The only thing worse than suffering persecution is suffering it for the wrong reasons—or worse, suffering it while holding to a fundamentally flawed understanding of God’s Word. As the current order shifts, we are entering a time where theological clarity will be the only defense against deception.
1. The Crucible of Public Opinion
The persecution to come will be multi-faceted, targeting different groups for different errors:
•The Supersessionist will face hostility for the blatant rejection of God’s covenantal promises, eventually being targeted for the denial of Israel’s right to exist.
•The Zionist and the misinformed Dispensationalist will face common persecution for their role in creating a man-made state, attempting to force the hand of God through political projects that ignore the necessity of the Messiah’s Lordship.
•The faithful remnant who hold to a true, literal Dispensationalism will rise from the dust of these failures. As die-hard traditionalists cling to the hope that a secular world will grant them divine favor, those who understand the Scriptures will correctly remind them that their future rests not in the favor of the world, but in the specific, literal promises of God.
2. The Respite and the Vanishing
Once the undue, manipulative influence of the current worldly powers run by Jews is broken, we may see a window of global “peace and prosperity.” In this environment, the true Church—those who truly understand the timing of God—will suddenly vanish after making Herself ready. Following this, the world will face “sudden destruction”, a time of global chaos.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly [not over the course of 80 years] like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief;
Revelation 3:10 ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.
Revelation 19:7-9 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
3. The Final Purge and Restoration
In the vacuum of that chaos, the “Netanyahus” and the “Nimrods”—the architects of human-led global unity—will attempt once more to unite the world under a single, rebellious banner. This will trigger the period of severe, supernatural purgation for Israel (the events of Revelation 4–19). This is the “time of Jacob’s trouble,” where the nation will be refined through fire.
The climax of this period is not the success of human diplomacy, but the return of the Messiah. He will return to separate the sheep from the goats and finally call the preserved remnant back to the land, not by the permission of the nations, but by the decree of the King.
To suggest that God has “fulfilled” or replaced the nation of Israel is to construct a theological house of cards that collapses under the weight of God’s own integrity. If God lied to an entire people group regarding the Abrahamic, Davidic, and Land covenants, upon what basis do you claim He is telling the truth regarding the promises He has made to you? God’s faithfulness is the bedrock of our salvation; if He is a God who breaks His word to the descendants of Abraham, then He is a God who can break His word to the Church.
1. Paul’s Definitive Answer
We must prioritize the clear, inspired teaching of the Apostle Paul—a foundation stone of the Church—over 2,000 years of tradition that often sought to divorce Christianity from its Jewish roots. Paul faced the burning question of his day: “Has God rejected His people?” In Romans 11:1, he does not respond by spiritualizing the promise away or declaring the Church to be the “New Israel.” Instead, he identifies himself as an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin. He uses his own salvation as the “living proof” that God is not finished with the nation. Paul explicitly defines the setting aside of Israel as partial (not all are cast off), passing (not permanent), and purposeful (having a specific goal in the sovereign plan of God).
2. The Danger of “Replacement” Theology
The doctrine of supersessionism is a historical failure that has consistently led the Church into error. By attempting to claim the promises for ourselves while relegating the Jewish people to an abandoned status, we have ignored the Apostle’s warning. Just as we rightly critique the core tenets of false religions, we must have the courage to apply 2 Corinthians 13:5 to our own tradition. If the Church has drifted into an interpretive method that effectively accuses God of lying, we are obligated to repent.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?
3. The Future of the Remnant and the Failure of Zionism
The contemporary religious landscape is trapped in a false dichotomy. On one side, many ecumenical and replacement-theology proponents will facilitate persecution by passively enabling the status quo. On the other side, many “Zionists” have cheapened the grace of God by attempting to force a national identity upon a people group that has rejected their Messiah. They treat the land as an unconditional entitlement for a secular, often morally degenerate, state that flagrantly ignores the Law of the Giver.
Both groups fail to grasp the simple, literal truth: possession of the land and covenantal blessing are dependent upon the acknowledgment of the Messiah. Simply loving the gift while despising the Giver will get you kicked out of the land time and time again. The “man-made” state of Israel, currently embroiled in hostility, will not be saved by diplomacy or human maneuvering; it will be judged, and its errors—and those of its apologists—will be exposed.
Revelation 3:9 ‘Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie — behold, I will make them to come and bow down at your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
4. The Necessity of Consistent Interpretation
The rise of Dispensationalism is not a late-modern invention; it is the inevitable result of a consistent, literal-historical method of interpretation. We apply this method to every other ancient document to determine the author’s intent; we must apply it to the Bible as well. When we do, we see that God’s plan is not one of replacement, but one of restoration.
The current world order, marked by deception and the suppression of the truth, is rushing toward a climax. As the Church fulfills its purpose (Matt 13), we must remain vigilant. When the world finally experiences a fleeting, deceptive period of “peace and prosperity,” we must not be lulled into a false sense of security. Sudden destruction will follow, not a long decade after decade slide into ruin.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
The truth remains: God’s promises to the literal nation of Israel are irrevocable. The Church is not a “replacement,” but a witness to the One who will eventually restore all things.
Study the Word, stand firm against the spirit of persecution, and refuse to accept a gospel that requires you to believe God is a liar.
Revelation 3:10 ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.
What is to come of Israel? It takes God 53 verses to explain their demise. No wonder Paul worked so hard to get them to turn from their wicked way. They sought to kill him; he sought to save some.
They are an example, not to follow.
As seen at himitsustudy.com
Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
Deuteronomy 28:15-68
“But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
“Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
“Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.
“Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
“The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. “The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. “The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish. “The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. “The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
“The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. “Your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.
“The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. “The Lord will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; and you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you. “You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit. “Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. “Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do. “A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. “You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see. “The Lord will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. “The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. “You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you.
“You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it. “You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. “You shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. “You shall have sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. “The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. “The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. “He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.
“So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. “They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever.
“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
“The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. “Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. “It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. “Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you. “The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns. “The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your towns.
“If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. “He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. “Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed. “Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the Lord your God. “It shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. “Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. “Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. “So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. “In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see. “The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
This book has been a great companion book as I read through the Old Testament. By comparing Old Testament statements next to their contemporary counterparts, the differences are compelling. If the same amount of criticism and skepticism were directed at these, they would give Christianity a pass. The bottom line to any truth claim is does it work. Like the Apostle Paul discovered,
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
It is like Keith Green said, "I know God is real because He changed me."
This is a review of Is God a Moral Monster by Paul Copan with study questions added to turn them into lessons. These lessons are part of a wider study on Sanctification by Faith which has as its goal the fulfillment of Gal 5:16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Because sanctification depends upon faith, doubt will be seen as a hindrance. Misunderstanding can lead to doubt as well as ignorance, deception, and experience like - it doesn't feel right. This lesson seeks to combat ignorance, deception, and misunderstanding. By erasing these, our faith is free to function at a higher level.
I’ve set all of these studies in a specific order so that anyone may easily build on the foundation of Christ with the finest materials - gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor 3:10-13). God has gifted the Church with amazing evangelists, pastors, and teachers to do the mining so that we have these materials to complete the building project. (Eph 4:11-16). I invite you to study along with me. You can see an overview of the complete Sanctification by Faith study here. To go to the start of the current lesson (Is God a Moral Monster) click here.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thess 5:23
20: We Have Moved beyond This God (Haven’t We?) Jesus as the Fulfiller of the Old Testament
The Gifts of the Jews
On February 16, 1809, John Adams wrote a letter to F. A. Vanderkemp in which he insisted that “the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.” Not only did their laws help bring a civilizing influence to the nations, but they preserved and propagated to humankind “the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.”[1]
In his fascinating book The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill reinforces this argument. This ancient nomadic desert tribe helped introduce to humanity a sense of history-a past, present, and future-and the idea that history is going somewhere, that it has a point.[2] For the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and other ancient peoples, time was cyclical—the same old same old. We could say the same about many Eastern philosophies and religions today; they espouse the doctrine of karma with its reincarnation cycles of birth, death, and rebirth.
What’s more, the Old Testament reveals a God who has a global (cosmic) plan and who involves humans as history-shaping participants in that plan. Yes, humans matter. The Old Testament’s genealogies reflect the important role that humans play in the unfolding of God’s purposes.
On top of this, the Jews introduced a robust monotheism. Rather than being just one god in a pantheon of others or just a regional deity, Yahweh was/is the only deity who matters. Indeed, he is the only one who exists. Along with this, the Jews introduced a new way to experience reality. There is a divine being who regularly, personally engages humans, whose choices really make a difference. Human decision making has great significance, and God interweaves these choices into his overarching plans. We’re not the pawns of fate or at the mercy of the whims of the gods. On the other hand, humans aren’t so powerful that they can manipulate God to do their bidding. These themes are some of the gifts of the Jews to the rest of the world.[3]
The Gifts of the Christians
Horrendous, anti-Christian actions have been carried out in the name of Christ: the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch-hunting, or fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Europe could be named. Not that Jesus wants to be identified with this kind of religious zealotry. Many things can be done in God’s name that cause it to be “blasphemed among the Gentiles” (Rom. 2:24).
The problem with Christopher Hitchens’s claim that “religion poisons everything” is that it’s both vague and extreme. The term religion in the existing literature is notoriously vague and difficult to define. And if Dennett and Hitchens suggest that Stalin was somehow “religious,” then at this point we throw up our hands in bewilderment. Hitchens’s statement about religion’s noxious influence is also extreme in its lopsidedness.[4] Does religion poison everything and bring no benefits whatsoever? More thoughtful, sophisticated atheists would strongly disagree. As atheist philosopher Walter Sinnott-Armstrong responds, this religion-poisons-everything slogan is “inaccurate and insulting.” He advises atheists not to cheer on or laugh at Hitchens’s jokes, nor should they remain silent. To Sinnott-Armstrong, Hitchens’s critique of religion is “like a senile relative” who is constantly making “bizarre statements”; his assessment is neither fair nor very illuminating.[5]
Ironically, the New Atheists’ moral grenades lobbed against the Christian faith in the name of morality are actually historically founded upon the very faith they criticize. Historians have documented that the values of human rights, tolerance, social justice, and racial reconciliation are the legacy of the Christian faith, not some secular Enlightenment ideals. For all her flaws, the Christian church has played an important part in bringing huge benefits to civilization. This impact has often been inspired by devotion to Christ, which overflows to love for one’s neighbor to the glory of God.
These documented achievements include the following:[6][7]
•Eradicating slavery: As the Christian faith spread into barbarian Europe after the fall of Rome, the practice of slavery dwindled. Slavery virtually died out in Europe by the Middle Ages, when Europe was well Christianized. When slavery reappeared, it was strongly opposed by dedicated believers among the Mennonites and Quakers as well as by Christian leaders such as theologian Richard Baxter, John Wesley, and William Wilberforce.
•Opposing infanticide and rescuing infants from exposure: This practice, common among the Greeks and Romans, was outlawed in the fourth century, under the influence of Christians.
•Eliminating gladiatorial games: These brutal games usually involved slaves and criminals. They were outlawed in the late fourth century in the East and the early fifth century in the West.
•Building hospitals and hospices: Unlike Greeks and Romans, early Christians were concerned about health care, looking after the sick and the dying. Once the Christian faith became official in the empire, this ministry expanded considerably. The Council of Nicea (AD 325) commissioned bishops to establish hospice care in every city where a church building existed. The first hospital was built under St. Basil in Caesarea (369). By the Middle Ages, hospitals existed throughout Europe. (Think too of Florence Nightingale, the founding of the Red Cross, and so on.)
•Elevating women’s status/rights: Although feminists claim that the Christian faith puts women down and keeps them under, history shows the opposite. Though women have been routinely oppressed in most cultures, we see something different in Jesus’s treatment of women (e.g., the Samaritan woman in John 4, or Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42). Luke’s Gospel highlights the prominent place of women in Jesus’s life and ministry. Early Christians routinely protected women and children from neglect and abuse.
•Founding Europe’s and North America’s great universities: The Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are some of the many notable universities established to God’s glory. In Europe, many universities sprang forth from medieval monasteries; in America, the earliest and most notable universities began as institutions for training pastors and missionaries.
•Writing extraordinary works of literature: The remarkable literature of Christians inspired by their faith ranges from Augustine’s City of God and Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History to Dante’s Comedy and John Milton’s Paradise Lost to the works of J. R. R. Tolkein, C. S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
•Engaging in/writing about philosophy and theology and the life of reason: Some of the leading representatives include Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, Søren Kierkegaard, and Jonathan Edwards. Today, organizations such as the Society of Christian Philosophers and the Evangelical Philosophical Society attest to this ongoing tradition.
•Creating beautiful masterpieces of art, sculpture, and architecture: Think of Michelangelo, Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, or the Byzantine and gothic cathedrals.
•Establishing modern science: Modern science had its roots in the biblical conviction that the world was created by a rational God. For this reason, it was orderly and predictable, and it could be studied and understood by human minds. We could mention Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Michael Faraday, William T. Kelvin, Robert Boyle, Anton Lavoisier, and many others.
•Composing brilliant music: The works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg F. Handel, Felix Mendelssohn, and Franz Joseph Haydn speak for themselves.
•Advocating human rights, democracy, political freedoms, concern for the poor: These themes are rooted in the biblical ideals that all humans are made in God’s image, that they have dignity and worth, and that they are equal before the law.
It’s difficult to exaggerate the impact that Jesus of Nazareth has had on history and the countless lives impacted by this one man’s life and teaching—indeed, the transforming power of his cross and resurrection. The historian Jaroslav Pelikan remarked that by the changing of the calendar (to BC and AD according to “the year of our Lord”) and other ways, “everyone is compelled to acknowledge that because of Jesus of Nazareth history will never be the same.”[8]
Dawkins is quite wrong in asserting that the Christian faith—like Islam—was spread by the sword.[9] If he took an honest look at Christian history, he would have to acknowledge that the earliest Christian movement was one of the politically and socially disempowered. This movement was first called “the Way” (Acts 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22) in honor of its Savior (John 14:6), and it often gathered to itself slaves and members of the lower classes. In the first three centuries, the church grew by deeds of love and mercy and the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus. Holy wars had no place in this nonviolent movement.
Rodney Stark—the respected eight-hundred-pound gorilla among sociologists—shows in his book The Victory of Reason how the “success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.”[10] But don’t just take a Christian sociologist’s word for it. Jürgen Habermas is one of Europe’s most prominent philosophers today. Another fact about Habermas: he’s a dyed-in-the-wool atheist. Yet he highlights the inescapable historical fact that the biblical faith was the profound influence in shaping civilization. Consider carefully his assessment:[11]
Christianity has functioned for the normative self-understanding of modernity as more than just a precursor or a catalyst. Egalitarian universalism, from which sprang the ideas of freedom and a social solidarity, of an autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights, and democracy, is the direct heir to the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of continual critical appropriation and reinterpretation. To this day, there is no alternative to it. And in light of current challenges of a postnational constellation, we continue to draw on the substance of this heritage. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk.[12]
In the words of human rights scholar Max Stackhouse, “Intellectual honesty demands recognition of the fact that what passes as ‘secular,’ ‘Western’ principles of basic human rights developed nowhere else than out of key strands of the biblically-rooted religion.”[13]
Consider three fundamental historical facts.
(1)Talk of natural right(s) emerged in the Catholic theology of the Middle Ages, a language which itself was built on the biblical understanding of the image of God in all humans.
(2)The chief movers who established the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948 (which speaks of humans being “endowed with reason and conscience”) were primarily church coalitions and individual Christian leaders who worked closely with some Jewish rabbis to create a “new world order” of human rights.
(3)Even the allegedly secular Enlightenment’s universal human rights emphasis has deep theological roots; this is quite obvious in the two leading documents of the eighteenth century: the Declaration of Independence (which speaks of humans being “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (affirming human rights “in the presence and under the auspices” of God, “the Supreme Being”). In short, the Judeo-Christian imprint on human rights in the present is vital for correcting much secularist religion bashing.[14]
Even non-Westerners have come to recognize the remarkable impact of the Christian faith in the West. Time magazine’s well-respected correspondent David Aikman reported the summary of one Chinese scholar’s lecture to a group of eighteen American tourists:
“One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world,” he said. “We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”[15]
This lecturer was not some ill-informed crackpot. To the contrary, he represented one of China’s premier academic research organizations—the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). We don’t just find Western scholarly support for the Jewish-Christian worldview. We find it in the East as well!
Jesus as the Climax
The Scriptures begin with the creational affirmation that all humans are made in God’s image. In many ways, the improvements of the Old Testament over a good deal of other ancient Near Eastern legislation were a significant move toward that ideal. The Old Testament provides us with enduring perspectives about human dignity and fallenness, not to mention moral insights regarding justice, faithfulness, mercy, generosity, and the like.
However, if we stop with the Old Testament, we won’t see the entire story line as it’s brought to completion in Jesus. The Old Testament was in many ways anticipatory of something far greater. So if Jesus truly brought a new covenant for the true Israel and has begun to renew the creation as the second Adam, then we ought to concern ourselves with how his incarnation, ministry, atoning death, and resurrection shed light backward on the Old Testament, with all its messiness. To stop with Old Testament texts without allowing Christ, the second Adam, and the new, true Israel to illuminate them, our reading and interpretation of the Old Testament will be greatly impoverished and, in certain ways, misrepresented.[16]
One day we’ll fully enjoy the realization of pristine goodness and shalom. In the new heaven and earth, no social or racial discrimination will exist. Swords will be beaten into plowshares. Peace will reign. In his own day, Jesus reaffirmed Old Testament texts about loving God and neighbor and called Israel back to live by God’s creational designs. That was then, but hardened hearts are still with us today. Yet Jesus’s approach to the Old Testament should instruct us Christians living in the already/not yet. We’re living with many benefits of the cross of Christ (already), but we still live in a fallen world as we await the new heaven and earth and the receiving of our resurrection bodies (not yet).
Though the New Atheists don’t intend it and though they often go about it in wrongheaded ways, they can serve as a proper challenge for us Christians.[17] How? By reminding us to be more thoughtful in our faith, to live kingdom-centered lives with greater Christian passion and consistency, to deepen our commitment to justice and opposing oppression, to think through contemporary obstacles to belief, and to offer a more compelling vision in word and deed to a watching world. We all need to take a fresh look at Jesus and let our gaze at him shape our devotion to him, our love for others (even our enemies), and our concern for the culture and world in which we find ourselves. Author and pastor Tim Keller gives us a start for our reflection:
If your fundamental is a man dying on the cross for his enemies, if the very heart of your self-image and your religion is a man praying for his enemies as he died for them, sacrificing for them, loving them-if that sinks into your heart of hearts, it’s going to produce the kind of life that the early Christians produced. The most inclusive possible life out of the most exclusive possible claim-and that is that this is the truth. But what is the truth? The truth is a God become weak, loving, and dying for the people who opposed him, dying forgiving them.[18]
While we may stumble or be troubled when reading certain Old Testament texts, we can put them in proper perspective by looking in the right places. The ultimate resolution is found in God’s clarifying Word to us and the One who became flesh and lived among us, who died and rose again on our behalf. The God whom the New Atheists consider a monster is not just a holy God to be reckoned with but a loving, self-sacrificing God who invites us to be reconciled to him.
Further Reading
Hill, Jonathan. What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2005.
Schmidt, Alvin. How Christianity Changed the World. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.
Stark, Rodney. The Victory of Reason. New York: Random House, 2005.
Wright, N. T. Evil and the Justice of God. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2006.
Click on the "Is God a Moral Monster" tag below to see all the posts in this series. To go to the start of this series click here.
Questions & Notes
John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams, vol. 9 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1856). Available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php&title=2107. ↑
Thomas Cahill, The Gifts of the Jews (New York: Anchor, 1999). ↑
Contrary to the New Atheists, what contributions have Jews made to civilization? This book lists some of them. Can you think of others? ↑
When Christopher Hitchens says that “religion poisons everything,” what does he mean? What is the problem with his claim? ↑
Walter Sinnot-Armstrong, Morality without God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 154. ↑
Jonathan Hill, What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2005), 176-77. For thorough documentation on these phenomena, see Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004). ↑
What have been some of the contributions Christians have made to the world? What Christ-inspired effects have brought light, help, and hope to the world? Can you think of any other contributions not mentioned in the book? ↑
Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus through the Centuries (New York: Harper & Row, 1985), 33. ↑
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), 37. ↑
Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason (New York: Random House, 2005), xi. ↑
Look at Jürgen Habermas’s quotation on the influence of the Christian faith. What do you think of it, and why is this important in light of the New Atheists’ critique? ↑
Jürgen Habermas, Time of Transitions, ed. and trans. Ciaran Cronin and Max Pensky (Cambridge: Polity, 2006), 150-51. ↑
Max Stackhouse, “A Christian Perspective on Human Rights,” Society (January/February 2004): 25. ↑
Ibid., 24. See also Max L. Stackhouse and Stephen E. Healey, “Religion and Human Rights: A Theological Apologetic,” in Religious Rights in Global Perspective, ed. J. Witte Jr. and J. D. van der Vyer (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996), 486; and Mary Ann Glendon, The World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (New York: Random House, 2001). ↑
David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2003), 5. This quotation serves as an exclamation point to round out Rodney Stark’s study, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success (New York: Random House, 2005), 235. ↑
How does the coming of Jesus bring clarity to the Old Testament and some of its challenges? ↑
Overall, what have been some benefits you’ve taken away from reading and discussing this book? What have you learned about the character and activity of God across the two testaments? How have you been stretched and even strengthened in your faith? ↑
Tim Keller, “Reason for God,” The Explorer (Veritas Forum) (Fall 2008), www.veritas.org/explorer/fall2008.html#story1. ↑
