New Covenant

So you want to see some sermons?

This coming Sunday, every Bible believing pastor, priest, and rabbi in the U.S. should preach on what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, and then send a copy of their sermon (anonymously) to the city of Houston. #AnniseParker #Houston #BathroomBill #FirstAmendment

How CS Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" helps demonstrate the deity of Jesus

In arguing for the deity of Jesus Christ (i.e., that he is, in fact, God), many Christians will point to places in the Gospel accounts where Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. For example,

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

- Matthew 14:28-33 ESV

or, more specific to the point,

Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.”

- John 19:4-7 ESV

Yet, when presenting these apologetic arguments, many times Christians will face the response that Jesus never claimed to be God but merely 'the son of God'. 

This, I think, is an unfortunate consequence of our current culture's thinking (and, perhaps, most of Western culture). The mindset we are facing, and most times have ourselves, tends to see individuals rather than groups. When we meet someone who is introduced as so-and-so's son we think along the lines of, "Oh, your name is Frank, and you're John's son." Is it any surprise, then, that we have instances of surnames such as "Johnson"?

We do this all the time. "Hello Mary. Yes, I know your mother Kate, and don't you have a daughter named Rebecca?" In such a dialogue, despite understanding the familial relationship between the mother - daughter - granddaughter, we assign (inadvertently, perhaps) more importance to the individuality of each person. Hence, the argument that if Jesus is the Son of God, then he is God, carries little weight with us.  

However, this does not seem to be the case with the culture with which Jesus interacted. Consider this excerpt from the book of John,

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

- John 10:31-39 ESV

Here we see that the Jews were ready to stone Jesus because, as they stated, "you, being a man, make yourself God." In his response Jesus actually takes their charge and clarifies it so as to make it clear that, yes, he is in fact making himself out to be God. Note his reference back to his saying, "I am the Son of God". 

So, how does this all tie in with CS Lewis, Narnia, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?

At the beginning of chapter 2, just after the Faun (Mr. Tumnus) spots Lucy, we have the following,

"Good evening," said Lucy. But the Faun was so busy picking up its parcels that at first it did not reply. When it had finished it made her a little bow.

"Good evening, good evening," said the Faun. "Excuse me - I don't want to be inquisitive - should I be right in thinking that you are a Daughter of Eve?"

"My name's Lucy," said she, not quite understanding him.

"But you are - forgive me - you are what they call a girl?" asked the Faun.

"Of course I'm a girl," said Lucy.

"You are in fact Human?"

In these few short lines of text Lewis wonderfully parlays the aspects of cross-cultural issues in how we understand textual meaning. Notice how when the Faun asked "Are you a daughter of Eve?" he was asking if Lucy was "in fact Human". Lucy, "not quite understanding him" (in true Western form), immediately looked to the individuality aspect of her status as the daughter of her mother - that they were two distinct, and therefore separate, persons. Luckily, the Faun understood this confusion on Lucy's part and stepped her through the process, first by asking if she was "a girl", and then asking his initial question in a point blank fashion: "You are in fact Human?"

The point here is that the title Daughter of Eve had nothing to do with the individuality of Lucy but everything to do with her being of the same species as Eve: Human. In like manner, when Jesus was referred to or claimed to be the Son of God it had everything to do with him being of the same "species" as his Father: God. 

Happy New Year 2013 - what Amazing Grace

Today is January 1st, 2013. Happy New Year! It also happens to be the 240th anniversary of the sermon with which John Newton introduced his newly written poem, Amazing Grace. From Near to the Heart of God: Meditations on 366 Best-Loved Hymns,

On Friday morning, January 1, 1773, John Newton, former slave trader and infidel, preached a New Year’s message from 1 Chronicles 17:16–17 in his church at Olney, England. Newton opened his sermon, saying, “The Lord bestows many blessings upon His people, but unless He likewise gives them a thankful heart, they lose much of the comfort they might have.” He told his church to look back at God’s goodness, look around at God’s promises, and look forward to future usefulness. In concluding, Newton introduced a poem he’d written for the occasion, the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

- Morgan, Robert J., Near to the Heart of God: Meditations on 366 Best-Loved Hymns

The scriptural text that Newton referred to in his sermon, the setting just after the announcement of the Davidic Covenant,

Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations, O LORD God! (1 Chronicles 17:16-17 ESV)

And Newton's original six verses:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev'd;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believ'd!

Thro' many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis'd good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call'd me here below,
Will be forever mine.

 

4th Sunday of Advent - Peace

Peace

As we closed the 1st Sunday of Advent post with an excerpt from Luke 2, we begin this post with the same:

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

(Luke 2:8-14 ESV)

Peace has been promised by God Almighty, yet in our world, as in the world of the past, peace is ever allusive. Is this an example of a broken or unfulfilled promise of God? Or have we equivocated on the type of peace promised? Let's look at the same record that has been given to us which promises peace.

Not long after the angels praised God at the birth of Christ by proclaiming peace on earth we find this event:

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

(Matthew 2:16-18 ESV)

State mandated slaughter of male children under the age of two in the region of and including Bethlehem. Doesn't seem very peaceful to me.

Or how about what Jesus himself told his disciples, about 30 years later, to expect - based on his historical presence in the region of Judea.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

(John 15:18-25 ESV)

And yet, despite the promise of persecution and hatred, he later says,

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

(John 16:31-33 ESV)

May you have the Peace of the Christ who has overcome the world!

 

Just like Mary, you too can give birth to Jesus!

What, you say? How can this be? Simple, just check you Cable listings for the Casting Crowns Christmas Celebration and listen to the sermon [sic] from Max Lucado (about 30 minutes into the program). After reading the scriptural account of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary, Lucado then launches into one of the strangest evangelistic talks I've ever heard.

Here are some direct excerpts:

"The virgin birth – more than just a Christmas story, but a heavenly promise that what God did for Mary, he will do for you."

…

"The virgin birth – the core of the Christian hope, that God could work such a miracle in those that would trust and obey him, that Jesus himself would be placed within them, so that they could do what Mary did – deliver hope into a dark world."

…

"And John was clear that those who obey his [Jesus'] commands live in him and he lives in them. And the sweet invitation of Christ is this, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come-,” not just near, and not just around, but “I will come in.” Jesus' invitation to all people is this, “If you'll let me, I'll move in.” And what Christ did for Mary, he's willing to do for you. To grow in you, until he has to come out – until you deliver him. Until he comes out through your speech – through your touch – through your eyes – through your love. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem, and every day you live will be a Christmas. And you, like Mary, will deliver Christ into the world."

…

"And the day you deposited your faith in Christ he performed an irrevocable yet undeniable miracle – he moved in. And he took up residence, deep within you, until he grows and he grows and he grows, and he must be delivered. You do not have a choice – you are third trimester heavy, with the presence of Christ. And you deliver him into the world."

I think this takes metaphorical analogy, with a personal application, to a whole new level.

3rd Sunday of Advent - Joy

Joy

The Third Sunday of Advent we celebrate this year is Joy.

What is Joy? One thing we should be clear of, as we answer that question, is that joy is not a synonym for happiness. Unfortunately, our culture seems to have gotten itself into a rut of genuflecting to the god of Happiness. If we've learned one thing, after living in over 65 years of peace and prosperity, it's that our most important aim in life is to be happy.

C.S. Lewis, on the subject, wrote,

The very nature of Joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting.

Yet what do we find in America, today? Wanting? In Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Smith & Denton write,

However, it appears that only a minority of U.S. teenagers are naturally absorbing by osmosis the traditional substantive content and character of the religious traditions to which they claim to belong. For, it appears to us, another popular religious faith, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, is colonizing many historical religious traditions and, almost without anyone noticing, converting believers in the old faiths to its alternative religious vision of divinely underwritten personal happiness and interpersonal niceness...

Christianity posits something much, much more vicious than personal happiness and interpersonal niceness. Namely, the Son of God became Man, fulfilling the covenant God made with Abraham - indeed, with Adam - that He would bless all the peoples of earth, that He would redeem all those with whom He finds favor.

This is not a pathway grounded on personal happiness. Again, from Lewis,

Which of the religions of the world gives to its followers the greatest happiness? While it lasts, the religion of worshipping oneself is the best.

...As you perhaps know, I haven't always been a Christian. I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity.

So... what of Joy?

Joy to the World,
the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

 

2nd Sunday of Advent - Hope

Hope

Do we, here in the 21^st century West, have any concept of what it means to have hope? Real hope? Do we understand what long-suffering means? Can we comprehend what it means to depend on the promises of God?

Consider Psalm 80.

Restore us, O God;
       let your face shine, that we may be saved!
O LORD God of hosts,
    how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?
You have fed them with the bread of tears
    and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
    and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved!
(Psalm 80:3-7 ESV)

For the Second Sunday of Advent, this year, we are celebrating Hope. The promise of God – redemption for mankind – was long awaited and, upon his arrival, was misunderstood. In like manner, I think, we have misunderstood what it means to rely on the hope we have in God. In our self-made reliance, we mistakenly rely on our ability to provide for ourselves temporal pleasures – a temporary immortality.

Instead, let's return to an understanding of our history, to an understanding of why we're here, and to an understanding of who God is.

The Bondage of Corruption, by Keith Patman

The world, upon its axis whirling, groans.
The flitting sparrow flinches, flails, and falls.
An aching hollow howls within the bones
Of bird and beast and man; the death-curse palls
Once-glad creation. Stung with sorrow, pain,
We toil and struggle under leaden skies
And wail like Israel in Pharaoh's reign,
“How long, O Lord, will you ignore our cries?”
God's Holy Spirit bears the troubled prayer
Aloft, with a more deeply uttered groan
Than ever echoed in earth's bitter air,
And lets the burden fall before the throne.
God answers. From a starlit hillside creche
A pain-cry rings as cold air bites new flesh.

1st Sunday of Advent 2012 - Love

Love

The 1st Sunday of Advent was December 2^nd. I'm late. I know.

This year we're celebrating Love for the First Sunday of Advent. You may have heard of the saying, “God is Love.” Indeed, reference 1 John 4. But what exactly is that supposed to mean? In English, the word 'love' has a variety of applications which can run from the erotic to gastronomical. I 'love' green chile cheeseburgers, for instance. Not to worry, though, because we have the Word of God to explain this to us.

In Romans 5 we are told of the depths of love which was expressed for us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

(Romans 5:6-11 ESV)

And in the well known John 3:16 passage we are explicitly told of God's love for mankind as well as the implications of such love. Hence we celebrate the Advent of Love, a pre-existing love, which by its very nature, cannot have existed in a singular state – for who would God have to love?

One admonition I'd like to leave you with is that as you reflect on the Love of God, particularly in the Advent of the Incarnate Jesus, don't make the mistake of trivializing said love by over-personalizing the concept. While God loves each and every one of us, the phrase “For God so loved the world...” should not be translated “For God so loved ME...” In our self-centered culture, that's an easy trap to fall into. I recently heard an evangelist prompt the audience he was speaking to to repeat the phrase, “Jesus was born, just for me.” Besides being wrong on so many levels, such a phrase only serves to reinforce the individualistic mentality so prevalent in society. Remember Romans 5:8, “...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Happy Advent!

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

(Luke 2:8-14 ESV)

Foolish Heart: Embracing the Culture of a Lost World

This particular line, from a Grateful Dead song, has always struck me as poignant,

Sign the Mona Lisa with a spray can,
Call it Art

    - Foolish Heart

As the singer insinuates, the quick and dirty tagger's label can hardly sanctify a classic work of art.

What is it about the Western Evangelical Church that drives us to acquiesce with the culture we live in and, at the same time, justify said acquiescence as a noble cause?

Take, for example, the manner with which many churches are approaching the upcoming celebration of Halloween. This year Halloween falls on a Wednesday and, as most of you may be aware, many churches hold their "mid-week" services on Wednesday nights.

It seems to me that in times past the church would hardly have blinked an eye at this current conundrum.

"What? Halloween is on Wednesday? Oh well, try to get some 'trick-or-treating' in before you show up for Bible Study."

Yet nowadays the church bends over backwards to accommodate a culture which worships Halloween (in terms of merchandising expenditures) less only than that of Christmas. Do a search on the various churches in your vicinity and my bet is that you'll find them having, in lieu of their regular Wednesday night ministries, some event geared to provide the community with candy and fun and games and entertainment. Whether or not said event is described as a Harvest or Hallelujah Party one thing is clear, there's very little chance of having a mid-week Bible Study at the event.

What I find most disconcerting with this whole fiasco is that, with cans of spray paint in hand, apologists for these events boldly stencil on the words COMMUNITY OUTREACH, and then walk away thinking that an event which has replaced the study of God's Word is somehow promoting the Gospel. In our misguided attempt at reaching a community of non-believers we've succumbed to the market mentality notion of keeping the customer satisfied. While we've been given a divine opportunity to be truly counter-cultural and shine like a light on a hill in a world of darkness, we've taken to dimming said light as we go out of our way to join in the celebration with our culture.

POSTSCRIPT:  $370,000,000. That's how much money we Americans, who happen to be in the midst of the Great Recession, spend on Halloween costumes for our... pets.

Don't take it personal... it's just business

Did you hear about that business in San Antonio that lost just about all it's marketshare after it's CEO left? Seems that under his lead he developed quite the brand following and, after he left, his successor couldn't keep the company on par with the local competition.

Oh, did I mention that the "business" was a former megachurch? From MySA,

It once was a megachurch. Now the sale of its far North Side property has wiped away longstanding debt and sparked new optimism for reversing its sizable membership decline.

...

The congregation counted an estimated 3,000 members a decade ago but today reports that about 200 attend on Sundays. The church has a lease agreement with the new owner to worship there through 2013.

“We love the building, and it's a great location,” said David Keith, lead elder. “We just didn't have the overall congregation to support much of that building and its mortgage.”

...

Former senior pastor Peter Spencer, who founded the congregation in 1988, could not be reached for comment. Keith said membership losses coincided with his resignation in 2003.

Spencer “had quite a following,” Keith said. “Basically, once he left, it just wasn't quite the same.”

John Cannon, former executive pastor, succeeded Spencer in 2003 and resigned last December, eventually taking a job as a commercial real estate agent.

The church is located along a stretch of Loop 1604 informally called “church row” for the many congregations fronting it, drawing members from fast-growing suburbs. Nearly 200,000 people live within a five-mile radius of Harvest Fellowship, according to its property listing, but the competition played a role in membership losses, church leaders said.

One of these days, and I think it will be in the near future, churches in America won't have to worry about competition from other churches.

Also see: Christians Need to Stop Making Converts

Links for 6 July 2012

Help for atheist preachers
From CNN,

The transition from preacher to outspoken atheist has not been easy, and DeWitt is trying to smooth the way for other former believers. He is executive director of Recovering from Religion, an organization founded in 2009. Its slogan: “Thousands of organizations will help you get INTO religion, but we’re the only one helping you OUT.”

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Youth Ministry:  Content and Context
What a concept.

From the post,

Our teaching and Bible study should help students engage with Scripture. Long ago I moved away from the traditional youth talk of sharing my ideas supported by a few verses. I started teaching from passages, allowing God's Word to speak more directly to students. If you have not experienced the difference, you might not understand what I mean. Expounding Scripture can be done in a variety of ways, yet the result is the same---getting a clear sense of the Bible's meaning and figuring out how it applies to our lives.

Allowing God's Word to speak? What (another) concept. Imagine what would happen if we moved from trying to be relevant to an unbelieving culture and actually depending on God's Word?

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Grade Inflation? Say it isn't so!
When I was a high school student (way back when) there were just a few students that achieved a 4.0 GPA (with 4.0 as the max). Nowadays it seems like the 4s just flit about unfettered from the shackles of herculean effort.

And, of course, along with this news we'll also be hearing that the quality of students graduating from our public school system is extraordinary?

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GradeInflation.com
Yikes! There's even a website devoted to the subject.

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And people were afraid of a Vice President Sarah Palin?
From the article,

Vice President Joe Biden told the graduating seniors of Cypress Bay High School in Florida today that they should imagine a world where hunger no longer exists because crops grow without the need of soil, water or fertilizer.

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The connected generation
How will it impact, if it will, the near future economy of the United States?

From the post,

The most interesting part of the survey, though, is the finding that parents will go to great lengths to help their kids find work. Nearly a third (30 percent) of recent graduates report that their parents are in some way involved in their job search process. Nearly one in 10 (8 percent) recent graduates say that a parent has accompanied them to a job interview, with 3 percent of grads saying their parents have actually joined the interview itself.

Links for 5 July 2012

With every head bowed, and every eye closed...
And so begins the invitation to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. Just like Paul did? Peter?

The "Sinner's Prayer", long used not in Christendom, but in American Evangelism, is the subject of a post by David Platt. From Platt,

It seems that “praying the prayer” is often used in a worship service or an evangelistic conversation to “cement a decision” or “close the deal” regarding someone’s salvation. People are often told immediately, “If you prayed that prayer, you can always know that you are saved for eternity.”

Lest anyone think he is anti-evangelism, he also states,

Most importantly, once someone repents and believes in Christ, be willing to lead that person as a new follower of Christ. Remember, our goal is not to count decisions; our goal is to make disciples.

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VBS under attack - the new norm?
One trend that seems to be in vogue, amongst evangelicals, is to alter the traditional Vacation Bible School (VBS) marketing to cater to "non-churched" (those who used to be known as non-Christians) in a manner which doesn't overtly imply prosyletizing. Yet, society appears to not be that stupid. Case in point is this story from New York.

A Baptist church in New York City is facing backlash after they passed out flyers inviting children from a nearby public school to attend Vacation Bible School. Some neighborhood parents accused the church of being discriminatory because they oppose gay marriage.

Heh. We evangelicals may end up being forced into living counter-culturally, whether we want to or not!

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Not enough Sun?
What's the gov't subsidized world coming to when a solar panel outfit can't survive in the middle of the Southwest United States?

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Google search gets a B+ while Apple's Siri gets a D?
But, of course, none of the Apple-heads out there will get wind of this news since they live in a closed system type of world. ;^)

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The Parent as the "Youth Pastor"
Considering that the vocation of youth pastor is a very new phenomenon, it seems that the notion of parental involvement in the theological training of children has merit. Oh, yes, it's also kind of Biblical. From the post,

...if we are going to stem the tide of youth leaving the church, I believe a key component is a fresh awareness of the centrality of the parents for youth ministry. Parents are the church’s primary youth pastors, and a central place in youth ministry today must be given to helping parents embrace that privilege and responsibility, and equipping them to do it. Youth ministry has a valid and important supporting role to the parents, but it must never become a substitute. Our youth are too important to allow that to happen.

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A camera that keeps your home safe?
From the post title, "Solar-powered security camera keeps your home safe without wires". Interesting. I'd be interested to know how a camera can manage to keep my home safe.

Jesus is not your boyfriend

Jesus is not your boyfriend
Or your homeboy.

Has our evangelical culture, in its eagerness to emotionalize our personal relationship with God Jesus, trended towards an essentially erotic view of said relationship? From the post at Her.meneutics,

It was not uncommon at my conservative Christian college to overhear girls say that Jesus was their "boyfriend" until God brought the right man along. I once had a girl tell me she could not hang out on a Friday night because she had a “date” with God. In our churches, many of our praise and worship songs border on the “love song” language, leading many girls to equate those warm and fuzzy feelings that come with attraction with Jesus. This is a dangerous place to be. Not only is it an incomplete picture of who our Christ is, it also sends the message that the girls (and women) who are truly devoted to Jesus equate contentment in him with a romantic relationship with him.

Reading the comments left at the post is also interesting. A sampling,

We used to sing this at a young adult study I used to go to:

"I wanna sit at your feet Drink from the cup in your hand. Lay back against you and breath, feel your heart beat This love is so deep, it's more than I can stand. I melt in your peace, it's overwhelming"

I could never sing the song and it took me completely out of worship. I'm a dude and this in NO WAY represents my walk with Christ. It's borderline creepy to me and almost sexual. It did, however, REALLY make me curious as to how women see a relationship with christ differently than a man does due to gender differences.

Posted By: b | June 25, 2012 1:26 PM

and,

just can't handle the "So in love with you" songs about Jesus any more. It just seems too close to the eroticism of love songs.

One of our younger male pastors (when he was working with youth) would often talk about "being so in love with Jesus" and used other language that had a boyfriend feel to it. I told him this way of talking could have a rather creepy feel about it, especially to the adolescent boys just coming to terms with their sexuality - he looked at me like I was crazy. It may also have a certain appeal to young females so wanting to have a boyfriend experience.

...

Posted By: Annie | June 25, 2012 3:11 PM

Yet what of the Biblical references to Israel's rebellion being akin to having an adulterous affair, or the overt sexuality found in Song of Solomon, or that the New Covenant church is referenced as the bride of Christ?

It's my understanding that such analogies always refer to the corporate body (i.e., the nation of Israel or the church as a whole) and are not indicative of the personal relationship each individual follower of Christ has with God. Note that in the upper room discourse Jesus calls his disciples friends, or how Paul refers to Christ followers as sons of God, or how virtually all of Jesus' disciples and followers addressed him as Lord, Rabbi, Teacher, etc., and not as Lover.

I think that because our culture emphasizes the emotional aspect of relationships (and, that is not necessarily a bad thing) we sometimes mistake the relationship, or direction, of various Biblical analogies. We need to remember that the various earthly analogies we have are but reflections of the heavenly aspect being presented. Thus, when Paul writes that all Christ followers, both men and women, are sons of God, he is not ignoring or deprecating the status of women, nor is he equating us to the Son of God. Rather, he is indicating that, as in the culture of his time, just as all sons received the family inheritance, so all sons of God (Christ followers) will receive God's inheritance.

As the author of the post states,

Just as self-marriage misses the mark for what God designed marriage to point to, “marriage” to Jesus misses what his work accomplished. Marriage to Jesus while waiting for a husband can often trivialize our Savior in a way that makes him more like a sweet boyfriend who takes us out on dates, rather than the God-man who paid for our sin on the cross. Jesus did not accomplish redemption to marry us individually. He died for the church corporate, of which we are apart [sic]. His death accomplished something much greater than simply meeting our deep-seated desires for a significant other. That is what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 5:22–33 when speaks of the mystery of marriage.

 

Links for Friday, 15 June 2012

NYC Gone Wild
Wild with asine regulations, that is. First extra large soda bans, now Bloomberg wants to go after popcorn and milkshakes?

This is no accident and it is indicative of how they want to weasel their way into every aspect of our lives.

Make no mistake about it. They will use the same tactics with regards to gun control.

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Heh

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And you think media has no impact?

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Steyn asks the question I asked after the media moved on to some other "film at 11" story
From the article,

So how's that old Arab Spring going? You remember – the "Facebook Revolution." As I write, they're counting the votes in Egypt's presidential election, so by the time you read this the pecking order may have changed somewhat. But currently in first place is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi, who in an inspiring stump speech before the students of Cairo University the other night told them, "Death in the name of Allah is our goal."

...

A century ago, the West exported its values. So, in Farouk's Egypt, at the start of a new legislative session, the King was driven to his toytown parliament to deliver the speech from the throne in an explicit if ramshackle simulacrum of Westminster's rituals of constitutional monarchy. Today, we decline to export values, and complacently assume, as the very term "Facebook Revolution" suggests, that technology marches in support of modernity. It doesn't. Facebook's flat IPO and Egypt's presidential election are in that sense part of the same story, of a developed world whose definitions of innovation and achievement have become too shrunken and undernourished. The vote in Egypt tells us a lot about them, but it also tells us something about us.

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And what about that "blood for oil" meme?
From Richard Fernandez,

Surely if America fought a war for oil, then Iraq’s oil resources would be in the hands of evil Republicans? But apparently not. Rather they are in the hands of the Russians and the Chinese. “Exxon Mobil has by far the largest stake of any American company in Iraq, but most of the major players are European and Asian, like Lukoil and Gazprom from Russia, and Chinese companies like China National Petroleum and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.” So there you have it. American blood, Russian and Chinese oil. Funny how that worked out.

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Kathy Ireland tells how she became Pro-Life

It's not promoted, but Ireland got a lot of critical thinking skills from Stand to Reason. Take, for example, her statement:  If abortion does not take the life of an unborn human being, then no justification of abortion is necessary. If, however, abortion does take the life of an innocent unborn human being, then no justification of abortion is adequate.

On excluding relativists, universalists, pluralists, and inclusivists

In recent discussions in which I've either been engaged in, or have simply read, the notions of relativism, universalism, pluralism and inclusivism have come up. Now, while I can understand how secular post-moderns may succumb to the self-defeating "all paths lead to God" concept, I remain perplexed as to why self-professed followers of Christ continue to fall into this trap. Keep in mind that my concern, in this post, has to do mainly with Westerners who buy into pluralistic worldview notions. I can recall discussions I had, at work, with a colleague from India who claimed that physical reality is - in reality - an illusion. He kept telling me that if I thought about it long enough I would gain enlightenment and see the world as he did. Of course, telling someone to think about it long enough is kind of like what the guy on the corner told me when I asked for directions - "Go to the last stop sign, then turn right." Yeah? Well how do I know when I've reached the last stop sign? As such, who's to say that I haven't thought about reality long enough or that my sincere co-worker hasn't? Even more disconcerting, with this particular situation, was that my colleague is an engineer! Heh. I'm still trying to figure out how an engineer can approach any engineering problem while simultaneously holding the worldview that physical reality is an illusion.

However, I've already gone off on a tangent.

It seems to me that the very foundation of Christianity is based on exclusive, propositional truth and - take note - this propositional quality is not simply an artifact of Western thinking. Indeed, the very first line of Genesis makes it quite clear that God, at a point in time - indeed - the beginning of time, created the cosmos. God, outside of time and not a part of or confined within the natural realm we see, created both. Moses, in enlightening the newly freed Israelites, clarifies this so eloquently in the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2, clearly indicating that it was not some mystical force or animistic pseudo-deity who was responsible for our natural realm. There's no room given for the nonsensical "turtles all the way down" hypothesis, or various creation myths featuring assorted deities engaged in procreation, murder, and cannibalism. Remember that this exclusive Genesis account* is coming from a near-Eastern text written well over 3,000 years ago. That Big Bang cosmology now confirms the very start of our reality, as expressed in the Bible, is mere icing on the cake.

Fast forward to 2,000 years ago and here we have record of Jesus walking the Earth. Not content with merely issuing moral quips, he spoke and acted as if he was more than just another human, so much more that the only option he left us was to acknowledge that he claimed to be God (e.g., reference his forgiving people of their sins, claiming that he was one with God). Indeed, he wasn't crucified for uttering too many moral precepts. And, adding insult to injury, He spoke this incredibly limiting statement,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7 ESV)

Ouch!

There's no room there for something like "I am one of many ways..." or "Some people get to the Father by..."

So, what are the relativists, universalists, pluralists, and inclusivists to do? They could claim, as some post-moderns have, that the institutional church down through the ages has overemphasized doctrine, to the point of distorting original intent. But, they'd be wrong. They could claim that we, as humans, are too limited in our understanding to claim to have sufficient knowledge of God's truths. Of course, if anyone claimed that, then we'd have to ask how they came up with that knowledge (given that we're so limited). They could claim that rational Western thought has stymied our understanding of the emotional and the experiential, so we have inadvertently limited ourselves in how we can experience God. Hmmm. Let's take a look at that one.

This experiential notion has been on my mind for some time now. On the one hand, I agree that our Western mode of thinking has limited our appreciation for the richness of experience, particularly (but not limited to) the supernatural. On the other hand, I also tend to see how our Western culture has gravitated towards an overemphasis of relational and experiential aspects, especially with regards to Christianity, many times at the expense of clear thinking. In my opinion, we need to understand that our human psyches are not simply rational or emotional but both rational and emotional. While it is a statement of the obvious, it seems to get lost on a great many people. At issue is the need to tow the middle ground. It may be a more interesting ride in the ditch, but the highway was designed for a reason. In my bias, I think that our culture, especially the evangelical culture, is not in danger of becoming too rational or too empirically minded. Quite the contrary, I think we've been gravitating towards an experiential mindset - one of relational as the driver. If that is the case, then there is cause for alarm.

So perhaps, as I see it, there are three very real dangers we must face if we continue to have a reliance or overemphasis on the experiential. And each successive ordinal reflects a more dangerous condition for evangelicalism in America:

1) Christ followers may tend towards relativism, by expecting experience to guide their decisions (as described by the Stand to Reason series From Truth to Experience),

2) Christ followers may have the tendency to see God within the moral therapeutic deism mode (as described in the book Soul Searching),

3) Christ followers may tend to let experience drive their worldview so much so that they end up moving from Christianity into the inclusivist and / or universalist camps (as potentially indicated by Rob Bell's ideas and directly indicated by Michael Sudduth's move to Vaishnavism).

These are certainly issues that I need to ponder further.

 

* Some will attempt to lump the Genesis creation accounts in with various other ancient creation myths (e.g., the Enuma Elish), however even a cursory comparison of what is found in Genesis with what is found in supposed similar accounts reveals striking, and critical, differences.

Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy, wet kiss?

The phrase Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy, wet kiss is found in a song titled "How He Loves" (see full set of lyrics here) which is currently used as a worship song in corporate worship settings. The particular line in question has, understandably, caused quite the controversy in Christian circles with advocates for both its inclusion and exclusion. An alternate version is sometimes used with the offensive portion of the lyric replaced by the words unforeseen kiss. For the purposes of this analysis, HME will refer to Heaven meets Earth, and SWK to sloppy, wet kiss.

As I see it, there are at least three issues with, or related to, this specific lyric:

I - Whether by design or by accident, the intended meaning of the lyric is vague and internally inconsistent. This, despite attempts by John Mark McMillan, the author, to define and explain the meaning of the words he used.

II - Much of the current corporate worship singing methodology, found in the contemporary evangelical church in America, is inconsistent with foundational corporate worship practice. The modern practice, in the West, of interjecting the personal into the corporate, reflects secular influences.

III - Those who hear, read, or sing the song, whom I will refer to as recipients of the  song, readily misinterpret the author's intended meaning in both the HME and SWK lyrics.

Only in California (v. 8) UPDATED

A la carte Catholics need a la carte priests
Or, Doctrinal statements are there for a reason.

Remember the recent incident where a lesbian was denied Holy Communion at her mother's funeral? From the OC Register comes an example of personal preference attempting to force its way into Christian belief. In Do Catholics love and accept others? Not this priest, we read (emphasis added),

I'm what you'd call an a la carte Catholic.

Too convenient? Maybe.

Especially in times like these, when a priest like Rev. Marcel Guarnizo uses his position in the church to deny someone like Barbara Johnson, who happens to love another woman instead of a man, communion during her own mother’s funeral.

Now, there are many reasons I’m an a la carte Catholic, one of which is that I see nothing wrong with homosexuality; nor do I believe in a God who would turn his back on his own children just because of their sexual orientation. Dare I say that a large portion of the heterosexual marriages among us don’t put the whole man-woman union thing in the best light. Besides, who are we to deny anyone the experience of looking at their husband or wife 10 years in and wondering, “Was I high as a kite the day I committed my life to you?”

And captioning a photo of the Holy Sacraments (emphasis added),

To me, Holy Communion is symbolic of God's love for us; a priest has no right to deny that to anyone who comes searching for it

Now, the writer of this piece is certainly entitled to her own beliefs. And she's certainly entitled to attempt to push her beliefs on others. But she's sorely lacking doctrinal knowledge and clear thinking by proposing that Catholics - or even this particular Catholic priest - do not love others simply because they follow the tenets of their faith. That she disagrees with the tenets of the Catholic faith is irrelevant.

You see, the issue of faith - religious faith - in our culture has become not one of objective reality but of subjective experience. When someone makes claims or statements such as "I see nothing wrong with..." or "nor do I believe in a God who..." or "who are we to deny..." or "To me..." we are seeing the expression of personal preference as the determining factor in one's belief system. As I stated above, there is nothing inherently wrong with such a worldview and, as the tolerant individual I am, I believe people are certainly free to think that way.

But if they consider themselves to be tolerant, then they need to stop pushing their views into realms that are inconsistent with their own. The Catholic church, via the Word of God, has declarative statements on the meaning of Holy Communion. What you or I happen to want it to mean is irrelevant. Taken a step further, God, through His Word, has made declarative statements regarding His character, who he is, what he is owed, etc. Whether or not you or I agree with him, or would want to believe in a God like him again, is irrelevant.

UPDATE:

Lo and behold, the priest in question has come forward with his account of what transpired. From Crisis Magazine (HT: Joe Carter),

A few minutes before the Mass began, Ms. Johnson came into the sacristy with another woman whom she announced as her “lover”. Her revelation was completely unsolicited. As I attempted to follow Ms.Johnson, her lover stood in our narrow sacristy physically blocking my pathway to the door. I politely asked her to move and she refused.

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If a Quaker, a Lutheran or a Buddhist, desiring communion had introduced himself as such, before Mass, a priest would be obligated to withhold communion. If someone had shown up in my sacristy drunk, or high on drugs, no communion would have been possible either. If a Catholic, divorced and remarried (without an annulment) would make that known in my sacristy, they too according to Catholic doctrine, would be impeded from receiving communion. This has nothing to do with canon 915. Ms. Johnson’s circumstances are precisely one of those relations which impede her access to communion according to Catholic teaching. Ms. Johnson was a guest in our parish, not the arbitrer of how sacraments are dispensed in the Catholic Church.

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And, the rest of the Lesbian vs. Catholic Church story
Not an Only in California story, but related. It seems that the lesbian-denied-holy-communion is a practicing Buddhist as well as a gay rights activist. Hmmm.

 

Links for Thursday, 1 March 2012

The right to government subsidized sex
Yes, believe it or not, an argument [sic] based on expense is offered for why women deserve to have government provided contraceptives. I wonder if there are studies which indicate the percentage of contraceptives prescribed for conditions such as endometriosis vs. mere desire.

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That thoroughly modern phenomenon known as the Youth Pastor
From the Gospel Coalition,

All too often, youth programs have turned to entertainment-driven models of ministry in order to bring in youth. Success has become the name of the church-growth game. The devastating effects, however, are not only seen in the number of youth leaving the church after high school, but also in a spiritually and theologically shallow worldview among many American teenagers. The irony is that these same teens actually want to grow and learn hard truths. They want to know how to think about suffering, how to pray, and why Jesus had to die.

And here's the book.

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A President who hears from God

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Have a mobile device? Malware has increased over 150%

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Another apology to President Karzai 

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A First Century manuscript of the Gospel of Mark?
Wallace will be on the Stand to Reason radio program, Sunday March 4th, 2 - 5 pm PST.

 

 

 

Training Young Adults in Christian Apologetics

Recently, in Christian apologetic circles, it was noted that a former Christian professor of philosophy had converted to an Eastern religion. Dr. Michael Sudduth, from San Francisco State University, was highlighted in the blog post Michael Sudduth Converts to Vaishnava Vedanta!

As part of our home schooling effort, we engage in a weekly Current Events series in which I have my oldest daughter (high school) read various news items (which I have selected), and then write a brief commentary on the item, first explaining what the article was about and then giving her opinion on the story.

Here is what she wrote regarding the conversion story of Dr. Sudduth:

This article is a letter written by a man who has converted from Christianity to Vaishnava Vedanta. He had been a Protestant Christian for 25 years, but had increasingly become drawn toward Vedanta, both trough a philosophical attraction and an experiential attraction. As he began to explore the religion more deeply, he became profoundly affected by it and to feel the presence of God through it. He began to believe that his former beliefs in God were a limited expression of the deeper meaning he found through Vedanta.

Vaishnavism articulates a model of the love of God, where intimacy and separation are the two important elements of the divine-human love relation. People are both one with God and separate from God. The relationship with God is a simultaneous difference and non-difference. He believes that God is manifested in different ways, and God-realization takes on diverse forms. Vaishnavism acknowledges religious truth found across different religious traditions, and though the names are many, God is one. How we experience God depends on different aspects of our own personalities.

The author says that he does not believe he is worshipping a different God than he worshipped when he was a Christian – he believes it is the same God, under a different, and fuller manifestation. He says that the basic principles of Vaishnavism are compatible with a number of fundamental Christian beliefs, and that he is not relinquishing these beliefs but situating them in a different philosophical and theological context. He closes his letter by saying that he doesn’t want to convert any of his friends to Vaishnavism, but he hopes that they’ll make each other better devotees in their respective faiths.

From this letter, it seems like the author has based his entire conversion on experience. He felt something when reading the texts associated with Vaishnavism, he felt a closeness to the person of Lord Krishna, he felt profoundly affected and overwhelmed with a sense of the presence of God. He felt Krishna’s presence in his bedroom, he felt a validation of his spiritual journey. Even when he starts talking about philosophy and theology, he says that he has found aspects of the Vedanta theology and philosophy appealing to him. I think that his question should not be, “is it appealing?”, or “does it feel right?”, rather, he should ask “does it line up with reality?” He seems to ignore this question, replacing it with how he happens to feel. If these beliefs don’t line up with reality, if they’re not true, they shouldn’t be believed no matter how appealing they are or how good they make one feel.

The author claims that Vaishnavism is compatible with Christianity. He even claims he is worshipping the same God he worshipped before he switched religions. However, if he really means this, he couldn’t have been worshipping the Christian God before. Jesus said that He was the only way to God – obviously, the author believes there are many ways to get to God, so his beliefs are in direct opposition to fundamental Christian beliefs.

Lastly, he says that he’s only interested in making his friends better devotees to their respective religions, not in making them converts to Vaishnavism. Why is this? If he believes that Vaishnavism is true, then shouldn’t he want to convince other people of that? This religion seems to be one without much substance – it seems like anything you believe goes, and I don’t think that lines up to the way the world we know actually works.

Personally, I think that it is incumbent on us, as Christian parents, to prepare our children for the realities of a post-Christian America, thereby providing them with the resources to not only counter the worldviews they will come up against, but to courteously provide a clear explanation of the veracity of the Christian worldview.

And, I'm proud of my daughter's grasp of these concepts, while in high school. We must engage our young adults (that would be anyone older than 13) in the marketplace of ideas, stretching them, and setting the bar high - they can achieve it.

Links for Monday, 20 February 2012

HHS Mandate Edition II

Joe Carter's FAQ page for the HHS Mandate
Some excerpts,

What is this contraception mandate everyone keeps talking about?

As part of the universal health insurance reform passed in 2010 (often referred to as "Obamacare"), all group health plans must now provide---at no cost to the recipient---certain "preventive services." The list of services includes sterilization, contraceptives, and abortifacient drugs.

...

Doesn't the mandate only apply to religious organizations that receive federal funding?

No. The mandate applies to religious employers even if they receive no federal funding.

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Isn't this just a Catholic issue?

No. Although the Catholic Church has been the most vocal opponent of the mandate, many Protestant, Jewish, and Muslims also oppose the mandate. In fact, several evangelical leaders have called on evangelicals to stand with Catholics in civil disobedience to this law. Additionally, 300 academics and religious leaders---including TGC's D.A. Carson and Justin Taylor---signed a statement by the Beckett Fund explaining why the mandate is "unacceptable."

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Lies, damned lies and 98 percent of Catholic women

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6 more things everyone should know about the HHS Mandate
From the post,

1. The rule that created the uproar has not changed at all, but was finalized as is.

2. The rule leaves open the possibility that even exempt “religious employers” will be forced to cover sterilization.

3. The new “accommodation” is not a current rule, but a promise that comes due beyond the point of public accountability.

4. Even if the promises of “accommodation” are fulfilled entirely, religious charities, schools, and hospitals will still be forced to violate their beliefs.

5. The “accommodation” does not even purport to help objecting insurers, for-profit religious employers, secular employers, or individuals.

6. Beware of claims, especially by partisans, that the bishops are partisan.