Scott’s Blog

Over the past few weeks some folks have asked me why I’ve changed the way I dress for church (I normally preach in jeans and button up shirt). Most people enjoy the more casual feel, but others have been concerned about it. I recognize that some people feel pretty strongly about this issue, and I do respect that. However, if we as a church are going to remove roadblocks between ourselves and the culture so that we can genuinely be the salt and light of the community then I think we have to think seriously about why we’re doing what we’re doing. At my first church, we made it a requirement for men to have a coat and tie to participate in the service, women were to have dresses. My reasoning was that church is a big deal and we need to treat it as a big deal. I reasoned that if we had an appointment with a dignitary we’d certainly dress nicely for it, the same should be expected of us at church. I was wrong. I was being a good, religious, middle class, American, but I was not emulating Jesus. Neither was I understanding the church. Consider the following questions:

• If God is our Father and the church is our family, should we view going to church services as a formal event or a family event?
• If we are to welcome the poor and socially outcast, does a dress code (written or unwritten) essentially push such people away from church or make it more difficult for them to come?
• If people become overly worried about their appearance instead of their heart, are they like the Pharisees that Jesus chastised for only washing the outside of the proverbial cup?
• Is the church building somehow a magical sacred space like the Old Testament Temple? Or is it simply a place where God’s people gather that is no more and no less sacred than the homes they live in, now that the Spirit has been released from the Holy of Holies into the whole earth?
• Do we think that Jesus the homeless guy who was born in a barn was dressed up when He held church outdoors?
• Why should we press for formal dress in church when one of the only passages in the New Testament that speaks about what to wear to church rebukes women for dressing up to the degree that they turned church into a fashion show (1 Timothy 2:9–10)?
• When Jesus says that people judge the outward but God is looking at the heart, does that mean appearance is really a secondary matter?
• Since we are supposed to be hospitable and welcome people to church as missionaries, does it not make sense to dress like “normal” people rather than make normal people dress up like “church” people?

Here at EBC we want you to feel free to dress in accordance with your personal conviction. My Dad would never consider going to church without a tie and coat. I have no problem with that. My job is not to judge what he wears, but to welcome and enjoy him as a brother. When people come to EBC we want to do all we can to make sure that if anything offends them it is the Gospel of Jesus. So I dress in a way that is comfortable and natural for me, and culturally “typical” for a family gathering in our area.

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Someone asked: What is the 1000 year reign, and will God’s kingdom be on earth? The question comes from Revelation 20. This is an extremely complex question as there are a few major views of future events described in the Bible. Evangelicals tend to be pretty passionate about their views on this subject. Unfortunately most evangelicals only know the perspective they’ve been taught by their church. Most churches don’t teach the various views so people can dig into the Word and discern for themselves what their conviction will be.

Now, I need to be honest at this point and share that I am not in any way a prophecy scholar. I have made an intentional choice to focus on other things. I think God has asked some people to spend great amounts of time investigating these things. Theologians call this avenue of study eschatology.  My passion has been ecclesiology, or the study of the church, the body of Christ.

I will do my best to summarize the perspectives and recommend a way forward.

Among Evangelicals there are three basic views regarding the future. They are premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillenialism. Within each of the three views are sub categories regarding some finer points.

Premillennialists believe there will be a literal millennium, a 1000 year reign of peace on earth. During this time Christ will return with his followers and establish his kingdom.

Amillennialists do not believe in a future earthly kingdom. They believe eternity begins at Christ’s second coming

Postmillennialists also reject a future 1000 year reign of peace on earth. They believe that before Christ returns Christians will succeed in bringing the whole world to repentance. Then, when Christ returns, he will prevail and his coming will usher in eternity.

Looking back through church history one can find ample evidence of respected teachers and leaders from each perspective. During the protestant reformation very little attention was given to this field of study as the focus was on the teaching of soteriology (salvation). Up until the time of the World Wars the predominant view among Evangelicals was postmillennialism. Postmillennialism was almost non-existent for the last half of the 1900’s. Recently however there has been a resurgence of postmillennial thought.

I realize it can be very confusing. There are however many things about which most Evangelicals agree. We all affirm the future return of Christ. We affirm the resurrection of the dead in Christ. We affirm that heaven and hell are both real places of literal reward and punishment and that God will judge every human as to whether they are in His family or not. He will then also judge believers regarding their work in his family. We all agree that time is temporary and that we’ll live on forever with God. There is agreement that those who are not in Christ will be separated from him in a terrible place called hell forever (see blog on hell).

Eschatology is a worthwhile field of study and if you feel God is asking you to jump in there you should absolutely do it. The important thing is that you do it with great humility and patience.

I am not a theologian by trade or passion. I’m a pastor. I invest my life to help people come to God and live in relationship with him. My main gifts are leadership and communication. I have seen God’s faithfulness in so many ways all over the world that I’m very comfortable simply trusting without understanding areas like the millennium. I know that my life is a mist, that I’m new in Christ, and that He has asked me to occupy the earth until he comes again. I have a short time to enjoy God in the midst of an evil world. I have a spot in a war that consumes my waking moments. I don’t know the details of the victory, but the victory is assured. I know God and I trust him, and I’m ready, and I can’t wait. From my perspective the battle is not so much to understand God’s plan for the future but to trust the person of God to fulfill his promises. The struggle for many of us is to move our passion from trying to create heaven on earth with stuff, to placing it with God in heaven realizing that our real life doesn’t even begin until Jesus welcome’s us home. 

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This question was phrased this way: I heard a pastor say that hell is in the center of the earth. Where do you think Hell is?

Well, I don’t really know. The Bible does talk about Hell being “down” and some translators have rendered the language to mean “in the earth” or “in the bowels of the earth.” You can see this language in Matt. 11:23; Luke 16:23. It is difficult to say if this language is literal.

One thing is sure. Hell is a real place. The Bible describes it this way:

• Hell is a place of physical agony, mental suffering, loneliness and emotional sorrow. Jesus described it as a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.(Jude 6; Matt 8:12; Matt 13:42, 50; Matt 25:30;).
• Hell is a place of insecurity and fear. The Bible describes it as a bottomless pit, an abyss. (Revelation 20:1).
• Hell is a place of instability. It is described as a lake of fire. Hell is a place where every moment is lived in uncertainty (Matthew 5:21-23; Revelation 20:15).
• Hell is a pit of darkness; totally devoid of light. It is pitch black in hell; there’s nothing to distract people from their suffering, sorrow, fears, insecurities, and instability. (2 Peter 3-5).
• Hell is a place of dissatisfaction. Jesus described it as a fire; a fiery furnace. It may be a literal fire that creates a physical sensation of burning or just an overwhelming yearning for God, for love, for joy, for peace, for life that will never be. (Matthew 5:22; Matt 13:42 and 50; Matt 18:8-9; Matt 25:41; Mark 9:43, 47-48) .
• Hell is a place of eternal separation from God. Each person who goes to hell will be separated forever from the source of life, the heart of love, the very One for Whom they were created. Hell is a place where your soul will be destroyed (Matthew 7:23 and 10:27-29).

The Bible’s teaching on hell is terrible. I can’t think of any other word to describe it. However not only is the teaching on hell terrible, it’s real. Hell is what we all deserve in our sin. for me the Bible’s teaching on hell motivates an ongoing, passionate gratitude for the cross. Hell motivates me to celebrate grace and mercy and to be thankful for a God of love. However, it would be a perversion of the Bible’s teaching on hell to to assume that because God is love he will not sentence people to hell. He absolutely will, he is patient and he waits, but he is just and holy and he cannot tolerate sin. So, if you’re in Christ, celebrate. If you’re not, be careful, dude. Don’t push it, hell is real.

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This question was phrased this way: Should I be ashamed to leave my family to go to my wonderful after life? I love both so very much.

The short answer: No way!

There is no reason for shame in looking forward to the radically extravagant experience that is waiting  for those who are in Christ. In fact the new testament tells us in a couple of places that we should be intentional about moving our passion from stuff on earth to the reality of heaven to help us make it through.

Here at EBC we often refer to investing the “dot for the line.” What we mean when we say that is illustrated by a long rope that we stretch out in the front of the room. The rope represents eternity, all of it. On one end we put a small dot, about the size of an eraser head. We say that the dot represents your life on earth, the rest of the line represents the time you’ll be in heaven. The point is that it only makes sense to invest the dot for the line. And, one of the ways we tolerate the dot is by wonderful anticipation of the line!

So, absolutely not. You should not be ashamed to transition to your real life in Christ, which begins after this very short life on earth. You should look forward to it with great passion! you should prepare all you can so that your family will be ready to move on without you when the time comes and then leave with anticipation of all that waits for you.

You don’t get to decide when that time is, obviously. God has that all worked out and it is a no lose proposition for those who are in Christ.

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The fuller question was phrased this way: Why are there so little sermons on hell these days, do you think that even the elect are blind to teaching this in modern times?

I agree with the questioner that there are fewer talks on hell in churches today than in previous generations. From my perspective its probably more a matter of pragmatics than any blindness to the doctrine of hell. The Bible teaches that there is a literal hell where those than have not come into a saving relationship with Jesus will spend all eternity.

Preaching on the reality of hell is important because it is true and it is part of the whole counsel of God. For me personally, and probably for others, that teaching is best included with other teaching as a part of the whole. I’ve thought about preaching on hell, but I’ve wondered to what end it would be effective. For Christians, knowing about hell can be helpful in terms of realizing the seriousness of God about sin. However for those that are yet outside of the God’s family preaching on hell as a scare tactic to “get them into the Kingdom” feeds their perception of us angry fear mongers and is generally not very effective.

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This is an interesting question with the popularity of cremation rising partly because it is somewhat cheaper than our culture’s more traditional method of burial.

There are very few places in the Bible that refer to cremation, but there are a few. For example; 

1 Sam. 31:11-13: Burning of bodies of Saul & his sons. Probably was an emergency measure lest the Philistines further molest the bodies.

Lev.20:14; 21:9: The bodies of those guilty of sexual immorality were burned.    

Josh. 7:15,25: Those under a curse such as Achan and his family were to be burned.

In Old Testament times lack of a “proper burial” was considered to be a great misfortune and was more widely regarded as a pagan practice.

The Bible, however does not deal directly with whether or not cremation is appropriate for Christ followers. There is a general respect for the dead in the Bible and we are to respect and care for our bodies. As I thought about this I realized that the Bible really focuses on life and using one’s body to glorify God during life. There is no instruction for how to handle the bodies of those that have transitioned to the next life.

While my personal perspective is not requested, since this is my blog I’ll give it anyway. I think there is freedom for those who would like to be cremated to do that. For me however, and for those of my family I think it would be more appropriate to proceed with a traditional burial so long as it is not an undo financial burden. In my years as a pastor I have done very many funerals and I’ve come to appreciate the healing process that is associated with it. Seeing the body and dealing with the lifeless nature of it is healthy. The process of eulogy and Bible centered thoughts at a funeral or memorial service is a key turning point for family and friends. It simply feels more respectful to me. Personally, I don’t think I would be able to have Brenda’s body cremated. I know that sounds kind of silly, but that is how I feel. I feel the same way about my parents or sons.

So, freedom for cremation, yes. However I would be careful to consider the points above before I moved forward with it.  

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This is a question I’ve been asked a number of times over the years. Since Adam’s son’s had wives, where did they come from?

Genesis 5:4 tells us that during Adam’s long lifetime of 930 years (800 after Seth was born) he had other sons and daughters. Since he and Eve had been ordered to produce a large family in order to populate the earth (Gen. 1:28), it is reasonable to assume that they continued to have children for a long period of time, under what were then ideal conditions for longevity. It was certainly necessary for the generation following Adam to pair off brothers and sisters to serve as parents for the next generation; otherwise the human race would have died off. Through the course of the next generations it would have been possible to pair off parents from more distant relatives. It was not until Leviticus 20:17 that the actual sanction against brother – sister marriage is spelled out.

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This is an interesting question. I’ve been asked several times what happens to our pets when they die, and that’s a bit easier than trying to speculate about what happens to pets (or other animals) at the rapture. For those of you who may not be familiar with the lingo, the rapture is that event where Jesus comes to take his followers out of the earth to join him in heaven.

I think it would be cool to have Duke in heaven!

Depending on your prophetic perspective that will happen, before, at the middle of, or after the tribulation which is a super bad time that is coming in the future when evil will be far less restrained than it is right now.

Obviously the Bible doesn’t say anything about what happens to pets when they die or at the rapture. There is no reason to believe to that specific pets get raptured or have eternal life. Pets are not created in the image of God and there is nothing to indicate that they have an eternal soul.  However the Bible doesn’t say either way.

Having said that, heaven is in many ways a magnification of the best of earth. It is also a return to pre-sin life. Animals were present before sin and there will be animals in heaven. If God chooses he certainly may recreate Duke in heaven, perhaps for no more reason that it would make me happy! Further, Romans 8 refers to all of creation groaning as we wait for God to take us home. Animals are certainly a part of creation’s groaning and there is no reason to believe that God won’t remake some animals in the new earth.

Joni Earekson Tada has this to say in her book “Holiness in Hidden Places:” “If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn’t surprise me. It would be just like him. It would be totally in keeping with his generous character. . . Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing Scrappy would be pure whimsy—utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous. . . Heaven is going to be a place that will refract and reflect in as many ways as possible the goodness of joy of our great God, who delights in lavishing love on his children.”

And then there is this poem by John Piper:

And as I knelt beside the brook
To drink eternal life, I took
A glance across the golden grass,
And saw my dog, old Blackie, fast
As she could come. She leaped the stream—
Almost—and what a happy gleam
Was in her eye. I knelt to drink
And knew that I was on the brink
Of endless joy. And everywhere
I turned I saw a wonder there.

Pet’s in heaven? Pet’s raptured? Can’t say for sure. But there certainly is reason to believe that it is possible and there certainly will be animals there.

It’s kind of fun to think about!

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If you come to EBC you know that last weekend was our annual “elder retreat.” When one agrees to serve as an elder at EBC they are making a huge commitment. The commitment is not just to attend meetings and this retreat. It is a commitment to passionate investment into the process of discerning God’s voice for our church family.

Sometimes people ask me what we do at the those retreats. I gotta admit, it sounds pretty boring, but the retreat weekend has become one of the highlights of my year. We basically do three things. We pray, we share personally, and we discuss church direction.

This year was a big one because we’ve been working on EBC’s next steps for more than two years. We’ve read books, attended conferences, visited other churches and had a bunch of extra 5:00 AM meetings. The growth and impact of our church has slowed and we all agree that we’ve come as far as we can doing things the way we do them now. It is unwise however to just start changing things. It is essential that we hear from God with his calling for our church family. After that we have to move gently and decisively forward to sacrifice all to follow God.

EBC has been a missions passionate church since it was founded. We believe that, considering the condition of the world around us, that God is calling us to continue that missional focus. The only change is that we think God is calling us to be missional right here in Berwick. That means that we do everything we can to communicate well to the people around us, just like a good foreign missionary does whatever it takes short of sin to communicate with the culture. It’s a big deal and I’m excited and energized.

What’s going to change? I don’t know. We have to work that out together. the 600 of us that are coming now are all stake holders and we have to talk about how we go about our mission together, and we’ll do that.

For now, please pray. Pray for our leaders, pray for our heart for those that do not have a saving relationship with God. Pray for wisdom and most of all, courage.

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