In that clause, the Constitution states that the President—indeed, also the Vice President—must be thirty five years old but then it has these two other qualifications: they must have been a natural born citizen and have been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years.

The clause is not historically uncommon. Nations throughout history have always wanted a leader who belonged to the country. It’s understandable. When a foreign nation comes in, attacking another country and sits on the throne, the new country is merely real estate with revenue funneling back into the mother country. The ruler doesn’t represent the people of the conquered country at all. Be it Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Mother Russia, England, or the United States the leader represents the needs of his own people.

It was the people’s fear of having a foreign national with us. He’s not really of us—but he’s over us.

So the Constitution drafters insert that clause ensuring that some foreign national doesn’t come along, somehow orchestrate events to become leader of the United States, and then spends the bulk of his time supporting the desires of his real country.

Which brings us to the problem of Hebrews 2.

God Amongst or With Us
The author has established that The Son is the perfect representative of God, acknowledged as such by God, and functions in His Position as God. He does what God does (for example, creating and upholding the world by his word of power) because he has that right, God stands behind Him, and He is, in fact, God. If the Son speaks, God speaks; if the Son works, he completes that work; the very angels of God bow down to him in worship as He sits down at the position of power of the Majesty on High.

This Son is with God, on behalf of God, and Is God.

And yet, that comes with some dire ramifications for us poor humans. Warns the writer “we must pay much closer attention to what we heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” It’s one thing to deny an angel-mediated Law, quite another to deny the very message spoken by the incarnate God, the Lord and subsequently confirmed by those he has placed in power and attested to with miracles and signs by the Holy Spirit.

God is altogether involved in this message and we humans invariably fall short.

But doesn’t this in effect become bad news? This isn’t only some foreign national that’s in control; it’s one with complete power, absolute authority, and the bright white holiness that could incinerate a sinner like paper in a fireplace.

God With Them
Let’s go back to our first parents who found themselves in this sort of relationship of being with God (Gen 1:26-27; (Gen 2: 16-17)

Recently created, blinking in the new light of day, they walked around Dad’s house here on Earth with some familial prerogatives and one dire command: these other things you do, that’s just living—but if you do this one thing, ignore that I have commanded you not to eat of this tree, take it upon yourself to act on your own initiative and your own understanding you will die.

And what does man in this relationship do? He sits on the side, setting aside his authority, watching his wife take the fruit, eat and accepts the thing when offered (as if under her authority) and the immediate response was expulsion and death in later years. Indeed, death in the very home as son rises up against son and proves the catastrophe of man looking no higher for a master than his own wants.

But here, we find that the author to the Hebrews thinking coincides with our own. We’re at the very beginning of creation and seeing the position of man and the position of God. Man is told to reign, to control, to manage, to cultivate but man falls short and God punishes him. As he stands before the Lord, his sin exposed, he hears the mandate that creation will revolt beneath him. He was a cultivator of a garden before, now he’s a tackling thorns and thistles. He was living life to the fullest before now, he’s sweating into the very food he’s taken all this time to make.

David, recalling the wonder of this creation looks back and thinks about the wonder of God’s creation and how he’s established man over this creation, a little lower than God (or the angels as the LXX says), and yet man is crowned with glory and majesty.

Well, not that much glory and majesty because of that Fall. There they fell, deceived by the first murderer, His Satanic Majesty and rendered the world under His power—the prince of power of Darkness. So you arrive at the book of Daniel and hear tell of demonic powers, like the Prince of Persia, holding say over regions (Daniel 9), or you have Paul much later saying that we don’t battle against flesh and blood but against powers, against principalities in heavenly places (Eph 6).

Immanuel
But hear the words of Isaiah as he prophesies of a son being born to a young virgin. This son will show up and his name will be Wonderful, Counselor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Government shall rest upon his shoulders. What’s his name? Oh, Immanuel: God with us.

God With Us, being born amongst us and receiving titles that belong to God alone.

Time passes and a birth is announced: the child that will be born will be called Immanuel (Matt 1:24).  And as the baby is lain in a manger, shepherds watching their flocks receive news that they will find the Savior, Christ the Lord, wrapped in clothes lying in a manger and the angels can’t help it as they cry out in exultation “Glory to God in the Highest, peace on earth and goodwill towards men!” (Luke 2:7). This one grows up (Luke 2:40) and we see him growing tired (John 4:6) and thirsty (John 4:7) and weeping (Luke 19:41-44) and sweating in Gethsemene (Luke 2:41-46). God With Us, doing all these things, and yet being ministered by angels when hungry (Matt 4:11), providing food for thousands without breaking a sweat (John 6) and demanding that a fig tree withers (Matthew 21:18-22), being asked permission to enter pigs by demons (Matthew 8:30) and telling the very waters and wind “Be quiet—stop throwing a fit!” (Mark 4:39)

This is God, surely, but he’s Man. not merely a foreign national walking in our midst—like Superman, among us but not one of us—he is really a Man and God and he acts with the full prerogatives as an obedient master over creation: just as Adam was supposed to.

So when we read Psalm 8, we find that it not only speaks about the first Adam for those few moments where creation actually listened to him before he fell but it hearkens to the second and greater Adam who stands as master over creation.

But not everything is under Christ’s feet just yet, just as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. We see Jesus, the man, for a little while made lower than the angels but then we see him crowned with glory and honor but not merely on account of being placed over creation but because he suffered, tasting death for everyone.

Man stands beneath God the Father, and the Son humbled Himself and stands beneath the Father as a real representative for God but an equally real representative for Man. And just as he cried out on the cross “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachtini” from Psalm 22 he stands with Humans before God and says “these are my brethren”. Recall the words of Jesus to Mary “Go to my” not disciples but rather “brothers and say to them: I’m going to My Father and your Father, my God and your God”

Earth-shattering. Ground-swelling. Immanuel. God With Us not merely as God in our Midst but God Stands  With Us As A Man. He trusted God, and he stands with his family showing them to God.

And in so doing he reverses the power grab of the devil and his minions. Man is placed back in charge and the demons are robbed of power since death is robbed of power. And those that are plagued by the power of the devil are able to find real, honest to goodness mercy because he is actually one of us, born of our country, not a foreign national, and has our interests in mind.

Help has never been offered to angels. It has never been theirs to reach. But it was offered to Christ, the seed of Abraham. And Paul, looking at the seed of Abraham of Promise says that we are, on account of Christ, Abraham’s seed.

He’s God’s perfect representative. He speaks, God speaks. He is God with God standing behind him. And yet, he is fully man: one of us crowned with glory because he suffered and died.

Technorati Tags: hebrews, immanuel, incarnation

But people have an incorrect view of angels.

They think that angels are some special beings, and though it’s true that there are a special category of well known angels, it is something that is attainable for us all. Indeed, I think that not only are angels around today—but we can be angels right now.

I want to make my argument based on four points:

1. The word Angel
2. Angels in the New Testament.
3. Objections to us being Angels today.
4. What is an angel.

First the word for angel is angelos (two g’s make the ng sound). It is found almost two hundred times in the new testament—underscoring its Biblical importance. Sometimes the word is translated messenger but it also means an Angel of God.

Second, we see the word in many places underscoring that it is not a class of special beings. In Luke 7:24, the Divine Author calls the men from John his angels. In Gal 4:4, Paul is received as an angel. The list goes on and on!

Third, the only objections to us being angels today are vapid. Some people presuppose that humans can’t have angelic powers but the fact is that Scripture doesn’t record angels using their power all the time. Sometimes we merely see them speaking. At other times we see them talking. At other times they’re rescuing. Just because we can’t see the angelic ability doesn’t mean it isn’t going on.

Other people make the mistake of saying that since we’re men and women who get married we are currently not living according to the order of Angels (as Christ says that in the future we will be like the angels who are not given in marriage).

But the fact is that we have a foretaste of that future already in the fact that there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus—we’re already living in the expectation of being angels, though not yet since we get married. That being the case we should live out our angelic ministry by rescuing people, fighting armies, speaking out the message of God, standing in front of the throne room of God (into which we can boldly approach), slay thousands, move faster than light and cover our faces with wings  while singing Holy, Holy, Holy.

Fourth, an angel is just a messenger. So those beings in the Bible weren’t really any special category at all, just something that we have labeled as being special because we haven’t afforded ourselves the ability to do these sort of things.

So in conclusion, not only do we see angels in Scripture, especially angels who are people, but we should expect angels today, in our situation, in our fellow believers. Unveil your true shining selves and start living out your future ministry as an angel of God.

I’ll call myself Michael.

</satire>

Technorati Tags: angels, satire

The thoughtflow progression of Genesis 6 — 9 is that A) Mankind is corrupt followed by B) Mankind is willingly wicked which causes God to C) repent of creating man then D) God decides to blot man out based on C) but selects to E) preserve humanity in Noah. The rest of the section (chapters 7 and 8) work as an execution of D) followed by God’s “remembrance” of Noah which is a fulfillment of E). The fact that this section has an early reference to the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men really has no major impact on the thought flow of the passage: so if you take it as Angelic Beings or as the Sethite Line or as Something Else, it still doesn’t impact the thought-flow of the section.

Let me restate that: the flood was caused by God’s decision based on Man’s wickedness and corruption—not upon what X group did.

So here are three views of the Sons of God, Biblical support for each of these positions, potential problems with each of the positions plus a possible response to the problems. The reason I want to document this is to show, just like with Genesis 1, that there are some things we may not technically understand but it’s not the point of the passage to make us understand. The story documents this event of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men but it doesn’t further flesh it out.

The Sons of God = Fallen Angels; Daughters of Men = Human women

Fallen Angels took physical form and copulated with women. One view is that these Fallen Angels forced these women (although the language of the passage doesn’t seem to justify that) and another view is that there was a willing union.

Pro: (a) It was the popular view (ie: the LXX translates sons of God as angels) (b) the expression “Sons of God” is used elsewhere in the OT for Angels (ie: Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Ps 29:1; 82:6; 89:7; Dan 3:25) (c) Angels take corporal form—and that of a men—in other places in Scripture (Gen 18) (d) Possible New Testament support (alluded to in 2 Pet 2:4 and mentioned in Jude 6 which is seemingly quoting an apocryphal source: Book of Enoch 6:1, Book of Jubilees 5:1)

Con: (a) Seemingly conflicts with Matt 22:29-30; Mk 12:24-25; Lk 20:34-36 which talks about Angels not marrying (b) seemingly makes Man culpable for the sins of angels (c) borders on the mythological (sometimes by making the spiritual beings give birth to giants).

Defense: (a) Jesus says that Angel’s don’t marry—not that they can’t marry (b) Creation groans due to the sin of Man so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that something Angels did can affect Man’s fate but be that as it may, the Genesis passage makes it a point to underscore man’s personal chosen corruption (Gen 6:5, 11-13; 8:21) and (c) Because the word Nephalim is translated Giants in some versions doesn’t mean that they actually gave birth to mythological Giants. The Giants can be a name for Giant Men or Great Men. In fact, the text’s ambiguity can support that in addition to there being unnatural relations with spiritual beings in physical form, there were also these Nephalim—not necessarily the offspring of the unnatural union although that point can be argued. Besides, if there are echoes of the Bible in mythology that doesn’t necessarily negate that the Biblical account is false.

The Sons of God = The Sethites; The Daughters of Men = Cainites

The Cainites of chapter 4 were ungodly and the Sethites of chapter 5 worshipped the Lord. The problems arose when the Sons of Seth began to marry the daughters of Cain, mingling of believers with unbelievers.

Pro: (a) It is currently a popular view (b) It grounds the text in the “real” instead of the seemingly mythological (c) it puts the blame solely on man (d) Children of Israel are referred to the Sons of God in other passages of Scripture (Deut 14:1; Isaiah 41:23; 43:6; Psalms 82:6) (d) Believers are called Heirs of God, Children of God and Sons of God throughout the New Testament (one example since there are so many references: Gal 3:26)

Cons: (a) Very allegorical use of the words in context with no textual clue that Daughters of Men refers specifically to the Cainites (b) the Sethites aren’t very Godly if only Noah’s family is spared (c) the passages that refer to the Sons of God is not the exact same word usage as used in this passage (d) New Testament appropriation of language does not negate the actual usage in the Genesis passage (e) Peter and Jude seem to be talking about the Genesis passage

Defense: (a) The entire early section of Genesis seems steeped in allegory and poetry—why be surprised by its use in this passage (b) Sons of God as a title for the Sethite line does not negate the present state of the Sethite line in Genesis 6. Israel was still called that even when God said “No-Ami” (Not My People) (c) the Hebrew language only has a certain amount of words and the later uses from those other passages are in a poetic format illustrating effectually the same thing (d) New Testament usage reiterates Old Testament usage which would lean towards a physical people with a Spiritual calling (e) Peter and Jude may not be talking about angels marrying at all—just about angels falling.

The Sons of God = Sons of Kings, Daughters of Men = any woman.

The sin is tied to those of Lamech (from Cain’s side) who was in a polygamous relationship. These men who were renowned set an evil precedence by also being polygamous.

Pros: (a) It grounds the text in the “real” instead of the seemingly mythological (b) it puts the blame solely on man (c) Kings used to refer to themselves of Sons of a god (d) There are places in Scripture that refer to the Sons of God translated as judge or authorities as so (Exodus 21:6; Ps 82:1) (e) the later use of the Nephilim refers to them being mighty men of power—not hybrid Titans or merely common people

Cons: (a) Israelites never referred to kings as Sons of God (b) the passages like Exo 21:6 refer To God not the Sons of God (c) Granted the Nephalim aren’t necessarily giants that still doesn’t support that the Sons of God are Kings

Defense: (a) The Israelites came from a culture (Egypt) whose Kings did do this sort of thing: to them the evil would be immediately obvious (b) the point of To God does not mean that the people are bringing their complaints to the Invisible, Omnipresent God but they were bringing the complaint to the official in place by God for presiding over such matters. He stands in the place of God in that matter (c) Nor does the Nephalim being heroes not deny the Sons of God being Kings either.

So there you go, three solid reasons to believe either but like I said earlier, taking either view doesn’t negate the main thrust of the passage nor does it affect our major theological positions though it may affect our view of Angels or of God’s people.

The rest of the Genesis series.

As one examines the New Testament, it becomes evident that Satan had two primary
objectives in this world, among many more perhaps less evident. (1) To tempt the Messiah
to conform to the image of the worldly Jewish religious thinking of His time. (2) To
influence the church so that it conforms to the worldly religious thinking of our times.
In the first objective, Satan totally failed. He met an opponent who stood firm. In the
second objective, he has met with more success than we would like to think or admit.

I. A Worldly Messiah: Impossible.

From the very beginning of the Lord’s ministry, Satan confronted Christ with the object
of tempting Him to conform to the religious world that Satan himself had organized. This
confrontation was necessary at the very beginning so that “Jesus was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1) In both accounts
(Matt. 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13), although the order of the three proposals changes, it is
evident that Satan’s primary objective was to persuade Christ to follow his suggestions.
On the surface the suggestions seemed to contain sensible advice. Considering them more
carefully, they were self-promoting and worldly. If heeded, the three suggestions would
have brought to Christ instantaneous worldly acclaim and acceptance among the religious
leaders. “To understand this we must recall what has been said of the state of the
Jewish nation, and especially the nature of the Messianic hopes which they were indulging.
They expected a Messiah who would work dazzling wonders and establish a world-wide empire
with Jerusalem as its center, and they had postponed the ideas of righteousness and
holiness to these [ideas]. They completely inverted the divine conception of the kingdom,
which could not but give the spiritual and moral elements precedence over the material and
political considerations. Now what Jesus was tempted [by Satan] to do was, in carrying out
the great work which His Father had committed to Him, to yield in some measure to these
expectations. He must have foreseen that, unless He did so, the nation would be
disappointed and probably turn away from Him in unbelief and anger” (James Stalker,
Life of Christ ). Although it was a decisive struggle and the devil was thoroughly
defeated, the devil “departed from Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). He
was not yet ready to admit defeat and he planned to keep on trying until the end.

His subsequent attacks were not long delayed. They were not direct confrontations with
the devil himself, but they were nonetheless suggestions that came from Satan’s mode of
thinking. Many times these suggestions are the most dangerous because we are not aware of
their source. Not so with Christ, for He was always aware of all the devices of the devil.

One attack came from his very own family in Galilee. His brothers said to Him,
“Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that
You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known
openly. If you do these things, show Yourself to the world.” The brothers did not
believe in Him and thus we understand the origin of their suggestion. It was a worldly
promotion that motivated their thinking. Christ answered them, “My time has not yet
come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I
testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to
this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” (John 7:2-8). He did not succumb to
the darts of His brothers, but He went to Jerusalem later in accordance with His Father’s
timing and planning.

The attack still continues. This time it comes through His spiritual family………
Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things
from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the
third day.” This was God’s plan and Christ’s mission on earth. Then Peter took Him
aside; he obviously felt he had some wise advice for the Lord. He then actually began to
rebuke the Lord. This is quite an act for a mortal man to attempt to correct His Lord. He
said to Him, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” Now Peter
is suddenly a prophet, a false prophet at that! But the Lord turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the
things of God, but the things of men.” (Matt. 16:21-23). He directly and correctly
identified the mind that was behind the counsel.

Once more our relentless foe attacks. This time he uses the howling mob that has
gathered underneath the cross of Calvary. Christ is now not only hungry and thirsty, but
He is bleeding and dying. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and
saying, “Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself,
and come down from the cross!” The chief priests also, together with the scribes,
mocked and said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King
of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” (Mark 15:29-32).
Using the same “if clause” that the devil himself used in the wilderness, they
said, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matt. 27:40). For
a mortal man, with endowed divine power, how tempting it would have been to come down from
that cross and spectacularly destroy everyone of His enemies before the eyes of a
terrified crowd. But Christ was not a mortal man. He knew His mission and He knew that it
had to be finished. If Christ had come down from the cross, it would not have proved that
He was the Son of God. It would have proved that He was not the Son of God. It would have
demonstrated that He was just a man, a selfish man, interested in saving Himself rather
than fulfilling the mission of His heavenly Father. Satan struck his final blow on the
Messiah; his opportune times were gone; and the mission of our Lord was carried out
according to His Father’s plan to the very last detail.

But even after Christ’s death, our relentless foe still continues to attack.

II. A Worldly Church: Undesirable The Head of the Church is gone back to heaven but His
body is still here on earth. Thus Satan concentrates His attack on those who form His
body. Saul learned this truth on the road to Damascus. “Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting Me?” And Saul said, “Who are you, Lord?” He recognized the
voice speaking from heaven had to be divine, but he had not the least idea Who it could
be.

And the Lord said to him, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Saul was
making havoc of the church; he was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of
the Lord. But he never once laid hands on Jesus of Nazareth. How could he be persecuting
Jesus Who was in heaven. In time, he learned the full intent of this statement. When He
touched the body on earth, He touched the Head in heaven (Acts 9:4,5). Saul ceased his
activity for Satan, and became a disciple of the Lord.

But our relentless foe again continued to attack. Our “adversary the devil walks
about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8). But his most
effective attacks take the form of subtlety, seeking to conform the church to the
standards of the world rather than obedience to the Word of God. Paul would later write to
the church at Corinth, “But I am fearful lest that even as the serpent beguiled Eve
by his cunning, so your minds may be seduced from wholehearted and pure devotion to
Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). Thus Satan continues his use of seduction in an attempt to
draw the church away from direct obedience to the Lord. And at times, including the
present, we have seen evidences in many parts of the world of a church permeated with
worldly desires and attitudes. A church that often has been attractive to the world, but
powerless in proclaiming the Word of God and its truth.

Those who have experienced working in the local church know and understand the
influence that is brought upon them by the world’s way of thinking. They understand the
temptation that is often confronted to yield in some measure to these suggestions. Their
is something attractive and easy about many of these methods. It is much easier to say
“yes” than to say “no” to them. The suggestions may not be in complete
adherence to the Word of God, but they are partly in agreement. They are appealing,
popular suggestions and at times they are even lots of fun. The temptation then takes this
form. If we can first win the approval and acceptance of the world, are we not able to
later on lead them to the truth? It would be as if Christ would have accepted the Jewish
concept of the Messiah, won their confidence, and then later attempted to teach them the
righteous, moral, and spiritual concepts of His kingdom. This subtle temptation may even
come to the worker through his own immediate family as it did with Christ. Sometimes it’s
a wife or husband; a daughter or son; a father or mother who raises the question,
“Why can’t we do this or that? Everybody else does.”

“Other times the suggestion comes from our spiritual family. Peter was certainly
not aware that he was being used as a tool of Satan. But his thoughts regarding the
Messiah were influenced by Satan’s way of thinking.

Although they are totally unaware of it, our Christian friends can often be thinking
and planning under the influence of this world’s teachings. They have developed an
attitude that suggests, “if it works for the world, it will work for the
church.”

There is a temptation “which every worker for God, weary with the slow progress of
goodness, must often feel, and to which even good and earnest men have sometimes given way
- to begin at the outside instead of within, to get first a great shell of external
conformity to religion, and afterwards to fill it with a reality” (Stalker). But it
never works. It never has and it never will.

The temptation is strong. Those who adopt the ways of the world seem at times to
prosper so much more than those who adhere to the unadulterated Word of God. Must we give
in if we are to succeed. The busy, he has many supporters, but we have on our side the
Christ , the Head of the Church, who has overcome all the temptations of the devil.
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the
world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. By this we know
the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (I Jn. 4:4-6). Plod on, Christian
worker. don’t give in now. The time of reaping is almost here!