By Bob Beanblossom
21 December 2020
It seems to me that we live in a society where cooperative effort for a greater good has been replaced by the expectation of instant personal gratification. We demand it. When I want something, I want it now, without delay or hassle. It is my “right.” Others are expected to meet my needs, even at the expense of their own. If the results do not meet my expectations, I will throw a tantrum on social media castigating all who have failed me. Tolerance is lost in the shuffle. This does not seem to be the world heralded by an angel two thousand years ago who said: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” Or, is it?
The power of Me-ism is clearly seen in the quick and overwhelming success of a popular online company that is not only successfully replacing brick and mortar retail chains but is changing a ponderous consumer package shipping industry into a responsive customer-oriented system that guarantees rapid delivery of the buyer’s latest whim. This Me-now worldview is encroaching upon many other areas of our lives. The time-proven educational process been degraded from arduous study directed by experts in their field, and by concerted personal effort to prove newly-acquired expertise to demanding instructors, to grabbing a few sound-bites and short-subject videos posted by ho-hum proctors. Reading is limited to concise material artfully presented with lots of pictures and cartoons, but few facts supporting broad recommendations for instant self-improvement and unearned success. Classical knowledge of history, literature, the arts, and religion—the bedrock of stable civilizations—is becoming extinct. Educational institutions equitably pass out unearned rewards to all participants so none will be offended or feel the need to expended effort to prepare for an unsuspected competitive world ahead. This “everybody’s a winner” mindset has consequences. Responsibility and proof of performance are no longer acceptable criteria. Success is measured by solicited “likes” and “followers” rather than by content and effectiveness. Graduates, from high school through graduate school, find themselves unemployable at the level of their expectations even as employers struggle to find competent employees with minimum skill levels and solid work ethics. Social media and polls determine social, political, and religious values and responses of the herd, as the individual conforms to the dogma du jour. Nonconformance is met with various forms of social stigmatism. Freedom from hearing is the devalued version of freedom of speech. Feelings not facts dominate responses. Vocabulary is increasingly limited by new-speak abbreviations and emojis while the meaning of words has become soft and relative. Educational achievement (for student and teacher) is measured by standardized tests that are taught in lieu of foundational knowledge and problem solving.
The spinoff is much further reaching, but that is not the subject of this discourse. Our subject is the relation of this Me-now person with just one book—the Bible.
From its very beginning in the American Colonies, educators used Scripture as a teaching aid. The New England Primer, published originally in 1686 and continuing in print for over 150 years, was used extensively with the Bible throughout colonial America as school texts. Times and practices have changed. The pressure of overscheduled calendars on disjointed families seems to have made both personal and family Bible reading a casualty. A holdover in some churches is the encouragement to read the Bible through annually. It is a worthy goal with beneficial results—when practiced as intended. For many, it has become a task, an unprofitable use of time, rather than a refreshing break from the grind of life. Discussion with these folks often leads to confessions of stress as they attempt to meet their daily reading quota amid the overwhelming pressures of overfilled lives. Instant gratification with minimal self-investment prevails even here. Some readers acknowledge skipping genealogies or other sections, while others find that “speed reading” minimizes their time investment. Neither approach brings comments of satisfaction. For many, the real goal seems to be just another checkmark on their Things to Do list, the portion dealing with “something someone else expects me to do.” Me-ism breeds a ritualistic religion that replaces the relationship that God wants.
Paul advises his protégé Timothy to, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15). This requires us to revert to the time-honored approach to learning that needs the effort and time to reach the goal. Paul didn’t list this as an option, but added a note applicable to today’s worship of popular opinion and social media: “But shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness.” (2 Timothy 2:16). This passage requires a retreat from the over-scheduled lifestyle, where every moment must be expended in “important” activities, in favor of time and effort studying the Bible. Among the answers uncovered and insights revealed, frustrating questions will surface. This is true for all of us. As our knowledge grows, and God gives us wisdom and discernment (James 1:5), our faith becomes informed and a driving force to understand more.
Scripture should never be superseded by the writings of human “experts,” but a judicious selection of this material can be a great help in fleshing out the background of a passage and understanding the original audience, as well as discovering what problems others might have experienced with specific passages. Comprehending what the New Testament, written in the First Century of this millennia, has to say to me in the 21st Century is like that. A primary tenant of understanding the Bible is that it was written to an original ancient audience for their benefit, but has application for us in today’s world. Reading the New Testament without understanding the historical setting can be misleading. In an age of personal freedom and men and women who have the answers for the world’s problems, this approach is different.
For instance, the Bible is largely silent on the political and social unrest that Judea experienced throughout the intertestamental silence (the 400 years or so from the end of Malachi to the beginning of the Gospels), and the entire First Century ministry of Jesus and the Apostles. This silence is understandable when we allow Scripture to direct our study, for Jesus’ message was clear:
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- Each of us has sinned and come short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23);
- Jesus came to seek and save every soul lost to sin (Luke 19:10);
- He alone is the path to salvation (John 14:6);
- The individual reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus is assigned two duties:
- To love God completely, and to express this love in his love for his neighbor (Matt 22:37-39); and,
- To testify at every opportunity of the Good News to the entire world, from where we stand at this moment to the farthest reaches of man’s habitation (Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus and the Apostles largely ignored the day-to-day social issues, political oppression, and even the renewed assault by Rome on Judea and the destruction of God’s great temple. Persecution drove the spread of the Gospel, not activist reformation efforts. Jesus specifically told the religious leaders who questioned Him that they were duty-bound to give the government what was due (Matthew 22:15-20; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25). This goes beyond taxes to allegiance and respect of even wicked leaders enforcing inhumane policies and practices. Where politicians and other leaders were personally addressed, it was to offer the Gospel message to each as a lost soul. Jesus revealed that He was greater than even the great temple in all its majesty and splendor. The ritual and rule-keeping that it came to represent was only superficial. As intended, it was to instruct and guide, not save; in Jesus’ time the priesthood was a commodity to be bought and sold and the temple had become a den of thieves (Matthew 21:13). He alone brought eternal salvation to the lost, one person at a time (Matthew 12:6). His message, delegated to us, His followers, focused entirely on the eternal condition of individual souls, and the remedy for eternal damnation that is the “wages of sin.”
This period was anything but peaceful and pleasant to the nation or the man-on-the-street. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had been destroyed and the people scattered by Assyria in 725 BC, a condition that still exists. Judea, the Southern Kingdom, was ruled by Persia from 532-332 BC, a time that ran from the end of the Old testament through the birth of Christ. Early in this period some Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity and rebuilt Jerusalem, the temple, and their homeland. Then Alexander the Great defeated the Persians, and the Greeks ruled under various leaders until 308 BC when the Egyptians rose to power and ruled from 308-195 BC. These, in turn, were displaced by the Syrians who ruled Judea from 195-130 BC. A faction of the Jews rebelled, led by the Hasmonaean, Judas Maccabeus. In 164 BC this Jewish faction ruled with no less war, violence, and infighting than during foreign rule. Pompey overcame the Jewish resistance in 63 BC. With no end in sight to war and oppression—foreign and domestic—Julius Caesar took over the Roman empire in 46 BC with the Romans remaining in control of Judea throughout the lifetimes of Jesus and the Apostles.
Herod the Great ruled Judea from 37 to 4 BC. He is the king who tried to kill the young Jesus when informed by the wise men that the King of the Jews—a direct threat to his title—had been born. Jesus and John Baptist were born about 6-4 BC, with John’s ministry beginning about AD 26, and Jesus’ ministry within the year. The Jewish underground continued attacks on the Romans throughout the New Testament period. Jesus was crucified in about AD 30-33, by the government He told the religious to obey. The first organized attack on the church by the Jews began in AD 35, with Saul (who became the Apostle Paul) a leader of the faction. During Jesus’ ministry at least eight zealots (Jewish freedom fighters) are known to have been crucified by the Herod who crucified Him. Jesus’ disciples included Simon the Zealot; whose political passions seem to have been curbed when he accepted Jesus’ call to become a “fisher of men.” James, the brother of John, was executed in AD 44-45, Philip in AD 54, and Matthew in AD 60. Nero, emperor between AD 54-68, was active in prosecuting dissidents, including Christians. The Jewish Wars broke out in full force again in AD 66 as the Zealots attacked Roman rule in Judea on a variety of fronts. This resulted in Titus and the Roman Legions tightening Roman control of Judea. When the Zealots did not stand down, he destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. Peter was executed around AD 64-67. In other words, the entire history of the period from Malachi through the destruction of the Temple was one of conquest, slavery, infringement upon human rights, and heavy taxation.
Most of this history is ignored in Scripture. But the results could not be. For instance, in Jesus’ time the Jews held the Samaritans in utter contempt. Jesus, sending his disciples on a mission trip told them to avoid the Samaritan cities (Matthew 10:5) without explanation. Yet he later spoke of the “good Samaritan” in His parable we know by that name (Luke 10:25-37); He healed a Samaritan among the Jews (Luke 17:11-16); and He brought the Gospel to a Samaritan woman at a well in Samaria (John 4:4-42). The reason the Samaritans were so despised is found in history. The Jews did not need to be told this background for they and their fathers had lived it. For captor nations, their captive colonies were melting pots: the more the local populations intermarried with their captors, and adopted the new culture, the less likely they were to rebel. For the Jews, however, the ongoing march of pagan captors was a challenge to their racial and ethnic purity. The Mosaic law was clear: “Neither shalt thou make marriage with them …” (see Deuteronomy 7:1-4). While the Judeans were captives in Babylonia, the remnant of the Northern Kingdom, whose capital had been Samaria, intermarried indiscriminately, eventually developing an offshoot version of the Jewish religion. This could not be tolerated under the Mosaic law. The result was
In current theology, this stark contrast between the social and political situation and Jesus’ message is overlooked as Scripture is tirelessly combed to find authorization for political and social reform rather than spreading the Good News. This substitution of man’s gospel for that of Christ is the driving force that inserts the church into
American politics, the social gospel, and human rights issues in service of an all-loving God while rejecting sin, eternal damnation, and salvation through Jesus alone. The reason for the omission needs to be emphasized here. Jesus had not come to change and control it human history. He was not, during His human incarnation, the militant Messiah who would conquer its physical enemies and rule on David’s throne. Instead, He had come to “seek and save that which was lost,” the soul of every man, woman, boy, and girl, whose sin had separated them from fellowship with God—both Jew and Gentile. Those who look for a social or political gospel in the New Testament, struggle to find a contextual setting for their arguments. It is certainly commendable to care for our fellow man and the world we live in, and want to do something to make it better (in our own opinion, of course). Jesus did command us to love our brother as ourselves. But He did not call His Church to cures the ills of this sin-cursed world except through the salvation of one soul at a time. God repeatedly warned man that He didn’t need any help being God. He said, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” He prefaced this with the admonition: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (cf. Isaiah 55:7, 8). The cure for the ills of this world is not the best intentions of man, but the hand of God. Reading the Bible with this background information helps the reader develop a proper relation with both God and his neighbor. Man’s role for man has finite consequences. God’s role for man has eternal consequences. It is not limited to current events, or public opinion.
Given this background, the careful reader of Scripture will then find two distinct admonitions from Jesus under which all others fall:
Jesus said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39).
As Jesus returned to Heaven, He left His followers with this commandment: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)
These are Jesus’ commandments; what He expects of His followers. His guidance for each will be unique, but will never deviate from the principles set out here. Be careful, the Word says: “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Don’t allow the wise of this world to lure you away from what you find in Scripture; always in context; always with the prayerful leadership of the Holy Spirit. This is a radical departure from the me-now culture and the message will never be popular among the crowd that is afraid of hurt feelings. The idea that every person is born a sinner and continues in sin that separates him from God does not set well with most people. When one rejects responsibility for personal sin, then the message of salvation can be ignored. This opens the field to the Christian to study the Word to be able to provide a biblical witness to all and let the Holy Spirit do the rest of the job.
We have come from the me-now mentality to the possibility of the servant mentality demanded by Jesus for His followers as a distinct choice in worldviews. This is quite a transformation. It directly opposes the attitude of our society, of our friends and relatives. Maybe even our church. It is only possible through the leadership of the Holy Spirit as the believer spends time in the Scriptures and submits to the Spirit as Paul did to the vocation of being a Christian: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” (Ephesians 4:1).
In opening, I stated: “This does not seem to be the world heralded by an angel two thousand years ago who said: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.’ Or, is it?” The answer is as simple, and as profound, as the Gospel message itself: It is up to me. And up to you. There is support for our decisions among fellow Christians, for the writer of Hebrews said, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25). But this group support and fellowship is not the starting point. It begins only with accepting Jesus Christ as our individual personal Savior. With that, and developing an always growing relationship with the Creator of the universe, you will see your world begin to change.