Thursday, August 20, 2015

KILLING SACRED COWS #1 - PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

With this entry, I am starting a series of blog posts addressing beliefs and doctrines that are widely popular in the Church, but I no longer accept them.  I wanted to wait before putting anything out in the public arena, but I have been challenged by a couple of friends to speak up.  One says the Church needs to let go now of wrong doctrine and come into a clearer view of the Truth.  The other one says that not speaking out can have unwanted consequences, as when someone knows of some danger, but they don’t speak out, and other people are hurt by their silence and inaction.

So the gauntlet has been thrown.  I must respond.

Before I even present the first sacred cow, I have a few comments to make:

People do become attached to doctrines, and they let their doctrines define them.  We must overcome this tendency, because that is one that Jesus and the Apostles had to fight when they encountered resistance from religious people.  Now, I am not calling anyone religious, but even believers who diligently seek after Truth can be deceived by doctrine that sounds good.

So, understand this, I AM NOT ATTACKING YOU!  I am only attacking doctrine that is untrue.  If you are a born-again believer, I care about you.  I want you to know the truth.

If you have difficulty reading my comments, please stop reading and go look at something else for a while.  Give your emotions time to cool down.  Then divorce yourself from your emotional attachment to your doctrine and come back.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the first ‘sacred cow’ doctrine up for slaughter:

THE BIBLE SAYS THAT HEAVEN HAS STREETS PAVED WITH GOLD.

Does it really say that?  If so, where?

The passage that is usually cited for this is in Revelation 21: 10 - 22: 5.  Let’s take a close look at it.

“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
   “And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.  And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
   “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.  And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.  And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
   “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
(Rev 21:9-22:5 KJV)

Now, I normally use the New American Standard version, but I will use the KJV this time.  I quoted the entire passage to show that I am not taking things out of context, but I will be looking at details that we often overlook.

Is this passage talking about heaven?  No.  Look at the first two verses:

Rev 21:9 "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.  (10)  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,"

Notice what the angel said he would show John, and also notice what John said he saw.

The angel said he would show John the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.  No mention of heaven there.

John said he saw the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending OUT OF heaven and coming from God.  Okay, this verse mentions heaven, but it clearly states it is not talking about all of heaven, just the city of Jerusalem.

We often call this the New Jerusalem, but that name is not given in this passage.  However, in Rev. 21:2, John said he saw the city of New Jerusalem coming down OUT OF heaven.  In both verses, 2 and 9, the terms “coming down” and “descending” come from the same Greek word, ‘katabaino.’  This word always carries the idea of downward movement.  In other places, it is rendered as come, go, get, step, or fall down.  What the angel showed John was a city leaving heaven.

But, what is this passage really talking about?  It’s not talking about a place, it’s talking about a people - THE CHURCH!

What is a city without people?  It is just a place that has a lot of unoccupied buildings, or the ruins and remnants of buildings.

I live in Kiefer, Oklahoma.  Despite being a small town, it played a big role in the development of Tulsa from a small city on the Arkansas River into the one-time Oil Capitol of the World.  But Kiefer is not just a place, it is people.  Without people, Kiefer would be a ghost town.  The state of Oklahoma has many such towns.  All you will find of some of them is a road sign that indicates where the town once was, but people may still refer to that area by the name of the town.  Kiefer is not the town it once was, but it is definitely not a ghost town!

Now, when I pay my city utility bill for gas, sewer, and trash service, I take my bill and a check over to city hall, and a PERSON there will take my check, stamp the bill, detach the stub and hand it back to me.  If I were to report a crime in my neighborhood, the Kiefer Police will show up to investigate.  If I report a fire, volunteer firefighters from Kiefer will come to put out the fire.

I guess you get my point by now:  People make a place into a city, and not the place that makes a people.

But who are these people that John is talking about?  They are us, The Church!

For a moment, let us consider these verses:

“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”
Rom 7:1-4 KJV 

This passage tells us that we are married to Christ.  But is that individually, or collectively?  Or both?  It is both!

Now, we know from Pastor Dave Roberson’s teaching on the Born Again Trail, that Romans 7 is talking about a Jew who is not born again and is still under the Law of Moses.  These verses then show us that Jews who are born again are no longer under, or married, to the Law of Moses.  They are now married to Christ.

But what about Gentile believers?  Aren’t we married to Christ also?  Yes we are!

Now, consider Galatians 3.  I won’t quote the whole chapter here because I need to make you do your own homework anyway, so go read it now, and come back.  I will direct your attention to verses 6 - 9 and 26 - 28.

Paul wrote this letter to Christians in Galatia who had been seduced into subjecting themselves to the Law of Moses.  To free them from this false responsibility, Paul made the following points:

1. Salvation, healing, and the miraculous works of the Spirit come through faith, not Law.

2. Abraham operated in faith before the Law, and those who operate in faith share in Abraham‘s blessings.

3. The Law was temporarily added to Abraham’s covenant because of man’s sin nature, and the Law was a tutor to point people, especially Jews, towards Christ.

4. If you are in Christ, you do not need the Law to obtain or even maintain your relationship with God, no matter who you are, and you are not only God’s child, you are Abraham’s child as well, and a participant in Abraham’s covenant.

Therefore, if God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile for those who are in Christ, and if born-again Jews are married to Christ, then born-again Gentiles are also married to Him.

(Side note - a marriage is also a covenant.)

Okay, so I’ve talked about us being married to Christ, but what does that have to do with the city of New Jerusalem being the Church?  Look at Eph. 5: 22 - 32:

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.   For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.   Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;   That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.  He that loveth his wife loveth himself.  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

This passage makes quite clear that The Church = The Bride of Christ.  Now, consider that Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians were written BEFORE Revelations.  The Apostle John, having lived in Ephesus towards the end of the first century, must have known what Paul had already written concerning The Church being The Bride of Christ.  So, when the angel told John about the Bride of the Lamb, John immediately knew he would be seeing The Church.

In case you need me to spell it out more clearly:

The Bride = The Wife of The Lamb = The City of New Jerusalem

Jesus Christ = The Lamb

Therefore

The Bride, The Wife of The Lamb = The Bride of Christ = The New Jerusalem = The Church

So, the image of The City of New Jerusalem is a symbolic representation of the Church.  I won’t go into details of what each item represents, except for one, but I need to say one more thing about this in context.

Consider the first 3 verses of Rev. 21 -

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

John saw The New Jerusalem AFTER the creation of The New Heaven and The New Earth.  The New Jerusalem is a picture of The Church in The New Creation, after The Millennium!  In this City of New Jerusalem, God is going to come to live with us!

Now, let’s take a closer look at Rev. 21:21:

“And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”

Ok, now we are getting around to the “Streets of Gold.”  But did you take a really close look at the second half of that sentence?  It doesn’t say “streets“, it says “STREET!”

And the verse doesn’t even mention pavement.  You can have a street without pavement.  Ever see a Western?, Not many paved streets in the Old West back then.  You can also have a pavement without a street.  Most parking lots are paved.  Modern cities usually require parking lots to have a sealed or paved surface.

So, the STREET of The New Jerusalem is not paved with gold, it is gold!

The Greek word translated “street” is ‘platus’ or ‘plateia.’  It means a wide road, street or place.  I haven’t searched it out yet, but this word might have been adapted into Latin and Spanish, and become the basis for the English word “plaza.”

Now, consider the dimensions of The New Jerusalem.  Here I will refer to the NASV, because it has already converted the dimensions into modern measurements.

Rev 21:15-16 NASV  "The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.  (16)  The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal."

Now, this describes a cube.  The length of each edge of each side of the cube is 1,500 miles long.

Let’s consider what these measurements would mean if this were a physical cube.

The Contiguous 48 States, also known as the Lower 48 by people in Alaska, is about 3,000 miles across.  Placing a 1,500 mile x 1,500 mile x 1,500 mile cube on top of those states would cover half of that area, extend well up into Canada, and reach well into outer space.  For reference, the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere where weather occurs, is only 12 miles thick at the equator, and 6 miles high at the North and South Poles.

Imagine that, a city that would cover most of North America, it extends well beyond the atmosphere, and it has ONLY ONE STREET?!?

Still think that this passage is describing a physical city?

Like I said, I would describe only one of the symbolic representations in the passage about the City of New Jerusalem.  I’m not going to blast away a false doctrine without bringing out Truth to replace it.

What does this “street of gold” represent?  It represents the divine nature of The Church, or the born again spirits of believers who make up the City of New Jerusalem. 

In the Bible, God set much of the symbolism in the Old Testament, especially in the Tabernacle of Moses.

The Tabernacle of Moses itself was a tent with two chambers, and that was surrounded by an outer court.  The two chambers were the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

The only metals used in the outer court were bronze and silver, and no gold was used or seen in the outer court.  Gold was the only metal used inside the two chambers of the Tabernacle, where the priests would minister in or before God’s presence.  Every piece of furniture there was either made entirely of gold, or completely covered with gold.  Therefore, gold is closely associated with God’s presence, and represents divine nature.

If you want a more in depth explanation of the symbolism incorporated into the Tabernacle of Moses, I can recommend a book, Let Us Draw Near, by Judson Cornwall.

Now, what about the people who died, went to heaven, and then came back, or they had a dream or vision of heaven, and they describe what they had seen as matching the popular doctrine?  I don’t care what they had seen.  I’m not going to deny that they saw what they said they had seen, but I’m not going to base doctrine on what anyone SAYS he has seen if it doesn’t measure up to the Word.

Col 2:18-19 NASV  "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,  (19)  and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God."

Now, I am not dismissing teaching visions and dreams.  These help to explain and clarify Scripture, but not establish doctrine.

I know that many songs have been written about heaven, and they often mention streets of gold, but I remember hearing only one song from long ago that almost got it right.  That song said that heaven will be heaven because Jesus will be there.  Actually, Jesus is already there.  He is also here, and in our hearts as well.

Now, one final issue to examine concerning this doctrine: Just how dangerous is it?  What harm is there in believing that heaven has streets paved with gold?

At the very least, it is a distraction that draws attention away from Jesus.  Ever hear of that accusation made against some believers that they are so heavenly-minded that they are no earthly good, meaning that they are so focused on heaven that they will neglect even the most basic earthly needs of others?  The appeal of walking on "streets of gold" blinds them to the needs of people around them.   I remember hearing of someone on a missionary trip that tried to hand out Bibles to an impoverished area, but the people refused them saying, “We can’t eat your Bibles.”  That does not measure up to the example of Jesus, Who healed, delivered, and even fed multitudes.

At the worst, this doctrine reflects carnal thinking that allows believers to accept or continue to believe other false doctrine.  Too many believers today have an escapist mentality fed by beliefs like this.  Who wouldn’t want to escape a dreary or dreadful life of poverty, hunger, sickness, injury or violence to go live in a mansion in a city with streets of gold?  No wonder so many people also fall for the false prosperity teachings, for they too are carnal doctrines that offer people an easy escape from their woes.  Acceptance of one carnal doctrine makes acceptance of other carnal doctrines easier.

And speaking of escapism, wait until I get into Sacred Cow Doctrine #2!

1 comment:

Doug Lee said...

A printable version of this post is available here:

https://www.dropbox.com/pri/get/KillingSacredCows1.pdf?_subject_uid=677891513&w=AAA4UHL9WA9rUOZTmCQPSXjbQtjQYzysZ_kQhBkD5R5zJA