The Demise of Christianity

I used to get worried about the possibility of someone finding a forgotten book of the Bible that would turn the entire New Testament on it’s ear. But while I was in seminary I had to read a number of these so called forgotten books of the Bible and was shocked at how poorly they were written and often how often they ripped off the canonical books that were actually included in the New Testament.

Most of these lost gospels (of Mary, Judas, Thomas, Peter, Philip and a host of others) were so inferior in their scope and subject matter and were so childish that I lost interest in them and their content. Further review proved that most of them were 2^nd, 3^rd, or even 4^th Century Gnostic writings. Dan Brown brought back a lot of speculation and interest in these “lost books” when he penned the Da Vinci Code. In fact his book and subsequent movie created a small cottage industry of writer who either debunked his work as simply a fanciful novel or trumpeted the of these pseudepigrapha writings as a fuller more meaningful understanding of Christ’s teaching.

All of this interest and debate died down years ago – until I recently read with a little interest article posted on the Internet. http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/iran-discovery-will-collapse-christianity/ Some who have read this article predict the downfall and destruction of Christianity because of a prophecy in the Gospel of Barnabas. This codex “predicts the coming of Mohammad. Turkish authorities have stated that the copy of the book that they have was written in either the 5th or 6^th Centuries predating the prophet by 100 years before or shortly after his birth in 570 CE. No outside group has been allowed authenticate this work but there is another copy of the Gospel of Barnabas that has been dated as having been written in the 16^th Century.

The religious/political leadership of Iran predicts that when the world reads the “truth” in this book that Christianity will wither away and die while the final word from God, the Koran, will thrive and Islam will flourish and take over the whole world.

Jesus addresses this very issue in the Gospels

¹⁸ I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Matthew 5:18 (NIV)

¹⁷ It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
Luke 16:17 (NIV)

⁸ They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness.
Psalm 111:8 (NIV)

⁸ The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Matthew 24:35 (NIV)

So God’s Word will never fade or pass away, even if some book says otherwise.

“What about the church?” you might ask.

Again Jesus speaks to this

¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek, Petros—a large piece of rock], and on this rock [Greek, petra—a huge rock like Gibraltar] I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) {or the boasting of men} shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold out against it] {or make it disappear}.
Matthew 16:18 (AMP)

Should we worry about man’s attempt to undermine our faith and bring about the destruction of the church?

Well, I’m going to choose to follow God’s response to man’s attempt to waylay God’s plans.

¹ Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
³ "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters."
⁴ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
⁵ Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
⁶ "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."
⁷ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
¹⁰ Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.
¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 2:1-12 (NIV)

Enjoying a last laugh with Father!

Pastor Val

The First Cut is the Deepest

The ancient covenant that God gave to Abraham and his progeny carried with it a sign that all male offspring wore with pride. Some covenants of antiquity required ritualistic cutting and so it was with the covenant the nation of Israel had with their God. Circumcision was seen as a physical sign of a spiritual covenant between God and the nation of Israel. This event was pregnant in meaning, an outward sign signifying God’s promise to His people as well as their commitment to His commands.

Apparently, after the Israelites left Egypt and wandered in the wilderness for 40 years the nation had become lax with their religious duties. They had neglected circumcision for decades. This procedure was so significant that prior to the campaign to conquer the Promise Land the Lord commanded Joshua (the new leader of the Israelite nation) to circumcise all of the male Israelites (see Joshua 5:2-3).

When Jesus established the New Covenant in His blood He established a new sign for all believers (both male and female). Paul refers to it as the circumcision of our hearts (see Romans 2:28-29).

This spiritual circumcision is the act of God cutting away everything in our lives that doesn’t bring Him glory. You see God has to work in us before He can work through us.

To be honest, as a male, I’m not sure which circumcision is worse, which hurts more. I have a feeling that spiritual circumcision is much more painful if for no other reason that I seem to have lots of extra tissue that needs to be removed.

When I was a young child I had a problem with scaring.  My body produced extra scare tissue. The doctor called it “proud flesh.” I guess my spiritual problem is similar, an excessive amount of “proud flesh” that needs to be excised!

If we want to be used of God we need to be properly marked as His and we need to allow Him to remove everything and anything in our lives that detracts from His glory!

Coming to you from the spiritual operating room

Pastor Val

After-Birth Abortions

I recently read a disturbing article in the UK Telegraph. You can find the link below.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9113394/Killing-babies-no-different-from-abortion-experts-say.html

This article is from a couple of medical ethicists associated with Oxford University. Their premise is that since newborn babies are “morally irrelevant” that ending their lives is no different than aborting these babies while they are in utero. 

They argued: “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.” Rather than being “actual persons”, newborns were “potential persons”. They explained: “Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’.”

 “We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her.”

Now I understand the need to debate beliefs to determine what society believes but this seems to be seems to be similar to arguments used by the discredited German ethicists during the 1930s and 40s. Revisiting flawed and failed policies of the past seems to be a recipe for repeated failure in the present or the future.

Unfortunately, some well meaning people have threatened to kill the authors of the article. While this might sound ironically appealing to some, it lowers our moral position down to a similar level that they are on. We who claim to love life are willing to take a life because someone disagrees with our belief system. People who are only discussing an opinion, people who have not acted out their suggestion are threatened with death. Hummm sound suspiciously like conquerors who demand of the defeated “convert or die.” Very high moral ground to stand on, isn’t it?

So as a follower of Jesus what should our reaction to this discussion be?

First, Jesus is interested in children as seen in Matthew 19:14 where He says “Let the little children come to me.” The fact that he encourages the littlest ones to join him says that they matter to Him and to God the Father.

Second, God through the Psalmist tells us that God is intimately involved in the creation of a person while in the womb.

¹³ For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)

When one looks at a DNA helix one can see how the writer with poetic license could say that we are knit together. And remember this was written 1000s of years prior to mankind discovering DNA!

God knows all and has recorded not only our past but also our present and future in His book. Prewritten prior to our creation. This would indicate that not only does God care about people who are persons (according the journal article) but that he cares about us and knows our potential long before we are “viable humans!”

So glad I was not only fearfully but also wonderfully made…exactly the way God intended!

Pastor Val

Getting Even Pt 4 (Giving When the Going Gets Tough)

My final post on Getting Even is based on Matthew 5:42

⁴² Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Matthew 5:38-42 (NIV)

This admonishment of Jesus seems to be best understood two ways: first we are commanded to live open-handedly and second we are commanded to be willing to give or lend to those who persecute us but to treat it as a gift.

Yeah I admit I’m not real crazy about that second one either – but more on that in a bit!

If Matthew’s fourth example deals with the request of the beggar, then the called-for openhandedness is in line with the long Jewish tradition of almsgiving. There is no precise definition for this kind of behavior that is called for, but, as with the other examples, it involves responding appropriately to an initiative taken by another.

Here there is a request apparently from a person of poor means or the second tier from the bottom when a loan is requested. In this instance it is no longer a matter of response to mistreatment, or even to forced conduct, but a straightforward request for help. This teaching seems to relate to the Pentateuch’s teaching on generous living.

⁷ If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.
⁸ Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8 (NIV)

Jesus calls his followers to give to those who ask and not turn away from those who would borrow. He presumes that the needs are genuine and commands us not to ignore them, but he does not specifically mandate how best we can help. As Augustine stated in his comments on this passage “give to everyone that asks,” and not “give everything to him that asks.”

Now if you are like me you are wondering, “Does this mean we are to give to every freeloader and panhandler who comes our way?” I do not think so. If we practiced this we would not be good stewards of God’s funds. People could abuse our generosity and we could even end up bankrupt. Jesus is not recommending that his followers give to every open hand, though, of course, he calls us all to deep generosity.

What then does he mean? This is where we seem to come to the second meaning I suggested at the beginning of this blog. Jesus means that the righteous are to give to those who are attempting to hurt them through borrowing. Luke refers to this kind of persecution when he says,

³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back

Luke 6:35

To understand this second possible meaning I think that Jesus’ advise is for a specific situation in which the persecutor is demanding a loan with no intention to repay. Jesus never says how many times one is to loan to his persecutors. Nor does he mention the restraint that love will impose on one’s generosity. As Alexander Maclaren (a British pastor of renown in the 19^th and early 20^th century) wisely said:

If turning the cheek would make the assaulter more angry, or if yielding the cloak would make the legal robber more greedy, or going the second mile would but make the press gang more severe and exacting, resistance becomes a form of love and duty for the sake of the wrongdoer.

Jesus’ advice is not a set of mechanical rules, but rather principles for addressing personal wrongs that come to those who follow him. In the matter of loaning, the Lord wants his followers to reject being tightfisted, and penny-pinching. Instead of saying, “This is mine and I’ll never share it!” why not say, “Lord how should I respond to this request, this need?” Will honoring this request bring you glory or advance your Kingdom?

I have to say that some of Jesus’ teachings are hard to live out. I always find it interesting that many Bible literalists struggle with teaching and living out Jesus clear literal teachings. It is something that I struggle with as well. And yet if we are going to be fully devoted followers of Jesus – we must live out our lives in obedience to His commands and not our predisposed interpretations of His teachings.

Still trying to pry my hand open

Pastor Val

Getting Even Pt 3 (Going the Extra Mile)

⁴¹ If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 

Matthew 5:41 (NIV)

The issue addressed here is one of compelled service. For more than 600 years dating back to the Persians the idea of compulsory service has been reality of life for many people throughout the Middle east of the time.  We have no specific knowledge of the forms in which this was practiced in Roman Palestine, but since Persian times impressing people and animals without notice for temporary service to the authorities had been customary and legal; the practice has been well documented. The Persians were the first to create a kind of Pony Express in which the mail-carrying rider simply “borrowed” horses along the way.

The hostility that the 1^st Century Jews had for their Roman masters made this even more distasteful. Whenever a Roman official or soldier could ask (compel) anyone within the Empire to carry a burden a mile, that person had to do it regardless of who he was or what the circumstances were. Almost all Jews had been subject to this, and they hated the very mention of it. It is suggested that this compulsory service was the reason behind Simon of Cyrene being forced to carry Jesus cross to Golgotha.

 This recommendation to generously and ungrudgingly comply with this law would have the power to turn an exaction into genuine public service, that was generously given to a representative of the government who has ‘need’ of it. Compulsory and often unpaid or poorly paid public service has not been uncommon in America. Think the draft that has plagued us as far back as the mid 1800’s. The Israelis require a couple of years of compulsory armed service and the Swiss do something similar. With tax season quickly coming upon us a case could be made for taxes being a form of compulsory service.

Does this mean that Jesus is endorsing the practice of impressments? No. In a situation in which changing the rules is not a possibility, the proposed response will have the capacity of turning the nature of the transaction from one in which both parties felt worse about each other after the encounter to one in which positive human interaction might become possible.

So how should we react when forced to serve our country? Well if we can’t affect a change via the polling booth we need to comply with good grace.

It has been suggested that this choice to rejoice even in the midst of discomfort, displeasure and duress was effective in the Gospel sweeping across the Roman Empire and ultimately bringing about the Christianizing of the Empire.

Learning to go the extra mile and liking it!

Pastor Val

Getting Even Pt 2 (Coals of Fire)

In my last blog I discussed living like Jesus who resisted the temptation to retaliate against his enemies. We specifically looked at His teaching from Matthew 5:38-ff.

In this blog I want to continue looking at this passage from Jesus most famous of sermons the “Sermon on the Mount.”

⁴⁰ And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
Matthew 5:40 (NIV)

 In this teaching it is easy to conclude several things. One there is a case against the defendant. Two, since the suit is seeking the person’s tunic we can assume the defendant presumably poor. Obviously if the defendant had more possessions the plaintiff would ask for something more substantial. Three notice that the suit does not ask for the defendant’s cloak. This is his outer garment. You see the plaintiff is literally seeking the “shirt off the back” of the defendant.

At first glance this looks a bit odd to a twenty-first century person living in the west. It isn’t until we understand that a person’s cloak was the most important piece of clothing a person owned. It doubled as a coat or a means to carry grain or heavy objects by day and a blanket or even pillow by night.

One has to admit that the taking of the very clothes of of a debtor’s back is rather callous at the least and perhaps against the law.

²⁵ "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.
²⁶ If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset,
²⁷ because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Exodus 22:25-27 (NIV)

While this seems so unfair and unreasonable to us, we only have to look at some of the laws and judgments handed down in this country to see how possible this scenario is. The stripping naked of this poor person graphically reveals the destruction of human dignity, in which the plaintiff is engaged in. Notice that Jesus taught that the plaintiff’s demands are not to be resisted, instead He teaches us to exceed their unjust demands. In the process the plaintiffs are unmasked for what they are. The end result is to heap coals of fire on their head.

²⁰ On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Romans 12:20 (NIV)

Still learning to give it all away

Pastor Val

Getting Even!

Have you ever been cut off by someone on the road and you want a little payback so you ride their bumper or race to get in front of them so you can return the favor?

Your friend stabs you in the back and you wait in the tall grass until you can repay the favor.

Or your coworker or boss has you spend a ton of extra time on your own (weekends and evenings) doing a project only to have them take all of the credit, glory and more than a few attaboys form those higher up!

Life seems to be full of events that just beg for payback!

Have you ever considered God’s position on paybacks?

In the Old Testament the concept of “an eye for a eye” seems harsh in today’s culture but actually it was designed to stop the escalating of retaliations like a head for a eye. Reflecting over some of the famous feuds in fiction as the Montagues and Capulets of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet or history like the Hatfields and the McCoys of the southern hills of the United States points to how long lasting feuds and their consequences can be.

Hammurabi was one of the first rulers to codify the limiting of retribution as well as some 281 other laws. Some have suggested that the Old Testament writers used this code to help them codify the laws of the Old Testament while others claim that the oral traditions of the Jewish law existed prior to Hammurabi. Regardless of which side you fancy the truth still remains that the law existed to limit the scope of reprisals.

So when the Law teaches us an eye for an eye it is talking about proportionate reprisals. Unfortunately today we still tend to often go for the nuclear response for a minor infraction. We have morphed the proportionate reprisals into a principle of aggressive protection of one’s own interests!

So Jesus comes along and says:

 ³⁸ "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'
³⁹ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
⁴⁰ And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
⁴¹ If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
⁴² Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Matthew 5:38-42 (NIV)

The words “I tell you…” creates a whole new way of looking at getting even. He starts with our being struck on the right cheek that is most likely is caused by a right-handed person backhanding. This is not about a beat down but rather a personal insult! How do you and I respond being insulted? Usually we retaliate but Jesus suggests that we continue to be vulnerable and allow God to stand up for us.

¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Romans 12:19 (NIV)

Jesus himself modeled this for us while he was here

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
1 Peter 2:23 (NIV)

So we are encouraged to imitate Christ and not to seek retribution.

A pretty BIG challenge - especially for me! How about you??

I hope to continue this theme in the next blog or two

Learning to understand suffering

Pastor Val