Death, The Instrument of Glory

We often think of death as a punishment.  This is most certainly correct in one regard.  Adam suffered the death penalty when he sinned.  Sin brought the sting of death.

However, the Bible also talks about another role for death.  It is the prerequisite for the new creation.  Two examples of this teaching are:

John 12:23-25

But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.  Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

And:

1 Corinthians 15:36-38

Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.  And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.  But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.

In these passages, the seed goes into the ground in order to bring about life.  It brings about a new type of life.  It brings about glory.

We see this, of course, in the second chapter of Genesis.  Adam is put into a death-sleep, and God makes Eve from this.  Woman is the glory of man (1 Corinthians 11:7), and so we see that Adam died in order to bring about glory.

This ought to make us question our particular thoughts on death and eschatology.  What was Adam’s primary goal?  What is our goal?  What did the law do?

Thoughts to be thunk.

Satire Can Be Difficult

One of the reasons that I thought the Anti-Federal Vision Study Bible blog might have been real is that the arguments it makes, which are absurd, very closely mirror real arguments that I’ve heard in the past few years. The appeal to the Greek in order to make the text mean the opposite of what it says is a classic.

One major example, which I’ve just seen on a friend’s blog (in the comments), is that “the Lord who bought them” in 2 Peter 2:1 is someone other than Jesus. The argument for this rests on the fact that whenever Jesus is called “Lord” the Greek uses kurios, but this particular instance uses despoten.

When I first heard this argument in my life, I laughed out loud. It was a bit rude, I admit, but I couldn’t really see how it was anything other than a joke. The end of the 1st chapter is all about the prophetic word about Jesus Christ, and Peter then moves in to a warning against false prophets. They are prophesying false things concerning Jesus, as contrasted with the true prophets, and that is why they are in such sin. The reason their actions are blasphemy is that they are lies about Jesus.

I can’t even think of an instance in the Bible where it teaches a “Lord who buys” except for Jesus.

The appeal to the Greek is a case of the word-study or root fallacy, though. It wrenches the text out of the context of the letter and treats it as an entity that exists apart from itself. One big problem is that the Old Testament had several words for “Lord,” all of which could be applied to Yahweh. An easy example is Amos 1:8. Amos continually combines Adonai and Yahweh, which will be rendered in English “Lord GOD.” Usually we see the “LORD” in all capitals, but in this instance it is “GOD” in all capitals. You can also check out Obadiah 1:1, Micah 1:2, and Zephaniah 1:7.

The absolute death knell comes in Jude 1:4 though: “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny our only despoten and  kurion Jesus Christ.”

But again, the whole thing is silly, and I find it embarrassing that so many intelligent people promote such an argument.

The situation is obvious. The Bible breaks their rules. As Christians though, and especially those of us who want to be presuppositionalists, we have to submit to the Bible’s use of the terms. We have to play by the Bible’s rules.

The Gilgalling of Jericho

Joshua 5:2-9

At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD—to whom the LORD swore that He would not show them the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed. Then the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.

At the outset of the Holy War, the people of Israel have to become holy. Their reproach has to be rolled away through the rolling away of the flesh.

They then proceed to roll away Jericho, as they march around the city until its outer covering falls off.

In the new covenant we are given instructions to make the world holy. We roll away its reproach through the new sign of sanctification, baptism.

Matthew 28: 18-20

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

(James Jordan originally pointed out the connection between the circumcision of the people at Gilgal and the circumcision of the city at Jericho. His lectures on this can be found in his Numbers through Judges Survey at the Auburn Ave. media site.)