Phoenix Preacher

On rightly hitching our wagons… (a response to Andy Stanley)

In 2015 Gospel For Asia feared investigation over donor funds…

Vacationing in church history…

12 reasons why progressive Christianity will die out…

Will God forgive me of repetitive sins?

Pitfalls of the novice minister…

Beyond the Billy Graham rule…

What the church can do to help opioid addicts…

God hates gun violence…

Christianity and depression…it’s complicated…

Pope reportedly tells gay man “God made you this way”…

Four reasons why people didn’t like the royal wedding sermon…

Mordor and evangelism…

The day leukemia changed my life…

Who is the most influential American theologian?

On resurrection and eternal life…

The Holy Spirit is not advanced Christianity…

Theology of joy…

Welcome heaven into your neighborhood…

Fundamentalist U…

Dear millennials and nones…meet the rest of the family…

Church’s TV woes note importance of broadcasts…

Anglican politics for the royal wedding…

God loves a convicted murderer…

Confessions of a would be “incel’…

More reasons why you should have hated the Royal Wedding sermon…

The Word of God is not a book…

Scripture in the Anglican tradition…

What the Bible actually says about grace…

Salvation in your final hour…

Billy Grahams last will and testament…

A royal wedding you’ll be in…

Kingdom secrets…

Huge thanks as always to EricL for the link help…support him at top right…

The Death of Outrage and The Sickness in Our Soul

Yesterday, ten lives were lost at Santa Fe High School in Texas.  Since the killings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, it counts as the seventeenth school shooting. This time, however, the weapons used were not assault rifles or semi-automatic handguns, but a shotgun and a .38 caliber revolver. These are the sort of guns many of us grew up with.  They are the sort of guns with which we might have actually learned to shoot in many parts of the country.  While I certainly believe in stricter gun control, universal background checks and all the rest, there is something else going on here and it involves us.

We are slowly learning not to be outraged by such tragedies.

We are increasingly becoming inured to the rising tide of violence that surrounds us.  It is not, however, merely violent acts such as school shootings that we now accept as commonplace or normal.  It is the violence of speech from politicians.  It is the violence of families separated in deportations.  It is the violence of intolerance from both the right and the left witnessed in street demonstrations.  It is the violence of men who exploit and abuse women. It is the violence of economic inequity where working families find it hard to make ends meet and frequently have to choose between food on the table and paying the rent.   It is the violence of demeaning an opponent with the casual cruelty of insults.  It is the violence of poverty in the abandoned industrial towns of Appalachia. It is the calculated violence of discrimination whereby another person created in the image of God is made out to be less than human because of their color, their national origin, their faith, their gender or their politics.

Now, with increasing regularity, that violence is put on display in the form of an alienated angry teen with a gun in his hands in a school hallway.

Oh yes, we will try to establish the individual motive of the shooter, or we will debate the availability of guns, but I think something more is going on in our society and it seems to be getting worse.

Meanwhile, as the Church, we are debating what it means to be the Church.  There are numerous church leaders, seeking political and policy advantage, who seem willing to accept the current state of affairs.  Using golf metaphors, they are willing to give certain political leaders “a pass” when it comes to blatant immorality, or to mocking a disabled reporter or a continuing stream of lies and insults.  They condone the violence of speech and, at times, amplify that speech.  Then there are others struggling to understand how the Church is to function in the current atmosphere.  Yet, even here, we find it hard to reach consensus.  We debate the relevance of the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes to our current lives as believers.  We parse the words of Matthew 25 hoping that it might say something different from what it actually says.  In any case, we’re more interested in the latest denominational  (and non-denominational) scandals and we would rather discuss the finer points of soteriology or eschatology.  

We are no longer outraged by the violence of thought and action that surrounds us… and that is a problem.

The early church recognized that it bore a special responsibility toward the world. As the letter to Diognetus says:

“[Christians] pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life…To sum up all in one word–what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world.”

If, indeed, we are the soul, we cannot afford not to be outraged, no matter what that might cost us.  Yet, in my darker moments, I fear that a sickness has entered that soul… and we stand in need of healing.

Duane W.H. Arnold

The Project

Revelation 9:1-12

1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.

• We ended 8:13 with the triple woe – coming judgment
• This blowing of the trumpet brings about a star falling from heaven – Isaiah 14:12 – “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!”
• We will see a further description in verse 11 (Satan).
• The bottomless pit = the Abyss – A place that is forsaken by God – Demonland – Hades (6:8).

² He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.

• The Bottomless Pit – The word literally means “without depth.” And seems to play a fairly prominent role in scripture. From several biblical references, it seems the “abyss” is a place reserved for the demonic angels. The demons expelled from the Gadarene begged Jesus “not to command them to depart into the abyss” (Luke 8:31). In Romans, the abyss is the abode of the dead (Rom 10:7; see also Ps 63:9; 71:20). In the epistles, evil angels are in “chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment” (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). In Revelation, the abyss is the origin of the beast (11:7; 17:8) and the place of Satan’s temporary incarceration (20:1-8). Here, this bottomless pit appears to be the home of demons shut up until they are released at the proper time.
• Smoke filled the air in such quantity, it blocked the sun.

³ Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.

• Think back to the plagues. This is the 8^th plague on Egypt – Ex 10:4.
• Joel 2:2-5 uses the locust as a description of the Assyrian invasion.
• Locust Joel 1:1-12 – a description of the invasion and v.13, the purpose – repentance — sound familiar?
• You must understand Joel to understand this Rev 9 passage – judgment is brought for the sake of what? People repenting – turning from their sin and believing in the lamb who has been slain.
• If you do not see this as a call to repentance, it really skews your view of our Father. Rather than the one who loves and desires to save his dear children, he is vindictive – he is judgmental.
• Now this is a divine event – it is not some natural phenomenon that can be explained by global warming or global cooling, as I am sure many today would attempt.
• Note that this began with a star falling from the sky. This star is given the key to the bottomless pit. This is not something to be explained away – but it is an unexplainable event
• These are demonic hoards sent by God as his agents, his instruments to do his work.

⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

• This is not a judgment on the earth but on man – unbelieving man – worshipers of the beast of all times – past, present and future.
• Notice how those who have God’s seal are spared? Just like in Egypt as the Israelites were not harmed by the plagues that attacked Egypt – see Ex 8-10.
• To me, this is another anti rapture passage. Those with God’s seal and those without are still living on earth side by side.
• God protects his own from his wrath – he does not need to remove them.

⁵ They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

• Five months – what is happening here? How long does the average locust live? Up to 5 months.
• This is partial judgment so 5 months = limited time.
• It is interesting to keep in mind how God is in charge. He sets the parameters – do not harm the grass – time limit, 5 months – all of this as he keeps focus on his work.
• 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (but read the broader statement v.8-10.

⁶ And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

• The people will be tormented and tortured but cannot die. They will wish they could, but they can’t.
• Is this not a description of how despairing people are? People who believe the satanic lie that you can be as God, knowing good from evil and that you are in charge?
• The grim wages of lusts and additions. Tiger Woods could tell us much about living under the addictions of pornography and sex. Living under the burden of sin, living with the sting of the scorpion – that fiery burning that just will not die.
• When your false gods crash you wish you were dead.

⁷ In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,

⁸ their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;

⁹ they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.

¹⁰ They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.

• After detailing their origin and their mission, John next attempts to describe what he saw in his vision. In one of the strangest passages in the entire Bible, he writes verses 7-10.
• John saw what looked like locusts to him. He describes them in words built on real locusts but his description goes far beyond reality. This nine-fold description of the locusts in the verses above stretch John’s own apocalyptic imagination. Note the struggle with John’s continual use of the word “like”.

¹¹ They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

• They – who are the THEY? This refers to the locust like beings, but we must also apply it to the unbeliever – all unbelievers of all time – those without God’s seal.

• Satan is their leader. How does John handle the description? With great emphasis John states his name in both Hebrew and Greek – the Destroyer.

¹² The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

• Literally ‘went away’ – the idea is that the first woe has come and gone – we will see the same in 11:14.
• This is a transitional verse between the 5^th and 6^th We know that these are woes as the text tells us so.
• The next woe will run from 9:13 to 11:13 … this is a lot of woe.
• Where is the 3^rd woe identified in the 7^th trumpet? It is not. Instead, John records another scene of heavenly worship at 11:15-19.
• So the function of the 3 woes is to form a link between the 7 trumpets and the 7 bowls which begin in Rev 16.

It’s all yours today…

Michigan State University settled it’s sexual abuse scandal for 500 million dollars.

While we rejoice at the fact that an institution has been held accountable, we also need to look at the implications for other institutions.

My Twitter feed was full of folks warning the Protestant churches that they were “next”…after the Roman Catholic church has already made many similar, large, settlements.

What will happen in reality is a lot different…let me explain.

The people most impressed with the size of this settlement are lawyers, as they stand to be the ones who will profit the most from the misery of others.

The only churches they will attempt to “hold accountable” are ones that can line their pockets.

That means large churches or entire denominations.

Small churches simply aren’t worth their brand of justice or accountability.

The end result will be that in the broader evangelical community there will actually be less accountability.

Let me give you an example.

When Chuck Smith was still alive and in charge of Calvary Chapels, he had a disciplinary arm of the non denominational denomination call the Calvary Chapel Outreach Fellowship, or “CCOF” for short.

Ostensibly the office that did affiliations, it also served as the doctrinal and moral police agency for the movement, working out of the Costa Mesa church.

The existence of that office and the fact that they enforced “discipline” in the field made Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa legally liable for the misdeeds of all the affiliates.

They paid for a bunch of them…Costa Mesa had really deep pockets.

A few years ago, Smith wearied of paying for the sins of people he didn’t know and disbanded CCOF in an attempt to cut that tie between the affiliates and the mothership.

Henceforth, Costa Mesa would only pay for their own issues.

When his brother Paul (who was running CCOF) continued to enforce (mainly doctrinal) rules, he fired his brother.

Today, neither side of the CC split will exercise any control over the affiliates other than adding or removing their names from a database.

It’s all about liability.

If there is no accountability at the local church level there will be none above it either.

Most churches in this country have shallow pockets and aren’t worth the attention of the tort vultures.

Those that do have resources…might want to make sure they have air tight child protection and hiring standards in place.

It’s all about liability…