TXAB: The Christ Almighty Blog

HEART hɑrt noun. Hollow muscular organ which pumps blood through the circulatory system. 2. [ in popular culture ] Center of a person’s thoughts and emotions; one’s mood, feeling, enthusiasm, mood, or courage. 3. [ in popular Christian culture ] Center of a person’s lifeforce; one’s innermost being; the true self, particularly one’s true thoughts and feelings. 4. A conventional heart shape, as found on a deck of cards. [Hearted 'hɑrt.ɛd adjective. ] Jeremiah 17.9-10 KWL 9 “The heart is more twisted than every thing . It ’s human. Who knows it? 10 I, the L ORD , examine the heart and test the kidneys, to give men according to their ways, the fruit of their deeds.” The ancients didn’t know much about anatomy. So all the stuff we recognize are part of brain activity, the ancients believed were the function of other parts of the body. The heart, they imagined, did our thinking. The kidneys did the feeling. Seriously. And why not? When we get excited, o

Orthodox Christianity, in a smaller nutshell. My translation from the Latin—and as far as I can tell, the Latin’s the original. I believe in God, the Father, almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And in Christ Jesus, his only Son, our master. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit; born from the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the afterlife. The third day, he was resurrected from the dead. He ascended to heaven; he sits at the almighty Father’s right hand. From there he will come; he is judging the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, communion of saints, forgiveness of sins, bodily resurrection, and eternal life. Amen. Whenever I bring up the Apostles Creed to Christians, I tend to get one of two reactions: Positive and negative. I tend to get the positive response from Christians who grew up in formal, liturgical churches. Most of ’em can recite the creed righ

Different scholars have different ways they wanna interpret the Greek word παρουσία / parusía , “[second] coming.” Most of the time “appearance” or “coming” or “return.” When used to describe what Jesus is up to, it has more of a sense of “arrival,” or even “invasion.” Certain gutless commentators leave it untranslated, and just refer to Jesus’s parousia , as if it’s too difficult a concept to convert into English. Rubbish: The popular idea of “second coming” works just fine to describe it, 1Th 3.13 so that’s how I translate it. Today I wanna point to Jesus’s brother James, and how he referred to it: James 5.7-8 KWL 7 So be patient, fellow Christians , till the Master’s second coming. Look, the farmer awaits the land’s precious fruit, patient about it till they can get early- and late-season rain. 8 Be patient yourselves as well. Strengthen your minds: The Master’s second coming has come near. So. Ever since Jesus’s rapture, Christians have expected him to retur

Before Jesus returns, bad stuff was predicted to happen. Both by Jesus, who described some of the events 40 years hence when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem; and here by Paul, Silas, and Timothy when they reminded the people of Thessaloniki that there’d first be a time of apostasy. 2 Thessalonians 2.1-12 KWL 1 We should ask you, fellow Christians , about the second coming of our Master, Christ Jesus, and how we’ll be gathered together with him. 2 It’s so your minds won’t be shaken up, nor go into a panic, whenever some spirit, message, or letter (like those from us) claims the Lord’s Day has come. 3 Don’t let anyone trick you in any way: Nothing happens till the apostasy comes first, till the lawbreaking person, the child of destruction, is revealed— 4 the antagonist, the one exalting himself over everything called “god” and “worshipful,” so much so he sits in God’s temple and claims he’s a god himself. 5 Don’t you remember the things I told you when I wa

2 Peter 3.1-9. I’ve been writing about the scriptures on Jesus’s second advent, or second coming. And of course I had to point out we don’t know when that’ll be. The events which were meant to come before his return, happened. There’s nothing left to hinder it—so it can happen at any time. This being the case, people want that day to be today . Right now. ’Cause they’re suffering, or ’cause current events are awful, or ’cause they’re in a hurry to live under Jesus’s direct rule. Either way, come Lord Jesus! But he hasn’t yet. And sometimes people give up hope of him ever returning. Which was the mindset Simon Peter had to deal with in his second letter. 2 Peter 3.1-4 KWL 1 Now this, beloved: I wrote you a second letter in which I awaken you to a purely-thought reminder— 2 to remember the words the holy prophets and your apostles foretold, commands of our Master and Savior. 3 Know this first: In the last days, mockers will come to mock, following however their

Of course we have some iffy ideas about what “waiting on the Lord” entails. Isaiah 40.31 Whenever I visit fellow Christians at their homes, a large number of ’em have a painting or sculpture of an eagle somewhere. Often it’s an American bald eagle, meant to express their patriotism. Others were purchased at the local Family Christian Stores before it went bankrupt and shut down. Patriotic or not, if it was produced by Christians, it’s gonna be captioned with the following Isaiah verse: Isaiah 40.31 KJV But they that wait upon the L ORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. The sentiment which really appeals to Christians, whether it’s blended with patriotism or not, is the idea the L ORD , our creator, has inexhaustible strength, Is 40.28 and empowers the weak. Is 40.29 Even though the strongest of us may fail, Is 40.30 God can indefinitely renew our strength. Is 40.3

And the need to seek God’s will in our prayer requests. Back in the ’00s, the prayer of Jabez got a bit of attention with a popular book. Which was quickly followed up by other writers, covetous of The Prayer of Jabez ’s success, whose books probably didn’t sell as well for that reason: Books on the Lord’s Prayer and the Jesus Prayer and other tricks to successful prayer. The only real trick is remembering God can’t be reduced to formulas, and that he has every right to say no. These books don’t necessarily teach this fact. Instead, the idea is if we pray like Jabez, God’ll expand our territory. Pray the Jesus Prayer and receive peace. Pray the St. Christopher prayer and kids get protection; pray the St. Jude prayer and get a yes to your hopeless cause; pray the rosary and get special protection; do X and now God owes us Y . Doesn’t work like that. And to help that idea sink in a little, I remind you of the Prayer of Nehemiah, offered by Nekhémya bar Khakálya right after

Jesus is returning. But when? That’s the question every Christian asks, whether it’s in the front of the back of our minds. When’s Jesus coming back? Sooner rather than later, we hope—though considering the past 20 centuries, he’s taking an awfully long time to get round to it. What did Jesus himself have to say about it? Well, this. You’re not gonna like it. Mark 13.32-37 KWL 32 Nobody’s known about that day or the hour. Neither the heavenly angels, nor the Son. Just the Father. 33 Look. Stay awake. You don’t know when it’s time. 34 It’s like a person abroad, who left his home. He empowered his employees to do their jobs— and he ordered the doorman so he’d stay awake. 35 So stay awake! You don’t know when the master of the house returns. Evening? Midnight? Sunrise? Morning? 36 When he suddenly arrives, don’t let him find you asleep. 37 What I tell you, I tell everyone: Stay awake!” In short: “I dunno. And even if I knew, I’m not telling. You just need to

Some Christians do better in a church with more structure. LITURGY /'lɪd.ər.dʒi/ n. Detailed order of service for (Christian) worship. 2. [capitalized] The eucharistic service in an Orthodox church. [Liturgical /lə'tər.dʒə.kəl/ adj. , liturgist /'lɪd.ər.dʒəst/ n. ] Some churches—namely the older ones—are liturgical : They have a very particular order of service, and all the churches do it the same way. Go to nearly any Catholic church anywhere on the planet, and you’ll instantly find it familiar, because all of them use the very same prayer book, the Roman Missal. True, it’s been translated into all the local languages, but whether the service is in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, or Italian, it’ll be the very same order. Same bible readings. Same prayers. Same songs. Same everything . Everywhere. Some Christians are bothered by this level of conformity. They don’t get it: The point isn’t conformity, but unity . All these Christians are worshipi

When Jesus returns, it’s not gonna be a secret second coming. It’s not gonna be an event which only takes place metaphorically, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim; where they believe God’s kingdom began in 1914 but Jesus isn’t coming to earth till the final battle. It’s not gonna be a secret gnostic event, which only the chosen few know about. It’s not gonna be a secret rapture, where the Christians vanish and go to be with Jesus, and the rest of the planet has to wait seven years. It’s not secret. It’s nice and visible and obvious. As Jesus himself describes. Matthew 24.23-28 KWL 23 “Then when anyone might tell you, ‘Look! Here’s Messiah!’ or ‘ He’s here!’ don’t believe it: 24 Fake messiahs and fake prophets will arise, and will give great signs and wonders to deceive you . If possible, to deceive God’s chosen people too. 25 Look, I’m forewarning you 26 so when people tell you, ‘Look, he’s in the wilderness!’ you don’t go out; ‘Look, he’s in the inner room!’

The first principle of theology is humility —knowing who and what you are, and not claiming you’re anything more. Or, as we so often see in false humility, less. That means we’re fully aware we’re wrong, and Jesus is right. The purpose of theology isn’t to believe we’ve “arrived,” and defend our newly-acquired high ground. It’s to correct our beliefs, poor character, and bad attitudes. Because they’re misbegotten and wayward. We may be redeemed, but they’re not. Bearing this in mind, with the Holy Spirit’s help and power, the goal is to get those traits to match Jesus’s. The problem? A lot of Christians have utterly skipped that first theology lesson. Or weren’t paying attention, ’cause they were too busy staring at the syllabus. Or promptly forgot all about it, ’cause all their new knowledge puffed ’em up. However it happened. Hence they imagine theology’s first principle is, “I was wrong—but now I’m not. Jesus fixed me.” When he gave us new life, supposedly he gave u

The first hint we have that Jesus is arranging a second coming —that he’s not taking possession of his kingdom during his first coming—appears in the Olivet Discourse, the bit in Mark 13, Matthew 24-25, and Luke 21, where Jesus answered his students’ question about a future disaster he’d just casually referred to. Mk 13.1-2, Mt 24.1-2, Lk 21.5-6 In each gospel’s version of the discourse, Jesus brought up the persecution of his followers, a particular time of great suffering which’d take place in Jerusalem, and fake Messiahs and prophets who’d try to lead them astray. But afterwards, this: Mark 13.24-27 KWL 24 “But in those days after that suffering: ‘The sun will be darkened and the moon won’t give its light.’ Ek 32.7 25 The stars will be falling from the skies; the heavenly powers will be shaken. 26 Then people will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ Da 7.13 with great power and glory. 27 Then he’ll send angels, and gather together his chosen ones fro

God got people to write ’em. And God gets people to understand ’em. Inspire /ɪn.spaɪ(.ə)r/ v. Breathe in (air); inhale. 2. Fill with a positive, creative feeling; encourage. 3. Fill with the urge or ability to do or feel something; provoke. [Inspiration /ɪn.spə'reɪ.ʃən/ n. ] Whenever we Christians talk about inspiration—inspired prophets, teachings, and writings—it’s assumed God did the inspiring. He’s the one who breathed into us. One word we regularly translate “inspired” is theó-pnefstos /“God-breathed,” which is how the NIV prefers to treat “God-inspired” in this verse: 2 Timothy 3.16 KWL Every God-inspired scripture is also useful for teaching, for disproving, for correcting, for instruction in rightness. It’s more than just “I was so excited about my thoughts of God, I decided to create this for him.” It’s God involved with, and behind, this creation process. The Holy Spirit, living within the teacher, prophet, or author, pointed ’em God-ward. Got ’em t

When the L ORD chose Avram ben Terah, renamed him Abraham, Ge 17.5 promised him the land of Kenahan /“Canaan” and had him relocate there, Ge 12.1-3 and promised him an uncountable number of descendants, Ge 13.16 it wasn't because Abraham was a good man. You might’ve known this, but in case you didn’t, go read Genesis again sometime. Most of the Abraham stories involve him screwing up one way or another. Abraham had loads of faith, but that was the product of his God-experiences; it came after God made all his promises. Abraham wasn't a particularly outstanding specimen of humanity. So why'd the L ORD establish a relationship with him and his descendants? Grace. Pure grace. When the L ORD sent Moses to rescue some of Abraham’s descendants from Egypt, patiently dealt with all these Hebrews’ misbehavior thereafter, and finally got their descendants to Canaan and helped them take the land, it again wasn’t because the Hebrews were good people. Read Exodus an

How angry Christians lack it, and how to work on it. Years ago I casually mentioned to someone I was praying for greater patience. He. “Aw, why would you do that to yourself?” Me. “Why, what’s the problem?” He. “You realize how God teaches you patience, right?” Me. “Of course. He’s gonna make me practice.” He. “And life’s gonna suck. You’re gonna wind up in more situations where you gotta be patient. You’ll have to wait for everything .” Me. “So everybody’s been telling me. They’ve been about as encouraging as Satan itself. You sure it didn’t send you? Get thee behind me.” Yeah, don’t tell the dude who’s struggling with patience that his life’s about to suck. He’ll turn on you. But it’s something we Christians need to strive for. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, one of the ways love behaves, and impatient Christians wind up exhibiting works of the flesh like anger, unforgiveness, argumentativeness, and unkindness. Much of the reason Christians get a bad reput

On psyching ourselves out of sharing. In my early days of learning what God’s voice sounds like, from time to time an idea’d pop into my head, and I’d wonder—as one should—whether the idea was mine, God’s… or Satan’s. I kinda blame my Fundamentalist upbringing. Y’see, there were a number of people in that church who insisted God doesn’t talk to people anymore, and anybody who claimed to hear from God was really hearing Satan. The effect is it makes a lot of Christians really wary of prophets. And, because the Holy Spirit actually does speak, really wary of listening to God for themselves. So I’d be at a bus stop, and the idea’d pop into my head, “Go tell that person ‘God bless you.’ ” And my knee-jerk reaction would be, “Is that God’s voice, mine, or Satan’s? After all, what if that person’s really anti-God right now, and my ‘God bless you’ prompts some sort of angry tirade? What if that person’s a cult member who sees this as an opportunity to try to convert me? What if…

And those who say God never changes his mind. If you know your bible—heck, if you’ve seen The Ten Commandments movie with Charlton Heston—you know the Hebrews had a major lapse when they were at Sinai. The previous month, the L ORD handed down his 10 commandments, then Moses went up the mountain to get more instructions, and while he was gone the people decided they wanted an idol. Whether this idol was meant to represent the L ORD or some other god, we don’t know. What we do know is the idol violated the very command the L ORD handed down last month. Ex 20.4-6 Understandably, the L ORD was pissed. Exodus 32.9-14 KWL 9 The L ORD told Moses, “I see this people. Look, the people are stiff-necked. 10 Now leave me: My rage is hot towards them. I ’ll end them. I ’ll make you a great nation.” 11 Moses begged his L ORD God’s face, saying, “Why this hot anger towards your people, L ORD ? You brought them of Egypt’s land with great strength and a steady hand. 12

Questions? Comments? Email. But remember, my feedback policy means I can post it. And include your name… but I likely won’t. I don’t really have to remind people that TXAB has an email link. I get questions on a fairly regular basis about all sorts of stuff. Usually asking my opinion about various Christian practices and movements, which I often wind up turning into TXAB articles on the subject. And sometimes people ask for personal advice, which I’m much less likely to turn into TXAB articles. ’Cause they’re dealing with particular specific things. If I just posted these emails for the whole of the internet to read, it feels like a huge invasion of privacy. Even if I heavily censored them. The rare times I’ve done it, I tend to rewrite them entirely, which is why they kinda sound like me. Not that this stops the various advice ladies from doing this on a daily or weekly basis. But then again, the people who send them questions know precisely what they’re getting int

I’m Pentecostal. So whenever I see an notice or ad for an upcoming “prophecy conference,” they tend to refer to prophets. Actual prophets. Meaning people who’ve learned to listen to the Holy Spirit—and thereafter share with others what he’s told them. True, some of ’em practice some really iffy methods of identifying his voice. But when Penecostals, charismatics, and most continuationists refer to prophecy, we literally mean the same thing we see done in the bible by Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Simon Peter, and Paul of Tarsus. They heard God; they shared what they figured he told ’em; that’s prophecy. Outside Pentecostal circles—though not far outside Pentecostal circles, ’cause from time to time it gets in here—is a whole other type of “prophecy conference.” There, they aren’t at all talking about hearing God. They mean predictions about the End Times. They’re throwing a conference ’cause they wanna tell you what they think the apocalypses mean. Um… didn’t God delib

DOCTRINES OF GRACE 'dɒk.trɪnz əv greɪs noun. The six points of Calvinist soteriology: Deterministic sovereignty, human depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, efficacious grace, and certainty in one’s eternal destiny. A number of Calvinists aren’t all that comfortable with the title “Calvinist.” For various reasons. Some of ’em don’t like being part of an “-ism.” They consider their theology part of a long, noble, five-century tradition. (Some of ’em try for longer, and claim the ancient Christians also believed just as they do. But good luck finding anyone other than St. Augustine who was comfortable with determinism.) In any event they want their tradition defined by something grander and longer than the reign and teachings of a solitary Genevan bishop, no matter how clever he was. Others concede not everything John Calvin taught is right on the money. They won’t go so far as I do, and insist Calvin’s fixation on God’s sovereignty undermines God’s ch

Jesus meets a man filled with thousands of demons. Mark 5.1-10 • Matthew 8.28-29 • Luke 8.26-31 Let’s begin with ancient northern Israel’s geography. First there’s Kinneret, the lake. The Galilean sea. On its northeast was the province of the Galilee, named for the word galýl /“circle,” referring to its circle of towns. Jesus lived there. On its west was the Dekápolis /“10 cities,” a region of Syrian Greek city-provinces created by the Romans after they conquered Syria in 65 BC . Jesus visited this territory often, and it’s where today’s story takes place. In Old Testament days the Dekápolis belonged to the Hebrews. Today part of it is called the Golan Heights. In Jesus’s day, even though it was full of Greek-speaking Syrians, it was still considered part of Israel, and still part of the territory Antipas Herod supervised. But it was full of gentile, Greek-enculturated pagans. They weren’t even Hebrew like the Palestinians are. By Greek-enculturated I mean they lived like G

Mark 4.35-41, Matthew 8.18, 23-27, Luke 8.22-25. Right before this story, Jesus had a really long day. He’d been teaching the crowds, likely healing the sick, and he needed some sack time. So he got the idea to cross the Galilee’s lake. Mark 4.35-36 KWL 35 Jesus told them when that day became evening, “Can we cross to the far side?” 36 Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus as-is into the boat. Other boats came with him. Matthew 8.18 KWL Jesus, seeing a crowd round him, ordered his students to go to the far side of the lake . Luke 8.22 KWL This happened one day: Jesus entered a boat with his students and told them, “Can we cross to the far side of the lake?” Matthew 8.23 KWL Entering the boat, Jesus’s students followed him. Luke called this particular body of water a λίμνης / límnis , “lake,” although the New Testament frequently refer to it as a θάλασσα / thálassa , “sea.” Homer used it to refer to the Mediterranean, but ancient Greeks really just mea

It’s not about being quiet. Psalm 46.10 Most people shorten this verse to simply, “Be still and know that I am God.” But sometimes they actually do know the entire verse: Psalm 46.10 KJV Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. When people do remember the rest of this verse, they tend to recall (and prefer) a translation without that bothersome word “heathen” in it. The word goyím properly means “foreigners,” which we also translate “foreigners” or “nations”—the Amplified Bible , ESV , NASB , and NIV went with “I will be exalted among the nations,” which works better for them. Be still, know God is God, and if everybody can just chill out and meditate for a bit, God can be exalted by all the nations, round the world. Yeah, this tends to be considered a meditation verse. I’ve been in prayer groups where Christians have talked about meditation, and they misquote Psalm 46.10 all the time. “Remember, we’re jus

It’s an emotional experience to pray with God’s power. But we’re called to more than that. 1 Corinthians 14.20-21. Praying in tongues is an emotional thing. Y’see, when we pray tongues, it’s usually because we aren’t sure what to say to God. We’re too overwrought to say anything. Or there are so many thoughts in our head, and we can’t sort out what to prioritize. Or we don’t even know what’s going on, so we can’t articulate anything, but we know we oughta pray. Or we have prayed, but it wasn’t enough. For these and many other reasons, the Holy Spirit has granted us the ability to let him say it for us. Ro 8.26 But y’notice in all the circumstances I listed (and the dozens I haven’t), emotion’s a big part of it. Here’s the catch. It’s also possible to pray tongues when we don’t know what to pray—but initially, feel nothing . That’s right. We haven’t resorted to tongues because we wanna pray; we’ve resorted to tongues because we wanna feel . We’re seeking the emotion which co

Christianity is based on the person and work of Christ Jesus. I hope you knew this already. Most of us do. But you’re gonna find a strain of Protestants, particularly Evangelicals, who consider Christianity to be based on the bible . As a result they’ve exalted the bible to a really high position in their belief system. Nearly as high as God. Sometimes even higher, and we call that bibliolatry . They call it all sorts of other things—a “high view of scripture,” or love and respect for God’s holy word, or Christian apologetics in which they argue for the bible’s centrality and preeminence. But Jesus is meant to be center and preeminent, and if you put anything else there, it’s idolatry. Even when it’s the bible. In my experience, bible-worship tends to happen most often among cessationists. No, they’re hardly the only ones who do it. But once you insist God turned off the miracles, and won’t talk to us anymore, what’re you left with? Well, your bibles. And this is why they

Why does God listen to our prayers? For the same reason he reveals himself to us. Prayer is of course talking with God. We talk to him and he talks back. It’s not a complicated idea, though we might, and do, complicate it. Prayer is therefore the most common, most usual way God communicates with his people. Yeah, we can… Experience a personal appearance by Jesus. Hear prophets share what he told them. Read about his will in the bible. See, or be empowered to perform, miracles. Have warm fuzzy feelings in church and assume that’s a God-encounter. Have warm fuzzy feelings about nature and try to deduce what he’s like from that. Christians list all these things as forms of revelation, though I would object to the last two. But nearly all of us pray, and nearly all of us hear God when we pray, so that’s how nearly all of us get revelation. Now yes, there are those Christians who insist they don’t hear anything. To their minds, prayer is unidirectional : We talk, God h

When disaster strikes, whether natural or manmade, one of the most common platitudes we hear thereafter is, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.” In the past several years the expression has seen a bit of backlash. Mainly because the people who say it have turned it into an empty, hypocritical saying. By their actions, they demonstrate they’re not really thinking of the disaster victims. And either they’re also not praying, or they’re praying in some manner that doesn’t change ’em whatsoever—contrary to how we all know prayer is supposed to work. To be fair, some of the backlash comes from nontheists who are pretty sure prayer is bunk: Nobody’s listening, so we Christians are only talking to the sky; nobody’s interacting with us, so we Christians aren’t gonna change. Prayers are therefore just as useless as when some pagans attempt to send positive thoughts, vibes, and energy towards the needy: All they actually do is psyche themselves into feeling really happy thing

It’s not about evangelism. It’s about taking Jesus for granted. Proverbs 22.6 This particular proverb, best known in the King James version— Proverbs 22.6 KJV Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. —has brought a lot of comfort to a lot of Christians whose kids don’t appear to be going anywhere close to the way they should go. After high school, a lot of the kids from my church youth group didn’t stay in church. Some of us did, and some of us went away to school… and the rest decided since they were adults now, they could choose to go to church or not. So they chose not. To the great consternation of their parents, who thought they raised their kids better than that. They really didn’t. In despair, the parents turned to this proverb. The way they chose to interpret it: Yeah, the kids had quit Jesus, but the parents had trained ’em up in the way they should go. They’d raised ’em Christian. Took ’em to church. Made ’e