Prayer is the master key

There is a Sunday school song I used to sing growing up in Lagos, Nigeria. And the lyrics to the song are:

"Prayer is the key, prayer is the key, prayer is the master key. Jesus started with prayer and ended with prayer. Prayer is the master key".

How true the words of the songs are. Jesus started his ministry with prayer (in the desert) and ended his ministry with prayer (on the cross). I just finished reading Shenk and Stutzman book Creating Communities of the Kingdom: The New Testament Models of Church Planting, and in their sola scriptura and ad fontes approach to their book identified that "the early church was born in a prayer meeting" (p. 37). All I could say was “ouch!” as soon as I read that line in the book. I currently work as a church planter in Colorado Springs, Colorado and it seems lately I have been reminded about the importance of prayer and my own personal spiritual formation as a pastor. Recent personalities tests reveal that I am a strategist, planner, goal setter, and that I am fairly conscientious. In addition, I am a futurist, fairly good at multitasking, and accomplishing goals. I am driven and will work late into the wee hours of the night if need be (results derived from personalities tests such as Strength Finders, DISC, and Myers-Briggs).

I don’t say this to elevate my abilities but to reveal my spiritual weakness. I am good at accomplishing things without dependence on God. It will be so easy for me to plant a church like starting a business without involving the work of the Holy Spirit. I recently visited a church in Colorado Springs where the pastor contended that it is possible to build a mega-church without the Holy Spirit. I have the tendency to fall into that camp if care is not taken as some church plants do today. That is the activities of getting the church started, taking precedence over prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, forgetting that the New Testament church was born out of prayer (Acts 2:1-47).

Just as I was recently reminded in Darrin Patrick’s book, Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission, Shenk and Stutzman have reminded me once again that not only is prayer important but it is first. As I am currently reading Ed Stetzer’s book Planting Missional Churches, I am reminded of the importance of my own personal spiritual formation as a church planter.

Rapture or Second Coming Part III

N.T. Wright on the Second Coming of Christ



For more information about the rapture read Ben Witherington III's book "Revelation and the End Times" by Abingdon Press.

Rapture or Second Coming Part II. "Why belief in the rapture should really be left behind"

James-Michael, an M.Div graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary provides useful research proving the doctrine of the rapture as a false doctrine in his article "Why belief in the rapture should be left behind"  http://www.examiner.com/methodist-in-national/why-belief-the-rapture-should-be-left-behind


The doctrine of the Rapture is one that even most non-Christians are familiar with...thanks in part to bumper stickers and t-shirts such as the one on the right, as well as the pop-christian-culture success of books like Hal Lindsay's "The Late Great Planet Earth", the preaching of John Hagee, David Jeremiah and Jack Van Impe, and the multimillion dollar "Left Behind" franchise by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

Given all of the above, it's not surprising that most people--Christian and non-Christian alike--believe that the Bible teaches that at some point in the future Jesus will make a partial return to earth to snatch believers away in a massive invisible worldwide disappearance, leaving behind empty cars, cribs, planes and (presumably) t-shirts! 

But the Bible does not, in fact, teach anything of the sort!

Having previously examined the only passage in Scripture where the phrase "Left Behind" comes from, and seeing that in fact, Jesus was saying the EXACT OPPOSITE of what most people think, we will now look at the most popular passage in Scripture that people who advocate belief in the rapture rely upon.

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.  (1Thessalonians 4:13-18)

This passage is where the term "rapture" comes from.  The word translated "caught up" in Greek is "harpazo".  When the New Testament was translated into Latin, the word "rapiemur" was used to render it.  It is from this verb that we get the English term "rapture".

But does this being "caught up" really refer to Christians being whisked away into the clouds in a massive disappearance act, leaving behind a confused world that will then go through 7 years of horrible tribulation until a final Antichrist figure emerges (from somewhere in Europe, according to most versions of Rapture theology!) and attempts to destroy the city of Jerusalem in a massive Chinese/Russian/Iraqi/Iranian invasion--only to be stopped by Jesus' visible return to reign on earth for 1000 years from a throne in Jerusalem??  (Whew!  That's a lot to recount in a single paragraph!)

In short, no.  It does not.

Nor have Christians historically believed this to be what this passage is referring to.  Only in the 1850s did this view begin to emerge.  It later became entrenched within American Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism via the Scofield Reference Bible study notes and the teaching of institutions such as Moody Bible College and Dallas Theological Seminary.  (For more on this view of the End Times, check out the column I guest-wrote for the Christian Worldview Examiner and the links found therein.)

No, Paul is not talking about the mass disappearance of Christians from all over the globe.  He is talking about the final return of Jesus as conquering King and Judge of the Living and Dead.  And he is doing so using the unmistakeable vocabulary of Roman Imperial rhetoric, which his Thessalonian readers would've immediately recognized.  New Testament scholar and historian Ben Witherington elaborates:

[W]hat sort of return is Paul envisioning here? Can it be a secret or invisible return? Do we have some sort of theology of a pre-tribulation rapture here with Jesus not actually coming to earth? The details of the text as well as the use of the language of the royal visit to a city surely rule out such a view....V. 16 also makes as clear as one could want that we are dealing with a public event, one announced not only by a loud command, as on a battlefield, and the voice of the archangel, but also by the trumpet call of God, though these may be three ways of referring to the same sound. The images are martial, as if Jesus were summoning his army.

The meeting place is said to take place in the clouds or in the air, not in heaven. Paul considers the dead in Christ to be persons who can be “awakened” or “addressed.” He is probably drawing on the yom Yahweh ["Day of the LORD"] traditions, which referred to a trumpet blast announcing the event (cf. Isa. 27:13; Joel 2:1; Zech. 9:14; 1 Cor. 15:52). But it was also the case that a royal visit to a city would be announced by a herald (see Ps. 24:7–10) and might well also be announced by a trumpet blast meant to alert those in the city that the king was coming.

This imagery is pursued further in v. 17 with the use of the term apantesin ["to meet"]. For example, Cicero says of Julius Caesar’s victory tour through Italy in 49 b.c.: “Just imagine what a meeting/royal welcome (apantesis) he is receiving from the towns, what honors are paid to him” (Ad. Atticus 8.16.2). This word refers, then, to the actions of the greeting committee as it goes forth from the city to escort the royal person or dignitary into the city for his official visit. “These analogies (especially in association with the term parousia ["presence/arrival"]) suggest the possibility that the Lord is pictured here as escorted the remainder of the journey to earth by his people—both those newly raised from the dead and those remaining alive.

[Church Father John] Chrysostom picked up these nuances quite clearly:

"For when a king drives into a city, those who are honorable go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within. And upon the coming of an affectionate father, his children indeed, and those who are worthy to be his children, are taken out in a chariot, that they may see him and kiss him; but the housekeepers who have offended him remain within. (Homily 8 on 1 Thessalonians)"

Paul’s Thessalonian audience may have missed some of the allusions to the Old Testament, but they would not have missed the language used here about a royal visit, indeed an imperial visit. They would remember the visit of Pompey and later Octavian and others in the days when Thessalonike could even be talked about by Pompey as the capital in exile.
[From: 1 and 2 Thessalonians : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary by Ben Witherington III (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2006)]

Witherington is not alone in seeing this entire passage as Paul speaking not of a "rapture" but of a the final return of Jesus and His followers--both alive as well as those who have died and are resurrected--meeting him upon His arrival and welcoming Him as one would welcome a triumphant ruler returning from victorious battle to sit upon his rightful throne.  Scholars from many denominations and theological traditions recognize what is going on in 1Thessalonians 4 is nothing resembling the current pop-theology as found in scenarios such as those found in the "Left Behind" books/movies, the writings of Hal Lindsay, David Jeremiah or John Hagee, or the various "End-Times Thriller" B-movies released by Christians over the past 40 years or so:

"The picture is that of a group of citizens going out from a city to meet a visiting dignitary and accompany him back. This implies that the Lord returns with his people to the earth. (They certainly do not stay permanently on the clouds playing harps!) This language was probably never intended to be understood absolutely literally; it is describing things that go beyond words. The important thing is that believers, whether the dead or the living, are from then with the Lord for ever."
[From: New Bible Commentary : 21st Century Edition by D.A. Carson, ed. (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove 1994)]

"In describing the second coming of Jesus, Paul uses another cluster of images borrowed from the triumph of the divine warrior. The trumpet call (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16), for example, is reminiscent of the call to battle, just as the picture of the faithful meeting the Lord in the air (1 Thess 4:17) is drawn from the practice of coming out of the city to welcome a returning warrior who has been successful in battle. The use of this cluster of images communicates that Jesus is God’s agent of salvation but also defines salvation, in part, as the defeat of Satan (and all that would oppose God’s purpose) in cosmic warfare. The book of Revelation, of course, continues the theme of divine warfare in relation to Jesus’ return."
[From: The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery by Leland Ryken, ed. (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove 1998), 769.]

"When all the dead in Christ are raised, then the trumpet shall sound, as the signal for them all to flock together to the throne of Christ.  It was by the sound of the trumpet that the solemn assemblies, under the law, were convoked; and to such convocations there appears to be here an allusion.  When the dead in Christ are raised, their vile bodies being made like unto his glorious body, then, Those who are alive shall be changed, and made immortal.  These shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.  8. We may suppose that the judgment will now be set, and the books opened, and the dead judged out of the things written in those books.  The eternal states of quick and dead being thus determined, then all who shall be found to have made a covenant with him by sacrifice, and to have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, shall be taken to his eternal glory, and be for ever with the Lord.  What an inexpressibly terrific glory will then be exhibited!"
[From: Clarke's Commentary: First Thessalonians by Adam Clarke (electronic ed.;, Logos Library System, Ages Software, 1999)]

Pastor and British Theologian, John R.W. Stott--who is something of an Elder Statesman of Evangelicalism--sums up the message of this passage quite nicely:

"Thus the coming of Jesus, Paul seems to be hinting by the mere adoption of this word, will be a revelation of God and a personal, powerful visitation by Jesus, the King. It can hardly be fortuitous that he is writing this to the Thessalonians among whom, at least according to his critics, he had defied Claudius Caesar’s decrees by announcing ‘that there is another king, one called Jesus’?

The Christian hope, however, is more than the expectation that the King is coming; it is also the belief that when he comes, the Christian dead will come with him and the Christian living will join them. For it is the separation which death causes (or seems to cause) which is so painful, both separation from Christ, since the dead have died before he comes, and separation from those who survive them, since they have gone ahead and left the living behind. It is these two bitter separations which the apostle solemnly assures his readers are neither real nor permanent. For the dead will come with Jesus, and the living will not precede them.
[From: The Message of Thessalonians: The Gospel & the End of Time by John R.W. Stott (;  Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England, 1994), 97.]

So, given the fact that neither Jesus nor Paul ever taught that Christians would be "raptured" out of the world before the final return of Christ, and given that the key proof-texts for such a view teach nothing of the sort, Christians who seek to be faithful to God's Inspired Scripture should see to it that pop-theologies such as that of the rapture are what gets left behind.

Rapture or Second Coming? Do you really want to be raptured? Matthew 24:36-42

With the recent focus on Eschatology, talks of the end of the world, and the rapture.  I thought this blog will be very fitting.

Many evangelicals argue that Matthew 24 teaches rapture but I contend that it does not. A closer look at Matthew 24:36-42 will reveal differently. Re-read Matthew 24:36-42: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2024:36-42&version=NIV.  The key phrase is "as it was in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man" (verse 37).  

So what happened during the Noah?  The scriptures tell us that people "knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left." (verse 39-40)

 

So if the coming of the Son of Man is similar to the days of Noah and the unbelievers/evil doers were taken by the flood, I supposed the ones taken (what we call raptured) when the Son of Man returns are the evil doers.  Could it be that the passage is more about the second coming of Christ and his kingdom reign on earth with his obedient followers and less about the one's taken which the scriptures identify as the evil doers. (Re-read the entire chapter, Matthew 24)

A recent post by my friend Glen Packiam stated "the return of Christ is the beginning of making "all things new" (Rev. 21), the "restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21). Christ's return marks not our escape from earth to heaven but the beginning of the colonizing-- the renewing and remaking-- of earth with heaven, the beginning of "new heavens and new earth."  http://glennpackiam.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/11/why-christs-return-is-not-our-escape.html 

Based on this passage, I pray I am not raptured but rather remain on earth to partake in Christ kingdom reign and his restoration process of making all things new.  What about you?

Church Redefined

I moved to Colorado Springs about three and a half months ago to work as a church planter/missionary.  We just started meeting on Wednesdays which we are  calling our DNA formation phase.  We are spending the month of April unlearning church and last Wednesday I led our Wednesday Night gathering in the topic Church Redefined.  The following excerpt below are my notes from last Wednesday April 6th.

Church Redefined

The scriptures teach that, “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).  Without a vision, going to church can seem pointless and painful. Why are we here? Where are we going? What are we doing?

Introduction: The protestant reformation of 1517 brought about two very important positive changes to the church. First "the priesthood of all believers" which we means we don't have to go through a priest, pope, or pastor to get to God. Each and everyone of us have direct access to the throne of grace and God speak to everyone of us.  This is one of the principal reasons we facilitate discussions in our Wednesday gatherings because we believe God speaks to everyone of us.  Everyone of us has the ability to hear from God directly and share with others what He is saying to us.  Sometimes I find out that I learn more from a group member's interpretation of the bible verse or topic than the teaching pastor.  The second important positive change brought by the reformation is sola scriptura Latin for "by scripture alone".  This concedes the Bible as the main authority in matter of faith and practice.  It does not mean the bible is the only (sole) authority because we can find God revealed in reason, tradition, and personal experience but we must first begin with the scripture.  The bible is our first and primary source on all issues.  It's amazing how much of our theology, faith, and practice is based out of our church and religious traditions and not on scriptures.  So this brings me to our first discussion question.

Discussion: Define church? What is the purpose of  church and why do we do church? Come up with your best biblical definition of church (sola scriptura)? 

We are the Church - 1 Corinthians 3;16 “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” Colossians 1:27 “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The Universal Church – Christ is the head of the church and we the body.  Ephesians 5:23 "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior." 1 Corinthians 12:27 "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."

The Temple - The church is also a building. The bible records in Exodus the “tent of meeting”.  Then Solomon’s awesome temple, where the holy of hollies was located.   

But our focus for years has been on the temple, the building. For the sake of returning the church to it's true definition let us focus on the church as the movement of God.

The church started as a move of God beginning in Old Testament (the Garden of Eden) to the New Testament (God the Son incarnate).

When you strip down the institution of church, you are left with a movement.  24/7.  The movement of God is bigger than the four walls of the institution.

As we enter the post Christian era in our culture, we are experiencing a huge fallout in the church. As pastors and Christians we recognize the problem but typically ask the wrong question of how to fix.  We ask: How do we do church better? How can we grow the church better?  We implement small groups, contemporize the worship service, focus on customer service, try create a spiritual experience, become seeker-friendly, return the church to the basics, market our services, create a high-expectation member culture, or try to purify the church from bad doctrine?

·   I recently heard that 70% in Colorado Springs are unchurched, someone else told me 80%, just a few days ago I heard 85%

·   George Barna National Survey of church attendance. Most/Least churched state 1 (most) – 5 (least)

o   Colorado ranked = 4 

o   Denver, CO ranked 10^th in least churched city in the U.S.

o   El Paso county – One of the least churched counties in Colorado (Elpaso county is comprised mostly of Colorado Springs.  400,000 in CS, 600,000 in El Paso)

·   The harvest is ripe in Colorado Springs, but the laborers are few.  Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers

The Church as a Movement vs. the Church as an Institution

• Out of 144 times in the NT, there are only 2 times in the Gospel where church was mentioned. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18.
• Matthew 16:17 “You are Christ, the Son of the Ling God…on this rock, I will build my church”
• The original idea was a movement God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven
• Kingdom thinking – The entire gospel, Jesus teachings, parables was on God's kingdom on earth as it is heaven
•  Matthew 11:12 - From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing (breaking forth), and forceful men lay hold of it. 
• The Movement is the spirit of God (God in motion) at work to heal and to rescue. Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed"

Old Paradigm                 vs.    New Paradigm

Church as an Institution    vs.   Church as a Movement

Do church                        vs.   Be the church

Churchianity                     vs.   Christianity

Church growth                  vs.   Kingdom growth

Church movement             vs.   Kingdom movement

Focus on Church                vs.  Focus on Christ

Christianity is a movement as history of the Church proves.

Christology, Missiology, Ecclesiology

·   "Ology" from Greek means a branch of study or knowledge. “The study of.”  Christology is the study of the person and work of Christ.  Missiology is the study of the mission of God towards His people, while Ecclesiology is the study of the form and function of church

·   In Churchianity we typically begin with our Ecclesiology (doing church) and once that is established we plan our Missiology (reaching out).  Somewhere in our Missiology is our Christology.  Christ often takes the back seat.

·   In the Kingdom Movment paradigm: our Christology informs our missiology, which in turn determines our ecclesiology.

Missiology – Missio Dei (Mission of God-sending of God. John 3:16, Luke 19:19 for the son of man came..)

·   Theology of Mission is liberation.  In the Old Testament it is the exodus, liberation out Egypt.  In the New Testament it is freedom, liberation from sin.

·   God is a missionary God, it what makes us missionaries.  We are the sent one’s. In john Jesus said “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you”. John 20:21 (when Jesus appears to His disciples)

·   There is church because there is mission, not mission because of church. Church is participating in the mission of God

Discussion: If the broader meaning of church is a movement and not a building, what then is the purpose of the physical space church (institution)?

When Christ talks about building His church, He was speaking of the movement of the power of the gospel to transform lives and not the physical building.  However, there is a distinct purpose for the physical space of a church.  At theMovement Church we believe the church as an institution becomes a place we gather to…

1. A place to celebrate the movement of God corporately. (What God has been doing all week)
2. A place to celebrate the author of the movement (God) corporately
3. A place to fellowship and connect with others. (There is power in Christian community)
4. A place to equip, empower, encourage, and send the followers back out to live missionally and reach people for Christ.
5. A place to receive newborns, help them grow by equipping, empowering, and encouraging; then send the back out to live missionally and reach others for Christ which will then result in more newborns and the ministry cycle continues.

This diagram depicts the ministry cycle of the purpose of the church building

 Hebrews 10:25 "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Waltz with Jesus

What does that even mean?  But I find myself thinking of this phrase all day.  I don't consider myself to be a dancer, a romantic, or a mushy person for that matter but I do know the phrase in my head is connected to the Jesus Culture song "Dance With Me" that I have been listening to all day.  The song has a 3/4 (one, two, three; one, two, three) time sequence and feel to its arrangement, very similar to waltzing, a popular ballroom dance we see in the show Dancing With The Stars.  Not only do the lyrics and the music of the song move me in a deep way that I haven't experienced in a while but theologically I am reminded of the importance of our daily dance with Jesus.  I took ballroom dance classes a few years ago and from what I remember, the Waltz is done in closed position with the dancers facing each other.  The male usually leads the female partner while she mirrors his movements. And the dance is done according to the triple time beat of the music. 

What  would it looked like if I applied the waltz dance analogy in my daily existence?  What would it look like if Jesus was the leader in my dance?  As weird as it is for me as a man to say that I need to dance with Jesus, I can't help but think that my movement to the rhythm and beat of life has to be done in connection with Him as the leader.  Life is a dance and a difficult dance most of the time.  It's a hard dance to learn and one I often try to do alone.  Wouldn't it make more sense for me to dance with the skilled leader who can lead and teach me to dance well.  Plus I'm a terrible leader when it comes to the dance of life.  I make the wrong moves, move to the off beats, and most of the time I'm off tempo.  I also do know I am at peace and in sync when Jesus is leading, even in my darkest moments in life.  

Jesus may I have this dance?  And continue to have this dance?  I pray I dance in close proximity with you, face to face.  Will you teach me how to dance this difficult dance that I suck at?  May You lead my dance in life and may I follow every movement you make.  May I dance in sync and in rhythm with you all my days.

"With You I will go, You are my Love, You are my Fair One.  Dance with me oh Lover of my soul to the songs of all songs." - Jesus Culture (Song: Dance With Me from the album: Consumed)