The Kingdom of Heaven: The Seen and Unseen

In Matthew 13, the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven was hidden by Christ in parables of daily Hebrew experiences. While His hearers understood what sowing and reaping were, what an expensive pearl or a lost coin or the king of a vineyard was, the deeper meanings He revealed only to His closest companions, the twelve. (Matt. 13:19)

As mundane as they seemed, these were strange parables. These didn't describe the Messianic Kingdom they were awaiting. And for many Christians today, they still don't describe the heaven we are awaiting at the Second Coming. We think of harps and clouds. Jesus describes wheats and tares.

If you follow the words of our Lord carefully through out His earthly ministry, you will begin noticing seemingly mutually exclusive statements about the Kingdom of God. It is now but later. Earthly but heavenly. This Kingdom is a dichotomy so layered as to reveal both the complexity of God and the simplicity of love. Let us take some time to wonder at the thrilling and at the same time perplexing and even confusing contradictions of the Kingdom of Heaven:

• The Kingdom is here, but it is yet to come. Often Jesus told His disciples that the kingdom of Heaven was there at that moment with phrases such as it has “come upon you;" it is “at hand,” “near you” and “in your midst.” Yet Jesus corrected the disciples when they though it was to appear immediately and told them of a story of a king going into a far country to receive a kingdom later. He told us to pray that it comes (future) and even promises that some of his followers, alive at that time, would see it come (soon). The thief asked to be remembered “when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus responded, “Today” He would be with Him. And Christ promises the Kingdom will finally be delivered into the hands of His Father. The Kingdom is both in our midst now and is still waiting to be revealed. (Matt. 6:10; 10:7; 12:28; 16:28, Luke 10:9; 23:42; 17:21; 19:11-12, I Cor. 15:24)

• It is visible and worldwide and yet it is hidden and you must seek it. Jesus sent out His disciples to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven to the whole world. He likened it to the tiniest of seeds growing to the most massive of trees. It is like leaven, it grows and yet it is hidden as a pearl or great treasure and we must seek it above all else.
  
  (Matt. 6:33; 13:31, 44; 24:14, Mark 15:43, Luke 23:51)

• It was from the beginning and eternal, yet, it was inaugurated at the Cross. (Matt. 25:34, Luke 1:33, Acts. 1:3, 2: 21-28, Rev. 11:15)

• It is an unshakable Kingdom of peace, and yet it is taken by violent force. (Matt. 11: 12, Rom. 14: 17; Heb. 12:28)

• It is brought to us by words, but it is not just words. The gospel of the Kingdom comes to us through hearing. We hear the truth spoken and it is transmitted by words and yet the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Matt. 13:16, 17, Mark 4:15-23, 33; 6:11; 7:14, Luke 6: 27; 8:21; 11:28, John 8: 43, 10:3, Rom. 10: 14, 17; 11: 8, I Cor. 4: 20. Heb. 3:7, 15; 4:7)

• It has authorities, but they are to be servants. They are God's men, yet they can be used by the Devil. God chooses the poor to be rich and the low to be great. The greatest living old covenant preacher, John the Baptist, is below the least in this kingdom. All, in His kingdom, sit on thrones reigning as priests but the leader He put over all the disciples and gave the key to was a poor fisherman. He chooses unworthy men and makes them great, but at the same time, the hierarchy is based on what these men do and teach. So it is God's sovereign choice yet, we too choose by our actions. 

• To everyone’s horror His leaders can be hypocrites and even shut up the kingdom so no other men can get in! Yet, His appointed leaders are commissioned to be humble and He warns them that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Everything is a bit mixed up compared to our democracy and equal rights, for the Kingdom's wages are unfair, for the people are paid the same daily wage no matter when a person started working!

(Matt. 5:19; 11:11; 16:19; 18:3; 20; 23:13, Luke 22:30, Jam. 2:5, Rev. 1:6, 5:10

• It is God’s Kingdom, yet the Devil can deceive its citizens. (Matt. 13, 2 Tim. 4:18)

• Though it is not earned by works, you must be baptized to enter. (John 3:3, 5; Acts. 8: 12)

• It is a kingdom of mercy that saves sinners, yet it is a Kingdom of Judgment. (Matt. 13:38, 2 Tim 4:1, Rev. 12:10)

• We are saved by simple faith but the Kingdom has exceedingly high standards for entrance: The beloved Son has given us his Kingdom and delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to this kingdom with the Father’s good pleasure! With joy He throws out a net to the world and catches all kinds of good and bad fish in His kingdom. Even children are encouraged to enter before   they understand what they are doing. 

• In fact, you are required to be like a child for entrance. Yet, a great mystery is that flesh and blood cannot inherit it. And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, but not all who cry, “Lord” will enter, for only the obedient can get in. And those who look back at their former lives will end up like Lot’s wife. And if you are rich? It’s going to be tougher for you.
  
  If you assume you will go in because of some heritage or covenant and are not obedient, the harlots and tax collectors will get in before you. There is quite a list of those  who will not be in the Kingdom of Heaven: the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, envious, the drunk, one who carouses, the fornicator, impure, idolator, the unrighteous, the immoral. And adulterers, sexual perverts, male prostitutes, those who are effeminate, those with unnatural sexual affections, the greedy, thieves, revilers, murderers, those who take potions to keep from having children (pharmekia), the liars, perjurers, slave traders and robbers! And even as a corporate group the kingdom will be given to the nations who produce the fruits of righteousness. We, His people are sinners and yet we cannot enter the kingdom unless we are perfect. (Matt. 5:20; 7:21;13:47;18:3; 19:14, 23; 21:31, 43; Luke 9:62; 12:32; Acts 2: 21, Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Col. 1:13; I Cor. 6: 9-10; 15:50, Rev. 21: 8)

• We must sacrifice much to enter, but we are made worthy by His righteousness. Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom. We must patiently endure sufferings and persecution for our testimony of Jesus. Some even castrate themselves or live in celibacy or pluck out part of the body (metaphorically, corporately); some leave homes or family to become a citizen. We must be faithful with his gifts for He will ask for an account of our talents. But, it is still Christ and His merits that make us worthy. And He promises we will be made worthy and will shine out like the sun. (Matt. 13:43; 18:23; 19:12, Mark 9:47, Luke 18:29; 19: 15, Acts 14:22, I Thess. 2:12, 2 Thess. 1:5)

• Don’t look for signs and yet when you see these things happen...
  
  "The kingdom comes not with signs to be observed,"  He tells the Pharisees then a few chapters later warns His listeners that there will be signs in the sun, moon and stars, fearful times when the powers of heaven will be shaken and when you see these things take place, you know that the Kingdom of God is near. (Luke 17:20; 21:25-32)

We have been taught God's kingdom will be perfect with no sin, so how is it possible that it is also filled with wheats and tares, good and bad fish? It's leaders are holy and sacred but some are corrupt? It is here now and yet to come? If  God is coming so all people see, how can it also be hidden? Visible and invisible,  spiritual and physical, seen and unseen, simple and complex, plain and mysterious?

There is only one entity that can be all these things at once. And that is God's Bride--His ekklesia, His Church. (Matt. 22:2 and chap. 25, John 3:29) 

The Kingdom of God is the Church, Christ's Bride. He was betrothed to her when He was among us, when He instituted the ekklesia (Matt. 16). He is going to prepare a place for her and will come again and receive her unto Himself. The Church is being made holy and pure, being washed by baptism and His word. (Eph. 5: 26, 2 Cor. 11: 2, Rev. 19: 7). She is both on earth (The Church Militant) and in heaven (Church Triumphant) and so when He comes for the Wedding Feast, He is bringing the holy, shining, adorned capital city of His heavenly Kingdom to His Kingdom on earth. (Rev. 21:2) 

She is the great mystery and enigma with her rites and sacraments, with her struggling to be holy and with her 2000-year-old faith in her Betrothed. She is the seen in the outstretched arms of St. Peter's Square, her cathedrals and popes and charities and schools, yet, she is the unseen in her humble, quiet cloistered prayers and in the daily spiritual wars going on in her people's hearts. 

The Church, who the world loves to hate is Christ's beloved Bride, the wife of the Lamb who is presently imperfect, yet covered with His perfection as she is being made in her husband's image. (Rev. 21:9) 

The Groom and His Bride finish out the story of God's love for mankind together, united forever in eternal love as they both, arm in arm, invite you to the wedding feast, "Come" they say, "Come. Let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires, take the water of life without price." (Rev. 22: 17)

That is how the mysterious story ends… how  the seeming contradictions are fulfilled. "It is finished" …. Christ and His bride live happily ever after.

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Pagan Christianity? Critique by Teresa Beem Part II

(Here's the link to PART ONE)

My younger second cousin has brown hair and brown eyes. She comes from Texas and sings. She even writes and loves children. Her chromosomes are very similar to mine. Therefore, since I have done extensive research on my cousin--extensive research--in fact, I am an expert on my cousin, I can write without any doubt at all, that my cousin comes from me. I am her direct mother. 

That conclusion is the problem with the authors' research. Christianity and paganism are similar--they worship alike with prayers and rituals and offerings. But that doesn't prove that they are directly linked or that since Christianity is the younger that it was born from paganism. The direct link is between Judaism and Christianity. In a sense Christianity's mother is Judaism and paganism is a second cousin. (That might make Islam a first cousin.) These religions are connected in that they sprang from the ancient human need to worship. Kind of like the French and Romanian languages have roots in Latin.

The authors' of Pagan Christianity researched paganism, but it seems, they either didn't research Catholicism or they simply ignored the claims of where Catholicism got its rites and rituals. If you believe Catholicism is evil and can't be trusted, then you will ignore its history and its evidence. So, the authors looked at the similarity between Christian traditions and paganism and seemed to research no further. 

Catholics are aware of many similarities between their religion and others. Ancient man worshipped with prayers, sermons, incense, special robes, priests, death rituals, exorcisms, special holy days, 

holy places, offerings, sacrifices, prophecies, moral laws and marriage ceremonies. All these were expressions of humanity's struggle to find God. It was a good struggle. Until God revealed Himself through the Jews, that's all we had. In each human heart there was a deep, primitive yearning for spiritual meaning and understanding of the world. Ancient man worshipped his ancestors with sacrifices and that tradition was passed on all the way back from Cain and Abel's sacrifice. They ancients worshipped, they just didn't know who to worship. The very beginnings of the mysteries of God had been given to the world and

legends of a god-man dying for our sins was retold until it had become Zeus and prophecies of miraculous virgin birth from a great woman had become Ishtar or Astarte. All the legends and worship practices of the pagans developed wrongly out of the most ancient true knowledge of God. Into this ignorance Israel was chosen to reveal the next epoch of the gospel mystery. Later, the fullness of time had been reached and our Savior was born.

So, we cannot see ancient paganism as examples of evil worship, but of ignorant worship. Once humanity was introduced to the true God paganism slowly dissipated, even though it never totally disappeared. Only now it would be evil to reject God to follow a false god. For the light has been fully revealed and a true choice given.

Protestants today look at the practices of ancient worship and assumes Christianity dipped into the pagan spices to enhance the flavoring of our worship to make it more palatable in our evangelization. The truth is that God made the spices and we all have used them! 

There is a lot of evidence in the writings of the early Church Fathers that show us their rejection of the false teaching of paganism and devotion to the worship taught to them by God. They retained a lot of Judaism. That is where the authors need to criticize if they dislike rituals and robes and candles and incense. 

[W]e do not reverence the same gods as you do, nor offer to the dead libations and the savour of fat, and crowns for their statues, and sacrifices. For you very well know that the same animals are with some esteemed gods, with others wild beasts, and with others sacrificial victims. And, secondly, because we— who, out of every race of men, used to worship Bacchus the son of Semele, and Apollo the son of Latona…or some one or other of those who are called gods— have now, through Jesus Christ, learned to despise these, though we be threatened with death for it, and have dedicated ourselves to the unbegotten and impossible God; of whom we are persuaded that never was he goaded by lust of Antiope, or such other women, or of Ganymede, nor was rescued by that hundred-handed giant whose aid was obtained through Thetis, nor was anxious on this account that her son Achilles should destroy many of the Greeks because of his concubine Briseis. Those who believe these things we pity, and those who invented them we know to be devils. (Justin Martyr, First Apology)

Did some pagan rituals slip into Christianity? Absolutely. When bishops and priests bravely took the gospel message into a distant and dark area, they allowed the converts to continue doing the good they found in paganism, but gave it a new Christian context.  If there was a well-loved local celebration of the seasons, the priests retained the good idea of a celebration of the harvest and turned it into a type of thanksgiving to God. Just as King David took the plunder from the Canaanite nations and put them through fire and placed them in the holy of holies, Christianity took the good  baptized it and redeemed it for God. Truth and beauty and goodness are intrinsically good things. They should be 

redeemed for God rather than discarded or destroyed. Where pagan rites and beliefs were intrinsically evil, the Church would rather have gone to their deaths than adopt them. And often, they did and became martyrs when they refused to engage in idolatry.

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Let me give you some examples of how the authors misapply the historical facts:

They argue that since there are ancient pagan symbols of the cross and since the

symbol of the cross is extra biblical (has no direct text to use the symbol) therefore Christians should stop using it. 

They claim the crucifix is pagan, church buildings have pagan elements in their architecture and artwork and music. That to dress up for church, for  priests to dress up in robes, to use incense,  to receive the Eucharist (communion bread), use pulpits, have sermons and even have carpeting--cannot be found explicitly in the scriptures. So, since we cannot find any direct scriptural commands to do these things, we need to "re-imagine church" without them. Here's more:

• “The message of the steeple is one that contradicts the message of the New Testament. Christians do not have to reach into heaven to find God.” p. 32

I don't even have the words this argument is so patently…. out there. Is pointing to heaven against God? If so, then we need to refrain from even

talking of heaven up in the sky or read about Christ's throne in Revelation and think of it as up there? Is looking into a telescope against scripture? Why not point to ourselves when we describe heaven and God? Was Jesus evil when he was recorded prophesying about the last days, "Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28) An architectural element that draws your eye to heaven isn't any worse than looking up at the moon and stars at night and praying towards God.

• The pulpit has roots in Judaism's ambo in the synagogue, but we shouldn't have them because the pagans had a similar reading desk. Also it gives the clergy a place of prominence because often pulpits are elevated. In fact the church building is wrong because it is "based on the benighted idea that worship is removed from everyday life." 

 
So, we should jettison Church buildings and meet in homes. The authors softens and concede at the end that each congregation should decide for themselves. (Which is illogical because the

Protestant premise is: "If it isn't in scripture it needs to be discarded." This doesn't allow for a matter of personal opinion. Would the authors extend that decision to Catholics when it comes to extra biblical traditions?)

They argue that physical elevation of pastors or pulpits or anything that delineates the clergy from the people isn't Biblical. Pews should be removed because it keeps us from looking into each other's faces and inhibits fellowship.

• "The Protestant order of worship strangles the headship of Jesus Christ. The entire service is directed by one person. You are limited to the knowledge, gifting, and experience of one member of the body-the pastor. Where is the freedom for our Lord Jesus to speak through His body at will?"

I would agree that there is no Biblical basis for a worship team coming out and leading contemporary music, or altar calls, or a long sermon. But writing that the early Christian service was fluid and sponteneous and not ritualistic is a profound misunderstanding of Israel. The early church was Jewish and held to most of the Jewish rituals. 

The authors have a real burden for spontaneity. They believe God is not the central leader of the church service if people do not feel free to stand and share what the Lord is telling them. They argue that there is a real quenching of the Spirit when the formalities of worship keep the worshippers silent without spontaneous prayers and exhortations and testimonies. 

They propose that since the Bible doesn't explicitly command these elements, Protestants might consider beginning a new type of worship service based upon the most simplistic of ancient Christian worship instead of paganism. 

The problem is that the authors need to find a place in scripture that says the first century church is the one we need to go back to and that we must find everything in the Bible in order to do it. They will find that their ideas are man-made traditions themselves.

My suggestion for those who have read Pagan Christianity? is to study the first couple of centuries of Christianity and you will find a very ritualistic, liturgical worship services with an altar in front, incense, candles, priestly robes, chanting, formalities like men standing in the front, women standing in the back and a very ritualistic order. And this was drawn from Judaism, not paganism.

6 False Premises in the Book, "Pagan Christianity"

Frank Viola best describes Pagan Christianity? (George Bama, co-author) in his preface: "This is not a work for scholars." I agreed, so somewhere in chapter six, I set the book down. I may not be a scholar, but I am not interested in reading unscholarly work. Here's the point of their book according to Viola:

...if the church is following the life of God who indwells it, it will never produce those [Catholic] non-scriptural practices this book addresses. Such practices are foreign elements that God’s people picked up from their pagan neighbors as far back as the fourth century.

The authors give us page after page of misapplication of facts about how, when and from where Catholicism gets its doctrines and traditions. To the authors' credit, they did some extensive research, but their interpretation of facts is not well-informed. The authors simply do not grasp the pre-Reformation worldview of Christendom and that is vital when attempting to discern history. For it really does matter if one reports that the sign of the cross comes from paganism rather than from the letter "tau" Jews made on their forehead to symbolize the Torah. One is a breaking of the commandment not to bear false witness against thy neighbor.

[Note: The irony for the Protestant authors is that they assert Christianity should rid itself of Catholic man-make traditions that cannot be proven in scripture just to write an entire book based upon Protestant man-made traditions which cannot be proven in scripture!]

To be brief, I have chosen six false premises that underpin Christian Paganism's assertions: 

False Premise #1: The Church Abandoned God, Therefore, She is the False Church 

When Martin Luther couldn't immediately and decisively persuade the Church, that his interpretation of scripture was correct and the Church's interpretation of scripture had been incorrect for 1500 years, he ordered a revolt. He went from an understandable concern about indulgence abuses to storming out of the Church calling her the "whore of Babylon." This is why a reformation from within turned into a protest from without. He convinced a lot of people that you can't reform or reconcile with the Devil's agent--the whore of Babylon. This is Luther's tradition.

But, you might ask, "Didn't the Reformers call the Church the false church and the Whore of Babylon because she rejected God by infusing the gospel with pagan rituals, sacraments and hierarchies?" The authors attempt to prove this by tying most past and current church traditions to pagan roots and warn that we must seriously consider extracting these foreign element from Christianity. (I didn't read a direct statement that the Catholic Church is the false church but it is implied on every page.)

This premise could be argued on two levels: 
a) that the rituals are, in fact, pagan and 
b) that if they were pagan, it would automatically mean the Church had deserted God. 

Look at the people of God in the Old Testament. God sent numerous prophets to Israel to warn them against their wicked, pagan ways, but He never took away their position as the people of God. There is a difference between being an imperfect, even corrupted church and a false, pagan one.

There is no New Testament prophet who warns that the New Covenant Church at any point in history will become pagan or "false." (Christ threatens to remove one of the seven lamp stands and spew the church at Laodicea out of His mouth, but these are individual churches, not the whole of the Body.) 

If something so momentous as God's Bride going rogue was going to happen, don't you think God would have warned us through scripture? 

There is no Biblical evidence that the Catholic Church is a false church nor the whore of Babylon. That is a man-made tradition and interpretation. 


False Premise #2: The Church Abandoned God, Therefore, God Abandoned the Church 

Even if the Church had discarded their covenant with God, it doesn't follow that Christ would disown His Church. He is faithful even when we are not! He didn't forsake Israel when she was practicing idolatry (at least not forever), He punished Israel. Punishment is God's way of dealing with His children, not abandonment. In fact, Jesus promised His Church that He would be with her forever. 

So they are no longer two, but one flesh (man/wife and Christ/Church). What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Matt. 19: 6

I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever. John 14: 16.

Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. Matt. 28: 20.

False Premise #3: The Church Abandon God, So We Should Abandon the Church. 

There is no precedent nor prophecy anywhere in scripture that encourages a sheep to leave the fold. 

No Hebrew was told to start a New Israel. The Bible never predicts that Christ's Church, His Body, His Bride would become so corrupted that He would desire Christians to start a new Church. 

St. John's first letter warns that some of those who leave the church are antichrists. 

[Y]ou have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come...They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us. I John 2: 18-19

Jesus said to cut off the part of the Body that is causing it to sin. He didn't say throw the entire body out, nor separate from the body or start a new body.

False Premise #4: The Early Church's Doctrines Were Based in the Bible 

Viola writes: 

The normative practices of the first-century church were the natural and spontaneous expression of the divine life that indwelt the early Christians. And those practices were solidly grounded in timeless principles and teachings of the New Testament. 

The early church did not have the Bible. The scriptures, known as the Bible, were not compiled until the fourth century. At best they may have had a copy of of an Apostle's letter or the four gospels, but what Christ taught was transmitted orally--through preaching. We could easily reverse this statement to get to the truth: The Bible is based on the doctrines of the early church.

False Premise #5: We Must Return To the Early Pristine Church

 Viola states in his preface: 

I beleive the first-century church was the church in its purest form, before it was tainted or corrupted.”

He's wrong on two levels. Jesus tells us the opposite when He speaks to the seven churches in Revelation. Paul describes many problems in his letters to the churches. The early church was split into many heretical factions. 

The authors also are wrong assuming that doctrines should not develop over time and that somehow the early church was pure, complete and uncorrupted is nowhere in scripture. Nothing in scripture tells us that things are to remain primitive. The early church was the seed that was to develop into a large tree. The history of God's people starts in a garden (Eden) and ends in a city (New Jerusalem). The early church did not have a definition of the Trinity or the full Divinity of Christ. The mysteries of salvation were slowly revealed and deepened in understanding through Biblical history. This idea that we should return to the first century to find the fullness of truth is not a Biblical idea. 

False Premise #6: Church Traditions Should Come From Bible

Again, we must emphasis that the very reverse of this is true.

Scripture came from Church Tradition. 

Another mistake the authors make, as well as many Protestants, is to believe that all Jesus said was written down. It wasn't. 

I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. John 16:12 

But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John 21: 25

I will give directions concerning the other matters when I come. I Cor. 11: 34

The first chapter of Acts reports that Jesus taught the disciples for forty days after His resurrection. This vital message is not in scripture. We cannot presume that the oral teaching of Christ the forty days following the Resurrection should be discarded as unimportant because they weren't written down.

The premise that the oral words of God cannot be trusted but the written words of God are the final authority for the Christian is a Protestant tradition. That claim is not found within scripture itself. In fact, the Bible points to the Body of Christ, the Church, as the final authority on doctrines.

If your brother sins...go and tell him his fault...But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you...If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Matthew 18: 15-17

 We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I John 4: 6

The authors trust only scripture and refuse to go outside of it for church practices, saying about certain traditions:

Such practices are foreign elements that God’s people picked up from their pagan neighbors as far back as the fourth century.

If the fourth-century church was already corrupted so badly with paganism that we cannot trust her to correctly pass down the oral teachings of Christ, then we can’t trust the Bible because at that time the canon of scripture was decided upon by Catholics councils. The fourth-century Catholic Church decided which books would be in the Bible!)

I think this is worth repeating because it is such a widespread Protestant premise that the Bible is the Church's final authority. This is a Protestant tradition and has no scriptural evidence. Actually:

The Bible is the greatest evidence the Church has that God gave the Church His authority.


Conclusion:
Viola and Barna are noticing the same thing the Luther and Zwingli and Wesley brothers did. And frankly, all of us realize, that Christianity is filled with corrupt people and doesn't seem to be "working." The church is in need of reformation and renewal. (And this isn't some shocking news to the Catholic Church. She has always taught that each generation must be reforming the church.) 

Where the authors go wrong is that they blame the corruption in the church on extra-biblical traditions. But as we have seen, each new reformer or group of reformers begins with the idea of starting over and wiping away all traditions. Yet they inevitably end up creating a new set of traditions that divide the body of Christ. 

Christ never said to tear down and start His church over, He said to repent, renew and refresh. This isn’t an institutional problem we can blame on rituals and rites. This is a heart problem, a sin

problem, that has to be dealt with on an individual basis. The rituals are there to facillitate individual regeneration and renewal. Don’t blame the rituals if the people in the church are dead (or sleeping). Blame the people.

Whitewashed Tombs and Snow Covered Dung

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees! 

First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Matthew 23: 25- 28

Whitewashed Tombs

In the context of these famous seven "woes" of Matthew 23, Christ also calls the scribes and Pharisees snakes, children of hell, blind guides, fools, murderers,  vipers! He compared them to whitewashed tomb which means they are nicely decorated dead people who are putrefying and fetid. 

Our Lord is not pleased with these men. I doubt Christ is dealing in hyperbole in the passages above. When the Son of God calls you filthy, lawless and a hypocrite, you can assume it is not an exaggeration; you are truly corrupt. 

Yet, the Pharisees were not outsiders like gentiles or unbelievers. They were the leaders of His covenant! These men didn't sneak into authority without God's knowledge. They had been deliberately anointed Hebrew leaders as part of God's requirements. They were men of the circumcision, set apart and consecrated as Israel's authorities. 

St. John Chrysostom wrote of the moral fall of these great men in whom the Holy Spirit had worked, "What mournings and lamentations does this call for when the members of Christ have become a tomb of uncleanness?" (Homily 73 on Matthew, section 3.) 

And do not forget that Jesus considered these same scribes and Pharisees, even with such corruption, legitimate leaders. For in the first verses of chapter 23 He tells the crowds, "You must obey them [Pharisees] and do whatever they tell you." 

These were God's chosen men. They were His. And yet, their hearts were dark and filthy. 


Much like today...


Dunghills 
Fast forward for a moment to the Reformation. 

Dr. Martin Luther, like Jesus and His disciples, often used earthy comparisons. 

Luther's followers credit their leader with the theological teaching that believers are snow-covered dunghills.  God imputes His righteousness to us and our sins are covered by Christ's merits. Because of the Cross, our facade appears clean to God even when sins reign in our body.

Imputed righteousness is the interpretation that the reformers came to when they read Paul's own personal "woes" in Romans 7. The apostle laments:

"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate....  It is the sin that dwells in me.... nothing good dwells in my flesh! (I can hear Paul yell, "I am a dunghill!") I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do...

For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Oh wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" 

Paul, the best of the Pharisees, saw himself just as Christ saw the Pharisees (and many Christians today see themselves): whitewashed tombs, hypocrites, snow-covered dunghills. 


Yet as similar as the metaphors of whitewashed tombs and snow-covered dunghills are, Christ and Luther dealt with them quite differently. 

Martin Luther assumed sin was an irreversible condition of fallen man. And the very best that could be achieved is a nice, clean spiritual facade so that God can't see your wickedness for He sees Jesus in your place. All Christians can ever expect on this earth is a snow-covered dunghill or a whitewashed tomb.

But did Christ agree with that?

Christ admitted that the Pharisees looked good from the outside. Their dunghills were absolutely covered by snow. But that cleaned up outer shell wasn't a gift of grace. Christ called that hypocrisy, not imputed righteousness.

Yet before the Cross, before the full outpouring of Grace and the Holy Spirit, Jesus chastised the Old Covenant leaders for their inability to become internally holy. Jesus did not show understanding for the Pharisees' weakness nor sympathy for being enslaved in sin. He publicly exposed their prideful motives. There is nothing about unmerited grace being applied to their account because of faith apart from their works. He did not remind them that His righteousness was credited to them, so they would feel no condemnation. And they certainly did feel condemned by His words. 

Jesus said to clean the inside first! Christ doesn't cover your wickedness with snow to make the dunghill acceptable. We are to tackle the inside, the underneath, first.

I realize some will say, yes, but their whitewash was their own works and the snow is God's works. One is the righteousness of man and one is God's. But Christ's words were clear. When you cover up your wickedness and you have nothing but a symbolic facade of holiness, you are a hypocrite. There needs to be something real to your sanctification. 

But, some Christians will ask, after Paul's rant in Romans 7, how can he glory in Romans 8: 1 that states, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?" Is Paul thrilled that the struggle he has with sin is no longer necessary? Is he now going to rest as a hypocrite and a whitewashed tomb? 

No! For the apostle tells us that we have been set free from the law of sin and death! Not simply a symbolic or legal freedom, but the life of the Spirit brought to us through Christ's fulfillment of the law and our flesh is dead to sin when Christ is in us.  His life gives life to our mortal bodies. 

Clean yourselves through and through. Do not allow yourselves to be only clean on the outside. Do not have a false facade of righteousness. Be truly righteous both inside and out--not a superficial cleaning on the outside. 

Christ never called us to dung-hillness, but as is written, "as He who called you holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct... You shall be holy, for I am holy."

Be more than just whitewashed tombs or snow-covered dunghills. God is calling us to sainthood.