Category: Theology

“Let no one deceive you in any way, for the Day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the one destined to be destroyed.” II Thes. 2:3 TLV

The other day in my prayerful reflections during devotions, I was reflecting on the great apostasy.  The translation in the Tree of Life Version, a Messianic Jewish version, does not use the word apostasy, but rebellion.  The idea that has been most prevalent in the Church has been that this refers to a great apostasy of part of the Church.  This is known among Roman Catholics and though not an official doctrine, the idea of a great apostasy is well known. Protestants historically did not think of the Roman Catholics since they were already written off as in apostasy.  Rather the Evangelicals of 80 years ago saw this as the apostasy of mainline Protestants who gave up the classical definitions of biblical authority and were embracing critical theories of the Bible and questioning classical doctrines.   The return of the Lord is near they thought.  

However, some 80 years later I am wondering if the great rebellion or apostasy is not about the Church per se though it would certainly affect the Church.  I am thinking about the rebellion in our present western culture against God’s creation order itself.  We are presently seeing a level of this rebellion beyond anything I know of in my study of world history.  Theologians speak of common grace, the grace that perceives aspects of the Law of God such that societies are preserved though they do not have the Gospel or the revealed Law of God.  Ancient China spoke of a pattern of life that was enjoined by heaven that was taught by Confucianism.  Lao Tzu spoke of the Tao, the way, that also enshrined such principles that were rooted in some level of transcendent reality.  In Hinduism, laws of right and wrong determined one’s fate in the laws of Karma and the wheel of birth and reincarnation until one attained righteousness sufficient to escape and attain the bliss of heaven.  African tribes knew of transcendent laws that bound them as did native Americans.  We can go on and on.  

One thing common to all these cultures is the clear distinction of male and female.  Sometimes that distinction was defined in ways that severely oppressed women, as in Chinese culture.  Indian culture had much more romantic notions of the relationship of men and women in their old myths.  It was clear that women were distinct, had monthly cycles, produced and nursed babies and then experienced the end of that time in menopause.  Men had a whole different physiology. Homosexual attraction was known in the ancient world and the response to it varied.  However, the idea that men were not really men and women not really women was not rooted in any of the ancient cultures.  C. S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man described the common grace ethical standards common in many cultures.  Of course, in the Western world, the dominant view came from the Bible and taught that God created humankind as male and female. No other category is in mind, though we understand that rarely after the fall there are rare genetic aberrations of dual sexual characteristics.  Now the culture of the west is in a radical rebellion against the binary biblical presentation and thus also against the binary idea of most cultures. We are seeing a radical rebellion beyond anything that has ever taken place in history, against the creation order itself.  And this does influence weak church leaders to go along with some of the gay agenda in amazing compromise.  One friend who is a Bible school leader spoke of this as the running out of the grace of common grace.  However, it is well to look a little deeper and see the progression. 

The big idea of rebellion in the 19^th century was naturalistic evolution developed by Charles Darwin.  His idea was big and radical.  It was that the whole of earthly life, the flora and fauna, could be explained by chance mechanisms from the inorganic to the simplest forms of life and then by natural selection leading up to the pinnacle of evolution, due to their ability to speak and reason and understand, human beings.  The idea seemed so powerful that some Christians and Jews tried to make peace with the idea of God and evolution by positing theistic evolution where God was involved in the process.  However, we should make no mistake about it, the big idea is that any appeal to design or a designer is superfluous.  I have written about this extensively.  It does not matter to these theorists that this idea is ultimately incoherent.  That the leading American philosopher, Thomas Nagel, in his book Mind and Cosmos, shows the systematic incoherence, hardly makes a dent in the culture.  He instead is vilified as having left the reservation.   That the leading former atheist and British philosopher of science, Antony Flew, came to the same conclusion does not matter.  Several former atheists as well have come to the same conclusion.  Nagel argues that the reason the evidence cannot break through is that people do not want to believe in God. Naturalistic evolution is their preferred narrative or myth.  Evolution, however, did gives us fixed categories since male and female perpetuate the species and the rebellion against this was not in view.  Perhaps there were genetic or environmental reasons why some would be homosexual, but homosexuality was not a favored orientation since there is no survival of the species value in it.  The aberrations are tolerated but the idea of men being men and women being women in general was still very much held by evolutionists.  After all, from a genetic point of view, every cell in the body was either male, xy, or female, xx.  Scientific naturalism actually led to some fixed notions of human nature as genetically and behaviorally determined.  The idea that free will was an illusion was common.  With genetic determinists, all is determined by genes, but behavioral naturalists like B. F. Skinner saw the genetic component but with higher animal organisms, all was determined by operant conditioning.  All of this was part of scientific naturalistic modernism.  This entire atheistic philosophy was a most profound rebellion against God.  

Post Modernism rebelled against Scientific naturalism and its determinism.  Rooted in French Existentialism, these folks argued the consciousness itself changed the game of human life completely since one can now choose any orientation to life.  Existence precedes essence, means that there is nothing essential to human nature.  Rather the ego knows itself to be radically free and can choose any lifestyle that can be envisioned.  This leads to radical relativism.  This radical relativism is also atheistic.  There is no meta narrative, that is no story to explain our origins or destiny from a transcendent reality or God.  This philosophy is the height of rebellion.  The post moderns choose with no ground a Marxist or other norm where all human beings are to be included as equal whatever their orientation.  There is no defense for this ethical norm since it is not based in anything but raw assertion.  And raw assertion is all we have left on the basis of this philosophy.  Hitler and Nazism, now hated, was raw assertion as well. The rebellion against God’s creation order for men and women is profound and as deep as one can imagine.  It leads to supporting the choice of a children, a boy to self-define as a girl and to support his choice even by hormone suppressant treatment and surgery to cut of the genitals and to create an artificial vagina and for the girl to cut off her breasts and to create an artificial penis.  Though only a small percentage wants to do this, their choice must be validated and fully affirmed.  Parents themselves cannot stand in the way and social services might see to it.  So inclusive must we be that we must have neutral language that no longer uses male and female pronouns but neutral pronounces so that transsexuals will not feel marginalized.  If you think this is exaggerated, look up Nancy Pelosi’s rules for language in the congress.  Full including means not speaking of men and women or boys and girls for these very terms will leave people out.  Sexually, among consenting adults, all arrangements must be affirmed, homosexual couples in fidelity, homosexuals not in fidelity, bisexuality, and polyamorous relationships. Indeed, the traditional family, called the nuclear family (this was not the traditional ideal by the way, but the extended family supporting the uniqueness of a couple and their children) is rejected as a tyranny.  Anyone who disagrees and speaks up about it is accused of hate speech and called a homophobe and a transphobe.   This fits the program of the late post-modernist, Herbert Marcuse, who saw redefining language as a key part of power assertion.   The socialist paradise requires overcoming the backwardness of the nuclear family. 

This is the deepest rebellion that I know of in history and could be preparing the way for the great rebellion under the Antichrist.  Maybe the Antichrist will restore religion and present a new age god who is inclusive of all sexual orientations.  We have never seen anything like this. In addition, the apostasy from common grace affects some in the Church, even some who claim to be evangelicals who profess a falsely called “love” which is not love.  Love seeks the destiny fulfillment of each person in this life and eternal life.  It warns to flee from the wrath to come and to avoid the destruction of Hell.  It is as in the days of Noah, and one can see with the world going this way, the terrible judgment of the book of Revelation is just.  I did not mention China in this article  There is the rebellion in China to the will of heaven views of ancient Chinese philosophy and the elevation of man in an atheistic system of control that brings its own judgment. 

What then is our hope?   It is that the in these times of darkness, the book of Revelation envisions a true Church with great power gaining a great harvest, including 144,000 from the tribes of Israel.  The eternal Gospel is proclaimed and a great harvest from all peoples will not be thwarted.  (Rev. 7, 14)   God is more than up to the challenge of this great apostasy. 

As a student at Wheaton, I was able to study under the famous philosopher, Dr. Arthur Holmes.  He was fond of calling for us to engage in world viewish thinking.  This meant that the Bible provides us with the foundations for thinking about every sphere of life and engaging every academic discipline from a Biblical perspective.  To do this, we have to know the Bible and its theology well and what it teaches in every subject.  This includes our relationship to God first of all, but then marriage and family, neighbors, civic life, law and justice, the courts, artistry, social sciences, science, economics and much more.  Christian worldview thinking is not possible for people who think that Torah has been done away.  Much of what the Bible has to say on the different spheres of our existence is based in the Torah.  The disturbing thing is that most Christians do not think this way.  They think that the “Old Testament” is a past book.  It provides the predictions of Yeshua and some good devotions in the Psalms, but that is the end of it for them. They have no idea of the Torah being the foundation for justice issues and the key to our understanding and involvement in culture.

However, the problem is not only Christians, but Messianic Jews.  The professions of Torah loyalty are often merely a matter of commitment to aspects of Jewish specific law, circumcision, Sabbath, Feasts, foods, and often Rabbinic traditions.  These are important aspects of our covenant as Jews, however the universal is what Yeshua called the weightier matters of the Torah. Often the Messianic Jewish approach is shallow. Sometimes the Torah is compromised by Rabbinic approaches that do violate the heart intent of the Torah and like Yeshua said, “make void the world of God by traditions of men.”

The Barna organization estimates that only 7% of Christians have a worked-out world view. This is why our political and social disagreements are often based on surface arguments and do not get to the root of the issues.  I think when I have said that I vote for the leaders and party that take us more in the direction of God’s Law, I think that goes over the head of many.  The idea that the Torah will give us direction for the major issues of our time is not perceived.  Historically, many did believe this, from Arminian Methodists to Reformed Calvinists.  Brilliant scholars like Dr. Walter Kaiser, former President of Gordon Conwell still argue this.  I try to show this in my book, Social Justice.  But it is more than that issue.  The Bible gives us a framework for the purpose of art, literature, science, and so much more.  We have to study the Bible with an eye to its implication for all disciplines.  I think many are arguing over issues without the foundation first in place, a true and deep biblical understanding.  The lack of this understanding is why some of our young cannot address the movements of sexual liberation in our culture from a compassionate, but Torah based perspective.  It is why some are given to socialism.  Unless we discuss the foundations in the Bible we are only ships passing in the night in our interactions.  We do not really connect. Our Tikkun books, authored by Dr. Michael Rudolph, Torah in Messiah, provides a good beginning to see how Torah can be applied today.

Because this is fresh in the news, and I wrote a book related to the God’s creation order, I write this article as God makes distinctions in creation for mutual blessing in an order of interdependence.  One of those wonderful distinctions are male and female that enrich our lives in so many ways.  Of course, we think about marriage as one of the highest expressions of mutual blessing and interdependence to come from the male and female distinction.  However, mutual blessing sometimes comes from the very different natures of male and female. They have different insights and operate in different ways.  It is sometimes difficult to define the differences with clear lines. Those who have studied the theory knowledge know that no definitions are airtight.  All definitions have fuzzy edges and have exceptions to the definitions or descriptions.  However, that does not mean that the general descriptions of differences are not legitimate.  Those descriptions should not preclude those who do not seem to fit the way of the general patterns of distinctions from fulfilling roles and directions that do not fit the general pattern.   And culture does have influence on how distinctions are presented.  However, there is a distinction between male and female that greatly enriches our lives.

Right now, we are seeing a war on sexual distinction, that God made us male and female.  Recently, the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops put out a statement warning about new policies by President Biden supporting radical abortion promotion and radical gender confusion.  They pointed to the creation order of male and female and said that this should be embraced by society. They were not speaking against basic civil rights for LGBTQ people but against the promotion of a way of life that does not embrace and promote the general truth of creation distinctions in sexuality and traditional marriage and family.  The Biden administration then put out an executive order that required girls and women’s sports teams to accept men who identify as females.  This is very destructive to women’s sports and all the gains women have made.  The Democratic House of Representatives now seeks to put out rules eliminating gender language and to replace them;  no more father, mother, brothers, sister, aunt or uncle, etc.!   One pundit joked that we can not celebrate the first female or woman Vice President!  We should not assert that she is a woman in a transgender world.  There are people who say we should drop the terms man and women.

So why is this happening?  It is because Satan hates God and his creation.  His creation distinctions enrich life and bring joy to God Himself.  Satan seeks a leveling and destruction of the creation order itself.  His followers especially are part of the thrust in destroying monogamous heterosexual marriage and family.  Radicals have historically seen the traditional family as a barrier to an equal and socialistic society.

What is our response?  It is to be zealous to preach the Gospel and to proclaim the truth of the Law of God and his creation order, and to not back down.  Hope it motivates you to get my book!   

Sometimes we try to convince people of the way of the Gospel by showing them that those who live according to the Bible live the most fulfilling lives.  I think this is true.  I believe that sociological studies that would follow people over a long period of time would find this to be definitely true.  However, the standard for such a study would be solidly committed believers with clear markers of commitment.  This would not work if nominal believers were part of the study.  Some years ago, Redbook Magazine did a study of sexual fulfillment and found to their astonishment that those in committed traditional marriages had by far more fulfillment than others.   However, it is quite amazing that the Bible does not much appeal to this argument for faith.  Yes, there are verses that say a better life ensues when we are submitted to God and follow Yeshua.  “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”  (John 10:10b)

The biblical arguments are stark. First, it argues that we did not create ourselves. We find ourselves in a world where we are taught standards of right and wrong and know that we have violated those standards.  The idea of being in danger from the judgment of the creator is a foundational biblical theme.   If there is life after death, how can we assure a positive after life destiny.  It would seem that the possibility of everlasting life is so serous a matter that resolving whether or not we believe in life after death and where we will end up in that state would be the most important question that we can ask.  The New Covenant Scriptures promise the most positive destiny for those who find love and forgiveness of sins through Yeshua’s sacrifice.  The promise of the Bible is resurrection life in the Age to Come on a renewed earth.  It is quite contrasting to the nebulous hope of Hinduism (and more popular Buddhism) and its escape from karma.  It is closer to the hope in primitive religions that present a more concrete hope.  The famous mathematician Blaise Pascal was famous for his argument for faith called, “The Wager.”  Pascal argued that one should wager on the biblical faith being true and commit one’s life to it.  If one is wrong and there is nothing after, one has lost nothing, but if the Gospel is true, then the loss is total and terrible.  There is merit to this wager.  Indeed, there is no more concrete hope and evidence than for Biblical faith so wagering for it is a better bet than for other religions.  Settling the question of our eternal destiny is the very most important issue. There was some level of the fear of God in the culture which made this argument more persuasive.

The second most important issue is how we should live this life in this world.  After devotion to God and his people, the most important matter is to pursue justice motivated by love for others.  This is the continued theme of the prophets.  The pursuit of justice is the pursuit of the order in society of the greatest destiny fulfillment for the greatest number.  However, the first justice issue, that often not recognized, is the presentation of the Gospel with power.  The Gospel itself is the “power of unto salvation,” and has the power to lift people out of their bondage and the systems of injustice.  Salvation includes that wonderful after death existence but is also includes a purposeful life in this present life  Hence Luke 4 and Yeshua’s announcement of the Good News as providing liberty for the captives, the great reversal.   Economic issues and other social disparities in our society are important but of much lesser importance than providing the Gospel.   Pursuing justice therefore is first of all to bring people to the knowledge of the truth and the unlimited power of God to lift people out of their negative circumstances.  

The other matters of justice are also important; economic opportunity, educational opportunity, equal treatment under the law, religious feedom, and overcoming all racism.   A follower of Yeshua pursues all of these matters but pursues the spread of Gospel above all.

The way this question is phrased is already assuming that we should not because indoctrination is a negative word today.  One young adult objected to teaching our children biblical perspectives as indoctrination.  Rather we should ask, should we disciple our children?  And of course, my answer is certainly, for Deuteronomy 6:4 ff. commands us to teach the words of God diligently to our children. We are to talk of them when we walk by the way and when we lie down and rise up.  

I am the product of a Jewish and Norwegian marriage.  My mother and father agreed to not teach us either in the religion of Judaism or Christianity but to allow us to choose our own path when we got older.  This seemed very enlightened but was mistaken.  Nevertheless, God called me to Himself when I was 12 ½.   When we do not disciple our children, we leave a vacuum.  They will then be indoctrinated by the larger culture around them, the schools, the internet, and social media.  We desire that parents would be in control of those sources of indoctrination.  

However, it is not like we desire to produce young adults who cannot think for themselves in dependence on the Spirit.   As children are young, they learn basic biblical truths, the memorization of Scripture, Bible stories, and great stories of those in missions.  As they enter young adulthood we need to deal with difficult questions, the problem of evil and suffering, other religions, the secular world, the nature of justice, and even economics.  If parents are not capable of such a dialogue, they need their young people to be connected to those who can deal with such issues.  In addition, they need to be able to understand both sides of an issue, even the arguments of those who are against biblical faith.  The young adult learns then to engage in such a way that they are able both to see the other side and not be taken in by it. They can weigh arguments and are not merely indoctrinated.  However, walking in the Holy Spirit will be a key to not going too fast beyond the capability of the young person to absorb and deal with the issues. Seeing mature, discipled and educated young adults should be our goal. 

I have had dialogue with many due to the election controversy on the larger issue of how much a priority we should make of seeking justice in the society. I wanted to make a few comments on this. First of all, we should note that the historic position of Protestant Christianity was that we should seek justice and righteousness in society. Before the Dispensational Movement that only wanted to save souls and then escape before the tribulation, this was a general consensus. The great revivalists were very committed to seeking social justice as the outworking of revival and as part of their revival emphasis. Certainly, this was true of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finny, and Jonathan Blanchard, the founding President of Wheaton, who said that his vision was to see Wheaton College used so that the Law of God would become the law of the land. They meant this with the qualification of applying it judiciously in our age and in the New Covenant period. The great social movements against slavery and against child labor and the oppression of the poor came from the revivals. The great thinker/Prime Minister of Holland, Abraham Kuyper (120 years ago) almost said the same words as Blanchard. The Pilgrims and the Puritans, of course, settled New England with this very vision in mind. This produced a unique accommodation to Christianity in America. For example, there are two aspects that I would point to. First, Church properties and income is tax-free. Why? Not only because the view was that Christian institutions benefit society and are a key foundation, but there was another reason. That is true. However, it is also that the Church is its own government sphere apart from the government sphere of the state and the state has no claim on money that belongs to God’s sphere. So it is not a special grant from the state, but rather a matter of a foundational principle of understanding Church and state. This was a key to the United States being a society that was the most favorable to world missions that had ever been seen. So when Christians are pushing back against the darkness they see coming from the left, it is that they do not want to see the death of this special situation unlike any other where religious freedom was so fostered. Cancel culture really sees Christianity and its teaching on sin and salvation as hate speech. So the mass mobilization of prayer for the present situation is a right thing and as we have connected to the many streams of prayer: the cry for mercy, repentance, and revival has been very strong. We have not before seen such a mobilization for national and world prayer for the Church and the country. 

However, one friend who has written us has pushed back against this saying that the emphasis on the U. S. and righteousness is not balanced. He believes that in the present state of the Church, the focus on righteousness in the nation is not right. The Church is in decline in discipleship and is not growing and going forward. Certainly, he is right about the analysis of the churches today. Indeed, without a revival and turn around in the churches, the efforts for biblical social justice will fail. So this has to be the top focus for prayer and effort, revival, and reformation in the churches. Having said that, we do not know that God can not bring both together. Only our discernment in the Spirit can answer this question. 

Another friend thinks that the quest for national righteousness is wrong for he discerns that we are entering the tribulation and that the time for this effort is passed. Now is the time to prepare for the persecution and the Anti-Christ. What can I say? So often it has seemed so to past generations. We can not know that there will not be revival and delay in the return of the Lord and more Gospel progress first. Again, we have to be led by prayer and discernment. I have constantly taught that we both need to be ready for his near return and to act for the possible delay, which would lead to seeking revival and social justice.