As I write this, it is Saturday March 30. Tomorrow is Easter for those denominations who use the Easter dates established by the Gregorian calendar.
Easter. What a joyous word for Christians, recalling as it does the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead after His crucifixion. During the early church, Easter was the most important celebration of the year, bar none. Christmas celebrations were not evident until sometime in the 300s, but the events of Easter, being as they were the foundation of Christianity, resonated within the church from its earliest days.
Yet I am always mindful that Easter, with all its joy, is a culmination. It is Act 2, if you will, of a play written and directed by God the Father, in which God the Son was the sole star. And I cannot think of Act 2, without thinking of Act 1. Without the Crucifixion, there would be no Easter.
So walk with me as I muse on some aspects of the Crucifixion that don’t always receive a lot of attention.
The Roman legions were the finest military on the face of the Earth at that time. Their soldiers were very hard, very tough men, who served a 25 year enlistment. And unlike modern American military practice, they were not usually transferred from station to station. They tended to stay in one location for years. The legion assigned to the area including Judea was the Legio VI Ferrata, or the Legion VI Ironclad. It was primarily based in Syria, near Damascus, but there were detachments of troops in various places, including Jerusalem.
Why do we care about Roman soldiers? Because they are laced throughout the Crucifixion accounts, beginning with the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Judas then, having received the Roman cohort, and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons….So the Roman cohort and the commander, and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him, and led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. John 18:3, 12-14 NASB
The Passion begins with a Roman cohort being part of the people sent to arrest Jesus. It may have been the cohort of legion auxiliaries (think of them as non-Roman citizens serving in the Roman army) that was the normal garrison in Jerusalem, or it may have been a cohort of regular legionaries brought down from Damascus by Pilate when he came to Jerusalem at this time. It doesn’t matter which. They were there when Christ was arrested, and they delivered him to the priests who had ordered the arrest of Jesus.
After the farce of a trial that Jesus endured, Matthew, Mark, and John all record that Jesus was severely beaten and whipped by the Roman soldiers. Matthew and Mark record that the entire Roman cohort was gathered to participate in this. If the cohort was at full strength, this would have been close to five hundred men.
So as many as five hundred men participated in systematically beating and abusing Jesus, and according to scripture they laughed and jeered as they did it.
Once they had had their fun, Jesus was taken to be crucified. That was also done by Roman soldiers. We know this for two reasons: first, the Jewish courts did not have the authority to exact capital punishment. The Romans had reserved that right to themselves when they took over Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and the surrounding regions after the death of Herod the Great. So the Crucifixion was ordered by Pilate and would have had to have been carried out by Roman soldiers. Second, we know the Roman soldiers did it because all four of the gospels record them as being involved.
Mark records that Jesus was crucified about the third hour of the day (Mark 15:25), and that He died about the ninth hour (Mark 15:33-37). The atoning work of Jesus, necessary for the salvation of all believers of all lands of all history, was compressed into six hours.
And the thing that I want to end with, the thing that I want you to see, occurred at the end of that six hours.
Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent.” Luke 23:47-48 NASB
And when the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:39 NASB
What I want you to consider was what kind of man this centurion was. His rank is roughly analogous to a captain in the modern U.S. Army. He probably had around 80 men under his command. And to maintain order and discipline in this group of hard, tough men—men who had just beaten and punched out and flogged Jesus—he had to be harder and tougher than they were. He probably started at the bottom and rose through the ranks. This was a man who led from the front on the battlefield, who had run his sword into enemies and watched them die. This was a man who flogged troops guilty of serious infractions of army rules. This was a man to whom crucifixions were a common occurrence. This was a hard, hard, hard man, who had no reason to consider Jesus as anything other than foreign trash from a province that had given them trouble in the past. This was a man who carried out Pilate’s orders to crucify Jesus as a matter of course, handling it in a routine business-like manner, who would ordinarily go back to his room that night and sleep well.
He had crucified men before, maybe dozens of them. What kind of impact did this crucifixion have—this execution of a wandering itinerant holy man from some scruffy village in Galilee—that it caused this man to take note of it? This hard man—this hard as nails, hard as a hammer officer to whom blood and death was all part of a day’s work—this man stood looking up at the cross as Jesus died, and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
A testimony from a Roman.
Even in the moment of His death, Jesus touched a man and changed him.
He would change a world on the third day.
Soli Deo Gloria.
David
Today is Thursday. Generally a ho-hum day. There is really nothing special about a Thursday. For most it is just another step towards the weekend, another grind to get through. And that is exactly why we need to pay close attention.
This is Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday or Covenant Thursday. Maundy refers to foot washing and specifically to Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. Now there, in this account of Jesus serving these boys, is the colliding of the mundane and the magnificent, the ho-hum and the jaw-dropping.
Foot washing – The ugly step-brother to taking out the trash. The lowest of chores. The thing that had to be done, but no one ever wanted to do it. The job you paper/rock/scissor to get out of. The no praise, no glamour, no fun task that no one signed up for and everyone dropped their heads hoping not to get assigned.
Jesus – THE Firstborn of all creation. THE Author and Perfecter of our faith. THE only child of THE Most High God. THE spotless Lamb. THE Way. THE Truth. THE Life. THE And…
Foot washing and Jesus are a strange combination and yet we all know about it. Let’s be honest we only know about foot washing because of what Jesus has done. The only reason people have painted pictures of it, written songs, and carved statues is because we are humbled and amazed by what Jesus has done.
Last year we studied the book of Revelation with the college students. When studying Revelation there is no avoiding the wrath of God. Maundy Thursday is a great reminder that One has taken our place, has paid our debt, has become a curse, and suffered the wrath of God so we would not.
Revelation 16 speaks of blood as part of the judgment the world will face. The waters will be turned to blood and there will be nothing else to drink. It even goes on to say “They deserve it“. Ironically, on that same Thursday where Jesus washes His disciples feet He calls them to drink His blood (Matt 26:27-28, “ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”). He leaves for the garden and sweats blood (Luke 22:44, “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”)
Jesus was crushed for our sins. He took our shame, our curse, our punishment which we deserved. He took the very form of a servant and modeled for us how to follow.
Colossians 2:13-15 says,
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.“
Let us not miss the beauty of what God has done by moping through another Thursday.
It is not mundane. It’s Maundy Thursday.
His foot washing was not just another thing. It was the Lamb/King humbly serving those who deserved punishment. We deserve punishment, but in His grace we find rescue. It’s not ho-hum, but rather humbling and truly awe-inspiring.
Rob Bell’s latest work What We Talk About When We Talk About God is his first book after the controversial Love Wins.
Bell, former evangelical pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan, moved to California after Love Wins became too divisive of an issue within the church.
Since his departure from his pastoral role, some individuals in the evangelical community have questioned his relevance. Does he even matter any more? Others argue that he does still matter.
I tend to agree with the latter – Bell still matters to our culture, and we need to be keenly aware of his sway over the spiritual matters of our day. So, when Rob Bell writes a book about God, I think it’s important to give it a look and separate the good from the bad and the ugly.
Others have already given much better reviews than I could ever give. There will no doubt be many more reviews coming, but there are a few things that crossed my mind as I read through the book that I wanted to share.
So, what does Rob Bell talk about when he talks about God?
SUMMARY
First, a quick summary of the book. What We Talk About is a quick read – don’t let the 207 pages fool you. In typical Rob Bell form, the book is
empty and
white and
small and
bite-size and
filled with run-on sentence after run-on sentence to give you a sense of urgency! followed bycalmness and reflection because Rob Bell is avant-guard.
So, if you choose, pick up a copy and skim through it in a couple of hours.
But, when it’s all said and done, What We Talk About argues that science is slowly proving that God exists. The God that science is discovering is a God who is for us as humanity and will save the world by pulling us forward through history to a more evolved, enlightened, and better future.
So, Bell invites (or warns), join in the trajectory that God is pulling culture or be left behind.
THE GOOD
There are good aspects to What We Talk About. Like most of Bell’s writing, I agree with about 50% of what I read. I want to like him for his amazing communication skills and boldness to maintain (if even loosely) a Christian identity, but it’s that other 50% that makes me cringe at the thought that people might be influenced by the theologically baneful aspects of his writings. Especially because of that Christian identity.
So what was the good?
Bell kicks off the book by bringing to the reader’s attention current scientific discoveries that are forcing us to realize that the universe is much, much weirder and unpredictable than we ever thought. He argues that there is plenty of room for God in science. Indeed, science is actually providing evidence that such a being could exist.
This is great stuff for conversations with atheists and agnostics. It’s very compelling and begins to break down the rigid divide of Science v. Faith.
Also, along the same lines, Bell reminds his readers that the spiritual isn’t categorically separated from everything else. We don’t have a spiritual life – life itself is spiritual.
In fact, God’s creation of the human body and soul are connected to each other, which is why the resurrection of Jesus was a real, physical and spiritual event. It’s also why the resurrection at the end will be both a physical and spiritual event. Heaven is not simply a spiritual, ethereal dimension lacking any tangible matter. Heaven will be a combination of both – much like it is now – only recreated without sin and death.
But just before the reader begins to think along the lines of pantheism, that God is literally everything, Bell puts the kibosh on that (Pg. 109) and maintains that God is both separate from creation as its Creator yet intimately involved.
This is a reminder I think we all need once in a while. The spiritual and the material aren’t categorically separated. Need proof? Just look at the incarnation of God where the spiritual meets the physical in Jesus.
THE BAD
Unfortunately, What We Talk About seems to be a continued departure of Rob Bell from biblical Christianity. Of the many examples in the book, the one that stuck out the most to me was on Pg 128.
“It’s time for a radical reclaiming of the fundamental Christian message that God is for us. God, according to Jesus, is for us because God loves us.”
This sounds great, but it’s also greatly misleading. Yes, God loves us, but God isn’t necessarilyfor us; rather, God is absolutely for Himself and His glory.
Why? Because God, according to Jesus, is for His own glory and invites us along in a radical reformation of our lives, minds, and souls for now into eternity.
God is not on anyone’s side but His own. If we claim otherwise, we fall into the very same tribalistic trap that Bell has accused many religious institutions of falling into – God is on my side but definitely not theirs. Or we might believe that God is our own personal, divine life coach – God is on my side to make me a better me.
*cue applause from Joel Osteen fans*
On the other hand, if we believe God is on God’s side and invites us along, then we will come to understand that everything we do and are we owe to Him.
This dramatically shifts our focus off ourself and onto God. Because, at the end of the day, we were created by God to worship Him and to reflect His glory. We messed that up, but by God’s grace, we’re invited to participate in how He’s fixing it.
This is displayed in a very intimate prayer that Jesus prayed before His crucifixion. John 17:1-2(emphasis added) reads:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to…”
Pause there for a second. What do you suppose comes after?
God gave Jesus authority over us all to be for us? To encourage us to be the very best us we can be? To pull us forward in a trajectory of an ever-evolving culture? No…
“…to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”
There it is. Eternal life through Jesus to the glory of God. That is the fundamental Christian message – not that God is for us, but that God is for His own glory and invites us to experience that glory through eternal life starting now and spanning through eternity.
THE UGLY
I have to admit, Bell has four really great lines about the gospel in What We Talk About. But then later deflates the amazing point these first four make, which turns out to be the ugliest part of the book in my opinion.
“Gospel insists that God doesn’t wait for us to get ourselves polished, shined, proper, and without blemish – God comes to us and meets us and blesses us while we are still in the middle of the mess we created.”
Absolutely.
“Gospel isn’t us getting it together so that we can have God’s favor; gospel is us finding God exactly in the moment of our greatest not-togetherness.”
Amen!
“Gospel is grace, and grace is a gift. You don’t earn a gift; you simply receive it. You don’t make it happen; you wake up to what has already happened.”
Hallelujah!!
“Gospel isn’t doing enough good to be worthy; it’s your eyes being opened to your unworthiness and to Jesus’s insistence that that was never the way it worked in the first place.”
Preach it, brother!!!
But then, the ugly. Bell later concludes that the gospel accomplishes all this through Jesus, “announcing who we truly are and then reminding us of this over and over and over again (Pgs 151-152).”
This is completely contrary to the gospel.
Jesus accomplished (past tense) our liberation from sin and death on the cross, then proved it by His resurrection three days later. Now, today, God saves us by that work, His grace, and through faith. He then sustains us in our salvation through Jesus, announcing who He truly is and then reminding us of His person and work over and over and over again.
Throughout What We Talk About Bell has shifted the focus of the gospel away from Jesus and onto the individual. This is perhaps the most dangerous aspect to the entire book.
We cannot take the focus of the gospel off Jesus and onto ourselves, even for a moment. The gospel is about Jesus, not about us. But the gospel is for us. If Bell wanted to write about what isfor us, then he could have picked the gospel.
Bell has blurred a very fine line that can cause a lot of confusion in our lives. God is not for us, God is for His glory. The gospel is not about us, but it is for us.
Bell needs to shift the focus off of us and back onto God – that’s truly avant-guard, revolutionary, controversial, novel, fresh. In today’s modern (evolved and trajectory-driven) world, we are becoming more and more humanity-centered. It’s all about us. And Bell falls right in line with this us-centeredness.
So, what does Rob Bell talk about when he talks about God?
Us. And God is simply the supporting actor.
———-
Kyle Beshears lives in Cambridge, England, is the author of Robot Jesus and Three Other Jesuses You Never Knew and blogs at Dear Ephesus on church issues and apologetics. This article was originally posted here.
Today marks the beginning of a monumental Supreme Court debate about a state and nation’s ability to define the parameters of marriage. With the recent state elections moving in the direction of affirming same-sex marriage as a normative political and social value, many Christians are being pressed into an awkward and unforeseen circumstance: They must come to terms with how to respond to the question – What do you think about gay marriage?
At least three religious-ish sounding responses to the question have made their way into the public eye within the last month. Each offers a possible response to the gay marriage question. In this blog post I want to address each response and offer my answer to the question at hand.
1) The first begins with a cup of coffee. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was recently caught on an NPR audio file lambasting a company shareholder for his opposition to gay marriage (Washington state recently voted to legalize gay marriage). This leaked audio file caused a reaction from conservative groups on facebook calling for a boycott of the coffee company. But notice the internal logic and sequence of the reported events.
The shareholder, Thomas Strobhar, runs a Dayton Ohio based company called the Corporate Morality Action Center, an organization that seeks to challenge corporations on issues like gay marriage, abortion and pornography. Mr. Strobhar apparently purchases shares of a company so that he has a platform to show up and troll CEO’s about ethical issues. In this particular meeting, Mr. Strobhar raised his hand in order to make an unsolicited and unwarranted connection between the affirmation of gay marriage by Starbucks and a recent quarterly dip in numbers. He made the statement in the form of a question to which Schultz responded with gusto.
Not to claim any wisdom of leadership, especially of a Fortune 500 company, but Schultz could have responded in many other ways to Mr. Strobhar’s question. His curt and ungracious response was a misstep for sure. But, Mr. Strobhar was equally guilty of pushing Mr. Schultz’s button with a self-described “maverick” style of aggression.
Strobhar’s position presents option 1 in the response to the gay marriage question. In this position, Christians make it their agenda to confront proponents of Gay marriage in bombastic and argumentative ways.
I don’t tend to recommend this approach for many reasons, most importantly because aggression tends to choke off dialogue. This conversation is complicated and requires nuancing, facts, longitudinal studies, discussions of natural law, and discussions of what the Bible says and doesn’t say. Nuancing generally cannot take place where aggression has become the mode of operating.
2) Option 2 comes from spirituality writer Rob Bell, who stirred up controversy in the past few weeks by aligning his evangelical Christian heritage with a pro-gay marriage position. Bell stated:
I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.
Bell represents a second position on the issue of gay marriage: Christians transform Bible doctrine in a way that accommodates the gay marriage momentum.
This option is not appealing for several obvious reasons. Most pressingly, why hold to the Bible’s teaching at all if it directly conflicts with the culture? If one has to transform the Bible’s plain teaching, then just get rid of the Bible? Why hold on to this Bible tradition in the first place? Isn’t Bell trolling all of us in a different manner than Strobhar? In this case, Bell has nuanced his position without holding to the plain teaching of scripture. In other words, Bell has left the Bible by the wayside and is holding to his own choose your own adventure Christianity — which is not Bible Christianity at all.
3) The third option comes from another famous CEO and involves the best tasting chicken nuggets on the planet. By now you know the story. Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-Fil-A, made some off-the-cuff remarks to Baptist Press writer K. Allan Blume in response to his position on supporting the Biblical view of marriage. Cathy responded, “Guilty as charged.” Pro-gay writers and bloggers quickly pounced on the phrase and reported it as being, not in response to being pro-Bible marriage, but as a response to being anti-gay marriage. While being evidence A of suspect journalistic integrity, it produced website clicks, college protests, and political grandstanding.
So how did Cathy respond to such negative criticism? By sitting down with gay activist Shale Windemeyer and talking openly about his pro-Bible marriage position. Windemeyer recalled the first phone call:
On Aug. 10, 2012, in the heat of the controversy, I got a surprise call from Dan Cathy. He had gotten my cell phone number from a mutual business contact serving campus groups. I took the call with great caution. He was going to tear me apart, right? Give me a piece of his mind? Turn his lawyers on me?
Never once did Dan or anyone from Chick-fil-A ask for Campus Pride to stop protesting Chick-fil-A. On the contrary, Dan listened intently to our concerns and the real-life accounts from youth about the negative impact that Chick-fil-A was having on campus climate and safety at colleges across the country.
Dan Cathy. Hateful oppressor of gay people? Nope. Evil CEO with an evil agenda? Not quite. Homophobic wealthy white Southerner? Negative. Shane Windemeyer called Dan Cathy “respectful” and “civil.” And with this story, we see that Cathy demonstrates a third option in the Christian response to gay marriage: Christians live in the tension of confidently proclaiming the Bible’s teaching while respectfully and lovingly pursuing relationships with those who identify as gay for the Glory of God.
By now it is obvious that I wholeheartedly affirm the third position on the gay marriage question and I commend it to Christians everywhere. I think it is the way forward, because it has historically been the way that Christians have approached these emerging issues. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:15, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
When it comes to the gay marriage question, I think Christians would be wise to follow Paul’s advice:
- Make growing in the satisfying relationship with Christ your daily goal.
- Know truth and boldly speak truth.
- Make “lovingness” your method and the manner in which you do all things.
Today the Supreme Court will debate the future of the political definition of marriage. I, personally, don’t have much hope for this discussion ending up on the side of the Bible’s definition. There are several God-centered folks who will make some political arguments for the traditional definition of marriage. I am not someone who would be good at speaking into that world. That is not my calling.
All this being said, I am not ultimately saddened by the prospect of the government taking a position that may be contrary to Scripture. My hope rests, not in horses or chariots, but in the Name of the Lord. I will continue to follow Paul’s advice no matter what the government decides. I have been and will continue to love God, lift up Truth, and love people. I hope my gay friends will truly practice the tolerance they talk about by respecting my position.
This post was written by Doug Hankins. Doug is a pastor and theologian at Highland Baptist Church, in Waco, Texas. Although not a Christian in his youth, Doug came to believe in Jesus during his teenage years. He followed the Lord to Baylor University through a B.A. and M.Div, and to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for a Ph.D in theological studies. When not playing sports or pastoring Doug is probably spending time with his wife, reading a nerd book, or researching his next writing project. Doug’s first book Dawson Trotman: In His Own Words is available wherever books are sold. You can follow Doug on twitter.
To the churches concerning homosexuals and lesbians:
Many of you believe that we do not exist within your walls, your schools, your neighborhoods. You believe that we are few and easily recognized. I tell you we are many. We are your teachers, doctors, accountants, high school athletes. We are all colors, shapes, sizes. We are single, married, mothers, fathers. We are your sons, your daughters, your nieces, your nephews, your grandchildren. We are in your Sunday School classes, pews, choirs, and pulpits. You choose not to see us out of ignorance or because it might upset your congregation. We ARE your congregation. We enter your doors weekly seeking guidance and some glimmer of hope that we can change. Like you, we have invited Jesus into our hearts. Like you, we want to be all that Christ wants us to be. Like you, we pray daily for guidance. Like you, we often fail.
When the word “homosexual” is mentioned in the church, we hold our breaths and sit in fear. Most often this word is followed with condemnation, laughter, hatred, or jokes. Rarely do we hear any words of hope. At least we recognize our sin. Does the church as a whole see theirs? Do you see the sin of pride, that you are better than or more acceptable to Jesus than we are? Have you been Christ-like in your relationships with us? Would you meet us at the well, or restaurant, for a cup of water, or coffee? Would you touch us even if we showed signs of leprosy, or aids? Would you call us down from our trees, as Christ did Zacchaeus, and invite yourself to be our guest? Would you allow us to sit at your table and break bread? Can you love us unconditionally and support us as Christ works in our lives, as He works in yours, to help us all to overcome?
To those of you who would change the church to accept the gay community and its lifestyle: you give us no hope at all. To those of us who know God’s word and will not dilute it to fit our desires, we ask you to read John’s letter to the church in Pergamum. “I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore!” You are willing to compromise the word of God to be politically correct. We are not deceived. If we accept your willingness to compromise, then we must also compromise. We must therefore accept your lying, your adultery, your lust, your idolatry, your addictions, YOUR sins. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
We do not ask for your acceptance of our sins any more than we accept yours. We simply ask for the same support, love, guidance, and most of all hope that is given to the rest of your congregation. We are your brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not what we shall be, but thank God, we are not what we were. Let us work together to see that we all arrive safely home.
A Sister in Christ
This post was originally posted here.
There have been obvious conflicts between the scientific community and the religious community over certain points. Of course, the most notable dispute historically was the embarrassing episode of Galileo and the whole theory of whether the earth or the sun was the center of the solar system. We know that many bishops refused to even look at the evidence of a telescope because they had already baptized another scientific tradition that wasn’t biblical. This was a case, incidentally, in which the scientific community corrected theological interpretation and misinterpretation of Scripture because Scripture doesn’t teach that the earth is the center of the solar system, and it took the scientific community to correct us at that point.
To go further than that and to say that sometimes science corrects erroneous ideas is one thing, but actually to disprove Christianity . . . there are very few points of the Christian faith that are vulnerable to scientific attack. If a person says, “Well, we can scientifically prove that people can’t come back from the dead,” for example, and if science could prove that it’s impossible for the God of the universe to raise his Son from the dead, then obviously Christianity would be discredited and disproved. I don’t see how a scientist could even begin to approach that. All a scientist can do is to say that, under normal conditions and standard procedures, people who die stay dead. Of course, it doesn’t take a twentieth-century scientist to understand that; first-century people were well aware of the fact that when people died, they stayed dead. So unless the scientist could somehow disprove the existence of God or the resurrection of Christ, I don’t see how they could in any way actually falsify the claims of the Christian faith. Just because they’re not falsified doesn’t mean that they’re verified obviously. But I don’t see how we have anything to fear at that level.
The usual point of tension, however, has to do with the origin of the universe and the origin of life. If science proves that the world was not created, I think that would destroy the Christian faith. Christianity is committed to the concept of divine creation—that there is an eternal Creator before whom we are all responsible and by whom we were all created and that all that is made has been made through him and that the universe is not eternal. If the scientist could prove that the universe were in fact eternal, that would be the end of the Christian faith. But I don’t think we have the slightest need to worry about that.
This post was originally posted on Ligionier.org and can be found here.
So the new thing today is to publicly support same-sex marriage. Hillary Clinton just did; Rob Bell just did.
Here’s what Bell was quoted as saying in the Huffington Post:
In response to a question regarding same-sex marriage, Bell said, “I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”
Bell went on to say that while it used to be fair to equate evangelicals with social conservatism, that assumption no longer holds true. More pointedly, he said, “I think we are witnessing the death of a particular subculture that doesn’t work. I think there is a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized, Evangelical subculture that was told “we’re gonna change the thing” and they haven’t. And they actually have turned away lots of people. And i think that when you’re in a part of a subculture that is dying, you make a lot more noise because it’s very painful. You sort of die or you adapt. And if you adapt, it means you have to come face to face with some of the ways we’ve talked about God, which don’t actually shape people into more loving, compassionate people. And we have supported policies and ways of viewing the world that are actually destructive. And we’ve done it in the name of God and we need to repent.”
I’m sorry to hear this for the sake of Bell’s soul. I hope that he repents and turns to the truth.
With that said and meant, this shift is altogether unsurprising. The new mark of being culturally acceptable is affirming homosexuality as virtuous (not merely okay, but virtuous, even exemplary). This is the litmus test. I don’t think many of us expected that it would so quickly fill this role, but it has. The mark of being a progressive, kind, socially courageous person today is simply this: affirming same-sex marriage. There are other cardinal virtues of a contemporary au courant identity, but this is the lodestar, the one that hangs one’s personal moon.
This shows us that the cultural middle is indeed vanishing. The space where broad-minded people could hang out is rapidly disappearing. Either you are for same-sex marriage or not. If you’re not, and you’re a known commodity, you’re now behind the curve in a public, image-driven sense. Expect in coming days to see a veritable torrent of declarations of affirmation of SSM. Celebrities, news anchors, intellectuals, politicians, religious types, tycoons, and many more are heading to the pro-marriage exits. They’re going to be calling press conferences as quickly as they can. They’ll be getting into line with the value that drives the New Cultural Acceptance: affirming same-sex marriage.
We are witnessing in these very moments the propulsion of the New Civil Rights movement: the homosexual lobby. A decade ago–five years ago!–it seemed unthinkable that this issue would have vaulted into the cultural mainstream. But it has. Not only is affirming same-sex marriage part of our cultural conversation, though. It has become the moral pearl of great price. Public figures like Rob Portman, Bell, and Clinton–a strange assortment, admittedly–will deny prior statements, their own personal commitments (to marriage, that is), and the will of many of the people they serve or lead to be on the right side of history on this issue.
This has major implications for evangelicalism. A soft middle has developed as evangelicalism has become culturally popular. It’s very on trend in certain circles to occupy this space. Past generations have prayed, with Proverbs 30:8, “give me neither poverty nor riches.” Today’s generation modifies the prayer for our own situation. “Give me neither conservatism nor liberalism,” many evangelicals seem to have whispered. “Let me be an evangelical, but an inoffensive one.”
Perhaps you don’t want to breathe fire in public discourse. Whether you do or not, though, you’re going to be seen as very clearly on the wrong side of history if you continue to back marriage (and don’t affirm SSM). If you’re a pastor who has distanced himself from the Religious Right, and who regularly digs it in a pulpit aside or two, you’ve now got to go one better. To be truly progressive, truly open-minded, truly relevant, truly savvy in your cultural engagement, you need to now affirm same-sex marriage, with all that represents (the moral purity of homosexual acts, for example).
It will, to be sure, take time for this shift to shake itself out. But it’s here. What does this mean for people whose first love is not the culture, but God? It means that we really are behind the times now, and will be so in increasing measure. We’re backward. We’re mean. We hate people not like us. That’s how we will be interpreted. And make no mistake: this is not a quest for some rights and a piece of paper. We will, most assuredly, face the threat of losing our religious liberty.
How should we respond to all this? By being afraid and attacking those who oppose our biblical convictions? Not at all. We need to be like the Proverbs 31 woman. We need to laugh at the days to come (Prov. 31:25). Our hope is in Christ. He has already rescued us from the only peril that really matters, our condemned state (Rom. 4-5). We are set free from sin and hell and death. We have triumphed over the grave through vicarious participation in the resurrection of Christ.
What we must do now is gear up for persecution of varying kinds (per Matthew 5:1-11). And we must set our faces like a flint to speak the truth and to love our neighbor, including those who would silence us (Matt. 22:37-39). Do you see this? People are going to watch us. They’re going to see if we respond to those who call us bigots with hatred and anger. Will we lash out?
I believe that we won’t, many of us. We won’t budge a millimeter from the Word of God. We know that sin, in whatever form, only brings pain and destruction, and that the gospel, however demanding its call of transformation, only brings life and joy. So we will proclaim the truth without any fear or hedging. And we will love our neighbor to the utmost.
This is not a new problem. It’s a new face to an old problem. The church is being called to capitulate. Professing believers have done just that, with prominent examples coming to mind from the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries. We know full well how this plays out. If we acquiesce to the culture, we will soon become a more religious version of the culture. On the other hand, if we stand fast in the power of God’s Spirit, we may lose some influence, some cache, some power. But we will honor the Lord.
We will show the coming generation that God’s people are not made out of sand, but solid rock.
No matter what we lose, we will glorify the Lord as in olden times. Perhaps our connection with Isaiah and Jeremiah and the Minor Prophets will no longer be expository, a matter for our devotions. Perhaps we will walk in their paths and experience their sorrows. If so, we know their God, and he will bear us through.
RETREATS IN A NUTSHELL
- Intentional: Facilitated by a mentor couple (requirement: without all their ducks in a row, but looking to God to conform them to the image of Christ)
- Focused: Plus two attending couples
- Convenient: Scheduled various weekends (see Schedule: Spring/Summer 2013 retreats below)
- Purpose: Strengthen marriages, deepen friendships, gain hope and vision
- Locations: Selected from around the state at bed & breakfasts, lodges, cabins, etc.
- Varied Schedule: One-day (begins with dinner Friday, ends with dinner Saturday); Two-day retreats (begins with dinner Friday, ends Sunday afternoon)
- Scholarships: For up to half the cost
- Fun: Includes unscheduled time on Saturday afternoon to enjoy the retreat locale
- Ongoing: Resources such as books and websites to continue investment in your marriage
HOW TO BE A PART
First, check the Heritage website or app, or check posters or schedule cards to identify a date, mentor couple and location. Then contact the church office at 405-720-1449 or email Rocky Hails at rockin@delightinGod.org; costs and scholarships for each site will be sent to you. Last, let us know your selection and the mentor couple will contact you with details.
SPRING/SUMMER 2013 CURRICULUM
“In a man-centered view, we will maintain our marriage as long as our earthly comforts, desires, and expectations are met. In a God-centered view, we preserve our marriage because it brings glory to God and points a sinful world to a reconciling Creator.”
from Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
ON RAMP: Glory of God & Commitment
Even with the proliferation of smartphones, GPS and other technical aids, for now, we are still dependent on road signs to get us to the destination. In marriage, God has provided us with road signs and gifted guides to help us see through the tangled limbs and around the corners of blind curves that speak of our busy lives. In the Spring/Summer 2013 Heart4Marriage Retreats we will look at signs that cause us to consider the big picture of what directs and defines our marriage. On this trip we will lean heavily on two such guys taking turns riding “shotgun” and helping alert us to the road ahead. These are Gary Thomas and material from his book, Sacred Marriage; and John Piper and his book This Momentary Marriage. Buckle up, adjust the mirror, turn off the radio, and let’s give full attention to the first signs up ahead.
ONE WAY: Love Despite Response
Our first sign looks at the specific kind of love that a marriage of genuine fulfillment requires. You may be surprised that it is the kind of love that is probably different from what your marriage started with, but needs in order to finish well.
SCENIC OVERLOOK: Holy or Happy?
Our next sign looks at a view of God’s purpose for marriage and the role that your spouse needs to be granted in order for you to thrive and flourish. Though expansive and truly “big picture,” this purpose has real practical beliefs and actions with which you can “hit the road,” rather than “hit the wall.”
LANE CHANGE: Forgive on Purpose
Our fourth sign indicates a change, not so much in direction, but in alignment. We’ll travel the lanes of “when to forgive” and what this toll road requires. We’ll check our mirrors to see if we need to forbear an offense or change ourselves in conforming to Christ.
YIELD: Transforming Correction
Just like learning to drive with attention to rushing, intersecting traffic, our marriage needs to develop the same recognition. Recognizing when to speed up, slow down, or give way to one another is a learned skill that requires training and power to do what’s needed. This weekend will point to ways to avoid the consequences of a “failure to yield.” When do we change and die to ourself, and when do we lovingly confront when our spouse is missing the mark.
Schedule: Spring/Summer 2013
Date Mentor Couple Location
April 12-13 Rich & Kathy Smith
Crow’s Rest/Tulsa
April 12-13 Gary & Peggy Winters
Lindley House/Duncan
April 12-13 David & Sandra Holmes
Tulsa
April 12-13 Mike & Leann McGee
Lindley House/Duncan
May 17-18 Dennis & Lisa McGee
Lindley House/Duncan
May 31-June 1 Eric & Ann Schrock
Location:TBA
June 7-9 Clyde & Linda Ross
Oak Ridge Cabins/Broken Bow
June 14-15 Don & Judy Dancy
Lindley House/Duncan
June 28-29 Benjie & Marsha Wechsler
Lindley House/Duncan
Partial scholarships are available. Retreats vary as 1 or 2 nights. Contact church office for more info and updates at (405) 720-1449 or Rocky at rockin@delightinGod.org.
Binary Solution Set
Have you ever heard that phrase? If you hang around mathematicians, or computer programmers, or some types of engineers, you may have encountered it. It’s a phrase that describes a problem with two—and only two—answers. Typically those answers are expressed as either “Yes/No” or “On/Off.” A binary solution set problem, whatever it is, is very clear cut, and the response is very black and white, so to speak.
What does that have to do with church, you ask? Well, Pastor Marty’s sermons on evangelism bring up a true binary solution set problem.
Response to the gospel message is a binary solution set. You either say “Yes” to the invitation to know Christ as Savior, or you say “No.”
To be perfectly clear and perfectly blunt, any answer that is not “Yes” to Jesus is “No.”
“I’m not sure,” is really “No.”
“I’m not ready,” is really “No.”
“I need to think about it,” is really “No.”
“I need clean up my life first,” is really “No.”
“Not right now,” is really “No.”
Our culture doesn’t like that. Our culture has grown so inclusive and so pantheistic that we want to believe that “All roads lead to Rome” works for religion, too. At the same time, our culture wants to believe that salvation is at least to some extent a meritocracy, that we will enter heaven because we in some manner deserve it.
Unfortunately, the Bible tells us that is not the case.
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
Luke 9:26
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead…
2 Timothy 4:1a
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds… And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:11-12, 15
So our eternal destiny is actually determined by our response to the binary solution set question of “Do you have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ?
An answer of “Yes” enrolls our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life, which in turn places us in God’s Presence for eternity.
Any other answer, no matter how rational or reasonable to our human ears and minds, is “No,” and means our names are not present in that Book. And if we die in that state, they will never be in that Book, which will mean we will spend eternity separated from God.
To all those who believe in Purgatory or reincarnation, I’m sorry, you’re wrong. The Bible does not allow for either of those. There are no reruns, retries, do overs, or second chances. Our final answer to the question when we die is our final answer for all eternity.
The best thing we can do for our families, friends, and neighbors is present them with this binary solution set question, make it clear to them what their choices really are, and make it clear to them what the true results of those choices will be.
To do less is disobedience to God and Christ. To do less is to fail our families, friends, and neighbors.
It’s Sunday afternoon, March 10, 2013. Pastor Marty preached an excellent sermon this morning in his series addressing what evangelism is and is not, and what evangelism should mean to the church. This morning, he had occasion to refer to the following passage of scripture:
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. Luke 9:23-24 (NASB)
I’m a writer—from time to time I’ll even go so far as to call myself a wordsmith—so it’s very easy for me to get focused on a word and mull it over and chase it down odd paths of thought. That happened to me this morning with the word ‘cross’. While Pastor Marty had me engaged with the sermon, the back of my mind kept teasing this word ‘cross’ and its context in this verse. And in a few minutes I arrived at the following thoughts.
One of the things we have to be very careful about in reading scripture today is to not read context into a verse that isn’t there. This verse is a place where it’s very easy to do that, and it all deals with that word ‘cross.’
You see, for almost 2000 years ‘cross’ has been associated with the central truth of the Christian faith and gospel. It was a cross upon which Jesus Christ, Messiah of God, was executed in the beginning of the only act of redemption by which people can receive salvation and eternal life. There have been almost 2000 years of respect and awe and at times veneration visited upon the cross because of this.
As a consequence, it’s very difficult for us as believers and members of our culture to read the word ‘cross’ in scripture and not burden it with 2000 years of awe and glory and reverence. Sometimes that’s okay; there are some verses where it is appropriate for that to be part of our reading and interpretation of the word ‘cross.’
In other verses, not so much. And this is one of the times where we shouldn’t do it.
Jesus is speaking here to people who had gathered around him. Remember that at this point in time the Crucifixion of Jesus has not occurred. That event is in the future when this account happens. Therefore, the whole weight of glory and reverence that we today associate to and with the cross of Jesus did not exist in the minds of His hearers. It’s important to know that. That was not part of their social or religious culture. It was not part of the context of this conversation, and if we really want to understand what Jesus was saying, it should not be part of our interpretation of this verse.
Crucifixion at that time was (and for that matter still is) a particularly barbaric form of execution comprised of equal parts of death by torture and death by exposure. It was part of Roman law that a Roman citizen could not be crucified. It was reserved for the worst sorts of criminals and enemies. It is a matter of history that when the slave rebellion led by Spartacus was eventually crushed, the Romans crucified thousands of the captured rebels along the highways of Italy.
There was nothing elegant or glorious or awesome about crucifixion in the minds of those who heard this statement when Jesus said it. It was strictly associated with cruelty and sordid deaths. Jesus was not giving His hearers something to aspire to; He was giving them a very graphic warning about what life could hold for those who followed Him.
If Jesus were speaking today to a crowd in America, He might have worded the statement this way:
- Take up his electric chair daily and follow me
Or maybe this way:
- Take up his gas chamber daily and follow me
Or this way:
- Take up his gallows daily and follow me
Maybe this way:
- Take up his executioner’s drug syringe daily and follow me
Or even this way:
- Take up his lynch mob’s noose daily and follow me
Do you get the point? There is no promise of an easy comfortable life if we follow Jesus. In fact, in another place Jesus said this:
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love 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 slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…” John 15:18-20a (NASB)
So if we are truly being the church—if we are truly being disciples of Christ and not just professing that we are—it should not surprise us if we face (sometimes violent) personal opposition.
Soli Deo Gloria.
David
“When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them...” Matt 14:14
When Jesus looked at people, He saw them in their neediness and felt compassion for them. LORD, help us to see the individuals around us and fill us with Your compassion for them.
“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” 2 Tim 1:7
Pray that fear would not keep us from sharing the Gospel with others regularly, but that we would eagerly share because of His power and love in us.
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” Romans 10:1
LORD, fill us with the desire to see others come to salvation. May we not live insulated in our own little world, but aware and connecting with the lost around us.
“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand‘” Matt 10:7
Father, fill us with boldness to clearly and simply share the Gospel with those around us.
“Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” Matt 9:38
Father, we ask you to send workers from Heritage into Your harvest.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Matt 9:37
LORD, open our eyes to see the harvest of lost people around us. May we be your vessel to share the Gospel with them.
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain…” John 15:16
May we recognize God’s choosing of each of us to go and bear fruit in the lives of those around us.
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” 1 John 4:20,21
Pray that we will understand and live out God’s love for others as an expression of our love for God.
