The Curse of an Early Death Undone

 Elsewhere on social media, I some time back suggested, coming from a Postmillennial perspective and in light of current scientific advancements, the possibility of a lengthening of the average years of human life prior to Christ’s return, as an effect of the reversal of the curse as achieved through His death and resurrection. Some folks weren’t convinced. Here, in an appendix to his book “Days of Vengeance”, David Chilton argues for a reversal himself:

“Until the ark was completed, the world was safe from the great flood. The people seemed to be prospering. Methuselah lived a long life, but after him, the lifespan of mankind steadily declined. Aaron died at age 123 (Num. 33:39). Moses died at age 120 (Deut. 31:2). But this longevity was not normal, even in their day. In a psalm of Moses, he said that “The days of our years are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they before score years, yet is their strength, labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away“ (Ps. 90:10). The common curse of God could be seen even in the blessing of extra years, but long life, which is a blessing (Ex. 20:12), was being removed by God from mankind in general.

The Book of Isaiah tells us of a future restoration of long life. This blessing shall be given to all men, saints and sinners. It is therefore a sign of extended common grace. It is a gift to mankind in general. Isaiah 65:20 tells us: “There shall be no more than an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be cursed.” The gift of long life shall come, though the common curse of long life shall extend to the sinner, whose long life is simply extra time for him to fill up his days of iniquity. Nevertheless, the infants will not die, which is a fulfillment of God‘s promise to Israel, namely, the absence of miscarriages (Exodus 23:26). If there is any passage in scripture that absolutely refuse the amillennial position, it is this one. This is not a prophecy of the New Heavens and New Earth in their post-judgment form, but it is a prophecy of the pre-judgment manifestation of the preliminary stages of the New Heavens and New Earth - an earnest (down payment) of our expectations. There are still sinners in the world, and they shall receive long life. But to them, it is an ultimate curse, meaning a special curse. It is a special curse because of this exceptionally long life is a common blessing – the reduction of the common curse. Again, we need the concept of common grace to give significance to both special grace and common curse. Common grace (reduced common curse) brings special curses to the rebels.”

Carrie Prejean Boller and Tucker Carlson

 I watched a couple of extended clips today from Tucker Carlson in his conversation with Carrie Prejean Boller. While I know of Mrs. Boller, I haven’t generally made a habit of keeping up with her, or any of the more well-known conservative commentators over the past few years.

In addition, I’m not entirely sure what to make of Tucker these days. He seems to have become an enemy of the President and his administration. And I honestly have neither the time nor the energy to keep up with the “he said, she said” of it all. What all he may be guilty of, if anything, is beyond me to judge.

Nonetheless, I did resonate with Mrs. Boller’s experience with being called an anti-Semite for not unquestioningly supporting Israel in every move they make. And the use of Scripture to defend such accusations is familiar.

For those in Dispensationalist circles, this is all standard stuff. I have friends and acquaintances who would consider me a heretic, or at the very least won’t hear anything I have to say about Scripture, because the big issue in Scripture is supporting Israel. To not support Israel, they erroneously believe, is to be a liberal, theologically speaking. There’s a whole history of how Postmillennialism came to be associated with theological liberalism through the late 19th and early 20th century in America, which John Jefferson Davis covered in his book on Postmillennialism. I had an acquaintance, now deceased, who once referred to Postmillennialism specifically as liberalism, in a conversation at my old Dispie church before I left it in 1999. Essentially, Postmillennialism became attached to the Social Gospel in the mainline churches’ departure from historic Christianity. And Fundamentalism, in its anti-intellectualism, still is lost in that milieu, is ignorant in many ways of the world of the Church outside of its own circles, and ignorant of what theological liberalism is and why non-Dispie theology became branded as such to begin with. Spend all your time letting the world go to pot waiting on the Rapture and inside your bubble, and you become unqualified to speak about the culture.

Scholarship is chronologically-bound, and you can only live off of older scholarship for so long. The world moves on, even if we don’t.

Getting Your Own System Right

 According to Dispensationalism, God has two peoples, Israel and the Church, and can only work with one of them at a time. After Israel rejected Jesus in the first century, the apostles turned to the Gentiles, and God rejected Israel temporarily and began working with the Church. The current period we are in is a parenthesis, the Church Age. Until the Rapture occurs and the Church is taken to heaven, God cannot work with Israel and is not working with them. And none of the passages about Israel are in play again until after the Rapture. So none of the verses being quoted about Israel by Dispensationalists, in memes or otherwise, are applicable to the state that today calls itself Israel, nor are they applicable at the present to any Jewish person living right now.

So according to Dispensationalism, the Israel we have in the Middle East today IS NOT THE BIBLICAL ISRAEL. The establishing of the state today known as Israel wasn’t the promised return to the land. It isn’t their return to Yahweh that is foretold.

It’s simply the case that Dispies don’t know the system of theology they claim to hold to.

Martin Luther and Jack Chick

 Watching Rick Steve’s documentary on Martin Luther. One of the things he highlights is how Luther spread his ideas through his tracts or pamphlets. Not everything has to be a long book. Especially on the Reformed side of things, everybody wants to write a long tome. But I’ve benefited much from shorter books and pamphlets through the years. I think of anything from Our Daily Bread monthly devotionals on the Dispie and Bible church side of things, to the booklets from the Chapel Library, reprinting Puritan works. The beauty of Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening is how much Spurgeon was able to say in one page.

But Steves also mentions that Lucas Cranach illustrated Luther’s pamphlets with his often hilarious pictures of figures like the pope and other church leaders. So basically, Luther was publishing theologically dense comic books. The entertainment aspect was a part of their popularity and success. That, with them being in a language people could read, a sense of freedom from the burden of the Church and having to save one’s self, and just the appeal that we all find in the notion of rebellion against oppressive authority, helped fuel the Reformation.

All that said, maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on the late Jack Chick.

No Neutrality

 If you do not have a Christian government, you will have a pagan government. If you do not have a Christian family, you will have a pagan family. If you do not have a Christian business, you will have a pagan business. If you do not have a Christian, you have a pagan.

There is no neutrality. Either you acknowledge Jesus as king and serve Him, or you are in rebellion against Him, and are inviting His judgment upon you.

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Bible Translations

 Thinking on Bible translations…the debates scholars, armchair or otherwise, get into over Bible translations are important. But you often get conservative evangelical types arguing over literal equivalence vs. dynamic equivalence, sometimes unhelpfully. Once you’ve spent some time translating Greek, you come to realize that sometimes word for word translating doesn’t work, and you have to translate some passages according to meaning, or they won’t be readable. Everybody would do better reading the whole Bible in an overview way with something like the NIV or NLT. And beyond that, some folks just aren’t going to be Bible scholars. Get a readable translation, and just start reading. If you’ve got the mind of a scholar, you can shape up your direction in time, as you’re ready for it.

Falling Down

 Watching “Falling Down”, with Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall, for the first time today. What was set in California in 1993 wasn’t as true then in North Carolina - the rudeness, the traffic, the loss of Christian ethics and morality, the coldness of modern life. But it is becoming moreso today, particularly in the growing cities. Community dies, family dies, business and work dominate, neighborhoods are merely places to sleep at night. Friendship and family get in the way of profit margins. Love cannot exist where people are simply complicated machines rather than the image of God.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea,
When it cannot rest,
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

“There is no peace,”
Says my God, “for the wicked.”

Holding Man and His Laws Accountable to God

 All laws and rules in society - family, church, civil government, corporations - by necessity must be derived from and be in accordance with the Law of God. Otherwise, they have no validity and should not exist. And they must serve the purpose laid out by Scripture - for the love of God and man.

You can always tell the unspiritual man by the fact that he fails to understand the purposes of the law. The consequence is always legalism and a lack of love.

Every Wind of Doctrine, Podcast Style

In his latest episode, Tucker Carlson has apparently discovered Dispensationalism, and he’s alarmed that some Jewish people want to rebuild the temple. Ground breaking stuff.

Look, I grew up Dispie, so I’ve been hearing that my whole life, over half a century. Just do it and get it over with, for Pete’s sake. Bring on the Rapture. Fry that red heifer up. Buck Williams has a plane to catch.

Somebody send Tucker some Reformed Postmillennial literature before he gets any crazier.

Israel and Palestine

 I’ve watched the debate among Americans over Israel and Palestine for years, concerning which side wears the white hats, and which side wears the black. Everybody is so sure they know, and everybody is certain the other side is the one committing atrocities, and that despite most individuals never having set foot on the continent or having the inside information they think they do. It never seems to occur to anybody that maybe each party, in fact every party involved, is guilty of some terrible things. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

It was interesting to listen to the mainstream news reporting on Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack when it happened. At first, the media reported that Hamas had attacked an outdoor rave in Israel. But, realizing that everybody knew what a rave meant - Jewish people attacked while high and sleeping with people they weren’t married to - “rave” got changed to “music festival”. At that time I happened across a video of the event prior to the attack. A rather prominent statue of the Buddha at the event was hard to ignore. But, Hamas is evil. On that we all agree.

Does Israel somewhat have America by the nape of the neck? Maybe, but nobody has proven it to me yet. I do know, though, that relationships of all types are usually more complicated and intertwined than that. Simple minds settle on simple explanations. And yet Scripture says, “in understanding, be men.”