Responding to God and His angels tests our heart

The idea that people aren’t aware of God is alien to human experience. The key issue is our response. We have the Biblical case of Samuel, who as a very young child was called by God, and advised by Eli to respond, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10). In the case of Saul of Tarsus, this self-righteous Pharisee, when confronted by Jesus, said “Who are you, Lord?” (Acts 9:5) There are numerous other cases in the Bible, for example of rejection, such as those who, at the return of Christ, say to to the rocks and mountains “Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb….” (Revelation 6:16)

In the realm of modern experience, there are countless testimonies. Many meet Christ in church in response to preaching and teaching of the gospel. Many of the questioning, the doubting, and the reluctant (not being in church) are confronted directly by the living Christ (in dreams, visions, or Him speaking directly to us) and make a decision for Christ. One example is C. S. Lewis who described himself as the most reluctant convert when he was dragged into the Kingdom of God. He responded to divine revelation of Truth when confronted.

Angels are God’s messengers. Biblical accounts do not show them as having God’s authority except as delegated, but they do assist humans. Modern sightings are rare (much rarer than God speaking to individuals) but we know they are invisibly around us. How often do we escape near-certain calamity by seemingly the minutest circumstance? We talk about guardian angels and glorify God for His divine protection. But Jesus also gave us a very specific warning regarding guardian angels: “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones; for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10) When we see little children, or those who are innocent at heart (e.g., mentally challenged of various types), do we welcome them with due respect for their guardians as Jesus cautioned? 

In summary, every occasion of human-divine interaction affords us a choice and opportunity. We reveal our hearts through our response. We can change our heart, but we must make that decision ourself. We cannot complain of the lack of opportunity or initiative on God’s part to reach out to us. God is not as concerned about whether we will rationally choose to surrender when it is clear who He is, as He is about whether our heart is aligned with His. He will accept us on any terms but clearly blesses those who share a desire for His character.

Faith or panache? The Chick Fil-A Conspiracy

Anyone who has been to Chick Fil-A has heard the phrases “how may I serve you?” and “my  pleasure” from cheerful employees. This is the external indicator of Dan and Truett Cathy’s conspiracy to flood the working world with people who are polite, respectful, and cheerful. These workers will go on to take jobs in industry and government where they will outperform their peers because of these behaviors (assuming they retain them). This is not that they won’t have the same issues as their contemporaries, but that in their dealings with others they will exhibit positive communications skills. This conspiracy could turn the workforce upside down, rewarding and promoting traditional values like respect for others and good manners, rather than aggressive and self-serving focus on advancement. 

How does this relate to faith vs. panache? Flamboyance in style or action is often seen in exuberant worship that can mask the inner workings of faith in a believer’s life. We go to worship services and often don’t have the opportunity to address with others our inner turmoil regarding circumstances, doubts, or challenges. Instead we come before the Lord and participate in faith. St. Paul reflected on this to the extreme in defending his holy boldness. (2 Corinthians 11:21-30) The background is this: it is in our challenges, our adverse circumstances, trials, and temptations that we have the opportunity to engage most strongly and directly with Jesus. Just as teenagers learn to show up for work and be polite when things are grumpy, and therein learn a solid work and workplace ethic, norms, and behaviors, so we believers learn to live in faith and experience the power of God’s grace when we worship in church and interact with God and His people in faith directly despite our situation. This is training for heaven.

“Follow the Science” - politics under color of authority?

“Under color of authority is a legal phrase … indicating that a person is claiming or implying the acts he or she is committing are related to and legitimized by his or her role as an agent of governmental power.” (Wikipedia, 13 November 2021) In police work, it generally is applied to a situation when a police officer justifies assault (violence) far beyond the needed level of force. It is often a matter of judgment when this issue is raised.

In Biblical interpretation, many religious scholars, pastors, and pundits are tempted to claim the authority of Scripture for their interpretation of it. As representatives of God, they are called to preach, along with correct, rebuke, and exhort. (2 Timothy 4:2) The 40,000-45,000 Christian denominations in the world speak to disagreements in the past and present. These have included personality clashes as well as disputes about implementation in matters the Bible does not provide implementation details. Rare is the denomination that does not claim the authority of God for their beliefs and practices. Calling out disagreements amounts to claiming that their unique beliefs and practices are legitimized by the correct understanding of God and His word, which they alone possess.

The new kid on the block is science. The phrase ‘follow the science’ is widely used by politicians to claim that their laws and policies are legitimized by science, and everyone else is ignoring scientific findings. It sounds appealing, but… what is science? “Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world.” (Wikipedia, 13 November 21)  

The claim of the authority of science is tied to testable explanations and predictions. Easy as this concept is to apply to basic physics, the challenge comes in the complexity of the real world. In doing experiments it is necessary to isolate the phenomenon being tested from all other possible factors. Politicians gloss over this detail in crafting policies based on ‘the science’. An honest statement would have to caveat policy pronouncements with phrases like ‘in my judgment’ or ‘in the judgment of qualified scientists’. This is not to say that the law of universal gravitation is a matter of judgment. Policy issues seldom depend on it. But statistics on the efficacy of a vaccine, mask wearing, social distancing, or lockdowns vary widely because of the innumerable variables involved. 

These politicians want to use ‘the science’ as a kind of trump card to defeat all other considerations, such as limited government and the bill of rights in the constitution. Whether any given measure will work as claimed or not, science does not automatically override all other considerations. Even if vaccines are as effective as their advocates believe, and people are individually better off by getting them, is a public health crisis worth ending the freedom under the rule of law that the United States was established on? Limited government, individual liberty under the rule of law can be eroded by many actions, either by despotic policies from iron-fisted rulers, or by rebellious militias seeking to achieve local autonomy. Anarchy, as described in a previous post on Haiti, arises from hearts not fully devoted to God. But ‘science’-based tyranny claims the acts the tyrant is committing are related to and legitimized by science. What is the risk that these science-citing wannabe dictators are partaking of the spirit described in Isaiah 14:13-14?

I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.

Any of us could be so tempted.

Haiti - Compromised Hearts and Syncretism

The recent kidnapping of 17 missionaries by a Haitian gang, with ransom demands and threats of murder, briefly brought public attention to its failed-state status. Since the UN peacekeeping mission withdrew there has been no real governance or enforcement of civil order. Not that Haiti is unique - Somalia in 1993 got world attention for its civil war (which lasted roughly from 1991-2012) due to the battle of Mogadishu. Afghanistan is probably in a similar condition, although at present news reports are scarce. What is the root cause?

Mankind has a sin problem, going back to Adam and Eve. But the modern consequences have a spiritual dimension, that affects all of society. The Bwa Kayiman ceremony and the Haitian slave revolt of 1791 reflect this primal human sin nature - that the ends justify the means. Is it less evil to use kidnapping and murder as a means to create a better society than to subjugate and enslave people by torture and murder? Veritas ipsa loquitur. To buy just a bit into Satan’s worldview is to contaminate the whole. Whether Voodoo is the cause of Haiti’s social dysfunction or a symptom of it, the desire for supernatural power to inflict evil on another has but one source. This is not a trick question.

What of the professed Christianity - Catholic or Protestant - of a large fraction of the Haitian population? Jesus defeated Satan on the cross, so why are His children subject to Satan’s power? The Scriptures give a few hints. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 describes people who hold to a form of godliness but deny its power. Acts 19:13-16 describes the attempt of some would-be exorcists to cast a demon out in the name of Jesus but not actually knowing Him. We do not know the hearts of the Haitians (God does) but the social acceptance of voodoo speaks for itself. Claiming Christ but also hedging bets by acknowledging voodoo - a compromised heart - is syncretism no different than Jewish idol worship in historic Israel. 

Satan’s deception is extraordinarily sly; he knew exactly how to trick Adam and Eve into their first sin.  When appeals to people who name Christ to repent of and renounce their sin and the world, the flesh, and the devil have fallen on deaf ears, the only(and inevitable) outcome is the determined by cause and effect.

In the U.S. and western countries we view social breakdown and dysfunction as something that couldn’t happen here. But we should heed the warning of this object lesson. Syncretism in Haiti may one day unravel. Syncretism in western culture - worldly religion, Christianity along with worship of economic or political idols, I mean ideals - could engender future disaster for us. We can’t have it both ways. Either Jesus is Lord, and we choose to know and walk with Him, or else not. We can’t create heaven on earth or build the kingdom of God by worldly means. If we have compromised hearts (mixed loyalties), He will use the consequences that result from our mixed religious allegiances to refine us, just as He does others.

I Chronicles 28 records David’s warning and promise to Solomon when he became king just before David’s death. Verse 9 states, “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” These words speak to us.

What does it mean to follow Christ?

 What challenge does Jesus lay out for those who follow Him? In reading through the gospels I find three attributes of His followers.

•      They believe certain things. (John 3:16)

•      Especially the most important truths, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died for our sins.

•      They have a relationship with Him. (John 10:14)

•      They know His voice. (John 10:27). They experience His presence and empowerment in their life.

•      They obey Him. (Luke 6:46)

•      The key obedience is responding His voice when He says “Open the door”. (Revelation 3:10)

The good news is that Jesus came to the earth to save humans from being lost in sin. The four spiritual laws and the Romans Road both summarize this plan of salvation.

•      God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. (John 3:16)

•      Humanity is tainted by sin and is therefore separated from God. As a result, we cannot know God’s wonderful plan for our lives. (Romans 3:23, 6:23)

•      Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Jesus Christ, we can have our sins forgiven and restore a right relationship with God, through the blood that He shed when He was crucified. (Romans 5:8)

•      We must place our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior in order to receive the gift of salvation and know God’s wonderful plan for our lives. (John 1:12)

It is important to understand what Christianity is not:

•      It is not keeping a bunch of rules to pass a legal review of our behavior. (2 Corinthians 3:6)

•      It is not earning God’s blessing through good works. Rather, God has prepared good works for us to walk in. (Ephesians 2:10)

•      It’s not a negotiation - I’ll do this if You will do that. (Examples: going to church; donating money; good works) (Isaiah 66:1)

What are the reasons people do not choose Jesus?

•      They don’t know the gospel.

•      Jesus sent His followers to go preach to every person. (Matthew 28:19-20) The job isn’t done yet.

•      They don’t believe the gospel.

•      Numerous books have been written to document evidence for the trustworthiness of the Scriptures and basic truths about Christ, e.g., The Case for Christ, Who Moved the Stone?

•      Lack of personal connection or experience with Jesus.

•      My personal experience is that anyone who sincerely seeks a relationship with Christ will receive palpable confirmation from Him. (Jeremiah 29:13)

•      Struggle with some theological issue, such as reconciling a loving God with the problem of pain, or difficult doctrines that are hard to understand.

•      Although the Bible offers answers, they are sometimes unsatisfying to our human understanding and difficult to accept. We have to accept the transcendence of Jesus over these questions - that His love, holiness, and power are more important. (Job 38-41)

•      Rejection of the gospel. Some understand that to receive Christ will entail them giving up lifestyle behaviors that conflict with His. I see two flavors of this.

•      An accurate belief that they do not have the strength to change. The good news is that the indwelling Christ empowers us to live out His life in our bodies. (Philippians 2:13)

•      A love of a specific vice that trumps a desire to live rightly, or to go to heaven, or to enjoy fellowship with God. Sadly, God can only deal with this by letting nature take its course. Every sin has consequences built in by the law of cause and effect. These consequences are the final warnings to the lost soul. (1 Corinthians 5:5)

So, the bottom line is that every person chooses. My prayer is that you will choose Christ.

Satan’s rebellion against love

Matthew 4 and Luke 4 both relate the story of Satan confronting Jesus after forty days spent in the desert. Satan tempts Christ in three ways:

•  Turning stones into bread
•  Forcing the angels to physically intervene to demonstrate God’s protective love
•  Receiving the kingdoms of the earth

 What is the real point?

•      Jesus’ response to Satan’s challenge to turn stones into bread was to quote Deuteronomy 8:3. What is this telling us? The priority of Spiritual connection such as hearing God’s spoken word over physical nutrition for sustenance. More generally, the paramount importance of a direct and experienced connection with God over the things of the world - money, food, houses, land. God can easily supply these things. Our challenge is to live trusting in His spoken words. We find a similar  thought when Jesus multiplied the loaves in John 6, and then told His listeners that He is the bread of life (John 6:36). Not just physical life, but eternal life — fellowship with God for all eternity. Satan had rejected that eons earlier. Satan’s existence continued, but apart from God he was eternally damned to a self-absorbed rejection of the agape life.

  •      When Satan challenged Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple quoting Psalm 91:11-12, Jesus’ response was to put the promise into perspective by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. Satan tempted Jesus to claim a promise that was legitimately His, because He (and perhaps only Jesus) met the conditions of Psalm 91:1-2, 9, and 14. But that is not the whole of Scripture. Jesus knew that a long life (Psalm 91:16) was not what the Father had called Him to, because the redemption of humankind would entail Him enduring the punishment due to the wicked (Isaiah 53:6). But His response was to refer to Deuteronomy 6 (You shall not put Yahweh to the test), in which Moses referred to Exodus 17:7; in that circumstance Moses called the place where the Israelites grumbled Massah (meaning test) because the Israelites questioned whether God brought them into the wilderness to die of thirst. This temptation was not about water in the desert, but in context, Jesus was telling us that trust in God does not mean things will always go smoothly. To create a crisis to try to force God to intervene is the presumption of arrogating His role to ourselves. He may allow trials and tribulations for His purposes, but for us to create them ourselves would be to play God - which Satan is trying to do.

•      Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offered them if Jesus would bow down to worship him. We can relate to this Faustian temptation. Is it any different when shysters promise heaven on earth if we sell our souls to their worldly ways? Whether selling vacation timeshares or proposing a new political order, the scent of sulphur is palpable to those attuned to the Master’s voice. Jesus knew He could not bypass the cross to bring the kingdom of God on earth. But the nature of Satan’s offer to Jesus was insidious: he was telling the God of creation, agape incarnate, to bow down to the rebel, the author of lies. If Jesus had done so, He would have changed His very nature by partaking of Satan’s character, seeking to bring about the Kingdom of God by worshipping Satan, and thereby becoming like him. The essence of this temptation — to achieve “good” by worldly means — He rejected.

This confrontation may have reproduced on earth a similar event in eternity, eons earlier, when Satan rebelled. The outcome would not be any different on earth than it was in heaven, because Jesus was perfectly obedient to the Father. But the connection here gives us a hint to that greater mystery - why does God allow suffering? Jesus told His disciples to take up their crosses to follow Him. (Matthew 16:24) God’s purposes are often advanced through suffering, both in our souls and on earth as a whole. Perhaps this voluntary self-sacrifice for the sake of others - God’s agape love - can only mature in this way; and Satan rejects this truth. The easy way out - sell your soul and receive what you want now - is Satan’s counterfeit. And that is the choice we each face, to embrace God’s agape love - sacrificial service to others - or to emulate Satan’s self-serving approach to existence. And ultimately we will reap the fruit of our decision.

The Devilish Details of Viruses - Book Review

 

Viruses, Pandemics, and Immunity (VP&I hereafter) by Arup K. Chakraborty and Andrew S. Shaw opens with a brief history of pandemics. Discounting the spiritual dimension of plagues at the outset only indicates the authors do not wish to address final causes (in the Aristotelean sense) but focus instead on material causes.

History is replete with viral epidemics and pandemics that all of us have heard of, such as smallpox. Smallpox has been almost eradicated in the world. But what of polio, HIV? And what about outbreaks that occur locally but do not become epidemic? The explanation is found in the microscopic domain of viruses and the human response to them.

VP&I explains what viruses consist of, and how they work. They invade the body’s own cells (since they are not cells themselves) by injecting themselves into the cells, and then use the victim cell’s machinery to reproduce themselves. That RNA viruses are hard to contain because of their genetic variability resulting in mutations, unlike DNA viruses with their more stable genetic code. Next, VP&I explains how the immune response defends us from them. Although we often get sick, this is how our natural bodily response fends off the initial attack and then remembers the defenses. Immunity thus naturally obtained may last for months, years, or a lifetime.

The spread of pandemics and  control of them is the hot topic du jour of the day. Public health practices like distancing, masking, washing, quarantining and the like mitigate virus transmission, but how well? VP&I explains the concept of R₀, which is a parameter that measures how many others a sick person will infect during the course of their illness. And then the difficult task of estimating the effect of various public health measures on reducing it. The authors explain how so-called herd immunity depends crucially on R₀. 

There are antiviral therapies that hospitals typically use when a patient is admitted, but vaccines are the current high interest item. The details of how conventional vaccines work and the novelty of the mRNA vaccines is explained, although this book was published just before the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were in mass distribution.  The history of  polio vaccines (Salk and Sabin) and the pursuit of an HIV vaccine offers some insight into previous generations’ responses, and the difficulties in developing them.

Overall, the level of detail in VP&I that is accessible to non-medical personnel is very helpful in understanding what is going on. The unknowns ought to give us pause whenever politicians (including “medical” bureaucrats) make pronouncements with an air of certainty, because of uncertain and unknown details.  But government leaders are in a hard spot, being charged with responsibility for the public welfare, to the extent that government can promote it, without knowledge needed to make wise decisions. 

VP&I provides details, but not the context, and does not attempt to address the social and political turmoil ensuing from the COVID-19 pandemic. We are commanded to submit to governing authorities, which were established by God, as God’s servants for good.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. (Romans 13:1-5, NIV)

Fortunately, we do not (in this country) have a regime anything like the Third Reich, to which reconciling this passage would be difficult. It would be healthy if those claiming infallible public health prescriptions would back off from their claim of certainty, but this should be balanced against claims of those who purport to speak for God. There are varying interpretations of Scripture (just as there are complications in nanobiology) and we should be cautious to avoid claiming the authority of Scripture for our interpretation of them. God will, in His time, judge those who rebel against Him,  and those who misuse authority. We should be humble and cautious lest we be so judged.