Lenten Devotional (9) and an Open Letter to Gary Demar Concerning the Second Coming of our Lord
The God Who Intrudes
Sometimes we are tempted to view God as distant; uninterested, perhaps, in human affairs. Does God care about my life and labor? Does he look upon the mundane things of my existence?
The Bible portrays a God who treasures intrusion–who deeply cares about our affairs.
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (Phil. 2:13)
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? (Matthew 6:30)
God could never be a deist. He is too involved to let his human project go. He is too personal to refuse to engage his own creation. He made them fearfully and wonderfully (Ps. 139:14) to give up on his treasured possession. As Peter Leithart observes: “God doesn’t let us be the way we would like to be.”
We should pray that God would send his saints to intrude in our stubbornness and selfishness, someone who will be used as an instrument of God to change our comfort with complacency. We should pray that God uses our spouse or even our own children to show us a better way–the way of faith. God’s instruments of intrusion are all around us. Will we listen? Do we have ears to hear?
Lent reminds us that God does not want us to get away with sin, but he intrudes through people and his means of grace to ensure that his saints live Coram Deo, before his face. At the cross, Jesus intruded into the world’s status quo and changed her reality forever. He gave himself so that death would no longer have the last word.
Blessed be the Lord’s intrusion!
In these remaining thirty-two days, may our hearts desire the intrusion of God conforming us to the image of his Son.
Prayer: O blessed Lord, we thank you for comforting us in our grief and causing us discomfort in our sins. Continue to rule our hearts and interfere in the ways of our flesh through Christ our Lord, amen.
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Notations:
*While I have had little interest in investing in controversies lately, a man that I deeply admire has moved to a theological place of great concern to me. To say I love Gary Demar is an understatement. In fact, I was just at Gary’s home with a friend some months ago, and we spent a good part of the day together.
Gary is fascinating, and our paths have crossed numerous times over the last 20 years. I have cherished every moment with him. I have published for American Vision, and he has returned the favor by publishing at Kuyperian. His political and cinematic knowledge is far beyond most humans I have encountered.
Therefore, the idea of adding my name to an open letter of concern to Gary is frustrating and, honestly, quite painful. But I had no other option. It’s precisely because of his kindness, brilliance, and friendship that I felt it necessary to add my name to this letter.
A quick look at the signatories will indicate that these men are not ambulance chasers or discernment bloggers staying up ‘til 2 am looking for trouble to fix. No, these men are godly and theologically faithful. Some of them come from the full-preterist world and have seen deeply the darkness of forsaking the doctrine of the bodily, future, Second Coming of Jesus.
The Second Coming of Jesus is the sure hope and foundation for all the saints (II Tim. 4:8; Titus 2:13). It has been affirmed by every historical council and confessions of both Reformed and non-Reformed traditions. The rejection of such doctrine would have been anathema throughout history, and it naturally impacts every other major doctrine of the faith. Eschatology is fundamental to our epistemology.
Indeed, if the seed of the woman merely offers a spiritual victory over the seed of the serpent, then Christ’s conquer can be relegated to abstraction. But if redemptive history functions incrementally like a seed (Matt. 13:24) planted and grown, offering both spiritual and physical victory in time and space, then eschatology looks to an ultimate restoration of all things spiritual and physical. Without such a vision, then death is philosophized and belongs in the realm of the ethereal.
But Christ has conquered death (I Cor. 15:24-26), and its defeat is displayed in time and history (Rev. 20). Satan awaits his defeat as Christ sets up a kingdom that shall never be defeated. At the end of history, Satan will be released to experience his final humiliation, and all things will be made new.
We offer this letter to Gary Demar with the hope that he will find refuge in the historical truth of the Christian faith, but much more so in the reality of redemptive history, which begins with a promise and ends with a cosmic, physical fulfillment in the new creation.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 56, Be Gracious Unto Me O God
