The Rambling Disciple

The book of Daniel is a somewhat peculiar book. We absolutely love the first six chapters. The stories of Daniel and the lion's den, Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and the writing on the wall among others are a staple of our Bible classes of all ages. These are stories we can open up and see clear messages in. Chapters seven through twelve, however, are a different story. We look at these chapters the same way many look at the book of Revelation; as a bunch of freaky dreams that are best ignored. The last half of the book is full of visions and signs that make us scratch our head. In truth the entire book, both the stories we love and the visions we don't, all revolve around the same theme. The book of Daniel has one message, and that is God's absolute sovereignty. Background The book of Daniel's authorship is an interesting question. The visions in chapter seven and onward are written in the first person, clearly by Daniel himself. The rest of the book, primarily...

Heresy is a word we don't like to hear in the present age. It brings up some unpleasant memories of what people in centuries past have done in the name of Christ. The word heresy invokes visions of the Spanish Inquisition, where so called Christians had others hunted down and tortured. It makes us think of the Crusades, where those bearing the name of Christ went to war over economics, power, and land all in the name of religion. In this day and age heresy is a bad word. We associate it with the suppression of thoughts and ideas. Our culture today prizes individual opinion above all else, so it naturally dislikes any notion of there being someone who is wrong. This attitude has made it into churches. We don't really like talking about the different opinions we have concerning various theological concepts or passages in the Bible. The problem with the word heresy is just that; it is simply a word. We have attached quite a bit of stigma to it that it may or may not deserve. T...

Judgment has come. The coming wrath of God that Jeremiah prophesied about swept through the land of Judah. Unfortunately very few listened to him. Now the people of Judah are a nation without a home. They are a people without an identity. They have no where left to turn. It is to this broken people that God sends Ezekiel. Ezekiel, like the rest of the nation, now lives in Babylon as a slave to King Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews, as they are now being called, live by a river outside the city. It is here that God gives Ezekiel an important message for Judah. They may have lost their land, their temple, and their freedom but they still have God. Background The book of Ezekiel was written by the prophet Ezekiel whilst the people of Judah were in exile in Babylon. The people of Judah were taken to Babylon in groups, with the final group being taken after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Ezekiel was taken in one of the earlier groups.  Ezekiel is one of the trickier prophe...

For us here in America, it is incredibly hard for us to empathize with the early Christians. We have never been rounded up and executed for our faith. We don't fear having to watch our children be burned alive just to make us renounce Christ. We are used to Christianity being socially acceptable. Many Christians today in other parts of the world still live in fear of persecution. Their situation mirrors the earlier Christians much better than ours does. So why is Christianity hated in some places and tolerated in others? Why do we in America have it so easy? The answer goes back to a man named Constantine. The Constantine Shift Before Constantine became Emperor of Rome in AD 306, Christians lived in constant fear of persecution. Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire. Emperors had tried repeatedly to destroy this new religion. In spite of it all, Christianity was spreading.  To be a Christian was to be an outcast. You were seen as being unpatriotic for not worshipi...

We all experience loss at some point in our lives. We live in a world that has been broken by sin, and that brokenness permeates our lives. Loved ones die. We experience tragedies. Illness leaves people crippled and bedridden. The response we have is grief. We mourn for those that have left us. We weep for those that are hurting and can do nothing about it. Sometimes we don't have the words to express the emptiness and pain that we feel. The book of Lamentations is simply a human being expressing their grief. The author witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians. This person has seen the very symbols of Judah's covenant with God set ablaze by idolaters. They witnessed their people being killed and dragged off in chains. This is a book of grief. Background The book of Lamentations is traditionally said to be written by Jeremiah. The book itself does not indicate who the author is. All we know is that whoever wrote the book witnessed the fal...

The last two Historical Fridays we have been examining the differences in the way Eastern culture and Western culture has affected Christianity. I think it has been made clear just how much a cultural idea can influence faith. I encourage everyone to not only examine other cultures and their influences, but also your own. American culture has had a huge impact on Christianity in America, something we will discuss eventually. Today we are going to look at the West and East and see why neither influence is necessarily a bad thing. Really what happened was that each culture emphasized a different aspect of the Christian faith. The West emphasized the legal aspect and the East the philosophical aspect. The West, the East, and Us So what can we learn from these cultures and the way they shaped churches? Well first off it helps us to look at our own churches and identify where we stand. Most of the people reading this blog (I assume) are from the West. We are more heavily influenced b...

There are few people in the Bible that endured as much as the prophet Jeremiah. God called upon him to prophecy to Judah during a time when no one would listen. He was arrested, beaten, ignored, and cut off from his own people. In fact throughout his forty some odd years of ministry, there are only two people shown to have listened. Two!  The time frame of Jeremiah's ministry is very different from that of Isaiah's. Isaiah prophesied during the days of a good king, Hezekiah, who listened for God. There was still a chance for Judah to be spared from judgment and repent. Jeremiah's message is much more bleak than Isaiah's. He preaches that the judgment is coming no matter what, the only thing the people can do is surrender. Background The book of Jeremiah was written by Jeremiah with some assistance from his scribe, Baruch. It was written in pieces over the course of Jeremiah's ministry, which roughly ranged from roughly 630 BC to 590 BC. The pieces were then...