1Chronicles 7

These are the genealogies of most of the tribes of Israel.

They're still no fun to read, but they're names we haven't seen. It may be saying too much to imply that the Bible ignores most of the nation, but it definitely doesn't focus on Asher, for example. Don't worry, though; even if the Scriptures don't know much about them, it doesn't mean God doesn't.

Review: THE SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL EVANGELISM by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort

This is the print version of the online evangelism course offered through Living Waters Ministries. There are a few things that are immediately noticeable about it.

First of all, it's huge. There are 101 lessons, each 6-8 pages long. Add to that the fact that it's printed on very thick paper and it makes for a big book. Despite the size, though, there is no filler; it's full of information.

The other thing that jumps out is the price. The cost of the online course is about $150, though that includes several extras for graduates. The book is $25 for a dead-tree copy, about a sixth of the price, and the Kindle version is $7. There's a lot of difference between $150 and $7, and the information is still the same. I personally would rather give up some goodies and save the money.

The reader gets the benefit of Comfort's decades of evangelism experience, in some cases for less than $10. I can't recommend it highly enough,

1Chronicles 6

This is a genealogy of the Levites.

I wish I could make this interesting, but it's a very long list of names. It's not fun to read, and it can't be fun reading what I say about it either. My own entirely unscientific survey tells me that the books of Chronicles are the least-read of the Bible, and these genealogies have a lot to do with that.

Someone suggested I do it post on Hell, so here you go

Hell is not something we like to talk about. It's the wrathful part of God , the part of him we don't want to hug up to or show off. A common misconception is that Christians love the idea that people will be punished eternally for disagreeing with us. First, that's a gross mischaracterization. Second, the only people who love the idea of Hell are Calvinists, who tend to love anything remotely connected to God,and non-Christians . There's no way to take advantage of the love of Christ and not love others. 

The current trend is to deny the existence of Hell. That's fine; I wish it wasn't there too. But by denying Hell we place ourselves against the New Testament and Jesus himself, as both of them testified about it. 

Of course there are ways to twist the Scriptures to make them say anything you want, but to do that, you have to ignore whatever doesn't fit your preconceived ideas. It's better to find out what the Bible actually says about everything -- including Hell -- than to just make things up.

1Chronicles 5

This chapter has more genealogies, but this time they're focused on people we seldom hear about: the tribes east of the Jordan.

At the bottom, though, it's a list of names, and since I don't particularly care about them, it's a boring list of names. I was more interested in the enemies they overcame. To my knowledge they're not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. These tribes were fighting wars no one else knew about.

Review: WHAT WE COULD LEARN FROM THE EARLY CHRISTIANS--BUT DON'T by David Bercot

I've been a fan of Bercot for a decade now, and place a lot of weight on the early Church (pre-325AD). That alone makes this short book seem like it was written just for me.

This is essentially a comparison of early Christianity and our own. Though we all claim to follow the Bible, it's sobering to realize how much has changed in the last 2000 years. For that reason alone it's well worth a read, and I highly recommend it.

1Chronicles 4

Verse 10 is the famous Prayer of Jabez. At least it's famous in the evangelical world, where it was its own industry 10-15 years ago. It does break from chapters of genealogy, but it was presented as yet another superstitious way to get more stuff.

Lord knows we have enough of those.

Review: KANT IN 90 MINUTES by Paul Strathern

Immanuel Kant is another philosopher ideally suited for this sort of treatment: his books are both influential and nearly incomprehensible.

Ayn Rand, a greater writer and lesser philosopher, rejected Christianity because of Kant. He wrote long after David Hume's empiricism essentially killed philosophy, yet he developed one of the largest and most complex philosophies of all time (rivaled only by that of his follower, Hegel).

If you haven't guessed, I liked this book. Unless you like reading 800-page philosophy books, I recommend it.

1Chronicles 3

This chapter has my life verse in it.

For those who don't know, a life verse is a verse from Scripture, usually a promise, that a person bases his life upon. I picked 1Chronicles 3.3 because it has exactly the same significance to me as most people's do for them: none.

IIC. God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination, He enables men to understand truth. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration he baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which we serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of his redemption.  His presence in the Christian is the promise that God will bring the believer into the fullness of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

1Chronicles 2

This is more genealogy,this time with an early focus on the descent of David. If it seems like we went through this a while back, that's because we did, though in a different form.

Remember that 1 and 2 Chronicles covers the same time as 1Samuel through 2Kings, though from a different perspective.

Review: THE HOLINESS OF GOD by RC Sproul, Jr.

In a lot of ways, I knew what to expect from this book going in. From listening to him on the radio, I knew he was a Calviinist and scary-smart. I also knew he was a prolific writer. What I didn't know was that he's genuinely funny.

Not laugh-out-loud hilarious or fall-out-of-your-chair uproarious; at no point did I rotflol. It's a book of theology, after all, not comedy. The humor is usually hidden and often subtle. Compared to the other Calvinist books I've read,which have been so serious they warped space, this one was a laff riot.

Even with the jokes, it's still a good source of of information, provided you can take it from its Calvinist context. If you can, I recommend it.

1Chronicles 1

In one sense, the history of the Israelites as an independent kingdom are over.

Our English Bibles have 1/2Chronicles right after 2Kings, which emphasizes its historical content. In fact, there is more than history in these books, and the history that is here is of a specialized sort,

It may be necessary, but that doesn't mean it's necessary for us to do it

I got some backlash from last week's post on Romans 13. It wasn't on the post itself, but on the last paragraph. I was told that the functions mentioned were necessary. I disagree.

Remember that ours is a fallen world. That's why we have law enforcement in the first place. In fact, that's why we have laws in the first place. In a perfect world -- like the one God created -- there'd be no place for either. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world (yet). The one we have is tainted, and sometimes saturated, with evil.

In such a place, is law enforcement necessary? I'm sorry to say that it seems like it is. It doesn't follow that Christians are the ones to do it, though. A friend once asked if we should hope some people reject the gospel so that they can be police and soldiers for everybody else. Of course not; we should hope that everyone accepts it so we don't need police or soldiers.

It comes down to this: did Jesus mean to be obeyed or ignored? Is the Sermon on the Mount for us today or is it just a blueprint for some future kingdom? I happen to believe that the answer to both questions is the former. If I'm right, more people will hear "I never knew you" than I thought.

2Kings 25

This is how the monarchy ended: not with a bang but with a whimper.

Zedekiah was installed as king by the Babylonians, so he of course rebelled. A governor was approved and approved, then viciously murdered. Eventually Nebuchadnezzar exiled the people to Babylon. The only Israelites left in the Promised Land were the poor and the sick.

Review: THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL by Richard Stearns

What's missing from our faith -- the hole in our gospel  -- is compassion, according to Stearns, the president of World Vision. It's a timely message and one we should hear; we're to be known by our love, but we can always find a reason to ignore or hate people with less.

Unfortunately for Stearns, this is now well-traveled ground, and several other books on this subject are better. There's some interest based on Stearns' position and unique perspective, but overall I just can't recommend it,

2Kings 24

On one hand you can't blame the Babylonians for getting exasperated with Judah. They were the ones who made Mattaniah king, and changed his name to Zedekiah. He still rebelled.

God could have told them that the Israelites were a rebellious people.

Review: GUERRILLA EVANGELISM by Phil Spry

Unlike many books on evangelism, this one doesn't advocate for a particular technique or approach. Instead, it's about saturating an area,using local events to provide opportunities for service and evangelism.

This book didn't require learning a lot of new Scriptrures or a new technique; it's not a handbook on how to evangelize, but a guide to uncovering oft-hidden chances to use what we already know. It's very short, and I highly recommend it.

2Kings 23

This chapter is mostly about the first commandment.

It's all about Josiah tearing down pagan shrines. Why did he do it? Because he worshipped God, and he knew that God accepts no rivals. If you really look, all his actions come down to simple obedience. That's why Josiah was Judah's greatest king: the obeyed God.

IIB. God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His Incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgn Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with all its demands and necessities, completely identifying Himself with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His obedience, and in his substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is exalted at the right hand of God as the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, effecting in His Person the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in every believer as the living and ever-present Lord.

2Kings 22

No wonder there were so many bad kings. With the Law missing, they didn't know how to serve God. They didn't even know what they didn't know. That's no excuse, though; the Law should never have been lost in the first place.

Now, thanks to Hilkiah and Josiah, it wasn't anymore.

Review: INDEPENDENT BAPTIST MUSIC WARS by David Cloud

In the interest of Chrstian brotherhood, I'll just say two things. The first is that throughout this very long book, Cloud sounds very, very Fundamentalist, and epitomizes the "us four and no more" attitude of many Independents.

The second is that I used to belong to one of these congregations. The first church I attended regularly was very proud of being Independent, Fundamentalist, and Baptist. It was also one of the most worldly places I've ever seen, Fundamentalism doesn't make you holy,

I don't recommend this book.

2Kings 21

Just because a father's good, you can't expect him to raise a good son.

Hezekiah was one of the best kings in Judahite history. His son Manasseh was one of the worst. He may have actually been the worst; he led his nation to do even more evil than the ones it had displaced.

What does Romans 13 actually say?

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist were instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what has been appointed by God, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is right, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must also be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed.

That's the first part of the thirteenth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. Some part of it is always quoted to me when I bring up the issue of nonviolence. I would like to make two points in response.

First, a servant isn't greater than his master. Nothing Paul says here or anywhere else -- or more correctly, no interpretation of anything Paul says here or anywhere else -- nullifies the words of Jesus Christ. You don't get to throw out the Sermon on the Mount because you like your version of Paul better.

Second, just look at the text above. Nothing there says anything about Christians taking up arms. Notice that Paul is writing to Christians about rulers and their people. Put another way, he writes to people in the second person, and about people in the third. There are two different groups of people here.

This isn't just an academic question for me. One of my brothers is a deputy, and he's married to the head parole officer in their county. I'm proud of my brother and sister-in-law, and I love them both very much, but we disagree on this. For their sakes I hope I'm wrong.

2Kings 20

It's not like God didn't know.

Hezekiah lay sick in bed: a lifetime of following the Lord had led to everyone up to and including the Lord telling him he was about to die. Once again, he prayed.  God healed him and gave him fifteen more years. If God knew Hezekiah would turn to him in prayer, what's the point? God may have known, but Hezekiah didn't.

Review: HEGEL IN 90 MINUTES by Paul Strathern

One thing you should know about me is that I'm lazy. Another thing is that I've always thought philosophy was interesting. Put them together and you'll see why it's like these books were written for me.

This book describes Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's life and works, acting as both introduction to and summary of this philosopher's nearly-unintelligible thought. It serves as a sort of Cliff's Notes for this verbose German, and while I shudder to think how much work Strathern must have put into this, I recommend it 

Review: THE GREAT DIVORCE by CS Lewis

Some editions of this book have the tagline "A bus trip from Hell to Heaven ... A one-way trip for some but not for others." That's a pretty good description of the plot.

The heart of the book isn't in the plot, though. Rather, it's in the interactions between the people in the book. The book itself is very short, and while there's a cursory description of Hell, the bulk of it consists of conversations between damned souls (or "ghosts") and what are termed the "Solid People" on the outskirts of Heaven.

It's terrible theology, but a very good novel. Lewis seems to have been a great observer of humanity, and his characters seem like real people. As long as the reader can maintain a distinction between fact and Stuff Lewis Made Up, I highly recommend it.

2Kings 18

Hezekiah was one of the few kings who removed the places of pagan worship. 

'Sennacherib's servants didn't get that. They thought the high places were where Israel's god was worshipped. Fortunately they weren't the ones Hezekiah was trying to impress anyway. 

2Kings 19

Hezekiah trusted God. That's all that made him a good king. And he wasn't picky. There was nothing so big that he didn't trust God to take care of it. In this chapter, he's faced with the destruction of Jerusalem, and his reaction is to go to the temple and pray, because he knew God was bigger than anything else.

Even the Assyrian army.

IIA. God the Father

God reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

2Kings 17

There are a couple of different ways of explaining the conquest of Israel by the Assyrians.

 The natural explanation is that that's what happens when a huge, powerful empire like Assyria meets a tiny kingdom like Israel. Another explanation is that God was tired of delaying his judgment on Israel, and used Assyria as his tool for giving Israel justice.

I prefer the second one.

Review: THE KNEELING CHRISTIAN by Anonymous

This was written back in the 1800s by ... well, I don't know who wrote it. That seems right to me.

It's a book on prayer, and while there's a good deal about asking for what we want, there's more about shutting up and listening to God. I admit that prayer is a weak spot for me, and from talking to others, listening to God isn't something naturally do well. It takes a long time before we're open enough for God to speak to us and through us.

I enjoyed this book, and especially that it was written anonymously. It reads less like a how-to guide and more like a book of medieval Christian mysticism. I recommend it be read while you're on your knees.

2Kings 16

The Israelites were as bad as anybody else.

People from Abraham's time to the present have always forgotten that the promise of land was conditional.if they ignored the rules, they had no right to expect the blessings. If they acted like the nations that were expelled, they could only expect expulsion.

2Kings 15

Zechariah was a perfect example.

Remember a couple of days ago when I said that it was terrible to only be known for living and dying? Here's what we know about King Zechariah: He lived. He was evil. He was killed. Not much of a legacy.

5-year review: Allan ESVR1

This was my favorite Bible, the one I used for teaching, preaching, study, and general reading. It was my near-constant companion for almost five years, and possibly the biggest purchase I ever made for myself that wasn't a vehicle. Even now it's hardly ever more than a dozen feet from me.

First, let me tell you about Allan. R. L. Allan and Sons is a bookbinder in London. Binders are responsible for the outside, and Allan specializes in something they call "highland goatskin". This is goatskin that's unprocessed beyond tanning and adding color, which has the advantage of making a very soft cover that lasts virtually forever, but has the disadvantage of being very expensive.

At any rate, mine's got a black cover, three thick blue ribbons that look great with the black, and art-gilt pages, which means the edges are dyed as well as covered in gold. In short, it's a joy to look at, and even better to feel and smell. I read it more because it felt so good to hold. It also made my hands smell like leather, but that's a whole 'nother post.

The ESV in ESVR1 means that the inside is the English Standard Version. The 1 just means it's black. The R designates this as a Reader's Edition, slightly larger than the other ESVs Allan had bound to that point. The extra size meant a couple of things. First, while not a true wide margin, it held a lot of information in those bigger margins, especially when someone wrote as small as I did. Second, the font was bigger, making it easy to find my place.

I've had it for five years, and never babied it, and other than my notes and scratches on the gilt, it still looks the same as it did when it arrived.

2Kings 14

More kings, good, bad, and indifferent. You know it's bad when the main requirement for a good king was to be less terrible than average. But that was Israel and Judah.

I'm sorry, but there really isn't much to say. It's a very low point in Israelites history.

Accretions

There are no stained glass windows in the Bible.

There are no Gothic cathedrals, or even Romanesque ones.

There are no mission boards.

In the Bible, there are no committees and thus no committee meetings.

There are no Sunday Schools or small groups.

There are no Crusades,  either against the Turks or of the Billy Graham variety.

There are no dioceses.

Don't look in the Bible for any crusades on campus, either.

There are no local, state, or national associations.

There are no denominations, seminaries, or denominational seminaries.

There are no Christian bookstores in the Bible.

There was only one person in the New Testament who  tried to use a worldly weapon to defend Christ, and he was severely rebuked.

There are no megachurches.

There are neither hymnals  nor worship leaders.

These are things that have been added to the Christian faiith over the last two thousand years. I'm not saying they're all harmful, or even as harmful as each other. But they weren't there in the beginning.

Review: GOD HAS A WONDERFUL PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE by Ray Comfort

I'm a fan of Ray Comfort's. What I've learned from his teaching has not only changed the way I evangeliized, but had a profound impact on how I saw the entire Christian faith.

A few years back, he offered this book for free in multiple formats. In most ways, it repeats what he's always said: that people need the Saviior because they've sinned, and that the "Wonderful Plan" message is neither historical nor bibical. There's nothing wrong with that; sometimes God gives us one note to play, and it's our job to play it as well as we can, as often as we're told to.

If you're not familiar with Comfort's ministry, this is an easy approach. If you are, this is that rare occasion when Comfort seems to slow down and allows others to do the same. Either way, I highly recommend it.

2Kings 13

What a terrible legacy.

In a culture like that of the Israelites', what you left behind was everything. Imagine reigning for decades and being remembered as a name and a short entry saying you did evil. That's no way to be remembered.

II. God

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preservers, and Ruler of the universe. He is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is powerful and all-knowing, and his perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of his free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.  The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.

2Kings 12

As far as we know, Jehoash was one of the good kings. Raised by priests, he knew what God wanted, and for the most part did it. The only thing he did wrong was to leave the high places standing. What were the high places? Places where Canaanite gods were worshipped.

But God had already told them he was jealous.