Have you noticed there is something about reading the Bible in a new translation that allows you to see the Scriptures with new eyes? I’ve read and memorized from the NASB since I was 20. Sometimes over-familiarity with the words on the page works against gaining fresh insight.

Just the other day, with an open Bible in my lap, I was with a small group of believers talking about what God had been showing us in the Scriptures recently.

One person in the circle tossed out a good question about Romans 12:1-2. These are some of the most familiar verses in the New Testament. They can usually be found near the top of any list of verses a Christian should memorize. You know them, but here they are anyway:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

NASB

The question in our little circle concerned what it means to be a “living” sacrifice (verse one). There was some great discussion around that point, which naturally led us into verse two. The familier concept of transformation through the “renewing of the mind.”

Now here’s the “fresh eyes” part. This is what came flooding into my awareness as I pondered the meaning of these immensly important lines. . .

I grew up in a Christian/Religious tradition that taught me to be SIN conscious. (As opposed to being RIGHTEOUSNESS conscious. And by “righteousness conscious” I mean being deeply aware that through the miracle of the New Birth, I’d received the gift of Jesus’ own righteousness, both imputed and imparted to me. See Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21)

No, I was taught to constantly examine myself for sin, (and the enemy of my confidence before God made sure I always found a lot of it.) It’s an exhaustiing, shame-saturated, powerless, joyless way to try to live in God. And if I’m being frank, it is also deeply dishonoring to the enormous price the Father and Son paid to restore you and me back to connection to Father.

As I’ve stated countless times:

God did not send Jesus to us to restore us to good behavior. He sent Him to us to restore us to Himself. Progressively better behavior is simply an unavoidable effect of getting reconnected to Him.

Here’s the thing . . . when you’re sin conscious rather than righteousness conscious you read the whole Bible through that lens. You see condemnation on nearly every page. This is what I call reading the Bible at the “wrong tree.” (I’ll say more on that another time.)

And what hit me the other day was that–even after all these decades of absorbing the truth about the finished work of Jesus into my mind and spirit . . . I was STILL–from time to time–reading those two verses through that cruddy-old sin concious lens.

There’s a reason for that. All of my old “trigger” words are right there.

–> “bodies” (Most of the sin I grew up obsessing about involved my body and its appetites.)

–> “holy” (I grew up equating “holiness” with doing all of the “dos” and abstaining from all the “don’ts.”)

I remember seeing a poster on the wall of a children’s Sunday School classroom that read: “Holiness Is . . .” followed by a long list that included, “Not swearing. Not wearing makeup. Not going to movies. Not . . .” By the way, biblical holiness is simply: “Having been set apart by God for His plans and purposes and surrendering to playing your part in His plans and purposes. 

–> “acceptable to God” (When you’re sin conscious, you don’t feel at all “acceptable” to your heavenly Father. Quite the opposite. And when you believe you’re unacceptable, you don’t press into His presence. Quite the opposite. And so you avoid the one thing that will actually change your desires and behaviors from the inside out. Quite the opposite. In other words, believing you may not be “acceptable” to God–in flagrant contradiction to so many of the New Covenant scriptures, including Romans 8:15–is a presecription for a joyless, powerless, unfruitful, Christian existence.

–> “conformed to this world” (I grew up in church with the term “the world” meaning “the sinful, ungodly, obscene, profane pull of the secular culture.” That is certainly a piece of what Paul meant when he used the term “this world” {Greek: houtos aion) in saying “do not be conformed to this world.” But, as you’ll see in a moment, there is much more there.

–> “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Given all of the above, Sin-Conscious Me saw the word “transformed” in that sentence and assumed that the transformation that mind-renewal brought about was changing me from a guy who sinned a lot to a guy who hardly ever sinned. But here’s the problem, the deeper I got into the Christian life, the more “sins” I discovered. Sure there were all the outward, visible “biggies.” But once I had vanquished most of those, I discovered whole new categories of sins. Sins of the Mind. Sins of the Heart. And the real killer . . . Sins of Omission.

With that last one, it suddenly wasn’t just about the bad things I was avoiding. It was just as much about all the good things that I was failing to do consistently. No matter how much higher I managed to jump, the bar got ever higher and higher.

My sin-conscious interpretation of all of this set me up perfectly for the coup de grâce at the end of verse 2:

” . . . so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

When you read that with a sin-conscious heart, what you see is: Memorize more Bible verses so you will DO BETTER so YOU can be viewed as “good” and “acceptable” and “perfect.”

And I truly wanted to be “good.” And the deepest cry of my shame-bound heart was for my heavenly Father to find me “acceptable.” And for that to happen, I needed to be “perfect.” And I never, ever was.

So you can see, I always viewed Romans 12:1-2 as being about my behavior or lack of maturity. Perhaps you have, too. But in the light of New Covenant revelation, it’s clearly talking about much much more than that me abstaining from a long and ever-growing list of “don’ts.”

It’s talking about being transformed from the twisted, cursed, post-Fall image of Adam, and getting untwisted and restored into what God had originally designed. THAT is the transformation that mind renewal brings about.

You see, two things were broken in the Fall of Mankind. (1) Humanity, and (2) Creation. Both got “twisted” in Fall.

It is these two things; PLUS the fallen spiritual principalities and hierarchies that the Fall empowered; PLUS the systems that all of those things combine to produce on this planet . . . that Paul has in view when he refers to “this world.”

In other words, as new, born-again, recipients of the very righteousness of Jesus–the thing we’re not to be conformed to (that is, pressured by external forces into looking like) is that twisted, broken, fearful, ashamed, God-disconnected thing that Adam and Eve became in the wake of the Fall.

That means mind-renewal isn’t exclusively about (or even mainly about) doing less sinning. The transformation in view here is about getting un-twisted and restored into what God had originally designed. And that original design was a person who had intimate connection and communion with Him, and who would partner with Him in carrying out His glorious plans for this planet.

THAT, dear one, is the transformation that mind renewal brings about.

Oh, and sure, when you have intimate connection and communion with God . . . your desires and habits begin to change from the inside out. This makes Romans 12:1-2 “good news.” This kind of mind renewal involves absorbing deeply intor your identity the truth of this verse:

And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough . But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!”

Romans 8:15 (The Passion Translation)

Yes, I love The Passion Translation’s rendering of that glorious verse. As it happens, the open Bible on my lap that recent night was The Passion Translation, (with my tattered, 45-year-old NASB sitting within reach) as we were discussing Romans 12:1-2. Here are those two verses in the always lovely and illuminating TPT:

Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes. (Romans 12:1-2 TPT)

That’s Brian Simmons lovely beautiful take on the original Greek of those two verses. Now here is the Authorized Dave Amplified Paraphrase:

V. 1: I’m pleading with you brothers and sisters in Christ, in the light of God’s inexhuastible mercies, completely abandon your whole self to the will and ways of God. I promise you, God will accept the offering of your life, because He has chosen you and set you apart for His grand plans and purposes. Doing so is the most beautiful and natural form of authentic worship.

V. 2: Don’t let the old, fallen, broken systems that remain try to squeeze you into a shape that no longer belongs to you. Instead, be naturally and progressively transformed into who you already truly are. How? By mentally and wholeheartedly adopting and embracing the truth about yourself. In doing so, you will become a visible demonstration to a watching world of God’s good and desired and perfect will for humanity.

The Five Disastrous Effects of Dispensationalism on the Church

1. By pushing the kingdom of Christ into the future, it robbed the Church of the motivation to push back darkness and transform cultures; and robbed the Church of any expectation of victory or lasting progress in this era.

2. By pushing the kingdom of Christ into the future, it, by default, left the Church with the assumption that Satan was still legitimately authoritative in this world, and will not be stripped of his authority until the physical return of Jesus. (This, in direct contradiction of Eph. 1:20-23; Eph. 2:1-2; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14-15;  and 1 John 3:8.)

3. By effectively (if not explicitly) maintaining a separate covenant status for ethnic and national Israel, it demotivated and even delegitimized sharing the gospel with Jewish people (something that would have surely caused the Apostle Paul’s head to explode.)

4. By elevating national and or ethnic Israel to the centerpiece of God’s redemptive plan for Earth it, by extension, demotes the Church to a sidenote or secondary (parenthetical) position. This in spite of the clear New Testament witness that the Church (comprised of believing Jews and believing Gentiles) was always God’s endgame in His redemptive plan. 

5. By creating an imminent secret rapture, it has robbed multiple generations of Christians of the ability to think generationally. And short-term, short-time-horizon thinking invariably produces bad decisions. 

IS militants killed at least 20 Christian worshippers at St. Elias church in Damascus this morning. This thing that Islam has metastasized into in the last 80 years is the principle enemy of Christ in the world today.

https://www.dw.com/en/syria-deadly-blast-hits-church-in-damascus/a-73000565

Also, please see the two updates I added to the end of the post below.

And this: “As Christians are Slaughtered the World Looks Away”

TL;DR–I don’t support Israel for theological reasons. I support Israel for civilizational reasons. If you look at Israel’s conflict with Iran and its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis) and decide Israel is the bad guy, it’s possible you’ve been drinking from some dark wells.

Here’s a fundamental premise behind everything you’re about to read: Christians have a biblical and spiritual obligation to care about what happens to their brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter where they live on this planet. Okay, let’s go:

I’ve gotten a few questions from friends and relatives about Israel’s war with Iran–and whether the U.S. should involve itself. Coincidentally, around the same time I saw this headline and article on the Roys Report.

Hundreds of Christians Massacred in Killing Spree in Nigeria

Yes, another day, another slaughter of Christians by Muslim extremists in some corner of the world.

By the way, if you don’t follow organizations like Voice of the Martyrs or International Christian Concern you’re not likely to ever hear about these massacres. They’re just not “news.” (Dog bites man.) And when these atrocities do make the news, often the the fact that the perpetrators are Islamists is buried or filtered altogether. (It is a twisted form of political correctness that keeps many legacy news agencies and “journalists” from reporting the jihadist origins of the carnage.

For example, in the Roys Report, you have to read down to the 22nd paragraph of the article to encounter the word “Muslim” or “Islam.” But to the editors’ credit, we do learn in paragraph five that the killers were shouting “Allahu Akbar” allowing the reader to reach the accurate conclusion. In Nigeria, as in countless other places around the planet, if Christians are being slaughtered, it’s Muslim extremists doing the slaughtering. (With a few Hindu incidents sprinkled in.)

Here is just a little sampler platter of events that have occurred over the last 12 months:

1. Massacre in Yelwata, Benue State, Nigeria – 13–14 June 2025

• Fulani jihadists attacked a displaced‑persons center run by a Catholic mission, killing between 100 and 200 Christians—estimates vary slightly—by shooting and burning victims.

2. Kasanga Massacre, DRC – 12 February 2025

• The Allied Democratic Forces (Islamist ADF-ISI) abducted approximately 70 Christian civilians in North Kivu, DR Congo. They were beheaded inside a Protestant church in Kasanga. Bodies were found on 14 February.

3. Essakane Church Massacre, Burkina Faso – 25 February 2024

• Jihadists from Islamic State–Sahel Province invaded a Catholic church during Mass and killed 15 congregants.

4. Istanbul Church Shooting, Turkey – 28 January 2024

• Two masked Islamic State gunmen opened fire at the Church of Santa Maria in Istanbul, killing one person and injuring another. 

5. Tarmuwa Massacre, Nigeria – 3 September 2024

• Around 130 villagers—likely Christian farmers and worshippers—were killed by Boko Haram/IS-aligned militants in Mafa, Yobe State en.wikipedia.org+11en.wikipedia.org+11cruxnow.com+11.

Note that last item. You don’t hear the names IS, ISIS or ISIL much anymore, not because the groups don’t exist a but becuase they’ve been rebranded. And dozens of offshoots and imitators of the groups are still very much operating across the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Boko Haram and its splinter groups in Nigeria come immediatelly to mind.

If you follow Christian persecution news sources on social media you discover that hardly a week goes by without a horrific incident that goes unreported and therefore unlamented by the wider world.

Why is this relevant to the current debate about Israel and Iran? Well, as I told a friend who recently texted me for my thoughts about the Tucker Carlson – Ted Cruz debate about the issue:

“The Iranian people are amazing, and if they weren’t suffering under the heel of a death-cult they would be one of the most advanced and prosperous nations on the planet. Some of those long-suffering Persian people are Christians.”

That would be bad enough. But Iran has also been funding and arming brutal Islamic extremist groups all over the world. This is where the issue overlaps Israel.

For decades the Iranians have been funding and arming Hamas in Palestinian areas like Gaza; Hezbollah in Lebanon; and the Houthis in Yemen. Not to mention four different terrorist orgs in Iraq and a couple in Syria.

Not many are old enough to remember how the Carter administration failed to support the secular, modernist monarch in Iran in 1978-’79–the Shah–and allowed the radical Islamists led by the Ayatollah Khomeini–to take control. 

What is clear, but what Mr. Carter and lot of human rights idealists/purists in the West didn’t seem to understand, is that in Muslim majority nations, there are only two choices:

1. A secular dictatorship (or monarchy) that does hard, oppressive things to keep the Islamic extremists under control. (See: Egypt and, until recently, Turkey)
2. A theocratic dictatorship (or monarchy) that does even harder, even more oppressive things to its people to enforce strict compliance with sharia law. (See Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, et. al.)

There is no third option. The idea that an Islamic majority nation will use democratic processes to create some sort of just and decent society is a fantasy. A delusion. A delusion George W. Bush and many other leaders seem to have entertained.

The oppression of the Iranian people, and all of the death, oppression and slaughter the Mullahs have sponsored over the last 40+ years is, in part, on Jimmy Carter and his naive, idealistic sensibilities. Of course, Shiite Iran is only one half of the Islamic equation in the world.

You can’t understand Middle East geopolitics without understanding the ancient regional conflict betwen the two main strains of Islam–Shiite and Sunni. The split in Islam goes all the way back to the seventh century. Imagine that the blood-soaked split between Protestants and Catholics happened immediately after the resurrection of Christ and you’ll get the general idea.

Everything in the Middle East since the end of World War II has been about the conflict between Sunni Islam (with Saudi Arabia at the head) and Shiite Islam (with Iran at the head). Initially, both sides were all about destroying Israel. Why?:

Because since 1948, Israel has been an island of Western modernity in a sea of medieval Islamic barbarism. THIS is why it has been intolerable to the Islamist, global caliphate mindset.

In other words. Israel is offensive to the Islamists not because it is Jewish but because it is Western.

And there are many Progressives in the U.S. who also despise Western Civilization. (Which, by the way, is “Christian Civilization.” And they despise it, whether they know it or not, precisely because it is Christian. Many Progressives are unaware of the “anti-Christ” spiritual roots of their Progressivism.)

If you are so extraordinarily blessed as to be living in a Western democracy; AND you’ve imbibed deeply of the toxic, anti-Western Civilization, anti-Colonial, 1619 Project-y, Howard Zinn-ian narrative of pale evil European oppressing of people of color . . . then the Israel-Palestinian thing overlays perfectly–in spite of a mountain of stubborn facts to the contrary.

Again, the hatred for Israel is rooted in hatred for the West. And a lot of people in the West hate their own culture . . . the culture that has elevated and advanced everything they claim to value.

No, Christians don’t have total liberty in Israel. But they have far, far more than believers do in Islamic nations. The same is true of Muslims. Arabic/Muslim people in Israel vote, have representatives in the Knesset, and enjoy a culture that is the envy of most of the developing world.

Now back to Iran . . .

Iran–with Russian and China–represents an axis of real-deal evil in this world at this moment. There is no regime in this world so evil or despiciable that Russia and China won’t support it and arm it. In fact, they’re attracted to it. And both are supporting Iran.

And Iran’s relentless quest to obtain nuclear weapons makes it the principal threat to stability and order and modernity in the world. And the biggest threat to Christians in the world.

Israel is doing the dirty work that the U.S. and other Western nations simply don’t have the “huevos” to do. And it’s doing it from a survival motivation. Iran with nuclear weapons is an existential threat to Israel. But it is also a threat to the U.S. and the rest of the civilized world.

All of which is why the best and the brightest in Iran are quietly rooting for Israel and the West in this conflict. They long for the days in which Iran’s great minds can join the progress and blessings of the modern world. And the worst and the dumbest are rooting against Israel and the West.

If you’re rooting against Israel, you’re rooting against humanity, equality, progress, freedom, and civilization. And if you’re rooting for Iran, you’re rooting for the continued oppression of Christians. It’s as simple as that.

Summary:

From a kingdom (enemies of Christ) standpoint, the Iranian regime has to fall. So does the Putin regime in Russia and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China. The spiritual entities animating these natural entities are all enemies of Christ and in accordance with Psalms 110:1, Hebrews 10:12-13 and 1 Corinthians 15:24-25; they must collapse because they oppress the people of God in the world.

If that is the case, and it is, then the U.S. and Israel are right and good in removing the mullahs of Iran from power.

Again, the spiritual enemies of Christ don’t hate Israel becuse the nation is Jewish, but because it is Western. Just after 9/11 many people rightly recommended reading Samual Huntington’s book Clash of Civilizations. I did. And it explains why it makes sense to support Israel in it fight for survival against Iran.

As Huntington pointed out, there is a thing that can be called “Islamic Civilization.” It is rooted in something very dark and very much counter to human flourishing. (btw, God is for human flourishing.) We here in America live in the flawed but highest expression of Christian Civilization (which is also why it contains History’s greatest level of human flourishing.) This will seem harsh, but if you think Israel is the probem, you have imbibed too deeply of the spirit of anti-Christ.

UPDATE:

Within a few hours of my posting this piece, we learned that the U.S. had surgically struck Iran’s capacity to develop nuclear weapons. The world is safer because this happened. Ultimately, the best possible outcome is that the people of Iran rise up and liberate themselves from the theocratic Islamic death cult that has ruled them since the late ’70s.

Here is the straightfoward calculus . . . did last night’s strike make it more likely or less likely that Iran’s long-suffering Christians will see better days ahead. Time will tell. But if the answer turns out to be “more likely” then, in my view, it was an objectively good thing.

UPDATE 2:

As with most of the divisive issues of our times, my position on Israel is complicated and nuanced. And as with most such issues, I don’t have a large “tribe” online. But this post should make clear what I told a friend in a private email: “I wish my fellow believers in America cared at least one-tenth as much about the persecuted Church as they’ve been taught to care about Israel.” It’s possible to think that and still believe support for Israel is the right thing. That’s what I’m trying to communicate in this post.

I can’t believe it’s been nearly 28 years since I picked up a book by Duke Robinson titled: Good Intentions: The Nine Unconscious Mistakes of Nice People.

I read it and benefited from it. A lot. And so I pulled it out about once a year for several years after that. I kept reading it until I felt I’d really absorbed and activated the good advice it contains.

This week I found myself looking for that particular book among my shelves. Not only do I need a refresher course on living life as a chronically nice person, I have a few loved ones that could probably use it as well.

Sadly, somewhere in the decades since then, it must not have survived the cut amid one of my periodic cullings of the book collection. There are only so many bookshelves in the house my gifted interior decorator wife will tolerate. (True story: I once donated eleven boxes of books to a women’s prison. And that was after just one “cull.”)

Don’t get me wrong. I love being a nice person. I have every intention of remaining one. Frankly I don’t think I have much choice. I’m hard-wired for niceness. And on top of that, there’s that whole Fruit of the Spirit thing that we Christians have going on if we cooperate with Him. Organically bearing the fruit of love, kindess, gentleness, patience, and the others just tends to pile niceness on top of niceness.

Besides, there are already too many “not nice” people in world. And as some wise, ancient philospher and bumper-sticker-maker once observed:

“Mean people suck.”

No, all I wanted was to stop making those “unconscious mistakes” that we nice people are so prone to making. And when I read the book, I saw that I was consistently guilty of making five or six of the nine.

So . . . what are those nine “unconscious mistakes” you’re surely wondering. Well since the book has been out of print for a couple of decades, I suppose I’m on solid ground giving you a summary of them. Behold . . .

Duke Robinson’s Nine Unconscious Mistakes of Nice People:

1. Trying to Be Perfect: An incessant drive for flawlessness that leads to burnout and dissatisfaction.
2. Taking on Too Much: Overcommitting to responsibilities, often at the expense of one’s own well-being.
3. Not Saying What They Want: Suppressing personal desires to avoid conflict or displeasing others.
4. Suppressing Anger: Avoiding the expression of anger, which can result in internal resentment.
5. Reasoning with Irrationality: Attempting to use logic with unreasonable individuals, leading to frustration.
6. Telling Little Lies: Using minor falsehoods to maintain harmony, which can erode trust over time.
7. Giving Unwanted Advice: Offering guidance without solicitation, potentially undermining others’ autonomy.
8. Rescuing Others: Intervening to help others avoid consequences, which may hinder their personal growth.
9. Protecting Those in Grief: Shielding grieving individuals from pain, possibly impeding their healing process.

It’s possible that the word “boundaries” comes up a time or two in his book. In fact, what most of us chronically nice people need desperately are the two “Bs” . . . Boundaries and a Backbone.

None of the advice or techniques for correcting these mistakes requires becoming a jerk or even being perceived as one (a nice person’s worst fear.) But it does require some self-awareness and a willingness to say what you want, calmly express what you felt, and, occasionally, kindly but firmly telling people you love, “no.”

When we fail life’s “boundaries and backbone” tests, we end up silently resenting others and then feeling guilty about feeling the resentment. And then can resent the other person even more for causing us to to feel that yucky guilt. That’s not fair to anyone. No one, and least no one decent and worth your precious time, wants to be resented. We actually do them and ourselves a dissevervice when we make that common nice-person mistake.

Like I said, I’m due for a refresher course. Now off to the used book sites to find a copy.

This aired on TBN’s Praise program a few nights ago. It’s now available on TBN’s streaming platform. Access if free but you will need to surrender your email address by registering at TBNplus.com to view it. The episode is here:

https://www.tbnplus.com/c/s/sMW1pnGB?episodeId=w2lFbw3K&play=1

My friend Dudley Hall graciously invited me to his podcast to disucss a variety of subjects. In this episode, we tackle AI and the “The Singularity” in the light of what the Bible says about the King and His Kingdom. Have a look!

Also see this post: “Are you Ready to Be Disrupted?“

Did it matter how the Savior of the world died? Did it have to be on a cross?

After all, Jesus was accused by the religious establishment of heresy. And heretics were, in accordance with Levitical law, stoned. In fact, the words of Jesus had, on numerous ocassions, prompted the listening scribes and Pharisees to pick up stones. And the fledgling Church’s very first martyr, Stephen, was stoned by an enraged mob for speaking what they believed were heresies—even as a Sanhedrin “enforcer” from Tarsus named Saul looked on approvingly. Why wasn’t Jesus stoned?

Or why not a priestly knife?

After all, Jesus, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” was the living fulfillment of all the types and shadows embodied by the Passover lamb. The thousands of Passover lambs being sacrificed over on the Temple mount the day Jesus was cruciified died by the knife of a Levitical priest. Had Jesus similarly been run through with a Roman sword, or stabbed with a rogue Levite’s knife, would His shed blood have been just as effective in washing away Sin?

As Father Richard John Neuhaus once admitted, our questions about the crucifixion and the cross are only “probings into mystery.” But the Bible gives us clues and insights into this—the greatest and most consequential of all mysteries. 

First, the Word of God makes it clear that the shedding of the Messiah’s innocent blood was a vital aspect of His sacrifice. And the Roman process of crucifixion was an appallingly bloody affair. As the writer of Hebrews declares, “without the shedding of blood there is no remission” of sin (9:22).  On the eve of His death, Jesus Himself pointed to a cup of wine and said, “… for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:28)

Yes, the role of Jesus’ shed blood cannot be over-emphasized. However, the mission of Jesus was wider and deepr than just solving the Sin-guilt problem. The New Covenant scriptures make it clear that He left Heaven’s splendor and became the Second and Final “Adam” in order to roll back the Curse that descended upon all mankind, indeed upon Creation itself, when the First Adam fell. 

And here’s the thing . . . 

That fall happened at a tree—the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And for reasons we may not fully understand this side of eternity, there is something significant about a death on a tree that points back to that Fall and the resultant Curse. In Deuteronomy 21:22-23 we find:

And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.

The Jews of Jesus day were very attuned to the implications of this passage. They viewed crucifixion as the worst fate that could befall any Jew. Such a person was under a curse and irredeemable. But it was the Apostle Paul who, by divine inspiration and revelation, grasped the full curse-repealing implications of death on a tree. He had those implications in mind when he penned Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

Yes, the shedding of that blood—a blood utterly untouched by the stain of sin—was essential to bring about a redemption that could pass legal muster in the Court of Heaven. But a sacrificial death that would once-and-for-all-time roll back the curse . . . ALSO had to be a death on a tree. But that’s not all.

There had to be thorns at that tree because thorns were a God-declared outcome of of that curse’s unfolding. (Gen. 3:18) And it had to be a naked and shameful death because the very first indicator that Adam and Eve had severed their life-sustaining connection to God was their shame-filled realization of their nakedness. 

There was no other possible death for that “Seed” promised to Eve. The One whose heel the serpent would bruise. The One who, in His victory over Death, would crush the head of that Serpent of old and make all things new.

Oh, yes. it had to be a cross.

For more video inspiration, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DavidAHolland

Over the last several years, in Christian circles, we’ve seen a movement to turn the term “prosperity” into a swear word.

“Prosperity Gospel” has become a label designed to shut down debate and instantly signal to “right-thinking” people that a minister, church, or ministry is “evil and worthy of contempt.”

We’ve seen something very similar happen in the last few years in the secular culture with terms like “sexist,” “racist,” “white supremecist,” and “anti-Semite.” Those words used to mean something very specific and very detestable. Which is precisely why those words have been deployed by certain groups recently as clubs with which to beat ideological opponents into silence or submission.

As I’ve said multiple times on social media over the last ten years . . . it’s a tragedy that these words are being used and abused and stretched into meaninglessness. Why? Because we need these words and terms. There are real people out there with real beliefs that these words describe. Which is why the people who use these words indiscrimiately to cow and delegitimize others do us all a great disservice by diluting their meaning. Because . . .

If a word can man anything then it really means nothing.

Something similar has been taking place recently in Christian circles where the term “prosperity gospel” is concerned. Stay with me here. It’s unfortunate that the term prosperity (which is a very biblical word) has become something that Bible teachers are reluctant to use, out of fear of being attacked.

I’ve felt it. I’ve starting subsituting words like flourishing, thriving, provision, and blessing simply to avoid being misunderstood or triggering a knee-jerk reaction in people.

Sure. Just as there are real-deal racists in the world (but a lot fewer of them than there used to be), there are preachers and teachers in the world who sometimes describe following Jesus pretty much the way some multilevel marketing opportunities are pitched. Sort of the same way Napoleon Dynamite advised Pedro to appeal to voters at their high school: “Vote for me and your wildest dreams will come true.”

Admittedly, back in the ’80s there were some media preacher characters who, unfortunately, gave the faith and the Bible’s promises of provision and protection a black eye. We all know their names. The term “televangelist” was coined and quickly became a perjorative. (Although the term strictly means someone who attempts to evangelize through television. The nerve!)

Then the Internet came along. Suddenly everyone became a political pundit–opining on the news of the day. Anyone could be a news source. And anyone with some pet doctrines and denominational axes to grind could become a self-appointed heresy hunter and anoint themselves as God’s theological beat cop–patrolling the Internet and the airwaves for violators to call out and condemn.

Along the way, one side of the long-standing Charismatic vs. Non-Charismatic (and Anti-Charismatic) divide in the Evangelical world started using their platforms to score points against the other side using “prosperity” preaching as the club. In the process, the term began to be stretched wider and wider to tar more and more of the other side.

Based on my extensive reading, here are some things that now, to some, constitute teaching a “prosperity gospel”:

• Believing and teaching that God still heals today just as He did in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the book of Acts.
• Believing and teaching that God still does miracles today.
• Believing and teaching that if you do things God’s way you’ll generally enjoy a better life than if you do things the opposite of God’s way.
• Believing that God will be faithful to provide for your every need and desires to increase you as you demonstrate faithful stewardship over what has been entrusted to you.
• Believing and teaching that God is good and loves to bless His children.
• Believing and teaching Jesus’ declaration that His disciples will do the works He did, and even greater works.
• And, of course, taking 2 Corinthians 9:6-13 and Luke 6:38 seriously. 

As I stated above, it seems to me the terms “prosperity” and “prosperity gospel” are being used and abused and stretched by some to simply tar believers whose interpretations of the Scriptures they don’t like. That’s unfortunate.

And it’s why increasingly–when I see it weaponized in that way–I tend to discount and be skeptical about whatever follows.

As for me and my house, we know God is good and kind. We know that He loves to bless. And that He sent His only begotten Son to progressively undo all of the horrific things the curse unleashed upon humanity and the earth. And that the advance of His Kingdom invariably results in human flourishing.

And we will continue to believe it and proclaim it, no matter who it bothers.

What delight comes to the one who follows God’s ways! He won’t walk in step with the wicked, nor share the sinner’s way, nor be found sitting in the scorner’s seat. His passion is to remain true to the Word of “I AM,” meditating day and night on the true revelation of light. He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God’s design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of life. He is never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.

Psalms 1:1-3 (TPT)