Today, when you ask people who God is, you can get every answer from orthodox to weird. Most people in our culture seem to believe in a god of some sort. Most people, however, seem to make their own definition. There are some definite traits that the majority of people seem to agree upon. God is “good”—but what is good seems to change from person to person. God is love—but love is also open to interpretation. God is fair—but we don’t understand why the innocent perish or the wicked prosper. God is great and completely other—but we seem to grasp who he is and are pretty comfortable with putting him in our box. These are just the answers off the street—great men from history and philosophy have pondered this question too. According to Plato, God is the eternal mind, the cause of good in nature. Aristotle considered him to be “the first ground of all being.” Leibniz says that the final reason of things is called God. Kant defined God as a being who, by his understanding and will, is the cause of all nature; a being who has all rights and no duties; the moral author of the world. Hegel considered God the absolute spirit (giest), yet without consciousness until it becomes conscious in the reason of man. These answers, whether we agree with them or not, show that there is something unanswered about the nature of God. And it also shows that we want the answer.
Nevertheless, the only tool we have in-and-of ourselves to define God is our insight (a philosophical word meaning “best guess”). What we find is that because God is transcendent (bigger than we can understand), and because we are a fallen and frustrated people, our best guesses are just as fallen and frustrating as we are. Yet, we keep searching for a greater understanding of God and who he is. The Teacher, in the book of Ecclesiastes, tells us that God has set eternity in our hearts, yet we still cannot fathom him (3.11). What he means is this—we know that God exists, and we know that we are meant to know that he exists, but we are so small that anything we come up with sounds like a three-year-old explaining how a carburetor works. But God is good enough to reveal himself to us in such a way that we can apprehend this revelation and understand it. This is done through General Revelation (nature, conscience, providence) and Special Revelation (miracles, the Incarnation, Scripture). With these, God trumps our insight and tells us who he is; he tells us about his beauty, his love, his glory, and sometimes we recognize these things and respond as we ought to—worship and awe. But sometimes we confuse the issue like the Athenians in Acts 17.16-34. Here, Paul sees how the Athenians recognized God’s providence during a plague several years back by building alters. However, they didn’t know who they were worshiping, so they wrote, “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”, on the formless statues. It was here that Paul uses their insight to point out the revelation of God in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He uses a tool that most of us Christians have forgotten all about. He uses the tool of context. The Athenians had a concept of God and Paul used this concept within the context of Greek culture to show them how God was revealing himself and how this revelation should be understood. He didn’t use a tract or a pizza feed. He didn’t use an outreach strategy or attractive church bulletins. He used the context of the people and spoke to them using ideas from their own culture and world-view. God has done the same for us. Jesus came down and became a man so that we could understand who God is. Paul writes about Jesus in his letter to the Colossians 1.15 that he is the image of the invisible God. A theologian by the name of John Calvin, writing about the incarnation (God becoming a man) called it “the Great Condescension”. It was where God revealed his love by lowering himself to our level and showing us who he is so that we might once again know the unknown God.
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Truth
One of the more important things under attack in our culture today is the concept of Truth. Most of us live as functioning relativists. We exist in a bubble of reality in which we can hold to anything that permits our behavior and world-view. What we believe is “true for us,” because it confirms our perceptions and our interpretation of reality. When we are confronted by a contradictory truth it is validated as true for that other individual, but is still not incorporated into our own reality. The problem with this is that, by default, having individually validated truth invalidates all truth. By saying that everybody is right, you essentially prove everyone wrong. This is called the law of the excluded middle (something is either true or it is false—there is no middle ground). It is one or the other. The fact of the matter is that not all “truths” are true and not all opinions are equal and to assert otherwise is itself a contradiction.
This foolishness, however, stems from a very true assessment of the human condition, but it comes to a very false conclusion. It is true that man’s ability to fully comprehend reality and to universally recognize truth is flawed. We have different perspectives and we have different opinions because sin has permeated and fractured man’s connection to the world around him and has severed his connection to God who, by definition, is Truth. However, to fix this uncertainty we came up with the idea that we can define our own truth and everything will turn out fine. Essentially, we admitted to ourselves that we are blind and convinced ourselves the cure to our blindness is to close our eyes, jump in the driver’s seat and go on a joy ride. This kind of public-school logic is the best we could come up with. However, despite our backwards attempts to find Truth, God, who us above creation, saw fit to step in and show us truth, instead of letting us fumble around like a drunken prom date. This was done through relationship and revelation and providence. It was done by what is called inspiration. As God revealed truth, we began to recognize it a like lost sheep hearing the voice of its shepherd, and we wrote it down and kept it. As these things were passed from one person to another, they became volumes of historical accounts and letters and prophetic declarations, until finally they became one volume of complementary texts. These texts were transcribed and translated, and guys with too much time on their hands came up with lists adding in and subtracting books in the Bible. They did this to propagate their theological and political agendas thinking that they were more important than they were. Things became messed up, the original manuscripts were lost, and new ones were made. There were errors here and there—words misspelled, phrases adjusted, punctuation changed—but God preserved the truth of his word.
The original texts were written by men who were guided by the Holy Spirit making use of their personalities to superintend every word that was written. But over time as the originals were lost, errors occurred in transcription but not in such a way as to influence any significant doctrine. That is to say, as the different existing manuscripts are compared, although they vary in details, the overarching teachings and doctrines are not changed. The Holy Spirit preserved the truth as God laid it out for man to know and as hard as we tried, we did not destroy its message. This is a miraculous testament to the eternal nature of God’s truth and gives some credence and reason for the belief in the Word of God—it gives credence and validity to what we call the Bible. The words and teachings that come from its pages do not come from man who is crooked and deceived; they came from God who is the ultimate authority. It isn’t a book of good ideas or morals, but it is the standard by which we are to look at the world and verify whether we see the world for what it truly is or we are looking at it upside down because we are an upside down and perverted people.
This foolishness, however, stems from a very true assessment of the human condition, but it comes to a very false conclusion. It is true that man’s ability to fully comprehend reality and to universally recognize truth is flawed. We have different perspectives and we have different opinions because sin has permeated and fractured man’s connection to the world around him and has severed his connection to God who, by definition, is Truth. However, to fix this uncertainty we came up with the idea that we can define our own truth and everything will turn out fine. Essentially, we admitted to ourselves that we are blind and convinced ourselves the cure to our blindness is to close our eyes, jump in the driver’s seat and go on a joy ride. This kind of public-school logic is the best we could come up with. However, despite our backwards attempts to find Truth, God, who us above creation, saw fit to step in and show us truth, instead of letting us fumble around like a drunken prom date. This was done through relationship and revelation and providence. It was done by what is called inspiration. As God revealed truth, we began to recognize it a like lost sheep hearing the voice of its shepherd, and we wrote it down and kept it. As these things were passed from one person to another, they became volumes of historical accounts and letters and prophetic declarations, until finally they became one volume of complementary texts. These texts were transcribed and translated, and guys with too much time on their hands came up with lists adding in and subtracting books in the Bible. They did this to propagate their theological and political agendas thinking that they were more important than they were. Things became messed up, the original manuscripts were lost, and new ones were made. There were errors here and there—words misspelled, phrases adjusted, punctuation changed—but God preserved the truth of his word.
The original texts were written by men who were guided by the Holy Spirit making use of their personalities to superintend every word that was written. But over time as the originals were lost, errors occurred in transcription but not in such a way as to influence any significant doctrine. That is to say, as the different existing manuscripts are compared, although they vary in details, the overarching teachings and doctrines are not changed. The Holy Spirit preserved the truth as God laid it out for man to know and as hard as we tried, we did not destroy its message. This is a miraculous testament to the eternal nature of God’s truth and gives some credence and reason for the belief in the Word of God—it gives credence and validity to what we call the Bible. The words and teachings that come from its pages do not come from man who is crooked and deceived; they came from God who is the ultimate authority. It isn’t a book of good ideas or morals, but it is the standard by which we are to look at the world and verify whether we see the world for what it truly is or we are looking at it upside down because we are an upside down and perverted people.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
His Name Is The Word of God: The Importance of Seeing Jesus From Scripture (Part 4)
Jesus speaks for himself. The book of Revelation is often pigeonholed as being a book of prophecy about the end of time, however, it clearly states in the first verse that it is regarding “the revelation of Jesus Christ”. As such, it gives us a clear picture of the worship of Jesus in heaven as he sits on his throne today and the way in which he will return to judge the earth and bring justice. Chapter 19 verse 13 describes his return like this; “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.” This is reminiscent of how John describes his first arrival as a humble Galilean peasant, where he says at the beginning of the gospel account, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” The Greek word here is “logos” which is where we derive our English term “logic” from, just as 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 24 calls Christ the power and wisdom of God, Jesus Christ is the physical expression of God’s heart and mind. That expression is so powerful that it transcends the pages of the Bible and speaks on its own. You don’t have to be literate to understand who Jesus is because his Spirit teaches and reminds us who he is, just as he promised in John 14 verse 26.
The difference between the words of the Bible and the ideas that others have formulated is that the Bible makes the claim to be revelation while everything else is mere speculation. It is my belief that nothing can really be known apart from revelation; this was the key to the struggle of men like Kant and Kierkegaard who saw human reasoning as incapable of grasping external realities, this is in agreement with the Bible which says that God is the source of knowledge and wisdom (e.g. Proverbs 9:10, Ecclesiastes 2:26, James 1:5). Likewise, when the Bible says that Jesus taught with authority (Luke 4:32) it means that he said what a thing meant instead of what he thought it meant. This is the nature of Scripture too.
Jesus has revealed himself in myriad ways; his life, death, and resurrection are extraordinarily multifaceted in their depth and meaning, which is part of what makes him such an intriguing figure for people from all walks of life. There are three distinct Biblical roles which Jesus is revealed as having fulfilled, those are the offices of prophet, priest, and king. What is interesting is that many people who make claims about Jesus distinguishable from what the Bible says about him still grasp some of Jesus' character while ignoring other aspects. For example, Protestant liberals who neglect Biblical teaching in order to avoid offending others see Jesus' role as a priest and a king who distributes mercy to people and kindly rules over them without judging them or speaking ill of them, they forget that Jesus is also a prophet who speaks truth into our lives and reminds us that we are guilty sinners who deserve death. On the other hand, Christian fundamentalists understand Jesus as a king and prophet who rules over people and judges them, but they forget that he is also a priest who mediates for his people and forgives their sin. Many Christian evangelicals today also remember that Jesus is both priest and prophet who speaks the truth and gives grace, but they forget that he is a king who rules over their time, money, sex, food, and relationships so they do not subject themselves to his rule and obey him, but instead live hypocritical lives. For this reason a deeper trust in the Scriptures is needed; a holistic understanding of the Bible and a firm belief in its sufficiency is absolutely essential to Christianity.
The book off Hebrews chapter 4 verses 12 and 13 declares, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” The Bible makes the claim that God’s word (that is, Jesus as he is revealed through Scripture and the testimony of the Holy Spirit) is actively involved in judging our hearts, similarly, in James chapter 1 verses 22 through 25, the Bible is likened to a mirror in which we can see ourselves for who and what we really are; we may see our sinfulness apart from Christ and we may also see that in Christ there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1), because the believer’s sin has been forgiven and cleansed, having been replaced with Jesus’ own righteous status before God.
Without the Scripture, no one could feel the weight of their own sin and be compelled to repent and look to God for forgiveness; without the Scripture, no one would see Jesus fulfilling the roles of prophet, priest, and king or be able to ponder the many mysterious facets of his identity. Without Scripture, there would be nothing for people to speculate about; because Scripture is the only credible and tangible revelation we have of the person and work of Jesus Christ. We must look to the Bible alone if we want to see Jesus.
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
The difference between the words of the Bible and the ideas that others have formulated is that the Bible makes the claim to be revelation while everything else is mere speculation. It is my belief that nothing can really be known apart from revelation; this was the key to the struggle of men like Kant and Kierkegaard who saw human reasoning as incapable of grasping external realities, this is in agreement with the Bible which says that God is the source of knowledge and wisdom (e.g. Proverbs 9:10, Ecclesiastes 2:26, James 1:5). Likewise, when the Bible says that Jesus taught with authority (Luke 4:32) it means that he said what a thing meant instead of what he thought it meant. This is the nature of Scripture too.
Jesus has revealed himself in myriad ways; his life, death, and resurrection are extraordinarily multifaceted in their depth and meaning, which is part of what makes him such an intriguing figure for people from all walks of life. There are three distinct Biblical roles which Jesus is revealed as having fulfilled, those are the offices of prophet, priest, and king. What is interesting is that many people who make claims about Jesus distinguishable from what the Bible says about him still grasp some of Jesus' character while ignoring other aspects. For example, Protestant liberals who neglect Biblical teaching in order to avoid offending others see Jesus' role as a priest and a king who distributes mercy to people and kindly rules over them without judging them or speaking ill of them, they forget that Jesus is also a prophet who speaks truth into our lives and reminds us that we are guilty sinners who deserve death. On the other hand, Christian fundamentalists understand Jesus as a king and prophet who rules over people and judges them, but they forget that he is also a priest who mediates for his people and forgives their sin. Many Christian evangelicals today also remember that Jesus is both priest and prophet who speaks the truth and gives grace, but they forget that he is a king who rules over their time, money, sex, food, and relationships so they do not subject themselves to his rule and obey him, but instead live hypocritical lives. For this reason a deeper trust in the Scriptures is needed; a holistic understanding of the Bible and a firm belief in its sufficiency is absolutely essential to Christianity.
The book off Hebrews chapter 4 verses 12 and 13 declares, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” The Bible makes the claim that God’s word (that is, Jesus as he is revealed through Scripture and the testimony of the Holy Spirit) is actively involved in judging our hearts, similarly, in James chapter 1 verses 22 through 25, the Bible is likened to a mirror in which we can see ourselves for who and what we really are; we may see our sinfulness apart from Christ and we may also see that in Christ there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1), because the believer’s sin has been forgiven and cleansed, having been replaced with Jesus’ own righteous status before God.
Without the Scripture, no one could feel the weight of their own sin and be compelled to repent and look to God for forgiveness; without the Scripture, no one would see Jesus fulfilling the roles of prophet, priest, and king or be able to ponder the many mysterious facets of his identity. Without Scripture, there would be nothing for people to speculate about; because Scripture is the only credible and tangible revelation we have of the person and work of Jesus Christ. We must look to the Bible alone if we want to see Jesus.
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
His Name Is The Word of God: The Importance of Seeing Jesus From Scripture (Part 3)
Many people point to Jesus life and teaching as especially profound because he emphasizes a unique love for the marginalized and he took a stand against the political and religious establishment of his day. They see this as an example worth following and picture Jesus as a supporter of their particular cause. But we must consider the reasons Jesus lived and spoke the way he did. To extract his words and actions from the historical context they are set in is to obscure them rather than reveal their true intent.
Jesus was born into a religious community during a time in which expectancy of the Messiah, the promised Savior of the Jews prophesied about in the books written by Moses (e.g. Deuteronomy 18:14-22) and the prophetic books, had reached a fever pitch. It was an environment more emotionally and religiously charged than the presidential election in our own day. Everyone wants to know who it’s going to be, everyone is waiting and watching for their redeemer. Primarily, this is because they had endured a long history of exile and occupation by the Assyrians, by the Babylonians, by Persia, by the Greeks, and now the seemingly unbreakable Romans had taken over. They knew from prophesies such as the one found in the book of Daniel (chapter 2 verses 24-35) that the Messiah would have to come soon. They were expecting a political ruler who would overthrow the government and take back Israel, liberating the nation from its captors. This was the world that Jesus came to.
Jesus began his ministry by opening up the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (61:1,2) and reading in the Jewish synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…” and then he said “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The Jews would have understood this as a claim that the Messiah had in fact come and they would soon be free from the political oppression of Rome. We then read that he went on to preach “the good news of the kingdom of God, for which he was sent”. So, this was the basis for his teaching, not for any other reason but the firm conviction that the Christ (another word describing the Messiah which means the “anointed one” in Greek) had, in fact, arrived.
But who was he proclaiming as the Christ? In Luke chapter 22, Jesus stands before the elders and chief priests of the Jews and is asked point blank to answer this question:
He is then brought before the Roman governor Pilate and asked again if he is the Christ, the King of the Jews:
Prior to that moment, Jesus had repeatedly made similar claims; here are just a few examples:
From this it is abundantly clear that Jesus endured false trials, severe flogging, and death by crucifixion for no other reason than his claim to be God incarnate, the promised Messiah who would, rather than establishing a physical political kingdom as the Jews had expected, establish a lasting spiritual kingdom; redeeming his people by becoming the ultimate and final sacrifice to atone for their sin, bearing upon himself God’s wrath and punishment for sin, according to the sacrificial system that had long been established and practiced in the Jewish temple.
This being a matter of fact, if Jesus were not telling the truth about himself, we can no longer call him a good teacher who gave hope to the oppressed. Rather, he would be liar and a false prophet who deceived people and incited God fearing Jews to commit idolatry and worship him. He instructed people to willingly give their lives to him and his cause leading millions of followers to die in vain at the hands of their persecutors. Neither can we celebrate his rebellion against the religious establishment, since he would only have been replacing it with a more corrupt and deceptive religion than any that ever existed. In short, if the Bible’s claims about Jesus aren’t true, Jesus is the worst man who ever lived, not the greatest.
Still, there are some who deny that Jesus ever made these claims, choosing to believe instead that what the historical Jesus said and did is only embedded in the theological agenda of the gospel narratives and needs to be salvaged. This attitude is best represented by the efforts of the Jesus Seminar; a cadre of liberal scholars and theologians who voted on what Jesus did and didn’t say. Needless to say, only a small remnant of Jesus words remained (82% were deemed inauthentic). But why are the opinions of modern scholars to be trusted any more than the authors of the gospel narratives who claimed to be eyewitnesses of Jesus? And if the Bible isn’t trustworthy, is there another more credible account of Jesus to be found? The fact is, there is not. The Bible is the most detailed and explanatory volume we have regarding the person and work of Jesus. Yes, it is filled with dogmatic assertions about his divinity, but those assertions are no more dogmatic than the censures of the relativistic Jesus Seminar.
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
Jesus was born into a religious community during a time in which expectancy of the Messiah, the promised Savior of the Jews prophesied about in the books written by Moses (e.g. Deuteronomy 18:14-22) and the prophetic books, had reached a fever pitch. It was an environment more emotionally and religiously charged than the presidential election in our own day. Everyone wants to know who it’s going to be, everyone is waiting and watching for their redeemer. Primarily, this is because they had endured a long history of exile and occupation by the Assyrians, by the Babylonians, by Persia, by the Greeks, and now the seemingly unbreakable Romans had taken over. They knew from prophesies such as the one found in the book of Daniel (chapter 2 verses 24-35) that the Messiah would have to come soon. They were expecting a political ruler who would overthrow the government and take back Israel, liberating the nation from its captors. This was the world that Jesus came to.
Jesus began his ministry by opening up the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (61:1,2) and reading in the Jewish synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…” and then he said “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The Jews would have understood this as a claim that the Messiah had in fact come and they would soon be free from the political oppression of Rome. We then read that he went on to preach “the good news of the kingdom of God, for which he was sent”. So, this was the basis for his teaching, not for any other reason but the firm conviction that the Christ (another word describing the Messiah which means the “anointed one” in Greek) had, in fact, arrived.
But who was he proclaiming as the Christ? In Luke chapter 22, Jesus stands before the elders and chief priests of the Jews and is asked point blank to answer this question:
“If you are the Christ,” they said “tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.” They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied, “You are right in saying I am.” Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”
He is then brought before the Roman governor Pilate and asked again if he is the Christ, the King of the Jews:
“So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” “Yes it is as you say,” Jesus replied.”
Prior to that moment, Jesus had repeatedly made similar claims; here are just a few examples:
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Matthew 11:27
“Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:6,7
“You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” John 10:23,24
"We are not stoning you for any of these [miracles]," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God." John 10:33
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6,7
From this it is abundantly clear that Jesus endured false trials, severe flogging, and death by crucifixion for no other reason than his claim to be God incarnate, the promised Messiah who would, rather than establishing a physical political kingdom as the Jews had expected, establish a lasting spiritual kingdom; redeeming his people by becoming the ultimate and final sacrifice to atone for their sin, bearing upon himself God’s wrath and punishment for sin, according to the sacrificial system that had long been established and practiced in the Jewish temple.
This being a matter of fact, if Jesus were not telling the truth about himself, we can no longer call him a good teacher who gave hope to the oppressed. Rather, he would be liar and a false prophet who deceived people and incited God fearing Jews to commit idolatry and worship him. He instructed people to willingly give their lives to him and his cause leading millions of followers to die in vain at the hands of their persecutors. Neither can we celebrate his rebellion against the religious establishment, since he would only have been replacing it with a more corrupt and deceptive religion than any that ever existed. In short, if the Bible’s claims about Jesus aren’t true, Jesus is the worst man who ever lived, not the greatest.
Still, there are some who deny that Jesus ever made these claims, choosing to believe instead that what the historical Jesus said and did is only embedded in the theological agenda of the gospel narratives and needs to be salvaged. This attitude is best represented by the efforts of the Jesus Seminar; a cadre of liberal scholars and theologians who voted on what Jesus did and didn’t say. Needless to say, only a small remnant of Jesus words remained (82% were deemed inauthentic). But why are the opinions of modern scholars to be trusted any more than the authors of the gospel narratives who claimed to be eyewitnesses of Jesus? And if the Bible isn’t trustworthy, is there another more credible account of Jesus to be found? The fact is, there is not. The Bible is the most detailed and explanatory volume we have regarding the person and work of Jesus. Yes, it is filled with dogmatic assertions about his divinity, but those assertions are no more dogmatic than the censures of the relativistic Jesus Seminar.
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
His Name Is The Word of God: The Importance of Seeing Jesus From Scripture (Part 2)
With the dawn of the age of enlightenment in the 18th century, a shift in thinking occurred in which people began to trust the popular scientific theories of the day which denied the existence of miracles and anything that did not conform to the concept of natural laws, in this way they began to distrust the Scriptures which lay claim to many supernatural events and miracles.
In addition to that, philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Soren Kierkegaard began to question how we perceive truth itself, rather than pursuing truth objectively, reasonably, and rationally they argued that because of the limits of reason one must take a non-rational leap into the unknown and pursue truth subjectively, since no one can really know anything with absolute certainty. Therefore, all truth is relative to the individual mind, and nothing can really be known for certain (of course, according to this philosophy, none of these ideas can be known for certain either). This thinking has both enabled some to believe what the Bible says about Jesus without obligation to provide evidence for its claims while leading others to dismiss the Bible on purely personal or emotional grounds without the need to justify their dismissal with evidence or reason.
This is only a small glimpse of the kind of social and philosophical climate out of which the United States was birthed, amidst the struggle for independence from Britain during the revolutionary war and the Christian revival known as the first Great Awakening led by men like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards who spoke of the personal power of the Christian experience, a nation was founded that highly valued freedom and individualism. This kind of idealism forged a Christianity tailored to the individual as churchgoers and clergy alike began to consider less what God has done for all people but instead, what God has done for the individual sinner.
Out of this grew an intense focus on Jesus humanity and his communicable attributes; his mercy and grace, how he was a suffering servant who was tempted just as we are and a man who can relate to the individual sinner, in place of an emphasis on his divinity and incommunicable attributes; his justice and wrath, his holiness, his sovereign kingship and judgment of mankind. This change in thinking became most evident around the time of the Second Great Awakening which featured such voices as John Wesley and Charles Finney who placed a greater emphasis on human free will, the individual's own salvation and personal relationship with God, and were known for working people into the kind of emotional fervor we see today in Christian charismatic circles in order to incite a massive altar call. As Christianity in America by and large became more man-centered, it subsequently became less God-centered and lost its trust in the supernatural elements of the faith.
With the arrival of Charles Finney’s “new measures” churches began to take a more pragmatic approach to Sunday services, rather than looking to the power of the Holy Spirit to create new hearts and transform lives, they began to consider innovative strategies they might implement to fill their pews, many of which involved neglecting or dismissing altogether the doctrines that were most offensive to unbelievers such as hell and the atonement. Teaching centered itself around political and social activism and the Bible began to be considered more and more passé or even obsolete as modern evangelicalism and liberal Protestantism emerged.
The United States stands today as a nation that is celebrated for being multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-perspectival; the relativistic non-rational ideals of philosophers like Kant and Kiergegaard are the rule, rather than the exception and now even the most far-fetched religious or philosophical claim may be accepted as truthful under the banner of “tolerance”. These forces combined with American consumer capitalism have led to a pick and choose variety of religion where any person may choose from a buffet of religious beliefs and practices without regard to its veracity, since truth is no longer considered objective, but is instead defined for and by the individual.
What is ironic about all this is that while those who subscribe to moral and religious relativism condemn dogma, since, according to their view, the truth can not be known, their claim to have an understanding of ultimate reality as essentially unknowable is equally dogmatic and is, in fact, an incoherent hypothesis contrary to fact. The claim that truth is unknowable is a truth claim in itself which inherently contradicts itself. Relativists somehow manage to slip past the religious radar and lambaste Biblical Christianity for its claim to have an absolute understanding of God and truth, all the while staking their radically dogmatic claim that ultimate reality is unknowable.
With this view in mind, it is not difficult to understand how such an exhaustive variety of contradictory conclusions about Jesus could be formed, entertained, and sustained. What is amazing, however, is that while the teachings about Jesus found in Scripture have been ignored; the name of Jesus still holds authority in every cultural setting. In each case, a particular group of people are calling on the authority of Jesus name to support their cause and they wield his name to gain respect that they otherwise might not have had. This is because they acknowledge, perhaps subconsciously, that Jesus is the greatest, most important, and most influential man who ever lived. But this can only be true if what the Bible says about him is true. I'll explain why in the next installment of this four part series.
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
In addition to that, philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Soren Kierkegaard began to question how we perceive truth itself, rather than pursuing truth objectively, reasonably, and rationally they argued that because of the limits of reason one must take a non-rational leap into the unknown and pursue truth subjectively, since no one can really know anything with absolute certainty. Therefore, all truth is relative to the individual mind, and nothing can really be known for certain (of course, according to this philosophy, none of these ideas can be known for certain either). This thinking has both enabled some to believe what the Bible says about Jesus without obligation to provide evidence for its claims while leading others to dismiss the Bible on purely personal or emotional grounds without the need to justify their dismissal with evidence or reason.
This is only a small glimpse of the kind of social and philosophical climate out of which the United States was birthed, amidst the struggle for independence from Britain during the revolutionary war and the Christian revival known as the first Great Awakening led by men like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards who spoke of the personal power of the Christian experience, a nation was founded that highly valued freedom and individualism. This kind of idealism forged a Christianity tailored to the individual as churchgoers and clergy alike began to consider less what God has done for all people but instead, what God has done for the individual sinner.
Out of this grew an intense focus on Jesus humanity and his communicable attributes; his mercy and grace, how he was a suffering servant who was tempted just as we are and a man who can relate to the individual sinner, in place of an emphasis on his divinity and incommunicable attributes; his justice and wrath, his holiness, his sovereign kingship and judgment of mankind. This change in thinking became most evident around the time of the Second Great Awakening which featured such voices as John Wesley and Charles Finney who placed a greater emphasis on human free will, the individual's own salvation and personal relationship with God, and were known for working people into the kind of emotional fervor we see today in Christian charismatic circles in order to incite a massive altar call. As Christianity in America by and large became more man-centered, it subsequently became less God-centered and lost its trust in the supernatural elements of the faith.
With the arrival of Charles Finney’s “new measures” churches began to take a more pragmatic approach to Sunday services, rather than looking to the power of the Holy Spirit to create new hearts and transform lives, they began to consider innovative strategies they might implement to fill their pews, many of which involved neglecting or dismissing altogether the doctrines that were most offensive to unbelievers such as hell and the atonement. Teaching centered itself around political and social activism and the Bible began to be considered more and more passé or even obsolete as modern evangelicalism and liberal Protestantism emerged.
The United States stands today as a nation that is celebrated for being multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-perspectival; the relativistic non-rational ideals of philosophers like Kant and Kiergegaard are the rule, rather than the exception and now even the most far-fetched religious or philosophical claim may be accepted as truthful under the banner of “tolerance”. These forces combined with American consumer capitalism have led to a pick and choose variety of religion where any person may choose from a buffet of religious beliefs and practices without regard to its veracity, since truth is no longer considered objective, but is instead defined for and by the individual.
What is ironic about all this is that while those who subscribe to moral and religious relativism condemn dogma, since, according to their view, the truth can not be known, their claim to have an understanding of ultimate reality as essentially unknowable is equally dogmatic and is, in fact, an incoherent hypothesis contrary to fact. The claim that truth is unknowable is a truth claim in itself which inherently contradicts itself. Relativists somehow manage to slip past the religious radar and lambaste Biblical Christianity for its claim to have an absolute understanding of God and truth, all the while staking their radically dogmatic claim that ultimate reality is unknowable.
With this view in mind, it is not difficult to understand how such an exhaustive variety of contradictory conclusions about Jesus could be formed, entertained, and sustained. What is amazing, however, is that while the teachings about Jesus found in Scripture have been ignored; the name of Jesus still holds authority in every cultural setting. In each case, a particular group of people are calling on the authority of Jesus name to support their cause and they wield his name to gain respect that they otherwise might not have had. This is because they acknowledge, perhaps subconsciously, that Jesus is the greatest, most important, and most influential man who ever lived. But this can only be true if what the Bible says about him is true. I'll explain why in the next installment of this four part series.
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
His Name Is The Word of God: The Importance of Seeing Jesus From Scripture (Part 1)
Jesus once asked his disciples, “Who do people say [I] am?” and “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15). Their response highlighted the ongoing debate between Christians who take Jesus at his word and the speculations of those who do not. The question is just as relevant and controversial in our modern era as it was then. “Who is Jesus”?
Today Jesus is more universally popular than ever. His name is mentioned more often and more frequently with greater interest than ever before by believers and atheists alike. He is a favorite subject in all forms of media; movies, music, magazines, radio, television, t-shirts, tattoos, sculptures, paintings, pictures, placards, gift cards, billboards, video games, and pro-sports are among the many forums in which Jesus has been discussed and dissected. More books have been written about him than any person in all of history and as opinions about him continue to proliferate that number is increasing exponentially. As a result, his personality has never been more obscured by varying cultural perspectives as it is today.
The questions being asked about him and the answers being given are as diverse as they are numerous. They represent every ethnicity, gender, religious system, political persuasion, and sexual orientation. Practically every aspect of Jesus’ character and identity has been puzzled over and reinterpreted to the degree that there is hardly any consensus between those various sub-cultures as to who he really is. Here are some of the major questions regarding Jesus that have been expressed and are still being debated both in America and abroad:
Is Jesus alive today or dead in his grave?
Is Jesus a willing participant in his death or a case of cosmic child abuse?
Is Jesus a man or an angel or a god or God or God-man?
Is Jesus the brother of Lucifer or is he Michael the Archangel?
Is Jesus a Jew, or a Muslim, a Hindu, or a Buddhist or a Mormon?
Is Jesus fair-skinned or dark-skinned?
Is Jesus African, European, or Asian?
Is Jesus rich or poor?
Is Jesus a democrat or a republican?
Is Jesus a communist or a capitalist?
Is Jesus a sexist or a feminist?
Is Jesus happy or sad?
Is Jesus masculine or effeminate?
Is Jesus married or single?
Is Jesus gay, straight, bi-sexual, asexual, or transsexual?
Is Jesus countercultural or conformist?
Is Jesus a moral teacher/philosopher, a social/political rebel, a religious reformer and revolutionary, or the promised Messiah to the Jews and Savior to the Gentiles?
These questions effectively cover the gamut of possible identities for Jesus and they have all been answered and are still being answered by differing people-groups around the world. But one question still begs to be answered: where are they getting their answers from?
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
Today Jesus is more universally popular than ever. His name is mentioned more often and more frequently with greater interest than ever before by believers and atheists alike. He is a favorite subject in all forms of media; movies, music, magazines, radio, television, t-shirts, tattoos, sculptures, paintings, pictures, placards, gift cards, billboards, video games, and pro-sports are among the many forums in which Jesus has been discussed and dissected. More books have been written about him than any person in all of history and as opinions about him continue to proliferate that number is increasing exponentially. As a result, his personality has never been more obscured by varying cultural perspectives as it is today.
The questions being asked about him and the answers being given are as diverse as they are numerous. They represent every ethnicity, gender, religious system, political persuasion, and sexual orientation. Practically every aspect of Jesus’ character and identity has been puzzled over and reinterpreted to the degree that there is hardly any consensus between those various sub-cultures as to who he really is. Here are some of the major questions regarding Jesus that have been expressed and are still being debated both in America and abroad:
Is Jesus alive today or dead in his grave?
Is Jesus a willing participant in his death or a case of cosmic child abuse?
Is Jesus a man or an angel or a god or God or God-man?
Is Jesus the brother of Lucifer or is he Michael the Archangel?
Is Jesus a Jew, or a Muslim, a Hindu, or a Buddhist or a Mormon?
Is Jesus fair-skinned or dark-skinned?
Is Jesus African, European, or Asian?
Is Jesus rich or poor?
Is Jesus a democrat or a republican?
Is Jesus a communist or a capitalist?
Is Jesus a sexist or a feminist?
Is Jesus happy or sad?
Is Jesus masculine or effeminate?
Is Jesus married or single?
Is Jesus gay, straight, bi-sexual, asexual, or transsexual?
Is Jesus countercultural or conformist?
Is Jesus a moral teacher/philosopher, a social/political rebel, a religious reformer and revolutionary, or the promised Messiah to the Jews and Savior to the Gentiles?
These questions effectively cover the gamut of possible identities for Jesus and they have all been answered and are still being answered by differing people-groups around the world. But one question still begs to be answered: where are they getting their answers from?
Recommended Reading and Sources Used:
The Bible (choose a reliable and coherent English translation such as the New International Version or English Standard Version, NIV quotations were used for this blog, however, the ESV is known to be a more literal translation).
American Jesus by Stephen Prothero
Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
Monday, March 24, 2008
Welcome to the Next
Hey everybody! These are indeed exciting times. We have launched our new website, performed the first (to my knowledge) live Bible Study web cast, created Mp3 downloads of those Bible Studies and now we have created this blog. Right now we are set up to potentially be the first virtual church in all of church history. KURIOS has ventured outside of the walls of a church building and at this point in our history we are more virtual than actual. However, this has not distracted from the vision God gave me of a traditional style church with four walls and a pulpit. It has, though, taken the technology and tools of our computer savvy culture to best reach as many people possible with the provocative message of Jesus Christ.
There is some criticism that we are like a body-builder on steroids: overly defined with a small package. But I see the steps we've taken as the skeleton of the body God has created KURIOS to be, not the end result. The vision I have for this church plant is much bigger than me. And so, by using the tools we have at hand, KURIOS is striving to create a new church culture using anything we can to teach sound doctrine and proclaim the life and message of Jesus. There are greater things at stake here than edgy graphics and new evangelism gimmicks: our goal is to see people impacted with the reality of Jesus Christ and be saved from sin and death. As the culture and technologies change we are committed to adapting to better communicate the Gospel. One day the internet will be as obsolete as cassette tapes, but the Gospel will still be relevant. So we will find new mediums to share its message with other people. We will follow Paul's example and become "all things to all men so that by all possible means (we) might save some." (1 Cor 9.22).
The protestant reformers had a saying, semper reformanda (always to be reformed), which articulated the pursuit of truth over tradition. The evangelical and fundamental traditions have ignored the heart behind this conviction, which was not to be corrupted by traditions and religion, but constantly pursue truth even at the expense of institution. Many have turned away from the culture that consumes the people they are hoping to reach with the Gospel, and, as a result, they have become culturally illiterate and irrelevant.
Today, the rebirth of reformation is demonstrated by such movements as the Emergent and Emerging churches. And although these schools of thought are as equally diverse as they are similar, they try to address the same philosophical, spiritual, and cultural issues faced by the church in a post-Christian society. And although KURIOS leans toward the Emerging (theologically conservative) church side of the debate, the reality is that it would be a mistake to swear loyalty to any definition or theologian or successful pastor, no matter how cool the website is. These things are unimportant and can distract from the calling Christians have been given which is to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples out of people who do not know Jesus. This is the big E on the eye chart that most of us have missed. And we are just now repenting and getting back to the basics (hopefully with a little style).
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