{"id":25478,"date":"2025-07-09T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T12:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25478"},"modified":"2025-07-09T08:49:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T12:49:38","slug":"25478","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25478","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Be Thou My Vision (Official Music Video) - Keith &amp; Kristyn Getty\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WZBOSfiH8Rk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When God Changes the Rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Theologian Bruce Epperly sympathizes with Jonah\u2019s reluctance to become a prophet to the Assyrians<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What would you do if God asked you to challenge everything you thought was true? What if God told you to turn your back on the religious values you learned in church and in the Bible?&#8230;. Worse yet, what if God changed God\u2019s mind to expand the circle of grace to include our nation\u2019s worst enemies\u2026?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, what if the God you believed in \u2026 changed the rules of the faith, threw out the spiritual guidebook that shaped your life, and commanded you to adopt a different, and unprecedented, approach to life? Would you follow God\u2019s new directions, stay put, or run away from this rule-changing God?&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past few decades, committed Christians have struggled with theologically radical ways of reconceiving marriage and divorce, equal rights, war and peace, the insights of other religions, homosexuality and marriage equality, and the nature of mission in light of changing understandings of God\u2019s vision for our world. If God is still speaking, then God can surprise us with new insights for changing times.<strong> Like Jonah, we must decide how we will respond to a god whose ways are different than we imagined.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Epperly invites us to consider how God is calling us to move beyond fear of the other:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a world in which politicians fan the flames of fear and anger, Jonah presents a provocative possibility: <strong>What if God loves our enemies as much as God loves our friends<\/strong>? What if God\u2019s revelation comes to outsiders as well as persons from our own faith tradition?&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are all tempted to create a God of our own making, who will uphold the status quo and baptize our values as God\u2019s definitive word. When God challenges our way of life and the religious and cultural values we hold dear, we are tempted to run away in search of a new god\u2014a god of our own making\u2014who will support our privileges and prejudices and lead us into battle against our foes. In contrast to nationalist and parochial images of God, the Book of Jonah portrays a different vision of God: God, the iconoclast; God, the lover of our enemies; and God, who cares for non-humans with the same devotion as God cares for humankind. <strong>Constantly doing a new thing, God calls us to be innovative and iconoclastic as we embrace new understandings of God\u2019s vision for humankind and the worl<\/strong>d\u2026.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Jonah] believes that God changed God\u2019s mind, and he doesn\u2019t know which way to go. His running away is a running from a new, more universal and loving, vision of God\u2026.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jonah asks us what it means to follow God\u2019s way in a world of terrorism, xenophobia (fear of strangers), and fear-based politics. God calls us toward world-changing discipleship in our time. <strong>Will we run away from God\u2019s vision or follow God\u2019s call to embrace otherness, with all our ambivalence and anxiety, or will we baptize our prejudice and hatred in the waters of religious faith?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Jesus Has Prepared a Place for You\u2026Through the Cross<\/span><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\">Yesterday, we saw how the popular view of heavenly mansions along streets of gold misses the true intent of Jesus\u2019 words to his disciples on the night of his arrest. His concern was to comfort them with the assurance of their place with him and his Father forever. If that\u2019s the case, however, why does Jesus say, \u201cI go to prepare a place for you\u201d (John 14:2)? It certainly sounds like he has work to do building palaces in some distant heavenly realm. While that imagery might spark the imaginations of children in Sunday school and appeal to the cultural materialism of religious consumers, it\u2019s not what Jesus had in mind.<br>         Still, this Jesus-as-heaven\u2019s-homebuilder view remains popular in large part because it conforms nicely to a view of the future held by many contemporary Christians. Sometimes called the <strong>\u201cevacuation theory,\u201d<\/strong> it teaches that the earth is destined for destruction, but Jesus is going to rescue us off this sinking ship just in time and resettle us safely in a shiny new place he\u2019s currently working on. This eschatology\u2014or theology of last things\u2014is why some Christians dismiss efforts to reform this world, and why they focus their faith and imaginations on heaven. That is, after all, where they plan to spend eternity and the place they think Jesus&nbsp;<em>really<\/em>&nbsp;cares about.<br>          There are many errors with this theology, but let me highlight just two.First, this view <strong>incorrectly believes Jesus is focused on preparing a new world rather than ruling over this one.<\/strong> This contradicts the central message of the gospel. Jesus has not surrendered this world to false kings and illegitimate rulers so that he can build and rule over a new one, nor is God\u2019s mission to discard the first creation as a mistake so he can reign in the next one. <br>        On this point, Scripture could not be more clear\u2014we do not worship a God who&nbsp;<em>replaces<\/em>&nbsp;but a God who&nbsp;<em>redeems<\/em>. The New Testament declares Jesus to be Lord over&nbsp;<em>this<\/em> creation and that he is even now ruling over the world at the right hand of the Father as he works to redeem all things (see 1 Corinthians 15:24ff). And the day is approaching when all of creation and everyone in it will acknowledge his true identity as Lord.<br>        Second, pop Christianity\u2019s view of Jesus as heaven\u2019s contractor and urban planner misses the point of his farewell discourse altogether. <strong>When Jesus speaks in John\u2019s gospel of leaving his disciples, returning to his Father, being lifted up, or being glorified, these are all ways of speaking about the same event\u2014his death and resurrection.<\/strong> So, when he tells his disciples \u201cI go to prepare a place for you,\u201d it does not mean that&nbsp;<em>after<\/em>&nbsp;he leaves via the cross he\u2019ll begin his next project of preparing a place for them. Rather, Jesus is saying that <strong>his departure via the cross is precisely&nbsp;<em>how<\/em>&nbsp;he will prepare a place for them. <\/strong>Jesus\u2019 leaving and his preparing are not&nbsp;<em>sequential<\/em>&nbsp;(leave first and then prepare a place), but rather&nbsp;<em>simultaneous<\/em>&nbsp;(leaving and preparing a place happen at the same time). In other words, through Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection he will prepare a place for them in God\u2019s house; to dwell forever in God\u2019s presence.<br>       So many of us are quick to jump over the cross and focus our faith entirely on heaven. Our <strong>cultural bias is to emphasize the glory and diminish the agony, to declare victory rather than carry the cross.<\/strong> To escape this world to find comfort in the next one. That instinct also causes us to misread Jesus\u2019 final words to his followers. We think he\u2019s talking about a heavenly construction project when in truth he was pointing them, and us, to the far greater work he accomplished through his death and resurrection. Like the gospels themselves, <strong>our faith would be far stronger if we spent less time contemplating heaven and far more time contemplating the cross.<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When God Changes the Rules Theologian Bruce Epperly sympathizes with Jonah\u2019s reluctance to become a prophet to the Assyrians.&nbsp;&nbsp; What would you do if God asked you to challenge everything you thought was true? What if God told you to turn your back on the religious values you learned in church and in the Bible?&#8230;. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25478"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25482,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25478\/revisions\/25482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}