The Open Love Letter

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; – Col 3:16

We all typically say that the Bible is God’s final and complete revelation to humankind. In other words, God’s not going to say anything “new” outside of what’s written in Scripture. But think about the implication of that statement for a while. That means God’s personal message to you – all He has said and will ever say to you – is out there in the open for everyone to see; available in a billion copies and a thousand languages. That’s as comfortable as the general public going through your private emails every day.

But this is where, to those who have spent time with it, the supernatural nature of the Bible comes into play. Because the pages just seem to ‘speak’ only to the person reading it.

Does this then mean that the Bible contains esoteric, hidden codes lying just beneath the surface; only visible to those with secret knowledge? Is Psalm 23, when fully deconstructed with the mystical ‘eye’, actually a detailed description of the identity of your future wife (complete with eye colour, blood type and email address)?

NO.

The Revelation we get from the Word of God comes from our relationship with God Himself not calculation. Like notes exchanged between lovers, the import of each word is tied to their collective experience together.

People who resort to Gematria or other weird forms of word and number analysis in order to extract revelation from scripture only betray their distance from the Author of Scripture. The message of Christ is characterised by its simplicity. Complex, convoluted scriptural deductions, on the other hand, are hallmarks of the Deceiver (2Co 11:3).

So, pick up the Bible – God’s billet-doux to you and read it for yourself. As long as you’re His Sheep, you will hear His voice speaking through the pages to you directly and personally.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN

Read It For Yourself

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; – Col 3:16

Any Believer who has conscientiously read through the Bible will admit that there’re certain areas in the Bible that their pastor has never preached on, and most likely will never preach. This isn’t because those areas contain hot-potato, contentious doctrines, but because they quite frankly don’t have broad enough relevance to warrant a full blown sermon to a whole congregation.

There’re times, when reading the Bible, that you find a message so directly relevant and apposite to you and your situation that you have no doubt that that word was meant for you. Nevertheless, such Bible “lessons” may not be something a preacher would want to devote a 60-minute sermon to; not only because it’d be a real chore to stretch such a single thread of thought out in a homily but because it’s significance and relevance will probably be lost to most of the persons in his congregation.

Other times, a truth is skipped because its message is so basic that it’ll border on insulting the intelligence of the audience to mention it. For example, that Jesus spoke to Mary audibly may be an important message in somebody’s personal study but a preacher who tries to make a message out of that will come across as either theologically desperate, or homiletically unimaginative.

Restaurants typically only serve meals that cater to the broadest section of the eating public; however you’ll agree that the real magic of food – the part where it’s more than a sum of all the constituting ingredients – can only be found in the home kitchen. In the same vein, the real sparkle of Scripture – that part that makes it so beautiful, so powerful, so life-transforming and relevant – is usually only discovered when you’ve made it a habit to read it for yourself.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN

Let It be “Richly”

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; – Col 3:16

It’s almost impossible for a Believer living in the free world today to be without the Word of God. Apart from the regular doses of sermons from the pastor, we have Bible Studies lessons, Sunday school classes, etc. Outside of church we still hear the word on the radio, on dedicated Christian channels, on the Internet and on Social Media (including our beloved WhatsApp).

But the preponderance of the word around us does not automatically mean we’re feeding healthily. Just as a toddler cannot be sustained perpetually by mama’s milk alone, we cannot leave our spiritual nourishment to publicly-distributed messages.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Col 3:16 that the Word should dwell in us “RICHLY”. That means our hearts should be so full of it that it becomes its defining characteristic.

So, eat the Word for yourself daily. Lay it thick, gorge on it, and make sure you’re fully stuffed with it. And as you do, your progress will appear to all (1Ti 4:15).

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN

NPP: Revisiting “Justification”

“The fundamental doctrinal tenets of Christianity, namely that Christ is God ‘born in the flesh’, that his sacrificial death atones for the sins of humankind, and that his resurrection from the dead guarantees eternal life to all who believe, can be traced back to Paul – not to Jesus”. –  Prof. James D. Tabor

“(It’s) legal fiction… Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom.” – N. T. Wright

It’s amazing the amount of Believers, even leaders, who have no proper understanding of the most basic element of their Faith – Justification. They’ll go for seminars on Wealth Creation, stock books on Success, and even boast of being well-versed on the doctrine of Prayer. But they have no grounding on the very foundation on which every other spiritual endeavour stands on.

What is Justification?

Justification is the English translation of the Greek, dik-ah'-yo-sis. It’s a patently forensic, legal term that refers to total, absolute acquittal: it’s a judicial proclamation of “Not guilty as charged”.

This legal aspect – one that Satan’s agents (as evidenced from our two opening quotes) seem so interested in attacking – is vital. When a criminal is acquitted in a court of law by a judge, his acquittal is not based on his feelings or emotions. Much more importantly, it’s not based on the opinion of the court bailiff. Once you’re acquitted you are acquitted. 

Contrary to what some Bible teachers say, Justification does not mean God deals with the Believer “JUST AS IF” he or she has no sin, (that’s using English puns to teach doctrine). Justification means God deals with the Believer BECAUSE they have no sin!

Justification is not a parent overlooking a child’s error; it’s a Righteous Judge identifying the real object of punishment – CHRIST. As 2Co 5:21 says, God made Jesus, “who knew no sin, to be sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” There’s only one sinner in God’s courtroom.

As we round up this week’s discourse on “Following the Fire”, let’s thank the non-believing Prof. Tabor for helping us crystalize (in his words) “The fundamental doctrinal tenets of Christianity”:

Christ is God ‘born in the flesh’. || His sacrificial death atones for the sins of humankind. || And His Resurrection guarantees eternal life to all who believe,”

HALLELUJAH!!!

GREG ELKAN
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

About the “New Perspective on Paul” (NPP)

This is the man, that teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. – Acts 21:28

After Christ, Paul’s undoubtedly the 2nd most influential person in Christianity. So it’s only natural, in a culture where it’s become self-defeating to attack Jesus directly, that he bears the brunt of the various attacks on Christianity.

Today, Jewish, Muslim and secular/humanist scholars (three groups that normally do not see eye to eye) have formed a united front of sustained, systematic attack on the person, motives and philosophy of Paul.

This attack, one that aims to review Paul and his teachings, is broadly termed “The New Perspective on Paul (NPP).” The NPP is a growing branch of scholarship that maintains that what we call “Christianity” today, is not the product of Jesus and His original disciples but is the invention of Saul of Tarsus, a converted Pharisee that brought in his own philosophies to turn the Faith into an apocalyptic religion unrecognisable to the original adherents.

At the core of the NPP is either the refutation of Paul’s doctrine of justification by Grace alone through Faith alone (and NOT by Works). Or the claim that Christians have misunderstood what Paul meant by those terms. Nevertheless, contrary to what its name implies, there’s nothing “New” about the NPP. The NPP is only a modern, scholarly re-presentation of the sustained attack on Paul that started right from his moment of conversion.

As seen above, the major proponents of the NPP are not your typical Believers; yet many Christians, even Pastors, are gradually acquiescing to the this attempt to dismantle the very foundation of our Faith.

Why are people outside the Church at the front of the war against the doctrine of Justification? Because Justification is the ONLY way sinful Man can be saved. Satan knows that if he can introduce an added requirement for salvation – in whatever guise – our hope of eternal salvation is lost. Christianity will then join the ranks of other world religions: teaching morality and hoping it’ll be good enough on Judgment Day.

But Paul – the real Paul of scripture, not the intellectually gratifying phantom they talk about – is unbending on this issue. He insists that God’s righteousness is revealed by and only through FAITH. Because “as it is written, THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH” (Rom 1:16,17). 

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN