All of which has nothing to do with the purpose of this post, other than to explain my current offline forays into footnotes. In reviewing the texts about Leviathan and Behemoth in Job 41, I noticed a footnote for Job 41:18 that read:

Lit. eyelids of the morning.

Cool image! But what did they translate that as in the NEB text?

His sneezing sends out sprays of light,
and his eyes gleam like the shimmer of dawn.

Urk. Am I guilty of functional heresy to prefer the literal idiom? Preserved in the KJV, NASB, ESV, NRSV et al., the personification of “the early beams of the dawn as the cover of night lifts” (NET tn), works well with the depiction of the mythological Chaos as a crocodile (or hippo, if you so prefer). Don’t you think?

God who is the Splendour of Israel does not deceive, nor does he change his mind, as a mortal might do.

My initial reaction is that open theism does not presuppose that God’s mind was determined in the first place, therefore the openness of his reaction or response to a situation is not a matter of “changing his mind”, but fixing it on a path in the first place.

Ours tends to go something like this:

Dear Lord God,
You are an awesome and mighty God, creator of the sun/rain/clouds/snow (whatever the weather of the day was).
We thank you and bless you for the time to work and play and learn today.
We ask your blessing on the time remaining today and on our sleep tonight.
We look forward to serving you tomorrow!
In the name of your son, Jesus Christ,
Amen.

Which is followed by our oldest son:

Please bless this food and water and milk and juice (whatever we’re drinking),
and the hands that made it.
Amen!

Do not be afraid; although you have been so wicked, do not give up the worship of the Lord, but serve him with all your heart. Do not turn to the worship of sham gods which can neither help nor save, because they are a sham. For his great name’s sake the Lord will not cast you off, because he has resolved to make you his own people.

God knows that our thoughts and inclinations are naturally wicked (Genesis 6:5), yet we are not to give up worshiping him in our state of despair and wretchedness.

Without further ado, I present two desktops:

I tend to have artwork that I like on my desktop; the first (left) is what is currently “on exhibit”. I found this painting on a greeting card years ago and was immediately struck by the treatment of light across the geese, country road and water, never mind the perfectly captured inquisitive gaze of the geese toward the artist. It helps that we raised geese and other fowl in my Alaskan youth. After fruitlessly searching several art books, I eventually discovered on the Web that this oil painting is “The Watersplash” (1899) by Henry Herbert La Thangue.

Continuing the theme of my Alaskan youth, the Maine paintings by Winslow Homer have a special attraction for his rough-hewn depictions of the sea and fishermen. The painting here is called “The Fog Warning” (1885) and combines the danger of an encroaching fogbank with the success of the fisherman and the arduous task that he faces, rowing back over choppy seas to his ship in the distance.

• Creeds and Freedom or The Jazz Rhythm Section and the Soloist
• When We Play Wrong Notes

Looking at various blogs’ sidebars recently, I was reminded of the Blog Readability Test that many of us took a year ago. Back then, I’d initially scored as a “Genius”, then later as “High School”…

Well, I’m pleased to say that He is Sufficient now scores on a Junior High School (that’s grades 6-8, ~12-14 years old) reading level — does that mean that I have to give up the REB as my full time Bible?

Ironically, my family blog is now scoring on a College (Undergrad) level… *shrug*

What?! Judged on works? Isn’t accepting Christ by faith enough for admittance into heaven and the joys of paradise? I’m going to suggest that the first part, admittance into “heaven”, or the New Heavens/Earth if you will, is based on faith, but that the joys and reward we find there are based on something different, namely our works done “in Christ”.

Our starting point is 1 Peter 1.17-19:

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

When we read about the Father’s judgment, we tend to jump to Revelation 20.11-15:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. [...] All whose names were not found written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the separation of the sheep and goats, the eternal division of those who accepted the message and authority of Jesus Christ from those who did not. Once the sheep have been set aside, I’m suggesting that there is an additional “judgment”, based on these passages from Paul:

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:18-19)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Cor 5.10)

Each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved-even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Cor 3.10b-15)

That is, once we have been admitted to heaven as sheep in the Father’s judgment, we then face Christ’s judgment for our eternal reward, e.g. the treasure stored up for us based on our conduct and actions “in the body”. This is what I believe John is referring to in Revelation 20:10, where he notes that “the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

If admittance to heaven is based solely on our proclamation of faith, then nothing else we have done matters in the first judgment of the sheep and goats. Instead, works are only after we have been saved and admitted to heaven.

In a sense, there *is* a properity gospel, but it’s not the one preached by Osteen et al. It is, instead, one of eternal prosperity: work out the fact of your salvation with good deeds, in fear and trembling, and you not only improve the lot of those around you, but you build up the reward for yourself in the life to come. Those who enjoy riches now to their own pleasure may pass through the fire, but they will lose everything and will be the poorest people in Heaven, while those who forsake pleasure in the body for the work of the Kingdom will be rewarded and elevated to the highest status.

Ironically, the closest book is in a stack that I haven’t given any attention to since I put them down by my monitor. So the top book is the closest, that being “The Canon Debate” by Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders. McDonald is the uncle of a friend of ours from church and he (our friend) lent it to me to take a look…

Anyway, on to page 123:

When he summarizes the laws in A.J.3.223-286; 4.196-302, he even apologizes for digressing from the historical narrative, making it clear that the laws constitute only a small part of what Moses wrote (3.223; 4.196). This agrees with his language in C.Ap.1.39.

Nor can his famous recognition of Daniel as “one of the greatest prophets” (A.J.10.266), in contrast to the rabbinic scheme that left Daniel among the “Writings,” serve as evidence of order within Josephus’s Bible.

Um. Yeah. I doubt that I’ll be hitting that stack real soon…

Here are some excerpts:

Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed. The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else? [...]

What is the answer, then, for conservative Evangelicals who are rightly concerned about the corrosion of culture, the indifference to the value of human life and the living arrangements of same- and opposite-sex couples? The answer depends on the response to another question: do conservative Evangelicals want to feel good, or do they want to adopt a strategy that actually produces results? [...]

If results are what conservative Evangelicals want, they already have a model. It is contained in the life and commands of Jesus of Nazareth. Suppose millions of conservative Evangelicals engaged in an old and proven type of radical behavior. Suppose they followed the admonition of Jesus to “love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and care for widows and orphans,” not as ends, as so many liberals do by using government, but as a means of demonstrating G-d’s love for the whole person in order that people might seek Him?

Thomas concludes:

Evangelicals are at a junction. They can take the path that will lead them to more futility and ineffective attempts to reform culture through government, or they can embrace the far more powerful methods outlined by the One they claim to follow. By following His example, they will decrease, but He will increase. They will get no credit, but they will see results. If conservative Evangelicals choose obscurity and seek to glorify G-d, they will get much of what they hope for, but can never achieve, in and through politics.”

Amen!

* * * * *

Update: thanks to Steve, it appears that the main argument of this article is the same premise as Thomas’ and Ed Dobson’s book, Blinded by Might.