Weekly Articles

Recently, the internet video-sharing site YouTube made a decision to ban terror training videos (and other violence-inciting content).  While this by no means will clean up the internet, it does illustrate that people and groups have a limit as to what is acceptable, and that sometimes a line has to be drawn that says “stop here – go no further.”  Winston Churchill drew the line for Hitler at Poland’s border – Germany invaded Poland and England declared war.  This concept is a basic one for mankind; in every situation, there is a point at which no compromise is permitted and no ground may be yielded.

In the church, we have debated many concepts, theological ruminations, and doctrinal issues.  We often make concessions and trade-offs based on personal preferences and needs.  This is simply how we are made, and the church was structured to allow us a great deal of lee-way.  The apostles set very few administrative details in stone, allowing the individual congregations to organize themselves along certain guidelines.  The churches were told about elders, deacons, preachers, teachers, prophets, and the use of gifts.  They were told about giving, singing, and the communion supper.  They were told about maintaining order and church discipline, especially about expelling unrepentant evil-doers and heretics.  The churches were not told what was the optimum size for a congregation, whether they should sit in pews or chairs, whether the communion plates should be gold or silver, or if there should be a kitchen in the building.  These are things left to the churches to decide (along the guidelines set forth) and not matters for dissension and strife.

The matters that are viewed an important in the Bible are matters of godliness, love, faith and doctrine.  The early church had very strong views about everything (just like today), but what unified them was perseverance in the face of violent oppression and sinister infiltration.  The church in Thyatira was praised for its perseverance in expressing its faith through deeds of love and faith.  But there was a sinister infiltration of evil heresy that they had allowed to take root and survive among them.

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.  (Revelation 2:20 NIV)

Notice that the charge against the church at Thyatira was not “you have engaged in sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols” but that they had tolerated the presence of someone who advocated and taught these things.

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.  So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.  I will strike her children dead.  Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.  (Revelation 2:21-23 NIV)

Here Jesus tells about the line he has drawn:  repentance has a deadline and there are consequences for everything that we do.  This woman (labeled “Jezebel”) had crossed that line, refusing to repent.  Therefore Jesus set forth grave consequences for her and her children, and for her compatriots in her adultery.  He also tells us that not only will this judgment result in punishment for these evildoers, but that it will result in glory for Christ and reinforcement for the faith of the church.

In the church today, we are beset with persecution from without and sinister infiltration from within.  We must remember that the same Jesus who was at work in the church at Thyatira two-thousand years ago is the same Jesus who is at work in our churches today.  American churches tend to hold up well under the outside persecution, especially since it is fairly peaceful in nature (though no less destructive).  What we have struggled with most is the infiltration of heresy and false doctrines, many times under the guise of being gentle with weaker brethren and being open-minded. 

As we face this infiltration, there are two things we must do.  First, we need to recognize that the line that has been drawn by Jesus so that we can know where to stand.  Second, we must make sure that we are standing beside Jesus on his side of his line, not trying to redraw the line where we want it to be.  Because this same Jesus promised if we hold the line with him, we will not only receive authority just as he received it from the Father, but also that we would be given the “morning star”, his blessedly abiding presence in our lives.

-Charles Peterson

Proper nutrition as a major health concern is a fairly new development in human experience.  I am not saying that mankind has only recently begun to suffer from malnutrition, but that only recently have we been able to focus on choosing what to eat and when to eat it.  For most of human history, we ate whatever we could – a lot of it consisting of things that most Americans would find inedible and disgusting.  Meats that we would declare rancid and spoiled were eaten as normal fare; fruits and vegetables we would see as rotting would be the norm.  This is not because people have only recently developed delicate palates, but rather because food is far more plentiful today than ever before.  In short, we are choosy because we are not beggars.

Nutrition is so important to us that we use it as an analogy for demonstrating how things should work; for example, instead of saying that a fire is extinguished due to a lack of a sufficient supply of fuel, we simply say that the fire was starved – the analogy of starvation illustrating that the fire died because it could not continue to feed.  With that in mind, we look at learning as a process of nutrition:  we feed our minds information that we digest and use to build our identities.  And just as good nutrition helps a person build a healthy body, good learning helps a person develop themselves in a healthy way.  Conversely, poor learning leads to unhealthy development in much the same way as poor nutrition leads to an unhealthy body.

I remember that I was told to eat a certain way so that I would be healthy.  I have seen commercials declaring that their particular cereal was a “part of a balanced breakfast”.  There were vitamins shaped like cartoon characters, fortified breads and milks, and even shakes and candy bars promising nutrition.  Today, we are told that some vitamins are able to be used by the body only in certain ways, that some should be taken with others or the body won’t absorb them well, and a vast host of information (many of these pieces of “truth” contradicting each other).

In the same way, we are often given information that is proclaimed to be the “truth” and that we are told will help us develop in a healthy way.  Some of us seek earnestly after truth and take the truth given us, not realizing that we are ingesting poison instead; this is much like the first emperor of China who desperately wanted to live forever and so he ingested vitality potions whose base was mercury (highly toxic to humans).  Some people take a verse (or a part of a verse) and fashion their whole way of thinking around that, not realizing that they are wrapping a nutrient in toxic sludge.  For example, there are people today who take Ephesians 5:22 and say that the wife must submit to the husband in everything, and that if she is obeying him she does not sin no matter what she does (they say that the husband bears that sin for what he ordered her to do).  This is an example of taking a portion of the nutrition of God and wrapping it in poisonous filth.  The result of this is much like eating an apple covered in arsenic.

The truth of God must be what we adhere to, without mixing it with the poison of the world.  The Nicolaitans were a group of people who took the ideas of Nicolas (one of the Seven from Acts 6) about eschewing worldly pleasures to mean that no matter what you did physically, it was only the spiritual things that matter (and so they practiced unrestrained indulgence of their desires, claiming to be indifferent to the flesh).  They quickly went from hearing that the worldly pleasures should not be our pursuit to believing that anything done in the flesh did not matter!

The church in Pergamum was praised for not renouncing their faith in Jesus, even when some of them were put to death publicly.  But Jesus goes on to say this:

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you:  you have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.  Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.  Repent therefore!  Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.  (Revelation 2:14-16 NIV)

The warning is that they need to repent – those who were following the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans needed to repent of that, and those who were tolerating the evil among them needed to repent of that tolerance.  Jesus warned that if they did not repent, he would come to them and “fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”  The implication is that Jesus, who said in verse 12 that he had a “sharp, double-edged sword”, would destroy the evildoers and punish too those who tolerated the evil.

We must take heed to this warning as well.  We need to take in the proper nutrition of the Word of God, taking the manna of his blessings and growing in a healthy and Godly way.  He promised to give to those who overcome some “hidden manna” and a “new name”.  But remember:  if we grow unhealthy on the world’s beliefs, that sharp sword of truth might just be used to cut the fat away.

-Charles Peterson

Do you ever wonder why God allows his children to be martyred?  If you take a look at the first three hundred years of the church, you will find that persecution was the norm and martyrdom was fairly commonplace.  I am not just talking about Christians being killed, but about Christians who willingly went to their deaths letting everyone know why they were doing so.  One famous example is Polycarp (disciple of John).  Polycarp was a man who had learned about Jesus from the Apostles and others who had actually known Jesus.  As he aged, he remained stalwart in his faith and was often a bulwark against the shifting tides of Gnosticism.  Marcion (a prominent Gnostic) reportedly came up to Polycarp and asked “Do you know me,” to which Polycarp replied “I do know you, the firstborn of Satan!” 

When Polycarp was eighty-six years old he was arrested and brought before the Proconsul, who gave him multiple chances to recant and swear to Caesar (as god).  Polycarp engaged in dialogue in such a way as to provoke more punishment for himself, making sure that everyone (especially the Proconsul) knew that Polycarp worshipped and served only Jesus.  When he was threatened with being thrown to wild beasts, Polycarp said “call for them.”  When he was threatened with burning at the stake, he explained that he had no fear of the fire that burned for only a little while but rather he feared the fire that burned eternally!  When they went to nail him to the stake, Polycarp told them that Jesus had granted that he would endure the fire, so he would also grant to Polycarp to remain at the fire with the “security” of the nails.

What faith allows men and women to face horrible death, even making it worse on themselves, just to testify to others?  What faith allowed Stephen to pray for forgiveness for the hateful mob that was hurling stones at him before he was finally killed?  Of course, the answer is the faith that comes from an intense desire to be like Jesus.  Jesus could have stopped at any time and not have endured the cross.  Jesus could have defended himself, or called upon his Father who would have sent legions of angels.  Jesus could have defended himself in that trial.  Jesus could have done something else, but then we would all be lost in our sins and facing eternity in hell.  Jesus loved us, so he died in our stead; Jesus loved us, so he entered the grave; Jesus loved us, so he raised from the dead.

“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:  these are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.  I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich!  I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.  Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.  I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days.  Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. “  (Revelation 2:8-11 NIV)

The Christians in Smyrna were being slandered by the Jews and were being persecuted for their faith.  But Jesus (through John) told them to stay strong, even if it costs them their life.  Why?  Because he (Jesus) was guaranteeing their eternal life!  The lesson for us today is the same as that given to the Symrnan Christians:  put your faith in Jesus, be buried in baptism with him, and have no fear of the Second Death (the lake of fire in Revelation 20:11-15).

See, the Christian view of life and death are a bit different from the world’s view.  The world would have us be pragmatic, saying that it makes perfect sense to renounce Christ to avoid danger, and then to repent and be forgiven.  What cowardly nonsense!  No, Jesus told us plainly that if we deny him, he will deny us to the Father; but if we confess him, he will confess us to the Father.  If we overcome the lies and slander of the world through truth and abiding with Jesus, then hell has no fury for us!

-Charles Peterson

I truly believe that one of the greatest tragedies in the Church today is the lack of interest in the Bible among God’s people.  Quietly disappearing are the men and women (today’s elderly Christians) for whom reading the Bible is as much a part of their daily routine as eating and sleeping.  Their children, the “Baby Boomers”, are much more ambivalent about daily scriptural nourishment; for my generation (now being called the “Baby Busters”), daily Bible reading is a rarity.  What does this say to the next generation?

I remember a conversation that I had at the campus ministry with which I was associated in the late 1990’s.  This conversation was with one of the assistant campus ministers, someone whom I had known since my high school years.  Now, although he had come to Christ in his twenties, by this time he had been in the Lord for close to a decade at least.  The conversation was about reading the Bible and the need for leaders to immerse themselves in the Word.  I was shocked when this individual disagreed with me, saying that all he had to do was “show the people Jesus.”  When he had been a new Christian and was involved with teaching a high school Bible class (of which I was a student), the youth minister at the time had evidently told him this; he had never moved on from this philosophy.  My response to him then was “how can you show anybody who Jesus is if you don’t know yourself who he is.”  My point is that it is only through the Bible that we get a clear picture of the Savior.

I know that many view reading the Bible as a chore (one best left to ministers and old people).  After all, who wants to read through all of those genealogies and dietary laws, anyhow?  And then you get the plagues, invasions, idol-worshipping, God being mad all the time, and endless disappointment.  Better to stick with the New Testament, books like Mark, Acts, and Revelation.  For anything else, the footnotes in a Study Bible have all the information that you need to appear smart in Bible class.  A concordance has everything else.  Right?

Wrong.  If the Bible were just a collection of ancient documents that were bound up so that we would have continuity for our cultural identity, then reading it would only be important for academics.  But it is the inspired word of God; when you read it, the Spirit that resides within you illuminates different things so that you are able to draw closer to God.  That is why eighty-year old people who have been reading the Bible their whole lives still keep reading it:  God is still talking to them through it. 

In addition to this, constant reading and discussing of the Bible is essential to remain sound in doctrine and judgment.  In Revelation 2:1-7, John records the message of Jesus to the church at Ephesus, in which he commends them for being firmly rooted in sound doctrine, testing false apostles and not tolerating wicked men.  But the Ephesian church had lapsed from doing the things they had done at first; the love and charity for which they were praised by Paul [Eph 1:15-16] had grown cold.  Jesus told them that he would remove their “lampstand” if they did not repent.  But even after this harsh admonition, Jesus remarked on their dedication to sound doctrine: 

“But you have this in your favor:  You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”  (Revelation 2:6 NIV)

You see, the Ephesian church was able to withstand great hardships and to resist false and evil teachings because they were dedicated to the scriptures and the teachings that they received from the Apostle Paul [Acts 19].  Because of this, when the Nicolaitans spread their teachings of immorality and debauchery, the Ephesians knew that it was false doctrine.

In today’s church, the message is the same as it was then:  we must remember our first love, which is Christ.  But if we love Jesus, we must have the desire to know him; this means we must have a burning desire to discover him through the scriptures so that we can share him with others.  We also must be able to properly discern God’s will for us and refute lies and false teachings; this can be done only through a mature understanding of the Bible [Romans 12:1-2].

Man’s wisdom causes us to fall away from God.  Seek to know God, as revealed through the scriptures.  Jesus is waiting to give us the right to eat from the tree of life.

-Charles Peterson