Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 38

Should Our Joy Depend on Our Circumstances?

Note from Randy: I was reading, and immediately appreciating this article sentences before the author mentioned my book Happiness! I wanted to share it because Pastor Steve Bateman gives an important correction to the modern sentiment that being happy due to positive circumstances, including the welfare of loved ones, is somehow unspiritual. True, circumstances change, and our happiness should be grounded on Christ, who doesn’t change, but that doesn’t make it inappropriate to rejoice in favorable immediate circumstances.

Instead of saying, “My circumstances don’t matter; they’re not the source of my joy,” we’d be better off saying: “God uses my best circumstances to encourage me, and He can use my worst circumstances to enrich me. He will never leave me, and He has promised me eternal life with Him on a New Earth in a resurrected universe. One day He’ll welcome me into His never-ending happiness.”

As Steve reminds us, our immediate circumstances do matter. But in the scope of eternity, they’re not the main source of our joy because of our ultimate circumstances in Christ, which can never be taken away from us.

My Joy Depends on My Circumstances

By Steve Bateman

When I was a young pastor, a church elder detected my discouragement one day and gently said, “It will look better in the morning.” This simple advice has helped me countless times since. Often after I’ve experienced a good night’s sleep and a brisk run, God has felt nearer, my problems smaller, the solutions clearer, and my future brighter.

By changing my circumstances, I increased my joy.

At this point, many evangelicals will rush to correct me: “No. You increased your happiness, not your joy. Happiness depends on circumstances; joy does not. The world experiences happiness, but only Christians experience joy.”

This popular distinction between happiness and joy hasn’t always existed in the church. Randy Alcorn makes a convincing case that the two biblical terms are interchangeable, and he traces the artificial distinction at least back to Oswald Chambers in the mid-20th century. If Alcorn is right (I think he is), then either joy and happiness both depend on circumstances or both don’t. What’s true of one will be true of the other.

2 Kinds of Circumstances

“Circumstance” literally means “to stand around.” Imagine yourself at the center of a circle, and certain objective facts stand around the circumference. Four facts surround you: you got a good night’s sleep, you’ve had a strong cup of coffee, your daughter just made the dean’s list, and your boss just gave you a raise. The normal response to these objective facts is genuine joy. You’ll feel happy—whether you’re a Christian or not.

Now imagine the circumstantial facts are these: your allergies kept you up all night, you spilled your coffee while driving, your daughter is failing a class, and your boss just fired you. The normal response to these objective facts is genuine sorrow. You’ll feel sad—whether you’re a Christian or not.

Believers share these kinds of circumstances with unbelievers. Because of common guilt, children of God aren’t immune from the sorrow produced by the fall; because of common grace, children of wrath aren’t deprived of the joy preserved in the imago Dei. Unbelievers experience genuine joy as they receive the Creator’s good gifts, even if they don’t acknowledge him who satisfies their “hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).

Beyond the facts of this immediate circle, there’s another circle with different circumstances—ultimate ones. These are the attributes, acts, and promises of God. For the unbeliever, such ultimate circumstances are bad news: God’s omniscience means every secret sin is fully known; his holiness ensures judgment is inevitable; his omnipresence renders judgment inescapable. These objective facts create a terrifying ring of circumstances for the unbeliever.

How does the unbeliever emotionally cope with these traumatic circumstances? By worshiping creation rather than the Creator and pursuing happiness in the gifts, not the Giver. Through spiritual blindness and willful denial, he cannot see beyond his immediate circumstances. Sure, replacing the living God with lifeless idols may bring joy for a season—yet with diminishing returns. His idols eventually fail him.

For the believer, the ultimate circumstances are happy facts. God’s omniscience means he knows our needs; his omnipotence ensures he can meet them; his compassion moves him to care about them; his providence confirms that every unmet need has a loving (even if hidden) purpose. Facts like the immutability of God, the substitutionary atonement and triumphant resurrection of Christ, justification by faith alone, and the promise of eternal life are firmly and forever standing their ground in a circle around me. My joy is completely dependent on these ultimate circumstances.

As Milton Vincent put it, “The gospel is one great permanent circumstance in which I live and move; and every hardship in my life is allowed by God only because it serves his gospel purposes in me.”

God of Hope

To be sure, we can often find joy in the happy facts of our immediate circumstances, since they’re kindly ordered by God. He “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17): food and drink, family and friends, houses and health, Bibles and bikes, music and sports. The believer is free to have as much fun as legally possible while cheerfully obeying the laws of God and promoting the joy of others. While unbelievers hope for happiness from the world, believers hope for happiness in the world as they enjoy God’s good gifts with grateful hearts.

The missionary David Brainerd acknowledged our “absolute dependence” on God for “every crumb of happiness” we enjoy. Acknowledge this dependence and find guilt-free happiness in deep sleep, vigorous exercise, good food, close friends, public worship, meaningful work, and robust coffee—coram Deo. When we know the Lord has done great things for us, our mouth will be “filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy” (Ps. 126:2).

But when our joy is threatened by painful circumstances—when we’re shocked by sudden loss, paralyzed by gut-wrenching grief, or weakened by chronic disease—we fall back on hope. Hope is the fact-based conviction that no matter how bad things are now, they’ll get better.

Jesus prayed in Gethsemane with no outward evidence of joy. A bitter cup sat in his immediate circumstances. Why pursue this torturous path? For “the joy that was set before him” (Heb. 12:2). No matter how bad his immediate circumstances were, he knew they’d improve. For also standing beside the bleeding Son was the ultimate circumstance of an omnipotently kind Father.

As others have observed, for the unbeliever who doesn’t repent, this world’s fleeting joy is the closest he’ll get to heaven. For the believer, this world’s momentary sorrow is the closest he’ll get to hell. This is why Paul can rejoice in prison, knowing it has actually “served to advance the gospel” (Phil. 1:12). Immediate circumstance: Caesar’s prison. Ultimate circumstance: God’s purposes.

Again, Paul can say to Christians weeping over fresh graves that their grief differs from the grief of those who “have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). Immediate circumstance: the believer is dead. Ultimate circumstance: the believer will be raised.

Dynamic Partnership

Joy and hope are faithful friends. “Two are better than one,” and when our joy stumbles under the load of immediate circumstances, hope is there to “lift up his fellow” (Eccl. 4:9–10). Hope and joy cooperate for our endurance. Hope sustains us until we can feel joy again.

On the last day, the ultimate circumstances will swallow up our immediate circumstances, and every tear will be wiped away. Until then, by God’s grace, I’ll pursue joy by changing every circumstance biblical wisdom allows me to change. I’ll accept every sad circumstance I’m unable to change as the providence of the all-wise God. And I’ll remember ancient advice: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

This article originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition, and is used with the author’s permission.

Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash

Tell Yourself These Biblical Truths about Suffering

In my book If God Is God, I write about how telling ourselves these truths that God has revealed in His Word about suffering can help us deal with it:

Suffering is limited. It could be far worse.

God sets a limit on evil and suffering in your life. In Job’s life, Satan could do only so much for so long. God determined the limits. And since life continues after death, your suffering can last only the tiniest fraction of your true eternal lifetime. Rest in the knowledge that everything that comes into your life—yes, even evil and suffering—is Father-filtered.

Here and now, God offers you the comfort of His presence. He promises in Hebrews 13:5, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” This unusual Greek sentence contains five negatives. Kenneth Wuest translates it, “I will not, I will not cease to sustain and uphold you. I will not, I will not, I will not let you down.”

Suffering is temporary. It could last far longer.

If you are God’s child, then your suffering cannot outlast your lifetime. Knowing that suffering will one day end gives us strength to endure this day. Though we don’t know exactly when, we do know for sure that either by our deaths or by Christ’s return, our suffering will end. From before the beginning, God drew the line in eternity’s sand to say for His children, “This much and no more, then endless joy.”

In 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 Paul speaks of relative weights. He calls our present evils and sufferings “light and momentary.” When we face a lengthy period of great adversity, though it hardly seems momentary, in fact it is. In eternity, people in God’s presence will fully agree with Paul that their earthly sufferings were unworthy to be compared with eternal glory.

Suffering can produce some desirable good. It can make us better people, and it can reveal God’s character in ways that bring Him glory and bring us good.

As a young Christian I believed that going to Heaven instead of Hell was all that mattered. But as I read the Bible, I saw that to be called according to God’s purpose is to be conformed to the character of Christ. God’s purpose for our suffering is Christlikeness. That is our highest calling. If God answered all our prayers to be delivered from evil and suffering, then He would be delivering us from Christlikeness. But Christlikeness is something to long for, not to be delivered from.

Whether suffering brings us to Christlikeness depends, to some degree, upon our willingness to submit to God and trust Him and draw our strength from Him. Suffering will come whether we allow it to make us Christlike or not—but if we don’t our suffering is wasted.

God can see all the ultimate results of suffering; we can see only some. When we see more, in His presence, we will forever praise Him for it. He calls upon us to trust Him and begin that praise now.

Suffering and weeping are real and profound, but for God’s children, they are temporary. Eternal joy is on its way.

God promises that the eternal ending will break forth in such glorious happiness that all present suffering will pale in comparison. All who know Jesus will have a happy ending.

We just haven’t seen it yet.

This article was adapted from Randy’s book If God Is Good. Also see the devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness, book The Goodness of God, and booklet If God Is Good, Why Do We Hurt?, which deals with the question and shares the gospel so that both unbelievers and believers can benefit.

Photo by Ioana Ye on Unsplash

The New Fight for Life: An Important New Book from Benjamin Watson

For decades I have spent long and fruitful hours dialoguing with prolife advocates as well as proponents of racial justice. Both causes are close to God’s heart, and I have often regretted that those who see clearly one of these causes are often blind to the other. I don’t know anyone more insightful and articulate on these issues than my friends Ben and Kirsten Watson, who beautifully model a kind and thoughtful commitment to both prolife justice and racial justice. For fifteen years Ben was one of the most highly respected players in the National Football League, and now that he’s retired, he and Kirsten continue to have a ministry to many inside and outside the NFL.

There are things in Ben’s new book, The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race, and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice, that may offend some political liberals and things that may offend some political conservatives. Readers who want to learn and grow should suspend judgment and prayerfully and non-defensively listen. If you do you may find you agree with more than you expected to, and that you can disagree with parts while being enriched by the whole.

In the introduction, Ben writes,

…let’s jump right in and acknowledge the elephant in the room. What business does a retired football player have speaking into the pro-life discussion?

It’s all right. I get that question a lot, and while I realize many people consider this to be a women’s issue, there are several reasons that I, as a man, have joined the ranks of those speaking into it.

For one thing, there are currently seven children (and holding) in the Watson household, each one of whom has forty-six chromosomes, twenty-three of which they got from my wife, Kirsten, and twenty-three of which they got from me. So from a strictly biological standpoint, men have an equal share in the procreation of every child.

Also—while I am by no means saying this is right— historically speaking, when it comes to politics and the law, men have held the majority of the power. Case in point: there have been 115 Supreme Court justices in US history, and all but seven of them have been white men. Women didn’t even hold a seat on the Supreme Court until Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed in 1981, and there was not a Black woman represented until 2022, when Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black female justice in the Court’s 232-year history. It was seven men who voted Roe v. Wade into law in 1973, and five men and one woman who voted to overturn it in 2022.

I’m not trying to quell the voice of a woman speaking out on her own behalf. It’s vital that women do advocate for themselves. But given that it’s still predominantly men making the decisions, it seems to me that the most effective way to even the playing field is for men with like-minded ideologies to advocate for equality and justice along with and on behalf of women.

In many ways and for many reasons, men have championed abortion on demand in this country. They—we—have led the campaign to legalize this practice, harming women along the way, framing the unnatural as choice and freedom while ultimately seeking to benefit our own interests and protect our own passivity. It was a man, Dr. Alan Guttmacher, who first introduced abortion to Planned Parenthood.

Too often, men have remained silent on topics that matter most, believing the common assertions that abortion is a women’s issue. I have even encountered men who claim abortion is a necessary good to protect against future suffering or to keep other social ills at bay.

But as a man, I take very seriously the words written in Proverbs 31. Most people are familiar with the description of the Proverbs 31 woman, but earlier in the chapter, the author (King Lemuel) describes what his mother taught him. I suppose you could say this is what it means to be a Proverbs 31 man:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
ensure justice for those being crushed.
Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
and see that they get justice.
PROVERBS 31:8-9

Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s case” (ESV). Over and over in Scripture, God challenges us to protect widows, foreigners, the young, and the vulnerable. In fact, the truth of the gospel, in its totality, challenges each one of us to humbly ask God to show us places where we can make a difference.

To that end, the issue of abortion is very much intertwined with others of equal importance to me, like poverty, racism, and the trafficking of children. The way I see it, these are all matters of justice.

Over the course of my career, Kirsten and I have been introduced to individuals and organizations on the front lines of some of the worst ongoing human rights violations in the world today. Through those partnerships, I’ve seen firsthand how poverty, inequality, fear, and desperation can push people into unthinkable choices.

I traveled to the Lebanon-Syria border in the spring of 2017 with a pastor-friend of mine to witness the impact of the war in Syria. Hundreds of thousands of refugees had fled the violence, leaving behind their homes and possessions. We met with Lebanese pastors who had opened their church doors to families fleeing violence and visited primary schools where children were trying to continue their education in an unfamiliar land. I remember seeing a student’s drawing taped on the wall, depicting him and his family running from tanks and bombs. Sitting on the floor in the primitive conditions of a tent settlement, I spoke to a father about his harrowing experience. His wife sat by his side as their children peered through the sheet that served as a door.

Recalling the dangerous journey to safety across the border, he said through our interpreter, “As a father, I just want my family to be safe. We go to sleep hoping we will wake up back home. But we don’t know if we will ever return.”

My heart and mind drifted thousands of miles away to my own family and how, like him, I would willingly endure extreme hardship to keep them safe. No matter the cause of suffering—war, sexual abuse, food poverty, or discrimination— human suffering should upset us, and even offend us.

So while a lot of people define pro-life as protecting the preborn, I believe being pro-life means caring about life, period, and recognizing that everyone has the right to flourish and be protected, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic standing.

To echo pro-life activist Cherilyn Holloway, being pro-life means that “we care about the life that is in the womb, but we also care about the man on the street. We also care about these children and where they’re getting their education and health care from and Grandma and Grandpa who are entering end-of-life care and that they’re treated with dignity and respect. . . . These are all whole-life issues for us.”

Simply put, every life bears the image of God, so every life has value. For me, being pro-life means advocating for every life—especially those who cannot advocate for themselves.

This is the kind of book that can lead us beyond shallow political slogans and stereotypes that fit on bumper stickers or Twitter but are out of place in intelligent and respectful dialogue. The Post-Roe era we’re in now is a time to ask God to open our hearts and minds to what matters to Him. I believe He has raised up Ben Watson to be a voice for two interwoven causes that should be simultaneously embraced. I highly recommend The New Fight for Life. (You can read a longer excerpt here.)

In this video, Ben shares more about why he wrote the book:

Photo by William Fortunato

Set Your Heart on What’s Important over What’s Urgent

This powerful video from Dad Tired reminds us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33):

 
 
 

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A post shared by DAD TIRED | Led by Jerrad Lopes (@dad.tired)

How easy it is to succumb to what Charles Hummel called the “tyranny of the urgent.” It may appear urgent to take a phone call or finish a work project when it’s bedtime for my kids. But while I could talk to that person later or finish work later, my opportunity to read to my child and play with them tonight is a window that will soon close, and once closed, is forever gone. (I may or may not have more nights, but I will never again have this night.) Missed opportunities begin as exceptions, then become a habit, and the next thing we know, our children are gone and we wonder what we could have built into their lives if only we’d realized how important and fleeting our time with them was.

Parent or not, everyone’s day is filled with the urgent—work, appointments, repairs, phone calls, shopping, news feeds. But even if we don’t invest in time with the Lord or read to our children or call our parents or mentor a young person, the minutes and hours still pass. These opportunities are not emergencies. In neglecting them we don’t neglect the urgent. We neglect something vitally, eternally important.

My advice to parents is this: don’t let the time slip by. Don’t leave full of regrets. At the end of their lives, nobody says they wish they’d spent more time at the office or watching TV or looking at their phone. But often they say they wish they’d been there for their kids. There is no substitute for time spent with your children and grandchildren, and no substitute for your undivided attention. And there is no substitute for seeking God’s wisdom to discern the difference between urgent and important matters.

Set your heart not merely on what’s seen, but what matters for eternity. Consider 2 Corinthians 4:18 and the example of Abraham and Moses in Hebrews 11. Invest in what will last, and center your life around God, His Place, His Word, His people, and those eternal souls who desperately long for His person and His place. Do this, and your days here will make a profound difference for eternity.

At the end of our lives, when we look back, most of what seemed urgent will be long forgotten. What we will thank God for—or regret—is how we handled what was truly important.

For more on seeking what's eternal, see Randy's devotional Seeing the Unseen . 

Photo by Josh Willink

May We Be Overwhelmed by the Goodness of God

A dear friend sent me this video. If you don’t have time to read the article below, just listen to the wonderful song on YouTube, which this little boy makes come alive.

What a powerful reminder that God is the Greatest Good and the source of all lesser goods: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17). Wayne Grudem says in Systematic Theology, “The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good, and that all that God is and does is worthy of approval.”

Scripture contains many direct affirmations of God’s goodness, such as:

Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. (Psalm 25:8)

You are good, and what you do is good;
teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:68)

Give thanks to the LORD Almighty,
for the LORD is good;
his love endures forever. (Jeremiah 33:11)

The LORD is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him. (Nahum 1:7)

God extends His goodness to His people.

God’s goodness entails a number of His other attributes. Grudem also says in Systematic Theology, “God’s mercy is his goodness toward those in distress, his grace is his goodness toward those who deserve only punishment, and his patience is his goodness toward those who continue to sin over a period of time.”

God’s goodness is linked to His love: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6). His goodness also connects with His holiness: “We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple” (Psalm 65:4). “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you” (Psalm 31:19). God has stored up His goodness for those who fear Him. That means in the future He plans to bestow upon us a storehouse full of goodness.

God manifests His goodness to all people.

God does not restrict His goodness to believers only. He is good to all His creatures: “The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (Psalm 145:9); “He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy” (Acts 14:17; see also Matthew 5:45).

God grants His goodness to humanity at large, manifested in both nature and culture, in such good things as animals, forests, rivers, music, art, and sports.

To say that God is good is not to say God will always appear to be good, or that when He is good we will always like Him for it.

Consider the anguished cry of Jeremiah: “He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship” (Lamentations 3:2–5).

This outcry doesn’t appear to affirm God’s goodness, does it? Jeremiah sounds like Epicurus or David Hume. It seems remarkable that God would include in His inspired Word such human displays of confusion and frustration.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan asks Mr. Beaver if Aslan the Lion is safe. “Who said anything about safe?” Mr. Beaver answers. “’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

This is sound theology—God can be good without being safe; He can be loving without bowing to our every wish or desire.

All arguments to the contrary, God is utterly good and worthy to receive our worship.

In Deserted by God, Sinclair Ferguson tells the story of English missionary Allen Gardiner. In January 1852, a search party found Gardiner’s lifeless body. He and his companions had shipwrecked on Tierra del Fuego. Their provisions had run out. They starved to death.

Gardiner, at one point, felt desperate for water; his pangs of thirst, he wrote, were “almost intolerable.” Far from home and loved ones, he died alone, isolated, weakened, and physically broken.

Isn’t this one of those stories told to raise the problem of evil and suffering? Indeed, if the story ended like this, we would find it tragic beyond description.

Despite the wretched conditions of his death, Gardiner wrote out Scripture passages, including Psalm 34:10: “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing” (KJV). Near death, his handwriting feeble, Gardiner managed to write one final entry into his journal: “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.”

This article was adapted from Randy’s book If God Is Good. Also see the devotional 90 Days of God’s Goodness, book The Goodness of God, and booklet If God Is Good, Why Do We Hurt?, which deals with the question and shares the gospel so that both unbelievers and believers can benefit.

Photo by Jamie Pilgrim on Unsplash

Money Makes a Horrible Master and a Valuable Servant

Money is more than just metal disks or colored paper. It is a tool that simplifies trade. A farmer needs lumber more than beef, milk, and eggs. He has plenty of those. A lumberman needs beef, milk, and eggs more than his many stacks of boards. By trading their goods, both get what they want.

Money is a tool that can expedite such a trade and widen its circle to include others. Rather than trading two pigs for a plow and three sacks of grain, one person can give another the agreed-upon worth of the two pigs in the form of money. This saves time and energy. Who wants to carry around pigs and plows?

God encouraged the people of Israel to take advantage of money’s convenience. He told them that if their place of worship was too far from their home, they should exchange the tithes of their crops and livestock for silver, then convert it back to the goods of their choice once they arrived (Deuteronomy 14:24-26).

Money is one person’s promise of goods or services, granted in return for actual goods or services. In a sense, money is no more than a widely recognized IOU. Realizing its convenience, people consent to participate in an economic system in which money is the transferable object that makes it all possible. Of course, it’s only the widespread participation of others in this same system that gives meaning to money (spent any Confederate Currency lately?).

Because money has no inherent value, only ascribed value, money is not wealth. It merely symbolizes wealth. You can’t eat money and you can’t plow a field with it. You can use a one hundred dollar bill to light a cigar or wad up your gum, but that’s about it. Practically speaking, gold is much less valuable than some other metals. In and of itself, it’s little more than a pretty paperweight or doorstop. Gold, silver, platinum, coins, and currency are only worth something in a society where other people have agreed to attach a certain value to them. That they do so is proven by their willingness to give goods and services in exchange for them.

Money is nothing more than a pledge of assets, a means of payment, a medium of exchange. It is morally neutral.

The Two Faces of Money

Money has social and economic benefits that can be used for the betterment of people. As a plow can be used for honest labor and a sack of grain for feeding a family, so money, which simply represents their value, can be used for good.

Christian compassion can accomplish great good through the giving of grain, lumber, or money to alleviate suffering. Money can be used to feed, clothe, and provide shelter. It can fund the translation and printing of Bibles, provide for missionaries, or build houses of worship. In this sense, money may appear to be good. But it’s really the giver who is doing good. People may be moral or immoral, but things are morally neutral. Money is no more responsible for doing good than a computer is responsible for writing a book or a baseball bat for hitting a home run.

Money can be used to buy a slave or a whip to be used on a slave. Money can purchase sex, bribe a judge, buy cocaine, and fund terrorist acts. But in each case the evil resides in people, not money. As is the case with fire, so it is with money: the greater a thing’s potential for good when used rightly, the greater its potential for harm when used wrongly. And money has great potential.

If this were a morally neutral world, we would expect money to be used in a morally neutral way. But the world is not neutral—it is sinful and under a curse (Romans 8:20-22). In a sinful world, money becomes something other than a neutral means of barter. It becomes an instrument of power. In the hands of sinful people, power is perverted. In rejecting a God they don’t wish to serve, sinful people serve themselves with the god of money.

Although there’s nothing inherently wrong with money, there’s something desperately wrong with devotion to money.

Since money can be used for either good or evil, if those using it are more evil than good, it will most often be used for evil. The problem is human sinfulness—and so it will be until Christ returns and we live on the New Earth, where there will be no more curse and no more evil (Revelation 21:1-5).

Keep Money on a Short Leash

Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9).

In this saying, Jesus tells us to do something good with “worldly wealth” (literally, “the mammon of unrighteousness”). It’s as if He’s saying, “Take this thing that is commonly used for evil and use it for good. Look at this worn currency; smell in it the foul purposes for which it was used. It may have once been stolen, perhaps even killed for. But now that it’s in your hands, use it wisely and well; use it for eternal purposes.”

Jesus clearly taught that we can and should use money for good purposes, both for this life and the next. Human hearts can be redeemed by Christ, and in the hands of the redeemed, money can serve redemptive purposes.

But lest we forget money’s dangers, Jesus also said, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Luke 16:13).

Once we allow money to have lordship over our lives, it becomes Money with a capital M, a god that jealously dethrones all else. Money makes a terrible master, yet it makes a good servant to those who have the right master—God.

To regard money as evil, and therefore useless for purposes of righteousness, is foolish. To regard it as good and therefore overlook its potential for spiritual disaster is equally foolish.

The goal, then, is not that money be put to death, but that it be trained and handled with discipline, as a lion we are seeking to tame. Money may be temporarily under our control, but we must always regard it as a wild beast, with power to turn on us and others if we drop our guard.

Money must not call the shots. We may have plenty of money to buy a new car, but we must not take our direction from Money. If we serve God, we will buy the car only if we believe He wants us to—and we must base that belief on more than our preference.

Likewise, if we believe God is leading us to go to the mission field or to help a brother in need, we do not say, “There’s no money, so I can’t.” That also would be serving Money. If God is our master, all money is at His disposal and He promises to provide everything we need to do everything He’s called us to. We must concern ourselves not with what Money says, but with what God says. The need for money may be a factor in our decisions, but it is never the factor. God, not Money, is sovereign. Money—whether by its presence or absence—must never rule our lives.

Money is neither a disease nor a cure. It is a tool—nothing less and nothing more. We may use it well or poorly. Either way, how we use money is always of critical importance to our spiritual lives. It has a lasting impact on two worlds—this one and the next. Use it, Jesus said, but don’t serve it.

Adapted from Randy’s book  Money, Possessions, and Eternity .

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

Is There a Danger of Worshipping the Bible Instead of God?

Perhaps you’ve heard someone say something like, “My faith is in God, not the Bible” or “Be careful you’re not worshipping the Bible or making an idol out of it.” 

I agree that there is a danger of having our faith in the wrong object. And there have been some people who seemingly hold the Bible in higher esteem than they do Jesus. But seen properly, the Bible is not a competitor with God; on the contrary, it is our God-given means of knowing Him through His revealed truth.

God’s Word is the only trustworthy revelation of His character and will.

How can we know what God is really like? We can’t know without an authoritative revelation from God. Everything else is guesswork.

Anselm wrote, “Intelligent nature . . . finds its happiness, both now and forever, in the contemplation of God.” But we can only contemplate God with confidence if we have a source of information about God we can trust.

Scripture says this about its own nature:

Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16, NET)
No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:20-21, NET)

The people in Berea were commended for subjecting the apostle Paul’s words to God’s Word: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, NASB).

Everything the Bible says about God is true; everything anyone says about God that contradicts the Bible is false. Apart from a belief in the authority of God’s Word—as well as a growing knowledge of what it says—we’ll be vulnerable to deception. This is why one of the greatest needs in churches today is the consistent teaching of sound doctrine. Without it, and without people reading good books that reinforce a biblical worldview, God’s people will drift along, swept away by the current of popular opinion.

Faith is not inherently virtuous. Its value depends on the worth of its object. The Bible, understood in context and given precedent over our own instincts and preferences, is our dependable guide for faith and practice. Only by learning what Scripture says about God can we know what’s true about Him.

When we delight in God’s Word, we are delighting in Him.

Imagine this scenario, from an age before e-mail, social media, and FaceTime: a young woman is in love with a soldier serving overseas. Every day she checks her mailbox. Whenever a letter arrives, she opens it and eagerly reads and rereads every word.

Wouldn’t it be accurate to say she delights in her fiancé’s love letters? Would anyone correct her, “No, you should only take delight in him, not his letters”? That would be a meaningless distinction. Why? Because his love letters are an extension of him.

Yet I’ve heard people say, “Don’t take pleasure in the Bible; take pleasure in God.” But to study God’s words is to take pleasure in God, because His Word is an expression of His very being.

Anyone who finds happiness in God must find happiness in God’s words:

In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. (Psalm 119:14)

I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. (Psalm 119:47)

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. (Psalm 119:97)

Notice such Scriptures demonstrate that to delight in and to meditate upon God’s Word is to delight in God Himself.

A woman self-consciously told one of our pastors that before going to sleep each night she reads her Bible, then hugs it as she falls asleep. “Is that weird?” she asked. While it may be unusual, it’s not weird. This woman has known suffering, and as she clings to His promises, she clings to God. Any father would be moved to hear that his daughter falls asleep with letters he wrote her held close to her. Surely God treasures such an act of childlike love.

The point of studying God’s Word is to know Him.

There is a danger of idolizing our own knowledge of the Bible rather than remembering the point is to know Him better. (If we fail to understand that, the problem is with us, not the Bible!) J. I. Packer, in the first chapter of his book Knowing God, says this:

To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude, and pray to be kept from it. …there can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge; but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it, if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard.

…Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are. As he is the subject of our study, and our helper in it, so he must himself be the end of it.

May we see Bible study and doctrine as a basis for humble worship of our King and Savior, not for prideful posturing.

God’s words have the power to bring heart-happiness.

As a new believer in Christ, I couldn’t get enough of God’s Word. At night I sometimes fell asleep with my face on an open Bible. Other times I would listen to Scripture on cassette tapes (if you’re 35 or younger you may need to Google that!). As I drifted off to sleep, my last waking memories were of God’s words.

When Jeremiah said that God’s Word “became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16), he was suggesting that Scripture has a cumulative effect that increases over time. Happily, by God’s grace, I can attest to this. As our dear sister Joni Eareckson Tada says:

If you want to increase your desire for God, then get to know Him in a deeper way. And there is no better way to know Him than through His Word. Get into God’s Word, and you will get a heart for Jesus. Get passionate about Scripture, and your passion for Him will increase. Feelings follow faith…and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

God promises that His Word “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). We live in a time where the Bible is increasingly minimized. Let’s be committed to doing everything we can to uplift and honor God’s Word, as a means of knowing and loving Him.

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Biblical Hope Is a Solid Certainty

Referencing the coming resurrection, Paul wrote, “For in this hope [of the redemption of our bodies] we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:24–25).

To many of us, “hope” sounds wishful and tentative, but biblical hope means to anticipate with trust. We expect a sure thing, purchased on the cross, accomplished and promised by an all-knowing God. Scripture offers solid ground for our hope in Christ. 

At times I am troubled when I use the word hope in writing about Heaven, which is why I will sometimes use the phrase “blood-bought hope” or “certain hope.” Yet even then, “certain hope” sounds like I should be using a different word than hope, because if it’s certain, it might seem as if it’s not really hope. However, the word hope historically and biblically means far more than what it has been reduced to today. To use the same word of hoping it’s a sunny day or that our favorite team wins the game or that the meal we’re cooking turns out well just doesn’t seem like the right word to use of something God has promised to us and purchased for us.

When Scripture speaks of peace, hope, justice, and love, it routinely attaches deeper and more Christ-centered meanings to those words than our culture does. For example, love is commonly used in superficial ways, as popular music has long demonstrated. People say they love hamburgers, hairstyles, and YouTube. They “make love” to someone they barely know. This means we must take pains to clarify what Scripture actually means by love, holiness, hope, peace, pleasure, and happiness. We should contrast the meaning in Scripture with our culture’s superficial and sometimes sinful connotations.

Got Questions explains the difference between the English use of “hope” and the words used in Scripture that are translated as hope:

The word hope in English often conveys doubt. For instance, “I hope it will not rain tomorrow.” In addition, the word hope is often followed by the word so. This is the answer that some may give when asked if they think that they will go to Heaven when they die. They say, “I hope so.” However, that is not the meaning of the words usually translated “hope” in the Bible.

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word batah and its cognates has the meaning of confidence, security, and being without care; therefore, the concept of doubt is not part of this word. We find that meaning in Job 6:20; Psalm 16:9; Psalm 22:9; and Ecclesiastes 9:4. In most instances in the New Testament, the word hope is the Greek elpis/elpizo. Again, there is no doubt attached to this word. Therefore, biblical hope is a confident expectation or assurance based upon a sure foundation for which we wait with joy and full confidence. In other words, “There is no doubt about it!”

The Christian worldview doesn’t offer some vague, tenuous hope that there might be eternal life and happiness. It offers the solid promise of an eternal relationship with a happy God whose love is so great it sent Him to the Cross to secure our eternal righteousness and thus our never-ending happiness. Knowing His redemptive design, God assures His children, “I know the plans I have for you . . . plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Paul writes in Titus 2:13, “As we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (NET). Again, hope means not a wish, but a certain promise. Got Questions explains, “Biblical hope carries no doubt. Biblical hope is a sure foundation upon which we base our lives, believing that God always keeps His promises.”

Such solid hope is the light at the end of life’s tunnel. Not only does it make the tunnel endurable, it fills the heart with anticipation of the world into which we will one day emerge. Not just a better world, but a new and perfect world. A world alive, fresh, beautiful, and devoid of pain, suffering, and war; a world without disease, accident, and tragedy; a world without dictators and madmen. A world ruled by the only one worthy of ruling.

This hope isn’t an unrealistic dream or fantasy. Rather, it’s a solid expectation secured by the blood-bought promises of our Savior and King. After making the pledge that He will end all suffering and death, Christ, “who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” (Revelation 21:5, NIV).

Jesus was saying, “That’s my promise, permanently inscribed in the scars on my hands and feet.” In a world where little seems certain, this is a promise we can take to the bank!

Is resurrected living in a resurrected world with the resurrected Christ and His resurrected people your daily longing and solid hope? Is it part of the gospel you share with others? It will be the glorious climax of God’s saving work that began at our regeneration, and will mark the final end of any and all sin that separates us from God. In liberating us from sin and all its consequences, the resurrection will free us to live with God, gaze on Him, and enjoy His uninterrupted fellowship forever, with no threat that anything will ever again come between us and Him.

May God preserve us from embracing anything other than a biblical definition of our hope. May we rejoice as we anticipate the height, depth, length, and breadth of our redemption!

Browse more resources on the topic of Heaven, and see Randy’s related books, including Heaven and The Promise of the New Earth.

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What Forgiveness Is and Isn’t

Note from Randy: Dan Darling has a new book out titled Agents of Grace: How to Bridge Divides and Love as Jesus Loved. I deeply appreciate Dan and wholeheartedly concur with his call for greater love and grace among Bible-believing Christians.

Like many, I watched Dan go through his public ordeal that in my opinion never should have happened in a Christian ministry. Dan's experience brought back memories of the criticism I received from many believers when over thirty years ago I did what I believed to be right in God's sight, through intervention to save the lives of the unborn. “Friendly fire” doesn't seem very friendly when it leaves casualties in its wake.

This book is about our need to love God and in the process learn to love our fellow believers, including those we disagree with in secondary areas. I highly recommend Agents of Grace as a tool for fostering a more conciliatory spirit, and I hope you find this excerpt from the book helpful.

I often talk about the importance of forgiveness in my own life, and over the deep hurts I’ve endured. But inevitable questions about biblical forgiveness arise. Does forgiveness imply we ignore issues of justice and restitution? Does forgiveness absolve the guilt of the perpetrator? Does forgiveness imply reconciliation?

It’s important for us to understand what is demanded of us in forgiveness. Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, which requires two parties willing to come together.

Consider the story of Joseph. For a long time, when I read the narrative in Genesis, I could never understand why Joseph, as prime minister, put his brothers through what often seems a cruel series of tests. If, as he says in Genesis 50:20, he held no bitterness against them, why make them go through the paces of going back and forth from Egypt to Canaan? Why hide the cup in the brother’s bag? Why hold one of the brothers back as collateral? What is going on here?

In this example, I think we see in Joseph the difference between forgiveness—which releases our own souls from bitterness—and reconciliation. Before Joseph could truly be reconciled with his brothers, he had to see that they had shed the petty jealousies and rage that had motivated them to commit their heinous acts of violence in the first place.

Were his brothers remorseful for their treatment? Listen to the way they talk amongst themselves, with Joseph overhearing:

They said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us.” Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.” They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter (Genesis 42:21-23).

Clearly, the guilt they had carried for decades, the dirty secret that had hung over their hearts like a weighted blanket, was now being exposed in the light of day. They understood that God was forcing them to confront their sin and appeal for forgiveness and grace. Here are the seeds of reconciliation.

And yet Joseph had to continue to test them, to see if their remorse would lead to repentance and new patterns. Clearly it did. Instead of being brothers who cared only for their welfare, these men now plead on behalf of their youngest brother Benjamin. These were changed men to whom Joseph could trust his heart.

It’s important for us to understand there are levels of engagement when we’ve been seriously hurt, not all of which are possible to achieve in this life. Forgiveness is the first and most basic. Forgiveness is the act of being released from the bitterness of our pain and entrusting payback and vengeance to the one who fights for us. “Vengeance is mine” God tells us (Deuteronomy 32:25; Romans 12:17-19). James reminds us that the “wrath of man doesn’t bring about the righteousness God desires” (James 1:20).

Forgiveness means we refuse to let that other person live in our heads rent-free. Forgiveness means we refuse to work our hurt into every single conversation. Forgiveness means we don’t let bitterness cloud our judgement. This is why my friend Rich told me I had to forgive. He was telling me this for my own spiritual and physical health.

I’ve seen too many people destroyed by bitterness. And here’s the thing: unforgiveness not only affects our own souls, its acid also splashes onto our families, our friends, and our coworkers. Years ago, I had to make a decision. Would I model forgiveness for my family and for the small church I was called to lead, or would I let bitterness color my life? I’ve been up close and personal with too many leaders—powerful, gifted, brilliant leaders—who never got over their hurts. It hamstrung their leadership, making them fearful, isolated, and untrusting. Then they unwittingly inflicted it on others.

And yet, forgiveness is only the first level of engagement with those who have hurt us. The next level, I believe, is reconciliation. But this is often more complicated. In Joseph’s case, it happened because his brothers also engaged and were willing to embrace repentance and restitution. This is not always possible. Romans 12:18 says “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” If it is possible, as far as it depends on you.

Sometimes, many times, reconciliation is not available. I’ve had relationships where I’ve forgiven and there is a measure of peace that God has brought to my heart and soul over time, but full reconciliation was not yet possible because there was not a reciprocal effort to make peace.

Sometimes forgiveness is used as a weapon, for instance, to force victims to drop criminal charges against their abusers. But this isn’t what forgiveness is at all. Forgiveness doesn’t erase the demands of justice, it merely takes the instruments of vengeance out of our hands and releases our perpetrators to “the judge of the earth who deals justly” (Genesis 18:25).

I also believe there is a third level of engagement beyond reconciliation that is even harder to achieve. This is trust. You can forgive and even be reconciled in the relationship, but it takes a lot to earn back trust. This happens in broken marriages, where one partner has violated the marriage covenant. The offended spouse should forgive her husband, she might even be reconciled, after counseling and repentance on his part. But trust—the ability to know that you won’t be hurt again by the one who hurt you—that takes a lot of years and patience.

Consider when Joseph’s brothers addressed him in Genesis 50. This was decades after he’d forgiven them, after they were reconciled and living side-by-side in Egypt. Yet they still wondered if, after their father Jacob died, he was just waiting to enact his vengeance on them. They repeated their father’s deathbed wish, that Joseph would forgive them of their sins against him.  In response, Joseph not only promised he would not take action against them, he also pledged to take care of them financially and materially. He even entrusted them to carry out his dying wish: to take his bones back to the land of his father.

This level of trust, beyond forgiveness, beyond reconciliation, is the fruit of years of faithful actions by both parties to restore confidence. Too often we collapse these three concepts into one. But while forgiveness can happen in any situation, we can’t force reconciliation where it’s not possible, and we should be wise with whom we place our trust.

If the church treasurer steals money from the church coffers, the church should forgive him.  That doesn’t mean he should be restored to his former position when he hasn’t yet earned the trust to handle the people’s money again. Forgiveness also doesn’t mean people who have abused authority or committed moral failures should automatically be restored to their former positions. Sometimes, after years of restitution, people deserve a second chance. But we should be careful who we put in positions of power again. Again, God’s grace is free and unlimited for our failures, but God never guarantees a return to the stage.

I can say today that I’ve forgiven and am at peace with those in my life who have deeply hurt me. That is the fruit of God’s gracious work in my heart. I carry no bitterness or ill will. And I can say that almost all of my relationships are restored. But there are some folks whom I still have a hard time trusting….and that’s OK.

Photo by Bro Takes Photos on Unsplash

The Image of God, Race, Ethnicity, and Future Nations on the New Earth

A reader responded to a blog post we shared several years ago by one of our EPM staff members, who encouraged readers to look for opportunities to love and serve people from other cultures. This person’s comments touched on the image of God, race, and the future of nations and ethnicities in eternity. I’m sharing my thoughts in response, as I think they may have a wider application to other readers.

“The image of God is not a corporate reality, but an individual reality. Otherwise, you can’t say that an individual is totally made in the image of God.”

The commenter is referring to my quoting Richard Mouw, who said:

“There is no one human individual or group who can fully bear or manifest all that is involved in the image of God, so that there is a sense in which that image is collectively possessed. …By looking at different individuals and groups we get glimpses of different aspects of the full image of God.” 

Of course, we all know that each individual is made in God’s image. Mouw, and other biblical scholars, hold the same position that says the infinite character of God is more fully represented in a number and variety of His image bearers than in just one.

Adam and Eve were both made in God’s image, but more of God could be seen in the two of them than in Adam alone. This is one of the reasons it wasn’t good for man to be alone. So we are fully made in God’s image, but being finite, the fullness of God’s image is more fully seen in a community of image bearers, who can together give a larger picture of who God is. We may see God’s grace more evident in one person, His justice in another, His mercy in yet another.

Can’t we sometimes see aspects of God in men that we don’t always see in women? Can’t we sometimes see aspects of God in women that we don’t always see in men? Or can’t we see them in children more than adults? Having worshipped with Kenyan, Egyptian, Greek, Hungarian, German, Swiss, Chinese, Cambodian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Jewish (and others) believers in their countries, my awe and worship of God, and understanding of Him, did not contract but expand.

“Experiencing other cultures is not like experiencing Heaven. Last I checked, the reason we have different cultures and nations and ethnicities and languages is because we are cursed. That’s right, all those things that you’re reveling in are results of sin (Tower of Babel). Heaven undoes all of those things by uniting people from different cultures, languages, ethnicities, and nations into one people with one language with one culture in one kingdom that does not recognize ethnicity.”

In Genesis 11:4 we read of the sin surrounding the building of Babel: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” The thing they were trying to avoid is exactly what God had commanded—to spread out over the earth.

By gathering together in one location, people were opposing God’s mandate to multiply and have dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28), which implied expansion, not a centralized existence in one location.

In fact, after the flood God repeated this to Noah and his family, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). So when God gave them different languages to spread them out, He helped facilitate His original design.

Babel was not “the curse.” The curse happened with the first sin, in Genesis 3. What God did to Babel in Genesis 11 was a judgment. But the judgment had a sovereign purpose, and ultimately a redemptive one. The results were primarily good, since it stopped, or at least thwarted, the prideful human desire to centralize and exalt ourselves.

Also, this objection assumes that ethnicities came about as a direct result of God’s judgment at Babel. But the biblical text doesn’t say that. Genesis 11, the Babel passage, deals only with languages. There are different theories that suggest that the different language groups, spreading out to different places, naturally interbred and over time their limited gene pools developed distinctives, some of which might have been influenced by their environments.

But this is hypothetical. In any case, there is no statement in Scripture that God changed people’s skin colors when he gave them different languages. However and whenever those skin colors came about, God as the Creator governed them in the same way He did the different languages. So we should not view skin colors as the result of the curse. God designed human DNA and built into our genes the capacities for skin color differences. (This article presents different theories of how this all happened.)

I am concerned that if someone believes that ethnicity is the result of a curse, it’s a quick movement to thinking some races are more or less cursed than others, which sadly has happened in church history. Furthermore, are we to consider different languages as sinful? Obviously not. There is no single good language, nor are there any inherently bad ones.

We shouldn’t dismiss God’s design and glory that’s evident in different ethnicities. This implies that nothing under the curse can reflect God’s design or sovereign purpose. Biblically that’s not the case. Was God glorified by the redemption of Jesus that could only occur in a fallen world? Is He glorified by the redemption of people of every tribe and nation and language that all developed in a cursed world? Of course. The curse did not tie our Creator and Redeemer’s hands.  

Paul said of God, “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands” (Acts 17:26). Since God is God over all, including the fallen world, ultimately He—not the Curse—made all the nations. He is intimately involved in ethnicity and nations and even locations.

As Creator, doesn’t God put together the fine details of every person’s identity, not just David’s (Psalm 139:13-14)? The fact that I may be a different color than you does not mean that one of us is more or less made in God’s image than the other. We are equal in our humanity; equal in the fact that we are all sinners, living in a world under the curse; and equal that Jesus came to die for us and offer us eternal life.

It is incorrect that Heaven does not recognize ethnicity. (Wasn’t the risen Jesus still genetically a Jew? Or was His DNA altered to become a non-ethnic entity?) In Revelation 7:9-10, John says this about what he saw in Heaven: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Something similar is said in Revelation 5:9.

These are not people who were once of or formerly of different tribes, nations, and languages, but people who John could clearly identify as such. Not only visually, but perhaps he heard them praising God in these different languages.

“Tribe” is an ethnic term. The beauty is not that Heaven doesn’t recognize ethnicity—it clearly does—but that people of all ethnicities are among the redeemed, and they are one in Christ and worship Him in concert! Heaven is NOT based on uniformity, but on a Christ-centered unity that embraces and celebrates differences.

When we gather with God’s redeemed from other cultures we receive a sneak-peak of Heaven. I have experienced this often as I’ve joined believers around the world in worship, even when I didn’t know their language. People of different ethnicities and languages and nations bring something to the table that those of a single culture do not.

I appreciated these thoughts that another commenter, Kristen, left on Facebook:

Shouting praises to God with one voice/tongue doesn’t mean we will lose our other languages any more than I lose my English language skills when I worship in other countries but use their local language, singing and praying in unison. It just means that we will have the ability to sing in a unity we’ve never experienced on Earth. God is so much bigger than we can grasp and Heaven will contain so much more than we can imagine! I get thrilled when I think of what we will learn in Heaven, but that doesn’t mean we will lose any element of what we’ve learned here on Earth. 

“There is only one human race, so can we please stop saying there are multiple races? Christians need to use precise language.”

First, our staff member’s article didn’t use the word “race.” It was about people of different cultures. I used the word in my introduction to her article. Obviously we’re all aware there is only one human race. But the word “race,” like most terms, means different things in different contexts. The English term “races” still exists, and finding a substitute isn’t always easy. Ethnicity? Color? Geographic region of origin? One can be nationally or ethnically English, but black or white, with ancestors from various parts of the world. Terms such as Mexican-American combine ethnicity and nationality. It’s fine to prefer other synonyms to the word “race,” but we should realize the word has a long and established history and people will still talk about “race relations,” “racial unity,” “racial prejudice,” “racial reconciliation,” etc.

Again, my thanks to commenter Kristen for her thoughts on this:

…to ignore the commonly accepted usage of the word “race”—and risk the appearance of ignoring the serious problems associated with it—is neither wise nor healthy. Promoting racial peace has been an issue long before our time because people see differences, label them and then spew hate in regards to them. We can’t demand “precise language” without acknowledging the reality of what “imprecise language” does to our world.

“Ethnicity and background should never even cross our minds when we meet another believer. Unfortunately, we’re being told that the first thing we need to notice about someone in a local church is their skin color.”

I disagree. First of all, it obviously does and will cross our mind, and it’s silly to think we can or should close our eyes to differences.

Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). What he’s saying is that we are all equal and should be in unity with each other. He doesn’t mean racial identity and gender and slavery do not exist. The same Paul speaks openly of Jewish and Gentile believers (Romans 2:10; 9:3-4), slaves and free believers (Philemon is free, Onesimus is a slave), and male and female believers (Ephesians 5:22, 25).

The notion of being “colorblind” doesn’t lend itself to oneness but to blindness. It suggests that if we recognize or admit differences we would be forced to say some are better than others. No, we should recognize the differences and celebrate that God’s image-bearers come in all shapes and sizes and colors, and we are the beneficiaries of His providence in creating us this way. (See Trillia Newbell’s excellent article 4 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Colorblind.)

Saying someone’s skin color shouldn’t even cross our minds is like saying I shouldn’t notice whether I’m talking to a man or a woman, or that it’s somehow wrong to notice a man is 6’8” or 4’8”. What is wrong is when I judge or stereotype or think less of him, or more of him, because of a physical attribute. I can certainly thank God for creating diversity.

What about noticing someone is disabled, and looking for a way to assist them if needed? What about noticing someone is young or old, and they too may need my help? If I see someone of a different skin color at a store, staring at American money the same way I stared at Chinese money when I was in China, I should offer help. But I won’t if I fail to notice them.

To say that we are all image-bearers is NOT to deny we have differences. It is to say we who are different are all human, and we who are believers are, as Paul puts it, one in Christ. Not ceasing to be male or female, or ceasing to be whatever race we were created as, but fully united regardless of our differences. The glory of God is greater because people of different tribes, nations, and languages of different times and places will be forever united in Jesus.

“Scripture does plainly show that cultures, nations, languages, and ethnicities are A. a result of sin (Tower of Babel), and B. going to be undone in eternity. Yes, in eternity there will be people ‘from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation,’ but these people have been united as one people making up one nation with one language.”

How are we to be united into one family? Through the obliteration of our differences? The elimination of our uniquenesses? All skin colors blended into one so we all look the same?

No. “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut…” (Revelation 21:23-25). The nations, with their different ethnicities and languages, regardless of their origins under the curse of Babel, are the creation of God Himself. In their redeemed versions it appears they will forever continue.

I share some more thoughts about nations on the New Earth in this video:

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich