Nov 8, 2020 | Theology
I write this, and my title, while we as a nation are in the middle of a bitterly contested election. It seems to many of us that a whole lot of chicanery is going on, or more accurately fraud and outright theft of a presidential election. We have lived through four years of a terribly dishonest and partisan media that has tried to destroy the President of the United States, with what everyone knows are lies heaped upon lies. Does what’s going on now surprise us? It is shocking in it’s brazenness, but not at all surprising. We trust that eventually the truth will win out, but that is a great challenge when an entire political party doesn’t even believe there is such a thing as truth. Form them, postmodern to the core, there is “the narrative,” and that is only what furthers their political power. If they “win” this time without transparency, without evidence that the apparent fraud is not in fact fraud, it will be very bad for this country, and people of any political party. (more…)
Oct 28, 2020 | Epistemology - Trust, Theology
As I’ve been writing my way through the Bible, I’ve recently been engaging with Paul’s letters, and his focus on knowledge in the life of the Christian has stood out to me. Since the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s, for much of Christianity knowledge has taken a back seat to feelings, emotions, and the human will. In typically American fashion, the focus of much Christian teaching has been on the Christian’s personal choice, both in terms of salvation, and growth in the Christian life. Too many Christians are taught, or pick up from teaching, that what we do or don’t do, can or can’t do, should or shouldn’t do, is what drives the Christian life, instead of what God has done for us in Christ. Big, huge, amazing difference! The former is self-focused, the latter God-focused, and that makes all the difference. Here are some verses that tell us what the Apostle Paul thinks of knowledge, which is fundamentally outside of us: (more…)
Sep 10, 2020 | Theology
One of the most important things to teach your children, and to remind them and yourself daily, is that life is hard. The root of anger, and bitterness, and frustration, and just an overall bad attitude, is to expect it not be hard, as if the difficulties in life are somehow just a bug and not a feature. In one of the great understatements of history, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.” Some translations use the word tribulations, and in the Greek it means, properly, pressure (what constricts or rubs together), used of a narrow place that “hems someone in”; tribulation, especially internal pressure that causes someone to feel confined (restricted, “without options”). Yeah, that sums it up pretty well. God said to Adam and Eve that life in a fallen world would be full of painful toil by the sweat of our brow, with constant thorns and thistles. In other words, life is hard! For Christians, however, hard is good. (more…)
Aug 16, 2020 | Theology
As distressing as this over-hyped COVID-19 pandemic has been (a real threat to only a very definable fraction of 1% of the population), there have been some silver linings. One is that I’m questioning things I would have never questioned pre-COVID, and that’s a very good thing. Many of those questions are directed at modern medicine, and medical establishment, which has become for me a quintessential living example of the fall of man described in Genesis 3. Satan’s temptation to Eve was simple: God is a liar, and if you eat of the tree “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” With one bite we became beings who think we get to determine our own reality, a very God-like capability. The problem, of course, is that Satan is a liar. The bigger problem,is that people believe him, just as Eve did. (more…)
Jun 20, 2020 | Theology
Our pastor last Sunday preached on one of the most profound Psalms in the Psalter, the first one, that which serves as the gateway to all the rest. Psalm 1 starts with the words, “Blessed is the man who . . . ” The writer starts with the negative, that this blessed man does not walk, stand, or sit, in the counsel, way, or seat, of the wicked, sinners, or scoffers. The point is clear, this person does not get comfortable in the company of the God-less, does not think as they think, or live as they live. Then he contrasts this way with what makes this man blessed, he delights “in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” The question becomes, who defines our reality, God or man. There is no in between. (more…)
Jun 2, 2020 | Epistemology - Trust, Theology
In my previous post I related how a sermon by our pastor on Psalm 115 inspired me to write about God verses idols. There is something else about this Psalm that after more than four decades as a follower of Christ has proved to be the very essence of my faith, and it is found in these three verses in the middle of the Psalm:
9 All you Israelites, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
11 You who fear him, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
A perfectly biblical three times, trust in the Lord! The context, God verses idols, and the claims of the nations (v.2) that God is MIA, is what makes these exhortations so powerful. If we don’t trust in the Lord, what or who do we trust? The older I get, and the more I learn, the more significant I realize how important it is to always consider the alternative. I call this in a phrase, the consideration of the alternative. As I argued previously, there is no Switzerland, no metaphysical or spiritual neutrality. We have to believe, or trust (the biblical Greek word translated faith), in something or someone. People don’t give up belief or trust without religion, they just place it somewhere else. (more…)
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