ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Christ is risen!

MODERN CHRISTIAN: He is risen indeed!

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I love that greeting.  In the early church, during the 50 days following the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we used to greet each other by one saying, “Christ is risen,” and the other replying, “He is risen indeed.”

Image © Saulo Zayas 2016

MODERN CHRISTIAN: I love that greeting too.  You know, these past dialogues we have had have been enlightening.  Now, I am interested to hear on what you in the early church believed about the Eucharist.  Clearly, you did not hold it to be the Body and Blood of Christ since that belief was only invented by Roman Catholics 1000 years after the Resurrection of Christ.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: What?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Well, the doctrine of the Transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is only 1000 years old.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I never heard of such a term.  Transubstanti-what?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: See, I knew it!  Transubstantiation is the doctrine that the bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Wait, something sounds familiar here, but before you go further, what is “Mass”?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Mass is the prayer service of the Roman Catholic Church.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: What is it like?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: It begins with a priest saying morning prayers, then there are readings from the Gospels and the Epistles, then there is a sermon.  Afterward, the priest prays over the bread and wine and Catholics claim that they change into the Body and Blood of Jesus, but I am really glad that in the early church you have never heard of Transubstantiation or the Mass; it further confirms to me that the Catholics invented both.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Wait a second, morning prayers, readings from the Gospels and Epistles, sermons, bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood.  We had all that in the early church.  When did you say that started, a thousand years after Christ?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Wait, what?!  You mean you had Mass and Transubstantiation?!  But that can’t be!  I was told in church it started only a thousand years after Christ.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: My friend, that is impossible.  What you are describing I saw in my days exactly as you describe them, and my father saw it before me, and my grandfather as well.  The most ancient Christians, who lived much earlier than I did, described these things as well, and they wrote about them.  The terms you are using I have never heard, but the things you are describing I am very well familiar with and so were all the Christians who lived in my times.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: So, you are saying that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Yes.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: This can’t be the case.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Why not?  It is mentioned in the Bible.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: But, the Bible teaches it is not the Body and Blood of Christ.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: How did you arrive at that understanding from the Bible?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: When Jesus spoke, He used metaphors.  For example, Jesus said that He is the Door (John 10:9).  He is not literally a door.  The same applies to the Eucharist.  The bread and wine are not the Body and Blood just like Jesus is not a door.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Jesus truly said He is the Door, but He did not command us to walk through doors and do this in remembrance of Him.  However, He did with the Eucharist.  That already indicates something uniquely different about the Eucharist.  Whereas our Lord Jesus gave parables, He never started a practice by a parable.  The Last Supper was not a parable nor a metaphor.  If you pay attention to when Jesus gave parables, He would later explain them to His disciples.  When He explained this to His disciples, He said, “This is My Body,” and “This is my Blood” (Mark 14:22, 23).  There is no further explanation to the Apostles like with many of the parables.  All He said afterward was “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).

“When we read the Psalms, we are meant to learn things about God and about human nature and about how life is to be lived. Some poetry makes no claim to instruct the mind. The Psalms do. They are meant to be instructive about God and man and life.”  -John Piper

The Psalms make up the largest book in the Bible.  There are over 150 of them.  Some are a couple of lines long; others are several pages long.  They are prayers in the form of songs and poems.  They are prayers that praise, thank, and even cry out in agony to God.  They cover every part of life and every emotion a person may go through from joy to discouragement.  If you are an Orthodox Christian or a Roman Catholic, they are incorporated into the hourly prayers of the church and at regular church services.  They have formed and to a large degree still form the basis for Christian worship either directly or through inspiring modern day songwriters with their material.

Yet, many feel threatened to read the Psalms because they are not a story like many of the other books of the Bible.  Also, a possibility why some may not read them is because they do not understand how to approach poetry in the Bible.  As English speakers, poetry for us means rhyme and meter, yet we do not see those features in the Psalms.  However, there is a poetic structure that regardless of language appears in the Psalms.  This structure can help us understand and be immersed in the beauty of the Psalms.  As a result we can begin viewing the world through the lenses of the Psalms and begin praying using the Psalms.  As a result, we will deepen our relationship with God.

An Example

To begin to understand the Psalms, we need an example.  Let’s use Psalm 1.

Psalm 1

“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
² But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Image © Inge Wallumrød 2016

1. Parallelism

To begin to understand the Psalms, we must understand what the poetic structure of the Psalms is.  It is not rhyme nor meter, but it is a structure called parallelism.  What parallelism means is that the Psalms are written in couplets (two lines at a time).  These couplets can take three main forms; there are others forms, but the following three are the most common.

Synonymous Parallelism

Synonymous Parallelism means that in the couplet, the first line states a thought and the second line states the same thought in different words.

For example, verse 2 above says,

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.”

Delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating in the law mean the same thing.  This is because we are always thinking about what we delight in.  It could be a movie, our friends, our spouse or our children.  The Psalmist here says that the person who delights in the law, his delight is meditating on that law.  He equates delight and meditation.  This is an example of Synonymous Parallelism.

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).

We often hear that people are Christians.  How does that show in their way of thinking?  How does that appear in their behavior?

1. Framework for Thinking

There are many frameworks for thinking about the world.  Philosophies have frameworks that are used for thinking about life.  Businessmen have frameworks they use to think about financial decisions.  Lawyers have frameworks they use to think about arguing cases.  College students, especially those in graduate programs, are taught to fit data into frameworks that are often devised by a scholar or a group of scholars.

It is important to understand the role of frameworks in our lives.  While many of the frameworks we encounter in our lives do not really affect our understanding of the world as a whole (like the ones we see in college), others like the ones from philosophy, business, and law affect us directly.  They can even change the way we view ourselves, our families, our careers, how we deal with others, and how we approach God.

This is important to understand because our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the framework for thinking about the world.  Our Lord Jesus Christ being God is the Creator and Lord of the Universe.  A mistake many people make when they come to Christ is that they try to fit His teachings (and the Apostles’ teachings which derive from Him) within their own frameworks when it should be the other way around.  They lift their frameworks to be above Him and His teachings, and submit His teachings to them.  But since He is Creator and Lord, His framework is above all.  We should rather see how ours fits within His.  We should rather understand our philosophies, business and financial dealings, and our relationships through His framework.

Image © Pixabay

An Example of Frameworks

For example, our Lord Jesus Christ said that the second greatest commandment in the Old Testament was “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).  If I have a business-minded framework, then I may apply that to my own family, and if I do not like how my wife is working, running the house, and raising our children, then I may file for divorce from her and marry another whom I think is more successful.  If I do not like the way my children are learning because they may be disabled, I may disown them because they did not meet the goals I had for them.  We see this all the time in the world.  It is not even something uncommon.

But, let us see what our Lord Jesus said about the matter.  He said, “‘The two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:8-9).  Also, Paul the Apostle said, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25).

Disowning children because of a learning disability fundamentally goes against our Lord Jesus’s personal command to us that we “love one another” (John 15:17).

What our Lord Jesus said is radically different from the above frameworks.

Some may begin to think at this point that this is uncomfortable, and they have not thought about it this way before, but that is what our Lord actually said.  Our Lord Jesus Christ asks for all from us, not only some.  This includes our minds.  When someone had asked our Lord Jesus what was the greatest commandment in the Old Testament, He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).  This includes frameworks that changes the way we act.

What about one framework for spiritual life and another framework for everyday, business, and family life?

Our Lord Jesus did not accept such a difference.  He taught one standard for private life and public life because all life is lived in front of God who sees and knows all.

A priest is someone who is set apart in order to spiritually serve a group of people.  “Spiritually” does not mean only our spiritual part, but everything that helps foster a spiritual life including the emotional, mental, and physical needs of that group of people.  This is because all four aspects ultimately affect our spiritual lives.

Painting by John Bridges, Christ Healing the Mother of Simon Peter’s Wife, 1839

We know priests as the people who officiate at a church service, who guide us in our spiritual lives, who take our confessions, and who are there in the best and worst of times.  However, that is one type of priesthood.  That is a pastoral and sacramental priesthood.

There is another priesthood which includes all believers: male and female, old and young, wise and simple, rich and poor.  This is the general priesthood.  This priesthood is ours since we have chosen to follow God and become members of the Body of Christ.

The Bible speaks about this general priesthood in the Book of Revelation three times.  The first time, it says our Lord Jesus Christ “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (Revelation 1:6 NKJV).  In some versions of the Scriptures it reads, “He has made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father” (Revelation 1:6 RSV).  This repeats in Revelation 5:10, but that verse adds, “We shall reign on the earth.”  This general priesthood is mentioned a third time in Revelation 20:6.

Since all Christians are entrusted with such a priesthood, how then should this priesthood work?

1. Bringing Christ to the World

We should bring the beauty, goodness, and truth of God into the world.  First we must let these take root in us and grow in us by a life of faith, prayer, and following our Lord Jesus Christ.  This will cause us to be set apart (sanctified) from the non-believers on the earth, and then we will radiate the beauty, goodness, and truth of God to the world.  We cannot radiate what we do not have.  If we are to bring the beauty, goodness, and truth of God into the world, then we must become full of these in ourselves and then they will naturally radiate and bring Christ’s transforming power into the world.

How we speak

This radiation should reflect in the way we speak to people.  We should speak words of encouragement.  We should speak what people need to hear and not simply what they want to hear.  This way we will truly love them.  Paul the Apostle says,

“Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

Giving grace is exactly the radiation we should bring to the world since we are priests to God.

How we treat others

The people of the world experience too much bitterness, anger, and hatred.  The last thing we as priests to God should do is cause further bitterness, anger, and hatred.  We must stand apart from the non-believers since we are the representatives of God’s Kingdom.  Standing apart to God and being clearly distinct from the world is one definition of holiness.  We should bring joy, peace, and love into the world.

If we are priests to God, then we should imitate God’s actions on earth to give people a glimpse into what life with God will be like.  God explains what He has done for His people saying,

“They did not know that I healed them.

I drew them with gentle cords,

with bands of love,

and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.

I stooped and fed them” (Hosea 11:4).

That is how we should live.  Christ lived in the same way, and this then is how we should live.

If you did not read Part I, click here to read it.  It is necessary to understand this one.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: There are several other examples of salvation being a process in the New Testament.  For example…

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Wait!  I have an objection to you saying salvation is a journey.  I still think salvation is a point in time based on the Bible, and once saved, you are always saved.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: What is your objection?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: In 1 John, it says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:19).  This shows that those who are Christians and leave the faith were never really saved.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: This verse is not talking about regular, everyday Christians.  It is talking about Gnostic heretic teachers.  Do you know the history behind 1 John?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Yes, John was combating the Gnostic heresy which said all flesh is evil and only the spirit is good.  The Gnostics denied the humanity of Christ because they saw bodies as something evil.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Yes, that is right.  Good.   You know your church history.  This epistle was directed against those who deny the humanity of Christ; that is why the epistle begins with “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life” because it is emphasizing the true humanity of Christ in addition to his divinity.  The verse that says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us” is not referring to ordinary Christians who have left the faith, but Gnostic Christians who have never truly followed our Lord Jesus Christ but their own heresy.  Do you agree?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Actually, yes, I do now that I think of the historical context.

Image © Sebastien Marchand, Unsplash 2013

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: So let me continue.  There are several other examples of salvation being a process in the New Testament for example, our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  Birth is not the goal of any birth but a life fully grown is the goal of a birth.  We are not born simply to be born, but we are born to live.  We learn how to eat, walk, talk, work, and move to our destination to become fully functioning humans.  Salvation then is implied to be a process much like birth, life, and growth are a process.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Well, that last conversation on Baptism was interesting.  You have a very different view than us modern Christians.  I am interested in what you believe about salvation.  Clearly the point at which you are saved is faith, but you believe it is Baptism…

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Wait!  Don’t rush to conclusions!

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Now, it is very clear you do not believe that the moment at which we are saved is faith but Baptism.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I never said that.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: You said it is essential to salvation.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: That’s right.  It is essential to salvation.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: How then do you not believe it is the moment at which you are saved?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Because salvation is not simply achieved in a moment.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: You mean you do not believe that once saved, you are always saved?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: No, I don’t.  Neither have I known any Christian from my time in the ancient world to believe in such a view.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: You do know that view contradicts the Scriptures.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: No it does not.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: How does it not contradict the Scriptures?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Let me explain.  Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).  I want to focus on “the Way.”  The earliest Christians were also known as “the Way.”  They are called “the Way” six times in the Book of Acts; the term “Christian” is only used three times in the Book of Acts and only once where a Christian is actually using it to describe the followers of Christ.

Image © Suzukii Xingfu 2016

This word “Way” in Greek means “road” or “journey.”  This implies salvation is not a point in time, but a process.  We do not simply step on a road and say we have reached our destination (your view that once saved, you are always saved).  Sometimes, the road is long.  Sometimes it is hard.  We still have to go through the road to reach our destination.  If our Savior is the Way, then it implies we have a journey to go through, a process.  Salvation is then a process.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: But in Ephesians 2:8-9, it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  “Saved” is in the past tense.  It is something that has already happened.  Therefore once saved, you are always saved like the Ephesians Paul wrote to.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: There were people who were saved and they left the faith, so it cannot be once saved, always saved.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Is Baptism necessary for salvation?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Baptism is not necessary for salvation.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: How do you know this?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Well, first of all, I know the Bible unlike you ancients.

Image © Charles Rondeau, 2015

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: You have to remember that the Bible was written, copied, translated, and brought down to the present time because of the ancients.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Okay, whatever.  Let me tell you why salvation is not essential to salvation.  First of all, according to Romans 10:9, it says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Nowhere there does it say you must be baptized; it only talks about faith.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: But our Lord Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God… unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5).

MODERN CHRISTIAN: If Baptism is necessary, then this is a contradiction.  Jesus cannot contradict Himself or His Apostles whom He sent, since He is God.  Of course, He does not contradict Himself.  You understand this verse wrong.  When Jesus says, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” “born of water,” means natural birth.  You know, when a woman is about to give birth, we say, “her water broke.”  That is what it means here.  So one has to be physically born and then receive the Holy Spirit in order to be saved.  Also, notice, nowhere else in Scripture does it refer to Baptism as a birth.  This verse is not talking about Baptism.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Actually, Scripture does refer to Baptism as a birth somewhere else.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Where?!

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: In Titus 3:5, where it says, “According to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”  The word regeneration in the original Greek is palingenesias which means “born again.”  It goes right back to our Lord Jesus’s words, “Unless one is born again” in John 3.  Notice also that it says “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”  It is the pattern of water and Spirit exactly as our Lord Jesus explained in John 3:3, 5.

I first came across Ephrem the Syrian (c.306-373) ten years ago.  I remember encountering him again in a Bible study at my church shortly thereafter.  He was particularly interesting due to the connections he made between different texts in the Bible and the way he interpreted the Bible.  To illustrate, in one quote I came across in my church’s Bible study recently, Ephrem reflects upon Moses’s staff and how it ate the staffs turned into serpents by the Egyptian sorcerers.  He connects the staff of Moses, who is a type of Christ, to the Cross of Christ:

—————————-“If his rod ate serpents up,

————————— –His cross would eat the Serpent up that had

————————— –eaten Adam and Eve”

—————————- (Hymn I, On the Nativity)

Miniature of Ephrem the Syrian

Unlike today’s Western Christian preachers, Ephrem’s writings are always clearly focused on the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He always thinks about His incarnation, His life, His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension regardless of the text of the Bible he explains.  This is how he can see the Cross in Moses’s rod because he constantly thinks about the Cross (which is wood like the staff) on which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified to save us from our sins.  The result is that the meaning of the Scriptures is unlocked.  This style of interpretation, which is called Christocentric, was practiced widely in the early church.

Ephrem wrote hundreds of hymns of which 473 still exist.  These hymns became extremely popular in his original Syrian language, and then in Greek, Latin, and multiple other languages in the early centuries following their composition.

Recently, I came across a book of his, Hymns on Paradise.  From my prior experience with his brief quotes, I knew it would be a good read, so I bought the book immediately. This book has 15 hymns by Ephrem on the topic of Paradise.

The translation that I read is the one by Dr. Sebastian Brock, who is a master translator and scholar of the Syrian Christian heritage.  His introduction (unlike many others for translated spiritual works) is deeply edifying and educational.  It not only helped me to clearly understand and appreciate Ephrem’s hymns, but it also provided spiritual benefit from these hymns.  You can click here to buy a copy.

When I read these amazing hymns, there were three major features that stood out.  They are best illustrated with selections from these hymns.  The following selections must be read slowly in order to be appreciated.

1. Beauty
One of the features of Ephrem the Syrian’s poetry is how it constantly reflects upon the imagery of the Bible and builds upon it.  For example, he takes the image of the Door, which our Lord Jesus Christ applies to Himself in John 10:7-10, and builds upon it,

   “Forge here on earth and take

the key to Paradise;

the Door that welcomes you

When we read the Scriptures, we often miss many things.  Among what we miss are the personalities of the authors of the Bible, which can actually be revealed through a close reading of the Scriptures.

I remember watching The Bible miniseries that aired in 2013.  In the last scene, it shows John the Apostle sitting in a cave remembering his life with Christ and the Apostles.  There was insight at that point, something deeply Biblical.  I had been unaware of how deeply reflective and personal John was until I saw this scene.  When I read the Gospel of John again after watching this series, I became aware of this reality.

Oil painting © Andrey Mironov 2012

If we read the Gospel of John closely with a focus on John and the way he writes and presents his message, the result is that we will learn four characteristics about John that will also deepen our faith and journey with our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Being Reflective

John makes reflective comments about those who believed and disbelieved Jesus; we do not find that in any of the other Gospels.  Some events and incidents in the Gospel do not readily show their meaning; they only become clear with reflection, and John practiced reflection.  For example, John remembered that many of the Jewish rulers had believed in Jesus, but they did not follow Him.  He reflects back and thinks about why they did not follow Him, and he writes, “Even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:42-43, NKJV).

Also, in the discussion Jesus had with Peter the Apostle at the end of the Gospel, John remembers the words Jesus spoke to him and connects them to Peter’s crucifixion, which happened years after this discussion.

He also mentions how after the events in the Gospel, the Apostles remembered that what had happened to Jesus was a fulfillment of the prophecies.  As an example, when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey on Palm Sunday, John writes, “His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him” (John 12:16, NRSV).

John is very reflective.  He does not simply relate what happened, but he does so with reflection about the significance of these events.

2. Being Personal

As I read the Gospel after watching the last scene of The Bible miniseries, it became clear that the Gospel of John is not simply a biography of Jesus, but it is also the autobiography of John as well, yet its focus is on Jesus because Jesus defined the course John’s life took.