Christian Character Developement Part 1

So, having blogged about how it is possible for one who has answered the call to heaven to lose out in the last topic we looked at the logical question becomes how do we avoid such an end?  Since God loves us and wants us to succeed and gain the crown offered (James. 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:6-7; Rev. 2:10; 20:4-6) he leaves us in no doubt as to how to be successful.  It is through character development.

Peter wrote to the Christian Church in his day on the subject and gave them a simple plan for Character development and success.  His words are found in 2 Peter 1:4-8:

Through these he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, seeing that you have escaped the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, you must make every effort to supplement your faith with moral character, your moral character with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with endurance, your endurance with godliness, your godliness with brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness with love. For if you possess these qualities, and if they continue to increase among you, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. (ASV)

Let’s have a look at each of the character traits Peter mentions:

Faith:  Faith is the first virtue mentioned.  Fortunately for us we have a definition of faith in the bible itself.  That definition is found at Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists.”  Biblical faith isn’t really blind.  It has a foundation on which it is build.  That foundation is two-fold, creation and God’s word.  More and more as technology makes it possible for scientists to peer into creation the more it is being discovered that the universe isn’t as haphazard as it as first seemed.  There is evidence of order and design.  Thus we find scientists from at least two disciplines, astronomy and microbiology embracing the theory of intelligent design and risking damage to their careers in the process.  Such evidence of design forms a foundation for belief in a creator, one who has some care for his creation given all the things which have to be just right for us to have this home we call earth in the first place.

The second layer for the foundation for faith is God’s word.  Since the creator went to all the trouble it took to make this earth and make it just right for our habitation it only makes sense that he would also care enough to communicate with the intelligent part of his creation.  The Christian Bible, which is made up of the Jewish Torah in its entirety and the Christian writings, purports to be that message.  When compared to all other such works it is by far superior.  Its accounts match with what both ancient historical sources recount and archeological discoveries.  More and more the latter are revealing the Bible to be a book with a sound footing in the realities of the time.  The candor of its writers also reveals it to be a book which we can place our confidence in.  Thus it completes the foundation for Christian faith.

In the rest of the eleventh chapter Paul emphasizes for us the difference between belief and faith, though the same Greek work is used for both.  Faith is active.  It is belief applied.  Time and time again Paul drives the point home with numerous examples making the entire chapter one every Christian should read regularly.  So the footstep follower of the Master doesn’t just sit on his or her call, she or she acts on it, first through character development.  We’ll see why later on.

Moral Character:  The word used here is aretē (ἀρέτη G703).  As I gleaned my way through the lexicons I have the meaning which really stuck out was virtue in every sense of the word.  The word manliness was also attached to it in one lexicon showing that this is virtue built on courage and moral fiber.  Thus moral character is the quality of doing what is right, even when everybody around one doesn’t.  The Christian doesn’t seek the easy way out or to conform to the notions of the day as to morality.  The genuine Child of God sticks to his moral requirements no matter the pressures brought on him or her to compromise.  So courage is an essential part of Christian virtue, especially when exercising faith in God and his precious promises.  It is easy to see why Peter would say to add to one’s faith virtue.

We’ll see you again dear friends and readers for our next post in the series.

The Tragedy In Denver

A few things about yesterday's tragedy:

There is no way any gun legislation either way would've done a bit of good.  Experience has shown that if a crazy like that wants to get an automatic weapon and blow away a bunch of folks he'll get it.  Consider the mess they had in France some months back with the Muslim fanatic killing Jews and soldiers with real military weaponry in a country where possession of said weaponry is illegal.  From what we've been told so far about this fellow's apartment it sounds like he was also in possession of illegal explosives, whether they were homemade or not, so all those laws did not work.

On the other hand had those with valid CCW permits been allowed in the theater it still wouldn't have made any real difference in the end unless one had an armor piercing load, which is illegal to all but military and police personnel.  Mr. Holmes went in suited up in full tactical gear and armor, so the loads most people who carry would've been pretty much useless.

I don't often watch TV these days.  But last night my wife and I were and she switched the TV to the O'Reilly factor when it came on unasked.  I've watched him many times in the past and there are times I both agree and disagree with him.  But last night when he pointed out that there was no way any political policy would've made a difference he was dead on, pardon the pun.

Yesterday we had a family tragedy when an uncle died.  But the nation had a tragedy when somebody mentally ill equipped to handle the pressure of a PhD. program went into melt-down and decided to vent his anger by taking as many lives as he could.  That it was a theater packed with children and that they figure prominently among the victims makes the tragedy doubly hard for all.  Unfortunately as man continues his fall such tragedies have become like the weather, something which one hopes they won't be struck with but which all know can happen anywhere or at anytime.

Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones in Colorado yesterday.

Can one who has tasted of salvation be lost?

I am going to lay out two points for this discussion.  One, I’m going to assume that by “salvation” we are talking about heavenly salvation.  Two, only God really knows who would fall in that category for sure because he is the only judge of it.  That being stated:

While Jesus was on the earth he made a comment which is appropriate to the subject when his miracles were attributed to Beelzebub:

“So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come."

(Mat 12:31-32; ISV)

So it is possible to fall away and commit acts for which there is no forgiveness.  Becoming and enemy of the Way and speaking against it can bring one perilously close to what Jesus was talking about since the True Church has God’s Holy Spirit and the works they perform are through its influence.  We find confirmation of that thought in Paul’s letter to the Hebrews where he states:

“For if we choose to go on sinning after we have learned the full truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who violates the Law of Moses dies without mercy ‘on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ How much more severe a punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God's Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”

(Heb 10:26-31; ISV)

Paul states clearly that once one has “learned the full truth” and presumably joined the true church in their calling then chooses to sin, then there is no sacrifice left for them and such sin is no longer covered.  Since he included the thought of “tramples on God’s Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified,” it would seem that such sin would not only be deliberate but of a similar nature as that which Jesus warned against.  Basically, one can’t accidentally fall into this sin; they have to go out of their way to enter that category.

To sum it up, the belief of some that once one is “saved” they cannot be lost doesn’t really hold up.  Jesus himself warned that there was a sin which could earn one eternal unforgiveness, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.  Paul enlarged upon the idea and his words make it clear he wrote about those who were “saved,” that is part of the true Church called to heaven.  Paul makes it clear in no uncertain terms that those who willfully fall away and sin will fall into God’s hand of judgment and be lost.

My Apologies

To my dear friends and readers:


There is  reason for my silence at the moment.  My computer is in the shop to be rebuilt.  Hopefully what I get back will be better and I'll be back to offering up more essays.  I wish the best for those who read my posts.


Stanley Loper

On Helping Others.

Today’s subject was requested by a cousin on Facebook.

I encourage my readers to ask for subjects to be covered though I reserve the right to decided which I cover.  He asked me to compose a lesson on helping others.  Since my daily Facebook devotion is geared to a daily passage of the Bible to read I’m limited with the daily devotion to whatever lessons may be found in the assigned reading.  However, I have the freedom and flexibility here, so:

The question at hand provides a perfect example of how the Christian may apply the Topical Method of Bible study I use in my study of God’s word.  Although we, as Gentile Christians are not under the Law of Moses, as the Apostles confirmed when the question was put before them in the first century (See Acts 15:1-32 for the story and decision in context), that doesn’t mean the Old Testament is irrelevant to us today.  When writing the young man Timothy, Paul told him that “all scripture” was beneficial for many things including as a guide for life (2 Tim. 3:14-17).  The scripture Paul was talking about was the Torah, the only scriptures Christians had besides Matthew’s Gospel at the time.  So the wise Christian consults the Old Testament as well on every subject to get a complete picture on which to base doctrine, teaching, and life’s decisions.

The Patriarchs

We find a wealth of information on the subject in the OT and I can but hit some highlights in our consideration.  In the age of the Patriarchs we find the patriarchs were always ready to help others.  When Abraham left Ur he took his father, Terah and his nephew, Lott with him.  He stopped off on his journey to the land God commanded him to go in Haran, apparently because his father wasn’t up to the journey and cared for him until his father died before continuing the journey on to Canaan.

When he got to Canaan he and his nephew had a parting of the ways.  Yet when Lott was captured in a war among the kings of Canaan Abraham gathered his men and rushed to his nephews rescue without a thought as to the circumstances under which they’d parted.  Thus Abraham laid his life on the line to help his nephew in his extreme time of need.  On the occasion of when Sodom and Gomorrah came under Judgment Lott saw the two angels of God who were sitting in the square waiting under the dangerous situation of the city and took them into his home, where he defended them from the mob that wanted to abuse them.

As a side note, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah gets a little misunderstood.  Check the story and you’ll find they weren’t punished because they were homosexuals, in fact Lott’s daughters were engaged to two of their number, and so many of them weren’t.  My bet would be the number of homosexuals among them was about the same as now, about 1-3%.  But they were judged because they practiced every evil and debauchery under the sun, as their conduct indicated when they demanded the “men” who’d come under Lott’s roof that they could rape them.  That, by the way is a time honored way of visiting the ultimate contempt and abuse on a man in the orient and elsewhere, to rape him as if he were nothing but a woman.  The story is found at Genesis 19:1-22.

We find an interesting story where Sarah insists the son of Hagar, the son of Abraham’s slave and technically his firstborn be sent away.  So Abraham does so under God’s permission.  As you consider the story, note that Abraham did give Hagar and Ishmael provisions, to help them under the circumstances.  However, they ran out of provisions and come near to death.  But God steps in to help the pair himself.  So God himself set an example for us as he not only saved the pair, but turned Ishmael into a mighty nation (Gen. 21:1-21).

Israel

After God delivered Israel from their slavery in Egypt he made helping other a part of the law.  In Exodus we find it codified in the law that the Israelites were not to afflict destitute aliens, orphans or others in destitute and desperate conditions (Ex. 22:22-27).  God made provisions for the poor for when they had to present mandated sacrifices at the temple to help them.  They were allowed to bring animals of lesser value than otherwise required (Lev. 4:11-13).   In fact, when the days for purification were completed in the case of our Lord’s birth and he was brought to the temple his parents made use of that provision for the poor (Luke 2:22-24; Lev. 12).  So God set the example for the people of Israel to follow in helping those less fortunate in their midst.

But the law didn’t stop there.  It mandated positive provisions for the poor.  When reaping the grain on their land during the harvest, the Israelites were commanded to leave the edges of their land unharvested as a provision for the poor (Lev. 19:9), that command also included a command to leave the gleaning, that is the overlooked sheaves which fell or whatever, for the poor to pick up..  They were also commanded to leave the leftovers from the harvest of the vineyards as well.

Those provisions provided an opportunity for generosity on the part of individuals to help the poor and destitute by leaving less of their land harvested or even deliberately leaving behind gleanings for the poor in the main part of their fields.  We find this custom not only mentioned in the Book of Ruth, but Boaz commands his workers to leave behind gleaning specifically with her in mind (Ruth 2).  In that story we see that some in ancient Israel were moved by the law to go beyond the mere commands and act positively to help the destitute among them.

Christians

Now we get down to where the rubber meets the road for us, the Christian era.  Throughout his ministry Jesus urged people to help those less fortunate than themselves.  He didn’t just tell people to, he reached out and did so himself.  The stories of his healing people of their infirmities are so numerous I won’t even attempt to list them here.  But the healed people, raised the dead, and, yes, helped people materially.  How do we know that?

Because we’re told that Jesus and the disciples had a box they carried which contained money and that Judas Iscariot was in charge of it (John 13:29).   It is implied in the telling of the story where Mary anointed Jesus with costly oil that the money was also used to help the poor and that Judas was stealing it from the box (John 12:4-6).  So our Lord set the example and taught his disciples to help those who needed it, materially if necessary.

We have the example carried forward in the early Church where the earliest gathering of them lived together and helped each other (Acts 4:32-37).  In fact we’re told that there was no one in need among them because of the generosity of their fellows (Acts 4:34).  So from early on Christians recognized a personal obligation to help others in everyway they could.  And James expounded on the importance of helping others in his letter to his fellow Christians (James 2:14-17).  But note closely the last verse in my citation, James tells us that if we don’t help those in need our faith is as dead as a corpse.

So what do we get out of all of the evidence we’ve considered?  Throughout the ages men who truly loved God were ready to help those who in need.  God set the example both in patriarchal times but also for Israel.  And that Jesus set the example, which his disciples followed.  Jesus did so willingly and liberally.  That should be a clue for us.  It’s not that we help people out of compulsion, but as footstep followers of Jesus we do so because we want to because our Lord and Master did.

True Christians help in ways large and small, from mowing the grass of a shut in or and elderly person to reaching into their own pockets to help family, friends, brethren, and even strangers.

I love to tell the story of a commune of Shakers I read one time.  They discovered some of their crops were being stolen.  Instead of going to the sheriff and insisting he catch and punish the thieves they decided the thieves’ need must be greater than their own.  So the next year and thereafter they planted more crops and had enough for their own needs even after the pilfering was done.  Can one think of a more Christ-like attitude than that?

Part of the key to having such an attitude is to remember that this world is passing away and we are but temporary residents in it.  Since everything ultimately belongs to God, we are but stewards of whatever goods he blesses us with and we are to use them to his good, much like the “dishonest” manager in Jesus parable at Luke 16:1-13 did.  And that was the point of the Parable, to use our wealth in a way which brings our heavenly father both glory and goodwill.

So we look for opportunities to do good where we can and to the extent we can.  Early Christians were known for that.  True Christians still are.

Bible Critics And Jephthah's Vow.

Greetings again!

The following examination of the subject of Jephthah’s daughter was recently composed as an answer to a question on Facebook.  I’ve changed the more personal parts of the examination to fit the purposes of this blog.  I hope you find it up building. 

Critics of God are mostly the ones who pull out the story of Jephthah and his vow.  the way the argument goes in part is that when Jephthah offer to give god whoever first came out of his house "as a fire offering" in exchange for victory that God gave him that victory and thus accepted a human sacrifice in violation of his own law when the first one to come out was Jephthah’s daughter, his only child.  That is used to portray God as both bloodthirsty and inconsistent in his actions.  It also has implications for the subject at hand which is why I brought it up.

The story is found at Judges 11:29-40 for those who may not already know.  The fact that God’s spirit comes down on Jephthah and moves him to make the vow also makes it look even worse.  However, can we really imagine a judge of Israel doing such a scandalous thing?  Although I imagine you do realize there was something symbolic in it what is takes is both a little knowledge of the law beyond what we’ve already discussed, and the Ancient Hebrew language to put all the pieces of the puzzle together properly.

God’s law strictly forbade human sacrifice, and especially the local one of sacrificing ones children in the fires:

Lev 18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through [the fire] to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I [am] the LORD.

Lev 20:2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever [he be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth [any] of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
Lev 20:3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
Lev 20:4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not. Lev 20:5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.

So given these commands how can we get to the truth of Jephthah’s vow and what really happened?

The first thing to keep in mind is, Semites often have a habit of speaking in ways strange to us, exaggerating things blowing them up, kind of a bit like bargainers in most markets around the world. One good rule of thumb is to remember that the bible is an eastern and Semitic book, not a Western one and has to be read with that in mind

Another thing to keep in mind is that our understanding of Ancient Hebrew, especially Hebrew from before the Babylonian conquest is incomplete at best, so nuances in the text may very well be lost to us.  I think that is partly the case in the text where Jephthah’s vow is recorded for us in the first place, as I’ll demonstrate as we go on.

The real key to understanding the passage and what really occurred is at the end of the passage in verse 40 where the Hebrew verb “tanah” (תנות, H8567) is used in describing just what the daughters of Israel did every year for four days every year.  Most translations render it to say that they “mourned” for Jephthah’s daughter on that anniversary.  That makes it sound like she was sacrificed at the altar, doesn’t it.  But that is a very inaccurate rendering of the form of the verb as it’s used in the verse.  The verb basically gives the idea of   “to tell again, recount, rehearse,”   And can also mean to lament or wail.  However, one form of the verb carries the idea of “to celebrate” (BDB, pg 1072) and that’s the form of the verb we see used in the verse.  I know... ancient Hebrew verb forms can be quite strange to the Indo-European language mindset because in their most ancient forms they conjugate for intensity instead of time.  This is strange for us but needs to be taken into account.

So what we’re being told in the verse is that every year the daughters of Israel went to Jephthah’s daughter for four days out of the year to celebrate her sacrifice and support her keeping her father’s vow.  So where was she?  The law allowed for different kinds of service to Jehovah, including service on the grounds of the tabernacle and later temple where a person dedicated themselves to the service in a helping capacity, as if they were a sacrifice.  And as far as Jephthah was concerned his daughter might as well have been.  By making his vow he essentially agreed to give the person up to God’s service as thoroughly as if he’d sacrificed them in the fires.  It being his daughter made the sacrifice especially hard since she was his only child and any hope for the continuation of his line, which was very important to any Jew at the time, went down the toilet.  So indeed it was a great sacrifice for both him, and her.

So we find in this instance that the charge that God is a bloodthirsty monster who countenanced a gross violation of his own law doesn’t stand up to close inspection.  We can give an answer to those who criticize, but our faith in The New Testament’s portrayal of him as a kind and loving God is reinforced for us.

Resources For Those Who Want To Learn The biblical Languages.

Greetings my readers:

Sorry I've been lax with keeping up my blog.  I've been busy elsewhere, including going through one surgery and about to undergo another in a few days.  It's occurred to me that those who end up here might include people who are interested in learning the languages of the Bible but don't kn ow where to start.  Here are a few handy resources online.  They'll be sites of various kinds with different kinds of resources from lessons to audio files of God's word in the biblical languages.

Learn Biblical Languages 

Greek:

Hellenistic Greek 

A Grammar of Septuagint Greek. 

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words 

Greek New Testament Audios in Earasmian Pronuncuation. 

Greek/Latin New Testament Audio readings 


Hebrew:

Hebrew For Christians - Learn Hebrew. 

Ehud's Assisting You to Learn-- Hebrew Bible 

 Hebrew-English Bible/ Mechon-Mamre

Rivers In The Desert - Hebrew New Testament, Both audio And Learning resources 

Aramaic:

Aramaic NT Resources 

Peshitta Aramaic New testament 

Aramaic Lexicon - William Jennings 

Recources For Syriac Studies 

These are all resources I've found helpful.  The Greek audio files in the Erasmian pronunciation  is the standard taught in language courses for Ancient and Koine Greek and the one the charts are based on.  As I find more good resources I'll try to update this page for my readers.