I heard a discussion on the radio yesterday about the division between black and white churches in America today. I didn’t get to hear all of the discussion but what part I did hear troubled me. The statement was made that the most segregated hour in America is on Sunday morning, and callers were arguing that this problem must be remedied in order to achieve the unity that the Christian body should have.
The reason this is troubling is because it reflects a view of Christianity that is present in our culture today that is not only false, but is used as an argument against Christianity. People who disagree with Christianity based on this premise refer to Christianity as an “iron mold,” a cultural stamp that forces everyone to live their lives the same way. In other words, Christianity takes away cultural identity and pushes its adherents into the “Christian mold.” Christianity then becomes a narrow-minded way of seeing the world through an ethnocentric lens where everyone, regardless of their culture, should conform to the “Christian” way of life.
These arguments stem from a gross misunderstanding of what the Bible says about unity within the body of Christ. Christian unity does not mean that everyone is the same, nor does it mean that everyone worships the same way. This is what the callers I heard failed to understand. To say that blacks and whites must worship together in order to be unified not only misunderstands unity, but it flies in the face of the gospel, limiting it to a specific culture.
Paul is very clear when he writes to the Ephesians that unity within the body of Christ is achieved through diversity. In the first six verses of chapter four he explains that the basis for Christian unity is Christ and his teachings. We are unified because of what Christ has done for us and because of what we believe. However, verses 7-12 talk about the diversity that comes through Christ. Christ equips us all for different things, and uses our differences to achieve the best possible functioning of the body. The body works because we’re not all arms, and the gospel is universal because there’s no cultural mold that we must fit into.
It’s these cultural differences that separate us on Sunday mornings. It’s not that we aren’t unified because we don’t fit the same mold, but rather we are unified because the gospel has reached across cultural barriers. Serving and worship God looks different in China than in Nigeria because the gospel is universal, and that is one of the greatest arguments for Christianity. No other religion on earth has ever achieved the global presence and diversity that Christianity has by being able to cross cultures and adapt to meet people where they are. Other religions are tied to specific cultures inherently because humans cannot recreate what God has already done through Christ.
Let me be clear though, there are divisions in Christianity that need to be repaired, and racial unity is one of them. But being brought together in love across races is not the same thing as giving up your cultural identity to conform to another culture’s standard of worship. These differences are not divisions, but they are a picture of the universality of the gospel that comes from a Savior who reaches to all types of people, and a faith that transcends humanity.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Oh Dawkins
So I was doing some research for school and ran across this picture. Of course I had to read the article (You can link to it by clicking on the blog title). The bulk of it consisted of a debate between Richard Dawkins (the mouth of atheism) and Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project and a believer)
I don’t have much to say about it other than it never ceases to amaze me how blind and hard we are apart from God. The following is an excerpt from the middle of the debate that closely resembles Dawkins interview in Ben Stein’s movie Expelled.
I don’t have much to say about it other than it never ceases to amaze me how blind and hard we are apart from God. The following is an excerpt from the middle of the debate that closely resembles Dawkins interview in Ben Stein’s movie Expelled.
TIME: Could the answer be God?
DAWKINS: There could be something incredibly grand and incomprehensible and beyond our present understanding.
COLLINS: That's God.
DAWKINS: Yes. But it could be any of a billion Gods. It could be God of the Martians or of the inhabitants of Alpha Centauri.
Wow. Another example of how the knowledge of God cannot be had apart from his gracious revelation to the believer.
We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory…The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2: 7-8, 14-16)
The article ended with Dawkins last sentence:
DAWKINS: If there is a God, it's going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed.
Oh if he only knew…
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Faith and Works - Legalism
I feel like I need to clarify some of what I was saying yesterday to make sure that there’s no confusion. I said that in order for faith shown as genuine, it must lead to works. In other words, if we have true faith, we necessarily will produce fruit in our lives. It is true that works follow genuine faith, so much so that James can speak in the way that he does in James 2 and not contradict Paul.
But even though they are thoroughly bound together, they still play very distinct roles. Faith is the means of salvation for the believer. Faith in Christ saves apart from any works. Works flow from that and reveal the reality of it, but they do not contribute to salvation in any way.
The notion that good works contribute to salvation, or somehow gains favor in the sight of God for the believer, is legalism. I hesitated to even use that word because there’s a lot of misunderstanding and baggage that comes with it, but then again that means it needs explaining all the more.
First of all, let me make it clear the legalism is not a list of rules, and in fact it has very little to do with rules. The Bible is full of rules that we should live our life by, granted some people misinterpret them or misapply them, but that is not legalism. Furthermore, legalism is not based on whether or not your convictions are biblical or not. My interpretation of the demands of scripture is not what makes me legalistic.
This is how Tony Reinke describes legalism:
So to say that works are necessarily a part of the Christian life is not legalism. To say that these works put us in a better position with God is.
Faith in Christ makes us fully acceptable to God. When he sees us, he doesn’t see what we’ve done wrong, and he doesn’t see what we’ve done right (because even that is not good apart from his working in us), but he sees what Christ has done. He sees the perfect life that Jesus lived, which by his sacrifice was imputed to us.
Legalism happens in the church when we begin to apply the demands of scripture to our lives in such a way that we begin to see what we have done as good in itself and not boasting in the cross and the cross alone. Romans makes it very clear that the cross prevents boasting of any kind except to boast in the work of Christ.
The irony of legalism is that the strict fundamentalist and the license liberal both have the same potential to be legalistic. When the person who drinks a glass of wine looks down on the fundamentalist for all of the rules and believes himself to be a better Christian because of his interpretation of scripture, he is being just as legalistic as the fundamentalist who looks down on the drunk teenager for being a bad Christian. The question with legalism is not are my beliefs biblical, but rather what do they get me?
But even though they are thoroughly bound together, they still play very distinct roles. Faith is the means of salvation for the believer. Faith in Christ saves apart from any works. Works flow from that and reveal the reality of it, but they do not contribute to salvation in any way.
The notion that good works contribute to salvation, or somehow gains favor in the sight of God for the believer, is legalism. I hesitated to even use that word because there’s a lot of misunderstanding and baggage that comes with it, but then again that means it needs explaining all the more.
First of all, let me make it clear the legalism is not a list of rules, and in fact it has very little to do with rules. The Bible is full of rules that we should live our life by, granted some people misinterpret them or misapply them, but that is not legalism. Furthermore, legalism is not based on whether or not your convictions are biblical or not. My interpretation of the demands of scripture is not what makes me legalistic.
This is how Tony Reinke describes legalism:
Legalism is (most dangerously) a soteriological [salvation] problem. That is, legalism is a false gospel. Legalism is the damning lie that says God’s pleasure and joy in me is dependent upon my obedience.
It is legalism that causes the Pharisee to look proudly into the sky in the presence of a tax collector. It is legalism that causes a missionary in Africa to think God is more pleased with him than the Christian businessman in America. And it is legalism that causes the preacher behind the pulpit to think God is more pleased with him than the tattooed Christian teenager sitting in the back row.
So to say that works are necessarily a part of the Christian life is not legalism. To say that these works put us in a better position with God is.
Faith in Christ makes us fully acceptable to God. When he sees us, he doesn’t see what we’ve done wrong, and he doesn’t see what we’ve done right (because even that is not good apart from his working in us), but he sees what Christ has done. He sees the perfect life that Jesus lived, which by his sacrifice was imputed to us.
Legalism happens in the church when we begin to apply the demands of scripture to our lives in such a way that we begin to see what we have done as good in itself and not boasting in the cross and the cross alone. Romans makes it very clear that the cross prevents boasting of any kind except to boast in the work of Christ.
The irony of legalism is that the strict fundamentalist and the license liberal both have the same potential to be legalistic. When the person who drinks a glass of wine looks down on the fundamentalist for all of the rules and believes himself to be a better Christian because of his interpretation of scripture, he is being just as legalistic as the fundamentalist who looks down on the drunk teenager for being a bad Christian. The question with legalism is not are my beliefs biblical, but rather what do they get me?
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:14-16)
Friday, May 2, 2008
Faith and Works
Grace is an unbelievable thing. To understand who we are in relationship to God as sinners, and then to see what we’ve been made into through Christ is beyond comprehension. We read Paul’s letters and understand that because of our faith in Christ, his righteousness was imputed to us so that we are no longer under the law. I heard Chuck Swindall put it this way: “The life that he [Christ] lived qualified him for the death that he died. The death that he died qualified us for the life that he lived.” In other words, his righteousness has been given to us so that we don not have to pay for the sins that we commit.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Here James addresses the person who justifies themselves by what they know about God. This is huge. He’s saying you have an understanding of God, you know a little about him, you’ve been to church, you know the answers…so does the devil! It’s not enough to know the answers, it’s not enough to have head knowledge, if the faith doesn’t produce a change, then the faith wasn’t authentic. The life of the believer should be consumed with knowing God. We should want to know the Bible, we should seek him above all else, and if we don’t have those desires, then we have to question our faith.
20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
Faith apart from works is useless because faith without works isn’t really faith at all. Abraham was justified when he offered up Isaac because his actions showed that his faith was authentic.
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”— and he was called a friend of God.
Abraham had faith, and that is what saved him, James is very clear about that. But Abraham’s works completed his faith in that his action necessarily followed from his faith.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
That’s a bold statement but it clearly shows how intense this connection is between faith and works. The life of a believer justifies them in that it reveals the reality of their faith. James gives another example:
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
Rahab had faith, but her faith was demonstrated in the fact that she did not turn the spies over in order to save herself. She risked her own life for their sake, and in doing so proved that she was justified and her faith was real.
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
The connection between faith and works is just as real, and just as inseparable as the connection between body and spirit. If you don’t have a spirit, then you aren’t alive. If you don’t have works, then you aren’t alive spiritually.
The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. (Romans 3:22)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
But have you ever heard somebody claim this doctrine when they didn’t want to do something for God? Ever heard someone justify themselves because of their “faith”? I don’t need to do that, I’m under grace. I don’t need to read my Bible, God understands, I don’t need to go to church, God’s grace is enough. And the list could go on forever. We use the doctrine of justification before God as a way to excuse our sins, and in doing so we fundamentally fail to understand what the gospel is about.
The life of a Christ follower, though acting under grace, must produce works. To be saved by faith is to be changed forever, and if there’s no change, there’s no saved. Jesus said himself that the works (fruit) produced in someone’s life is the indication of the heart.
You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:16-20)
James makes it very clear that if our lives are not characterized by works of righteousness, then we will not be justified. It’s almost a scary thing to think about, but works and faith are so intertwined that James can say this and not be contradicting Paul in the least. Faith alone justifies the believer, but a faith that is justifying is always manifested in works. I want to look at James 2:18-26 to see how serious of an issue this really is.
In verses 14-16 James has just introduced the issue and said that faith without works cannot save because faith without works is dead. He continues in verse 18:
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Here James addresses the person who justifies themselves by what they know about God. This is huge. He’s saying you have an understanding of God, you know a little about him, you’ve been to church, you know the answers…so does the devil! It’s not enough to know the answers, it’s not enough to have head knowledge, if the faith doesn’t produce a change, then the faith wasn’t authentic. The life of the believer should be consumed with knowing God. We should want to know the Bible, we should seek him above all else, and if we don’t have those desires, then we have to question our faith.
20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
Faith apart from works is useless because faith without works isn’t really faith at all. Abraham was justified when he offered up Isaac because his actions showed that his faith was authentic.
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”— and he was called a friend of God.
Abraham had faith, and that is what saved him, James is very clear about that. But Abraham’s works completed his faith in that his action necessarily followed from his faith.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
That’s a bold statement but it clearly shows how intense this connection is between faith and works. The life of a believer justifies them in that it reveals the reality of their faith. James gives another example:
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
Rahab had faith, but her faith was demonstrated in the fact that she did not turn the spies over in order to save herself. She risked her own life for their sake, and in doing so proved that she was justified and her faith was real.
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
The connection between faith and works is just as real, and just as inseparable as the connection between body and spirit. If you don’t have a spirit, then you aren’t alive. If you don’t have works, then you aren’t alive spiritually.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Science vs(?) Religion
I’ve written multiple times now about the assumptions that we all make in everyday conversation because they are so subtle, and so often misleading, that they can get us in a lot of trouble. We are asked a question or confronted about a topic and we don’t have a response. We feel like we can’t argue against it because we don’t know how, but in reality we don’t even agree with the premise. We engage in conversations in an attempt to defend our position (or at least we should be), but we fail because we don’t recognize that we are working on their premises without questioning them.
One of the ways this most often happens with Christians today is in the case of science. We read scientific apologetics and learn about the holes in the evolutionist argument so we can demonstrate that science is wrong, and that it’s not the ultimate authority. We construct our arguments and debate the issues without ever realizing that we are doing so according to the assumptions of our cultural, namely, that science and religion are in conflict with one another.
There is an unspoken understanding that has come mainly through the media that says that religion fills in the gaps of science. In others words, the things that we don’t understand, we assume that God made them that way. I hesitate to refer to it as a gap theory because I’ve never heard it called that, but in a sense that’s what it is. Science can explain x, y, and z and religion explains all the rest.
The result that comes from thinking like that is the idea that religion and science are somehow competing; that whoever has the best explanations will win over the most people. It also implies that as countries become more modern and developed, and can explain more by science, then religion and the need for God will slowly disappear. (This can be shown to be completely false but that another topic)
So when we argue over scientific claims and search for ways to dispute evidence, we are ultimately falling prey to this assumption. We feel threatened when science makes new discoveries about the world and how it functions because it takes away the mystery that we once attributed to God.
But the fact is that there is no conflict between science and religion, and what’s more, Christians should be the best scientist of all. God is not in competition with science, he created it! Explaining the world around us through scientific discovery does not contradict our attributing it to God, nor does it in any way lessen our view of his majesty. If anything it should increase it! When we make discoveries of how utterly complex the world is around us, we are not learning more about humans and nature as much as we are learning about the Creator!
The idea that being able to explain things rationally takes away from God at all is absurd. Let me give you an example. Some of the most recent cars that have come out have voice command systems installed in them. Imagine that I got one of those cars and I was completely amazed that I could actually talk to my car and tell it what to do. I am incapable of explaining how Mr. Ford was able to make my car do this other than pure magic. So I spend several years thinking about how great Mr. Ford is because he created this magic car until one day the technology becomes popular enough that someone actually explains to me how it works. They tell me that it’s really just a computer with voice recognition software and it’s really all very rational. Now, because I can explain the way it works, I conclude that Mr. Ford didn’t actually make the car, in fact, it’s all completely random.
That seems like a ridiculous example to us but it’s exactly the way that our culture is attempting to explain away God! They say that they can explain to you scientifically how your brain works, thus God has no part in it. If I follow this logic then I completely dismiss Mr. Ford as a superstitious magician. But, if I realize how absurd that is and look at the situation for what it really is, I come to see that, not only did he know exactly how the car worked all along, but he made it work that way. He was so much greater than the “magic” I had attributed to him all along, that my only reaction is to stand amazed at the shear genius of what he had done.
How much greater is the relationship between God and his creation? Science doesn’t take away from God, it adds to his magnificence, and if we see it for what it is, it spreads his glory.
John Stott said it like this:
We shouldn’t be afraid of science, but we should embrace it as a tool for displaying the glory of God. We see him in it, we are responsible to him for it, and we honor him by it.
One of the ways this most often happens with Christians today is in the case of science. We read scientific apologetics and learn about the holes in the evolutionist argument so we can demonstrate that science is wrong, and that it’s not the ultimate authority. We construct our arguments and debate the issues without ever realizing that we are doing so according to the assumptions of our cultural, namely, that science and religion are in conflict with one another.
There is an unspoken understanding that has come mainly through the media that says that religion fills in the gaps of science. In others words, the things that we don’t understand, we assume that God made them that way. I hesitate to refer to it as a gap theory because I’ve never heard it called that, but in a sense that’s what it is. Science can explain x, y, and z and religion explains all the rest.
The result that comes from thinking like that is the idea that religion and science are somehow competing; that whoever has the best explanations will win over the most people. It also implies that as countries become more modern and developed, and can explain more by science, then religion and the need for God will slowly disappear. (This can be shown to be completely false but that another topic)
So when we argue over scientific claims and search for ways to dispute evidence, we are ultimately falling prey to this assumption. We feel threatened when science makes new discoveries about the world and how it functions because it takes away the mystery that we once attributed to God.
But the fact is that there is no conflict between science and religion, and what’s more, Christians should be the best scientist of all. God is not in competition with science, he created it! Explaining the world around us through scientific discovery does not contradict our attributing it to God, nor does it in any way lessen our view of his majesty. If anything it should increase it! When we make discoveries of how utterly complex the world is around us, we are not learning more about humans and nature as much as we are learning about the Creator!
The idea that being able to explain things rationally takes away from God at all is absurd. Let me give you an example. Some of the most recent cars that have come out have voice command systems installed in them. Imagine that I got one of those cars and I was completely amazed that I could actually talk to my car and tell it what to do. I am incapable of explaining how Mr. Ford was able to make my car do this other than pure magic. So I spend several years thinking about how great Mr. Ford is because he created this magic car until one day the technology becomes popular enough that someone actually explains to me how it works. They tell me that it’s really just a computer with voice recognition software and it’s really all very rational. Now, because I can explain the way it works, I conclude that Mr. Ford didn’t actually make the car, in fact, it’s all completely random.
That seems like a ridiculous example to us but it’s exactly the way that our culture is attempting to explain away God! They say that they can explain to you scientifically how your brain works, thus God has no part in it. If I follow this logic then I completely dismiss Mr. Ford as a superstitious magician. But, if I realize how absurd that is and look at the situation for what it really is, I come to see that, not only did he know exactly how the car worked all along, but he made it work that way. He was so much greater than the “magic” I had attributed to him all along, that my only reaction is to stand amazed at the shear genius of what he had done.
How much greater is the relationship between God and his creation? Science doesn’t take away from God, it adds to his magnificence, and if we see it for what it is, it spreads his glory.
John Stott said it like this:
Natural law is not an alternative to divine action, but a useful way of referring to it. So-called natural laws simply describe a uniformity which scientists have observed. And Christians contribute this uniformity to the constancy of God. Further, to be able to explain a process scientifically is by no means to explain God away; it is rather (in the famous words of the astronomer Kepler) to ‘think God’s thoughts after him’ and to begin understanding his ways of working.
We shouldn’t be afraid of science, but we should embrace it as a tool for displaying the glory of God. We see him in it, we are responsible to him for it, and we honor him by it.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse (Romans 1: 19-20)
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