Hosken-News Blog

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Who Is the Rock, Peter or Christ?

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

This beautiful Renaissance fresco of Christ giving the keys to Peter is painted on the wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Obviously, it was created to reinforce the Roman Catholic doctrine of the supremacy of the Roman pope who, as that church teaches, is the successor to the Apostle Peter. Let's take a look at the Scriptures to learn what the Old Testament patriarchs and New Testament Apostles - including St. Peter himself - wrote on this subject.

When Christ asked His disciples - "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied - "'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will be released in heaven'" (Matthew 16:16-19).

This passage is controversial because the Greek text uses one word, petros (meaning "little stone"), for Peter, but another word, "petra" (meaning "massive rock") for "on this rock," which, as Protestants assert, refers to Christ. A problem here is that the Gospel of Matthew was probably first written not in Greek, but rather in Aramaic (the form of Hebrew spoken at that time), and the words "Peter" and "rock" would be the same one word, "cephas" in Aramaic. So we're back to square one.

But after the Day of Pentecost, Peter himself identified this rock as being Christ - "Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom you crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, in Him does this man stand here before you whole. He is 'the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the chief Cornerstone'" (Acts 4:10-11, quoting from Psalm 118:22).

Peter again quotes this Psalm - "...the Lord is gracious: coming to Him, the living Stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in Scripture, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief Cornerstone, elect, precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed.' For you therefore who believe is the honor, but for such as are disobedient, 'The Stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief Cornerstone,' and, 'A Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offense.' For they stumble at the Word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed" (1 Peter 2:3b-8).

What about those keys and binding things on earth? In this passage, Jesus addressed those words directly to Peter because "you" is singular in Greek. But in parallel passages, Jesus uses "you" in the plural, giving all of His Apostles this authority to bind and loose: "Most assuredly I tell you, whatever things you [plural] will bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever things you [plural] will release on earth will be released in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). Also, "Whoever's sins you [plural] forgive, they are forgiven them. Whoever's sins you [plural] retain, they have been retained" (John 20:23).

There should be no doubt that Peter was the leader of the Apostles. But these passages indicate that he shared authority with the other Apostles and that their head, the Rock, the chief Cornerstone, is Christ Himself.

Several of the above quotations are free translations from the Old Testament, for example - "The Lord of hosts, Him shall you sanctify; and let Him be your fear, and let him be your dread. He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a Stone of stumbling and for a Rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken" (Isaiah 8:13-15). So it is the Lord of hosts who is the Stone of stumbling and the Rock of offense.

Further - "Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Cornerstone of sure foundation: he who believes shall not be in haste" (Isaiah 28:16). Also - "Do not fear, neither be afraid: haven't I declared to you of old, and shown it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed, there is not. I do not know any other Rock" (Isaiah 44:8). It is clear from these verses that the incarnate God Himself is the Stone, the Cornerstone, and the Rock.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, had a vision of a huge image. The prophet Daniel interpreted the king's vision thusly - "You watched until a Stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the Stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" (Daniel 2:34-35).

Christ referred to this passage and applied it to Himself: - "Jesus said to them, 'Did you never read in the Scriptures, "The Stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the Corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?"'" (Matthew 21:42; see also Mark 12:10 and Luke 20:17). All three of the synoptic Gospels mention this idea, so it must have been important to the Early Church.

Now let's see what the Apostle Paul wrote on this question - "Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling Stone; even as it is written, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling Stone and a Rock of offense; And no one who believes in Him will be disappointed'" (Romans 9:31-33). It's clear from the context that he is referring to Christ.

Again, St. Paul writes - "For no one can lay any other Foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). Also - "...and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ" (ch. 10:4).

Finally - "So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built on the Foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief Cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:19-21). There should be no doubt remaining in anyone's mind about Who is the Rock: it is most certainly Christ Himself.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 22 Sep. 2018.)

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Sunday, September 9, 2018

Law vs. Grace: Which Will Win?

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

Law vs. Grace Jesus and His 12 disciples were all Jews. What we today call Christianity was for the first four decades or so, until 70 A.D., considered a sect of the Jewish religion. After Jesus rose from the dead, at first the disciples stayed around Jerusalem. It took the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts ch. 7) to "give them a good kick in the pants" and get them moving out of Jerusalem. In Acts ch. 8, we read that Saul, then a sect-hunter, ravaged the church and dragged believers into prison. Verse 4 states - "Therefore those who were scattered abroad went around preaching the Word." (I took this as my life verse when I was a teenager.) The disciples went as far as Samaria, preaching only to the Jews.

Then an interesting thing happened: Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest more Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah when he was knocked off his high horse and struck blind by a vision of the resurrected Messiah (Acts ch 9). He was told to go to a certain Ananias in "Straight Street" to get his head straightened out about Jesus and get his sight back. In Acts ch. 10, we read about St. Peter seeing another vision and being commanded to go with some Roman soldiers to preach to Cornelius, a captain of a company of Roman soldiers; thus a whole bunch of Roman soldiers and their households were converted: the Gospel is beginning to leak out of the Jewish religion!

Next, some of those Jews who were "scattered abroad" by the persecution arising after Stephen's getting stoned to death went as far away as Antioch in Syria (today it's just over the border in Turkey) and began preaching not just to Jews, but also to the Gentiles (Acts 11:20-26). This passage ends with the words - "The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." Church historians tell us that it was a good while later that Euodias, the second bishop of Antioch, came up with the term "Christian," so the author Luke stuck this little gem of a fact in his book of Acts when he was writing it decades later. By the way, the Church of Antioch still exists today: it's the oldest continually existing Christian Church and has its headquarters on "Straight Street" in Damascus!

The question arises: "What were those believers called before they were called Christians?" Simple! All those believers in Jesus as the Messiah first were called disciples! Every last one of them was a disciple. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, you're a disciple! Nowadays many people think that you first become a Christian when you believe in Jesus Christ, and then if you want to really "get into the deep end" you start learning how to become a disciple. No! The terms "Christian" and "disciple" are synonyms in Acts 11:26. If you're a Christian, you are a disciple. And if you're not a disciple, you are not a Christian. Either jump into the deep end or stay out of the pool!

That "interesting thing" that happened starting in Acts 9 with Peter, Cornelius and his household by now has spread to Antioch and beyond: this "sect of Judaism" is spreading to the Gentiles... Barnabas and Saul (soon renamed Paul) started out on their "First Missionary Journey" in Acts 13, still preaching to Jews and Gentile proselytes in the synagogues on the Sabbath (vv. 5, 14, 42 & 44). But the Jews became jealous and rejected the Gospel, so -

"Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, 'It was necessary that God's word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, "I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, That you should bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth."' As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:46-48).

This is "really yuge!" (as some would say these days): Paul and Barnabas get run out of town on a rail, and in the next town, Lystra, they preach in the synagogue to Jews and Gentile proselytes again... and again get run out of town, so they go back to Antioch where they had started. By now, they've learned their lesson: "When they had arrived, and had gathered the church together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 14:27).

This all comes to a head in Acts ch. 15. Some Jews came from Jerusalem to Antioch insisting that the new Gentile converts must be circumcised and obey the ritual "Law of Moses" (sacrifices, dietary rules, Jewish religious holidays, etc.), that is, become proselytes to Judaism before they could believe in Jesus as the Messiah. So the Church of Antioch sent a delegation consisting of Paul, Barnabas and others back to Jerusalem to straighten things out, and they related how the Gentiles believed in Jesus as the Messiah ("Christ" - meaning "Anointed One" in Greek) without becoming Jews first. But it was Peter, not Paul or Barnabas, who summed it up -

"Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. God, Who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" (Acts 15:7-10).

This "First Church Council in Jerusalem" set the tone for the entire future of Christianity: it would no longer be just a sect of Judaism, observing all the rules, holidays and dietary regulations of the Old Testament. It was a huge turning point in history! Shortly afterward, when the Roman armies attacked Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and burned down the Temple, the Christians did not defend Jerusalem, but fled the city; thus the few surviving Jews rejected the Christians as being part of Judaism. So the Christians lost their protected status as being part of the Jewish religion and were persecuted by the Greco-Roman Empire for the next 260 years.

In Romans 4:3, St. Paul writes - "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'" Paul goes on to explain that Abraham believed God while he was still uncircumcised (not yet "a Jew") and was counted as righteous before God. So Abraham became the father of both the Gentiles who would believe in Jesus as the Messiah, as well as the father of the Jews who would believe. God told Abraham - "I have made you a father of many nations" (v. 17) - Paul quoting God's promise in the Book of Genesis.

But the Judaizers just would not give up! They kept snipping and yipping at Paul's heels, insisting that Gentiles observe the Law of Moses. In Galatians 1:6-9, St. Paul writes -

"I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel; and there is no other gospel. Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any other gospel than that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any other gospel than that which you received, let him be accursed."

In Galatians ch. 2, Paul retells the story of how at the First Church Council in Jerusalem Peter, John and James, the "brother" of the Lord Jesus, all acknowledged that Paul's preaching the Gospel of faith in Christ without the need to observe the Law of Moses was the true Gospel. In Galatians 5:4 he wrote - "You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace." Those are pretty strong words! Over and over in St. Paul's epistles he keeps coming back to this central point of salvation by faith in Christ, not by observing the Law of Moses. But the above quotes from his letter to the Galatians are the strongest: those who preach "another Gospel" are accursed - anathema. Judaizing is heresy. There is no other Gospel than faith in Jesus Christ without keeping the Law of Moses. Period.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 9 Sep. 2018.)

Sunday, August 26, 2018

The Foolishness of Preaching

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 - "For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.' Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn't know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe."

People tend to understand what you're trying to communicate by interpreting it through the lens of their own experiences. When Paul preached his famous sermon on Mars Hill in Athens, standing near the statues of Greek gods and goddesses, "some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, 'What does this babbler want to say?' Others said, 'He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection'" (Acts 17:18). They thought that "Jesus" and "Anastasia" (Resurrection) were the names of some deities hitherto unknown to them. They got it half right, the "Jesus" part!

Among Protestants, the sermon is the main thing in church, but among Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, the sacraments and holy tradition are most important. I'd like to affirm that both are equally important. When a Protestant visits a Catholic mass or an Orthodox liturgy for the first time, he may hear just a five-minute homily or none at all and think - "Where was the sermon? Did I miss it when my mind was wandering?" And when a Catholic or Orthodox person visits a Protestant service, she wonders - "How could they leave out the most important thing, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ?" Again, the words of St. Paul:

"The cup of blessing which we bless, isn't it a partaking of the Blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn't it a partaking of the Body of Christ? Because we, who are many, are one bread, one body; for we all partake of the one bread. ... For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered ["traditioned" in Greek] to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'Take, eat. This is My Body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of Me.' In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My Blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of Me. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn't discern the Lord's Body" (1 Corinthians 10:16-17 & 11:23-25, 29).

... and ...

"Now I declare to you, brothers, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered ["traditioned" in Greek] to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

So you see, both are true. It's not "either-or" - it's "both-and" - both the sermon and the sacraments are vitally important. The sermon without the sacraments is just words without power. And the sacraments without the sermon can degenerate into a meaningless ritual. Both are necessary! Why do the sacraments have saving power? Because Christ said so! For example -

If I were to become upset about people who speed in their cars in front of my home where there are little children in the neighborhood, and I would make a nice, white, recangular sign with the lettering "SPEED LIMIT 15 MPH" and put it on a post with flashing yellow lights next to the street, what will happen? In a day or two, a policeman will knock on my door and ask, "Are you the person who put up that sign out there? You don't have the authority to do that: you must pay a fine and take it down! Only the city council has the authority to have traffic signs put up." In the same way, only Christ and His appointed representatives have the power, the authority, to make those material elements - bread and wine - into the real Body and Blood of Christ.

But isn't simply believing in Christ enough? Again, St. Paul wrote - "For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on Him. For, 'Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:10-15a). The Greek word "send" is "apostello" - to be commissioned by an apostle, to be vested with the authority to preach the Gospel. So believing is tied to preaching and preaching is tied to being granted apostolic authority to do so. It's not "either-or" - it's "both-and."

St. Paul felt compelled to preach without pay - "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me, if I don't preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). He even wrote to his young disciple Timothy - "Preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2). Some modern translations put it - "Preach the word when you feel like it and when you don't!" Sometimes we might be tired to the bone or just not feeling up to it. But JUST DO IT!

In my Hosken-News issues Ministry as Proclamation (kerygma / kerusso) - Part 1 and Ministry as Proclamation (kerygma / kerusso) - Part 2, I delve deeper into the meaning of the Greek verb "kerusso" - "preach" and "kerygma" - "proclamation." If you have time, give your attention to these words: we must not downplay either sermonizing or the sacraments!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Getting to Pi

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

Getting to Pi In recent weeks the news has been over-full of reports about sexual scandals in the Roman Catholic Church and in a prominent Midwest Evangelical mega-church: a leading Catholic cardinal was deposed and the head pastor of that Evangelical mega-church was forced to resign along with the entire church board. What's going on here?

Nowadays people will say - "Everything's relative, there aren't any absolutes anymore" (except for the statement "everything's relative" - that's absolute)! "You can do whatever you want and there are no consequences because today we have the Pill and abortion!" Remember "Pi" - the letter in the Greek alphabet that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter? In 1 Kings 7:23 it tells when Solomon built the Temple - "Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference." The ratio of 30 cubits circumference to 10 cubits diameter is 3.0 - not a very accurate measurement by today's standards, certainly not "verbally inerrant," but close enough in those days to build a big bronze wash-basin.

Remember when they introduced problems in your high school algebra class that had multiple variables? They contained strange letters like "a" and "b" and "x" and "y" in a bunch of fractions: you stared at the problem and probably thought - "This is impossible to solve! Everything's relative to everything else!" Then you saw the letter Pi - "I know what that is: it's 3.1416! Now I can start solving for those other variables that all seemed relative to each other!" This is how life is - we grab hold onto some standards that work rather well in day-to-day life. Some people will object to our standards by using the "lifeboat" analogy or "adultery is allowable if one's spouse is mortally ill or frigid or this or that" or "abortion is moral in cases of rape and incest" in order to drive a wedge into standard morality defenses.

This is like saying that Pi isn't simply 3.0 or 3.14 or 3.1416: those numbers are woefully inadequate in today's technology that requires auto and airplane parts to be machined to a tolerance of at least ten-thousandths of a millimeter. In one of the major jetliner crashes in which hundreds of people died, it was discovered that the fault was in tiny tubes carrying cooling oil to the jet engines that had been wrongly machined by a couple ten-thousandths of a millimeter. When I was in high school someone told me to remember the phrase - "May I have a large container of coffee" - the number of letters in each word represent Pi: 3.1415926. That's down to the ten-millionth part in tolerance or accuracy: certainly good enough for today's technology, even if not quite perfect.

In the Catholic Church they hold to the doctrine of "papal infallibility" that teaches everything the pope says "ex cathedra" (from the throne) is totally perfect and infallible. In most conservative Evangelical churches they hold to the similar doctrine of "verbal inerrancy of the Bible" that teaches every word in the Bible is divinely inspired and inerrant - without error. Some call this the "Protestant Paper Pope" ...except for the fact that almost every Evangelical believer who thinks he is guided by the Holy Spirit therefore thinks he is inerrant or infallible - a pope unto himself. Having so many millions of popes explains why there are tens of thousands of Protestant denominations.

Coupled with these doctrines of infallibility and inerrancy is the Augustinian-Calvinist doctrine of predestination which teaches that God has chosen in eternity past those who will be saved and those who will be damned. So if God drew for you the lucky number, you're in like Flynn - you've got a non-cancellable ticket to heaven. Standard Catholic and most Evangelical dotrinal statements hold to this doctrine of predestination, which is very convenient when it comes to sinning: if you're one of God's chosen, nothing you will ever do can cause you to lose your salvation, your winning ticket to heaven, because when God chooses you, especially someone "called to serve God," He never changes His mind. Therefore sins aren't really, seriously sinful: they just say "Sorry!" - maybe spend six months or so on a therapy "sabbatical" - and they're good to go, transferred to another church in a faraway state, and back on track again... often to repeat the same offenses.

So evils such as misuse of church finances, secret homosexual lifestyles and and male-female fornication among the clergy creep in and get swept under the carpet. It's the same sort of thing King David described in Psalm 106:9-35. I won't quote the entire passage here: click on the link to read the whole text. But think of the parallels between the way God delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, parted the Red Sea, fed them in the wilderness, etc., but then the Israelites fell into pagan idolatry - compared to the way He established the United States as a fairly God-fearing country, but it now has become post-Christian, even anti-Christian and neo-pagan: "But [they] mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works" (verse 35). Just as the pagan nations around ancient Israel practiced temple prostitution and human sacrifice of the babies produced by this fornication, today we have creeping into churches the normalization of adultery, fornication and homosexuality, no-fault divorce, "hookups," gay and lesbian clergy, and abortion on demand.

Famous people: sports heros, movie stars, and leading politicians often flaunt their immorality by saying - "I haven't done anything wrong!" By saying this, they confuse what is legal with what is immoral: It is now legal to have homosexual relations, commit fornication and adultery, but these acts violate traditional and Biblical Christian morality. It is legal to smoke tobacco products but it is a sin against our bodies and shortens our lifespan by several years, even decades. It is now legal in several states to smoke marijuana but it has a very real intoxicating effect that is quite difficult for police to detect using current breathalyzer equipment, it does long-term damage to one's mental ability and often is a "gateway drug" into more dangerous and deadly narcotics. It is legal to drink to excess and become drunk (unless one drives drunk) but it ruins one's health, finances and family relationships. Gluttony is legal but it's immoral and can kill you. Should I go on, or do you get the idea?

Then in my daily Bible reading I came across these verses, Psalm 119:123-128 -

"My eyes fail looking for Your salvation, for Your righteous word.
Deal with Your servant according to Your loving kindness. Teach me Your statutes.
I am Your servant. Give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.
It is time to act, O Lord, for they break Your law.
Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, more than pure gold.
Therefore I consider all of Your precepts to be right. I hate every false way."

Some translations read - "It is time for the Lord to act!" God must be "getting really ticked off" (to use an anthropomorphism) at mankind's moral shenanigans. Perhaps that's Him allowing the worst wildfires in recorded history out on the Left Coast of the U.S. and terribly destructive hurricanes and tornados all around the country. Some may say that it isn't God causing these natural events, but I would advise those people to read both the Old and New Testament stories about God sending such disasters. We can't continue scoffing at God and His moral laws without suffering some serious consequences.

We must abandon the illusion of human infallibility and inerrancy. Yes, we are called to holiness. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ taught: "Therefore be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Remember that, even though we may get quite close to Pi (3.1415926...), it is an infinite number that just goes on and on in its decimal places without any pattern of repetition to the billionth and trillionth and quadrillionth part and beyond without end. "Close is good enough for government work," as the saying goes, but still not perfect or infinite or infallible or inerrant. But "tolerance" doesn't mean that anything goes; rather, it actually means accuracy as applied to real, day-to-day life.

It's an established scientific fact that the real number of people who were "born that way" - hermaphrodites - is a tiny fraction of one percent. It's like the difference between Pi = 3.1416 and Pi = 3.1415926. But if we accept the current gender ideology that around one-third of the population are born gay or lesbian or have indeterminate gender, it's like saying Pi = 2.0 -- this just won't work, it will cause the jet plane of society's demographics to crash. We must use the tools we have, the moral instruments that define Christian morality, even though they're not totally accurate to the billionth decimal point. Recall the words St. Paul -

"So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputes, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:12-15) - and -

"Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don't regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are mature, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you" (Philippians 3:12-15).

Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner! In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 12 Aug. 2018.)

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Moving From "I Can't" to "I Won't" to "I Did It!"

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

I did it! This photo is on our Agape Resatoration Society "Homes and Jobs" web-page (scroll down there to print it). We've just added a "1-Minute Slide Show" button there that flips through all of the witty sayings on that web-page. Lots of our job counseling clients and others have printed out copies of this clever photo for themselves. Why do you think they did?

Because in a humorous way, it illustrates some rather important spiritual truths: When confronted with a difficult or even life-threatening situation, many people will at first withdraw into their shells and say - "I can't do anything about it!" That shell might be overeating, which gives you a warm, comfortable, full feeling. Or it might be smoking or drinking - taking in addictive substances that temporarily make you feel relaxed, or sexual addictions, or other harmful habits that in the end can disable or kill you. Then the person says - "I'm not doing anything wrong!" (confusing what's legal with what's immoral) or "I'm not ready to stop yet!" (I'll die with a cigarette in my mouth) or "I can't stop!" - they're hooked. They refuse to change because they're convinced they can't... but actually...

...what they're thinking deep down inside, perhaps even subconsciously, is "I won't!" They prefer that pleasant feeling rather than facing the plain fact that they're harming or killing themselves by their habits. The word "won't" is a shortened form of "will not" - in other words, deep down inside they're saying to themselves - "I flat-out will not, I do not want to change! I refuse!" This is very much like the people in the book of Revelation -

"The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they would not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. They did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts" (Rev. 9:20-21).

Also, "People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They did not repent and give Him glory. The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They did not repent of their works" (Rev. 16:9-11).

To repent is not merely to feel sorry for your wrong actions, like - "I'm sorry I got caught!" No, repentance means change, conversion, turning around, doing a 180-degree about-face and going in the opposite direction, away from those harmful, sinful behaviors.

In two places in the Gospels, Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43, we read how, when Jesus was going through Jericho, He encountered a blind beggar who called out - "Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!" This man recognized his problem and called out to the "son of David" - the Messiah, the Son of God: "Help me!" Then Jesus ordered that the blind man be brought to Him.

"When he had come near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do?' He said, 'Lord, that I may see again.' Jesus said to him, 'Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you.' Immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, praised God" (Luke 18:40b-43).

I can imagine Jesus looking deep into the blind man's heart: "What do you really want? Do you just want to keep on begging? Or do you really want to see again?" Then the blind beggar answered - "Lord, I really do want to see again! I want to be healed!" Jesus recognized this man's faith in his desire to be healed, so He said - "Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you."

Do you really want to be healed, cured of that gluttony habit, that smoking habit, that alcoholic drinking habit, that sexual addiction habit? Or are you too fond of the pleasureful feelings those harmful, sinful habits provide? Are you saying in your heart - "I won't stop!" or are you saying - "I want to change! How do I do it? I'll try to do it!" The Lord Jesus Christ can and will heal you, but only if you are willing to call out to Him - "Lord, have mercy on me!" - to change and give it a try.

Change is hard. Old habits are like ruts in a dirt road: it takes a mighty turn of the steering wheel and holding on tight to break out of the ruts. But change is possible. It takes 6-8 weeks to fully replace an old, bad habit with a new, good habit. Never say - "I just can't do it!" You can... if you will! Just say - "Lord, have mercy on me and heal me!" ...and really mean it, with all your heart.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 29 Jul. 2018.)

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Givers and Takers

Givers and Takers There are actually more than two kinds of people: some people are "matchers" - they strive to give back to society for all the good things and experiences that God has given them. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15 - "For this is not that others may be eased and you distressed, but for equality. Your abundance at this present time supplies their lack, that their abundance also may become a supply for your lack; that there may be equality. As it is written, 'He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.'"

We all know that a growing number of people nowadays are taking more from society than they give. Why is this? Obviously, Christian morality teaches us to care for "the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, for widows and orphans." The idea of voluntary sharing one's possessions comes from Christ's teaching in the Gospels, in Acts ch. 2:44-45 and ch. 4:32-35. It should be noted that these texts use the continuing, imperfect verb tense that indicates a gradual and unfinished action. It was also voluntary, not the forced confiscation as in modern communism or state taxation. The incident with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-10 teaches us clearly that this married couple had the right to voluntarily give as much or as little of their goods as they chose, but their sin was that they tried to cheat the Lord by pretending to give all the money from the sale of their property... however, they kept back a part of the money.

So it is today: it's easy to fool the government. There are millions of people in modern society who have learned how to pretend, how to "work the system." They pretend to be poor or sick or disabled so they can apply for government benefits or private charity. Millions of people in the U.S. are receiving Social Security Disability payments simply because their unemployment benefits ran out or a doctor was willing for a fee to write that they are disabled. The problem here is that after a while the role we play becomes who we really are: the fake disability becomes a real disability. Their bodies get fat and weak and their minds go to seed.

This isn't only a U.S. phenomenon: when we lived in Russia we met many disabled people who refused to get retrained so they could earn at least a partial living. And we met others, young people who continued living with their parents and wouldn't look for a job. Some had been unemployed for a long time and had fallen into the bad habit of watching TV until the wee hours of the morning, sleeping in until noon, and staying in their pajamas or underwear all day. A common expression was - "we have unlearned how to work."

Last autumn I wrote an essay "Many Want To Be Transformed, Few Want To Change!" Here are just a couple paragraphs from it:

St. Paul wrote - "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you; that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing" (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). "The Christian life is by its very nature a growth process analogous to the growth of the body; perfection in good habits ought to grow as faith grows" - so wrote St. Clement of Alexandria. Good habits take effort and practice, they don't come automatically.

Again, St. Paul wrote - "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: 'If anyone will not work, don’t let him eat.' For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don't work at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread" (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). It is contrary to God's Word that we give food to people who refuse to work, or even look for a job. Many want to be transformed, but few want to change!

Read the whole thing! We can easily imagine ourselves as saints or as geniuses or as millionaires who just won the lottery. But it's not easy to actually become a saint or a genius... and the probability of winning the lottery is much less than the probability of being struck by lightning... we prefer, however, to think the former will happen to us rather than the latter. As long as it remains just wishful thinking, hoping that God will send an angel with a magic wand who'll wave it and make us a saint or an instant millionaire, nothing will really happen. It takes years of work and struggles to reach those goals.

Change comes hard: especially as we grow older, the neural pathways in our brains get etched deeper and deeper. We want to drive somewhere new but our old brain takes over and drives us to our habitual destination. We want to stand up and do some simple exercises but our body refuses - it stays on the couch and our eyes stay fixed on the TV or our body stays on the chair and our eyes stay fixed on the computer. I just got a "standing desk" last week so I can get off my butt and begin to think more clearly and act more decisively while I'm working at the computer.

The prophet Hosea wrote - "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and rains righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies" (ch. 10:12-13). Let's stop deceiving ourselves, let's take the necessary actions to change. It's time for us to become givers, not takers; saints, not sinners. The Greek word for repentance is "metanoia" - changing direction 180 degrees, turning our life around. That's real change. It's called conversion.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 14 Jul. 2018.)

Saturday, June 30, 2018

We Who Are Strong

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

We who are strong... The Apostle Paul wrote - "Now we who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up" (Romans 15:1-2). Are you reasonably strong and healthy? If so, what do you think about those who aren't? Or do you not even bother to think about them? St. Paul tells us that we "ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

How can we do that? How can we build up our infirm or disabled or elderly neighbor? We shouldn't just live to "please ourselves" - we can wear a mask and practice social distancing when going to places where we might pick up a virus or when we're near people who have compromised health (mostly the elderly), and wash our hands when we come home. We can run errands for home-bound people who have no relatives nearby to care for them. We can take them grocery shopping, to doctor's appointments, to church, and especially to pleasant places like the park, the botanical gardens or the zoo in the summer: show them that they are important and loved! Again, the Apostle Paul wrote -

"The eye can't say to the hand, 'I have no need for you,' or again the head to the feet, 'I have no need for you.' No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. Those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, on those we bestow more abundant honor; and our unpresentable parts have more abundant propriety; whereas our presentable parts have no such need. But God composed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the inferior part, that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Corinthians 12:21-27).

We really do need each other! Not only do dependent little children need their parents' love; but also, disabled adults and lonely elderly people need love... and we who are reasonably strong and healthy also need them. Why? To learn how to love with a pure heart, not thinking of material gain or our own pleasure. As St. Paul wrote, "...not to please ourselves." You probably have heard the term "4G" meaning "fourth generation internet." The internet started out in the 1990s as a means for the free exchange of ideas, but has degenerated today into what I call the 4G's - "Greed, Gluttony, Gossip & Grumbling." All four of these are focused on self rather than others: satisfying my desires for material things (online shopping!), indulging my desires for food and other bodily pleasures, watching videos or reading the latest rumors about politicians and celebrities, and grumbling about how bad things are today because they aren't like they used to be.

What can we do about it? Once more, the Apostle Paul wrote - "Therefore, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2). Lose weight! Are you focused on food? "Lay aside every weight!" Focus on Jesus: He will help you overcome that overweight! St. Paul wasn't just speaking in metaphors, he was telling us how our physical condition affects our spiritual health. In verses 12-13 he wrote - "Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. That means exercising to bring healing!

In Galatians 5:16-26, the Apostle Paul wrote about how to "walk" (or "live" - another analogy of our physical life) in the Spirit vs. fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. The disciplined spiritual life of discipleship is a struggle, and sometimes we fail. So in the next chapter (6:1-2), St. Paul wrote - "Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren't tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." It's all about restoration, not punishment! "Bear one another's burdens!" "We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak!"

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 30 Jun. 2018.)