Book Review: Sermon on the Mount, by R. T. Kendall

R. T. Kendall provides a verse-by-verse commentary on one of the seminal teachings by Jesus.(Matthew 5-7) He challenges us to actually live the way Jesus told us to. One example: he recapitulates the essence of his earlier book on total forgiveness in the passage where Jesus commanded it. Jesus followed teaching of the Lord’s Prayer with the warning that if we do not forgive those who have wronged or hurt us, we will not be forgiven. (Matthew 6:14-15) Kendall takes the position that this does not mean loss of salvation for the believer, but a life wracked by bitterness and its fruit. If we do not let them totally off the hook and sincerely bless them, we will not, cannot receive God’s blessing in this life.  Praying for God to bless that reckless driver who tailgates and cuts in and out of traffic, endangering everyone nearby, is just the tip of the iceberg. What about those who wounded us as children, or wounded our children, or stole our money, or ruined our reputation? Jesus offered no exceptions. 

Other passages are equally challenging. In Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus warns against judging others with a similar consequence - that in this life we will be judged by the same standard. Jesus uses the hyperbole of specks of dust contrasted with beams of wood in our eyes to emphasize just how distorted and self-centered our judgment is. But He concludes this section with instructions on how to see clearly enough to help a brother remove a speck. How do we get there, and how do we know we have reached a point where we are allowed to help others with motes in their eyes? You have to read for yourself to understand the nuances of when our judging others leads to us being judged, and when we are able to help another.

Treasures on earth and in heaven? (Matthew 6:19-21) Jesus did not say one word about tithing. He focused on our heart’s ultimate values. It is so easy to give money. What really matters to us? Do we truly believe that we can store up treasure for heaven by what we do now? Do we act on these beliefs? Is our heart focused on heavenly outcomes? Do our deeds line up with our profession? Is tithing a way to draw a line on how much of our life we let God claim, and implicitly get earthly treasure for ourselves?

False prophets (Matthew 7:15-20): Jesus gives a sure-fire test to identify them - their fruit. Social media have introduced a megaphone for literally anyone with a computer to claim God told them something. But even before Facebook and Twitter existed, churches and lives were ravaged by some claiming a gift of prophecy, a word from the Lord, when they were either entirely self-serving, or deceived by or in league with the devil. But Kendall does not disparage all prophecy on this account. Despite abuses, he encourages us to apply Christ’s litmus test - examining their fruit - to sift out the false prophets. This does not mean that we become a fruit inspector to pass judgment on every person we talk to. (See above discussion on Matthew 7:1-5). But if someone claims to have a word from the Lord, the shoe is on the other foot. 

It took me a year to read through the 91 chapters. But for anyone taking Jesus’ teachings seriously, this is an illuminating tome. Not hard to read, but hard to put into practice. One of Kendall’s strengths is explaining subtle distinctions that Jesus made in example situations that we can relate to. What will the world look like after we obey Jesus? Read this and weep over the way we currently live. Then apply it.

Book Review: The Reason For God, by Timothy Keller

Tim Keller did not stop with answering fundamental objections to Christianity and providing solid explanations of basic Christian beliefs and practices. In the end, he wove a narrative of the eternal dance of love and gives some real examples of changed hearts and what a decision for Christ looks like in practice. He had first-hand experience in New York City dealing with people of great intelligence dealing with honest questions and doubts, and with people whose lives were marred by tragedy, and doubted God’s goodness or His power.

Part I has seven chapters dealing with objections: Christianity’s claim of exclusivity; the problem of pain; legalism and genuine righteousness; wrongs committed in the name of Jesus; reconciling a God of love with a God of justice; apparent conflict between faith and science; and the challenge of Bible interpretation. Part 2 has seven chapters offering positive reasons to believe in Christ, and to trust Him, and to make a decision to identify with Him. 

The unusual part of this theological book on apologetics is the description of the divine dance (chapter 14). The Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - eternally live to love, glorify, and and give to and bless each other. Loving relationships are thus at the very heart of reality. “God did not create us to get the cosmic, infinite joy of mutual love and glorification, but to share it.” But we lost the dance, beginning with Adam and Eve. Jesus died on the cross to return us to that loving relationship with His unlimited love. What does it mean to rejoin God’s dance of love, to become God-centered rather than self-centered? We share the joy He has in serving others as we glorify Him by doing so, and therein  worship Him. We join with creation in singing the praise of His glory. We encourage others to join us in His dance. 

How many will be persuaded? Only God knows that, but every reader will end reading this book with far fewer excuses to reject Christ. In every sense, this tests our hearts - whether we will come to Him when our questions are answered, or reject Him on the fundamental personal level of not wanting to submit, of wanting our own way rather than His. 

Timothy Keller went to his eternal reward on May 19, 2023.

Two dimensional time and God's Glory

According to basic physics, time is a linear dimension whose passage is directed by the second law of thermodynamics. Entropy always increases. Metric time is defined by standards such as  the time that elapses during 9,192,631,770 cycles of the radiation produced by the transition between two levels of the cesium-133 atom. The special and general theories of relativity allow for time dilation under the influence of extreme velocity or exceptionally strong gravitation. In all of these cases, time is still a single dimension of existence. Modern physics (string theory) attempts to use 10 or 11 dimensions to describe modern physics’ understanding of the interaction of space-time with various dimensions, but the additional dimensions are ‘compact’, meaning their extent is subfemtoscopic. But the phenomena of all of these modern physics theories describe are only accessible by extremely sophisticated scientific instruments, well outside the experience of daily life.

It is not uncommon for us to reference both ideas and experiences which are tangible in which time does not flow uniformly. “Time stood still” refers to experiences that are so focused and intense that the passage of outside events and time seem to be put on pause, yet seem to elapse for the individual uttering these words. (see, for example, Joshua 10:13) Time travel is the stuff of science fiction, but Bible prophecy indicates that select individuals were enabled to see events of the future. In near death experiences, some will say that their life flashed before their eyes. We might say that all of these experiences are mental, or perhaps spiritual, but my point is that tying time to a physical phenomenon such as the frequency of radiation from an atom may not be the only means to perceive time. 

The concept here is that from a human perspective of  body, soul, and spirit, space an time may have one (or more) additional dimension(s). Not just compact dimensions, but unlimited in extent. When we read in the Bible of eternity, a new heaven and a new earth, how can this be reconciled with the “heat death of the universe”? Perhaps when time seems to stand still, we are traveling (briefly) in that other time dimension, which is orthogonal to the one we normally live in. Where is heaven anyway? Above us in physical space, we have mapped out the atmosphere and the nearer parts of outer space to varying degrees -  heaven has not been found in this solar system. Perhaps it is on some distant planet circling another star that astronomers are slowly detecting?

Jesus indicated that heaven is at hand. This suggests to me that it is in a dimension or dimensions that are perpendicular (both in space and time) to ours. Not far away in those dimensions, but inaccessible in our current state most of the time. Perhaps our physical bodies are tied to the dimensions of space and time we experience, and when they die our soul and spirit are freed to travel in those additional dimensions, where spiritual realities are manifest. 

Turning now to a seemingly unrelated topic, what is glory? We have human understanding of it being fame and good report of heroic actions for good causes. But there are Biblical descriptions of God’s glory that indicate it is visible, transcendent, and terrifying. (Exodus 33:18-23, 40:35, Numbers 16:42-49, 1 Kings 8:10-11, 2 Chronicles  5:15, Isaiah 6:1-5) What is God’s glory? I believe it is the result of the combination of His eternal love and perfect holiness, manifested in the eternal dimensions, but only occasionally seen on earth. Jesus’ hidden qualities were thus manifested on the Mount of Transfiguration. (Luke 9:29-36) When Ezekiel and John saw the throne of God in heaven, this glory was visible. (Ezekiel 1:26-28,  Revelation 1:13-17)

How do love and holiness become visible (apart from the actions they produce)? This is pure speculation on my part, but perhaps they are so intrinsically tied to the dimensions of eternity that they yield emanations, in a vague way similar to the way gravity warps space and time as described by the general theory of relativity. Maybe it is like Cherenkov radiation manifesting light as bright as the sun when the nature and character of the Son of God are unveiled in our space-time continuum. 

The final challenge is this. Jesus invites us to become like Him, to receive His nature and character of agape love and unblemished holiness. [Achieving this is a separate topic.] But perhaps  this means when we arrive at that state of eternal identification with Him, we will share His glory, just as Moses and Elijah did when Jesus spoke with them just before His passion. (Luke 9:31) This goes beyond merely receiving God’s approval, as C. S. Lewis described in his essay on the Weight of Glory. God’s glory goes beyond His approval, to Him causing us to actually receive and live out His nature and character. Let us humbly engage on responding to this challenge.

Book Review - Ten Philosophical Mistakes by Mortimer J. Adler.

At first I was puzzled by Peter Kreeft’s inclusion of this philosophical treatise in his list of must-read books. The first four chapters deal with metaphysics and epistemology - the foundation of philosophy that deals with existence, knowledge, language: how it is possible to know anything, what it means to know something, and how we derive knowledge from our senses and reasoning and communicate with each other about such things. These topics seem esoteric and not readily digestible by the Everyman that Adler wrote for. 

However, having laid the foundation, the author proceeds into areas of human existence and behavior. This includes moral values, happiness, freedom of choice, human nature, society, and ultimately what being human means. 

A foundational question: what is the basis for moral values? Is there any way to establish objective and absolute values, or must they be (are they) subjective and relative? Adler summarizes several philosophers’ attempts to define ‘good’ and their approaches to trying to establish a basis for such judgments. And he points out the error of each. It is these subtle but foundational errors that have led to such disaster in modern thought and hence in society. (This was published in 1985, before modern political correctness had become the norm.) The fundamental prescriptive statement depends on the definition of ‘good’. We ought to desire what is truly good. What is the basis for final ends? We must not confuse means with ends, but we must also not confuse moral virtue with a happy life.  Striving to eliminate social or political evil depends on your definition of evil. Working to bring the greatest good for the greatest number still begs the question of what is ‘good’.

What is not addressed in this book (being a philosophy treatise and not a theology textbook), is discussion of divine revelation, of absolute truths as ordained by God and given to man. The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, do not define good based on an appeal to our conscience, but because God who created all things says so, and because He knows and reveals what is best for us. While the external evidence of creation cries out God’s glory, linking that to prescriptive judgments for human behavior requires a separate revelation. We have that revelation both in Scripture and in God speaking directly to us in our conscience. (Romans 1) Intellectual sparring with unbelievers who call themselves philosophers will not convince them because of the Fall, and the sin nature of man. Much less will intellectuals in rebellion against God believe that the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross can redeem individuals from the power and consequences of sin. This theological reality is absent from philosophy. That, in my view, is the overarching philosophical mistake. But this book makes you think about these questions.