Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Matthew 5:17
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say
unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. {25} When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,
and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us;
and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: {26} Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and
Thou hast taught in our streets. {27} But He
shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of
iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves
thrust out.
Luke 13:24-28
"Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the
prophets; let them hear them."
Luke 16:29
And He said unto him, "If they hear not Moses and
the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Luke 16:31
Then He said unto them, "O fools, and slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken:"
Luke 24:25
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ISAIAH'S DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION
Why Christians Worship a Violent, Vengeful God
Our morning readings led us to read chapter 10 of
Isaiah's prophecies, and to a good deal of discussion.
Here are some more thoughts on that discussion.
The book of Isaiah is filled with fascinating and inspiring prophecies. One prophecy
has moved many in the Catholic Worker and the "Peace Movement" to direct action
against deadly militarism:
Isaiah 2:1-5
The Word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem.
{2} And it shall come to pass in the last
days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
{3} And many people shall go and say, Come
ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth
the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
{4} And he shall judge among the nations,
and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more.
{5} O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us
walk in the light of the LORD.
This is Isaiah's confident declaration of the coming
Prince of Peace (9:6), born of a virgin (7:14), Whose
reign will extend across the globe (chapter 11). Confidence is the key word here:
"It SHALL come to pass!"
Plowshares into Swords
Yet there are many prophecies that come as unwelcome guests to some. Consider the
readings from last Wednesday:
- Isaiah 10:5-19
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.
{6} I will send him against an ungodly
nation,
And against the people of My wrath I will give him charge,
To seize the spoil, to take the prey,
And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
{7} Yet he does not mean so,
Nor does his heart think so;
But it is in his heart to destroy,
And cut off not a few nations.
{8} For he says, 'Are not my princes
altogether kings?
{10} As my hand has found the kingdoms of
the idols,
Whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
{11} As I have done to Samaria and her
idols,
Shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?'"
{12} Therefore it shall come to pass, when
the LORD has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say,
"I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory
of his haughty looks."
{13} For he says:
- "By the strength of my hand I have done it,
And by my wisdom, for I am prudent;
Also I have removed the boundaries of the people,
And have robbed their treasuries;
So I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.
{14} My hand has found like a nest the
riches of the people,
And as one gathers eggs that are left,
I have gathered all the earth;
And there was no one who flapped his wing,
Nor opened his mouth with even a chirp."
- {15} Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with
it?
Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it?
As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up,
- Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!
- {16} Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
Will send leanness among his fat ones;
And under his glory He will kindle a burning
Like the burning of a fire.
- {17} So the Light of Israel will be for a fire,
- And his Holy One for a flame;
- It will burn and devour His thorns and his briers in one
day.
- {18} And it will consume the glory of his forest and of
his fruitful field,
Both soul and body;
And they will be as when a sick man wastes away.
{19} Then the rest of the trees of his
forest
Will be so few in number
- That a child may write them.
| In short, just as surely as God will send His Messiah,
Isaiah says He will also send a violent, rapacious army to destroy those who oppose the
Prince of Peace. Before the righteous can be seated at the wedding feast, Jesus said,
the wicked must be removed (Matthew 22:13). Or as the prophet Joel puts it, unless swords
are beaten into plowshares, plowshares must be beaten into swords: |
In 722 B.C., the Assyrian Army concluded a
systematic assault on Israel; property damage and loss of life was extensive. The living
were made slaves.
Assyria was known throughout the Mideast as a particularly
fearsome and violent nation. Hoping to curry Assyria's favor, Israel had made diplomatic
overtures to this violent State, hoping thereby to gain protection from Assyria's and
Israel's mutual enemies, thus showing that a faithless failure to trust in God's
protection is actually an idolatrous admiration of the violence of the nation you look to
for "international aid," "détente," "league of nations," or
whatever word is trendy to describe the idolatry.
Israel was continually warned to repudiate militarism (e.g.,
Psalm 33:16-19), but they continued to lust after it. Assyria, Israel's lover, had no
respect for Israel. God, Israel's husband, gives Israel her "space" so she can
exercise her "free will" for a short time, to get to know her violent lover a
little better (Ezekiel 16). |
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks
into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. {11} Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves
together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. {12} Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for
there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. {13} Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for
the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. {14} Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD
is near in the valley of decision. {15} The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw
their shining. {16} The LORD also shall roar
out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall
shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the
children of Israel. {17} So shall ye know
that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall
Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. {18} And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall
drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall
flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall
water the valley of Shittim. {19} Egypt
shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against
the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. {20} But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to
generation. {21} For I will cleanse their
blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
Joel 3:10-21
We love to quote Isaiah when he speaks of God becoming incarnate as the Prince of Peace
and His people converting swords into plowshares. But we dismiss the prophets as fools,
ignorant superstitious cave-men, or pathological "patriarchs" when they speak of
God sending an army of violent rapists into a city wholly devoted to violence and
covetousness.
Smorgasbord Christianity
Are we really Christians (followers of Christ) if we pick and choose what parts we like
out of Christ and the prophets who foretold Him? Aren't we being our own god (Genesis
3:5)?
George Bush prays to a "Prince of Peace" when he sets out to kill 200,000
Iraqis. He says these murders (excuse me: this "bold foreign policy") will lead
to the lion lying down with the lamb. He picks and chooses the parts of the Bible he likes
(or thinks will help him in the polls). The United Nations (an assembly of
Harvard-educated dictators from around the globe), which officially sanctioned Bush's
international terrorism, has Isaiah's "plowshares" prophecy carved into their
building in New York. How do plowshares activists differ from these rich, elitist
terrorists when neither have totally submitted to the God of Isaiah? Isaiah might well say
that both are simply making up their own religion.
If Isaiah was mistaken when he said it was God Who would be sending the Assyrian Army
against Israel in 722 B.C., and if Christ was wrong when He said God would send the Roman
Army against Israel in 70 A.D. (Matthew 22:7; Luke 21:20), then how can we believe Isaiah
is right when he says the nations will beat their swords into plowshares, or that Christ
is right when He says those who feed and clothe the poor (Matthew 25:31ff.) will
experience eternal life? How do we KNOW George Bush isn't right?
- Prophecy is a phenomenon which is an impossibility without predestination.
- Worship is an activity which is impossible without surrendering entirely to God,
including the surrendering of our "right" to judge the righteousness,
truthfulness, and "intellectual respectability" of God's prophets.
Got to Part 2 of
"Isaiah's Doctrine of Predestination."
Note: This essay was written several years ago while I was a member of the Catholic Worker. Each
morning, as I explain elsewhere, we met
together in the prayer room of our 12-bedroom house for Bible reading, reflection,
singing, and prayer. This paper was designed to explore some of the questions that were
raised when Isaiah 10 just happened to be the morning's reading. It is thus designed to
appeal to a left-wing Catholic Worker, not to a supporter of wars in Iraq waged by the
Bush-Clinton regime.
What Kind of Person You Will Be
Like When You Finish Studying this Website.
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