Eschatology: Vision is not the Message. Group 8

Saunders, Dr. Eugene. “Old Testament Survey (BIBL1305).” Coursework, The King’s University, Southlake Texas, 2021.

Discussion Responses

FORUM 1: INTRODUCTION TO PROPHETS

Of what significance for eschatology is the principle that the vision is not the message, but the occasion for the message? Assigned to: Group 8

Eschatology: Vision is not the Message. Group 8

No other ancient culture had an eschatological prophetic concept. Israel is unique in their understanding of the one true God, who plans the end from the beginning.[1] Since we understand that God has a plan, we may ask “of what nature is that plan?” One possibility is to view the plan like a professor’s syllabus. In this view, the basic outline is set upfront, but the actual outworking of the plan may morph and change as they take final shape.[2]

For the prophet, the prophecy was about the message his audience needed to hear. The future-telling, storyline, visionary tale/setting, were all context or wrapping in which the message was to be understood. The “way” in which the message was delivered (through story, analogy, a vision, etc.) was of less importance than the message.[3]

Human beings are “Wired for Story”.[4] "We don't turn to Story to escape reality; we turn to Story to navigate reality.”[5] The ultimate purpose of the prophet’s storytelling was the get the message across.

All this brings us to the impact on “eschatology”:

1. When one attempts to interpret a prophetic word, one should focus on the message first (what the prophet intended to communicate to the audience).

2. The “fulfillment” may come; however, one should be aware that God’s idea of fulfilling a prophetic idea may look different than what the author (or reader) expected. Who could have known that the “Passover Lamb” would be a man hung on a cross?

3. Finally, one should be cautious in interpreting “symbols” that God, the prophet, or other scripture has not clearly defined. The symbols may only exist as a wrapping to hold the message itself. Some symbols may have no deeper or hidden meaning.

While some symbols, like Nebuchadnezzar’s statue (Daniel 2) are clearly defined and easy to follow; other symbols, like the basket of Zechariah 5 may have no deeper meaning.[6] Trying to assign more meaning than the text provides can be dangerous. Giving more weight to a symbolic concept than scripture itself can support (without mental gymnastics) is a recipe for error.

*Note: This may be how we came up with the idea of a 7-year tribulation and rapture (which both may or may not biblical concepts).[7]

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[1] Andrew E. Hill and John H. Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 3rd ed (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan Publishing House, 2009), 507.

[2] Hill and Walton, 512.

[3] Hill and Walton, 508–9.

[4] Lisa Cron, Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence, 1st ed (New York: Ten Speed Press, 2012), http://wiredforstory.com/about.

[5] Lisa Cron, “Wired for Story: Lisa Cron at TEDxFurmanU” (Ted Talk, TEDxFurmanU, Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, May 4, 2014), 11:00-11:30, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74uv0mJS0uM.

[6] Hill and Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 508.

[7] Jonathan Welton, Raptureless, 3rd Edition Printing (Place of publication not identified: Bookbaby, 2015), http://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4188734.

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

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Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
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What does it mean to “abide” and “bear fruit”? A look at John Chapters 13-17, and Jesus’ final instructions.

ABIDE. Be Fruitful. Jesus’ final instructions to his disciples, and us. What do they mean? A look at John 14-17

DQ10: "Abide in ME"

Prepare: Read John 14-17 and the accompanying "Abiding" articles.

Participate: Describe what it means to "Abide in Christ" and describe those relationships expressed by Jesus in His teachings and prayers.  What did the Holy Spirit reveal to your heart? 

 

Repeat patterns are one Hebraic way of emphasizing a point. We see several such patterns in these passages (John Chapters 14-17).

 

Abide IN: Jesus is in the father, the father is in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in us, we are in them, we are to be united with them and each other. There is a co-unity theme throughout these passages. God WITH Us.

 

Do My Words: IF you love me, do my words. As he will later tell Peter (feed my sheep) (John 21). His words, commands, teachings, all revolve around loving well. Love God. Love each other. Serve each other. Cast no stone. Summarized in John 16:23-28.

 

Results: Do works like I did and greater. Ask and it will be done. Bear Fruit. 

 

The Original Testament is the context for the New Testament. Bearing fruit, to a Hebrew ear, should harken back to the commands to Adam (Genesis 1:28), Noah (Genesis 9:1), Abram (Genesis 12:1; 14:19-20; 17:6), Isaac (Gen 26), Jacob/Israel (Gen 29, 35:11), and others. Be Fruitful. Multiply. To be fruitful is to multiply. Therefore, to Bear Fruit in Jesus is to multiply his spirit in others. Although we cannot save anyone, we can testify of his goodness. Throughout the section, The Holy Spirit is seen as helping on this mission, and convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgement. The section begins by tying this together: I loved you, you love one another, the world will see that love and know you are mine (John 13: 34-35). 

 

Therefore, to abide is to allow his love for you to run through you to others The fruit of that lifestyle is the replication of his love in others and through them to others. We together, multiply his love throughout the world, ever increasing, until the day he returns to take us (individually) to be with him (death) or the day he returns (corporately) to be with us here on Earth (resurrection). 

 

It’s not our job to convict the “world” of sin, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job (John 16:7-11). Our job it to be love and then love as we are loved. 

 

There really is only one mission. God love us, we abide in his love, we share that loved as an overflow with others until we leave or he comes. 

 

 

 

Probing Deeper:

 

Eternal Perspective: John 14 begins by showing me that if I will keep my eyes on the ultimate outcome (being at home in the Father’s house, in heaven, and eventually on earth after the resurrection), it will keep my heart stable and untroubled. I can be at peace despite the turbulence of this life. 

 

Although the ultimate goal will be the physical reunion of The Church, Jesus, and His Father; the intermediate goal is “union”. Even though Jesus left, he never stopped being Emanuel, God WITH Us. He repeats this theme of “I will come to him”, “I will make myself known to him”, “They will be one with us”. 

 

His Love & Word: He makes it clear that those who LOVE Him will live by His words, instructions, teachings, and commands. Where I (and much of Church history) miss his heart in this, is paying close attention to what that means. This is no rigid following of religious rules (the church I grew up in was like this). He is not making a new class of Pharisees. The Hebraic “Law” was “Wisdom Teachings”, instructions for living well. His “commands”, his “teachings”,  were things like “Love God. Love your neighbor. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” His lifestyle was his teaching. Sadly, I have all too often focused on “do this good” or “don’t do that bad”, which are dead works from the Tree of Knowledge. The Tree of Life is a tree of loving people through His spirit, which changes people from the inside out, not the outside in. In 15:12, Jesus says “THIS is my command: Love one another”. We are often guilty of obeying commands he did not give (don’t smoke, don’t watch those movies, etc.) but not obeying the primary commandment he did give: “Love one another”. 

 

Abide: The phrase is compared to a vine. As a vine cannot live without being connected to the root system, with the life flowing from the root; we cannot “live” without the LIFE of God flowing through us. Abide, in this sense, takes us back to Eden, in the Tree of LIFE. It is not important WHAT we “know” (wrong tree) as much as it is important WHO we are connected with (Jesus, Father, Spirit, Tree of LIFE). 

 

Ask/Receive: Another fascinating repeated pattern is his desire that we “ask the Father.. He will do it”, and the references to works and manifesting Jesus (John 14: 12-13; 21; 15:7; 16:23-28). If we are loving God, loving Jesus, listening to his words spoken by His Spirit to our spirit, loving one another… then our desires will be aligned with His desires, we will ask and he will do what we ask. This is not about self satisfaction, though it satisfies our hearts.  James makes it clear that we don’t have because we either do not ask or we ask with selfish motives (James 1). We must abide first, which includes love of Him and his word and his people; then after we are aligned with his desires, we can ask. Our desires will be his desires, and he will do what we ask. He will heal, move mountains, and perform miracles confirming our words. Study the requests of the apostles to see what they asked for, it was almost always “others” or “mission” centered.   

 

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Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!

Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

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My God! The impact of owning your relationship with God.

Jacob (renamed Israel) had multiple experiences, including breakthrough experiences, with the God of Abraham and Isaac. Now he was ready to declare El Elohe Israel.

The God, is now my God...

I heard about this God, El, having met with my father, and grandfather before him... But now I have had enough experience with Him to call Him My God. 

Jacob built a permanent structure dedicated to El, aka El Elyon, aka El Shaddai, aka YHWH.

That dedication would have lasting ramifications.

In a few short years, Jacob's son Joseph (at 13) would go to Egypt and prepare a safety net for the whole family. One day, nearly 400+ years later, Joseph's descendants would take back Canaan and reburry his bones in the city of this marker.

Go ahead, have experiences of your own, but if you will reach a place where the God of heaven becomes your God, it will have lasting impacts.

Selah

Genesis 33:17–20 (LEB): 17 But Jacob traveled on to Succoth, and he built for himself a house, and he made shelters for his livestock. Therefore he called the name of the place Succoth. 18 And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan, ⌊on his way⌋ from Paddan-Aram. And he camped before the city. 19 And he bought a piece of land where he pitched his tent for one hundred pieces of money from the hand of the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem. 20 And there he erected an altar and called it “El Elohe Israel.” 

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Reflection Paper: With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God. By Skye Jethani

Darrell Wolfe

February 7, 2021

The Spirit-Formed Life (BIBM1301)

The King’s University, Southlake, Texas

Reflection Paper: Jethani, Skye. With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011.

Percentage Read: 100% 

Content Summary

Rather than a Life UNDER, OVER, FROM, or FOR God (all results of the fall in Eden), we are called to a Life WITH God, expressed through FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE (Jethani, 2011, xi). As a result of the fall in Eden, we find ourselves in four default anti-postures in our relationship to God. These postures are driven by the chaos we experience, which brings danger, which causes fear, which causes us to seek ways to control our environment (18, 124).

A Life Under God is when “faith gets reduced to dogmatism” and “morality slips into moralism” (31). We seek to control our environment, and limit dangerous chaos, by being good Christians, earning God’s protection (37). A Life OVER God is one in which God himself is largely irrelevant, but he gave us a book with tools and principles to live by. His word is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (50-51). A Life FROM God seeks to “use him to achieve… desires”, he is a means to an end (68). It may be as obvious as greed or as innocent-sounding as wanting God to help with a bad situation (68). But if we only turn to him to get a desire met, it is a Life FROM God posture (68-69). A Life FOR God is the most subtly devious. It seeks to find meaning or worth in what we accomplish for God; our acts of service and our mission (84).

Life WITH God is where God himself becomes the treasure that we seek. When we have a proper vision for who God is, the treasure that he is, and because he is WITH us, we have FAITH which removes us from the fear cycle. We surrender to Him, which brings safety from the chaos, and FAITH to surrender more (124). As we see him WITH us in the storm as Jesus was WITH his disciples in the boat, we begin to have HOPE anchor our soul against the storm’s chaos and fear cycles. With FAITH and HOPE, we can “be still and know” that He is God (Psalms 46:10). This stillness allows us to reflect on his LOVE for us, and that LOVE for us becomes the driving force of our lives. Silence gives way to wonder, which allows for discovering more about God, and this leads to joy and even laughter (166). All the striving of a Life UNDER, OVER, FOR, and FROM God fall away in his presence. Rather than self-image being that of a Sinner, Manager, Consumer, or Servant; we simply become a Son, and that is enough (170).
 

 

Personal Reflection

Even as I sit and ponder the questions from the appendix, I feel restless in the stillness. Rather than comforted by his presence I feel the push to do more, get more done. On the other side of the To-Do list is the reward of satisfaction that I accomplished things today, this month, this year. If I engage the right principles (OVER), I can make God happy (UNDER), I can earn his blessings (FROM), and reap the rewards of accomplishment from which I derive meaning and value (FOR). I am so busy working FOR God, that I have largely neglected my time WITH God. Even my downtime this summer with two broken legs allowed me to get more reading and writing “accomplished”. When I allow this to go on too long, it is then that FEAR is driving me to accomplish more, lest my good deeds and hard work go unrewarded. The presence of FEAR or uneasiness inside stillness is a red flag that you are not living a centered life. If one cannot be still, they are mentally/emotionally ill. Yet, I have learned this lesson a thousand times. It is the stern warning of the New Testament, “Strive… to enter his rest” (Hebrews 4:11). This is the only thing we are asked to strive for, to enter his rest. I used to end my blog posts with “#BeStillBeLed”, as a reminder to do just that. Enter his rest.

Jethani asks: “Can you think of a time when ‘the coin dropped’ and a different understanding of God was illuminated to you (187)?” In 2013, on Gateway Church’s Freedom Ministry website, there were videos posted by Bob Hamp, LMFT and Pastor called “The Foundations of Freedom”. These five (now six) Foundations of Freedom videos forever changed how I saw myself living out of God’s Kingdom. The parable of the acrobat taught me that I was orphaned and raised in an environment that is not conducive to my created nature. When I learn who my real Father is, everything I was destined to be will make sense. All the struggles that got me in trouble were the result of using my God-given talents in the wrong environment. I learned that I did not understand freedom because just like when someone loses their glasses, the thing they have lost is the thing that is needed to find the thing that is lost. I must surrender to allow God to make me free, and in doing so, I will begin to see freedom for what it is a matter of “who” not “what” (Galatians 5:1). I learned to stop striving to do “a better knowledge of good”. All questions about behavior, thoughts, and actions which are deemed “good” or “bad”, derive from the wrong tree, the Tree of Knowledge. Put another way, “Jesus didn't come to make bad people behave better, he came to make dead people alive” and "Freedom is not the absence of something, it's the presence of Someone”; frequent quotes by Bob Hamp, Founder of Think Differently Academy.

I cut my teeth in the halls of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, where I learned to use Faith as a tool to accomplish. This only further solidified in me the four anti-postures. As I have meditated on “faith” through Jethani’s book and through the Naked Bible Podcast by Dr. Michael Heiser; I have begun to see “faith” as a believing loyalty in someone, rather than a vague belief in ideas or as a tool to be used. This faith in someone who is WITH me allows hope to anchor my emotions when turmoil comes and it immerses me in God’s love for me and his other children. Perfected love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). When my spouse died, June 25, 2018, it was the Foundations of Freedom experiences that gave me the tools to walk through those waters WITH God. I then took that courage and hope to other widow(er)s. Enough time has passed that I needed the reminder to slow down, be still, and know that he is WITH me.

Reimagining the future, I see two prongs that both require intentionality. On one side, I see my vertical relationship WITH God. I desire to reinvest in practices that will foster an awareness of his presence WITH me. I have several that have worked over the years, and as Jethani points out, silence is one of them (166). I come to Him to see what he would say to me; what he wants to talk about; rather than with my agenda.

On the other side, I see the prong I have neglected for far too long, but I am working on these past few years: being WITH God’s people. The best way for me to hear God is to hear God’s voice through his people, with whom I am in relationship. It was men and women of God speaking his words to me, and my being open and vulnerable with them, that allowed me to receive the most significant healing seasons in my life. A Sunday morning spectator service will not accomplish this. I left behind a group of men in Texas and never found (or founded) a group here in Idaho. It is my 2021 goal to find (or create) a group of people who want to hear God together and spend time WITH God together.

I think these two prongs will be the practical tools I need to help me stay focused on a life WITH God; rather than a life OVER, UNDER, FROM, or FOR God.

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Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!

Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

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