Author: Tim Hayes

With One Accord

In the Sola Scriptura debate, since the Bible is interpreted so many different ways, we might reason that leaving everyone to themselves inevitably leads to chaos — a thousand different denominations and sects spring up, all claiming to have the truth. (1Pe 2:1-2) Is this a good thing? One might argue a final authority is needful to settle doctrinal concerns and provide a common standard.

God provides teachers to try and help us understand Scripture (Ep 4:11) but He never indicates anyone has the right to claim divine authority in a theological dispute.

The church, the local, spiritual brotherhood, is the pillar and ground of the truth. (1Ti 3:15) In other words, a single person, or even a small group, is not what God has ordained to uphold the truth: it is the brothers, working together in community, who are to pursue a common understanding of Scripture together through prayer, study and challenging one another. (1Co 1:11) When we do this in humility, seeking truth together, God will admonish, teach, lead and guide us into all truth. (Jn 16:13)

When there are disagreements, as there should be in most any complex context, it’s tempting to wish for immediate closure to set everyone straight. Instead, the protocol is to take the time to pursue unity through humble consensus. (Ac 15:25) God is evidently pleased to sanctify believers through this collaborative process; imposing authority in the absence of consensus circumvents this healthy dynamic and cuts it short.

If it turns out that a body of believers must make a time-sensitive decision (i.e. a temporal one) and can’t come to consensus, such that they need to appoint someone to resolve the issue, the biblical protocol is that they identify the least esteemed (least qualified / respected, i.e. the most despised) men in the brotherhood and let them make the call. (1Co 6:4) If this is counter-intuitive it’s because we don’t see what God does: God doesn’t want anyone dominating the brotherhood; consensus is His ideal.

God designed His Word the way He did for a reason; He could have written it much more clearly and concisely so things wouldn’t be so messy, but He didn’t. God is evidently more interested in maturing and edifying believers through this difficult, time-intensive, humbling process than having us all blindly subscribe to a common theological statement. Engaging in such discussions to learn and grow helps us understand each other, and ourselves, much more clearly. This reveals what we value and how we think and reason so we can more easily identify those among us who are approved of God, and those of who need more time to grow. (1Co 11:19)
Divine authority in the church lies inconspicuously within the spiritual, organic consensus of the brotherhood, and nowhere else. This keeps us humble and interdependent on Christ in each other, so that no flesh glories in His presence, (1Co 1:29)
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The First Month

God has defined a series of interconnected rhythms which harmonize and synchronize our lives with His and with each other. There’s the daily cycle of morning and evening, the weekly sabbath, the monthly and annual cycles, the 7-year sabbatical / debt-release and the 50-year jubilee. Like a master symphony, each of these rhythms interweaves within and among the others to define a godly life mosaic.

The daily pattern is clear: evening followed by morning, night then day, define a recurring pattern of rest, sleep, work and celebration. (Ps 104:20-24) Realigning our thinking with God’s here may be richness well worth exploring: beginning with rest rather than work may improve both.

Ending the day at sunset, beginning our day with an evening of restful reflection and thanksgiving, recounting the blessings and trials of the prior day as we begin another, equips us to rest with intention, purpose and hope as we prep for the next day. Rest before work; we start by entering into His rest, abiding in Him, committing our plans to Him up front, sleeping on them first, for without Him we can do nothing. (Jn 15:5)

Remembering the sabbath day, to keep that particular day holy (Ex 20:8), resets our vision on God’s handiwork in Creation (11), that He is Lord of all. It also requires us to commit the prior week to God; if we are laboring in and for Him, we trust that what has been accomplished is sufficient. We can let it go in communion with the saints as we enjoy our weekly fellowship together (Le 23:3), encouraging and edifying one another in preparation for the coming week.

The monthly cycle helps us anticipate and celebrate God’s feasts, knowing which month it is and where we are in God’s annual cycle (Ex 12:2), so we can explore the recurring themes of His prophetic timeline as they are repeatedly played out before us. (Co 2:17) But which month is first? When does it start?

In these daily, weekly, monthly and annual cycles, the earth, sun and moon combine in various ways to show us the general patterns, but they don’t reveal exactly how to parse the time. When does a day or month begin, exactly? When does a year start? Further, how to start the week, or even the concept of a 7-day week, would be impossible to discern merely from Nature: God has to tell us explicitly about these rhythms and how to observe and align them or we’ll be guessing blindly.

It may seem unimportant to get the details right, but we should note that we’re dealing with foundations of life, family and communal relationships here, as well as with the revelation of a divine game plan. This is no small thing. God has given us specific instructions where we need them, on defining the week and the year, and reasonable hints at the rest if we’re interested in walking with Him in these mysterious and beautiful rhythms.

As precious and important as this all is, it should not come as any real surprise that the god of this world has re-defined every single one of these natural rhythms. Our cultural markers for days, weeks, months and years are all corrupted; none are based in God and His revelation.

Maybe it would be good to rediscover God’s divine rhythms and enjoy them as He intended. When all else fails, read the instructions. It might not be so easy, given all the corruption that’s crept in, but perhaps the effort would be fruitful; even if we don’t get it perfect, maybe we can at least get closer, and God will be pleased to help us along the way.

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Holding the Mystery

In wrestling with paradoxes in Scripture, apparently contradictory ideas which appear in the Bible, it’s tempting to become dishonest and selectively focus on verses which encourage our bias.

Yet God expects us to explore these difficulties (Pr 25:2), and to do so with humility (Is 66:2), fearful reverence (Php 2:12), and a pure conscience (1Ti 3:9), rightly dividing the Word. (2Ti 2:15) We can’t neglect any verse; if scripture doesn’t fit, we change our theology.

On a particularly difficult topic we might list out some very clear and apparently contradictory verses, prayerfully note the wording and context of each one, and ask God to align our thinking and actions with Him. It isn’t merely academic: we walk in the light to be in fellowship with Him. (1Jn 1:7) We’re also equipping ourselves to provide a reasonable answer to those who are seeking. (1Pe 3:15)

For example, how do we reconcile Man’s Free Will with God’s Sovereignty? Are we just puppets or do we have any real say in how things go?

What has God told us?

God says He is perfectly just and right in all He does. (De 32:4)

No one seeks after God (Ro 3:11b) or receives the testimony of Christ. (Jn 3:32)

No one can come to Christ except the Father draws them (Jn 6:44); everyone the Father gives to Christ will come to Him (Jn 6:37a), and those who come to Christ will never ever be cast out or away from Christ under any circumstances. (37b)

Believers were given spiritual life by God even though they were dead to Him in rebellion and sin (Ep 2:1-3), when they were alienated and enemies in their mind by wicked works. (Co 1:21)

God chooses those who will believe in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love (Ep 1:4), having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. (5)

Believers have already obtained a spiritual inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who works all things after the counsel of His own will. (Ep 1:11)

God commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sin and unbelief. (Ac 17:30)

God can give repentance to people. (2Ti 2:25)

God can give faith to people (given them supernatural assurance). (Ro 12:3)

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (He 13:6), and we should seek God without delay. (Is 55:6)

Everyone who seeks (God) will find (Him). (Mt 7:7-8)

We should ask God to make us go in the path of His commandments (Ps 119:35), to order our steps in His word and not let any iniquity have dominion over us. (133)

God works in believers to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Php 2:13)

We devise our way but God directs our steps. (Pr 16:9)

All things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. (Ro 8:28)

God will have all people to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1Ti 2:4) He will never turn anyone away who is truly seeking Him. (Mt 11:28-30)

Few will be saved. (Mt 7:14)

We should strive to enter God’s kingdom and be saved. (Lk 13:23-24)

Those who are not seeking and finding salvation in God have no excuse. (Ro 1:20)

God is very angry with everyone who does not believe on Christ (Jn 3:36); those who don’t believe in Christ are condemned because they do not believe. (3:18)

We can know we have eternal life (1Jn 5:13), and we should diligently ensure that we have been elected unto salvation. (2Pe 1:10)

Perhaps this is sufficient to capture the scope of this particular paradox. How should these truths impact our walk and witness?

There is evidently a correlation between seeking God and finding Him, between striving to enter the narrow way and actually entering, between diligently ensuring that we are elect of God and actually being elected by Him.

So, we should diligently seek God for salvation until we are sure He has saved us and carefully and continually try to make choices consistent with the truth as we understand it. We should continually thank God for our salvation and rejoice in it, recognizing He is doing it all in us and for us when we cannot help ourselves. We should pursue God and righteousness, spiritual understanding and wisdom, in every way we are able. We should pray as if everything depends on God and choose to act as if it depends on us. We should encourage everyone who will listen to do the same.

It’s OK to live within a paradox, and this one has troubled many; let’s live according to the truth we know until God reveals more to us.

Is my will free? I certainly have a will, and I do make choices; I have no sense that anyone one is forcing me. I experience some control over what I do and how I act, and the better choices I make the easier it seems to be to make even better choices. When and how God is working in me is a mystery, what part I play and what part He plays is evidently not mine to precisely know. That’s how He has designed life, and it is good.

I purpose to make the best choices I can, while continually asking God to help me make better ones. As I find myself making good choices, I thank God; as I miss the mark, I ask Him to help me.

Is there any good reason to not live like this? Do we need any more theology to do so? I think God has shown us enough. As we need to know, He will guide us.

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Behold a Beam

Christ warns us about judging others (Mt 7:1); we’ll be judged in the same way we judge. (2) This doesn’t mean we’re forbidden from observing and acknowledging sin in others (1Co 5:11); it evidently means we’re not to sit as judges and decide what penalty someone else deserves because of their sin: we’re to leave that to God. (Ro 12:19)

The cure for this mindset is humility: esteeming others better than ourselves. (Php 2:3) So Christ asks us, as we sit in judgment of another, looking at the spec in their eye, why we aren’t focusing on the beam in our own eye, the problem lurking within which is much worse. (Mt 7:3)

This evidently implies that if we’re judging others, deciding what they deserve, looking down on them or disvaluing them in any way, we’re exalting ourselves rather than dealing with our own sin, those carnal patterns embedded within, of which we ought to be aware, which are more diabolical than anything we can observe in others.

If we aren’t being observant, and remain unaware of the wicked potential within our own hearts, perhaps we haven’t been striving against sin (He 12:4), perfecting holiness (2Co 7:1); maybe we’re content in lukewarmness. (Re 3:16)

Humility freely admits that, were it not for the grace of God, I might very well be the most evil person who has ever lived. (1Ti 1:15) It has practical experience in the arena (Ro 7:18), battling the carnal mind. (Ro 8:7) Evidently, the only reason I’m not sinning worse than everyone else is God’s gracious restraint.

When we’re looking up at others in a moral context, figuring our neighbor’s likely on higher ground in spite of the sin they’re committing, it’s much easier to acknowledge the fact of their sin without concerning ourselves with what they deserve, knowing we’d deserve worse if God left us to ourselves.

If we can find this perspective, we’ll be pleased when God takes pleasure in being merciful to others, and truly wish them the best, rather than becoming resentful and bitter. (Jon 3:10-4:1) Rather than exalting ourselves, we’ll pity those who haven’t found the freedom to walk in the light, as He is in the light, in fellowship with Him (1Jn 1:7), and pray for them. (Mt 7:44)

How can we help others trapped in sin while we’re still enslaved ourselves? (Mt 7:4) Once we’ve discovered God’s deliverance from sin, and are experiencing more and more freedom, we can help others find the way (5), if they’re truly looking for it. (6)

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Flee From the Wrath

The Bible says God is very angry with all who aren’t believing on Christ (Jn 3:36), and that Christ Himself is angry with all who aren’t worshipping Him. (Ps 2:12). How do we flee from the wrath of God and of His Son? (Lk 3:7)

Whether one believes in God or not, the possibility God might exist and that He might be angry ought to be sobering. (Ac 17:30) If God might exist it is rational to act as if He might, and if He might be angry then acting accordingly is likewise rational.

This follows from Pacal’s Wager: given the remotest prospect (any non-zero probability) of suffering the infinite fury of an angry God, the expected loss of neglecting to avoid it is infinite. (2Co 5:11) What does this look like in practical terms?

We might try to flee from God, but how does one flee Omnipresence? Presuming there’s a place where God is not is foolish at best. (Ac 17:28)

The only rational response is to order our lives to please God as well as we can (i.e. repent) (Lk 3:8-9) and search for a way to be reconciled with Him. No other path is acceptable. (Ro 1:18-19)

Once we start looking in earnest for evidence of God and of His ways, it’s not so difficult to find. Irreducible Complexity in Nature becomes sufficient proof of God’s existence, power and wisdom: only those blindly presuming Philosophical Materialism as a faith-axiom can miss this. (Ro 1:20)

Acting as if God exists also implies giving Him the benefit of the doubt regarding His nature: acting as if God is good – that He’s both loving and just. For if God is not good there’s no rational way to minimize our expected loss (i.e. all bets are off). Presuming God is good is rational since this minimizes the likelihood of offending Him.

Following this reasoning, seeking reconciliation with God is also straightforward: only Christianity portrays God as both just and loving; all other religions both downplay the potential of human sinfulness and offer reconciliation with divinity apart from justice, as if repentance and personal merit can somehow atone for eternal sin — all the while rejecting this concept in all of our civil institutions: no one really believes proper order can exist in the universe without justice.

And no other religion addresses how any sin against an infinitely good and holy God can be less than infinite … or justly atoned for without paying an infinite penalty. Christianity offers us both.

As we earnestly seek, we find we’re all guilty before God: He is justly angry with us for our sin and will punish us eternally unless we flee to His Son as our propitiation (1Jn 2:2), God Himself suffering the infinite penalty for our sin (1Jn 3:16), and hide ourselves in Him. (Ps 119:114) This is the only way to flee from the wrath to come.

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Repent of Uncleanness

Living in willful uncleanness as a manner of life evidently grieves God (2Co 12:21), yet we may not even be aware of this type of sin. What is uncleanness? How do we avoid it and repent of it?

Though there are about a dozen New Testament references identifying those living in uncleanness as inherently evil, having no inheritance in God’s kingdom (Ga 5:19-21), these passages provide no definition of uncleanness; we find this only in Torah.

Leviticus describes several types of uncleanness: chapter 11 says touching an animal carcass makes us unclean; chapter 15 says having any oozing from the skin or genital area (2), including nocturnal emissions (16-17), sexual activity (18), menstruation (19), or coming in contact with an unclean person, related fluids, or anything they have touched makes us unclean.

So, the biblical concept of uncleanness doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with becoming dirty, as after a long day in the field when one is covered in dust, grime and sweat; it relates more to the kinds of biological contamination which leads to infection and disease when left to accumulate and decay over time.

The proper response when we become unclean is to wash ourselves and all contaminated clothing and wait until the evening before engaging in any temple-related activity. (5-7, 11, 16-18, 31) Cleansing from oozing that continues over time (a running issue, including menstruation) requires a full week after the oozing stops and a small sacrifice at the temple. (13-15, 19, 28-29)

Numbers 19 describes a different level of uncleanness due to touching (11) or being in an enclosed space with a corpse. (14) This type of uncleanness requires being sprinkled with water containing the ashes of a red heifer sacrificed at the temple. (17-19)

Deuteronomy: 12-14 tells us how to properly dispose of bodily excrement so we don’t become unclean: bury it in a dedicated space well away from our living area, which modern toilets conveniently and effectively accomplish for us.

Since the earthly temple is inactive for now, and since it is not necessarily sinful to become unclean, washing ourselves, contaminated clothing and other objects comprises a godly protocol when we do. This is natural for most in first-world countries and should be routine for believers.

Certain types of uncleanness are intrinsic to human nature, such as the female menstrual cycle and marital sexual activity; they’re good and wholesome, designed by God and part of the natural rhythm of life. (He 13:4)

Uncleanness becomes sinful when we neglect to follow God’s prescription for dealing with it as well as we can and maintain lifestyles free of unnecessary uncleanness. (1Th 4:7) Wanting to live in a state of uncleanness, as an end in itself, is certainly contrary to the spirit of Torah and characterizes the spiritually corrupt. (2Pe 2:10) Such a lifestyle is not Love (Ro 13:10); it’s rooted in selfishness and indiscretion.

Repenting of uncleanness evidently requires a change of mind about the spiritual aspects of physical cleanliness, making it a point to become familiar with God’s instructions and obey them. Perhaps there’s wisdom in the old adage, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

And as with most all of God’s instructions related to physical things, there are spiritual principles embedded within them. As we live in a world of spiritual darkness and uncleanness, we invariably react in ways which are misaligned with Torah; unholy feelings and attitudes ooze out from our fleshly nature, and we cannot help but become spiritually contaminated. (Ro 7:18)

As we reflect on our lives (Ps 119:9), we can often identify areas or instances where we have become spotted by the flesh. (Ja 1:27) The remedy is to regularly bathe our hearts, minds and spirits with Scripture, asking God to sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of the water by the Word as we meditate on His Way (Ep 5:26), displacing uncleanness with truth as God speaks the Word into us by His Spirit. (Jn 15:3) We should be doing this daily, not letting spiritual uncleanness accumulate, harden and fester within us.

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First Partaker

“Practice what you preach”; I heard it often growing up, like a bedrock shaping my character and values. I’m grateful for the parental and cultural influences, but I never realized where this wisdom originally came from.

Turns out the credit goes to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, when He says, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” (Mt 23:2-3) He calls out the “Do as I say, not as I do” crowd, unwilling to submit to the counsel they impose on others. Instinctively we agree; this is weak, undisciplined, presumptuous, hypocritical, harmful. (Mt 7:15-16)

Christ’s wisdom here may be key to understanding His exhortation: “The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.” (2Ti 2:6) It’s an interesting insight to offer His servants and it isn’t obvious what He’s driving at. Like any obscure spiritual nugget, it’s worth some prayerful meditation.

The immediate context is finding strength in Christ to live out the practical reality of the spiritual life (1) while discipling others in the Way. (2) God recognizes how incredibly difficult this is and exhorts us to think like soldiers, hardening ourselves, toughening up for battle. (3) He’s inviting us into 100% commitment and dedication, minimizing unnecessary temporal distractions to focus on pleasing only Him. (4)

He then employs the metaphor of athletes training to win the gold: we must compete according to the rules of the game. (5) Such is God’s set up for this intriguing insight: the laboring farmer must first partake of his harvest. (6) We should ponder what He’s saying, looking to God to help us understand it all. (7)

The farming metaphor appears to reference the Torah precept regarding a man who’s planted a vineyard but hasn’t yet eaten anything produced by it: he is not allowed to engage in battling God’s enemies. (De 20:6) Evidently, spiritual warfare is for those who’ve grown strong in Christ by living out of what they’ve been sowing, who’re thriving as they eat of the fruit of their own journey. (2Co 10:3-5)

As we encourage each other in living for Christ (as we’re all called to do – He 10:24-25), we must be living for Christ ourselves, working out the practical details of what it really means to follow Him in every aspect of our lives. In other words, our theology and doctrine must be down-to-earth, livable, and we must be following our own teaching: we must be practicing what we preach. (Php 4:9)

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The Same Loveth Little

In the story of the forgiven woman (Lk 7:47), Christ reveals a natural correlation between love for Him and a perception of how much one has been forgiven. So, if I only love Christ Jesus a little bit, this is because I think I have only been forgiven a little bit.

This is certainly a key to help me grow in my love for Yeshua Messiah, into an overwhelming appreciation and thanksgiving for His willingness to redeem me: I may explore my own forgiveness by exploring my own sinfulness, for all my sin is primarily against Christ, the eternal Creditor with Whom I have to deal. (He 4:13) So, how much have I been forgiven?

It isn’t hard to acknowledge that my sins are many, and that they’re inexcusable. (Ro 3:19) Yet these are merely the sins I am aware of, which I can recall, and I happen to think they are not so very bad; I have never been drunk or murdered anyone, nor ever even wanted to experience sex outside of marriage. I’ve been pretty good so far, at least by human standards. (2Co 10:12)

But there are certainly many other sins long forgotten, where I knew I was sinning against God and was only afraid of being caught. Of these I have also been freely forgiven. Yet even then, being forgiven a bit of youthful mischief doesn’t move my heart to tears. (Ps 25:7)

Then I must proceed in faith to acknowledge that these are not the worst of my sins, for I have learned to measure sin by the harm I think it causes others, and whether I think they deserve it or not. (Ge 3:22a)

Yet God does not measure sin this way; He evaluates sin based on how I have disvalued and dishonored Him — in other words, He is looking at my behavior in light of the First and Great Command, that I love Jehovah God with my whole heart, with my entire being. (Mt 22:37-38)

In other words, the greatest of my sins are in violating the greatest command, and these sins are against an infinitely worthy God, so they are effectively infinite in degree or magnitude (Ps 103:11): I really have no idea how much God has actually forgiven me. (Is 6:5) So, I am, in fact, largely clueless about the very worst of my sins; the severity is largely hidden from me. (Is 64:6)

And further, as if this were not enough, what of all the sin I would have committed, even as a believer, if God had not mercifully intervened and restrained me? (Ge 20:6) What manner of sin lies hidden here, for which I would certainly be guilty had God not been holding me back all this time? (Php 2:13) This is certainly real, yet also a bit clinical and academic: I struggle to appreciate it fully from my heart.

Ultimately, I must also consider my eternal fate if Father God had not chosen me to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. (2Th 2:13) What horrendous crimes might I have committed apart from the irresistible grace of God? These might have exceeded the depravity of every other living soul, past present and future. Since I would certainly have committed them if God had left me entirely to myself, I must account that I have been released even from these, though I did not actually commit them. (1Ti 1:15)

Until I can stand alongside the forgiven woman, weeping with rejoicing before Jesus Christ in overwhelming appreciation for the infinite mercy He has lavished upon me, washing His feet with my tears, I need God to continue to help me understand the infinite magnitude of my sin, and the incredible mercy He has shown me in saving my soul from death. (1Ti 1:16)

The place to return and wait for such grace is the foot of the Cross, the throne of grace (He 4:16), contemplating the infinite price Christ Jesus freely paid on my behalf. (2Co 5:21) Any lesser penalty would have been insufficient to atone for my crimes.

The King Himself, Who has every right to be angry with me (1Th 1:10), has chosen instead to wash me from my sins in His own blood. (Re 1:5) and adopt me as His own son. (Ro 8:15) It cost Him everything to do this for me … literally everything. (He 4:16) It makes perfect sense to start here, and stay here, until I get it. (1Co 2:2) He will help me. (Ro 7:24-25a)

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Jehovah by Wisdom

The vast wisdom and understanding Jehovah God displayed in creating the universe is indeed profound (Pr 3:19); His works are manifold, all designed with infinite precision. (Ps 104:24) One way to explore them lies in what physicists call the fine-tuning of the universe.

Pillars of Creation, J. Webb Space Telescope

For example, the gravitational force G, describing how objects are attracted to one another, must be within a range of one part in 1060; if it were slightly stronger or weaker, the universe would not support complex life forms. This is like randomly selecting a particular atom out of all the atoms in the Milky Way galaxy.

There are evidently at least a dozen other parameters, such as the strong and weak nuclear forces, the electromagnetic force and the cosmological constant, which must each be set within a very narrow range (say 2-5%) along with G in order for the universe to support human life. If any of these values are not set correctly, our universe doesn’t work for us.

The obvious implication of this fine-tuning is that there is a wise Creator Who designed the universe very wisely for a specific purpose (Ro 1:20): to support human life so He can reveal Himself to us and through us. While this conclusion isn’t scientific per se (since it isn’t an experiment we can repeat), it is exceptionally strong circumstantial evidence, especially when considering similar arguments in Origin of Life research, that should be a slam dunk in any rational discussion of our existence.

The reason this particular evidence is so strong is that there are only two basic alternatives here: either the universe is designed by God, or it isn’t, in which case it happened randomly by mere chance. Since atheists typically reject the first option a priori, they try to explain how the apparent design of our universe could be the result of purely random processes.

Since atheists can’t rationally expect anyone to believe an entire universe (ours) exploded spontaneously out of nothing with all of these parameters randomly set perfectly correctly on the first go-round under such astronomically low odds, they ask us all to believe there must be an infinite number of universes randomly springing spontaneously out of nothing. An infinite number of randomly generated universes is the only way to overcome the fine-tuning argument, to get a universe with all the right physical properties without a Creator.

But there is no scientific evidence of the existence of any other universe except our own, and it would appear there never could be, by definition.

There is also no scientific explanation for how any universe springs into existence ex-nihilo (out of nothing) all on its own without an independent causal agent to create it. The very concept is inherently self-contradictory on a very basic level.

So, the only way to evade the fine-tuning argument for an intelligent Creator God appears to be to presume the existence of a mindless, inert machine (effectively, a sort of god) randomly creating universes with no purpose or intent. In other words, we can believe in a living God or an inert, mindless one.

Why would anyone cling to the remote and unscientific concept of an inert, mindless god rather than trust in the Living God? Perhaps it is an unwillingness to submit to the living God and honor Him. (Ro 1:21) I don’t see any other reasonable way to account for such behavior.

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The Elders

The Church of the Living God has both a distinct leadership structure and a unique purpose, and each of these complements the other; if we get either one wrong, we’ll likely get the other one wrong as well.

Many churches today are led by a pastor, yet a pastor isn’t one who is called to lead the church; the Holy Spirit calls pastors (i.e. shepherds) to care for the spiritual well-being of others, part of His overall design for edifying the body of Christ. (Ep 4:11-12) This includes counseling, encouraging teaching and mentoring others, but this is not the same as leadership. When the pastor leads the church, the intended purpose and function of the church is largely stifled.

Many other churches are led by a group of men called elders, as if Elder is an office or leadership position in the local church. Yet, once again, this is not found in Scripture: there is no church office of Elder; the term refers to the older men of the congregation (1Ti 5:1), not to an official position. Yet, even the elders aren’t called to lead the church, they’re not supposed to be calling all the shots. The church is in fact largely incapacitated by such a dynamic.

The older men of the congregation are expected to be spiritually mature (Ti 2:2), instructing, mentoring, counseling and guiding others to help nourish and protect spiritual community. (1Pe 5:1-3) This is organic leadership by example, not by having any official position. (1Ti 5:17)

The Scripture defines the role of Bishop (1Ti 3:1) for providing a more general oversight of the church, and it clearly describes the qualifications for this function. (2-7) The older men of the congregation (the elders) who meet these character qualifications may be ordained (Ti 1:5) (appointed, set in place or acknowledged) to be bishops (7); these men accept more accountability for the general health of the local Body of Christ (He 13:17), engaging in broader, more encompassing responsibility to take care of the church as a whole. (1Ti 1:5)

This role of Bishop comprises the character qualities expected in elders who have lived a godly life, so the older men who are spiritually qualified may be officially recognized and ordained to fulfill this role in the Church. Indeed, in some churches, most or all of the elders might qualify, so the terms elder and bishop are sometimes used interchangeably (Ac 20:17, 28), yet there are still key differences which should not be overlooked.

An older man who isn’t fully qualified to be a bishop (such as the Apostle Paul himself, since he was unmarried and had no children or household to manage) will generally still have much wisdom and experience enabling him to mentor, care for and disciple others. Such men are still considered leaders in their civil communities and families (De 22:15), so it will be natural for them to have similar roles within spiritual communities (1Ti 5:19-20), though the responsibility of officially representing the church to the outside world falls to those who are entirely qualified and above reproach: the bishops. (1Ti 3:7)

Yet none of these giftings or roles qualify one to lead the church: oversight is not necessarily the same as leadership, in the sense of making decisions. The church is to be led by the brothers: the congregation of men as a whole. This is the key leadership role in the church, and if we don’t get this right, everything else breaks down. (1Ti 3:15)

The brothers are all expected to actively participate in meetings to edify each other (which is the purpose of the church) (1Co 14:26) and to reach decisions by consensus (Mt 18:17), effectively defining the leadership structure.

In God’s design, all the men of the congregation come together to share out of their own personal life experiences, of their struggles and victories, offering up their own understanding of scripture for the entire congregation to consider, the brothers debating and validating everything as needed for the edification of all, teaching, challenging, edifying and exhorting one another in the Faith. (He 10:25) This just doesn’t happen when a small group has decided they’re in charge, and this is no coincidence.

It should not be surprising that it is nearly impossible to find any churches meeting now like the early church did; the biblical leadership model of the local church is completely foreign to most of us today, yet we wonder why the churches are so broken, failing to see the connection. In working out the details of obeying key biblical patterns and principles for the local church, we find these two concepts of purpose and leadership inextricably interconnected by divine design.

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