Where was Joseph's Family?

So typically on this blog I answer questions posed to me by others, but for this post I want to flip the roles and ask you a question.  Last night during our family devotion time I was reading the account of the birth of Jesus for our four month old son.  Something struck me that I had not thought of before.  Where was Joseph's family?




Consider the facts:

• Mary was most likely in her upper teenage years based on when women of that day got married. 
• Joseph as likely young as well though might have been a little older.  It seems that he has died by the time of Jesus' earthly ministry whether that was due to age we do not know. 
• Joseph and Mary had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census because he was of the line of David.  
• Joseph's extended family would have been from the same lineage and should have had to be there as well for the census. 

So, I have always pictured Mary and Joseph alone laying the baby in the manger.  Until the shepherds come along a little later.  But are we missing some people?  I can think of three possibilities: 

• Joseph was an only child who's parents had passed away. (Unlikely but possible.) 
• Joseph's family was also in town but had disowned them due to Mary being pregnant out of wed lock. Would they really take the last places in the inn and reject a pregnant woman from their homes?  Maybe.
• Joseph's family was right there with them and helped with the delivery.  

Having just witnessed the birth of my son and what transpires, having women around who have gone through it would have been a great help to Mary and Joseph.  So I am thinking that our nativity scenes might have another problem besides the wise men being there.  (They showed up about two years later).  I think we might need to add in some extended family.  What do you think?  Any scriptures on the subject that I am missing?  

What about Newsweek, Inerrancy, and the Bible?

Last night I preached a message in which I was laying out the doctrine of inerrancy.  In doing so, I wrestled with Kurt Eichenwald's recent Newsweek article "The Bible: So Misunderstood It's a Sin."  The article is written as an intellectual journalistic piece but is really little more than a liberal rant against the Bible and conservative Christianity.  There is so much thrown into that article that there was no way for me to adequately respond to each and every point in my message last night, nor do I plan to do so here.  While I do appreciate the responses of Michael Brown, Darrel Bock, and Al Mohler, the best response I found to this article was actually written way before it was.  I want to offer here the explanation John Calvin made of critics of the Bible in the 1500s.  I found it to still be very true today and relevant for Newsweek's article and the different responses to it. 

“But although we may maintain the sacred word of God against gainsayers, it does not follow that we shall forthwith implant the certainty which faith requires in their hearts.  Profane men think that religion rest only on opinion, and therefore that they may not believe foolishly, or on slight grounds, desire and insist to have it proved by reason that Moses and the prophets were divinely inspired.  But I answer, that the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason.  For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit.  The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted.  This connection is most aptly expressed by Isaiah in these words, ‘My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever’ (Isa 59:21).  Some worthy persons feel disconcerted, because, while the wicked murmur with impunity at the Word of God, they have not a clear proof at hand to silence them, forgetting that the Spirit is called an earnest and seal to confirm the faith of the godly, for this very reason, that, until he enlightens their minds, they are tossed to and fro in a sea of doubts.”[1]

So I see the real issue at stake here is not whether or not we can intellectually prove the infallibility or veracity of the Bible, but the issue is an issue of faith.  Faith that comes from God.  Faith that informs about His Scriptures.  Faith that the Holy Spirit uses when making the scriptures alive and active in our lives.  So, my response to Kurt Eichenwald is not one of anger but is one of compassion.  I hope the Lord reveals to him the truth of His Scriptures and for this I pray.  I pray that the Lord will send his Holy Spirit upon this man, and that he will see the truth.  I know God's word to be fully true and holding the truth of the gospel.  I pray that God will make that truth clear to those who doubt Him and His Scriptures.

If you are looking for a point by point analysis of the facts of Eichenwald's piece, look to Bock or Brown, but if you have faith in God and in his Holy Scriptures, please join me in praying for those who do not.

---

[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1 Chapter 7 Section 4. 

What about Foot Washing?

In response to my recent post on the ordinances as a reason why Christians need the local church, several people asked me why I did not include foot washing in with Baptism and the Lord's Supper as ordinances of the church.  Let's examine this.

I have been a part of foot washing ceremonies in the past, and I found them to be very humbling and edifying to one another.  More importantly, Jesus said, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you." (John 13:14-15) So, if Jesus commanded it, why don't more churches have foot washing ceremonies today?

Let's compare foot washing to Baptism and the Lord's Supper:

1. Baptism and Communion symbolically point to Christ's atoning work on the cross.  These ordinances that we practice point to the most significant act in human history and pronounce the gospel to those who see it.  Unless extra meaning is added to the story of foot washing, it does not.  
2. There is record throughout the New Testament of the role of baptism and communion in the early church, there is no other mention of foot washing.  
3. Through church history we do not see foot washing elevated to the role of an ordinance until the Anabaptists did so during the protestant reformation.  Even then they did not really hold it on equal standing with Baptism and the Lord's Supper, but instead treated it as an additive to the Lord's Supper.  
4. Instead of instituting another ordinance in this passage, what Jesus is really doing is teaching his disciples to humbly care for one another and meet even the most menial but practical needs of one another.  It would be easy to have a foot washing ceremony, which has really no practical need in our culture, and miss the point of caring for one another and meeting each other's needs.  

A recent example from my life of seeing Jesus's command to "do just as I have done to you," happened on a Sunday night after church in our church parking lot around my truck.  I had several bags of maternity clothes in my truck that I was returning to a lady in the church who had loaned them to my wife while she was pregnant, and then at the same time another guy came up to me to return an air compressor that I had loaned him so that he could work on his home improvement project.  I think in a small way, these are examples of meeting the needs of one another in the same way that Jesus did. Now these are imperfect examples as they don't truly show the humility that Jesus showed in washing the disciples' feet, but I think you get the idea.

So, is it wrong to have a foot washing ceremony?  No, in fact I would encourage anyone who has never humbled themselves to the level of washing someone else's feet to do so.  But do not elevate it to the ranks of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which symbolize the gospel.  Do, however, learn the all important message that Jesus was conveying and is repeated throughout the scriptures: 

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'" (1 Peter 5:14)