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Critics of the Armor of God

It’s good to be back and see that the world acted just splendidly without my insights. I have used seasons like Lent to read and write more to a limited group. My substack account has filled that void, and I would encourage you to subscribe: https://drbrito.substack.com/. I suspect the world will be headed toward a more de-centralized writing platform allowing writers to use their gifts without much censorship. Substack has been wonderful in giving readers a sense of my journey in travels, writing, and projects.

I was also able to spend a significant time this season talking about my new book. Books like mine have a one-month momentum, which needs to be absorbed. I tried to use that short season to do 15 podcast interviews, including a talk at New Saint Andrews College’s Sword and Shovel Bookstore. The evening was wonderful and filled with delightful conversations.

Beyond that it has been great to hear of churches buying copies for Book studies. That was one of my central reasons for writing a book on a familiar text. I wanted folks to see the armor of God in the context of priestly warfare. I think the argument is compelling and has been compelling to various audiences.

Those who have seen my work as a kind of typological overreach have their concerns, and I respect them. But what I attempted to do is build the armor through priestly patterns, patterns that I believe are overwhelmingly present throughout the Scriptures. I have run away from mystical and esoteric interpretations, choosing the Scriptures to speak its own language with its raw simplicity.

I have further argued that Paul was not a bored prisoner staring into a Roman soldier and building his metaphor, but instead richly active, imaginatively using the categories from which he builds his entire pastoral theology (and if he did write Hebrews, the pattern becomes even more striking).

I may not have convinced everyone that there is something to consider in the priestly theme, but I have hopefully moved the ball in the right direction.

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Death was Stung by Its Own Sting

The world thrives in tombs. It thrives in the dark places. John writes that man loves darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. The worldly systems convulse at the sign of truth. She hides from truth, and when she confronts it, it offers more lies.

Ultimately, the world, the flesh, and the devil delight in emptiness. The Devil would rather have a world without form and where darkness is in the face of the deep. The devil does not want a creator God because he displays just how uncreative the devil is.

The world thrives in tombs, thrives in evil deeds, attracts unseemliness, and finds refuge in scoundrels who guard the tombs of prophets, priests, and kings. They do their job without ever confronting their masters. They are puppets of the empire.

But while the world thrives in tombs, the Church thrives in empty tombs. We do not delight in death, which is why our religion bursts forth from death; our faith triumphs over tombs whether there are 2-3 or 10,000 soldiers guarding its gates. The Christian Bible proclaims a Lord who sees death and tombs as symbols of defeat and who laughs at them.

O, Death, where is thy sting?

It is there in the tomb—that’s what remains on Easter morning. Jesus left death in the tomb, paralyzed and incapable of chasing after him. Death couldn’t escape. Death was stung by its own sting. Death is what remains in the tomb, but Christ has risen from the dead.

The world thrives in tombs, and Christians specialize in departing from them. We make the world better by calling all men to leave the tomb and embrace new life in the King who defeats death.

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Welcome to Holy Week!

We are united to Jesus by faith, and our faith is reflected in how we choose daily to unite with him. Some of us unite with him with as little as we can give. We meander through life and say, “Maybe I have a little extra time to give to Jesus today. Maybe I will commit a prayer or two.” Jesus becomes like the piggy bank full of pennies.

Some of you will be ordinary in your communion with Jesus. You will walk with him, and you will talk with him, and you will cherish him. You will often realize just how much you need his grace when you blow up at your kids and when, for no reason, you lose your seven-day record of purity or fail to show up for your friend who needs you; in those moments, you recognize your ordinariness. And when that happens, remember your union with Jesus. Remember that to be united to Jesus is to have and need Jesus in good days and really bad ones.

Providence, Holy Week is for you!

Holy Week is a call for you to take your union with Jesus with greater seriousness. Holy Week is an exhortation to participate in the life of Jesus in his final week in biblical history. If you walk with Jesus this week, you will be walking in the ordinary of Peter’s loyalty and betrayal, the disciples’ certainty and uncertainty, our desires to find justice only to be met by a cross. If you walk this week to the cross, this week will put you in the ordinary of sin and sin forgiven; of cross and empty tomb; of disunity to unity with your crucified Lord.

Come, welcome to Holy Week! Enter into the life of Jesus!

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The CREC and Postmillennialism

In this conversation, Kendall Lankford interviews Uri Brito, a pastor and presiding minister of the CREC (Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches). They discuss the background and purpose of the CREC, the concept of Reformed Catholicity, the importance of confessions and memorials, and the differences between amillennialism and postmillennialism.

They also address the sacred-secular divide and the need for a biblical perspective on history. The conversation challenges pessimistic views and encourages a hopeful vision of the future. In this conversation, Uriesou Brito discusses the importance of understanding the historical context of the Bible and how it applies to our own historical moment. He emphasizes the need to interpret biblical passages in light of the original audience and their specific circumstances.

Brito also highlights the slow and steady growth of the kingdom of God throughout history, starting with the seed and leading to the establishment of happy nations and an everlasting kingdom. He addresses the role of suffering in post-millennialism and the need for a theology of martyrdom. Brito encourages believers to be actively involved in their local churches and to align their homes with the teachings of Scripture. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of a new beginning and consistency in the Christian life.

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How to be Happy and Fat as a Christian

Shrove Tuesday is a glorious excuse to feast like the Hebrews, swim in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory guilt-free, and do what hobbits were made to: have a second breakfast. Christians should be notoriously bold about eating, and they should be notoriously known for getting together to eat. As a matter of fact, eating together is the virtue that toppled empires. While the Egyptians ate at elaborate banquets, God sent locusts to consume and eat their banquets. Of course, God will not allow competing parties in his world. If they attempt to compete for Banquet Hosts, God will consume them.

So, how do we enter into God’s banquet? Where do I RSVP? The requirement for entrance to this banquet is not acute taste buds or a culinary degree; it is the badge of love. “Better a dinner of herbs with love, than a fatted calf with hatred and disobedience,” says the Lord.

Fatness as Blessing

In our evangelical attempts to outdo the ascetic movement, we often talk timidly about the extra slice of pizza we had, or we say even apologetically, “I sure ate a lot last night!” But in the Bible, apologies about eating can seem outright tasteless. We don’t have to dig too far in the Bible to see that the idea of “fatness” carefully considered is a good thing. For example, the word “anointing” means to “make fat.” The Hebrew word Dashen means to be fat, grow fat, and become fat.

In fact, Psalm 23, a favorite to many, uses that precise language. In Hebrew, it reads: “You fatten my head with oil and my cup overflows.” Shrove Tuesday is an additional opportunity to criticize our sensitivities, wash away the grammar of cultural pietism, and embrace the fatty bacon like a gift from God.

God is not stingy about butter, and under ordinary conditions, as Elisha asked for a double portion of the Spirit, children of the living God should ask for a double portion of pancakes.

The Abuse of Food

And this leads me to my final point in this brief but fat-filled exhortation, and that is that we only abuse the gift of food when we forget that food is a blessing to a forgiven community. Unrepentant communities don’t know how to eat correctly, and as a result, their food is merely consumed and not celebrated.

On the other hand, the Church’s table is good and right and wholesome and beneficial because it is covered by the blood of God’s Lamb, Jesus Christ. Jesus was food for us, and now we eat the food of the table with the hearts of forgiven saints. Solomon says, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” The mercy of confession is what makes food glorious and delicious.

Tomorrow, we are going full-steam into a 40-day culture of repentance. For many, this will mean fasting and meditating and focusing in greater detail on our lack of gratitude for the gifts of God. We have eaten without understanding, communed without confession, watched without discernment, entertained ourselves without the table, and found refuge in feeble fortresses made by human hands. We have rebuked our children for their lack of love while we have been unloving to our spouses and our own children.

We have 40 days to flesh this out, but tonight, eat well, laugh goodly, and love your neighbor like God loved the fat of the lambs in Israel’s sacrifices. Don’t be shy! Jesus gave his life for the abundant table we share tonight!

Let us pray:

O, Lord, how beautiful these last days have been! Prepare us now on this last day of Epiphany for the gifts of your table. When we forget you, we forget life itself; therefore, give us the fat of Israel’s sacrifices, yay more, give us the fulfillment of Israel’s sacrifices, Jesus himself. For the riches of Solomon’s house and the banquets of Pensacola do not come close to the glory of the marriage Supper of the Lamb. As we stand at the end of Epiphany and the entrance gate to the Lenten Season, may our hearts long for the kneeling bench of forgiveness, the peaceful ethos of a clean conscience, and the benediction of a loving God. Cleanse our hearts that we may eat as unto the Lord and may live as unto the Lord, for we pray unto the Lord of forgiveness who declares our hands clean to eat and drink, amen!