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With Perfect Hatred

26 Monday Jun 2023

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am taking another look at the Hebrew word sane (saw-nay) which is often translated in scripture by the English word “hate”.

An interesting passage in Psalm 139 kicked off this study.  I read in verses 21-22: “Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?  And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?  I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.”  King David appears to be saying his hate is a good thing and something that honors God.  How can this be especially since the words of Jesus in Luke 6 conflict?  “Love your enemies,” Jesus instructs.  “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28).  I do not believe the Bible contradicts itself.  I believe when and if passages appear to contradict each other, it is my understanding that is incomplete.  What then, did I understand about hate?  Was there ever a time when hate might be considered a good thing?  What is meant by “perfect hatred?”

The definition of “hate” in my New World Dictionary didn’t help in my attempt to find an answer.  The English word hate means “to have strong dislike or ill will for, loathe, despite, bear malice toward.”  I read through some scriptures containing the word sane and it did seem as though that definition was accurate.  Consider these passages:

Deuteronomy 19:11: “But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rise against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies…”

1 Kings 22:8 (also 2 Chronicles 18:7): “so the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.’”

Psalm 25:19: “consider my enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred.”

Psalm 41:7: “All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt.”

Each one of these passages, and others like them, appear to bear up the definition of “ill will, strong dislike, malice” and it is obviously not considered to be a good thing. But then, in contrast to each one of these passages, there are others where sane/hate is considered to be a good thing.  Consider:

Psalm 97:10: “You who love the Lord, hate evil!”

Psalm 101:3: “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.”

Proverbs 8:13: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.”

Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 8: “To everything there is a season…a time to love and a time to hate.”

As I have studied the Hebrew word sane, I have found various scholars who say “hate” is not an appropriate choice to translate sane.  A better one would be “reject” or “turn aside.”  I read through the Strong’s concordance listing of scriptures containing sane with that definition in mind and…okay; I can see where that definition might be appropriate.  And yet I am not satisfied.  Few of the passages accurately represented what I think of when I hear the word “reject” in that the ones “hated” were not ostracized or left utterly alone. 

One article I came across said something that struck me and which I have been pondering all this week.  The article is posted on the Light of the World blog and says, “The original Hebrew Picture shows us what Hate does, not how it feels.”  The author quotes Psalm 139:22 and says, “Our English definition of Hate does make it appear that King David Detests, abhors, and Despises, בוז Buz his enemies.”  She then quotes Proverbs 14:21 which says, “But he who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.”  The author points out, “He (King David) would have known that it is Sin to Despise your Neighbor because it missed the Mark of the Commandment to Love your Neighbor: ‘You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall Love your Neighbor as yourself: I am YHVH’ Leviticus 19:18.  This means שנא Sane cannot include the emotion of Despising anyone.  In context, we see that he parallels Turning Aside, סור Sur, With Hate, שנא Sane, Psalm 139:19.” 

 The Light of the World blog compares Exodus 20:12, “Honor your Father and Mother” with Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me and does not Hate his Father and Mother…”  The author writes, “Apparent contradictions like this one should alert us to our misunderstanding of the original meaning.  With the meaning of Hate being to Turn Aside, it is possible to Honor our parents, while Turning Aside From the lies they have inherited, in order to Obey the Commandments of our Eternal Creator.”

I can see how defining sane as “to turn aside” could work and yet it doesn’t entirely fit especially when it comes to God.  His promise to never leave nor forsake stands and His turning aside never meant utter abandonment.  As I look at the Hebrew letters comprising sane which are ש Sin נ Nun and א Aleph, I see the picture of a fire rooted and emerging from God.  The ש Shin carries the meaning of a process of destruction and consumption until completion.  Hebrews 12:29 states “our God is a consuming fire” and I am convinced the love and hate of God are two aspects of the fire that He is. 

There is an idea circulating that the love of God is this saccharine thing: that He is some ancient drooling entity confined to a celestial rocking chair where He bestows vacant grins on His children and just loves them.  No.  He is alive and passionate and because He loves so utterly and completely, He hates.  Last week I quoted a bit of Romans 2 from the Message and I like how this is rendered: “God is kind, but he’s not soft.  In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us unto a radical life-change” (MSG).  Hebrews 12:5-6 quotes Proverbs 3: 11-12 saying, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”  There is a dark side to the love of God, for lack of a better word.  Certainly there are experiences that don’t feel all that great but they can be endured because we know He loves us and the consuming fire that He is only destroys those things that would hinder us from growing into His image.  The ש Shin is a comfort here in that the process repeats itself over and over.  In His love and mercy, He doesn’t burn through our lives all at once.  He is, above all things, agape and His lovingkindness endures forever.

As creatures made in the image of God, we are capable of hate and it is right that we are.  Hate burns within us when we see a loved one suffering from a disease or when we see pain and injustice.  Hatred burns within as a “No!  These things shall not be!”  That fire within us burns the apathy out of us and we are roused to take action.  I think hatred only becomes a bad thing when it causes us to sin and fall short of the glory of God.  I think of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he quotes Psalm 4:4; “’Be angry and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27). 

It is so important that we realize that God, in his ultimate hatred, cried “No!  These things shall not be!” and that this hatred looks like Jesus. “For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).  What did Jesus do?  “…once, at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26).  Jesus Christ is “Himself the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2).  “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8) and “through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). 

The cry of “It is finished” heard from the cross echoes through the ages.  It was the ultimate victory and it is now made a reality in our lives through the processings we experience.  We know these processings are not to utterly destroy us but are necessary so that Jesus Christ present us, The Church, to Himself not having any spot or wrinkle but are presented holy and without blemish (See Ephesians 5:27).  We embrace the consuming fire that He is knowing when He has tried us we shall come forth as gold!

Just as He is so are we in this world.  We have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus (See Philippians 2:5) and therefore, because Jesus Christ is alive in us, we love as He love and hates as He hates.  We hate with perfect hatred.  We go out into the world and we make war.  What is crucial to remember is “we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).  It is also crucial to remember we do not conduct our warfare after the way of this world.  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

We seek to know Him as we are known and then, with our confidence in the finished work of Jesus Christ, we take up the full armor of God.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

Scripture notations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress.  All rights reserved.  Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Quotes in this post are taken from the Light of the World blog at:  Hate (Sane), the Ancient Hebrew Meaning – Light of the World (wordpress.com)

References

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1972, 1976

Haralick, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Jason Aronson Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1995

Peterson, Eugene H., The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1993, 2002, 2018

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

No Field Lies Fallow

05 Monday Jun 2023

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Hello, Readers, and welcome to a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I ended last week’s post by asking how did all I had said in that post relate to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares?  If you have not read last week’s post, A Vast Inheritance, I recommend doing so before continuing on.  If you are ready for my answer to that question, my answer is “Fruit”.  More specifically, the life of Jesus Christ manifested in us His people of which “fruit” in the scriptures is representative.

Let me explain.

First, I must review some bits of Dora Van Assen’s interpretation of this parable which kicked off my study.  Ms. Van Assen points out Matthew 13:35 quotes Psalm 78:2 saying, “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world”.  It is her conviction that, in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus is describing what happened in the Garden of Eden when sin entered into the plan of God.  Ms. Van Assen says the wheat in the parable represents the good thoughts and spiritual understanding planted in the mind of Adam by the Spirit of God while the tares represent evil thoughts and carnal understanding sown into the mind of Adam by the Adversary.  Ms. Van Assen goes on to say these two types of thoughts caused a duality within the mind of Adam which led him to fall into a carnal mind.  This dual mind was capable of bringing forth a harvest of a certain kind of man.  Ms. Van Assen stresses that the “battlefield is in the mind!” (See Kingdom Bible Studies article linked below).

I’ve been meditating on this for weeks now and a passage in James came to the forefront of my mind: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).

This has always been a difficult passage for me to understand although I have obeyed the command in it and asked God for wisdom.  I am convinced the wisdom we need is immediately ours, after all it is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation who lives in us.  And yet, I am also convinced that, in some cases; that wisdom takes time to be fully realized.  Like building a house, strong foundations must first be laid.  That was my experience with this passage.  There have been glimmers of understanding as I have studied other passages and then, during the weeks of this study on The Parable, I came across a teaching by Don Keathley called “You Ain’t Double-Minded”.  I was instantly uncomfortable because that title seemed to be refuting the Book of James but I was also curious.  I clicked the link. (It’s excellent: I’ve linked Part One below)

Within the first few minutes, Mr. Keathley said something that grasped my attention.  He was describing the Garden of Eden and the various trees growing in it, especially the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He pointed out there was only one Garden.  There were two Trees growing in it but they grew together in the same Garden.  This is the same picture as both wheat and tares growing in the same field and it made me wonder just what “double-minded” really meant in the Greek.

The Greek word used in James 1:8 is dipsuchos (G1374) and means “two-spirited, vacillating (in opinion or purpose), double-minded”.  The word is formed of dis (G1364) meaning “twice, again” and psuche (G5590) which means “breath, spirit, life, mind, soul”.  The Greek Lexicon of the New Testament defines it as “double-headed people who stagger helplessly here and there in their thinking” and “to be uncertain about the truth of something, doubting, hesitating.” 

 I have heard this passage used against those who doubt their belief in God.  The encouragement is to trust your leader and don’t ask questions.  I am convinced this is not what James is saying.  He begins his sentence with “if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God”.  A knowing and trusting of God must already be in place before anyone dares ask Him anything and that knowing and trusting is what James is telling us not to doubt. If we carry around false ideas of who God is and do not think He is trustworthy, odds are we won’t ask Him anything at all. If we did, how could we possibly receive anything from Him because, would we even recognize it? It all comes down to which spiritual influences we are allowing to sow seeds in the fields of our minds.  We must take care because there are many false ideas of who God is and many willing and waiting to sow those ideas in our minds. 

The Knowledge of the nature of God is what I believe is represented by the wheat and the tares.  My studies have brought me across some interesting facts about the darnel which is believed to the tare mentioned in Jesus’ parable.  The seeds of the darnel are poisonous.  Small quantities do actually have some medical benefit and have been used internally to treat dizziness, insomnia, and stomach problems and externally as a poultice to treat skin problems like shingles and ulcers.  The official name of the darnel, L. temulentum comes from a Latin word for “drunk” and, although bread made with darnel seed mixed with wheat is bitter to the taste, both bread and beer have been made with darnel deliberately included to give a special kick.  It’s a dangerous seed to play with though consumption of the darnel in greater quantities causes some of the same symptoms it has been used to treat and can be deadly.  It is a soporific poison causing a sleep that results in death.  It can also cause convulsions leading to death.

The seeds of the darnel are almost indistinguishable from wheat in seed form.  No one deliberately sows darnel in a wheat field and its presence in the field is often not known until the stalks produce fruit.  Then, the wheat and tares are so clearly distinguishable one from the other that a child can go into a field and separate one from the other.  When Don Keathley’s message got me thinking about the Garden of Eden, I remembered the lie used by the Serpent to deceive Eve.  It wasn’t encouragement to lie or cheat or steal or murder or drink or smoke cigarettes or anything else deemed a “sin” by various religious denominations.  The lie that brought sin into the plan of God was to believe a wrong thing about God.  The lie suggested He wasn’t trustworthy and that humankind was better off determining good and evil for themselves.  This same lie is present with us today and such false ideas about God are often difficult to discern because there is a touch of truth to them.   

A passage I’ve quoted portions of in a couple previous posts is 1 John 5.  The last verse of Chapter 5 and thus the entire Epistle, is “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen.”  Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament renders this verse as, “Little children (born ones) keep yourselves in custody (or: guarded)!-away from the idols (the external appearances; the forms; or: = false concepts)!  Going back to the passage in James, “such a man is double-minded, unstable in all his ways.”  Keeping false ideas of God in our minds might feel good and even exciting but their fruit is death.

How do we guard ourselves from false concepts of God when the wheat and the tares in seed form are indistinguishable from each other?  How do we know whether or not the ones we are listening to are false teachers?  Jesus answered this in Matthew 7:15: “You will know them by their fruits.” 

An article I found on the Jewish Virtual Library says the darnel seed, while harmful to humans, is not harmful to birds, especially doves.  I tried to verify this with other articles and, while I did find a few that mentioned the seeds not being harmful to birds such as ducks or chickens, the original article (quoting the Mishnah in Kilayim) is the only source stating specifically the darnel seed is not harmful to doves.  I still found it interesting because it is the Holy Spirit is often represented as a dove in the Bible.  This thought brings me such comfort because, no matter how many times tares have been sown into the field of my life, they have not harmed the Spirit within me nor hindered His work in any way.

There have been many times when I have found myself in a situation where the seeds sown in the field of my life have been a mix of wheat and tares: false concepts of God that appeared to be the truth and I could not separate between the two.  At first, I could not distinguish between the fruit either and I ate of mixed bread.  There was euphoric moments I thought were proof of the moving of the Holy Spirit but these moments were always mixed with bitterness.  As I have continued to be guided by the Holy Spirit and have tasted His fruit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control-I quickly became able to distinguish the fruit of the tares from that of the wheat.

That is, of course, not good enough.  No field lies fallow and discerning what type of fruit is growing in the field does nothing to increase either the health of the field or the field’s yield. I want there to be no tares at all sown in the field of my life but the fact remains the seeds of one are almost indistinguishable from the other: I cannot prevent tares on my own.  No matter: the seeds of the tares do not harm the dove who is the Holy Spirit.  He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation lavished upon us by a God of Love who pours out His Spirit even before we ask.  We ask knowing our God, trusting in His love, and assured that what we ask for is ours already.  He is our guide within and He alone reveals to us Jesus who is the Face of God. The Holy Spirit is the only way to distinguish the seed of the wheat from that of the tare.

He guides us into all Truth and we can trust that the One who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah!  Amen. 

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES: THE FIRSTFRUITS, THE HARVEST, AND THE VINTAGE by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

What Does Tares Mean? Bible Definition and References (biblestudytools.com)

Tares – WebBible Encyclopedia – ChristianAnswers.Net

Tares (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)

Darnel Ryegrass Plant Care & Growing Basics: Water, Light, Soil, Propagation etc. | PlantIn (myplantin.com)

A Short Summary on our Botanical Knowledge of Lolium Temlentum L.

Bearded Darnel – Medicinal Herb Info

Bearded Darnel – Medicinal Herb Info

 You Ain’t Double Minded – Don Keathley – YouTube

Danker, Frederick William, Walter Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Green, Jay P. Sr., The Interlinear Bible, Volume 4, Authors For Christ, Inc., Lafayette, Indiana, 1976, 1985

Mitchell, Jonathan, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2019

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

A Vast Inheritance

29 Monday May 2023

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Welcome, Everyone, to this week’s new post on Renaissance Woman!

I had thought He Loves the World would be the last in my current study on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and would also serve as a good segue into my study on the Full Armor of God.  And yet, when I looked at my notes, I found I had more to say.  Therefore, this week I am continuing my look at the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and Jesus’ explanation of the parable as found in the 13th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.

Last week I looked at the Greek word translated “world” in Jesus’ words: “The field is the world.”  That word is kosmos and I shared a few passages of scripture where the word kosmos occurs.  One such passage was 1 Corinthians 11:32 which says, “But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (kosmos).”  The Apostle Paul is speaking specifically of the Lord’s Supper when he writes this but I do want to take a look at the ideas of judgment and condemnation within the context of other scriptures.

The main interpretations of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares say the Wheat and Tares represent two different types of people who are being left alone to grow together-either within the church itself or the world-until some future day when the tares are gathered together to be burned in the furnace and the wheat is gathered into the barn.  Sometimes declared but always inferred is some far off day of judgment where unbelievers are condemned and believers receive their reward.  My biggest problem with this is that the Nowness of our day to day lives is utterly ignored. 

Let us consider John 3:18-21 which says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world (kosmos) and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

This is not a passage I have ever heard a sermon on nor do I hear it quoted by fellow believers.  The message is clear.  Those who do not believe are condemned already.  The words Jesus spoke were true for everyone who listened to Him then and they are true for us now.  And, we are not left to wonder what He meant by condemnation: “and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

There is an echo of this statement later in John’s Gospel in the record of Jesus’ conversation in the upper room before his betrayal and crucifixion.  Speaking of the Holy Spirit, He says, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:8-11).  There is a “not yet but in the immediate future” idea to these words of Jesus because the Spirit was not yet given because He had not been glorified (See John 7:39).  That future Jesus was referring to was NOW during the day of Pentecost.  Peter quotes the Prophet Joel in Acts 2 saying “I will pour out of My spirit on all flesh”.  The Spirit has been poured out, continues to be poured out, and the time to which Jesus was referring began then and continues into our now.  The Holy Spirit is here and now the very presence of God on the earth and He is convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. 

Sin, righteousness, judgment, condemnation…all of these are concepts deserving of devoted studies.  The point I am attempting to stress is the truth of Now.  So much of what I see and hear coming out of Christendom pushes everything off until some far off future.  This is only possible because of the marginalization-and in some cases outright denial-of the active presence of the Holy Spirit in the newness of our lives.  There is a circulating doctrine that the activity of the Spirit has ceased.  Any gifts were merely to authenticate the ministry of the Apostles and, once the Bible was completed, there was no more any use for them or, indeed, the Holy Spirit Himself (See article linked below).  I suppose that is why the best some denominations have to offer is a promise that, if you believe in Jesus now; you get to go to heaven when you die.

Does the Bible really say that?  I haven’t been able to find a passage issuing me that promise.  What I have found is 1 John 5:10-12: “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.  And this is the testimony; that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”  This sounds like a Now promise to me: not one I have to wait until some far off second coming nor experience physical death before I can claim it.

There are also passages like 1 Peter 1:3-9 which says, ““Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious that gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.  Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith-the salvation of your souls.” 

This passage-and others like it-do speak of a future date of perfection, fullness, receiving a body like His, the restitution of all things, an inheritance reserved in heaven, etc.  It’s obvious we don’t have everything promised now because how many of us are walking around in bodies that can’t die?  I do agree there is so much yet to come but that doesn’t mean we stagnate now.  We believers are not a group of thumb-twiddlers waiting for some far off day when ZAP! Fullness of God is ours.  Our inheritance might be reserved in heaven but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t already exist in its entirety and, I would point out, we are of One Spirit with Jesus Christ and we are seated with Him in Heavenly places.  Who is to say this inheritance is not ours now to appropriate and enjoy?

Jesus also says of the Holy Spirit that, when He comes, He will both “honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you” (John 16:14, Amplified).  What is the “mine” that Jesus is speaking of? Let us read verse 15 also: “Everything the Father has is Mine.  That is what I meant when I said the He will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) them to you” (Amplified).  Wow!  If that is true, and I would not dare call my Savior a liar, then just what are the limits to how we can live now?  What if there aren’t any?

You may be wondering how all of this relates to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and, to answer that, I need another post.

Until then, let us not be robbed of what is ours now but may the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, open the eyes of our understanding that we may know the hope if His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us, the Saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe.  May we understand that He is light and life.  In Him, we have eternal life and we have it right now.

To be continued…

References

Understanding Cessationism from a… | Zondervan Academic

Greek Tenses Explained – Ezra Project

Hellenistic Greek: Lesson 9: The First Aorist

The Comparative Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Rethinking the Interpretation

08 Monday May 2023

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Hello!  Welcome to another week and another post on Renaissance Woman!

This week I am continuing in my study on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares found in Matthew Chapter 13 verses 24-30 and the explanation of said parable found in verses 36-43 of the same Chapter.  The explanation of the parable as given by Jesus is this (beginning in verse 37): “He answered and said to them: ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.  The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.  Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.  The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.  There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’”

This explanation is interpreted by most Christian denominations as a description of some far off end of time when Jesus returns to earth.  Then the believers will be separated from the unbelievers with the believers going to heaven and the unbelievers go into everlasting torment.  I can see where this interpretation comes from, especially for those of us who grew up reading the King James Version where the passage about the harvest is translated into English as “the harvest is the end of the world” instead of translating it as “the harvest is the end of the age” as a great many more modern translations have it.  I covered “the end of the age” in last week’s post so will only reiterate Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension was a definitive end of an age.  With the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the age of the New Covenant began.  I don’t see there is any reason to push off into some vague future the explanation and promises given by Jesus regarding this parable.

There is also no need to think of the “angels” mentioned in Jesus’ explanation as celestial beings.  The Greek word is aggelos (G32) and means simply “messenger”.  Any person who comes to someone bearing a message from another is an angel.  Bike messengers could be called “bike angels” and it wouldn’t be misusing the word.  That is not to say the “angels” who appear throughout scripture are not sometimes celestial beings but I am saying we should take care and not assume what a passage of scripture is saying.  The pictures formed in our minds will take root and produce fruit.  They will affect how we see ourselves, how we see others, and how we behave toward others.  Therefore, we must take great care as we seek to interpret and understand passages.

For example; the Book of Revelation contains an angel that is not a celestial being.  This angel has guided John through all of his visions and John writes; “Now I, John saw and heard these things.  And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.  Then he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that.  For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book.  Worship God’” (Rev. 22:8-9).  “That’s all well and good,” you might be thinking, “but that’s Revelation and we’re talking about Matthew”.  And you would be correct.  However, it is important that we compare any interpretation of scripture with other passages of scripture.  If there is a conflict or a contradiction, then we must rethink our interpretation.

I find this parable and its explanation are compared to other scriptures when those interpreting it are insisting the wheat and tares are two different types of people and that “burned in the fire” means everlasting torment in hell.  What I do not find is this parable and explanation being compared to other scriptures in a positive Christ-alive-in-us now affirming way.  What if we look at this parable and its explanation in comparison with the words of Jesus in John 4:35-38?

The passage in John says, “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’?  Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!  And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.  For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’  I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

Matthew’s gospel records Jesus saying “The harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Mat. 9:37-38).  These words were spoken by Jesus to His disciples just before He sent them to the house of Israel and told them to preach “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

The message I hear proclaimed as the gospel today is “repent, believe Jesus died for your sins, and you will get to go to heaven when you die.”  There is some truth to this but then there was some truth to the Lie told by the Serpent in the Garden of Eden and accepting that lie brought death to all of mankind.  I encourage everyone to look for yourself and try to find any passage anywhere that says “go to heaven when you die.”  John 3:5 does say, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  There is nothing here about needing to die before entering the kingdom.  I have heard some say that being born again means your place in heaven is reserved for after death but that contradicts other passages of scripture.

Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Luke 17:20b-21 records Jesus saying, “The Kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed the Kingdom of God is within you.”  The Apostle Paul describes the Kingdom of God as “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).  (There is the question which asks whether the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are the same thing: I’ve shared two articles below.  I encourage you to ask that question and seek the answer for yourself) The Bible is clear.  The message was “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” and with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it IS ours NOW!  I encourage everyone to ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your understanding and then read the New Testament paying close attention to everything it says is ours In Christ now.  Today.     

 I recently came across a book titled The Rapture Exposed by Barbara R. Rossing.  In her first chapter, Ms. Rossing writes, “To be sure, God’s presence in our world is often difficult to see.  We live in an in-between time-the time between the “already” of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and the “not yet” of his second Coming” (Rossing, Page 12).  The New Testament is also clear that all that Jesus did for us by His life, death, and resurrection has resulted in a glorious inheritance of which the Holy Spirit is the down payment (Ephesians 1:14).  But what a down payment He is!

What are the limits to this down payment?  Are we bound by the interpretation we have been subjected to of both this Parable and Jesus’ explanation?  This interpretation tells you the wheat and tares growing in the same field is just the state of things until Jesus returns, there is no harvest until then, the reapers are the angels-meaning celestial beings-and all we can do is wait for the day when we (hopefully) will be gathered into the barn and everyone who is a tare will be burned in hell for all eternity.  What if the New Testament is telling us the truth and we can grow up into Him who is the head?  What if we truly are being transformed by the renewing of our minds and are, now, being transformed into His image from glory to glory?  

I plan to continue to look at this parable and its explanation next week.  I hope this post has encouraged to you question everything you have been taught about this parable and its explanation.  I pray for all of you and for myself that we would not be cheated of our reward by those who delight in false humility and worship of angels and who intrude into those things which they have not seen, being vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds (Colossians 2:18).  Let us all ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes that we would explore the unsearchable riches of Christ and that we would see we have boldness and access with confidence to the Father through our faith in Jesus.  May we each one be strengthened in our inner man (or woman!) that we may be able to comprehend what is the width and length and depth and height of everything that is ours in Christ Jesus.  Let us each one know the love of Christ which passes knowledge and may we each one be filled (now!) with the fullness of God.  (See Ephesians 3:8-19).

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

The Comparative Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Rossing, Barbara R., The Rapture Exposed, Basic Books, Perseus Books Group, New York, New York, 2004, Page 12

Strong, James, LL,D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Continued Reading

Are the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven the same?

The Difference Between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven (steppesoffaith.com)

Are the Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven the same? | NeverThirsty

Who was John Darby?

John Nelson Darby | Christian History | Christianity Today

Rapture Doctrine invented by John Darby in 1830 AD (bible.ca)

Times of Harvest

01 Monday May 2023

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Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue to look at the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares.

This parable is found in Matthew 13:24-30.  This same chapter of Matthew records Jesus giving an explanation of the parable in verses 37-43.  I asked several questions in last week’s post and the one I am focusing on this week is what did Jesus mean when He said the harvest is at the end of the age?  There are two main interpretations of this parable in Christian circles and both say the “end of the age” as recorded in verse 39 is referencing a future date when Jesus returns and His angels reap.  I disagree.  For one thing, I don’t agree the wheat and the tares are referring to two different types of people because there is no possibility of conversion between wheat and tare: one cannot become the other.  Knowing this, it makes no sense that the call made by both Jesus and John the Baptist is “Metanoia!” which means “Think differently!” or “Change your mind!”.  I agree with the interpretation of this parable by Dora Van Assen shared by J. Preston Eby in his The Firstfruits, The Harvest, and the Vintage article which I have linked below.

Ms. Van Assen points out that the wheat and the tares did not convert one another and then says she “saw this was not a parable on soul-saving, nor was it an exhortation to scare the heathen or sinning Christians in the church into a conversion, but it was a parable dealing with the inner thought life of the believer himself.”  She goes on to say that the context of the parable shows that Jesus was uttering things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world (Mat. 13:35) and then says she believes this parable is a picture of what happened in the Garden of Eden.  God created mankind and said they were very good but then the enemy enters the garden and sows seeds of the Lie in the minds of our ancestors.  The owner of the field does not allow the bad seed to be yanked out of the ground but rather lets both grow together in the same field, lest the good seed be damaged and the fruit of it lost.  Thus was and has been the state of the carnal mind throughout the generations. Ms. Van Assen says, “The harvest reveals what sort of seed was planted in our earth, and how they have matured in areas of our lives.  Only the mature know the difference!  And only by harvest conditions can the Lord bring the separation.” 

Mr. Eby is quoting Ms. Van Assen’s interpretation within the context of Revelation 14:15-16 and says, “When the Son of man as the crowned Reaper sends His sickle into the earth, all things will have come to full maturity.  The age has witnessed the sowing and growth and development of the Son of man, and also the sowing of the adversary, and there has been no conclusive divine dealing on earth to make manifest the judgment of God as to what has resulted.  But the harvest is the end of the age!”

What Mr. Eby is saying here makes perfect sense because who can deny there doesn’t appear to have been any sort of definitive harvest.  History records great and terrible evils done since Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, and ascension so it follows that the “end of the age” in Matthew 13:39 is referring to some future date.  However, I have found there is enough evidence that the “end of the age” in this passage is referring to the age that ended with Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and the giving of the Holy Spirit.  There are two passages in the book of Hebrews that come to mind. The first is Hebrews 1:1-2 which states, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.”

The Greek word translated as “worlds” in this passage is aion (G165) and means “an age.”  This is a complicated word in the way it has been translated throughout the Bible and is one of the reasons why I suggest everyone who wants to understand what the Bible is really saying get an Interlinear Bible.  The word appears in Jesus’ interpretation of the wheat and tares parable in Matthew 13.  I am going to quote verses 38-40 from the King James Version and include the Greek words for every English occurrence of the word “world”.

“The field is the world (kosmos); the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world (aion); and the reapers are the angels.  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world (aion).”  Reading this in the King James, I can understand why the major interpretations of this parable say this is speaking about a future date when the world is brought to an end because it is obvious the world has not ended.  Other Bible translations have tried to do a better job: the NKJV, Amplified, New American Standard and New International versions all have “age” as a translation for aion but I haven’t seen that these more accurate translations have had much effect on how this parable has been interpreted.

The truth is something much deeper.  My second scripture from the book of Hebrews is 9:26 which states, “…but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”  The Scriptures are clear.  The coming of Jesus in human flesh, His life here on earth, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and the pouring out of His Spirit at Pentecost all heralded the end and consummation of the ages.  There is no reason to think either the parable of the wheat and the tares or the explanation given is describing a state that is continuing on until some future date.

All four gospels record Jesus mentioning the harvest as being ready, ripe, plentiful, and immediate.  Matthew 9:35-38 records Jesus saying to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  John 4:35 says, “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” Luke 10:2 says, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  Mark 4:29 speaks of the ripe harvest within the context of a different parable but says, “…the harvest has come.”

The Book of Acts records times of great harvest.  One the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on those gathered together, “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them” (Acts 2:41).  Acts 4:4 record the number of those who believed coming to be about five thousand.

I believe the scripture record is clear: Jesus was manifested in the consummation of the ages.  There was a great harvest recorded in the book of Acts and I don’t deny there is something greater coming.  “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19).  I do expect something incredible at the end of this age and I don’t quibble with it being referred to as a harvest.  What I do quibble with is the idea that there is only one harvest and it has yet to happen.

If the “harvest at the end of the age” mentioned in Matthew 13:39 is indeed some far off future date then there is no hope for the Christian life except stagnation.  If the wheat and tares representative of thoughts sown in the fields of our hearts and minds, then they both are growing together and there is nothing to be done about it until that far off future date.  I don’t see this is the message of the New Testament.  We are to be “transformed through the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2).  We are to grow up into the Head, that is Christ (Ephesians 4:15).  We are transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Jesus told his disciples His Father was honored and glorified when they produced much fruit (John 15:8).  He also said the branch that abides in Him would bear much fruit and that every branch that bore fruit would be pruned that it would bear more fruit (See John 15:1-2).       

 In 1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul describes us as the people “on whom the end of the ages (aion) has come”.  Jesus was manifested at the consummation of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself but not only to put away sin: He came so that we would have life and that more abundantly (John 10:10).  One of the names of Jesus given in Isaiah 9:6 is “everlasting Father”.  That would be better translated “Father of the Ages” and, again, Hebrews 1:2 states Jesus is the one through whom God made the aions.  Ephesians 1:9-11 states the mystery of the will of God is that in the fullness of time all things are to be consummated in Christ and that we have obtained an inheritance in Him.

In Christ.  All things were created through Him and for Him, He is before all things and in Him all things consist (Colossians 1:16-17).  We believers know that we abide in Him and He in us because of the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:13).  This is the truth now.  We experience time in a linear fashion and so it is easy to look at our daily lives and think we must continue on as we are until some far off future date.  We don’t.  We are in Christ.  Our lives bear fruit now.  The harvest was not some one-time thing in the first days of the early church nor is it something reserved for some far off future.  Every age, past present and future, has its consummation in Christ.

There is still so much to be gleaned from this parable and so I plan to continue studying it next week.  Until then, may the eyes of our understanding continued to be enlightened that we see we are in Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us.  He is the one who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, and will also supply and multiply the seed we have sown and will increase the fruits of our righteousness (2 Corinthians 9:10).

Amen

References

Kindgdom Bible Studies Revelation Series (kingdombiblestudies.org)

The Comparative Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Green, Jay P. Sr., The Interlinear Bible, Volume 4, Authors For Christ, Inc., Lafayette, Indiana, 1976, 1985

Strong, James, LL,D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990