HG Wells was an author and so-called futurist who died in 1946 at the age of 76.
My personal definition of a futurist is someone who guesses about what the future will look like and then, if they become famous, they are remembered for the very few times they were right and not for the many times they were wrong.
His most famous works include: The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds.
He was trained in biology and applied Darwinian evolution to ethics, novels, and to his own personal life.
So, he was an enormously immoral man which fit in quite well with his view of humanity and conveniently with his view of an absentee God, who was unconcerned with Mr. Wells actions.
Early on he was a Deist (believing in an impersonal God), then an atheist (believing in no god), but mostly I think he was what I would call a “Meist”.
He held to his own custom-made theology.
Like a custom-made suit…meism has its own personal god, made to fit into my beliefs, desires, and demands.
His book, War of the Worlds, describes Aliens (Martians) who invade and begin to conquer planet earth.
Our weapons are unable to stop them, prayers offered are of no use, what stops the Aliens is something like a cold bacteria that they did not have immunity to.
At the conclusion of the 1953 movie version, people are in a church praying for the miracle of divine intervention.
Suddenly all the over the world, aliens begin to die.
The film ends with people singing a hymn and church bells ringing, the voice over speaks of how the Creator had long ago put the virus into the system.
In 1953 America, most in the audience would have thought it was a “Christian” film and would have missed the nuance between a personal God actively stopping the aliens through direct intervention and an absentee God who had long before hand had put germs into the system…but was not actively involved anymore.
He wasn’t listening to their prayers; he is not that kind of god.
At the time Wells wrote the story he was a Deist.
In deism, god is an impersonal force.
There is no answer to prayers, God does not involve himself with human affairs.
This was convenient for a man who had many sexual affairs…he lived as if he was the center of all things.
If you recall last week’s introduction to the sermon, Wells was a man of the unrestrained vision.
He believed in the ability of humanity to continually better itself…we need no help from God.
He may have even coined the term, “The war to end all wars” at the end of WWI, but he lived to see WWII.
So much for his abilities as a futurist…he failed to predict the most important event of the 20th century.
Let’s look at four “isms”
Deism: God is impersonal and not involved in human affairs. (Theos=God)
Atheism: There is no god
Theism: A personal God…Christians hold to what is called “Christian Theism”
Meism: God exists to serve me and my needs…it is not a coherent system but random, fits in with my desires and demands, and makes me feel better.
There is, as far as I know, no official religion called Meism.
I made it up just like those who make up their own gods.
In 2020, Al Pacino had a “near death” experience from Covid.
He concluded that there is no life after death. Why did he conclude this?
He said, “I didn’t see a white light.”
First of all, reality is not like the Princess Bride where you can be mostly dead.
The Bible says it is appointed to man once to die…you are dead, or you are not dead.
He didn’t die, and he has no idea what comes next.
He formed an entire theology of the afterlife (personal eschatology) based on not seeing a white light when he almost died.
This is unqualified Meism, or his own personal Meology.
I don’t mean to sound sarcastic…this is not a joke; this is a tragedy.
What do you believe about God and his activity in the world?
How do you pray? Do you pray?
I struggle to know what and how to pray sometimes…this week in fact I struggled to know…so what do I do?
I go to the Bible, and I do what it tells me…otherwise, I’m practicing “meology” based on how I feel today.
How do you respond to disappointment and suffering?
I struggle to know sometimes…so I go to the Bible and try to hold what it says in proper tensions in my life…otherwise, I will fall into meology and become foolish and hopeless.
How do you relate to others who wrong or disappoint you?
Well, you can go to the Bible and apply biblical theology, or you can apply meology.
All of your life is rooted in your theology, who you believe God is and what he is doing in the world and in your life.
1 Timothy 4:6, Watch your life and doctrine closely…this is going to be a reoccurring theme verse this year.
This year, just as in years past, the devotionals and group discussions will follow the Sunday sermon.
We will continue the plan as we have done it for years now…sermon, then readings and group discussion.
Because the readings began on a Monday in late December, last week covered the first two weeks reading.
This week you will finish Genesis in your readings, and we will move to Job next week.
I want to remind you that if you would find it helpful, I’m writing a short devotional commentary that goes with each day’s reading.
This would be especially helpful for those who have little background in biblical studies…It can help keep the flow of the entire biblical narrative in front of you…particularly how the OT and the NT are a single story.
It is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees when reading through the OT.
Today we are focused in on Genesis chapter 45
One of the most, for me, emotionally powerful chapters in the Bible.
Quick backstory, starting from where we left off last week:
Jacob had his heavenly stairway dream, finds himself a wife, in fact ends up with two of them…this by the way, isn’t great.
We can learn from his negative example why God did not design marriage to include polygamy.
He spends many years learning from hard labor to not try and navigate life through deceit…his version of meology.
He is reconciled with his brother Esau.
He has another divine encounter, and a divine name change to Israel.
He has a bunch of sons, his favorite being Joseph.
Joseph, purely as an act of God’s sovereignty is chosen by God at an early age.
Joseph, being young and arrogant brags about this to his brothers.
His arrogance coupled with his father’s favoritism leads to hatred from his brothers.
The good theology we are to see in all this is on display in the disastrous outcomes of their meology.
The biblical narrative will often teach us what ought to happen by showing the disaster of what did happen.
Just wait until Exodus, this will be on full display.
His brothers are so evil that they plot to kill little brother.
But eventually they decide to “merely” to sell him into slavery.
Imagine this family dynamic…these OT families, all of them, were so messed up.
The rest of the story focuses on Joseph being taught to trust…learning good theology to replace his meology.
He is faithful to his first boss in Egypt and his reward for that faithfulness is imprisonment.
You know he has a lot of time to think and pray and cry in prison.
Suffering makes you better or bitter…but it does not leave you the same person.
He is given gifts, wisdom, and opportunity by God to have a way out of prison.
He is also faithful and becomes trusted by the prison warden and eventually by the King of Egypt himself.
The story is, as all good and true stories are, is an example of God’s grace and human grit at work together.
He goes from being a foreign slave to second in command in the most powerful nation in the world.
Joseph truly was a futurist, unlike the fake futurist HG Wells.
Because Joseph wasn’t guessing, God told him what was coming.
7 years of incredible harvest followed by 7 years of devastating famine.
In Canaan, Joseph’s brothers are sent to Egypt, the only place with food.
You will read the wonderful story of the drama that unfolds as his brothers encounter Joseph and don’t recognize him.
How could they…he looks like, speaks like Egyptian royalty…he is so far from the begging, whimpering youth they had sent off into slavery all those years earlier.
Joseph has been testing his brothers to see if they, like he has changed.
They have changed…sort of.
Genesis 45
Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all his attendants, so he called out, “Send everyone away from me!” No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers. 2 But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh’s household heard it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.
I’ve read that passage many times; it almost always moves me
All the years of pain and loss and suffering and guilt come pouring out.
Joseph is overwhelmed with emotion.
His brothers stand there in silent terror…they are thinking….”We are dead men.”
That would have been true if Joseph was a “meist”
Throughout history when “meists” make it to positions of power…Stalin, Saddam, Putin…they kill those who stood against them on the way up.
It’s true on a lesser scale when politicians, entertainers, military and business leaders in non-dictatorship…have the chance to make those who doubted them…pay for that doubt…not with their lives, but in other ways
There have even been songs written about how “You doubted me, but now I’m famous and you are nobody, I’m somebody”
I’ll give you just two, there a lot of them.
How do you like me now?: Toby Keith (who died last year)
*I couldn’t make you love me but I always dreamed about livin’ in your radio
How do you like me now?
Thunder: By Imagine Dragons
*Kids were laughing in my classes…now I’m smiling from the stage while you were clapping in the nosebleeds.
Meology…Not gratitude for God’s blessings, but “look at me now and look at you!”
My point is, Meism is common and can be literally deadly(revenge killings), but it is always deadly for what it does to the human soul and to human relationships.
Joseph was no “meist” by this point in his life…he was a Theist; he had learned to trust the one true God.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt. 5 And now don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. 7 God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. 8 Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Joseph is not excusing their sin he is casting vision for what God has done in spite of their choices
You see the three levels here again:
- Human choices good and bad: Years of these, his brothers, Joseph
2. The preservation of the Nation of Israel
3.God’s sovereignty over it all
9 “Return quickly to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay. 10 You can settle in the land of Goshen and be near me—you, your children, and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have. 11 There I will sustain you, for there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you, your household, and everything you have will become destitute.” ’ 12 Look! Your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin can see that I’m the one speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all my glory in Egypt and about all you have seen. And bring my father here quickly.” 14 Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept on his shoulder. 15 Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept, and afterward his brothers talked with him.
Joseph weeping as he hugs a brother, Benjamin, that he has never known is so powerful.
Even more powerful, is verse 15.
Joseph kissed EACH of his brothers as he wept, and afterward his brothers talked with him.
It is not hard to imagine what that conversation entailed…”I am so sorry.”
16 When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” Pharaoh and his servants were pleased. 17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go on back to the land of Canaan. 18 Get your father and your families, and come back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you can eat from the richness of the land.’ 19 You are also commanded to tell them, ‘Do this: Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your dependents and your wives and bring your father here. 20 Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’ ” 21 The sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had commanded, and he gave them provisions for the journey. 22 He gave each of the brothers changes of clothes, but he gave Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothes. 23 He sent his father the following: ten donkeys carrying the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys carrying grain, food, and provisions for his father on the journey. 24 So Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, “Don’t argue on the way.”
Joseph knew they were still stunned; he had probably heard them arguing in the hallways…full of guilt and fear.
He commands then…”Be done with all that…get perspective…don’t argue on the way home.”
25 So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them. 27 But when they told Jacob all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go to see him before I die.”
This is another place for tears, think of the old trickster Jacob, his long years of suffering, now hearing that Joseph is alive.
I cannot believe that Jacob didn’t spend many hours mourning the stupid stuff he had done as a youth…now as an old guy, he could only shake his head…regrets had piled up.
He had raised foolish kids; he had lost his favored son…he had been such a fool.
Now, at the end of his life…God shows mercy…he gets more than what his own stupidity deserved.
At first he is still Jacob…”They kids are up to something…I don’t believe them”…it takes one to know one.
He was Jacob, the “deceiver”…5 times he is called Jacob.
Then, he believes them…and the text changes from calling him Jacob to his God-given name, Israel.
Israel says, “He is alive, I will go see him before I die.”
Israel, the name God gave him means, “One who struggles with God.”
Of course, God wins that struggle…and Israel, has learned to trust him.
Amazing, again, how often God uses suffering to train us to trust him and not ourselves.
Jump to chapter 50, verse 15.
Jacob is dead, what do his sons do next…they cower in fear because they are certain that Jospeh is a “Meist” and will exact his revenge now.
“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”
Instead of revenge, they get one of the most powerful and clearest declarations of biblical theology ever uttered.
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.
He sees all three levels at once…he has a biblical theology that allows him to forgive.
Years ago, I read the book about Louis Zamperini called “Unbroken.”
I rewatched the movie of the same name recently.
Zamperini was an Olympic runner (ran the 5K in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin)
He was shot down in the pacific in WWII, spent 47 horrible days in a life raft…then it got worse.
He spent over two years in Japanese POW camps.
He was singled out for his fame and tortured mercilessly by a guard nicknamed the “Bird.”
He was released at the end of the war in 1945 and married a year later.
He suffered terribly with PTSD and alcoholism…one night he almost (not intentionally) strangled his pregnant wife as he was having a terrible nightmare about the Bird.
She was prepared to divorce him, but she attended a Billy Graham crusade, was born again and urged Louie to attend one himself.
He did and he was also born again.
Out of obedience to God’s word…he forgave the Bird, and his nightmares ended.
In 1998 he ran a leg of the Olympic torch relay in Japan very near the POW camp where he had been held and tortured by the Bird.
He sent a letter to his torturer, who was still alive at the time…but he refused to see Louie.
In the letter, Louie expressed that he had forgiven him.
What if Louie had kept his Meology?
I’m quite sure that he would have died many years earlier, a divorced and broken man.
What if Joseph had a meology and only focused on self, rather than having a biblical theology and trusting God?
It would be a very different story wouldn’t it?
A biblical theology will lead to a thriving life, a meology will only serve to take life from us.
There is nothing easy about a good theology…forming one, believing one, or living one out…but it is the only way to thrive in life because it is what is real and true about life.
Joseph, in essence, gave us the OT version of Romans 8:28.
“What you meant for evil, God meant for good.”
Romans 8:28. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Unfortunately, this great verse also happens to be one of the more famous verses used to form a personal “meology.”
-Everything happens for a reason. (my reasons)
-It will all work out in the end.(my ends)
It is often used to believe that “I will feel better, I will ultimately be happy and have what I want…whether I actually love God and ultimately learn to want what he wants or not.”
Let’s look at this verse in its larger biblical context:
17: Believers must suffer with Christ if they are to share his glory.
18: The suffering of the present doesn’t compare with the glory of the future.
19-22: The entire created order is groaning, under the curse of sin.
23: We also groan now as we wait for our future hope to be fulfilled.
*We already hope, but our hope is not yet fulfilled…so meanwhile, we groan.
24,25: So, since this is true: we wait with patience.
26, 27: Just as hope sustains us in our waiting, so too does the Holy Spirit.
Now we get to verse 28.
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
In context what is the good?
It doesn’t exclude material and physical things…but only in so much as those things touch on our ultimate good…spiritual maturity, growth in Christlikeness.
Our ultimate good is salvation…justification leading to final glorification…eternal life after death.
This verse does not promise a better job or restored health.
It doesn’t promise that you will be able to discover some tangible good in every bad thing that happens to you.
It doesn’t promise that every hard thing will lead to some temporal blessing as defined by us.
That is meology not biblical theology.
29, 30: All those God has saved will “make it”…the justified will certainly someday be the glorified.
What follows is all kinds of life situations that test our faith in the face the ultimate promises of God.
35: Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Clearly verse 28 is not a promise of protection from hard things, and is not a promise of our physical and material dreams all coming true.
It is a promise of God using everything in the life of the believer who trusts God…to lead to his or her ultimate good.
Even though, meanwhile we “groan”…as terrible difficulties threaten our hope…we continue to hope.
Why? Because of our theology not our meology.
Verse 28 begins, “We know”…how do we know?
Because we believe God, he has told us so.
Not because do or don’t “wish” it was true…it is because God has spoken, and he has told us so.
How do we know there is life after death? Because we do or don’t see a “white light after almost dying?”
Because we want it to be true, or some don’t want it to be true.
How do we know that our prayers are important and impactful? Because we feel like they are? Because we can see the results.
How do we know that we should forgive people and give them grace?
We know the answers, because God has told us the answers.
A biblical theology watches your life and doctrine closely…they can go hand in hand.
We know, Because God has told us so.
A meology, will lead to bad thinking and destructive living.
A biblical theology put to practice in our lives will lead to a life where God is experienced and glorified…a life with growing hope nurtured by faith and faithfulness.