Go To Statement Considered Harmful

Whoever had to smile reading the title of this post: welcome, fellow dated programmer. But read on, this is not about programming languages of old. Everybody else just consider yourself lucky that you did not have to suffer through the "good old times" of programming or even programming itself and remember the goto statement.

But I was going to talk about something totally different. There is a go to statement in Christian faith: I am getting saved to go to heaven. Let me show you why I consider this statement to be even more harmful than the one in COBOL and BASIC. But there seems to be a parallel: what was the goto statement in programming used for? To control a flow or to escape a mess.

Apropos escaping a mess: getting saved to go to heaven only takes into consideration what you want. Like a little child that does not ask for the things the parents would like this only concentrates on "me, me, me." But if the plan were to get you saved, why didn't you just follow Henoch's example and leave the planet when the goal was reached? Why didn't God just get you?

What if it was all about getting some people with me to heaven? That sounds much less egoistic and explains why I have to spend some more time down here. But doesn't it turn Christianity into works? Granted, you get to heaven because you accepted Jesus as saviour, but if it is necessary to take some people with you, will there be a greater price for greater crowds? After how many "converts" will you be released to leave this "valley of death and sorrows" and be promoted to be with the Lord?

But within my answer there lies "des Pudels Kern", the real problem. Accepting Jesus as your saviour just falls short of what Jesus has planned for you. He wants to be Lord in your life. He wants you to obey - if you love me, keep my commandments. Moreover, He wants you to mature. He wants you to build His Kingdom, while he builds His Church. He wants you to rule and reign with Him. But where? Here on earth, as you can see in Rev 22:5.

The go to statement seems to be especially harmful if you believe that the Church will be raptured before tribulation. This was taught to Chinese Christians by Western missionaries. When Mao and with him persecution came, there was a great fall from Christian believe as the people started to call God a lyer: didn't he promiss to spare them from the time of great dispair?

I do not know whether we will leave this planet to greet the Lord and accompany Him down to earth at His second coming before, during, or after the tribulation time. I lean towards believing that we will at least experience parts of it, being spared like Israel was spared in Egypt: even though they experienced opression and had to make bricks without straw, they were spared from the wrath of God as there was light in Goshen when all Egypt was in darkness.

Another way the go to statement is harmful is when used to project the future: tomorrow I will go to ... The Lord tells us to be careful and at least say "if the Lord permits and we are still alive ...".

But if it is not about going to heaven, taking as many with us as we can, being saved from troubles, and planning our future, what is it all about?

As I said, as a child all you think about is you. What will I profit - and if you are honest, all of the above falls into that category. But Paul said that when he became a man, he did away all childish things. 1Jo 2:12-14 shows us three steps in maturing: children - we just dealt with that. Young people ask: what can I do for you. And fathers want to invest themselves into others.

If you want a phrase with "go" in it to summarize God's plan for your life: Go, grow up, mature, and multiply Christ in you, and make disciples by multiplying yourself in others.

God's Family

Let's dive a little more into the plan of God, trying to unveil its purpose.

As I wrote in my last entry, we cannot derive the purpose of the plan asking "what if". What if we had never sinned. We have to, and are perfectly able to derive the purpose of the plan from within the plan, especially from the handbook given for this project - the bible. It shows the goal (Revelation 21/22), the kick-off (Genesis 1/2), and the way to get from here to there.

Paul wrote about marriage as a symbol for our relationship with God. And I do think that all of history is but a family story. 2 generations, 2 marriages, 2 covenants between 1 humanity and 1 God.

Back at Mount Sinai, God the Father married Israel. The whole ceremony of a Jewish wedding strongly resembles the happenings at Mount Sinai, from the canopy that covered the pair to the laying down of a marriage contract, much more than that, marriage covenant.

And out of Israel came the Saviour. Out of this marriage Jesus Christ was born. And still today we the Church draw from our parents - we learn from both our Father and our mother. We see how they treated each other, we see the good and the bad. And we can learn.

As it is in real life, parents are not perfect - in this case at least the mother is not. Still children can, with God's help, grow up to be wonderful, capable, and mature people. Later in life, daughters get to know their husband and learn from him - and vice versa here on earth. Jesus calls the Church His bride. There will be the wedding meal.

And as we marry into the Kings family, we are set to rule with Him, over all creation. What started in the earth (Gen 1:28), as our realm of influence as little children, our playground, our children's room, will be enlarged to all of creation in our maturity (Rev 22:5): And they will reign as kings forever and ever.

What if

I have been a project manager most of my professional life. I managed software projects with up to 100 people, but usually a group of about 5 programmers, lasting a few man years each. When I planned the project, I tried to foresee all eventualities and manage all risks. Worst case scenarios, critical path, plan B.

God a few thousand years ago planned a project of a totally other dimension - humanity. Take a look at the complexity - alone today there are some 7 billion people, and the project runs for almost 6000 years by now. But God had a competitive edge. He lives outside of time and sees the end from the beginning. Means: he knew everything ahead of time. No risk calculation, no worst case scenario, no surprises at all.

I'm talking about perfect foresight, not predestination. We all have our free will to decide about how to behave within this project, but God knew back then, before the foundation of the earth, how I would decide in every case I would make a decision, and when I would run from taking one, trying to avoid it. Still he decided to go ahead with the project, on purpose.

But what was the project all about? Salvation, as most of us would say? In that case it would be all over and the goal would have been reached. But how do we find out what the real purpose is?

Obviously we cannot ask questions like: would Jesus have come to earth if Adam and Eve would not have sinned? Nobody knows, if we take a historic view point, not even God, as he never planned for that case. He knew it was not an option. We could argue that Jesus would not have come to die, as there would have been no reason to do so. There was no sin, therefore no need for redemption. And could he have died anyway? Would there have been death or not? Death in Genesis means separation from God. We do not know whether people would have lived for a certain time and then have been changed in a moment into something we today call the resurrection body, or whether Adam and Eve already had this body before the fall. All speculation. Or as C.S. Lewis had it said by Aslan, the lion, in the chronicles of Narnia: "Never ask what if".

Is there a way to find out then what God planned for all along? I think, there is, taking into consideration the beginning and the end. How was man in the beginning, and what does the bible say about the last days.

I personally believe that Jesus already was on earth in paradise - every day in the cool of the evening. When we were formed after God's image, we were formed after Jesus. All through the old testament we see God appearing to people. In Aramaic, the phrase "God said" is more like "and the Word of God came to him", which John in the first chapter of his gospel links to the person of Jesus Christ.

At the end of the book we see the bride of God - us, the church - appear and being revealed on earth. And Jesus and God will live in their midst, and they will need no sun as God is their light.

Paul calls the Spirit of God the teacher, he calls the Word of God the "leader to God". I personally believe that the plan of God is to have a being that being very immature in the beginning, but having a free will, out of this free will will have a relationship with him. And Jesus was to lead man in full knowledge and revelation of God.

It is all about a maturing and growing relationship between God and man, based on free will and love.

The River

"Did you see this?" Jesus and Ezekiel swimming in the river in Eze 47:6. Ezekiel is swimming, in the midst of the water, and the Lord asks: "Did you see this?"

When God asks a question, it is not because he does not have the answer. "Adam, where are you?" Did God lose the only 2 human beings he created? No, but Adam did not know where he was. "Why do you pursuit me, Paul?" Jesus knew perfectly, but Paul answered "Who are you, Lord?"

So what was there to see for Ezekiel? One thing amongst many was the river. Let's have a closer look at this river.

The river started in the Holy Of Holies. It went out of the city and into the countryside. It reminds me of some other rivers mentioned in the bible:

In Genesis 2, we find a river flowing from the garden Eden and from there in 4 streams into the world. In Joel we see that the river will break forth from the temple and water the valley (Joel 3:18). And in Rev 22:1-2 the same river is portrayed again.

Let's look at some characteristics of that river.

In Gen 2:8 we see that God planted a garden in the east sector of Eden. In Gen 2:10 we see the same area, but this time a river flows from Eden into the garden. The Hebrew now places eden in the garden. But didn't the first reference place the garden within Eden?

In John 15:5 Jesus tells his disciples, that "whoever abides in Me and I in Him will bring much fruit". Jesus in us, or we in Jesus? The garden in Eden, or Eden in the garden?

Gen 2:15 the bible does not even differentiate between the two: the garden Eden (without the "of" that is used in English translations, but not in Hebrew). Identity. Me in Him, and He in me. Eden. the supernatural place of delight (that is was Eden means), and the garden, the natural place of human work and life, being congruent. One place, one state?

So from Eden a river flows into the garden and then into the world. The garden is the doorway to the world for the river.

In Eze 48:30, the doorways of the city that river flows out of are described as exits (not entrances!) and named after the 12 tribes or 12 sons of Jacob. The exits are people.

Where does the river flow to? Eze 47:6 shows us that it flows to people and becomes their provision. In Revelation it flows to the nations for their healing.

Where does it flow from? The temple, the throne of God and the Lamb. When Jesus was on the cross, his side was pierced, and out came blood and water. Does the river start from Jesus? Does it start from a person?

From a person, through a people, for the people.

The river was supposed to flow at all times. It started to break into our world at creation. Recognize that the garden was created, but not Eden. It pre-existed. It was to flow at the time of Ezekiel and Joel, started to flow again at the cross, and will flow in the New Jerusalem.

But there has to be a garden, there have to be exits to the city, there has to be a people for the river to flow through.

All of Israel was supposed to be a people of priest for the most high God. They failed and kept the Gospel of their time to themselves. They did not accept their role when they told Moses to speak to and from God for them at the Mount Sinai.

The church according to Peter is supposed to be a people of kings and priests. But for many centuries we failed to do so, either bringing the Gospel through might and power and the sword, but not His Spirit, or by locking God into a new Holy of Holies, the church building, after he ripped open the curtain and left the small confinement man put Him in.

Let us be the people the river will flow through. Let's change from child's stage of "what's in it for me" to adolescence ("What can I do for You, God") to maturity: "Who can I invest myself in?" Or, whom can I reach with the flow of the river that breaks forth from within me. Let the gifts, let faith, and let love flow from your inner most being. Read 1 Corinthians 12-14 to see what I mean.

Is this what Jesus meant when he said:

Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says." (John 7:38 MSG)

"Did you see this?" Jesus asks.