Monthly Archives: September 2023

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Apostle calls for critical thinking

Ephesus, c. AD 85

(1,2,3 John)

THE APOSTLE JOHN, cousin, and close associate of Jesus has released an open letter warning Christians not to be taken in by attractive but false teachings, and commanding them to use their minds.

‘Test the spirits,’ he says, ‘to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out from the world.’ Believers are not to be gullible but to check that messages disseminated by preachers agree with the truths of Christianity which were taught originally, and that their lives match up to the message.

The letter does not flow logically from start to finish, but meanders like a river around the subjects. However, the author, who is now quite elderly, returns regularly to three major tests of faith. One is obedience; people who claim to know God but don’t keep his unchanging commands are liars, he says bluntly.

The second test is love; Christians who hate their fellow believers are not enlightened but remain in darkness, he says, turning catchphrases from the new mystical heresies back on their authors. The third test is holding to established Christian beliefs such as the full bodily life, death, and resurrection of the divine Christ, which the new teachings, sometimes called ‘gnostic’ (from the word for knowledge) deny.

Using characteristically strong language, John ‘the son of thunder’ claims that ‘many anarchists have now come’, heralding ‘the last hour’. They were never true Christians, he asserts. To counter them he recalls his own personal experience of the presence and teaching of Jesus. But the stormy apostle has not lost his pastoral touch. He combines forthright teaching with gentle encouragement, reassuring the doubtful of the love and forgiveness of God.

The disciple, who has been based in Ephesus for some years, does not indicate to whom the letter is to be sent. It is likely that it is being circulated around the churches in the province of Asia, to whom he is something of an elder statesman.

John has also written two other short letters. One urges readers to be careful who they give hospitality to; not all strangers who come in the name of Christ are angels in disguise. The other is a personal message of encouragement to John’s friend Gaius.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Saul stopped by light on road

Damascus, c. AD 35

(Acts 9:1-22; 22:3-16; 26:9-18; Galatians 1:13-17; Philippians 3:3-7)

SAUL OF TARSUS, self-styled persecutor of the sect of Christians, has stunned the Jewish community in Damascus by joining those he had come to arrest.

According to his own account, he was thrown to the ground by a light more dazzling than the noonday sun. It left him blind for several days. He claims it was a vision of the resurrected LORD Jesus, who told Saul to stop trying to destroy him and instead to begin serving him.

His companions also experienced the phenomenon, some seeing a light and others hearing a thundering noise. There have been no reports of unusual electric storms in the area.

Saul of Tarsus was an outstanding bright young Pharisee who stood head and shoulders intellectually, but not physically, above his contemporaries. A man noticeably shorter than average, he has an impeccable Jewish pedigree traceable back to the tribe of Benjamin.

He pursued Christians who had fled Jerusalem following the crackdown on the sect by the temple authorities. He carried papers authorising the fugitives’ arrest, although technically Jerusalem has no jurisdiction over synagogue affairs or members in Damascus.

After his experience, Saul was taken into Damascus. He recovered his sight after a Christian named Ananias laid hands on him and prayed for him.

Ananias was apparently prompted to overcome his fear of Saul’s intentions by a vision in which Christ reassured him that the persecutor had himself been arrested by God.

Following their meeting, Saul was baptised into the Christian faith and spent time discussing it with the church members. The church in Damascus is thought to have been formed by Christians from the Galilee area shortly after Christ’s death, before the Jerusalem persecution began.

The Jewish community in this Hellenistic city is sizeable, and Saul, his youthful zeal as strong as ever, launched straight into the synagogues in an attempt to prove to the shocked and sceptical worshippers that Jesus of Nazareth was the expected Messiah.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Apostle sets out basic beliefs

Corinth, AD 57: Romans 1-16

IN a thoughtful letter addressed to Christians in Rome who he has never met, the apostle Paul has set down his basic teaching about how people can get right with God.

Unlike most of his writings, the letter has not been prompted by a local dispute. Instead, Paul is reflecting on the false emphases and misunderstandings he has encountered elsewhere and is in effect sending his visiting card and brochure prior to his planned visit to Rome.

The letter to the Romans, dictated to Tertius the scribe, begins by describing the folly of idolatry and selfish living. People who should know better have been corrupted by the idols they made (chapter 1).

Paul’s phrasing will find echoes of approval in both his Jewish and Gentile readers. “The invention of [idols] was the corruption of life,” the Jewish author of the Wisdom of Solomon bemoaned a couple of centuries ago.

Even Seneca, current adviser to Nero, says those who live for the body have predeceased their death.

Both Jew and Gentile have sinned against God, Paul claims. Observance of neither the moral nor the ceremonial law is adequate to overcome the consequent alienation from God. So, in a detailed exposition of the prophet Habakkuk’s statement that “the righteous shall live by faith”, Paul suggests that even Abraham was counted righteous by God not because of what he did but because of who he believed (chapters 2-5).

Christ’s death has saved the believer from the ineffectiveness of the law and also from the tyranny of sin itself, he says. He has met people who say that if God’s undeserved love is poured out on sinners, then they ought to have a sin-filled time in order to get more of God’s love. Nonsense, he responds; sin is to be banished from the believer’s life. As Christ died for sin, Christians have died to it (chapter 6).

Unfortunately, life’s not that easy, he confesses. It’s a battleground as the old nature rears its head. But there’s a free pardon for all who believe, which results in God’s Spirit being released into their lives. God is in charge of their circumstances, however difficult they are (chapters 7, 8).

Then Paul turns to the Jews, who some Gentile Christians reckon have been written out of God’s script for good. Not so, he asserts. There is, as there has always been, a remnant of Jewish believers (he is one himself), and one day there will be many more, he predicts (chapters 9-11).

Having nailed his theological colours to the mast, Paul anticipates the impatience of the church member’s question, “So what?” He suggests numerous practical applications for his beliefs. Total commitment to the God who gave all is one. Active love for others is another, and good citizenship is a third; Paul encourages obedience to the state which has protected his liberty on several occasions. Finally, he encourages meat-eaters and vegetarians not to pass judgement on each other.

He also greets by name some 30 people who now live in Rome and who he has met on his travels. They, of course, will vouch for him prior to his arrival. After sending the letter, Paul prepared to leave for Jerusalem, where he is to deliver financial aid to the church.

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