The Bible Nerd

The Nephilim

Why, O why is the Nephilim the number two Bible nerd question? If I had a dollar for every minute I have wasted on this topic, I would be able to buy a Nephilim. I mean, seriously, the story is beyond belief: angels came down, had sex with human women, creating a race of half human, half angelic giant people called Nephilim. You can’t buy that kind of entertainment. And we wonder why non believers think we Christians are nuts! I even had a group of students one time intentionally put a whole teaching about the Nephilim on their homework to see what their graders would say (and again, you know who you are, please report to the principal’s office).

We can thank three main Scriptures for all of this fun: Genesis 6:4, Numbers 13:33, and Jude 6 (and connected is Jude 14). Genesis is where the fun begins, so let’s start there. Genesis 6:1-3 says, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” We began to discuss this chapter in the post on Cain, where chapter 4 gives us the ungodly line of Cain, and chapter 5 gives us the righteous line through Seth. Immediately following this passage about the Nephilim is the whole story of the flood and God’s judgment on man for his violence and sin. Nestled in between the genealogies and the Flood are these verses about intermarriage. When we looked at spiritual warfare, we discovered that “sons of God” can refer to either angels or God’s people (usually men). The main question here would be which one is God talking about?

The Hebrew word “Nephilim”‘s meaning is debated by Hebrew scholars. Many say that it comes from the root word “to fall” therefore meaning that these men are the “fallen ones”. Others translate it as “giants” going back to the King James translation. King James used “giants” based on the Numbers 13:33 verse, so that isn’t proof of etymology either. The text says that the “Nephilim” were “mighty men” and “men of renown”. Other translations call them “heroes of old”. The context of Genesis would point to the sons of God being the godly line of Seth and the daughters of men being the ungodly line of Cain. The intermarriage of the two lines brought the ruin of all people, ending up in mankind being totally evil and deserving of the flood (except Noah). The most contextual, common sense interpretation has nothing to do with angels. Boo, no fun.

We could drop the whole thing, but Numbers 13:33 won’t let us off that easy. “And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” When the scouts of Israel went into the promised land after leaving Egypt, they reported back the unusually tall people called the Anak, who descended from the Nephilim. It doesn’t give their height or anything about the origin of the Nephilim, but does connect them with the Anakim. If we are to believe that these are the SAME Nephilim as in Genesis, then it means that Noah was a Nephilim! Only he and his family survived the flood (I guess his wife could have been one and then his children were half Nephilim???) It could be that these were a tall people group (yes, some people are taller than others) and the name Nephilim was used due to Jewish tradition about the legendary heroes of old. The name then was borrowed from the past and was not intended to mean the group mentioned in Genesis.

Jewish tradition you say? The plot thickens. Extra biblical, Jewish literature contains a Jewish tradition that believed that the “sons of God” referred to angels (as in Job 1 -3). The most famous of these “stories” is in the Book of Enoch. Talk about a wacky read! The Nephilim are said to be REALLY TALL, in one text being around 135 meters tall. Trippy. There is so much in this book that is completely made up and unbelievable. Finally, we find the dead end. Nah! Jude keeps this alive by not only referring to fallen angels, but then goes on to quote from the actual book of Enoch! Jude 6 says, “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.” Jude 14 says, “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones…” Ok, so what does it mean that these angels left their “proper dwelling”? Could that refer to the sons of God in Genesis 6? If that is in Jude’s mind, it makes sense that later he would go on to fully quote from the Book of Enoch to provide more backing to final judgment.

First, the part about angels never mentions the Nephilim, or anything specific enough to connect it to Genesis. Second, quoting from the Book of Enoch doesn’t mean Jude was saying everything in it was correct. Paul quotes from pagan poets in Titus 1:12 and isn’t saying that everything that poet wrote was correct. Third, Jesus says of angels in Matthew 22:6, “But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Does this Scripture lead us to believe angels are asexual beings? The bottom line is that there is lots of weird stuff in Jewish extra biblical literature, so we can’t use that as support for what the Jews believed about Genesis 6 with the same authority as the Bible. Other Rabbinic writing agree with the interpretation that the sons of God were the line of Seth.

This would make a really cool movie though, right? Fallen angel babies turning into giant, super power bad guys? That is why this Bible Urban Legend just won’t die, but I am giving this legend a firm “lame” conclusion. Not true. Sorry. The point of Genesis is that man’s sinful nature almost led to the destruction of our whole race if not for the mercy of God extended through Noah and his family. What fun is that lesson though compared to giants? Next up, Bible Urban Legend #1 — Melchizedek. Someone please shoot me now.

Cain married his sister

I warned you that these questions would not be the kind of questions that change your life. Well, they could I guess, but that would be a little messed up. Anyway, Bible Urban Legend #3 is Cain married his own sister. Right behind the more comical, “Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?”, comes this question about who Cain would have married. The obvious answer of his sister grosses most people out today, so they want to hear a different explanation of what could have happened.

Let’s review Genesis 1:1 – 4:15 so we understand where we can go with this question. God creates Adam and Eve, and their rebellion brings their expulsion from the garden of Eden. As chapter 4 begins, Eve gives birth to two sons, Cain and Abel, and they grow up to work the land and fields. Cain kills Abel out of jealousy and anger, and God curses the ground so that Cain will no longer be able to have good harvests. Cain’s reply is that God has doomed him to be a wanderer who will eventually be killed. God gives Cain protection and Cain leaves from where Adam and Eve are living.

The next thing we know in 4:16 is, “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.” Where did his wife come from? Why would he build a city for three people? are there other people out there already? As Genesis does to us several times, it gives us the bare minimum of information, leaving us with tons of questions. The author of Genesis is merely trying to show how the line from Cain became an ungodly group of people. These people are contrasted with the righteous line of Seth in chapter 5. The author wasn’t trying to answer all of our other questions.

One prevalent theory that I have often heard is that Adam and Eve were the first humans God created, but not the last. This assumes that God created other people who were instructed to be fruitful and multiply. These people settled in the “land of Nod” instead of the area around Eden, and from them came Cain’s wife and those who would inhabit the city Cain eventually builds. The main problem that I have with this theory is that IT IS NOT IN THE BIBLE AT ALL! It is a complete guess based on no evidence. No where else in Scripture does it talk about God creating other people. The genealogies of Genesis show the race of man descending only from Adam (through Seth and Cain). The New Testament in passages like Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 seem predicated on Adam being the first and only man created instead of born.

What do we know then from the Bible? People like Adam, Eve, Seth, and Cain lived for a VERY long time. This means that they would have been able to have A LOT of children, and if they obeyed God’s command, they should have been being fruitful and multiplying. Genesis 5 is only showing the line of leading patriarchs, and is not meant to imply that each man only had one son in the line of Seth. In fact, 5:4 says of Adam, “The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.” Genesis 1 – 4 seems unclear often when it comes to when things happened. How old were Cain and Abel when they fought? How much time from when Cain left to when he “knew his wife” and then built a city? The reality is that it could have been hundreds of years between these events. Seth could have also children in that time, and perhaps even Abel had children, although that seems unlikely based on the genealogies.

The most obvious answer then is that Cain either married one of his sisters or nieces. We just don’t like that answer for two reasons: 1) the book of Leviticus seems to prohibit having sexual relations with close relatives like a sister or mother; and 2) we have our own cultural taboo against what we call incest. Leviticus 18:6 and following prohibits Israelites from these kind of relations, although the Old Testament is full of Israelites marrying people they are related to (cousins), as ancient tribes often married within their own clan. The cultural taboo also comes from genetic defects that often happen when close relatives have children (see European monarchies for numerous examples). Without the genetic defects would we still have these cultural taboos? Before the fall, genetic defects didn’t exist and it seems they were slowly increased with time after that fall. That is why people lived so long, and God eventually lowers that ability in Genesis 6 (how He does that is unclear).

So, Bible Urban Legend #3 seems to be most likely TRUE. Shocker, I know, but the evidence points to Cain marrying a close relative, although how close, we aren’t sure. I believe the Leviticus laws against incest are right, and we are wise to see effects of genetic issues with close relative child bearing. If it makes you feel better that God created other people for Cain to marry, then go ahead and do that. It won’t make you a heretic, and probably shouldn’t make or break your faith. The truth is that we live in a fallen world that is full of evil and sin. Who knows how many things that we see as “normal” were not always that way? At least in heaven, Jesus says we will be like the angels (seemingly implying we won’t be having kids anymore or possibly even “married” in the earthly sense), so we can bury this question in the afterlife.

Coming up next, Bible Urban Legend #2 the Nephilim were a race of half angel, half human giants. Bring it on!

There are dinosaurs in the Bible

Posted: March 17, 2012 in Top Bible Nerd Questions, Topical Studies

Bible Urban Legend #4: there are dinosaurs in the Bible. I have to confess that this is one Bible nerd question that I love. Mainly, because I grew up fascinated by dinosaurs. Every Sunday after church, we would go to my grandmothers to eat lunch. I rushed through my meal, because I knew that the Godzilla movie would start right at 1 p.m. My most repeated nightmare as a kid was being chased by a dinosaur. I have seen Jurassic Park waaaaayyy too many times, as we used it for a demo dvd when I worked at a television store (Circuit City if you must know, which will not go down as a highlight experience of my life…). Some actually ask this question from a serious standpoint, as they are trying to think through how their faith and Christianity go together with science. Science has proven that dinosaurs existed, and it would seem if Genesis starts with creation, then dinosaurs should be in the Bible somewhere, right?

The classic Scripture claimed to be talking about dinosaurs is Job 40:15-24. Job is full of poetry and imagery, and the context of this chapter is that God finally answers Job’s complaints about his suffering. God’s answer really isn’t the answer Job is wanting, but God challenges Job’s ability and right to question God’s plan and will. He does so by asking Job where he was when God created the world, including a creature called in verse 15 “Behemoth”. Most translations will confess that Hebrews scholars are unsure of what this large animal actually was. The description of being a “grass eater” with a strength and a “stiff tail” could fit some of the dinosaurs scientists have discovered, but it could also fit an elephant or a hippopotamus. In verse 19, it says it was “the first of God’s works” leading some to see a dinosaur, but again, the evidence is not conclusive.

There are two other Old Testaments creatures said to be dinosaurs. One is often translated as “dragon” or “serpent”, and the other is the “leviathan”. In Job 41:1, the “leviathan” is described as a strong creature, but could easily be talking about a number of different animals, including the crocodile. The Isaiah 27:1 reference puts them together as “In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” Using synonymous paralellism of Hebrew poetry, it would seem that these three creatures are one in the same. But does this verse show a dinosaur? We need to remember that the Bible’s poetry uses common symbols and pictures from the original reader’s day and age. Ancient mythology used several creatures to symbolize evil, such as dragons, “leviathan”, and a creature called “Rahab” in Isaiah 30:7, Job 26:12, and Psalm 89:10 . The sea was a symbol of chaos and evil because of the unknowns associated with it. When God destroys these creatures, He is destroying evil, not a T-Rex.

If we start saying that dragons and leviathans are actually dinosaurs, and not mythic creatures, where do we stop? How about gryphons? Some would say that these mythic creatures were based on dinosaurs, and while that may be true, it still wouldn’t be evidence of dinosaurs in the Bible. We are challenged with bringing our faith together with science, but we can’t allow that process to try to force dinosaurs into the Bible! Were there dinosaurs on the ark? were dinosaurs nice to Adam and Eve before the fall, and then they had to hide from them afterward? Good questions, but remember that the Bible is NOT a book of science. That doesn’t mean that the Bible doesn’t contain scientific truth, but it is NOT the main goal of the Bible. The Bible’s main goal is to help us to know God, understand His plan of redemption through Jesus, and how to make this world a better place until Jesus returns.

There are some great resources out there like “The Genesis Question” by Hugh Ross, or if you happen to be in Ohio, there is a well done Creation Museum you can visit with dinosaur exhibits and information. Theories range from dinosaurs on the ark to dinosaurs living and dying out before man is even created. The reality we face is that in science, there is insufficient evidence to fully know when the dinosaurs lived and why they became extinct. We may not have dinosaurs in the Bible, but we do know that God created EVERYTHING (Genesis 1 -2), and it was all “good” and that would include dinosaurs. God must have felt that was enough information for us to lead godly lives today, so we have to trust that. Bible Urban Legend #4- weak on evidence, so we must put in the “interesting only” category. Coming up next, Bible Urban Legend #3- Cain married his sister (yuck!). It keeps getting better.

I know you don’t have a “P.S.” in a blog, but that is where this comment belongs. My own personal theory about dinosaurs is that they were in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. In fact, I think Satan possessed one of them to talk to man, and that the “serpent” of Genesis 3 was some type of dinosaur. When God judged the “serpent” in Genesis 3, He made the serpent go on it’s belly in the dust from then on, implying that it walked upright before this time. So, because Satan used a dinosaur, the whole species was changed by the curse into reptiles that we know today as snakes, crocodiles, etc… That is also why the term “dragon” is equated with Satan and the “serpent” in Revelation 12 and 20. You are wondering right now, “is Sean serious about this whole theory???” Another good question.

Bible Urban Legends

Posted: March 16, 2012 in Top Bible Nerd Questions

That brief commercial break was brought to you by “Studying Chinese”. That’s right “Studying Chinese”, if you think you are pretty smart, just study Chinese, and find out just how not smart you really are. Now, back to our show, that is the Bible, where we are starting a new series of posts called “Bible Urban Legends”. I kind of waffled on the name of this series, as my other favorite title was, “Top 5 Bible nerd questions”. Yes, these are the questions that students would ask me every year of my Bible school. Not the deep Trinity or salvation questions, but those kind of questions that made you want to say, “You know, there really are dumb questions” and blow off all that teacher training you had. All my past Bible nerd students, and you know who you are, these posts are for you, although they may not be nearly as fun now that you aren’t trying to distract the whole class.

Bible Urban Legend #5 is……….After Jesus died on the cross, He went down to Hell and proclaimed His victory, stopped by Abraham’s bosom for the faithful, and then after delivering the faithful to heaven, was resurrected back into His body. Most questions that I got from students about this really weren’t questions. They were statements of enlightenment which they hoped would awe the class and myself with their Bible knowledge. Occasionally, it was phrased as, “I heard that…..” So, the question remains, is this Bible Urban Legend really true, and if so, where can we find it in Scripture?

People will point to 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 and Ephesians 4:7-10 as evidence of Jesus’ trip to Hell. Let’s look at the 1 Peter passage first, and see if that is the context of Peter’s teaching. In chapter 3, Peter is talking to a persecuted church, trying to encourage them that it is worthy to suffer for doing the right thing. His ultimate example is Jesus, who ” also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” He follows this up with 4:6, “For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”

When I bold it like this, and don’t give context, it would seem to back up our urban legend. However, these are difficult passages and we must use the clear Scriptures to interpret the unclear. No matter what we say these passages mean, they shouldn’t contradict what is clearly stated in Hebrews 9:27, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” There are no second chances in Hell. Another way to read the 1 Peter passage, is that it isn’t talking about Jesus going to Hell and preaching to those who died during Noah’s time, but it is talking about how the Spirit of Christ was preaching THROUGH Noah to those who didn’t obey, and so are now “spirits in prison”. The 4:6 passage then refers to either this, or Peter is talking about the “spiritually dead” instead of “physically dead”. The point would be that just like in Noah’s day, there is still persecution for those who do right, but those that persecute you will end up just like those who rebelled in Noah’s day, “spirits in prison”. Note that it never gives us WHEN this occurred other than the “days of Noah” and never says hell but “prison”.

In Ephesians 4, Paul quotes from Psalm 68:18 to talk about how Jesus has given gifts to the church. In this context, he says in Ephesians 4:9, “In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?” This passage is even more unclear than the one in 1 Peter. It isn’t talking about when Jesus died, but instead the focus is on gifts. What would Jesus going to Hell have to do with giving gifts to the church? In the Asian cosmology (how they described the world around them), the earth was the lowest part of existence, and there were many levels or layers going up into the “heavens”. Many scholars believe that “lower parts of the earth” refer to where we live on earth, and has nothing to do with Hell. In Paul’s day, Asians were stupified by the fact that Jesus was God and would come down from heaven to where man was on earth. This passage affirms that not only did Jesus come to “lowly” earth, but brought gifts as well.

Notice that parts of “legend” aren’t even in these verses, like the part about taking the good people to heaven that were waiting around. You have to take other passages and then try to “piece the story together” if you are going to try to get all of this. (Don’t even get me started on the Abraham’s bosom thing!). So, while I can see how this “Bible Urban Legend” got started, the evidence is not very strong, and is based on some difficult passages to interpret. What did Jesus do for those three days in the grave? I want to know as much as the next guy. Did Jesus kick death in the teeth and shut down the power of Hell? Of course He did! But, no one got a second chance, and I can think of a lot better ways for Jesus to have spent that time other than going to Hell. Hey, you just died on the cross, defeated sin, and now you get to go to Hell…. hmmm…… Coming up next, Bible Urban Legend #4 “There are dinosaurs in the Bible.” Sweet.

I did the right thing and I am still suffering???

Posted: March 12, 2012 in Topical Studies, Why Christians suffer

Ok, ok, so I thought the book series that my wife bought was a little cheesy. It is called “Heroes for Young Readers” and it puts famous missionaries and Christian heroes of the faith lives into poems for kids. How can you reduce an amazing person’s life into something that always rhymes in four lines? But I had to repent, because my little kids love these books and actually know who Jim Elliot is now. There is a stack of them in our bathroom, and now I sneak a peek at them, and have learned quite a bit myself (the shame that I am learning church history in kids’ books…). How do I explain to my seven year old why Jim Elliot died? He was only 28 years old and was trying to reach out to and help a tribal people in Ecuador. He died so young because he did exactly the right thing.

Our brain just has such a hard time computing the fact that we can suffer because we are doing the RIGHT thing in this world. It just seems wrong and not fair, that we can suffer for the very reason that we are being obedient to God and trying to be a blessing to make this world a better place. The Bible, however, makes it clear that sometimes when we are suffering, this is exactly the case.

1 Peter is one of the best books to look at this teaching. Peter is trying to comfort and encourage the New Testament church, which has been undergoing persecution since its beginning. He can’t give them the false hope that everything will get better eventually, and the fact is that it is about to get much worse. A few short years after he writes this letter, Nero goes completely crazy (rather than just mostly crazy), and begins a massive persecution of Christians. Peter can give them the big picture and share a few pieces of wisdom. First, Peter says in 3:17, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” Lots of people in the world are suffering for doing evil; criminals are in jail, sexually immoral people have STDs, and manipulative, greedy people are lonely and depressed. These people are not only suffering now for what they have done, they have no eternal reward to look forward to if they are not believers. Peter reminds them that they could be suffering for no eternal purpose at all.

The second thing Peter reminds them of is in 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God”. The reason Peter is confident that they will suffer for doing right, is that their very Lord, Jesus Christ, suffered for doing the right thing. Jesus saw the eternal goal of bringing us back to God as worth the suffering on the cross. Do we see our suffering as worth it? We have to remember we suffer for an eternal prize, taking as many people to heaven with us. Stoics simply endure suffering, while ascetics welcome it. Christians are neither. We only suffer because God loved us, and we in turn love others so much that we are willing to give our lives for them.

Third, Peter says we should expect to suffer for doing right in 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ” Sometimes, we act so surprised when Satan attacks us, and cry out to God in disbelief that He allowed that to happen. Peter knew it was coming, and so he was spiritually and mentally prepared for battle. Paul tried to prepare Timothy in the same way in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” I don’t see any maybes there.

Finally, Peter gives them the ultimate hope in 5:10, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” This suffering will not last forever! Peter considered this life “a little while” in comparison to living in eternity with God in peace and blessing. Jim Elliot is with Jesus in heaven, and he will never suffer again. This whole series on suffering has been difficult to write, and I have noticed that it has been one of my least “popular” series of posts. I know we don’t enjoy reading about suffering. Some people think if they are reading about suffering, it means that God is about to lead them into a time of suffering and is preparing them. I just know it is part of life, and of course, we would all rather skip it. Some suffer more than others, but if we are to be ministers of hope into this world, we have to know how to comfort those in pain. Jesus was the great physician who didn’t avoid people who were suffering, He was drawn right to them.

Only ourselves to blame

Posted: March 10, 2012 in Topical Studies, Why Christians suffer

When I was college, I used to work with our local electric company in the summers. I lived in Kentucky then, and we would drive out to these remote spots in the countryside to do jobs. One area we worked in would always take us right by this sign by the highway. I knew the sign well, as when my family would drive to Cincinnati, my sisters and I would talk about the story behind the sign. It was there in 1988, that a man was driving drunk and crashed into a school bus full of teenagers on a church youth group trip. Many of the children died in the crash, and it was a horrible tragedy. How could God allow this to happen? How is this fair and right that these children died due to the actions of just one man?

The Bible is full of stories where the actions and sins of just one man (or woman, we want to be equal opportunity here) completely affect and cause suffering for many. In Kings and Chronicles, this is obvious in the lives of the kings and rulers like Ahab, Jezebel, Ahaz, Manasseh, and David. We have already established that God doesn’t punish or judge people for the sins of others (Ezekiel 18). However, God does allow the consequences of other people’s sins to affect both Christians and non Christians. He is not “teaching us something” or “disciplining us” and it isn’t Satan directly doing something to us. It is simply a world in which God allows man freedom of choice.

In Romans 1:18-22 Paul states that man has rejected God for idols, thereby bringing God’s wrath down upon himself. What does this wrath really look like here? It is not lightning bolts or enemy armies that we see in other judgment passages. In 1:24-25, Paul gives God’s judgment, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” God’s judgment was to let us do exactly what we wanted to do. The chapter continues with lists of worse and worse sins. Look what we do to each other, “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.”

So, to take away horrible bus crashes and many of the horrible atrocities that happen, God would have to take away free will. We want to blame God, but we need to blame ourselves. Of course in the case of the bus crash, the real issue isn’t whether the drunk driver is to blame, it is how God could allow this? how is this fair? The hard answers are that God isn’t fair and there are no satisfying answers as to why God didn’t stop this tragedy from happening. In Romans 9:16, Paul understands the question of God’s fairness, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” God is just and merciful, not fair.

God created the world in His image and it was all “very good”. Man didn’t like that world, wanted to be his own god, and so we have remade the world into our image. That world is full of gang violence, wars, genocides, and death. We can’t blame God for this suffering, as He “gave us up” to do what we wanted to do. We want to think only of ourselves and drive drunk, regardless of the consequences it might inflict on others. It scares me to death thinking about the times I drove drunk in college and what horrible things I could have done. God will end this suffering when sinful nature is taken away at the end of time. Until then, we again should be there for people when things like this happen, without having to tell the person who to blame. Until then, I will think of that sign beside the road and think carefully about how my actions can bring suffering to others.

Do you fear the Lord?

Posted: March 9, 2012 in Topical Studies, Why Christians suffer

Who really likes to talk about discipline? Some trials and suffering in my life God? Yes, please. You won’t go into Borders or your bookstore and find that a book on God’s discipline has crossed over and finally moved the Left Behind display to the back of the store. The Shack won’t be followed up another best seller called The Woodshed (where God takes you when He isn’t baking you scones or hanging out on the lake with you). No one likes to be disciplined, unless you are an ascetic monk in a Dan Brown movie. Yet, somewhere deep down inside us, we realize that this world would be complete chaos if not for the discipline of parents and our governments. Those of us who are parents understand that our kids aren’t just naturally “good” all the time (understatement of the year?). Recently I was pulled over here in Taiwan for turning out of the wrong lane (I used the dumb foreigner excuse, and it worked this time). Of course, I would rather have not been disciplined, but I also am constantly complaining that the police don’t do more with crazy moto drivers that are driving down the wrong side of the road.

We can’t talk about why Christians suffer without talking about the discipline of God. In my experience, the top two reasons Christians think they are suffering are spiritual warfare or discipline of God. I guess which they choose of these two often has to do with how guilty they are feeling, whether they have an angry God concept or not, or whether they think that there is a demon under every rock. Hebrews 12 is one of the best teachings in the New Testament on discipline. The author of Hebrews (insert your favorite theory here) says in 12:7-8, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” The recipients of this letter were going through suffering, and God had shown the author that it was discipline. He gives the always encouraging thought, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Maybe don’t use this line in your next counseling session.

I believe most people think that God’s temporal discipline was only in the old covenant (Old Testament). We read accounts in Joel of locust attacks and say, “Whew, am I glad that I don’t live in Old Testament Israel!” Yes, it is true that we are not bound by the blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26. However, the New Testament has narrative and epistle examples of discipline in the church. I already mentioned Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. This is a drastic example, but it had a profound effect, “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” An example I don’t always hear much about is in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. The Corinthian church is taking communion in an unholy fashion, and as the judgment of God, Paul says, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” Wow! I bet we will all think twice now before taking the tasteless wafer and little plastic cup of juice!

The bottom line is that the fear of the Lord in our lives is a GOOD thing. Jews of the Old Testament understood this, and Solomon lays it down in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”. Only dumb people don’t fear God, and personally I would rather avoid both discipline and stupidity in my life. Unfortunately, I hang on to old sins, develop new ones, and eventually need God’s discipline. I have had times when bad things happen in my life, I pray and ask God what is going on, and He tells He is allowing the suffering to discipline me for some sin I need to get rid of. That discipline has taken different forms from illness to busted water lines, and God always tells me because He wants me to change. He knows that the sin is causing harm in my life and in the lives of those around me.

I want to say again that each time we face suffering, we have to go to God and ask Him what is going on. It is not always discipline, just like it is not always from a fallen world. There can be no set answers from us to other people like “there must be sin in the camp” (one of my least favorites for sure, partly because it is a heavy use of Christian jargon that makes us sound like we live on a compound and call our pastor the Prophet). I would rather embrace the fear of the Lord rather than become a grace abuser who is always blaming other people (or God) for bad things. Who’s your Daddy?

A Fallen World

Posted: March 8, 2012 in Topical Studies, Why Christians suffer

Most of the time, I don’t think too seriously about Adam and Eve. I mean, all the funny pictures of them covered in leaves, eating the apple, does not beg for a serious tone. Especially when you add a talking snake to the picture, you have the makings of a fun Disney movie (now that they have cool computer animation the snake wouldn’t look too cheesy). I worry however, that I can end up treating the whole story like a myth, which would land me squarely in the boisterous, liberal crowd who also doubts half the Bible is true. Ummm, not where I want to be. In today’s post, we will focus on the disasterous consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin and how it impacts our topic of why Christians suffer.

After confronting Adam and Eve, God spells out clearly the judgments (usually called “curses” when relating to the fall of man) that man so richly deserves for his rebellion against God. The judgments in Genesis 3:14-24 are: 1) humbling of Satan (14); 2) enmity between man and Satan (15); 3) pain in childbearing (16); 4) broken husband/wife relationships (16); 5) curse of thorns and toil in work (17-18); 6) physical death (19); and finally 7) being kicked out of the garden (22-24). This means that for all of us after Adam, we are born into a world with spiritual warfare and demons, pain and childbearing complications, marital strife, nature working against us, death, and a broken relationship with God.

We don’t get to choose to avoid these things, and they are a result of both Adam’s sin and our sin from Adam (Romans 5). As such, they are from specific sins we all do, however in a sense, they are from sin in general (cumulative effect). Let me give you examples. When my father has to work extremely hard as a farmer to battle weeds, drought, or blight, it is mainly due to the fact that he was born into a fallen world. Of course, there are Biblical examples of God using drought or blight as a specific judgment, but most of the time, weeds are just weeds. They afflict everyone, and have become “normal”. Everyone dies. Yes, we die because sin is in the world (Romans 6:23), but it is not a “specific” judgment like Ananias and Saphira dropping dead on the spot (Acts 5). We think of death as “normal”, but we Christians must remember that death is not normal at all. Adam and Eve had eternal life until they sinned.

All of creation was tainted by the fall and sin. Paul describes this in Romans 8:19-20, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it”. I like the translations that say, “creation groans” in verse 19, because it gives us the full emotion of the situation of how the fall affected our world. Tsunamis, earthquakes, cancer, birth defects, and death in all it’s forms are all part of the “futility” that Paul is speaking of. So, when Christians suffer from earthquakes or famines, it is not necessarily the case that God is “disciplining” them or that it is “spiritual warfare”. Most of the time, it is simply that we as Christians are not immune to the effects of the fall. We too are plagued by the curse on this world.

As I searched for answers about our baby dying, I eventually felt that the effects of the fall were what caused it to happen. Of course, I know God can stop the effects of the fall happening at any time. Elijah going straight from life to afterlife is a radical example, as is the raising of Lazarus. Much of the time however, God doesn’t reverse the effects of the fall. We can’t blame Him, because as Paul says in Romans 1 and 5, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Adam and Eve sinned, but so did we, and in doing so, our sin together with Adam’s brought the judgment of the curses. When will it all end? Paul already told us in Romans 8, “the revealing of the sons of God” and when you read on in the passage, the second coming is when the curses of the fall will be lifted. We will finally have a “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17) and be restored back to the garden relationship with God.

Sometimes, I wish God would hurry up and end this all. If Jesus returned today, the new heavens and earth would be here, and we could say goodbye to cancer, hurricanes, and death. One verse has challenged me in my feelings about this. In 2 Peter, Peter is addressing false teachers and scoffers who say that the world will never end. Here is Peter’s response in 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” The moment God ends the world is the moment all non-believers go to Hell. Is my suffering in this fallen world worth the opportunity for one more person to spend eternity in heaven?

Why do Christians suffer?

Posted: March 7, 2012 in Why Christians suffer

I can still remember almost every detail about that moment. I can see the light coming in out of the corner of the window. I can hear the tone change when the doctor is speaking to us. Exactly how Katie is sitting is fixed in my mind. It was the moment when the doctor told us that our first baby didn’t have a heartbeat. Katie was 10 weeks pregnant, and something had gone horribly wrong. That was 16 years ago, but sometimes it feels like it was yesterday. We were in Bible school when it happened, right in the middle of 1 and 2 Samuel. Now, I think about the odd timing of this happening as I was reading about David losing his first child with Bathsheba. Katie dealt with her grief with many tears and sadness. I wanted answers from God, and it pushed me to study the Bible and find an answer for why Christians suffer.

A strong motivation for that came from some things that people said to us when this occurred. I know that they meant well, and just didn’t know what to say to help comfort us. I do recall one in specific, “God must be trying to teach you something.” Clearly, this made things worse rather than better. Did God take our baby away because we needed to learn something? really??? If you read the works of several open theists, you will often find some tragedy like this in their lives that drove them to their theology (that God isn’t in control and doesn’t know the future). I can understand how that can happen, as another response you can get from Christians is, “I know God has a plan, He must have wanted that child with Him”. I don’t think that made me feel any better either. God is in control, we prayed, and the baby still died? Isn’t God good and loving? What is the point of praying?

The end of this story (not that it is really ended yet) is that we eventually had four children of our own, and I found some answers in the Bible. For the next few posts, I will share what things I found, but we have to establish something first. There is no formula. We want a formula, or set answer, that explains in every situation and with every person, why something bad happened to us or those we love. There is none. The Bible shares with us reasons for suffering, but doesn’t give us a way to just apply some principles or guidelines and know which reason explains each incident. Nothing can replace our personal relationship with God. In each trial, we must humbly pray and ask God for explanations and understanding in our specific lives. That answer may not always be thorough or comforting, and none of it will remove our need for faith in the goodness and love of God.

The main reasons for suffering that I found were: 1) the fall of man- our world is under a curse due to sin, and that curse brings suffering on this world. We don’t get to choose whether or not we want to be born into a world with tornadoes, cancer, or death. 2) spiritual warfare- we will suffer in this world because we are doing the RIGHT thing. Jesus made it clear in the Gospel of John 15:20, “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” 3) discipline- for Christians, we have a loving Father who desires to see us transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Just like we discipline our own children to help them mature and be safe, so our heavenly Father disciplines us to help us remove sin from our lives. 4) consequences of others’ actions- we suffer in this world because it is full of sinful people. We are not punished for the sins of others, but we unfortunately are harmed by their selfish choices. In the next four posts, I will deal with each of these separately, and show Scriptures that explain them.

I want to start with the end in mind, and that means offering some advice when you are trying to comfort someone who is suffering. Be quiet (I originally wrote “shut up” but could hear my wife’s voice in my head telling me “shut up” is too harsh. Funny how wives help us not be jerks). Just be there for them, listen to them, pray with them, and don’t try defend God or give some fancy theological answer. Of course, the time will come when their immediate grief subsides, and they begin their own search through the Bible for answers. Then we can humbly point them towards passages without attempting to give them “the one answer” why something bad happened to them. Only God can do that, and He does it in His timing and in His way. Until then, we can make dinners, pick up their kids at school, buy them a worship CD, and just be there for them. It is what we will and do want when something like that happens with us. God is always with us.

What Satan wants you to believe

Posted: March 6, 2012 in Spiritual Warfare, Topical Studies

My son decided last night to ask me a Bible question. I was so stoked that he cared about the Bible and had a question for me, that I couldn’t wait to hear what that question would be. So, he turns to me and says, “Wasn’t Satan the music minister in heaven?” I was expecting either the humorous, “Do pets go to heaven?” or perhaps the more serious, “Can we trust the Bible Dad?” Instead, I got one of the all time urban legends of Christianity. This falls somewhere in between the Nephilim and UFO’s in the Bible.

The bottom line is that the Bible simply doesn’t say much about Satan before his fall. In fact, the Old Testament has almost nothing to say about him at all. That is where the true rub is. We want to know. We must know. In that curiosity, we must be careful, however, not to read to much into certain Scriptures. After studying the Bible at school for 9 months, I still could not figure out where the music minister thing came from. Then, I was preparing to teach the book of Ezekiel, and stumbled upon a commentator who said that some people have said that chapter 28:11-19 is speaking about Satan. I was puzzled by this, because in 28:11 Ezekiel tells us who this passage is about, “Son of man, raise a lamentation overthe king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God”. It seemed clear to me, so why Satan, and still where is the music deal?

As you read the passage, God uses figurative language to describe the position of power God gave the king, the king’s pride, and then his eventual fall. In verse 13, he says of the king, “You were in Eden, in the garden of God.” Ah ha, here is the first thing people point to as proof it is talking about Satan. The king of Tyre wasn’t in Eden, but Satan was! The second piece of evidence they give is in verse 14, “You were a guardian cherub, I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;” Ok, we know for sure that the king of Tyre wasn’t a cherub, and definitely wasn’t on the mountain of God.

The problem with these interpretations is that they completely ignore the type of literature that we are dealing with. Ezekiel is prophetic literature, which heavily utilizes Hebrew poetry, imagery, figurative language, and allusions to get their meaning across. In chapter 31:8-9, Ezekiel tells us that Assyria was a tree in the garden of God. I am pretty sure this is figurative since the nation of Assyria was not a tree. In 29:3, he calls the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, a “great dragon”. Describing the king of Tyre as a cherub is figurative language to help the reader see that God gave the king a privileged position of power just like a cherub. The garden of Eden language also points to the blessing God gave the king in Tyre and his kingship. However, the pride of the king will bring his downfall as verse 17 says “I exposed you before kings”.

Still waiting for the music deal? In verse 13, Ezekiel describes the ornate dress and opulent jewels adorning the king. In the list is “in gold were your settings and your engravings.” Most translations put a footnote by “engravings” and say that the meaning of the Hebrew word is unclear. When they translated the King James, they gave it their best guess as “tabrets and pipes”, thinking that musical instruments were being described. The truth is that scholars really don’t know what these Hebrew words are. So there you are. In a passage that doesn’t seem to be talking about Satan at all, using Hebrew words that even scholars admit have unknown meaning, we have the whole teaching about Satan being music minister in heaven.

Normally, I try to stay inductive and give options of interpretation. You have to think for yourself. But with this urban legend about Satan, I can only offer one humble conclusion: lame. The truth is that the Old Testament only mentions Satan in Genesis 3, Job 1 – 3, 1 Chronicles 21, and Zechariah 3. That’s all, and none of them mention his origin or describe his fall in any detail. They just tell us that he is a liar, deceiver, accuser, and all around bad angel who tries to bring man down with him. That simply is not enough detail for us, so we choose to listen to urban legends rather than study the Bible for ourselves. The whole time, Satan is laughing himself silly. Would he rather be just a rebellious angel who can only do what God allows him to, has to take the form of lowly snakes, and gets rebuked by God OR would he rather be a beautiful cherub, the music minister of heaven, ascending to the throne of God, and basically an equal with God?

I end this post with the picture in Revelation 12. God doesn’t even come and fight Satan himself. Satan is already defeated by Jesus at the cross, and God simply sends Michael and a few angels to toss him out on his rear. Clean up on aisle 7!