Maundy Thursday: Part I
It’s Thursday, the 14th of Nisan. Tomorrow begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread – the high water mark of the Jewish spiritual calendar. At 3:00 today the Passover Lamb will be slaughtered and the Passover meal will be served. While it’s a ceremony in and of itself, over the years the Jews have merged the two events into one and it’s very typical to refer to this whole timeframe as “Passover Week.”1
And what a week it is!
But this year, when Jesus leads His disciples through the Passover liturgy, He’s going to explain the true meaning and purpose of this ritual that’s been performed for centuries.
The term “Maundy Thursday” is used to describe this day where Jesus had His “Last Supper” with His disciples. The word “Maundy” (pronounced “MAHN-dee”) is loosely based on the Latin word for “commandment” (man datum) – a word that Jesus used in John 16:33 when He said, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
It’s hard to overstate the significance of this time of year in the mind of your typical Hebrew. Long ago, on the night the Jewish nation left the land of Egypt and tasted the sweetness of freedom for the first time in 430 years, God established this festival that would mark the beginning of the new year. It would be on this night that the Jews would remember the awesome Power that God deployed on their behalf in order to set them free from the oppressive rule of their Egyptian taskmasters. From now on, the Jewish spiritual calendar would be centered around this night and for Christians this night would represent the initial phases of a Divine Plan that would defeat the power of sin once and for all.
This is Maundy Thursday.
It’s Time to Move
n Exodus 12, you have God telling Moses and Aaron how to prepare for what would be an event that the Jewish community would celebrate from that point on. Several plagues had ravaged Egypt, but the one that would be experienced this particular night would make all of the others pale in comparison. The firstborn of every household would die and before the night was over, there wouldn’t be a single home without a corpse somewhere inside, including the palace of Pharaoh. The only exception to that rule was the home whose door frames had been distinguished with the blood of a year old male lamb that was devoid of any kind of blemish or imperfection. It would be that blood that would cause the Lord to “pass over” that particular home and the firstborn would be spared. Every other house that had not been so identified would experience the wrath of God. Can you feel the crescendo? Not only is Israel on the threshold of being able to walk away from their bondage, but a wonderfully terrible manifestation of God’s Power was getting ready to happen that would
- reveal the gods of Egypt as being utterly false
- it would convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go
- and it would put in place a template that God would use to frame the institution of grace through the death and resurrection of His Son centuries later
This is a major milestone! So much so that God saw fit to establish a ceremony that was to be performed even before they christened their doorposts with the blood of the blood of the Passover lamb. And this same ceremony would be observed as a holiday that is celebrated to this day. It says in Exodus 12:1:
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,2“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. (Ex 12:1)
And the first week of the first month would be marked by a seven day festival called the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” – a collection of meals, offerings and sacred assemblies as described in Numbers 28:17-25. An Important Prelude The Passover Meal was the event that signaled the beginning of the Feast and it involved a specific sequence and a distinct menu which you can see in Exodus 12:8-11:
- You had the meat of the lamb that had been slaughtered in order access the blood that would be needed to stain the doorframe.
- You also had a collection of bitter herbs the were indigenous to Egypt that would remind future generations of their “bitter” lives as slaves under Pharaoh.
- And you were to eat it as though you were in a hurry, in order to remember how Israel had to leave quickly the night of the Exodus. Hence, you were to eat bread devoid of any yeast.
The night of the first Passover was characterized by a lot of activity. The Passover Meal was to be done “in haste” (Ex 12:11). Following the meal, the priority was to ensure the blood of the lamb was appropriately applied to every household’s door because come midnight, the Lord would unleash the tenth plague resulting in the death of every first born in Egypt. After that, they would need to be ready to leave because, according to Exodus 12:29-31, it was still dark when Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and insisted that they leave immediately, so there wasn’t much time. Once the Hebrews were settled, however, the Passover Meal was reconfigured somewhat. In Deuteronomy 16, it was established that the Passover lamb would be sacrificed at a location the Lord would determine. So while you ate the Passover meal with your family as you had before, you weren’t necessarily going to be eating it in your kitchen. Rather, you would be eating it wherever the tabernacle or Temple was located (see Dt 16:5-6).2
A Lot of Activity
By the time Jesus was preparing to eat His last Passover Meal, Jerusalem had become the central place of worship, thus the streets were clogged with pilgrims from all over the Roman empire eagerly anticipating Passover Week. Hayyim Schauss, in his book “The Jewish Festivals: A Guide to Their History and Observance,” describes the scene in Jerusalem that Jesus and His disciples were no doubt observing as they were preparing for the “Last Supper.”
Midday … The spirit of the holiday has permeated every nook and cranny of Jerusalem. By now all have ceased working; even the tailors, the shoemakers, the haircutters, and washers have finished the last piece of work for the pilgrims. Thousands of Jews march through the town, this one with a sheep, that one with a goat, riding high on his shoulder. All direct their steps to the Temple, to be among the first to offer their Pesach sacrifice. The regular afternoon sacrifice at the Temple is offered an hour earlier than usual and at about three o’clock the people begin the slaughtering of the Pesach sacrifice. The ritual is repeated three times. When the court of the Temple is filled with the first comers, the gates are shut. The Levites blow the ceremonial t’kioh, t’ruoh, t’kioh (a threefold blast) on their trumpets and the sacrifice begins. The owner himself slays the animal. The priests stand in rows, bearing aloft gold and silver trays, each metal borne by a different row of priests. They perform their share of the ritual and the Levites stand on a platform and sing Hallel, Psalms of praise for holidays, to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The elaborateness of the ritual and the singing and playing of the Levites add dignity and beauty to the scene, and the Jews gathered in the court are filled with devotion and piety. The first section files out of the court and the second section files in. The same ritual is performed again. It is repeated once more for the third and final section. Members of the third section are called “Lazybones.” The entire ceremony and ritual is carried on in a comparatively quiet and orderly manner. Once, in the time of the famous Hillel, there was such a surge and crowding at the sacrifice of the Pesach that an old man was crushed to death, but that never happened again. So orderly is the crowd that all three sections have finished in less than two hours, and the priests are left alone to clean up the court.3
The streets are choked with not only the locals, but people from all over the civilized world. When you can close your eyes and envision the sea of humanity that is converging on Jerusalem during this time, it gives you an even more vivid picture of the size and diversity of the crowds that would be gathered to demand the death of Christ, which would happen in less than 24 hours.
Was it Really Thursday?
There’s been some speculation that since the gospels don’t seem to agree on the actual night that Jesus performed this ceremony, these constitute portions of Scripture that are either flawed or have become corrupted over the years.
You have to be very careful before labeling a portion of the Bible as being in error because in so doing you inevitably create a dynamic where the whole of Scripture can be called into question. Should the Truth of God’s Word be determined solely on the basis of how well it resonates with one’s sense of logic, you no longer have an Authoritative text. Rather, you have a resource that can be either be embraced in part or dismissed altogether based on “what makes sense.”
In either case, you’ve positioned the human intellect above the One Who fashioned man’s capacity to reason to begin with. Not only is that not logical, it’s positively lethal in the way it strips God’s Word of its Power and Relevance (Matt 5:18; 1 Cor 15:16-19; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:20-21).
The confusion stems from John 19:14 where it says:
Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he *said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” (Jn 19:14 [NASB][emphasis added])
According to Matthew, this conversation is happening on the Sabbath which puts Jesus’ crucifixion on Friday. Since the Last Supper happened the night before, it’s obvious the Passover Meal was celebrated Thursday night. Mark 15:42 references the time Jesus was buried as being “Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath)” which corroborates with Matthew. Then in Luke 22:7, it says:
So, again, if Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are being referred to simultaneously with the term “Passover Week” or “Feast of Unleavened Bread,” then Luke’s reference to the “day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed” is obviously referring to the 14th of Nisan, which, that year, fell on a Thursday when you consider Matthew and Mark’s account. The NIV Text note on verse seven reinforces that:
Going back to John’s statement in John 19:14 – given the customary way in which the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were simultaneously referred to in the context of one term, it is now easily reconciled with his synoptic counterparts. In this instance, John uses the word “Passover” to refer to “Passover Week.” You see that in the way the New Century Version of Scripture renders the verse:
Now, it’s much more obvious that John’s use of the term “preparation day” is referring to the day before the Sabbath which, that year fell on the 15th of Nisan. Consequently, “preparation day” was not just the day prior to the Sabbath, it was also the first day of Passover Week. In addition, John uses the Greek word “paraskeue” to define the day, which by that point was a technical term that referred to the “day of preparation” for the Sabbath.
Remember, the Sabbath for the Jew is Saturday and not Sunday. Sunday would later be embraced as the “Lord’s Day” in that it was the day Jesus rose from the grave. So, given everything we’ve now considered, John’s account is consistent with all of the other gospel writers. Jesus was crucified on a Friday and the Last Supper happened on the evening before which was Thursday.
The Passover Lamb
When you really pop the hood on Scripture, you inevitably discover the kind of symbolism that ties the whole of God’s Word together in a way that’s nothing short of inspiring. For example, in the book of Ezekiel you read of how God gave him a vision of the glory of God departing from the temple. The southern kingdom of Judah had looked on while the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.
But while it could be accurately said that the reason for Israel’s demise was because of their refusal to obey and honor God, Judah was right behind them. Ezekiel’s vision shows the glory of God departing from the Temple in Judah in chapters 8-11. In chapter 11, verse 23 it says, “The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it.” The mountain being referred to here is the Mount of Olives. When Jesus made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19:29, He made His way into the city from the Mount of Olives. When He ascended into Heaven in Acts 1, He did so from the Mount of Olives (verse 12) and when He returns, according to Zechariah 14:3-4, He will take His stand against those who opposed Jerusalem from atop the Mount of Olives. Jesus didn’t do anything randomly. His whole life was punctuated with actions and characteristics that were fulfillments of prophecies articulated centuries beforehand:
- where He was born (Micah 5:2)
- His escape from Herod’s plot to kill all of Israel’s newborns (Jer 31:15; Hos 11:1 [Matt 2:15])
- the way His ministry was prefaced by a messenger (John the Baptist [Is 40:3; Matt 3:1-2])
- the passion He exhibited when He cleared the Temple (Ps 69:9; Jn 2:15-17)
- the healings that He did (Is 35:5; Matt 9:35)
- the manner in which He entered Jerusalem on a donkey (Zec 9:9; Lk 19:35-37)
While Scripture doesn’t specifically reference Jesus’ approach to Jerusalem as a mirror image of the route the glory of God used to exit the Temple centuries before, it’s still an intriguing act on the part of Christ as far as the way in which it brings yet another Old Testament event under a cohesive Messianic heading. You see that also in the way Paul references Christ as the ultimate Passover Lamb:
Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Cor 5:7)
It’s not that Jesus’ death occurred on Thursday afternoon when the lamb for the Passover Meal was being slaughtered as much as it’s a cue to step back and realize that God’s Purpose in establishing the Passover ceremony was not to simply remember how He had delivered Israel from the power of Pharaoh as much as it was to recall and embrace how the death and resurrection of Christ has destroyed the power of sin.
The NIV Text Note on that verse says “In his death on the cross, Christ fulfilled the true meaning of the Jewish sacrifice of the Passover lamb (Is 53:7; Jn 1:29).”6 That’s the Passover meal we participate in every time we take communion. It’s not just a piece of bread and small cup of grape juice, nor is it a mere piece of unleavened bread and a portion of mutton. It’s what’s represented by those things – the Solution to the lethal power of sin – the sacrifice of God’s Son. That’s what Jesus was explaining to His disciples at the Last Supper, the meal God had in mind when He first gave the Passover instructions to Moses.
Regardless of what day it may have been for the Hebrews when they celebrated the Passover meal the first time, for us as believers, it’s always the Thursday of Passion week that we recognize as the day Jesus collected His disciples in the upper room and spoke the words that we repeat every time we take communion: “Do this in remembrance of me…” (1 Cor 11:24). That’s Maundy Thursday.
Click here to read Part II!
1. “The week of masso-t, coming right on the heels of Passover itself (during which masso-t were actually eaten, along with the lamb, bitter herbs, etc.) very naturally came to be know as Passover Week (cf. Encylopedia Britannica, 14thed., 12:1041), extending from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib, inclusively. (Arndt and Gingrich [Greek-English Lexicon, pp 638-39] state: ‘This [i.e. Passover] was followed immedialy by the Feast of Unleavend Bread…on the 15th to the 21st. Popular usage merged the two festivals and treated them as a unity, as they were for practical purposes.’)” (Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason L. Archer, Zondervan Corporation, 1982, Grand Rapids, MI, p376)
2. Several regulations were given concerning the observance of Passover. Passover was to be observed “in the place which the Lord your God will choose.” This implied the sanctuary of the tabernacle or the Temple in Jerusalem. (“Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary”, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN 1986, p380
3. “The Jewish Festivals: A Guide to Their History and Observance”, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Schauss, Hayyim (2012-04-04), p53
4. “NIV Study Bible”, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1985, p1582
5. Ibid
6. Ibid p1740
Good Copies: The Inerrancy of Scripture | Part I
I) Intro
When you’re talking about the infallibility of Scripture, you’re discussing something that goes beyond the mere academic evaluation of the Bible’s integrity. Ultimately, it’s about the way you’re either embracing its content from a mental posture that is both reverent and humble, or you’re asserting a philosophical superiority that subordinates the Bible to whatever seems reasonable. In other words, you’re either a student of God’s Word or a critic. A student benefits, a critic sneers.
II) Good Copies
When it comes to the way in which the Bible measures on the scales used to authenticate the credibility of ancient texts, it is second to none. Two questions are generally asked:
- How many years lapsed between the original writing and the first handwritten copy?
- How many handwritten copies do we currently have that we can check for consistency when compared with one another?
A) The New Testament
The New Testament was written between 40 and 100 A.D. The oldest copy of the book of John is dated 125 A.D. – a mere 25 years later. There are over 24,000 handwritten copies of the New Testament and with the exception of differences in spelling and grammar; the essence of its content is consistent. Compare those figures to Homer’s Iliad – considered to be the most widely read work of antiquity. It was originally written in 900 B.C. and the oldest handwritten copy is 400 B.C. – a gap of 500 years.
We have only 643 original handwritten copies and where there are over 764 lines that appear inconsistent with one another in terms of their content, in the New Testament, only 400 words are questioned, but only in the context of their grammar, not in their meaning.1
B) The Old Testament
The Old Testament is not as easy to verify, simply because the original text was completed around 400 B.C. and the oldest handwritten copy is dated around 900 A.D. resulting in a gap of some 1,300 years. In addition, the strict rules surrounding the way in which scribes were to lay aside older copies of the Law result in a situation where you don’t have as many copies to compare with one another.
That problem was remedied, however, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. Dated over 1,000 years earlier than the earliest Hebrew manuscript, this discovery gave scholars the opportunity to verify the authenticity of the Old Testament using a document that predated their other metrics by a full millennium. As far as the consistency noted between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the other manuscripts that existed, Dr. Gleason Archer is uniquely qualified to comment.
Dr. Archer served as Assistant Pastor at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts from 1945 to 1948. He then became a Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California from 1948 to 1965 and from 1965 to 1986; he was Professor of Old Testament and Semitics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He had a PhD in Classics from Harvard University as well as a degree in law from Suffolk Law School.2 He writes:
Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (A.D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The five percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling. Even those Dead Sea fragments of Deuteronomy and Samuel which point to a different manuscript family from that which underlies our received Hebrew text do not indicate any differences in doctrine or teaching. They do not affect the message of revelation in the slightest.3
So as far as textual criticism is concerned, the Bible is sound. Sir Fredrick Kenyon, British scholar and assistant keeper of manuscripts for the British Museum from 1898-1909 writes:
…the Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true Word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries.4
Again, the bottom line is that the Bible has to be infallible in order for it to qualify as the Word of God. You can’t imply that God scored a 99% on His Final Exam or Jesus made a bad decision by choosing to quote from the Old Testament when He taught, given the flawed status of the document He was quoting. Either it’s the Inspired Word of God, or it’s not. That’s what makes the issue of Scripture’s inerrancy such a volatile subject. It’s the foundation upon which a Christian’s creed is based. Should it be revealed as defective, critics are validated and believers are undone.
For more reading on this subject, click on the links below:
Left Behind Bible Studies | Video Commentaries: Session One – Are You Ready?
Recently I had the chance to write the adult bible study curriculum to compliment what compliments the “Left Behind” movie.
How cool is that?
Having seen the rough footage, I’m confident this is going to get some people thinking about the Reality of Scripture. For some, it will be an occasion to beef up their defenses, for others it will be a chance to revisit the fact that one day the Rapture is going to happen.
Just like that, we’re going to see Him face to face and that’s good news.
One question that you hear a lot is “How could a loving God send a person to hell?” On the surface, that seems like a reasonable question. But it’s the wrong question. The real question is “How could a rational thinking person say ‘No’ to God?” And you know what? It’s not just a matter of your eternal security. We say “No” to God quite a bit when it comes to being on top of our spiritual game in general.
We’ve got this amazing invitation sitting in front of us every day to grab on to some serious Truth and look at ourselves and the world around us from a perspective steeped in Purpose, Peace and Power.
I get stoked anytime I’ve given the chance to challenge folks with questions like “If you had to create a billboard that promoted a relationship with Christ and you couldn’t say anything about missing hell and going to Heaven, nor could you say anything about how God helps you with your problems, what would your billboard say?” In John 17, Jesus defined eternal life as “knowing God.” Salvation was never engineered to be something that comes to bear only in the context of a Divine emergency procedure or a funeral parlor.
The six sessions you see below are designed to get you thinking and get you fired up about life in general. You weren’t put here to make an appearance, you were put here to make a difference. And that difference is accomplished by you and I taking the time to catch a clear vision of Who God is, hearing His Voice and enjoying the benefits that go along with obedience.
Buckle up!
Session One: Are You Ready?
Do you believe in God? Do you believe that Jesus rose from the grave? You do? That’s awesome. But if you’re thinking that’s enough to get you into Heaven, think again. The demons believe all that and they’re not spending eternity with God. No sir. This session looks at what it means to believe in your heart and how it’s God’s Spirit in you that defines you as someone who truly “believes.”
Session Two: Your Guide to a Spiritual Six Pack
1 Timothy 4:7 says to train yourself to be godly. I love that word picture. So often we marginalize spiritual disciplines as things that you do when you’re feeling either especially noble or extremely desperate. Nuts to that! You train so you can better implement and enjoy the Resources Christ brings to the table:
- passionate approach to the mundane
- confident perspective on the impossible
- steady response to the difficult
- gracious reaction to victory
- unshaken resolve when confronted with the unexpected
That’s a life worth living right there! And that’s the result of a toned spiritual six pack!
Session Three: Location, Location, Location
While it’s not uncommon to be more preoccupied with the words that we say, we have to be attentive to the life that we display and be able to use that as a way to earn the right to be heard. Location, location, location. “Where are you at?” Where are you at in terms of your personal life, your vocation, the relationships you have with your friends and family? Do those dynamics reveal the Power of Christ in a way that makes people curious? Does the way you live your life earn you the right to be heard?
Session Four: Apples of Gold on a Tray of Silver
You’ve earned the right to be heard, now it’s time to say something. You know what you want to say, but have you given much thought to the way it needs to be said. It’s one thing for someone to hear you, but it’s another when you’re able to speak in a way where they’re truly listening. That’s the example Christ sets when you look at the way He interacted with the woman at the well in John 4. “A word aptly spoken…” That’s what we need to be shooting for.
Session Five: How to Handle Angry Customers
Not everybody is open to the Truth. Some are downright antagonistic. What do you do? This session looks at three things to keep in mind: Don’t take it personally, find common ground, and try to see it from their perspective. Not everybody who’s “difficult” is skeptical. Some are carrying around some hurt that never healed. Should God determine to use you to influence the way they think, you want to be real intentional making sure your words are not compromised by your emotions.
Session Six: Lose the Frogs
Pharaoh had an option of either ridding himself of the frogs immediately, or he could choose to let them linger for one more night. You’ve got to wonder what he was thinking. Why in the world would you put off the relief that’s staring you right in the face? Yet, as outrageous as that may seem, we do the same thing. God calls, He offers, He invites, He commands and we…put Him off. Like Pharaoh, we would prefer one more night with the frogs. Lose the frogs! If any of these session resonate with you, be sure to head out leftbehindthemovie.com and click on “Minsitry Resources.” They’re offering free samples as well as other materials for your entire church. Great stuff! Go get ’em!
On the Outside Looking In
“Are you a Christian?” There are a lot of people who will answer “Yes” to that question. But if you ask them to elaborate you get stuff like “I believe in God” and “I believe that Jesus died on the cross.” These are elements of a believer’s creed, certainly, but imagine an interview where you’ve got two people being asked the same questions and consider their answers in light of what the Bible says.
Question #1: Do you believe in God? Believer: Yes, I do. Demon: Absolutely.
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. (Jas 2:19)
Question #2: Do you believe that Jesus is God’s Son?
Believer: Sure.
Demon: I certainly do.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me! (Matt 8:28 [response of the demon(s) to Jesus when they saw Him approaching])
Question #3: Do you believe that Jesus rose from the grave?
Believer: I do.
Demon: Yes.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col 2:15 [Satan and his subordinates are very aware of the Ultimate Defeat that was dealt to them as a result of the cross])
So, consider where this positions the believer and the demon at this point in the interview. Both of them subscribe to the exact same facts, yet the demon isn’t going to Heaven (Rev 20:10). So what is it, then, that distinguishes the believer from the demon? What is it about their belief system that’s unique when compared to what a demon believes?
Question #4: Is the Spirit of Christ living in you?
Believer: Yes, He is.
Demon: (awkward silence…)
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Rom. 8:9).
That’s either the deal-maker or the deal-breaker. Does the Spirit of God live in you? It’s not a trick question, it’s not some lofty theological “spin.” The Presence of God’s Spirit is what defines you either as someone who’s born again or someone who’s on the outside looking in.
Salvation is you going from a spiritual corpse to having a spiritual pulse (Eph 2:1,4-5). It’s not a stained glass band-aid, it’s an entirely new paradigm and it changes everything (2 Cor 5:17).
To get that in place, you simply ask God to make it happen. All He requires is what’s referenced in Romans 10:9-10. The first part is “confessing with your mouth,” which is easy. The second part, for some, is more challenging in that He’s looking at your core and He wants to see something that goes beyond an academic tolerance for the idea of a Savior. It’s the difference between believing in your mind that diet and exercise is good for you, yet not acting on it. Whereas believing in your “heart” that fitness is a priority – that will manifest itself in your actions. In other words, “ideas” remain in your mind, “convictions” reside in your heart and that’s where God looks for a saving belief as opposed to an intellectual approval.
So, where are you at? You good, or are you on the outside looking in?
Christianity: It Cannot be Believed by a Thinking Person
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, (1 Pet 3:15)I) Intro
There are a number of very vocal and very articulate people out there who sneer at Christianity, as though it were a preposterous notion to subscribe to something so ridiculous. Christopher Hitchens is one of those people. In this installment of MC, we’re going to take a look at some of what he says and offer a rebuttal that reveals his platform as flawed, limited and nonsensical. Let’s take a look…
II) Christopher Hitchens
Hitchens was born in 1939 and recently passed away in 2011. He was an English writer who spent a great deal of time in the US and eventually became a citizen. A gifted speaker, he was a forceful orator, especially when it came to the issue of religion. At one point, he said that a person “could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct”, but that “an antitheist, a term I’m trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there’s no evidence for such an assertion”.1 Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist and an avowed atheist, said of Hitchens, “I think he was one of the greatest orators of all time. He was a polymath, a wit, immensely knowledgeable, and a valiant fighter against all tyrants, including imaginary supernatural ones.”2 Today we’re looking at one example of Hitchens’ commentaries on Christianity which you can find on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbOUBUVLvKw.
Here’s a brief summary of some of what he had to say:
III) Privacy
Privacy, in this instance, is an issue only if you’re interested in hiding something from God. And the only reason you would be interested in hiding something is if you had something you were hesitant to divulge before Him. In other words, you, like Cain, are trying to slip by unnoticed in order to preserve the illusion that you are blameless (Gen 4:9; Ps 51:5).
No one is.
But that is not an occasion to resent God’s Omniscience, rather it’s something to celebrate as far as being completely known and yet completely loved.
Moses makes mention of this very thing in Psalm 139. He observes how God is completely aware of every nuance of his heart and mind. He revels in the freedom he has before God to be utterly transparent and, at the same time supremely confident that he is accepted by a Holy God.
What’s the difference between Moses and Christopher?
The difference is that Christopher superimposes the flaws of humanity upon God’s holiness because the idea of Divine Perfection reside beyond the borders of his definition of what’s reasonable. Hence, God’s ability to know someone completely is processed as surveillance rather than omniscience. And in the same way, he processes omnipotence as arrogance.
IV) Indifferent and Distant
He goes on to say that for the better part of 98,000 years God did nothing as man struggled and suffered.
The Old Testament makes it obvious that God was very involved in the lives of His people, so to say that He was doing nothing is a gross understatement. Consider the Exodus, the enumerable military campaigns of the Israeli army, the time of the judges, as well as the way in which all of the Major and Minor Prophets describe God as being intimately aware of His people’s condition and completely committed to their welfare.
No doubt, Christopher questions God’s activity with the other people groups that aren’t mentioned in Scripture. What of those that didn’t have access to Christ? What of those who never heard of the Ten Commandments?
In Rev 5:9 that there will be people from every nation throughout history in Heaven. While the Bible doesn’t go into any kind of detail as to how that works, one can rest assured that the Message of God’s grace will have been communicated and his judgement will be fair (Acts 10:34-35; Rom 1:20; Jas 2:25). Click here for more reading on that subject.
V) In the Desert
Christopher’s also critical of God’s decision to announce His Solution to sin to a people “in the desert” who are not nearly as literate or as advanced as the Chinese.
At the time of Christ, the Roman Empire was under the authority of Caesar Augustus. Never before had so many human beings acknowledged the authority of a single leader. His subjects formed more than one third of the entire global population.3
When you couple that with Rome’s educational system, which was heavily influenced by the Greeks, along with Rome’s engineering and technology, Hitchens comment is revealed as being less than credible. Rome was very well positioned to serve as a starting point for the gospel message (see Acts 25:12; 28:30).
VI) Christianity is Immoral
Hitchens then goes on to say that he regards the Christian message to be immoral. His conclusion is derived from a limited perspective on the consequences of any kind of wrongdoing.
While it is both appropriate and biblical to take responsibility for the wrongful act that you’ve committed (Matt 5:23-26), the spiritual ramifications of sin are both eternal and lethal and cannot be offset by any kind of human effort (2 Sam 12:13 [see also http://www.reformation21.org/articles/a-godcentered-understanding-of-sin.php]). In other words, being ethical may address the material debt incurred by your actions and it may even ease the tension felt as a result of your wrongdoing, but it accomplishes nothing as far as paying the debt that is owed to God.
That’s what makes grace so amazing.
It’s not a question of the lengths you go to in order to compensate for your actions – that’s an expected response from a moral perspective. But neither you nor I can atone for our sin on our own (Heb 10:4). It requires a Divine Solution. And when you consider the price that God was willing to pay for said solution, to regard it as immoral is nonsensical. Rather, it’s a kind of love that is nothing short of outrageous in that it is entirely undeserved, yet freely given (1 Jn 3:1).
VII) No Win Scenario
Finally, Hitchens concludes that God has created a no win scenario by imposing expectations that are impossible to live up to.
Coupled with the fact that He’s aware of, not only your outward behavior, but also the agendas within the hidden recesses of your mind, you are lost and condemned from the very start. Paul refers to the same “no win” scenario that Hitchens observes in Romans 7. This is a man that was blameless, as far as keeping the law (Phil 3:6). But however pristine he may have looked on the outside, he knew that before God, all his righteous acts were like filthy rags and he was a slave to sin (Is 64:6; Rom 7:14). And it’s not that God has orchestrated this situation, rather it goes back to the fact that man chose this dynamic back in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:15-17; 3 :16-19).
But while man chose to live in the context of this sitting, God provided a Remedy that Paul builds up to in Romans 7:24-25 where he says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
VIII) Conclusion
The fundamental flaw in Hitchens’ reasoning is that his philosophical starting point positions himself in the center of the universe as opposed to God. Woodrow Wilson once said, “If you make yourself the center of the universe, all your perspective is skewed. There is only one moral center of the universe, and that is God. If you get into right relation with Him, then you have your right perspective and your right relation and your right size.”4
Hitchens has determined that God cannot exist outside the parameters of his intellectual preferences. His limited knowledge of Scripture coupled with a resolve to process the whole of life and creation according to a personal paradigm that reduces the enormity of the cosmos and the intricacies of the human experience to something that fits within an academic shoebox, results in something that appears controlled and calculated, but is revealed as being pathetically inept when confronted with the world as it truly is.
But here’s the thing:
Hitchens isn’t going to be swayed by mere reason alone. For him, this kind of debate is more along the lines of chess where people position their arguments like they would move their bishops and pawns on a chessboard. That isn’t to say that you don’t engage people like Christopher. Paul never shied away from debating the logic of the gospel. You see that in Acts 17 when he was in Athens and engaged the philosophers and the great thinkers in that city.
But for people like Christopher, you want to challenge their logic with not only your rebuttal but with your life. It’s there where the Power of God is most compelling. Ideas are one thing, but the ideals that guide and empower the life that is worth imitating – that’s what makes the difference, that’s what silences the critics and that’s what points people to Christ.
1. “Christopher Hitchens”, https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Christopher_Hitchens, accessed June 19, 2015
2. Ibid
3. Bible Hub, “The Roman Empire at the Time of the Birth of Christ. Upwards of a Quarter of a Century Before the Birth of Christ”, William Dool Killen, http://biblehub.com/library/killen/the_ancient_church/chapter_i_the_roman_empire.htm, accessed June 19, 2015
4. “Wilson”, A. Scott Berg, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, N.Y., 2013, p37
There Are Only Two Religions
While it might not be an original phrase, I heard “There are only two religions in the world” for the first time in a talk given by author Frank Peretti.
I though it was a very succinct and profound way of summarizing the various religions in the world and how they compare to the gospel. Basically, it boils down to one of two options: Either God is God or man is god.
In his book, “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins summarizes his atheistic disposition by stating that, “I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented.”1
While Atheists want to be perceived as having an impartial approach to the various faiths represented by the American population by insisting on a “religion-less” perspective on morality, there is no such thing as a “religion-less” approach to anything, let alone morality. From a purely philosophical standpoint, “religion” is the way in which you answer four basic questions:
- Origin – how did the universe come to be?
- Destiny – what happens when you die?
- Morality – how are you supposed to behave while you’re here?
- Purpose – what’s the point of your existence?
These are not lofty, theological issues or advanced, philosophical themes that only academic types bother to engage. The way you process yourself and the world around you on a daily basis is based on the way you answer these questions and from that standpoint, you are a “religious” person regardless of how often you go to church, if you go at all. And from that standpoint, there’s no such thing as an atheist. You’re simply your own god – you’ve established yourself as your own religion.
So, when you hear critics of Christianity or social activists insist that they represent a more judicious approach to moral issues and social tensions by removing the Bible from the conversation, they’re not leveling the playing field as much as they’re giving priority to that “religious” school of thought that establishes the individual as his own deity.
If religion, at the bare minimum, is the paradigm upon which one bases his perspective on himself and the world around him, then atheism “fits” in the illustration Peretti proposes in that atheism is the belief that all things can be, and should be, assessed and determined by an intellect that is entirely human. So, rather than appealing to the God of the Bible, atheists instead appeal to the “god” of human reason and humanistic thinking. However they may balk at the notion of anything that even sounds remotely supernatural is attached to their philosophical infrastructure, it is nevertheless an apt way of comparing the two schools of thought. And with that comparison comes a more direct way of identifying the fundamental difference between Christianity and other supernatural thought processes, while simultaneously defining the one aspect of Christianity that, once proven, reduces all of what would otherwise be argument against the gospel to ash.
The empty tomb. H.P. Liddon put it very well when he said:
Faith in the resurrection is the very keystone of the arch of Christian faith, and, when it is removed, all must invariably crumble into ruin. 2
1. “The God Delusion”, Richard Dawkins, Bantam Press, Great Britain, 2006, p57 2. “Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics”, Wilbur M. smith, Baker book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1965, p577
