| When Life Tumbles In, What then? |
Part II
The Greek word most often used in the New Testament to convey the idea of hope is: elpis meaning a favorable and confident expectancy, favorable meaning good and confident meaning believing it will happen. Thirty years ago, Oral Roberts grasped the centrality and importance of biblical hope for the people of God in his famous phrase: “Something good is going to happen to you.”
Biblically, it is sound Old Testament and New Testament theology. To understand adequately the New Testament concept of hope, we have to understand the Old Testament concept of hope and understand God as the source of our hope.
In the Hebrew, the three verbs most often used are: yokkal meaning to want eagerly, savar meaning to expect good tidings, and botokh meaning to trust. The most often used Hebrew word is: tiqvah meaning to wait for eagerly. Combined these words represent both Old and New Testament meanings of hope: “We wait eagerly expecting something good with complete trust that it is going to appear soon.”
Now the world’s definition of hope is “wishful thinking for something that may have some slight possibility of happening.” For example, we hope for a new dress or new car; we hope to take a vacation to some exotic place; we hope to win the Publisher’s Clearinghouse $10,000,000 prize along with 10 million others; we hope a new medication will stop the pain or kill the disease devastating our bodies; and we hope our spouses will change their behavior so our marriage will survive.
One of the biggest lies Satan has sold Americans is the lottery. People spend their hard earned money week-in and week-out for a 1 in 14 million chance that they might win. But it’s wishful thinking.
When hope is separated from a clear understanding of its theological
context and purposes, it becomes a fanciful flight into unrestrained imaginations,
or it becomes a desperate effort to find some escape route away from the
reality of our painful existence. When these false hopes fail us (and
they always do), our suffering is meaningless and we despair and become
cynical and bitter.
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If we are not careful, the Church will fall right in line with the world in offering “another Gospel” of false hopes. If we are not careful, we’ll fall into the trap of selling “cheap hope.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, “Cost of Discipleship,” charged the church of his day with selling, “cheap grace.” He says, “Cheap grace means…the sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings, with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price, grace without cost.”
That “other Gospel” in which we so freely disperse unqualified hopes--a sugary, “promise them anything” kind of hope--dispenses unrestrained promises like:
| Serve God, He will make you rich; Serve God, you will have no problems; Serve God, and with enough faith, you can control your own destiny; Serve God, He will heal your disease; Serve God, He or she will not die. |
It never asks questions, never fixes limits or allows that God may have a better plan. What happens then? When we go bankrupt, when life is full of problems and we are not healed, or our loved ones die and we stand by their grave side--we wonder what happened and where was God. We begin blaming the poor victims or their relatives because of their lack of faith or secret sin. We abandon our faith and turn away in disgust, cursing a god that could be so cruel, mean-spirited, and insensitive to our human plight.
That “other Gospel” of dispensing false hopes can leave us worse off than we were before. It is wishful thinking because it is not grounded in a theocentric or God-centered view of hope.
What is a theocentric view of hope? First, it is a hope that recognizes God is the source of our hope and a God of promise. The Apostle Paul makes it clear God’s promises to Israel and to us as a people of faith are demonstrated in His covenants. God has been a God of promise from the beginning. Here are some examples:
| • | God made a covenant with Adam that one day a redeemer would come born of the seed of the woman with enmity between him and the serpent, the man would crush the head of the serpent (destroy it) even though he would be stricken by that serpent. | ||||||||||
| • | God made a covenant with Noah and said that never again would He destroy all living creatures as long as the earth endures and, “This is the sign of my covenant. I will set my rainbow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of remembrance to both you and me and to all your descendants.” | ||||||||||
| • | God made a covenant with Abram saying, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to a land that you know not where and I will:
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| • | God made a covenant with Moses and said to tell the people of Israel, “If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession. You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” And with that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and said, “For I command you to love the Lord your God and to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments.” | ||||||||||
| • | God made a covenant with His servant David. He told him, “I took you out of the pastures. I have been your constant companion. I have cut off your enemies. Now I will make you a great name and establish your house, and your kingdom will endure, and your throne will be established forever.” | ||||||||||
| • | Jeremiah the Prophet spoke about a new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31, “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This is my covenant…declares the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.” | ||||||||||
| • | The Prophet Ezekiel prophesied about that new covenant in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give a new heart and put a new spirit in you and I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and keep my commandments.” |
Throughout Israel’s history, God’s promises of vindication, resurrection and eternal life are progressively revealed. So, a theocentric view of hope recognizes that God is the source of our hope and a God of promise.
Secondly, a theocentric view of hope recognizes that God is not only
a promise maker, but He is the promise keeper. It is a hope grounded in
the character of God and rooted in the faithfulness of God. The Bible
tells us that hope cannot exist without faith and that faith is a prerequisite
of hope. Hebrews 11:6: “He that cometh to God must believe that
He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently or earnestly seek
Him.”
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A few years ago, my son, Chet, my son-in-law, Mike, and I attended Promise Keepers in Minneapolis. There we learned with 65,000 other men that we should not only be promise makers but also promise keepers. God is our example of the first and only perfect promise keeper, and God has demonstrated His faithfulness through His mighty acts in history. Some of these mighty acts accomplished by faith are outlined in Hebrews 11 where we read:
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By faith, Abel offered up a more acceptable sacrifice to God; |
| - | By faith, Enoch walked with God and was translated and did not see death; |
| - | By faith, Noah built an ark and he and his family were saved; |
| - | By faith, Abraham believed and became the Father of many nations; |
| - | By faith, Daniel shut the mouth of the lions and escaped death; |
| - | By faith, Joseph became ruler of Egypt and saved his family; |
| - | By faith, three Hebrew children were cast into the furnace and not consumed by fire; |
| - | By faith, Moses parted the Red Sea and the children of Israel crossed over; |
| - | By faith, Rahab, the harlot, welcomed the spies and she and her family were saved from destruction; |
| - | By faith, Joshua prayed and the sun stood still; |
| - | By faith, Elijah prayed and the prophets of Bale were consumed by fire; |
| - | By faith, Elisha saw the prophet taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot; |
| - | By faith, Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up the temple; |
| - | By faith, Paul believed and became the architect of the Christian faith; |
| - | By faith, Peter walked among those who were ill and his shadow healed the sick; |
| - | By faith, John wrote in his great revelation about one whom he saw like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to his feet and girt about his loins with a golden girdle. His head and hair were like wool as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire. His feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. His countenance was as the sun that shineth in his strength. |
The bottom line is that in this world we have tribulation, sorrow, pain, suffering and loss. God, however, is a promise maker and promise keeper and has sent His son, Christ Jesus our Lord, to overcome the world. The greatest evidence of God’s faithfulness is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:
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His only begotten Son, our Lord, Conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, died and buried, He descended into hell, The third day He rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, Where He sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. |
After which, according to the Apostle Paul in I Cor. 15:24: “He will hand over the Kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all: dominions, authorities, powers, and the last enemy, death itself.” God the Father will be all in all and, according to the Scriptures, we who have shared in His suffering will also share in His glory and we will rule and reign with Him.
First of all, a theocentric view of hope is an apocalyptic hope. Apocalypse means to “reveal or unveil.” The word eschaton means “last things.” The eschaton began at the first advent of Christ, and the apocalypse will begin at His second coming. Most of the time eschatology refers to end-time events--about the Rapture, the tribulation, the millennium, and the great white throne of judgment. And then, somehow, it peters out, it gets hazy and we let it go.
But when the Bible refers to the apocalypse, it is not the same concept so commonly presented by man in movies such as Apocalypse Now or The Last Day. Man’s concept of the Apocalypse shows that he can only see to the edge of doom--he envisions the annihilation of mankind by his own hand through nuclear destruction.
When the Bible talks about the apocalypse, it refers to God’s over-arching
plan, His faithfulness and His ultimate vindication and triumph. A theocentric
hope, first of all, is an apocalyptic hope and that hope speaks of vindication
and God’s final defeat of all his enemies. It speaks of God’s
visible presence among His people and His public reign. It speaks of the
destruction of His enemies, dominions, powers, and authorities--including
death itself.
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In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has inaugurated His Kingdom and on earth put Satan on notice that his time is limited and his destruction sure. Old Testament references reflect the vindication theme:
Psa. 143:11, 12, “O Lord, preserve my life…and in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies.” Ezekiel 36:22, 23, “I will vindicate the holiness of my great name…The nations will know that I am the Lord God…I will vindicate my holiness before their eyes.” |
Secondly, an apocalyptic hope speaks about a universalism. Not that all will be saved, for Paul makes it clear that’s not the case. Only those who put their trust in Christ, including not only Israel but all the nations of the world and “whosoever will.”
It talks about a universal solidarity that we share with all creation and that we will continue to share until the creation itself is liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
It talks about a new creation--a new heaven and a new earth where the wolf and the lamb will feed together and where there will be no more violence, pain or death.
Third, an apocalyptic hope speaks about a dualism of good versus evil--what is versus what ought to be, and God’s promises--versus the harsh realities of life. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ introduces a new dimension and a totally new equation to the dualism that existed before His Advent. Now the power of sin over us has been broken…Now the Holy Spirit has been poured out…And the Church is in the world and the Kingdom is…among you and in you. Now you have the power to resist the deeds of the body and to give the members of your body over to works of righteousness.
Rom. 6:12, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires…But rather offer yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life, offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.” Rom. 8:15, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but received the Spirit of sonship. Whereby we cry, “Abba Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God.” |
Fourthly, an apocalyptic hope speaks of imminence--the imminent return of our Lord and Savior and about expectancy and the surety of the parusia. It speaks of its incalculability and that only the father knows the day and the hour, but we are told to “watch” and “pray” lest He come as a thief in the night and we not be ready.
Imminence speaks of surety, and it’s a surety grounded in the character
of God. The power of expectancy does not lie in the strength of our emotion
but in the certainty which God has given. Imminence is not about when
something happens chronologically, but that it has the capability to happen
at any moment.
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Few if any conditions need to be met before Christ returns. His return is imminent. The voice of the martyrs from under the altar cry, “How long, Lord, how long before you come to judge the earth and avenge our blood?” The Church cries, “Maranatha!” And the words of the Institute proclaim: “For as oft as you do eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do proclaim the Lord’s death, ‘til He comes.” Paul declares, “The Lord is at hand.” (Phil. 4:4).
The Bible talks about faith, hope and charity, the greatest being charity. Charity is the medium through which our faith is expressed and our hope is evidenced. Without love and faith, hope would only be a philosophical and theoretical notion or concept. So we must have love.
Also, hope cannot exist apart from faith. Yet faith alone cannot be sustained without theocentric hope. Why do we hear so many sermons on faith and love and so few sermons on hope? I believe there are a number of reasons:
| • | By the end of the second century, Church leaders felt it necessary to establish an ecclesiastical hierarchy and began to preach and teach emphasizing faith and doctrine. |
| • | The Church in America has in general quietly stopped talking about eschatology (aside from Tim LaHaye’s, “Left Behind” series, but even here, not from the pulpit). No more sermons on the second coming of Christ because of antiquated language and literalist imagery thought by many as too graphic for civilized people. Also, the end-time topic became too associated with apocalyptic fanatics predicting to the minute the end of the world (only to revise it again and again). |
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Finally, the continuation of historical time, itself, seems to argue against it. |
But we make a grave error when we fail to understand the vital and dynamic role a theocentric hope plays in a believer’s life:
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When a person doesn’t understand the full scope
of God’s over-arching plan for creation; When a person doesn’t understand God is at work even in His suffering and pain; When a person doesn’t understand that God has a better plan; When a person doesn’t understand that there is a glory being prepared for the Son of God, Himself, in which we will also share; When a person doesn’t understand that this is not the end, but only the beginning and that rewards and future glory are beyond anything we can fully comprehend and that glory is imminent. |
A life in faith and doctrine alone without hope becomes a spiritual triathlon in slow motion, whereby we try to draw upon super human strength just to stay in the race. We try not to cave in, burn out, quit--just to make it through the “last mile of the way.”
But, many do not. They lose their faith because there is no hope, no
expectancy, and no sense of imminence. Often those that do make it have
no joy, no victory, and often become bitter and resentful. In the last
segment of this teaching series, we will look at how viewing hope in a
theocentric way can make a difference in our lives.
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