Archive for July 2008
Alternative Explanations of Spiritual Experience (Acts 2:5-13)
What are spiritual experiences?
We Christians believe that authentic spiritual experiences are experiences of God and/or other elements of the supernatural realm (such as angels or demons). We also believe that counterfeit spiritual experiences are possible, however, when people mistakenly attribute to a supernatural cause an event with a natural explanation. Knowing whether a spiritual experience is counterfeit or authentic, and if authentic whether divine or demonic, calls for discernment (1 John 4:1).
Acts 2:1-4 narrates the spiritual experience of the early Christians (speaking in tongues) and attributes it to a supernatural source (the Holy Spirit). But Acts 2:5-13 also notes that critics of the early Christians had an alternative, naturalistic explanation of the experience. Let’s take a closer look at the latter passage:
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs — we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
On the one hand, the Holy Spirit; on the other hand, alcoholic spirits.
Which is the better explanation for what happened on the Day of Pentecost?
First, what exactly is the experience? In this case, it is speaking in tongues, which is the miraculous ability to speak a human or angelic language you have not learned through normal means.
Second, is the experience publicly verifiable? It is one thing for believers to claim that they have spoken in tongues. The important thing to know is whether there is public confirmation of the experience. In this case, nonbelievers confirmed that they heard their native languages being spoken by the disciples. If the case was a miraculous healing, we would expect before and after doctor reports as public confirmation of the miracle.
Third, is a supernatural or natural explanation more probable? Two natural explanations of what happened on the Day of Pentecost arise from within the text itself: (1) The disciples had learned these languages by normal means. (2) They were drunk. Against (1), even the nonbelievers were “amazed and perplexed” at the disciples’ speech; they assumed that Galileans in general and Christ’s Galilean disciples in particular were uneducated (cf. Acts 4:13). Against (2), religious Jews didn’t drink alcohol so early in the morning (Acts 2:14); and anyway, the disciples speech was coherent praise, not incoherent babbling, which is what you would expect from drunks.
On balance, then, a supernatural explanation of publicly verifiable tongues-speech is more probable than a naturalistic one. Notice, I have not approached this issue dogmatically, but empirically, using common-sense questions to make my case. In our skeptical day and age, this is a good apologetic strategy when engaging in dialogue with nonbelievers.
A Goofy White Guy Unites the World through Dance, and It’s Hilarious!
The Experiential Dimension of Revival (Acts 2:1-4)
Acts 2 narrates the paradigmatic revival of the Christian church. It has three dimensions: experiential (verses 1-13), evangelical (verses 14-41), and ecclesial (verses 42-47). Over the next few days, I will examine each dimension, pointing out its relevance for today’s church.
First, however, let me explain my use of the term revival to describe the events of Acts 2. The dictionary offers two meanings of revival in a religious context: (1) “an awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion”; and (2) “an evangelistic service or a series of services for the purpose of effecting a religious awakening: to hold a revival.” When I use revival, I intend the first meaning, not the second.
With that in mind, look at Acts 2:1-4:
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Pentecost was one of Judaism’s three annual festivals, which included pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Ex. 23:14-17). It occurred fifty days (Gr., pentekostos) after Passover, and it celebrated the firstfruits of the harvest (Lev. 23:15-21, Deut. 16:9-12). In intertestamental Jewish tradition, it also celebrated the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
Luke himself does not draw out the symbolic value of Pentecost, but the conversion of 3000 people (Acts 2:41) can be seen as the spiritual firstfruits of the gospel. Moreover, the charismatic phenomena experienced that day (wind, fire, and tongues) parallel what Jews believed happened at Sinai (e.g., Heb. 12:18-19, Ex. 19:16-19). On Pentecost, as at Sinai, God showed up, and people were changed by the encounter.
Luke emphasizes the supernatural source of these charismatic phenomena by noting that they came “from heaven” as a result of being “filled with the Holy Spirit” and “enabled” by him. This spiritual infilling is the same thing as the promise of the Father (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4) and the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16, Acts 1:5).
The experiential dimension of revival is thus a filling with or baptism in the Holy Spirit. This experience can include charismatic manifestations. I say can rather than must because while tongues reappear throughout Acts as evidence of Spirit-baptism (e.g., 8:14-19, 10:44-48, 19:1-7), wind and fire do not.
Unfortunately, in the history of the Christian church, some have become so desirous of the experiential dimension of revival that they neglect its evangelical foundation (salvation through Jesus Christ) and its ecclesial outcomes (moral formation in a believing community). We must therefore remember that revival is like a three-legged stool: without one of its legs, the stool topples over.
The Spirit yes, but not without Christ and the church!
Organization as a Precondition of Revival (Acts 1:20-26)
In Acts 1:5, 8, Jesus promised his disciples that soon after his ascension they would “be baptized with the Holy Spirit” and “receive power.” Acts 2:1-41 narrates the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise on the Day of Pentecost. Between Jesus’ promise and its Pentecostal fulfillment, Luke narrates two important events: the disciples “all joined together constantly in prayer” (1:12-14), and they chose an apostolic replacement for Judas Iscariot (1:15-26).
If the Day of Pentecost is a paradigm of spiritual revival for the church, then prayer and organization are preconditions for it. I have already written about prayer in my comments on Acts 1:12-14. So today I’m going to focus on organization.
First, however, let me address a widespread attitude that is destructive of true Christianity, namely, the notion that we can be authentically spiritual without organized religion. Many Americans describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.” Interestingly, many in the church have adopted a similar attitude: “Christianity is about relationship, not religion.” Neither of these sentiments makes biblical sense to me.
In Acts 1:15-26, Peter addresses the Judas Problem with Jesus’ disciples. Because Jesus hand-selected the Twelve Apostles to be his designated witnesses, and because Judas self-selected out of the Twelve through his treachery, his “place of leadership”—Gr., episkopen, from which we get the word episcopacy—had to be filled. “It is necessary to choose,” Peter says in verse 21, before laying out the qualifications for Judas’ successor.
What were those qualifications? He had to be “one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection” (verses 21-22). In the event, two men fit these qualifications, and after prayer and the casting of lots, Matthias was chosen to be Judas’ successor.
If spiritual experience can be detached from organized religion, the selection of Matthias makes little sense. Why piddle around filling an empty slot in the apostolic org chart if it’s not necessary? But if Peter thought it “necessary” to fill the slot of Judas’ “apostolic ministry” (verse 25), then perhaps spiritual experience cannot be detached from organized religion after all.
Let me take this one step further. If organized religion is such a bad thing, why did Jesus appoint the Twelve Apostles in the first place? Precisely because he appointed them, organized religion cannot be such a bad thing.
Organized religion does several things for spiritual experience, at least in the Christian faith. First, it reminds us that God makes and keeps promises across generations. Centuries of prophets, priests, and kings prepared the way for the coming of Jesus. Second, it provides an authoritative interpretation of spiritual experience. That is why the apostles had to be eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry. Christianity is not a cleverly told tale; it is history. And third, organized religion channels the tremendous energy of spiritual experience into missional outcomes. Churches, precisely because they are organized, are better able to evangelize and disciple people than are lone individuals.
Organized religion is not perfect. Indeed, detached from vital spirituality, it becomes oppressive. But rather than being spiritual or religious, why can’t we be both?
The Judas Problem (Acts 1:15-19)
In Acts 1:15-26, the Apostle Peter addressed what might be called the church’s Judas Problem.
To understand this problem, a bit of background information is necessary. Mark 3:14-15 tells us that Jesus “appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.”
Notice five things: (1) Just as there are twelve tribes in Israel, so there are twelve apostles of Jesus. The apostles symbolize Israel reconstituted. (2) An apostle—literally, “one sent”—is the personal representative of the person who sent him. The Hebrew term for such a person is shaliach, and the crucial thing to understand is that the sendee acts with the full authority of the sender. (3) The authority of the apostle derives from his up-close interaction with and observation of Jesus. That is why Jesus calls the apostles first and foremost to “be with him.” (4) Because the apostles are Jesus’ hand-selected representatives, they have the responsibility to preach the gospel he taught them. (5) And they have his authority to exorcize demons, just as he did.
The Judas Problem arises because Judas—a member of reconstituted Israel, Jesus’ hand-selected representative, the eyewitness of his ministry who preached his message and performed his miracles—was complicit in Jesus’ murder. Not only that, but after his treachery, he committed suicide. Here’s how Acts 1:15-19 narrates the issue:
In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus—he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”
(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
Judas’ death created a gap in the church’s foundation. Reconstituted Israel needed twelve apostles, not eleven. It needed eyewitnesses, not second- and third-hand informants. It needed preachers of Jesus’ gospels and doers of Jesus’ deeds, not historians of the great deeds of others. And so, the early church selected Matthias to replace Judas (Acts 1:20-26). Or rather, God provided the Matthias Solution for the church’s Judas Problem.
This was a one-off solution, however. When the Apostles James died (Acts 12:2), he was not replaced. Why? Because he had performed his apostolic functions properly. He had witnessed to Jesus in word and deed, even to the point of death, unlike Judas, whose only testimony was his own “wickedness.”
Why are the Judas Problem and the Matthias Solution important? Because there is no Jesus apart from the testimony of the apostles. If you want to follow him, you must listen to them, for they are his hand-selected, one-of-a-kind, personal representatives to all ages, including ours.
Prayer as a Precondition of Revival (Acts 1:12-14)
In October 2003, Tiffany and I went on a tour of the Holy Land led by my father. During our time in Jerusalem, we visited the Upper Room, a site which commemorates the Last Supper and Day of Pentecost. (It is not the original Upper Room, however; it only dates from the twelfth century.) As the tour group crowded into this room, my dad made an interesting comment: “This was the last place the entire church was able to fit into one room.”
Acts narrates the story of a great revival, beginning in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and spiraling progressively outward to Asia Minor and Europe. Acts 1:15 tells us that there were 120 believers prior to the Day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, 3000 people became believers. Today, the Christian encompasses nearly 2.1 billion believers. No room is large enough to hold this entire group.
How did this happen? We will need to read Acts in its entirety to answer that question. But Acts 1:12-14 gives us a clue.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
The first thing believers did after Jesus’ ascension was gathered to pray. Prayer is a necessary, but not sufficient, precondition of revival. Many things must happen in addition to prayer for a revival to occur, in other words, but no revival occurs without it.
And the praying must be of a particular kind. Luke tells us that “they all joined together constantly in prayer.” Two words stand out from this description: together and constantly.
In Greek, the word translated as together is homothumadon. Eugene H. Peterson writes[1]:
Homothumadon is a compound word: homo means ‘the same’; thumas means a strong emotion of anger; and the final syllable don signifies that the word is adverbial. It is the middle component, thumas, that won’t translate. Thumas is a fiery word, surging with energy—flying off the handle, losing your temper, lashing out. Except that in the context of the resurrection community there is nothing negative in it, no meanness, no violence…
Where does this surging energy come from? Peterson continues, “It is the passion of a consensual, unanimous response to something God does.” If unified prayer is the precondition of revival, God is the precondition of unified prayer. Prayer is how we connect with God.
And it’s not a one-off activity. It must be taking place constantly. Louis Pasteur once said that chance favors the prepared mind. Revival favors the praying community. Let us unite around what God has done for us and be in constant prayer!
Who knows what rooms we will outgrow as a result?
[1] Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus Is the Way (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 262.
The Best Is Yet to Come (Acts 1:9-11)
On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Americans will elect a new president. He—perhaps one day, she—will take up residence in the White House on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, after Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the oath of office. During the anticlimactic 77 days between election and inauguration, he will appoint staff and devise strategy so that he is adequately prepared to lead from the moment he ends his oath with George Washington’s words, “So help me, God!”
The 40-day period between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension was only half as long as the election-inauguration period but infinitely more important. Jesus did not become the Commander in Chief of America for four years. He became Lord of the universe for eternity. But according to Darrell Bock, “Most [New Testament] books speak of Jesus’s resurrection or simply speak of him being exalted to the side of God( Eph. 1:19-22; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1:3, 4; 6:19-20; 9:24; 1 Pet. 3:21-22.).”[1] Luke along records the 40-day period. He narrates the details of the ascension. Here’s what he writes:
After he said this, Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
After he said this refers specifically to the commission Jesus gave his disciples to be “witnesses” to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). But more broadly, it refers to what he taught them about “the kingdom of God (1:3). Like the president-elect between election and inauguration, Jesus used the 40 days between resurrection and ascension to devise strategy (“kingdom”) and appoint staff (“witnesses”).
And when he was done, he was “taken up before their very eyes.” Where? “Into heaven.” In Acts 2:33, Peter—in his first sermon—interprets the ascension as an act of coronation, describing it as being “exalted to the right hand of God.” But just as the purpose of inauguration is for the president to actually lead the country, so the purpose of ascension and enthronement is for Jesus to exercise royal authority. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we will study when we come to Acts 2, was Jesus’ first act as king. He “has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” (2:33).
The thing about presidential inaugurations is that, for all the hoopla, they end in disappointment four years later. The candidate made promises he could not keep as president. The Leader of the Free World turns out to be human, all too human. Not so Jesus! His coronation is but the beginning of a successful administration. And for those of us who await his return, the best is yet to come.
[1] Darrell A. Bock, Acts (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 68.
Eschatology and Missions (Acts 1:6-8)
Have you heard of The Rapture Index?
It is a webpage run by two Bible-believing Christians named Todd Strandberg and Terry James. The purpose of the index is “to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.” It does this by assigning numerical value on a daily basis to news reports about false Christs, war, natural disasters, and famine, among other things. The Rapture Index measured 169 on June 30, 2008. The all-time high for the index was 182 on September 24, 2001. The all-time low was 57 on December 12, 1993.
What do these numerical values mean? Here’s how Strandberg and James put it:
- Rapture Index of 100 and Below: Slow prophetic activity
- Rapture Index of 100 to 130: Moderate prophetic activity
- Rapture Index of 130 to 160: Heavy prophetic activity
- Rapture Index above 160: Fasten your seat belts
Evidently, in light of yesterday’s Rapture Index, California’s seat-belt motto has eschatological significance: Click it or ticket!
Christians are a future-oriented people. We “look forward to the day of God and speed its coming”; we are “looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:12-13). And, of course, Jesus himself told us that certain “signs” would precede the end of the age: “Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door” (Matt. 24:33). I suppose Jesus’ words are what motivate Strandberg and James to maintain their index.
According to Acts 1:6-8, Jesus’ disciples were similarly interested in the timing of end-times events. During the forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension, Luke tells us: “So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’” For the disciples, the restoration of Israel’s kingdom was The Big Event, eschatologically speaking. When that happened, the dead would rise, the righteous would be vindicated, and paradise would be restored.
Jesus’ reply to his disciples’ question is interesting. “He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’” God alone knows exactly what the future holds and in what order that future will unfold. We don’t. It’s not our job to figure that stuff out. Rather, our job is to be witnesses of Jesus’ words and deeds to everyone everywhere.
Acts 1:8 is the key verse. It describes our priority: missional witness, not eschatological speculation. It demonstrates our need for power from the Holy Spirit. And it delineates a plan of action: from Jerusalem to the ends of the world. Acts tells the story of the church as it carried out its mission in the first-century. It’s our job to do the same in the twenty-first.
By the way, the one word you won’t find on the Rapture Index is mission. To me, that’s telling.
