Voted

I voted. I voted for the candidates that I figured best represented my view of the world. I did not vote a party line, I did not vote for Obama, and I did not vote for McCain. I feel better about my vote simply because I voted for a representative and not a party.

If anyone tells you, “A vote for * is a vote for #.”. Where values of * and # are political figureheads and don’t represent your views tell them that the last time you checked this was still America land of the free to vote for whomever you choose. If Obama represents your ideals, vote for him. If McCain represents your ideals, vote for him. If you are not represented by either of them then do yourself right and pick a “3rd party” candidate who had the guts to run in the face of the genuinely oppressive Dems and Reps. Show the two bigger parties that bullies are not appreciated. Clearly neither party has stopped the 10,000,000,000,000.00 debt.

Don’t just do something, sit there. Don’t let the masses move you. Sit and think. Figure out who is your representative. The Internet gives you access to a number of resources to help you learn about the representatives you have to choose from. Vote with your conscience and not with the flow.

Happy Nevada Day

Today is Nevada day, just in case you don’t live in Nevada or were unaware of it over all.  Have a happy one.  In Jr. High and Highschool I had to march down Carson City’s main drag with some form of percussion strapped to me playing some cadence or song.  It amused me that the rest of the band got a break, but we drummers/percussionists/morons had to play the whole length of the road.  At least we were cool.

I’m thankful for growing up much of my life in Nevada.  I learned a lot there, I met my wife there, I met many friends there, and I have family that still lives there.  I hope this Nevada day or all saints-eve-eve finds you well.

Issues in Dispensationalism: Was Jesus in the Old Testament or in the New Testament

My buddy Trint privately messaged me and asked for my take on this particular blog post: I’m Possessed.  The author of the post wrestles with how he should apply the content of the post and looks for an out so that he doesn’t have to wrestle with the guilt of not fulfilling Christ’s command.  The good news is that I think that there is a very simple and low-guilt out: hermeneutics (AKA Proper Bible Interpretation).  There is also another out: Grace (AKA the fact that you’re not under the Law any more, as you have died to this world and its systems with Christ if you are a believer).

While on the surface it looks like this post may be about money and possessions, its really a about the issue of which dispensation Christ was in and how we deal with the life of Christ before His death, burial, resurrection and ascension.  How do we as believers address the complexities of what Jesus did and said verses what we’re called to do as His possession?  I believe that fundamentally the question that was asked by the author of the aforementioned blog post is flawed because it presupposes that everything that Christ spoke was directed towards the disciples, the New Testament church, and the believer today.

I’m co-teaching a class on Bible Interpretation at church (Link to Series for download) and rather than start in the middle of why this is a poor approach to interpreting this passage I’m going to go through the processes we’re teaching and attempt to see if I come to the same application that the author of the post comes to.  Join me as we look at observations, interpretations, applications and appropriations.  For the record I don’t for some second think that the author of the other post is attempting to misrepresent the passage, I just want to challenge myself and all believers to be consistent in our interpretation and theological calling to be noble minded like the Bereans (Acts 17:11).

Observation of the passage calls for evaluating language, culture, history, context and as many pertinent facts as we can observe objectively about the passage and its contents.  Lets go through those systematically and see what objective elements pop out.  We’ll also want to ask who, what, where, when, why, and how to make sure we’ve got the right focus of the passage.  I’ll be using the resources publicly availabe at blueletterbible.org for you to follow along with if you want to check my references.

Context

The context of the passage appears to be Christ speaking to his disciples and in verse 13 one disciple asks Christ to speak to his brother so as to instruct the brother toward equality in dividing the inheritance that the man was to receive.  Christ then launches on a series of principles that seem to outline first that Christ was not interested in making that call about the inheritance (v. 14).  Instead Christ was interested in motive and source of life (coveting v. 15).  Christ’s parables subsequent to motive point out God’s provision (vs. 16-31).  Seeking the things of God will show God’s provision for the needs of the believer.

Language

The language of the Luke passage is Greek.  I’m not going to delve into each Greek word, but I will highlight the bits and pieces that seem to carry the most weight in the selected verses.

Fear Not:  The Greek here is two words: phobeō .  We’re all familiar with the English transliteration and adaptation phobia, and the Greek carries with it just such a context [BLB].  The verb tense is present, middle, imperative, which means that the person listening to Christ is to take the command to heart.  The negation of the fear indicates that we should not for any reason let fear rule in the context of this passage.

little flock: The Lord uses a metric indicator to reflect the size of the disciples despite the first verse of the chapter reflecting that a general throng had gathered around the smaller circle of the disciples.  Flock was used analogously of the group of disciples and is apparently common figurative language as all five times that it is translated that way in the KJV the figurative subject is a body of saints (vs. Luke 12:32, Acts 20:28, Acts 20:29, 1Peter 5:2-3).

your Father: interestingly we see Christ identifying the disciples as being sons of the Father.

good pleasure: The Father’s pleasure is is aorist, active, indicative which indicates to us that it is a past action with ongoing results, it is being done by the father to the disciples and it is spoken factually.

the Kingdom: if you want to see theologians argue bring up the kingdom.  However, the disciples, as best as we can tell, would have recognized the kingdom as the coming kingdom of the Messiah [Grk reference].  A rulership that would entail political power, peace, and a fulfillment of the New Covenant (See Jeremiah 31:31).

Sell: The Greek here is imperative and active.  You sell your stuff as soon as is expedient.

alms:  Alms would be a gift.  A benevolent and generous gift that was not earned by the recipient.

a treasure: A storage place for valuables, or the valuables in the storage place.

in the heavens: The dwelling place of God above all of creation.

where your treasure is: is is present, indicative.  It reflects the fact of where your treasure is now.

Culture

The Jewish culture generally operated with the mindset that material blessing was a sign of spiritual right relationship.  God promised material blessing to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and to the Hebrews if they followed Him and made Him their God.  Christ’s apparent countering of this by saying sell this sign of blessing would have had some sort of shock value.

History

Historically wages were earned with hard labor.  There were not normal cases of overnight millionaires (figuratively speaking) and an inheritance was a valuable thing to receive because it may allow you to break free of debt, help establish a stronger business through investment capital, or could be used in various trading businesses to increase overall wealth.  Many households had very simple possessions and were not lavish.  Tax collectors like Matthew would have come into the house and evaluated the apparent wealth based on the possessions and then demanded a payment for Rome.

5 W’s and an H

Who: Christ is speaking to the disciples about God’s character

What: earthly possessions, heavenly possessions, faith

When: every day life

Where: wherever the disciple is

Why: because the disciple was concerned over the inheritence

How: God’s provisions

Interpretation

The interpretation is a summary or re-statement of the passage or verses that attempts to collect the observations into a coherent statement.

My close disciples and followers, you should have no fear over earthly provisions because the Father in heaven will give you the food and clothing and shelter that you need as He brings about the fulfillment of the kingdom.  Take the worldly things that are of value and sell them in faith because those things rust, fade, and lose value.  Instead look forward to the treasures that are in heaven by walking in an abiding relationship with the Father because where you treasure is, and that should be in heaven, there your heart is.

Application

Application looks at the passage at hand and looks for a subjective principle, a fact that can be relied upon, a truth that can be enacted, or an appropriation.  There are two kinds of applications: direct and indirect.  You will need to determine if there is a direct application for you by looking at the intended audience of the interpretation!  If you are not the intended audience (and in this passage you are not)  then there may be an indirect application of principles or truths to rely on.  I’ll list a few applications based on the interpretation and you can meditate on this as well and bring up other suggestions.

Direct application

  • The disciples could rely on the Father for provision
  • The disciples could abide in the Father (see John 15) and that intimacy would build up or store treasures in heaven that would be rust free
  • The disciple who had asked the question about his inheritance could relax about equal distribution because the earthly blessing would eventually lose value even if it had short term value

Indirect Application or Principles

  • The believer can rely on God for provision
  • This passage confirms our need to be heavenly minded just like Paul instructs the believers in Colossians 3:1-3
  • We need to rely on the Lord for our value and not on our stuff

Conclusion

You can see that while these two lists are not exhaustive, the New Testament saint, because he is not the specific recipient of the instructions from Christ has nothing to fear about not fulfilling this passage’s imperative commands.  We can look at other New Testament passages such as Acts 2:44-45, Romans 12:13, Philippians 4:18-19 and evaluate God’s commands regarding provisions in the body of Christ.  There are plenty of opportunities to serve the Lord as we abide in Christ and walk by the Spirit, but we don’t need to worry about commands for Old Testament Saints (and even though the gospels are under the New Testament moniker, they are not directed towards New Testament Saints).

By carefully applying hermeneutics and by making sure that you understand the context of the passage you’re studying you can walk in confidence that you are under grace, you can walk confidently in your position in Christ, and you can boldly assert your Christian liberty.  This doesn’t liberate you from righteousness empowered by the Holy Spirit (see: Romans 6), but it liberates you to be motivated by grace, which is the only true motivation in the life of the believer.

Oh, and I do lift up before our Lord the provision of the autistic son of the author of that post.  We come before you Lord in confidence that you have brought us all together as believers to seek out opportunities to server one another.  We pray (even via the Internet) for your provision for the autistic child, Your peace in the life of the parents, and we pray for the doctrine of agency to be manifest in the lives of your flock.  Amen.

The View From Here is Amazing

Today I installed Windows Vista Premium 64 bit edition on the family computer.  Good golly it took me long enough to get everything working and happy (including buying a new wireless card) that I could have made the switch to Linux (Ubuntu of course).  The good thing is that now we should be set to make the switch to cable from satellite and use the DVR features in Windows Media Center for good instead of evil.  The view in vista, once I got accustomed to things, was an improvement.  I don’t regret putting the upgrade off, but I’m glad that I have finally jumped the shark and moved to Vista.

Of course there are things that make upgrading frustrating, but for the most part, its a good change and I’m hoping that the 64 bit OS will maximize most of my experience.  Of course I also haven’t installed iTunes, which will be the most important switch since the family’s music is hiding in the backup folder… oh the zoo-manitee.

Consistency

Every time someone brings up a vacuum and mentions it not working I am 99.999% likely to make a ‘that sucks’ joke.  In which case its not funny, it is entirely predictable, but I can’t leave it alone.  It is like my daughters and the knock-knock jokes.  They tell the same joke over and over and yet its always funny.

Or why did the chicken cross the road?  Pretty much any answer will do, they just laugh and laugh.

Twitter

I am on the twitter.  You should be, too.

Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/randypeterman

For those of you wondering: Twitter is like slow-motion instant messaging out in the open.  Kind of like your dreams about being naked in school (that was awkward, wasn’t it?) mixed with that weird slowed down ‘dream weaver’ music that they always play in the flash-back segments of movies.  You get 140 characters to say whatever you want… but since its 140 characters, you have to be terse.

Plane Yogurt

This last Thursday I found myself getting ready to take off on a flight when I overheard the flight attendant telling another passenger about their TV service.  She said, “For only $5.00 you can watch cable TV the whole flight.”

Cable TV.  Ha!  That’s a long cable.