This Article Was Originally Published On Jan 18, 2021

The year was 1989, and I was a freshman in high school. I was sitting at a lone desk in an empty hallway because, once again, my behavior had gotten me kicked out of class—but on purpose, actually. Because though I was attending one of the best prep schools in New Jersey and in all honors classes, occasionally, when the learning material couldn’t quite hold my attention, I’d goof around until I was asked to take my desk into the hallway. And what would I do once in the hallway? I’d eagerly pull out Strength To Love, by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Since middle school, Dr. King was always my favorite, reading away and even re-reading the heavier content until I got it. Dr. King was a pure scholar.

“My friends, we cannot win the respect of the White people of the South or elsewhere if we are willing to trade the future of our children for our personal safety or comfort. Moreover, we must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby become a participant in its evil… Put up thy sword.” — Strength To Love, 1963

This book I always carried with me was actually an original paperback that had belonged to my father during his executive administrative position at Seton Hall University. He had emulated the steps of Dr. King and became a leader in the civil rights struggle in New Jersey, implementing scholarship programs and graduate programs for people of color, which are still active until this very day. But not before he first endured growing up in poverty in the Deep South of the 1950s. He attended segregated schooling throughout high school, where his hungry mind always had to wait until the white schools finished sucking the abridged life out of every textbook before his school could finally get them. Even after earning valedictorian at his school, his physics teacher gave him a failing grade on a perfect paper. When my dad asked why, the teacher told him, “I didn’t give you an ‘A’ on that paper because you said you wanted to be a nuclear physicist, and a colored person has no business being a nuclear physicist.”

On this day when Dr. King’s birthday is nationally honored (his actual birthday being January 15), what does he mean to me?

As far back as I can remember, and even before his birthday became a national holiday in 1986, an integral part of our northern urban culture was to ecstatically celebrate Dr. King’s birthday—even if it just meant turning up Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday to Ya,” extra loud on Mom’s clock radio as we’d get ready for school that morning.

Also, as far back as I can remember, whenever Dr. King’s name was mentioned, the emphasis on the title “doctor” was always sacred, as to just say his name would seemingly usher in a hush of honor and dignity as everyone would seem to hold their heads a bit higher for a second. While others called him by his full name without the title, we remembered him as a man who overcame all obstacles to earn his Ph.D., a rarity for countless black folks in those times. He was beloved in our community: He was like everyone’s unofficial favorite grandfather, father, godfather, uncle or son. A man, who for the sake of fighting for the freedoms of the oppressed, didn’t fear violent fists, fire hoses, bone-bruising batons, handcuffs, prison cells, police dogs trained to go berserk whenever they saw brown skin, or even death itself.

I grew up in a home with a humanistic worldview, attending Catholic church only on the important holidays, so I had a vague familiarity with Jesus. But I remember reading Dr. King’s references to Jesus Christ, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and Christ’s commandment to forgive and turn the other cheek, and then getting to observe how Dr. King actually lived it out. He was the first person to make Jesus’ life and teachings relevant and powerful to me. Long before I was anywhere close to believing the Gospel and giving my heart to Christ, Dr. King showed this once-young, curious “searching” teenager—growing up on the drug-dealing streets of inner-city New Jersey, while at the same time, going to a wealthy prep school where I had my own countless bouts with both blatant and covert forms of racism—that Jesus was real and that Jesus’ teachings were still relevant in modern times and for modern issues.

Fast forward now: I matriculated at the “Ivy League” halls of the University of Pennsylvania, and though I was a pre-med student, I began learning much more about the world around me.

As an African-American Studies minor, I studied other prominent black leaders who had ideologies quite different from those of Dr. King’s.

I attended various lectures and even sat at the feet of people like Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Movement (along with Huey P. Newton). I read Malcolm X and others who critiqued Dr. King’s methods. But to me, Dr. King remained bulletproof from the blaze of any critic; his message of reconciliation was simple and powerful and grounded in the love taught by Christ.

Fast forward, yet again, to when I hadn’t read Dr. King in years, by this point, when I was my senior year at Penn and busy navigating and (seemingly barely) surviving my own personal Ecclesiastes, like the spiritually-wearied King Solomon—suddenly finding everything around me to feel like “vanity” and “chasing wind” when it came to finding “true fulfillment”—and thereby, leading me to discover the regenerating Gospel of Jesus Christ as the true summum bonum (i.e., “greatest good”) for all of mankind. Oh, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, t’was blind but now, I see.”

As I graduated from Penn and began devouring the Word of God and growing in a (heavy) Bible-teaching church community, I was learning to “rightly divide the word of God” and even hold up the teachings of others against the Word of God—just as Jesus instructs His followers to do (I Thessalonians 5:21; Psalm 138:2). And it was at this point that I learned the difference between good or “sound” theology, bad theology and even “slightly off” theology.

I began learning more about Gospel-centered ministry, and how when Jesus spoke of giving a (refreshing) cup of water to even a child in His name, that even that wouldn’t go unrewarded by Him—and how some are indeed giving the (refreshing) cup of cold water “in His name” (i.e., while sharing the soul-saving “Good News” message of Jesus Christ, while countless others—all in the name of “Christian ministry”—all too often end up compromising with a “Social Gospel,” which still gives the (refreshing) cup of cold water and meets the pressing need(s) at hand, only they neglect doing it “in His name,” as the final element of Jesus’ command.

Thus, as a Bible-lensed believer, I had to now look at Dr. King, my first “superhero,” my first scholar whom I read in empty “naughty” hallways, after getting kicked out of class, the man who greatly inspired my own (hero) father, the man who still made my mom get teary-eyed when she found a rare book by him to gift to me, the man who first made Jesus real to me… I had to look at him through the lenses of “rightly divided” Scripture. And having a close friend who worked directly with Dr. King’s children at the King Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, I even got access to hundreds of pages of King’s never-released essays, including essays from his younger days attending a liberal seminary, where he even questioned the Word of God’s supreme, inerrant theology, while trying to amalgamate the biblical worldview with ancient Egyptian belief systems. Add to that the pressing questions you hear voiced here and there:

Was Dr. King a socialist or communist? Was he an adulterer? Did he fall victim to Jesus’ warnings concerning “the leaven of Herod,” falling into the trap of mingling humanistic political might with unadulterated Gospel hope? There was so much to think about, but I had to be reminded of one thing: Whenever we are confronted with uncertainties or unanswered questions surrounding a person, we tend to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” At the heart of observing others, will always remain the ongoing struggle of reconciling the imperfections of the person, with the redeemable parts and lessons of the message and the overall work.

So what do we do with all of this, and as (rhetorically) stated in the title of Dr. King’s last book he wrote, Where Do We Go From Here? I have come to the conclusion that we owe Dr. King the same grace we’ve extended to King David, King Uzziah, Peter & the other disciples, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his reported involvement in two assassination attempts on Hitler, C.S. Lewis and his non-biblical belief in Purgatory, and countless others. In fact, it is the very same grace we pray to God for concerning our own personal lives every day. The Bible clearly instructs us to “mark the steps of a righteous man (Psalm 37:37),” to call sin for what it is, and to learn from those around us (and those in history), which also included learning from their mistakes, lest we easily slip and fall in (any and all similar) places ourselves (I Corinthians 10:12). Yes, the Word of God is supreme and is to be our guide in all things, but in doing so, love will always remain the “most excellent way” in doing so.

Most of all, here is my biggest question concerning Dr. King: Will I see my hero in heaven?

You know, I’ve read so much written by Dr. King and about Dr. King, that it gets confusing as to where I have read what at times. However, what stands out the most of all that I’ve ever read was an obscure essay he once wrote about the night back when he was leading his first bus boycott for the desegregation of buses in Montgomery, Alabama, and in retaliation, someone shot up his house, leaving bullet holes in the very sanctuary where his wife and kids found refuge.

He proceeded to write of how he sat alone that night in his kitchen—already a husband, father, up-and-coming national civil rights leader, and even a Baptist minister—and shaken to his core by what had happened to his home, he asked himself if he had truly experienced a (spiritually) born again experience in making Jesus Christ his personal Lord and Savior. And not sure of his own answer to that question, but wanting to make sure he was truly “in Christ” and not just deceivingly a mere part of “Churchianity” and “religious culture,” this pioneering visionary, scholar, courageous commander and religious man who emulated Jesus Christ, actually lowered his head and invited the risen Christ into His heart as his personal Lord and Savior for the remission of sins.

I’ve heard many wonder if King Solomon will be in heaven simply because of his severe backsliding (which led him to worship in very demonic ways). But based on his conclusion in Ecclesiastes, I believe King Solomon is in glory.

And I cannot prove it (for who knows the heart but God (I Corinthians 4:5), I believe my hero Dr. King is in glory as well.

In closing, what should be our practical take away and application concerning the legacy of Dr. King?

In this racially-polarized day, when so many (even in the Church) refuse to have the necessary, ongoing, tough conversations concerning race, and when we must be ready to (lovingly) challenge others (and even challenge ourselves at times), let us remember how Dr. King seemed to never grow weary in “leaning into discomfort” for the love of others. In a day when the Church has grossly confused merely knowing with actually doing something with what you know, let us remember how Dr. King’s entire life was a living sermon on how talk is cheap. More so, in a day, when Christians sometimes can’t even garner enough Christian humility to apologize to their next-door neighbors for the slightest offenses, Dr. King made Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness and “turning the other cheek” look supernatural, to say the least.

In a day when Christians can’t even embrace a brother or sister who adheres to a different style of worship or denominational viewpoint, let us remember how Dr. King was able to embrace Malcolm X with love and honor—even after Malcolm X publicly criticized Dr. King and regularly alluded to Dr. King not being “strong enough.” Most of all, in a day when we struggle with sacrificing for anything we deem “too costly,” in Dr. King we see a man who sacrificed even unto death—even (seemingly) prophesying about his imminent death in a message delivered some 24 hours before he was assassinated. In it, he declared that he still wasn’t going to stop and wasn’t concerned with such because he had received a fresh vision of His Lord Jesus Christ, and that He would one day be returning to Earth to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.

You know, for so many reasons, I still can’t watch this video clip without tears running down my face. And when I grow up, I still want to be so much like Dr. King, just like I desire to be so much like King David, Abraham, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and so many others who have deeply impacted me for Jesus, in one way or another, even as they all prove that even “the best of men, are but men at best” (A.W. Pink).

So dear reader, let’s keep thinking; let’s keep the necessary conversations going while being more eager to listen than to speak; let’s love one another sacrificially; let’s love our enemies as Jesus commanded us; let’s continue facing this current evil day with relevant Gospel outreaches and spontaneous acts of love, all in our deepest desire to showcase Jesus Christ as man’s only solution for every dilemma—and especially the dilemma of race and America’s ongoing reaping from the ongoing sowing of things that clearly contradict the heart and mind of God concerning how people treat and value one another. Happy Birthday, Dr. King! Salute!

“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” — Strength To Love, 1963

Seminary is Not For Everyone

I have known many good pastors who did not go to seminary. My pastor, Tom Stipe, used to tell me that one of the geniuses of Chuck Smith and the Calvary Chapel movement was that Chuck was willing to take chances on and empower people who, like the apostles, were “unschooled, ordinary men” who “had been with Jesus” (see Acts 4:13). I experienced this myself: I was trained, ordained, and sent out to plant a church within the Calvary Chapel ecosystem without any formal education. I am so thankful that the leaders in my life encouraged me and affirmed my calling rather than telling me to curb my enthusiasm and go to school first.

However, since that time, I did choose to go to school. I now hold a BA in Theology from the University of Gloucestershire (UK) and an MA in Integrative Theology from the London School of Theology.

Over the past few years, Calvary Global Network has developed a partnership with Western Seminary, and many Calvary leaders have enrolled in institutes of higher education. For some, this may feel like a change in culture, and the question may arise as to whether this is a move away from dependence on the Holy Spirit.

While I have benefited from going to seminary, I do not believe it is for everyone. In addition, I believe it is imperative that Calvary Chapel continues to believe in the work of the Holy Spirit through called people, regardless of their level of, or lack of, formal education.

Here is why I chose to go to seminary and what I would say to those who ask if education makes you less dependent on the Holy Spirit.

My Crisis of Faith

I am not sure exactly how it started, but at some point, I began to struggle — then it reached a point that felt like a crisis.

I was living in Hungary at the time. Rosemary and I had just had our first child; he was about six months old at the time. I was pastoring a church, and things were going well. People were coming and growing in their faith. Others were coming to faith for the first time and being baptized.

I was teaching the Bible twice a week, on Sundays and Wednesdays, yet I found myself struggling with feelings of doubt. I began to question whether the things I was saying about the Bible were actually true! I began having doubts about whether God even exists!

Up until that point, I had never struggled to believe, yet all of a sudden my mind was plagued with doubts. The things I was teaching, was I just parroting what I had heard from other people? Was I just taking their word for it, that the things they said about God and the Bible were true? I had not actually researched and studied those things for myself… What if they were wrong?

My Journey to Formal Education

This crisis of faith led me on a journey, which involved enrolling in university, and studying Christianity, the Bible, and other religions, at the university level. And as a result of that journey, having studied these things for myself, I am at a place today where I am more confident than ever that the Bible is trustworthy and the gospel message of Jesus Christ is true.

What the Bible has to Say about Pursuing Education

Here is what Paul said to Timothy, a young pastor:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Here is what Peter wrote in his “general epistle” (to all Christians):

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence …

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:3; 5-8).

“Why Can’t You Just Be Self-Taught?”

I have heard people push back against formal education and insist that you can get just as good of an education on your own by reading books. My response is that you probably can — but there are some big benefits to studying at an institute of higher education.

One of the greatest benefits is that you will be forced to read things you disagree with, and you will be required to critically engage with the material and with smart people who hold positions other than your own. This will make you sharper and force you to examine the foundations of what you believe. If you navigate this well, it will lead to a stronger faith.

Furthermore, if you are like me, the rigor and deadlines of a school program will help you actually do your work, and think hard, since you know your work will be examined and critiqued by people who will not let you get away with sloppy or lazy conclusions.

Does Education Make You Less Dependent on the Holy Spirit?

Having spent years in seminary, let me tell you that I have never met anyone who thinks that they no longer need the Holy Spirit now that they have learned more things. In fact, if anything, gaining education affects a person by making them more aware of how much they do not know.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is the phenomenon that those who are less competent tend to be more self-confident because they do not realize how much they do not know. In contrast, those who are more competent tend to be more aware of just how much they do not know.

This is not always the case, I am sure. Some people probably become proud because they think they know more than others once they have received some amount of education.

“Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1)

I absolutely agree! However, I have also met people who are proud of their lack of education and look down on those who have pursued formal theological education, as if their choice to not go to seminary is more spiritual.

The key is to keep love (for God and for others, in response to God’s love for us) as the motivating factor, rather than pursuing knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. And we should certainly never seek knowledge in an attempt to assert superiority over others, but instead view it as something to be used to help and serve others.

Discussion on the CGN Mission & Methods Podcast

In the most recent episode of the CGN Mission & Methods Podcast, we discussed the power, presence, and work of the Holy Spirit, and this topic came up. Here is a clip of our discussion:

You can listen to the entire episode here (or in the embedded player below): What Do CGN Leaders Believe about Charismatic Gifts and Their Use in the Church Today?

May the Calvary family continue to be a place where we prioritize dependence on the empowering and leading of the Holy Spirit, along with diligent study of God’s Word.

Whether you pursue formal education or are self-taught, may the Lord keep us all from becoming puffed up or condescending toward others, and may Calvary be a network in which we sharpen and encourage each other as we work together to build God’s Kingdom and carry out His mission.

^{CalvaryChapel.com does not necessarily endorse or agree with every message or perspective in the diverse links posted. By providing these links, we hope to help you stay informed of important events and conversations taking place in the world that are relevant to the Christian faith.}

What is the Great Reset?

This previously unknown phrase has become commonplace with the events of the last two years. Everyone from comedians like Russell Brand to royalty like Prince Charles have been talking about the Great Reset. So just what does this term imply? Is it merely the invention of conspiracy theorists, or is it a benevolent economic model, formulated to help solve the world’s problems in the aftermath of the pandemic?

In this brief article, I will attempt to outline the main features of the Great Reset in their own words and then focus on how the church can practically respond to some of this information. The term “Great Reset” was coined by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF is basically a global organisation that links the world’s richest private companies together and facilitates their interactions with the governments of the world. It includes companies such as AstraZeneca, Amazon, Barclays Bank, Coca-Cola, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and PayPal, just to name a few. The forum is best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together global leaders to consider the challenges of the world!

Their website says: “The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”¹

The Davos agenda for 2021 was “The Great Reset” – so what is this? Quite simply, it is the belief that the major infrastructures of the world (social, political, economic, industrial, environmental) need to be reset. This belief is often summarised with the quote “build back better.” The belief of the WEF is that the global situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to enact this radical reconfiguring of society. The Founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF is Professor Klaus Schwab. He holds multiple doctorates and honorary titles and has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He recently published the book, Covid-19: The Great Reset, in which he states:

“This pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world.”²

“The societal upheaval unleashed by COVID-19 will last for years, and possibly generations… Many of us are pondering when things will return to normal. The short response is never… In short, we need a Great Reset of capitalism. … for global leaders to shape the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global common interests.”³

The idea of a group of unelected global leaders shaping society for the rest of us is an idea that many people find extremely uncomfortable. A careful look at the world will show this is not just theoretical either. There are a number of themes that form the core of the Great Reset that the WEF is pushing that dominate popular culture today.

Globalism

Firstly, globalism will need to be the ruling model of government. Schwab states, “The more nationalism and isolationism pervade the global polity, the greater the chance that a global governance becomes ineffective.”⁴ This would mean less sovereignty to individual nation states. Rather, a system directed by a representative body of global governments working closely with the largest private sector companies.

Financial and Economic Reform

Schwab suggests what he calls stakeholder capitalism – “a model I first proposed a half-century ago, positions private corporations as trustees of society, and is clearly the best response to today’s social and environmental challenges.”⁵

The notion of extremely wealthy individuals and companies, like those who attend Davos and members of the WEF, becoming “trustees of society” is again something that has many people concerned, and rightly so.

Their vision for economic reform is even more radical – and Covid-19 is helping to pave the way for a new economic world order. In order to pay for the Covid crisis, governments are creating money out of thin air, ending up with massive debts and currencies which are not backed by real wealth. The Coronavirus pandemic has created an economic crisis, similar to that caused by World War II. This requires a new monetary world order to reshape the world, according to the WEF. Some of the ideas being pushed for this economic reform are doing away with cash and introducing Central Bank Digital Currencies. This is a form of cryptocurrency used in international trade and finance. China is already creating such a system. Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey, has said, “I think in a few years’ time, we will be heading toward some sort of digital currency.”⁶

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

This is another area Schwab has written about extensively. He envisages this technological revolution as central to the goals of the Great Reset. He states:

“The scale and breadth of the unfolding technological revolution will usher in economic, social and cultural changes of such phenomenal proportions that they’re almost impossible to envisage. The mind-boggling innovations triggered by the fourth industrial revolution, from biotechnology to AI, are redefining what it means to be human… The future will challenge our understanding of what it means to be human, from both a biological and a social standpoint.⁷

It can lift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny.”

The implications of having our understanding of humanity shaped by the WEF technological revolution will almost certainly be a departure from the biblical truth of humanity as revealed in the Word of God.

The Great Return

So, I have briefly tried to lay out the predominant themes of the Great Reset. The question we now have is: Do we need to be concerned, and how should Christians respond? While this may all sound strangely reminiscent of eschatological scenarios laid out in the Bible, this should not alarm those whose future and destiny is secure in Christ. We know that the institutions of the world are under the sway of the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), so we should not be surprised to see what happens when fallen mankind attempts to bring to pass their own utopian vision.

What should we do?

First, be sure in whom you have believed (2 Timothy 1:12) – Do you belong to Christ?

Second, remember the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). The larger narrative of scripture reveals that Jesus will return to establish His kingdom (Revelation 19; Daniel 2:35), and nothing will stop that. The Kingdom of God is what we work towards and look forward to.

Third, be actively involved in gospel ministry – this is the work we are called to as ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). Our commission does not change as the culture veers further away from biblical principles. The Gospel is the answer! It is the greatest need the world has.

“I must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).

Fourth and finally, we need a great return in the church:

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls.‘ But they said, ‘We will not walk in it'” (Jeremiah 6:16).

We need to return to the ancient paths, that is, the Word of God. This is how we are to be salt and light in this world. This will set us apart from the culture and demonstrate that we live for another world and are citizens of a different Kingdom!

This promise of our Lord seems appropriate to end with:

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).

Maranatha

_Notes:

_{¹ Our mission. World Economic Forum. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2022.}

_{² Schwab, Klaus. Covid-19: The Great Reset (Forum Publishing: Geneva, 2020), 244.}

_{³ Ibid, 12.}

_{⁴ Ibid, 114.}

_{⁵ Schwab, Klaus. Founder and Executive Chairman. “Why We Need the ‘Davos Manifesto’ for a Better Kind of Capitalism.” World Economic Forum, December 1, 2019.}

_{⁶ Ward, Jill. “Bank of England Debating Digital Currency Creation, Bailey Says.” news.bloomberglaw.com, July 13, 2020.}

_{⁷ Values and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Global Agenda Council on Values 2014-2016). September 2016. [WEF White Paper].}

The current crisis of the evangelical church in America is being called a “massive discipleship failure caused by a massive catechesis failure.”¹ The ideologies of our age have grown more magnetic and are both infiltrating and fragmenting the church. Even where such destruction is avoided, we no longer have sufficient common ground with our neighbors to enjoy the passive formational benefits of a Judeo-Christian culture.

For some time, I have been thinking about what it would have taken to be a church inoculated against 2020, and I am convinced the church must develop a more robust paradigm for Christian education. I have in mind here, not private K-12 schools or colleges, but Christian education in the context of the church: Christian education as discipleship. Although the format for this type of education can and should be diverse, whether sermon series, Sunday School classes, Bible study curriculum, or more likely all the above, we need a framework to set the agenda for the whole education, as well as help us assess where our individual congregations are currently at and what is still required.

The goal is disciples who are equipped to live out a Christian vision of life in the context of our present world. No matter the topic, be it sexuality, social justice, or faith and work, a complete Christian education has four components, which here we will call Theology, Anthropology, Missiology, and Doxology. We will take each of the four in turn.

Theology

A Christian education must begin theologically. This requires more than chapter-and-verse references to a particular topic and more than just expressing the clear commands of scripture. A theological approach is rooted in God’s character, works and plan. Articulating a theology of a topic means that we present not just the what of a Christian ethic but the why. A theological approach to a given topic helps disciples navigate through the lenses of Creation: God’s purpose and design, the Fall: where sin and the curse interfere with and hinder that design, Redemption: how salvation in Jesus Christ remedies what has gone wrong, and Consummation: the hope we have as Christians that sets the trajectory for our life. Altogether, a theological approach provides a worldview which not only presents the Christian life but explains it as well.

Anthropology²

On top of having a biblical and theological view of a topic, our disciples also need to understand the view of the culture around us. The anthropological component in Christian education makes the theological component conversant with the world we live in. It is here where the core beliefs of our culture should be identified, as well as their history traced. In any given culture, we should be able to affirm what the culture gets right, reject what it gets wrong, and redeem its unfulfilled desires, showing how Christianity better meets their longings.

When our disciples are not equipped with an anthropology of their time and place, they will not be able to identify where their own lives are being shaped by the culture they live and breathe … thus they will be conformed to this world. Without an anthropology our disciples will also struggle to communicate the gospel in all its abundant-life-fullness to the world they live in. Failure here leads to ideological compromise in our churches, as well as the fear-fueled label-making which throws around culture war terms without being able to define or discuss them (and ironically leaves them vulnerable to other sub-Christian ideologies).

Missiology

The context for the faithful Christian life is the local church. Disciples are not called to follow Jesus as individuals but as part of his community, fulfilling the “one-anothers” of the New Testament. This means that a Christian education is incomplete without extrapolating the resources and agenda God has given to the church. I will confess, this is an area where many of us are so weak that it makes it difficult to illustrate, but consider the Christian sexual ethic. The church, by design, is a family (Matthew 12:46-50; 1 Tim 5:1-2). Jesus in fact envisions it as the family for those who are rejected by their own (Mark 10:30), or excluded from marriage by their bodies, or their devotion to Jesus (Matthew 19:10-12). It is this loving community that makes a Christian sexual ethic joyful and possible. Without it, we condemn the single and celibate to isolation and are worthy of Jesus’ criticism as those who lay heavy burdens and do not help bear them (Matthew 23:4). Missiology means casting this vision, designing our ministries in ways that include and incorporate single people, and exhorting all Christians to live out their responsibilities to love their Christian brothers and sisters, not just their biological family. When we disciple our congregation in missiology, we form not just disciples but God’s new community, the church, and in doing so accomplish God’s mission.

Doxology

Christian education is never complete until it is lived out. Disciples are not called to merely know Jesus or his will but to follow him. Therefore, our paradigm is incomplete without doxology: worshipping God by growing in his ways. The doxological aspect of Christian education requires a slight shift in posture. Whereas the above components are primarily instructional, doxology requires dialogue. It also requires wisdom and even creativity as we seek to apply God’s word in our specific lives at this specific moment.

Because sanctification is a lifelong process, this part of Christian education is open and ongoing, asking again and again what is the next step in following Jesus. Even where this requires repentance, creativity and support is often necessary to pick up the pieces and pursue obedience. Doxology is also the pinnacle of the growing specificity across the aspects of a Christian education.

Theology is universal and unchanging. Anthropology focuses on the unique culture of a particular church’s time and place. Missiology narrows the field to this local church. And doxology moves to the individual choices and context of each disciple.

As leaders and pastors, we must expand our understanding of discipleship to include the four categories above. Jesus has appointed us to bear fruit (John 15:16). To make fruitful disciples, we must help them lay deep roots in Theology, help them to understand the soil in which they grow through Anthropology, help them see themselves as branches of God’s tree the church in Missiology, and bear the specific fruit for this season in Doxology. Lord willing, doing so will create disciples who live robust and distinctively Christian lives of joyful obedience and present a witness that is winsome and worthy of Jesus and his gospel.

_NOTES:

_{¹ James Ernest quoted in The Atlantic, “The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart.”}

_{² For a great example of this on sexuality see Jonathan Grant’s book Divine Sex. On Social Justice see Timothy Keller’s article, “A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory.”}

Ask a Bible-believing Christian, “What happens we die?”, and the answer will probably be something like:

“Well, we go to heaven.”

The rationale for this would likely be something along the lines of:

“Because the Bible says so.”

Let’s see if we can find a fuller answer in the pages of Scripture about personal eschatology, or simply, “What happens when we die?”

Eschatology

Eschatology can be defined as the study of the end times, or final things. The term is rooted in the Greek word eschatos, meaning “last times.” It can be further broken down into two parts: general eschatology and personal eschatology. Thiessen defines these two branches of eschatology as so:

“General eschatology covers the sweep of future events from the return of Jesus Christ on to the creation of the new heavens and new earth.

Personal eschatology relates to the individual from the time of physical death until he receives his resurrection body.”

This paper aims to detail the latter of the distinctions, personal eschatology. This being so, when we talk of death, it will be focused on physical death, rather than spiritual death, or eternal death, which would be better discussed under the banner of general eschatology.

Being finite creations, we will all experience a physical death. Our bodies were not made to live eternally in their current state, simply evidenced by the fact there are no double-centurians in our midst. The oldest recorded and fully authenticated human life in modern times was one 122 years, 164 days. Therefore, personal eschatology is something that will certainly affect every one of us, and is consequently, something of the utmost importance to us. The Bible describes physical death as a judgement, a curse, and the separation of body and soul (Ecclesiastes.12.7; Acts 7.59; Romans 1.32; 5.16). Possibly, the most interesting of these referenced verses is Ecclesiastes 12.7, which says,

“…the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it (ESV).”

Here we read plainly and simply that our bodies have a finite end coming in which they return to the dust of the earth from which the Lord God formed them (Genesis 2.7), and our spirit returns to God.

Physical Death

Our physical death can be brought about by many sources and can happen for a variety of reasons. Clinically and medically, we could proffer the definition of death as the absence of a heartbeat, the absence of brain activity, or the absence of vital signs. Interestingly, all the aforementioned definitions include something missing, rather than the presence of something measurable.

However, to define death from more of a faith-based perspective, rather than a clinical one, we could say that physical death is a separation of body and soul.

Death, for the regenerate Christian who has put their faith in Christ, is simply a part of the process, so to speak. It is an entrance into the presence of our Lord and Saviour. Through His wonderful and all-conquering sacrifice on the cross, we are able to look at death as one more stop our train must take on the journey to our final destination as believers, being with Him forever.

Contrastingly, for the unbeliever, death brings a far less glory-filled experience. Rather than coming into the presence of Jesus Christ, the unbeliever faces condemnation, eternal judgement, and separation from the Lord (John 3.36).

Death…then what?

Following the physical death we all must experience, is the intermediate state. This can be defined as the:

“…condition of humans between their death and the resurrection.”

A clear and simple definition, then: the time between our aforementioned physical death, and the glorious resurrection of believers.

On this intermediate state between physical death and the resurrection of believers John writes about in Revelation 20.4-5, Theologian Millard J. Erickson writes this:

“The doctrine of the intermediate state is an issue that is both very significant and problematic…[because there is a] relative scarcity of biblical references to the intermediate state.”

The soul, being immortal and therefore not subject to the inevitable, physical decline and death our body is, continues to live on. First and foremost, we can say that the soul of the regenerate, Christ-believing, faith-filled person goes to be with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus. This should fill the believer with hope, joy, and peace in equal measure.

In Philippians 1.23 Paul writes,

“I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (ESV).

From his writing, we can see that Paul had no doubt that upon closing his eyes in death, he would open them in the presence of His Lord and Saviour. On this, David Guzik writes:

“Paul probably had many motivations to depart…he would finally be done with sin and temptation…he would see those brothers and sisters who had gone to heaven before him. Most of all, going to heaven meant being with Christ in a closer and better way than ever before.”

From this passage of Scripture, we see that death is not made out to be tremendously better than life, meaning we should not go and seek it out (Philippians 1.21-22), but that when death does happen for us all, we are going to experience something that leads us to Christ (v.23).

Even though the Lord has blessed us with life abundant here on earth (John 10.10), we read that this intermediate state, being in the presence of Christ, “…is a condition to be preferred above the present state.”

This intermediate state is not to be confused with the rapture and glorification that will occur when only He knows, as this will be preferable to the intermediate state, which in turn is, as Paul writes, preferable to the current human condition (2 Corinthians 5.2-3). From this, we can see a clear chronology of events:

. Physical death

. Followed by the intermediate state

. Followed by resurrection and judgement

Writer Sam Storms puts it this way:

“In summary: the intermediate state for the Christian is immediate transition upon death into the presence of Christ during which time we experience holiness (no longer being at war with the flesh, although final glorification awaits the resurrection), happiness, a heightened sense of consciousness, and knowledge of Christ in its fullest. For the non-Christians a heightened sense of consciousness, but one of torment, agony, irreversible separation from Christ (Luke 16).”

Theology

To further support the soul’s conscious survival after the physical death we all will experience, we can gather theological evidence. Both the nature of human beings and the nature of God can be used to substantiate this claim, that the soul lives on after the mortal body has died.

We can confidently state that God is able to maintain the soul after the body cannot; He is creator, sustainer, and omnipotent, therefore surely able. However, as Geisler writes:

“…simply that God can cause the soul to survive does not mean He will – there must be sufficient cause for His doing so. That is rooted in His good will…God wills to keep the soul alive…because of His mercies…”

Further, we can assert that the soul lives on from the words of Genesis 1.27:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (ESV).

This reason is, as Geisler writes, anthropological, and stems from the verse above; we are made in His image. This being so, we are made by God, in God’s image, and therefore, for God to destroy the truly individual part of us that resembles Him the most would be tantamount to God destroying Himself. Logically, this idea simply does not compute.

Clear, then, that the intermediate state is a real, positive, and logically proven stage on the journey of the believer from earthly mother to heavenly Father.

Resurrection

Following on from this intermediate state is the resurrection of the body. The intermediate state will be a joyful experience for the believer, but it is still incomplete. The Bible very clearly teaches that those who believe in the name of Jesus will be resurrected and glorified (John 5.28-29; Romans 8.11; 1 Corinthians 15.12-58; 2 Corinthians 5.1-10).

As a quick note of comparison, Jesus Christ Himself took on a human body and was resurrected in it, contrary to heretical teachings that confuse His two natures in one body, such as docetism, Arianism, and nestorianism, to name but three. The fact that Christ was resurrected in His human body gives credence to the notion that we are to be resurrected in our own earthly bodies, initially.

Geisler writes on the resurrections,

“There is overwhelming biblical support for the bodily resurrection of all human beings…one [for] the saved…and [one for] the unsaved…”

The resurrection, physically, of believers seems to occur immediately before Jesus returns to reign on earth for one thousand years, His millennial reign. 1 Corinthians 15.21-26 is illuminating on this point:

“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (ESV, emphasis added).

From this, we can infer that those who died in Christ, as fully regenerate believers during their earthly lives, will reign with Him during the millennium, as the chronology present in the passage clearly shows that believers are raised prior to the millennium.

Further strengthening this point is Revelation chapter 20, which states:

“Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (ESV, emphasis added).

Again, quite clear that those who are raised physically in the first resurrection, having been in the intermediate state with Christ following their physical death, will reign with Him during His millennium.

As with the continuing existence of our souls post-physical death, we can assert theologically that we will be raised bodily. God’s omnipotence allows Him to create life, maintain life, but also resurrect life. This was evidenced through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the first fruits of resurrection (1 Corinthians 15.23).

However, just as with the prolonging of the soul, just because God can raise the dead does not mean He will. Without a benevolent, all loving, all good Father in heaven, there is no hope for us. On this, and with thanksgiving in heart, Geisler writes:

“Were it not for His mercy, His justice would allow the punishment of death to go unreversed. Thanks be to God’s omnibenevolence, for on its foundation He is moved to redeem us both in soul and body.”

Clear, then, that God is able to raise us from the dead to reign with Christ in His millennium, but also willing.

To again draw from the words of Genesis 1.27, God must certainly resurrect us bodily from our physical death as we are made in His image. To leave us dead and decaying would be to give up on His image, to allow His image to be less than perfect. This idea is simply contrary to the character of God the Bible so clearly details.

Summary

As human beings, we must all endure a physical death. From this point, regenerate believers will go on to be with Christ in the intermediate state, which, as discussed, is preferable to the current human condition. This is, however, not comparable to the next stage of the process, the coming physical and bodily resurrection of believers and the millennial reign of Christ on earth.

The final stage for the regenerate believer and unbeliever alike is the final judgement. As Erickson writes:

“For those who are in Christ, it is something to look forward to, for it will vindicate their lives.”

As with the previous eschatological elements discussed above, the final judgement takes place in the future, and is as certain to come as physical death, the intermediate state and the resurrections. In Matthew 11.24, Jesus Himself referenced the final judgement:

“But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you’” (ESV).

The Apostle Paul also referenced the final judgement in Acts 17.31.

As with many other things that He could accomplish perfectly well without our help, Scripture points us toward thinking that Jesus will share the work of the final judgement with believers. Revelation 20.5 alludes to this, as does 1 Corinthians 6.2-3.

This, however, does not remove us as believers from the judgement itself. As Paul writes in Romans 14.10, we will all stand before God to be judged.

The comfort and confidence-inducing fact here for the fully regenerate believer in Christ is that, even though our sins will be brought before God and as we stand for judgement, those sins will be presented as forgiven due to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.

As one would expect from something titled “the final judgment,” its finality is assured, and there is no returning from this point. Both sets of people, those judged righteous due to faith in Christ, and those judged unrighteous, will be sent to their respective places (Matthew 25.46).

In conclusion, everything detailed above is certain to come, either due to the explicit teaching of the infallible and inerrant Word of God, or due to the logical and rational corollaries we can draw from the teachings of Scripture. For those who have placed faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the physical death, the intermediate state, the resurrection, and the final judgement should induce no apprehension.

On the contrary, it should steel the resolve for living in the here and now, it should cause the believer to overflow with thankfulness and gratefulness due to the certainty they hold about the future. It should cause the believer to be able to minister to a grieving brother or sister in Christ, and it should light a fire inside for them to reach those around them with the good news of Jesus Christ.

For a final word on the personal eschatology detailed in this paper, Erickson writes:

“In view of the certainty of the [the eschaton], it is imperative that we act in accordance with the will of God.”

For a final word on the response of the fully regenerate believer to the personal eschatology presented in this paper, it is hard to look past the words of Revelation 22.20b:

“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

Why are Millennials and GenZ kids who grew up in the Church leaving in droves? How can we reach people struggling with doubt and deconstruction? Evan Wickham, pastor of Park Hill Church in San Diego, has a lot of perspective to offer on this topic. Between his time as a youth pastor, traveling worship leader, and spending years pastoring in Portland (a culture hostile to the Christian faith), Evan has seen his fair share of doubt & deconstruction… as well as experiencing some himself.

Evan shares his insight into how we can come out the other side of doubt and deconstruction with a positive attitude aiming to build the Church up, rather than tear it down, and how we can reach people who are currently struggling with their faith. He introduces a concept called “Spiritual Consent” that he has found helpful in ministering to people burned out and wounded by things they’ve experienced.

We hope this conversation helps you in your walk with Christ and is a helpful resource to you as you make every effort to help others discover the Way of Jesus.

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GoodLion began as a dream of Christian Podcasters Aaron Salvato, Brian Higgins, Mike Neglia & Lindsay Kennedy. The idea was simple: what if Jesus-loving content creators joined forces to partner together for Kingdom Work? In 2018 they began to work together towards the goal, and soon after, the team at the Calvary Global Network decided to come alongside them to support the vision.

We work together as a team to produce free, high-quality content that points people to Jesus, encourages the church and equips creatives to reach people through podcasting!

Ida Scudder (1870-1960): Ida Scudder came from a family of medical missionaries in India–but she wanted nothing to do with that life! Ida’s dream was to live in America, get married and live a comfortable life far away from the deprivation she had witnessed as a missionary kid. Yet the Lord had other plans for Ida, and used a stunning turn of events to change her heart. Join us today as we talk about the early life and calling of the irrepressible and vivacious Ida Scudder!

• Dr. Ida by Dorothy Clarke Wilson

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Join us each week for a lively conversation between author Cheryl Brodersen and history teacher Jasmine Alnutt as they explore the lives of well-known—and not so well-known—Christian women in history. Trust us—these are definitely women worth knowing! Visit GraciousWords.com.

When God made the world, he called it good… and yet when we look at the world today, a lot of times it doesn’t really seem very good. It’s filled with pandemics and violence and racism and division. And that’s just this year, when we look back at human history, it is filled with all kinds of terrible things. We’ve talked to on this podcast about whether or not God causes evil, and while we recommend you go back and listen to those past episodes, our short answer was no, God doesn’t cause evil, but he does allow it. Like with most areas of theology, when one question gets answered a thousand more troubling questions seem to rise up behind it.

So if God doesn’t allow evil, Isn’t that really just as bad as him causing it? How can a good God allow evil to happen? If He allows it, is that really any better than him causing the evil in the first place?

Aaron and Brian dive deep into this question on the GoodLion Podcast.

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The GoodLion podcast is a show by Aaron Salvato and Brian Higgins, the founders of CGN’s GoodLion Podcast Network. Each episode, their goal is to ask hard questions, push past easy answers and always look to Jesus, the God who is not safe but is very good.

Ireland was always different. It knew nothing of the Roman Empire’s rule or language, remaining the last Celtic bastion in Europe, she proudly stood apart. Here to the classical mind was the very edge of the world, a Barbarian island lost in the mists of the Atlantic Ocean, outside of the Roman Empire and outside of the Church. Christians in the fifth century generally did not want to evangelize beyond the Empire’s frontiers to Barbarians. Whereas the early Christians had suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Roman Empire by the fourth and fifth centuries, Christianity was supported, protected and even privileged by the Empire. Emperor Theodosius’ edict of A.D. 380 established Christianity as the Roman Empire’s official state religion, the kingdom of God was now the Empire of Rome, and to be a Roman was to be a Christian. The state took on the role of “evangelist” in the sense that the Empire’s expanding borders created Christians within it either through conquest or compulsion. No need for missionaries and martyrs; the Legions did just fine.

Too Savage for the Gospel

The prevailing Christian view of the Barbarians as either too savage or brutish to understand the Gospel message was linked to the threat the Barbarians posed to Roman order and civilization. The Spanish theologian Prudentius (c. 400) concluded after some pious reflection that a Barbarian was technically a species of wild animal and not fully human. It was folly to send missionaries to these Barbarians since they were simply too savage to embrace Christianity. Severian of Gabala (c.400), a highly regarded preacher at the imperial court, boldly if wrongly declared, “The gospel has come to the whole world!” Severian was obviously wrong, but when one’s whole world was the Roman Empire, it was easy to forget that Irish Barbarians were part of a very different world.

Ireland in the fifth century was tribal, violent and terrifying. The classical geographer Strabo (d. A.D. 24) described how the natives of Ireland were “wholly savage.” Human sacrifice to the dreaded Celtic gods was still practiced, and Irish warriors proudly hung the severed heads of their enemies from their chariots. Alongside sacrifice and warfare was the concept of one’s honor price. Ireland did not have a system of law based on equal citizenship; rather, every man or woman had their own particular honor price based on wealth, family and occupation. Within this ancient system, a person was said to have what the Irish called “lóg n-enech” (/ˈlōɣː v’ev’əx/)– literally “the price of their face.” In the old Irish language, “honor” and “face” are the same word. If you wronged someone more powerful than you, then you had a legal obligation to make financial restitution to them. The Irish expression for this restitution was “eneclann,” literally to “wash the face” of the one whom you had wronged; that is, to pay to them their honor price. If you could not pay the honor price you owed, it meant you became a “Cimbid” (/ˈkɪm:.bɪd/) In the words of the historian Kathleen Hughes, “The Cimbid was a person whose life was forfeit to another, and who might be imprisoned or slain at will.” The Cimbid was kept in chains as they awaited a certain and cruel death, a death without honor. Besides the Cimbid, there were others in Ireland without an honor price; slaves certainly had none, and neither did the “Cú Glas” (/ˌkuː glɑːz/), or “Grey Wolves”. These were foreigners from outside Ireland. As Grey Wolves, they existed outside the clan without a name and without an honor price.

The First Missionaries to Ireland

This was the Ireland that the first courageous missionaries came to in the fifth century. We know from a reliable, contemporary source (Prosper of Aquitaine) that the first missionary to Ireland was a man called Palladius. He came from Gaul (France) and arrived in Ireland in the year 431. He ministered to a small community of Christians in Ireland (most probably British slaves) and worked to evangelize the pagan Irish. Palladius came from a small circle of Christians in Gaul that rejected the prevailing Imperial Christianity of their day with its refusal to reach out to the Barbarians with the Gospel. Instead, they were convinced of the Church’s call to evangelism, even to pagans outside the Empire. One of the central figures in this movement was Prosper of Aquitaine who wrote the first Christian book addressing the mission to Barbarians outside the Empire; the book was titled The Call of All Nations. Central to the theology of Palladius and Prosper was the supremacy of God’s grace, a grace that “is not content with the boundaries that are Rome’s.” Little is known of Palladius’ mission in Ireland; he would have been viewed as a Grey Wolf, an outsider, a man without an honor price. While Palladius was the first he was by no means the last Grey Wolf to come to Ireland in the fifth century to proclaim the Gospel.

In the latter part of the fifth century, a Briton called Patrick came to Ireland as a missionary. Today we call him Saint Patrick. When he was 16, Patrick had been kidnapped from Britain by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland in chains as a slave. His own account of these events has survived and offers a unique insight into his life and later mission to Ireland. In Patrick’s own words, he was at best a nominal Christian, though having been raised in a Christian home, his youth was one of unbelief and even mockery of the Church. Having lost everything as a slave in Ireland, he turned to the God he had spurned and to his surprise, he came to see that it was God who had pursued Patrick all along.

After six years of slavery, he managed to escape and eventually made it back home to Britain. It was in Britain that he heard the voice of the Irish in a dream calling him, begging him to return to them. Convinced it was God’s call on his life to return to Ireland to preach the Gospel, he entered into ministry training, and after several years, was ordained. The remarkable thing about Patrick, the Roman Briton, is that he chose to lay aside his citizenship and status, as a freeborn Roman, and return to Ireland as a man with no honor price.

The Grey Wolf Evangelist

From what he tells us, ministry in Ireland was dangerous and discouraging. Apart from the dangers he faced from the pagan Irish, he also endured the bitter criticism of the British Church who refused to accept a mission to the Irish Barbarians as appropriate. Patrick writes of “…Many who forbade this mission. They even told stories among themselves behind my back, and they said: ‘Why does he put himself in danger among hostile people who do not know God?’” Why would any Roman risk their life for such as these? Why indeed. Patrick’s answer to the criticism was simply that he “never had any other reason for returning to that nation from which I had earlier escaped, except the gospel and God’s promises.” For Patrick, it was all about the Gospel, that message of grace that had changed him and would ultimately, Patrick believed, change Ireland.

Through it all God preserved Patrick, and in his own words, many thousands came to faith in Christ in Ireland. Patrick’s mission was the opposite of Imperial Christianity; he ministered from a position of weakness, as a man without an honor price, as an outsider, a Grey Wolf. The power of Patrick’s mission was not in the might of the Roman Empire, for Ireland knew nothing of that, nor in the status and privileges of the state Church, for Ireland knew nothing of that too. Instead, the power of Patrick’s mission was the Gospel, the message of God’s love for the lost, be they Barbarian or Roman. As Ireland had no centralized government at this time, the Christian faith was not established from above as an act of state, rather it was established from below, though the life and message of Patrick and the fearless witness of the first generations of Irish Christians, many of whom Patrick tells us, suffered severe persecution for their faith.

The Cimbid King

As early Christians in Ireland read their Latin manuscripts of the Bible, they began to heavily annotate them with translations and commentary in their own Irish language. One such manuscript of Matthew’s Gospel has a curious note written in the margin at Matthew 27:26 “… Then he [Pilate] released to them Barabbas: and having scourged Jesus, delivered him unto them to be crucified.” In the margin of the Bible, the Irish reader simply noted dilse cimbeto, “the penalty of a Cimbid.” For the Irish, the Gospel was the story of God sending His Son, the beloved Son who had the highest of all honor prices, to take our place as a Cimbid, a man handed over to death, a man without an honor price. No one ever spoke of God like this in Ireland until Christianity came. No one ever conceived of the Celtic gods as voluntarily taking the place of a Cimbid.

Grace did not even exist as a word in old Irish, for they never knew it until they heard the Gospel preached.

Early Irish Christians like Blathmac often described Christ as the substitutionary Cimbid. Jesus Christ, so Blathmac wrote, “Was the Cimbid who paid the greatest debt.” To pay what we owed, to restore us to freedom, to break the chains of sin and death, Christ took our place as a Cimbid. Another early Irish theologian, Cummian Fota from Co. Galway, wrote a commentary on Mark’s Gospel around the year 610. Reflecting on the trial of Jesus he wrote:

“The High Priest standing interrogates Jesus but he remained silent…The silence of Christ absolves the excuses of Adam…[Christ is declared guilty] This was so that by the guilt he received He might remove our guilt; that by the blindfold on his face he might take the blindfold from our hearts; that by receiving the hateful spits, he might wash the face of our soul, that by the beating, by which he was struck on the head, he might heal the head of the human race, which is Adam… So that with his cross He might cancel our own crucifixion, and by his death He might destroy our death. …As He said through the prophet: ‘I will be your death, O death, and your destruction, O Hades’ (Hosea 13:14). His reproach has removed our dishonor. His chains have set us free. By the crown of thorns on His head we have gained the diadem of the kingdom. With His wounds we are healed. By his burial we are resurrected. By His descent into grave we will rise to heaven. Foreseeing all this, the prophet of old said, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” (Psalm 116:12).”

The marvel of God’s grace that the Irish encountered is that though they had sinned and dishonored God, it was God in Christ Jesus who set them free by becoming a Cimbid in their place. Instead of demanding His divine honor price, as was His right, He instead washed the face of sinners. That is, He honored those without an honor price by giving all who believe in Him His righteousness, His forgiveness, His honor price. The remarkable story of the first Christians in Ireland is unique in the history of the fifth century. Where the Roman Empire failed to conquer, the Gospel of Grace as preached by Grey Wolves triumphed.

_Bibliography

_{. Cahill, Michael [ed.], Expositio evangelii secundum Marcum, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 82, Scriptores Celtigenae 2. Turnhout: Brepols, 1997.}

_{. Carney, James [ed.]. The Poems of Blathmac, Son of Cú Brettan. Irish Texts Society 47. Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1964.}

_{. Charles-Edwards, T. M. Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.}

_{. Charles-Edwards, T. M. “The Social Background to Irish Peregrinatio.” Celtica 11 (1976): 43-59.}

_{. Conneely, Daniel. St. Patrick’s Letters: A Study of their Theological Dimension. Maynooth: An Sagart, 1993.}

_{. Freeman, Philip. Ireland and the Classical World. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2001.}

_{. Hughes, Kathleen. The Church in Early Irish Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966.}

_{. Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988.}

_{. Prosper. The Call of All Nations. Ancient Christian Writers; the Works of the Fathers in Translation. Vol. 14. Translated by P. De Letter. Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1952.}

_{. Stokes, W. and Strachan, J. Thesaurus Paleohibernicus – Vol. 1, A Collection of Old Irish Glosses Scholia Prose and Verse. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1987.}

I’m an Englishman living in America. In California, to be more specific. I absolutely love the people, the culture, the architecture, the food, the beach, and the unity that is so evidently engraved into the fabric of its societal structure. The Pledge of Allegiance is what I believed truly knit the American society together, a shared liturgy of unity, so to speak. As a so-called “outsider” living amongst the people, it has been fascinating to join the rest of the world in watching the response of the American people, as this current epidemic of political, racial, and religious issues has taken over the everyday conversation of the last 12 months.

I recently read a tweet that outlined Mile’s Law, which is a proposed law of human nature and a key theory within Bureaucratic Political Science. It states this: “Where you stand depends on where you sit.” Interesting, right? Mile’s Law originated as an explanation for behaviour of the people in bureaucracies, but the more I think about this statement, I believe that it could have a much broader impact. I believe that it can speak into the massive impact that our own social, religious, and cultural experiences influence our viewpoint (trust me here, my English experiences are what lead me to put these thoughts down onto paper!). Our subjective milieu affects the way we address the same words or phrases, the ways that we approach rules and sanctions, and most importantly, the way that we approach each other.

I can’t help but notice the fragility of such experiences, though. We daily boast of our unity in the church, amongst our friends, and within our political persuasions, but the moment that outrage, disruption, and accusations of injustice arise, the unified foundations extolled in “the pledge” seemingly begin to crumble.

How United Are We?

The polarising of left/right and liberal/conservative has found me questioning that, perhaps this really isn’t the “one-nation” country that I fell in love with.

Indivisible? I just have to turn on the news or scroll through my social media feeds to see that this isn’t true.

Liberty and justice for all? Thousands have had to take to the streets to campaign for both.

We are left trying to balance competing claims, navigating our friends turning on each other, and also trying to keep our eyes desperately and unwaveringly focused on Jesus. Maybe the only thing that we really do have in common right now is this deep sense of disturbance in our very core, with the overwhelming sense that something really isn’t right.

An Ageless Hope

But allow me to introduce you to the solution. Two thousand years ago,
a man named Jesus stood and addressed audiences composed of people like me and you—the right, the left, sinners, prostitutes, robbers, religious leaders, men, women, and children. He
commissioned them, he loved them, he lived amongst them, and most importantly (in relation to this article, at least), he challenged them to transformation.

One of my favourite Jesus moments in the entire Bible is where he feeds the 5,000. He both wanted to take care of the immediate physical needs of the crowd (Luke 9:13-17), but he also aimed to transcend their hunger in a way that surpassed their physical need for food. He preached the kingdom to them, demonstrated ways that he would one day bring the eternal kingdom (v. 11), and presented himself as the true bread of life (v. 22-59).

So, what would it look like for the church to mirror Jesus’ pattern of caring for the physical and long term needs of those around them?

Following A Different Pledge

As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus’ example of caring for the physical needs of others in order that the gospel witness of the kingdom may well and truly saturate the entire earth, resulting in open hearts and open conversation. Paul, by way of Jesus, had a clearer vision of what true unity looks like in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” It is my understanding that until we make it to heaven, Paul’s vision of perfect unity is only ever something we can continually strive for, and until we reach heaven, we must constantly remind ourselves, and everyone around us, that because of Jesus, we are made for much more than the division placed in front of us in this moment.

Sometimes, pledging our loyalties and allegiance to Jesus comes with very few conflicts in the areas that God has placed us in. Other times, as we repeatedly see in the life of Jesus himself, it also comes with a great risk. The risks that I have seen over the last few months include: temporarily closing the doors of the church, prayerfully marching in the name of justice, leveraging our online influence to speak up for what is right, risking the strength of the economy in order to appropriately love our neighbours during a global pandemic … I could go on and on.

It’s time for us, as Christians, to step into these risks to follow the Spirit into the uncomfortable, into the unknown, and into necessary dialogue with others about this current climate. As the body of Christ, we carry this compelling antidote to all of the issues: race, sex, rights, freedoms, and more.

A Unique Opportunity

I understand that this moment of American self-examination can cause anxiety; it can make us feel concerned for the future, and can suck every glimpse of hope out of us. It will take courage and obedience to the call and passion that God has placed in us to face up to these moments. If we play our part correctly in becoming the people that God redeemed us to be, we will leave the aroma of Christ within the fabric of this great nation. When the narrative of this time of tumult is recorded, the story of renewal through Christ will be at its core. And through his renewal, we can truly become “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Jesus died to raise up a new, united humanity that would go out into the world and tear down the walls of hostility between humans, expose our real Enemy, and change the world with true lasting acts of reconciliation. And that reconciliation begins with us, friends.

So, where you stand depends on where you sit. My challenge to you is this: Where are you sitting today?

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:18–21).

A recent edition to the Star Wars franchise is The Mandalorian TV series. It has become hugely popular with both die-hard Star Wars fans as well as the next generation of younger viewers. The Mandalorians were a group of fearsome warriors originating from the planet Mandalore. They were bound by a code of behaviour and known for their military exploits. They show up at various places throughout the Star Wars universe. The TV series is set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). It follows the exploits of a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter who is hired by Imperial forces to retrieve the child Grogu. The Mandalorian ends up forming a bond with the child and starts his own quest to return the child to the Jedi order to be trained in his abilities to use the force.

Throughout the first two series of the show, you will often hear a phrase repeated amongst the Mandalorians – “This is the Way.” It operates as statement of belief, a code of life for the Mandalorians.

The Way and Early Christianity

For anyone versed in the literature of the early Church, the phrase “the way” will be familiar. Before the term “Christian” was commonly used to designate followers of Jesus, early believers simply referred to themselves as followers of “the way!”

In Acts 9:1-2 – Saul of tarsus is hunting those belonging to The Way:

“Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way.”

Later in Acts 19:9, when Paul is teaching in Ephesus, we read this:

“But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people.”

During his trial before Felix, Paul identified with The Way:

“But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets” (Acts 24:14) [emphasis mine].

The Creed

In the eighth episode of the first season called, “Redemption,” we have an exchange between the main character, Mando, and the former shock-trooper, Cara Dune, who often assists Mando. During this exchange, it is revealed that Mando was not actually born on the planet Mandalore – but was taken there when his home plant was attacked. This dialogue provides our next insight.

She says:

“Mandalorian isn’t a race. It’s a Creed.”

The word “creed” comes from the Latin word credo – “I believe.” They were not a race defined by ethnicity, but by a common creed, or as we would say, a statement of faith. Again, this got me thinking about the early messianic community; what a good description of the early church, a group of people from many races all united around a common creed – redemption. The song of the redeemed says:

“And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God you’re your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation'” (Revelation 5:9).

The title itself gives us a clue as to what the early church unified around. Their leader spoke these words:

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).

To be a follower of The Way, in its purest form, was to be a follower of Jesus and His teachings. He is the unifying principle, the creed, which all followers have in common. This is why the early church had a creedal faith. We find small phrases similar to “this is the way” all through the Bible. In the New Testament the phrase, “Jesus is Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 2:11) operates as a creed. It is a creed, which one day, every tongue will have to confess.

Other passages such as 1 Timothy 3:16 are also considered to be early creeds:

“By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness:

He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

These creedal confessions continue into the writings of the Church fathers. The 2nd century father Irenaeus had his “rule of faith:”

“…This faith: in one God, the Father Almighty, who made the heaven and the earth and the seas and all the things that are in them; And in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation; And in the Holy Spirit, who made known through the prophets the plan of salvation, and the coming, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and his future appearing from heaven in the glory of the Father to sum up all things and to raise anew all flesh of the whole human race…”

Then, a little later, perhaps the most well know creed of all was formulated:

The Apostle’s Creed

“I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic¹ Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen”

The primary themes from these creeds are worth noting. The early believers unified around the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ – the Way! They accepted his atoning death as a sacrifice for sins as well as affirming His future coming in judgement. I wonder if somewhere over the last 2,000 years, we have lost our way, and allowed these central elements to become peripheral?

The Creed Made Them Distinct

For the Mandalorians, their commitment to “the way” made them easily identifiable. The had a distinctive suit of armour and were never allowed to remove their helmets in front of people. In other words, following the creed manifested itself in certain behaviours. What they believed affected what they did. This is just how it is with us as believers. We are to be identifiable by what we do – because of what we believe.

Jesus said:

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

This radical love was to be a distinctive characteristic of followers of the way.

Elsewhere, Paul tells Titus to “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in every respect” (Titus 2:10). That is similar to saying, wear the teachings of Christ on you as a garment for all to see. Our commitment to the way makes us identifiable. This should be seen in our actions, our speech, and our creeds. This again serves as a reminder to the church today, to honour Christ in all these areas. The early church understood this well.

The first century discipleship manual known as the Didache begins by laying out the two ways of life and then by listing identifiable traits, which will connect you to one of the two ways:

“There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbour as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you.

And the second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born. You shall not covet the things of your neighbour, you shall not swear, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not speak evil, you shall bear no grudge.

And the way of death is this: First of all it is evil and accursed: murders, adultery, lust, fornication, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rape, false witness, hypocrisy, double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-will, greediness, filthy talking, jealousy, over-confidence, loftiness, boastfulness; persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie….be delivered children from these things.

See that no one causes you to err from this way of the Teaching, since apart from God it teaches you.”

This is what Paul meant when he said we should “live lives worthy of the Gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27). We should all be willing to affirm this; we look at one another and say, “This is the Way” – our commitment, our life.

For the Mandalorian it was this commitment that meant he had to bring the Child Grogu back to the Jedi; for us, the Way is a person!

The Way is a King, a Saviour, a Friend, and an Intercessor.

So, at a time of deep division in the world and in the church, let us remember the ways of the ancient creeds. Let us again unify around the person and work of Christ, let us renew our commitment to follow all of his teaching – and let us manifest this in our words and actions so that all will know we are followers of THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE!

To listen to the podcast of this teaching, check it out on the GoodLion Podcast Network.

_NOTES:

<sub>¹ This term does not denote Catholicism as we know it today – it was simply used in the sense of “universal.”


Star Wars is known for its central theme of “the force” as a belief system and a means of gaining power. CalvaryChapel.com & CGN do not necessarily agree with every element of the Star Wars story. By sharing this article, we aim to remind people of the hope and truth in Christ Jesus and encourage others toward the hope of Christ.</sub>

_{The Mandalorian TV series is rated TV-14 in the US for Action, Adventure, and Sci-Fi.}

_{Images above credited to Lucasfilms.}

What a year it’s been! 2020 has felt to me as if the whole world has been shaken – a global pandemic, lockdowns and restrictions, death and tragedy, political polarization, economic catastrophes, riots and fires and pain. As I said, what a year!

Where is God in all of this you might ask? He is working his eternal plan (Romans 8:28)!

It is interesting that even as we observe the world being shaken, we can also see that the church itself has been shaken. Normal church practice has been stripped away by the restrictions and lockdowns implemented across the globe.

Gathering together was banned, music was banned, congregational singing was banned, time restrictions were placed on services, hospitality was banned, and even hugs were forbidden. The apparatus of the church in many ways was stripped away. Hebrews 12:27 says, “‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” What is left for us Christians when all of this is removed?

For some in the church, nothing remained, and their faith failed; the apparatus of the church was where their faith was placed. And when it was removed, there was no foundation to stand on, no Christ to stand on. The shaking of the church has been intense and painful, but what remains?

What remains in the heart of every Christian is their personal relationship with Jesus.

A phrase that has been used so often that it has lost much of its meaning. A personal relationship with Jesus. Jesus has often been drowned out of our lives by the busyness of ministry, church life, community and perfect worship music. Are these things bad? Of course not, they are wonderful! But if they are all you have, what are you left with when they are removed? Nothing.

The “nothing” of people’s relationship with God is being exposed. God is always working – we know that (Romans 8:28). God is working in every situation; he is working even now in this global pandemic. In this time of “crisis” for the church in this “great falling away.” God is working and weaving his good plan, just as he has from the start. Where is your faith? Now is the time to look to God’s new beginning, for his rebirth of the church, with those who remain. “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11).

We have had a dependency on the apparatus of the church that has distracted us for our need to come to God, on our own in the secret place. To know his presence in the quiet of our room. To come before him, to pray for guidance, renewal; to come to him in confession and repentance, and to lay our lives daily before him; to know his touch, to feel the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our time alone with God. Without that, what do we have? Hip churches, wonderful music, coffee community – but with an empty place at the centre where Jesus should be enthroned. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4). It is time to abide again with Christ, for him to be our life blood and our source.

Can we worship without music? Yes! Can the Holy Spirit move even if church looks a bit different? Yes! He moved in power in an upper room when the “church,” the 12 disciples, were scared and in hiding. Now is the time to see the spirit move in a way that we have never seen before! Don’t despair – look forward in faith to the new thing God is doing in the world!

I am so excited to be a Christian in this season, because the Lord is doing a new thing! This is not a season of defeat; it is an integral part of God’s great plan of salvation! This is not based on a shallow faith defined by distraction, but on a deep and personal faith, where Jesus is king and our lives are fully his.

What will our new normal be?

It will begin in the secret place with Jesus. Followers of Christ who have a deep abiding faith – who’s trust is in God – in his sovereignty over all the chaos and in his continuing plan for the world- those followers will stand, even though shaken, they will see the renewal of God’s church and his work internationally.

As we come back to gather together again, we are not re-starting church, instead, we are starting anew. The power to stand comes through a posture of kneeling in prayer (kneeling is not banned!). The rebirth of the church will be birthed out of a place of prayer and repentance.

Let’s be a part of God’s coming plan. Now is the time for us to go to God in prayer, to ask him to forgive us for building our faith on things other than him – even good things. Things can be stripped away- as we have seen this year – but our relationship with Christ is eternal. He is the rock on which we build our faith, our lives and the church!

This year the anxiety level of the global community has gone through the roof. For the first time, some secular people are thinking about the big questions of life; they realise they are facing the void alone, and they are terrified. They want an answer to their pain, confusion and fear. The Gospel is that answer, and we will see the gospel go out in power again. The “West” is the great new mission field.

The “West” has forgotten the Gospel, and we are who God is calling to tell it once again. Now is the time.

God told Esther she was made “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) – if you are still standing in Christ, then he is going to use you in this time. Come to him even now as you read this article; kneel down before him and offer him your life once more. Then come to prayer and hammer heaven with your requests to see God’s renewal in your communities and internationally. It might feel like the tide is going out on Christianity – but just as one wave rolls out, a new one is rolling in!

Together, in prayer, in the secret place with Christ, in our personal relationship with Jesus, we will see his church be renewed.

“On Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand!”