Book Review: The Lost World of Genesis One

Book Review - The Lost World of Genesis One

In The Lost World of Genesis One, John Walton presents a way to understand the Genesis 1 creation account based on Aristotelian epistemology without once citing Aristotle. Aristotle defined four types of causation: material, formal, efficient, and final. Walton proposes that while most believers view (and have been taught) that Genesis 1 is an account of material causes of existence, the ancient Hebrews, and other ancient civilizations, would have received it as describing efficient and final causation. Restated in different words, the author of Genesis described the creation of the functions and purpose of the universe and its contents. It describes the nature of completion; God rested on the seventh day by taking His place in the cosmic temple that He had set in order. 

The difficulties that arise from trying to interpret this passage as a scientific description of material origins are numerous. Equally difficult, in a different venue,  is trying to use scientific theories to prove metaphysical truth. These problems do not arise when we receive Genesis 1 as a description of spiritual realities. God’s purposes in His kingdom are described as bringing light, life, provision, and order out of chaos. Walton points to God’s words to Job (38:1-40:2) as a warning against  trying to link our scientific understanding to proof for or against His existence or His actions.

“The book [of Job] is full of Job’s demand for an explanation. When God finally appears, he does not offer an explanation, but offers a new insight to Job. By confronting Job with the vast complexity of the world, God shows that simplistic models are an inadequate basis for understanding what He is doing in the world.” (p 132)

In eighteen propositions, after explaining his epistemological approach to Genesis 1, Walton proposes an approach to deal with teaching science as it relates to matters of faith. The relation of evolution, intelligent design to empiricism and teleology must be addressed in order to properly teach science and the humanities.  He proposes that a clear divide does exist between the empiricism that defines science, and the humanities that address purpose and meaning. There may be evidence pointing to purpose in a scientific theory, but it cannot be proven because it is the wrong sort of stuff. They operate on different layers. 

The bottom line on the first chapter of Genesis is, for believers, that God is the immovable mover, the first cause, at all levels of existence, but this account does not provide scientific details. Rather, the chapter is written to describe that God, the YHWH of the Jews, assigned functions in order to accomplish His purposes, and then entered into the role He had prepared for Himself, as the God of the universe.

China's future and the West

In chapters six and seven of “Making Sense of  GOD” , Timothy Keller describes the implications of three possible sources of identity. Historically, people defined themselves by their society and its values and advancement. He gives the example of warriors who counted it an honor to die in battle for their people. Modern society tells people to find themselves in their own desires and values, regardless of social constraints, mores, and values. Biblically, believers in God defined themselves by their relationship to Him and in Him.

There is a curious shift in society to which I have no insight. In the past few decades, China has shifted from a very tradition-honoring society to one in which entrepreneurship is highly rewarded. While paying homage to the wisdom of ancient Chinese culture and tradition, it appears that China is moving culturally in the direction of valuing innovation and modernity, not foe their own sake, but because they promote efficiency, productivity, and prosperity. The outcome of this shift is outside my understanding, but it raises a question for believers.

In the west (Europe and North America) the new definition of self has been tried and found wanting. We have become societies of infinite variability with innumerable factions self-defined by their own values. And the conflict between factions seems to grow without limit. Christians, with centuries of history of sectarianism, seem to still, somehow unite based on the core values of who Jesus is, what He did, and what He commands, but are rapidly minoritizing in western society.

China has a much weaker basis in Christian values than the west although the gospel has been there for centuries and has a foothold. How will China fare as they progress into the social experiment of abandoning their tradition? Will their society dissolve into a sea of conflicting factions, will they retreat into the safety of tradition, or will Christianity have the opportunity to form a new basis for social values and function? How will the west react to the changes in China? Is this the precursor to that period in which the gospel will be preached effectually to every nation and every person? (Matthew 24:14) Will the west seize the weakness of Chinese society to prey on them? Or will China discover a new strength in a society based on Christian values and practice, and simply leave the west to dissolve in the post-Christian chaos of society that worships individuality above all?

A Challenge to the Hallmark Channel

A Challenge to the Hallmark Channel

The romance movies aired endlessly on the Hallmark channel, cookie cutter though they be, have a fanatically loyal following. They are women’s drug of choice, just as DUIT[1] is men’s endless obsession. And to be fair, it must be a profitable product, and far more uplifting than most of the unwatchable drivel on networks. Even though the plots are cut out with a cookie cutter, it is a clean cookie cutter. 

What is the challenge? Simply this: in life, only love that matures endures past the initial rush. C. S. Lewis put it this way [2]

I think the thrill of the Pagan stories and of romance may be due to the fact that they are mere beginnings—the first, faint whisper of the wind from beyond the world—while Christianity is the thing itself: and no thing, when you have really started on it, can have for you then and there just the same thrill as the first hint. For example, the experience of being married and bringing up a family cannot have the old bittersweet of first falling in love. But it is futile (and, I think, wicked) to go on trying to get the old thrill again: you must go forward and not backward. Any real advance will in its turn be ushered in by a new thrill, different from the old: doomed in its turn to disappear and to become in its turn a temptation to retrogression. Delight is a bell that rings as you set your foot on the first step of a new flight of stairs leading upwards. Once you have started climbing you will notice only the hard work: it is when you have reached the landing and catch sight of the new stair that you may expect the bell again. This is only an idea, and may be all rot: but it seems to fit in pretty well with the general law (thrills also must die to live) of autumn & spring, sleep and waking, death and resurrection, and “Whosoever loseth his life, shall save it.”

After the wedding comes a life of growth and change, or else failure. Positive dramatizations of marriage at midlife have typically focused on the children, in sitcoms such as Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, My Three Sons, or The Brady Bunch. There are occasional shows that perhaps show the struggles of a married couple at midlife, and show the moral growth and maturing love that enables them to remain together. But they are few, and often hard to watch. Surely the creative genius of the producers and writers of the Hallmark channel can rise to the challenge of dramatizing struggle and growth in an appealing, compelling way.

Old age brings another type of challenge, as those who have matured in love deal with the gradual decay and failure of their bodies. Transcendent love emerges - the transformation of human devotion to focus on heavenly objectives and beings. The care and tenderness between those who have lived and loved for forty or fifty years is obvious to anyone who spends a few minutes in their presence. The outworking of all that God has done in their hearts over the years makes them almost a different kind of person. When the body fails, the soul is released. Sitting by the bed of affliction of such a saint, perhaps in hospice care, the Presence of God overwhelms the visitor, and the quality of His supernatural divine love is sensed. The Hallmark challenge is to convey this essence via movie and television. There is no cookie cutter for God’s activity in our lives.

[1] DUIT = driving under the influence of testosterone

[2] The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume II: Family Letters 1905-1931. Copyright © 2004 by C. S. Lewis

Book Review: The Mideast Beast, by Joel Richardson

In The Mideast Beast, Joel Richardson argues that the antichrist of Revelation, the beast of Daniel, one and the same, will lead an Islamic nation or coalition, potentially a revived Caliphate. The various passages he considers and the logic he presents vary in depth, but certainly are worth considering. The fundamental premise he challenges is the widely held belief that the antichrist will head a revived Roman Empire, or at least have a European base. 

His strongest argument is the map. A comparison of the three empires unambiguously identified in Daniel 2:36-39 - Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece, compared to maps of the Roman Empire at its height and the Islamic Caliphate at its height, is compelling.  The fourth empire of Daniel 2:40-43 geographically is much more aligned with the Rashidun Caliphate or the Ottoman Empire than the empire of the Roman Caesars. The argument for the Roman paradigm is time. Rome conquered the remains of the Greek empire and ruled in its place. The Islamic Caliphate appeared almost a thousand years after the Greek domains of Alexander’s successors were conquered. Is time or geography more important?

There is also a discussion about the scope of the domain of the antichrist. If the antichrist leads a revived Islamic Caliphate covering the regions identified by map, he would not have the authority to force all people in the inhabited earth to take his mark in order to buy and sell. (Revelation 13:14-17) Some possible options: 

• Islam dominates the entire earth, not just the mid eastern region where it is currently predominant. The worldwide migration of Muslims might set the stage for this possibility.
• The passage in Revelation is speaking metaphorically or poetically about everyone who dwells in the kingdom of the beast, not literally the entire inhabited earth. Daniel 2:39 describes Alexander the Great’s empire as ruling over the whole earth, even though we would today call it a regional power.
• The beast of Revelation and the evil ruler of the fourth empire in Daniel are different, the events are in different eras, and the map of the Islamic empire is irrelevant to the prophecies of Revelation.

Another item of dispute is the identity of the people of ‘the prince who is to come’ (Daniel 9:26) with Rome. Although Titus was the commanding Roman general of the legions that destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD (and later emperor of Rome, 79-81 A.D.), the troops were a conglomeration of subject peoples. Richardson presents evidence that these people were from the nations surrounding Israel, her perpetual enemies, and not ethnically Roman. 

Are the enemies of Israel are identified by ancestry or geography? There are many conflicting theories about where the descendants of the peoples named in Daniel and Ezekiel have migrated to. It is an inarguable fact of history that the people living in the lands that surround Israel have consistently hated the Jews. Projecting this to the future, the geographic origin of Israel’s future invaders will be will be unambiguous, whereas their ancestry could be arguable.

The book concludes with a heartfelt plea for reaching Muslims with the gospel. Muslims are devout people who seek God with ardor, but have been taken in by error. God loves them and wants to reach them with Truth. He hears the cry of Ishmael’s seed. Even if the hypothesis of this book is wrong, the Islamic world represents the largest unreached people group in the world. Can we receive the heart of Christ for the lost?

What is Truth? Pilate asked Jesus this question (John 18:38), because he was not at the Last Supper (John 14:6). Richardson does not address this question in depth, but it is critical. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet. Believing this does not meet the standards that Jesus set. The Bible identifies three types of things necessary to belong to Jesus.

• We must believe specific things, primarily that Jesus is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead. (Romans 10:9)
• We must do the things Jesus commanded, not Pharisaical rule following but acting from the heart. (Luke 6:46)
• We must have a relationship with Him, so that we know His voice, and He knows us. (John 10:14)

This is not a multiple question exam. These gifts of God’s grace are more like three sides of a triangle. If the triangle represents salvation and peace with God, these are the stuff that the triangle is built of. They depend on and interact with each other. Being God’s child is vastly more important than knowing the future nationality of antichrist. A good bottom line on Richardson’s book.

Fractal Time and Biblical Prophecy

God’s Fractal Time

Envision time as a one-way street whose direction is fixed by entropy. The second law of thermodynamics fixes its irreversibility - no backing up! How do we reconcile this with Biblical prophecy and the doctrine of predestination? 

Using distance as a metaphor for time, we can imagine a second dimension (or more) perpendicular to our time-street. Imagine turning right 90 degrees. As we proceed in this direction, time on the original line is unchanged but seems to continue advancing for us. Imagine a grid of such streets. We advance on the cross street until encountering another street, and turns right again (imagining that entropy flows differently on Main Street than on our side street). Two more such maneuvers and we are back to the original time-line but upstream of our starting point. 

One might wish for such a trip, but such are not possible for mere mortals, as physics apparently confines us to our current timeline. We might think God inhabits some multidimensional continuum, and perhaps the angels, but there are still questions. If God desires all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), how does He orchestrate time to give each individual, give each individual the best possible opportunity to be saved? When He allows prophets to see future events (e.g., Daniel, Revelation) is He allowing them a view from afar through this multidimensional time fabric, or recording future events on a heavenly DVD and playing it back for the prophet, or allowing them a short trip outside our timeline?

The story gets more complicated as we contemplate the hints that God may not be limited to integer time dimensions. Suppose our space-time continuum is constructed by God with fractional time dimensions. A one-dimensional one-way time street manifestation of fractal time might be self-similar constructs on different scales. For example, the concept of a Sabbath rest occurs on a weekly basis (Exodus 20:8-11), a seven-year span (Exodus 23:11) a 49-year span (Leviticus 25:8-11), and a 490 year span (2 Chronicles 36:21)). It is difficult to imagine how this would manifest in a multi-dimensional time construct.

What does this have to do with prophecy and predestination?  Our common sense concept of cause and effect is a tiny subset of the nature of God and the universe He constructed. Some consider causality to be a gift of God to humankind, given so that we live in a universe we can comprehend and act in with purpose. The angels behold God’s face, yet a third of them rebelled, knowing and experiencing the consequences (being eternally exiled and imprisoned in the lake of fire), and yet rebelling anyway. We have free will, but not seeing God eye to eye, the consequences of our choices are not visibly evident at the time of decision, so we accept or reject Him by faith. For most, the choice is offered more than once, so that when the curtain rings down, no one can say God didn’t give them a chance. 

Thus prophecy and predestination may be manifestations of God’s use of time, as a construct in which future events are foreshadowed by earlier incidents on a smaller scale. The one difference is freewill - humans can change their mind and repent, and turn to Him. This disturbs the symmetry of fractal constructs, but serves God’s ultimate purpose. If, on a later iteration of a sequence of events, we choose His path, and stick with it, the ultimate consummation is changed. The concept of fractals and the concepts of prophecy, foreshadowing, and repetition are not identical, but related in how we experience time. This dynamic is poetically described in The Four Calls, by Isaiah Baltzell (as L. Baltzall)

Does the Faith of Christopher Columbus Matter?

Does The Faith of Columbus Matter?

What geopolitical events triggered the Spanish crown’s decision to fund Columbus to sail west? The largest underlying factor seems to have been events in the centuries-long struggle between Christianity and Islam. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 closed the western entrance to the Silk Road first blazed by Marco Polo in 1271-95, pushing Europeans to seeks another trade route to the Far East. The second was the conquest of Grenada in 1492 by the Spanish monarchy, ending the Moorish and Islamic presence in Iberia. That presence went back to 711 AD when the Moors invaded the southern tip of Western Europe, and advanced until the battle of Tours in 732 A. D. when Charles Martel defeated them. They remained a presence in the Iberian peninsula until 1492. After they surrendered at Grenada, they went south to Africa. 

In the 15th century, multiple European nations and explorers were seeking the advantages that would come from finding the alternate route to the Far East. In 1488, the Portuguese reached the Cape of Good Hope which showed promise for a sea route. Columbus advocated a direct western route, which he believed would be shorter. He made several mistakes in his calculations such as the radius of the earth, the size of a degree of longitude on the ground, and the total longitudinal span of the Eurasian landmass. (Per Wikipedia article.) He never got to the Far East. The flip side of this is that Columbus discovered a whole new world!

Columbus’ character is much harder to determine. There are many markers to devout Catholicism, but also actions that suggest the world’s approach to life. Faith markers: one ship named for St. Mary, another for the “little one” (maybe like El Niño or maybe just a small ship); using 2 Esdras 6:42 (an apocryphal reference) as evidence of a smaller ocean; naming the Lesser Antilles for saints; a book on prophecy written near the end of his life. Worldly actions include taking a mistress, tyrannical control when he had authority over new world settlers, seeking wealth from the profits the Spanish crown made in the new world, and enslaving native Americans. 

We remember a gifted sailor, explorer, and entrepreneur on October 12th, the day he first sighted land in the Western Hemisphere. It would not be fair to judge him by the standards of our time. Modern geography is based on centuries of mapping, charting, and geodesy since 1492. Biblical standards of character have been well known for thousands of years. We are all sinners, some saved by grace. Columbus, for all his faults, set in motion the settlement of the Americas. Does his faith matter? Perhaps to the extent that his life demonstrates the profound impact that one person can have, acting in faith, even though flawed.

Transcendence

Transcendence refers to the aspect of God’s nature and character that is independent of and beyond all known laws and principles within this universe. An easy and very shallow metaphor might be that spherical trigonometry transcends Euclidean geometry. Euclidean geometry is accurate for local travel, but directions for traveling large distances are not accurately captured in a rectilinear model. Seafarers have known for centuries to use latitude and longitude in a spherical coordinate system to navigate. Flatland (by A. Square, a.k.a. Edwin Abbott) provides fictional but much more entertaining examples.

Transcendence in matters of faith is not an excuse for not being able to articulate aspects of God’s nature, but a recognition of reality. Everything that we know and experience, accessible to our senses, capable of being reasoned by us, was created by God and therefore a subset of His eternal reality. C. S. Lewis discussed this in his essays, The Weight of Glory and Transposition. Biblically, God’s transcendence includes His ways being higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9); His throne being eternal (Psalm 99:2); His word being eternal (Psalm 119:89); His kingdom being eternal (Daniel 4:3); eternal life through faith in Jesus (John 3:15-16); and His unseen eternal glory. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18) 

On a human level, the glory of God includes His unfailing love, His perfect holiness, His unlimited power, wisdom, justice, and goodness. But in eternity, in His presence, are these attributes amplified or are they all intrinsic dimensions of a unified divine nature and essence as Thomas Aquinas said.  Even with all of Scripture, we lack words and concepts to meaningfully discuss this question. Is this a cop-out or a recognition of reality?

We have many questions. The problem of pain remains one of the chief stumbling blocks to faith for many. How can a good God allow terrible evil to occur and sometimes to triumph? Other questions: If God created the universe, where did God come from? If God is love, why did He command the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child in Canaan? We struggle with the mystery of the Incarnation. Is it fair for God to create human beings with specific attributes - desires and limitations - and then call it sin when they respond to them? The answer to these issues lies in God’s transcendence. We don’t see the whole picture and have to trust Him.

Another aspect of transcendence is human response to being in the presence of God. Being overwhelmed by God’s presence is a not uncommon experience for believers. It is also Biblical. See, for example, Exodus 33:18-23; Joshua 5:14; Leviticus 16:2; Daniel 10:9; Isaiah 6:5; Ezekiel 3:23; Matthew 17:6; Acts 9:4; Revelation 1:17.

I was surprised to read in the last half of the first chapter of Timothy Keller’s book Making Sense of God that even atheists have transcendent experiences. He cites several examples of committed atheists who have described coming “... upon something inherently ‘wholly other’, whose kind and character are incommensurables with our own...” Despite a commitment to explain all human experience in an evolutionary biology framework, they are unable to so explain these experiences. Yet do not bow before the Maker of all things.

What is the point? The most important thing is not any of the following, true though they be: God does not owe us an explanation; If God were to answer our questions, we would be incapable of understanding the answers; We cannot sit in judgment of what God says or does. Instead, the most important observation is this:

God is so amazing that joining Him in His enterprise of redemption will be an adventure that we cannot fathom.

Does The Dogma Live Loudly Within You?

How does a life of faith contrast with a life of dogma? Dogma is something held as an established, authoritative tenet, a propositional axiom. Faith is trust in someone or something  that one holds onto despite difficulties and in confusing circumstances. We can have faith in tenets as unshakeable truths, but faith has a far broader scope. Dogma connotes authority; we can trust authority or rebel. Jesus enjoins us to trust Him on the basis of knowing Him, of having a relationship so strong that we recognize and understand His voice. (John 10:4 & 27) It is not doctrine to know the voice of the Lover of our soul. In the words of a traditional hymn, trust and obedience are inextricably linked at the core of our relationship with Jesus.

Both faith and doctrine influence our lives, in that we honor what we believe, and who we believe in. God created both the angels and humankind a certain way, and it seems logical to us that He would  command and bless our fulfilling the nature He created us with.  In life, we often find that God-given desires are not fulfilled. We blame this on sin (our own or others’), or opposition by the world, the flesh, or the devil. The gospels show that Jesus’ earthly life included fasting, denial of the flesh, and suffering. With Him as role model, this suggests that God’s intention for Adam and us is to overcome naturally good things for the sake of transcendent spiritual values, as Jesus did. (For example, His spending 40 days in the wilderness.) Lucifer’s downfall was that he believed that the light and beauty of his God-created nature would be fulfilled when he ascended above God. (Isaiah 14:13-14) He tempted Adam and Eve that they could become as God. (Genesis 3:5) It is a subtle path from “God created me this way”, to “God intends me to fulfill the nature He created in me”, to “the ultimate fulfillment of God’s creation is for me to be as God, and ultimately transcend Him.”

Does God take us through trials to reveal our true internal condition to us and to others? The life of faith - knowing Jesus even in the storm - suggests that we know Him best when we have nothing else. I have found the homeless have a strong connection to the Lord; they have tried and found Him faithful.

We all experience storms; whether He takes us through or we tough it out alone depends on us. If our faith speaks through our lives and actions, is it an assertive self-conscious (or self-righteous) display, or the aroma of a life broken by storms and saved by His hand? Is it a dogmatic life that acknowledges the struggle to reconcile relationship with Jesus with the imperatives of a world system that we live in?

The world, with its focus on intellectual understanding without a spiritual dimension, sees the Bible as a source of intellectual propositions, not a revelation of eternal truths. The intellectual content of the Bible is glorious (Psalm 119), but that is the farthest the world can get. The eternal presence of God is not merely a different view of reality, it transcends all that we can see or understand in the world. The life of those who know and walk with Jesus may appear governed by dogma to unbelievers. Only those who have access to that inner source of life that flows out of the innermost being of Jesus’ people (John 7:37-39) can discern the life of faith. The only way to experience this artesian well of eternal life is to receive Jesus and surrender to Him.

Book Review: Finding God in the Waves, by Mike McHargue

Not your typical conversion testimony. “Science Mike” places modern science and empirical evidence as the epistemological authority for understanding God and interpreting His word. His experience seems genuine - he went astray and God searched for him as a lost sheep and brought him back to the fold. His refound faith seems a work in progress (aren’t we all?). The second half of the book, the writer’s explanation of the axioms of his faith, are certainly unique to him. One unusual feature - he links religious and spiritual experiences to activity in specific locations in the brain.

The greatest value in reading this book is the insight the author gives into the thoughts and feelings of searchers, questioners, doubters, and unbelievers. How does a person who is unsure of what he or she believes react to the way church services are conducted and members treat them? How do believers treat those who would like to believe but openly express the doubts they are struggling with? How do those trapped in sinful lifestyles react to what us said and done in church? The core question: is our response to those who don’t line up with our understanding of Christian belief and practice more like Jesus or the Pharisees? The author details his experience with the latter.

God’s transcendence. In many areas, this book articulates the author’s trust in God’s overarching, omnipotent love. Yet there is one central tenet of Christianity that he does not “grok”. Atonement. He asks why God determined to send Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of humankind. How could Jesus’ blood pay the price for our sins? Why was it necessary? Oddly, he foreshadows awareness of the resolution of his own issue early when discussing his disappointment with God in not answering his prayers to prevent his parents’ divorce: “Instead, He bowed His head and died.” (Chapter 6) The fundamental tension that God has in dealing with fallen humans is His own perfect love and perfect holiness. Perfect love impels Him not to leave us to reap the fruit of our sin; perfect holiness cannot allow us as sinners into His presence without our destruction. The Atonement is God’s response to this dilemma. In God’s transcendent eternity, He simultaneously resolved both the legal and experiential problem of sin, and empowered His people to defeat sin and enter His kingdom.

Labor Day in Heaven

Labor Day, with its U.S. origin in the 1882-1892 time frame, recognizes union members who fought for livable wages over a hundred years ago. It rejects the Malthusian theory and celebrates that humankind is not condemned to live at the subsistence level. Work enables us to receive income to live, to support our family and others. Work provides tangible benefits to society: food, shelter, enlightenment, entertainment, etc. Work enhances our self-image, built by accomplishment.

The Bible recognizes that we live in a physical world that was very good when God created it (Genesis 1:31), but that our priority should be Him and His kingdom. In Genesis 3:17-19, God put a curse on anything in this world that we work for in disobedience to Him.  Proverbs says in all labor there is profit (Proverbs 14:23), but Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)  Paul wrote, “ ...if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat,” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) but also “... the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6).

What will labor in heaven be like? What will we do? Will we participate in one continuous concert of worship, interrupted only by choir rehearsals? (Revelation 5:13) Will we tend the gardens of the new earth, as Adam was originally assigned in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15)? This is all idle speculation.

Jesus gave instructions which apply to all circumstances in John 6:27: “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.” In some inconceivable way, work that provides this food is faith in Christ. The context of this conversation is the miraculous feeding of a multitude, followed by Jesus walking on the water. Near the end of this passage, Jesus gave this explanation to His disciples: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. “ (John 6:63)

The refrain from a poem by Charles Thomas Studd summarizes human understanding of what God thinks about labor.

Only one life, twill soon be past.

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,

If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.

Independence Day

Celebrate Independence Day

The Declaration of Independence’s list of grievances sounds a lot like children whining. Grievances are not unusual; the essay in the Declaration attempts to explain that these legitimate grievances justify the rebellion. What is the difference? Good parents have a vision for the future of their children, which the rules they impose seldom convey and the child or adolescent cannot yet grasp, so they whine. But in the political realm, adults with differing perspectives cannot claim this kind of superiority over others.

The colonists in 1776 did not primarily complain that they had to pay for the cost of British colonial governance and protection, but that they had no say in the matter. They felt like adults being treated as children. Would things have gone differently if there had been members of parliament from America to advocate for and vote on these issues? But if so, what of the rest of the British colonies? Should India and China and Australia also have had representatives? Should this have included representatives of the conquered as well? Quite quickly the inherent racism of colonial empires surfaces, the “white man’s burden” to minister to and elevate the subjugated peoples, not admit them as equal partners. Did American colonists deal with native Americans any better? (Lamentations 3:39)

What defines the difference between whining, rebellion, and legitimate grievances? Surely it rests in the standards by which complaints are judged. The founding fathers declared that certain natural rights were inalienable: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They further asserted that the creator endowed humans with these rights, an essential part of being human. The Bill of Rights recognizes many other derived rights. The modern era has created a whole new set of “rights.” Whining is usually characterized as complaints about unhappiness that is someone else’s fault, not on the level of rights, but more of the flavor that someone didn’t do something to make me happy. God is often indicted on this charge. 

The founding fathers’ logic implicitly derives from man being made in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26; 5:1) The natural rights of man therefore derive from the respect that everyone ought to render to the image of God in others. That likeness is awesome to contemplate, as is the idea that God’s original intention for humankind is to be like Him in all aspects (Ephesians 4:15). He deals with every person and situation in full accordance with His holiness, love, and justice. We stretch credulity when we invoke His image in us, because none of us measure up to His stature.  

The climax of C. S. Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces includes a fictional list of grievances, but with a fundamental difference. Grievances against God suffer from differing levels of knowledge. He sees the big picture, knows the future, and has a plan for our spiritual and eternal blessing. He plans that we become like Him in ways we only dimly sense. The principle illustrated by the fictional conclusion is that God’s ways and plans and very existence are transcendent.  Any complaint we have results from our own choices to refuse Him, just as Adam chose in the garden of Eden. 

Book Review - Paul, A Biography by N. T. Wright

There is so much depth that highlights can only hint at. Paul’s pre-conversion zeal was based on the examples of Phinehas (Numbers 25:7-9) and Elijah (1 Kings 18:40). Psalm 106:30-31 says that Phinehas’ slaying of the brazenly apostate Israelite was reckoned to him as righteousness.  Wright points to the likelihood that young Saul took these to mean that the slaying of unrepentant backsliding Jews was how to deal with early Christians. (Acts 7:58). This was the mindset of Saul when confronted by Christ on the Damascus road.

Considering Paul’s life in chronological order, pulling the Acts and the epistles together, gives us clues to Paul’s interior life, and to events not reported by Luke. The author expends considerable effort on events in Ephesus not recorded by Luke, in which Paul experienced such grievous trials that he despaired of life. The evidence comes from Paul’s own words. The impact on Paul’s outlook on life, ministry, and writing style suggests that this was a significant event. He learned a new aspect of walking with Jesus: His faithfulness in the darkest trials, and being so weak that he had no strength of his own, and was totally dependent on the Lord.

It is hard for us to grasp how hard it was for Jews of Paul’s time to accept the idea of a crucified Messiah. Paul could not, until he met Him. When he preached to Jews, he emphasized continuity with the history, prophecy, and promises of the Jewish scriptures. But it was a hard sell to convince Jews, who expected a conquering hero to set the world right by force, that God had worked more powerfully in Jesus by defeating evil spiritual powers through His crucifixion and resurrection. Paul preached that they needed to experience that power personally, and when writing to churches, reminded them of their own experience with Christ.

The impact of Paul’s life is hard to overestimate. He personally travelled to innumerable cities, preached Christ, established churches, and demonstrated by his own life how a Christian lives. And then he wrote letters that have shown two millennia of believers not only the doctrines of the church, but also how to think about faith, religion, and life in a holistic framework. If nothing else, N. T. Wright’s biography awakens the reader with an appreciation of all that God did through Paul, in fulfillment of Acts 9:16.

Visit Colonial Williamsburg and Appomattox Courthouse

Colonial Williamsburg brings to life the people of Virginia before the American Revolution. The geographic proximity of the Yorktown battlefield and Jamestown settlement provides a sketch of English colonization up to and including the American Revolution. Not too far away, the siege works around Petersburg, and the Appomattox Courthouse speak of a later century and another war. Aside from the lifestyles of the pre-revolutionary colonists, the tension in the revolutionary era begs a fundamental question.

When do values and circumstances drive us to a potentially catastrophic rebellion against an unjust status quo? What injustices justify rejection of existing governance? Were the founding fathers justified in rebellion against Great Britain? Were the Confederate States justified in leaving the Union? On a spiritual plane, was Satan’s rebellion against and rejection of God’s authority justifiable? (I speak as if insane.) Every would-be rebel must address this. 

Justification of rebellion must ultimately rest on moral grounds. When is better the enemy of good enough in a moral dimension? Resistance to Nazi Germany seems a clear example of a government legitimizing its opposition by brazenly embracing and practicing evil. The legitimate functions of government are to protect its citizens and enable them to flourish. A completely illegitimate policy of government is anything that benefits the governing officials and their cronies at the expense of its citizens.

The U.S. Civil War (a.k.a. The War Between The States) was a military stand-off for two years, giving the advantage to the Confederacy. If the Northern states could not defeat them outright, the Southern states expected them to give up the fight, de facto recognition of their departure from the United States. The tide seems to have turned after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Initially, the war was fought to preserve the Union, but after this date, the Union was on record that freedom of enslaved people would be one of the outcomes of the war. After the enormous losses of troops and battles with no gain in two battles at Bull Run, the peninsular campaign, the battle of Fredericksburg and so forth, the battle at Gettysburg in July 1863 seems to have marked the tide turning.

There is probably a gray area in the spectrum of government morality, but somewhere there is a line which, if crossed, removes the legitimacy of that government. Had the British government of the colonies crossed that line in 1776? This is not part of the Williamsburg experience. It is worthwhile to take the 150 mile drive to Appomattox Courthouse, to ponder the contrast between rebellions that succeeded and failed, and their moral underpinning. It may be that the moral do not always succeed in armed conflict, but if there is justice on earth as there is in heaven, this author hopes they would. There will be no moral ambiguity or uncertainty in that final battle, when Jesus will completely eradicate evil on earth.

Celebrate Memorial Day

Celebrate Memorial Day

We seldom hear of the roots of Memorial Day, focusing on the start of summer. We remember those who have fallen also on Veteran’s Day, and of course we celebrate the birth of our nation on Independence Day. One remembrance from each century ... the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War I. Each day has a different theme. Independence Day focuses on the fundamental values of our forefathers that led them to rebel against Great Britain, immortalized in the Declaration of Independence. Veterans’ Day honors the sacrifices of those who died fighting for our nation, in World War I initially and now more generally all wars. 

It is surprising that the origins of Memorial Day are not more frequently discussed. It began as Decoration Day; there are many localities that claim they were the first to decorate the graves of fallen Union soldiers. The earliest is claimed by some to have occurred in 1865, when former slaves in Charleston, South Carolina did so. This was to express gratitude for their freedom having been gained as a result of the Civil War. The War between the states was fought to preserve the Union, but the Emancipation Proclamation was integral to that war. The war remedied the moral defect embedded in the constitution and subsequent law that had recognized chattel slavery. Abolitionists may have incited the war, but the American people as a whole carried it to completion, at the cost of hundreds of thousands killed, many more wounded.

As we celebrate our values of freedom, I fear we too often confuse it with license; even Christians are sometimes tempted to conflate liberty growing from grace with anomie (lawlessness). Likely few slaves saw their emancipation as enabling them to not have to work, or obey the laws of the land. It meant they were free to become what God had created them to be, without tyrannical human control. It meant that (at least in theory) their lives had equal value to everyone else’s. Subsequent generations have demonstrated that value, not only in the eyes of God, but also to our society. 

We should also, somewhere in our remembrance, honor the price that Jesus paid to free us from the bondage of  sin. We think about this on Good Friday and Easter in a judicial sense. But Jesus unleashed through His work  the very power of God within us, through the Holy Spirit (manifested first on Pentecost) to overcome sin in a practical sense. As we celebrate Memorial Day, let is seek to honor Christ by receiving His empowerment to become all that God calls us to.

Jesus’ Grammar

Why did Jesus use the passive voice in the Lord’s prayer? “Thy will be done ...”  (Matthew 6:10) [Scripture 4 All Linear transliteration:  Let it being become the will of You.... ]

In using the passive voice, Jesus left open to interpretation who is the actor. 

• We might interpret this as ‘Let me know and do Your will,’ or ‘Help me to do Your will’. 
• Maybe He meant we should pray that others do the Father’s will, other believers or even the Godless heathen unbelievers. Praying to the Father to make them do His will or want to do His will and then do it? 
• Or are we praying that the Father bring His will to pass, even if He needs to overrule nature and the rebellion of people against Him? 
• Doesn’t God’s sovereignty mean that that ultimately everything and everyone in the universe will conform to His will anyway? The Bible shows this to be the culmination of human history.  (Daniel 7:9-14; Revelation 20:11-15) Are we to pray for the end times, the return of Christ, and the final judgment? 

Since Jesus did not elaborate further on this topic in His prayer, we can only infer that the answer is yes to all of the above. Properly understood, His command to us is to pray, ‘Father, bring it on!’

But Jesus did say something related. “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory...” (Matthew 6:13) God’s glory is unconditional. Everything that He does is perfect, holy, and loving. The manifestation of His power will therefore bring glory. If we pray for God to display His glory in responding to a prayer or petition of ours, or in a certain situation, what are we really asking for? 

In “The Weight of Glory”, C. S. Lewis defines glory as the approval of God. It seems circular to ask God to approve of Himself by intervening miraculously or providentially in some situation. Is His glory the approval by men of Him and His actions? In a different context, C.S. Lewis made the following speculation.

I know very well that in logic God is a ‘substance’. Yet my thirst for quality is authorised even here: ‘We give thanks to thee for thy great glory.’ He is this glory. What He is (the quality) is no abstraction from Him. A personal God, to be sure; but so much more than personal. To speak more soberly, our whole distinction between ‘things’ and ‘qualities’, ‘substances’ and ‘attitudes’, has no application to Him. Perhaps it has much less than we suppose even to the created universe. Perhaps it is only part of the stage set. 

— C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, XVI.

This suggests that we are trying to split hairs. From Jesus’ eternal perspective, His glory is inseparable from His existence and presence. Our Lord’s instruction to pray for The Father’s will to come about is that we proactively align ourself with His eternal plan, regardless of grammatical construction.

Addressing the Root Cause of the Flood Tide of Immigration

A tidal wave of immigration, both legal and illegal, continues to flood the developed and western world. Why? Why do people leave their homes to flee to this country, and the West? Two major causes are usually cited: persecution and poverty. Refugees’ countries can almost be defined by broken governance and/or economic failure.

Political dysfunction takes several forms, usually authoritarian regimes such as tribal dictatorship or small but ruthless political cliques, but also tribal conflict, and so forth. In western democracies, the basis for a functioning political system includes: cooperation between people who disagree, within an agreed framework; respect for all who are created equal before God; and protection of civil and human rights. Everyone has a share and a stake in governance.

Third world countries are most often defined economically, as exploited or ”developing”. Almost everyone lives in poverty, with no jobs or starvation wages. Why does this happen? There seem to be a few driving causes: class structure of wealthy and poor, with no middle class; command driven economies distorted by politics (government policies, laws, etc.); graft and corruption awarding business to the person paying the highest bribe with no relationship to economic or business realities; exploitation of workers by wealthy countries. How can free markets flourish when multinational corporations distort local economies to their own advantage and exploit indigenous workers? Shades of the Boston Tea Party! No wonder those with intelligence or initiative heads to the developed world!

What can we do to improve the conditions in refugees’ countries of origin that caused them to leave? How can anyone establish the fabric of a civil society and political process in failed states? What can our national strategy do to encourage and sustain a functioning culture? Is it cultural imperialism to try to turn people from tribal warfare and political thuggery to civic engagement and civil discourse? Is that even possible?  Logical questions for our nation would be: What foreign policy would promote stable democracies and economic growth in the third world? If we seriously try to export values, which ones? Wouldn’t this constitute cultural imperialism, and would that be good or bad? Which actions would impact other nations most positively?

Debating this at the foreign policy level will never eliminate the real root cause; spiritual strongholds can only be brought down through prayer and fasting. Immigrants may perceive less demonic influence on society here than their homeland, but that distinction is rapidly disappearing. And emigrating won’t help them at all if they bring their demons with them. [We can’t possibly screen applicants for this, but to achieve the goal of a better life, they must renounce broken life choices with their spiritual attendants.] The only approach to immigration with hope of long term success would be a national strategy and foreign policy that results from fasting, prayer, and seeking God; a strategy to build the kingdom of God. Man’s government cannot do this. Outcomes with value can only be wrought through spiritual labor and sacrifice.

Book Review: The Wartime Sermons of Dr. Peter Marshall

How could sermons preached during World War 2 possibly be relevant to us? A dozen messages selected by Dr. Peter J. Marshall published in 2005 may have seemed relevant to the post-September 11, 2001 milieu. However, they more perceptively pierce U.S. international leadership in a context of an era without overt large scale military conflict. 

The sermon “Why does God permit war?” turns the question on its head. Why does man choose war? Why does man ignore evil until war is the only defense against it? Why do men choose the sins of self-centeredness and preoccupation with the world’s stuff that lead to war?

The sermon “Are We Good Enough?”  contrasts the self-discipline, sacrifice, and moral virtue of the soon-to-return soldiers and the crass worldliness of civilians who they are returning to. Dr. Marshall quickly turns to the question of our spiritual state. Have we turned to God to be transformed into a people who are morally improved, who God has empowered to be better people? After militarily defeating the Axis powers, will we lead the way for international order that goes beyond the absence of armed conflict to the building of a just, ethical, and righteous world? 

The common thread in all of the sermons is Rev. Marshall’s belief that American values, political structure, and our entire ethos is based on Christianity, and that in order to establish something better than more of the same, Christianity must be lived out by our people and nation. Otherwise there would simply be another world war in 20 or thirty years, and our own nation would decay from moral rot. Viewed from 70 years after the fact, the fear of another world war has not yet materialized, but our nation is seriously divided by a spectrum of moral value systems. 

My perspective: The challenge is that the presence of God in our lives forces us to confront His nature and character. God’s perfect holiness and uncompromising love cannot rest on fallen humans. His remedy was to reconcile us to Himself through the propitiatory death of Jesus on the cross. Any human effort to experience His presence only results in death. Human efforts to be righteous, to be just, to do the right thing, will fail in the end, even on a worldly level. The 70+ years since the end of World War 2 show that practicing values based on Christian principles, but without the power of God, brings at best a temporary improvement in world conditions. 

Satan was defeated by Christ on the cross. Victory over the axis powers forestalled one of the devil’s attempts to rule the earth overtly, but most of the world remains lost in darkness and sin. We who have heard the gospel must respond or face the consequences, both eternally and in this present world. That is Peter Marshall’s message to us in an era of international terrorism, cybercrime, and resurgent superpower competition.