Ethan R. Longhenry's Blog, page 22

1 John 1:5-7: Walking in the Light

And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:5-7).

Having established the authenticity and origin of his message, John moves on to provide the message itself. That message is that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5).

The imagery of light and darkness represents one of John’s favorites, and he uses it often. The Word is described as the “light of men” in John 1:4, and John makes strong parallels between light and life; after all, life on earth exists because of the heat given off by the light of the sun. Yet John is not concerned about the sun, trees, or plants. God is the light because God represents all that is life-giving, good, and holy. Sin and the world are darkness because they represent all that is life-draining, wrong, and perverted (John 1:5; 10, 1 John 2:15-17). Life and holiness come from being in the light; sin and death come from reveling in the darkness.

John’s message, therefore, is an exhortation to righteousness and a rebuke of sin. This is made evident in the discussion present in verses 6-10, all of which comment on verse 5. John then sets up an appropriate contrast in verses 6 and 7. If we profess to walk in the light (be Christians) and yet walk in the darkness (live sinful lives), we are liars, and “do not” the truth (1 John 1:6). James makes a similar point in James 1:22-25, contrasting those who hear and do the Word and those who merely hear it; how many end up being liars to themselves and others by professing religion without really being obedient to Jesus Christ! Truth is not merely some self-evident axiom, or some mental concept worthy of assent. When Jesus asserts that He “is” the Truth (John 14:6), He indicates that truth is not just a set of beliefs, but the actions that correspond to those beliefs. The truth is something to be believed and lived out. Both John and James make it clear that being a Christian is much more than what one says; in the end, what one believes is only demonstrated through what one does.

In contrast, if we walk in the light (be Christians) as God is in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and we have cleansing from sin in Jesus’ blood (1 John 1:7). John makes heavy use of the present tense in this discussion, indicating the continuous nature of our faith. We must continually walk in the light to have continual cleansing from sin. Furthermore, John identifies the nature of the association that exists among Christians: it is based in a joint walk in the light. Christians do not have association with one another merely because they like each other or just so happened to walk into the same church building; their association is based on each person’s realization that Christ is the way to salvation and by finding each other on that road (cf. John 14:6). This is why Christians cannot have association with a wayward brother or sister (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:1-13): they are no longer on the same road. The basis of their association is removed!

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. We would do well to heed the words of John, and walk in the light!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Time as Cycle

What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth? A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains the same through the ages. The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries away to a place from which it rises again. The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north; round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns. All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full, and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again. All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it: The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing (Ecclesiastes 1:3-8).

How should we consider and portray those who came before us? How should we consider ourselves? What should we imagine about those who will come after us if the Lord wills for mankind to carry on as it has in the past?

People in the Western world today have been conditioned to consider and portray the story of humanity as one of progress. Most Westerners consider those who came before us as more primitive, less enlightened, and often with a patronizing air: perhaps they did the best they could, but they did not know better. We understand things better today, so it is believed. Such is why many look to the future with great optimism, assuming our children and their descendants will carry on with progress and will be able to look at us one day as primitive and less enlightened.

Yet for much of human history, and even to today in some places, the opposite perspective held firm: they imagined the human story as one of regression. In some stories, the gods themselves used to live as humans, built many great works, and now rule from heaven; in others, those of the past lived during a “golden age,” and successive generations experienced a “silver” down to an “iron” age in comparison. According to such a perspective the present and future generations could never expect to live up to the exploits of the ancestors; if anything, today would be seen as better than tomorrow, and humanity will just get more miserable. Many had justification for their story: they could see the ruins of what Bronze and Iron Age civilizations before them had built, and the traumatic experience and memory of collapse and the comparably “dark” age that followed; in many traditions the ancestors are venerated, even worshipped. To consider one as having surpassed them in understanding and wisdom would seem presumptuous and foolish indeed; thus, even when many such people had reached a time of greater material comfort and sophistication than their venerated ancestors had enjoyed, most would still think the ancestors had it better.

For modern Westerners, a regressive view of the future and an idealist perspective on the past seems quaint and ridiculous; for many others, a progressive view of the future and a primitivist perspective on the past seems arrogant and delusional. But according to the Preacher, neither captures the true essence of how humans should consider the passage of time.

The Preacher set forth his general thesis: everything is hevel, a vapor: vanity, futility, perhaps even absurdity (Ecclesiastes 1:2). His first meditation centered on the ultimate futility of human effort: what do people get for all of their efforts they expend on the earth (Ecclesiastes 1:3)? Human effort proved futile because generations come and go, but the earth continues on (Ecclesiastes 1:4). The Preacher has observed the cyclical nature of reality: the earth spins on its axis and orbits around the sun; the winds blow and come around again; water cycles from the ocean to rain to the ground to streams and back into the ocean to start again (Ecclesiastes 1:5-7).

The Preacher understood how difficult it is for people to look at things in such a cyclical way: it is a tedious thing, and strikes at the heart of our pretensions (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Today we believe in progress, in part, because we want to believe in progress: we want to think that humanity is moving toward some end or telos, that things will keep getting better, and for us to find meaning and value in helping to advance the cause of humanity. No doubt many in the past believed in their regress, at least in part, because they wanted to believe that life and humanity could be better than what they were experiencing: perhaps in the moment things were not great, but they were better in the past, and in its own way there is the hope that maybe it can be that good again sometime.

There is an exceedingly difficult truth which the Preacher makes known to us if we are willing to accept it: we are not getting better, and we are not getting worse. We can certainly point to some aspects of humanity which might show some improvement; yet there always remains other ways in which humanity is worse off. There are reasons why the triumphalist pretensions of having reached “the end of history,” or that “history will remember/judge” in a certain way seem laughable in retrospect. We like to think we have progressed in some way or another and yet find people or circumstances which have not manifest that progress. At the same time, those who remember the past with gauzy nostalgia are no less deceived. It is easy to remember the good and forget the evil and ugly in the past, and all the more so when one or one’s ancestors did not suffer the evil and ugly to the degree or extent that others did. Times prove different, and in those different times some things get better, and other things get worse. There are times of prosperity and times of poverty. There are happy times and there are sad times. There are times of great technological advances and times of great technological decline.

Why, after all, do we say that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it?” History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. People say “never again,” but generations arise which never experienced the horror, and a similar horror takes place. This proves true about war, atrocities, economic conditions, fashion trends, and all sorts of other things. We may not like it, but human activity and history is as cyclical as everything else on the earth. In the grand scheme of things, it does all seem to be tiresome monotony.

Indeed, the eye is not satisfied in what it sees; the ear is not satisfied in what it hears (Ecclesiastes 1:8). We do not want to believe this is the way things are; we condition our eyes to see things according to the patters in which we are inculcated and which make the most sense to us. We condition our ears to hear the messages which align with what we already believe. We always want more; we want to be affirmed in what we think and who we are and to prosper in it. That which does not align with our presuppositions we want to suppress or neglect, yet we do so to our own peril; for what will we do when the uncomfortable facts for which we made no place in our understanding overwhelm us?

It is all futile and absurd. Unless the Lord Jesus returns, we will go in the way of our ancestors; another generation will rise and will have to re-learn the effects of our follies by hard earned experience, and all for other generations to have to re-learn the same things. We will always be able to point to certain metrics and things that seem to be doing better and progressing; we will always be able to point to certain metrics and things that seem to be doing worse and regressing. All that we do in society can, and most likely will, be undone in the future, just like we are undoing what was done in the past. Thus has it been; thus it will be until the Lord comes. Such is difficult to hear, but the wise man considers them well and entrusts himself or herself not in the pretenses of their time but in God in Christ. May we glorify God in Christ and obtain the resurrection of life in Him!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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1 John 1:1-4: The Word of Life

That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ: and these things we write, that our joy may be made full (1 John 1:1-4).

John begins his first letter with no welcoming message per se; instead, he begins the letter like he began his Gospel: speaking concerning the Word of life.

John speaks regarding “that which [is] concerning the Word of life.” Much is made of the Word of God as revealed in the Bible, and this is natural and understandable. But John here speaks of the incarnate Word, that which was from the beginning, with God and being God, and active in the creation (John 1:1-3). This Word becomes flesh (John 1:14). We recognize that John is speaking about Jesus, but he does so in a very powerful way.

Christianity is unique among religions because, at its heart, it is centered on a Person. Jesus is the Word. He Himself, in the flesh, is God’s message to mankind. God has taken on flesh, has walked among mankind, and has provided the true light from Heaven (John 1:4-5, 14). Judaism is about the Torah; Islam is about the Qu’ran; eastern religions are often about meditation or ritual. Christianity, while having the Bible, is still about Jesus, the incarnate Word of life. This emphasis is seen constantly in John’s Gospel and later in his letter (cf. John 6, 1 John 2:3-6, 4:11). Eternal life is in the Son, the Word of life (1 John 5:10-12). Everything is centered on Jesus.

And this Jesus is no mere phantasm, no “seeming” person. He was truly God in the flesh. John heard, saw, looked upon, and touched the Word of life (1 John 1:1). He did this not by touching a book or by man’s work on stone or wood, but by being present with and experiencing the manifestation of “the life,” Jesus in the flesh (1 John 1:2; cf. John 1:14). He testifies to Jesus as a witness of His glory and power: testimony is a central piece to John’s themes, both in his Gospel and letter. His message to Christians comes with authority: the authority of one who saw Jesus and heard the message of God from His lips (1 John 1:1-2).

And this is why he writes: he proclaims the message to Christians that he heard from Jesus so that Christians can have fellowship with him, as he has fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3). Fellowship is the Greek word koinonia, and it indicates joint participation, association, a sharing. The message of Jesus is something in which we believe and then participate together in our common goal. One cannot be a believer in Jesus Christ while having no association with others who believe, as John will continue to make clear (1 John 1:7).

By writing the message and having Christians hear it and have fellowship with him and with God, John’s joy is “made complete” (1 John 1:4). Let us join together in a common faith in the message of Jesus so that God’s and our joy may be made complete!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Seasons and Cycles

“While the earth continues to exist, planting time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease” (Genesis 8:22).

The tempest had been great; the promise given, even greater.

God saw the great sinfulness man maintained on the earth; He determined the only remedy was severe: a flood which would consume all flesh (Genesis 6:5-7). The waters of the earth and above the heavens fell upon the land, covering all of it, and drowning all save Noah, his family, and the animals on the Ark (Genesis 7:1-24). After the waters receded, God promised Noah and his descendants that He would never again flood the entire world (Genesis 8:20-21); as part of that promise, God declared that as long as the earth would endure, there would be seasons and day and night (Genesis 8:22).

We can bear witness to God’s faithfulness to this promise: while there have been great and terrifying floods in many parts of the world which have led to the deaths of untold millions of people, the entire world has not flooded since the days of Noah. To this day we still have spring, summer, autumn, and winter; we still experience day and night. We have every reason to expect that the Earth will continue to rotate around the Sun, and to experience the concomitant days, nights, and seasons, until the Lord Jesus returns.

God has thus promised that there would be days and nights and various seasons, but that does not mean God promised they would come without any kind of variation or changing. God promised that day and night would not cease, yet God also heard Joshua’s prayer, and the sun stood still for a full day while Israel defeated their enemies (Joshua 10:12-14), and God also brought darkness upon the land while Jesus suffered on the cross (Matthew 27:45). The historical record well preserves 1816 as the “Year Without a Summer”: the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in modern-day Indonesia produced a “volcanic winter,” leading to abnormally cold temperatures throughout North America and western Europe in 1816. The land experienced frosts throughout the year but also wild temperature swings; crops failed and famine prevailed in the land.

These events are certainly exceptional and extreme, but they help us better understand God’s promise in Genesis 8:22: God promised that the earth will maintain its rotation on its axis so that there will be days and nights and seasons. God did not promise that there would never be any kind of temperature variation in those seasons, or that “seasonal” weather would never become extreme.

While God promised there would be days, nights, and seasons, God has also made known that the creation has been subjected to futility and decay (cf. Romans 8:18-23). God has given rain and fruitful seasons to mankind in His blessings (Acts 14:17); He has also judged mankind with famine, plague, flood, pestilence, and other forms of devastation (Ezekiel 5:11-13, Amos 4:5-13). When a people revel in sin, the land mourns: our very environment is affected by our iniquity (Hosea 4:1-3). God did indeed promise there would be day and night and seasons; God also promised that as people sow, they shall reap, and if they sow the wind, they might well reap the whirlwind (Proverbs 22:8, Hosea 8:7).

For generations humans have noticed variations in weather and temperature patterns; some periods of time are warmer or colder, wetter or drier, than others. Thanks to research derived from observations of how the Earth rotates around the Sun, historical records and records encased in tree rings and ice and mud cores, and other data, we have begun to better understand why those variations can take place. The Earth “wobbles” a bit in its orbit around the Sun, sometimes getting a little closer, and other times getting a little farther out; many of those “farther out” periods would have led to what we call ice ages. Significant volcanic activity can lead to the kind of “volcanic winter” experienced in 1816; if a few of these events take place in a short amount of time, we can find evidence of cooling in the climate that would last for decades. When we consider the climatic history of the past 2200 years, we find regional variations like the “Roman Warm Period” of 250 BCE to 250 CE, the “Medieval Warm Period” of 950 to 1250 CE, and the “Little Ice Age” of 1500-1800 CE. When we consider the historical record of those times, we can see how the “warm” periods led to better agricultural yields and higher populations, and we now recognize that many of the contributing factors which led to the collapse of those periods were rooted in the changing of the climate to the “colder” periods. The evidence on the ground, therefore, strongly associates times of prosperity and times of distress with cyclical climate changes.

Few of these changes were dramatic; most took place over a few generations. Yet they were very much felt. The “warm” periods were comparable to the temperature and seasons of the middle of the twentieth century; the “cold” periods saw longer winters and shorter summer periods, more frequent famine, and often bubonic plague. And yet the variation in global overall temperature was less than a degree Celsius.

By the 1800s the Earth was already experiencing a time of warming; in the past century we have seen anomalous increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and have already experienced over a degree Celsius of global overall temperature increase, well beyond anything experienced by natural cyclical variations over the past 2200 years.

What makes the modern moment different? Humans have industrialized, and our machines emit carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. Our activities seem to have accelerated an existing warming trend even though the orbit of Earth might be trending into what would normally become a time of cooling.

Many have wished to dismiss any such claims as fantastic in light of God’s promise in Genesis 8:22. We will always have seasons, so it is said; thus the idea of “global warming” seems patently ludicrous. If all that was suggested was that Earth would always be in summer, and if Genesis 8:22 were the only word on the matter, such a view would be understandable.

Yet those who recognize the changes in our climate have never suggested that seasons would end. Instead, it is suggested that seasons become more extreme: the cold can get colder; the hot even hotter; dry spells last longer, but storms also get stronger. We are beginning to see these suggestions come to pass. What used to pass for extreme events are becoming far more commonplace; what we used to think was “normal” is no longer proving so.

In Genesis 8:22, God does not promise a particular experience of spring, summer, autumn, or winter; just that there would continue to be spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The seasons remain. But when we “sow the wind” with fossil fuel emissions, we might well find ourselves “reaping the whirlwind” of a planet with extreme weather that has become much less hospitable than it was before our innovations and developments.

God has never promised any of us a comfortable existence in a highly sophisticated and technologically advanced civilization. The historical records of the kinds of famines, pestilences, plagues, and wars which have beset mankind since the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven would speak otherwise! Yes, there will continue to be days and nights, springs, summers, autumns, and winters. But that is no guarantee that the climate and weather our children or their descendants will experience will be as comfortable and pleasant as our own. That God promised the continuation of seasons is no good argument against the prospect of climate change, and the people of God should cease considering it so.

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Church

For a lot of people, “church” evokes unpleasant experiences. We have all seen many examples of churches and their leaders not acting like they should. Maybe you grew up in a church and found it to be boring and/or irrelevant to the things you were going through in life. Perhaps you visited a church service that featured some great performances but you walked away feeling just as empty as you did before.

In a lot of places, “church” focuses on a building, the Sunday services, and maybe a Bible study or two, and that is about it. It’s like a social club: people come together, wearing nice clothes, acting like they have everything together, no matter how broken things really are on the inside. They sit for the standard rituals, exchange platitudes, and then continue on with life as normal. It all seems so fake and contrived! Little wonder, then, that so many people are no longer identifying themselves as part of a church. People still like Jesus; far fewer like the church!

Why would anyone want to be a part of such a group? Is such a group what Jesus had in mind as the church that He said He would build (Matthew 16:18)? What is the point?

It is sad that the condition of many churches has come to this, for it was never God’s intention for churches to act like social clubs. Instead, God intended for the church to be one of the greatest blessings in our lives!

In the New Testament, the “church” never refers to a building or a denominational organization. The “church” always involves the people who believe in Jesus and seek to serve Him (cf. Acts 2:42-47, Ephesians 4:11-16, 5:22-33). While all obedient believers are considered the one church (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, Revelation 21), the believers in a local area would meet together and represent the church in that area (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1). Whenever possible, those local churches would be guided by qualified men who served as elders (Philippians 1:1, 1 Peter 5:1-4), yet in all things, Jesus was considered the real authority in the churches (Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 5:22-33). In the New Testament, there was the “universal” church, and local congregations of God’s people; there were no organizational structures in between!

God declares in Scripture what the church is supposed to be all about through three images: the church as a Temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 1 Peter 2:4-5), the church as a body (Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:12-28), and the church as a family (1 Timothy 3:15).

The image of the church as a Temple shows us that God is interested in people becoming more holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). The Temple is the location where the presence of God dwells; it is not in a building anymore, but within and among Christians. Christians, individually and together, are to reflect God’s thoughts, feelings, and actions, both in doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong, based in what God has revealed to us through Christ and His Apostles (cf. Galatians 5:17-24, Ephesians 2:20-22).

The image of the church as a body shows us how God expects the church to function. As a human body has many different parts that work independently and together, so the church is made up of people who work independently and together. As a human body is governed by the dictates of the mind, so the church is governed by what Christ its Head has said. As a body is made up of different parts, some public, some private, having different functions, yet all important and necessary for proper functioning, so the church is made up of different people who serve the Lord, some in more public ways, others in more private ways, and they all are important and valuable in God’s sight. And just as body parts compensate for one another in times of weakness, so Christians are to strengthen each other in moments of weakness (cf. Galatians 6:1-2).

The image of the church as a family underscores the strong relationship that should exist among God’s people. God is understood to be our Father (cf. Romans 8:15), and Jesus as our older Brother (Hebrews 2:11, 17). We are to appreciate and value our fellow Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ (cf. 1 Timothy 5:1-2, 1 John 3:14). As people are supposed to find warmth, acceptance, and love within a properly functioning family, so the church should be the place where all who seek to serve the Lord find warmth, acceptance, and love (cf. Ephesians 4:11-16, 1 John 1:7).

All of these images point to what God expects the church to be, powerfully displayed in Ephesians 4:11-16: a group of people who share in relationships with God and one another, loving and strengthening one another according to the message of God in Christ, learning how to serve God and all men through Christ, and all so that the church can grow in the glory of God. A lot of that work is done when Christians come together on Sundays to strengthen one another through praying together, singing together, giving together, taking the Lord’s Supper together, and learning more about God’s message together through preaching and teaching (cf. Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 11:23-26, 14:16-17, 26, 16:1-4). Yet just as Christianity is much more than what is done on Sunday morning, so also the church is more than just its assemblies: we show hospitality to one another, finding ways to get to know one another so that we can bear one another’s burdens, give to each other as needed, and strive to be a constant source of strength in each other’s lives (Romans 12:10-13, Galatians 6:2, 1 Peter 4:9).

We at de Verbo vitae believe that the church as God wants it to function has an important part to play in the role in the lives of every believer. We are not perfect people and we do not claim to have everything figured out, yet we still seek to reflect God’s intentions for His church, to be the Temple, body, and family that honors God by strengthening one another. We welcome you to learn more about our family and hope that you will consider joining us so that we can strengthen you and build you up in your faith! If you would like to talk more about the church and how to become a part of it, please contact us here. Thanks for reading this material, and we hope to hear from you soon!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Philistia

The southwest coastal portion of the land of Canaan was supposed to become part of Danite and Judahite territory. It would instead become the land of a fearsome people from across the sea: Philistia.

In Deuteronomy 2:23, Jeremiah 47:4, and Amos 9:7, Biblical authors spoke of the Philistines as having come from the land of Caphtor, generally identified with Greece; in Genesis 10:14 they are identified with the Casluhim. Records from Egypt bear similar witness: among the “Sea Peoples” who attacked Egypt in the days of Merneptah and Ramses III, ca. 1215-1175 BCE, were a people the Egyptians called the “Peleset” or the “Pulasti.” The Egyptians repulsed both attacks; in inscriptions Ramses III prided himself on having settled them in the southwestern part of Canaan which would become Philistia.

The identity of the “Sea Peoples” is not fully known, but most consider them to be connected with the collapsing Mycenaean civilization of Greece. The Mycenaeans might well be considered the Vikings of their age: they lived in what was then the periphery of civilization, and grew strong by trading wherever they could, and sacking and plundering cities when they could not. Their distinctive pottery was found throughout the ancient Near Eastern world; the exploits of their heroes would be preserved in The Iliad and The Odyssey. As their city-states fought and destroyed one another, many likely sought refuge in their boats, wandering around the Mediterranean world and would become known as the “Sea Peoples”; if we are to believe Ramses III’s account, they are the ones responsible for the final collapse of the Hittite and many other Anatolian civilizations. The “Sea Peoples” were not merely a migration of a warrior class; in the reliefs Ramses III had carved of the Peleset, women and children are also present with them. To this end, after their defeat at the hands of the Egyptians, some of those among the Peleset settled in southwestern Canaan and became what we deem the Philistines. As far as we can tell, the Philistines never represented a centralized authority; they set up city-states, of which Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza proved primary. They were the “five lords of the Philistines” (Joshua 13:3), and they would become the terror of Canaan.

The Bible does speak of “the Philistines” before the time of 1175 BCE in Genesis 21:32-34, 26:1-18, and spoke of places in terms of the “land of the Philistines” in Exodus 13:17, 23:31. These references indicate either examples of anachronism, in which the people who dwelled in the land that would become Philistia are spoken of as “Philistines” even though the actual Philistines have not yet arrived, or may indicate an earlier settlement of Greek peoples in the land. Biblical historical narratives do not explicitly identify the time of the invasion of the “Sea Peoples,” but their effects become evident in the middle of the period of the Judges. Judah had been able to conquer Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gaza, which would become major Philistine cities in Judges 1:8. Yet Shamgar would have to kill many Philistines (Judges 3:31); Israel served the gods of the Philistines to their downfall (Judges 10:6); and the Philistines have established their rule over at least many in the southern portion of Israel in the time of Samson (Judges 10:7, 13:1-16:31). Whereas previous judges were able to deliver Israel from their foes so they would not be again oppressed by them, the Philistines remain just as much in charge after Samson’s death as they had before. While unstated in the text, the presence and power of the Philistines was very likely a major contributor to the decision of the Danites to give up on the portion of land allotted to them by Joshua along the Mediterranean Sea and to conquer what would become the city of Dan up in the north (cf. Joshua 19:40-47, Judges 18:1-31).

The Philistines laid Israel low in ways no other neighboring nation had been able to accomplish. From the days of Samson until the days of David, or roughly 1150-1000 BCE, the Philistines dominated the Israelites (cf. Judges 13:1-1 Samuel 31:13). This was the time of the greatest extent of Philistine rule in Canaan; even though they would lose some battles against the Israelites, they bested them far more often than not, seizing the Ark of the Covenant, and humiliating Israel to the point where no blacksmith could be found among the Israelites, for the Philistines did not want them to create weapons, and so demanded they visit Philistine blacksmiths, and maintained the power and control to enforce these demands. Such was a powerful motivator for Israel to ask for a king like the other nations (cf. 1 Samuel 8:1-22); what seemed to have been a loose tribal confederation beforehand developed into a centralized state, to some degree, in order to face the Philistine menace.

Yet God would lay Philistia low through the work of David son of Jesse. David defeated the Philistine champion Goliath (1 Samuel 17:1-58); in his flight from Saul David would become a vassal of Achish king of Gath, and ruled over Ziklag, and thus well understood the Philistines and their ways (cf. 1 Samuel 27:1-30:31). Once David became king of Judah and all Israel, he smashed a series of Philistine armies and reversed the roles in the relationship: the Philistines would become vassals of David (2 Samuel 5:17-25).

After the days of David the Philistines did not feature prominently in the Biblical narrative. They were vassals of David and Solomon but would restore their territorial integrity and hegemony by the middle of the eighth century BCE. The Philistines became like the other small nations of the Levant: they conspired with and against other small nations, resisted Assyrian and Egyptian domination, and would ultimately suffer a similar fate to Judah: Nebuchadnezzar destroyed their cities and exiled their population in 604 BCE. Unlike Judah, the Philistines would never return; they assimilated into the Babylonian milieu. The Phoenicians would take over the coastal areas; the returning Judahites would have populated the rest.

The Hebrew Bible certainly suggested that the Philistines were particularly foreign: people of the surrounding nations had been there for some time and shared ethnic and linguistic relationships with one another and the Israelites, yet the Philistines had come from Greece and maintained many different customs, particularly in remaining uncircumcised (e.g. 1 Samuel 17:26). By the seventh century BCE the Philistines had fully assimilated into local Canaanite culture; we have discovered a dedicatory inscription in Ekron which is written in a Canaanite dialect similar to Phoenician with some words which may have Greek origins, including the word Achish (cf. 1 Samuel 21:10, etc.).

Yet the Greek origin of the Philistines would leave two powerful legacies. One is the narrative of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:1-58, which is recorded in a detailed, almost epic format, featuring a proxy battle of champions, concepts featured prominently in Homer’s The Iliad. The other is in the Greek memory of the Philistines: Herodotus knew of the land of Canaan as Palaistine, based on “Philistine” (History 3.91.1), which leads to the modern term “Palestine.”

We do well to remember the Philistines as the scourge and terror of cities and nations during the collapse of the Late Bronze Age and into the Early Iron Age. Their presence and domination reconfigured the tribal assortment of Israel and led to its political centralization. Yet once Israel proved dominant, the Philistines would lose most of their distinctiveness, having taken on many features of Canaanite language and practice. The Philistines, as a people, are gone; yet their legacy remains since so many of the people of the land are called Palestinians to this day. Nevertheless, they had trusted in their ways and their gods and perished; Israel was to learn how they needed to trust in the ways of their God to remain and endure. May we endure in God in Christ and obtain the resurrection of life!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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How Absurd!

Life in this creation after the Fall: we live for a time and then we die. It all seems rather absurd.

Such is the perspective of the Preacher in Jerusalem in Ecclesiastes 1:1-2.

“Ecclesiastes” is a transliteration of the Greek translation of Hebrew Kohelet, “one who speaks before an assembly,” thus, “the preacher.” The Preacher is identified as the “son of David, king in Jerusalem in Ecclesiastes 1:1; he is also said to have taught knowledge and arranged many proverbs in Ecclesiastes 12:9. For this reason most associate the Preacher with Solomon, king of Israel, and author of most of the book of Proverbs (ca. 950 BCE). Scholars remain convinced Ecclesiastes is a work of far later provenance, perhaps dating from the Hellenistic period (ca. 330-250 BCE). We have no quarrel with attributing the work to Solomon, yet will continue to speak of him as he spoke of himself in the work: as the Preacher.

The Preacher began his message the same way he would end it in Ecclesiastes 12:8: by declaring that all things were hevel. The translations and understandings of hevel are numerous. The concrete referent of the term is manifest in Job 7:16, Psalms 62:10, 144:4, Proverbs 21:6, and Isaiah 57:13: wind, breath, or vapor. The term would develop more abstract referents based on the physical characteristics of wind/vapor. Since one cannot weigh or measure the wind or vapor, it was seen as without substance, thus leading to a meaning of “fruitless” or “worthless” (so Psalm 78:33, Proverbs 13:11, Jeremiah 2:5, 10:13, 15, 16:19, 51:18). Since wind and vapor pass away quickly, hevel could mean “fleeting” or “transitory” (so Job 7:16, Proverbs 31:30, Ecclesiastes 6:12, 7:15, 9:9, 11:10). Since one cannot easily see wind, breath, or vapor, it could easily be associated with that which is obscure and dark, and thus difficult to comprehend or understand (so Ecclesiastes 11:10). Thus we can understand the King James Version and American Standard Version’s translation of the term as “vanity,” and thus “vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” The New English Translation appropriately understands hevel as indicating futility: “absolute futility! All is futile!” A more imaginative definition would understand hevel as used by the Preacher to indicate absurdity: everything, in the end, proves absurd.

But what is futile and absurd? The Preacher spoke of life in terms of what goes on “under the sun” (e.g. Ecclesiastes 1:3): what is the ultimate purpose of human life as we live it in this creation in its present condition?

To this end all is futile. People live, work, and die. Whether they are good or evil, they live, work, and die. Rich and poor, fortunate or unfortunate, oppressor or oppressed; they all die. They are soon forgotten, and the world goes on. Thus, it is all futile.

How do we respond to such a message? Few Biblical messages lead to as much consternation as does the Preacher’s message in Ecclesiastes. What the Preacher has to say seemed to run afoul of the rest of the Biblical witness; thus its original editor felt compelled to conclude that the ultimate conclusion of the matter was to fear God and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). The Preacher would not deny as much; yet he is playing out all of human pretension to its natural end. People naturally want to stay together and make a name for themselves (cf. Genesis 11:4); but will any of that work? People look to labor, various forms of pleasure, or monuments or something of that sort to make sense of their lives between their birth and their death; yet can such efforts really sustain human meaning in existence?

The Preacher has rightly seen the end of all these matters, and would go on to explain as much throughout his message. He would disabuse us of the pretensions of the mythology which people like to tell themselves and their children: our labor will outlast us; we find who we are in our fun; life is all about us and our happiness; we can make an everlasting name for ourselves in this creation. None of these things really work; none of them truly satisfy. They are all vanity, futile: it is all absurd.

Would the Preacher have us fall into depression? By no means! The Preacher must strip us of our pretensions so that he can liberate us from them and allow us to find joy and pleasure in that which God has given for us: the fruit of our labor; the spouse of our youth; food and drink; the very things which we take for granted when we expend ourselves according to our pretensions. Life is absurd, but we can still enjoy it. We can appreciate it all the more for what it is when we are disabused of what it was never meant to sustain.

Little of this is immediately evident just in the Preacher’s statement that all is futile and absurd; it will flow from what he would go on to say. Yet it is important for us as hearers and readers to be properly prepared to hear what the Preacher has to say lest we try to rationalize and justify his warnings away in our attempts to hold onto the pretensions of life which we have inherited. We must be open to the utter absurdity of it all if we will be able to appreciate what the Preacher has to say.

In the end God does call all of us to fear Him and keep His commandments in the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to what God has done in Christ for ultimate meaning and eternal life. We do well to anchor our trust in God in Christ so that we can enjoy the lives He has given us for His glory and honor, and not attempt to make of life beyond what it can sustain. May we recognize the absurdity of life under the sun yet seek to glorify God in Christ in all we do!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Can You Be Forgiven?

There are many times when people recognize the truth of the message of the Gospel, yet believe that they cannot be forgiven of sin. Perhaps you feel that you have sinned so terribly that you could never be forgiven of it. Is this so?

It is understandable why many people feel this way. Sin is a terrible matter, and many times you feel great guilt when you have wronged someone. That guilt can be healthy if it is a “godly grief”, one that leads to repentance from sin (2 Corinthians 7:10). If, however, the guilt leads to you sin further or try to hide, it will lead to death!

It is good for all of us to remember that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and there is no evidence from the Scriptures that God considers some sins to be “worse” than any other sins. We can have confidence from this, then, that all of us are on the same playing field, and no one is any worse off than anyone else: we have all sinned, and we all need redemption.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul teaches that even though some had committed great sin, whether through sexual immorality, lust for money, etc., they were still saved! The blood of the Lamb could cleanse them of their sins!

Paul himself is a great example from the Scriptures of one forgiven of great sin. He tells Timothy of himself in 1 Timothy 1:12-16:

It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

Paul sheds some light on the reason why God would use such a violent enemy of the church as one of its messengers: so that you and I would be able to see an example of one who had sinned greatly and yet found salvation in Christ Jesus. Paul considered himself the foremost of sinners; certainly you cannot consider yourself worse than Paul, who persecuted those who tried to follow God!

We are blessed to have an awesome God as our God, and we can have full confidence that He is able to forgive us of any wrongs we have committed. I do not believe that you want to believe that God is not capable of forgiving you of your sins, and I hope that you accept the witness of the Scriptures in that God is willing to forgive you of your sins. Is the issue, then, not that you are concerned that God will not forgive you of your sin, but in fact that you cannot forgive yourself for your sins? If this is the case, hear the witness of John in 1 John 3:19-20:

Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him: because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

If God can forgive you of your sins, and He certainly can, you can also forgive yourself of your sins. God will not hold them against you, and if you continue to hold them against yourself, they can lead to your condemnation (1 John 3:21). In Christ Jesus you will be able to end your past and begin your future.

Please, dear reader, hearken to the words of the inspired apostles and obey Christ today!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Man’s Influence on the Creation

How strongly can humans influence God’s creation?

Our possible influence over the creation has become a serious and contentious matter. The implications of how we answer the question might well significantly impact our quality of life and the quality of life for those who may come after us.

The question is fraught with a continual human problem, aptly described by David in Psalm 8:4-7: in the grand scheme of the creation, humanity is small and insignificant, and we rightly wonder why God would notice us; and yet God has made us a little lower than the heavenly beings, crowned us with honor and majesty, and have given us dominion over the earth. Therefore we can understand a perspective that suggests human activity cannot strongly influence God’s creation since God is great and powerful and humans are not; we can understand why anyone who would hold to such a view would consider the alternative to be arrogant and presumptuous, claiming humans can do things they actually cannot do. Yet even though humans might be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, what if their activities on the earth can lead to significant changes and consequences for themselves and for other creatures on the planet? If such were possible, then the suggestion that we are too small to do much of anything would presume a false humility and its conclusion another form of arrogance and presumption: the belief humans can do whatever they wish and it will not significantly impact their environment.

What has God made known about human influences on the creation? In Hosea 4:1-3 YHWH began to indict Israel for their sinfulness: they were unfaithful and disloyal, did not recognize God, cursed, lied, stole, killed, and committed adultery, and as a result the land would mourn, leading to the death of people, land animals, and even the fish of the sea.

We today might wonder how or why Hosea would make such a connection: why would animals and fish suffer because people lie and steal? We can consider one very practical reason: those who do not respect the lives of their fellow humans will also not respect the lives of animals or the environment in general. If the Israelites had no problem extorting and plundering their fellow humans, they would not think twice about over-exploiting and plundering the abundance God provided for them in the land.

There remains a more profound and spiritual reason for such a connection, however, which hearkens back to the beginning. We have been told God made a very good creation in Genesis 1:31, and Paul declared that sin and death entered the creation through Adam’s transgression (Romans 5:12-21). Human sin is not something that just affects God, the person who sinned, and any victimized by that sin; since sin works contrary to the purposes of God in the creation, sin is a transgression against the way the creation is supposed to work, and will have an impact on the creation. Thus Isaiah lamented how the land and would would languish and mourn because the earth was polluted by the transgressions and violations of its inhabitants against God and His covenant (Isaiah 23:3-5). The land would suffer the result of this curse (Isaiah 24:5-14). As Jeremiah asked: how long would the land be parched, the grass withered, the animals die, and all because of the wickedness of the people (Jeremiah 12:4)?

The prophets directly associate God’s judgments on people with environmental devastation (Isaiah 33:9, Joel 1:10-13, Amos 1:2, 5:16, 8:8, Nahum 1:4, Zephaniah 1:3): the people would watch as their cities would burn down, their wealth was plundered, but also as their land burned or suffering from drought, famine, and pestilence. The Chronicler understood Jeremiah’s promise of seventy years of exile to allow the land to enjoy the sabbath years Israel never provided (2 Chronicles 36:20-21; cf. Jeremiah 25:11, Leviticus 25:4, 26:33-35).

In all these matters we should be reminded of Hosea’s maxim and warning to Israel: they had sowed the wind and would reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7). The fruit of what they would endure would be bitter indeed, and all because they proved covetous, greedy, and did not give appropriate regard for life or appropriate care and provision for the land.

Most agree that humans can wield significant influence over a given land or region, and many Christians do so on the basis of what we have demonstrated above from Scripture. Yet many will suggest human influence is limited or restricted to small areas of land and cannot significantly alter the balance of life.

For the majority of human history such a position was very understandable: human technological innovation was fairly limited and restricted, and environmental impacts seemed easily mitigated. Populations would rise and tax the earth and its resources, but then times of plague, pestilence, famine, and war would reduce the population and allow the earth and its resources to recover to some degree.

Nevertheless, recent discoveries about the finely tuned balance present on the earth should give everyone pause. The more we compare historical documentation of the rise and fall of empires and civilizations with data about the state of the climate from ice and mud cores from around the world, the more we see the power of the influence of environmental factors over our lives. In a very real way such evidence does confess humanity’s relative weakness and insignificance in the grand scheme of things: the rise and fall of nations and powers had as much to do with slight variations in global temperature and the changes in weather and environmental conditions which came as a consequence as it did with the relative strength and competence of the rulers and powers of the day. Time and time again the veneer of civilization proved very thin in the face of floods, drought, pestilence, and plagues, especially when these disasters would compound upon one another.

Over the past two hundred years, and especially within our own generation, human technological innovation has exploded and has led to significant environmental consequences. Humans with machines powered by electricity and fossil fuels transform land to a degree heretofore unimaginable. The human population has exploded over the past century; around the world we have replaced wild land and wild species with developed and cultivated land for ourselves, pets, and farm animals. In almost every domain the earth groans under the burdens we have imposed upon it: many lands have been denuded of fertile soil and are cultivated only with difficulty and fertilizer; it is now believed that half of the wild animals who were alive a generation ago are now gone; more species find themselves at the brink of extinction; fish stocks have been depleted and people now look to deeper and less quality fish to make up the difference; humans encounter new bacteria and viruses as they push ever deeper into previously untouched lands; plastic and other pollutants are everywhere; the oceans are warmer and more acidic; temperatures have risen; hurricanes/typhoons, floods, drought, and wildfires have grown in strength and duration. All of these are presently happening; who knows what will happen if we persist in our behaviors?

If one group of humans in one area, in their greed and sinfulness, can lead to environmental degradation and devastation when they reap the whirlwind they have sown, there is no intrinsic reason why humans around the world, if they prove greedy and sinful, will not suffer environmental degradation and devastation when they reap the whirlwind they have sown. We have gone beyond what is necessary in our exploitation of the earth; who knows how God will judge us for doing so? Perhaps He has built corrective measures into the fabric of the creation itself, and we will begin suffering the effects of these corrective measures. Perhaps He might bring a more specific form of judgment. Perhaps He will show mercy. Nevertheless, we presume a lack of consequence for the ways in which we exploit the creation to our peril and even greater peril for our children and grandchildren. May we uphold and honor the value of life and the creation with which God has blessed us abundantly, and look for the resurrection of life in Christ!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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1 John: Introduction

1 John represents one of the most sublime and yet profound books of the New Testament. At five chapters, it is not very long; but is full of encouraging thoughts and provides much to ponder.

The letter, as written, provides very little biographical information regarding either its author or its intended recipients. The author never identifies himself, yet the many parallels in thought and language between the author of 1 John and the author of the Gospel of John (as we will see) indicate that John the Apostle is the most likely author. Second century traditions agree with this identification. We recognize that Christians are the intended audience (1 John 1:3), and John’s tender appeals to his “little children” seems to indicate that the audience is well-known to John (cf. 1 John 2:1; 5:23). Based upon all available evidence, the audience is most likely the various Christians who lived near Ephesus in Asia Minor; the letter may have been written to one particular church or as an encyclical, with different copies going to many local churches.

Ephesus is the assumed place of authorship since the Gospel of John, the three letters of John, and the Revelation of John all seem to be written from the same hand. Both the Revelation and second century traditions place John in Ephesus toward the end of his life. Since 1 John itself betrays no geographical information or clues, we must content ourselves with this assumption.

The date of 1 John represents a contentious matter. The two timeframes most commonly advanced are between 61-67 or 85-95 CE. The early date tends to be favored by those who believe the whole of the New Testament canon was completed by 70 CE, and that John’s writings all precede (and anticipate) the destruction of Jerusalem. The later date tends to be favored by those who see John writing more to Christians in Asia Minor after the events of 70. 1 John itself provides few clues that can provide positive identification of the time period. Nevertheless, the complete lack of mention of Paul or Timothy is suspicious if John is writing in Ephesus in the 60s; likewise, very few of John’s concerns precisely parallel Paul’s concerns as laid out in 1 and 2 Timothy, which is also suspicious if the works are nearly contemporaneous. Furthermore, John’s great concerns with docetic and gnostic teachings (docetic: the belief that Jesus was not really in the flesh, but was God seeming to be flesh; gnostic: various beliefs that emphasized secret knowledge and presented an alternative view of reality more in line with Hellenistic philosophy; cf. 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3). While it is true that Paul seems to deal with the beginnings of such beliefs in Ephesus in the mid-60s (cf. 1 Timothy 6:20-21, 2 Timothy 2:16-19), the problem is much greater in John’s day, which is consistent with all historical evidence. The lack of interaction between John with Paul and Timothy and the more developed forms of docetism and gnosticism present in the area of Ephesus provide more credence to the later date.

Why does John feel compelled to write the letter? John says that he writes to “make our joy complete” (1 John 1:4). To do so, he encourages the brethren to live faithfully according to the standard of Christ’s commandments (cf. 1 John 2:1-6), and to stand firm against the false doctrines (most likely forms of docetism and/or gnosticism) that are growing in prevalence in his day (1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3). We see that John wrote a letter to Christians in Asia Minor sometime between 85-95 CE to make his joy complete, encouraging them in their faith, exhorting them to stand firm in God’s truth and to put God’s truth to work in their lives.

Ethan R. Longhenry

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