Category Archives: Theology

The Sovereignty Series (with notes)

One of the most popular teaching series on our website is The Sovereignty Series.

The original 7-part series was taught at GCA back in March-May, 2004. It was a direct result of a succession of personal struggles and painful life-events.  God’s sovereignty was the only place I found comfort and it remains an essential building block of the over-arching theology of Biblical Christianity.  God is in full control of His creation and that truth is the source of great assurance.

So anyway, eight years went by and I was invited to teach on the topic of God’s sovereignty at the 2012 Sovereign Grace Bible Conference in Mesquite, TX.  I was to teach for five nights, so I broke the subject down into five components:

  1. The first section was devoted to establishing the concept of God’s sovereign rule. It was essentially a summary of the original series, proving that the Bible repeatedly declares God’s absolute authority over all things, all events, and all creatures.
  2. The second section was devoted to answering a common objection to the teaching of God’s absolute authority; to wit, if God is in complete control and has determined everything from the beginning, why do we pray?  It’s called Sovereignty and Prayer.
  3. The third section was also in response to an objection.  The critic of God’s sovereignty wrongly asserts that the teaching of predestination undermines genuine evangelism.  So, this section is entitled Sovereignty and Evangelism.
  4. The fourth section deals with the question, “If God is in complete control, and if He’s a good God, then why is there so much suffering in the world?”  It’s called Sovereignty and Suffering.
  5. And finally, if it’s true that God is utterly in control, then that implies that it’s up to Him to determine who is saved and who is ultimately judged.  That idea obviously flies in the face of man’s supposed free will, so it’s a hotly-contested bit of theology. But, we faced it head-on in Sovereignty and Salvation.

Both the GCA version of the series and the five-night presentation in Texas are available in mp3 form on our archive site (just click the link above that says, “The Sovereignty Series“).  The first night in Mesquite was not recorded, but the remaining four nights are available via that link — and like everything on our site, it’s free.

But, the reason for this particular blog post is that, as folk find and listen to that series, they hear me referencing the notes that were handed out at the conference and they email me asking for a copy.  And the answer is yes, you are welcome to a free pdf of my notes.  They are not available on our website, but you can download them right here:

The Sovereignty Series – 2012 Sovereign Grace Bible Conference Notes

And thanks for the interest, the inquiries, and the ongoing support of the ministry and teaching of GCA.

The Bible according to the History Channel

The Bible is a television mini-series, produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett.  It is based, very loosely, on the Bible. Burnett and Downey say that they consulted “a wide range of pastors and academics” while preparing the series.  Their consultants included people like Joel Osteen, rabbi Joshua Garroway, and Catholic cardinal Geoff Tunnicliffe.  Also included were Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, “40 Days of Purpose” creator Rick Warren, noted modalist T.D. Jakes, and a blend of evangelicals, Catholics, Jews, and even the superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God.  A real mishmash of perspectives, ideas, and traditions.

Given my job, I felt obliged to watch the series.  As of this writing, three episodes have been released — each more troubling and problematic than the previous one.  After watching each week’s entry, I wrote short reviews and posted them on the GCA Facebook page.  At the request of some of our readers, I’ve assembled those comments here (along with some updates).  What you’ll gather rather quickly is that I am not a fan.

Week One

Last night I recorded the History Channel’s first episode of their Bible series. I watched it tonight. Just turned it off, in fact. I’m saddened by it. So much money and production value poured into a completely fictitious account of the Old Testament.

But, here’s what really bothers me —

Biblical ignorance runs rampant in our land. People who don’t know any better are going think that this is how the Bible actually reads and what it actually teaches. The critic of the Bible has all the more reason to discount it since the God of this series is cruel and haphazard. And the biblically ignorant folk who watch this will come away with a completely false concept of God, His word, and His interactions with the children of Israel.

The details count. And the producers of this program turned the details into a mishmash of badly scripted soap opera moments while ignoring the great weight of theology and events that really could have been recounted accurately just as easily. For instance, was it really that tough to put a ram in a thicket caught by his horns? Why make it a lamb standing around by a bush? The type of Christ was completely abolished by their lackadaisical retelling of the story. And, by the way, what was Sarah doing running around in the wilderness by herself looking for her boy after taking a headcount of the local flock? Why insert a fairy tale and ignore the important details?

According to the Bible, Abraham took Isaac and a couple young men with him on a three day journey to Moriah —

“So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. And Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you.’” (Gen. 22:3-5)

But, the History Channel’s retelling of this story had Abraham and Isaac alone wandering just around the corner from their camp — close enough that Sarah was able to reach them between the time they built the altar and the time that Abraham raised the knife — and they completely omitted Abraham’s instruction, including his confidence that both he and the boy were going to return.  After all, this was the boy through whom God had promised innumerable seed.  Abraham’s act of utter faith was reduced to him arguing with God that he felt he’d been tested enough.

What a repugnant program this is.

The Moses character was utterly inaccurate (and his motivations were way too Mickey Rourke for me). But why? Why create a lie when the truth would work just as well?

And, of course, the DVD is for sale. And the work book.  And the 30 Days of the Bible program (echoes of 40 Days of Purpose, anyone?).  And you know the producers and pitch men (Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, et. al.) are going to claim that this is a great evangelistic tool. They’ll encourage their listeners to buy the DVD and share it with their friends and family. Apparently, Peter’s description of false prophets didn’t sink in — “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” (2Peter 2:3)

But, if anyone anywhere is moved or convinced by this program, what have they been convinced to believe? Certainly not the truth. Once again the wizards of Hollywood have decided that God’s word needs editing, improving, reworking, and dumbing down. At best the people responsible for this mess are merely ignorant for sake of a payday. At worse, they are the willing accomplices of the father of lies.

I can only imagine what they’re going to do to the gospel account when they get to it.

I’m so sad about this. America needs to repent of a whole litany of sins and rebellion. But, this organized effort to misrepresent the Scripture (while making the rounds of television shows talking about how pious they are and how true to the text they attempted to stay) sits heavy on my conscience because the church at large is not correcting and rejecting it. The producers have done a “good” job of creating ecumenical acceptance and promotion of their hackneyed tale. I wish the church were more devoted to the Word and less enamored with the show-biz that permeates modern evangelicalism.

I need to go to bed. It’s late. My throat hurts. My ears and sinuses are burning. But, my heart hurts more. I am sad for the state of modern Christianity.

Even so, Lord, come soon.

Week Two

Despite making us look like gluttons for punishment, last night David Morris and I fired up the DVR so we could watch the second installment of The Bible series from the History Channel. Oh my. We kept pausing the playback to list the multiple errors in each scene. And again, I wonder why the producers continually chose to tell a novel, made-up version of these stories when then actual Biblical account would have been just as easy to tell and much more compelling. The massive amount of political correctness that permeates this series is nauseating. And the whole thing suffers from both leaving out vital details and inserting soap-opera-like stories and motivations that are utterly foreign to the Biblical text. What a mess.

As I said about the first episode, there are plenty of biblically-ignorant folk in the world who are going to believe that what they saw on the screen was actually what the Bible says, thinks, and promotes. This series is just adding to the confusion and background noise that makes it so difficult to accurately teach Biblical history, doctrine, and theology. They have turned the truth of God into a lie.

<<<heavy sigh>>>

Then again, one accomplishment the producers did achieve was that they managed to take some of the most exciting, compelling stories in human history and make them mind-numbingly boring.

So hey, that’s something ….

Week Three

I finally watched the third installment of the Bible series on the History Channel. It’s pretty much everything I expected.  More of the same … same lies, same falsehoods, same heresies, same lack of historic veracity, same utter disrespect for the text of the Bible as written, same dumbing down of the Bible, same insertion of Purpose Drivel, same denial of sin, redemption, the necessity of a Savior … etc, etc, etc.

However, I did notice something significant. I wasn’t surprised at the constant historic revisionism, but when the character playing Daniel told the the character playing Cyrus that there was a prophet living at the time called Isaiah — quote: “There’s a prophet here in Babylon, Isaiah, he says …” — well, that’s just utterly wrong and there’s no reason to get it so wrong. Unless you have an agenda.

Isaiah died a good century before Cyrus was born, but he also predicted Cyrus, by name, as the ruler who would let the people of Israel return to build their temple. [By the way, the Bible series keeps representing the Jewish folk as poor, dusty, downtrodden people, but many Jews did not return to Jerusalem because they had become so prosperous and well-to-do in Babylon.] But, why did the writers of the Bible series insist on placing Isaiah in the Babylonian context?

Late dating.

They did the same sort of dance around the prophecies of Daniel. When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, Daniel began recounting it. He said, “You are the head of gold …” at which point the king interrupts him and insists, “Tell me about the rock that smashes the other kingdoms,” effectively erasing the prophecy that accurately predicts the succession of kingdoms to follow Babylon — Medo/Persian, Greece, Rome and the ten-toed kingdom that’s on the earth when Christ returns.

I sense a pattern here.

The Bible series insists that the Jews were returned to their land under Cyrus because Daniel was such a brave, vision-casting sort of leader. But, nothing is said of the fact that Jeremiah already prophesied that the captivity in Babylon would last 70 years and that time period was fulfilled. There’s nothing of the angel visiting Daniel and prophesying the 490-year future of the Israelites, leading to the Messiah and time of the end.

It’s obvious that the writers and producers are systematically eliminating or explaining-away all the accurate prophecy in the Old Testament. The TV version of the prophets merely heard from God, but there’s no hint of accurately foretelling future events. (Oh sure, there’s a vague hat-tip to the concept when Herod asks about predictions concerning where the King of the Jews would be born, but the whole episode is brushed away like a fluke. There’s no mention of the nearly 400 OT prophecies that Jesus accurately fulfilled.)

Anyway, here’s what I’ve concluded: The writers and producers of the program eliminated and late-dated OT prophecy on purpose. As I’ve often argued, the consistent accuracy of Biblical prophecy is evidence of the Bible’s divine nature — it is the very word of God, God-breathed. But, if the producers believed the Bible was God’s own word, they would never take the liberties they’ve taken with it. So, they’ve downplayed, underplayed, or ignored the prophetic elements of the very stories they’ve chosen to tell. But, in the end, it’s really a complete denial of the holiness and divinity of the Bible.

And it’s blasphemy. (Blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for a religious deity or irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things, like the Holy Bible.)

The whole thing — the whole series — is a mishmash of gratuitous scenes of violence, angels who act like hypnotists, occasional insertions from the inter-testamental period (like the eagle on the temple, a story we find in Josephus, but not the Bible … probably inserted to satisfy the Catholic consultants who include the Apocrypha in their Bible), and historic inaccuracies like the wise men seeing the star prior to the birth of Jesus so that they could make their journey early and get to Herod and then the manger on time. This despite the fact that the Bible says they visited the family at their home when Jesus was a young boy, leading Herod to kill all the boys 2 and under … but hey, those are just details, so why bother getting any of it correct?

 And they came into the house and saw the Child (paidion) with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshiped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. (Matt. 2:12)
Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the magi. (Matt. 2:16)

Also, there weren’t three wise men. The Bible doesn’t say how many there were. On TV, Herod called the leader Balthazar, which name is not in the Bible, it’s a medieval Catholic tradition that probably dates back to Bede the Venerable in the 8th Century. In this series we saw no attempt to get Mary a room at the inn. When Jesus was baptized there was no dove, no voice from Heaven.

 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” (Matt. 3:16-17)

In His dealings with Peter, the show gave us no sense of Jesus’ divine ability to effectively call people to Himself. And, of course, there was the horrid insertion of words into Jesus’ mouth that He simply never said, like, “Change the world.”

Heresy.

(Oh, and when Jesus was in the desert, did that snake come out of him, out from under him, or just emanate from nowhere?)

I don’t know why every modern depiction of Jesus makes him look like a white surfer dude.  He was a middle Eastern Jew.  Here’s how Isaiah described Him —

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. (Isa. 53:2 NASB)
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Isa. 53:2 KJV)

Likewise, they always portray Satan as nasty looking.  He slithers and hisses.  He broods and exudes ugliness.  Yet, Ezekiel says of him —

Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. (Ezek. 28:17)

Granted, the fall from Heaven may have had some negative impact on his appearance, but I have always thought that a vital part of Satan’s subtlety was his ability to make himself and his ways appear attractive.  Or, as the apostle Paul put it —

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. (2 Cor. 11:13-14)

Medieval art has influenced our thinking.  Now we think of Jesus as glowing constantly, with a halo around His head, while Satan is a split-hoofed beast with horns, a pitchfork, and a pointy tail.  That might help sell some Underwood ham, but it’s not what the Bible describes.

And here’s the worst part: There are so many people who are functionally illiterate where the Bible is concerned and they are going to think that what they’re seeing is an accurate portrayal of Jesus’ words, actions, and intentions. But, the Jesus of this series is NOT the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of this series is the invention of Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, TD Jakes, and their friends in Hollywood.

Read your Bible, people.

“Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar…” (Rom. 3:4)

This series is as damaging as anything Rome, the Mormons, or Islam have done in their denial of the historicity, perspicuity, and trustworthiness of the text of the Bible. And the sub-biblical church in America is all excited about it. Confessing evangelical apologists for this series are making the same error they always make (just as they did with Mel Gibon’s movie, The Passion of the Christ), they are embracing this series, despite its multiple errors, with the assumption that “something is better than nothing.” They like the fact that something called “The Bible” is on TV and getting big ratings, despite the fact that it actually undermines the very Bible they claim to embrace. The Church should be universally outraged at this travesty and they should reject it wholesale in order to send the message to Hollywood that we will not allow our sacred texts to be maligned and manipulated just to sell DVD’s.

But no. The church at large will be silent. And the errors will be compounded. And Christianity will suffer as more people embrace the mis-truths and lies that make up this series.

There’s an agenda at work here, folks. And it’s not good. Despite claiming to present “The Bible,” the producers are systematically undermining the Word of God and inserting the words of men — words that are more acceptable, more palatable, more pleasing to the easily-tickled ears of worldly people.

But, they won’t tell anyone that they’re sinful, depraved, spiritually dead, incapable, and desperately wicked. They won’t explain that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the Father but by Him. And they won’t tell anyone that the Bible is the very word of God and, as such, humans have no authority to mess with it, alter it, change it, adapt it, or deny it.

They won’t tell the truth.

But, then again, that’s no surprise.

The Bible (the real Bible) said it would be that way —

 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2Tim. 4:1-4)

In other words, the Bible is true even when it predicts that people will not tell the truth about it.

Addendum

Let me add that Chris Rosebrough  over at fightingforthefaith.com has been doing a series of programs exposing the various errors of this series, as well.  Drop by and give him a listen.

Philippians 3:3 and the True Circumcision

I was recently listening to an online broadcast where the host was taking questions from callers. The subject of the New Covenant came up and the caller asked the host — a self-identified amillennial Covenantal Baptist — about the fact that both Jeremiah and the author of the book of Hebrews state that the recipients of the New Covenant promises are specifically “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” The host replied, “Well that means it’s formed with the ‘true Israel.’”

The caller enquired, “So are you saying that now the word Israel has a different, spiritual meaning?” Without hesitation, the host insisted that the apostle Paul referred to the Church that way. “It’s clear,” said he, “when Paul says that we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus.” He then proceeded as if the point had been made. As he continued his defense, the host also referred to the Church as both “spiritual Israel” and “true Israel.”

And there it was. Yet another respected theologian employing language that the New Testament authors simply never use. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find the phrase “spiritual Israel” nor “true Israel.” But, according to the host, Philippians 3:3 clearly drew a direct link between circumcised Israelites and uncircumcised, believing Gentiles. And everyone, he concluded, who worshiped in the spirit of God and who gloried in Christ Jesus was automatically, and mystically, “the true circumcision.”

Not surprisingly, I beg to differ.

It seems to me that when someone advances this type of “Replacement Theology” (a hermeneutic system that replaces Old Testament Israel with the New Testament church), they need to be 100% certain that their understanding and interpretation of a text like Philippians 3:3 is accurate and unassailable. Because, what they are postulating is that the word “Israel” — a word that had a singular meaning ever since God changed Jacob’s name — had somehow in Paul’s economy suddenly and cataclysmically changed its meaning from “the direct descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” to “everyone who believes in Christ.” This, despite the fact that Paul never actually states that the meaning of the term has changed. He makes no plain statement or explains that now Gentiles believers are part of a true, spiritualized version of Israel.

The concept of the change of meaning is an inference drawn from a particular reading of a couple of key texts. And, it seems to me that if a legitimate alternate reading can be offered, based on the rules of proper exegesis, then Philippians 3:3 may not be the bedrock text some folk think it is.

So please allow me to offer an alternate, exegetical understanding of this text.

Context matters. So let’s start there. Let’s read the surrounding text and get a sense of Paul’s argument.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (Phil. 3:1-7 NASB)

There’s an interesting bit of word play going on the Greek text that some English translations miss.  But, it’s important in establishing Paul’s meaning.  In verses 2 and 3, he contrasts two types of people:

  1. Katatomē – evil workers; (KJV) concision; mutilators
  2. Peritomē – circumcision

Katatomē is a compound word, combining kata and temno to mean “cutting down or off.”  It implies mutilation.  Meanwhile, peritomē is the standard noun meaning “circumcision.”

The NASB translators add the words “false” and “true” in verses 2 and 3 in an apparent effort to demonstrate Paul’s contrast.  But, it’s important to recognize that they are inserted by the translators and have no place in the original Greek text. Other translations render the contrast thusly –

 Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—(NIV)

   Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— (ESV)

   Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (KJV)

   Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (AKJV)

   Watch out for “dogs,” watch out for evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh—(HCSB)

   Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers! Beware of the mutilators! For it is we who are the circumcision —we who worship in the Spirit of God and find our joy in the Messiah Jesus. We have not placed any confidence in the flesh, (ISV)

   Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision: For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh: (ASV)

   Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, who in spirit serve God; and glory in Christ Jesus, not having confidence in the flesh. (DRB)

   Look to the dogs, look to the evil-workers, look to the concision; For we are the circumcision, who by the Spirit are serving God, and glorying in Christ Jesus, and in flesh having no trust, (YLT)

You will notice the lack of the word “true” and “false” in any of those translations. Paul’s contrast is not between false and true circumcision, it’s between those who glory in their flesh and those who do not. But, both groups have undergone physical circumcision.

Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles was plagued by a group of Jewish believers who were also “zealous for the law.” (Acts 21:20)  They came to be known as “Judaizers,” who insisted that Gentile converts be circumcised and follow certain dictates of the Law of Moses.  Paul withstood them adamantly —

But not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But it was because of the false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. (Galatians 2:3-5)

Paul was fierce in his opposition to this mixing of law and grace, at one point saying that if the Judaizers were so zealous to cut, “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate (or, emasculate) themselves.” (Gal. 5:12) These were the dogs of Philippians 3, the “concision” or katatomē who wanted to “cut off” and mutilate the flesh.

But importantly, they were indeed circumcised.  Physically, literally, cut in their flesh.  Paul argued that they trusted that fleshly alteration more than they trusted the Spirit of God or the finished work of Christ.  That was their problem.

Then there was the other group – the peritomē – described simply as “the circumcision.”

So, the question before us is: When Paul referenced the peritomē, was he speaking of a physical circumcision, or a “true” or “spiritual” cutting?  As we’ve demonstrated, the text merely says “we are the circumcision…”

The plainest reading of the text would be that Paul was contrasting two groups of circumcised folk.  One group trusted their fleshly connection to Abraham for their salvation and the other was trusting Christ.  Paul, a circumcised Jew, introducing the Jewish Messiah to a Gentile audience, contrasted the Judaizers with himself and his associates.  He warned the Gentiles against the one group, calling them dogs and mutilators.  But, he assured the Gentiles that he and his companions were “the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

Then, to really drive home his point, Paul listed his Jewish pedigree, arguing, “If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I more.” (Phil. 3:4)  And his first commendation? “Circumcised the eighth day.”  Paul personalized the contrast between himself and the concision.

There is nothing in the immediate context that would lead to the conclusion that Paul’s use of the word “we” indicated himself and the Gentiles to whom he was writing.  Rather, given the contrast, the use of the words katatomē and peritomē, and Paul’s personalization of his defense, it’s much more likely (and contextually consistent) to conclude that both sides of his contrast included circumcised Jews; on one side “evil workers” and on the other those who “put no confidence in the flesh.”

After all, if Paul were indeed referring to the Gentile converts when he used the term “we,” exactly what fleshly confidence would they have been denying?  Since the Judaizers were circumcised and trusting that fleshly alteration, what similar fleshly sign were the Gentiles abandoning?  Where’s the one-for-one contrast that Paul’s wordplay establishes if he was referring to people who did not first have a similar fleshly cutting to that sported by the concision?

For those reasons, I conclude that Paul was contrasting the circumcised Judaizers and their attendant fleshly confidence with his own circumcision and Jewish pedigree, all of which he counted “to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)

He was not including the Gentiles in his use of the word “we.”  He was not establishing a “true” circumcision that now included uncircumcised Gentile believers.  Nor was he inspired by a novel conception of “spiritual” or “true” Israel. He was referring to believing, circumcised Israelites, descendants of Abraham, who also had a proper understanding of the Christian faith and who had cast off any confidence in their flesh.

Now, I said all that to say this —

If what I’ve just written is valid.  If the exegesis is sound, the contextual considerations consistent, and the examination of language valid, then the almost knee-jerk appeal to Philippians 3:3 that I heard on the call-in program needs to be examined.  I know I’ve said it before – over and over again – but, the person who made this appeal is a Reformed Baptist fellow who is exceedingly (and appropriately) careful with the text when defending Calvinistic soteriology.  He pours over the language and context with a well-exercised fine-tooth comb in order to prove that the Arminian proof texts cannot withstand scrutiny.  But, for some reason, when the question of Israel arises, or when the subject turns to eschatology, his devotion to Covenantal Amillennialism tosses all of that careful textual devotion out the window.

And I get it!  I really do!  Sometimes, once we’ve settled on an approach to reading and understanding Scripture, we all have a tendency to assume that how we’ve always read a passage is the correct way to read it.  We can’t see it any other way than the way we’ve always seen it.  That’s natural.  But, that assumption can lead to complacency if we’re not careful.  It’s important to challenge ourselves.

If the understanding of Philippians 3:2-3 presented in this article has some validity, then those folk who use it to defend a “spiritual Israel” hermeneutic need to be cautious.  And, let me add, by way of closing, in all my years of engaging these topics and listening to various interpreters, exegetes, apologists, and theologians, whenever the subject of New Covenant arises and they are faced the fact that the promises of that covenant are made “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,” and they immediately reply that the church is “the new, spiritual Israel” …

… I have yet to hear one of them explain how the church is “the house of Judah.”

But, that’s another subject for another day.

For more on this topic, please see my book, “Is The Church Israel?”  It’s a free pdf download you can find here:

http://www.salvationbygrace.org/uc/sub/docs/church_israel.pdf