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Lost Diary Found
Found: The Lost Diary of Nadab and Abihu !
Notice: The following is satire, but it illustrates the importance of respecting the
limits of divine authority.
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PRESS RELEASE: Archaeologists have announced the sensational discovery the
long lost diary of two ancient Jewish priests – Nadab and Abihu. These sons of
Aaron had short-lived careers, but managed to secretly record their spiritual
views. The diary is in remarkably excellent shape, except for the edges of the
scroll being singed by fire. Here are some excerpts:
As spiritual leaders we are excited about the possibility of bringing about
positive change in our repressive, narrow legalistic sect. While we owe
much to our religious heritage of belief in a covenant-keeping God that
sustained us in Egypt, the legalistic prohibitions of Moses limit us from
making strides into greater spirituality.
Who are we, as Jews, to be so narrow-minded and exclusive that God has
only one way? How arrogant for Aaron and Moses to say we alone have
the truth of God. How odd for our little group to stand apart from the
world and say we alone can know the true way of God.
Legalistic rules will kill this movement, like this ridiculous rule that we are
only authorized to get fire from one place to offer incense! How
superstitious! It's like the so-called “law of silence” that argues that Noah
was only authorized to build the ark out of gopher wood, since God was
silent about any other wood. How silly! True worship for us is not about
keeping trivial rules but feeling the awesome presence of God. Rigid
patternism is so deadening.
How sad that we Jews began as a unifying movement of mankind. Did
not God say, “Through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”?
Somehow this movement has gone awry into sectarian narrowness. We
need a fresh wind of change to breathe new life into our movement.
We are all sons of Noah. Who is to say that our estranged fleshly brethren
descended from Noah, who approach God as they understand Him, are
wrong? In fact, they seem to be so sincere and wise.
Don’t the elders of Israel know that to broaden the appeal of the covenant
we must adopt the spirit of the age? Pluralism is the only thing that will
work in our ministry before the world.
We feel led by God’s Spirit to lead our fellowship of God’s people into
greater liberty of conscience and belief. And so, today we will bravely
experiment with offering a new and exciting type of fire in worship. We
feel this is a moving of the power of God.
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And so they did – they offered “unauthorized fire” in worship !
Let’s remember this OT warning regarding Nadab and Abihu’s unauthorized
worship. We must abide only in Christ’s Word (Jn 8:31-32) and not presume
upon His silence as permissive (Heb 7:14, 1 Pet 4:11, Rev 22:18-19)! We must
remember “to not exceed what is written” (1 Cor 4:6) in our religious service to
God. The New Testament is a complete and perfect pattern for “life and
godliness” (2 Pet 1:3).
- W. Frank Walton (adapted)
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Ephesians 2:3 and the “Nature” of Man
In Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul wrote: “And you did he make alive, when ye were dead
through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that
now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in
the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
The Calvinistic doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity teaches that the phrase,
“by nature children of wrath,” refers to the sinful nature we inherit at birth as a
result of Adam’s sin. We are told that we enter the world totally enslaved by our
evil, inherited nature.
Paul is picturing man before conversion as being spiritually dead. However, the
question is: how does he get into that condition? Was he born that way, or is it
the result of the way he has chosen to live his life?
Much hinges on the meaning of the word “nature” in the text. The Greek word
used is PHUSIS, which can denote what a person is as a result of his birth, for
example Galatians 2:15, “We who are Jews by nature.” However, this is not the
only meaning of PHUSIS. Thayer’s lexicon also gives this definition: “a mode of
feeling and acting which by long habit has become nature.” It is interesting that
Thayer then gives Eph 2:3 (quite correctly) as an example of this usage.
Can we determined which of these senses Paul intended in Ephesians 2:3?
Consider the immediate context:
“ye were dead through YOUR trespasses and sins”
“wherein YE ONCE WALKED”
“we also all once LIVED in the lust of OUR flesh”
“DOING the desires of the flesh”
Clearly this is not something one inherits, but rather “a mode of acting which by
long habit has become nature.” It is not the sins of our parents, grandparents, or
anyone else, back to and including Adam, that can render us spiritually dead. As
Ezekiel 18:20 declares, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear
the iniquity of the father.”
– Leonard White
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream
always wins – not by strength, but by perseverance.
