.. ni [ska] bli mina vittnen i Jerusalem & i hela Judeen & Samarien & ända till jordens yttersta gräns" (Apg 1:8)
3.4.2. Webbmission
Vision om Webbmission
Mission är en viktig del av kristenhetens uppdrag. Vi har ju
missionsbefallningen som utgångspunkt. Men därifrån till att se resultat
kan steget i många fall vara både långt och tidskrävande. Vi kan bedriva
mission i traditionell bemärkelse eller söka nya vägar.
Vi talar ofta om att nå de "onådda". Då tänker vi ofta på etniska
folkgrupper. Men jag tror att vi kan se andra typer av grupper också. Och
en ofta förbisedd grupp är nog surfarna. Det finns många som tillbringar
mycket tid på Internet och som inte direkt söker sig till någon kyrka
eller till Gud.
Radio HCJB som tar hjälp av modern teknik för att sprida evangeliet
lanserade för några år sedan det vi kallar HCJB Web Club.
Om vi frågar oss: "Om Jesus levt idag, skulle han då ha använt Internet?"
så tror jag svaret är: "Jesus lever idag och han använder Internet."
Missionsbefallningen skulle kunna formuleras så här: "Gå därför ut i
cyberspace och gör alla surfare till lärjungar."
Detta är lite av utgångspunkten för vårt arbete med webbmission. Vi vill
försöka att använda Internet för att nå en grupp som vi inte når genom
"traditionellt" missionsarbete.
Därför har vi nyss startat om med en ny hemsida www.hcjbwebclub.org som vi
hoppas ska ge lite nya tankegångar för att göra surfare till lärjungar. På
hemsidan finns artiklar och information för att inspirera dig att bli
"webbmissionär". Titta gärna in, ta del av informationen, bli medlem och
få vårt nyhetsbrev direkt till din e-post.
Radio HCJB - www.hcjb.se
HCJB Web Club - www.hcjbwebclub.org
Sture Nordquist
HCJB Web Club
Radio HCJB
VISION i MISSION
10 februari 2005
Mission är en viktig del av kristenhetens uppdrag. Vi har ju
missionsbefallningen som utgångspunkt. Men därifrån till att se resultat
kan steget i många fall vara både långt och tidskrävande. Vi kan bedriva
mission i traditionell bemärkelse eller söka nya vägar.
Vi talar ofta om att nå de "onådda". Då tänker vi ofta på etniska
folkgrupper. Men jag tror att vi kan se andra typer av grupper också. Och
en ofta förbisedd grupp är nog surfarna. Det finns många som tillbringar
mycket tid på Internet och som inte direkt söker sig till någon kyrka
eller till Gud.
Radio HCJB som tar hjälp av modern teknik för att sprida evangeliet
lanserade för några år sedan det vi kallar HCJB Web Club.
Om vi frågar oss: "Om Jesus levt idag, skulle han då ha använt Internet?"
så tror jag svaret är: "Jesus lever idag och han använder Internet."
Missionsbefallningen skulle kunna formuleras så här: "Gå därför ut i
cyberspace och gör alla surfare till lärjungar."
Detta är lite av utgångspunkten för vårt arbete med webbmission. Vi vill
försöka att använda Internet för att nå en grupp som vi inte når genom
"traditionellt" missionsarbete.
Därför har vi nyss startat om med en ny hemsida www.hcjbwebclub.org som vi
hoppas ska ge lite nya tankegångar för att göra surfare till lärjungar. På
hemsidan finns artiklar och information för att inspirera dig att bli
"webbmissionär". Titta gärna in, ta del av informationen, bli medlem och
få vårt nyhetsbrev direkt till din e-post.
Radio HCJB - www.hcjb.se
HCJB Web Club - www.hcjbwebclub.org
Sture Nordquist
HCJB Web Club
Radio HCJB
VISION i MISSION
10 februari 2005
Colonel in Iran to execution
PERSIAN NEWS
The News site Gooya ed. 10/02/05 mentions today about the Death penalty for the Persian officer HAMID POURMAND, 47 yrs and colonel in the Army. Reason: he was Christian believer. Read about the case in Persian and English: News.gooya.com - och på norska: tidningen DAGEN
/Dr Roz, Råslätt 10/02/05
The News site Gooya ed. 10/02/05 mentions today about the Death penalty for the Persian officer HAMID POURMAND, 47 yrs and colonel in the Army. Reason: he was Christian believer. Read about the case in Persian and English: News.gooya.com - och på norska: tidningen DAGEN
/Dr Roz, Råslätt 10/02/05
M'Xp - VISION i MISSION
Artikelserien VISION i MISSION inleds i dag med "Folkväckelse, eller?" under Kategori 3.4 MISSION Vision.
Docenten i kyrkohistoria Göran Åberg får inleda artikelserien med ett utdrag ur boken VÄCKELSENS FOLK, 1998, ISSN 0347-917x, sid 9f.
- För övrigt önskar arenan Mission Xp sina besökare välkomna åter för att bl.a. följa den spännande och utmanande artikelserien VISION i MISSION.
- Ordet "oktav"... hur många definitioner och betydelser känner Den svenska kristenhetens trossyskon till? Se MISSION Quiz på annan plats i webbloggen. Och Varför tittas det först åt det ena hållet och sedan åt det andra av vandrare när det gås över ett övergångsställe? SVAREN kommer på söndag.
Kom-ihåg inför den nya dagen som idag ges oss av nåd:
WALK n' TALK... Walk hör intimt samman med Walk! Det är inte bara att säga Halleluja - det ska göras också. Walk n' Talk är inte bara att sägas utan att levas ut...
/DSr
Docenten i kyrkohistoria Göran Åberg får inleda artikelserien med ett utdrag ur boken VÄCKELSENS FOLK, 1998, ISSN 0347-917x, sid 9f.
- För övrigt önskar arenan Mission Xp sina besökare välkomna åter för att bl.a. följa den spännande och utmanande artikelserien VISION i MISSION.
- Ordet "oktav"... hur många definitioner och betydelser känner Den svenska kristenhetens trossyskon till? Se MISSION Quiz på annan plats i webbloggen. Och Varför tittas det först åt det ena hållet och sedan åt det andra av vandrare när det gås över ett övergångsställe? SVAREN kommer på söndag.
Kom-ihåg inför den nya dagen som idag ges oss av nåd:
WALK n' TALK... Walk hör intimt samman med Walk! Det är inte bara att säga Halleluja - det ska göras också. Walk n' Talk är inte bara att sägas utan att levas ut...
/DSr
The Dust of Adam
Från Touchstone hämtar vi följande om Askonsdagens rit: Läs The Dust of Adam
3.4.1. VISION i MISSION Folkväckelse, eller...
10/2-05 M'Xp - "FOLKVÄCKELSE" eller …
Förutsättningarna för väckelse tycks nu finnas på plats i vår tid och i våra förhållanden. Så har vi ibland hört förväntningar beskrivas om en ny tid av väckelse och besökelsetid. Under det senaste kvartsseklet har det talats om att förutsättningarna föreligger för det som iakttagits under historiens väckelseperioder. Dit har hört social, moralisk och andlig dekadans och nedgång. Och vi kan idag efter ett kvartssekel bekräfta att nog är det dags för väckelsetid att få bryta igenom. Bönesorl, bönerop och bönekamp har pågått under åratal och pågår runt om i landet. Folket i vårt land är i behov av nytt andligt liv.
Mormor på Herrestad
Låt oss lyssna till docenten i kyrkohistoria Göran Åberg och vad han skriver om en av folkväckelsens vägröjare med avgörande nedslag i Småland genom Emilie Petersen, Mormor på Herrestad [Väckelsens folk av Göran Åberg, 1998, sid 9f]. Född i en förort till Berlin 1780. Kom med sin make till Sverige och Herrestad i Kärda socken utanför Värnamo 1814, där hon verkade till sin död 1859. Från unga år strängt lutherskt fostrad och bevandrad den lutherska andaktslitteraturen sökte hon i Sverige sin uppbyggelse genom läsning av Nohrborg och Schartau. Emilie Petersen hade också påverkats av pietismen och hade brevkontakt med pietister i Tyskland.
I samarbete med andligt levande prästmän sökte hon från mitten av 1830-talet förverkliga det pietistiska reformprogrammet på flera olika sätt. I praktisk handling omsatte hon evangeliets ord och startade arbetsförening, barnhem, skola m.m. samt bildade nykterhetsförening. Trots konventikelplakatet (som gällde fram till 1858) ordnade hon från 1837 missionsböner på Herrestad första måndagen i varje månad under medverkan av talare från när och fjärran, Peter Wieselgren, Peter Fjellstedt, Carl Olof Rosenius, Jonas Sandell m.fl Vidare stödde hon kolportörsverksamheten och kom därigenom att få stor betydelse för folkväckelsen i Jönköpings län.
Emilie Petersens kristendomssyn var osekterisk. För henne var själens frälsning och eviga väl huvudsaken. Hennes pietistiska uppfattning mjukades så småningom upp i herrnhutisk riktning, trots att hon tidigare ansett herrnhutismen oluthersk. Herrnhutismen, vars grundare var greve Nikolaus Ludwig vin Zinzendorf, hävdade, att kristendomen inte främst var krav utan gåva och poängterade individens personliga hjärteförhållande till Kristus.
Brev från Emilie till Pauline Westdahl 10 juni 1844
Sista aftonen han [Peter Fjellstedt] var här, voro vi 12 personer samlade här. Han föreslog en sammankomst varje vecka, då vi på e.m. skulle läsa Guds ord, bedja och samtala i andliga ämnen helt otvunget och arbeta med våra händer för lapparna. Ingen motsägelse utan allmänt bifall. Jag oroades inom mig därför, att ingen lärare vore med. Jag känner vårt kön för väl… Gud såg till oss, Engström (komminister i grannförsamlingen Hånger) erbjöd sig att läsa högt, förklara Bibeln och leda, och vi skulle tiga och arbeta… Så hava vi framlevat 5 månader här i mitt hus, där samlingen blir så länge Gud vill. Fjellstedt har lovat sin förbön för dessa stunder… Vi inbjuda icke till deltagande, men om någon önskar ansluta sig, så taga vi gärna emot… Önskligt vore, om flera sådana kretsar bildade sig. Jag tror, att samfundet skulle bliva styrkt genom sådana föreningar. Rent andliga föreningar bland fruntimmer utan arbetsbefattning för nästans hjälp hava ingen framgång, men med hava de det, det har jag erfarit… Engström börjar med att läsa i följd en betraktelse. Ur denna betraktelse utdrager var och en hemma de däruti anförda bibelspråk, som läses upp på nästa sammankomst. Detta för att vittna, att vi hava sysselsatt oss med Bibeln hemma. Våra arbeten äro hittills ullstrumpor och linnesöm.
Nya nådestider och nådesunder
Ordet "Väckelse" kan låsa oss vid historien och vid våra traditioner med det som varit i det vi läser om av folkväckelse. Vad är det för texter och begrepp i Bibelns undervisning som handlar om det vi kallar "väckelse"? Bland mycket annat är det att Herren är historiens Gud och griper in påtagligt under olika tider med olika slags uttryck för sin ingripande nåd och frälsning. Låt oss i vår tid både lära av historiens exempel och av Guds ords undervisning om besökelsetid och nådatid. Låt oss i Den svenska kristenheten se och lära av väckelsens pionjärer. Det som hör samman med Guds nådesverk är människors fasthållande vid nådemedlen Guds Ords läsande, gemenskapen, brödsbrytelsen och bönerna.
/DSr
WnT Guds rike & fåglarna
VARFÖR dessa återkommande Fåglar? Har bloggaren inget annat än pippi på huvu't? Är detta nån slags ornitologisk introduktionssajt, eller?
Stjärtmesen med blåmesen ätande på samma talgboll hemma på Hampus´ tomt, det är inte bara fåglar. Det är för mig en bild som talar. Oavsett vilken eller vilka fåglar som möter på mina Walks n' Talks.
"Se på fåglarna…" säger Mästaren. Säger han det för att vara romantisk? Lite småtrevligt folklig med franciskansk touch? Säger han det bara för att vi ska fokusera inte på morgondagens problem om vad att äta eller klä sig med - utan fokusera bekymmerslöshetens tonslinga i f-dur? Nej, Kristus Jesus har något mera och djupare att tala om - genom dessa bevingade i och för sig mycket intressanta kreationer av Klass I. Det Han talar om genom varje fågels möte med våra syn-nervsbanor är något mycket stort och förunderligt - nämligen: Guds rike. Det är alltid ämnet över alla ämnen. Och den undervisningen ges för den som kan se också via dessa audiovisuella hjälpmedel. Det både syns och hörs om fåglarnas liv. De har som sin största uppgift att vara kanske de främsta förkunnarna av Evangelium om Guds rike! Den som inte tänkt den tanken har alltså en möjlighet till en ny dimension för sin trosundervisning.
Se på Koltrasten. För en månad sedan satt den två meter lägre ned i trädet än idag. Varför? Därför att snart är det dags att inta den översta platsen i trädet och konsertera för hela auditoriet, och höras i hela Berwaldhallen med akustik som vore den ur Waldhäuser… Vad säger det om Guds rike? Det är den verklighet som gestaltas av församlingen och kommer allt närmre. Tonen från Himlen hörs allt närmre…
Se på Blåmesen, Ekorren och Koltrasthonan som alla tre i morgontimman före gryningen rör sig som vore de lekkamrater i buskarna utanför 159:ans kortsida. Så lekfullt, så nära varann, som vore de involverade i en familjär picknick. Vad säger det om Guds rike? I den verkligheten finner vi frihet, rymd, fantasi. Och kärlekens kreativitet helt utanför de gängse ramarna. I denna Guds rikes tillvaro får vi profetiskt gestalta ett livsalternativ bortom grottekvarn och ekorrhjul…
Det innebär att lyfta huvud och hjärta uppåt. Se på fåglarna. Rikta blick och vaksamhet uppåt. Med den parallella rörelsen av övernaturlig Nådesnärvaro ned in i behoven av trygghet, äventyr och kärlek - Faderns kärlek…
/Dag JustNu
Askonsdag 9/2-05
Mere Christianity
MERE CHRISTIANITY
Inledning: 'Only Christianity' som tills idag använts som ett samlingsuttryck för hela Den [samlade] svenska kristenheten byts ut mot C.S. Lewis egentliga term 'Mere Christianity'. Tack Chris Barenekow!
Här nedan följer ett utdrag ur eget inlägg från häromdagen i ett kyrkligt Diskussionsforum, Kyrkans Framtid:
'Only Christianity' - är en tanke som uppfyller mig mer och mer sedan lång tid… [Ni] känner mycket väl till C.S. Lewis och hans hållning visavi den tidens kyrkliga debattörer. Han om någon var skickad att gå i strid och i debatt med sin vassa penna och sitt klara intellekt med den akademiska profession han hade. Han valde att försvara den kristna tron och dess lära utifrån arenan och utgångspunkten 'Only Christianity', och inte såsom företrädare för den Anglikanska kyrkan. Temat och banéret med orden 'Only Christianity' är för alla kristtrogna också ett uttryck för visionen all kristenhet har. Det handlar om kallelsen att vara Body of Christ i tiden som Staden på berget, som Salt och ljus i den värld vi lever… Min […] undran är hur [ni] "känner för" tanken 'Only Christianity', som ju hör samman med Joh 17. Hur ser våra visioner ut för Svensk kristenhet? Hur ser Kyrkans Herre på den samlade Svenska kristenheten? Hur förenas den självklara visionen med alla frågor som jag lite "skämt"-samt benämner Avfalls-frågor? Själv har jag gärna stått upp för sanningen och gärna agerat för att hålla rent hus gentemot inomkyrkliga avfallsfrågor, av alla slag. Det jag själv lärt är att den inriktningen tog tid från den huvuduppgift vi har som kristenhet, nämligen missionens utmaning att på allt sätt se till att Evangelium om Guds rike når dem som är onådda, hemma på orten, i Sverige, samt ute i världen.
Detta utdrag ur eget inlägg ovan bemöts av en ortodox broder. Meningsbytet får illustrera får illustrera det som finns av olikheter och spänningar mellan traditionerna som också finns i svensk kristenhet. Samtal och kommunikation över gränser tarvar kunskap och respekt i Acceptans, under Bön, med Caritas i Delaktighet i kraft av ett Evangelium "i fullt mått". Min gode ortodoxe vän
skriver:
Detta är en viktig tanke, ännu viktigare eftersom gapet mellan organisation och innehåll gapar så vidt (dansk ordform, för tydlighetens skull! Neutrum av "vid" inte färgen, är vad som avses.) "Kyrkans framtid" är något annat än "Svenska kyrkans framtid" - i bästa fall har Svenska kyrkan något med saken att göra: åtminstone bör de som hör till Svenska kyrkan ta sig en tankeställare i vilkenderas framtid de vill vara. Det är inte likgiltigt, nämligen. En stor svårighet för svenska kristna i gemen ligger i att förstå att "Kyrkan" vare sig är = Svenska kyrkan; eller = alla kristna. Detta beror åtminstone delvis på att man uppfattar "kyrkan som en funktion" där Guds Ord rent och klart predikas och sakramenten förvaltas enligt Kristi instiftelse" men NT och hela den gamla kyrkan vet, att detta är fenomen som hör till, men inte är kärnan, för den är enheten med Kristus och alla de troende i det Nya Förbundets måltid: eukaristin, Nattvarden. Mellan den apostoliska kyrkan och nuet ligger ett antal brytningar, där nycklamakten brukats och ett avlägsnande (svårt att veta hur stort men Nycklamakten är säkert inte kraftlös!) från ovannämnda gemenskap har skett.
Brytningen med judendomen hör inte dit, men brytningen mellan biskopen av Rom och de östliga kyrkorna är en tydlig sådan. Konstanstinopel har visserligen hävt bindenyckelns lås över Rom 1967, men inte alla andra, och många av problemen kvarstår och måste lösas: Västkyrkans vägar från 1000-talet är en historia om nya teologier (skolastik mm) svårigheter, villovägar, nystarter och mera problem igen. (Som ortodox har jag mera gemensamt med de kyrkor som lämnade gemenskapen på 400-600-talet än jag har med de Romersk katolska som ändå var i kommunion med oss ytterligare fyrahundra år. )
Den stora andra brytpunkten kommer med Reformationen, som på nytt tar upp de misstag som utlöste den förra brytningen - men därtill inför så mycket nya ansatser att dessa med tiden äter upp de reformatoriska samfunden. Rom har velat (men driver inte längre den linjen som huvudlinje) se kyrkans mitt och därmed förenande band, i biskopen av Rom, snarare än Eukaristin . De från Rom utgångna kyrkorna är inte centrerade i Eukaristin som det förenande bandet mellan de (rätt) troende, och det har genomslag: de blir inte riktigt "kyrkor" på det sättet som de gamla kyrkorna, Rom inräknat, är. Det sätt den heliga nattvarden beskrivs på i Svenska kyrkans Kyrkoordning vittnar skrämmande tydligt om hur Nattvarden har blivit något individcentrerat "extra" istället för det sammanhållande uttrycket för Kyrkans enhet.
Vi är bestämda av det sammanhang vi står i. Därför kommer Dag S.s "mere christianity" inte riktigt att bli lik vare sig CS Lewis' eller de ortodoxas. Reformationskristendom har ställvis mycket god teori, men saknar gemenskapen med den ecklesiastiska kropp till vilken läran hör. Ty tron är inte bara teorier och känslor, utan också tillhörighet till den historiska gemenskap som grundats av Herren själv. Den kan inte väljas bort, om man vill vara samme Herren Jesus trogen.
Detta illustrerar med all önskvärd tydlighet att vi som kristtrogna ur olika traditioner representerar mycket stora olikheter.
Men kvarstår inte faktum att vi tillber en levande och nådefull Gud med orden "Fader vår..." och att vi faktiskt är varandras bröder och systrar också i den samlade Svenska kristenheten, eller...?
/Dag Selander M'Xp 050208
Inledning: 'Only Christianity' som tills idag använts som ett samlingsuttryck för hela Den [samlade] svenska kristenheten byts ut mot C.S. Lewis egentliga term 'Mere Christianity'. Tack Chris Barenekow!
Här nedan följer ett utdrag ur eget inlägg från häromdagen i ett kyrkligt Diskussionsforum, Kyrkans Framtid:
'Only Christianity' - är en tanke som uppfyller mig mer och mer sedan lång tid… [Ni] känner mycket väl till C.S. Lewis och hans hållning visavi den tidens kyrkliga debattörer. Han om någon var skickad att gå i strid och i debatt med sin vassa penna och sitt klara intellekt med den akademiska profession han hade. Han valde att försvara den kristna tron och dess lära utifrån arenan och utgångspunkten 'Only Christianity', och inte såsom företrädare för den Anglikanska kyrkan. Temat och banéret med orden 'Only Christianity' är för alla kristtrogna också ett uttryck för visionen all kristenhet har. Det handlar om kallelsen att vara Body of Christ i tiden som Staden på berget, som Salt och ljus i den värld vi lever… Min […] undran är hur [ni] "känner för" tanken 'Only Christianity', som ju hör samman med Joh 17. Hur ser våra visioner ut för Svensk kristenhet? Hur ser Kyrkans Herre på den samlade Svenska kristenheten? Hur förenas den självklara visionen med alla frågor som jag lite "skämt"-samt benämner Avfalls-frågor? Själv har jag gärna stått upp för sanningen och gärna agerat för att hålla rent hus gentemot inomkyrkliga avfallsfrågor, av alla slag. Det jag själv lärt är att den inriktningen tog tid från den huvuduppgift vi har som kristenhet, nämligen missionens utmaning att på allt sätt se till att Evangelium om Guds rike når dem som är onådda, hemma på orten, i Sverige, samt ute i världen.
Detta utdrag ur eget inlägg ovan bemöts av en ortodox broder. Meningsbytet får illustrera får illustrera det som finns av olikheter och spänningar mellan traditionerna som också finns i svensk kristenhet. Samtal och kommunikation över gränser tarvar kunskap och respekt i Acceptans, under Bön, med Caritas i Delaktighet i kraft av ett Evangelium "i fullt mått". Min gode ortodoxe vän
skriver:
Detta är en viktig tanke, ännu viktigare eftersom gapet mellan organisation och innehåll gapar så vidt (dansk ordform, för tydlighetens skull! Neutrum av "vid" inte färgen, är vad som avses.) "Kyrkans framtid" är något annat än "Svenska kyrkans framtid" - i bästa fall har Svenska kyrkan något med saken att göra: åtminstone bör de som hör till Svenska kyrkan ta sig en tankeställare i vilkenderas framtid de vill vara. Det är inte likgiltigt, nämligen. En stor svårighet för svenska kristna i gemen ligger i att förstå att "Kyrkan" vare sig är = Svenska kyrkan; eller = alla kristna. Detta beror åtminstone delvis på att man uppfattar "kyrkan som en funktion" där Guds Ord rent och klart predikas och sakramenten förvaltas enligt Kristi instiftelse" men NT och hela den gamla kyrkan vet, att detta är fenomen som hör till, men inte är kärnan, för den är enheten med Kristus och alla de troende i det Nya Förbundets måltid: eukaristin, Nattvarden. Mellan den apostoliska kyrkan och nuet ligger ett antal brytningar, där nycklamakten brukats och ett avlägsnande (svårt att veta hur stort men Nycklamakten är säkert inte kraftlös!) från ovannämnda gemenskap har skett.
Brytningen med judendomen hör inte dit, men brytningen mellan biskopen av Rom och de östliga kyrkorna är en tydlig sådan. Konstanstinopel har visserligen hävt bindenyckelns lås över Rom 1967, men inte alla andra, och många av problemen kvarstår och måste lösas: Västkyrkans vägar från 1000-talet är en historia om nya teologier (skolastik mm) svårigheter, villovägar, nystarter och mera problem igen. (Som ortodox har jag mera gemensamt med de kyrkor som lämnade gemenskapen på 400-600-talet än jag har med de Romersk katolska som ändå var i kommunion med oss ytterligare fyrahundra år. )
Den stora andra brytpunkten kommer med Reformationen, som på nytt tar upp de misstag som utlöste den förra brytningen - men därtill inför så mycket nya ansatser att dessa med tiden äter upp de reformatoriska samfunden. Rom har velat (men driver inte längre den linjen som huvudlinje) se kyrkans mitt och därmed förenande band, i biskopen av Rom, snarare än Eukaristin . De från Rom utgångna kyrkorna är inte centrerade i Eukaristin som det förenande bandet mellan de (rätt) troende, och det har genomslag: de blir inte riktigt "kyrkor" på det sättet som de gamla kyrkorna, Rom inräknat, är. Det sätt den heliga nattvarden beskrivs på i Svenska kyrkans Kyrkoordning vittnar skrämmande tydligt om hur Nattvarden har blivit något individcentrerat "extra" istället för det sammanhållande uttrycket för Kyrkans enhet.
Vi är bestämda av det sammanhang vi står i. Därför kommer Dag S.s "mere christianity" inte riktigt att bli lik vare sig CS Lewis' eller de ortodoxas. Reformationskristendom har ställvis mycket god teori, men saknar gemenskapen med den ecklesiastiska kropp till vilken läran hör. Ty tron är inte bara teorier och känslor, utan också tillhörighet till den historiska gemenskap som grundats av Herren själv. Den kan inte väljas bort, om man vill vara samme Herren Jesus trogen.
Detta illustrerar med all önskvärd tydlighet att vi som kristtrogna ur olika traditioner representerar mycket stora olikheter.
Men kvarstår inte faktum att vi tillber en levande och nådefull Gud med orden "Fader vår..." och att vi faktiskt är varandras bröder och systrar också i den samlade Svenska kristenheten, eller...?
/Dag Selander M'Xp 050208
9/2-05 M'Xp Askonsdag
Med.Dr Birgitta Peterson, New York US, har idag haft vänligheten att referera till den månatliga Tidskriften Touchstone som har ett intressant innehåll med skribenter från protestantiskt, katolskt och ortodoxt perspektiv, från Sverige Folke Olofsson. C.S. Lewis´ Mere Christianity är en av tidskriftens ledstjärnor.
Här nedan en betraktelse från Daily Reflections för ASKONSDAGEN:
Ash Wednesday, February 9
Proverbs 1: Verses 2-6 are a single sentence that states the intent of the book. It is an educational work, designed to lay down certain insights of prudence, or practical wisdom, in the form of short, pithy sayings, or "proverbs" (mishlim). The wisdom (hokma) conveyed in these sayings has to do with practical moral assessments that a man must make for a godly, just, and productive life (verse 2). This teaching, therefore, pertains to discipline (musar), or self-mastery, as well as the ability to make moral distinctions based on discernment (bina).
Therefore, the wise person (verse 3) will be cautious in the conducting of his life (hashkel), acquainted with the requirements of righteous living (sedeq), able to make sound judgments (mishpat), and do what is honest (mesharim). If a man learns such things when he is young (verse 4), his wisdom will increase as he grows older (verse 5).
This instruction will be grammatical, rhetorical, and imaginary (verse 6), but its principle is moral (verse 7), and its transmission comes from parental tradition (verses 8-9). Hence, religious docility is absolutely required for its attainment.
One of the first things to be acquired in the pursuit of wisdom is the courage to resist peer pressure (verses 10-19). The clear presumption here is that a young man is surrounded by other young men equally ignorant, and, left to their own devices, they will simply pool their ignorance for some common venture ill conceived. Therefore, the young man is first of all warned against their nefarious influence. All through this book we see an insistence on this point: Wisdom is to be learned from the past, not from one's contemporaries.
The first chapter closes with the first discourse of Wisdom (verses 20-33), an expression formulated by the feminine plural (hokmoth), designating an abstraction. This is Wisdom as it comes from the mind of God (cf. also Proverbs 8; Sirach 1 & 8; Wisdom of Solomon 6-9). The Christology of the New Testament will show this personification to be, in fact, a Person (Luke 11:31; John 1:1-18; Colossians 1:15-20). It is Wisdom that pours forth the Spirit (verse 23; cf. John 7:37-39).
M'Xp VISION FÖR MISSION
Inom kort - under Fastetiden - kommer en serie korta och längre artiklar under temat VISION FÖR MISSION
att publiceras med uttalanden från olika slags ledare och från
gräsrotsnivå bland Guds folk inom Den svenska kristenheten - från Ale
till Övertorneå.
I en tid som denna är det mer än någonsin av vikt att Guds folks enhet kan manifesteras i mindre sammanhang - såsom via denna lilla arena som en webbloggsida kan vara - och på andra och mera kända arenor i Svensk kristenhet.
"Only Christianity" var mottot för C.S. Lewis i hans första apologetiska författarskapsera efter sin omvändnelse. Han agerade inte i första hand som Trons försvarare utifrån sin tillhörighet i Anglican Church, utan som representant för kristenheten.
I en tid som denna när vi kommer allt längre fram i frälsningshistorien och dagen D, då Herren kommer åter i sin härlighet, är det alltmera av vikt att vi tillsammans söker fördjupa våra relationer samfund och kyrkor emellan. Vi klarar inte detta med knep och metoder, men med Herrens egen hjälp. Inte med konstlade medel eller svärmiska orealistiska medel och vägar, men med respekt för varandras historia och tradition.
I en tid som denna är det värdefullt och - fr.a. äras Herrens namn - när vi beder FADER VÅR i hela dess djup av den samhörighet som Fadern visar oss i sin kärlek. Vi har ännu steg att vandra på vår gemensamma Svenska krist-enhets stig. Vi behöver göra det i en anda av Walk and Talk. Tala och agera. Inte enbart tala. Utan i kärleken från ovan med mera av verkstad. Walk n' Talk är det som är signifikativt för all autenticitet. För Guds folk och Svensk kristenhet är detta A & O.
Men fortfarande har vi av skilda historiska skäl och på grund av mänsklig begränsning steg kvar att ta. Låt oss ha tålamod. Inte ge upp för att resultat tycks långt borta. Inget har ju egentligen hänt sedan 1925 och det Nathan Söderblom talade om med många av sin tids eldsjälar. Herren har kontrollen över tiden. Han vill inte isolationism och sektförklaringar av varandra som olika delar i hans hjord. Han vill inte bannlysning eller uteslutning. Han vill Nåd i Nådens evangelium. Han vill Nåd och Sanning. Han vill Walk & Talk. Här har vi ett ABC att stava vidare på. Acceptans, Bön, Caritas, Delaktighet, Evangelium... Only Christianity, med hel och full respekt för varandra i ett erkännande av varandra i Den helige Andes kraft och vishet.
I en tid som denna är det mer än någonsin av vikt att Guds folks enhet kan manifesteras i mindre sammanhang - såsom via denna lilla arena som en webbloggsida kan vara - och på andra och mera kända arenor i Svensk kristenhet.
"Only Christianity" var mottot för C.S. Lewis i hans första apologetiska författarskapsera efter sin omvändnelse. Han agerade inte i första hand som Trons försvarare utifrån sin tillhörighet i Anglican Church, utan som representant för kristenheten.
I en tid som denna när vi kommer allt längre fram i frälsningshistorien och dagen D, då Herren kommer åter i sin härlighet, är det alltmera av vikt att vi tillsammans söker fördjupa våra relationer samfund och kyrkor emellan. Vi klarar inte detta med knep och metoder, men med Herrens egen hjälp. Inte med konstlade medel eller svärmiska orealistiska medel och vägar, men med respekt för varandras historia och tradition.
I en tid som denna är det värdefullt och - fr.a. äras Herrens namn - när vi beder FADER VÅR i hela dess djup av den samhörighet som Fadern visar oss i sin kärlek. Vi har ännu steg att vandra på vår gemensamma Svenska krist-enhets stig. Vi behöver göra det i en anda av Walk and Talk. Tala och agera. Inte enbart tala. Utan i kärleken från ovan med mera av verkstad. Walk n' Talk är det som är signifikativt för all autenticitet. För Guds folk och Svensk kristenhet är detta A & O.
Men fortfarande har vi av skilda historiska skäl och på grund av mänsklig begränsning steg kvar att ta. Låt oss ha tålamod. Inte ge upp för att resultat tycks långt borta. Inget har ju egentligen hänt sedan 1925 och det Nathan Söderblom talade om med många av sin tids eldsjälar. Herren har kontrollen över tiden. Han vill inte isolationism och sektförklaringar av varandra som olika delar i hans hjord. Han vill inte bannlysning eller uteslutning. Han vill Nåd i Nådens evangelium. Han vill Nåd och Sanning. Han vill Walk & Talk. Här har vi ett ABC att stava vidare på. Acceptans, Bön, Caritas, Delaktighet, Evangelium... Only Christianity, med hel och full respekt för varandra i ett erkännande av varandra i Den helige Andes kraft och vishet.
M'Xp - SUNET Webbkatalog
Härmed kungöres att webblogg Mission Xp är publicerad som ny på SUNETs Webbkatalog den 7 februari 2005
The Mystery of Israel... Chapter 4
The Mystery of Israel and the Church
by ART KATZ
Chapter 4 - Israel and the Nations
We need to open our spirits and catch the flavor and sense of this mystery. God, in His wisdom, has chosen a nation to be central to all nations. This is not an unusual concept in the economy of God. Israel herself had twelve tribes, and God did not think it extravagant that one of the twelve, Levi, should have no other function but to be priests to the other eleven. In exactly the same way, and by the same principle, the entire nation of Israel is to be a nation of priests unto the world (Exodus 19:6). We know that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29); and when God makes a promise, establishes a covenant, or declares something, then we need to know that it is irrevocable.
Some biblical scholars suggest that the number of nations that proliferate today is the result of man's rebellion against God. We can see everywhere around us the splintering of national entities into sub-entities based on ethnic and religious lines. When the smoke clears from the devastation and destruction at the end of the age from the consequence and outcome of man's own inordinate ambition for nationhood, rivalry, sovereignty and pomp, we will find a vast reduction to the over two hundred nations that now exist. It is clear that God intended a definite number of nations at the first, in proportion to the number of the sons of Israel:
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For Jehovah's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance (Deut. 32:8-9).
Acts 17:26-27 seems to substantiate that:
And He made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us:
The nations must not think they can go on in an autonomous existence independent of the nation, Israel. God has made a provision to keep nations in certain boundaries and relationships that would keep them sane and healthy, with God the recognized Head over all, rather than them imposing themselves on one another by the use of violence. There is a place for legitimacy of nations, but only within a certain comprehensive structure that God Himself provided, namely, the centrality of Israel to all nations. The greatest tragedies that have afflicted mankind through history have come out of the rebellion of nations in their own independent determination to rule themselves, to their own self-aggrandizement, without regard to that nation which God intended as central. There will be no peace until that pattern is established on earth, which, in fact, marks the beginning of the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ (Rev. 20:6).
The Millennium begins when Israel is restored to her God-appointed place in Him, and indeed, the nations will finally come up to Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles to pay homage to God, whose sanctuary and dwelling place will be with the people Israel (Zech.14:16). The law must go forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem or there never will be a turning of swords into plowshares (Micah 4: 2-3). God is so in earnest about this that He says that the nation that will not honor Israel will suffer a curse (Zech.14:17). He will take from them rain and bring upon them the consequences of judgment if they still stubbornly refuse to submit to God's design and intention. The rebellion of mankind is deep-seated against God, and it is no more clearly reflected and revealed than in mankind's opposition to the nation that He has chosen. God's choice is the revelation of Himself as God, and it is a choice that is exactly the antithesis of man's. It is His choice, however, that will prevail, to the everlasting praise of His glory.
Nations cannot be related to God and recognize the boundaries and purposes of God independent of their recognition of, and their submission to, the centrality of Israel for all nations. The greatest drama of the Last Days, now already in process of coming to the fore in world history, is the attempted annihilation of Israel by the nations in order to remove God's very provision for their relatedness to Him. To remain, as a nation, outside of that relationship with Israel is to be outside of God.
Has God Rejected Israel?
With this in view, Paul finds himself having to answer a question raised by the believers in Rome, "Is God finished with Israel?"
I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom. 11:1).
Paul gives his own faith in God as the evidence that God is not finished with Israel. In a very real sense, Paul is in himself the very personification of that nation, all the more in his militant opposition to the faith followed by his radical conversion. We have in him an exact pattern of what the future of the nation itself is. He is in himself already explicating and setting forth Israel's own destiny and apostolate to the nations, namely, to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. This temporary setting aside of the Jew by God, however, is not some arbitrary decision independent of the judgment that Israel has incurred upon herself:
Just as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day (Rom. 11:8).
Their blindness is a judgment,5 particularly over the issue of the rejection of their Messiah. It was not some momentary failure at a historical point in time; it was rather the culmination of a long history of apostasy and alienation from God that had become so deep-seated that when very God came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfillment of their own scriptures and expectation, He simply could not be recognized. He was rejected, despised and brought to the place of death, albeit the instrumentality of that death was the Roman authorities. Their blindness was, and still is, the consequence of their own sin and must be judged by a righteous God.
God's Cosmic Purposes
The whole of this mystery is predicated on God's unswerving principle of death and resurrection. The glory of resurrection (the mercy of God) can only issue out of 'death,' so, in order to demonstrate His mercy as His final testimony before all nations (Ezekiel 39:7), a surviving remnant of the nation of Israel is scheduled for death and resurrection. We have known the resurrection phenomenon as individuals, but God intends it for Israel as a national demonstration. They will, and must, pass through death in their experience, without the comforting knowledge that it will result in resurrection (Ezekiel 37), for how else is death, death? Unless this takes place, there will be no consummation of the age; there will be no return of the Lord, and there will be no establishment of His kingdom. For His kingdom, by necessity, is the kingdom of David, the kingdom promised to Israel. It is not a kingdom for Israel's exclusive gratification, but a kingdom that will bless the nations through the nation that God has appointed and chosen to be central to all nations. We need, therefore, to have a sense of God's cosmic design for the nations, understanding that Israel is central to God's redemptive dealing with all the nations. Our view of redemption must be elevated from personal salvation to national salvation.
But the reader may ask, "Why should Israel be so central to us as the modern Church, since it was not central to generations of saints before, who were quite spiritual, yet did not recognize the centrality of Israel?" The answer lies primarily in the fact that these are the Last Days, and the Church that is impervious, or indifferent, to the purposes of God for the Last Days is, ipso facto, not the Church. In fact, reference to Israel is conspicuously absent from current teaching in the Church. It is simply outside their consciousness. The Church has a lot of great things to say, but in these Last Days, they are missing the focus of God that compels the Church to be Church.
Israel's final redemption is the final consummating event of God that concludes this age. Any preoccupation with prophets and prophetic things that omits reference to the great, epochal event that is yet future, namely, the restoration of Israel to her God after thousands of years of apostasy and alienation from God is also, by that definition, not prophetic. In fact, our continuing lament and criticism of the present celebration of prophets is that there is, even among them, for the most part, an absence of any significant reference to Israel and the Church's relationship to Israel. This is the most momentous thing that is before us historically, yet there is so little awareness or preparation that we cannot conceive of the fact that there should be a prophetic upsurge and this theme be absent. The very conspicuous absence of the theme makes us suspect whether indeed what is being celebrated is truly prophetic.
A serious hour has come, and we have to prepare ourselves, both spiritually and physically, in a way that we would not have ever conceived or bothered about before. We would have been content to be merely charismatic or evangelical, because that was sufficient for our purposes, but now a purpose has come to our attention that is His purpose, and it is an ultimate purpose. God is setting the stage, and Israel is appointed by God to be the nexus of His whole design for the government of the nations.
The Government of God
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:32-33).
If that God, and that King, can reign over that stiff-necked people, a people whose last national statement towards God was, "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15f), then what do you think will be the disposition of other nations? If God can possess Israel, a people who, in all their unbelief and opposition to Him, have blasphemed His name in the nations, then He will have all the nations. It is going to take a final breakdown of Israel's last rebellion and self-will. There is no other way, but they will be grateful later.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this (Isaiah 9:6-7).
We are brought right into the whole reason why a Child is born and a Son is given, namely, that the government will rest on His shoulders. It is the rule of God going forth in His own character, that is to say, in the meekness of the Lamb. The rod of iron speaks of an absolute uncompromising stance, but it will be in the gentleness of the Lamb. It is the glorious benevolence of God! It is His great wisdom going out to the nations that will keep them from their own violence, hatred and perversion.
Is our government, then, upon His shoulder? How shall it come to the nations if it has not yet first come to the Church? Are there pockets of rebellion, self-will and independence of spirit to be found in the very congregations of God? Are we more ruled by convenience than we think? For example, are we saying, "Did you like the service? Do you like the pastor? Do you like the program, the worship?" If we do not like it, we find an alternative down the street. We should rather be asking the Lord where He would have us to be planted, and to suffer with that people, in that place.6
It says in Isaiah 2,
Now it will come about in the last days, the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it (Is. 2:2).
This is highly symbolic language. The word 'mountain' always refers to rule and government. However mighty the nations think they are, there will come a time when they will humble themselves and stream to Israel. Can you imagine the proud nations, who are now devouring one another, being broken and submitting to God and God's choice? This is future. In the Last Days it shall come to pass.
And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths" (Is. 2:3a).
That is what government is. It is not bureaucracy; it is not shuffling papers, or men stuffing their pockets with political gain. The purpose of government is to teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. It is the righteousness of God as it pertains to the relationships of a moral mankind on earth.
For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war (Is. 2:3b-4).
When the kingdom of God comes, men will be changed in all of their ways, but in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit this one thing is cited: Men will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. God has put His finger on the heart of the kingdom of violence and death that has raised up an elaborate and enormous network of profit-feeding agencies that make men dependent upon it for their livelihood. Nice guys, who go to ball games, are trembling lest peace should come and there be no need for the weapons they produce. They would lose their high-paying jobs and the lifestyles that such an income supports. The most drastic thing that could happen to nations today is peace, real peace, where there is no necessity for armament, nor for having a great military establishment that designs and requires the high-tech implements of war.
If the veil could be lifted, we would be shocked to realize how much the production of armaments is dominating and directing the course of nations. The manpower, the energy, the time, the brilliance, the brains and all of the faculties that could have ended poverty in the world overnight are producing, instead, the things that pertain to death. It is the wisdom of the Powers of the air, promoting and fostering greed, ambition, lust, power, influence, violence and death. This is cosmic in its proportions. These fallen angels, who want to continue to manipulate mankind and exert their notorious, false rule over them will be finished when the King comes.
The Restoration of All Things
Jesus is waiting,
...whom heaven must receive [or, contain] until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time (Acts 3:21).
God has bound Himself, and confined and kept His Son from actual entry into His creation to rule and reign as King, until the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets has been fulfilled. When you read the prophets, there is one great theme that they express, namely, the restoration of Israel from ages-long apostasy, at the end of the age, out of a time of unbelievable calamity, back to God and back to the Land.7 That people and that Land are God's locus and the conveyer of the millennial kingdom that will be established with them physically and geographically, and be expressed through them. Israel is finally brought into their call as a nation of priests and a light unto the world. Jews are brilliant and gifted people, but God did not primarily call them to music, to the stage, to the theater, to the film industry and all of that. The ushering in of the millennial kingdom brings true government from Zion, the government of God, the only government that is a true government and that will ever bring peace and righteousness on this earth.
Naturally speaking, we do not actually anticipate the kingdom as a literal, explicit and political entity. There is a sense in which the kingdom is inward, subjective, and consists of kingdom principles and values. This, however true in part, should not, however, be allowed to eclipse or to displace the larger part, an anticipation of an actual, literal and political rule of God. The government of God is theocratic; it is executed in perfect righteousness without any self-seeking. It is the benevolence of God, and the wisdom of God on how to live being brought to mankind. We must not take the literal statements of God and spiritualize their meaning away. By so doing, we do a disservice to God that is presumptuous and tantamount to blasphemy. Our whole faith will be revolutionized when we give to God's Word the literal meaning that He Himself intends for it to have. It is so radical in its implications that it is little wonder that we spiritualize it away. Could it be that we do not have the courage, nor faith, nor desire to take it at face value?
…a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins" (Rom. 11:25b-27).
This does not mean every Jew, but only that surviving remnant from among them that constitutes the elect Israel of God. The rest will suffer the attrition and death that comes to those who are rebellious against God and will not receive His salvation, despite His every appeal, as we shall see when we begin to examine the book of Amos. It is an enormous Last Days' saga, and the Church is the principal actor. It is the Church coming into the solemn configuration of what God intended for it as a glory. It is brought to fullness and maturity, and prepared for its own millennial destiny and glory, namely, to rule and reign with Christ from heavenly places (Rev. 20:6).
To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen (Eph. 3:21).
That means the end of the Church as a plaything and a denominational enterprise where men of ambition find platforms for themselves. God has chosen Israel, not because she is lustrous, nor because she is numerous, nor because she was one of the great ancient powers. She was always a nothing people, and that is precisely why He has chosen her. He will be who He will be, and He will choose what He will choose. The critical question is: "Will the Church choose what He chooses?"
Israel is becoming increasingly aggressive and offensive in her self-defense, and her behavior is going to become worse; this must, we believe, of necessity, be so. Jews everywhere are suffering the adverse consequence of Israel's declining reputation. This is part of the program of God to bring Jews worldwide into a place of opposition, contempt and finally, persecution by unregenerate man in the nations. It is the Powers of darkness themselves who are aiding and abetting in all of this hostility and opposition. They want to avoid losing their place of power by annihilating this people from the face of the earth so that Israel cannot be restored. That is the nexus of the fierce anti-Semitic hatred that is presently escalating. If we do not understand this invisible realm of reality that underlies the world, its structures, its governments and its society, then the mystery of Israel will continue to be bewilderment to us, and we will be ourselves offended in Israel's impending calamity.
We are summarizing the mystery of Israel as the issue of world government and rule over creation, which includes the place that God has designated for this people with regard to other nations. When the kingdom comes, it is not only theocratic and millennial, but also forever. We are not talking about some transient thing or some temporary administration, but rather the final, decisive and conclusive work of God for all creation, and that endures eternally. In other words, when the Powers of darkness are finally out, because Israel is finally in, they are out eternally, and therefore it helps us to understand why they are so vexed. We can expect a global anti-Semitism of which the Nazi era was a mere forerunner. However vicious the systematic annihilation of six million European Jews was, it must yet be seen as a preview of what we shall expect globally in the Last Days when that same satanic hatred is poured out in every nation.8 The Church in Germany collapsed like the 'proverbial deck of cards' under that demonic power; we need to be instructed by their collapse, because we have every reason to expect the same phenomenon, this time as it will be seen in every nation, including our own!
by ART KATZ
Chapter 4 - Israel and the Nations
We need to open our spirits and catch the flavor and sense of this mystery. God, in His wisdom, has chosen a nation to be central to all nations. This is not an unusual concept in the economy of God. Israel herself had twelve tribes, and God did not think it extravagant that one of the twelve, Levi, should have no other function but to be priests to the other eleven. In exactly the same way, and by the same principle, the entire nation of Israel is to be a nation of priests unto the world (Exodus 19:6). We know that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29); and when God makes a promise, establishes a covenant, or declares something, then we need to know that it is irrevocable.
Some biblical scholars suggest that the number of nations that proliferate today is the result of man's rebellion against God. We can see everywhere around us the splintering of national entities into sub-entities based on ethnic and religious lines. When the smoke clears from the devastation and destruction at the end of the age from the consequence and outcome of man's own inordinate ambition for nationhood, rivalry, sovereignty and pomp, we will find a vast reduction to the over two hundred nations that now exist. It is clear that God intended a definite number of nations at the first, in proportion to the number of the sons of Israel:
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For Jehovah's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance (Deut. 32:8-9).
Acts 17:26-27 seems to substantiate that:
And He made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us:
The nations must not think they can go on in an autonomous existence independent of the nation, Israel. God has made a provision to keep nations in certain boundaries and relationships that would keep them sane and healthy, with God the recognized Head over all, rather than them imposing themselves on one another by the use of violence. There is a place for legitimacy of nations, but only within a certain comprehensive structure that God Himself provided, namely, the centrality of Israel to all nations. The greatest tragedies that have afflicted mankind through history have come out of the rebellion of nations in their own independent determination to rule themselves, to their own self-aggrandizement, without regard to that nation which God intended as central. There will be no peace until that pattern is established on earth, which, in fact, marks the beginning of the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ (Rev. 20:6).
The Millennium begins when Israel is restored to her God-appointed place in Him, and indeed, the nations will finally come up to Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles to pay homage to God, whose sanctuary and dwelling place will be with the people Israel (Zech.14:16). The law must go forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem or there never will be a turning of swords into plowshares (Micah 4: 2-3). God is so in earnest about this that He says that the nation that will not honor Israel will suffer a curse (Zech.14:17). He will take from them rain and bring upon them the consequences of judgment if they still stubbornly refuse to submit to God's design and intention. The rebellion of mankind is deep-seated against God, and it is no more clearly reflected and revealed than in mankind's opposition to the nation that He has chosen. God's choice is the revelation of Himself as God, and it is a choice that is exactly the antithesis of man's. It is His choice, however, that will prevail, to the everlasting praise of His glory.
Nations cannot be related to God and recognize the boundaries and purposes of God independent of their recognition of, and their submission to, the centrality of Israel for all nations. The greatest drama of the Last Days, now already in process of coming to the fore in world history, is the attempted annihilation of Israel by the nations in order to remove God's very provision for their relatedness to Him. To remain, as a nation, outside of that relationship with Israel is to be outside of God.
Has God Rejected Israel?
With this in view, Paul finds himself having to answer a question raised by the believers in Rome, "Is God finished with Israel?"
I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom. 11:1).
Paul gives his own faith in God as the evidence that God is not finished with Israel. In a very real sense, Paul is in himself the very personification of that nation, all the more in his militant opposition to the faith followed by his radical conversion. We have in him an exact pattern of what the future of the nation itself is. He is in himself already explicating and setting forth Israel's own destiny and apostolate to the nations, namely, to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. This temporary setting aside of the Jew by God, however, is not some arbitrary decision independent of the judgment that Israel has incurred upon herself:
Just as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day (Rom. 11:8).
Their blindness is a judgment,5 particularly over the issue of the rejection of their Messiah. It was not some momentary failure at a historical point in time; it was rather the culmination of a long history of apostasy and alienation from God that had become so deep-seated that when very God came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfillment of their own scriptures and expectation, He simply could not be recognized. He was rejected, despised and brought to the place of death, albeit the instrumentality of that death was the Roman authorities. Their blindness was, and still is, the consequence of their own sin and must be judged by a righteous God.
God's Cosmic Purposes
The whole of this mystery is predicated on God's unswerving principle of death and resurrection. The glory of resurrection (the mercy of God) can only issue out of 'death,' so, in order to demonstrate His mercy as His final testimony before all nations (Ezekiel 39:7), a surviving remnant of the nation of Israel is scheduled for death and resurrection. We have known the resurrection phenomenon as individuals, but God intends it for Israel as a national demonstration. They will, and must, pass through death in their experience, without the comforting knowledge that it will result in resurrection (Ezekiel 37), for how else is death, death? Unless this takes place, there will be no consummation of the age; there will be no return of the Lord, and there will be no establishment of His kingdom. For His kingdom, by necessity, is the kingdom of David, the kingdom promised to Israel. It is not a kingdom for Israel's exclusive gratification, but a kingdom that will bless the nations through the nation that God has appointed and chosen to be central to all nations. We need, therefore, to have a sense of God's cosmic design for the nations, understanding that Israel is central to God's redemptive dealing with all the nations. Our view of redemption must be elevated from personal salvation to national salvation.
But the reader may ask, "Why should Israel be so central to us as the modern Church, since it was not central to generations of saints before, who were quite spiritual, yet did not recognize the centrality of Israel?" The answer lies primarily in the fact that these are the Last Days, and the Church that is impervious, or indifferent, to the purposes of God for the Last Days is, ipso facto, not the Church. In fact, reference to Israel is conspicuously absent from current teaching in the Church. It is simply outside their consciousness. The Church has a lot of great things to say, but in these Last Days, they are missing the focus of God that compels the Church to be Church.
Israel's final redemption is the final consummating event of God that concludes this age. Any preoccupation with prophets and prophetic things that omits reference to the great, epochal event that is yet future, namely, the restoration of Israel to her God after thousands of years of apostasy and alienation from God is also, by that definition, not prophetic. In fact, our continuing lament and criticism of the present celebration of prophets is that there is, even among them, for the most part, an absence of any significant reference to Israel and the Church's relationship to Israel. This is the most momentous thing that is before us historically, yet there is so little awareness or preparation that we cannot conceive of the fact that there should be a prophetic upsurge and this theme be absent. The very conspicuous absence of the theme makes us suspect whether indeed what is being celebrated is truly prophetic.
A serious hour has come, and we have to prepare ourselves, both spiritually and physically, in a way that we would not have ever conceived or bothered about before. We would have been content to be merely charismatic or evangelical, because that was sufficient for our purposes, but now a purpose has come to our attention that is His purpose, and it is an ultimate purpose. God is setting the stage, and Israel is appointed by God to be the nexus of His whole design for the government of the nations.
The Government of God
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:32-33).
If that God, and that King, can reign over that stiff-necked people, a people whose last national statement towards God was, "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15f), then what do you think will be the disposition of other nations? If God can possess Israel, a people who, in all their unbelief and opposition to Him, have blasphemed His name in the nations, then He will have all the nations. It is going to take a final breakdown of Israel's last rebellion and self-will. There is no other way, but they will be grateful later.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this (Isaiah 9:6-7).
We are brought right into the whole reason why a Child is born and a Son is given, namely, that the government will rest on His shoulders. It is the rule of God going forth in His own character, that is to say, in the meekness of the Lamb. The rod of iron speaks of an absolute uncompromising stance, but it will be in the gentleness of the Lamb. It is the glorious benevolence of God! It is His great wisdom going out to the nations that will keep them from their own violence, hatred and perversion.
Is our government, then, upon His shoulder? How shall it come to the nations if it has not yet first come to the Church? Are there pockets of rebellion, self-will and independence of spirit to be found in the very congregations of God? Are we more ruled by convenience than we think? For example, are we saying, "Did you like the service? Do you like the pastor? Do you like the program, the worship?" If we do not like it, we find an alternative down the street. We should rather be asking the Lord where He would have us to be planted, and to suffer with that people, in that place.6
It says in Isaiah 2,
Now it will come about in the last days, the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it (Is. 2:2).
This is highly symbolic language. The word 'mountain' always refers to rule and government. However mighty the nations think they are, there will come a time when they will humble themselves and stream to Israel. Can you imagine the proud nations, who are now devouring one another, being broken and submitting to God and God's choice? This is future. In the Last Days it shall come to pass.
And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths" (Is. 2:3a).
That is what government is. It is not bureaucracy; it is not shuffling papers, or men stuffing their pockets with political gain. The purpose of government is to teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. It is the righteousness of God as it pertains to the relationships of a moral mankind on earth.
For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war (Is. 2:3b-4).
When the kingdom of God comes, men will be changed in all of their ways, but in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit this one thing is cited: Men will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. God has put His finger on the heart of the kingdom of violence and death that has raised up an elaborate and enormous network of profit-feeding agencies that make men dependent upon it for their livelihood. Nice guys, who go to ball games, are trembling lest peace should come and there be no need for the weapons they produce. They would lose their high-paying jobs and the lifestyles that such an income supports. The most drastic thing that could happen to nations today is peace, real peace, where there is no necessity for armament, nor for having a great military establishment that designs and requires the high-tech implements of war.
If the veil could be lifted, we would be shocked to realize how much the production of armaments is dominating and directing the course of nations. The manpower, the energy, the time, the brilliance, the brains and all of the faculties that could have ended poverty in the world overnight are producing, instead, the things that pertain to death. It is the wisdom of the Powers of the air, promoting and fostering greed, ambition, lust, power, influence, violence and death. This is cosmic in its proportions. These fallen angels, who want to continue to manipulate mankind and exert their notorious, false rule over them will be finished when the King comes.
The Restoration of All Things
Jesus is waiting,
...whom heaven must receive [or, contain] until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time (Acts 3:21).
God has bound Himself, and confined and kept His Son from actual entry into His creation to rule and reign as King, until the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets has been fulfilled. When you read the prophets, there is one great theme that they express, namely, the restoration of Israel from ages-long apostasy, at the end of the age, out of a time of unbelievable calamity, back to God and back to the Land.7 That people and that Land are God's locus and the conveyer of the millennial kingdom that will be established with them physically and geographically, and be expressed through them. Israel is finally brought into their call as a nation of priests and a light unto the world. Jews are brilliant and gifted people, but God did not primarily call them to music, to the stage, to the theater, to the film industry and all of that. The ushering in of the millennial kingdom brings true government from Zion, the government of God, the only government that is a true government and that will ever bring peace and righteousness on this earth.
Naturally speaking, we do not actually anticipate the kingdom as a literal, explicit and political entity. There is a sense in which the kingdom is inward, subjective, and consists of kingdom principles and values. This, however true in part, should not, however, be allowed to eclipse or to displace the larger part, an anticipation of an actual, literal and political rule of God. The government of God is theocratic; it is executed in perfect righteousness without any self-seeking. It is the benevolence of God, and the wisdom of God on how to live being brought to mankind. We must not take the literal statements of God and spiritualize their meaning away. By so doing, we do a disservice to God that is presumptuous and tantamount to blasphemy. Our whole faith will be revolutionized when we give to God's Word the literal meaning that He Himself intends for it to have. It is so radical in its implications that it is little wonder that we spiritualize it away. Could it be that we do not have the courage, nor faith, nor desire to take it at face value?
…a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins" (Rom. 11:25b-27).
This does not mean every Jew, but only that surviving remnant from among them that constitutes the elect Israel of God. The rest will suffer the attrition and death that comes to those who are rebellious against God and will not receive His salvation, despite His every appeal, as we shall see when we begin to examine the book of Amos. It is an enormous Last Days' saga, and the Church is the principal actor. It is the Church coming into the solemn configuration of what God intended for it as a glory. It is brought to fullness and maturity, and prepared for its own millennial destiny and glory, namely, to rule and reign with Christ from heavenly places (Rev. 20:6).
To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen (Eph. 3:21).
That means the end of the Church as a plaything and a denominational enterprise where men of ambition find platforms for themselves. God has chosen Israel, not because she is lustrous, nor because she is numerous, nor because she was one of the great ancient powers. She was always a nothing people, and that is precisely why He has chosen her. He will be who He will be, and He will choose what He will choose. The critical question is: "Will the Church choose what He chooses?"
Israel is becoming increasingly aggressive and offensive in her self-defense, and her behavior is going to become worse; this must, we believe, of necessity, be so. Jews everywhere are suffering the adverse consequence of Israel's declining reputation. This is part of the program of God to bring Jews worldwide into a place of opposition, contempt and finally, persecution by unregenerate man in the nations. It is the Powers of darkness themselves who are aiding and abetting in all of this hostility and opposition. They want to avoid losing their place of power by annihilating this people from the face of the earth so that Israel cannot be restored. That is the nexus of the fierce anti-Semitic hatred that is presently escalating. If we do not understand this invisible realm of reality that underlies the world, its structures, its governments and its society, then the mystery of Israel will continue to be bewilderment to us, and we will be ourselves offended in Israel's impending calamity.
We are summarizing the mystery of Israel as the issue of world government and rule over creation, which includes the place that God has designated for this people with regard to other nations. When the kingdom comes, it is not only theocratic and millennial, but also forever. We are not talking about some transient thing or some temporary administration, but rather the final, decisive and conclusive work of God for all creation, and that endures eternally. In other words, when the Powers of darkness are finally out, because Israel is finally in, they are out eternally, and therefore it helps us to understand why they are so vexed. We can expect a global anti-Semitism of which the Nazi era was a mere forerunner. However vicious the systematic annihilation of six million European Jews was, it must yet be seen as a preview of what we shall expect globally in the Last Days when that same satanic hatred is poured out in every nation.8 The Church in Germany collapsed like the 'proverbial deck of cards' under that demonic power; we need to be instructed by their collapse, because we have every reason to expect the same phenomenon, this time as it will be seen in every nation, including our own!
LOVE NOT THE WORLD by W. Nee
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LOVE NOT THE WORLD
By Watchman Nee
Preface
The greater part of this book derives from a series of addresses on the subject of "the world" given by Mr. Watchman Nee (Nee To-sheng) of Foochow to Christian believers in Shanghai city in the early period of the Sino-Japanese War. They are thus colored a little by the economic pressures of those days. To them have been added other talks on the same general theme given at various places and times during the period 1938-41. For example, Chapter Three is based on a sermon preached at a baptismal service in May 8 1939. I am indebted to several friends for the notes which have supplied the book's source material.
The author sees the cosmos as a spiritual entity behind the things seen, a force always to be reckoned with. He deals with its impact upon the Christian and his impact upon it, with the conflicting claims upon him of separation and involvement, and with the destiny of the man in Christ to "have dominion." As always, Mr. Nee's studies display original thinking and he is not afraid to be provocative, stirring both heart and mind to a response. It is my prayer that, despite the inevitably piecemeal construction of the book, its theme will prove to have coherence as a picture of the man of God in the world, and further, that it may challenge us all who name the name of Christ to move more courageously and positively through this earthly scene, with thought always for our role here in God's eternal purpose concerning his beloved Son.
ANGUS I. KINNEAR
London
1968
Chapter 1
The Mind Behind the System
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John 12:31, 32).
Our Lord Jesus utters these words at a key point in his ministry. He has entered Jerusalem thronged by enthusiastic crowds; but almost at once he has spoken in veiled terms of laying down his life, and to this heaven itself has given public approval. Now he comes out with this great twofold statement. What, we ask ourselves, can it have conveyed to those who have just acclaimed him, going out to meet him and accompanying him home on his ride? To most of them his words, if they had any meaning at all, must have signified a complete reversal of their hopes. Indeed the more discerning came to see in them a forecasting of the actual circumstances of his death as a criminal (verse 33).
Yet if his utterance destroyed one set of illusions, it offered in place of them a wonderful hope, solid and secure. For it announced a far more radical exchange of dominion than even Jewish patriots looked for. "And I ..." - the expression contrasts sharply with what precedes it, even as the One it identifies stands in contrast with his antagonist, the prince of this world. Through the Cross, through the obedience to death of him who is God's seed of wheat, this world's rule of compulsion and fear is to end with the fall of its proud ruler. And with his springing up once more to life there will come into being in its place a new reign of righteousness and one that is marked by a free allegiance of men to him. With cords of love their hearts will be drawn away from a world under judgment to Jesus the Son of man, who though lifted up to die, is by that very act lifted up to reign.
"The earth" is the scene of this crisis and its tremendous outcome, and "this world" is, we may say, its point of collision. That point we shall make the theme of our study, and we will begin by looking at the New Testament ideas associated with the important Greek word cosmos. In the English versions this word is, with a single exception shortly to be noticed, invariably translated "the world." (The other Greek word, aion, also so translated, embodies the idea of time and should more aptly be rendered "the age.")
It is worth sparing time for a look at a New Testament Greek Lexicon such as Grimm's. This will show how wide is the range of meaning that cosmos has in Scripture. But, first of all we glance back to its origins in classical Greek where we find it originally implied two things: first a harmonious order or arrangement, and secondly embellishment or adornment. This latter idea appears in the New Testament verb cosmeo, used with the meaning "to adorn," as of the temple with goodly stones or of a bride for her husband (Luke 21:5; Rev. 21:2). In 1 Peter 3:3, the exception just alluded to, cosmos is itself translated "adorning" in keeping with this same verb cosmeo in verse 5.
(1) When we turn from the classics to the New Testament writers we find that their uses of cosmos fall into three main groups. It is used first with the sense of the material universe, the round world, this earth. For example, Acts 17:14, "the God that made the world and all things therein"; Matt. 13:35 (and elsewhere), "the foundation of the world"; John 1:10, "he was in the world, and the world was made by him"; Mark 16:15, "Go ye into all the world."
(2) The second usage of cosmos is twofold. It is used (a) for the inhabitants of the world in such phrases as John 1:10, "the world knew him not"; 3:16, "God so loved the world"; 12:19, "the world is gone after him"; 17:21, "that the world may believe." (b) An extension of this usage leads to the idea of the whole race of men alienated from God and thus hostile to the cause of Christ. For instance, Heb. 11:38, "Of whom the world was not worthy"; John 14:17, "whom the world cannot receive"; 14:27, "not as the world giveth, give I unto you"; 15:18, "If the world hateth you ..."
(3) In the third place we find cosmos is used in Scripture for worldly affairs: the whole circle of worldly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, which though hollow and fleeting, stir our desire and seduce us from God, so that they are obstacles to the cause of Christ. Examples are: 1 John 2:15, "the things that are in the world"; 3:17, "the world's goods"; Matt. 16:26, "if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life"; 1 Cor. 7:31, "those that use the world, as not abusing it." This usage of cosmos applies not only to material but also to abstract things which have spiritual and moral (or immoral) values. E.g., 1 Cor. 2:12, "the spirit of the world"; 3:19, "the wisdom of this world"; 7:31, "the fashion of this world"; Titus 2:12, "worldly (adj, kosmicos) lusts"; 2 Pet. 1:4, "the corruption that is in the world"; 2:20, "the defilement's of the world"; 1 John 2:16, 17, "all that is in the world, the lust ... the vainglory ... passeth away." The Christian is "to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).
The Bible student will soon discover that, as the above paragraph suggests, cosmos is a favorite word of the apostle John, and it is he, in the main, who helps us forward now to a further conclusion.
While it is true that these three definitions of "the world," as (1) the material earth or universe, (2) the people on the earth, and (3) the things of the earth, each contribute something to the whole picture, it will already be apparent that behind them all is something more. The classical idea of orderly arrangement or organization helps us to grasp what this is. Behind all that is tangible we meet something intangible, we meet a planned system; and in this system there is a harmonious functioning, a perfect order.
Concerning this system there are two things to be emphasized. First, since the day when Adam opened the door for evil to enter God's creation, the world order has shown itself to be hostile to God. The world "knew not God" (1 Cor. 1:21), "hated" Christ (John 15:18) and "cannot receive" the Spirit of truth (14:17). "Its works are evil" (John 7:7) and "the friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). Hence Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). He has "overcome the world" (16:33) and "the victory that hath overcome the world" is "our faith" in him (1 John 5:4). For, as the verse of John 12 that heads this study affirms, the world is under judgment. God's attitude to it is uncompromising.
This is because, secondly, as the same verse makes clear, there is a mind behind the system. John writes repeatedly of "the prince of this world" (12:31; 14:30; 16:11). In his Epistle he describes him as "he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4)and matches against him the Spirit of truth who indwells believers. "The whole world," John says, "lieth in the evil one" (5:19). He is the rebellious cosmocrator, world ruler-a word which, however, appears only once, used in the plural of his lieutenants, the "world rulers of this darkness" (Eph. 6:12).
There is, then, an ordered system, "the world," which is governed from behind the scenes by a ruler, Satan. When in John 12:31 Jesus states that the sentence of judgment has been passed upon this world he does not mean that the material world or its inhabitants are judged. For them judgment is yet to come. What is there judged is that institution, that harmonious world order of which Satan himself is the originator and head. And ultimately, as Jesus' words make clear, it is he, "the prince of the world," who has been judged (16:11) and who is to be dethroned and "cast out" for ever. Scripture thus gives depth to our understanding of the world around us. Indeed, unless we look at the unseen powers behind the material things we may readily be deceived.
This consideration may help us to understand better the passage in 1 Peter 3 alluded to above. There the apostle sets "the outward adorning (cosmos) of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel" in deliberate contrast with "the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." By inference, therefore, the former are corrupt and worthless to God. We may or may not be ready at once to accept Peter's evaluation, depending upon whether we see the true import of his words. Here is what he is implying. In the background behind these matters of wearing apparel and jewelry and make-up, there is a power at work for its own ends. Do not let that power grip you.
What, we have to ask ourselves, is the motive that activates us in relation to these things? It may be nothing sensuous but altogether innocent, aiming by the use of tone and harmony and perfect matching merely to gain an effect that is aesthetically pleasing. There may be nothing intrinsically wrong in doing this; but do you and I see what we are touching here? We are touching that harmonious system behind the things seen, a system that is controlled by God's enemy. So let us be wary.
The Bible opens with God's creation of the heavens and the earth. It does not say that he created the world in the sense that we are discussing it now. Through the Bible the meaning of "the world" undergoes a development, and it is only in the New. Testament (though perhaps to a lesser extent already in the Psalms and some of the Prophets) that "the world" comes to have its full spiritual significance. We can readily see the reason for this development. Before the Fall of man, the world existed only in the sense of the earth, the people on the earth, and the things on the earth. As yet there was no cosmos, no "world," in the sense of a constituted order. With the Fall, however, Satan brought on to this earth the order which he himself had conceived, and with that began the world system of which we are speaking.
Originally our physical earth had no connection with "the world" in this sense of a Satanic system, nor indeed had man; but Satan took advantage of man's sin, and of the door this threw open to him, to introduce into the earth the organization which he had set himself to establish. From that point of time this earth was in "the world," and man was in "the world." So we may say that before the Fall there was an earth; after the Fall there was a "world"; at the Lord's return there will be a kingdom. Just as the world belongs to Satan, so the Kingdom belongs to our Lord Jesus. Moreover it is this Kingdom that displaces and that will displace the world. When the "Stone not made with hands" shatters man's proud image, then the kingdom of this world will "become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (Dan. 2:44, 45; Rev. 11:15).
Politics, education, literature, science, art, law, commerce, music-such are the things that constitute the cosmos, and these are things that we meet daily. Subtract them and the world as a coherent system ceases to be. In studying the history of mankind we have to acknowledge marked progress in each of these departments. The question however is: In what direction is this "progress" tending? What is the ultimate goal of all this development? At the end, John tells us, antichrist will arise and will set up his own kingdom in this world (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7; Rev. 13). That is the direction of this world's advance. Satan is utilizing the material world, the men of the world, the things that arein the world, to head everything up eventually in the kingdom of antichrist. At that hour the world system will have reached its zenith; and at that hour every unit of it will be revealed to be antiChristian.
In the book of Genesis we find in Eden no hint of technology, no mention of mechanical instruments. After the Fall, however, we read that among the sons of Cain there was a forger of cutting instruments of brass and iron. A few centuries ago it might have seemed fanciful to discern the spirit of antichrist in iron tools, even though for long the sword has been in open competition with the ploughshare. But today, in the hands of man, metals have been turned to sinister and deadly uses, and as the end approaches the widespread abuse of technology and engineering will become even more apparent.
The same thing applies to music and the arts. For the pipe and the harp seem also to have originated with the family of Cain, and today in unconsecrated hands their God-defying nature becomes increasingly clear. In many parts of the world it has long been easy to trace an intimate relationship between idolatry and the arts of painting, sculpture, and music. No doubt the day is coming when the nature of antichrist will be disclosed more openly than ever through song and dance and the visual and dramatic arts.
As for commerce, its connections are perhaps even more suspect. Satan was the first merchant, trading ideas with Eve for his own advantage, and in the figurative language of Ezekiel 28,which seems to reveal something of his original character, we read: "By thy traffic thou has increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up" (verse 5). Perhaps this does not have to be argued, for most of us will readily admit from experience the Satanic origin and nature of commerce. We shall say more of this later.
But what of education? Surely, we protest, that must be harmless. Anyway, our children have to be taught. But education, no less than commerce or technology, is one of the things of the world. It has its roots in the tree of knowledge. How earnestly, as Christians, we seek to protect our children from the world's more obvious snares. And yet it is quite true that we have to provide education for them. How are we going to solve the problem of letting them touch what is essentially a thing of the world, and at the same time guarding them from the great world system and its perils?
And what of science? It, too, is one of the units that constitute the cosmos. It, too, is knowledge. When we venture into the further reaches of science, and begin to speculate on the nature of the physical world-and of man-the question immediately arises: Up to what point is the pursuit of scientific research and discovery legitimate? Where is the line of demarcation between what is helpful and what is hurtful in the realm of knowledge? How can we pursue after knowledge and yet avoid being caught in Satan's meshes?
These, then, are the matters at which we must look. Oh, I know I shall appear to some to be overstating things, but this is necessary in order to drive home my point. For "if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Ultimately, when we touch the things of the world, the question we must ask ourselves always is: "How is this thing affecting my relationship with the Father?"
The time has passed when we need to go out into the world in order to make contact with it. Today the world comes and searches us out. There is a force abroad now which is captivating men. Have you ever felt the power of the world as much as today? Have you ever heard so much talk about money? Have you ever thought so much about food and clothing? Wherever you go, even among Christians, the things of the world are the topics of conversation. The world has advanced to the very door of the Church and is seeking to draw even the saints of God into its grasp. Never in this sphere of things have we needed to know the power of the Cross of Christ to deliver us as we do at the present time.
Formerly we spoke much of sin and of the natural life. We could readily see the spiritual issues there, but we little realized then what equally great spiritual issues are at stake when we touch the world. There is a spiritual force behind this world scene which, by means of "the things that are in the world," is seeking to enmesh men in its system. It is not merely against sin therefore that the saints of God need to be on their guard, but against the ruler of this world. God is building up his Church to its consummation in the universal reign of Christ.
Simultaneously his rival is building up this world system to its vain climax in the reign of antichrist. How watchful we need to be lest at any time we be found helping Satan in the construction of that ill-fated kingdom. When we are faced with alternatives and a choice of ways confronts us, the question is not: Is this good or evil? Is this helpful or hurtful? No, the question we must ask ourselves is: Is it of this world, or of God? For since there is only this one conflict in the universe, then whenever two conflicting courses lie open to us, the choice at issue is never a lesser one than: God ... or Satan?
*******************
The European Prophetic College
EPC@Comhem.se
Please, allow these articles to be circulated among your friends.
To become partaker of the regular flow of mailings from the College, mail us a request.
Lars Widerberg
The European Prophetic College
Storskiftesgatan 87
S-58334 Linkoping, Sweden
Phone + Fax: +46 13 213630
LOVE NOT THE WORLD
By Watchman Nee
Preface
The greater part of this book derives from a series of addresses on the subject of "the world" given by Mr. Watchman Nee (Nee To-sheng) of Foochow to Christian believers in Shanghai city in the early period of the Sino-Japanese War. They are thus colored a little by the economic pressures of those days. To them have been added other talks on the same general theme given at various places and times during the period 1938-41. For example, Chapter Three is based on a sermon preached at a baptismal service in May 8 1939. I am indebted to several friends for the notes which have supplied the book's source material.
The author sees the cosmos as a spiritual entity behind the things seen, a force always to be reckoned with. He deals with its impact upon the Christian and his impact upon it, with the conflicting claims upon him of separation and involvement, and with the destiny of the man in Christ to "have dominion." As always, Mr. Nee's studies display original thinking and he is not afraid to be provocative, stirring both heart and mind to a response. It is my prayer that, despite the inevitably piecemeal construction of the book, its theme will prove to have coherence as a picture of the man of God in the world, and further, that it may challenge us all who name the name of Christ to move more courageously and positively through this earthly scene, with thought always for our role here in God's eternal purpose concerning his beloved Son.
ANGUS I. KINNEAR
London
1968
Chapter 1
The Mind Behind the System
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John 12:31, 32).
Our Lord Jesus utters these words at a key point in his ministry. He has entered Jerusalem thronged by enthusiastic crowds; but almost at once he has spoken in veiled terms of laying down his life, and to this heaven itself has given public approval. Now he comes out with this great twofold statement. What, we ask ourselves, can it have conveyed to those who have just acclaimed him, going out to meet him and accompanying him home on his ride? To most of them his words, if they had any meaning at all, must have signified a complete reversal of their hopes. Indeed the more discerning came to see in them a forecasting of the actual circumstances of his death as a criminal (verse 33).
Yet if his utterance destroyed one set of illusions, it offered in place of them a wonderful hope, solid and secure. For it announced a far more radical exchange of dominion than even Jewish patriots looked for. "And I ..." - the expression contrasts sharply with what precedes it, even as the One it identifies stands in contrast with his antagonist, the prince of this world. Through the Cross, through the obedience to death of him who is God's seed of wheat, this world's rule of compulsion and fear is to end with the fall of its proud ruler. And with his springing up once more to life there will come into being in its place a new reign of righteousness and one that is marked by a free allegiance of men to him. With cords of love their hearts will be drawn away from a world under judgment to Jesus the Son of man, who though lifted up to die, is by that very act lifted up to reign.
"The earth" is the scene of this crisis and its tremendous outcome, and "this world" is, we may say, its point of collision. That point we shall make the theme of our study, and we will begin by looking at the New Testament ideas associated with the important Greek word cosmos. In the English versions this word is, with a single exception shortly to be noticed, invariably translated "the world." (The other Greek word, aion, also so translated, embodies the idea of time and should more aptly be rendered "the age.")
It is worth sparing time for a look at a New Testament Greek Lexicon such as Grimm's. This will show how wide is the range of meaning that cosmos has in Scripture. But, first of all we glance back to its origins in classical Greek where we find it originally implied two things: first a harmonious order or arrangement, and secondly embellishment or adornment. This latter idea appears in the New Testament verb cosmeo, used with the meaning "to adorn," as of the temple with goodly stones or of a bride for her husband (Luke 21:5; Rev. 21:2). In 1 Peter 3:3, the exception just alluded to, cosmos is itself translated "adorning" in keeping with this same verb cosmeo in verse 5.
(1) When we turn from the classics to the New Testament writers we find that their uses of cosmos fall into three main groups. It is used first with the sense of the material universe, the round world, this earth. For example, Acts 17:14, "the God that made the world and all things therein"; Matt. 13:35 (and elsewhere), "the foundation of the world"; John 1:10, "he was in the world, and the world was made by him"; Mark 16:15, "Go ye into all the world."
(2) The second usage of cosmos is twofold. It is used (a) for the inhabitants of the world in such phrases as John 1:10, "the world knew him not"; 3:16, "God so loved the world"; 12:19, "the world is gone after him"; 17:21, "that the world may believe." (b) An extension of this usage leads to the idea of the whole race of men alienated from God and thus hostile to the cause of Christ. For instance, Heb. 11:38, "Of whom the world was not worthy"; John 14:17, "whom the world cannot receive"; 14:27, "not as the world giveth, give I unto you"; 15:18, "If the world hateth you ..."
(3) In the third place we find cosmos is used in Scripture for worldly affairs: the whole circle of worldly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, which though hollow and fleeting, stir our desire and seduce us from God, so that they are obstacles to the cause of Christ. Examples are: 1 John 2:15, "the things that are in the world"; 3:17, "the world's goods"; Matt. 16:26, "if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life"; 1 Cor. 7:31, "those that use the world, as not abusing it." This usage of cosmos applies not only to material but also to abstract things which have spiritual and moral (or immoral) values. E.g., 1 Cor. 2:12, "the spirit of the world"; 3:19, "the wisdom of this world"; 7:31, "the fashion of this world"; Titus 2:12, "worldly (adj, kosmicos) lusts"; 2 Pet. 1:4, "the corruption that is in the world"; 2:20, "the defilement's of the world"; 1 John 2:16, 17, "all that is in the world, the lust ... the vainglory ... passeth away." The Christian is "to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).
The Bible student will soon discover that, as the above paragraph suggests, cosmos is a favorite word of the apostle John, and it is he, in the main, who helps us forward now to a further conclusion.
While it is true that these three definitions of "the world," as (1) the material earth or universe, (2) the people on the earth, and (3) the things of the earth, each contribute something to the whole picture, it will already be apparent that behind them all is something more. The classical idea of orderly arrangement or organization helps us to grasp what this is. Behind all that is tangible we meet something intangible, we meet a planned system; and in this system there is a harmonious functioning, a perfect order.
Concerning this system there are two things to be emphasized. First, since the day when Adam opened the door for evil to enter God's creation, the world order has shown itself to be hostile to God. The world "knew not God" (1 Cor. 1:21), "hated" Christ (John 15:18) and "cannot receive" the Spirit of truth (14:17). "Its works are evil" (John 7:7) and "the friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). Hence Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). He has "overcome the world" (16:33) and "the victory that hath overcome the world" is "our faith" in him (1 John 5:4). For, as the verse of John 12 that heads this study affirms, the world is under judgment. God's attitude to it is uncompromising.
This is because, secondly, as the same verse makes clear, there is a mind behind the system. John writes repeatedly of "the prince of this world" (12:31; 14:30; 16:11). In his Epistle he describes him as "he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4)and matches against him the Spirit of truth who indwells believers. "The whole world," John says, "lieth in the evil one" (5:19). He is the rebellious cosmocrator, world ruler-a word which, however, appears only once, used in the plural of his lieutenants, the "world rulers of this darkness" (Eph. 6:12).
There is, then, an ordered system, "the world," which is governed from behind the scenes by a ruler, Satan. When in John 12:31 Jesus states that the sentence of judgment has been passed upon this world he does not mean that the material world or its inhabitants are judged. For them judgment is yet to come. What is there judged is that institution, that harmonious world order of which Satan himself is the originator and head. And ultimately, as Jesus' words make clear, it is he, "the prince of the world," who has been judged (16:11) and who is to be dethroned and "cast out" for ever. Scripture thus gives depth to our understanding of the world around us. Indeed, unless we look at the unseen powers behind the material things we may readily be deceived.
This consideration may help us to understand better the passage in 1 Peter 3 alluded to above. There the apostle sets "the outward adorning (cosmos) of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel" in deliberate contrast with "the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." By inference, therefore, the former are corrupt and worthless to God. We may or may not be ready at once to accept Peter's evaluation, depending upon whether we see the true import of his words. Here is what he is implying. In the background behind these matters of wearing apparel and jewelry and make-up, there is a power at work for its own ends. Do not let that power grip you.
What, we have to ask ourselves, is the motive that activates us in relation to these things? It may be nothing sensuous but altogether innocent, aiming by the use of tone and harmony and perfect matching merely to gain an effect that is aesthetically pleasing. There may be nothing intrinsically wrong in doing this; but do you and I see what we are touching here? We are touching that harmonious system behind the things seen, a system that is controlled by God's enemy. So let us be wary.
The Bible opens with God's creation of the heavens and the earth. It does not say that he created the world in the sense that we are discussing it now. Through the Bible the meaning of "the world" undergoes a development, and it is only in the New. Testament (though perhaps to a lesser extent already in the Psalms and some of the Prophets) that "the world" comes to have its full spiritual significance. We can readily see the reason for this development. Before the Fall of man, the world existed only in the sense of the earth, the people on the earth, and the things on the earth. As yet there was no cosmos, no "world," in the sense of a constituted order. With the Fall, however, Satan brought on to this earth the order which he himself had conceived, and with that began the world system of which we are speaking.
Originally our physical earth had no connection with "the world" in this sense of a Satanic system, nor indeed had man; but Satan took advantage of man's sin, and of the door this threw open to him, to introduce into the earth the organization which he had set himself to establish. From that point of time this earth was in "the world," and man was in "the world." So we may say that before the Fall there was an earth; after the Fall there was a "world"; at the Lord's return there will be a kingdom. Just as the world belongs to Satan, so the Kingdom belongs to our Lord Jesus. Moreover it is this Kingdom that displaces and that will displace the world. When the "Stone not made with hands" shatters man's proud image, then the kingdom of this world will "become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (Dan. 2:44, 45; Rev. 11:15).
Politics, education, literature, science, art, law, commerce, music-such are the things that constitute the cosmos, and these are things that we meet daily. Subtract them and the world as a coherent system ceases to be. In studying the history of mankind we have to acknowledge marked progress in each of these departments. The question however is: In what direction is this "progress" tending? What is the ultimate goal of all this development? At the end, John tells us, antichrist will arise and will set up his own kingdom in this world (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7; Rev. 13). That is the direction of this world's advance. Satan is utilizing the material world, the men of the world, the things that arein the world, to head everything up eventually in the kingdom of antichrist. At that hour the world system will have reached its zenith; and at that hour every unit of it will be revealed to be antiChristian.
In the book of Genesis we find in Eden no hint of technology, no mention of mechanical instruments. After the Fall, however, we read that among the sons of Cain there was a forger of cutting instruments of brass and iron. A few centuries ago it might have seemed fanciful to discern the spirit of antichrist in iron tools, even though for long the sword has been in open competition with the ploughshare. But today, in the hands of man, metals have been turned to sinister and deadly uses, and as the end approaches the widespread abuse of technology and engineering will become even more apparent.
The same thing applies to music and the arts. For the pipe and the harp seem also to have originated with the family of Cain, and today in unconsecrated hands their God-defying nature becomes increasingly clear. In many parts of the world it has long been easy to trace an intimate relationship between idolatry and the arts of painting, sculpture, and music. No doubt the day is coming when the nature of antichrist will be disclosed more openly than ever through song and dance and the visual and dramatic arts.
As for commerce, its connections are perhaps even more suspect. Satan was the first merchant, trading ideas with Eve for his own advantage, and in the figurative language of Ezekiel 28,which seems to reveal something of his original character, we read: "By thy traffic thou has increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up" (verse 5). Perhaps this does not have to be argued, for most of us will readily admit from experience the Satanic origin and nature of commerce. We shall say more of this later.
But what of education? Surely, we protest, that must be harmless. Anyway, our children have to be taught. But education, no less than commerce or technology, is one of the things of the world. It has its roots in the tree of knowledge. How earnestly, as Christians, we seek to protect our children from the world's more obvious snares. And yet it is quite true that we have to provide education for them. How are we going to solve the problem of letting them touch what is essentially a thing of the world, and at the same time guarding them from the great world system and its perils?
And what of science? It, too, is one of the units that constitute the cosmos. It, too, is knowledge. When we venture into the further reaches of science, and begin to speculate on the nature of the physical world-and of man-the question immediately arises: Up to what point is the pursuit of scientific research and discovery legitimate? Where is the line of demarcation between what is helpful and what is hurtful in the realm of knowledge? How can we pursue after knowledge and yet avoid being caught in Satan's meshes?
These, then, are the matters at which we must look. Oh, I know I shall appear to some to be overstating things, but this is necessary in order to drive home my point. For "if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Ultimately, when we touch the things of the world, the question we must ask ourselves always is: "How is this thing affecting my relationship with the Father?"
The time has passed when we need to go out into the world in order to make contact with it. Today the world comes and searches us out. There is a force abroad now which is captivating men. Have you ever felt the power of the world as much as today? Have you ever heard so much talk about money? Have you ever thought so much about food and clothing? Wherever you go, even among Christians, the things of the world are the topics of conversation. The world has advanced to the very door of the Church and is seeking to draw even the saints of God into its grasp. Never in this sphere of things have we needed to know the power of the Cross of Christ to deliver us as we do at the present time.
Formerly we spoke much of sin and of the natural life. We could readily see the spiritual issues there, but we little realized then what equally great spiritual issues are at stake when we touch the world. There is a spiritual force behind this world scene which, by means of "the things that are in the world," is seeking to enmesh men in its system. It is not merely against sin therefore that the saints of God need to be on their guard, but against the ruler of this world. God is building up his Church to its consummation in the universal reign of Christ.
Simultaneously his rival is building up this world system to its vain climax in the reign of antichrist. How watchful we need to be lest at any time we be found helping Satan in the construction of that ill-fated kingdom. When we are faced with alternatives and a choice of ways confronts us, the question is not: Is this good or evil? Is this helpful or hurtful? No, the question we must ask ourselves is: Is it of this world, or of God? For since there is only this one conflict in the universe, then whenever two conflicting courses lie open to us, the choice at issue is never a lesser one than: God ... or Satan?
*******************
The European Prophetic College
EPC@Comhem.se
Please, allow these articles to be circulated among your friends.
To become partaker of the regular flow of mailings from the College, mail us a request.
Lars Widerberg
The European Prophetic College
Storskiftesgatan 87
S-58334 Linkoping, Sweden
Phone + Fax: +46 13 213630
OM News 7/2-05
Welcome to Headlines - a news service for Operation Mobilisation produced by OM News and Information (OMNI.
OM news, prayer information and stories for the week: 7 - 13 February, 2005
1) POWER STRUGGLE IN NEPAL
2) A NEW ERA - Belgium
3) PRESSING ON - Malaysia
1) POWER STRUGGLE IN NEPAL
The clampdown on international lines of communication continues in the Kingdom of Nepal, where the King seized power on Tuesday 1 February. Phone and internet lines have been out of action since the king sacked his government and took control. The crisis has arisen over the continued conflict with Moaoist rebels in Nepal.
Since then, it has not been possible to contact workers in the country. It is reported that the capital, Kathmandu is peaceful, although soldiers are out on the streets, and that people are remaining quietly in their homes, awaiting the outcome of this
enforced world silence.
Please pray with us for renewed contact with workers in the country as soon as possible.
Source: South Asia Communications
2) A NEW ERA
As church and mission leaders gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of OM's ministry in Belgium last month, they also marked a new era in the work - the merger of OM Belgium with OM Zaventem. Under the leadership of Jan Wisse (NL), the new OM Belgium will move forward as one team. In his inauguration speech, Jan emphasized that Belgium is still a country in need of missionaries, and yet in order to reach Belgium for Christ we must invest in the young Christians in the Belgian churches. Leo Proot, who led the work OM Belgium for many years, will now focus on church planting in Gent, while Edwin Braker, former leader of OM Zaventem, will continue to serve with the Zaventem team.
Source: OM Belgium / Anne Marit Viljoen
3) Pressing On
Suffering the after-effects of the Earthquake and Tsunami disaster that hit countries around the Indian Ocean, OM Malaysia continues to press on, mobilising for missions and relief work around the world. Malaysian Christians have given generously to war-torn Sudan and to Tsunami stricken countries despite economic difficulties.
Currently, over 30 Malaysians are serving with OM in 16 countries and on board both Ships. Peter Maiden, OM International Director will be speaking in Kuala Lumpur at a Missions Conference organised by a church in June. At the end of the year, OM Malaysia will launch TeenStreet Malaysia with the desire to train the next generation of workers. TeenStreet founders, Dan and Suzie Potter will visit the country this month to help with preparations.
Please pray for the ministry of OM Malaysia and for many more Malasian churches to get involved with world missions as a result.
Source: OM Malaysia.
David & Sara på Råslätt
Uganda - Afrikas pärla - Se Läs om Uganda
På Råslätt finns några nya ansikten. David Kyobe-Lule & hans fru Sara kommer från Kampala i Uganda. De har båda fäder som var stamhövdingar. De har båda ekonomiexamina i företagsekonomi. David har med sitt liv och erfarenhet ett mycket mäktigt vittnesbörd att berätta om. I Uganda var båda i bankvärlden. Men David har också varit med i gerillan under fem år i Uganda, innan han kom till Sverige och läste teologi. Sedan några år har han varit ungdomspräst i en samarbetskyrka i Jönköping. Sedan 1 februari är han arbetslös på grund av att tjänsten han haft varit tidsbegränsad och projekttjänst.
Sara prövar sig fram på Råslätt i en butik som hon kallar Beauty Boutique. Titta gärna in i Gallerian till Sara. Hon har haft en Hair Boutique i Uppsala - innan de flyttade till Jönköping för 1½ år sedan.
Bed gärna att dessa ugandier få se hur nya vägar öppnas och dörrar öppnas för dem i Sverige i deras situation just nu.
Framlidne biskop Festo Kivengere upplevde på nära håll Idi Amins skräckvälde, då c:a 300.000 dödades. Hans bok Revolutionary Love finns översatt till svenska under titeln Revolutionerande KÄRLEK, 1984, EFS-förlaget, ISBN 91-7080-617-9.
/DSr
"Företagandet som mission" [SAM]
Svenska Alliansmissionen har genom bl.a. Tommy Josefsson visat nya spår i GNOSJÖ
Vecka för unga ledare [EFK]
AKTIV - vecka för unga ledare 14-18 mars på GÖTABROSKOLAN
Lovsångskonferens 4-6 mars Göteborg
"Älska Gud - Älska människorna!" i Göteborg Vineyard 4-6 mars
Brev från missionärer [SKM]
Läs ett antal brev SKM har från ett flertal missionärer från olika världsdelar.
Frågor om Metodistkyrkan
Frågor och svar om METODISTKYRKAN
Från muslim till kristen - en livsresa
Läs om Reem 28 år som nu går på Frälsningsarméns Distansbibelskola
Katastrofarbetet i Indien
Läs om hjälpen till Andamanerna från Missionskyrkan. Läs om hjälpen till INDIEN
Påvens hälsotillstånd
Senaste nytt Fastlagssöndagen 6 februari om Påvens hälsa
M'Xp Guds rike gestaltas...
Guds rike gestaltas av församlingen. Uppdraget församlingen/kyrkan har är att gestalta Guds rike. Det är den allt övergripande kallelsen given åt 'Ecclesia Christi'. Skriften talar därför om vad som är det centrala i evangelium. Vi läser om definitionen på ett stort antal ställen i NT, att evangelium är Evangelium om Guds rike - Mt 4:23, 9:35, Lk 4:43, 8:1, 9:2, 9:60, 16:16, Apg 1:3, 28:31. Det är vad församlingen har att förkunna och undervisa om.
När vi betraktar hur Guds rike gestaltas - i en socken, på en ort, i en stad, i en region eller ett land - ser och hör vi oändligt mycket som gläder Fadern. God förkunnelse och undervisning som ges i enlighet med Guds ords riktlinjer gläder Fadern och oss som är åsyna vittnen till gestaltningen av Guds rike. Det som gestaltas det sker utifrån den förståelse som församlingen har av denna sin uppgift. Den gläder och den inspirerar och uppbygger trons bröder och systrar i deras skiftande traditionstillhörigheter.
Vad vi kan höra på en ort eller i en stad kan skifta. Men mycket är sig likt i alla landets 290 kommuner. Mycket är gott och gläder Faderns hjärta. När han ser sina barns skiftande traditioner och deras sätt att interkommunicera med andra trossyskon av annan bekännelse och trostillhörighet, då finns också sådant som Fadern sörjer över. Några generella iakttagelser kan vi ana att Fadern inte gläds över.
Det är att ortodoxa kan se på frikyrkliga bröder och systrar som vore de en sekt, ja, de kan t.o.m. ibland tala om att de är "Jehovas vittnen", underförstått att här har vi att göra med icke-kristen tradition.
Eller det kan vara grupper av troende som betraktar trosrörelsen som enbart problem och där lösningen enbart är att dessa "fångar" behöver befrias med terapi via organisationer som FRI.
Eller det kan vara som i dagarna när man vigt till biskop och därmed har dessa meningsfränder trätt över gränsen till vad som kan accepteras; man har exkluderat sig själva.
Tre exempel på vad vi kan höra och se. Fadern torde från sin Tron se alla sina barn som tillgångar. Han torde se alla de sina trots skillnader som tillgångar och såsom vi faktiskt är varandras syskon, enär han ensam är vår Fader. Hur har han det, Far i himlen? Där bak i bilen tycks det alltid vara bråk och kiv…
Vad vi hör, anar och ser från Fadern och hans fadershjärta är att hans ögon tåras dels av sorg för vad han ser, dels tåras av glädje över allt som äger rum i hans kärlek och i hans Ande. Kärlekens Ande är ju Nådens och Sanningens Ande som vill inget hellre än att få föra de sina åter och åter till Korset och till Försoningens faktum och källflöde.
Vad vi kan höra och se från Fadershjärtats utflöden ibland Hans folk är Acceptans, Bön, Caritas, Delaktighet och Evangelium… om Guds rike; och hur det gestaltas av Hans församling, på orten, i socknen, i staden, regionen och i landet i den samlade Svenska kristenheten. I Faderns hjärta finns en bokstav före de andra. Det är B. Bönens Ande flödar ut över Guds folk i vår tid med Kärlekens nya välsignelseströmmar.
/Dag Selander
Fastlagssöndagen den 6 februari 2005
6/2-05 MISSION Quiz # 2 - vecka 6 -
SVAR PÅ MISSION Quiz # 1
(1) Vilka personer har skrivit följande psalmtexter där nedanstående strofer ingår?
(a) "Medan hemligheten djupnar viskar Fadern ömt mitt namn"…
SVAR: JONAS JONSSON
Texten börjar: I Guds tystnad får jag vara ordlös
(b) "Mörkret är ej mörkt för dig och i dunklet ser du mig"…
SVAR: ELIS MALMESTRÖM
Texten börjar: Gud, för dig är allting klart
(c) "Var icke snål, bered din själ till fest"…
SVAR: NATHAN SÖDERBLOM
Texten börjar: Se, kärlet brast, och oljan är utgjuten, dess doft uppfyller världens sorgehus
(d) "Den för över världen den levandes bud och vittnar bland svärden och bålen om Gud"…
SVAR: FRANS MIKAEL FRANZÉN
Texten börjar: Vad ljus över griften! Han lever, o fröjd! Fullkomnad är skriften, o salighets höjd!
(e) "Vi sitta med dörrarna lykta, en räddhågad lärjungarund, då Herren oss väntat att finna därute, där striderna brinna, i manligt och troget förbund"…
SVAR: EINAR BILLING
Texten börjar: Nu gläd dig, min ande, i Herran, upp, jubla, min själ, i din Gud.
(2) Har författarna något gemensamt?
De är alla biskopar
(3) Vilken var författarnas verksamhetsregion?
Jonas Jonsson i Strängnäs stift, Elis Malmeström i Växjö stift, Nathan Söderblom i Uppsala stift, Frans Mikael Franzén i Härnösands stift samt Einar Billing i Västerås stift.
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MISSION Quiz # 2 - vecka 6 -
(1) Vilka betydelser har ordet "0ktav"?
- Det finns sex betydelser, ange minst 3 betydelser
(2) Bakgrund till "Trafikfråga":
Brita talade i mobiltelefon med sin man ute på Walk n' Talk häromdan, och påminde honom att inte tala i mobilen när han går över gatan. George Verwer - OM:s grundare - talade i mobilen medan han gick längs järnvägsrälsen på Sri Lanka i september, vilket höll på att sluta med döden. [Se länk: George Verwer] Brita påminde alltså sin man om att se upp vid övergångsställen.
Frågan är: - VARFÖR TITTAR MAN FÖRST ÅT VÄNSTER OCH SEDAN ÅT HÖGER, INNAN MAN GÅR UT I GATAN?
Svaren på frågorna återfinns nästa helg den 13 februari Första söndagen i Fastan
på Kategori 5. MISSIONS'HISTORIA under rubriken MISSION Quiz # 3
Lösningar på frågorna om
1. "Oktav" och 2. "Trafikfråga"
sänds per e-post: MissionXp@myway.com
Lycka till
Red. MISSION Quiz
/Brita
5/2-05 WnT / Lappmesen & Bygdeå
Hej Farbror Dag!
Hälsningar från Uppsala!
Här har vi en liten lappmes som bor i stadsskogen utanför vårt vardagsrumsfönster.
Sen i slutet av Januari har man sett den. Vi har en granne som matar fåglarna här ute.
En lördag morgon såg vi massor av människor som gick med kikare & förstod att det var nån intressant fågel dom kikade på. Jag och killarna tog en sväng på skidor. Då vi stannade till och frågade vad det var dom kikade på. Då fick vi veta att det var en lappmes. Ovanlig här i Uppland.
Trevlig lördag kväll, hälsa Faster Brita!
Kram Sara
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LAPPMESEN FRÅN SARA
Den här hälsningen är verkligen både mycket kär och speciell. Tack Sara för bilden och raderna. Den lilla fågeln, lappmesen, är rar, dvs speciell. Lappmesen - den är också lite av en hembygdshälsning - från Bygdeå - eftersom den hör hemma i norr, uppe i fjällbjörkarnas Lappland och Norrbotten.
KYRKOMÅLARE TORSTEN NORDBERG
Igår på Sankt Ansgars dag överraskades jag också av hemlandshälsningar, när jag fick frågan om vem som hade målat altartavlan i min hemkyrka i Bygdeå. För Göran Åberg är kyrkomålare Torsten Nordberg känd eftersom hans konst också finns i Bankeryds kyrka, "De 8 Saligprisningarna". Nu har jag kontaktat Västerbottens Museum för att lära känna Torsten Kyrkomålare hemma i Bygdeå.
/Dag JustNu
lördagkväll 5/2 kl 21.15
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