THEY FOUND SOMETHING IMPORTANT

An extraordinary find has been made in Israel: archaeologists announced in an article published on Thursday that they have found physical evidence corroborating the existence of the Biblical prophet Isaiah.

Writing in "Biblical Archaeology Review,"  Eliat Mazar, who headed the dig at which the discovery was found, describes the evidence. Mazar states that it is “a small piece of clay (an impression left by a seal), a mere 0.4 inches long, which appears to bear the inscription ‘Isaiah the prophet.’”

The new discovery came as part of the excavations at the Ophel excavation in Jerusalem, which had already yielded a 2,700-year-old clay seal impression that had belonged to the governor of Jerusalem, thus proving that the Jewish people had an administrative presence almost three thousand years ago and that Biblical administrative structures were genuine.

Mazar writes that the new find, one of the many clay seal impressions known as bullae found at the site, was near the bull already discovered to have a mark from a seal of the Biblical King Hezekiah. He notes, “alongside the bullae of Hezekiah … [were] 22 additional bullae … among these is the bulla of ‘Yesha‘yah[u] Nvy[?].’” That is Hebrew for Isaiah the Prophet.

According to the Book of Isaiah, the prophet lived from 691-533 B.C., during the reign of King Hezekiah, who was regarded as the greatest king the Jewish people had except for King David.

At the beginning of Isaiah's prophetic career, the land of Judea was quite prosperous, but he witnessed the poor being oppressed, people pursuing wanton pleasure, and growing idolatry. Isaiah warned that if such practices continued, both the kingdoms of Judea and Israel would be destroyed.

While Isaiah preached to the kingdom of Judah, his contemporary Hosea preached to the kingdom of Israel. In 722 B.C., the kingdom of Israel collapsed when Sennacherib invaded. According to Jewish tradition, when Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, who was evil, ascended to the throne, he had Isaiah murdered.

Isaiah has tremendous importance for Jews and Christians; he taught that piety that was devoid of sincerity was wrong. His prophecies regarding the Messiah were interpreted differently by members of both faiths, but both faiths regard him as a powerful harbinger of what is to come.

As Andrew Davies, director of the Edward Cadbury Centre at Britain’s University of Birmingham, said, “Without Isaiah we’d be missing some of the most sorrowful but also the most hopeful of all religious poetry and some of the greatest theological innovation of all time.”
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From: "The Daily Wire"

BUTTON HOLE EVANGELISM

People often use the stereotype in argumentation and script writers use stereotypes in movies and TV shows. A stereotype is "a general belief that we use to categorize people, objects, and events while assuming those beliefs are accurate generalizations of the whole group."

We see stereotyping all the time: whenever a movie involves a teenager, we automatically know that the child is going to be rebellious, sullen, foul-mouthed, pouting, disrespectful to his/her parents, as well as smarter, wiser, and more in the know than the parent figures. (This gives cultural permission for teens to act in such a manner, but that's a different subject.)

The script will stereotype the parents as clueless cliches, dim-witted, and at their wits' end with the adolescent. Other stereotypes we see are those portraying a pastor/a Christian as a hypocrite at best, evil at worst. Then there's the wealthy capitalist who's crass, driven by greed, scheming to harm, maim, and kill for profit.

CHRISTIAN STEREOTYPING

In Christian circles, we too stereotype and we do so in the area of evangelism. In so doing, we set up a false dichotomy, which means that we set up a false contrast between two things that are represented as being opposed or entirely different, but they're not.

The false dichotomy works this way: "There are two different methods of evangelism. One is relational or friendship evangelism in which we give the gospel to a person gradually, after developing a friendship/relationship with him." (Example: the relationship I have with the bank tellers.)

The second method is what we might call "the button hole method" in which we take the opportunity to give the gospel to someone with whom we have no relationship and most likely will have only one dialogue to tell him the good news. (Example: the survey method of evangelism)

The use of "button hole" is pejorative; it prejudices us against the method immediately. It would be better to find another term, but we'll go with "button hole."

ENTER THE STEREOTYPE

The stereotype enters when we vilify and denigrate the button hole approach as the method of the rude, the arrogant, and the pushy person, and then declare the method unbiblical and the relational method as the biblical one, thus creating a false dichotomy, based on a stereotyping of the button hole method. What happens is that we stereotype the button hole method as ipso facto rude, it's not necessarily so.

IN FACT . . .

In fact, both methods are sanctioned by the Bible. We see the relational method in John 1 where Andrew informs his brother of finding the Messiah and then Philip tells Nathanael, "We have found the Messiah!"

But, in contrast, there are far more biblical references of the button hole method of evangelism than the relational, e. g., John 3, 4, Acts 8, 10, et al. For just one example, when Paul was evangelizing in Athens, we read the results: "But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them." He met them, won them, then left them. He established no church in Athens. He never saw them again in this life. Luke fills the book of Acts with button hole evangelistic encounters.

THE ADVANTAGES

The button hole method has its advantages; it can be done anywhere (Acts 1:8; it spreads the gospel quickly (Acts 19:10);  It enables us to talk to friends and foes (Acts 20:20-21);  it can be used at any time (II Tim. 4:2).

THE BOTTOM LINE

Which method do we use, the relational or the button hole? The balanced bottom line is that it's not an either/or; it's a both/and. 

 

THE STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH

"If a society is to preserve its stability and a degree of continuity, it must know how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, attitudes, values, and fantasies on everyday life." (Eric Hoffer, 1973)

Statistics show a discouraging picture:: More adults, eighteen to forty-nine, watch the Cartoon Network than watch CNN. (I know, you're thinking, "Maybe that's a good thing," but you get the point.)

Readers as old as twenty-five are buying young adult  fiction written specially for teens. The average video gamester was eighteen in 1990; as of 2003 he was getting close to thirty. I was recently at a gathering in which the adults were visiting with each other around the table in a home, yet one thirty-something was in the den playing a video game. One study has shown that the transition into adulthood doesn't end until thirty-four.(!)

POLITICS ASIDE

Although it's tough to put politics aside as politicized as our society has become, let's forget it  for a few minutes and discuss the recent State of the Union Address by President Trump. (Not the speech itself; I'll leave that to those with more expertise than I.) What I was interested in was the reaction of many of the members of Congress seated in the hallowed chamber.

It was as if the chamber for the deliberation of the laws of the Republic had become a romper room.* Seeing the behavior of some of the members of Congress during the speech was as if some maniacal hypnotist had entranced them by saying, "When I snap my fingers, you'll become children."

While the President of the United States spoke, adults became puerile. They toyed with their phones, they pouted by scowling, frowning, grimacing, glaring, or just sitting staring straight ahead with zombie eyes, making sure the cameras recorded their disrespect. They wanted the millions watching to see their antics. They were actually proud of themselves.

RESPECT?

While someone is speaking to you, is it respectful to toy with your phone, to pout, or to suddenly leave as one did? Children do it all the time because that's what children do to get their way. But adults are expected to do what Paul said he did, "When I became a man, I put away childish things," like childish behavior, for example.

TWO MEN IN WWII

There was a TV series portraying a platoon of soldiers fighting their way through Europe in WWII. One of the officers was inept, and if allowed to continue leading the group, his superior officers realized that he was going to get his men killed. He was that bad.

There was man in the platoon who was a true leader, so they promoted him to become the leader and demoted the inept soldier to be involved in another area in which he wouldn't be leading men into combat. His ego took a bruising. He was miffed.

Later in the series, the two crossed paths. As they did, the demoted soldier walked past the one who'd taken his place, and as he did, he didn't salute. The man who was now the leader called to him, stating the military protocol, "You salute the rank, not the man." Grudgingly, the soldier saluted, respecting the rank even if he, because of his still-aching ego, couldn't salute the man.

If that protocol were not in place, there would be chaos in the military. No matter the disagreement, no matter the ego, one should show respect for the rank even if he can't show respect to the man.

IT'S ALL OVER THE PLACE

The virus of perpetual childhood hasn't effected only the Congress; it's all over the place:

This report concerning the evening of November 8, 2016: "The Democratic presidential nominee, . . . [upon realizing she was going to lose the election] began shouting profanities, banging tables, and turning objects not nailed down into projectiles.

“Sources reported that on that Tuesday night, after Hillary realized she had lost, she went into a rage,” R. Emmett Tyrrell said, 'Secret Service officers told at least one source that she began yelling, screaming obscenities, and pounding furniture. She picked up objects and threw them at attendants and staff. She was in an uncontrollable rage.'” (Would it have been facetious for someone to advise, "Come on, take it like a man.")

Then in the general population, Mrs. Clinton's supporters, upon learning that defeat had been snatched from the jaws of victory, went ballistic--celebrities cryied on TV and went  on obscenity-laced tirades.

Rank and file Clinton supporters took to the streets, forming mobs that burned the American flag, torched buildings, and assaulted supporters of the winning candidate. Countless numbers got on YouTube and started screaming uncontrollably into the camera. Where were the adults to tell them, "Stop it!"

After that, someone infant began a petition which got over four million signatures, demanding the result of the election be reversed. That's what children do--"If I can't win, change the rules so I can." The-let's-change-the rules-so-we-can-win idea went the extreme of calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college.

A GATHERING OF REALTORS

I was invited to speak to a realtors' association meeting and I was going to use the opportunity to present the gospel during my talk.The realtor who invited me had a word of warning before the meeting, although he had no idea what I was going to say. He told me, "We have one man in our group, who, if he's displeased with what our speaker of the month says, he'll stand up, turn his chair around, and sit with his back to you." This was in the days before the cell phone, so that tool wasn't available for him to show his disrespect of someone he didn't even know.

What he was actually telling me was, "We have an immature child in our group. He'll pout if he's displeased and will want everyone to know he's upset. So he'll pull his usual infantile stunt." Evidently he had done so in the past and kept doing it because the group kept letting him get get away with it, instead of giving him a much-needed lesson in courtesy.

Noel Coward once asked, "What's going to happen to the children when there are no grown-ups?"Good question. We're getting there, don't you think?

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, telling some of them, "Grow up!" They were acting like babies and it was high time they started acting like spiritual adults. We've seen people leave good churches because they didn't get their way, so like a child, they took their ball and went home, slamming doors as they left because everyone must know that they're upset.

One pouter decided not to slam the auditorium doors; instead this infant began to throw the hymnals out of the racks in the pews. In way too many congregations, various members wear invisible signs around their necks all beginning with the words, "I want ___________." And if they don't get it, they'll start disrupting everything they can. Puerile. What a testimony!

WORDS THAT CHILL

Let's go back to the behavior at The State of the Union speech. There's a chilling verse in the Old Testament where God told Israel through Isaiah the prophet that He was going to discipline them and that discipline would be, "I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them,"

Sound familiar? 

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*the generic name for a room for children

THE TRIFECTA

What a trifecta! That's a word that we use to point to any achievement involving three successful outcomes. (It has its origin in betting on horses . . . so I'm told.) But before we get to that, let's look at conversion stories.

The "How-I-Became-A-Christian-Stories," i. e. "testimonies," which resonate with us are the dramatic, made for the movies kind. The stories of the drug dealer, gang leader, or the mob hit man who trusted Christ as Savior and who are now an evangelist, pastor, or youth worker are those we want to hear. Such testimonies are fascinating whether told in person or in an article or a book. We use them to hold the attention of youthful audiences in particular. They are exciting.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

But if your testimony doesn't rival Saul's on the Damascus Highway, nobody is going to pay attention to you and certainly they're not going to fly you in to deliver it at next summer's youth camp. 

TRIFECTA?

By now you're asking, "OK, but what about this trifecta stuff?" Fair enough; let's get started . . .

Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost was a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary who compiled some sort of record for in-class teaching: he taught for 65 years without missing a single class or lecturing from notes. (A fractured hip broke the string.) 

During that time and still today, he's regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on biblical prophecy, writing the classic tome used around the globe, "Things to Come." If you want a grounding in prophecy, that's your go-to book.

His signature class at Dallas was "The Life of Christ," which the school considered so valuable that they flew him to Israel and, as he walked where Jesus walked, he taught the course for a DVD series. 

In addition, his books have blessed millions of people and his life was a blessing to those who knew him. He died at age 99.

Dr. Charles Ryrie is a household name among Christians, especially those who are seriously into Bible study. He also taught at Dallas Seminary for many years and we recognize him as the premier dispensationalist because of his book, "Dispensationalism Today" which was published in 1965. 

In addition to that, you'll be able to find "The Ryrie Study Bible" in almost every country. His "Balancing the Christian Life" is also highly regarded, as is his "Basic Theology." He too lived into his 90's and then passed into the presence of the Lord in his sleep.

Dr. John F. Walvoord, the president of Dallas Seminary for many decades taught at the school as well. His forte was prophecy and he fully expected to live to see the rapture, but such was not to be. It was he who brought Dr. Pentecost to the seminary. He too put his fingers to the keyboard and wrote book after book of great blessing to believers everywhere. 

THOSE THREE

There wasn't a church in the world who would ask any of those three to come and give the boring testimony of their conversion. (I'm using a bit of sanctified facetious hyperbole, but you get the idea.) The reason is because neither of the three had been a drug dealer, the mob hit man, or led a gang of Hell's Angels. 

No. If they were to give their testimonies, all three could do so in three words: "I was raised in a Christian home." Dr. Ryrie trusted Christ at age 5 and Dr. Walvoord did the same when he was 15. Dr. Pentecost's parents were intense Presbyterians whose other son also taught at Dallas Seminary and was recognized authority in missions. No Damascus Road, no blinding light, no voice, no call to write a movie script about their conversions. 

HOW WERE THEY SAVED?

We speak of the gang leader turned evangelist as being "gloriously saved," but the child who trusts Christ as Savior, well, we say that he was merely "saved." No "glorious salvation" for him. But each were saved in the same way with the same amount of grace by the same Savior.

Child evangelism is sort of the red headed stepchild of evangelicalism. Those who serve the Lord in that segment of our population go unsung. But standing as a testimony to their important work is the trifecta of the childhood conversions Walvoord, Pentecost, and Ryrie. 

A FINAL WORD

The 19th century American evangelist Dwight L. Moody said it well: At a meeting, Moody reported,  "Two and a half people were converted to Christ. "

A friend asked if he meant two adults and a child. Moody said, "No, two children and an adult. When a child is led to Christ, a whole life is saved!"