THE SIGNS OF TIMES

By J. Morillo

Text: Matthew 14: ¹ The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. ² He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ ³ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.⁴ A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

Intro: In one of the public ministries of Jesus, He was confronted by some religious leaders representing the sects of Pharisees and Sadducees with the aim to do harm. Having been exposed, the Lord rebuked and cursed them. Two religious organizations of sharp distinction but united in opposing the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, this was a continuous harassment of the devil to Him who left Him for a while after the first temptation. During the first temptation, He was to prove “If You are the Christ” (Matthew 4; Mark 1:12; Lk 4:1). Now, the temptation persists using the very people that serve "His temple". They asked Him to prove if He is the Christ by saying “...Give us a sign.”

In this reflection, the ineffectiveness of religious leaders to understand the Lord’s words and accurately interpret the signs of times due to corruption of power and selflessness, is the focus.

A sign from heaven; a sign to do harm v.1. These religious leaders are relentless in their opposition to Jesus. They follow Him anywhere by disguising themselves as genuine believers of His teachings as if ready to get any responsibility from Him to advance His cause. Actually, they are not. In verse 1, we are told of their true color - they “…tested Him by asking Him to show a sign….”

The word “tempt” is a transitive verb. This verb transfers its meaning to the object, “Him”. This verb has another form – it is a “state-of-being” verb. It means that the verb does not carry an outward manifestation of behavior. Instead, it is an act from within. There is something “being processed inside,” “from the inner self,” “from the mind,” the psyche. Their being with Jesus for many days was a deliberate act. Something planned. Something orchestrated. This is to gain His trust so they could entice Him and do harm in return.

Was this because they are afraid to lose their hard earned position in the society? They are afraid that somebody is exposing their true motive because they wrongly impose tradition and laws for purposes of manipulating people and making them blind followers of God? Yes, it's all the reasons behind so they could gain followers out of fear by making people guilty of religious shortcoming. Actually they themselves (religious leaders) are incapable of observing their own self-imposed rules. By demanding to “show us a sign” they actually would like to pressure the Lord to act carelessly and so they can twist the facts and make it appear that He is in connivance with the devil. There is no doubt that the Lord can actually make signs and wonders just like the old days when He would bring manna, quails (Exo.15:13), water in the waterless region, show thunder (Exo.19:16), bring down fire from heaven and make angels to suddenly appear (cf. Matt 3:11). But the Lord Jesus knows what they are “hiding” from that mind. 

In the final analysis this is a continuous harassment of Satan (cf. Lk.4:13) so the Lord could be forced to use His power out of anger and aggrandizement. This would in turn become a violation of the nature of His humble obedience. Thus, it is a contemptuous act. It will deviate from the Father’s plan, a“…Knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden.” (1 Cor.1:30). Power must only be used according to the predetermined purpose of helping the human race break free from sin. The use of power is to please the Father in heaven and not to serve one’s purpose and self-interest. This is what He promised to come here on earth, “…To do the will of my Father in heaven.” (Jn.5:43; John 6:40; John 15:10). We all have to check our motives. Remember that “…The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” (Psalm 19:7)

Weather forecasters; weathered minds v.2, 3. What happened next was a rebuke given to them. How is it that they could predict weather condition and not understood Christ? The sun is 149 million kilometers from earth or 152 million kilometers during the month of July. The nearest stars from the solar system are 16.308 light years away. These people can understand their movements even if they are too far from earth. They are a bunch of “weather forecasters.”

But why can’t they understand the Lord who is using their own language of probably, Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic? He is in front of them talking. They are good in observation but poor in understanding. They are good in attending the Lord's activities but poor in collecting truths. They can hear but could not figure out. They can see but could not notice the form. They can calculate but could not reach the total value of facts. They have selective understanding and poor objective research outcome. Their listening skills are too subjective and the organization they belong is too sensitive to apply self-corrective measures. This reveals who they are. Many if not all know that the hierarchy of four different types of knowledge starts from common sense to science and then to philosophy and theology. The school of philosophy has been in used for 400 years up to the time of this event. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, lived from 450 to 300 BC; while theirs, Jesus’ time, was probably between 27AD to 33AD, a span of 460 years of studying philosophy, letters, and theology to both university (Greeks) and religious (Judaism) curriculum. These people are professionals and trained to the highest standard of academic discipline. But what is going on? They couldn't even figure out “the signs of time.” Even the Lord was wondering why “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” (v3)

All underlined words - “know,” “can,” “interpret,” are again state-of-being-verbs which tell that there was tremendous inner activities in these people but had been missing the genuineness of their religious existence. What they’ve been practicing was pure nonsense, senseless, and acts that are deplorable.

It challenges the application of our religious beliefs. Our theology must find subjects and objects. What good would it bring in serving Him if we are irrelevant and ineffective to address the social cry of our present time? What good would it bring in serving Him if we cannot even uplift the souls of our people and strengthen the weak? What good would it bring if we don’t know how to listen to His words and put them into practice? 

In the end, the Lord decided to give them a sign, yes, a sign of "Jonah". There is parallelism here of Jonah and Jesus. They both came from "death" from the "grave" - belly of fish for Jonah and the tomb for Jesus. Both preached judgment and repentance. Jonah preached judgment, and during the Pentecost, the Disciples made their first ever attempt to preach the Good News of salvation using a historical presentation of facts about Jesus of "whom ye crucified."

In verse 3, the Lord challenged these Pharisees and Sadducees to “…interpret the signs of the times.” There is an obligation to study our faith and grow from it. We must become an ever growing believers. Although God provides wisdom, it is given only to those who are earnestly seeking His will “in order to make this world a better place to live in” (Bishop N. Lazaro).

Only those with selfless ambition and godly-intention can honestly address the social maladies brought about by ignorance. Socrates once said, “Ignorance is the root of all evil.” And if the Church ceases to understand the signs of times, she must kneel before God and ask for forgiveness. Being His heralds, let us listen to our Lord and minister to one another with sincerity. Let us make the church relevant and effective agency of truth and change so that “…His will…” could be”…done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Lord, grant us the understanding to know thy words and open our eyes to see the needs of Your people. Help us not to be selfish in using the power you gave us "to open and close the gates of heaven;" but, rather, use it to help the poor and the oppressed; the little ones and the weak. Help us to be responsible of our faith; to study and grow so others may benefit. Help us to interpret the signs of times and use our days productively for Your glory; so Your church could be an effective agent of Your words in achieving peace, justice, unity, and worship. - Amen

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THE IEMELIF ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The Recruitment

          The IEMELIF Church has a well-crafted religious Book of Discipline. For the information of the greater majority of Evangelical Christians in the Philippines, a proposed bill, before it reaches the Annual General Conference, takes its form from a local church conference which is held annually every 1^st week of January. Then it is submitted to District Conference for further hearing. If it passes, it finally reaches the Annual General Conference which is attended by delegates from all over the world. It is here that, again, the merit of the bill is debated then approved, rejected, or referred to a committee for further study. Among the long lists of agenda that need the approval of the General Conference is the report that comes from the Division of Ordained Ministers (Kagawaran ng Ordinadong Manggagawa). It is in this particular Division that this article would like to focus.

             The DOM performs a very delicate position during this time of the year. Let’s look at how a candidate (examinee) is carefully handled. The person is sent by a Local Church Conference to District Conference for assessment, interview, and approval. This interview is handled by able district leaders who determine the authenticity of the person’s “ministerial calling” as well as finding-out whether credentials have met or not the minimum required standard which was pre-set by the Church Discipline. If grounds are sufficient, an applicant is then endorsed, this time, by the District Conference to National Level. Here, a candidate is handled by DOM through its Board of Examiners (BOE) to take exam two weeks prior to the General Conference. In many cases, a review material is made available to all candidates so they could start reviewing the topics which would be the scope and limitation of exams.

            The written exam is in the form of some essay questions and choices in which a candidate is expected to answer substantially by citing correct doctrinal position, accurate church-discipline provision, acceptable ministerial ethics, historical knowledge, and hymnological understanding. In addition, administrative and management skills, hermeneutics and homiletics skills, and other such exam related to the affairs of the IEMELIF Church are given. The written exam lasts for about 4 to 6 hours. On the other hand, the oral exam which is excerpted from the same category is given by requiring examinees to make a defense in front of a panel, as if having a theology review or defending a research or theses. Each candidate is called to a boardroom and faces the Board of Examiners who are composed of more or less nine members. Each of these members will ask question(s) to a candidate and should answer them with full confidence and readiness. It is such an honor to experience this.  Questions are asked to candidates for Deaconess (female worker), PNS (Probationary Pastor), Deacon, and Presbyter (the highest rank among female and male pastors). The questioning (interrogation) may reach from one hour or more. Then, a candidate is requested to leave the room to allow for BOE to reach a decision. It is here that the second stage of the test ends. The Board of Examiners will then vote in favor or not in favor for a candidate. After a while, the examinee is then called back to receive the consensus. If they are in favor, the candidate is congratulated with a warm handshake and everybody in the boardroom rejoices.  If they are not in favor, a candidate gets further advice and encouragement to try having the test again for next year. It was a tedious process that to fail is quite a setback. 

         The result is then submitted to the Chairman of the Division of Ordained Ministers, who is also a member of the Highest Consistory of Elders of the IEMELIF Church. In the list is written those who passed and those who did not pass. Of course, along with it are the corresponding scores and justifications. In most cases the Chairman of the Division of Ordained Ministers is “hands-on” in leading the members of the Board of Examiners.  Through the Chairman, the result will then be reported to the General Conference for final approval. This report is a permanent agendum annually.

           During the General Conference, each candidate is presented in front of the delegates from United States, Canada, Middle East, Asia, and Philippines. There are about 400 to 600 in attendance and everyone has the right to raise questions practically on anything they want to know about the person. You can just imagine the intense pressure and stress where lawyers, teachers, doctors, engineers, professionals, common members, etc., are all there to vote unpredictably. If you are “lucky”, no one will dare ask question and the floor would move for acceptance and approval of the candidate. If it’s seconded and none would go against the motion, the mallet is hit by the Chairman, the Bishop and General Superintendent; sealing the acceptance of the candidate and ending the journey of test. What a relief! The bishop congratulates each successful candidate; the delegates clap their hands; relatives share their tears; each worker comes to share the joy. Some offer a handshake and congratulatory remark. What a wonderful site to see; an unforgettable moment. These candidates receive love and acceptance. Then, an ordination is given and eventually, they are installed to office and received their respective assignments.

            To this, we must commend the effort of DOM and BOE for their skills, time, and effort. But the work is not over yet. Only time could tell, whether the process of recruitment has been successful or not, that is, if these workers perform as expected. The work of HRD should come in which it is entirely a different issue to discuss. The DOM and BOE are the second best qualifiers of the Church and should not stop getting the test-process improved. Therefore, it is hoped that the following suggestions be taken into consideration. The 12-point suggestions are:

1. Each member of the Board of Examiners (BOE) should represent expertise corresponding to the number of proficiencies of the candidate that they assess during the oral exam. This will avoid redundancy of tasks among  members.

2. There must be a combined pure objective (scientific) and subjective exams to be given. It seems that the written and oral exams that are being used today are not balanced; thus, they are not scientific.   The Church  should ensure the use of accurate assessment tools to minimize if not eliminate "hit and missed" attempts. 
3.Questions to essays must be pre-approved together with their model answers to avoid "considerations"; to avoid suspicion; and seeming discretization that may lead to corruption of collected data and numerical value.

4. Test-takers should only receive official test papers with control numbers on it. They should answer the test inside a controlled environment - a room that is well ventilated,  free of distraction,  and behavior is observed.

5. Before the test, examination rules must be read and queries are answered carefully with authority.

6. During the oral exam, the proceedings must be videoed. This will help the BOE address the queries on suspicion of asking “personal” questions, probably irrelevant during the interrogation. Again, questions must be pre-approved together with the model answers. This will disallow the examiner(s) to just raise a question at will.

7. In case a petition is raised of those who would fail or by those who sent them, the request, through a formal letter of Petition for Review (PfR) is sent and reviewed by a Committee for Review and Petition (CRP) - presently not installed. Here, the CRP would know who made the mistake by viewing the video and reading the transcript – Was there really an error in the manner of questioning? Was the questions raised irrelevant? Was the candidate not able or able to answer the questions? Who made the mistake - the examiner or the examinees? It is best that the one who crafted the question should be part of the  committee.

8. The BOE should only act as an invigilator – a facilitator; and not be the one to entirely determine who would pass and who would not pass so as not to dominate the entire proceedings. Thus, there are two assessment bodies - the Invigilators (50%) and the CRP (50%).

9. There must be time for appeal, probably 5 to 10 days before the General Conference. This will give ample time for DOM to revisit the petition.

10. We must remember that the objective (scientific) result must be given more weight than the subjective outcome of the test. If the subjective outcome is too low, then there must be something wrong. Thus, petition for review is acceptable when this happens (cf.no.7). 

11. BOE must have formal training on how to conduct examinations – Assessment Methodology or Training Methodology.

12. Revisit the percentages that are allocated to each area. Only a person who is psychometrician can be the best source of “percentile allocation” and interpretation. If this is not possible, an assessment and training assessor is an alternative.

        The IEMELIF Church is a global religious institution with international affiliation and membership; thus she must all the more struggle to attain excellence in many ways.  Many would look closer to the quality of  her workers and it all starts from the recruitment process. The Lord said, "Be ye perfect, for I am perfect." The Bible tells us to "Examine ourselves and show the proper fruits of it..." (1 Cor. 13:5). In addition Paul said to "...Let every person carefully examine and test his own work." (Gal.6:4). The IEMELIF has proven time and again that she is an able religious organization, if it's not true, she would have not reached this far. +
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