Archives For Interpretation

Three Reasons Why Cremation is Unbiblical

December 14, 2015

Many biblical facts show why cremation is unbiblical. This post examines three reasons why cremation is unbiblical.

No OT support for cremation instead of burial

The OT does not record a single instance of God’s people cremating one of their own instead of burying him. Although it does have one passage that relates when some Israelites burned the bodies of some of their people when they died, a close examination of that account shows that it does not support cremation at all.

First Samuel 31 records the tragic end of the lives of king Saul and his three sons. When the Philistines decapitated them and fastened their bodies to a wall (1 Sam. 31:7-10), some inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what had taken place and valiantly acted to attend properly to their bodies:

1Sa 31:11 And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;

 12 All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.

Scripture provides no explanation for why these men burned the bodies of Saul and his sons. Regardless of why they did so, they did not cremate their bodies instead of burying them, as the next verse plainly states:

13 And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

This key statement reveals that the men did not burn the bodies of Saul and his sons until they became ashes and then dispose of the ashes in whatever way they thought was acceptable. Rather, they burned the bodies in a way that preserved their bones, and then they buried them.

First Samuel 31 does not provide any support for Christians cremating a loved one instead of burying him. In fact, it shows that cremating a dead Christian is not at all either a biblically acceptable form of burial or a biblically acceptable substitute for burial.

God’s condemnation of people who completely burned the bones of a person

Amos 2 relates God’s declaration of His fierce wrath upon the Moabites for what they did to the bones of the king of Edom:

Amo 2:1 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:

 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:

 3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.

Because the Moabites burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime, God was going to judge them fiercely. C.F. Keil explains,

The burning of the bones of the king of Edom is not burning while he was still alive, but the burning of his corpse into lime, i. e. so completely that the bones turned into powder like lime . . . This is the only thing blamed, not his having put him to death (Keil-Delitzsch, 10:250).

This passage reveals God’s wrath on those who desecrated a man’s body after he had died by burning his bones until they became a powder. Based on this passage, Christians must not think that the Bible does not have anything to say against cremation.

No evidence of Christians ever cremating their own

The NT does not record a single instance of Christians cremating anyone after he had died. Furthermore, the account of the death of John the Baptist strengthens the case against cremation in a telling way.

Mark 6 records the horrific death of John the Baptist at the hands of wicked king Herod. Having had John beheaded, Herod had his head brought in a platter to the daughter of Herodias, who then gave it to her mother (Mark 6:27-28).

The disciples of John responded to the tragic murder of John by properly attending to his body:

Mar 6:29 And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

A comparison of the accounts of the deaths of King Saul and John the Baptist reveals that the disciples of John did not first burn his decapitated body—they buried his body in a tomb. Any possible support that a believer could try to make for cremation from the account in First Samuel 31 is invalidated by this parallel account in Mark 6.

The disciples of John—who through progressive revelation knew even more about the ways of God than the people of Jabesh Gilead did in their earlier time—did not employ any kind of burning in dealing with the decapitated body of John the Baptist. Mark 6 compared with First Samuel 31 shows that there is no New Testament support for God’s people even in an extreme circumstance to use some form of cremation prior to or in place of burial.

Conclusion

Cremation is not a biblically acceptable form of burial nor is it a biblically acceptable substitute for burial. Christians should not cremate their own.

Rather, they should do everything that they can legitimately do to see that their loved ones and other believers receive a proper burial as the fitting ending to their lives.

See also The Biblical Importance of a Proper Burial

Ezekiel 39: A Test Case for Certain Notions about Cremation versus Burial

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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Acts 21:14: An Illuminating Parallel Reference to Matthew 6:10

December 5, 2015

While reading in Acts 21 this morning in my Spanish Bible, I noticed a phrase that immediately brought to my mind another passage. When I checked the Greek text of both passages to see if the second passage truly was similar, I discovered an illuminating parallel reference.

Acts 21:14 and Matthew 6:10

Luke records the believers’ response when Paul refused their efforts to persuade him not to go to Jerusalem:

Act 21:14 Y como no le pudimos persuadir, desistimos, diciendo: Hágase la voluntad del Señor. 

Act 21:14 And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

Act 21:14 μὴ πειθομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ, ἡσυχάσαμεν εἰπόντες, Τὸ θέλημα τοῦ Κυρίου γενέσθω.

What these believers said closely parallels what Jesus taught us as His disciples to pray:

Mat 6:10 Venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad, como en el cielo, así también en la tierra.

Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Mat 6:10 ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς·

The very close parallel between these statements in Acts 21:14 and Matthew 6:10 shows that these believers responded in a way that displayed where their ultimate allegiance lay—they wanted God’s will to be done on the earth. Their response suggests an important application for us as believers.

Application

At times, we all will likely encounter a situation where our best efforts to persuade other believers not to pursue a certain course of action that will likely be harmful to them are rejected. In keeping with what Acts 21:14 reveals, we perhaps should not respond to them primarily by saying something like, “You’ll be sorry,” or “Don’t say you weren’t warned.”

Instead, based on Acts 21:14, we should respond mainly along the lines of what was said to Paul on this occasion: “The will of the Lord be done.” Such a statement will testify to the other believers that we are responding to their refusal by declaring our heeding the Lord’s teaching about the will of God being done on the earth.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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Another Reason Why Solomon Did Not Perish Eternally

November 1, 2015

Some, perhaps even many, believers think that Solomon died and went to hell because they hold that the Bible never says that he repented of his great sinfulness. I have previously argued that for many biblical reasons Solomon did not perish eternally.

This post provides yet another reason to believe that Solomon is not in hell. A comparison of the biblical data about Samson versus Solomon shows that it is not true that Samson is in heaven but Solomon is in hell.

No Record of Samson’s Repenting of His Sins

Scripture records plainly that Samson sinned repeatedly, including defiling himself by eating honey from the carcass of a dead lion (Judg. 14:8-9), going into a harlot (Judg. 16:1-3), and taking his own revenge (Judg. 16:28-30). No mention is made of his repenting of any of these sins before he died.

Samson is mentioned by Name in Hebrews 11

Even though the inspired record of Samson’s life records his sinning repeatedly, does not ever mention that he repented, and says that “the Lord was departed from him” (Judges 16:20), Samson is mentioned by name in Hebrews 11 as a man of faith. We can be certain, therefore, that Samson was a believer and that he went to heaven when he died even though we have no record of his repenting of his sins as a believer before he died.

A Comparison of the Scriptural Records Concerning Samson and Solomon

Like Samson, Scripture records much about the sinfulness of Solomon (1 Kings 11) and does not directly and unambiguously record that he repented of his sins (cf., however, Ecclesiastes, which may be an inspired record of his repentance). Because Samson went to heaven when he died even though Scripture does not record that he repented of his sins, the lack of mention of Solomon’s repenting before he died does not prove that he died and went to hell because he never repented.

Conclusion

Based on the above comparison of the available biblical data concerning Samson and Solomon, we have no basis for holding that Samson is in heaven but Solomon is in hell. For that reason and for at least nine other biblical reasons, we can be certain that Solomon did not perish eternally.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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Why Churches Should Not Replace Evening Services with Small Groups

October 5, 2015

Scripture provides believers in churches with solid reasons not to replace their Lord’s Day evening services with small groups. This post presents a key line of biblical reasoning that supports this view.

The Importance of the Psalms for NT Believers

The apostle Paul instructs believers that they are to use the Psalms as a key part of Scripture with which they are to minister to one another:

Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Col 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Given this explicit apostolic direction, believers rightly need to base their views about worship on what God reveals about worship in the Psalms. Although there are many key passages that need to be considered, Psalm 92 is a premier passage because it is explicit inspired instruction to believers about worshiping the Lord on a day of the week that He has especially consecrated for worshiping Him.

What Psalm 92 Teaches Believers about Worshiping God 

For OT believers, God set aside one day of every week as a day that was to be distinct from all other days of the week. Psalm 92 explains what God’s perspective was about His people worshiping Him on that day:

Psa 92:1 <A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.> It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

 2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

 3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

 4 For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

The Sabbath was a day on which giving thanks to God and singing praise to Him was a good thing (Ps. 92:1). Obviously, doing these things on the other six days of the week was also a good thing; nevertheless, God’s saying that it was good to do these things on the Sabbath highlights the goodness of doing so on His day.

The Psalmist specifies that these things were to be done at two periods in the day: in the morning and at night (Ps. 92:2). This explicit divine teaching instructs believers that worshiping God in the morning and in the night on the Sabbath was a good thing.

Not only did the Psalmist reveal that God was to be worshiped in those two periods, but also he added that worship was to include instrumental music using several instruments (Ps. 92:3). Psalm 92 thus plainly teaches believers that corporate worship in the morning and evening that includes singing and playing instruments in worshiping God is a good thing.

Application of Psalm 92 to the Lord’s Day

The NT reveals that the Lord’s Day belongs to God in a unique way that goes beyond what was true about the Sabbath. It is unthinkable, therefore, that God expects less from NT believers on the Lord’s Day (worshiping Him only once a day) than He did from OT believers on the Sabbath (worshiping Him twice a day).

The NT further reveals that God has specified that an entire church assemble itself in one place to worship Him through the combined ministry of all the believers in the church (1 Cor. 14:23-25). Furthermore, Scripture does not provide any passages that document that believers ever met in small groups on the Lord’s Day, either in the morning or in the evening, instead of meeting corporately to worship Him.

Of all the days of the week, believers should be the most diligent to base what they do in worshiping the Lord on the Lord’s Day as much on the Scripture as they possibly can. Based on the combined teaching of Ephesians 5:18-19, Colossians 3:15-16, Psalm 92:1-4, 1 Corinthians 14:23-25, and the many passages that show that the Lord’s Day belongs uniquely to the Lord, believers can have full confidence that worshiping the Lord corporately on both Lord’s Day mornings and evenings is a good thing that God wants them to do.

Conclusion 

The biblical line of reasoning presented above gives believers clear biblical direction to assemble themselves together both in the morning and in the evening on the Lord’s Day to worship Him corporately. The believers in a church should meet together in one place and worship Him through singing accompanied by musical instruments on both Lord’s Day mornings and evenings.

Furthermore, believers should not follow the ideas of so-called church marketing “experts” when those ideas lead them to abandon worship practices that have solid biblical basis. Churches should not replace evening services with small groups!

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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Why Churches Should Not Replace Services with Small Groups

September 26, 2015

Numerous evangelical ministries have replaced certain weekly services with small groups. Other churches are also following suit. Clear teaching by the apostle Paul shows us, however, why churches should not replace these corporate worship services with small groups.

Essential Elements of Corporate Worship Services

First Corinthians 14 is one of the premier passages in Scripture concerning corporate worship. In vital teaching concerning the glorious efficacy of corporate worship that is done properly, the apostle Paul presents some essential elements of corporate worship:

1 Corinthians 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

We must give thorough attention to this apostolic instruction and heed what it says.

First, Paul speaks of a gathering of the whole church (“If therefore the whole church . . .” [1 Cor. 14:23]). By definition, choosing to meet in small groups requires the splitting up of the people of a local church into several groups, none of which are the whole church. The teaching of 1 Corinthians 14:23-25 about corporate worship, therefore, does not apply to whatever takes place when believers meet in small groups.

Second, not only does Paul specify that the whole church is coming together, but also he states that the whole church is coming together into one place (“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place . . .” [1 Cor. 14:23]). Although many modern translations (for example, NAU, NIV, ESV, CSB, and NET—see below) leave out the words “into one place” or some equivalent rendering, the original text of the passage (regardless of which major manuscript family of Greek texts we examine) has these words and they must not be left out:

SCR 1Co 14:23 ἐὰν οὖν συνέλθῃ ἡ ἐκκλησία ὅλη ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, καὶ πάντες γλώσσαις λαλῶσιν, εἰσέλθωσι δὲ ἰδιῶται ἢ ἄπιστοι. οὐκ ἐροῦσιν ὅτι μαίνεσθε;

BYZ 1 Corinthians 14:23 Ἐὰν οὖν συνέλθῃ ἡ ἐκκλησία ὅλη ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό, καὶ πάντες γλώσσαις λαλῶσιν, εἰσέλθωσιν δὲ ἰδιῶται ἢ ἄπιστοι, οὐκ ἐροῦσιν ὅτι μαίνεσθε;

BGT 1Co 14:23 Ἐὰν οὖν συνέλθῃ ἡ ἐκκλησία ὅλη ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ πάντες λαλῶσιν γλώσσαις, εἰσέλθωσιν δὲ ἰδιῶται ἢ ἄπιστοι, οὐκ ἐροῦσιν ὅτι μαίνεσθε;

KJV 1Co 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?

NKJ 1Co 14:23 Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

NAU 1Co 14:23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?

NIV 1Co 14:23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

ESV 1Co 14:23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

CSB 1Co 14:23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together, and all are speaking in other languages, and people who are uninformed or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

NET 1Co 14:23 So if the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and unbelievers or uninformed people enter, will they not say that you have lost your minds?

Explicit apostolic teaching shows that the corporate worship that Paul is talking about here requires that all the believers of a local church meet together in one place—not separately in small groups in many different places, even in one town. Because small groups meet in differing locations, the teaching of 1 Corinthians 14:23-25 about the vital efficacy of corporate worship does not apply to whatever takes places in small groups.

Third, Paul repeatedly stresses that it is the combined ministry of all the believers present together in one place that has the spiritual efficacy to bring needy people who come into their midst to be convicted of their sinfulness, repent, and worship God:

1 Corinthians 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

Clearly, Paul is highlighting how God uses proper corporate ministry by all the believers of a church to bring people to worship Him aright!

Because an approach to believers assembling that employs small groups necessarily splits a church into groups, it automatically precludes any such combined ministry of all the church from taking place. Only God knows how many needy people have not received the vital ministry that He would have given them had churches had corporate worship services instead of small groups.

Discussion

Many churches have abandoned Sunday evening worship services and replaced them with small groups. The discussion above shows that doing so is a terrible mistake that precludes the church from enjoying the full usefulness that God would choose to make of that body of people were they to heed His explicit revelation in 1 Corinthians 14:23-25.

Some will argue that their church does meet corporately in one service a week but chooses to do small groups in place of other meetings that they might have had. Because we are not all-knowing so that we know when God would providentially direct needy people to our churches, churches should not choose to forfeit the additional opportunities for such ministry to needy people that these other regular services would provide—they should meet corporately in one place for their services on both Lord’s Day mornings and evenings.1

Believers who want to avail themselves of the potential benefits of meeting in small groups should do so at other times during the week because meeting in small groups is not a biblically authorized replacement for corporate worship services.

Conclusion

Plain apostolic teaching provides believers with vital instruction about the essential elements of corporate worship and the glorious efficacy of such worship in meeting the needs of needy people who come to one of those services. Scripture does not provide any such explicit teaching for small groups having that same efficacy.

Believers should heed the explicit instruction that the Spirit has provided them about corporate worship in 1 Corinthians 14:23-25. Churches should not replace services with small groups!Service schedule MCBC post

 

1 I intend to treat why churches should not replace a mid-week prayer service with small groups in another post.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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Joel 3 and the Future of National Israel

September 7, 2015

Especially in our day when many people who name the name of Christ deny that Israel has any future as a nation, we must allow Scripture itself to give us God’s perspective about the ultimate future of the nation of Israel. Joel 3 is one of many passages that plainly show what that future will be.

Divine Judgment against All Nations

The prophet Joel records God’s fixed determination about what He is going to do in the future on behalf of national Israel:

Joe 3:1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

 2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

The Lord here promises that there will be a time when He will restore Judah and Jerusalem (Joel 3:1). When He does so, He will also bring all the nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat to judge them for what they have done to His people Israel (Joel 3:2).

Because there has never been either such a restoration of Israel or such a judgment on all the nations in the history of the world, we can say with all confidence that this passage is a divine promise concerning events that are yet future. A closer look at the precise teaching of this passage fully confirms this interpretation.

The Lord specifies that His people who are in view in this passage are His heritage whom the nations have scattered among themselves. It is untenable to see this statement as somehow figuratively speaking about the Church—the nations have never scattered the Church among themselves.

Furthermore, God specifies that this judgment will be on nations who have parted His land (Joel 3:2). The parting of the land in view here refers literally to Israel, and it is impossible to make this teaching about the Church.

God further elaborates the sinfulness of the nations for which He will judge them on that day:

Joe 3:3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

 4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;

 5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

 6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

 7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:

 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

Trying to apply these statements to the Church makes no sense; it is clear that God is speaking here about the nation of Israel.

Divine Blessing on the Nation of Israel

Beyond emphatically declaring the certainty of divine judgment in that day on all the nations for what they have done to the nation of Israel, God profoundly highlights how He will bless His people Israel in that day:

Joe 3:16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

 17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

They will come to know Him as their God who dwells in their midst on His holy mountain (Joel 3:16)! Jerusalem will then be sanctified in a way that it has never been in its entire history (Joel 3:17).

Moreover, God’s blessings on the nation of Israel will abound throughout their land in that day:

Joe 3:18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

 19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

 20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

 21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

Again, close attention to the precise statements in this passage show that it is untenable to try to make these statements somehow figurative language that applies to the Church.

First, God promises that at this time He will make two nations desolate because they have unjustly killed His people. This is clearly prophecy concerning what will happen to actual geographical locations and not figurative teaching about who knows what.

Second, He promises that Judah and Jerusalem will dwell forever, and ties their doing so to His cleansing their blood that He has not yet cleansed. When the Lord avenges the blood of His people that the nations have wickedly shed, He will pour out the fullness of His blessings on His people, the nation of Israel!

Conclusion

God is not through with the nation of Israel. He has not abandoned them as a nation. He will gloriously restore them to their land and bless them with incomparable blessings that have never been theirs.

Regardless of however many believers may insist emphatically that the nation of Israel has no future, God has purposed that Israel as a nation will have a glorious future ahead of it, and it will be so!

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

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Why Christians Must Esteem the Lord’s Day above All Other Days

August 24, 2015

Many believers think that Paul teaches that whether a believer esteems the Lord’s Day above other days is a matter of Christian liberty (Rom. 14:5-6). For several key reasons, this is a serious misapplication of Paul’s teaching in Romans 14:5-6.

Divine Consecration of One Day above the Others

In the beginning, the Lord created light and called it “Day” (Gen. 1:3-5a). He so created the universe that “the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5).

Having finished His work of creating all things in six literal 24-hour days, “God . . rested on the seventh day from all His work which God created and made” (Gen. 2:3). He then blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Gen. 2:3). These statements show us that even though God was the one who made all the days, He set apart one day as special above the other days.

Adam, Eve, and all others who were among God’s people prior to the giving of the Mosaic Law would thus have had direct divine activity that would have unmistakably made clear to them that they were to esteem the seventh day above the other days of the week.

Divine Mandate to Esteem One Day above the Others

Through His giving the Decalogue to Moses, God revealed to His people His command that they were to esteem the seventh day above other days:

Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

We should notice that God directly ties His commands concerning the Sabbath day to what He did at creation on and concerning the seventh day. God’s people from this point until the Resurrection of Christ and the birth of the Church on Pentecost had both divine consecration and divine mandate that would direct them unmistakably to esteem one day above the other days of the week.

Divine Possession of One Day above the Others

God raised His Son Jesus Christ from the dead on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1-8) and gave Him glory so that our faith and hope might be in God (1 Pet. 1:21). Apostolic use of Psalm 118:22 in Acts 4:10-11 shows us that the Psalmist’s statements in Psalm 118 about the day which the Lord hath made are not to be taken generically to apply to every day but specifically are prophetic prediction about the first day of the week when God would raise Christ from the dead and make Him the head stone of the corner! God’s people ever after are to rejoice and be glad on the day the Lord has made—the Lord’s Day!

Furthermore, on Pentecost, God birthed the Church on the first day of the week (Acts 2). In obedience to an apostolic command (1 Cor. 16:2a), His people thereafter assembled to worship Him on the first day of every week (cf. Acts 20:7), including giving offerings for helping meet the pressing needs of His saints (1 Cor. 16:1-4). All these facts show that the first day was a special day for His NT people in many respects.

In providing His climactic revelation to mankind, however, God revealed that the first day of the week was now special to Him in a singular way unlike any other day was—it was “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10)! The Greek construction used here reveals a crucial truth:

Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Rev 1:10 ἐγενόμην ἐν Πνεύματι ἐν τῇ Κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ· καὶ ἤκουσα ὀπίσω μου φωνὴν μεγάλην ὡς σάλπιγγος,

In the expression τῇ Κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ (‘the Lord’s Day’), the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle John to use the Greek adjective kuriakos (“belonging to the Lord,” [Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, 115]) to teach us that the Lord now has possessed this day in a unique way that was and is distinct from all other days.1 Yes, He created all the days of the week at Creation, but through His work of raising His Son from the dead on the first day and giving Him glory, the Lord took possession of that day in a glorious new way!

The Holy Spirit thus teaches all believers that the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day that He distinctively possesses and that His people are to esteem that day above all the other days of the week. Romans 14:3-5 most definitely does not apply to how a Christian should esteem the Lord’s Day, and Christians must esteem the Lord’s Day above all other days!

 

1 I am indebted to my pastor Dr. Mark Minnick for his excellent teaching through which I first learned this glorious truth.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Biblical Greek, Exposition, Interpretation, Theology
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Should Public Christian Worship Include Dancing to the Lord?

August 17, 2015

Some evangelicals use 2 Samuel 6:14 as evidence to assert that many fundamentalists are lacking in their public worship of the Lord. Some even go so far as to imply that fundamentalists try to “put a spin” on such texts about dancing to the Lord in order to resist the supposed force of this record of David’s exuberant and uninhibited worship of the Lord.

For many reasons, 2 Samuel 6:14 is not a text that shows that public Christian worship should include dancing to the Lord.

  1. The passage is not a record of a normative occasion of public Israelite worship. It records what one man did on a once-in-a-lifetime occasion of immense national significance—moving the Ark of the Lord from the home of an individual to Jerusalem to put it in the middle of the Tabernacle of the Lord.
  2. The passage does not provide definitive proof that David’s public worship of the Lord routinely included such dancing because we do not have other unambiguous accounts of David dancing as part of his worshiping the Lord publicly. David does testify elsewhere of the Lord’s turning for him his mourning into dancing (Ps. 30:11), but the passage is not explicit that David is here testifying of his dancing publicly before the Lord in a worship context.
  3. The passage does not include any explicit divine commendation of David for what he did.
  4. The Old Testament does not anywhere record even one other spiritual “giant” of the faith who danced before the Lord as part of his worship of the Lord. Neither Job nor Samuel nor Hezekiah nor Josiah nor Daniel is ever recorded as dancing before the Lord in worshiping him.
  5. The Old Testament does have two references that record commands to worship the Lord with dancing (Ps. 149:3; 150:4), so we must hold that dancing was a proper and necessary part of Israelite worship of God at least in some manner on some occasions. Key passages, however, that record faithful Israelite worship of the Lord on pinnacle occasions of divine worship in Israel’s history make no mention of such dancing (for example, 2 Chronicles 5; 29:20-36; 35:1-19), which suggests that these commands in Psalms 149 and 150 were in some unstated manner of limited scope for specific settings.
  6. The New Testament does not even once record that dancing was a part of Jewish or Christian worship of the Lord. Nor are there any commands or instruction in the NT about dancing as part of proper worship of the Lord.
  7. Biblical passages that reveal information about heavenly worship never mention dancing as a part of the worship of heaven.

Based on these points, it is illegitimate for evangelicals to assert that fundamentalists are willfully resisting unmistakably clear implications of 2 Samuel 6:14 as a text that shows that faithful worshipers of the Lord should dance before Him when they worship Him publicly.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Interpretation, Theology
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Five Things God Will Not Make New in the New Heavens and the New Earth

August 9, 2015

A glorious day is coming in the new heavens and the new earth when God will have made “all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Based on what other Scripture passages say, however, we know that there are five things that God will not make new:

  1. God will not make new the serpent, which will still eat dust (Gen. 3:14; Micah 7:17) in the Millennium (Isa. 65:25). Whether the serpent will be made new in the new heaven and the new earth is unknown because Scripture does not provide any revelation about animals in the new heaven and the new earth.
  2. God will not make new all the unredeemed humans of all the ages who failed to repent of their sins and believe in Him. They will all perish eternally in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15).
  3. God will not make new the seas that He created as good (Gen. 1:10). In fact, there will be no sea in the new earth (Rev. 21:1), which proves that there will not be a “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21) without any exceptions.
  4. God will not make new the lake of fire, which He prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).
  5. God will not make new Satan and his demons who have sinned against God. They will never be renewed to their unfallen state (cf. Ezek. 28:15). They will be punished eternally in the lake of fire (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:10).

Scripture, therefore, does not teach that God will make all things without any exceptions new.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Interpretation, Theology
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A Profound Truth about God as the Redeemer

July 20, 2015

The word redeemer occurs 19x in Scripture. Incredibly, the NT never calls God the Redeemer even once!

Of its 19 occurrences in the OT, 15 are in statements that explicitly speak of God as the Redeemer of national Israel: Psalm 78:35; Isaiah 41:14; 43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 54:5, 8; 59:20; 60:16; 63:16; Jeremiah 50:34. Furthermore, as the preceding listing shows, 13 of those 15 occurrences are in Isaiah 40-66.

What’s more, the glorious ending of the book of Isaiah has at least 13 other explicit statements about God’s redemption of national Israel: Isaiah 43:1, 3, 4; 44:22, 23; 48:20; 51:10, 11; 52:3, 8, 9; 62:12; 63:4. A careful examination of these 26 explicit references about redemption in Isaiah 40-66 (and many other passages in both Testaments, including Jeremiah 31:35-40; 33:14-26; Ezekiel 20, 36; Zechariah 14; and Romans 9-11) shows beyond any doubt that God is yet going to redeem national Israel for His own eternal glory!

As Christians, therefore, we need to understand that God as the Redeemer in Scripture preeminently concerns God’s future redemption of national Israel!

 

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In Interpretation, Theology
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