I’ve kept my blog daily for twelve and a half years. One of the saddest patterns I’ve learned I have to live with, is waking up, reading news, seeing some formerly solid & beloved leader now disgraced in scandal, and I have to go back and scrub blog references to him and replace links. That’s the nature of long-term commitment and perseverance in the faith- some grow stronger, some drift, and are snatched back, and some fall away in sin. Some of those repent and some do not, failing even to see their desperate need for repentance.
Over the years, I’ve published about 5,500 essays. In 2016 I gathered a bunch of essays into a Kindle book I felt were aimed at encouraging people for the glory of God, called Encouragement in Grace. I also gathered a bunch of prophecy essays I’d written for the edification of the saints and the glory of God into a Kindle book called Prophecy in Grace.
I haven’t done much with them since. I didn’t really market them or promote them, I just let them fly and then sink to the bottom of the crowded Kindle basket of all the other self-published books. I mainly wanted to go through the process to test it and see what self-publishing is like.
After I finish writing anything, I always think it’s the worst thing I ever wrote, and I can’t bear to go back and re-read it. I was the same with my newspaper. I never read the finished, print edition of my own newspaper, lol. If I look at it’s like a movie goer watching the scary film through threaded fingers over her eyes.
I was asked about the books recently. So I re-skimmed my Encouragement book and the Prophecy book. Perhaps you might be blessed by reading either of them. They’re not bad. I love the prophecy book because I love prophecy. It gets a bad rap these days. A theologian friend said that prophecy is a kind of disgraced section of study and those who are called dispensationalists are seen as the Rednecks of the disgraced section of study.
I understand. The failed claims of prophecy date-setters damage the credibility of these wonderful scriptures. The fringe preppers and newspaper eisegesists also damage the reputation further. But I am unashamed of anything in the Bible and certainly not ashamed of the promises that Jesus set before us and are specifically given to encourage us!
The doctrines of past and future things in prophecy give hope and underpin our fervency. We know that one of the prophecies promised is that they will mock prophecy. They will say-
“Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4).
All things SEEM like they were since the beginning of creation, but in actuality the providential outworking of God is that every day, every second, is part of His plan to hurtle us forward to the end of time. Time will end. At some point just prior to His Second Coming, all things will visibly and horrifically NOT be as they were from the beginning. The sun will darken, the food chain will fail, the oceans will fill with blood, visible demons will roam, and more.
Understand that we are dust motes in a controlled holy stream of activity sustained and propelled by Jesus. He upholds all things by the word of His power, says Hebrews 1:3b. If you want to know for sure what the future holds, at least as far as Jesus has revealed it, study your Bible, of which about a quarter to a third of the entire book is prophecy. Prophecy should inspire us to greater fervency, since Christians know more than anyone that time is near (Revelation 1:3).
Since so much of the Bible is prophecy, and though some of it is fulfilled, much of remaining prophecy is unfulfilled. What is to come? Can we know the future? What did Jesus say will happen? Is prophecy too complicated to understand? This book contains essays explaining the future history of believers and non-believers alike. What is the Rapture? Does Israel have a future? What about the nation of Egypt? Jordan? What about the timing of prophesied events?
I use proper interpretation, scripture and commentaries from noted theologians to explain answers to these questions and more. Prophecy is the ultimate encouragement because it demonstrates the faithfulness of Jesus and His sovereign control over all things, including the history of man.
Those were the questions I addressed in the e-Book Prophecy in Grace. If you are interested, the book is here.
Three years ago this week, a group of Christian men gathered in Texas to hammer out a Statement to affirm the Gospel and to deny the social justice movement. The Social Justice Movement (SJ) and its philosophies had been infiltrating into evangelical churches. The result was a published “Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel“.
The same week, Todd Friel of Wretched.org published an absorbing video called “The Gathering Storm: A Split in the Reformed World“. In it, Friel made the prediction that race would be the issue that bubbles to the surface in the basket of issues social justice covers, and would be the fault line that splits believers in the faith from each other. He predicted that race issues would become the ground for schism.
I drove up to meet a friend at Dunkin Donuts. We were meeting to have a coffee and talk and probably laugh and generally have a nice social time together.
EPrata photo
I love to look at the scenery as I drive. I live in a rural area and instead of the waves on the ocean that I used to see in my former state of Maine, I see rolling pastures and waves of wildflowers. Today as I trundled up the road, I viewed fields embrowned with crunchy grass heated under a southern sun. The horses grazing in the pasture swishing their tails in a synchronized busy back and forth, swatting away the buzzing flies bothering them under the southern sun. Wrinkled balloons tied to a mailbox bobbed hopefully in the heat, welcoming someone to a shower or a graduation or birthday.
Author James Patterson has this thing called Book Shots. They are short novellas he sells for a (slightly) lower price than his normal length books. I thought I’d do a Short Shots type of writing myself.
I often wonder while reading the Bible about the various things I’m reading about. How small is a mustard seed? What does a Sycamore tree look like? Does barley bread taste very different from wheat bread? What kind of fish live in the Sea of Galilee? So here we go!
A reader asked about the Harry Potter books, and if I’d do a critique. I have only read two of books in that series, so I can’t do a deep critique, but I can offer a few thoughts.
With having read just two Harry Potter books, so I don’t have a lot to go on. I haven’t read the Narnia series either, and those books contain witchcraft and other magical elements, too. And JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, which I have read all of, many times, also contains the same.
Christians go bananas over Narnia (I never saw the draw, myself) but also go to the extreme negative over HarryPotter. All three authors claimed to be Christian and all 3 books have overt Christian symbolism and references and allusions.
The occult is a dangerous element to play with, in movies or books or TikToks or anywhere. It represents satan trying to get into the minds of the unwary, to pollute it. It is good to be careful. In Harry Potter the magic does seem to be devoid of a moral compass, while for example in Tolkien’s books the difference between good and evil was stark. Gandalf the Wizard refused to use the ring for ‘good’ because he knew he should not even touch the ring and taught Frodo why, because its inherent evil will gradually overtake a person who wears it.
I think we can be overly-sensitive on the other side. LOTS and LOTS of books and movies contain the exact same elements of occult as Harry Potter but people don’t bat an eye. How about Disney’s 1937 movie Snow White? There’s a witch, there’s casting spells, Magic Mirror, evil, etc. Aladdin? Magic carpet, genie, spells, etc. The Marvel Universe? Loki and Thor are based on false gods of Norse Mythology.
What one parent deems unsuitable, another many deem perfectly fine. Some parents decide not to allow their kids to read the Potter books while other parents do. It is in Christian liberty that one parent decides on thing while another parent decides another. And we’re not privy to ALL their decisions and why, so if they allow their kids to read Harry Potter, or see Snow White, or watch Thor, we might not have the full picture of the internal family discussions that went on, or the devotionals that happen and discussions around it. Parents’ knowledge of their child’s maturity level plays a big role, too. Part of Christian liberty is restraining the impulse to judge another family for their decisions, especially if they differ from ours.
The Bible shows in Revelation that spells, sorceries, false signs and wonders existed and even exist today, since 2 Thessalonians 2:9, Matthew 24:24, Revelation 13:13, and other verses state the fact that ‘witchcraft’ AKA false signs and wonders do happen. I think it’s important to let Christian kids and youths know this, and teach them to be discerning about the holy vs unholy activity. Unholy, demonic activity exists in real life, and in my opinion we don’t need to seek it out in our entertainment. We don’t need to delve into occult, but the Bible is replete with the fact that magicians can and do perform (Moses’ opposition in front of Pharaoh, the sorcerers could match Moses staff for staff, for a while). Watching a movie or reading a book that happen to contain such elements can be instructive and used as a caution.
On the other hand, reactions can be too UNDERstated, as in the newest addition to Disney’s stable of films aimed at kids, Cruella. From what I’ve read, the movie is dark, dark all the way through, and it is sympathetic toward its central evil character, who chose to be evil with no repercussions throughout the film. It even softens evil itself. This is a trend begun openly with the film Maleficent.
Disney is sly in introducing ungodliness and even humanistic worldviews in its movies. The corporation’s slyness makes it hard to pick out exactly what’s wrong and why kids should not watch, as opposed to Harry Potter type material where one can point to “witchcraft” and say ‘NO!” Disney is the bigger danger, IMO. For example, have you noticed that most Disney animated movies lack a mother? Cumulatively, a child on a steady diet of Disney movies will subtly absorb that fact. The insidiousness is what is dangerous. I’d rather have a Harry Potter or a Thor movie to point to the obvious.
"The heroes and heroines of most Disney movies come from unstable family backgrounds; most are either orphaned or have no mothers. Few, if any, have only single-parent mothers. In other instances, mothers are presented as "bad surrogates" eventually "punished for their misdeeds." There is much debate about the reasoning behind this phenomenon." (Source).
I think Disney’s insidious softening toward evil, the lack of mothers, and the “follow your heart” mantra in almost all their movies is cumulatively worse than an overt display of spells or magic. Kids understand magic is fairy tale, but won’t realize Disney’s subsurface agenda and will acceptingly absorb it.
As with anything involving discernment and especially with children, I believe it’s up to the individual or parent in Christian liberty to watch or read according to the level of maturity the person or child has, and to guard and converse copiously with kids as to the meaning and intent of the movie’s moral compass then to compare to the Bible. For some, Harry Potter is a no go, for others, it’s perfectly fine while anything by Madeleine L’Engle is not!
Last, I personally believe that opposition when it’s this pitched has more than opposition behind it. It’s a fad. Harry Potter was spoken against by the head of the ministry Focus on the Family, and that fanned the flames and embedded against the minds of many people, who unreasoningly oppose Potter without explicitly knowing why. That opposition has hardened into the general Christian consciousness like cement.
I see the same thing happening with The Chosen TV series. Opposition is pitched and almost manic, but after I watched season 1, I found only a very few things of concern and far more to applaud, yet any opposition against the awful and heretical Roma Downey “Bible” tv series of ten years ago from these same people was minimal or silent! It was even taught in churches! Gah!
The conclusion is, sisters, go with your own discernment and your husband’s, not the general population’s, some of whom may be individually discerning but also many of whom just jump on a bandwagon unreasoningly.
Decide for yourself what is best for yourself and family based on thoughtful and prayerful Bible beliefs where the Bible is clear and common sense where it is not.
In 2002-2005 I went through a severe trial. It was in the middle of that time that I became saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, who extended His hand and lifted me from my sins and the muck I had lived in, thinking it was a palace. No, His hand grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and shook the mud off and He gave me His righteousness. As I grew in Christ, I was humbled, no, awed, but the fact that He absorbed the Father’s wrath for these very sins I’d been living in for 42 years.
Salvation came in the middle of the trial, so I had opportunity to view it from two vantage points. One was when looking back, from own worldly perspective having tried to overcome the pit in my own strength. The other was His heavenly perspective, HIS strength given to me to overcome those trials. After the cross punctuated my life and split my history, the trial was still hard but I had another viewpoint to deal with it: HOPE.
Beforehand, my mental/internal picture was of me in a deep pit. I was a struggling worm, trying vainly to climb out. Afterward, I saw myself climbing the steep, muddy bank of a shallow but raging brook, slipping and sliding, clawing and hanging on, but making upward progress.
After salvation, the embankment was still steep, and the mud was still very real, but my steps became surer. Like the hinds’ feet,
The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like deer’sfeet, And has me walk on my high places. For the choir director, on my stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:19).
As McLaren’s Expositions says of Habakkuk’s hinds’ feet,
"Plod, plod, plod, in a heavy-footed, spiritless grind, like that with which the ploughman toils down the sticky furrows of a field, with a pound of clay at each heel; or like that with which a man goes wearied home from his work at night. The monotony of trivial, constantly recurring doings, the fluctuations in the thermometer of our own spirits; the stiff bits of road that we have all to encounter sooner or later; and as days go on, our diminishing buoyancy of nature, and the love of walking a little slower than we used to do; we all know these things, and our gait is affected by them. But then my text brings a bright assurance, that swift and easy and springing as the course of a stag on a free hill-side may be the gait with which we run the race set before us."
People have verses, quotes, and hymns or praise songs that they often turn to in times of need, in order to grab hold of something outside themselves to help them persevere. For me during that awful time, it was a song by Randy Travis,
Shallow Water, Randy Travis
I will not drown in shallow water. Not with your love within my reach. I did not come this far to falter. And will not rest until I’m free.
Through Your love my eyes are open Through Your love I’ll learn to see And in Your name my bread is broken By Your grace I’ll rest in peace
I had reached the breaking of day within the long dark night of the soul. The Light is beaming, the Lighthouse awaits. No, I will not drown in the mud and muck, what I learned was actually sin. I will not drown in raging waters of turbulence and strife. The water was shallow all along! I can climb the embankment because HE sets my feet on a sure path. I can persevere, now that I’m acting in His strength, not my own, which had only brought me lower, if I’m honest. I’m NOT a struggling, buried, insignificant worm dwelling in mud that blinds, I am a daughter of Christ, loved, and washed by His blood. I won’t faint. I will live!
I heard that song again recently after some years of it having sunk below the piles of newer songs. It all came tumbling back to my memory, as these things often do when they’re triggered by a smell…a sound…a song.
Shallow Water was published in 2000 as part of an album called Inspirational Journey. The album peaked in 2001, but the individual songs kept on, and were popular during the time I was undergoing the trial.
Friends, the water is shallow. The lions are chained.
“Now before he had gone far, he entered into a very narrow passage, which was about a furlong off the Porter’s lodge, and looking very narrowly before him as he went, he espied two lions in the way. Now, thought he, I see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous were driven back by. (The lions were chained, but he saw not the chains.) Then he was afraid, and thought also himself to go back after them; for he thought nothing but death was before him. But the Porter at the lodge, whose name is Watchful, perceiving that Christian made a halt, as if he would go back, cried unto him, saying, Is thy strength so small? Mark 4:40. Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that have none: keep in the midst of the path, and no hurt shall come unto thee.” John Bunyan Pilgrim’s Progress
Stay on the path and He shall make your feet sure, like hinds’ feet climbing to high places. O, what a day when we mount up on eagles wings!
But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31, KJV)
No, I will not faint. The Lord is with me. Nor shall I drown in shallow water.
What are your go-to verses or songs or hymns from which you receive solace?
I was asked in real life my views on the television series The Chosen, and now an online reader asks. Here is my reply.
The Chosen. End of season 1. The Messiah and disciples walk away from the well, after meeting the woman.
Personally, I have seen all of season 1. I adore The Chosen! Here are reasons why I like it, some cautions, and the 2nd Commandment issue.
The production itself is very close to depicting the real culture of Jesus’ day. The production values are terrific, the series is lush to look at. I’m so happy to have a Christian production that is not embarrassing in its acting, scenery, costumes, or settings! From what I understand, a lot of research and thought went into it.
Where it depicts biblical events, it again for a lot of the screen time, is very close or exactly biblical. They use verses and phrases from the Bible quite often. I have not seen them depict any of the disciples in any way that is contrary to the way they are presented in the Bible (except they made Matthew be on the autism spectrum…why? I dunno). Simon/Peter is impetuous. Andrew is measured. And so on.
Where the Bible doesn’t speak, the narrative is plausible. For example, Nicodemus is portrayed in almost all of season 1. He is shown as compassionate, knowledgeable, but not proud. He is shown to be seeking and open to the miracles of the man he comes to know as Jesus. He is questioning what he knows and doesn’t know. This is plausible because he is seen in John 3 as seeking…he actually was seeking, and it is plausible that he was seeking and questioning before that one night he came to see Jesus.
What I liked about Nicodemus is the show writers vividly depict the tremendous pressure from students and colleagues for Nicodemus to overlook the likelihood of Jesus being the Messiah, the difficulty in shaking off his entire lifestyle and standing in the community for the unknown in following Jesus, and the pleas of his wife to dismiss what he is increasingly coming to believe, so that they can keep their ‘position’. These are all plausible.
No, all this is not in the Bible explicitly but it is generally, and it’s likely it went down that way, given what we do know about Annas and Caiphas and the scribes etc.. Yes, it’s true in one scene that as Nicodemus realized who Jesus was and kneeled before Him, Jesus said ‘You don’t have to do that.’ Jesus accepted worship, He didn’t reject it. That part of the scene was error. What I did like was that Nicodemus took Jesus’ hand, and kissed it, and replied with Psalm 2:2, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, which was right. I liked that it indicated one place for sure the other Pharisees should have known who Jesus was, or at least should not have ignored scripture in the Old Testament indicating it.
Another character, Mary who was delivered from 7 demons…I loved how they showed her physical and spiritual agony, and the effect of her possession had on the people in her community. It was starkly shown the effect such possession had on the people that loved her as they tried to help her or at least stay out of her way when the demons made her have a fit. The reality of life being demon possessed is startling and different from when you just read it.
It’s emotional. I cry every episode. It’s one thing to read in the Bible about these events, it’s another to see “Jesus” announce to the woman at the well that “I am He”. It’s emotional to see Jesus in Cana standing over the vat of water about to turn it into wine, and realize in his bowed head that he knows this is the beginning of his public ministry, and thus the beginning of the end. This is something that had not occurred to me, but was brought to life by being able to see it depicted. The Chosen doesn’t detract from the Bible nor in my opinion competes with it, but allows us a different accessibility that’s not usually present when reading or hearing, other ways we normally engage with the word of God every day.
So, it’s fairly accurate biblically, as much as a man-made production can be, well-written and produced, and emotional. The latter two are not reasons alone to enjoy something as important as a Bible story, but I have not found anything huge in doctrine to turn me off, knowing and understanding that this is a man-made production interpreting the life of Jesus from the Bible, not a reproduction of the Biblical texts. The emotionality and good production make for pleasant viewing, while I still have my discernment hat on.
Even The Jesus Film, which was solely words from the Bible, nothing filled in, only the Bible as a script, had its detractors due to the 2nd Commandment issue, poor production values, and overall directorial lifelessness. Some people are not happy no matter what the writers do with Biblical material. Ask a KJV-Onlyist.
Concerns:
Mary who was delivered from 7 demons is increasingly shown throughout season 1 in the inner circle. She travels with the men and is shown being very active as almost one of twelve. In fact, she is depicted as initiating the entry of the paralytic through the crowds and up onto the roof. She didn’t. This is not accurate and is an unnecessary change. I hope that the writers don’t bow to pressure to have a woman in a man’s place as this series continues. I’ve only watched season 1. But I do not like Mary’s involvement, which IS a departure from the texts. It’s one thing that may make me abandon the series.
‘Jesus’ talking with the Woman at the Well. This scene/event concludes season 1. Jesus had openly announced Himself as Messiah, saying to her ‘I am He’, (John 4:26).
A few times, a very few, Jesus says things that are not realistic. Simon-Peter is shown to be impulsive, as he actually was, and Jesus and Peter’s wife have a conversation, that “You saw something in Peter before anyone. So did I. That’s what links us.” That is nonsense and something Jesus would never say.
Some critics dislike that Jesus is shown joking or laughing. I have no quarrel with Jesus joking or laughing. He was “fully man”. He was shown in the Bible to be tired, frustrated, hungry, sorrowful … if He is fully man, is it not reasonable to expect he felt the entire gamut of emotions as a man? This would include joy, laughter, happiness. God rejoices in heaven. (Zephaniah 3:17). I have no quarrel with a show depicting Jesus as laughing. He was a man of sorrows, but he was also made like his brothers in ‘every way’ (Hebrews 2:17).
As for the one line that everyone is hollering about, when ‘Jesus’ was joking about Andrew’s inability to dance, the disciples jokingly appealed to Jesus to help him, and Jesus said, ‘There are some things even I cannot do’. It was a joke. Nothing in the remaining context of the entire bulk of all the episodes suggests anything less than Jesus is fully Man-God deity. And remember, Jesus also said He didn’t know the day nor hour of the Second Coming, (Matthew 24:36), and that ‘He GREW in wisdom and stature’.
I am aware of the issues with Dallas Jenkins’ ‘spiritual advisers’- Mormons and Catholics. It says a lot about his discernment to have them on board, or maybe it was a pragmatic or financial decision. I don’t see people decrying Billy Graham who also had Catholics and Jewish rabbis at his Crusades as counselors. Hmmm, crickets on that one! Jenkins’ associations are something to be aware of, putting that nugget in the discernment bucket. I don’t know how much his advisers influenced him but I have not seen anything tremendously disturbing yet. But as with ANY material that isn’t the actual Bible, be discerning and watch and compare.
As far as the critics’ charges that this movie is dangerous in that it causes people to reignite love for scripture or return to church etc, perhaps supplanting actual word of God or using the movie as a substitute, well, devices are used all the time to draw people. VBS, Trunk or Treat, Youth Night pizza parties, Christmas Chorales, movie clips, popular songs, Revival week… churches use various methods all the time to punctuate worship or to draw the drifting. Not all of these methods are good and some are too pragmatic, but just add The Chosen to the pile of ways Christians use material to get the Good News out there. We understand we aren’t to directly worship the Jesus in the movie. We know we aren’t supposed to swap the written word of God for a cinematic experience.
Second Commandment
Yes an actor depicts Jesus but no, I don’t think anyone will bow down to him or worship him. For some, it sears their conscience to view someone portraying Jesus and that is OK, I would not want someone to violate their conscience. For me, it is not an issue. I would not want someone to make me feel seared for having watched a depiction of Jesus. Is it unwise to listen to an audio recording of the Gospel of John, for a human to audibly speak the words that Jesus spoke and us to listen to it? To listen to a voice actor like Max McLean to read Jesus’ words aloud in a podcast devotional? We all have differing levels of quarrel with how far depictions of Jesus go.
Conclusion
I think people and especially parents just need to weigh if they want to watch a show that plausibly fills in gaps where the Bible is silent, and whether they or their kids will absorb it as truth. That could be a danger.
Fads. A lot of times reviews go in fads because people pile on. The outrage against Harry Potter was started by Focus on the Family and since James Dobson had a lot of influence it went far. People piled on, going ‘yeah! yeah, Harry Potter bad!’ without thinking it thru for themselves. Eventually such negativity settles into the culture like cement and it’s hard to shake it. I think the same thing is happening with The Chosen. It is one of the best depictions of Jesus I’ve seen, the material is pretty biblical, there are some quibbles and a few off things as there usually are! but nothing that would warrant people saying ‘it’s heresy!’ like I’ve seen.
Indeed, this is one of the more biblically faithful series I’ve seen, and yet the awful series “The Bible” by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett was actually taught in churches! I’ve heard nothing but crickets from people about that, nor about Noah with Russell Crowe, Exodus: God and Kings by Ridley Scott, and series like The Bible and AD: The Bible Continues etc. They say ‘Ack, it’s just movie/TV! Get over it!” Why the outrage against The Chosen? I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s warranted.
I put on my discernment hat and go from there. It’s up to any individual person to determine at what point their conscience would be bothered by what they are viewing. Niggles turn into issues that turn into problems that turn into heresy, and at some point discernment tips over from caution to ‘no-go.’ For most of the movies and television shows about biblical material, I tune out early due to a mounting pile of issues with doctrine. In one or two cases I quit because the production was so poor. With The Chosen, I’m still hanging in and I look forward to season 2, hoping I don’t have to abandon it. As with any material based on the word of God, be discerning and realize in grace and patience and love that for each person their tipping point will vary and some will bail earlier than others.
As with any biblical production, use discernment, pay attention to your conscience, and watch out for the kids if you have any that plan to watch, carefully explaining what is interpretive filler and which part is biblical. But parents should do that anyway!
Enjoy The Chosen for what it is and go on with your summer.
Now on the next day, that is, the day which is after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, 63and they said, “Sir, we remember that when that deceiver was still alive, He said, ‘After three days I am rising.’ 64Therefore, give orders for the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise, His disciples may come and steal Him, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66And they went and made the tomb secure with the guard, sealing the stone. (Matthew 27:62-66).
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and THE Teacher of Israel. He came to Jesus saying “WE know you are from God…” (John 3:2). They knew. They also remembered Jesus had said He would rise on the third day. The disciples had apparently forgotten, but the priests and Pharisees and scribes didn’t. They were worried that the disciples would come and steal the body and try to claim He had risen. So they went to Pilate. They reminded Pilate that the disciples may steal the body. This was likely a strategic mention, not just to prevent any claims of having risen, but tomb robbing was a terrible problem in the Roman Empire. Severe penalties existed for grave robbing. Mentioning the likelihood of the body being stolen would have startled Pilate and/or the Romans into action.
Placing a stone against the tomb’s opening was a usual practice. Lazarus’ tomb had a stone against it. (John 11:38-39). The seal on the stone was probably what they used commonly in those days- a wax seal impressed with a signet and some cords pressed into the wax and then stretched across to an opposite lump of wax.
The seal was not intended to prevent moving the stone away, the guards were there for that, and the stone itself. The seal was only to indicate that if the seal was broken it would be a sign someone had messed with the grave.
Poole's Commentary says, "So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch. Vain men! as if the same power that was necessary to raise and quicken the dead, could not also remove the stone, and break through the watch which they had set. But by this their excessive care and diligence, instead of preventing Christ’s resurrection, as they intended, they have confirmed the truth and belief of it to all the world. So doth God take the wise in their own craftiness, and turn their wisdom into foolishness, that he may set his King upon his holy hill of Zion." Poole, M. (1853). Annotations upon the Holy Bible (Vol. 3, p. 143). New York: Robert Carter and Brothers.
The Pharisees had set up triple barriers but in the end all they did was prove that Jesus had resurrected! They knew that Jesus was from God, did they really think a paltry rope seal would stop the avalanche of God’s power in raising His Son from the dead?
They had seen or heard of the moment in Nazareth where Jesus stood in the synagogue and read from Isaiah as depicted in Luke 4:16-19,
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
And then Jesus announced that the prophecy had been fulfilled in their hearing. Who else but someone from God, or the Messiah Himself, could open the eyes of the blind? No other blind person had ever been made to see in all of Israel’s history, before this. They knew. Romans 1:18 reminds us that the unsaved suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They were very busy suppressing the truth of who Jesus was, and scurried around putting Scotch tape over a boulder’s crack.
Nothing can stop the power of God. Nothing. He created the worlds with a word, and the stars also. He made man from dust. He sustains it all by His power. He resurrects the dead, and he regenerates sinful hearts. His power cannot be stopped with a stone or a guard or a wax seal. Poole is right- o vain men!
I like to ponder the love of God and His invitation to come to Him who is gentle and lowly. I also like to ponder His power and might!
Kids in high school and especially college co-eds are having a hard time withstanding the tsunami of cultural change with regard to the issues of gender dysphoria, homosexuality, trans-issues, and gender roles. I can’t imagine the deep level of concern that parents of kids these days deal with.
The mama bear wants to protect and guard the kids…the Christian woman in us wants to honor Jesus, and the flesh in us is probably scared to death… The special worry is that kids will become desensitized to these particular sins, because they are being promoted and tolerated so heavily. The Christian life, particularly for parents these days, seems to be one of continual worry and vigilance.
It’s always about sin “out there” – until it rears its head and comes close! What to do when your child’s friend comes out as gay…when a trans person becomes the roommate, when the dorm’s bathroom is unisex, issue isn’t just ‘out there’ any more but touches you or your child’s intimate life? I’m reminded of Jude,
17But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” 19These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. 20But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
How not to become desensitized to these sins? It would seem to me that when youths are involved via friendship with a person involved in homosexuality (in any form) we look to the end of the verse, ‘having mercy on him with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.’ Jamieson Fausset commentary says of that part of the verse,
"those who are objects of compassion, whom accordingly you should compassionate (and help if occasion should offer), but at the same time not let pity degenerate into connivance at their error. Your compassion is to be accompanied "with fear" of being at all defiled by them."
Do not let pity degenerate into complicity or acceptance at their error… It’s right to have a concern that youths will become desensitized to sin. They are young enough to have been born post-sexual revolution, where the notion of gay marriage, drag queens, tranvestism and other sexual dysfunctions are common. It always happens, the more a person is around any sin the more their conscience is hardened and it starts to seem normal. That is definitely a legitimate concern.
I often refer to the Jude verse about snatching some from the fire, hating even the garment stained by the flesh, but I’m equally often at a loss as to HOW to do this.
I offer several resources along this vein, which I felt gave advice by example on how to deal with these troubling issues of the day sexual dysphoria, transvestism, homosexuality, transsexuals, etc.
First, I remember Todd Friel of Wretched some years ago making a video contrasting two different reactions to a boy who came out as gay to his dad. One was an actual letter from a Dad responding to his son’s coming out, and the other was from counselor David Murray who was saddened over the Dad’s letter, which had become public. Murray wrote a hypothetical reply as he pondered the actual Dad’s reply, which was harsh. Friel updated the video to include a back and forth email exchange from Emeal Zwayne (“EZ”) who is President of Ray Comfort’s Living Waters ministry, which I loved.
The Zwayne exchange shows HOW to have compassion on a person who is gay and who is combative about it at first, and how EZ extended love- with boundaries and humility- that helped to reach the poor soul.
The next part of Friel’s video goes through the two dads scenario, again I feel it’s instructive by example both in what not to do and what to do, about how to set limits with love, as Jude says, having compassion without being polluted even by the garment. Maybe parents can have explicit talks revolving around these issues, i.e. how to have compassion and be a godly influence without desensitizing toward sin after viewing the limits set in compassion as we hear in Murray’s hypothetical letter.
I also think it helps, as Friel alluded to at the end, that homosexuals know they are in the wrong, Romans 1:18 says they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. I think, keep reminding your kids of that internally and personally but without sermonizing all the time… (as the combative gay person said in his message to EZ, “I don’t need a sermon…”). Love, earnest listening without openly accepting, and not being a hypocrite ourselves goes a long way to strike a chord with someone who is actively suppressing the truth. Sometimes it doesn’t take much for their exhaustion in suppressing it to collapse as truth explodes into their conscience and bursts out.
I encourage you to watch the video below and see if it suits what you may be dealing with. Cached video below. I don’t know what happened to the actual video on Wretched.org in the two days since I’d seen it and when I went to link it now, it has disappeared from Wretched’s site. Here is the cached version. I hope it keeps working, because it’s a good video. Friel begins the meat of it at 1:04 and ends at 22:48.
Segment 1 (0:00) – Are we like Jesus, seeing the lost, the homosexual, the fornicator, and the porn addict with compassion? Todd introduces a clip from Emeal “E.Z.” Zwayne’s message “EZ Conversation with a Homosexual Man.” E.Z. shares his compassionate response to a homosexual critical of E.Z.’s preaching.
Segment 2 (10:00) – The conclusion of E.Z.’s message calling for compassion. Todd introduces clips from a message he shared at Answers in Genesis titled “Letter from Dad,” which contrasts two responses from father’s to their sons who have come out as homosexual.
Segment 3 (17:58) – Todd’s message continues with a compelling question: “Do we respond as conservatives or Christians?” Todd reads Jerry Bridges’ “Sins We Tend to Overlook,” and closes with a call to engage the lost with compassion.
Next resource: Our Church has Thursday night ‘Table Talks’. Elders present scriptures and issues and we compare to the Bible. The first two weeks was looking at Critical Race Theory and comparing to what the Bible says. The next two weeks was LGBTQ+ issues, sexual issues, gender, and the like. This past week’s video was so good, so illuminating, and so sensitively presented, I link it below. Three of the four elders teach youths in High School or Middle School, and one of them was a college/youth pastor before starting at our church. A great many college kids and young adults represent our church demographic. These men are highly tuned in to the issues of homosexuality and the problem it has become for many of our youths today. The video is an hour. One of our elders speaks rather rapidly, but you can always play with the settings on the video to slow it down. 😉
Lastly, I offer this sermon from John MacArthur. God’s View of Homosexuality, part 1. MacArthur says of why single out homosexuality as a particular spotlight when there are so many sins God hates-
"I suppose there should be some justification for isolating a sin like this and preaching on it when there are so many sins which are equally heinous to God. The answer to those who might wonder why we would isolate this one should be apparent, but just in case it isn’t, this sin has taken on unique properties in our culture. It has been declassified as a sin and turned into a sort of civil rights group. It is at this particular point a political issue and not a moral one, an issue of freedom and not a moral one or a spiritual one."
America is about to become or already is a post-Christian nation. Even the thin veneer of morality that shallow Christianity had covered our nation with is melting away faster than ice cubes on a July sidewalk. Sins of all types are being normalized, homosexuality among them. Stay in the word of God, pray ceaselessly, and look up for the return of Jesus. After all, today we are one day closer than we’ve ever been before!
Jesus saves, He forgives all sin- there IS life post-gay…post trans…post any sin. Grace abounds.
the-end-time.org 