ZEPHANIAH

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I don’t normally do things like this, but the questions David Hewetson asks in “Zephaniah (Bible Probe)” are so good I figured I’d fill out the answers.

1 1-6

1.       In Genesis, God only promised He would never destroy the Earth by flood. After the millennium, he’ll destroy it by fire.

2.       People subscribe to modern forms of Baal worship in all kinds of ways. See Pastor Peter J. Peters book, “Baal Worship in America” as well as many similar resources from his ministry. We’ve made Baals out of everything from the medical establishment to the education system, including even the government.

Human sexuality is definitely a modern-day fertility religion, part of which is the contemporary sacrifice to Molech known as abortion. I also think sex in itself is worshipped for it’s own sake.

In addition, marriage is certainly “idealized as a means of self-fulfillment,” particularly in Christian circles with their over-emphasis on marrying.

The phrase Hewetson uses, “with sex as its sacred rite” is definitely a thought-provoking one. The Old Testament worshippers of Baal treated the sacred prostitutes as objects. Many Christians treat women and men as sex objects; it’s just you have to be married before you perform the ritual with them.

3.       God’s anger still operates against astrology, but I’d be interested in looking into the difference between astrology and astronomy. God did give us the sun, moon and stars for signs to represent times and seasons after all.

4.       “No man can serve two masters” means the same thing today as it did 2000 years ago. However, I do think Christians do a massive overcorrection in this area through Christian culture. Why do there have to be specific categories of various “Christian” forms of modern music, Christian radio, Christian television, Christian fiction, Christian movies, etc. Why don’t we just put those messages out into the secular arena through these forms of media like Christians used to do?

5.       Christianity is the only religion in the world that simultaneously allows for, and cries out against, pluralism. We have to allow others to practice their religions since Jesus never forced anyone to convert, but we proclaim the truth that Jesus is the only way to God.

As far as the democratic ideal is concerned, however, a pluralistic, multicultural society does not work and, ideally,  Christian countries should not allow in those who aren’t Christians. Sure, it’s nice to look at multiculturalism on a surface level and rave about how cool and interesting the food, music and dress of other cultures are, but below that surface, many of those cultures, culture being shaped by spiritual beliefs, have values which utterly fly in the face of Christian morals, principles and values.

V7-13

1.       The Day of the Lord is a warning to the unbeliever to repent, a reproof to the believer to stay on the narrow Way, and an encouragement to the believer that one day God’s justice will be served and the world will be restored to the way God originally created it to be before the fall.

The second part of this question is interesting. Would Zephaniah and other Jews living at that time have understood the true mission and nature of the Messiah? Would they have understood that Messiah would come twice?

2.       The powerful and the privileged are to apply God’s law on Earth.

3.       Thirty years on, the situation is kind of the opposite of what Hewetson had in mind when he wrote this. We made an idle out of our leisure time, now we are kept busy, both in a real sense through having to work longer hours for less money and purchasing power, and artificially busy through being tied to our tech devices.

4.       There are very few true atheists, or even true agnostics, for that matter. Most unbelievers believe in a God that fits the description of the one herein, one that doesn’t care either way about people’s practical, everyday lives, and thus, doesn’t care about being worshipped or obeyed, either.

The message Christians have for these people is that there is a real, living God who loves them, cares about them and who is interested in having a relationship with the humans He created, guiding them and being with them throughout their daily lives.

5.       The Bible has so much to say about the rich because the only reason anyone becomes rich, even if wealth was obtained through dishonest means, is because God allowed them to acquire those riches. Ultimately, all anyone has comes from God and the world He created.

Zephaniah 1 14-2 3

1. I definitely think we're living in the last days, or more correctly the end times, since the Bible defines the last days as the time after Christ came the first time. (See the first chapter of Hebrews.)

2. Knowing there'll be a day of judgment, as Peter says, means we should be better people, quicker to follow the Lord.

I actually think there would be as much evil in the world, or rather, there is, despite the fact most people believe in some kind of divine punishment for their sins, even if they don't believe it'll be the God of the Bible meeting out the punishment.

3. God's love can't accurately be considered apart from his wrath because a truly loving, just God should be wrathful against people, his creatures, hurting and abusing each other, and at humanity's use of the earth's resources without acknowledging and glorifying God as well as their lack of respect for His creation through environmental destruction.

4. God is jealous because we were originally created to have an intimate relationship with Him. Thus, God's jealousy is a good quality because he's the perfect being one could have a relationship with so God has every right to be jealous when people go after lesser, false gods.

It is totally right for a Christian to be jealous in this way. When you're out with your girlfriend or wife, you don't want to just passively stand by and watch her get hit on by every guy you meet, do you?

5. In Zephaniah's day, seeking the Lord meant making animal sacrifices and obeying the Law as delivered to Moses from God at Mount Sinai. This would save them because those were God's requirements for His people at that time. Under the New Covenant, this is accomplished through repentance, baptism for the remission of sins (see Acts 2 38), and then growing in a deeper and deeper relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer, Bible study, fellowship with brothers and sisters in the faith, and obedience to what God tells us to do.

v 4-7

1. God still does have prophetic words for the nations of the world. I should look some of them up and post them here, or at least post links to the messages.

2. This is what gets me about so much Christian radio, and, in fact, Christian culture in general: the people who proliferate it say Christian cultural items are for the purpose of winning unbelievers, but the focus of so much Christian radio, movies, etc. is to the believers. Even when something has a message clearly inteneded for the world, that movie or whatever instead comes off as an echo chamber, serving to confirm to believers what they already think about things. The verses Hewetson cites in this question should remind us that God's truth is for all people.

3. The sin of the Philistines was worshipping other gods instead of giving glory to the true God.

4. God's people will possess the nations when Christ returns to rule the world. I'm not exactly sure what we will rule with God in terms of what people will make up the inhabitants of the milennial kingdom. You'll have to read my upcoming post on Revelation for the answer to that one.

Christians owe their restoration to God and we are restored to fellowship with God on the basis of what Christ did on the cross.

v8-11

1. There have been many instances of persecution against individual Christians and the church over the centuries and the perpetrators, whether from outside the church or in, will be condemned to Hell.

2. The proper response to persecution is to resist in a Godly manner if possible, have faith in our Lord, pray for the persecutors, and be confident in the eternal life we have in Christ.

3. There is such a difference between general unprovoked hostility and religious persecution because people feel especially strongly about their religious convictions in comparison to anything else. When confronted with the former type of hostility, a Christian should turn the other cheek, but also keep in mind you only have two cheeks.

4. Pride is such a terrible sin because what lies at the heart of it and blocks communion with God is self-worship. As I said in my earlier post on Proverbs, when you're your own god you make your own rules and, hence, all other sins result from pride.

5. One of the biggest points of modern pride I see is knowledge and official-sounding positions. People think if they have a piece of paper saying they can do something or if the employer or network marketing company has given them a title, then that really makes them something. One recent incident that comes to mind is I heard Bradley Jay on WBZ Boston say one night, with quite a lot of arrogant self-confidence, that he knew the Bible was just a bunch of stories because he had been to Sunday school.

v12-15

1. There's ultimately no security in self-security because it's God's world and, apart from Him, we truly can do nothing. In his sovereignty, He could make every person in the world into a nearly brain-dead, complete vegetable in the next less than a microsecond if He wanted to.

2. Yes, it is possible to be self-confident and humble at the same time. This condition comes from recognising that every ability we have comes from the Lord and that, as His children, He wants us to use those abilities to accomplish our potential. Thus, it isn't wrong to be self-suficient in the sense that we deal with our lives and do a good job at taking care of ourselves. If the rich fool in Luke 12 had acknowledged that it was by God's goodness that he grew so much food, he would have been a lot less foolish.

3. Christians don't have the power in themselves to judge and condemn injustice, but rather it is the Word which judges people and which Christians are to proclaim.

4. The causes of this are human nature in general which results from the fall as well as the fact we live in a world where people aren't worshiping and glorifying God.

Christians should speak out against acts of injustice by governments, proclaiming the Scripture verses that talk about how God feels toward opressors and cruel, unjust persons, especially those in positions of government.

As far as groups like Amnesty International are concerned: Though they do some good work, these groups are quite biased. They have not, to my knowledge, had any campaigns to assist the white farmers who are being slaughtered in South Africa (and who lately have been kicked out of the country.) Also, there reasons for speaking out against injustices are secular and not based on the fact this is God's world, His law still applies and those who break it are going to pay the penalty for the rest of eternity.

5. I am content in the assurance that justice will be done eventually, although it is good to see those instances when God carries it out in this present age. The whole book of Ecclesiastes sheds a lot of light on this issue.

Zephaniah 3 1-7

1. The lesson here is both those who are and aren't God's people will have to stand before Christ in judgment. However, it first begins at the house of God.

2. The civil, judicial and religious leaders are held accountable because they are supposed to be the ones in charge of ruling, carrying out and teaching God's law to the people. Today's leaders have the very same responsibility.

Our religious leaders should be influencing our civil and judicial leaders by instructing them in God's law while those leaders are still children. When these civil and judicial leaders are adults, religious leaders should, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, be re-iterating God's law and warning of the penalties incurred on those leaders for not enforcing and carrying out that law.

3. Our Godly responsibility in the election process is to elect the leaders who are going to enforce God's law, and if they aren't going to do that, or if they're just saying they'll enforce it to get us to cast a ballot for them, then we shouldn't vote. Even if we didn't vote, we should still be taking our elected officials to task and warning them from the Bible when they break God's law.

We should pray for those in authority so that God might intervene and cause our leaders to adhere to and enforce His law or replace those leaders who won't do so with those who will.

4. Romans 13 basically says, in a kind of roundabout way (at least to our modern way of speaking) that governing authorities should only be obeyed to the extent they enforce God's law. When governing authorities break God's law, they therefore cease to be worthy of obedience. If Christians live their lives in obedience to God's law then they will be sure to have their good works rewarded, and the evildoers who ignore or knowingly break God's law can be sure He will punish them.

We can support the oppressed in other countries by praying for them and their leadership and helping materially as the Holy Spirit prompts us and we are able to do so.

5. This question could be a whole post in itself and I do not want to write my answer unless the Holy Spirit tells me to.

v8-13

1. In v8-10 we see the two sides of God destroying the wicked, oppressive people and rewarding with peace, harmony and rest the righteous who have trusted in Him.

2. It is possible for Christians of differing cultures to be united in Christ and still maintain their cultural identity, though with the two natures still battling within us (see Romans 7) there will be tensions and conflicts that come up from time to time.

The best way to present the Gospel to people of different cultures is to preach Christ and Him crucified rather than saying what we think they'll want to hear.

9. It isn't a pious hope. The gift of pure speech will be given to the persecutors and oppressors if they die to themselves in repentance, are buried in the waters of baptism and come up new creatues in Christ. (See Acts 2 38)

4. The humble remnant will be characterized by their humility, their poverty in spirit, their trust in the Lord, their purity of heart, and their truthfulness.

5. We should expect to see these qualities in our Christian fellowship, bearing in mind God's people are not yet perfect, to a large extent. If we aren't seeing them in our church, then we should get out of the institutional church and cultivate relationships with and have fellowship with Christians who do exude these qualities.

v14-20

1. The Christian life is a joyful life in the sense of the joy we have in our relationship with the Lord, though it isn't often joyful in the sense in which we usually think of joy.

I rejouice in my relationship with Jesus Christ and the fact He saved my soul. I also rejoice in the promises yet to be fulfilled and in the many ways He blesses me every day. I pray my joy is manifested in the attitude I display to people on a daily basis.

2. God is a kind, benevolent king who wants to give His people the best of everything, have His justice done and give His people peace, security and every other similar good thing.

3. From 1 John 4 7-21 and Romans 5 1-8, we learn that God loved us when we were Godless, unloving sinners. Therefore, we should love one another and be patient when someone else wrongs us, as well as loving the unbelievers and not looking down our noses at them as if there was some quality that made us special so that Christ saved us, those unbelievers not possessing that special quality.

4. God renews us in His love even now through His Spirit.

5. One key thing I've gotten from Zephaniah is that just as certain aspects of the Law given to Moses at Mount Sinai were shadows of things which were fulfilled in Jesus, so we see a shadow of what God's restored kindom will be like in the fellowship that Christians have with one another today and we also see forerunners of God's final judgment taking place in our world nowadays as well. Praise you Lord for these assurances we have that the promises in Zephaniah and the rest of your Word will be fulfilled.