J. Thomas

Creation and the Church

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

Today I begin by reflecting on a section of the foreword to Dr. Jordan Peterson’s best-selling book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. The foreword was written by Dr. Norman Doidge.

Rules? More rules? Really? Isn’t life complicated enough, restricting enough, without abstract rules that don’t take our unique, individual situations into account? And given that our brains are plastic, and all develop differently based on our life experiences, why even expect that a few rules might be helpful to us all?
People don’t clamour for rules, even in the Bible…as when Moses comes down the mountain, after a long absence, bearing the tablets inscribed with ten commandments, and finds the children of Israel in revelry. They’d been Pharaoh’s slaves and subject to his tyrannical regulations for four hundred years, and after that Moses subjected them to the harsh desert wilderness for another forty years, to purify them of their slavishness. Now, free at last, they are unbridled, and have lost all control as they dance wildly around an idol, a golden calf, displaying all manner of corporeal corruption.
“I’ve got some good news…and I’ve got some bad news,” the lawgiver yells to them. “Which do you want first?”
“The good news!” the hedonists reply.
“I got Him from fifteen commandments down to ten!”
“Hallelujah!” cries the unruly crowd. “And the bad?”
“Adultery is still in.”
So, rules there will be—but, please, not too many. We are ambivalent about rules, even when we know they are good for us. If we are spiritual souls, if we have character, rules seem restrictive, an affront to our sense of agency and our pride in working out our own lives. Why should we be judged according to another’s rule?
And judged we are. After all, God didn’t give Moses “The Ten Suggestions,” he gave Commandments; and if I’m a free agent, my first reaction to a command might just be that nobody, not even God, tells me what to do, even if it’s good for me. But the story of the golden calf also reminds us that without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions—and there is nothing freeing about that.
Dr. Norman Doidge, foreword to 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, by Dr. Jordan Peterson (Random House Canada, January 23, 2018).

Individualism teaches us to take responsibility for our own lives, not to blame people or circumstances for our predicament, to evaluate the situation, to take decisive action, and then to take the long road of responsibility and hard work toward the ends on which we have set our eyes. And to go farther, individualism in the church encourages us to seek a personal relationship with God for which we are personally responsible, irrespective of our culture or our particular community or our particular circumstances. Each one must deny himself or herself, take up her or his cross, and follow Jesus.

This mentality has proven beneficial in many ways throughout history. And if you meet such a person, you likely have found a peace in being in his or her presence…at least initially. But there is a dark side to individualism, particularly when each person feels the responsibility to become a law unto themselves. When this occurs other people become subhuman, serving either as obstacles or as tools to them.

There is no doubt that law and structure inhibits freedom to a degree, but the Scriptures teach us that structure and law actually create life precisely by curtailing freedom. Unbridled freedom, in the Scriptures, is called tohu and bohu—formlessness and emptiness. It was the state of the universe when God began to create. No boundaries, no rules, no laws, no structures, no life. Everything was everything. Everything was nothing. This is natural and free, and it is, at the same time, darkness and death.

God interrupted this unbridled freedom by speaking—by imposing law and structure on the chaos. And as God speaks, creation takes shape. With each new command of God, new structures are created and new possibilities are unleashed. Light is created and separated from darkness. Imagine if God had not imposed that on us? The chaotic waters are separated and caged so that land and atmosphere can be separated out. Then living things are organized and unleashed, and cosmic entities are placed in proper balance. Finally, God commands humanity to rise from the dust of creation and breathes life into us after God’s own life.

Provided these structures are maintained, life will thrive. If these structures are eroded, the chaos will return. And yet, throughout history the people of the earth have pursued life on the other side of God’s boundaries.

That’s what happened to Israel. So, in due time God sent the prophet Jeremiah to them. Through Jeremiah, God evaluated the state of Israel. He gave them His verdict in Jeremiah 4:19-28:

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰Disaster overtakes disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtain in a moment.
²¹How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ²²For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.
²³I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴I looked to the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. ²⁵I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. ²⁶I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
²⁷For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. ²⁸Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.
Jeremiah 4:19-28, NRSV.

How had this happened to Israel, to creation itself? Sin–the desire of humanity to become a law unto themselves, to seek life on the other side of God’s tents and curtains. And creation followed. Life depends on God’s order, on God’s structure, on God’s law. We see the necessity of this orderliness in nature, but we so often fail to see its utility in culture or in our individual choices.

It’s easy to curse the wind when it exceeds the speeds our structures can withstand, and it’s easy to wail against the waters when they go where we did not prepare for them to go. Chaos is held back by structure, and destruction ensues when chaos breaks its bonds.

The same is true in human life. In fact, the Scriptures indicate that the two are not to be separated from each other—creation and human life. And people of faith—true faith—recognize this truth. The church in Philippi began quite organically, which is to say, naturally. Paul spoke to some who were already following the God of Israel, and he told them about Jesus. One believed and followed. Then, a demon-possessed girl harassed Paul, so he set her free in the name of Jesus. This act landed him in prison. While he was in prison, there was an earthquake, but Paul did not take the opportunity afforded him to escape his bonds. This decision saved the life of his jailor, which then gave Paul another opportunity to share the story of Jesus. And the jailer, too, believed. Seems very spontaneous and free, doesn’t it? Very little planning or deliberateness.

Yet, once these folks followed Jesus and began to grow as a community of faith, they began to organize themselves. By the time Paul wrote the letter preserved in the Christian Bible, he addressed not only the believers generally, but also two sets of leaders. The first he called overseers (episkopoi), and the second he called deacons (deaconoi – servants). Already, the church in Philippi had begun to create an organizational structure.

During my time in vocational ministry, I have had quite a number of Christians tell me that structure, rules, policies, and such inhibit ministry—red tape, they often call it…sometimes hoops or rigamarole. That’s a belief of the worldly. Of course, things can get out of hand, as we saw with the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day. Jesus called them blind guides who “strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” That, of course, was a less a comment on structure and more a comment on the values that informed it. But, it’s an important reminder. The structure must be rooted in the Words God has spoken.

Even so, all of life depends on law, on structure, on order. Those who seek to be a law unto themselves, to be trusted to create and tear down boundaries unilaterally, are not following the God of Christian Scripture. Those impulses are of the flesh and of the devil. This is a spirit wishing to be free of law and oversight and accountability. At the bottom such an impulse wishes to be free of any authority outside of oneself—free even of God.

But, the Philippians demonstrated their faithfulness to Christ, not only by what they professed to believe, by in how those beliefs had begun to structure their life together. They had tasked some within their community with keeping watch over the people of God, and they had tasked others with serving the needs of the kingdom in an organized fashion. These are good impulses.

Their structures weren’t perfect, of course, as the rest of the letter makes clear. But, this desire to organize is a reflection of the God they worshipped. As Paul reminded the Corinthians (a group of churches much less inclined to order and structure than the Philippians) in 1 Corinthians 14:26-33:

²⁶What should be done then my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation! Let all things be done for building up. ²⁷If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. ²⁸But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God. ²⁹Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. ³⁰If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent. ³¹For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be encouraged. ³²And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, ³³for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33, NRSV.

We are living in a time in which the voice of chaos is gaining ascendance. Remember, always, people of God, that our God is a God of order. The people of God have always organized their communal life. Just as the life of creation depends on the laws of nature, so the life of Christian community depends on Christian structures. Of course, most churches today have taken their organizational cues from culture, which is a risky game to play. But, at its core organization is godly, both in nature and in community.

And, finally, this is true in our personal lives, as well. The Scriptures tell us that the very definition of sin is living as though there are no rules outside of ourselves—in other words, lawlessness. The Apostle John explains this in 1 John 3:4-10.

⁴Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:4-10, NRSV.

We don’t like rules, unless we make them. This is sin. It is what sin is. This is the way of the devil. “Did God really say that you couldn’t eat of that tree? Oh, come on, you won’t die. Make up your own mind. You’re smart; you’ve got the spirit of God breathed into you; you’re wise, wiser than these dummies anyway. You don’t need laws or leaders. You can lead yourself.” Satan…every time.

This spirit is being revealed in these days, both in the world and in the church. And some of us are being shamed because we follow rules, because we embrace structure, because we refuse to be a law unto ourselves. Of course, Paul reminded the Philippians in verse one of the letter he wrote to them that they were (and we are) first and foremost slaves of Jesus. So, we don’t submit to requirements that are disloyal to Him. But, short of that, let me encourage us: we are of God. Our accusers, in this instance, are not.

In fact, this desire to be a law unto oneself is explained by Paul as a sign that a society is nearing its end. This is what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

¹You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. ²For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³inhuman, implacable, slanderous, profligates, brutes, haters of good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵holding to the outward form of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid them!
2 Timothy 3:1-5, NRSV.

Avoid those who tell you that they don’t need rules and regulations—that law and structure and organization and accountability and orderliness are inhibiting to life. That is the enemy talking. The opposite is true. Avoid those who want to be a law unto themselves and refuse to submit to anything but their own scruples and discernment. They are not of God.

The people of God seek accountability, community discernment, and laws and authority outside of themselves. The people of God seek to make it easy to govern us, so long as we are not led into disobedience to Jesus. The people of God are not kings, nor do we wish to be such. We are slaves of Jesus, servants of each other, and sent to the world.

We seek to respect others. We do not seek respect from others. We forgive those who sin against us. We do not demand forgiveness from others. We repent of our own sins. We do not demand that others repent. We seek to live within structures and boundaries in the world, in our communities, and in our lives. We recognize that life and freedom depends on law and boundaries.

To those who have ears to hear, let them hear. Do not become discouraged, people of God. Your labor in the Lord will be richly rewarded.

Reflecting on the Voice of God

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

I am an academically-minded person who has been raised in a pietistic tradition. Oftentimes I have found these two aspects of my religious identity to be mutually complementary. However, at other times they have caused some conflict for me. Perhaps nowhere is this conflict more apparent than in my longing to hear God’s voice in my own life and experience.

Most of my training in exegesis and hermeneutics–that is, the tools, assumptions, and methods of biblical investigation and interpretation–came from two schools rooted firmly in what is often called the ‘theologically conservative evangelical tradition’—Gordon College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In those contexts I came to appreciate the distinction traditional Christianity has drawn between the way God spoke to and through the prophets and apostles who wrote and edited the canonical Christian Scriptures and the ways in which God speaks to us today. In these contexts, at least as I experienced them, it is deemed most appropriate to seek to hear God’s voice by a living engagement with Christian Scripture. In many ways I have found these exhortations persuasive.

However, my primary experience of Christian formation and community has been in the more pietistic tradition of the Church of the Nazarene, which has been shaped in fundamental ways by the American Holiness Movement of the 19^th century. Whereas my formal education encouraged me to seek God’s voice through a disciplined study of the canonical Christian Scriptures, my pietistic upbringing also encouraged me to be suspicious of the sterilizing of God and His contemporary accessibility and activity that I was warned often occurred in the ivory towers of academia. As a pietist, I am convinced that God still speaks, and I long to hear God’s personal voice speaking personally to me in the intimacy of a growing relationship with the Creator of all things. As I have come to understand my own upbringing, the pietist in me is inclined to believe that the canonical Scriptures create space for God to speak, but the voice of God is more immediate, more immanent, and more personal than the voices preserved in the written Word of God. In many ways I have found these commendations to be persuasive, as well.

So, I find myself bearing the strange, and sometimes lonely, conviction that the Scriptures are inerrant (without error) in all that the writers of Scripture intended to contend for or against while at the same time being convinced that God did not stop interacting personally with His people after the death of the last of the Apostolic witnesses–that is, the writers of the New Testament. Consequently, and perhaps paradoxically, I remain convinced that God speaks to us, and yet, I am also convinced that the only place we can be certain we have heard God’s voice is in living engagement with the canonical Christian Scriptures. These are the tensions out of which I read Scripture, and before I proceed to reflect on the ‘voice of God’ today, I thought it best to place these assumptions on the table, so to speak.

So with these preliminaries before us, I want to begin to reflect on a story preserved in chapter 13 of the First Testament book of 1 Kings that has long perplexed me. After the death of King Solomon, his son Rehoboam became king over Israel. However, because of Solomon’s idolatry in the latter years of his life, God had covenanted to take the larger part of the tribes of Israel and give them to another, hence dividing the one nation of Israel into two. The man God chose to govern the northern kingdom of Israel was Jeroboam, son of Nabat.

Upon his coronation, Jeroboam began to move away from the instructions of the Law of Moses (Torah) almost immediately, and his motivations seem to have been primarily political. Rehoboam had retained kingship over the tribe of Judah, and it was in the tribe of Judah that the Temple of the Lord was located. Therefore, every time Jeroboam’s subjects were to celebrate the most important festivals of the yearly calendar, every time they were to make sacrifices for sin, every time they were to gather together to praise and worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a community, they would have had to enter into the jurisdiction of Rehoboam.

Jeroboam was a wise ruler. He realized that this reality could eventually destabilize his rule. So, his solution was to create alternative worship centers within his own borders. He placed one in the far south of his territory, in Bethel, and one in the far north, in Dan. He then instructed his subjects to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in these locations in place of Jerusalem.

Jeroboam faced another dilemma. The only family authorized to serve as priests were the descendants of Moses’ brother Aaron, and the only tribe authorized to serve at the temple was the tribe of Levi. It would seem that Levi was remaining faithful to the Law of Moses and serving in the temple in Jerusalem (or, at least, Jeroboam believed they would remain faithful). So, Jeroboam moved even further from the Torah of Moses by ‘ordaining’ folks to be priests in his new worship centers who were neither Levites nor descendants of the Levitical family of Aaron.

In response to these quite politically pragmatic decisions, which went on to plague the northern kingdom of Israel throughout its ensuing history, the Lord sent a prophet from the tribe of Judah to prophesy against the worship center in Bethel. 1 Kings 13 preserves his encounter with Jeroboam.

While Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer incense, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel ²and proclaimed against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘A son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’ ” ³He gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘The altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’ ” ⁴When the king heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But the hand that he stretched out against him withered so that he could not draw it back to himself. ⁵The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 1 Ki 13:1–5.

In response to this, Jeroboam entreated the prophet to pray for his healing, which the prophet proceeded to do. And, after being healed, Jeroboam asked the prophet to stay and eat with him. Then the prophet revealed another message he had received from the Lord:

⁸But the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your kingdom, I will not go in with you; nor will I eat food or drink water in this place. ⁹For thus I was commanded by the word of the Lord: You shall not eat food, or drink water, or return by the way that you came.”
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 1 Ki 13:8–9.

Then the prophet began his journey home, and this is where the story has gotten perplexing for me. On his way home, the prophet ran into what the text calls ‘an old prophet’, who would prove to be a false prophet. He told the prophet from Judah that he received a word from the Lord instructing them to eat together. The prophet from Judah believed him, ate with him, and, as a consequence of his disobedience to the actual word of the Lord, got mauled and killed by a lion. Yeah, that’s right.

At least three questions arise from this narrative for me: (1) How did the prophet from Judah receive the word of the Lord that led him to Bethel? (2) How was the prophet from Judah so easily deceived by a false prophet? (3) Why was the consequence for his gullibility so severe? I’m sure there are more questions that might be asked, but I want to think a bit about these three queries in the context of what it meant then and what it means now to hear the voice of the Lord.

I listened to a message this week by Nazarene evangelist Dan Bohi entitled “The Voice of the Lord.” Bohi addressed this passage specifically, and one of the things he seems to have assumed is that the prophet from Judah discerned the voice of the Lord in roughly the same way any of us would, perhaps as a sense or a feeling or a voice or an impression that comes to us personally in some way.

However, I think the details of the text suggest that prophets in these days might have been receiving a more direct kind of communication. When the false prophet reported the means by which he received his message from God, he claimed in 13:18 that an angel spoke to him. Angels (or messengers) from God are commonly referenced in the First Testament, and in every instance of direct communication with humans of which I am aware, the messenger always appeared to be a person and spoke real words into the real world. This experience is so common in the First Testament that both the writer of Hebrews (Heb. 2:2) and the Apostle Paul could maintain that the old covenant was given by angels.

¹⁹Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ga 3:19.

In fact, in every instance of the First Testament that I can recall, when God spoke to a person, He spoke either through a real, tangible messenger, by direct encounter with God, or by a repeated dream confirmed by a specified, alternate interpreter. What I’m saying essentially is that the First Testament seems to assume that the voice of the Lord was not a deeply subjective type of communication that was to be personally and individually discerned.

And it would seem that this is what tripped up the prophet from Judah in this story. The older prophet claimed to have had such an encounter, and the text implies, to my reading, that his son served as witness. Two witnesses were sufficient under the Law of Moses to verify such a claim, and so, the prophet from Judah assumed God had changed His mind. What he did not realize is that the older prophet was a false prophet intent on deceiving him. Was there any way he might have known to be wary?

The young prophet from Judah seemed quite clear on what God wanted him to declare in his confrontation with Jeroboam, which was confirmed by two signs (as required by the Law of the Moses)—the splitting of the altar and the shriveling of Jeroboam’s hand. He should have trusted the word entrusted to him. However, he did not allow God’s certain word to help him to discern the false word of the older prophet. He allowed the two claims to compete, and he paid the penalty for his gullibility. In fact, in Deuteronomy 13:1-4 the Law of Moses had already prepared him for this sort of a dilemma.

13 If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents, ²and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, “Let us follow other gods” (whom you have not known) “and let us serve them,” ³you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. ⁴The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Dt 13.

The Torah had warned that God would allow false prophets to live and to thrive among the people of Israel as a means of testing the faithfulness of the Israelites. No matter how persuasive a speech, how miraculous a demonstration of power, or how truthful a teaching might appear to be, there was a sure test of its truthfulness built into the Torah. If the prophet who performed the miracle or spoke the word encouraged disobedience to the instructions of God, that alone was proof of falseness. The prophet of Judah might have known that the second instruction to disregard the first could not have been from God. Perhaps the consequence was so dire because the stakes of failing to discern are so very high for the people of God.

Jesus, too, it would appear was cognizant of this teaching of Torah. He affirmed as much in Matthew 5:17-19:

¹⁷“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.^{^[5]}
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Mt 5:17–19.

Jesus, too, insisted that however His teachings might be interpreted, they should not be understood as nullifying the Torah given to Israel. Paul’s use of Torah to mediate ethical disputes in the early church seems to flow out of this assumption, as well, as do the ethical instructions of the rest of the New Testament. Even the book that draws the sharpest distinction between the Old and New Covenants, the book of Hebrews, still exhorts believers to submit to the moral and ethical requirements of Sinai. For the writer of Hebrews, only those requirements of the Law completed by the ministry of Jesus both as sacrifice and as High Priest—sacrifices, purification rituals, separation rituals, etc.—need not be repeated any longer. My inclination is to believe that Jesus intended to clarify and perhaps even to expand Torah, but not to alter or diminish what had already been given.

False teachers and prophets proved to be as much of a challenge in the New Testament writings as they had been throughout the history of Israel to that point, and I suspect that their presence will remain with us as long as the Lord tarries. Further, my inclination is to be believe that the criteria by which falseness might be discerned today remains much the same as it was for Israel. To quote the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1, speaking on behalf, I believe, of the prophets of Israel and the Apostles of Jesus:

⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! ⁹As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ga 1:8–9.

Does God still speak today? I think He does. Will He speak a word today that invalidates the words He has delivered to us through the prophets of Israel and the Apostles of Jesus? I think the answer is no. May those who have ears to hear, listen.

Three Shrubs

There was a green land, green like the Garden of Eden. There were many trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses. Everything was alive and bright and flourishing. Three other shrubs were in the meadow. Two had been planted years before, and they were alike in kind and size. The third was planted only recently and was distinct from the other two. All three were brown and dead.

Then the Lord said, “Breathe life into the shrubs.” So, a man breathed on the shrubs and said, “Live.”

After a few days the two older plants came to life, grew new vines, and began to overrun their previous growth. They flourished in the days that followed. But, the third plant—the youngest of the three—did not flourish. It remained dead and lifeless.

The Lord said, “Walk around the dead shrub for seven days. For the first six days say these words to the shrub, ‘The Lord commands you to live.’ But, on the seventh day breathe on the shrub and say, ‘Receive life’.”

So, a man did as the Lord had instructed, and on the seventh day he breathed on the shrub and told it to receive life. But, the plant remained lifeless and dead.

On the eighth day the Lord said, “Whatever does not bear fruit will be thrown into the rubbish heap. Take that dead shrub that would not live, and tear it up from the ground, roots and all. Throw that lifeless shrub into the rubbish heap, for it has failed to bear fruit.”

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

A Final Appeal

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

When the people of Israel fell into sin under the reign of Rehoboam, son of Solomon, God determined to destroy them through Shishak, Pharaoh of Egypt.

But, in those days God’s people repented of their sins and determined in their hearts to return to Him and to the covenant they had made with Him at Sinai. So, God relented from their destruction. God allowed Shishak to pillage the land, and God made Judah a subservient state to Egypt, but He did not destroy the nation.

As in the days of Rehoboam, my discernment is that God’s church has been unfaithful to Him. And, as in the days of Rehoboam, God has determined to bring judgment.

But, God has sent us prophets, as He sent Shemaiah to Rehoboam, to warn God’s people in advance. To those who have repented, God will show mercy in the midst of judgment. To those who have remained steadfast in their unfaithfulness, God will show no mercy.

I and others like me have been bringing these warnings to the church for the last two decades. I believe the days of warning have come to an end. Those who have repented will be shown mercy in the days to come. Those who have not repented, will reap the whirlwind they have sown.

I do not believe God will relent or change His mind. God’s judgment is light, but God’s people have loved darkness. The day of the Lord is drawing near.

Woe to the people of the earth who have hidden themselves in shadows, for the light of truth will expose every heart and every thought to the light of day. All that has been done in secret will be proclaimed from the rooftops, and every hidden thing will be exposed.

Come into the light, people of God, for darkness will hide us no longer. Light is coming, and light is judgment on darkness. But, for those who walk in the light as God is in the light, your good deeds will be exposed and you will be known as children of the Almighty.

We must heed these words. It is all I can hear God saying.

The Breath of God

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

Reflecting on John 20:19-31

In the beginning God fashioned humanity out of aphar—out of dust. There was nothing special about the material. Today we might say, protons, electrons, and neutrons. It was common, unsubstantial stuff. But God breathed on it. God shared his life with the dust, and a nephesh—a living being—was born.

And God spoke to Adam. God gave him tasks to accomplish. God had planted a garden, and God instructed him in how to tend it. And then God entrusted him with the authority necessary to carry out His word. This was creation. And, for a while, humanity walked in the direction God had sent us.

But, we know the rest of the story from there. Humanity turned from life and embraced what we were before God had breathed on us. We clung to the flesh—to the aphar—and our spirits became divided, soiled, unclean. And out of that heart came founts of violence, indulgences, envies, and destructiveness. Rather than tending the garden, our ancestors consumed it. Rather than bringing forth life, they brought forth death. And in the days of Noah, God gave them the fullness of the world they had chosen. Only Noah and his family survived the destruction that ensued.

Noah survived because he walked with God, and God protected him. And again, God breathed out a covenant. Again God gave humanity responsibilities. And again humans were set on a path out of darkness and into the light.

But, Noah and his children did not continue in God’s way. By the days of Abraham, none walked with God. So, God called to a man who did not know Him, and God breathed on him a covenant. Several times God breathed on Abraham, and with each new breath God gave him additional responsibilities in the world. Abraham walked with God, and then Isaac, and then Jacob, and then the children of Israel. In each generation God breathed His covenant, and in each generation some walked with God.

Then God breathed on Moses, and God gave him the responsibilities of speaking—breathing—on Pharaoh, and of delivering God’s people from Egypt, of breathing out the Torah that God had breathed into him, and of leading God’s people through the wilderness.

After him, God breathed a covenant on Joshua, and then on the judges of Israel, and then on Samuel, and then on Saul, and then on David, on whom God’s covenant, God’s breath, God’s spirit came to rest. David, too, walked with God, and God breathed on his descendants.

God continued, after David, to breathe on prophets, who breathed out on God’s people what God had breathed into them. And then God rested, and God waited. The breath of God’s mouth drove the people of Israel into exile because, like in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Babel, they had turned against God’s word, God’s breath, and they had fought to return to dust.

In due time, God breathed on their captors and gave them the responsibility of returning the people of Israel to the land of David, but God did not breath again on His people. God sent a few, last prophets before He fell silent, and then, God’s people waited. But, they grew impatient, and in their impatience they poured over what God had breathed on their ancestors. They were greedy for the breathing of God, and they worshipped the breath of their ancestors. Yet, still, God did not speak.

But then, God breathed again. God spoke to John the Baptist, and John breathed out what God breathed in. He called the people of God to turn and walk with God as Adam had, as Eve had, as Enoch had, as Noah had, as Abraham had, as Samuel had, and as David had. Some were deaf to God’s word. Some heard but did not understand. And some heard and breathed in what God had breathed out. They followed John.

But God had given John the responsibility to speak but not to lead or to guide. That responsibility God reserved for Himself. As God Himself had walked with Adam and with Eve, God determined to walk with humanity again. And again God would breathe on the dust, and again God would entrust His people, His children, with responsibilities in His world.

John baptized God as He journeyed among us in the flesh of Jesus. God walked amongst His people, and God breathed on them. God fought their ignorance and violence with the breath of His mouth. God again made a covenant with them and spoke to them of what it means to tend the garden—the kingdom of God. He taught them how to walk with God.

The Father entrusted twelve with His breath, His words, and two failed to receive them. The first embraced the darkness before God would breathe on him again. The second failed to remain with his brothers. But ten had received the word that God had spoken, and they stayed together, despite their fear and doubt.

So, God breathed on them again. God made a covenant with them. They were to remain in Jesus, keep His word, and, on this night, God entrusted His breath to them. And with that breath came reconciliation with God (forgiveness) and condemnation. They were sent into God’s garden to breathe on the dry bones of God’s people what God had breathed into them. And God has entrusted the forgiveness or condemnation of their brothers and sisters to the word God gave them to speak.

They have breathed out, what God has breathed in. At Pentecost God entrusted their breath to the church, but God would make no new covenant with humanity other than that He made with them. Their word is the final breath of God, and the fate of all who have followed after them is to be determined by response to their testimony.

Do not come to God, people of the earth, without them. God’s word is their word, and their word is God’s word. God entrusted Thomas and later Matthias and later Paul with the bearing of this same word, as well, but these ten were given this unique responsibility, and with them it remains.

Each of us has received this breathing through them. God’s testimony comes to us through theirs. These books are written that just as we share our life with our children, the life God breathed on them might be shared with us.

Now God is breathing again. God is bringing judgment on the darkness. The judgment God brings is light. All that has been hidden is being revealed. For those who will receive God’s breath, the light will be a refiner’s fire. For those who cling to the flesh and to the dark, God’s light will prove terrifying and destructive to the fabrication they have built.

God is tearing down the idols—in churches, in culture, and now in homes. Purify your homes, people of God. Remove all leaven. Tear down all idols. Make yourselves no more graven images. Dwell on the light and no longer on the darkness.

For those who hide their idols in their homes as Rachel hid her idols beneath her saddle and as Achan buried his idols beneath his tent, the light will bring only despair. For those who bring their idols outside their homes and cast them to the rubbish heap, the light will be their joy, and they will rejoice at its coming.

But, God’s people have said, “We have no idols. We have only the worship of the Lord our God.” But, we have deceived ourselves. Everywhere God looks He sees His people worshipping the works of their own hands. God sees flags and statues, crucifixes and cathedrals, achievements and children worshipped and praised and celebrated while God’s word goes unheeded and God’s people perish for lack of knowledge of Him.

We must receive what God has breathed into these men, and we must breathe out what we receive upon our children and our neighbors and our nation. Why will we remain in darkness? Will those who have pursued life and salvation in Jesus grab hold only of ash and dust? Will those who God has called and convicted and spoken with listen only to the works of their own hands and the products of their own bodies?

Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is no other. We must open our eyes and see the darkness within us. God is breathing on us now, why will we not receive? We must deny ourselves, despise all but God’s breath and we will live. But, if we cling to the darkness and the lies of the nations of the earth, we will not withstand His coming.

We must purge our houses of leaven by tearing down the idols we have made. Let the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who became flesh in the Person of Jesus be the Lord of your household and worship no longer the work of your hands or the generation of your bodies. For the Day of the Lord is at hand. And the Morning Star is rising with healing in His wings.

Now is the hour of salvation! To those who cling to the flesh, light is dawning, and who can endure its rising? But, to those who will forsake their idols and worship the Lord our God only, the hour of our healing is drawing near.