A professor of "worship studies" reckons that God's glory is disclosed through humility and suffering

 

The Glory of God Revealed: Living the Resurrection

... many early Christian thinkers offered a striking insight: the glory of God is seen most clearly in His act of rescuing those in need. ... The glory of God, therefore, is not merely something to be observed, but something encountered in His gracious movement toward humanity. It is revealed in His willingness to enter the depths of human brokenness, to meet us in our need, and to act decisively for our salvation. In this light, glory is not diminished by humility or suffering but is disclosed through them. The God who is truly glorious is the God who comes near, who restores, and who redeems. In short, the God who is truly glorious is the God who rescues. ...

I don't mean to pick on this guy. What he writes sounds completely plain vanilla unobjectionable to the average Christian mind, which unfortunately is full of gooey sentimentality and dull humanitarianism. Except for the fact that none of those early Christian thinkers he speaks of, whoever they may be, are in the New Testament. You will be hard pressed to find lines there which endorse a preoccupation with glory disclosed through humility and suffering.

On the contrary, the New Testament evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the view that God's inestimable glory is robust, and still to be revealed in the future at Jesus' second coming, an acknowledgement that the crucifixion and resurrection most certainly did not constitute a convincing revelation of God's glory. If it had been otherwise, preaching the Gospel would not have been promoted everywhere by the New Testament because it would not have been necessary. The glory of God would have been self evident. The book itself would not have been necessary, because the revelation of the glory of God would have meant the end of the world.

The New Testament remains pregnant with unrealized eschatological expectation, in which the revelation of the glory of God is an explicitly future apocalyptic goal, because obviously the promised glory failed to be revealed the first time around for "all flesh" to see.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

-- Isaiah 40:3ff.

If the New Testament thought that God's glory had been disclosed through the humility and suffering of Jesus and actually had replaced Isaiah's, and John the Baptist's, vision, it ought to have said so. It is only its unworthy heirs who have done so.

The New Testament certainly does insist that God accomplished something through Jesus' suffering, but all flesh seeing the glory of God is not one of them. Only a select few "beheld his glory" (John 1:14). "Read my book" (John 20:31).

The revelation of the glory of God is yet future, and the not-yet is by no means comparable to it.

 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed [ἀποκαλυφθῆναι] in us.

-- Romans 8:18

But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed [ἀποκαλύψει], ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

-- I Peter 4:13

The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed [ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι]: 

-- I Peter 5:1

For who hopes for what he sees?

-- Romans 8:24 

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

-- Romans 5:1f.   

The ringleader of unbelief in the resurrection is Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 

-- Matthew 28:16f. 

The unique word for doubt here is used elsewhere in the NT only of Peter when walking on the water. Apparently doubt and Peter go together in Matthew's mind.

Immediately Jesus reached out with His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

-- Matthew 14:31

 

Peter does not figure in the resurrection narrative of Matthew, and only indirectly figures in Mark. In Luke Peter acts as an investigator of the empty tomb claim of the women, but comes away only with questions. He is also named as a recipient of a special appearance of Jesus, but this is so perfunctorily reported it is strange. A fuller account involving him is provided by John, which contrasts with the presentations of Matthew and Mark which refer to the persistent incredulity of the eleven summarily.

 

In John 21 the three core intimates of Jesus, Peter, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, go back to their old lives, despite seeing the resurrected Jesus in John 20 gladly. The impression is anti-climactic, to the extent that some see two competing and separate narrative endings to John in the accounts.

 

Doubting Thomas, privileged with a special appearance of Jesus in John 20, joins the three in John 21, as does Nathanael (of "in whom there is no guile" fame), and two others who are not named (probably Andrew is one, the brother of Peter and a partner with Peter in the fishing company, Zebedee and Sons).

 

That makes seven of eleven remaining disciples who do not go back to Jerusalem rejoicing as Luke would have it. They do not go into all the world making disciples after being clothed with power from on high. They go back to making a living in Galilee, about which Luke knows nothing. And it is Peter who leads them by example.

 

There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 

 

-- John 21:2f.   

It all flies in the face of the robust conception of belief and a changed life which the resurrection is supposed to have elicited from his closest followers. How we get from this sorry business in Galilee in John to what the disciples supposedly later do with their lives in Luke/Acts in Jerusalem remains a mystery.

The traditions about the resurrection in the gospels are deeply unsettled.

OK, so not everyone's a liar

 Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true.

-- Romans 3:4

Jesus saw Nathan'a-el coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" 

-- John 1:47

The descending and ascending Divine Logos of John 1 is but one iota and yet a whole world away from Divine Loigos (mass death)

λοιγός

 

And let no murderous havoc come upon the realm to ravage it.
(μηδέ τις ἀνδροκμὴς λοιγὸς ἐπελθέτω τάνδε πόλιν δαΐζων)

 

 -- Aeschylus, Suppliant Women, 678-679 (from the chorus' prayer for Argos)

While both Aeschylus and Sophocles also additionally specifically attribute such ruination to Ares, god of war, the New Testament doesn't know the actual term.

 

But Luke especially has the idea of mass death come out of Jesus' own mouth.

that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechari'ah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required of this generation.
(... ναί λέγω ὑμῖν ἐκζητηθήσεται ἀπὸ τῆς γενεᾶς ταύτης)

 

 -- Luke 11:50f.

I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
(οὐχί λέγω ὑμῖν ἀλλ᾽ ἐὰν μὴ μετανοῆτε πάντες ὁμοίως ἀπολεῖσθε)

 

 -- Luke 13:3

I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
(οὐχί λέγω ὑμῖν ἀλλ᾽ ἐὰν μὴ μετανοῆτε πάντες ὡσαύτως ἀπολεῖσθε)

 

 -- Luke 13:5

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
(... καὶ ἦλθεν ὁ κατακλυσμὸς καὶ ἀπώλεσεν ἅπαντας)

 

-- Luke 17:26f.

And now a word from a lying Jesuit dog, who obviously isn't one of Jesus' little lambs

"Don't waste what is holy on people who are dogs. Don't throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you." -- Matthew 7:6

Then Jesus said to the [Canaanite] woman, "I was sent only to help God's lost sheep—the people of Israel." But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, "Lord, help me!" Jesus responded, "It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs." -- Matthew 15:24ff.

Jesus told her, "First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs." -- Mark 7:27

Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. -- Philippians 3:2

It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: "A dog returns to its vomit." And another says, "A washed pig returns to the mud." -- 2 Peter 2:21f.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" -- John 1:29

But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: -- John 10:26f.

Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie. -- Revelation 22:15

Neither a ram, a lamb, or a man: If there is no sacrifice, there will be nothing for the parasites to eat at dinner

And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him. -- Leviticus 19:22

And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin. And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. -- Leviticus 5:6f.

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. -- John 1:29

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; -- Hebrews 10:12

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. -- Psalm 51:14ff.

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. -- Hosea 6:6

But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. -- Matthew 9:13

But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. -- Matthew 12:7

Bill Johnson of Bethel Redding erects his whole theory of signs and wonders on a Christological lie

From When Heaven Invades Earth (2013), p. 29, where Bill Johnson attempts to drive a wedge between the two natures in Christ in the manner of an Arian, an Adoptionist, or a Nestorian:

'Jesus could not heal the sick. Neither could He deliver the tormented from demons or raise the dead. To believe otherwise is to ignore what He said about Himself, and more importantly, to miss the purpose of His self-imposed restriction to live as a man. Jesus Christ said of Himself, "The Son can do nothing" (John 5:19). ... He had no supernatural capabilities whatsoever! While He is 100 percent God, He chose to live with the same limitations that man would face once he was redeemed. ... He performed miracles, wonders, and signs as a man in right relationship to God. . . not as God.'

But it's Johnson who does the ignoring about what Jesus said about himself, and he does so utterly dishonestly.

Not only does Johnson rip John 5:19 from its broader narrative (where Jesus is defending a Sabbath miracle by actually appealing to his intimacy with the Almighty as the divine Son), Johnson deliberately shortens it into a fragment, representing that as if it were the whole:

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

 

-- John 5:19

Johnson ignores "but what he seeth the Father do". Jesus is not emphasizing his limitations as a man in this statement, but his glory as the one who is so close to God that he cannot but do what God himself does, because it would be contrary to his nature to do anything else. "No man hath seen God at any time" the Evangelist has said earlier (John 1:18), but here the Son clearly has, and does. Accordingly he cannot do anything but what he sees his Father do. Whereas John is out to show Jesus' divinity in this way in the narrative, Johnson is out to show Jesus' mere humanity.

But Jesus' Jewish opponents in John are not out to kill him for claiming to be a mere man, but for claiming equality with God!

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

 

-- John 5:18

Bill Johnson specializes in nothing so much as a violence of his own . . . to the text and to those who follow it.

 

If there were a jail for heresy, Bill Johnson should be celebrating his tenth year in it.

Is Jesus Good, or Not?

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

-- Matthew 19:16f.

And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God.

-- Mark 10:17f.

And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none [is] good, save one, [that is], God.

-- Luke 18:18f.

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man [that is] an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, [that] shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them [their] hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that [were hired] about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received [it], they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought [but] one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take [that] thine [is], and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

-- Matthew 20:1-16

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

-- Luke 10:38-42

And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

-- John 1:46

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

-- John 10:11

I am the good shepherd, and know my [sheep], and am known of mine.

-- John 10:14

h/t Theo

The Son of Man

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you.

-- John 6:27

This line from today's Gospel lesson about Jesus the Bread of Life is noteworthy for its use of the title "Son of man."

In the Synoptic tradition the use of this title bristles with notions of the imminent end of the world, but that conception is wholly lacking in John's gospel. In the former it is thought to refer to a figure spoken of in the Book of Daniel:

And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

-- Daniel 7:13-14

Consider Mark's gospel in particular.

In it Jesus introduces his ministry, saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (1:15). In chapter 2, Jesus identifies himself as this Son of man, who has the power to forgive sins (vs. 10), and is Lord even of the Sabbath (vs. 28). Later in Mark 8:38 and 9:1 Jesus explicitly uses the Son of man imagery from Daniel of himself:

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. . . Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

The consummation of all things is so close in the imagination of Jesus in Mark that even at his trial he can say to the high priest, an unbeliever, that the high priest himself "shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (14:62).

In John, by contrast, what is imminent is the Son of man's return to heaven.

In future believers such as Nathanael "shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (1:51). This same Son of man says, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (6:51). The prospect of it is a point of contention even among Jesus' closest followers: "Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" (6:61 f.). It is from this heavenly vantage point, he says, that "I will draw all men unto me" (12:32).

Some believe the latter conception is a rationalization in the wake of the failure of the former, and the doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar a rationalization of that.

At least I do.