Bible

‘Game of Gods’ … Isn’t a Game; It’s a Game Changer

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“As the Christian consensus fades into the shadows, the stage is set for a global sea change of unprecedented magnitude” (Patrick M. Wood, Technocracy Rising).

“Western civilization without Christianity is like a beef broth without beef” (Robert Wi. Keyserlingk, Unfinished History, p. 175).

Those two quotes are just a couple of references in Carl Teichrib’s spectacular tome, Game of Gods.

Teichrib’s thesis is that playing God is not a game at all, of course. It’s the heart of idolatry that was addressed in Genesis 3, again at the Tower of Babel, at Calvary, and by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1–just to name a few times.

The reason I thought it fitting to write on Teichrib’s book is because it catalogues man’s design to deny the Creator, man’s inveterate efforts to artificially design a Oneist cosmogony and anthropology.

It is truly a wonderful book that is terrifying in its truth about how far down the rabbit hole of Oneism we’ve burrowed.

Oneism, per its subject matter expert, Peter Jones, is “the worship of creation
where all is one when creation is worshipped and served as divine. In Oneism all distinctions
are eliminated and through enlightenment Oneism proclaims that man also is divine. Twoism is
defined as the worship of the divine Creator. All is two because we worship and serve the
eternal, personal Creator of all things. In Twoism God alone is divine and is distinct from His
creation; yet through His Son Jesus, God is in loving communion with His creation.”

So many folks are squirreling out over artificial intelligence. I think its downfall will be found in its root meaning–art and artifice. Its root meanings are “to craft” or “to put together.”

When we create, we work with existing material. And human pride makes it so easy to assume we’ve made the material. But we, too, are creatures, fashioned by the One who created all things but who Himself is uncreated.

We might look to Genesis 11 for a review and perspective. When we purport to put ourselves atop the Creator, ironies result–and they can be spectacular in their fallout. Why? Well, there is an Author who will not share His glory with another.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #279: Divine Battle Tactic

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Bottom line up front: Divine Battle Tactic

Context: God had revealed to Israel’s leader, Joshua, that the future conquest of Jericho was already planned (Joshua 6:2); it would be conquered by the Lord via His servant. God commanded Joshua to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:18). Would Joshua do it? Would he be faithful to God’s revealed will? It’s easy for us, thousands of years removed from the directives given by God to Joshua, to nod and smile, as if it were all no big deal. But it was a huge deal. The people of Canaan were vicious pagans, given over largely to deviance, child sacrifice, and abominations that you still find today in come countries. Anybody who thinks depravity was confined to 1400s Palestine needs to travel a bit and/or read actual history. These people were wicked, vile, and given over to the forces of darkness. Yet God was on the move through a remnant of believers.

God’s Divine Battle Tactic: You remember the plan, right? March around Jericho. Do it for (6) days, in fact. On day (7), march around the city (7) times and have the priests blow their trumpets and blast the ram’s horn and then shout (cf. Joshua 6:3-5). Huh? Really? You’ve got to be kidding. This is a battle tactic? Those are natural, doubting, sinful reactions. Why? Because they doubt God’s power to do things God’s way via obedience. The point was that God was and is the greater Joshua. Victory comes through the divine Warrior, the Lord Himself. The believer’s duty is the faithful discharge of his lawful orders.

Encouragement: Joshua and his people obeyed; the army marched and carried out the mission; the walls of Jericho fell. Rahab and her family were saved (Joshua 6:22-23), demonstrating God’s covenantal faithfulness and Rahab’s true faith in the Lord. I love the way Joshua 6 ends: “So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land” (Joshua 6:27, ESV).

The divine battle tactic hinges on that precept: the Lord is with His people; He is the sole 100% faithful covenant-keeper. There would be times when Joshua would doubt; there would be times Gideon would doubt; there would be times when Solomon would blow it, just like his father, David. There are times when all of us fall short; that is why we are taught again and again to look to the holy Commander and His divine battle tactics. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7, ESV).

The Scarlet Cord of Belief

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Question: Is it possible to trust the Lord when most others seem to have rejected Him?

Context: In the Old Testament book of Joshua, the commanding general of Israel’s forces, Joshua, sent two of his men to spy out the land of promise. It was filled with largely unregenerate pagans. Surely, this could not be the land promised, right? This place? 1400s B.C. in the land of ancient Canaan? There’s no way God could or would grip anyone in this place, right?

Joshua’s command: And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land” (Joshua 1:1-2, ESV).

A few important details are here:

First, Joshua believed the Lord. He was living out his name, which means “The Lord saves,” or “The Lord is salvation.”

Second, human depravity was on display, but God was very much at work amidst the spiritual darkness.

Rahab, after all, was a prostitute, but her heart had been opened by the Lord. She told the two Israeli spies, “And as soon as we heard it [of God’s previous works of providence and judgment on behalf of His people], our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” (Joshua 2:11-14, ESV)

Third, obedience to God was rewarded, but it entailed many painful trials. “Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household” (Joshua 2:18, ESV).

Encouragement: Just as Noah and his family were saved when the rest of the world perished. Rahab and her family were saved, but judgment fell upon the other Canaanites. The same pattern, you see. Faithfulness and obedience are commanded by the Lord because He is so eager to pardon repentant sinners and show mercy rather than judgment. Rahab, this Canaanite prostitute, is commended in the New Testament. How encouraging should that be for you and me. Why was she commended? Because of her faith, because of her turning to the Lord, while most around her remained recalcitrant.

“By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had been given a friendly welcome to the spies” (Hebrews 11:31, ESV).

Rahab did not perish. She displayed the scarlet cord of belief in the covenant-keeping God, and was saved both temporally and eternally. This, dear reader, is good news.

One on Either Side of the Cross

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Nothing teaches quite like an image.

Think with me for a moment about very familiar terrain. Specifically, let’s think about Psalm 1 and then the two criminals crucified on either side of Jesus in Jerusalem on that Friday at Calvary (Luke 23:39-43).

You remember the contrast that runs through Psalm 1, right? It is the contrast between two types. The first type is the person characterized by pursuing God, and the path of righteousness, which leads to blessing. The second type is the person characterized by pursuing the wicked, ungodly things and ways, ways that bewitch and lead to ultimate judgment and condemnation.

Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

The imagery is so clear, as are the contrasts:

  • One eschews wickedness vs. One pursues wickedness
  • One is rooted in God vs. One scoffs at God
  • One is pictured as a tree of blessing vs. One is pictured as chaff, the cast-off part of wheat
  • One is ultimately blessed vs. One is ultimately condemned

Segue to the Crucifixion of God:

In Luke 23, a conversation is recorded. It is the conversation of two criminals, crucified on either side of Jesus. Both were guilty men. But one of them repented. One remained a scoffer and unbeliever. One was the picture of ultimate blessing; one was the picture of ultimate condemnation.

The Conversation:

39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The Good News:

It’s not an image of how one man was good and one was bad. No; both men were bad. It’s the man in the middle that matters most. He was the lone good man who was made bad in order that we bad might be reckoned as good.

One criminal repented and believed and was thereby redeemed. The other criminal remained in disbelief and was, like the chaff from the picture in Psalm 1, cast away.

But everything hinged on the man in the middle. He’s the one with whom we must come to grips. That is why he matters most. That is what we need to think upon when we picture those on either side of the cross. We need to think upon the man in the middle.

The Colonel

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“You ever notice, chaplain, people don’t know their Bibles anymore?” the colonel asked.

The chaplain studied the colonel to see if he was asking with the desire to listen to the chaplain answer, or to hear himself. As the chaplain was about to answer, the colonel continued.

“You know, chaplain, I used to think it was just Millennials–the guys who can’t do fifty push-ups because their man-buns might come undone . . .”

The chaplain nodded his head slowly at the colonel to let him know he understood. The chaplain knew he would not have to say much because the colonel wanted to impress him.

“And what’s with women who now dress and act like men, but then get offended if we treat them like they are men? I mean, which is it?” Suddenly the colonel realized he’d left his original topic.

“What was I saying, chaplain?”

“You began with how few people know the Bible, sir.”

“Exactly, chaplain! But it’s even the older generation, too. You know that?”

“That’s been my experience, sir.”

“How old are you, chappy?”

“Forty-eight, sir.”

“Me, too, chaplain. But when I was coming up in the Midwest, at least my family taught us the Bible, and we even went to church. But people nowadays, chaplain—I just don’t know anymore.”

“Not much of a shared foundation anymore, sir. I’ve noticed.”

“You know, chaplain. I have an eleven-year-old son named Luke. Every night before I put him to bed, I read the Bible aloud with him for thirty minutes.”

“That’s great, sir,” the chaplain said. “He will remember that time with him and probably much of what you read with him.”

“You know what really gets me, though, chappy? It’s how he’ll hit me with a question a day or so later about something we read—something I didn’t think he was really tracking,” the colonel said.

“He may be beyond much of the West, sir,” the chaplain said, smiling a sad smile.

“Say again.”

“Firsthand knowledge of Scripture, sir, like you were saying,” the chaplain said.

“Exactly. He’ll up and ask me something about people loving darkness rather than light. Ain’t that something, chappy?”

“Yes, sir.”

“But what do we do, chaplain? With the world going the way it is, and all? I mean, I know the Bible, and my wife and I, we teach it to Luke. But this generation, and even our parents’ generation . . . I just don’t know, chaplain.”

“Sounds like you’re doing well, sir. Open the Scripture, read it, and share it with those who’ll listen.”

He watched the colonel listen to his own thoughts, and pictured the colonel with Luke beside his dad, perhaps under his boyish covers on his bed, listening to his father read of David and mighty men of valor, who surely resembled his dad the colonel, and his staff officers or non-commissioned officers; and a flaming sword that blazed amidst a ruined garden; and of Jewish boys perhaps his own age, cast into a furnace deep in the desert sands near the Tigris and Euphrates where his dad had battled and returned; and of trees cursed by Jesus as symbols of people not using their time the way God wanted, and . . .

Thus ran the chaplain’s thoughts as he watched the colonel listen to himself.

“You’re a good listener, chappy. Appreciate you.”

“Thanks, sir. Likewise.”

“Hey, sir?”

“What you got, chappy?”

“Tell Luke to keep reading, and that the chaplain says hello.”

“Good copy, chaplain.”

 

Whose Way?

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If I asked you to list a few current events that are splashed across our headlines, you could probably do it with ease. How about presidential politics? How about BLM? How about Blue Lives Matter, or is it just black lives? If black lives matter, why are blacks assassinating fellothw blacks who serve as our police? How about the 60 million abortions in the U.S. since 1973’s Roe v. Wade? Do their lives matter? 29,000 babies, just in America, will be aborted this year, after 16 weeks of gestation. Do their lives matter? And let us not forget illegal immigration. Should a nation not have borders? If not, why not? Can you name a nation that has lasted that doesn’t have borders? What does the word nationhood even mean if it’s denuded of its written laws and borders? Or how about the tone of our country’s public discourse? What does it reveal about current American public discourse? Current discussions resemble MTV’s pubescent crassness more than substantive debate.

This morning after coffee, I checked the headlines from my computer at work for just some of our current events:

  1. When nonstop terror bleeds into our media and political culture
  2. Baton Rouge killer carefully plotted attack against police, brought 3 guns, investigators say
  3. Erdogan’s appeal to Islamists in wake of failed coup spurs fear for Turkey’s future
  4. Terror strikes again: ISIS claims responsibility for German train attack
  5. White House won’t be lit in blue

Is there a unifying theme through all of these headlines? Some might say the theme is unraveling. Others might say the theme is lack of courageous leadership. Others might say we’re witnessing the triumph of evil. Others might say we’re seeing that the enemy is inside the wire–that is, that current events are being orchestrated by folks who are ostensibly on America’s side, but who, in reality, are vehemently opposed to America, our freedoms, our constitution, and our other founding documents. I don’t speak as one with no view. Presumably like you, I’m a legal citizen, and am concerned, but I speak from a biblical worldview.

Is this the first time that world events have seemed out of control? Is this the first time that culture seems to be unraveling? Is this the first time that people have rejected God, Christ, the Bible, Christian input, etc? Did Noah’s generation repent when he was called to pronounce judgment and warn of a worldwide flood? Did vast numbers of folks repent and turn to hear the preaching of the word? Did the masses repent and turn to God? Listen to Gen 6:11-12:

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Sound familiar? Yet God did not leave Noah with just a diagnosis of disaster. He made a way: “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” (v.18) God made the way, but it was just that—God’s way, not man’s way.

Or think of another OT prophet, Jeremiah, in the 600s B.C. in Israel, a man called by God to warn the people to repent and turn to God. But did the culture listen to the word of the Lord through his servant Jeremiah?

Listen to Jeremiah’s word of the Lord: “violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me. Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.” (Jer 6:7b-8)

That was in the 600s B.C. Was that the first time the nation was unraveling? Was that the first time that God spoke through one of his prophets, pleading with people to listen and obey the word from the Lord? Was that even the first time that God’s people were persecuted for telling the truth?

But did God leave Jeremiah there, in the pit (later in his ministry), suffering alone? Israel and Judah both fell, of course, as judgments. And many were deported to Babylon (present day Iraq) in 597, 586, and 582 B.C.

But did God just diagnose the people’s situation and leave them there? No. But deliverance was to be God’s way, not man’s way. Listen to Jer 31:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their heart. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (vv.31-33)

It had to be, then as now, God’s way, not man’s way. The greatest example in history of God speaking is found in God’s incarnation in Jesus–his supernatural birth, life, death as substitutionary atonement, and his resurrection. Christ requires an either/or ultimatum.

Will we turn to him in repentance and faith, or remain in our evil deeds and darkness? As another writer phrased it, it’s Christ or chaos. And what do our headlines indicate most people choose?

Did Jesus not warn the people to repent and turn to the one true and living God? And what sort of reception did Jesus receive? “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (Jn 1:11)

Why did his own people not receive him? The Scripture says that their works, like ours, are evil: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (Jn 3:19)

But did God leave them/us there? Did he only condemn us and abandon us? Are we like the characters in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot? Or is man, as Sartre wrote, a useless passion? Is there no hope?

Probably you’ve heard, “If only God would show up, then I would believe.” May I say this as kindly as possible? He has, and his name is Jesus. God in the flesh not only showed up, but he lived the only life worthy of God’s requirements. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Mt 3:17) He was born of Mary who’d been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. He lived a sinless life. Yet he became sin for us, for those who’d believe upon him: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

What’s more, God raised him from the dead (Mt 28; Mk 15; Lk 24; Jn 20; 1 Cor 15). The theme remains the same: deliverance only comes God’s way, not man’s way.

If you want to witness the bloody contrast between the two ways, witness our daily headlines. What will it take? Will we look, in repentance and faith, to God incarnate who came for sinners? Whose way? There is only one way, but there is, in fact, a way, and his name is Jesus.