W. Bathgate

Abel the Afterthought? In Genesis 4 there is a detail that I had never really picked up on before. Genesis says: “And she bore again his brother Abel.” Why does the text say “again”? Malbim noticed it. He suggests that Abel was regarded as an addition to the essential child, Cain. Cain was the firstborn, the primary son. Abel was, in a sense, the extra. This theory lines up well with the meanings of their names . Cain is associated with Eve’s words, “I have acquired/brought forth a man.” Abel is Hevel, “breath,” “vapor,” something fleeting. Malbim’s point becomes even more interesting when he explains their occupations. Cain, the firstborn, becomes a tiller of the ground. Abel becomes a keeper of sheep. Why does that matter? Malbim, drawing on Maimonides’ discussion of the ancient Sabians, describes an ancient way of thinking in which agriculture was considered the preferable occupation. The farmer settled on his own land. He cultivated it, produced food from it, and remained in one place. The shepherd lived differently. He had to move with his flock in search of pasture. He was not tied to one piece of land in the same way the farmer was. So in the cultural picture Malbim is describing, Cain’s occupation reinforces his position as the firstborn, established son. Abel’s occupation reinforces his status as the one who was, in Eve’s words, almost an addition. And then Genesis turns the whole thing upside down. God does not regard Cain and his offering. He regards Abel and his offering. The brother who appeared to be the lesser one is the one God sees. And there is something remarkably fitting about Abel’s name. Hevel means breath, vapor, something fleeting. Abel’s life is fleeting. But his voice is not. After Cain kills him, God says: “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.” And Hebrews later says: “Though he died, he still speaks.” The one who seemed like an addition becomes the brother whose voice God refuses to ignore. And perhaps this is one reason Abel matters so much in the New Testament. Jesus repeatedly teaches the same reversal: “the last will be first,” the humble will be exalted, and God’s kingdom does not operate according to the rankings we create. Hebrews places Abel among the faithful and says that “though he died, he still speaks.” The brother who seemed like an afterthought becomes an enduring witness to the kind of person God sees, remembers, and vindicates.

I Don't Believe in "Getting Saved" Christianity's Ultimate Sacred Cow I don't believe in "getting saved" in the way many Christians use that phrase. And here's the uncomfortable part: I don't think we should be afraid to question a phrase simply because it has become considered sacred in Christian vocabulary. Let's be clear. I believe in salvation. I believe God saves. I believe Jesus is the Messiah through whom God brings salvation. What I question is the modern concept of "getting saved" as a one-time religious status you acquire, after which the most important question becomes whether you can prove you have it. Now, someone will immediately say: "But Peter told the crowd, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.'" He did (Acts 2:40). "And the jailer asked, 'What must I do to be saved?'" He did. And Paul answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:30-31). I'm not denying any of that. I'm asking what the Bible means by saved. And when you look at how Scripture actually uses the word, it refuses to fit into a single moment. Salvation has three tenses. Past: "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). Present: "To us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). Paul says the gospel is the one "by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you" (1 Corinthians 15:2). Even at Pentecost, Luke says "the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). Future: "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed" (Romans 13:11). "The one who endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22). Have been saved. Are being saved. Will be saved. That's not a box you check. That's a life God is carrying from beginning to end. But somewhere along the way, "saved" became a religious identity badge. And sometimes it became a weapon!!!! This is what I dislike about the phrase!!! "Are you saved?" If you don't answer the way they want, you're immediately suspect. "If you were really saved, you'd believe what I believe." "You don't have assurance, so you must not be saved." "You don't believe this doctrine, so you're not saved." And suddenly the word salvation isn't being used to proclaim what God has done. It's being used to put another believer on trial. Because the person asking whether you're "saved" often isn't asking whether you trust God and His Messiah. They're asking whether you've passed their theological examination. Did you pray the right prayer? Can you name the exact moment? Do you define grace according to their system? And if your answer doesn't fit? "Then you're not saved." That's not an argument. That's intimidation through religious terminology. It can also distort the Great Commission!!! Jesus didn't say: "Go into all the world and get people saved." He said: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). The mission isn't simply: Get them saved. It's: Make disciples. A disciple isn't someone who has obtained a religious status. A disciple is a follower and learner of the Master. Baptize them. Teach them. Teach them to observe all that He commanded. That's not a five-minute transaction. That's a life of following Jesus. And this is where "getting saved" can become seriously misleading. If evangelism becomes: "Do you want to get saved?" and the person says yes, we sometimes treat the mission as completed. They prayed the prayer. They checked the box. Next person. But Jesus didn't say: "Go make decisions." He said: "Go make disciples." When "getting saved" becomes the center of evangelism, discipleship starts to sound like an optional second step. First get saved. Then, if you're really serious, become a disciple. Jesus never gave us that two-tiered mission!!! The Great Commission is discipleship. Salvation was always bigger!!! Isaiah announced it long before any of us had a formula for it: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns'" (Isaiah 52:7). Good news. Salvation. God reigns. All in one announcement. That's the besorah (gospel) Jesus picked up when He came proclaiming: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Salvation was never a private status detached from God's reign. It was always the announcement that God is King, and the call to live under that reign. Salvation isn't something I deny. --->It's something I refuse to reduce.<--- Salvation belongs to God. Jesus is the Messiah. The Kingdom is coming. Repent. Believe the good news. Follow Him. Learn from Him. Obey Him. Persevere. Make disciples. That's a much bigger gospel than: "Have you gotten saved?" And if someone wants to tell me I'm "not saved," my answer is simple: I have been saved. I am being saved. I will be saved. Show me where the Bible lets you shrink it into less.

Order and the Gospel In Hebrew tradition, order is called seder. It is more than tidiness. It is the recognition that the universe is not chaos, that God made it with structure, and that human flourishing follows the grain of that structure rather than fighting it. The very name of the Passover meal, the Seder, comes from this word. It is the meal ordered so that the story is told rightly, in sequence, generation after generation. Order is how memory is preserved. Order is how meaning is passed on. Scripture opens with God bringing order out of chaos. The earth was tohu va-vohu, formless and void. Darkness was over the deep. And God spoke, and light came, and morning and evening became a day. He separated waters. He gathered seas. He named skies and lands. He filled each domain with its creatures. And when everything was in its place, He rested. Creation is not a pile. It is a structure. And the structure is good. Isaiah takes up this vision. He looks at the night sky and hears the God who ordered it. "Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power, not one is missing." (Isaiah 40:26) Every star has a name. Every star has a place. The vast heavens are not a scatter. They are a roll call. And Isaiah insists that this ordering is not incidental. It is the shape of God's love. "For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is God!), who formed the earth and made it (He established it; He did not create it empty, He formed it to be inhabited!): 'I am the LORD, and there is no other.'" (Isaiah 45:18) God did not make the world in vain. He made it to be lived in. The order of creation is the invitation to life. Order also has a moral dimension. When Israel loses its way, Isaiah says something startling. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20) That is not just a moral failure. It is disorder. It is the reversal of the categories God gave. When we scramble what God ordered, we do not become free. We become lost. The soul needs order too. Not the rigid order of anxiety, which grips at control. The peaceful order of trust, which places things where they belong. Time with God. Time with people. Time to work. Time to rest. Time to eat and time to fast. Order is how we live inside the goodness of God rather than against it. Isaiah promises that when the Messiah reigns, order will be restored. "Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore." (Isaiah 9:7) The Messianic Age is not the abolition of structure. It is structure rightly ordered under the King. Government (misrah) and peace (shalom) grow together, because true peace is what rightly ordered rule produces. The gospel begins with an announcement. "Your God reigns!" (Isaiah 52:7) The reign of God is the return of right order. It is the wolf lying down with the lamb, not because the wolf has been destroyed, but because every creature has been restored to its place under the King. It is the nations streaming to Zion, not because their identities have been erased, but because they have found the ordering center of the world. And it begins in us now. Every ordered meal, every kept Sabbath, every honored promise, every task done in its time, is a small anticipation of the world set right. Order is how we practice, in the everyday, the reign that is coming in fullness.