Latest / Reformed Thinking / Christ at the Center: Removing Western Blinders from God's Will

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Christ at the Center: Removing Western Blinders from God's Will · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, usually when we talk
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about reading a book, there is this expectation of basic
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reading comprehension. Right, like a baseline of just
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understanding what is on the page.
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Yeah, I mean, think about reading an instruction manual.
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You buy a new lawnmower, the manual tells you where the spark
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plug goes, and you just follow the steps.
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It is pretty binary. Either install the thing right
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or you install it wrong. Totally.
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It is clean and it is comforting.
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We really like things to be clear cut and categorized.
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But then you step into the world of modern biblical
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interpretation, and suddenly that instruction manual is
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treated like some kind of Rorschach test.
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Oh, that is a great way to put it.
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It really is. We are looking at a landscape of
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biblical reading that is honestly just completely muddy.
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So today we are taking a deep dive into a fascinating stack of
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theological research, some sociological data, and
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historical notes that expose a massive blind spot in Western
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culture. And it is a blind spot most
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people do not even know they have.
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Right. Our mission for this deep dive
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into these sources is to figure out why reading the Bible like a
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personalized self help manual might actually be ruining it for
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you. Ruining the text and honestly
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stunting your own faith. Yeah, we are going to dismantle
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the cultural blinders of Western individualism.
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These are the blinders that 'cause you and me to
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instinctively place ourselves at the absolute center of the
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biblical text. Which is a huge problem.
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It is so. We will investigate 3 specific
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test cases from the scripture to prove this.
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We are looking at Jeremiah chapter 29, Romans chapter 8 and
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Matthew chapter 24. Those are probably some of the
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most misunderstood chapters in the entire Canon.
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Without a doubt, we want to demonstrate how reading these
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sacred texts as a personalized script for self fulfillment just
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completely distorts the original meaning.
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And that is the core premise we need to establish right from the
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jump. The original texts were not
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written to validate personal self esteem.
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They were not because the Christian bookstore industry
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might disagree with you there. Well, they would, but the text
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would not. They were not given to humanity
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to upgrade our temporal living standards or to guarantee a pain
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free life. Rather, the Scriptures were
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breathed out to reveal the sovereign redemptive workings of
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a holy God. So it is about God, not us.
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Precisely when you force the Bible to be a book about your
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personal success, you miss the vast God centered reality it
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actually presents. I mean, when people open the
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Scriptures today, the natural instinct is to immediately ask,
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you know, how does this make me feel?
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Or what does this mean for my job promotion?
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Right, rather than asking what the author actually intended to
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communicate to the original audience.
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OK, let's untack this. We have this massive cultural
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disease of the sovereign self. Where does this start?
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Because I will be honest, I know I am guilty of this.
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We all are to some degree is the water we swim in.
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Right. I read a verse and immediately
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think about how it applies to my morning commute or my bank
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account. The sources we have point to a
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sociological concept that really nails this down.
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Yes, the sources highlight the work of sociologist Christian
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Smith. He conducted some really
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extensive research into the religious beliefs of Americans.
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What did he find? He diagnosed A prevailing
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framework in modern congregations that he calls
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moralistic therapeutic Deism. Moralistic therapeutic deism.
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Yeah, MTD for short. It is a highly specific
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framework that has just infiltrated the minds of
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countless people. Initially, his research focused
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on the youth, you know, teenagers.
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OK, so just the kids. Well, no.
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That is the thing. The data shows it really spans
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all demographics now. The teenagers grew up and their
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parents held the same views anyway.
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It has become the default religion of the American
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culture, operating quietly underneath the label of
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Christianity. Wow, let's break that down for
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the listener because it sounds academic, but it is incredibly
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practical. What are the actual mechanics of
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those 3 words? Moralistic therapeutic deism.
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We can take them 1 by 1. So moralistic means the
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overarching goal of life and the goal of religion is simply to be
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a good, nice, fair person. So just basic decency, right?
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It reduces the entirety of divine law to basic civil
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politeness. Under this view, God does not
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demand holiness or repentance. He just wants you to share your
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toys and not cheat on your taxes.
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That is a very low bar. It is a baseline morality that
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requires 0 supernatural intervention.
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So the cross of Christ becomes totally unnecessary if the goal
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is just being a polite neighbor. You do not need a savior for
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that. You just need a kindergarten
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teacher. Spot on.
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You do not need substitutionary atonement to be nice.
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OK, what about the therapeutic part?
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Therapeutic means the central goal of life is to feel good and
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attain subjective happiness. Religion becomes a mechanism for
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psychological well-being. Like a coping mechanism.
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Yeah, it is about conflict resolution, boosting yourself
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esteem, and personal flourishing.
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If a doctrine makes you feel bad or points out your sin, well, it
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is just discarded because it fails the therapeutic test.
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Because it hurts your feelings. Yes.
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The faith is no longer about objective truth, it is about
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subjective therapy. And then we get to deism.
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Right. Deism implies that God exists.
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He created the world, but he basically stays out of the way
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unless you have a problem that needs fixing.
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He is hands off. Very hands off.
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He is not actively orchestrating history.
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He's not sovereign over the details of your life.
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He's basically sitting in the heavens waiting for you to call
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him when you get a flat tire or need a medical miracle.
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So under this framework, the Almighty is falsely positioned
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as like a cosmic bellhop. A cosmic bellhop that is a great
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image. He exists to meet human needs,
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carry our baggage, and make our stay comfortable.
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Instead of humanity existing to glorify God and enjoy Him
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forever, God exists to glorify humanity and ensure we enjoy our
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current circumstances. Precisely, and the seeker
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sensitive movement, along with a broad theological pragmatism
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have taken this sociological reality and institutionalized it
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within the Church. What does that look like on a
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Sunday morning? Well, we have seen a massive
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shift in how the text is handled publicly.
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The rigorous exposition of sacred texts, where the goal is
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to systematically explain the historical, grammatical and
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theological meaning has been swapped out.
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Swapped out for what? For therapeutic talks, Ted talks
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with the Bible verse attached. These talks assume religion is
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an Ave. for self improvement. It is treated as life hacking.
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Right like you come to church to get 5 tips for a better marriage
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or three steps to financial peace.
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Yes, but the call of the Christian faith is not a call to
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self actualization. It is a call to pick up a cross,
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deny oneself, and follow Christ. It is a radical difference.
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I was thinking about this and here is an analogy that might
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make this concrete for the listener.
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Go for it. Using the Bible this way is like
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using a massive astronomical telescope as a magnifying mirror
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to look at your own pores. Oh wow.
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Yeah, you are entirely missing the universe.
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It was designed to show you. You have this instrument capable
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of revealing the blazing glory of galaxies, the sovereign
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decree of God, the salvation of the elect, the unfolding of
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redemptive history, and you flip it around just to examine your
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own minor blemishes and career goals.
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That is a tragic misuse of the equipment.
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It's an excellent way to conceptualize it.
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When you use a telescope as a mirror, the problem is not with
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the instrument, the problem is with the user's orientation.
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The lens is fine, we're just looking through the wrong end.
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Yes, the modern reader has a completely distorted
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orientation. We assume the universe revolves
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around us. And this raises a really big
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question. How did we get to this highly
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individualized reading in the first place?
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Because we were not always like this as a culture.
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Right, not at all. The ancient church did not read
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the text this way. Right, and this causes us to
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look back at history. The sources detail a massive
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historical shift and how humanity consumes literature,
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which directly feeds into this problem.
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Let's talk about the Gutenberg shift.
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Yes, Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the movable type
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printing press in the 15th century created a staggering
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hermeneutical transition. It changed how we read the
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Bible. It changed how we process
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information entirely. We often celebrate the printing
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press for democratizing information, which is true, but
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we really consider how it fundamentally altered the
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psychology of reading. Let's set the stage for the
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listener. Imagine you are living in 14th
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century Europe before Gutenberg. You are a peasant or even a
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wealthy merchant. You do not have a bookshelf at
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home. You certainly do not.
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Before the printing press, books were incredibly rare and
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exorbitantly expensive. How expensive are we talking?
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A single Bible had to be hand copied by monks on to vellum
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which is animal skin. It could take a year or more to
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produce 1 copy and it would cost the equivalent of a modern
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house. A whole house just for one book.
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Yes, the vast majority of people did not own personal copies of
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the Scriptures. Bibles were literally chained to
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the pulpits and churches to prevent theft because they were
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so valuable. So they could not just pull a
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leather bound study Bible off their shelf, grab a highlighter
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and sit in the coffee shop alone.
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That modern scenario was completely alien to the ancient
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and medieval church. Because texts were scarce, the
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reading of the word was exclusively a communal event.
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Meaning they only heard it together.
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Exactly. The believers gathered together
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on the Lord's Day, and the text was read aloud to the assembly
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by someone trained to read. The congregation received the
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word through their ears together as one body.
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I see where this is going. If you are sitting in a room
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with 200 other people hearing the text read over all of you
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simultaneously, your brain processes that information
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differently. It does because it was received
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communally. The natural question for a
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believer hearing the text was what does this mean to us?
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What is God saying to his covenant people?
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The interpretation was corporate.
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Yes, the promises were applied to the body of believers as a
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whole. The news us was baked into the
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experience of the text. It makes me think of how we
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consume media today. What I mean it is like the
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difference between everyone listening to the same Top 40
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radio station in the 1990s where we all shared the same cultural
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touchstones, versus today we're streaming algorithms isolate our
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music tastes so entirely that two people living in the same
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house experienced completely different musical universes.
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That is a very accurate parallel.
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The technology changed our relationship to the media.
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And the technology of the printing press changed our
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relationship to the scripture. Today, armed with our private
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study Bibles, readers retreat into isolation.
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The communal us shrinks down to the isolated me.
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The instinct is to ask, what does this mean to me in my
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private life, for my personal decisions today?
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We individualize everything. We do.
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We take epistles like First Corinthians, for example, and we
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read them like private Diaries. But Paul addressed that letter
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to the corporate body, to the Church of God that is in
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Corinth. It changes the entire flavor of
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the text. If I read an e-mail address to
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an entire company department and I interpret every sentence as a
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direct personal mandate for my specific desk, I am going to
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make some wild assumptions. You really would.
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I might think the CEO is talking directly to me about my stapler
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when he is actually issuing A directive for 1000 employees.
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And you will likely cause chaos in the department.
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Now extrapolate that to how we read prophetic literature.
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Oh boy, that gets dangerous. Very The prophets in the Old
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Testament were not delivering daily inspiration for a single
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reader's quiet time. They were bringing a covenantal
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lawsuit against a whole nation. Like a legal prosecution.
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Yes, they were acting as prosecuting attorneys for
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Yahweh, speaking to Israel and Judah about their collective
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rebellion against the Holy God. So when a modern reader takes a
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prophetic Oracle aimed at a rebellious nation facing
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international warfare and tries to apply it directly to their
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anxiety about a final exam or a job interview, they are
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committing a massive category error.
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It is massive error. They are taking a national
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crisis and shrinking it down to a personal inconvenience.
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They are stripping the text of its historical and literature to
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make it fit a tiny, modern, individualized mold.
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The danger is that Western individualism confuses
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application with meaning. The text means what God intended
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it to mean through the human author in its specific
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historical setting. Right meaning is fixed.
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Only after we have heard that meaning can we ask how the
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passage rightly applies to the Church today.
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If application becomes the master and authorial meaning
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becomes the servant, you are no longer submitting to Scripture.
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You are just using it as a ventriloquist dummy to validate
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what you already want to do. That is a heavy realization, but
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it is true. Well, if the Old Testament
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handles things on such a corporate level, what happens
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when we look at specific verses? If we want to see the damage of
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this Gutenberg shift in real time, there is no better test
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case than the most famous coffee mug verse in the world.
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I know exactly where you are going.
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I am talking about Jeremiah 29.11.
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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans
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for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
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You see it on graduation cards, journals, inspirational wall
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art. It is everywhere.
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If you have ever had Jeremiah 29.11 cross stitched on a
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pillow, you might want to sit down for this next part because
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the actual history behind this verse is brutally different from
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what we see on the greeting cards.
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It is almost always violently removed from its brutal
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historical reality. Let's get the picture.
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What is actually happening in the text?
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At the scene for us. The year is approximately 597
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BC. Judah is not experiencing a
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minor economic downturn. They're not feeling a little
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stressed about their career paths.
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They are facing a horrifying covenantal curse.
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The Babylonians. Yes, Jerusalem is facing
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annihilation by the Babylonian Empire under the command of King
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Nebuchadnezzar. They're not packing up for a
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pleasant study abroad program. Far from it.
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The immediate historical setting is the period after Babylon had
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already carried away King Jeconiah, the officials and the
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Craftsman in a previous deportation.
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So the city is already depleted. Yes, and the ones left behind
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and the ones already taken are in a state of absolute terror
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and confusion. Imagine the scene of the final
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exile that is looming. We know from the historical
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books what happens to King Zedekiah, who rebelled against
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Babylon. It is not a good ending for him.
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It is horrific. He is captured trying to flee
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the city. The Babylonians slaughter his
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sons right in front of him. That is the very last thing he
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ever sees, because they immediately gouge his eyes out
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and they bind him in bronze shackles and drag him to
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Babylon. Yeah, it is visceral, bloody and
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traumatic. It smells like burning buildings
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in death. It is the furnace of covenant
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judgment. Israelite youths are marched
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across unforgiving sands into a Pagan wasteland.
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They are subjected to the elements, starvation and the
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whips of their captors. They are losing everything.
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We are uprooted from the land promised to Abraham.
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They're removed from the Temple city, the very place where God's
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presence dwelled. The Davidic throne appears
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completely humiliated and destroyed.
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So this was no romantic pilgrimage.
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No, this was a death March into captivity because they had
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broken their covenant with Yahweh through centuries of
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idolatry, child sacrifice, and injustice.
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OK, so that is the setting. It is an absolute nightmare.
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And into this bleeding, traumatized, exiled community,
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the prophet Jeremiah sends a letter from Jerusalem.
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Yes, he sends a letter to the Exiles.
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And this is where the grammar gets fascinating, because when I
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read this in English, I project myself onto it.
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Naturally, but the Hebrew syntax here shatters the individualized
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reading. When an English speaker reads I
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know the plans I have for you, they instinctively internalize
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that you as a singular pronoun. Right, like God is whispering to
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one specific High School graduate about their college
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major or their future spouse. I read it as I know the plans I
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have for you, Brandon. But the Hebrew text does not
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allow for that. The word you and the phrase
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plans I have for you is definitively plural.
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Plural. Yes, the prepositional phrase
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lachem and the accusative suffix atchem.
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They're addressing the collective body of Judah.
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The promise is made to the remnant of Israel as a whole
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entity, as a corporate people. So if we translate it into
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southern English, it is y'all. I know the plans I have for
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y'all. That is technically a much
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better translation. God is guaranteeing the
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preservation of the covenant community.
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He's ensuring that the messianic line, the line of David that
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will eventually lead to Jesus Christ, will not be extinguished
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in the Babylonian captivity. So the nation will survive.
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The promise is that Judah will survive as a distinct people and
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eventually return of the land. It is not a guarantee that any
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single Israelite would escape slavery, or that any single
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individual would even live to see the end of the exile.
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Wait, really? Yes.
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In fact, history tells us that many of the people hearing that
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letter died in Babylon. They died in slavery.
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Here is where it gets really interesting to me.
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If God is actively judging them and many of them are going to
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die in this Pagan wasteland, why does he use the word like
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welfare for their future? Because verse 11 says plans for
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welfare and the sources note that the underlying Hebrew word
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is Shalom. Right, Shalom.
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How can you have Shalom while dying in exile?
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That's a crucial question and it requires us to understand how
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the Hebrews use that word. Shalom is a massive concept in
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Hebrew. It means peace, wholeness,
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ordered life, well-being. But we have to look at the
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contrast in the text. What is the contrast?
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Shalom is set in direct opposition to the word RA, which
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means evil, disaster or calamity.
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God is saying my ultimate plan for this covenant people is not
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final annihilation raw, but preservation and eventual
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restoration. Shalom.
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So it is a promise of corporate preservation, not immediate
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individual wealth, health or ease.
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Yes, the plans are God's holy purposes to preserve a remnant,
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judge their sin, purify them through suffering, and
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eventually bring His people home.
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It declares that the Lord reigns even over the exile.
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He is not reacting helplessly to Babylonian armies.
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He actually orchestrated the Babylonian armies.
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He is executing his word. Exactly.
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And we had to recognize how desperate the people must have
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been to hear anything positive when you were in the middle of
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such devastation. The natural human reaction is to
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look for a quick fix. You want someone to tell you
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that the pain is going to stop tomorrow?
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You want a shortcut out of the suffering.
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This made the Exiles highly vulnerable to deception.
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Right, because into this vacuum of despair, steps of false
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prophet people who give the people exactly what they're
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itching ears want to hear. Let's talk about Hananiah.
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Yes, Hananiah, Jeremiah 28. Just before the famous letter of
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chapter 29 is sent, we see Hananiah and other false
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prophets among the Exiles peddling an easy, immediate
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deliverance. What?
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Were they saying? They were standing up in the
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camps and predicting that Babylon's yoke would be broken
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quickly. They said within two years God
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is going to crush Nebuchadnezzar and we are all going home.
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Just two years. They promised a short exile and
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an imminent return. It is the ancient version of
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your best life is just around the corner or God is going to
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turn your scent back into a comeback by Friday.
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And it was incredibly attractive.
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Think about how the Exiles would react to that message.
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False hope is intoxicating because it uses religious
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language to protect the heart from repentance.
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Wow, it bypasses repentance. A false prophets essentially
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told the Exiles, do not settle down, do not submit to this
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discipline. God's going to rescue you right
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now. It sounds patriotic, It sounds
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spiritual. It sounds like they have great
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faith. But it was a lie.
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It was a massive lie. It made suffering seem brief and
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repentance completely unnecessary.
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It coddled their rebellion. And Jeremiah's response speaking
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for God is shocking. He writes this letter to the
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Exiles and tells them to do the exact opposite of what the false
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prophets are saying. He tells them to dig in.
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Look at verses one through 7 of Jeremiah 29.
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God commands the Exiles to build houses, live in them, plant
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gardens, eat their produce, take wives, have sons and daughters,
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multiply and do not decrease. He is telling them to unpack
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their bags, go to the local Babylonian hardware store and
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buy lumber because you are not leaving anytime soon.
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He is telling them to accept a multi generational timeline of
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suffering. They must submit to divine
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discipline. God sent them there for a reason
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and they need to accept the rod of correction.
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And then comes the most jarring command of all.
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Yes, in verse 7, seek the welfare of the city where I have
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sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in
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its welfare you will find your welfare.
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I need to stop you there because that is staggering.
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They have to pray for Babylon, the very empire that slaughtered
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their families, burned their homes, and destroyed the temple
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of Yahweh. They are commanded to seek the
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Shalom of Babylon. This proves that God's plan
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required long term submission. They are not to assimilate into
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paganism, but they are not allowed to indulge in restless
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rebellion or bitter resentment either.
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They have to live quietly and faithfully in the middle of
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their punishment. They must live faithfully within
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the place of chastening. The timeline is explicitly set
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at 70 years. That means a 20 year old hearing
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this prophecy will be 90 when it concludes.
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Assuming they even live that long.
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Right. The vast majority of the people
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hearing this letter will die in Babylon.
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If we extrapolate this to today, we see the extreme danger of
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modern evangelical mysticism. We have people acting just like
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Hananiah and they have massive platforms.
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We really do. We see a landscape where
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subjective impressions, alleged personal revelations, and
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prosperity preaching override the written text of Scripture.
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People want the relief, but they do not want the submission.
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People want relief from painful Providence without requiring
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submission to God's discipline. If a modern preacher stands up
21:58
and says God told me this disease is leaving your body
22:01
tomorrow and your financial breakthrough is coming next
22:04
week, they are offering the intoxicating false hope of
22:07
Hananiah. They're telling people what they
22:09
want to hear, using God's name to endorse it.
22:11
Because it demands no submission, it just feeds the
22:14
ego's desire for immediate relief.
22:16
It avoids the hard work of asking What is God teaching me
22:20
in this suffering? God's plan required long term
22:22
suffering for a greater corporate good.
22:24
Yes, the preservation of the Messianic line was the goal, and
22:27
that required the Crucible of Babylon.
22:29
If the Old Testament handles physical suffering this way,
22:33
what happens when we move to the New Testament?
22:35
Because Paul makes a similar promise to the Romans, but the
22:38
stakes are even higher. They are.
22:40
We have another famous verse about God working things for
22:44
good that is regularly taken out of context.
22:47
Let's look at Romans 8.28 and the Golden chain of Redemption.
22:51
Romans 8.28 is arguably one of the most memorized verses in the
22:54
New Testament. Oh, and we know that for those
22:57
who love God, all things work together for good for those who
23:00
are called according to His purpose.
23:03
It is another verse you will find cross stitched on pillows
23:06
or printed on coffee mugs everywhere.
23:09
But just like Jeremiah, we have to look at the historical
23:11
backdrop to understand what Paul is actually saying.
23:14
Paul is not writing this from a modern suburban office with air
23:17
conditioning. No, Paul is writing to believers
23:20
in the imperial capital of the 1st century Roman Empire.
23:23
These Christians are living under the shadow of Caesar.
23:26
They are targets. They are a tiny minority
23:28
navigating a society absolutely drenched in idolatry,
23:32
polytheism, and emperor worship. Refusing to burn a pinch of
23:36
incense to Caesar was seen as an act of political treason and
23:40
they are anticipating severe state sponsored persecution.
23:43
So when Paul talks about suffering, he is not talking
23:45
about getting a flat tire on the way to work or someone being
23:48
rude to you at the grocery store.
23:49
He is anticipating the Coliseum. He is anticipating believers
23:53
being thrown to wild beasts for public entertainment.
23:57
He is anticipating Christians being covered in pitch and used
24:01
as human torches to light Emperor Nero's gardens.
24:04
It is literally life or death. The historical reality for the
24:08
original audience is 1 of imminent martyrdom, torture, and
24:12
the seizure of their property. But wait, how does a Roman
24:15
facing the Colosseum read All Things Work for good?
24:18
That sounds impossible. Does the original language give
24:21
us a loophole? Let's look at the Greek syntax
24:23
of this verse, because we need to understand how Paul defines
24:26
the word good. The Greek phrase is ponta.
24:29
Synergy is agathon. All things work together for
24:33
good. The subject is all things panta.
24:36
The verb is synergy, which is where we get the English word
24:39
synergy. Meaning they work together.
24:40
It means to work together or cooperate.
24:42
But we must be very careful here.
24:44
Paul is not saying that all things are inherently good in
24:46
themselves. He's not saying that cancer is
24:48
good, or the losing a child is good, or that being eaten by a
24:51
lion is good. Right, because rape, murder,
24:54
disease, and martyrdom are wicked.
24:56
They are the horrific fruits of the fall.
24:58
They are enemies of God's original creation.
25:00
They are not good. They are objectively evil, but
25:03
God, in His incomprehensible sovereignty, actively forces the
25:08
darkest evils to cooperate and fulfill His divine decree.
25:12
He forces them. The verb Sinner guy is active.
25:15
God is the one doing the working.
25:17
The text is revealing God's exhaustive Providence.
25:21
He orders all things, even the wicked actions of men and the
25:24
brokenness of nature, to His own glory and the ultimate salvation
25:28
of His elect. He acts as the supreme author,
25:30
writing a story where even the villains inadvertently
25:33
accomplish his purposes. Exactly.
25:35
And the text defines what that good actually is.
25:38
It is not left up to our imagination or our personal
25:40
preferences. Because my definition of good is
25:42
usually a high paying job, a healthy family, and 0 stress.
25:45
And if we force our definition of good onto the text, we make
25:48
God a liar because many faithful Christians die in poverty and
25:51
sickness. But if you read the very next
25:53
verse, Romans 8.29, the good is explicitly defined by the
25:57
apostle. What did he say?
25:58
For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed
26:02
to the image of his Son. The Greek word there is
26:05
symorphis, conformed to the same form.
26:08
The good that God is guaranteeing is Christlikeness.
26:11
So what does this all mean for you, the listener?
26:14
It means the good God promises isn't a better job or a healed
26:17
body. It is Christlikeness, and
26:20
Christ's likeness is often forged in the furnace of severe
26:23
affliction. If Jesus learned obedience
26:26
through what he suffered, why would we expect a different
26:28
path? We shouldn't.
26:29
If we look at the literary structure of Romans 8 leading up
26:32
to this verse, Paul builds to this point through a progression
26:36
of cosmic and redemptive groaning.
26:38
Yes, he does. He starts by describing the
26:40
groaning of a cursive creation awaiting redemption.
26:43
Earthquakes, decay, death. Creation is groaning.
26:46
Then he moves to the internal groaning of the justified
26:48
believer who possesses the spirit but still lives in a
26:50
dying body eagerly awaiting bodily adoption.
26:53
The believer is groaning. Then he describes the
26:55
intercessory groaning of Holy Spirit who prays for us when we
26:58
do not know what to pray. It is a whole chapter of
27:00
groaning. It is a chapter about suffering
27:02
and anticipation. Yes, and this triune groaning
27:05
climaxes and what theologians call the golden chain of
27:09
redemption, verses 29 and 30. This is the bedrock of Christian
27:13
assurance. Let's breakdown those links in
27:15
the chain because I want the listener to understand the
27:17
mechanics here. This completely obliterates the
27:20
prosperity gospel. What is the first link?
27:23
The chain has five links. It begins with God's
27:25
foreknowledge, those whom he foreknew.
27:28
Now we have to clarify this foreknowledge here is not merely
27:32
God looking down the corridors of time with a crystal ball to
27:35
see what people will do of their own free will.
27:38
The Greek word proteinosco and its Hebrew equivalent yada speak
27:42
of an intimate relational knowledge.
27:44
Like when the Bible says Adam knew Eve.
27:46
Right. It means a relational intimacy,
27:47
not cognitive data. So foreknowledge means God
27:51
predetermined to set his covenantal love on his elect
27:54
before time began. He didn't just foresee their
27:56
actions, he 4 loved them. What is the second link?
27:58
Predestination He also predestined.
28:02
The prefix pre means beforehand, and destiny refers to a final
28:06
destination. God drew the architectural
28:09
blueprints for the salvation of His people.
28:12
And what is the destination? To be conformed to the image of
28:15
His Son. He set their destiny to be
28:17
Christlikeness. So he loves them and he sets
28:21
their final destination. Then what?
28:23
The third link is calling, and those whom he predestined he
28:26
also called. This is not the general outward
28:29
call of a preacher giving a sermon that could be ignored.
28:32
It is deeper than that. This refers to the effectual,
28:34
irresistible call of the Holy Spirit.
28:37
It is the inward call that brings a spiritually dead Sinner
28:40
to life, much like Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb.
28:43
The call itself creates the life necessary to respond.
28:47
Like a summons from a king that comes with the strength to obey
28:49
it. I get the 4th.
28:50
Link justification. And those whom he called, he
28:53
also justified. This is a legal term from the
28:55
courtroom. It is the legal declaration by
28:57
God the Father that the Sinner is righteous, not because of
28:59
their own works, but because the perfect righteousness of Christ
29:02
has been imputed to them through faith.
29:04
The great exchange. Yes, all their sins are credited
29:07
to Christ on the cross, and Christ's obedience is credited
29:11
to their account. And the final link.
29:13
Glorification and those whom He justified, he also glorified.
29:17
This is the final state of the believer, where the very
29:20
presence of sin is removed, the bodies resurrected, and they
29:24
dwell with God forever. You mentioned the Greek grammar
29:28
when we were looking at the sources earlier.
29:29
For those of us who don't read ancient Greek over breakfast,
29:33
there is something strange about the tense used for that last
29:36
word glorified. What does that actually mean
29:39
mechanically? It is a beautiful detail.
29:41
The Apostle Paul uses the aorist tense for all these verbs,
29:45
including glorified. What is the aorist tense?
29:48
Think of the aorist tense like taking a photograph rather than
29:51
recording a video. It views the action as a
29:53
completed whole, a finished fact.
29:56
Even though our glorification is technically a future event, we
29:59
are not glorified yet. Paul writes about it in the past
30:02
tense to denote absolute certainty.
30:04
Those whom he justified, he also glorified.
30:06
It is as good as done in the decree of God.
30:09
If God starts the chain, He finishes the chain.
30:12
No one is lost along the way. This unbreakable sequence proves
30:16
that the good God is working toward is not temporal ease, but
30:19
the eternal unbreakable salvation of His people.
30:22
Exactly. The assurance of the believer is
30:24
not found in their ability to hold on to God, but in God's
30:27
unbreakable grip on them from eternity past to eternity
30:30
future. If our present suffering is tied
30:33
to an eternal timeline like this, it completely reorients
30:36
how we view the future and the end of the world.
30:39
Because if God is sovereign over the darkest evils, we do not
30:41
need to panic when we watch the news.
30:43
You really do not. Which leads us to our final Test
30:46
case, Matthew chapter 24 and Escaping the Ego in Eschatology.
30:50
Eschatology is the study of last things or the end times, and
30:54
Matthew 24 contains what is known as the Olivet Discourse.
30:58
Set the scene for us again. Jesus is sitting on the Mount of
31:00
Olives with his disciples just days before his crucifixion.
31:05
The disciples point out the magnificent buildings of the
31:07
temple, and Jesus shocks them by saying that not one stone will
31:10
be loaded upon another. Which must have sounded crazy to
31:13
them. It sounded like the end of the
31:14
world. Naturally, the terrified
31:17
disciples asked him, Tell us, when will these things be, and
31:20
what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the
31:22
age? They associate the destruction
31:24
of the temple with the end of the world, and Jesus answers by
31:28
pointing to a specific historical event, those coming
31:30
in their generation. He prophesized the literal
31:33
destruction of the Herodian Temple.
31:35
This was a massive, catastrophic event that actually unfolded in
31:39
8070 under the Roman general Titus.
31:42
What happened? The Jewish people rebelled
31:44
against Rome and the Roman legions responded by surrounding
31:47
Jerusalem. They laid siege to the city,
31:50
causing massive famine. Eventually they breached the
31:53
walls and completely dismantled the temple, burning it to the
31:56
ground and prying the stones apart to get the melted gold,
31:59
leaving not one stone upon another, just as Jesus
32:02
predicted. The sources bring up a
32:04
fascinating contrast here between faithful reading of this
32:07
text and the hermeneutic used by an ancient group called the
32:10
Essenes. Who were they and how did they
32:13
read prophecy? The Essenes were a sect of Jews
32:16
living in the Qumran community out in the desert near the Dead
32:20
Sea. They are the ones who wrote and
32:22
preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls. OK, I have heard of them.
32:25
They were heavily isolated, deeply ascetic, and highly
32:29
apocalyptic. They believe the rest of Judaism
32:32
was corrupt and they were the true remnant.
32:35
They practiced a method of interpretation known as Pescher.
32:39
What are the mechanics of Pescher?
32:41
The fundamental flaw of the Pescher hermeneutic was the
32:44
arrogant assumption that all ancient prophecy was written
32:47
exclusively about their immediate moment and their
32:49
specific community. They thought they were the main
32:51
characters of all biblical prophecy.
32:53
Exactly. They would read an ancient text
32:56
from Isaiah or Habakkuk written centuries earlier, and they
33:00
would say this verse is about our leader right now.
33:02
This verse is about the political conflict happening
33:05
this week with the Romans. They made it all about
33:07
themselves. They completely bypass the
33:09
original historical context, the original authorial intent to
33:13
make it all about themselves. They believed the prophets were
33:15
essentially writing secret codes that only their generation could
33:19
crack. We see the modern equivalent of
33:21
this constantly narcissistic date setting and eschatological
33:25
panic. People watch the news, see an
33:28
earthquake in California or a war breaking out in the Middle
33:30
East and immediately try to map it onto a specific verse in the
33:34
Book of Revelation to prove the rapture is happening on Tuesday.
33:38
And they write books, they make charts, they sell survival
33:41
buckets. It is the exact same error as
33:43
the Asam's. It is ego driven eschatology.
33:46
It assumes that the culmination of all human history must
33:49
logically occur during our specific lifetime.
33:52
Because we view ourselves as the center of the timeline.
33:55
We think things are bad for me right now, so this must be the
33:57
Great Tribulation. But Jesus directly combats this
34:01
mindset in the Olivet Discourse. He does.
34:03
He gives them instructions on how to handle the chaos.
34:06
Let's look at the Greek exegesis of the text, because it tells us
34:09
exactly what our posture should be.
34:11
In Matthew 24 and in parallel passages in the other gospels,
34:14
Jesus uses the Greek word macarios, which translates to
34:18
blessed or happy. He tells a parable about a
34:20
master returning, and he says blessed is that servant whom his
34:23
master will find so doing when he comes.
34:25
So doing action. The grammar here demands
34:29
continuous active vigilance and patience stewardship.
34:32
It does not call for an ego driven escape from difficulty.
34:35
Jesus outlines wars, famines, and earthquakes, and he
34:39
explicitly calls them simply the beginning of birth pains.
34:42
He guarantees persecution and hatred for the Saints.
34:45
He tells them they will be handed over to Tribulation.
34:48
Here is an analogy for how we often get this wrong.
34:52
It is like a worker at a train station who becomes so obsessed
34:55
with cracking the secret code of the train schedule, trying to
34:58
predict the exact millisecond the train will arrive, that they
35:00
completely stop maintaining the tracks.
35:02
They stop selling tickets, they stop sweeping the platform.
35:05
Exactly. We're called to work and watch.
35:08
We are not called to calculate and panic.
35:10
That captures the pastoral intent of Jesus perfectly.
35:14
Jesus wanted his disciples to be sober minded.
35:16
He explicitly warned them against being alarmed by the
35:19
cyclical chaos of history. He said see that you are not
35:23
alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
35:27
His goal was to mobilize them for the global proclamation of
35:31
the gospel, not to have them huddle in a bunker trying to
35:34
decipher the new cycle. Faithfulness looks like staying
35:36
at your post, fulfilling your calling, and trusting the timing
35:39
to the Father. Yes.
35:40
So let's synthesize these three test cases.
35:43
We have examined Jeremiah 29, Romans 8, and Matthew 24, all
35:47
aggressively decenter the individual reader.
35:50
Jeremiah subordinates personal hope to corporate survival and
35:53
submission to divine discipline. Roman subordinates temporal
35:57
comfort to eternal sanctification and
35:59
glorification. Matthew subordinates
36:02
eschatological panic to patient, enduring stewardship.
36:06
The structure is undeniable when you look at the texts in their
36:09
context. The scriptures violently reject
36:12
our individualism. They refuse to let us sit on the
36:14
throne of the narrative. This raises a massive question.
36:17
If I'm reading the Bible and the text isn't about me, and it
36:20
isn't a manual for my personal success, who is the focal point?
36:23
If I am not the main character, who is?
36:25
That is the pivotal realization. If we only read the text for
36:29
historical facts, we starve the sheep.
36:32
We just become academics. Reading the scriptures must be
36:36
done through the lens of redemptive history.
36:38
Explain what that means. The Apostle Paul tells us in
36:40
Second Corinthians that all the promises of God find their yes
36:44
and Amen in Jesus Christ. The entire Canon of Scripture
36:48
from Genesis to Revelation has a unified redemptive center, and
36:52
it is the person and work of Christ.
36:55
Jesus himself said in John five, you search the Scriptures
36:58
because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is
37:01
they that bear witness about me. Exactly.
37:03
Let's trace this through our three tests.
37:04
Yeah, How does Jeremiah point to Christ?
37:07
Because we just established that Jeremiah 29 is about the
37:09
Babylonian exile of 597 BC. How does a letter to ancient
37:13
Jews point to Jesus? Christ is the true exile.
37:16
Think about the pattern of exile in the Bible.
37:19
Adam and Eve sin, and they're exiled from Eden.
37:21
Israel sins and they are exiled from the Promised Land.
37:24
God's people are cast out because of rebellion.
37:27
But the eternal Son of God, who never sinned, left the
37:30
unimaginable glory of heaven to Tabernacle in the ultimate
37:33
Babylon, a fallen sin, cursed world.
37:36
He subjected himself to the exile of the Incarnation.
37:39
He willingly entered the wasteland.
37:41
Yes, and at the end of his life he went outside the camp.
37:44
He was rejected by men, marched outside the city gates of
37:48
Jerusalem and bore the full covenantal curse on the cross.
37:52
The ultimate exile. He experienced the ultimate
37:54
exile, forsakenness by the Father.
37:56
He cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
37:59
He entered the outer darkness of God's wrath so that spiritual
38:02
exiles could be brought back into the presence of God into
38:06
the New Jerusalem. He took the RA, the calamity,
38:08
the disaster, so we could have the Shalom, the eternal peace.
38:11
Exactly. He secured the ultimate future
38:14
and hope by his blood. He is the true, faithful
38:17
Israelite who accomplishes what the nation could not.
38:19
What about Romans 8? How does the cross relate to all
38:22
things working together for good?
38:24
Because it is easy to say God uses a job loss for good, but
38:27
how does that apply to the cross?
38:29
The cross of Calvary is the supreme, undeniable proof of
38:33
Romans 8.28. Think of the darkest, most
38:37
wicked evils ever committed in human history.
38:40
They all converged on a single weekend in Jerusalem.
38:42
The betrayal by Judas Iscariot for 30 pieces of silver.
38:46
The cowardice and political maneuvering of Pontius Pilate,
38:49
who knew Jesus was innocent but condemned him anyway to please
38:52
the mob. The bloodlust and envy of the
38:54
religious leaders. The brutal, torturous execution
38:57
of the sinless Son of God by Roman soldiers.
38:59
None of those actions were morally good.
39:02
Every single person involved in the crucifixion was committing A
39:05
grievous sin. They were vile.
39:07
They were acting entirely out of their own wicked desires.
39:10
Yet the book of Acts tells us in Peter's sermon of Pentecost that
39:14
Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and
39:16
foreknowledge of God. God meticulously predestined
39:20
those wicked actions to accomplish the salvation of the
39:22
elect. God did not sin, but He
39:25
sovereignly directed the sins of men to crush the serpent's head.
39:28
If God can take the absolute worst event in the history of
39:31
the cosmos, the murder of His own Son, and weaponize it to
39:35
destroy sin, death, and hell, the believer can have absolute
39:38
confidence that God is sovereignly working through
39:41
their own dark afflictions. That brings a heavy, solid
39:44
comfort. It means our suffering is never
39:46
random. It is never wasted.
39:49
And finally, Matthew 24. How is Christ the center of
39:52
eschatology? Jesus is the returning,
39:54
triumphant King. The focal point of all
39:57
eschatology is his physical, bodily return on the clouds of
40:01
heaven with might and great glory.
40:02
It is not about an egocentric secret escape hatch tailored for
40:06
the modern American church. It is about the vindication of
40:09
the Son of God. Before all nations.
40:11
Every knee will bow. We are looking for the blessed
40:14
hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior.
40:17
He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
40:20
History is his story, moving linearly toward his final
40:22
victory. Yes, 100%.
40:24
Seeing Christ at the center like this, well, it doesn't leave the
40:27
believer empty handed. I think sometimes people fear
40:31
that if the Bible isn't about them, they lose their comfort.
40:34
They feel like they were losing a blank check.
40:36
Right. But it actually provides a much
40:38
more solid foundation for daily life, a foundation made of
40:41
granite rather than the the shifting sand of our own
40:44
fleeting desires. So how do we apply this today?
40:48
We know the theory, we see the history.
40:50
What does this look like on a Tuesday morning?
40:52
The primary application is what the sources call interpretive
40:56
repentance. Interpretive repentance.
40:58
We have to actively change our minds and our habits.
41:01
We have to abandon the prosperity gospel and
41:03
therapeutic moralism. We have to repent of treating
41:07
the Bible like it is raw material for our own self
41:10
affirmation. When we open the word, we must
41:12
ask, what has God spoken about himself?
41:15
What has he spoken about his Son?
41:17
Not? What can I get out of this for
41:18
my career? We have to stop playing marbles
41:21
with the diamonds of divine revelation.
41:23
We're using staggering truths about the cosmos to try and win
41:26
petty arguments or feel better about a bad day.
41:29
That requires submitting to what theologians call the third use
41:32
of the law. It does.
41:34
Let's explain the third use of the law for the listener,
41:36
because that is a historical theological category that brings
41:39
a lot of clarity to how Christians should read the Old
41:42
Testament commands. In Reformed theology, the moral
41:45
law of God has three specific uses.
41:48
The first use is civil or political.
41:51
It is to restrain societal evil through the threat of
41:54
punishment. It keeps society from collapsing
41:57
into anarchy. OK, the civil use.
41:59
What is the 2nd? The second use is pedagogical.
42:02
It acts as a mirror, exposing our utter sinfulness, showing us
42:06
we cannot save ourselves and driving us to Christ for
42:09
salvation. It condemns us, so we run to the
42:11
Savior. What is the third use?
42:13
The third use is normative. It is specifically for the
42:16
justified believer. Once you are saved by grace
42:19
alone, the law no longer condemns you.
42:22
Instead, it acts as a guide for Christian living.
42:24
It shows us what pleases the Father.
42:26
Yes, true blessedness is found in grateful sacrificial
42:31
obedience to God's commands, regardless of the cultural cost.
42:35
We obey the law not to earn salvation, but out of immense
42:38
gratitude for the salvation already secured by Christ.
42:42
I have a practical question regarding the Jeremiah
42:44
application in light of that. You mentioned that God commanded
42:48
the Exiles to seek the welfare, the Shalom of Babylon.
42:52
How do you practice seeking the welfare of Babylon today without
42:56
compromising? Because let's be honest, our
42:58
modern culture looks a lot like Babylon right now.
43:01
It is hostile to Christian ethics.
43:03
It is the call to faithful presence.
43:05
Seeking the welfare of the city does not mean loving the city's
43:08
idols. It means Christians should work
43:10
with absolute integrity in their secular jobs.
43:13
They should be the best engineers, the best teachers,
43:15
the best plumbers. They should pray for their civil
43:17
rulers, even the Pagan ones, that they would govern justly.
43:21
They should pursue peace, care for the poor, and serve their
43:24
communities in ways that commend the gospel.
43:26
They're a blessing to their neighbors.
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But there is a line we cannot cross.
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We don't just blend in until we disappear.
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Absolutely not. We must steadfastly refuse civic
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idolatry and spiritual assimilation.
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Babylon will always pressure God's people to bow to its
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statues, whether those are literal golden statues like in
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the days of Daniel, or ideological statues today, like
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modern definitions of gender, sexuality, or pluralism.
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Faithful exile. That all requires both practical
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mercy and holy distinction. We do good to our neighbors, but
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we refuse to participate in the culture's rebellion against
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God's truth. We will serve you, but we will
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not worship your gods. That is the balance.
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This all culminates in finding our assurance in the right place
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when we let go of the narcissistic idea that God
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exists to fulfill our personal dreams.
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What replaces it? Because you are taking away the
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pacifier of therapeutic deism. What is the solid food that
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replaces it? What replaces it is the the
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massive, unshakable comfort of God's exhaustive Providence.
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When tragedy strikes, when the bank account is drained, when
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the diagnosis is terminal, when the persecution comes, we do not
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arrogantly demand explanations from God and we do not assume
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God has failed or lost control. We fall back on the reality that
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He sovereignly ordains all things for His glory and the
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sanctification of His elect. Knowing that you're suffering is
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actively being used by God to conform you to the image of
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Christ is a far superior comfort than the fragile, easily broken
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hope that all your earthly dreams will succeed.
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Earthly dreams shatter. Christ likeness is eternal.
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It is the difference between hoping the storm doesn't hit
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your house and knowing your house is built on a rock that no
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store can shatter. The storm is coming, but the
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foundation holds. Yes, the believers future and
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hope are exclusively grounded in Christ.
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In Him, your sins are completely forgiven, your adoption into
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God's family is permanently secured, and your future glory
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is utterly certain. You are an object of mercy
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within God's Christ centered will.
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You do not need to decipher the news or manipulate the text to
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find peace. You really do not.
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We have covered a massive amount of ground today, from the
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sociology of modern religion to the printing press, the bloody
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siege of Jerusalem, the grammatical tenses of Paul's
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letters, and the destruction of the Herodian Temple.
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Let's summarize the massive shift we have discussed.
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It is a huge paradigm shift. We are talking about exchanging
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a small self-centered religion, one where you are constantly
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anxious because you have to maintain your own destiny,
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interpret the signs and claim the promises for your own bank
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account for the vast God centered reality of the
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scriptures. By doing this, the believer is
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freed from the crushing weight of having to be the center of
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the universe. Consider the massive relief in
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this reality. The most liberating, joy
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inducing thing the creator of the universe could ever tell you
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is that the story of history isn't about you at all.
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It is about His son. Once you are freed from the
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exhaustion of sitting on the throne, you are finally free to
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worship the one who rightfully sits there.
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What an incredible place to land.
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive.
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Until next time, keep reading, keep thinking, and keep your
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eyes fixed on the true center of the text.