Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books (mostly)

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Making The Crooked Places Straight

Making The Crooked Places Straight

We should be making the crooked places straight, shouldn’t we?

🤔

Among the most neglected biblical images  â€” neglected in comparison to its importance — is that of the Return of the King. When your King has gone on progress, or for some other reason has left the kingdom or left the capital city, then you patiently but attentively await his return. You look for his appearance on the horizon and while you are waiting, you prepare the way of the Lord. You make a highway for him in the wilderness; you make the crooked places straight and the rough places plain; and then when you see him in the distance, you come out to meet him and escort him home. That’s how it’s done.

A failure to understand this essential practice is the primary cause of the wholly mistaken idea of the Rapture. Paul tells the Thessalonian church: “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” The assumption of Rapture theology is that when believers go up to meet the Lord in the air, he immediately does a 180 and heads back to heaven, taking them with him. But that’s not what the text says, because it wouldn’t make any sense. Why would he come halfway between heaven and earth only in order to turn around? He could just summon them to heaven if that’s where they’re meant to be going. But the faithful, patient believers are not meeting the Lord in the air so that they can then go to heaven with Him. They’re meeting the Lord in the air so they can escort him into his Kingdom, what will become the New Earth, with its capital the New Jerusalem, where he shall reign for ever and ever.

It’s in response to this story that N. T. Wright wrote a delightful little essay, â€śJesus Is Coming – Plant a Tree!” You plant a tree because every tree that you plant is a token of faith in the New Creation, and a means of preparing for the New Earth. Christians don’t often think that way because they assume that the idea of the New Creation means that everything that currently exists will simply be destroyed and then God will start all over from scratch. But that can’t be the case, because the first fruit of the New Creation is the resurrected Lord Himself, and His resurrected body bears upon it the marks of his crucifixion. Therefore his resurrection body is a glorified body, yes, but continuous with the body that was born into this world, and that left this world by means of crucifixion. Indeed, a different body might be glorious, but not glorified.

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Filed Under: PotpourriTagged With: #Charity, #Christianity

The Shame Of Ravi Zacharias

The Shame Of Ravi Zacharias

Ok, I have been dragging my feet on this post for months now.

But Zacharias’s memoir (Walking From East To West) is up next in my queue and I don’t feel like I can keep posting about him (without at least addressing some of this).

So here we go, The Shame of Ravi Zacharias, guaranteed to make 50% of you mad.

I mean, do you have any idea how deflating it is to find out that your favorite theologian was living a life in the shadows doing the exact opposite of what he preached in public?

I have literally referred to his books and quotes hundreds of times on this blog.

I eulogized him here.

Ugh. Barf. Ugh, again.

The long and short of it is that while Ravi was one of the greatest Christian apologist of a generation – he was also a womanizer.

He was unfaithful to his wife across time and place and he did everything he could to silence people that tried to bring the truth to light.

See the full internal report by RVIM below.

Report of Independent Investigation into
Sexual Misconduct of Ravi Zacharias:
Download

Now then.

I do not understand the reaction of his organization Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).

They have deleted all content on every platform that came from Ravi. They have shuttered their apologetics ministry. They will be a grant-making entity only.

I mean, I kind of get it. It’s a shameful thing. Everyone involved just wants no association with it. (Association is a powerful thing.)

But taking all the content down?

Let me say it with a few questions.

  • Did Ravi’s actions turn everything he ever said into false statements?
  • Is everything King David ever said irrelevant because he committed murder and adultry?
  • Should the apostle Paul’s entire ministry be forgotten because he can’t quit sinning? (Romans 7)
  • Again: Is the truth of a statement – of a life – made false by evil action?

Of course, the answer is no.

The truth of it is that: The sins that you and I choose are just easier to hide.

But that’s the gospel in a nutshell, isn’t it?

We all choose sin over God every single day. There is nothing you or I can do to deserve forgiveness. But we are saved, by grace, through faith. Despite ourselves.

Let’s take comfort in that.

As for questioning the soul of Razi Zacharias – I have nothing to say.

One of my best friends said all that needs to be said here:

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Filed Under: Not BooksTagged With: #Christianity, #Sin

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