California Dreamin of Heaven

The Mamas and the Papas hit, recorded by the Beach Boys in 1986,  epitomized the feelings of discouragement and longing for relief so common to life. The Beach Boys' earlier song (1965) California Girls characterized youthful focus on fleshly pleasures. Today’s California exhibits neither of these attributes in the popular mind, except perhaps a wistful memory. What does this say to us? 

El Camino Real was first established by dedicated missionaries, who were called to establish bastions of Christianity in this part of the new world. Missions were established starting in 1683 (almost a century before the road was built) and many stand to this day was a testimony. Indeed the names of many cities, e.g. San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Jose, San Francisco,  remind us of this heritage. (That sometimes the missionaries did not live up to the standards of Jesus does not diminish the fact of their zeal for Him.)

The Gold Rush, starting in 1848 (after California was ceded to the U.S. following the Mexican War), appealed to those who sought instant wealth. Most of the consequences of this flood of immigrants were predictable, as the forty-niners’ greed, and the disease and lifestyle they brought decimated native Americans, and probably did not improve their lifestyle. [The outcomes for individuals who struck it rich were likely not much different from those who win the lottery in our day.] But this established a concept of California in popular culture that endures.

California became a place to run away to. The prodigal son went to a far country to squander his father’s wealth. Many since the gold rush fled to California, not to spend their inheritance, but perhaps to escape a miserable life, or to get a new start in life. When my maternal great uncle, who was born and raised in Michigan, married a divorced woman, this so offended the other members of his family the he and his bride moved to California in the 1920’s to escape, and had no further contact with them. My father’s parents divorced when he was nine, and continued their war so meanly that my father left Michigan to attend USC in 1941 to escape their incessant battles. California beckoned. 

Migrant workers traditionally were viewed as temporary laborers who came from Mexico to California (and a few other states) to be exploited by, I mean, to provide labor for the harvest. Many, perhaps most, traditionally returned home each year. Modern migrants have set up permanent tent encampments on the streets of major cities in California  (and other western states). This immigration has been dealt with elsewhere, but undoubtedly these migrants view California as the earthly culmination of their quest for a better life. 

Image from Nations Online Project

Recent conditions almost sound like divine judgment. Wildfires and high temperatures suggest a certain supernatural location that is not anybody’s preferred eternal destination. Anyone who has driven in the big metropolitan areas is acquainted with the driving habits of their denizens. Housing prices have soared beyond outrageous to ludicrous. Dare we ask why?

There is a basic problem. It is called original sin (theologically), but we are all acquainted with this problem in practical experience. When we run away, or move to a new location to better our lives, we take ourselves with us. And we have an adversary who will deceive us in unfamiliar settings, and then accuse us when we succumb to his lies. This is not unique to California, but universal to humankind. Why did Jacob go to Paddan-aram to find a wife? Why did Abram go to Egypt when there was a famine? They had legitimate issues and God met them where they went, but the point was that He used their travels as part of His plan to redeem them from self.

We can’t run away from ourselves - our baggage is internal to us until we take it to Jesus

Consulting others and finding Truth

Rehoboam and James - wise and foolish politics

I Kings 12 relates the story of King Rehoboam deciding how to respond to a request from all Israel, sent through Jeroboam, asking the new king to lighten their load (hard labor, taxes).  Acts 15 relates the story of the council in Jerusalem in which the Apostles were asked to require gentile converts to Christianity to be circumcised. There are differences in the context, but the most important lesson is in the differences in execution.

Rehoboam was the undisputed heir of Solomon’s throne. He had no parliament to deal with, but he had advisors, as had his father. When the request came to him, he took time to consult his father’s advisers, and then to consult the young men who had grown up with him. There is no mention of prophets being asked at all. And then he decided which answer he would give. That was it. I Kings 12:16-20 records the consequences of his foolish decision. After that, a prophet finally appears on the scene (verses 22-24).

When Paul arrived in Jerusalem and told of the amazing work of the Holy Spirit among the gentiles, legalists insisted that Judaism was the path to Christ. Circumcision was given as a sign that the Jews were set apart from the nations, going back to Abraham. (Genesis 17:9-14) The apostles and elders gathered to look into the question. There was a vigorous debate (Acts 15:7) Peter then recounted the story of his visit to the household of Cornelius (Acts 10), and then Paul and Barnabas told of God’s working among the gentiles in their journeys. And then James gave his decision. Superficially, it might look like the process was the same. Rehoboam decided to follow his friends’ advice, James decided to accept Paul’s recommendation.

But there is a layer deeper. There is no suggestion that Rehoboam sought dialog between his two sets of advisors. James evidently had them all in the same room, enough so that they argued vigorously, discussing no doubt the basis for their recommendations. This contrast would appear to recommend the best path to make wise decisions would be the thesis – antithesis – synthesis paradigm; integrate everyone’s perspective into a unified outcome.

And so, in modern life, can we distill principles that are universally applicable? The easiest lesson is that of Proverbs 15:22, that many counselors enable plans to succeed. The implication is that no single person had a monopoly on truth or wisdom, and it is in the process of debating an issue that wisdom and successful plans emerge. Perhaps if Rehoboam had gathered all the advisors together so that they could debate the merits of their recommendations a reasonable compromise might have emerged. We will never know.

However, yet another layer of contrast can be seen. Rehoboam’s decision (1 Kings 12:14) had no hint of listening to either the people or his father’s advisors, or even any of the prophets. He was king and his word was law. James’ decision, recorded in Acts 15:22-29, did not say there are no requirements on how gentile believers should live. The letter, composed by committee, said there are fundamental norms for behavior, and that only the burden of the ceremonial law was lifted. They mentioned the Holy Spirit’s guidance. It was not a compromise, but a distillation of a new truth about the relationship between God and His people that emerged from interaction between apparently irreconcilable parties.

But I correct myself, and herein is the key. One Man has all Truth, He was the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6) If you search for the word wisdom in Proverbs you can find almost 50 verses. Many of them refer to wisdom as coming from the Lord. (E.g., 1:7, 2:6, 9:10, 15:33) This is the most fundamental difference between Rehoboam and the early apostles. Rehoboam wanted a practical answer and took bad advice. James and Peter and Paul wanted to hear what the Lord wanted them to do (not just what was efficient or expedient), and looked to the counsel of others to discern His will. James quoted Amos 9:11-12 to link their present situation to God’s promise of saving the gentiles. Ultimately the group collectively wrote the letter and sent a delegation to Antioch to convey that this was a community consensus on God’s will.

We cannot impose faith into matters of worldly politics, because so few in the world know the Lord. (Although God desires all men everywhere to be saved.) Hence, there is no cure here for rancorous political disputes. But although there are believers in both parties to every political dispute, it seems inconceivable that they could meet together to seek to hear the Lord’s voice and jointly discern His will. Not that He wouldn’t reveal it, but that most politicians would not risk alienating their base by meeting with the enemy. And herein lies the lingering infection in our political system. Believing politicians value how their voters perceive them over their desire to know God closely and do His will. Would that they would recognize the implicit truth that if God has called and gifted an individual for leadership, it is for His purposes, not theirs. How great is our God!

Book Review: Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade

This book was first published in French in the 18th century as the sacrament of the present moment, and still appearing in English translations under both titles.  The subtitle is ‘how to fulfill your daily duties with God-given purpose’. The two sections deal with the virtue of abandonment to divine providence, and the state of abandonment.

The virtue described is that of allowing God to work His will in our life. He sanctifies us, setting us apart for His purposes, when we fully submit to all He does. We can only do this through obedience, without waiting for a full understanding of His design. This is not a call for all believers to some great endeavor, but simple trust by doing what He says in the moment-by-moment duties of everyday life. DeCaussade goes on to discuss how we can discover God’s will for us individually, and that is the source of our sanctification. Ultimately everything in our life becomes taken up in this supernatural activity enabled by abandoning ourselves to God’s will, focusing on present moment He has placed us in.

DeCaussade’s description of the state of abandonment includes the nature of this state, its excellence, the duties (in a bit more detail), God’s workings on those in this state, and the trials accompanying it. The virtues of faith, hope, and love unite us to God in a single decision. It is (and must be) a free decision. Those who choose this, to purify their heart of worldly desires, are blessed with spiritual graces. But the cost is that there will be trials - to be misunderstood and maligned by other believers not on this road, to be mocked by those in the world, to be humiliated in our own eyes so that we distrust ourselves, and to be tested by the adversary. We are blessed when we recognize that God despoils all things other than Himself (worldly treasures, worldly values, church practices that others deem to earn holiness, self-created works or actions designed to please God) so that we will recognize that our true treasure is Him and Him alone. We even find our enemies to be a useful help for us to grow in grace. Ultimately, we will learn to recognize God at work in all creatures and situations.

Such a state might seem to encourage passivity, as we wait for God to tell us what to do. However, this is the exact opposite of the author’s understanding. Total abandonment to God means putting all our energy into finding out what He wants us to do, and in responding and doing actively all the things we know He has already asked us for. The much harder challenge, IMHO, is to give up all the desires for worldly and personal stuff, as He reveals to us one by one that they stand between Him and us. Even as we say we have decided to give it all to Him, it is a daily growing process and new decision for the next step. That is the challenge laid before us.

Book Review: Waiting for the Morning Train - An American Boyhood by Bruce Catton

Civil War historian Bruce Catton tells a delightful story of a carefree childhood in Benzonia, Michigan, from 1899 to 1916. He later realized (book was written when he was 72 or 73) that the delight in his childhood was totally oblivious to the realty of the situation. During this period, the last of the virgin forest of the northern lower peninsula of Michigan was being harvested for lumber and shipped out. And that when the virgin forests were gone, the economy collapsed. The land was poor for farming and the vacation/resort industry was just getting started. 

Benzonia was established around an academy that was founded by committed Christians who purposed to bring enlightenment to the workers and residents in the boondocks. He tells of his childhood activities in this environment, playing with his friends in a small town and in the wilderness. He talks about his schooling, his classmates, being in the band, and various church activities. Bruce Catton’s father taught for some years, eventually ran the academy for a few years. In 1916 the author left for Oberlin College. One year after his father’s departure departure from the academy, it closed.

Bruce Catton was two years younger than my grandfather, also born in Michigan. A completely different story - his father was a lighthouse keeper and he was raised by his aunts. He worked as an accountant raising his family through the Great Depression, and ultimately was quite successful in the world of business. But I never heard any stories from him about an idyllic childhood. Catton was privileged to enjoy the childhood he had

In his retirement, Bruce Catton wrote this memoir (published in 1972) to ruminate on parallel themes. In youth, we have no idea what lies ahead, and the world is full of possibilities. In mankind’s early days, the world was unlimited in space, in resources, in opportunity. At the cusp of the transition from adolescence to manhood, the future seems bright. In Catton’s experience, the First World War, the collapse of the Benzonia academy were realities that broke in. (He never finished college and was awarded an honorary degree in 1956). Mankind has been systematically using the resources of the earth, using them up, and some day there will be a reckoning, as with the collapse of the lumber industry in northern Michigan. He vaguely alludes to using up resources such as minerals, etc., but 50 years later, with the climate inching towards a warmer worldwide temperature with a higher frequency of severe storms, droughts, and the like, he seems like a prophet. He never referenced scriptures like Luke 21:11 or Revelation 6:8.

And so the author wraps up his metaphor of childhood being like waiting for the morning train, which he would board to an exciting adventure in life. The ending is the night train, old age, having seen the failure of dreams, boarding the sleeper car. Regrettably, he apparently lacked the belief, or did not want to proselytize, about the glorious hope recorded in Revelation 19. 

The Chosen - Generation Z Livestream: Reconciling Love and Holiness

In mid-July, the Chosen aired a two hour event in which they invited nine Gen Z’ers to binge-watch the first season episodes and then share their reactions. I don’t really know what the selection criteria were for which 20-something’s were invited. There were some commonalities but the single biggest feature is that none of them had previously watched any of the episodes and none of them shared the basic Christian faith of the producers and cast. 

Some of the life stories quickly emerged in the post-binge-ing discussions. 

• Several had been brought up in various Christian denominations but none was a practicing Christian at this time. Their reasons for leaving the church varied, but none felt connected to the church they had left, except by memory. 
• A few had had mental health issues as teenagers, at least one had contemplated suicide. Does this have common cause with the mental health epidemic in the U.S. that has resulted in young men committing mass shootings at an unprecedented rate?
• A few had experienced some form of abuse as children or teenagers. Several expressed alienation from their parents as part of that. 
• Virtually all felt that their true self was not affirmed by anyone - that everyone told them how bad they were and that they had to change to be validated.
• One revealed that she was a lesbian and that no one would accept her for that reason. 

All expressed that the depiction of Jesus in the Chosen as kind, compassionate, and welcoming appealed to them, and that it was completely different from their experience with religious people. None had apparently ever had a personal relationship with Christ in which they personally experienced His nature and character in their life.

How can the church minister to Gen Z? We cannot abandon the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Perhaps we should examine the presentation of the gospel and our description of the Christian life. 

• God is holy; that cannot change. 
• God is love, and loves us.
• God’s desire is for us to share his holiness, and we don’t measure up. (Romans 3:23)
• Our sins are ultimately self-destructive; we can listen to wisdom or learn from experience.
• God has provided a rescuer for us, Jesus Christ, who came to earth to redeem us, by dying for our sins.
• If we receive Him, Jesus will  rescue us from both the judgment for and the power and consequences of our sin. 

Where do modern churches fail to connect with most 20-Somethings?

• The typical church service consisting of the liturgy and preaching seems irrelevant and simply doesn’t connect to outsiders. The Chosen connects partly because it is so different.

• The concept that in order to be saved, one has to beat unbelievers about the head and shoulders with their sinfulness. The reason is that if a person does not confess his or her sins, God will not forgive them. The practical out-working is that the unbeliever perceives the one browbeating them to have a “holier-than-thou” attitude. Having an internal sense of their own shortcomings, this does not sound like a God of love. They are looking for love.
• The perceived irrelevance of Biblical norms and practices to modern life. Superficially, rules from two to four thousand years ago seem to have been needed in the Iron Age, but modern technology and medical advances have overcome many of the conditions these rules address or mitigate. Unspoken is the unchanging human nature, and what it takes to live together in harmony with fellow humans; the transcendent holiness of God is incomprehensible to people whose  intellectual input has been the Internet their entire lives.
• How God can love us and yet issue all of the threats and warnings in Scripture. The empowerment of the Holy Spirit to overcome all of the issues from our upbringing and intrinsic self-centeredness is seldom presented so that outsiders can understand, let alone desire it. How to receive this empowerment is even more baffling when enshrouded with religious jargon.

The Chosen shows snippets of life in which Jesus reveals Himself in love,  holiness, and power, connecting to the down and out people of the first century. But the Chosen is not a church and cannot function as one. The actors are able to portray Jesus and the Biblical characters, but do not constitute a church. Jesus established the church and He is going to return for as His bride; it is His chosen instrument to minister eternal life on a continuing basis to those who respond to Him. What might the church do?

• Follow up contact could be established, similar to the approach that the Billy Graham crusade used decades ago to establish a connection between those who responded at crusades and local churches. But the producers of The Chosen would have to be willing, and they do not typically (so far as I can tell) ask viewers to respond directly to them with statements of coming to Christ. There is a place on their app for comments, but I have no idea if there is any follow up, or it is just social media.
• Small home gatherings could leverage episodes of the Chosen in a format similar to the Alpha course. To invite “seekers” in a format similar to that of the livestream special. To watch an episode and then get their reactions, and questions, without a preset theological curriculum. To connect them to experience God directly through a medium they can relate to. And then nurture that infant faith through appropriate ministry.
• Frankly, the attitudes that believers in church exhibit need to be scrutinized. Theological depth and Scriptural exposition need to be in the context of ministry to the needs of hurting people. And Gen-Zers hurt, as described above.
• What the church cannot do is compromise on truth. Truth. Because gen-Z-ers typically reject all authority if they feel like it, they must understand that God’s kingdom is those who humbly submit to God, even if we don’t feel like it or like what He says. (We need to be clear about the difference in authority between Scripture itself, and people’s interpretation of it.)

The bottom line is that the Chosen presents an opportunity for the church to minister to Gen-Z, but  challenges must be thoughtfully addressed. Perhaps the deepest challenge is to reconcile (in theology and in practice) perfect love with perfect holiness. 

Lepanto - the under-appreciated valor of 16th century Christendom

Book Review: Lepanto by G. K. Chesterton, Ed by Dale Ahlquist (Ignatius Press, 2004).

Lepanto, penned by Chesterton in 1911, provides a poetic interpretation of a battle that occurred in October, 1571, in 143 lines.  The significance of the battle of Lepanto: if the Turks had won, they would surely have invaded Rome and Venice, and Europe would have been dominated by Islamic rulers. Chesterton depicts various remote players, such as the Sultan, the Pope, the Prophet of Islam, each in their respective chambers, all while the heroic Don John is leading the charge to victory.

I initially found the poem obscure and confusing. Most of the book is devoted to explaining the context and the references that Chesterton made. I had never heard of this particular battle, which perhaps speaks to the narrowness of the world history I was taught in High School. Over the years I have learned about battles of Constantinople, Tours, Vienna,  Granada, and now Lepanto. The full scope of the Islamic Empire - its rapid expansion by military conquest, politicization into kingdoms and bureaucracies, ossification, and decay - all these were seldom or never touched on. They were certainly never presented as a unified story of the centuries-long struggle between Christendom and Islam on the geopolitical stage. [Bernard Lewis is sadly omitted from most history courses.]

The heart of Lepanto is an unlikely hero, Don John, the bastard son of King Philip, and half-brother to Philip II of Spain, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Pius V appointed Don John (at age 24) admiral over the combined European fleet to confront and defeat the larger Turkish fleet being assembled at Lepanto (at the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth) for the Turkish invasion of Europe. 

Essays by Brandon Rogers and Melvin Kriesel summarize the background and the battle itself. A piece by William Cinfici describes the aftermath spanning the centuries from the 16th to the 21st. Dale Ahlquist helps us interpret the poem (imagery, allusions, references) and appreciate the poetic artistry. Finally, two related essays by G.K. Chesterton provide insight into his perspective: a 1911 short essay linking the true story of Don John to legend and faith; and a much longer essay from 1931 on the implications if Don John had married Mary Queen of Scots. That was reportedly his intention, but he died suddenly before they even met in person. The latter essay delves into the intertwined threads of religion, wars, and royalty in 16th century Europe. 

The overall conclusion I drew from the entire book is this: In 16th century Europe, between the splintering of Christendom due to the Reformation and rival political and royal establishments, it was only by the grace of God working through an unlikely vessel that Islamic conquest of Europe was halted. 

Book Review: Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness by Warren H. Carroll

In 1487, the Aztec empire under the dominance of Tlacaellel, dedicated the new pyramid-temple of Huitzilopochtli with human sacrifices of 80,000 men in four days, far surpassing the typical annual total of Aztec sacrifices of approximately 50,000. At the same time, in Europe, Spain was in the final stages of its war with the Muslim invaders, to repel their armies, which was completed in 1492. The completion of this freed the Spanish government to commission and provision Christopher Columbus to sail west to Asia, only to discover the Americas instead. The Spanish unknowingly set out in a conquest similar to that of the Israelites when the iniquity of the Amorites was fully accomplished (Genesis 15:16).

The Bible records multiple judgments of nations and cultures totally given over to evil, besides the Canaanites. The antediluvian world and Sodom and Gomorrah are two examples in which God eschewed human agency. But that is not what Warren Carroll writes about. In 1517, 25 years after Columbus’ arrival in the Caribbean, Mexico was discovered, and first contact occurred between the Spanish and the Aztec Empire, a.k.a. Mexica. Within four years, Cortes and a handful of Spanish soldiers dethroned the Hummingbird Wizard and ruled Mexica. 

What follows this is the equally miraculous transformation of a culture. How can 15 million people who have lived (and been terrorized) by pagan idol worship of evil spirits claiming to be gods and demanding human sacrifice be freed? In a few decades, over half the population of Mexica became Christians. This was due to the efforts of the Spanish Catholic Church in sending and supporting those called to this missionary endeavor. Rather than destroying the nation as the Israelites did Canaan, the Spanish brought life and deliverance to the Aztecs. [The vision of Guadalupe is almost a footnote to this.]

What is the difference between evangelization and cultural imperialism? If there were (hypothetically) no objective standard for good and evil, this would be a difficult question. But since God demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son to rescue us from our sin and its consequences, we have an ultimate standard. The good news of the Gospel is a spiritual truth of a fundamentally different kind than pagan idol worship that demands human sacrifice. When the spiritual war in heavenly places becomes visible on earth, we must choose sides.

What is the lesson for us? The Aztec Empire did an annual human sacrifice of approximately one person for every 300 population. They were judged and saved from evil after military defeat. In our nation there occurs an abortion for approximately one in 40 population. While the stench of this unchecked evil is not the sole evidence, it may serve as a bellwether for the core values of a culture. The Supreme Court opened the door to changing our cultural direction, but … they do not decide the ultimate outcome. [Selah] A rebellious and evil society cannot escape judgment if it rejects all warnings. Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:14) reaped in full measure, the Aztecs were conquered, and six justices pointed it out, but ultimately our society will decide its own fate.