Think: Genesis

Overview of Genesis:

Genesis is not just a bout of beginnings it is a book of gospel. All the major themes and ideas of the gospel are there in the pages of Genesis.

Genesis is the Bible in a book.

Genesis within the Torah:
the house of the tent of God in Exodus.
Israel plays out and bears Adam's commission. They increase in number, they fall (golden calf).

The structure of Genesis:

Generations... various sections of the book are separated out by phrases along with 'these are the generations of...' and what followed from.

1. Prologue (1:1-2:4a)
2. Generations of Adam (5:1-6:8)
3. Generations of Noah (6:9-9:29)
4. Generations of Shem, Ham and Japtheth (10:1-11:9)
5. Generations of Shem (11:10-26)
6. Generations of Terah (11:27-25:11)
7. Generations of Ishmael (11:27-25:11)
8. Generations of Isaac (25:19-35:29)
9. Generations of Esau (36:1-37:1)
10. Generations of Jacob (37:2-50:26)

Genesis and the scriptures.

The underlying assumption of the rest of the scripture is that Genesis is truthful and accurate and assume it's faithfulness.

The only answer the Bible ever gives to the problem of evil is basically to rehash Genesis 1 and do it sarcastically: I created everything, so hold your peace!

The New Testament affirms:

• Creation out of nothing
• Creation of humanity from the dust of the earth
• The creation of man as male and female, divorce, dress within the church, doctrine in the church.
• The deception of Eve and the fall of Adam into sin and death
• The historicity of Abel's sacrifice, and death, Enoch's non-death, Noah's ark, the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah wit fire and sulphur, Lot's wife, the miraculous conception and near-sacrifice of Isaac, Esau's sin, the Joseph story et al...

Some of them we are embarrassed by and yet Jesus made a sermon illustration out of all of them.

The position of Jesus remains however.. It is written.

Hermenuetical diversity:

• Allegorical readings (Origen, Augustine etc.)
• Source critical readings (were there four different authors, angle...)
• Grammatical-historical readings (what it means in its historical setting is what it means)
• Ancient historiography (the stories and ideas meant something distinctly different in that culture and that day than it does now)

Authorship: 

We can call the author Moses and yet recognise that it must also include insertions by other people.

re: Homer wrote the Ilyiad and yet in reality it was a community of people over time...

Genesis of Mythology:

There are lots of similarities between ancient myths from the region and the Israelite story. Lots of similarities but some very important differences.

God, rather than revealing himself to us individually and personally generation by generation instead revealed himself through human purpose. The authority is in the author. It is written for us but not to us. It transcends culture but is culture-bound.

We have to learn to see the world and the text in the way that the ancient Israelites saw the text. If we're going to read the Bible right we have to read it through ancient eyes. 

TEMPLE

The world that God is building is a temple, a three story house: a foundation, the temple building itself and, curtains. The water (the underlaying foundation), the earth (the building), the air (the curtains).

Eden is a prototypical temple. G. K. Beale.

The Levites are servants and guardians of the presence of God. That's what Adam was entrusted to do. In that sense Adam was the first priest-king.

The cherub was put at the entrance to guard the dwelling place of God, the same is true in the temple.

The temple imagery is full of plants and fruits; garden imagery.

Eden is the source of 4 rivers, it is high ground. The river of life flows from the temple. Rivers bring life. 

The garden has an eastern-facing entrance, like all subsequent temples in scripture.

Adam is told to both guard the presence of God and also subdue the earth. The challenge is a pastoral one. How do we guard and protect what God has given us and also extend the kingdom and bring people into it. Adam is told to take te presence with him, extend the borders of the garden called pleasant.

The purpose of the text isn't only to say (or even?) that 'this is what the garden looked like, and if you'd have been there this is what you would have seen with your camera'. It's to say more than that about the habitation of God on Earth. 

Myth = freight bearing worldview imagery 

Eden is a temple and temple is an extension of Eden and the call of the church, to be the outpost of God.

Ancient temples:

• The seven day/seven year is a common phrase in the ancient world for the dedication period of a temple.
• The final day of temple construction concludes with the placing of the god in the temple as the climax.
• Ancient readers would have recognised the form as a temple building story. It is a story about where God lives.

God lives in the heavens and his image is in his temple (Eden, humans).

The Growth of the temple:

Eden - Tabernacle - Temple - Jesus - Church - New Creation

Theophanies, Altars and wells.

There are no tabernacles or temples built in the rest of Genesis however...

• three aspects of the Garden-temple will reappear throughout Genesis:
• Theophanies: Melchizedek? Abraham's 3 visitors, Bethel, Peniel
• There are more theophanies in Genesis than there are in the rest of the Bible
• Altars: a major compnent of temple life and altars appear often in Genesis. Without a tabernacle or set place you have to do it elsewhere.
• Man and woman, fruitfulness, water and life: wells (wells are mini gardens/oasis) 
• The patriarchs meet their wives in mini-garden scenes

ORIGINS

All Christians are, by definition, creationists. - Denis Alexander

Scientific considerations: 

The age of the Earth:

• The Earth is thought to be 4.566 billion years old and the universe 13.7 billion years old. 
• The primary way we establish this is based on radiosotopes - atoms within rocks which have unstable nuclei that decay over set periods.
• 106m years for Samarium-147
• 18.8m years old for rubidium-87
• etc.
• Tree rings can also be counted and amalgamated, in central Germany back to 8400BC and the results compared with other dating methods.
• The same is true of layers in the Antarctic ice cap - one 3190m core has reached ice 740000 years old.
• Similarly: sedimentary rock erosion (grand canyon) can be measure and compared
• Within a relatively small margin of error (2% for radioisotopes, up to 10% for ice caps layers), all of these dating methods agree, leading to an estimated age of about 4.6b years.

Evolution may look random to us but that doesn't mean it is. 

Human origins and genetics:

• Psuedogenes (genes that don't have a function but exist nonetheless). We have 19k of them (genes that at one time had a function but don't any more; genetic fossils).
• Jumping genes: copy and paste genes that are nonprotein encoding part of the genome.
• Retroviral insertions: genes that emerge after a virus. We share these with other primates. the idea being that once upon a time our genetic ancestors had a virus that altered their genome that got passed onto us.
• Scientists regard genetics as much the most compelling evidence for evolution.

Scripture:

The writers purpose isn't always to teach things that are doctrinally binding.

Human origins:

• What does 'dust of the earth' mean?
• a literal clod of mud?
• physical stuff (cf. 2:19)
• Perishable matter (cf. 3:19; see also the 'dust' of Job, Psalms etc.)?

Death: in Paul death is usually used to mean separation from God. Dying for Paul is 'falling a sleep'

THE IMAGE OF GOD:

What does the image of God mean?

• Representing God: border marks. Human beings in that sense embody the kingly rule of God. when people see a human (not just a Christian), they see something of what God is like. Therefore - fill the earth and establish my rule everywhere. Exploring and travelling is all bound up with what it means to be human. We are also the priestly image of God. We are the icon of God. 
• Resembling God: 
• Ruling for God: God is a king and so are we.
• Relating like God: we are meant to be in community.
• Reproducing for God: Human beings were intended to have lots of sex and lots of children, so that the world would be filled with people bearing God's image and glory.
• Reasoning like God: The capacity to use language and abstract reasoning is unique to people. Primates cannot reason like we are. One expert on primates said 'you would never see to apes carrying a log together, and if we did it would completely change the way we understand them.' Such is the gap between us and primates. They cannot co-operate together in anything like the way we can. 
• Resting like God. No other creatures take one dat off in seven.

Authority and vulnerability:

Human beings are supposed to have high authority and high vulnerability. This enables us to be strong and weak. Jesus when he wraps the servants towel around him is both strong and weak. 

THE FALL:

If you were to only have Moses' account and ask the question 'what is the main consequence of the fall?' it is nakedness and shame. The idea being that we are vulnerable and insecure when we turned from looking at him and receiving warmth and affirmation and security. 

Instead of the question, 'where is God?!' We need to instead ask the question 'what went wrong to make this happen?'

Things to consider/illustrations: 

• Relational betrayal : Don Miller's friend catching his wife having an affair
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn : the line between good and evil runs through each of us (think 'Hans, are we the baddies?'
• The command 'don't eat from that tree.' : is less like 'don't walk on the grass' and more like 'don't feed the bears' or 'don't sleep with anyone else.' (it's not an arbitrary law but something that is for my good)
• It teaches us that independence is more important than happiness.  
• Cosmic consequence of sin against God : Children of Chernobyl 
• Why the tree? Keller's son : obedience vs agreement. His son (and us as human beings) must learn to obey God for obedience sake rather than because we agree with him or understand every reason behind his command. 

THEODICY:

Theodicy is an attempt to justify the ways of God to humans, usually with reference to suffering and evil. Ways of handling it:

• Soul-making - however... suffering doesn't appear to be distributed according to sinfulness.
• Free will theodicy - however... the new creation 
• Natural law theodicy, God creates natural laws that when violated have natural consequences - however... most pain an suffering isn't related always to poor choices (cancer for example)

Alvin Plantinga argues that rather than defending God he makes the case that God could have a good reason but I rather that I don't know what it is.

EVIL:

Evil is not a thing it is an absence of a thing. It is shadow, the place where light isn't, the place where goodness isn't. 

ABEL, HEBEL & BABEL:

Abel's name 'Habel' means 'vapour' / 'breathy' and is the opening line of Ecclesiastes 'hebel of hebel' Everything is hebel.

Joseph is the undoing of the Cain and Abel story. The younger brother survives an attempt on his life and redeems his brothers.

The boundaries God has drawn get undone by the sons of

REASONS FOR THE FLOOD:

'wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intent of the thoughts was evil all the time.'

God floods the earth to get rid of evil and people are/were evil. After the flood

IS JACOB AS BAD AS ALL THAT?

Isaac is being ungodly by preferring the older.  Isaac prefers him for his appearance. Esau is Saul, Jacob is David.

When Jacob's mother favours him, she is right to do so as she is taking the word of God.

GOD:

Yahweh and Elohim are the two main names of God in Genesis.

Elohim is used of the sovereign, creator, big picture, wide-angle lens.
Yahweh is used of the personal, God of Israel, particular, narrow-angle lens, spoken of anthropomorphisms (walking, talking etc.)

Used to communicate different aspects of God and we shouldn't play them off against each other.

Genesis 18: Painting of the three angels waiting for Abraham to come out with the meal. The painting of them sat around is a picture of the painter's image of God.

MONOTHEISM:

God gives good gifts. This stands in contrast to the booby trapped gifts that the pagan gods give to men in their stories: Pandora's box, fire, woman etc.

JUSTICE & MERCY:

Abraham and Isaac. The gods of the other nations allowed and requested people to perform child sacrifices. So Abraham thinks 'ok let's see if you are like the gods of the other nations, but at the last minute God stops him and says emphatically 'I am NOT like those gods,' and swaps a child for an animal.

EXODUS: NOAH, TERAH, ABRAM..

Moses was put in an 'ark' (same word as Noah's boat!)

When Paul says 'creation is straining' new creation coming from inside the old. Like Noah.

Noah's 'fall' is strikingly similar to that of Genesis 3: fruit, nakedness, clothing, recognition, a curse on the tempter, a commendation of the other two.

Baptism is a heavily exodus shaped picture.  Not just Moses, but Noah as well. We are the people who receive the Lord's supper and baptism (Noah drinks wine in the new creation; albeit too much).

The journey of Abraham and Sarai into Egypt is one of the hardest stories to make sense of, if we assume the OT is like Aesop's fables.

Using his Exodus is really helpful rather than h doing a 'here's what we can learn from his faith...' Thus most preachers don't preach his exodus story. However it makes much more sense to use his story as an advanced foretelling of the exodus story.

Famine = should trigger exodus ideas.

Lot's Exodus:

Hard to make sense of if you don't see an exodus theme:

• Circumcision is a type of passover: Weird story of God threatening to kill Moses for not being circumcised is unusual but if we understand circumcision as, not only a covenant seal, but also a type of passover. 

Sodom was a well-watered place of great natural fruitfulness, much like Egypt.

Genesis 18: Angels 'pass by' and encounter Abraham in the doorway.

• LOT: 19:3 an evening meal of unleavened bread is eaten
• A doorway divides those who are safe from those who will be destroyed 
• The angels then practically force and lead Lot and his family out. 
• Lot is told to flee to the mountain.
• A fleeing individual looks back, pining for the destroyed nation (like the Israelites complain and want to go back) 
• ... a pillar of witness is established (salt in Lot's wife's case, stones in the Israelites case)

We, the church are described in Hebrews as being like this, caught between looking forward and looking back, pining for what we had/have. 

Joseph and Jesus:

Allow the Joseph story to enrich your understanding of Jesus.

The book switches from talking about genealogies and then with the Joseph story it introduces him very differently... 'Joseph was seventeen,'

The step from one child being given the blessing to here, in this story, allow of them are given the blessing; the twelve tribes are all blessed.  The writer's saying 'that isn't how this bit of the story is going to work.'

- The covenant isn't secured by physical succession, Jacob doesn't lay his hands on Joseph and say 'you will have the blessing,' but it is secured by rescuing them from peril. Joseph is special not because he receives the blessing but because he rescues the people from peril.

there is, ultimately, typological elemtns at work that brotthers will bow down to a brother. All the tribes will stand beneath you and worship.

37:17 Joseph is given a mission 'go out and find your brothers...'

The blood offering is offered to the Father. 

Joseph not only descends into the pit (=death) with blood (=atonement), but also goes into slavery (=ransom).

In prison:

Joseph innocent between two criminals. Jesyus on the cross between two thieves.

Joseph is hurriedly brought out of the dungeon - at the order of the Most High (41)

In prison: baker and cup bearer - bread and wine

Joseph's reconciliation to his brothers takes a long time and is drawn out. 

Emotional Intelligence: Simon Elliott (Impact training)

Leadership is always the problem, leadership is always the solution.

In the two circles, leadership/initiative is what expands the circle of influence.

After 40 years in pastoral ministry Simon, having seen lots of different iniatives come and go, different approaches to Sundays, to small groups to... and his opinion is that things live or die on their leadership. You can have a perfect structure and a poor leader and it won't work and an imperfect structure and a good leader and it will work.

Above the line and below the line leadership:

Think trees. Above the ground is the tree, they are the skills of leadership. Below the line are the roots, character.

People forgive failure in skill a lot quicker than they would forget or forgive failure in character. If I preach a bad sermon people forget it by the end of the day, if in the middle of the sermon I swear at someone for being late, everyone will remember it for the next 10 years!

Your personality is like your operating system, it's how you process information.

Under nourished children's brains are a third smaller than that of a healthy child's. They will not be able to challenge the things that are being taught them.

Our character is a mixture of

- Personality
- IQ: informed by Nurture, diet and education
- EQ: see below

Picture - the character triangle diagram 
The key to developing your character is EQ.

Definition

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognise emotion in yourself or others, to recognise how those emotions may shape activity and relationships, it is the ability to bring those emotions into a healthy place alongside the rational mind biblical truth, and the Holy Spirit. It is the ability to do this proactively and retrospectively.

Our emotions are meant to lead us to God. They remind us of our need for God but can be used instead to lead us away from God.

How do you feel right now? Happy, content, energetic,

Stages of Emotional intelligence:

Stage 1: Awareness (after 20seconds 25% of a room couldn't tell you how they were feeling, they are not aware of their emotions)

Stage 2: My feelings shape my actions

Stage 3: Past feelings shape actions: we need to learn to process past emotions to stop them having a destructive impact on the future.

Stage 4: Balanced control. Our emotions are God given and are fantastic guides. They make us spiritually sensitive, aware of others emotions. They are brilliant guides but rubbish leaders. The Holy Spirit is our leader. That's how you build Godly character.

The issue isn't 'do my emotions go up and down?' but 'do my actions go up an down at the same rate as well?' We should be emotionally aware and sensitive people but we shouldn't allow them to lead us and make us volatile.

Parenting Research

Jamie Smith on habits and love from 'You Are What You Love':

A mother loves her newborn baby and gazes longingly at it for weeks before it loves her back in return. The baby is learning to love by being loved by its mother.

We love because he first loved us, but we learn how to love in the home.

Our discipleship practises from Monday through Saturday shouldn't simply focus on Bib le knowledge acquisition - we aren't after all, liturgical animals on Sunday and thinking things for the rest of the week. Rather our day to day practices need to extend and amplify the formative power of our weekly worship practices by weaving them into our everyday liturgies. 

Alasdair MacIntyre (Scottish Philosopher) famously said:

I cannot answer the question, 'what ought I to do?' unless I first answer the question, 'Of which story am I a part?'

Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

Tate Britain in London features painting entitled 'The Boyhood of Raleigh'. Sir Walter Raleigh was one of QEI's intrepid explorers. He established some of the first British colonies in what is now North Carolina. But he also twice set sail in search of the elusive El Dorado. In the painting, Millais imagines just what creates such an adventurer and explorer. His hypothesis? A good storyteller. Raleigh and a young friend sit entranced by a wizened old sailor who is pointing to an immense sea, captivating them with tales of what lies on the other side.

The home.

Think through the practises of the home. What goal or end are they aiming at?

The frenetic pace of our lives means we often end up falling into routines without much reflection. We do what we think 'good parents' do. And we might think these are just 'things we do' without recognising that they may also be doing something to us. 

No home or family can be its own church; no household is a substitute for the household of God. We all need to locate our households in the household of God and to situate our families within the 'first' family of the church.

Infant baptism (or belonging to a church we might say) shows that what counts as 'family' is not just the closed, nuclear unit that is so often idolised as 'the family'. For churches to function as they should 'natural' families should resist the tendency to fold in on themselves in self-regard.

Marriage: A great quote about the idolisation of marriage and the purpose of Christian marriage.

A marriage which does not constantly crucify its own selfishness and self-sufficiency, which does not 'die to itself' that it may point beyond itself, is not a Christian marriage. The real sin of marriage today is not adultery or lack of 'adjustment' or 'mental cruelty'. It is the idolisations of the family itself, the refusal to understand marriage as directed toward the kingdom of God.
-- Alexander Schmemann 

p119 features a vivid picture of the modern wedding and the obsession with novelty that inadvertently makes the wedding more about us than about God:

The implicit mythology of Wedding Inc. also reflects how we approach marriage. Indeed, the myths we load into weddings almost doom marriages to fail. Weddings are centred on the romantic 'coupling' of two star-cross lovers, as if marriage were an extended exercise of staring deep into one another's eyes - with benefits.

See Saturday Night Live's 'MeHarmony' spoof.

Family:

The church constitutes the 'first family', which is both a challenge and a blessing. On the one hand, it challenges yet another sphere of rabid autonomy  in late modernity: the privacy of the family. On the other hand, it comes as a welcome relief: we don't have to raise these kids on our own! 

After his girlfriend unexpectedly fell pregnant at Uni Chris Kaczor in an essay entitled 'Vampire Children' recounts that although he thought children would ruin his life, he actually realised the gift they are:

They are invitations to 'put on' virtues like gratitude, humility, patience and steadfastness. All those years ago I thought that having a baby was the worst thing that could have happened to me. I could not have been more wrong. Having a child isn't the 'end' to the good things of life it is an 'and' to the good things of life.' 

Every parenting strategy assumes something about the nature of human beings.

Given that we're not brains-on-a-stick who learn by having information pumped into them:

We should be concerned about the ethos of our households - the unspoken 'vibe' carried in our daily ritual...

You could have Bible 'inputs' every day and yet still have a household whose frantic rhythms are humming along with the consumerist myth of production and consumption. You might have Bible verses on the wall in every room of the house and yet the unspoken rituals reinforce self-centeredness rather than sacrifice. 

Alexander Schmemann:

It is not the lack of respect for the family... but the idolisation of the fmaily that breaks the moder family so easily, making divorce its almost natural shadows. It is the identification of marriage with happiness and the refusal to accept the cross in it. 

Families work well when we do not expect them to give us all we need. 

If the church is our first family then our second homes should be defined by it, and our doors ought to be open to the stranger, the sick, and the poor.

First:

Our households need to be caught up in the wider household of God: the liturgies of our homes should grow out of and amplify the formative liturgy of Word and Table.

This is an important reason to make music an aspect of family worship. As Augustine is often paraphrased as having said 'he who sings prays twice.' There is something at work in the lilt of a melody and the poetry of a hymn that makes the biblical story seep into us indelibly.

This is also the reason to invite your family into the rhythms of the liturgical calendar.

There is a physicality to such a household worship that encourages us to understand the gospel anew, in ways that endure in our imagination and thus shape how we make our way in the world.

Tom Head: Cross Cultural Mission

Matthew 9: Jesus has not come to call the righteous but sinners

Tom: 'I didn't have any formal education, I couldn't even spell GCSE... I just wanted to make a difference.'

9:11 'why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' ie why does he spend time with people who are not important?

        - story of mixing at a politicians house/party and realising 'we're just token chavs.'

In the UK, 98% of the church could be described as middle class.

How do we reach men, working class men in particular?

Jesus was a builder, he was a normal fella and he trusted people like him with the gospel message. He didn't go to the politicians or the kings, the shakers and movers.

Give men, man sized challenges to go for. Don't talk about things that they think they can go for or achieve in their own energy.

As it stands in the UK 2.4 million women cannot marry a Christian man. They have to decide if they're going to stay single and childless or marry a non-Christian man.

Generally speaking, working class people are overlooked for leadership in the church. As a working class man he said that when he hears someone speak or talks posher than him, that they know more than he does, just because he's working class. At our peril we overlook people from working class backgrounds.

In 2009 St Helen's Bishsopsgate put on a conference entitled reaching the unreached, targeted specifically at reaching working class people.

Working class people are brutally honest with the way they speak, they haven't got a middle class filter of politeness in place. The middle class will call them rude but the working class think the middle class are two-faced and rude.

God loves common people so much that when he sent his Son to the world he became an apprentice labourer.

There is more of a receptivity to the supernatural among the working class.

Becoming a Christian isn't like joining the library, where you just get a card and that's that. Don't look at where people are at now, look at the direction of travel. What's the direction of travel?

Helping same sex attracted people

By Andrew Bunt

The importance of love : 

The real issue is about love and not sex. The world would tell us that sex is paramount whereas actually, it's love that we crave not sex. For people to know that they are loved is what really matters. Andrew said 'the more I know that I have people who love me and care for me, is the time my same sex attraction doesn't matter very much to me, and counterintuitively the closer I am to a guy who I know loves me and cares for me, the less likely it is that I will be attracted to him.'

The importance of identity :

Everything in our life is shaped by our identity. Truly understanding our identity is vital.

The importance of a big picture :

Scripture as story really matters. Seeing your life as part of the great story of the Bible and not simply swallowing a shallow gospel. It's only when we understand our sexuality within the story and see where it's all heading does our life make sense. SSA Christians need to know that big story.

The importance of talking :

Simple but powerful. To be same sex attracted can make you feel very fearful and isolated. Talking about it has the power to loosen the grip these things have on us. He experiences crushes like everyone else except that they are painful rather than exciting as he knows he'll never be able to act on it. Talking about it helps break the power of this too.

The importance of community : 

Similar to community but different enough that it's worth pointing it out. We have idolised the nuclear family at the detriment of community. Adam needed community, we need human relationship and community and so it is vital that we get this right. It must not be true in our churches that to be single is to be isolated and lonely. 

The importance of the Holy Spirit :

He helps us to live God's way, he points us to eternity and the wonderful new creation that's coming. It is the Holy Spirit who saves us and that means that it is just as likely for a deeply entrenched in the gay scene person to become a believer as it is for a nice middle class person to get saved.

Singleness - Impact 2016

Singleness, a theology:

39% of Uk are single
29% of church are


OT - to be single and childless is seen to be under a curse from God
NT - Jesus is really positive about singleness and Paul says 'I wish you all were single'

Why is singleness a bad thing in the OT and then a good thing in the NT?

First of all we need to bear in mind that the Bible is one big story:

Eden - the story starts with a promise for restoration and therefore marriage and having children is really important.

Abram - God makes an unconditional promise. The promise of the serpent crusher is handed to Abraham. Therefore having children is really important. 

Moses - Pharaoh isn't pleased with the number of children they're having. God gives them a new covenant, a covenant of law and God promises that if they keep God's law then God he will give them the blessings of the law. In ancient Israel if you don't have kids it's seen as something that is happening to you because you are a law breaker.

Isaiah - In a time of judgement and during the exile the prophets come and call out the promise of an offspring, one single child who will make a huge difference. The servant songs in Isaiah are about this offspring. 'When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.' Through this one individual will come many offspring. Then there is the song of the barren woman in which it says the barren woman is going to be more blessed and have more children than her neighbour who has natural offsprings. Eunuchs also are promised that rather then being called 'dry trees' they will be given a name better than sons.

Jesus - The 'one' single offspring comes. The promises aren't fulfilled through having lots of children but through the one offspring from God. Before Christ childlessness was a curse, after Christ, anyone can receive the blessings of the covenant. Jesus tells us that in the new creation there will be no marriage, he points further than our day. 

When the disciples hear Jesus' teaching on marriage they respond by saying 'if that's the case it'd be better not to marry,' to which Jesus says 'yes, you're right.' He says then 'not everyone can receive it' (Mt. 19:10), in other words 'not everyone can handle it.

Jesus says that there are Eunuchs from birth, or who are made Eunuchs by men and then says something really quite shocking when he says 'and there are those who will become Eunuchs for the kingdom' as a devoted single servant of the king. This is remarkable especially in light of the Bible's story as a whole and its emphasis on childbearing and blessing.

Paul on singleness:

• I wish you were all single like I am.
• Singleness also means celibacy.
• Being single doesn't make you superior.
• If you're single and want to get married, that's ok.

Why does he say singleness is good?

Ans. There was 'present distress' in Corinth at the time, because time is at a premium now, and singleness gives you freedom from anxiety (worldly concerns).

Conclusion: Singleness is good. This side of Jesus things have changed, singleness is no longer a curse but a blessing.

Tim Keller - Encounters with Jesus

1) The Skeptical Student

Based on Jesus' calling of Nathanael

Many people today view Christianity much like Nathanael viewed Nazareth. Christianity was from Nazareth then, and it is still from Nazareth today.

On encouraging people to look into Christianity, even though they think they 'know' about it:

A more concrete example is one where you have misplaced your keys. Once you've looked for them in all the places where they 'can' be and haven't found them, you'll have to start looking in places where they 'can't be. And of course, that's where you'll find them.

Referencing the boy Samuel and others as evidence of God choosing the unlikely:

God always works through the men or the boys nobody wanted, through the women or girls nobody wanted. 

W. H. Auden. A famous poet who abandoned his childhood faith in the Church of England but after WWII he changed his mind. What happened to change his mind?

In his account of his spiritual renewal he observed that the novelty and shock of the Nazis in the 1940s was that they made no pretence of believing in justice and liberty for all - they attacked Christianity on the grounds that 'to love one's neighbour as oneself was a command fit only for the effeminate weaklings.' Moreover, 'the utter denial of everything liberalism had ever stood for was arousing wild enthusiasm not in some barbaric land, but in one of the most highly educated countries in Europe.'

Auden believed in human rights however, in liberty and freedom. But why did he?

The operational principle of the natural world is that the strong eat the weak. So if it's natural for the strong to eat the weak, and if we just go here only through the natural, unguided process of evolution, why do we suddenly turn around when the strong nations start to eat the weak nations and say, that is wrong?

 Going further:

The same principle should apply to humanity. How can you say that someone is a good person or a bad person unless you know what they are designed for, what their purpose is?

On why to believe in Christianity:

Christianity is not a consumer good. You should turn to it only if it is true.

 Chapter 2: The Insider and the Outcast

Based on John 4.

Meaning and drive:

As long as you think there is a pretty good chance that you will achieve some of your dreams, as long as you think you have a shot at success, you experience your inner emptiness as 'drive' and your anxiety as 'hope'.

The great tennis champion Boris Becker said:

I had won Wimbledon twice, once as the youngest player. I was rich. ... I had all the material possessions I needed. ... It is the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. But I had no inner peace.

Keller then comments:

We might say 'I'd rather have his problem than mine.' But his point is that he has the same problem as ours, and like us, he though money, sex, accomplishment, and fame would solve it. The difference is, he got all those things, and in the end they didn't satisfy his thirst in the slightest.

Or another one:

Sophia Loren once said in an interview that she had everything - awards, marriage - but that 'in my life there is an emptiness that is impossible to fulfil.'

Isn't it enough to just live a good life? Some might say:

I'm a morally good person who is not religious. There may be a God, I don't know for sure. But either way I'm a good person and that's all that should matter.

Is that really all that should matter:

Imagine a widow has a son she raises and puts through good schools and a good university at great sacrifice to herself, for she is a woman of slender means. And as she's raising him she says, 'Son, I want you to live a good life. I want you to always tell the truth, always work hard, and care for the poor.' And after the young man graduates from college he goes off into his career and life - and never speaks to his mother or spends time with her. Oh, he may send her a card on her birthday, but he never phones or visits. What if you asked him about his relationship with his mother, and he responded: 'No, I don't have anything to do with her personally. But I always tell the truth, work hard, and care for the poor. I've lived a good life - that's all that matters, isn't it?'

Applied to us:

And if there is a God, you owe him literally everything. If there is a God, you owe him far more than a morally decent life. He deserves to be at the centre of your life. 

Chapter 3: The Grieving Sisters

About Jesus' love for Lazarus and us:

Jesus knew what it would cost him to save us from death. Maybe he was able to feel the jaws of death closing in on him. And yet knowing and experiencing all that, he cried, 'Lazarus, come out.' The witnesses said about Jesus, 'See how loved Lazarus'; but really we must behold how he loves us. 

 No God in space?

In 1961 the Russians put a man in orbit, and afterward Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev said something bold. I remember it very well; I was eleven years old when it happened. He said something like 'We have sent a man into space and we didn't see God, so we have proved there is no God.'

Chapter 4: The Wedding Party

On doing what we were made for, and appreciating the meaning and purpose in life. Chariots of Fire runner Harold Abrahams. Just before the final race he says:

'I'll raise my eyes and look down that corridor... with ten lonely seconds to justify my whole existence.'

 Fig leaves to hide our shame. Perishable, flimsy things we build our lives around:

Consider the possibility that your success in life is just a big fig leaf.

Adolf Eichmann. An architect of the death camps in Nazi Germany. Amazing illustration of evil in the human heart:

Adolf Eichmann was one of the Nazi architects of the Holocaust who escaped after WWII to South America, where he was caught in 1960 and taken back to Israel for a trial. He was tried, found guilty, and executed. But there was a very interesting incident during the trial. They had to find witnesses who saw him commit terrible crimes against humanity he was charged with. They needed to find people who saw him participate in atrocities at the death camps. One of the material witnesses was a man name Yehiel De-Nu, and when he came in to testify, he saw Eichmann in the glass booth and immediately broke down, falling to the ground and sobbing. There was pandemonium. The judge was hammering to get order. It was very dramatic. 

Sometime later De-Nur was interviewed by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes. Wallace showed De-Nur the tape of him falling down and asked him why it happened. Was he overwhelmed by painful memories? Or with hatred? Is that why he collapsed? De-Nur said no - and then said something that probably shocked Wallace and should shock almost all secular Western people. He said that he was overcome by the realisations that Eichmann was not some demon but was an ordinary human being. 'I was afraid about myself... I saw that I am capable to do this... exactly like he.

You can choose to say the Nazis were subhuman, that they were nothing like us, and that we are not capable of doing what they did. But there are serious problems with that view. The scariest thing about that whole chapter of history is not the few individual evil architects of it but the complicity of vast numbers of people across a society that was producing so much of the world's best scholarship, science, and culture.

Jesus's response to Mary was blunt. Keller points out that Jesus wasn't just having a bad day:

Even when he is being tortured he never speaks a harsh or angry word, so this is not just a bad mood. Something is weighing heavily on him. And then he lets us know what it is. He says, 'My hour has not yet come.'

The wedding as a metaphor of where history is headed:

And this is how history ends; this is what Jesus came to accomplish. We, the bride, the people Jesus has loved, will finally be united with him. The most rapturous love of a wedded couple on earth is just the dimmest hint and echo of that cosmic future reality.

Jesus as example:

He did not come primarily to be a good example. And I'm glad he didn't. Do you know why? He's too good! He's so perfect that as an example he just crushes you into the ground.

Jesus' life and death:

He doesn't make us pay; he pays the debt. Some have called this 'the self-substitution of God.' 

Chapter 6: The Great Enemy

outside the crucifixion itself, the baptism is the only event of Jesus' life mentioned in all four gospels. It is crucial. (The temptation mentioned in detail in Matthew and Luke, referred to in Mark but not at all in John)

The baptism and temptation are connected tightly by the single word, then... Then is almost therefore. After great blessing and success came trial and temptation.

No one can ever seem to secure a life of sustained success, joy and blessing. As hard as we try, no matter what precautions we take, no matter how well things are going, something comes in to ruin it. Even the most talented, diligent, and savvy people can't escape the undulations of life.

'Ah but wait' What if I/we lived a perfectly good, wise and good life. Surely then God would protect us and our life would always go well. Wrong. Look at Jesus. God has just announced 'he is my perfectly loved son who thrills my heart,' and then... he is ushered into the clutches of the devil.

If we are not suffering at the moment, there is a tendency for us to take credit for it in our minds. It's not luck of grace - it's because we are living good and smart lives. Right?

We in the west have largely rejected the Bible's view of evil, that there is a singular supernatural intelligence behind it all. Deep down, we cling to the simplistic idea that if we are good, life will go well.

Yet if there are demonic forces, it stands to reason that true goodness and godliness would actually attract and stir up those powers to attack.

When the Bible speaks about our encounters with supernatural evil in life, it uses battle language. And if you don't know where the attack is going to come from, or if you underestimate or mischaracterise the enemy, you're likely to lose the battle.

Modern secular attitudes toward evil are an unusual blend of dualistic paganism and eastern pantheism. Dualism sees the struggles between good and evil as being eternal, chaotic, destructive and inevitable. The world is violent and always will be as various power centres of good and evil battle it out. Pantheism says that God is in everything and everything is God. Therefore evil doesn't really exist since understood from the right perspective we can see God in it.

Secular though says on the one hand: violence and destruction is just the way things are. There isn't one single artist behind it all but the world is a product of, indeed we ourselves are products of, blind destructive forces, survival of the fittest.  Or it says, on the other hand 'it's all a matter of perspective. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.' Evil doesn't really exist then.

Silence of the lamb quote: 'I am evil, don't give up good and evil for behaviourism'

Delabanco says: 'these words are the epitome of modern horror, we cannot answer the monster's question.'

J.K. Rowling has a form of Voldermort say 'there is no good and evil, there is only power.' In other words; there may be few things more evil than denying that there is such a thing as evil.That's what Satan wants.

What is the battle front? Hear Satan's words 'if you are the Son of God...'

That's Satan's main military goal - he wants Jesus (and us?) to lose the certainty, the assurance of God's full acceptance, of his unconditional fatherly love.

The heart:

If you think of your heart's identity as an engine, you could say there is a kind of fuel that powers it cleanly and efficiently - and a kind of fuel that is not only polluting but also destroys the engine. The dirty fuel is the fuel of fear and the need to prove yourself. Or the need to be needed by someone else. Or the need to express yourself fully and without restraint. There are many 'fuels' that motivate us to live for a time - but only one fuel is clean and will not lead to weariness and disappointment. And that is God's love for you.

How to fight?

Jesus doesn't behave magically or superstitiously: In general, Satan doesn't control us with fang marks on the flesh, but with lies in the heart.

Satan wants to affect the beliefs of our heart. The heart is the seat of the emotions and source of our core commitments, hopes and trusts. From the heart flow our thinking, feelings and actions:

What the heart trusts, the mind justifies, the emotions desire, and the will carries out. If Satan can get you to consent with your mind to a God of loving grace but get your heart to believe that you must do X, Y, and Z in order to be a worthy, loveable and valuable person, he will be most satisfied.

Hide the scripture in your heart since when you are in moments of pain or shock, the things that come out of your mind and mouth are the most primal things in your being.

Jesus knew the Bible: Around 10% of all he said is quotations or allusions to scripture.
If Jesus didn't presume to be able to face the forces of evil without a thorough grasp of scripture, why would we? It is true that this can be and is a fight but it is precisely when we are tempted to sin, or to be discouraged  or to just give up, it is then that we must wrestle the words and promises of the Bible deep into the centre of our being: Col. 3:16 'let the message of Christ dwell among you richly.' It will feel very much like a fight. J.C. Ryle wrote:

True Christianity is a fight. ...There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. It passes muster; it satisfies sleepy consciences; but it is not good money. ...There are thousands of men and women who go to churches every Sunday ... but your never see any 'fight' about their religion! Of spiritual strife, and exertion, and conflict, and self-denial, and watching, and warring they know literally nothing at all.

C.S. Lewis:

Confronted with a cancer or a slum the Pantheist can say, 'If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would realise that this also is God.' The Christian replies, 'Don't talk damned nonsense.' For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world - that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God 'made up our of his head' as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again. 

Jesus is our Great High Priest who can 'empathise with our weaknesses' and can give us 'mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.'

As we fight Satan's lies in our hearts, and his works in our world, let's rely not only on the Word of the Lord but on the Lord of the Word. We don't simply have a book, as perfect as it is - we have Jesus himself, who has been through fiery trials so intense that we can't imagine them.