This entry is for both my forum post for Redemptive Cinema class and my blog. I've always wanted to write on one my favorite movies, Saved!, and now with needing to do one for Redemptive Cinema class, I have the time to. I could say so much about this movie, almost to the point I could write a book about it. But for now, I'm going to do a small bit. But first, I need you to check out this clip...
The Gospel is not a weapon
or read the transcript of it below
Pastor Skip: [to the Christian Jewels] Listen, I'm concerned about Mary. Something's going on.
Hilary Faye: Yeah, me too.
Pastor Skip: Well, she's part of your posse, and I think that you could help her. I'm gonna need you to be a warrior out there on the front lines for Jesus.
Tia: You mean like shoot her.
Pastor Skip: No, I was thinking of something a little less gangsta.I need someone who's spiritually armed to help guide her back to her faith,to love and care that only Jesus can supply. You down with that?
Hilary Faye:Yeah, I'm down with that.
Pastor Skip:She's pretty vulnerable right now,so I'm gonna need you to be extra gentle.
[cuts to Mary walking, reading a book. Hilary Faye's van swings around]
- Hurry! Hurry! Come on!
- I'm going! I'm going!
- Get her!
- Come on, Tia!
-Stuff her in here!
-Hurry up! Hurry Up!
Hilary Faye:In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you,leave the body of this servant of God.
Mary:You're performing an exorcism on me?! Get off me!
Hilary Faye: We've gotta get rid of the evil in you.
Tia [holding up a picture of Jesus to Mary's face]: It's God's will!
Mary: God's will?
Tia: Christ died for your sins!
Hilary Faye: Ok, wait a second. [to Mary] Are you not going to accept our intervention?
Mary: You mean kidnapping? No!
Hilary Faye: You are backsliding into the flames of hell.
Veronica:You've become a magnet for sin.We've all witnessed it.
Mary: Sure.Veronica acting all pure. What about last spring break at the Promise Maker's rally?
Hilary Faye:You are making accusations as we're trying to save your soul? Mary, turn away from Satan. Jesus, he loves you.
Mary: You don't know the first thing about love.
Hilary Faye: [throws a Bible at Mary] I am FILLED with Christ's love! You are just jealous of my success in the Lord.
Mary: [Mary holds up the Bible] This is not a weapon! You idiot.
So what's your response to the last quote, said by Mary? If you're somewhat knowledgeable in the Bible, I bet you might have though of Hebrews 4:12, " For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" or maybe Ephesians 6:17b, "... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Both verses compare the Bible to a sword, the most lethal weapon at the time. When I think of it that way, I wonder if the Bible was written today, would the Word of God be described as a machine gun, shotgun, bazooka or atomic bomb? Actually, I kind of think that atomic bomb might work. An atomic bomb immediately consumes those in close proximity to where it fell, and those off a distance still feel side effects in the present and future from the radiation. In the same way, those in direct contact with the Word of God will be consumed by it, while those who get bits and pieces of it indirectly will still have those bits and pieces weighing down on their heart, in the present and future. But back onto subject, the Lord says His Words are like a lethal weapon, but the movie seems to say "no" to this, and makes anyone who believes this look like a fool. So what do we say? Do we blindly just say, "God is always true, God says it is a weapon, thus it is truly a weapon, no question, end of discussion" or do we have a logical response for the fallen non-Christian who won't accept that as answer? I know when I first saw this movie, I started out saying, "But Mary, you're wrong! It is a weapon. The Bible says so!" But then I started saying it's a metaphorical weapon, or "not that type" of weapon, and it would lead to some pretty messed up theology. And I couldn't help but think that Mary might have had a point. What do you with it?
I came across this clip because I was naturally searching for YouTube clips of one of my favorite movies. This one showed up. Interested on why the person put it up, I clicked on his YouTube profile, which gave a link for his blog, on which he used the clip for a point he was making, called "The Gospel is not a weapon." Below I have provided the links if you want to read them...
The Gospel is Not a Gun- Part 1
The Gospel is Not a Gun- Part 2
If you were too lazy to look at those blogs, I'll quickly summarize what he said. The pastor admitted that in his early years he was treating the gospel like a gun. He would "load his gun" by learning as much Bible and theology as he could. Those on his side with guns were traditional theologians like Calvin, Spurgeon, Piper, Keller, and Edwards. The enemy on the opposite side of the gun were guys like McLaren and Osteen. And he would open fire on them his theology. And he was convicted of this. He felt like he was misusing the gospel.
Are you familiar with the term "friendly fire"? It is when the troops are under fire, not from the enemy, but rather their own side. It may have not been intended for guns to be fired against their on side, but for whatever reason (possibly just bad directions/orders), mistakes are made and friendly fire occurs. The most recent popular story of friendly fire is the story of Pat Tillman, a football player with a big contract from the Arizona Cardinals. He gave up that big contract to go serve his country. He died in Afghanistan, and was made a hero because he gave up both his career and life. When an investigation went on, it discovered he died in friendly. I believe that what's made his story so tragic. Not that he lost his big football career because he died in a war, but rather that he died in a war from his own side not the enemy. Of all the ways to die in gunfire, I feel friendly fire is the most tragic.
And I think the biggest tragedy in Christianity is that Christians are under friendly fire from themselves. We load up our guns with the doctrine from our perferred denomination or faith statement, then we go open fire on those from different denominations, telling them they're wrong. And it kills the relationship between brothers and sisters in Christ; it kills the unity of the Body of Christ. Sometimes it's so bad the attacking Christian will even tell his target that he's not really a Christian if he/she doesn't exactly agree with the attacker's faith statement. Even worse this ends up polluting our evangelism. I believe Christians are to evangelize to save souls from hell and separation from God and bring them into heavenly unity with the Lord. Instead, sometimes it seems like Christians go out and evangelize to prove themselves right and the lost wrong. Heck, I heard someone in my college went out to evangelize to a Jew, and his opening line to him was, "How does it feel to be wrong?" Yes, I believe that Jesus is the Truth, and God's Word is Truth, but are we really aiming to save people from being wrong?
It's sad to say I sometimes see this at my college. People will go on and on, arguing and arguing, about who has got the right answer to this doctrine. And in the end, people just end up mad at each other, not talking to each for a while. The relationship is ruined. And let me tell you, I've been under this friendly fire. I've heard everything from "I would highly doubt you're a Christian if you call yourself a Democrat" to "If a whole nationwide conference of several churches has one or two churchs that are ok with homosexuality, then they support homosexuality, and have no part with the greater church" at my college, and let me tell you, it's made it harder and harder to attend here. I feel like I don't fit in and have no support. Even the few Mennonite "brothers" I have at this school have put my under this same friendly fire, and even my roommate. Is there anywhere safe I can go?
This is what I see in the Saved! clip. I don't believe Mary has fallen away from God, because in the end she admits she messed up. I would also like to (arguably) say many are turning to God. What's happening is Mary is entering this period of questioning and doubting. Even when she seems to be rejecting God, she is still seeking (even though it's other religions) because she believes it can't be all wrong, there has to be a right. Arguably, I like to say what caused Mary to doubt was that she was put under friendly fire. Hilary Faye took her loaded gun of evangelical Christianity, and shot it at Mary, at Dean, and every one who was struggling with sin. And sometimes, I think we're misusing the weapon we're given, to end up killing the soul. Just like the pastor from the blogs I gave you, I sometimes want to cry out to God, "Lord, please take Your Word away from us! We don't know how to use it properly!"
So in the end, I have to conclude by saying, "Yes, the Bible is weapon, but who is our target?" Lucky for us, God provides that answer. Remember Ephesians 6:17b? Look on top of that paragraph at Ephesians 6:12. It says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." The target is not the flesh and blood human being, but the dark powers behind the sin the human is struggling with. To borrow from the old adage, the target is not the sinner, but the sin. It's time we stop firing at people, especially Christians, and time to start firing on Satan and his demons.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
9 Ways the modern-day* church has gone wrong with worship
Ok, this is something that has been on my heart since fall 2007 (perhaps attending LBC started it), but I have repressed for the benefit of not harming any relationships in the body of Christ. But as we all know, if we fill the gun power keg too full, and if it kept it the heat too long, it might spontaneously combust into a huge explosion. This is something I cannot hold back anymore. I entrust that I can get appropriate feedback from trusted people, instead of just hateful spews from people who barely know me. But I can no longer turn my head and ignore what is going on in the worship time. There are just some things that irk me about the way we have approached worship in the church. I hope that someday worship will be reformed, just like Martin Luther reformed the church. I may not have 95 Thesis, but I do have at least 9 points that the church needs to address to be able to successfully reform worship.
9 ways the modern-day* church has gone wrong with worship
Times God/Jesus is implicitly mentioned: 138 times
Times God/Jesus is mentioned altogether: 246 times (top 2 added together)
Times the self (I, me, etc.) is mentioned: 247 times
Times the alturistic sense of "you" is used: 1 time
Times the body of Christ/church is mentioned: 6 times
Times the creation is used in praise: 49 times
Times passion week and redemption is used: 56 times
Possible Conclusions:
-We focus more about ourselves rather than God
-We focus more on 3 days of Christ's early life over the whole redemptive history
-While we might understand worship, the non-Christian or new Christian may not
-Very little time is dedicated to building each other up
Are you familiar with the term "sensual"? Today it has a bad reputation because it is often seen as a synonym to the word "sexual". But the etomology of the word shows the word sensual simply means "exciting, arousing, or appealing to the senses". I want to argue that all music gives us a sensual experience. We play music that reflects our emotions. We play upbeat songs when we are happy, we play downbeat songs when we're sad, and we play loud music when we're angry. No matter what genre you like listening to, this is true. May I go further on to this is true for both secular and religious music. The Bible does this. In David's good times, he wrote Psalms of praise, and in David's bad times, he wrote painful laments. So emotional involvement in praise and worship isn't fully wrong, but it isn't fully right. We have to remember our emotions is only one part of us, one part among many (physical, mental, social, spiritual, etc.). We also have to be careful with driving up emotions so high. Emotional thinking and decision-making isn't always the wisest. It may contradict the logical answer. Sometimes feeling good will become more important than expressing truths. And if that gets to an extreme, a wolf in sheep's clothing can sneak in, exchange the truths with lies, and we won't notice because all we care about is the emotional high. It calls for extra accountability to the worship leaders. Lastly, extra attention on the emotions can cause the intellect or anyone who is less in tune with emotions to feel left out of the worship experience. God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth, both emotionally and intellectually.
3. Worship songs are not always Biblically accurate
This piggy-backs off the last point. When all we care about is the emotional connection, we ignore the heresies and blasphemies that enter our praise songs. We need to make sure the songs we sing speak Biblical truth. Anything else is a lie. I can go on and on with this, but I will try to limit to a few examples. First example: "Come, Now is the Time to Worship." The song says in one line, "Come, just as you are to worship." This is not right. The Bible says we need to prepare and cleanse our hearts and minds as we enter God's presence. This is found in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Second example: "Above All." Yeah, it's a cute song about how Jesus died for us, but the biggest error is what i said in point 1: it's self-centered. Hello, Jesus was thinking about [God] the Father's Will above all. Because Jesus always put the Father before His ministry, just as we should. Third example: "Blessed Be Your Name." Now this one isn't as bad because it is taken from Scripture. The only problem is that it is used out of context. It's true that the bridge is a taken right out of the book of Job. But when Job says that, he is lamenting in the deepest sorrows. We sing it in a upbeat, happy praise. Trust me, it's better sung as a lament. Fourth example: "The Heart of Worship." It says "I'll bring you more than a song." Hello, this is a song! And people get caught up in the song, too! I don't know, I just never got it. And there is enough more. I once heard this one song (forget what it was called, but it's not like I want to remember) where the song said that something is missing in life, and that the writer is searching for it, but left it at that! No mention of the Lord, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or how God gives more to life. Worship songs have to come back to praising Jesus in a Biblical way. Furthermore, I call for worship songs to mention God and Jesus more explicitly. Notice in my survey that Jesus and God's name usually came in the form of "You" or some title given to either part of the trinity. Yes, the mature Christian on spiritual meat knows what the song is about, but the non-Christian or the newborn Christian on spiritual milk may be clueless, and it wouldn't be edifying to them. It is key for church to be edifying to all, which means understandable to all.
4. Worship songs tend to focus more on the death and resurrection
My survey alone should show that is true. The survery showed we sung more about redemptive themes than even the creation. Now in writing this, I don't want it to seem like I'm favoring hymns in worship just for the sake of favoring hymns, but if there is one thing I like about hymns, it's the variety. Open a hymnal (if you can find one), and you'll find hymns on peace, hope, love, joy, prayer, praise, thanksgiving, suffering, wisdom and so much more. You can find hymns on the advent of Christ's birth, Christ's birth, Christ's ministry, Christ's works, Christ's death, Christ's resurrection, Christ's ascension, and Christ's Body, filled with the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to comtemporary praise and worship, most, if not all, songs can be placed in two categories: praising God for His creation or praising God for his sacrifice. And the survery shows which one is more used. Is it wrong to sing praise of Christ's work on the cross. Not at all, or at least not fully. Where does it go wrong? When we can't move on. Let me explain better by explaining how worship has ended up just focusing on passion weekend (Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday). To briefly sum up the Bible and redemptive history, it can be done in 4 stage: creation, fall, redemption, re-creation. To say it in sentence form, "God created you, you fell into sin, Jesus saves those from sin who receive him, and makes them a new creation through sanctification." But over time the 20th century evangelical church has shaved off the ends of the redemptive story, leaving only the fall and redemption side in. So the evangelical's method of evangelism is saying to non-believers, "You have fallen into sin, but Jesus can save you from sin if you receive him." Is there anything wrong with this saying? No, but I believe this saying robs people of the full picture, of being wonderfully made in the image of God and, as Christians, being remade into a new creation. But no. Instead, it's just fall & redemption. The four parts are now: humans sin, Christ died, Christ, receive the gift. And this idea has sneaked into our worship time. Our worship singing is all about the fall and redemption. We keep reminding ourselves that we are fallen sinners, totally dependant upon Christ. Is this a lie? Not at all. But it does have a negative effect on us when we don't have the full redemption story on it. Ever feel guilty of your sin, even after being saved. Why would you be? Hebrews tells us that once we are saved, God remembers our sins no more. Romans says that if we are in Christ, there is no condemnation. So why do Christian still feel condemned? They are constantly reminded in worship they are sinners dependant on Christ's salvation, so they keep worshipping God in that aspect, as if God will not forgive them if they don't. Instead, what should be happening is we should be hearing more praise and worship songs that talk about re-creation and sanctification, so that we can grow in those areas. Sometimes I think God can do so much more with us if we moved on in the way of sanctification, and stop groveling at the cross, thanking for forgiveness that we have already received. It is like Jesus is crying out to use, "Yes, I get it you're thankful you're saved. Can we move on to working in my kingdom and in my ministry?" Or better yet, it is like Jesus is saying, "I am off the cross. Are you?" Finally, I'd to close with pointing out a Biblical proof for this: the Psalms. There is not just 1 genre of psalms. There are quite a few: laments, praising God for rescuing, praising God for who He is, and wisdom psalms. If the Psalms are in variety, shouldn't the comtemporary worship be as well?
5. Worship team does not lead, but rather performs
It's typical for the worship team, especially the leader of the team to be incredibly talented musically. Is there anything wrong with that? No. In fact, it seems like they are the first ones willing to do it. Do I think that musical talent should be the discerning factor in choosing a praise and worship band. I don't believe so. I do believe there is a difference between the spiritual gift of worship leader and musical talent. But the problem I am about to discuss can happen to worship leaders who are talented and not as talented; it just seems more prevailant in those who are musically talent. It might be because the worship team is musically talented, or it might be because the stage is set up like a concert. But whatever the cause, it seems like the worship team is performing than leading worship. First sign of a performing worship team: singers, especially the lead singer, uses his/her/their full octive range in singing. Obviously less talented singers in the audience/congregation aren't going to be able to reach these notes. So why are doing it? Second sign of a performing worship team: instrumental solos. Yeah that's cool to hear at a concert, but how is it edifying the rest of the congregation? I won't even rule out it's an act of worship to God, but the soloist is not leading the rest of the church with the soloist. Pretty much, today's worship scene is set up like this: the worship team is the performers, and the church congreation is the audience. It needs to switched as God is the audience, and the performers are both the worship team and the rest of the church congregation. It's time we define the lead in "worship leaders." They are worship leaders, not worship performers.
6. When worship team does "lead," they are commanding
Ever have a worship team tell you what to do, what to think or how to feel? I have a problem more with the last two then the first one, but let's go in order. Now I don't have a problem of worship leaders telling their audience to sit or stand. It tells the congregation, both members and visitors, what the appropriate stance or position is while worshipping. But I think when the worship teams tells the congregation to sing a certain way, say a certain line, or put their hands in a certain position, that goes to far. Those actions are suppose to be something that comes from the heart. Speaking of which, I can move on to my dislike of worship teams telling the congregation on how to think or feel. This is just wrong inside and outstide of worship. If you're telling me how to think or feel, and it's contrary to how I really think or feel, then changing it would not be genuine. And I might be getting something else out of the worship time, but if the worship team tells me to think/feel another way, I might feel wrong, and lose spiritual growth. God made everyone individually special, and the Body of Christ must recognize that it will create different worship styles. I believe the worship team's job is to encourage worship, no matter what the style.
7. There is not always unity in worship
This goes beyond the fact of the powerpoint not matching the worship team. Ever have this happen: half the worship team repeats a verse, another repeats the chorus? Or have the singers repeat a verse, while the instrument players repeating the chorus? This can lead the worshipping congregation confused on what to sing! Heck, that happens, too! The worshipping congregation goes to continue to song as normal, and the worship band decides to change order. Now we, as Christians, claim that the Holy Spirit is with us in worship, and that the Holy Spirit unites. This is true. But what do you say when you the above incidents happen? It is embarrassing! It's a bad witness of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is there at worship, uniting us, this shouldn't happen. Now don't get me wrong: I claim both statements about the Holy Spirit as truth. So that leads me to want to question the motifs of the praise band when it does happen, especially if the praise band has been practicing too. But I will not question too much, so I don't have to face judgment. All I'm saying is that at least at hymns, the hymn leader would say what verse are being sung ahead of time.
8. Worship can get too complex with instruments and sounds
Sometimes I think worship can get too carried away with how we sound. First is the instruments. I think the biggest worship team I saw had 10 performers on stage: 4 guitars (lead, rhythm, bass, and acoustic), 2 pianists (baby grand piano & keyboard), 2 drummers (full drum set & double bongos), and 2 singers. Another time I saw 3 acousitic guitars. I turned to one of my friends, who is musically talented, and asked him, "Is there really a point to 3 acoustic guitars?" and his reply was "No, not really." Doesn't this kind of seem ridiculous? Truth to be told, if we really cared about sound, the better worship teams I've heard are the ones with the fewer instruments, the better. Ever listen to the Amish? They don't believe in playing instruments, and their voices are wonderful. Second in this subject is the singing. As I said above, some worship leaders will sing full octives. Others coordinate the church into 4-part singing. Still others don't care and just have everyone sing in unison. The worst causes is I heard worship leaders say in a low-tone, implicit, "nice" way, "If you can't sing, don't sing" (they will say something like "pause and silently think about the words" but that's what they mean). Last time I checked, Psalm 100:1 says to make joyful sound unto the Lord, not necessarily a pleasant sounding one. Point is that it's about the heart. It may even be true that the worshipper who sings "badly" might have a better heart in worship than someone singing "well." Third part would just be sound in general. This ranges anywhere from designing the church building to have good acoustics to installing microphones and speakers in the right place. For this I say the same I said for singing. It's not how we sound, but where our heart is.
9. Worship and the rest of the service is separate, where worship becomes the center
I've noticed the typical pattern for worship is: call to worship, praise and worship music, announcements, offering, sermon, prayer requests, bendiction. Sometimes prayer time comes between offering and sermon, but not the point. Somehow this setup is group in sections, instead of one whole thing. Thus, sometimes more attention is given to one than the other. The popular choice is the praise and worship time. I've seen people give their all in praise and worship, singly loudly and waving their arms, but then after they are unlively, so unlively it's like they are do. They zone out for rest of the service. Heck, I've even seen some people leave the sanctuary, and even leave the church, after the praise and worship time, as if church is done. Why is this? It could be something as simple as they put in all their energy in the beginning, and by the time praise and worship singing is over, they are out of juice and pooped. But I think there is something more. I think it's because they are in the wrong mindset. They believe that the preacher giving the sermon is merely the preacher's act of worship, not theirs. But this is only paritally true. Sure the preacher is worship God by preaching, but he's also doing it to edify church. He's giving you just as much spiritual food as praise and worship will. And if you believe as I, that the Holy Spirit is speaking through the preacher, then the Holy Spirit might be speaking to us in the sermon as in praise and worship singing. Then those that zone out will be missing out on God's Word. I know that I truthfully get more out of the sermon than the praise and worship music. If you give it a try, you might find that out as well. As an LBC chapel speaker once said, "If you refuse to listen to God through His Word the Bible, then why would God speak to you any other way?" This kind of goes back to my second point. Church, it is time you stop just feeling, and start thinking.
In closing, I want to leave you with a verse and an experience I had. The verse is Hebrews 5:13,14- "Anyone who lives on milk, still being an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by cosntant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." I love the imagery the author (possibly Paul, because Paul uses the same imagery) uses here. When infants start eating, they have to start on milk first, but as they mature and need more calories, they move on to solid food. In fact, a lot of infant nutritionists say it's unhealthy to push solid food on an infant. But you ever think of this way: is it unhealthy to keep an infant on milk when it needs to move up to solid food? That might be denying the baby the important nutrients, like calories, that the infant needs to keep growing. I will tell you of the experience I had. I went on a fast for five days, having nothing but a quart of milk for every meal (which is about a half gallon a day). See what happened to me and try to connect it with the verse. Did I survive? Yes. Was I hospitalized? No. Did it keep me alive? With the help of God, yes. So on the surface level, it did its job. But deep down inside, I was lacking something. At the end of my milk "meals," I was still hungry. Even though it gave my the nutrients to stay alive, I robbed myself of other nutrients that were neccesary to grow. I could feel inside that I was lacking solid food, and I craved for it. I crave for something to fill me. Some days I felt aching muscles, and I wondered if that had anything to do with the fast. See the connection? While milk keeps us alive, we need to eventually move on to solid foods to keep growing strong. This is true in the spiritual aspects, too. See, I believe that when we are only focusing on a praise & worship time where the individal is center, where feelings are more imporant than thinking, and where passion week and redemption themes are the only themes mentioned, we are just feeding ourselves spiritual milk, the same we did as when we received Christ. When people who have been Christians for a long just feed themselves spiritual milk, they are depriving themselves of the nutrients they need to continue growing spiritually. This will leave them as weak as infants, depending on a "spiritual high" to keep themselves going. They will be aching and yearning for something more. Look at Hebrews 5:13,14 as an encouragement to grow up. Many of you Christians are ready to grow up after many years in the faith. But you must move on from your milk and eat solid food. I believe if we can approach and conquer these 9 ways, we as a church can move on to bigger and better things. Once again, I call the church to grow, taking on solid food instead of staying milk, and to start thinking.
*I chose the term "modern-day" although I was tempted to use "evangelical" instead because these problem seem prevailant in the evangelical church. Yet I've noticed these problems sometimes in the emergent church, as well as the pentacostal/charsmatic church. The only churches who have less of these problems are the older churches with older traditions. Therefore, I think the problem isn't a church movement issue, but rather a time period issue. Thus, I settled with the term "modern-day"
9 ways the modern-day* church has gone wrong with worship
- Worship is self-centered. It's all about me.
- Worship is all about the emotions
- Worship songs are not always Biblically accurate
- Worship songs tend to focus more on the death and resurrection
- Worship teams does not lead, but rather performs
- When worship teams do "lead," they are commanding
- There is not always unity in worship
- Worship can get too complex with instruments and sounds
- Worship and the rest of the service are separate, where worship becomes the center
But before I go on, let me say that these observations I had made were in a "scientific" way. How is it scientific? I kept score; I did a survey. In my notebook, I made 7 columns to find 7 things I thought I would find in worship songs: number of times God is mentioned explicitly (Lord, God, Jesus, Christ, Holy Spirit, Yahweh, etc.), number of times God is mentioned implicitly (any title of God or Jesus that does not use God or Jesus, or any time "You" is used mentioning God or Jesus, but not really stated in the verse or chorus), numbers of time the self is mentioned (I, me, my, myself, etc.), number of times "you" is used (an altruistic use of "you," the ones not in reference to God), number of times the church or the Body of Christ is mentioned (pretty much "we"), number of times the creation is mentioned to worship God, and the number of times the passion weekend and redemption is mentioned (this is Christ's death, resurrection, or any redemption themes, like paying for sins, etc.). These are my results:
Times God/Jesus is implicitly mentioned: 138 times
Times God/Jesus is mentioned altogether: 246 times (top 2 added together)
Times the self (I, me, etc.) is mentioned: 247 times
Times the alturistic sense of "you" is used: 1 time
Times the body of Christ/church is mentioned: 6 times
Times the creation is used in praise: 49 times
Times passion week and redemption is used: 56 times
Possible Conclusions:
-We focus more about ourselves rather than God
-We focus more on 3 days of Christ's early life over the whole redemptive history
-While we might understand worship, the non-Christian or new Christian may not
-Very little time is dedicated to building each other up
1. Worship is self-centered. It's all about me.
One of the most eye-opening discoveries in my survey is that the column that won was the high numbers that the self was mentioned, even more than God implicitly mentioned or God explicitly mentioned. I can only naturally conclude that in praise and worship, we sing more about ourselves than about God. In a way, we're not worshipping God, but ourselves, or at least our relationship of God. Do I dare even say we're asking God to praise us for deciding to follow Him? I blame the modern era influence on Christianity during the 20th century. 20th century modern philosophy is very centered around the self. Now don't get me wrong. I do believe that salvation comes with every one's individual decision to follow Christ. But we forget that when we do make this individual decision, we become part of a community, the Body of Christ. One of the reasons we go to church is to help fellow Christians be edified by one another. But the praise and worship time seems to say different. The worshipper sings so little about the church community and even less about others in the church community. It means praise and worship has become narcissistic, which is not Christian.
Are you familiar with the term "sensual"? Today it has a bad reputation because it is often seen as a synonym to the word "sexual". But the etomology of the word shows the word sensual simply means "exciting, arousing, or appealing to the senses". I want to argue that all music gives us a sensual experience. We play music that reflects our emotions. We play upbeat songs when we are happy, we play downbeat songs when we're sad, and we play loud music when we're angry. No matter what genre you like listening to, this is true. May I go further on to this is true for both secular and religious music. The Bible does this. In David's good times, he wrote Psalms of praise, and in David's bad times, he wrote painful laments. So emotional involvement in praise and worship isn't fully wrong, but it isn't fully right. We have to remember our emotions is only one part of us, one part among many (physical, mental, social, spiritual, etc.). We also have to be careful with driving up emotions so high. Emotional thinking and decision-making isn't always the wisest. It may contradict the logical answer. Sometimes feeling good will become more important than expressing truths. And if that gets to an extreme, a wolf in sheep's clothing can sneak in, exchange the truths with lies, and we won't notice because all we care about is the emotional high. It calls for extra accountability to the worship leaders. Lastly, extra attention on the emotions can cause the intellect or anyone who is less in tune with emotions to feel left out of the worship experience. God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth, both emotionally and intellectually.
3. Worship songs are not always Biblically accurate
This piggy-backs off the last point. When all we care about is the emotional connection, we ignore the heresies and blasphemies that enter our praise songs. We need to make sure the songs we sing speak Biblical truth. Anything else is a lie. I can go on and on with this, but I will try to limit to a few examples. First example: "Come, Now is the Time to Worship." The song says in one line, "Come, just as you are to worship." This is not right. The Bible says we need to prepare and cleanse our hearts and minds as we enter God's presence. This is found in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Second example: "Above All." Yeah, it's a cute song about how Jesus died for us, but the biggest error is what i said in point 1: it's self-centered. Hello, Jesus was thinking about [God] the Father's Will above all. Because Jesus always put the Father before His ministry, just as we should. Third example: "Blessed Be Your Name." Now this one isn't as bad because it is taken from Scripture. The only problem is that it is used out of context. It's true that the bridge is a taken right out of the book of Job. But when Job says that, he is lamenting in the deepest sorrows. We sing it in a upbeat, happy praise. Trust me, it's better sung as a lament. Fourth example: "The Heart of Worship." It says "I'll bring you more than a song." Hello, this is a song! And people get caught up in the song, too! I don't know, I just never got it. And there is enough more. I once heard this one song (forget what it was called, but it's not like I want to remember) where the song said that something is missing in life, and that the writer is searching for it, but left it at that! No mention of the Lord, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or how God gives more to life. Worship songs have to come back to praising Jesus in a Biblical way. Furthermore, I call for worship songs to mention God and Jesus more explicitly. Notice in my survey that Jesus and God's name usually came in the form of "You" or some title given to either part of the trinity. Yes, the mature Christian on spiritual meat knows what the song is about, but the non-Christian or the newborn Christian on spiritual milk may be clueless, and it wouldn't be edifying to them. It is key for church to be edifying to all, which means understandable to all.
4. Worship songs tend to focus more on the death and resurrection
My survey alone should show that is true. The survery showed we sung more about redemptive themes than even the creation. Now in writing this, I don't want it to seem like I'm favoring hymns in worship just for the sake of favoring hymns, but if there is one thing I like about hymns, it's the variety. Open a hymnal (if you can find one), and you'll find hymns on peace, hope, love, joy, prayer, praise, thanksgiving, suffering, wisdom and so much more. You can find hymns on the advent of Christ's birth, Christ's birth, Christ's ministry, Christ's works, Christ's death, Christ's resurrection, Christ's ascension, and Christ's Body, filled with the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to comtemporary praise and worship, most, if not all, songs can be placed in two categories: praising God for His creation or praising God for his sacrifice. And the survery shows which one is more used. Is it wrong to sing praise of Christ's work on the cross. Not at all, or at least not fully. Where does it go wrong? When we can't move on. Let me explain better by explaining how worship has ended up just focusing on passion weekend (Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday). To briefly sum up the Bible and redemptive history, it can be done in 4 stage: creation, fall, redemption, re-creation. To say it in sentence form, "God created you, you fell into sin, Jesus saves those from sin who receive him, and makes them a new creation through sanctification." But over time the 20th century evangelical church has shaved off the ends of the redemptive story, leaving only the fall and redemption side in. So the evangelical's method of evangelism is saying to non-believers, "You have fallen into sin, but Jesus can save you from sin if you receive him." Is there anything wrong with this saying? No, but I believe this saying robs people of the full picture, of being wonderfully made in the image of God and, as Christians, being remade into a new creation. But no. Instead, it's just fall & redemption. The four parts are now: humans sin, Christ died, Christ, receive the gift. And this idea has sneaked into our worship time. Our worship singing is all about the fall and redemption. We keep reminding ourselves that we are fallen sinners, totally dependant upon Christ. Is this a lie? Not at all. But it does have a negative effect on us when we don't have the full redemption story on it. Ever feel guilty of your sin, even after being saved. Why would you be? Hebrews tells us that once we are saved, God remembers our sins no more. Romans says that if we are in Christ, there is no condemnation. So why do Christian still feel condemned? They are constantly reminded in worship they are sinners dependant on Christ's salvation, so they keep worshipping God in that aspect, as if God will not forgive them if they don't. Instead, what should be happening is we should be hearing more praise and worship songs that talk about re-creation and sanctification, so that we can grow in those areas. Sometimes I think God can do so much more with us if we moved on in the way of sanctification, and stop groveling at the cross, thanking for forgiveness that we have already received. It is like Jesus is crying out to use, "Yes, I get it you're thankful you're saved. Can we move on to working in my kingdom and in my ministry?" Or better yet, it is like Jesus is saying, "I am off the cross. Are you?" Finally, I'd to close with pointing out a Biblical proof for this: the Psalms. There is not just 1 genre of psalms. There are quite a few: laments, praising God for rescuing, praising God for who He is, and wisdom psalms. If the Psalms are in variety, shouldn't the comtemporary worship be as well?
5. Worship team does not lead, but rather performs
It's typical for the worship team, especially the leader of the team to be incredibly talented musically. Is there anything wrong with that? No. In fact, it seems like they are the first ones willing to do it. Do I think that musical talent should be the discerning factor in choosing a praise and worship band. I don't believe so. I do believe there is a difference between the spiritual gift of worship leader and musical talent. But the problem I am about to discuss can happen to worship leaders who are talented and not as talented; it just seems more prevailant in those who are musically talent. It might be because the worship team is musically talented, or it might be because the stage is set up like a concert. But whatever the cause, it seems like the worship team is performing than leading worship. First sign of a performing worship team: singers, especially the lead singer, uses his/her/their full octive range in singing. Obviously less talented singers in the audience/congregation aren't going to be able to reach these notes. So why are doing it? Second sign of a performing worship team: instrumental solos. Yeah that's cool to hear at a concert, but how is it edifying the rest of the congregation? I won't even rule out it's an act of worship to God, but the soloist is not leading the rest of the church with the soloist. Pretty much, today's worship scene is set up like this: the worship team is the performers, and the church congreation is the audience. It needs to switched as God is the audience, and the performers are both the worship team and the rest of the church congregation. It's time we define the lead in "worship leaders." They are worship leaders, not worship performers.
6. When worship team does "lead," they are commanding
Ever have a worship team tell you what to do, what to think or how to feel? I have a problem more with the last two then the first one, but let's go in order. Now I don't have a problem of worship leaders telling their audience to sit or stand. It tells the congregation, both members and visitors, what the appropriate stance or position is while worshipping. But I think when the worship teams tells the congregation to sing a certain way, say a certain line, or put their hands in a certain position, that goes to far. Those actions are suppose to be something that comes from the heart. Speaking of which, I can move on to my dislike of worship teams telling the congregation on how to think or feel. This is just wrong inside and outstide of worship. If you're telling me how to think or feel, and it's contrary to how I really think or feel, then changing it would not be genuine. And I might be getting something else out of the worship time, but if the worship team tells me to think/feel another way, I might feel wrong, and lose spiritual growth. God made everyone individually special, and the Body of Christ must recognize that it will create different worship styles. I believe the worship team's job is to encourage worship, no matter what the style.
7. There is not always unity in worship
This goes beyond the fact of the powerpoint not matching the worship team. Ever have this happen: half the worship team repeats a verse, another repeats the chorus? Or have the singers repeat a verse, while the instrument players repeating the chorus? This can lead the worshipping congregation confused on what to sing! Heck, that happens, too! The worshipping congregation goes to continue to song as normal, and the worship band decides to change order. Now we, as Christians, claim that the Holy Spirit is with us in worship, and that the Holy Spirit unites. This is true. But what do you say when you the above incidents happen? It is embarrassing! It's a bad witness of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is there at worship, uniting us, this shouldn't happen. Now don't get me wrong: I claim both statements about the Holy Spirit as truth. So that leads me to want to question the motifs of the praise band when it does happen, especially if the praise band has been practicing too. But I will not question too much, so I don't have to face judgment. All I'm saying is that at least at hymns, the hymn leader would say what verse are being sung ahead of time.
8. Worship can get too complex with instruments and sounds
Sometimes I think worship can get too carried away with how we sound. First is the instruments. I think the biggest worship team I saw had 10 performers on stage: 4 guitars (lead, rhythm, bass, and acoustic), 2 pianists (baby grand piano & keyboard), 2 drummers (full drum set & double bongos), and 2 singers. Another time I saw 3 acousitic guitars. I turned to one of my friends, who is musically talented, and asked him, "Is there really a point to 3 acoustic guitars?" and his reply was "No, not really." Doesn't this kind of seem ridiculous? Truth to be told, if we really cared about sound, the better worship teams I've heard are the ones with the fewer instruments, the better. Ever listen to the Amish? They don't believe in playing instruments, and their voices are wonderful. Second in this subject is the singing. As I said above, some worship leaders will sing full octives. Others coordinate the church into 4-part singing. Still others don't care and just have everyone sing in unison. The worst causes is I heard worship leaders say in a low-tone, implicit, "nice" way, "If you can't sing, don't sing" (they will say something like "pause and silently think about the words" but that's what they mean). Last time I checked, Psalm 100:1 says to make joyful sound unto the Lord, not necessarily a pleasant sounding one. Point is that it's about the heart. It may even be true that the worshipper who sings "badly" might have a better heart in worship than someone singing "well." Third part would just be sound in general. This ranges anywhere from designing the church building to have good acoustics to installing microphones and speakers in the right place. For this I say the same I said for singing. It's not how we sound, but where our heart is.
9. Worship and the rest of the service is separate, where worship becomes the center
I've noticed the typical pattern for worship is: call to worship, praise and worship music, announcements, offering, sermon, prayer requests, bendiction. Sometimes prayer time comes between offering and sermon, but not the point. Somehow this setup is group in sections, instead of one whole thing. Thus, sometimes more attention is given to one than the other. The popular choice is the praise and worship time. I've seen people give their all in praise and worship, singly loudly and waving their arms, but then after they are unlively, so unlively it's like they are do. They zone out for rest of the service. Heck, I've even seen some people leave the sanctuary, and even leave the church, after the praise and worship time, as if church is done. Why is this? It could be something as simple as they put in all their energy in the beginning, and by the time praise and worship singing is over, they are out of juice and pooped. But I think there is something more. I think it's because they are in the wrong mindset. They believe that the preacher giving the sermon is merely the preacher's act of worship, not theirs. But this is only paritally true. Sure the preacher is worship God by preaching, but he's also doing it to edify church. He's giving you just as much spiritual food as praise and worship will. And if you believe as I, that the Holy Spirit is speaking through the preacher, then the Holy Spirit might be speaking to us in the sermon as in praise and worship singing. Then those that zone out will be missing out on God's Word. I know that I truthfully get more out of the sermon than the praise and worship music. If you give it a try, you might find that out as well. As an LBC chapel speaker once said, "If you refuse to listen to God through His Word the Bible, then why would God speak to you any other way?" This kind of goes back to my second point. Church, it is time you stop just feeling, and start thinking.
In closing, I want to leave you with a verse and an experience I had. The verse is Hebrews 5:13,14- "Anyone who lives on milk, still being an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by cosntant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." I love the imagery the author (possibly Paul, because Paul uses the same imagery) uses here. When infants start eating, they have to start on milk first, but as they mature and need more calories, they move on to solid food. In fact, a lot of infant nutritionists say it's unhealthy to push solid food on an infant. But you ever think of this way: is it unhealthy to keep an infant on milk when it needs to move up to solid food? That might be denying the baby the important nutrients, like calories, that the infant needs to keep growing. I will tell you of the experience I had. I went on a fast for five days, having nothing but a quart of milk for every meal (which is about a half gallon a day). See what happened to me and try to connect it with the verse. Did I survive? Yes. Was I hospitalized? No. Did it keep me alive? With the help of God, yes. So on the surface level, it did its job. But deep down inside, I was lacking something. At the end of my milk "meals," I was still hungry. Even though it gave my the nutrients to stay alive, I robbed myself of other nutrients that were neccesary to grow. I could feel inside that I was lacking solid food, and I craved for it. I crave for something to fill me. Some days I felt aching muscles, and I wondered if that had anything to do with the fast. See the connection? While milk keeps us alive, we need to eventually move on to solid foods to keep growing strong. This is true in the spiritual aspects, too. See, I believe that when we are only focusing on a praise & worship time where the individal is center, where feelings are more imporant than thinking, and where passion week and redemption themes are the only themes mentioned, we are just feeding ourselves spiritual milk, the same we did as when we received Christ. When people who have been Christians for a long just feed themselves spiritual milk, they are depriving themselves of the nutrients they need to continue growing spiritually. This will leave them as weak as infants, depending on a "spiritual high" to keep themselves going. They will be aching and yearning for something more. Look at Hebrews 5:13,14 as an encouragement to grow up. Many of you Christians are ready to grow up after many years in the faith. But you must move on from your milk and eat solid food. I believe if we can approach and conquer these 9 ways, we as a church can move on to bigger and better things. Once again, I call the church to grow, taking on solid food instead of staying milk, and to start thinking.
*I chose the term "modern-day" although I was tempted to use "evangelical" instead because these problem seem prevailant in the evangelical church. Yet I've noticed these problems sometimes in the emergent church, as well as the pentacostal/charsmatic church. The only churches who have less of these problems are the older churches with older traditions. Therefore, I think the problem isn't a church movement issue, but rather a time period issue. Thus, I settled with the term "modern-day"
Monday, September 21, 2009
My Quizzing Testimony
As some of you might know, last week I submitted 50 applications for quiz coach to 50 churches. Most of the application was in the form of a typical resume, but I also included a 3-page testimony on how God has used quizzing to move me spiritually in my life. I would like to share that with you. Now remember, part of the reason for this testimony is also to convince the reader that I am ready to take on a quizzing position, so not every important, life-changing event in quizzing is in here, but most of it is. Enjoy.
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My name is Graham Holcomb. I am a retired Bible Quizzer, seeking to become a quizzing coach. I quizzed in ACC Bible Quizzing for eight years as a Bible quizzer. For my first three years, I quizzed for Ark Bible Chapel in Oley, PA. When Ark Bible no longer had a team, I went to quiz for Spring City Fellowship in Spring City, PA for the last five years. Let me share my quizzing testimony, and how it has made me the person I am today, inside and outside of quizzing.
I am sad to say the picture does not start out pretty. If I were to give you an honest introduction to a 7th grade Graham, you would see a depressed 7th grade student. I was depressed because I felt like I didn’t have any friends. I was depressed because I felt like he is untalented and ungifted, not good at anything. I had taken a survey at my church to discover my spiritual gifts, and I learned that knowledge was one of my spiritual gifts, but did not know how to use it. Little did I know how much the Lord was moving in my life. At my church’s youth group, there was a girl who attended the youth group, but didn’t go to our church. She went to Ark Bible Chapel, and her father was the church’s quiz team coach. Our youth leader, who know about my Biblical knowledge and love for learning the Bible, suggested that I become a part of quizzing. I thought about it, fully debating the pros and cons of joining, and at the last minute decided to be a part of it. It was a good choice. I fell in love with quizzing. I loved the detail studying of the books of the Bible we were quizzing on, and how quizzing made it so much fun. I enjoyed the fast-paced buzzing and the competition between quizzers and teams. I liked the feeling of being needed on the team for my God-given talents. All these factors and more made me want to quiz again. I wanted to do better.
To check to see if I was doing better, I started becoming a statistician of my own performance. It first started with keeping track of how many points I scored on the year and my final placing. Then it become more specific, keeping track of right and wrong buzz ins, right and wrong bonuses, quiz outs and error outs. This helped me see improvement. Being able to see the improvement helped me improve even further. I was able to get more of the good things, like right answers and quiz outs, and less of the bad things, like incorrect bonuses. This also helped me set goals to strive for.
For me, quizzing was never contained to January to March. I was still quizzing in the off-season from April to January, on the material for the next quizzing season. I write very detailed questions for the chapters being studied next year. In fact, I write down every question possible. How many questions I write depends on how many verses and how much free time I have. The most I have written is over 300 questions for 140 verses. I also tried to memorize some passage. Once again, how much I memorize comes down to how much I time I have. I try to memorize whole chapters. The chapters I choose usually is something I believe is hard to remember or important to know, which will be beneficial outside of quizzing. I do believe the entire Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant Word and is all around important, but I also think that some can be more involved than others. Those verses are the one I strive to memorize. Even though I am a retired quizzer, I still find myself writing questions and memorizing verses. I believe as a coach, if I continue to do these things, I can become a better Christian and become a better quiz coach by still learning God’s Word in detail.
But even with the right reasons in mind, things can go wrong. It was good that I no longer saw myself as ungifted or untalented, but now I solely saw my gifts and talents in quizzing. My identity solely was in quizzing. I let my quizzing performance define who I was. If I did good, I became proud. If I did poorly, I would become depressed and not like myself. All I wanted to think and talk about was quizzing. Studying in the quizzing offseason was a way to keep my identity because if I ceased to prepare for quizzing or even stop thinking about quizzing, I would return to my depression state of feeling unwanted or untalented. But my new quiz coaches would not allow me to be that way. Spending my last five years of my quizzing career with my new team and my new coaches, God used them both to help further my process of sanctification. By the end of those five years and the end of my quizzing career, my coach was able to say about me, “When Graham began quizzing with us, his identity was in quizzing. Now I am glad to say Graham’s identity is now in Christ.” May his witness of my change be enough proof to say it’s true.
Ah, yes, my quiz coaches. While I was influenced by all my coaches, my last coaches, Dave & Vicki Deitrick, had the biggest impact on me. They wanted, almost demanded, a team that was united. My coaches were concerned about my spiritual growth helped me spiritually grow. They check up on how I am doing and help in any way. They pray for me and talk to me about my walk with the Lord. They always encouraged me. Every year coach Dave would always say a word that would stick out to me as prophetic. In 2005, the word was “favor” as in “seeking God’s favor.” I took it to heart and began putting my quizzing fate in God’s hands. Whatever happened was God’s will, so I prayed hard that the Lord would help me do my best. I recognize that every point, every quiz out, every win is the favor the Lord’s blessing. Therefore, I prayed to God every day about quizzing. I always prayed to God and ask Him to bless me with His favor. Whether I do good or bad, I thanked Him every day for whatever He is given me, good or bad. In 2006, Dave mentioned “leadership,” the word that stuck with me for the rest of the year I had to be a leader for my team. I was only one of three that returned. Of the three I was ranked the highest. I learned how to be a leader, and tried my best to do so. I led by example and tried to help with studying. From that year on, to the end of my career, I became a leader to every younger quizzer on the team. My coaches in those later years would describe as both an anchor and a pillar to the team. In 2007, two words from Dave stuck out this year: revival and wisdom. Whenever I got nervous in a quiz match, Dave would look at me and say, “Wisdom” and I was at a calm peace knowing if I was wise in my quizzing, I would do well. The other word, “revival,” made me realize that this church pendulum was swinging again, and the people were examining their practices and returning to God. It reminded me to give my generation a bit of hope. The last two years didn’t have a single word for each one, but had one word expand over those two years. That were was “character.” My coaches taught me that the better title that begins with a C is “character” over “champion.” Championships only last a year, but people remember one’s character forever. God seeks to use people with character in His kingdom. And through all those years combined, the coaches made me a humble quizzer, giving God the credit always.
I hope through this testimony you have seen how God has used quizzing to help me spiritually grow. But when I see this testimony of how God has used quizzing in my life, I see something more. I don’t think God intended me to be a quizzer for eight years, and have me drop off the face of the quizzing world. I see God preparing me and equipping me to be a quiz coach.
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It has been 5 days since I sent out all those applications. I'm expecting/hoping to get a lot of responses this week. After all, I did send out 50. I have already gotten a few responses, but nothing tugging at me. I'll have to wait and see. Please continue to pray for me being a quiz coach, that God will point my to a coaching job where I am needed, wanted and can do so much for the Kingdom of God.
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My name is Graham Holcomb. I am a retired Bible Quizzer, seeking to become a quizzing coach. I quizzed in ACC Bible Quizzing for eight years as a Bible quizzer. For my first three years, I quizzed for Ark Bible Chapel in Oley, PA. When Ark Bible no longer had a team, I went to quiz for Spring City Fellowship in Spring City, PA for the last five years. Let me share my quizzing testimony, and how it has made me the person I am today, inside and outside of quizzing.
I am sad to say the picture does not start out pretty. If I were to give you an honest introduction to a 7th grade Graham, you would see a depressed 7th grade student. I was depressed because I felt like I didn’t have any friends. I was depressed because I felt like he is untalented and ungifted, not good at anything. I had taken a survey at my church to discover my spiritual gifts, and I learned that knowledge was one of my spiritual gifts, but did not know how to use it. Little did I know how much the Lord was moving in my life. At my church’s youth group, there was a girl who attended the youth group, but didn’t go to our church. She went to Ark Bible Chapel, and her father was the church’s quiz team coach. Our youth leader, who know about my Biblical knowledge and love for learning the Bible, suggested that I become a part of quizzing. I thought about it, fully debating the pros and cons of joining, and at the last minute decided to be a part of it. It was a good choice. I fell in love with quizzing. I loved the detail studying of the books of the Bible we were quizzing on, and how quizzing made it so much fun. I enjoyed the fast-paced buzzing and the competition between quizzers and teams. I liked the feeling of being needed on the team for my God-given talents. All these factors and more made me want to quiz again. I wanted to do better.
To check to see if I was doing better, I started becoming a statistician of my own performance. It first started with keeping track of how many points I scored on the year and my final placing. Then it become more specific, keeping track of right and wrong buzz ins, right and wrong bonuses, quiz outs and error outs. This helped me see improvement. Being able to see the improvement helped me improve even further. I was able to get more of the good things, like right answers and quiz outs, and less of the bad things, like incorrect bonuses. This also helped me set goals to strive for.
For me, quizzing was never contained to January to March. I was still quizzing in the off-season from April to January, on the material for the next quizzing season. I write very detailed questions for the chapters being studied next year. In fact, I write down every question possible. How many questions I write depends on how many verses and how much free time I have. The most I have written is over 300 questions for 140 verses. I also tried to memorize some passage. Once again, how much I memorize comes down to how much I time I have. I try to memorize whole chapters. The chapters I choose usually is something I believe is hard to remember or important to know, which will be beneficial outside of quizzing. I do believe the entire Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant Word and is all around important, but I also think that some can be more involved than others. Those verses are the one I strive to memorize. Even though I am a retired quizzer, I still find myself writing questions and memorizing verses. I believe as a coach, if I continue to do these things, I can become a better Christian and become a better quiz coach by still learning God’s Word in detail.
But even with the right reasons in mind, things can go wrong. It was good that I no longer saw myself as ungifted or untalented, but now I solely saw my gifts and talents in quizzing. My identity solely was in quizzing. I let my quizzing performance define who I was. If I did good, I became proud. If I did poorly, I would become depressed and not like myself. All I wanted to think and talk about was quizzing. Studying in the quizzing offseason was a way to keep my identity because if I ceased to prepare for quizzing or even stop thinking about quizzing, I would return to my depression state of feeling unwanted or untalented. But my new quiz coaches would not allow me to be that way. Spending my last five years of my quizzing career with my new team and my new coaches, God used them both to help further my process of sanctification. By the end of those five years and the end of my quizzing career, my coach was able to say about me, “When Graham began quizzing with us, his identity was in quizzing. Now I am glad to say Graham’s identity is now in Christ.” May his witness of my change be enough proof to say it’s true.
Ah, yes, my quiz coaches. While I was influenced by all my coaches, my last coaches, Dave & Vicki Deitrick, had the biggest impact on me. They wanted, almost demanded, a team that was united. My coaches were concerned about my spiritual growth helped me spiritually grow. They check up on how I am doing and help in any way. They pray for me and talk to me about my walk with the Lord. They always encouraged me. Every year coach Dave would always say a word that would stick out to me as prophetic. In 2005, the word was “favor” as in “seeking God’s favor.” I took it to heart and began putting my quizzing fate in God’s hands. Whatever happened was God’s will, so I prayed hard that the Lord would help me do my best. I recognize that every point, every quiz out, every win is the favor the Lord’s blessing. Therefore, I prayed to God every day about quizzing. I always prayed to God and ask Him to bless me with His favor. Whether I do good or bad, I thanked Him every day for whatever He is given me, good or bad. In 2006, Dave mentioned “leadership,” the word that stuck with me for the rest of the year I had to be a leader for my team. I was only one of three that returned. Of the three I was ranked the highest. I learned how to be a leader, and tried my best to do so. I led by example and tried to help with studying. From that year on, to the end of my career, I became a leader to every younger quizzer on the team. My coaches in those later years would describe as both an anchor and a pillar to the team. In 2007, two words from Dave stuck out this year: revival and wisdom. Whenever I got nervous in a quiz match, Dave would look at me and say, “Wisdom” and I was at a calm peace knowing if I was wise in my quizzing, I would do well. The other word, “revival,” made me realize that this church pendulum was swinging again, and the people were examining their practices and returning to God. It reminded me to give my generation a bit of hope. The last two years didn’t have a single word for each one, but had one word expand over those two years. That were was “character.” My coaches taught me that the better title that begins with a C is “character” over “champion.” Championships only last a year, but people remember one’s character forever. God seeks to use people with character in His kingdom. And through all those years combined, the coaches made me a humble quizzer, giving God the credit always.
I hope through this testimony you have seen how God has used quizzing to help me spiritually grow. But when I see this testimony of how God has used quizzing in my life, I see something more. I don’t think God intended me to be a quizzer for eight years, and have me drop off the face of the quizzing world. I see God preparing me and equipping me to be a quiz coach.
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It has been 5 days since I sent out all those applications. I'm expecting/hoping to get a lot of responses this week. After all, I did send out 50. I have already gotten a few responses, but nothing tugging at me. I'll have to wait and see. Please continue to pray for me being a quiz coach, that God will point my to a coaching job where I am needed, wanted and can do so much for the Kingdom of God.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Covenants (Part 2): Christians & Jews, Church and Israel
In continuing with my last post, my views on how the covenants progressed shape how I view how Israel in the church play in those covenants with God. Some say the church is the new Israel. Others say Israel is number one, and the church is number 2. Still others say Israel and the church are separate but equal. Those in the Old Covenant do their thing, those in the New Covenant follow that. Yet others say with time, the roles switch from Israel to church to Israel. This is my beliefs.
Let's start with the Adamic Covenant. Why? Two things: First it is the original announcement of the Messiah (Genesis 3:15). Second, I remind you that the covenant was for humanking. The second part goes the Noahic Covenant was well: the Noahic is for Noah and his descendants, and since his descendants are all humankind today, it is also for all humans. It's almost like renewing the Adamic Covenant to Noah after the "second creation," if you will. So following that logic, God brought salvation from the flood to Noah, and from Noah the Savior will come, who will bring salvation of sins.
Now onto the Abrahamic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant establishes Abraham's descendants, who will become Israel, God's people. But remember, God still has all humanity in mind for salvation. It will be through Israel that this Messiah will come from. But the Messiah will bring salvation to all man, not just Israel.
I want to focus on a lot of the Mosaic Covenant. This covenant between God and Israel is conditional, but the unconditional promises of the Abrahamic Covenant still have to be fulfilled. So how will this work out? When Israel sins and falls away from God, they will be punished, enslaved and taken captive, but they will not be totally destroyed. The remnant kept alive can get rid of the curse by simply confessing sin, repenting, and seeking forgiveness. Then will come God's restoration of the promises. This will become Israel's perk of being God's people. Time after time they will sin and fall from God's Law. They anger God and God leaves them. Then they cry out to God, and God saves them. This becomes the "Israel cycle" seen through Judges, the Samuels, the Kings, and the Chronicles. Why does this happen?
It is the result of 2 covenants progressively being fulfilled togather, one unconditonal and the other conditional. The unconditional keeps the nation people-wise, but the conditional is what makes Israel a nation land-wise. Yet this only applies for Israel and not other nations. Consider Assyria and its capital Nineveh. Assyria can be a blessed nation if they bless Israel, but they don't. They become idolatrous and lead Israel into idolatry. So God saends Jonah to call them to repentence. They do repent, and God spares them. But afterward, they fall back into sin. Does God once again call them repentence? No. He sends Nahum to pronounce judgment. After Nahum's word, Assyria is no more. Israel, being God's chosen, gets to experience grace and mercy with several second chances. God's covenants with Israel are truly covenants of grace. The other nations have only one shot.
Back to the Messiah. The Messiah is once again promised in the Mosaic Covenant. In Deuteronomy 18:15-19, as Moses is running out of time, he says God will raise up among the Israelites a prophet like Moses. They must lsiten to this prophet, for if they don't, they will be cut off from the people, God's Covenant, and God Himself. This prophet is the messiah, who we will later know as Jesus.
In the Davidic Covenant, the messiah is identified as a descendant of David, the king of Israel/Judah (Jeremiah 31 & Ezekiel 37). So if you're keeping track of titles, it's Savior, messiah, prophet, king. As stated earlier, the Davidic Covenant is unconditional. No matter what any king does, there will always be a kingly ruler available. But since David and his descendants are Israelites, they are under the conditional Mosaic Covenant. So what does this mean? If a king falls away, or leads a nation away, the kingship will be taken away from that king. But there is always a candidate ready, even if they are not king. Take Zerubabbel, for example. He was in the kingly line (Matthew 1:13), but because of the sins of his fathers, the Persians were in control. Yet Zerubabbel became the governor of formally known Israel. In short, while David's household may fail, in the end, it will be rebuilt, as Amos says (Amos 9:11).
The promises of the Messiah in the Old Covenats are fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of God (even the Old Testament states the Messiah is divine!). This is the offspring of Eve that will strike the serpent's (Satan's) heel and crush gis head. This is the Judah-king promised to Abraham and David. This is the prophet Moses foretold. Jesus fills all those roles. So it is the Messiah who is to start the new covenant. Naturally. Yet Christ's message is not received by all, His opposers execute Him. Death does not stop Him. Three days later He rises from the dead. During His last days on the earth, He founded the church, and asked for Peter to lead until His return.
My argument is that the church does not officially begin until Acts 2, when the Holy Spirits comes on the first believers. This the start of the church age. In the beginning, the church is all JEwish. The cloest thing to now-Jewish are Greek prosletyes, but they are circumcized and [Mosaic] Law-abiding. It is not until Acts 10 do Gentiles come into the picture. This opens the door for Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, as God states in Acts 9. Now a church is on the scene made up of both Jews and Gentiles. The church is clearly a product, and maybe even the audience, of the New Covenant. Just like Israel was the recipiant of the Old Covenants, so the church is the recipiant of the New Covenant. Does this cause inconsistancy in the covenants?
The first thing I want to state, if I haven't enough, is that all the Covenants, both the Old and New Testament ones, are both for the Jews and the Gentiles. Both the Jews and Gentiles would receive salvation. Both the Jews and the Gentiles would receive blessing. While Israel is God's chosen people and the center of the Old Testament, I believe it is incorrect to say it is Israel soley and push out the foreign nations.
Remember what Moses said about the Prophet God will send like Moses? The people must accept him. Anyone who rejects Him will be cut off. This means the Israelites/Jews were not playing "The Messiah Game" (The Dating Game with the Messiah). It's not like God said to Israel, "Alright, I'm going to start sending one messiah after another. If you like him, keep him. But you don't like him, get rid of him and we'll go on to the next canidate." No. Israel did not have a choice. God chose the Messiah. This is one of the things I do believe is predestined. Jesus, God's Son, was predestined to be the Messiah to save the world. Since Israel had no choice, they must follow Him. If they don't, they have no part will be condemned with their sin. Thus, I believe that any Jew that rejects Jesus rejects God's Covenants, reject God, and reject salvation. The Jews of the 1st century (as well as the 1st century Roman Gentiles) who are responsible for Christ's death, are condemned. This is backed up in the narrative called "The Sign of Jonah" (Matthew 12:39-41, Luke 11:29-32). In this narrative, Jesus says this generation (1st century Jews) will be condemned (and by sinful Gentiles, too!) because they did not adhere to the message of the one greater than Jonah, who is Jesus. They had to accept the Messiah Christ Jesus, or they will be condemned.
So first, I believe it is wrong to say Israel and the church are two separate camps. Why? For starters, it gives froom for Pluralism. You can get saved by a relationship with Jesus OR be following the Law and offering sacrifices. This is contradictiong to John 14:6 and Acts 4:12, which says Jesus is the only way and the only one who can give salvation. Also, this idea renders evangelizing to Jews useless. What's the point of telling the Jews how to get saved when they will be saved anyway? Yet we see Paul going to the synagogues with the gospel (hold on to the thought; I will use it again on my correct view of the debate). This must mean the Jews need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. So pretty much this makes a Jewish Christian redundant, and then would mean church only makes sense if you're a Gentile. This doesn't make sense since the church in its earliest stage is all Jewish.
Second, it is wrong to say that Israel has been replaced by another nation. No nation is the "new Israel," not even nations "founded on Christian ideals." I'm not 100% where this idea comes from. All I can think up is that God chose Israel based on obedience to God's Law. I think it's just national pride seeking God's favor in national and international decisions. Simply why not, this idea is unbiblical. Nowhere in Scriptures does it mention God choosing a new nation for His people.
Along with that notion, it is wrong to say that the church completely replaces Israel. If that were true, this would mean God has abandoned His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David, and all the Israelites. This also allows lots of room for anti-semetism. It is not in the Bible, not even in the New Testament, do we read God abandoning Israel and the Jews. Like I said earlier, the apostles evangelize to Jews first, seen both in Acts and the epistles. The end times in Revelation (arguably) focus more on Israel than on the church. Jesus Himself spends more time with the Jews in Israel than to the Gentiles. Heck, Samaritans get more attention than the Gentiles. So it's not church replacing. I declare replacement theory a heresy (see Romans 11).
But at the same, it cannot be said Israel is above the church or above any nation, especially modern-day Israel. I say the last part because there is a difference between Israelis (those living in the land owned by the modern state of Israel) and the Israelites (descendants of Israel/Jacob, who are also called Jews or Hebrews). While primary outreach is to Israel, there is much outreach to the Gentiles. The second half of Acts is focused on Gentiles coming to Christ. (As a matter of fact, most of the time when Jews are mentioned, they are the opposition!) The New Testament also denies the idea that Christians must become Jews first. In the end, in Revelation, we see people from all tribes, all languages, and all nations in heaven, not just Israel. Pretty much, I want to sum this all up by saying that with the New Covenant, God no longer sees nations, especially in the Jew/Gentile divide. In the context of New Covenant, it is an individual matter. God sees the personal choices of individuals decidin whether or not to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, it is true with Mosaic and Davidic Coveannts, salvation was by nation. Now in the New Covenant, salvation is an individual decision. The only other way is God sees the communal fellowship of the church. It is God's kingdom, but not to be compared by the kingdom of this world.
After I told you what I don't believe, now onto telling you what I do believe. I can't say a single word or phrase to describe my views. This is why I had to be more precise by describing what I don't believe. The best way I can try to describe is to describe it in a more general term: God's people. Both the church and Israel is God's chosen people. They are both from the start chosen to receive redemptive salvation, whether it be Jew or Gentile. Once more, I will repeat it both Israel and the church are God's people. Yet it is not equal. While Israel and the church are God's chosen people, the church is greater than Isreael. why? The Christian Chrch is in the New Covenant, the Jewish Israel, is still following Old Coveannts, and the New Covenant is greater than the Old Covenant. But make sure you understand when I say the church is "greater" Israel, I in no way mean that God has rejected Israel, God hates Israel, God had replaced Israel, or God looks down on Israel. None of these are true. They are still His chosen people. It is just that the church has chosen the better, the greater. A good illustration to this is John the Baptist. Of him Jesus says he was the greatest of the Old Coveants, but the weakest in the New Covenant is greater than him.
So where does this leave Israel and the Jews? To start with basics, Jews was the foretold messiah. The promised redeeer to all peoples, and the promised king for the Jews. The Jews are the first ones to receive the gospel. We see this in the Gospels with Jesus, the Acts with the apostles, and in the epistles with Paul. Even in the 21st century, there are missions focusees specifically for outreach to the Jews. When presented the gospel, they have the choice of accepting Jesus as the promised Christ or rejecting Him. Idealistically, the Jew will receive Jesus as their messiah. He goes from Jew to Christian, and "upgrades" from a member of Israel to a member of the church. As a member of the church, he is equal to his gentile brothers and sisters. But the Jew who rejects Jesus will then be rejected by Jesus. Without Jesus, they have no part in the covenant. Let me propose that the Jewish convert to Chistian has more in common with the Gentile Christian than a Jewish person who is not a Messianic Jew. That is because the Christian Jew and Christian Gentile are now part of a new "nation", the kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God consist of those who make Jesus, the Son of God, their king. A Jew must make Jesus Messiah and king to be part of the kingdom.
There's a couple sections I want to look at to prove my point. First, Luke 4:24-27. To set the picture a bit, Jesus is preaching is his home town Nazareth, and the audience is looking down on him. Jesus starts out by saying "No prophet is accepted in his hometown." Christ then gives two examples to prove His point: Elijah and Elisha. Elijah helped a widow in Zarephath, a town in Sidon, instead of helping any of the widows in Israel. Elijah helped Naaman, a commander of the Syrian army, instead of bring healing to an Israelite with leprosy. Now the main point here is that a prophet usually has to leave his hometown for his ministry to be accepted, but I think Jesus is bringing up another point in here. God does not choose who to help based on nationality. The reader sees the prophets ministering to Gentiles over the Israelites in this section. They must have had faith for the miracles to happen there (Matt. 13:58 states that lack of faith can lead to lack of miracles). So that concludes God chooses to look at people by faith over their nationality. The Israelites back in the time of Elijah and Elisha, including the widows and lepers, were probably idolatrous just like their king. But Naaman and the widow at Zarepheth must have shown some kind of faith for the prophets to work.
Another demonstration of my beliefs is the narrative of the Syro-phoencian woman. This story is found in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30. Jesus is in the vicinity of Sidon and Tyre, when a local women comes to him, and cries out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession" (Matt. 15:22). It is interesting alone that the Greek woman calls Jesus by a title referring to Christ's role in the Davidic Covenant, something a Jew would be familiar with. Christ's actions might strike the reader as odd. He seems to be ignoring the woman. Only Matthew records Jesus uttering, "I was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel" (Matt. 15:24), referring to the Jews. Some believe what Jesus is doing here is testing the woman to see if she simply gives up or keeps persisting. Others think Jesus is reminding the woman that is mission on earth is not healer, but to bring the promised salvation to the Jews. Another opinion says Jesus is telling the woman he must help the Jews before helping her. This continues the story. Jesus says to the woman, “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs" (Mark 7:27). The idea of "first" here is ordinal. Jews get first dibs. Jesus uses the imagry of dogs begging at the table, as some as our house pet dogs might do. Why would a parent make a meal for their children, only to give it to the dogs? That would be downright wrong. In the same way, it would be wrong to tell the Jews the whole Old Testament their Savior was coming, only to give his undivided attention to the Gentiles. It would be wrong to give the blessings to the Gentiles which the Jews have been waiting for. The cool thing is that the woman counters Jesus with the same illustration: “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. 15:27). Pretty much, the woman says that while the master should feed the child the bread, the dogs should be allowed to pick up what the children drop. If the master is Jesus, the children is Israel, the dogs are the Gentiles, and the bread is the blessings, let's draw up a literal picture. Jesus says to the woman that is wrong for Him to go to the Gentiles to give them blessings when it was meant for Him to bless the Jews all along. The woman would reply that if Israel rejects Jesus, it's not wrong for the Gentiles to pick up the blessings they are throwing out. Jesus seems to like her answer, as the woman returns home, to find her daughte healed. The Greek woman speaks truth. God does go to the Jews first, for he promised them blessings from the start, including forgiveness of sins. But if the Jews reject Jesus, the promised Savior, it is free game for the Gentiles. Paul reacts similiarly in Acts 18:6. When the Jews become abusive towards about the gospel he is preaching, Paul gives up on preaching to the Jews and from then on, speaks only to the Gentiles.
The Syro-Phoenecian woman is not the only Gentile who seeks Christ's healing powers. There is also a Roman centurion who also needs Jesus for His healing power. The centurion's servant is sick and about to die. Jesus begins on a trek to lay hands on the servant, but on the journey, He is stopped by a messenger with a message from the centurion. The centurion says he doesn't deserve to have Jesus under his roof, but understands that Christ's words alone can heal the servant, so all Jesus has to do is say the word, and the servant will be healed. Jesus replies, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith" (Matt. 8:10). Now the Matthew account of this story gives more that Jesus says. In verse 11, Jesus continues, "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 8:11). Let's start back at verse 10. Jesus remarks that of all the people that he has run into on this earth, the one with the greatest faith is not a Jew, but a Gentile. Jesus prefers the Gentile with faith over the unfaithful Jew. Now onto verse 11. Remember that Matthew's Gospel is written to a Jewish audience. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are well know to the Jews as the patriarchs of Israel. To dine with them would be considered being a part of their blessing. The phrase "from the east and the west [and north and south (Luke 13:29,30)]" simply could be said, "from all over." This means outside Israel. Jesus is saying in the end the Gentiles will join the Jews in the promised salvation and blessings. The Gentiles will be those who have the faith like the Roman centurion. In conclusion, the great faith is what catches God's attention for salvation and blessings, not nationality.
Romans chapter 11 is a really intersting chapter on the subject. First, starting in verse 1, Paul make it clear that God has not rejected Israel. Skipping down to verse 11, Paul repeats that Israel has not fallen out of the picture. This is where it gets interesting. Paul's explanation for Gentiles receiving salvation is to make Israel jealous. One commentary I read suggested that if a Jew walked into a church service, he should be jealous that he doesn't have what the Christian has. Back to Paul in Romans, he admits that some of the Jews has fallen away. Interesting enough, Paul says the Jews falling away opened a window for the Gentiles receiving salvation. Paul uses two allusions: a batch of dough and branches. The first image is the batch of dough. Just when two batches of dough are mixed together to become one, when the unholy is mixed with the holy, it becomes holy as well. The second picture is with branches, but also roots and wild shoots. The wild shoot is the Gentiles. The natural branches are the Jews. The roots are traditionally the patriarchs (and the Abrahamic Covenant), but I can see it being Christ, the root of our salvation. The Gentile Christians have been grafted in with the believing Jews in place of the Jews who do not believe. Both the believing Jews are Christian Gentiles are coming from the same roots, the same source. The common denominator is faith (Rom. 11:20). The ones who belong with God are those with faith, the same faith that credited Abraham with righteousness (Gen 15:6). Paul makes it clear to the Gentiles that they have a reason to be prideful. For if God will not give Israel a second chance, the Gentiles will most definitely not get a second chance. Thus, naturally, the branches cut off can be grafted back in.
So the main question: what happens to God's people in the eschaton? Since I refuse to acknowledge or take a stance on the rapture (that's a whole different subject), I am aware this leaves a whole bunch of possibilities. Christians may live through all, some or none of the tribulation. In any case, we see this draw back to Israel. Has God abandoned the church? No. Being the greater one, the church has been dealt with and sealed, possibly in the form of the rapture. As for Israel, they get a second chance. Like I have shown before with the combination of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenant, Israel always gets a second chance. This will be their last second chance. By the time the tribulation comes, there will be no more Gentiles coming to the Lord. As the world comes to an end, God will make one last call to the Jews. Still, it is a call for Israel to have faith in Christ. They will not get saved by following sacrifices or obeying laws, but faith in Jesus. They will have all the way up to the Great White Throne judgment to make the decision to have faith in Christ. Thos Jews who still reject Jesus will be judged and condemned, but those who accept Him as messiah will become part of the kingdom of God.
Let's start with the Adamic Covenant. Why? Two things: First it is the original announcement of the Messiah (Genesis 3:15). Second, I remind you that the covenant was for humanking. The second part goes the Noahic Covenant was well: the Noahic is for Noah and his descendants, and since his descendants are all humankind today, it is also for all humans. It's almost like renewing the Adamic Covenant to Noah after the "second creation," if you will. So following that logic, God brought salvation from the flood to Noah, and from Noah the Savior will come, who will bring salvation of sins.
Now onto the Abrahamic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant establishes Abraham's descendants, who will become Israel, God's people. But remember, God still has all humanity in mind for salvation. It will be through Israel that this Messiah will come from. But the Messiah will bring salvation to all man, not just Israel.
I want to focus on a lot of the Mosaic Covenant. This covenant between God and Israel is conditional, but the unconditional promises of the Abrahamic Covenant still have to be fulfilled. So how will this work out? When Israel sins and falls away from God, they will be punished, enslaved and taken captive, but they will not be totally destroyed. The remnant kept alive can get rid of the curse by simply confessing sin, repenting, and seeking forgiveness. Then will come God's restoration of the promises. This will become Israel's perk of being God's people. Time after time they will sin and fall from God's Law. They anger God and God leaves them. Then they cry out to God, and God saves them. This becomes the "Israel cycle" seen through Judges, the Samuels, the Kings, and the Chronicles. Why does this happen?
It is the result of 2 covenants progressively being fulfilled togather, one unconditonal and the other conditional. The unconditional keeps the nation people-wise, but the conditional is what makes Israel a nation land-wise. Yet this only applies for Israel and not other nations. Consider Assyria and its capital Nineveh. Assyria can be a blessed nation if they bless Israel, but they don't. They become idolatrous and lead Israel into idolatry. So God saends Jonah to call them to repentence. They do repent, and God spares them. But afterward, they fall back into sin. Does God once again call them repentence? No. He sends Nahum to pronounce judgment. After Nahum's word, Assyria is no more. Israel, being God's chosen, gets to experience grace and mercy with several second chances. God's covenants with Israel are truly covenants of grace. The other nations have only one shot.
Back to the Messiah. The Messiah is once again promised in the Mosaic Covenant. In Deuteronomy 18:15-19, as Moses is running out of time, he says God will raise up among the Israelites a prophet like Moses. They must lsiten to this prophet, for if they don't, they will be cut off from the people, God's Covenant, and God Himself. This prophet is the messiah, who we will later know as Jesus.
In the Davidic Covenant, the messiah is identified as a descendant of David, the king of Israel/Judah (Jeremiah 31 & Ezekiel 37). So if you're keeping track of titles, it's Savior, messiah, prophet, king. As stated earlier, the Davidic Covenant is unconditional. No matter what any king does, there will always be a kingly ruler available. But since David and his descendants are Israelites, they are under the conditional Mosaic Covenant. So what does this mean? If a king falls away, or leads a nation away, the kingship will be taken away from that king. But there is always a candidate ready, even if they are not king. Take Zerubabbel, for example. He was in the kingly line (Matthew 1:13), but because of the sins of his fathers, the Persians were in control. Yet Zerubabbel became the governor of formally known Israel. In short, while David's household may fail, in the end, it will be rebuilt, as Amos says (Amos 9:11).
The promises of the Messiah in the Old Covenats are fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of God (even the Old Testament states the Messiah is divine!). This is the offspring of Eve that will strike the serpent's (Satan's) heel and crush gis head. This is the Judah-king promised to Abraham and David. This is the prophet Moses foretold. Jesus fills all those roles. So it is the Messiah who is to start the new covenant. Naturally. Yet Christ's message is not received by all, His opposers execute Him. Death does not stop Him. Three days later He rises from the dead. During His last days on the earth, He founded the church, and asked for Peter to lead until His return.
My argument is that the church does not officially begin until Acts 2, when the Holy Spirits comes on the first believers. This the start of the church age. In the beginning, the church is all JEwish. The cloest thing to now-Jewish are Greek prosletyes, but they are circumcized and [Mosaic] Law-abiding. It is not until Acts 10 do Gentiles come into the picture. This opens the door for Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, as God states in Acts 9. Now a church is on the scene made up of both Jews and Gentiles. The church is clearly a product, and maybe even the audience, of the New Covenant. Just like Israel was the recipiant of the Old Covenants, so the church is the recipiant of the New Covenant. Does this cause inconsistancy in the covenants?
The first thing I want to state, if I haven't enough, is that all the Covenants, both the Old and New Testament ones, are both for the Jews and the Gentiles. Both the Jews and Gentiles would receive salvation. Both the Jews and the Gentiles would receive blessing. While Israel is God's chosen people and the center of the Old Testament, I believe it is incorrect to say it is Israel soley and push out the foreign nations.
Remember what Moses said about the Prophet God will send like Moses? The people must accept him. Anyone who rejects Him will be cut off. This means the Israelites/Jews were not playing "The Messiah Game" (The Dating Game with the Messiah). It's not like God said to Israel, "Alright, I'm going to start sending one messiah after another. If you like him, keep him. But you don't like him, get rid of him and we'll go on to the next canidate." No. Israel did not have a choice. God chose the Messiah. This is one of the things I do believe is predestined. Jesus, God's Son, was predestined to be the Messiah to save the world. Since Israel had no choice, they must follow Him. If they don't, they have no part will be condemned with their sin. Thus, I believe that any Jew that rejects Jesus rejects God's Covenants, reject God, and reject salvation. The Jews of the 1st century (as well as the 1st century Roman Gentiles) who are responsible for Christ's death, are condemned. This is backed up in the narrative called "The Sign of Jonah" (Matthew 12:39-41, Luke 11:29-32). In this narrative, Jesus says this generation (1st century Jews) will be condemned (and by sinful Gentiles, too!) because they did not adhere to the message of the one greater than Jonah, who is Jesus. They had to accept the Messiah Christ Jesus, or they will be condemned.
So first, I believe it is wrong to say Israel and the church are two separate camps. Why? For starters, it gives froom for Pluralism. You can get saved by a relationship with Jesus OR be following the Law and offering sacrifices. This is contradictiong to John 14:6 and Acts 4:12, which says Jesus is the only way and the only one who can give salvation. Also, this idea renders evangelizing to Jews useless. What's the point of telling the Jews how to get saved when they will be saved anyway? Yet we see Paul going to the synagogues with the gospel (hold on to the thought; I will use it again on my correct view of the debate). This must mean the Jews need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. So pretty much this makes a Jewish Christian redundant, and then would mean church only makes sense if you're a Gentile. This doesn't make sense since the church in its earliest stage is all Jewish.
Second, it is wrong to say that Israel has been replaced by another nation. No nation is the "new Israel," not even nations "founded on Christian ideals." I'm not 100% where this idea comes from. All I can think up is that God chose Israel based on obedience to God's Law. I think it's just national pride seeking God's favor in national and international decisions. Simply why not, this idea is unbiblical. Nowhere in Scriptures does it mention God choosing a new nation for His people.
Along with that notion, it is wrong to say that the church completely replaces Israel. If that were true, this would mean God has abandoned His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David, and all the Israelites. This also allows lots of room for anti-semetism. It is not in the Bible, not even in the New Testament, do we read God abandoning Israel and the Jews. Like I said earlier, the apostles evangelize to Jews first, seen both in Acts and the epistles. The end times in Revelation (arguably) focus more on Israel than on the church. Jesus Himself spends more time with the Jews in Israel than to the Gentiles. Heck, Samaritans get more attention than the Gentiles. So it's not church replacing. I declare replacement theory a heresy (see Romans 11).
But at the same, it cannot be said Israel is above the church or above any nation, especially modern-day Israel. I say the last part because there is a difference between Israelis (those living in the land owned by the modern state of Israel) and the Israelites (descendants of Israel/Jacob, who are also called Jews or Hebrews). While primary outreach is to Israel, there is much outreach to the Gentiles. The second half of Acts is focused on Gentiles coming to Christ. (As a matter of fact, most of the time when Jews are mentioned, they are the opposition!) The New Testament also denies the idea that Christians must become Jews first. In the end, in Revelation, we see people from all tribes, all languages, and all nations in heaven, not just Israel. Pretty much, I want to sum this all up by saying that with the New Covenant, God no longer sees nations, especially in the Jew/Gentile divide. In the context of New Covenant, it is an individual matter. God sees the personal choices of individuals decidin whether or not to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, it is true with Mosaic and Davidic Coveannts, salvation was by nation. Now in the New Covenant, salvation is an individual decision. The only other way is God sees the communal fellowship of the church. It is God's kingdom, but not to be compared by the kingdom of this world.
After I told you what I don't believe, now onto telling you what I do believe. I can't say a single word or phrase to describe my views. This is why I had to be more precise by describing what I don't believe. The best way I can try to describe is to describe it in a more general term: God's people. Both the church and Israel is God's chosen people. They are both from the start chosen to receive redemptive salvation, whether it be Jew or Gentile. Once more, I will repeat it both Israel and the church are God's people. Yet it is not equal. While Israel and the church are God's chosen people, the church is greater than Isreael. why? The Christian Chrch is in the New Covenant, the Jewish Israel, is still following Old Coveannts, and the New Covenant is greater than the Old Covenant. But make sure you understand when I say the church is "greater" Israel, I in no way mean that God has rejected Israel, God hates Israel, God had replaced Israel, or God looks down on Israel. None of these are true. They are still His chosen people. It is just that the church has chosen the better, the greater. A good illustration to this is John the Baptist. Of him Jesus says he was the greatest of the Old Coveants, but the weakest in the New Covenant is greater than him.
So where does this leave Israel and the Jews? To start with basics, Jews was the foretold messiah. The promised redeeer to all peoples, and the promised king for the Jews. The Jews are the first ones to receive the gospel. We see this in the Gospels with Jesus, the Acts with the apostles, and in the epistles with Paul. Even in the 21st century, there are missions focusees specifically for outreach to the Jews. When presented the gospel, they have the choice of accepting Jesus as the promised Christ or rejecting Him. Idealistically, the Jew will receive Jesus as their messiah. He goes from Jew to Christian, and "upgrades" from a member of Israel to a member of the church. As a member of the church, he is equal to his gentile brothers and sisters. But the Jew who rejects Jesus will then be rejected by Jesus. Without Jesus, they have no part in the covenant. Let me propose that the Jewish convert to Chistian has more in common with the Gentile Christian than a Jewish person who is not a Messianic Jew. That is because the Christian Jew and Christian Gentile are now part of a new "nation", the kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God consist of those who make Jesus, the Son of God, their king. A Jew must make Jesus Messiah and king to be part of the kingdom.
There's a couple sections I want to look at to prove my point. First, Luke 4:24-27. To set the picture a bit, Jesus is preaching is his home town Nazareth, and the audience is looking down on him. Jesus starts out by saying "No prophet is accepted in his hometown." Christ then gives two examples to prove His point: Elijah and Elisha. Elijah helped a widow in Zarephath, a town in Sidon, instead of helping any of the widows in Israel. Elijah helped Naaman, a commander of the Syrian army, instead of bring healing to an Israelite with leprosy. Now the main point here is that a prophet usually has to leave his hometown for his ministry to be accepted, but I think Jesus is bringing up another point in here. God does not choose who to help based on nationality. The reader sees the prophets ministering to Gentiles over the Israelites in this section. They must have had faith for the miracles to happen there (Matt. 13:58 states that lack of faith can lead to lack of miracles). So that concludes God chooses to look at people by faith over their nationality. The Israelites back in the time of Elijah and Elisha, including the widows and lepers, were probably idolatrous just like their king. But Naaman and the widow at Zarepheth must have shown some kind of faith for the prophets to work.
Another demonstration of my beliefs is the narrative of the Syro-phoencian woman. This story is found in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30. Jesus is in the vicinity of Sidon and Tyre, when a local women comes to him, and cries out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession" (Matt. 15:22). It is interesting alone that the Greek woman calls Jesus by a title referring to Christ's role in the Davidic Covenant, something a Jew would be familiar with. Christ's actions might strike the reader as odd. He seems to be ignoring the woman. Only Matthew records Jesus uttering, "I was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel" (Matt. 15:24), referring to the Jews. Some believe what Jesus is doing here is testing the woman to see if she simply gives up or keeps persisting. Others think Jesus is reminding the woman that is mission on earth is not healer, but to bring the promised salvation to the Jews. Another opinion says Jesus is telling the woman he must help the Jews before helping her. This continues the story. Jesus says to the woman, “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs" (Mark 7:27). The idea of "first" here is ordinal. Jews get first dibs. Jesus uses the imagry of dogs begging at the table, as some as our house pet dogs might do. Why would a parent make a meal for their children, only to give it to the dogs? That would be downright wrong. In the same way, it would be wrong to tell the Jews the whole Old Testament their Savior was coming, only to give his undivided attention to the Gentiles. It would be wrong to give the blessings to the Gentiles which the Jews have been waiting for. The cool thing is that the woman counters Jesus with the same illustration: “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. 15:27). Pretty much, the woman says that while the master should feed the child the bread, the dogs should be allowed to pick up what the children drop. If the master is Jesus, the children is Israel, the dogs are the Gentiles, and the bread is the blessings, let's draw up a literal picture. Jesus says to the woman that is wrong for Him to go to the Gentiles to give them blessings when it was meant for Him to bless the Jews all along. The woman would reply that if Israel rejects Jesus, it's not wrong for the Gentiles to pick up the blessings they are throwing out. Jesus seems to like her answer, as the woman returns home, to find her daughte healed. The Greek woman speaks truth. God does go to the Jews first, for he promised them blessings from the start, including forgiveness of sins. But if the Jews reject Jesus, the promised Savior, it is free game for the Gentiles. Paul reacts similiarly in Acts 18:6. When the Jews become abusive towards about the gospel he is preaching, Paul gives up on preaching to the Jews and from then on, speaks only to the Gentiles.
The Syro-Phoenecian woman is not the only Gentile who seeks Christ's healing powers. There is also a Roman centurion who also needs Jesus for His healing power. The centurion's servant is sick and about to die. Jesus begins on a trek to lay hands on the servant, but on the journey, He is stopped by a messenger with a message from the centurion. The centurion says he doesn't deserve to have Jesus under his roof, but understands that Christ's words alone can heal the servant, so all Jesus has to do is say the word, and the servant will be healed. Jesus replies, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith" (Matt. 8:10). Now the Matthew account of this story gives more that Jesus says. In verse 11, Jesus continues, "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 8:11). Let's start back at verse 10. Jesus remarks that of all the people that he has run into on this earth, the one with the greatest faith is not a Jew, but a Gentile. Jesus prefers the Gentile with faith over the unfaithful Jew. Now onto verse 11. Remember that Matthew's Gospel is written to a Jewish audience. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are well know to the Jews as the patriarchs of Israel. To dine with them would be considered being a part of their blessing. The phrase "from the east and the west [and north and south (Luke 13:29,30)]" simply could be said, "from all over." This means outside Israel. Jesus is saying in the end the Gentiles will join the Jews in the promised salvation and blessings. The Gentiles will be those who have the faith like the Roman centurion. In conclusion, the great faith is what catches God's attention for salvation and blessings, not nationality.
Romans chapter 11 is a really intersting chapter on the subject. First, starting in verse 1, Paul make it clear that God has not rejected Israel. Skipping down to verse 11, Paul repeats that Israel has not fallen out of the picture. This is where it gets interesting. Paul's explanation for Gentiles receiving salvation is to make Israel jealous. One commentary I read suggested that if a Jew walked into a church service, he should be jealous that he doesn't have what the Christian has. Back to Paul in Romans, he admits that some of the Jews has fallen away. Interesting enough, Paul says the Jews falling away opened a window for the Gentiles receiving salvation. Paul uses two allusions: a batch of dough and branches. The first image is the batch of dough. Just when two batches of dough are mixed together to become one, when the unholy is mixed with the holy, it becomes holy as well. The second picture is with branches, but also roots and wild shoots. The wild shoot is the Gentiles. The natural branches are the Jews. The roots are traditionally the patriarchs (and the Abrahamic Covenant), but I can see it being Christ, the root of our salvation. The Gentile Christians have been grafted in with the believing Jews in place of the Jews who do not believe. Both the believing Jews are Christian Gentiles are coming from the same roots, the same source. The common denominator is faith (Rom. 11:20). The ones who belong with God are those with faith, the same faith that credited Abraham with righteousness (Gen 15:6). Paul makes it clear to the Gentiles that they have a reason to be prideful. For if God will not give Israel a second chance, the Gentiles will most definitely not get a second chance. Thus, naturally, the branches cut off can be grafted back in.
So the main question: what happens to God's people in the eschaton? Since I refuse to acknowledge or take a stance on the rapture (that's a whole different subject), I am aware this leaves a whole bunch of possibilities. Christians may live through all, some or none of the tribulation. In any case, we see this draw back to Israel. Has God abandoned the church? No. Being the greater one, the church has been dealt with and sealed, possibly in the form of the rapture. As for Israel, they get a second chance. Like I have shown before with the combination of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenant, Israel always gets a second chance. This will be their last second chance. By the time the tribulation comes, there will be no more Gentiles coming to the Lord. As the world comes to an end, God will make one last call to the Jews. Still, it is a call for Israel to have faith in Christ. They will not get saved by following sacrifices or obeying laws, but faith in Jesus. They will have all the way up to the Great White Throne judgment to make the decision to have faith in Christ. Thos Jews who still reject Jesus will be judged and condemned, but those who accept Him as messiah will become part of the kingdom of God.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Covenants (Part 1): I am a progressive dispensational premillennialist
This blog and the next (and possibly one more after that) is about the covenants. The origin of the blog on the subject starting all my theology classes at LBC, especially Church and the Future class. Even the subject came across in Early Church class because the whole Jews and Gentiles issue. A lot of ideas and theories were presented to me. I've realized a lot of it has to deal with God's movement through history. So I decided to sort through them on my own and see what I think. So I journaled on it, and made conclusions. When I came home for the summer, and heard my pastor was preaching a series called, "The New Covenant is Better" I took the time to listen and get ideas for further edits and revisions. So now I believe I am ready to give a full out study to reveal what I believe. And I've found out I'm a progressive dispensational premillennialist. Follow along as I explain my views of the covenants.
Before I get into any covenants, let's talk about covenants in general. We don't talk about covenants often today; the closest we got to covenants are contracts. But covenants are constantly made in Bible times. They were made between two or more kings/cities, as treaties for after war, but also during peace times. Archaeologists doing excavations on Hittite cities have found these ancient covenants and have provided an understanding for how covenants worked. First, covenants named the parties involved. Secondly stated in a covenant is the reason for the covenant, which could state the winners and losers of a war, or be the result of a business proposal. Third, each party would state his responsibilities. Fourth would say what each party gets in return. Next, blessings and curses are written down. Blessings for whoever follows it, and curses for the one who doesn't follow up his end of the bargain. And just as we have a third party signature on contracts, the end of their covenants would have witnesses, usually their gods. This has really help scholars expand their understanding when it comes to the covenants in the Bible between God and His people. We're not going to go into too much depth with it, but skim the surface.
The first covenant in the Bible is the EDENIC/ADAMIC COVENANT (Genesis 1:26-30, 2:15-17, 3:15-17). Now there is disagreement on this. Some say the Edenic and Adamic Covenant are two separate covenants, other say the Edenic and Adamic Covenant are one and the same, and yet others say that it is one covenant in two parts. I believe the third option: this is the same covenant, just in different parts. If this is already confusing, I am also going to say that this covenant is both conditional and unconditional. Before you accuse me of being postmodern, let me explain myself. Both sides of the covenant are God to Adam, but really it's not just Adam, but mankind in general. Remember, "adam" is simply the Hebrew word for "man." God is making a covenant with man here. Why is God making this covenant? God just has just finished making man in His own image. Seeing that man is good, he establishes a covenant with him. On God's side, God gives man seed, land, and blessing. God makes man in His image (1:26,27). On God's side, God makes man ruler over the earth. He is to spread over it by multiplying and also subduing it. Also, God provides food for man by giving him every green plant as food (1:29,30). Man has his responsibilities, too. On his side, man is to work and take care of the garden (2:15). He must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (2:17). The first one man will easily obey because he is innocent, and without the sinful nature, is fully obedient to God. So the only condition in this covenant is "you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (2:17a). The curse is clearly stated, "for when you eat of it, you will surely die" (2:17b). But as we know from the narrative, they couldn't even do that. They fell short of God's glory (Romans 3:23). Genesis 3:1-12 tells the story of how man fell. The Fall is the distinctive point where the covenant changes, from Edenic to Adamic, as some might say. The one condition of the covenant is broken. Now instead of blessings, there are curses. Man's work now becomes labor. Woman's childbearing is painful. Also, woman must submit to man, setting up a patriarchal world. So why do I say this covenant as a whole is both unconditional and conditional? Go back to the original blessings. Does man rule over the earth? I say yes. While some might say now Satan or sin is charge of the world, I see man being dominant over the animals. Does man still subdue the earth? While the ground produces thorns and thistles, man can ultimately make it produce fruits, vegetables and grains. So yes. Is man is going to multiply and reproduce? While the female has to undergo childbearing pains, yes, she will still reproduce. Does man still have God's image? While it is broken and blemished, yes, the New Testament recognizes man still carrying God's image, even up to that time (1 Cor. 11:7, Eph. 2:4, Col. 3:10, James 3:9). My point is that all the blessings God gives man at his creation are still in effect. So we see it's unconditional. So where's the conditional part? Count how many times I said "while" in this paragraph. I did state that all blessings on God's part are still there, but I also noted that things were now different. No longer was it the easy road. Things weren't simply provided. Man had to work for it. This is why the post-fall covenants are called "Covenant of works." Man has to work. Man's responsibilities become greater. Not only does he have to work, but sacrifices are needed, as one can see in Genesis 4. But more importantly, is the curse God states with breaking the condition: "you will surely die." I read somewhere the original Hebrew phrase uses a double death, and that's exactly what Adam and Eve experienced. Not only were they no longer immortal but physically going to die one day, they now were going to experience a spiritual death, which is separation from God. But most importantly, even more importantly than the curse from the fall, is the Proto-Gospel in Genesis 3:15. By eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they chose to leave God's covenant with hthem, but God still promised a way back in. Even with the Edenic/Adamic Covenant "rewritten," God still gives promises, a promise of a way back in. This is unconditional.
The NOAHIC COVENANT (Genesis 8:21-9:17) renewed the Edenic/Adamic under Noah, since God had destroyed the rest of humankind with the flood. The covenant is between God and Noah, but just like before, Noah is representing mankind as a whole. The covenant also extends to animals (9:9,12,15) Why does God establish this covenant? When Noah comes out of the ark, he makes a sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord smells the pleasing aroma of the burnt offerings. The offerings serve as a "reminder" (like God forgets) that his covenant with Adam and manking is unconditional, no matter how bad man's sin would get. It was crucial for God to provide salvation for Noah, or else the Lord would be breaking His covenant to Adam/mankind by not sending a Savior before being destruction to the world. So since God brought Noah out of the destruction of the flood and into the ark for salvation from the floodwaters, God starts new with Noah and his family, and start a covenant. The promises to Noah are the same to Adam. Noah will be numerous descandants (seed), will fill the earth (land), and be fruitful (blessing. Compare Genesis 9:1,7 to 1:28). Also, just like in the Adamic Covenant, the Noahic covenant shows what mankind can eat. In the Adamic Covenant, it is every green plant, but in the Noahic Covenant, animals are added to the list of foods (compare Genesis 1:29,30 to Genesis 9:3. Now in the Adamic Covenant, man is given dominion over the animals. In the Noahic Covenant, this isn't explicitly stated, but it is kind of hinted with the animals having "the fear and dread" of man. In a way, Noah somewhat becomes a new Adam, as he is given the same blessings as Adam was given (notice I said "in a way" and "somewhat." Don't take this allusion too far, because Romans says that Jesus Christ is the New Adam). The better way to put it is that the Adamic Covenant is now re-focused on Noah. But the for both of them, the focus is on mankind. This makes sense because with Noah and his family being the only survivors of the flood, every human on earth is a descendant of Noah. Another addition to the covenant is God's promise not to destroy the earth with waters of a flood (9:11-15). The rainbow is the sign of this covenant (9:12-16). On the side of man's responsibilities, man is to respect life and be held accountable for life, especially for loss of life (9:4-6). Maybe God had in mind that the first big sin that happened after the Fall was Cain killing his brother Abel. Yet even with these commands, the covenant is unconditonal. Even if man is murderous and sinful, he will continue to have seed, land and blessing.
10 generations and 3 chapters later, God gives the ABRAHAMIC COVENANT (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-19, 17:1-27. The reader even has a hint of it in Genesis 18:17-19 with God's monologue with Himself/the trinity.) I believe these numerous mentions of the covenant were God's reminder of His plan for Abraham as God moved Abraham from place to place. This covenant is the early establishment of Israel. God promises Abraham numerous descendants (seed), who will become a great nation (land). This nation will ble blessed by God and other nations who want to be blessed (blessing). Those who bless Abraham get blessed; those who curse Abraham get cursed. And even in some odd instances, God blesses Abraham and curses the nation (see Abraham and Pharaoh in Gen. 12:10-20). But if you think about this covenant and the story about Abraham, you realize that by the time Abraham dies, it is not fully fulfilled. The only land Abraham receives is his burial plot, which is very little compared to what God promised him (compare Gen. 15:18-21). The only descendants he has is his one son Isaac and his two grandsons Esau and Jacob (Abraham died while Jacob and Esau were teenagers, about 15), since Ishmael and Keturah's sons were sent away and had no part in the inheritance. Abraham sees very little of the covenant fulfilled; it will all be fulfilled in the future. Despite popular belief, the Abrahamic Covenant was not just for Israel. It was meant for all nations. God planned to bless all nations. Israel, Abraham's descendants, were the means of that blessing. So while at those sections, the coveant is made between God and Abraham, but it is set up to have all nations involved. The best example would Lot's descendants, which would become the Ammnonites and Moabites. In Genesis 18, we see God interceding for Lot. Without that intercession, Lot would have never been saved. God saved Lot on request of Abraham. Since Abraham is related to Lot, Lot's descendants, the Moabites and Ammonites, get a small taste of the covenant, as long as they are faithful to God. Why did God choose Abraham? Maybe because in a polytheistic world (Islamic tradition says that Abraham's father Terah worshipped many pagan gods), God knew that Abraham would be monotheistic. Possibly because God knew Abraham would follow in perfect obedience, not questionning God. The reader sees that throughout the whole Abraham narrative. Or maybe it was because in His foreknowledge, God knew Abraham would chose God, follow by faith, and obey God's laws, commands, degrees, and requirements. I believe all are possibilities. But I believe most importantly that God chose Abraham, and Abraham chose. Whatever the reason, I also think one of the main roles was because God had moved Abraham to a new place, and wanted to lead and guide him through this with a covenant. You can see this in Genesis 15, when God says, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans..." This brings us to the state of conditionality. Traditionally, this covenant has been declared unconditional. Those who say that use the imagry of God walking alone through the offerings- while typically both parties walk through, only God walks through. But the evidence saying that it is conditional outweighrs it. In Genesis 12:1, God tells Abraham to "Leave and go." If Abraham stays put, God cannot give Abraham the land God will show him. Genesis 17 is an important chapter for this. In verse 1, God commands Abraham to walk before him and be blameless. Verse 9 has God stating the important of keeping the covenant. Chapter 17 goes on to talk about circumcision, which sets up an if/then clause. If you want to be in the covenant, you must be circumcized. If you don't get circumcised, you're out of the covenant. Conditions. You also see Abraham making sacrifices throughtout the narrative. Later on, when God talks to Isaac in Genesis 26:4,5, God says, " I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, (WHY?) because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.” So I conclude (and I apologize if this sounds postmodern again) that this covenant is also both conditional and unconditional. I would even go as far as say the covenant starts out conditional, but ends unconditonal. Abraham has conditions, passes, and thus the covenant is permanent forever more. Abraham's descendants will get the seed, land and blessing. And like I said, the other nations are involved in this covenant, and for them, it is fully conditional. Nations that are for Abraham's descendats are blessed, but nations against Abraham will be cursed. This covenant is renewed to Isaac and Jacob, Abraham's heir son and gradson respectively. Isaac and Jacob do not get new covenants, but just renewed Abrahamic covenant. Same conditions, same promises, same blessings, same curses (Gen. 26:2-5, Gen. 28:10-22). The Abrahamic Covenant is referred by Paul in Galatians 3 and Romans 4. As both of them state, the main condition is faith. For example, Paul points out that Abraham was declared righteous by any act of circumcision. So it's not by act he is made righteous, but his credited faith.
After leading the Israelites out of Egypt, as foretold to Abraham (Gen. 15:13-16), God establishes the MOSAIC COVENANT to Israel via Moses. It is found scattered all throughout Exodus (ch. 3, 6:1-8, ch. 19-24, ch. 34), is renewed with every new generation (as seen in Deuteronomy and Joshua, and is referenced in the New Testament (i.e. Matt. 5, Gal. 3, and the whole book of Hebrews). The parties involved are God and the nation of Israel. This covenant gets more specific. The Gentiles are not involved in this covenant (Deut. 4:8, Eph. 2:12). But in keeping with the Abrahamic Covenant, Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, an example of what the people of God were to be like (Exodus 19:6). Also, any Gentile could get in on the covenant if they were circumcised and followed the Mosaic Law. The exclusivity of this covenant is also apparent in the reason. Many times in the Old Testament, God presents Himself as "I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of Egypt..." Pretty much, God is saying to the Israelites, "I saved you, so I believe you own me. Let's work out a mutual relationship." Once again, God promises seed, land (Exodus 23:29) and blessing. Furthermore, the promise of the messiah is found in this covenant, where God says He will send a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15-19). They must listen to this prophet, for if they don't, they will be cut off from God's people. This will come back into play later on in my next blog. All this is promised, but with a big IF. This covenant is majorly conditional. On Israel's side, they receive the 10 Commandments followed by other laws explaining the 10 commandments (what is work, what is murder, what is adultery, etc.) totalling 613 (so the Jews say. yup, they counted). Most scholars divide this into apoditic law (Dos and Do Nots) and caustic laws (if/then). If Israel wants land, seed and blessing, they must be obedient to the Law. Sinning against the Law can be paid with sacrificial blood. Disobedience will lead to the opposite of the promises. Israel receives curses (opposite of blessing), its people will die (opposite of seed), and they will be cut off from the land (opposite of land). Yet because the Mosaic Covenant is still under the Abrahamic Covenant, God will no totally disown Israel. At anytime, if they repent and turn to God, they will be forgiven and everything will be restored. Just like in the Abrahamic Covenant, nation can also receive God's blessing if they bless the nation of Israel. Any nation in its way will be cursed. The Israelites agree to the term and conditions (Exodus 24:7), even though the next time Moses goes up Sinai, Israel breaks the Law by building a golden calf (Exodus 32). Yet by the end of the book, the people repent, and they work something out with God. This prepares the cycle the reader will see going as he reads the whole Old Testament.
In 2 Samuel 7, God sets up with David the DAVIDIC COVENANT. The Davidic Covenant is usually portrayed as a kingly covenant. This covenant gets in more specific, as this is strictly God with David and his descendants. One family line from one tribe. 2 Samuel 7 also reveals why David gets this covenant. 2 Samuel 7:7-8 is God reminding David that He took David out of the weakest clan, the weakest family, and the youngest of the family to lift him up to king. That is why a covenant is being established. This covenant first promises David will have a great name (2 Sam. 7:9) and also land for the people (2 Sam. 7:10). This is the land and the blessing seen in the previous covenant. Now the seed. The covenant promises David that a son will always be on the throne. These kingly sons God adopts as His own son, leading to the Ultimate Son, the Messiah. This tends to lead people to believe that this is an Israel/Judah (even though David's descendants are always kings of Judah, God promises in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 37 that Israel and Judah will be reuinted) only covenant. I disagree. Why is that? The Davidic Covenant promises the Messiah will come from David's line. This messah from David's dynasty will be the Savior of the world, promised all the way back in Adamic Covenant. This covenant is unconditional. No matter what David's descendants do do, David will always have descendants (seed) on the throne, and the ultimate king will come from Him (although the descendant might face the wrath of the Mosaic Covenant). On top of land, seed, and blessings, David gets house, throne and kingdom (2 Sam. 7:16).
That leads us to the NEW COVENANT. To fully look at the New Covenant, we got to split it into different parts. Now someone might thinkg New Covenant = New Testament. This is not fully true. Turn to Jeremiah 31:31-34 in your Bibles. It simply starts, " 'The time is coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a New Covenant...'". Already, the mention of a New Covenant is there before the New Testament is there. Let's skip ahead to the 5th line in Jeremiah 31:32 to find out why this covenant is being made. It reads "because thy broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them." If you're no too familiar with the book of Jeremiah, let me paint the scene. Judah's sin has become too great, and the Lord has pronounced judgment on the nation. They will go into exile. The Lord calls his prophet Jeremiah to announce the judgment. This judgment is the result of breaking the Mosaic Covenant. Judah had fallen into idolatry, and their last 3 kings were corrupt. The Mosaic Covenant had failed, but not because of God. God had been very faithful to keep His promises. It was Israel who could not be faithful to the covenant. Thus, they had to face the curses. Reading Israel's history, the reader can tell the people are incapable of keeping the covenant. There's got to be a better one. That is why God is preparing a covenant that is "not like the covenants I made with their forefathers" because sinful man is just not capable of following the Law. So what's this new law like? Verses 33 and 34 tell the reader. It is not one of merely knowing laws of what to do and what not do do. The Law will be in their hearts, and so will God be. The big change is going from commanding the people to follow laws, to helping the people follow laws by changing them. This change will bring forgiveness of sins, a forgiveness so strong that God forgets the sin. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is an important setup for the New Testament. In fact, this passage is referenced in the New Testament in Romans 11:27, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Hebrews 8:8-12 and Hebrews 10:16-17.
Ezekiel also gets to hear about this New Covenant from the Lord. In Ezekiel 37:15-28, God lays out the New Covenant. First, starting with Ezekiel 37:15-23, God starts by reuniting Judah with the rest of the tribes of Israel to make them one people again, just like I said in the Davidic Covenant. Speaking of Davidic Covenant, verse 24 says David will be king over them. Is it really David? No, he is dead and buried. This is the Messiah, promised through David's line. Going back to verses 15-23, even thought it is the New Covenant, God is still promising the land, seed and blessing promised to Abraham. (vs. 22,26). But the other half of this passage is the same as in Jeremiah. God will be with them and forgive them all their idolotrous sins. Once again, we see this oneness with God and the people. No longer separation with a curtain. No longer the middle man of priests and prophets between God and man. Now it's one on one.
The New Covenant was established by God's Son Jesus Christ. So naturally the first thing to do is defend Jesus Christ's authority on establishing the New Covenant by showing how He fulfilled the Old Covenants. Jesus fulfilled the Adamic Covenant. First, he fulfilled it by being human just as much as He was God. He also fulfilled it by fulfilling Genesis 3:15 by the work on the cross. He fulfilled the Noahic Covenant by being a descendant of Noah, making Jesus a common relative to us all, because we all are related to Noah. He fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant by being a descendant of Abraham, the promised One. He fulfilled the Davidic Covenant by being the son of David, the promised king. The New Testament starts out with Matthew 1:1, stating that Jesus is the sons of Abraham and David, fulfilling the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenant. He is the promised seed in all those covenants: the promised king, the promised Savior. Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant by perfectly obeying it and not sinning. He also perfectly obeyed it by being the perfect sacrifice for our sins, representing all the sacrifices in Leviticus. Jesus fulfilled all the the covenants.
On the night our Lord was betrayed, which lead to His "trial," crucifixion execution, and resurrection, Jesus made the NEW COVENANT (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:17-20). This New Covenant promises a restored relationship with God to those who put their faith in Him, just like Abraham did. We are promised blessings, too. We are promised land. Jesus said in John 14:2,3 that He is preparing a place for His followers up in heaven. Galatians informs us we will be co-heirs with Christ. That leadus to another blessings. Those who receive Christ become children of God (John 1:12). We become the promised seed: the children of God. The ultimate blessing we get is forgiveness of sins, just like Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophecied. Since sin is the separator between God and man, Christ's blood sacrifice, removing the stain of sin, allows to be in the presence of God. Another promise is the Counseleor, the Holy Spirit (John 14). When the Holy Spirit descends in Acts 2, the New Covenant goes into effect immediately. This covenant is from God, but the "to" part specifies no one specific. It can be Jews or Gentiles. In fact, the new people of God is the Jews and Gentiles coming together to form the church, the body of Christ. This covenant is unconditional on acts and works, but conditional on faith. God calls those who choose receive the gift of his salvation. They are the people who confess and repent of their sins and sinful desires, and have a belief in the words and works of Jesus Christ, which can be seen in their thoughts, speech and actions.
As a progressive, dispensationalist, I see not 6 independent covenants, but 6 interdependent covenants. The next covenant adds to, updates, and fulfills the previous covenants. Under the New Covenant, we fulfill all the Old Covenants. How so? We fulfill the Adamic Covenants by being descendants of Adam. We are Adam's fruitful seed We fulfill the Noahic Covenant by being descendats of Noah. We are Noah's fruitful seed. So how did we fulfill the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic Covenant, especially if we are Gentiles? Galatians chapter 3 links it together. We fulfill those 3 covenants because we are in Christ, and Christ fulfilled those 3 covenants. Therefore, we indirectly enter the covenants.
Before I get into any covenants, let's talk about covenants in general. We don't talk about covenants often today; the closest we got to covenants are contracts. But covenants are constantly made in Bible times. They were made between two or more kings/cities, as treaties for after war, but also during peace times. Archaeologists doing excavations on Hittite cities have found these ancient covenants and have provided an understanding for how covenants worked. First, covenants named the parties involved. Secondly stated in a covenant is the reason for the covenant, which could state the winners and losers of a war, or be the result of a business proposal. Third, each party would state his responsibilities. Fourth would say what each party gets in return. Next, blessings and curses are written down. Blessings for whoever follows it, and curses for the one who doesn't follow up his end of the bargain. And just as we have a third party signature on contracts, the end of their covenants would have witnesses, usually their gods. This has really help scholars expand their understanding when it comes to the covenants in the Bible between God and His people. We're not going to go into too much depth with it, but skim the surface.
The first covenant in the Bible is the EDENIC/ADAMIC COVENANT (Genesis 1:26-30, 2:15-17, 3:15-17). Now there is disagreement on this. Some say the Edenic and Adamic Covenant are two separate covenants, other say the Edenic and Adamic Covenant are one and the same, and yet others say that it is one covenant in two parts. I believe the third option: this is the same covenant, just in different parts. If this is already confusing, I am also going to say that this covenant is both conditional and unconditional. Before you accuse me of being postmodern, let me explain myself. Both sides of the covenant are God to Adam, but really it's not just Adam, but mankind in general. Remember, "adam" is simply the Hebrew word for "man." God is making a covenant with man here. Why is God making this covenant? God just has just finished making man in His own image. Seeing that man is good, he establishes a covenant with him. On God's side, God gives man seed, land, and blessing. God makes man in His image (1:26,27). On God's side, God makes man ruler over the earth. He is to spread over it by multiplying and also subduing it. Also, God provides food for man by giving him every green plant as food (1:29,30). Man has his responsibilities, too. On his side, man is to work and take care of the garden (2:15). He must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (2:17). The first one man will easily obey because he is innocent, and without the sinful nature, is fully obedient to God. So the only condition in this covenant is "you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (2:17a). The curse is clearly stated, "for when you eat of it, you will surely die" (2:17b). But as we know from the narrative, they couldn't even do that. They fell short of God's glory (Romans 3:23). Genesis 3:1-12 tells the story of how man fell. The Fall is the distinctive point where the covenant changes, from Edenic to Adamic, as some might say. The one condition of the covenant is broken. Now instead of blessings, there are curses. Man's work now becomes labor. Woman's childbearing is painful. Also, woman must submit to man, setting up a patriarchal world. So why do I say this covenant as a whole is both unconditional and conditional? Go back to the original blessings. Does man rule over the earth? I say yes. While some might say now Satan or sin is charge of the world, I see man being dominant over the animals. Does man still subdue the earth? While the ground produces thorns and thistles, man can ultimately make it produce fruits, vegetables and grains. So yes. Is man is going to multiply and reproduce? While the female has to undergo childbearing pains, yes, she will still reproduce. Does man still have God's image? While it is broken and blemished, yes, the New Testament recognizes man still carrying God's image, even up to that time (1 Cor. 11:7, Eph. 2:4, Col. 3:10, James 3:9). My point is that all the blessings God gives man at his creation are still in effect. So we see it's unconditional. So where's the conditional part? Count how many times I said "while" in this paragraph. I did state that all blessings on God's part are still there, but I also noted that things were now different. No longer was it the easy road. Things weren't simply provided. Man had to work for it. This is why the post-fall covenants are called "Covenant of works." Man has to work. Man's responsibilities become greater. Not only does he have to work, but sacrifices are needed, as one can see in Genesis 4. But more importantly, is the curse God states with breaking the condition: "you will surely die." I read somewhere the original Hebrew phrase uses a double death, and that's exactly what Adam and Eve experienced. Not only were they no longer immortal but physically going to die one day, they now were going to experience a spiritual death, which is separation from God. But most importantly, even more importantly than the curse from the fall, is the Proto-Gospel in Genesis 3:15. By eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they chose to leave God's covenant with hthem, but God still promised a way back in. Even with the Edenic/Adamic Covenant "rewritten," God still gives promises, a promise of a way back in. This is unconditional.
The NOAHIC COVENANT (Genesis 8:21-9:17) renewed the Edenic/Adamic under Noah, since God had destroyed the rest of humankind with the flood. The covenant is between God and Noah, but just like before, Noah is representing mankind as a whole. The covenant also extends to animals (9:9,12,15) Why does God establish this covenant? When Noah comes out of the ark, he makes a sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord smells the pleasing aroma of the burnt offerings. The offerings serve as a "reminder" (like God forgets) that his covenant with Adam and manking is unconditional, no matter how bad man's sin would get. It was crucial for God to provide salvation for Noah, or else the Lord would be breaking His covenant to Adam/mankind by not sending a Savior before being destruction to the world. So since God brought Noah out of the destruction of the flood and into the ark for salvation from the floodwaters, God starts new with Noah and his family, and start a covenant. The promises to Noah are the same to Adam. Noah will be numerous descandants (seed), will fill the earth (land), and be fruitful (blessing. Compare Genesis 9:1,7 to 1:28). Also, just like in the Adamic Covenant, the Noahic covenant shows what mankind can eat. In the Adamic Covenant, it is every green plant, but in the Noahic Covenant, animals are added to the list of foods (compare Genesis 1:29,30 to Genesis 9:3. Now in the Adamic Covenant, man is given dominion over the animals. In the Noahic Covenant, this isn't explicitly stated, but it is kind of hinted with the animals having "the fear and dread" of man. In a way, Noah somewhat becomes a new Adam, as he is given the same blessings as Adam was given (notice I said "in a way" and "somewhat." Don't take this allusion too far, because Romans says that Jesus Christ is the New Adam). The better way to put it is that the Adamic Covenant is now re-focused on Noah. But the for both of them, the focus is on mankind. This makes sense because with Noah and his family being the only survivors of the flood, every human on earth is a descendant of Noah. Another addition to the covenant is God's promise not to destroy the earth with waters of a flood (9:11-15). The rainbow is the sign of this covenant (9:12-16). On the side of man's responsibilities, man is to respect life and be held accountable for life, especially for loss of life (9:4-6). Maybe God had in mind that the first big sin that happened after the Fall was Cain killing his brother Abel. Yet even with these commands, the covenant is unconditonal. Even if man is murderous and sinful, he will continue to have seed, land and blessing.
10 generations and 3 chapters later, God gives the ABRAHAMIC COVENANT (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-19, 17:1-27. The reader even has a hint of it in Genesis 18:17-19 with God's monologue with Himself/the trinity.) I believe these numerous mentions of the covenant were God's reminder of His plan for Abraham as God moved Abraham from place to place. This covenant is the early establishment of Israel. God promises Abraham numerous descendants (seed), who will become a great nation (land). This nation will ble blessed by God and other nations who want to be blessed (blessing). Those who bless Abraham get blessed; those who curse Abraham get cursed. And even in some odd instances, God blesses Abraham and curses the nation (see Abraham and Pharaoh in Gen. 12:10-20). But if you think about this covenant and the story about Abraham, you realize that by the time Abraham dies, it is not fully fulfilled. The only land Abraham receives is his burial plot, which is very little compared to what God promised him (compare Gen. 15:18-21). The only descendants he has is his one son Isaac and his two grandsons Esau and Jacob (Abraham died while Jacob and Esau were teenagers, about 15), since Ishmael and Keturah's sons were sent away and had no part in the inheritance. Abraham sees very little of the covenant fulfilled; it will all be fulfilled in the future. Despite popular belief, the Abrahamic Covenant was not just for Israel. It was meant for all nations. God planned to bless all nations. Israel, Abraham's descendants, were the means of that blessing. So while at those sections, the coveant is made between God and Abraham, but it is set up to have all nations involved. The best example would Lot's descendants, which would become the Ammnonites and Moabites. In Genesis 18, we see God interceding for Lot. Without that intercession, Lot would have never been saved. God saved Lot on request of Abraham. Since Abraham is related to Lot, Lot's descendants, the Moabites and Ammonites, get a small taste of the covenant, as long as they are faithful to God. Why did God choose Abraham? Maybe because in a polytheistic world (Islamic tradition says that Abraham's father Terah worshipped many pagan gods), God knew that Abraham would be monotheistic. Possibly because God knew Abraham would follow in perfect obedience, not questionning God. The reader sees that throughout the whole Abraham narrative. Or maybe it was because in His foreknowledge, God knew Abraham would chose God, follow by faith, and obey God's laws, commands, degrees, and requirements. I believe all are possibilities. But I believe most importantly that God chose Abraham, and Abraham chose. Whatever the reason, I also think one of the main roles was because God had moved Abraham to a new place, and wanted to lead and guide him through this with a covenant. You can see this in Genesis 15, when God says, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans..." This brings us to the state of conditionality. Traditionally, this covenant has been declared unconditional. Those who say that use the imagry of God walking alone through the offerings- while typically both parties walk through, only God walks through. But the evidence saying that it is conditional outweighrs it. In Genesis 12:1, God tells Abraham to "Leave and go." If Abraham stays put, God cannot give Abraham the land God will show him. Genesis 17 is an important chapter for this. In verse 1, God commands Abraham to walk before him and be blameless. Verse 9 has God stating the important of keeping the covenant. Chapter 17 goes on to talk about circumcision, which sets up an if/then clause. If you want to be in the covenant, you must be circumcized. If you don't get circumcised, you're out of the covenant. Conditions. You also see Abraham making sacrifices throughtout the narrative. Later on, when God talks to Isaac in Genesis 26:4,5, God says, " I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, (WHY?) because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.” So I conclude (and I apologize if this sounds postmodern again) that this covenant is also both conditional and unconditional. I would even go as far as say the covenant starts out conditional, but ends unconditonal. Abraham has conditions, passes, and thus the covenant is permanent forever more. Abraham's descendants will get the seed, land and blessing. And like I said, the other nations are involved in this covenant, and for them, it is fully conditional. Nations that are for Abraham's descendats are blessed, but nations against Abraham will be cursed. This covenant is renewed to Isaac and Jacob, Abraham's heir son and gradson respectively. Isaac and Jacob do not get new covenants, but just renewed Abrahamic covenant. Same conditions, same promises, same blessings, same curses (Gen. 26:2-5, Gen. 28:10-22). The Abrahamic Covenant is referred by Paul in Galatians 3 and Romans 4. As both of them state, the main condition is faith. For example, Paul points out that Abraham was declared righteous by any act of circumcision. So it's not by act he is made righteous, but his credited faith.
After leading the Israelites out of Egypt, as foretold to Abraham (Gen. 15:13-16), God establishes the MOSAIC COVENANT to Israel via Moses. It is found scattered all throughout Exodus (ch. 3, 6:1-8, ch. 19-24, ch. 34), is renewed with every new generation (as seen in Deuteronomy and Joshua, and is referenced in the New Testament (i.e. Matt. 5, Gal. 3, and the whole book of Hebrews). The parties involved are God and the nation of Israel. This covenant gets more specific. The Gentiles are not involved in this covenant (Deut. 4:8, Eph. 2:12). But in keeping with the Abrahamic Covenant, Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, an example of what the people of God were to be like (Exodus 19:6). Also, any Gentile could get in on the covenant if they were circumcised and followed the Mosaic Law. The exclusivity of this covenant is also apparent in the reason. Many times in the Old Testament, God presents Himself as "I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of Egypt..." Pretty much, God is saying to the Israelites, "I saved you, so I believe you own me. Let's work out a mutual relationship." Once again, God promises seed, land (Exodus 23:29) and blessing. Furthermore, the promise of the messiah is found in this covenant, where God says He will send a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15-19). They must listen to this prophet, for if they don't, they will be cut off from God's people. This will come back into play later on in my next blog. All this is promised, but with a big IF. This covenant is majorly conditional. On Israel's side, they receive the 10 Commandments followed by other laws explaining the 10 commandments (what is work, what is murder, what is adultery, etc.) totalling 613 (so the Jews say. yup, they counted). Most scholars divide this into apoditic law (Dos and Do Nots) and caustic laws (if/then). If Israel wants land, seed and blessing, they must be obedient to the Law. Sinning against the Law can be paid with sacrificial blood. Disobedience will lead to the opposite of the promises. Israel receives curses (opposite of blessing), its people will die (opposite of seed), and they will be cut off from the land (opposite of land). Yet because the Mosaic Covenant is still under the Abrahamic Covenant, God will no totally disown Israel. At anytime, if they repent and turn to God, they will be forgiven and everything will be restored. Just like in the Abrahamic Covenant, nation can also receive God's blessing if they bless the nation of Israel. Any nation in its way will be cursed. The Israelites agree to the term and conditions (Exodus 24:7), even though the next time Moses goes up Sinai, Israel breaks the Law by building a golden calf (Exodus 32). Yet by the end of the book, the people repent, and they work something out with God. This prepares the cycle the reader will see going as he reads the whole Old Testament.
In 2 Samuel 7, God sets up with David the DAVIDIC COVENANT. The Davidic Covenant is usually portrayed as a kingly covenant. This covenant gets in more specific, as this is strictly God with David and his descendants. One family line from one tribe. 2 Samuel 7 also reveals why David gets this covenant. 2 Samuel 7:7-8 is God reminding David that He took David out of the weakest clan, the weakest family, and the youngest of the family to lift him up to king. That is why a covenant is being established. This covenant first promises David will have a great name (2 Sam. 7:9) and also land for the people (2 Sam. 7:10). This is the land and the blessing seen in the previous covenant. Now the seed. The covenant promises David that a son will always be on the throne. These kingly sons God adopts as His own son, leading to the Ultimate Son, the Messiah. This tends to lead people to believe that this is an Israel/Judah (even though David's descendants are always kings of Judah, God promises in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 37 that Israel and Judah will be reuinted) only covenant. I disagree. Why is that? The Davidic Covenant promises the Messiah will come from David's line. This messah from David's dynasty will be the Savior of the world, promised all the way back in Adamic Covenant. This covenant is unconditional. No matter what David's descendants do do, David will always have descendants (seed) on the throne, and the ultimate king will come from Him (although the descendant might face the wrath of the Mosaic Covenant). On top of land, seed, and blessings, David gets house, throne and kingdom (2 Sam. 7:16).
That leads us to the NEW COVENANT. To fully look at the New Covenant, we got to split it into different parts. Now someone might thinkg New Covenant = New Testament. This is not fully true. Turn to Jeremiah 31:31-34 in your Bibles. It simply starts, " 'The time is coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a New Covenant...'". Already, the mention of a New Covenant is there before the New Testament is there. Let's skip ahead to the 5th line in Jeremiah 31:32 to find out why this covenant is being made. It reads "because thy broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them." If you're no too familiar with the book of Jeremiah, let me paint the scene. Judah's sin has become too great, and the Lord has pronounced judgment on the nation. They will go into exile. The Lord calls his prophet Jeremiah to announce the judgment. This judgment is the result of breaking the Mosaic Covenant. Judah had fallen into idolatry, and their last 3 kings were corrupt. The Mosaic Covenant had failed, but not because of God. God had been very faithful to keep His promises. It was Israel who could not be faithful to the covenant. Thus, they had to face the curses. Reading Israel's history, the reader can tell the people are incapable of keeping the covenant. There's got to be a better one. That is why God is preparing a covenant that is "not like the covenants I made with their forefathers" because sinful man is just not capable of following the Law. So what's this new law like? Verses 33 and 34 tell the reader. It is not one of merely knowing laws of what to do and what not do do. The Law will be in their hearts, and so will God be. The big change is going from commanding the people to follow laws, to helping the people follow laws by changing them. This change will bring forgiveness of sins, a forgiveness so strong that God forgets the sin. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is an important setup for the New Testament. In fact, this passage is referenced in the New Testament in Romans 11:27, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Hebrews 8:8-12 and Hebrews 10:16-17.
Ezekiel also gets to hear about this New Covenant from the Lord. In Ezekiel 37:15-28, God lays out the New Covenant. First, starting with Ezekiel 37:15-23, God starts by reuniting Judah with the rest of the tribes of Israel to make them one people again, just like I said in the Davidic Covenant. Speaking of Davidic Covenant, verse 24 says David will be king over them. Is it really David? No, he is dead and buried. This is the Messiah, promised through David's line. Going back to verses 15-23, even thought it is the New Covenant, God is still promising the land, seed and blessing promised to Abraham. (vs. 22,26). But the other half of this passage is the same as in Jeremiah. God will be with them and forgive them all their idolotrous sins. Once again, we see this oneness with God and the people. No longer separation with a curtain. No longer the middle man of priests and prophets between God and man. Now it's one on one.
The New Covenant was established by God's Son Jesus Christ. So naturally the first thing to do is defend Jesus Christ's authority on establishing the New Covenant by showing how He fulfilled the Old Covenants. Jesus fulfilled the Adamic Covenant. First, he fulfilled it by being human just as much as He was God. He also fulfilled it by fulfilling Genesis 3:15 by the work on the cross. He fulfilled the Noahic Covenant by being a descendant of Noah, making Jesus a common relative to us all, because we all are related to Noah. He fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant by being a descendant of Abraham, the promised One. He fulfilled the Davidic Covenant by being the son of David, the promised king. The New Testament starts out with Matthew 1:1, stating that Jesus is the sons of Abraham and David, fulfilling the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenant. He is the promised seed in all those covenants: the promised king, the promised Savior. Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant by perfectly obeying it and not sinning. He also perfectly obeyed it by being the perfect sacrifice for our sins, representing all the sacrifices in Leviticus. Jesus fulfilled all the the covenants.
On the night our Lord was betrayed, which lead to His "trial," crucifixion execution, and resurrection, Jesus made the NEW COVENANT (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:17-20). This New Covenant promises a restored relationship with God to those who put their faith in Him, just like Abraham did. We are promised blessings, too. We are promised land. Jesus said in John 14:2,3 that He is preparing a place for His followers up in heaven. Galatians informs us we will be co-heirs with Christ. That leadus to another blessings. Those who receive Christ become children of God (John 1:12). We become the promised seed: the children of God. The ultimate blessing we get is forgiveness of sins, just like Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophecied. Since sin is the separator between God and man, Christ's blood sacrifice, removing the stain of sin, allows to be in the presence of God. Another promise is the Counseleor, the Holy Spirit (John 14). When the Holy Spirit descends in Acts 2, the New Covenant goes into effect immediately. This covenant is from God, but the "to" part specifies no one specific. It can be Jews or Gentiles. In fact, the new people of God is the Jews and Gentiles coming together to form the church, the body of Christ. This covenant is unconditional on acts and works, but conditional on faith. God calls those who choose receive the gift of his salvation. They are the people who confess and repent of their sins and sinful desires, and have a belief in the words and works of Jesus Christ, which can be seen in their thoughts, speech and actions.
As a progressive, dispensationalist, I see not 6 independent covenants, but 6 interdependent covenants. The next covenant adds to, updates, and fulfills the previous covenants. Under the New Covenant, we fulfill all the Old Covenants. How so? We fulfill the Adamic Covenants by being descendants of Adam. We are Adam's fruitful seed We fulfill the Noahic Covenant by being descendats of Noah. We are Noah's fruitful seed. So how did we fulfill the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic Covenant, especially if we are Gentiles? Galatians chapter 3 links it together. We fulfill those 3 covenants because we are in Christ, and Christ fulfilled those 3 covenants. Therefore, we indirectly enter the covenants.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Do you remember the 2009 Invitational? I remember.
We all know this is long overdue. It's been about two months since the Invitational all the way over in Northwest Ohio. We all know who the winners were and who won what. But I haven't told you in detail what happened. I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats for the past 2 months, waiting to hear what happened (yeah right), so here is the written account of Spring City's adventure into Ohio. Now since this happened a while ago, my memory isn't as sharp as it usually is in details, but I remember the main parts well.
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THURSDAY NIGHT:
From my college, right after my last class, I went right to the Deitricks, not stopping at home. I grabbed a dinner from the college cafe and ate on the ride there. So when I arrived, I was ready to quiz, but just like the previous year, I was the first to arrive, and had to wait for the others. The Deitricks were surprised to see me missing all the hair I had been wearing since the beginning of the year was now gone. Robert arrived next, and he came in with more of a shocker. Robert was sporting the mohawk. It was very well done. Mike came in with...Brazil nuts, and then everyone else came in. Of course, we all had our luggage. The girls of course won with the most stuff...well, at least the most stuff going to Ohio. Sure, I had a lot of stuff, but I only took half of it to Ohio. The other half was just the stuff I normally bring home from college on the weekends. Practice went normal and smoothly. I just relished into the setting as I realized I was at my last practice ever as a quizzer, and so was Mike. At the end of our practice, as we rolled up the buzzers for one last time, Mike said goodbye to his buzzer Mellow Yellow and I said goodbye to my buzzer Black Thunder. Then I knighted Robert with it, giving him my blessing, that he may be blessed in quizzing as I am.
After practice we went into the kitchen for snacks. Alyssa set up the bar to show us how well she could fake pull ups. I showed her how to do real pull ups. I did 3, which is impressive, considering a couple years earlier I wouldn't be able to do any. Mike and Tim left after snacks, back to Tim's place, where they would spend the night and meet us early the next morning. The rest of us stayed the night at the Deitricks. Dave and Alyssa watched the Power of Ten movie. After that, it was all Nintendo Wii. Robert had been talking about pool with me, so we tried a game of pool. After that we all played bowling, a game we all could play. I was humbled as I watched everyone, mainly Chelsea, beat me at my game, and lose my pro ranking. Alyssa remembered wii boxing from last year and wanted to do it again. I got back at everyone by beating them in wii boxing. unfortunately, that has nothing to do with ranking. Mrs. Deitrick made sure we didn't go to bed too late. Robert and I listened to the material before we went to bed.
FRIDAY:
Compared to last year, we all got up on time, quickly got ready, and left at a good time. Since the busses were leaving at 7 AM, we had to get up at a really early time. It was still dark when we left Pottstown. I was playing my Nintendo DS the whole way up because personal handheld video games were not allowed on the busses. We got there in enough time, at the same time everyone else was loading up. We met Tim and Mike there. Good to know they also could get up in time to meet us at the right location. We got all our stuff and loaded into onto our bus. Our Bus was bus number 5. We were on the same bus with Timberline (both teams), Living Rock (all 3 teams), Grace & Truth (they have just one team, like we do), along with 5 staff. Since Spring City was the last ones on, we were scattered about, mainly in the middle section. With this being my first Ohio trip without Christine, I sat with Robert. We found seats and got situated. A little after 7 PM, we left the Dutch Wonderland Parking Lot, with a unified yell of "BYE HOUSE!"
Since 7 PM is still considered early for most of us, and also considering that many of us had to get up before then, most people on the bus were still tired and opted to sleep. I didn't sleep because I go by the rule "No sleeping on the Ohio bus" so I went into some quizzing studying (yes, already). Tim was the funniest to watch sleeping. He was leaning back in his chair, mouth gaping wide open. I would crumple up small balls of paper and try to shoot them in his mouth. Cathy Riehl tried to help me by giving me bite size snacks for ammo. Still, my aim could not make a basket into Tim's mouth. A few hours later everyone was more awake and ready to play. Tim suggested Mafia, of course, and most everyone wanted to jump in. We were just underway to our first mafia game....when we pulled into Somerset.
Somerset is the annual Ohio trip stop. We stop there for both going to Ohio, and coming back from Ohio. So this was visit number 9. Remembering the hot cocoa from the last visit, I made sure I went back to the Starbucks for one. Since Robert was following me around, I asked him where he wanted to go. He insisted we go to McDonald's, so we went there. It was still early in the morning, early enough for McDonald's to still be on its breakfast menu. I rather have the lunch/dinner menu, but I found chicken muffin I could eat. I needed to eat because we were told we weren't making another meal stop for 4 to 5 hours. As we were eating, I looked at the window and saw a van decked out like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo! That was new. Once we were done eating, we waited to get on the bus. The bus doors opened, everyone got on their bus, and we continued on our trip.
Once we got onto the highway again, we were ready to play mafia...but then we were interrupted again. Merv wanted the youth to take a survey for a sermon he was preparing. So we answered a bunch of question. Some of them very prodding, like asking how far you would go with a date and your most embarassing secret. Others were just funny, like what food comes to mind first when you think of mennonite food. But the funniest part was Mike taking the survey. Naturally, Mike did not have a pen on hand. So he borred one from Cait Rihel - a nice pink pen with a sparkling pink tassel on the end. It so went along with manly Mike. After filling out our surveys, we were finally ready to play mafia. These mafia games were huge. We played about 6-10 games. A game ranged between in the 20s when it came to people playing. Most of the time we had 5-6 mafia in each game. I played every role at least once. The same was true for him, but he didn't have good fortune in the game. Spring City quizzers knew how good Tim was at mafia, and it only took one game for everyone else to figure that out too. So for the next 4 games or so, everyone made sure Tim was the first one to be executed by the vote. But it's not like it mattered. The next few games made me realize why Tim and Cait worked as a couple. Cait was just as ruthless as a player as Tim. Most of the time she was the mafia and got away with it. She would either bring the mafia to victory still alive or be the last mafia standing. After a while, I noticed Tim was getting frustrated not being able to play more than one round, so I led a campaign to try to keep him alive for a few more turns. That was a mistake. Because on that round, both Tim and Cait were in the mafia, and there were like the mafia Bonnie and Clyde. By the time I had figured out the two of them were it together, they killed me that night. Not one of my finest moments in the game. But I will tell you my finest moment. I was the mafia. I had realized who the last detective was (there was 2 detectives because the games were so large) for we had killed the one detective. So I convinced everyone that I was the detective and the real detective was in the mafia. Everyone fell for it, and I led the mafia to victory. Needless to say no one trusted me the next round, so when I did try it again, I was discovered immediately. Playing mafia took us all the way to our next stop.
After stepping into Ohio passed the border, the busses stopped at a rest stop. This was only 10 minute break for thos who needed to use the bathrooms and stand up outside. I took the chance to stand up outside and stretch my legs. But before you knew it, we had to get back on the bus for more bus ride. Once again, we started up mafia. By this time, some people were tired with mafia, and only the hardcore players wanted to play. So now games were only 15-19 people, with much less charcters. Most of the time, I was jsut a townsperson, so nothing exciting for me. But one of the funniest moments was near the end. BJ from Timberline had discovered Tim was in the mafia and discovered Tim had a snacks barrell at the same time. He started yelling, "Tim is in the mafia!" and Tim yelled back, "If you make any accusation of me in the mafia, you're not getting any snacks!" Hugging the barrell, BJ yelled, "TIM IS NOT IN THE MAFIA! TIM IS NOT IN THE MAFIA!" Apparently he was and he won the game using his little bribe. lol. We still played mafia until the next real rest stop.
This was the same rest stop we were at the last trip to the Northwest section of Ohio. With a major highway between it, half the busses went to one side, and other half went to the other side. We were lucky enough to get to the side with the mall. I went to McDonalds for dinner, and got a Happy Meal for the toy of a quizzing buddy. On the box, it had a punch-out of a blue eyeball, and the box said, "Stick this to your forehead and pretend you're a giant blue blob." Of course, this gave my ideas ;) . I had dinner with Robert and Ed White from Slate Hill. After that, we explored the mall, including going into Gamestops and Borders, for Robert's sake. We then went back to the buses, and with a little time to spare, played some hacky sack. Then back on the busses again. By now everyone was tired with mafia, so there were no new games of that. Surprisingly, a lot of people studied. That's usually something I do. lol. It started with a few people studying, and then some people wanted to get involved, and before you know it, a lot of people were studying. Coach Dave let some quizzers from Timberline borrow his questions. With his handwriting, there was a small dispute over what preposition he wrote down. lol. I got the chance to impress the Timberline quizzers with how well I knew my situation questions, but also got to fit in my own questions. Others were not as interested in studying. Mike found himself a motorcycle magaize. Tim and Mike drooled over pictures of bikes. Finally, at roughly 7 PM, 12 hours later, we arrived in Archibold, Ohio. It was a small town surrounded by farm land. Coach Dave best described it like a checkerboard: flat and square.
All 8 busses were pulled into St. John's parking lot. We were told that a coach from each team would go inside the church building and wait for their host while the rest would wait inside. Seriously, you can't expect that from teenagers who have been on a bus pretty much all day. Everyone gathered up their stuff in the bus, stepped off, went below the bush to get their luggage, and went to the church's back lawn. It had a small playground and a few picnic tables. Some played catch, others played hacky sack, but I think a lot of us were just glad to get off and stand up. It was mainly the guys playing hacky-sack and catch, and the girls on the playground. Of course Spring City was one of the last teams to find their host, as it usually seems. So we were there for a while. Alyssa sat in the tire swing as we waited. Tim and Mike wanted to help Alyssa have more fun, so they pushed her on the swing with all their might. Needless to say, Alyssa went flying everywhere. So the crazier 3 on Spring City were going wild with the tire swing, while the calmer 3 of Robert, Chelsea and I just stood and watch. Finally, our hosts arrived. We loaded everything into their truck and car, and they drove us to their house.
Our host family was an older couple: Paul & Carol Stuckey. They were retired farmers who were now living on a much smaller plot. Their children were grown up, and had given them grandchildren, who many were quizzing for a few of the quiz teams. It was a short drive to their house, but Paul Stuckey took us on a slightly longer route that was more scenic. Ohio did look lovely that time of year. Once at the house, we entered through the garage with all their stuff. The Deitricks were shown to their room, and the girls to their own private room, considering there was only two of them. The boys had 2 options: sleep on living room floor or sleep on the TV room floor. We chose the living room floor because the carpet was thicker. As we were getting situated, the Stuckeys invited us into their kitchen for snacks. They had fully prepared for this, giving us sodas, chips, cake, ice cream, crackers, chesses and fruit. This being our first time eating since the last rest stop 3 hours before, we ate our fill. After everyone had enough to eat, we went into TV room for the last practice of the year and my last practice as a quizzer :( . Dave and Vicki went around asking questions from their sets respectively. We practiced to the best of our ability, but after an early morning and a long trip, we were dead tired. We finished up the night watching some of the NCAA Final Four Tournament, and then went to bed.
SATURDAY:
I got up early at 7 AM for a shower. By the time I got out, all the other quizzers on my team were up as well. We ate breakfast, got dressed (all wearing our team shirts) and left on time. On the way there, Paul Stuckey drove us by the Sand Ridge farm to show us where the infamous team was from. Mr. Deitrick would haved preferred he didn't. Speaking of which, a Zion team was being hosted by Sand Ridge. It was an intersting experience for them, so interesting Dustin just had to video tape it to show us all. Sand Ridge's trophies were nicely cased on display and the brackets they championed wallpapered the room. While it kind of upset me, I wasn't upset for too long as God reminded me, "Oh come on, Graham, you would do that too if you won that much and the Deitricks allowed you." It was true.
We arrived at Archibold High School just before the morning announcements. It was hard finding 8 seats in a row, but we did and sat down. Around 8:45 a.m., Northwest Ohio cordinator Gerald Schoenhals got behind a microphone to explain how the events of the day were going to go down. So let me take this time to explain to you how the tournament worked...
The tournament was centered around a giant double elimination bracket. All 79 teams (ACC: 52, Northwest Ohio: 12, West Liberty: 7, Wayne County: 6, Virginia: 2) go to the double elimination bracket. To figure out how to appropriately seed teams to like strength, there would be one placement much. Win or lose, you still go to the double elimination, it's just that the win or losee puts you in other winners of losers. The placement match opponent was based off like strength in season the season, which is a week-by-week breakdown of the material. If you lost twice in double elimination bracket, you're out of the main bracket (obviously), but not out of the overall tournament necesarily. Only the top 6 teams of the double elimination bracket were done after losing twice. For the other 73 teams, when they lost twice, the would be put in a smaller single elimination bracket. Now since 2004 we've been use to a smaller single elimination bracket, but there was only one. This year there was five! Teams that lost the 1st round of the loser side of the double elimination bracket went to the Adam & Eve bracket. Teams that lost in the 2nd round went to the Noah & Family bracket. Those that lost 3rd round of the losers half went to the Abraham & Sarah bracket. Those that lost 4th and 5th round Isaac & Rebekah bracket, and the losers in rounds 6 to 8 go to the Jacob & Rachel bracket. Each bracket had 16 teams, except for Jacob & Rachel, which had 10 teams. Since all teams in the same single elimination bracket lost in the same round of the double elimination bracket second chance side, they too are also of like strength. Lose once, and you're officially out of the overall tournament, but win them all (usually 4), then the team wins that bracket championship, with a plaque to remember it by. Now that you know, it will help you understand. Back to announcements...
...Gerald Schoenhals continued with explaining about more of the day's events. He explained how meals would work, open gym policy and about a fun match that would be happening 6 p.m. I got excited thinking about that considering I was in the last fun match two weekends before. At that time, our ACC cordinator Fred walks up to Dave and asks, "Where is Graham? I need him." So I went with Fred just outside the auditorium. There I met with Jeremiah Dunst from Zion 2 and Charleton King from Parkesburg Baptist. Fred explained, "Ok, during the fun match each conference will have their top 4 quizzers up there. We have 3 perfect quizzers, but since Grace Point is not here, neither is Joel Delinger, so we only have 2 perfect quizzers. That leaves 2 open spaces. There are 3 quizzers tied for 4th place. We need to figure out which 2 of you will fill the two open spaces. We were thinking about doing it by the least amount of errors, but that might be unfair to Graham..." on which I chimed in and said, "Hey! I only had 8 errors all season." Fred continued, "The only way we figured it would be fair is for it to be pull names." So my fate in being the fun all-star match was dependant on the lot. So in accordance with Proverbs, which says the lot is in the hands of th Lord, I prayed. The first name drawn was...Charleton. I prayed harder. The second name drawn....was mine! I was going to be in the fun match with the ACC all-stars. This meant a lot to me because it means I was going the represent the best of the ACC. I thanked Jeremiah, who looked slightly disappointed, because this meant so much to me. I guess at this point I should also thank Joel Delinger. By not being there, there was a better oppurtunity for me to be in the fun match. I got back into the auditorium for the tail end of th announcements. We were off to find our room for our match.
We found our room with minutes to spare. The staff was already there. Shortly after, our opponent, Rivercorner, arrived. And that was it. I don't know if it because we were in another state or because both Spring City and Rivercorner only have one team or just simply because 9 a.m. is too early for fans to wake up and watch quizzing. All that was in the room was the 2 quiz teams, along with their coaches, and the staff. Not a watcher was in sight. It made the room feel very empty. The staff had to follow timing protocol and so we had to sit and wait a couple minutes for 9 a.m. to arrive. So on the dot of of 9:00, we started our match. Maybe it was too early for quizzers as well because both sides made critical mistakes in the match. It made the match close to the end. But when the end came, Spring City won 85 to 75. Like I said, it didn't matter in the sense of making the double elimination bracket. But it was a good start and got us motivated into a winning mood.
Our next match wasn't until 10:20 a.m. So with about an hour until our next match, I got the chance to be an observer. First, I watched Ridgeview 2 vs. Virginia 2 because the winner would be quizzing against us. I saw Virginia 2 win and knew what to expect. Then I went to wait in the room we would quiz next in. I scorekept the match and took my 5-hour energy shot. Now I was ready for for my next quiz match.
Our opponent was Virginia. Once again, despite everyone being there early, we had to wait for 10:20, the official starting time. This gave us time talk with virginia 2. Here's their story: instead of sending whole teams over, they sent whichever quizzers could go over, and put them in a team. Virginia had enough quizzers in Ohio for two teams. We were quizzing against the 2nd team. These quizzers came from different churches. It would be itneresting to see how a newly assembled team chemistry would work. Apparently not well enough. I was able to quiz out. The points I scored is what separated us from them. Spring City won 95 to 65. Spring Cit was advancing in the winners side of the double elimination bracker for another round.
Once again, there was 2 matches between our last match and our next match. The first match I saw was Petra 3 vs. Ridgeview 1 because their opponent would be our next opponent. I scorekept and watch Petra 3 carefully. I could see why the finished 2nd place in our ACC season because they took control of that match. They won, making them our next opponent. Now I had promised my Ohio friend Jessi that I would watch her team quiz, and she wanted some teammates to meet me, so I found a match Chestnut Ridge was in. Things had been pretty rough for Chestnut Ridge. They had lost their first two matches: the placement match and their first match in the double elimination bracket. It was only 11:00 a.m., and they were already in the second chance half of the double elimination bracket. Quizzing an ACC team, there wasn't many fans there watching, so I decided to make the loudest noises, cheering widly. Everyone noticed. Unfortuneatly, my cheering wasn't good enough to give Chestnut Ridge the win. They lost, moving them out of the double elimination bracket and into the Adam & Eve. They would be with 15 other teams that lost the first 2 double elimination bracket matches.
Just before lunch, Spring City had a match. We were up against Petra 3, 2nd place team in the ACC season and a semifinal team in the ACC Tournament. Having quizzed against Petra 2 in the season and Petra 1 in the ACC Tournament, Petra 3 was the third Petra team we quizeed against this year. The last time we quizzed Petra 3 was the exciting match in the 2008 ACC Tournament that went to a sudden death overtime question, which rookie Robert won us the match with a buzz in. Despite a different coach and quizzers, they still were as tough as ever. Tim and I led by quizzing out, but that was the most we could do. Petra 3 was firing on all cylinders, but we were able to hold them back a bit, too. After 15 questions...we were tied. I turned to my coaches and said, "This is feeling very familiar." With Tim and I quizzing out, Spring City had to depend on the the rest of its team, without its top 2 quizzers. But this year things seemed better than the last time. Last time we had 2 rookies. This time everyone up there had at least one year experience. It's funny how things work. Even though we had more experience, we were not able to perform as well. Spring City had been suffering from brain farts all match, but we were hit the hardest in overtime. Petra 3 took control and we lost in overtime with the final score Petra 3: 100, Spring City: 90. We were moving to the second chance end of the double elimination bracket. We were going to quiz against Longenecker at 1:20 p.m.
A little bummed out from the loss, we all decided to go to lunch. Now Archibold had all grades k to 12 on one campus. The high school was is one building and the rest was in another building. The high school building was where all the quizzing was happening. The cafeteria was in the other building. So all the teams had to take a walk outside to go to lunch. Luckily it wasn't too cold outside. The sign to the cafeteria said "Tasty food here" (read Genesis 27 if you don't get the joke here). We got in line just when it was early enough to still be short. It only took a few minutes to get longer. Lunch most consisted of meats like sloppy joe and ham, and gave very little options for vegetarians like Chelsea :-P . I had the brilliant of idea of making meat burritos: wrapping my sloppy joe in a ham wrap. It was so greasy that I had to use a fork. I finished lunch early, and with an hour time block with no quizzing reseved for lunch, I had time to go update my personal bracket with the larger one. There I met up with some of Slate Hill 1 and found out how they were doing. They were still in the winners side of the bracket, winning all 3 matches they had in the winners bracket, despite losing the placement match to Sand Ridge. I had noticed they quizzed against Longenecker and asked how they were. While Slate Hill 1 won the match, they said Longenecker gave them a run for their money. I knew were going to be facing a tough team, as they historically are.
Matches began again at 1:00 p.m. and with our match at 1:20, I had time to watch a match. I found my Ohio friends at Chestnut Ridge were quizzing their first match in the Adam & Eve bracket, so I went to that. It was Chestnut Ridge vs. Poplar Ridge. Both were Ohio teams, both teams wore purple team shirts, and both teams had yet to win their first match of the day. Once again, I assumed the role of the loud one, cheering for the purple team (joke because they were both wearing purple. I wanted to cheer for my friends on Chestnut Ridge, but with Poplar Ridge being so small and being winless, I didn't want to sound like I was against them either). My cheering helped Chestnut Ridge this time, as they won the match. I was happy to see my Ohio friends win their match, but I also kind of felt bad for Poplar Ridge because they were out of the tournament, quizzing only four matches, and not winning a single one.
I arrived at the classroom where I match would be a few minutes early. There was a match still going on in the classroom, and so I waited outside. One by one my teammates appeared and waited...well, all but Mike. Where was Mike? Well, he had a little accident. While I got done lunch and went to see quizmatches, many of my teammates went to go playground to play. Just like the day before, Alyssa was sitting on the playground's merry-go-round, and Mike was pushing her with all his strength. And somehow Mike's ratty pants caught onto the merry-go-round and ripped a giant in them. Of course it had to be at the worse possible place: the crotch area. So with packaging tape and a lot of paper towels, a make-shift patch for the hole. This is a very typical Mike-esque way for him to end his career. lol.
Now it was time for our match. Like I said, our opponents were Longenecker. This would be the only Ohio team we quizzed all tournament. We quizzed against Longenecker last year. In that match, we lost to them, putting us in the losers bracket. Longnecker was 2nd in Wayne County. They have a history of doing well in the Invitational. I've had a history with Longenecker. Longnecker dates back to my first Ohio Tournament back when I was still quizzing for Ark Bible. It was because of them we didn't make the playoffs (that was back when there was a round robin, and only 32 teams made a double elimination playoffs). So it was fitting that in my last tournament and last year I was facing them again. I, of course, sat across from their number one quizzer. Just like Slate Hill 1 said, Longenecker gave us a run for our money. We could not keep up with Longenecker. It was so bad even I couldn't compete with them. Every time I knew it, they buzzed in faster. When I was able to get it, I errored. In frustration, I made a kamakaze buzz in on question 15, errored my third time, erroring out. Spring City lost 60 to 95. With a one-two hit, Spring City had fallen out of the double-elimination bracket due to 2 consecutive losses. Since we lost in the 3rd round fo the double elimination second chance bracket, Spring City was moving onto the Abraham & Sarah single elimination bracket.
I had time before our next match, so I went to watch an interesting match I found on the winners side of the double elimination bracket. Somehow Bowmansville 1 and Bowmansville 2 had found themselves facing each other in the winners side of the double elimination bracket. The coaches wanted to make this the ultimate grudge match, so they sat brothers across from each other! I cheered for both teams with my generic yell of "Go Bowmansville!" Every time I watch one of these matches, I can't help but wonder, "How many times have these two teams gone up against each other in practice, laughing and having fun, now having to come together for a serious match, which will decide the fate of both teams?" The winners of the inner-church grudge match was the ACC Tournament champion Bowmansville 1. With still some time to spare, I watched my Ohio friends Chestnut Ridge play their second match in the Adam & Eve bracket. Their opponents were Virginia 1, the opposite Viriginia team to the one we quizzed. Chestnut Ridge won the match and advanced their bracket. After a 3-match losing streak, Chestnut Ridge was now on a 2-match winning streak. Now it was time for Spring City's match.
As I said, Spring City was in the Abraham & Sarah bracket. This was a single elimination bracket. One loss and we were done. There were 16 teams in this bracket; all of them lost in the 3rd round of the double elimination second chance bracket. I remember telling my team earlier "If we make it onto one of these brackets, we better go all the way." I had no intention of losing, but going on a 4-match winning streak to win the bracket championship. Our first opponent was Maple Grove 1. This was not the same Maple Grove 1 of history that won championships. This was a weaker one. Because the church was celebrating its 100 year anniversary, back when it was a much plainer church, the quiz team wore plain jackets. That match was a total turn around from the previous one. I went from erroring out to quizzing. Two of my other teammates also quizzed out. We also added team bonus to it. Maple Grove 1 wasn't doing too hot. They had errored enough that they were losing points. In the end, Spring City won 135 to 5. Maple Grove 1 was done their tournament, but Spring City was still going.
Winning meant we had a consecutive match. We had to hurry to the next room for our next match. Our opponent was Forest Hills. We had quizzed Forest Hills during the 6th week of the season. We won 100 to 30, with both Robert and I quizzing out. That much was a serious turning point in our season. Now we needed a win to get us more seriously into the bracket. Although we took a fairly sizable lead, the match was close. I errored just as much as I got right. On one I errored on naming the 10 people's land God would give Abraham. It was embarassing because I had already said it one or two matches, but because I said Amonnmites instead of Amorites, I was wrong. I did manage to quiz out. It scared because I thought I was going to error out again. By question 14, we were winning 80-50. Forest Hills was one away from team bonus. If they got team bonus on question 15, we'd be in a tied and need to go to extra questions again. But alas they were unable. We did win 80 to 50. Spring City advanced. I was scared a lot of the match, thinking this could be our last, but I had a laugh moment midway through. Part way into the match, a loud engine drove by. Mike's head perked up like Pavlov's dog when he heard the sound. He wanted to go run out and see what it was. So Mike.
There was only a short break between our matches, so I the time to update my bracket. I was please to see that Chestnut Ridge had continued onto a 3-match winning streak and made it to the final match of the Adam & Eve bracket. Speaking of Chestnut Ridge, I met up at the brackets with Erica, one of the quizzers on the team. She was quite the interesting character. We talked about quizzing. She threatened to slap me for saying all Ohio teams were the same to us in Pennsylvania. lol. I didn't have a lot of time to talk or fill out my bracket, as my team's next match was soon.
We were in the semifinal of the Abraham & Sarah bracket; we were with 3 other teams. By now the weaker teams that lost in the double elimination's third round were out and only the stronger remained. By now, it was dominant of ACC teams. In the music room, our opponent was Hinkletown 1. I remember quizzing them in the 7th week of the season. We won that much, but not as much as we wanted. But for this tournament all that mattered was winning. Well, we couldn't even do that. I was able to quiz, and it was a late one, too, but that was the highlight. I really felt helpless there. Yes, I scored my maximum of 35 points, but after that, I could do no more. I just had to sit and watch. Things didn't get better. Spring City kept erroring. We collected five errors and lost 5 points. By question 13, I knew the team wasn't going to recover from this match. It was painful to see everything come to an end and it was out of my control. At the end of question 14, I yelled out, "LONG LIVE THE FLAMING AMISH!" in honor and gratitude of my past 5 years with Spring City. I hope it also showed a thankfulness to teammates for making a great team. Question 15 passed, and that ended. Spring City lost and was out of the Invitational tournament.
So just like that it was over. With that, I closed my Invitational tournament, my quizzing year, and my quizzzing career. After 8 years of seasons, ACC Tournaments, and Invitationals, after 256 quizmatches, it was all over. There was no "try again next year" because next year I could not return as a quizzer. I had to accept all I have done just the way it was, realizing that I could not try to beat it. That was it; I was done for.
A little bummed out about my career as a quizzer coming to an end, I moved over to the auditorium to watch the final matches of the Noah & Family bracket and Abraham & Sarah bracket. Entering the room, I ran into Chestnut Ridge. They had just won the final match of the Adam & Eve bracket. So after a 3-match losing streak, they went on a 4-match winning streak to become the champions of the Adam & Eve bracket. I tried my best to congratulate them, still a little down about my ending quizzer career. I took my seat in the auditorium and waited for the matches. While waiting, Jessi and I exchanged phone numbers and talked. The match was between two West Liberty teams: Grace Chapel and Calvary 3 (not the Calvary we knew). Grace Chapel took their seats...but Calvary 3 didn't...and the quizmatch started. In fact, I noticed that the quizzers on Calvary 3 didn't sit down until they had gotten a buzz in right that went towards team bonus. I can't say exactly why. Some have suggested it's a way to "encourage" the quizzers to get that buzz in right for team bonus. Others thought it was an easy way to keep track of what was needed for team bonus. Tim thought he heard that when West Liberty quizzed their season, that was the official rule: you didn't sit down until you got a buzz in correctly. Maybe Calvary continued to follow the rule through the invitational. Whatever the reason, it was totally different to me. As the match progressed, one by one the Calvary quizzers would sit down as they buzzed in and got it right. By the end of the match, 3 were sitting, but one remained standing. Standing didn't give Calvary the advantage because Grace Chapel won and became the champions of the Noah and Family bracket.
The next match was the championship of the Abraham & Sarah bracket. If we would have won just one more match, we would be quizzing in this one. I knew the one team was going to be Hinkletown 1. Then I saw the second team enter the auditorium: Petra 1. I thought this would have been an interesting match if we would have quizzed this match against them because we quizzed them just 6 days earlier for 1st place of our ACC Tournament group. It was good to see 2 ACC teams make the final match of this bracket, so I really didn't care who the winner was. The winner turned out to be Petra 1. I continued to sit in the auditorium for a match between Petra 3 and E-Town 1 on the winners side of the double elimination bracket. E-Town 1 won that match. During that match, Mr. Deitrick found me to give me my meal ticket. With my meal ticket in hand, I went to dinner.
This dinner was more friendly than to vegetarians like Chelsea this time. The main course was speghetti, with a choice between tomato sauce and chesse sauce. I loaded my with cheese sauce. A side salad and cake for dessert. I had dinner with Robert and his godparents. His godparents live in Ohio and came to see us quiz. Unfortunately, they had got to Archibold right after our lost to Hinkletown 1. We got talking about quizzing and has it goes down. After dinner, I went to the giant brackets to update mine. Then I went to the auditorium.
For I was on, for one last match. Would I consider this my last match? Yes and no. I don't consider this a match because it was a fun match which had no effect on my personal standings or my team's standings. So it wasn't "real" in that sense. But I was actually quizzing with quizzers from other teams, and I wanted to do my best, especially after my last fun match performance. It has been my goal to quiz out in a fun match. I just enjoyed the fact that I was quizzing because I don't know if/when I'll be in this position ever again. The ACC team consisted of perfect quizzers Luisa Miller (Slate Hill 1) and Jordan Kenner (E-Town 1) and one-short quizzers Charleton King (Parkesburg) and myself (Spring City, lol). On Wayne County's team I noticed Naomi Eberly (Chestnut Ridge) and Michelle Raber (Longenecker), since I sat across from her in my match against Longenecker. On West Liberty's team was our the brother and sister Landon Stapleton (Crossway) and Lauren Stapleton (Calvary 2). On Northwest Ohio's all-star team had quizzers from Lockport 1 and Sand Ridge - their top 2 teams. Man, it was crazy fast. I was a little bit frustrated because I couldn't get in. But I was pumped and ready to go. Finally, I heard the quizmaster announce, "This question is a sitation question" and I knew it was coming to me. I heard, "Give..." and I went for the early buzz...but I didn't get it. But because I was the 2nd fastest to buzz in, the bonus would go towards me. Whether the person did not hear correctly, or enough, or just didn't know the answer, he errored. The bonus came to me, "Give me children or else I die." I knew this from erroring on it in the last fun match I was in. I answered confidently "Rachel to Jacob" and got my first points on a fun match. The questions continued. Luisa quizzed out for us, which was a big help. Later on, the quizmaster said, "This next question will also be a situation question." After getting the first one, I wanted the second one. I went for it, buzzing in, and I got in! I knew it from the little that I heard. I confidently gave the quizmaster, and he said I was right! Jeremiah and I figured out after the match that was only 1 of 4 correct buzz ins. On question 15, I had still not gotten in, so I went kamakaze but didn't get in. In the end, the winner was the ACC, scoring 65 points. While I didn't quiz out, I was satisfied with the results. It was a complete turn around from the last match.
At 6:30 the matches continued as usual. So I continued as usual to watch the championship matches of the single elimination brackets. The next one was the Isaac & Rebekah bracket. My friends from Zion 1. They were up against Petra 5. Ironically, the opponenet Petra 5 beat to get into this final match was Zion 2. It would have been interesting if Petra 5 would have suffered the loss. It would have been the 2 Zion teams in a match for the championship. But it was Petra 5 vs. Zion 1. Zion 1 fought there hardest, but it was no match for them. Petra 5 beat the 2 Zion teams consecutively to take the Isaac & Rebekah championship. This is the 2nd single elimination bracket a Petra team had taken.
With the next single bracket championship match not happening for another 40 minutes, I had the choice between watching its semifinal match or watching a match in the second chance side of the double elimination bracket. I chose the latter because it was an intersting match. It was Sand Ridge vs. Slate Hill 1. The best way to describe why is to say that Slate Hill 1 is pretty much the ACC version of Sand Ridge. Now they did quiz against each other in the placement bracket, and Sand Ridge won, but I wasn't able to see it because Spring City was quizzing at the same time. Now I was able to see that match, and with more on the line this time, I was going to see a good match. And it was a good match. But as close as Slate Hill 1 is like Sand Ridge in the ACC, they simply weren't Sand Ridge. Sand Ridge did win the match. And at the point Slate Hill 1 was in the double elimination bracket, there was no single elimination bracket for them to go to. They were done.
Now it was time for the last single elimination championship. In the Jacob & Rachel bracket, it was Goods 1 (ACC) vs. Orville (Wayne County). This was the first single elimination final match that the final 2 teams were from 2 different quizzing conferences. It was a tough match for Goods 1, considering Orville was the top team of Wayne County. Yet the winner was not Orville, but rather Goods 1. Orrville did put up a tough fight, but the victorious team was Goods 1. This meant that the ACC would take 3 of the single elimination plaques.
All the single elimination brackets were now done and dealt with, and back on the double elimination bracket, 4 teams remained. The only team left on the winner's side was Northwest Ohio's Lockport 1. The final match of the night would take 1 more team out of the picture. It was Petra 3 (ACC) vs. Sand Ridge (NW). Yes, this was the same team that we lost to and sent us to the second chance side of the bracket. It was an exciting match with one of the top teams of the ACC facing one of the top teams of Northwest Ohio. Yet Sand Ridge continued their march to the final match, beating Petra 3. So the quizzing night came to an end with 3 teams left: Lockport 1 (NW), Sand Ridge (NW), and E-Town 1 (ACC).
We had a problem trying to get everyone back together on my team. Since we fell out of the tournament, we had been scattered. Last time we saw Tim, Cait was yelling at him. So for all we knew, he was dead in a ditch. lol. The Mullin girls and Mike were in and out of the gym, so we had to find if they were in or out. Robert was becoming very antasy beceause of this, so antsy he was becoming hyper. It was really weird. I had never seen Robert this hyper, and neither had Alyssa. It was so weird to her, she didn't want to do anything with Robert. When we got back, the host couple had another impressive layout of food out for us. Exhausted from the day, we all plopped in front of the television to watch the divisional finals of Ohio High School basketball (apparently it's very big in Ohio). I took out old brackets and compared them to this year to see how we did. We also took the oppurtunity to look at old pictures. Most of us were tired and just went to bed. I stayed up for the whole game, and in the mean time changed my mp3 player from text to music, and also had a conversation with Alyssa. Then I too went to bed.
SUNDAY:
This morning we didn't have to get as early because the matches were later, and we weren't in any of them. I always wondered what it would be like to have to study on Saturday night and quickly review on Sunday morning during the Invitational. Yet we had to get up early enough because not only did we have to do the usual morning rituals, but also had to pack up for another long drive home. Still tired, I was slow to get up. Robert thought it would be a good idea to get us up with ice. Tim and Mike didn't receive the idea too well, as they wrestled him to the ground. I did get up with enough time, but barely enough as I was still checking if I had everything as the rest of the team was walking out the door. We loaded all our stuff onto the car, took final pictures, thanked our hosts, and left for the school.
When we got to Archibold High School, we went straight to the cafeteria. Still, it was very full. I was surprised that they opened only one side of the bleachers and not both sides of the gymnasium. The events were split into 3 parts: worship, the speaker, and the quizzing. The worship was lead by a group from Bluffton University. I thought I saw them come in the day before. They were pretty good.
There were two definite matches on Sunday, with a third pending. The first match would determine what team got to play Lockport 1 in the final. The losing team would have to accept 3rd place. Both teams had a good history in the Invitational. E-Town 3 had placed 3rd in the Invitational in 2006 and 2007. Sand Ridge had taken the championship for the past 3 consecutive years. The fans were divided by conference. One would have thought that everyone would cheer for E-Town 3 because they didn't want to see Sand Ridge win yet another Invitational championship. But it was not so. All of the Northwest Ohio quiz teams wanted to see both teams in the final match from their conference. So all of Northwest Ohio cheered for Sand Ridge. But this was not a Ohio thing. A lot of teams from Wayne County and West Liberty cheered for E-Town 3. E-Town 3's perfect quizzer Jordan Keener struggled to quiz out, but did, and Sand Ridge's top quizzer Whitney Stamm. After 15 questions, Sand Ridge won and was going to the Invitational Double Elimination bracket final match for the fourth consecutive year. E-Town 3 would finished 3rd place in the Invitational for the 3rd time in the past 4 years.
So the final match was Lockport 1 vs. Sand Ridge. Now with both teams from Northwest Ohio in the final match, all Northwest Ohio teams joined the rest of the quizzing teams in cheering for Lockport 1. Despite the final match having both teams from the same conference, the host conference, it was still a good match because these were the top 2 teams from Northwest Ohio. Both teams were jumpy in the match. The only problem was that Lockport 1 was jumpy too early in the question. They were getting a lot of errors. In fact, they had 5 errors. A few of us we worried Lockport 1 was trying the same error strategy Longenecker tried against Sand Ridge in 2007. The errors did hurt as not only did Lockport 1 lose 5 points, but Sand Ridge was easily picking them up. Sand Ridge themselves only errored twice. Sand Ridge won, 100 to 60. This was Lockport 1's first loss in the whole tournament, including the placement match. But since this was Lockport 1's first loss in a double elimination bracket, Lockport 1 could not be out of it. So there had to be another match between the same two teams. This one would decide the champion. With another match coming, this would be the 3rd time they would be facing each other in the tournament. With the series between the teams tied 1-1, it could be anyone's match.
With teams switching sides, the match was ready. Sand Ridge took a lead, and some of us were worried that Sand Ridge would win a 4th consecutive time. Mr. Deitrick was even afraid that people would start booing if this was so. But this match was about to take a turn, as Lockport started catching up. This match was so much closer than compared to the last one. Not only was it close in points, but it was also close in errors. Lockport 1 received 4 errors, and Sand Ridge got 6 errors, causing them to lose 10 points. With them losing those points, and Lockport 1 gaining points from their bonuses, it may have ben what cost Sand Ridge the match and the championship. After the quizzer answered, "Its belly" to answer correctly the last question "On what will the serpent crawl?" the match was over, and Lockport 1 was the victorius team, winning 65 to 50. So let me pause and take this time write the finals results...
DOUBLE ELIMINATION BRACKET
1st place: Lockport 1 (Northwest Ohio)
2nd place: Sand Ridge (Northwest Ohio)
3rd place: E-Town 3 (ACC)
4th place: Petra 3 (ACC) (Not awarded)
5th place: Slate Hill 1 (ACC) & Strasburg 3 (ACC) (Not awarded)
SINGLE ELIMINATION BRACKET CHAMPIONS
Adam & Eve Bracket: Chestnut Ridge (Wayne County)
Noah & Family Bracket: Grace Chapel (West Liberty)
Abraham & Sarah Bracket: Petra 1 (ACC)
Isaac & Rebekah Bracket: Petra 5 (ACC)
Jacob & Rachel Bracket: Goods 1 (ACC)
The speaker did a good job. He was an ex-quizzer who remembered the excitement of being in a quizmatch. He thought it would be fitting to have the message come from the quizing material, so it was right from Genesis 12:1-4, where God calls Abraham. The message focused around on us needing to answer God's call for our lives, and to drown out all excuses and distraction that might be drawing us away from that call. To illustrate this, the Bluffton group did a small skit. Everything ended with a final announcement from the coordinator of Wayne County. I immediately knew this meant that next year's invitional would be held in Kidron, Ohio. Sure enough, I was right. Then the following annoucement was the material for next year: 1 & 2 Corinthians. This would be interesting with all the theology in it.
Everything was now done. Fred directed us back to the busses. They were all lined up outside the front of the building, waiting for us. Of course we didn't immediately get on. We were congratulating the winners, and talking to all our Ohio friends. I got more quizzers to sign my orange shirt. Robert was ready to be done the busy weekend and wanted to go home. He was trying to get the rest of the team on the bus, more than our coaches were. He had also gotten us a seat on the back of the bus, right next to the bathroom. As we were walking to the bus, Robert turns to me and says, "Oh yeah, something about our bus being a boat." Before I could say "what?" I stepped onto the bus and heard "WE'RE ON A BOAT!" from Saturday Night Live's The Lonely Island. If you don't know what I'm talking about - good. Don't go looking for it. Yeah, I heard that all bus ride back home, even up to the end.
Besides that, the bus ride was a good one. All the staff in the ACC decided it would be simpler to have the same bus assignments as we did on they way up than to switch everything around. So once again we were with Living Rock, Timberline and Grace & Truth. Once again, there were many games of Mafia. Players in each game could range between the low teens and low 20s. I seemed to be in the mafia a lot. While we had many good narrators, the actual game play got worse as we went on. Like I said, I was constantly on the mafia. Now, a good mafia works together to get rid of the everyone. Every time I was in the mafia, it seemed like the mafia members just cared about keeping themselves alive in the game. The mafia would vote for their own mafia to execute! It was just bad strategy. I can't stand bad strategy, so after a couple games, I just quit and returned back to my seat in the back. I spent a lot of my time playing Guitar Hero Decades on my DS. Yeah, I know we weren't suppose to, but some of the Living Rock kids in the back were also on their DS or PSP, so I joined on that, too. But the group had other fun too. During rest stops, we tried to see how many people we could fit in a rest room. We needed small people, and Robert was game to do it. The first rest stop we were able to fit 7 people in a restroom. On the second stop, they successfully put in 8, door closed and all. Of course everyone fell out when the door opened.
Speaking of rest stops, the rest stops were pretty much the same as the last time. Our first one was in the same mall area our last stop when driving up, except this time we were on the non-mall side. When we stop there, we saw a lady dressed up like the Statue of Liberty, trying to sell insurance. Always something interesting at this rest stops. I went to Wendy's, for I had an urge for a Baconator. I had lunch with Slate Hill, and Robert rejoined me later. Our second stop was back at Somerset. This would be now the 10th Somerset stop in my quizzing career. If we assume every stop was an hour long, that would mean that I have spent a total of 10 hours of my life in Somerset. Since I had been dragging Robert around a lot this trip, I let Robert choose where we were going to eat. He chose this restaurant across the street where the Deitricks were going. So we had dinner together. I wasn't too much fun at that point. Tired and sad about quizzing ending, I was a little down. The Deitricks noticed this, so Mrs. Deitrick asks, "Graham, is somebody picking on you?" lol. Mrs. D. was always the mother type. Dinner was hurried as they got our plates to us a little before we had to leave. We had to quickly eat and leave.
We got back into Dutch Wonderland's parking lot very late. In fact, we passed Lancaster Bible College. I was so close to my dorm, which I had to return to on the Monday following. When we got into Dutch Wonderland's parking lot, everyone stormed off to get their luggage. The tired adult coaches just wanted to get home, but a lot of the quizzers, knowing this is the end, made sure they said goodbye to everyone. I made sure I made my goodbyes, as I knew I was sucking out the last seconds of being considered a quizzer. Tim and Mike went back to Tim's place, while the Deitricks loaded us back into church van to drop the Mullins off at their house, then bring Robert and I back to their place. While exhausted, we still talked about our wonderful Ohio experience. Both Robert and I would leave the Deitricks the next morning.
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Not to good into too much analysis and reflection, I'm still thinking about the Invitational. While writing this and trying to remember everything, I was looking through text messages, pictures, and the brackets. Comparing past bracket to this bracket, statistically, this has been Spring City's 2nd worse Invitational performance, the worse being in 2006 in Wayne County. In both we fell out of the double elimination tournament in back-to-back losses, but this year we had a slot in a single elimination bracket, which gave us 3 more matches. We quizzed a total of 7 matches, and the win-loss record was 4-3. I can't say that that it wasn't our fault, but I can't say that it was totally our fault either. We did suffer from brain farts, and arguably, if we didn't, we could have done better. But I don't feel the same disappointment as I did in 2006. Why is this? I think there is 2 main reasons. First, it was the people I was with. I was 2 quizzers who were new to the Ohio experience and seeking the fun in it, and I was with the 3 people who I have quizzed the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (tied) longest with. This was a great bunch of quizzers, with great coaches, which them themselves made the trip worth it. The second reason, I believe, is that with my quizzing career coming to an end, I observed the tournamet not by how well were doing or how much we were winning and advancing, but just enjoying quizzing for what it is. Enjoying the match for every question, every buzz in, every bonus and every point. Enjoying the thrill of it all. I made sure my last quizzing experience would be a memorable one, even without winning the whole thing. Mission accomplished. Great year, Spring City!
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THURSDAY NIGHT:
From my college, right after my last class, I went right to the Deitricks, not stopping at home. I grabbed a dinner from the college cafe and ate on the ride there. So when I arrived, I was ready to quiz, but just like the previous year, I was the first to arrive, and had to wait for the others. The Deitricks were surprised to see me missing all the hair I had been wearing since the beginning of the year was now gone. Robert arrived next, and he came in with more of a shocker. Robert was sporting the mohawk. It was very well done. Mike came in with...Brazil nuts, and then everyone else came in. Of course, we all had our luggage. The girls of course won with the most stuff...well, at least the most stuff going to Ohio. Sure, I had a lot of stuff, but I only took half of it to Ohio. The other half was just the stuff I normally bring home from college on the weekends. Practice went normal and smoothly. I just relished into the setting as I realized I was at my last practice ever as a quizzer, and so was Mike. At the end of our practice, as we rolled up the buzzers for one last time, Mike said goodbye to his buzzer Mellow Yellow and I said goodbye to my buzzer Black Thunder. Then I knighted Robert with it, giving him my blessing, that he may be blessed in quizzing as I am.
After practice we went into the kitchen for snacks. Alyssa set up the bar to show us how well she could fake pull ups. I showed her how to do real pull ups. I did 3, which is impressive, considering a couple years earlier I wouldn't be able to do any. Mike and Tim left after snacks, back to Tim's place, where they would spend the night and meet us early the next morning. The rest of us stayed the night at the Deitricks. Dave and Alyssa watched the Power of Ten movie. After that, it was all Nintendo Wii. Robert had been talking about pool with me, so we tried a game of pool. After that we all played bowling, a game we all could play. I was humbled as I watched everyone, mainly Chelsea, beat me at my game, and lose my pro ranking. Alyssa remembered wii boxing from last year and wanted to do it again. I got back at everyone by beating them in wii boxing. unfortunately, that has nothing to do with ranking. Mrs. Deitrick made sure we didn't go to bed too late. Robert and I listened to the material before we went to bed.
FRIDAY:
Compared to last year, we all got up on time, quickly got ready, and left at a good time. Since the busses were leaving at 7 AM, we had to get up at a really early time. It was still dark when we left Pottstown. I was playing my Nintendo DS the whole way up because personal handheld video games were not allowed on the busses. We got there in enough time, at the same time everyone else was loading up. We met Tim and Mike there. Good to know they also could get up in time to meet us at the right location. We got all our stuff and loaded into onto our bus. Our Bus was bus number 5. We were on the same bus with Timberline (both teams), Living Rock (all 3 teams), Grace & Truth (they have just one team, like we do), along with 5 staff. Since Spring City was the last ones on, we were scattered about, mainly in the middle section. With this being my first Ohio trip without Christine, I sat with Robert. We found seats and got situated. A little after 7 PM, we left the Dutch Wonderland Parking Lot, with a unified yell of "BYE HOUSE!"
Since 7 PM is still considered early for most of us, and also considering that many of us had to get up before then, most people on the bus were still tired and opted to sleep. I didn't sleep because I go by the rule "No sleeping on the Ohio bus" so I went into some quizzing studying (yes, already). Tim was the funniest to watch sleeping. He was leaning back in his chair, mouth gaping wide open. I would crumple up small balls of paper and try to shoot them in his mouth. Cathy Riehl tried to help me by giving me bite size snacks for ammo. Still, my aim could not make a basket into Tim's mouth. A few hours later everyone was more awake and ready to play. Tim suggested Mafia, of course, and most everyone wanted to jump in. We were just underway to our first mafia game....when we pulled into Somerset.
Somerset is the annual Ohio trip stop. We stop there for both going to Ohio, and coming back from Ohio. So this was visit number 9. Remembering the hot cocoa from the last visit, I made sure I went back to the Starbucks for one. Since Robert was following me around, I asked him where he wanted to go. He insisted we go to McDonald's, so we went there. It was still early in the morning, early enough for McDonald's to still be on its breakfast menu. I rather have the lunch/dinner menu, but I found chicken muffin I could eat. I needed to eat because we were told we weren't making another meal stop for 4 to 5 hours. As we were eating, I looked at the window and saw a van decked out like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo! That was new. Once we were done eating, we waited to get on the bus. The bus doors opened, everyone got on their bus, and we continued on our trip.
Once we got onto the highway again, we were ready to play mafia...but then we were interrupted again. Merv wanted the youth to take a survey for a sermon he was preparing. So we answered a bunch of question. Some of them very prodding, like asking how far you would go with a date and your most embarassing secret. Others were just funny, like what food comes to mind first when you think of mennonite food. But the funniest part was Mike taking the survey. Naturally, Mike did not have a pen on hand. So he borred one from Cait Rihel - a nice pink pen with a sparkling pink tassel on the end. It so went along with manly Mike. After filling out our surveys, we were finally ready to play mafia. These mafia games were huge. We played about 6-10 games. A game ranged between in the 20s when it came to people playing. Most of the time we had 5-6 mafia in each game. I played every role at least once. The same was true for him, but he didn't have good fortune in the game. Spring City quizzers knew how good Tim was at mafia, and it only took one game for everyone else to figure that out too. So for the next 4 games or so, everyone made sure Tim was the first one to be executed by the vote. But it's not like it mattered. The next few games made me realize why Tim and Cait worked as a couple. Cait was just as ruthless as a player as Tim. Most of the time she was the mafia and got away with it. She would either bring the mafia to victory still alive or be the last mafia standing. After a while, I noticed Tim was getting frustrated not being able to play more than one round, so I led a campaign to try to keep him alive for a few more turns. That was a mistake. Because on that round, both Tim and Cait were in the mafia, and there were like the mafia Bonnie and Clyde. By the time I had figured out the two of them were it together, they killed me that night. Not one of my finest moments in the game. But I will tell you my finest moment. I was the mafia. I had realized who the last detective was (there was 2 detectives because the games were so large) for we had killed the one detective. So I convinced everyone that I was the detective and the real detective was in the mafia. Everyone fell for it, and I led the mafia to victory. Needless to say no one trusted me the next round, so when I did try it again, I was discovered immediately. Playing mafia took us all the way to our next stop.
After stepping into Ohio passed the border, the busses stopped at a rest stop. This was only 10 minute break for thos who needed to use the bathrooms and stand up outside. I took the chance to stand up outside and stretch my legs. But before you knew it, we had to get back on the bus for more bus ride. Once again, we started up mafia. By this time, some people were tired with mafia, and only the hardcore players wanted to play. So now games were only 15-19 people, with much less charcters. Most of the time, I was jsut a townsperson, so nothing exciting for me. But one of the funniest moments was near the end. BJ from Timberline had discovered Tim was in the mafia and discovered Tim had a snacks barrell at the same time. He started yelling, "Tim is in the mafia!" and Tim yelled back, "If you make any accusation of me in the mafia, you're not getting any snacks!" Hugging the barrell, BJ yelled, "TIM IS NOT IN THE MAFIA! TIM IS NOT IN THE MAFIA!" Apparently he was and he won the game using his little bribe. lol. We still played mafia until the next real rest stop.
This was the same rest stop we were at the last trip to the Northwest section of Ohio. With a major highway between it, half the busses went to one side, and other half went to the other side. We were lucky enough to get to the side with the mall. I went to McDonalds for dinner, and got a Happy Meal for the toy of a quizzing buddy. On the box, it had a punch-out of a blue eyeball, and the box said, "Stick this to your forehead and pretend you're a giant blue blob." Of course, this gave my ideas ;) . I had dinner with Robert and Ed White from Slate Hill. After that, we explored the mall, including going into Gamestops and Borders, for Robert's sake. We then went back to the buses, and with a little time to spare, played some hacky sack. Then back on the busses again. By now everyone was tired with mafia, so there were no new games of that. Surprisingly, a lot of people studied. That's usually something I do. lol. It started with a few people studying, and then some people wanted to get involved, and before you know it, a lot of people were studying. Coach Dave let some quizzers from Timberline borrow his questions. With his handwriting, there was a small dispute over what preposition he wrote down. lol. I got the chance to impress the Timberline quizzers with how well I knew my situation questions, but also got to fit in my own questions. Others were not as interested in studying. Mike found himself a motorcycle magaize. Tim and Mike drooled over pictures of bikes. Finally, at roughly 7 PM, 12 hours later, we arrived in Archibold, Ohio. It was a small town surrounded by farm land. Coach Dave best described it like a checkerboard: flat and square.
All 8 busses were pulled into St. John's parking lot. We were told that a coach from each team would go inside the church building and wait for their host while the rest would wait inside. Seriously, you can't expect that from teenagers who have been on a bus pretty much all day. Everyone gathered up their stuff in the bus, stepped off, went below the bush to get their luggage, and went to the church's back lawn. It had a small playground and a few picnic tables. Some played catch, others played hacky sack, but I think a lot of us were just glad to get off and stand up. It was mainly the guys playing hacky-sack and catch, and the girls on the playground. Of course Spring City was one of the last teams to find their host, as it usually seems. So we were there for a while. Alyssa sat in the tire swing as we waited. Tim and Mike wanted to help Alyssa have more fun, so they pushed her on the swing with all their might. Needless to say, Alyssa went flying everywhere. So the crazier 3 on Spring City were going wild with the tire swing, while the calmer 3 of Robert, Chelsea and I just stood and watch. Finally, our hosts arrived. We loaded everything into their truck and car, and they drove us to their house.
Our host family was an older couple: Paul & Carol Stuckey. They were retired farmers who were now living on a much smaller plot. Their children were grown up, and had given them grandchildren, who many were quizzing for a few of the quiz teams. It was a short drive to their house, but Paul Stuckey took us on a slightly longer route that was more scenic. Ohio did look lovely that time of year. Once at the house, we entered through the garage with all their stuff. The Deitricks were shown to their room, and the girls to their own private room, considering there was only two of them. The boys had 2 options: sleep on living room floor or sleep on the TV room floor. We chose the living room floor because the carpet was thicker. As we were getting situated, the Stuckeys invited us into their kitchen for snacks. They had fully prepared for this, giving us sodas, chips, cake, ice cream, crackers, chesses and fruit. This being our first time eating since the last rest stop 3 hours before, we ate our fill. After everyone had enough to eat, we went into TV room for the last practice of the year and my last practice as a quizzer :( . Dave and Vicki went around asking questions from their sets respectively. We practiced to the best of our ability, but after an early morning and a long trip, we were dead tired. We finished up the night watching some of the NCAA Final Four Tournament, and then went to bed.
SATURDAY:
I got up early at 7 AM for a shower. By the time I got out, all the other quizzers on my team were up as well. We ate breakfast, got dressed (all wearing our team shirts) and left on time. On the way there, Paul Stuckey drove us by the Sand Ridge farm to show us where the infamous team was from. Mr. Deitrick would haved preferred he didn't. Speaking of which, a Zion team was being hosted by Sand Ridge. It was an intersting experience for them, so interesting Dustin just had to video tape it to show us all. Sand Ridge's trophies were nicely cased on display and the brackets they championed wallpapered the room. While it kind of upset me, I wasn't upset for too long as God reminded me, "Oh come on, Graham, you would do that too if you won that much and the Deitricks allowed you." It was true.
We arrived at Archibold High School just before the morning announcements. It was hard finding 8 seats in a row, but we did and sat down. Around 8:45 a.m., Northwest Ohio cordinator Gerald Schoenhals got behind a microphone to explain how the events of the day were going to go down. So let me take this time to explain to you how the tournament worked...
The tournament was centered around a giant double elimination bracket. All 79 teams (ACC: 52, Northwest Ohio: 12, West Liberty: 7, Wayne County: 6, Virginia: 2) go to the double elimination bracket. To figure out how to appropriately seed teams to like strength, there would be one placement much. Win or lose, you still go to the double elimination, it's just that the win or losee puts you in other winners of losers. The placement match opponent was based off like strength in season the season, which is a week-by-week breakdown of the material. If you lost twice in double elimination bracket, you're out of the main bracket (obviously), but not out of the overall tournament necesarily. Only the top 6 teams of the double elimination bracket were done after losing twice. For the other 73 teams, when they lost twice, the would be put in a smaller single elimination bracket. Now since 2004 we've been use to a smaller single elimination bracket, but there was only one. This year there was five! Teams that lost the 1st round of the loser side of the double elimination bracket went to the Adam & Eve bracket. Teams that lost in the 2nd round went to the Noah & Family bracket. Those that lost 3rd round of the losers half went to the Abraham & Sarah bracket. Those that lost 4th and 5th round Isaac & Rebekah bracket, and the losers in rounds 6 to 8 go to the Jacob & Rachel bracket. Each bracket had 16 teams, except for Jacob & Rachel, which had 10 teams. Since all teams in the same single elimination bracket lost in the same round of the double elimination bracket second chance side, they too are also of like strength. Lose once, and you're officially out of the overall tournament, but win them all (usually 4), then the team wins that bracket championship, with a plaque to remember it by. Now that you know, it will help you understand. Back to announcements...
...Gerald Schoenhals continued with explaining about more of the day's events. He explained how meals would work, open gym policy and about a fun match that would be happening 6 p.m. I got excited thinking about that considering I was in the last fun match two weekends before. At that time, our ACC cordinator Fred walks up to Dave and asks, "Where is Graham? I need him." So I went with Fred just outside the auditorium. There I met with Jeremiah Dunst from Zion 2 and Charleton King from Parkesburg Baptist. Fred explained, "Ok, during the fun match each conference will have their top 4 quizzers up there. We have 3 perfect quizzers, but since Grace Point is not here, neither is Joel Delinger, so we only have 2 perfect quizzers. That leaves 2 open spaces. There are 3 quizzers tied for 4th place. We need to figure out which 2 of you will fill the two open spaces. We were thinking about doing it by the least amount of errors, but that might be unfair to Graham..." on which I chimed in and said, "Hey! I only had 8 errors all season." Fred continued, "The only way we figured it would be fair is for it to be pull names." So my fate in being the fun all-star match was dependant on the lot. So in accordance with Proverbs, which says the lot is in the hands of th Lord, I prayed. The first name drawn was...Charleton. I prayed harder. The second name drawn....was mine! I was going to be in the fun match with the ACC all-stars. This meant a lot to me because it means I was going the represent the best of the ACC. I thanked Jeremiah, who looked slightly disappointed, because this meant so much to me. I guess at this point I should also thank Joel Delinger. By not being there, there was a better oppurtunity for me to be in the fun match. I got back into the auditorium for the tail end of th announcements. We were off to find our room for our match.
We found our room with minutes to spare. The staff was already there. Shortly after, our opponent, Rivercorner, arrived. And that was it. I don't know if it because we were in another state or because both Spring City and Rivercorner only have one team or just simply because 9 a.m. is too early for fans to wake up and watch quizzing. All that was in the room was the 2 quiz teams, along with their coaches, and the staff. Not a watcher was in sight. It made the room feel very empty. The staff had to follow timing protocol and so we had to sit and wait a couple minutes for 9 a.m. to arrive. So on the dot of of 9:00, we started our match. Maybe it was too early for quizzers as well because both sides made critical mistakes in the match. It made the match close to the end. But when the end came, Spring City won 85 to 75. Like I said, it didn't matter in the sense of making the double elimination bracket. But it was a good start and got us motivated into a winning mood.
Our next match wasn't until 10:20 a.m. So with about an hour until our next match, I got the chance to be an observer. First, I watched Ridgeview 2 vs. Virginia 2 because the winner would be quizzing against us. I saw Virginia 2 win and knew what to expect. Then I went to wait in the room we would quiz next in. I scorekept the match and took my 5-hour energy shot. Now I was ready for for my next quiz match.
Our opponent was Virginia. Once again, despite everyone being there early, we had to wait for 10:20, the official starting time. This gave us time talk with virginia 2. Here's their story: instead of sending whole teams over, they sent whichever quizzers could go over, and put them in a team. Virginia had enough quizzers in Ohio for two teams. We were quizzing against the 2nd team. These quizzers came from different churches. It would be itneresting to see how a newly assembled team chemistry would work. Apparently not well enough. I was able to quiz out. The points I scored is what separated us from them. Spring City won 95 to 65. Spring Cit was advancing in the winners side of the double elimination bracker for another round.
Once again, there was 2 matches between our last match and our next match. The first match I saw was Petra 3 vs. Ridgeview 1 because their opponent would be our next opponent. I scorekept and watch Petra 3 carefully. I could see why the finished 2nd place in our ACC season because they took control of that match. They won, making them our next opponent. Now I had promised my Ohio friend Jessi that I would watch her team quiz, and she wanted some teammates to meet me, so I found a match Chestnut Ridge was in. Things had been pretty rough for Chestnut Ridge. They had lost their first two matches: the placement match and their first match in the double elimination bracket. It was only 11:00 a.m., and they were already in the second chance half of the double elimination bracket. Quizzing an ACC team, there wasn't many fans there watching, so I decided to make the loudest noises, cheering widly. Everyone noticed. Unfortuneatly, my cheering wasn't good enough to give Chestnut Ridge the win. They lost, moving them out of the double elimination bracket and into the Adam & Eve. They would be with 15 other teams that lost the first 2 double elimination bracket matches.
Just before lunch, Spring City had a match. We were up against Petra 3, 2nd place team in the ACC season and a semifinal team in the ACC Tournament. Having quizzed against Petra 2 in the season and Petra 1 in the ACC Tournament, Petra 3 was the third Petra team we quizeed against this year. The last time we quizzed Petra 3 was the exciting match in the 2008 ACC Tournament that went to a sudden death overtime question, which rookie Robert won us the match with a buzz in. Despite a different coach and quizzers, they still were as tough as ever. Tim and I led by quizzing out, but that was the most we could do. Petra 3 was firing on all cylinders, but we were able to hold them back a bit, too. After 15 questions...we were tied. I turned to my coaches and said, "This is feeling very familiar." With Tim and I quizzing out, Spring City had to depend on the the rest of its team, without its top 2 quizzers. But this year things seemed better than the last time. Last time we had 2 rookies. This time everyone up there had at least one year experience. It's funny how things work. Even though we had more experience, we were not able to perform as well. Spring City had been suffering from brain farts all match, but we were hit the hardest in overtime. Petra 3 took control and we lost in overtime with the final score Petra 3: 100, Spring City: 90. We were moving to the second chance end of the double elimination bracket. We were going to quiz against Longenecker at 1:20 p.m.
A little bummed out from the loss, we all decided to go to lunch. Now Archibold had all grades k to 12 on one campus. The high school was is one building and the rest was in another building. The high school building was where all the quizzing was happening. The cafeteria was in the other building. So all the teams had to take a walk outside to go to lunch. Luckily it wasn't too cold outside. The sign to the cafeteria said "Tasty food here" (read Genesis 27 if you don't get the joke here). We got in line just when it was early enough to still be short. It only took a few minutes to get longer. Lunch most consisted of meats like sloppy joe and ham, and gave very little options for vegetarians like Chelsea :-P . I had the brilliant of idea of making meat burritos: wrapping my sloppy joe in a ham wrap. It was so greasy that I had to use a fork. I finished lunch early, and with an hour time block with no quizzing reseved for lunch, I had time to go update my personal bracket with the larger one. There I met up with some of Slate Hill 1 and found out how they were doing. They were still in the winners side of the bracket, winning all 3 matches they had in the winners bracket, despite losing the placement match to Sand Ridge. I had noticed they quizzed against Longenecker and asked how they were. While Slate Hill 1 won the match, they said Longenecker gave them a run for their money. I knew were going to be facing a tough team, as they historically are.
Matches began again at 1:00 p.m. and with our match at 1:20, I had time to watch a match. I found my Ohio friends at Chestnut Ridge were quizzing their first match in the Adam & Eve bracket, so I went to that. It was Chestnut Ridge vs. Poplar Ridge. Both were Ohio teams, both teams wore purple team shirts, and both teams had yet to win their first match of the day. Once again, I assumed the role of the loud one, cheering for the purple team (joke because they were both wearing purple. I wanted to cheer for my friends on Chestnut Ridge, but with Poplar Ridge being so small and being winless, I didn't want to sound like I was against them either). My cheering helped Chestnut Ridge this time, as they won the match. I was happy to see my Ohio friends win their match, but I also kind of felt bad for Poplar Ridge because they were out of the tournament, quizzing only four matches, and not winning a single one.
I arrived at the classroom where I match would be a few minutes early. There was a match still going on in the classroom, and so I waited outside. One by one my teammates appeared and waited...well, all but Mike. Where was Mike? Well, he had a little accident. While I got done lunch and went to see quizmatches, many of my teammates went to go playground to play. Just like the day before, Alyssa was sitting on the playground's merry-go-round, and Mike was pushing her with all his strength. And somehow Mike's ratty pants caught onto the merry-go-round and ripped a giant in them. Of course it had to be at the worse possible place: the crotch area. So with packaging tape and a lot of paper towels, a make-shift patch for the hole. This is a very typical Mike-esque way for him to end his career. lol.
Now it was time for our match. Like I said, our opponents were Longenecker. This would be the only Ohio team we quizzed all tournament. We quizzed against Longenecker last year. In that match, we lost to them, putting us in the losers bracket. Longnecker was 2nd in Wayne County. They have a history of doing well in the Invitational. I've had a history with Longenecker. Longnecker dates back to my first Ohio Tournament back when I was still quizzing for Ark Bible. It was because of them we didn't make the playoffs (that was back when there was a round robin, and only 32 teams made a double elimination playoffs). So it was fitting that in my last tournament and last year I was facing them again. I, of course, sat across from their number one quizzer. Just like Slate Hill 1 said, Longenecker gave us a run for our money. We could not keep up with Longenecker. It was so bad even I couldn't compete with them. Every time I knew it, they buzzed in faster. When I was able to get it, I errored. In frustration, I made a kamakaze buzz in on question 15, errored my third time, erroring out. Spring City lost 60 to 95. With a one-two hit, Spring City had fallen out of the double-elimination bracket due to 2 consecutive losses. Since we lost in the 3rd round fo the double elimination second chance bracket, Spring City was moving onto the Abraham & Sarah single elimination bracket.
I had time before our next match, so I went to watch an interesting match I found on the winners side of the double elimination bracket. Somehow Bowmansville 1 and Bowmansville 2 had found themselves facing each other in the winners side of the double elimination bracket. The coaches wanted to make this the ultimate grudge match, so they sat brothers across from each other! I cheered for both teams with my generic yell of "Go Bowmansville!" Every time I watch one of these matches, I can't help but wonder, "How many times have these two teams gone up against each other in practice, laughing and having fun, now having to come together for a serious match, which will decide the fate of both teams?" The winners of the inner-church grudge match was the ACC Tournament champion Bowmansville 1. With still some time to spare, I watched my Ohio friends Chestnut Ridge play their second match in the Adam & Eve bracket. Their opponents were Virginia 1, the opposite Viriginia team to the one we quizzed. Chestnut Ridge won the match and advanced their bracket. After a 3-match losing streak, Chestnut Ridge was now on a 2-match winning streak. Now it was time for Spring City's match.
As I said, Spring City was in the Abraham & Sarah bracket. This was a single elimination bracket. One loss and we were done. There were 16 teams in this bracket; all of them lost in the 3rd round of the double elimination second chance bracket. I remember telling my team earlier "If we make it onto one of these brackets, we better go all the way." I had no intention of losing, but going on a 4-match winning streak to win the bracket championship. Our first opponent was Maple Grove 1. This was not the same Maple Grove 1 of history that won championships. This was a weaker one. Because the church was celebrating its 100 year anniversary, back when it was a much plainer church, the quiz team wore plain jackets. That match was a total turn around from the previous one. I went from erroring out to quizzing. Two of my other teammates also quizzed out. We also added team bonus to it. Maple Grove 1 wasn't doing too hot. They had errored enough that they were losing points. In the end, Spring City won 135 to 5. Maple Grove 1 was done their tournament, but Spring City was still going.
Winning meant we had a consecutive match. We had to hurry to the next room for our next match. Our opponent was Forest Hills. We had quizzed Forest Hills during the 6th week of the season. We won 100 to 30, with both Robert and I quizzing out. That much was a serious turning point in our season. Now we needed a win to get us more seriously into the bracket. Although we took a fairly sizable lead, the match was close. I errored just as much as I got right. On one I errored on naming the 10 people's land God would give Abraham. It was embarassing because I had already said it one or two matches, but because I said Amonnmites instead of Amorites, I was wrong. I did manage to quiz out. It scared because I thought I was going to error out again. By question 14, we were winning 80-50. Forest Hills was one away from team bonus. If they got team bonus on question 15, we'd be in a tied and need to go to extra questions again. But alas they were unable. We did win 80 to 50. Spring City advanced. I was scared a lot of the match, thinking this could be our last, but I had a laugh moment midway through. Part way into the match, a loud engine drove by. Mike's head perked up like Pavlov's dog when he heard the sound. He wanted to go run out and see what it was. So Mike.
There was only a short break between our matches, so I the time to update my bracket. I was please to see that Chestnut Ridge had continued onto a 3-match winning streak and made it to the final match of the Adam & Eve bracket. Speaking of Chestnut Ridge, I met up at the brackets with Erica, one of the quizzers on the team. She was quite the interesting character. We talked about quizzing. She threatened to slap me for saying all Ohio teams were the same to us in Pennsylvania. lol. I didn't have a lot of time to talk or fill out my bracket, as my team's next match was soon.
We were in the semifinal of the Abraham & Sarah bracket; we were with 3 other teams. By now the weaker teams that lost in the double elimination's third round were out and only the stronger remained. By now, it was dominant of ACC teams. In the music room, our opponent was Hinkletown 1. I remember quizzing them in the 7th week of the season. We won that much, but not as much as we wanted. But for this tournament all that mattered was winning. Well, we couldn't even do that. I was able to quiz, and it was a late one, too, but that was the highlight. I really felt helpless there. Yes, I scored my maximum of 35 points, but after that, I could do no more. I just had to sit and watch. Things didn't get better. Spring City kept erroring. We collected five errors and lost 5 points. By question 13, I knew the team wasn't going to recover from this match. It was painful to see everything come to an end and it was out of my control. At the end of question 14, I yelled out, "LONG LIVE THE FLAMING AMISH!" in honor and gratitude of my past 5 years with Spring City. I hope it also showed a thankfulness to teammates for making a great team. Question 15 passed, and that ended. Spring City lost and was out of the Invitational tournament.
So just like that it was over. With that, I closed my Invitational tournament, my quizzing year, and my quizzzing career. After 8 years of seasons, ACC Tournaments, and Invitationals, after 256 quizmatches, it was all over. There was no "try again next year" because next year I could not return as a quizzer. I had to accept all I have done just the way it was, realizing that I could not try to beat it. That was it; I was done for.
A little bummed out about my career as a quizzer coming to an end, I moved over to the auditorium to watch the final matches of the Noah & Family bracket and Abraham & Sarah bracket. Entering the room, I ran into Chestnut Ridge. They had just won the final match of the Adam & Eve bracket. So after a 3-match losing streak, they went on a 4-match winning streak to become the champions of the Adam & Eve bracket. I tried my best to congratulate them, still a little down about my ending quizzer career. I took my seat in the auditorium and waited for the matches. While waiting, Jessi and I exchanged phone numbers and talked. The match was between two West Liberty teams: Grace Chapel and Calvary 3 (not the Calvary we knew). Grace Chapel took their seats...but Calvary 3 didn't...and the quizmatch started. In fact, I noticed that the quizzers on Calvary 3 didn't sit down until they had gotten a buzz in right that went towards team bonus. I can't say exactly why. Some have suggested it's a way to "encourage" the quizzers to get that buzz in right for team bonus. Others thought it was an easy way to keep track of what was needed for team bonus. Tim thought he heard that when West Liberty quizzed their season, that was the official rule: you didn't sit down until you got a buzz in correctly. Maybe Calvary continued to follow the rule through the invitational. Whatever the reason, it was totally different to me. As the match progressed, one by one the Calvary quizzers would sit down as they buzzed in and got it right. By the end of the match, 3 were sitting, but one remained standing. Standing didn't give Calvary the advantage because Grace Chapel won and became the champions of the Noah and Family bracket.
The next match was the championship of the Abraham & Sarah bracket. If we would have won just one more match, we would be quizzing in this one. I knew the one team was going to be Hinkletown 1. Then I saw the second team enter the auditorium: Petra 1. I thought this would have been an interesting match if we would have quizzed this match against them because we quizzed them just 6 days earlier for 1st place of our ACC Tournament group. It was good to see 2 ACC teams make the final match of this bracket, so I really didn't care who the winner was. The winner turned out to be Petra 1. I continued to sit in the auditorium for a match between Petra 3 and E-Town 1 on the winners side of the double elimination bracket. E-Town 1 won that match. During that match, Mr. Deitrick found me to give me my meal ticket. With my meal ticket in hand, I went to dinner.
This dinner was more friendly than to vegetarians like Chelsea this time. The main course was speghetti, with a choice between tomato sauce and chesse sauce. I loaded my with cheese sauce. A side salad and cake for dessert. I had dinner with Robert and his godparents. His godparents live in Ohio and came to see us quiz. Unfortunately, they had got to Archibold right after our lost to Hinkletown 1. We got talking about quizzing and has it goes down. After dinner, I went to the giant brackets to update mine. Then I went to the auditorium.
For I was on, for one last match. Would I consider this my last match? Yes and no. I don't consider this a match because it was a fun match which had no effect on my personal standings or my team's standings. So it wasn't "real" in that sense. But I was actually quizzing with quizzers from other teams, and I wanted to do my best, especially after my last fun match performance. It has been my goal to quiz out in a fun match. I just enjoyed the fact that I was quizzing because I don't know if/when I'll be in this position ever again. The ACC team consisted of perfect quizzers Luisa Miller (Slate Hill 1) and Jordan Kenner (E-Town 1) and one-short quizzers Charleton King (Parkesburg) and myself (Spring City, lol). On Wayne County's team I noticed Naomi Eberly (Chestnut Ridge) and Michelle Raber (Longenecker), since I sat across from her in my match against Longenecker. On West Liberty's team was our the brother and sister Landon Stapleton (Crossway) and Lauren Stapleton (Calvary 2). On Northwest Ohio's all-star team had quizzers from Lockport 1 and Sand Ridge - their top 2 teams. Man, it was crazy fast. I was a little bit frustrated because I couldn't get in. But I was pumped and ready to go. Finally, I heard the quizmaster announce, "This question is a sitation question" and I knew it was coming to me. I heard, "Give..." and I went for the early buzz...but I didn't get it. But because I was the 2nd fastest to buzz in, the bonus would go towards me. Whether the person did not hear correctly, or enough, or just didn't know the answer, he errored. The bonus came to me, "Give me children or else I die." I knew this from erroring on it in the last fun match I was in. I answered confidently "Rachel to Jacob" and got my first points on a fun match. The questions continued. Luisa quizzed out for us, which was a big help. Later on, the quizmaster said, "This next question will also be a situation question." After getting the first one, I wanted the second one. I went for it, buzzing in, and I got in! I knew it from the little that I heard. I confidently gave the quizmaster, and he said I was right! Jeremiah and I figured out after the match that was only 1 of 4 correct buzz ins. On question 15, I had still not gotten in, so I went kamakaze but didn't get in. In the end, the winner was the ACC, scoring 65 points. While I didn't quiz out, I was satisfied with the results. It was a complete turn around from the last match.
At 6:30 the matches continued as usual. So I continued as usual to watch the championship matches of the single elimination brackets. The next one was the Isaac & Rebekah bracket. My friends from Zion 1. They were up against Petra 5. Ironically, the opponenet Petra 5 beat to get into this final match was Zion 2. It would have been interesting if Petra 5 would have suffered the loss. It would have been the 2 Zion teams in a match for the championship. But it was Petra 5 vs. Zion 1. Zion 1 fought there hardest, but it was no match for them. Petra 5 beat the 2 Zion teams consecutively to take the Isaac & Rebekah championship. This is the 2nd single elimination bracket a Petra team had taken.
With the next single bracket championship match not happening for another 40 minutes, I had the choice between watching its semifinal match or watching a match in the second chance side of the double elimination bracket. I chose the latter because it was an intersting match. It was Sand Ridge vs. Slate Hill 1. The best way to describe why is to say that Slate Hill 1 is pretty much the ACC version of Sand Ridge. Now they did quiz against each other in the placement bracket, and Sand Ridge won, but I wasn't able to see it because Spring City was quizzing at the same time. Now I was able to see that match, and with more on the line this time, I was going to see a good match. And it was a good match. But as close as Slate Hill 1 is like Sand Ridge in the ACC, they simply weren't Sand Ridge. Sand Ridge did win the match. And at the point Slate Hill 1 was in the double elimination bracket, there was no single elimination bracket for them to go to. They were done.
Now it was time for the last single elimination championship. In the Jacob & Rachel bracket, it was Goods 1 (ACC) vs. Orville (Wayne County). This was the first single elimination final match that the final 2 teams were from 2 different quizzing conferences. It was a tough match for Goods 1, considering Orville was the top team of Wayne County. Yet the winner was not Orville, but rather Goods 1. Orrville did put up a tough fight, but the victorious team was Goods 1. This meant that the ACC would take 3 of the single elimination plaques.
All the single elimination brackets were now done and dealt with, and back on the double elimination bracket, 4 teams remained. The only team left on the winner's side was Northwest Ohio's Lockport 1. The final match of the night would take 1 more team out of the picture. It was Petra 3 (ACC) vs. Sand Ridge (NW). Yes, this was the same team that we lost to and sent us to the second chance side of the bracket. It was an exciting match with one of the top teams of the ACC facing one of the top teams of Northwest Ohio. Yet Sand Ridge continued their march to the final match, beating Petra 3. So the quizzing night came to an end with 3 teams left: Lockport 1 (NW), Sand Ridge (NW), and E-Town 1 (ACC).
We had a problem trying to get everyone back together on my team. Since we fell out of the tournament, we had been scattered. Last time we saw Tim, Cait was yelling at him. So for all we knew, he was dead in a ditch. lol. The Mullin girls and Mike were in and out of the gym, so we had to find if they were in or out. Robert was becoming very antasy beceause of this, so antsy he was becoming hyper. It was really weird. I had never seen Robert this hyper, and neither had Alyssa. It was so weird to her, she didn't want to do anything with Robert. When we got back, the host couple had another impressive layout of food out for us. Exhausted from the day, we all plopped in front of the television to watch the divisional finals of Ohio High School basketball (apparently it's very big in Ohio). I took out old brackets and compared them to this year to see how we did. We also took the oppurtunity to look at old pictures. Most of us were tired and just went to bed. I stayed up for the whole game, and in the mean time changed my mp3 player from text to music, and also had a conversation with Alyssa. Then I too went to bed.
SUNDAY:
This morning we didn't have to get as early because the matches were later, and we weren't in any of them. I always wondered what it would be like to have to study on Saturday night and quickly review on Sunday morning during the Invitational. Yet we had to get up early enough because not only did we have to do the usual morning rituals, but also had to pack up for another long drive home. Still tired, I was slow to get up. Robert thought it would be a good idea to get us up with ice. Tim and Mike didn't receive the idea too well, as they wrestled him to the ground. I did get up with enough time, but barely enough as I was still checking if I had everything as the rest of the team was walking out the door. We loaded all our stuff onto the car, took final pictures, thanked our hosts, and left for the school.
When we got to Archibold High School, we went straight to the cafeteria. Still, it was very full. I was surprised that they opened only one side of the bleachers and not both sides of the gymnasium. The events were split into 3 parts: worship, the speaker, and the quizzing. The worship was lead by a group from Bluffton University. I thought I saw them come in the day before. They were pretty good.
There were two definite matches on Sunday, with a third pending. The first match would determine what team got to play Lockport 1 in the final. The losing team would have to accept 3rd place. Both teams had a good history in the Invitational. E-Town 3 had placed 3rd in the Invitational in 2006 and 2007. Sand Ridge had taken the championship for the past 3 consecutive years. The fans were divided by conference. One would have thought that everyone would cheer for E-Town 3 because they didn't want to see Sand Ridge win yet another Invitational championship. But it was not so. All of the Northwest Ohio quiz teams wanted to see both teams in the final match from their conference. So all of Northwest Ohio cheered for Sand Ridge. But this was not a Ohio thing. A lot of teams from Wayne County and West Liberty cheered for E-Town 3. E-Town 3's perfect quizzer Jordan Keener struggled to quiz out, but did, and Sand Ridge's top quizzer Whitney Stamm. After 15 questions, Sand Ridge won and was going to the Invitational Double Elimination bracket final match for the fourth consecutive year. E-Town 3 would finished 3rd place in the Invitational for the 3rd time in the past 4 years.
So the final match was Lockport 1 vs. Sand Ridge. Now with both teams from Northwest Ohio in the final match, all Northwest Ohio teams joined the rest of the quizzing teams in cheering for Lockport 1. Despite the final match having both teams from the same conference, the host conference, it was still a good match because these were the top 2 teams from Northwest Ohio. Both teams were jumpy in the match. The only problem was that Lockport 1 was jumpy too early in the question. They were getting a lot of errors. In fact, they had 5 errors. A few of us we worried Lockport 1 was trying the same error strategy Longenecker tried against Sand Ridge in 2007. The errors did hurt as not only did Lockport 1 lose 5 points, but Sand Ridge was easily picking them up. Sand Ridge themselves only errored twice. Sand Ridge won, 100 to 60. This was Lockport 1's first loss in the whole tournament, including the placement match. But since this was Lockport 1's first loss in a double elimination bracket, Lockport 1 could not be out of it. So there had to be another match between the same two teams. This one would decide the champion. With another match coming, this would be the 3rd time they would be facing each other in the tournament. With the series between the teams tied 1-1, it could be anyone's match.
With teams switching sides, the match was ready. Sand Ridge took a lead, and some of us were worried that Sand Ridge would win a 4th consecutive time. Mr. Deitrick was even afraid that people would start booing if this was so. But this match was about to take a turn, as Lockport started catching up. This match was so much closer than compared to the last one. Not only was it close in points, but it was also close in errors. Lockport 1 received 4 errors, and Sand Ridge got 6 errors, causing them to lose 10 points. With them losing those points, and Lockport 1 gaining points from their bonuses, it may have ben what cost Sand Ridge the match and the championship. After the quizzer answered, "Its belly" to answer correctly the last question "On what will the serpent crawl?" the match was over, and Lockport 1 was the victorius team, winning 65 to 50. So let me pause and take this time write the finals results...
DOUBLE ELIMINATION BRACKET
1st place: Lockport 1 (Northwest Ohio)
2nd place: Sand Ridge (Northwest Ohio)
3rd place: E-Town 3 (ACC)
4th place: Petra 3 (ACC) (Not awarded)
5th place: Slate Hill 1 (ACC) & Strasburg 3 (ACC) (Not awarded)
SINGLE ELIMINATION BRACKET CHAMPIONS
Adam & Eve Bracket: Chestnut Ridge (Wayne County)
Noah & Family Bracket: Grace Chapel (West Liberty)
Abraham & Sarah Bracket: Petra 1 (ACC)
Isaac & Rebekah Bracket: Petra 5 (ACC)
Jacob & Rachel Bracket: Goods 1 (ACC)
The speaker did a good job. He was an ex-quizzer who remembered the excitement of being in a quizmatch. He thought it would be fitting to have the message come from the quizing material, so it was right from Genesis 12:1-4, where God calls Abraham. The message focused around on us needing to answer God's call for our lives, and to drown out all excuses and distraction that might be drawing us away from that call. To illustrate this, the Bluffton group did a small skit. Everything ended with a final announcement from the coordinator of Wayne County. I immediately knew this meant that next year's invitional would be held in Kidron, Ohio. Sure enough, I was right. Then the following annoucement was the material for next year: 1 & 2 Corinthians. This would be interesting with all the theology in it.
Everything was now done. Fred directed us back to the busses. They were all lined up outside the front of the building, waiting for us. Of course we didn't immediately get on. We were congratulating the winners, and talking to all our Ohio friends. I got more quizzers to sign my orange shirt. Robert was ready to be done the busy weekend and wanted to go home. He was trying to get the rest of the team on the bus, more than our coaches were. He had also gotten us a seat on the back of the bus, right next to the bathroom. As we were walking to the bus, Robert turns to me and says, "Oh yeah, something about our bus being a boat." Before I could say "what?" I stepped onto the bus and heard "WE'RE ON A BOAT!" from Saturday Night Live's The Lonely Island. If you don't know what I'm talking about - good. Don't go looking for it. Yeah, I heard that all bus ride back home, even up to the end.
Besides that, the bus ride was a good one. All the staff in the ACC decided it would be simpler to have the same bus assignments as we did on they way up than to switch everything around. So once again we were with Living Rock, Timberline and Grace & Truth. Once again, there were many games of Mafia. Players in each game could range between the low teens and low 20s. I seemed to be in the mafia a lot. While we had many good narrators, the actual game play got worse as we went on. Like I said, I was constantly on the mafia. Now, a good mafia works together to get rid of the everyone. Every time I was in the mafia, it seemed like the mafia members just cared about keeping themselves alive in the game. The mafia would vote for their own mafia to execute! It was just bad strategy. I can't stand bad strategy, so after a couple games, I just quit and returned back to my seat in the back. I spent a lot of my time playing Guitar Hero Decades on my DS. Yeah, I know we weren't suppose to, but some of the Living Rock kids in the back were also on their DS or PSP, so I joined on that, too. But the group had other fun too. During rest stops, we tried to see how many people we could fit in a rest room. We needed small people, and Robert was game to do it. The first rest stop we were able to fit 7 people in a restroom. On the second stop, they successfully put in 8, door closed and all. Of course everyone fell out when the door opened.
Speaking of rest stops, the rest stops were pretty much the same as the last time. Our first one was in the same mall area our last stop when driving up, except this time we were on the non-mall side. When we stop there, we saw a lady dressed up like the Statue of Liberty, trying to sell insurance. Always something interesting at this rest stops. I went to Wendy's, for I had an urge for a Baconator. I had lunch with Slate Hill, and Robert rejoined me later. Our second stop was back at Somerset. This would be now the 10th Somerset stop in my quizzing career. If we assume every stop was an hour long, that would mean that I have spent a total of 10 hours of my life in Somerset. Since I had been dragging Robert around a lot this trip, I let Robert choose where we were going to eat. He chose this restaurant across the street where the Deitricks were going. So we had dinner together. I wasn't too much fun at that point. Tired and sad about quizzing ending, I was a little down. The Deitricks noticed this, so Mrs. Deitrick asks, "Graham, is somebody picking on you?" lol. Mrs. D. was always the mother type. Dinner was hurried as they got our plates to us a little before we had to leave. We had to quickly eat and leave.
We got back into Dutch Wonderland's parking lot very late. In fact, we passed Lancaster Bible College. I was so close to my dorm, which I had to return to on the Monday following. When we got into Dutch Wonderland's parking lot, everyone stormed off to get their luggage. The tired adult coaches just wanted to get home, but a lot of the quizzers, knowing this is the end, made sure they said goodbye to everyone. I made sure I made my goodbyes, as I knew I was sucking out the last seconds of being considered a quizzer. Tim and Mike went back to Tim's place, while the Deitricks loaded us back into church van to drop the Mullins off at their house, then bring Robert and I back to their place. While exhausted, we still talked about our wonderful Ohio experience. Both Robert and I would leave the Deitricks the next morning.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Not to good into too much analysis and reflection, I'm still thinking about the Invitational. While writing this and trying to remember everything, I was looking through text messages, pictures, and the brackets. Comparing past bracket to this bracket, statistically, this has been Spring City's 2nd worse Invitational performance, the worse being in 2006 in Wayne County. In both we fell out of the double elimination tournament in back-to-back losses, but this year we had a slot in a single elimination bracket, which gave us 3 more matches. We quizzed a total of 7 matches, and the win-loss record was 4-3. I can't say that that it wasn't our fault, but I can't say that it was totally our fault either. We did suffer from brain farts, and arguably, if we didn't, we could have done better. But I don't feel the same disappointment as I did in 2006. Why is this? I think there is 2 main reasons. First, it was the people I was with. I was 2 quizzers who were new to the Ohio experience and seeking the fun in it, and I was with the 3 people who I have quizzed the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (tied) longest with. This was a great bunch of quizzers, with great coaches, which them themselves made the trip worth it. The second reason, I believe, is that with my quizzing career coming to an end, I observed the tournamet not by how well were doing or how much we were winning and advancing, but just enjoying quizzing for what it is. Enjoying the match for every question, every buzz in, every bonus and every point. Enjoying the thrill of it all. I made sure my last quizzing experience would be a memorable one, even without winning the whole thing. Mission accomplished. Great year, Spring City!
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