Questions

Posted: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 by Morgan in
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So we have been talking about heresies about Jesus in my Christian Foundations class. Someone asked why God didn't find "an easier way" than to sacrifice Jesus to bring us salvation. Someone else said He sent His son to die for us simply because we as humans can relate better to Jesus than some impersonal spiritual vehicle of salvation.

My first reaction was this: who are we to question God?

I remembered that Job did just that. He questioned God's justice, power, and sovereignty. In Job 38-41, God has that same reaction and Job realizes his foolishness, saying,
"I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefor I despise myself, I repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:2, 5-6
At the same time, there are things God has revealed to us. He is a speaking God. He speaks through His Word and the Holy Spirit (and nothing the Holy Spirit reveals to us will contradict what He said in scripture). I believe that the bible is the ultimate source of knowledge about God and that it contains everything we need to know about God in this life.

My second reaction was this: There is a reason behind God's method of salvation.

By sending Jesus to earth as a sacrifice, God was not choosing a method of salvation out of the blue, but rather he was upholding His own standard of justice that He set up in the beginning. Jesus' sacrifice was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant that is revealed in the Old Testament. A good example of the aspects of the Old Covenant in question can be found in Numbers. Chapter 8 explains the purification and atonement that is required of the Levites for their priestly service, and Numbers 18 explains the Levites' priestly duty of bearing the iniquities of the people. I encourage you to read them because there's too much to quote in this space.

The book of Hebrews focuses on the supremacy of Christ and his sufficiency for salvation, so it seemed like a good place to go to find how Jesus's death fulfilled the Old Covenant. All throughout the book, the writer speaks of Jesus Christ as making purification and propitiation for sins. In Hebrews 7:27, when speaking of Jesus as the perfect high priest in comparison to the high priests of the Old Covenant, the author says:
"He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself."
And again in Hebrews 10:14:
"But whenChrist had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."
So, Jesus was sent as a sacrifice because He is the only one who could serve as our high priest and because He is the only perfect sacrifice that will cover all sins for all time. Nothing else would do.

God does things for a reason, but whether or not we can understand it is another matter. In this case, the method of salvation, it seems that God has seen fit to reveal His plan and reasons to us through His Word. When we can't understand God's design, we probably aren't meant to understand it. That's ok. He's God. We aren't.

"God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." Exodus 3:14

Bad Theology

Posted: Monday, September 6, 2010 by Morgan in
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I've been increasingly disappointed with the theology at George Fox. It seems to become less and less biblically sound every time I go to chapel or a spiritual life event.


GFU is fairly liberal for a Christian school, and unfortunately their theology follows the same lines. The university pastor is a woman, which isn't necessarily unbiblical, but in this context it does seem to violate the biblical principle of male leadership. Each time I have heard her pray she addresses the Holy Spirit rather than God the Father or Jesus, which also isn't necessarily unbiblical but a little concerning. She also called us Sons of Christ rather than Sons of God (which is straight up biblically incorrect. See Romans 8:16-17 if you're skeptical).

But that's the least of my worries.

To open chapel today, the pastor read from Matthew 13:31-46, which contains Jesus' parables about the kingdom of heaven. She talked about the mystery of God and the difficulty of understanding Him (the verse she used was 1 Corinthians 13:12 from The Message translation, the veracity of which is questionable. See What kind of message is The Message?).

"I'm sure you've had lots of conversations about the mystery of God and at some point in the conversation you're having this big theological discussion and at some point someone says, 'Well I think we should believe the Bible.' Well what do you say to that? 'I don't think we should believe the Bible?' All of a sudden it's like throwing that trump card in that says, 'Well if you just read it right here it gets really clear.' Well, actually what they mean is that you should read their version of how they think about the Bible because they're the ones that have the exact unparadoxical unmysterious knowledge and they're able to just tell you exactly what it says. But instead we find a God that has wide open space and that we can come in at different angles into God and experience all that God has for us. There's so much paradox in God...

Here's what I get from that: Don't read the Bible because people misinterpret it. Just experience God. Either that or that understanding God is relative.

Later she said this: "The bible is full of questions, …. So to be in a place of asking questions to determine who God is and what God is about is the very heart of the gospel message because Christianity doesn't just have a lot of paradoxes, it's paradoxical…." (emphasis added).

Here's my question:

WHERE DO YOU GO FOR ANSWERS IF NOT TO THE BIBLE?!

You can't ask questions and hope the answers will just come to you in a vision. Seriously, God wrote the bible for a reason. He gives us ALL we need to know in it. It's not just a decent source of knowledge about God, it's THE source of knowledge about God. The bible is "able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

During the message, she shared a story about a pool that she bought on a whim against the better judgment of her husband. She said, and I quote: "I kind of thought that perhaps some of the regulations about the pool were more suggestions." So she set it up right next to her house without leveling the ground and dumped bleach into the water instead of using the filter. (It seems she treats the bible much the same way as these directions.) Guess what happened? It turned out badly. The pool turned into a mosquito breeding ground and they had a terrible time emptying it because they set it up right next to the house. If that isn't an illustration on the merits of male leadership and the consequences of disregarding God's perfect, well thought-out design for our lives, I don't know what is.

Here is a caption from a powerpoint slide she used (it is also the GFU Spiritual Life Twitter account status, so it must have been a fairly important quote): "when you are immersed in God, you find that the paradoxes of Christianity don't drown you, but give your faith buoyancy." She expanded on this by saying that we can only really begin to understand the mystery of God unless we "get in the water." These paradoxes and mysteries can only be understood in the context of immersion in God.

Again I ask:

HOW DO YOU IMMERSE YOURSELF IN GOD WITHOUT GOING TO THE BIBLE?!

Perhaps most concerning is the misinterpretation of scripture at the end of chapel. The pastor used the parable of the merchant to illustrate the fact that, not only is does the treasure represent the kingdom of heaven for us, but that MORE IMPORTANTLY we are the treasure for Jesus. Almost like He needs us. Which is not true. God is triune and perfect, not needing anything or anyone but Himself. He gave us the opportunity to spend eternity with Him not because He needed to give it to us, but because of who He is, because he is both loving and just. Here's a real paradox: He punishes sin and grants mercy at the same time through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ, who is the perfect sacrifice that was made for all sin (Hebrews 10, 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 5, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). That's just the gospel, plain and simple.

I am saddened by the prevalence of this sketchy theology in a Christian university. The college age is one of the most important for development of ideology, character, belief systems, etc., and I don't think I can sit idly by and let this flawed teaching wash over the better part of 2000 young men and women who will go out into the world and be witnesses for Christ. I want to do something about it. I want to change chapel for the better. I want to be taught from the scriptures, not from stories about pools or cleverly organized curricula based on the word "mystery."

Teach me the Bible, please. That's all I need.


"All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Cling To You

Posted: Saturday, September 4, 2010 by Morgan in
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First of all, please click on the link. I promise it will be good for you. You can't read any more unless you do. As I was listening to Trip Lee (one of the Christian rappers I mentioned in an earlier post), I heard this song, which deals with some of the issues in my last post. Anyway, he says it better than I could, so just listen to it.



Lyrics:
Lord, I'd like to start by saying I can hate where I'm at
When this life is hard and situations take me aback
The fight is hard and I can hardly face it in fact
In life it's hard to get up like a bar with weights that's attached
It really seems the situations that I'm facing is whack
I been awakened but now I'm feeling forsaken and trapped
With no hope and I'm broken open for Satan to trap
I been bothered since You Father put this weight on my back
So please erase it's whack, cause when this pain it attacks
My weakness is at it's peak and I'm feeling strained and I lack
The trust in You I struggle through the ways that I should come to You
Lord, what am I gonna do? It's true this pain it distracts
But I see my only hope when my backs on the ropes
Is in You so I read through the facts that You wrote
The pain may fade away, but if that's my only hope
Then You don't get the glory alone not even close

Lord, it may get better but it may not
So when I pray God, I pray I
Would trust You whether or not the pain stops
So when the the pain falls, coming down like rain drops
I just gotta cling to You

Lord, You know I'm hoping that my situation will switch
That You'll show me You're amazing by erasing it quick
But I've noticed that my hope was in You changing it quick
Instead of knowing You're enough Lord I was chasing Your gifts
But then I opened up Your text and looked at David and them
Their situations was grim, but it ain't change them within
They prayed You'd take it away but sought Your face in the end
And found comfort in Your justice and the grace You extend
So in this life full of strife if my days get grayer
I'm content with the fact that You'll stay my Savior
No change in my King, man, it ain't no greater
Comfort than what's found in You that's so major
So in this life full of strife if my days get grayer
I'm content with the fact that You'll stay my Savior
No change in my King, man, it ain't no greater
Comfort than what's found in You that's so major
So in this life full of strife if my days get grayer
I'm content with the fact that You'll stay my Savior
No change in my King, man, it ain't no greater
Comfort than what's found in You that's so major

Lord, it may get better but it may not
So when I pray God, I pray I
Would trust You whether or not the pain stops
So when the the pain falls, coming down like rain drops
I just gotta cling to You

Suffering

Posted: Thursday, September 2, 2010 by Morgan in
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As an American, my "bad days" are insignificant in comparison to the rest of the world. So what if I had to spend a lot of extra time preparing my food? So what if I have to ride my bike 4 miles every day carrying a heavy backpack? So what if I had a hard time with engineering homework? So what if I had to walk around in the hot sun writing tickets all day for my security job? So what if I don't know many people? So what if my religion class is a joke?


You know what I realized? None of this stuff matters.

The fact is, I can cook my own food, I have stuff to carry around, I have the ability and the privilege to learn complex technical information, I have a job and transportation and friends. What am I complaining about?

As a Christian, I can be sure of a couple things: that I will spend eternity with Christ (yes, please), and that that I will suffer on this earth (1 Peter 4:12). I'm not sure anything we experience in America on a day-to-day basis can really be called suffering. Think about the people who live on a dollar a day. If what we face is suffering, their daily life is a horrific, unending torture. I suppose one could argue that "relative suffering" is some kind of negative deviation from the normal or desired lifestyle, but I am so sick of subjective crap like that and I don't think that argument would carry much weight when God is looking at our lives and actions and attitudes and thoughts objectively (he does look at all that stuff you know).

At the same time, there is a difference between "just suffering" and suffering for your faith. This sort of suffering can be common with the wealthiest American and the most impoverished and destitute Somali farmer. Christianity is a great equalizer in many ways. This is the sort of suffering that is promised to all believers. 1 Peter 3:14 says,
But if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them or be troubled.
And in the next verse, Peter gives a reason for this suffering,
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
Paul says almost exactly the same thing in Romans 8:17-18

—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Just put your suffering in perspective. We have it easy. Be thankful for where God has put you and what He has given you there.


"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18