Man Of Lawlessness
Stories
Object:
Contents
"Man of Lawlessness" by John Fitzgerald
"Argument from the impossible" by Frank Ramirez
Man of Lawlessness
by John Fitzgerald
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5,13-17
On the 11th day of 11 month in 1918 an Armistice (or cessation of hostilities) took place between nations fighting in World War I. Armistice day soon became a federal observance in the United States. This national witness received a name change to “Veterans Day” shortly before World War II. Veterans Day held annually on November 11 has been a time of remembering those who served America’s military.
This year (November 11) we think of all the men and women who have protected our country through time rendered in Armed Forces. This week take time to say “Hi” and thank a Veteran for liberties we enjoy. It is fitting that Election Day takes place on November 8th. We exercise the right to vote and select our government on account of many who have fought for this freedom.
Speaking of Election Day, there are countless citizens who are glad this dispiriting campaign has finally come to an end. Whatever the outcome in our Presidential election, our next President will face a divided and angry country. Scripture commands we pray for our elected leaders. Certainly, America and those taking on office after November 8th will need deep and fervent prayer.
One of the biblical images which speaks to our season is found in this morning’s scripture reading. St. Paul asserts that the “man of lawlessness” (verse 3) must appear before Christ returns to this earth. We live in an age when the rule of law is increasingly being flouted. Common courtesy and respect for our fellow citizens falls by the wayside. We wonder if what the Bible says about a coming man of lawlessness is taking place before our eyes.
The chaos and discord reflected in our 2016 election season causes us to think about what scripture tell us concerning a time when laws and reason no longer holds sway. We can’t help but consider the idea that Jesus may come again soon. Although, this thought stands by side with a scriptural injunction (Matthew 24:36) to remember that no one knows when Jesus shall return in power and glory.
For the past two thousand years, Christians have posed a notion that Christ will come again soon. The folks whom Apostle Paul addressed in his letter entitled, “2 Thessalonians” were convinced that Jesus would be coming very soon and bring human history to closure.
Some people in Thessalonica had misunderstood Paul’s teaching on the Second Coming of Christ. These believers had stopped working and were just waiting for Jesus. Paul writes our scripture to remind people of faith to continue in hard work and use their time wisely.
Verses 13-17 from our Bible passage list numerous qualities of those who are patiently waiting for Jesus to come again. These are attributes we need to adopt this morning. We are God’s “first fruits (verse 13), who “believe in the truth” (verse 13). Our job is to “stand firm in teachings passed on to us” (verse 15) For it is the Lord Jesus Christ who gives us “eternal encouragement and good hope” (verse 16). Taking hold of this scripture gives us hope in a day of trial and tribulation. We pray for our country and thank Veterans who have kept this nation land of the free and home of the brave."
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
* * *
Argument from the impossible
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 20:27-38
Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage...(Luke 20:34-35).”
Many of the ancient Greek philosophers survived the ravages of time only in fragments quoted in the works of other writers. Oftentimes these were ancient Christian writers, who quoted from ancient philosophers, poets, and playwrights to demonstrate the authors who non-Christians admired were actually pointing to the God of the Bible!
One was the ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon, who lived from 570 to 475 BC. He wandered from town to town, dispensing his own brand of satire and sarcasm!
One of his targets was the poet Homer, whose epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey were treated like scripture in the ancient world. The Iliad told a portion of the story of the Trojan War. Throughout the poem the gods of the Greeks behaved a lot like humans. They favored one side or another. They wounded each other, or in some occasions were wounded by human warriors. Zeus, the mightiest of them all, could be fooled by the other gods. At one point his wife Hera uses a little winky-pie and a little wiggly-wag to distract him.
The poems were venerated for centuries but Xenophanes insisted that the gods couldn’t be like humans. He theorized about a single God who was greater than all gods, and who did not think or act like a human.
Because we could not possibly imagine what this God is like, we would have to depend on this God, or the gods, to reveal themselves to human beings. We could not do this on our own.
People think the gods are just like them
And wear clothes, and speak, and act like them.
(translation by the author)
To disprove the idea of gods behaving like mortals, Xenophanes suggested his hearers imagine that cows and horses could write and draw just like humans. If they could, he said, no doubt they would write about gods that looked and acted like horses and cows.
Also if cows, horses, and lions had hands
Or could write by hand and complete works like people,
Horses, and cattle would
Create gods shaped with bodies like horses and cattle,
The same as theirs!
This is a passage that was quoted by the Christian writer Clement of Alexandria (150 - 215 AD) because he liked the ancient philosopher’s argument!
Xenophanes went on to say that people of various races insist that the gods are dark-skinned (if they themselves are darker), whereas if they are lighter in complexion they insist the gods are fair-haired like themselves.
The sort of argument used by Xenophanes to show that Homer has the gods wrong is called Reductio Ad Absurdem, which means reducing an argument to an absurdity to show it is false. In Greek the phrase used can be translated as, “argument from the impossible.”
This is the argumentative technique used by the Sadducees to discredit Jesus. They are trying to suggest there is no such thing as the resurrection from the dead by taking one of the Laws of Moses that sought to protect the property rights of a family by insisting that if a man died before his wife produced an heir, that wife was to bear children through the man’s brother. This was known as the Levirite duty. By creating a scenario in which the wife produced no children for seven brothers, who died one by one (suggesting to us that this was the fault of the brothers and not her own deficiency) they sought to disprove the resurrection of the dead by asking how she could be wife to all of them, and if only one of them, whose?
Jesus turns their argument on its head by insisting, first of all, that the assumption that the heavenly existence is the same in all respects as human existence is flawed! And that’s only the beginning of his argument.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, November 6, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Man of Lawlessness" by John Fitzgerald
"Argument from the impossible" by Frank Ramirez
Man of Lawlessness
by John Fitzgerald
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5,13-17
On the 11th day of 11 month in 1918 an Armistice (or cessation of hostilities) took place between nations fighting in World War I. Armistice day soon became a federal observance in the United States. This national witness received a name change to “Veterans Day” shortly before World War II. Veterans Day held annually on November 11 has been a time of remembering those who served America’s military.
This year (November 11) we think of all the men and women who have protected our country through time rendered in Armed Forces. This week take time to say “Hi” and thank a Veteran for liberties we enjoy. It is fitting that Election Day takes place on November 8th. We exercise the right to vote and select our government on account of many who have fought for this freedom.
Speaking of Election Day, there are countless citizens who are glad this dispiriting campaign has finally come to an end. Whatever the outcome in our Presidential election, our next President will face a divided and angry country. Scripture commands we pray for our elected leaders. Certainly, America and those taking on office after November 8th will need deep and fervent prayer.
One of the biblical images which speaks to our season is found in this morning’s scripture reading. St. Paul asserts that the “man of lawlessness” (verse 3) must appear before Christ returns to this earth. We live in an age when the rule of law is increasingly being flouted. Common courtesy and respect for our fellow citizens falls by the wayside. We wonder if what the Bible says about a coming man of lawlessness is taking place before our eyes.
The chaos and discord reflected in our 2016 election season causes us to think about what scripture tell us concerning a time when laws and reason no longer holds sway. We can’t help but consider the idea that Jesus may come again soon. Although, this thought stands by side with a scriptural injunction (Matthew 24:36) to remember that no one knows when Jesus shall return in power and glory.
For the past two thousand years, Christians have posed a notion that Christ will come again soon. The folks whom Apostle Paul addressed in his letter entitled, “2 Thessalonians” were convinced that Jesus would be coming very soon and bring human history to closure.
Some people in Thessalonica had misunderstood Paul’s teaching on the Second Coming of Christ. These believers had stopped working and were just waiting for Jesus. Paul writes our scripture to remind people of faith to continue in hard work and use their time wisely.
Verses 13-17 from our Bible passage list numerous qualities of those who are patiently waiting for Jesus to come again. These are attributes we need to adopt this morning. We are God’s “first fruits (verse 13), who “believe in the truth” (verse 13). Our job is to “stand firm in teachings passed on to us” (verse 15) For it is the Lord Jesus Christ who gives us “eternal encouragement and good hope” (verse 16). Taking hold of this scripture gives us hope in a day of trial and tribulation. We pray for our country and thank Veterans who have kept this nation land of the free and home of the brave."
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
* * *
Argument from the impossible
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 20:27-38
Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage...(Luke 20:34-35).”
Many of the ancient Greek philosophers survived the ravages of time only in fragments quoted in the works of other writers. Oftentimes these were ancient Christian writers, who quoted from ancient philosophers, poets, and playwrights to demonstrate the authors who non-Christians admired were actually pointing to the God of the Bible!
One was the ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon, who lived from 570 to 475 BC. He wandered from town to town, dispensing his own brand of satire and sarcasm!
One of his targets was the poet Homer, whose epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey were treated like scripture in the ancient world. The Iliad told a portion of the story of the Trojan War. Throughout the poem the gods of the Greeks behaved a lot like humans. They favored one side or another. They wounded each other, or in some occasions were wounded by human warriors. Zeus, the mightiest of them all, could be fooled by the other gods. At one point his wife Hera uses a little winky-pie and a little wiggly-wag to distract him.
The poems were venerated for centuries but Xenophanes insisted that the gods couldn’t be like humans. He theorized about a single God who was greater than all gods, and who did not think or act like a human.
Because we could not possibly imagine what this God is like, we would have to depend on this God, or the gods, to reveal themselves to human beings. We could not do this on our own.
People think the gods are just like them
And wear clothes, and speak, and act like them.
(translation by the author)
To disprove the idea of gods behaving like mortals, Xenophanes suggested his hearers imagine that cows and horses could write and draw just like humans. If they could, he said, no doubt they would write about gods that looked and acted like horses and cows.
Also if cows, horses, and lions had hands
Or could write by hand and complete works like people,
Horses, and cattle would
Create gods shaped with bodies like horses and cattle,
The same as theirs!
This is a passage that was quoted by the Christian writer Clement of Alexandria (150 - 215 AD) because he liked the ancient philosopher’s argument!
Xenophanes went on to say that people of various races insist that the gods are dark-skinned (if they themselves are darker), whereas if they are lighter in complexion they insist the gods are fair-haired like themselves.
The sort of argument used by Xenophanes to show that Homer has the gods wrong is called Reductio Ad Absurdem, which means reducing an argument to an absurdity to show it is false. In Greek the phrase used can be translated as, “argument from the impossible.”
This is the argumentative technique used by the Sadducees to discredit Jesus. They are trying to suggest there is no such thing as the resurrection from the dead by taking one of the Laws of Moses that sought to protect the property rights of a family by insisting that if a man died before his wife produced an heir, that wife was to bear children through the man’s brother. This was known as the Levirite duty. By creating a scenario in which the wife produced no children for seven brothers, who died one by one (suggesting to us that this was the fault of the brothers and not her own deficiency) they sought to disprove the resurrection of the dead by asking how she could be wife to all of them, and if only one of them, whose?
Jesus turns their argument on its head by insisting, first of all, that the assumption that the heavenly existence is the same in all respects as human existence is flawed! And that’s only the beginning of his argument.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, November 6, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
