An essay in many parts. Or...a hat tip towards brief posts

Hi guys,

Typically here at the POCBlog I drop in some longish writing that I do from time to time on various subjects. I sort of do this in the wind of a culture that says “write short posts, never more than a screen high, and don’t make complex arguments…cause the kids can’t read good any more.” You know you are all distracted and your brains must be slowly oozing away. Plus, who has time to read any more. Just give me some bullet points and sound bytes and I’ll be happliy on my way back to Facebook!

To be honest, I think we ought to read longer things and write them as well. Yet in a small, conciliatory hat tip towards short writing, I am going to roll out an intro to apologetics I wrote last week here section by section. So if questions about faith, reality and interacting with the truth of the gospel are of interest to you…stick around.

A few shortish posts are forthcoming. One quick comment about the footnotes. They will be numbered as they appeared in the longer piece so if an entry has footnotes that begin with the number 6 or something - this is why. I don’t have enough time to change all of them for each and every post.

Finally, if you made it this far and used a scroll bar then you likely don’t mind a longer read. If so, you can find the entirety of this series in one PDF file here.

Thanks team

Reid

After the wave...

This morning just about all the roads in Middlesex County NJ are empty. This is rare occurrence caused by the recent rampage of hurricane Irene. The storm lost most of it’s southern Caribbean muscle, but still brought heavy flooding to parts of our state. This morning the worship gatherings of Jacob’s Well were cancelled due to the realities associated with the storm. We were to finish a series simply entitled “New School - A New Testament Overview”. Today was to be that enigmatic little book known as the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Last summer, when we began an Old Testament introduction, I introduced the metaphor of a wave coming through all of human history. At the very beginning of time, after the fall of man and the curse of God upon the world, the promises of redemption and hope began to flow. The covenant promises of God build throughout history and culminate at a specific locus in space-time, the person of Jesus himself. At this point, all the energy of a wave at sea, culminates in a glorious picture of the glory of God.  At the cresting of a massive wave stuff begins to happen.  There is blessing and joy - like surfing - and power and chaos unleashed - like a hurricane.

Today, I was to complete the image of the wave by looking at what happens after the furious storm passes by.  As a kid growing up in Virginia Beach, VA I know what happens after a big tropical storm clears out. There is a glorious and glowing calm, sometimes the groans and pains of destruction and and exhales of relief.  Revelation is a book where the cresting wave and the powerful judgments of the storm are on display.  Both the chaos of sin, the blessing of God and power of his holy and right judgment is fully felt in all its joy and fury. Yet, what happens after the wave fully passes through?  What is left after all the churning of the water, the height and power of the wave and all the glory which is felt and seen? After every wave is a serene calm; after every storm there is a profound and tangible peace.  As the words of Charlie Richardson’s song, there is a peace, so rightly recall:

Thereʼs a peace to settle your soul,
There is a peace that is calling you home

It is no small thing that one of the images in the vision the apostle is given in the Revelation is that of a glassy sea. The dangers and perils and fear associated with the sea have been calmed. That which used to hold doom and calamity is now a beautiful accessory around the throne of God; the foundation for the throne room of heaven is peace.

After the wave of redemption flows through history, unfolding in the covenants and cresting in the person of Jesus, his work of gospel grace and holy judgment have fully brought redemption to all things.  What is our response?

 “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:1-11

As the Kingdom of Heaven is still a far country we still have much work to do in this age as we await the full peace in the age to come. Watch, Work, Pray my friends…for the glory of God, the good of our cities as we extend hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Blessed Virgin and Jesus' Family

The authors of the books of Jude and James are identified in a very interesting way in the New Testament. They seem to be identified as brothers of Jesus himself (Mark 6:1-5, Jude 1:1, Matthew 13:53-58). It might come as a surprise to some, but it appears that Jesus grew up in a family and had siblings. In fact we read this account in the gospel of Matthew.

⁵³And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, ⁵⁴and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? ⁵⁵Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas [Jude]? ⁵⁶ And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” ⁵⁷And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” ⁵⁸ And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Matthew 13:53-58 ESV

Furthermore, Luke’s gospel contains another account  that describes Jesus mother and brothers coming to look for him in a crowd of people.  The account in Luke 8 reads as follows:

¹⁹Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. ²⁰And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” ²¹But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Luke 8:19-21 ESV

Paul the apostle spoke of James in Galatians chapter 1:18, 19 as being the “Lord’s brother.” Additionally, the earliest church history written by a man named Eusebius called Jude, the brother of the Lord according to the flesh. (Church History, Book III, Chapter 19). Now this could seem odd for those of us who may have Catholic families, upbringings or friends as the Catholic view is that Mary, Jesus’ mom, was a virgin for life. Now, we don’t have too much space here to cover Mary in detail but let me just say that Protestants seem to give Mary too little props and respect while Catholics tend to go way over the top in the other direction.  What follows will be a few agreements and disagreements Protestants and Roman Catholics have about the blessed virgin.

Some Agreements

Both Protestants and Catholics hold that Mary was the virgin mother of Jesus fulfilling the OT prophesy that the Messiah would be born in just this way (See Matthew 1:18-25; Isaiah 7:14). Additionally, Mary is said to be favored by God with a unique role in history to bear the Son of God in her womb, raise him in her care and unleash Jesus the man into life and ministry (Luke 1:26-38). Finally, Mary in a worshipping response to God known as the magnificat, declares that she will be called blessed by all generations (Luke 1:46-55).  These agreements are clear yet some major disagreements remain in the Christian view of Jesus’ mom.

Remaining Disagreements

First, though the idea of Mary’s of perpetual virginity has a long history in the Catholic church, it has no grounds in Holy Scripture. One reason is that Mary clearly had a husband and we are told in Matthew 1:24,25 that “he took his wife, but knew her (biblical language for sex) not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”  Furthermore, an unconsummated marriage was contrary to the teaching of Scripture (Genesis 2:24,25 and 1 Corinthians 7). Another reason, mentioned above, is that Mary had other children. The context of  Matthew 13 cited above is clearly that of a family. Only a bit of hand waving can make father, mother, brother, sisters actually mean cousins or close relatives and not kids. A second disagreement regarding Mary is that she was sinless and unmarked by original sin. This doctrine, known as the immaculate conception of Mary teaches that Mary was conceived without original sin and did not sin. It was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854 but is not articulated in the Bible. Third, we do not agree that Mary was assumed bodily into heaven upon her death as such teaching is simply speculation without any biblical warrant.

The Scripture presents Mary as a human being like you and me though blessed and chosen by God for a very special role in redemptive history. Yet she is not a co-mediator between us and God as there is only one mediator that of Jesus himself (1 Timothy 2:6) Whether she appears magically upon ham sandwiches, in the clouds or in strange water stains on sides of buildings I’ll leave for you to decide.  I’m agnostic on these matters.

The who shapes the what...short reflection on being and doing

The following diagram was shared during our NT Overview series to describe the importance of the culture of a community and how it lives out its mission. It simply seeks to show the interrelated nature of a community’s culture (and individual character) and its actual flowing out in its mission. 

Our identity as believers and as Christ’s church is foundational. He is our definition and we live our lives in him through the gospel. Who we are has been changed by the gospel both individually and collectively (see Ephesians 1-2) and it is from our union with Jesus that we live out our missional calling together. We are a gospel centered people following Jesus on his mission in the world.

Our actions as believers and as Christ’s church are then transformational in that we are shaped by our daily practices. Whereas our identity is in Christ through the gospel, our choices, decisions and actions need to be shaped by the gospel as well. As we live this out, following Jesus, God’s Spirit bears fruit in us (see all of Galatians 5). This is both active—we work at it. What we do, what we do together, really matters. It is also passive, in that God is doing work in us, on us and through us (see Philippians 2:12, 13). If we do not live out our mission, choose to sow sin in our lives, go AWOL from Jesus’ purposes, it will effect us. We will look less like Jesus, more like the world and be unfruitful and ineffective in gospel work (see 2 Peter 1:3-11) To be a part of a gospel centered, missional community means we shape and share a culture based upon our calling in the world. When we do so our life together takes on a different reality and this in turn has a profound effect on our lives.

In Summary the WHO we are together should determine the WHAT we live together. Then the WHAT we live together continues to shape and transform the WHO we are. We should never deceive ourselves to think that the crew we flow with in life does not matter. In fact, it is indispensible to life and mission. And this, as you can see if you step back and look at the graphic above, creates a smile…at least this what my daughter saw here.

Theology and Mission - Circumcision with Titus and Timothy

Theology and Mission…Both Matter

During the first few decades of the Christian movement there arose a controversy as to how the Old Covenant laws should relate to New Covenant faith. As the  gospel of Jesus was proclaimed in the world, both Jews and non Jews began to place their faith and trust in him as their Savior.  As God created a new community of the faithful out of groups of people that had been separated in the past, many questions come to the forefront. Since Jesus was the promised  Messiah of Israel fulfilling the Old Covenant promises did the new Christians need to become Jewish first and then become “real Christians?” What of the Old Testament commands regarding circumcision as a sign of God’s covenant promise? What of the dietary laws designed to set God’s people apart as distinct from the nations? These questions had to be answered. 

Paul was very clear in his letter to the Galatians that to go back to the law when salvation has been accomplished by Jesus on the cross would to be a foolish thing to do.  He spoke against the necessity for circumcision in the strongest, most forceful of terms. Paul quite literally went off on the Galatians concerning this subject. Paul’s theology was clear; circumcision is not what saves you or makes you a part of the new covenant community. What makes a sinful person, justified by God? Paul’s answer throughout his writings is that faith in Christ alone as a gift of God’s grace is what rescues and declares sinners forgiven by a holy and just God. As such, Paul refused to have Titus, a gentile, circumcised because it would have betrayed the gospel (Galatians 2:1-6). When the church convened some meetings in Jerusalem they were unified and clear about this point (See Acts 15). Gentiles were not required to keep the practice of circumcision and other aspects of the ceremonial law. Yet in the very next chapter in the book of Acts we see Paul take Timothy, whose Mom was Jewish but whose Dad was a Gentile, and circumcise him. “Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.” So what gives? Why did Paul vigorously oppose Titus’ circumcision but not Timothy’s? In Titus’ case something theological was at stake, the very message as to what saves people! In Timothy’s case Paul’s concern was of a different sort. He was concerned with their mission among certain people.

In the context Timothy and Paul were to minister some may have considered Timothy, half Jewish, half Gentile, as someone who would not be speaking for God because he was obviously not following in his traditions as a Jewish man. So rather than hindering the hearing of the gospel, Paul circumcised Timothy so it would not be an issue of distraction from their message.  After all, Paul wrote to the Galatians “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Gal 5:6. The point being is that the heart aligned to Jesus in faith is what matters, not the external reality of circumcision. So Paul circumcising Timothy didn’t hurt anything (well maybe it hurt something) as Timothy was not counting on this and the law to save him. Yet Timothy being uncircumcised apparently would have hindered their mission and the reception of their message so why not just do it for the sake of the gospel? This echoes Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22:

¹⁹ For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 

Paul would not give an inch in compromising the gospel and clearly shows us this in penning the strong warnings of Galatians. He also would not let things hinder a hearing of the gospel among people when those things were secondary issues of lesser importance. He proclaimed the good news in truth but with cultural wisdom and shrewdness. May we have both the courage to defend the truth and to proclaim it without hindrance to others in our own day.

An Overview of the Gospel Literature

Introduction

To come to know Jesus in spirit and in truth we must arrive to him instructed by the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  We must have a knowledge of him as he really is while the Spirit of God persuades us fully that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. To know Jesus we must see him in the gospels and experience the living Jesus spiritually present with us by the Holy Spirit. Both truth and spiritual experience unite when we meet Jesus in the gospels.¹ In Jesus, God became flesh and lived among the peoples of the earth displaying to us his nature and his glory. Jesus is the majestic one and the written and proclaimed Word of God brings his majesty to us.

In the gospels of the New Testament we have compiled eyewitness accounts from people who walked with Jesus, talked with him, were taught by him, lived with him and were commissioned as his ambassadors and apostles to the world.² The canonical gospels were all first century documents compiled as the mission of God moved out geographically³ and as the apostles neared the end of their lives. They wanted to be certain to pass on the life, teaching and mission of Jesus to the broader Christian community and movement⁴ who would continue to carry out his work in history.  These gospels, inspired by God, would grow in their importance as false teachers began to arise and circulate strange and esoteric opinions about Jesus which were not a part of the apostolic teachings. Many of their writings posed as “gospels” purporting to give secret knowledge and teachings about Jesus. Such writings were rejected by early leaders of the faith such as Iraneus of Lyon who were directly connected to the apostolic tradition.⁵ These works were never considered part of the Bible and have never been part of the Bible.⁶ They were false teachings rejected firmly by pastors who loved their people.  The four gospels of the New Testament are the agreed upon standards for the life of Jesus accepted by all Christians everywhere. Protestants, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believers all look to these works as the divine and inspired revelation of Jesus Christ.  Now let us turn our attention to what makes a gospel writing, a gospel and focus for a moment on the literary genre. 

History, Biography, Theology?

When we come to the gospels we arrive at some very unique writings composed of many types of literature.  These writings are composed of genealogies, narrative story telling, historical facts, proverbs of wisdom, teaching parables, commands, even some apocalyptic sections. Many questions can rightly be asked about these books. Are these books of history, mere biography or simply theological books aiming to teach us truths about God? For instance, there are certainly historical realities about the gospels in that they are set in real time and real places speaking about real people.  They do not speak about another mythical world in a galaxy far far away. So in that way the gospels are historical but they are not mere compilations of historical facts and figures.  They desire to teach us more than this. Furthermore, it should be noted that the gospels may well be properly classified in the genre of ancient biography.⁷ When we hear the word “biography” we may think of a show on A&E or a book telling the whole life story of a certain person.  We know the gospels do not do this as they only contain parts of the Jesus story; parts that serve the purpose and theological aims of the particular gospel in question.  This may lead us to see the gospels as books of theological facts but this seems far less personal that what we find when actually reading them. Scottish New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham gives a wonderful classification for the gospels in describing them as testimony:

Understanding the Gospels as testimony, we can recognize this theological meaning of the history not as an arbitrary imposition on the objective facts, but as the way the witnesses perceived the history, in an inextricable coinherence of observable event and perceptible meaning.  Testimony is the category that enables us to read the Gospels in a properly historical way and a properly theological way.  It is where history and theology meet.⁸ 

Therefore, we shall see the gospels as eyewitness testimony pointing to a real person, in real history, revealing to us real truth about God, ourselves and Jesus of Nazareth, who is called the Christ.  As the gospels are where the historical Jesus and his theological teachings meet the following will serve as a brief survey of each of the gospels. In these summaries we will focus on what each contributes to our view of Jesus and a small bit of its unique theological contribution to the church. It is my hope that you might enjoy a of lifetime of studying these writings, meeting Jesus in them and growing spiritually through their nourishment as the Word of God.

The Gospel of Matthew

The first book of the New Testament is a gospel written by Matthew, the disciple of Jesus.  Matthew was a tax collector which means he was a Jewish man who worked for the imperial power that was Rome. You might say that he was from the block and had sold out to the man. He was a servant of empire whom God called and made a servant of the humble, sacrificial servant King. Matthew, is a distinctively Jewish work demonstrating that Jesus was not simply a new teacher on the scene, but rather the promised one of the Old Testament arriving in the fullness of time. We see this in several ways in Matthew’s gospel.

First, Matthew begins with a long genealogy which seeks to show that Jesus is the Son of David, the son of Abraham.  This not simply an exercise in creating someone’s family tree and this statement is not something as simple as: this is Rick’s family tree, the son of Harry, the son Tom…blah, blah blah. These two figures from the Old Testament are massive in their importance. David is the one who in the Old School was promised that an eternal King would sit on his throne in 2 Samuel 7.  Abraham is known as the father of faith, who in the book of Genesis God chooses to use to so that through his offspring the whole world would be blessed. His descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore. So here is what Matthew’s genealogy says to us. This is the king of God’s covenant with us! This is the promised one who will be the savior of and blessing to the whole world.

Second, there are so many promises of the Old Testament which are fulfilled in Jesus on display in Matthew.  His virgin birth (Matt 1:22-23, Isaiah 7:14), his birth in Bethlehem (Matt 2:3-6, Micah 5:2), his flight to Egypt from Herod (Matt 2:3-6, Hosea 11:1), Herod’s murder of kids under two (Matt 2:14-15, Jeremiah 31:15), his healing ministry (Matt 8:16-17, Isaiah 53:4), his use of parables in teaching (Matt 13:13, 14, Isaiah 6:9, 10), his riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and her foal (Isaiah 62:11, Zech 9:9) and his betrayal by Judas for pocket change (Matt 27:6-10 and Jeremiah 18:2-6, 19:1-2, 4, 6, 11, 32:6-15 and Zech 11:13).9 These all point to Jesus being the fulfillment of Old Testament promises. 

Third, there is this fascinating section in Matthew 12 where Jesus quite literally is identified as “greater than the temple of God” and “Lord of the Sabbath.” The temple was the place of worship where the presence of God dwelled and the Sabbath was a divine command to rest and worship. Jesus is identified as the locus of worship and the one who is in charge of the very commands of God. He was not simply bringing a religious rule keeping to the world, but rather he himself was a fulfillment of all the ways of worship and the laws of God in the Old Testament.

Finally, Matthew’s gospel closes with one of the clearest declarations for God’s people who receive a mission from the great King. We are to go into all the world and make disciples (learners, followers of Jesus) of all nations/peoples (Matthew 28:18-20). The promised Christ of the Old Testament has come and he is our covenant King.  All Christians throughout history have this wonderful privilege to teach others to follow him until his eternal Kingdom comes.   This is some of what Matthew has to say to us.

The Gospel of Mark

Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four gospels and contains just sixteen chapters. It is a gospel of action with Jesus’ bursting on the scene quickly and then at a high pace moving forward towards what has become known as Passion week.  This is the week of Jesus’s life where he will be tried, executed and subsequently rise from the dead. Church tradition has held from the earliest days that Mark recorded the accounts of the apostle Peter writing down his eyewitness testimony. Both Peter and Mark appear to be in Rome together and historically I find no good reason to doubt this tradition. When you come to Mark you get the sense that Jesus is a man with a mission; he has a job to do and he is getting after it. There are action words everywhere with the most prominent being the Greek term “euthus” which means right away or immediately. The writing of the gospel jumps from scene to scene with fast and furious frame changes showing us who Jesus is and what he came to do. Written in the imperial capital of Rome it does not contain as many direct Old Testament quotations as Matthew and Mark seeks to explain things well for readers who may not be as familiar with the Jewish traditions we find more quickly in Matthew. The promise/fulfillment themes does remain however particularly seeing Jesus as the suffering servant from the prophet Isaiah.

The gospel of Mark also focuses on the announcement and demonstration of the Kingdom of God.  In chapter 1 we read: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15). The Scriptures speak of the Kingdom of God as his actual rule and reign the comes along with his sovereign king Jesus. In Mark’s gospel we see the statement “the kingdom of God is at hand” being demonstrated in the life of Jesus through his miracles. Sometimes people can look at Jesus as a miracle worker just doing tricks to impress people. The gospels do not put on display a Criss Angel Mind Freak special.  Jesus’ miracles are demonstrations that a new paradigm of life has arrived with him. The old era of sin, death and evil oppression in the world has been broken and a new way of life has arrived. This is partially realized today and will be fully brought to pass in the final Kingdom of Heaven at the end of time.  However where Jesus is at work today we see the realities and a foretaste of this coming Kingdom.

As mentioned earlier Mark’s gospel, though brief, spends the bulk of its time in the passion week of Jesus where we see him fulfill his role as sacrificial substitute and suffering servant. This is summarized well in the wonderful verse in Mark chapter 10: For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

The Gospel of Luke

Luke is an interesting figure in the New Testament and we see him both in the book of Acts and in the letters written by a man named Paul, a primary leader in the early Christian movement. For instance, we read the following of Luke. He is called by Paul “the beloved physician” in Colossians 4:14, “my fellow worker” in the work of spreading the gospel in Philemon 1:24 and he is the only one remaining with Paul as Paul awaits execution in Rome in 2 Timothy 4:11. As a physician he would have been well educated, well read and maybe a bore a parties…just kidding about that last part. Luke was a faithful, sharp, friend of Paul who was intricately involved in gospel mission and concerned to preach and teach the gospel well. 

Luke wrote a two part work in the New Testament which scholars often call “Luke/Acts” in that Luke is episode one and Acts is episode two of his work. We might call Luke, Gospel Episode One – The Spirit Empowered Savior and Acts Gospel Episode Two – The Spirit Empowered Church on Mission.  There will be no Empire Strikes Back or Revenge of the Sith however for evil and its empires will simply be beat down by Jesus, the true and greater Jedi knight.  Ok, forgive me, I could not resist.

Luke’s gospel is an historically detailed work and he tells us that he went to great lengths to compile the Jesus story in a deliberate fashion. He worked hard to collect data from eyewitnesses and to write an orderly account so that we might have certainty about what we have been taught (see his introduction in Luke 1:1-4).

His gospel also contains a genealogy but his concern is to not simply trace Jesus to David and Abraham…but to go all the way back to Adam. His point is that Jesus was the savior for all people, gentiles included, not only Jewish followers. Perhaps Luke had also heard Paul’s teaching that the first man Adam failed in following God whereas Jesus, the second Adam, would fully bring salvation to the world (see Romans 5). Luke presents Jesus as a person full of the Holy Spirit who would walk with God, fulfill his mission and lead us in practically living it out. The Holy Spirit is fully active in Luke/Acts causing New Testament Scholar Darrell Bock to make the following observation:

Luke is a profoundly practical Gospel. His message is not only to be embraced; it is to be reflected in how we relate to others. Luke is also known as the writer who tells us much about the Holy Spirit but this emphasis is less dominant in Luke than in Acts. Nonetheless, Jesus’ ministry not only fits within God’s plan, it is empowered by God’s enabling Spirit [as we will see in Acts]. The church’s ministry has a similar dynamic.¹⁰

The Gospel of John

The final gospel, written by the apostle John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, was most likely put down while John was in the ancient city of Ephesus as an elder of the church there. It is different in nature than that of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and focuses on some important aspects of Jesus identity. John is a highly “theological gospel” demonstrating the full reality of Jesus and his work. John, never the one to hide his purposes, tells us exactly why he wrote down what he did:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.¹¹

These words “Christ” and “Son of God” are the subject of John’s writing. His prologue states in unequivocal terms that Jesus was the preexisting son of God, in union with the Father, who became flesh in space, time and history (John 1:1-5, 14).  The signs and miracles of Jesus in John’s gospel show that the locus of divine activity is in his Christ (or Messiah) and this Jesus gives new life, eternal life, to all who believe and trust in him. (John 5:24, John 17:3). 

In John the dual natures of Jesus, fully human, fully divine, are clearly seen. His identity and works get displayed through the seven self identifying statements known as the “The I ams.” Jesus claims to be  the bread of life (John 6), the light of the world (John 8), the gate we enter and the good shepherd (John 10), the resurrection and the life (John 11), unique way to the Father, the truth and the life (John 14) and triumphantly claims to be the I AM, the very God of the Old Testament (Exodus 3, John 8). 

John’s gospel calls us to BELIEVE over and over but not simply a positive feeling or belief in believing.  No, John calls us to believe in the incarnate God Jesus Christ. The unique savior of the world who forgives sins, raises us to new life and promises us an eternal Kingdom without sin, death, disease, tears. In that day death will be smashed and done away with.

This is the Jesus of the Bible. This is the Jesus of the gospels. This is Jesus of living, resurrected power and ultimate reality. We echo the ancient call today: BELIEVE! and find LIFE in his name.

Notes

1. John Calvin, Insitutes of the Christian Religion, says this well “Scripture will ultimately suffice for a saving knowledge of God only when its certainty is founded upon the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit” (Book I, viii, 13).

2. A compelling case for the gospels being comprised of eyewitness testimony is found in Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses-The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006)

3. David Alan Black, following the work of William Farmer and Bernard Orchard gives an interesting hypothesis that the gospels were written during the periods of missional unfolding during the apostolic era. Matthew in the Jerusalem period, Luke in the gentile mission of Paul, Mark in Rome and John adding his theological gospel towards the end of the apostolic age. See David Alan Black, Why Four Gospels (Grand Rapids: Kregal, 2001) 13-33.

4. See Richard Bauckham, Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences  (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) 9-48.

5. See Iraneus, Against Heresies—available many places online.  Iraeneus is said to have heard the gospel from a man named Polycarp who was a disciple of some guy named John the apostle.  The point is Iraneus, in refuting false teachings, was in the position to know.

6. Some scholars today such as Bart Ehrman of UNC Chapel Hill and Elaine Pagels of Princeton present these other books as “Lost Scriptures” from “Lost Christianities” rather than “rejected books” and “rejected” Christianities. This is historical revisionism at its worst. For a treatment of these issues see Darrell L. Bock The Mission Gospels—Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006).

7. See genre analysis in Richard A. Burridge “About People, by People, for People: Gospel Genre and Audiences” in Bauckham, Gospel for All Christians , 113-145.

8. Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 5,6.

10. Portions of this list adapted from Frank Thielman, Theology of the New Testament: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005)

10. Darrell L. Bock, Luke—NIV Life Application Commentary, 24.

11.  John 20:30-31

New Biography on GK Chesterton

Many people may be unfamiliar with one of the foremost British authors of the earliest 20th century so I am thankful for a new biography which might introduce Gilbert Keith Chesterton to a new generation of readers. In fact, Chesterton’s works were influential on many in the English speaking world with many apologists for the Christian faith finding rich soils in Chestertonian writings. Both CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were influenced by Chesterton who preceded them in the British literary world.

I have read (and reread) Chesterton’s book Orthodoxy to the point where I have many sections of it put to memory. I also deeply enjoyed his short biographies on St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas the latter having the delightful subtitle “The Dumb Ox.” I know these works well but was somewhat ignorant as to the scope of this literary giants work. I am finishing a new biography entitled Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of GK Chesterton which has been of great help to me in expanding my knowledge of Chesterton and his thought.The work is by Kevin Belmonte who has done Chesterton studies a great favor with this book.

Belmonte’s biography begins with the typical early life information one expects with books of this kind but then he takes you on a fascinating journey throughout the rest of the book. As Chesterton was a man of letters, Belmonte’s work proceeds by unfolding the biography along the lines of his major works. Each chapter is focused on one of Chesterton’s literary achievements and then covers life details which surrounded the production of that work. So this book is not only a good introduction to Chesterton the man, it is also a well suited orientation to each of his major works. Each chapter gives us the background to what was happening in the thought world of Chesterton’s day, his interlocutors and the major thrust of his book, poem or collection of essays. I particularly enjoyed the interactions which Chesterton had with his ideological opponents George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells. You can learn much about a man in how he treats his friends. Even more how he treats friends whose ideas he most vigorously opposes.

The only drawback I found in the work is that due to the aforementioned strength I wish I knew a little more of the man apart from his letters. Yes, there is mention of his marriage to Frances but I found myself wanting to hear more about his family life and what made him tick. Yet as I am sure Belmonte would say, to know the man we must look to his writings. 

Chesterton has indeed left a profound literary legacy in our world and I can only commend his work to you even more after reading Defiant Joy. My own journey into his books has just begun as I soon while dive in to his The Everlasting Man, a book once commended by CS Lewis as the best popular apologetic to the Christian faith he knew of.

With the proliferation of electronic books it is amazing to see just how much of Chesterton is available free of charge for the Kindle and other ebook formats. If you must begin anywhere with Chesterton I recommend Orthodoxy as it lays forth his wonder filled view of mere Christianity in strident colors. One warning if you love quotations and reading a book with a highlighter. You may soon find yourself highlighting so much that the effort may leave little uncovered print. My hard copy of Orthodoxy is well worn, marked up with many colors of pen and ink.  One caveat as you begin to read GK. He is a master of paradox and turning of a phrase. Many of my friends “get him” right away while others have to read each paragraph really slowly to follow his creative dance of thought.  Whether you find reading him easy or slow going, I promise you the work is well worth your time.

You can grab Defiant Joy here

Hiding in semantics

I just recently finished watching a debate which recently took place between Sam Harris and William Lane Craig on whether or atheism gives ground for “objective” moral values. Objective in the sense of moral values being true beyond the mere opinions, decisions, and consensus of humans and their societies. Craig’s classic example is that objective moral values would say that the holocaust was wrong even if the Nazi’s had won WWII and brainwashed every human to believe that it was right. Craig’s argument is that without God, moral values are not “objective” but rather subjective or relative. You can see Craig’s excellent paper on these matters here.

In other places, Craig presents an argument for belief in God from the existence of objective moral values which rolls out like this.

• If God does not exist then objective moral values do not exist
• Objective moral values do exist (ie some things are objective good or evil)
• Therefore God exists.

Those familiar with basic syllogistic logic and philosophical form who note that this is a valid deductive argument. It is deductive in that if you accept its premises as true the conclusion necessarily follows. The form is simply…

If P, then Q.

Not Q.

Therefore, not P

…with P = God does not exist and Q = objective moral values do not exist. It is of note that most atheistic thinkers do not believe that there are such things as objective moral values, but rather ethics/morality are simply evolved conventions of the human animal that suits the survival and propagation of the species. As such, many thinkers, have called “morality” a power game or an imposition of one group of people’s values upon others. Nietzsche called this herd morality and did not think brave and courageous atheists should be bound by any morality other than their own desires or will (and of course what you could get away with around the herd - or by simply ruling the herd). Enter Sam Harris.

Harris is a punchy atheist whose main strength is rhetorical ranting against Christian theology in front of people who have no background and understanding of those issues. He loves to create straw men and smack them down. He loves to make caricatures of faith and smear them with his calm, witty moral outrage. Harris’s recent work is a book which claims that morality is objective but needs no other foundation than science to show this to be the case.

Obviously, he does not like the theist grounding God’s existence in the reality of objective values so he is trying to take this away from the realm of theism. Of course, the reviews of Harris efforts from both atheists (who do not see ethics as objective, supra-cultural realities) and theists (who think Harris is dancing in mid air)

One of things noted in the debate with Bill Craig was Harris, by faith (or “axiomatically”) defining “good” and “evil” out of mid air with the only reference point being the suffering of sentient beings. Such “sentient suffering” is always bad and alleviating it and moving towards “flourishing” always “good.” To be honest, I find his moral reasoning to be rather sophomoric in nature and Craig rightly called him for just playing word games and not dealing at all with grounding “good” in anything but other terminology. Ironically, in the Q&A portion, Harris said this fascinating statement in reply to a question as to whether “this world” was the “worst possible world having the most sentient suffering.” Harris made the remark that since this is the only world we know of (to our current knowledge) it is both the worst and the best possible world and everything in between (I believe around the 1:11 mark). This of course is an exercise in saying nothing. Harris, due to atheism, is left trying to hang ideas such as “worst” and “best” on things in the world without having these things grounded in any sort of purpose for life, reason for our being, etc. He is trying to talk of values without talking about meaning. So he simply rubbishes Islam, Christianity and any other narratives that are not “I’m smart, scientific and don’t believe in all that dumb dumb stuff” while waving his hands, swapping synonyms to give definitions. From what I heard from him, Harris is hiding in semantics. It reminded me of GK Chesterton’s thoughts about the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, another confident atheist whose views were popularized a century ago. Chesterton wrote the following:

This, incidentally, is almost the whole weakness of Nietzsche, whom some are representing as a bold and strong thinker. No one will deny that he was a poetical and suggestive thinker; but he was quite the reverse of strong. He was not at all bold. He never put his own meaning before himself in bald abstract words: as did Aristotle and Calvin, and even Karl Marx, the hard, fearless men of thought. Nietzsche always escaped a question by a physical metaphor, like a cheery minor poet. He said, “beyond good and evil,” because he had not the courage to say, “more good than good and evil,” or, “more evil than good and evil.” Had he faced his thought without metaphors, he would have seen that it was nonsense. So, when he describes his hero, he does not dare to say, “the purer man,” or “the happier man,” or “the sadder man,” for all these are ideas; and ideas are alarming. He says “the upper man,” or “over man,” a physical metaphor from acrobats or alpine climbers. Nietzsche is truly a very timid thinker. He does not really know in the least what sort of man he wants evolution to produce. And if he does not know, certainly the ordinary evolutionists, who talk about things being “higher,” do not know either.

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chapter 7

Is not Harris doing the same thing with morality today? By saying the “good” is the most amount of flourishing (aka good) for people is he not merely hiding among his vocabulary? We still seem lost in Wittgenstein’s word games. Whereas Nietzsche lived prior to WWI, WWII, Cold War and the fears of the 20th century, Harris lives after them. The former was bold enough to declare morality irrelevant, relative and great men should transcend it by hiding in their words. The latter, thank the invisible God, seems to have a concern for the harmony of the world community and wants to declare morality “objective” but without foundations. I prefer Harris’s version of semantic hiding to that of Nietzsche but for one rejoinder. When reading them or hearing them you realize how extremely arrogant they are. Harris’s high opinion of his own thinking is something to behold and his utter disdain (and complete misunderstanding of) theological thought is revealing.

Harris may speak of tolerance and love except for the case of the billions of religious believers of various faiths. These are idiots and scorned. Even Jesus - even in Harris we have someone willing to call Abraham, Moses…and even Jesus an idiotic simpleton in comparison to the wonderful geniuses who live today.

Though Harris attempts to play nice in this debate, his condescension towards faith and religion is quite breathtaking. One can tell he has zero doubts that he is smarter (and seems to think - “better”) than any people of faith. Harris seems to revel in all his talk of our current superiority to all peoples, all religious thinking, all people who have lived in times before he arrived on the planet. Now we have confident, moral, do gooding, smart scientist people like Sam Harris who can show us the way. The funny thing is that similar things have been said in the past by others. It does not end well when such ideas end up power - either in the name of religion or irreligion. For in such men and their ideas, there is no humility.

Hence, even in light of the myriad of self proclaimed good men and super men of history, I still find Jesus a much more preferable master than the Messiahs of our age. 

Freakin Out - Worry, Fear, Anxiety and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Worry, Fear, Anxiety and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

By Reid S. Monaghan

Introduction

In every epoch of history, human beings have struggled to find peace of mind amidst the chaos of life under the sun. Ever aware of the fragility of life and circumstances we can be gripped with worry, fear and crippling anxiety. The soul becomes caged to its own dark meditations and a strange bondage can overwhelm us. Our modern age is certainly rife with concerns of its own: rapid change, global terrorism, and economic uncertainty along with the lingering realities of disease, injustice, death and broken relationships press in on the modern psyche. This spring Jacobs Well will travel together in the words of God which speak to the deepest needs and fears of our lives. God wants to walk us from fear to faith, kindly teaching us what it means to trust Jesus our sovereign King. He is our Lord and will walk with us through the varied labyrinths of this world.

In this brief essay we will endeavor to do a few simple things. First, we will discuss the human experiences of fear, worry and anxiety and define some basic terms. Second, we will discuss the scope and suppositions which are underneath our study together. Third, we will speak of several issues which relate to our fear and anxiety and how these issues are connected to our relationship with God. Finally, we will give a brief outline of the subjects we will address biblically and theologically during the course of this series.

We are Freaked Out

To say that concern, worry, fear and anxiousness are “universal” would be self-evident to some and perhaps insulting to others. Though the degree to which we are gripped by such realities varies by individual and personality, they are indeed universal in scope. Not one of us can expect to sing hakuna matata for the rest of our days1. This world has many problems and troubles and these intersect with our story more often than some would like to admit. Current studies show that just over 18% of the adult population in our country meets criteria for suffering from various anxiety disorders.2 These are beyond the everyday stress, worry and fear experienced which is considered “normal.” Furthermore, when one looks at a list of modern psychopathologies the most prevalent category has to do with our fears.3 General anxiety also appears to be twice as common among the ladies as among men, likely because they have to deal with men.4 Just kidding, but the research is clear that though both freak out a bit, the ladies experience it a bit more. Finally, our own state of New Jersey is number five in the nation in “neuroticism” as we are in the “stress belt” of the northeastern United States.5 Things move fast here and you are expected to keep up or get out of the way. This does not give our own immediate context a peaceful easy feeling.

Furthermore, in our culture we might assume that money and financial security might alleviate one’s anxieties. However, a recent study conducted by researchers at Boston College is showing precisely the opposite. In a survey of 500 people who had an average net worth of 78 million dollars the research is showing that the super-rich are in no way immune to the specters of loneliness and anxiety. Many shared deep insecurity about, above all things, money.6

In every culture and place human beings “freak out” and are gripped with fear and anxiety. There are reasons for this that we will examine shortly. For now we must declare ourselves part of the world in which fear and anxiety will arrive at our doors. What we do with these thoughts and feelings we will examine during the course of our study. Before moving to look at the biblical backdrop for our world being a fear/anxiety producing place, I want to say a few things about the scope of our discussion and some assumptions we will have in looking at these issues.

Assumptions and definitions

I want to say clearly up front that our discussions of fear, anxiety, worry and the various relationships to God are not meant to be clinical in nature. We will be discussing these issues in a theological and pastoral context. There are cases of severe anxiety which call for clinical attention and I am thankful we have a good network of support for such circumstances at Jacob’s Well. However, with that said, it is my strongest conviction that our struggles in this area are indeed holistic and theological in nature. As such, the counsel and understanding of Scripture should not be neglected even in more severe situations. The worldview and teaching of the Scriptures should remain in the forefront of our minds as we wrestle with fear, anxiety and worry in varying degrees.

Basic Assumptions about Human Persons

Any discussion of things which affect both mind and body must proceed from a robust anthropology. Before we can address human persons, we must have an understanding of what a human person is. This is by no means taken for granted today in our culture. Some would say humans are only animals ruled by DNA working out its mechanistic replications due to environmental constraints.7 Furthermore, there is a view of humans which tends to boil down all behaviors into desires for sex and survival as if these are the only aspects of life which matter. Others would see the mind as merely a product of the electrochemical machinations of our brains.8 Of course I use the terms only and merely above as I find no disagreement with humans being partially animal in nature and certainly there is a correlation between the function of the mind and the human brain.9 Yet we resist a pure reduction of man into matter which would eliminate a functioning person residing in unity with his physical body. 

The view we are assuming here is a biblical anthropology whereby we consist of a psychosomatic unity. In this view, humans are not seen in either of two extremes. We are not reduced to being bodies alone nor are we seen as disembodied spirits trapped in a body. Soul and body unified as a human person is the view we will follow in our discussions. There is much more to be discussed here so for the interested reader I refer you to several sources on biblical anthropology.10 In light of this view we not only see a reciprocal nature between body and soul; we expect it. The state of the body affects the soul and the condition of the soul affects the body. As such what we believe, trust, assume and place our hope in has a holistic effect on us as human beings.

Basic Definitions

As we begin a discussion of “freakin out” I did want to provide some very cautious definitions. I am using the label “freakin out” to encompass several conditions of the soul, namely, worry, fear and anxiety. I do not intend philosophical precision in using these terms only to broadly describe our human experience. Dr. Ed Welch gives the following helpful example:

To deeply understand fear we must also look at ourselves and the way we interpret our situations. Those scary objects can reveal what we cherish. They point out our insatiable quest for control, our sense of aloneness. Even the vocabulary of fear indicates that the problem can be deeper than a real, objective danger. While “fear” refers to the experience when a car races toward us and we just barely escape, “anxiety” or worry is the lingering sense after the car has passed, that life is fragile and we are always vulnerable. The terrain is fear and anxiety. You are familiar with it, and you are not alone.11

We will follow this basic understanding that fear is concern of harm coming and worry/anxiety is a projection of such into the unknown. As human beings our fears and anxiety are byproducts of and reactions to the world. What we believe about and our response to circumstances in our world therefore matter greatly. Furthermore, as human beings who are made in the image of God, our fears and anxieties are directly related to our belief in the truth about God, ourselves and our circumstances. The goal we have is not to eliminate all fears but rather to see God transform how we experience life in a fearful world. Faith rises and trusts in God and can indeed overcome negative fear and anxiety. Yet before we look at the path ahead, we want to see biblicaly why this world is such a strangely fearful place? To these issues we now turn.

Fragmented and Fearful

If you look at the grand narrative of the Bible we see right at the beginning why the world is at once a good and hostile place. The earliest chapters of Scripture tell us that the entire world is the creation of God who made all things good (See Genesis 1-2). Human beings, made male and female in the image and likeness of God, are said to be created very good. The early creation is described as a primordial paradise, a place perfectly suited for human beings and their fellowship with the creator. The first pair of humans, by their own desires, disobeys God and the world is placed under a curse and severe consequences (See Genesis 3). There are many dramatic results from this human rebellion which make this world a hostile and fearful place. Though human beings were made to be in intimate communion with their creator, they are now separated from him, under a dominion of darkness, fighting with one another and destined to die. Welcome to the party on planet earth; welcome to a good world pervasively stained with sin. The following is a just a brief description of the unfolding cosmic struggle of which we are a part.

Drama with God

The result of our fall and sin is that we desire our own ways rather than following our creator. The essence of the disobedience of the first humans is that we are separated from the God we were made to worship and know in intimacy. As such we feel a sense of isolation in the universe while surrounded by the masses of humanity. Furthermore, we feel guilt and shame for our own sin and we find no remedy. Finally, as humanity suppresses the knowledge of God we are given over to our own paths which results in destruction (Proverbs 16:25, Matthew 7:7). As we invent ways in our rebellion to make ourselves happy and safe apart from God the alienation deepens and we find no peace for our souls. Read Romans 1 for a great description of all of this.

Drama in Nature

The world which was originally a hospitable Eden has been darkened by struggle, pain and death. As a result, we feel quite at home on the earth but also find deadly peril in nature all about us. The rains which feed us also sweep us away. The seas that make our environment hospitable to life rise up and consume us. Unseen organisms which balance the ecosystem also cause sickness and disease. Our own use and abuse of the natural world threatens us with environmental disaster. The Bible describes creation as good but in bondage to decay awaiting liberation (Romans 8:18-25) and as such is a beautiful design and a fallen catastrophe. Our place in nature can cause us great joy and fill us with great fears and worry. We also feel responsible for creation and the environment in a way that turtles do not. This too freaks us out and currently causes us to fight with each other. This of course is another problem we face. Can’t we just all get along?

Drama with Each Other

Another reality under the sun is the constant enmity between human beings. In the very beginnings of the Bible we see one brother murder another (Genesis 4:1-10) and we have found ourselves at war ever since. People have fought with one another for all of human history over land, tribe, honor, race or ideology (both religious and non-religious). Modern humanity is somewhat of a puzzle to me. We think ourselves enlightened and wise and grown past our barbarous past while sitting comfortably just on the other side of the bloodiest century in the history of mankind. On a micro level each day we politic at work and fight one another in our homes. On a macro level we drop bombs on the masses and shell cities with artillery. This too can cause great fear and anxiety in the soul.

Drama with Demonic Powers

In addition to our struggle with nature and one another, spiritual powers of darkness war against our souls. (Ephesians 6:10-20) Demonic and deceitful influence can bring false accusation and oppression upon people (John 8:44, 1 Peter 5:6-11). If you have ever looked into the face of pure evil the fear that it can bring does not depart with any sort of ease. The denial of God and the war against God by Satan and demons is often ignored but never absent from the world.12

Drama with Death

Finally, the great enemy of death itself looms large on the horizons for every human being with physical and psychological suffering along the way. Death is a peculiar thing. It is at once one of the most common and “normal” things about life but feels to be an alien invasion to it. The loss of loved ones, the death of a child, the finality of someone passing from this life and the regret of years lived without meaning haunt the human soul. Modern humans live with little discussion and answer to death. Some resigned to think that it is the silent snuffing out of life while others simply never prepare for its coming. The book of Hebrews teaches us that it is appointed for us to die and then face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). This too brings pause to the thoughtful soul.

It is in this world: a world of death, fighting, disaster, disease and rebellion against God that we find ourselves. It is in this world Jesus taught us plainly “You will have trouble.” (John 16:33) In this world, there is no way to avoid concerns, cares, worry and anxiety. It is in this world where we must face up to our fears.

Before we describe the journey ahead in this series I want to be clear that worry, fear and anxiety are not categorically “bad” things. Fear can be useful as it can keep us from true dangers. Concern for the future can cause us to pray and plan well in light of God’s leading. We clearly see this in the Scriptures. In the book of Nehemiah, the disastrous state of Jerusalem caused a man deep concern and led him to faith and action (See Nehemiah 1-2). In the New Testament, Paul lists two times in one of his letters to the Corinthians that his spirit was anxious and concerned for a friend as well as the new churches (See 2 Corinthians 2:12, 13 11:28). Furthermore, Jesus, who was fully human and lived without sinning (Hebrews 4:14-16), was so psychologically burdened the night before he was crucified that he was physically devastated (See Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22)13. These are simply a few examples to show that fear and anxiety in and of themselves are part of the human experience and not in themselves sinful. In fact, an unmoved apathy towards the concerns of our lives, other people and the fallen world is profoundly at odds with the demands of love.

Key questions for us are as follows:

• How will we handle fearful and anxious thoughts and emotions when they come?
• Will we go to God or run from God in our fears?
• Will worry cause us to seek other gods to save us or will we turn to the God who is mighty to save?
• In the anxiety of the day and our worries about tomorrow, will we take our seats in a den of idols or truly place our faith in Jesus, the living God?
• Will fear and worry cause us to pursue selfish paths of self-protection or will we be free to love and serve others?

I hope these questions help us to see one thing clearly. How we respond to God in our fear and anxiety will make a huge difference to our daily experience and our usefulness in the mission of God.

Our Study Together

Over the course of the next few months we will wrestle together with many issues related to our fears and anxiety. The following will serve as vignettes or abstracts for the ground, God willing, we will take together.

Where We Stand or Fall

There are several doctrines of Scripture which are crucial for us to understand in order to find peace of mind and rest for the soul under the sun. In this message we will discuss four foundational truths which settle the heart in the hands of the Father. The sovereignty of God, the love of God, the presence of God’s Spirit with us and in us and an eternal perspective for our longings for safety and security will be examined. These foundational truths will set the table for the practical teaching of the Scriptures to come.

Worried about Tomorrow

In this message we will examine the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 6 about worrying about the future. We fear the future for many reasons. We wonder if we will be safe, if/when will we be harmed, and the quality of our health and the stability of finances. We also have a profound desire to “make it happen” and control everything which can cause deep worry about days ahead. We also worry about the future of our families and whether we can keep everyone fed and a roof over our heads. We care deeply, so we worry. In this message we will look at trusting in our Father to face the future which always remains an unknown to us as we rise each day.

Anxious about Today

In our second message on worry/anxiety we will look more closely at how we face each day and its challenges “with God.” As we head out to our various duties many can have anxiety about not measuring up, not getting it done, being hurt by others and not being in control. Each day we are tempted to pray “my kingdom come, my will be done, on earth as I try to make it my heaven.” When we fear this won’t happen, we freak out. So we will focus in this message on prayer and fellowship with Jesus throughout each day to deal with the soul’s burdens as they arrive in real time.

Facing Fear

One of the most repeated imperatives (commands) in the Bible is “Do not be afraid.”14 Interestingly we are also called quite clearly to “fear God and keep his commandments.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14) In this message we will look at how the fear of the Lord begins a life of wisdom and how in fearing God we learn to not be afraid.

Disappointment with Idols

As human beings we are made to trust and worship. God created us this way yet we so often trust and worship everything but God. When we trust other things and they let us down, we get stressed out, worried, freaked out and even despair. A sure sign our worship is being misplaced is when we freak out over things which are not eternal. One thing is sure in the affairs of human beings: when our gods fail us, our world comes crashing down. A key question for us is this: when our idols fail us, where will we turn?

Trust and Confidence in God

A great image we find in the Scriptures that God himself is a sturdy, strong, secure place. Difficult circumstances are certain to come and the burdens of life will become heavy upon us. Learning to run to God as a present help in times of trouble, a strong tower and mighty fortress is an important rhythm we must grasp in our grappling with fear and anxiety. The safest place is found in one person; the one who is stronger than every enemy we will ever face.

The Arms of Community     

We like to tell ourselves that we can go it alone and take the world on our own terms. This posturing is not only foolish but does not help us towards peace of heart and mind. God has gifted us with his community to receive practical comfort from others in times of need. We learn to have compassion and empathize with others and when to have courage and exhort our brothers and sisters forward out of namby pamby land. Life has many burdens that we must learn to carry together. Sometimes we need a hand, sometimes we need to quit whining and lend a hand. God willing, we will seek this balance together.  

Conclusion

In all honesty my own personality and constitution teeters between being a visionary focused planner and being a concerned and anxious worrier who freaks out over the smallest of things. I am very much in process with all the matters of which we will speak together during this series at Jacob’s Well. It is both humbling and exciting to take this journey with you so that we might see worry, fear and anxiety properly related to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the one who calls us forward with the words “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.” (John 14:27)

Long ago a group of Jesus’s followers heard these words and then forgot them as they watched their master executed on a Roman cross. They then remembered these words after they saw him rise triumphantly over the grave. From that age forward many of his people have been bold as lions and peaceful as doves in the face of many a trial and atrocity. They knew the one that held the keys to death and hell loved them and would bring them safely home. They believed deeply the words of their Lord “in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Of these men and women…the world was not worthy (Hebrews 11). May we be numbered among them in our day!

Pastor Reid S. Monaghan

Bibliography

Allers, Roger. “The Lion King.” Walt Disney Company, 1994.

Beauregard, Mario, and Denyse O’Leary. The Spiritual Brain : A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul. 1st ed. New York: HarperOne, 2007.

Cooper, John W. Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting : Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1989.

Dawkins, Richard. “God’s Utility Function.” Scientific American 273, no. 5 (1995): 85.

Kessler, Ronald C., Wai tat Chiu, Olga Demler, and Ellen E. Walters. “Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of 12-Month Dsm-Iv Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survery Replication.” Arch Gen Psychiatry 62, no. June 2005 (2005): 617-627.

Koukl, Greg. “All Brian, No Mind.” http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5474 [accessed April 29, 2011].

Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. New York,: The Macmillan company, 1944.

Monaghan, Reid S. “The Implications of Nancey Murphy’s Non Reductive Physicalism on Confessional Christian Theology “  (2009). http://www.powerofchange.org/storage/docs/non_reductive_physicalism.pdf.

Murphy, Nancey. Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? Current Issues in Theology, Edited by Iain Torrance. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Simon, Stephanie. “The United States of Mind ” Wall Street Journal  (2008). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122211987961064719.html [accessed April 28th, 2011].

Smart, John. “The Identity Theory of Mind.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  (2007). http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mind-identity/ [accessed April 29, 2011].

Tyrer, Peter, and David Baldwin. “Generalised Anxiety Disorder.” The Lancet 268 (2006): 2156-2166.

Welch, Edward T. Running Scared - Fear, Worry and the Rest of God. Greensboro: New Growth Press, 2007.

Wood, Graeme. “The Fortunate Ones.” The Atlantic 2011.

EndNotes

[1] This of course is a reference to the Swahili phrase made popular by Disney’s 1994 animated hit The Lion King. The phrase means “no worries.” Roger Allers, “The Lion King,”  (Walt Disney Company, 1994).

[2] Ronald C. Kessler and others, “Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of 12-Month Dsm-Iv Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survery Replication,” Arch Gen Psychiatry 62, no. June 2005 (2005).

[3] Edward T. Welch, Running Scared - Fear, Worry and the Rest of God (Greensboro: New Growth Press, 2007), 22.

[4] Peter Tyrer and David Baldwin, “Generalised Anxiety Disorder,” The Lancet 268, no. (2006).

[5] Stephanie Simon, “The United States of Mind ” Wall Street Journal (2008). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122211987961064719.html (accessed April 28th, 2011).

[6] Graeme Wood, “The Fortunate Ones,” The Atlantic 2011.

[7] The modern reductionist view is well represented by the works of Richard Dawkins who wrote “DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.” Richard Dawkins, “God’s Utility Function,” Scientific American 273, no. 5 (1995).

[8] See John Smart, “The Identity Theory of Mind,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2007). http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mind-identity/ (accessed April 29, 2011).For a version of this by a Christian author see Nancey Murphy, Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? , ed. Iain Torrance, Current Issues in Theology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

[9] For a simple and popular level discussion of this see Greg Koukl, “All Brian, No Mind.” http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5474 (accessed April 29, 2011).

[10] See Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary, The Spiritual Brain : A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, 1st ed. (New York: HarperOne, 2007); John W. Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting : Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1989); Reid S. Monaghan, “The Implications of Nancey Murphy’s Non Reductive Physicalism on Confessional Christian Theology ” (2009). http://www.powerofchange.org/storage/docs/non_reductive_physicalism.pdf.

[11] Welch, 25.

[12] For a balanced and creative look at demonic activity see C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York,: The Macmillan company, 1944). There is also an excellent audio version of this work I would highly recommend.

[13] Some read the description in the gospel as demonstrating Jesus had stress induced Hematidrosis, a very rare condition where a person’s sweat glands secrete blood. Others find the sweating of blood to be metaphorical. Either way, the intense emotional anguish affected Jesus physically and was in no way sinful. It was a human reaction to facing certain and painful circumstances. The important thing we see in this narrative is that Jesus goes “to God” in prayer during his hour of greatest anxiety.

[14] Welch, 59-61.

On Human Anthropology

I have written a couple of times over the course my long journey in graduate school dealing with the subject of human anthropology. I have had particular interest in the are of mind-brain identity and various flavors of dualistic anthropology.

For those interested in these subjects the following are posted for that tremendous horde…

• Are Human Beings Constituted of one, two or three substances? Link to pdf

• The Implications of Nancey Murphy’s Non Reductive Physicalism on Confessional Christian Theology - Link to pdf

The Silent Collapse - Thoughts from GK Chesterton

The following is an excerpt from a new biography on GK Chesterton entitled “Defiant Joy - The Remarkable Life and Impact of GK Chesterton” by Kevin Belmonte. It highlights the unraveling of Western thought which Chesterton observed in his time. I believe the confusion on these matters continues today.

The longer, set off quotation below is from his 1907 work Heretics. Much of Chesterton’s poignant cultural critique was on the eve of a world that spawned the two most horrific wars in human history…all in the name of civilization, progress and freeing the masses from the past. The 20th century was wrought by highly educated people claiming to seek the “good” of the world. Chesterton was a prophet in his day warning of madness being spoken in his day. He lived to see much of it take place around him. For collapses in thinking always proceed collapses in doing.

Chesterton warned that a “great and silent collapse” had taken place in his time. “All previous ages have sweated and been crucified in an attempt to realize what is really the right life, what was really the good man. A definite part of the modern world has come beyond question to the conclusion that there is no answer to these questions.

Acquiescing in this mind-set was an act of sheer and dangerous folly. For Chesterton, it came down to this: many of his contemporaries were seeking to solace themselves in a series of self-deceptions.

Every one of the popular modern phrases and ideals is a dodge in order to shirk the problem of what is good. We are found of talking about “liberty”; that, as we talk of it, is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about “progress”; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about “education”; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. The modern man says, “Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace liberty.”

This is, logically rendered, “Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it.” He says “Away with your old moral formulae; I am for progress.” This, logically stated, means, “Let us not settle what is good; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it.” He says, “Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education.” This, clearly expressed, means, “We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children.”

Chesterton called such self-deception “solemn folly”…

Kevin Belmonte, Defiant Joy - The Remarkable Life and Impact of GK Chesterton, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011) 89, 90

I encourage you to take up some Chesterton if you have never read any of his works. I recommend his classic 1908 work Orthodoxy is the best place to begin. Enjoy.

Dragons

In the old world dragons were mythical beasts of menace to be fought off and slain. In today's imagination we see them as misunderstood and train them and make them our friends.

We moderns do the same with sin. We are then puzzled that dragons still bite, breath fire and eat our children. Our solution, logically, is to give better care to the dragons. Nice dragon...you stay right there...ok?

The Generous Welcome

Great love gives life to friends
As creation began, so it will end

Life instilled, the greatest gift
Life restored, from greatest rift

Restoration…Redemption…Hope
Through many fogs we grope

Never forsaken, never alone
Through greatest sacrifice…

Welcomed home

Is there Evidence for the Existence of God?

Dr. William Lane Craig is one of the preeminent theistic philosophers of our time and he is also an excellent debater. He is clear, intelligent and focused in debate. 

Recently he debated Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss on the subject “Is there evidence for the existence of God” at North Carolina State University (booo! OK, NC State should exist…but booo! Go Heels!) Ok, I’m back now. The debate is online now and can be found here. 

Just be warned, the video is all sorts of weird at the beginning - I really felt like singing “Somewhere over the rainbow” when waiting for the debate to begin.  Do yourself a favor and drag that video slider over to 16:30 min mark where a North Carolina Supreme Court Judge guy gives the greeting and introduction to the debate. Thank me later.

Enjoy

How I ended up with an iPhone this week (yes, sigh...an iPhone)

My friends who know me will realize what a momentous title this blog carries. Over the years I have had not a small bit of fun with the clone phone carriers who stoop to pay homage at the alter of Steve Jobs. I still type this on a PC so there is no fear of a complete conversion, yet something a bit strange happened to me this week. Now, don t get me wrong, I am a technological diversity champion using a Dell XPS laptop, Palm Pre (original/Sprint) and the family having a couple of i devices from the fruit company.

As I am somewhat on vacation this week (though working from the road, preaching this Sunday) I thought I would share a bit of my heart in what happened to place this iPhone at my side today. This week I am in Memphis, TN with my three children visiting aunts, uncles, cousins and having the kids stay at Grandmas house. On Monday we went downtown to do a few things and my son was climbing all over me and apparently, inadvertently, stepped on my pocketed Palm Pre phone. After realizing the touch screen was not working I noticed a spider like crack in the screen. This of course brought both sadness (I LOVE web OS) and a bit of a dilemma. I had planned on making a smartphone decision this summer in June but alas it was now thrust upon me.

The Story

Seeing that we have no home phone and I am a guy that uses his phone daily for just about everything I do, I went right over to the trusty (um, well maybe not) Sprint store to get a replacement. The following sad story is unfortunately true.

Part I - The Joy of Sprint Store

• Act I - We can t give you a loaner phone cause you are from out of town
• Act II - We can t give you a new Palm Pre Minus as we are not carrying replacements for them any longer
• Act III - You can buy a new phone, let me see when you are eligible for an upgrade. I knew this was coming very soon as I am almost 2 years on the original Palm Pre bought on launch day. 
• Act IV (mental act) - I felt sad as I don t want an Android phone and did not like the Win Phone 7 coming out on Sprint.
• Act V - Oh sir, you are not eligible for an upgrade for another 1.5 weeks (yes, weeks). 
• Act VI - Can you just let me upgrade today and get a new phone? Let me check with the manager. Manager - no, you need to wait. 
• Act VII - I must admit that I was now flabbergasted. Really?!? Yes, really. 
• Act VIII - But there is a Verizon Store almost right next door, do you guys want me to have to go get a phone there? Sir, you have to do what you want. Exit Sprint store.

Part II - Seeing Red

• Act I - Wow, Verizon people are friendly and professional
• Act II - Explain their plans (yes, a little more money that Sprint)
• Act III - I love the apps on iPhone/iPad - they are quality devices and particularly love ESV+ and Logos Bible Software. OK, lets do this
• Act IV - transfer number to Verizon
• Act V - have phone, have problem solved

Part III - Leaving on a Red Plane

• Act I - Tell Sprint guy I need to cancel my line, and scale down our plan for wife’s phone
• Act II - Sprint guy, texting while talking to me, says O you have to call customer service to do that 
• Act III- Can’t YOU do this? No, you have to call, just dial *2 on your Sprint Phone! But what if your Sprint phone is broke. Dials store phone and hands me a handset - I have to do this myself.
• Cost me 50 bucks to cancel last 3 months of my contract. Worth it.

So, after this sad story, I ended up with Verizon and the best phone out on their network today - iPhone 4. After using this phone for a couple of days I have to say I dearly miss my Palm Pre. With the Sprint likely not getting the HP Pre 3 this summer at least I might have the option to move back to webOS and give my wife the iPhone once her contract with Sprint is up.

My Impressions

iPhone Pros - I love the screen, the speed, the sturdy feel of the hardware (though I fear dropping this thing). Video looks great and the basic phone functions work well enough. Of course, the best thing is all the apps and their quality. The fact that my iTunes account has all apps we have purchases as a fam on iOS the fact that I did not have to repurchase any apps was really cool. I also like the iPod integration and I can truly now roll with just one device.

iPhone Cons - I absolutely hate the keyboard so far. Other than this the Cons have to do with webOS and its superiority to iOS on several fronts. I miss the integration of all my contacts and being able to just start typing someone s name to text, call, email them. Too much in and out of multiple apps on iPhone. I miss the wonderfully elegant multitasking and the notifications of webOS. iOS just feels clunky on these fronts. I also really, really miss my slide out hardware keyboard.

The Road Forward

Over the summer I will watch the phone space as iPhone 5 and HP Pre 3 will launch. I am guessing both will be on Verizon. If I want to head back to webOS I can pick up the Pre 3 and give iPhone 4 to Kasey once we get her off of Sprint. If I continue to grow in appreciation for iPhone we can pick up the new one this summer with the new contract price. $199 isn t bad for iPhone.

Perhaps the one thing that may cause me to fully drink the iKoolaid is FaceTime. Yes it is gimmicky, yes its only on Wifi, yes it is proprietary Apple tech/branding but I gave my kids an iTouch not too long ago and it is a delightful thing to FaceTime with the kids when on the road. I look forward to my April trip to Brown University to try this out from the road. Last night a same house test session at Mimis was a HUGE success.

I feel like I have switched allegiances in some way and I m not so sure I’m comfortable being an iPhony yet. But the journey has been interesting so far and perhaps I have been predestined to end up with an iPhone all along. I suppose God only knows.

St. Anselm's Prayers

Fast Facts on St. Anselm of Caterbury

• Lived: 1033-1109
• Calling: Bishop in England
• Remembered for:  Works in philosophy and theology, particularly for an ontological argument for God’s existence and meditations on the incarnation and the atonement. 

In reading St. Anselm’s The Proslogian over the last ten years of my life I have found myself returning to several of his prayers in my devotional moorings. These prayers continue to hold influence in my life.  The prayers of chapter one in particular have pushed me forward towards God in a really good way. Here is a sampling.

UP now, slight man! flee, for a little while, thy occupations; hide thyself, for a time, from thy disturbing thoughts. Cast aside, now, thy burdensome cares, and put away thy toilsome business. Yield room for some little time to God; and rest for a little time in him. Enter the inner chamber of thy mind; shut out all thoughts save that of God, and such as can aid thee in seeking him; close thy door and seek him. Speak now, my whole heart! speak now to God, saying, I seek thy face; thy face, Lord, will I seek (). And come thou now, O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how it may seek thee, where and how it may find thee.

Maybe its my background in amateur wrestling that makes me love talk like that. Get up little man! His calls to himself to get up and get to prayer and deep meditation before God have both convicted me and encouraged me deeply.  Anselm’s prayers are particularly helpful for those who either love or hate theological reflection. Anselm serves as a great example to us in that we can indeed think deep thoughts about God, yet maintain a burning heart for God. The doing of theology, philosophy and categories of biblical doctrine can be pursued, yes should be pursued, with a pious zeal for God. 

Having a zeal which is according to the knowledge of God is indeed a biblical concept. By the negative way we find this idea in Romans 10 where Paul speaks of Israel having a zeal which is NOT according to knowledge.  As one who loves theology I need to learn to neither lose God in the books nor give way to a non-thinking piety. The former grows dry and cold while the latter stops short of the hard work of integrating gospel thinking throughout all of life.  To cease doing this hard work of theological integration or to lose a rich love for Jesus in the gospel will leave God’s people disconnected from his mission in the world.  We will be steeped in an irrelevant ignorance or not walk in the spiritual vitality from which Paul could say “be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) 

Anselm shows me that both “head” and “heart” matter in our love for God.  Afterall, was it not Jesus who taught us to love God with all that we are? 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Yes, all that we are was made by him and for him.  So let us have both mind and heart drawn upward and be set ablaze by our communion with God.  Afterall, the prayer above is proceeding a work in philosophical theology; a matter that hardly seemed boring to the old archbishop of Canterbury.

How you flow does matter...

I usually do not engage in what I deem evangelical politics or the evangelical celebrity culture. I find the whole clamoring game to be quite tedious and many times a making of all manner of men the center of our discourse. Our event features this person! Did you hear what he said?!? and her response!?!

Yet as evangelicalism is primarily led by big name pastors and publishing houses, the influence of people sort of wanders around a bit in various loosely affiliated crowds. As such, a local leader who is loving and serving his people must interact with the popular books and influential rock star pastors of the day. Some are good. Some not so much. Recently the bloggers, buzzers and tweeters have been lighting up about the recent video put out by Rob Bell and his coming book. The name Rob Bell even made the trending list of Twitter this weekend. I m sure those who like the buzz liked all of this very much.

The issues at hand are of great importance to the heart of the gospel and the message of the New Testament. It is right for people of faith to be concerned. Personally, I wrote a private note to my friends and leaders at Jacob s Well when all this starting going around. My care is for the understanding of our community and the broader movement of which I feel a part. Realizing I am a Protestant I also realize the spheres for which I am actually responsible. I do not know Rob Bell, never likely to meet him nor I am personally responsible for him or what he teaches. I am responsible if, by the strange realities of American church culture, he becomes a teacher for our people via blogs/books/videos etc. So I am trying to be responsible locally and have my head up and listen.

Others have and will be addressing the substance of Bell’s indirect communication and questioning that arise from his words and the performance in his recent video. What I am concerned about is how confessional evangelicals react to this sort of thing. My thoughts are only offered to my friends to encourage them about how they flow with the doctrines they hold. It matters deeply how we represent the truth to which we rightly hold firm. Some simple observations.

• Blasting men like Rob Bell with arrogant, harsh, reactionary, alarmist sounding tweets and blogs only reaffirms many people s rejection of the truth that you hold.
• If you hold true doctrine and hold it like a jackass you may alienate hearers and push many towards the pied pipers of our age.
• Many of these are simply echoing popular beliefs as they reject historic, biblical, Christian doctrine. The world will joyfully receive the teaching of heretics because many times they simply are sounding off with the current zeitgeist.
• In my experience, many people who are drawn away to these sorts of “New Christianity” are typically church kids who have witnessed a bunch of junk from those who hold to biblical truth. We need not add to this number.
• Believe me, I know that simply believing the teaching of Jesus and the apostles will cause people to say you are intolerant, narrow, etc. People did murder Jesus you know. Yet we should let it be the message of the cross and Christ himself that brings the offense. You can hold doctrines that people find offensive without adding to the offense by your own brash and arrogant rubbishing of others.
• 1 Peter 3 speaks to our offering our defense of the faith with gentleness and respect - I think we need to wear these virtues. Afterall, they look and smell a lot like Jesus.
• Yes, speak to your people directly about various types of philosophies and errors being peddled today. Yes, speak to the false teachers which are peddling their wares today. Yes, Yes, Yes. Yet do so as a compassionate friend and fellow sojourner. If you are a pastor, lead among your people with the responsibility, humble authority and the courage that you will need.
• Do I think there is a place for bold, personal confrontation? Absolutely. I do not think Twitter is the place for this. If you need to correct a brother or sister do so personally or by personal correspondence. We all know that the Interwebs can make cowards bold and remove many filters from our words.
• However, if something is in writing from someone and it is affecting your people of course you should address it. Even if Joe Blow is across the universe. To say you cannot speak to someone s published words (that they are pushing to the whole world) is just silly.
• I think the prophet and his boldness is ever needed in our day. In preaching the gospel, preaching the cross and preaching Jesus as Savior from sin, death, hell and the right and good wrath of God against evil (yes, even our own). Use your boldness here friends. This will bring you all the sanctified trouble you need.

In the second chapter of the book of Titus the family of faith was encouraged about their manner of life together. Men and women, young and old, slave and free were all encouraged about how they flowed in life together. They were all new Christians, all living life together as a new people in Christ. There is great teaching for us here.

2Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

There is a way of life that adorns the doctrine of God our Savior. What a humbling and shocking reality! There is also a way that serves to graffiti and deface that same doctrine. The doctrine of God is heard from and seen in the lives of Christ s followers today. If you flow like a jerk, you might just be shrouding the gospel and leading people straight to the teaching of nice leaders who may not even be preaching the truth. None of us are or will be perfect in tone, speech or reaction in our world. My failures here are many. Yet we want to repent when we fail one another in with jerkful tones, distracting speech and harsh reactions to those around us.

What you believe matters deeply. How we live with others matters deeply. Let us have the gospel of grace make us people of grace. We cannot just live with our audience being the church/Christian world, we have to hold firm to the word with grace before the world. It is from these grounds which we continue to proclaim the gospel and with deep sobriety. We must find refuge in Jesus from the wrath to come. Hell may not be an empty place but may our hearts pray and work to see that many know that they need not go there. Forgiveness is found in Christ alone. Go preach that message friends and adorn it well.

The Rev. Richard Allen

The Reverand Richard Allen (1760-1831), Picture by Daniel Payne (Original Source)

On Being First

To be the first to do something in history is often seen as a sign of greatness surrounded by glory.  The first man on the moon, the first man to break the sound barrier, the first woman to hold elected office, the first African American president.  Yet we must not forget the difficulty and struggle of being the first to break barriers of injustice set up by systems of inequality and oppression over long periods of time. Richard Allen was a such a man who showed great strength and courage in his life.  He did not choose a path of division and strife, but he firmly walked forward with a gospel call on his life, caring deeply for the souls of his fellow Africans in America.  Rev Allen was one of the founding fathers of America that too few have heard about. He was a man who worked diligently for King Jesus and his Kingdom in the early days of American experience.

The Story of Richard Allen

Richard was born a slave in Philadelphia on February 14th 1760.1He was born into the household of one Benjamin Chew who was an influential attorney and at a time was chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.2 When Allen was a young boy he and his family were sold to a farmer just outside of Dover, Delaware.  At the age of seventeen he had a profound conversion to Jesus Christ and began to preach the gospel to those with whom he worked as well as in surrounding Methodist churches.  His ministry was so powerful his owner actually was converted to Christ through his witness. This eventually led to Allen being permitted to work to purchase his freedom by a process known as gradual manumission.3

During the revolutionary war years Allen drove a wagon delivering salt an occasion which he used as opportunity to preach the gospel as a traveling evangelist.  As was the practice of Methodist founder John Wesley, Allen preached a circuit whereby he would travel place to place proclaiming the salvation of Jesus Christ. He preached throughout Delaware and other Mid Atlantic states including the great state of New Jersey. 4

After the revolutionary war many important changes happened in the Methodist church of which Allen was a part.  First, in 1784 John Wesley established the Methodist Episcopal Church in America with Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury as its overseers.5 This united the Methodists as one church and a separate entity from its Anglican (Church of England) roots.  Allen was also befriended by Asbury who even invited him to travel on the road and preach with him. Though they remained deeply connected, Allen declined the more extensive travel due to segregated and harsh living conditions which were imposed upon blacks at the time.6

In 1786 he completed the process of manumission and purchased his freedom for $2,000.  In the same year he returned to Philadelphia as a free man and became a member of St. George’s Methodist Church.  His faithful ministry and leadership began to draw many more black members into the congregation. It was at this time that racial discrimination began to assert its head inside the church of Jesus Christ. A sinful policy of segregated seating (see James 2:1-9) was implemented pushing black members to the side walls and into the balcony while giving privileged seating to whites. Though this idea was opposed by both black and white members, a direct contradiction to the gospel was made policy at St. Georges.7 These tensions were to come to a point of clarity for Allen and many of his friends at a sobering occurrence in 1787. In the very same year the US constitution was being worked on in the city of Philadelphia where slaves were to be treated numerically as 3/5ths of a man.

Some black members of the church were kneeling in prayer along with Absalom Jones. Jones, along with Allen, was a recognized leaders in the church. During the service one of the white trustees interrupted their prayers telling them they had to move from where they had already been directed to sit. The following is one recounting8 of the interaction that took place:

“You must get up” the trustee said. “You must not kneel here”

“Wait until prayer is over” Jones answered.

“No you must get up now, or I will call for aid and force you away”

“Wait until prayer is over” Jones repeated, “And I will get up and trouble you no more.”

The incident ended with the trustee forcibly removing their praying brothers.  At this, Allen and the black members of St. George walked out of its doors.  Though Jones would leave to form an African American congregation in the Episcopal church, Allen was a Methodist through and through and had no desire to leave the denomination.  His opinion was that the Methodist church was the best place for he and other black Christians because, in his words, “the plain and simple gospel suits best for any people.”9

Allen’s desire to see blacks in America worship without hindrance and hear the gospel clearly finally persuaded him to act. In 1794 he purchased an old blacksmith building and converted it to a place of worship.  Bishop Francis Asbury consecrated the building and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was born.10 Yet the inequality persisted as they had to depend on white ministers until Allen was ordained as a deacon by Asbury in 1799.11From 1800-1816 the Methodists attempted to control Allen and Bethel.  These difficulties culminated with Allen and Bethel winning a case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which ruled the real property of the church belonged to the congregation.12Allen was ordained an elder in the Methodist church in 1816 yet he knew they could not freely worship and determine their own affairs while under the thumb of a paternalistic and controlling white influence.

In the spring of 1816 black congregations of Methodists in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland banded together to form the first black Christian denomination in America.  Allen was voted its first bishop and, true to his Methodist roots and convictions, the African Methodist Episcopal Church was born.13The denomination experienced rapid growth throughout the 1800s and in the post Civil War years. Today it is estimated that AME church has approximately 2.5 million members and some 7000 congregations.14

The Legacy of Richard Allen

Allen has left many things for us as we look back upon his life and actions in history.  First, Allen was first and foremost a Christian and follower of Jesus Christ.  He experienced a great gospel awakening that set him forth on the mission of Jesus in his time. We would be wise to follow his example. Second, he stood for justice and equality among all people and races. He worked in the cause of abolition and was a leader for civil rights. This was because of his conviction that Jesus Christ was creator and savior of all people not some. Equality came from God it was not granted by other men.  Third, he was an advocate for black people to receive an equal hearing of the gospel and would not stand for subjugation within the churches.  He saw this as an affront to the gospel and he labored many years to stay “together” with his white sisters and brothers in Christ. He left when their racial discrimination blatantly contradicted the message of the gospel.

The black churches in America have a great history and legacy of gospel ministry and social change in America. The church’s continued influence for justice in our country still runs deep. We thank God for the life, labor and vision of traditionally black denominations in our land.  We also live in a time where the vision of heaven, one people from many tribes, tongues, ethnicities together, is an opportunity here on earth. We have the joy to worship freely in unity on the earth as a foretaste to how we will spend eternity.  It is a great joy that Jacob’s Well has among its members Asians, Indians, African Americans, Latinos, Whites and many beautiful combinations of each.  It is our hope that Richard Allen’s passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ and his unwavering commitment to justice would live on among us today at Jacob’s Well.

Notes

1. Marvin A. McMickle, An Encyclopedia of African American Christian History (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 2002), 2.

2. Curtis, Lang and Petersen, The 100  Most Important Events in Christian History (Grand Rapids: Revel, 1991) 150.  For a brief treatment on Benjamin Chew, see his wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Chew

3. See Gali and Olsen, 131 Chritians Everyone Should Know (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2000) 187 and McMickle, 2.

4. Curtis, Lang and Peterson, 150.

5. See Gali and Olsen, “Francis Asbury”, 185.

6. McMickle, 2.

7. Ibid.

8. Curtis, Lang and Peterson 149.

9. Gali and Olsen, 188.

10.  Ibid.

11. Curtis, Lang and Peterson, 151.

12. Gali and Olsen.

13. Curtis, Lang and Peterson.

14. McMickle, 3.

15. See World Council of Churches AME page

Athletes in Action Northeast Winter Retreat

This past weekend our whole fam was able to get away with some athletes from all over the Northeast. I was teaching a series of four messages about Jesus from the gospels and was also able to lead a Q&A discussion on some varied subjects theological and biblical. 

I wanted to link to a few of the seminars given during the weekend here on the POCBlog

• Student Body - some reflection on a Christian theology of our physical bodies by David Buschman - AIA leader at Princeton University.
• Sharing the Gospel - some reflections on evangelism by Jarrod Lynn, leader of AIA at Brown University. 

A few relavant links to some discussions that came up during my teaching and various discussions

• On family worship - an article for the young guys in the Q&A who want to begin thinking now about spiritually leading a family.
• Jesus - Fully God and Fully Human - for a discussion flowing out of Jesus’ true identity as compared to various non biblical cults.
• Twisted Gender: Male and Female According to Scripture and Culture - booklet on male/femal stuff
• Historical Understandings of the Lord’s Table - an essay relevant to a Q&A discussion about the meaning and realities of Communion. Also, some brief thoughts here about preparing to receive the supper. 

Many thanks to all the staff, volunteers and students at the AIA Retreat. Athletes in Action is a spiritual home of sorts for Kasey and me.  It was great to have our kids - 9, 7 and 4 around the sort of environment I grew up in spiritually as a college student and one that Kasey and I served in full time from 1996-2004. 

Jesus...Fully God, Fully Human

Paul’s letter to the Colossians is a short letter with a singular focus.  He wants us to see that Jesus is enough for God’s people.  In the middle of Chapter 1 he goes to some length to explain to us who Jesus really is in all his glory.  In looking at what some have deemed the “Christ Hymn”¹ of Colossians, we quite literally come to one of the mountaintop vistas in the entire Bible.  As Jesus is the central focus of the Bible (Luke 24:27) such clear and airy Christology² found Colossians 1:15-20 is indeed one of the high points of the Bible.  This passage has been central to the church’s understanding of Jesus and has been part of a robust theological discussion over the years.

The Identity of Jesus in Early Church History

The identity of Jesus was of extreme importance to Christians in every era of history but was especially central to his earliest followers.  Jesus himself walked on the earth, lived his life with a community of people, preached, taught, was crucified and raised from death.  Jesus is truly a complex person. In the New Testament he is at once a very human, human being. At the same time he claimed to be God striding upon the soils of planet earth.  After his life, Jesus’s apostles and their associates wrote down his story, his teachings and eyewitness accounts³ of his death and resurrection in what we call the “Gospels” of the New Testament. There are four of these—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.⁴ In addition to these gospels there are various sections of the other New Testament writings which speak to the identity of Jesus. 

Early Controversies 

There was some debate among the early Christians as to whether Jesus was “more human” (ala Arianism—he was not fully God) or “more God.” (ala Docetism—a view that said he just appeared human). Some wanted to focus more on his humanity, others on his divinity and some wanted to keep the divine and human separated. There is good reason for this debate.  The Bible is vehemently and without equivocation monotheistic.  There is only one God (see Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Samuel 7:22; Isaiah 44:6-8, 45:5; Romans 3:30; Ephesians 4:4-6; James 2:19) and yet Jesus claims to be God and prays to God as his Father.  Something wonderful and different is up here! 

Historically, the truth of Jesus is found in the New Testament teaching.  Clarity on all this matters took some time, but a strong unity was forged in the early creeds and councils of the church.  The major controversy was between followers of Arias (who taught that Jesus was a created being and not eternal God) and those following the New Testament in holding God/Humanity of Jesus together in one person. This position’s leader was an Egyptian named Athanasius.  These two positions were debated at the Council of Nicea in AD 325.  This council was to resolve this debate about the nature of Jesus Christ and was not in any way a council that “gave the church the Bible” or any other of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code speculation.⁵

Theological Consensus

The council of Nicea resulted in a big thumbs down on Arias’ doctrines declaring them to be heresy.  The council also affirmed the biblical teaching with an early formation of the Nicene Creed.  This document was the statement around which Christians unified in relationship to the unique identity of the God of the Bible as a Triune being existing eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The following is just a snippet that may sound familiar to those who grew up in liturgical church traditions.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.  Through him all things were made.  For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.  For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.  On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

The Nicene creed simply articulated the teaching of the Bible that Jesus was indeed God. More doctrinal precision was provided by the Chalcedonian definition in AD 451 which clarified the biblical teaching that Jesus was fully human and full God in one person.  He was not sort of human and really God or sort of God and kinda human.  The definition reads as follow.

Therefore, following the holy fathers [early church leaders/pastors], we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us. ⁶

Though we might need a dictionary along with us to read the above, it is indeed an awesome statement.  The teachings of these creeds about Jesus are simply articulations of the teaching of Jesus and the apostles and have played a unifying role in church history.⁷ In fact, all Christians from every tradition—Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical⁸ are in agreement on the truths of these creeds. Why? They come from the Bible which bears witness to this unique person. In fact, Jesus is revealed in the Scripture as the most unique person who ever lived. The following will be but a simple survey of some of the biblical teaching.

The Biblical Teaching

Jesus is not normal. Never was, never will be.  In fact, he is the most startling, unique, mysterious, glorious, compelling, magnetic, loving and true person who ever lived.  The Scriptures reveal to us both truths that Jesus was God and man.  The following will be a listing of some of the biblical teaching. 

He is man

In the Old Testament we are taught that the coming Messiah/Christ would be a human being (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6,7). Jesus fulfills this in every way. First, he was born into and grew up in a human family (Luke 1-2).  Second, he exhibits the full range of human emotions in the gospels. He was tired, hungry, thirsty and in his humanity he had limited knowledge (John 4:6-7 and 19:28, Mark 13:32).  Third, Philippians 2:6-8 clearly teaches that Jesus, though was in very nature God,  humbled himself and became human.  Fourth, He was tempted just as we are yet did not sin. (Matthew 4, Hebrews 4:15) Some erroneously teach that to be human means to be sinful.  Yet we see Jesus fully human without sin.  Finally, all the gospels record that Jesus bled and died on the cross.  It is simple for us to understand Jesus was an historical human being, yet some question whether this man was truly God incarnate.  The amount of biblical testimony to this second claim is actually massive in detail.  On we go to that happy trail.

He is God

Here we will provide a sketch of the testimony of Scripture as to the deity of Jesus along five major lines. For those who desire more I refer you to a couple of clear recent works that cover the issues in some detail.¹⁰

#1 He is clearly called God and divine names are attributed to Jesus

First, Jesus is called theos the Greek word for God in many places in the New Testament (John 1:1, John 20:28, Romans 9:5, Hebrews 1:8, Titus 2:13, 1 John 5:20, 2 Peter 1:1). Second, he is called the Son of God in the gospels.  This is sometimes a misunderstood concept where many think this distinguishes Jesus from being God.  Philosopher Peter Kreeft makes the following observation that sheds light on how this title was understood.  Kreeft writes: Son of a dog, is a dog, son of an ape an ape, son of God, is God — Jews were Monotheistic, only one God—Son of God is the divine title of Jesus and everyone at his time understood this title to mean just that.⁹  Third, Jesus is called the Son of Man some 84 times in the gospels and is his most used title for himself. This title represents the perfection of humanity in the person of Jesus in contrast to the sinful nature of humanity in Adam.¹¹ It is also a direct reference to the divine figure in Daniel 7 of the Old Testament.  Jesus used this to describe both his first and second coming. About his first coming he said, the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for people (Mark 10:45 and Matthew 20:28). As to his second coming, in direct reference to Daniel 7, he tells the high priest at his trial that the Son of Man will come again on the clouds of heaven.  At this he is accused of blasphemy because he had claimed to be God. See dialogue in Matthew 62-65. Finally, Jesus is called LORD, kurios, which is used for Yahweh in Greek translations of the Old Testament (Philippians 2:11, 1 Corinthians 2:8). 

# 2 Certain attributes of God are used to describe Jesus

There are certain characteristics about God that theologians calls his divine attributes. Some of these are directly predicated to Jesus as well.  Jesus is said to be unchanging (Hebrews 1:12, quoting Psalm 102:25-27, Hebrews 13:8) and all powerful (Philippians 3:20,21, Revelation 1:8) and eternal (Isaiah 9:6,7; Micah 5:2). 

# 3 Jesus does the works of God

Jesus is said to be the creator and providential sustainer of all  (Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 1:1-3). Furthermore, he is said to give eternal life and forgives sins that are against God (John 10:28, John 17:2, 1 John 2:25, Mark 2:5-12, Colossians 1:14, 3:13). Jesus’ miracles also confirm his power over nature, disease and death itself.

#4 He is worshipped as God by monotheistic people

The Scriptures are clear that the worship of anyone or anything is idolatry and the deepest of sins. Deuteronomy 6:13-15 teaches us that God’s people shall worship/fear only the Lord their God. Additionally, The Ten Commandments call us to worship only the God of the Bible and to reject idols and the worship of images (Exodus 20). Furthermore, the angels, various men and Jesus himself all understand that worship is exclusively for God (Angels in Revelation 19 and 22, Peter in Acts 10, Paul in Acts 14 and Jesus himself quotes Deuteronomy 6:13 to Satan during his own temptations in Matthew 4). So we find something amazing happening in the New Testament. Jesus is worshipped and he accepts worship without any hesitation at all (Matthew 2:11, John 9:35-39, Matthew 21:9-16, Luke 19.37-40 and Matthew 28:9,10, 17).  Even more amazing is that God the Father actually commands angels to worship Jesus (Hebrews 1:6) and Jesus will be clearly worshipped in Heaven (Revelation 5). 

#5 He directly claimed to be God

His own testimony is that he is the pre-existing great I AM of Exodus 3 (John 8:58), he is one in essence with the Father (John 10:30), he existed with the Father before the world began (John 17:5) and he claims to be the divine Christ (Matthew 26:63,64). His enemies wanted him killed for blasphemy because he, a mere man, was clearly claiming to be God.  

The Unique Glory of Jesus

The wonder of Jesus Christ isn’t that he was a great moral teacher. He was.  The wonder of Jesus Christ is not that he was kind, loving and compassionate to the poor. He was. The glory is found in that God became poor and one of us. He desires to walk with us, teach us and lead us. The glory is that Jesus is worthy of worship because as the unique Son of God he gave his life for us. Some might make him too exalted and far away—less human. Some might seek to bring him down from heaven and make him just a slob like one of us.¹¹ Dear friends, the path he gives us is much better.  He shares our humanity and lives with us by his Spirit as the divine, glorified and risen Savior. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—he shall reign forever and we shall worship him.  He is worthy of all that we are.

Notes

1. See discussion in Douglas Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008) See introductory section on Colossians 1:15.

2. Christology is the theological discipline dedicated to the study of the person (who he is) and work (what he has done) of Jesus the Christ.

3. See Richard Baukham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006)

4. Matthew and John were among the twelve apostles.  Mark wrote down the apostle Peter’s account (see my introduction to Mark here http://www.powerofchange.org/storage/docs/nt_web_jw.pdf) and Luke was the traveling companion and missionary secretary of St. Paul.  Luke’s gospel, by its own prologue, was Luke’s job to pull together the Jesus story with some precision.

5. A simple, helpful book on all that schmack Darryl Bock, Breaking the Da Vinci Code (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006).

6. Both the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Definition can readily be found online. Use the Bing or the Google and you’ll find these.  Or just go here—http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html

7. For a thorough treatment on creeds and there use in the Christian tradition, see Jaroslav Pelikan, Credo-Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003). Good buy for the library.

8. For the continued Evangelical consensus on these issues see JI Packer and Thomas Oden, One Faith—The Evangelical Consensus (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2004) 71-75.

9. Geisler and Hoffman, Why I am a Christian, Part 5, Chapter 13—Peter Kreeft Why I believe Jesus is the Son of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001) 222-234. 

10. Donald Macleod, The Person of Christ, (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1998) and Robert Bowman, J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place, The Case for the Deity of Christ (Grand Rapids: Kregal, 2007)

11. Ben Witherington III, “The Christology of Jesus Revisited” in Francis Beckwith, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, To Everyone an Answer – The Case for the Christian Worldview (Downers Grove, Intervarsity Press, 2004) 155

12. Lyrics by Eric Bazilian , One of Us, performed by Joan Osborne, 1995.