tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-232356492024-03-12T21:23:11.390-04:00ADORATE (Worship) A Blog (mostly) related to Christian WorshipAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.comBlogger149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-49712534500154836672015-07-27T12:59:00.000-04:002015-07-27T22:21:14.985-04:00Billl Maher and Tim Tebow are Right<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One thing many of the so-called "New Atheists" are right about, and something they share with Tim Tebow, is that religion, by its very nature, cannot be left merely a matter of private and personal opinions. It very much belongs in the arena of public discourse. Your beliefs (even the belief that religious faith is a misguided set of pathetic superstitions) form the framework through which you understand your world and your place in it. It is as irrational as it is hypocritical to insist it is a private matter. Few things you will ever think about or have conversations about have the potential for greater impact on every aspect of life. This is hardly something that should be politely avoided or relegated to the "it-does-not-matter-much" closet of private opinion.</div>
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It is a strange era in the evolution of cultural expectations of civility when an open and frank discussion on the merits of masturbation will likely be seen by many adults as less awkward or inappropriate than a discussion about the basis and reasons for someone's religious faith. Actual assertions about religious conclusions made in public settings have managed to achieve that status once reserved for profanity, sex, or bodily waste - a kind of awkward stare-downward uncomfortableness that suggests the speaker has broached a boundary into what ought not have been brought up in mixed company.</div>
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Many among the popular cultural wave of new atheists have no hesitation to insist public declarations against a religious faith (or all religious faiths) are appropriate, since religion has been the source of so much violence and oppression (largely oblivious to the absurdity of the claim in light of the magnitude of carnage wrought in the name of decidedly secular ideologies, nationalism, and the ambitions of warlords in the last two centuries, alone). They are entirely correct, however, to insist that a person's understanding of ultimate reality and meaning (or, in the case of pure materialism, lack of meaning) are so fundamental to a person's values and behaviors that it is ludicrous, if not impossible, to relegate the subject to politely held personal preferences.</div>
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Bill Maher is absolutely correct when he reflects the assumption that religion is something too important and central to be pushed out of public discourse. Ironically, he shares that conviction with the likes of Tim Tebow. However contradictory their conclusions, they stand as reminders that the questions regarding God and religion cannot be removed from education, discussion, and discourse without creating a pathological culture -- that is, a culture in which education, critical thinking, or rational discourse are left only to address subjects of limited genuine importance to how that same culture actually arrives at its expected behaviors, values, laws, and reasons to exist.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-22994794362097794722015-07-25T14:00:00.000-04:002015-07-25T14:00:29.329-04:00Labore est Adorate"Work is worship."<br />
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It's the often heard (although usually indirectly and generally not in Latin) clarion call of Protestant Evangelicals. Doing good hard work is simply another way to worship. Living a good life is worship. Heck, let's just go ahead and say it, everything is worship.<br />
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With all due respect, and in all kindness, and fully mindful of the noble intentions resting behind such idiotic thinking: Hogwash!<br />
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Jesus never says that "good deeds" glorify God. In fact, He draws a clear (and, to me, reasonable, distinction). When we do our good deeds before others, one result will be that they will "glorify God." He does not say the aim is that they will also join us in doing good deeds in front of others, who would then also join those doing good deeds in front of others, and so on. The good deeds can lead to, but are not the same as, glorifying God. My atheist relatives also do "good deeds." Muslims do good deeds. Many live admirable and ethical lives. Living ethically, even supremely ethically, is not, in and of itself, worship.<br />
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If everything is made worship, however noble to intention, the result is that worship diminishes, fades, and is eventually swallowed in our growing sea of secularity. The person who sleeps in, catches a few minutes of Joel Osteen, and then plays golf without cheating is able to happily tell himself he is spending the Lord's Day in Christian worship. If there is not a categorical and important difference between Texas Roadhouse and Eucharist, we have not just lost the battle, we have refused to admit there was ever a war in the first place.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-66840700277634723262015-06-18T19:51:00.002-04:002015-06-26T15:47:14.949-04:00The Doctrine of the Rapture: Keep it or Leave it Behind?It is, frankly, outside the original intent of the blog to devote time to a doctrine like the Rapture. It is certainly not directly related to worship. And, as I note at the end, there are people on both sides of the issue who I feel honored to count as Christian brothers and sisters and dear friends. Most importantly, when it comes to these kinds of doctrines, those who live consistent with the Lordship of Jesus in within the realm of His grace will not be left out or left behind or left anything when it comes to eternity. Regardless of whether things ultimately unfold as you believe or in ways you either misunderstood or were simply, as part of finite and fallen humanity, to begin to image, it will not matter at the most practical level.<br />
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Still, I want to address the doctrine of the rapture. This is part in response to some discussions on Facebook, where the article below first appeared in serial format. It is also because I do believe, even in areas I insist are not central to our faith, doctrine and truth are nonetheless important.<br />
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<h1>
Introduction: What is the Rapture Doctrine?<o:p></o:p></h1>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One shall be taken and the other left</td></tr>
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In the long history of emerging bizarre teachings that have
plagued Christianity, there are few dogmas that can match the strangeness,
newness, and lack of biblical support than that of the doctrine of the
so-called Rapture. That is, at some point prior to the Second Coming of Christ,
the saved will be instantly and miraculously transported out of this current
sphere of existence into the presence of Jesus Christ. When this happens, two
people might be walking together in a field or in bed together as husband and
wife, and one might be taken up in this unexpected Rapture, and the other would
then be left behind. Since all this happens without prior notice, it might well
mean the driver of a car or the pilot of an airplane could unexpectedly vanish,
while the unsaved passengers would find themselves suddenly in a driverless car
or pilotless airplane.</div>
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To many who identify themselves as Bible-believing
Christians, challenging the doctrine of the Rapture is as shockingly heretical
as, for example, rejecting belief in the Virgin Birth. In part, this reflects
our current age when many cherished doctrines are gleaned from pop culture,
best-selling novels, and celebrity preachers. Scholarship is disdained and
interest in church history is happily rejected in the comforting myth that the
unthinking and uninformed idealized “common man” is the only reliable teacher
of scripture. Rapidly growing churches led by men (and a few women) who are far
more informed on current models of corporate leadership than ancient systems of
theology are not simply tolerated, they are all-but-demanded. The semblances of
study and thinking replace its actuality. But, wildly marked-up Bibles, nicely
designed presentations, and a full quota of the latest evangelical jargon is a
pathetic substitute for genuine scholarship and reflective critical thinking.
But, such is the world of popular evangelical culture in the United States.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The reality is that the doctrine of a secret rapture of the
saved prior to the Parousia (appearing or Second Coming of Christ) manages to
exist with a extraordinary lack of biblical support, unless a handful of
scattered phrases and verses are ripped entirely out of context. One telling
evidence this is true is no one can be shown to have believed or promoted this supposedly
clear and important biblical doctrine prior to the nineteenth century. Even
then, its popularity was largely limited to groups of British and American
Protestants in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries who aligned
themselves with a virtual industry of prophecy meetings, the popular Scofield
Reference Bible, and the power of celebrity revivalists like D. L. Moody and
Billy Sunday.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This new doctrine, as might be expected, also brought voices
of opposition. Those favoring and those opposing the notion of a secret rapture
were not, however, divided along established fault-lines like modernist versus
fundamentalist or Calvinist versus Arminians. Throughout the late nineteenth
and twentieth century, those voicing strong opposition to the doctrine of the
Rapture, and its associated eschatological system called “Dispensationalism,”
was led by many leading scholars of English-speaking conservative scholarship
such as B.B. Warfield, William Hendriksen, R. C. Sproul, J. W. McGarvey, and
Anthony Hoekema. Many of the names of those opposing the notion of the
so-called secret rapture were also at the forefront of defending biblical
inerrancy against the attacks of theological liberals. That is, many of the
strongest scholarly voices defending the truth of the Bible were the same
voices strongly opposing the doctrine of a secret rapture. So, it cannot be
argued that rejecting this doctrine reflects an inadequate understanding of
inspiration or a lack of commitment to biblical authority.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I know many evangelicals pay scant attention to church
history. In part, this reflects a commitment to maintain the authority of
scripture against the competing authorities of traditions, popes, and councils.
That is understandable. On the other hand, it contradicts common sense to
suppose the entire church greeted the death of the Apostle John with a decision
to abandon apostolic truth and set up the Medieval Papacy. It is unconvincing
to insist a doctrine is obvious and plainly in scripture that no one seems to
have seen or taught before the 1830s. Are we really ready to believe that a few
nineteenth century English speaking laypeople, reading the King James Bible,
are destined to be the first ones to discover an important doctrine that,
according to its advocates, is plainly and obviously taught in the Bible?<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the very least, I would hope you might be willing, in the
light of this information, information not disputed even by its strongest
advocates, to label the doctrine of the Rapture as at least suspicious. It
might seem daring, in light of how often you have heard it referenced in songs,
sermons, novels, and movies. But, think about it. There have been many times
when widely popular beliefs and doctrines have been weighed in the balance of
biblical evidence and common sense and found wanting. A majority vote, even an
overwhelming majority, at a particular setting and time, is not a reliable
arbiter of truth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This will be divided into four Facebook status updates or
posts (and, later, combined as a single blog post on adorate.org): First, this
introductory post. Second, I need to post some limitations in what I want to
address. Even then, it’s is longer and more complex than we’re used to seeing
in blogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Third, I want to briefly
survey the historic origins of the doctrine and the important roles played by
John Nelson Darby and Cyrus Scofield. And lastly, I will examine the most
commonly cited Bible passages used to present and/or defend the doctrine of the
Rapture.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<h1>
Limitations<o:p></o:p></h1>
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There’s a custom in academic writing of laying out,
somewhere early in the monograph, an explanation of limitations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, explaining to the reader or
researcher what the article will not be addressing or how the area being
researched is narrowed down from a variety of subjects to the single subject
being explored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since the doctrine of
the Rapture does not exist in isolation, I think such an explanation of how and
why these four Facebook posts will be limited is a good idea.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Many people interested in eschatology (the end times, Second
Coming, end of the world, etc.) understand that the doctrine of the Secret
Rapture exists within a complex set of ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This system of understanding the End Times is generally identified as “Dispensational
Premillennialism.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those teaching and
promoting the notion of the Rapture are nearly always linking the doctrine into
one or more sub-groups within Dispensational Premillennialism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I cannot, in these posts, take on the
complexities involved in addressing Dispensationalism (hence, my announced
limitations), I do need to at least define what it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the Rapture, it is finds its origins in
John Nelson Darby and Cyrus Scofield. <o:p></o:p><br />
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<h2>
What is Dispensationalism?<o:p></o:p></h2>
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In order to understand why I will not be exploring the
broader doctrinal context of Dispensational Premillennialism, it is important
to define what the term means.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sometimes the label “Premillennialism” is used as a shortened
name for Dispensational Premillennialism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The problem with this, however, is that a general belief that Christ’s
return will be prior to a literal thousand-year reign over the earth can be
found in the writings of some church scholars and leaders throughout history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, in many key areas, these older views
that might also be called Premillennial were substantially different from the
scheme of End Times events proposed by Darby, Scofield, and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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So, from the viewpoint of church history, the term
Premillennial could refer to any view of the end times that concludes the
Parousia (appearing) of Christ will precede the millennium. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can lead to a good deal of
confusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, the older view, to
distinguish it from nineteenth century system associated with Darby, is often
labeled “Historic Premillennialism.” Because of this, a better shortened label
for the newer scheme of understanding is simply Dispensationalism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, what distinguishes Dispensationalism from older ideas
that were also broadly Premillennial?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
whole system of understanding the End Times found in Dispensationalism focuses
primarily on the role of the Jews (that is, ethnic or biological Israel).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bible prophecy, the advocates of
Dispensationalism insist, focuses primarily on God’s covenantal people,
understood to be ethnic Jews and the nation of Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All prophecy pointed toward the coming of a
chosen Jewish King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus, of course, is
this long anticipated Messiah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, when
Israel rejects Jesus, her rightful Messianic King, the gospel then goes to the
Gentiles, bringing about the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
church, in this understanding, emerges as a kind of great parenthesis or pause
in God’s prophetic timetable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result
is that, in Dispensationalism, there are two parallel but distinct groups that
might be called the People of God: both the (predominately Gentile) church and the
biological descendants of Abraham, ethnic Israel.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In Dispensational understanding, although those within the
church are certainly saved and beloved, the primary focus of prophecy and of
God’s covenant-faithfulness always rests with ethnic Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The return of Jesus will be centered on the
establishment of his earthly rule as the Jewish King enthroned in Jerusalem in
the nation Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His earthly reign
will through the re-gathered nation of ethnic or biological Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not to say that there is universal
agreement on many of the details within Dispensationalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the past century and a half, various
theories have arisen related to issues like the nature and location of the
church (in heaven or on earth), the nature of Jesus’ kingly rule, and, of
course, exactly where, within the scheme of things, the secret rapture of the
saved will occur.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Seven Great Dispensations and the Church Age</td></tr>
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In light of all this, it is probably no surprise, since I
reject the doctrine of the Rapture, that I am not a Dispensational
Premillennialist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truth be told,
Dispensationalism is a far more serious false doctrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its ramifications impact everything from
American politics related to the modern nation of Israel all the way to how
churches understand evangelism and the Great Commission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dispensationalism is linked with the view of many
evangelicals that God demands political leaders must give unconditional support
for the modern nation-state called Israel, even if this means turning a
blind-eye to the suffering of the Palestinians (including Palestinian
Christians).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, and quite
ironically for a view often associated with self-identified Bible-believing
conservatives, many (though not all) Dispensationalists have adopted the notion
that overt evangelism of unbelieving Jews is neither required nor even
desirable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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How can this be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dispensationalists are invariably identified as conservative
Bible-believing Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it fair
for me to suggest Dispensationalists assume that everyone needs to be evangelized
– except for the Jews?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be honest, many
will insist Dispensationalism doesn’t undermine the “Great Commission.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They maintain all the Jews will still only be
saved through faith in Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is,
the Jews will be presented with undeniable evidence of King Jesus at the End of
the Age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This divine manifestation will then
foster a universal recognition of Jesus and faith in Him among the Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others insist a Holy Spirit led revival will
sweep across all of Judaism just prior to the end, bringing massive numbers of
conversions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, advocates of
Dispensationalism will insist, this is still salvation sola fide (by faith
alone).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This does not, however, solve
the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this divine manifestation
or Spirit-led revival that leads to multitudes embracing saving faith in Jesus is
something granted uniquely to the Jews and no other group, this hardly avoids the
conclusion that Jews are still saved based on ethnic biology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also, of course, reinforces the notion
that current evangelism of Jews is optional, at best.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although the ramifications of Dispensationalism are broader
and, frankly, far more important than those associated with the notion of a
Secret Rapture, it is beyond my available time and the nature of even extended
blog posts to address the whole eschatological scheme here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A number of books are available, including
those that present materials both favoring and rejecting
Dispensationalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The serious Bible
student might want to explore books like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Bible and the Future </i>(Hoekema); <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Blessed Hope</i> (Ladd); or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Meaning
of the Millennium: Four Views </i>(Clouse).<o:p></o:p></div>
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With the basic overview of Dispensationalism behind us,
however, the next two posts will be limited to narrowly focusing on the
doctrine of the Rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, I will
largely disconnect it from the broader scheme of things like the Great
Tribulation or the Millennium or the role of Israel or Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those are important issues, to be sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we will leave them for another day.<br />
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<h2>
Origins of the Rapture Doctrine</h2>
<h1>
<o:p></o:p></h1>
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<o:p> </o:p>As might be expected, the details surrounding the beginning
of belief in a secret rapture are hotly debated by historians from traditions
committed to either affirm or deny the doctrine. What is not disputed is that the late 1820s
and 1830s was an era of great religious excitement in Ulster, southern Scotland
and England, with numerous claims of prophetic visions and miraculous messages
from God. It was also an era of great apocalyptic
fervor, with many people eagerly expecting the imminent return of Christ in
that generation.<br />
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<h4>
Edward Irving and the MacDonald Visions</h4>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
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A number of historians point to the influence of a radical (former
Presbyterian) clergyman, Edward Irving, on the doctrine of the Rapture. Irving
preached passionately and convincingly about the rapidly approaching end of the
world and the dramatic resurgence of miraculous apostolic gifts sent by God to
prepare for the coming end of the age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
and other themes resulted in his being removed from the ranks of the clergy
within the established church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course, this did nothing to stop his preaching or to damper the enthusiasm of
many of his supporters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One woman,
Margaret MacDonald, while experiencing a terrible sickness, reported having divine
visions and hearing voices that revealed to her that Christ’s return would be
in two stages, rather than the widely assumed single event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this vision-inspired divine eschatology,
the first stage would involve the sudden miraculous removal of the saved from
the earth, which was soon to endure the terrible cataclysms known as the Great
Tribulation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYQCFHouC_83iWVJ1r1ge7m6hv_lGcEneJ1gD7CkVhgH1lfLaQ5p2l7tsYoTQeZTXj7prNzbDibBJHKfuDFP6T9IpWCiEzF-pH_cFNh3qRsvDQ7rvQWnPKkdHKQ9mDQbMmZiekQ/s1600/macdonald.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYQCFHouC_83iWVJ1r1ge7m6hv_lGcEneJ1gD7CkVhgH1lfLaQ5p2l7tsYoTQeZTXj7prNzbDibBJHKfuDFP6T9IpWCiEzF-pH_cFNh3qRsvDQ7rvQWnPKkdHKQ9mDQbMmZiekQ/s200/macdonald.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MacDonald Relates her Visions</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
MacDonald is often cited as “patient zero” for the doctrine
of the rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, the doctrine of
rapture begins with a very sick woman in England reporting she has divine
visions and hears voices giving her this new doctrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Historians from within Dispensational
traditions strongly reject this claim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As with most straightforward assertions, the historical picture is not
entirely clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evidence is inconsistent
and anecdotal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, it is likely that
MacDonald was not the first person to surface the idea of a rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like I already said, it was an era of great
religious excitement and Irving seems to have, at the very least, laid out
suggestions and hints of a secret rapture either at the same time or shortly
before MacDonald’s reported visions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While all of these things are ongoing, and in roughly the same areas in
Britain and Ulster (Northern Ireland), we begin to encounter accounts of a
zealous and passionate apocalyptic teacher, John Nelson Darby.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
John Nelson Darby<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjulghACqxKem0Pc_kUQSMY8QXWJ9GvK3fuO2_wNa9efdrjJy_T9bXi_oll4K7bJDI9QVyiwHIJhAf3sghiSqKU4YLwuSUhwvqU5DWhyphenhyphenPsE36b3LbdoIYJszH4eT7VGDhvW7k6-4A/s1600/John+Nelson+Darby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjulghACqxKem0Pc_kUQSMY8QXWJ9GvK3fuO2_wNa9efdrjJy_T9bXi_oll4K7bJDI9QVyiwHIJhAf3sghiSqKU4YLwuSUhwvqU5DWhyphenhyphenPsE36b3LbdoIYJszH4eT7VGDhvW7k6-4A/s200/John+Nelson+Darby.jpg" width="197" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">John Nelson Darby:<br />Founder of the <i>Plymouth Brethren</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</h4>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
J. N. Darby was an Ulster Scot (called Scots-Irish in the
United States) who was converted to Christianity while a student in Dublin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As might be expected, he became a part of the
(Protestant) Church of Ireland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Darby
was a fervent and effective evangelist, winning dozens and then hundreds of
Irish Catholic peasants to Protestant Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tensions between Darby and the protestant Bishop
of Dublin would ultimately result in renouncing his membership within the established
church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Continuing to teach, Darby
gathered followers who joined him in rejecting any system of ordained clergy
and promoting a rigorous commitment to recover and restore apostolic
Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A part of this involved
Darby’s fervently preached understanding that the events of the End Times were
beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The recently invented
telegraph, for example, was proclaimed by Darby to be an “invention of Cain”
and the “harbinger of Armageddon.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
growing numbers of followers were persuaded that the fulfillment of all the ancient
prophecies of the End Times were now coming true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were convinced the end was upon them and
that it would center on a renewal of the ancient nation of Israel and would
begin with the miraculous removal of the church in a secret rapture followed by
a seven-year period of Great Tribulation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Darby was, by any measure, a deeply dedicated believer and a
meticulous student of scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
possessed a prodigious memory and was gifted with a mind able to pull together
vast amounts of detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His system of
understanding Bible history centered on using numerous tightly linked and often
multifaceted connections between various prophetic images, individual phrases,
and verses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although astonishingly complicated
(as any quick survey of the numerous complex charts he and others have used to
explain and promote dispensational timetables makes clear), Darby always
insisted this was nothing more than a simple and straightforward use of scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He openly boasted that his views required ignoring
all the trained clergy, the so-called church fathers, and all of great theologians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These were a major reason the purity of the
ancient church had been obscured until made clear in his preaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was an ecclesiastical parallel to the political
movement of the same era in the United States called Jacksonian democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most educated and elite were disdained
and the plain, simple, and often uneducated “common man” was endowed as the
most reliable source of true wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ordinary
people, not trained scholars, were the key to recovering right doctrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike all famed theologians and scholars,
Darby insisted, he was taking the straightforward meaning of the Bible texts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
The irony that such a so-called simple and
straightforward reading of the Bible required pulling phrases from widely
separated parts of the Bible and weaving them together to created an incredibly
complex progression of seven dispensations never seems to have dawned on
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course, the complete
absence any single place in the Bible where such a progression or timetable is
presented is either ignored or denied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even pointing out that no one throughout earlier church history outlines
such a timetable or openly talks about a “secret rapture” years before the
Second Coming, did not lessen his unbridled enthusiasm and confidence that this
was not just a plausible idea, but was nothing less than THE key to
understanding scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Deeply committed to the authority of Bible, Darby simply
refused to reconcile perplexing and seemingly contradictory passages in
biblical prophecy by allowing that any of them were wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, committed as he was to what is sometimes
called Scottish Common Sense rationalism, he was equally averse to the
traditional response of church leaders that the complexities of prophecy are
within those areas of the mysteries of God’s will that defy complete systematic
human analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one historian noted, “Too
rationalist to admit that the prophetic maze defied penetration, Darby
attempted a resolution of his exegetical dilemma by distinguishing between
Scripture intended for the Church and Scripture intended for Israel.” (Sandeen
1970) However complex this weaving of prophetic teachings became, Darby remained
utterly confident it was all there and all would be clear to anyone open to
reading and believing the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact that the doctrine would wait to be recovered by
English-speaking dissenters in the 1830s, simply confirmed to Darby that his
was the last generation before the end and God was using him to restore the pure
apostolic church to pave the way for Christ’s return.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now because Darby’s own teachings on the End Times happen
within the same time period and in the same geographic areas as the work of
Edward Irving, a number of historians have concluded that the source of some of
Darby’s ideas, particularly regarding the rapture, were rooted in the prophecy
teachings of Irving and the visions of Margaret MacDonald.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other historians, generally from within
traditions committed to Dispensational eschatology, have challenged any such
connections and insisted Darby’s teachings were rooted solely in his study of
scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my opinion, the evidence
that Darby was surely aware of the teaching of Edward Irving, as well as the
content of the MacDonald visions is convincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, as with most history, a convincing case does not mean it is certain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who continue to insist no connection exists
between Darby’s eschatology and the so-called divine visions of Margaret MacDonald
can also cite some evidence and cannot be proven wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In either case, one thing that is not disputed is that the
doctrine of the secret rapture prior Second Coming cannot be found as a clearly
articulated doctrine before the 1830s. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Were I to offer no other evidence, from the
viewpoint of church history, that fact alone ought to put the veracity of the into
serious question. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, there is another
important question we now come to:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
did this notion of a secret rapture go from a view found among a relatively small
group of unaffiliated dissenters in Britain and Ireland to become a widely held
belief among large numbers of American evangelicals by the mid-twentieth
century?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exploring its origin is one
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Explaining its widespread
popularity is something else. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For this, we need to return to John Nelson Darby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the late 1830s, no longer a part of any
official church, Darby continues to draw crowds and converts to his grand vision
of the End Times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The religious world,
he insists, has been distorted not only by Popes and church Councils, but even
the Protestant world shares in this distortion by the continued use of ordained
bishops and clergy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before the Second
Coming, Christ will bring about a restoration of the pure apostolic
church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This purified church will be
free not only from the Vatican, but from Canterbury, Westminster, and from all
man-made things like clergy, synods, and presbyteries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
The growing numbers of believers persuaded
by his preaching will be one of the ways God accomplishes this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, Darby and those aligned with his
teaching will form a new religious group in England known as a <i>Plymouth
Brethren</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although not a household name
to many evangelicals today, Darby and the Plymouth Brethren are important in
church history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is really surprising,
however, is that the greatest impact both Darby and the Plymouth Brethren will
have will not be in Ireland or Great Britain, but among revivalistic
Protestants in the United States.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
Cyrus Scofield</h4>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Apocalyptic fervor swept across America, particularly in the
mid-nineteenth century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
“Millerites,” thousands of whom sold all their goods and gathered in caves and
other place in 1842 to await the end of the world, are just one example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Dispensationalism of the Plymouth
Brethren and John Nelson Darby found fertile soil in the sawdust trail of
American revivalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dwight Lyman Moody
was just the best known of many self-taught and often self-appointed revivalists
who adopted and incorporated Dispensationalism into their fiery sermons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, the real spread of Dispensationalism
will occur most powerful not from the pulpit, but from the printing press, with
the appearing of the Scofield Reference Bible.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzVCBvK2OUDR6VYzxkzB5l75-aHc7viTyxc4QH0UIiv_s5X2NZHZNXipnqgRFQaqleedZOnxZwaXJjQEvJm9HYWkVJrU16-9eb-80sgK6fY9TbgYSIUYeSzIpoC74UP-DPCIJ6w/s1600/scofield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzVCBvK2OUDR6VYzxkzB5l75-aHc7viTyxc4QH0UIiv_s5X2NZHZNXipnqgRFQaqleedZOnxZwaXJjQEvJm9HYWkVJrU16-9eb-80sgK6fY9TbgYSIUYeSzIpoC74UP-DPCIJ6w/s200/scofield.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cyrus Scofield</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As John Walvoord, a former president of America’s leading
Dispensational seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, observed in 1959: “This
edition of the Bible, which has had unprecedented circulation, has popularized
premillennial teachings and provided ready helps of interpretation. It has
probably done more to extend premillennialism in the last half century than any
other volume. This accounts for the many attempts to discredit this work…The
reputation of the Scofield Bible is curious because each succeeding writer
apparently believes that his predecessors have not succeeded in disposing of
this work once and for all. This belief apparently is well-founded, for the
Scofield Bible continues to be issued year after year in greater numbers than
any of its refuters.” (Walvoord, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Millennial Kingdom</i>).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scofield is a controversial figure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His divorce and romantic relationship with
his second wife before the divorce was finalized (and marriage only a few
months later), along with charges of failure to provide child support and
charges of financial forgeries that landed him in jail in St. Louis, are just
part of the picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was an effective
preacher, as his years growing the First Congregational Church of Dallas from
14 to more than 500 members demonstrates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was passionately committed to defending the Bible against the
theological liberalism sweeping across Protestant schools and seminaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was also heavily involved in promoting
world missions and became a friend and advisor to D. L. Moody, serving for a
time at Moody Trinitarian Congregational Church of East Northfield,
Massachusetts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He became increasingly
focused on bringing together the teachings of the Bible, particularly those
related to the End Times, in a helpful system of linked Bible references and notes
so that any layperson could be led to, as Scofield put it, “rightly divide the
word of truth.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That phrase, “rightly
divide,” is understood to mean recognizing the seven Great Dispensations which,
quite literally, divide all of salvation history.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEeqH9dY9gtyukZBlvkaUCmZEyj_GMKuietDYG3ru5xbIPGjP-JSjHIF9HT35kTihESepmPcpz1ldsaeMK_ecWjn3UVPu0DitddhX2UYIhasHssvivcRzgwrzBBQLS5wYJGQ8P6A/s1600/chafer.sco.bible.1909.L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEeqH9dY9gtyukZBlvkaUCmZEyj_GMKuietDYG3ru5xbIPGjP-JSjHIF9HT35kTihESepmPcpz1ldsaeMK_ecWjn3UVPu0DitddhX2UYIhasHssvivcRzgwrzBBQLS5wYJGQ8P6A/s200/chafer.sco.bible.1909.L.jpg" width="145" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title Page from the 1909<br />
Scofield Reference Bible</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In 1909 these efforts culminating in the publication of the
Scofield Reference Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although it
was marketed and sold as the “King James Version,” the reality was that in a
number of key places, Scofield’s notes guide the reader to wording changes
introduced in the Revised Version produced in England based on the works of
Wescott and Hort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The points where this
is most obvious are places where the wording of the Revised Version is more
generally supportive of a Dispensational reading of a text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Published by Oxford Press, the new reference
Bible became widely popular among American Protestants, particularly among
theological conservatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the 1930s,
supported by national revivalists like Billy Sunday and the Scofield Reference
Bible, the label “Fundamentalist” and “Dispensationalist” will be synonymous to
many Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George Marsden in his
landmark work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fundamentalism in American
Culture</i>, lists Dispensational Eschatology, along with Calvinistic Soteriology
(doctrines related to salvation), as the defining hallmarks of Fundamentalism
in much of the twentieth century.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzX7EA814_QjVqZJjJ0V_8RUZF-MBC1SfRXYkjyB7YjxQZHTF1Eq2DGYHOBedtTzIef4d_kuV01vR59YqpF8EahiVo7yGYQyksoZ2ziTt-KWl32uOONciX6YAKFgMjO5h7HfXfw/s1600/pent.sco.bible.1917.L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzX7EA814_QjVqZJjJ0V_8RUZF-MBC1SfRXYkjyB7YjxQZHTF1Eq2DGYHOBedtTzIef4d_kuV01vR59YqpF8EahiVo7yGYQyksoZ2ziTt-KWl32uOONciX6YAKFgMjO5h7HfXfw/s320/pent.sco.bible.1917.L.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scofield Reference Bible Sample (Daniel 6)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
New names and celebrities, like C. C. Ryrie, Hal Lindsey, or
Jack Van Impe, will appear later in the twentieth century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each promotes subtle, but often strongely
defended, variations in the complex scheme Dispensationalism gives for the End
Times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, ongoing serious
scholarship within Dispensational traditions such as Dallas Theological
Seminary have acknowledged many of the excesses and theological contradictions
in the system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, a minority within
the American Reformed tradition have steadfastly remained outside the
Dispensationalist camp, providing a steady stream of strongly
anti-Dispensationalist books and commentaries over the past five or six
decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, theological
conservatives from outside Reformed Protestant traditions, such as those of the
Stone-Campbell Movement or evangelical Methodists associated with schools like
Asbury Theological Seminary, have joined with Reformed scholars like Hendriksen
and Hoekema in challenging Dispensationalism in general and rejecting the idea
of a Secret Rapture in particular.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, this is a doctrinal squabble almost entirely
limited to English-speaking (and largely American) Protestants or those directly
influenced by them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among broader
streams of Christianity, both in North America and worldwide, such notions as a
Secret Rapture or the centrality of a re-constituted Israel as the fulfillment
of the Abrahamic covenant are rare to nonexistent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one reason why many Christians in
other parts of the world are baffled and frustrated by what they see as many
American Christians lack of concern for the sufferings of Palestinians or the
undeniable instances of brutality carried out by Israeli police or units of the
military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From their side, it looks like
a calloused lack of compassion for the suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the side of many American believers, of
course, any serious criticism of Israel or expressions of support for
Palestinian concerns is tantamount to rejecting the plan and purpose of God in
re-gathering the “Chosen People” to the “Holy Land” in preparation for coming
Millennial reign of Christ.<br />
<br /></div>
<h1>
Key Passages related to the Rapture</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth is that, particularly as it is connected with the
broader system of eschatology present in Dispensational Premillennialism,
scriptures used to more or less support the Rapture doctrine are difficult to
unravel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many relate to showing how the
rapture must precede the last seven-year literal Great Tribulation inherent in
Premillennial eschatology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It simply
exceeds the space and time constraints of either Facebook posts or my blog
(adorate.org) to address these passages individually.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead, I will focus on two key portions of scripture that
are, in both popular media and in providing biblical evidence of support for
the believe that: There will be a sudden removal of all Christians from earth
several years before the actual Second Coming of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the places in scripture where we
read about one person being taken while the other is left behind and believers
being suddenly caught up to “meet the Lord in the air.” Combine these two
ideas: believers taken up into the air to meet the Lord and some people
suddenly finding they are “left behind,” are you have the most popular and
widely used Bible phrases and images of the rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are also the two Bible references that
inevitably seem to come up when someone discovers I do not believe the Rapture
doctrine:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But what abut where the Bible
says…?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am certainly not out to discredit the Bible or dismiss
biblical doctrines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My purpose, in fact,
is to honor scripture by insisting we read passages in context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this case, it is our familiarity with some
of the phrases in these passages that actually gets in the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s one of those times when hearing dozens
or hundreds of sermons puts us in such a different place than those first
readers and hearers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we hear these
phrases or ideas, we just can’t get past our own deeply embedded assumptions. So,
my challenge is this: can you put yourself in the place of those first
hearers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, I would pray for what
Eugene Peterson once referred to as “fresh ears.”<br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
PASSAGE ONE: 1 Thessalonians 4</h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In First Thessalonians, Paul addresses the End Times in the
second half of chapter four and the first half of chapter five. Not all this extended passage is related to
the Rapture, of course. This contains
the best-known description of the rapture.
Believers will be suddenly caught up in from the early to meet the Lord
in the air.</div>
<h4>
MEETING THE LORD IN THE AIR</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“…caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air.” (4:17)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We begin with what is assumed to be the single clearest and
most unambiguous Bible verse describing the Rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some sense, this is unquestionably
true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It cannot be doubted the passage depicts
believers being miraculously taken up from the earth to meet Christ “in the
air.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the broad definition of the
word, this is, indeed, some kind of rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, before putting checking this verse off as undeniable evidence of
the Rapture Doctrine, let’s listen to what leads up to this verse and see what
Paul is actually saying in 4:17.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“But we do not want you to be
uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as
others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen
asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are
alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who
have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of
command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of
God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. <span style="text-transform: uppercase;"><i>Then
we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”</i></span>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You may want to re-read the passage (although this is the
ESV, any good translation is fine) as I outline some points below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you do, here are what I think you will discover
in this broader context:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<ol>
<li>Why even bring up the subject of the Second
Coming?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main issue Paul is
addressing is centers on some anxiety among the Thessalonians about Christians
who have died (“fallen asleep” was just a polite way to say “died” in that
culture – like we might say a person “passed away”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least in a general sense, it’s clear what
those concerns are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was confusion
and angst because at least some in the church thought those who had died, even
if they were Christians, would then miss out on the Second Coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This the theme he returns to repeatedly in
4:13-17 and then adds (4:18) that the believers should “encourage one another”
with what he has written.</li>
<li>So, following on this main purpose, the primary
group Paul centers on in 4:13-18 is actually believers who have died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul’s point is that, even though they are
dead, people in this group will not miss the Second Coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, they will be first to be transformed
and we (the living) will join them in meeting the Lord’s return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This emphasis remains true even in the
familiar passage in 4:17.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Paul
begins the sentence with “we who are alive,” he then returns the focus to the
dead in Christ by noting his readers (those alive) “…will be caught up together
WITH THEM in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Follow his thinking and then read 4:17.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the “with them,” not the “caught up,”
that is the focus of what Paul assumes will be encouraging words he mentions in
4:18.</li>
<li>The event described in verse 17 begins in verse
16 with a loud cry of command, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God,
and the resurrection of the dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By any
reasonable thinking, this bears no resemblance to some kind of secret rapture
of the saved in which everyone else is left wondering what just happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, as everyone dealing with this
passage prior to the 1830s demonstrates, 4:17 is describing nothing less than
the actual Second Coming of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is, the Second Coming of Christ will be announced by angels, trumpets, and
recognized by all the living, and will be accompanied by both the resurrection
of the dead and the transformation of the living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></li>
</ol>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To help make this even clearer, look at another well-known
passage about the Second Coming and notice how Paul says virtually the same
things about the same event (First Corinthians 15:51-53):<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable,
and this mortal body must put on immortality.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On a side note: I’ve run into a few people who will insist
the word “mystery” in 15:51 points toward a mysterious secret, and therefore proves
there will be a secret rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only
does it not fit the context of First Corinthians any better than that of
Thessalonians, it also reflects the assumption any word in the Bible must mean
exactly what that same word means in popular American English today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Any good reading, even an English Bible, of how the word
“mystery” is used in the New Testament demonstrates the Greek word “musterion”
as used in the New Testament does not mean what the popular notion of a
“mystery” means today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any fundamental
knowledge of New Testament Greek, or even some basic research on the New
Testament uses of “mystery” will make it clear it does not mean mysterious or
spooky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A “mystery” something once
hidden or known only in scattered parts but later explained and revealed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most common context, in fact, for
“mystery” in the New Testament refers to the inclusion of Gentiles within the
People of God, something hinted out throughout the Old Testament, but not
revealed clearly until the coming of Christ and the apostolic church.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Returning to First Thessalonians 4:17, the verses does, in
the broad sense of the word, describe what could be called a rapture, even if
that word (as critics are quick to point out) is nowhere in the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Believers are, indeed, caught up to meet the
Lord in the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, this verse cannot be referring to a sudden and (to
those left out) baffling disappearance of believers separated from the Second
Coming of Christ, itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What Paul
describes is the great universally announced with angelic shouts and trumpets
rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the rapture that includes
the final resurrection of the dead (there is some debate over whether this
includes all of the dead or only the saints).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is the twinkling-of-an-eye transformation of the living Christians in
which the mortal is clothed with immortality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The notion of two people standing together and one suddenly vanishing,
leaving the other both confused and “left behind,” cannot fit what Paul is
actually saying in Thessalonians.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This naturally leads us to the second portion of scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here we find the actual source of the common
idea, in the Rapture, one will be taken and the other “left behind.”<br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
PASSAGE TWO: Luke 17:34-35 <span style="font-size: x-small;">[and parallel passages in Matthew 24]</span></h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The picture of scenarios where one person is suddenly
snatched away to God, while the other is left standing there, seems rooted
directly in the teachings of Jesus. In
an extended discourse about the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the
age, Jesus presents us with the following paragraph. I’ve capitalized the last few sentences,
which will certainly be familiar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Luke 17:22-35</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he said to
the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days
of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look,
there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in
his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this
generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of
the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in
marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and
destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were
eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day
when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed
them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that
day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come
down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn
back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life will keep it. <span style="text-transform: uppercase;"><i>I
tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the
other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and
the other left.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, those last sentences are the backdrop of the
whole “Left Behind” series of best-selling novels and movies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many years ago, contemporary Christian music
pioneer Larry Norman typified the same idea when he wrote:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Life was filled with
guns and war <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And all of us got
trampled on the floor <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I wish we'd all been
ready<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Children died the days
grew cold <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A piece of bread could
buy a bag of gold <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I wish we'd all been
ready <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A man and wife asleep
in bed<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She hears a noise and
turns her head he's gone <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I wish we'd all been
ready <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Two men walking up a
hill <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One disappears and
one's left standing still <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I wish we'd all been
ready<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There's no time to
change your mind <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Son has come and
you've been left behind”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here we need to be challenged, once again, to step back,
consider the context, and hear the teachings of Jesus with fresh ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, we ought to engage our imaginations
to the task of hearing Jesus as if we were standing there in the crowd and had
never sat in a prophecy lecture or read an engaging novel about the end
times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we didn’t have all that
background and framework, and were hearing Jesus words for the first time, what
would we hear Him saying?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I mentioned above, feel free to read and re-read the
passage in whatever translations you like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I will still propose that the following observations are clear enough to
be certainties.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<ol>
<li>The whole point of bringing up the time of Noah
and of Lot focuses not on the evil going on at the time of judgment (a common
idea we get by just hearing a few choice phrases from the passage), but on the
fact that people were just going about their normal day-to-day activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, the people of Noah’s generation or
of Sodom had no idea judgment was about to come upon them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Jesus could certainly have pointed out
they were sinful and wicked cultures, instead He says picks out ordinary
day-to-day living kinds of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He notes
they were eating, drinking (this did not imply anything bad like drunken
parties), marrying, giving away children in marriage, buying and selling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, why bring up Noah and Lot?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus uses them as two biblical examples when
God poured out judgment on people and it came, without warning, while people
were just going about whatever they would normally be doing – it just
happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, this is very similar to
the point Paul makes to the Thessalonians.</li>
<li>The sudden nature of this judgment means that no
preparation will be given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just
happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, it means that it did not
matter where you might be standing or who you might be standing next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those things had no relevance related to this
judgment.</li>
<li>Most surprisingly, if you are standing there
listening to Jesus, think about the images He has just brought into your mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judgment came in the days of Noah and
destroyed the world, leaving only Noah and his family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judgment came and destroyed Sodom, leaving
only Lot and his daughters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ones
left are the ones protected from the judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And then, Jesus pictures two people in a field or in bed with one being
taken and the other left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In both
biblical stories just mentioned by Jesus, the taken are those judged and the
left are ones saved from judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ironically, then, if someone had asked, “So, you wanna be taken or
left?” – there’s no doubt which group you’d have picked.</li>
</ol>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth is this section of Jesus’ teaching says nothing
about a secret rapture or a great tribulation or even the world growing ever
more wicked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point made through both
biblical references and Jesus’ own analogies is that the children of the
Kingdom should remember that the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Final
Judgment will come in the middle of day-to-day living and without warning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever you happen to be doing at that
moment, or where you are standing, or who you might be with, have no direct
bearing on how you will fare in that judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So, living with that full knowledge means you need to be ready, day in
and day out, for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is how you will
not be caught unprepared.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The man who fully expects his house to be robbed may not
know how or when or even who will rob it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, if he absolutely believes it will eventually happen and it could happen
at any time, that man will always order things in his house or make whatever
preparations might be needed to stop or even catch the thief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, in a few words, is the whole point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go back and listen to the whole passage and it
will be clear that this is the point Jesus wants to make.<br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
Other Passages</h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other defenses of the rapture doctrine (and I have read
many) delve into such strange and esoteric approaches to End Times events that
it would exceed all reasonableness to address them here. Let me just pre-emptively bring up an
analogous example of the thinking you will encounter. Much of it depend maintaining confidence that
all time in linear, that we can discern interplays between the spiritual realm
and our world in literal and entirely logical terms, and that every detail in a
vision or parable or narrative can be, when convenient to prove a doctrine,
pushed to its most literal extreme.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here’s an example of the problems with approaching such issues with unbridled confidence in linear rational systems of explanation: It's not directly related to the rapture
but will suffice to prepare you for the kinds of thinking you will
encounter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible teaches is it
appointed to people once to die, and then the judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some point, beyond the Parousia, the living
and the dead will be judged, separating the sheep from the goats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, in the story of the rich man and
poor Lazarus, the rich man suffering in what sounds like hell can both see the
blessed realm of Abraham’s bosom, and is aware his brothers are still living
back on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, when was his
judgment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is he in hell?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about poor Lazarus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is he in heaven?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can you have heaven and hell before the
end of the age?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And can Paul say “once
to die and then the judgment.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story
of Lazarus puts a lot of stuff between “die” and the end-of-the-world final
judgment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One answer is to use a smattering of obscure passages to
postulate multiple after-stage realms ranging from Tartarus to Paradise to
Abraham’s Bosom to whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although it
valiantly tries to logically (to us) reconcile a bunch of different passages,
it ends up with an approach that is as complex as it is unconvincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example, if you go to paradise or suffering instantly,
anyway, the great final judgment is hardly needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be like putting a murderer in prison
for life as a convicted murdered, and then later announcing it was time have
his trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of this, of course,
assumes we can map the whole thing out on a time chart that makes perfectly
good sense to us. To overlay linear (one thing must follow another) assumptions
about time into anything that touches on eternity is never going to work. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One lesson many evangelicals need to learn is the humility
to acknowledge that, like there’s no way in the world to explain to a
three-year old why going to the doctor and getting shots is a really good idea,
there’s no way for us to provide neat tidy logical schemes to pull together the
Bible’s multifaceted glimpses into eternity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One theologian friend of mine steadfastly insists God must exist in some
kind of “divine time” because logic requires that one thought must follow
another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such a silly notion is not so
much a failure of the intellect as it is an utter failure of both humility and
imagination.<br />
<br /></div>
<h1>
Summary and Conclusion<o:p></o:p></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>The doctrine of a miraculous removal of the saved from earth
several years before the second coming is, plain and simply, not taught in
scripture. That’s why no one saw it for
eighteen hundred years. It did not sit
there, hiding in plain sight, century after century, until a
lawyer-turned-prophecy-guru named John Nelson Darby rediscovered this lost
treasure of apostolic truth. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tenuous biblical support offered either ignores context
or strings together passages linked with doctrinal assumptions to weave a
pattern so complex that page after page of detailed charts are required to
teach it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So complex that, in the
decades since Darby, major rifts and splits have continued to occur related to
significant details.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
A good source for additional information related to the doctrine of the rapture and dispensationalism, I would recommend a book by fellow Ozark Christian College professor, Dr. Larry Pechawer: <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Rapture-Behind-Really-Teaches/dp/0971636915/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434670678&sr=1-2&refinements=p_27%3ALarry+Pechawer" target="_blank">Leaving the Rapture Behind. </a> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, this is hardly an issue around which we should draw
our lines of Christian recognition and fellowship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a litmus test of orthodoxy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ancients were more wise than many today
in electing not to include complex theories about the Second Coming or details
explanations of the Afterlife into the major Creeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They understood the obvious complexity of the
issues meant that Christians might differ and still be Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ultimately, I reject the Rapture Doctrine because I do not believe is
supported by scripture and I believe the history of the doctrine serves to
confirm this. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-9897799436882879772015-06-04T11:07:00.001-04:002015-06-05T00:58:53.113-04:00What about the Babies?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnMYeMkL0QSp80JQLqSj4F_YLytm2PGBj-U7aqKLlzCJ-16NZ8tv4sBx8GPGUiA0vUh6FHo9dNWhrzyDuTtzyxw1qZ_q4-D-2MOfDUZs90HZKipZW_Sj6iijgB3S77wqHLspLejQ/s1600/Baby-New.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnMYeMkL0QSp80JQLqSj4F_YLytm2PGBj-U7aqKLlzCJ-16NZ8tv4sBx8GPGUiA0vUh6FHo9dNWhrzyDuTtzyxw1qZ_q4-D-2MOfDUZs90HZKipZW_Sj6iijgB3S77wqHLspLejQ/s320/Baby-New.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Human lives are marked out and segmented through ceremony and ritual. This is as true for the non-religious as the faithful. It is rooted in our shared humanity, which is to say it is rooted in Eden, not Pentecost. <br />
<br />
Weddings. Births. Deaths. School graduations. Joining the military. These life transitions are marked out by ceremony and celebration in every culture and major religion.<br />
<br />
It is as if we are driven by some innate need, as evidenced across a broad swath of human cultures, to mark out the great transitions life through a planned gathering and sharing of certain expected activities, words, or behaviors with family and friends. These life-marker ceremonies are typically both familial and religious, tied as they are to both identity and time.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h3>
Life-cycle Ceremonies in Religious Traditions</h3>
For example, Jewish culture typically celebrates key life cycle events with gatherings and ceremonies that are as centered on the family as in the formal gathering of the synagogue. The primary ones (traditionally for male children) would be:<br />
<ul>
<li>Birth (particularly Brit Milah or circumcision)</li>
<li>Puberty (particularly Bar Mitzphah when the individual first reads Torah aloud in synagogue)</li>
<li>Betrothal and Marriage (Kiddushin and Nisuin)</li>
<li>Death (particularly the Kaddish). </li>
</ul>
It is noteworthy that New Testament Gospels give support to all of these stages, if you believe (as I do) the incident in Luke so carefully noted as occurring when Jesus was twelve is intended to typify his move into adult in the context of his recognition by the temple priests and scholars.<br />
<br />
Historically, Christian traditions also arose around these major life events:<br />
<ul>
<li>Birth (baptism of infants)</li>
<li>Puberty (confirmation and First Communion)</li>
<li>Wedding</li>
<li>Death (Last Rites, Wake, Funeral, Burial). </li>
</ul>
Not surprisingly, the church evolved theological frameworks to undergird and explain these rituals and traditions. In time, these doctrinal rationales become so embedded that later separation of doctrine from ritual is extremely difficult. As an example, even after numerous Catholic scholars and Vatican II and the American Council of Bishops rightly revise the Catholic tradition of "Last Rites" to reflect its original function of anointing the sick with oil for healing (James 5:14-15), popular Catholic practice has continued the use of Last Rites (Extreme Unction). The deeply felt need for a ritual related to death and dying trumps Canon Law and Councils in popular practice.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Protestant Responses</h3>
Sixteenth century Protestants inherited a series of life-cycle rituals intertwined with dubious and often erroneous biblical rationales. It did not take long, in light of <i>sola scriptura</i>, for these rationales to be challenged. Centuries before the early nineteenth century American reformers Alexander Campbell and B. W. Stone, history demonstrated repeatedly when people were given the chance to examine the New Testament, many concluded that only confessional baptism (that is, a baptism performed in response to an individual's stated beliefs and commitments) was consistent with the apostolic church. So, infant baptism was abandoned.<br />
<br />
Ironically, although much of the theological framework of the Sacrament of Marriage as understood by late Medieval Catholicism and the Council of Trent was also abandoned, Protestants did not give up the practice of weddings. Even today, although most Protestants would consider a couple whose wedding was performed by a Judge or Justice of the Peace to absolutely be genuinely married, many continue to want a church wedding. This is understandable. Getting married is, after all, a major stage in the life-cycle of that woman and that man. As such, we tacitly acknowledge it is fitting to mark it with church gatherings and a measure of ritual and ceremony.<br />
<br />
The same paradox is true of death and funerals, as well. The notion of the funeral Mass, with its attending benefits to the departed as they endure Purgatory, and the use of consecrated sacred ground was rejected by Protestants. But, since death is such an intense event for families, churches never equated giving up the Catholic theology of Last Rites and Mass for the Dead with not having Wakes (or Visitation) or Funerals. We recognize their roles are far more pastoral (helping people) than soteriological (related to a person's eternal salvation). But, that never led major Protestant traditions to simply dump the whole thing, leaving their church families with nothing but a secular gathering at a funeral home, along with a few Hallmark cards and flowers.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Problem of Babies</h3>
But, then, we come to the issue of the babies. And here we are met with an overwhelming established tradition of nothing-in-particular. Determined to avoid any hint of even the tiniest bit of confusion with the practice of infant baptism, churches within the Stone-Campbell Movement (as well as many other Evangelicals) greet the birth of babies with a resounding: "Yeah. Okay. Nice. But, no big deal."<br />
<br />
Some churches make a weak effort with traditions like putting a flower somewhere up front or maybe showing a picture up on the screen to a smattering of polite applause. Often, even then, someone will feel compelled to offer a clarification for the closet pædobaptist hiding somewhere in the gathered crowd, "...folks, it's not that we think a baby needs to be baptized..."<br />
<br />
All the while, we manage to pull off weddings (something no church before Constantine seems to have regularly done). And we do it without apologizing and pointing out that we are not Roman Catholics and do not believe it is one of the Seven Sacraments and requires a duly ordained Priest.<br />
<br />
But, when it comes to what is undeniably one of the great life-cycle events for many families, welcoming a new baby into a family, our tradition of no-tradition is as nonsensical as it is unnecessary.<br />
<br />
The birth of babies should be celebrated. Children are a blessing. Never before in our culture is the need publicly and loudly affirm that greater than it is now. It is something that should be observed by public presentations of happy and even not-so-happy babies. It should be bracketed in carefully chosen words and joyous ceremony. It should be accompanied by singing and by solemn prayers. It should be marked by beautiful certificates and other objects families can cherish and preserve and one day show to that child's children and grandchildren. <br />
<br />
A church that sees babies as a problem to be managed needs to rethink its basic identity. A theatrical production or professional show may not want the distraction of babies anywhere near the grand production, but a healthy family absolutely insists on it. A sanctuary without the occasional sounds of babies is either a recital hall or a mausoleum.<br />
<br />
In my own experience, creating traditions in our Sunday gatherings that celebrate births can be wonderful and joyous moments. Call it the <i>music of tomorrow. </i>Parents buy special outfits. Family members gather. Relatives come from now and far. Pictures will be taken. And, for everyone there, the meta-message is: we love this family. Isn't it obvious what impact this has on some of these people who may have never been in our churches before that Sunday?<br />
<br />
One old grandmother said to me after church once in Syracuse, "Oh my, I'm so glad you all do these things. I always thought your kind of churches just didn't care much about babies." From her background, what else was she supposed to think?<br />
<br />
And, for some of those people, this first exposure to church will be far from the last.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Baby Dedications</h3>
So, what about the babies? <br />
<br />
Bring them in. Bring them forward. Hold them up. <br />
<br />
Proudly proclaim their official full names before God in the presence of His people. <br />
<br />
Publicly pray for the families, parents, and for the church to nurture and love and support that child in the years ahead.<br />
<br />
Personally, I'm not even opposed to a little drop of oil gently laid on the forehead of the child during such a prayer (making it, technically, a christening). By all means, dedicate the family and the child to God. The truth is even when such things occur in scripture, this act of dedication does not force those dedicated to remain faithful against their will. It is a ceremony of shared intention and hope, not coercion.<br />
<br />
However we elect to do it, let's make it one of the great life-cycle events for that family. Such things reflect our shared values and our common hope the babies within our church family will be kept healthy, safe, and will grow up in the faith until the faith that surrounds them one day becomes a personal saving faith within them.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-5019137971555946602015-05-30T12:50:00.000-04:002015-05-30T12:50:41.111-04:00Toe Praise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QrdypEawQaf4ogFWiPhm66PETgBKaEmM6lsjvU1GU0M3Jd_oQiyufTPmINxXgCZhPUIGoZvyTyLPuUT-0DFFcMpJ2YB6zbVHlB2POBmQez1fcTQVyC-rl-ijSZnIPkZBm9B7oA/s1600/Dance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QrdypEawQaf4ogFWiPhm66PETgBKaEmM6lsjvU1GU0M3Jd_oQiyufTPmINxXgCZhPUIGoZvyTyLPuUT-0DFFcMpJ2YB6zbVHlB2POBmQez1fcTQVyC-rl-ijSZnIPkZBm9B7oA/s200/Dance.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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In the early years of the twentieth century, missionaries
from the British “Brethren,” came into central and southern Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, the Good News of Christ evoked
celebration and responses largely unknown to the stalwart and strict English
evangelicals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the missionaries,
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<i>“The amazing, maddening mix-up
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Sometimes you just gotta let it flow.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-89836404463927370842015-05-28T19:16:00.000-04:002015-06-26T15:48:54.868-04:00The Downside of Exegesis<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonoruIsHZwu7G_QWU8IJ28B6-Qo8H8mj29nGCivJOLlwyY5YRNMv46QLSsSEdMPD53z-807C6SjYlEfJS7xHihaGkMFgp-SCYcKUjc0yHVchHE9QIZlwc_t6O5PVJoyLoIWnklg/s1600/Marked_Up_Bible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonoruIsHZwu7G_QWU8IJ28B6-Qo8H8mj29nGCivJOLlwyY5YRNMv46QLSsSEdMPD53z-807C6SjYlEfJS7xHihaGkMFgp-SCYcKUjc0yHVchHE9QIZlwc_t6O5PVJoyLoIWnklg/s320/Marked_Up_Bible.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">This is definitely </span><i style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">not</i><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> how early </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Christians experienced the Word </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is no surprise that the cultures that were basking in the glow of the Enlightenment and the emerging <br />
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disciplines of scientific research would be at the forefront of modern approaches to the process of exegesis. While much of this was framed in a broadly anti-supernatural and naturalistic set of presuppositions (emerging in what might be broadly called theological liberalism or modernism), conservatives flocked as eagerly to the seductive appeal of immersing their approach to scripture is quasi-scientific methodology as their modernistic antagonists.<br />
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<h2>
A Shared Methodology</h2>
I suggest both conservative and liberal exegesis over the past century and a half are feeding out of the same murky trough of modernity, employing a methodology that confuses complexity with profundity, assuming that massively increased information will surely bring increased clarity. With sporadic but important exceptions, the truth is the process of modern exegesis, managing to produce 500+ page commentaries on a 3 page piece of writing, has clouded, distorted, and obscured far more than it has revealed. Arminians and Calvinists argue about which proof texts trump the other side's proof texts, even as both sides assume without question an approach that elevates textual dissection as the final arbiter of doctrinal truth.<br />
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The seductive attraction, of course, is that the result of diving into one of these products of the best in detailed verse by verse exegesis not only gives the student massive amounts of new information, it also is clear evidence of the skill and intellectual giftedness of the commentary's author. And, with its technical vocabulary, massive amount of footnotes, and occasional use of statistics and lengthy analyses generously peppered with words in ancient languages, it gives every appearance of being a truly modern and scientific text ready and able to unlock great mysteries to the dedicated reader.<br />
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The problem is that no where else in seeking to understand the writings of poets or philosophers or their personal notes or correspondence do we ever employ such methods to understand or enjoy their written materials. In fact, were we to do that, reasonable people would question the whole approach, if not our own sanity. Central to this realization is the recognition that language, even in the language of the Bible, cannot be thought of a resting in individual words printed on a page neatly divided by chapter and verse numbers.<br />
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<h2>
Language is not Vocabulary</h2>
When you listen to someone speaking, the ways you are understanding them differ dramatically from what we often label exegesis. Central in this difference is the remarkable realization that you are not listening to words, but to a connected stream of sounds. <br />
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Our brains, in ways so innate we have a difficult time even being aware of them, are drawing images, ideas, intent, emotions, and a host of other things out of that stream of sound. I believe this is one reason many ancients (those that employed a phonic-sound to symbol form of writing typically called an "alphabet"), recorded these streams of sounds with no spaces between individual words. They recorded no spaces because there (usually) were none. A pause for a quick breath, or to enhance meaning or infliction, or to indicate a change of subject, or just because the speaking is thinking, would all be exceptions, of course. And, at times, these kinds of pauses are displayed in ancient writing. <br />
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But, and this is central, the sense we have (even in reading this post) that written and separated words are THE central means of communication is largely the product of the modern world. As scholars in philology often point out, however, the proper hierarchy places the written forms of language merely as means of recording the actual language - which is captured only in the process of day to day speaking and listening.<br />
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<h2>
Studying Words replaces Hearing the Word</h2>
Modern "scholarly" exegesis, complete with its own scientific-sounding jargon, statistical analysis, discussions of esoteric issues of syntax, searching underlying motives behind the selection of particular words or phrases, exploring etymological roots, and managing to produces page after page of densely complex information over just a sentence or two of biblical text, is a process so utterly foreign to normal human communication that one wonders how anyone could have imagined it would bring genuine clarity.<br />
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What the early Christians conceived of as experiencing the Word of God would have focused primarily on listening, not reading. In fact, until the last century or two, even people reading by themselves would have spoken the written words out loud as they read (once again revealing that they conceived language as centrally a thing to be spoken and heard, rather than equating it with the coding marks written down on a page). In most instance, in fact, the Word of God was a thing to be heard while gathered in a community a faith. It was a communal act of hearing, not a private act of silent reading. And, as such, pausing to nuance at great length why a certain word was chosen or a less common phrase used was as unlikely as it is somewhat silly.<br />
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The sad reality of our approach, one that more than twenty-five years in Christian higher education has shown me again and again, is that it is possible to gain reward and scholastic recognition as a brilliant scholar and exegetical master even at so-called conservative schools, even while operating utterly outside personal faith, an authentic community of faith, or regularly listening to large portions of the Bible. <br />
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To draw an analogy: It would be like a process that discovers you can see more detail by using a magnifying glass and then concluding that eventually permanently attaching two microscopes in front of students' eyes would give them the ability to finally understand what is in a backyard garden.<br />
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<h2>
The Word in Worship as Worship</h2>
We must model and teach how to listen as preeminently more important than how to research. We must model that where we stand when we look at the world is at least as important as what we think we are seeing and so hearing the Word within and with the church is as essential to the scholar as their knowledge of ancient Greek or Hebrew. Of course, it is not an either/or dichotomy, as many who stand within the church have never been considered the teachers or scholars of the church.<br />
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The Bible was written to be heard, not studied (in the modern sense). It's message was experienced as living words spoken aloud. The Word (in the sense of "Message") of God is not encoded in secret strata of underlying sources and locked up in strange mazes of syntactical secrets resting undisturbed for centuries until some modern wunderkind, equipped with shelves of lexical resources and peer-reviewed journals can, at long last, brush off the dust and dirt of centuries, and reveal startling new insights the ancients never dreamed were even there. To misquote the ancient preacher, "Vanity of vanities. All is vanity."<br />
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Recovering the process of reading portions of scripture aloud in worship as worship, completely apart from whatever might be addressed in a sermon or homily, should not be an optional item on a list of nice things we'd like to do to improve worship. To hear scripture read aloud is to hear a kind of ongoing incarnation - the Word coming into the world through the human reader. We hear it, as we hear all natural language, with the inflections, the pauses, the subtle increases and decreases in volume and cadence that bathes it all with meaning. We hear it without the artificial interruptions of verse numbers or Bible reference footnotes. <br />
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<i>And, as we listen, it is no longer the words, but the Word, that we hear.</i> It must return to its rightful place as one of the essential and fundamental parts of all corporate worship. We must also explore ways the implications of this can be integrated into whatever we might conceive to be Christian higher education.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-32643830002516773692015-05-21T11:28:00.000-04:002018-01-01T16:23:47.078-05:00The Gospel?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5dLdWvD-uoBcMXRz6lRyYbw1qNtYEIdwIzAr4FQBTCVK0R6B9Gne8rOCqBIVjV6V-ggnLkxgMazFKDY5fzJyjUrsdd3t1Z-Qw7SMo0tgf0cvUhCNOiKCcokLiI6IywEJKIHvKbw/s1600/What-Is-the-Gospel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5dLdWvD-uoBcMXRz6lRyYbw1qNtYEIdwIzAr4FQBTCVK0R6B9Gne8rOCqBIVjV6V-ggnLkxgMazFKDY5fzJyjUrsdd3t1Z-Qw7SMo0tgf0cvUhCNOiKCcokLiI6IywEJKIHvKbw/s320/What-Is-the-Gospel.jpg" width="320" /></a>Do we even know what the New Testament means by "the gospel?" I'm not so sure.<br />
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Do we even know what the New Testament means by "the gospel?" I'm not so sure.<br />
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Ask most evangelicals to define the "Good News" (or "Gospel") and you will likely get a quick and confident answer. But, however much the common-sense everybody-knows-that definitions pour out of our mouths, it would do well to hold them up against the actual biblical material.<br />
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Whatever "the Good News" entails, it did not wait until after the death and resurrection of Jesus to be articulated and understood (Mt. 4:23; 9:35; 11:5; Mk. 1:14-15; Lk. 4:43; 8:1; 9:6). Also, whatever the "Good News" is, it will surely be reflected in the only recorded divinely inspired "evangelistic" sermons we possess, those within the Book of Acts.<br />
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The startling challenge this presents, of course, is that much of our widely-held presumed understanding of the central message of the gospel simply cannot be substantiated by this material. The common ideas we seem to have are largely drawn from selective passages we glean from Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians - and even then the material is often distorted by presuppositions rooted in sixteenth-century theological controversies, rather than the world of the New Testament. It is not so much a matter of error as an appalling displacement of primary emphases.<br />
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The Gospel, if we want a definition that actually fits, must be centered on the realization and proclamation that the rightful King has come and invites those both near (ethnic Jews) and far (the nations) to become part of the covenant people (or "nation" or "kingdom") of God. This does not set aside the cross or atonement, but it rightly elevates Kingship (which we should always insert any time we read the word "Christ" or "Lord" related to Jesus) to its primary position. Thus, the "Good News" did not wait until the cross, but could be proclaimed upon the coronation of the King (one reason both the baptism of Jesus and the "triumphal entry" are referenced in all four gospels).<br />
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It also explains one of the more perplexing well-known phrases in regard to Christ's work. Since Christ was always creator, always Logos, always with God, always God - in what sense could it possibly be said that it was only through the incarnation and obedience to the point of death that Christ was given the "name above all names?" (Philippians 2:6-11) What name would be given to Christ post-incarnation and post-crucifixion that was not already His? Of course, this refers to the rightful dynastic (requires being both a human being and a direct descendent of David) title and position: King. In fact, through this Christ becomes what Adam alone had briefly been: a human being who is also the rightful king of the world. The king of all other kings, in fact. Although the modern mind tends to discount or ignore the whole notion of rightful kingship (rooted in such archaic notions as bloodline), the New Testament demonstrate quite the opposite (as in Romans 1:3).<br />
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The Christian message is not centrally reduced to the offering of a tremendous blessing (removal of legal guilt) based on minimal conditions, it is the more challenging call to abandon all other loyalties and citizenships. Do you want to go to heaven is not a sermonic theme in Acts. Kingship is.<br />
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That is why the central commands to follow given by Jesus (Matthew 10:32-39; Luke 14:25-33) and in the book of Acts center on Kingship, not an offer of divine forgiveness. In fact, even the well-known "Great Commission" is not rooted in some pitiful description of human lostness (although a true concept). The notion of forgiveness is not mentioned. It is grounded in an unambiguous claim of kingly rights: "All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore..."<br />
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Does the work of Christ include atonement for sin? Absolutely. Reducing the Christian message to forensic categories may make it more marketable, but it ultimately undermines and weakens the central ideas inherent in the "Good News" of the Kingdom of God.<br />
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And that is why the issue on which the early church found compromise so impossible was the question of ultimate monarchical loyalty. To say "Caesar is Lord" was not an ontological statement (what kind of being is "Caesar"). It was an affirmation of positional authority and loyalty: one that many Christians found impossible to make.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-58545432152621083992015-05-18T14:20:00.001-04:002015-06-26T15:48:09.728-04:00Demythologizing Esther<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Esther is a great story of redemption - one that comes about in a great crisis forced upon Esther. But, we often re-tell it as a Christian fairy-tale - one that equates her beauty with goodness (just like all fairy-tales seem to do).<br />
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Of the course, the storyline framework of "pretty girl" equals the "good girl" and star of the story has all kinds of problems, especially if you think about the consequences on young girls. The truth is that Esther enters (some may read it as she is coerced into entering) a contest that is not about simply being the prettiest or with the best homemaking skills. The contest centers on a series of comparative sexual performances for the Persian monarch.<br />
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Esther lives months within the Royal Harem with no one seemingly knowing she's Jewish. As the book of Daniel makes clear, this would have to mean she is making no effort to maintain the dietary laws of Moses. The contest involves spending a night with the King - and the one "who pleases the King" (yep, that's what the text says) the most wins. Esther does not win by having devotions with the King or just by being pretty. Also, when news comes to her of the impending assault on the Jewish people, her own un-coerced response is hardly commendable. It's close to, "Gee, that's a tough break for you guys. But, there's nothing I'm going to do about it."<br />
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Mordecai's response to Esther's less-than-desired reaction is clearly both a threat (don't think people won't quickly find out who and what you really are, little Miss Jewish Princess) and a challenge (it just may be that you've been brought to this place, this position, and this moment for this very purpose). And it is then, and perhaps only then, that we see the remarkable woman emerging from all too human girl.<br />
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Like stories about real people, and not children's fairy tales, Esther begins with a the real person. A young woman who may be beautiful, but is also self-serving, skilled at whatever sexual skills Persian monarchs expected, and certainly not showing any signs of tremendous personal religious convictions. But, pushed by events she hardly expected or wanted, she comes to a time of crisis that changes her, as surely as it results in the protection of the Jewish people. Her last words before preparing to enter into the King's court, "And, if I perish... Well, then I perish" are a seminal example of what people used to mean by the word "courage."<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-80547720502697170482015-02-16T17:28:00.001-05:002015-05-28T22:14:43.733-04:00Martyrs and the Baffling Loss of Framework<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.5636348724365px; margin-bottom: 6px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span style="line-height: 17.5636348724365px;">The news of twenty-one Coptic Christians beheaded on a Libyan beach by Islamic radicals proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS is heartbreaking.</span></div>
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It is also deeply troubling that, in the desire to remove religion from the discussion, the White House comment lamenting the murders only designated those beheaded on the beach in Libya as "Egyptian citizens." No mention of any religion whatsoever. Since these twenty-one were slain, according to their murderers, because they were among the "crusaders," the omission is baffling.</div>
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Apparently the whole world, without their knowledge of consent, has been unilaterally assumed to embrace the politely privatized religious assumptions of western Europe and the U.S. It seems that many in the west have no framework to grasp any reality where religion might be more central to a person's primary identity than family, tribe, nation-state or ideology. This loss of framework has left many without the grammar to comprehend words being shouted right at them.</div>
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For a much clearer voice, here is a link to the reaction of Pope Francis: <br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dy0-FPpvkIV4&h=aAQFwyqn9&enc=AZM4XwdThVsDvHsvAPqK-p3yJLsQB3hnEtz15kkFpEFO1IuPYVDsRqKHChDP18-9J1Tshv4BzfU_0BP6n15Z3dFmCy9MkUNCkdcHRZgp3rFbPe59GKJ1YzJFzk9XLbXqBtScQwmj1XvoR0KebBDphvKiU8XumE_8Dz8s1hOTSAahgg&s=1" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0-FPpvkIV4</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-8938464839793491952014-04-06T19:02:00.003-04:002014-04-06T20:48:30.512-04:00I Don't Believe in a Hill Called Mount CalvaryWhile criticism of contemporary worship music is sometimes fully justified, I'm baffled that older gospel songs seem insulated from such scrutiny. The truth is hymns, gospel songs, and contemporary worship music all have their fair share of either shallow, silly or even wholly heretical (a phonetic oxymoron) lyrics.<br />
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We ought to stop longing for <i>A Mansion over the Hilltop</i>. In 1611 the word "mansion" simply meant a place to live. The actual idea in John 14:1-2 is clearly the "Father's house" has more than enough room for everyone. The gospel song seems to suggest heaven is going to be a land of millions of eternal antebellum southern plantations. I would note this is an image of heaven many black <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="bb7a3500-1b5f-4e22-9f43-ee3d32afcda8" id="5a290750-6f1e-4886-a998-d60f69a2d853">Christians</span>, for some reason, find less than appealing. </div>
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Sometimes, the images are so deeply rooted in the presumed mythology of popular Christianity that even<span style="background-color: white;"> well-informed b</span>elievers are surprised at the absence of any biblical basis for them.</div>
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<i>I believe in a hill called Mount Calvary</i></div>
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<i>I believe whatever the cost</i></div>
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<i>And when time has surrendered</i></div>
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<i>And earth is no more</i></div>
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<i>I'll still cling to the old rugged cross</i></div>
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What's wrong with any of that?<br />
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If we're talking about the overall intention of the song, nothing whatsoever. The centrality of the atoning sacrifice of Christ in dying on a cross for the sins of the world has been and must remain a core truth of Christianity. <i>For our sake, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day, He rose again, according to the scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.</i><br />
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But, unless you are hiding something in the attic that would be a real show-stopper on the <i>Antique Roadshow</i> there is no "old rugged cross" for you to hang onto. Even if you managed to find one of the numerous so-called Pieces of the True Cross found in hundreds of European churches, it is not likely any of them is genuine and even less likely they would still be there when "earth is no more."<br />
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Add to that the fact that the word "Calvary" is a made-up word based on the Latin phrase <i>Calvariæ Locus </i>(place of the skull). In modern English Bibles, this is more accurately called Golgotha. Also, there's no mention of it being a hill. That idea (assuming there might have been a skull-shaped hill) comes long after the time of the apostles.<br />
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Finally, with apologies to everyone who loves southern gospel music and not yet sufficiently offended: even if I could go back 1,981 years and grab the actual old rugged cross, what would I have? It was the God-man on the cross that mattered. After his body was taken down, just like before his flesh was nailed against it, it is just wood. (I explore this idea in "<a href="http://www.adorate.org/2012/10/a-crucifix-in-church.html" target="_blank">A Crucifix at Church</a>.")<br />
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For a historic tradition that balks at the idea of veneration of sacred relics, all this attention to the old rugged cross as an object of such unbridled adoration imbued with <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="fc8ae526-166b-4640-90b3-5b30bfcc4969" id="3b597a3a-7760-4e1a-b22c-ce326a175a1f">salvific</span> power would be a real shock to the leaders of the Protestant Reformation. But, give it a good melody and drop it in the middle of a Gaither Homecoming, and thousands of Protestant happily sing about worshiping some seemingly eternal pieces of wood.<br />
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The truth is, I'm not blasting out a broadside against southern gospel music, including the songs mentioned above. I just wanted to hold up a whimsical mirror to some of the silly things we all sing that are not actually biblical (such as a woman giving birth as a silent night or an infant too holy to cry surrounded by <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="a64615f0-f987-42fd-b74b-b58f55990cff" id="63116fa0-6860-44ee-abaf-6bb29bce949f"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="297004f4-dab8-4eeb-8005-1fa9358910cb" id="466fabc8-2fbf-432e-b645-6f8c08896b8c">happily</span></span> lowing cows). Come Christmas, I'm not the Grinch <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="12dd7884-e3e6-42f6-9fcc-9c3e7572124f" id="284656e0-b454-4aa2-9f03-35f684aff89c"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="08645d45-6887-4101-baa5-70b8605404ba" id="b871b6a1-c486-4ca7-90a7-c360ee63b10a">demanding</span></span> proof texts. I'm right in there enjoying every silly and overly-sentimental lyric.<br />
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I just wanted to make it clear, the next time someone around you voices an often-justified criticism at some less-than-stellar lyrics they heard sung at church, that silly lyrics did not begin only when their beloved Hammond B3 got replaced by electric guitars.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-90729049656578186702014-04-05T20:29:00.002-04:002014-04-05T20:47:20.974-04:00Racism and Dressing Up for Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As the title suggests, this post will explore dressing up for Sunday worship and racism. Racism, I need to acknowledge at the outset, may not be exactly the right word, particularly if someone is thinking about a consciously malicious way of looking at people based on ethnicity or skin color. Myopic cultural provincialism would actually have been a better description. But, then again, would you have read the post even this far if I stuck those words in the title? While it may start to sound like I’m writing about proper clothing for Sunday worship, bear with me to the end and you’ll find the point I want to make is considerably more important than clothing for church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In an undergraduate course on Christian worship, I was concluding the unit examining the history and traditions of African-American worship in the United States. Since the students had seen the videos and pictures, my question was, “So, why do predominately black churches dress up for Sunday worship?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although my students were used to going to Sunday worship wearing jeans and other casual dress, it had been obvious in the class materials this was not common in black churches. Most of the men wore ties and some were in suits. Women went to church wearing nice dresses and, surprisingly in this day and age, a number wore stylish hats.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Several suggestions were made, all of them plausible. Maybe dressing up is a carry-over from the era of slavery? Or, maybe it’s the only chance many people have to really dress up? Or, could it be that black culture just generally puts a higher value on personal appearance than the majority white culture? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I admitted the direction I was going meant this was a trick question. But, they did have some good ideas. Just not the one I wanted to hear. To help them along, then, I added a new twist: “Now, I want to point out to you that traditional Hispanic Sunday worship is also marked by men and women dressing up for church. So, knowing that is also true, what would that do <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="bc668733-81df-4345-aa3b-28e19689edb2" id="ff593332-2b4f-48a5-942a-c3386566cb0b">to</span> your responses?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This was not new information. A number of them had worshipped with Latino <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f48ea31e-6997-4229-ad30-ab2ca7218a35" id="ced42729-1353-493f-a5be-f933acfecb3a">believers both</span> here and outside the United States. Was there some common denominator they had not seen before that would help explain both African-American and Hispanic Christians dressing up for Sunday church? It wasn’t related to their denomination. Most African-American worshipers were Protestants, while most Latino worshipers were Roman Catholic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well, both groups had suffered numerous examples of racial discrimination. Maybe the answer would be down that road. Or, it could simply be two separate groups had evolved wholly separate causes for the same behavior of dressing up for worship. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let me muddy the water up a little more. In my own family roots in rural Appalachia, the largely Scots-Irish population also tends to dress up for Sunday worship. That makes the idea it is anything to do with racial discrimination unlikely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Certainly Appalachian, Hispanic, and African-American cultures have higher levels of poverty than most of our white students. Poor Christians in third-world countries also tend to dress up for worship. It might be that there’s a link between poverty and dressing up for worship. That is an intriguing thought. But, it does not provide a viable explanation, since in the more affluent areas of London and Boston and Bar Harbor, very wealthy believers also dress up for Sunday worship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you’re tracking with me, you’ve already guessed the nature of the trick hiding inside the question, “So, why do people in historic black churches typically dress up for Sunday worship?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The trick is realizing the question reflects the distorted assumption that dressing up for worship, since it is not our current custom, must be a behavior that is “caused” by something. Dressing up for worship is not normal. In fact, it is simply not our (predominately white, middle class, English speaking, largely suburban, conservative, Protestant, evangelical, American Christian) normal. <i>The insidious nature of our racial and cultural blinders rests <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="9e519841-86f4-4f56-a548-4883deebbdf8" id="3c47de70-4371-4e79-bed9-3c8fa135de76">in</span> the assumption accepted without even realizing it that we define normal. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The question would be roughly like asking a group of American students standing in downtown Glasgow to explain how it is so many people around them insist on talking with Scottish accents. This cultural provincialism is so entirely distorted because, if you are standing in downtown Glasgow and don’t speak English like a Scot, then it is you, not the people around you, that have “the accent.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The truth is that the tradition of dressing so casual for worship that jeans and tee-shirts are quite acceptable is, for a two-thousand year old institution, a new tradition. It is also a tradition practiced on earth by only a small minority of Christians on Sunday morning. Don’t focus on whether or not it is a good tradition. The more important point is to recognize how we so easily presume our normal is the normal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One final example of a similar question, and one <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="1f111f10-ff99-44a6-bf3c-d9b9829caf4a" id="f440aee3-9cfc-4a5e-8969-ac240d314dcb">touches</span> more directly on the racism nerve: “So, where do black people come from?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The question is framed with an assumption that Adam and Eve were white. Noah and his family were white. It’s easy to see why that’s the assumption. It’s in all the paintings. Noah sometimes even looks a good deal like an Australian actor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Where do black people come from?” assumes we (writing as a white Scot-Irish American) as light-skinned humanity are the standard-issue <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="ff71607c-e7c2-4dc4-8532-1a249ad613e9" id="00649e04-7c8c-40d4-a1f9-93a024cf3314">kind</span>. The other variations must have arrived later<span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="de2b5e28-9d9b-4f28-b9bf-8ec43d1f76b6" id="ee1bc92e-6429-48d5-bd30-bac69ae215bb">.</span>* In so easily, so thoughtlessly, and so mindlessly presuming our normal is everyone’s normal, we unwittingly propagate a mindset that makes every notion that Jesus is “the white man’s religion” sound pretty much on target.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not all of our distortions are so clearly harmful. But, they are still distortions. Normal worship must have twenty-five minutes of music. Normal worship has a preacher who gives a thirty-minute sermon. It’s normal to look out and see nearly every face in a congregation the same color. It’s normal that everyone in church votes for the same candidates. None of this is remotely normal. It is simply our normal. Nothing wrong with that, unless we never open our eyes enough to realize that we are just a part, and a very small part, of the marvelous multi-colored multi-lingual picture of the people of God spread across this planet and reaching back a hundred generations through kingdoms and empires long vanished and largely forgotten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My students were not dumb for not realizing dressing up for church is so widely done over so many centuries that asking why a particular group dresses up for church is a little absurd. They were just normal enough to presume <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f87f6aaf-bef4-4492-8bd0-c1f56472214b" id="265ea0c0-3d59-4fc0-a030-6a8ce599916f">their</span> <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f87f6aaf-bef4-4492-8bd0-c1f56472214b" id="d73ec85b-edbc-47cc-8afb-5b37327e099c">normal</span> <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f87f6aaf-bef4-4492-8bd0-c1f56472214b" id="4249fd1f-3303-4448-b9e7-ad8ca9fe1efd">was</span> the normal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hopefully, they will think about this the next time they meet someone dressed differently than them in church or see a painting that depicts Adam and Eve as white people. As to the Australian Noah, we’ll leave that one for others to discuss.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>*The assumption by some within an evolutionary framework that white races are the ones that arose later is, if anything, even more racist. If human evolution is presumed as a kind of progress, then later races are improvements on earlier races. Not exactly the same issue as the one addressed in this post, but a viewpoint that needs to be buried along with the swastikas that so openly reflected such arrogant hubris and racism.</i></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-42925030244297907862014-03-09T09:31:00.000-04:002014-03-09T10:03:39.467-04:00Does God Care about Ritualistic Worship?Stephen Lawson* oversees a course in the history of Christian worship for <i>The Consortium for Christian Online Education. </i>A student recently asked a good question in an online forum that many evangelicals ask. The question, and Stephen's response, are worth reading.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>A student's question:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>Does ritualistic worship matter to God?</b></i> </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I realize that it may matter to some men or women, but does God really even care about the ritualistic parts of our worship of Him?</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Response:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is an interesting question. It is one that is deeply theological and pushes us to return to Scripture and the Christian tradition to articulate a faithful answer. The question you’re really getting at, the one behind the question you are asking is, “what is Christian worship?” and “how do we worship God faithfully?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are some of my initial thoughts on this important matter:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To begin with, what is a ritual? We tend to think of somber monks chanting and bowing as being “ritualistic,” but the truth is “ritual” is a far broader term than that. In the context of Christian worship, we can refer to any expected and accepted actions of the congregation as “ritualistic.” When people move and act in a certain way in order to show reverence, unity and allegiance, we can refer to that as ritualistic. Thus, pledging allegiance to a flag is a ritualistic action. As is asking the congregation to gather, face the same direction, stand, sit, bow, raise arms, etc. These are prescribed actions and are therefore ritualistic. There can even be freedom of expression within rituals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe a non-religious example would be helpful here. As anyone who has spent time in a different culture knows, the various actions people participate in when they are eating a meal together are highly <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="a2f23e07-980f-4ec4-9893-6bf5652b5546" id="c11272ea-dc14-4360-94d2-89d5890710e3">ritualized</span>. Sometimes there are elaborate practices of taking off shoes, or washing hands before the meal. There is often a standard about who gets served food in what order, of what kind of utensils to use, how to pass the food, in what order to eat the food, what should or should not be complimented about the food, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When I spent time in Zimbabwe doing some work with a mission I thought to myself, “How do these people remember all these rules?!” It was then that it hit me. We have just as many rules about eating in our own culture. If a friend invites you and your wife over for dinner in our culture, there is a set of normal and acceptable practices, that is, rituals, that we abide by. For example, it would be rude to not compliment the food, or to ask your friend what his annual income is. In China the exact opposite of this is often expected. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, within our framework of having someone over for a meal there is a freedom and flexibility, but the framework sets the rules and allows for freedom by establishing acceptable (and unacceptable) behaviors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Humans are very <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="32d85a61-0e54-4cad-8e45-cfccd948bf51" id="5b1fa73b-892e-4d06-a11a-02b0a139797f">ritualized</span> creatures. We have complex rituals that we all know and abide by for every aspect of our lives. Those that don’t abide by the proper rituals are isolated in our society. Just think about someone who refuses to wait in line properly, to abide by the (official and unofficial) rules of the road, to participate in conversation with the proper posture and tone. Such people find it difficult to fit into society and flourish. Indeed, those who are high on the autism spectrum, who are physically unable to abide by the proper social rituals of our society, often require full-time care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Everything we do as humans in groups fits within <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="72477a2c-9730-4bc1-bb58-5a441525292d" id="89d64369-4d5c-4052-b380-6a4143dc4d4f">ritualized</span> practices. This is true for Christian worship, whether it is the “smells and bells” worship of Roman Catholics or the energetic worship of Pentecostal Christians. Everyone in the assembly abides by certain official and unofficial rules about when to act in certain ways. This is not at all a bad thing, for this is part of the nature of what it is to be human (in fact, language itself, with its rules and flexibility, is a very <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="abd4f5d5-3522-4bfe-9946-4a4b9cbec6f2" id="44de8632-a2bf-4b88-a9c2-2ed262e7d0c6">ritualized</span> practice). And if that wasn’t enough, the Apostle Paul himself tells us to worship “decently and in order.” (1 Cor 14:40)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, the question should not be, “should we use ritual worship?” but “what kinds of rituals will we use in worship?” This is a significant change in the question.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, yes. I think that ritual worship matters to God because I don’t think there is another kind of “un-ritual” worship. Are rituals pleasing in and of themselves? Could we be unfaithful in our Christian practice and still use the right rituals and be pleasing to God? Of course not! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is so much Scripture (as you note) that undercuts this notion. If we are sinning and oppressing the poor (which the OT prophets seem particularly upset by), then our rituals can be offensive to God. But that doesn’t mean that the rituals are wholly useless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finally (and I recognize that I’ve gone on too long already), I would agree that God is primarily interested in the hearts of his people. The first goal of all Christian worship is to give adoration to God. The second goal is to form for God’s self, a person, a body, a family. In our worship, we cultivate that unity of heart, mind, and body. One of the ways we do that is with communal practices (standing together, holding hands in prayer, praying the Lord’s Prayer, taking the Eucharist, etc.) these our physical and ritual practices that cultivate a change in our hearts and whole selves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our hearts are affected and united to our bodies and our voices. Where we put our bodies, our hearts will follow. I suggest that what Jesus said about our money is also true for our bodies. Where they are, there your heart will be also (Matt 6:21). Jesus doesn’t say that where our heart is, there will be our treasure, but the reverse. I, for one, am glad for this. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For I do not always feel in my heart like obeying Scripture or worshipping God. I do not always have the right heart. Sometimes it is full of doubt or anger. If I refused to worship and give until I felt my heart was entirely in the right place <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="6747ceb5-4ab3-40cd-8fe4-05e05421eace" id="cf056201-104a-4eb6-b945-e27738660e5b"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="59695f2c-4874-4bd9-ab79-7addf8c07d86" id="4602072c-fdbd-4b05-9143-5119e136118d">on</span></span> every point, I am not sure I never would. Yet, when I come together with the people of God, give generously and worship within the actions and "rituals" of that gathered church, even when I don’t feel like it, the Holy Spirit often works upon my own heart to change it and turn it time and again back towards God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">*My son Stephen </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7bec9041-07ad-4019-ae18-dc9f94bda468" id="f2180304-abe1-4bf8-9425-aab767e7ed5b"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7a51c009-b33d-4e99-a54c-d74a06145a09" id="47f47290-4717-462e-95be-50eaf5e2c472">is</span></span> a Ph.D. <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="a7363b77-128c-4004-8933-97a1f32fc250" id="5505e5a3-f0b0-41fa-a182-129e2627c9da"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f2b0f0dc-a0ba-4c3b-be28-6ac62854d7e4" id="63005c06-906f-4a29-b080-7fadebd5ac25">student</span></span><br /><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="5f6497fe-b51e-40a9-8297-08f8c0a52814" id="8bac23ec-1234-4764-b396-a6de239d61f7"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="631c0239-d391-47e8-bc37-36ab7e58c62a" id="5a5526ce-e630-49b2-ac46-5ddb7b56deb6">at</span></span> St. Louis University</span></div>
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<a href="http://stephenlawson.org/"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>stephenlawson.org</b></span></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-18381123723206447992014-03-04T09:10:00.002-05:002014-03-04T09:12:46.282-05:00Ode to Lent<i>A reflective and candid meditation for the season....</i><br />
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<br />
I pause now and want to lament<br />
The bad poetry I have written for lent<br />
But rhyming is just so tempting<br />
And easier than actually repenting<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;"> - Tom Lawson, 2014</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-59845777980423219692014-03-01T16:18:00.000-05:002014-03-02T09:29:59.890-05:00Monkeying with History<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>First, I do apologize for getting off topic. This isn't about worship.</i></span></div>
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But, I just finished reading over yet another evaluation of the recent televised debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham. <br />
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It was one of several reviews I have read recently that bring up the specter of the <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="85ab444f-9fc2-48be-b6cb-cb09eb834ba3" id="a77c1557-d515-4bcb-b148-c8b68347ea8b">Scopes</span> trial (the so-called "monkey trial"). In this case, the reviewer (somewhat begrudgingly) said that at least Ken Ham was better informed than the hapless William Jennings Bryan when confounded by brilliant Clarence Darrow about the earth being created in just six days.<br />
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The only problem is that nothing remotely like that happened in those warm July days of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="994b24e8-d751-4414-aa3c-765d2948c0f8" id="f4921a91-53e9-4a19-b36d-b3de3818f778">It's</span> a cultural myth I am frankly tired of seeing repeated over and over. I only want to make two points.<br />
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First, that famous confrontation between the agnostic Darrow and the creationist Bryan over the six days of creation is a fiction. For one thing, William Jennings Bryan, like many other Christian conservatives of that era, including the founder of the fundamentalist movement, B.B. Warfield of Princeton, was never a young-earth creationist. He had campaigned against Darwinism, to be sure. But, he would not have held the same view of Genesis chapter 1 as Ken Ham. So, there was no conversation in which the skilled agnostic corners the hapless creationist with questions like, "Well, how long was a day?" "I <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="c5dbfa85-d9f4-478e-bcdb-f88589f15ff7" id="861ee98a-cff9-40b7-a7db-ecd0699f57c5"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="edd6c8f6-9189-4693-8ec4-23629f4a87fd" id="6e4222d6-4a5c-4cb0-b261-96911dc0703a"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="c35f54ee-b631-4dcd-95d9-c958294eb164" id="781a4e97-a9fe-4f5b-9efe-f14d250f0f91"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="b4967129-6f34-4b85-a28d-e184a2f6e4ff" id="4d80b4c7-e4d2-4046-8a06-f6841a458e2e">dunno</span></span></span></span>. I suppose it was 24 hours." etc. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVn7wF48cfK73PzVjVGRAHuookwP6L0XBN7Kt2IFDpusdvo82LlvWmEmPtNZf2NgsumCiSL0xC8dSGHsNhpltqx-u3Xs69OgWW3LoXs_HUMqz5nVIQFaDClEdOCjZMtR_82DBnYw/s1600/Inherit-the-Wind-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVn7wF48cfK73PzVjVGRAHuookwP6L0XBN7Kt2IFDpusdvo82LlvWmEmPtNZf2NgsumCiSL0xC8dSGHsNhpltqx-u3Xs69OgWW3LoXs_HUMqz5nVIQFaDClEdOCjZMtR_82DBnYw/s1600/Inherit-the-Wind-poster.jpg" height="400" width="260" /></a></div>
<br />
The Scopes trial was a locally contrived publicity event, largely forgotten and culturally unimportant after 1925 until many years later when it evolved (no pun intended) with the help of an editor of Harper's Weekly and then, a few years after that, by two gifted script writers, into a so-called "watershed" event - a view that would have baffled people who lived in the late 1920s. And, in this redefining the event, the script was changed to suit the needs of some in the 1955 (where it served primarily as a not-so-subtle allegory of the dangers of the anti-communist scare then driven by voices like Senator Joseph McCarthy).<br />
<br />
Second, the widely acknowledged high point of the play (and movie) "Inherit the Wind" has the agnostic lawyer making a passionate speech to the judge about the dangers of making it a crime to teach evolution in public schools... <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="74d43513-57bc-484a-ab2f-fc23c0e6664e" id="cfd0fb66-1753-4167-8656-73afe5d7b130"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="853a7b40-334c-4b73-b62a-d86638af847f" id="61f7ba2d-26d6-4259-9f71-b56fd5479ba4"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="170a34ef-99b8-452e-8292-2ee4bd19f754" id="11227bd2-7998-43bb-ab46-4924c9381d94"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="68a03057-15b5-482e-a90e-60266ef71d5c" id="4b31d177-7df2-4e96-97cb-360b61309419">because</span></span></span></span> then "they" will want to make it a crime to teach it in private schools, and then they will want to ban books, and then (in imagery vividly powerful in the 1950s) red banners will be unfurled as fanatics march off to war.<br />
<br />
Just what lessons are we to learn from this? Where is real censorship coming from today (a point I thought Ken Ham made very effectively)?<br />
<br />
We are now in a time when it is, in fact, against the law in many places even to teach creation (by any name) or to even teach that evolution has unanswered issues, has no single unifying explanation, and is not universally believed by scientists. Some have written that, based on scientific neutrality, schools removing all books advocating creation would not be unconstitutional. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJPBTFhjFGxomlWRd9505i4MzozJeu-mSNRxaX89ZeHAVIFiSNhUV3b371nbhE6QlkBd_zIX4b5gGJyVA0znFRQtIUOZo8ZBgR_nN2uFa3LuxizzBiY3GyN9N2UKEsE1H9Onzzw/s1600/Nazi-Evolution-23951746112.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJPBTFhjFGxomlWRd9505i4MzozJeu-mSNRxaX89ZeHAVIFiSNhUV3b371nbhE6QlkBd_zIX4b5gGJyVA0znFRQtIUOZo8ZBgR_nN2uFa3LuxizzBiY3GyN9N2UKEsE1H9Onzzw/s1600/Nazi-Evolution-23951746112.jpeg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
And, although I'm not associating evolution-advocates today with <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="92085e8b-e6c2-46ac-9d60-e84948d18ef7" id="131f9b60-c296-461c-87fb-8f7acd9ccad0"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="788ef468-4fb3-4f05-ab45-14da98e61be0" id="de17ea6b-92fe-46a2-a5ea-3d4b8b109609"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="6f57f4be-7c78-4852-927d-ff952b2d8a97" id="d6a70922-7642-45b9-827a-14b5b04c8d80"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7cca13b8-a4be-43d4-b3dd-870247da98ea" id="efa10ef3-5dc6-4b56-99cb-b3049f902c10">Nazis</span></span></span></span>, it is a simple fact that Nazi views regard superior and inferior races, embracing practices or eugenics, and views of a "master race" were not rooted in Genesis but were openly associated with the Darwinism of that time. So, the red banners unfurled, whether by Hitler or Stalin or Tojo, seem more likely to point to the dangers of <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="109a23b2-e24d-425b-a474-413d506d726b" id="af142609-6454-47e9-ab33-52a9c1aea23f"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="c4b0b12d-6833-4e63-8cff-aa8d6b33968b" id="3aa6c8a7-c5b2-44b4-9420-83f0e90f9c77"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="905ce0dc-39f8-4f21-8af8-f39c00d81723" id="64c32a86-8d78-4f8a-af04-11530fb0e13f"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="44edc8f9-b020-4ba0-a7b0-79a44a582afb" id="27ab48f0-1655-41a1-a76a-4ca58c83f399">ammoral</span></span></span></span> <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="109a23b2-e24d-425b-a474-413d506d726b" id="0cba68b5-c167-4d91-b312-1fa9caa4d8e3"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="c4b0b12d-6833-4e63-8cff-aa8d6b33968b" id="2eeed1e7-317c-42de-ba0e-f7a464814293"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="905ce0dc-39f8-4f21-8af8-f39c00d81723" id="a9bcf00d-6213-49e2-8b36-13d1d65436c6"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="44edc8f9-b020-4ba0-a7b0-79a44a582afb" id="36dea79e-32ca-44a4-8adc-f143b861ed22">exclusivistic</span></span></span></span> "<span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="109a23b2-e24d-425b-a474-413d506d726b" id="32a0c80c-0b45-46fd-8b9e-17db40a9b2c0"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="c4b0b12d-6833-4e63-8cff-aa8d6b33968b" id="de76a364-90df-4fdc-9d5c-9bf5193d917f"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="905ce0dc-39f8-4f21-8af8-f39c00d81723" id="24861be9-3e9a-470c-9465-6b84d6f96024"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="44edc8f9-b020-4ba0-a7b0-79a44a582afb" id="8f9104d7-eac5-4caa-8200-ae6033d1431f">sciencism</span></span></span></span>" (not a real word, but you know what I mean) rather than Christian fanaticism. In the 1930, Japan had the world's highest literacy level and Germany has the highest per-capita number of <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="df6e26e7-f9ef-439e-a08f-d39678c1a771" id="8148b324-17af-4ad7-ad56-c6e753adc22b"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="89bee0d1-9215-4546-bbf2-2f6ffe4518bc" id="c1e0b741-a813-4381-a24c-ed770c3dbc07"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="50064a57-19d4-4aad-bfb1-ff2e96d149dc" id="62f811bc-da46-43b3-8a2e-abbb97182851"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7b0a9ba9-3f61-401c-863c-d5a2c0dbb1a3" id="7855ae55-ee3a-47b3-b397-5d21997dd17c">Ph</span></span></span></span><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="df6e26e7-f9ef-439e-a08f-d39678c1a771" id="e11e5c58-dc7d-47b9-8e84-a479485232f9"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="89bee0d1-9215-4546-bbf2-2f6ffe4518bc" id="c22f78be-5362-40ca-8ff8-321455d94dce"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="50064a57-19d4-4aad-bfb1-ff2e96d149dc" id="822710b0-caa4-4772-af82-615e68689105"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7b0a9ba9-3f61-401c-863c-d5a2c0dbb1a3" id="e33bee7e-ad11-482a-9590-44bbc85ba144">.</span></span></span></span>D's. I'm not blaming an emphasis on education for fanatic nationalism and the carnage of the 20th century. But, <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="ba469c37-3e07-49de-882b-735285d5634a" id="b1ee139c-484d-4f46-976c-50791a7e402e"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="b730950c-bd73-4d7d-aef3-6ab90ff716ce" id="7a52f9fd-b1c8-4f5b-91fc-0964459d6f01"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7ea19a27-c13c-4f23-8f6d-2c1559b8246c" id="a8e91c51-c24e-467d-9aab-54a00f089d2e"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f1b9135f-b0a3-45fb-8644-899f77f8ba81" id="df2acc86-a8ac-4d73-ad1f-71f19297a3cd">suggestions</span></span></span></span> of unfurled red <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="ba469c37-3e07-49de-882b-735285d5634a" id="0a996759-0c67-44fa-b287-1f4ced8ca116"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="b730950c-bd73-4d7d-aef3-6ab90ff716ce" id="9449f263-f2e5-4b4d-859d-1ee75bc91ca9"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7ea19a27-c13c-4f23-8f6d-2c1559b8246c" id="e05932a2-510f-41c9-a8bd-c3bc5c9b64af"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f1b9135f-b0a3-45fb-8644-899f77f8ba81" id="c6035ea8-1f26-4938-8d7e-6d08aadf3767">banners marching</span></span></span></span> blindly off to war hardly serves as <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="ba469c37-3e07-49de-882b-735285d5634a" id="88a652d6-a578-423a-ae82-4a9841965ab0">a</span> metaphor to support <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="ba469c37-3e07-49de-882b-735285d5634a" id="5b5756cf-f0e7-46ed-b8e8-c72113526c82"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="b730950c-bd73-4d7d-aef3-6ab90ff716ce" id="b96105d5-deff-4630-a5d4-503ba83af4bb"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="7ea19a27-c13c-4f23-8f6d-2c1559b8246c" id="9b88f807-afcb-4176-b6c4-8df0d36eece8"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="f1b9135f-b0a3-45fb-8644-899f77f8ba81" id="adf612a7-cbc0-4a49-b6fa-16416bbc047f">fear</span></span></span></span> of conservative Christians.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-69582887674880270152014-01-12T08:06:00.002-05:002014-04-07T16:12:55.211-04:00RhythmSometimes the message might be when there is no message.<br />
<br />
It is a shame Protestants, especially Evangelicals, give little thought to the liturgical seasons. The reality is that advent is four weeks of anticipation. A little four-week metaphor on longing for what has not yet happened. And, yes, it does not end with Christmas. But, for nearly 80% of the world's believers, it does not end there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9MUsRuARh4dav-SbolVV-8bAOKBj2weUfUD-ccmA5YEWJtDsS9xClkW_2aiGOgGRdbj7-oyh2CYOPGFQs4YrTqC9GNS3aJbuqHdgGTILNf2MAnmSfbDFQyhyphenhyphent7wpKrxFFwSvjg/s1600/Calendar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9MUsRuARh4dav-SbolVV-8bAOKBj2weUfUD-ccmA5YEWJtDsS9xClkW_2aiGOgGRdbj7-oyh2CYOPGFQs4YrTqC9GNS3aJbuqHdgGTILNf2MAnmSfbDFQyhyphenhyphent7wpKrxFFwSvjg/s1600/Calendar.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
Epiphany, associated with the visit of the magi, as well as the baptism of the adult Jesus in the Jordan River by John, is on January 6. In the Orthodox tradition, Christmas falls on our calendar date January 7. But, even those are not the end.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
In early February we will come to the Feast of Simeon - the old man who held the baby (not a newborn) Jesus in the temple. (Luke 2) There is a movement over time here most Evangelicals seem to have either lost, or replaced with a secular calendar following the rule of St. Hallmark.<br />
<br />
The rhythm of worship used to not be about the music, the drummer or the praise team. It was experiencing worship in the passage of time that did not feel that somehow every week ought to be better than the last. There was an ebb and flow, a hurrying up and a slowing down, a mountaintop or two that would emerge out of seasons of reflection and sadness. If there were never weeping in the night, who would care whether or not joy came in the morning?<br />
<br />
So, considering the season we are still in, and the lessons we seem doomed to learn only in the movement of our lives through time that we seem unable to either speed up or slow down, here's a link to the message Linda and I shared in chapel at Ozark to close out the first semester back in December.<br />
<br />
Two notes: The first part is just audio and a black screen. Live with it. Hearing is sometimes better than seeing.<br />
<br />
Also, there are a number of minutes (with video) when nothing happens except us obviously waiting. If you'll stay with this and not skip ahead, you may find out the most important message of the sermon may be when we don't say anything.<br />
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Waiting and worship may need to rediscover one another.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-50344748874824258972013-09-24T18:36:00.004-04:002013-09-24T18:46:30.989-04:00World Without End: Unpacking a Perplexing Lyric<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUriyPaI1CrLlDu-53jfRsR5BczhIs-Ejougfrtur2c_apoTGZfo4oVkBVe0wqzCLXQ9eF72UKmwf0ut-aLdlRBSVP_cLCyXuIDrlhmXAtXz5vACYw2G5-GFbodYZmeklASTZSEA/s1600/Glory_Be_to_the_Father.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUriyPaI1CrLlDu-53jfRsR5BczhIs-Ejougfrtur2c_apoTGZfo4oVkBVe0wqzCLXQ9eF72UKmwf0ut-aLdlRBSVP_cLCyXuIDrlhmXAtXz5vACYw2G5-GFbodYZmeklASTZSEA/s200/Glory_Be_to_the_Father.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Try as I might, it's hard not to be a teacher. So, with apologies for giving way to the
pedantic, I'd like to help explain a perplexing phrase used by many churches in one of the
oldest praise songs still is wide use today.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While some evangelicals may not know it, a large number of
believers regularly sing a doxology called the <b><i>Gloria Patri</i>:</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4kepi6e8r14kio/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Cynthia%20Clawson.mp3">Glory be to the
Father,<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4kepi6e8r14kio/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Cynthia%20Clawson.mp3"> And to the Son,<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4kepi6e8r14kio/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Cynthia%20Clawson.mp3">And to the Holy Ghost.
<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4kepi6e8r14kio/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Cynthia%20Clawson.mp3"> As it was in the beginning, <o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4kepi6e8r14kio/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Cynthia%20Clawson.mp3">Is now and ever shall
be, <o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4kepi6e8r14kio/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Cynthia%20Clawson.mp3">World without
end. <o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4kepi6e8r14kio/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Cynthia%20Clawson.mp3">Amen. Amen.</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Traditional musical setting by Cynthia Clawson)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The problem comes from the second to the last line.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>World without end</i>
certainly sounds like it is describing maybe being in heaven, or maybe, just a
very long period of time on the earth (as Ken Follett uses it in his novel with
the same title). Follett uses "World
Without End" to describe the stable world of late Medieval Europe. But, like many people, he is totally misunderstanding the
phrase. The is not surprising, since the traditional "world without end" translation
of <i>et in saecula saeculorum </i>is
confusing at best, and misleading at worst.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Trying to figure out the meaning by looking at the rest of the lyrics doesn't help much. Translated literally,
what the original Latin actually says would be closer to "in world of
worlds." The word secular, in fact,
is based on the Latin <i>saecula.</i> But, even the more literal translation still
leaves many unclear about what the phrase means. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One important key is to think more broadly about how we use
the word "world." Someone
might say, "In the world of Julius Caesar, the Roman Republic was widely
corrupt." Used that way, the word "world"
is not about a place as much as it is about a time. You could say, "In the <u>age</u> of Julius
Caesar, the Roman Republic …"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That same alternate sense is also true of the Latin word <i>saecula</i>.
S<i>aecula saeculorum </i>can be
translated as, "<i>age of ages</i>." Some might already see where this is going, because they remember
some of the ways that phrase is used in the New Testament. In
fact, if you sang the <i>Gloria Patri</i> in a Greek orthodox church,
you would end the song by singing, "Kαὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων." This is exactly the same phrase found in Greek
text of Galatians 1:5; Philippians 4:20; Revelation 1:18, 4:9, 5:13, 7:12 and in
many other passages. If you look and
don't see "ages of ages," that's because it is usually translated
"forever and ever."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, the song is
actually a praise of the Triune nature of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rihoofrtawuowj/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Fragments%20of%20Grace.mpg" target="_blank">Glory be to the
Father,<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rihoofrtawuowj/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Fragments%20of%20Grace.mpg" target="_blank">Glory be to the Son,<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rihoofrtawuowj/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Fragments%20of%20Grace.mpg" target="_blank">Glory be to the Spirit<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rihoofrtawuowj/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Fragments%20of%20Grace.mpg" target="_blank">Three in One <o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rihoofrtawuowj/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Fragments%20of%20Grace.mpg" target="_blank">As it was in the
beginning<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rihoofrtawuowj/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Fragments%20of%20Grace.mpg" target="_blank">It will be forever.<o:p></o:p></a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rihoofrtawuowj/Gloria%20Patri%20by%20Fragments%20of%20Grace.mpg" target="_blank">Amen. Amen. Amen.</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Musical setting by Karl Digerness)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The same theme is found in other songs. "Age to age He stands. And time is in His hands. Beginning and the end. The Godhead, Three in One. Father, Spirit, Son. The Lion and the Lamb." – Chris Tomlin
in "How Great is Our God"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But, most contemporary praise music, just like most of
revival gospel songs written over the past 150 years, avoid references to the
Trinity. When it comes a complex doctrine, even one as important as the
Trinity, the normal approach of most church music for the past century has been
avoidance. Music is supposed to make us feel, not think. Doctrines
are for preachers, not song writers. It
was not always so. The ancient </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gloria Patri</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> was calling upon the church
to praise the Trinity. Glory is given because
of the nature of God as Father, Son, and Spirit, affirming such has always been
and will forever be the nature of God.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-13212628839407618892013-09-23T13:10:00.000-04:002013-09-23T14:07:14.851-04:00When Worship Leaders Worship: A Call for CommentsOver the next several months I will be involved in conversations with several local worship leaders (whether called worship pastors or ministers or whatever). A part of the conversation will be to dialogue about our worship needs. Is the worship they lead on Sundays enough? If they were able to go to a worship service they had not planned as nothing other than one of the worshipers, what kinds of things would they hope to find in that service?<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please read or add comments by scrolling to the end of the post and opening the comments section.</span></i><br />
<br />
Of course, this is hardly a new question. I know that many worship leaders find the single greatest aspect of going to a national or regional conference for worship leaders comes in the times of intentional community worship. Some of this might be the impact of have so many gifted musicians singing together at once. But, other things seem just as often to be central.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwXRowEDPxBulCTh3xS72WGbilaj2lnb7hRl7NF4VZ8mAncP7pFxy8lSUqJkbCGav0EZ3KWGM471pM20b34CC51MYz1HuP-OO-btD-jszn-iywqHIWZ-PYTf-FgEDmlBEIdO54g/s1600/worship-hand-signs-photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwXRowEDPxBulCTh3xS72WGbilaj2lnb7hRl7NF4VZ8mAncP7pFxy8lSUqJkbCGav0EZ3KWGM471pM20b34CC51MYz1HuP-OO-btD-jszn-iywqHIWZ-PYTf-FgEDmlBEIdO54g/s400/worship-hand-signs-photo.jpg" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Used in Advanced Worship Final Exam</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is interesting to hear how some have described the worship times at these large conferences. Sometimes, if you listen, it sounds like they are as excited by what is not in that time of worship as they are by what is.<br />
<br />
"The service didn't seem overly programmed."<br />
"There was minimal use of technology and stage lighting."<br />
"It felt slower. But, at the same time, it felt more intensely engaging."<br />
"There was some liturgy. I know a lot people at my church would be turned off, but, since I do contemporary all the time, I found it to be very meaningful."<br />
<br />
<b>If you are a worship leader or church leader (again, by whatever title), then I would like to hear from you. </b><br />
<br />
<i>Do you have any kind of regular fellowship with ministers in similar roles in other church in your area? If you do, is this something you have ever talked about? Any insights from that?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>If you could slip away one Sunday and go to another worship service just to deepen your own experience of worship, what kind of worship service would you be hoping to find?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>What do you think might be the biggest challenge to your own personal worship of God that you face in your life and ministry?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-40470550989930756772013-09-18T12:11:00.000-04:002013-09-18T21:56:49.949-04:00The Problem with Praise<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj25u0BYF5Ec-fSLDDfI3Cg2HYHLlKcN_0t0Bp4GBvJaAbF-xOBCfNcl26f4PhEzviAH51b0vKl-SsGJgFsx8wU8bYTNPiaPnicAA71rtiI_GsCcD1auy0rZMTTbgN955_ZZJg5Ug/s1600/Greatest+Worship+Ever+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj25u0BYF5Ec-fSLDDfI3Cg2HYHLlKcN_0t0Bp4GBvJaAbF-xOBCfNcl26f4PhEzviAH51b0vKl-SsGJgFsx8wU8bYTNPiaPnicAA71rtiI_GsCcD1auy0rZMTTbgN955_ZZJg5Ug/s320/Greatest+Worship+Ever+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amanda was pretty excited to find out her husband, Jack, was
reading the new bestselling book in marriage enrichment, <i>A Praise Centered Marriage</i>.
It wasn't that their relationship was bad or anything. It just wasn't always as good as Amanda had
hoped it would be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her hopes seemed to all come true when, that next Tuesday evening, Jack looked
at her across the dinner table and said, "You are wonderful. You are simply the best. I love everything about you. You fill my life
with joy." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What more could a woman want out of a marriage? At least, that's what Amanda thought six
months ago when the process started that would eventually ruin their marriage. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jack was nothing if not confident and consistent. The book had assured him the key to making
any marriage better, from "good to great" as the book repeatedly
claimed, lay in claiming the power of praising your wife and all the blessing
that would bring into the marriage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, the next evening, when they sat at the dinner table,
Amanda was actually pleased when Jack looked over at her, smiled lovingly, and
said, "You are wonderful. You are
simply the best. I love everything about
you. You fill my life with joy."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sense of strangeness actually first surfaced four days
later. It was a Thursday evening, which
was when Amanda normally went online and checked their debit card spending to
make sure there were no surprises. She
noticed the new Bose Home Theater system purchase.
It was not a small expenditure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Jack, what is this all about?"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"You are wonderful.
You are simply the best. I love
everything about you. You fill my life with joy."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Did you buy these speakers?"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Of course.
There are genuine blessings to those who learn how to praise."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"You're not making any sense."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"You are wonderful.
You are simply the best. I love
everything about you. You fill my life with joy."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amanda decided to just let it drop. I mean, people would
think she was nuts if she complained that her husband's lavish praise was
beginning to irritate her a little.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, the sense that something was wrong didn't go away. It just got worse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About a week and a half later, Amanda had promised to go out
shopping with her mom. Jack knew it was
on the calendar. She was sure she had
even mentioned it the day before. But,
seven o'clock came and no Jack. She
hadn't arranged a sitter, and she wasn't about to leave Katherine by herself,
even though her daughter kept insisting that
nine year old was plenty grownup. So,
Amanda waited. And waited. Her mom called twice. At first, Amanda did her best to defend her
husband. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Maybe he got tied up at work? Or might have been in a fender bender?"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She couldn't for the life of her imagine what Jack could be
doing on a Monday evening. Even as she
let the question firm up in her mind, she knew the answer. Jack had to be at his sister and brother-in-law's
house watching Monday night football.
Nothing else made sense. She was
furious.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jack came through the front door about 10:30. Amanda was sitting at the kitchen table,
fuming.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Jack, you knew I had something scheduled this
evening. What were you thinking?"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"I was thinking how much I love you."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"I know that.
But, how could you have forgotten about my plans for this evening."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"You are wonderful.
You are simply the best."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Would you please shut up about all that you-are-wonderful stuff! I want to know you realize what you did to me
this evening and promise me it's not going to happen again!"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"I love everything about you."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Quit changing the subject, Jack."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"You fill my life with joy."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amanda stormed out of the kitchen, went into the main
bathroom, and loudly slammed the door shut.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jack had liked the football game. Steelers versus Houston. Both had a shot at the Superbowl this year. Shame about Amanda and her mom. But, Jack knew, sincere praise would cover a
multitude of sins.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amanda did not bring up the subject of Monday again the next
day. Or the next. In fact, she didn't bring up anything. She'd stopped talking to him. For his part, Jack was taking it all in
stride, and putting his trust in the promises he was claiming through the
practice of ongoing wife-praise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About two weeks later, time in which Amanda said next to
nothing and Jack periodically announced his undying love and praise for her, she finally told her mother that her marriage was falling apart. When asked why, she broke down and told her
mother than Jack had totally stopped communicating with her. He didn't listen to her. He never admitted doing anything wrong. He just kept saying over and over how great
she was and how much he adored her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Jack, we need to talk," she managed to say just
before they turned the light out one night in late October. "I'm not sure it's working for us
anymore."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"But, Amanda, how can you possibly say that? You are wonderful. You are simply the best. I love everything about you. You fill my life
with joy."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Jack, if you don't quit saying things like that, I'm
calling a divorce lawyer."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"I've never felt better about our marriage, Amanda. You
are the light of my life."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"What planet on you own, Jack?. Go outside.
Look around. It's late
October. It's 9:30 and the sun went down
over three hours ago. Wake up, Jack. This isn't lighting up anything. It's dark
out there jack, Jack. Not even the moon.
Just a few stars." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Why do stars fall down from the sky, every time you
walk by? Just like me, they long to be close to you."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Jack, I'm serious as a heart attack. We've got to start really
communicating."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"On the day that you were born, and the angels got
together…"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amanda stormed out of the house and slammed the door behind
her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Praise, even utterly sincere praise, cannot by itself build
or maintain an authentic relationship.
Relationships need listening, not just speaking. Relationships need to talk about tough times,
not just pretend every day is more
joyful than the day before.
Relationships happen when people know when they have done wrong and hurt
each other, and are willing to talk
about it, apologize, maybe cry a little, and then move on.</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdc8E5cOhqe4YVyqfMwwMC0OjQjiyxJT0xCZlt1eqltoO2uWf9EzvRT-jmA0yKwWcJiF_sJP1daHpry0VIo5Dq8qEXn_Uil_KoIie2Bo9pLXoQq8_RJUB1oagChTtevx7UGjD2Hg/s1600/The+Case+for+the+Psalms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdc8E5cOhqe4YVyqfMwwMC0OjQjiyxJT0xCZlt1eqltoO2uWf9EzvRT-jmA0yKwWcJiF_sJP1daHpry0VIo5Dq8qEXn_Uil_KoIie2Bo9pLXoQq8_RJUB1oagChTtevx7UGjD2Hg/s200/The+Case+for+the+Psalms.jpg" width="138" /></a>When one of the leading New Testament scholars alive today
takes the time to address the weaknesses and predictability of contemporary
praise music, it's a good bet the issue is about more than just style. N. T. Wright's timely new book, <i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Psalms-They-Essential/dp/0062230506" target="_blank">The Case for the Psalms: Why they are Essential</a></b></i>, drives home the point that the ancient songs of worship were far
richer and more diverse than the praise dominated worship music that's become the mainstay of popular
worship music. Words of sorrow can stand
alongside words of celebration. Songs
that focus on how we have failed God are there to balance those songs when we
talk about the fact that God has never failed us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may go against the grain of our age to suggest that
a constant diet of praise and worship songs is undermining the church's relationship
with God. What could be wrong with
praising God? At one level, absolutely
nothing. He is worthy to be praised and
we understandable want to affirm that in our music. It may be risky to come out and just say it,
but a good deal of our praise music today is just outright boring. How long can we keep singing the same ideas
over and over, just revising the exact words we use to say it?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you consider
that all relationships grow out of both talking and listening. They grow through talking and listening using
wide variety of emotions and circumstances.
The fact is, we're facing a clear
choice between praise and communication.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is there any such thing as too much praise? Just ask Jack.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-26284188718823008022013-08-06T11:32:00.003-04:002013-08-06T11:35:08.239-04:00Meditations on the Typewriter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxaOmnZBb33htmsGI9u6KhJw9BW_0NSAV9ew0S9h4x8ou_k1PxJYZ3UYD44QXeaG6AW-97m-5_KziTArLZTg7kvjkBR7QN83ZL-2Hw8TL2qiGGg0tcLjAd9WbkkxiaMzzAkl-5g/s1600/Typewriter+with+Frame.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxaOmnZBb33htmsGI9u6KhJw9BW_0NSAV9ew0S9h4x8ou_k1PxJYZ3UYD44QXeaG6AW-97m-5_KziTArLZTg7kvjkBR7QN83ZL-2Hw8TL2qiGGg0tcLjAd9WbkkxiaMzzAkl-5g/s400/Typewriter+with+Frame.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Like
some ancient creature that does not know it<br />
is long extinct, the typewriter plods along.
Once<br />
the cutting edge of technology, the
MacBook Pro of<br />
some past age, it stands now only as a
curiosity -<br />
a relic of forgotten years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Yet, when animated by human flesh and muscle,
the<br />
keys still miraculously snap shapes on to blank pages -<br />
Preserving thought and idea for some future mind not<br />
yet born to read and ponder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> All the trinkets of the now, with their bright
pro-<br />
mise of a better world, have not deepened the mind or<br />
made tender the human heart… although
now our rage<br />
and violence can be communicated at light speed to<br />
thousands of others who live vicariously
through light<br />
emitting diodes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> But still, somewhere, hands guide ink over
paper or<br />
push keys that force metal forms over inky ribbons. Words,<br />
at times, need to be slowed . . . backspaced . . .<br />
corrected . . . easing out in a trickle,
not a flood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Slow us down, O
Lord. To write and read and live deeply<br />
may be better than to live quickly. Too
many words may<br />
be worse than none at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> May the value of words not be measured by
volume, but<br />
by their depth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-75855721050098889292013-06-06T08:57:00.000-04:002013-06-06T09:06:29.528-04:00Resistez<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sixty-nine years ago today...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUEsk9qVDczlKN_b_KLFZ1OXIoT06tMaMHlGizPWPuD7Z1A5Td4hyphenhyphenZ27w8HAFfJedQGbcvLd_W2cyF6jyh4tw_UlKagaeOQz8DINrLIl02OtbvyUP4YfelnWWkit6jGBCZU2K1Hw/s1600/img028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUEsk9qVDczlKN_b_KLFZ1OXIoT06tMaMHlGizPWPuD7Z1A5Td4hyphenhyphenZ27w8HAFfJedQGbcvLd_W2cyF6jyh4tw_UlKagaeOQz8DINrLIl02OtbvyUP4YfelnWWkit6jGBCZU2K1Hw/s320/img028.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The small speaker crackled with static, and then they heard it. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne blessent mon coeur D'une langueur Monotone.”</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The poem by Paul Verlaine was well known. Many listening had learned it in childhood. The melancholy words spoke of the long slow weeping of autumn’s violins. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This time the words held <i>sensus plenior</i> (fuller meaning). This time they were announcing, somewhere out there in the darkness, ships were plowing their way through the waters of the English Channel </span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">– a</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">mong them a thousand Higgins boats – the landing craft that would bring soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force onto the beaches of Normandy, beginning the liberation of France. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But first, for the members of the French resistance, the words were commands. Men and women began hurrying out across the countryside. They had work to do. They were living behind enemy lines. They were going out to undermine the strength of the enemy. Because, when their neighbors had whispered for them to go along with the Nazis, to acknowledge France’s defeat, and play it safe, they had defiantly whispered back, “I will not.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When the people of God gather each week, as Stanley Hauerwas has suggested, they gather as outposts of a foreign government deep in enemy territory. These people have given their allegiance to a foreign monarch and openly long for a coming invasion. It is no wonder some of the wisest of earth’s rulers have looked upon their gatherings as dangerous and subversive. It is no wonder some have had no qualms about using the power of empire to bring these outsiders into line and make them safe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And so, some among the resistance have become comfortable with an enemy culture. They speak of a kinder, gentler empire. They urge the rest to lay aside their separateness. The appeal sounds noble and seductive. Fit in. Be safe. Don’t make them mad at us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But, the weekly gatherings pose the problem. Messages keep coming from overseas. Messages that constantly push people from safe to subversive. "Respond to hatred with love." "Craving wealth is a root of all kinds of evil." "It's a good thing when the empire turns its iron fisted gauntlet against you because of me." The play-it-safe approach is constantly undermined by messages that sneak their way into the weekly gatherings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_GvE8by5sllEDSbhXITndkjBvdTMuenJgtUpppXABu044n5niuB4gBvBQ1tvleIZ3UIr5O8GAF7mQXRHOEkGLSSEXFDy_Ty5y0dI9gjT3ava8u-TmkG7ImBkUse7yI7aolkgJA/s1600/resistance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_GvE8by5sllEDSbhXITndkjBvdTMuenJgtUpppXABu044n5niuB4gBvBQ1tvleIZ3UIr5O8GAF7mQXRHOEkGLSSEXFDy_Ty5y0dI9gjT3ava8u-TmkG7ImBkUse7yI7aolkgJA/s200/resistance.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“<i>Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne</i>…” Everyone knew what it meant. They knew the next morning’s sunrise would bath light over a few miles of beach, a small slice of poor defeated and occupied soil, that would once again be free France. These were the last hours before liberation. There were orders that had been given and now there was work that had to be done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The worship of the church is a gathering behind enemy lines to reaffirm loyalty to a foreign power and to receive messages that will send men and women out to sabotage the enemy and to recruit more into the resistance. To those who stand at the doors and urgently whisper to those leaving, “Don’t go overboard. Fit in. Play it safe,” comes the answer of the church, “We will not.”</span><o:p></o:p> <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /><i>This is a repost (something I rarely do) of an earlier article in Adorate.org. I thought it deserved resurfacing again and it's plea for an uncompromising commitment to the subversive Kingdom of the Messiah remains one of the church's great needs.</i></form>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-57376970006502629902013-06-03T11:42:00.001-04:002013-09-18T21:58:43.685-04:00Dancing in Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDAXklidpGBIZwpCtWGWxM_7TlsBCRYulpDp7K01OculOFrqw_gcWM9GeAZjZiMf4zZ6s_BbmNxIYscjbDdd-GBcaWUFGAsDLc7vMOLhMUzKRBnxPZy3uZdSR6u71uGQYE51vP-w/s1600/DancingChurch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDAXklidpGBIZwpCtWGWxM_7TlsBCRYulpDp7K01OculOFrqw_gcWM9GeAZjZiMf4zZ6s_BbmNxIYscjbDdd-GBcaWUFGAsDLc7vMOLhMUzKRBnxPZy3uZdSR6u71uGQYE51vP-w/s200/DancingChurch.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Around the year 1900, Plymouth Brethren missionary Dan Crawford asked a Congolese woman why she got up and started dancing in church, "Oh! it is only the praise getting out at the toes."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dancing is a form of art that you do. And I mean that in an absolute sense. You dance. You become the art. It is not something you do to someone or something else. People can play a piano, beat a drum, paint a canvas, lead a choir, carve a statue, or write a praise song. But, for people to dance you do not have to have a piano or a drum or a canvas or pen and paper. You just need willing and able to move your own body.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dancing is certainly mentioned in the Old Testament. In fact, it's most common context in the Old Testament is within worship and celebration. It would misread the canon, however, to then conclude that most dancing in ancient Israel was religious. The Old Testament only rarely mentions weddings, births, and funerals; although it's obvious they were ubiquitous in day to day life. It would be a clearer picture to see that dancing was a widespread part of celebration in a nation where many of the celebrations recorded in scripture revolved around Yahweh. In fact, one of the two times dancing is mentioned the New Testament is related to the beheading of John the Baptist (the other is at the return of the prodigal son).* But, this hardly supports the idea dancing had somehow been rejected by Jews as evil and was reserved only for drunken banquets of corrupt rulers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The origins of dancing, like a number of other practices, can be easily seen in the actions of young children everywhere. When they are excited, they literally dance around. As is also true of most ancient dancing, children might not be strictly following any rhythm or melody. They are just, well, moving a lot. They have to. They can't hold it in. Like the African woman said to the British missionary, the excitement is running through them and has to get out at the toes. Even the quintessential Englishman, C.S. Lewis, wrote, "The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance."</span><br />
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"<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The universe spinning and singing; It's all for You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The children dancing, dancing, dancing; It's all for You, it's all for You"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">(Chris Tomlin, "Not For Us")</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To insist that dancing in our society is widely used in highly sexualized contexts with lyrics laden with references to violence, drugs, and sexual immorality is true, but hardly relevant. Music, itself, has been largely hijacked to feed a godless industry and serve the desires of an immoral society. So has public speaking, humor, and the visual arts. But, few insist the answer to this requires we now worship without music, public speaking, humor, or art. We have no mode of praise that is not connected to our humanness. Even in the Eucharist, the mountaintop of Christian worship, we are merely doing what everybody does: eating and drinking. All worship uses forms and practices that could serve either Yahweh or Ba'al.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm always discouraged to see people gifted by God with great artistic ability that the church refuses to bring into worship. If you are a vocalist, or can play (at last certain) musical instruments, you might be offered numerous opportunities to use those gifts as acts of worship. If you are a writer, a painter, a poet, or a dancer, we'd love to have you in church; but take your art somewhere else. But, and here's where we really get you, we still expect all your stories, paintings, poems, and dances will be distinctly and intentionally Christian. In family therapy this is called a double-bind. Two contradictory demands: use your art for God but don't think you can bring it into worship. Murray Bowen demonstrated that double-binds contribute to schizophrenia. That is no less true spiritually.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We need to see and listen to the whole church and learn. There do not have a corner on everything people need to know about worship. We need to listen to the churches of the East and learn the power of mystery in worship. We need to listen to the church of Rome and learn the power of saying just the right words in worship. We need to listen to the church of South America and learn that worship is a fiesta and, while you might rehearse a performance, you never rehearse and perform a fiesta. We need to listen to the church of the Reformation and learn the power of the Word of God in worship. But, we also need to listen to the church of Africa, and start letting the worship get all the down to our toes…and then start leaking out all over the place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, you wanna have a go at dancing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"Blessed is the one who sings and those who dance to the prophecies of this book, for the time is near."</i> (Dr. Bob Lowry, former New Testament professor at Lincoln Christian Seminary, paraphrasing Revelation 1:3)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">*my thanks to Jim McMillan. The original post only noted the dancing at Herod's palace. He reminded me of the allusion to dancing in the celebration of the prodigal's return in Luke 15. A good reminder it's always wise to make a quick check in Logos before posting.</span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-56723216649046604832013-05-31T14:48:00.001-04:002013-05-31T21:13:04.290-04:00Banning Prostitution in the Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGTCJFIE30l4jIR00qhzQZ4I2GAjrynmVJvorgh249LI-Wl_1Y4WtBQYprs1a7B2c5wOoTup8SIhBmvD7ZV3HhvIBzJSUXJB6Y6uGUG1PM17Zfy6V0byM9HxvlnmAx1Bwq5O11xA/s1600/prostitution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGTCJFIE30l4jIR00qhzQZ4I2GAjrynmVJvorgh249LI-Wl_1Y4WtBQYprs1a7B2c5wOoTup8SIhBmvD7ZV3HhvIBzJSUXJB6Y6uGUG1PM17Zfy6V0byM9HxvlnmAx1Bwq5O11xA/s200/prostitution.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A man once mistook me for a hooker. I know what you're thinking. No, I was not dressed in drag and I was as surprised and ultimately pretty offended by the mistake. Perhaps more surprisingly, it all happened over the telephone.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 16px;">The Solicitation</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There I was, peacefully sitting in my office grading exams when the phone rang. The man introduced himself. He was an elder at a rather large and very well-known church. The conversation began with small talk but quickly got around to the exchange of money for services.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">"So," he asked after explaining the purpose of his call, "Are you ready to come up here and be our Pastor?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I replied that I was content where I was (I was serving on the faculty of Kentucky Christian University). I also knew the offer was being tendered pretty much on the sole basis of several people in the leadership having heard me speak somewhere. As far as I know, I'd never had a personal conversation with any of them about anything. Preaching is one of my strengths. But, I also know I have a boatload of weaknesses. Offering the leadership of a church to someone solely on the basis of hearing them preach a sermon or two is as dumb as voting for a President based on who looks best in a televised debate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"We think you need to reconsider."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I was, to be honest, flattered. If I felt God prodding me to move, I might have been at least willing to enter into a longer dialogue. I didn't so I didn't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Thank you for the kind offer, but I'm really not interested."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Whatever you're making at that school, we'll at least double it."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is what might be called <i>closing the sale.</i> Like all such exchanges, at least one of the parties thinks it always comes down to negotiating the price.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I guess maybe I was having a grumpy day or maybe it just hit me wrong. Instead of being attracted or even flattered, I was embarrassed and a little upset.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Listen, I may be many things I wish I was not, but I'm not up for sale to the highest bidder."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The conversation ended awkwardly. I never heard from the church again. I told Linda about the conversation. But, I've waited a number of years before putting it all into print. And, no, I will not provide any hints or clues about the identity of the elder or the church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As I muddled over the conversation over the next few days, I found myself increasingly offended by the whole idea. I was offended that the kind of conversation I had over the phone is not that rare. Most of all, I was offended that my own vocation, time after time, has demonstrated that we can and often want to be, bought by high bidders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Shepherd Stealing</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">While nineteenth century churches constantly struggled against sheep stealing (getting people in some nearby church to change membership into your church), the modern church has replaced that with shepherd stealing. It is so widespread and tacitly accepted that it is often practiced right out in the open, like legalized prostitution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"You like our worship pastor?" one excited young preacher once asked me at a CIY gathering, "We stole him from Second Baptist Church in Dallas." I smiled and nodded, but cringed on the inside. I know I should have said how I felt. But, like you, I often compromise integrity in the name of avoiding awkward moments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the receiving end of this blatantly capitalist approach to ministry are the small and medium churches that have come to assume they are a stepping stone up a ladder of ministerial success. "He's a great preacher. So, we know we won't be able to hang on to him for long…"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We have come to find it acceptable that some churches pay their Senior Pastor (or Lead Pastor or Grand Imperial Pastor or whatever) more than four times what a full time secretary at the same church is paid ("Oh no, we're not sexist. We have woman serving Communion."). The only thing we lack to fully match the model are stock options and golden parachutes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>A Biblical Concept Tainted</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Paid church leaders is a biblical concept. It's good to ministers and staff well enough that they can exist beyond just barely getting by. It's good for church leaders and workers to be economically within the norms of the general culture. It's good for churches to go beyond minimums and be generous. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It's not the amounts that are as offensive as the sheer audacity of using money as a key tool used to go after leaders the church wants. It's like the worst stereotype of what goes on in the business world. I'm embarrassed that all this bolsters the assumption, all other things being equal, we can all be bought, if the price is right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the process of hiring anyone, the subject of money will come up. A person, especially one with a family dependent on their income, will certainly want to discuss salary, insurance, and other financial matters. I'm not suggesting someone considering a ministry ought never to suggest a higher salary or that a church never offer one. It is when salary and material benefits serve as the primary attraction. "I've prayed about this and I think it is God's will," is fatally tainted when it serves to mask greed, even from ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Banning Prostitution</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are three things a church should do to ban ministerial prostitution.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Never go after a minister serving at another church who has given no indication he or she is open to the possibility of moving. Never directly contact someone who has not given permission, even through a third party, to be contacted. I do not give out names without some kind of permission from them. I think it would be wrong if I did. This is not an unreasonable standard. Christian Colleges have long agreed to maintain this standard in regard to each other's faculty. It is no less important in local church leadership.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Never bring up a dramatic salary increase as a means to persuade someone to come to your church. There are times and ways to discuss salary that don't use it as bait. Commit yourselves to pray first, pay later.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Establish a reasonable salary range for full time employees. This range can certainly recognize responsibility and reward effective service (I Tim. 5:17-18). But, there must be limits in the gap between highest paid and lowest paid. A 300% gap might seems outrageously large to some readers. But, in a number of churches, achieving a 300% maximum difference in salary would require significant pay increases for many employees. Whatever the limit, it should reflect the principles of Christ and be a conscious decision of the leadership.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And, finally, do not call me and promise to double my salary. I'm not afraid of having an awkward moment. I'm afraid I might say, "When do I need to be there?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Will Rogers once quipped that he didn't understand people's complaints about Washington. "After all," he explained, "We have the best congress money can buy."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>To use money to buy what, after accepting the exchange, will later masquerade as love happens every night in America's cities. It some places it is even legal. One of those places ought not to be in the church.</i></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-49958021584822974192013-05-06T00:32:00.000-04:002013-06-03T20:34:08.535-04:00Disappointing Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsgRRe6Zt5tpp4huw08q6xi8nh0EHXM5T0hQ8SAZJAfU6d1Xia7xus_nncmcKFEubMNzuSUQXe3uwcXFLArwWbHz9iTQz6F7iAN_vYwCMDI_6VjyXl9agxIOkOHU2fUyOwgQC2g/s1600/disappointed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsgRRe6Zt5tpp4huw08q6xi8nh0EHXM5T0hQ8SAZJAfU6d1Xia7xus_nncmcKFEubMNzuSUQXe3uwcXFLArwWbHz9iTQz6F7iAN_vYwCMDI_6VjyXl9agxIOkOHU2fUyOwgQC2g/s1600/disappointed.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I am part of a disappointing church.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">They weren't a disappointing church at first. They were once
welcoming, warm, loving, spiritual, worshipful, and generally fun to be around.
That was then. This is now. Now they are a disappointing church. I've had time
for a good long look behind the scenes, and some of what's there just isn't
very pretty.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The truth is this is not the first time I've found myself in
the middle of a disappointing church. It doesn't happen every time. Just some
of the time.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Some churches I've seen are caring and faithful and loving
and I have nothing but good memories of them. Not detailed memories, since
these were churches I visited on a Sunday or two and never went beyond that. I
never got deeply involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, the
worship service was certainly powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And based on my admittedly limited visits, everything from the happy
greeters that met me at the doors to the joyful praise songs that lifted my
soul, proved that these were wonderful churches. Unlike the church I'm at now.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">After some careful analysis of the past thirty years, that
is the common denominator true of all disappointing churches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My level of involvement. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The churches I found disappointing were the churches where I
got really involved. Went to Bible studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Went to meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Got in deep
enough to actually get to know people over time.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, the best way to avoid finding yourself in a
disappointing church is to limit your involvement. Only go to worship. Don't
volunteer. Be friendly, but don't make friends. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sing, clap, and give a little money. Stay at
the edges. You have probably noticed, if you compare worship attendance with
the totality of those showing up for anything else, that many Americans have
already figured this out.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">That's the key. The truth is I've never gotten really
involved in a church – any church – that was not sometimes disappointing. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Of course, it's likely, at some point, I may have been a
little disappointing to them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OK, my
unpaid editor-in-chief, Linda, assures me the words "it's likely" and
"a little" ought to be deleted from the previous sentence. Hmm. Sometimes
our wives can be disappointing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">OK, I'm back. The good news is I think the bump on my head
is already getting smaller. Now, where was I?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">There are simply no churches, if you peel away the gloss and
the Sunday morning smiles, that are not populated by imperfect and inconsistent
people. We do not confess our sins to each other because we have so few, but
because we have so many.*</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Churches become disappointed in pastors. And pastors keep getting disappointed
in churches. The steady prattle of small talk about churches changing pastors or pastors upgrading to better churches permeates our ministers' meetings and our conventions. It follows a pattern. Everything is going to be great. Everything is great. All in all it's great. OK, it's not great but it's acceptable. It's less than acceptable. This is not where God wants me. (In evangelicalese that means, "I'm getting outta here.") And then, wow, this new church (job) is going to be really great.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The somewhat tentative involvement of vast numbers of church attenders follows a similar pattern. The whole thing is like a watching people on roller coasters, where some are optimistically climbing to the heights of finding the greatest church ever, while others are plunging into chaos of disappointment, disillusionment, and withdrawal. Many decide to get off and never get back on. Others go find another roller coaster to get on, and start climbing upward in idealized expectations once again. There is a sad irony in realizing the very thing we all want in a
church is the very thing we ourselves lack: consistency.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The church is a hospital. That's true. But it's a hospital
with no doctors, only patients. The healing hands of the great physician are
not always miraculously coming down from above. No, many times He uses the wounded to tend the wounded.
Grace given to sinners is also grace to be given through sinners.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But, we still have to face the fact of disappointments. Psychologist
H. Norman Wright once said that, on balance, most people will experience more
anger in life toward our own husbands or wives than anyone else. Why? Because
there is no one else closer to us. To get close to the family of God is discover
that you are a disappointing person called into community with other disappointing
people. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I love the church. I love the church from the outside in and
from the inside out. I love the faith, the love, the pettiness, the doubt, the hope,
the spirituality and the carnality that walks her halls, sits in her meetings,
and serves her cause in the world. I love the visible gathered in-the-flesh church
as it is, not simply the church as I wish it was. And, here's the marvel, I
have it on good authority that they actually love me. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Once Oliver Cromwell is said to have scolded the artist
painting his portrait: "No, no, no. Go back and this time paint me warts
and all." I've seen the painting of Cromwell. There's no doubt the artist
did just that. I wish I had never disappointed a church. I wish a church never
disappointed me. But, there we stand, blemishes and warts and all. And to think, He calls this His bride.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> * <em>In reality, a regular planned time of confession as a part of our disciplines of corporate worship would be both appropriate and a return to one of those ancient traditions Protestants should never have entirely abandoned.</em></span></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-4162468419208144232013-03-14T21:52:00.000-04:002013-03-14T23:35:17.488-04:00The Theory of Relativity<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_0pr6f6Xn8da_0XGJynyP7ykGwuIysIIg2M8zHngjurfNlMCKYvJN5QcNJie8MjZP3PNv21AzaBRFmaHHNeHcrcOcwFz0NpP1p0dM3q12BybCc3Y-LoDmAd9uApnUzPqbkEOOA/s1600/33234080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_0pr6f6Xn8da_0XGJynyP7ykGwuIysIIg2M8zHngjurfNlMCKYvJN5QcNJie8MjZP3PNv21AzaBRFmaHHNeHcrcOcwFz0NpP1p0dM3q12BybCc3Y-LoDmAd9uApnUzPqbkEOOA/s320/33234080.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
"Lord, listen, if you won't make me skinny, then just make all my friends fatter than me."<br />
<br />
We see ourselves through the lens of relativity. Relatively speaking, we are people of faith. Relatively speaking, we are active in church. Relatively speaking, we like to study the Bible. Relatively speaking, we are pretty much the kind of Christian that the Christian people around us pretty much think is the kind of Christian a Christian person pretty much ought to be.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
It's all very nice. And quite comfortable. Unless, of course, you happen to look around and discover the people in church study their Bible much more than you, trust God in ways you find almost unfathomable, and invest extraordinary amounts of time and effort bringing the Good News of the Kingdom into the abandoned places of the world. Then, of course, you are compelled to act. Time to look for another church.<br />
<br />
For some, certainly, the pretty much average level of normal Christianity takes a great deal of effort and change empowered by the Spirit to reach. They come into Christ out of lives deeply damaged by sexual excess, violence, addiction, and a long string of fractured relationships. For these people, the typical normal is so abnormal they feel overwhelmingly subnormal. For these, average is a goal to achieve, not a state to maintain.<br />
<br />
But, once we land in the middle of normal, we discover the subtle pressure of our personal community of faith resists radical holiness as much as it retards radical backsliding.<br />
<br />
We absolutely know we are sinners. We wish we weren't. But, we are. And we're not exactly overwhelmed by the shame of it. It's kind of okay, because we recognize we are not noticeably more sinful than the average Christian.<br />
<br />
If you won't make me skinny…<br />
<br />
When Isaiah encounters the vision of an enthroned lord surrounded by six-winged seraphim crying out the thrice-holy so thunderously the very foundations of the great temple shook, he is terrified. But, as he describes the encounter, he seems more shaken by what he saw in himself than in the spectacular theophany spread across the sky.<br />
<br />
<i>And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”</i> (Isaiah 6:3-5, NRSV)<br />
<br />
Isaiah was completely unprepared to see the truth about himself. I'm sure he never thought he was super holy. He knew he was sinner. He must have thought he had a reasonably accurate picture of himself. The most shocking aspect of encountering God was discovering he was wrong.<br />
<br />
In Terry Brooks' first ground-breaking fantasy novel, <i>The Sword of Shannara</i>, Shea Ohmsford retrieves an ancient weapon so powerful it can destroy the feared Warlock Lord. As Shea discovers, however, the power of the sword is not to slice or pierce. It is truth. Not just any truth. It is simply that, upon being touched by its blade, you see yourself as you truly are. For the Warlock Lord, that knowledge is too terrible to endure.<br />
<br />
Worship is not all about God. If it's all about God, then it can never be authentic worship. Worship is a counterpoint of glory and shame, ecstasy and agony. Were we to glimpse, even for a fleeting moment, a small fragment of the glory of Almighty God, we would find ourselves caught and exposed in the bright light of reality. And, no matter what we think, we are as utterly unprepared as Isaiah to see that truth.<br />
<br />
Relatively speaking, I'm a pretty good guy. In a room full of third graders, I feel amazingly tall. In a room full of illiterate people, I feel quite educated. Standing in the middle of church on Sunday, I feel like I'm a nice guy and a fairly committed Christian.<br />
<br />
Relativity can be so deceiving.<br />
<br />
Wow, I need to go on a diet…<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23235649.post-91063211634334867292013-03-08T18:04:00.002-05:002013-03-08T18:20:48.915-05:00The Future of Today's Christianity by Galli and Crouch<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEHys4wnNmnlFmCjc7tyKKfJBwAVQgQwuWguf_FPsRSJrgJUyaRicZee8sbIi6J1UWeTN-UTS_OTR37jYdH63GXre0oqfPM7XXaSjSp6y4Qg-XqyGMJ-bNr_SljMZnIOdAHhCww/s1600/CT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEHys4wnNmnlFmCjc7tyKKfJBwAVQgQwuWguf_FPsRSJrgJUyaRicZee8sbIi6J1UWeTN-UTS_OTR37jYdH63GXre0oqfPM7XXaSjSp6y4Qg-XqyGMJ-bNr_SljMZnIOdAHhCww/s1600/CT.jpg" /></a></div>
The current issue of Christianity Today (online or paper edition) has an article well worth digging out and reading in its entirety. Here's a excerpt:<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<i>North American evangelicals can be astonishingly innovative and entrepreneurial, but we can also be indifferent to history and unconcerned about the future. We can be remarkably generous and dedicated, and blithely enslaved to consumerism and technology. We can be amazingly concerned about the needs of the world, and infuriatingly condescending to leaders from places where the needs are greatest. We can be unsurpassed in our cultural savvy, and embarrassingly thin in our cultural production. We are experts at building movements that last a few short years, and innocents at what it takes to sustain change over time.</i><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyy2DgytpR4QpjJp4OiQoY7T4mX9toptEdPvXqe66JuwBX_4S6t-t6GGJi8h3JBzTZ2h1nMfSuGWG2lqJLrEYQdC7vewkBBIUcsHGF0-wzhdJkwiMxpkcmYQ2rJMUAcrLrDKRVQ/s1600/CT+Issue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyy2DgytpR4QpjJp4OiQoY7T4mX9toptEdPvXqe66JuwBX_4S6t-t6GGJi8h3JBzTZ2h1nMfSuGWG2lqJLrEYQdC7vewkBBIUcsHGF0-wzhdJkwiMxpkcmYQ2rJMUAcrLrDKRVQ/s1600/CT+Issue.jpg" /></a><br />
-Mark Galli and Andy Crouch in CHRISTIANITY TODAY<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/march/future-of-todays-christianity.html?start=1" target="_blank">March 2013 "The Future of Today's Christianity"</a><br />
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<br />
link to copy and paste (or click on the article title above)<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/march/future-of-todays-christianity.html?start=1</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11430203597916623529noreply@blogger.com0