Religion

Posted on December 9, 2018 by admin

Christianity is one of the world’s great religions.  But what is a religion?  Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines religion as:  a set of beliefs and practices concerning the cause, nature, and purposes of the universe.  Christianity definitely does that.

Now many Christians maintain that Christianity is more than a religion; it is more than a set of beliefs and practices.  They assert Christianity is a way of life; it is a personal relationship with God.  But is this what our Christian doctrine teaches?  I thought Christian doctrine taught all one needed to do to become a Christian was to profess faith in Jesus and his death for our sins; that nothing else was required.  As some theologians admit, it is possible for “a person to receive Jesus as Savior without in any way embracing him as Lord.  Neither repentance or submission to Christ’s Lordship is a necessary element of saving faith” [1]  So if our doctrine is correct, then our statement that Christianity is more than a religion is incorrect.  If the statement “Christianity is more than a religion, it is a relationship with God” is accurate, it needs to be reflected in our doctrine.  Why is it not?

What we have advocated in this blog and in my book is that our doctrine needs to change because Christianity is more than just another religion; it is the renovation of our soul so it becomes like God.

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[1]   R. C. Sproul, Faith Alone, Grand Rapids, MI:  Baker Books, 1995, pp. 168-169.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Posted on November 30, 2018 by admin

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and pastor during the World War I and II eras.  He actively participated in the plot to assassinate Hitler and as a result paid for it with his life.

From his father, Bonhoeffer learned to bring a “critical and ‘scientific’ attitude to all questions of faith and theology.” [1]   Why?  The reason was he “wished to arrive at answers that could stand up to every scrutiny because one would have to live out those conclusions.  They would have to become actions and would have to become the substance of one’s life.  . .And actions in Germany at that time had serious consequences.” [2]

Should we not have the same attitude today?  For most of us, unlike Bonhoeffer, our lives are not on the line but there are other reasons to scrutinize our faith.  In my book we quote David Elton Trueblood who has Bonhoeffer’s mind set but gives us a slightly different perspective.

“There is really no hope for the Christian faith apart from tough-mindedness in matters of belief.  If God is not, then the sooner we find it out the better.  If belief in God is not true, it is an evil and should be eliminated from our entire universe of discourse.  False belief is evil because it diverts energy from practical tasks that require attention.  If prayer is not an objective encounter with the Living God, we shall do well to make this discovery and give up the nonsense as soon as possible.” [3]

How many Christians have this attitude?  Do you?

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[1]   Eric Metaxas.  Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  Nashville:  Thomas Nelson, 2010. p. 54.

[2]   Metaxas, p. 127.

[3]   David Elton Trueblood. A Place to Stand.  New York:  Harper & Row, 1969, p. 19.

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The Divorce of Religion and Morality

Posted on November 23, 2018 by admin

Scott Hendrix states in Martin Luther:  Visionary Reformer that Luther’s revolutionary innovation was separating religion from morality.  ”True religion demands the heart and soul, not deeds and other externals. . .” [1]  Now the dictionary definition of morality is “conformity to the rules of right conduct”.  So can we honestly say the Bible is silent about morality?  Does God not impose certain requirements upon us in terms of our behavior?  What are the Ten Commandments?

If true religion demands something of our soul, how do we change our soul that is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9)?  While God is working in us (Philippians 2:13) does not God also expect something of us?  Does not God tell us we are to work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12)?  If our actions or deeds are not important, why is the Bible full of instructions on how we are to act?  Erasmus states that there are over 600 verses in the Bible where God requires something of us. [2]

C. S. Lewis states our actions and deeds are essential if we are to change.

The rule for all of us is perfectly simple.  Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did.  As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets.  When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.  If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. [3]

C. S. Lewis also talks about Christians being the sons of God and “dressing up as Christ”. He advocates pretending to be like Christ because it will lead to a change in a person. “Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.” [4]

God requires that our entire soul, not just part of it, be changed so it becomes like him.  That is why there are over 70 verses in the Bible which state salvation is through means other than belief in Jesus and some of those verses address our conduct.  So how can we separate religion from morality?

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[1]   Marvin Olasky, “Beyond sunny stories of how good we are”, World Magazine, October 28, 2017, p. 41.

[2]   Ernst F. Winter, ed. and trans. Discourse on Free Will. New York:  Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc., 1961, p. 59.

[3]   C. S. Lewis.   Mere Christianity.  New York:  The Macmillan Company, 1952, p. 101.

[4]   C. S. Lewis.  Mere Christianity.   p. 147.

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Faith and Deeds

Posted on November 12, 2018 by admin

In a recent feature article on sexual abuse in Protestant and Catholic organizations, the World Magazine ends the articles by quoting columnist Rod Dreher who Twittered “Nice worlds from Pope Francis, but after all this time, and all these empty promises from the episcopate, what counts now are **deeds**.” The author then ends the article by saying that is what counts in Protestant churches as well. [1]

In the Protestant doctrine of salvation, all that is required is words.  All we need to do to be saved is to believe.  Why do we have one standard for sexual abuse in the church (deeds matter more than words) but think God has another standard for our salvation (only words matter)?  Maybe we ought to read the book of James more.  “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” (James 2:20 ESV).

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[1]   Sophia Lee.  “Crouching at Every Door–Conclusion”.  World Magazine.  September 15, 2018, p. 41.

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The Children

Posted on November 4, 2018 by admin

One of the consequences of the existence of evil in our world is the price children pay for this evil.  Children are innocent; they can do little to defend themselves.  Yet they too suffer pain because of the evil in our world.  In the last blog we learned that John Hicks believes that God allows evil and suffering in our world so we will learn to change our soul so it becomes like him. [1]

Is it just to let children suffer so we can learn this lesson?  Ivan Karamazov in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov, declares that “And if the suffering of children go to swell the sum of suffering which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price”. [2]

Hicks says the problem of suffering is that “it is distributed in random and meaningless ways, with the result that suffering is often undeserved and often falls upon men [and children] in mounts exceeding anything that could be rationally intended.” [3]

That Jesus had a special place in his heart for children is without question.  Jesus said:  “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.  (Matthew 18:5-6 ESV)  So how can God allow children to experience all this suffering?

Moses Maimonides, a 12 century Jewish scholar, philosopher, and medical doctor has stated we suffer because of evil and the causes of this evil are three.  The first is because we have a material existence.  The second is the evil people do to each other.  The third are the result of our own actions.  And the second and third causes constitute the vast majority of these cases. [4]

So if we ask who is responsible for most of the suffering children experience, we will need to first look at ourselves—at both of our acts of commission and omission.

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[1]   John Hicks.  Evil and the God of Love.  New York:  Palgrave McMillan, 2010, p. 257.

[2]   Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  Translated by Constance Garnett.  The Brothers Karamazov.  New York:  New American Library, pp. 225-226.

[3]   Hicks., p. 333.

[4]   Moses Maimonides.  Shlomo Pines, Translator.  The Guide of the Perflexed.  Chicago:  The University of Chicago Press, 1963, pp.443-446.

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A Soul Making Machine

Posted on October 26, 2018 by admin

For ages, people have asked the question of why, if God is a God of love, evil and suffering exist in our world.  John Hick proposes an answer to this question.  As the Bible states, God created humans in his own image but Hicks believes that is just the beginning. [1]  God created us and placed us in this world with the purpose of changing our soul so it is like him.  This world is the environment God has made “in which moral creatures may be fashioned, through their own free insights and responses, into children of God”. [2] See II Corinthians 3:18. Romans 8:28-30, Ephesians 2:19-22, Ephesians 3:14-20, II Corinthians 4:16.

Hicks maintains God did not design this world to be a paradise; it is not heaven.  The pleasure of humans is not God’s primary concern. [3]  Evil, which is primarily produced by us humans, produces suffering but God will use this suffering to change our soul (Romans 8:28).

And this is exactly what we have taught in this blog.  God’s purpose for us is not just to change our belief system, it is the renovation of our soul so it becomes like him.

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[1]   John Hicks.  Evil and the God of Love.  New York:  Palgrave McMillan, 2010, p. 254.

[2]   Hicks, p. 257.

[3]   Hicks, p. 258.

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A World Out of Control

Posted on October 8, 2018 by admin

It was probably because I had just finished John Hick’s book Evil and the God of Love [1] that it struck me so.  This week I watched the movie Exodus [2] and my mind just rebelled against the notion that the world got so out of control during this time period.  The 20th century is so unbelievable in terms of the destruction of human life with World War I, World War 2, the Holocaust, Stalin, and Mao.  That is just naming the major events and does not include all the other “minor” events around the world like Rwanda, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and all the other countries listed in Death by Government. [3]

Christianity teaches God controls all the events that occur in our world.  If he does why did he permit the world getting so out of control?  My mind simply cannot understand why.  It is so easy in the comfortable life we enjoy to contemplate how God deals with this world but it would be another matter if we were a “guest” in one of Hitler’s concentration camps.  The suffering that occurs each day on our world is cannot be comprehended.  How can God look down on our world each day and not bring an end to this?

Why did God even create us when he knew the “hell” some of us would go through?  Roy Weatherford notes that our experience of evil “is the most philosophically important evidence against the existence of an all-powerful, all-good divinity.” [4]  Or at least that is the way it appears.

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[1]   John Hick.  Evil and the God of Love.  New York:  Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010.

[2]   Otto Premiinger, Director.  Exodus.  With Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint.  Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1960.

[3]   R. J. Rummel, R. J., Death by Government.  New Brunswick, NJ:  Transaction Publishers, 2007.

[4]   Roy Weatherford. The Implications of Determinism.  New York:  Routledge, 1991, p. 10.

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Science and the Bible

Posted on September 22, 2018 by admin

I have been reading John Hick’s book Evil and the God of Love.  It is one of the better books I have read on the subject of human free will vs. God’s sovereignty and how a loving God can permit evil to exist.  However, I do have one problem with his book.  He states the fall of man as described in Genesis is “untenable in the light of modern science”. [1]  Why does modern science take precedence over the Bible?

Now I’ll be the first to admit that when it attempts to explain our natural world, Christianity has not always proved to be a reliable guide.  I agree with Christians that the Bible is accurate in the science it describes but the problem is in how we interpret what the Bible says when it discusses scientific issues.  The prime example of this is the argument that erupted between Galileo and the Christian faith when he proposed the theory that the earth revolves around the sun instead of the sun revolving around the earth.  At that time, Martin Luther stated:  “The fool will turn the whole science of Astronomy upside down.  But as Holy Writ [Joshua 10:12-13] declares, it was the Sun and not the Earth which Joshua commanded to stand still”  [2]  Luther was right in what the Bible said, but by interpreting what the Bible said to fit in with his limited scientific knowledge, he provided generations of critics of Christianity an opportunity to condemn it for its backward thinking.  Luther was not alone in his thinking; the Catholic Church also used its heavy hand to stifle this new scientific revolution.

Science does have has impressive credentials in explaining our natural world.  However, science is a human institution and like all human institutions, it is fallible.  One of the limitations of science is that it is a process of discovering how our physical world functions; it is not a set of facts.  Anyone who has studied science in college is taught this basic tenant of science.  This assertion is valid because the definition of inductive logic, upon which most of science is based, includes “certainty is attainable only if all possible instances have been examined”.  Scientists have not examined all possible instances in the past or future so they cannot be certain of our current scientific “facts”.  Also, if scientists believe science is an accumulation of facts, they close their mind to information that might challenge those facts.  The history of science teaches us the wisdom of this tenant of science because scientists once believed in all manner of ideas that we consider foolish today and undoubtedly future generations will look at some of our current scientific “facts” as humorous.  Scientists once believed that space was filled with ether.  Now we believe space to be a vacuum.  Scientists once believed that catastrophes had no part in shaping our earth (uniformitarianism).  Now scientists believe that meteorite impacts have caused the extinction of various species of animals at various points in time.  In the 1700s, scientist scoffed at the rural folks who told them that rocks fell from the sky and denied what we now know as meteorites existed.  Now scientists go to great lengths to find meteorites and study them.  If you read any science periodical, you will constantly find research that challenges what we know and understand.  Science, for the foreseeable future, will be constantly revising its beliefs as it discovers new evidence.  This is the way science works.  It is a fact that the further science goes from our current space and time, the less certain science is.

History teaches us both Christianity and science have not been a totally reliable guide to what is true in terms of our knowledge of events that occurred in the past.  The problem is we humans are finite and we make mistakes in interpreting the Bible and in interpreting the scientific evidence we have accumulated.  So I have learned to be more reserved in asserting one side or the other has the correct interpretation of a particular set of observations and data.

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[1]   John Hick.  Evil and the God of Love.  New York:  Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010, p. 222.

[2]   Colin A. Ronan.  Galileo.  New York:  G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974, p. 29.

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Who Is Responsible for Evil?

Posted on September 5, 2018 by admin

Back in June we wrote about the book Killers of the Flower Moon which details the murders of several Osage Indians in order to concentrate and control the wealth of the Osage Indians.  The FBI only convicted one person of these murders but the book’s last chapter details multiple suspicious deaths of the Osages. [1] It appears obvious that many in the community of that time were involved in these murders.

All of which got me thinking.  We tend to blame one or a few individuals for the horrific events that occur in our world.  Examples are Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot who killed millions in the 20th century.  But did these individuals commit all these murders themselves?  Obviously not.  So who did?

There were thousands of people who helped Hitler carry out the Holocaust from those who forced their victims from their homes, to those who transported them to the concentration camps, to those who maintained the camps, and to those who actually did the killing.  And then there were the millions who supported Hitler and ignored what it did with what he considered the undesirables.  These were just ordinary people who were earning a living and did not object to the travesty that was occurring around them.

All of this just illustrates that it not just a few highly placed individuals who perpetuate the evil in our world; it is all of us.  If the company or organization for which we work perpetuates a fraud, do we remain silent, participate in that fraud, or do we refuse?  Yes, refusing to participate in a fraud might cost us a promotion or even our job but does not Jesus ask us:  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? (Matthew 16:26 ESV).  What is most important to us:  our material wealth or our soul?

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[1]   David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon, New York:  Doubleday, 2017, pp. 280-291.

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The Whole Bible

Posted on August 21, 2018 by admin

There is no question that the Bible commands us to help those in need.  The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 and Jesus’ description of how we will be judged at the final judgment (Matthew 25:31-46) are two powerful examples.  However, the Bible also says if you are able to work but do not, you should not eat.  “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command:  If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 ESV)

It seems that Christians respond to these two seemingly contradictory commands in one of two ways.  The first is to follow one command and ignore the other.  This is the easiest way because no thought is required.  Either we help all those in need without regard as to whether they are capable of working or we refuse to help anyone based on the assumption everyone can work at something.

The second way to respond to these two commands is to apply them both in our service to those in need.  It has been done and the evidence is contain in Marvin Olasky’s book, The Tragedy of American Compassion in which he describes how some in our country in the 1700’s, 1800’s and into the early 1900’s did so.  Also, Robert D. Lupton’s book Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life describes how a Christian community in Atlanta in our time has resolved the above Biblical commands.  They did it by not just giving people a hand out but by helping them find work or getting them training  so they could find work.

The problem with resolving these two seemingly different command is that it involves hard work and that is why so few do so but God does not give us a pass from resolving different and difficult passages.

The idea that we must follow what the entire Bible says about a particular topic also applies to the doctrine of salvation.  There is no question that some verses in the Bible teach salvation in only through belief in Jesus.  The problem is there are over 75 verses in the Bible that teach salvation is through means other than belief in Jesus and his death for our sins.  As we discussed above, we cannot ignore certain verses in the Bible just because they are difficult to reconcile with our current theology.  God gave us the whole Bible to read and study.  So why do we ignore part of it?

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