by Micah Olson | Aug 12, 2024 | Articles
“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3). In Part 1 we traced the importance of warfare in the economy of God, looking at being a warrior through the lens of the Old Testament saints, angels, and Jesus Christ. This leads to an obvious question for Christians in the New Testament age: Does this apply to us? And if so, what does being a warrior look like? There are two fundamental passages in the New Testament on being a soldier: 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 and Ephesians 6:10-17. Both passages teach that the New Testament Christian is to be a soldier and fight wars; however the realm of our warfare is not physical but spiritual. This is not to say that Christians cannot or should not fight physical wars (i.e. serve in the military). There is no New Testament command for or against participating in physical wars. But irrespective of whether a Christian fights in physical wars, his true warfare is spiritual. All of us live in two realities, the physical and the spiritual. The physical world is the one we experience on an everyday basis. It is the one we can see and hear and touch and smell. Our earthly bodies and every other material thing that we experience in this life are part of the physical world. The spiritual world, on the other hand, is not something that we experience in a material sense. But that does not mean it is any less real. The bible teaches us that the spiritual world is more “real” than the physical, in the sense that the...
by Micah Olson | Jul 28, 2024 | Articles
“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). The Apostle Paul commands us to act like men. What does it look like to obey this command? Do men need to be commanded to act like men? Apparently we do. Because I think on some level all of us understand that there are men, and then there are men. A study of all the things that it means to be a godly man is worthy of your time. In this article I would like to consider one important aspect of being a godly man: that men fight wars. And if you are going to fight wars successfully, you have to be strong and courageous. Which is to say, being a godly man means being a valiant warrior. I am not suggesting that this is the totality of what it means to be a man. Being a man involves more than that. But I want to make the argument that fighting wars is one fundamental way that men are to act like men. Let’s take a brief survey of the Old Testament, thinking through all the Old Testament saints who fought military battles. Start with Abraham, who fought successfully against King Chedorlaomer and the other kings after they took his nephew Lot captive (Genesis Ch 14). This was an important event which preceded Abraham meeting Melchizedek the king and priest. Moses, by my count, fought in 4 battles (Exodus 17:8-16, Numbers 21:1-5, 21:21-35, and 31:1-24). Joshua’s life purpose was to lead the Israelites in their military conquest of the Promised Land. Gideon...
by Micah Olson | Oct 7, 2021 | Articles
In Part 2 we discussed man’s body and soul/spirit. To review, God created man with two parts: a body and a soul/spirit. As Christians we spend this life investing in our souls. This is the process of dying to ourselves (e.g. Luke 9:23-24 and John 12:24-25), of being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), of allowing Jesus to increase as we decrease (John 3:30). Investing in our souls during this earthly life impacts the quality of our souls in eternity. But what about our bodies? The bible tells us that bodily discipline is of little profit (1 Timothy 4:8). I may be convicted out of stewardship to invest in a healthy earthly body, but a healthy earthly body does not translate into a healthy eternal body. So, how do I invest in my eternal body? The bible teaches us that there is one area in our earthly lives that impacts our eternal bodies: sexual morality. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 is one of the New Testament’s foundational passages on sexual morality. In these verses the Apostle Paul teaches the importance of sexual purity, and the connection between morality and our resurrected body. Early in the passage Paul makes a distinction between our temporal and eternal body. Food and the stomach are temporal, and both are perishing (v. 13). But the resurrected body is eternal. That Paul has our resurrected body in mind is made clear when he states that God raised Christ from the dead and He will raise our body up as well (v. 14). In verses 15-17 Paul goes on to explain the connection between immorality and...
by Micah Olson | Sep 23, 2021 | Articles
God created humans with a body and a soul/spirit. Our current, earthly body came from the dust of the earth. Our body is decaying and will eventually die, at which time it will return to the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7, 3:19, Ecclesiastes 12:6-7). Although we lose our earthly body at death (or at the rapture, whichever comes first), at the resurrection we will receive a new, eternal body. Our souls are different. Our soul does not die when we physically die, and we do not receive a new soul at the resurrection. Our present soul remains with us, transitioning from earthly life into eternal life. From the standpoint of our soul, we are as alive today as we will be in eternity (Romans 8:9-10). To summarize, upon death we lose our earthly body, but our soul lives on. And at the resurrection we receive new, eternal bodies, while our soul remains intact. God created our body and soul for His purposes, and therefore both are inherently good. However with Adam’s original sin, sin is now imputed to all of us, and in body and soul we all fall short of the glory of God. As we know, the story does not end there, and with Adam’s sin God set into motion His plan to redeem mankind. At the cross Jesus paid the ultimate price for us. He died physically and He died spiritually. Both were necessary to redeem man. Christ’s propitious death redeems our bodies and redeems our souls. One of the major themes of the bible is the value of our souls. Jesus teaches in Matthew...
by Micah Olson | Sep 9, 2021 | Articles
There is nothing in the human experience quite like the act of sex. It is a uniquely physical act. It is a uniquely spiritual act. It is beautiful if performed within God’s boundaries. But it is destructive to body and soul if experienced outside God’s design. What the bible teaches regarding marriage and sex is fundamentally different than what the world teaches. It is no secret that in recent years our world has undergone a seismic change in regards to its perspective toward sex. Those who seek to uphold a sexual morality based on biblical standards find themselves increasingly at odds with the prevailing culture, mocked for holding an antiquated worldview, and slandered as being intolerant and close-minded. How do we stay encouraged and resolute in our pursuit for purity? Where can we find motivation as we swim upstream against an increasingly hostile environment? How do we teach our children to view sexuality through a biblical lens and impart to them a desire for purity amidst a generation that disdains moral excellence? The pursuit of sexual purity is one of the greatest trials in the Christian life, and the present culture that we live in only amplifies this trial. Like all trials, the battleground for purity begins with a proper understanding of biblical truth. There are two biblical truths that are foundational to understand if we want to give ourselves and our families a fighting chance to persevere amidst this battle: 1) a proper understanding of our body and soul/spirit, and 2) eternal hope, by which I mean living our lives in such a way that the pursuit of...
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