This Independence Day – Appreciate American Leaders Who Excelled, Moral Shortcomings and All

The Jefferson Memorial

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.”
– Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia”

The City of Long Beach is pondering changing the name of a park from “Lincoln Park” to a name of interest to Native Americans. OK, maybe the park is on land with a history many of us don’t know. If the change is made, I hope “Lincoln Park” can find a place to bear its name somewhere else. Don’t judge an imperfect Lincoln in a way that cancels his magisterial accomplishments.

Thomas Jefferson was not a perfect man. Will the perfect person please stand, that we might pay you honor? His slavery practices fell well short of his proclamations on slavery. To put it another way, though he was a sinner who kept slaves, Jefferson set forth principles bigger than he was—principles that helped sow the seeds of abolition. This must not be forgotten.

Our nation’s pacesetters need to be evaluated by the mores and standards of their own generations, not by “righteous people” who come along later— who’ve had more of a chance to learn and grow from the mistakes of the past.

We honor President Franklin D. Roosevelt but we must not forget his evil actions against innocent Japanese-Americans. Eighty years ago he signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which led to placing 120,000 West Coast Japanese-Americans in relocation camps.
Should we “correct” our history and close his monument in Washington, DC?
No, but we must tell the story and never forget his great wrong.

Likewise, California’s attorney general (and later its very popular governor) Earl Warren* was a strong supporter of the relocation camps and urged the president on. On the way up the coast on Highway 101, just past Santa Barbara, we pass the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Should this be renamed and his name cancelled? No, but his complicity in the interning of American citizens of Japanese descent must be remembered.

* See: Greg Robinson, By Order of the President, pp. 96, 101, 102, 126. Most Americans today remember Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969, whose appointment President Eisenhower later called “the biggest damn-fool mistake I ever made.”

For Me, The “Rapture” Is Up in the Air!
By Donald Shoemaker
PART THREE (of 3): The Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church – Some Helpful Reflections

In “Part One” ” I shared my movement away from a doctrinaire “Pre-tribulation Rapture” view toward (1) greater openness on the subject and (2) the observation that this subject is not a “Truth of the First Order” where we speak with high certainty. Rather, it is a “level three” or “level four” teaching, which carries less certitude and shouldn’t divide us.

In “Part Two” ” we saw how Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian Christians contain an amazingly large amount of teaching on the Second Coming of Jesus and also contain a surprisingly small amount of teaching on the Rapture. This is significant all the more in light of the fact that the Rapture is likely taught nowhere else in the Bible.

We looked at the seven references in 1 and 2 Thessalonians to the Second Coming and the Rapture. My conclusion from my study: These texts together support or lean toward the idea of the Second Coming being one comprehensive event, not “Events A and B.”

Now for “Part Three” I want to discuss a number of issues that relate to the Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church.

1. Why the current disinterest in Bible Prophecy?
When I was a young Christian in the 1960’s I was concerned that a general disinterest in Bible prophecy seemed to be settling into evangelical churches and ministries. This was a BIG change from the 1950’s, when Bible Prophecy was a huge teaching theme. Trends in youth ministry pointed us to focus on problems of this world and our role in changing things. Prophecy took a back seat, for it was seen as a hindrance to this-world ministries.

Everything changed dramatically again with the arrival of The Jesus Movement in the late 1960’s. Many of the “Hippies” who were attracted to The Jesus Movement were kind of “doomsday” people to begin with (the singer Barry McGuire, who converted to Jesus, was already known in the entertainment world for his song “Eve of Destruction”).

The Jesus Movement was highly influenced by the Calvary Chapel churches that grew from it and by Hal Lindsey (author of The Late Great Planet Earth). Calvary Chapels were strongly into Bible Prophecy and were (and still are) strong proponents of the “Pre-Trib Rapture.” Youthful Christians were taught that the Rapture could happen at any moment. Youthful songwriters produced songs on prophecy themes (like Larry Norman’s pre-trib song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”). The youth of my own congregation in Long Beach, California started a regular “Jesus Meeting” gathering known as “Last Generation.”

The popular film “A Thief in the Night” promoted a pre-tribulation rapture. San Diego-based pastor and author Tim LaHaye, whom TIME Magazine named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America, produced the immensely popular “Left Behind” series of 12 books that depicted a world in turmoil after the sudden pre-trib rapture of the saints.

Youth-driven interest in prophecy topics had never been greater, I’m quite sure.

Now today we have lapsed back into disinterest in Bible prophecy. One writer said you have to be over 50 to be interested (all those Jesus People are now well over 50!). This could be blamed on the excesses and extremes of some prophecy teaching. Or to the “this-world” orientation of a lot of teaching and ministries today (including efforts to change society). Or simply to a blind spot in our attention to one of the Bible’s key themes.

Whatever the reasons, the current disinterest is nothing new. “I’ve seen it all before!” The Church needs to be concerned about it and reform itself by a healthy restoration of Bible Prophecy.

2. Can even good teaching on Bible Prophecy lead to bad behavior?
Let’s stipulate: Bad theology leads to bad behavior. But can good teaching lead some to wrong behavior. This seemed to be the case in Thessalonica, when Paul wrote his two letters to the church there.

That church seemed remarkably free of bad thinking and bad living *. Still, Paul makes reference to some bad behavior which might well be linked to the teachings on prophecy the church had learned:

We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12 NIV)

Here’s the error: Instead of minding their own business they started minding the business of others. Idleness creates unhealthy dependence and nosy busybodies. Paul’s strong words of solution were “be quiet, earn your own bread. And if you won’t work, then you don’t eat!” He gives the practice of his own missionary team as an example to follow: “We worked hard among you and didn’t ask you for anything” (verses 7-8).

Unfortunately, even truthful teaching about Jesus’ second coming can lead to wrong application of the truth if guidance on good behavior isn’t given. Trust in the return of the Lord should lead to energetic service and devotion to everyday duties. It must not lead to idleness and dependency. Or to the “cultural withdrawal” we sometimes see today.

A church once began near my home. The pastor announced in the local newspaper that his new church wouldn’t own any buildings because Jesus was coming soon. But Jesus didn’t come immediately and in time some couples in his congregation wanted to get married.
How does a pastor handle weddings if his congregation has no place of their own to meet? Well, why not go ask other churches if they could use their church building for wedding ceremonies? See the dependency? Update: that church now owns its own building!

We must be sure to provide example after example of the godly living that must proceed from good prophetic teaching, lest listeners misapply the teaching and go astray.

[ * Paul also identifies some apparent sexual misbehavior in this congregation, but doesn’t seem to link it to prophetic teachings. Rather, to a failure to honor the human body as we should (1 Thessalonians 3:3-8).]

3. Arguments for a Pre-tribulation Rapture based on biblical issues, not biblical texts

• An imminent “Rapture”?
In his book The Rapture Question John Walvoord stated that the Rapture is not explicitly taught in Scripture (p. 148 in 1957 edition, deleted in later printings). This is not a disproof in itself, but acknowledges that the doctrine is essentially rationalized from other topics *.

One rationalization is the “imminence” issue—an “any moment” return of Christ. If the Rapture is “imminent,” then no signs—certainly not the Tribulation—can precede it. It is further argued that an “imminent rapture” is a stimulus for godly living, and this stimulus is lost without an imminent rapture.

There are warnings in scripture about the Lord’s sudden, unexpected return that will catch many unprepared. “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42). However the reality is that such warnings are intended to prepare people for the post-tribulational Second Coming (24:30), not a rapture seven years earlier. Indeed, Jesus alerts his followers to look for signs of this “imminent” event and to be prepared, because its exact timing is unknown. Combined with this is Jesus’ word that “for the sake of the elect” the final days of stress before his return will be shortened (Matthew 24:22). How much, we’re not told. **

Here’s a challenge: before us are two devout Christians. One believes the Rapture could happen at any moment. The other Christian’s prophetic system teaches that certain events will precede the Rapture. Show me that the first person’s prophetic outlook will make him any more godly, any more “ready” for the Lord’s return than the other. I doubt you can. Hopefully, our commitment to pleasing our Lord goes deeper than where Jesus’ coming for his saints is placed on the prophecy chart hanging on some wall at church.

* It’s true that doctrines can be rationalized from biblical statements that don’t teach it explicitly. The Trinity is a prime example. But the many texts that would lead to a reasoned doctrine of the Trinity are quite clear (the deity of Christ, for example, in John 1:1 and Philippians 2:5-11).

** Anyone who has tried to interpret Matthew 24 and related texts knows how Jesus’ words on the destruction of the Temple (70 AD) and his Second Coming are intermingled and is aware of how difficult this makes our understanding of many specific verses.

• Sharp distinction between Israel and the Church?
The system of interpretation known as “Dispensationalism” distinguishes Israel and the church (and God’s promises to each). The argument here is that God will conclude his dealings with the Church (by rapturing it) before he resumes his favored dealings with Israel. Richard Mayhue stated that “nowhere in Scripture is it taught that the Church and Israel would coexist as the centers for God’s redemptive message and yet remain mutually exclusive.”

Some writers are adamant, insisting that God’s ministry to the Church must end before he resumes his ministry with Israel.

I call this insistence the notion that God can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Why can’t God multi-task if it fits his purposes?

Others say the non-congruence of these two works of God is a free decision by God (which fits our understanding of God’s freedom better).

This is an example of where new perspectives on Dispensationalism are modifying that system. A pre-tribulation rapture once thought to be a necessary implication of this system is no longer seen as such. Note some statements by Robert Saucy (pages 8-9 and 26-27 in The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism):

While most dispensationalists probably hold to a pretribulation rapture of the church as being in certain respects more harmonious with dispensationalism in general, many would not desire to make this a determining touchstone of dispensationalism today.

Saucy argued for a “mediating position”: (1) a natural understanding of the prophetic Scriptures that appear to assign a significant role to the nation Israel in the future is retained; (2) God’s program is viewed as unified within history. A radical discontinuity between the present church age and the kingdom promises to Israel is denied.

This is a big debate. The only point I make here is that a particular position on the timing of the Rapture should not be inferred from a conclusion on how God can or must deal with Israel and the Church.

• Exemption from God’s judgments poured out during the Tribulation
I noted in “Part Two” of this 3-part study that it is hard to contemplate the presence of the saints on earth during a time of God’s intense worldwide outpouring of his wrath as it seems to be described in Revelation 16. This leads some to support a “pre-wrath rapture” theory. Others look to the plagues on Egypt (Exodus 7-11) as evidence that God can protect his chosen ones while his wrath is expressed all around. They note the seal of protection on the 144,000 during the Tribulation as an example (Revelation 7:1-8). Others hesitate to impose a worldwide notion on texts that may not intend such a perspective (e.g., Luke 2:1).

Still others would spiritualize at least some of the plagues. I’m fascinated by the views of Dwight Pentecost (a strong “literal meaning” advocate for understanding prophecy texts). He says the outpouring of God’s wrath in the “vial” judgments of Revelation 16 have reference to unbelievers and special reference to the Beast [Antichrist] and his followers. He goes further and spiritualizes at least some of these plagues. A judgment on the “seas” refers to spiritual death; one on “rivers” and “fountains of life” shows that the Beast is unable to nourish and sustain life. Judgment on the sun speaks of “spiritual blindness” (Things to Come, pp. 363-64).

The issue I identify remains but has possible solutions. And it definitely does not require a rapture that would exempt Christians from the Tribulation and its persecutions.

4. Two examples of change from a strict Pre-tribulation Rapture position

The pre-tribulation rapture position had its rise with the Plymouth Brethren and the Bible Conference movements of the 19th century. Dispensationalism got a huge boost in the U.S. from the great popularity of The Scofield Reference Bible.

One reference to the pre-tribulation rapture in The Scofield Reference Bible is clear (commenting on the “restrainer” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7 being the Holy Spirit in the Church, p. 1272). Scofield’s main impact is his sharp distinction between scriptures referring to Israel and the Church. For example, he would hold that the prophecies in the Synoptic Gospels have little to say directly to the Church.

The pre-tribulation rapture found its way into many doctrinal statements of Dispensational flavor in the first half of the 20th century. It also became popular in the new Pentecostal movement, which was “end times” focused. Many thought it was a bulwark against liberalism. Insist on this doctrine and liberalism will never take root!

The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (which morphed into Biola University, where I once taught) has a clearly mainstream evangelical doctrinal statement (1912) that doesn’t get into the rapture issue. However, a number of “Teaching Positions” were created over the years to clarify the doctrinal statement. In reality, some positions added to the school’s doctrines rather than just clarifying them.

Biola’s teaching position on the Rapture added to the doctrinal statement as it said:
“The Scriptures are to be interpreted according to dispensational distinctive with the conviction that the return of the Lord for His Church will be premillennial, before the Tribulation, and that the millennium is to be the last of the dispensations” [italics mine].

As a biblical studies professor, I found this position to be a confining limitation on freedom of inquiry on an issue over which evangelicals should be able to hold various positions without putting themselves outside the “Bible-believing” camp.

Biola’s current position, however, is quite different: “Before these millennial events, the believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (I Thess. 4:13-17). The time of this ‘rapture’ is unknown, and thus believers are to live constantly watchful and ready.” Yes!

Likewise, my own denomination (The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, now commonly known as “The Charis Fellowship”) adopted a clear pre-tribulation rapture position in its 1969 doctrinal statement:

SECOND COMING. The personal, visible, and imminent return of Christ to remove His church from the earth (1 Thess. 4:16-17) before the tribulation (1 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 3:10), and afterward to descend with the Church to establish His millennial kingdom upon the earth (Rev. 19:11-20:6). [Italics mine]

This reflected a move away from the simple statement on eschatology in The Message of the Brethren Ministry” (1921):

The personal and visible return of our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the glorious goal for which we are taught to watch, wait and pray.

The change represented a doctrinal “tightening” viewed by many as a progressive step coming from deeper insight into scripture. But not all of us were content!

In the year 2000 I wrote an article titled “Grace Brethren Eschatology: Where Should Our Fellowship Go?” in Sharpening One Another, a publication of the Association of Grace Brethren Ministers. I presented a series of statements encouraging us to ponder turning away from a dogmatic pre-tribulation rapture position and back to the simplicity of “The Message of the Brethren Ministry.” [See Appendix #1]

In 2015-16 the FGBC/Charis Fellowship adopted a new document known as “The Charis Commitment to Common Identity.” It is an interesting document worth a look (under “about” at www.charisfellowship.us). Its eschatology statement is premillennial without dogmatism about the timing of the Rapture:

The present Church age will come to an end when our Lord comes in the air to remove His Church from the earth and fulfill His promises to Israel. The second coming of Christ is the personal, physical, and visible return from heaven of Christ to earth with His Church, to establish His thousand-year reign before instituting His eternal kingdom.

The Charis Fellowship’s educational institution, Grace College and Grace Theological Seminary, retains a pre-tribulation rapture statement in its “Covenant of Faith.”

These two examples represent a broad trend in conservative denominations toward the loosening of position-taking on the Rapture of the Church. Other evangelicals have, on the other hand, retained the pretribulation rapture point—the Assemblies of God and the Calvary Chapel network are examples of denominations doing this.

Some Final Words
(We believe) in one Lord Jesus Christ

For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.

We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and to life in the world to come. Amen.

– The Nicene Creed (325 AD)

Millions of Christians express their unity of faith in Christ’s return as they recite this creed or the similar though briefer Apostles’ Creed.
I strongly believe that the various perspectives on the details of the Second Coming of Jesus and the Rapture of the Church are to be points of discussion rather than division, for celebration not for conflict, for anticipation not for acrimony.

Therefore I tend to oppose doctrinal statements that go beyond the simple, clear, significant confessions of the post-apostolic church on Jesus’ present Session in heaven, his return in glory, the resurrection of the dead, judgment of all, and life in the world to come.

What is my “preference” so far as the Rapture is concerned? Well, of course, my personal preference is for a pre-tribulation rapture. I want to escape the trials of the Last Days. But what does the biblical information support? I fear that the desire for an exemption from tribulation is a feature of comfortable Western Christianity, which has enjoyed unparalleled religious freedom and a long vacation from major tribulation. But that is not the experience of many Christians over time or around the world today (“…through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.” – Acts 14:22 ESV).

My operational and theological thesis now is that the Bible does not provide support for a two-stage Second Coming—what I have referred to as “Second Coming A” (the Rapture) and “Second Coming B” (the Revelation). There is no compelling reason to hold to more than a single comprehensive “Second Coming in Glory.”

That said, I pray my mind stays open for I know there is much more to learn in humility because “now we see through a glass dimly” and we will not “fully know” until we see Jesus face-to-face (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Jesus’ Second Coming in glory is “The Blessed Hope” of the Church which the Apostle Paul presented in Titus 2:11-13 as an inducement for godly living. I stress again that this godliness-inducing event is Jesus’ glorious appearance, his “epiphaneia” after the Tribulation, to establish his Kingdom (Revelation 19:11-16).

The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing
[epipháneian] of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ…

“Veni, Domine Jesu”
“Come, Lord Jesus!”

(Revelation 22:20)

Please see two Appendices below.

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com
Contact me at: donaldshoemakerministries@verizon.net

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 55 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker

Religious Liberty Vigilance –
First Amendment Protection in Tough Times

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
– 1st Amendment
Protecting Places of Worship from Disruptive Protestors

California’s Penal Code (302) reads:
(a) Every person who intentionally disturbs or disquiets any assemblage of people met for religious worship at a tax-exempt place of worship, by profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior, or by any unnecessary noise, either within the place where the meeting is held, or so near it as to disturb the order and solemnity of the meeting, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. [302 PC has five additional points]

Examples of violations include:
• Interrupting a worship service
• Heckling a pastor during a religious service
• Yelling rude comments at people on their way into the service
• Making obscene gestures to those present at a church service

Every church or religious gathering needs to have plans to face a disruption:
• Find out if your community or state has an ordinance or law against disrupting a house of worship. If not, request of your council or legislators that one be passed.
• Be familiar with whatever protections your own state and locality might provide.
• Have a security team already trained and in place prior to any difficult situation.
• Call 911 immediately once a violation is observed or imminent.
• Remember the violation: 302-PC. Even better, have a copy of the section available.
• Notify any obvious leaders that protesters must not trespass on church property.
• A citizen arrest by one who observed the misdemeanor may be appropriate with care. The security team should be familiar with applicable citizen arrest codes.
• Indicate to law enforcement your desire that arrests be made and you are willing to press charges. Let authorities sort out the charges.
• Be prepared to offer forgiveness to any who sincerely express remorse to you.

Reasonable Limits to Protest in a Democracy
“The right to assemble and speak freely is essential to democracy. Erasing any distinction between the Public Square and private life is essential to totalitarianism. It is crucial, therefore, to protect robust demonstrations of political dissent while preventing them from turning into harassment or intimidation. . .

To picket a judge’s home is especially problematic. It tries to bring direct public pressure to bear on a decision-making process that must be controlled, evidence-based and rational if there is to be any hope of an independent judiciary.”

– Editorial Board, The Washington Post, May 8, 2022

For Me, The “Rapture” Is Up in the Air!
By Donald Shoemaker

PART TWO: The Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church in Paul’s Thessalonian Letters

In “Part One” I shared my movement away from a doctrinaire “Pre-tribulation Rapture” view toward (1) greater openness on the subject and (2) the observation that this subject is not a “Truth of the First Order” where we can speak with certainty. Rather, it is a “level three” or “level four” teaching, which carries less certitude and shouldn’t divide us.

In “Part Two” we see how Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian Christians contain an amazingly high amount of teaching on the Second Coming of Jesus. They also contain a surprisingly small amount of teaching (twice) on the Rapture, especially in light of how huge this teaching is in some circles. This is very significant in light of the fact that the Rapture is likely taught nowhere else in the Bible (possible exception: Matt. 24:30-31).

In this essay I’ll review the seven references in 1 and 2 Thessalonians to the Second Coming and the Rapture. Do these texts together support or lean toward the idea of the Second Coming being one comprehensive event? Or do they lead us to think of a separate “Second Coming A” (the Rapture) and a “Second Coming B” (the Revelation)?

Some points on the church at Thessalonica as we begin. It was a good congregation, dear to the Apostle Paul’s heart. It was founded by Paul during his second missionary journey after he entered today’s Europe for the first time (Acts 17:1-9). Shortly after, he travelled to Corinth and established a church there, remaining there for 18 months. During this extended period, he wrote his letters to the Thessalonians, in part to address some confusion in their minds over the Second Coming and to put their hearts at ease. Even good congregations can have some confusion! We may date these letters around AD 49-52.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (New International Version) – “…you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”

• True conversion is both a turning away from something (idolatry here) and a turning toward something. These new Christians turned their hearts toward God and their hope toward Jesus’ return from heaven. The Second Coming must be, for believers, an anticipated event full of encouragement to good works.
• Jesus’ return will mean deliverance from wrath—the rescue is so certain Paul puts it in the present tense (“who rescues us”). In Paul’s writings, “wrath” is God’s justified actions of judgment against all evil and all who set themselves against him (Romans 1:18; 2:5, 8; 3:5; 4:15; 5:9; 9:22; 12:19) unless the context indicates otherwise (Romans 13:4-5, for the just wrath of the magistrate against evildoers). It is not the wrath of the Devil or the Antichrist. See comments on 1 Thess. 5:9.

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 – “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.””

• Jesus taught us to use our resources to win others so they might welcome us into eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). So here, Paul labored to win people to Christ and establish them in their faith, so he might glory in Jesus’ presence with them.
• Paul here uses the word “parousia” for Jesus’ coming six times in the Thessalonian letters and once in 1 Corinthians 15:23. As we will see, it is one of three words Paul uses for the Second Coming. It can mean “arrival” or “presence.” F. F. Bruce says the word was used to describe “the official visit of a high-ranking personage to a province or city, when he was met on his approach by a deputation of leading citizens who escorted him formally for the remainder of his journey.”

1 Thessalonians 3:13 – “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”

• The Second Coming, properly taught (without lots of speculation), both induces and requires holiness of life (being prepared and watchful for his coming). Here is a prayer that we will be holy on that Day. Perhaps the idea of accountability at the judgment is in view (“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” – 2 Corinthians 5:10; see Romans 14:10).
• “Parousia” appears for the second time, translated “comes” (NIV), literally, “in the coming of our Lord Jesus.”
• Jesus will come “with all his holy ones.” This may refer to angels (“…he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels”—Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7). Or it may refer to the saints who will accompany Jesus when he returns (Revelation 19:14). The point would be, the Thessalonian believers will be “blameless and holy” and thus able to join the company of saints who will accompany Jesus. Robert Gundry sees this as a reference to disembodied souls of deceased saints who will accompany Jesus when he returns (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 – “13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

These verses are the first part of a long and very significant passage in 1 Thessalonians about the Rapture and the Second Coming. The second part is chapter 5, verses 1-11. I’m leaving the verse indicators intact in these longer passages. The chapter break is unfortunate, for it separates the second part from the much-more familiar first part.

First Part: Comfort replaces uninformed grief

• (13) As the first generation of Christians began to pass, living Christians understandably wondered how the departed would share in the blessings of Jesus’ return. Paul assures them of a hope not shared by those whose worldview omits any thinking about God and the afterlife.
• (14-15) Far from missing out on the hope, these who have “fallen asleep in him” will rise from the dead and be joined with Jesus in their glorified bodies (alternate view: the souls of deceased believers will accompany Jesus and be reunited with their bodies, which are then raised glorified). Those alive when Jesus returns will gain glorified bodies by being “changed” without dying (1 Corinthians 15:50-54).
• (15-17) A verbal record of something Jesus taught or a revelation from the Lord Jesus to Paul brought assurance that those dead when Jesus returns will not be at any disadvantage. Indeed, they will rise first and the living will have to catch up!
• (16) This will be a very noisy event (far from a “secret rapture”—see below). First a loud command (that could wake the dead! See John 11:38-44 for Jesus’ loud command at the tomb of Lazarus.). The archangel’s voice and a trumpet call follow.
• (17) Living saints are “caught up” with resurrected saints to meet the Lord in the air and are (together) forever with the Lord. But where? The text doesn’t say up or down, whether Jesus turns around or the saints turn around! The verb “caught up” (harpazein) suggests a strong action, often to the benefit of the one “caught up.” In Acts 23:10, Roman soldiers “caught up” Paul to save him from an angry crowd. In Revelation 12:5, the (Christ) child is “caught up” to God’s throne to save him from the dragon, which planned to devour him.
• I. Howard Marshal says, “The Greek word used here [apantesis, “to meet”] probably carries an allusion to the way in which a visiting dignitary might be met on the way to a city by a representative group of citizens who would then escort him back to the city.” When Paul arrived in Italy (Acts 28:15), some believers in Rome came “to meet” him and escort him to Rome. This would support the idea that the Rapture is part of the glorious Second Coming where Jesus returns to earth accompanied by the saints. The Rapture would thus be post-tribulational. However, F. F. Bruce cautions, “But there is nothing in the word ‘apantesis’ or in this context that demands this interpretation. It cannot be determined from what is said here whether the Lord (with his people) continues to earth or returns to heaven.” Cautious interpretation suggests that we not draw a firm conclusion “pre” or “post” from these verses. Leon Morris wisely says, “This is the fullest description of the Parousia in the New Testament, and when we reflect on the little that is said here we are warned against being unduly dogmatic about what will then happen.”
• The word “Rapture” comes from the Latin Bible’s verb for “caught up” (“rapio”).
• (18) The main point: “Take heart! The dead will rise and meet the Lord!”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 – “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Second Part: Alertness and sobriety replace sleeping and drunkenness

• (1)“Now” (peri de) introduces a new issue in the topic of Jesus’ return. In essence, be prepared! “Times and dates” (kronōn kai kairōn) refers to the End Times and its high points. Jesus told his disciples that we cannot know the “times and dates” (same nouns as in Acts 1:7). No matter, no problem—Christians have often tried to figure out “times and dates,” especially in the past 100+ years.
• (2-3) When “The Day of the Lord” arrives, most will not be prepared. Instead, they will be living as if it won’t happen and they are content with the illusion of “peace.” For them, “The Day of the Lord” will come like a thief and catch them by surprise.
• (4) Others will be prepared for this Day, awaiting it with eagerness and sober, godly living. For them, “The Day of the Lord” will NOT come like a thief, for they are ready.
• What is “The Day of the Lord?” It’s a day when God steps into human affairs to execute judgment and vindicate righteousness. The phrase may describe God’s judgment in history, like a locust invasion or army that drew people to repentance (Joel 1 & 2). “The Day of the Lord” also looks ahead to God’s final intervention in human affairs—the “great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31; Acts 2:20). Many will be ready for that day but many others will not be—the key point of
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
• (2, 4) “Like a thief in the night” is sometimes used to describe a pre-tribulational secret rapture (“Second Coming A”) as opposed to Jesus’ glorious public coming (“Second Coming B”). A movie named “A Thief in the Night” came out in 1972, depicting a secret rapture that left a lawn mower running unattended and a razor buzzing in the sink because their users were secretly raptured (apparently taking their pants with them). But this misses the point! The metaphor “thief” points to what is unexpected by the unprepared. It does not describe the nature of the Rapture. If Jesus’ return is to me “like a thief,” that’s my fault!
• (9) “For God did not appoint us for wrath, but to receive salvation…” The verse begins with “for” (hoti), giving a reason and incentive for us to maintain faith, hope and love (v. 8). Consistent with Paul’s use of the word “wrath” (orge), Paul is speaking of God’s wrath poured out on a world rejecting him. It does not refer to the “wrath” of the Devil (Revelation 12:12, using the word “thumos”) or other forces of evil we are forewarned to resist. The verse promises exemption from divine wrath rather than exemption from the Tribulation.
• There is a viewpoint known as “the pre-wrath rapture” theory—the Rapture will be near the end of the Tribulation before God casts his rapid worldwide judgments on the earth (Revelation 14:1-5, 14-16, chapters 15 & 16). This is not an unreasonable position, should the judgments proceeding from God’s “wrath” be so widespread and of such magnitude that Christ’s followers simply could not be exempt from them if they were around during that hour of judgment. If we try to reconcile
1 Thessalonians 5:9 with Revelation 14-16, we must proceed with humble caution, insomuch as we don’t know “the times or the dates” of such happenings. We’ll see…

1 Thessalonians 5:23 – “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

• Jesus’ church is full of “spots and wrinkles and blemishes” (Ephesians 5:27). As I grow older, I see these increasing on my body. But in a maturing church there should be fewer and fewer of these due to God’s cleansing and holiness-producing ministries for us. Our confidence in the Second Coming actually induces moral purity (1 John 3:2-3). On the Day of Jesus’ return this process will be complete.
• “Spirit, soul and body” are not three “parts” that comprise us (the doctrinal term for this is “trichotomy”) any more than loving God with all our “heart, soul, mind and strength” (Mark 12:30) means we have four parts. Rather, we are to love the Lord and be kept blameless through and through, with all our being.
• “The coming of our Lord” gives us the fourth use of parousia (“arrival, presence”) in these two letters (after 2:19, 3:13, 4:15). Paul doesn’t infer two parousias, but just one (with the definite article, “the coming,” which includes the Rapture).

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 – “He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”

• This is clearly a reference to Jesus’ Second Coming in power and glory (“Second Coming B” if you follow that scheme). Its dramatic display for all to see is underscored by “revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.”
• Important point: It seems to me that the church’s relief from persecution (“relief to you who are troubled”) would be fulfilled at the Rapture if it were pretribulational rather than at “Second Coming B.” But that is not what these verses say. Final relief from persecutors comes when Jesus is gloriously revealed, not before.
• “Revealed from heaven” introduces a new word describing the Second Coming—apokalupsis. The word goes beyond “presence” (parousia) to convey Jesus’ very open manifestation in contrast to his present hiddenness. His lordship will be revealed in power and glory and he will openly dispense justice. It will be “pay back hour” for all who have persecuted the church (“those who trouble you”).
• Jesus will be “glorified” and “marveled at” by his saints who surround him. My thoughts go to Revelation 19:14 – “The armies were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean” (Jesus’ bride has already clothed herself in “fine linen, bright and clean,” which are all her righteous acts—19:5-6). In fact, the whole openly glorious description of the Second Coming (Revelation 19:11-16) fits apokalupsis quite well.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-8

This final passage on the Rapture and Second coming is clearly the most challenging! How we interpret it will pretty well determine whether we hold to a “pre” or “post-trib” Rapture. The whole context (2:1-12) is really the heart of 2 Thessalonians.

“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.”

• Verse 1 is a beautiful summation of “the Rapture.” At this event, (1) Jesus will arrive (the parousia) and (2) his followers will be “gathered [episunagōgēs] to him.” The latter word is only used one other time in the New Testament—for the gathering of believers in worship assembly (Hebrews 10:25). It is also used in 2 Maccabees for the regathering of Israel after her Babylonian exile. These few words very nicely sum up the detailed teaching on the Rapture in 1 Thess. 4:15-17. The two passages are, as I said earlier, the only likely references to the Rapture in the whole Bible.
• Even a very good church can be troubled by bad doctrine. This church risked being “unsettled” and “alarmed” by teaching purportedly from the Apostle Paul, who would now set their hearts at ease.
• The misleading teaching may have come by someone’s (false) word of prophesy, or by a report that Paul taught these things, or a misunderstanding of what he had taught when with them, or even by a letter claiming to be from him. Paul didn’t know. Whichever, what “word” was so disturbing? “The day of the Lord had already come.” If true, they had missed out on its blessings. If true, their hope for relief from sufferings and persecution was a false hope. There will be no relief!
• The return and gathering of verse 1 is referred to in verse 2 as “the day of the Lord.” It is wrong to separate, as some do, the “Rapture” from “the day of the Lord.”

“3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”

• Whatever was said by whatever means, Paul counters, “Don’t be deceived.” More than just saying, “Get over it!” he gives the reason why they need not be unsettled. Before the “coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,” before the “gathering together,” two events must happen first: (1) the rebellion (apostasia—“apostasy”) and (2) the revealing (apokalupsthē, a verb form of apokalupsis) of “the man of lawlessness.” Since those haven’t happened, the day of the Lord cannot have happened either!
• I suggest these two happenings be viewed as one leading to the other. Great apostasy (moral, spiritual, doctrinal rebellion) welcomes the “man of lawlessness.” The soil of sin and falsehood readily receives the seed.
• A very small number of interpreters have said the word apostasia refers to the “departure of the saints in the Rapture.” If this were correct, as Charles Ryrie noted, this would be a clear text that the rapture precedes the arrival of the Antichrist. But Ryrie and almost all “pre-trib rapture” teachers reject it.
• “The man of lawlessness” is also called “the man doomed to destruction” (literally, “the son of destruction”). Elsewhere in scripture he is the Antichrist (1 John 4:3) and the “beast out of the sea” (Revelation 13:1). At the Second Coming he will be overthrown by Jesus’ breath and destroyed by the splendor of his coming (verse 8).
• But until then, once he comes look out! He will be the archenemy of God and his people. He will exalt himself over God and even set himself up “in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God.” Other scriptures point to his blasphemy and persecution of the saints and to the worship he will demand (Revelation 13:5-17).
• Does this text tell us that a temple to God will be built (in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount)? This has been rumored for decades. I have two realistic comments. First, expect “the mother of all wars” if the Dome of the Rock were ever demolished to make room for a new temple. Won’t happen. Second, I think this notion counters the claim by many “pre-trib rapture” advocates that the Rapture will happen suddenly with no signs preceding it. How many years would it take for a new temple to be proposed, designed and constructed and then for some time to pass before this “man of lawlessness” can occupy it? Certainly much of this project must precede a Rapture that would come (as many propose) 3-1/2 years before this temple blasphemy occurs. Yes, there were three actual desecrations of the Second Temple before the Romans destroyed it and the city in AD 70. But I’m prepared to see this reference to a “temple” as metaphorical of how “the man of lawlessness” will seek to displace God. Gordon Fee says, “By the time Paul wrote this letter the temple in Jerusalem no longer held any importance to him*, except in a symbolic way to remind others of God’s past presence with his people.” [*Is no “importance” an overstatement? Perhaps “no salvific importance.” His overall comment stands.] I find it very unlikely that Paul would call a rebuilt temple in the End Times “God’s temple” in light of his spiritualizing of the temple elsewhere (Ephesians 2:19-22).

5 “Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”

• (5-6) In this case, the church’s angst over the Day of the Lord was due to her forgetting what the apostle had taught in person. She just needed to be reminded. Our limitation is we don’t know all that Paul taught them. For a big example, we don’t know what it is that restrains this man of lawlessness from being revealed. Paul doesn’t repeat all he taught this church for the sake of later Bible students, and humble teachers of the Bible shouldn’t teach what isn’t given to them to teach!
• (6, 7b) Paul uses both the neuter “what is holding him back” and the masculine “the one who now holds it back.” Once this restraint/restrainer is removed, the man of lawlessness will be revealed.
• (7a) Evil, “the secret power of lawlessness,” is with us now. We see it and suffer from it often and sometimes fall into it ourselves. We must expose today’s evils and resist them by God’s enablements, while knowing that much greater evil lies ahead.
• (7b-8a) Once the restraint is removed, the man of lawlessness will step forth. We see God’s sovereignty here even against the forces of evil. This is a key theme throughout the Book of Revelation (see Revelation 17:17).
• We can’t restrain curiosity, can we? What/who might this restraint/restrainer be? Some say: the restraint of the state doing its proper role (Romans 13:1-7) and personified in its leader (Rome and its emperor, and all subsequent restraining powers). When this authority collapses, the man of lawlessness will emerge. Some says it’s the Holy Spirit (“spirit, pneuma” is neuter, yet the Spirit is a “he”). This would be God’s Spirit in his role of restrainer. But then this view adds a second layer: this is the Holy Spirit insofar as he indwells the church, and he is removed when the church is raptured (hence, before the man of lawlessness can be revealed). This second point is handy but speculative. And farfetched. It requires that all the evangelism during the Great Tribulation (and there are many converts—Revelation 7:9, 13, 14) and all the strength required to resist the Tribulation’s great evil will be accomplished without the Spirit’s indwelling. It also requires that the Spirit, a key blessing of the New Covenant and a benefit Jesus said would be with his followers forever (John 7:37-39, 14:16; Acts 2:17-18), will be removed as if the Covenant and Pentecost are reversed. No, this is a wrong view. Truth be told, we don’t know what or who the restrainer is. Gary Demarist quotes Augustine (“I admit that the meaning of this completely escapes me.”) and adds, “Three cheers for Augustine!”
• (8b) We do know that the days of the man of lawlessness are numbered and he will be destroyed by the glory of the Second Coming. After one final bold resistance he is cast into the “lake of fire” (Revelation 19:19-20).
• Paul now adds a third magisterial word for the Second Coming: epiphaneia—“…the splendor [display] of his coming [parousia].” The word could describe a visit by the emperor. It well fits Paul’s emphasis on the power and glory of the returning Lord.

Reflecting on what has been said…

Good Bible teachers differ on many points of Bible prophecy—some minor, some major. But they do not differ on the fundamentals. Remember the announcement given when Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1:11): “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
With the Second Coming of Jesus, his followers (living and resurrected) will, with glorified bodies, be united with Jesus forever. All will face a Day of Judgment. Those who believe the Bible will differ on whether there is one resurrection or more, and one judgment or more. But there is no denial of either resurrection or judgment.
It is with the nature, relationship and sequence of End Time details that conscientious students of the Bible differ. At times the differing has been acrimonious, divisive and a tad self-righteous, with the “heresy” label applied to others. We should regret this because of its harm to Christian unity and because it impedes our ongoing search together for biblical answers (or recognition that some answers must await the fulfillment of the prophecies).
Is the Second Coming one comprehensive event that encompasses the resurrection of the saints and the rapture of the Church? Or is there enough contrast between details so that a distinction and separation between the Rapture and Jesus’ full Revelation (what I’ve called “Second Coming A” and “Second Coming B”) should be maintained? And if there is separation, does the Bible further support the teaching that the Great Tribulation will intervene (thus exempting Christians from that agony)? In fact, does the Bible even teach a
seven-year Tribulation? Or might it be a 3-1/2 year Tribulation period (Revelation 13:5)?
Based on my reading of Scripture, especially of the “Second-Coming-rich” Thessalonian epistles, I think that viewing the Second Coming as a multi-faceted yet comprehensive event has greater biblical support than does the view of a separate Rapture and Revelation. It may come across self-serving to say so, but I think the burden of proof lies with the latter interpretation. Paul’s Thessalonian letters do not warrant that interpretation.
This is not to say that a Post-tribulation Second Coming view is without problems. All the views on the Rapture have their problems. If the final outpourings of God’s wrath found in Revelation 15-16 are literal and as intense as described, it is hard to imagine that Jesus’ faithful followers who are promised exemption from God’s wrath could still be present on earth (hence, some prefer the “pre-wrath” rapture view). Since I hesitate to impose human time reckoning on prophetic scriptures and their metaphors (Acts 1:7), I’m content to live with this question.
Above all, I want to keep an open mind on what and how the Bible teaches about the future. And I want to grow in knowledge through fellowship and study with those who agree or differ with me.
In “Part Three” I’ll discuss prophecy issues further. Thank you for walking with me.

Religious Liberty Vigilance –
Religious Education’s Right to “Keep the Faith”

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
– 1st Amendment

On March 29, 2022 the Vatican issued a document spelling out what it means for a Catholic school to maintain its “Catholic Identity.”

“The whole school community is responsible for implementing the school’s Catholic educational project as an expression of its ecclesiality and its being a part of the community of the Church,” the document said. “Everyone has the obligation to recognize, respect, and bear witness to the Catholic identity of the school, officially set out in the educational project,” it continued. “This applies to the teaching staff, the non-teaching personnel, and the pupils and their families” [emphases mine].

Difficult problems arise if a church or religious school drifts from its basic commitments and allows its hiring practices to erode. Hiring teachers and others who don’t adhere to the institution’s religious identity will lead to a crisis if a church reformer later wants to restore the school to its roots. Witness the pushback from teachers and even (inappropriately) government officials in 2015 when Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco set out to reestablish faculty commitment to Catholic teachings and values.

What religious freedom arguments are the courts likely to accept when a church or religious institution asserts its right to uphold its teachings and values in its employment practices?

* (1) The “Ministerial Exception” – Is the employee a minister? If the employee has important religious responsibilities, that person is a “minister” (even though not “ordained”) and the organization has an unqualified right to determine what standards should apply.

* (2) If the employee is not a “minister”, what still might protect the religious organization?

• Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from discrimination. But it has an exemption: religious organizations may choose to hire people who uphold the observances, practices and beliefs of a particular religion.
• The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (1993) prevents the federal government from interfering with the operations of a religious organization unless the state can establish a “compelling state interest” and when the state’s action is narrowly tailored.
• Doctrine of Church Autonomy – Government allows religious organizations to define their own answers to: “What is this religious community?”
• Doctrine of Expressive Association – The government must not force a religious organization to accept people who would undermine its expressive message.
• Entanglement – The Establishment Clause required that Government must not entangle itself with religion’s inner workings. The definitive decision on this is Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971).

What I find remarkable is how supportive the U.S. Supreme Court has been in the protection of religious values. Of twenty cases* before the U.S. Supreme Court in the past decade, nineteen decisions have come down on the side of religious freedom. Of these, fifteen were supermajority victories; only four were decided 5-4.

* Source for information in items (1) and (2) and on the twenty cases before the Supreme Court: My personal notes from “Current Key Religious Freedom Cases” by Luke Goodrich, J. Reuben Clark Law Society-Orange County Annual Religion and the Law Symposium, March 30, 2022. The comments for the speaker’s bullet points on “the Civil Rights Act,” “RFRA” and “Entanglement” are my own.

A Personal Memorial Day Message

Pastors, Churches, Veterans, Active Military Personnel, Others who should be interested –
Are you supporting our Military Chaplains*?

Military chaplains play a vital role in the lives of our men and women in uniform through encouragement, care during trauma, prayer, teaching, leading worship services and providing other non-sectarian forms of support.

Imagine a chaplain putting his own life at risk during a serviceman’s final moments of life on the field of battle, leading the mortally wounded soldier in “The Lord’s Prayer.” Or providing solace to a soldier who has just lost his buddy in conflict. It happens.

My own denomination supports military chaplains through a ministry known as The Eagle Commission (www.eaglecommission.org). More pastors and churches in my denomination need to get behind The Eagle Commission through congregational education, prayer and financial support.

What is your denomination or church doing to support chaplains?

* Note: Military chaplains are commissioned officers and appropriately compensated by the government. Support of chaplain ministries covers recruitment and scholarship programs for future chaplains, expenses of a denomination’s endorsing agent, travel expenses to denominational conferences, and much more.

Bible Insight – A Lenten Prayer for Forgiveness

“We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” – Ephesians 1:7

Good Friday is especially a day for reflecting on how we have “fallen short” of obedience to God (Romans 3:23). Here I reflect on the meaning of The Ten Commandments and offer a prayer for us to receive God’s forgiveness.

I. God, you command us to have no other gods before you. But instead we put what you have made or given us first in our lives. We put pleasures or possessions or people, or our quest for happiness, security and meaning ahead of knowing and loving and walking with you.

II. You command us not to make any graven images. We may not have made actual idols, but sometimes we are covetous and seek fulfillment in things around us rather than in you.

III. You command us not to take your name in vain. Yet we claim your authority for our own goals and pursuits. We do not protect the honor of your name in how we live, what we say, and how we treat others.

IV. You command us to remember your gift of a day of rest. Yet we refuse to follow your example of rest from our labors. We put our pursuits ahead of rest in you. We fail to be consistent in laying aside our everyday activities each week to worship you in fellowship with the church family.

V. You command us to honor our fathers and mothers. Yet we fail to love and serve and care for them or obey them as we should. We who are parents fail to live honorable lives before our children so they might more easily obey your word with joy.

VI. You command us not to murder. We may not actually kill, but we commit sins against human dignity. Our own homes can manifest domestic violence. We fail to protect the most vulnerable of our fellow human beings. And we let hatred, racism, mistreatment of others and unrighteous anger rule our hearts and characterize our conduct.

VII. You command us not to commit adultery. Yet we break the covenant of marriage or fail to nourish it as we should. We excuse sexual immoralities and lust. We fail to uphold marriage as Scripture taught it, and the family as the bedrock of society that it is.

VIII. You command us not to steal what belongs to others. Yet we consider ourselves entitled to these things and we justify theft in many forms—actually taking what isn’t ours, failing to repay debt, theft of time for which we are paid, cheating on our taxes and more. And we fail to be generous to the needy and to the ministries you call your church to fulfill.

IX. You command us to be truthful. Yet we bear false witness through slander, gossip, unfair criticism or even perjury. We use our tongues or social media to destroy others rather than build them up. We fail to share words of honesty, comfort, love and wisdom.

X. You command us not to covet. Yet we cast a wrongful eye on what belongs to another, whether that person’s spouse or property or skills or status. Inwardly we despise their success and fail to show contentment with what you have graciously given us.

Righteous and loving God, forgive us our sins as we humbly repent.
Create in us a new heart so we will readily and fully acknowledge and lament our sins, and thus gratefully receive forgiveness and restoration from you, the God of all mercy. Renew a right spirit within us, so we may faithfully love you and our neighbor.

We pray through Jesus Christ our Lord, our redeemer, our intercessor, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One Eternal God, Amen.

“This is my body, given for you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
– Jesus (Matthew 26:26-28)

Once Again I Have Lost a Dear Friend
I first met “Father Leo” on a pro-life picket line at a local medical center around 1973. Back then Protestants were extremely rare at such events, which were predominantly Catholic. He and I seemed to “click” in many ways.

Soon afterward he invited me to speak at St. Joseph Church near my own pastorate. I went reluctantly, but the hymns “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (Martin Luther) and “Amazing Grace” lifted my spirit before my message.

Over almost 50 years we had innumerable contacts and he deeply touched my life. He passed away on March 1st at age 89, in the 50th year of his ministry.

Give with Confidence for Ukrainian Relief:

Samaritans Purse
www.samaritanspurse.org

Slavic Gospel Association
www.sga.org

Encompass World Partners
www.encompassworldpartners.org

World Vision
www.worldvision.org

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com
Contact me at: donaldshoemakerministries@verizon.net

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 55 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker

Bible Insight – Worship without Justice

Question: What’s worse than not singing songs about justice?
Answer: Singing songs about justice and then not “doing justice” in our broken world.

The people of Judea and Jerusalem had all the trappings of worship. They presented sacrifices to God and observed Holy Days. They offered many demonstrable prayers to God with hands uplifted. We might see a church like this as a model church, a worship experience to be replicated.

But God would have none of that. God’s message through Isaiah is one of the harshest to be found in Scripture. “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. I cannot bear your evil assemblies. I hate your festivals and feasts. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you” (see Isaiah 1:10-15).

What are the people to do to have the True Worship of God restored? Attend another 3-day workshop on how to make worship more dynamic?

No! “Wash and make yourselves clean. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow” (see Isaiah 1:16-20).

The same pattern of worthless worship and remedy is found in Micah 6:6-8. “Shall I bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings and thousands of rams? What if I even offer my firstborn to God?”

No! The Lord has shown you what is right and what God requires of you—
“Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”

Is God pleased because we do “spiritual stuff”—set aside a day to bow our heads and humble ourselves? Or maybe set aside a day for fasting?

No! God tells us what true fasting is: “To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke and set the oppressed free.” The true fast is to “share your food with the hungry, provide the poor wanderer with shelter, clothe the naked, and satisfy the needs of the oppressed” (read Isaiah 58).

Prophets Are Good for Business…

Applying Biblical Principles of Honesty to Work Situations
“Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died…
Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.” – from Exodus 1:6, 8

The new king of Egypt didn’t know, didn’t care, and certainly didn’t intend to concern himself with the memory of Joseph—all Joseph did for the salvation of Egypt and all the benefits an appreciative king at that time bestowed on Joseph and his family. Covenants of good things were replaced by bondage.

It’s as if the new royal administration could just sweep away the covenants made by previous administrations—agreements that were of long duration by their very nature, and therefore binding over time.

In my November 2021 Newsletter I spoke about “Dishonest Christian School Teachers” who signed contracts and later broke them to go to more lucrative positions at secular schools. This is employee dishonesty which, while it might be legal, is certainly not ethical.

Now it’s time to put the shoe on the other foot. Employers are also bound by honesty. Minimalist legal compliance won’t cut it ethically. And the word of one authorized to speak for the corporation at one time is binding on the corporation later, even as it has morphed.

Quoting words on the importance of truthfulness (November 2021):

Psalm 15 asks the question “Who shall dwell on God’s holy hill?”
Answer: “[The one who] swears to his own hurt and does not change.”

God honors the person who keeps his word even when the outcome is not as desirable as it would be if he were to break his word.

“Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-6)

I knew a person who worked by annual contracts with an organization that had made long-term promises to him. But later a rep of this organization said, since the contracts were annual then each new contract cancelled out any understandings from former contracts including long-range promises. How convenient! Maybe legal, maybe not. But ethical? Not at all!

I knew a pastor who was dismissed by his congregation, which then ignored its own constitution that specified a three-month termination period. If this church wanted the pastor to make an immediate departure, it still owed that pastor three months of compensation. Another church promised a part-time pastor a full-time one-year position. But later it said, “We never got that in writing.” So?

Written documents promote clarity on specifics, but the absence of a written document doesn’t change the fundamental point that people and organizations are to keep their word, spoken or written—especially religious people and orgs that supposedly realize they “answer to a higher power.” *

The Wall Street Journal reported on December 27, 2021 that a manager employed by a major company was given an early retirement package which, as an incentive, included a death benefit of at least $63,000. I hope he hurried to the pearly gates, because the company’s new policy said (in effect) that if he didn’t die by the end of 2021 the benefit would be no more than $15,000.

Such unilateral changes in employment agreements are probably more frequent than I’d ever expect. They may be legal or not. Arbitration and litigation can decide. Christians are instructed to avoid certain litigation
(1 Corinthians 6:1-8). But to the extent the Bible forbids litigation, it is not with the intent of protecting dishonesty and removing any recourse. Christian organizations shouldn’t hide behind 1 Corinthians 6, but some do (“You’re a Christian, so you must not sue us because we are a Christian ministry!”).

“Let your ‘Yes’ be yes, and your ‘No’ no, or you will be condemned.”
That scripture quotation is literally “right on the money.” It concludes a passage that focuses on the failure of employers to treat their employees justly by paying them the wages they were owed (read James 5:1-12).

These first-century employees may not have had much legal recourse or been able to file a grievance with their union, but they did have a God in Heaven to whom they could cry out. “The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty” (James 5:4). So these employer-thieves had better prepare for Judgment Day or even quicker temporal judgment. They might escape the “lower courts” but won’t escape the Court of Heaven.

Yes means yes,
whether written or verbal,
whether today or ten years ago,
whether your private word or your business word,
whether you are in a position to bully your way
out of promises or not.

Honesty and trust are bulwarks of a stable society. Dishonesty by workers or corporations weakens the fabric of society. A strong society needs citizens and companies that are models of integrity and good to their word.

Even when it hurts (Psalm 15:4).

* There are laws that require a written contract in certain cases (such as purchase of real estate). This doesn’t affect the moral necessity for honesty in both written agreements and non-written understandings.

Back the Badge
“Blessed are those who
maintain justice.” – Psalm 106:3

“COVID” Hits Law Enforcement Hard

I remember walking into an apartment with officers years ago while doing a “ride-along” as a chaplain. It was a “pack-rat” apartment—dirty and littered. Next day I had flea bites on my ankles.

This is one small example of the risky, unhealthy situations that law enforcement officers often face as they do their jobs. Now there is COVID.

According to the latest statistics on the “Officer Down Memorial Page,” COVID accounted for 2/3 of the total Line of Duty Deaths (LODD) in 2021 (325 of 484). Gunfire was a very distant second (61) and vehicle crashes third (22).

The LODD due to COVID was a 28% increase over 2020, when 254 deaths were due to COVID out of 385 LODD. Texas led the way in 2021 with 91 COVID deaths. Border enforcement and corrections are two services especially impacted by COVID deaths. [See www.odmp.org]

I concur with Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva that government should not punish law enforcement personnel who refuse vaccinations:

My objection to the vaccine mandate for my department is not ideological; it’s practical. I need deputies on the streets. Sitting at home on Zoom like our critics is not an option. My unvaccinated deputies and I might not agree about the vaccines, but I have no other option than to stand by them and protest this move to fire today the heroes who risked their lives yesterday. The next time a pandemic hits, and no vaccine is available, I know they would stand with me, working to keep the public safe. [Washington Post, November 12, 2021]

That said, and without disregarding religious convictions, concern about governmental overreach, and other arguments for exemptions, I strongly encourage law enforcement personnel to be fully vaccinated, as I have said in other writing for church members and the public in general.

“AH-mi-cron” Virus? Or “OH-mi-cron” Virus?

Omicron Virus

The World Health Organization names the Covid variants after the letters of the Greek alphabet —
(A) Alpha, (B) Beta, (Γ) Gamma, (Δ) Delta and so on. Now the surprise “Omicron” virus has popped up, eleven letters after Delta. Spokespersons and the public pronounce it either with a short or a long “O”.

Four observations:

First, the letter “Xi” (Ξ) is right before “Omicron” and it was skipped. Wonder why. Would the world ever speak of the “Xi variant” since the President of the People’s Republic of China is Xi Jenping??? I don’t think so!

Second, there are two “O’s” in the Greek alphabet: “O-Omicron” and “Ω-Omega,” the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Third, how are they pronounced? I hear both words pronounced the same—with a long “ō” or a short “ô” as in “soft.” This would be “AW-micron” and “Aw-MĀ-ga.” But I have heard “Omega” pronounced with a long “O” ever since I took beginning Greek. I’ll stick with that and with a short “O” for Omicron.

Fourth, theologically, the first and last letters are descriptive of the Eternal God (note the great claim, “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty’” – Revelation 1:8).

Notice the dramatic monotheistic declaration (Isaiah 44:6 ESV): “Thus says the LORD [‘Yahweh’ = ‘Jehovah’], the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts [‘Yahweh Sabaoth’]: ‘I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.’”

Quite remarkably, then, the first and last letters are also claimed by Jesus (“I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” – Revelation 22:13). He makes the claim to being eternal three ways—how can we miss it? The first and third phrases are also asserted by Jesus in Revelation 21:6 – “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”

Go all the way to the beginning—Jesus and God (the Father) are there (John 1:1). Go all the way to the end—you will find Jesus and God (the Father). Either Jesus is eternal with God the Father (affirming his deity) or he is deluded or a blasphemer or the writer is deceptive. I see no other options.

Religious Liberty Vigilance –
The Waning of Religious Affiliation in America
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” – United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Article 18)

As I state on the first page of every newsletter, one of my missions is “Defending Religious Freedom for All.” “All” includes the right of a person to confess NO religious faith without recrimination.

The Pew Research Center’s recent thorough examination of religion in America finds that THREE OUT OF TEN U.S. ADULTS ARE WITHOUT ANY RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION.

[Source: Pew Research Center, www.pewforum.org]

That’s almost twice the 16% figure in 2007!

1. A Truly Worshipping Congregation
Give worship back to the congregation. Stop the stage-centered professionalism. Get the congregation singing, not just standing. Get the people engaged and not mere passive onlookers or struggling with barely audible words. Teach new songs, yes, but sing a lot of familiar songs that are easy to sing. Lower the volume, if necessary, so that people can joyfully hear themselves sing. Make the congregation active participants in worship “with heart and soul and voices” (“Now Thank We All Our God” by Martin Rinkart, 1636). Worship can be high quality without being so orchestrated.

If the people ain’t singin’,
then the songleaders ain’t really leadin’,
no matter how much skill and pizzazz
they bring to the service!

2. In Touch with Our Christian Heritage
Renew worship connection with our rich Christian heritage even as we also sing good current compositions. Put the people in touch with the saints of the past—their struggles, successes, suffering, spirituality, and songs. The Holy Spirit didn’t first arrive with “Jesus Music” in the 1960’s!

Idea: Observe “All Saints Sunday” (The Sunday on or before November 1). Immerse the congregation in music that honors and learns from the saints of the past. Here are some great songs for accomplishing this:

“All Creatures of Our God and King” (St. Francis of Assisi, 13th Century)
“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (Martin Luther, 16th Century)
“For All the Saints Who from Their Labor Rest” (outstanding!)
“The Church’s One Foundation Is Jesus Christ Her Lord”
“Find us Faithful” (Mohr)
3. The Word of God in Worship
Integrate the Word of the Lord more thoroughly into worship. People need to hear the Scriptures read. If we Evangelical Protestants consider ourselves “People of the Word,” why is there more reading of Scripture in a Roman Catholic Mass than in the typical Evangelical service?

Ideas: Careful selection of responsive reading passages; a reading each from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the Gospels in every service. The congregation may stand for either the reading from the Gospels or for the sermon scripture. Following this scripture the reader may say, “This is the Word of the Lord” and the people respond with “Thanks be to God!”
4. The Word Proclaimed and The Word Explained (See: Acts 2:14-42)
We must see the distinction between Proclamation of the Word to non-believers and Instruction in the Word to believers—both necessary and complementary. As you plan the worship experience, remember that its primary purpose is to instruct and build up of believers in faith and life. While non-Christians should be invited and, when present, not made to feel like awkward strangers, the worship hour should be distinguished from other occasions that have as their primary purpose drawing non-believers to hear the Word of Salvation and confess Jesus as Lord.
5. Expository Sermons as Works of Art
The Message should unfold and apply the meaning of Scripture to the people so they can see what was there all along. While the expository pastor has training and tools available that the rest of us don’t have, sermons should not create an unhealthy dependence on the speaker to know what God is saying.

Sermons should usually be 30 minutes or less—it takes more work to create a tight sermon than an extended one, but it will be a better sermon. Organize the sermon as if it were a work of art, and then maybe it will become one!

Points for congregations to remember: Congregations expecting sermon excellence need to supply their pastors with time and ample funds for ongoing training, books and other resources, and must protect the pastor’s sermon preparation time. Put sermonizing as priority #1 in performance evaluations.
6. “Less” is often “More” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2; Habakkuk 2:20)
Musical instrumentation in all its variety is marvelous in worship. But don’t forget places for silence, softness and quality a cappella singing. Commentary isn’t always necessary throughout worship and, when it is, fewer words are better than many words.
7. Giving in Worship
Don’t forget the giving opportunity within the worship service. Other avenues for giving (payroll deductions, online giving, etc.) have a growing place, but must not supersede a time to give in the worship service. This value has been “Covid challenged,” but we must not lose sight of giving as a physical act of offering during worship.
8. Technology in Worship—Dine with a Long Spoon
Technology must always be the servant of worship, never its lord. People should leave worship thinking, “I met God today!” Not, “Wow!” Ask these questions when using technology: “Does this feature really enhance worship? Does it point us straight to Jesus? Or does it detract and distract from him?”
9. Humor Has a Place—Keep It There! (Ask those “tech” questions again!)
Lightheartedness and laughter have their place in worship, when done with purpose. But the service must never get frivolous and must always lift us above ourselves to God. Humor is one thing, trying to be funny another.
10. A Real, Live Pastor
John 3:16 doesn’t say God in love beamed down an image of his son! No, God loved the world and sent his Son—he “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The doctrine of the Incarnation (Jesus in flesh—fully one of us) needs to be “fleshed out” in pastoral style. Call it “incarnational leadership.”

The pastor who speaks should be there in flesh and blood, not electronically delivered like a hologram. Pastors, we should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We aren’t indispensible celebrities! The people need true interaction with the pastor during and after the sermon, not an impersonal non-encounter with someone who isn’t there.

And no fleeing out the side door for privacy right after the benediction! I preached three sermons on Sunday mornings for fifteen years, and I know a pastor can guard his energy without avoiding personal time with the people.
11. Worship Aesthetics
Worship settings don’t need to be extravagant, but they shouldn’t be bland and utilitarian either. The place of worship is sacred space, removed from the “common settings” of the rest of the week. It’s not another big box store. Worship is a vestibule to the Celestial. In “The Gathering”, we are a holy temple of God, a dwelling place for God’s Spirit.

Ideas: The visible word should tastefully and purposefully surround worshippers in the worship location through artistic display and symbols, and (yes, an old idea) even in the windows.
12. The Eucharist in Worship
The Communion (the Eucharist) should be a regular feature of renewed worship—even weekly. Don’t hurry through it—the Bread and the Cup must not be “fast food.” Enough time must be given to ponder the Cross, God’s grace and our need for repentance. In the Communion time pastors should declare the good news of forgiveness.
13. Shepherding the Flock in Worship
Pastors should actively lead their people into worship, within worship, and out of worship. The pastors aren’t there to be “worship show-offs,” but they should be “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3).

There is a pastoral role for the Call to Worship, the Pastoral Prayer (which may often conclude with “The Lord’s Prayer”), and the Benediction. The people should be led in petitionary and intercessory prayer. Appropriate opportunity for praying for and anointing the sick with oil should be provided by the pastors and elders of the church.
A Final Word
I’ve offered these pointers because I want to keep worship ministries moving in a positive, biblical and God-honoring direction. This will mean moving away from some recent trends in Evangelicalism and rediscovering some of the best of our heritage. It will be well worth it if we become better and more biblical worshippers. © 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker

Back the Badge
“Blessed are those who
maintain justice.” – Psalm 106:3

“Smash and Grab”

“When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out,
people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.” – Ecclesiastes 8:11

“Smash and Grab” is the newest lawlessness. A group of thieves plan and execute an invasion of a retail business, steal as much as possible, and escape before law enforcement can respond.

“Smash and Grab” can be laid before four doorsteps: (1) Passage of “Prop 47” by California voters in 2014, (2) decisions by prosecutors not to prosecute “small” (misdemeanor) crimes, (3) lax bail policies, and (4) defunding of law enforcement.

Proposition 47 reclassified many crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Theft of less than $950 is now a misdemeanor—don’t think that thieves can’t add! Reclassification also meant that punishment will be lessened or not happen at all if a district attorney (such as in Los Angeles County) won’t prosecute misdemeanors.

The results are predicable: Less fear of being caught and charged + less fear of tough consequences if caught and charged = more crime.

“Smash and Grab” isn’t a benign crime. It robs owners and workers of livelihood. An invasion robbery of a Home Depot store led to theft of sledgehammers and crowbars—destructive tools also capable of doing great bodily injury. It is a matter of time before many innocent people are hurt. Police Sergeant (ret.) Kevin Nishita was shot and killed while providing security for a TV crew in Oakland, California when the thieves hit.

Law enforcement needs funding for more resources, not defunding. Businesses must figure out how to be pro-active without endangering customers or employees. Prosecutors must resolve to prosecute. Bail must be required and set at the right level. Law enforcement agencies will need to train on response time and strategies to deal with “Smash and Grab” effectively. It will be an interesting training process.

Message of the Month

Churches, Covid & Contention

The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat… So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.– Romans 14:3-6, 10, 12 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul writes to Christians in Rome who find themselves divided over questions about what foods and day observances are important. He counsels latitude of opinion and practice and sensitivity to others. His words don’t totally fit our Covid situation but they can be applied to it with care.

Of this I am certain: When church members judge or belittle, grumble and gripe, complain and contend, dicker and divide over Covid, masks, mandates, and vaccinations—God is quite displeased!

There are stories aplenty of Christian churches in turmoil over Covid. Recently I heard of a rather small church contending and almost dividing over Covid issues. And that church, indeed any church, cannot afford such strife.

Contention and disunity are always toxic in a congregation, but they are even worse if they are hastening the day of a church’s extinction. “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other”
– Galatians 5:15.

Grace Community Church of Seal Beach, my church, has been prepared for and has addressed the Covid crisis in several good ways:
• Before any issue that may cause contention could arise, there is already a trust of church leadership, nurtured by years of transparency, wisdom, care and concern for the congregation. The congregation as a whole is accepting and cooperative with requests and decisions by its leaders.

• The church has been taught the biblical principles of Christian freedom for many years, which leads to an accepting, deferential, non-legalistic spirit throughout the congregation.

• The pastoral leadership is caring and pro-active. A Reopening Task Force made up of appropriate professionals began early in the Covid crisis to develop policies and actions that would be reasonable and effective and able to flex with developments.

• The church strives to provide as many venues for worship as possible. These currently include online worship, one Sunday morning service outdoors and two services indoors (with masks for indoor services once again required in California as of 12/15/21).

Some additional guidance:
The church must clearly communicate that neither a judgmental spirit that condemns others nor a libertine spirit that ignores the sensitivities of others is acceptable within its congregational life (read the 14th chapter of Romans).

The church must be alert and quickly recognize arguments and forces that are not truly Christ-like, nor biblically grounded (i.e., extra-biblical), nor supportive of the church’s unity.

Church leaders may implement policies that are reasonable in light of current science and review them often with a view toward lifting them ASAP. Equally important, church leaders must speak out against unfair edicts by the state.

Jesus is our supreme example (see Philippians 2:5-8) of one who was willing to lay aside his rights to do what was in the best interests of others.

“…in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” – Philippians 2:3-4.

Our senior pastor, Bob Wriedt, offers these helpful points:

“Communicate, communicate, communicate! We’ve done personal phone calls to every member, pastoral letters, video updates, and website updates. And even so, we’ve often been misunderstood, ignored, and told: ‘We don’t know what’s happening!’ A crisis creates a leaky bucket of communications. The tap needs to be fully opened.”

“Know where you are an expert as a pastor and lean on others where you are not one. This includes those in the church in healthcare and those secular institutions (like the county health department). It helps your pastoral credibility to know when to say, ‘This isn’t my area of expertise’ at times, so that when you do assert expertise it means something.”

“Don’t let insecurities lead to kicking the sheep. Our church’s in-person worship service attendance is down about 30% overall compared to pre-COVID. No pastor wants that to happen and it is tempting to let my insecurities lead to overreactions and overreaching.”

Finally . . .
“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’”– Philippians 2:14-15. If Paul were giving these words today, I believe he would be calling churches to be examples of harmony in contrast to a bickering culture. In so doing, a church is being a “Light to the world” as Jesus called us to be.

I can think of no scripture that better expresses a good congregational spirit during Covid-crisis, or in any crisis, than 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 –

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters,
to acknowledge those who work hard among you,
who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.
Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.
Live in peace with each other.

January Dates Engraved in Our Memory

January 6, 2021 – The Capitol Insurgency
(From The Washington Post, Feb. 21, 2021)

Engulfed in the crush of insurgents storming the Capitol, D.C. police officer Jeffrey Smith sent his wife a text that spoke to the futility and fears of his mission. “London has fallen,” the 35-year-old tapped on his phone at 2:38 p.m. on Jan. 6, knowing his wife would understand he was referencing a movie by that name about a plan to assassinate world leaders attending a funeral in Britain.

The text confirmed the frightening images Erin Smith was watching on live stream from the couple’s home in Virginia: The Capitol had been overrun.

Six minutes after Smith sent that text, a Capitol Police officer inside the building shot and killed a woman as she climbed through a smashed window next to the House chamber. Smith, also inside the Capitol, didn’t hear the gunshot, but he did hear the frantic “shots fired” call over his police radio. He later told Erin he panicked, afraid rioters had opened fire on police, and wondered whether he would die.

Around 5:35 p.m., Smith was still fighting to defend the building when a metal pole thrown by rioters struck his helmet and face shield. After working into the night, he visited the police medical clinic, was put on sick leave and, according to his wife, was sent home with pain medication.

In the days that followed, Erin said, her husband seemed in constant pain, unable to turn his head. He did not leave the house, even to walk their dog. He refused to talk to other people or watch television. She sometimes woke during the night to find him sitting up in bed or pacing.

Smith returned to the police clinic for a follow-up appointment Jan. 14 and was ordered back to work, a decision his wife now questions. After a sleepless night, he set off the next afternoon for an overnight shift, taking the ham-and-turkey sandwiches, trail mix and cookies Erin had packed.

On his way to the District, Jeffrey Smith shot himself in the head . . .

January 15 – Martin Luther King’s Birthday
[Holiday observed January 17]

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 93 on this day. He was 39 when he was assassinated in 1968. I urge everyone to read his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and his autobiography.

January 16 – Religious Freedom Day
[See “Religious Liberty Vigilance” below.]

January 22, 1973 – “Roe v. Wade”

This 7-2 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned restrictive abortion laws in all 50 states. As many of us know, the court will decide a case during the current session (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization)
which may modify Roe v Wade or even (less likely) completely overturn it.

If so, the likely outcome will be to return abortion legislation back to the several states, though the federal government may get involved.

Roe v Wade has been criticized on at least two levels:

(1) It was “legislation from the bench.” The court held abortion to be a right during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, and a practice that could be restricted or banned during the third trimester. By injecting the notion of trimesters, the court was writing a law, not deciding a law (cf. Justice Rehnquist’s dissent).
(2) Restrictions on abortion rested on the viability of the fetus. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (who was not on the court in 1973) would later warn that viability will come earlier and earlier as medical care advances, essentially putting Roe v. Wade on a “collision course with itself” (City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 1983).

However Dobbs is decided, the extreme passions abortion has generated since Roe will not abate. I’m not conveying my own positions with these words, only trying to illuminate the current status of the debate. (Sarah Weddington, who argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court, died Dec. 26 at age 76.)

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

Sunday, January 16 is “Religious Freedom Day” Will your congregation observe it?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – 1st Amendment

On January 16, 1786, The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted. It was our country’s first legal safeguard for religious liberty. Its principles influenced the First Amendment’s religious liberty statements in the U.S. Constitution.

Religious liberty has to be preserved in each generation as new threats and situations arise. Each year since 1993 the President has issued a proclamation supporting religious liberty by declaring January 16 as “Religious Freedom Day.” This year Religious Freedom Day falls on a Sunday. I hope thousands of churches will take advantage of this.

A Less-familiar Christmas Scripture

Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. King Herod and the “Wise Men.” The angels and shepherds—The Gospels of Matthew and Luke give us the familiar Christmas themes we love to recall, recite and sing about.

The Gospel of Mark skips the first 30 years of Jesus’ life and starts with Jesus hitting the ground running—being baptized and starting his ministry.

The Gospel of John, likely written more than 80 years after Jesus’ birth, takes time to reflect upon and “theologize” about Jesus. Just who was this person?

Simply put, the Christmas Message in John’s Gospel is “In Jesus, God Became One of Us, that We Might Know Him and Become His Children.”

The Gospel of John is written to ignite in us a faith that affirms the same truths about Jesus that John’s Prologue (1:1-18) does. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).

What key answers does John give us to the question, “Who is Jesus?”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)

Let’s start in verse one with the rather unusual statement that Jesus was “the Word.” A strange title for us but not novel at all to thinkers in New Testament times, “Word” conveys ideas such as “communication, disclosure, announcement, reason.” Point: Jesus is (and gives) the Truth of God to us.

Second, Jesus (God’s Word to us) was “in the beginning.” What “beginning” the author has in mind, I’m not sure. The same “beginning” as in Genesis 1:1 (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”)? Perhaps. It’s best to be cautious and not assign a time to “the beginning.”

Point: there never was a “time” when the Word “was not.” Each Christmas season we start the story of Jesus with his birth in Bethlehem. That’s not wrong, but it must not conceal something more ultimate: Jesus is “from the beginning.” He does not have his origin in a manger or in Mary’s womb.

Third, Jesus was with God “from the beginning.” This stresses intimacy.

The point to know is: Jesus was “there” with God in (hence, “since”) the very beginning. If anyone ought to know God perfectly, it would be Jesus.

Fourth, Jesus himself “is” God. This sounds contradictory, but it is not. How could Jesus be “with” God and also “be God?” The historical answer is still the best one—God is “one” and yet God exists as “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

So, in three short phrases John begins his letter with a mountain of declarations about Jesus—his eternity, his presence with God the Father, and his essence as God (whatever God is, the Word is). If you want to know God, the best source is from the Word who was ever with God and is himself God (Hebrews 1:1-2).

Fifth, we learn the role of the Word in creation (verse three). “Through him all things were made.” And lest we miss or compromise the point, “…without him nothing was made that has been made.” Followers of Jesus should be very creation-affirming. Spirituality is not disengagement from what is made (if we do that, we are casting aspersion on its Creator); true spirituality celebrates creation and thrives in it.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God… (John 1:9-12)

In verse nine, we learn our sixth key answer to “who is Jesus?” Jesus is light. Actually, he is “life” and that “life” is “light” to us all. His coming to earth brightens up the world. Sadly, many choose to reject that light. But—Good News!—all who receive that light (in other words, all who believe in him) become children of God. The whole Gospel of John was written so we might read and believe, and become children of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Seventh, the “Word” that was from the beginning with God and who is himself God, became human (“flesh” is both literally true and much more than what we think of as “flesh”). He became human in every way. He was “flesh, blood and bone, muscle and mind” like us (not merely a divine spirit inside a body).

Christian thinking, based especially on the Gospel of John, strongly confesses that Jesus was fully “flesh,” fully human. This is one of the most hopeful confessions I can think of. He walked our path, experienced our afflictions, was challenged by evil as we are. Yet he was sinless, assuring us that sin is not intrinsic to who we are. We can’t sin and say, “After all, I’m just human.”

Deny the “flesh” nature of Jesus and you have denied Jesus. Your thinking puts you outside the Christian camp. Nor should we diminish (without denying) Jesus’ full humanity. He didn’t walk an inch off the ground. He has been tested just like we are and thus he comes to us with understanding and grace.

Here’s a very practical application of Jesus’ real humanity. I strongly believe that pastors must be “flesh and blood” in close company with their people. We must strive for “incarnational ministry.” We are not to be larger-than-life figures on a screen, remote and out of reach, and above what afflicts others. This has great implications on how we “do church.” Technology has made remote worship possible during Covid and for other good reasons. But I’m happy to hear of trends away from overreliance on “remote worship” and back toward in-person fellowship and pastoral ministry.

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:18)

One more key answer to “who is Jesus?” is found in verse eighteen. While God is not directly visible, Jesus was. We can know him and thereby know God.

This little look at the Gospel of John’s “Christmas message” has just scratched the surface. I’m adding some more in-depth teachings below. Please take the “key points” to heart and celebrate Christmas in light of them.

What songs highlight the themes I’ve shared? Here are three:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with us to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he laid his glory by, born that we no more may die.
– Charles Wesley, 1739

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, he the source, the ending he,
of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see…
– Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, 4th century

O Word of God incarnate, O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O Light of our dark sky.
– William How, 1867

Papyrus 66 may date as early as the early second century. It contains most of the Gospel of John. This page contains John 1:1-13 and part of verse 14.

A Deeper Look at the Prologue of John’s Gospel (1:1-18)

The Prologue whets our palate with appetizers about what will be unfolded throughout this letter by the teachings and deeds of Jesus. The letter reaches its pinnacle in chapter 20, when Jesus presents himself to the “I won’t believe what I can’t see and feel” disciple Thomas. Upon seeing Jesus and being invited by Jesus to touch his wounds (from his crucifixion), Thomas exclaims “My Lord and my God!” In essence, Thomas confesses what the Prologue declares: Jesus is the Word which is God and which has become flesh.

Jesus sets forth the evangelistic goal of this Gospel with these words to Thomas: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:28-29). This is followed by John’s comment (quoted above) that his written record of Jesus intends to induce faith in his readers.

John 1:1 – “In the beginning…” (en archē) is identical to how Genesis 1:1 begins in the Greek scriptures used by first-century Christians. This may correlate the two “beginnings” but I’m not dogmatic on this.

“…was the Word” (ēn ho logos). This term logos is rich in Greek and Jewish thought. Jewish thought saw the “word” of God as the originator of creation (“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” – Psalm 33:6). Here the word is active, not simply thoughtful. God’s speech launched his creation (Genesis 1:3). And in John 1:3 Jesus, the Word, creates all that is made. Several words unfold this term: “reason, revelation, expression, communication, disclosure” and more. It’s best to see John as using a term with familiar backgrounds but giving it a fulfillment unique to his letter. Oscar Cullmann traces the different uses of logos in the ancient world but insists, “we must ask especially to what extent Christianity introduced completely new elements and freshly interpreted the Logos concept…the one revelation of God in Jesus of Nazareth” thereby reforming how logos is to be understood. John is “proclaiming something radically new” regardless of what logos meant to contemporaries (“The Greeks spoke of the Logos without knowing him; they did not speak of the Logos who became flesh.”).

I find Robert Gundry quite cleaver as he ponders the trendy but artificial distinction that says Christianity is about a Person, not about propositions. To the slogan “Truth is personal, not propositional” (as though personal cancels out the propositional), he entertains the “naughty thought” of translating logos as “the Proposition” (unfolded in John’s discourses).

John 1:1 conveys three phrases that unfold who/what the logos is. In addition to his timeless existence prior to creation (the first phrase):
• “…and the Word was with God…” (kai ho logos ēn pros ton theon). In essence, the word was “face to face” with God in perfect harmony, thereby fully knowing what is to be known about God. We might say, “From the beginning God and his Word were constantly together.” No person or thing can convey the Father to us better than Jesus, his Word.
• “…and the Word was God” (kai theos ēn ho logos). The Word is both “with God” and “is God.” Cullmann insists, “We must allow this paradox of all Christianity to stand. The New Testament does not resolve it, but sets the two statements alongside each other…”

Notice what John doesn’t say: (1) he doesn’t say Jesus is “like” God, as many moderns express this relationship. John had the word theios (“God-like, divine”) available if he wanted to say this. (2) He doesn’t say Jesus is congruent with God (as if John had used two definite articles to say, “and the Word was the God” [kai ho logos ēn ho theos]), thereby creating an incompatible contradiction with “the Word was with God” and essentially affirming a Jesus-unitarianism. (3) He doesn’t say “the Word was a god” (kai ho logos ēn theos). The indefinite article “a” is completely unnecessary here and reveals a bias against identifying the Logos with God (in the late 1970’s I had lengthy discussions with Jehovah’s Witnesses on this point).

John says, “And GOD was the Word” (my emphasis, which is what I think the phrase intends). The positioning of “God” as a predicate nominative before the verb makes the word definite (even without the definite article) rather than qualitative or indefinite (“a god”). John’s confession of Jesus’ deity corresponds to the Apostle Paul’s in the “Praise Chorus” of Philippians 2:6-11 and in Colossians 1:15-17 and 2:9. In Paul’s (congregational?) song, Jesus is “in very nature” God (en morphē theou)—whatever we postulate about God is also true about Jesus.

John 1:14 – “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This confesses full humanity (“flesh” and all that conveys). Jesus is not a divine spirit in a human body (Cerintian Gnosticism) nor does he simply appear human (Docetism). He is fully human and a denial of this is a denial of Christianity. “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2) and “Many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world” (2 John 7).

John 1:18 – “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only (monogenēs theos), who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” No mortal has seen God in his fullness as the Word has seen him, yet God gave glimpses of his glory (Exodus 33:18-23).

The reading “God the One and Only” differs from “the only begotten son” (ho monogenēs huios, cf. John 3:16) in the Greek manuscripts. I’m not a textual criticism expert. While the reading “only begotten God” seems preferable in textual support, I do think the common (KJV) rendering “son” fits John’s Prologue better. By either rendering, the key point is that Jesus, and only Jesus, is in the Father’s bosom and has plumbed the depths (exēgēsato, “exegeted”) of who the Father is.

Sources: G. R. Beasley-Murray, John (vol. 36 of Word Biblical Commentary), pp. 1-16; Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament, pp. 149-69; Robert Gundry, Jesus the Word according to John the Sectarian, pp. xiii-xvii, 8-11; Bernard L. Ramm, An Evangelical Christology [recommended], pp. 37-52; Andreas J. Köstenberger, John (vol. 2 in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary), pp. 5-13; Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 4, pp. 127-34; Donald Shoemaker, class lecture notes for “God, Christ, and Holy Spirit,” Biola University.

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

– Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to Danbury Baptists (1802)

I attended public schools in the 1960’s. They were good places of instruction. About that time, my church began a Christian elementary school. If I recall that era correctly, it wasn’t that many Christians thought the schools were doing or teaching bad things (evolution excepted) back then, but they wanted an educational experience permeated by Christian themes and values.

“Christian” education was never just about “add-ons,” like putting a cross on the wall or having a chapel service or a Bible class that would have “spiritual” words while regular classes had “secular” words to share.
No, spiritual instruction soaked into every aspect of education, from A to Z.

This meant that all teachers, counselors and coaches—yes, even the custodians—would embrace the faith that the school confessed. Teachers were expected to TRAIN students as well as TEACH them. All employees were to MODEL the faith before students as they had opportunity. Indeed, parents expected this when they laid out lots of cash for their children to attend. Christian schools didn’t look to the government for funding and certainly not for control of the Christian philosophy of education at work.

Well, along comes a form of government activism that won’t leave religious schools alone. It says that religious schools don’t have the right to hire and retain teachers and employees who confess and practice the faith. Only “ministerial” jobs are exempt. Presumably, other positions are “secular non-religious positions” even if the schools say they are not.
Examples of intrusions into religious liberty that require vigilance:
• Legislation that removes the right of religious institutions to set standards of belief and conduct for their employees (example: AB 569 [2017] in California that was vetoed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown).
• Legal challenges by workers at religious organizations who claim employment discrimination because they were dismissed over issues of belief or conduct.
• Government regulations or other edicts (even what bathroom signs must say) that limit the free exercise right of religious organizations to set standards of operation based on religious beliefs.

Christian citizens (and others who value religious liberty) must not take this lying down. And it’s not enough just to pray about it. Remember Nehemiah’s resolve: “We prayed to our God and posted a guard…to meet the threat”
– Nehemiah 4:9).

Jefferson’s metaphor of a “Wall of Separation between Church and State” was his way of explaining the intention of the First Amendment. That wall today needs more bricks at the top—not to keep the church from addressing the state, but to keep the state from intruding into the realm of the church.

“In Hoc Anno Domini”
(From The Wall Street Journal. This editorial was written in 1949 by the late
Vermont Royster and has been published annually ever since.)

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people.

There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage.

And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.”

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, “Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.”

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets.

Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter’s star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

My Tribute to a Dedicated Pastor

My colleague and friend in the ministry Pastor Greg Howell passed away of Covid on November 21. For 40 years he was the faithful pastor of the Grace Brethren Church in Goldendale, Washington. His congregation of around 100 was a strong medium-sized church for a community of 3,500. I spoke there once over 20 years ago and I was impressed with the people and the well-appointed facility so conducive to worship. I was also impressed with Pastor Greg’s reputation for good in his community, which held him in high esteem. He also served many of our denominational ministries with dedication and care.

He personified biblical qualities for a good shepherd of the flock entrusted to him by God (1 Timothy 1:7; 1 Peter 5: 1-3). It must have been easy and joyful for his congregation to follow the scripture, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority… They keep watch over you… Obey them so their work will be a joy and not a burden…” (Hebrews 13:17). Indeed, “When the Chief Shepherd appears, [he] will receive the crown of glory” I am sure (1 Peter 5:4).

Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

In his arrogance the evil man hunts down the weak.
From ambush he murders the innocent.

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.

But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
The victim commits himself to you.
You are the helper of the fatherless. – Psalm 10 (excerpts)

This Thanksgiving, Give Thanks that You Live in America!

(NOTE: This Independence Day message from Milia Islam-Majeed, Executive Director of the South Coast Interfaith Council, is a wonderful word of Thanksgiving—very appropriate for Thanksgiving Day.
I share it with her permission. The picture dates back to 2008, when the SCIC recognized me for my efforts on behalf of religious liberty.)

“I pray that you had a joyous July 4th! This day of celebration holds such a special meaning to so many, including my family. My parents migrated to America over 30 years ago during the month of July to achieve the American dream. Indeed, it was this great nation that afforded them the opportunity to do so.

“Like so many first generation immigrants, they left their native land of Bangladesh to build a better and more prosperous future for their children – my brother and I. They wanted to ensure that we obtained the best possible education and, with it, serve the greater community. Starting their lives completely over, I witnessed the hardships that many immigrants face as my father – a decorated army colonel – worked to build his eyeglass business during the day only to go to McDonalds at night to work the graveyard shift while my mother – an aspiring zoologist in Bangladesh – worked in the shoe factory sewing soles on to children’s shoes so as to support our family.

“The years of hard work and sacrifice that my parents made – and the infinite blessings of God first and foremost – resulted in the privilege of my older brother becoming a physician and me being able to serve you as the Executive Director of this interfaith council that I love so deeply. This dream of my parents could not have actualized without the countless number of people who went from becoming strangers to friends and, ultimately, like family.

“Along this journey, we became citizens of this country and understood first hand the gift of having the right to vote and, by doing so, contributing to the story of America. To this day, we remain indebted to so many who came before us and fought for the freedoms that we continue to enjoy today.

“One thing I am continuously reminded of is something that my father told us after we took the oath to become American citizens. He stated, ‘Always remember that with this great privilege comes a great responsibility to be of service to this country and ensure others are given this same right. We are stronger when all people – no matter who they are or what they look like – are granted an opportunity to succeed.’

“Certainly no nation is perfect, but there’s no place else that I would rather live for this is home.”

With gratitude and in friendship,
Milia Islam-Majeed
South Coast Interfaith Council Executive Director

Inspired Thanksgiving

(Giving Thanks the “Bible Way”)

I urge that…thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.
– 1 Timothy 2:1-3 (thanks and prayers for those in authority over us)

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. – Romans 6:17

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
– 1 Corinthians 15:57 (the victory of resurrection to eternal life)

Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. – 1 Timothy 4:4 (thanks for what we chose to eat or drink)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:13

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! – 2 Corinthians 9:15
(the gift of Jesus to us)

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
– Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to Danbury Baptists (1802)

Breaking the Law and Corrupting the Gospel

(How Vice-President Kamala Harris causes churches to break the law)

For decades I have counseled and criticized churches over bringing partisan politics into their gatherings. In most cases these have been theologically conservative churches where most congregants are also politically conservative.

Christians who claim their spiritual message is “Bible-grounded” should be strongly determined to keep the message of their churches free of the “leaven” of politics. So why do so many of these churches engage in it?

Then there is the legal issue. When a church supports or opposes a candidate for political offices, it breaks the law. Whether that law should exist is a different question, but it is on the books for now.

The same restriction against conservative politicking also applies to churches with liberal or leftist politics. So why will a video of Kamala Harris be shown in hundreds of churches in Virginia before people vote for governor?

I watched the video. If, as intended, it is shown in churches, it is clearly illegal. “I believe that my friend Terry McAuliffe is the leader Virginia needs at this moment,” the vice-president says in the video. “Terry McAuliffe has a long track record of getting things done for the people of Virginia.”
Ms. Harris should know this is illegal, or if not her lawyers should tell her so.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an organization with which I share little in common, said this about the Harris video:

In the video, Harris clearly endorses McAuliffe, remarking, “Elect Terry McAuliffe as your next governor.”

Virginia’s religious leaders should keep that video at arm’s length, lest they violate a federal law dating to 1954 called the Johnson Amendment. The provision ensures tax-exempt nonprofit groups, including houses of worship, do not intervene in partisan elections by endorsing or opposing candidates for public office.

–Rob Boston, “Partisan Politics Doesn’t Belong in Houses of Worship,” (blog on website of Americans United, October 20, 2021) [BOLD mine]

Whether we hold left-wing or right-wing or centrist politics, let’s obey the law and keep our politics outside the “church house doors” and (even more importantly) stay on-message with the Gospel of Jesus.

Message of the Month
Dishonest Christian
School Teachers

Shouldn’t teachers be good on their word? Especially Christian teachers?

Psalm 15 asks the question “Who shall dwell on God’s holy hill?”
Answer: “[The one who] swears to his own hurt and does not change.”

God honors the person who keeps his word even when the outcome is not as desirable as it would be if he were to break his word.

“Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-6).

“All you need to say is ‘yes’ or ‘no.’” – Jesus (Matthew 5:37)

First let me stipulate a couple of facts:
1. Teachers in parochial (religious) schools earn less than they could earn teaching in public schools. Sometimes considerably so. Thus, they make a sacrifice for what they believe.
2. Many public school districts are having a hard time filling teaching positions in light of Covid.

So there are situations where public school administrators have made appealing offers to teachers who teach in parochial schools. And some teachers have accepted these offers.

That in itself is not a fault. If anything, it should prod the governing body of a parochial school (a church, perhaps) to raise salaries and benefits. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” is a biblical principle still in force today, and it applies to so-called “Christian service” as much as to “secular” jobs.

The issue is this: if someone freely signs a contract offered in good faith, that signature is binding in the presence of God and before people. One does not break it simply because the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

When I taught at a Christian university, every March (or so) the faculty would get contracts for the following academic year. By signing it, you were assured of a paycheck for that academic year and the school was assured of your classroom services and your presence on a stable, dependable faculty.
Win-win. If you “blew it” and were dismissed “for cause”, that’s an exception. Otherwise, the contract was binding both ways.

A teacher receiving a better offer may go to his or her administration and ask for a release. It may be granted, even if it puts the school in a bind (which, it seems to me, is one reason why it is unethical on the part of the teacher to seek a release except for compelling reasons). The religious school probably won’t enforce the contract by legal action, but this doesn’t excuse the teacher.
The general principle remains clear: you keep your word, even if it hurts.

Some may argue that bringing a Christian educator into a public school is a plus for the ethical fiber of that school. I would agree. But this assumes the transition into the new school system was honorable in the first place.

Teachers at Christian schools should be paragons of honest dealings—examples to the youth they train as well as teach.

Perhaps the compelling need for honest dealings is one reason the Bible says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). The verse is certainly talking about teachers within the Christian community, and that would include parochial teachers.

I have honored teachers for decades. When I was an active pastor, I would take time in worship services to honor and pray for teachers when a new school year would get underway.
I published a column “Beatitudes for Teachers” which uplifted them, especially when they served under stress.

Thus, I’m doubly disappointed whenever the teaching profession dishonors itself in any way.

And what you don’t say can be as significant as what you do say. Shortly after “9/11” American flags could be seen up and down the street. But the neighbors directly across put no flag out. They were a radical leftist couple—so devoted to their causes that they would fly across the country to protest or support this or that.

Someone put a note on their door accusing them of a lack of patriotism for not putting out a flag after “9/11”. The wife told me about it almost in tears.
I contacted the local newspaper and was able to get a columnist to write about what happened and the narrowness it displayed.

On the personal level we had no conflict with our leftist neighbors. I support freedom of speech, including the right not to speak—in this case, not to put out an American flag. (I wish more leftists would support free speech.)

I considered talking about some of the lines on these signs. I’ll bite my lip and not do that. Instead, I’ll make some overall observations. Well, OK, I will talk about the phrases “We Believe…Science is Real.” Ouch! I just bit my lip!

First, our neighborhood was built in the 1950’s and is a fairly stable, well-maintained neighborhood. One might expect our neighbors to be like one another in their social/political opinions, but instead they are diverse.

Second, I thought it was rather conservative on social issues, but the amount of “left of center” signage would say otherwise. Not only is the neighborhood more diverse than expected, it has more liberals and leftists than expected.

Third, it seems like a tolerant neighborhood. I have not heard any argumentation or seen any nasty signs indicating that political antagonism trumps neighborliness. This is good. (Our former radical leftist neighbors may have been an exception to this.)

So, “tolerance, diversity, inclusion” – we’ve got it all and the signs to prove it. And we have good block parties. So far nobody has bragged, as a leftist Seattle city council member did, that they have no Republican friends!

Want to Buy Someone a Bible for Christmas? Which Bible Should You Buy?

The New International Version is at the top of the popularity list, as it has been for many years. It is excellent.

The King James Version, which will never leave the “top 10,” continues in second place. It seems unbeatable for its elegant English, even if it often sounds archaic to us. After all, it was produced in 1611!

Also on the list is the very readable English Standard Version.

If you are considering the ESV, why not go even better and give the ESV Study Bible? It has contributions by a large number of recognized scholars, including J. I. Packer and Wayne Grudem (I prefer a study Bible created by many scholars rather than by a single writer). And now a more compact
ESV Concise Study Bible has been released. An excellent study Bible gives you the Scriptures plus a good variety of study helps all in one cover.

Two newcomers to the “top 10” are in Spanish: Reina-Valera, a 16th-century translation revised in 1960, and Nueva Versión Internacional (Spanish NIV). Their growing popularity reflects our changing Christian landscape.

Noticeable for its absence (compared to recent decades) is the New American Standard Bible, a very literal translation often stiff in English.

Any widely acceptable rather literal version of the Bible is trustworthy. Though it was once very popular, I have not recommended The Living Bible because it is a paraphrase that takes considerable liberty with the biblical text. It may be OK for devotional reading but not for drawing any doctrinal conclusions (even if someone should say, “I never really understood that verse until I read it in The Living Bible”).

October 12 marks 10 years from the date when eight people were murdered over a child custody dispute.

It was the worst mass killing in Orange County history. It still touches many lives in Seal Beach, including my own.

Dispatchers – The Hidden Asset

By Donald Shoemaker

A 911 call is answered by a police dispatcher. The caller is threatening to take his own life. The trained dispatcher does her very best to calm and bring helpful resources to the person. Then a gunshot is heard and there is silence.

This is the real world of emergency dispatchers. On October 12, 2011 a massacre occurred in Seal Beach, California. Eight people were murdered and one wounded at a salon over a child custody dispute. The event shattered the tranquility of this idyllic beach community. It was the worst mass murder in the history of Orange County.

Those who were on the scene, as I was for many hours, remember the police and fire personnel from many agencies, the Mobile Command Post, the helicopters, the news media, the local library turned into the Family Assistance Center, the professional counselors and chaplains, the Red Cross. But what about the dispatchers who played such a vital role?

West Cities Police Communications (“West-Comm”) serves the dispatch needs of three communities—Cypress and Los Alamitos and Seal Beach. It receives about 3000 calls a week, of which about 600 are “911” calls.

Dispatchers undergo significant training prior to assuming their role, plus on-the-job training. They must demonstrate calmness under pressure, control of emotions, empathy and compassion, and decisiveness. I respect their ability to be so excellent at multi-tasking. I say this as a pianist who can’t play the piano and carry on a conversation at the same time.

Lead Dispatcher Marie Pope says, “Our job can be stressful. We typically take many calls, deal with stressful situations and must endure the pressure of responding quickly and calmly in life-threatening situations. Since we can’t see what is happening, we completely rely on the caller to give us detailed information to complete our calls for service. We ask specific questions to get the information out to the officers as quickly as possible while keeping in mind their safety. Many calls emotionally affect us, but with our job we have to keep going.” Marie coordinates a trained peer support team available to dispatchers as they deal with some of the calls and incidents they handle.

The massacre of 10/12/11 would weigh heavily on West-Comm and is still vivid as the tenth anniversary of the tragedy approaches.

October 12 was an ordinary day in a calm community. Dispatchers were eating their lunches at their workstations and conversing between calls.

All that changed as the 911 calls flooded in. There was an active shooter at a community salon. Several calls were forwarded from the highway patrol (in those days calls to 911 from cell phones often went to the CHP first). People reported “shots fired.” “With only four dispatchers in the room and one of them working the radio—it was chaos, with a lot of calls and trying to determine what was really going on,” a dispatcher told me.

Marie said, “Our dispatch center assisted the officers with maintaining the crime scenes via the radio by calling for mutual aid and calling in additional personnel to assist, in addition to several other requests from the field personnel. Our job did not stop…we still had calls for service to handle and 911 calls coming in… all while managing our own emotions as to what just occurred. I personally checked on each dispatcher individually and made sure they were OK and able to finish out the day.”
The priority goal of the dispatchers was to get the bad guy. A dispatcher said, “We were able to get officers there and put out a description of the suspect and suspect vehicle so that the officers were able to find him and catch him. In those moments when the call is going on, you become very task oriented.”

(I can add that, with the help of witnesses, the first police responder was able to pursue the suspect vehicle and stop it just a couple of blocks past the church where I served as pastor—a short pursuit that ended with a nonviolent surrender.)

Among the first 911 callers was an employee of the salon who had locked herself in an office. “She was so scared, but she was able to provide good information on what took place inside the salon. She thought the suspect was still inside and feared for her life, but it turned out to be one of our officers that was there to save her. Just being on the phone with her during all her emotions will stay with me.”

The dispatcher continued, “Dispatching is a hard profession. We have many ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ in this job… I have learned to process and then compartmentalize the calls I deal with. Many of us are mothers, wives, sisters, etc., and you have to be able to go home to those you love, and often take care of them. Over the years I have learned to rely on my faith.”

“We did our best that day. Unfortunately, we could not stop what occurred inside the salon, but I like to think with our hard work at trying to get the information on the shooter and his vehicle out to the officers while dealing with all the hectic calls coming in made a difference. Due to the EXCELLENT police work of the officers responding to that call—they were able to stop and arrest the shooter before he was able to hurt anyone else.”

“I pray for all the people and the families that were affected on 10/12/11 – it was evil that came into our city and those people’s lives that day. As dispatchers, we played a small but critical part in helping that day, and the officers working that day are the true heroes.”

(NOTE: I could not have prepared this article without the support of the Director of West-Comm operations and the assistance of Marie Pope, Lead Dispatcher for West-Comm. I also was assisted by a dispatcher who chose to be anonymous. Quotes by Marie are identified as hers. Other quotes are from the anonymous dispatcher.)

Covid19 Vaccination Update

Not all agreed with my midsummer appeal “Get Vaccinated!” to put it mildly.

“With few exceptions, it’s time for Americans to get vaccinated.”

What might these exceptions be?

Medical Exceptions, about which I claim no expertise.
Religious Exceptions, for which I do claim expertise.
• Secularists who scorn religious exemptions should not be allowed to dominate this debate or ignore religious freedom principles.
• Members of various faith groups need to learn and utilize their own group’s teachings on vaccinations.
• Some sub-groups within Christianity promote an emphasis on divine healing. Most of these leave room for medical means. A few do not.
• I cannot think of any strong biblical argument against vaccinations per se. (Scripture passages like 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 refer to allowing our bodies to be used for immoral purposes, like drunkenness, gluttony and fornication.)
• Some have argued that fetal tissue from abortions is used to develop a vaccine. I have not found this a convincing argument for an exemption.
• An individual whose Christian sub-group opposes vaccination as a matter of doctrine needs to articulate and support that opposition with documentation and prove that he/she is a member of the group.
• Individuals whose denomination or local church do not take a position against vaccination (and this would be many, including me) would need to argue their position for themselves, linking their position to scripture or Christian teaching. You are on your own! You need to articulate in writing how your understanding of the Christian faith supports your conclusion about vaccination. I have heard of cases where your declaration alone would suffice, but you should expect to have to defend your view and be prepared for pushback.
• Be sure to consider the impact on your work or ministry or relationships that may occur from your decision not to be vaccinated.

Both of the above—Medical and Religious Exceptions—are the “few exceptions” I have in mind in my “bottom line.” Otherwise…

“Get Vaccinated!”

Bible Insight – A Practical Look at Creation
Based on the First Creation Account (Genesis 1:1 – 2:3)

I love the “Big Outdoors.” So I love the great “creation” texts in the Bible (the first two chapters of Genesis, Psalm 19, Psalm 104 and more). And I love the great hymns that reflect God’s handiwork in creation.

Having climbed Mt. Whitney (14,505’) and the tall peaks in Southern California, I can relate to the words of “How Great Thou Art!” –“When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur…” And I love to sing “All Creatures of Our God and King,” with words from St. Francis of Assisi (1225 AD).

Here I give a survey of the opening words of Genesis—the seven days of creation (using the New International Version). May they bless and benefit!

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

The alternate explanation is this: The emergence of the earth and heavens was an unsuperintended product of time, energy, matter and chance. If this explanation is true, nothing in the Bible matters. There is no transcendent basis for morality. But if Genesis 1:1 is true, the rest of the Bible is commentary on living out the meaning and purpose of God’s creation.

Genesis 1:2 – “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

It’s too early in scripture to take God’s spirit (ruach Elohim) as a reference to the Holy Spirit of the New Testament. This is God’s breath, his powerful force for change, going forth. God intends to bring order out of chaos. And I’m delighted to say he is still in that business—bringing order into the chaos of our lives and human institutions if we are open to him. In fact, the rest of the book of Genesis finds God blessing dysfunctional people and families and bringing order out of their chaos. When I think of this, I think of the chorus:

Something beautiful, something good;
All my confusion he understood.
All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife,
But he made something beautiful of my life.

Genesis 1:3-4 – “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.”

Now we get to the six days of creation. God begins with light. As with the rest of God’s creative acts, the light God created was good. In the New Testament, God brings light through Jesus, the true “light of the world” (John 1:1-9).

Genesis 1:6-8 – “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse ‘sky.’”

Commonly called “the expanse” or “the firmament”, the sky separates the waters below (which God gathered into “seas” so that dry land could appear—v. 9) from the waters above, which we call the clouds. As I write, clouds have moved in from the mountains to the north and the blue sky of the morning has been replaced by them—all this in “the expanse”. No rain, unfortunately.

This is the language of appearance—how things appear to us. It is not the language of science. This is a hot debate, but I’m convinced that many scripture passages are written from the standpoint of how things appear to us and if we read science into them we are introducing a foreign element that won’t work. See, for example, Psalm 19:4-6 – “In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other…” It is wrong to read a geocentric poetic scripture like Psalm 19 as the language of science (as Henry Morris does in “The Scientific Accuracy of the Psalms”) instead of the language of appearance.

According to the language of appearance, God set the sun and moon and stars in this expanse/firmament as well. Again, this is as we view things and not astronomy, which would put them far above the expanse above the earth.

This “expanse”, by the way, is still there along with the water above it. I can look up at night and see the Moon and Venus and Jupiter in it.
Psalm 148:3-5 – “Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies…for he commanded and they were created.”

Genesis 1:11-25 – The progressive sequence of life on earth is vegetation (the 3rd day), life in the water and air (the 5th day), and living creatures on the earth (the 6th day). At each step, God saw that what he created was good.

Genesis 1:26 – “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, overall the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

On the 6th day the highest and last of God’s creative work—humanity—was created. Only with humanity (“man”) does God consult with himself as to what he will do. Although all the creative work of God manifests his wisdom (Psalm 104:26), God’s wise thoughtfulness is underscored by this reference to God consulting within himself before he made humankind. Whether this self-consultation opens room for the Holy Trinity—I’ll leave that for others to think about.

God says two things: (1) he will make man in his own image, and (2) man will rule over the rest of living creation. Man will be God’s co-regent. It should be a rule of enjoyment, wisdom and care, not of greed and exploitation.

Genesis 1:27 –

So God created mankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

In this poetic triad we find three declarations:
• Man is made in God’s likeness. He resembles God in certain vital ways.
• The same truth is restated by reversing the points, for emphasis.
• God created man as male and female.

The third point, if it is a reiteration like the second point, provides additional insight into what it means to be God’s image bearers. Maleness and femaleness constitute (at least in part) what it means to be in God’s image.
If, rather than a reiteration it is a new statement, the third point underscores that mankind is a duality, and both poles of this duality are image bearers. It is not the man (or the king) only who bears the image, but the woman too.

Humankind according to God’s creative order is binary. Human gender is not a fluid, subjective thing with multiple possibilities. The contemporary statement that one’s gender was assigned at birth (passive voice, apparently arbitrarily by another person) is not a biblical option.

When Jesus explained the essence of marriage (Mark 10:6-8), he combined this thought with a lesson from Genesis 2:24 – “At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

Genesis 1:31 – Once “man as male and female” is created, God saw that his creation was “very good” – not just “good” but “very good.” We diminish our humanity if we fail to see this distinction.

One day in “Creation Week” yet remains—the 7th day.

Genesis 2:2-3 – “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

This would become foundational for the Seventh Day as a day of rest for mankind. To put it casually, “God took a day off, and we should too!”

Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). A day of rest after a week of work is for our own good. It shows we are masters of our work; work is not the master of us. It shows that while we value our work, we do not worship it. We worship God and give him glory by being his likeness in the world, being co-regents with him in the care of his creation, and by acknowledging the pattern of work and rest.

We thank God for his kindness and grace, in making us and placing us in a world that is “very good” and in giving us a pattern for work and rest.

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
What is man that you are mindful of him…?
…You crowned him with glory and honor.”
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! – Psalm 8:3-5, 9

We who can remember still do remember what happened and where we were when we first heard or saw it. 2974 died on “9/11”—including over 400 first responders. Each year more die from residual health issues.

I’ve visited the WTC site twice—in 2002 when the ruin was still evident, then several years later to see the memorial and listen to a firefighter tearfully tell the story of that day. I also have visited the Pentagon memorial.

I pray we never forget the tragedies of that day or the lessons to be learned.

Honoring “Teacher of the Year for 2021”

Teaching has been an especially challenging profession over the past 18 months. All the turmoil over Covid and other issues must not cause us to lose sight of the many quality teachers in our school systems. Cory Alfaro is one of these. She was named “Teacher of the year for 2021” by the Los Alamitos Unified School District, which includes Seal Beach.

A Good Word from the District: “She has been with us for 23 years, teaching drama at Laurel High before moving to Oak [Middle School] to teach English and Spanish. ‘I feel blessed to have a job that is my hobby, my passion, and my life’s work all rolled into one.’ Well done, Cory!”

Cory and her family are a faithful part of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach.

Congratulations, Cory!

GOLD for Rachel Fattal and
The USA Women’s 2021 Water Polo Team

The Women’s Polo Team USA won Gold at the Olympics on August 7 by soundly defeating Spain. They have now won the Gold three times in a row—2012, 2016 and now. Rachel Fattal was also part of the 2016 team.

The Fattal Family has been connected to the Seal Beach community and to Grace Community Church for many years.

Congratulations, Rachel!

Caring for the Birdies God Cares for…

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care… So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” – Jesus

The ultimate lesson of Jesus’ teaching (recorded in Matthew 17:29-31) is that God will sustain us when we stand up for our faith under pressure. But there is also a lesson about comparative worth.

Jesus here teaches about the relative value of living things through the logical argument of “the lesser to the greater.” To God, the little sparrow has value and he cares for it.

Jesus said people are worth more than many sparrows—at least 5 or 6, wouldn’t you say? Just kidding! The Bible’s doctrine of creation clearly establishes a hierarchy with humanity at the top. But it also clearly teaches care of creation.
Listen to Ethel Waters sing, “His Eye is on the Sparrow, and I Know He Watches Me” at a 1975 Billy Graham Crusade: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df3P4cO4Co0

“…not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”

Recently we returned home from a brief errand and I saw what looked like a ball of string on the lawn. I looked closely and saw it was a bird nest that fell from our parkway tree. There were three tiny baby birds inside, clearly stressed by the fall and direct exposure to the afternoon sun. We moved them from the sunlight and found something to hold the little nest.

We put the nest as close as we could get it to where it once was, hoping momma or daddy bird would show up (they didn’t). There was no safe way for me to get the nest back up onto the high, small branches from whence it fell. After all, I have on good authority that I am worth more than three sparrows!

We went on-line and looked up care and feeding of baby birds. Sadly, two of the birds didn’t make it. But one is hearty and growing and chirpy.

We’ve also protected and released 49 Monarch butterflies this year, with many more on the way. What’s next? Will we find some abandoned baby skunks in our back yard needing some TLC?

Bible Insight – The Priority of
the Word of God

Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. – Romans 10:17 ESV

…when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. – 1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. – 2 Timothy 4:2 NIV

Perhaps some of my Catholic friends who read these words can provide me with some insight on the questions I’m about to raise.

When I was in seminary (1966-69) John MacArthur was becoming the model of preaching, the man to emulate. He had long, in-depth sermons and, besides, most of us were already used to 45-minute sermons. MacArthur, now in his 80’s, continues to deliver lengthy sermons expounding the text of Scripture to a packed sanctuary.

Problem was and still is, most of us preachers can’t preach like MacArthur and if we think 45-minute sermons are what we should deliver, we may be thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Romans 12:3).

I gave 45-minute sermons for seven years after seminary. When I returned to pastoral ministry in 1984 after eight years of teaching theology at Biola University, I made the decision that my sermons would be under 30 minutes. * Actually, it’s harder to prepare a 30-minute sermon than most 45-minute sermons. Points must be crisper, introduction and conclusion more focused, illustrations and applications more “to the point.” Harder to do, but worth it.

So the time is shortened but the goal is still there: to present God’s Word clearly and practically. And my prayer always is that a tighter 30-minute sermon will be better and more effective than a 45-minute one.

Which leads me to two questions to discuss with my Catholic friends.

First, why are homilies so short and how can they become better? Second, why would many worshippers want to use Latin liturgy they cannot understand in worship (Eucharistic) services?

The homily (another word for the sermon, usually reflecting brevity) should be a Spirit-filled time in worship when people can hear the Word of the Lord proclaimed, explained and applied. It’s true that God’s Word can come non-verbally (St. Augustine said the Bread and Cup of the Eucharist are verba visibilia, “visible words”, and stained glass windows in traditional sanctuaries tell the story of Jesus without audible words). But the verbal proclamation is biblically demanded and necessary for growing faith and spiritual transformation through the inner ministry of the Holy Spirit.

During the height of Covid restrictions (July, 2020), the Archdiocese of Santa Fe demanded that homilies within its jurisdiction be very brief—five minutes and even down to three minutes! Priests offering longer homilies could have their “faculty to preach” suspended. Why, most evangelical preachers haven’t finished their sermon introduction in three minutes!

The Apostle Paul instructed his protégé Timothy, “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching [exhortation, encouragement] and to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). These three dynamic encounters with the Word of God should prominently characterize our worship services still today.

George Weigel is my favorite Catholic writer. In his book Evangelical Catholicism (Basic Books, 2013) he summons Catholic priests to “The Imperative of Preaching Well.” He challenges them to deliver homilies

that proclaim the Bible as the Word of God, that invite the people of the Church to meet the Lord through his holy Word, and that empower Catholic men and women to take the Gospel into the world and draw people to Christ.

The evangelical Catholic priests of the future must relearn the importance of expository preaching, which requires careful study of the liturgy’s biblical texts through the use of good biblical commentaries, many of which will have been written by Protestant scholars. (p. 145)

Now as to liturgy, should it be in the language of the worshippers or is Latin permissible if not preferred? ** My wife and I attended a Latin Mass a few years ago. It indeed was ascetically beautiful with a sense of transcendence. But the spoken word (beyond the brief homily) could not build faith or transform life because it was not understood (Romans 10:17). (I do note that worshippers may follow the liturgy in their own language through the use of a “missal”—roughly similar to a printed Protestant order of liturgy, including readings. A missal wasn’t available to us during our visit.)

Paul told the Corinthian believers whose worship services were full of speaking in unknown tongues, “Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?” (1 Corinthians 14:9). Instead, “strive to excel in building up the church” through meaningful words (14:12). Intelligible words are a must for worship in its fullness.

Whether in a Charismatic gathering where many are speaking in tongues without interpretation, or in a Eucharistic service where the liturgy is not understood, or listening to a highbrow sermon with big theological terms and Greek thrown in, the edification of the mind and spirit is truncated. In short, a key purpose of the worship service is unaccomplished.

If your church board wants to set measureable performance goals *** for your pastor (whoever has the primary teaching task), make this one Top Priority:

Give 44 sermons a year that are well-researched, well-organized, true to the text of Scripture, with excellent homiletics, heart-felt strong delivery, understood by all, timely and practical. ****

* This was partly necessitated by a tight Sunday morning schedule with multiple services, three after 1997.
** I read almost every day about the controversies over liturgy in the Catholic Church. The issues go much deeper than simply a debate over language. Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Wilmington, CA offers a Latin Tridentine Mass at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time on Sundays. It can be viewed via YouTube at: www.sppc.us
*** And I’m not saying they should. Much of a pastor’s task is not quantifiable.
**** “Understood by all” – even a deep sermon needs some cookies on the bottom shelf. The number of weekly sermons can flex. “44” is based on 4 weeks of vacation and 4 weeks for other speakers or programs. Congregations expecting sermon excellence need to supply their pastors with time and ample funds for ongoing training, books and other resources, and must protect the pastor’s sermon preparation time.

“We must remove police from traffic stops.” So says the leader of an activist group in California.

Likewise, University of Arkansas law professor Jordan Blair Woods proposes “a new legal framework for traffic enforcement that separates it from critical police function” (“Traffic Without the Police,” Stanford Law Review, June 2021).

More later on the wisdom, or lack thereof, of removing police from traffic enforcement. Here is a personal story…

My teenage granddaughter, shortly after getting her driver’s license, did a “California [slow] stop” for a right turn on red late one evening. She got a ticket, not because an officer observed her but because a camera did.

The fine was $100—fair enough. But by the time all kinds of governmental fees were slathered on, she was out almost $500. This is unjust and seems to me to be a clear violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “excessive fines.” Does anyone know if this issue has ever been litigated?

This magnitude of fines can get people of limited means onto a “downhill snowball” debt slope they cannot escape if they are unable to pay and penalties start piling up. Politicians who claim to have special concern for the poor should take a hard look at these unreasonable fees.

Unlike cameras (which some foolishly propose as a partial substitute for having sworn officers make traffic stops), the officer has both a head and a heart. One key feature of a traffic stop is when the officer weighs the factors and decides either to issue a ticket or just give a warning. At such a moment, the officer balances doing justice and loving mercy (Micah 6:8), and strives for “the spirit of the law” above “the letter of the law.”

I was a teenager when an officer in a small Indiana town pulled up beside me as I waited at a traffic signal and said, “Watch yourself! This town’s not a race track!” But I’m at a dead stop! What happened? I was “profiled” because I was DWMT – “Driving While Male Teen”. Fortunately, I could outgrow that—the teen part, that is.

That scene stays with me almost 60 years later, along with all the times I was actually stopped by law enforcement. Only once was I ticketed—driving through open farm country on an empty highway in Ohio. The officer who motioned me to pull over told me an airplane monitored me going 60 mph in a 50 mph section of that highway. The ticket (paid by credit card on the spot) was $80, not $500, but I still thought the stop was unfair.

All the other times I was stopped I was warned, even sternly lectured, and sent on my way.

The idea that officers are pressed and eager to achieve ticket quotas or that cities want more citations to up their income is largely a myth or very rare or in the past or in the movies. Have minorities been unfairly targeted? In certain times and places, yes. This must change! (I stress unfairly, because a statistical disproportion in itself does not show improper policing.)

I can’t prove it, but I’d wager my granddaughter would have gotten away with a stern warning had she been pulled over by the police after her “California
stop” that night.

And she would have learned more in a positive way from that experience than she could ever learn from the resentment-building excessive fine.