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Caution: Always Factor in the Historical Context

CAUTION: ALWAYS FACTOR IN THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

MARCH 18, 2007

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

“Where was your God on 911?” isn’t the only popular taunt Christians are apt to have thrown in their face these days. With an air of sarcasm, questions such as: “how come Jesus couldn’t tell time?”, or “why did Jesus give His disciples an order He knew was impossible for them to carry out, and “you tell me where Cain got his wife without him sinning and then I might begin to take the Bible seriously,” seem to be part of the happy hunting-ground for folks who delight in ridiculing Christian’s and the Bible. As followers of the Risen Savior we must always be ready to answer such questions.

1 Peter 3:15 (AMP) 15 But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.

Are you prepared to defend your faith against these kinds of attacks; or do you find yourself embarrassed by such questions concerning the Bible? Do you stumble over trying to come up with an answer and attempt to brush them aside? Those of us who have been Christians for a number of years ought to be prepared to give a clear logical explanation for the reason we have such hope, not only in the Gospel, but in the authority of the inerrant Word of the Living God.

It’s our responsibility to search the Scriptures in order to add knowledge to our faith, and then seize upon and make the most of those opportunities the Lord brings our way. For instance, the Bible is quite clear about intermarriage between close relatives.

Leviticus 18:9 (NIV) 9 ‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

Leviticus 20:17 (NIV) 17 ‘If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off before the eyes of their people. He has dishonored his sister and will be held responsible.

Not even an unbeliever would question the wisdom of such prohibitions. After all, mankind has been plagued by thousands of inherited diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, hereditary diabetes and cystic fibrosis as a result of men and women engaging in such disgraceful behavior. At first glance however, it appears this is precisely what God commanded those first humans to do.

Genesis 1:28 (ESV) 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

You don’t have to be one of those know-it-all radio or TV talk show hosts to realize there must have been intermarriage between close relatives in the beginning of the human race. There is no way the early humans could populate and fill the earth without engaging in what we refer to today as incest. But what are we to make of those commands we just read about in Leviticus 18 and 20?

What may seem even more puzzling is that the Bible tells us this kind of deviant sexual activity continued for hundreds of years. For instance, a careful reading of the genealogy of Abraham in Genesis 11:27-29 shows us that he married his brother Haran’s daughter Sarah. However, not only wasn’t God upset, but He actually bestowed an amazing blessing upon that couple.

Genesis 17:15-17 (ESV) 15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And the rest is history we are all familiar with.

But what about those passages from Leviticus we read a moment ago? How are you going to handle them and clearly and logically defend the authority and inerrancy of the Bible? For starters we ought to take the time and pause for a moment and ponder indisputable facts concerning the Bible. For instance, an important point to remember is that although the Bible always means what it says, it doesn’t always mean what it appears to be saying. The Great Commission passages are an excellent example of this principle.

Matthew 28:16-20 (KJV) 16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Now just how were those guys going to bring the Good News and make disciples throughout the whole world? Why would Jesus commission them to do something that was impossible? Furthermore, as we will see in Matthew 24:14, that before the end came, Jesus said that the Gospel would be proclaimed throughout the world. How do you suppose those men would have understood what Jesus told them was going to happen in Matthew 24:14 when they compared it with the Great Commission He gave them later after His resurrection?

Matthew 24:14 (ESV) 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

In the preceding verses in this chapter Jesus had already told His disciples what kind of signs they should be on the lookout for as well as some pretty bad things they would personally experience. Then He went on and dropped this bomb.

Matthew 24:29-31 (ESV) 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

What do you think those guys would have been able to make of that kind of frightful information? Furthermore, what do you suppose they would have understood the Apostle Peter to be telling them later on concerning this kind of celestial activity accompanying the Lords coming and the time of the end?

2 Peter 3:10 (ESV) 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Peter picked up on the same kind of devastating catastrophic celestial events Jesus had spoken about in Matthew 24:29-31. If you were present with those men and heard Jesus predict these kinds of events and also listened carefully as Peter’s letter was read; how could you possibly come to any conclusion other than they were going to occur during your lifetime? To imagine that those poor suffering Christians would have understood these things were going to happen thousands of years later is ludicrous. But, if those events didn’t occur in their lifetime, then Jesus and Peter must have been wrong in the timing of their predictions.

Furthermore, what do you suppose those first Christians understood Jesus to be telling them in the Book of Revelation? Remember, those poor suffering people were experiencing great tribulation. They were being hounded, beaten, tortured, starved, burned alive and fed to the lions among other horrors. How comforting do you suppose the following verses were to them?

Revelation 1:1-3 (ESV) 1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Revelation 22:10 (ESV) 10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

Revelation 1:19 (NASB) 19 “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

Revelation 3:10 (NASB) 10 ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

If you were living at the time, do you believe you might derive a tiny smidgen of comfort, encouragement and hope from those promises? However, if they didn’t occur during your lifetime, would you conclude that Jesus didn’t know what He was talking about? On the other hand, if you understood Jesus to be speaking to you through John’s Revelation about events that would occur thousands of years in the future, and that you and your Christian loved ones would continue to experience horrific persecution until the day you died, what do you think would happen to your faith?

PROPHECY

Matthew 24:14 (ESV) 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

FULFILLED

Romans 10:18 (ESV) 18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

PROPHECY

Mark 16:15 (ESV) 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

FULFILLED

Colossians 1:6 (ESV) 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

PROPHECY

Mark 16:15 (ESV) 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

FULFILLED

Colossians 1:23 (ESV) 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

PROPHECY

Matthew 28:19 (ESV) 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

FULFILLED

Romans 16:26 (ESV) 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—

PROPHECY

Acts 1:8 (ESV) 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

FULFILLED

Romans 10:18 (ESV) 18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

PROPHECY

Matthew 24:14 (ESV) 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

FULFILLED

Colossians 1:23 (ESV) 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

A person would have to do some real fancy footwork to dance around these verses in order to conclude they don’t unambiguously declare exactly what they state. But how could anyone two thousand years ago possibly travel throughout the entire world? It would be impossible. Well, they didn’t travel all over the world spreading the Gospel, nor did Jesus expect them to anymore than Caesar Augustus would have expected when he issued his famous decree.

Luke 2:1 (ESV) 1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Does anyone really believe that Caesar wanted all the inhabitants of the entire world to be registered? As I said earlier; The Bible always means what it says however, it doesn’t always mean what it appears to be saying. That’s why I keep reminding folks, myself included, that we should always factor in the historical context, and train ourselves to habitually allow the Scriptures to speak for themselves.

I hope by now that I’ve been able to dispel any doubts you may have has as to whether or not Jesus can tell time or if He commissioned His disciples to do something that was impossible, because nothing could be further from the truth. But what about Cain’s wife and all hell breaking loose in the heavens and the world coming to an end?

We know from science that the genetic hereditary information from each parent is passed on to their offspring, who in turn do the same with their children. Continuing throughout the generations, copying mistakes sometimes occur causing what is known as a mutation. These mistakes are passed along to succeeding generations. In the course of time these mistakes are compounded. The end results are poor innocent children born with birth defects and abnormalities.

If we factor in the historical context of those Leviticus passages we will be able to clearly see that the law was given to Moses more than two thousand years after God spoke His world into existence. The possibility of dreadful consequences in the offspring of a marriage between close relatives was fast approaching. Up until that time it wouldn’t have been a problem.

For instance, my wife and I moved into our present home about eighteen years ago. In our backyard we have a couple of four foot high retaining walls made of railroad ties. Our grandchildren loved to play on the tops of them, pretending they were walking on a tightrope. And they did so with my permission. However, in the course of time those railroad ties started to decay. They are no longer safe to play on. Because I love those kids I came up with a new rule prohibiting activity that was once permissible. I believe that’s pretty much what God did when He gave The Law to Moses.

At this point you may be wondering how I’m going to attempt to explain my view concerning the sky caving in and the end of the world in a couple of minutes. Well I’m not! Lord willing, in a couple of weeks….

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March 18, 2007 Posted by Categories: Uncategorized No comments yet


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