Picking sides

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

O.J. Simpson passed away a couple of days away. Just shy of 30 years ago was the famous trial and not only did he become a household name for those who had not heard of him before but the trial either catalysed a new era or was defining of a new era – that of picking sides. He was innocent, he had been set up… or he was as guilty as heck and should not escape justice. The publicity of the trial meant that we all had information – or so we thought. Fast forward and that polarisation is even ever-more present. Many live within the silo (echo chamber) of their social media feed. We think we have so much information so can make an intelligent decision. We are ‘pro’ or ‘against’ based on our knowledge, or in reality on our lack of knowledge and our biased opinion.

In an age when ‘tolerance’ is valued highly we are strangely quick to have an opinion that is not open to being challenged, hence the increasing polarisation. It exists in politics, and is exasperated when faith is added into the mix – and we hold to ‘so and so’ is God’s candidate. In 2005 (just after Bush was elected for the second time) I was in the USA and in a number of settings said that the candidate who enters the White House in 2008 will NOT be the one that is being prayed for, prophesied about, will not be the one of the ‘Christian’ choice, but he needs to be embraced – for if not there would be a double blow in 2012. And the reason for this is to illustrate that ‘you are already deceived’. Not deceived over who is ‘God’s candidate’, and that they had picked the wrong one, but that candidates are relative, and for that reason one person votes one way and another differently.

Let’s face it… we are all mixed, or as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it ‘the line of good and evil does not separate me from the other, rather it runs through me and the other’ (probably not an exact quote!). Allow me just for a moment to illustrate it with the US and politics – though the principle is clear everywhere. Trump is not God’s choice, but probably the choice of the majority of white, middle-class charismatic Christians. This says a lot about those making the vote – maybe it says good things about them.

Polarisation, flowing from our biases. We have it in the New Testament: ‘I am of Paul / Peter / Apollos / et al’. Who are these people, Paul retorts, they are servants and stop aligning with them for they only have purpose if they serve you and your destiny.

We have to learn to live with more uncertainty. I don’t know the answer, I have a perspective that seems to be ever more tenuous. Uncertainty over our own opinion and more secure in the anchor point of what was done on the cross to bring about a transformation of the world.

The disciples on seeing a man born blind quickly presented the options – who was to blame? The man himself, or was it something generational? Jesus cut right through that with a response into the situation and simply went for the solution, the way forward. No time for an opinion, time for action. The disciples looked back Jesus opened the future.

Picking sides, politically, theologically and personality-wise usually stems from our past. What could happen if we could shut down all of that and began to act and work toward a future different to the past. 2020 – a year of great sight surely indicated that we entered an epoch when global resets were within our grasp.

I dare say that forthcoming elections will indicate that we have not moved on very much… but they might just accelerate the end of an era.

Neither this man nor his parents sinned; so let God’s works be manifested in him.

(My translation… an important use of what is termed the ‘Imperatival hina clause’.) No… your analyses are totally inadequate, no time for discussion – we are carriers of God, so we look to the future. Let the present change, let the future come.

Now that is different. So many situations are simply ‘same old, same old’. Agents of change – begins here and now. Stop picking sides.

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April 1… what is this day called?

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

So here we are with another of those dates that come round once a year. Some are global changing, even if we have the dates wrong – the ‘big’ dates: Easter, Pentecost, Christmas. Then there are the personal dates – birthdays etc… They seem to mean something if there is some kind of link to the growing number we experience and the development of who we are in becoming who we are. Then there are artificial dates, and this one is perhaps one of the better ones – April fool’s day.

Once a year it seems appropriate to have a day that reminds us how foolish we can be. Paul tied two aspects together within a sentence of each other. He was a fool and he was an apostle:

I have been a fool! You forced me to it… The signs of an apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, signs and wonders and mighty works (2 Corinthians 12:11,12).

He was a fool, forced into it by the people who were not up for rating him, so he boasted in his transcendent experience of being properly in the third heaven. Should he have done that? I think even for Paul the jury was out whether he did the right thing or not. There are clear transcendent experiences, angelic visitations and other experiences that are very difficult to really work out what ‘happened’ – and that probably is not the question we should be asking as it makes what we understand, can touch, feel as being the only reality. Can we process the realities that are beyond that?

Even if Paul was OK in the ‘boasting’ that he puts out there, it is probably a sensible conclusion that he only mentions one of his experiences, thus it probably means we should be very careful in what we share, for the effect is that of exalting ourselves in the eyes of others – not really the ‘kingdom’ way to go! Paul indicates the way to go is to boast in our weaknesses: not the material that sells books!

Then off he goes to what he is sure about, his apostolic call, in spite of his weaknesses. That long term vision that manifests in the immediate. The immediate of the miraculous and the long term vision that accompanies ‘utmost patience’.

If we are open to being a ‘fool’, of recognising (at least once a year) that our maturity does not accord to our age, perhaps it might open up for us getting connected to our purpose and embracing that our contribution today is for the long-term future.

[Perhaps an aside: I am currently focused that perhaps we have been wrong to focus on ‘power’ and attribute to God ‘power’… Maybe it is presence not power that is the major attribute – did creation spring forth as a result of God’s creative power, or his creative presence – yes has implications for the ‘how old is creation’ question and a whole bunch of others. But if this is not an aside – Paul is present and the miraculous takes place… I know if this has any legs I have a lot of ‘power’ Scriptures to work through, but hey ho! Aside or not – April fools day maybe tells me to be present – warts and all – or maybe in Paul’s language – as a fool and as someone appointed within God’s order, even if that appointment is undefined or small.]

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Resurrection appearances

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

As per many of you I have been reading of the resurrection this morning. None of it reads as if the disciples were having a series of hallucinations, nor is the belief simply in ‘he is alive’ but that ‘his body is not to be found in the tomb’… resurrection.

There were so many cosmic occurrences that surrounded the death and resurrection of Jesus and one that has caused puzzlement is the tombs that were emptied in Jerusalem:

The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many (Matt. 27:52,53).

It has puzzled some commentators and the report is reduced to a ‘theological’ statement separating it from a historical event (R.T. France) – partly because it is only recorded in Matthew. But the language is so similar to that of the language used for the resurrection of Jesus with the ‘appeared to many’ statement.

I think Matthew is very careful in his language – the tombs are opened at his death, but it is only after his resurrection that they are raised. This is not a ‘Lazarus’ resurrection’ but an experience of the resurrection, something that is our hope beyond the grave and seemingly always coinciding time-wise with the parousia of Jesus. Something happens that causes a very real disruption to time in this event.

The dramatic, visible shift to time, the physical manifestation of the ‘new creation’ was present. Our challenge is that ‘new creation’ is here; that we do not have to simply wait for linear time to arrive at the future.

The early disciples did not suffer from hallucinations; they did not need to imagine he was alive; they were rooted in the experience something has visibly and tangibly changed. Easter Sunday – then and now.

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An intense season

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Prophetic Perspectives

Yesterday I put out one of our ‘irregular newsletters’ to bring those interested more up to date with where we are at and what we are up to. Inevitably there were some perspectives in there that are personal viewpoints on the wider context, the wider context of both the ‘church’ and the world. Any such viewpoints are ‘in part’, never the whole picture.

It is always possible to say ‘it is a new day’ as the Lord makes all things new on a VERY regular basis, but it is also easy to assume that a new day will give us what we were longing for yesterday. Perhaps it is a new day, but I consider it might be better to look at the season that is here. Seasons can be broken down into smaller units, but it appears to me that there is a prolonged season here currently, one that probably spans 20 years, from 2020 to 2040. 2020, helpfully suggested that it would be a year of sight, and sight is not seen by all for Jesus said ‘let those who have eyes see’. We can proclaim sight and be accurate about that, but then fail to see it. We can have a mouth but not have eyes. (Now I am in danger of assuming I have sight,as Jesus advised the Pharisees that it might be better not to claim to have sight – otherwise ‘our guilt remains’…)

2020 was indeed a year of great sight… the pandemic changed so much and was globally visible.

Now the intensity is ramping up, with hierarchical leadership being chopped down. Many years ago I heard Tom Marshall say that when truth flows in one direction and is responded to with honour and respect flowing in the opposite direction we have a problem. The labelling of any challenging perspective as ‘fake news’ is the response we have seen… what is sown by the body is reaped beyond. There is a huge move toward authoritarian leadership in many so-called democratic scenarios… and after all Rome moved from a sort-of democratically republic to an Imperial context. Many antiChrists have come said one much wiser than I numerous centuries ago, those who set themselves as an authority to be a substitute for Christ (anti: in the sense of replacing) pave the way for what is set in opposition to (anti: in the sense of opposing). 1 John 2 neither affirms nor denies an antiChrist (‘you have heard that antiChrist is coming’) in the sense that popular eschatology wants to teach it, and I take the same position, that of agnostic… but I want to be alert to the trajectory. Unchecked we are on a trajectory of an antiChrist, whether global or personal to my situation.

The trajectory has to be arrested, hence I see 18 months of trauma with self-appointed headship and self-affirming tellers of truth experiencing great pressure and under pressure there are leaks and exposures.

The last two nights have not been great nights of sleep as I have wrestled with the sense of whole movements being shaken top to bottom. Not everything to be exposed will be accurate, nor will the attempt to cover everything be successful.

The far east will become an ever more present reality in the world, and the geography from where many re-alignments will take place. I have long held the view that Jesus dies in Jerusalem for no prophet could die outside of Jerusalem (Lk. 13:33) for religion in whatever form is opposed to the prophetic; Jesus’ death puts an end to that necessity, and launched Paul as one who had to go to the centre that flows from Jerusalem – to Rome. Religion to the powers that shape the oikoumene / the empire. I am grateful to those who focused on ‘rolling up the Roman road’ in the early 2000s and deeply incarnated in the (literal) walk to Rome arriving there on 21st December 2005 (thanks Steve Lowton and companions). However, in these past months I have been contemplating that Scripture covers those two geographies and proclaims that the gospel had been proclaimed throughout the whole oikoumene / world. But… the far east? Maybe we have both become accustomed to the powers that rule over the west, perhaps we have both accommodated them and resisted them… but the powers manifesting in the far east?

These next years will force us to consider the powers that have to be ‘exorcised’ there, and of course they are already beginning to confuse us as they have been busily eating the west, thus strengthening themselves through hiding behind what we consider we already know. As cyclical time (east) meets linear time (west) we can be in danger of being losing sight of the times and seasons but can also be provoked to gain sight of a longer horizon… the day gets longer post December 21.

If we allow the Lord of the harvest to do the sowing, and we resist the temptation to pull up what we think are weeds… we might just have a wonderful set of years, a ‘new’ season that goes beyond Scripture on the trajectory to harvest… beyond Scripture in the sense of catapulted forward from the last word in the book that records Paul’s presence and gospel was in Rome… akolutos – unhindered.

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Well out of order person (to come?)

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

I am currently seeking to slowly (and I mean way slow) put together material on eschatology, a) insisting that a) no one agrees with me, b) stating that I am agnostic on certain aspects, c) holding to a considerable amount is past (both in terms of the first Easter Events and also the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD), and d) that all eschatology is deeply practical asking us to respond to the question ‘in the light of this how am I to live?’.

An area where I am agnostic is over a future ‘one-world-leader’ known as ‘the antichrist’. I observed something quite amusing the other day while perusing what is on YouTube that might interest me – videos on a certain former president of the USA as being ordained and anointed from on high (God looking down in 1946 and seeing this child as the one of destiny to save the nation) and videos presenting evidence why he is the antichrist that has been prophesied!! To save time I will give you my discernment – neither of the above. The fascination with the antichrist is of course something that has been around for a long period of time, with so many people put forward as ‘definitely the one – we need not look for another’.

To get to a fixed view on the antichrist one has to fit together Scriptures that are then claimed to speak of the same person although they use different language. In this post I am simply going to pick up on Paul’s language in 2 Thessalonians concerning the ‘man of lawlessness’. I cover this with some extra detail in an extended pdf article: Second Horizon.pdf.

I will simply pick up on what I consider is a translation error in this post, the part related to the text that I have emboldened below – see what you think.

Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.  He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you? And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned (2 Thess. 2:3-12).

First the reference is future – future for the readers, but now past for us. Future for the readers – into the ‘second horizon’ of the fall of Jerusalem and what Jesus termed the ‘abomination that causes desolation’, something that the ‘pagan’ Romans effected with their pollution of the Temple.

As for the translation bit – virtually every version has two ‘comings’ (parousia – often referring to the ‘second coming’ of Jesus, the word meaning presence or arrival and in the Roman context of the arrival of the emperor or imperial presence). By making it two ‘parousias’ it pushes the event to the future – our future.

A little bit of Greek in vv. 8,9, jump over and refer back:

ὃν ὁ κύριος Ἰησοῦς ἀνελεῖ τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ καὶ καταργήσει τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ, οὗ ἐστιν ἡ παρουσία κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Σατανᾶ ἐν πάσῃ δυνάμει καὶ σημείοις καὶ τέρασιν ψεύδους

Parousia occurs twice (παρουσία), the first one is often translated as being the parousia of Jesus who destroys ‘antichrist’ with the manifestation of his (Jesus’) coming, and the second one translated concerning the ‘coming’ (παρουσία) of antichrist who comes with the work of Satan….

However, and there is a HUGE however, the second parousia if translated ‘normally’ qualifies and describes the first parousia (supposedly the coming of Jesus…!!!!) so we would read the manifestation of his coming (τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ), which is the coming according to the works of Satan (οὗ ἐστιν ἡ παρουσία κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Σατανᾶ)!! Hardly a reference to the coming of Jesus. No, no and no! The manifestation of the ‘man of lawlessness’ is that which comes according to the working of Satan

What we have is one coming – the coming of ‘the man of lawlessness’ who Jesus will destroy in the time or context of the manifestation of his parousia in the temple, that parousia that was in accordance to the working of Satan.

All the above a little technical, but I am pretty convinced about this being the only valid way to translate this section, and the change being only made because of a prevailing concept that this is future for us. Another example of assuming Scripture is somehow written to us. It was written in early 50s and fulfilled in their lifetime.

Whatever we make of a future one-world-ruler I do not believe at any level this passage can be pulled in to defend that view. Paul lived in the time of ‘the one world ruler’, Caesar in Rome who claimed to be ‘king of kings’… that rule manifested in 70AD with the desolation brought to the Temple. All indicating Caesar’s conquest according to what was visible, indeed a decade after the conquest an arch is erected in Rome to mark the deification of Titus (who conquered Jerusalem) and to mark the conquest over the Temple. The end of an era… and for those with eyes to see the breath of Jesus marked the end of that era and the continuance of another era, the one who is the ‘king of kings’.

I find so much eschatology twists Scripture to fit a system, but that is not my main objection (for I could be guilty of the same) but that it leaves us with speculation always looking to the immediate future with it always remaining future. I think – even if I am wrong with this passage – better that we seek to align with the breath of Jesus in a way that my breath also seeks to annul everything that opposes God and exalts itself. Otherwise I too might be deluded – even if I can prove I know the truth!

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A community that eats

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

I heard recently that the ‘magic’ of Jesus was ‘meals and miracles’. And yesterday I gave a cursory glance at the 72 being sent out – meals and miracles were to go hand in hand. Today this text:

For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

What comes to mind? If you are like me then for many years I kinda imagined a ‘church’ setting with formal or even informal seating but that a notable person comes in and everyone makes sure that they have a decent seat. However… that necessitates a building of some sort and fails to grasp that the context of the meal was huge in the first Century. Huge in both the Graeco-Roman and the Jewish world, and where people were seated at the meals was a big deal, based on a hierarchy. Maybe the nearest we have in our culture is something like a wedding reception – to some extent where people are seated is important. In the culture we are engaging with in the New Testament hierarchy was ever-so-present in these settings. Think about the words of Jesus:

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Lk. 14:7-11).

The banquet is set out hierarchically – the place of honour. Jesus then follows this on to describe how meals were to operate with his followers:

He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Lk. 14:12-14).

In the world of that day the concept was to invite those who were important then give them a place of honour and guess what – they would repay you the honour. The instructions of Jesus over meal invitations was nothing short of a political resistance to the status quo and a turning of the world upside down! The meal table, and for sure Jesus was as much in trouble for his meal table practice as he was for his teaching. The whole aspect played out in the wider non-Jewish world with meals that honoured Caesar and the gods, look after those who carried power and influence and you too could climb the ladder socially and be successful.

This again plays out in the meal that honoured the Lord. I appreciate that there are now traditions such as mass, eucharist, or more lower church terminology such as communion, but the NT setting (‘tradition’ could be a Pauline word for this) was of a meal. It might be termed the agape meal, it was based on the Passover meal, but also sat totally within the wider meal context of that era. At the Lord’s table no place of honour was to be reserved for the rich and famous, everything was equalised. In that setting each person brought what they could for the communal meal and of course the wealthy could bring the wine and finer cuts, the poorer among them (many from the slave class) by contrast could not bring too much. But it was all presented and declared to be the ‘Lord’s table’ then all were invited to eat and drink. In Corinthians this demonstration of equality was not present, so he simply said that ‘when you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper’. The old divisions were maintained, those who had much consumed much while ignoring the others – and surely this must division, this failure to see the wonderful equalisation through the cross, has to be at the heart of ‘whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner’.

What a community Jesus imagined. This is the gift to the world. Meals, or whatever might carry a similar meaning in our setting, being the gift. And miracles – for in the absence of this egalitarian demonstration in Corinth Paul indicated that ‘for this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died’. Sobering words, and the opposite would bring words of hope and healing.

The magic of Jesus – meals and miracles. The lamb with the wolf. The gift to society – a Jesus’ people who do not offer the best seat to the one who is categorised as important; a people who live in a new creation and see no one according to any category, other than the creational / new creational description of ‘image and likeness’. A Jesus people who might not rise to the places of influence, but as our first quoted Scripture above says ‘Is it not the rich who oppress you?’ Not simply the individual rich person, but the system that rewards a pattern of living and that is not the pattern that is to be among us.

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Wolves and lambs

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

Not exactly friends together… an invitation to partake in a picnic given to both of these animals would probably leave the lamb a little nervous – certainly if the lamb asked ‘who else is invited?’. Yet… Jesus said to his followers:

The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves (Lk. 10:2,3).

Quite an instruction!!! I wonder if the two animals that Jesus chose was based on his meditations in Isaiah:

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together (Is. 65:25)

The context of Isaiah is of a vision of the Messianic / eschatological age when shalom will be the environment that pervades, all things brought to a place of relational wholeness, which will include all of creation. Jesus is certainly highlighting the age-old prophetic critique of not trusting God for protection (hence why are you relying on Egypt etc. OT type critique) but perhaps he is also pushing those he sends out to be consciously living out the reality of the coming Messianic age – I think that when he goes on to speak about eating together (‘eating and drinking whatever they provide’) further suggests this is in Jesus’ mind when he gives the instructions. Those sent out are not hoping for a new age, they are living in it, an age when lambs and wolves do picnic together!

Maybe the ‘other’ remains a wolf, but our vision changes. We can eat with them and as we go in carrying shalom that shalom will rest on them:

And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you.

We have experienced shalom, that has to be what we carry self-consciously, we can meet those who are (perhaps) not as far along the journey but are already people of peace / shalom – they are ready to welcome a new environment, a new reality. We (lambs) eat with those who could turn out to be wolves, but as we find those who long for a new reality of extensive shalom the context of eating together (initiative taken by the lambs, the risk of vulnerability being their challenge, the provision for the picnic coming from the wolves…) the signs that the kingdom has indeed come near is manifest with ‘and cure the sick who are there’.

The instruction to those sent out has far reaching effects socially. It has to, for essentially we have all been formerly wolves, the mark of which is we ‘devour one another’ to satisfy our own appetites.

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A reminder… Zoom tonight

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Updates

There is an open zoom – all welcome. It is the second Zoom on eschatology, with a focus on Matthew 24 (Luke 21; Mark 13 parallels). It will be helpful if you plan on coming if you have either read a pdf that I wrote covering this chapter with also Paul’s cryptic comment on ‘the man of lawlessness’:

The pdf is here:

The Second Horizon

or watch a video (interview):

The Zoom link is:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5728039267?pwd=NEozVVM0Z1NJSDFKKzNwdG9KUDc5dz09

ID: 572 803 9267
Passcode: 5GkMTA

And the time is 7:30 UK time.

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