Sep 30, 2018 | Plausibility
Critics of Christianity, and often Christians themselves, wonder why at times it seems that God is hidden from us. God never makes himself so obvious it is impossible for us to doubt. Why doesn’t he, they always and we sometimes ask, make himself more obvious? That’s a fair question, and not only one we modern people enveloped in a secular culture ask. As an answer, I’ve discovered reading the Bible from cover to cover, and also writing my way through my reading, that God rarely makes himself so obvious that it can’t be explained in some other way. There are few times in redemptive history that Yahweh, Israel’s God, makes himself so obvious that it would seem impossible for the people to question his existence, but that never determines their trust in and obedience to him.
I love that the Bible is this way because it’s not terribly different than our own lived experience, as it has been all throughout the history of the Church for his people. If what we read in the Bible was completely different than our partially hidden encounter with God, then I would have a tough time believing it was true. As it is, the Bible reads real. The examples are endless, but something that stands out to me is the passage of time; God is never in a hurry. Doesn’t it seem that way in our lives? His timeline and ours rarely intersect. In the Bible that’s magnified a zillion times.
(more…)
Sep 18, 2018 | Plausibility
I’ve always been a big history guy, but had never read Eusebius: The Church History until recently. As with almost everything in my life now, I had apologetic motivations for reading it. Skeptics are always distorting the history of early church, and I wanted to see what someone who lived so close to the beginnings of our faith had to say about it. I’ve always known that followers of Jesus endured horrible persecution for almost 300 years after his ascension, but reading an historian (263-339) who witnessed it first hand, and who reported on other first-hand accounts, was sobering. What stood out to me was something we in the 21st century secular West have a hard time accepting: this life is not all there is. Of course we Christians claim to disbelieve this, but we live much of our lives as if this life was indeed all their is. I’m as guilty of it as anyone else because in our thoroughly secular culture it’s very easy to do.
(more…)
Sep 15, 2018 | Theology
I was reminded while reading Luke 8 recently, that God throughout Scripture, and ultimately in Christ, is completely counter cultural to all fallen cultures. Notice in this chapter how Jesus upends cultural expectations regarding women (several are named in this chapter as his closest disciples and supporters) and family. In the ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish world women were second or third class citizens, and family and clan determined your identity, value, and worth. The two instances in this chapter, among many throughout the gospels, show how Jesus challenged these expectations throughout his ministry. And Yahweh did the same thing all throughout the history of redemption.
(more…)
Sep 7, 2018 | Theology
These words of Jesus come from what’s known as his “high priestly prayer” in John 17 where he prays before his crucifixion not only for his disciples, but for those who would believe in him through their message. That would include we who claim his name these two millennia later. Many Christians, especially Catholics, but Protestants as well, lament that there is so much division in the Church, so many differing conceptions of the meaning and doctrines of the Christian faith. Skeptics are especially fond of claiming that all the disagreement is evidence that Christianity is a bunch of hooey. But I’ve always questioned this lament of Christians, and criticism of its enemies, even more so as I get older.
(more…)
Sep 4, 2018 | Culture
Life can be so ineffably sad sometimes, and when I recently read about the suicide of a high-profile pastor I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It made me angry even as it broke my heart. Commenting on a situation like it is fraught with danger in an age such as ours, so I will tread as lightly as I can. The reason for my trepidation is that our secular age imposes certain values and interpretations of reality upon us that are antithetical to our faith, and Christians have imbibed many of them. It’s very difficult not to because that’s the way culture works; you breathe it’s air, you absorb its values, and its way of seeing things, its interpretation of reality.
(more…)
Recent Comments