Defining Terms : The Nature of Faith

It’s no secret that I don’t mind a good debate, I mean I do have a blog and that blog is dedicated toward theology, in a way, I’m asking for it! While I like to think that I have gotten better at holding my tongue by choosing my battles, from time to time I still feel the need to interject some perspective whenever I think I see an error that can be easily addressed. My personal lesson from a recent Facebook interaction is, that if you are going to semi-regularly open your mouth, you need to be ready to defend what comes out of it.

Ultimately I decided to engage in conversation with this Facebook friend, because I love him. At one point we would have considered each other brothers in Christ, sadly that is no longer the case as he is a professing atheist. While everyone is responsible for their own choices, there are some external factors in place that I believe helped this young man leave the faith so easily. So maybe, in some small way, being that I knew him then, and I know him now, I feel responsible for what part I may have played in his poor understanding of Christianity. So, if I can do anything to help I will, and if I can do so faithfully, I hope God will give me the grace to continue.

A DEBATE OF DEFINITIONS

The first thing you must do In debate is establish common ground, you do so by agreeing on the set meanings of the terms and phrases being used in your arguments. In short, you simply cannot have a good dialogue if both sides are arguing from different understandings of the same thing. You have to endeavor to present your opponent’s position accurately.

For the atheist, if a Christian says you misrepresent their perspective, you should be charitable and listen intently, maybe you missed something. If truly intellect, logic and reason is on  your side, then you, above all the worldviews, should desire to have all the correct information at you disposal so that you can apply it to your way of thinking. For the Christian, since in our worldview we are to value truth higher than anyone else, we too must also listen intently to represent our opponents position truthfully, and to search for our own errors honestly.

A DEBATE WITH NO DEFINITIONS IS A SILLY ONE

Jumping right into to our debated definitions of faith is tricky, and it is more important to me that you see how this failure to represent your opponents position will leads us nowhere fast. So to illustrate my point I want to make a bit of a silly example of what this looks like, and during my debate, it felt like…

Person 1: “Jesus was an actual living person.”

Person 2: “Well that is ridiculous, we all know that you think Jesus is really a carrot.”

Person 1: “No I don’t, and my scriptures don’t say that, so please stop arguing against my faith insisting that Jesus is a carrot.”

Person 2: “You can’t just change the definition to suit your needs, that’s unfair, you’re shifting the goal post in your favor.”

Person 1: “I am not, I am simply trying to show you that what you are saying is not actually what Chrsitians believe. I know there are some who may think Jesus is a carrot, but you wont find that in the scriptures, you have to evaluate my faith by it’s actual teachings, NOT what some people wrongfully teach about it.”

Person 2: “Your wrong, Jesus is a carrot and therefore cannot be a person and cannot be God, your worldview and objections have been destroyed.”

Person 1: “No you just destroyed a straw-man definition of my faith that I am telling you is NOT true. You really only tore down your own representation of my argument, not mine. So I agree with you, if Jesus was a carrot, he can’t be a person or God, but I am telling you that Jesus is not a carrot, and biblical Christianity does not believe that.”

Person 2: “Wrong”

As cartoon-ish as this seems, this is certainly how it felt from my perspective. Essentially if you define things a certain way, it changes your perspective on that particular subject. In a debate, if you have one meaning in your mind, and your opponent has another, you must be clear over which definition that you are discussing, or else the conversation will go nowhere. A simple example to use is the dual definition of “orange”, it is both a color and a fruit. If you are hungry and ask “May I have an orange?” and someone hands your a crayon of a particular hue, you had better clarify your definition if you are really trying to satisfy your hunger. Or, if you don’t want to appear rude, you can just eat the crayon.

DEFINING FAITHS

When it comes to faith you can go lots of place for definitions. A continual place my opponents went to was the dictionary, they wanted to crucify the Christians understanding of faith by the dictionaries understanding. But we were not arguing against a dictionary definition of faith, we were supposedly arguing against a biblical definition of faith. The same word was being used, but with two entirely different meanings, like orange

Without laying out every detail of the conversation, what my friend and opponent, hereby refereed to as my “fropponent”, argued against was the idea of “Blind Faith”. He asserted that the definition of Christian faith is the same as blind faith, or faith without evidence. This view of faith is non-traditional, even though the concept is very popular on our current western Christian context, the actual idea is nowhere to be found in the understanding of Christian faith that we see in the scriptures. It is, at best, something that sounds vaguely spiritual enough that people believe it is Christian, like “cleanliness is next to godliness” or “spare the rod spoil the child“, and at worst, a false understanding so detrimental to Christian thought, that it gives good reason to people who wrongfully reject genuine faith, based solely on a false idea of this counterfeit faith. In fact I even told my friend that if genuine Christian faith was in fact “blind” and without evidence as he asserted, then I would have no problem renouncing my faith today. He asked me to clarify.

I told him how the picture of faith we see in the bible is not a faith without evidence, but a faith that demands evidence. We see in scripture that YES, faith does require belief, but not an un-reasoned belief. We never see the command to follow something blindly, we are never told in scripture that we should shut of our brains and go with our hearts, we never see a teacher, prophet, apostle or Christ himself say anything without trying to demonstrate its validity. The parables are a good example of this, its Jesus knowing that what he is asking us to believe is difficult, so he tries to break things down in such a way that we might learn to understand it through his eyes.

Furthermore we always see Jesus inviting people to come and “taste and see”. This is his common way of asking them to verify what he is talking about with their own senses. If there was nothing there of substance to verify, even if he was speaking in analogy, why would he invite them to try to verify something that is allegedly unverifiable? Most notably we see this with Thomas, he believes Jesus to be dead, and when Jesus shows up resurrected, what does he tell Thomas to do? He tells him to come and touch his wounds! In other words he wants him to see and even touch the evidence for himself. The entire Gospel of Luke was written by Luke as he interviewed and researched the claims that Christians were making about Jesus. He went and found the evidence and wrote it down. We see Paul, when defending the Resurrection, or giving account to all that he has seen, frequently name people and tell others to simply go and verify his claims by talking to these other witnesses. Unfortunately we are unable to do this today, yet even when we go to the the “go to” passage on faith in scripture, we see that Faith is described as evidence, substance, assurance and conviction.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance(substance) of things hoped for, the conviction (evidence) of things not seen.

“But the bible is hard to understand, I don’t get it!”

I know, so if I may, let me use a parable of my own…

I currently cannot see my wife, we are not in the same room or even the same building right now, she could be doing anything she wants right now. Yet, I have an assurance in what I cannot actually see, I am assured that she is currently not sleeping with another man. Do I know this for a %100 conclusive fact? No. Can I see it with my own eyes? No, not currently. Well then, am I completely misguided to place my trust in my wife? Absolutely not. Even though I do not have %100 proof do I still have good evidence or reason to believe she is faithful? Yep. Could I be wrong? Yes, but the absence of visual evidence does not prove me wrong, nor does this mean that my faith in my wife is “blind”, I still have perfectly good reasons to believe that she is faithful to me that do not require my ability to see her in all ways at all times.

In summary, the idea of “blind faith” is not in the bible, and it is therefore entirely un-christian, and therefore has implications for both sides of the argument.

So Christians, stop using the term, it damages our faith, and if you go to a church that teaches blind faith as truth, find a different church.

Atheist, to argue against the Christian worldview by attacking the notion of “blind faith” is a fallacious argument. You simply dismantle something that is not in the Christian understanding of faith. Therefore, in your attempt to dismantle Christianity, you actually leave biblical Christianity untouched and only dismantle your own staw-man arguement.

A TRUE DEFINITION OF FAITH GIVES US A TRUE DILEMMA

If all of this is true, then my “fropponet” has a problem. He cannot concede his error with the definition of faith without also implying that his atheistic worldview may also be mistaken. After all, it was this definition that lead to his rejection of Christianity, and if that definition is invalid, then perhaps so is his assumption that led to his rejection. At the least, he would have to admit that his assumptions are wrong, and therefore his argumentation based on this assumption is also wrong, and at the most, commit to re-investigate his own thoughts and ideas about his own worldview in light of this new information. As Christians, we should also do the same whenever we assume something wrongfully.

He is committed to his atheism, and I to my Christianity, but where we differ is that I believe that there could be some evidence out there that completely disproves my faith. For example, if I were to find out for certain that Jesus did NOT exist, then to be intellectually consistent, I would have to reject Christianity altogether. I don’t think my fropponent is willing to make the same claim about his atheism. If he was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, the honest thing to do would be to reject atheism. For him, I don’t know if there is any amount of evidence that could cause him to reconsider the positions he assumes, much more, lead to his conversion. This leads me to believe that the problem in our disagreement is more than just a problem about faith and evidence, but also a problem of the heart.

For more resources on what biblical faith ACTUALLY is, I would encourage you to look at the links below…

Faith Has its Reasons

Blind Faith

Is Faith a Leap like Sam Harris says?

A podcast if you like to listen…

Stand to Reason Podcast

And probably the best summary of the Christian Faith, a book for all of our readers out there…

What is Faith? By R.C. Sproul

Sadly, it would only take a simple google search to show any atheist that the notion of Blind Faith is NOT a Christian one.

 

{Stay tuned as I reflect more about this conversation when we look at the nature of evidence in our next post. If there is anything unclear, comment respectfully and I will try my best to clarify.}

Dear Pastor Mark (some thoughts on Driscoll and Acts 29)

I grew up in a religious tradition that I now disagree with many, if not most, of its theological positions. Still, I spent 25 of my 30 years being shaped by this tradition. Today I’m still very much Christian, but firmly on the opposite side of the theological coin.

The results of this is that I often find it difficult to sift my old thoughts  and beliefs up against the truth of Gods word. For the past five years I’ve had to check these old belief patterns, informed by bad theology, and try my best to determine which of my old understandings are still true. I don’t dismiss or discredit everything I grew up in, there is plenty that still serves to help me as God continually sanctifies (sorry for using big churchy words) my mind and heart. I am very grateful for my upbringing. However, as often is the case, poison is mixed with the wine, and we lack the discernment to know how to separate the two of them apart.

I couldn’t be more in awe of God’s sovereignty over where the past five years of re-shaping has taken me. My wife and I are leading our family better than ever, our relationship is the best its ever been, we go to a great bible adhering church, and next month we are beginning a new journey becoming community group leaders. We have strong healthy Christ exalting relationships, and we are more aware than ever of the Gospel, and its implications to all we say and do. This shifting, this new gospel wakefulness, is due, in large part to Mark Driscoll. A man I admire, who now finds himself in a situation that also requires us to do some sifting.

Now I don’t really know who reads my blog stuff, therefore, some of you may not even know or care who Mark Driscoll is, but I know for a fact that some do, and even weirder still, some people have asked for my thoughts on a recent “controversy” surrounding this pastor.

In short Driscoll is a reformed (look it up yourself) pastor of a Seattle based church plant, now megachurch, called Mars Hill. He’s been there leading this thing somewhere in the ballpark of 15 years…I think. Outside of his controversies, he is essentially an expository (again, look it up) preacher, who’s preaching is centered around the central message of the gospel, and the central figure of the bible, Jesus. In my opinion, he is a pretty good bible teacher, not the best, but better than most compared to much of what passes as biblical teaching now a days. (More on this latter)

Driscoll is no stranger to frequent trips of his foot to his mouth, but for many of his fans, followers, and even his friends, recently there have been a number of questionable decisions made either by Driscoll, or the executive elders at Mars Hill, or both, that cross the line of disqualification. Any one of these individual infractions could be dismissed by themselves, but compiled together, some believe, and probably rightly so, that an intervention of sorts is called for. Of the complaints and charges against Driscoll, a few are nitpicking over primary and secondary church issues, some have been publicly addressed and apologized for, and increasingly so, many are very serious. Many who have followed Driscoll see this as a very public decline into scandal. The most recent furry surrounding Pastor Mark is his removal from the Acts 29 church planting network, a network that he started. Simply google Mark Driscoll or Acts 29 and you can find all the details that I won’t repost here.

Currently, and for the foreseeable future, my wife and I attend an Acts 29 church. So here I am, yet again, sifting through the good and the bad, the wheat from the chaff, trying to discern this man’s influence over my life from his own shortcomings. In many ways its easier to sift through this time, due to what I’ve learned from Pastor Mark himself. So with a very long intro, which I could make longer, I am leaving a lot unsaid in order to get to my main thoughts concerning this issue.

1.) The Acts 29 network is putting their money where their theology is.

Being part of a church that is part of the Acts 29 network does not give me, or even my pastor, any special privileges to the goings on around this decision. We know what the internet knows.

Further more, its worth noting, that just because we are part of a network that he started, Mark Driscoll does not hold any direct influence, make decisions for, or has he ever preached at our church. People who don’t like Mark, again, some for valid reasons, some for secondary reasons, have asked me before, “How could I go to a church led by Mark Driscoll?” To which I reply, “Well Matt Chandler is actually the president of Acts 29 for sometime now, even he doesn’t directly govern our church, and our church is not ” his”, but God’s. ” I digress…

The executive board of Acts 29 is made up of men that call Driscoll a “brother”, and Driscoll has called those same men “brothers”. They have shared stages and collaborated numerous times. And all of these men, in both their preaching and leadership, have tried there best, to point people to Jesus, to make his name glorious above all names to all people in all places. Driscoll himself is know for saying “Its All about Jesus”.

The network, by removing Driscoll, is proving that this is in fact the case, ” Its all about Jesus”. Having the best teachers, biggest churches, or largest personalities isn’t the goal. Making Jesus known is. As a member of an Acts 29 church, I’m saddened, but also relieved, that someone with so much influence, even if its positive influence, can not stray without consequences. On top of that, from all that I can gather, the process for correction, repentance and reconciliation has been handled orderly and biblically. For the sake of the gospel, the purity of the church, and the name of Jesus, it doesn’t matter how much good a man has done, if he fails, he needs to be corrected. I’m particularly grateful for this aspect because the tradition I grew up in, the rule was never to speak bad about a pastor. Even if he was struggling, and about to fail, and needed friends to intervene, you never talk bad about a man of God. To which I say  “Give me a break!”

What I am finding beautiful about the body of Christ is that all of the men of the Acts 29 board have expressed their grief over this decision, as well as their love for this man that they call ” brother”. Even former friends of Driscoll, some of which, he had very public fallings out with, and former members of his church that feel hurt by the Mars Hill leadership, have expressed love for Mark and hope that he will take the recommendation of the Acts 29 board seriously. Those closest to the fray hope for reconciliation and restoration.

I think the actions of the Acts 29 board speaks highly of their character and integrity. My Pastor, in a update to us as his congregation, expressed that he’s never been more confident in the integrity of the leadership, and I agree. Its bold, brave, biblical, and those men, even if you disagree, are acting in accordance to their conscience. This is exactly what the bible instructs us to do. Go with scripture, and if unsure, trust that the Holy Spirit is leading you in your gut.

For me, when I read the qualifications for eldership in scripture, I must admit that I fail at the character part. The main idea is to be “above reproach”, and when I think of myself, I conclude that I do not fit the bill. Seriously though, ” above reproach”, who, apart from Jesus, is above reproach? Which leads me to my next point…

2.) Doctrine and conduct.

When it comes to the biblical qualifications for an elder you can boil down any disqualification to these two areas. When someone fails it is either character, as we’ve already started to discuss, or theology, and sometimes both. Fortunately, Driscoll is not being criticized for any poor doctrine/theology/teaching. I know people may disagree with his specific views on certain issues, but in as much as he teaches it, his view on God and the Bible are largely orthodox. This makes it easy for me, and for you, to sift through this man’s influence over our lives through his teaching. For the most part, its good, you don’t have to throw the baby (teachings) out with the bathwater (the teacher). Sometimes this is exactly the case, but not here. Driscoll’s theology (and I will avoid any arguments on this point, because this particular point is not THE POINT of this particular blog post) is sound. I think, at least from everything I read, that most other pastors in the same theological camp as Driscoll agree, the problem is not his teaching.

However, the way that teaching plays out in the leading of the church is questionable, but I would argue that has more to do with the character aspect of the qualifications. For example, it is true that believers have “authority in Christ”. There’s nothing wrong with that teaching, but tell that to a christian who struggles with being bossy or hardheaded, and you can easily see how that idea would get distorted, or even abused. It quickly turns into ” I’m a Christian, and I have authority in Christ, so listen to me or shut up!” Which I can assure you, that is not what is meant.

Therefore, in the case of Driscoll, the issue is one of conduct and character. Early in Driscoll’s growing influence, his off color remarks, and his crassness was dismissed due to the fact that his theology was sound, and he was, and is, being used in a particularly difficult region of the country where most churches typically decline, and do not thrive. What we are seeing, as Tim Challies puts it, is that “character is king”. (I highly recommend his, and Adrian Warnock’s respective articles on this most recent issue, and their blogs in general.) Good theology is undone by poor character.

If I were to draw some conclusions from what we are learning now, it would be that Driscoll often acknowledges errors and sin, and often apologizes for them, but does not, at least not sufficiently in the eyes of the Acts 29 board and those who he has offended, seek to reconcile with those he has hurt. It almost feels as if he doesn’t go far enough, but only what he feels is far enough. The people he has hurt hear his public apology, but are still waiting for his personal phone call to hear him say specifically, that he is sorry.

This is a really big deal. However even in issues of character, Driscoll is not long gone. I think this is a large reason why those ousted by him, still have a deep love and hope for reconciliation with him. 

3.) Missing the big falls, and tripping over the small steps.

Other than the fact that his teaching is largely good for instruction, one other thing that I think is worthy of celebration is that Mark Driscoll has been faithful to his wife and family. This is no small oversight. In many of the big areas, he has managed to succeed, but the devil is apparently in the details. Typically when we hear of some pastor failing it is in the area of sex, and low and behold, the couple is unable to reconcile, and heads towards divorce, but the pastor takes a break and comes back to ministry. Or we find out that they have embezzled millions and are guilty of tax fraud. Thankfully this is NOT THE CASE with the Driscolls. It may not be a big deal to you, but I believe it really is.

I know people have been hurt by Driscoll’s sin and error, and I am not trying to make light of that, nor am I trying to paint one sin as greater than the other. I’m just stating the fact. Driscoll has not turned out to be a complete hypocrite, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing, he’s turned out to be the exact type of guy, that if you paid attention to anything he has admitted publicly, you would expect him to be.

Given his type of personality, the types of sin he freely admits he struggles with, this current trail of accusations and charges makes sense. The fact that Driscoll would be a proud jerk, that makes stupid decisions off of the top of his hot head, alienates close relationships, and acts like an ass is really no surprise to me. Again, I don’t say this to excuse it, or make light of it, I know it has devastated many relationships, and I agree, that if these charges are true, then he has gone beyond the point of slipping up, or losing his temper from time to time, and is currently disqualified. One thing that I think is clear from this is that Driscoll and the executive elder team lack any real oversite or accountability, although that doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried.

I agree with the Acts29 leadership, he needs to step down and get some help. Driscoll has often said that if he could do it all over again he would of waited to plant Mars Hill, found some good biblical men of God to sit under, and learn from Them so that he could be a more mature Christian before he became a pastor. Well now is his chance.

I hope I’m not being insensitive to those who have been negatively affected by Driscoll’s sins. I’m just saying, that as far as I can tell, he is not using his influence to buy private jets, and increase his own kingdom, although I do understand he has a pretty nice house. Nor is he a charlatan, faking his beliefs and sincerity to take advantage of people like some televangelist or faith healers. What I am saying is that Driscoll needs grace, like all of us, but a grace that isn’t dismissive. In the bible, church discipline is always carried out with the hope of seeing that person restored, not to put them in their place.

4.) Primed for reconciliation.

Again, it is absolutely amazing. Driscoll is surrounded by people that hope to restore him. I hope Driscoll sees the position that he is in. I hope that you see that you should be praying for him, and all involved.

It is not an attack, it is an act of love. Surely if it was someone else in this place, Driscoll himself would have some concerns, and probably even some harsh words for that man. It can seem like his time has come, that this is the end of Mark Driscoll, but a chance for reconciliation is where it all starts. God, through Jesus, reconciles us to himself, and new life begins. We then, in turn, get to extend that same hope and peace to the world. God is making his appeal to the world through us. He is saying, “Look, I gave peace and salvation to this loser, he is fully reconciled to me, and this is what I want to do for you.” (The loser I’m referring to is myself, not Driscoll.)
I soooooo hope Driscoll follows the recommendation and submits to the Acts 29 board.

Not for the sake of his ministry or his name, but for the sake of Jesus name. See, no one will care at all about Mark Driscoll when we get to heaven. Jesus will not look at him and say “Good thing I had you to help me out, it was really sketchy for a while, but thank God/me for you!” It is simply not going to happen.

On the off chance that Mark “The Dris” Driscoll sees this blog, I’m going to close by taking a cue from his own book Death by Love.

Dear Mark,

It is no secret that God has used you in an unique and powerful way. With the current storm of accusations and issues surrounding you and your ministry, you will be tempted to either retreat and hide by ignoring, or lash out by confronting. Knowing you, you’re probably prone to the later, and I am actually encouraged that a few days have passed and you have yet to respond. I hope this is a sign that you are already taking things seriously, and begging the Holy Spirit to direct you through all of this. Fortunately for us, Christ offers another option beyond just hiding, and more powerful than fighting, he gives us reconciliation.

I won’t claim to know the bible better than you, or claim any authority on par with yours. Who am I to try and teach you something about anything? Maybe though, I can be a helpful reminder. I trust that you know how important reconciliation is to the Gospel message you preach, and to Christ, the Savior, that you love. I would urge you to simply stop fighting, rationalizing, or trying to do better from now on, like an addict leaving a rehabilitation facility. Reconciliation is not rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is where you stop reevaluate, and start to make better choices from now on. Reconciliation doesn’t just move on from the past, it deals with it.

I have always been grateful that you openly admit sins and faults, and I believe that there is evidence that you really have left many of them in the past. However, in the larger picture of redemption, leaving things in the past is not good enough.

As you know we will be held accountable for all of our actions, thoughts and deeds. This is why God’s offer of reconciliation is unique. Reconciliation goes back to the point of every offense and makes things new again. Some of these offenses may same trivial to you, or maybe you felt like you have sufficiently served you penance for them, but I have learned from you, that the offender does not get to determine his own penance. Like with Christ, who we have offended with our sin, we don’t get to determine how severe our offenses are, the offended person does. It is up to those you have hurt to validate your sincerity. See Mark, the question is not whether or not certain behaviors or attitudes are in your past, but whether or not you are grieved enough by them, that you truly seek to change, and are willing to go back to your past, to rebuild those burnt down bridges wherever possible?

Let me remind you that the distance between you and God was once so insurmountable that reconciliation was utterly impossible, apart from a gracious act on His part through His son. Please don’t be so prideful as to believe that the bridges you have burnt are so beyond repair that the God, who closed the gap between your sinfulness and his holiness, is not powerful enough to help you rebuild these bridges.

I don’t believe God is done with you. Even after all you by His grace have accomplished, I actually believe that he is just getting started. Just as God once uniquely placed you to preach his word in a unique and powerful way, he has now placed you to demonstrate his reconciliation in a similarly unique and powerful way. Surely you know that all eyes are on you, and your next steps will be under close scrutiny. So be wise. Choose the path of reconciliation.

See Mark, once, like you, I almost ruined something near and dear to me through my selfish and sinful pride. It wasn’t my ministry, but my marriage. As much as I knew or understood all the right things, and as pure as my intentions were, there was still too much of my own righteousness involved. So much so that my attempts to lead my wife made her fill small and unloved, all the while I was convinced that I was doing the most loving thing for her. No one could tell me that I wasn’t right. I was so blinded by my own arrogance that I failed to see all the damage I caused. She left me for another man, and for the better part of a year, I was mercifully destroyed and made low by God. Mark, the more God tore me down, the more my wife could see Jesus for who he truly is, instead of her overbearing husband who did a miserable job of reflecting Christ to her.

Eventually I stopped caring about myself, my marriage, or even reconciliation between the two of us. My prayers became very simple. My focus was only on her reconciliation with Christ. Who, as you know, is a much better husband, friend, and pastor than any of us. I would pray for her “God get your daughter, and Christ, get your bride. I don’t care what happens to me, or our marriage.”

Through all of this God showed us that reconciliation with him was possible, and if he can redeem that large of a gap, then he is more than capable to reconcile a messed up broken down husband and wife. Mark, the longer you delay reaching out and reconciling with specific people, the gospel you preach with you life is false, and contrary to the gospel you preach with your lips. Show the world that reconciliation with God is possible, be wary of council that only agrees with your side, and let Christ’s heart for peace and redemption rule over your admittedly thick skull.

Listen to your brothers in the Acts 29 leadership, listen to the men that resigned from your external accountability board, listen, listen, listen to the sheep and ex-staff that you failed to shepherd well.

Be reconciled with those you have destroyed and abused in the wake of your folly and pride, and by this, prove to the world that reconciliation with their savior is truly possible.

Grace, peace, and reconciliation to you.

Five quick reasons I’m not a Universalist

After a recent conversation with a friend on the topic I decide to blog out some quick thoughts on Universalism. Honestly I would love Universalism to be true, but given critical thought it doesn’t hold water, here’s why…

1. Universalism diminishes the Cross.

I suppose a Universalist may claim that it actually magnifies the cross, suggesting that the more people that are saved, the better. However, the cross isn’t valuable based on its reach, but on its cost. It cost Jesus his life, and this makes it a treasure without equal. The cross is free, but not freely applied to all. If it we’re freely applied to all its value, or more specifically, it’s cost, is nothing more than a nice display or a kind act. In this view, the cross is more akin to a party favor, sure it may be a very nice favor, and maybe your name is engraved on it, but the fact that everyone has one makes it worthless.

2. Universalism does not free us from our love of self and thus our sin.

Going back to the free, and valuable gift of salvation. Salvation does not only save us from the penalty of hell, but from ourselves. By giving us new hearts and desires, salvation removes us from the center of all of our motives, and places Jesus in the center as savior. If Universalism is true, then there is no need for the work of salvation to take place in the hearts of people. We can go on being completely full of ourselves, and unaware of God’s glory and holiness, and somehow, in the end, all will be saved regardless. The only way that Universalism can be true is if sin is not a damming, and damaging, as God, in the bible, makes it out to be. Sin is a big deal. On that note…

3. Universalism diminishes sin.

There is something in US that sees sin as merely making a mistake. So when we contemplate the idea that God would send someone to hell for a lie, we are rightly upset. The punishment, in our view, does not match the severity of the offense. The problem is a misunderstanding. The severity is not simply in the offense, but who it is against, that determines the scope of the offense. So I may lie to my children, and they don’t hold much sway or authority over me, they may be upset, and maybe I need to make amends, but not much else. However if we move up in relational authority to my wife, I lie to her, and she may see fit to divorce me. I lie to my employer and I may be fired. The offense is measured against who the offense was against, not the act itself. So maybe I work in the government and I lie, and by lying betray my country, well I may be hung for treason. So I lie against God,  and I’ve committed more than just mere treason, but severe cosmic treason against the one who has all authority and power. Jesus did not die to cover our mistakes, but to restore us from our place as traitors and enemies, to sons and daughters. Sin is serious, Universalism makes sin small, and by making sin small, the cross small, and by the cross, the saviour small.

So let’s go back to my wife. I confess to you that I lied to my wife, and you think “No big deal, even the best people of us lie to our spouses a little.” Then I begin to describe my wife’s character. I explain that she has never lied to anyone before, not even me, in fact she has never done me wrong she has only ever served me and sought good for me. When I fail she is kind and forgiving, and never holds my past failures against me. I never have to ask for anything because it’s like she knows what I need and already has it prepared for me, but she allows me to ask anyway because she knows how much I benefit from talking with her.

Well, all of the sudden my lie does seem a little worse. Then if the bible is true, and God is like my wife in this analogy, I didn’t just lie, I cheated, and cheated, and broke promise, and failed to keep my oaths, and cheated repeatedly.

4. Universalism diminishes biblical teaching, specifically the teachings of Jesus himself.

To make Universalism work you have to isolate parts of scripture and extract them, from the whole in order to make them seem to say what Universalism says. You are going to have to prostitute the bible to make it appear to promote universalism. And not some vague teachings, but the actual teachings of Jesus himself, who taught and spoke more of hell than anyone else.

5. Universalism undermines God’s role as judge and destroys justice.

The bible is clear, that in some form, God will judge, and his judgements are perfect. Without a judge we are without hope, it through God’s righteous judgements that we know what needs to be redeemed, and that he plans to do something about it. If unviversalism is true then all of God’s judgement are not the establishment of truth, by merely angry ranting that we aren’t doing things His way. Universalism is a weak view of God’s perfect character. Why make decrees and precepts if ultimately your plan is to overlook them? And if God is a judge who overlooks his own law, he then is, by definition an unjust judge.

These are not the only reasons, but they are the first five that ran through my mind, there are many more. I want to end with two points from a pastor friend of mine.

1) If God himself is actually a universalist, then we have no idea who God actually is. We can know God because he has revealed himself to us in Scripture. With all the sin, judgment, and hell talk in the OT and NT, Scripture is pretty clear that God ISN’T a universalist. Universalists at best have to pit God’s words against one another, and at worst end up disregarding the Bible as in large part / as a whole. Without any reliable self-disclosure from God himself about who he is or what he’s like, all we’re left with is our own shoddy, individual guesswork.

2.) If we believe that life and God matter, then we won’t be universalists. Universalism means that all people are currently / eventually acceptable before God and his presence. This turns what we say, do, think, and feel into something cheap because it treats God’s holiness, glory, word, etc. as something cheap. “It doesn’t really matter what I’ve said or who I am or how you live your life; all that’s required of you to enjoy my presence is to die.”

Even if he would believe (like Rob Bell does, I think) that sin is punished after death but that the punishment isn’t eternal, it still leaves the sinner unchanged. Our hearts would still be unregenerate, bent towards self instead of God. Thus, sin really isn’t dealt with, God seems relatively ineffective, and heaven / eternity sounds way less appealing.

Nehemiah : A Better City : Chapter 5:1-13

If today’s blog is different, its because it is. These are my notes from today’s gathering.

Nehemiah : A Better City

A sermon series from http://www.myvillagechurch.com

There are poor and there are powerless, to contrast, there are rich and powerful. There are those who press and oppress, and then there is justice. In general there is a sense of justice, of righting wrongs, and helping those who can’t help themselves, in all of us. Especially if we think we are the ones who aren’t receiving what we think we deserve. We all have our ways to seek justice, and we make much of our causes, and our leaders, and our attempts to obtain it, but none of us really get there.

Three points on justice

1. Justice is not always black and white. Its not clear who is in the wrong, and sometimes we find ourselves swayed, and end up doing evil thinking we are doing good.
2. Batman is not real. There is not a superhero, some human who is incorruptible fighting for justice. No Robin Hood robbing the rich to feed the poor.
3. However, if there is a God, he certainly cares about justice.

So…

God opens our ears to LISTEN for injustice, to WRESTLE with its effects, and to ENGAGE it as an opportunity for joining Gods renewal. (We will see Nehemiah do just this in today’s focal text.)

LISTEN (hear them out)

“There arose a great outcry”…even the wives are upset, and the cry isn’t against an outside force, but against their own kinsmen. They list their complaints and Nehemiah LISTENS to every one. They can barely make it. The taxes are harsh and their resources, even their crops are being borrowed against. Their children are forced into slavery to help feed the family and pay off the debt. What should we be listening for? The cry that things are not as they should be. That is the sound of injustice, things that are not as they should be.

WRESTLE (evaluate)

“I was very angry when I heard…I took counsel with myself”. You are allowed, even encouraged to be angry at injustice, if you are not, something may be off in your heart. However, that anger has to be tempered by the holy spirit through prayer and truth. If your only counselor is yourself that’s not good, but at some point we need to be able to sift through our emotions and thoughts, up against the thoughts and love of God, that we may apply that same love to others. Take your anger and ask What would God have me do with this anger in this situation?

ENGAGE (How am I positioned to affect change in this situation?)

Nehemiah has considerably more influence and means than you, but its not about the amount of influence you have, but how you effectively use what influence you do have. Nehemiah confronts the oppressive leadership and leaves them speechless. He then calls them to restore what has been broken. He gathers a community that will reflect the true character of their God. Sometime the community may be your church, sometime that community will be you and your spouse, sometimes you may be alone. No matter the number, we are to make our community reflect the kingdom of God. There are no slaves in Gods kingdom. No debts because he has paid him. No burden of harsh taxes cause God does not need our wealth to sustain his rule.

Nehemiah, is very practical, but serves an even greater purpose than just its application. Nehemiah serves as a shadow to point us to Jesus. Jesus, who heard us and LISTENED to our cry. He WRESTLED and fought against our oppressors, resitting even our ultimate enemy the serpent, succeeding where we have failed. Through his perfect life everything that was wrong has been made right, and sealed as a blood oath on the cross, our debts have been paid, and the undue burden of our sin removed never to be held against us again. Now Jesus ENGAGES all who are left wandering. Uniquely positioned on a throne over all the universe, he guides his redeemed people, the church, to seek their lost brothers and sister, and to gather them back to the city of God.

All these feels! Love and other messy things.

I get asked a lot of questions about love. By Gods grace my wife and I survived adultery, experienced reconciliation, suffered two miscarriages after three healthy pregnancies, then took in our two nieces (we currently have emergency custody). So from time to time people ask us about all these often destructive and challenging circumstances that we’ve survived. Which is fine, if we have gained any wisdom from these things then we want to share it. Normally though, people don’t ask questions preemptively, but after the fact. So when a young married man ask me to talk, it normally isn’t so he can guard his marriage and learn and grow as a husband, it is so he can hopefully repair the damage caused by a situation similar to ours.

FELT LOVE

Recently several conversations have stirred in my brain questions about the messy mix of love and feelings. First, a young Christian male dating and sinning with a non-Christian female. Then, a young couple who, like us, just adopted and are struggling to feel connected to their new children. And finally, another young man struggling to reconcile with his wife after her affair. The anchor in these situations, and in many others, is this idea of love, but specifically “felt love”.

Everyone would agree that they want to be loved. Well, being loved is one thing, but what we normally mean when we say this is that we want to feel loved, or have the positive emotions associated with love . This is where it gets tricky. Not everything that feels like love is love, and not everything that does not feel like love is not love. Here’s two easy examples.

First, lets say one of my five daughters is playing and she begins to wander dangerously close to the road. I, because I love her, intervene and keep her from harm, but she is young and immature, she doesn’t realise that I just saved her. All she knows is that I stopped her from having fun. She is being loved by me, but she doesn’t emotionally feel loved by me.

Secondly, as I mentioned before my wife and I survived adultery. Adultery is for me the most prominent example. There are tons of feelings in something like this, and some of those feelings even feel and seem to be loving, but is this love? Is there genuine love between one person’s spouse and a romantic partner outside of the marriage? Not in any real way, certainly not in any biblical way. There may be lots of emotional feelings, but not any real, or perhaps a better word would be, legitimate love.

So for the young man dating a non-Christian woman. He’s in this place, it emotionally feels a lot like love, but it isn’t legitimate love at all. At least it isn’t according to Jesus, but what does Jesus know about love anyway? (Add sarcasm to that last line)

To my friend who is trying to reconcile with his wife there isn’t hardly any “felt love”, but there are hard decisions and actions that are evidence of that elusive legitimate love. “We’re only doing this because we need each other.” Well great! That decision, is in my view, a right one. The decision is based in reality, and it is a true statement. It’s much easier to build on the truth and in reality, than on the need for special feelings.

Similarly with our friends who just recently brought home two children. Struggling to feel emotionally connected to children that they did not give birth to, not a lot of “felt love”, but lots of acts of love. They are much braver and courageous that someone who gives into every whim of their heart.

The world, and the people who make it up, tend to place most of our stock in emotional felt love over the actual acts of legitimate love. We see this everywhere. How often do you hear someone appeal to their feelings or emotions over all wise counsel to the contrary? “Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, but I feel like I should…” We all want to live in our own personal version of the Notebook, A Walk to Remember or Love Actually, but actually these movies are merely entertainment. These movies pull at our heart strings, at our need for felt love, and rightfully so, the feelings and emotions they evoke are powerful.

LET’S RECAP

When we long for love what we really mean is that we want the feelings associated wIth love. There is a danger here. Feeling loved is not bad, but when it becomes the basis for our decision making, especially in relationships, we inevitably make poor and sometimes damaging choices. Felt love is powerful and easily manipulated. Heck, you can use the right mixture of chemicals to manipulate someone’ s feelings, not to mention the manipulative tools of charm and flattery. Again, felt love is powerful, but it is not the source of all things for us to live out of. Simply put, feelings are a response that should not be ignored, but instead, they should tested.

TESTING THEM FEELS

Great thinkers, much greater than me, have dived into helpful studies on the different types of love. I want to do something that I think is a little different. Instead of looking at the different types of loves and the ways they play out, I want to look at the way we feel these emotions in order to discern between valid and invalid feelings of love. Hopefully this will provide for us, a sort of test by which we can check our hearts when they are prone to wander.

YOUR HEAD, YOUR GUT, YOUR HEART

I think there are three main ways that we perceive feelings. Through our head or thoughts, through our gut or conscience and finally through our hearts or emotions.

The order that we test OUR emotions is important. It would seem that many of these emotions hit out heart first, and although they hit there first, they should first be tested by your head. I don’t begrudge people who are “heart first” types, but if you’re heart always leads from emotion without any tether to reason, it may be a sign that your heart is insufficiently guarded.

We should take what we know in our and minds and measure and guide what we feel in our hearts by it. I think our minds are the front gate, if you let something past the front gate it becomes more difficult to resist. It starts to become part of your internal thought process. Things are much harder to separate once they get past the front gate.

What we know in our minds keeps us grounded in reality. Whatever you preceive to be true in your head is a good predictor of what your heart will pursue. Fortunately for Christians, we have the revelation of scripture to inform us on what we know to be true, and what we should and should not pursue. We then allow God’s truth to renew our minds and then change or hearts.

So for my Christian friend in a sinning relationship with a non-Christian woman. He knows in his head that he is sinning, he also knows that this relationship is one that God would not approve of. He has acknowledged all counsel that supports this end as being in the right. So what happened? Why is he with her? Why doesn’t he break up with her and repent?

He has not successfully guarded the front gate of his mind. He let the influence of the feelings of his heart have influence over what he knows in his head, now everything is tangled up, and he can’t make sense of reason. “I hear what you’re saying, and I know you’re right, but no one has ever made me feel like this before.” Do you see the difference? Your head, when filled and shapped with the truth, protects your heart from foolish and sinful decisions.

As a young man, my friend, if he could act in accordance to what he knows is the truth, he will come out more mature and disciplined in the end. This will help him greatly in the ultimate relationship of marriage, and even more so as a parent. Instead he will become dull in his thinking, and waste much of the time that he could be growing into biblical manhood.

If these emotions get past the front gate of your mind the next last ditch effort is your gut, otherwise know as your conscience. The final defense, it tends to hold fast, and nag at us, even while we foolishly let the emotions of our heart pull us every which way. Even still it can be overcome and snuffed out.

That nagging feeling that won’t let you go. Everyone has a conscience, and if your mind is the front gate, then your conscious is the personal guard to your heart saying “turn back now!” It’s an alarm of sorts. You are no longer thinking clearly and now panic mode starts.

My wife and I did an interview for our church about our own reconciliation. I remember my wife saying that the whole time she kept thinking “Why am I doing this? “, “Why don’t I go back and work things out?” She was broken, her front gate had been broken down, her heart stolen away, and for eight months the alarm of her conscious rang in her gut telling her to “go home.”

When not in panic mode, our conscience serves to give us peace when we make tough choices that directly conflict the screening desires of our hearts.

My friends struggling to reconcile with his wife is here. He knows in his mind that he should reconcile, he thinks he wants to, but his heart wants to bail. His heart says “It’ll be easier to give up.” His mind says “I know I shouldn’t give up”, his conscious tells him to “Be strong and hold the gate.”

Once a feeling is tested by the mind and it travels safely through the gate it can move to the conscious. If examined by the concious and no alarms are set off, then we can, within reason, allow that feeling, and its emotions to rest safely in our hearts. How peaceful would you feel if every decision you made went through this test?

REVERSE ENGINEER THE TEST

However, the way this works best is not only as a test to see what feelings and desires that we should allow in our hearts, but to see which ones are already there that should be exiled. Then to further see which ones are missing that we should seek and welcome into our hearts.

My new friends just brought home two children from a far off foreign land. Two babies who don’t look like them or have anything in common with them, but they chose to love them anyway. Naturally there is a disconnect that is there, a disconnect that doesn’t happen when you carry your own children to term. Through reflection they see the missing desires and feelings and seek them thoroughly. They are willing to give their lives for their two girls even though they don’t naturally feel the same type of connection as they do to their natural child.

To me, this is more profound than simply following the emotions of their own hearts. To show love, and give your life for someone when you don’t feel it, is a much more difficult task, and at same time it is profoundly life changing for both the giver and the receiver.

BRINGING IT HOME

It is remarkably like Jesus. Who, with his impending death, was in great despair in the garden. He even ask his father for another way, for this “cup to pass”, and inspite of his holy heart breaking, he decides to love us anyway. That determination of will overpowered the feelings and emotions of his heart. Jesus still acted from his heart, but not according to its emotions, but by its conviction and it’s trust in God. It’s as if the savior said to himself “I don’t feel this, but I’m going to do this, even if it kills me, because I know that there is no other way.”

I know that at one point in my life, that understanding of Jesus in this light, convinced me to love and serve my wife, even when she hated and betrayed me. I felt miserable, I looked for many ways out of my commitment, I wanted to quit but I knew in my mind that I couldn’t. Something in me thought that if Jesus could suffer and die for his beloved, then so could I. Not because I am able, but when my gates fall and my concious fails, his spirit would make me able, and his gates would be my protection.

My wife would later say that seeing me change made her think that she could change. That she thought I was weak, but later realised that I was being strong. Christ made his appeal to my wife through me. If none of this happened, if I would of followed the feelings of my heart, then we would of never experienced the love and joy of reconciliation. It could of harmed another way, but God was faithful, and kind, and patient enough to walk us back through our messy feelings and emotions, and redeem everyone.