Month: August 2022

Sunday School: King Hezekiah Celebrates Passover

Encore Post: Every year, Jewish people celebrate Passover. This festival remembers the time when God freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea to safety. It remembers the night when God commanded their ancestors to sacrifice a lamb, place its blood on their doorposts, roast and eat the lamb with unleavened bread and prepare to leave Egypt. That evening, God sent the Angel of Death through the land to kill the firstborn son of every Egyptian from the Pharaoh to the lowest slave. When the Angel saw the blood on a doorpost, he passed over the home.

When the father of King Hezekiah died and he became king of Judah, he resolved to restore the worship of God according to the traditions of his ancestors David and Solomon. (2 Chronicles 29-30) His father had neglected the worship of God and allowed the people to worship the gods of other nations. King Hezekiah ordered the priests and Levites to perform the rituals commanded by Moses to make themselves holy, to cleanse the temple and make it holy according to the rules set down by Moses, Solomon and David. He ordered a large scale sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people and restore regular prayers and sacrifices there. Because the priests were caught by surprise by this, not enough of them were ready.

Eager to celebrate Passover again, Hezekiah and the people decided to celebrate it late — in the second month rather than the first (April into May) They invited everyone in Israel, including the survivors of the invasion of Assyria in the conquered northern kingdom of Israel. They people celebrated so joyfully, they decided to extend it to a second week.

For Christians, Jesus is the Passover Lamb, whose blood saves us from eternal death. In the Lord’s Supper, He gives us His body with the bread and blood with the wine. In it we receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. So we celebrate it with joy, because God set us free.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Blog Post Series

What’s the Deal with the Rapture (Left Behind style)?

Encore Post: The rapture and host of other teachings about the end times spring primarily from the American theological quagmire of 1800s upstate New York. This area gave us Charles Grandison Finney, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russel, and William Miller among others. Those four respectively produced American Revivalism, the LDS church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Adventist & Davidian churches.

There is some significant commonality of end times teaching (eschatology) between these groups. The belief in a millennium, a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ on Earth, is one such teaching. The rapture is a key feature of these millennial eschatologies. There will, no doubt, be additional questions in the future about the teachings from these groups.

Generally, the rapture is the notion that the righteous, the believers will be yanked away from creation into the air. Often, that also means they are removed from earth for a period of time, during which the tribulation occurs. There are numerous variations on the sequencing and chronology. But, that’s the thumbnail sketch.

One of the major proofs of the rapture is from Matthew 24. Jesus speaks at great length about the end of days. Verses 40 and 41 are often used in support of this “left behind” type rapture teaching.

Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. (Matthew 24:40-41)

That seems a fairly straight forward interpretation. The one taken is the righteous person, the believer. The one left behind is the unrighteous person, the unbeliever. Now, those verses do not indicate which might be which.

Is there a way for us to see that passage more clearly from its own context? Well, let’s look at verse 38 and 39. They immediately precede these two.

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:38-39)

It’s unlikely that any of us would argue in favor of the righteousness of those taken in the flood. They were swept away. Noah and his family, eight souls in all, were preserved, left behind, amidst the destruction.

It seems quite clear that the unbelievers, the unrighteous are the ones who are taken. In the broader context of Matthew, the things taken, cut into pieces, burned by fire, and cast into the outer darkness are the wicked things. As Lutherans we also hold that all of this is part of the in-an-instant-ness of the day of salvation.

When the Son of Man returns in glory, the trumpet sounds, and all is accomplished at once. The day of judgement and all its events are one moment for all of creation. We are the ones coming out of the great tribulation, right now.

Thanks be to God for the salvation bought by the death of Jesus.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

and

Mission planting pastoral team:
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Bastrop, TX

©2020 Jason Kaspar. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com.