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True Prophecy

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

When we speak of prophecy we probably most often think of the fortelling of events under the inspiration of God. This gives rise to the question of whether or not there still exists the gift of prophecy, as it clearly did in the New Testament.

Firstly, it may be helpful to note that the larger portion of the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament were prayers, sermons and laments on the current spiritual condition of Israel, declarations of judgement of sin, calls to repentence, promises of mercy, and other teachings which could have been readily preached from what had already been revealed in the law and in God’s previous dealings with his people. Though certainly prophets did foretell events and the workings of God that were to happen in the future, this does not seem to be the larger portion of their writings.

Prophets speak, quite simply, whatever God deems best for his people to hear for the sake of the strengthening of their faith, and sometimes this involves the prediction of God’s future acts.

All the words that they spoke were parts and manifestations of the one and eternal Word of God. This Word is what brought all things into being, physical and spiritual, reveals to us the nature of God, reveals his expectations of us, his judgment for our sin, demonstrates his mercy toward us, and ultimately, that it might do all this to perfection and reunite us to God through faith in him, becomes human flesh, dies, and rises to life. This Word is eternal, and as such, predictions of the future or teachings from the past, or exhortation in the present, are all one and exist as Truth in the eternal Word. For this reason even though we are not dwelling in our new and incorruptible bodies, nor are we free from the temptation of the flesh, and though we continue to struggle with this present world and its temptations, the Apostle Paul can say that we have every spiritual blessing in Christ.

The measure of true prophecy, therefore, is not whether it accurately predicts the future (though if it does speak of the future it most certainly must be right if it is true prophecy!) but rather the measure of true prophecy is whether in all its teaching and exhortation, it builds up the body in knowledge and understanding of the eternal God as he is revealed in Christ, knitting the body together in love to reach full maturity through the effective application of the Word, that is, the gospel.

The Eternal Moment

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

There arguably exists only two aspects of time. One is the moment, the other is eternity.

There exists no future for it hasn’t come; there is only the hope of the future, which finds its being in the moment. There exists no past, only its effects, its ramifications, its signature, and all these are observed and experienced in the moment.

The eternal truly exists and in it is all that is of God. All wisdom, insight, knowledge and, most importantly, relationships, are in eternity.

So we live according to eternity for in it is all that is good. But we live it in the moment. We cannot, even if we desired it, live in anything but the moment. So enjoy it; let it be a fragrant sacrifice unto God. For these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest is love, because the faith is in the existence of eternity and God’s plan in Christ, hope is looking forward its consumation, and love is for this moment in which both of the others find their realization.

In this we see that the moment is, in fact, eternal. For in eternity there is God and his holiness, and in the moment there is God, and his holiness in us. Does the moment end? No, it is always with us. What we do in this moment ostensibly defines what we are in eternity.

Idolatry of Complacency

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

“At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘he LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.'”

How subtle is the human heart. “I am no idolater” it says, “I serve the one true God, I believe in Jesus Christ, I have faith.”

Oh so confident in your theology, in your practice. You fulfill all the criteria, know all the right things, you even read your Bibles and pray and serve the church. How upright you think you are. And in addition you are reasonable; you are not like the radical church down the street that preaches a health and wealth gospel, or the one that has an exagerated application of spiritual gifts, or the crazy Christians who yell their heads off down-town as they street preach. Surely such Christians give Christ a bad name by their emotionalism. You are more balanced; you live quiet lives as good Christians, not expecting too much or being too dissappointed that your church doesn’t grow. After all, God is sovereign, this is where he wants you, so you’ll just stay put.

What a fine line it is between contentment and complacency! Or perhaps not. To be content is to be always filled with the knowledge of God’s grace. To be complacent is to ignore that God’s grace even exists. Do you believe? Are you one of Christs? Well Christ works mighty things! God is a just God who move on behalf of his people for the sake of his name. Is it any better to say “The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill” than to say that God does not exist at all? For the latter condemns himself and lets it be known, but the former insults God. For he claims the name of Christ and recieves the gift of God’s Spirit in the gospel which is the power of God for all who believe, and yet in their complacency they deny it all again to the world. They make God out to be a liar and make a mockery of the cross.

You have relational problems, so Christ died to make us one in his sacrificial love. So you struggle with temptation; Jesus did too and won, and now he gives you the power to do the same. These aren’t nice thoughts or right statements to be assented to; they are a life to be lived! This is the redeemed life: to live God’s gifts.

There is a power which softens hearts, which opens blind eyes, which releases from bondage, and this power is real! Believing in the cross and life of Jesus is to live the cross and life of Jesus, suffering without hesitation for your neighbor, living in a joy that is only eternal life welling up in you. Belief is an experience, faith is an experience, not just some rational assent. It is a transformed life by the power of believing that God does work in this world and that he does so for the good of his people.

So don’t wait for God to search you out with a lamp, you who do not expect anything from God. Get on your knees before him. The arrogance of complacency is the lie of self-sufficiency. Humble yourself before him and pray the words that he gave you, and know that God is at work in you, through you, for you, for his glory.

Jesus in All Time

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

We are told in the New Testament of all the prophecies which Christ fulfilled, and pastors rightly teach us God’s revelation in the Old Testament with the understanding that Christ fulfills the covenant made with Abraham and at Sinai.

However we need not play time gymnastics reading Jesus into the Old Testament, nor is it necessary to see in every Old Testament passage a cryptic reference to Jesus or the New Covenant. Rather According to Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1 Christ is God’s plan for the fulness of time to unite all things in himself through the cross.

Taking these passages in conjunction with John 1 where we are explained that the essence of Christ is God’s creating and communicative Word even before he took on flesh as the man Jesus, we see that there is not always a need to start at the cross and work back in time. Rather, wherever God’s Word is spoken, wherever we see God calling a people for himself and uniting them, wherever we see God creating or communicating, or forgiving, or interacting in any way with people, there is the Christ working to accomplish his plan for all time.

This is not to say that the cross loses any of its significance; it is the mystery of God’s plan! And it would be foolish to talk of shadows and pictures without teaching the reality that they look forward to. All these things are looking forward to the time when Jesus Christ will die and be raised, but the plan and the working out of it is always there in all time. Jesus Christ the Word is indeed all we know of God, and all that has ever been known of God.

What I propose is not that we somehow are trying to force Christ into passages where he is not, but rather that to approach Old Testament passages with the aim of finding the person of Jesus or reference to sacraments or other particular New Testament themes is to have to narrow an understanding of Jesus in not first recognizing the timeless and eternal plan of God begun in creation and continuing in all eternity to have a relationship with his people–all people–through his personal Word.

Colossians 2:1-4

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face…”

Uh oh, here goes Paul’s ego again.

“…that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love…”

Ok, so that may work. If people who are fighting amongst themselves hear of someone else who is suffering for them all it makes their dissagreements seem rather petty–and an insult to the one giving his all for them! Even more, even those who are not in any particularly grievous relationship, when they hear of Paul’s trials and all the pain he endures to “present everyone mature in Christ” certainly this would move their hearts to see the value in one another that is put in them by the sufferings of Christ. Well, now I’ve got the warm fuzzies; why don’t we just all love eachother?

“…to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery…”

Huh? First, how does ‘being knit together in love’ give me assurance of understanding anything, or of knowledge? But forget even that; what’s God’s mystery? Paul sure is setting his audience up for a big disappointment if he doesn’t deliver on that. He doesn’t say ‘a’ mystery, but the mystery of God.

“…which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

This is quite a claim. Christ is the mystery of God, in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and I am supposed to be able to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of this mystery by having the warm fuzzies about Paul’s hardship?

“I say this so that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.”

So Paul is setting up in opposition here the power of the unity of the body of Christ to persuasive arguments that lead to anything but a stronger unity in love as the body encourages one another.

There is no doctrine does not directly support the unity in love of God’s people. For the very identity of the church, it’s very life, the very connection that we have with the eternal and the only truth to be known is Christ crucified for all people in all time for all eternity. This is the encouragement that we have for one another and the doctrine that knits us together.

If anyone should teach anything, whether it be in scripture or not, that is not beneficial to building up in love then it is not completely true–or atleast it cannot be known to be true. For according to this passage all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery is being knit together in love. This is the plumb line and guarantee that Christ will be glorified in all our teaching: if, when judged according to scripture to be consisent with God’s revelation, it encourages the hearts of the believers to love one another.

Pray Without Ceasing

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

We ought always to pray is the same as saying: we must always desire eternal things, the temporal things which serve the eternal, our daily bread of every kind and for every need, life in all its fulness earthly and heavenly.

–A. G. Sertillanges

The Intellectual Life

Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

What is it about temptation that leads us to believe that it is some force outside of ourselves that attacks us? Certainly Satan is called the Temptor, but his temptation is only in the suggestion. He is an accuser. He levels the charge at us and leaves our flesh to keep working on us.

He accused God of hiding the truth from Eve. When he tempted Christ he presented the sin to him, but when Jesus responded with scripture he had to move on; there was nothing else for him to say!

And so it is in our own lives. As we pray for God to deliver us from evil, not leading us into temptation, we are in fact turning our hearts toward the one who counters our accuser. In the very act of praying we refuse the attacks of Satan, for the prayer which we pray is not our own, but the words of Jesus, the living word who intercedes for us before the Father on our behalf.

Satan knows that sin is slavery, and thinking of sin is slavery of the mind. When we refuse to dwell on the temptation, either its attractiveness or the despair that its guilt drags us into, and turn our eyes on the deliverer of sin and death, the battle is already won! For the word is active in every way; it is active through the promises in scripture to reassure us, it is active in revealing the nature of temptation and how our flesh is what gives it real power (James 1). And it is also active in its meaningful repetition as we pray the words that our savior taught us to. We are not repeating an ideal situation, a Daddy-do list, a statement of what should be if we were spiritual enough. No, when we approach our God in faith and adopt his words as our own, the request that he gives us to pray is already answered and being answered!

Is not the deliverence from evil in turning from our sin in humble repentence and relying on the grace of God poured out to us through faith in the death and ressurection of his Son for the salvation from slavery to that sin? Is not the very request “Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil” that very thing; a turning from the power of sin and death and relying on our maker for all spiritual provision? Know this: the power for the salvation from sin is not just in the acknowledgement of God and Christ, but in the abiding in Christ. This abiding comes about when his word dwells in us. When you pray, speak to God what he has spoken to you, and you will have eternal life.

The Gospel for Relationships

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

In every relationship we must be attentive to two concerns. We must be concerned with what is to be taught or learned, and, more importantly, we must be concerned with how to go about doing this in a manner that builds up the relationship. We have no choice but to consider what is required in a relationship, but it is ultimately our joy and the fulfillment of our lives to live the gospel in each and every experience we have in the contact with those near to us.

Leviticus 10, a Prayer

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

Our Father in heaven, may your name be most feared and loved in the eyes of your people. You come from your heavenly throne to your beloved and chosen ones and give yourself to them. You reign among your creation for the sake of your glory. So may you be sanctified by those who are near you and glorified among all the people.

You give us your life in the creation of our being and formed our souls in the mystery of your plan. You seek us when we are, wandering from the love of your communion and setting up the abomination of ourselves in your place. We not only reject you as our God, but reject what you put in us that makes us people. We flee sacrifice of the self, loath love that has eyes only for the beloved, hoard what is not ours rather than giving what has been lavished on us by your grace.

But by your mercy your forgiveness is unending. You seek us not as the master of a runaway slave–though master you are and slave is all we will ever be, be it slave to the freedom to love, or slave to the death of our sin. Nor do you pursue us with the veangance of wronged lover–though love is what you are and wrong is all that we have repaid you with.

Rather your veangance and justice are poured out on the Most Beloved that the Beloved might love the hater and thus consume both the hatred and the its death in one mighty act by the power of him who is all in all, the first born of all creation, and the first born of the dead, the one who is an all consuming fire, becoming that which the fire consumes so that in all things he might be preeminent and thus making peace by the blood of his cross.

For Nadab and Abihu, priests unto God and representatives of your people, offered unto God that which did not come from God. They offered the pride and arrogance, the folly and insult of human nothingness to the eternal God who is the author of all things. In a mockery of the sacrifice that God desires–the sacrifice of his own self given to and for us–they gave what was godless and empty; their religiosity and false piety. And for this they were consumed. As their souls were already consumned by the death of human self-governance so their bodies were consumned by the eyes of him who seeks the glory of his governing Word. What they offered was not a sacrifice but a rebellion and an abomination to the very word sacrifice. The incense they gave, meant to be the prayers of a people wholy given up to their maker, was used as an expression of a people consumned with their own naked selves.

But praise be to you oh God, we have a greater priest who goes before our God and father offering the blood of his own life to you who are the author of that same life. And the incense he burns is the prayers of his Holy Spirit, the holy power of God for the humble repentance and patient perseverence of his people. He is the seal of our inheritance in Jesus Christ until we acquire possession of it in eternal dependence of him through whom and for whom all things were made.

So now give us this spirit of worship, that our sacrifices might be pleasing to you as we grow in the knowledge and spiritual insight, understanding the depths of your will that has been revealed to us who believe in Jesus. May our prayers to you be the humble and contrite spirit of those who have been consumed by the eternal fire and been purged of all pride and guile in order that they might be raise by the power of the Holy One to be presented before you blameless and above reproach. And may our lives be those of complete sacrifice unto you who demand nothing less our all and give nothing less than your own self. For in this is your glory known.