Adult Confirmation: Ten Commandments--Second Table (part two)

After a break last week due to the flooding (my church was flooded), we finished up the 10 Commandments this week.

Sixth Commandment

Diagnostic Questions

• Am I content in my spouse (delight)? (married) 
• Am I content in my chastity (delight)? (single) 

Only commandment with a “do do” not a “do not do and do do”

Chaste – purity

Opposites:

• Impure 
• Lust 
• Indecent 

Lord gives us rules about having sex: appropriate only for a husband and wife with each other—and that’s it.

Sexual immorality is now such the norm that being chaste is considered immoral.

Sexual immorality is the only internal, rather than external, sin. It is a joining not only of flesh, but of spirit.

Intimacy is much more than our culture acknowledges.

Picture of…

• …responsibility: parent 
• …irresponsibility: sex 

Sex must be the act of someone responsible, not irresponsible. Not recreational, but procreational.

Different risks for sex:

• Man’s risk is minimal 
• Woman risks pregnancy 

Feminism should be about accountability for men, rather than “reducing” risk for women

Abstinence is the negative side of chastity. Continence is the gift of perpetual abstinence.

Can be broken in:

• Adultery: sexual activity with someone not your spouse 
• Fornication: any sexual activity by unmarried people 
• Divorce: two reason that are acceptable (but not necessary)— 
• Abandonment 
• Abuse (understood as a form of abandonment) 
• Adultery 
• Marriage: between one man and one woman 
• Polygamy is tolerated, but never okay (never ends well) 
• Homosexuality is not allowed 
• Pornography: sexually explicit writing and images (dulls our conscience so we become unaware of our sin—addictive like drugs and alcohol; doesn’t manifest itself like other addictions, masquerades as a secret) 

Chastity includes our eyes and imagination

There is a lot of guilt and shame associated with the sixth commandment: nakedness and depression; whether you commit sexual sin or have it committed against you.

“What I have called clean do not call unclean.”

Does marriage belong to the church or state? It’s God’s own separate institution, which means it is apart from both.

Seventh Commandment

Not just stewards, but owners

Commands us to be generous, sin is to be greedy (lust for stuff)

Laziness is a sin against the 7th commandment (diligence)

Anti-socialism commandment

• Inflation is theft (manipulation of value) 
• Usury in the realm of theft 
• Debt is destabilizing 

Economics is a continued meditation on the 7th commandment

Eighth Commandment

Anti-gossip commandment (intent to destroy reputation)

Establishes the judiciary and courts

Attempt to protect neighbor’s reputation in private first (then public if necessary); unless it is a false teaching, then address it publicly

Test for bringing sin to light: you risk your own reputation, be willing to bring it to court (Luther’s test)

Ninth and Tenth Commandment

Contentment

10th: enticement

Every sin starts with 9th and 10th commandments (faulty desire)

1st and 2nd + 9th and 10th are matters of the heart (others with mouth and actions)

Adult Confirmation: Ten Commandments--Second Table (part one)

Click on the links to see notes from Week 1 and Week 2.

This week, we dug into the meat of the 4th and 5th commandments ("Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother," and "Thou shalt not murder," respectively).  We were supposed to cover the rest of the commandments... but you know how that goes.

Here are my notes from tonight's class.

Review

• 1st Commandment--God gives us Himself, and takes everything else away (deals with our heart)
• 2nd Commandment--God gives us his name and gives us a life of prayer (deals with our lips)
• 3rd Commandment--God gives us the gift of worship and His Word (deals with our ears)
• The Commandments are not only restrictive ("do not do this bad thing"), but also positive ("do this good thing")
• What does it mean to live a Christian life?  Listening.  Our "action" is passive, not active.

Before we got into the rest of the class, my husband asked a good question about why we say "fear and love" in the response to each Commandment in our Small Catechism.

• Fear and Love are contradictory ideas
• Some say that fear is "holy awe and respect"--but the Bible doesn't say that (those words could have been used, but weren't)
• Fear leaves you completely at the the mercy of God
• God commands us to fear Him only--once we believe, the threat of damnation (fear) is removed, and only love remains
• Fear gives way to love; Law gives way to Gospel
• We have a continual battle between Fear and Love (Law and Gospel), which is why we say both

We then talked about Luther's "tower experience" (when he first understood the Gospel)

• Romans 1:16--Luther was hung up on the phrase "righteousness of God"
• He believed that the Law = 10 Commandments, and the Gospel = more commands
• That makes this "active righteousness", or our works used to fulfil the Law and the "Gospel commands"
• Luther felt this was oppressive and wondered why God would do this--it's like asking us to complete an impossible task
• Luther realized, unlike any other theologian, that we don't need to try and make God's Word more palatable; we don't need to add or subtract anything--we just need to believe (and not always understand)
• The Scriptures tell us all we need to know, not all we want to know
• He realized that righteousness was passive (through faith and trust) rather than active (through works)

Second Table

• The Fourth Commandment (establishing authority) is the font of societal order and the foundation of all other commandments following.
• Estates: the ordering of society
• 1st: Family - parents --> children
• Foremost estate of human society--the primary building block
• 2nd: Church - preacher --> preachee (hearer)
• Also deals with the 3rd commandment
• Canonical governance, means of disseminating Law and Gospel
• 3rd: State - ruler --> ruled
• Civil governance (derived from family)
• Unlike the other two estates, the structure of the state is complex, although overly simplified, it becomes ruler and ruled
• Unique caveat with constitutional representative government (like America)
• Family does not serve the state, the state serves the family (since the estate of the family is the building block of the state)
• It is VERY important not to confuse these estates (i.e. in a theocracy unless it is established by God--the ONLY one ever established was in Old Testament Israel)
• Vocation: calling and station in life
• Who is my neighbor?
• Who our neighbor is determines how we specifically act towards those involved with our vocations.
• Authority vs. Power = function of vocation vs. essential
• Authority is to give gifts
• Satan attacks the institutions of the family and attempts to pervert the balance of family supremacy over the state
• See my previous post on the Left Hand and Right Hand Kingdoms here (we reviewed it in class tonight)
• When dealing with the 5th Commandment (which protects life), understand that there is a distinction between killing and murder (i.e. self defense, war, capital punishment)
• How do you distinguish between the two?  Ask: "Am I angry?"
• The Just War Theory was developed to help determine when it was justified for Christians to be involved in war
• Violence is sometimes necessary to use against death to bring death to an end.

Next week, we will finish up the 10 Commandments and hopefully start the Apostles' Creed.  The political animal in me is looking forward to more thorough discussion of the 7th Commandment, which Pastor calls the "anti-socialism" Commandment.  I already enjoy the discussions we've had about the 4th Commandment and authority.  A little teaser for next week:

Adult Confirmation: Ten Commandments--First Table

Tonight we had a brief review of Law and Gospel, an overview of the Ten Commandments, and talked a little more in-depth about the first table of the Law (see below for a definition of that).  Here are my notes.

Law and Gospel (review)

See my notes from last week's class for more on Law and Gospel.

Briefly, the Law condemns, and the Gospel brings salvation.

There are three uses of the Law:

1. Curb (for all people)
2. Mirror (the primary purpose of the Law, for all people)
3. Guide or Rule (exclusive to Christians)

The Holy Ghost drives us in different directions based on Law and Gospel, but always towards the same place.

Forgiveness of sins is meaningless without a knowledge of sin.

Ten Commandments Overview

There are two tables to the Ten Commandments:

The First Table is God's table, or how we relate to God, and is the first three commandments.

The Second Table is our neighbor's table, or how we interact with our neighbor, and is the last seven commandments.

Note: Lutherans and Catholics number our commandments a little differently than protestantism.  This is because when God gave the commandments, He didn't number them, just said there were 10, and as Pastor pointed out last week, there really should be 9 or 11 "logically", so we make them work as 10 as best we can.  Protestantism separates our first commandment into two, and combines our ninth and tenth into one.  I'll say what each commandment is when I talk about it to hopefully help avoid confusion.  I don't know if there is a right or wrong way to number then, this is just how we do it.

The First Table drives us vertically in faith towards God; the Second Table drives us horizontally in love towards our neighbor.

If you were to boil down the Ten Commandments even further from the two tables, they can be summarized in one word: love.

Love is a very deadly word.  Love ensures that we know we have never fulfilled the Law.  Remember, the Law always accuses.

The Ten Commandments are institutions that establish order in this world.  The commandments protect what God institutes.  The commandments are less of a "leash" (to yank us back when we sin), and more of a fence (to protect God's institutions).  In each commandment, God gives us these gifts:

• God Himself (in the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods," God take everything else away from us and gives us the gift of Himself)
• His Name (in the second commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain," God gives us the gifts of prayer, worship, and right doctrine)
• Holiness (in the third commandment, "Thou shalt sanctify the holy-day," God gives us the gift of His Word and the Church)
• Authority (in the fourth commandment, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother [that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long upon the earth]," God gives us the gift of family and the state)
• Life (in the fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not murder," God gives us the gift of life)
• Marriage (in the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," God gives us the gifts of marriage and sex)
• Property (in the seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," God gives us the gifts of money, labor, and possessions)
• Honor (in the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," God gives us the gifts of reputation and our good name)
• Contentment (in the ninth and tenth commandments, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house," and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his," God gives us the gift of contentment)

First Table

Below are specific notes on each commandment from the first table.  The questions are diagnostic questions to help self-examine when reflecting on the commandments.

First Commandment: There is no fear left.  God, who can destroy our body and soul, won't because He destroyed his Son instead of us.

• Primary: Of what am I afraid?  What do I fear?
• Secondary: In what do I trust?  What do I love?

Second Commandment: God is trusting us to rightly use His name, not to hide it away.  Jews, for fear of misusing God's name, wouldn't use it, however, we are sinning when we don't use His name rightly--which also means when we don't use it at all.  When praying, you ask (because that is who He is) and give thanks (for what He gives).

• Primary: How are my prayers?

Third Commandment: The way something is made holy is by having God's name put on it.  Holy means to be set apart.  Holiness isn't a form of morality.

• Primary: What is my attitude towards worship?

The Importance of Doctrine

The second and third commandments in particular warn against false doctrine.  Dr. Luther said that all false doctrines strike at Christ.  We misuse the name of God when we teach something false in His name.  We do not worship God when we teach false doctrine in our churches or use it in worship.  That is why right doctrine is so important.  The one of the most loving things we can do for our neighbor is insist on sound doctrine.  Other forms of prevalent false worship today are:

• Unionism: joining in worship with other denominations who teach incorrect doctrine
• Syncretism: worshiping with those of other religions, giving the impression that "all paths lead to God"

That is why, as Lutherans, we practice closed communion, because we cannot partake of a table where false doctrine is the confession.  We also do not allow those we know do not confess as we do to commune with us.  This is a loving, not mean, thing.  It protects the Pastor (who is accountable for those he communes), the congregation (who then would partake in a unified confession of false doctrine), and you (who may potentially eat the Body and drink the Blood to your damnation, as 1 Corthinians 15 says).

Adult Confirmation: Introduction, Law/Gospel, Scripture

Today was the start of Adult Confirmation at my church.  I'm going just as a refresher (I was confirmed when I was 14) and so my husband would have company while attending.  Since I took copious notes (5 notebook pages), I thought I would share them here.

Catechism

What is a catechism? A catechism is the Bible boiled down, like Cliff Notes.  Luther's Small Catechism, the basis of our confirmation studies in the LCMS, consists of several parts:

• Six Chief Parts:
• 10 Commandments
• Apostles' Creed
• Lord's Prayer
• Baptism
• Confession and Absolution
• Lord's Supper
• Explanation (what is properly Luther's Small Catechism)
• Short explanation (added on later)

Law and Gospel

Boiled down even further, the Bible can be summed up in two words: Law and Gospel.  These two words are the very essence of the Bible.

Law	Gospel
Word of Command	Word of Promise
God’s “Do”s	God’s “Done” (it is finished)
Description of God’s Holiness and command to be holy like God	Declares “You are holy.” (by faith and not works)
Summarized in the 10 Commandments (Natural Law)	Summarized in the Creeds
Shows us our sin and the need for a Savior	Shows us our Savior
Can only condemn	Comforts
Threatens	Saves

There are 3 uses of the law:

1. As a Curb
2. As a Mirror
3. As a Guide (or rule)

The necessary conclusion of the Law is: I need help.  I need a Savior.

Old Testament Law is divided into three categories:

1. Moral Law (Natural Law, the 10 Commandments)
2. Civil Law (bound up to Israel, our civil law is now bound to secular governments)
3. Ceremonial Law (fulfilled in Christ)

Ceremonial law:

• Belongs only to the Old Testament
• Points us to Christ
• To now practice any ceremonial law is to deny the work, life, death, and resurrection of Christ: it denies Him as the fulfillment of the law and as Savior of the world

(an interesting note about Hebrew: the word for "whole burnt offering" is holocaust)

New Testament "ceremonial law":

• Baptism
• Confession and Absolution
• Lord's Supper

There are only two religions in the world:

• The Religion of Law (all religions except...)
• The Religion of Gospel (...Christianity)

It is very important for a proper distinction of Law and Gospel. "Glawspel" is nothing more than diluted law.  We confess that, outside of the Lutheran church, the proper distinction between Law and Gospel does not exist.

There are two sources for knowledge about God: Natural and Revealed.  Natural knowledge of God comes through Creation and the Conscience.  Revealed knowledge of God comes through Scripture.

We learn from Nature that God is:

• Big (creation)
• Good (order)
• Mad (we are bad)

Nature shows us only law.

Revealed to us in Scripture is:

• God's name
• Triune nature
• Salvation

The revealed God is Gospel.

Consciences can be broken when:

• It tells us we are guilty when we are not
• It tells us we are not guilty when we are
• It tells us we are condemned when we are saved

The Devil works on two things:

• Your conscience
• The Church

The Bible

This was the "Bible in 15 minutes" summary given by Pastor.

Old Testament:

• Written by the prophets
• Written in Hebrew
• 39 books in 5 'sections':
• Torah (Books of Moses, 5 books)
• History (12 books)
• Wisdom (5 books)
• Major Prophets (4 books)
• Minor Prophets (13 books)
• The major theme running through the whole Old Testament is the promise of Jesus, the seed--every word, every person, every event is driving you towards Christ.

Between the Testaments is the Apocrypha (mostly written in Greek).  We believe it to be helpful, but not sacred or inspired.

New Testament:

• Written by the Apostles
• Written in Greek
• 27 books in 5 'sections':
• Gospels (4 books)
• Each book follows the same basic pattern with two major sections in each: the birth and ministry of Jesus; and His death and resurrection
• Acts (history of the early Church, 1 book)
• Pauline Epistles (named for "to whom", 13 books)
• Catholic (universal) Epistles (named mostly for "by whom" because they were addressed to the whole church, 8 books)
• Prophesy (Revelations, 1 book)
• Three major authors in the New Testament:
• Luke: author of Luke and Acts
• Paul: oversaw the writing of the Gospel of Luke and book of Acts, authored the 13 Pauline Epistles
• Peter: oversaw the writing of the Gospel of Mark, authored 1 and 2 Peter

Next week, we tackle the first table of the law (Commandments 1-3, by the Lutheran numbering--there are about 5 different ways to number the Commandments, which we will talk about next week).

Hopefully you can make sense of my notes, if not--please comment and I'll be happy to clarify!

Bible Study Notes: What's the Difference?

Now that Revelations is wrapped up, my church is doing a study on comparative symbolics, or what the differences in doctrine are between 10 different denominations on 17 different topics.  While I will probably not be at most of those classes (as I am supposed to be teaching another class at the same time), I did get to attend the introduction, and I'll get the notes from each class to hopefully highlight here.

The 10 denominations being looked at in this study are (in parenthesis you'll see the confessions of each church body we are using for these discussions--as you go down the list, it becomes harder to find actual written statements of doctrine for each denomination):

• Lutheran (Book of Concord)
• Roman Catholic (Catholic Catechism, Trent, Vatican II)
• Eastern Orthodox (Larger Catechism)
• Anglican/Episcopalian (39 Articles)
• Presbyterian/Reformed/Calvinist (Westminster Confession)
• Methodist/Weslyan (Methodist Articles of Religion)
• Baptist (Baptist Faith and Message)
• Evangelical/Non-Denominational (Calvary Chapel)
• Pentecostal/Assemblies of God (International Pentecostal Holiness Church Beliefs)
• Liberal (A Guide to the Study of the Christian Religion)

The 17 doctrines to be discussed are:

• Scripture/Authority
• God/The Trinity
• Creation
• Man's Will
• The Incarnation
• Salvation
• Original Sin
• Law and Gospel
• Justification
• Sanctification
• Church
• Baptism
• Confession and Absolution
• The Lord's Supper
• Worship
• The Ministry
• Vocation/Citizenship
• The End Times

Pastor included a great chart of the denominational family tree for reference (might be a little hard to read this way, I'll see if I can get it in a more readable format at some point).

For many, the immediate question when anyone does this is something along the lines of, "Why do you have to be so divisive?"  Well, we're not.  Quite the opposite.  In doing this, and getting other Christians to realize there are stark differences (many of which are NOT Biblical teachings), we would hope for unity of faith and love, to have the church be of one mind.  How likely that is to occur is yet to be seen, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.  Additionally, it is the duty of all Christians to combat error and false doctrine.  Because we in the LCMS practice closed communion for that very reason--because unity in teaching must come before unity in fellowship--a great resource on where in Scripture we are commanded to do just this can be found here.

Finally, here are some notes I had from the class.

• What distinguishes Lutheranism is not history, geography, etc., but doctrine
• Many end up in a church "accidentally" (i.e. my parents were "X", so I am as well)--at some point we need to make our belief purposeful
• How do we know what a church believes?  Is it what a church teaches, or what subscribers actually believe?
• Every false doctrine, in one way or another, takes away from the clarity and peace of the Gospel
• Jesus commands us to unity in doctrine, to have His church be of one mind
• Unity is two-fold: in the proclamation of the Gospel, and in the benefit of the Gospel (many, if not most, denominations agree on the previous, it is the latter where false teaching creep in)
• The root of false doctrine was in the Garden of Eden: "Did God really say...?"

New Year Update

I know it is a little belated, seeing as we are already a week into the new year, but better late than never.

Intro and Warning

Briefly, for those new here, my name is Sarah.  I'm 23, I'll be 24 in May of this year (2013).  I'm married to a pretty awesome guy, and we are expecting our first child on our first anniversary--28 April 2013.  I am a political consultant and campaign strategist in the beautiful foothills of Colorado, a state to which I am native.  I'm very geeky and nerdy (old school Sci-Fi, Tolkein, Stargate, X-Files, etc.), I love to read and write and learn new things, I'm a rocker chick when it comes to music (although I'm a classically trained pianist and have a great affinity for classical music as well), I love to swing and ballroom dance when I can, and theology is my passion.

When it comes to theology, I am a cradle Lutheran. I was baptized when I was two weeks old, and confirmed in the Lutheran church. I am extremely conservative and confessional when it comes to my theology.  Succinctly put, I am a Quia-subscribing, UAC-confessing, Evangelical Catholic, thoroughly catechized, confessional, orthodox, Christ-centered, cross-focused, catholic and apostolic, Word and Sacrament, Law and Gospel, traditional and liturgical Lutheran.

For those new to this blog, here is a warning (and reminder to those who aren't new): this blog is rated "L" for Lutheran.

I'm an equal opportunity theological offender, and have no problem taking on any topic or any denomination (including my own).  Mostly, I'm in the business of heresy-hunting and attempting to bring folks around to orthodoxy, although I admit that my methods probably don't exactly make those I wouldn't consider to be orthodox want to listen.

Perhaps better put, I'm a terrible Christian--I readily and openly admit that I stink at evangelism, which is kind of what we are commanded to do: go and make disciples of all nations.  That's because, in my analytical mind, I can't imagine wanting anyone to join something as broken, heretical and unorthodox as much of American Christendom has become--so I will leave that work to those better equipped and without my process of thinking.  What I can do, what I feel I must do, is "evangelize" to those already claiming the name Christian, but who don't seem to understand what it means.  More than that, I want to equip those who are orthodox to be able to give an answer for the hope that lies within them to the world--to Christians and non-Christians alike.

I know I have a tendency to be snarky and perhaps too blunt, but please understand this comes from a place of earnest and the willingness to stake my life on my faith--I'm not doing it just to be obnoxious, I promise.

New Year, New Posts

With those formalities out of the way, I wanted to lay out a bit of a plan for this blog over the next year.

• Every Monday, I try to put out a "heresy of the week" post.  Some weeks, I do more than one heresy because of how related they are--and some weeks, I don't always get to it on Mondays.  This seems to be my most consistent topic for posting, which is good--and I plan to keep that up.
• While I have a huge backlog of posts to make on the subjects, I also do "Bible study notes" and "sermon notes" posts when I can (part of my goal this year is to get caught up and be more regular about those posts).
• One of my other goals this year, besides being more consistent in posting here, is to finally get back into consistent study of Koine Greek.  In fact, I've decided that for Lent, in addition to giving something up (haven't decided that that will be yet), I will be attempting to establish two new habits, one of which will be to spend 15-60 minutes a day on Greek.  As I'm doing that, it is my hope to be posting on that topic as a means of helping me to be accountable (maybe a "Greek Word of the Week" post?).
• Currently in the queue, I have posts in progress on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (or, why Lutherans believe that the Office of the Pope is an antichrist), the role of the Pope in the Two Kingdoms, and the proper role of women in the church.  Hopefully I'll have those all finished and up in the next week or two, but no promises.  As always, I'll have more posts on various topics as I get the idea for them and/or as time permits.  This aren't going to be quite as consistent as other posts.

Of course... all of this may fall to the wayside after my baby is born, at least for the first few months.  But having a plan will hopefully help me keep on track before 28 April (or thereabouts) and once I get over the sleep deprivation and lack of free time that I know comes with the first few months of baby--it may be wildly optimistic of me to think I'll actually have time for this at all after the baby is born, but I'll keep that optimism for now.

Bible Study Notes: Revelation 20:1-6

We're working our way through Revelation (we touched on Revelation 19:17-21, but didn't spend much time there today) and are now dissecting the various interpretations of Revelation 20 and eschatology (study of the end times).  There will be more notes to follow over the next few weeks, as we continue reading through Revelation 20, but here's what we covered today.

There are four main eschatological views:

• Historic Premillennialism (not common anymore, actually existed somewhat before Christianity in Judaism)
• Dispensational Premillennialism (first taught by the Gnostic heretic Cerinthus in the mid-2nd century, largely developed in the 1830s-1870s and most common protestant, specifically Arminian, eschatological belief)
• Postmillennialism (popularity has waxed and waned, most popular at the turn of the 20th century but died out around WWI, slight resurgence today especially in Reformed, or Calvinist, churches)
• Amillennialism (the proper eschatological view subscribed to by Lutherans and Catholics) -- perhaps more properly called "Realized Millennialism" as "Amillennialism" is a derogatory misnomer (meaning literally "no millennium")

Another lovely white board drawing from Pr. Wolfmueller

All four eschatological beliefs have some similarities in their timelines:

• Death of Christ
• Resurrection and Ascension of Christ
• Gifting of the Holy Ghost to Christians
• <...something happens...>
• Resurrection of the Dead
• The Final Judgment
• Eternity

It's what happens in-between (the <...something happens...>) that is different, and in different orders, for each eschatological view.  Here are the "in-betweens" for each type:

Historic Premillennialism

• The church age
• Tribulation
• 2nd coming of Christ
• 1,000-years kingdom on earth (during which Satan is bound)
• "Satan's Little Season" (where he is loosed for the final battle)
• 2nd 2nd coming of Christ

Dispensational Premillennialism

• The church age
• Christ sort of comes back for the "rapture" (invented in the 1830s)
• 7 year tribulation: 3 years of "peace", then the Antichrist comes and persecutes the converted Jews
• (2nd) 2nd coming of Christ
• 1,000-years kingdom on earth (during which Satan is bound)
• "Satan's Little Season" (where he is loosed for the final battle)
• (3rd) 2nd coming of Christ

Postmillennialism

• The church age
• "Golden age"
• 1,000-years kingdom on earth (during which Satan is bound)
• "Satan's Little Season" (where he is loosed for the final battle)
• 2nd coming of Christ

Amillennialism

• The church age = 1,000-years kingdom (the death of Jesus caused Satan to be bound)
• "Satan's Little Season" (where he is loosed for the final battle)
• 2nd coming of Christ

------------------------------------------------------

What does Revelation 20:1-4 say about the end times?

• The Millennium begins with the binding of the devil (which is accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus)
• After the Millennium, Satan must be released for a time for the final battle
• The resurrection of the dead and final judgment follows

------------------------------------------------------

Now for a few notes on Dispensational Premillennialism:

• Teaches that God works in different "dispensations" or "economies" of salvation, usually 7:
• The Garden
• The Fall
• Noah
• The Patriarchs
• The Law
• The Church (or Grace)
• The End Times
• They base much of their teaching on the 70 weeks in Daniel (which are really week-years, or 490 years)
• Jesus was rejected by the Jews at 69 weeks
• There is a pause (called the "great prophetic comma") between Jesus and the 70th week
• The Rapture removes the church so God can "deal" with Israel in the 7 years Tribulation
• Question they can never answer: Is the 2nd coming at the rapture, after the Tribulation, or at the end before the final resurrection?
• They say that about 2/3rds of the Jews will become "believers" during the Tribulation, and 1/3rd will be killed in the Great Persecution by the Anti-Christ
• One of the three pillars of Dispensational Premillennialism is the Distinction between Israel and the Church (Dual-Covenant Theology)
• During the 1,000-years Kingdom, Jesus reigns on an earthly throne in Jerusalem and continues to offer sacrifices in the rebuilt temple (which is utterly ridiculous and unsettling, since He already made the final sacrifice on the cross)
• At the beginning of the 1,000-years kingdom, those raptured and who died in the Great Persecution during the Tribulation will be resurrected with heavenly bodies, but the believing Jews who are still alive will remain with their earthly bodies and can still marry, have children, and die of very old age (500+ years)
• The 5th or 6th generation of the Jewish converts will rebel and join with Satan in the final battle at the end of the 1,000-years kingdom
• Dispensational Premillennialism comes from the incorrect reading of the Bible as if it is about Israel, not Jesus
• Dispensational Premillennialists use Matthew 24:36-44, 1 Corinthians 15:50-58, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 to "prove" the rapture, but that is through a misinterpretation of the texts (trying to get the text to say what they want it to instead of proper exegesis of Scripture interpreting Scripture)
• Dispensational Premillennialism teaches that Jesus was only crucified, died, buried, resurrected and ascended as "Plan B"; "Plan A" was to get the Jews to believe and He wasn't supposed to die (which is also utter nonsense)

In other words, Dispensational Premillennialism ends up looking like a ransom note, with snippets from various verses from various parts of the Bible all hobbled together to fit preconceived ideas rather than letting the clear Word of God interpret itself... and some of it, they honestly just made up.  The majority of Dispensational Premillennialism was invented in the mid-1800s.

Bible Study Notes: God is...

I warned my Pastor that if I started coming to Bible Study regularly, I would ask obnoxious, obscure and time-consuming questions.  He learned today that I was not kidding.

While discussing the eternal union of Human and Divine in the Son, I had to ask how we describe that to other people (Christians and non-Christians), since we consider Jesus to retain His human body and nature even now (Divine and Human eternally joined), without anthropomorphizing the rest of the Godhead (the Father and the Spirit).  So, we spent at least half an hour on this (instead of studying Revelations...) and here is what we determined.  Interestingly, Pastor felt like he didn't answer my question, but he definitely did.  It just took me until the drive home to realize it.

The Trinity and who God is basic Christian doctrine that almost everyone, regardless of denomination, agrees upon (sans the heretics).  However, it is also unbelievably complex and not particularly logical in a mathematical sense, for example (Pastor said that after this discussion, we can all graduate Seminary because of the complexity of the topic we just discussed...).  It makes sense to me, but that is largely because of faith.  To be fair, from a human perspective, I can more than understand why a non-Christian would look at this and think we're nuts.

Pastor Wolfmueller's lovely illustration.

Edit: Thanks to Becki for a link the the image my Pastor was referencing here.

First, for clarity, the Persons of God within the Trinity are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.  Each Person of the Trinity has the full Essence of God.  The Son has two Natures: fully God and fully Man, or both Divine and Human.  So that is what I mean by those terms when I use them below.

The Essence of God:

God is the Father.  The Father (A) is God (D).  (A = D)

God is the Son.  The Son (B) is God (D).  (B=D)

God is the Spirit.  The Spirit (C) is God (D).  (C=D)

However... the Persons of God within the Trinity:

The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father.  (A ≠ B and B ≠ A) 

The Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Son.  (B ≠ C and C ≠ B)

The Spirit is not the Father, and the Father is not the Spirit.  (C ≠ A and A ≠ C)

The Natures of God:

The Father is fully Divine in Nature.

The Son is both fully Divine and fully Human in Nature (Personal Union).

The Spirit is fully Divine in Nature.

God is fully Divine in Nature, joined through the Son to humanity.

Additionally, all Persons of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal (no one is above the others, and no one existed before the others).  However, we would say that the Father beget the Son (that both name are essential to the Persons of that member of the Trinity) and that the Spirit proceeds from the Father AND Son--while all three remain co-equal and co-eternal, always existing together and without "rank" in the Godhead.

All of which brings us to my question, which essentially is how to describe the Nature of the Son as being separate from the other Persons of the Trinity without being separate from Essence of God, which all three persons of the Trinity share in full.  

When the Son took the form of flesh (fully God and fully Man), did the essence of God change (since the Father, Son and Spirit are all fully God)?  No, because the Divine = the Flesh in the Son, but the Flesh ≠ the Divine in the Son.  This, by the by, was the answer to my question: because the Son is fully Divine, therefore fully God, God is joined into humanity in the Son, but since neither the Father nor Spirit are the same as the Person of the Son, they cannot be joined in humanity as well, even though both, like the Son, are also fully God.

This is also the reason we (meaning Roman Catholics, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Lutherans and Anglicans) can, should, and do call Mary the Theotokos ("God-Bearer" or Mother of God) rather than those (all not listed above--basically, protestants and heretics--not implying that the two are the same) who would call her Christotokos ("Christ-Bearer" or Mother of Christ)--because Christ is fully Divine, and therefore fully God in Essence and Nature.  Nota Bene: the Council of Ephesus in 431 declared "Christotokos" to be heretical.

For more on how all this works, the Athanasian Creed (written to combat Arianism, which denies the Divinity of Jesus, as well as those accusing Christians of polytheism--the worship, in Christianity's case, of a Trinity of gods, instead of the Trinity in one God) does a beautiful job of explaining "one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity."  It's more lengthy than the Apostles' or Nicene-Constantinople Creeds, which is why the Lutheran Church at least only uses it on Trinity Sunday, but it is the most succinct, yet thorough, explanation of the Persons, Essence and Natures of God in the Trinity.

Finally, one of Pastor Wolfmueller's great observation was with regards to the question of "having a relationship with Jesus."  Technically speaking, everyone has a relationship with Jesus, some are just very bad ones (i.e. non-believers).  Christians don't really have a "relationship" with Jesus, though.  No.  Rather, through baptism, we are joined with Jesus, and we are one with Christ and become partakers of the Divine Nature (knows as the mystical union or mysterious union--2 Peter 1:2-4).  

Just like the "So when were you saved?" question I despise, the "Do you have a relationship with Jesus?" question is on my "hate list" for questions asked by well meaning, but theologically illiterate, Christians.  Both are totally the wrong question, a) because both emphasize your role in salvation (which is only to reject faith, but by emphasizing more than that, these questions are Arminianist, and therefore Synchronistic, and, consequently, heretical), and b) because the real questions are "When were you baptized?" and "Has the Holy Ghost worked faith in you?", respectively, if you must ask one of the two--although the latter here ("Has the Holy Ghost worked faith in you?") is often what is meant by the previous above ("So when were you saved?").