The big picture

The next time I go to a party I'm definitely going to wear my favorite red sweater — the one I wore all the time in the first grade. I think I'll also dig out my old Snoopy slippers from when I was 10, my absolutely favorite pair of brown elephant pants that I wore in Jr. high school, my lovely puka shell necklace from my college days, my over-sized navy blazer with the big shoulder pads from, well, it's only from a few years old, and I'll pull the whole ensemble together with the new large yellow bag I just bought. I'm going to look great! Well, maybe not. Most of those things no longer fit me, and none of them go well together.

Many Christians assemble a theology that looks a lot like my outfit, though. They don't see that God dealt with people differently throughout man's history. And because they don't see this, they mix in things from all different time periods and come up with something that — while recognizable as Christianity — sure is weird-looking.

Some may argue, "But God never changes!" That's true. But in His sovereignty, God has chosen to vary some the ways He's revealed Himself to people. In other words, God has always used His master plan, but He's only revealed it to us a little at a time. Of course God knew from before creation exactly what would happen on earth, but He let us discover for ourselves that apart from Him, we would always fail miserably.

For example, Adam and Eve were created without sin. So right there is a huge difference between them and us now. They were in complete fellowship with God. They could go anywhere and do anything except — eat from one tree. If we tried to live by their theology, we wouldn't succeed. Just the part about running around naked would cause problems, in most places, that is. Our physical needs wouldn't be taken care of without work, and the world we live in certainly isn't perfect. Even though Adam and Eve had all of this, they still failed. They listened to Satan and ate the fruit.

Or, how about after sin entered the world until Noah came on the scene? Things changed a lot after Eden. God had immediately killed an animal and used the skins to cover Adam and Eve — a picture of Christ's sacrifice still way in the future. And now instead of just one rule about the one tree, there were now at least two rules — sacrifice animals (Gen 4:4) and do good (Gen 4:7). Because Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit, they knew good and evil and were expected to regulate their behavior based on that knowledge. God was still in direct communication with man, but it wasn't very long before all humans pulled away from Him, except just one — Noah (Gen 6:5). If we tried to live our lives today according to God's revelation at this time in history, we'd get into a lot of trouble with the local anti-cruelty society for slaughtering animals. We'd also immerse ourselves in sin, because time showed that following our consciences isn't enough to keep us on the straight and narrow. We'd end up just like the people in Noah's time.

Okay, what about after the Flood? A fresh start and all? God made a few changes in how man's behavior would be controlled after the Flood as well. The death penalty was enacted (Gen 9:6), which implies human government. Additionally, the rest of creation now feared people. God has never rescinded human government (Rom 13:1), but He has made other changes since then. Again, men and women failed to live righteously then just as they had before, and they gathered to build a tower (Gen 11:6). But because one-world government was too powerful, God confused their languages, forcing mankind to cease and desist and scatter. While we should still be subject to the government, we need to understand that God is allowing governments to rule that are antagonistic toward Him. This was sometimes, but not always, true throughout history.

So what about Abraham? God chose him to be the father of the nation Israel and made an unconditional promise to him (Gen 12:2-3). Mankind had fallen into sin yet again and was condemned to die. So God put the next part of His plan into action — He would do all that was needed to be done. He would provide salvation. Of course, this was His plan from the very beginning, but now He was showing Abraham a little more of it. Abraham was to take God at His word. That hasn't changed. But for Abraham, this still included the offering of blood sacrifices. And while God's promises were only to Abraham and his descendants, the entire world would be blessed by the things God would do through Israel. However, if we tried to live according to the revelation God had given to Abraham, we would confuse Israel and the Church and still be offering sacrifices.

But certainly we could live well during Moses' time. We'd have everything spelled out for us — the Law. We'd know just how to live to please God. With the giving of the law, God had revealed another portion of His plan to mankind. The thing is, when we think of the law of Moses, we usually think of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20). But they were only a very small portion of the whole law. There are actually more than 600 commands dictating proper behavior. Some seem a little strange (Deut 14:21; 20:19-20; 22:6-8, 10, 12; 23:12-13, 24; 24:5; and there's many, many more). Why would God give all these laws to Israel? Well, He was making a point. Neither they, nor we, could keep them, and God knew none of us could keep them. God has every right to demand complete obedience. After all, He created us. God could strike us dead the moment we sinned, if He wanted to. Instead, He sent His only Son to die in our place (Jn 3:16). But Jesus Christ had not yet died for man's sins back then. In fact, they didn't fully understand who the Redeemer would be or what He would do for them. But God also provided ceremonial laws, which were a way for believers to demonstrate their faith in what God would do in the future. By sacrificing an animal, the sins of the Israelites were covered until Christ could pay the ultimate sacrifice. So while the law condemned them, God also made provision to save them.

So you can see the problems of trying to mix different parts of God's plan together without an understanding of how God unfolded that plan. If we tried to live without any rules at all, like Adam and Eve did, it would quickly lead to sin and confrontations with the authorities. If we offered blood sacrifices, we would be denying the sufficiency of Christ's ultimate sacrifice. And if we claim the promises made to Israel apply to us too, we will soon begin to wonder why God isn't keeping His word. In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul mentions the importance of studying Scripture carefully to avoid such problems:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.