing good is a very general term, so the author doesn’t provide any specifics for what doing good looks like. The word for sharing, however, is more specific. It refers to sharing our possessions with others (goods, money, etc.) and also sharing with others in fellowship.
Just because we no longer make animal sacrifices doesn’t mean that we don’t have anything to offer those around us. We still can and should make sacrifices in our lives in ways that show our faith – doing good to others and sharing with them. These things will set us apart from the ways of the world, which are very selfishly motivated. As Christians, we are called to sacrifice our selfishness and instead practice generosity to others.
The author shifts gears a bit in verse 17 and ties this thought back to the idea of remembering and imitating our leaders from back in verse 7. This verse encourages Christians to trust those whom God has placed in leadership or authority positions over us. We are to be obedient to what they say because they care for us. The idea posed in this verse that they “keep watch over you” has the idea of the leaders staying awake at night out of concern for the people following them. This shows the level of care that an ideal Christian leader will have for his or her followers. This phrase could also be translated as “they keep watch over your souls,” which implies looking out for their followers’ spiritual welfare. Leaders are concerned for the hearts of their followers, not just their physical needs but their spiritual needs as well.
We also see in this verse that leaders will be called to account for their followers. Of course, all people have their own free will, and leaders are not responsible for their followers' actions in that sense. But leaders are called to look out for their followers, and leaders are responsible for making sure they lead in a manner that is honoring to God and helps their followers to grow and mature in their faith.
When the people submit to their leaders, then the leaders’ “work will be a joy, not a burden.” Leaders will be much more effective at what they are called to do when their followers are helping them in that work rather than hindering it. If the followers submit to the leaders’ authority, then the leaders can lead better, which then, in turn, benefits the followers by having good leadership in their lives.
Finally, the author closes this section with a brief call to prayer in verses 18-19. He urges the audience to pray for “us.” Scholars are not sure who else is included with the author in that “us,” mostly because scholars are not sure of the identity of the author. It may simply be like how we sometimes refer to ourselves in the plural, even when it’s just one person speaking, especially given the author’s use of “I” in the next verse.
But whoever is included in that, he shows the importance of prayer. While the author has at times rebuked and at times encouraged his readers throughout this letter, he still counts on them for their prayer support when he is not present with them. Even though he has the desire to live an honorable life, he knows that he will fail at that, but he asks for prayer to live a life that gives honor to God and keeps his conscience clear.
It is unclear what is keeping the author from “being restored” to his audience, which is again difficult to discern because scholars don’t know the identity of the author. Perhaps he was imprisoned for his faith, perhaps he was physically ill, or perhaps he was doing the work of God’s Kingdom in some other geographic location and was not able to leave. But whatever the reason, it is clear that the author’s situation needs prayer, which he urgently asks for from the audience of this letter.
These few verses of Hebrews encompass a variety of subjects – making sacrifices for the good of others to live out our Christian faith, being respectful and submitting to our Christian leaders, and the importance of prayer. While these may seem like all different topics, they are all simply different aspects of living life as a follower of Jesus Christ. These are all things we should do not because we feel obligated to do them but because we love God and want to honor and glorify Him with our lives. Which of these areas do you need to work on in your life? How will you give God glory through each of these areas?
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This will be the last aspect of false teachers and the consequences of getting sin wrong that I’ll write on in this series. This is one I’ve mentioned a number of times in passing, but I didn’t know enough to really dig into it. Yet while at the 2022 Shepherd’s Conference, the ideas of Liberation Theology and its sister Critical Race Theory have come into the church enough to warrant their attention. The central theme of the conference was “Unashamed,” but the primary false teaching that was addressed in dealing with being unashamed is this very wicked and evil theology. While John MacArthur hit it from several different angles, it was Voddie Baucham who really cemented what we are confronting in concrete terms. So for this post, I credit most of this knowledge to him.
First, we need to define a few terms here. Liberation Theology is the idea that Jesus came to this earth to save the “oppressed” from the “oppressor.” This idea has been around a while, but it hit the Roman Catholics in the 1960s and got a firm hold there before coming in through the liberal Protestants and now is fully imbibed in the conservative Protestants. Critical Race Theory is basically the social implementation of this idea. I cannot emphasize these terms “oppressed” and “oppressor” enough because these terms are selectively chosen to apply to ANY group that those who are teaching this theology does not like. It is applied to economics first and foremost. So, the “oppressed” would include blacks and people of color who are specifically in a “poor” economic situation, as opposed to the “oppressors” who are pictured as your standard American white population and CEOs, but not the politicians. As Baucham clearly points out, this is not a general statement because this theory does not identify Asians who are often wealthier than whites, nor Nigerian immigrants who are wealthier than. It is explicitly Marxist, and its purpose is to divide. Socially, if you are a white, conservative Christian, you are an “oppressor,” and if you are a street-smart black kid, you are among the “oppressed,” and there is no hope for escaping this classification, much like the caste system of Hindi India.
The philosophy is total Marxism: take from the rich (those who have money and power that those who hold these ideals do not like, because they never talk like this to each other) and give to the poor. Baucham retells the Parable of the Talents from this philosophy. The story goes exactly as it does in Scripture except in the end, the master takes five from the servant who had five and gained five. He gives one to the servant who had two and gained two, and he gives four to the servant who had one and did nothing. All three have five talents in the end. This is not Robin Hood; this is Marxism – rewarding the lazy while punishing the workers. The way the parable actually ends is where the servant with five ended up with eleven, the servant with two got four, and the lazy servant with one lost even his one. This is not a parable about the proper economic system, yet many people try to make it so.
These ideas take what initially sounds good on paper (let the wealthy help support the poor) and make it a religion that entirely opposes the Gospel and Christianity. But there is a far greater sinister side to it, and that’s the issue of sin. The authors and bloggers pushing these ideas are quoted by describing the American Slave Trade as our “original sin” (compare with Genesis 3). That is what the 1619 Project is about. That is the year that slaves were first brought to the American colonies and THAT is what they say “America is about.” Not our Constitution or our Declaration of Independence, but slavery. They never mention that whites were enslaved too during this time and that blacks also owned their own slaves.
When Baucham pointed out that they think this is America’s “original sin,” I was ready to get up in arms. Why? Because these anti-American and anti-Christian (those two are not synonymous here; they are just against both institutions) writers are stealing God’s description of sin to describe THIS kind of “racism” (which for the record is no longer defined as “animosity due to color of skin” but as “economic and social inequity”) as so endemic that white people who have nothing to do with these kind of things have to bow before this ideology and apologize for what their ancestors did. Just by being white, we are labeled as guilty merely by association. And they define all the terms in such away that ultimately, the white conservative Christian is irredeemable in their eyes, no matter what they do. Even if a white person were to try to make amends, he is seen as just trying to protect his white privilege, and if he denies being involved in that, it is called “white fragility.” No matter what, the average white American in this ideology is so steeped in the “sin of racism” that he cannot be saved.
This thinking has had the power that some of those whom we thought were our allies just a couple years ago have bought into this lie and apologized in public to these false teachings and lies. Keep in mind here: these ideologies have absolutely no intention of actually helping anyone. They want the “oppressed” people to stay oppressed, so they keep with a victim mentality, but then they direct that offense against those who actually have nothing to do with it. You will never see the people promoting these ideas actually stepping down so someone less fortunate than them can take their place. They always insist on someone else doing it. The goal of this is to keep these groups of people fighting each other, when the real source of the problem is found in those ideals. Go back to what I wrote about the Hegelian Dialectic; this is literally that methodology.
There are consequences for how anyone preaches the Gospel from this mentality. First, there are two groups of people – the “oppressed” and the “oppressors” – and only the “oppressors” are the sinners who must “repent” by doing “good works” to bow before the “oppressed.” Then the “oppressed” need to stick their chests out and declare themselves “victims” and therefore everything they want is “owed” to them. Both are works-based, so this is a theological issue, too. These people who claim to be Christians think that Jesus came to settle the economic and social injustice and imbalance. (Hint: Jesus never once addressed that and neither did the Apostles. In fact, Jesus said the poor would always be with us when Judas suggested they sell the perfume to “give to the poor”.) And the gospel of this message is achieved when all people have equity (the same economic power and resources; but the people will be poor while the teachers of these ideals rake in the cash). This also requires a different “gospel message,” one for the “oppressed” and one for the “oppressor.” And neither of them has Jesus at the center.
In Liberation Theology, we see almost the opposite side of the same coin of the Prosperity Gospel heresies. In both cases, the ultimate of reality is defined by financial and social success. In one they seek God for their wealth; in the other they seek the wealth of others. In one, sin is defined as blocking your way to money; in the other sin is defined as having more than others. Both corrupt and distort the image of Jesus to cater to those ideals. None of them look to self as the problem and self’s sin against God being the primary issue. Neither of them has Jesus as the answer to man’s malady. Next week, I will showcase how all these false teachings will destroy any effects of evangelism we try, then I’ll come back to the proper and true understanding of sin, and from there I’ll examine the proper response to sin.
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“The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” -Hebrews 13:11-14
This final chapter of the book of Hebrews contains many pieces of advice and encouragement for Christian living. But, the verses we’re looking at today are a bit less practically-minded and focus on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – which is why we are followers of Jesus Christ in the first place.
Verse 10, right before today’s passage, states, “We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.” That verse referred to the fact that believers in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ have an advantage over those who do not consider Jesus Christ as the Messiah – specifically those who still followed the Jewish faith. Considering many ancient manuscripts title this letter “To the Hebrews,” this is the audience who would be reading this letter – the Jewish/Hebrew people by nationality, many of whom likely had not yet heard the gospel message and may still be following the Jewish traditions.
This letter contains many references to Jewish customs, and each time the author shows the connection to Jesus Christ and how He fulfilled those previous traditions. The verses we’re looking at today give a specific example of that: the Day of Atonement. The author has already referenced this holy day and its relation to the high priests earlier in the letter in much greater detail (see Hebrews 4:14-5:10 and Hebrews 7:1-10:18), but he needs to reference it again here to set up his next point.
In verse 11, he gives the highlights of the Day of Atonement, and then explains how the bodies of the sacrificial animals are “burned outside the camp.” This general practice for sacrifices was commanded in Leviticus 4:11-21. Using the word “camp” refers to the practice of the Israelites when they wandered in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. The author of Hebrews often refers back to that time frame because it’s one that all of the Israelites of his day would have had in common. After entering the Promised Land, the nation split up into more separate settlements, so their history was not as common, although it was still similar.
In verse 12, we see the author’s next comparison between the Day of Atonement and Jesus. Just as the bodies of the animal sacrifices were burned outside the camp, so Jesus “suffered outside the city gate.” This is not a perfect analogy, however, as the sacrificial animals were actually killed inside the city. But the point is that the animals that were sacrificed on the Day of Atonement were to provide for the forgiveness of the sins of the people, just as Jesus’ suffering and death did. The animal sacrifices were imperfect and temporary, however; Jesus’ sacrificial death provides permanent forgiveness of sins. Animals needed to die each year to cover the sins of the people of Israel, but Jesus only needed to die once for all people in all times and in all places.
The call to “go to him outside the camp” in verse 13 is an interesting one. Considering that the bodies of animals were burned outside the camp, that would not be a place that the Israelites would naturally want to wander to. Faith in Jesus Christ is “outside the camp” of the Jewish beliefs, so the people needed to go to Him to have faith in Him. To remain within the Jewish faith would be to remain outside of faith in Jesus and be separated from Him and His sacrifice. The readers of this letter must be prepared to go outside of their comfort zone of the Jewish traditions to embrace faith in Jesus Christ.
But going to Jesus outside the camp comes at a price. We don’t like to be faced with suffering (whether our own or someone else’s), but we need to see Jesus suffer to even begin to understand what His sacrifice means for us. We need to see Jesus’ disgrace to understand how much He truly loves humanity, that He would experience all that suffering and pain when He deserved none of it.
While we often desire to remain in the traditions that are comfortable to us, in verse 14 the author reminds his readers why it’s worthwhile to step outside of their Jewish faith and embrace faith in Christ. They do not have an “enduring city” in Judaism, but in Jesus Christ, they can look for what is to come. The author has referenced this eternal city before in Hebrews 11:10; its architect is God, and it will endure forever, unlike anything we experience here on earth.
We generally prefer to look to the security of things that we can see and feel here on earth, but those things do not endure. Only things that are of God will endure forever, which is why we need to pursue the things of God rather than the things of this world. We need to look forward to the eternal things rather than getting caught up in the temporary things of this world.
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the most important thing we can keep in our hearts and minds. We need to see His suffering so we can truly appreciate it, and we need to remember that His sacrifice is outside of our comfort zone. Do you desire the eternal security we have through faith in Christ, or is your heart set on the temporary things of this world? The choice is yours – if you do not yet have faith in Jesus, go to him outside the camp today!
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Getting sin wrong has devastating consequences, not just for eternity but for our lives now and for all those around us. Last week, I addressed how having the wrong idea of origins produces a wrong view of sin and thus a wrong view of the cross. Two other groups I will address today are the Prosperity Gospel people and the Progressive Christianity people. As these groups comprise numbers comparable to the Roman Catholic Church worldwide (500 million if not more), we can’t just consider this a side issue. A few weeks ago, I looked at how these different teachings get sin wrong in general, but now I’m going to zoom in and showcase what this means.
Changing the definition of sin is very common in the Prosperity Gospel and “Word of Faith” teachings. Rarely do they use that term, but when they do, they use it in an entirely different context than what the Bible uses. Sin is not “high treason against a thrice holy God” (thanks to Justin Peters for this description), but rather just a “barrier to your blessings.” This one is tricky, because it has just enough orthodoxy to make you want to accept it, but just like rat poison it is 95% good and 5% deadly poison. Sin is defined as being “wrong,” things that God does not like, but they portray sin as nothing more than a mountain to climb or a canyon to cross, and all doable by man’s own efforts. Do you have cancer? Your sin may be a barrier to receive your healing miracle. What is that sin? Usually “not enough faith,” even citing Romans 14:23 to support them. And while not a blanket statement, there are many of these people who use your financial contributions to them as the evidence of your level of faith. This is what Justin Peters, who has cerebral palsy, experienced while at one of the “events” by Word of Faith preachers. By “screening” him from going up to the stage, they instead asked what their contributions to “God” (by that meaning to them) were like.
The consequences of having such a view of sin, in which the end goal of dealing with sin is to get health, wealth, and prosperity in this life, are devastating. Many think that these teachings only work in a nation where there are already high levels of prosperity (the U.S., for now). But one of the great evils of these teachings is showcased by many of the “preachers” of these ideals going to third world countries (like in Africa or to the Philippines) and effectively milking those very poor people dry, promising physical and temporal relief from their physical problems, by giving the tiny bit of money they had to the preachers. This is highway robbery, and these teachers are going home laughing as they soak in the money they were just “given.”
But it’s worse than that. Because of their false views of sin, where it is a barrier between you and your blessings, the theory showcases that if you are more healthy, more wealthy, and are having more business success, you are more righteous than those who are not. And it is absolutely crippling of any who do not end up on the top of the Ponzi scheme. It’s a slavery system, and most people don’t even know it. Another aspect of this self-righteousness is that those who promote this message will declare that they are “spokespersons” of God or even declare that they ARE “God” (known as the little gods doctrine). Daring to speak against them is speaking against God Himself, citing 1 Samuel 26:9 to “not touch the Lord’s anointed.”
So, if we take these teachings to their logical conclusion, if you believe that your righteousness will yield heath, wealth, and prosperity, and that if you don’t have it, it is because you have sin in your life, that means that unless you are extremely wealthy, you not only have sin in your life but are going to Hell. This is part of why Job’s friends were dead wrong. Job suffered not because he sinned but because he was righteous. So by these teachings, only a select few will “get in,” and even more so, how many purely pagan people are rich without appealing to those teachings? They get in, too, because they meet the qualification that the Prosperity Gospel teaches.
The Prosperity Gospel is not the only teaching that gets sin wrong. So do the Progressive Christian teachers, and they are growing to the point where a documentary “American Gospel: Christ Crucified” needed to be made to confront these teachings. These teachings are a combination of post-modernism in which there are no absolute truths, everything is relative to the teacher/listener, and also New Age mysticism. I do believe this is the primary approach that will be used to incorporate Christianity into the “one world religion” that we see being built.
In his book Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell describes the doctrines of Christianity as bricks in a wall that keep people who don’t promote the doctrines of the faith out, and he mocks it as “Brickianity.” He taught that instead of our doctrines being bricks, they should be treated more like springs on a trampoline, and they stretch depending on the weight or importance of the person. We should all just get on the trampoline and jump and have fun. The problems of this line of thinking are frightening. Bell is suggesting we toss out all the concrete ideas and moorings that define reality and replace them without own ideas. The very title of his book describes the repainting of an Elvis doll to “restore” it. Except nothing in his book does what this title suggests. The title calls for a repainting so we get a brand-new looking doll that looks like the original. What he did in this book, however, is to completely redefine all the terms and phrases so they can’t even be recognizable to the original. What does this have to do with sin? Bell describes that in a book he wrote several years later: Love Wins.
Love Wins (which I have not read but have watched the book trailer) is about universalism. It’s about Jesus’ death on the cross, emptying Hell, and that it doesn’t matter what you believe or what your morals are, you get to go to heaven. In other words, sin becomes an utterly meaningless idea. It does nothing and causes nothing since it is now completely done away with. The vile abuser gets the same prize as the holy man. Since Rob Bell in this book believes that any road leads to heaven, why should he claim Christianity as his faith, considering Jesus explicitly said, “No man comes to the Father except through Me”? It’s a legit question and since the writing of that book, he’s fallen from the spotlight. Yet when I picked up Velvet Elvis about 12 years after it was written, it was still #84 of ALL TIME on Amazon books (it’s much lower now, but it’s still high up there in the rankings). So whether Bell is still popular or not, his books have not gone away.
Bell is not the only one promoting this. William Paul Young wrote The Shack in which he defines sin as a “sickness” that needs to be cured in this fictional novel. While I applaud the attempt to deal with the grief of a father who lost his daughter to a rapist and murderer, the writing was extremely poor, and the doctrines taught to help Mack heal were simply atrocious. In this book, sin never draws God’s wrath, but simply is “its own punishment.” Young also showcases “the Father” (Papa, portrayed as a fat black woman) dancing sexually to rebellious rap music. He has God “loving” rebellion and defiance.
In both of these cases, sin is either avoided entirely or treated as powerless, weak things that don’t mean anything anyway. As a result of this, what is the point of the cross? What becomes of the Gospel? It becomes moot and pointless as well. Both groups define sin wrongly because they define God wrongly. They try to define God by their own likings, and that will always excuse the self from being in need of a Savior. I only touched on the surface of this, but this series is depressing enough. I have to keep this in such a depressing mode for one or two more weeks before we can delve into the proper response to sin. Next week, I’ll deal with an issue that has now become hot that the 2022 Shepherd’s Conference had to confront it as a theme: Liberation Theology and Critical Race Theory. Then I’ll return to going back to what God said sin is and what it truly does and from there we can see what our responses to sin must be.
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by Eric Hansen
Anxiety seems to be a topic I either talk or write about frequently. It’s definitely a part of me that evil tries to use against me, and it succeeds so very much. In fact, earlier in the day that I wrote this article, I had some pretty intense panic attacks and didn’t even know why!
At the start of this year, I committed to God that I would treat Him as the ultimate authority above all else. Whether that be decision making, desires, paths to cross, etc., I decided to make a conscious effort to consult and pray with petitions for it all (Philippians 4:6-7). While I have failed at that more often than not, ultimately this is an important piece to recent events that have caused some significant anxiety within me.
With that commitment in mind to God, it had been a drastic whirlwind inside. There were moments where I was as cool as a cucumber, and other moments where I was as frantic as a person drowning and unable to swim (speaking from experience). The balance has definitely been a struggle in being able to keep grounded in faith. The turning point, though, for all of this happened after “suffering” constantly for a few weeks.
I really hadn’t been in God’s Word like I knew I should have. How else am I really going to hear God if I’m not focusing on Him? Even though I had been praying to God all throughout this to either keep the path clear or destroy it as you please if it’s not your will, I needed to be obedient to God. I woke up one morning at 4:30 AM in a panic attack. The first thing I did was dig into my devotional book of Jesus’s parables. I can’t say that the parables helped, but just reading the Scriptures and thinking and meditating on them started to bring me peace. The parable I read was about the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8). The significance to reading this in my emotional state was realizing I needed to be more persistent in praying to God and what I pray on. If I truly wanted God to be my guiding light through life, then I needed to seek Him more constantly.
I wish at this point I could say that everything was peachy, that the weight of anxiety started lifting. But reality had other plans, slapping me with more anxiety and testing my commitment and reliance on God. There were some periods in that escalation when I felt like giving up on life, asking if things are worth this. Not only did the original matter become a bigger part of the anxiety, but another problem arose as well that made it even worse. These are the times where you often just know evil is trying to create that division.
Ultimately, though, it helped me to remember what sin is. (Check out recent writings by fellow blog writer Charlie Wolcott for more on this.) At its core, sin is any separation between God and man (or me in this case). This means that the increased anxiety trying to consume my thoughts, dreams, and life was trying to separate me from God by directing my very soul to the problems I was dealing with. The sad thing is, I had no control over either problem, so I was having all this anxiety regarding things that I couldn’t do anything about to begin with. So then why was I allowing this division, this sin, to happen to begin with?!
It was at these revelations that I realized I needed to just focus on God. I needed to acknowledge the anxiety, fears, and thoughts but let the Prince of (amazing) Peace come save me. After all, if I'm telling people He’s my Lord and Savior, why am I not depending on Him as such?
I have a Korean-English bilingual bible that has hymns in it. My thought wasn’t to go to them, but I ended up opening the Bible to one of them. In fact, what I opened up to was a hymn called 너 근심 걱정 말아라 (Be Not Dismayed Whatever Betide) that has a repeating phrase of “God will take care of you.” I would say this greatly reminded me, especially as I kept re-reading the hymn, that God will in fact take care of me. This then led me to reading the psalm it is inspired by (Psalm 91), which I read a few times. In fact, I even read it today while having a pretty noticeable panic attack. Through my reading, I have been praying to God, praising and bringing my fears to Him.
Things aren’t perfect by any means, and I’m still fighting anxiety pretty heavily. But reading Psalm 91 brought me to reading through Ephesians (with a heavy heart towards chapter 6). This whole exchange has tested my ability to rely on God, to trust Him with things in my life, and to realize just how wonderful and peaceful He is when I’m in His presence. I don’t regret having had to go through all of this, and the talks I’ve had with people also guide me in it. Right now, my spirit basically demands more Scripture, and I try hard to satisfy that thirst.
Amen.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
