All posts by Tony

Vought F-8 Crusader

Aviation
This entry is part 20 of 22 in the series Beautiful Destroyers

It’s been a while since I have done a post on the Beautiful Destroyers – the ironic observation that some of the most beautiful aircraft ever built were made with the express purpose of breaking things belonging to other people.

Today, I would like to introduce you to the Vought F-8 Crusader.

The Crusader was a carrier-based air-superiority fighter designed in the mid-1950s, and used by the US Navy, the US Marine Corps, the French Navy and the Philippine Air Force. A real ‘hot ship’, she was the US Navy’s first real supersonic fighter; previous fighters could go supersonic in certain circumstances (usually a powered dive) but the Crusader could do it in level flight. The Crusader was also known as the ‘Last Gunfighter’ because she was fitted from the outset with four 20mm Colt cannon, in an era where fighter jet designers were moving away from gun-armed fighters and majoring on missile-armed interceptors.

In the Vietnam War, however (1965-1972) the ‘missile-only’ tactical doctrine was revealed as essentially flawed, as North Vietnamese MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG-21 fighters, which were (in the case if the MiG-17s and MiG-19s) much older than the American fighters and indeed almost obsolete, were able to get ‘in close’ and use their guns, where the Americans couldn’t fire back. This was because not only were missiles quite unreliable in those days, but also they were not really designed to be launched from hard-manoeuvring aircraft at small, agile targets. They also had a ‘minimum range’ limitation and could not be launched if the target was too close – because they took time to arm themselves after launch.

For the Crusader, however, this was not a problem, because she already had her guns built-in. Indeed, so successful was the Crusader against the MiGs that the North Vietnamese pilots reportedly had far more respect for the Crusaders than any other American fighter.

It is also worth mentioning that, because of the lessons learned in Vietnam, the majority of today’s ultra-modern fighter aircraft, produced by all nations, now carry at least one internal gun.

So, what is it with the Crusader? Why do I find her so beautiful? Well, there’s the clean, sleek lines, the lovely wing shape, the huge air intake under the nose which suggests a belligerent, aggressive attitude, and to be honest she invokes in me a visceral ‘oomph’ sort of feeling whenever I see a picture one of these lovely aircraft.

And – she just ‘looks’ right! And as the old pilots’ adage goes, if an aeroplane looks right, she will fly right 🙂

She also has some interesting design features, particularly the ‘variable-incidence’ wing. The entire wing can be tilted ‘upwards’ so as to increase the lift capacity of the wing for slow-speed work, particularly when landing on aircraft carriers, which is what this plane is primarily designed for. In addition, since she’s a carrier-based aircraft, she has to be made tough and rugged; landing on an aircraft carrier is an entirely different concept from landing on a runway. I’ve described this in some detail in this article, but suffice it to say that an aeroplane rarely arrives on an aircraft carrier in a gentle manner 😉 The variable-incidence wing is visible in the ‘up’ position in this photo of an F-8 about to snag the arrester cables on its carrier’s landing deck*:

…and here’s a photo of a Crusader just about to undergo a steam catapult launch from its carrier:

The version above is the reconnaisance version of the Crusader, the RF-8; the difference is visible in the absence of the cannon muzzles and the addition of the side-facing camera apertures (the black rectangles on the fuselage of the aeroplane).

Earlier in this series, I posted an article on the Russian Tu-95 ‘Bear’ bomber, and pictures of various Western interceptors escorting them. The Crusader, of course, also routinely intercepted Bears, often performing reconnaisance over (or near) the aircraft carrier group. Here’s a US Navy F-8 shadowing a Bear:

…and then a lovely shot of a Bear flying right over the USS Oriskany, with its F-8 Crusader escort in attendance:

This sort of mission (for the Bears) would be primarily ELINT – Electronic Intelligence – the gathering of data on the other side’s electronic emissions, such as radar and communications. In those days, if you decided to fly near an American carrier group, you could guarantee that there would be a lot of radars looking at you, a fair bit of radio chatter, and you’d get some close-up photos of the aircraft that they sent up to take a look at you. And this sort of information would be priceless, should you ever need to fight a war against those people whose technology you are checking out. But the ‘defenders’ still need to send up interceptors, just to make sure that the visitors stay out of mischief 🙂

Here’s another shot of an RF-8 reconnaissance Crusader, showing off that lovely wing shape:

And finally, a monochrome shot of the prototype XF8U-1 Crusader, in 1955:

So there she is, the F-8 Crusader. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful of all the Beautiful Destroyers.

Header Picture Credit: Gaetan Marie

*Observant readers will notice that the Crusader in the carrier landing photo does not have its arrester hook extended. This means that the aeroplane will not stop on the deck; rather she will ‘bolter’, US Navy slang for doing a ‘touch-and-go’. The pilot will touch down on the deck, but will not snag a wire; instead, he will pile on the power and take off again. This sort of thing is done in order to practise approaches and landings, but without actually stopping, and it’s a very common practice also in land-based flight training at any level.

For more information on this beautiful aircraft, take a look here.

On Repentance

Insights, Others' stuff

In many of my blog posts, I mention the idea that ‘repentance’ is not what many churches have taught over the years.

It actually means changing your mind.

Most of the time it is described by Christians as a ‘turning around; a U-turn if you like, and usually in terms of repentance from sin, or a turning away from sin, as seen by the person demanding the repentance. And, for some, it can indeed be that, but it’s not always that. I’m going to pass you over once again to the brilliant Mike Douglas, of the blog ‘Getting Back to My Future‘. Here, Mike describes what he feels repentance really is:

Repent, in our dictionaries, is defined as a verb meaning ‘to feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin; to feel remorse, regret, be sorry, rue, reproach oneself, be ashamed, feel contrite; view or think of (an action or omission) with deep regret or remorse’.

While this is accurate, it is not how the Bible talks of repentance. The Bible has a different definition for repentance. The New Testament was originally written in Greek and the word typically translated as ‘repent’ is the Greek word “metanoia”.

It consists of two parts, first ‘meta’ which means ‘to change’. We get our word metamorphosis from this word. Like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon.

The second part, ‘noia’ means to think or to know. Think ‘knowledge’.

Combined, it means ‘to change how we think or what we know’. I think that is interesting! It’s not about not sinning or even being sorry when we do wrong. It’s about thinking differently.

But think differently about what? 

It means “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently.” Granted, if a person changes his mind (repents) toward certain behaviours in his life, he may become very sorrowful and may even stop committing those sins, but this would be a result of repenting, not repentance itself. So it’s not about thinking differently about wrongdoing in our lives.

Many understand the term repentance to mean “turning from sin.” This is not the biblical definition of repentance. Many of us were taught that repenting means to stop doing something. But, if that was true we’d all have to stop sinning before we could ask Jesus to save us. Since we can’t stop sinning, none of us would ever be saved.

When God tells an unsaved man to repent, He means for that man to change his mind about how to reach God. The person must change his mind from any idea of saving himself through religion or good works, and trust Jesus’s death as payment for everything he has done wrong. That’s it!

Repent means to change your mind. ABOUT JESUS. 

If you already know you need of a savior, you don’t need to repent to be saved, you just need to ask Jesus to save you. After we’re saved then Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in us and help us change our behavior, but that happens AFTER, not before, and even then, we never get it completely right. That’s why we are saved by grace, not by being or doing good.

To repent is to change your mind regarding Jesus. In Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2), he concludes with a call for the people to repent. Repent from what? Peter is calling the people who rejected Jesus to change their minds about Him, to recognize that He is who He said He was. Peter is calling the people to change their minds from rejection of Christ as the Messiah to faith in Him.

Repentance and Faith 

Repentance and faith can be understood as “two sides of the same coin.” It is impossible to place your faith [think trust] in Jesus Christ as your Savior without first changing your mind about who He is and what He has done. Whether it is repentance from willful rejection or repentance from disinterest, it is a change of mind. Biblical repentance is changing your mind from rejection of Christ to believing in Christ.

It is important that we understand repentance is not something we do to earn salvation. The Bible tells us that repentance is something God gives—it is only possible because of His grace.

No one can repent unless God grants repentance. All of salvation, including repentance and faith, is a result of God drawing us, opening our eyes, and changing our hearts. Put another way, He reveals Jesus to us for who He is and then invites us to change our thinking about Him.

How cool is that!

I think that’s brilliant, and he sums it up really well.

Sadly, the idea of ‘repentance’ has been misused and twisted in order to pull people into legalism – making oneself right with God by things we do or don’t do. As with so many of the simple things of faith, it’s been made more complex than it needs to be. For example, I’ve seen repentance described as the more complex idea of ‘a change of mind, leading to a change of heart, leading to a change in actions’. So in that idea they’ve taken the real, simple meaning of ‘changing your mind’, and made it far more complex, and just wrong as well. All we need to do in order to repent is to change our minds. Change our minds from the idea of getting ‘right with God’ through our own strength, thoughts, actions and deeds (which is pointless anyway (Rom 3:20, Gal 2:16, Gal 3:11 ) and instead relying entirely on Jesus and what He has already done for us.

This means that if you change your mind – repent – about your attitudes to finding your own way to God, and trusting instead in the finished work of Christ, then you will be saved. Saved from a life of drudgery and endless tail-chasing, into the life of the glorious freedom of the Children of God (Rom 8:21).

Be free!

Here is the link to the original piece

The FIFO Church

Insights

I used to go to a church where everyone had to fit in.

Everyone had to believe the same things.

If they didn’t, they were treated with suspicion and kept at arms’ length – and they certainly wouldn’t be allowed to be ‘in ministry’; that is, serving in a public role such as teaching, housegroup leading or worship leading. Only those who were fully kosher in terms of their beliefs were fully trusted. This was not done overtly, but I believe it was almost subconscious on the part of the leadership. And I imagine people knew what was going on (although as an Aspie (undiagnosed at the time) I didn’t really have a clue).

My friend at that church referred to that sort of thing as the ‘FIFO’ church – Fit In or Go Away. Yes, that’s a euphemism; deal with it 😀 * (And it has nothing to do with ‘First In, First Out’!)

And at the time, I was so blinkered that I didn’t realise it, or, if I did, I was one of those who approved of the attitude – because I did fit in, or at least I thought I did (cynically, I now believe that my ‘differences’ were tolerated because of my worship leading and musical gifts). I thought that this was the norm. In fact, I didn’t think about it much at all.

But just lately, I have got to thinking in more depth on this subject. There’s no way God made all these different people, just for them to be all the same. We are all going to have different attitudes, different beliefs, different backgrounds, talents, hang-ups, habits, situations, circumstances and what have you.

Now, if we can’t accept people who are voluntarily and regularly in the congregation – people who profess and enact belief in Jesus Christ – who show ‘differences’, then how are we ever going to bring others into the Church? People with far, far more jarring, offensive and sometimes downright disturbing tendencies? We simply will not be able to cope, and people will not come because they (either tacitly or overtly) won’t be welcome, plain and simple. This is not rocket science!

I know that all faiths and people in general have a natural tendency to gravitate towards people of like beliefs/interests/whatever, and to distance themselves from those who are different. I appreciate that. But the Church – the Body of Christ – as Jesus’s representatives here on earth, we should be different. Jesus said that people would be able to tell who are His disciples because of the love we have for one another (Jn 13:35). And I also believe that He meant, not just people in the Church (even the ‘tax collectors’ do that! (Mt 5:46; Lk 6:32)), but also those outside it.

And this is one reason why I like my church so much. It’s an inner-city church where we get all sorts of real people in. People who smoke, people who are addicts, people who are recovering, people who have never had a problem like that, the homeless and those who live in modest accommodation, right up to those who live in dead posh places. Everyone is different and nobody is expected to conform at all. I mean, sure, there’s the odd Fundie there who finds it hard to keep his trap shut, but again, it takes all sorts. We dwell together in harmony, regardless of differences, and there the Lord commands the blessing (Ps 133:1,3 KJV).

I’m not saying everyone has to minister to the homeless and the poor. What I am saying is that we should at least learn to minister to those who are in our own congregations, despite their differences – whether differences in sexuality, belief, status, age, or whatever.

Interestingly, the whole idea of ‘equal opportunities’ for everyone, as depicted in UK law, comes from the basic human need to be treated fairly and not discriminated against. Now, granted, it’s not perfect, but it’s a step on the path. If the world can do this, then how much more so the Church, in which there is supposed to be “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ” (Gal 3:28)? What the Life of Jesus does in this case is to remove the barriers between people and help them relate to one another as Family. In some places, yes, this is a dysfunctional family – but with a little effort and application, it’s possible to turn this around. How? As always, start with yourself. Determine to treat others with respect and love; do not judge or condemn others for what they do, say, what they are or what they eat.

Do this not as a set of Rules, but let it flow naturally from your life in the Spirit. Determine to be Jesus to those around you. Make everyone properly welcome, not as ‘evangelistic targets’, but merely and simply as people. Imagine how you would feel if (whatever), and run with that. As an Aspergic person, this is something I have had to train myself in; for those to whom it comes naturally, go ahead and use your abilities in the Spirit!

And it will happen. And the church will no longer be ‘FIFO’

Yes!

*If you are offended by ‘cuss words’, then please let me apologise for the offence but also may I suggest you get a sense of perspective. In any event, I needed to include the euphemisms because they are part of the impact of the piece.

A Vewwy Gweat Fwiend in Wome…

Humour

You’ve probably gathered by now that I have a rather silly sense of humour. Very silly indeed.

And much of it is inspired by the revolutionary humour of the Monty Python team: Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Carol Cleveland (who was often known as the ‘Seventh Python’)

Not only was the Python humour genre completely different from other types of humour that had been seen before – especially on the prim-and-proper BBC (all kudos to them for taking the risk in the first place!) – but it was also written and performed by people who, in my opinion, rank among the greatest comic geniuses of all time.

I think that one of the best pieces they ever did was the movie ‘Life of Brian‘, its title lampooning the title of the movie ‘Life of Christ’, and which of course offended many stick-in-the-mud Christians when it first appeared. Even as a fundamentalist at the time, however, I saw it as being absolutely hilarious. Like all the best comedy, it lampoons, exposes and ridicules the silly little sacred cows we all have, and makes us laugh at ourselves. If we have a sense of humour, that is. Unless you can laugh at yourself, you shouldn’t really laugh at others. Conversely, though, if you can (and do) laugh at yourself, then that, in my view, gives you the right to laugh at anyone and anything, because you don’t take yourself so seriously that you can ever mean such laughter in a bad way.

Anyhow, here is the classic scene from Life of Brian where Pontius Pilate, played by Michael Palin, gets annoyed when the soldiers find his friend’s name – ‘Biggus Dickus’ – to be funny. This is probably the greatest comedy sequence of all time, in my book. Added to the brilliant comic timing and the expressions on the actors’ faces is the wonderful choice of words in the script that take maximum advantage of the lisp that the character Pilate has in this movie. If you haven’t seen this before, this will explain the strange nature of my title for this piece.

Right, over to the Pythons. You may need a box of tissues on hand because this might well reduce you to tears of laughter.

“I will not have my fwiends widiculed by the common soldiewy!”

Classic. Laughter is definitely one of the best things that God invented, along with the joy that feeds it. Laugh out loud, and love it, and live!

Peace and Gwace to you!

Header picture shows Python team member, the late Graham Chapman, in his role as ‘Biggus Dickus’, Pilate’s vewwy gweat fwiend in Wome, from later in the movie. Chapman also played the lead character, ‘Brian’. Or, should I say, ‘Bwian’? 😉 hehe

Is Your Bible an Idol?

Insights, Others' stuff
This entry is part 18 of 33 in the series About the Bible - Inerrancy, Infallibility, Inspiration and Revelation

Here’s a great piece about idolising the Bible above God. It’s from the ‘Unfundamentalists’ blog, and is written by Darrell Lackey:

“The Bible is not God, nor do symbols on a page contain God. God is not hiding in the ink or paper molecules/atoms of the Bible. God existed before the Bible. Every time we read or quote a passage of Scripture in an authoritative way, it doesn’t mean God is speaking either to us or through us. It simply means we are reading symbols on a page that represent meanings, which we then interpret. Whether or not we truly understand the meaning or purpose of those symbols is something else entirely. It’s possible I am idolizing my understanding of those symbols, rather than worshipping (or even interpreting correctly) what they may be pointing toward.

“A person could memorize the entire Bible. They could quote a Scripture verse for every problem, argument, or issue at hand. One could study the Bible deeply every day, for a lifetime. One could do all this and never know the God of whom it speaks. One could do this and be a mean, angry, and selfish person. One could do this and never lift a finger for another human being. One could do this and be nothing more than a judgment machine, handing out judgments, opinions, and confident assertions about the world and everyone else.

“How do I know this? Because I’ve experienced it. I know some of these people. I stopped being impressed by people who’ve memorized a lot of Scripture a long time ago. Why? Because I knew too many of them who were awful people.

“Bible knowledge will never substitute for a relationship with the subject of that book. Imagine a woman named Susan. Suppose I have a book about her life. I could read all day long about Susan and memorize much of the information. I might even fall in love with the Susan I read about.

“However, it may be the words, the description, the sense I get from the book in my own mind that I’m actually in love with. Not Susan. I’ve fooled myself. I’m actually in love with my knowledge of Susan—my mental picture of her. I might think to myself, other people know things about her too, but not as much as I do. I love how much I know about her (see the problem there?).

“However, unless I actually met Susan and spent time with her and got to know her personally, outside that book, I DO NOT REALLY KNOW SUSAN.

“An anticipated response: “But if the Bible is the primary way to know Jesus, if he reveals himself, his thinking, his desires, what he wants from us, in that book, isn’t that what is really happening—we are in fact meeting and knowing him through this book?”

“First, note how this type of response situates the person contextually in a time (modern) and place (America/the West) where the Bible as we know it is common and readily accessible—as if our time and location (a short blip on the radar screen of history) was the pinnacle of wisdom on the subject. The response forgets the first Christians (or the Hebrews before), who did not have what we think of as the complete Bible today. In fact, such would not exist until several centuries after Christ. And guess what, they still knew Jesus, they still knew God. Jesus did not need for a complete Bible to be present before he communicated with his people.

“The first Christians had the Hebrew Scriptures and the Apostle’s letters in circulation, but this was not a literate culture—most could not read. They came to know Jesus through the spoken words and lives of others, not primarily from a book or Bible as we know it.

“As Australian systematic theologian Geoff Thompson has noted:

‘…the fundamentals of Christian faith were already in place in creeds, liturgies and summary statements of faith before the extent of the Christian Scriptures was settled. It was not the Bible which produced Christian belief. Rather, the Bible emerged in the process of clarifying the details of Christian faith. In other words, it was because you believed certain things about Jesus and God that led you to believe certain things about the Bible.’

“Even in its complete form, regardless of how we think the Bible is inspired or authoritative, it is still not God. The reader, the interpreter is not God. Our thoughts, views, and opinions about what we think the text means, are not God. Our vocal or quoted expressions of the text, are not God. Our typing out a verse of Scripture is not God. Our theological frameworks are not God.

“Second, such a response completely eschews the ancient mysticism of the Church and the idea that experience, intuition, reason, communal teaching, acting, and the liturgical inhabiting of the faith were also ways in which God as Trinity “spoke” and communicated with the Church, apart from the Bible or written forms.

“And just a side note to all this: Fundamentalist Christians (and some evangelicals), when the Church is discussing same-sex attraction, marriage, abortion, the death penalty, gender roles, or any other complicated issue where there is respectful disagreement on both sides, if you think merely quoting a Scripture verse somehow settles the matter, then you are incredibly shallow and, frankly, ignorant. If you really think the people in those discussions weren’t aware of those verses, then I feel sorry for you. It means you are a child who has wandered into an adult conversation.

“Too many fundamentalists (and many evangelicals) make of the Bible, and their understanding of it, an idol. They worship a book and their knowledge of it. Their “relationship” is with a book, rather than with the one of whom it speaks. Christian: Don’t make of your Bible an idol—don’t be an idol worshipper.”

Here’s the link to the original article

The Secret of the Lord

Insights, Personal

I think it’s fair to say that God knows everything. He knows how everything is put together, how it all works, how it all began and how it all ends. And yet, in the midst of all that wonder, He chooses to let us ‘in’ on His secrets.

Now, everyone loves a secret that they are privy to. You’ll remember the delicious feeling, when we were kids, of being ‘in the know’; maybe being part of a secret club or ‘gang’ (not a ‘gang’ in its modern sense!); a group of kids who all identified with each other and who were all ‘in’. Great fun, wasn’t it? 😀

And I think that this is a precursor to knowing the secrets of God. That same desire to ‘know stuff’, which manifests itself differently in different people. For some it might be a desire to indulge in gossip about others’ private lives; for others it’s a desire to work things out in great detail; for still others it may be something else entirely. So I do believe it’s part of every human’s makeup in one form or another.

But for me there is no more fascinating quest than that of the pursuit of the secret things of God. To see in increasing measure what His purpose is; to see His attitudes; to know His love; to know many, many other things, maybe not even necessarily things directly about Him, that I can’t even begin to describe. Even the beginning of the knowledge of the answers to the deep questions of life is to be found in this quest.

As a medical research scientist, many years ago, I discovered how many things worked in a medical sense. That’s what we did. We were finding out these previously unknown things – secrets, if you will – that, up until we had made the discovery, nobody knew about.

And yet that’s nothing compared with knowing God and knowing about His ways. Consider also, there are Life’s Big Questions too, which I have touched on previously – why do bad things happen; why does God allow suffering and death – yes, I have those questions too.

So in this piece, then, I will attempt to explore something of what this ‘The Secret of the Lord’ is all about. The Psalmist said, “The secret of the Lord [is] with them that fear Him; And He will shew [archaic: show – Ed] them His covenant” – Ps 25:14 (KJV) – and that’s what we’re going to be looking at today.

But first, let’s just deal with that word ‘Fear’, shall we? The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him? As I have said in a previous article, the word ‘Fear’, when seen in the Bible in the context of the ‘Fear of God’, does not mean what people in this day and age understand as ‘fear’. The word ‘fear’ has been retained in modern translations, despite its archaic use (and hence my use of the King James Version quotations to illustrate this), but it meant a different thing then from what it does now. The cynic in me says that this has been done for control purposes, but then that’s just my opinion. I’m not going to go into more detail here, but if you would like some more background on the common misuse of this word in the Bible, please take a look at this article. Suffice it to say for now that it’s a very rich word with connotations far exceeding simple ‘terror’; that the word can mean concepts more like ‘respect’, ‘awe’ or even ‘worship’ too, and given that perfect Love has no room for ‘fear’ as we understand the meaning of the word today, we would expect that the context is less to do with terror than it has to do with love. So, when we talk about people who ‘fear’ the Lord, we are talking about those who love Him, who worship Him, and who think He’s just pretty amazing. That’s what we’re talking about here.

So, to paraphrase Ps 25:14, ‘The secret of the Lord is with those who think He’s amazing’. Ok? But I am going to carry on using the word ‘fear’ in this article because it is the form of the Scripture passage that most believers will be familiar with. Just remember what the word really means, right?! 🙂

So, then, using our knowledge of Hebrew parallelism, we can at least see that the two concepts in Ps 25:14 are linked, in that to those who fear the Lord and know His secrets, He will show His covenant. In other words, the very idea of God showing His secrets to those who fear Him means that He makes His covenant – the ways in which He has promised to relate to us – known to us in increasing measure. And while that’s absolutely wonderful, there’s a lot more that He makes known to us as well.

And this is to be expected. God’s dealings with His faithful have always involved Him telling us stuff that we wouldn’t previously have known. Even as far back as Genesis, God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Gen 18:17). As St. Paul wrote, “…The natural man [that is, one not walking in the Spirit] does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ” – (1Cor2:14-16) If we are living a supernatural life, then it is to be expected that God will reveal new and surprising things to us through His Spirit; things we were not expecting, things we did not ask for, and certainly things that we didn’t know before and would have no way of knowing without the Spirit of God showing us these things.

Linked with this is the idea that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” – (Prov 9:10). Do you see the connection there; the common root? If we begin by approaching the Lord in ‘fear’ – worship, adoration, awe and just generally being gobsmacked – then we begin and continue our walk along the path to wisdom, which is part of the ‘Secret of the Lord’. If you’ve been a believer for some time, then you will know what I am talking about. You will be able to point to various things that God has shown you over the years that you couldn’t have known yourself; things He has shared with you, in terms of both wisdom and knowledge. If you’ve not been walking with Jesus all that long, then I rejoice in saying that you have all this to look forward to!

Much of the wisdom I have been able to share which I have learned in my grief journey since losing my wife to cancer nineteen months ago, this wisdom I have been taught in the silences of simply sitting at Jesus’s feet; in the agonies of grief; in deep, healing worship; and in the times where I have felt His tangible Presence like a warm cloak of divine Love wrapped around my shoulders. And some of this knowledge is ‘secret’ because it relates only to me; it’s personal for my circumstances – these are ‘my secrets’, if you will. But other things have been revealed that I have indeed shared. In particular, the profound realisation that death is not the end is extremely important, and had to be shared with my readers here.

He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him – Dan 2:22 (KJV)

He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. – Dan 2:22 (NIV)

‘Deep and secret things’. That sounds amazing, doesn’t it? And it is. We are privy to an immense storehouse of God’s wisdom and knowledge that He is willing to pass on to us, albeit in chunks that we can cope with. The ancient Hebrew King, David, wrote this: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” – (Psalm 139:6). Jesus Himself said several times that even once He’d gone, not only would He not leave us ‘as orphans’ (Jn 14:18), and that He would come to us and that He would send us His Spirit “…to be with you for ever” (Jn 14:16)

And He also said that, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” – (Jn 16:12-15)

I also love the bit in Matthew 11:25-27 where Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children [in the context, He was referring to His disciples here – Ed]. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, the key to all this is Jesus. Knowing Jesus is foundational. In order to sit at His feet and learn from Him, you need to come to Him. Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” – (John 17:3). If you like, the wisdom and knowledge of the ways of God, including the ‘Secret of the Lord’, is part of the ‘Eternal Life’ package; the life of the age to come being projected into the here and now. Parallel to this idea, Proverbs 8:35 says, “For he who finds me [wisdom] finds life, and obtains favour from the Lord” – Prov 8:35 (NASB)

As I mentioned above, some parts of the Secrets of the Lord can be shared; some cannot. Some we can learn from each other; from those to whom God has revealed things. Some things are too far ingrained in the route by which we learned them such that they are not communicatable because the way we learned them is too deep to be expressed. But some things are in any case altogether too sacred to share, and indeed can be potentially harmful to share with people who do not have the maturity to hear those things (cf. Heb 5:11-14)*. Some of the stuff I get from God, I know full well would cause one helluva stir if I were to let it out into the public domain. And so, the wisdom that I receive from the Lord – which I always want to have at the same time as the knowledge I receive – is that which says what is good to share, and what is not. St. Paul, somewhat modestly, declared (in the third person) that he had received visions from God that he was not permitted to share. I love the passage where he writes about this:

“Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell“.  – (2Cor12:1-4, emphasis mine)

Some of my readers will know what this is like. How many times have you had dreams where God has shared things with you that you cannot even express? I remember once (if ‘remember’ is the right word) having a dream about the things of God. I could not remember a thing about it when I woke up except that I knew that something really deep had happened. The fruits of that dream are with me to this day. I’m not talking about the ordinary kind of forgetting of dreams that always happens; I distinctly remember waking up fully from the dream that had just finished, knowing that something amazing had happened to me, but I didn’t know what it was. It seems that, on occasion, God even keeps secrets from us about His dealings with us! And talking of dreams, my late wife Fiona had a similar occurrence in her sleep in her early twenties, which was incredible but which is not my story to share.

Added to that, a few months before she died, Fiona was given a lucid vision of what Heaven was going to be like for her. And she kept that a secret from me until only a couple of weeks before her passing, because she knew that her telling me would greatly upset me, because then all my hope of not losing her would be lost. Now that’s wisdom! She was the most wise person I ever met, was my Fiona! 🙂

Another idea along these lines is that sometimes someone isn’t ready for new knowledge just yet. Let me use the example of an article I read the other day, where the writer was working through some concepts of Scripture that were bothering them. This person had some excellent ideas, some that were not so good, and also expressed some concepts that I left behind years ago. But rather than wade in and point out ‘errors’ based on my ‘knowledge’ (which I appreciate is sketchy at best!), I recognised that the writer was at a point in their own walk that was a huge step forward from where they were previously, and for them, that was amazing. And so I kept my trap shut and didn’t say anything. I sometimes think that wisdom is knowing how and when to use the knowledge that we have been given!

I also read a comment, in reply to one of Christy Wood’s posts, where the commenter said this, “Here’s the thing: even as God does gently lead me into greater understanding, I cannot then turn around and push it down the throats of others. I have to allow God to be God, and do with them as he is doing with me. If I am a parent, I have to allow my adult children to learn their own lessons, make their own mistakes and choose their own flavor of relating to God“. We can use that illustration as part of the reason why God shares with us certain things, while not sharing others.

Sometimes, the stuff He shares with us is so historically magnificent that it would destabilise lives if we were to share it. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law“. – (Deut 29:29) This is true insofar as the secret things of God were being progressively revealed to the Israelites in the desert under Moses, and later through the prophets, but were revealed in their fulness in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfilment of that Law on our behalf. And so, ‘secret things’ were revealed, yes, but their true historical significance did not become apparent until Jesus Christ. They couldn’t, and indeed shouldn’t, have known what was to come, because the ramifications were so huge. In other words, God speaks His secrets to us at a level we are able to cope with, and not necessarily at a level that others could cope with. That’s pretty deep, I know.

[1Cor 2:10]

You will probably be raring to go, to seek after the ‘Secret of the Lord’. Remember it’s not one thing, but a whole magnificent plan and destiny of which He reveals only a small part at a time, and the hugeness of which cannot be understood by mere mortals like us. But even so, having the plans of God revealed to us carries an immense sense of privilege, and an immense responsibility, to hold and use that knowledge with the wisdom that He also gives freely.

How do we start? It’s nothing heavy. The knowledge and wisdom of God is given freely to those who simply ask. Just ask Him, and then expect Him to point things out to you as you go about your everyday life, walking in the Spirit. It will happen. You may suddenly realise that for the past week, God has been speaking these secrets to you and, you haven’t realised. Don’t worry. He will bring things back to you. This is something that takes some getting used to, and it improves with practice. It’s a ‘learning curve’! Cut yourself some slack and just enjoy the experience.

Oh, and one more thing: remember it’s a ‘secret’. Don’t share stuff with others unless you are absolutely sure they can deal with it. Don’t share it boastfully or with ‘attitude’. Remember there will be those who do not, indeed simply cannot, understand. So, most of the time, keep these nuggets to yourself, let them nourish you and teach you in the ways of God. The fruits and the benefits for others will emerge in due course.

To quote J. C. Philpot, from August 1844:

“It is a secret, because it is only known to a few. It is a secret, because it is carried on in private between God and the soul. It is a secret, because never known until God the Spirit unfolds the mystery.” [1]

So, The Secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him. Enjoy this. Be fascinated by it, by your discoveries, by His revelations. Drink in the richness of His Creation, the depths of His wisdom, and the knowledge of His love, power, majesty and might.

Grace and Peace to you.

There is an interesting article that I read recently, which goes quite deeply into the ideas of sharing the ‘Secret of the Lord’ with others. “When the Lord knows that He can trust us with His secrets, He will reveal things to us which He cannot reveal to others”. Definitely worth a look. See reference [2] below.

[Edit] – I recently had a little more insight on the wisdom of sharing the deep things of God.

Firstly, there is always the ‘pearls before swine’ analogy (Matt 7:6). Don’t give certain people precious knowledge, unless you know it will be treasured.

Secondly, I recently wrote this on a Facebook post, which I think adds to our present discussion:

“The Secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him. And sometimes these secrets are too deep to share with others, especially when those others do not yet have the spiritual maturity to deal with them. When we share with the objective of putting ourselves on a pedestal about how awesome our personal revelation is, that’s a sure sign that we are not sharing at the right time. Sharing of such deep wisdom generally needs to be done in the quiet, on-on-one place, not in a big meeting where the effects can be catastrophic. Deep wisdom can be a two-edged sword; it can build up those who have the ears to hear and the eyes to see the truth, but it can also destroy those who do not have those ears and eyes. This is why knowledge of the things of God must go hand in hand with the wisdom of God. This may well be why there is such an emphasis on wisdom in the Scriptures.”

[1] https://www.gracegems.org/Philpot/secret_of_the_lord.htm
Much of what Philpot says in that sermon is stuff I don’t agree with, and it reflects the prevalent thinking of the period. But some of it is real gold. I leave it to the reader to sift it for the nuggets 🙂

[2] From ‘Love Notes’, by Mary Love Eyster: http://www.iprayprayer.com/secret-lord-fear-psalm-2514-keeping-gods-secrets/

I have reproduced Mary’s article linked to above, in a Page here on my blog. There is so much good stuff in it, and websites disappear all the time, so I wanted to make sure that it is preserved for posterity. Here is the link.

*”We have much to say about this [theological idea], but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” – Heb 5:11-14

The Baby and the Bath Water

Insights

It pains me to say this, but there are so many fake ‘ministries’ around. People who claim to be able to heal others, and charge a fortune to let people – usually those desperate for healing – into their meetings. People who whip up their congregations in order to get them to give ‘in faith’ so that they will supposedly get a large return on their ‘investment’. It makes me sick, to be honest. If these big evangelists, healers or whatever are such people of faith, then I am absolutely sure they would know that God is not short of a fiver or two. I am a man of faith and I can testify that God has never once seen me go short. But anyway, I’m not going to name any names nor am I going to judge others. What they are, they are before God, and He knows their hearts. (If they have one) Oops, sorry, I hate it when my keyboard does that… 😉

The effect of all this on the reputation of the Kingdom of God, of course, is pretty poor. Everyone except the people in those congregations ‘following’ that particular ‘ministry’ know full well, or at least strongly suspect, that the whole thing is a charade. Some of these preachers are in it for the money, some for the power, some for the fame, some for any combination of the above. And they all remind me of ‘Simon the Sorcerer’ in Acts who thought the power of God can be bought (Acts 8:18-19).

And I’m not alone in my opinion.

Lately, I read a superb piece by Allison Lynch, on Unfundamentalist, that showcases some of the frustration – not only with charlatan ‘healers’, but also with all kinds of stuff like the ‘gold dust phenomenon’ and stuff. Here is the piece; I don’t necessarily agree with the whole thing, but it needs to be stated for the context:

“I’m sensing that someone in this room has been dealing with a nagging pain in the lower half of their body.”

It’s the end of the church service and the healing and prayer session has begun. I’m sitting in a seat, maybe three or four rows back, and my ears perk up. I’ve been dealing with a stress fracture in my left foot for about six months now, which has prohibited me from running and enjoying physical activity in general. It’s been terrible. I have to wear an aircast on my left leg and hobble around all day with a lopsided gait.

I’ve seen doctors, physical therapists, and sports scientists. They’ve all told me the same thing—I just need to give it time and I need to gain weight to be in a healthy BMI zone, so I can prevent this from happening again. I can cross-train on the bike or in the pool. I should focus on my nutrition and get plenty of rest. Standard recovery stuff.

But the prayer team member up front is giving me some hope. It’s like he’s speaking directly to my soul. My heart starts beating because maybe God will finally answer my prayers. He will use this church person as a vessel to transmit His healing power.

I excitedly and cautiously approach the front of the church where the prayer team is hovering over people and whispering things in their ears. Everyone is either crying, lying on the floor, or laying hands on one another. The worship band is playing soft piano and singing breathy vocals in the background. I find an empty section and wait for someone to pray for me.

If you’ve ever been to an Evangelical Christian church service, this textbook scene probably sounds familiar. In more charismatic circles, you’ll see a lot of shaking and trembling, spontaneous shouts and moaning, and gibberish utterances, a.k.a. “speaking in tongues.” And to think I used to invite my friends to these things as I tried to “share the Gospel.” So embarrassing.

Although I received prayer that Sunday morning, my foot did not heal. Not immediately, at least. In time, I was able to increase my physical activity and return to running. Was it God? No, I don’t think so. It was my choice to listen to my doctors and be patient as my body healed.

Still, I left church that day feeling like God was punishing me for some sin I had committed, and this injury happened in order to “test” me. After all, the God I grew up with in the Evangelical world was punitive, angry, and hated Eminem songs. He allowed natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey and the California mudslides to happen because humans were not obeying him. So naturally, he let this happen to me probably because of that time I got drunk with my friends our sophomore year of high school.

For years I lived with this mindset. I was terrified of disobeying the imaginary rules God set forth, enforced by ideologies contrived by wealthy white businessmen like Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, Dr. Dobson, and Dennis Rainey. These men and their beliefs controlled my life—no boyfriends, no sex, no Harry Potter, no birth control, no secular music, no trick-or-treating, no PG-13 movies. I was a prisoner in my own life.

On top of these constant restrictions, supernatural ministry was very prominent in my church. We had courses and workshops that taught us how to invite the holy spirit, and we’d practice on each other in Sunday school. None of us had a clue what we were doing, but mimicking the adults and their strange behaviors was easy enough.

In church, they’d always tell us crazy stories about limbs growing back on people or tumors disappearing in MRI scans. Despite there being no video record of this online or reporting from reputable sources, these stories were well-received and told over and over again by the Evangelical community. Trying to prove these miracles was like chasing Bigfoot.

Then there was the gold dust. In rooms and church pulpits overwhelmed with the presence of the holy spirit, gold dust can supposedly fall from the ceiling, or appear on people’s hands. Again, I had never seen this personally, but you bet I tried and hoped it would happen to me.

These beliefs are perpetuated in charismatic circles and non-accredited ministry “schools” like the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, which is the equivalent of a Christian Hogwarts. Please Google it when you have a chance. I’m afraid I can’t cover all the absurdities in one blog post, but I’ll try to give you an overview.

Bethel is scam in the sense that it costs a lot of money to learn how to do supernatural, unproven things, but it operates like a legitimate education system. You pay money to attend a school where instead of learning applicable job skills and getting a real degree, you hang out with other Evangelical Christians and attend courses that essentially teach you how to be a prophet and a miracle worker. You also solicit your friends and family on Facebook to “please help me raise money for my trip to Australia where I’m going to sit on the beach all day and spread the Gospel.”

These “schools” do not help young adults advance their skills in the real world, but instead further advance the Evangelical agenda. Additionally, in my opinion, they bring out a sense of narcissism and self-righteousness in young individuals who believe they have the power to heal people and speak to God better than others. It fits in perfectly with the Evangelical need for power, control, and an absolute sense of morality. If you witness miracles and get “words” from the Lord, then you must be in a position of authority above others.

Here’s a prime example:

The other day, an acquaintance of mine from my former church days posted a Facebook live video of herself and a young group of people from The Gospel House (an Evangelical intentional living community out in California) giving “words” to random people in a strip mall parking lot.

A young man took hold of the phone they were passing around and started speaking to the camera. The scene was pretty boilerplate charismatic Christian: first he would whisper in tongues, then he would get quiet, then he would say “I’m getting a word…I feel like God is telling me….”

It reminded me of those cheesy Saturday morning psychic shows you watch while eating a late breakfast. During the live video, the ministry team took turns speaking to the iPhone and sharing their words, which were vague descriptions of common challenges: there is someone struggling with finances, someone who has a deep relational wound, someone who needs to know God loves them right now, etc. Easy stuff you could tell literally anyone and it would apply.

What’s even more sad is how people were engaging in the comment section. Desperate people who believed these words were for them. Who were making prayer requests on the fly. As if a group of young people standing outside of a Walmart taking selfies and sharing it on social media held the key to their futures.

I truly pity people who are still stuck in this world. Maybe it sounds arrogant, but it’s only because I know that could have been me. After graduating from a small Christian college, I considered studying at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) as I tried to figure out what “God wanted me to do.” At IHOP, you basically sit around and pray all day, you have a curfew, and you read the Bible a lot. Thankfully, I chose a marketing internship in Boston that paid $10.50/hour, which planted the seeds for my actual career.

I understand that we all want purpose and belonging. And I get that some people find it by going to places like Bethel. It’s an immediate sense of community with people who think exactly like you, and who praise you for following the biblical rules they set forth. This is basic anthropology. Unfortunately, it can be dangerous and toxic, and it can give people power to claim authority over another person’s spiritual journey who have no right to do so.

In a presidential cycle where the administration is receiving support and validation from the likes of Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, I can’t help but feel like this is a macro-version of what I experienced ten years ago during that healing service. False promises, false authority, and subjective conclusions. I guess the major difference is that the people who prayed for me then actually cared about my well-being.

As for my belief in the supernatural, I still hold on to some things. I still pray. I still believe there are things we can’t see or ever know. The universe is too big and I am too small. I do not like thinking that something can only be true if I can see it and feel it. We live in a world of layers, and our volumeless thoughts are arguably more powerful than any physical presence.

But hey, at the end of the day I’m still going to need a Youtube video or a Snapchat of your leg growing back for me to believe it. I mean, that’s just something cool I’d love to see.*

I must say straight away that one of my best friends is a trainer at a Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry here in the UK. I’ll leave it at that, except to say that it’s definitely not all bad 🙂

I didn’t agree with everything in that post, like I said, but I felt that I needed to post a further opinion in order to accentuate the positive. Not that Allison was in any way excluding real miracles – she expresses the desire to see them for herself! – but I wanted to put in a definite word for the ‘Real Thing’.

Here it is:

Well, I fully understand – and mainly agree with – the arguments expressed in the OP [original post – Ed]. And as usual, you present your arguments clearly and gently. I love your writing.

No doubt you were expecting this kind of reply, but please don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don’t let the charlatans’ fools’ gold spoil the real gold.

I personally have had real words of knowledge, very specific, for example for one particular person in a small group meeting, which resulted in her being healed of a kidney complaint. And no, I can’t document it, because we didn’t even think about trying to prove it to anyone; we weren’t bothered about proving it. And I am not claiming that words of knowledge are specifically for healing; often they are just something you know about someone or about a situation because God tells you. There are intimacies and depths with the believer’s Relationship with God that some of us have not yet plumbed; don’t let the charlatans take that away from you. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and that has been real in my experience. He tells me all kinds of things that I cannot share, but that doesn’t make them any less real.

And I personally have been healed of something too. I can’t go into details, but it happened at home, with just my wife and I present, it was totally unexpected but it happened. I have a photo of the ‘after’ the healing, but no photo of the ‘before’. So again I can’t prove it. And I’m not trying to prove it; I’m not interested in doing so because I am not trying to convince anyone. Most of the time these genuine healings occur unnoticed and undocumented, partly because they are so unexpected. Nobody ever thinks, ‘Hey, I’m going to be healed tonight, let’s take a photo of my warts before we go, and then take a picture of the clear skin afterwards’. And nobody ever gets words of knowledge about haemorrhoids…

The idea of healing is not for evidence or proof, it is for the benefit of those being healed and those around them. Counterfeit ‘ministries’ do not negate the very real things that go on in the lives of unsung people who avoid the limelight. God is up to far more than you can imagine, behind the scenes, in homes, in real lives. Don’t discount it.

God is supernatural. Don’t be surprised that He can still do supernatural things.

Oh and P.S. Like some [of the other forum replies], I too don’t like anything that has ‘ministries’ in the title. Equally, I will never, ever accept as a Facebook friend anyone whose name is ‘Evangelist’ Joseph BongoBongo, ‘Pastor’ what’s-his-face, ‘Prophet’ blah-de-blah or any other such twaddle. Believe me, my cynicism is just as real as anyone else’s, but I do recognise when there are real healings going on.

I think I don’t need to say a lot more, except to reiterate that God is the same today as He’s always been – ready to heal, ready to create, ready to be close to those who need Him. There is far more to God and to the Christian life than just healing. And the Kingdom of God is immeasurably more than these scams portray it to be.

So, let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water. There is a real God, Who does real miracles; it’s just that we don’t sees them all that often. Most of the time, in fact, the miracles are going on ‘behind the scenes’: people being quietly set free from addiction; people like me who receive inner healing from Jesus on a daily basis; people realising there is so much more to life than they formerly knew. This blog is shot through with examples of such things, but, like in life, you have to dig to find them.

Grace and Peace to you.

*The link to Allison’s original article is here

Sound Bites

Quotations, Insights, Others' stuff

I have run out of ideas for titles for my ‘quotations’ style posts. This time, I will call it ‘Sound Bites’. Next time, I have no idea 😉

Anyway:

“It occurred to me a little while ago that those who are relegating people to hell might want to pause and consider that they are not God” – ‘Sharon’

“Western Christianity has largely stripped Jesus of his teachings and made him merely a figure to worship instead of a teacher to follow. We’ve made his significance mainly as a human sacrifice to appease a distant God that we should accept to go to heaven, instead of a revealer of God’s true nature and what our role is in manifesting this God to the world for the reconciliation of all things” – Jacob M. Wright

“The correct answer to those who do not believe in ‘once saved, always saved’ is this: ‘What about once in Christ, always in Christ?’, because that’s what it amounts to. You can’t drift in-and-out of Christ. Because that nature which was crucified in Christ is dead and buried. It’s a one-way transaction; the only thing raised to life is the New Creation. The ‘flesh’ was not privy to the Resurrection deal. Don’t let anyone rob you of your assurance” – Me

“A gospel that claims to redeem humanity, but that leaves our understanding of God in the clutches of sacrifice-centered, pagan thought, is no Gospel at all. The Good News is not that we are saved from a wrathful, sin-counting, angry God, but that there is no such God from which we need saving” – Jeff Turner

“The “debt” that Jesus paid was NOT to God, but to the Law. The Law demands blood, retribution and death, even sometimes of the innocent. Jesus paid and then cancelled the claim of the Law over us” – Ken Nicholls

“…if you think merely quoting a Scripture verse somehow settles the matter, then you are incredibly shallow and, frankly, ignorant. If you really think the people in those discussions weren’t aware of those verses, then I feel sorry for you. It means you are a child who has wandered into an adult conversation.” – Darrell Lackey

“Q1: If it turns out that Jesus saves far more people than your theology anticipated, will you be mad or glad about it?
Q2: If Jesus saves people who do not fall into the religious category of Christian, will you be mad or glad about it?
Q3: Does it make you mad that I ask these questions because you are certain that such things could never happen?” – Brian Zahnd

“I think trying to get to know God by reading the Bible is like trying to get to know a celebrity by reading only the tabloids. There’s no guarantee the information you’re getting is accurate or complete” – ‘Trilemma’

“The original purpose of the law was to give structure to a people for the best way to live. It was like a finger pointing to the moon. However, the law itself had become the point. The finger became the point, and they forgot about the moon” – Jacob Turnquist

“How are we expected to trust God for our salvation if we believe in a moment’s notice he’s going to snatch it away from us!” – ‘Grandma Ja’

“The Piper Tomahawk has the glide angle of a well-tossed anvil” – Anon [and I disagree; she glides like a dream]

“When you hear faith and belief as a requirement for grace, you are hearing a false gospel.” – Nathan Jennings

The Burial

Insights, Personal
This entry is part 27 of 38 in the series Fiona

Well, at last we’ve gone and done it. A few weeks ago, we buried the casket containing Fiona’s ashes.

The casket had been sitting on a shelf at the Funeral Directors’ premises, over the nearly eighteen months since we lost Fiona. We had postponed the burial of the ashes because we didn’t feel the time was right; however, now, we have come to terms with it being time we buried the ashes, and we called the family together and went ahead and did it.

Fiona’s ashes are buried in a beautiful woodland burial site here in Devon, with lovely views and a wonderful peaceful atmosphere.

It was just a small gathering. Me; our children David, Richard and Ellie; Fiona’s Dad, her brother (and his wife) and Fiona’s sister; and Fe’s three closest friends. I put the casket down into the ground, we each threw a little earth into the grave, we talked a little and that was that. Once we’d moved off, the young man who’d dug the grave came to fill it in and it was marked with a temporary wooden cross, pending the installation of a marble plaque which will mark the grave in the long term. You can see a similar plaque in the background in this photo.

I was very surprised by the emotions I felt on that day. I thought I had, well, not got over it – I never will – but at least come to terms with it. Now, granted, I should have expected some surprise in emotional terms, given that this event marks the end of the funeral process, for want of a better term. But, in a similar way to when I went up to our old home town in Yorkshire, I was ambushed by strong emotions that I wasn’t expecting, although you’d have thought I’d have learned by now that this is quite normal 😉 The burial was scheduled for 15:00 (3pm) on that particular day, so in the morning I collected the casket of ashes from the funeral directors, put it in the front passenger’s footwell of my car, and set off for home.

It wasn’t long before my mind realised that all that is physically left of Fiona was sitting right there in the car with me. It’s a really strange sensation. And of course it brought back to me strongly the immense loss that I have suffered; that my wonderful wife should be reduced to the contents of a wooden casket roughly the size of a shoe-box. I managed to drive the car despite the tears streaming down my face, but I had to stop a couple of times as you can imagine. Of course, now she has her Heavenly inheritance, she is so much more alive and whole than she ever was when she occupied that mortal shell. The ashes do not limit what Fiona is now. When I went to visit her body in the funeral home, it was obviously apparent that the person that Fiona had been was no longer there. There is a profound stillness in death; the person’s body lies there with not the slightest flicker of life – of course! – and while she was of course recognisable, what was in that coffin was not Fiona. Her spirit had really departed; the animating factor that made her who she was, was completely gone. Unless you have lost someone really close to you and seen their dead body, it is difficult to understand what this is like.

But still, there the ashes were, and I took them home with me preparatory to going up to the burial ground. The small ‘ceremony’ – such as it was – went well and people, I think, were glad to be able to close out the ‘funeral process’ at last.

But, just like in the coffin, what is there in the ground is not Fiona. Fiona herself has gone on into the Presence of her Lord. In fact, my eldest son mentioned to me the other day that he had the distinct impression that Fiona was actually really excited to go and be with her Jesus. Isn’t that just so typical of that amazing girl whose deep, simple and trusting faith gave her that kind of comfort in the face of certain death? Wow!

The burial has been a release for the rest of us, of course, and another milestone in the grief journey. But hopefully the burial should give us all some more closure on this horrific chapter of our lives, that has been such a mixture of agony and blessing. And all the while, knowing that Fiona is safe in the arms of her Saviour, I have to say, is a huge comfort to me and also to those who share my faith. Although we know she’s not actually present, we now have a place where we can go to be close to Fiona’s remains, whenever we want to do so. Maybe take up some flowers for her birthday or for mother’s day, that sort of thing.

And I’m glad it’s done at last. Rest well, my love, until we meet again.

 

Are Unfruitful Branches Lifted Up?

Insights

The words of Jesus, in John chapter 15, about the Vine and the branches, have often puzzled me. Does the Father really cut off branches ‘in Christ’ that do not bear fruit (Jn15:2)? The reason it’s always puzzled me is not because of the threat value, beloved of course of the Legalism brigade, but because that sort of behaviour doesn’t sound at all like my Heavenly Father. Not at all.

In this excellent blog post, Paul Ellis, author of the blog Escape to Reality, expands on these passages and explains how the words have been mistranslated.

The branches are lifted up, not cut off!

Here’s the piece in its entirety:

Here is possibly the worst verse in the Bible:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. (John 15:1-2, NIV)

I say worst verse because this is a shockingly poor translation. A better one is, “He takes up or lifts every branch in me.” If you’re not bearing fruit for Jesus, God helps you. He doesn’t lop you.

Several years ago I wrote an article entitled “What happens to unfruitful branches?” In it I argued that most Bibles get it wrong when they translate Christ’s words as cutting off or taking away branches. Lifting is better. (Full disclosure: I was inspired by a book written by Bruce Wilkinson called Secrets of the Vine.)

I wrote that article and moved on, but it turns out the cutting vs. lifting issue has become something of a hot potato. I had no idea until someone sent me this passage from a book: “No Free Grace publication produced any evidence from the ancient world that said that unfruitful vines or branches were ‘lifted up.’” I was intrigued. You want evidence? I’ve got plenty.

A bit more digging revealed that this issue divides scholars into two camps: the cutters and the lifters. Which sounds like something out of Gulliver’s Travels. I have no interest in stirring up dissension, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to answer some of the questions I have been asked about that old article.

1. Which English Bible has “lifted up”?

None of the major translations has it. Every English Bible translates Christ as saying unfruitful branches are cut off or taken away, which is why this is a big issue: People don’t like it when you say the Bible is wrong. Only the Bible is NOT wrong. John Wycliffe was. (Wycliffe is credited as having translated the first complete English Bible in the 14th century. Two hundred years later, the KJV translators adopted Wycliffe’s translation choice and so did everyone else.)

I polled non-English-speaking E2R readers and learned that Christ’s words are translated as cutting off/taken away in the following Bible translations: Afrikaans, German, Portuguese, Tagalog, Thai, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Indonesian, Danish, Norwegian, French, Chinese (trad.), Japanese, Lithuanian, Italian, Welsh, Gaelic, and Swahili. I suspect many of these translations were inspired by the translation choices embedded in the KJV.

No Bible translation agrees with me, but I’m sticking to my guns: Jesus said, “Unfruitful branches in me are lifted”, not cut. They’re taken up, not taken away.

2. How dare you challenge hundreds of years of consistent translation?

I’m part of the question-everything generation, so I don’t see what the fuss is about. I encourage everyone to think for themselves. It’s healthy.

3. Seriously, are you a qualified Bible translator?

No. I don’t know any Greek words apart from agape and souvlaki. But I know how to drive a concordance. The word in question is airo. This is the word that has been translated as cut or take away in John 15:2. But look at how this word is translated elsewhere in the New Testament:

Matt 16:24 – Let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mark 16:18 – They will pick up serpents…
Luke 5:24 – I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go…
Luke 17:13 – And they lifted up their voices and said…
John 5:8 – Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”
John 11:41 – And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said…
Act 4:24 – And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord
Rev 10:5 – The angel … lifted up his right hand to heaven

In the New Testament, airo is more often translated as lifted/taken up than taken away.

4. Which translation does the context support?

In John 15, Jesus talks about two kinds of branches; those that abide in him (v.2) and those that don’t (v.6), and the latter are cast away. If the former are sometimes cast or taken away as well, abiding makes no difference and the comparison breaks down.

In verse 2, Jesus compares fruitful and unfruitful branches, and says, “Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes.” To prune is to trim or cut. If both fruitful and unfruitful branches are cut, bearing fruit makes no difference and the comparison breaks down again.

If unfruitful branches are treated differently, they cannot be cut or cast away. The only option left is for them to be lifted up. And this is, in fact, what vinedressers do.

5. Are you a qualified vinedresser?

No, but the Wikipedia entry for vine training reveals that grapevines don’t produce fruit unless they are exposed to sunlight. If you don’t train/lift the branches, excessive shading will inhibit fruit production and encourage disease. It’s the same with Christians. We need to see the Son to stay healthy and produce his fruit.

6. Is there any evidence of ancient vinedressers lifting up branches?

Yes. The Wikipedia article just mentioned has this:

When the Greeks began to colonize southern Italy in the eighth century BC, they called the land Oenotria which could be interpreted as “staked” or land of staked vines.

The staking or lifting of vines is an ancient practice. “Grapevines have been trained for several millennia.” Indeed, the history of viticulture is the history of civilization.

7. I can’t accept Wikipedia as a credible source. Got any actual evidence?

Quite a lot, actually, and far too much to put in a blog article. For those who are interested, the full-length companion note that goes with this article can be found on my Patreon page. In the note I examine the writings of Varro (116 – 27 BC), Columella (4 – 70 AD), Pliny the Elder (23 – 79AD), and other ancient scholars. These authors discuss that wonderful innovation, the trellis. In the words of Pliny, “When the trellis is employed, wine is produced in greater quantities.”

Vines don’t trellis themselves. A trellis implies a gardener taking care to lift up branches and provide support. The gardener does all the work, and the branches become fruitful as a result. What a beautiful picture of God’s aiding grace.

8. Pliny lived in Rome. Is there any evidence of trellises being used in first century Israel?

Yes, please see the bonus materials (on Patreon) that go with this article. [Sorry, that’s a link to paid-for content, included for completeness’ sake – Ed]

9. What would vinedressers use if they didn’t have a trellis?

A rock or a tree. In fact, before the invention of the trellis, vines were often trained to run up the trunks and branches of trees.

10. What about that verse that says “Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and cast into the fire?”

Thankfully Jesus is the tree that bears much fruit. But Jesus is not talking about trees in John 15; the subject is vines.

The distinguishing feature of vines is there is no separation between the vine and the branch (unlike a tree). It’s the same with us and Jesus. If Christ were to cut us off and cast us away, he would be dismembering his own body. It’s not going to happen. Even “if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Tim. 2:13).

11. What about John 15:6, which mentions branches being cast into the fire?

John 15:1-6 speaks of two kinds of branches – those that abide or have made their home in the Lord (believers, see 1 John 4:15) – and those that have not made their home in the Lord (unbelievers). Only the first kind, the “branches in me,” can bear the Lord’s fruit and here we are talking about what happens if they don’t. (They are lifted or taken up.)

12. Aren’t you spreading dangerous heresy?

By telling people that Jesus helps us bear his fruit? I don’t see how that is nearly as dangerous as threatening Christians with removal or damnation if they fail to perform. Bullying the bride of Christ seems unwise to me.

And to finish, here’s a question from me: If unfruitful branches are not lifted up, what happens to them?

Over the years I have heard from people who prefer the cutting off or taking away translation, which is fine. Each to his own. But so far no one has told me what cutting off/taking away actually means for the unfruitful Christian. It cannot mean pruning because that’s what happens to fruitful branches. Nor can it mean being cast away because that’s what happens to those who aren’t part of the vine.

So what does it mean to take away an unfruitful branch? Nobody seems to know.

But here’s one thing we do know. Read John 15:2 as, “God casts off unfruitful Christians,” and you will have to discard 130+ scriptures that say he won’t.

For this reason above all, I maintain that unfruitful Christians are nurtured, not discarded; they are lifted up, not cast away. “No branch can bear fruit by itself” (John 15:4). We all need the Lord’s help when it comes to bearing his fruit.

I think that’s excellent and encouraging. Brilliant work 🙂

Here’s the link to the original article