Naturalism, The Cruelty of Evolution, and the Soul…

If we are trapped in a closed system, the supposed system of naturalism, even with all its possible universes, multiple or infinite, then the end result of existence is abysmal. All the hopes and dreams of future, for our children and their children, the future of all precious life, as well as the future of love and of hope, of joy and of peace, all the hopes for the objects of our love are ultimately trumped by death. All the great things in my heart, if I am without a real future, will die with me. Even if I make a mark on this world, this world too shall pass.  Death awaits it all. Collapse is inevitable. Darkness will envelop life and love. The lights will go out. Maybe not today, but on a day, and if that is the case, what does it matter what day that will be?

I know that this assessment is not the obvious conclusion to which everyone will come when reflecting upon and possibly accepting a naturalistic worldview. The naturalists often have great faith, perhaps greater than some Christians, in an ultimate hope that one day, somehow, humans will unlock ultimate happiness and find a utopia that will be without end. You and I will not be there, of course, but at least we, if we get on board with the process, helped get our progeny there. The possibilities of science become their great narrative by which the faithfully optimistic naturalists live. I am further aware that my conclusion is not simply pessimistic, but comes from my worldview, which is vehemently opposed to the world of naturalism (for reasons, among many, I will explain presently). While many a naturalist has gone the way of nihilism, this is not the move many have decided to make, especially today.

Naturalism is being packaged with an optimism—as perverse, in my opinion, as it might be—which rivals the hope of the Judeo-Christian worldview that is steeped in Resurrection. Instead of the renewal of all things, as in the case of Resurrection, all things that come to be are merely stepping-stones to that ultimate hope. This is the naturalist myth of progress centered in human accomplishment. Contrary to my opinion, many naturalists are quite satisfied with the end result that naturalistic existence brings. It is as radical as the idea of the “Son of Man” ruling as our ultimate King. It is a Star Treck-esque reality, in which we find the keys to the universe (or universes) and finally tap into the potential of stars, and galaxies, and beyond.

It is not as airtight a hope as the Christian hope, since the great possibilities that the naturalists are hoping for cannot be certain. This hope can only be possible if humanity gets on board, only if we leave behind our outmoded and myopic visions of reality that leave us stuck in the past, religious “nuts” being the worst offenders of keeping us in that nasty past. We need to move on. Otherwise, we might, in our radicalism, blow each other to bits. Even though their optimism is clouded by a possible failure, this, they would say, is at least an honest reflection upon reality, unlike the guaranteed victory, not of the human race, but of the Creator and King of the human race, which the Christian assumes. And, as some would suggest, even if our reality fails, life somewhere, somehow will win.

However, let’s be honest about it. If naturalism is the proper worldview, contrary to popular thought spurred on by recent scientific discovery, it can never be proven to be the case. We are forever left with a nagging doubt. Perhaps we are not the pinnacle of our own reality. But, if we are in a closed system, by definition, we will never be able to prove its closed-ness, because we will never be able to get beyond it to prove nothing is on the outside. There is always the possibility of more, which plagues our souls, fooling us into reflecting on what it might be like to have our hopes continue into eternity, which, for the naturalist, is only a cruel thought brought by the survival instinct. Naturalism’s greatest hope for happiness is to ignore the possibility of something more.

The cruelest reality of naturalism, if it happens to be the case, would be the naturalistic, evolutionary development of the soul. Call it what you will, but we all have a soul.  It is that part of ourselves that cares for the self and others. It is that part of us that says, “These things matter.” For the naturalist, this might be the inevitable development of the mechanism that higher life forms need to care for survival, nothing more than survival instinct in its most complex state (so far). But, this care to survive goes beyond mere proliferation of the species. It is care for more than survival. If we were geared to really wish nothing more than procreation of the species, eugenics would make perfect sense, but, as is, it repulses most people, even the naturalist. Instead, our soul—that supposed naturalistic instinct—desires justice for the oppressed. It wants happiness for those people who are otherwise (by the very definitions of naturalism) a drain on our survival (the mentally and physically handicapped for example).

The soul is nothing more than a torture device for those convinced of the reality of naturalism. It is something that must be suppressed and denied. Why would the great author of life, evolution, ever care to give us such a careless gift, such a gift that is more than superfluous in a closed system? All the treasure of the soul, which the soul cares about, even beyond itself, the soul knows, if it is convinced of a closed system, will perish. They have no lasting value; no matter how much the soul wishes they did. The soul is, therefore, nothing more than a device of torture. A much better and less superfluous gift would be a mind geared towards sheer logic, a logic that moves towards survival, a calculating system that cares little for feeling. This could get the job done, probably all the better.

The naturalist would suggests that feelings, that part of us that emotes when reflecting on the things we love, are simply clever devises triggered by chemical responses in the brain that make us “feel” we care. We are simply machines responding to stimuli. It is trickery, at worst, meaningless, at best. But, the idea that our mind is tricking us is a contradiction of naturalism itself. That we are only fooled into thinking we have a soul, a part of us that loves and cares and goes beyond self, cannot be true. For the naysayer says things like, “Our mind fools us,” setting the mind apart from the being, which, in a strange, and perhaps too Greek sense, affirms the soul, but it affirms the soul nonetheless.

In the end, I truly believe, that we all affirm the soul in our deepest being, this is why so many naturalist feel so hopeless, and turn to despair. As dangerous as religion is in the mind of the naturalist, so too, in the mind of the Christian, is the soul left feeling hopeless. Because of the worldview that they have given over to, they know they feel they matter. They know that they feel that the things they care about matter, but in the end, all those things have no hope in the face of death. In a naturalistic world, the soul is our ultimate reminder that death wins, that for us, the lights will go out, not just from our eyes, but upon all that we ultimately care about: Upon our children, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our friends and our world, upon love and joy and peace and hope itself. All is lost.

In the Christian world, the soul can also be a source of torture. It is the ultimate reminder that I cannot be my own man, that I am dependent, that I cannot always have my way. Just as the body, which reacts painfully in the presence of a fire that is too close, the soul is full of pain, as it drifts further from the source of life, God, and towards the consuming fires of sin. In the end, we must answer the question for ourselves: “Why do I have a soul?”

“Let God be true, but every man a liar” –Paul (Romans 3:4)

The Unexpected Gift of Easter: The Risen King

This is God's plan, His great gift to us? 

This young Jewish man went and met that enemy of every man, that enemy that eventually wins every battle fought, and that enemy is death, the inevitable offspring of sin. Here this man stood, in the face of our enemy and He did so without any discernable defense. He allowed the beast to inflict its finishing move, its checkmate. So, death crawled upon this seemingly insignificant life that hung upon the Roman cross, and delivered its fatal sting, that sting that has taken out every person before, that sting that was always known as final, and Christ drew His last breath. Christ died, even Christ.

What gift is this?

God has given us a man, and before He makes any real impression on the world, other than in the hearts of a few Israelites, He is stripped of His dignity before His servants and of His life. Can you imagine the horror that must have washed upon the shores of the disciples' hearts? We see it in Peter, even before the crucifixion, when he denied Jesus three times (Matthew 26: 69-74). Even this miracle worker, this man Peter, on behalf of the disciples, acknowledged as the "Son of the Living God," (Matthew 16:14-16) died, and He died before accomplishing anything that human history would have acknowledged as an accomplishment. In other words, if the story had ended at the cross, there would be no story to tell. This Man through whom they drew so much strength had, in an agonizing moment, been separated from their midst.

How dare these apostles think so highly of their Rabbi? They hailed from a remote nation ruled by a mighty emperor a world away. They could have no real bearing on the world, even if they tried. A man more powerful than anyone they had ever met, a king of kings, ruling the earth from his Roman throne, the emperor, had no idea of their existence. They were insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Israel might have been a mighty nation at one time, but that time had gone, lost to antiquity, and every great hope that had come down the line had been defeated; why would this Jesus be any different? Why would He matter to Caesar, or any other mighty ruler to come into human history?

Here the gift hung, a lifeless corpse? What gift was this?

He came into the world, from the world's perspective, in less than spectacular circumstances. Yes, we know the miracles that took place to bring about the incarnated One, but if one simply observed the physical circumstances without much thought, Christ would seem less than extraordinary, a star being the only real recognizable phenomenon, and only by those who paid attention to the stars. His parents, at the whim of Augustus, their emperor, had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, while Mary was nine months pregnant. In other words, He was not the direct descendent of powerful parents, but to people who obeyed the rule of another, and He never takes a thrown, not once, while He walked the Earth, other than the throne of His followers' hearts.

His birth was eventually recognized by some wise men, and even noted by Herod, but this was some time after His actual coming into the world. At the time He was born, He was delivered into a stable, amongst the beasts of the field, and the only persons to be heralded by the angels concerning the arrival of the baby happened to be shepherds, a lowly group of men indeed. The elite of society looked down on shepherds, and these men, as Luke tells us, were in the fields at night, which more than likely meant that they were homeless.  And so, we find this child, born amongst animals, visited by the homeless, to a insignificant family in an insignificant part of the world, and He would grow up only to die by the hands of the same mighty empire that He was born under. At the time of His death, He had changed nothing that matters to humans as they write history. Some were privileged enough to witness His miracles, but the vast majority of the world in which He lived, He was a nobody by their standards, a nobody like everyone else.

How, then? How did He start such a movement? He was nobody, was He not? And, after all the miracles, He still died a nobody, did He not? He shook Pilate to His core, but who was Pilate in the grand scheme of things?

Yet, this man is known. He is not only known, but He generates interest. He not only generates interest, but He is still studied. He is not only studied, but He is followed. He is not only followed, but He is worshiped. How? Why? What made the difference? His life ends in tragedy and defeat, or so it seemed.

In short, Christ proves great because God orchestrated a great surprise, a surprise that we would have scoffed at if we were in the planning room, a plan we would have said of, "I would do it differently." He used an insignificant nation to bring about this insignificant man, who would eventually be realized to be the greatest gift ever given to man: Our Messiah, Our Savior. While this seems odd, it was not so unexpected. That Messiah would come from such humble and forgotten history was prophesied long before His arrival, and it is in this knowledge that people in retrospect begin to understand the significance.  Against such odds, God said it would be so, and it is undeniable, practically speaking, that this is phenomenal. Some bow in worship, and others act in fear, trying to snuff out this light from Israel, but all hear...and one day, all will take notice:

             " But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

                  Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

                  Yet out of you shall come forth to Me

                  The One to be Ruler in Israel,

                  Whose goings forth are from of old,

                  From everlasting."

                  Therefore He shall give them up,

                  Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth;

                  Then the remnant of His brethren

                  Shall return to the children of Israel.

                   And He shall stand and feed His flock

                  In the strength of the LORD,

                  In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God;

                  And they shall abide,

                  For now He shall be great

                  To the ends of the earth;

                   And this One shall be peace. Micah 5:2-5

From nowhere, amongst a little group among an insignificant people, will come a king that will be from everlasting and will have the strength of the Lord. Just as His coming was an unexpected expectation, so the life He lived was an unexpected expectation.  What do I mean by an unexpected expectation: It something foretold and acknowledged, but so unbelievable it was unrecognizable to many who knew of its eventual coming and paid its realty lip-service alone. He was to be the suffering servant, and although this was known of Him, it angered His fellow Jews that He would not take a more political rule that typified human power and might, ruling with a heavy hand. Instead, He walked everyday towards a submissive death, the death on the cross, and while His death was foretold years and years before His coming, and He even spoke of it often, when He died, His followers felt defeated. If they had only known...

And God looks down on us and says, "This is my Son, whom I give to you." This unknown man, He is our gift. The greatest gift ever given, and we must, at times, wonder why. Why is Jesus the gift of God? What does He offer me...which is the typical human question, not always without warrant, but often ungratefully asked nonetheless.

We ask because we often think to ourselves, “If I were God, I would have done it a different way…How is this the best God could do? How is this a gift for me?”

The reality of Jesus unexpected, expected reality teaches most about ourselves, that what God would plan would not be our plan. God did not send His Son in such unexpected ways just for surprise, In fact, He told us exactly what He planned to do, and it made all the sense in the world to our Father. It is our own unbelief and twisted ways that lend to our surprise. Why would God come as One who would not use His might to punish others into submission? Why would He not rule from a human thrown? Why would He be so different? Because God is different. God does not rule and provide peace like Rome, or any other fallen nation for that matter. Through heavy-handed rule and power humans reign. God rules in love, and Christ is that ultimate gift of love.

Let us indulge the human question: How is Christ a gift for me?

Jesus' coming in human flesh is a gift on so many levels. First, it is a demonstration of God's self-giving character. God's love for His Son extends throughout eternity past, present, and future. Throughout eternity, up to the point of the incarnation, God the Father had enjoyed complete unity with Christ, the Son, but the Father had to give Him up to send Him to us to die (John 3:16). Not only did the Father give away His Son to live on earth away from the intimate Triune community He had always enjoyed, the Son also sacrificed. He gave up His divine rights in order to walk amongst us (Philippians 2:6). He gave up His power in order to walk as we walk, so that we might know Him.... So that when we ask the question, what would God have us do as humans in this or that situation, we can look to Christ, God in flesh.  Just as written Scripture is God's Word in language we can understand, so too the Son comes in a form understandable to our mind, human form. He teaches us that our path is through Him, in communion with the Holy Spirit. He is our model.

Jesus’ coming was an intimacy not yet known by sinful humanity. Not only could God be approached as He was in the Holy of Holies, He could be touched. He could be held; He could hold. He could be kissed; He could kiss. He could be seen; and we could see Him seeing us. He would come to be with us, and would forever be closer than ever before (since Eden), through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was here. God was walking amongst us once again, and because He came, He is still here.

Perhaps the greatest part of this gift is that He has opened a way back from exile. The exilic human race is on a path to once again be the Edenic people of God. We are going home, back to the garden, which will be a beautiful city once we finally get there, New Jerusalem. Once sin entered the world, a gulf was formed, a non-negotiable ocean born.

When we say, "I would have done it a different way, God might just reply, "And who would you suggest die for your sins?"

God could have manifested Himself in countless ways, but He came as a human, for sin demands human death. And if He had not died, we would be forever hopeless. Instead, He came, and death has been split in two, and we walk in its wake by His grace, back to God's Kingdom.  That death that had defeated all men before, in its spreading upon the Christ, met its own demise. By taking Christ, it dragged into its depths a being too powerful to contain, and He burst forth, leading the captives out of captivity. 

It is true, if the story had ended at death, it would be no story. But there was a big surprise; death has died, for it met a man too powerful to destroy.

Christ is the gift of life, the promise that God still loves this fallen race. Our story is a tragic tale without Him. We are hopelessly lost without Christ. Ours would be a life not worth having, if that great gift had been never given. The gift of the baby boy that would save the world came into a world in a less than magnificent manner when we reflect upon the whereabouts of His family in physical and social standing, but then again, knowing the supernatural nature of His birth, it is the most amazing story ever told. We still tell it. And even with all the mundane, less than elite people involved, His coming still drew the wisest of men to see the child. His birth still struck fear in the heart of Herod. Imagine Herod's thoughts. Here a child is born to a couple of no real import, yet somewhere deep down Herod knew this child represented real opposition to His rule, to the rule of tyrannical men. And for some unknown, seemingly illogical reason, He lies awake at night in cold sweats, knowing the boy is alive, and growing in stature.

Herod would not succeed in killing Him on behalf of the empire, but the empire would kill Him nonetheless. He would have the audacity in His own lifetime to speak of His gospel, to suggest it would one day be told worldwide. How foolish this must have seemed, no more foolish than at the time His body hung lifeless on the cross, and, yet, somewhere deep down they knew it to be true, and they had killed Him for it. The centurion knew it, and we all have to face His reality. In this death, His message would become concrete. His death would complete exactly what He came to accomplish, to die so that we do not have to die as well. By the time of His death, His story had just begun. Christ is that gift we look at and at first think, why would I ever want that. There is nothing special here. But once opened, the gift becomes the greatest possession we can know. 

He is the difference between having nothing and everything, not just because He died, but because he also rose!

On Friday, the veil was torn in two because of Christ’s work on the cross. As it ran down from top to bottom, the tear continued downward, creating a fissure down into the depths of Death and Hades, but Death did not notice. In swallowing up Christ, death unwittingly sealed its own fate. For three days, death silently and smugly boasted in its victory, as it had defeated even the most perfect Man to ever walk the Earth. Just as it swallowed up the first Adam, the second Adam had been defeated as well, or so death thought. On this day, Satan watched as His child, Death, was defeated, and he as well was delivered a mortal blow to His head. Today, Christ rent death into, becoming the first fruits of the resurrection.

When He rose, He reminded us all that the Messiah was to be crowned King, as it was written:

“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.

Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14).

For a time, Christ humbled Himself to serve us through suffering, but that was finished. Now, He has taken back His rightful place. Thus, He states:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore[a] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

We have a King! Happy Easter…

Reactionism: How our attitudes might kill our local churches…

Humans are reactionary creatures. When we confront a current issue that is damaging to something we hold dear, our disdain for its effects often lead us to do the opposite of what is being done. It is out of one ditch and into another. There are several examples I could give, but I will give two from the political world and then discuss one example from church world.

In the wake of a national tragedy that involved a gunman, many liberally minded folks have come to the conclusion that the solution is as simple as getting rid of guns. Reactionary? I would say so. Conservatives are guilty as well. Conservatives have perceived recent talks of environmental concerns to be propaganda, and because of such, they are wholly unwilling to talk about environmental concerns at all. They just say, “Everything is fine.” Reactionary? Yep.

Now, how about church world? In the wake of a collapsing Christendom project, many Christian leaders are seeing a failure in our current church model, which has historically little to no interest in missions, domestic or abroad.  A lot of rhetoric has emerged from current leadership concerns in regards to our post-Christendom context:

“We need to be more missional.”

“The church is not what just what happens on Sunday.”

“The church needs to go out.”

To this, I can only say, “Amen!” However, I feel the need to warn against reactionism. Correctives and reform do not totally replace already in place systems. We are not to replace coming together with going out. Instead, we are to make our existence more than just coming together. Our coming together should be means for us to then go out.

Now, I am not under any delusions that when churches begin to talk about “going out,” as if it is a new idea, that they will then be urged to discontinue Sunday worship service and the like. But, what can happen is that leadership focus is totally drawn away from the care of the flock and redirected solely to the reaching out to the world. This can lead to feel good church, with little care for the growth of members, but the world needs the flock to be well kept.

The writer of Hebrews urges his audience to avoid discontinuing their coming together (10:25). Now, in context, the danger was not that the church wanted to go and do something else. Instead, they were in real danger of disbanding altogether, but the principle stands:

In order to remain courageous, we must do well in coming together and lifting each other up.

Our commitment has to be to the body and then to the world. For the body is to reach out, and if they are exhausted from all the “going,” then they have no impact. Remember, reaching out can be difficult and scary. We need to be sure we are feeding the flock so they can feel empowered to go and do.

Churches must be highly aware not to allow the renewed interest in missions to take away from pastoral care. If the leadership at the church becomes overly reactionary to their excitement upon missions, then they run the risk of exhausting their efforts in what the church is called to do in outreach, neglecting the congregants. But, what the leadership might be forgetting is that their primary job is to lead the flock to reach out, not to be the only ones reaching out, which is what happens a lot of the time. The leaders either are frustrated with inactivity or are discouraged concerning how long it might take training people to go, and they instead do all themselves, using the congregants as an audience.

However, it is better to have a whole body reaching out than a small group known as the “leadership staff.”

It is best for the leadership, the congregation, and the lost world that we not become overly reactionary to all the current issues concerning our missional obligations. We must take a deep breath and keep pressing on and growing, not totally renovating and starting over.

As Christian leaders, we must remember that those who look to us for leadership need good example so that they might draw courage and strength from us (see Hebrews 12:7). Let's not ignore our bodies.

Just some thoughts as I was reading Hebrews today…

A Reflection On Small But Forgotten Victories

Today I joined a group of Christ followers who wish to live to make a difference in the world for His sake. We came together to learn more about discipleship and forming disciples. Things got very real very quickly. In the course of our dialogue, we spoke of the need to grow, to continually repent from our own ways and to move towards His. As we discussed, one way in which we listen for God’s reminders in our lives, those biddings to move forward in our trust in Him through life-changing sanctification, is through our reactions to the situations in life that take us off guard, those bumps in the road that cause us pause and reason to ask questions about our selves and the sort of lives we live. What is going on? Where is God? What does it all mean? What is He trying to say to me?

Sometimes, the situation can be a self-induced failure, a series of decisions that have led us to a place of despair. At other times, it might not be the situation itself, but our reactions and feelings in light of the situation that remind us of our deep need to draw ever close to him. Illness, loss of loved ones, and the like might be examples of “the uncontrollable” being a catalyst that reminds us of our deep and utter need to rely on Our God.

What was most refreshing about the discussion was the praxis. We did not simply touch on the topic, as if it was simply something to keep in mind. Too often Christians encourage each other to do this or that, but we do not spend the time to model for each other what we say must be done. But, in this case, we spent much time exploring the issue at hand. We explored learning from everyday experience in order to see the areas of life we have yet to give over or have not fully matured in, areas in which we need to repent and do things God’s way. As a matter of cementing the lesson in our mind, the leader of the small discussion asked if someone would step forward to share something God was sharing with his or her heart so that we all might explore what it might mean to repent and move forward in this situation.

One brave soul stepped forward and shared. Life had thrown many hardships and times for grief into her life in recent years. As she looked over the past few years of her life, she saw many highs and many lows. She shared how when things first began to unravel, her resolve was strong and sure, dedicated to the knowledge that God was in control, but as time went on and one sadness followed another, and one issue led to the next, frustration arose. Put all together, she was frustrated that what had started out so well went so wrong, and it all seemed for naught.

Aren’t we all like this? Aren’t we all tempted to look at the big picture and because we see failures within, or we are experiencing hardship at the present, we equate the whole thing as failure, or as if, at least for the moment, we are failing and throwing away all that we had gained? Guess what! It is okay to feel this way. Lament is actually a good thing, for we find answers in lament.

Oh how her words began to resonate in my soul, reverberating to those points of sadness and concern in my own life. I knew the sounds being sung, the chords being struck on the strings of her heart, because my heart was singing them too in a heavy and melancholy lamentation. As I heard the sad melody, I reflected on how many times I had heard the songs before. They are sung all the time, in our own lives and the lives around us.

As a culture, we do not handle lament well. We see it as a fully negative experience, but, for ancient Israel, lament was a desperate cry to the Lord that was most often followed by His sweet answers. Lament often led to true repentance. Just look at their history. Just look at their psalms. Lament is to be embraced, for it is in our brokenness that we most often find clarity. Lament was the place to which this person who was sharing with us was taken today, and because she was able to admit her pain, she was also able to hear from the Lord.

Our culture wars with each other on finding the right answer to pain. We have all sorts of psychological theories and treatments for overcoming our issues. We have pills we take to completely alter our feelings so that we do not need to face our pain. We are told that we do not need to change. We are perfect the way we are. The American avoidance goes on and on, to greater and greater lengths to avoid our real issue, our utter need for God. However, in our avoidance, we miss out on His often, quiet voice, reminding us of the freedom He has given us.

I can think of a fairly clear example of our own confusion in our culture, and it comes in the form of alcoholic reform programs. Whether we have been to such treatments or have seen them modeled on television, we are aware of how they often work (and many times to great success). The treatments and theories are as numerous as there are experts. In other words, they each have their own system that is supposed to be better than the next, and certainly there are some practices better than others. I know healed persons that will testify to this.

Nonetheless, we see one common theme with each program. They make room, whether they want to or not, for relapse. Too often it is a real issue. How each program views relapse can differ, and no matter what the counselor tells the man or woman that relapsed, often a sense of tremendous failure follows. It is this sense of failure I want to reflect upon for a moment. Again, many programs share with the persons in the program that relapse does not mean failure, but too often, these words of hope are lost on the one suffering. The person in relapse might say, “I thought I was beyond this. I thought I was cured. Was all this for nothing?”

At the core, the person identifies his or her biggest failure, his or her biggest (if not only) character flaw, as alcoholism. In other words, the person thinks, “If only I get past my alcoholism, I will be okay.” Is this so? Most certainly not… In all our lives, our big issues are numerous and tangled with all the little issue, so that when one is jostled they are all jostled. Like a box of unattended Christmas light, we do not simply sort them all separately and at once. Often, we sort them out together, often finding the points of tension between two or more strands so we can move forward. Yes, we might find real victory once we have untangled many feet of chord, but there is much to go. And, failure to tend one chord for too long can cause it to ensnare other chords we have worked on for far too long to go backwards.

So, what happens with many alcoholics when they forget the other areas of sin in their lives? They blame every failure back to one source, to their alcoholism, but drunkenness might not be the root of every failure, but the go to response to any and all failure. If this is not seen, the relapse will bring about a sense of failure. The alcoholic will say, “I must not have fixed anything at all. All the years of sobriety were fake victories.” No, a thousand times, no! This is wrong, especially when the victories were sought with God. What we often find is that as we grow in sanctification, we dig up deeply buried sins that we have not yet dealt with, as we deal with them, if we are not careful, we can let them pull us down. Thus, the alcoholic might revert, and what they do not realize is that this is not the same old thing; a new trigger has been uncovered.

Let’s say that an alcoholic’s trigger is his worry. That worry drives him to hide in the bottle. What the person might not realize is that all those years ago, what brought him to worry no longer brings him worry. Perhaps he had distrust in relationship, and when a relationship was strained, he moved to drink. He prayed for God to heal him, and God, working hand-in-hand with the man, uprooted the sins that brought him pain in relationship. As he untangled the strands with God, he was able, through sanctifying grace, to completely untangle the chord of relational distrust. He has had victory.

Years pass, and nothing brings him much worry, but then he loses his job, and he worries about his finances for his family’s sake. He is then driven back to his old friend, the bottle, and he drinks. The next day he awakes, feeling like a failure and a fraud, and he forgets that God has healed his big flaw of distrust in relationships and the sins that caused them to fall apart. For him, sanctification is real, but he has equated all his failures to one character flaw, instead of realizing that throughout life, God will bring him to various points of brokenness, that often manifest in the same way, but are only new opportunity to have victory in life.

This does not excuse his reaction. He should have turned to God and not to drink for comfort, but, it also does not mean he has been fooling himself. That his sobriety has not been real, that it cannot be really regained is a denial of what God has already done. (Let me also note that I do believe that alcoholics can be truly healed from alcoholism and do not have to be forever afraid of new triggers, so that it is not even a go to comfort in light of various strains, but I am simply using this particular scenario as a case study.)

While our stumbling block might not be alcohol, we can often feel like the relapsed alcoholic. When we find ourselves feeling a certain negative way, as we might have at another juncture of life, we might think we are back at square one, but, perhaps we are simply reacting to a new issue as we did the old. Certainly, if we see the reaction itself as negative, we need to ask God to not only fix our current situation, but our go to reactions as well. That comes in time. My friend that shared today moved from feelings of victory to frustration. Perhaps frustration is your go to stumbling block. Mine is anger. Whatever it is, God wants it. He wants victory for you. Let him redeem that area, and move forward to identifying other areas where victory is needed.

How many times in the midst of their lamentation did God have to remind Israel of the victories He brought to them? All they saw was their failure, but He reminded them that He was the God that delivered them from Egypt, that brought them out of the desert, that led them to victory over their enemies, and brought them out of exile time and time again. And when they forgot their God-given victories, they were led back to self-reliance and sin.

He reminds them to count their blessings. In the midst of our sorrow, we must not look back at all the other times in which we were able to overcome and say of them that they must have been fake or by chance. No they are victories. Count them. Sins run deep, but they do not negate the fact that God has done much to untangle the web of sin in our heart and continues to do so, so that there is real change, and it certainly does not mean that when we fall that we are forever stuck. Instead, we should be reminded that the God who has delivered us from our slavery will do so again and again.

As she shared her lament, the thoughts I just shared came to mind, and I spoke them forth before the group. It was as if God was saying, "You just had to see the frustration in someone else and how it can take away joy in order to see that the joy is actually still there, even while the pain can be blinding." I felt a great measure of peace in His reminder, and, as I shared, so did the person who had so generously shared. She thanked me later on, but how much more should I thank her. If she had not been willing to lament, I would not have been able to identify with her forgotten joys and, in turn, see my own forgotten joys.

God is good.

Small but forgotten victories are all around us. Let us not forget them any longer, for they bring us the courage to move forward.

Do We Have the Correct View of God's Wrath?

Wrath seems to be a term that many modern theologians now smack their lips over. It is a word that they cannot keep from their lips when speaking or from their fingertips when typing. In today's popular theology, wrath has come to be understood as an almost insatiable appetite of the Most High, something that, at all cost, God must be appease.

There is an image being given of the Trinity in which the Son stands between the Father and the redeemed, defending us from His wrath. Where the Spirit is in all of this is not always fleshed out, which is another telling mark of today’s popular theology. In light of this view of Christ's grace, many talk about Christ's work as appeasing to God's appetite for wrath instead of a ransom paid for our sin, but what does this mean?

This is a question never really answered. Instead, ideas of God's wrath seem assumed or carelessly formed with no real theological consideration. Instead of seeking Scriptural understanding, ideas like the fact that a God of infinite love is also a God of infinite anger are assumed to be self-explanatory. Taking all this into consideration, what view of God is given by this popular theology?

Without giving qualification, it seems that God ends up being a very angry and divided being, simply waiting for a chance to deal his retribution upon an ungrateful people. The fact that wrath can be expressed from the Almighty can remain true, and yet, it might elicit a very different set of views of God if we take a step back and define our terms. Otherwise, we must join in with many of the more modern and popular theologians in defending a God that seems petty, vindictive, and retributive.

 It is natural to assume we know the meaning of simple terms like wrath, but I would argue that we have assumed the term to be much flatter than it actually is, and we have tarnished our vision of God's character in the process. While God is revealed in human terms, we must allow Him to redefine them when they are used of Him. Any term that is first understood from a purely humanistic standpoint cannot hold up to His divine character.

We must not begin to talk of God's wrath before we properly understand wrath. Let's go back to the popular expression: "A God of infinite love must also be a God of infinite anger." Even when we think of this anger as righteous anger, an anger forever beset against evil, sin, and death, it can be worrisome. Once again, with proper perspective, this might not be so troublesome. While the above statement seems logical enough, it often elicits an unwarranted conclusion: Contrary to the assumptions of popular theology, love and anger are not two equally powerful and separate expressions of God's character.

In other words, we are not warranted to suggest that if God is described as being loving and being angry at separate points in Scripture, then we too must say in the same breath with, "God is Love," that "God is anger." Imagining love and anger as being two separate feelings God forever emotes is too dualistic. It is the sad result of allowing too much Greek philosophy into our theology, which would be better viewed through a Hebraic lens. Unfortunately, much modern theology has been developed from more Greek perspectives than Hebraic, Augustine being a champion of such theology, and a hero to many of our modern writers.

 The truth of the matter is that the Bible says, "God is love." It does not say, "God is anger." However, this dualistic perspective in which all of God’s qualities are forever emoted is often the view of God's love and anger. One might want to delve into a bit of logical philosophy and argue that if God is ever angry in the course of human history, then he must be angry all of the time for God is unchanging. This, of course, being the inevitable question of Greek philosophy concerning “the perfect,” since Greek thought teaches that perfection is static and unchanging in any way.

If this were true, then we would also wish to affirm that God is forever disappointed, for there were times in which humanity obviously disappointed God. Of course we would not wish to think this of God, but if this is the sort of "logic" we use, then this is necessarily the case. This is too flat an understanding of emotions, and simply is not the Scriptural view of God, who is not simply a static perfection, but is a perfection that is also personal.

Simply put, God is love, and from that Character, he has the potential to express His love in various ways. Love expresses itself in various forms depending on the situation. If your child demonstrates great love by standing up for a friend, your love might express itself in praise. However, if your child demonstrates great selfishness by bullying another child, your love for your child might express itself with admonishment. The love for the child has not changed; it simply responds differently. In the case of where the child expresses good qualities that will be of benefit as he or she matures, love affirms, and, in the case where the child expresses self-destructive qualities that will damage him or her as he or she matures, love discourages.

So that which we often affirm as a positive expression of love is not separate from a negative expression of the same love, they are simply varying and appropriate expressions of that same love. To think that for God to have a characteristic it must forever be kinetic, in other words, it must be active, is too simplistic. Instead, we must understand that some abilities of God are potential, always existing as a capability, but only expressed at logical points in which they need to be expressed through personal response. To think of God as a static being, always and forever exuding certain expressions is a Greek view that has permeated Western Christian thought, and is problematic when imported into a more Judeo-Christian understanding of God. 

What does this mean? Quite simply, this means that anger is not a characteristic of God that is to be juxtaposed to love. They do not belong on the same plane. Moreover, this means that love is not simply a characteristic of God, but is the summation of His character. In short, anger is not an equal quality to love, but is an expression that love takes in its position against those things damaging to that which love directs its service. In other words, anger is a form of love as it relates to that which is evil.

Moreover, anger has to be understood in its highest sense. We cannot think of the anger that we often experience that makes us petty, retributive, and vindictive. God is none of these things. Even while God is angry at sin and evil, he is also a joy-filled God, happy in the knowledge that He has dealt with sin in an everlasting way through the atonement of Christ. Therefore, we must not import our common experiences of being angry that are often accompanied by emotional turmoil and fits of rage. From a human perspective, anger is often an uncontrollable feeling, but to God it is a very controlled response to sin, and wrath is only a response of anger when necessary.

Since God is love (I John 4:16), he cannot be slow to loving. Whatever He does, He does in love, for that is His very character. But, the Bible clearly states that God is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6). Moreover, while God's love can never be lessened by the actions of men, His anger can (Numbers 25:11). Clearly love and anger are not equal emotions or characteristics of God. Moreover, God is not divided by His love and His anger.

Christ does not stand in the way of a Father who wants nothing more than to lash out at us. This is an unfortunate idea of popular theology that must be discarded. If the Trinity teaches us anything about God, it teaches us the equality of the Father and the Son, as well as the Spirit. It teaches that each member is working hand-in-hand to accomplish the will of the Godhead. If Christ's love is demonstrated in the cross so that we come to understand that Jesus love is selfless, outward-focused, cruciform love, then we must understand that what is at the center of Christ's heart is also at the center of the Father's heart.

If the Son is selfless, the Father cannot be vindictive and retributive. Christ was not the only member of the Trinity to make a sacrifice for us. So, once again, God's wrath becomes a position that Holy Love (the Character of God) takes in light of evil. Love is the defining characteristic of God, not anger. Without evil, love need not be wrathful. Yet, until evil is fully dealt with, wrath will be expressed when needed.

What does all this mean? It means contrary to the assumptions of popular theology that God does not intrinsically need to appease an appetite for wrath. It means that He has not simply created subjects to punish as an expression of His character just as He has created subjects to love out of expression of His character. It means we were all created as an expression of God’s character, which the Bible tells us is love.

It also means that the Father and the Son are not in opposition when it comes to how they each wish to treat humanity. Finally, it means that love and anger are not equal, dualistic forces, but that anger is an expression of love. Just as we would be naturally angered at that which means harm towards the ones we love, the God of Love is moved to anger against that which is set out to harm that which He loves. Wrath is not simply about making sure God gets the glory He deserves; it is about taking on that which God selflessly loves.

Does this mean that the world can breath a sigh of relief since anger might not be as big a deal as popular theology has suggested? If this is a relief for Christians who, in light of this confused theology, could not fathom a God of wrath ever loving a sinner like them, then yes. However, this should not give relief to any human that gives his or her self over to evil. While this person was created as an expression of love, if this person gives him or her self over to evil, God will, in His patient timing, eventually exact wrath in order to stop evil.

God's wrath is directed towards that which is harmful to that which He loves, and placing yourself in the camp of evil is placing yourself in the wake of God's wrath, and we must understand the sheer determination of God when it comes to dealing with evil. He is so against evil that He would subject Himself to death on a cross in order to defeat it. If an all-powerful God would subject Himself to such, we must not be mistaken concerning the extent He will go in utterly destroying evil. Hell fire and brimstone is an utterly fitting discussion to have when considering our future states if left in sin. It is a warning to not give one’s self over to evil, but over to love. The saying: "A God of infinite love must also be a God of infinite anger," is very true in the sense that God's love is forever against evil.

We must be forever mindful to respect and uphold the character of God. Popular theology would agree with this by saying that God is most concerned with His glorification, more so than His concern for the salvation of humanity. This stems from this dualistic view of God's characteristics. God is not a glory monger who also happens to be merciful to some. He is concerned about His character namely because He loves us. When we misunderstand His character, we misunderstand our place in reality.

We are made to serve God, for being under Him is our protection. To place our selves outside His rule is to place our selves in harms way. His concern to right our misconception of His glory deserving character is an expression of His Love. Respecting God's character is much more about being good representatives of His character for the sake of others over being a benefit to the Almighty. If I misunderstand God, what does that do to diminish Him? It does nothing at all to diminish Him. He does not need me to do or understand anything in order to be complete in His joy. Instead, it is a detriment to me to misunderstand God, for if I do not take His glory seriously, I misalign myself from that which provides me life. Moreover, when I misrepresent God, I run the real risk of leading others astray. Such mistreatment of God's character is evil for it is a harm to those whom God loves, and this means I am in real danger of God's wrath which is set to make right those things that are perverted and bent out of shape and cause harm to the beings and things He loves.

“I’m Just a Sinner Saved By Grace”…Really?

There is a big question floating around our nation right now, and it is highly theological. We don’t often get such questions asked like this any more, but in the midst of sorrow, we often are forced to ask the big questions. The big question right now is “Where is God?” Christians are poised to begin a great dialogue with the wider community, but we are often paralyzed by our own misunderstandings and theological biases.

If you were to ask a good Israelite during the Old Testament era, “Where is God?” he or she would, without hesitation, refer you to the Holy of Holies, whether that was in the Tabernacle or the Temple, depending on what point in time you were asking. During the time of the Gospels, after the disciples finally came to the realization of just what sort of man they were dealing with, if you would have asked them, “Where is God?” they would have pointed to Christ.

The question is not simply about the realm in which God exists, on what plane He resides, but is pointed, asking where He is in our own lives, and many Christians simply do not have adequate responses. The Temple has been destroyed, and Christ has ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father. So, where is He amongst His people today?

Like it or not, we are being asked, “Where was God?” and many Christians fumble for an answer, or we go on the defensive. However, we don’t need to search for the answer, nor do we need to come up with elaborative excuses for God’s absence. We can do as the Israelites and the disciples did; we can rely on the doctrine of tabernacling and point to the location in which God chooses to tabernacle amongst us today.  In the Old Testament, God dwelled in the Holy of Holies. In the Gospels, God was present in Christ Jesus, and now, where is He? Where does He tabernacle?

The New Testament is crystal clear about God’s tabernacle in the Church Age. God dwells in the hearts of His children. The answer to the big question is as simple as pointing to your heart. But, for some reason, we fumble for the right theology. We ignore the theology of God’s dwelling place. Why? Because it says something so profound about each of us that it is often too scary to face. Instead, we wish to deflect the issue away from our own responsibilities.

Instead of being the epiphainic presence of Christ, we overemphasize another theological truth, and we distort this truth so that it eclipses God’s presence in our lives and makes our human existence a bit easier to live, away from the scrutiny of the world. We lean on our own sin. We focus on the cliché: “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” Really? Is that really all God has for you? Is that really all God thinks of you? While there is truth in this statement, we, the very children of God, say it as if we are worthless and have nothing to show for being redeemed.

Have you heard a Christian say, “Don’t look to me for an example. I am merely a sinner, and I will disappoint you.” Let me say this. If this is your attitude, then you will be a disappointment, for you have allowed sin to have too big a place in your new life that is supposed to be hidden in Christ and led by His Holy Spirit. But, we are not to serve two masters. The idea that you do not represent something of God and His holy character as a Christian is bad theology. It is too small, too weak. Get rid of it. Unfortunately, it seems this is the theology of most in our nation. No wonder we now have to fight to be missional.

The Scripture's call upon our lives is much different and even in opposition to this more modern, nominal and domesticated “Christian” response. Instead of telling us that we are simply sinners covered by Christ, as if He is simply spiritual Febreze, the Bible tells us that we are made new: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (II Corinthians 5:17) The Bible does not simply tell us that one day, in the great beyond, we will be made different. We are different now. What we once were, the old, sinful self is dead. Therefore, we are not warranted to simply say, “I am just a sinner.” Again, that is bad theology. You are not just a sinner; you are a new creation. You are His child. You are worth so much more than you give yourself credit for.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again… We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5:14,15, 20,21)

Paul is sharing with us our true identity and the implications of being given such an identity. We are persons who have been purchased by Christ through His sacrifice. As such, we do not have the right to live as we wish. We have no excuse to give into our old self, for that old self died with Christ. We are now His, and He has given us a duty to carry the ministry of reconciliation. We are His ambassadors. We represent Him. Our plea to the world to not look at us as examples is antithetical to the very call of Christ and the reason He hung on the cross for your life.

The Bible tells us that we are His ambassadors, the very persons people are to look to when they want to know more about God and His character. Therefore, we cannot allow sin to have the place we have given it. We must be on guard. This newness of life is not simply a passive thing that is obtained and complete at the moment of salvation. It is something we have to work for, something Christians, who have been saved by the free gift of God by grace and through faith, are moving towards:

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Philippians 3:10-16)

Paul is speaking of the life of Christian growth, also known as the doctrine of sanctification. We are called to be different, and we must always move forward. In some sense, as we saw in the passage from II Corinthians, we have been made new. So, Paul tells us to “live up to what we have already obtained.” In other words, do not make excuses for your sins. Live in newness of life. But, realize that God is not done. He has more to do in your life.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17-24)

Again, we are called to leave behind our excuses and come to realize that we are to “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

This is not the message of today’s church, and we are providing a terrible witness because of such. We struggle to find God ourselves, because we live in the sins that should have no real reign over our lives. We do this because we misunderstand the purposes of Christ’s gift. We often think He simply died so we do not have to die ourselves. But, He died for so much more. He died so that we could be His workmen. He died so that we could be made new and could bless the world by our being made in His image.

Personal reflection opportunity:

How have you viewed the place of sin in your life? Has it paralyzed your witness? Are you allowing God to make you new? Have you put off the old, sinful desires of the flesh and put on the new creation?

As you ask yourself these questions, read the words of Paul that I emphasized above and ask yourself, “Have I been listening to this part of the Scripture’s calling upon my life, or have I just bought into the domesticated church’s version of my worth?”

Balance the truths of our sinfulness and our newness. While we are not completely rid of the old self at the moment we accept Christ, it has no more power. It is dead. We only give it power when we do not live in His truth, in the newness of life. We must be on our guard not to fall into our old ways, but we do not need to allow our acknowledgment of the dangers of sin to keep us from moving forward and being His real presence to a lost and hurting world.

Here, for your convenience, are the emphasized portions of Scripture from Paul in II Corinthians 5, Philippians 3, and Ephesians 4:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here… Christ’s love compels us…we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him… We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us…in him we might become the righteousness of God…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal… All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things… live up to what we have already attained… you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking… Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity… That, however, is not the way of life you learned… You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted… be made new in the attitude of your minds… put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.