For I Know the Plans I Have For You

Every Bible verse is to inform us but not every promise is for us.

I remember the first time I heard “’For I know the plans that I have for you’, declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” Jer 29:11 (NASB).  I  had just gotten on the Va Beach Expressway at Little Neck Rd driving to work at the Norfolk Naval Base and was listening to John MacArthur on the radio when he spoke that verse to ME!   God had a PLAN for ME! 

I was a young Christian struggling to make sense of the Bible, God, faith, … life.  As a concrete sequential kind of person (i.e. engineer), the mere fact that God had a “plan” gave me hope there was some possibility of understanding it, and my place in it, by careful study of His Word!  That the verse seemed to say the plan was personal for ME was gravy on the biscuit.

As I grew in my study of the Word I learned that God does have a plan.  In fact, there is the big plan – the sweep of His-story from before Creation, man, the fall, the rescue plan (Jesus), all the way to the New Heavens and Earth and eternity – that runs from Gen 1:1 through Rev 22:21.  I also came to understand His personal plan for me was in Romans 8:28-39 - particularly in the phrase “to become conformed to the image of His Son.”  His plan for me is to lead me to become more like Jesus.

Many people claim Jer 29:11 as “their” verse and promise.  Some even see God promising them “welfare” as in prosperity and good health.  This is a verse often used by Health, Wealth, Prosperity false-gospel hucksters, but this flies in the face of reality, doesn’t it?  How many great Christians have been poor?  How many, sick?  How about Christians are being persecuted - even to death - in our times?

Reading the verse this way puts false words into God’s mouth, makes the Bible say what it never said, and wrongly claims a promise made for others - ancient Israel in captivity. 

Misreading Jer 29:11 like this sullies God’s Word and dims the beauty of a loving God speaking hope and His plan to people in a specific time and place - Jews exiled by God in a foreign land.  That’s our unchanging God speaking and revealing His unchanging character to us!  That’s the message of Jer 29:11 for us today.  In this case, as often in the Old Testament, it’s not the promise that carries forward to us but the consistency of God’s character.

Good Bible interpretation is NOT just for preachers and Sunday School teachers - it’s our responsibility, too.

What's Wrong with our Culture in a Picture

The Bible is no longer authoritative.  It now sits on the library shelf between Fairy Tales, Ghost Stories, and Mythology.

Christians can no longer assume a listener has a common understanding on God, Jesus, faith, sin, salvation or other Biblical themes.  We now have to do the hard work of backing up and laying foundations to understanding through Apologetics and appeals to common ground through general revelation.

Does the Bible Condon Slavery?

(my response to someone posting on Facebook about this issue)

The Bible's apparent endorsement of slavery is one of those issues that comes up a lot in discussions with atheists and others who do not understand the background and context of the ancient near east (ANE).  Whereas I've found that atheists are very rarely interested in two way dialog or actually open to learning anything, I'm going to take your statement that this is one of those "puzzles" for you that you really would like to understand better.  So, let me suggest a book to you, "Is God a Moral Monster - Making Sense of the Old Testament God" by Paul Copan.  This book is an excellent resource for clearing up this issue and many other thorny (to us) Old Testament issues.

First of all, I'm going to assume the picture of "slavery" in your mind is the horrific inhumanity of slavery of the 18/19th century.  The slavery the Bible talks about is far different and was even in some cases considered an aspect of social welfare for the needy.  Hebrew "slaves" had God given rights, punishment was limited, etc.  Read the book.  This issue is easily put to rest for those interested in understanding the facts.

It really surprises me that many Christians have never thought of it this way but the entire Bible as a whole is an anti-slavery book.  If I were to write a newspaper front page headline for the Bible it would be something like this: "Master willingly sacrifices life to free rebellious slaves!"  That is a foundational theme from Genesis to Revelation.  Slavery to sin is far worse than 18/19th century slavery ever was.  Sin can send a soul to Hell.  Even the worst slave master didn't have the power to do that.

Also keep in mind the Bible talks about many things, but "talking about" is not the same as condoning.  Does the Bible condon Roman occupation?  Jesus was right there.  He certainly could have blown them away with His breath, but He didn't.

Again, read the book.  It's a great resource.