Submission to Husbands

Some Christian men use Eph 5:22-24 as justification for requiring their wives to submit their will and obey their instructions. Few see the funny side of this claim.

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands… Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

According to this passage, wives should submit to their husbands in the same way that the church submits to Jesus. This seems to be a very low standard. For most of history, the church seems to have done its own thing. It has rarely obeyed Jesus.

Jesus never forces the church to do his will. Rather he loves it, and forgives again and again for disobeying and failing to do what he asked it to. The church tends to pay lip service to obeying Jesus, but has mostly done what it chooses to do and asked God to bless it so that it appears to be his will.

So, when a husband says that his wife should obey his commands in the way that the church obeys Jesus, he is setting a very low bar. A wife who follows the example of the church would take the benefits that he provides but ignore his instructions. A woman who obeys her husband in the same way as the church obeys Jesus can choose what instructions she wants to acknowledge and just ignore the rest

Farmers Protest

On Friday, farmers in New Zealand drove their tractors and utes into the centre of the big cities in a protest against the government. They were mostly objecting to regulations that have been introduced to protect the environment. Unfortunately, the government will not take much notice of the protest, because farmers are too small a political bloc to influence election outcomes, and the mood in the nation has switched from seeing farmer as heroes wrestling with nature to extract as much production from the land as possible towards preserving the environment, protecting endangered native species, and ensuring that river water remains pure (see Farming in New Zealand).

Farmers are finding the going tough, but it is no use ranting against a government that they will not vote for. If they want to understand the source of the pressure they are facing, they should read Deuteronomy 8.

In the southern island of New Zealand where I live, the European people who first settled the countryside were supported by church-based migration schemes. Many of the settlers who purchased land in Southland, Otago, Canterbury and Nelson were Christians. They considered the land to be blessed by God. Within a couple of decades of their arrival, they had built schools to educate their children and church buildings for gathering to give thanks to God for the blessings they had received.

Unfortunately, the last two generations of farmers in these blessed areas have forgotten God. Now many of the church buildings are empty, have been converted in houses, or a used only once a month by the small remnant who still want to gather to thank God for their blessing. The reason why farming has become so hard is that the people and the land have lost the blessing of God, which made life so good in the early days. Here is the relevant passage from Deuteronomy.

Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God (Deut 8:6-14).

Taking heed of this promise would be more beneficial for farming than blocking up roads and cities with big tractors. A return to blessing will only come with a return to faith and trust in God.

Death Reigns (6) New Testament Age

Ephesians 6:12 is an important verse for understanding the functioning of the universe.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the government-spirits, against the authorities, against the cosmos dominators of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms.

Most Christians don’t think that much about the details of this insight. They are aware of being attacked occasionally by an evil being, but they will mostly have been dealing with an ordinary evil spirit. Evil spirits are not omnipresent like the Holy Spirit, so most Christians will not have encountered Satan (the accuser), because he is busy elsewhere. They don’t think much about how the activities of government-spirits and cosmos dominators affect their lives.

In the last few posts, I have tried to explain how a cosmos dominator Death worked during the Old Testament age. He controlled thousands of spirits who submitted to his authority. Paul had explained that Death had a legal right to act between the time of Adam and Moses (Rom 5:14). The law was given to curtail his activity, but he was able to continue to be effective when kings and rulers fell into sin.

Christians should not need to worry about this cosmos dominator, but unfortunately, he is still at work in the world. When Jesus was arrested by the Jewish leaders, they placed him in the power of the spirit of Death.

He was delivered over to Death (Rom 4:25).

Jesus totally defeated all the spiritual powers of evil on the cross. His victory included the defeat of Death.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him (Rom 6:8-9).

Followers of Jesus have died with Jesus, so they share in his life. Paul is emphatic that Death no longer rules over him, and therefore no longer rules over those who trust in Jesus. The spirit called Death should not have any legal rights in the church, but unfortunately, its leaders have frequently given him a place that he does not deserve.

• When Peter dealt with Ananias and Saphira, something was wrong because Death was able to intervene, and two followers of Jesus needlessly died.

• Paul must have opened himself up to the spirit called Death before he encountered Jesus, because he engaged in ferocious persecution of Christians (Acts 8:3; 9:1). When he came to faith, he seemed to get free of the spirit and never came under its control again.

• Paul warned that if the church and its leaders fail to understand the way that Jesus wants his body to function, Death can gain a stronghold.

  Those who eat and drink without recognising the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have succumbed to Death (1 Cor 11:29-30).

  This not just thinking right about the biscuit and grape juice. The fact that people are dying suggests that something far more serious is going on. Jesus and the Holy Spirit have given us instructions about how his body should function. If church leaders ignore those instructions, the spirit called Death can gain an influence. This is one reason, so many Christians are dying of sickness before their time has come.

  For example, every church in the book of Acts is led by a team of elders. The one-man-band leadership model that has been adopted by the modern church cannot provide adequate spiritual protection for the people of the church.

• During the season leading up to the time when the Fulness of the Jews comes to trust in Jesus, Death will be released upon the earth and do terrible harm. When the fourth seal was opened, a horse went out into the world.

  Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power to kill...(Rev 6:8).

  This terrible evil spirit will bring terrible suffering on earth and destroy the lives of many people.

• The final spiritual power of evil to be destroyed is Death.

  The last enemy to be destroyed is Death (1 Cor 15:26).

  Death will be destroyed at the end of the age, when Jesus has become all-in-all and has handed his kingdom over to the Father (Rev 20:14).

All Christians and church leaders should be alert to the activities of the cosmos dominator called Death. They should ensure that their spiritual protection is adequate when he is at work (See Personal Protection).

Whereas Satan uses legal authority to gain control of people, Death relies on ruthless and brutal power to establish a stronghold. Whenever, the people of God lose their spiritual protection, Death is able to elbow his way in and establish control of the situation.

Death does not work on his own, but enforces his power through a host of evil spirits who have submitted to his authority. When the people of God lose their spiritual protection, Death pushes his way in. Sickness often comes first because Death has many spirits of Death under his control.

The complete series is at Death Restored - Death Defeated.

Death Reigns (5) Gains Stronghold

When Solomon's son Rehoboam succeeded to the throne, the people rebelled against him. Jeroboam gained control of the Northern Kingdom, consisting of ten tribes. God defused the enmity between the two kingdoms by sending a prophet to prevent a war (1 Kings 12:22-24).

Jeroboam rebelled against God and led the people of his kingdom into idolatry. He created two golden calves for the people to worship and set up an altar on which sacrifices could be offered (1 Kings 12:28-32). A prophet from God declared that the altar would be broken (1 Kings 13:1-3). The King spoke against the prophet and stretched out his hand to seize him, but his hand withered up so he could not pull it back. The altar split and its ashes poured out in fulfilment of the prophecy. Jeroboam then asked the prophet to intercede for him. The prophet prayed for the king and his arm was restored (1 Kings 13:4-6).

A pattern emerged as Death worked with the spirits of sickness under his control.

• A king would rebel against God and lead the people into idolatry.

• A prophet would warn the rebellious king of the power of Death.

• Sometimes, Sickness would strike.

• Death would destroy many.

This is the pattern of rebellion and Death.

Jeroboam son got sick. He sent his wife to Abijah the prophet. He declared that the son would die and that all Jeroboam’s family would be destroyed. Dogs would eat those who died in the city and those who died in the country would be eaten by the birds (1 Kings 14:1-13). The boy died. Jeroboam’s son Nadab only reigned two years. Baasha plotted against him and when he began to reign as king, he killed all Jeroboam’s family (1 Kings 15:25-29). He had given Death a place, but Death destroyed him and his family.

Baasha rebelled against God. A prophet came to him and warned that because he had insulted God, he and his family would be destroyed. His son Elah had only reigned two years when Zimri, one of his officials, plotted against him and struck him down when he was drunk. When he began to reign, Zimri killed all of Baasha’s family (1 Kings 16:8-13). The cycle of Death continued.

Zimri had only reigned seven days when Omri, the commander of the army, rebelled and laid siege to the city where Zimri was based. Zimri set the citadel on fire and burned down around him. Se he was taken by Death, too (1 Kings 16:15-20).

Omri reigned twelve years. He was succeeded by his son Ahab (1 Kings 16:23,29). Ahab took the rebellion a step further by marrying Jezebel, the daughter of a foreign king, and leading his people into worship of Baal. Elijah the prophet warned Ahab and drought made the land sick and nothing would grow. When the drought was ending, Elijah slaughtered 450 prophets of Baal, which probably left him vulnerable to Death, became he became suicidal (1 Kings 18:40). Ahab and Jezebel and all their family were killed by a warrior called Jehu.

Baasha, Zimri, and Omri all used ruthless and brutal power to gain control. Death has always used ruthless power to gain a place wherever spiritual protection is weakened. Jezebel used manipulation, intimidation to gain control. The marriage of Ahab (controlled by Death and Ruthless Power) and Jezebel (using Manipulation, Intimidation and Control), allowed a union of several being spiritual powers. Ahab placed the nation of Israel under the control of spirits called Death, Ruthless Power, Manipulation Intimidation and Control. These spirits still work together in many places.

Failing Kings

Many of the kings of Israel made themselves vulnerable to the spirit called Death, and much death and bloodshed followed. Some prophets fell into the same trap. The following are just a few examples.

• Baasha killed all of Jeroboams family so he could become king (1 Kings 15:29).

• Omri became king by leading a violent rebellion (1 Kings 16:22).

• Elijah slaughtered 450 prophets of Baal, which probably left him vulnerable to Death, became he became suicidal (1 Kings 18:40).

• Ahab killed Naboth to get control of his vineyard (1 Kings 21).

• Elisha cursed 42 children who mocked him, and they were slaughtered by two bears 2 Kings 2:24).

• Jehu slaughtered all of Ahab’s seventy sons (2 Kings 10:6-8).

• Jehu butchered the prophets of Baal whom he had trapped in a temple (2 Kings 10:24-25).

• Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, killed the royal family to gain control of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 11:1).

• Manasseh was an evil king who shed much innocent blood (2 Kings 21:16).

• Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. The Babylonian invaders killed his sons in front of him and then blinded him so that their death was the last thing that he saw (2 Kings 25:7). This was the ultimate fulfilment of the prophecy to Eli that his descendants would die young and his eyes would see only grief.

God provided a way for Death to be constrained through the law of Moses and the Tabernacle Sacrifices. Unfortunately, the leaders of Israel and Judah frequently disobeyed God, which allowed Death to intervene in the nation quite frequently. This powerful evil spirit brought about considerable death and suffering.

Death Reigns (4) David Vulnerable

When Saul became king, neither he nor Samuel did anything to return the covenant box to the tabernacle. On one occasion, Saul tried to take it into battle, but he was prevented from taking this dangerous action (1 Sam 14:18). This continued separation meant that the tabernacle sacrifices lost some of their efficiency, so Death was not satisfied by them but was free to continue operating amongst the people.

Saul seemed to have an attraction to violence, which left him vulnerable to the spirit called Death. Saul drew Israel together by cutting up a pair of oxen and sending the pieces throughout the land, a very violent way of sounding the trumpet (1 Sam 11:7). He nearly had his son Jonathan killed after making a rash vow to his armies. Jonathan was saved by his fellow soldiers because he had won a great victory. Saul’s curse of death made trouble for the country (1 Sam 14:24, 29, 43-45).

David also seemed to be vulnerable to the spirit called Death. The early part of his life was focused on fighting, and the latter part of his life was disrupted by fighting and death amongst his supporters.

• David was proud of having killed a lion and a bear. He was very brave but seemed to have a propensity for violent war (1 Sam 17:34-36).

• David took Goliath’s sword and cut off his head after he was dead. When he returned to Saul, he was still holding Goliath’s head (1 Sam 17:50-57).

• When David came back from battles, the people said that he had killed tens of thousands of people (1 Sam 18:7).

• David killed 200 Philistines, so he could present their foreskins to Saul to obtain his daughter Michal as his wife (1 Sam 18:24-27).

• Death seemed to stir up constant trouble amongst David’s military leaders producing many unnecessary deaths of men who served David.

  • Abner killed Asahel ((1 Sam 2:23).

  • Joab killed Abner (1 Sam 3:27).

  • Joab killed Amasa (2 Sam 20:10).

  • Benaiah killed Joab (1 Kings 2:34.

• David killed two rebels and cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies on a tree to warn others against rebelling (2 Sam 4:12).

• David brought the covenant box to Jerusalem and put it in a tent that he had placed there (2 Sam 6:1-18) while the tabernacle and its equipment remained at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4). There is no suggestion in the OT account that God told him to perpetuate this separation. God had instructed Moses how the Tabernacle should function to provide spiritual protection to the children of Israel, and especially to deal with the spirit called Death.

  David liked having the covenant box in Jerusalem because he loved to worship God, but by separating it from the Tabernacle, he undermined the spiritual protection God had provided. This allowed Death to keep on attacking Israel and its leaders when he should have been defeated by the giving of the law. When dealing with the spiritual powers of evil, worship cannot compensate for following God’s instructions that provide for spiritual protection.

• David murdered Uriah the Hittite because he coveted his wife Bathsheba (2 Sam 11:14-17).

• David did not deal with disputes between his children. Absalom killed his brother Amnon (2 Sam 13:28-29). Absalom died after rebelling against his father (2 Sam 18:9). Solomon killed his brother Adonijah (1 Kings 2:24-25).

• David counted his fighting men without consulting God, bringing a plague that annihilated 70,000 people. This was the work of Death.

The law and the tabernacle should have protected David from attacks by the spirit called Death, but the mistake left him vulnerable, resulting in unnecessary death and bloodshed. David seemed to know that he was trapped by death. In his song of praise, he said,

The ropes of Hades entangled me; the snares of Death confronted me (2 Sam 22:6).

The cords of Death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me (Psalm 18:4-5).

And God frequently rescued him.

Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from Death (Psalm 68:20).

You have delivered me from Death and my feet from stumbling (Psalm 56:13).

The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to Death (Psalm 118:18).

You Lord have delivered my soul from death (Psalm 116:8).

God frequently rescued David from Death, but he never fully escaped the power of this evil spiritual power. And he passed it on to his son Solomon.

Effective
Christians mostly study the tabernacle as a type of Jesus, looking for details that represent his ministry. However, this misses an important point. God does not make mistakes. The tabernacle was not a failure the Jesus had to correct. God instructed Moses to build it to provide spiritual protection for the children of Israel. And it actually worked. When they were on the backfoot following the Exodus, the spiritual powers of evil had agreed with God that they would accept animal sacrifices in return for giving up the right to attack his people. They tabernacle was the vehicle for making this happen.

David seemed to put his desire to worship ahead of obedience to the commands of Moses, so he shifted the covenant box to a tent in Jerusalem, while leaving the tabernacle at Gibeon. This provided him with a place for worship, but unfortunately, it destroyed the capacity of the tabernacle to provide spiritual protection for the people, and they were attacked ruthlessly by the spirit called Death.

Many modern Christians have a fascination with the tabernacle of David as a symbol of fervent worship in their church building. Unfortunately, this has blinded them to the spiritual protection that comes through obedience to Jesus’ instructions about how we should be his disciples. This disobedience has allowed the spirit called Death to elbow his way into the church and establish a terrible stronghold there. Obedience, not praise, brings power and protection.

Solomon

David's son Solomon began his kingship by killing people who had opposed him, even though some had been very loyal to his father David: Adonijah, Joab, Shimei (1 Kings 2). This gave Death a place in his kingship.

Solomon built the temple and reunited the covenant box and the facilities for sacrifices, which should have ensured that Death was seriously constrained. However, he married so many foreign wives, who brought their own gods to Jerusalem, that he probably opened himself up to Death again.

Death Reigns (3) Tabernacle Broken

During the season of the Judges, the spirit called Death mostly worked through the political leaders of the nation. When Eli was the high priest of Israel, he released the spirit of Death more widely in Israel. His sons were wicked. They were sleeping with the women serving at the entrance to the tabernacle and stealing the offerings brought by the people. They were threatened people with force if they did not give in to them (1 Sam 2:12-16, 22).

A prophet came and challenged Eli about the consequence of his son’s behaviour. The prophet warned that his strength would be cut off and he would be distressed by what he saw.

You will live long only to have eyes blinded with tears and a heart full of grief. Your descendants will die in the prime of life (1 Sam 2:33).

Eli will live long but will be filled with sadness and grief because his descendants will be cut off in the prime of life. They will become vulnerable to the spirit called Death.

Eli ignored the prophet and pretended not to see what his sons and their colleagues were doing. His eyes were weak, so he could barely see (1 Sam 3:1,11). Eli’s spiritual blindness gave Death greater freedom to work in Israel, despite his defeat by the law of Moses. When the Israelites went to war against the Philistines, they were defeated, and four thousand men were killed.

Instead of seeking God to find out why they were defeated, the Israelites decided to take the covenant box with them into battle. They made it into an idol, like those of the surrounding nations. This did not work, as the Philistines were emboldened and won a powerful victory. Eli’s two sons were killed, and the covenant box was captured. Thirty-thousand soldiers were killed.

The slaughter was very great (1 Sam 4:10).

This was the result of Death being given greater freedom. Death affected Eli when he fell off his stool with shock, and broke his neck (1 Sam 4:18). Taking the covenant box out of the tabernacle weakened the effectiveness of the tabernacle sacrifices because the place where God dwelt was broken. The human decision was made contrary to the instructions given to Moses on the mountain. The undermining of the process for offering animal sacrifices meant that Death was no longer constrained by the law.

God’s wisdom had been rejected, so his presence was gone from the covenant box. The spirit called Death went with it. I presume that he wanted to be the spirit that controlled the box once the people had made it into an idol.

Cancer Tumours
Once the covenant box had been carried to Ashdod, Death had the freedom to work there. The writer of Samuel says that God’s hand was heavy on them, but this is a two-agent world view. It was actually the hand of the spiritual powers of evil that was hard on them because they had no spiritual protection.

The spirit called Death brought devastation upon them and struck them with tumours (1 Sam 5:6). The covenant box was sent to Gath, but the same thing happened there. Death and his supporting spirits were heavy on that city too.

The city was thrown into a great panic. The people of the city, both young and old, were afflicted with an outbreak of tumours (1 Sam 5:9). These cancers affected young people. This is consistent with the prophecy to Eli warning that lives would be cut off in their prime. When the covenant box was sent to Ekron, the same thing happened. The cause of the events are described more precisely.

Death filled the city with panic/confusion; his hand was very heavy on it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven (1 Sam 5:11-12).

“Death” gained a hold on the city and released a pestilence amongst the people. Those who were not killed by the plague were afflicted with terrible cancers.

The Philistines had amazing spiritual insight because they knew how to put the situation right. They knew that they needed to get rid of Death and the spiritual powers that had attached themselves to the covenant box by making a guilt offering to attract and appease these evil spiritual powers. They made five gold tumours and five gold rats representing the rulers and people of the five cities that had come under attack. Sickness had attacked the rulers and people alike, so a solution that covered both was essential (1 Sam 6:4-5).

The Philistines knew that Pharoah was destroyed because he hardened his heart against God when plagues came upon Egypt. They did not want to make the same mistake, so they wanted to get the covenant box out of their territory (1 Sam 6:6).

When the Israelites offered the gold tumours and gold rats as a sacrifice, along with the two cows pulling the wagon carrying them, Death and his followers had to be satisfied and could not demand any more blood and death. This brought to an end the pestilence and plague of tumours that Eli had inadvertently released on the Philistines.

However, death had one last flourish. When the covenant box was at Beth Shemesh, some men looked into the box. Death took the opportunity and struck them down (1 Sam 6:19). When the frightened people moved the covenant box to Kiriath Jearim, Eleazer was sanctified to guard it, so Death was unable to do harm (1 Sam 7:1).

Death Reigns (2) Clinging to Power

Once the children of Israel had crossed the Jordan, Joshua became vulnerable to the spirit called Death. Maybe he was already susceptible because he had led the Israelites into war on several occasions.

• When the Israelites were close to Jericho, he encountered a man-like being in front of him with a drawn sword (Jos 5:13-15). Clearly, this was a spiritual being. Commentators argue about who this character was, but I believe he was the spirit called Death.

• When Joshua asked if he was for or against Israel, he said “No”. An angel of the Lord would have said “Yes”, because they speak the truth. Death said “No” because he was not on either side. He would work with the side that inflicted the most blood and gore.

• The sword is a symbol of war and Death (Rev 3:4).

• This spiritual being told Joshua to take off his sandals because it was holy ground. This made it seem like a meeting equivalent to Moses encounter at the burning bush, but it was not the same. God spoke to Moses out of the bush, so the ground really was holy. Joshua encountered a spiritual being, not God, so this was the same. Angels do not make the ground holy, so we do not need to take off our shoes for them. The spirit deceived Joshua by appealing to his pride through an experience that was similar to Moses call.

• The person claimed that he was the commander of Yahweh’s army. He was a commander of a spiritual army that had been created by Yahweh, but it had rebelled, so his claim was only a half-truth.

Joshua was deceived by this spiritual being, so he bowed and submitted to him. If this was the spirit called Death, it gave him power over Joshua.

• The Israelites turned Jericho into a massacre after the walls had collapsed, whereas God’s plan was that the residents would panic and flee (Deut 7:1). The blood bath occurred because the spirit of Death had got control over Joshua.

• Joshua pronounced a curse against the defeated city of Jericho, although God had not asked him this to this (Josh 6:26). Joshua declared that the person who re-laid the foundation of the city would lose his eldest son, and the person rebuilding the city-gate would lose their youngest son to death. This curse was probably inspired by Death, but it also increased his power over Joshua.

• The Israelites were defeated in the battle for Ai. Joshua did not seek God’s plan but took the advice of the people and sent only a small army to take it. They were defeated. Joshua did not take responsibility for this mistake. God revealed that Achan had taken some of the forbidden things at Jericho and hidden them in his tent. He said that they could not stand against their enemies because they had become “subject to doom” (Death). God told Joshua that the forbidden things must be destroyed (Jos 7:12). When Joshua spoke to the people, he said the person with them must be destroyed (Jos 7:15). The people went even further than what God had said and struck Achan and his entire family down with stones and burned them. This excess was the influence of Death, but it also strengthened Deaths influence in the new nation.

• When Joshua finally conquered Ai, he blocked off the way of escape and did not allow the people to flee towards the desert. Yet this was what God wanted to happen (Deut 7). The people of Ai were slaughtered instead.

Although God said the people of Canaan would be frightened into fleeing, the taking of the land turned out to be extremely violent. This was probably due to the influence of Death on Joshua. (More at Violence).

Judges
The spirit called Death continued to have a strong influence on the leaders of Israel during the season of the Judges because many of them engaged in violence beyond what God allowed.

• Ehud stabbed Eglon, the King of Moab, who had gained control of Israel after they rejected God (Jud 3:21).

• Abimelech murdered his seventy brothers to become ruler of Israel (Jud 9:5).

• Before going into battle for Israel, Jephthah made a vow that he would kill the first person he saw when he returned. This resulted in him killing his oldest daughter (Jud 11:30-39).

• Samson killed numerous Philistines for very little gain.

• The Israelites fought against the sons of Benjamin and killed 18,000 of them in an unnecessary war.

• The leaders of Israel led with unnecessary violence. This allowed Death to continue reigning, even though the law had curtailed his right to be active in Israel.

Death Reigned

Paul wrote to the Romans that Death reigned from Adam until Moses (Rom 5:14). He does not treat death as an experience, but refers to both Sin and Death as personal spiritual powers. Death is the name of a powerful cosmos dominator (evil spirit) who loves killing and destroying people. He dominated events on earth up until the time of the giving of the law, when his activity was curtailed in Israel.

The accuser (satan) was craftiest, so he tricked Adam and Eve, but Death was stronger, so he quickly came out on top in the struggle for control between evil powers. Death became the dominant spiritual power on earth, because the Holy Spirit had been squeezed out by human rebellion. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, and Death came in through sin (Rom 5:12).

If Paul was correct about Death controlling the first stage of human history, you would expect to see some evidence of it in the Old Testament, especially Genesis. It is slightly hidden, because the Old Testament authors had a two-agent world view in which every activity was caused by humans or God. However, when we read it, with a three-agent world view looking for what Paul taught, there are plenty of activities that were probably the result of Death's work on earth. The following activities are examples.

• Death stirred up Cain to kill Abel, because he hoped to eliminate humans from the earth.

• Death worked with another powerful spirit called the Destoyer to wreak havoc on earth. During the flood, Destroyer got locked up with a third of the evils spirits that worked with him, but Death escaped and remained in power.

• Death worked with human genetics to significantly reduce their normal lifespan to 80 to 120 years.

• The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was the work of Death.

• Death tried to get Isaac killed, so he could cut off God’s covenant promise.

• Death stirred up Esau, so that he would kill Jacob and prevent Israel from coming into existence.

• He tried to get Joseph killed by his brothers. He would be able to destroy them if they had blood on their hands.

• Death tried to kill Moses, but his wife took action to protect him.

• During the Exodus, Death agreed to free the Israelite slaves in return for getting to kill the firstborn of all Egypt. The blood on the doorposts was a sign of that deal.

• Once the Israelites had escaped, Death cheated and stirred up Pharoah to slaughter them when they were trapped against the Red Sea. When God rescued them, Death turned on the Egyptian army and slaughtered them.

• Death stirred up the Amelikites to attack the Israelites in the desert, but God defeated them.

Covenant Victory

The covenant established by God through Moses broke Death’s power over the children of Israel. There are three reasons why Death’s activity was curtailed.

• The Laws that God gave to Moses specified the penalties for crimes. The set of crimes that deserved death were limited, and alternative options for restitution and expiation were provided, so the ability of Death to punish people was limited. The ultimate penalty under the law was exclusion from the community. This left the person convicted and excluded vulnerable to attacks by Death. This was referred to as “dying to Death”.

• People had to be convicted under the law before the spiritual powers of evil could act against them. This strengthened the position of the Accuser over Death, because other spirits could not act until he had achieved a conviction. Sin became powerful, because he was skilled at leading people into sin.

• The tabernacle sacrifices fulfilled the demands of Death, so he had to be satisfied with the blood of animals. He hung around the tabernacle because he loved blood and gore, but he was unable to act against people who made the specified sacrifices.

Political Lies

According to 2 Thessalonians 2, an evil political leader often gains power when the people come to believe a lie. This reminds us that one of the most dangerous things that political leaders can do is to encourage the people of their nation to believe lies.

I have noticed a disturbing tendency for political leaders in the west to say things about other nations for political benefit that they know to be untrue. Saying nasty things about nations that their people hate without any evidence (such as Iran, Russia and China) can be a good way to gain political support. The news media often make the situation worse by perpetuating the lies.

The most obvious example is the claim that Russia stole the 2016 presidential election. Those who made this claim offered no serious evidence, but politicians and the news media continued to repeat the lie. The Mueller investigation found no credible evidence of collusion, and the investigation of the inspector general exposed plenty of dishonest behaviour (lies) by the US security services, but the big political lie still persists.

I can think of many more examples of deliberate political lies. Blaming another nation for a problem is a great way to avoid taking responsibility for mistakes. That is serious enough, but even worse, when people with political authority in a nation spread a lie, this gives a spirit of deception a stronghold in the nation.

When successive political leaders use lies about other nations as an election tool, the deceiving spirit gets established as a government-spirit over the nation. Once this spirit has a stronghold over a nation, anything can happen, and it will not be good (see 1 Kings 22).

Unfortunately, too many Christians are blindly accepting the lies of their political leaders, which increases the power of the spirit of deception. That is scary.

History Repeats

Another problem that stands out in the books of Kings is that history repeats. When political leaders do evil that is not repented of, the same sins will pop up again in later generations.

The best example is the sins of Jeroboam. He was one of Solomon’s officials who was put in charge of the forced labour of one of the largest tribes. When Solomon’s son Rehoboam chose to be a harsher leader than his father, Jeroboam led a rebellion against him. Rehoboam was left controlling Judah and Benjamin. Jeroboam became the leader of the ten tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Unfortunately, Jeroboam chose to do evil and worship idols. He set up golden calves and offered sacrifices to them.

Although he was challenged by prophets from God, Jeroboam persisted with evil.

Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways… This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth (1 Kings 13:34-35).

Jeroboam became the benchmark of evil kings in Israel. His son Nadab followed in his ways.

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the ways of his father and committing the same sin his father had caused Israel to commit (1 Kings 15:26).

The son followed the pattern of behaviour of his father.

Nadab was overthrown by Baasha, but he continued down the same path.

He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the ways of Jeroboam and committing the same sin Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit (1 Kings 15:34).

A prophet came and challenged Baasha, but he refused to listen.

Moreover, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani to Baasha and his house, because of all the evil he had done in the eyes of the LORD... becoming like the house of Jeroboam—and also because he destroyed it (1 Kings 16:7).

This refusal to heed the warning of the prophet began a sequence of kings of Israel, who each fell into the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat.

Zimri (1 Kings 16:19).
Omri (1 Kings 16:25).
Ahab (1 Kings 16:31).
Ahaziah (1 Kings 22:53).
Jehu (2 Kings 10:29).
Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:2).
Jehoash (2 Kings 13:11).
Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:24).
Zechariah (2 Kings 15:9).
Menahem (2 Kings 15:17).
Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:24).
Pekah (2 Kings 15:28).
Hoshea (2 Kings 17:2).

During Hoshea’s reign, the Assyrians invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel.

Each of these kings copied their father’s behaviour, but we need to understand that the author of Kings had a two-agent understanding of the operation of the universe. The did not understand the way that the spiritual powers of evil operate. When a king falls into sin, he gives an evil spirit control in his life. The king has authority over his sons, so the same spirit continues to exercise control over the king’s successor. After a couple of generations, the spiritual power (government-spirit) has established a stronghold over the kingdom. If the people support the king who has sinned, as happened in Israel, the stronghold is strengthened.

Each of these kings in the list above walked in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat. This is another way of saying that each of these kings was controlled by the evil government-spirit that got established in the nation when Jeroboam was king. The control of this evil spirit eventually caused the destruction of the nation.

I read a comment on social media that people are not responsible for things that happened before they are born. That is true. But things that happened before they were born can have a huge impact on their lives without their being aware of it.

If I live in a nation where the political leaders who led it have slipped into sin, they will quite likely have given an evil government-spirit control over the nation. If subsequent leaders have not repented of that sin (changed their thinking and condemned the actions of their predecessors) they will most likely have continued walking in the sin. This will have allowed the evil government-spirit to establish a stronghold in the nation. If the people continue to support their leaders that stronghold will be strengthened.

God have us the book of Kings so that we would understand this truth. It is why a regular reassessment of a nation’s history is important. If the people and their leaders don’t acknowledge the sins of the founders and previous leaders of their nation and break the stronghold by repenting, the government-spirits that they allowed in will continue to influence the nation. When people get angry about those who are examining their nations history and pretend that everything was fine, they are strengthening the position of the government-spirits that control their nation.

In New Zealand, successive governments broke the Treaty of Waitangi, which was established by agreement between Maori and the crown in 1840. In the last few decades, governments have acknowledged these failings and apologised. This has broken one part of the power of the government-spirits that were allowed in by their predecessors’ actions.

Failure to acknowledge and reject (repent) the sins of previous governments expose a nation to evil government-spirts and eventually leads to destruction of the nation. The founders of the United States gave the spirits of power, violence, war and deception a place in their nation. Succeeding leaders have allowed these government-spirits to establish a stronghold. The people have strengthened these spirits by honouring these leaders and deliberately ignoring their sins or saying that they do not matter. But they do.

If the people refuse to examine their history and pretend it was always good, the stronghold of these evil government-spirits will be strengthened, and they will eventually destroy the nation they control because they love evil more than they love their nation.

History and Truth

Christians in several western nations, and particularly the United States are getting really agitated about attempts to reassess the history of their nation. Teaching history to high school students is becoming a really divisive issue.

I have been reading through 1 and 2 Kings. One thing that stands out is that God has a different standard for history to many of his people. The biblical account of the history of Israel tells the story of the chosen nation warts and all. Almost all of the kings failed to meet God’s standards. Some did terrible things. Most of the history of the nation that Yahweh had rescued from slavery and established in a new land was blemished by the people forgetting him and chasing after idols that could do nothing for them.

David is Israel’s greatest king, but he committed murder and adultery and regularly disobeyed God. Yet he is portrayed as a type of Jesus. Abraham is another example. He was the father of his nation, yet he regularly failed to trust God. He corrupted his inheritance by having a dalliance with a slave girl and then casting her aside. He frequently lied to important people. Yet God covenanted with him to be the father of his nation. God promised that he would bless the entire world through this man who was a serial liar.

I can only conclude that God prefers the truth when recording the history of a nation.

Christians do not need to be afraid of the truth when assessing the history of their nation. We don’t need to pretend that bad things did not happen. Any blessing that we received was due to the grace of God, not our goodness. So bad things in our history don’t matter.

If the people of a nation want God's blessing, they will need to be honest about their past. Pretending it was better than it was fool's no one, least of all God. The only valid response to an ugly past is repentance, ie a dramatic change of thinking about it.

The United States has been a force for good at times, but its political leaders and have passed some terrible laws and its military forces have done some ugly stuff at times. Pretending this is not true is arrogance. Hiding the truth from your children is teaching them to believe a lie. That is no basis for life.

Fear of Man

An aside from Bill Johnson.

Fear masquerades as wisdom. Fear will always attract whatever information is needed to legitimise its existence. Fear reinforces itself.

The fear of man starts out as a tender heart that has compassion and care for other people, but the enemy works to manipulate it, so that we are governed by the gift, instead of governing the gift for kingdom purposes. It turns our place of perception from compassion and concern for the condition of people around us to a place where we become imprisoned by the opinions of people around us.

Making of Biblical Womanhood

A few weeks ago, I read the book called The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women became Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr. This is a very important book that Christians everywhere need to absorb.

Beth is a professor of mediaeval history. She looks at how the church’s attitude to the role of woman has changed through history. Her main point is that woman have always been subordinated to men, but the church’s theological rationalisation of this has changed significantly throughout its history.

The teaching that men should lead and women should submit as articulated by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a very recent development, and it is shaped more by cultural and economic changes than by the unchanging truths of scriptures. Throughout the medieval period, and as recently as the 1960s, women preaching was accepted and supported by conservative churches.

Here are a few quotes from the book to whet your appetite.

Patriarchy looks right because it the historical practice of the world (p.24).

Patriarchy wasn’t what God wanted; patriarchy was a result of human sin. Patriarchy is created by people, not ordained by God. (p.29). Above all else, we must search the attitudes of Christ Jesus himself toward women (p.36).

Patriarchy exists in the Bible because the Bible was written in a patriarchal world. Historically speaking, there is nothing surprising about biblical stories and passages riddled with patriarchal attitudes and actions. What is surprising is how many biblical passages and stories undermine, rather than support patriarchy (p.36).

Christian household codes address all the people in the house church—men, women, children, and slaves. Everyone is included in the conversation… This is the key to the Christian subversion of Roman patriarchy. Because the Christian household codes are directed to all members of the Roman household, instead of presuming the guardianship of the male head, they contain within them the overturning of accepted positions accorded to men, women, slaves, and children, and the expectations placed upon them. Instead of endowing authority to a man who speaks and acts for those within his households, the Christian household codes offer each member of the shared community—knit together by their faith in Christ—the right to hear and act for themselves. This is radically different from the Roman patriarchal structure. The Christian structure of the house church resists the patriarchal world of the Roman Empire (p,49).

In Colossians 3, Paul opens his discussion of the household with a call to wives first—not to the man presumably in charge. Instead of grounding the instruction to the wife in her husband’s authority, power, leadership or status in a hierarchy, the ground is radically otherwise: it is grounded in the Lord’s way of life (p.49).

Likewise, Ephesians 5 can be read as a resistance narrative to Roman patriarchy… Ephesians 5 underscores the equality of women—they are called to submit in verse 22, just like their husbands are called to submit in verse 21 (p50).

Gender hierarchy had more to do with politics and economics than with divine order (p105).

Why didn’t Protestant sanction women to teach and preach, even though it had declared the priesthood of all believers... Reformation theology might have removed the priest, but it replaced him with the husband (p.116).

Historically, women have flourished as leaders, teacher and preachers—even in the evangelical world (p.178).

When the China Inland Mission called for two hundred volunteers in 1929, 70 percent of those who left the following year were women, and all but four were single. But the home offices that sent them were run predominantly by met, and when the woken came home, they were reminded quickly of their place—beneath male authority (p.114).

Evidence shows me how Christian patriarchy was built, stone by stone, throughout centuries. Evidence shows me how, century after century, arguments for women’s subordination reflect historical circumstance more than the face of God (p.205).

We can no longer deny a link between complementarianism and abuse (p.206).

Hierarchy gives birth to patriarchy, and patriarchy gives birth to the abuse of both sex and power... The historical reality is that social systems that invest some people with power over the lives of other people result in the destruction of people (p.207).

Braveheart

Kristin Kobes Du Mez on Braveheart.

More significant than any individual act, however, the legacy of Braveheart can be glimpsed in a generation of evangelicals who have chosen fear over hope and militancy over kindness, and who have transformed the Jesus of the Gospels into a ruthless warrior king who leads them into the battles of their own choosing.

Jesus and John Wayne

Last month, I read Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez. Kristin has written the most insightful and courageous book that I have read for some time. She explains how the evangelical church in America embraced militant masculinity, sanctified aggression and patriarchy in support of Christian nationalism and militaristic imperialism (read the book for a more detailed explanation).

Dozens of male cultural historians would have the knowledge and skills needed to write this book, but it seems that none had the insight or the courage to do it. The fact that it was written by a woman puts to bed the myth of Christian patriarchy that men lead and women follow. Some of American Christian culture spilled over here in New Zealand on the other side of the world, but I did not realise how deeply these ideas had penetrated, but the book explains a lot of what I have observed of American behaviour.

Having only visited the United States briefly on two different occasions, I have not really come to grips with its Christian culture, but I have always been puzzled by the political anger and love of military power displayed by some of the American Christians I encountered on social media. I have been baffled by the Christian support of Christians for unchristian politicians like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. After reading, Jesus and John Wayne, this all makes sense.

Who Americans choose for their leaders is their business, but what they do in the world affects us all, so I have always been troubled by American militarism. There seems to be a strong belief that problems all over the world can be solved by sending in the marines to establish American democracy (I was surprised reading Du Mez's book by how deeply complicit Billy Graham was in supporting this ideology). I have watched with concern one disaster after another.

• A foolish invasion of Vietnam because the people wanted to throw off French colonial power following World War 3.

• The cruel bombing of Cambodia and Laos that destabilised these nations for reasons that no one can remember.

• A twenty-year war against Aghanistan that killed many thousands of people and destroyed their land to punish them for the US military's failure to defend and protect New York.

• Numerous atrocities committed by security agencies in support of central american dictators.

• An invasion of Iraq that wrecked a reasonably prosperous nation and destabilised the entire region by undermining the balance of power.

• Overseeing the destruction of Libya, a nation that had the best healthcare and education system in Africa.

• Stirring up Islamic militants in Syria and helping them to start a civil war in a vain attempt to topple a democratically elected secular president that the US did not like.

• Providing military and logistic support for the Saudis to bomb and destroy Yemen, the poorest country in the world.

Each of these reckless invasions ended in disaster, but no political leaders took responsibility for the consequences of their decisions. Instead, they blamed their victims for rejecting the opportunity offered by the invading military forces.

What is most alarming about these bouts of militaristic nationalism is the vociferous support for these adventures came from the Christian community. And their silence about the atrocities committed is really distressing. Jesus and John Wayne explains why this response was inevitable.

The churches that adopted a culture of patriarchy and militant masculinity turned a blind eye to sexual immorality and family violence. These problems are now being bought into the light and the church is divided about how it will respond. Unfortunately, the other side of the coin, faith in military power and American exceptionalism continues unchecked. Militant nationalism is as strong as it ever was. This is scary for the future of the world.

The United States culture seems to be being torn apart and the only thing that seems to be able to unite it is another military adventure against a perceived external evil enemy. I fear that future leaders will deal with their nation’s serious, social, cultural and political divisions by doing what they have always done. I fear that a culture that has nothing left to offer to the world will impose it on it with military force.

If the thesis of Jesus and John Wayne is correct, the remains of the evangelical church will be cheerleaders for unleashing their nation’s enormous military power against the next imaginary enemy that they don’t understand.

Being Born Again (2)

• Paul used a slightly different expression when describing what happens when a person chooses to follow Jesus. He said that we died with Jesus and rose again with him to new life.

  All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his... Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him (Rom 6:3-8).

  This passage is a fuller description of the process of becoming a follower of Jesus than the phrase “born again”. When we are united with Jesus by committing to follow him and trusting in his death and resurrection, we are raised with him to a new life. But that is the second step in the process. In the first step, we are united with him in his death. When we die with Jesus, we are dying to our old life controlled by sin and self. We cannot gain the new life, without dying to our old life first.

  Baptism is a good way of describing this two-pronged process. We go under the water, symbolising our death to our old life. We come out of the water, and the Holy Spirit comes down on us as an expression of the new life we have in Jesus.

• Paul understood the current and future aspects of the new birth. He explained that those who trust Jesus died and rose with him. He also stressed that we must continue to put off the old life and put on the new life as we grow in Jesus and serve him in the power of the Holy Spirit.

  Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature… since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Col 3:5,10).

  We must keep on putting to death our sinful nature and continue to put on the life of Jesus as we grow in faith and obedience.

• The “new” birth is a work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot see him see him working because he is invisible to human eyes. Some people may have a deeply spiritual experience, but others might not. So if a person says that they are born again, we have no way of validating if it is true. This means that using “born again” as the criteria for distinguishing true Christians from people who are not true Christians does not make sense. A criterion is only useful for discerning between people if it can be observed.

• Jesus had a different way of distinguishing those who are truly his followers. He said,

  A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35).

  The best way to identify the true followers of Jesus is to look for those who are loving each other as Jesus loved us. His followers will be implementing his new commandment to love one another. The benefit of this criterion is that it is easy to observe. If people are loving each other in a sacrificial way, it will be obvious. Even people of the world will be able to discern who is real and who is not. A modern problem is that many people who claim to be born again are not very good at loving one another. Unfortunately, the world has realized that and is ignoring Jesus because of it.

• Nor should we describe what kind of Christian we are using a criterion that is invisible.

Being Born Again (1)

When a pharisee called Nicodemus came to Jesus with questions about the Kingdom of God, he told him that he needed to be “born again of the Spirit”. The church has taken the expression “born again” and built a theology around it. Being born again has become the standard by which Christians are judged. True Christians have been “born again”, but those who have not been “born again” are not true Christians. There are several problems with this situation.

• Jesus only used the expression “born again” expression once. It was not used by the apostles when preaching in the book of Acts. Paul did not use the expression in any of his letters to the churches. Building a doctrine of Christian initiation on the basis of an image that is used only once in the New Testament is risky and unwise.

• Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council. Jesus was explaining to him that his career as a Jewish religious leader was a waste of time. He would need to begin again and serve God with the help of the Holy Spirit. This was something that was beyond Nicodemos’s power on his own.

• People cannot choose to be born again. They cannot make themselves “born again”. This is something that Holy Spirit must do. Rather than just focusing on his role in delivering salvation, we must also take account of what we need to do to open the way for the Holy Spirit to do his work.

• In his preaching, Jesus used various other expressions to describe the first step of dying to sin and self.

  Change your thinking and trust the gospel (Mark 1:15).
  Come follow me (Mark 1:16).
  Take up your cross and follow me (Luke 14:27).
  Any of you who does not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:33).
  You cannot serve God and unrighteous wealth (Luke 16:13).
  Sell your unrighteous wealth and give it to the poor (Luke 18:22).

  If these expressions are not part of our preaching of the gospel too, then our hearers will only get the wrong half of the stick.

• Nicodemus discovered the full cost of loyalty to Jesus. When he defended Jesus before the pharisees and chief priests by demanding a fair hearing for Jesus before they condemned him, he was mocked and insulted by them (John 7:45-52). When Jesus had died on the cross, Nicodemus helped bury him in the garden tomb. Asking for the body of a man killed as a rebel identified him as a rebel against Rome, so any political privilege he had would be gone. Nicodemus had to give up his position as a Jewish leader and as a Roman collaborator to follow Jesus and be born again. He had to die to his old life, before he could be born into the new Kingdom.

• The phrase “born again” misses out part of the process. It explains the new life we have in Jesus, but it does not explain that we need to die to our life with Jesus before we can enter into the new life. I wonder how many Christians believe that they have been “born again” because they prayed a prayer, but have never died to their old life, because they did not realise that was part of the process.

Sin (10) Repentance

Many Christians believe that calling for repentance is mandatory for preaching the gospel. They assume that they need to expose their listeners’ sins and get them to feel deep remorse. Getting people to feel sorry for their sinfulness is often the first phase of preaching the gospel. However, this is often misdirected effort. Rather than following a set formula, Christians sharing the gospel should follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and say the things that he wants to be said, and that will vary according to the situation of their listeners.

Preachers often assume that it is their role to convict their listeners of sin, but that is not right. This is the role of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised,

He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness (John 16:8).

The Holy Spirit does this in his own time. He will sometimes do it before a person gives their life to Jesus, but it will be much easier to do after they have chosen to follow Jesus because he will have greater freedom to speak to them personally. The Holy Spirit will go on convicting us of sin throughout our lives, so this task does not have to be completed before a person comes to faith.

Repentance is important, but not in the way that we usually assume. The Greek word translated as repentance is metanoia. It means to “change your mind” or “change the way you think”. Feeling sorry for your sins might be part of that, but it is only a small part and not the core meaning of the word. Repentance requires a much broader and much deeper change of mind. It requires a change of thinking about God, a different understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. Both should be worked out in a change in our behaviour.

The true sign of repentance is not remorse and tears, but a change in behaviour.

Produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8).

Repentance produces good fruit. When his listeners asked him what they should do, John gave them practical examples: generosity, no stealing, no manipulation or intimidation, no false accusations (Luke 3:10-14). Repentance requires a serious change in thinking that leads to a real change of behaviour. Being sorry for your sins is not the fruit of repentance; a change of lifestyle is.

This full series is at Sin.

Sin (9) Accused Woman

Some Christians quote John’s account of the woman accused of adultery. This story is often referred to as the Woman taken in Adultery. But there is no evidence that the woman was guilty of adultery. It should be more correctly be called the Woman Accused of Adultery.

Jesus talked to the woman with love and respect, but it is not clear that he hated her sin. He specifically said that he was not condemning her.

I do not condemn you, either (John 8:11a).

This is a very strong statement, so we must be careful that we don’t condemn her with our interpretation of the biblical text. Most commentaries on the passage assume that she was a sinner, so in effect, they do condemn her. (I explain what Jesus wrote on the ground in Dust.)

Jesus did not say, “Go and sin no more”, as is translated in most English bibles. He actually said something more complicated.

Go, and from now on, no longer be sinning (John 8:11).

This is quite a hesitant statement compared to the first half of the verse. It does not indicate a clear judgment of her behaviour.

Jesus’ statement tells her what she must do “from now on”. His only comment about the past was that he did not condemn her. He did not say that God hates her sin. He just says that she should be no longer be sinning. His instruction was directed towards the future. Clearly, she needed to make some changes in her life. She needs to stop failing and missing the mark. He was not dumping all the baggage carried by our word sin onto her (including the shame and sin).

Jesus did not say what sin she should avoid. If we assume that it was sexual sin, we are reading into Jesus’ comment. I suspect that he was really saying something like.

Go and get some clothes on before you get accused of something else.

I presume that his comment was quite general.

Go and get your life sorted out, so you don’t get into a pickle like this again.

Much significant information is missing from John’s account If the incident. We don't know if what the accusers said was true. If we accept their claims as true, we have already condemned the woman; something that Jesus does not do.

John does not explain the situation the woman was in. We don’t know if she was married or single. We don’t know if she was a prostitute paid by the male adulterer, or if she was a vulnerable woman seduced or by him, but this information would make a big difference to our judgment.

The woman’s accusers declared that she had been caught in adultery. However, the word translated caught (katalambano) can also mean “seized”. This could describe her being caught, but another possibility is that the male adulterer had seized her and forced her into a compromised situation. (The accusers might have just grabbed her off the street to trap Jesus). If we assume that we know what type of women she was, we have probably condemned her, something Jesus was unwilling to do.

The accusers say nothing about the man who was caught with the woman. If they had caught the woman in the act, he must have been caught in the act too. However, he was not there, so we can presume that he scarpered to avoid embarrassment and shame. Because they were trying to trap Jesus, it is possible the men who had come across them had deliberately allowed him to escape.

We can assume that the man was married, so he was the one who should have been judged. The fact that he had disappeared tells us something about what kind of man he was. He escaped to preserve his reputation while leaving the woman to face the music. Given the uncertainty about who was most guilty in this situation, there is no basis for concluding that Jesus hated the woman sin. I presume he was more upset about the man who committed adultery and disappeared to avoid shame.

Sin (8) Cannot look at Sin

Another common belief amongst Christians is that God cannot have anything to do with human sin. Some suggest that he is so holy that he cannot even look upon sin. The verse quoted to support this view is Habakkuk 1:13.

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

Several things should be noted about this verse. Firstly, the reference is to evil, not sin. God’s attitude to those who deliberately do evil is different to his attitude to those who drift into sin and fail to do good. These actions are quite different. Secondly, the word translated “look on” should not be taken too literally. In this context, it has more of a sense that “God cannot look on evil with pleasure”. Thirdly, following the common practice in Hebrew poetry, the second line of the verse repeats the theme of the first line. The second line of the verse is clear that God cannot tolerate wrongdoing amongst his people. That is quite different from the belief that he cannot look upon sin at all.

According to the scriptures, God quite happily deals with sinful people all the time. He came into the Garden of Eden and spoke to Adam and Eve after they had disobeyed by following the suggestion of the serpent. He kept on working with Abraham, David and the people of Israel despite their frequent failure and disobedience. Holy Spirit comes and lives in people who are far from perfect.

God does not like our sin, but we should be careful not to overstate his problems with it. The reality is that his love for us far outweighs the ugliness of our failings. God is keener to forgive us than we are to ask for forgiveness. It is the spiritual powers of evil who like to judge and condemn people who have sinned and load them with guilt and shame.