11/2/12 Metalllica at the Gates of Hell/More on the 4 Texts/Right Handed Parable Prep

Metallica come to church:
 Jesus asks church to host nonChristian concert:

a)PHARISEES From  Matthew 12:31-32, answer the question,

"What is the unpardonable sin" (or "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit")  in the context of that Scripture.  Be as specific as possible.

Use any skills you have learned in class, especially reading those verses in context (what comes before and after them). Explain how a study of the passagem and other intertexts, led to your conclusion

b)SADDUCEES In Matthew 3:10-12 , is "baptism with fire" a positive or negative experience?    Explain how a study of the passagem and other intertexts, led to your conclusion. Find a potential chiasm in the Scripture, and note how that informs your answer,

c)ZEALOTS Who seems to be "taken," and who seems to be "left behind" in  the immediate context  of Matthew 24: 36-53 , and what are the implications? Explain how a study of the passage, and other intertexts, led to your conclusion

..

d)ESSENES Who seems to be "my brothers and sisters" in Matthew 25:40, and its context:, Matthew 25: 31-46.  Discuss whether or not this is a parable.   ExpExplain how a study of the passage, and other intertexts, led to your conclusion

How  would you go about discerning/deciding who are "the least of these, my brothers" I\in Matthew 25?  Take ten minutes studying the passage froma  Three Worlds model, and come up with a working answer, or at least the right questions (literary, historical) that would lead you to the answer.



PHARISEES

Question: In your estimation, what is the unpardonable sin? Is it one specific sin, or is it different for everybody? I know someone worried they have committed it.

Answer: A good, heavy and quite controversial question. However, I think it is easily answered. Many people spend time guessing what "the" unpardonable sin might be: mass murder, cursing God, etc. As always, we need to consider Scriptures in context. Both times Jesus uses the phrase "unpardonable sin," (Matthew 12:23 and Mark 3:29), the immediate situation He is addressing is the people saying He worked miracles by the power of the devil. Therefore, in a nutshell, I believe the unpardonable sin is to be so completely hardened against Christ, and acceptance of Christ, that you not only have no interest in Him, but consistently believe that He was an instrument of the devil. Do you know many people who fall into that category? I don't either. As a pastor, I occasionally hear from a believer worried they have committed the unpardonable sin. I believe I can look such a person in the eye, and say with authority, "No, you haven't!" I think that if a person, no matter how depraved, still has any fraction of interest in Jesus (even ambivalent or negative interest), they are not crossed what Hugh Ross calls the "blasphemy threshold" of the unpardonable sin. In short, if you're worried about it, I sure don't think you've committed it. A reprobate would not worry about it. I certainly understand and appreciate the weight of guilt of someone who may have broken commandments against murder and adultery, for example. But Christ has certainly forgiven these sins and others. This is not license to sin, but a reminder that there is forgiveness for every sin covered by Jesus.
Another way to answer your first question is the unpardonable sin is to die without receiving Christ. Though Christ gives everyone a chance, if one does not accept Him in this life, their sin is unpardoned. Hope this is a helpful. It's such a serious question, and I pray to do it justice.

ZEALOTS

5, 2009R

of course Christians will be left behind

Preface (sigh); Don't hear what I'm not saying. I am not necessarily saying there is no "rapture," etc. I am just saying read this one particular scripture in context. No hate email necessary.

It astounds people when I tell them that

no one 

reading the famous "one will be taken; the other left behind" 'rapture' passage..

(in context; and without everything you've ever heard that it said influencing what you hear)

will read it as Christians being taken/raptured.

It is the most obvious interpretation in the world that in this Scripture:

the Christians are left behind.

!

Try it out! Follow the flow and logic; read text and context prayerfully and carefully.

There's a reason this passage was not spun this way in the early church (B.L.H.-"Before LaHaye")

the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

And Rossing:

Only by combining this passage together with First Thessalonians can a dispensationalist begin to piece together their notion of 'left behind'...But here's the problem with their use of this passage in Matthew: Dispensationalists make the leap of assuming that the person 'taken' in this passage is a born-again Christian who is taken up to heaven, while the person 'left' is an unbeliever who is left behind for judgement. This is a huge leap, since Jesus himself never specifies whether Christians should desire to be taken or left! In the overall context of Matthew's Gospel, the verbs 'taken' and 'left' (Greek paralambano and apheimi) can be either positive or negative.

In the verses immediately preceding this passage, Jesus says that his coming will be like the flood at the time of Noah, when people were 'swept away' in judgement. If being 'taken' is analogous to being 'swept away' in a flood, then it is not a positive fate. That is the argument of New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop N.T. Wright:

'It should be noted that being in this context means being taken in judgement.
There is no hint here of a , a sudden event that would remove individuals from terra firma...It is, rather, a matter of secret police coming in the night, or of enemies sweeping through a village or city and seizing all they can.'
(NT Wright, Jesus and The Victory of God, p. 366

If Wright is correct, this means that 'left behind,' is actually the desired fate of Christians, whereas being 'taken' would mean being carried off by forces of judgement like a death squad. For people living under Roman occupation, being taken away in such a way by secret police would probably be a constant fear....McGuire suggests that the 'Left Behind' books have it 'entirely backward.'. McGuire, like Wright, points out that when analyzed in the overall context of the gospel, the word 'taken' means being taken away in judgement, as in the story of Jesus' being 'taken' prisoner by soldiers in Matt 27:27. 'Taken' is not an image for salvation"

(Rossing, pp 178-179)

‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,nor the Son');";but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day at what hour');your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. '
-Matt. 24

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RELATED:

• Where did the rapture come from anyway?

• "This is going to be helpful for people 2000 years from now who don’t want to get left behind”

 

• If Jesus doesn't return for ten thousand years..

• Beginning of the End

• "Left Behind" as Evangelical Pornography

• Three signs of the (good) end times

• Domitian Games in Revelation

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d)ESSENES:

The Least of These My Brethren by Mitchell Lewis

2)Colbert:

especially from 6:08:

3)

Who are 'the least of these'?  by Andrew Perriman

4)For the least of My Brethren"   by  The Saunders

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Other possible resources:

• Bible Background Commentary on NT: Excellent resource
• Commentary on Matthew (Craig Keener)
• Commentary on Matthew (IVP)
• Commentary on Matthew-Historical (Craig Keener)

• The mystery of the kingdom:

   studies in Matthew

   By Tim Geddert

--Note: How does Jesus?Matthew use the term "brother" or "My brothers."
Find out here

--Does he mean "brothers" or "brothers and sisters"?  Click

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Chiasm led me to Christ"

The chiasm card has been overplayed.

But mostly, in American church, it is unplayed.

We miss a lot of what the biblical writers intended when we neglect the structural and literary devices that were so common in the ancient world and literature.

For those of you scratching your head, here is my primary post introducing chiasm and inclusio, with biblical examples:

Chiasm and Inclusio

For those of you who love the literary analysis of some of my favorite bands, do you recognize some classic chiasms in U2?

"The rich stay healthy, and the sick stay poor" (God, Part II)

and The Violet Burning:

"Right from wrong, and bad from good."


They sometimes ARE everywhere...especially in Scripture.



Everyone has heard "the last shall be first,
and the          first shall be last," and will recognize that as a chiasm...but they get much bigger and broader that that in Scripture. That's when they really become helpful in suggesting themes...and help us "get the (center)point."

An example I just found on House Church Central:

Eccl. 11:3	A	Clouds and Rain
Eccl. 11:7		B	Light and Sun
Eccl. 11:8a			C	Consider the days of darkness
Eccl. 11:8b				D	All that comes is breath
Eccl. 11:9a					E	Enjoy your Youth
Eccl. 11:9b						F	But know ... God will bring you to judgment
Eccl. 11:10a					E'	Enjoy your Youth
Eccl. 11:10b				D'	All of youth is breath
Eccl. 12:1			C'	Consider God before the days of darkness
Eccl. 12:2a		B'	Sun and Light
Eccl. 12:2b	A'	Clouds and Rain

(Here and here are several more. The second link notes, to the delight of fellow INFPs that chiasm is also called "introverted parallelism.")

I also highly recommend my professor David Bauer's book, "The structure of Matthew's gospel: a study in literary design,"most of it free online here.

They get bigger. Bruno Barnhart (an early adopter of new monasticism, by the way, podcastshere):

Peter Ellis, following the doctoral dissertation of John Gerhard, S.J., has presented the structure of John's gospel...as completely determined by the laws of chiastic parallelism 
-"The Good Wine: Reading John from the Center" p. 30,
...emphasis mine

Checking out Barnhart's charts causes one to

temple tantrum (a passage loaded with structural devices) early in Jesus ministry in John's (but no other) gospel, etc..

And check out Len Sweet's proposed chiasm that sweeps in the whole Bible..

But here's today's story:

Mike "Dissonance is Bliss" Rinaldi, a local filmmaker (and Fresno Pacific grad) told this at the first "Gathering to Bless Christians in the Arts.: Blake Snyder, the screenwriter behind the classic "Save The Cat" book (which Mike also introduced us to) became a Christian not long before he died.

Often at this point in such a story, folks ask "Who led him to Christ?"

Go ahead and ask.

The answer is:

Chiasm.

It happened in large part because Mike, not even knowing if such a well-known and busy writer would respond to his email, asked him if he had heard about chiasm.

Turns out Snyder was fascinated with it all, and Mike was able to point out chiastic structure and shape in scriptwriting....and one thing led to another...and then in Scripture.

All roads, and all chiasms, lead to the Center and Source.


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PS: "Chiasm" may not really be a person, but he (she?) has his own website.

Oh, and I see "Chiasm" is also a recording artist:

a female solo dark electro project from Detroit created by Emileigh Rohn..for fans of: Bjork, The Prodigy, Kate Bush, Kraftwerk, Project Pitchfork, Skinny Puppy, Tom Waits, Public Enemy ..

Why the name?

I wanted to choose a name that represented my personal experiences, which at the time highly involved current studies in human neuropsychology. The optic chiasm, a structure in the brain credited with the ability for continuous and peripheral vision, seemed a worthy name on several levels, especially since the name "chiasm" is also a literary and biblical term that dates back for centuries, representing both a point of crossing over, a greek symbol of X, or chi, as well as a need in my own life to move past the boundaries I had previously set for myself and progress forward in a new path.
(link)

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