Author Archives: expedition44

Here and Now by Jon Gibson

Posted by expedition44 on

Gibson is a gift.

“I feel like I just went surfing with the disciples, followed by a great campfire and breakfast on the beach.“

Here & Now: Finding God in the Beautiful Collision Between Head & Heart

By: Jon Gibson

I had the honor of writing the foreword for this book. I have written the forewords for over a dozen books in the last few years, but this one was different. I was given a pre-release copy to read and make “theological suggestions” and ended up falling in love with it. It is the only book I have ever approached the author and “asked” for consideration to write the foreword for. I truly believe this book will profoundly change your life.

I write a good amount of book reviews, and I decided that I am simply going to be a cheerleader from the sidelines on this review. Not because I don’t want to dive into every discussion, but because I truly want to not determine the course of impact this book will have on you. I believe it touches everyone slightly differently. So rather than tell you precisely what I think is best about it, or how it impacted me or should impact you – I just want to convince you that you need to read it and leave it up to the Holy Spirit to determine the impact it will have on your life.

This is a masterpiece. Digestible and easily applicable, no matter what your situation is, or what stage of life you are in. It is a reflective and deeply personal journey. Have you wondered if your course is slightly off? Are you really living the meaningful fulfilling life that God desires and intended for you? Jon has a way of getting to the root of the most personal topics and providing concrete, approachable ways to address them. He also has a gift for framing things in ways you would never think of but draws the reader into the sacred places and beautiful moments of their lives. The very introspective, passionate, & compassionate author will give you much to reflect on in your physical and spiritual relationships and life perspectives. This is a very easy and enlightening book to read and extremely practical on how to hear the voice of God for the situations you are facing now and to seek God’s face for his plans for your future. One of the strengths of the book is its clarity and simplicity in presenting profound spiritual truths. Jon emphasizes that everyone has a purpose in life, which is ultimately found in a personal relationship with God that dives into practical and inspirational stories painting great mosaics of what it means and looks like to find the love, grace, compassion and mercy of the father in everyday interactions. Have you experienced God moving with you in real time?


The church needs this book. Buy a copy for yourself and a friend.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE ON AMAZON

PSALMING

Posted by expedition44 on

This Friday night at TOV we are having Eden to Eden back! One of the things they are known for is their psalming. Psalming has a rich past in devotional and spiritual meditation to Yahweh. Hebrew psalming is a type of cantillation1, the Hebrew term te’amim describes the manner of reciting or singing verses from the Bible and specifically in this case, the Psalms.2 It is becoming more popular in organic praise and worship settings and is often connected with inviting the Holy Spirit to indwell the natural spontaneity of devotional and meditational song.

In Hebrew there are special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic Text of the Bible, to complement the letters and vowel points. These marks are known in English as ‘accents’ (diacritics), ‘notes’ or trope symbols3. The musical motifs associated with the signs are known in Hebrew as niggun or neginot.4

There are multiple traditions of cantillation. Within each tradition, there are multiple tropes, typically for different books of the Bible and often for different occasions. For example, different chants may be used for Torah readings on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur than for the same text on a normal Shabbat.

In Evangelical Christianity cantillation is known mostly when Bible verses are restated in modern praise and worship music and are simply referred to as praise and worship songs. However, when these songs literally reiterate scripture, they certainly should be considered  te’amim.

Phonetics

Most cantillation signs are written on the consonant of the stressed syllable of a word. This also shows where the most important note of the musical motif should go.5

A few signs always go on the first or last consonant of a word. This may have been for musical reasons, or it may be to distinguish them from other accents of similar shape. For example, pashta, which goes on the last consonant, otherwise looks like kadma, which goes on the stressed syllable.6

Music

Cantillation signs guide the reader in applying a chant to Biblical readings. This chant is technically regarded as a ritualized form of speech intonation rather than as a musical exercise like the singing of metrical hymns: for this reason, Jews always speak of saying or reading a passage rather than of singing it. However, most people observing for the first time would understand it to be no different to a scripturally based praise and worship song.

Psalms, Proverbs and Job

The system of cantillation signs used throughout the Tanakh is replaced by a very different system for these three poetic books. Many of the signs may appear the same or similar at first glance, but most of them serve entirely different functions in these three books. The short narratives at the beginning and end of Job use the “regular” system, but the bulk of the book (the poetry) uses the special system. For this reason, these three books are referred to as sifrei emet (Books of Truth), the word emet meaning “truth”, but also being an acronym (אמ״ת) for the first letters of the three books (Iyov, Mishle, Tehillim).7

In Christian missionary uses

The Jewish-born Christian convert Ezekiel Margoliouth translated the New Testament to Hebrew in 1865 with cantillation marks added. It is the only completely cantillated translation of the New Testament. The translation was published by the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews.8

Understanding the Psalms as Music

The Book of Psalms also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called Ketuvim (‘Writings’), and a book of the Old Testament.9

The book is an anthology of Hebrew religious hymns. In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, there are 150 psalms, and several more in the Eastern Christian churches.10 The book is divided into five sections, each ending with a doxology, a hymn of praise. There are several types of psalms, including hymns or songs of praise, communal and individual laments, royal psalms, imprecation, and individual thanksgivings. The book also includes psalms of communal thanksgiving, wisdom, pilgrimage, and other categories.

Many of the psalms contain attributions to the name of King David and other Biblical figures, including Asaph, the sons of Korah, Moses, and Solomon. Davidic authorship of the Psalms is not accepted as a historical fact by modern scholars, who view it as a way to link biblical writings to well-known figures; while the dating of the Psalms is “notoriously difficult”, some are considered preexilic and others postexilic.11 The English-language title of the book derives from the Greek word psalmoi (ψαλμοί), meaning ‘instrumental music’, and by extension referring to “the words accompanying the music”.12 

In Christian prayer and worship

New Testament references show that the earliest Christians used the Psalms in worship, Paul the Apostle quotes Psalms (specifically Psalms 14 and 53, which are nearly identical). Several conservative Protestant denominations sing only the Psalms (some churches also sing the small number of hymns found elsewhere in the Bible) in worship.

Psalming in modern praise and worship

There are some challenges to modern day Western Church psalming. Psalms don’t rhyme, they use forms such as acrostics that are foreign to pop music, and they certainly don’t fit neatly into the verse/chorus/bridge patterns used in pop. This may mean that the composer of modern psalm songs needs to stretch both biblical text and musical idiom so they can meet. In this way, they may not be word for word, that really wasn’t the intention of the text to the original audience any way. As some more traditional or Rabbinic forms may take offense to modern evangelical psalming, there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong cantillation; in fact, quite the opposite – most modern musicians would say, let the Holy Spirit move and abound. In this way gifts of tongues may often be part of the utterance.

Written by Dr. WIll Ryan and Dr. Matt Mouzakis

  1. Segal, J. B., The Diacritical Point and the Accents in Syriac: Oxford 1953, repr. 2003 ISBN 1-59333-032-4, ISBN 978-1-59333-032-3. ↩︎
  2. Jeffrey Burns, The Music of Psalms, Proverbs and Job in the Hebrew Bible (Jüdische Musik 9), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2011, ISBN 344706191X. ↩︎
  3. Jacobson, Joshua (2017). “CHAPTER ONE CANTILLATION.” Chanting the Hebrew Bible (Second, Expanded ed.). Web: The Jewish Publication Society. p. 2. ↩︎
  4. The article on “Cantillation” in the Jewish Encyclopedia shows tunes for “Prophets (other readings)” for both the Western Sephardi and the Baghdadi traditions. ↩︎
  5. Lier, Gudrun, “The Revia in the Context of Decoding Masoretic Accents”, Journal of Semitics, 2011, Vol 21/1, pp. 28-51. ↩︎
  6. For a full study see Israel Yeivin, Cantillation of the Oral Law. Leshonenu 24 (1960), pp. 47-231 (Hebrew). ↩︎
  7. Newman, Zelda Kahan (2000). “The Jewish Sound of Speech: Talmudic Chant, Yiddish Intonation and the Origins of Early Ashkenaz”. The Jewish Quarterly Review. 90 (3/4): 293–336. doi:10.2307/1454758. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 1454758. ↩︎
  8. Scanned versions of this translation can be found here [1], here [2] and here “Vine of David | Remnant Repository : Ezekiel Margoliouth”.  ↩︎
  9. Mazor, Lea (2011). “Book of Psalms”. In Berlin, Adele; Grossman, Maxine (eds.). The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973004-9. ↩︎
  10. Kselman, John S. (2007). “Psalms”. In Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol Ann (eds.). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-528880-3. ↩︎
  11. Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (2004). “Psalms”. In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Fishbane, Michael A. (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-529751-5. ↩︎
  12. Murphy, Roland E. (1993). “Psalms”. In Coogan, Michael D.; Metzger, Bruce (eds.). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-974391-9. ↩︎

Is Israel Still God’s Chosen people?

Posted by expedition44 on

Q:  I have a question regarding Israel. Would Israelites still be considered God’s chosen people or would that have changed with Jesus’s atoning works? 

Yes, Israel was (and is) called God’s chosen people in Scripture—but what that means and how we understand it after Jesus is really important to clarify.

When God called Israel His “chosen people” in the Old Testament, it wasn’t primarily a statement about salvation. Rather, Israel was chosen (commissioned) for a vocation—to be a light to the nations (see Exodus 19:5–6; Deuteronomy 7:6; Isaiah 49:6). (You might see this as a regaining of the nations if you follow a Deuteronomy 32 worldview.) God gave them the Law (Torah), the covenants, and the promises, not as an end in themselves, but so that through them, the nations of the world would come to know and worship Yahweh. Paul puts it like this in Romans 3:2—that the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. In a sense, this was the calling of Adam and Eve and when they fall short, God commissions Israel in the same calling, nation that would be called commissioned as a holy royal priesthood to represent Yahweh to the rest of the fallen world.

But Israel consistently struggled to live out this calling. From nearly the beginning of the story the nation failed to honor Yahweh (golden calf incident) and instead of the entire nation (all 12 tribes) representing the Lord as priests, God adapted the plan and then called just the Levites to be His representatives as priests first to Israel in hopes of then commissioning the entire nation of Israel to the original plan and act as ambassadors of Yahweh. The Old Testament tells a story of covenant, failure, judgment, and hope for restoration. Israel continued to falter. They gave up their theocracy of one God – Yahweh to choose to be led by an earthly king. They drifted farther and farther from the plan until God finally hands them over to their own demise, the exile was a key turning point. Even after the return of the exile to Jerusalem, most scholars believe Israel never returned to the LORD. God longed for Israel to return to the true redemption and the coming of God’s kingdom. Unfortunately, Israel continued to fall short and not seem to live out their calling or commissioning.

Jesus enters the narrative with a similar mission. He doesn’t reject Israel’s story—He steps into it. He comes first to “the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 15:24), calling them back to their original vocation. He chooses twelve disciples, clearly symbolizing a reconstitution of the twelve tribes of Israel. This is not incidental—it’s Jesus claiming to be the one who restores and redefines Israel around Himself.

And here’s the key: Jesus is the faithful Israelite. He does what Israel failed to do. He keeps the covenant perfectly, walks in radical obedience, and fulfills Israel’s mission. He is the true Israel (see Matthew 2:15 where Hosea’s words originally spoken about Israel—”out of Egypt I called my son”—are applied to Jesus).

This is why Paul will later say in Galatians 3:16 that the promises were given not to “seeds” (plural) but to one “seed,” who is Christ. In other words, the inheritance of Israel is fulfilled in Jesus—and only those who are “in Him” share in that inheritance. That phrase—”in Christ”—is the dominant identity marker for believers in the New Testament. If Jesus is the true Israel, then those united to Him (Jew or Gentile) are the true people of God.

This point becomes even clearer when we revisit God’s original promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” This statement is often lifted out of its covenantal context and applied to modern nations or political support for Israel. However, the Hebrew grammar and narrative context show that the promise was made to Abram himself (the singular “you” in Hebrew, ʾotkha), not to a future geopolitical nation. God’s intention was not to privilege one ethnic group above all others but to initiate a redemptive mission through one man and his descendants—a mission that would culminate in Christ. The blessing is vocational, not nationalistic. Abram is chosen in order to be a blessing, that through him “all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

The apostle Paul interprets this precisely in Galatians 3:16, identifying the “seed” (zeraʿ) of Abraham as Christ Himself. This means that the covenant promise—“I will bless those who bless you”—finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. The “you” now applies to Abraham’s true heir, the Messiah. Those who bless Him—who honor, trust, and align themselves with Jesus—receive the blessing of God; those who reject Him cut themselves off from that blessing. In this way, the Abrahamic covenant points forward to Christ as the locus of divine favor. To bless Abraham’s seed is to embrace the redemptive mission of God revealed in Jesus, and through faith in Him, we become participants in that same blessing.

Paul says Abraham was justified before circumcision (Rom. 4), showing that faith, not ethnicity, is the marker of God’s covenant people. He adds in Romans 2:28–29 that a true Jew is one inwardly, whose heart is circumcised by the Spirit. And in Galatians 3:28 he writes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek… you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2 expands this beautifully. Paul says that Jesus has broken down the dividing wall and made one new humanity—no longer Jew and Gentile, but one body. Peter echoes this in 1 Peter 2, where he applies all the covenant titles once reserved for Israel (royal priesthood, holy nation, people of God) to the church made up of both Jews and Gentiles.

Paul also uses the metaphor of an olive tree in Romans 11: some natural branches (ethnic Israelites) were broken off because of unbelief, and wild branches (Gentiles) were grafted in. But it’s one tree. There aren’t two peoples of God. There is one new covenant community—those who are in Christ. It’s not about replacing Israel, but about fulfillment—where Jews and Gentiles together form the one people of God in Christ.

This helps clarify what Paul means in Romans 11:26 when he says, “all Israel will be saved.” We don’t believe he’s referring to a future mass conversion of ethnic Jews or suggesting two separate salvation paths. Rather, he’s speaking of the fullness of God’s people: both believing Jews and Gentiles who are part of the one tree through faith in the Messiah. This fits with Paul’s logic throughout Romans and with his statement in Galatians 6:16 that the church is “the Israel of God.”

God has always worked through covenants—and those covenants are centered on trust and faithfulness, not ethnicity alone. From the beginning, covenant relationship with God required loyal love. Even under the Mosaic covenant, Israel’s inclusion was contingent on obedience and faithfulness to Yahweh (Deut 28). Being born into Israel didn’t guarantee blessing—relationship and trust did. (Israelites were never automatically “saved.”) If there was any sense of salvation in the Old Testament it would be under the same “qualifications” as in the New Testament. What God was asking and promising for the faithful doesn’t change from the Old Covenants to the New Covenant.

The New Testament affirms this. While many modern Jews are physical descendants of Abraham, Paul is clear that physical descent is not enough. In Romans 9:6–8, he writes:

“For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants… it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise.”

Paul emphasizes that covenant identity is now grounded in faith—just as it was with Abraham. As he puts it in Galatians 3:7:

“Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.”

So when we speak of the “people of God” today, we are not referring to a physical nation-state or ethnic group. We are speaking of those “in Christ”—those joined to the faithful Israelite, Jesus.

The modern nation-state of Israel is not the covenant people of the Bible. -If this is a new consideration for you, you might consider reading this article. Most of its citizens do not follow the Mosaic covenant, and the majority have rejected Jesus as Messiah. According to the New Testament, that places them outside of the renewed covenant family—not because of their ancestry, but because God’s covenant has always been about faith.

This doesn’t mean God has abandoned ethnic Jews. Paul says in Romans 11 that he hopes some of his fellow Jews will be provoked to faith. And many Messianic Jews (Jewish believers in Jesus) are part of the body of Christ. But the boundary marker is no longer ethnicity or Torah observance—it is faith in Jesus.

All of this leads us to say: the true Israel (or Israelite) is Jesus. And those “in Him,” whether Jew or Gentile, are heirs to the promises, the calling, and the covenant. God is not partial (and never has been, even with Israel as many gentiles were welcome to join them, a mixed multitude – Hebrew and gentile – left Egypt in the Exodus becoming “Israel”, and some even found themselves in the lineage of Christ Himself) —He welcomes all who come to Him through Christ.

We also need to think about our family in Christ as those that are allegiant to the New Covenant calling rather than those that are nationalistically / inter-nationalistically aligned with groups that subtly “claim to be allied with God” but are not living out the Way of Jesus or bearing fruit for the Kingdom of Christ. There is only one kingdom of Christ, and you can’t serve two masters. For generations many have claimed to be part of Israel or want to be somehow grafted into salvation but haven’t followed the devotion that God has desired and look nothing like Jesus or act in a way worthy of bearing His image. Jesus seemed to paint this picture vividly and make this very clear in the sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

This is not replacement theology.1 God has not rejected Israel and replaced her with or even outside of the church. Rather, the church is the fulfillment of Israel’s story (and Adam and Eve’s story for that matter) —expanded to include all nations through union with Jesus, the faithful Israelite, this was the plan of redemption that “all nations”, or everyone was offerred from the beginning. The promises of God have not been scrapped or reassigned; they find their “yes and amen” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). The covenant people of God have always been marked by faith and loyalty to Him—and in the new covenant, that means allegiance and devotion to Yahweh through Jesus accepting and claiming that victory and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit as a sign of the holy royal priesthood. Jew and Gentile together form the one new man, the reconstituted people of God.

written by Will Ryan Th.D. and Matt Mouzakis Th.D.

  1. Replacement theology, doctrine holding that Christians have replaced the Jewish people as the chosen people of God or as the heirs of the divine-human covenant described in the Hebrew Bible. The theology is also referred to as supersessionism, in which Christianity is thought to have superseded Judaism. It is closely related to fulfillment theology, which holds that Christianity has fulfilled the divine promises signaled in the Hebrew Bible. These ideas appear to be suggested in some of the earliest Christian texts, such as writings of St. Paul the Apostle, and subsequent Christian theologians have strengthened the opposition of Judaism and Christianity in ways that have informed relations between Christians and Jews. In the 20th century many Christian theologians and even church doctrines replaced replacement theology with more-nuanced or inclusive models that support more-amicable interreligious relations.

    https://www.britannica.com/topic/Replacement-theology ↩︎

STAR OF DAVID/REMPHAN

Posted by expedition44 on

The Magen David or Star of David  (מָגֵן דָּוִד, lit. ’Shield of David‘) is a symbol generally recognized as representing both Jewish identity and Judaism.1 It may surprise you to learn that it has no Biblical roots. The earliest the hexagram can be found in a religious context is in the Leningrad Codex, a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible from 11th-century Cairo.2 It became representative of Zionism after it was chosen as the central symbol for a Jewish national flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897.3 By the end of World War I, it was an internationally accepted symbol for the Jewish people, used on the gravestones of fallen Jewish soldiers. 4 Today, the star is the central symbol on the national flag of the State of Israel.

Unlike the menorah, the Lion of Judah, the shofar and the lulav, the hexagram was not originally a uniquely Jewish symbol.5 There are some early signs of the symbol,  in Israel, there is a stone bearing a hexagram from the arch of the 3rd–4th century Khirbet Shura synagogue in Galilee.6 It also appears on a temple on Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage which dates from 135 CE.7 You can also find a hexagram on the ancient synagogue at Capernaum.8

A hexagram has been noted on a Jewish tombstone in Italy and another arguably in Egypt 9 (that I viewed in person earlier this year), which both may date as early as the third century.10 The Jews of Apulia were noted for their scholarship in Kabbalah, which doesn’t sit well in most traditional and Messianic Jewish circles.11

Medieval Kabbalistic grimoires show hexagrams among the tables of segulot, but without identifying them as “Shield of David”.12

REMPHAN

In the New Testament, Stephen condemns Jewish idolatry in Acts 7:3: “Ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.” Stephen is quoting word-for-word from Septuagint version of Amos 5:26-27.

According to some Biblical scholars, the name refers to the Hebrew Kiyyun or Chiun (Hebrew: כִּיּוּן), However, the words “Kiyyun” (“Chiun”) and “Remphan” are each hapax legomena,13 and the text is unclear as to whether they are common or proper nouns and could be a reference to the planet Saturn (which was also connected to Remphan.) The Masoretic Text reads Kiyyun (Chiun), while the Septuagint renders that name as Rephan. Acts 7:42 quotes the Greek form, showing how the prophetic word moved into the early church. Comparative linguistics links Kiyyun to the Assyrian Kayvân, a name for planet saturn. Ancient peoples called planets “wandering stars” and often built cults around a star god. In more modern history you will recognize these terms from Zoroastrianism.14 

To be clear the Bible just mentions a star, not 5 or 6 points or anything else. The context is about rebellion to the Lord, but a large part of this discussion would have involved symbols of idolatry which is Exodus 20:3-4 language. Furthermore, as I alluded to earlier, there are some Hebrew issues in the text that you may need to be work through. The Hebrew Kiyyun to the Assyrian Kayvân / Chuin or Kewan, was rendered in the Septuagint, as Ῥαιφάν [Raiphan]. Some try to argue that there was no ancient god named Remphan, but I don’t see merit in that argument.

Others may say that the reference is the Star of Ninurta, which has eight points, not six points.15 But the truth of the matter is there are plenty of stars to be found in ancient culture and they didn’t seem to differentiate between 5,6,7 or 8 points; they all held the similar celestial imagery. For instance, I will remind you that in John’s vision of Revelation, Jesus has seven stars in his right hand. Jesus reveals the mystery: “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches” (Rev 1:20). Thus, there are seven stars or seven angels (messengers) to God’s redeemed people. In this sense it is important to point out that star imagery itself should not necessarily be condemned, it can be viewed in scripture in both positive and negative light. Jesus is called the Morning Star in Revelation 22:26 but Satan is also referenced with a similar term in Isaiah 14:12.

Moloch, Chiun and Remphan are all associated with the star god, Saturn, whose symbol is most commonly viewed as a six pointed star formed by two triangles, but sometimes as an 8 sided star. Saturn was the supreme god of the Chaldeans. Mo, Chiun, Rephan, or Remphan, and Remphis, all are likely the same with the Serapis of the Egyptians, and the calf of the Israelites; and which idolatry was introduced on account of Joseph, who interpreted the dream of Pharaoh’s kine, and provided for the Egyptians in the years of plenty against the years of famine, and was worshipped under the ox with a bushel on his head.

There is also may be a D32 nephalim connection. Giants, with the Hebrews, were called “Rephaim”; and so Mo, who is here meant, is called “Rephan”, and with an epenthesis “Remphan”, because of his gigantic form; which some have concluded from the massy crown on his head, which, with the precious stones, weighed a talent of gold, which David took from thence, 2 Samuel 12:30 for not the then reigning king of the Ammonites, but Molech, or Milchom, their idol, is meant: this is generally thought to be the same with Chiun in Amos; but it does not stand in a place to answer to that; besides, that should not be left untranslated, it not being a proper name of an idol, but signifies a type or form; and the whole may be rendered thus, “but ye have borne the tabernacle of your king, and the type, or form of your images, the star of your god”; which version agrees with Stephens’s, who, from the Septuagint, adds the name of this their king, and their god Rephan, or Remphan.16 Early Hebrew writing easily could have interpreted Rephaim as Rephan. We see these slight textual subtleties all over early ancient transcripts.17 Rephan, very well could point directly to a connection with fallen spiritual beings revered in the ancient world as gods in a Genesis 6 context.

THE SEAL OF SOLOMON

The Seal of Solomon or Ring of Solomon (חותם שלמה, Ḥotam Shlomo) is the legendary signet ring attributed to king Solomon in medieval mystical traditions, from which it developed in parallel within Jewish mysticism, Islamic mysticism and Western occultism. This story comes from the ancient non-canonical writing sometimes referred to as the “Testament of Solomon.” It is often depicted in the shape of either a hexagram or a pentagram. In mystic Jewish lore, the ring is variously described as having given Solomon the power to command the supernatural, including shedim and jinn, and also the ability to speak with animals. Most scholars would say that this is the predecessor to the Star of David.18

While several Biblical passages emphasize Solomon’s supernatural endowment of wisdom, they do not mention him receiving a ring to control demons. Instead, Scripture highlights Solomon’s extensive knowledge of natural phenomena (1 Kings 4:33) and the building of the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6). No biblical text describes him subjugating evil spirits via an object or talisman. The extra-biblical work called the “Testament of Solomon” is thought to have been compiled between the 1st and 5th centuries AD (well after the Old Testament period). This document is categorized by scholars as pseudepigraphical, meaning it circulates under Solomon’s name but is not recognized as authentic Scripture. In this story, Solomon purportedly receives a ring from an angel, which bears the name or seal of God and grants him authority over demons, enabling him to command them to assist in building the Temple.19

A legend of a magic ring with which the possessor could command demons was already current in the 1st century Josephus as well as the Tractate Gittin (fol. 68) of the Talmud which also has a story involving Solomon, Asmodeus, and a ring with the divine name engraved: Solomon gives the ring and a chain to one Benaiahu son of Jehoiada to catch the demon Ashmedai, to obtain the demon’s help to build the temple; Ashmedai later tricks Solomon into giving him the ring and swallows it.20

There is also a subtle connection by symbolism to the Magi. The Magi are popularly referred to as wise men and kings. The word magi is used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. Magi will later be seen in the etymology of the English term magic. Daniel 2:48 will connect with the same words when describing “Elymas the sorcerer” in Acts 13:6–11. Biblically all of these things fall under divination. The image to the right became part of the Alphabet of the Magi much later in history.

Scripture consistently condemns divination. Deuteronomy 18:10-11 states, “Let no one be found among you…who practices divination, conjury, interprets omens, or sorcery.” This prohibition underscores that seeking information from sources other than God is forbidden. The Israelites were called to be distinct from other nations, which frequently turned to occult rituals for guidance.

Leviticus 19:26 also prohibits divination, reinforcing that God’s people must avoid methods used by pagan cultures. King Manasseh’s downfall exemplifies the tragic consequences of defying these commands: “He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Hinnom, practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft…” (2 Chronicles 33:6). Through such narratives, the Bible highlights the spiritual dangers and moral corruption that accompany attempts to manipulate or predict the future by occult means.

STARBUCKS ANOLOGY

Some may not like this analogy, but of late, it was a popular “western world” analogy to this conversation so I will mention it. You might consider the question, “Is the star of David rooted in idolatry and divination which was/is rival to Yahweh?” There is certainly an argument for that view. But many symbols both in and out of the Bible can go both ways. Foundationally, evil has always sought to take what is good and turn it to be a symbol of Evil. The Bible doesn’t really give us the whole story here, as that isn’t it’s primary intention. At least with the “taking back of the Rainbow”, there is a clear mention in the Bible. The roots of the rainbow representing something good and of God is not arguable. But with the 6-sided star we don’t necessarily have that. To most people if something has occult type of roots or even some strain of a negative connotation, we aren’t going to use the same symbol for our entity of good intention. When people and organizations do things like this it raises red flags, but it doesn’t make it wrong per se.

A good example is the Starbucks logo. The way it is used most recently seems simple. But when you dig into the history you scratch your head wondering why would a corporate coffee company “go there.” You have probably heard this, but most Christians would call the Starbucks logo downright “DEMONIC.” The image in the center of the Starbucks logo is not a mermaid. She’s actually a mythological Siren, a female creature that lured mariners to destruction by her sex appeal. Since coffee beans typically traveled overseas on large container ships, the founders decided to use a “seductive siren” logo that would lure coffee lovers to its stores. The original Starbucks logo was X rated, a bare-breasted, female Siren with two serpentine tails spread apart (a legs spread open sense.)

In an article published by Revealing Truth, it was claimed that the Starbucks logo also has sinister roots. By turning the original Starbucks logo upside down, you can see the image of satan. In 2014, Starbucks got into trouble after its employees were drawing satanic pentagrams and the number “666” in the foam of coffee.  

However, it is quite possible you visit Starbucks every day and look at the logo and can’t see anything evil in it anymore, and care very little about its dark history. As a Christian should you not support the organization because of its roots? I am not sure we should hold the organizations themselves and the people that represent them accountable for choices they specifically didn’t make. Isn’t that a Biblical theme? God isn’t judging you for the actions of others, just you. (I realize there are views within reformed theology that might see this differently.) There is an argument along these same lines with MONSTER energy Drink. I won’t get into that here. If you drink Monster or Starbucks, you shouldn’t have an issue with the Star of David, if you don’t – well than you might have an issue with the Star of David; but they are all slightly different to this analogy.

SEEING THE GOOD

I do believe there is a perspective of seeing the good in things despite their dark past. Isn’t that the restorative nature of scripture? You can choose to let ancient bygones be bygones and see the beauty and peace that the star of David a new meaning and we can see it for what it has come to represent. Shouldn’t we all be hopeful that a dark symbol could find There may even be an element of interpretation not specifically declared in the Bible but theologically deduced. The Star of David and the pomegranate are deeply intertwined in Jewish tradition. The pomegranate is one of the seven species mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:8, symbolizing God’s blessings and the good deeds of the people. It is also associated with the Temple and High Priestly garments and is used during the Feasts of Shavuot and Sukkot.21 The pomegranate’s six petals form the Star of David, and its significance extends to kingship and the Messiah Those who see the Star of David as Biblical, see the pomegranate’s deep red color and the presence of seeds that symbolize blood pointing to Jesus. Together, these symbols can be seen as representative to the holiness of God, the good deeds of the people, and point towards Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Going back to the Star of David. Knowing the History of how a 6-sided star has been used in Ancient Near Eastern history as connected to gods against Yahweh and divination, it seems “off” that Israel and Zionism would then adopt it as their logo claiming to be a God-fearing Nation. Yet there are also some beautiful connections to the pomegranate and seeing the hope that the symbol has come to represent many years before they adopted it.

WORKS CITED:

  1. Jacob Newman; Gabriel Sivan; Avner Tomaschoff (1980). Judaism A–Z. World Zionist Organization. p. 116. ↩︎
  2.  Kittel, Rud; Alt, A; Eissfeldt, Otto; Kahle, Paul; Weil, Gerard E; Schenker, Adrian (1977). Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. ISBN 9783438052186.
     (in Foreword by Gérard E. Weil). ↩︎
  3. “The Flag and the Emblem” (MFA). “The Star of David became the emblem of Zionist Jews everywhere. Non-Jews regarded it as representing not only the Zionist current in Judaism, but Jewry as a whole.” ↩︎
  4. Reuveni (2017). p. 43. ↩︎
  5. “The Flag and the Emblem” (MFA). “Unlike the menora (candelabrum), the Lion of Judah, the shofar (ram’s horn) and the lulav (palm frond), the Star of David was never a uniquely Jewish symbol.” ↩︎
  6. Star of David – Wikipedia ↩︎
  7. Plaut, W. Gunther (1991). The Magen David: How the six-pointed Star became an emblem for the Jewish People. Washington, D.C.: B’nai B’rith Books. pp. 26, 61–62. ISBN 0-910250-17-0. ↩︎
  8. “King Solomon-s Seal”, with credits Archived October 16, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ↩︎
  9. The Egyptian officials accused the delegation of German archaeologists that has been working on the site’s reconstruction of engraving the Stars of David into the Shrine’s stone.  The engravings are found on a 3rd century B.C, temple located in Elephantine Island in Aswan. ↩︎
  10. Herbert M. Adler, JQR, vol. 14:111. Cited in “Magen David”, Jewish Encyclopedia, retrieved May 28, 2010. ↩︎
  11. www.markfoster.net Archived July 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine ↩︎
  12. Rabbi Blumenkrantz, “The Seder”, The Laws of Pesach: A Digest 2010: Chap. 9. See also: Archived March 17, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved May 28, 2010. ↩︎
  13. Horne, Thomas Hartwell. An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Vol. 2. pp. 410ff. ↩︎
  14. “An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics – 1”. dictionary.obspm.fr. Retrieved 2023-05-21. ↩︎
  15. Amar Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia, State Archives of Assyria Studies, Volume XIV Helsinki 2002. Pg. 104 ↩︎
  16. Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible ↩︎
  17. “Scholars seek Hebrew Bible’s original text – but was there one?”. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. ↩︎
  18. Protectorat de la République Française au Maroc – Bulletin Officiel – (see page 838), 29th of November 1915, archived in July 2021 ↩︎
  19. https://biblehub.com/q/how_does_solomon_use_his_magic_ring.htm ↩︎
  20. Josephus. Antiquitates Judaicae. ↩︎
  21. https://theancientbridge.com/2016/06/pomegranates-the-star-of-david-and-shavuot-aka-pentecost/ ↩︎

Seminary Discipleship

Posted by expedition44 on

When you harmonize the gospels, you likely come to the conclusion that Jesus called the disciples 3x. The last time He gets very specific and asks them to leave everything on the beach, don’t look back, stay with Me completely and “walk” completely with Me. In our modern Western world this first century calling to discipleship seems almost impossible. I have spent my whole life challenging myself and other people to this level of discipleship, and I am just about convinced that in modern America people just aren’t willing. I have found one exception… seminary training. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with all seminary experiences but at The King’s Commission (TKC) we believe that this is the closest pathway to what first century discipleship under Jesus would have looked like. Study daily, be mentored, read, listen, discuss, dive deep into a community that is likeminded to experience the full breadth (completeness) of Jesus and the Church. 

What a time it must have been, when Jesus shared his words and heart with his disciples (students) for the three years of his earthly ministry! They saw his compassionate healings, marveled at his miraculous power, listened to his word, saw his glory (Matt. 17:1-13), were humbled by his servant-leadership (Matt. 20:25-28, John 13:1-20). We believe you can still experience that same feeling with Jesus through TKC.

Seminary is something similar to those three years with Jesus. In many ways, of course, it is different. Jesus didn’t need to teach his disciples how to read Hebrew and Greek. He didn’t need to teach them post-canonical church history, because at the time there wasn’t any. And although he didn’t give letter grades, he regularly evaluated their progress. TKC has sought to stay as true to this dynamic model as possible. 

Discipleship is about commitment, not to a program or a pattern but to the person of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps one of the Western world modern challenges we face is to see seminary throughout the context of discipleship rather than simply education.  Seminary is more than academic training; it is a spiritual journey. The Latin “seminarium” or “seedbed”—captures the deeper purpose: cultivating hearts that bear spiritual fruit.  Seminary, properly pursued, fosters a “taproot” in believers—vertical depth before horizontal spread—so lives become steadier, more rooted, and more fruit-bearing. 

A testimony from one of the students that Dr. Ryan has discipled and now is regularly involved with in local church ministry, Paul Lazzaroni:

My own seminary experience (Paul) shifted my perspective. The draw to a deeper understanding of the scriptures came simply from a hunger to know Christ more.  After a previous failed attempt at a well-known Bible College, 7 years later I was invited to apply at seminary.  It wasn’t until I handed in some of my first course work that my understanding of seminary began to shift from simply retaining information to spiritual transformation.  My advisor challenged me not just to retain facts but to articulate why I believed what I believed. That invitation to integrate intellect and devotion opened a deeper adoration for Christ. Many Western educational systems emphasize information retention; seminary (like Hebraic Torah study) invites transformation, not mere accumulation of facts. 

For me, this wasn’t just a different way of seeing education, this was a journey down a path that the early disciples took with Jesus.  

Hebraic culture treated study as a spiritual discipline linked to life and covenant faithfulness. Torah study functioned as devotion and formation, shaping how people lived before the LORD. From Eden through Sinai to Jesus, Scripture consistently calls for faithful allegiance expressed in obedience and transformed hearts.  The word seminary itself is not nearly as old as the scriptures, but the heart behind the journey through seminary ties directly into the first and greatest commandment of Jesus “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  Mat 22:37

The word seminary (seminarium) means “seed bed”. Even our word semen finds its origins here.  Semen without an egg to fertilize is a source of life that is seeking a host.  Humankind is designed to replicate the source of life that heals, that restores, and that multiplies that which gives life, but the spirit of God needs a seed bed and Jesus himself consistently goes back to talking about the heart of the matter as though this is the seed bed of the human being.  

Paul’s example in the New Testament reinforces this same type of spiritual journey.  Despite his rigorous education as Saul, his encounter with Christ began a multi-year (14) process of spiritual formation (Acts 9; Galatians 1). Conversion was a beginning that required unlearning, relearning, and sustained growth. Seminary can be that structured season of deepening, where encounter and study mature into faithful living.  

Over centuries, what ought to be a life-changing journey of spiritual study has sometimes become a path to prestige, income, or institutional advancement.  From the establishment of the early church, there has been a slow evolution away from this type of devotion towards educational advancement. In the 15th and 16thcentury, the church experienced a large pivot deeper into the intellectual moving further away from the spiritual journey.  This pivot began with a bold, spirit led move by Martin Luther to stand up against the hierarchical system that the Catholic Church had established, however much of what we still experience today is a war of the minds.  The downfall of humanity began when we attempted to reason through all the things of life without the spirit of God.  In doing so, we give up is the divine journey with Jesus himself as the teacher.  When theological training serves personal gain rather than formation, the church loses its capacity to cultivate compassionate, faithful leaders—gardeners rather than dictators. Seminary must resist reducing theology to a résumé item; it should invite humility, compassion, and a lifelong devotion to learning and obedience.

For those of us who have had simply one encounter with Jesus, we know that it was a profound spiritual moment.  My prayer would be that there was a flame that was lit.  If you have yet to do so, seek out the fan that ignites that flame.  Over the centuries, what was meant to be the most incredible journey of our lives by means of study, has transformed into hierarchical astuteness for the advancement of primarily worldly pursuits.  This transformation of higher education has led to the creation of many learning systems that operate without spiritual context and in my opinion simultaneously void the presence and power of the spirit of God.  

If seminary is understood as a seedbed for spiritual formation, it belongs to any disciple who wants to deepen devotion, understanding, and faithful practice—not only to those who pursue clerical office. It equips Christians to study Scripture faithfully (hermeneutics and exegesis), to integrate head and heart, and to live a long-haul obedience that reflects covenant faithfulness.  This is the direct invitation from Jesus, the ancient of days, the word become flesh, the author and perfecter of life.  Let us not waste our eternal invitation to follow in the dust of him.  I pray the path of Yahweh draws many into this kind of lifelong study and devotion.  

Written by Dr. Will Ryan and Paul Lazzaroni

The Journey… here and now (TAKE 2)

Posted by expedition44 on

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:  Ecclesiastes 3:1  NIV

Whenever I read Ecclesiastes, I can’t help but to start humming “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)”, a song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s. The lyrics are adapted nearly word-for-word from the English King James Version of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. In the U.S., the song holds distinction as the number one hit with the oldest lyrics. I sometimes Joke that Seeger got more people to memorize scripture than any pastor in history. However, you remember it, at some point you have likely contemplated the questions it raises. Although I am sure you have hummed the tune, too many people go through life without ever stopping to “really” ponder a very simple question, “what connection do you have to Jesus and His kingdom and what should that mean to you in this life?” That is the question Ecclesiastes raises to their audience and is as relevant 2500 years later, today – as it was the day it was written.

I am often perplexed by busy western culture people. There seems to be a conundrum of life that might have us too busy to simply stop and think through life or perhaps enable those thoughts into life-change. Those that have learned to stop and smell the roses have often been met with innumerable blessing. Different people react to different things and perhaps for you it is a song, or a movie, a passing of a loved one, or tragedy that has challenged you to stop and consider some of the more philosophical questions of life and reconsider what means most to us.

Mircea Eliade was a Romanian philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago who became one of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and interpreter of religious experience, he established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. He helped us recognize the “myth of eternal return” in the ancient world. The idea that every culture has had some kind of circle of life (as Disney later adopted it). From the Aztecs 27,000 year cycle, to the Hebraic 50 years of Jubilee year, including every seven years a sabbatical year, most cultures have recognized some cycle of life. In our culture New Years is a day of rethinking the past and taking on a resolution to do better in the coming year. In some way shape or form, I think everyone has considered the notion of re-examining their life cycles with the hopes to take action to a better way of life.

There is a relational connection of words in the New Testament that are translated as belief, faith, and hope, and what they all have in common is the notion of reliance, confidence, and trust. It is trust that puts you in contact with God so you can draw upon his unlimited and inexhaustible character. Unfortunately, many folks have their faith lined up in such a way that they do not need to rely on God. They do not need to trust God. They have a proper faith in terms of what they need to believe to go to heaven when they die, but they hope that God is never going to put them in a position of needing to actually trust him before they go there. It is this sort of “grappling” or “wrestling” in our faith that often brings us to a better sense of life.

Jon Gibson has uncovered something beautifully for us. As we reflect, remember, resolve and contemplate things more significant in this life, I am betting that we have seen seasons and have hopefully travelled to a better place of life through these journeys. But perhaps the best is yet to come for you. Perhaps there is something more going on in this life. Maybe there is a sense of orchestration in the ordinary that has led us to beautiful places even in the messiness or busyness of our modern life cycles. Most of us wouldn’t choose the courses of our past but we also wouldn’t choose to remove them from our lives. That seems to be an ontological fact of existence that we have in common. We are on a sentient journey. Jon tells story after story that you will find yourself not only deeply engaged with, but then turning your thoughts inward to consider your own journey and be shepherded to a better understanding of God’s majestic and far-reaching love, grace, and compassion.

What about you? Have you ever wondered about the greater questions of your faith? What about relationship dynamics and how they are influenced by God? Have you thought about legacy and the little things that point to the greater aspects of your spiritual person? What about taking the time to work through some if these thoughts, a mind retreat that engages action. In the big picture, if you are part of God’s family, we are all part of a return to Eden. But maybe that is less about heaven and more about your choices today. There is still time for God to being Heaven to earth through you. I think you will find that this book might be just what you need to start moving towards these feelings in your life.

I pray that in the pages of this masterful piece that you will find peace, comfort, and a sense of direction in the fact that somehow God is working out His plan within the pages of your life journey.  Behind it all is His invisible hand. That’s comforting. Perhaps in the tears and fears, joy and grief, success and failure, helping and hurting; we will understand the immense love that Jon has so beautifully given us through his connections to Jesus. I pray that on this journey you may be captivated by these seasons and find a sense of peace but also action.

 “The more beauty of God you capture today in your heart today, the greater the beauty you will find in your next season.”  Don’t cast your seasons to the wind until you have grabbed hold of its beauty and set it in your heart for eternity.

Dr. Will Ryan

President of the King’s Commission School of Divinity

_____________________________________________

This article is intended to be a catalyst to Jon Gibson’s book “HERE AND NOW” to be released in 2026.

For the more “scholarly “academic” version of this article CLICK HERE.

Intentionality into the storm

Posted by expedition44 on

Sometimes we know things are going to get crazy and knowing that we still decide to jump right in. We all know that sometimes the hardest things bring the biggest “rewards” or that sometimes with tribulation comes beauty. Years ago our family made a covenant to not let ourselves get into the crazy cycle. We aren’t going to allow time to master us, we aren’t going to let sleep deprivation be an excuse, and frankly, we aren’t going to put ourselves into a situation that makes us so weary that it becomes a controlling factor over us. Most of the year we do really well with this but we just know that the beginning and end of the school year calendar is going to be difficult. Yet, rather than change the calendar, we mostly change our heart and mindset. We know it is only a short season and we gear up. We know the storm is coming and that it is only a short season, how do we walk it well?

For us the fall means 2-3 hours of soccer practice every morning for two weeks before school starts then every evening. It means long days of not seeing our kids. It means the boys have homework every night on top of working at school all day. It means going from a schedule of total summer freedom without a care in the world to be busy literally every minute of the day 7 days a week. As hard as this is, fall is also still our all time favorite season. It gives us a fresh launch for new relationships and goals, it brings bow hunting season which is one of our favorite endeavors in life, it ushers in soccer which will always be one of our greatest family dynamics, and so much more. We know that this season also is going to breed hardship. that there will be defeat, blood, tears, and everything in between that isn’t always fun. If we aren’t in the right kingdom dynamic, there will be some backlash. How do we live out theses chaos monsters of life well? Here are some life dynamics that might help:

BE A TEAM

Your family is your God given team, start truly working like one. Often times we have been exposed to great team management skills somewhere on a team, work, or other places; but we haven’t ever transferred that kind of thinking of intentionality and spiritual dynamics to our family. What does it look like to take a day before the storm and prepare? Perhaps a retreat before the storm, talk openly about what is coming and the effects that it will have. Talk about what you are challenged by in these seasons and how people can best come along side you. What is everyone’s strengths and weakness in the chaos? Help each other identify tools to work through things. Maybe you also need some emergency language? Do you have a code for when someone from the family is at a hurt or breaking point? When this happen do you have emergency plans? How do you exhibit grace on grace? Lastly, this shouldn’t just fall on dad, as the front shield (head) of the family or even a co-parenting dynamic, everyone needs to own it.

  • Philippians 2:2
  • 1 Corinthians 1:10
  • Ephesians 4:3
  • Romans 12:16

GRACE AND LOVE MUST REMAIN

Establish a mandate that you aren’t going to lower your families bar of Grace and love during the coming storm. Too often it is easy to not be a Christian is turmoil. Be committed to not lowering the bar but actually raining it. Be resilient and committed to help your brothers and sisters better. Maybe there is a simple word to use as a quick course alignment. If you see the family or a person is getting off track or might be stumbling perhaps a gentle kiss, or some other action that shows family support, rea-aligns, goals, and brings people back to your kingdom mission can help. I have found that for this to work everyone has to be regularly reminded of your family’s mission and value of edification over everything. Sometimes this is very difficult. When people aren’t in great places, they often don’t accept good-willed gesture’s, it is something as a family that is going to take some training in. The first time you implement this may not be easy, but as it becomes the muscle memory of your family, I am confident it will show covenant relational success.

  • 2 Corinthians 12:9
  • Hebrews 4:16
  • Matthew 22:37-39
  • 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM UNIFICATION AND GIFTS

It starts individually before the Lord. Each person needs to commit to Jesus first and over everything. Devotions, surrounding yourself with kingdom things, walking with people that share the same dynamics, being of the same mission and heartset. If each person is personally moving in this direction and your family is on the same page, the stars align even during turmoil. When some people are low and feeling defeated, there are some that are willing to lead, be the cheerleaders, encourage, motivate, and restore. That is the great thing about different giftings in a team dynamic. God can use each person individually in huge ways. What are your best gifts? How can you contribute best in the difficult times?

  • 1 Corinthians 1:10
  • Philippians 2:2
  • Colossians 3:14
  • Ephesians 4:3

REGULAR HEART TO HEARTS

Mom and Dad (hopefully but there is also a conversation point for single parenting here) you need regular heart to heart checkups with your kids that are grounded in Jesus. Prayer is a great way to do this. Perhaps before the kids leave every day it is a devotional and prayer. Perhaps you text them a prayer every day. Maybe it is a sticky note in their lunch, or a checking at the end of school. Maybe at pickup it is a trip to a park for a 5-minute walk. We trick ourselves into thinking we don’t have time for these things, but the truth is we NEED to make or create the time, and we can and should do it. Maybe we do this with their friends too. I start every soccer practice off with a devotional.

  • 1 Thessalonians 5:11
  • Hebrews 10:24-25
  • Galatians 6:2
  • Romans 14:19

SHARE THE LOAD

What are the hard times for each person? Identify this. How can you minister to someone in their chaos or hardship if you don’t know when this is or will be? How do you see it coming? How can each person communicate when they are hurting, exasperated, need time, or space, or just needs help? What can you do to help, to share the load, to ease the burden? Parents, you will never believe how transparency when you are having a hard day helps with your kids, transparency and asking for prayer or help functions as a healthy reset button. It identifies that you need to function as a covenant team and invites peoples help. Sometimes people aren’t in a place to describe how they can be helped? As a family and individuals how do you identify and work through this? How do you keep your communications edifying and acting to build up each other? Sometimes in transitional moments you have time to talk through this. Start planning for intentionality and slow down times strategically built into hectic schedules.

  • Philippians 1:3-4
  • 1 Timothy 2:1
  • Romans 12:15
  • Romans 15:1

STAY IN THE WORD

Often times when we get busy, we want to cut our time with Jesus short. That is exactly the opposite of what we should do. Think the other way, create times in adversity and busyness to invite Jesus to the storm. Don’t compromise the word because your life gets busy. Think with a backwards kingdom dynamic. Be committed to being the person that does this in your family.

  • 1 Timothy 4:6-16 
  • Colossians 2:7
  • 1 Corinthians 15:58
  • Colossians 4:2

THE SEASON -Biblically and philosophically

There is an appointed time for everything.  And there is a time for every event under heaven

–   Ecclesiastes 3:1

This might surprise you, but the context of this verse has nothing to do with things being predetermined or preordained.  From a Hebrew perspective life is filled with moments when certain actions and responses are called for.  Life isn’t set before you get here.  Your responses, your choices, your actions – and the actions of all the rest of the created order – shape what happens next as we go along.  What you do has eternal consequences. You weren’t born into a responsibility for other people’s actions (the idea of original sin) – God desires you to make regular strategic choices to live for him in every decision.

There is a careful distinction between sovereignty and immutability.  Sovereignty means that God is finally (at the end of it all) in charge.  Nothing usurps His final authority.  But the creation of other moral free agents means that God has purposefully limited His potential total control in order to allow other free agents to choose.  In the end, He will act, but in the meanwhile, we act either with Him or against Him – and our actions change things.  Augustine’s proposal that God simply knows exactly what we will do (our future free will “choices”) from all eternity is wrong.  It is logical Greek philosophy, but it isn’t biblical.

What we do now changes the course of the universe.  The weight of the world rests on our shoulders.  Your choices affect everything else.  They affect you, they affect your family and they affect everyone around you. Because the “plan” isn’t fixed, your choices alter consequences which affect other choices which alter other consequences, and so on. 

Let’s walk this well together! Let’s think strategically about even in the harder times of life we glorify God to our utmost. Let’s consider what that means in covenant together.

DOWNLOAD A DISCUSSION GUIDE

Comments Off on Intentionality into the storm Posted in ADVENTURE

ALTD Weekend 51 and the desires of your heart

Posted by expedition44 on

The Women’s weekend verse is from 1 John 4:12: “No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us”.

The Men’s weekend verse is from 2 Timothy 2:22: “Now flee youthful lusts, and pursue after righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart.” 

How can you pursue something if you don’t know where it is? That’s pretty much the core directive in spiritual discipline today. We want to follow Paul’s exhortation. We want to pursue righteousness. But when we look for the goal, we have no idea where it is, so we just keep kicking the ball down the road. I coach soccer and that is my greatest issue, players kicking the ball with no strategic direction. They don’t understand that sometimes the best plan is a back pass, or the need for a triangle pass, to get rid of the ball so you get it back in a better place.1 It doesn’t work for one person to dribble the ball 120 yards and shoot. You can have all the energy, skill, and desire in the world and that plan isn’t going to work.2

Have you ever paused to formulate your spiritual game plan? Anyone feel like my soccer players sometimes or perhaps the onlooking frustrated coach? Can you see this spiritually? Perhaps you have been part of it…

  • People that look exhausted when there are others standing right there with the desire and tools to help carry the weight?
  • People trying to accomplish things they don’t have the gifting for when there are others waiting right there that do?
  • Perhaps people getting way to sidetracked focusing on stuff that doesn’t matter because they don’t have the eyes to see, they need a friend’s eyes.
  • You ever watch someone that doesn’t know where the goal is? Maybe they just need a simple hand gesture. There it is – This is the way!

That is why we are a community, defined by what we are united for. This is and should be defined out of communion to God and mission with each other.

The Bible says here to Pursue after it. Spiritual discipline defines the identity of God is us.

Youthful lusts may not mean exactly what you think it means here, the Greek word is epithymias, or violent forces of compulsion. It is the strongest of Greek words. That is how young soccer players score goals. Older players want precisely calculate plans; young players crash in half out of control and might make an amazing dangerous play but it isn’t really what coaches are desirous of. The play may be wild and uncalculated but it also has won a game or two. Perhaps there is a season for both in the Christian life, but here the emphasis is on focus, determination and strategically assessing and calculating your spiritual plans. Yes God uses the wild plays but desires and wants us to also have a better plan of cultivation.

In Hebraic thought this is referred to as the yetzer ha’ra vs yetzer ha’tov – The inclinations of the heart, the decisive choices between what is good and what is of the world with both of them pulling at you. Ra can mean evil but it is usually more of desire for the world; Tov is good, or what God created for us, but often incomplete. He offers what is of Him and asks us then to partner with him which makes it complete.3

This is the energy of life, the passion to change your world, the reason for doing anything at all. In Christ. These things cannot be erased as long as you are breathing. In fact, we might even suggest that both the yetzer ha’ra and the yetzer ha’tov  is a gift from God, the essential motivating power of His Spirit breathed into you. The problem is not the forceful energy. The problem is direction.4

I was an ADD kid. You wouldn’t know it today unless you know me really well. I have never been medicated for it, but I have learned to control that spirit. I am still in process. (I am certainly not saying I am not an advocate of medication in this area though, I certainly am in some situations.) Has anyone ever picked up on this with me? Can I apologize to you for it… I am constantly busy. I can’t focus on one thing I need to have 44 different interactions going on at once. If you have ever tried to have more than a 2 minute focused conversation with me, you will know I can hardly do it. This has been my biggest blessing and biggest curse in life. What I have found is that it has been needed to be given to God 44 times a day. For me that was what it meant to take on the cross daily. Strategic thought every day. My ADD has caused some problems but it has also allowed me to accomplish great things when I make God the center. God uses me to move mountains and then my ADD looks more like a gift than a curse.

“Pursue after” is the Greek verb dioko. Amazingly, it is just as strong as epithymeo. It is translated “to impel, to persecute, to expel, to accuse, to follow zealously.” You see God gives us the passion that we can’t understand.

My favorite thing in life today is to wake up at 4am and spend 3 hours deeply meditating on the things of the Lord, writing, pondering, discussing, arguing with myself, pushing pulling. Sometimes I give in and just spend all day doing this! Thise are my favorite days.

I haven’t always been wired that way. Remember that ADD problem. There was a time where it seemed impossible to be in the word for 5 minutes! But I gave it to God and God turned my curses into blessings. I hated 9th grade grammar. Thats what my wife teaches BTW! How ironic. That was my least favorite class ever. The diagramming, the relationship of one word to another. I remember shouting out in the middle of class, WHO CARES at the top of my lungs one day and then was sent to the principal’s office. Well, I know God has a sense of humor because today one of my greatest joys is parsing words in Hebrew which isn’t a whole lot different than 9th grade English class. How can that be? And the love of my life teaches 9th grade grammar!

How do we get from where you are to where you want to be?

ONE STEP AT A TIME, ONE FOOT AFTER THE OTHER, STAY FOCUSED and 5 minutes becomes 10, then 20, then an hour, then a day or even three days… you get the point!

This is called DEVOTION.

Our life is the playing field of both the epithymeo and the dioko, the Yetzer ha’ ra and the tov. We are in the image of and God passionately creates, He brings His will into being, He fights for righteousness, He forcefully hunts down the faithful, He uses us to strive for the good? Isn’t God filled with desire? How could His breath in you be anything less? The difference is in the direction.5

Don’t destroy your passion! Don’t try to erase what the Spirit loaned to you. My life verse, Psalm 37:4 Why do you think God promises to give you the desires of your heart? So that you can live pabulum lives? He wants to put His desires into your heart so that all that rage for life will be directed toward His ends.

It is time to get focused on the ways of the Lord and what you’re going to find is that 5 minutes turns into three hours and becomes the greatest desire of your heart. That is what it means to be made complete in Christ.

ENDNOTES

  1.  “In a globalised world, the football World Cup is a force for good”. The Conversation. 10 July 2014. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014.  ↩︎
  2. Magnusen, Marshall J (June 2010). “Differences in Strength and Conditioning Coach Self-Perception of Leadership Style Behaviors at the National Basketball Association, Division I-A, and Division II Levels”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 24 (6): 1440–1450. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181d321ec. PMID 20453682. S2CID 23289041. ↩︎
  3. Moshe Weinfeld (20 June 2005). Normative and Sectarian Judaism in the Second Temple Period. A&C Black. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-567-04441-9. ↩︎
  4. https://theeffectiveperspective.wordpress.com/2025/07/23/the-yetzer-ha-tov-and-yetzer-ha-ra-the-inner-battle-in-jewish-thought/ ↩︎
  5. May, Gerhard (2004). Creatio ex nihilo [Creation from nothing]. Continuum International. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-567-08356-2.  ↩︎

Jesus Paid it all?!

Posted by expedition44 on

I bet you have become accustomed to Christians describing Jesus on the cross with phrases like “purchased” or “paid” describing salvation. That through Christ on the cross, salvation was “bought” or “paid in full.” First, to be clear I don’t think the terminology is horrible, this conversation doesn’t mean much to me and I am certainly not “going to war” over anything in this conversation! I believe that as a light metaphor that this kind of phrase can have some truth to it, we make references all the time in day-to-day life with this sort of linguistic analogy. For instance, my son Will was playing soccer the other night in a recreational game on astroturf and made a heralding dive to strike the ball into the goal. After the game I noticed the giant carpet burn on his knee and saif to him, well you certainly paid for that one, but what a shot! No one really thinks that He actually paid money, that would be absurd; we simply mean that there is a cost associated. That is what the Bible means when it talks about what Jesus did at the cross. Yet too many people have turned a simple biblical metaphor into a theological doctrine, and I find it problematic.

There are better ways to communicate what Christ did for us on the cross than using descriptions like paid for or purchased. This gets into atonement theories (x44 has made several videos on this subject) and if you are reformed you might think this language is “correct”; but if you’re not reformed or a Calvinist, you might want to consider a better formation for your cross theology. Let me walk you through some things towards a better consideration.

WHERE DO WE SEE THESE PHRASES IN THE BIBLE?

Twice the apostle Paul informed believers at Corinth, “You were bought with a price.” In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul was making a passionate appeal against sexual immorality. He concluded his argument, stating, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20, ESV). I quoted the ESV (which is a reformed translation if you didn’t know).  1 Peter 1:18–19 says,“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (NLT). We also have Jesus Himself saying that He came to give His life as a ransom for us (Matthew 20:28). We now belong to Him according to 1 Corinthians 7:22. Paul repeated this teaching in 1 Corinthians 7:23, notice however, the emphasis on spiritual freedom: “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.” Believers are set free from the dominion of the world or sin through the death of Christ (Galatians 1:4). In this way you might say that spiritual freedom comes at the “price” of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). Consequently, since we now belong to Christ, we must not let ourselves come under the control of other humans, Satan, principalities, or the world… we are or should completely be given to Jesus. 1 That is what we all can agree on right? I mean it is right out of the bible! So, there you have it. The Bible specifically uses words like ransom, paid, bought, price etc… So, I bet you are wondering why do I have issues with phrasing it that way?

RANSOM SHOULD BE VIEWED AS AN EXODUS MOTIF

In biblical theology, the concept of “ransom” is deeply intertwined with the themes of deliverance and salvation. The term “ransom” according to antiquity refers to the “price paid” to secure the release of someone from bondage or captivity. In general describing what Jesus accomplished through the cross this way is known as the ransom which theory teaches that the death of Christ was a ransom sacrifice, usually said to have been paid to Satan, in satisfaction for the bondage and debt on the souls of humanity as a result of inherited sin.2 Well as you might have perceived,

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word “kopher” is often used to denote a ransom, particularly in the context of redeeming a person or property.3 For example, Exodus 21:30 discusses the payment of a ransom for the life of a person who has been sentenced to death: “If payment is demanded of him, he may redeem his life by paying the full amount demanded of him.” So there is a Hebraic understanding of transactional payment biblically that is associated with the term ransom, but the problem with thinking that way is that what Jesus does for us on the cross intentionally came with no strings attached, it is a free gift of Grace. What Christ did on the cross was a backwards kingdom dynamic, it was opposite of the world’s expectations. In other words, there wasn’t a physical price paid. This is very important. In the Exodus did Moses pay Pharaoh? Did God pay the spiritual powers he was warring against? NO. There was no payment made. The exodus foreshadows the cross and in the same way there wasn’t a payment made. Jesus didn’t have to pay off God and God didn’t pay Satan. Are you following me? So, phrase it this way is actually poor theology and nearly the opposite idea of what the text portrayed in the exodus and through the cross. Talking about inherited sin or original sin is one of the pillars of Calvinism and thus those that hold to a “ransom” theory are typically reformed. If you aren’t familiar with this conversation this video series will help. Although I do believe in a ransom motif in the exodus and through Jesus at the cross, I do not think framing it as transactional is good theology.

ETYMOLOGY

The definition of the word “ransom” has changed over time. At the time the New Testament was written before the end of the first century, it referred to the practice of capturing individuals and demanding their release, particularly in ancient times. In the ancient world it was almost never ties to money, it was based on threats of power and ruling.4 In this sense, Exodus portrays the ransom of the Hebrews quite well. But I certainly won’t deny that at times money was involved; but the emphasis should always be on freedom motive not the payment motive. When you really dive into this what you find is that in the ancient world ransom was relational. You demanded ransom because it was the right thing. It was to put your foot down and demand that an injustice be reconciled. In the Middle Ages and Reformation, the term evolved to usually describe payments made for the release of hostages, and it has also been used figuratively to describe any exorbitant payment or price demanded for something. The definition has certainly changed over time to be described less relational and has become more transactional. The biblical authors definition was relational not transactional, yet we have come to interpret it through our own modern lens as transactional.

Ransom in scripture should always be interpreted as a release of slaves giving freedom. This fits every context of verses that we see the word used in from Micah 6:4 to Isaiah 43:3. Isaiah 52:3 is very clear on this. God says he sold Israel for nothing, and they shall be ransomed/redeemed without payment. Isaiah 45:13 echoes the same thoughts. The point is that the word ransom biblically shouldn’t be used in a substitutionary sense. NT Wright and even the reformed scholar Leon Morris have made this clear. 5

The Greek helps us out here. ὑπέρ Huper (for) means for a benefit. That is what is used in nearly every context of Jesus giving up his life. Not anti (for) which would be in the place of or an exchange. 

TRANSACTIONAL PROBLEMS

When you try to frame the work of the cross as needing to buy someone out, it creates a transactional dynamic that isn’t part of grace and isn’t biblical. Now again, there are some elements that are transactional and that is why this is complicated and often misunderstood. Grace itself is a free gift, yet there is a benefactor understanding of reciprocity. When you give a gift there is no expectation for a payment, you freely give it. Yet in relationships of any kind there are some expectations. In the circle of Grace when Christ gave his life for you, the reciprocity is that you in turn give your life to him.6 But that didn’t actually cost money, there was no buyout, but there was a cost. When we think about Jesus transactionally it muddies the water. I am sure you have been told your whole life that everything costs something, or that if you want something that is worth anything it is going to cost you. In this regard, giving your life to Christ from a worldly sense will cost you everything, your life itself. But Jesus isn’t selling anything. When we frame grace as transactional it leaves us thinking what are we going to get out of Jesus or Christianity. What do we get from the deal? It points you in the wrong direction. With Jesus we don’t get, we give… Job was righteous because he had no expectations.7

WHAT IS THE COST?

To use transactional language cheapens the work of Jesus through the cross. God wasn’t negotiating with terrorists in the Exodus. He obliterated the spiritual powers at war. The exchange was allegiance, freedom, and liberation… no money was exchanged. But was there a cost? The Egyptian “world” certainly suffered. At the cross Jesus gave his life and it was brutal. But that shouldn’t be the emphasis of what Jesus did. In fact, it really shouldn’t be emphasized at all. Sometimes I don’t even like to use the word cross when describing Jesus. For instance, I prefer to say the work of Jesus not the work of the cross. The cross didn’t accomplish anything, Jesus did everything. The cross itself is a picture of barbaric humanity not the generous grace of Jesus, that should better be framed precisely through Christ himself. Yet I still think there is a place for the image of the cross. People should view it as the method to which Jesus did accomplish many things enabling complete life and freedom in Him.

What happened at the cross to Jesus was a result of religious hierarchy. The Jewish religious leaders tied into to the government corruption of the day essentially crucified Jesus. Did Jesus willfully “give his life?” Well, let’s not forget that he prayed for the cup to be passed. If there could have been another way through the father Jesus would have opted for it. Again, this is important in the text. What happened at the cross was brutal and unjust. Jesus turned the other cheek all the way to the grave. It is a picture of complete sacrifice and humility. But it shouldn’t be viewed theologically as transactional. We don’t know exactly why God allowed or used the cross to accomplish the victories that he did, but the fact is that is the way it unfolds. The ransom analogy should be viewed as redemption and freedom not monetary exchange. To view the cross as some kind of economic exchange isn’t accurate. God wasn’t paying or even appeasing Satan and Jesus wasn’t paying or appeasing God the father. Are you following? The trinity wasn’t broken at the cross.

When we try to make the cross transactional it is actually counter to what Jesus offered, the free gift of salivation. We in a sense turn love into a product to be sold or traded. Jesus didn’t give his life to make a deal. It wasn’t a purchase plan, or a payment plan, it was sacrificial grace with no strings attached.

It really becomes “cheap” when you frame it as a payment. For instance, what you are saying is that Jesus then gave his life to “buy” all of the lives who would “accept” him for all of time. That sounds good but think about it for a second. How much is Christ’s life really worth if you are exchanging it for all who believe for all of time, millions, maybe billions? It is actually devaluing him. Who wouldn’t make “that deal” if that is all it was. If I had the power and said to you – if you allow me to crucify you it would buy 10 people you deeply care about eternal salvation, I bet, you would do it. I would. Then if you say not just 10 but EVERYONE who believes it really makes it cheap doesn’t it? What Christ did on the cross shouldn’t be cheapened transactionally. It wasn’t a buy it program. The funny thing about atonement “theories” is that we aren’t actually told in the Bible exactly what Jesus accomplishes through the cross. That is why they are called theories. But let’s not devalue the life of Christ as we theorize. Jesus accomplishes so much through the death, resurrection, and ascension, we don’t need to cheapen it or make it into something it didn’t biblically portray.

PSA

Why did Jesus have to die on a cross? That is the grand question. The Bible actually doesn’t precisely answer this question. Perhaps that is some of the mystery of the gospel. A common view in Western Evangelicalism of what happened on the cross is this: humans have sinned and God must punish sinners by venting his wrath, but thankfully, because he loves us, Jesus went to the cross and was murdered in our place to pay our debt, so that God can forgive our sins and we can go to heaven when we die. This idea of how the cross works is called the “Penal Substitution Theory” of the atonement.8 The Penal Substitution Theory has not been the most common view throughout all of church history, nor is it the most common view of the worldwide church today. So while Penal Substitution Theory may be the majority view in modern, Western theology, the Church must wake up and realize that such a view is partially modeled after paganism, often mischaracterizes God, ultimately does not take sin seriously, and leaves out what actually happened on the cross.

THE COSMIC DEBT COLLECTOR?

The Penal Substitution Theory and purchase, debt language basically depicts God as a debt collector who must collect before he can forgive. Despite the fact that Scripture tells us that love keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5), this theory states that Jesus must pay our debt to the Father (or in some cases Satan). The idea that God is merciful and forgiving, while also defining justice as demanding payment of debt don’t work together, they are at odds philosophically and ontologically. If there is a debt that is paid, then the debt is never forgiven at all. Sin is not forgiven on the cross in the Penal Substitution Theory; it is just paid off. We would never then be able to be washed truly clean. But what becomes even more problematic in thinking this way is that the only way in which God could be seen as merciful in paying the debt for mankind’s sin by killing Jesus. Let’s be clear God didn’t kill Jesus; he allowed Jesus to be killed and in a “Narnian like story” was a “way maker” to regain the keys of death. This is best framed through a Christus Victor form of atonement, but I also wouldn’t limit the work of the cross to a single view. Scot McKnight has a great book, A Community Called Atonement that is worth reading.9

Christ’s justice is restorative, not retributive. God doesn’t need anyone to pay off debt in order to forgive. God can just simply forgive. That’s what forgiveness is! Forgiveness is not receiving payment for a debt; forgiveness is the gracious cancellation of debt. There is no payment in forgiveness. That is what makes forgiveness mean anything. I have said it many times, but if you are a Calvinist, you can’t truly believe in biblical forgiveness; in the same way a Calvinist struggles to believe in any kind supplication kind of prayer as they don’t believe God works that way. I get that the reformed camp has their own way of explaining how this works, but it seems like a good deal of theological gymnastics.

JESUS AS OUR SUBSTITUTE?

Along with these misnomers you also may hear people say that Jesus died as our substitute or in our place. That isn’t the intention of this article but let me touch on it briefly since it is closely ties into our conversation. Often PSA advocates might say something like, Jesus was being punished by God for our sins and that what Jesus suffered in torture and crucifixion which is then essentially what every person deserves. That doesn’t really make any sense. Do you deserve to be tortured forever? This makes grace transactional again… accept it or be tortured forever? (Another strong claim for annihilation vs ECT but again, another discussion.) How is it true that every person deserves to be tortured to death? This sounds monstrous to me, not fitting the Exodus 34 self-description of God. Furthermore, if Jesus truly would have died in our place and gotten what we deserved according to PSA shouldn’t he then go to hell eternally according to their own reformed theology? The theory doesn’t hold up. Jesus died on a cross outside Jerusalem at the hand of the Romans (Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19). None of us faced that death. He did not take our place on a cross, we didn’t deserve that and some would argue that he didn’t either, although Jesus was certainly “guilty” of not being allegiant to Roman authority.

LEVITICUS 16 AND THE SCAPEGOAT

If you have made it this far you likely know or have some knowledge of the foreshadowing of the sacrificial system to also be a picture of some of the thigs Jesus would become and accomplish. If you need to brush up, read the second part of this article first. 10 Two goats are selected for Israel: The sin offering goat and the goat that will “bear the sin”. Lots are cast to see which goat fulfills which role. Jesus actually embodies both at times. The second goat the scapegoat, or the azazel would carry away the sin of the camp into the wilderness. To be clear it is a picture, or a mosaic. Jesus will accomplish what the goat never could. The goat is a picture of simply transferring sin out of the camp, Jesus actually removes it completely. In theology this is called Expiation which means that the barrier lies outside of God, within humankind and/or a stain they leave on the world (sacred space), it is often interpreted as an action aimed at removing sin. To cover, wipe, or to purge sin. Where I believe some theology gets off is when you interpret this story as a propitiation view (punishment). The goat bears the sin and wrath. I don’t think this a great interpretation, but I have gotten significantly into that in videos and other articles. I don’t want to get too far into this here, but propitiation doesn’t really fit (work) for a number of reasons. Fopr instance if the goat was bearing the sin (carrying) it could not be a sacrifice because God only gets spotless pure animals (what does that do for your New Testament theology of the cross if Jesus was imputed our sin?) In Leviticus 16, the Hebraic sacrificial system, we have the first goat as the purification offering which is given to cleanse the temple objects. Blood is not applied to anyone. The scapegoat is sent to Azazel. So, sin, the forces of death, are removed from the camp. This connects God is rescuing his people from the forces of death. (Again it is an Exodus motif of freedom.) Neither of these goats are punished. It’s about expelling or purging God’s space (so Expiation!) The first goat (the one that dies) is more about cleaning the throne room of the stain of sin. The scapegoat doesn’t get killed. This is all about resetting sacred space (getting back to Eden).

To be frank, all of this comes off as weird to us. But God often meets people where they are at within their unique cultural dynamic. All Ancient Near Eastern cultures (including ones that existed before the Hebrews) killed animals, and sometimes humans, to appease the gods. Animal sacrifice is undebatably pagan. Yes, the God of the Bible used this pagan ritual to teach his people something new but it was always just a step in the process to get them away from it. It is really important to note that God never needed sacrifices in order to forgive. Why is this important? The Penal Substitution Theory ignores all this and says that God the Father still demands blood in order to take away sins.11

Leviticus 16 and the story of the scapegoat has some substitutionary aspects. I certainly do not deny that there are pictures of Jesus as our substitute. There is a difference between PSA and simple metaphor of substitution. Whenever you are understanding of substitution wanders into the camp of God’s wrath needing to be satisfied buy killing something I have a problem with that. The sacrificial system needs to be interpreted in light of restorative relationship being reconciled and the theme of redemption. I think when you start trying to understand this as imputation and especially double imputation, you’re getting off track and outside the picture that God has given us for what Jesus accomplishes through the cross, resurrection, and ascension. Again, if we take on this sort of reformed kind of thinking we are having to do some theological gymnastics to make it all work that seem unnatural to the message and mission of Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Payment language should paint a picture about the costliness of Jesus’ life and not about who receives the payment. So Jesus could “pay it all” by living in total surrender even unto death. We regularly use this analogy of “paid” as total dedication with soldiers who “paid the price for our freedom” in giving up their life in battle. In the same way, they literally did not “pay off” anyone or take anyone’s place. Instead, they died for a benefit to others and gave all they had. That is the way scripture also poses it the few times we see this sort of language used as I displayed in the opening paragraphs, but for some reason when it comes to the cross, PSA and reformed theology (which sometimes then becomes non reformed people using the same language) resorts to Jesus paying off God.

Since a lot of us like digging deeper, it could also help to point out how this “paid” language can sound like old pagan religion, where people had to pay off the gods with sacrifices. The gospel is the opposite of that. God comes to us first and makes things right. It makes sense to name PSA as the view most tied to “paid it all” language and explain why it does not match the whole story of Scripture. If we use the wider range of Bible images instead of locking into just one, we can talk about the cross in a way that shows God’s love and His plan to restore all things. Ending with a simple example of how this shift in language could change the way we pray, teach, or share the gospel would make it hit home even more for me.

I know you have heard these terms your whole life and might believe them to be the gospel, but that isn’t Biblical. Did Jesus pay for what we have in Him? You don’t need to say that any of this was “bought” or “paid for.” Perhaps you can say that as Paul does sometimes (arguably) as I started out this conversation. The intention of scripture using bought/paid/substitution language should be seen as a light metaphor not doctrine. All of scripture points towards the work of the cross as redemptive not transactional. Grace is free. Do you believe that? The exodus motif is Biblical, but the price attached to it isn’t. Yes, there was a process and sometimes we call this a “cost” as I Cor, 6 may frame it (although if you read it in Greek, you will read it differently that the ESV translates.) The cross Jesus Christ conquered all the powers of evil and ushered in the reign of God and the rule of the kingdom of heaven.12 What Christ offers is a return to Eden and then some. Freedom in him is restored. He sends his Spirit at Pentecost and now we are restored to our vocation as image bearers and are now his living temples showering the physical manifestation of Jesus’ sacrificial love. It is transactional, it isn’t retributive… it is free and restorative to all who want to return to their identity and partnership in Jesus. You were made for this!

This article was written by Dr. Will Ryan with special thanks to those that participated in the think tank: Dr. Matt Mouzakis, Dr. Steve Cassell, Paul Lazzaroni, and Justin Miller. Also special thanks to our friends at Rival Nation who you may have noticed I quoted several times. Please note that not all of the think tank contributors may take on the exact same thoughts of the article.

ENDNOTES

  1. https://www.gotquestions.org/bought-with-a-price.html ↩︎
  2. Collins, Robin (1995), Understanding Atonement: A New and Orthodox Theory, Grantham: Messiah College ↩︎
  3. https://biblehub.com/topical/r/ransom_and_redemption.htm ↩︎
  4. https://etymologyworld.com/item/ransom ↩︎
  5. Scot McKnight: What is unobserved by the substitutionary theory advocates is that the ransom cannot be a substitute, as we might find in theologically sophisticated language: where death is for death, and penal judgment is for penal judgment. Here we have a mixing of descriptions: a ransom for slaves. Jesus, in Mark’s language, does not become a slave for other slaves. He is a ransom for those who are enslaved. The difference ought to be given careful attention. To be a substitute the ransom price would have to take the place of another ransom price or a slave for another slave, but that is not what is involved here…The ransom does not become a substitute so much as the liberating price.… The ransom, in this case, is not that Jesus “substitutes for his followers as a ransom” but that he ransoms by being the price paid in order to rescue his followers from that hostile power. The notion is one of being Savior, not substitution. The best translation would be that Jesus is a “ransom for the benefit of many.”
     
    Leon Morris: In the New Testament there is never any hint of a recipient of the ransom. In other words, we must understand redemption as a useful metaphor which enables us to see some aspects of Christ’s great saving work with clarity but which is not an exact description of the whole process of salvation. We must not press it beyond what the New Testament tells us about it. To look for a recipient of the ransom is illegitimate.” Morris, The Atonement, 129 ↩︎
  6. https://www.amazon.com/This-Way-Redefining-Biblical-Covenant/dp/1633572390 ↩︎
  7. https://biblicalelearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Walton_Job_Session18.pdf ↩︎
  8. https://www.rivalnations.org/god-didnt-kill-jesus/. ↩︎
  9. https://www.bookey.app/book/a-community-called-atonement ↩︎
  10. https://expedition44.com/2024/12/30/the-new-year-jewish-roots/ ↩︎
  11. The theory pits the Father against the Son even though in nature they should be, and are, eternally the same (Matthew 11:27; John 1:18; 4:34; 5:19-20; 6:38, 46; 8:28; 10:29; 12:49; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 13:8). The Penal Substitution Theory fractures the Trinity and makes God schizophrenic. We are commanded to forgive like God forgives (Ephesians 4:32). But if we choose to forgive like Jesus then forgiveness will precede repentance (Matthew 9:2; 18:22; Luke 23:34; John 8:11; 20:19-23). However, if we choose to forgive like the father (according to PST), we will only forgive those that show repentance, or after they make a payment of some kind. This clearly creates an unnecessary problem. How and why would God need a blood sacrifice before he could love what he had created? Is God that needy, unfree, unloving, rule-bound, and unable to forgive? Once you say it, you see it creates a nonsensical theological notion that is very hard to defend. Thankfully we see this isn’t God’s character. Jesus shows us what God is like, and Jesus says that our perfect heavenly Father displays perfection as pure mercy (Matthew 5:48, Luke 6:36). ↩︎
  12. https://www.amazon.com/Wood-Between-Worlds-Poetic-Theology/dp/151400562X ↩︎

Audrey I. Lansdowne

Posted by expedition44 on

A kingdom obituary -April 30, 1925 ~ July 28, 2025

This morning, we will put my grandmother, Audrey in the ground to lie next to her husband Horace who passed on 4 Feb 2000 at the age of 79. She lived to be 100 years old, a full century. Have you ever considered what that means? Audrey’s life was a full century testimony to faith in Jesus Christ, her quiet strength, and endearing heartfelt service to her LORD. Audrey’s life very much embodied that kind of kingdom dedication.

At the end of her high school career during World War II, she stepped up to support her country as a factory worker, aiding the war effort. Even as a young woman, Audrey showed the kind of courage, patriotism, and virtue that would define her entire life. On May 1, 1946, Audrey was united in marriage to my grandfather, Ellington Horace Lansdowne of Madison, WI — a man who had served as a Former Flight Instructor (FFI) in the US Army Air Corps and later, a private flight instructor and firefighter for the City of Madison. 

People don’t really come in this kind of form anymore. It has been described as a lost generation.1 She lived out the great depression eating ketchup sandwiches. Her father passed early in life, so she supported her family working in high school and graduating before her older sisters and likely built bombs in the war effort at the age of 17 because she believed in a country that gave her the freedom of faith to worship her God. Horace showed up in an airplane and said go buy a dress we are getting married tomorrow… and they did and then flew away to start a family… probably on the plane ride home in auto pilot (which would have been a rope tied to the Taylorcraft yoke!)

She and Horace went on to be part of the founding members of Westwood Christian Church where Horace was an elder for many years and Audrey wore many hats. It was at this children’s church that I met my good lifelong friend Keith N. Schoville who started teaching me Hebrew incantations at an early age. He earned a Ph.D from UW Madison and later became the chairman of the of Hebrew and Semitic studies department. Keith helped me get into Bible college at Moody Bible Institute and later was instrumental in getting me into the Ph.D program at UW Madison in the Semitic studies department. I have a lot of great memories of attending church every time we visited grandma and grandpa. Going to church while visiting them was never an option, people don’t really do that anymore and it is unfortunate in many ways. I am thankful for what that sort of endearment ended up crafting in my life.

My grandfather was an adventurer. He literally swept Audrey off her feet and created a great life. She raised babies according to the ways of the LORD, and he did what he could to provide moving them into a sizeable home, working as a Madison firefighter which would later provide a pension that would take care of Audrey (and in some sense my mother) for many years after he was no longer around. Horace (better known as EHL) was a great enthusiast of many things to include aviation, Ford Mustangs, VW Beetles, giant Cadillacs, a 63 corvette (if I remember right), and a pretty good firearms collection that was hidden in every nook and cranny of that old house. I was quite impacted by my younger years with Horace and Audrey. I believe if that old house is ever torn down the walls and floorboards will share some stories. I will always remember driving around the countryside with my father and grandfather from one gun store to another shopping for the rare addition to the collections. I remember the infatuation I had with an old luger that grandpa had and yesterday we (my boys and Rob ad his boys) went shooting with some old WWII classics and I was taken back to remember some of those days with EHL.

My Grandfather is also responsible for my shopping and trading addiction. At a young age he sat me down in next to him at his “aviation” desk, handed me a red marker and a trade-a-plane and said find the best one! For many years that became a great pastime, and I am pretty sure he actually went out and bought one of those planes I circled at one point! As a flight instructor, by the time I was 12 he had me in ground school on a Texas Instrument TI-99 4a (pretty sure the numbers are right but going from total memory) computer flight simulator. This later gave way to me being a near computer wiz before anyone else I knew had even seen a computer. A mere 10 years later (still in the DOS days and even before blackberries) I figured out how to get email into a very early version of what we now call smart phones. I remember EHL not being able to wrap his mind around the concept of the internet and email. EHL would go on to have a stroke that he should have died from but was never really the same after that and passed in 2000, the year before Krista and I married. Audrey spent many years caring for him in that state. Her strength once again showed tenacity.

Audrey was resilient. She moved in with my parents and my father built a new home in the woods of Wausau with a mother-in-law quarter in the basement that was all hers. She loved that place and so did my mother. After my father passed in 2006 at 58 years old that house had special meaning to both of them. But my mother and grandmother were strong and within a few years moved to Walworth in a near new home where they could be close to our family and specifically my boys. This was a missional move.

My children grew up playing songs for Mamaw and great grammy a couple times a week. They attended regular soccer games and were always there to root on the boys in whatever capacity that meant. Grandma always had a special smile for them that no one else ever seemed to get from her! It became one of our greatest joys in life watching the sweet interactions between them. By the time our Oldest, Ty got his license, I would regularly ask where he was to find out he was at Mamaw and Great Grammys just hanging out! I will always remember and cherish the hearts of my boys towards these widows.

One of the things I liked most about Audrey was that she wasn’t overly salvific, and to be clear I don’t say this as being a bad thing; but her entire life she was more committed to deeper discipleship than evangelism and I truly believe that was the heart of Jesus in the great commission. She desired more than just a saving knowledge of Christ, she desired for people to really experience who Jesus was; to know what it meant to leave everything on the beach and give Jesus your complete life. She lived out that message perhaps better than EHL did. It has been said that behind every great man is a greater woman of faith.

That life resiliency that I had come to love and respect so much never left Audrey. Even into her nineties her mind was sharp, and it showed in her love and fervor for things of the LORD. She was a picture of what has become ancient devotion. She watched gospel TV nearly all day long and quite literally had the Bible memorized even in her old age. Even in the last couple of years of her life when her mind and memory showed signs of age she insisted on watching her favorite church services and impressing on my boys the need and desire of her heart for them to walk with the LORD.

Although I may not have agreed with all of her John MacArthur like theology, her fervency of faith was impressive, and I welcomed it into our family. I have a near photographic memory of scripture. I remember verses that people have used that they have long forgotten. It is a gift that is deeply woven into my DNA likely from inception.

One of the last scriptures she recited to me that I remember clearly was Psalm 102:12 –But You, Lord, remain forever, and Your name remains to all generations. (Ok you invited a theologian to address the internment!)

In Hebrew, this is יְהֹוָה לְעוֹלָם, you might recognize it even if you don’t know much Hebrew. David uses the personal name of God, יְהֹוָה , not the word “Lord.” I think at some point Audrey discovered this. It was a very personal verse, not a title but the very NAME of God, YHWH. But the psalmist goes on to say your “name” remains forever. You have probably heard that traditional Jews that don’t pronounce God’s name and often use the term Ha-Shem as a spoken substitute for YHVH which means “the name” in English… but here that isn’t the word that is used for “name.” Instead, the Hebrew word  zēker is used which I find strangely interesting. In Hebrew singular words often tell a plethora of things… this is a sort of remez, or retelling of many things in a simple word or statement, it was idiomatic. The word means, “think (about), meditate (upon), pay attention (to); remember, recollect; mention, declare, recite, proclaim, invoke, commemorate, accuse, confess.”2

I imagine if I could go back to that moment with Audrey many years ago when she shared this verse with my young boys that she knew what this verse embodied because she lived it. This verse is God’s declaration. It is the vocational calling and identity that we have in Him and Audrey lived that out and made it known impressing on me at an early age to live this way and later doing the same for my boys.

It’s not the letters YHVH that remain forever.  It’s the remembrance of who He is.  Heschel used to say, “to believe is to remember.”3

One more thing, did you ever notice that “remains to all generations” is in italics? What do you think that means?  In Hebrew it reads:  תֵּשֵב וְזִכְרְךָ לְדֹר וָדֹר׃  (Te-Shev Ve-Zikh-Re-Kha Le-Dor Va-Dor). You will notice the literary rhythmic pattern, the connecting genre of the wisdom and poetic texts.

Te-Shev is the verb “abide” – “You, YHVH, abide [remain].”  But the verb yāšab is more controversial and therefore stumbles in translation, it sometimes is read as “dwell” but here I will challenge (and Robert Alter4 would agree) means “to be enthroned.”  “You, YHVH, are forever enthroned.” 

The NASB then translates “To all generations,” (the word “all” isn’t technically in the text.) 

So here is the thing, the “name” of God, that is, His remembrance, depends on the generations of men or should I even say women. Today this has largely become lost. Do you see the implication?

The verse implies that we need someone to do the praising, remembering, and worshipping—someone alive!  “If I die,” implies the psalmist, “Your glory will be diminished because I won’t be there to praise You.” The Psalmist sees their part in the covenant partnership and so did Audrey. She knew that she needed to live it out and insist on such a way of devotional living. You didn’t play cards in Grandmas house, and you better remember to pray before you eat. Are you following me? God’s faithfulness spans the generations for those that are devout.  for Audrey it was YHWH, “You are worthy of all praise.  Let me partner with that notion.” And that is what she prayed for her grandsons and for us. Today we honor her by doing just that.

I know that her children and grandchildren have taken on a wide range of faith and there is a great deal of diversity here. I ask today that we celebrate that. That we come together in honor of Audrey for what we are united in and find common. I believe that although Audrey would want to encourage you into her John MacArthur like religion and perhaps you already know that greater than I do, but she would also smile on any step that leaned towards Jesus. I invite you to come back to that place.

Would you join me one last time?

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see

  1. https://www.bu.edu/historic/_hs_pdfs/Bess_Forum_Mar_Ap_08.pdf ↩︎
  2. Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 241). Chicago: Moody Press. ↩︎
  3. https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/5560/in-and-out-of-time/ ↩︎
  4. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Psalms-Translation-Commentary/dp/0393337049 ↩︎

Comments Off on Audrey I. Lansdowne Posted in ADVENTURE