Podcast appearances and mentions of Frank E Gaebelein

Cecil Maranville discusses Daniel 11:40—“At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through.”This episode quotes from the following resources:“NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible Notes,” Craig S. Keener and John H. Walton.“Expositor's Bible Commentary,” Frank E. Gaebelein and Gleason Archer, Jr.“The Bible Knowledge Commentary,” J. Dwight Pentecost.

Eternal Life      John wrote, “whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:15), and “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And Jesus pointed others to Himself, saying, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40), and “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47; cf., 10:28). Jesus, when saying the believer “has” eternal life in John 6:47, used the Greek verb echō (ἔχω – to have or possess), which is in the present tense, meaning it's a right-now-truth. That is, eternal life is what the believer possesses at the moment of faith in Christ. This eternal life is connected with being in a relationship with Jesus Christ. John wrote, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:11-12).      We should also understand that eternal life does not merely refer to our unending existence in which we spend eternity with God in heaven, but that there's a qualitative dimension to it. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10), and “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Merrill C. Tenney states, “Eternal, the new life God gives, refers not solely to the duration of existence but also to the quality of life as contrasted with futility. It is a deepening and growing experience. It can never be exhausted in any measurable span of time, but it introduces a totally new quality of life.”[1] In its entirety, eternal life is a free gift offered by God to those who trust in Christ as Savior (John 3:16; Eph 2:8-9), an experience to be enjoyed now (John 10:10), and a future reward for a life of sacrifice (Luke 18:29-30). As we advance spiritually in our walk with the Lord by learning His Word (2 Tim 2:15; 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18), being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), walking obediently by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6), praying often (Eph 6:18; 1 Th 5:17), developing an attitude of gratitude (Eph 5:20; 1 Th 5:18), fellowshipping with other believers (Acts 2:42; Heb 10:25), engaging in worship (Eph 5:19; Heb 13:15), and allowing trials to shape us spiritually (Jam 1:2-4), we will experience what Paul told Timothy, when he instructed him to “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” (1 Tim 6:12). This is the quality of life of believers who, in time, operate with positive volition toward God as their divine Parent and obey His directives to advance to spiritual maturity. Wiersbe notes, “We have ‘eternal life' and need to take hold of it and let it work in our experience.”[2] MacDonald adds, “He is to lay hold on eternal life. This does not mean that he is to strive for salvation. That is already his possession. But here the thought is to live out in daily practice the eternal life which was already his.”[3] Joseph Dillow states: "Possessing eternal life is one thing in the sense of initial entrance, but “taking hold” of it is another. The former is static; the latter is dynamic. The former depends on God; the latter depends on us. The former comes through faith alone; “taking hold” requires faith plus “keeping commandments” (1 Timothy 6:14). Those who are rich in this world and who give generously “will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19). Eternal life is not only the gift of regeneration; it is also “true life” that is cultivated by faith and acts of obedience."[4] Expiation      The doctrine of expiation is closely related to propitiation. Propitiation means satisfaction and refers to God the Father's approval of the death of Christ on behalf of sinners. Expiation emphasizes the removal of sin, as well as its guilt and punishment. Because God is holy and just, sin is an offense that demands His punishment. According to John Stott, God's wrath refers to “His steady, unrelenting, unremitting, uncompromising antagonism to evil in all its forms and manifestations.”[5] By means of the penal substitutionary atoning death of Jesus, God's wrath is satisfied concerning His righteous demands for our sin, and when we turn to Christ as Savior, all our sins are forgiven (Eph 1:7), and we are reconciled to God (Rom 5:10; 2 Cor 5:18-20). Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), and we know “He appeared in order to take away sins” (1 John 3:5), and that Jesus “released us from our sins by His blood” (Rev 1:5). Bruce Demarest states, “the focus of propitiation is Godward—Christ's sacrifice pays the penalty of sin so as to appease God's wrath. But the focus of expiation is humanward—Christ's sacrifice removes the stain of sin and the sinner's liability to suffer sin's punishment.”[6] Charles Hodge adds, “Expiation and propitiation are correlative terms. The sinner, or his guilt is expiated; God, or justice, is propitiated.”[7]      Propitiation is a word that speaks to our relationship with the Father. He was angry with us prior to our coming to Jesus, as we were “enemies” of God (Rom 5:10), spiritually “dead” in our trespasses (Eph 2:1; cf., Col 2:13), and “children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). But now, because of the death of Christ, the Father accepts those who have trusted in Jesus as Savior, and has “forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col 2:13b-14). Robert B. Thieme, Jr. states: "Expiation describes the work of Christ on the cross that canceled mankind's debt owed for the penalty of sin. Man's penalty for sin is spiritual death, total separation from God. This is the status of every human being at birth due to Adam's fall (Rom 6:23a; Eph 2:1). The penalty placed all fallen humanity hopelessly in debt to God and incapable of paying the obligation. The only one qualified to pay was Jesus Christ, the Lamb without sin. He “bore our sins in His body on the cross” and was judged by God the Father (1 Pet 2:24a; cf. Isa 53:6b). Jesus Christ Himself covered the cost of man's spiritual death and “canceled out the certificate of debt” (Col 2:14). As a result, every human being is released from obligation and free to accept or reject the grace gift of salvation."[8] Dr. Steven R. Cook     [1] Merrill C. Tenney, “John,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: John and Acts, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 50. [2] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 236. [3] William MacDonald, Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 2101. [4] Joseph C. Dillow, Final Destiny: The Future Reign of the Servant Kings, 4th Edition (Houston, TX: Grace Theology Press, 2018). [5] John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2006), 171. [6] Bruce A. Demarest, The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation, Foundations of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997), 180. [7] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 478. [8] Robert B. Thieme, Jr. “Expiation”,  Thieme's Bible Doctrine Dictionary, 94.

The Spirit's Regeneration, Indwelling, Baptizing, and Sealing Ministry At the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit performs several acts for new believers, which include regeneration (John 3:6; Tit 3:5; 1 Pet 1:3), indwelling (John 14:16-17; 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19), baptizing (1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:27), and sealing (Eph 4:30). Regeneration The word regeneration itself occurs only twice in the Bible (Matt 19:28 and Tit 3:5). In both places the Greek word used is paliggenesia (παλιγγενεσία), which means, “the state of being renewed… [the] experience of a complete change of life, rebirth of a redeemed person.”[1] Regeneration means new believers receive spiritual life at the moment they trust in Christ alone as their Savior. Geisler states, “The new birth of which Jesus speaks is the act of regeneration, whereby God imparts spiritual life to the believer's soul (1 Peter 1:23).”[2] Paul Enns agrees, saying, “Succinctly stated, to regenerate means ‘to impart life.' Regeneration is the act whereby God imparts life to the one who believes.”[3] Ryrie notes: "Although the word regeneration is used only twice in the Bible (Titus 3:5, where it refers to the new birth, and Mt 19:28 where it refers to the millennial kingdom), the concept of being born again is found in other passages, notably John 3. Technically, it is God's act of begetting eternal life in the one who believes in Christ. While faith and regeneration are closely associated, the two ideas are distinct, faith being the human responsibility and the channel through which God's grace is received, and regeneration being God's supernatural act of imparting eternal life."[4] David Anderson adds: "The NT uses a number of different words and images to convey the doctrine of regeneration. The noun palingenesia is used just twice: Matthew 19:28 and Titus 3:5. In Matthew, Jesus is speaking of the regeneration which will occur at His second coming. He refers to setting up His kingdom, placing the twelve over the twelve tribes of Israel, and rewarding those who have sacrificed for His cause. But in Titus 3:5, we have a direct reference to the rebirth of the believer: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”[5] To the concept of regeneration, the Greek words anothen (ἄνωθεν) and anagennao (ἀναγεννάω) can be added. Jesus, while speaking to Nicodemus, said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [anothen] he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3; cf., John 3:7). The word anothen (ἄνωθεν) generally means “from a source that is above.”[6] That is, from a heavenly source. (At least two English translations, NET & YLT, render the word “from above”). Because Nicodemus confused physical birth with spiritual birth (John 3:4), Jesus clarified His statement, saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Jesus was talking about spiritual birth, or regeneration, which comes from the source of heaven. Peter used the Greek word anagennao (ἀναγεννάω) when he wrote about Christians who have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3), and who “have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Pet 1:23). The basic meaning of anagennao (ἀναγεννάω) is to “beget again, cause to be born again.”[7] In both instances the word denotes imparting new life. This work of the Spirit is directly related to the believer's salvation. According to Walvoord, “The work of regeneration can be assigned to the Holy Spirit as definitely as the work of salvation can be assigned to Christ.”[8]And the believer's new life is the basis for a new walk with the Lord. Ryrie notes, “Regeneration does not make a man perfect, but it places him in the family of God and gives him the new ability to please his Father by growing into the image of Christ. Fruit from the new nature is proof that regeneration has occurred (1 John 2:29).”[9] Lighter states: "The means by which regeneration is accomplished eliminates all human endeavor. Though personal faith in Christ as Savior is necessary, faith does not produce the new life; it does not regenerate. Only God regenerates. Human faith and divine regeneration occur at the same time, but the one is man's responsibility as he is enabled by the Holy Spirit, and the other is the work of God imparting the divine life."[10] Indwelling The indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit for every believer was an innovation that was future from the time of Jesus' ministry on earth. Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water'” (John 7:38). And John tells us, “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). The Spirit would begin His special ministry on the day of Pentecost, and it would involve His personal indwelling of every believer. Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus spoke of this, saying, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). Notice that Spirit would not only be with them, would be in them. Merrill Tenney writes, “This distinction marks the difference between the Old Testament experience of the Holy Spirit and the post-Pentecostal experience of the church. The individual indwelling of the Spirit is the specific privilege of the Christian believer.”[11] This new indwelling ministry by God the Holy Spirit is different than His work in believers in the OT. Under the Mosaic Law, only a select few received the Holy Spirit (Ex 31:1-5; Num 11:25; 27:18; 1 Sam 16:13), and that was conditioned on His sovereign purposes. But now, in the dispensation of the church age, God the Holy Spirit would personally indwell both the local church (1 Cor 3:16-17), as well as each individual believer (1 Cor 6:19). Paul wrote to the Christians living in Corinth, saying, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16). Concerning the Spirit's indwelling the church in 1 Corinthians 3:16, Radmacher states: "There are two words translated temple in the NT. One refers to the temple building and all its courts; the other refers strictly to the Most Holy Place where no one but the high priest could go. Paul uses the latter term to describe the local church, in whom God dwells. Unlike 1 Corinthians 6:19, where the word temple refers to the individual believer, and Ephesians 2:21, where the word speaks of the church universal, these verses speak of the local church as God's temple. God takes very seriously our actions in the church. destroy: Any person who disrupts and destroys the church by divisions, malice, and other harmful acts invites God's discipline (1 Cor 11:30-32)."[12] Paul also describes the Spirit's indwelling each Christian in 1 Corinthians 6:19, where he wrote, “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” According to Constable, “Previously Paul taught his readers that the Corinthian church was a temple (naos; 1 Cor 3:16). The believer's body is also a temple. The Holy Spirit is actually indwelling each of these temples (Rom 8:9; cf. Matt 12:6; 18:15–20; 28:16–20; Mark 13:11; John 14:17, 23).”[13] What we find in the church age is that all three Persons of the Godhead indwell every believer (John 14:16-17, 20, 23); however, the Holy Spirit has a special ministry which began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:4-5; 2:1-4; 11:15-16; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:26-28), and will continue until the church is raptured to heaven (2 Th 2:7; cf. John 14:1-3; 1 Th 4:13-18; Tit 2:13). Chafer states: "The Spirit made His advent into the world here to abide throughout this dispensation. As Christ is now located at the right hand of the Father, though omnipresent, so the Spirit, though omnipresent, is now locally abiding in the world, in a temple, or habitation, of living stones (Eph 2:19-22). The individual believer is also spoken of as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). The Spirit will not leave the world, or even one stone of that building until the age-long purpose of forming that temple is finished…The Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost and that aspect of the meaning of Pentecost will no more be repeated than the incarnation of Christ. There is no occasion to call the Spirit to “come,” for He is here."[14] Baptizing The subject of baptism has been, and continues to be, a subject of confusion. The word baptize is a transliteration of the Greek verb baptizo (βαπτίζω) which broadly means to “plunge, dip, [or] wash,”[15] and is often used “of the Christian sacrament of initiation after Jesus' death.”[16] The Greek noun baptisma (βάπτισμα) refers to the result of a dipping or immersing. In Classical Greek literature, the verb baptizo (βαπτίζω) “was used among the Greeks to signify the dyeing of a garment, or the drawing of water by dipping a vessel into another.”[17] The Greek poet Nicander (ca. 200 B.C.) used both bapto (βάπτω) and baptizo (βαπτίζω) when describing the process of making pickles. According to James Strong, “When used in the New Testament, this word more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water baptism.”[18]  There are numerous baptisms mentioned in the Bible, some are wet and some are dry. John the Baptist said, “I baptize you with water” (Matt 3:11a), clearly making the baptism wet. But then, John the Baptist spoke of Jesus, saying, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt 3:11b). These latter two baptisms are both dry, where no one gets placed into water. A few other baptisms mentioned in Scripture include the baptism of the cross (Mark 10:35-38; Luke 12:50), the baptism of Moses (1 Cor 10:1-2), and the baptism of Christians (Matt 28:16-20). For the Christian, water baptism is a picture of the believer's spiritual union and identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom 6:3-7; Col 2:11-12). Water baptism does not save (1 Cor 1:17). It never has and never will. God saves at the moment believers place their faith solely in Jesus (John 3:16; 1 Cor 15:3-4). At the moment of faith in Christ, God the Holy Spirit unites new believers spiritually to Christ, adding them to the church, the body of Christ. Paul wrote, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:12-13). Lewis Chafer states, “As a ground upon which the certainty of eternal security rests, the baptism of the Spirit should be recognized as that operation by which the individual believer is brought into organic union with Christ. By the Spirit's regeneration Christ is resident in the believer, and by the Spirit's baptism the believer is thus in Christ.”[19] Merrill F. Unger comments: "This momentous spiritual operation is set forth in the NT as the basis of all the believer's positions and possessions “in Christ” (Eph 1:3; Col 2:10; 3:1–4; etc.). The operation is prophetic in the gospels (Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16–17; John 1:33–34, where Christ is the baptizer), historic in the Acts (cf. Acts 1:5 with Acts 11:16), and doctrinal in the epistles (1 Cor 12:13, where the Spirit is named specifically as the agent; Rom 6:3–4; Gal 3:26–27; Col 2:9–12; Eph 4:5). The Spirit's baptizing work, placing the believer “in Christ,” occurred initially at Pentecost at the advent of the Spirit, who baptized believing Jews “into Christ.” In Acts 8, Samaritans were baptized in this way for the first time; in Acts 10, Gentiles likewise were so baptized, at which point the normal agency of the Spirit as baptizer was attained. According to the clear teaching of the epistles, every believer is baptized by the Spirit into Christ the moment he is regenerated. He is also simultaneously indwelt by the Spirit and sealed eternally, with the privilege of being filled with the Spirit, as the conditions for filling are met."[20] Sealing Several times Paul used the Greek verb sphragizo (σφραγίζω) when writing to Christians. Paul wrote of God “who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Cor 1:22). To the Christians at Ephesus he wrote, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13), and “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30). In each of these uses the verb sphragizo (σφραγίζω) means “to mark with a seal as a means of identification…so that the mark denoting ownership also carries with it the protection of the owner.”[21] Laney Jr., states, “In ancient times a seal was used as an identifying mark, indicating the rightful ownership of the object sealed. And so the sealing ministry of the Spirit marks believers as God's own possession, guaranteeing their security for eternity.”[22] Concerning Paul's use of sphragizo (σφραγίζω) in Ephesians 1:13, Harold Hoehner comments: "God seals the believers in Christ with the promised Holy Spirit when they have not only heard but also believed the gospel of salvation. The sealing with the Spirit must not be confused with the other ministries of the Spirit. The indwelling of the Spirit refers to his residence in every believer (Rom 8:9; 1 John 2:27). The baptizing ministry of the Spirit places believers into the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13). The filling by the Spirit is the control of the Spirit over believers' lives (Eph 5:18). The sealing ministry of the Spirit is to identify believers as God's own and thus give them the security that they belong to him (Eph 1:13; 4:30; 2 Cor 1:22). The very fact that the Spirit indwells believers is a seal of God's ownership of them."[23] The Holy Spirit is Himself the seal that marks us as owned by God and guarantees our future redemption and glory (Eph 1:13-14; 4:30). These blessings are completely the work of the Holy Spirit for the benefit of Christians and occur at the moment believers trust Jesus as their Savior. These are facts based on objective statements in Scripture and are accepted by faith, not ever-changing subjective feelings. Though Christians can grieve and/or quench the Holy Spirit with personal sin (Eph 4:30; 1 Th 5:19), and though they may suffer divine discipline because of personal sin (Heb 12:5-11), they cannot grieve Him away. Joseph Dillow notes: "The ancient practice of using seals is behind the figurative use of the word here. A seal was a mark of protection and ownership. The Greek word sphragizō is used of a stone being fastened with a seal to “prevent its being moved from a position” (BDAG). In fact, this was apparently the earliest method of distinguishing one's property. The seal was engraved with a design or mark distinctive to the owner. The seal of ownership or protection was often made in soft wax with a signet ring. An impression was left on the wax signifying the owner of the thing sealed. When the Holy Spirit seals us, He presses the signet ring of our heavenly Father on our hearts of wax and leaves the mark of ownership. We belong to Him. He certifies this by His unchangeable purpose to protect and own us to the day of redemption. In Ephesians 1:13-14, we are told that the Holy Spirit Himself is the seal. He is impressed upon us, so to speak. His presence in our lives is thus a guarantee of God's protection and that we are owned by God. A broken seal was an indication that the person had not been protected. The Holy Spirit cannot be broken. He is the seal of ownership. In Ephesians 4:30, we are told that we are sealed unto the day of redemption. This sealing ministry of the Spirit is forever and guarantees that we will arrive safely for the redemption of our bodies and entrance into heaven (Romans 8:23). He is the seal that we are now owned and protected by God until the day of redemption."[24] Dr. Steven R. Cook     [1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 752. [2] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Three: Sin, Salvation (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2004), 123. [3] Paul P. Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989), 338. [4] Charles Caldwell Ryrie, A Survey of Bible Doctrine (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972). [5] David R. Anderson, Free Grace Soteriology, ed. James S. Reitman, Revised Edition. (Grace Theology Press, 2012), 235. [6] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 92. [7] Ibid., 59. [8] John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, 131. [9] Charles Caldwell Ryrie, A Survey of Bible Doctrine (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972). [10] Robert P. Lightner, Handbook of Evangelical Theology: A Historical, Biblical, and Contemporary Survey and Review, 199. [11] Merrill C. Tenney, “John,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: John and Acts, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 9, 147. [12] Earl D. Radmacher, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary, 1464–1465. [13] Tom Constable, Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), 1 Co 6:18. [14] Lewis S. Chafer, He that is Spiritual (Grand Rapids, Mich. Zondervan Publishing, 1967), 26. [15] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 164. [16] Ibid., 164. [17] W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 50. [18] James Strong, βάπτω bapto, Enhanced Strong's Lexicon (Woodside Bible Fellowship, 1995). [19] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, 337. [20] Merrill F. Unger and R.K. Harrison, “Baptism of the Spirit,” The New Unger's Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988). [21] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 980. [22] Charles R. Swindoll and Roy B. Zuck, Understanding Christian Theology (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), 206. [23] Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 240. [24] Joseph C. Dillow, Final Destiny: The Future Reign of the Servant Kings, 4th Edition (Houston, TX: Grace Theology Press, 2018).

     In the NT, God the Holy Spirit took on a new ministry after Jesus returned to heaven (John 16:7-15; cf., Acts 1:6-8; 2:1-4; 15:7-9). Part of His ministry is to believers, and part is to unbelievers. Concerning the Spirit's ministry to believers, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). The Helper is the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus will send (future tense of the Greek verb pempo) to believers. The Spirit's work in Christians would be multifaceted and would relate to their sanctification and godly influence in a fallen world. After Pentecost (Acts 2), God the Holy Spirit would work in and through His church to other Christians, to help with their sanctification, and to unbelievers, to share the gospel of grace that they might be saved. Wiersbe states: "The Holy Spirit does not minister in a vacuum. Just as the Son of God had to have a body in order to do His work on earth, so the Spirit of God needs a body to accomplish His ministries; and that body is the church. Our bodies are His tools and temples, and He wants to use us to glorify Christ and to witness to a lost world."[1]      This is very encouraging, because Christians know that God the Holy Spirit is working through them to help lead the lost to Christ. But there is also a special work the Holy Spirit is doing in the hearts of unbelievers to help prepare them to turn to Christ as Savior. Concerning this special work, Jesus said, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). Jesus' statement about the Holy Spirit is in the future tense (He will convict), which implies the Spirit's special ministry was not active at the time Jesus uttered His statement. This special convicting ministry would be inaugurated on the day of Pentecost. The word convict translates the Greek word elegcho (ἐλέγχω), which means, “to bring a person to the point of recognizing wrongdoing, convict, [or] convince someone of something.”[2] Jesus said the Spirit's convincing work would fall into three areas: 1) “concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:9), 2) “concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me” (John 16:10), and 3) “concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged” (John 16:11). Let's look at these in order. The Sin of Unbelief      The sin mentioned by Jesus in John 16:8 does not refer to a catalogue of sins one might be guilty of (i.e., lust, greed, worry, gossip, stealing, etc.), but rather, one specific sin, which is unbelief, as Jesus said, “because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:9). The word for sin is hamartia (ἁμαρτία), which in Jesus' statement is a singular noun that refers to a specific crime; namely, unbelief. Sylva notes, “Here sin is unbelief. Jesus faces people with a decision for or against himself: by belief or unbelief a person decides either for life or for death (John 8:24; 9:41; 16:8–9).”[3] There is only one sin that keeps a person out of heaven, and that's the sin of unbelief. Wiersbe states: "The Holy Spirit convicts the world of one particular sin, the sin of unbelief. The law of God and the conscience of man will convict the sinner of his sins (plural) specifically; but it is the work of the Spirit, through the witness of the believers, to expose the unbelief of the lost world. After all, it is unbelief that condemns the lost sinner (John 3:18–21), not the committing of individual sins. A person could “clean up his life” and quit his or her bad habits and still be lost and go to hell."[4]      The Spirit always performs His work perfectly in the hearts of the lost, but because people have volition, and their hearts are corrupt, the vast majority of people suppress His message (Matt 7:13-14; John 5:39-40; Rom 1:18-32). Only the Holy Spirit can reveal to the human heart the truth about Jesus, as well as the truth about their sin of unbelief. To suppress the Spirit's work about Jesus as the Son of God and Savior is the greatest of sins possible, as well as the most fatal sin that forever condemns a person to hell. Lightner states: "Apart from God the Father there would have been no plan of salvation. Without God the Son there would have been no provision for salvation. Apart from the work of God the Spirit there would be no application of this great salvation to man's needs. It is the third member of the Godhead who procures salvation for all who believe."[5] The Righteousness of Jesus      God alone sets the standard for righteousness, not people. Divine righteousness may be defined as the intrinsic, immutable, moral perfection of God, from which He commands all things, in heaven and earth, and declares as just that which conforms to His righteousness and as sinful that which deviates. Borchert is correct when he states, “Humanity is not in control either of the future or of setting the standards for life. That is the work of God.”[6] And Merrill C. Tenney states, “Apart from a standard of righteousness, there can be no sin; and there must be an awareness of the holiness of God before a person will realize his own deficiency.”[7] Though Jesus was rejected and treated as a criminal, God the Father declared Him righteous and welcomed Him to heaven, His natural home. Jesus is “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14), and throughout His life “knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), was “without sin” (Heb 4:15), “committed no sin” (1 Pet 2:22), and in whom “there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). The rejection and crucifixion of Jesus was the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of the human race. Jesus said those who rejected and crucified Him would “rejoice” (John 16:20), but as Borchert notes, “their rejoicing at being finished with Jesus turned out to be the rejoicing of the damned.”[8] William Hendriksen offers the following insights: "The world, represented by the Jews, was about to crucify Jesus. It was going to say, “He ought to die” (John 19:7); hence, in the name of righteousness it was going to put him to death. It proclaimed aloud that he was anything but righteous. It treated him as an evil-doer (John 18:30). But the exact opposite was the truth. Though rejected by the world, he was welcomed by the Father, welcomed home via the cross, the cross which led to the crown…By means of the resurrection the Father would place the stamp of His approval upon His life and work (Acts 2:22, 23, 33; Rom 1:4). He, the very One whom the world had branded as unrighteous, would by means of His victorious going to the Father be marked as the Righteous One (8:46; Acts 3:14; 7:52; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 3:18; 1 John 2:1; and cf., Luke 23:47). Thus, the world would be convicted with respect to righteousness."[9]      Christians do not need to struggle to convince people about the perfect righteousness of Christ, nor of the sinner's failed righteousness before a holy God. They need only to communicate the biblical truth about Christ and fallen humanity, and leave the Spirit to do what only He can do, to convince them of the truth about Christ as the only Savior of mankind. If unbelievers suppresses the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, then no amount of reasoning or argumentation on the part of Christians will advance the gospel even one inch. The Judgment of the Ruler of this World      A third area where the Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of unbelievers concerns judgment, “because the ruler of this world has been judged” (John 16:11). Satan has been judged and found guilty before God. This means that Satan and his world-system is condemned. Being the ruler of this world, Satan naturally rules in the hearts of all unbelievers. Three times Jesus referred to Satan as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Other passages of Scripture call Satan “the god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4), and “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2), informing us “that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Satan rules as a tyrant who has “weakened the nations” (Isa 14:12), and currently “deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9). Satan continues to attack God's people today (1 Pet 5:8), practices deception (2 Cor 11:13-15), and has well developed strategies of warfare (Eph 6:10-12). Furthermore, humanity is living in an “evil age” (Gal 1:4), under “the dominion of Satan” (Acts 26:18), whose sphere of influence is called “the domain of darkness” (Col 1:13). But Satan has been judged and his punishment is pending execution. Furthermore, those who side with Satan in this life will be judged with him in eternity. According to Ryrie, “At the cross, Christ triumphed over Satan, serving notice on unbelievers of their judgment to come.”[10] Radmacher notes, “Satan was judged at the Cross, and the Holy Spirit would convince people of the judgment to come. Satan has been judged, so all who side with him will be judged with him. There is no room for neutrality. A person is either a child of God or a child of the devil.”[11] Merrill Tenney states: "To convince any unbeliever of sin, righteousness, and judgment is beyond human ability. It may be possible to fix upon him the guilt of some specific sin if there is sufficient evidence to bring him before a jury; but to make him acknowledge the deeper fact, that he is a sinner, evil at heart, and deserving of punishment because he has not believed in Christ, is quite another matter. To bring a man to some standard of ethics is not too difficult; for almost every person has ideals that coincide with the moral law at some point. To create in him the humiliating consciousness that his self-righteousness is as filthy rags in comparison with the spotless linen of the righteousness of God cannot be effected by ordinary persuasion. Many believe in a general law of retribution; but it is almost impossible to convince them that they already stand condemned. Only the power of the Holy Spirit, working from within, can bring about that profound conviction which leads to repentance. The Spirit anticipates and makes effective the ministry of the disciples in carrying the message to unbelievers."[12] Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 362. [2] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 315. [3] Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 260. [4] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1, 362. [5] Robert P. Lightner, Handbook of Evangelical Theology: A Historical, Biblical, and Contemporary Survey and Review (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1995), 196. [6] Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 167. [7] Merrill C. Tenney, “John,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: John and Acts, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 157. [8] Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 167. [9] William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Gospel According to John, vol. 2, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 326. [10] Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, Expanded ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 1712. [11] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 1350. [12] Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 237.

Jesus' Humility      It is only natural that the subject of Jesus' humility be discussed after examining His position as the Suffering Servant. W. H. Griffith Thomas notes: "In the Old Testament our Lord is called “the Servant of Jehovah,” and in the New Testament He is described as having taken “the form of a servant.” In order to do the will of God and redeem mankind, it was necessary for Him to humble Himself and become a “Servant,” so that along the pathway of service He might come to that Cross which was at once the exemplification of devoted duty, redeeming grace, and Divine love."[1]      Matthew records Jesus' mental attitude of humility when He said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matt 11:29). The word humble translates the Greek adjective tapeinos (ταπεινός), which denotes being “lowly, undistinguished, of no account.”[2] Jesus' mental attitude of humility was in contrast with that of the world which regards the virtue of humility in a negative way. Moisés Silva notes, “In the Greek world, with its anthropocentric approach, lowliness is looked on as shameful, to be avoided and overcome by act and thought. In the NT, with its theocentric perspective, the words are used to describe our relationship with God and its effect on how we treat fellow human beings.”[3] For Jesus, being humble meant He was more concerned with doing the Father's will than that of the world around Him, or even His own will (Luke 22:42). And there was no greater act of humility than Jesus being obedient to the point of death on the cross. Paul wrote that Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). Wiersbe states, “His was not the death of a martyr but the death of a Savior. He willingly laid down His life for the sins of the world.”[4] Homer Kent notes, “He was so committed to the Father's plan that he obeyed it even as far as death (Heb 5:8). Nor was this all, for it was no ordinary death, but the disgraceful death by crucifixion, a death not allowed for Roman citizens, and to Jews indicative of the curse of God (Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13).”[5] And Earl Radmacher comments: "Jesus came to the earth with the identity of a man. Here the word appearance points to the external characteristics of Jesus: He had the bearing, actions, and manners of a man. He humbled Himself: Jesus willingly took the role of a servant; no one forced Him to do it. Obedient: Although He never sinned and did not deserve to die, He chose to die so that the sins of the world could be charged to His account. Subsequently He could credit His righteousness to the account of all who believe in Him (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 1:4)."[6]      As stated before, Jesus was not forced to go to the cross, but willingly went to the cross and bore our sin (Isa 53:4-11; John 10:17-18; 1 Pet 2:24). As God, He could have avoided the cross altogether, or even stepped down from the cross if He'd wanted. Jesus died on a cross to accomplish the Father's will. To be an atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we could receive forgiveness and eternal life and enjoy heaven forever with Him. His being humble to the point of death was for our wellbeing. He died for us, “the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). Walvoord notes: "No one else has ever come from infinite heights of glory to such a shameful death. If there had been a better way or another way by which the sin of the whole world could have been taken away, surely God would not have required His beloved Son to submit to such a death. This was the only way. There had to be a perfect sacrifice, an atonement of infinite value. This could be accomplished only by a person who was both God and man, who was without sin and yet was truly a man representing the human race. No other could take the place of Christ, no act of devotion, however unselfish, no act of ordinary man, however courageous, for  sin. As we contemplate the mind of Christ which made Him willing to die on the cross, we must realize that if Christ had not died men would still be in their sins with a hopeless eternity and facing just as certain a judgment as that which is the lot of the lost angels who know nothing of salvation."[7] Jesus' Sinless Life      The record of Scripture is that Jesus “knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), was “without sin” (Heb 4:15), “committed no sin” (1 Pet 2:22), and in whom “there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). But why was the sinless humanity of Jesus necessary? The biblical teaching is that all mankind is sinful and separated from God (Rom 3:10-23). We are sinners in Adam (Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:21-22), sinners by nature (Rom 7:14-25; 13:12-14), and sinners by choice (Isa 59:2; Jam 1:14-15). Because of our fallen sinful state, we are completely helpless to solve the sin problem and save ourselves (Rom 5:6-10; Eph 2:1-3), and good works have no saving merit before God (Isa 64:6; Rom 4:4-5; Eph 2:8-9; Tit 3:5). Being completely sinless, Jesus was qualified to go the cross as “a lamb unblemished and spotless” (1 Pet 1:19) and die a substitutionary death in our place, “the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). Charles Lee Feinberg states, “Though tempted in all points as we are, He was nevertheless without sin (Heb 4:15); indeed, we are told, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners (Heb 7:26). In short, the combined testimony of Scripture reveals that in Him is no sin (1 John 3:5).”[8] According to R. B. Thieme Jr.: "As true humanity living on earth, Christ was free from all three categories of human sinfulness: the sin nature, Adam's original sin, and personal sins. The first two categories were eliminated from our Lord's life through the virgin birth, but personal sin remained an issue throughout the Incarnation. Scripture confirms that our Lord can “sympathize with our weaknesses,” because He “has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). The temptation to personal sin did not come from within, because the humanity of Christ had no inherent sin nature. He did, however, receive temptation from outside His person—even being tempted by Satan himself…By constantly relying on the provisions of the spiritual life (the same provisions available to us), Jesus Christ was able to resist every temptation and remain perfect (1 John 3:3, 5)."[9]      Sinners need salvation, but cannot save themselves, nor can they save another. All are trapped in sin and utterly helpless to change their condition. But God the Son did what we cannot do for ourselves. He obeyed the Father and stepped into time and space, taking true and sinless humanity to Himself, and living a perfect life before the Father. Then, at a point in time, He surrendered Himself to the cross and died a penal substitutionary death on behalf of all humanity, bearing the wrath of God in their place. Then He was placed in a grave and rose again to life on the third day, never to die again. The benefits of the cross are applied to those who come to Jesus with the empty hands of faith, believing He died for them, was buried, and raised again on the third day. When they place their faith in Him as Savior, they have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. This is given freely by grace. R. B. Thieme Jr. states: Every human being needs to be saved, because everyone enters this world in a state of spiritual death, total depravity, and total separation from God. Because man is born hopelessly lost from God and helpless to do anything about it, God, in His grace, designed a perfect plan to reconcile man to Himself. God the Son took the burden of responsibility: He became true humanity and remained sinless so that He could be judged for the sins of the world (1 Pet 3:18). While Jesus Christ hung on the cross, God the Father poured the full wrath of His justice upon the Son He loved so perfectly (Matt 27:46; Rom 5:8–10; 2 Cor 5:21). Christ “bore our sins in His body” (1 Pet 2:24) and took the punishment in our place. God's righteous standard approved of Jesus' sacrifice as payment for all human sins.[10] Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Christian Life and How to Live It (Chicago: The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1919), 59–60. [2] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 989. [3] Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 452. [4] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 75. [5] Homer A. Kent Jr., “Philippians,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 124. [6] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 1550–1551. [7] John F. Walvoord, To Live Is Christ (Galaxie Software, 2007), 45. [8] Charles Lee Feinberg, “The Hypostatic Union,” Bibliotheca Sacra 92 (1935): 423. [9] Robert B. Thieme, Jr. “Impeccability of Christ”,  Thieme's Bible Doctrine Dictionary, (Houston, TX., R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 2022), 135. [10] Robert B. Thieme, Jr. “Salvation”,  Thieme's Bible Doctrine Dictionary, (Houston, TX., R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 2022), 232.

This episode is a narration of Dewey Dovel's work titled "The Holy Spirit in Christian Education." Here are the sources for his paper: [1] Steven B. Cowan and James S. Spiegel, The Love of Wisdom: A Christian Introduction to Philosophy (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2009), 1-4. [2] Although the disciplines of philosophy, science, and theology are often seen in conflict with one another, Vern S. Poythress demonstrates how this should not be the case on pages 13-31 of Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006) and pages 13-19 of Redeeming Philosophy: A God-Centered Approach to the Big Questions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014). [3] “Social Media Statistics Details,” Undiscovered Maine, October 8, 2021, https://umaine.edu/undiscoveredmaine/small-business/resources/marketing-for-small-business/social-media-tools/social-media-statistics-details/. [4] Even secular neurological and psychological studies have disclosed that human cognition is foundational to human experience. Consider the following resource as a sampling of this research: Celeste Kidd and Benjamin Y. Hayden, “The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity,” Neuron 88, no. 3 (November 4, 2015): 449–60. [5] On the basis of recorded human history, Tyrel Eskelson argues for at least 5,000 years of formal education in “How and Why Formal Education Originated in the Emergence of Civilization,” Journal of Education and Learning 9, no. 2 (February 5, 2020): 29–47, https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v9n2p29. [6] A sample of book length treatments teasing out competing methodologies of formal education are Russell Lincoln Ackoff and Daniel A. Greenberg, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back On Track (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2016) and James M. Lang, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons From the Science of Learning (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2021). [7] James N. Anderson, What's Your Worldview?: An Interactive Approach to Life's Big Questions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 69-70. [8] As defined by John M. Frame in A History of Western Philosophy and Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2015): “[Materialism is the belief that] all events can be explained in terms of matter and motion. On this view, there is no immaterial soul. If there is something we can call soul, it is either material (the Stoic view) or an aspect of the body” (10-11). [9] Greg L. Bahnsen, Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith, ed. Robert R. Booth (Nacogdoches, TX: Covenant Media Foundation, 2000), 51. [10] George R. Knight, Philosophy & Education: An Introduction in Christian Perspective (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2006). 224. [11] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are derived from the New American Standard Bible (1995). Furthermore, this paper is not arguing that it is impossible to attend or work for a secular academic institution and be faithful to one's Christian witness. Rather, this paper is observing that at the philosophical level, secular and Christian academic institutions are operating from fundamentally antithetical presuppositions. By definition, secular academic settings seek a neutral/non-religious stance from the outset of formulating curriculum, hiring staff, etc. On the other hand, Christian academic settings seek a positive religious stance from the outset of formulating curriculum, hiring staff, etc. Yet ironically—given the philosophical impossibility of neutrality—the former approach is not only unable to satisfy its own expressed intentions, but it also necessarily sets itself in opposition to biblical Christianity (e.g., Matt. 12:30; Luke 9:50). Therefore, by virtue of being incompatibile with biblical Christianity, secular educational philosophies should be understood as materializing from the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4). At bottom, Believers who choose to be immersed into secular educational contexts need to be aware of the preceding antithesis from the outset of their involvement. [12] Although all of the triune God's ad extra works in creation are inseparable, many passages of Scripture will appropriate specific works to one person of the Godhead. For more on the “essence-appropriate”—“persons-appropriate” distinction, see Mark Jones, God Is: A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2017), 22-23. [13] The inescapability and universality of presuppositions is teased out on page 5 of Cornelius Van Til, Christian Apologetics, ed. William Edgar, 2nd ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2003): “Everyone ‘sees' through a lens. There can be no neutrality, because everything in our awareness flows out of some kind of presupposition.” [14] Theologians have historically designated God's revelation in nature as general revelation, and God's revelation in Scripture as special revelation. More expansive definitions of these terms can be found on page 936 of John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017). [15] Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith, ed. K. Scott Oliphint (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2008), 176. [16] Lamenting the state of secular education in “What Shall We Feed Our Children?,” Presbyterian Guardian 3 (1936), Cornelius Van Til calls for the people of God to retrieve a distinctly Christian education: “Our child will certainly attend the grade school for several years and that for five days a week. In Sunday school our child has learned the nineteenth psalm. As he goes to school those beautiful words, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God' still reverberate through his mind. But when he enters the school room all this has suddenly changed. There the ‘starry universe above' somehow operates quite independently of God. And what is true of ‘the heavens above' is true of everything else. At home the child is taught that ‘whether we eat or drink or do anything else' we must do all to the glory of God because everything has been created by God and everything is sustained by God. In school the child is taught that everything comes of itself and sustains itself. This much is involved in the idea of ‘neutrality' itself. At best this means that God need not be brought into the picture when we are teaching anything to our children. But is it not a great sin for Christian parents to have their children taught for five days a week by competent teachers that nature and history have nothing to do with God? We have no moral right to expect anything but that our children will accept that in which they have been most thoroughly instructed and will ignore that about which they hear only intermittently” (23-24). [17] On this point, the axiom “all truth is God's truth” is especially applicable. For insights into the utilization of such an axiom, see Frank E. Gaebelein, The Pattern of God's Truth: Problems of Integration in Christian Education (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1968), 20. [18] In Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend, vol. 1, 4 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), Herman Bavinck argues that the “operation of God's Spirit and of his common grace is discernible not only in science and art, morality and law, but also in [false] religions” (317). Hence, the ability for humanity to know any true things in reality is an extension of God's common grace, with a special appropriation to the Holy Spirit's work in creation. [19] These twin truths were championed by the Dutch Reformed Neo-Calvinists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A sampling of this observation is portrayed in Cory C. Brock and Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2022), 91-92. [20] Upon reflecting on Christian teachers' absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit throughout the educational process, J.T. English offers sage insights in Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2020): “There is no path for deep [learning] other than living the Christian life by the power of the Holy Spirit; only he can make us whole again and conform us to the image of the Son. If not for the work of the Holy Spirit, all of our best ministry plans [and efforts] would be laid to nothing” (136). [21] As argued by Stephen Wellum in “From Alpha to Omega: A Biblical-Theological Approach to God the Son Incarnate,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 63, no. 1 (2020): 71–94, the Lord Jesus Christ is both at the center of Scripture and is the goal (telos) of Scripture. [22] By virtue of divine simplicity, and the ensuing doctrine of inseparable operations, the entirety of the Godhead co-equally receives glory through any self-revelation in creation or Scripture. As footnote 12 indicates, “persons-appropriate” language does not undermine the co-equality of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. [23]  Daniel J. Treier's chapter in Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), 216-42 is especially helpful in accentuating the lordship of Christ subsequent to His humiliation and exaltation (e.g., Phil. 2:5-11). [24] James D. Bratt, ed., Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 488. [25] The following excerpt from Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Revelation and God, vol. 1, 3 vols. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019) incisively communicate the unique relationship that Jesus has to God's special revelatory purposes: “Possessing unique intimacy with the Father, the Son is uniquely qualified to make known. Christ is ‘the Word,' the living Revelation of God who has been from the beginning, so that no one has ever known God unless ‘the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,' has ‘declared him'” (266). [26] See footnotes 12 and 22 for clarifying comments about “persons-appropriate” language in Scripture. [27]  In Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2015), John Calvin unpacks how the Old and New Testament authors were guided by the Holy Spirit to divulge the person and work of Jesus Christ: “If what Christ says is true—‘No one sees the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him' [Matt. 11:27]—surely they who would attain the knowledge of God should always be directed by that eternal Wisdom… Therefore, holy men of old knew God only by beholding him in his Son as in a mirror (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). When I say this, I mean that God has never manifested himself to men in any other way than through the Son, that is, his sole wisdom, light, and truth. From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others drank all that they had of heavenly teaching” (763). [28] The Holy Spirit's role in bearing witness to the person and work of Christ is summarized on pages 13-14 of Roy B. Zuck, Spirit-Filled Teaching: The Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Ministry (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998). [29] Perhaps the quintessential evidence of global confusion surrounding Christology, and other basic tenets of orthodox Christianity, is encapsulated in the bi-annual State of Theology Survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research. To access the results of every survey from its inception in 2014, see “Data Explorer,” The State of Theology, accessed August 30, 2023, https://thestateoftheology.com/. [30]  Chapter 17 (i.e., “The Holy Spirit and Scripture”) of Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2020), 307-23 supply readers with many helpful insights pertaining to the connection between a believer's reverence for God's written word, and how such a reverence cultivates a posture of submission to Christ's lordship. [31] Although the notion of “thinking God's thoughts after Him” is usually attributed to Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Jason Lisle provides several practical ways in which believers can “think God's thoughts after Him” on pages 54-61 of The Ultimate Proof of Creation: Resolving the Origins Debate (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2022). [32] The definition recorded for education is a paraphrase of the more expansive definition transcribed in Robert B. Costello, ed., Random House Webster's College Dictionary (New York, NY: Random House, 1992), 425. In the technical sense, this definition is a faithful synopsis of what any education experience will offer. [33] Based on the model of Acts 2:37, Lawrence O. Richards and Gary J. Bredfeldt propose that there are three integral dimensions to imparting divine truth to students (or people in general): (1) cognitive; (2) affective; (3) behavioral. The cognitive dimension pertains to exposing others to truth, the affective dimension alludes to the process whereby one explains how attitudes/values should be impacted by the truth, and the behavioral dimension refers to how a lifestyle should be impacted as a result of embracing the newly discovered truth. Each of these insights documented by Richards and Bredfeldt signify a uniform perspective on the relationship between what one knows intellectually and how one applies that particular data. To access the chapter long treatment of these subjects, see Creative Bible Teaching (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2020), 145-63. [34] Arthur W. Pink, The Holy Spirit (Seaside, OR: Rough Draft Printing, 2016), 107-8. [35] Despite many individuals and institutions who claim the name Christian, and embrace orthodox doctrinal/ideological convictions, an evaluation of their observable lifestyle reveals that they are not Christian in any meaningful (i.e., biblical) sense of the term. Francis Turretin highlights the nature of those who model proper head knowledge, but display no fruit of living it out: “[Unbelievers of this kind possess knowledge that] sticks to the uppermost surface of the soul (to wit, intellect); [but] it does not penetrate to the heart, nor does it have true trust in Christ.” Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James T. Dennison, trans. George M. Giger, vol. 2, 3 vols. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1994), 588. [36] This threefold line of argumentation employed throughout the paper has followed this biblically-based template: Knowledge: Christian Education Must be Shaped by Divine Revelation. Righteousness: Christian Education Must be Shaped by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Holiness: Christian Education Must be Shaped by Holiness of Living. Incidentally, a synonymous line of reasoning is likewise expressed in Question and Answer 13 of the Baptist Catechism: “Question: How did God create man? Answer: God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures (Gen. 1:26-28; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).” An online edition of the Baptist Catechism can be accessed here: “The Baptist Catechism,” Founders Ministries, September 12, 2022, https://founders.org/library/the-baptist-catechism/#:~:text=God%20created%20man%2C%20male%20and,4%3A24).

This episode is a narration of Dewey Dovel's work titled "The Holy Spirit in Christian Education." Here are the sources for his paper: [1] Steven B. Cowan and James S. Spiegel, The Love of Wisdom: A Christian Introduction to Philosophy (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2009), 1-4. [2] Although the disciplines of philosophy, science, and theology are often seen in conflict with one another, Vern S. Poythress demonstrates how this should not be the case on pages 13-31 of Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006) and pages 13-19 of Redeeming Philosophy: A God-Centered Approach to the Big Questions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014). [3] “Social Media Statistics Details,” Undiscovered Maine, October 8, 2021, https://umaine.edu/undiscoveredmaine/small-business/resources/marketing-for-small-business/social-media-tools/social-media-statistics-details/. [4] Even secular neurological and psychological studies have disclosed that human cognition is foundational to human experience. Consider the following resource as a sampling of this research: Celeste Kidd and Benjamin Y. Hayden, “The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity,” Neuron 88, no. 3 (November 4, 2015): 449–60. [5] On the basis of recorded human history, Tyrel Eskelson argues for at least 5,000 years of formal education in “How and Why Formal Education Originated in the Emergence of Civilization,” Journal of Education and Learning 9, no. 2 (February 5, 2020): 29–47, https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v9n2p29. [6] A sample of book length treatments teasing out competing methodologies of formal education are Russell Lincoln Ackoff and Daniel A. Greenberg, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back On Track (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2016) and James M. Lang, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons From the Science of Learning (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2021). [7] James N. Anderson, What's Your Worldview?: An Interactive Approach to Life's Big Questions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 69-70. [8] As defined by John M. Frame in A History of Western Philosophy and Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2015): “[Materialism is the belief that] all events can be explained in terms of matter and motion. On this view, there is no immaterial soul. If there is something we can call soul, it is either material (the Stoic view) or an aspect of the body” (10-11). [9] Greg L. Bahnsen, Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith, ed. Robert R. Booth (Nacogdoches, TX: Covenant Media Foundation, 2000), 51. [10] George R. Knight, Philosophy & Education: An Introduction in Christian Perspective (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2006). 224. [11] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are derived from the New American Standard Bible (1995). Furthermore, this paper is not arguing that it is impossible to attend or work for a secular academic institution and be faithful to one's Christian witness. Rather, this paper is observing that at the philosophical level, secular and Christian academic institutions are operating from fundamentally antithetical presuppositions. By definition, secular academic settings seek a neutral/non-religious stance from the outset of formulating curriculum, hiring staff, etc. On the other hand, Christian academic settings seek a positive religious stance from the outset of formulating curriculum, hiring staff, etc. Yet ironically—given the philosophical impossibility of neutrality—the former approach is not only unable to satisfy its own expressed intentions, but it also necessarily sets itself in opposition to biblical Christianity (e.g., Matt. 12:30; Luke 9:50). Therefore, by virtue of being incompatibile with biblical Christianity, secular educational philosophies should be understood as materializing from the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4). At bottom, Believers who choose to be immersed into secular educational contexts need to be aware of the preceding antithesis from the outset of their involvement. [12] Although all of the triune God's ad extra works in creation are inseparable, many passages of Scripture will appropriate specific works to one person of the Godhead. For more on the “essence-appropriate”—“persons-appropriate” distinction, see Mark Jones, God Is: A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2017), 22-23. [13] The inescapability and universality of presuppositions is teased out on page 5 of Cornelius Van Til, Christian Apologetics, ed. William Edgar, 2nd ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2003): “Everyone ‘sees' through a lens. There can be no neutrality, because everything in our awareness flows out of some kind of presupposition.” [14] Theologians have historically designated God's revelation in nature as general revelation, and God's revelation in Scripture as special revelation. More expansive definitions of these terms can be found on page 936 of John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017). [15] Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith, ed. K. Scott Oliphint (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2008), 176. [16] Lamenting the state of secular education in “What Shall We Feed Our Children?,” Presbyterian Guardian 3 (1936), Cornelius Van Til calls for the people of God to retrieve a distinctly Christian education: “Our child will certainly attend the grade school for several years and that for five days a week. In Sunday school our child has learned the nineteenth psalm. As he goes to school those beautiful words, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God' still reverberate through his mind. But when he enters the school room all this has suddenly changed. There the ‘starry universe above' somehow operates quite independently of God. And what is true of ‘the heavens above' is true of everything else. At home the child is taught that ‘whether we eat or drink or do anything else' we must do all to the glory of God because everything has been created by God and everything is sustained by God. In school the child is taught that everything comes of itself and sustains itself. This much is involved in the idea of ‘neutrality' itself. At best this means that God need not be brought into the picture when we are teaching anything to our children. But is it not a great sin for Christian parents to have their children taught for five days a week by competent teachers that nature and history have nothing to do with God? We have no moral right to expect anything but that our children will accept that in which they have been most thoroughly instructed and will ignore that about which they hear only intermittently” (23-24). [17] On this point, the axiom “all truth is God's truth” is especially applicable. For insights into the utilization of such an axiom, see Frank E. Gaebelein, The Pattern of God's Truth: Problems of Integration in Christian Education (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1968), 20. [18] In Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend, vol. 1, 4 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), Herman Bavinck argues that the “operation of God's Spirit and of his common grace is discernible not only in science and art, morality and law, but also in [false] religions” (317). Hence, the ability for humanity to know any true things in reality is an extension of God's common grace, with a special appropriation to the Holy Spirit's work in creation. [19] These twin truths were championed by the Dutch Reformed Neo-Calvinists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A sampling of this observation is portrayed in Cory C. Brock and Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2022), 91-92. [20] Upon reflecting on Christian teachers' absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit throughout the educational process, J.T. English offers sage insights in Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2020): “There is no path for deep [learning] other than living the Christian life by the power of the Holy Spirit; only he can make us whole again and conform us to the image of the Son. If not for the work of the Holy Spirit, all of our best ministry plans [and efforts] would be laid to nothing” (136). [21] As argued by Stephen Wellum in “From Alpha to Omega: A Biblical-Theological Approach to God the Son Incarnate,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 63, no. 1 (2020): 71–94, the Lord Jesus Christ is both at the center of Scripture and is the goal (telos) of Scripture. [22] By virtue of divine simplicity, and the ensuing doctrine of inseparable operations, the entirety of the Godhead co-equally receives glory through any self-revelation in creation or Scripture. As footnote 12 indicates, “persons-appropriate” language does not undermine the co-equality of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. [23]  Daniel J. Treier's chapter in Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), 216-42 is especially helpful in accentuating the lordship of Christ subsequent to His humiliation and exaltation (e.g., Phil. 2:5-11). [24] James D. Bratt, ed., Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 488. [25] The following excerpt from Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Revelation and God, vol. 1, 3 vols. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019) incisively communicate the unique relationship that Jesus has to God's special revelatory purposes: “Possessing unique intimacy with the Father, the Son is uniquely qualified to make known. Christ is ‘the Word,' the living Revelation of God who has been from the beginning, so that no one has ever known God unless ‘the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,' has ‘declared him'” (266). [26] See footnotes 12 and 22 for clarifying comments about “persons-appropriate” language in Scripture. [27]  In Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2015), John Calvin unpacks how the Old and New Testament authors were guided by the Holy Spirit to divulge the person and work of Jesus Christ: “If what Christ says is true—‘No one sees the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him' [Matt. 11:27]—surely they who would attain the knowledge of God should always be directed by that eternal Wisdom… Therefore, holy men of old knew God only by beholding him in his Son as in a mirror (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). When I say this, I mean that God has never manifested himself to men in any other way than through the Son, that is, his sole wisdom, light, and truth. From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others drank all that they had of heavenly teaching” (763). [28] The Holy Spirit's role in bearing witness to the person and work of Christ is summarized on pages 13-14 of Roy B. Zuck, Spirit-Filled Teaching: The Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Ministry (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998). [29] Perhaps the quintessential evidence of global confusion surrounding Christology, and other basic tenets of orthodox Christianity, is encapsulated in the bi-annual State of Theology Survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research. To access the results of every survey from its inception in 2014, see “Data Explorer,” The State of Theology, accessed August 30, 2023, https://thestateoftheology.com/. [30]  Chapter 17 (i.e., “The Holy Spirit and Scripture”) of Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2020), 307-23 supply readers with many helpful insights pertaining to the connection between a believer's reverence for God's written word, and how such a reverence cultivates a posture of submission to Christ's lordship. [31] Although the notion of “thinking God's thoughts after Him” is usually attributed to Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Jason Lisle provides several practical ways in which believers can “think God's thoughts after Him” on pages 54-61 of The Ultimate Proof of Creation: Resolving the Origins Debate (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2022). [32] The definition recorded for education is a paraphrase of the more expansive definition transcribed in Robert B. Costello, ed., Random House Webster's College Dictionary (New York, NY: Random House, 1992), 425. In the technical sense, this definition is a faithful synopsis of what any education experience will offer. [33] Based on the model of Acts 2:37, Lawrence O. Richards and Gary J. Bredfeldt propose that there are three integral dimensions to imparting divine truth to students (or people in general): (1) cognitive; (2) affective; (3) behavioral. The cognitive dimension pertains to exposing others to truth, the affective dimension alludes to the process whereby one explains how attitudes/values should be impacted by the truth, and the behavioral dimension refers to how a lifestyle should be impacted as a result of embracing the newly discovered truth. Each of these insights documented by Richards and Bredfeldt signify a uniform perspective on the relationship between what one knows intellectually and how one applies that particular data. To access the chapter long treatment of these subjects, see Creative Bible Teaching (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2020), 145-63. [34] Arthur W. Pink, The Holy Spirit (Seaside, OR: Rough Draft Printing, 2016), 107-8. [35] Despite many individuals and institutions who claim the name Christian, and embrace orthodox doctrinal/ideological convictions, an evaluation of their observable lifestyle reveals that they are not Christian in any meaningful (i.e., biblical) sense of the term. Francis Turretin highlights the nature of those who model proper head knowledge, but display no fruit of living it out: “[Unbelievers of this kind possess knowledge that] sticks to the uppermost surface of the soul (to wit, intellect); [but] it does not penetrate to the heart, nor does it have true trust in Christ.” Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James T. Dennison, trans. George M. Giger, vol. 2, 3 vols. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1994), 588. [36] This threefold line of argumentation employed throughout the paper has followed this biblically-based template: Knowledge: Christian Education Must be Shaped by Divine Revelation. Righteousness: Christian Education Must be Shaped by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Holiness: Christian Education Must be Shaped by Holiness of Living. Incidentally, a synonymous line of reasoning is likewise expressed in Question and Answer 13 of the Baptist Catechism: “Question: How did God create man? Answer: God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures (Gen. 1:26-28; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).” An online edition of the Baptist Catechism can be accessed here: “The Baptist Catechism,” Founders Ministries, September 12, 2022, https://founders.org/library/the-baptist-catechism/#:~:text=God%20created%20man%2C%20male%20and,4%3A24).

Introduction      As God's chosen leader for Israel, Moses had provided everything the people needed for a life of success and prosperity (Deut 11:26-28; 30:15-18). However, in this pericope, the Lord informs Moses and Joshua that after Moses dies and Joshua leads the nation into Canaan, the people will abandon the Lord and pursue idols to their own harm. And this will happen after the Lord demonstrates His goodness to them and blesses them greatly. This shows that godly leadership does not guarantee others will follow. Nevertheless, God's leadership must maintain faithfulness to their appointed task, even when they know those they lead will fail to live by the virtues they are taught. This requires commitment and integrity before the Lord. Text      This new section opens with Moses' death being mentioned and the appointment of Joshua as his successor. The text reads, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, the time for you to die is near; call Joshua, and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.' So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting. 15 The LORD appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood at the doorway of the tent” (Deut 31:14-15). The “tent of meeting” was a special place located outside the camp where Moses would meet with God for instruction and direction (Ex 33:7-11; Num 11:16, 12:4). The “pillar of cloud” was the visible presence of God for Israel during this time (Ex 13:21-22). Whereas Moses had previously commissioned Joshua publicly as his successor (Deut 31:7-8), here the meeting was private, with only Moses and Joshua presenting themselves to the Lord. In what follows, the Lord speaks first to Moses (Deut 31:16-21), and then to Joshua (Deut 31:23).      The text reads, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them'” (Deut 31:16). The Lord revealed to Moses that after his death, the people of Israel would begin the journey of apostasy in which they would turn away from the Lord and worship idols. In this way, they would break their covenant promise to the Lord and turn away from Him (cf., Judg 2:17). This must have been sad news to Moses, who had spent his years as a faithful and godly leader who instructed and encouraged his people to know the Lord and walk with Him (Deut 11:26-28; 28:1; 30:15-16). The Lord continued to inform Moses, saying: "Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?' 18 But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods." (Deut 31:17-18)      Because Israel would act wickedly by turning from the Lord and worshipping idols, He would execute the curses of the covenant (Deut 28:15-68). His people would incorrectly think their problems came upon them because God had abandoned them, saying, “Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?” (Deut 31:17b). It's true the nation would experience great suffering, but not because God had failed, but because they had. The Lord declared, “I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods” (Deut 31:18). Earl Radmacher correctly notes, “The principal reason for God's judgment on His people was their continual idolatry. They abandoned His grace and willingly embraced the evil religious practices of the Canaanites.”[1]When God hides His face, it is the opposite of blessing, in which He causes His face to shine upon them for their good (Num 6:24-26).      In order for Israel to correctly assess their circumstances from the divine perspective, the Lord instructed Moses and Joshua to write a song and to teach it to Israel. The Lord said, “Now therefore, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel” (Deut 31:19). Here, the directive was for Moses and Joshua to write the song together. The song itself is recorded in Deuteronomy 32:1-43. The phrase, “put it on their lips” means, “have them recite it” (CSB), which denotes memorizing it in order to be able to recall it from memory. The Lord gives the reason, saying, “For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and spurn Me and break My covenant” (Deut 31:20). Earl Kalland notes: “Teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it” (Deut 31:19) implies sufficient repetition to fix it in the minds of the people. Only then would they be able to sing it, and only then would it be a witness to the Lord's admonition, not only to those of that generation, but to their descendants who will not have forgotten it (Deut 31:21). The song was to be taught nationally from generation to generation.[2]      Unfortunately, the people who welcomed the Lord's prosperity, would develop a sense of independence, and because the human heart is corrupt, they would turn away from the Lord and pursue idols to their own harm. There is wisdom in the prayer of Agur, who asked the Lord, “Two things I asked of You, do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?' Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Prov 30:7-9).      The Lord continued to inform Moses and Joshua, saying, “Then it shall come about, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants); for I know their intent which they are developing today, before I have brought them into the land which I swore” (Deut 31:21). God knew the hearts of His people were corrupt and that they would turn away from Him after they'd enter the land of Canaan and experienced His blessings. Peter Craigie states: "The words that the Lord addresses to Moses on the eve of his death must have caused great sadness in the aging leader. The substance of his long address to the Israelites had been faithfulness to God and a warning against the dangers of resorting to foreign gods and their cults. But now, about to die, Moses is told that this people will rise up and consort with gods foreign to the land. The words of God are not primarily prophetic; they portray rather divine insight into the basic character of the people and their constant tendency to unfaithfulness."[3]      As God's faithful leader, “Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the sons of Israel” (Deut 31:22). God's call for His leaders to be faithful must be obeyed, even when they know those they lead tend toward corruption and will fall away and pursue evil the first chance they get. Godly leaders are responsible to the Lord, to be faithful to Him, to maintain godly output, even when those under their care are defiant. This is true for national leaders, pastors, business leaders, teachers, parents, etc.      After giving Moses specific instructions, the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, saying, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you” (Deut 31:23). Even knowing the future failure of His people, the Lord commissioned Joshua to be Moses' successor and to lead the people into righteousness. Failure among the people was not for want of direction and provision by the Lord. No doubt, after Moses' death, Joshua would feel the burden of leadership. His only consolation was that God was with him, to strengthen and guide him along the way, and that his duty was to be faithful to the Lord. According to Peter Craigie, “Of the forms of loneliness that a man can experience, there are few so bleak as the loneliness of leadership. But Joshua assumed his lonely role with an assurance of companionship and strength. God's presence with him would be sufficient to enable him to meet boldly every obstacle that the future could bring.”[4]      Next, we learn, “It came about, when Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book until they were complete, 25 that Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, 26 ‘Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you'” (Deut 31:24-26). Here, again, we have a clear statement concerning Mosaic authorship of the book of Deuteronomy (cf., Deut 31:9). Moses gave the book of the Law to the Levites who were to carry it along with the ark of the covenant. Having this written record served a purpose, “that it may remain there as a witness against you” (Deut 31:26b). Truth is objective, and God's judgments are based on fixed standards of righteousness. Moses then spoke to the people, saying: "For I know your rebellion and your stubbornness; behold, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against the LORD; how much more, then, after my death? 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days, for you will do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger with the work of your hands." (Deut 31:27-29)      Later, near the end of Joshua's life, he encouraged the people to adhere to the Law of Moses so that they might know success and blessing (Josh 23:6-11), with a warning of judgment if they disobeyed (Josh 23:12-16; 24:20-24). Though Israel's journey of apostasy would begin with the death of Moses, it would gain full steam after the death of Joshua. Historically, we know Israel failed to drive out the Canaanites as God directed (Judg 1:21; 28-33). And because of their disobedience to drive them out, Israel was negatively influenced by the Canaanites who corrupted their values, and they repeatedly did evil in the sight of the Lord by worshipping idols (Judg 2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1). Sadly, each successive generation got worse and worse (Judg 2:19). And each time Israel fell into idolatry,  God gave them into the hands of their enemies to punish them (Judg 3:8, 12; 4:2; 6:1; 10:6-7; 13:1). But when they cried out to the Lord, He graciously delivered them (Judg 3:9, 15; 4:3; 6:6; 10:12), and for a while they experienced peace. The cycle of sin, suffering, prayer, salvation, and a period of peace was repeated six times in the book of Judges over a period of approximately 350 years.      In anticipation of the next chapter, we read, “Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were complete” (Deut 31:30). As God's faithful servant, Moses wrote the song as he'd been directed by the Lord. Present Application      In this chapter we have a glimpse into some of the issues related to godly leadership. When called to lead others according to God's values, it's important to know there will be times when those under our care will not follow us into God's will, but will turn away from the Lord, and this to their own harm and the harm of others. Furthermore, ministry to the Lord can be marked by great hardship; however, integrity demands that we stay the course, no matter the difficulty of our situations. Below are a few examples of godly leaders whose leadership was rejected by others.      In Scripture, we learn Noah was faithful to the Lord and preached His Word for one hundred and twenty years with very minimal results (2 Pet 2:5), and God's judgment fell upon the world in a global deluge, with the result that only “eight persons were brought safely through the water” (1 Pet 3:20). The prophet Samuel was faithful to the Lord and tried to dissuade his generation from rejecting the Lord as their King, as they'd requested a human king in order that they might be like the other nations (1 Sam 8:4-17). But they rejected Samuel's leadership, and “the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, ‘No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations'” (1Sa 8:19-20a). God gave them Saul, a king after their own hearts, and the nation suffered.      Perhaps one of the most frustrating ministries found in Scripture is that of the prophet Isaiah. The prophet had heard the Lord's calling to ministry and accepted it wholeheartedly (Isa 6:8). Isaiah knew his generation needed to hear the Lord's Word, and perhaps hoped they'd respond in humility as he'd just responded to the Lord's vision in the temple (Isa 6:1-7). God informed Isaiah that his ministry would be met with negative volition. When God's people turned away from Him, choosing a path of darkness and closing their ears to His Word, He added to their blindness and deafness as a form of judgment (Isa 6:9-10). Isaiah's ministry to his people would result in a further hardening of their hearts. Hearing this difficult news, Isaiah asked, “Lord, how long?” (Isa 6:11a). The answer came from the Lord, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate, the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land” (Isa 6:11b-12). But God, in His sovereignty and grace, would preserve a remnant of His people alive (Isa 6:13). According to Earl Radmacher, “The more the prophet would proclaim the word of God, the less response he would get from the people. This was a call to a discouraging ministry. In truth, the call of God is for faithfulness to Him, to His Word, and to the call itself.”[5] Warren Wiersbe offers a similar statement, saying, “God does not deliberately make sinners blind, deaf, and hard-hearted; but the more that people resist God's truth, the less able they are to receive God's truth. But the servant is to proclaim the Word no matter how people respond, for the test of ministry is not outward success but faithfulness to the Lord.”[6]      Jeremiah is another example of a godly servant who faithfully preached God's Word for twenty-three years, but his generation would not listen. Jeremiah said, “these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened” (Jer 25:3). The result was that Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians and went into captivity in 586 B.C. Biblically, we know God is gracious, compassionate, and slow to anger (Neh 9:17; Psa 86:15; 103:8); however, His gentle qualities do not last forever, and when people persist in their sin and there is no hope of them turning to Him, His judgment falls (Psa 9:7-8; 96:13; Acts 17:31).      Of course, there's no greater display of leadership than our Lord Jesus, Who spoke perfect truth all the time and called others to trust in Him and to follow Him. Jesus repeatedly offered His kingdom to the nation (Matt 4:19; 10:7); yet, the majority of those who heard His message rejected Him (Matt 12:24; John 3:19; 12:37), and He pronounced judgment upon that generation (Matt 23:37-39). The result was that Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70 when the Romans attacked the city and destroyed the temple.      As God's people, we control the output of our message, but never the outcome. What the recipients do with God's Word is between them and the Lord. As God's children, we are to be faithful to learn His Word (2 Tim 2:15; 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2), communicate it in love to others (Eph 4:15), and then let it do its work in the hearts of those who hear (Isa 55:10-11). However, we realize this will result in mixed outcomes, depending on the hearts of others. Charles Spurgeon said, “The same sun that softens wax also hardens clay.” By this he meant that God's Word, which gives light like the sun, has different effects depending on the material exposed to it. The reality is that some hearts are positive to God (wax) and these grow soft when exposed to the light of His Word, but other hearts are negative to God (clay) and exposure to His Word only makes them harder. As God's people, we are only responsible for our output of lifestyle and message, not the outcome of results. God measures our success by our willingness to submit to Him and our faithfulness to walk with Him moment by moment, learning His Word and doing His will. We want to be among those whom Jesus says, “Well done, good and faithful slave” (Matt 25:21a).   [1] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 266. [2] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 195. [3] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 372. [4] Ibid., 373. [5] Earl D. Radmacher, et al., Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary, 814. [6] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Comforted, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 30.

Introduction      In these final four chapters (31-34), we transition from Moses to Joshua as the leader of Israel, as God will work through Joshua to bring His people into the land of Canaan. In these closing chapters, Moses gives great attention to the Torah as God's Word which provides a framework for the covenant relationship between God and His people. The Torah is the basis for success, if the people are positive to God and and walk in obedience to His Word (Deut 11:26-28). According to Eugene Merrill, “Israel was not to be a nation of anarchists or even of strong human leaders. It was a theocratic community with the Lord as King and with his covenant revelation as fundamental constitution and law. The theme of this section is the enshrinement of that law, the proper role of Mosaic succession, and the ultimate authority of covenant mandate over human institutions.”[1]Lastly, these final chapters will focus largely on Moses' pending death and his encouraging Joshua to take his place as the nation's leader. Peter Craigie states: "The approaching decease of Moses, which has already been anticipated (see Deut 1:37–38 and 3:23–29), now becomes the central focus for the remaining chapters of the book. Moses is aware of his approaching death, and in the light of that fact he once again encourages the people in their faith and takes care of some final practical matters relating to the covenant community. First he encourages the people as a whole (vv. 1–6), and then, in the presence of the people, he encourages Joshua in particular, who would soon be assuming the role of leadership (vv. 7–8)."[2] Text      This pericope opens with Moses speaking to the nation of Israel as a whole. The text reads, “So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them, ‘I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, “You shall not cross this Jordan'” (Deut 31:1-2). Here, we see Moses reminding his people, for the third time, that God has not granted him permission to enter the land of Canaan because of his prior disobedience (Deut 1:37; 3:23-29; 31:2). Earl Kalland states, “Moses did not die because his natural strength was gone (Deut 34:7) but because the time for Israel's entrance into Canaan had come, and Moses was not to enter the land. That was precluded by his arrogance before the people at the waters of Meribah when he struck the rock twice to bring out water though the Lord had told him only to speak to the rock.”[3]And Eugene Merrill notes: "With his admission that he was a hundred and twenty years old, Moses was tacitly preparing the people for his death. He was forty when he fled Egypt to find refuge in Midian (Acts 7:23), eighty at the time of the exodus (i.e., forty years earlier than the present time; cf. Deut 2:7; 29:5), and now three times forty. There was no mistaking the meaning of this periodizing of Moses' life. The first two eras culminated in escapes from mortal danger into the deserts. This time, however, there was no escape, for his sin in the desert had effectively closed that door (cf. Num 20:12; 27:12–14). The urgent need for orderly succession was most apparent."[4]      Moses continues his address, saying, “It is the LORD your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the LORD has spoken. 4 The LORD will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. 5 The LORD will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you” (Deut 31:3-5). Though Joshua was going to lead God's people into the land, everyone was to know it was ultimately the Lord who was leading them to victory and blessing (Deut 31:3; cf., Deut 1:30; 9:3; 20:1-4).      Moses provides divine viewpoint to the nation so they would be strengthened in their inner person to face the challenges ahead. Moses told them, “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you” (Deut 31:6). Here was a promise of God's presence and protection as they followed His directives and went into the land of Canaan. According to Earl Radmacher, “The Lord was the Divine Warrior, the commander-in-chief of Israel's forces. He will not leave you nor forsake you: Moses reminded the people that God had promised to remain with them, to protect them, bless them, and fight for them (Josh 1:5; 1 Ki 8:57).”[5] The confidence of the Israelites was not drawn from their own abilities, but from the Lord's ability to lead them and to give them victory. This required them to maintain mental focus on God throughout the journey, even when they were facing their enemies in combat. The Israelites were to focus on God while slaying their enemies. This requires discipline of mind and will.      Next, Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. 8 The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed” (Deut 31:7-8). Here again is divine viewpoint given to Joshua to strengthen and encourage him to the task ahead. This helps us see Moses' greatness, for rather than be bitter that he could not enter the land, he graciously hands the mantle of leadership over to his successor, Joshua. And Joshua had been known by the people for many decades. Warren Wiersbe states: "Joshua wasn't a stranger to the people of Israel, for he'd been serving them well ever since they left Egypt. He was Moses' servant long before he became Moses' successor (Ex 33:11; see Matt 25:21). It was Joshua who led the Jewish army in defeating the Amalekites when they attacked the nation after the Exodus (Ex 17:8–16), and he had been with Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:13; 32:17). Joshua was one of the twelve spies who scouted out Canaan, and he and Caleb stood with Moses and Aaron in encouraging the people to trust God and claim the land (Num 13–14). In answer to Moses' prayer for a leader to succeed him, God appointed Joshua and Moses commissioned him before the whole congregation (Num 27:12–23)."[6]      The text informs us, “So Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel” (Deut 31:9). Here we have one of the clearest statements in Scripture about Mosaic authorship, as the text tells us, “Moses wrote this law” and handed it over to the priests for safekeeping (cf., Deut 31:24-25). The written law is mentioned elsewhere in the book (Deut 28:58; 29:20-21, 27). God created language which He intended to serve as a means of theological expression between Himself and mankind. Sin has corrupted the human nature, and fallen mankind often uses language contrary to God's original purposes, either excluding Him from their thoughts and words, or creating a god of their own imaginations and worshipping the creature rather than the Creator.      The law was for the nation as a whole, to educate and guide them into the Lord's will, as they learned and lived it day by day. Next, we learn, “Then Moses commanded them, saying, ‘At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing'” (Deut 31:10-11). Under the Mosaic Law, all financial debts were forgiven every seven years (cf. Deut 15:1-2). God had established a seven-year cycle the nation was to follow, and this ended when the Feast of Booths was celebrated. At the end of every seven years, those Israelites who had made loans to others within the covenant community were to release them from any remaining debt. The Hebrew word for remission is שְׁמִטָּה shemittah, which means a letting drop. According to Eugene Merrill, “The lender must simply forgive the debt as a necessary consequence of God's declaration of a “time for canceling debts” (Deut 15:2). This was, as already noted, at the end of seven years, a period not necessarily commencing with the making of the loan but, as v. 9 makes clear, a universally recognized year of release (cf. Ex 23:10–11; Lev 25:2–4).”[7]      The Feast of Booths (סֻכָּה sukkah – hut, shelter) was also known as the Feast of Tabernacles and was an autumn festival that took place in the month of Tishri, which corresponded to September-October. The tabernacles were basically huts constructed of tree branches and foliage, and the Israelites were to live in these temporary structures for seven days (Lev 23:39-43). At the end of every seven years, during the time of the Feast of Booths, Israelites were to cancel any debts owed by their fellow Israelites (Deut 15:1-3; 31:10). According to Earl Radmacher, “These sacred feasts were celebrated by all people and were joyous expressions of gratitude to God (2 Chr. 30:21). They included processions, dancing, and the enjoyment of food and drink (Lev 23:40, 41; Judg 21:19–21).”[8]      It was during this time of remission of debts that the priests in Israel were to read the Torah publicly so that God's people would know how they were to live before the Lord and experience His blessings (cf., Ezra 7:10; Neh 8:1-6; Mal 2:4-7). God gave His Word to His people, but they were to be responsible with how they handled it. The priests were to communicate it to the nation as a whole (Deut 31:10-11), and parents were to teach it to their children (Deut 6:6-7). These public readings of God's Word would serve to educate future generations about the Lord and their covenant relationship with Him. Of course, the clear communication of God's Word to others must be met with positive volition by succeeding generations for God's blessings to follow. Daniel Block notes that “future readings of the Torah will provide succeeding generations with regular opportunities for renewal and actualization of their covenant relationship with Him.”[9]      Moses concludes this pericope, saying, “Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law. 13 Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess” (Deut 31:12-13). All the residents of the nation were to assemble every seven years for the public reading of the book of Deuteronomy. Earl Kalland correctly notes: "Attendance at the feast was to be a joyous occasion for all the people: men, women, sons, daughters, menservants, maidservants, Levites, aliens, fatherless, and widows (Deut 16:14). The law was to be read before all these people (Deut 31:12). The children were singled out for special mention because they did not know the law (Deut 31:13). This reading of the law once every seven years would not be sufficient to inculcate its teachings in the minds of either the children or the adults. This septennial reading does not obviate the teaching ministry of the home (Deut 6:1-9) or that of the priests (Deut 17:11; 24:8; Lev 10:11). It is meant, rather, to strengthen these other teaching procedures, to focus the attention of the people as a nation on the revelation of God on a dramatic and joyful occasion. It would also dramatize the learning of the law for those children and others who had not been reached by the other teaching procedures in home and tabernacle."[10]      The nation's future blessings were dependent on their knowledge of God's Word and regular application of it to everyday life. For those who were older and knew the Lord's Word, it would serve to remind them and reinvigorate them in their relationship with God. For those who were younger, it would introduce them to God and His Word and provide the basis for a blessed life (Deut 11:26-28). Based on God's directives to His people, it is assumed three groups of people possessed copies of the Law. First were the priests, who were required to teach it to others (Deut 31:9; cf., Ezra 7:10; Neh 8:1-6; Mal 2:4-7), and help adjudicate legal matters (see Deut 21:5). Second was the king, who was required to write out his own copy of the law and carry it with him all his life and to study and live by it (Deut 17:18-20). Third were the parents in the home who were instructed to teach it to their children day by day (Deut 6:6-7). According to Jack Deere, “It was rare for an individual to possess a copy of the Scriptures. A person gained a knowledge of the Scriptures through being taught by his parents and the priests and through its public reading at times like this. So the public reading of the Law was of great significance.”[11] Learning God's Word was to lead to a healthy fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is a repeated theme throughout Deuteronomy (Deut 6:1-2, 24; 10:12, 20; 14:23; 17:18-19). Present Application      As God's people, we are reminded over and over that God is with us (Heb 13:5), and for us (Rom 8:31). God, who helped His people in the past, still helps His people today, “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, ‘the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?'” (Heb 13:5-6). When the writer to Hebrews says, “so that we confidently say”, he's referring to the self-talk that goes on in our heads when we face a challenging situation. We do well to remember that adverse situations are inevitable, but stress in the soul is optional, as we can take up “the shield of faith” (Eph 6:16) and protect ourselves from the enemy's attacks. Living every moment in the light of that truth helps to strengthen us to face each day with confidence. This requires a disciplined mind and a walk of faith as we intentionally bring God and His Word into every event. Christian courage is the result of a mind saturated with God's Word and operates by faith in the face of adversity. When faced with a crisis, focus of mind and faith in God operate together like a hand in a glove. And whatever the crisis we're facing, whether the charge of the elephant or the charge of the mosquito, we can stand confidently on God's Word and be courageous in the moment.      And, as God's people, we are to “encourage one another and build up one another” on a regular basis (1 Th 5:11; cf. Heb 3:13). To encourage (in-courage) someone is to impart courage to them so they can be sustained in a difficult situation. It is to cheer them on, to build them up, to boost their morale, to strengthen them internally so they will move forward to achieve a goal. Athletes understand the power a coach or fans have when cheering them on. Words are often the most common means of encouraging others. Solomon tells us, “Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad” (Prov 12:25), and “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word” (Isa 50:4a). Christian courage is not the absence of fear; rather, it's the overcoming of fear to do that which God says is right. Let us always be good students of God's Word so that we can operate on divine viewpoint and obey His directives. In this way, we will learn to live righteously in a fallen world and to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to walk in truth and love, and to be a light for others by sharing the Gospel and communicating His Word to those who will listen.     [1] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 395. [2] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 369. [3] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 191. [4] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 397. [5] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 265. [6] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub., 1999), 178. [7] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 243. [8] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 265. [9] Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy, ed. Terry Muck (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 725–726. [10] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 193–194. [11] Jack S. Deere, “Deuteronomy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 317.

     When someone hurts me, I sometimes react and feel the need to seek revenge. That is, to take the matter into my own hands and hurt the other person so that I feel the scales of justice are balanced. Revenge starts with a mental attitude in which we seek to harm an offender for the injury or offence they caused, whether that injury or offense is real or imagined. The desire to retaliate against the offender is generally followed by action to hurt them, whether physically, psychologically, emotionally, socially, financially, or legally.      The desire for revenge can be coupled with very strong emotions that help inflame the injustice in our mind and to relive it over and over, which can eventuate in mental bondage as we keep recalling the hurt. Also, an injured person may feel helpless and victimized by an oppressor, so hurting the other person can make one feel empowered. It is true that personal revenge can offer a temporary sense of closure or satisfaction, but it can also establish a pattern of behavior that can be exhausting and endless, as we feel the need to retaliate against all perceived offenders. God's Word speaks to the issue of dealing with offenders who cause hurt, giving directions on how we are to respond.      First, there is the positive directive concerning how to treat offenders. Jesus said, “I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). As Christians, we live in a fallen world and are surrounded by fallen people who, often unknowingly, help advance Satan's agenda. These fallen people are identified as our enemies who operate by the mental attitude of hatred, openly curse us, and will mistreat us if given the opportunity. Being an adversary who operates on hate, and who curses and mistreats us, are all things that do not rise to the level of dangerous harm. Even a slap on the cheek, or stealing our clothing (Luke 6:29) does not constitute a life-threatening situation that requires self-defense. Loving others does not mean: We expose ourselves to unnecessary harm. There were times when God's people hid from their enemies (1 Ki 18:13; Acts 9:23-25). Jesus faced hostile people, who at one time “picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:59). Paul was greatly hurt by a man named “Alexander the coppersmith,” whom he told Timothy, “did me much harm” (2 Tim 4:14a). Paul then warned Timothy, saying, “Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching” (2 Tim 4:15). We trust all people. Jesus loved everyone, but He did not entrust Himself to all people, even believers. John tells us there were many who “believed in His name” (John 2:23), but then tells us that “Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men” (John 2:24). We fail to rebuke others when needed. When Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem, He passed by a village of the Samaritans (Luke 9:51-52) whose residents “did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem” (Luke 9:53). Luke tells us, “When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?'” (Luke 9:54). But this was a wrong attitude, so Jesus “turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are of'” (Luke 9:55). We interact or befriend people who are hostile to God (Prov 13:20). Solomon said, “Do not associate with a man given to anger; or go with a hot-tempered man, or you will learn his ways and find a snare for yourself” (Prov 22:24-25). Scripture also states, “do not associate with a gossip” (Prov 20:19), and “do not associate with rebels” (Prov 24:21), for “Bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor 15:33; cf. 1 Cor 5:11). The apostle Paul, when writing to Timothy, described the sinful attitudes and actions of people committed to godlessness (2 Tim 3:1-5a), and told his friend to “avoid such men as these” (2 Tim 3:5). We forfeit the right to defend ourselves physically or legally when we come under attack. Paul, who at one time took a beating with rods (Acts 16:22-23), later used legal force by exercising his rights as a Roman citizen to protect himself from a flogging that might have killed him (Acts 22:25-29). And Paul eventually appealed to Caesar, hoping to gain a just trial (Acts 25:7-12).      By wisdom we come to know when to turn the other cheek and when to stand up and push back, as self-defense is valid if the injury rises to the level of great physical harm, is life-threatening, or threatens to harm or kill a loved one (see my article on Is Self-Defense Biblical?). Even though we may defend ourselves, we must never stoop to the place of hatred toward our enemies, but must always maintain love for them and be willing to forgive and help if/when possible.      As Jesus' disciples, we are to love (ἀγαπᾶτε) our enemies, do good (καλῶς ποιεῖτε) to those who hate us, bless (εὐλογεῖτε) those who curse us, and pray (προσεύχεσθε) for those who mistreat us. All four of Jesus' directives are in the imperative mood, which means they are commands to be understood and obeyed. To love our enemy means we care about them and seek God's best in their life. To do good to those who hate us means we are kind and giving when possible. To bless our enemy means we wish them well rather than harm. To pray for our enemy means we ask God to save and bless them, even though they seek to mistreat us. Love manifests itself by doing good, blessing, and praying for those who hate us. This is not mere passivity, but requires great discipline of the mind and will, which can be contrary to our emotions. Nor does such behavior imply weakness on our part. Jesus, the theanthropic person, possessed all power sufficient to destroy His enemies, yet He restrained His power for the sake of love and grace. Divine truth, not feelings, must be what guides our thoughts, words, and actions. According to Joel Green, “Love is expressed in doing good—that is, not by passivity in the face of opposition but in proactivity: doing good, blessing, praying, and offering the second cheek and the shirt along with the coat.”[1] Paul, when writing to Christians in Rome, used similar language, saying, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Rom 12:14). As Christians, when we think and act this way, we are like the “sons of the Most-High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men” (Luke 6:35). This is accomplished by faith and not feelings. Sproul is correct when he states, “We may not be able to control how we feel about them, but we certainly can control what we do about those feelings.”[2]      Second, there is a negative directive in which we are not to retaliate or seek personal revenge. The Lord said, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD” (Lev 19:18). The apostle Paul said, “See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” (1 Th 5:15). Peter wrote, “All of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing” (1 Pet 3:8-9). Solomon wrote, “He who returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house” (Prov 17:13). He also wrote, “Do not say, ‘I will repay evil;' wait for the LORD, and He will save you” (Prov 20:22). Concerning this verse, Allen Ross states, “Leave retribution to the Lord. Let him bring about a just deliverance…The righteous should not take vengeance on evil, for only God can repay evil justly (cf. Rom 12:19–20).”[3] Bruce Waltke says this verse “suggests that the Lord will help the disciple by compensating him justly for the wrong done to him. The Helper will both compensate the damage and punish the wrongdoer.”[4] And David Hubbard adds: "Vengeance is an activity too hot for any of us to handle. Its motivation is selfish; its execution is usually extreme; its result is to accelerate conflict not to slow it down. In short, vengeance is God's business not ours (Deut 32:35; Rom 12:19; Heb 10:30). All human sin is sin against Him, so He is the ultimate victim; only He can judge accurately the damage done; only He can distribute fairly the blame; only He can exact freely the proper penalty. We are not entitled to ‘play God' at any time."[5]      The challenge for us is to put the offense in God's hands, trusting He sees, and that He will dispense justice in His time and way. For this reason, Scripture states, “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God” (Rom 12:17-19a; cf. Deut 32:35; Heb 10:30). Again, this requires discipline of mind and will, and is executed by faith and not feelings.      Third, place the matter in the Lord's hands and let Him dispense justice in His time and way. The Bible teaches that God is the “Judge of all the earth” (Gen 18:25) and that He dispenses justice upon those whose who deserve it. Scripture reveals the Lord is a “God of vengeance” (Psa 94:1) and will punish the wicked. And Nahum tells us, “A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies” (Nah 1:2). God told the Israelites if they listen to His voice, “Then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries” (Ex 23:22). Paul, after instructing Christians not to seek their own revenge, explained that God will handle the matter, saying, “for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord” (Rom 12:19b; cf. Deut 32:35; Heb 10:30). And again, “It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (2 Th 1:6). Even Paul did not seek his own revenge when hurt by Alexander the coppersmith, but said, “the Lord will repay him according to his deeds” (2 Tim 4:14). According to Warren Wiersbe, “The word vengeance must not be confused with revenge. The purpose of vengeance is to satisfy God's holy law; the purpose of revenge is to pacify a personal grudge.”[6]      It is true that God may extend grace to His enemies and those who hurt us, as He gives them time to repent and turn to Him for forgiveness. We must always remember that we were God's enemies and terrible sinners before we came to faith in Christ, and God waited patiently for us (see Rom 5:8-10), for God is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). But God's grace does not last forever. At death, all of life's decisions are fixed, and what the unbeliever does with Christ in time determines his eternal destiny. If a person goes his entire life rejecting God's grace, not believing in Christ as Savior (John 3:16; 1 Cor 15:3-4), then he will stand before God at the Great White Throne judgment and afterwards will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:11-15). It is at that time that God will deal out “retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Th 1:8-9). Wiersbe states, “Certainly, the wicked who persecute the godly do not always receive their just payment in this life. In fact, the apparent prosperity of the wicked and difficulty of the godly have posed a problem for many of God's people (see Psa 73; Jer 12:1; Hab 1). Why live a godly life if your only experience is that of suffering? As Christians, we must live for eternity and not just for the present.”[7]      Fourth, if we fail to follow the Lord's directives to love, do good, bless, and pray for our enemies, and instead decide to take matters into our own hands and seek revenge, then we are sinning against God and open ourselves up to divine discipline. The very punishment we may seek to inflict upon our enemies may be administered to us by the Lord, and this because we are walking by sinful values rather than being obedient-to-the-Word believers. However, if we put the matter in the Lord's hands and let Him dispense justice in His time and way, we can rest assured that He will bring it to pass, for He says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Rom 12:19b), and it is “just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (2 Th 1:6). Plus, when we learn and live God's Word by faith it frees us from the tyranny of hurt feelings which can be fatiguing to the mind and toxic to the soul. Summary      In closing, we are to obey the words of Jesus, who  tells us to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). Assuming the hostility never rises to the level of requiring self-defense (which does not negate loving the attacker), we are to tolerate the hostility and abuse and respond in love by doing good, blessing, and praying for our enemies. It's ok to hurt, but not to hate. Operating from divine viewpoint, we walk by faith and trust God to handle the matter, knowing He is the “Judge of all the earth” (Gen 18:25) and that “it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (2 Th 1:6), as God states, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Rom 12:19b). In this way, we will follow the example set by Jesus, who, “while being reviled, He did not revile in return; and while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet 2:23). If we live as God directs, abiding by the royal family honor code, then He will dispense justice upon our attackers in His time and way. The challenge for us is to discipline ourselves to learn God's Word and live by faith, not our hurt feelings or circumstances.     [1] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 272. [2] R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 115–116. [3] Allen P. Ross, “Proverbs,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 5 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991), 1046. [4] Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15–31, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005), 152. [5] David A. Hubbard and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Proverbs, vol. 15, The Preacher's Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1989), 308. [6] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 194. [7] Ibid., 194.

Introduction      Moses had previously addressed God's goodness to provide for His people since leaving Egypt (Deut 29:2-8), and called for them to commit themselves to the Lord for their own good (Deut 29:9-13) and the good of their children (Deut 29:14-15). Now Moses addresses the consequences of disobedience to the covenant if the people turn away from the Lord and adopt the idols and values of the pagan nations which surround them (Deut 29:16-29). Context      Moses opens this pericope by calling the people's attention to those spiritually poor nations who did not know the Lord or His blessings, saying,  “For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; 17 moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them” (Deut 29:16-17). Here, Israel's relationship with God was contrasted with Egypt from which they came, as well as the pagans nations through which they'd recently passed. Israel's spiritual health and blessings could be seen in comparison to the surrounding pagan cultures. According to Kalland: "The statements “How we lived in Egypt” and “how we passed through the countries on the way here” (v.16) provide the locale and historic background for the people's knowledge of the gods in those places and the nature of their worship. This is evident from the definite reference to the detestable images and idols that they saw among the people there (v.17).”[1]      So that there would be no individual or national corruption, Moses said, “there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood” (Deut 29:18). According to Radmacher, “Every individual man and woman was responsible to the community as a whole for his or her relationship to God. Since the entire community was covenanted to God Himself, every individual had to follow Him…Tolerance for idolatry and pagan practices would always corrupt the community, and therefore the covenant relationship with God.”[2] And Kalland states, “The source of ‘bitter poison' (v.18) was the person who turned away from the Lord to worship the gods of Egypt and those of the other nations that the Israelites passed through on their journey from Egypt to the plains of Moab.”[3]Choices have consequences, and to worship idols is to sow the seeds of darkness and poison into one's own heart, which not only corrupts the individual, but negatively impacts others.      The arrogant person who chose idolatry was his own worst enemy and would bring God's curses upon himself. Moses said, “It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry'” (Deut 29:19). For that person who walks in the stubbornness of his pride and pursues idols without repentance, Moses said, “The LORD shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven” (Deut 29:20). God is always opposed to the proud, and as long as recalcitrance persists, there will be no forgiveness. God's love reaches out to everyone, but when the prideful person rejects the Lord and His love, there is no other recourse to be saved or blessed. Rather, such a one will experience the Lord's anger, and the curses mentioned in the law of Moses will fall upon him. To have one's name blotted out from under heaven meant that he would die and not be remembered among his people, which was a grievous matter for those in the ancient world. If Israelites acted like pagans and devoted themselves to idols, they would, by their own decision, experience the same fate that Moses described would be for the Canaanites (Deut 7:24) and Amalekites (Deut 25:19), whose name and memory would be blotted out. Moses continued, saying, “Then the LORD will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law” (Deut 29:21). To be singled out for adversity meant God targeted His judgment against the offender to deal with him according to the requirements of the law.      God's judgment upon the disobedient was a display of His holy and righteous character, but it also had pedagogical value, to help future generations know how not to behave, and to see the consequences of sinful choices. Moses said, “Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it, will say, 23 ‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath'” (Deut 29:22-23). Because of the extreme wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, God had destroyed those cities, as well as the two neighboring cities Admah and Zeboiim, and He did this as a display of His righteous judgment against them (Gen 19:24-25). Similarly, if God's severe judgment were to fall upon Israel, it would draw the attention of surrounding nations. Moses said, “All the nations will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?'” (Deut 29:24). God intended for Israel to know His blessings, which would have testified positively to the surrounding nations (Deut 26:19; 28:1); however, by turning away from the Lord, He would use their destruction as a lesson to those who would see and question their downfall. God's outburst of anger against His people would come if they violated the terms of the covenant and pursued idols. The surrounding Gentile nations would properly conclude, saying, “Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Deut 29:25). Breaking the covenant meant that His people “went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them” (Deut 29:26). Israel was a theocracy and God was their King, Lawgiver, and Judge (Isa 33:22), and to worship idols and serve other gods was tantamount to treason.      The choice of ongoing sinful actions would have very negative consequences for God's people, as it would bring His judgment upon them, and rightfully so. Moses said, “Therefore, the anger of the LORD burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; 28 and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day” (Deut 29:27-28). According to Radmacher, “The nations were supposed to learn about God's grace from Israel's example; what a shame if they were to learn of His wrath instead!”[4] It is true that God did display His anger among His people, and this because they repeatedly turned away from Him and pursued sin and idolatry. However, because it's His nature, God was very slow to become angry with His people (Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Psa 86:15; 103:8; 145:8-9; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2), and He was quick to forgive and show kindness when they humbled themselves, even in the slightest way (Neh 9:9-33). For example, King Ahab was a wicked ruler who reigned over Israel for twenty-two years (1 Ki 16:29), and Ahab “did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him” (1 Ki 16:30). By the end of Ahab's life, it is written, “Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife incited him. 26 He acted very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the sons of Israel” (1 Ki 21:25-26). However, even wicked Ahab, after hearing God's judgment against him (1 Ki 21:20-24), responded in humility and “tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently” (1 Ki 21:27). And God, because He is quick to show grace and mercy, turned from His anger against Ahab, saying to His prophet Elijah, “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil upon his house in his son's days” (1 Ki 21:29). Even the most wicked, as long as they have breath, may taste the Lord's goodness if they humble themselves before Him. God has certainly been patient with us (2 Pet 3:9).      Moses closed out this pericope, saying, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law” (Deut 29:29). Concerning this verse, Peter Craigie notes, “The law placed upon the people the responsibility of obedience, the result of which would be God's blessing in the land they were going in to possess. This general principle was clearly revealed; obedience would lead to God's continuing blessing, but disobedience would bring about the curse of God. To go beyond that and speculate about the future things (the secret things) was not man's prerogative.”[5] As Christians, we possess God's Word to us, which provides particular insights into realities we could never know, except that He has spoken and His Words have been inscripturated (2 Tim 3:16-17). Charles Swindoll notes: “God keeps some knowledge to Himself. There are people who will tell you that they have access to this knowledge, claiming that God has given them a special revelation of His teaching. But God never contradicts Himself. The things He holds in secret are not a different truth that will erase the things we now know. They are simply things that only the Lord, in His infinite wisdom and power, can know. Everything that is essential for life has already been stated in God's Word. We do not have need of any ‘extra' revelation. It is enough to be accountable to all that He has already told us within the pages of this Book.”[6]      Sadly, we know from Israel's history, that the majority in Israel, from the leadership down, chose to turn away from the Lord and to walk in the stubbornness of their own hearts. And if we're honest, this is the history of us all.  Historical Review of Israel      Factually, we know that after Moses died, God brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua (Deut 31:23; Josh 1:1-9), and there the land was divided, giving a portion to each of the descendants of Jacob. After Joshua died (Josh 24:29-31), Israel failed to obey the Lord and did not drive out the Canaanites as He'd instructed (Judg 1:20-21; 28-33; 2:1-4). By allowing the Canaanites to live among them, the Israelites were influenced by their pagan values and, over time, were corrupted by them. These sinful choices had an impact on their children—the third generation of Israelites since the exodus—and they turned away from the Lord and radically pursued idols, thus provoking the Lord's anger (Judg 2:10-12). This went on for roughly 300 years as Israel fell into a pattern of idolatry (sin), after which God would send punishment (suffering), then the people would cry out to God (supplication), Who would relent of His judgment and send a judge to deliver them (savior), then the people would obey God for a time (service), and then fall back into idolatry (sin). The period of the Judges was generally marked by people who did not obey the Lord, but “did what was right in their own eyes” (Judg 17:6; 21:25).      Israel's history changed during the time of Samuel, who was the last of Israel's judges. The people of Israel cried for a king because they wanted to be like the other nations (1 Sam 8:4-5). God gave them their request (1 Sam 8:22), and Saul became the first king in Israel (1 Sam 10:1). Though Saul started well, he quickly turned away from the Lord and would not obey God's commands. Saul reigned for approximately 40 years and his leadership was basically a failure (1 Sam 13:1; cf. Acts 13:21). Later, God raised up David to be king in Israel (1 Sam 16:1-13), and David reigned for 40 years and was an ideal king who followed God and encouraged others to do the same (1 Ki 2:10-11). God decreed David's throne would be established forever through one of his descendants (2 Sam 7:16; Psa 89:3-4), and this is Jesus (Luke 1:31-33). Solomon reigned for 40 years after David (1 Ki 2:12; 11:42-43), and though He was wise and did many good things (ruled well, built the temple, wrote Scripture, etc.), he eventually turned away from God and worshiped idols (1 Ki 11:1-10), and the kingdom was divided afterward (1 Ki 11:11-41). The nation was united under Saul, David, and Solomon.      Israel—the northern kingdom—had 19 kings throughout its history and all were bad, as they led God's people into idolatry (i.e. the “sins of Jeroboam” 1 Ki 16:31; 2 Ki 3:3; 10:31; 13:2). The ten northern tribes came under divine discipline because of their idolatry (2 Ki 17:7-18) and were destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Judah—the southern kingdom—had 20 kings throughout its history and 8 were good (some more than others), as they obeyed God and led others to do the same (they were committed to the Lord like David, 1 Ki 15:11). However, Judah repeatedly fell into idolatry—as the 10 northern tribes had done—and, because of their disobedience (Jer 11:6-11; 22:8-9), they were eventually destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. The dispersion of Israel was promised by God if they turned away from Him and served other gods (Deut 28:63-68). Since the destruction by Babylon, Israel has been under Gentile dominance known as “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24; Rom 11:25). After a temporary regathering under Ezra and Nehemiah, Israel continued under Gentile dominance with the Medes & Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Because of their rejection of Jesus as Messiah, God disciplined Israel again in AD 70, and the Jews were scattered all over the world (Jam 1:1; 1 Pet 1:1). Israel's current state is one of judgment (Matt 23:37-39), and a “partial hardening” (Rom 11:25). Israel will be restored when Messiah returns to establish His kingdom on earth (Rev 19:11-21; 20:4-6). Present Application      As Christians, God calls us to holy living (1 Pet 1:14-16), and to serve as lights in a sin-darkened world (Matt 5:14-16; Eph 5:8-10). Such a life is based on good choices we make, as we daily learn God's Word (2 Tim 2:15; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18) and walk by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6). And, if we turn away from the Lord and commit egregious sins, or a lifestyle of ongoing carnality (1 Cor 3:1-4), then God will administer corrective suffering to bring us back into His will (Heb 12:5-11).      Living in a fallen world that is currently under Satan's rule (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor 4:4; 1 John 5:19), it is imperative that we live wisely (Eph 5:15-16), choose our friends carefully (2 Cor 6:14), and not allow ourselves to be corrupted by Satan's world-system. And when we sin, it's important that we keep short accounts and confess our sin regularly (1 John 1:9), are filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), and resume our walk with the Lord (Gal 5:16). In this way we will glorify God and be a blessing to others.   [1] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 182. [2] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 264. [3] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3, 182. [4] Earl D. Radmacher, et al, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary, 264. [5] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 360–361. [6] Charles R. Swindoll, The Swindoll Study Bible, (Carol Stream, Ill. Tyndale House Publishers, 2017), 245.

Deuteronomy 28:15-46 - The Lord's Cursings      Having already presented God's blessings for obedience (Deut 28:1-14), Moses turned to the cursing section of the covenant, saying, “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you” (Deut 28:15). The responsibility fell upon Israel to abide by the terms of the covenant. They were to abide by “all His commandments and His statutes”, and failure to do so would bring God's curses. Earl Radmacher states: "A curse is the opposite of a blessing. It wishes or prays for ill or injury on a person or an object. God cursed the serpent and the ground after the sin of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:14, 17). Jeremiah, in despair, cursed the man who brought news of his birth (Jer 20:14, 15). The seriousness of God's covenant with His people is illustrated by the threat of a curse on any who violate it (Deut 28:60, 61)."[1]      The curses would reverse all God's blessings and would overtake His people wherever they were. Moses wrote: "Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out" (Deut 28:16-19).      What follows in Deuteronomy 28:20-68 spelled out God's curses in specific detail and were intended to produce a healthy fear in the Israelite who might be tempted to turn away from the Lord and His clear directives. Moses informed his people that the curses would pursue them in stages until they were destroyed (Deut 28:20-22, 24, 45, 48, 51, 61). Daniel Block states, “By means of a seemingly endless catalogue of secondary agents of doom, Moses warns that Yahweh will marshal every conceivable agent of destruction against His people.”[2] God is offering a theological understanding of Israel's circumstances and experiences should they break their covenant with Yahweh and not abide by His directives.      Moses gave an overarching summary statement of all God would do to Israel if they pursued evil and forsook Him. Moses said, “The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me” (Deut 28:20). The word send translates the Hebrew verb שָׁלַח shalach which in this passage means to “send out, forth, send on a mission.”[3] The form of the verb is intensive (Piel), which means the curse will be relentless in its pursuit. God's judgment would come because of Israel's choice to forsake the Lord and to pursue a life of evil deeds. According to Craigie, “The root cause of the disaster would be forgetfulness; the people would forget God, and in forgetting God they would forget his commandments. Having forgotten the commandments of God, the people would inevitably commit evil deeds and bring upon their own heads disaster. God sends the curse (v. 20a), but man invites it by his deeds (v. 20b).”[4]      At the beginning of the judgments, Moses said, “The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it” (Deut 28:21). The pestilence (דֶּבֶר deber) could be something like bubonic plague, which afflicted both people and animals with fever and delirium. This might explain Moses' next statement, saying, “The LORD will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish” (Deut 28:22). Blight and mildew refer to attacks on crops, which God brought upon His people during times of judgment (see Amos 4:9; Hag 2:17). Daniel Block states: "In verse 22 Moses becomes more specific, listing seven afflictions with which Yahweh will strike his people. The catalogue of seven afflictions expresses Yahweh's sovereignty over all agents of death and destruction. The first four entries elaborate on deber in verse 21 and specify diseases at Yahweh's disposal: wasting disease, fever, inflammation, and scorching heat. The fifth refers to the sword (ḥereb), which functions as shorthand for Israel's defeat by enemy armies (cf. vv. 25–26), and the last two refer to crop diseases."[5]      The judgments would include a severe drought upon the Land. Moses said, “The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed” (Deut 28:23-24). A bronze sky and iron earth is a picture of impenetrable material which would frustrate the farmer. And the Lord, rather than sending rain that would soften the earth, would only send “powder and dust” upon the land. Eugene Merrill states, “As impervious as these metals are to water and tools, so both the heavens and the earth would be in the day of calamity. The rains would not leak through the skies, nor would the earth be able to be broken up to receive the farmer's seed. Instead, the heavens would rain down dust, which would only exacerbate an already hopeless situation on the earth.”[6]      Moving to a picture of military defeat, Moses said, “The LORD shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away” (Deut 28:25-26). Israel would always have enemies, but rather than know victory, God would cause them to know only defeat. Israel, going out against their enemy “one way” speaks of a planned attack. Fleeing seven ways meant their efforts would fail, as they would scramble to “flee seven ways” from the battle. Israel's choice to separate themselves from God meant they forfeited the Lord's protection against hostile forces. According to Craigie, “Disobedience to the law of God separated the people from him, and in this state of separation they could not expect to experience the presence of God in the midst of their army; without God in the midst of Israel's army, defeat was inevitable.”[7] Not only would Israel be an example of terror to surrounding kingdoms, but their dead bodies would be food for wild animals. Merrill states, “Israel would, in fact, become a field of corpses, a banquet for winged and four-footed scavengers that would be free to eat their fill (v. 26). The irony of the contrast between Israel's feeding off the land (vv. 4–5, 8, 11) and being itself a food supply for carnivorous beasts is inescapable.”[8]The wise Israelite understood, “the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge” (Psa 73:28).      Moving from military defeat, Moses then describes various skin diseases that would inflict the nation. Moses said, “The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed” (Deut 28:27). Concerning the boils, Earl Kalland states, “The ‘boils of Egypt' are doubtless the boils of the sixth plague, which so discomfited the Egyptian magicians, as well as all other Egyptians, that they could no longer stand before Moses (Ex 9:9–11). This may have been a form of leprosy known in Egypt.”[9] The reference to tumors (עֹפֶל ophel) could mean hemorrhoids, much like what afflicted the Philistines when they took possession of the Ark (1 Sam 5:6). The scab (גָּרָב garab) was something that irritated the skin, perhaps a rash of some sort. Interestingly, such a skin disease would disqualify a priest from service (Lev 21:18-21), as well as an animal from being sacrificed (Lev 22:20-22). The itch (חֶרֶס cheres) referred to some eruptive disease.      All of this would have great psychological and social impact on the Israelites, as Moses continued, saying, “The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; 29 and you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you” (Deut 28:28-29). Their mental, emotional, and social condition would make it impossible to function on a daily basis. They would become like a “blind man” who cannot see his way clearly to do anything, and the result will be that they “will not prosper” in any of their activities. Furthermore, there would be none to help, as those around them would only oppress and rob them, and there would be “none to save” them from their troubles. Eugene Merrill writes: "The inclusion of blindness between two states of emotional or psychological disorder suggests that this loss of vision was not physical but metaphorical (cf. Psa 146:8; Isa 29:18; 35:5; 42:7, 16; 43:8; 56:10). The groping about in midday like a blind man (v. 29a) is a simile qualified in the next line, “You will be unsuccessful in everything you do.” The blindness, then, was the incapacity to think clearly or form intelligent judgments. It would lay the ones under the curse open to all kinds of exploitation including oppression…and robbery (v. 29b). Having broken fellowship with the Lord, they would have no one to deliver them from their insanity and its consequences."[10] Peter Craigie adds: "In broad daylight, the cursed blind man gropes around. He cannot see and does not know how to make himself prosperous, but he can be seen by others; his fumbling ineptitude makes him an easy prey for robbers. Having brought about his sad state through disobedience to the law of God, he is now at the mercy of those who live outside the law, and there is no one to offer help. His fellows are equally cursed, and he has gone too far from God to call for his deliverance."[11]      Having turned away from the Lord, Israel would no longer enjoy His protections, and this meant what was precious to them would be vulnerable to attack and harm. These included attacks on one's spouse, home, business, children, and safety from one's enemies. Moses said: "You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do. 33 A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. 34 You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see." (Deut 28:30-34)      Here is a picture of harm by one's enemies, frustration by helplessness, and eventual despair of soul and madness of mind by the sight of what they will see. They would have no control over their lives but would be perpetual victims of their enemies who take possession of their wives and mistreat them. The fruit of their ground and livestock would be eaten by another, and their children would be forcibly taken and sold into slavery while they looked on in helplessness, and there would be nothing they could do to stop it. The end result was mental madness by what they saw happening to them. All of this was the result of their walking away from the Lord's protections.      Revisiting the motif of boils previously mentioned (Deut 28:27), Moses said, “The LORD will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head” (Deut 28:35). This disease would cover the whole body, but emphasis seems to be given to the knees, legs, and soles of one's feet, which would make normal activities very difficult, thus exacerbating one's efforts to work.      The judgments also anticipated a time in the future when Israel would have a king over them. Moses said, “The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. 37 You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD drives you” (Deut 28:36-37). If Israel turned away from God and refused to serve Him, they would fall victim to slavery in godless nations who served dumb idols of wood and stone. Eugene Merrill states, “Deportation does, however, imply submission, a condition contrary to the exaltation of Israel described in the list of blessings. Rather than being a nation set “high above all the nations” (v. 1), God's people would lose their children to another nation (v. 32) and would themselves go off into ignominious captivity (v. 36).”[12] Israel's fallen condition would serve as a horror and proverb to other nations.      Deuteronomy 28:36 describes how God will bring His people and their king into captivity in a foreign land. Because Israel did not have a king until nearly four centuries after Moses gave the law, it is argued by liberal scholars that Deuteronomy is actually a late book, written around the seventh or fifth centuries B.C. These liberal scholars—who operate on antisupernaturalistic presuppositions—reject the Bible as divinely inspired and treat it as a humanistic book and the events described therein as history rather than prophecy (Lat. vaticinium ex eventu = after the event). However, because the Bible is supernaturally inspired by God, these prophetic statements are not a problem, as God had promised Israel would have a king (Gen 17:6, 16; 35:11; Deut 17:14-20).      Returning to the judgments, Moses stated that all their efforts at labor and production would be met with futility. Moses said: "You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it. 39 You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41 You shall have sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42 The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground." (Deut 28:38-42)      Again, we have a picture of fruitless labor by the Israelite farmer. Frustration would come as locusts and worms would be used by the Lord to destroy their crops. Even their sons and daughters—who often helped with farming—would be taken away into captivity, further exacerbating their ability to farm. Daniel Block states: "The catalogue of futility curses involves the entire range of ancient Palestinian agricultural activity: fields of grain (v. 38), vineyards (v. 39), olive groves (v. 40), and fruit trees (v. 41). The crop failures are caused by little creatures that Yahweh will send to devour and despoil the crops before they can be harvested. “Locusts” (v. 38) are grass-eating insects that fly in vast swarms and devour everything in sight. “Worms” (v. 39) refers to fruit grubs that attack the grapes. The meaning of “swarms of locusts” (v. 42) is uncertain, but it probably refers to a species of beetle that kills vegetation by attacking leaves or stems."[13]      Israel would also experience social and economic decline, as Moses said, “The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you will be the tail” (Deut 28:43-44). The alien (גֵּר ger) was the one who originally came to Israel to be elevated and blessed, but his low position would become the new standard, not because he was lifted up, but because Israel was brought down to a lower position. Israel would experience economic slavery by being the borrower rather than the lender.      Moses continued, “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever” (Deut 28:45-46). The curses would pursue (רָדָף radaph – to pursue, chase, persecute) and overtake (נָשַׂג nasag) Israel like a relentless hunter who is tireless in his pursuit to catch and destroy the hunted animal. All of this would happen because Israel refused to walk with the Lord and to keep His commandments. Peter Craigie states, “Disobedience to the word of God would result inevitably in disaster…For a sign and for a wonder—the disasters that would befall the Israelites, if they were disobedient to God, would serve to illustrate the ways of God to other nations, who would be prompted to ask questions when they saw the plight of the Israelites.”[14]   [1] Earl D. Radmacher, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary, 263. [2] Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy, ed. Terry Muck (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 652. [3] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 1019. [4] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 342. [5] Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy, 653. [6] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 359. [7] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 343. [8] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary, 360. [9] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 172. [10] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary, 361. [11] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 345. [12] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary, 362. [13] Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy, 657. [14] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 347.

Introduction      Deuteronomy 28:1-68 presents the blessings and cursings of the bilateral Mosaic Covenant (בְּרִית berith) which God promised to bring upon Israel depending on their obedience or disobedience to His commands. God's written directives assume the integrity of language in which His meaning was infused in the words and phrases He selected, and that language itself served as a reliable vehicle concerning His expectations. The Israelites were responsible to know what was communicated and would be blessed or cursed based on whether they responded to it positively or negatively. God's directives meant there were fixed categories of blessing and cursing, which allowed the Israelites to know with certainty what to expect from Him depending on how they treated their relationship with Him. This did not mean the Israelites could manipulate God to do their bidding; rather, it simply meant He was predictable and would do what He promised. A healthy relationship relies on clear and honest communication as well as predictable behavior.      For the sake of emphasis, Moses repeated the conditional aspects of God's blessings (Deut 28:1-2, 9, 13-14), and cursings (Deut 28:15, 20, 45-47, 58, 62; cf., Deut 29:24-28; 30:17-20). The word blessing translates the Hebrew noun בְּרָכָה berakah, which appears twelve times in Deuteronomy and sixty-seven times in the OT (TWOT). In Deuteronomy 28, the word refers to the tangible goodness that makes life enjoyable and rich, which God promised to His covenant people, Israel, if they would simply obey His commands. Areas of blessing would include: 1) healthy offspring, crops, and livestock (Deut 28:4-5, 8, 11), 2) military success (Deut 28:7), 3) fruitful labor (Deut 28:8, 12a), 4) international recognition and respect (Deut 28:9-10), 5) financial prosperity (Deut 28:12b), and 6) serving as an international leader to other nations (Deut. 28:13). God also promised to bring curses, which would undo all the blessings and bring Israel down, if they disobeyed (Deut 28:15-68). In Deuteronomy 28:16-19, Moses used the Hebrew verb אָרָר arar six times, which means, “to bind with a curse.”[1] The form of the verb is passive, which means a curse is received by the nation of Israel if they turn away from God. These blessings and cursings were predictable, depending on Israel's knowledge of God's directives and their adherence or insubordination to them (Deut 11:26-28; 29:29; 30:15-20).      When considering the Mosaic Covenant, it is important to realize God's blessings and cursings for Israel were tied to their moral behavior (see Lev 26:3-4; Deut 11:13-17; Jer 5:23-25; Amos 4:7; Mal 3:10).[2] When Israel abided by God's Word, advancing on the moral high ground of His ethical standards, the Lord would bless His people in the everyday affairs of their lives. God's blessings came directly in the form of rain, crop production, national health, etc. However, His blessings also came indirectly through His people who learned and lived His Word as it spoke to their marriages, families, education, labor, economic decisions, social activities, and welfare for the less fortunate in society. For example, God's blessings of protection and provision for Ruth and Naomi came through Boaz, who modeled godliness and compassion in his words and actions (Ruth 2:1-23). Boaz' choice to be a godly man meant he would serve as a conduit of God's grace to others.      Additionally, God's blessings should not be thought of as producing equal outcomes to all, as social and economic stratification would continue within Israelite society. It also did not mean everyone would have perfect health, as the general effects of sin in humanity continued. It did mean, however, that even those at the lowest place in society would have their basic needs met; needs such as food, shelter, and clothing. The poor in Israel would be wealthier and better off than those of other nations.[3]      But if God's people turned from the Lord and His Word and adopted an alternate ethical standard, then they would forfeit His blessings and bring judgment upon themselves (Deut 11:16-17; 2 Ch 6:24-27). However, God's judgments on Israel did not always happen in an instantaneous manner, as the Lord is patient, longsuffering, and slow to anger (Ex 34:6; Psa 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jon 4:2). And God often sent warnings to His people (Jer 7:25-26; 25:3-7; 29:18-19), which at times went on for centuries, and discipline came in stages. And even when God's judgment fell, it sometimes took the form of lesser punishment (Psa 103:10-12; Ezra 9:13). And if His people humbled themselves, He would offer forgiveness and restore their blessings (2 Ch 7:13-14). God is always quick to forgive, and He prefers to bless rather than punish. Any loving parent understands this.      A conundrum appears in the Old Testament as the righteous struggle from day to day while some evil people grow rich and seem to enjoy all the blessings this world can give. Asaph, a godly man, felt this struggle deeply (Psa 73:1-16). However, when considered from the divine perspective, worldly wealth does not always come with God's blessing, and the life and final days of the evil person will be less than desirable (Psa 73:17-20). The godly desire the Lord more than the things of this world (Psa 73:21-28), and they have joy and peace with whatever He provides. For whatever God gives to His obedient children will include joy and peace that they might appreciate it, “For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy” (Eccl 2:25-26a). According to Solomon, “It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it” (Prov 10:22), and “Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and turmoil with it” (Prov 15:16). The godly are content with the Lord's daily provisions (Phil 4:11-13; 1 Tim 6:8; Heb 13:5).[4] Deuteronomy 28:1-14 - The Lord's Blessings      Moses opens the blessing section by saying, “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth” (Deut 28:1). This opening introduces a conditional clause (Deut 28:1), which is repeated several times in this section (cf., Deut 28:2, 9, 13). As Israel's Judge, Lawgiver, and King (Isa 33:22), the Lord had provided His people with clear directives concerning how they were to live, and if they chose righteousness, blessing would follow (Deut 11:26-28). God's blessings (בְּרָכָה berakah) pertained to agricultural, national, social, and material prosperity. God promised to set His people “high above all the nations.” According to Eugene Merrill, “What it means to be set high above all the nations is answered in part by the string of blessings that follow in Deuteronomy 3:3-8. Inasmuch as Israel's economy rested on an agrarian base, most of the blessing is associated with abundance in field and flock, but other aspects of safe and wholesome life are not ignored.”[5]      Moses continued, saying, “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God” (Deut 28:2). The hiphil form of the Hebrew word overtake (נָשַׂג nasag) meant God would cause His blessings to come upon obedient-to-the-Word believers. That is, God's blessings would chase them wherever they were in order to overtake them. The obedient believer would not be able to escape the Lord's blessings. This is confirmed by the next clause, which reads, “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country” (Deut 28:3). God's blessing would hunt them down, and their location was incidental. The word blessed (בָּרָךְ barak) means “to endue with power for success, prosperity, productiveness, longevity, etc.”[6] God wants to bless His people and He does not have to be cajoled or manipulated to do it.      God's blessings would not only be personal but would also spill over onto one's children and the production of one's labor, which included the ground as well as the animals. Moses said, “Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock” (Deut 28:4). Here is the concept of blessing by association. The adult Israelite who learned God's Word and walked with Him would be blessed, and so would all who were in contact with him. Boaz was a good example of God's blessings overflowing into the lives of others.      God would also provide an abundance of food for His people to eat, as Moses said, “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl” (Deut 28:5). Eugene Merrill states, “Abundant produce would, of course, result in abundant food supplies. Harvest baskets would overflow, and bakers would have more than enough wheat with which to bake their bread (v. 5).”[7] There would be no food insecurity among God's people.      And God's blessing would touch His people wherever they were, whether in the home or out in the community. Moses said, “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out” (Deut 28:6). To come in and go out is a merism—a figure of speech—that refers to all of one's life and activities. According to Earl Kalland, “Going out and coming in is a common descriptive phrase of going out to one's daily tasks and returning home after the day's work is done, whatever that activity entails.”[8]      Having God's blessing did not mean Israel would not have enemies. God's people always have enemies, as we live in a fallen world that is temporarily governed by Satan and those who align with him (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 1 John 3:13; 5:19). However, though opposition would arise against God's people, He would secure their victory, as Moses said, “The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways” (Deut 28:7). When the text says, “they will come against you one way,” it's speaking of an intelligent coordinated attack against God's people. However, though the attack represents man's best military strategies and actions, God will neutralize their efforts and cause them to be defeated. That the enemy “will flee before you seven ways” meant their enemies could not flee the battle fast enough. This promise of military victory could be trusted because God had already displayed His power over the Egyptians when He brought Israel out of captivity. Having defeated the greatest superpower of the day, lesser powers would be of no concern.      The Israelite farmers would be blessed both in their efforts and the production of the land itself. Moses said, “The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you” (Deut 28:8). Eugene Merrill states, “Verse 8 forms a conclusion to this first set of blessings by summarizing the blessings according to the categories of what Israel would have and what Israel would do (the “barns” and “hand” respectively).”[9] Again, God's promised blessings were tangible in nature.      God's intention of blessing His people was that they might be an example to the rest of the world of what it means to be set apart to the Lord, to walk with Him in holiness. Moses said, “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways” (Deut 28:9). The word holy (קָדוֹשׁ qadosh) means “commanding respect, awesome, treated with respect.”[10] It denotes being singled out for special use, to be consecrated for a unique purpose. But God's people were not mere objects one could set apart, but rather, volitional creatures that were called into a special relationship with the Lord. For this reason, we see the conditional clause, “if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.”      If Israel, as God's people, would learn and live His Word, then “all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you” (Deut 28:10). God was concerned about His image among the Gentiles. Being called by the name of the Lord meant being His representative in the world for others to see. God's values were to be reflected in the words and actions of His people. If His people would represent Him well, then Gentiles would be afraid of them. The word afraid (יָרֵא yare) most often means “to fear, [or] to be afraid.”[11] However, at times, the word connotes reverence, respect, or awe. This latter meaning might be preferred, as other translations suggest, saying, “they will stand in awe of you” (Deut 28:10 CSB), and “they will respect you” (Deut 28:10 NET). For those possessed with negative volition, they would fear God and His people. However, for those possessed with positive volition, they would be awed by God and His goodness and would respect His people. Earl Kalland states, “By being God's obedient and holy people (cf. 26:19), the Israelites would enjoy such an intimacy with God that they would become a testimony to all the peoples on earth who would fear or stand in awe of Israel (cf. 2:25; 11:25).”[12]      God's blessing would be obvious to His people as well as the Gentiles nations around them. Moses said, “The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you” (Deut 28:11). To abound (יָתַר yathar) with prosperity meant to “be left over, remain over.”[13] The idea is that God would give His people more than enough prosperity that they would consider themselves blessed, and others would as well.      Part of God's blessing meant predictable weather patterns in which the Lord would send rain on the land and cause their crops to be productive. Moses said, “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow” (Deut 28:12). God created the universe and the world, and He controlled all His creation, including the earth's climate. God promised He would cause the rain to fall on the soil at optimal times so as to maximize the soil's production. Peter Craigie states: "One of the roles of God in the promised land would be the provision of fertility; fertility depended primarily on the rains. Without the rains, the crops could not grow, and without the crops and the other produce of the field, neither man nor his domestic animals could survive. Thus in v. 12, there is a very rich expression of the blessing of God, for in providing the rains, God was providing what would be the mainspring of life in Israel's land."[14]      God's blessings meant Israel would know economic stability in such a way that they would not have to borrow from others to engage in business ventures. In fact, Israel would be so prosperous, they would serve as bankers to others, in that they would lend to many nations and never have to borrow.      In Deuteronomy 28:13-14, Moses provided a summary statement of all God's goodness to His people as well as a final conditional clause. Moses said, “The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, 14 and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them” (Deut 28:13-14). If Israel would listen (שָׁמַע shama) to God's directives and observe them carefully, staying faithful in their walk with Him and not pursuing other gods, then His blessings would overtake them. Earl Kalland notes:      Israel would move upward from her current status to that of the head among the nations, rather than become (or continue to be) the tail (v.13). She would “always be at the top, never at the bottom.” But all this would be determined by the adherence of the people to the stipulations of the covenant-treaty that they had accepted from the Lord. They must “carefully follow them” and “not turn aside … to the right or to the left” (v.14) from any of the commands Moses was rehearsing to them that day.[15]      In closing, the specific body of laws that Israel would need to follow had been provided by Moses in Deuteronomy chapters 5 through 26. There was no guessing about God's expectations for His people, and His blessings or cursings would follow, depending on whether Israel would obey or disobey the Lord (Deut 11:26-28). To be clear, the Mosaic Law was never intended to be a means of salvation, but a rule for life that could be obeyed by Israel who were in a covenant relationship with Him and who walked humbly with their Lord (see Deut 5:33; 8:6; 10:12-13; 29:29; 30:15-16; 31:11; Psa 1:2-3; 119:9-11).   [1] Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 91. [2] In the larger picture, God gives common grace to everyone (Matt 5:44-45; Acts 14:16-17), and this in order to win their hearts to Him, as He “is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). However, God's common grace does not last forever, and if people turn away from Him and pursue wickedness (Rom 1:18-23), He will let them go their sinful way (Rom 1:24-32; cf., Psa 81:12-13), and they will eventually perish in their sin. For the rebel-believer, it means being least in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:19; cf. 1 Cor 3:15), but for the unbeliever, it means suffering eternally in the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:11-15). [3] Blessing is a relative term even in our own societies. According to The World Bank, as of 2018, half the world's population lives on less than $5.50 a day (https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/10/17/nearly-half-the-world-lives-on-less-than-550-a-day). According to Pew research data in 2015, the poor in the US are much better off than the poor in other countries (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/09/how-americans-compare-with-the-global-middle-class/). [4] Remember that Israelites, in the wilderness, were not content with the God's provision of manna and complained to the Lord to give them meat (Num 11:4-6). God gave them what they asked for, but they did not enjoy it (Num 11:18-20, 31-34), as “He gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease among them” (Psa 106:15). [5] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 353. [6] John N. Oswalt, “285 בָּרַך,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 132. [7] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, 354. [8] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 167. [9] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, 354. [10] Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1066. [11] Ibid., 433. [12] Jack S. Deere, “Deuteronomy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 311–312. [13] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 451. [14] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 337. [15] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, 168.

     In this section, Moses directs Israelite farmers to pay the triennial tithe, which God intended for the Levites, strangers, orphans and widows in their towns (Deut 26:12-15). Then Moses closes this section by directing all Israel to obey the Lord and walk with Him, and that if they do, God will bless and exalt them above all the nations (Deut 26:16-19). Reminder to Give the Triennial Tithe      Moses opens this section, saying, “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied” (Deut 26:12). In a previous section, Moses had addressed the annual tithe of produce that was to be taken to the tabernacle/temple and eaten with the family and Levites (Deut 14:22-27). Here, Moses references the tithe that was taken every third year and deposited—not at the sanctuary—but in the Israelite's own town. This triennial tithe was for the less fortunate and vulnerable within the community (see Deut 14:28-29). It's likely the food was stored in city storerooms where the poor could go and draw from those resources over a period of time and not merely on one occasion.      God had blessed Israel with freedom (Deut 5:6), land (Deut 4:1; 9:6), and the ability to make a profit (Deut 8:18). Giving the tithe was a test of their heart, to see if they loved the Lord and would trust Him as their Provider. When it came to helping the Levite, the alien, the orphan, and the widow, Israelites were to be generous and open-handed when surrendering the tenth of their labor-produce. This tithe would secure the needs of the economically vulnerable in the community. By means of this contribution, obedient-to-the-Word Israelites would serve as conduits of God's grace. When the Israelite farmer followed God's Word and gave this tithe to help the Levite, the alien, the orphan, and the widow, he revealed the two-dimensional way his mind and will operated as he looked upward to the Lord in faith and then acted outward for the benefit of others.      Moses continued, saying, “You shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments” (Deut 26:13). The Israelite farmers, after setting aside this tithe, were to make a declaration “before the LORD” in which they stated their faithful obedience to God's directive. Daniel Block believes the statement was made at the tabernacle/temple, saying, “After Israelite farmers have demonstrated covenantal loyalty to Yahweh by taking care of the poor, they are to make a pilgrimage to the central sanctuary and perform the verbal ritual that follows.”[1] However, Peter Craigie holds that the statement was probably made at the Israelite's home, saying, “After distributing the tithe, the worshipper made a declaration before the Lord your God; since the words were probably to be spoken in the settlements, not at the central sanctuary, these words may indicate that this worship and declaration in the third year of settlement were performed in the home.”[2] This latter view makes more sense, since the food that was set aside by the farmer was handed over to the local residents.      The collection and giving of the tithe of produce every third year was an act of loyal obedience by the Israelite farmer. Apparently, it was collected and stored at the farmer's home until the appropriate time when it was handed over. Moses calls this tithe “the sacred portion” because it was sacred to the Lord, for His glory and the benefit of His people. The tithe of produce was to be held on deposit in the Israelite's home until the day it was delivered to the Levite and the alien, the orphan, and the widow in the community. Here, giving to God's needy people was the same as giving to God Himself; an identification truth we find elsewhere in Scripture (Matt 25:34-40; Acts 9:1-4). Earl Kalland states: "Being sacred, the tenth is definitely not for the donor's use. This sacred tithe was not conceived of as merely a secular tax for the welfare of the poor but as an act inspired by the Lord. Both the giving of it by the donor and the reception of it by the Levite or underprivileged were spiritual acts, and the tithe itself was to be recognized as holy."[3]      Additionally, the Israelite was to say, “I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me” (Deut 26:14). The offering of the tithe was given to God and others, not because the offerer had produced it by means of his own hard work and clever industry, but because God had blessed him, both with the land and the power to make wealth. Once the tithe was dedicated to God, it was to be treated as sacred and could not be touched for any other purpose. That the farmer had not eaten any of the tithe while mourning, nor removed any of it while unclean, nor offered it to the dead, all seems to refer to Canaanite pagan practices that were forbidden by God. Eugene Merrill states: "The best understanding here is that he had not participated in use of the tithe while engaged in pagan rites of fertility or sympathetic magic. Such rites were characteristic of Canaanite worship as a means of inducing the underworld deities to fertilize the soil and guarantee a bountiful harvest. They would include the presentation of offerings and a sacred drama in which weeping and lamentation would play a part (cf. Ezek 8:14)…Ordinary mourning occasioned by death was not in view here, however, for the offerer was to disclaim having made any offering to the dead. This no doubt is to be understood in terms of Canaanite ritual in which deities such as Baal who had been consigned to the Netherworld were sustained by food offerings until they could revive and return to their procreative function on the earth."[4]      Having declared covenant loyalty to the Lord, the Israelite was to ask God to fulfill His Word to them by blessing their efforts, saying, “Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers” (Deut 26:15). Though the Israelite was to address God in heaven, it was understood that God was everywhere present (Psa 139:7-10; Isa 66:1-2). The request for God to bless His people was in keeping with His promise to them. The blessing included both His people and the land He'd given to them. The land which God was giving to His people was of particular interest to the Lord, as He'd promised it to the patriarchs and their descendants (Gen 17:7-8; 26:3-4; 28:13-14). Moses described it as “a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year” (Deut 11:12). God's blessing upon His people did not mean everyone would receive equal outcomes, as social and economic stratification continued throughout the nation. Rather, it meant all would be cared for under Yahweh's protections and provisions. Directive to Obey All the Lord's Commands      Having discussed Israel's obligations after entering the land of Canaan, Moses here calls his hearers back to the present, and the primary concern of living in obedience to all God's directives. Moses states, “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut 26:16). Though Moses had been speaking, what was being communicated was the Word of God; saying, “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances” (Deut 26:16a). Adhering to these directives meant they were following God.      Furthermore, obedience to God implied they'd heard His Word and committed it to their hearts. This was not a one and done event. If Israel was to display covenant loyalty, it meant nothing less than a lifelong devotion to learning God's Word and then applying it by faith to every aspect of their lives, whether marriage, family, work, war, economics, social activities, judicial matters, or religious duties. For the committed Israelite, it meant “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psa 1:2). He says, “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psa 119:97). Unfortunately, most of Israel's history was marked by disobedience, and this grieved the Lord (see Psa 81:11-14).      Having heard God's commitment to His people and providing directives for them to follow, the people were to recognize the solemnity of their oaths, as Moses states, “You have today declared the LORD to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice” (Deut 26:17). Having agreed to the terms of the covenant, God then promised to bless them if they kept His directives. Moses said, “The LORD has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; 19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken” (Deut 26:18-19).      In this statement, both God and Israel promised to keep their part of the covenant agreement. Israel was to learn and faithfully observe God's directives. This was true for the generation that Moses was addressing, as well as subsequent generations born into the covenant community. If Israel would walk with the Lord, He would elevate them above all other nations. The result would be that Israel receive “praise, fame, and honor” by the other nations. Earl Radmacher states, “These verses conclude the legal corpus of Deuteronomy (12:1–26:19) in which Moses developed and applied the laws of the Book of the Covenant to a new situation, as Israel was about to enter the land. It is also an appropriate anticipation of the next section with its focus on covenant renewal (27:1–30:20).”[5] This last statement anticipates the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 that God promised to pour out on His people if they would walk with Him and obey His commands. Israel Past, Present, and Future      God called Abraham into a special relationship (Gen 12:1-3; 15:1-18), and through his descendants, God would form a special nation (Gen 17:7-8). Abraham's descendants went into Egypt, where they stayed for 400 years (Gen 15:13; 46:1-4; cf. Ex 12:40). Afterwards, God called Israel out of Egypt in 1445 BC under the leadership of Moses. When that happened, God created the nation of Israel (Isa 43:1), which He intended to be His holy people (Deut 7:6), to walk with Him in righteousness (Deut 5:33; 8:6). Under the Mosaic Law, Israel would know blessing if they obeyed God's commands (Deut 28:1-15) and cursing if they did not (Deut 28:16-68). After Moses died, God brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan (i.e., the land promised to Abraham) under the leadership of Joshua (Deut 31:23; Josh 1:1-9), and there the land was divided, giving a portion to each of the descendants of Jacob. After Joshua died (Josh 24:29-31), Israel repeatedly fell into idolatry and suffered divine discipline for their rebellion (read Judges). This went on for over 300 years as Israel fell into a pattern of idolatry. The period of the Judges was marked by people who did not obey the Lord, but “did what was right in their own eyes” (Judg 17:6; 21:25). Samuel was the last of Israel's judges, and then the people cried for a king because they wanted to be like the other nations (1 Sam 8:4-5). God gave them their request (1 Sam 8:22), and Saul became the first king in Israel (1 Sam 10:1). Though Saul started well, he quickly turned away from the Lord and would not obey God's commands. Saul reigned for approximately 40 years and his leadership was a failure (1 Sam 13:1; cf. Acts 13:21). Later, God raised up David to be king in Israel (1 Sam 16:1-13), and David reigned for 40 years and was an ideal king who followed God and encouraged others to do the same (1 Ki 2:10-11). God decreed David's throne would be established forever through one of his descendants (2 Sam 7:16; Psa 89:3-4, 34-36), and this is Jesus (Luke 1:31-33). After David died, Solomon reigned for 40 years (1 Ki 2:12; 11:42-43), and though He was wise and did many good things (ruled well, built the temple, wrote Scripture, etc.), he eventually turned away from God and worshiped idols (1 Ki 11:1-10), and the kingdom was divided afterward (1 Ki 11:11-41).      Solomon's son, Rehoboam, ruled over the two southern tribes (Judah) and Jeroboam ruled over the ten northern tribes (Israel). Israel—the northern kingdom—had 19 kings throughout its history and all were bad, as they led God's people into idolatry (i.e., the “sins of Jeroboam” 1 Ki 16:31; 2 Ki 3:3; 10:31; 13:2). The ten northern tribes came under divine discipline because of their idolatry and were destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Judah—the southern kingdom—had 20 kings throughout its history and 8 were good (some more than others), as they obeyed God and led others to do the same (they were committed to the Lord like David, 1 Ki 15:11). However, Judah repeatedly fell into idolatry—as the 10 northern tribes had done—and were eventually destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. The dispersion of Israel was promised by God if they turned away from Him and served other gods (Deut 28:63-68). Since the destruction by Babylon, Israel has been under Gentile dominance (Luke 21:24; Rom 11:25). After a temporary regathering under Ezra and Nehemiah, Israel continued under Gentile dominance with the Medes & Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Because of their rejection of Jesus as Messiah, God disciplined Israel again in AD 70, and the Jews were scattered all over the world (Jam 1:1; 1 Pet 1:1). Jesus' pronouncement of judgment was, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'” (Matt 23:37-39). The apostle Paul tells us, “a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob'” (Rom 11:25-26). Israel will be restored as God's special people when Messiah returns to establish His kingdom on earth (Rev 19:11-21; 20:4-6). Jack Deere states: "Through disobedience and rebellion, generation after generation of Israelites forfeited their right to be exalted over the nations. But Isaiah wrote that Israel's rebellion would not continue forever, for the Lord will raise up a generation of faithful Israelites in the future who will enjoy God's grace in a golden age of blessing (Isa 60–62). That age is commonly called the Millennium."[6]   [1] Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy, ed. Terry Muck (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 605. [2] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 322–323. [3] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 156. [4] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 336. [5] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 260. [6] Jack S. Deere, “Deuteronomy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 309.

     In Deuteronomy 23:1-8, Moses addresses immigration laws in ancient Israel, limiting who could worship in the assembly of the Lord. Moses opens, saying, “No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD” (Deut 23:1). The phrase, “one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off” is rendered more literally as “a man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off” (CSB). The practice of emasculation was done on servants who guarded a man's harem, and was practiced by men who were radical devotees of pagan worship. Daniel Block states, “this prohibition seems have been influenced by pagan religious rites of self-castration, perhaps as an ascetic act of self-torment or in pious imitation of the gods.”[1] The phrase, the assembly of the LORD (קָהָל יהוה qahal Yahweh), occurs six times in this section (vss. 1-8), showing God had concern for the sanctity of the congregation that met Him for instruction or worship. Previously, Moses had emphasized the positives of gathering for worship (Deut 12:7, 12; 16:11, 14), but here emphasized the negatives that excluded one from fellowship. Being excluded from worship among the Israelites did not mean one was excluded from the covenant community as a whole. Earl Kalland states, “Most likely this law did not exclude one from residence in areas where Israel was to live but rather from the benefits of full-fledged citizenship and most particularly (and maybe only) from participation in religious rites in the homes and at the tabernacle and later at the temple.”[2] Such exclusions based on physical defects were not limited to non-Israelites, as Levites with physical defects could not serve as priests at the tabernacle/temple (Lev 21:16-23). Even animals with physical defects were not eligible for sacrifice (Lev 1:10; 4:32).      Another person excluded from gathering at the assembly of the LORD was one born of illegitimate birth. Moses said, “No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD” (Deut 23:2). The phrase, one of illegitimate birth, translates the Hebrew noun מַמְזֵר mamzer, which refers to a “bastard, [or] child of incest.”[3] This could refer either to one who was the offspring of a pagan prostitute (cf., Deut 23:17-18), or perhaps from an incestuous relationship, which was practiced among the Canaanites (Lev 18-20). Such an exclusion might have sought to deter Israelites from pursuing immoral relationships.        Moses continued, saying, “No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, 4 because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you” (Deut 23:3-4). It should be remembered that the Ammonites and Moabites were the offspring of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his two daughters (Gen 19:30-38). Whatever their parentage, God prohibited the Ammonites and Moabites from participating in the worship of the Lord because they sought to curse His people (Num 22:1-6, 22-24, 31-33). Thomas Constable writes: "The main reason for the exclusion of the Ammonites and Moabites was the extreme hostility that these nations demonstrated toward Israel when Israel was approaching the Promised Land. Evidently Ammon participated with Moab in resisting Israel's passage, in seeking to curse the Israelites with Balaam's assistance, and or in corrupting the Israelites through sacred prostitution (Num 22–25)."[4]      As Israel traveled toward Canaan, they were met with hostility and opposition as Balak, the king of Moab (Num 22:4), hired Balaam to curse the Lord's people (Num 22:5-6). The word curse translates the Hebrew verb קָלַל qalal, which means to treat as small, little, or insignificant. This same word was used by God when He set forth the promises pertaining to the Abrahamic covenant, saying He would bless or curse others depending on how they treated Abraham and his descendants. God told Abraham, the progenitor of Israel, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses [קָלַל qalal] you I will curse [אָרָר arar]” (Gen 12:3). Allen Ross sates, “Those who blessed Abram would receive blessing from God; that is, those who supported and endorsed him in his faith would actually find enrichment. Conversely, if anyone treated Abram lightly, he must be cursed.”[5] God's promise to bless or curse was based on an unconditional covenant that started with Abraham and extended to his descendants forever (Gen 17:7; Num 24:9). Concerning the curse in Genesis 12:3, Arnold Fruchtenbaum states: "The first word for curse is kalal, which means “to treat lightly,” “to hold in contempt,” or “to curse.” To merely treat Abram and the Jews lightly is to incur the curse of God. The second word for curse used in this phrase (him that curses you will I curse) is aor, from the Hebrew root arah, which means “to impose a barrier,” “to ban.” This is a much stronger word for curse than the first one in the phrase…Therefore, even a light curse against Abram or against the Jews will bring a heavier curse from God."[6]      This cursing from God is seen in His opposition the Ammonites and Moabites when they sought to curse His people. Moses tells us, “Nevertheless, the LORD your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the LORD your God loves you” (Deut 23:5). God's people were under His divine protection, and no satanically inspired curse would penetrate the wall of fire around them. Solomon wrote, “Like a flitting sparrow or a fluttering swallow, an undeserved curse goes nowhere” (Prov 26:2 CSB). In fact, not only did God prohibit Balaam from cursing the Israelites, He directed him to bless them instead (Num. 23:7-10, 18-24; 24:3-9). Balaam's actions angered Balak, who said, “I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times!” (Num 24:10). God's protection from opposing military and spiritual forces was because He loved His people and desired their best. For Israel, knowing God's blessing was tied to their obedience to His directives (Deut 11:26-28). When they stepped outside God's will, they opened themselves up to all forms of evil as well as divine discipline.      Because the Ammonites and Moabites sought Israel's harm at the time of their journey from Kadesh Barnea into the land of Canaan, God said, “You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days” (Deut 23:6). Here was the boomerang effect, in which those who sought to curse God's people wound up bringing a curse upon themselves. This verse should be understood as referring to those who continued in hatred and hostility toward God's people and were excluded from treaty relationships. Daniel Block writes: "Previously Moses had noted Yahweh's love as the motivating force behind his election and rescue of Israel from Egypt (Deut 4:37; 7:8) and his lavish blessing (Deut 7:12), but here it underlies Yahweh's protection from hostile military and spiritual forces. Because the Moabites and Ammonites had opposed Yahweh and his agenda regarding the Israelites, the Israelites are never to seek their peace or their welfare. Since “a treaty of friendship” functions as a general expression for well-being in covenantal contexts, this may be a ban on treaties with Ammonites and Moabites."[7]      But God's dealing with Ammonites and Moabites did not exclude displays of grace. Remember, God had previously given the Ammonites and Moabites land south of Israel, and His people were to leave them alone (Deut 2:9, 19). Though the Ammonites and Moabites were collectively under divine judgment, and this because of their negative volition and hostility toward Him, He knew there would be descendants who would trust in Him and become part of the blessed community. This was the case with Ruth the Moabitess, who loved God and His people (Ruth 1:16-17), and was even included in the line of Christ (Ruth 4:13; Matt 1:5). Eugene Merrill writes: "Disbarment from the assembly was not synonymous with exclusion from the covenant community itself as the one example of Ruth the Moabite makes clear. Having determined to return with her Israelite mother-in-law to Bethlehem, she vowed: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). This was more than mere wishful thinking or personal resolve, for Ruth went on to marry a leading citizen of Bethlehem (4:13), and she eventually became a great-grandmother of King David (4:21). There can be no doubt that Ruth was welcomed among the people of the Lord as one of their own though presumably never with access to the assembly."[8]      In contrast to the hostility of Ammonites and Moabites, Moses said, “You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother; you shall not detest an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land” (Deut 23:7). The Edomites were the descendants of Esau (Gen 36:1, 8), who was born to Isaac and Rebekah (Gen 25:21-25), and therefore in the Abrahamic line and biologically related to Israel as a “brother.” Furthermore, Israel was not to detest the Egyptians. Though Israel had lived in Egyptian captivity for four centuries, their basic needs of safety, shelter, and food were met. Though Pharaoh and his administration were hostile to Israel, it does not appear this was the case with the Egyptian people themselves. As a result, Israelites were not to treat the Egyptians in a negative way. God Himself opened the door for the Egyptians, saying, “The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD” (Deut 23:8). This meant that after a time of exclusion, Egyptians could be allowed to worship in Israel alongside Israelites, assuming they had trusted in Yahweh and were willing to abide by His directives in the covenant community. Present Application      All Christians are called to walk with the Lord and to submit ourselves to Him for service. This means, in part, devoting ourselves to the study of Scripture (2 Tim 2:15; 1 Pet 2:2), offering our bodies for service to the Lord (Rom 12:1-2), living holy lives (1 Pet 1:15-16), regularly confessing our sins to God (1 John 1:6-9), sharing the gospel with others (Mark 16:15; Rom 15:15-16), assembling for worship (Heb 10:25), offering praise to God (Heb 13:15), doing good works (Gal 6:10; Heb 10:24), sharing our resources with others (Heb 13:16; cf. Phil 4:18), living selflessly for the benefit of others (Phil 2:17; cf. Phil 1:21-26; 2:3-4), praying constantly (1 Th 5:17), giving thanks (1 Th 5:18), and walking in love (Eph 5:1-2; cf. 1 Pet 1:22). These are just a few of the Christian duties that are to be obeyed by all believers.      However, apart from the general duties of all Christians, there are specific qualifications for some who would serve in a special way. For example, serving as a church elder or deacon means meeting certain qualifications; specifically, church elders are appointed by God (Acts 20:28; cf. Eph 4:11), consist of men only (1 Tim 3:2; Tit 1:6; cf. 1 Tim 2:12-14), and must be doctrinally, morally, and spiritually mature (1 Tim 3:1-7).[9] Failure to meet these qualifications disqualifies one to serve as a church elder or deacon within the local church.      Furthermore, there are some Christians who should be excluded from Christian fellowship, and these include believers who are continually teaching false doctrines or pursuing sin (this is not the occasional sin, but ongoing sin that harms the spiritual walk of others). The reason we should avoid such persons is partly because “bad associations corrupt good morals” (1 Cor 15:33). When writing to Christians in Corinth, Paul said, “I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (1 Cor 5:11). Disassociation was for the purpose of maintaining personal holiness with the Lord. We always hope the sinning Christian will come to his/her senses and come back into fellowship; however, we must maintain distance until they do. In another place Paul wrote, “I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them” (Rom 16:17). And, “We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us” (2 Th 3:6). Such actions are never easy, for we love fellow believers and desire friendship with them. However, our walk with God must always take priority, for He is our greatest Friend, and allegiance to Him secures for us all that is strong and good and meaningful in life. And if/when the erring believer turns back to the Lord and resumes their walk-in-the-Word, then all will be as it should, and fellowship within the Christian community can be restored.     [1] Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy, ed. Terry Muck (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 534–535. [2] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 140. [3] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 561. [4] Tom Constable, Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Dt 23:1. [5] Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 263. [6] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel's Bible Commentary: The Book of Genesis, 1st ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2008), 242. [7] Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy, 536. [8] Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, vol. 4, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 309. [9] The function pastors is to solve doctrinal problems in the church through biblical discussion and research (Acts 15:4-11, cf. Acts 16:4), work with “the whole church” on ministry matters (Acts 15:22), shepherd the church through general oversight (Acts 20:17; 28), guard against false teachers and their false doctrines (Acts 20:28-32), guide believers to spiritual maturity (Eph 4:11-14), be servant-leaders (1 Th 5:12; 1 Tim 5:17; Heb 13:7, 17), work hard at “preaching and teaching” (1 Tim 5:17; cf. Gal 6:6; Eph 4:11-14; 1 Th 5:12), receive financial support from those who benefit from their ministry (Gal 6:6; 1 Tim 5:17-18), and offer support and prayer for those who suffer (Jam 5:14).

     In our current section on case laws (Deut 19:1—26:19), we are considering how the nation of ancient Israel was to practice righteous living after they entered the land of Canaan (Deut 16:20), and how righteousness was measured by conformity to God's laws (Deut 6:24-25). In the previous section, Moses provided instruction concerning war with cities outside Canaan (Deut 20:10-15), and cities inside Canaan (Deut 20:16-20). In this pericope, Moses set forth a law concerning an unsolved murder, and then addressed the responsibilities God placed on the leaders of a nearby city to pronounce their innocence before the Lord (Deut 21:1-9). By following this law, the leaders of the city—elders, judges, and priests—were taking responsibility for what happened in their communities. Even though the city leaders were not personally responsible for the sinful act, it was still their problem as it fell under their jurisdiction, and God expected them to handle it in a specific way that satisfied His holiness, and this because He dwelt among His people.      Our current section opens with a scenario in which a murdered person is found lying in a field and the murderer is not known. Moses wrote, “If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, and it is not known who has struck him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one” (Deut 21:1-2). As stated on previous occasions, Moses described the land as that “which the LORD your God gives you to possess” (Deut 21:1a; cf., Deut 5:16; 17:14; 18:9; 19:1, 10, 14; 21:23; 24:4; 25:15, 19; 26:1-2; 27:2-3; 28:8). God owned the land (Lev 25:23), and He was granting it to His people as He'd promised to Abraham (Gen 12:7; 15:18), Isaac (Gen 26:3), and Jacob (Gen 28:13), but with the condition that they obey Him for blessing (Deut 28:1-14).      When the murderer could not be found, God instructed the elders and judges to investigate the matter and to “go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one” (Deut 21:2b). These would not be the judges and elders in the nearby city (Deut 16:18; 19:12), but those who served at the central sanctuary and served as a higher court (Deut 17:8-9). Warren Wiersbe states: "The “elders and judges” mentioned in Deuteronomy 21:2 are probably the “sanctuary court” mentioned in 17:8–13, and this would include the priests (21:5). This was the highest tribunal in the land and murder was a heinous crime. Furthermore, nobody had yet measured to see which city was nearest, so the elders and judges couldn't have come from that city. Once the nearest city had been determined, the elders of that city participated in the assigned ritual. We assume that the elders and judges investigated the case thoroughly before they took the steps outlined in these verses."[1]      God owned the land the Israelites would possess (Lev 25:23), and it was the place where He dwelt among His people. The Lord had said, “You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel” (Num 35:34). The land itself was to be treated as holy, as God Himself resided in it, among His people. When innocent people were murdered, God declared that “blood pollutes the land” (Num 35:33a). This was true when Cain killed his brother Abel, and God said to Cain, “The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground” (Gen 4:10). Concerning murder, the Lord also said, “no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it” (Num 35:33). That is, there was no atonement for the murderer that would acquit him of the punishment for his crime. The murderer was to bear the punishment for his crime, and this by the local government (Gen 9:5-6). However, in the current situation, the murderer could not be found to pay for his crime, yet God's holiness needed to be addressed. Some method of justice needed to be followed in order to remove the corporate guilt of the community.      Though the murdered person was not the fault of anyone living in the nearby city, it was still their problem, and God expected them to deal with it in a righteous manner. Corporate responsibility was common to ancient cultures. For example, in the ancient law Code of Hammurabi, if a person was murdered, and the murderer could not be found, then “the city and governor shall pay one mina [500 grams] of silver to his people.”[2] This payment was given to the family of the victim, and this by the governor of the city. Thomas Constable states, “Cities were responsible for murders committed within their jurisdictions. This indicates that there is corporate guilt in God's government. The ritual prescribed removed the pollution caused by bloodshed.”[3] Earl Kalland adds, “When the perpetrator of the crime cannot be detected, some method of removal of the guilt that then falls on the land and people must be secured…The procedure given in this section of Deuteronomy provides the means for satisfying the Lord's justice by the removal of corporate guilt.”[4]      The people of the city were to understand that all that happened in their community had an impact on God Himself. The city nearest the slain person would be required to take responsibility and follow the required actions to remove the guilt of their community. Specifically, it was the elders of the city who were to act, as they represented the community as a whole. Concerning the city elders, Moses said, “It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; 4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley” (Deut 21:3-4). The actions included taking a heifer that had never been worked, bring it to a valley with running water, which valley had never been plowed or sown, and there break the animal's neck. The unworked heifer, the clean running water, and the unplowed valley seem to provide a picture of purity. To be clear, this was not a sacrifice, for the animal was not offered by a priest on an altar. Rather, killing the heifer appears to be a symbolic act of what the officials—and the community—would do to the murderer if he were in their hands. In this way, they demonstrated to all that they were willing to take responsibility for their community and adhere to God's high standards of justice.      After the elders of the city performed this act, God then called for the priests, saying, “Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them” (Deut 21:5). Though the city elders were mainly responsible for adjudicating the matter—for they represented their community—God also required the Levitical priests to be present, as they represented the people to God. Here we see both a horizontal and vertical aspect of righteousness within a community. The function of the priests seems to picture a final absolution of the matter. Furthermore, we see in this situation a shared responsibility between the religious and the judicial.      After the priests had performed their duty, Moses then states, “All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it'” (Deut 21:6-7). Here, the elders of the city who followed this act were then to wash their hands over the dead body of the heifer and pronounce their innocence concerning the murder, that they neither had any part in the heinous act, nor knew who the murderer was. Earl Radmacher states, “The elders of the city bore the responsibility for the murder, even though they were not personally guilty. It was up to them to seek atonement for the murder.”[5] Peter Craigie adds: "The elders of the city that accepted responsibility for the dead man washed their hands over the broken-necked heifer. The symbolism of the various actions now becomes clear: the crime deserved to be punished, as the broken neck of the heifer indicated, but the hand-washing of the elders showed that, although they accepted responsibility for what had happened, they were nevertheless free from the guilt attached to the crime."[6]      Then the elders of the city were to say, ‘“Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.' And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them” (Deut 21:8). Forgiveness followed the action of the elders who followed the Lord's instructions. The word forgive, which appears twice in this verse, translates the Hebrew verb כָּפַר kaphar, which commonly means “to appease someone…to make amends…to make atonement.”[7] The word is often connected with the atonement that comes when a priest sheds an animal's blood on the altar (Lev 17:11). Here, however, the word connotes an appeasement for justice. Though the elders of the city were innocent, they accepted responsibility for the horrendous crime committed nearest to their community, and sought to balance the scales of justice by means of killing a heifer (as though he were the murderer), washing their hands (a picture of innocence), and by prayer to God (who is the offended Person). Their request to God was, “Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD” (Deut 21:8a). The language recalled God's redemptive work for all Israel, when He redeemed His people from Egypt and called them out to be a special people who represented Him to others. Here was a corporate mindset in which the elders of the community took responsibility for those under their care. If they followed these procedures as prescribed, then “the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them” (Deut 21:8b).      The act of the elders did not forgive the murderer of his crime. The blood of the animal was not shed. Furthermore, the act was performed by the elders of the city as the priests watched. The place where the animal was killed was an unworked field, not at an altar. There was no removal of sin for the murderer, only the elimination of any suspected guilt on the part of the elders of the city and the community as a whole.      Moses closed this pericope, saying, “So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD” (Deut 21:9). Murder is bad business, as it stains the community where it occurs. The stain was washed away when the elders and priests of the city accepted responsibility for the matter and followed the Lord's instruction for cleansing. The elders and priests were not admitting guilt for the crime, for they were innocent. Rather, by following the Lord's instructions, they were publicly testifying concerning what they would do to the murderer if he were in their hands, and in this way, showed their sense of righteousness agreed with the righteousness of God. In this way, God's justice was emphasized and upheld.      In the grand scheme of life, no one gets away with murder. God sees all that happens. ‘“Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?' declares the LORD. ‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD'” (Jer 23:24). Though the murderer was not found and judged by human courts, God Himself sees what happens in His world, and He will eventually execute justice in His time and way. For God is “the Judge of all the earth” (Gen 18:25), and He “is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day” (Psa 7:11). No one escapes God's final judgment. Present Application      The Bible teaches both individual and corporate responsibility. God holds each person accountable for what they think, say, and do. However, individual actions can impact the lives of others, both in the moment as well as in the future. For example, when Adam sinned, we all sinned with him (Rom 5:12), and so we are spiritually dead (Eph 2:1-2). Here is corporate guilt. On the other hand, Christ died for sinners (Rom 5:8), and when we trust in Jesus as Savior (John 3:16), we share in His life and righteousness (John 10:28; Phil 3:9). We are all born in Adam at physical birth, and are born again spiritually at the moment of faith in Christ. All humanity is either in Adam or in Christ (1 Cor 15:21-21).      Individual actions have consequences that impact the lives of others. Abraham's disobedience in going to Egypt caused problems both for him and Sarah (Gen 12:10-20). David's disobedience to God in taking an unauthorized census led to the death of 70,000 Israelites (1 Chron 21:1-14). Of course, God disciplined David because of his affair with Bathsheba as well as the murder of her husband, Uriah, and God's judgment impacted David's family in the years that followed (2 Sam 12:5-15; cf. 2 Sam 13:1—18:33). Jonah's disobedience nearly killed his fellow travelers (Jonah 1:12). When Joshua and the army of Israel came against the city of Ai, Israel was soundly defeated and 36 soldiers died (Josh 7:1-5). When Joshua cried out to the Lord and asked why they were defeated (Josh 7:6-10), the Lord said, “Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things” (Josh 7:11). When investigated further (Josh 7:12-19), it was found that one man, Achan (likely with the knowledge of his wife and family), was responsible for the sin. Achan said, “I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel” (Josh 7:20).      Addressing individual responsibility, God said to Ezekiel, “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die” (Ezek 18:4). And, “The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself” (Ezek 18:20). There is suffering that can come from God, and there is suffering that can come from our connection to others. Children may bear the consequences of their parents' sins, but only as the consequences fall naturally into the lap of the child because of their relationship with their parents. But children do not suffer by the hand of God for the sins their parents commit. John Barry affirms, saying, “Corporate responsibility for sin does not mean succeeding generations are punished for the sins of earlier generations. But, the consequences of the sins of earlier generations may affect later generations.”[8]Walter Kaiser states: "Ezekiel 18 focuses on the responsibility of the individual for individual guilt. That is one side of the coin. But the Bible also recognizes the reality of the concept of corporate responsibility when it comes to accounting for the effect of some individual sins. The case of Achan in Joshua 7:1–26 is the best example of corporate solidarity, for when Achan sinned, it was said that all Israel had sinned as well. We can understand how one traitor can sell a whole army into major trouble, but we forget how the effects of some sins fall on whole communities, nations or assemblies of persons. In the case in Ezekiel 21, the sword would cut both the righteous and the wicked. That is because in war often both the good and the bad fall. But that was not to say that everyone was individually guilty; no, it was the effect that reached and impacted all."[9]      Corporately, Israelite communities were organic, with each part touching and impacting the other, such that no one operated in complete isolation, nor in a completely neutral manner. Like two sides of a coin, individual actions impact a community, for better or worse; and the communities' overall health affects its individual members, either in positive or negative ways. William Raccah states, “Ancient Israelite culture was therefore organic in that each of its parts was interdependent on the others, yet at the same time retained its independence in certain aspects”[10]      It should be noted that God sometimes allows His innocent people to be swept up in the judgment He brings upon a nation, and this because He plans to use them to serve as His representatives. God permitted Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, and Ezekiel to go into Babylonian captivity, though they had not personally been disobedient to the Lord. God then worked through these men to demonstrate to others how a godly life could be maintained in the midst of a hostile pagan culture. Their trials provided an opportunity for them to grow spiritually and to shine in a dark place.      Just as God was seen to be in the midst of His people, Israel (Num 35:34), so today, in the church age, Jesus walks in the midst of His churches and evaluates us. In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, the seven churches in Asia Minor were referred to as lampstands, and Jesus is seen “in the middle of the lampstands” (Rev 1:13) as “the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands” (Rev 2:1). Each home-church was under constant review by the Lord Jesus Christ. Out of the seven churches, Jesus gave praise only for two (Smyrna and Philadelphia), both praise and rebuke to four (Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis), and rebuke only for one (Laodicea). And Jesus also gave instructions for each church, to continue what was right, or to correct what was wrong.      Though individual in nature, each church was part of the “body of Christ” (Eph 4:12; cf. Eph 1:23) which makes up the universal church. Paul wrote, for “you are Christ's body, and individually members of it” (1 Co 12:27), and, “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor 12:26). As Christians, we must think in terms of individual and corporate responsibility, realizing our actions not only impact us, but the lives of others with whom we are in regular contact. It is essential to our spiritual development that we accept responsibility for the things we do as well as the things that come into our lives, even though we may not be the cause. And we can pray for God to remove difficulties, but what He does not remove, He intends for us to deal with, and this for our spiritual development and witness to others.   [1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub., 1999), 139–140. [2] James Bennett Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament , 3rd ed. with Supplement. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), 167. [3] Tom Constable, Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Dt 21:1. [4] Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 130. [5] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 255–256. [6] Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 279–280. [7] Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 494. [8] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Dt 24:16. [9] Walter C. Kaiser Jr. et al., Hard Sayings of the Bible (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), 315. [10] William Raccah, “Sociology and the Old Testament,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the fantasy martial arts movie "Fistful Of Vengeance", and a review of the retro indie action rpg "Infernax". Then, some thoughts on how God's wisdom can help geeks fight depression, as we continue our study of Proverbs.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:27 Fistful Of Vengeance Review00:12:38 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:23:33 The Weekly Word (Numbers 8-21 and Psalms 42-46)00:33:58 Infernax Video Game Review00:41:26 How God's Wisdom Helps Geeks Fight Depression (Proverbs Bible Study)00:50:43 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Christian Fantasy Publishing, Focusing On Jesus To Fight Sin,)00:54:39 Paeter's Geek Week (Far Cry 6[Embracing "Die Hard" Vs. "Tom Clancy"], DC Comics & DC Universe Infinite[Sinestro: #1-3, Finishing Gail Simone's Batgirl: #27-33, Justice League: 30-33 Lex Luthor In The Justice League & the new "Power Ring"], Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Update)01:23:55 Next Episode01:25:56 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions SUMMER INSANITY '22 Info Page: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2022/01/summer-insanity-22.html“Weekly Word” Bible Reading Plan & Info: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2021/12/read-bible-in-year-with-me-weekly-word.html Submit your review of a FREE PnP Tabletop RPG for this year's "Summer Of Free!" Deadline May 1st 2022, send submissions (written or audio) to paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)com Looking for options? Try here to start: https://github.com/Zireael07/awesome-tabletop-rpgsEpisodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2022, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:Part two of a retrospective review of DC Comics' "Green Lantern: Rebirth, and some "phoned-in" thoughts and reactions about Dyling Light 2: Stay Human. Then, how wisdom can help geeks both socially and financially, as we continue our study of Proverbs. PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:42 Dying Light 2 "Phoned-In" Review00:33:09 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:46:45 The Weekly Word (Leviticus 16-27, Numbers 1-7 and Psalms 35-41)00:59:50 Green Lantern: Rebirth Retrospective Review, Part 2 (Essential Issues)01:26:57 Social & Financial Benefits Of Wisdom (Proverbs Bible Study)01:36:06 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (An Alternate Opinion On Ghostbusters: Afterlife)01:41:59 Paeter's Geek Week (Superbowl Plans, Ghostbusters: Answer The Call Extended Edition, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[RNG Dead-ends, Gold Rathian Surspike Arena Farming & "Boss Fight" Fatigue], Looking For A New "Monster Hunting" Game[The Witcher 3, Monster Hunter: Rise, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Saving For A Switch?])02:08:12 Next Episode02:10:19 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions SUMMER INSANITY '22 Info Page: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2022/01/summer-insanity-22.html“Weekly Word” Bible Reading Plan & Info: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2021/12/read-bible-in-year-with-me-weekly-word.html Submit your review of a FREE PnP Tabletop RPG for this year's "Summer Of Free!" Deadline May 1st 2022, send submissions (written or audio) to paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)com Looking for options? Try here to start: https://github.com/Zireael07/awesome-tabletop-rpgsEpisodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2022, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and as our study of Proverbs continues we take a look at what it means to "fear" God and "hate" evil, and how getting those things wrong can really cause problems for geeks!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:28 Ghostbusters: Afterlife Review00:14:45 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:31:51 The Weekly Word (Exodus 35-40, Leviticus 1-15, and Psalms 29-34)00:38:39 "Fearing" God & "Hating" Evil (Proverbs Bible Study)00:52:24 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Needing God's Grace As We Try To Grow)00:55:42 Paeter's Geek Week (Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Mummy's Mask["Trigger" Rule Changes], Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[The Gameplay Loop I Love & Why Future Monster Hunter Games Should Be Like The Guiding Lands], God Eater Resurrection & Searching For My Next "Monster Hunting Game", PSA: Darkest Dungeon $5 on PS Store, JCservant of RPGamer & The Hunt Podcast, Ghostbusters: Answer The Call["3D" Effects, Script/Tone/Jokes/Alternate Cut, Casting Comedic Actors, Could Answer The Call Fit In The Main Timeline?])01:39:38 Next Episode01:43:06 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions SUMMER INSANITY '22 Info Page: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2022/01/summer-insanity-22.html“Weekly Word” Bible Reading Plan & Info: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2021/12/read-bible-in-year-with-me-weekly-word.html Submit your review of a FREE PnP Tabletop RPG for this year's "Summer Of Free!" Deadline May 1st 2022, send submissions (written or audio) to paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)com Looking for options? Try here to start: https://github.com/Zireael07/awesome-tabletop-rpgsEpisodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2022, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:Part 1 of a retrospective review of Green Lantern: Rebirth, a listeners alternate take and criticism of DC Comics' "Identity Crisis", and Paeter's "Phoned-In" Review for the premiere of Amazon Prime's The Legend Of Vox Machina, and some thoughts about prioritizing God over geek hobbies as we continue our study of Proverbs. PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:48 A Literary Criticism Of DC's "Identity Crisis"00:37:00 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News (CGC "Summer Insanity" Announcement)00:53:43 The Weekly Word (Exodus 10-34, and Psalms 20-28)01:03:22 Legend Of Vox Machina Premiere Review01:13:15 Prioritizing God over geek hobbies (Proverbs Bible Study)01:27:19 Green Lantern: Rebirth Retrospective DC Comics Review, Part 1 (Essential Issues)02:19:33 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Will I Review Elden Ring, 30fps vs 60fps, )02:31:08 Paeter's Geek Week (DC Universe Infinite[While Cozy With My Wife, "Dropping" Green Lantern Corps/Green Lantern & Aquaman,], Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[Silver Rathalos, "Fortify" In The Guiding Lands, Is Monster Hunter an Action-RPG?], Considering The Board Game "Marching Order")03:00:55 Next Episode03:02:20 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions SUMMER INSANITY '22 Info Page: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2022/01/summer-insanity-22.html“Weekly Word” Bible Reading Plan & Info: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2021/12/read-bible-in-year-with-me-weekly-word.html Submit your review of a FREE PnP Tabletop RPG for this year's "Summer Of Free!" Deadline May 1st 2022, send submissions (written or audio) to paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)com Looking for options? Try here to start: https://github.com/Zireael07/awesome-tabletop-rpgsEpisodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2022, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:Paeter's picks for the best movies, shows and games of 2021! PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:33 Best* New & Old Games Of 202100:25:03 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News 00:31:03 The Weekly Word (Genesis 40-End, Exodus 1-9, and Psalms 15-19)00:41:23 Best Movies & Shows Of 202100:54:48 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Moon Knight Trailer Reactions, Does Paeter Like To Troll & Mess With People?,)01:16:07 Paeter's Geek Week (My Son Broke His Arm, Gangster Squad[Gangster & Western Movies As "Superhero" Stories], Far Cry 6 Vs Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Darkest Dungeon[2nd Assault], Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard)01:51:14 Next Episode01:54:49 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions “Weekly Word” Bible Reading Plan & Info: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2021/12/read-bible-in-year-with-me-weekly-word.html Submit your review of a FREE PnP Tabletop RPG for this year's "Summer Of Free!" Deadline May 1st 2022, send submissions (written or audio) to paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)com Looking for options? Try here to start: https://github.com/Zireael07/awesome-tabletop-rpgsEpisodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2022, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the season 2 premiere for Superman & Lois, a review of the "Symphony Of The Night"-inspired game "Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit In WonderLabyrinth", a review of Marvel's Eternals, and brief reviews of the series premieres for both Naomi & Peacemaker. We also take a look at how God wants to help us feel less out of place or like victims of sin by growing in wisdom!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:40 Superman & Lois Season 2 Premiere Review00:16:43 Record Of Lodoss War: Deedlit In Wonder Labyrinth Review00:27:56 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News 00:39:25 The Weekly Word (Genesis 25-45 and Psalms 8-14)00:47:53 Eternals Review01:02:40 Naomi Series Premiere Phoned-In Review01:15:32 Feeling Less "Alien" & Victims Of Sin (Proverbs Bible Study) 01:25:23 Peacemaker Series Premiere Phoned-In Review01:37:54 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Rober Jordan's "Eye Of The World", Talking About My Wife & Boys In CGC Content, Valuing Games Over Real Experiences)01:56:35 Paeter's Geek Week (Quitting Playstation Spider-man, Xbox Series X Vs. PS5[Hard Drives & Exclusives], Finishing Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Assassin's Creed Valhalla[Pillaging & Being Evil], The Thing Prequel With My Son, Exploring Themes From "Eternals" With My Boys, Returning To DC Universe Infinite[Forever Evil, A Reading Schedule?])02:37:43 Next Episode02:39:19 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions “Weekly Word” Bible Reading Plan & Info: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2021/12/read-bible-in-year-with-me-weekly-word.html Submit your review of a FREE PnP Tabletop RPG for this year's "Summer Of Free!" Deadline May 1st 2022, send submissions (written or audio) to paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)com Looking for options? Try here to start: https://github.com/Zireael07/awesome-tabletop-rpgsEpisodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2022, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of The Matrix Resurrections, a review of the first two episodes of The Book Of Boba Fett, a review of the Fatesworn DLC for Kingdoms Of Amalur Re-Reckoning, and some thoughts about finding purpose and "joy" in the slog of life as Paeter looks to scripture (and the Man Of Steel Soundtrack) to navigate his "post-Christmas Blues". This episode also features the first installment of a new weekly segment called The Weekly Word, chronicling Paeter's experience as he attempts to read through the Bible in one year!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:03:08 The Matrix Resurrections Review00:32:06 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News 00:54:46 The Weekly Word (With Introduction)01:11:34 Kingdoms Of Amalur Fatesworn DLC Review01:26:38 Finding Purpose & "Joy" In The Slog Of Life 01:41:10 The Book Of Boba Fett Premiere Review01:52:47 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Finding A Local Church, Struggling With "The Bible In A Year")02:03:57 Paeter's Geek Week (Spider-man: Miles Morales & Spider-man Playstation, Far Cry 6, The Games I Have Are PLENTY!, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds, The Eye Of The World by Robert Jordan[The Wheel Of Time Book 1], The Wheel Of Time Amazon Prime Season 1, Free Guy, John Carpenter's The Thing [A.K.A. "Among Us: The Movie"], Freaks, Love And Monsters, Boss Level, My Wife Is FINALLY Caught Up On Marvel Movies,)02:50:42 Next Episode02:56:04 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions “Weekly Word” Bible Reading Plan & Info: https://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/2021/12/read-bible-in-year-with-me-weekly-word.html Submit your review of a FREE PnP Tabletop RPG for this year's "Summer Of Free!" Deadline May 1st 2022, send submissions (written or audio) to paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)comEpisodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2022, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the DC Animated movie "Justice Society World War II", part 2 of a DC Comics retrospective review for "Identity Crisis", and some thoughts about Geeks & the value of attending a local church(recorded in 2015). Then, Paeter looks back at 2021 and the big changes that happened both for Christian Geek Central and his own life! And finally, Paeter's responses to listener questions about Paeter's "Desert Island" geek hobby choice and what kind of story is too dark or disturbing for him to handle!(No Geek Week, News or B5 Schawarma segments this week.)PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:07:10 Justice Society World War II Review00:16:21 DC Comics' "Identity Crisis" Retrospective, Part 2 (ESSENTIAL ISSUES)00:52:39 Geeks & The Value Of The Local Church (2015 Recording w/ Updated Thoughts)01:14:33 Reflecting On 2021 (For CGC & Paeter Personally)01:51:38 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Paeter's "Desert Island" Geek Hobby, Content That Is Even Too Dark & Disturbing For Paeter)02:06:01 Next EpisodeSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A list of Geeky Christmas movies, shows and games you can enjoy as you take time off! What Christian Geeks surprisingly have in common with The Little Drummer Boy, and Paeter's favorite geeky Christmas gift memories from childhood! Plus Paeter's responses to a listener's weird questions!(No Geek Week, News or B5 Schawarma segments this week.)TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:06:00 Christmas Geek Movies, TV Shows & Games00:51:32 Paeter's Favorite Geeky Christmas Gifts01:06:46 How Christian Geeks Are Like The Little Drummer Boy (Christmas Geek Devotional)01:24:24 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Eating Or Writing With Writing Utensils, Shrink Ray Or Enlarging Ray?)01:31:23 Next EpisodeSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A Review of Spider-man: No Way Home & Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and some thoughts on how Christmas Nostalgia can be spiritually valuable!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:29 Venom: Let There Be Carnage Review00:09:41 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News (Paeter's Christmas Songs: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59834484 )00:37:02 Spider-man: No Way Home Review00:48:41 The Spiritual Value Of Christmas Nostalgia00:55:51 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Was Venom: Let There Be Carnage Made For Kids? Switching To Home Release Movie Reviews)01:08:17 Paeter's Geek Week (Spider-man: Miles Morales[Challenge Missions & Open World Activities], Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Fatesworn DLC, Amazing Spider-man 2, The Wheel Of Time Amazon Series)01:26:30 Next Episode01:28:41 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the movie "Encounter" on Amazon Prime, and some thoughts about being on guard while navigating entertainment as we continue our study of Proverbs.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:20 Encounter (Amazon Prime) Review00:13:02 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:30:00 Being On Guard While Navigating Entertainment (Proverbs Bible Study)00:39:31 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Should Christians Draw Gory/Horror Art, An Alternate Opinion On "Identity Crisis", Is Supernaturally-themed Entertainment Harmful?01:08:52 Paeter's Geek Week (Loki TV Series, Spider-man: Miles Morales, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Clutchclaw,)01:29:16 Next Episode01:34:54 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the season 3 premiere for Lost In Space On Netflix, Part 1 of a DC Comics Retrospective review of "Identity Crisis", and a look at some red flags that indicate we are being targeted for temptation as we continue looking at Proverbs chapter 7. Then later some updated thoughts after finishing both The Mandalorian Season 2 and The Falcon And The Winter Soldier!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:02:05 Lost In Space Season 3 Premiere Review00:14:43 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:28:58 DC Comics' "Identity Crisis" Retrospective, Part 1 (ESSENTIAL ISSUES)01:10:19 Signs You're Being Targeted For Temptation (Proverbs Bible Study)01:21:35 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (1 Thessalonians 5:22 & The "Appearance Of Evil", Is The DC Snyderverse Returning?)01:36:39 Paeter's Geek Week (Cancelling My Playstation Plus Subscription, The Mandalorian Season 2, Gaming With Christmas Music "DLC", Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[Augmenting Defense In The Guiding Lands], The Falcon And The Winter Soldier[Spoiler Reactions],)02:25:40 Next Episode02:27:02 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the series premiere for Hawkeye, and some thoughts about how being thankful to God is both what God deserves and what geeks need to practice for their own well-being!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:53 Hawkeye Disney Plus Series Premiere Review00:13:27 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:27:18 How Being Thankful Helps Geeks And Honors God (Bible Study)00:40:43 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Wheel Of Time Review Feedback From Fans Of The Books,)00:53:06 Paeter's Geek Week (Playing Dungeons & Dragons With My Son As DM, Skyrim Creation Club Survival Mode: Modified[Salt Piles, Warm Inns & Camping], Appreciating Changes Between Robert Jordan's "Eye Of The World" & the "Wheel Of Time" Amazon Premiere, Preparing To Become A PC Gamer, Trying To Enjoy Lengthy Descriptions In Writing,)01:22:47 Next Episode01:26:48 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the series premieres for both Amazon Prime's "The Wheel Of Time" and Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop", a phoned-in "non-review" of the movie "Prisoners Of The Ghostland", and Paeter's reflections on Skyrim, including the valuable spiritual truths it brings to his mind and how it holds up 10 years later (with the free anniversary updates on PS5). Then some thoughts about how we can avoid sin before it even has a chance to lead us off-track as we continue our study of Proverbs.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:02:56 The Wheel Of Time Amazon Series Premiere Review00:16:08 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:28:11 Re-introducing/Re-defining "Phoned-In Reviews" & Prisoners Of The Ghostland "Phoned-In" Review00:41:39 Reflecting on Skyrim 10 Years Later (Including free Next-Gen Updates & Spiritual Observations) PS4/PS5 "Casual Survival" Mods{"Survival" Creation Club Mod, Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch USSEP-Arthmoor, SkyrimCampingPS4SV-XentroniumX, Wear Multiple Rings-Spatz82, CC Tweaks Enable Fast Travel-Cyan49, Survival Rebalance-SushiSquid, Better Horses-paullebrun, Forgotten Dungeons PS4-juhaantero68, PS4 Ring Of Increased Carry Weight-Micahghost, PS4 Rich Merchants Of Skyrim: Special Edition-Micahghost,01:06:10 Avoiding Sin Before It Even Starts (Proverbs Bible Study)01:16:57 Cowboy Bebop Netflix Premiere Review01:24:36 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Topics & Questions (Should Christians Be Concerned ABout The Future Of Body Modification?)01:32:03 Paeter's Geek Week (Titans Season 3, IGN Unfiltered Interview w/Todd Howard Reactions[Bethesda Refuses To Let Others Make Their Games & How They Could Compensate For This], Xbox 20th Anniversary[FPS Boosts & Enhancements For Dragon Age Origins, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Fallout New Vegas, Speculation: Morrowind Anniversary Enhancements May 1st Or June 6th 2022?}, Elder Scrolls 6 Exclusive To Xbox, Playstation Store Indie Sale Highlights[Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark $8-$10, Wasteland 2: Director's Cut $4.50, Rogue Legacy $4.24, Telling Lies $8, Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition $7-$8.50, Battle Chasers: Nightwar $6-$9, Timespinner $9,] The Mandalorian Season 2)02:26:00 Next Episode02:28:07 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, some thoughts on the free Skyrim Next-Gen Upgrade, and a chat about dream movie crossovers, the essential nature of humans vs that of machines, and whether or not Jesus saved aliens, with Francisco Ruiz of the Retro Rewind Podcast!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:35 Skyrim Anniversary Edition & Free Upgrades00:40:57 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:50:44 Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings Review01:05:36 Dream movie crossovers, Essential nature of humans vs machines, did Jesus save aliens (with Francisco Ruiz of the Retro Rewind Podcast)01:28:46 Paeter's Geek Week (Titans Season 3, Monster Hunter World Iceborne[Grinding & The Guiding Lands],02:05:43 Next Episode02:08:05 Babylon 5 SchawarmaCGC Team Fundraising Page: http://gamesave.christiangeekcentral.com"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUPaeter's Fundraising Info Page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/56163584 Paeter's Fundraising Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qL5KeTBIQCGC Team Fundraising Page: http://gamesave.christiangeekcentral.comHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the Apple TV+ movie Finch, a "Non-Review" of the Guardians Of The Galaxy video game, and how scripture protects and helps us as we face life's biggest hurts and challenges.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:24 Guardians Of The Galaxy Game "Non-Review"00:24:43 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:31:02 Finch Movie Review00:42:42 How Scripture Protects & Helps Us In Life (Proverbs Geek Bible Study)00:58:49 Listener/Viewer Messages (Can We "Affect/Change" God?, Should Christians Avoid Secular Entertainment?) 01:28:46 Paeter's Geek Week (Introducing My Son To Farscape, Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary)01:40:41 Next Episode01:43:41 Babylon 5 SchawarmaCGC Team Fundraising Page: http://gamesave.christiangeekcentral.com"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUPaeter's Fundraising Info Page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/56163584 Paeter's Fundraising Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qL5KeTBIQCGC Team Fundraising Page: http://gamesave.christiangeekcentral.comHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

Class 5 – The Spirit Unites Disciples Because We Join Together in Spiritual Formation Practices Intro “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1–6 NIV11) Main Point For Today: The Spirit unites us when we participate in spiritual formation practices To quote John Mark Hicks, “Disciples, united in prayer, are united in the Spirit. The practice of prayer (as well as other disciplines) is rooted in the work of the Spirit. The Spirit is present to listen and speak in these moments.” p69 Many spiritual disciplines are available: fasting; silence; celebration; confession; Frugality; Fellowship; My booklet if you want it – sign up for my newsletter here: https://www.malcolmcox.org Two excellent books: “The spirit of the disciplines: Understanding how God changes lives”, Dallas Willard “Celebration of discipline: the path to spiritual growth”, Richard Foster – But today, we will focus on prayer The Spirit unites us when we pray together in defending our unity and helping one another “But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 1:17–23 NIV11) – Context – divisive, Spirit-less people, threat to unity – Antidote to division – prayer together in Spirit – Context – doubters, weak, threat to unity if they are neglected – Antidote to weakness and doubts – pray together in the Spirit The Spirit unites us when we pray together for one another to be courageous in declaring the gospel “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6:18–20 NIV11) – Context – in prison, tongue-tied & afraid – Antidote – ask a whole church to pray for you – united with Paul in his mission Reminds us of this situation: – “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. ' Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:23–31 NIV11) – Context – threats via persecution, could have divided them – Antidote to fear – prayer to be in accord with Spirit's agenda What does it look like to pray in the Spirit? No one definitive answer Here are some thoughts for us to chew on and discuss in our local groups. First some thoughts from other authors: “The Spirit is given as helper, and not least for the task of prayer (Rom. 8:26–27); but…in the Spirit means more than by the Spirit's help. The Spirit is the atmosphere of Christians' lives, and as they live in the Spirit grace will be given to watch and power to continue in prayer.” Foulkes, Francis. Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. TNTC 10. IVP/Accordance electronic edition, version 2.8. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1989. “By the Spirit—Through the influence of the Holy Spirit.” Wesley, John. Wesley's Notes on the Bible. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.4. Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 1997. “Barclay has: “Let the Spirit be the atmosphere in which you pray.”” Wood, A. Skevington. Ephesians. EBC 11. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas. Accordance electronic edition, version 2.8. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978. “The writer is calling for prayer inspired, guided, and made effective through the Spirit. Those who are united in their access to the Father through the Spirit (2:18), who are built into God's dwelling place in the Spirit (2:22), and who are being filled with the Spirit (5:18) can and should pray constantly in and through this Spirit.” Lincoln, Andrew T. Ephesians. WBC 42. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.6. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990. Praying in accordance with the Word of God and living according to God's teachings Praying whilst in conscious dependence upon the Spirit, asking the Spirit for what we need – strength, courage, faith, wisdom…. Praying whilst consciously mindful of Jesus, whose Spirit we have. What would he do, what would he think? Especially helpful when we are faced with circumstances which the Bible does not specifically and explicitly teach on. Looking for the Spirit inside to help us live as followers of Jesus in a way faithful to him, not only in the precise words he uttered, but also in the way he lived. Praying mindful of the Spirit that he would unite us, and praying for our unity in the Spirit. Praying together mindful that the Spirit is in me, and in you, and in all of us, and that he might truly unite us. Also important that when we are praying alone we remember that we are still praying ‘with' our fellow-believers, as long as we are praying in the Spirit What is God calling you to be? Trusting, courageous, persevering, forgiving – when praying together about this we are strengthened us and we pray in a way the Spirit delights in. I have two questions for you: What does it look like for your local gathering to pray in the Spirit? Are there some other spiritual disciplines your local gathering could practice that would delight the Spirit? Please add your comments on this week's topic. We learn best when we learn in community. Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here's the email: [malcolm@malcolmcox.org](mailto:malcolm@malcolmcox.org). If you'd like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. “Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) God bless, Malcolm

Class 5 – The Spirit Unites Disciples Because We Join Together in Spiritual Formation Practices Intro “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1–6 NIV11) Main Point For Today: The Spirit unites us when we participate in spiritual formation practices To quote John Mark Hicks, “Disciples, united in prayer, are united in the Spirit. The practice of prayer (as well as other disciplines) is rooted in the work of the Spirit. The Spirit is present to listen and speak in these moments.” p69 Many spiritual disciplines are available: fasting; silence; celebration; confession; Frugality; Fellowship; My booklet if you want it – sign up for my newsletter here: https://www.malcolmcox.org Two excellent books: “The spirit of the disciplines: Understanding how God changes lives”, Dallas Willard “Celebration of discipline: the path to spiritual growth”, Richard Foster –  But today, we will focus on prayer The Spirit unites us when we pray together in defending our unity and helping one another“But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 1:17–23 NIV11) – Context – divisive, Spirit-less people, threat to unity – Antidote to division – prayer together in Spirit – Context – doubters, weak, threat to unity if they are neglected – Antidote to weakness and doubts – pray together in the Spirit The Spirit unites us when we pray together for one another to be courageous in declaring the gospel “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6:18–20 NIV11) – Context – in prison, tongue-tied & afraid – Antidote – ask a whole church to pray for you – united with Paul in his mission Reminds us of this situation: – “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. ' Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:23–31 NIV11) – Context – threats via persecution, could have divided them – Antidote to fear – prayer to be in accord with Spirit's agenda What does it look like to pray in the Spirit? No one definitive answer Here are some thoughts for us to chew on and discuss in our local groups. First some thoughts from other authors: “The Spirit is given as helper, and not least for the task of prayer (Rom. 8:26–27); but…in the Spirit means more than by the Spirit's help. The Spirit is the atmosphere of Christians' lives, and as they live in the Spirit grace will be given to watch and power to continue in prayer.” Foulkes, Francis. Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. TNTC 10. IVP/Accordance electronic edition, version 2.8. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1989. “By the Spirit—Through the influence of the Holy Spirit.” Wesley, John. Wesley's Notes on the Bible. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.4. Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 1997. “Barclay has: “Let the Spirit be the atmosphere in which you pray.”” Wood, A. Skevington. Ephesians. EBC 11. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas. Accordance electronic edition, version 2.8. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978. “The writer is calling for prayer inspired, guided, and made effective through the Spirit. Those who are united in their access to the Father through the Spirit (2:18), who are built into God's dwelling place in the Spirit (2:22), and who are being filled with the Spirit (5:18) can and should pray constantly in and through this Spirit.” Lincoln, Andrew T. Ephesians. WBC 42. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.6. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990. Praying in accordance with the Word of God and living according to God's teachings Praying whilst in conscious dependence upon the Spirit, asking the Spirit for what we need – strength, courage, faith, wisdom…. Praying whilst consciously mindful of Jesus, whose Spirit we have. What would he do, what would he think? Especially helpful when we are faced with circumstances which the Bible does not specifically and explicitly teach on. Looking for the Spirit inside to help us live as followers of Jesus in a way faithful to him, not only in the precise words he uttered, but also in the way he lived. Praying mindful of the Spirit that he would unite us, and praying for our unity in the Spirit. Praying together mindful that the Spirit is in me, and in you, and in all of us, and that he might truly unite us. Also important that when we are praying alone we remember that we are still praying ‘with' our fellow-believers, as long as we are praying in the Spirit What is God calling you to be? Trusting, courageous, persevering, forgiving – when praying together about this we are strengthened us and we pray in a way the Spirit delights in. I have two questions for you: What does it look like for your local gathering to pray in the Spirit? Are there some other spiritual disciplines your local gathering could practice that would delight the Spirit? Please add your comments on this week's topic. We learn best when we learn in community.  Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here's the email: [malcolm@malcolmcox.org](mailto:malcolm@malcolmcox.org).  If you'd like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/).  Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review.  “Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)  God bless, Malcolm

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the fantasy RPG "Ember" on Xbox One/Series X, a retrospective review of JSA #1-4 (and the DC comics series as a whole), and how sacrificial giving affects God, and how we can take some first steps in that discipline as we conclude our study of Philippians.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:41 Ember (Xbox One/Series X) Review00:13:24 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:29:09 JSA Retrospective DC Comics Review00:59:36 How Sacrificial Giving "Loves" & Affects God (Philippians Geek Bible Study)01:16:36 Listener/Viewer Messages (Dune Review Correction) 01:21:26 Paeter's Geek Week (Darkest Dungeon, Children Of Morta Vs. Diablo/Path Of Exile, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Horizon Zero Dawn)01:34:13 Next Episode01:36:46 Babylon 5 SchawarmaCGC Team Fundraising Page: http://gamesave.christiangeekcentral.com"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUPaeter's Fundraising Info Page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/56163584 Paeter's Fundraising Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qL5KeTBIQCGC Team Fundraising Page: http://gamesave.christiangeekcentral.comHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A show packed with reviews! Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Injustice (DC Animated Movie), Free Guy, Dune, the series premiere of Invasion & Far Cry 6! Also, some thoughts about how God provides strength for Geeks to endure hardship as we continue studying Philippians.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:02:10 Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins Review00:11:45 Injustice Review00:22:36 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:34:43 Free Guy Review00:42:42 Dune (Part 1) Review 00:54:59 God's Strength In Hardship (Philippians Geek Bible Study)01:04:51 Invasion Apple TV+ Series Premiere Review (Episodes 1-3)01:13:28 Far Cry 6 Review01:24:30 Listener/Viewer Messages (Arthurian Legend) 01:37:11 Paeter's Geek Week (Jigsaw, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Reboot Movies, The Hills Have Eyes Remake[Can Horror Make Us Fea The Deformed?], Video Game Marathon Prep, Neverwinter MMO, Shakedown Hawaii, Games I'm Stuck In, Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Nights Vs. Sundered: Eldritch Edition, Aggelos, Ys Origin, )02:29:24 Next Episode02:31:13 Babylon 5 Schawarma"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUPaeter's Fundraising Info Page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/56163584 Paeter's Fundraising Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qL5KeTBIQCGC Team Fundraising Page: http://gamesave.christiangeekcentral.comHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A special multi-movie review episode with reviews for The Matrix (for which Paeter is joined by his son Asher), The Frighteners, Rupture, Escape Room, 2019(for which Paeter is joined by his son Titus) & the theatrical AND extended versions of Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions! PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:29 The Matrix Review00:22:47 The Frighteners Review00:41:38 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:47:40 Rupture Review00:58:17 Escape Room (2019) Review01:12:32 Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions Review (Theatrical Vs. Extended)01:22:37 Listener/Viewer Messages (What If Christians Object To My Supernatural Stories?)01:29:17 Paeter's Geek Week (Fallout 4[Modding To Play As A Terminator], Ubisoft Giveaways[Ghost Recon Breakpoint/Wildlands DLC Giveaways], Neverwinter MMO)01:45:12 Next Episode01:48:34 Babylon 5 Schawarma"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUPaeter's Fundraising Info Page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/56163584 Paeter's Fundraising Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qL5KeTBIQCGC Team Fundraising Page: https://tiltify.com/+christian-geek-central/cgc-game-save-21How To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A return to Paeter's "Bookshelf Tour", this time with a look at books expressing beliefs he disagrees with! Then, Paeter shares a collection of your most memorable questions & topics (along with his responses) from 2020!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:04:49 Beliefs I Disagree With (Bookshelf Tour)00:27:17 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:39:39 Best 2020 Questions Intro00:41:32 Enjoying Violent Entertainment00:47:47 Covid/Fear/End Times00:56:08 Disturbing Entertainment & 1 Thessalonians 5:19-2201:10:53 Prayer Requests You Disagree With01:16:06 Playing Games As An "Enemy Of God", Bringing Christian "Head Canon" Into Games, Playing Games That Mock God01:35:24 What If My Church Hates Dungeons & Dragons?01:43:06 Can I Serve God If My Life Is A Mess?, Questions About Genesis & God's Nature02:07:44 Laughing At Sinful Jokes02:13:32 When Our Sin Prevents Ministry02:22:02 Entertainent & Sexual Sin In Dating & Marriage02:31:41 Do actors sin by playing sinful characters?02:33:58 Is Something Wrong If It Feels Wrong?, Does Jesus Judge Like Your Mother/Grandmother?02:40:47 Horror Movies & How Not To Be Intimidated By Judgmental Christians02:51:04 Listener/Viewer Messages (Should Geeks Care More About Their Health?)02:56:47 Paeter's Geek Week (The Expanse Season 1, The Pillars Of Creation by Terry Goodkind, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Castlevania Advance Collection[Circle Of The Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow], Fallout 4 Xbox One, Fallout: New Vegas)03:20:07 Next Episode03:21:47 Babylon 5 Schawarma"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUPaeter's Fundraising Info Page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/56163584 Paeter's Fundraising Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qL5KeTBIQCGC Team Fundraising Page: https://tiltify.com/+christian-geek-central/cgc-game-save-21How To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the series premiere of Foundation on Apple TV+, reflections on some special moments in the history of Spirit Blade Productions as we celebrate our 15th anniversary, and some thoughts about filtering out the bad and finding the good in the mixed bag of entertainment and all of life as we continue studying the book of Philippians.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:37 Foundation Series Premiere Review00:11:02 CGC & Christian Geek Entertainment News00:47:34 Separating Good From Bad In Entertainment & Life (Philippians Geek Bible Study)00:55:19 Listener/Viewer Messages (Christians In Mainstream Entertainment & Christian "Cancel Culture")01:17:37 Paeter's Geek Week (Hannah Season 2, The Expanse Season 1, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Post-Game & Playing Defensively[Eating & Re-eating For Defense, Retreat & Restock])01:33:14 Next Episode01:35:44 Babylon 5 Schawarma"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the Black Widow movie and some thoughts about how we can best navigate "Cancel Culture" in light of the "cancellation" of Tripwire Interactive's Christian CEO John Gibson and Five Nights At Freddy's Christian creator, Scott Cawthon.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week, including reactions to Sony's Playstation Showcase 2021!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:02:11 Black Widow Movie Review00:09:57 Christian Geek Central & Christian Geek News00:23:13 Christians & Cancel Culture 01:02:02 Listener/Viewer Messages (Is It Morally Wrong To Make Games About Hell?)Paeter's Geek Week 01:16:10 (Descent: Journeys In The Dark & Road To Legend 1st Edition, Zack Snyder's Justice League aka The Snyder Cut, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[Post-Game/The Guiding Lands], Ghost Recon Breakpoint) 01:32:49 (Sony Playstation Showcase 2021[Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic Remake for PS5, Alan Wake Remaster, Guardians Of The Galaxy{Religious Truth-Centered "Universal Church Of Truth" Villains, Matriarchy}, Insomniac's Wolverine Game, Spider-Man 2])01:51:49 Next Episode01:55:13 Babylon 5 Schawarma"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

Rethinking Scripture Podcast - Episode 14: A... Problem, of Punctuation? (John 9)September 13, 2021 - Host: Dr. Gregory Hall Before Jesus heals a blind man, in John 9, the disciples ask Him a very strange question. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Unfortunately, our English translations may be misguiding us in regards to Jesus' response. So let's move some punctuation around and rethink what Jesus might have been saying about sin, work… and the sabbath.Referenced Resources:Merrill C. Tenney, “John,” in The Expositor's Bible Commentary: John and Acts, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 101.MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. (A. Farstad, Ed.) (p. 1521). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.Metzger, B. M. (1993). Persistent Problems Confronting Bible Translators. Bibliotheca Sacra, 150, 273.John C. Poirier. (1996). “Day and Night” and the Punctuation of John 9, 3. New Testament Studies, 42, 288–294.Poirier, J. C. (2006). “Day and Night” and the Sabbath Controversy of John 9. Filología Neotestamentaria (Mayo–Noviembre 2006), XIX(37–38), 113.Show Music:Intro/Outro - "Growth" by Armani Delos SantosTransition Music - produced by Jacob A. HallPodcast Website:RethinkingScripture.comThe John Study Resources: https://rethinkingscripture.com/john-study-resources/ Sister site: RethinkingRest.comSocial Media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RethinkingScripture Twitter: @RethinkingStuffInstagram: rethinking_scriptureYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6YCLg2UldJiA0dsg0KkvLAPowered and distributed by Simplecast.

ON THIS EPISODE:A retrospective review of the DC Comics story "JLA: New World Order" and some thoughts about navigating the dark days of God's discipline in our lives as we take a look at Psalm 39.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:25 JLA: New World Order (Issues #1-4) Review00:39:59 Christian Geek Central & Christian Geek News00:46:42 Navigating The Dark Days Of God's Discipline (Psalm 39)01:07:35 Listener/Viewer Messages (Brent Weeks' "Lightbringer" Series, "Should I Read A Comic That Blasphemes Jesus?", Reese's Peanut Butter Cups,)01:25:25 Paeter's Geek Week (Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[Upgrade Bottlenecks, Planning & Grinding Instead Of Getting Good, Learning To Use The Clutch Claw, Getting Steam Deck To Play Monster Hunter Rise With Mods?, Alternative Monster Hunting Games], Return Of The Heroes Board Game, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game)01:49:52 Next Episode01:52:43 Babylon 5 Schawarma"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

A review of the video game "Rogue Explorer, a retrospective review of the DC Comics story The Final Night, and a look at how we can learn from good moral examples without feeling threatened or judged by them as we continue studying the book of Philippians.PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:47 Rogue Dungeon Review00:09:37 CGC & Christian Geek News00:23:04 The Final Night (Essential Issues)01:09:45 Learning From Virtue Signalling (Philippians Bible Study)01:19:08 Listener/Viewer Messages (Worried About My Eternal Rewards & Keeping Hobbies From Becoming Idols)01:27:35 Paeter's Geek Week (Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[My Life Won't Allow SOS Flare Multiplayer, The Guiding Lands Hunting Improvements{No Time/Cart Limits, Consecutive Hunts}, Defense Augment/Upgrade Strategy, Completing All Event Quests], Darkest Dungeon[Stuck Waiting For The Wagon], Snowpiercer TV Series[Murder Mystery On A Train])01:51:45 Next Episode01:55:10 Babylon 5 Schawarma"Game Save" Event Info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf83YRgbbhUHow To Sign Up For "Game Save '21": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQCC10GHMo Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the indie tabletop dungeon crawl boardgame "Rogue Dungeon", a retrospective review of DC Comics' "The Flash: Terminal Velocity", and some thoughts about what traits we can contemplate that will help us avoid mistreatment and difficult social interaction as we continue our study of Philippians!PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:37 Rogue Dungeon Review00:14:04 CGC & Christian Geek News00:20:41 The Flash: Terminal Velocity (Essential Issues)00:45:37 How Considering Certain Traits Prevents Mistreatment & Social Difficulty (Philippians Bible Study)00:55:57 Listener/Viewer Messages (The Bittersweet Nature Of God's Promise To Be With Us, Defending Our Geek Hobbies To Other Christians, Is It A Sin To "Celebrate Halloween"?, RPG Church Ministry)01:06:17 Paeter's Geek Week (Return Of The Heroes Boardgame, Netflix' Lost In Space Season 2[Its treatment of "AI", Will Robinson Growing Up?, Visual Effects], Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[Groovy Grinding "Podcast Game", How A Pause Button Helps Our Relationships], )01:34:18 Next Episode01:36:46 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

ON THIS EPISODE:A review of the movie Reminiscence, and a look at how thinking about our sin actually leads to relief and freedom as we continue studying Philippians! Then an overview of Paeter's thoughts on the second year of DC Comics' New 52 initiative. PLUS, more assorted topics based on your questions, feedback and Paeter's Geek Week!TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:01:34 Reminiscence Review00:13:09 CGC & Christian Geek News00:24:35 How Thinking Of Our Sin Leads To Relief & Freedom! (Philippians Bible Study)00:39:29 Listener/Viewer Messages (My Husband Thinks Fantasy Is Evil! Is It Sinful To Work At A Covid-Vaccine Site? Final Fantasy 8 Remaster)00:54:43 Paeter's Geek Week (DC's "New 52" Year Two[Batgirl: "Death Of The Family" & "Wanted", Suicide Squad: Harley Quinn, Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corps: "Rise Of The Third Army" "Wrath Of The First Lantern" & The End Of Geoff Johns' & Peter Tomasi's Runs, Batman & Robin: "Requiem", Batman: "Zero Year", Justice League: "Throne Of Atlantis" "Trinity War" & "Forever Evil"]) 01:14:17 Geek Week Continued (Monster Hunter World: Iceborne[How Multiplayer Made Me Think Of Heaven], Netflix' Lost In Space Season 1)01:29:17 Next Episode01:31:25 Babylon 5 SchawarmaSupport this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen, with additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2021, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan