Citizenship of Heaven

                                                     

 " For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." 

-Phillipians 3:20-21

      Chapter 3 of Philippians is a passage where the Apostle Paul is talking to the church in Phillippi about the goal of the Christian life and how we should press on despite our struggles.In this same chapter we get the passage quoted at the top. This passage by itself has relevance, but it has no background.

Phillipi is located north of Greece in Macedonia. It was founded by Phillip II, Alexander the Great's father and consequently bears his name.

      You may have previously read the blog post Ides of March where Julius Caesar was discussed, and how on March 15th 44BC he was brutally assassinated. This assassination left the Roman world in chaos, but by November of the next year (43 BC) the 2nd Triumvirate (rule of three men) had come to power. Mark Antony was the senior leader, Augustus was next, and also a man named Marcus Lepidus. One of the first things these men did was hunt down the assassins of Julius Caesar. They caught up with them in northern Greece and they had a battle at Phillipi where Brutus and Cassius, the 2 generals of the opposing force were killed.


    Later, when Augustus had taken full power and became Rome's first Emperor he set up Phillipi as a monumental city to remember the defeat of the Assassins. William John Conybeare in his book The Life and Epistles of St. Paul says Phillipi was "gifted by Augustus with the privileges of colonia (colony). It thus became at once a border garrison of the province of Macedonia and a perpetual memorial of his victory over Brutus".  The accolades the city got from the Emperor and the citizenship they received were very important and made them proud. Citizenship in the Roman world was a big deal and not something to be treated lightly. Often men would serve over 20 years in the army for a piece of land and the right to call themselves citizens.


    The Apostle's point was clear to the audience he was speaking to. Yes, Roman citizenship is highly sought after, but being a Christian means we are a citizen of heaven. That is something we should treasure!


-Jason

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                               The Liar's Paradox in the Bible

      When you read the books written by the Apostle Paul you realize you are reading a very well educated man. He was a Pharisee trained under Gamaliel, one of the most famous Jewish Rabbis.  He also knew Greek and was obviously familiar with Greek writings as well. One of these examples is found in the book of Titus. Titus was a younger disciple, who was sent to Crete and here Paul is teaching him through a letter. Suddenly in the text we get this weird passage.

 ¹⁰ "For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, ¹¹ who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. ¹² One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.' ¹³ This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith". (Titus 1:10-13)

This is a map that shows where Crete is. An island found right off the coast of Greece and Turkey.

     The reason this is called the Liar's Paradox is because if a man is from Crete and says that all men from Crete are liars; how can you know if he is telling the truth or not? A paradox simply means 1 of 2 things:       1) The statement is false because it is impossible 2) It seems contradictory, but in reality expresses a truth that is not easy to see or understand.

     Let's begin with Paul. Is he showing his true colors as a racist here? Would he dump a whole group of people together as all good-for-nothings? No of course not! If we are to understand what is going on, we must make an attempt to figure out what he is talking about when he says "One of themselves, a prophet of their own said 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.' "  (By the way, yes....if you are from Crete you are by definition a Cretan. I know you were wondering about that.) Now back to our story.
Who was this guy Paul came up with to quote?

     Somewhere around 600 BC there was a man named Epimenides. He was supposed to have been a prophet, a miracle worker, a vision seer, and a poet. This poet part is the most important here because it is why the Apostle quotes him. How exactly does a man get away with saying his entire country is full of liars however? According to A.P. Staff in an article at the Apologetics Press website

"The first step in understanding this alleged contradiction is to realize that Epimenides was a poet. Poets, playwrights, and other writers sometimes use a literary technique known as hyperbole, which is a deliberate exaggeration used to make a point. To say that “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons,” is to say that the Cretan society as a whole was immoral and decadent, not necessarily that every single individual in that society was a liar, evil beast, or lazy glutton."

      It is not a new phenomenon in the history of the world to think the time we live in is the most corrupt time ever. People often refer to ideas of how their childhood was better or how the up and coming generation is worse. The truth is that there have always been people who say this. People over the ages may live in a different world, but the traits of what makes man a human are always basically the same. When someone says something to the effect of "Young people today don't respect their elders" they do not mean every single individual, but use these terms as blankets to generalize the whole group.

     Now that we have found out what the poet meant, lets look at the social impact of statements like this. If you tell someone something over and over again it becomes very hard to fight it. In a way it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a man sees his entire country and everyone in it as liars, why should he be anything else? After all it is expected of him.  This was the challenge Titus faced. How should he deal with a people that have been told there whole lives they are liars and no good? What should he do to overcome a national stereo-type they had created?

     The next verse in Titus is Paul telling him to "reprove them severely, so that they may be sound in the faith."   This is a concept Christians should be familiar with. When you reprove someone you are not criticizing to be mean, but to help them grow.  It means be tough with someone who is harsh with themselves, but do it in a way they know you love them. I would call it "Tough Love." Being the good guy isn't always fun!

-Jason


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                                   Finding the Beginning of the Alphabet

     Every time you write a word you are practicing the skill of writing. This skill is based on words that transfer thoughts from the writer to the reader, but the question is.....where did we get this alphabet that helps us communicate in the written word?

    Most European languages such as English, French, Spanish etc. all have the same or very similar letters. The reason for this is because they come directly from Latin. The Latins developed this form of the alphabet sometimes around the 5th century BC and spread it from Italy throughout the Mediterranean world as far England in the west to modern day Iraq in the east.  However, the alphabet itself is far older. When we go back as far as we can, we find the earliest form of the alphabet we use being practiced by a group of people called the Phoenicians.  These people were sea-faring merchants (related to the Canaanites of the Bible) who used the alphabet to keep records of their goods. As they expanded across the Mediterranean Sea they came into contact with the Greeks. Now the Greeks were interested in this language but they had a problem with it. There were no vowels. A Phoenician would just know where the vowels belong because he grew up speaking it, but it didn't work the same when the alphabet was used by another language. For example: "Whr d th vwls blng n ths sntnc?"  Makes for a head ache. Even if you can figure it out, it still causes issues like "should this be an 'a' or an 'e' here?"

     The Greeks then took this alphabet and added vowels to the 22 Phoenician letters and merged some of the others into a 24 letter system. Also as a consequence of the Greek tinkering the first two letters "Alpha" and "Beta" were used to name the "Alpha-bet(a)". [ If you were wondering, the Hebrew alphabet is actually called the "Alefbet" after its first two letters "Alef" and "Bet".]   From there a people from northern Italy called the Etruscans took the alphabet and changed it a little more and passed it on to the Romans who set the modern day alphabet into its primary form.

 This is the Greek alphabet, notice the similarities between it and English are there despite the odd looking letters.

     Keep in mind that Arabic does not follow this pattern. Arabic's roots come out of the Semitic languages, such as Hebrew, Phoenician and Canaanite etc. While our alphabet was making its way through the Greek and Latin languages, Arabic and Hebrew were on a completely different path.This shows us that alphabets that look as different as English and Arabic can in fact have the same basis.  Finally another path to consider is Russian. While the Russian alphabet also went from Phoenician into Greek it never made its way through Rome. Somewhere in the 900s A.D. the Christian church in Constantinople sent a missionary named Cyrus to Russia. There he found the people had no written language and he wanted to teach them the Bible in their own tongue. To accomplish this Cyrus formed a new alphabet based on Greek that was its own unique style. This was later dubbed the Cyrillic Alphabet and it explains why Russian looks so foreign to western eyes, but in reality it is pretty close to Greek.

 This is the Hebrew alphabet, which is very close to what the ancient Phoenician would have been like, although languages do tend to change over 4,000 years. Also, the reason the A is on the right is because Hebrew is read from right to left.

I hope you enjoyed our little tour of the alphabet, I have opened up the comments section where anyone can post now as long as you tell the drop down menu "Anonymous". Don't use that as an excuse to not leave your name however. Also feel free to leave questions or thoughts as well.

-Jason
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                            How Does This Affect Me?

     Have you ever noticed that everybody has certain subjects they just hate. Ask them "What subjects in school did you like?" and part of that answer is almost certain to be "Well I liked this but... I just hated math, English, history..." or some other subject.  I was always under the impression that the reason people don't like these fields of study was because they had bad teachers. These teachers just didn't teach them to enjoy the subjects. This is true to an extent but, there is more to it. I think I have found another layer behind this mentality of being mortified by whole fields of study.

     Lacking a proper name for it, I shall call it the "Mentality of Relativity". Now what in the world do I mean by this?  Well, relativity simply means that we humans like to know how the things we put into our minds relate to us. No one wants to fill his/her mind with useless mental garbage. We require a reason for needing the information.  My mind struggles with the idea of why I  hear people tell me they don't like history. Really? You don't like history because you don't think it relates to your life? Yet you are okay with filling your brain with anything from Twilight to Southpark?  I really had problems with Christians telling me this...I mean after all, the first 2/3rds of the Bible have a LOT of history in them. The reality of it though is that it is all about your mindset; hence the "mentality" word.  When we mentally decide something is useless to us we want nothing to do with it. Even if something is entertaining then it has some value to us, but if something is neither practical nor entertaining why should we waste our gray matter? This is a very legitimate question that almost all high school students ask their algebra teachers after all.

    Suppose we were to change the way we teach history, math, English etc. to kids (and adults for that matter) and we added extra stress to how the subject relates to them. Would we would have better results? When we teach that the reason we study history is "so we don't make the same mistakes of the past." that's fine, but how many people regularly read about World War 2 and say to themselves "Next time I take over a country, I won't exterminate the Jews." No, of course not! Very few of us will ever have major political issues like that confront us in our lives so that lesson becomes useless. History in fact is more than that. It is the story of mankind. It teaches us where we came from and why we do the things we do. It explains traditions and why certain cultures act differently from one another. On top of that the people we read about show us over and over again that they had the same emotions, ideas, fears and dreams that we do today. Sure their worlds were a little different, but the personalities of people are always the same. When you read a good book or watch one of your favorite movies the things you remember are the moments when you see the humanity of the characters. They overcome their trials and inspire us to be the best we can be. This is the true story of history. Man's eternal struggle with facing this world and historians were the guys( and sometimes gals) nice enough to write it down for us.

This is the scene from Gladiator where Maximus reveals himself to the Emperor and says:

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the northern Armies, faithful and loyal servant to the true emperor Marcus Aurelius, husband to a murdered wife, father to a murdered son, and i will have my revenge, in this life or the next.

     This is the kind of language we all understand. It is experiencing the bad things in life and struggling to find a way to keep going.



      If we really want to be our best we should at least examine why we irrationally hate specific types of learning. I for example have always hated math, but I am trying to look at it with fresh eyes and understand a lot of people love it.  Who knows, maybe I am missing out on a great world because I never had someone teach me how it could be useful to me. More importantly though, whatever it is you love you must learn to teach it to others in a way that they grasp it not only with their minds, but also with their hearts!

-Jason

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Intentional Change

     I always think of experiences people have (myself included) where we have this great event happen and swear our lives will forever change. Then we pledge all these drastic changes....but come next week, or sometime in the not-to-distant future we go back to just how we were living  as if nothing had ever happened.  That is not an experience I would ever encourage, sure it's great, but it's usually not real. Should someone actually want to improve their life they must not think of having big events that change it, but a slow, methodical, and most importantly an intentional change. Think....setting goals (Spiritual Disciplines Part 1-Setting Goals) 



    Now, what exactly do I mean by becoming intentional?  Think of it this way, no matter what you do in life you are never exactly the same. You learn a little bit everyday, you begin or continue to form habits, you try new things or you reject new things etc... Now think about what you do that gives you that feeling of meaning and purpose in your life. Are you actively doing at least one thing a day to improve yourself in that field? Let's talk about jobs for example, if you are a salesman and you LOVE music, are you doing at least something to achieve that goal? I can tell you from my personal life that their have been many days where I did nothing practical, nothing at all where I was thinking about bettering myself or achieving any of the things I want(ed) to do in life. When I look back I won't remember the days I spent watching tv or playing video games. The days I will remember are the ones where I helped a friend, taught a kid about Jesus, spent time with my wife and daughter. Those are things that have eternal value, because their importance are higher in the long run. My eternal value scale however, also includes writing and teaching.

 


  We live in a very fast paced world where no one feels like they have time for anything. The dirty little secret though, is that we make time for what is most important to us. If what you say the most important things  to you are end up being the things you spend little to no time doing, then that probably means 1 of 2 things:  1) You are lying to yourself  or 2) You are not satisfied with your life.  Let me tell you this, if I am not writing something or teaching something on a regular basis then I am not happy. Period!  Your burning passion(s) is that important. Neglect it at your own peril!  The most important thing is to decide in your mind you are going to change and do whatever it takes to keep that attitude, because we naturally move closer to where we look.

-Jason

                  Sometimes You Just Have to Stand Up


    When I was in high school there was a girl who was adamantly opposed to Christianity. I was told "She's a pagan." by some of my classmates, but I have no idea if that was even remotely true or what she believed in reality. It was clear however, she was not a fan of the church.  One day there was an email in my inbox that was addressed to somewhere close to a hundred students (myself included) from this girl. My memory from that long ago is not good enough to repeat it verbatim but the overall point was that Christians are hypocrites and do not practice what they preach. This letter was very angry and full of vile and at that time of my life it was very shocking to read.

      Well I waited a couple of days and no one responded to these accusations.  I knew in my heart that the Lord wanted me to reply, and so I began an email explaining that I understood there were many Christians who didn't live what they taught, but that did not mean we should all be written off. People will always behave like people. We  will always struggle with failure and making the right choices, but this does not make an entire faith unworthy of consideration due to the faults of those who claim membership.  The girl responded to me in an instant message the next day and we talked a few minutes. She said she knew that not all Christians were like that and thanked me for taking the time to respond. However, the reaction that was most surprising to me was a small minority of my classmates who were Christians. They chastised me for "airing dirty laundry" or "trying to embarrass her or hurt her feelings".  I assured them I did no such thing, but it was a wake up call that even people who you expect to be on your side will turn on you when you rock the boat no matter the truthfulness of what you say.  Despite this I believe the strongest and most positive reactions were from the majority of the Christians who reached out to me to express thanks for standing up when it was needed and others who responded to her in kind. There is nothing special about me or my abilities to reason, but when the Lord is your guide he will pick times to use you when it counts more than anytime YOU pick to do something.

    
     There is a strong spirit that even effects Christians where we would just assume not make waves, but part of the faith of a Christian is that you should be making some. Romans 10:13-14

"For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved; How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?"

This is a cross dedicated to the Christian Martyrs that is standing inside the Colosseum....those who really stood up for their faith.

     Am I sad I hurt those people's feelings? No! Would I have been sad if I had hurt the girl's feelings? Not at all! I am not in the business of apologizing for the Gospel. I believe it with every fiber of my being! Does a sixteen year old kid seem like the best candidate to argue theology? No. However, that girl needed to hear a positive Christian message, one that was genuine. Not whatever fluff and lies whoever she knew had taught her. People know when you lie to them and consciously or sub-consciously they are affected by how we Christians live our lives. We should never be afraid to rock the boat. Like the verse in Romans says, how can the world know about Christ if we don't tell them?

 Isn't that the point?


-Jason
   

                     Athenian Words in the New Testament

     The writing of the New Testament of the Bible is an interesting story.  Written by a group of Jewish men and one Greek doctor (Luke) it was written entirely in Greek. Yes, that is right! Jews who wrote in Greek. What you have to keep in mind was that Greek was the language everyone knew in those days. Today English is the world's most dominant language, but back then it was Greek. The particular form of Greek was called "Koinonia Greek" which basically meant "Common Greek". While it is very possible to understand the concepts of the New Testament without knowing Greek there are some words and background that help enrich the passages. What this blog proposes to do is to look at a few Greek words and explain them in a Greek cultural viewpoint. The reason I call them Athenian words is because Athens, the most famous of the Greek cities is the most well known and understood and we can use the lens of Athens to explore what these terms mean in the Greek language. They are not specifically Athenian words, we just understand them because of the Athenian writers in ancient times.

 This is the Parthenon, the temple to Athena.  Athena was the  patron goddess of Athens known for her wisdom.

     The first word is church or ekklesia in Greek. The word means assembly and it was a word that had a legal background. The city of Athens is famous as being the first Democracy in the world. This meant that all male citizens could come the assembly meeting and debate and vote on the laws and other matters that the people of Athens found important. The idea of Christians setting up a church or assembly was not something they made up on the spot but a word with a tradition. A word that meant a gathering together of the people to take care of the important matters in community. The people gathered on a hill called the Pnyx, and there they elected generals and city officials, as well as planned for the coming year and it  had the powers of peace and war. There was no thought of individualism in this word. It was a word pregnant with meaning and it pointed to the glorious Greek past and carried on the tradition of Democracy in a new, religious way.

   Next is the word boule, this word means council.  According to Aristotle in his book The Athenian Constitution , the boule was  a group of citizens who looked over all the matters of state with a fine tooth comb and decided which matters were the most pressing. From there they took these matters and brought them before the assembly and gave advice on the proper policy before the voting occurred. This council came to play a major role in defining what the city did, in fact they normally laid out the agenda and unless there was a heated issue or some other problem they usually got the suggestions they put forward.  They were not all powerful and could be ignored by the assembly, but in reality they set the destiny of the city.
This brings us back to the New Testament:

" In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will"  Ephesians 1:11

     The word counsel there is that Greek word boule. It means that not only did God suggest we have an inheritance it means that he laid out the agenda. God is not merely an advice giver, he is a plan maker, an agenda setter and we should remember that when we see God "giving advice" we are really seeing a word that means God is setting up the plan he has always had in mind.

This is the Pnyx hill where the assembly met, you could  look across and see the Parthenon from here.

                                          

    Not really of spiritual value, but interesting none the less. The Parthenon is actually the Greek word for virgin. It was the temple to Athena the virgin. The story of the virgins in Matthew 25 refers to them as Parthenois, the plural form of Parthenon. ( That word was discussed just for fun).

     Well I hope you have enjoyed our brief look at Greek culture seen through the prism of the New Testament, if you have any questions be sure to make a comment or send me a message. I would love to hear from you.

-Jason