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  • What would Jesus do?

    by David Cartwright

      Cover        In my book on the paradoxical teachings of Jesus, there are three questions that prompted my quest for answers and shaped the course of all fifteen meditations on the sayings of Jesus. “What did Jesus say?”, “What did Jesus mean?”, and “What would Jesus do?” Although, that’s the most helpful order to deal with the questions, most often that is not the way these questions are experienced. Usually, I find that most of us proceed the other way around. We begin with “What would Jesus do?” Then turn to “What did Jesus mean?”
    And finally arrive at the most basic one, “What did Jesus say?” Maybe, because the most common approach appears to begin with the most obvious and least difficult. For my part, there’s enough obscurity and difficulty all along the way. However, in these three posts, I have decided to begin with the usual experience of the action question, “What would Jesus do?”
    Not too long ago, it was very popular in many Christian circles to wear a little wrist band with the initials, WWJD. As a pastor, I remember seeing many young people in my congregation with these bracelets. Also, around the same time, there were visible yellow wrists bands with the words, LIVE STRONG, a promotion of Lance Armstrong, when he was at his best and highest in popularity. These are two approaches to living the good life. One, a call to reflection, and the other, an admonition to perfection. Neither of these approaches provides a concrete answer or program on how exactly one is to go about this. The best thing about both of these approaches is that they leave the specific outcome up to the person wearing the bracelet. We all know what happened to Lance Armstrong, and I haven’t seen many of those bracelets around recently. For that matter, I haven’t seen a WWJD wrist band in a long while either. Still as a Christian pastor, I think that these approaches are not altogether off the beaten track to good ethical living.
    But looking for a definitive answer from Jesus can be quite challenging. For many times, it’s not all that clear what Jesus would do, and often times it gets down to “it all depends.” Take for instance, the matter of the response to Jesus’ healings. One time Jesus tells a man cured of leprosy not to tell anyone about what has happened (Mark 4) However, at another time, Jesus seems perfectly content to let another cured man go and spread the good news (Mark 5). What are we to make of this? It just so happens that the first man is a Jew in Jewish territory, and it is early in Jesus’ ministry, and Jesus is trying to be on good terms with the authorities. To the other cured man, a Gentile in “the Gerasenes”, Jesus seems to be saying that the man can speak his piece, because at the moment the environment is receptive to what Jesus is about.
    What would Jesus do? And what would Jesus do today in the 21st century? It all depends. But one thing is clear. There is always an appropriate response, but it may differ under specific circumstances.
    Next time: What did Jesus mean?

  • What’s Beyond Death?

    by William Powell Tuck

    Untitled            In one of the churches I served as pastor, a high school student wrote a paper entitled, “The End of Time.” He began his paper with this sentence: “This paper will tell and explain about the end of time.” That’s a remarkable claim for a high school student! But that’s the only time I felt I had all of the answers to the Doctrine of the Last Things. When I was in high school, I preached a youth revival in my home church in Lynchburg, Virginia and I spoke with authority on the Second Coming of Christ, Hell and Heaven. I have not been so knowledgeable since!
    The theological term for “the last things” is eschatology. Eschatology is the Christian doctrine which is concerned with the final end of humanity. It focuses on matters such as death, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, the final judgment, heaven and hell. As I reflected on these topics, I realized that these themes are at the heart of the Christian faith, but it is difficult to voice with clarity what we mean by them.
    Although there is no clear, simple, New Testament answer on all of these issues, the New Testament is unequivocal in its hope for men and women in Jesus Christ. No one can speak with certainty about such matters as the mystery of death, the resurrection, heaven and hell, the second coming, or the final judgment of God. However, the New Testament does offer some concrete pointers which I believe can be helpful to us. I invite you to join me as we look to see if we can gain some insight to determine the future hope for those who die in Christ.
    The journey toward the “undiscovered country” is filled with uncertainty, puzzling questions, strange reflections and enigmatical images, but it also travels across the bridges, mountains, and valley paths of mystery, faith, hope and anticipation. As Christians, we should travel toward our final destination with quiet confidence and Christian assurance.
    The Christian approaches death with the awareness that “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Death is not our “natural” end, but is an enemy of God and stands in opposition to God’s ultimate will. “Death is the peak of all that is contrary to God in the world, the last enemy,” says Karl Barth, “thus not the natural lot of man, not an unalterable divine dispensation.” But Jesus Christ has already won the battle against death and so Paul can shout: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 15:57). Death for the Christian becomes a transitional path from this life to the next; it is not a dead‑end street but a thoroughfare that leads into another dimension of living. “Death is no more the dark door that shuts forever behind man,” Brunner says, “but the opened door through which he enters into true life.”
    Imagine how a baby might try to philosophize if he or she were able to contemplate another kind of life outside his or her mother’s womb. What could she use as a base from which to speculate or surmise? How could she understand life free from surrounding liquid? What does she know of light, or breath, or food, or eating? What does he know of choices, companionship, friends, work, art, or reading? Is it not possible that to the infant the birth process is a crisis which is a sort of “death” as he or she leaves the safe, comfortable, secure world where every need had been met? A new and marvelous world awaits; he or she has no resources to imagine what it will be like‑and how wonderfully different from the other world. Death for the Christian is a “birthing” from the physical world to the spiritual realm. How can we possibly describe it; words fail us. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).
    In my book, The Journey to the Undiscovered Country: What’s Beyond Death? I deal with some of these issues.

    Order The Journey to the Undiscovered Country here: https://energiondirect.info/theology/the-journey-to-the-undiscovered-country

  • Which creation is the greater witness?

    by Herold Weiss

    Cover1Which is more important, the creation of Adam and Eve or the creation of the Risen Christ, the Last Adam? The story of the creation of Adam and Eve, the second of the stories in Genesis, is in part the story of the loss of life when access to the tree of life is blocked. As such, the story is theological, not about biology. Disobedient Adam and Eve did not lose biological life when they sinned. They lost access to the source of their life. That source transcends the biological realm, and without access to that source human life found itself floundering. The story of Adam and Eve, which much to one’s wondering is never alluded to in the rest of the Old Testament (with one exception, Job 31: 33), is the story of how  life East of Eden became a struggle, and death at the hands of others entered the created world.
    The story of the Last Adam, on the other hand, is the story of how biological death is not really the last thing to be said about human life because of what God has done for the benefit of humanity. All the disciples of Jesus who saw his crucifixion went home thinking that what they had hoped for had been brutally negated by the power of the State that judged Jesus to be a seditious man. They were ready to go back to Galilee and try to pick up the life they had left behind when they had decided to follow Jesus. Their enthusiasm for Jesus and what he promised had been crushed by his crucifixion. That is the biological side of this story.
    According to the apostle Paul, however, what God did on Sunday was not just the resuscitation of a dead body. It was a new creation. The revelation of the Risen Christ gave the crucifixion a totally new meaning. It saw God in the picture and understood that his crucifixion put an end to the overwhelming power of sin in the lives of all humans. The Risen Christ is the Last Adam. The descendants of the first Adam come to life in bodies like that of their progenitor, bodies of flesh. Those who are united with Christ by baptism into the death that he died for all, come to life in the realm of the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. Eventually, they will also receive spirit bodies and enjoy the life God had intended for humans to start with.
    The Risen Christ is the Adam of the new creation. This creation took place two thousand years ago and it is more real than the creation of Adam in as much as it is the creation of imperishable life, totally different from any biological life or death. Christians who are eager to affirm that God is the creator, to which creation should they give ultimate significance? Which creation should be the one that merits consistent efforts to affirm on the part of Christians?
    Neither the creation of Adam in the garden nor the creation of the Last Adam in the Spirit is subject to historical or scientific testing. All biblical authors affirm that God was directly involved as Creator. In both creations the Spirit was the active agent, but in the Bible, descriptions of the universe created by God, if given at all, do not provide a consistent picture, even as they affirm that God is the Creator. That God is the Creator is affirmed by faith. Of the two creations affirmed by the Bible, the creation of life in the Spirit is what Christianity is all about. That is the creation in which Christians live now and will live in eternity. Should not the reality of the creation of life in the realm of the Spirit, rather than the creation of life out of dust of the ground, be what Christians are constantly witnessing to before the world?

     

  • A literal reading of Genesis 1-3

    by Herold Weiss

    Cover1It is widely accepted that the first three chapters of Genesis actually contain two stories of creation which are told from two quite different perspectives. One is found in Gen. 1: 1 – 2: 4a, and the other in Gen. 2: 4b – 4:23. Neither one of them supports what came to be affirmed as the orthodox Christian view of creation – that God created ex nihilo, out of nothing. Both stories have pre-existent matter at hand when God enters the picture. The first says that God’s Spirit moved over the primeval ocean. The second says that God came to an inhospitable, arid desert.
    Most importantly, the two stories differ by the way in which they express God’s relationship to primeval matter and the way in which God accomplishes what he wishes to do. In the first God never enters the world that is being created. God remains throughout aloof in space and issues commands. In the second God walks upon the ground and gets physically involved in bringing about what is to be. He plants a garden, molds clay, breathes into the clay. God takes a rib out of Adam and closes its place with flesh. God talks face to face with Adam and Eve. God searches for them while calling them. God makes garments of skins for Adam and Eve, and clothes them. While the God of the first story is transcendent, the God of the second is fully immanent.
    Finally, both stories have God establish a means for keeping in touch with the human family. In the first God creates the Sabbath as a day of rest. In the second, God plants at the center of the garden the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, each story has a peculiar “temple” of its own. All ancient stories of creation end with the establishment of a temple by means of which human beings keep their relationship with the gods alive. While the story of the transcendent God establishes a temple in immaterial time, the story of the immanent God has trees that establish that human life is dependent on obedience. In pointing out these details of the two stories, am I not reading my Bible literally?

     

  • Creationism: A Denial of the Authority of the Whole Bible

    Creationism: A Denial of the Authority of the Whole Bible

    by Herold Weiss

    Cover1It is disconcerting to witness the many efforts carried out by different groups, with otherwise disparate perspectives, to have creationism taught in public High Schools as a valid scientific explanation of the origins of the universe and life. Proposals to achieve this goal have been debated at local school boards, school district boards, and state departments of education. When requests for the teaching of creationism at science classrooms have been denied by these boards, appeals have been made to the courts, and some cases have reached all the way up to the Supreme Court of a state. This record of the insistence with which efforts to have creationism taught in in the science curriculum of public High Schools gives ample evidence of the high interest on the part of some to achieve this goal.
    Failing to achieve their aim through the public school system, those insisting on the teaching of creationism to the young steer their efforts to have the state provide funds to denominational schools so as to make tuition payments less onerous. In private religious schools creationism most likely is the only way in which the origins of the universe and life are taught in the science curriculum.
    There is a great deal of irony in this story. Those seeking to make sure that young people learn the truth about origins are primarily concerned with establishing the Bible as the final authority on all human knowledge. The irony is that they have not read the Bible in its entirety to determine how the universe is viewed within its pages. Creationism is an ideology concocted out of a superficial reading of the first three chapters of the Bible, but is presented as if it were all the Bible has to say about the universe in which we live. Anyone who reduces all that the Bible has to say about creation to the first three chapters of Genesis, obviously, does not take the Bible seriously.
    This means that all the efforts to teach creationism in public High Schools, or to teach only creationism in private denominational schools, are in effect efforts to misrepresent the Bible to the students on the part of those who pretend to protect them from falsehoods and to defend the Bible’s authority. I do not think those who advocate the teaching of creationism in science classrooms aim to have the words of the first three chapters of Genesis tested scientifically. They just want to have them taught the way they do. In the process, they wish to keep the rest of the Bible silent about creation. Is not this a blatant denial of the authority of the whole Bible?

  • Law and Grace

    by H. Van Dyke Parunak

    CoverAbout the time that my book Except for Fornication (Energion, 2011) appeared, a gentleman with a troubled marital history visited our assembly. His wife had left him and married someone else. Then she left her new husband, and our friend joyfully announced one day that she wanted him to remarry her.
    If you’ve read my book, you’ll realize that the Lord’s prohibition of divorce and remarriage strongly affirms Moses’ instruction in Deut. 24:1-4. You’ll also understand that Moses is not presenting three laws in this passage, but just one: if a divorce takes place and if it is followed by remarriage, and if something happens to the second marriage, then the original couple is forbidden to remarry. Moses characterizes such remarriage as “abomination before the Lord.” I felt compelled to share this insight with our friend.
    His response was interesting. He didn’t challenge my analysis of Deuteronomy 24. He didn’t question my claim that the Lord’s teaching is based on that instruction, and reinforces it. His defense was, “I’m not under the law; I’m under grace.” What he meant is that the commands of Scripture are irrelevant to the daily life of a believer. He felt that the work of the Holy Spirit replaces the role of God’s written revelation, so that we are not bound by the old standards.
    Wow! I am certainly acquainted with the distinction that Paul draws between the letter (that is, the OT law) and the Spirit. I recognize the role of the Spirit in guiding the believer. But I’d never met somebody who was willing to jettison the authority of Scripture so directly. I should add that my friend would insist on the truth of the propositional content of the Bible. The point of disagreement was the third of Moses’ principles from Deut. 29:29, that God’s word is practical in the life of the believer today.
    Now, most of you would probably not agree with my friend’s bald rejection of God’s written commands. But one consequence of my analysis in the book is that the fornication “exception” isn’t really an exception. It doesn’t give Christians the excuse that many are seeking to get out of a painful relation. Faced with such a stringent instruction, some may be tempted to fall back on my friend’s logic in an attempt to evade our Lord’s plain teaching that marriage is permanent.
    I was so exercised by this discussion that I undertook a study on the role of the law in the Christian’s life. You can read it at http://www.cyber-chapel.org/LawAndTheChristianLife.pdf. I’ll summarize for you what I found.
    Recall from our discussion of intertextuality the Scriptural principle that new revelation is accepted only if it conforms to what has already been revealed. The Bible describes God’s righteous standard as everlasting:
    Ps. 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
    The standards of right and wrong have not changed over the years. Behavior that was abomination before God in the Old Testament is still abomination before him now. What has changed is how God conforms our lives to his standard. Under the old covenant, the constraint was external, the law of God enforced through a civil structure. Under the new covenant, those same righteous standards are embedded in our hearts by the work of the Spirit (Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 36:25-27).
    But that process of embedding takes time. It begins with a new birth, which yields a person that Paul calls a “babe in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1-3). The life of such a person looks like that of an unsaved person: ye … walk as men (1 Cor 3:3). At the other extreme is the spiritual believer, whose life is beyond reproach (1 Cor 2:15). John refines these two extremes into three levels of maturity: little children, young men, and fathers (1 John 2:12-14).
    This process of growth is nourished by the Word of God (1 Pet. 2:2), which includes the OT law. As young believers, we have not learned to recognize the Spirit’s guiding voice, and need the explicit instruction of Scripture. So it’s no surprise that when Paul is exhorting immature believers, he frequently gives lists of commands that sound a lot like the Old Testament law (Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Eph. 5:3-5), and sometimes even quotes the law for support (Eph. 6:28-31; 6:1-3; 1 Cor. 9:8-11). As we mature, the Spirit’s voice becomes clearer, and we know what is right and wrong without needing to cite chapter and verse. But the standard itself hasn’t changed, and God’s Spirit will never disagree with God’s Word. In fact, we are to test the spiritual voices we hear by their agreement with written revelation (1 John 4:1-3).
    We dare not discard the law of God. Romans 7, which describes a carnal believer (v. 14), shows that we should delight in the law of God (v. 22), even though we are frustrated with how far our lives differ from it (v. 24). The solution is not to discard the law, but (as Romans 8 goes on to show) to learn to recognize and follow the voice of the Holy Spirit, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (8:4).

    To order Except for Fornication, click here:
    https://energiondirect.info/biblical-studies/except-for-fornication

     
     

  • The Authority of Scripture

    by H. Van Dyke Parunak

    CoverReaders of Except for Fornication (Energion, 2011) will recognize that I hold a very high view of Scripture. In my own pilgrimage, I find Deut. 29:29 a useful guide to the implications of such a view, and it shaped the exposition in the book.
    “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
    Let me share these implications with you.
    The first insight is that there are secret things that are in principle inaccessible to us. When I graduated from Dallas Seminary, and then added a Ph.D. from Harvard in preparation (I thought) for a teaching career, I believed that if I knew Hebrew and Greek (and Ugaritic, and Akkadian, and Syriac, and …) well enough, and were expert enough in the cultures of the ancient world, I could resolve any question about the Bible. This attitude has a parallel in the physical world. The eighteenth century French scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace thought that someone who knew the position and velocity of every particle in the universe at a point in time could reconstruct the entire history of the universe, past and future. This view of a clockwork universe fell into disrepute in the last century, with two developments. The first, quantum mechanics, claims that one can only predict the universe probabilistically. The second is more severe. The growing understanding of chaotic regimes in nonlinear systems led to the realization that for some systems (including most realistic ones), we can’t even make probabilistic forecasts very far into the system. It appears to be part of the nature of the universe that there are secret things that are inaccessible to human reason.
    Moses would not be surprised. He told us 3400 years ago that God has secret things. Moses’ concern is less with the equations of physics and more with God’s revelation of himself. Revelation is, he asserts, partial. The best exegetical tools in the world do not entitle us to claim an answer for any question we choose to ask. God has reserved some answers for himself. Often these reserved answers include those to the question “Why?” that we, like petulant children, like to throw back against God’s commands. Our parents sometimes refused to answer anything more than “Because I said so.” Similarly, God sometimes does not explain his moral imperatives such as his prohibition of divorce and remarriage. As I worked through what the Bible commands about divorce, often I would ask, “Why must it be this way?” I would love to be able to give my readers a complete account of God’s reasons for his commands, but I can’t always find them. Moses’ first principle suggests that they may simply not be part of what he has chosen to reveal.
    The second insight is that what God has revealed is just that, a revelation. One ought not to need years of study of arcane lore to discern the mind of God. The more I read the Bible, the more I realize that the most important Bible study tool is a deep and broad knowledge of the rest of Scripture. The value of intertextuality, highlighted in my previous blog, reflects this principle. The solution to the fornication puzzle in Matthew doesn’t rely on lots of linguistic details. Even the dual meaning of απολυω, which turns out to be the crux of the puzzle, doesn’t require in-depth knowledge of other Greek literature, but can be demonstrated within the biblical text itself (though I do give other examples for those who may be skeptical). I think it’s fair to expect God’s people to learn to read the Scriptures in the languages in which he gave them, and I have known people who have acquired such capability without the benefit of seminary. So I don’t apologize for pointing out how a particular Greek word is used elsewhere in the NT or in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament). But God has given his word to tell us something, not to play games with us. We can expect it to be plain, once we see the answer. I’ve tried to make my understanding of the fornication clause clear in the book. You will have to judge whether I’ve done justice to the principle that God’s revelation is plain.
    The third insight is that God’s revelation is practical, “that we may do all the words of this law.” The Lord has really had to deal with me on this principle. The student in me loves to figure out the propositional content of Scripture. The flesh in me struggles against God’s expectation that having understood it, I will do it. There is a solution to this dilemma. Paul outlines it in Romans 7-8, and I will discuss it in my next posting. Our Lord cares at least as much about our orthopraxy as he does our orthodoxy. We can confess every element of the creed, but if we don’t obey the Lord, he will not be happy with us. My greatest burden in writing Except for Fornication is not to establish a theoretical understanding of the text, but to help saints who are wrestling with the pain of marital strife to reach a decision that will honor the Lord.
    God’s revelation is partial, but it is plain, and it is practical. That perspective is humbling to those who have devoted years of study to abstruse knowledge and abstract theology, but it ought to be a great encouragement to ordinary believers.

    To order Except for Fornication, click here:
    https://energiondirect.info/biblical-studies/except-for-fornication

     

  • Comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual

    by H. Van Dyke Parunak

    CoverIn studying the fornication clause in our Lord’s teaching on divorce and remarriage (Except for Fornication, Energion, 2011), I was impressed with how much later portions of the Bible assume the reader’s familiarity with earlier portions. (A scholar would call this phenomenon “intertextuality.”) In my book, the central insight is the dependence of our Lord’s words on Deuteronomy 22 and 24, along with his deliberate avoidance of the Old Testament vocabulary for divorce. Instead, he uses a contemporary term that (again based on the Old Testament) has a double meaning that is central to his position. I hope that these insights enable readers to come to understand the true meaning of the fornication clause. More generally, I hope they inspire readers to look for such linkages on other topics elsewhere in the Bible as well.
    The longer I study the Bible, the more I am impressed with how often such references to earlier revelation occur. We ought not to be surprised at such references. Throughout biblical history, the people of God are challenged to evaluate new ideas by comparing them with earlier revelation. In Deut 13:12-17, Moses warns the nation not to tolerate the introduction of “other gods, whom you have not known” (v. 13). The Lord succinctly states the principle in Isaiah 8:19-20:
    And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
    God’s people are to reject any new revelation that does not conform to previous revelation. Our Lord makes the same point when he says,  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. [Matt. 5:17-18]

    So it is entirely natural that a New Testament teacher would draw heavily from Old Testament passages in expressing his meaning. It is a way of assuring his hearers that he is not departing from the received truth, but rather building upon it.
    This linkage of new writings to older ones happens within each testament, as well as between them. In the OT, Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving in 1 Samuel 2 draws heavily on the patriarchal narratives in Genesis. The prophets are full of allusions to Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Proverbs, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel refer constantly to Isaiah. Within the NT, the book of Acts clearly reflects the teaching of the synoptic gospels, Paul regularly refers to the earthly teaching of the Lord Jesus, and the general epistles draw heavily on the Sermon on the Mount.
    Of course, applying this method requires that the Bible student take a position with regard to the dates of the various biblical books. Modern “scholarship” often claims to reverse the dates that the biblical authors claim for their own works. Perhaps that’s why many commentators overlook these references between different parts of the Bible. For example, I believe that Moses wrote Deut. 18:20-22 in the second millennium B.C., so to me that passage sheds a great deal of light on the imprisonment of Micaiah in 2 Kings 22 (ninth century B.C.). However, many modern scholars think that Deuteronomy is a product of Josiah’s reform in the late seventh century B.C., long after the time of Micaiah, so they would never make this connection. My own commitment to the accuracy of Scripture leads me to accept the text’s own claims for its dating, and my personal experience is that the resulting sequence yields rich insights in later passages. Try taking this approach, and see what you find.

    To order Except for Fornication, click here:
    https://energiondirect.info/biblical-studies/except-for-fornication

  • Why don’t Christians have peace in this world?

    by Chris Surber

    RenderingIn John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (ESV) The promise of peace is common in the Bible but it is rare in the lives of Christians. In fact, I’d say the opposite is true. We not only don’t have peace in our lives, but there is a veritable epidemic of anxiety among Christians.
    Why don’t Christians have peace in this world?
    Interestingly, and I’m speaking almost entirely from personal experience, persecuted Christians have a greater sense of peace than Christians in the west. From conversations with friends of mine who work with persecuted churches around the world, those Christians have a depth of presence of God that we seldom see among American Christians.
    Very poor Christians in Haiti, where I minister and have many Christian friends, tend to have a kind of depth of faith in God I seldom see in America. As a Pastor I can attest to the frequency of counsel I provide for followers of Jesus who follow Him while wringing their hands, clenching their teeth, and pausing occasionally to take their anxiety and blood pressure medications. Something is very wrong.
    I’m convinced that at least a part of the problem, and maybe even its foundation, is the reality that a significant part of our hearts’ affection has been stolen by Caesar. We have forfeited peace for political influence. We have traded a contended heart for angst over the next election. The world asked for the Church’s hand in marriage and we said, “Sure, as long as you’ll give me a place at the table of political influence.”
    In my book, Rendering Unto Caesar, I wrote, “We decry society for taking Christ out of Christmas but we have removed Him from Christian discipleship. We condemn the immorality common in the world instead of living holy lives as a people apart from the world. We are filled with anxiety because we are filled every kind of care of this world. Caesar has taken something that is not his – our affections – and consequently, we are filled with anxiety.” (Page 36)
    Today’s Conservative Christian spends more time in the voting booth than in the prayer closet. We lack peace because we are filled with concern over the world’s problems rather than the presence of the only one who solves problems.
    John Wesley said it this way, “My soul, thou canst not be fully comforted, nor have perfect delight but in God, the comforter of the poor, and the helper of the humble. Wait a while, O my soul, wait the Divine promise, and thou shalt have abundance of all good things. Use temporal things, desire eternal.” (John Wesley, The Christian’s Pattern (Salem, OHIO: Schmul Publishers, 1975), 67.)
    We will never have peace so long as we wrestle in this world with problems that will never cease, instead of resting in the One who has already given us eternal answers to our eternal problems.

     

  • Can the Kingdom ever come through our engagement in politics?

    by Chris Surber

    RenderingWhat is the central mission of the individual Christian? What is the central mission of the Church? How can any person be effective at any thing if they fail to identify with clarity their central mission? A lot of believers today are living as though their central mission was to purify society – to somehow inaugurate the Kingdom through our effort in this world. But it is it?
    Can the Kingdom ever come through our engagement in politics?
    In Romans 8:19-23 the Apostle Paul writes,
    For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (ESV)
    I hate to be a pessimist, but the simple answer is no. The Scripture makes it pretty clear in this passage that the world is an agony because of the curse of sin and even though we have the Holy Spirit in us, we are in agony in this groaning world, too. What is inside of us is a foretaste of future glory that will only be inaugurated when Christ returns.
    I remember when I was in the ninth grade and on the journey of faith. A discussion arose in my social studies class about making the world a better place. In typical adolescent fashion, most of the class droned on with idealistic, inexperienced, enthusiastic rabble. I added my thoughts saying that the world is corrupt. The world is full of corrupt people. The world will always be corrupt until Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom in fullness and recreate this world.
    I can remember the teacher’s words perfectly. “I’ve never met anyone as articulately cynical as you and you’re only fourteen.” My response? (After I asked him the definition of cynical…) “I’m not cynical. I’m hopeful about Christ’s return and realistic about what I’ve seen in the world.” There is no hope in politics. I’m not saying that Christians can’t make efforts to influence the political process. I’m saying that it cannot be a central or even a closely guarded interest of the Church or of individual Christians.
    Pray for your nation, vote, even run for an office, but be very careful about guarding your heart that it is not corrupted by a false hope in a fading world.
    In my book, Rendering Unto Caesar, I wrote, “Battle axes don’t belong on harvest fields. Sadly, many Christians today approach the spiritual battles that wage all around us in our land and in the world from a purely worldly vantage point. As a result, we are losing the wars.” The Kingdom of God is today a spiritual Kingdom whose primary influence is through spiritual battles, evangelism, and Christ-like witness in the world. (Acts 1:8, Ephesians 6:10-20, I Peter 2:12)
    The Kingdom will come in fullness when Christ comes in flesh. Guard your hearts from the corrupting influence of evil men concerned more with worldly kingdoms than godly influence.

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