April 28, 202

     This article is from a few years ago but the point is still sound. Since it recounts a true prediction from only a few years ago  I wanted to share it. 

I couldn’t believe it, I had read a little about the president of family radio predicting that the end of the world was upon us. But thought surely no one in my area would know and certainly nothing would be made of it in Meaford. But then as I was heading back from my workout at the tank range, there it was larger than life a huge Billboard proclaiming the end of the world beginning May 21 2011.

It seems that Harold Camping like many before him set out to study with a Bible and a calculator and after making some assumptions about the Genesis flood and God’s reckoning of time as well as setting some extremely precise ancient dates has decided that that he knows when the end will be.

The list of problems with this kind of prediction is so long that to deal with all of them would really take too long. However, a few simple points will serve to demonstrate the wrongheadedness of these kinds of predictions.

First people have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years, and guess how many have been right, none. From Montanus in the fifth century to Charles Taze Russell in the twentieth right up to those who feared the end at the turn of the millennium all who have made predictions about the end have been wrong.

There’s a reason they have been wrong, they have abandoned the teaching of the very book they claim to be representing. The Bible which is the only book from the creator of the world, and therefore the only trustworthy source on matters pertaining to the end of that creation says; “Of that day and that hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the father alone.” (Matthew 24:36; 42) Those who claim to know when Jesus will return are claiming to know more than even Jesus knew while on earth. Jesus goes on to say that his return will be like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:43). Later the apostle Paul would use the same expression to emphasis the unexpected nature of the Lords return (I Thessalonians 5:2-3).

This does not mean that Christians should not be aware of Christ’s eventual return, or that there is no application for people today. Despite the fact that we can’t know when the Lord will return we can know that he will. Jesus and Paul both continue the Thief comparison to point out that if you knew a thief were coming but not exactly when you would prepare yourself so you were ready any time. And this is what people need to do today. The apostle Peter phrases it this way “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people aught you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth.”

So don’t be too surprised if the world does not end on May 21st. But also don’t be surprised or unprepared when eventually it does.

Kevin Cleary

 

April 21, 202

Life is made up of decisions, most of which are unavoidable.  On an ordinary day we make hundreds, and whole lot more when life shifts into high gear.  Most are trivial, but not all, and especially not those pertaining to spiritual things. These are important in the here and now because the outcomes reach into eternity.  And spiritual decisions are time-sensitive with a built-in expiration date coinciding with our own. 

That is how it was for the men who were crucified beside Jesus. They were put onto the cross before noon and knew that they would not be allowed to live until the Sabbath – only six hours away. They did not have all day to make up their minds about Jesus. 

They knew a lot about him, because much of what he had done and said were common knowledge. By the power of God He had performed miracles and had also proven that he had the right to forgive sins. He had promised that the Kingdom of Heaven would arrive within the lifetime of his hearers and that as the Son of God he would usher it in.  But before that, God had sent him to die on a cross and then to rise from the dead on the third day. 

Those two men on crosses with Jesus spoke for us all. What they decided – exhausts all of our options.  

With time running out, one man railed while the other repented. One wanted a stay of execution while the other wanted a stay in heaven.  As quickly as sins were piling up on one side of Jesus he was forgiving them on the other.  

Torment or Paradise.  It ought to be an easy choice and made without delay. It might just be later than we think, for we do not know either when we will die nor when our Lord will return. But what we do know is that we have the opportunity to make up our minds about Jesus, today.  

~ David Knutson

 

April 14, 202

There are many words that have changed meaning in recent years. Some we don’t pay much attention to because we are ambivalent (ambivalent is a great example of this, it doesn’t mean uncaring, it means holding two contradictory views or emotions). So, we are not ambivalent, rather we are disinterested. Other words may bother us (I will avoid discussing pronouns as their change is contrived) but people will often use the word “literally” to mean figuratively. “I’m literally dying” should be justification for calling an ambulance but instead it means I’m laughing.

If you have grown up using a word a certain way it can be difficult to accept a change. This is not just the case now, it has long been the case that people have been frustrated by changing definitions. In ancient Rome there were influential linguists who insisted that whatever a word meant in classical Greek was it’s meaning and they refused to accept any change. Some of these linguists published dictionaries in which they attempted to enforce an older meaning of a word. The name for these linguists is “Atticist” referring to their desire to enforce the Greek dialect spoken in the region of Attica or classical Greek. An easy way to remember this is they want to get their definition from the attic where the old relics are stored.

This has bearing on Bible study because you may want to look up a word and in your research come across someone writing in the first century AD but insisting on a definition from the 5th century BC.

Thankfully most of this work has been done for us so unless you are a Greek scholar working on a translation you can rely on sources that have already considered the source of ancient definitions and filtered out the Atticists. However, there are times when having this tidbit of background may help you. That is when a scholar has a bias. I know it may not seem like it but Greek scholars are human too. If they are advocating for a certain interpretation of scripture they are not above using an older definition if it helps make their point. One example of this can be found in the way some have attempted to define authority in I Tim 2:12 as “domineering” which is not the meaning at the time Paul wrote.

Why get into these details? Two reasons: first to remind each of us to be careful about definitions. James Lindsay is fond of reminding people that those who are pushing a progressive agenda use a common vocabulary but they don’t use a common dictionary they have redefined words like democracy, racism, freedom and many others. The second reason is to encourage careful detail oriented Bible study. Putting in a little extra work will often lead to great insights and helpful applications from the word of God.

~ Kevin Cleary

 

April 7, 202

     If you follow Twitter “X” Drama at all you will know that the last week or so it has become somewhat controversial to say, “Christ is King.” To be fair there have always been and always will be those who find it problematic when people claim an allegiance higher than a human institution. In this case it has been labeled an antisemitic slur. It could possibly be argued that when Candace Owens tweeted it out recently, she did aim to upset her previous employer Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire. Ben being an Orthodox Jew of course does not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. In a few videos he has been confronted with the gospel. His response is usually to say that Jesus does not meet the Jewish expectations of the Messiah as a political and military leader who will restore the fortunes of Israel as a nation. Historically Jewish rejection of Jesus has been a source of ridicule my dad once recounted how as kids him and his friends would yell “Jews Killed Christ” at a local Jewish vendor before running away. I would suggest that when Andrew Tate a self-proclaimed Muslim shared the hashtag he was not truly claiming allegiance to Jesus (others would fall into this camp as well). 

     This current drama raises a couple of important questions. How should Christians view religious Jews who share some beliefs but who don’t accept Jesus? Second how should Christians respond when cultural trends interact with their statements of faith. 

The first question is fairly straightforward we should share the sentiments of Paul who loved his Jewish kinsmen and wished that they would accept the gospel which is now the only way to be right with God (Rom 9:1-5 and 11:26). 

     The second question is also not terribly difficult because truth remains true regardless of who may try to manipulate it to their political purposes. A good way to think this through is to use another recent example. The phrase “Black Lives Matter” came to prominence a few years ago. This phrase is obviously true as every person is valuable in the eyes of God. However, in this case the phrase was used by neo-Marxists to gain credibility for their subversive communist ideas. Those who saw through the ruse were able to say of course no human should be regarded as less than others but could point out that the phrase didn’t mean what it was claimed to mean. 

     In a similar vein as Christians of course we know that Jesus rules and we claim his as our Lord and King. However, we also know that when shared on social media as a way of sticking it to a particular group the phrase “Christ is King”  loses the meaning and devotion which it must convey. Further while I am glad that the name of Jesus is being given attention this is not the first time that the name of Jesus has been used to gain credibility by those who really don’t submit to his rule. 

     My prayer is that all in the household of faith submit to the rule of Jesus. Not only that but through our efforts many more learn about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We don’t affirm that with a hashtag we affirm it with our lives each and every day as we take up our cross and follow Him. 

~ Kevin

 

March 24, 202

     I have recently been working on a study pertaining to the social, economic, and political background of Corinth in 50-60 AD for a lecture presentation on the life and times of the Corinthian Church. I spent considerable time thinking of how to best approach this situation and decided to do something a little different. I had done a significant amount of research previously on the role that historical reconstruction plays or should play in our understanding of a text and that heavily influence my approach to the lecture. I decided that the first place I should go for my research was the book of I Corinthians. That may sound strange to say but think about this just for a second. If I am wanting to know about physical things pertaining to Corinth there are a number of sources that would help. I have five commentaries, three introductions to the New Testament, four Bible dictionaries, numerous Bible Encyclopedias, Study Bibles and of course Google. All of these could quickly and easily tell me things like location, political situation, population, cultural demographics, not to mention all about the author (Paul) and the themes and subjects of the book. However while these things may make life a little easier some elements would be missed. First I would be preparing to talk about I Corinthians in a way that would allow me to know about the book but not actually know the book. Secondly I am missing an even more important opportunity to know the God who inspired the book. Finally I am hurting my own understanding of the book by allowing third party instruction to possibly (maybe even likely)  bias my understanding of the book and make me more likely to misunderstand or misinterpret what the author (God) is wanting me to get.

     I am going to approach the book a different way and I would encourage you to do the same in your own Bible study. I am going to read through the book looking for background details. I will then make a list of all the things I can know about Corinth and the church that meets there just from the book itself. I won’t list them all here but you would be surprised how much you can learn by paying close attention to the book itself.

     I tell that story to relate an important principle of life and especially of Bible study. We live in a time when the idea of searching almost automatically brings to mind the brightly coloured Google home page. I was recently in a lecture in which the speaker asked a question about WWII which he didn’t know that answer to. Within a few seconds someone had pulled out a smart phone searched it and provided the answer. What if we lived in a world where when asked a moral or spiritual question everyone pulled out a Bible and searched it then came up with an answer? We have heard this passage before but it fits very well with our discussion. While Paul was preaching in Berea Luke records that “They searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” I want to encourage everyone who reads this to follow that example and start by searching the scriptures. It’s not wrong or even bad to search the library, a dictionary, or the internet but turning to these things before turning to scripture will diminish our knowledge of the word and of God. It may even diminish our ability to understand scripture when we eventually do turn to it. As Paul told Timothy Scripture is able to make “the man of God complete equipped for every good work.”

~ Kevin Cleary