"Lost" Christianities?

In the first centuries after Christ, there was no "official" New Testament. Early Christians read and fervently followed many more scriptures than we have today. … What did these other scriptures say? Do they exist today? How could such ideas ever be considered Christian? If such beliefs were once common, why do they no longer exist?

That, in a nutshell, is the catalog description for the course, "Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication," taught by Bart D. Ehrman, Professor of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, offered by an arm of The Teaching Company. The full description also mentions the belief of some early Christian that there were up to 12 "gods," and that Christ's death had nothing to do with salvation.

To the professor's credit, the lecture titles do describe the various "lost books of the Bible," referring to the Gnostics, the Copts, the forgeries, and so forth. The Gnostics seemed to be the ones who caused the most trouble in those days. They believed they held a "special knowledge" that was "hidden" from the rest of the world. To give them credit, they claimed to have additional writings from the apostles that included some of these additional secrets.

Consider †his: if God wanted to bring salvation to the world, He wouldn't have kept any secrets from the world.

The Gnostics' teachings continue to infiltrate our society today. The most recently publicized "lost book" was the alleged Gospel of Judas. Thankfully the buzz has died down, but people still like to think they're so important that they have special revelations. For example, some heretics "teachers" such as Kenneth Copeland tell us of things "whispered into their ears" by alleged "angels" standing with them. One recent "teacher" continues, as of this writing, to try to deceive others with his belief that he has knowledge of the day & time of the end of the world … something even Jesus claimed not to know (according to the common interpretation of Matthew 24:36)!

Salvation is simple. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:30-31). It's that simple! No extra knowledge or study is required!

It's also that difficult. In Christ's day and today people want to hold on to what they believe is "theirs." That includes "special knowledge" or "secrets" that make them somebody "important." We'd rather trust in our own understanding than God (Proverbs 3:5-6). We don't want to trust God alone. That's our pride, born into us as a part of the death Adam brought into the world, and into his descendants.

What do you hold on to that makes you feel "special" other than Christ?

Personal Responsibility

Recently I talked a bit about the current trend towards having an "accountability partner." I took a rather negative view of the whole thing.

This time I want to deal with something else: responsibility.

For me, being "held accountable" and being "responsible" for an action or attitude has never been a positive thing. In my past either one was always used as a bludgeon to shame me into not being "good enough." (For somebody from New England, especially New York City, I've noticed that's considered "encouragement." To a depressed child who never really felt good about himself anyhow, though, "do better" always seemed to come out as "your best isn't good enough." But that's still another topic of another post.)

I suppose other people have taken that same outlook on the term, because today the word "responsibility" only applies to someone else, never to oneself. Each one of us is a "victim" of something that wasn't our choice. It could be childhood abuse. It could be chemical imbalances. It could be drugs, alcohol, or tobacco taken by mothers during pregnancy.

Even some Christians have an "out" in the theology of John Calvin, who supported the notion of the "elect." To simplify the whole package now referred to as Calvinism, God pre-chose certain people to come to Him, and others He did not. Those He chose were predestined to be conformed into the image of His Son. They were also called, justified, and glorified. Those who weren't chosen … well, I guess they don't get in on the offer.

The sticky part of that whole concept is that there is Biblical support for it. What I wrote up there is essentially a paraphrase of Romans 8:29-30, though I suggest you check out the surrounding text. (In fact, it dovetails into a tricky little bit of Romans 8:28, where it talks about all things working together for those who are called according to His purpose.)

So how can God be fair if He not only knows ahead of time who will and who won't turn to Him, but chooses them? Well, that's where the counterpoint to Calvinism, called Arminianism after Jacobus Arminius, comes in. Arminius stressed the aspect of free will. After all, God wouldn't be "fair" without it. Well, that didn't set well with some folks, so John Wesley took a stab at trying to unite the two concepts. Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA, in his book Calvary Chapel Distinctives, admits that the Bible teaches both, and that he cannot unravel the paradox, so he teaches predestination when the text shows that, and he teaches free will when the text goes that way.

Consider †his: God holds us responsible for our choice to accept the free gift of His Son's sacrifice for our sins, even though He knows already whether we will or not.

I refuse to accept the sum total of Calvin's, Arminius', or Wesley's treatment of the whole thing. I won't accept any of those labels (which is yet another topic to come). I do know this, though: none of us will be able to use predestination as an excuse to bypass God's justice. John 3:18 says that we are all already condemned if we have not accepted the free gift of God's grace. That's predestined, if you like. Is it our choice? Let's be honest. Yes, we choose to sin. Yes, we're under a curse on a cursed planet in a cursed universe. Jesus showed that we're without excuse, because He, though not born under the curse, lived a sinless life. God promises us a way to escape any temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), even when the temptation is caused by chemical imbalances, childhood abuse, genetics, or whatever.

We still choose to sin.

We are still responsible for that choice.

We are still responsible for the choice we make about Jesus' sacrifice in our place.

What choices are you going to make today?

"Prove That God Exists!" — God In A Box

One of the comments I got in my recent saga with atheists was a "dare" to prove that God exists. After some discussion, I realize what is probably obvious to most people. There was no proof of the existence of God that this guy would accept.

As I thought about it last night, a "vision" of sorts came to me.

Imagine, if you can, a God Who can hold the entire universe in His hand. OK, we don't really know if God has hands, or that He can hold the universe in one. We don't know what shape the universe is in, or what it would look like from His perspective. Stay with me, though.

Now imagine a man or woman demanding that God "show Himself" to prove that He exists.

The only way that such an infinite God could do that would be to leave His infiniteness and cram all He is into a container, say a box. You could only see God in that little box. The problem is, it wouldn't be God. It would be some subset of God, an aspect of Him that wouldn't be all He is.

Then I saw a place that I'll call "The God Store." This was a place where you could obtain your very own god.

"We have a wide variety of pre-made gods for you. There are the classic Greco-Roman gods, like Zeus, Hercules, Aphrodite — she's for adults only …"

"I don't want any of those fairy tales," interrupts the skeptic.

"Well, we have the one true God."

"Show me."

"Well, sir, I can't. The one true God is so big, you can't see Him."

"Then how can you prove He's here? No, I want that God, but I don't like all of the things I've heard about Him."

"Well, we can customize for you."

"Great! Okay, I want a loving God, one that doesn't send anybody to Hell. He has to accept whatever I like and whatever I do."

"Get rid of justice. That's a common request." The shopkeeper enters that into a computer at the counter.

"I want a God that I can see and touch, one that I know is there."

The shopkeeper removed "infinite" from the list, and added "100% physical" under the "Limitations" category.

"I want a God who will bless me, but punish those who do me dirty." More keyboarding from the shopkeeper.

This went on for a few more rounds, then the shopkeeper said, "just give us a few minutes to produce your god for you."

After a few minutes, a hunk of white plaster appears in a curtained window behind the shopkeeper. It resembled a poorly chiseled statue of what could've been humanoid at one point.

"It doesn't look as nice as the rest of your gods," the customer remarked.

"No, custom orders rarely do. This was made to your specifications, though."

With that the transaction was completed, the statue was placed in a box, and the customer departed.

---

Some time later the customer returned with the ugly plastic statue. "I want to return this."

"What's wrong, sir? Doesn't it meet your requirements?"

"No, it does not. I asked it for enough money to pay off my debts, and to give me a new Porsche. It never showed up!"

"Quite right, sir. You chose to remove 'omnipotence' rather early on in the process."

"When was that?"

"Well, sir, no physical statue can have omnipotence. That was removed as soon as you placed your order."

"It also doesn't provide me any sense of love."

"No, sir, you removed that option as well."

"Don't you have any guarantee for these things?"

"We guarantee that all the items you wished didn't apply to God be removed. For many of the benefits to work, though, several unpopular options must be retained."

"So why didn't my god zap that guy who cut me off the other day?"

The shopkeeper tapped a few keys on his computer. "Oh, yes, that driver. It seems he purchased a god very similar to yours. It allowed nothing to go bad for him. That blocked your god from doing anything to him."

"That's not what I wanted!"

"Sorry, sir, but that requires the Justice option, which neither of you chose to keep."

"Okay, okay. What god do you have that has any sort of real guarantee?"

"Just the one, true God, without modifications."

"Can I read the feature set and guarantee first?"

"Of course, sir. In fact, you may keep a copy."

With that the shopkeeper hands him the Bible.

---

Consider †his: God is God, and we are not. God is not subject to our demands. He is not under our authority. We are under His authority. We can accept Him or reject Him. We cannot make Him into our own image and expect Him to still be God.

God chooses to reveal Himself in ways that are incompatible with our own logic and demands. He has that right. He loves us enough to reveal Himself through the Bible, but even that refuses to meet our rigorous 21st century demands of accountability. Does that make the Bible wrong, or does that make our demands wrong?

God is under no obligation whatsoever to meet our demands. We can take Him or leave Him just as He is. Why not take Him as He is? He'll take you as you are.

Good, Evil, and God

I just finished reading a rather interesting article presented in the Christian Research Journal. The article deals with the perennial challenge of a “good God” and the existence of evil.

I must warn you now that, if you find philosophical articles that are heavy on cerebral discussion, your eyes will probably glaze over just trying to follow the arguments on both sides.

The issue has been debated for centuries. How could I think that I could add anything else to the discussion?

I don’t, to be honest.

I would, though, like to offer a simpler, saner view of the whole argument.

Consider †his: God is God, and we are not!

Nobody sane should even begin to think that we can see things from God’s perspective. Isaiah 55:8 says that God’s thoughts are higher than our own. God is omniscient, as the article states and the Bible supports. How can measly man ever hope to see things from an omniscient perspective?

God is considered to be “outside of time.” He also never changes. That implies that He sees me as I am typing this at the “same time” as He sees Christ being nailed to a cross for my sins. How can He do that? I don’t have a clue, and don’t think I ever will as long as my perspective is stuck on Earth, stuck in time. How can my writing this be “predestined” and foreknown, and still be the result of my free will? I don’t have a clue.

Let me get even more gutsy: nobody has a clue. Calvin didn’t. Arminius didn’t. Neither did Luther, Wesley, or anybody else. They probably do “now,” but only because they are in Heaven, and can see things as God does. (At least I assume that’s the case.)

So why did God create evil, or create Satan who became evil? Why does God allow evil? I would be interested in the opinions of others, because I have no idea.

More Than Who Can Handle?

One verse that Christians like to use to comfort themselves and each other is 1 Corinthians 10:13. We find comfort in the thought that God “won’t give us more than we can bear.”

Recently I’ve been reading a couple of Charles Stanley’s books. One in particular is How to Handle Adversity. I found it curious that it wasn’t titled “How to Overcome Adversity.” Indeed, the book isn’t about how to battle adversity and come out the victor; rather, it’s about how to understand what God may be saying, or not saying, during difficult times.

The book led me to think back to the 1 Corinthians verse. I like to take things in context, so here it is with some of the surrounding material:

¹For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the same spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test Christ, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹¹These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. ¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. [1 Corinthians 1:1-14, Today’s NIV]

There are tons of things that could be brought forth from just that little smidgen of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, but let’s stay focused here. The famous “beyond what you can bear” verse deals with temptation, not adversity. Surprised? Granted, much adversity can come from the consequences of our sin, as Paul wrote earlier. Adversity, though, can come for other reasons; consider Job as the most famous example of one who suffered extreme adversity that wasn’t caused by sin. The blind man mentioned in John 9 was born blind, but not due to sin, but so that God’s glory could shine forth (John 9:3).

So where is our hope in adversity? Consider This: God’s still there, and God still cares. When Joshua was ready to take Jericho in the name of the Lord, God told him numerous times to “be strong and courageous,” because God was with them. We might not be able to bear the suffering, but God can, if we cast all our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:6-11).

One pastor, in his “Faith Engineer” blog at http://www.faithengineer.com/2008/01/god-wont-give-you-more-than-you-can.html, cited another pastor dealing with this. Quoting that other pastor: “It does not imply that God won’t let you be stressed beyond what you can bear. Or challenged beyond your ability. Or pushed beyond your threshold. In reality, God gives you more than you can bear all the time. On purpose. It’s only when you can’t bear the load that the strength of Christ kicks in… and He becomes everything you need and more.”

REAL Love

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.

Earlier this evening I confessed to a friend that I had forgotten that today was the day where too many guys will get tons of grief from their "significant other" because they, too, forgot the day. My friend, a young lady who recently got engaged, asked if if my wife and I even celebrate the day. I told her we did, after a fashion. I told her that I recently heard someone on the radio mention that today was when many girls and women receive stuff out of obligation. I asked, "what's the romance in that?"

Love should never be restricted to a single day of the year (or two, if you also include the mysterious "Sweetest Day" in the fall). True love is even more than a lifestyle. True love is something that's so much a part of you that it just won't let go.

What is this true love? 1 Corinthians 13 in the Bible describes it. The NIV renders it thusly:

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I know of nobody on this planet who lives up to that definition. I certainly don't. this past week showed me that I'm a far way off from that kind of love. That kind of unconditional perfect love comes from only one source: God!

This Valentine's Day, and every day, Consider This: God sets the example and empowers us to love. Instead of obligating or being obligated just because it's a particular calendar day, simply show and live love!