TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH  

IHOP BIBLE STUDY  Note that this study is an alternate that includes part of last week’s study that was left out: 2 Tim. 3: 1 – 9. Also, you’ll note that this material is extended to next week in order to study 3: 10 – 4: 8. We got wrapped up in finishing last week’s lesson. Sorry about that, although we are not sorry that we spent the time on finishing. Perhaps, you’ll discover why as you get into it.  WES
#4A, 2 Timothy 3: 10 to 4: 8, "III- Paul’s Charge to Timothy" – with commentary. The purpose of the Second Letter to Timothy is to examine, "Paul’s Relational Leadership Training For The Early Church."  Today's study is the 4th of 5 sessions

 

According to our Study Chart – This chart was adjusted from the original.

             

5 Sessions Paul’s Relational Leadership Training For The Early Church
Session 4th of 5 III -   Paul’s Charge To Timothy
Follow Paul’s Example and That of Scripture		Paul’s Passing The Mantle
Ungodly Behavior in the Last Days	Follow Paul’s Example and the Scriptures and Stay Faithful		Paul exhorts Timothy to Evangelize	Paul’s Self-Reflection
3: 1 to 3:9	3: 10 to 3:17		4: 1 to 4: 5	4: 6 to 4: 8

 

Also, this was “April Fools Day, and I was “Pastor Fool.” The devotions used 1 Corinthians4: 9 – 13 in which Paul indicates, “We are fools for Christ . . .” A reflective conversation was used. Fun!

 

ABOUT THIS SCRIPTURE   Remember: the context remains “heretical teachers.”

A.          

1.           Vs. 3: 1, Identify the “last days.” Ask yourself, “How do I experience the “last             days?” Develop your own secular answer. It may be helpful to recall that these              “last days” was a theological metaphor and not a literal time-line. How was Jesus         the sign of something               dying and something new born?

Please Note: Extensive material was read from the March 2008 edition of the “Realistic Living Newsletter.” This is a March and September newsletter written by Gene Marshall, the author at “Realistic Living, 35 78 N. State Highway 78, Bonham, TX  75418.” Also, this can be located on the web. A more comprehensive sister edition is written in June and November. I encourage you to subscribe for all 4 editions. The cost is by donation.

WS: Today’s study began by asking how do you experience the “last days?” Then, the following was read from this newsletter. Gene Marshall is reflecting on Bishop Spong’s latest book, “Tribal Religion: Recasting the Christian Message for Century 21.”

              First, we grounded what Spong identified as Tribal Religion.

              . . . namely the popular religion of our times (or any times) in which people worship their nation, their religious group, their gender, their race, their sexual orientation, and then project the quality of the group upon the cosmos or upon the God of the Bible, and call that projection of their own selves, “God.”

              Marshall’s reflections: “I have been a persistent critic of some of Spong’s theological views. And toward the end of his presentation on “Tribal Religion,” he makes a number of statements that I find inadequate. I am going to quote below the closing paragraphs of his ten-and-a-quarter page essay, placing my comments of affirmation and critique in relation to his words.

              Spong: If our world is ever to move beyond our relentless drive toward self-destruction, a pathway to which we seem to be incredibly drawn, and if our world is ever going to move beyond our selfish exploitation of our own environment and realize that human beings are the only animals that foul their own nest regularly, and if our world is not drawn beyond our mindless participation in an exploding and irresponsible population growth, and if our need to dominate other people in the service of our own national interests and national well-being. If we’re going to do those things, then the God we human beings worship must grow [my emphasis] beyond that of being our tribal deity. It must grow beyond that supernatural parent figure who lives in the sky; who blesses us, protects us, and answers our prayers, and serves our need as it that God is our servant.

 

Marshall: I agree entirely with the basic content of this passage. In fact, I can say that I agree with every word except the word “grow.” But this is a very important word, and the way Spong uses this word is a deep violation of a basic theme of the Bible. It is unbiblical to talk about human worship growing. A worship of the non-tribal biblical God cannot grow from some narrow tribalism to some bigger and better image of God. All images of God, including Spong’s image of God, including my image of God, must be killed, destroyed, shown to be illusory. Then and only then can the God of the Bible appear as a living Presence, not an image or projection created by humanity. We do not grow into an experience of this Eternal Presence. It happens to us. It shatters us. It brings us immediately back to who we always were in the first place. There is no growth involved. We might even call this experience a demolition. We have been unconsciously assuming to be something we are not, and then that assumption is shown to be sheer delusion. In that moment we may, if we stay alert, catch a glimpse of who we are, always were, and always will be. THERE IS NO GROWTH INVOLVED IN THIS BASIC EXPERIENCE OF THE TRUE GOD OF THE BIBLE. If we are going to speak of growth at all, it is merely growth in our regularity of surrendering to being what we always were, still are, and will always be.

WS: The question again was raised, how is this experience of the “last days?”

              The reflections shared around the table was that the “last days” represented an awakening from worshipping the false gods of our Tribal Religions. A contemporary example of Tribal Religion is Fred Phelps’ church in Topeka, KS who protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan who, he and he church believes, represent the punishment of God on America for supporting the homosexual life-style. Phelp’s position is antithetical to the Christian experience of living in At-One-Ment.

             

2.           Vs. 3: 5, Describe “having the form of godliness, but denying its power.”  Again, we turned to the Newsletter:

Marshall’s reflections:  And we do not “achieve” our “new humanity.” It is a gift. And this is not a “new humanity in the sense of being something novel in history. It is actually the same old humanity we were before we became inhuman.

              Spong: You see, we human beings are not fallen creatures that need to be “rescued.” We are still evolving creatures who need to be empowered to become more fully human.

Marshall:  Using the “evolution” metaphor to talk about Spirit life is misleading. Humanity has always been fully human, we are now fully human, and we always will be fully human. And we are also fallen creatures who need to be rescued from our having lost our fully human humanity. Full humanity is simply ordinary everyday humanity that is awake and devoted to The Mysterious Presence that is not reducible to any human image. Our biology is still evolving, but our Spirit Life does not evolve. The Spirit Life of Moses, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Second Isaiah, Jesus, Paul. Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, Augustine, Aquinas, Hildegard, Teresa, Luther, etc. is exactly the same as our Spirit Life today – the same as it will be ten thousand years from now. No evolution is required – only surrender to being our TRUE BEING. Our words and means of communicating the Spirit Life change. Perhaps one generation is clearer than another about some aspect of Spirit Life. For example, Luther was clearer than Spong that our Spirit Life is a gift, and that Jesus does indeed function as a rescuer of thoroughly fallen humanity.

              Spong: We still primarily tell the Jesus story as if he was the “rescuer” of the fallen. We need to tell the Jesus story as it he is the one who empowers us to become more fully human.

Marshall:

What exactly does “empowers us” means to Spong? And what does “fully human” mean? Any humanness that we have to achieve is not fully human in the Jesus-sense of fully human. Jesus rescues us by challenging our escapes from a humanness empowered by God from the dawn of time. So we are already empowered to be human. We need to be rescued from using that power to be inhuman. [My embolden.] And when rescued by Jesus (by the living community of Jesus), we are then empowered not by Jesus but by the POWER that has posited us in being.

The rescue that the living community of the resurrected Jesus provides is: (1) the critique of our illusions, (2) the beckon to live our actual humanity. Many religious practices other than Christian ones provide this same rescue. Jesus is just our symbol for this universal rescuing process. Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and other also participate is providing to fallen humanity this universal rescuing process that Christian s have called “Jesus the Christ,” or just “Jesus” or “grace.”

WS: The “form of Godliness” is none other than the fulfillment of our intended creation. A cow fulfills it intended purpose and experiences its “form of Godliness.” Humans fulfill our intended purpose by living the humane and gracious life working for justice and mercy, and in this way experience a form of Godliness.

 

3.           Vss. 3: 2 – 4, Think of the axiom, “The reward for the deed is found in the deed itself.”         How do these things represent the signs of (Paul’s) the  times?  What is the logical            “reward” that is possible, and what kind of “end times” do they represent?

WS:     Is there a better list of experiences representing the antithesis of At-One-Ment?

 

4.           Vss. 3: 6 – 9, What is going on here?

WS: The Abingdon “One-Volume Commentary” notes that Jannes and Jambees are non-biblical references, but are found as common references in secular literature of the day. They were noted Egyptian magicians. A contemporary similarity would be “Bud Abbot and Lou Costello,” or ‘The Smother’s Brothers.”

 

The rest of this lesson is continued over into the next session as # 4B.

 

5.           Vs. 3: 12, Why will Godly people be persecuted?

 

 

6.           Vss. 3: 15B to 17,

              How does Scripture make you wise?

 

 

              Describe how you would explain to someone the experience of “salvation through faith in   Jesus Christ”

 

 

              What does Paul mean, “All scripture is God-breathed?

 

 

7.           Vss. 4: 1 -  5,

              Describe the elements of Paul’s “charge” to Timothy

 

 

              Describe the warnings Paul gives to Timothy

 

 

8.           Vss. 4: 6 – 8, Describe Paul’s physical and emotional state

 

 

 

 II.         Reflect on the following:  (GETTING THE BIG PICTURE) **

             Part 2 is an exercise in reflecting on the assigned reading through a method of identifying the "Deep Problem" faced by the early church. Sometimes this is known as identifying the underlying contradiction. This is usually hidden behind some particular manifestations. Paul usually addresses this hidden agenda in his "solution" that he offers. Consequently, it is necessary for us to examine his solutions, and then back up to reflect on what is the deeper problem actually being addressed. Usually, this reveals some new insights.

 

A.           What is the SURFACE PROBLEM that is manifested?           

              Check out the following Vss. 4: 1 – 4: 8--

 

 

C.        IDENTIFY THE DEEPER UNDERLYING CONTRADICTION facing the Ephesian         Church. What is the DEEPER, MORE HIDDEN, agenda that Paul seeks to address        with his solution?

               Use your intuitions to identify the deeper problem.

               Check out the following Vss. 3: 1 to 3: 9--

 

 

WHICH OF THE FOUR MASTER PROBLEMS DOES THIS ISSUE REPRESENT? **

___ False Teachings     __ Moral Decay  ___The Corrupt World  __  Church Division

             

 

B.        What is the SOLUTION Paul offers to address the Deep Problem? Speculate on what          Paul is suggesting the solution is to the deeper problem.  

              Check out Vss. 3: 10 to 3: 17--

 

 

WHICH OF THE THREE MASTER SOLUTIONS DOES THIS ISSUE REPRESENT?**

___Create Authentic Ministry   __Use Spiritual Weapons  ___ Utilize Consciousness Raising

             

Now, reread Paul's solution to see if it makes sense.  

          Alright folks, talk to me! 

 

** Use the  "Problems and Solutions" chart previously sent to you. This chart is available in the archived materials at www.triumc.org/web1/biblestudy. Look for the Chart link.  WES