Eulogy for my Dad

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. [Psalm 23]

On Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 10:08 p.m., my father James Edward Kelly passed away.  He was born in 1941. He was 83 years, 1 month and 1 day old.  He breathed his last here at my home in Charlottesville, Virginia where he had spent the last 4 and a half years with us.  He died peacefully, not in any great pain.  His health had slipped away from last year.  We knew he did not have long, so we had just begun home hospice care with Hospice of the Piedmont.  

He told several friends on Tuesday and relatives he would be gone "by Good Friday" or "on Good Friday" or "by Easter."  He wasn't being prophetic, just realistic, and perhaps optimistic.  He was ready, and professed faith in Jesus Christ since the time he was a young man.  While Dad had many unorthodox ideas, and was always interested in all religious traditions, he trusted his salvation to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Wednesday morning he couldn't speak at all.  We guessed a stroke had taken this last faculty from him.  He was still able to wave his arms about and push away the morphine drops, and was trying to talk, making sounds like a baby who doesn't want something, but hadn't the words to say more than, "Ahya ahyaaa ahyya."

Childlike to the end.  That was my Dad.  He was sometimes petulant and childish, but always "like a little child" in the way that Jesus said we ought to be.  This was, it turns out, his greatness and his fault. He was too trusting and didn't always make good judgments.  But he was full of wonder at all the creation and creatures God had made, especially animals, but also the stars and the human body.  He was ever buying some old book, or microscope, or poster, always learning.  He (and Mom too) gave me the love of learning and reading that I have, and from Dad especially, the love of argument, and probably my engineering aptitude.

Thursday evening, I noticed his breathing slowing quite a bit, and went to sit with him.  I told him, "There is no more point in fighting, and though I know you're no quitter, it's time you went on to glory. You don't have to hang on for our sake any more, Dad."  After one last prayer, I noticed he breathed three or four more times, and then stopped.  I don't think he was unconscious, though he seemed unresponsive all that day. I think he heard everything. I felt he was waiting for my goodbye before "crossing over" (as he always called it).  

He left behind me, my sister Tracey, his youngest brother Terry, his best friend Ray, and many other friends on Facebook and back in Jacksonville, Florida.  His ashes were later interred in the cemetery in Callahan, Florida, in a brand new columbarium.  He wanted to be buried in Florida, where he lived all his adult life.  

We miss you, Dad.  You were quite a character!  Please try not to argue with the folks up in Heaven.

A Postmil answer to the Crux of the Dispensational Argument

I recently got to good questions from my Premil friend, namely:

Since you asked about the Preterist view, I thought I'd share these thoughts on the very fine questions he raised at dinner, which were:

Israel?  What do Postmils have against Israel?

and

What about the failure of nearly every Christian nation to maintain it's Christian heritage? How can we be optimistic about the Church que millenial kingdom?   

I hope I understood the questions correctly. Even if not, these are nonetheless good, hard questions that might shut the mounts of many Postmils.  At least I needed time to think on them. 

Two very good questions, but which have one Biblical answer.  It should suffice to say that GOD had something against Israel as a nation.  Jesus makes this abundantly clear in the gospels, and nearly all the prophets agree with Him, right up to John the Baptist. Whether postmils have something against Israel is immaterial.  What Jesus said against them:

In conclusion to His parable of the vine-dressers, to which the Lord appends the prophecy of Isaiah, "The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone", Jesus said quite plainly and without hidden meaning, "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from YOU and given to a nation producing its fruit." [Mt 21:43]  It was clear that Caiaphas saw this coming in John 11:48ff, though He believed that Jesus was the problem, not himself and his people.  Caiaphas was ignorant, hermeneutically and eschatologically, of the import of his words.  John explains that God's children in all nations would be gathered together as one in the Church through Jesus' sacrifice, in that Temple of which Christ is the cornerstone (figuratively, of course).

Now, this is why it answers both questions:  Matthew 21:43 applies to any nation that rejects the Son as Lord, and certainly to any Church that will not bear good fruit.  They will be left behind, cast aside, vomited out and perhaps never visited again by the Spirit, as for example, Moab, which was utterly wiped out by the Romans.  It applied certainly to national Israel, and if to them, certainly to all the world.

In the case of Israel, we know Paul says there will come a restoration. We all look forward to that day when Jews humble themselves and bow the knee to their Messiah, our Lord.  But they will be grafted back into that same Olive Tree whence they were formerly cut off, alongside the many Gentiles who since have been grafted in.  And so national Israel can never be equated with the Kingdom of God as might've been the case under David and Solomon, and was most certainly the case in the times of the Judges and of Samuel. For it was in the days of Samuel that they rejected God as their King, demanding a carnal king [1 Samuel 8:6f]  As long as they persist in this nationalistic narcissism, they will be handed over to suffer the results described in Romans 1, like any other nation.  And so these exact same divine sanctions have been levied against Laodicea when it was lukewarm, Rome when its church became corrupt, the Russian church at its greatest pettiness, Christian Germany at its intellectual zenith, and all other would-be nation-states or church hierarchies posing as the unique kingdom of God.  The Temple Jesus raises is not made by human hands. 

So this answers also the second question.  Many kingdoms and nations have received God's blessing after embracing the Christian gospel, Rome under Constantine being the first.  These nations are not the kingdom of God, any more than Israel was. The Kingdom of God is that invisible assembly (ekklesia) of His saints, which John saw coming (present tense) down out of heaven and who are called "the Lamb's bride" [Rev 21:9,10] This is not the Old City.  It bears the name "New Jerusalem' because it belongs to God and IS His dwelling place, that is His Church, His Temple, His Body, not because it belongs to the Jews. 

I don't speak for all pre-mils or preterists here.  But I find this vision extremely hopeful. It is why I think the church should fight, not give up, in the spiritual warfare she finds herself in to this day, until "all our Lord's enemies are under His feet".  The Lord Jesus bless you all to "reign on the earth with Him!" as His "Kingdom of priests and holy nation," and not by sword nor by might, "but by My Spirit, saith the Lord".  Amen

Christian Boldness

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. [Acts 4:13]

What is sorely lacking in the church today?  Many features of the early church are missing.  Boldness is the first that comes to mind.  Miracles, conversions, persecution, Apostolic authority in preaching, but especially their bold proclamation of the Gospel in the public square, this is what I want to see again. I long for God to step into our midst and stir His church and the unbelieving world through us, just as He did in the book of Acts. Why doesn't God act?  I say it is because He has called us to act.  We say the word every time we mention the book, but we don't "get it", do we!

Certainly He is here. But He has given to US the job of doing the work, which He promised to honor and use and bear fruit.   While we sit about complaining that He isn't doing His part in miracles and stirring of souls to repentance, we (speaking for myself) are doing nothing at all.  How can this be right?  Isn't it that we don't really believe, don't deeply cling to the gospel as our one true hope and glory, don't really care that without it there is no hope?  Aren't we rather clinging to other hopes, such as education, political reform, the law and the Constitution, and perhaps even some kind of utopian dream, either of the "new world order" or "make America great again" sorts?  Are we putting our hope in the future "Millennial kingdom" of Christ in lieu of proclaiming the Kingdom over which He already reigns? 

In the Book of  Acts, the apostles Peter and John were out there publicly preaching and healing in the streets and in the Temple.  And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. For this he was attacked and "canceled" by the religious leaders---canceled being my deliberately anachronistic euphemism for death by stoning.

I've long wondered where to get such boldness.  But I'm beginning to believe that it will never come to me in advance. The boldness I need is going to have to come by faith---that faith which compels me to climb out of the boat and walk at Jesus' command ... on the water; that faith that opens my mouth out there in front of everyone and proclaims Christ crucified; that faith which marches into the "Temple" and gathers up neglected souls.

Exactly what "Temple" do I mean?  Of course it is the University.  While these aren't temples in the Jewish sense, consider the similarities:  They are man-made "temples" of learning, devoted to the glory of Man, dedicated to the advance of human honor and prosperity, filled with hypocrites proclaiming Themselves, feigning the love of science and knowledge while vehemently suppressing the knowledge of God and promoting wickedness, arrogance and rebellion.  Christians need to get onto the universities and colleges just as the disciples needed to be in the Jerusalem Temple and any synagogue they could gain admission, even though they were "unlearned and ignorant men", whether misjudged so or in fact.

The boldness didn't come first.  Their faith and love for Jesus came first.  Then they obeyed that holy mandate, GO, from the Lord's Great Commission, and only then was their trepidation was turned to the boldness and valor we see in the Book of Acts.  Act!  That's the operative word.  Yes, they had a short wait, but then they acted out in faith.

It is time for us to ACT, to go in bold faith, believing He will anoint our action, especially the act of going and proclaiming the gospel to a wrecked world, shining the light in a dark generation, right in the heart of the "temple".