Saving Demons, Part 1

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If senseless[1] Gentiles, chosen for salvation to make Israel jealous, reject the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness to pursue their own righteousness derived[2] from a select subset of the law and their own religious rules, will that open Christ’s salvation to demons and fallen angels?

On the surface of it the question seems absurd to me, too speculative, though I appreciate the symmetry of the pattern.  My problem, however, is that I remember when I believed that Paul’s “commandment”— So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus[3]—was a pious fiction, a mind game based on the flimsiest of pretexts: Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?[4]

Now, of course, I believe that Paul’s “commandment” was a carefully wrought conclusion based on a solid truth.  And so I believe that I, too, have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing![5]  Furthermore, I now believe that this death facilitates forgiveness and the new resurrected (eternal) life by creating the distinction between me (the new man born of the Spirit) and the sin in my flesh (Romans 7:14-20 NET).

For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.  For I don’t understand what I am doing.  For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate.  But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good.  But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.  For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil   (κακὸν, a form of κακός) I do not want!  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

As John the Apostle wrote, We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one (πονηρὸς, a form of πονηρός) cannot touch him.[6]  That experience prompts me to keep an open mind and a running account as touch points come up.  One of the first things that came to mind was Jesus’ response to the religious leaders’ charge that He blasphemed by claiming to be the Son of God: Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?[7]

When I wrote about it before[8] I focused on verses in Exodus where the Holy Spirit called human judges elohim.[9]  But Jesus apparently quoted Psalm 82:6 as well.  The note in the NET reads: “The problem in this verse concerns the meaning of Jesus’ quotation from Ps 82:6. It is important to look at the OT context: The whole line reads ‘I say, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.’ Jesus will pick up on the term ‘sons of the Most High’ in 10:36, where he refers to himself as the Son of God. The psalm was understood in rabbinic circles as an attack on unjust judges who, though they have been given the title ‘gods’ because of their quasi-divine function of exercising judgment, are just as mortal as other men. What is the argument here? It is often thought to be as follows: If it was an OT practice to refer to men like the judges as gods, and not blasphemy, why did the Jewish authorities object when this term was applied to Jesus? This really doesn’t seem to fit the context, however, since if that were the case Jesus would not be making any claim for ‘divinity’ for himself over and above any other human being – and therefore he would not be subject to the charge of blasphemy. Rather, this is evidently a case of arguing from the lesser to the greater, a common form of rabbinic argument. The reason the OT judges could be called gods is because they were vehicles of the word of God (cf. 10:35). But granting that premise, Jesus deserves much more than they to be called God. He is the Word incarnate, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world to save the world (10:36). In light of the prologue to the Gospel of John, it seems this interpretation would have been most natural for the author. If it is permissible to call men “gods” because they were the vehicles of the word of God, how much more permissible is it to use the word ‘God’ of him who is the Word of God?”

The psalm itself reads (Psalm 82 NET):

God (elohim)[10] stands in the assembly of El; in the midst of the gods (elohim) he renders judgment.  He says, “How long will you make unjust legal decisions and show favoritism to the wicked?  (Selah)  Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless!  Vindicate the oppressed and suffering!  Rescue the poor and needy!  Deliver them from the power of the wicked!  They neither know nor understand.  They stumble around in the dark, while all the foundations of the earth crumble.  I thought,[11] ‘You are gods (elohim); all of you are sons of the Most High.’  Yet you will die like mortals; you will fall like all the other rulers.”  Rise up, O God (elohim), and execute judgment on the earth!  For you own all the nations.

And the note in the NET on gods reads: “The present translation assumes that the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, ‘gods’) here refers to the pagan gods who supposedly comprise El’s assembly according to Canaanite religion. Those who reject the polemical view of the psalm prefer to see the referent as human judges or rulers (אֱלֹהִים sometimes refers to officials appointed by God, see Exod 21:6; 22:8-9; Ps 45:6) or as angelic beings (אֱלֹהִים sometimes refers to angelic beings, see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5).”

In the prophetic Song of Moses we read: They made him jealous with other gods,[12] they enraged him with abhorrent idols.  They sacrificed to demons, not God,[13] to gods (elohim) they had not known; to new gods[14] who had recently come along, gods your ancestors[15] had not known about.[16]  And Paul wrote: I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God.[17]  So I can side with the unbelievers Jesus addressed and believe that Psalm 82 was about Israel’s judges, or I can take the psalm at face value and believe that it was the pagan gods who made unjust legal decisions and showed favoritism to the wicked.

If God meant to save these demons, these rebellious angels, these fallen sons of the Most High, the first step would be that they die like mortals so they could be resurrected to a new life:  And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever”[18] (e.g., immortality corrupted by sin).

On the other hand the letter to the Hebrews reads: Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.  For surely his concern (ἐπιλαμβάνεται, a form of ἐπιλαμβάνομαι)[19] is not for angels, but he is concerned (ἐπιλαμβάνεται, a form of ἐπιλαμβάνομαι) for Abraham’s descendants.[20]  Once again death played a pivotal role but God’s ἐπιλαμβάνεται (taking hold to rescue) might be limited to human beings here.  Of course when I turn that around and say, “Hebrews 2:16 limits God’s mercy to human beings,” I feel more like Gollum,[21] saying, “It’s mine! My precious,” than an obedient follower of Jesus, who commanded, Freely you received, freely give.[22]

[3] Romans 6:11 (NET)

[4] Romans 6:3 (NET)

[5] Galatians 2:20, 21 (NET)

[6] 1 John 5:18 (NET) Table

[7] John 10:34 (NET)

[11] NET note: “Heb ‘said.’”

[16] Deuteronomy 32:16, 17 (NET) Table1 Table2

[17] 1 Corinthians 10:20a (NET) Table

[18] Genesis 3:22 (NET)

[20] Hebrews 2:14-16 (NET)

[21] In “The Lord of the Rings” movies Sauron’s ring of power gave Gollum a corrupt immortality, dead in [his] transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1 NET).

[22] Matthew 10:8b (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 4

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Here I continue to see the Lord cultivating the fear that is a conviction to act in accordance with his word in Israel.  It happened at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.[1]  But the plague of the firstborn did not touch the Israelites who heard the word of the Lord and marked their doors with the blood of the Passover lamb: For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.[2]

Pharaoh got up in the night, along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house in which there was not someone dead.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!  Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave.  But bless me also.”[3]

And so the descendents of Israel (and others) left Egypt:  There were about 600,000 men on foot, plus their dependants.  A mixed multitude also went up with them, and flocks and herds – a very large number of cattle.[4]  A note in the NET reads: “The ‘mixed multitude’ (עֵרֶב רַב, ’erev rav) refers to a great ‘swarm’ (see a possible cognate in 8:21[17]) of folk who joined the Israelites, people who were impressed by the defeat of Egypt, who came to faith, or who just wanted to escape Egypt (maybe slaves or descendants of the Hyksos). The expression prepares for later references to riffraff who came along.”

In this context of cultivating a fear of the Lord that is a conviction to act in accordance with his word I begin to see a purpose for hardening Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 14:1-4 NET).

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites that they must turn and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you are to camp by the sea before Baal Zephon opposite it.  Pharaoh will think regarding the Israelites, ‘They are wandering around confused in the land – the desert has closed in on them.’  I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them.  I will gain honor because of Pharaoh and because of all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”  So this is what they did.

It happened as the Lord promised Moses (Exodus 14:5-7 NET):

When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, “What in the world have we done?  For we have released the people of Israel from serving us!”  Then he prepared his chariots and took his army with him.  He took six hundred select chariots, and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, and officers on all of them.

If I am correct in seeing this fear that is a conviction to act in accordance with the word of the Lord as the functional equivalent in the Old Testament of the fruit of the Spirit,[5] the desire and the effort brought forth by God for the sake of his good pleasure,[6]  because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[7]  and the love of God[8] that is the fulfillment of the law,[9] then the contemporary Gentile response to the events of Exodus is telling.  It is a clear revelation of the ασεβεια[10] in human hearts, the ungodliness (ἀσέβειαν, a form of ἀσέβεια) and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness;[11] namely, the learned consensus that the Exodus didn’t happen as described in the Bible.  It is difficult to believe that God would do such things for anyone (the descendents of Israel), let alone for everyone (For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[12]).

But orchestrating the events to cultivate such a fear could have the opposite effect, creating a fear that caused Israel to flee, in their hearts if not with their feet (Exodus 14:10-12 NET).

When Pharaoh got closer, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified (yârêʼ).[13]  The Israelites cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert?  What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’”

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint used ἐφοβήθησαν (a form of φοβέω)[14] here.  The next occurrence of ἐφοβήθησαν in the New Testament is in Matthew’s Gospel when Christ, our Passover lamb, [was] sacrificed.[15]  Now from noon until three, darkness came over all the land.  At about three o’clock Jesus shouted [the opening line of Psalm 22] with a loud voice…“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[16]  Apparently some bystanders didn’t know Aramaic (the language of Judah’s Babylonian/Persian captors and didn’t recognize the Psalm in that ancient tongue: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? [8/19/2017: For a different take on this see, DID THE MESSIAH SPEAK ARAMAIC OR HEBREW? (PART 2) BY E.A.KNAPP]).  They said, This man is calling for Elijah[17] (e.g., Eli, Eli—My God, My God).  Leave him alone!  Let’s see if Elijah will come to save him.[18]

Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.  Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom.  The earth shook and the rocks were split apart.  And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised….Now when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified (ἐφοβήθησαν, a form of φοβέω) and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!”[19]

I doubt that the Centurion and his companions on Golgotha saw the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place ripped, though they may have seen or at least heard the commotion afterward.  I assume they witnessed the earthquake and the tombs opening.  Whether they saw any of the dead come out of their tombs depends on how limiting verse 53 is meant to be taken, They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.[20]  I’m not sure I can make that kind of determination based only on ἐκ,[21] which can mean out of or away from.  But whatever they saw and heard frightened them like the Israelites were frightened when they looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them.

But Moses, who was privy to God’s plan, said, Do not fear (yârêʼ)!  Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again.[22]  The word translated fear above was θαρσεῖτε (a form of θαρσέω)[23] in the Septuagint.  When Jesus’ disciples saw him walking on the water they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them: “Have courage (θαρσεῖτε)!  It is I.  Do not be afraid.”[24]

Israel crossed the sea on dry ground.  The Egyptians were drowned when they attempted to follow.  When Israel saw the great power that the Lord had exercised over the Egyptians, they feared (yârêʼ) the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.[25]  And so, for the moment, God had successfully cultivated that combination of faith and fear that is the functional equivalent of: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,[26] and the fruit of the Spirit,[27] the desire and the effort brought forth by God for the sake of his good pleasure,[28]  because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[29]  and the love of God[30] that is the fulfillment of the law.[31]

[1] Exodus 12:29 (NET)

[2] Exodus 12:23 (NET)

[3] Exodus 12:30-32 (NET)

[4] Exodus 12:37b, 38 (NET)

[6] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[7] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[11] Romans 1:18 (NET)

[12] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[15] 1 Corinthians 5:7b (NET) Table

[16] Matthew 27:45, 46 (NET) Table

[17] Matthew 27:47 (NET)

[18] Matthew 27:49 (NET)

[19] Matthew 27:50-52, 54 (NET)

[20] Matthew 27:53 (NET)

[22] Exodus 14:13 (NET)

[24] Matthew 14:26, 27 (NET)

[25] Exodus 14:31 (NET) There are no more occurrences of ἐφοβήθη (the word the rabbis chose in the Septuagint) in the New Testament.

[26] Romans 10:9 (NET)

[28] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[29] Romans 9:16 (NET)

Son of God – 1 John, Part 1

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This is what we proclaim to you, John wrote, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen (ἑωράκαμεν, a form of ὁράω)[1] with our eyes, what we have looked at (ἐθεασάμεθα, a form of θεάομαι)[2] and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life – and the life was revealed, and we have seen [ἑωράκαμεν, a form of ὁράω] and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us).[3]  John, by making the word of life—what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched—equivalent to—the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—has defined eternal life as something more than a future time without end.

Eternal life is the Lord Jesus, the life He lived, the righteousness that comes by way of [his] faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness,[4] and the love that is the fulfillment of the law,[5] as well as a place[6] with Him in heaven.  As Jesus prayed, Now this is eternal life – that they know (γινώσκωσιν, a form of γινώσκω)[7] you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.[8]  If you have known (ἐγνώκατε, another form of γινώσκω) me, He said to Thomas, you will know (γνώσεσθε, another form of γινώσκω) my Father too.  And from now on you do know (γινώσκετε, another form of γινώσκω) him and have seen (ἑωράκατε, another form of ὁράω) him.[9]  The person who has seen (ἑωρακὼς, another form of ὁράω) me, he replied to Philip, has seen (ἑώρακεν, another form of ὁράω) the Father![10]

What we have seen (ἑωράκαμεν, a form of ὁράω) and heard we announce to you too, John continued, so that you may have fellowship with us (and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ).  Thus we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.  Now this is the gospel[11] message we have heard from him and announce to you, John continued, God is light, and in him there is no darkness (σκοτία)[12] at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness (σκότει, a form of σκότος),[13] we are lying and not practicing the truth.[14]

The reason the translators added gospel to the text above is quoted in a footnote below.[15]  Jesus said, or John wrote, light has come into the world and people loved the darkness (σκότος) rather than the light, because their deeds were evil (πονηρὰ, a form of πονηρός;[16] or, full of labours, annoyances, hardships).  For everyone who does evil (φαῦλα, a form of φαῦλος;[17] or ordinary, or, worthless) deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.[18]

When I read the Bible and said, “yea, verily, amen, Lord,” and didn’t believe what it said, I was walking in darkness.  It was a foolish thing to do, considering the psalm, O Lord, you examine me and know…even from far away you understand my motives.[19]  I stepped into the light when I began to argue with Him.  And I wasn’t always reverent about it.  But his Spirit was patient with me.  He made me honest with Him, what I believed and what I didn’t believe, and eventually with myself (which is not easy), and patient enough to wait for understanding, where I was wrong or had misunderstood his word (as opposed to running off, saying, “none of it is true,” or, “it means whatever you want”).

But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, John continued, we have fellowship with one another [e.g., with others walking in the light] and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.[20]  This is so important, Faith 101.  It is equivalent in my mind to, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[21]  Honesty is impossible apart from this knowledge.  Walking in darkness I wasn’t such a bad guy.  In the light I discovered how sinful the sin in my flesh actually is, and I mourned.  Walking deeper into the light I discovered how corrupt my righteousness is, and I grieved.

If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.  (My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.)  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.[22]  As Paul wrote, For God has consigned all people to disobedience (ἀπείθειαν, a form of ἀπείθεια) so that he may show mercy to them all.[23]

[3] 1 John 1:1, 2 (NET)

[4] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

[8] John 17:3 (NET)

[9] John 14:7 (NET)

[10] John 14:9 (NET)

[11] NET note: The word “gospel” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to clarify the meaning. See the note on the following word “message.”

[14] 1 John 1:3-6 (NET)

[15] NET note on the word “message”: The word ἀγγελία (angelia) occurs only twice in the NT, here and in 1 John 3:11. It is a cognate of ἐπαγγελία (epangelia) which occurs much more frequently (some 52 times in the NT) including 1 John 2:25. BDAG 8 s.v. ἀγγελία 1 offers the meaning “message” which suggests some overlap with the semantic range of λόγος (logos), although in the specific context of 1:5 BDAG suggests a reference to the gospel. (The precise “content” of this “good news’ is given by the ὅτι [Joti] clause which follows in 1:5b.) The word ἀγγελία here is closely equivalent to εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion): (1) it refers to the proclamation of the eyewitness testimony about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the author and the rest of the apostolic witnesses (prologue, esp. 1:3-4), and (2) it relates to the salvation of the hearers/readers, since the purpose of this proclamation is to bring them into fellowship with God and with the apostolic witnesses (1:3). Because of this the adjective “gospel” is included in the English translation.

[18] John 3:19, 20 (NET)

[19] Psalm 139:1, 2 (NET) Table1 Table2

[20] 1 John 1:7 (NET) Table

[21] Romans 8:1 (NET)

[22] 1 John 1:8-2:2 (NET)

[23] Romans 11:32 (NET)

Antichrist, Part 3

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Like John’s antichrists Trier’s antichrists were not necessarily tyrannical globalists, but people who had not been perfected in God’s love and did not keep his commandments.  Unlike John’s antichrists there was no indication in the film that they had ever known God and then departed from that knowledge.  Trier’s antichrists are not named.  We are introduced to them “he-in’-and-a-she-in'” as Otis (played by William Fichtner in the movie “The Amateurs”) described fucking.  But I want to try to reconstruct the story of “Antichrist” in temporal order.

This will definitely be a spoiler for those who haven’t seen the film.  My take is not Lars Von Trier’s understanding, nor that of the actors.   I assume that anyone remotely interested in my understanding would be offended by the pornographic nature of this movie and not watch it all the way through anyway.  And I use pornographic in a technical, not an eye-of-the-beholder, sense here.

Conan O’Brien asked his guest Amanda Seyfried about her role in a biopic about Linda Lovelace of “Deep Throat” fame: “How do you portray a porn star without being incredibly explicit?  Do you know what I mean?”  Ms. Seyfried answered, “Well, you don’t actually have sex on film.”[1]  In other words people who get paid to pretend to have sex on film are actors, ὑποκριταί in Greek.  People who get paid to actually have sex on film are prostitutes; πορνοσ (pornos) is the Greek for a male prostitute.  Our word pornography (writing about prostitutes) comes from the Greek compound of πορνοσ (pornos) and γραφή (graphē).  The body doubles for Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in “Antichrist” were porn actors, and a few shots in the film do qualify under this technical definition.

Before the film began she (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and their toddler son Nic went to Eden, a secluded cabin in the woods, to finish her thesis on Gynocide.  It was a study of man’s inhumanity to woman, witch-hunts and the like.  She couldn’t finish when she realized it was not a simple story of evil men persecuting virtuous women, but that the women were evil, too.  As she absentmindedly, or vindictively, (it was never quite clear to me) forced the left shoe on her son’s right foot, and vice versa (causing a deformity that became apparent in an autopsy report) she became cognizant of her own evil as well.

The film actually begins with beautiful slow motion black and white footage of he (Willem Dafoe) and she fucking.  Just because I believe that fucking does not, or the feelings associated with fucking do not, fulfill the law, does not mean that I have anything against fucking or those feelings.  Fucking my wives or the feelings I had while fucking them or wanting to fuck them are beyond compare, except perhaps for the feeling I had when they wanted to fuck me.  I miss it.  And the opening scene of “Antichrist” spawned many a wonderful memory (as well as some that were not so wonderful).

Nic, their toddler son, awoke from his nap, climbed out of his crib, watched his mother and father a moment, turned quietly away, investigated an open window, and fell to his death.  Granted, in real life the likelihood that a toddler would not demand some parental attention might be extremely low.  But “Antichrist” is a horror movie, only the worst possibilities can happen.  During the funeral procession she collapsed and was hospitalized.  Her doctor thought she had an abnormal reaction to grief.  Her husband, a psychologist, disagreed.

“I could have stopped him,” she told her husband, apparently coming into the light.  “You didn’t know that he had started waking up lately.  I was aware that he would sometimes wake up and crawl out of bed and walk about.”  She started to sob, “He woke up and was confused and alone.”

He assumed, and we in the audience assume at this point, that she was suffering from psychological guilt.  What we learn later, but he never knew, is that she saw Nic watching them and chose not to interrupt her husband to attend to her son.  We also see that fucking is her narcotic and anesthetic of choice.  The perfect wife?

What I realized the second time through the film was that her doctor’s “abnormal reaction to grief” and her husband’s diagnosis of psychological guilt both missed the point.  She suffered from the actual guilt of maternal negligence and needed actual forgiveness.  But there was no forgiveness to be found.  This is “Antichrist,” not “Breaking the Waves.”  Her doctor gave her mood drugs and her husband gave her psycho-babble, as she “bled out” from actual guilt.  But “actual guilt” was not a category her doctor or her husband would recognize as legitimate, apart from a criminal indictment and conviction.

Why didn’t she come fully into the light? with her husband at least?  Why didn’t she tell him she saw Nic, knew he was awake, and knew he was walking about unsupervised?  Jesus (or John) said, everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.[5]  He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would, or could, forgive her for a judgment mistake that claimed his son’s life.  And she feared that he would leave her.  In other words, theirs was not a love (ἀγάπη) affair by definition, no matter how good their fucking was.

He didn’t know (because he hadn’t experienced), In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.[7]  Receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus said.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.[8]  For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.[9]  And she was not perfected in love either because, There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.  We love because he loved us first.[10]

He arranged to get her out of the hospital, brought her home and became her therapist.  “You’ve always been distant from me and Nic,” she said in one of their sessions, “now that I come to think of it, very, very distant.”

“Okay,” he said, ever the patient therapist.  “Can you give me some example of this?”

“Like last summer, for instance, [when she went with Nic to Eden] you were terribly distant last summer, as a father and as a husband.”

“Well, actually it was to honor your wish.  You wanted peace to write.”

“Perhaps I didn’t mean it,” she said.

That sounds just like a woman, I thought.  But as I imagined the scene that preceded her writing retreat at Eden, I learned something about me as a husband and father.  I, too, have tried to play the patient therapist with my wife and children.  If she asked me for my blessing to take Nic and go to Eden without me for the summer, I would have thought, “No way!  I’ll miss you, and Nic.  I’ll miss talking with you, eating with you, being with you and, yes, fucking you.  Why can’t you write here!?”  But then I would have thought how selfish that seemed, and I would have said, “Okay.”

In other words, I wouldn’t have come into the light with my wife.  I probably haven’t done so at various times in the past.  And I see now that the truth—that I would miss her terribly, that I was angry that she would ask such a thing, that I felt that my initial reaction was selfish, so, yes, I would respect her desire to go to write her thesis and agree to it as much as it was in me to do—would be a much better basis for a love (ἀγάπη) affair.  But I thought that “controlling” my emotions (rather than sharing them with her) was the “right” thing to do.

She didn’t finish her thesis that summer.  He hadn’t even asked about it.  When she told him he wondered why she had given up.  “The whole project just seemed less important up there,” she said.  It had become “glib” to her, “or even worse, some kind of lie.”  He learned nothing about his obvious distance from her.  He kept his focus on her.  He decided that she had a phobia.

“What scares you about the woods?” he asked.

“Everything.”

So he took her back to Eden.

[5] John 3:20 (NET)

[7] 1 John 4:10 (NET)

[8] John 20:22b, 23 (NET)

[9] Matthew 6:14, 15 (NET) Table

[10] 1 John 4:18, 19 (NET)

Romans, Part 43

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So I ask, Paul began the eleventh chapter of Romans, God has not rejected his people, has he?[1] referring to his fellow countrymen.[2]  In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, he concluded finally, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.  For the gifts (χαρίσματα, a form of χάρισμα) and the call (κλῆσις) of God are irrevocable (ἀμεταμέλητα, a form of ἀμεταμέλητος[5]  Just as you were formerly disobedient (ἠπειθήσατε, a form of ἀπειθέω) to God, but have now received mercy (ἠλεήθητε, a form of ἐλεέω) due to their disobedience (ἀπειθείᾳ, a form of ἀπείθεια), so they too have now been disobedient (ἠπείθησαν, another form of ἀπειθέω) in order that, by the mercy (ἐλέει, a form of ἔλεος) shown to you, they too may now receive mercy (ἐλεηθῶσιν, another form of ἐλεέω).  For God has consigned (συνέκλεισεν, a form of συγκλείω) all people to disobedience (ἀπείθειαν, another form of ἀπείθεια) so that he may show mercy (ἐλεήσῃ, another form of ἐλεέω) to them all.[11]

A note in the NET acknowledged that them “has been supplied for stylistic reasons.”  The original Greek reads simply, “to all.”  I don’t want to get involved in a “universal salvation” argument.  It seems to go nowhere.  After throwing Scripture around and philosophical opinions about free will the argument devolves into something like, “Well, I could never believe in a god who sent (or, would not send) anyone to hell.”  I know I will trust Him as long as He pours his faithfulness (πίστις) into me through his Spirit,[13] whether He sends or does not send people to hell or not.  I do want to consider some of the things about God’s mercy that Paul outlined in Romans 9-11 in a table below.

What Jesus’ obedience, death and resurrection means to his Father, according to Paul

OLD TESTAMENT

Jesus’ obedience, death and resurrection

NEW TESTAMENT
For [God] says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Romans 9:15 (NET)

 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.

Romans 11:30, 31 (NET)
God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.

Romans 9:18 (NET)

 So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.

Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

 For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to…all.

Romans 11:32 (NET)

It may be arbitrary on my part to place—God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden—exclusively under the Old Covenant, if that is seen as a limit to God’s choosing.  My point is simply its logical relationship to I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.  Paul’s conclusion—So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy—serves then as the logical and justificatory bridge to his New Covenant argument concluding that, God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to…all.

The word translated consigned is συνέκλεισεν (a form of συγκλείω) in Greek.  Paul used it again when he wrote the Galatians, the scripture imprisoned (συνέκλεισεν) everything and everyone under sin so that the promise could be given – because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – to those who believe.[15]  Another form of the same word is found in Luke’s account of the calling of Peter, James and John: When they had done this [e.g., obeyed Jesus by lowering their nets where he instructed them to lower them], they caught (συνέκλεισαν, another form of συγκλείω) so many fish that their nets started to tear.[16]  It is an interesting image, all of us, all humanity, caught in his net.  For God has consigned all people to disobedience…[17]  Like fearful fish we flail frantically to escape from the One who whispers, Stop your striving and recognize that I am God.[18]  For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[19]

I also want to consider the Old Testament precedent for Paul’s reasoning in Romans 11:30 and 31: The word of the Lord came to me, Ezekiel the prophet wrote.  “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominable practices…”[20]

Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite [Table].  Your older sister was Samaria, who lived north of you with her daughters, and your younger sister, who lived south of you, was Sodom with her daughters [Table].  Have you not copied their behavior and practiced their abominable deeds?  In a short time you became even more depraved in all your conduct than they were [Table]!  As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as wickedly as you and your daughters have behaved [Table].[21]

You have made your sisters appear righteous with all the abominable things you have done [Table], the Lord continued.  So now, bear your disgrace, because you have given your sisters reason to justify their behavior.  Because the sins you have committed were more abominable than those of your sisters; they have become more righteous than you [Table].[22]  I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters [Table]…[23]

Like Samaria or Sodom, Paul wrote Gentile believers, that senseless nation[24] chosen for salvation, Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to [Israel’s] disobedience,[25] because, by [Israel’s] transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.[26]  The fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters will be restored (along with your [Jerusalem’s] fortunes among them) [Table], so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in consoling them [Table].  As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters will be restored to their former status, Samaria and her daughters will be restored to their former status, and you and your daughters will be restored to your former status [Table].[27]

So, Paul continued, they [Israel] too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.[28]  I will deal with you according to what you have done when you despised your oath by breaking your covenant, the Lord said to Jerusalem through Ezekiel.  Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish a lasting covenant with you.[29]  I will establish my covenant with you, the Lord continued, and then you will know that I am the Lord.  Then you will remember, be ashamed, and remain silent when I make atonement for all you have done, declares the sovereign Lord.[30]

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! Paul continued.  How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?  Or who has first given to God, that God needs to repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever!  Amen.[31]

It causes me to wonder.  I assume that all in—he may show mercy to…all[32]—refers to human beings, those born of Adam.  But if senseless Gentiles, chosen for salvation to make Israel jealous, reject the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness to pursue their own righteousness derived[33] from a select subset of the law and their own religious rules, will that open Christ’s salvation to demons and fallen angels?  Will senseless Gentiles be resurrected to bear [their] disgrace and be ashamed of all [they] have done in consoling demons and fallen angels?  Will the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ really mean all things? – the things in heaven as well as the things on earth[34]?

[1] Romans 11:1a (NET)

[2] Romans 9:3 (NET)

[5] Romans 11:28, 29 (NET)

[11] Romans 11:30-32 (NET)

[15] Galatians 3:22 (NET)

[16] Luke 5:6 (NET)

[17] Romans 11:32a (NET)

[18] Psalm 46:10a (NET)

[19] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[20] Ezekiel 16:1, 2 (NET)

[21] Ezekiel 16:45b-48 (NET)

[22] Ezekiel 16:51b, 52a (NET)

[23] Ezekiel 16:53a (NET)

[24] Romans 10:19 (NET)

[25] Romans 11:30 (NET)

[26] Romans 11:11b (NET)

[27] Ezekiel 16:53-55 (NET)

[28] Romans 11:31 (NET)

[29] Ezekiel 16:59, 60 (NET)

[30] Ezekiel 16:62, 63 (NET)

[31] Romans 11:33-36 (NET)

[32] Romans 11:32b (NET)

[33] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

[34] Ephesians 1:10 (NET)

Son of God – John, Part 5

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Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Portico.[1]  Religious leaders surrounded him and asked, “How long will you keep us in suspense?  If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus replied, “I told you and you do not believe (πιστεύετε, a form of πιστεύω).”[2]  They did not think it was true; they were not persuaded.[3]  The deeds (ἔργα, a form of ἔργον)[4] I do in my Father’s name testify (μαρτυρεῖ, a form of μαρτυρέω)[5] about me.[6]  The ἔργα that Jesus did in his Father’s name testified that He is the Christ, as opposed to those who loved the darkness rather than the light, because their ἔργα were [full of labours, annoyances, and hardships].[7]

But you refuse to believe (πιστεύετε), Jesus continued, because you are not my sheep.[8]  The word translated refuse is simply οὐ,[9] the absolute as opposed to the relative negation in Greek.  You believe not, Jesus said, because you are not my sheep.  They were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day.”[10] 

My sheep listen (ἀκούουσιν, a form of ἀκούω)[11] to my voice, Jesus continued.[12]  This is in contrast to those who had not been given the opportunity to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven:[13]  For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear (ἀκούουσιν) nor do they understand.[14]  And Paul wrote, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they?  Absolutely not!  But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.[15]

Still speaking of his sheep, Jesus said, I know (γινώσκω, a form of γινώσκω)[16] them, and they follow me.[17]  These are they who are called according to [God’s] purpose, because those whom he foreknew (προέγνω, a form of προγινώσκω)[18] he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.[19]

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.[20]  Then by their actions the religious leaders proved Jesus’ original words, that they did not believe that his deeds testified that He was the Christ.  They picked up rocks again to stone him to death.[21]  I have shown you many good deeds from the Father, Jesus said.  For which one of them are you going to stone me?[22]  We are not going to stone you for a good deed, the religious leaders answered, but for blasphemy, because you, a man, are claiming to be God.[23]

They lacked the knowledge that was revealed to Peter by Jesus’ Father in heaven:[24] You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.[25]  They did not share Nathaniel’s insight that Jesus was the Son of God and the king of Israel.[26]  Apparently the religious leaders assumed that the Christ would serve their interests as they perceived their interests not supersede them, certainly not question their leadership.  “Is it not written in your law,” Jesus answered them, “‘I said, you are gods’?  If those people to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ (and the scripture cannot be broken), do you say about the one whom the Father set apart and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”[27]

There is a lot to say about this turn in Jesus’ argument.  I hope to get to it in time.  For the moment I want to highlight Jesus’ heart.  In the heat of debate he did not ask the religious leaders to believe that He was a new species of human being, born of the flesh of Adam through his mother Mary and born of the Spirit of his Father.  He simply referred to those instances in the book of Exodus where human judges, those entrusted to judge according to God’s law, were called elohim, gods.[28]  If God called Israel’s judges gods, He reasoned, is it right to “say about the one whom the Father set apart and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”

If I do not perform the deeds (ἔργα) of my Father, Jesus continued, do not believe (πιστεύετε) me.[29]  And here again He revealed his heart.  But if I do them, even if you do not believe (πιστεύητε, another form of πιστεύω) me, believe (πιστεύετε) the deeds (ἔργοις, another form of ἔργον)…[30]  Though he had hardened them so that by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles,[31] though we live by faith, not by sight,[32] though it is a true and trustworthy statement that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,[33] face-to-face with his beloved adversaries Jesus encouraged them to trust their sight, the deeds they saw Him accomplish, so that you may come to know (γνῶτε; another form of γινώσκω) and understand (γινώσκητε, another form of γινώσκω) that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.[34]

This was essentially what Jesus said to the messengers from John the Baptist when they asked, “‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’”  At that very time Jesus cured many people of diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits, and granted sight to many who were blind.  So he answered them, “Go tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news proclaimed to them.  Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”[35]

The religious leaders tried unsuccessfully to seize Him again.  Jesus, however, continued performing the deeds (ἔργα) of [his] Father (John 11:1-4 NET).

Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived.  (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)[36]  So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.”  When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

“Lazarus, come out!” Jesus said to the corpse that had laid four days in its tomb.  The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face.  Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”[37]  “We have a law, the religious leaders said, and according to our law [Jesus] ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God!”[38]

Now Jesus performed many other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, John concluded, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are recorded so that you may believe (πιστεύητε; another form of πιστεύω) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing (πιστεύοντες; another form of πιστεύω) you may have life in his name.[39]  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, John wrote (or Jesus said) but that the world should be saved through him.[40]

[1] John 10:23 (NET)

[2] John 10:24, 25a (NET)

[3] πιστεύετε was derived from πείθω.

[6] John 10:25b (NET)

[7] John 3:19 (NET)

[8] John 10:26 (NET)

[10] Romans 11:7b, 8 (NET)

[12] John 10:27a (NET)

[13] Matthew 13:11 (NET)

[14] Matthew 13:13 (NET)

[15] Romans 11:11 (NET)

[17] John 10:27b (NET)

[19] Romans 8:28b-30 (NET)

[20] John 10:28-30 (NET)

[21] John 10:31 (NET)

[22] John 10:32 (NET)

[23] John 10:33 (NET)

[24] Matthew 16:17 (NET)

[25] Matthew 16:16 (NET)

[26] John 1:49 (NET)

[27] John 10:34-36 (NET)

[29] John 10:37 (NET)

[30] John 10:38a (NET)

[31] Romans 11:11 (NET)

[32] 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NET)

[33] Romans 10:9 (NET)

[34] John 10:38b (NET)

[35] Luke 7:20-23 (NET)

[36] See: Luke 7:36-50 (NET)

[37] John 11:43b, 44 (NET)

[38] John 19:7 (NET)

[39] John 20:30, 31 (NET)

[40] John 3:17 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 3

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The Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: “Release my people so that they may serve me!”’”[1]  This is the seventh plague on Egypt.  You are still exalting yourself against my people by not releasing them, the Lord continued.  I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.  So now, send instructions to gather your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place.  Every person or animal caught in the field and not brought into the house – the hail will come down on them, and they will die![2]

Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared (yârêʼ)[3] the word of the Lord hurried to bring their servants and livestock into the houses, but those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously left their servants and their cattle in the field.[4]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint used φοβούμενος (a form of φοβέω).[5]  Jesus told a parable about a judge who neither feared (φοβούμενος) God nor respected people.[6]  But even this judge could be persuaded by a widow’s persistence.  I will give her justice, the judge said, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.[7]  But even after six other plagues happened as prophesied by Moses there were still those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously.  The rabbis used προσέσχεν[8] (hold to), they did not hold to the word of the Lord.

It caused me to consider that those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously were actually hardened.  The judge did not fear God but could be persuaded by his own inconvenience.  To lose one’s animals and slaves is a major inconvenience.  Six out of six plagues would seemingly convince one that the seventh was possible if not likely.  Reason alone would persuade one to take precautions at least at the time of day prophesied simply to avoid the greater inconvenience of losing everything.  But only those who feared the word of the Lord acted rationally.  It gave me the impression that the others believed (though did not fear) that the word was the Lord’s, and acted contrary to his word because it was his word.  They were hardened.

The hail struck everything in the open fields, both people and animals, throughout all the land of Egypt.  The hail struck everything that grows in the field, and it broke all the trees of the field to pieces.  Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was there no hail.  So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time!  The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty.  Pray to the Lord, for the mighty thunderings and hail are too much!  I will release you and you will stay no longer.”[9]

Moses promised to pray that the hail cease.  But as for you, He said to Pharaoh, and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear (yârêʼ) the Lord God.[10]  In the Septuagint the rabbis used πεφόβησθε,[11] (afraid).  This form was not used in the New Testament.

When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder ceased, he sinned again: both he and his servants hardened their hearts.  So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.[12]  Pharaoh certainly believed the word was the Lord’s as a fact, but he did not fear that word.  Here I begin to grasp the fear of the Lord as something that is combined with factual acceptance to become New Testament faith, as opposed to dead faith or faith alone.

This fear is obviously not a flight of terror but a conviction to act in accordance with the word (Septuagint: ῥῆμα) of the Lord.  In New Testament terms it would be equivalent to the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.[13]  And this is because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[14]  In a similar sense the New Testament meaning of the fear of the Lord is equivalent to the love of God: Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.  The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.  But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected.[15]

Luke used the phrase fear of the Lord in this association with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit: Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced peace and thus was strengthened.   Living[16] in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, the church increased in numbers.[17]  At first glance Paul seemed to use fear of the Lord in a more fearful sense: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.  Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people…[18]

If I expand the context, however, Paul spoke first of faith: For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens.[19]  While the natural person clings to this earthly tent for dear life we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.[20]  Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose, Paul continued (including by the way appearing before the judgment seat of Christ) is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.[21]  So is any of this a cause to be fearful?

Paul continued (2 Corinthians 5:6-9 NET):

Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord – for we live by faith, not by sight.  Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him.

And what is this ambition to please him but the fear of the Lord?  Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people, but we are well known to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too.[22]  For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died.  And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised.[23]

And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us.  We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”  God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.[24]

So before Christ was crucified, rose again, ascended to heaven and the Holy Spirit was given to provide this love, this desire and this effort, the Lord cultivated fear to motivate his people:  The Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display these signs of mine before him, and in order that in the hearing of your son and your grandson you may tell how I made fools of the Egyptians and about my signs that I displayed among them, so that you may know that I am the Lord.”[25]  Perhaps more to the point was Moses’ response to Israel’s fear when God spoke the law at Sinai: Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you so that you do not sin.[26]

[1] Exodus 9:13 (NET)

[2] Exodus 9:17-19 (NET)

[4] Exodus 9:20, 21 (NET)

[6] Luke 18:2 (NET)

[7] Luke 18:5 (NET)

[9] Exodus 9:25-28 (NET)

[10] Exodus 9:30 (NET)

[12] Exodus 9:34, 35 (NET)

[13] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[14] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[15] 1 John 2:3-5a (NET)

[16] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the singular πορευομένη here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the plural πορευομεναι (KJV: walking).

[17] Acts 9:31 (NET) [Table] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the singular ἐπληθύνετο here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the plural επληθυνοντο (KJV: were multiplied).

[18] 2 Corinthians 5:10, 11 (NET)

[19] 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NET)

[20] 2 Corinthians 5:4 (NET)

[21] 2 Corinthians 5:5 (NET)

[22] 2 Corinthians 5:11 (NET)

[23] 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15 (NET)

[24] 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NET)

[25] Exodus 10:1, 2 (NET)

[26] Exodus 20:20 (NET)

Antichrist, Part 2

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Before I could write about Lars von Trier’s movie, I had to return to what John the Apostle had to say about antichrist (ἀντίχριστος).[1]  1 John 2:3-6 served as a preface and point of departure for that study.

Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.  The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.  But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love (ἀγάπη)[2] of God has been perfected (τετελείωται, a form of τελειόω).[3]

In other words God’s ἀγάπη, when it is perfected, empowers me to keep his commandments.  For this is the love (ἀγάπη) of God: that we keep his commandments, John penned later in the same letter.  And his commandments do not weigh us down, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world.[4]  Or as Paul said, ἀγάπη is the fulfillment of the law,[5] and, the one bringing forth in you both the desire (θέλειν)[6] and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.[7]

God’s ἀγάπη is perfected in me by faith: we have come to know and to believe the love (ἀγάπην, another form of ἀγάπη) that God has in us.  God is love (ἀγάπη), and the one who resides in love (ἀγάπη) resides in God, and God resides in him [Table].  By this love (ἀγάπη) is perfected (τετελείωται, a form of τελειόω) with us…[8]  Not only the ἀγάπη but the faith was supplied by God—But the fruit of the Spirit is love (ἀγάπη), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (πίστις)[9]—if I had but gotten out of his way.  My religious mind stumbled over John’s statement, The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.[10]

I thought I could avoid the stigma of being called a liar and prove myself true by obeying—first the law then Paul’s definition of love—in my own strength.  I set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing![11]  A note in the NET on the phrase love of God (1 John 5:3 NET), reads: “Once again the genitive could be understood as (1) objective, (2) subjective, or (3) both.  Here an objective sense is more likely (believers’ love for God) because in the previous verse it is clear that God is the object of believers’ love.”  What is far more obvious to me now is that my love for God was not sufficient to keep his commandments, and all my efforts to do so did weigh [me] down, when compared to being buoyed up by the fruit of his Spirit.

Still, I had received the desire (θέλειν) to keep his commandments, though God’s love was not yet perfected in me.  For I want (θέλειν) to do the good, Paul lamented in Romans, but I cannot do it.[12]  My friends’ desires, on the other hand, did not suddenly change.  And nothing I said mattered to them.  Their ongoing sinful behavior tormented me.  Why don’t they see? I wondered.

Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat those in the various synagogues who believed in you,[13] Paul replied when the Lord had said to him, Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.[14]  And when the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, Paul continued, I myself was standing nearby, approving, and guarding the cloaks of those who were killing him.[15]  It seemed to me that since someone like I was had changed (repented) that everyone should change.  By this we know that we are in him, John wrote.  The one who says he resides in God ought (ὀφείλει, a form of ὀφείλω)[16] himself to walk just as Jesus walked.[17]

There is nothing wrong with translating ὀφείλει ought:  “We have a law, and according to our law he ought (ὀφείλει, a form of ὀφείλω) to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God!”[18] religious leaders said of Jesus.  But with my predilection for proving myself—“what I could do for God”—I need to remember that to owe is the primary meaning of ὀφείλει:  Now if [Onesimus] has defrauded you of anything, Paul wrote Philemon, or owes (ὀφείλει, a form of ὀφείλω) you anything, charge what he owes to me.[19]  My religious mind has used ought to turn John’s statement on its head.  I have believed that anything but absolute conformity on my part to walk just as Jesus walked is proof that I am not in him and do not reside in God, despite the fact that a sense of obligation, that I owe this to Him, has been with me since I believed.  My friends did not think they owed this to God, or anyone else, simply because I began to believe.

Children, it is the last hour, John wrote, and just as you heard that the antichrist (ἀντίχριστος) is coming, so now many antichrists (ἀντίχριστοι, a form of ἀντίχριστος) have appeared.  We know from this that it is the last hour.  They went out (ἐξῆλθαν, a form of ἐξέρχομαι)[20] from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained (μεμενήκεισαν, a form of μένω)[21] with us.  But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.[22]  And I think 1 John 2:3-6 has more to do with the antichrists’ point of departure—They went out from us—than any geographical or institutional location.

To sense the obligation to walk just as Jesus walked while being imperfect in God’s love is a state of dynamic tension.  Though I didn’t realize it at the time, seeking to obey the law or Paul’s definition of love in my own strength was a way to ease that tension.  After all, no one, not even Jesus, could expect me to be as perfect as He is in my own strength.  I was completely aware that I was easing that tension when I deliberately abandoned my obligation to walk just as Jesus walked because “it didn’t matter what I did, because I was forgiven and because I was not under law but under grace” (as some of my new friends interpreted and preached the Apostle Paul).

Still, He always brought me back from the latter excursions:  Now as for you, John wrote, the anointing that you received from him resides (μένει, another form of μένω)[23] in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you.  But as his anointing teaches you about all things, it is true and is not a lie.  Just as it has taught you, you reside (μένετε, another form of μένω) in him.[24]  If you love me, Jesus said, you will obey (τηρήσετε, a form of τηρέω) my commandments.  Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him.  But you know him, because he resides (μένει) with you and will be in (ἐν)[25] you.[26]

The former excursions (though less like excursions and more like my lifestyle) were a bit more intractable.  After all, wasn’t God pleased by my noble efforts to keep the law or Paul’s definition of love?   Who is the liar, John wrote, but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ?  This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son.  Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either.  The person who confesses the Son has the Father also.[27]

I didn’t deny Jesus with my mouth.  I honored Him with my lips.  But in my heart I rejected the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness in favor of my own righteousness derived from the law[28] or Paul’s definition of ἀγάπη.  I was certainly hearing some of the things I’ve written about here.  I did attempt from time to time to trust Him with MY righteousness.  It wasn’t that I was better somehow at it than He was.  It was that I demanded 100% compliance from Him (e.g., from me when He was in charge) but I was much more lenient with myself when I took control.

Dear friends, John continued, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.[29]  For me now this means more than paying lip service to Jesus.  Does the spirit encourage me to trust God’s credited righteousness, to rely on the fruit of his Spirit?  Or does the spirit encourage me to turn back to my own ways, striving in my own strength to keep his commandments?

Again John wrote of antichrist: But now I ask you, lady (not as if I were writing a new commandment to you, but the one we have had from the beginning), that we love one another.  (Now this is love: that we walk according to his commandments.)  This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning; thus you should walk in it.  For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh.  This person is the deceiver and the antichrist!  Watch out, so that you do not lose the things we have worked for, but receive a full reward.[30]

John wrote his own ode to the love that fulfills the law (1 John 4:7-19 NET).

Dear friends, let us love (ἀγαπῶμεν, a form of ἀγαπάω) one another, because love (ἀγάπη) is from God, and everyone who loves (ἀγαπῶν, another form of ἀγαπάω) has been fathered by God and knows God.  The person who does not love (ἀγαπῶν, another form of ἀγαπάω) does not know God, because God is love (ἀγάπη).  By this the love (ἀγάπη) of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him.  In this is love (ἀγάπη): not that we have loved (ἠγαπήκαμεν, another form of ἀγαπάω) God, but that he loved (ἠγάπησεν, another form of ἀγαπάω) us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, if God so loved (ἠγάπησεν, another form of ἀγαπάω) us, then we also ought (ὀφείλομεν, another form of ὀφείλω) to love (ἀγαπᾶν, another form of ἀγαπάω) one another.  No one has seen God at any time.  If we love (ἀγαπῶμεν, another form of ἀγαπάω) one another, God resides in us, and his love (ἀγάπη) is perfected (τετελειωμένη, another form of τελειόω) in us.  By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God.  And we have come to know and to believe the love (ἀγάπην, another form of ἀγάπη) that God has in us.  God is love (ἀγάπη), and the one who resides in love (ἀγάπη) resides in God, and God resides[31] in him [Table].  By this love (ἀγάπη) is perfected (τετελείωται) with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love (ἀγάπη), but perfect (τελεία, a form of τέλειος)[32] love (ἀγάπη) drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears punishment has not been perfected (τετελείωται) in love (ἀγάπη).  We love (ἀγαπῶμεν, another form of ἀγαπάω) because he loved (ἠγάπησεν, another form of ἀγαπάω) us first.

Though Paul didn’t use the word antichrist he described a similar phenomenon of a religious person in whom God’s love is not perfected (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NET).

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love (ἀγάπην, another form of ἀγάπη), I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love (ἀγάπην, another form of ἀγάπη), I am nothing.  If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love (ἀγάπην, another form of ἀγάπη), I receive no benefit.

The meaning (in words) of ἀγάπη does not come from an understanding of a word in the Greek language, but from the following (1 Corinthians 13:4-13 NET):

Love (ἀγάπη) is patient, love (ἀγάπη) is kind, it is not envious. Love (ἀγάπη) does not brag, it is not puffed up.  It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.  It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love (ἀγάπη) never ends.  But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside.  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when what is perfect (τέλειον, another form of τέλειος) comes, the partial will be set aside.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.  And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love (ἀγάπη).  But the greatest of these is love (ἀγάπη).

[3] 1 John 2:3-5a (NET)

[4] 1 John 5:3, 4a (NET)

[5] Romans 13:10b (NET)

[7] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[8] 1 John 4:16-18a (NET)

[9] Galatians 5:22 (NET)

[10] 1 John 2:4 (NET)

[11] Galatians 2:21 (NET)

[12] Romans 7:18b (NET)

[13] Acts 22:19 (NET)

[14] Acts 22:18 (NET) Table

[15] Acts 22:20 (NET)

[17] 1 John 2:5b, 6 (NET)

[18] John 19:7 (NET)

[19] Philemon 1:18 (NET)

[22] 1 John 2:18, 19 (NET)

[24] 1 John 2:27 (NET)

[26] John 14:15-17 (NET)

[27] 1 John 2:22, 23 (NET)

[28] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

[29] 1 John 4:1-3 (NET)

[30] 2 John 1:5-8 (NET)

Romans, Part 42

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For I do not want you to be ignorant (ἀγνοεῖν, a form of ἀγνοέω)[1] of this mystery (μυστήριον),[2] brothers and sisters, Paul continued, so that you may not be conceited (φρόνιμοι, a form of φρόνιμος[3]; [παρ᾿] ἑαυτοῖς φρόνιμοι)…  The Greek word ἀγνοεῖν, translated ignorant above, was translated unaware in Paul’s revelation of that affliction which was so integral a part of, if not the impetus for, the understanding that became his letter to the Romans:  For we do not want you to be unaware (ἀγνοεῖν, a form of ἀγνοέω), brothers and sisters, regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living.  Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust (πεποιθότες, a form of πείθω)[4] in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.[5]

The word πεποιθότες, translated trust above, leads back to Paul’s point in Romans (as articulated in his letter to Philippi): Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!  For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely (πεποιθότες, a form of πείθω) on human credentials (σαρκὶ, a form of σάρξ)…[6]  To translate σαρκὶ as human credentials obscures more than it illuminates.

The note in the NET admits that the Greek reads, “have no confidence in the flesh” as it is translated in the NKJV.  Still, it seems to me that the most natural reading of καὶ οὐκ ἐν σαρκὶ πεποιθότες would be “and not by flesh persuaded” or “and not by persuasion of flesh.”  Paul was not concerned with human credentials, nor even an idolatry of self-worship, a confidence in the flesh, so much as the delusion of human flesh that righteousness comes by human efforts to keep God’s laws.

If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence (πεποιθέναι, another form of πείθω) in human credentials (σαρκὶ, a form of σάρξ), Paul continued, I have more:  I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.  I lived according to the law as a Pharisee.  In my zeal for God I persecuted the church.  According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.  But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ.  More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung! – that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.[7]

For I do not want you to be ignorant (ἀγνοεῖν, a form of ἀγνοέω) of this mystery (μυστήριον), brothers and sisters, Paul wrote in Romans.  Paul’s mystery (μυστήριον) was Jesus’ secret when He told his disciples, The secret (μυστήριον) of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those outside, everything is in parables, so that although they look they may look but not see, and although they hear they may hear but not understand, so they may not repent and be forgiven.”[8]

Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, Paul had written earlier, but the elect obtained it.  The rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day.”[9]

And Jesus was actively involved in fulfilling His Father’s will.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.  For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love.  He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will – to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.  He did this when he revealed to us the secret (μυστήριον) of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ – the things in heaven and the things on earth.  In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.  And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ – you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.[10]

For I do not want you to be ignorant (ἀγνοεῖν, a form of ἀγνοέω)[11] of this mystery (μυστήριον),[12] brothers and sisters, Paul wrote, so that you may not be conceited (φρόνιμοι, a form of φρόνιμος; [παρ᾿] ἑαυτοῖς φρόνιμοι).  The idiom παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς φρόνιμοι translated conceited is literally from or by themselves wise.  It is similar to ἵνα μὴ πεποιθότες ὦμεν ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς (literally so that not be persuaded to be or to exist upon ourselves) from: Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust (πεποιθότες, a form of πείθω) in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.[13]  Later in Romans Paul wrote, Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.  Do not be conceited (φρόνιμοι παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς).  Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people.[14]

Paul had tended to use φρόνιμοι (a form of φρόνιμος; wise) in this form in a sarcastic or even mocking manner:  We are fools for Christ, but you are wise (φρόνιμοι) in Christ!  We are weak, but you are strong!  You are distinguished, we are dishonored![15]  And, For since you are so wise (φρόνιμοι), you put up with fools gladly.[16]  Paul didn’t want us to be wise from or by ourselves any more than he wanted us to be persuaded to be or to exist upon ourselves.  And so what was this mystery or secret Paul didn’t want us to be ignorant or unaware of?

A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full (πλήρωμα)[17] number of the Gentiles has come in (εἰσέλθῃ, a form of εἰσέρχομαι).  And so all Israel will be saved…[18]  Did Paul mean all Israel as in all who are descended from Israel?  Or did he rename all descended from Israel who believe and all Gentiles who believe all Israel?

For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, Paul wrote earlier, nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.”[19]  This seemed like a strong argument that all Israel cannot mean “all who are descended from Israel,” until I put the verse back in context.  This means, Paul continued, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.[20]

So what promise did Paul have in mind when he wrote, And so all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26, 27 NET)?

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.   And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

The Deliverer will remove ungodliness (ἀσεβείας, a form of ἀσέβεια)[21] from Jacob.  This ungodliness brought God’s wrath in the first place:  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness (ἀσέβειαν, another form of ἀσέβεια) and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness…[22]  Today the quotation from Isaiah reads, A protector comes to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their rebellious deeds,[23] when translated from a contemporary understanding of Hebrew.  But the rabbis who translated the Septuagint into Greek about two centuries before the Lord Jesus was rejected as Messiah translated it this way:

Paul

Blue Letter Bible (Septuagint)

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)
…he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. 

Romans 11:26b (NET)

 ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ιακωβ

Isaiah 59:20b

 ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ἰακώβ

Romans 11:26b

The phrase when I take away their sins is not part of the quotation from Isaiah 59:20, 21.  I think Paul interjected it to cue us as to which covenant he had in mind, namely, the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:33-35 NET).

“But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord.  “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds.  I will be their God and they will be my people.  People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me.   For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord.  “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done” [Table].  The Lord has made a promise to Israel.  He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by day and the moon and stars to give light by night.  He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll.  He promises it as the one who is known as the Lord who rules over all.

I will not reject all the descendants of Israel because of all that they have done,[24] the Lord promised.  In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers,[25] Paul concluded.  And I think he meant all the descendants of Israel.

Addendum (7/7/2015): Jim Searcy has published that the Septuagint is a hoax written by Origen and Eusebius 200 hundred years after Christ.  “In fact, the Septuagint ‘quotes’ from the New Testament and not vice versa…”  His contention is that the “King James Version is the infallible Word of God.”  So, I’ll re-examine the quotations above with the KJV.

Paul

KJV

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)
…and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Romans 11:26b (KJV)

 …and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob…

Isaiah 59:20b

 ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ἰακώβ

Romans 11:26b

Cleary, Paul’s quotation is not as it is written in Isaiah 59:20 if the “King James Version is the infallible Word of God.”

Romans, Part 43

Back to Fear – Exodus, Part 8

Back to Torture, Part 2

Back to Romans, Part 58

[3] Romans 11:25a (NET)

[5] 2 Corinthians 1:8, 9 (NET)

[6] Philippians 3:3 (NET) Table

[7] Philippians 3:4-8 (NET)

[8] Mark 4:11, 12 (NET)

[9] Romans 11:7, 8 (NET)

[10] Epehsians 1:3-14 (NET)

[13] 2 Corinthians 1:8, 9 (NET)

[14] Romans 12:16, 17 (NET)

[15] 1 Corinthians 4:10 (NET)

[16] 2 Corinthians 11:19 (NET)

[18] Romans 11:25b, 26a (NET)

[19] Romans 9:6b, 7 (NET)

[20] Romans 9:8 (NET)

[22] Romans 1:18 (NET)

[23] Isaiah 59:20 (NET)

[24] Jeremiah 31:37 (NET)

[25] Romans 11:28 (NET)

Antichrist, Part 1

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I was introduced to Lars von Trier’s movies in a backhanded way.  A friend wanted me to watch “Melancholia” because she thought it was a waste of two hours of her life.  I suspected she was afraid I might like it and call her taste into question.  I was afraid of that too as I watched the magical beginning of the film.  Fortunately for our friendship I found the character Justine disagreeable enough to satisfy her.  I enjoyed the film more when I skipped from the extreme slow motion photography of the opening to the chapter titled “Claire” and watched from there to the end.  Less of Justine’s melancholia was definitely more for me.  I was hooked however on Lars von Trier.

I cried at the end of “Breaking the Waves” when God credited Bess’s faith as righteousness: For what does the scripture say? Paul asked.  “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[1]  The plot turned on the confusion in the English language between eros and agapē.  It seems to me that English speaking believers who care about making the Gospel plain would lead the curve to accept fuck and fucking as legitimate words for eros.  We are the ones, after all, muscling in on love (since the Aunt Pollys[2] and professional fundraisers of the world have made charity[3] as odious to the receiver as to the giver).

Sexual intercourse is too clinical to substitute for eros.  Making love is too nice-nice, too insincere, or too dishonest to suffice.  The freshly fucked wife lying forlornly beside her husband, asking, “Do you love me?” knows full well that fucking doesn’t make any love.  Her clueless husband turning from the television to stare incredulously at her, and saying defensively, “Didn’t I just show you how much I love you?” thinks love was the feeling he had while fucking her.  Or worse, he might take offense thinking she has denigrated his performance as a fucker.  If he has read any books about fucking he might take the time to cuddle and talk to her afterwards, before turning to the television.  But a wife is close enough to see through that hypocrisy eventually.  Only the love that flows from Christ’s Spirit is the ἀγάπη[4] (agapē) she seeks when fucking just isn’t enough.

I was on my first movie set with nudity.  We were ready to shoot.  The male actor, speaking for himself and his female counterpart, asked the director, “Are we making love or fucking?”  We all knew exactly what he meant.  Making love is the tender prelude to the selfish self-abandon of fucking.  Making love is the hope of which fucking is the substance.  By comparison making love seems calculated, hypocritical, a mere going through the motions, or a practiced aloofness.  “Give me a little of both,” the director replied.

Love (ἀγάπη) does no wrong to a neighbor, Paul wrote.  Therefore love (ἀγάπη) is the fulfillment of the law.[5]  Few would be persuaded that, fucking does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore fucking (or the feeling I have while I am fucking, or wanting to fuck, her) is the fulfillment of the law.  I wonder sometimes, however, if we don’t actually prefer the confusion.  Loving enemies and praying for persecutors is decidedly unsexy and a hard sell.  It isn’t natural.  It only comes from the ἀγάπη of God flowing into one through his Holy Spirit and then out again as attitudes and actions that are incomprehensible to those born only of the flesh of Adam.

Having said all that, however, there was something about fucking, especially first fucking, that made me highly susceptible to the ἀγάπη of God.  I have noticed a similar phenomenon in other men.  It makes a sort of sense then that Satan and the religious mind would conspire to make first fucking as “immoral” as possible, to short circuit that natural progression from eros to agapē.  In the past this was achieved by putting all women but prostitutes completely out of reach.  In my day it was the misnomer premarital sex and the presumed punishment for premarital sex—pregnancy.  In terms of God’s law it was about as difficult for a man to commit premarital sex as to commit a pre-homicidal murder, since even a man who raped a single woman had committed lifelong marriage (Deuteronomy 22:28, 29 NET):

Suppose a man comes across a virgin who is not engaged and overpowers and rapes her and they are discovered [Table].  The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives [Table].

In “Breaking the Waves” Bess knew that Jan worked on an oil rig out at sea when she married him.  But after their honeymoon, when he had to go back to work, she couldn’t bear their separation.  (I should probably say that I will be spoiling “Breaking the Waves” for anyone who finds a movie “spoiled” by knowing its story.)  Bess prayed that God would bring Jan home.  Whenever Bess prayed, by the way, she spoke for herself and then lowered the pitch of her voice and spoke for God as well.  Not surprisingly perhaps, Bess’s god sounded a bit like the elders of her church.

Early in the film we get a picture of her church.  When Jan asked why they had no bells in their steeple, the religious leader scolded, “We do not need bells in our church to worship God.”  “I like church bells,” Bess whispered to Jan.  He attended a funeral presided over by the elders and heard the words, “You are a sinner and you deserve your place in hell,” spoken as a corpse was lowered into the ground.  When he told Bess about it, she agreed, “He will go to hell; everyone knows that.”

Jan got hurt on the rig and came home paralyzed, probably for life, though even his life was not guaranteed.  He encouraged Bess to take a lover, but not to divorce him.  Bess was offended.  Later he convinced her that his life depended on her taking a lover and telling him about it.  She reluctantly and unsuccessfully attempted to seduce his doctor, someone for whom she had some affection.  She tried to tell Jan a sexy story, but he knew she was lying.  She began to have anonymous encounters with strangers.  She even dressed like a prostitute.  When she did, Jan seemed to get better.  When she didn’t, he seemed to get worse.

Finally she went to the “big ship” dressed as a prostitute.  Other prostitutes wouldn’t go there.  The men were brutal and cruel.  Bess barely escaped with her life.  She was excommunicated from her church, locked out of her home and pelted with rocks by neighborhood children.  Then she heard from her sister-in-law (who was also Jan’s nurse) that he was dying.

When his doctor asked, “What’s your talent, Bess?” she replied, “I can believe.”  At the moment where all was darkest for Bess personally her sister-in-law asked, “Is there anything I can do for you, anything at all?”  “Yes,” Bess answered, “I’d like you to go to Jan and pray for him to be cured, and rise from his bed and walk.”  Bess then went back to the “big ship.”

Lars von Trier was uncharacteristically shy about showing what happened to Bess there.  One can only assume that she was raped and beaten (and I call it rape despite her willingness to endure it).  But not showing it was the right call.  There was no need by that time in the story for anger at her attackers, and no call for overwhelming sorrow for Bess.  As she died in the emergency room she realized and admitted how wrong she had been.

At the medical inquest Jan’s doctor was tongue-tied to describe her condition.  He declared her good, but recanted when the medical examiners disputed describing her death as due to excessive goodness.  But there, sitting at the inquest, was Jan, not only risen from his deathbed but walking again.  While the religious leaders of Bess’s “church” were preoccupied with excommunicating sinners, teaching love for the law, and condemning corpses to hell, the body of Christ functioned within it (her sister-in-law was a member in good standing) and without it (Bess and Jan were not).

Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit, Paul wrote to the Corinthians.  And there are different ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.  To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.  For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another performance of miracles…[6]

Bess received the faith.  Her sister-in-law prayed and received a miracle.  Jan received a gift of healing.

Jan couldn’t face the prospect of self-righteous men condemning his beloved wife to hell, so he and his friends from the oil rig stole her body.  “Bess McNeill,” the church leader intoned over a casket filled with sand, “you are a sinner, and for your sins you are consigned to hell.”

“Not one of you has the right to consign Bess to hell,” her sister-in-law rebuked them with a gift of wisdom.  And they, for once, fell silent.

Bess was buried at sea on the oil rig.  Later a friend roused Jan from his mourning to come out on deck.  They stopped at the radar screen to assure themselves that nothing was on the ocean near them.  Then they went outside and heard church bells ringing.  And just in case we viewers were inclined to be incredulous, the scene cut to an extreme high angle, looking down on the oil rig in the ocean through the ringing bells of heaven.

There is another interesting aspect to this film.  People like the leaders of Bess’ “church” are not likely to see a movie rated “R for strong graphic sexuality, nudity, language and some violence.”  They self-select as unworthy of its message, and are “hardened,” so they may not repent and be forgiven,[7] Jesus said of those who were outside (ἔξω).[8]  But “Antichrist,” another of Trier’s movies, is what I really want to write about here.

Antichrist, Part 2 

Back to Antichrist, Part 3

Back to Romans, Part 44

Back to Antichrist, Part 4

Back to Antichrist, Part 5

Back to The Righteousness of God

Back to Torture, Part 2

Back to Romans, Part 50

Back to Torture, Part 4

Back to Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 12

[1] Romans 4:3 (NET)

[2] Aunt Polly was the bitter woman from Walt Disney’s “Pollyanna” whose noblesse-oblige-charity was contrasted to Pollyanna’s cheerful giving.  Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7 NET).

[3] Agapē was translated charity in the KJV in 1 Corinthians 13.

[5] Romans 13:10 (NET)

[6] 1 Corinthians 12:4-10a (NET)

[7] Mark 4:12 (NET)