God versus religion: faith, love and trust in God
Reflective Bible Study

I’ve been doing this for more than a dozen years now. And I’ve never actually written anything on what the site is about. It seemed obvious to me. And yet, I guess it really isn’t obvious to everyone. Just like the Bible’s not obvious to everyone. So now, here’s God versus religion: faith, love and trust in God. What this site is really about.

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I’m going to take you through an example, using the image below, to illustrate how topics are generally presented here. There’s a conclusion at the end, to sum up my approach. I pray you get that far.

Most often, my writing is a reflective Bible study. Because of the way I choose topics, they often follow application and/or topical study formats as well. My goal isn’t to tell anyone what to believe. Rather, it’s to open up the meanings of God’s Word, the Bible, with additional information most people don’t have.

The Bible was written by and for people in a different time, of a religion other than Christianity, in languages other than those most of us use today, and with much history that we don’t learn today. There’s also a lot of contexts that so many people just don’t have time to put together.

The Rabbis used to do something called stringing pearls when they spoke. We read it in the Bible when we see portions of various verses strung together in the New Testament that reference back to the Old. I try to get some of that here as well. There are so many things that were so obvious to Jesus’ listeners at the time, but we just don’t get it anymore. I try to explain them as part of the language and context pieces of what I write.

So, with that as a background, let’s get a sample of God versus religion – what God said, as opposed to what you may have heard or been led to believe.

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The adjacent image shows something that should be at least somewhat familiar.

Green grass and water.

Of course, Jesus.

A white dove.

But the people are dressed in modern-day clothes.

A picture is worth a thousand words

So, what’s in the image?

What does it mean?

Old Testament Imagery

From the Old Testament, think 23rd Psalm.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

Ps 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Ps 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

Ps 23:3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Ps 23:4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

Ps 23:5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Ps 23:6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

The Lord is my shepherd

Verse 1 says:

Ps 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

What’s that got to do with anything? No, Jesus wasn’t in the Old Testament as a man. However, there are many instances where we believe Jesus “appeared” in a form known as “Christophany”, “Theophany”. or “preincarnate”. Nice churchy words. But here’s what they mean, first from the Lexham Bible Dictionary and then from crosswalk.com:

What do Theophany and preincarnate mean?

ANGEL OF YAHWEH The Old Testament figure who acts as a direct representative of Yahweh and may be an embodiment of Yahweh Himself in human or angelic form.

The Angel of Yahweh in the Old Testament
The Angel of Yahweh is often considered to be a theophanic appearance of Yahweh. The Old Testament refers to this figure as the “angel of Yahweh (מַלְאַךְ יְהָוה, mal’akh yehauh),” often translated “angel of the LORD” (in 48 instances), or the “angel of God (מַלְאַךְ אֱלֹהִים, mal’akh elohim)” (in 11 instances). He appears to carry the characteristics of God. For example, he bears the name of God and allows himself to be worshiped and recognized as God.
Two examples of an appearance by the Angel of Yahweh in the Old Testament include:

1. In Genesis 16:7–13, the Angel of Yahweh engages with Hagar after she has run away from her mistress, Sarah.
2. In Judges 13:2–25, the Angel of Yahweh appears to Samson’s parents, Manoah and his wife, to deliver the news that she will bear a son.

Identity of the Angel of Yahweh
There is ambiguity concerning the identity of the Angel of Yahweh—largely because the figure never claims to be a representative of another and speaks on Yahweh’s behalf using the first person (Gen 16:7–13). In contrast, an “angel of the Lord” (ἄγγελος κυρίου, angelos kyriou) who appears to Zechariah in the New Testament identifies himself and the one who sent him (Luke 1:11, 19).
There are four main interpretations for the identity of the Angel of Yahweh (Mangum, Custis, and Widder, Genesis 12–50, “The Angel of Yahweh”; see also Erickson, Christian Theology, 468):

1. an appearance of the preincarnate Christ
2. a hypostasis of Yahweh or a manifestation of a divine attribute
3. a human or angelic messenger representing Yahweh
4. a theophany of Yahweh Himself  ¹Speliopoulos, E. B., & Mangum, D. (2016). Angel of Yahweh. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.

What Does Christophany Mean?

The word Christophany is a combination of two Greek words Christos which means Christ and “phainein” which means to appear. When you put them together you get Christophany or Christ appears. Closely related to Christophany is the word theophany which means God appears. In various places in the Old Testament, there are instances where God appears to men in human form. These appearances of God are indicators, pointing to the coming incarnate Christ or God in the flesh.

3 Examples of Christophanies in the Old Testament

One of the most common references that could point to a Christophany in the Old Testament is when we see the term the angel of the LORD. LORD in all caps in the Bible is a placeholder for Yahweh or YHWH. Here are two examples.

The Angel of the LORD and Hagar

“The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ ‘I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,’ she answered. Then the angel of the LORD told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ The angel added, ‘I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.’” – Genesis 16:7-10

To understand how this points to the Lord you must pay attention to what the angel of the LORD says. He not only comforts Hagar but he promises that he will increase her descendants which is something no angel can do of their own accord, which means this is not just an angel speaking but God himself. What brings it all together and causes us to know it is a theophany or Christophany is Hagar’s response to the angel of the LORD.

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” – Genesis 16:13

Clearly from her statement, Hagar had an encounter with God in a physical form and since Christ is God in physical form this can be referred to as a Christophany.

The Angel of the LORD and Gideon

“The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.’ ‘Pardon me, my lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.’ The LORD turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?’” – Judges 6:11-14

Again, we see a clear interaction between Gideon and the angel of the LORD. As you read the passage what points to this being a Christophany is when you compare verse 12 and verse 14. Verse 12 says the angel of the LORD is speaking and verse 14 says the LORD is speaking and they are referring to the same person. We know from the verses the angel of the LORD sat down, appeared to Gideon, and spoke to him, engaging in conversation. Here again, we see God in physical form. Here is an important thing to note as you are doing your own Bible study. There is a difference between the angel of the LORD and simply an angel of the LORD. As you look at the passage in context you will be able to establish whether it is simply a messenger of God, which is what an angel is, or it is God himself. Typically, the angel of the LORD is a reference to God himself.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Fire

This last example many consider to be possibly the clearest example of a Christophany in the Old Testament. We find this in the story of the three Hebrew young men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), friends of Daniel, and the fiery furnace.

“Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, ‘Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?’ They replied, ‘Certainly, Your Majesty.’ He said, ‘Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.’” – Daniel 3:24-25

“Then Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.'” – Daniel 3:28

This fourth man in the fire is thought of by many to be Christ. ²3 Appearances of Christ in the Old Testament – Bible Study (crosswalk.com)

The Lord is my Shepherd

So what does all this mean?

In the Old Testament, they knew Yahweh. David wrote about God’s Spirit, whom we now call the Holy Spirit. And they knew about the promised Messiah, although they didn’t recognize Jesus as the promised one.

Today, we think of the Shepherd, and we most likely think of Jesus.

The thing is, if we aren’t aware of the differences between what the Old Testament people knew and believed, we can’t truly understand the impact of their words, actions, beliefs, and the like. That very likely leaves us with a faith that’s something less than it could be. Or should be. After all, if we love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, don’t we want to take the time to know God more than we know things like football (American or the rest of the world), basketball, baseball, pop stars, movie stars, and on and on?

Green pastures and quiet waters

Moving to verses two and three, we get this imagery:

Ps 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

Ps 23:3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

If you’re not aware, it’s interesting to realize that God presents Jesus as a shepherd for His people.

Along with tax collectors and Samaritans, shepherds were the bottom of the barrel when it came to social standing back then.

No one that wasn’t already a shepherd wanted to lower themselves to become one. And no one wanted to be with them, let alone led by one of them. And yet, Jesus presents Himself, at various times, as both the shepherd and the innocent lamb.

In this case though, the sheep represents us. And in the places where the shepherds take the sheep to graze, He leads us to rest and restoration.

The valley of the shadow of death

Next, we move on to verse 4:

Ps 23:4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

In this case, notice that although everything around Jesus and the sheep is dark and foreboding, they are in the rays of light. Darkness cannot overcome His light, to use another common Biblical metaphor.

The rod and staff of the Shepherd, normally used for protection, are a comfort to us, His followers. He uses them to protect us, not to harm us.

A Summary of Old Testament Imagery

So, we saw the viewpoint we’re familiar with, as Christians. And also, what someone from the Old Testament times had in their mind.

We saw Jesus as the shepherd. A once despised person. But now, all but gone in developed countries, where massive corporations have very much eliminated old methods of doing things like farming and raising animals. Gone, along with the people, are the concepts that were well known to people in Biblical times. Most of us no longer understand the true implications of the message.

The upside-down message of someone likened to a shepherd leading people to places of safety, relaxation, restoration, salvation and the like is completely lost on most of us today. We must learn them to truly get an understanding of the good news of the shepherd coming to us.

New Testament Imagery

Jesus

OK – we just went through part of the imagery of Jesus. But that’s only part of the story.

Today, non-Christians tend to think of Jesus as someone who’s going to send them to Hell. We know, as Christians, that’s not His goal. Having said that, in the Second Coming and in The End, that will happen. But it’s not because He wants to do it. It’s because many people will actually choose that path on their own.

The flip side of that scenario is where so many Christians today just look at Jesus as a friend. Yes, Jesus did say that. But do we understand the context and the meaning behind His words?

The Vine and the Branches

Jn 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Jn 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Jn 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.”

You are my friends

Of course, the entire passage is needed for context. But pay special attention to these two verses:

14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

There are some conditions in there. Jesus does not say everyone is His friend. Rather, He states the conditions under which He calls someone His friend.

The dove – the Holy Spirit

The final portion of the imagery is the dove. Most Christians know of the dove representing the Holy Spirit. But I dare say, few Christians know the spirit of God as David did.

Today, we don’t have the closeness with God that so many on Biblical times had. And they only had the spirit in them for a limited period.

Now, as Christians, we have the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, dwelling in us at baptism. But what do we do with Him?

Remember, Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit is the mind of Christ. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will take us from where we are to where we need to be in order to be His friend. If we allow it. If we have faith, love and trust.

Conclusion – God versus religion: faith, love and trust in God

Now we have it all put together.

An Old Testament viewpoint was expressed. A modern-day New Testament viewpoint. All from the Bible. From God’s Word. There’s also some cultural and language background to make it clearer.

That’s what this site, God versus religion is about.

So, my question is this – how much of this is presented, taught, discussed, in your “religion”? How much is different?

Even in Jesus’ time, there were issues between God’s word and what the Jewish leaders taught. There’s no reason at all to think it’s any different now.

When I teach the Adult Bible Study class at church, as a lay person – not a Pastor – this is what we discuss. Things from this site – although not the political one. We go over the ones that line up with a reflective Bible Study. Real-life issues. What does the Bible say about them? We look at the Old Testament, New Testament, culture, language, history, and put it all together to extrapolate explanations for today.

Yes, there are various denominations that disagree on some of the things we cover. And I’m allowed to present both sides, as well as let people know where our denomination stands. I also give my own beliefs, along with reasons for what I believe.

And then, each person is expected to determine their own beliefs, with all the materials presented. They are encouraged to reach their own conclusions, and especially to understand why they believe what they believe.

It makes for awesome discussions. Lots of learning. Understanding. And greater faith, love and trust in God.

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After all that, what do you think?

Is your faith, love and trust in God – as He presented Himself in The Bible?

Or is it from something from a religion you learned in a church that’s different?

Maybe even your own image of what you hope God is like?

Or an image of what you’re afraid God might be like?

In any case, if this is the kind of study that interests you, please sign up to get an email when new things are published.

Hope you find it informative and useful.

God bless you,

chris

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All images are generated by MS Designer based on my requests.

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Footnotes

• 1
  Speliopoulos, E. B., & Mangum, D. (2016). Angel of Yahweh. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.
• 2
  3 Appearances of Christ in the Old Testament – Bible Study (crosswalk.com)
• 3
  Braun, H. (1964–). ποιέω, ποίημα, ποίησις, ποιητής. In G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich (Eds.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 6, p. 458). Eerdmans.

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