The Well Has Gone Dry

I had a burst of energy there for a while. I wrote several posts in advance, cued them up and then let them publish automatically. Now, I’ve run out of those surplus posts and it’s coming up on my self-imposed deadline.  It’s not like I haven’t been thinking and reading all that time. I have. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to order my thoughts into a readable bit of prose during the preceeding weeks.

I’ve been revisiting my views on Calvinsim, particularly its doctrine of predestination. From time to time, I do this because I tend to be drawn to Reformed types of preachers/teachers. They tend to be a cerebreal bunch, which appeals to me. And since they also tend to hold a high view of Scripture, I feel more drawn to them than to other Protestant preachers/teachers. Concsequently, I hear something impressively supported by Scripture, sharply disagree with it and then feel the need to revisit my views.

That’s what I’ve been doing these past several weeks as the post auto-published. I’ve been reading and thinking about predestination and trying to articulate why I believe that the Reformers have gotten wrong. Eventually, I’ll get it written but it won’t be today.

Sorry.

I’ll try to have something more substantial written next week.

Saved by…

Are Christian’s saved by faith or by works?

If you ever want to see an ecumenical meeting erupt into the theological equivalent of a West Texas cage fight (aka session of UK Parliament), then toss this question out for discussion.

Once long ago, I took out a concordance and I made a list of all the things that I found in the Bible which “saves” us. Here’s  a sample from just the New Testament:

standing firm

belief and baptism

human testimony (about Jesus)

calling on the name of the Lord

a message (about Jesus)

believing in the the Lord Jesus

the life (resurrection?) of Jesus

confessing

handing over to Satan (didn’t see that one coming did you?)

grace

God

childbearing (still haven’t heard a good explanation of that one!)

washing and renewal

baptism

Yes, I know that piling up verses in which the word “save” appears in one form or other is not a good way to do biblical exposition, however the point is not to nail down a single answer. The point is this: since all of these saving actions/agents are mentioned in the Word of God, there is a way in which they all save us. As someone said before, Peter does not trump Paul. When Peter says that we are saved by baptism, he is not contradicting Paul when Paul says we’re saved by grace through faith. They are both apostles of Jesus and they are both right. When Jesus says that we save our lives by losing them, he’s right too. When Peter tells the crowd to “save yourselves from this corrupt generation” we have to conclude that there is some way in which we are capable of / responsible for doing just that. We’re saved by everything and in every way which the Bible says we are. Simple and yet not.

Instead of feeling like we have to be loyal to one of these two positions (or some third one I’ve left out), we’d be wiser to broaden our loyalty to the whole Scripture and leave room in our rhetoric and doctrine for all of the saving actions/agents which God tells us about in His Word.

St. Valentine’s Day 2008

I hate Valentines’ Day. 

I’m sure that I’m not the only one. Undoubtedly, the web is replete with articles and blog posts by people who are, to varying degrees, in agreement with me: Valentine’s Day is one of the worst holidays on the calendar. Perhaps there are many who feel the same way that I do for the same reason: Valentine’s Day is a yearly reminder of various inadequacies on my part. 

First I have a poor memory. Despite obscene amounts of marketing and its annual appearance, Valentine’s Day invariably sneaks up on me unawares. Of course, one excuse I could (legitimately?) make is that I live outside of the US in a Muslim country where it is unseemly, at best, to celebrate a holiday named for a Christian saint and extols the virtues of romantic love. And after making this excuse, my wife would be stricken mute and immobile, unable to chose between guffawing and bawling at the at the absurdity of it. It’s not like she doesn’t do all the shopping for the family and hasn’t noticed the abundance of heart-shaped candies, trinkets and teddy bear feet. No, local retailers may not assail us with circulars emblazoned with “St. Valentine’s Day is February 14^th!”, but they know all of the gift-giving occasions of all of the cultures represented here and they make sure to have the appropriate gifts prominently displayed at the appropriate time. In short, my poor memory is no excuse for not getting J. something on Valentine’s Day. 

Second, I’m selfish, which is probably the underlying cause of my poor memory. Again, it’s not like remembering the holiday is all that difficult. There are numerous reminders available. The date is noted on our calendars. Hearts adorn our preferred search engine website during the month of February. Holiday related spam floods our e-mail accounts. And, even here, there are plenty of retailers pushing holiday-themed merchandise without invoking the name of the departed saint. With all of these reminders, the only excuse for “forgetting” the wretched event is that I’m just too self-absorbed to notice. My mind is preoccupied with the important events on my calendar. I am practically blind to superfluous decoration both on and offline. I never ever read anything that ends up in my bulk mail folder on my e-mail account and I block out all attempts to sell me anything that I don’t already want. The whole point of Valentine’s Day is to shower someone other than myself with attention and gifts and that is not easy for me to do. 

Third, I’m financially constrained. I’m not poor and I’m not in debt. (Seriously, absolutely no debt at all!) However, all of our money is spoken for. Our budget at this stage includes nearly no frills so we can save up for our repatriation to the states in the coming year. Consequently, the gift options for my wife are simply pathetic. Jewelry is too expensive. Candy doesn’t move her. Flowers do, but they’re expensive and often are not in very good condition when they’re available. I refuse to add to the grotesque amount of plastic baubles that have followed our children into the house simply because it’s Valentine’s Day. (If he wants plastic knick-knacks inscribed with his name, he’s welcomed to them!)  

Apparently, I am not only lacking in disposable income, but also in romantic sentiment and creativity. Great! Even more defects. Yet, for all of my inadequacies (and this is such a small sample) I have a really good woman who loves me. She accepts me where I am but not as I am. At first that may sound like a bad thing, but think about it. She knows that I have a bad memory, but instead of leaving me to flounder, she reminds me of things, and not just those things that are important to her. She reminds me to call my mom, write my brother, give special attention to one or all of our children and other things which are important to other people. She knows that I’m selfish, but instead of punishing me in various ways for it, she draws me out of myself and makes me aware of how I affect other people by what I say and do. She knows that money is tight but instead of nagging me about climbing the corporate ladder or badgering me to make more money; she respects the budget and looks for ways to maximize what we have. All of this requires some sort of sacrifice on her part, not the least of which is the sacrifice of her ideal husband. Don’t sell that sacrifice short. We all cherish our dreams, whether they are of perfect careers, perfect children or perfect mates. Letting those things go in order to genuinely love someone who is so obviously and painfully imperfect is a great sacrifice worthy of admiration.  

I really hate Valentine’s Day, but I really, really love my wife.

AMTOG on Brian on Franklin

You know how you’re reading one of the blogs on your list and it leads you to some other blog or article and then it sets off a response that you want to blog about? Well, that’s happened to me.

From the Charlotte Observer by way of the Tall Skinny Kiwi comes this quote from and interview with Brian McLaren, famous Christian guy. (Brian seems a little worn out by being the poster-boy of the emergent church so I thought “famous Christian guy” would be a nice euphemism.)

Q. I’ve been surprised in this job about the antipathy I’ve heard from a lot of mostly conservative Christians toward Islam. Franklin Graham voiced their concerns when he said it was an evil religion, that Allah is not the God of the Bible. What do you say to people with that view?

I do think we really have to dialogue about this.

I believe that there is something like a form of racism going on right now among well-meaning, but misguided and misinformed evangelical Christians. It’s becoming acceptable to create stereotypes of Muslims that are inaccurate.

The problem is, Muslims are just like the rest of us. They’re like Christians in this regard. There are wonderful, kind-hearted Christians and there are mean-spirited Christians. There are sincere Christians who live with integrity. And there are hypocritical Christians who are just out for a buck. We’ll find that kind of diversity among every group of people.

One of the unfortunate things — and one of the messages I’d like to get through to my evangelical brothers and sisters — is that when we try to make peace, we’re not being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, we’re being faithful to Jesus Christ.

And when we try to practice Jesus’ teachings about loving our neighbor and even loving our enemy — when we practice those teachings toward our Muslim neighbors, we are not being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, we’re being faithful.

But when we create stereotypes of people and when we are ready to call a person an enemy and have nothing to do with them, at that point we are being unfaithful to Jesus Christ. This is one of my calls to evangelicals. And when I’m with Muslims, I try to provide a better example.

Brian is right. Christians, stop it! Whether you consider Muslims as enemies or not, Jesus is clear: love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Love your neighbor. These are non-negotiable. Stereotypes are damaging and we must rise above them.

That being said, let me remind the reader that I am living in a country that is over 95% Muslim and the religion informs the law. As an example, by law I am not allowed to eat or drink in public from sunrise until sunset during the month of Ramadan when Muslims are required to fast. I can be fined or even tossed in jail. It’s serious. So, as a Christian living in a Muslim world, I think I have something to say about Franklin Graham’s comments that Brian chose not to address specifically.

Allah is not the god of the Bible…at least not the New Testament. Islam is clear that Allah has “no partners” and that Jesus is not the son of Allah. The NT is clear that Jesus claimed YHWH as his father. Ignore the variation in proper nouns and let each statement stand. Allah has no son. Jesus says YHWH is his father. Let’s give Muslims and Christians the same respect and take them as “experts” of their own religions. They are not worshipping the same deity. Of course, anthropologists and world religion scholars might disagree but that’s because they are outsiders to both groups. When these two groups talk about their deities, there are some apparent similarities but they are just apparent. At the end of the day, the Muslim god has no son and the Christian god has Jesus. They’re not the same god.

As to Islam being and “evil religion”…perhaps. I’m not sure that there’s any way of knowing. Apply the same theory to the “prophet” Mohammed that C.S. Lewis applied to Jesus: he is either a liar (because he says things that are not true about God), a lunatic (because he made claims that mentally healthy people do not make) or he is Lord (because he is exactly who he claims to be). Granted, Mohammed can’t fall under the Lord category because that’s a contradiction of the religion he taught, but he can be “exactly who he claimed to be”, meaning a prophet of Allah bringing the word of Allah to the people. (I don’t know if Mohammed claimed to be “the seal of the prophets” but that is certainly the teaching of Islam.)

Was Mohammed a liar? When he claimed to have had visions of the angel Gabriel dictating the Qu’ran to him, was he simply making it up for some self-serving purpose? Was he afflicted in his mind and hallucinating? Was he receiving a genuine revelation? There’s no empirical way of affirming any answers to these question. If he was a liar, then we can say that the religion he taught was evil because it was intended to deceive and manipulate. If he was a lunatic, then I don’t think we can say it was evil in the same way that calculated deception and manipulation is evil. If he was exactly who he claimed to be we still couldn’t affirm that the religion is evil until we learned how the religion defined evil. One other possibility is that Mohammed did have a metaphysical experience with a spirit-being who was not divine but demonic. Again, impossible to prove empirically, but that would definitely make the religion he taught evil.

Whatever the case may be, nothing is changed. Christians must follow Jesus. Jesus loved his neighbor. He blessed and did not curse. He loved his enemies and prayed for the forgiveness of his murderers with his dying breath. Regardless of who Muslims pray to and the nature of their religion, Christians are to love them with the same kind of love that Jesus loved them, loved us all.

The Hardest Thing to Believe

As you might have noticed, I’ve really enjoyed listening to Mark Driscoll as of late; particularly the series of lessons called “Religion Saves + 9 Other Misconceptions“.  In the series Mark addresses a set of questions put to him by the members of the Mars Hill community (and beyond?). By the time I post this, I will have heard lesson #6, but before I do I thought that I would tap out my own response to the question. 

01/27: #6 “Of all the things you teach, what parts of Christianity do you still wrestle with? What’s hardest for you to believe?”

The parts of Christianity that I still wrestle with are the ones that are transparent. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is not eschatology (end times), soteriology (nature of salvation) or any other hard to grasp “-ology”. Sure, we could hold forth on the various types of love signified by different Greek words and then try to identify exactly who my “neighbor” is, but in the end we would find that the statement stands as is. Love others  as I love myself. I wrestle with that…and I often lose. There are lots of other teachings that are equally plain like; “husbands love your wives as your own body“, “fathers, do not exasperate your children“, “give to him who asks of you“, “bless and do not curse“, “do not store up treasure on earth“, “be doers of the word and not hearers only” and the list goes on.

As trite as this may sound, the hardest teaching of Christianity for me to believe is that God loves me. When I first began to think about what I would write in this post, this thought didn’t occur to me. Originally, I thought that that the hardest thing for me to believe was that God is more interested in my conforming to the likeness of Jesus than my “sound doctrine”. Then I asked myself why I spent so much energy on “getting it right”, that is pursuing right-thinking and I realized; at a gut-level, I still think that God will love me (more? better?) if my theology is right/good/sound. In short, after more than 20 years of belonging to Jesus, there’s a place deeper than my intellect where I don’t believe that God loves me…really…”Just As I Am“. While I know that God loves me (and all of His creation), this truth has not so fully penetrated my heart that it keeps me from emphasizing “sacrifice” over “mercy”. 

Check back with me in another 20 years and maybe by then I will have finally gotten it.

Talking Theology on Tuesday

I like to blog these stories shortly whenever they come up, if for no other reason than to have them recorded for posterity…to be brought out many years later and shared!

As I was taking Son 1 and Son 2 to school this morning, we were listening to the Karen and Kids podcast.  Hearing someone say something about Jesus and Him saving us, Son 1 asks me from the backseat, “How will Jesus save us?” Pouncing upon the opportunity to summarize the four theories of atonement discussed in this book reviewed by Trevin Wax, I started out by saying…

No. I didn’t. I did what I normally do when my kids ask me such questions. I smiled, took a deep breath and took my best shot at answering. This is something akin to what I said:

There are many ways that Jesus saves us, and one way is when he comes back to be King on the Earth. When he comes back, he will take all of those people who are happy to see him, who love him and want him to be King and he will take away all of their bad stuff. He’ll take away all of their sins, all of their bad thoughts and their sickness and make them good. He will take away every bad thing so that those who love him can be with him forever.

Son 1 said that he loves Jesus and that he wants him to be King. Son 2, who was listening and finding it hard not to interrupt with his own questions finally got his chance and asked, “When Jesus comes, where will he sleep?”

Obviously, he’s welcomed to crash at our place.

Yea, crash Lord Jesus!