A Fly and a Mountain

Mike Leake

Man piles a mountain of sin, but God will match it, and he upheaves a loftier mountain of grace; man heaps up a still huger hill of sin, but the Lord overtops it with ten times more grace; and so the contest continues till at last the mighty God plucks up the mountains by the roots and buries man’s sin beneath them as a fly might be buried beneath an Alp. Abundant sin is no barrier to the superabundant grace of God.  (Charles Spurgeon from Grace Abounding)

My sin is but a fly to the mountain of God’s grace. 

Maybe I should stop trying to earn His favor today and instead simply bask in His greatness and live in His love. 

Top 7 Reasons The Earth Will Be Here on October 22nd, 2011

Mike Leake

During the whole rapture fiasco of May 21st I linked to my 7 reasons why I left behind a pre-tribulation rapture.  That, and the fact that Harold Camping is a false prophet and horrible exegete, left me with little expectation of a rapture on May 21.  Now we have this little gem from Camping:

“Five months from now from May 21, as we learn from the Bible is Oct. 21. We are not changing the dates at all. We are just learning that we have to look at all this a little more spiritual[ly]. But it won’t be spiritual on Oct. 21 because the Bible clearly teaches that then the world will be destroyed altogether. But it will be very quick. It won’t be a five-month difficulty as we have learned.”

There are probably a good number of people that will share a bit of Camping’s eschatology but balk at his date giving.  I’m not one of them.  In fact I don’t think the earth is going to be destroyed.  Not on October 21st and not at the return of Christ. 

So I give you now my top 7 reasons that the earth isn’t going to be destroyed on October 21st or ever.  Renewed, yes.  Radically changed, yes.  Destroyed, no. 

  1. Revelation 21-22 helps us to see the end of the story.  The picture is not of us floating around in the sky as disembodied spirits playing harps on a cloud.  The picture here is of heaven coming down and transforming earth.  Notice in 21:2 that while the “first heaven and the first earth have passed away” this new city is “coming down out of heaven from God”.  It’s not the other way around.  Which is ironic because the place that we often turn to find out about the “end of the world” actually tells us about the “restoration of the world”.  We don’t ultimately “go up”, God “comes down”.
  2. The “obliteration passage” like 2 Peter 3:10 is probably, *gulp*, mistranslated in the KJV.  The ESV is probably closer to the original, “the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed”.  As Christopher Wright comments, “we should not see in this passage an obliteration of the universe, but a moral and redemptive purging of the universe, cleansing it of the presence and effects of all sin and evil.
  3. The meaning of kainos.  Drawing from 1 Corinthians 15, my trusty ESV Study Bible says the meaning of kainos here is probably “best understood in terms of something that has been qualitatively transformed in a fundamental way, rather than as an outright new creation ex nihilo as in the case of God’s original creation. 
  4. Jesus is better than Plato.  Yes, Jesus had a pretty sweet new body that could do some “other-worldly things”.  But he also ate a piece of fish.  Spiritual=good, material=bad isn’t from the mouth of Christ it’s from the teaching of Plato and the Gnostics.  Therefore, there is no need for the earth to be destroyed.  It’s not in rebellion—we are.  Which leads to my next reason…
  5. Creation longs for redemption not destruction.  Romans 8 doesn’t make much sense if when we receive our reward creation gets annihilated.  Paul says that creation was subjected to futility in hope that, “the creation itself will be set free from bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God”.  Sure doesn’t sound like a fireball blowing up the whole earth to me. 
  6. The Storyline of Scripture.  There are several threads of a beautiful story that are weaved all throughout Scripture.  One of these is the Garden/Temple as the Presence of God with man.  Again the picture in Revelation 21 is a restored Garden.  The theme of Scripture isn’t that God starts over completely with is covenant community and that his “new” is ex nihilo.  Even with Noah—God brought a sinner into the ark and it was a sinner from the same flesh as Adam that was brought out of the ark.  But Noah was a sinner now in covenant with the LORD.  God doesn’t start over He transforms. 
  7. It Simply Makes More Sense.  This isn’t the best argument and certainly should not stand alone, but this view makes more sense of my desires.  That’s dangerous isn’t it?  But this gets me excited, “Think of the prospect!  All human culture, language, literature, art, music, science, business, sport, technological achievement—actual and potential—all available to us.  All of it with the poison of evil and sin sucked out of it forever.  All of it glorifying God.  All of it under his loving and approving smile.  All of it for us to enjoy with God and indeed being enjoyed by God.  An all eternity for us to explore it, understand it, appreciate it, and expand it.”  (Christopher Wright, The God I Don’t Understand, 203).  The problem with creation isn’t creation—it’s sin.  God removes the curse and redeems.  How amazing will that be?

Maybe the earth will be completely destroyed and for a few short days we’ll be floating in space.  Perhaps God will then create a new (ex nihilo) that is nothing like what we could ever even imagine.  Maybe.  But maybe He’ll just show His awesome power by turning all evil, sin, death, etc. on its head and completely redeeming this very same earth that you and I are walking on.  Maybe the oxygen we breath will not be consumed by fires but rather redeemed. 

Maybe heaven will be more like picking strawberries without the chance of a rotten one and less like playing an spiritual harp on an spiritual cloud with my spiritual fingers. 

Review of The Corruptible by Mark Mynheir

Mike Leake

I don’t typically read fiction books.  I like them but they seem to have an addictive quality that I try to shy away from.  I love a good story but sometimes I’m simply not disciplined enough to read one—I’d rather watch it on television.  One genre that I especially love to watch is Crime/Suspense films or shows.  So, when I was given the opportunity to read The Corruptible by Mark Mynheim I thought I’d give fiction a chance. 

The Corruptible is part of the Ray Quinn mystery series.  The first one, which I have not had the chance to read, was an award winning book called The Night Watchman which follows the story of Ray Quinn—an ex-homicide detective that is now working a private investigator. 

In this second offering Quinn finds himself involved in a financially lucrative gig.  His duty is to find an ex-cop that has stolen information from a wealthy—though secretive—financial giant.  Quinn, and his sidekick Crevis, will be heftily rewarded if they return the information. 

As they begin tracking down this corporate information the suspect turns up dead in a hotel.  The plot thickens.  Now he is working with the Orlando Police Department to solve a murder as well as attempt to track down this stolen information.  The story takes a few twists and turns as any good suspense/crime novel does.  As it is plugged on the back cover:

“Suddenly the line between the good guys and the bad guys isn’t so clear.  With a foot in both worlds and an illuminating look at an unhappy ending that could well be his own, which will Ray choose?” 

Review

Almost as predictable as the show itself, after every episode of House I find myself asking the same question, “why do I continue to watch this show”.  The predictability of House has been humorously documented before.  But yet I keep coming back for me.  Ray Quinn shares much with Greg House: from his sarcastic attitude to his drug/alcohol abuse, out of control living, bad hip, and predictability.  But it shares one other thing—it keeps me hooked…for some reason. 

I think I “solved” the mystery about half-way through the novel.  But I kept going thinking that perhaps I was wrong.  Even though I figured I knew the ending it kept me going.  Mynheim is indeed an engaging writer and tells a good story, though perhaps predictable. 

So how does this relate to the gospel?  Actually not overtly.  And that is actually a very strong part of this novel.  I expect that as the Ray Quinn series comes to a close it may be a little more overtly Christian.  But for now Quinn is certainly not a hero for your children to emulate.  He is an alcoholic, he wouldn’t have a tough time with fornication, you get the idea he probably drops the F-bomb outside the pages of this book, and his attitude certainly doesn’t share that of Christ.  But just like House—there is something about his character that has you pulling for him. 

I have to confess one thing that keeps me from Christian fiction is that they all seem ridiculously cheesy and divorced from how the gospel is lived out in real life.  There is always the ubiquitous “praying to receive Jesus” scene that just feels so foreign to the film/book.  Thankfully Mynheir has Ray Quinn living as a real lost person in a real world.  Yes, his “secretary” Pam is a Christian.  But she’s not presented as a big-haired and heavy made-up nutjob either.  I appreciate that.  She seems real.  Her struggles are exposed.  It’s a faithful and realistic gospel witness thus far.

All in all I really enjoyed this book.  I may give the third book (whenever it comes out) a shot.  The only thing that may keep me from reading it is spending the time and effort on 340 pages when the ending was relatively predictable.  But if you like drama/suspense/crime novels you should enjoy this one—I know I did.  Buy it here.

I received this book free from Multnomah in exchange for a review.

Grace. It’s Not Being Right.

Mike Leake

There is a verse in Acts 22 that is very humbling, and to be honest a tad scary, for us nerdy theologically minded type of people.  Paul says of the Jesus-rejecting, church-persecuting Jews:

“…being zealous for God as all of you are this day…”

It is possible to very passionately “defend God” and uphold really good theology but all the while completely miss the gospel.  That is what happened to this Jewish crowd.  It’s what happened to Paul.  And it’s what has happened to me before.  We are absolutely convinced of something, we passionately fight for it, we even use Scripture, but we are dead wrong. 

That is scary.  It’s especially scary in a postmodern world where many say that truth is relative.  The fact that you can be passionately wrong—and in fact often are—seems like ammunition in the gun of the relativistic argument.

But this really shouldn’t be scary.  After all it’s not necessarily my theology that saves me.  I can have really good theology—like the demons—and still go to hell.  As Russell Moore has wisely said:

“There are some, I fear, who will be able to diagram in Greek the last words they ever hear voiced: ‘Depart from me, you worker of iniquity.’ Such cognitive expertise is of little use in wrestling demons.”  (Moore, Tempted and Tried, 182-83)

Moore, I believe, is right because such cognitive expertise can cause some to vigorously argue theology (even being right) but in the end be just as much a son of hell as Judas Iscariot.  It certainly can even cause those that have been bought with the blood of Christ to argue and sling slander like heaps of excrement spewing from Satan’s mouth. 

We do this because as Dr. Moore elsewhere states, “We’d rather be right than rescued”.  And that is what matters. 

Grace. 

Not theological accuracy. 

Not passionate defense of “God’s truth”. 

Not stamping out heretics. 

Not being zealous for God. 

Grace.