It seems like Christianity and Jesus are increasingly under attack. What's going on? What we'll be looking at is what happens when Christians use human wisdom to interpret the Bible, twisting scripture away from its intended message. This blog is dedicated to using Scripture itself to interpret and help us understand Scripture. You are welcome to add your comments and thoughts. Other viewpoints are welcome. Disagreements are welcome.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Death Of God
Christians lament the gradual decline of American culture and desire to try to fix it. That's the American way. We fix things that are broken. But American culture can not be fixed, because God does not live in the hearts of most American's... including the vast majority who call themselves Christians. To them the true God is dead and they have created a god of their own in their own image. And that gives us the answer.
We cannot expect those who are enemies of God to act in a way that honors God. Trying to force them to honor and glorify God through laws or public pressure will not work. You can legislate morality. One of the chief purposes of government is to restrain evil and sin, and one of the tools of government are laws which help accomplish this. But trying to force God's enemies to honor and glorify Him through civil law, even if the civil law could be put into place, will not work. This is not a battle of the physical bodies or even of minds. This is a spiritual battle... a spiritual war that has been raging for 6,000 years. The only way this war can be won is through the Word of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ our Savior, Lord and God.
Are you sharing the good news about Jesus Christ with others?
In the U.K. Lillian Ladele lost her appeal against a ruling by an Employment Appeal Tribunal. She is a government worker who had refused to conduct a gay civil union ceremony. Her job is to register births, deaths and marriages for the London borough of Islington.
"The decision of the Court of Appeal is another setback for Bible-believing Christians," said Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of U.K.-based Christian Concern for our Nation. "If this kind of legal precedent is followed it will prove increasingly difficult for Christians to participate fully in public life without contravening their conscience."
In it's initial ruling the Employment Appeal Tribunal stated that the Islington council "placed a greater value on the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community than it placed on the rights of Ms. Ladele as one holding an orthodox Christian belief."
In December 2008 that initial ruling was overturned, and the new ruling stated that the council had the right to require all its registrars to conduct all the services. Last week the court of appeals affirmed the appeal tribunal's decision.
The word "love" is used a lot in the Bible. The word "love" is also used a lot in our culture. But they are not the same word.
In our culture the word "love" means to feel affection for another person. To really like another person. Does the Bible command us to feel affection for others? Does it say we must like all other people? No. That's not in the Bible. What the Bible says is that we must love other people, even our enemies.
Confused?
The problem is that the English language does not have a word that accurately expresses what the Bible is saying. The closest word available is "love" but it's not very close. The ancient Greeks (the language of the New Testament) recognized the differences and they had three words that are translated into our one word... "love". One of those, agape, is talking abouit how we treat other people, not how we feel about them. When you agape (love) someone else that means you treat them in a loving manner. You may not like them, but you still treat them with loving actions.
What is a loving action? Does loving someone mean you always give them what they want? No, it does not. It means doing what is best for them.
If your children want to play in a busy street, is it loving to let them do so? No!! The loving thing is to get them out of the street no matter how much they object. That is love... caring about the welfare of the other person.
What if the other person wants to do something morally wrong? What if they are a habitual liar or shoplifter? Do you tell them it's okay, and if that's what they want to do they can continue to do those things? No! That's not loving. That's enabling them.
Loving someone does not mean we always make them feel good. By loving someone we might make then very unhappy. Our children might really enjoy playing in the street and our loving action of getting them out of the street makes them very unhappy... but it also saves their lives. Agape loving someone has nothing to do with happiness or feeling good. It has to do with truly caring about the welfare of that person.
What if we did something to protect our children when we found them playing in a busy street... We could run into the street and put orange cones around our children, and erect a sign that says "Children At Play." Instead of asking them to change their behavior, and possibly making them feel sad, we try to protect them and keep them happy. Is that the right response? No!
The correct, loving response is to get them out of the street and teach them that they need to change their behavior.
That's also the correct, loving response to someone breaking the law... whether it is civil law or God's law. Enabling them to feel good about themselves while they break the law, or enabling them to continuing breaking the law is not loving them.
The previous four posts were about the characteristics of non-believers. In 1 John 2:3 we see what a Christian looks like.
#5 - "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands." 1 John 2:3
Verse 5 continues: "But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." - 1 John 2:5,6
The test of knowledge of God is moral conduct. This is a tough requirement. When I first read these verses I was discouraged. There was no way I could obey God perfectly. It seemed as though I was always doing something wrong, so God's love could not be complete in me because of my failure.
The description in 1 John 2:3 is repeated in 1 John 3:24 - "The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in him."
Again in 1 John 5:2 it is repeated again: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments."
This same characteristic of a believer is also given in other places in the Bible, for example Revelation 12:17 - "So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus."
Again in Revelation 14:12 - "Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus."
There are three characteristics listed here:
1 Faith in Jesus Christ 2 Love 3 Obey God's commandments
We also see that we are to walk as Jesus did. We see this same thing in 1 Peter 2:21 which says - "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."
How did Jesus walk? What did Jesus come to do?
"And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!" - Philippians 2:8
"'My food,' said Jesus, 'is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.'" - John 4:34
Throughout the New Testament we see that Jesus walked in obedience to God (Matthew 26:39,42, Mark 14:36, John 14:30,31, Romans 5:18,19 and many others).
We can learn a little more from the book of Titus. It says the same thing as 1st John, but in a different way -- "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good." - Titus 1:16
Here we see that it is life-style, our behavior that sets a Christian apart from a non-Christian. When someone becomes a Christian there is a resulting change in their behavior. We can not be perfect in our obedience as Jesus was. But we can walk the path He walked, striving--out of love--to live in obedience and love through the strength we get from our faith in Jesus Christ. Yes, Christians still sin, but it is a falling into sin, not a willful diving into sin.
Love and Obedience
If you want to summarize the Law of Moses, Jesus boiled it down to just two action items. Love God and love your neighbor. But what does it mean to love? This is too big of a topic for this post, I'll be discussing it in a future post. However, to summarize, the word used for "love" in the New Testament is an action word. It means to love with your actions. It does not saying anything about loving with your feelings. Biblical love is all about doing loving actions. What are the most loving actions? Would you consider obeying God's commandments, doing what God told us to do, to be loving God?
"I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
God says that he has put His law in our hearts. We call it our conscience. It tells us right from wrong. If the conscience was something that developed from culture, then people from different cultures would have a different fundamental sense of what is right and wrong. That's not what we observe. People everywhere recognize murder as wrong. Recognizing lying as wrong. Even cultures that seem to embrace a practice that seems morally wrong... spearing anyone who disagrees with you for example... still recognize that what they are doing is wrong.
Do you disagree?
The May 11th edition of the Wall Street Journal reports that neuroscientists at Harvard, Caltech and the University of Southern California have determined that humanity has a moral code built in... just like the Bible says. The article reports:
"Using neurology patients to probe moral reasoning, the researchers for the first time drew a direct link between the neuroanatomy of emotion and moral judgment."
The researchers were able to determine that if certain brain cells were "knocked out", there was a corresponding area of moral judgment that no longer functioned correctly. It appears there is a moral code hardwired in human brains... just like the Bible says.
Judges chapter 19 describes a traveler who is staying overnight in a stranger's home. Wicked men of the town pound on the door and demand they be given the visiting man so they can have sex with him. Eventually they send out the visitor's concubine who is raped and killed.
What kind of story is this to have in the Bible?
First we need to get a broad overview of this book. The first two chapters of the Book of Judges are introductory. Starting in chapter three we see a pattern that is repeated throughout the book. The Israelites turn from God and start "doing what was right in their own eyes". Things get bad. The Israelites finally turn back to God and plead for Him to save them. God then raises up a righteous judge (a "judge" was a ruler) who leads Israel back to righteousness again.
This pattern is repeated a number of times, continuing through chapter 16. Each time Israel turns away from God they sink deeper into sin and evil.
Starting in chapter 17 the book of Judges stops the chronological telling of the history of Israel and presents two stories that illustrate how far Israel has fallen.
The first shows how deep Israel has gone into idolatry, when a Levi, who is only supposed to serve in the Temple, becomes the personal priest for a man who is worshiping idols. Although in our culture today we can not feel the shock of this, chapters 17 and 18 present the story of a tremendous spiritual evil.
Starting in chapter 19 we read about an unbelievable moral evil. This story is included as an illustration of how far Israel has fallen.
Why does the man send out the concubine? Because in the culture of the people surrounding Israel, a culture Israel had adopted, women essentially had no value. Women existed simply to serve men, and be used and abused as men saw fit. Please note, THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL. This is the way pagans live, and it is typical of pagan cultures around the world. The reason why this particular story is included in the Bible is because it illustrates how the man, on the surface is appearing very Godly--for example he won't stay overnight in a non-Israelite city. Yet, at heart is he has completely accepted and is participating in the pagan culture, even to the point of the death of someone who is made in the image of God, and who thus is precious and loved by God.
Notice the last line of the book of Judges: "In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit."
