Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Acts 17.11
This text is often used to encourage someone to dig into scripture. “Don’t just take my word for it,” your “pulpiteer” contends, “be a good Berean and check it out yourself.” As if most “pew-warmers” or community group “couch potatoes” even know where to begin studying scripture. Sure they may have daily DEVOS, a personal “prayer closet” and quiet time. They may gather weekly with “like minded” infant believers and come to a consensus pertaining to what their quiet time meant to them and “how this verse impacts me.” The truth is, most have not the capacity to get alone with God and objectively search the scripture to see if anything of what they’ve been taught or led to believe is even true.
So, by all means read your Bible, have your DEVO, pray continually in your closet, be a good Berean…but only within the parameters that your “church” or denomination has already established as set doctrine. After all, 1500 years of tradition can’t be all wrong…can it?
We all live in a paradigm. A paradigm is the way in which we view the world around us, a point of view. Families have them, athletic teams/organizations, and religious bodies/denominations all have them. Within a paradigm evidence is weighed against one’s particular view and either supports our paradigm or is considered as irrelevant, but it is not primarily through the presentation of evidence that paradigms are changed. We can choose to keep or discard evidence, yet most likely the influences that contribute to changing a paradigm are confrontation and personal experience.
This is a fearful proposition as most do not like confrontation. Ultimately “people are partial to (happy with) the truth they already have.” The premise is “don’t go deconstructing MY truth with THE facts. I know what I know and that’s that.” What happens next? What happens when what we know just isn’t so anymore? We most assuredly experience a paradigm shattering change.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1.27
...then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living (soul, being) creature.
Genesis 2.7
This is where our identity starts. We are created in the image of God. The Creator himself took an active role in forming us, He did not speak us into existence as the rest of creation. He knelt down and stuck His hands in the soil and formed Adam from the dust of the earth. Then, as if that wasn’t intimate enough He bent over and breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life and man became a living nephesh (soul, creature, being).
We are meant to have an intimacy with our Creator like no other being. We bare the image of God in way that no other being can or does. When we look to the heavens we are amazed at the vastness and wonder of what we see. When we consider the seemingly eternal expanse of the universe we are drawn back to our own lonely little planet and wonder…what are we that God takes such an interest in us?
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,...
Psalms 8.3-4
God tells us exactly what and who we are. We are created a “little lower than the angels.” By this I do not believe the meaning to be our position as third in command in the universe. I believe what is meant is God created the spiritual beings before mankind so as to witness the final crowning act of creation as He intimately formed a specially being to represent him as no mere spiritual being could.
Crowned with honor and glory all creation is under our dominion. Did you catch that? We, the very crowning work of His hands, have been given dominion over all the other works of His hands. That is amazing when you stop to think about it. One could say that even the angels (heavenly beings) reside under our dominion, after all the Apostle Paul admonishes us regarding judging rightly, “Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” (1 Corinthians 6.3)
For thus says the LORD,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the LORD, and there is no other."
Isaiah 45.18
God has revealed Himself to us as the Creator of the heavens. He formed the earth and made it not to be empty or void but to be inhabited. By who you ask? By us, we were given dominion over all his works. The earth is our home. The LORD (YHWH) and no other could or would have made it so. He made man the sole proprietors of planet earth and there is no other being who qualifies for the position.
Scriptures speak much about land promises especially regarding Abraham and his descendants. YHWH swore by Himself that He would give them the land as their possession forever. Anyone acquainted with the Biblical narrative knows of the “promised land” and how the children of Israel were saved out of Egypt and given the “promised land.” Throughout the pages of scripture the story is one about the authorized and unauthorized occupation of this land.
The Gospel accounts begin with the proclamation of the Kingdom of God being at hand, both John the Immerser and Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed this message. Continuing the New Testament narrative in the book of Acts we see the disciples are still concerned with the establishment and restoration of the Kingdom of God to Israel. You cannot have a kingdom without a territory/land and because only earth has inhabitable land it is very important in the grand scheme of things.
It has been said that the Biblical narrative begins with a paradise that was lost and ends with a paradise restored. Both of these paradises are here on earth. Earth is our home, earth was created to be inhabited and man is the specially created being to inhabit it. We were not designed to reside in some celestial realm in some far reaches of the universe.
I challenge you to lay aside that spoon-fed paradigm that has been so comfortable. Those mis-conceptions that you “know that you know that you know” and search the scriptures for the idea that we go to heaven at any point, whether at death or at the return of the Messiah.
For those who will grab at those few numbered text-clips to affirm yourself and prove otherwise, I implore you to consider what the greater portion of scripture testifies to and consider the possibility that what you have been raised to think you know may not be so.
Why do I raise these concerns? Why do I present these ideas? (and there will be more to come) I do so for the reason that the majority takes a stance that anything other than the position they believe is morally reprehensible, eternally damnable, and dangerous enough that it should be snuffed out by any and all means necessary.
Their interpretation of scripture is the only valid interpretation and it eats at my soul that these leaders presume to have the market on God. These false shepherds that fleece the flock and prohibit them from fellowship with others and refuse fellowship from any outside. Those innocent members of these groups “know not what they are doing.” In the not so distant past these “innocent members” would be the ones lighting the faggots of green wood, they would be the crowd gathered to see heads roll, they would be the crowd yelling “CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM!”
I cannot sit by and listen to people present ideas as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth any longer. The idea may be well intended but “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” For all those religious concepts and ideas one may hold dear and would die for, there have been an innumerable amount of saints who believed otherwise that were slaughtered, murdered, and assassinated by the proponents of that “dearly held” belief of yours.
So, Wake Up! Brothers and sisters, there’s much more to being a follower of Jesus the Messiah than that “comfortable churchianity” you’ve grown accustomed to. The gate is narrow remember, and few there be that find it. I have often said being a Christian is simple, but it isn’t easy. As it should be, anything worth while and life changing doesn’t come easy.
Those Who Can't 