Modern March | a Christian blog

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 06:00 AM PST

So far this Advent, we have seen the anticipaiton of Adam and Eve, Abraham, the Israelites during the time of the Monarcy, and finally the longing of the prophets. Our journey has brought us to the brink of exile, and we have heard the footsteps of impending war and destruction. On this last Sunday of Advent, we find ourselves a long way east of Eden in the midst of exile.

Exile: Lamentations, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah

In these books we find Israel in exile—the warning of the prophets having been fulfilled. We stand along with the author of Lamentations, contemplating the burned husk of the temple, destroyed by the Babylonians, and crying out to God for Messiah. How can the promises to Abraham be fulfilled when Israel is no more? It seems that God and Messiah have been conquered by other nations, and with them, hope has been lost.

Several years into exile, a young Israelite named Daniel is serving in the Babylonian court. The difficulty for Daniel is serving in the royal party of the people who crushed his own people while trying to hold on to his faith in God. One day, as he was reading the Scriptures, he came to the place in the book of Jeremiah where God promises to end the exile, and so he began to pray for God to fulfill his promises. God had said that he was going to send Israel into exile for seventy years, and then bring them back into the land led by the Messianic King. Time was almost up, and expectation was rising in Daniel’s heart. Through the dreams of the Babylonian king, Daniel tells us of the great stone who would come to crush the kingdoms of this world and sprout up in their place.

Finally, after many long years in a foreign land serving foreign people, God began to call the Israelites back home out of Exile. He raised up leaders such as Ezra and Nehemiah to lead his people back to the Promised Land. They started streaming back into the land and rebuilding the temple—just as the prophets had promised! But something was wrong—they were back in the Land and the temple was rebuilt, ready for the Messiah. Rather than delight at what had transpired, those who were old enough to remember the beauty and majesty of Solomon’s temple could only weep at the shell of a temple they had rebuilt. This was not the messianic kingdom they had hoped for. This was not Eden. And Messiah was no where in sight.

The threat of Babylon was gone, but in its place arose the dream-like statue of the occupation of Israel by the Greeks followed by the Romans. Ezra and Nehemiah had come and gone, and in their wake God brought not the Messiah, but four-hundred years of silence…

Filed under: Scripture Lessons, Series

The Need For Inerrancy

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 07:24 PM PST

Inerrancy is a hot-button word in Evangelicalism. Men who stand for it are often called fundamentalists or legalists. Men who stand against it are called heretics and liberals. The Conservative Resurgence in the SBC surely polarized this subject on a broad scale, above and beyond Baptist life. In any event, say what you wish and stand where you want.

As for me, I need the Bible to be inerrant.

The Bible cannot merely be another religious book with some truth in it. Adam and Eve cannot be simply a poetic example of good vs. evil. Abraham cannot simply be a cartoon character. David cannot simply be one of many kings in a small area of the Middle East. John the Baptist cannot simply be a crazy redneck from the woods.

I need Jesus to really be God.
I need Jesus to really be born of a virgin.
I need Jesus to really live a perfect, sinless life.
I need Jesus to really be punished on the cross in my place.
I need Jesus to really bodily rise from the grave.
I need Jesus to really return on the clouds in glory.
I need Jesus to really banish Satan and evil forever.
I need Jesus to really establish the new Heaven and Earth.

If Jesus is not who He said He was, if He is not who the Scriptures record Him to be… then He is another apocalyptic rabbi decomposed in a tomb somewhere. There is no hope, no real reason for doing anything.

Too many pastors are ignoring this. Too many choose to preach on topical nothingness rather than espousing the absolute dire need for Scripture to be right about the Gospel.

There is no more important message than the message of a risen Savior and the TRUTH of that message.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 14

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures … And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

Filed under: Daily Life, Gospel, Testimony