Black Riders and the Battle in Our Minds

We live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Cor. 10:3-5

Taking “every thought captive to obey Christ.” Here we see the power of rationality in all its image-of-God splendour! Note that the passage says that WE destroy arguments and every proud obstacle . . . And it is WE who take every thought captive. We must realize our power, the power of rationality. That power allows us to stand back and say no to one thought and yes to another. We choose which thoughts will be our reality. Our wills, not our feelings, direct our minds.

The idea of controlling our thoughts seems daunting. The forces we contend with in our inner life may feel as terrifying as the black riders whose power infiltrated Frodo’s mind when he put on the ring of power. Our minds may be inundated with guilt for a past transgression. We may seem powerless when someone puts the thought of chocolate in our minds. We may feel like a failure, hopeless and condemned. Nevertheless, Paul says in the passage above that it doesn’t matter how intimidating the powers are, we are still in charge.

We can rise up and take control of that dark, fearful and menacing thought and make it obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. For example, when guilt and condemnation trouble us, the gospel says, “If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9) and “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God,” (1 Cor. 6:11) and “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isa. 1:18). This is our new reality, the reality of being born of the Spirit and being part of a new kingdom. All we need do is agree with this message and refuse any other.

One more thing. Taking every thought captive requires that we be still enough to be aware of the deeper thoughts within. If we race through life constantly in haste, our thoughts will drive us and we will have abandoned our God-given power of rationality. The dark powers will be only too willing to fill the vacuum we create by our refusal to choose God’s thoughts. If we don’t take responsibility for what goes through our minds, the black riders will gladly take the reins. Why not take a few minutes today to be still and gently place your mind on Jesus? Seeing his beauty, you will surely choose the good!

Why Have Even Christians Had Faith in Violence?

As we close out 2021 let us reflect on the contrast of the angels’ Christmas greeting, “peace on earth, good will to all,” with how the year began i.e. even professing Christians violently storming the capitol building of the United States.

In my last post we saw that Jesus perfectly reveals God’s nature. He did so most clearly on the cross where we see perfect love enduring the greatest  pain and humiliation in order to bring salvation and show humanity his new nonviolent way of living. Many Christians are OK with Jesus bringing us salvation, but not sure about the idea that his death demonstrates a nonviolent lifestyle for us to follow. 

The church has tended to focus on sexual sin as the great evil while downplaying the role violence plays in human affairs. Yes, sexual immorality is to be avoided at all costs, but so is our innate tendency to violence. Why, then, has there been a neglect of this essential biblical teaching? One reason is our great faith in violence as the means to get what we want. A glance at world history establishes this as an indisputable fact. Corpses and maimed bodies litter the millenia as powerful tribes and nations subdue their less powerful neighbours and plunder their resources. The strong dominate the weak. The rich spoil the poor. In 2021 we saw human faith in violence continuing unabated as Putin invaded Ukraine. 

That nations use violence to get what they want surprises no one. What is much more difficult to understand is how those who claim to have accepted Jesus’ gospel of peace participate in it. The blunt truth is that professing Christians did take part in the Jan. 6th violence protesting the supposed election steal of Joe Biden from Donald Trump.(see here)
“Indeed, antagonistic religious imagery was easy to spot at the Capitol raid the next day. One insurrectionist photographed in the building’s rotunda wore military fatigues with a patch on the shoulder that showcased a cross and the words “Armor of God.” Just below was another patch featuring a slogan wrapped around a stylized skull used by the comic book character The Punisher: ‘God will judge our enemies. We’ll arrange the meeting.’”(source)

One factor that has facilitated this willingness to engage in violence is “Christian nationalism” ideology. This set of beliefs includes the idea that God was behind the founding of the U.S. as a kind of promised land and that it is one’s God-given duty to keep it that way by routing out enemies. For some this even includes doing so violently if need be. “Christian nationalism really tends to draw on a kind of an Old Testament narrative, a kind of blood purity and violence where the Christian nation needs to be defended against the outsiders,”. . .(source)

Thankfully, many Christians are calling out the idolatry which equates the state with God’s kingdom. Several hundred prominent evangelical clergy members launched the “Say ‘No’ to Christian Nationalism” campaign to “recognize and condemn the role Christian nationalism played in the violent, racist, anti-American insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6.(source) Christianity Today adopted a similar posture in “offer[ing] advice to church leaders trying to deradicalize members of their own community.”(source)

One need not take a pacifist position to condemn such violence. There may be occasions when violence must be reluctantly engaged in, for example, when confronting someone raping a woman or the invasion of Ukraine spoken of above. The difficulty lies in our sinful human nature combined with the effectiveness of violence to get our way. That is, once we allow that there are some circumstances where violence is necessary, history has shown that it is easy to expand the number of such occasions to the point where violence can be justified pretty much for whatever we want.

For example, scripture was used to support the violent European conquest of North America. One American colonist who, after his group had completely annihilated an entire tribe of Native Americans, testified, “Sometimes Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents…We had sufficient light from the Word of God for our proceedings.”(source)

A 1493 papal Bull justified declaring war on any natives in South America who refused to adhere to Christianity. The jurist Encisco claimed in 1509: “The king has every right to send his men to the Indies to demand their territory from these idolaters because he had received it from the pope. If the Indians refuse, he may quite legally fight them, kill them, and enslave them, just as Joshua enslaved the inhabitants of the country of Canaan. (source)

The same logic was used in the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War and countless others. 

Another reason for our faith in violence besides its ability to help us get what we want is what Walter Wink has described as “the myth of redemptive violence.” 

“[The myth of redemptive violence] enshrines the belief that violence saves, that war brings peace, that might makes right. It is one of the oldest continuously repeated stories in the world. … The belief that violence ”saves” is so successful because it doesn’t seem to be mythic in the least. Violence simply appears to be the nature of things. It’s what works. It seems inevitable, the last and, often, the first resort in conflicts. If a god is what you turn to when all else fails, violence certainly functions as a god. What people overlook, then, is the religious character of violence. It demands from its devotees an absolute obedience unto-death.” (source)

 World War I stands out as the prototypical example, being labeled “the war to end all wars.” In 1928, just to try to make that phrase a reality the nations of the world, including Germany, signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact where they agreed not to use war as a means of settling a dispute. Of course, we know how long that lasted. The hope that WWI was the “war to end all wars” evaporated like the end of the rainbow.

While violence in the short term may help us get what we want, its ability to bring lasting peace has been a spectacular failure. Nevertheless, the myth that violence will defeat violence continues as seemingly the number one strategy humans rely on. We’re indoctrinated with this propaganda from our earliest days in the form of fairy stories. The hero battles a monster, dragon or wicked king and brings about eternal peace i.e. they all “live happily ever after.” 

The indoctrination doesn’t stop with children’s stories. Hart Wiens, the Director of Scripture Translation at the Canadian Bible Society, writes about how the myth of redemptive violence is perpetuated in adult books and movies. “The plot is depicted graphically in movies like Jaws, Rambo, and Air Force One. Likewise, the classic gunfighters of the “Western” settle old scores and restore order by shootouts, never by due process of law. The law in fact, is suspect, too weak to prevail in the conditions of near-anarchy that fiction has misrepresented as the Wild West. The gunfighter must take matters into his own hands. Similarly in the big city, in movies such as Dirty Harry, a beleaguered citizen finally rises up against the crooks … and creates justice out of the barrel of a gun. This is the environment in which we are catechized – more effectively than in any Sunday school.” (source)

Martin Luther King unmasked the lie behind this myth in December 1964: “Violence as a way of achieving justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible.”

Our belief in violence can be seen in one more disturbing fact: the vehement hatred of those who refuse to believe in violence. It can’t be a coincidence that arguably the three strongest voices lifted up against violence have all been killed, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and, worst of all, the One whose life was perfect peace.

The myth of redemptive violence is universal– almost, but not quite. Jesus shows us a different path. He inaugurates a realm of peace by completely contradiciting and confounding human wisdom. Instead, of killing others, he allows himself to be killed in their place. He says in effect. “Can’t you see that the way of violence is not working. It’s been going on incessantly for millenia and nothing has changed. I have a different plan–loving your enemy, turning the other cheek, living in peace with everyone.”

In the next post I will argue, perhaps surprisingly, that the war motif in stories (and in the Bible) still has a place. We are, in fact, very much caught up in a war. It’s just not a physical one.

A New Revelation of God!

As a Carribean hurricane wipes out every shanty in its path, so the New Testament destroys all previous conceptions of God. That is not to say that there was never any understanding of God before Christ came. Confucius, the Stoics and indeed all religions everywhere no doubt have some revelation of God’s glory and beauty. All humans can understand something of God through creation (Rom. 1:20). However, before Jesus, God had never been known in his essence. 

A bold claim indeed, but one that is clearly made in the New Testament. Paul says it was impossible for human beings to figure out God with their own wisdom (1 Cor. 1:18-25). God ordained that the only way to truly know him was through his foolishness, that is, through the death of a crucified messiah. Commenting on this passage, one scholar reminds us that, 

“Death on a cross was regarded in Roman society … as brutal, disgusting, and abhorrent. It was reserved for convicted slaves and convicted terrorists, and could never be imposed upon a Roman citizen or more “respectable” criminals.  It was so offensive to good taste that crucifixion was never mentioned in polite society, except through the use of euphemisms.  For Gentiles who might imagine a “divine” savior figure, and for Jews who expected a Messiah anointed with power and majesty, the notion of a crucified Christ, a Messiah on the cross, was an affront and an outrage.” 

No human being could have ever guessed that such a mangled spectacle has anything to do with a revelation of the power and glory of God. 

When we consider that Jesus shows us precisely what God is like (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3), the significance of the cross goes way beyond simply an understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection as the means of our salvation. Equally important is that Jesus’ Passion gives us an understanding of the nature of God. Indeed, the cross gives us a glimpse of the essence of God–love willing to suffer to the max for others. 

As the exact image of God, Jesus shows us that God  would choose to establish “justice and peace through his own death, rather than through the death of those who stood in his way.” God would ask for his executioners’ forgiveness even as he expired at their hands (Luke 23:34). 

What happened through the cross was so inconceivable, no one could have imagined the “the length and breadth and height and depth” of the love of God that would go to such extremes for our sake. I titled this post, “A New Revelation of God.” Perhaps some are thinking, “That’s not very new. The church has believed Jesus fully reveals the nature of God for almost 2,000 years.” But have we come to grips with the idea that, if Jesus is God, then God is nonviolent love?

I find that making such a claim gets push back even from Christians. I will suggest in the next post one of the reasons for this is our love for and great faith in violence.

Was Cruella Doomed to be Evil?

The recent Disney movie Cruella highlights questions which any thinking person has wrestled with, “How much do circumstances beyond our control determine our fate?” “How much can we change our lives through the choices we make?” The movie tells the story of how Cruella, the villain in the earlier 101 Dalmatians Disney film, became evil . In the new movie we learn that it was because of her biological mother’s villainy. Cruella was apparently not able to overcome her inherited genetic makeup or maternal deprivation or whatever other evil was thrust upon her in early childhood. Eventually, she becomes her mother, renaming the estate she’s inherited to Hell Hall. 

The storyline of Cruella echoes our culture’s message that we are helpless in the face of interior forces. To be sure, the movie has some truth in it. The effects of both our DNA and our early years’ experiences are significant and sometimes daunting. In my work I regularly encounter people severely damaged by childhood trauma and/or genetically-inherited mental illness. Is our fate sealed by the cards we’re dealt? Are we really in the end just helpless victims? In a similar vein, our culture tells us our passions are too strong for us and the answer is to give expression to any sexual desire you may have. Only repressed prudes don’t surrender to them. But is this really true? Are we just, after all, weak, pathetic slaves? 

Despite the strength of these forces, none of us really believes this cultural narrative. No matter what we might say, we all act like we do have a choice. That is, in our practical lives we believe we are exercising free will and that others are also. If I were to punch you in the head, you don’t blame my DNA or my upbringing or the fixed laws of the universe. You blame me. You instinctively feel I had a choice and I made a bad moral decision.

So while these circumstances can shape us, they don’t have to be the last word. When we turn our attention toward Jesus, he can enable us to have a better life. We may never have the success we would have had without the bad DNA or childhood abuse, but we can have a much better life. We still have choices to make and they will determine a better or worse future for us. To put it negatively, as Jordan Peterson does, no matter how screwed up your life is, you can screw it up more!

Yes, these forces are formidable. Yes, we can’t stand against them by our own willpower. However, our will can be used in another way besides direct combat with the dark powers that assault us. The gospel says our will does have a small part to play. That part is described as simply “opening the door” as we hear Jesus’ knocking at it, wanting to come in (Rev. 3:20). 

Another way our minimal part is described is as a mere “looking”–looking to Jesus and his death and resurrection. Before the most famous verse in the Bible, Jesus explains he will be lifted up on the cross as Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole  (Jn. 3:14-16). In that story, those who had been bitten by a plague of poisonous snakes were healed by just looking at the bronze serpent. Charles Spurgeon tells us to make sure we stay focused on our part which is “looking,” not “seeing.” The two are different. In a dark room, we can look, but we cannot see. Reminding us of the all-sufficiency of Christ, he plays the Christian’s trump card, “Jesus in the dark is just as good as Jesus in the light!” And he is the one who ultimately delivers us from all powers that seek to enslave us!

Beauty: a Better Way to Believe

Recently I was speaking with a young man about the Christian faith and he said something like the following, “I’ve tried to believe. I’ve given it everything I’ve got, but it just doesn’t work for me. I can’t make myself believe.” The requirement of “faith alone” is one of the most difficult hurdles concerning the Christian message. How can I “just believe” if I just don’t? As I sensed with this young man, people sometimes experience anguish in their attempts to be a Christian. Surely God does not expect us to close our eyes and leap into the dark? How then can I go from nonbelief to faith without it being merely “blind faith”?

The Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, sheds great light on this question by giving us what we might call  the mechanics of faith. His insight has to do with what theology calls the  transcendentals,  Beauty, Goodness and Truth. The key, says Balthasar, is the logical progression from one to the other and in the above order. 

When zealous Christians tell us, “Just believe,” they are, of course, saying just believe that the gospel is true. But to begin by focusing on Truth is to start at the wrong end of the three-fold progression. While doctrine certainly has its place, propositional truth statements have no spark. Just hearing that “God forgives sins“ or “Jesus saves,” are positive declarations, but by themselves they don’t have the firepower necessary to bring us to faith. Truth is the last step; we begin with the beautiful. We must be internally moved to believe. A fire must be lit in our belly and it’s Beauty that kindles it. 

Anything truly beautiful (as opposed to the merely glamorous) sparks joy and evokes wonder. It ushers us into a realm of grace as when we watch a ballerina or hear the music of Mozart. We’re touched by gentle beauty when we behold a robin feeding her newly hatched chicks  securely snuggled in the nest she’s provided. Even more so, when we gaze at a newborn human baby cooing and smiling at us our thoughts and feelings elevate to a higher plane.  Beauty causes our eyes to lift up and look for something more, something beyond the here and now.

When we resist hardening our hearts, beauty awakens sensitivity and feeling for others. Somehow we become more aware of the good and are more apt to participate in it. Thus we are led on to the second transcendental, Goodness. True beauty in any form tends to make us want to be good. However, we are especially moved toward the Good when we consider the beauty of those who give their lives freely to individuals who can’t pay them back. Hearing about Mother Teresa makes us want to do something for the poor.  

Balthasar reminds us that ultimate beauty resides in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. When we encounter his beauty in action as he heals an outcast leper or forgives the woman caught in adultery our attention is caught. The highest beauty can be seen in the climax of Jesus’ life, that is,  when the Son of God gives his life on the cross for the salvation of all, even those who betrayed him– people like you and me. As we continue to consider this heavenly person, light and heat are generated. We begin to thaw out spiritually, to open up more fully to the Good. We may not necessarily believe at this point, but the stories of Jesus have drawn us in and we want to hear more. 

Having been inspired by the beautiful and now wanting to do good and perhaps beginning to do so, we arrive at the last transcendental, Truth. And Jesus said we will only know the truth as we purpose to put it into practice.(John 7:17) As James says, without an act of faith, there is no faith.”(James 2:17) 

So don’t worry if you believe the gospel’s truth or not. And by all means, don’t try to make  yourself believe. Rather, devote yourself to studying Jesus. Let yourself be immersed in all aspects of his life so that you see the Beauty whether you think it’s true or not. As the title of a well-known book said, the gospel (good news) is “the greatest story ever told.” Jordan Peterson said on his podcast that there could never be a greater story. You can’t get any better than God himself becoming a human being to save us from pain, evil, sin and death. Then to take us ultimately to a literal heaven upon earth! Give yourself time to consider Jesus and see what happens!

Image:Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

When Mainline Christians Spoke in Tongues

I became a Christian during the Charismatic Renewal in the early ‘70s when God poured out his Spirit in a way that we haven’t seen since in the ensuing four plus decades. People from every denomination experienced this outpouring along with manifestations such as prophecy, healing and speaking in tongues. Old Testament prophetic scriptures burst into our consciousness and thrilled us with “the” promise:

“I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”
Joel 2:28-29

And it happened! When I walked into Catacombs, a mid-week meeting at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Toronto, a blast of heaven enveloped me as though I had entered a furnace of glory. God had descended. His presence filled the temple. Many hundreds of people all felt it together. During Full Gospel Businessmen’s meetings at the Royal Connaught Hotel in Hamilton two or three thousand people would gently begin to sing spontaneous praises unto God. The volume gradually increased as individual voices blended into one heavenly sound lifting our attention higher and higher–to Jesus, the baptizer with the Holy Spirit. No one wanted to leave. Lives changed forever. 

Gradually, however, darkness began to cloud the light. We seemed to forget the nature of the Spirit we were receiving. People began to focus on power rather than love. External manifestations such as tongues or being “slain in the Spirit” took center stage. Some took delight in the feeling of self-importance gained by prophesying over another. Authoritarian leadership reared its ugly head in many charismatic ministries. Leaders domineered, sometimes going so far as telling people whom they should marry. Somehow we forgot the Spirit’s essence–love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). The plight of the poor and vulnerable didn’t get much press.  The glory departed.

The confusing thing about such a time is that what you see is sometimes of God and sometimes merely human. Some people genuinely did fall down under the Spirit’s power and some were pushed by over-zealous pray-ers presumably wanting to be seen as mighty, Spirit-filled men or women. And what about the one who prophesies or speaks in tongues? How does she know if what she’s about to say is of God, self or even the evil one? How do we discern God’s Spirit at all?

Ignatius of Loyola, a great spiritual leader of the past, gives us valuable advice. He suggests a delicate but profound image for what he calls “the discerning of spirits.” God’s Spirit, says Ignatius, comes to us like water dripping on a sponge. He enters quietly and easily through an open door–if our heart’s orientation is toward God. Our experience is exactly the opposite if our heart’s disposition is to self. The evil one comes as water dripping on a stone.  Darkness enters only with clamour and noise because the door is closed to it. The dark power tries to break it down through fear, hurry and intimidation. That is, we experience the darkness as silently entering because the door is open to it. In such a state, God’s presence is noisy and clattering because we have not aligned ourselves to him and hence we are not receptive to what he gives. Like welcomes like. 

The first step in aligning ourselves to God is having a right understanding of God’s nature i.e. good theology. That means coming to Jesus and learning that he is “gentle and humble in heart” and that he produces deep rest in our souls. The teaching he asks us to accept is easy; his burden is light (Mat. 11:28-30)–water gently falling on a sponge. If our God is harsh, we ourselves will tend to be harsh. 

As soon as we talk about the peace and nonviolence of Jesus, someone inevitably rushes to tell us about the injustices of the world. We need to be angry, to rise up and do something about them. But again, let’s look to Jesus and specifically what the coming of the Spirit did in his life. 

“Here is my chosen servant! I love him, and he pleases me.
I will give him my Spirit, and he will bring justice to the nations.
He won’t shout or yell or call out in the streets.
He won’t break off a bent reed or put out a dying flame,
but he will make sure that justice is done.
All nations will place their hope in him.”
Mat. 12:18:21

Jesus acted decisively to bring about justice, but he did it without clamouring to get attention, demanding his way or trampling on others, especially the weakest and most bruised souls. He tenderly cared for marginalized people whether the leper cast out of Jewish society or the woman considered unclean because of her bleeding. In fact, Jesus didn’t even trample on his enemies.  The term nations, used twice in the passage above, refers to Gentiles, Israel’s enemies, those who are on the outside and are despised by the “good people.” Jesus would rather die for his enemies than show any callousness to even the worst. He is the “social justice warrior” extraordinaire who triumphs absolutely, but he does it God’s way and in God’s Spirit. 

We cannot go through something like the Charismatic Renewal  without longing for more of God’s Spirit. Could it be that we don’t experience him as we would like because we’re opening our heart’s door to a false image of God? Have we created an idol of power or success or pleasure that we’re bowing down to? The Holy Spirit does bring power, but it’s not that we might be mesmerized by supernatural manifestations or exert dominance over others. As scripture tells us the power of the Spirit enabled Jesus to do good and to help those oppressed by the darkness (Acts 10:38). I am persuaded that it will be so for us.

The Coronavirus and the Christian’s Vulnerability

Along with incalculable health and economic suffering, the coronavirus has also brought a reality check. We are not as secure as we imagined. Being well-fed and gadgeted to the max has lulled us into a dream-like state that hides an unpleasant truth–we will eventually lose everything. Beauty will fade, strength will diminish, our senses will grow dim, friends and family members will depart and finally life itself will slip away. Covid-19 slapped us in the face with our own mortality. This should especially sober the individual who has not thought much about what comes next. In this post, however, I want to talk to those of us who look forward to an eternity with Jesus. Have we considered that even after we become Christians the sense of vulnerability the coronavirus has reawakened is vital? Are we aware that without knowing our own weakness, we will not do well in God’s kingdom?

I don’t know about you, but everything in me recoils at the thought of being weak, poor in spirit or helpless. Furthermore, I feel that my Christian life is not going too badly. Oh I know I could do better, but, hey, “I’m only human.” All in all I’m doing the best I can and should be OK. But this laissez-faire attitude contrasts vividly with that of the apostle Paul as we see from his anguished cry in Rom. 7:14-25. “I do what I shouldn’t do and I don’t do what I should do. I’m helpless in the face of what’s going on inside. My body holds me a prisoner to its desires. Who will deliver me from the fate of this death?” Paul’s status quo disturbed him big time.

How can it be that I think I’m doing better than the man who established Christianity all over the ancient world and wrote about half the NT? The answer to that question is actually quite simple. I don’t fix my eyes on Jesus.  I do think of him quite often actually, but not enough to keep the essence of his kingdom–grace, nonviolence, peace, love–firmly set in my mind. From others I know, I take it I’m not alone.

We live with our own version of Christianity and if we set our standards low enough, the Christian life is a breeze. It’s like the story of the man driving in the country who noticed a barn with arrows stuck all over its side with each arrow dead center in the middle of its target. So impressed with what he saw, the man pulled into the driveway to meet such a talented archer. The farmer told him it was really nothing. The secret was to paint the target around the arrow after he’d shot it. In a similar fashion, we construe the goal of the Christian life as being roughly where we already are. O we know in the next life things will be different, but we’re getting through OK until that glorious time. However, that’s not aiming for the target. It’s not earnestly pursuing the kingdom where the Father’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Nowhere is the high nature of the Christian’s calling better displayed than in Jesus’  Sermon on the Mount. Take just a couple of examples: “Rather than hate your enemy like others have said, I say to you, love your enemies” (Mat. 5:43-48). So who is your enemy? a boss who belittles you? a spouse who betrayed you?  a supposed friend who gossips about you? Maybe the terrorists who blow innocent people up in an attempt to destroy our society? The latter would definitely qualify as enemies, but surely God doesn’t expect us to love suicide bombers? That seems to be exactly what Jesus meant. When he spoke about loving one’s enemies, every one of his hearers knew precisely who he was talking about, the Romans. They occupied their Jewish homeland. An enemy every bit as terrorizing as today’s suicide bombers, the Romans often sought to inflict as much pain as possible while executing a condemned individual. They sawed their victims in half, burned them alive and crucified them in a particularly slow, agonizing death. Love your enemies? I feel violated if I don’t immediately get my money back for an internet subscription I’ve cancelled! The kind of love Jesus requires is simply not humanly possible.

He doesn’t stop with talk of enemies, however. What he says about those much closer to us startles us just as much. Being angry with a brother or sister is akin to . . . murder (Mat. 5:21-22)! When we let Jesus’ words sink in, they become a sharp sword that pierces to our core (Heb. 4:12). They illuminate every trace of human anger, the source of so much evil including murder. The motions of my heart stand out in stark contrast to Jesus’ nonviolent kingdom. I get angry when “politically correct” people don’t believe what I believe. I get irritated when I’m interrupted. Anger manifests itself in countless human interactions–sarcastic humour at someone’s expense, gossip, competitiveness to the point of anger if we don’t win, envying such that we wish for another’s loss, excluding someone from our circle, blaming scapegoats for our own problems, trampling others because we’re not getting our way etc. 

We put up with hatred and anger because we’re used to them, but not so Paul. Rather than allowing such emotions to blend into the background of a spiritually sleepy life, he was wide awake and alert to their danger. So strong is their influence, Paul called it a law, that of  of sin in his members (Rom. 7:23).  “When I want to do good,” he laments, “evil is present with me” (Rom. 7:21). So why was Paul so aware of his shortcomings? Did he just have an oversensitive conscience, a melancholic personality? Was Paul a particularly bad person? Maybe he just needed to lighten up a bit? 

No, the reason he had such a crystal clear vision of his own shortcomings is that he also had a crystal clear vision of the love of Jesus. In fact, it had been poured into his heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). Here’s the great paradox, the closer we get to the Light, the more our darkness shows up and the more potential there is to be bothered by it. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out in anguish because his defects and weakness stand out so starkly in Jesus’ presence.

That’s Romans 7. The scene changes dramatically in the next chapter where everything is turned upside down. Despite how wrong things may be in our inner world, Jesus’ goodness is greater than our badness! God lavishes this goodness upon us in the gift of the Spirit of Jesus–that same Spirit we encountered in the Sermon on the Mount which enables us to love even our enemies. The secret Paul tells us repeatedly is to rigorously keep focused on it–to walk after the Spirit (Rom. 8:4), to set our minds on the Spirit (Rom. 8:5-6), to put to death sinful acts by the Spirit (Rom. 8:13) and to be led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14).

In conclusion, if we don’t fix our eyes on Jesus and what he has to say, we won’t feel any great shortfall in our walk with God. We will be like the man James talks about who looks into “the perfect law of liberty” and by doing so understands his true nature and calling. However, like a man walking away from a mirror, he goes his way and immediately forgets his higher self (James 1:23-25).

As I’ve mentioned, seeing the higher means seeing the lower as well. There is of necessity anguish as we come close to God and his light shows up what’s inside, but we can take courage. We can admit our weakness, our sins, our vulnerability. This same love, kindness and goodness that we fall so short of is embodied in the Person with whom we have to do and he extends all this grace fully to us. Not only that, he promises to put it right inside!

God Shows Up in Old Age: The Story of Simeon

Luke 2:25-35 

It had been revealed to him that before he died, he would see the Messiah. But as he grew older, he began to doubt. “Time is running out. Have I deceived myself?” In his weaker moments a sneering thought would whisper, “What makes you think some big thing is going to happen to you? Do you think you’re better than everyone else?” 

But then there were many times of being nourished by a sense of divine love. Something positive was going to happen. Something positive was happening–inside. And it kept leading him on and on, hoping and waiting and praying.

 

When he first laid eyes on them, they seemed like any other young couple Simeon had seen dedicating a male child in the temple.  He’d been there day after day for years. But then he took a second look at them. Something about this family was different. They moved with quietness. They had a peace that drew him.

Simeon gazed at the newborn, then again. He looked a third time. Yes, it was true. The feeling got stronger every time. He looked again and this time savoured what he felt, a blending of pure goodness and sheer power. It smelled like the overwhelming love he’d come to know in the best of his prayer times. He was now transfixed on the baby and all the time the feeling was getting stronger and stronger. His gut was moved and his eyes watered. Not thinking about what he was doing he walked deliberately toward the couple and with authority took the baby from the mother’s arms and prophesied, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, dismiss your servant in peace!” Then he lifted Jesus up in the air and with a sweet, delicious smile proclaimed, “For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

The voice was true–the voice he’d associated all these years with goodness and love . His doubts vanished. He had seen the Messiah.

WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE IN OTHER RELIGIONS?

Let me begin by affirming that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one comes unto the Father except by Him. (John 14:6)  His is the only name given whereby we can be saved. The question we will explore in this post regards ‘how’ an individual can be brought to faith in Christ.  Specifically, we will consider those individuals who, through whatever circumstances, were never clearly presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ before they died.  Or, perhaps they were never presented with the gospel in a way that allowed them to hear it e.g. Jewish people who were relentlessly persecuted by those supposedly telling them the good news! Can such a one be saved?

God’s Progressive Dealing with His Old Testament People  

Human beings dwell in darkness.   God is light. Spiritual awakening comes as we encounter the light of God. In our darkness we are not even aware of what is wrong with us.  Therefore, God’s first step in revelation is to make us aware of the fact that there is a problem and what the nature of that problem is. The Jews were given the Law of Moses, not to save them for by the works of the law shall no one be justified (Gal. 2:16), but to give them the knowledge of their sin (Romans 3:20).  Paul says he would not have known what coveting was except the law said, “You shall not covet” (Rom. 7:7). Conscience functioned in the same way for the Gentiles (i.e. all those in any religion other than Judaism), that is to make them aware of sin (Rom. 2:14-15).

Now it is abundantly clear that before a person can know a solution, he must first know what the problem is.  Therefore, it was not until this initial light had been given, that God could bring forth the answer- the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ.  With it came the knowledge that our good works are not able to bring us into right standing with God. But it was necessary for God to first point out that mankind’s works were evil.  Once armed with this knowledge, the natural thing for those who desire to please God is to try to do good and avoid evil. As stated above this is not enough, but what happens to the person who dies before he knows his good works are not adequate or that Jesus came to save him?  He has not come into this more mature knowledge so has not put away childish things. Does God condemn a man or woman on the basis of the light they never received? Scripture seems to consistently affirm that we are judged, not on the basis of knowledge we do not have, but on the basis of our faith in God.  Jesus brings us along the path of life, as we are able to be led by him. The Shepherd of love “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” (Isa. 40:11) Each one is given increasing knowledge of God as he o she is able to receive it until they can heartily accept Christ.

Let us survey biblical passages that indicate this principle of progressive revelation as it pertains to the non-Christian.  Perhaps the most obvious example is that of God’s Old Covenant people. God first gave the revelation of himself to Abraham from whom came the nation of Israel.  Next the law was given to Moses as a deeper revelation of divine things. However, in New Testament times, Paul clearly tells us in Galatians 3:23-25 that the Law was like a schoolmaster to bring us to faith in Christ.  So the Law, with its animal sacrifices was unable to save anyone. Hebrews 10:4 tells us most definitely that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. “How then were the Jews saved? The next chapter, Hebrews 11, leaves us in no doubt that they were saved by faith, faith in God and what he had promised.  So we see in God’s dealings with Israel a progression. First Abraham received the covenant of circumcision. Then, Moses received the Law and finally the Jewish people were brought to the glorious revelation of Christ. God brought more light and more knowledge, but from start to finish they were saved by faith (Rom. 1:17). 

The Gentiles that Lived Before Christ.  

Rom. 2:14-15 speaks of the Gentiles instinctively obeying the Law even though they didn’t have it.  We learn that for them, the law of conscience functioned as the Law did for the Jews. Someone may object to this by pointing to Rom. 3:19-20 and saying, “Yes the conscience functioned like the Law, to bring all under the conviction of sin, to prove all guilty.”  However we are still faced with the question then of how the Jews were saved. Clearly, though the Law brought them under condemnation, they were still saved through faith in the promises of God they had received. Why would the Gentiles who were convicted of sin by conscience not be given the same privilege as the Jews who were convicted of sin by the Mosaic Law? The main thrust of this passage in Romans 2 is to point out that there is no difference between the Jews who had the Law and the Gentiles who didn’t.

Not only did the Gentiles have the light of conscience, God was manifest to them through nature.   Creation proclaims the glory of God (Ps.19:1; 97:6) Invisible things about God are understood by created things, even his eternal power and Godhead so that no person is without excuse (Rom. 1:20).  In Acts 14:17, Paul, in speaking to Gentiles claims that God has shown His goodness by “giving rain from heaven and crops in their seasons” and by providing plenty of food and filling their hearts with joy. Somehow I can’t picture God blessing and filling with joy without at the same time giving the opportunity for the greatest blessing – salvation through faith.    Would he be capable of leading people along in this way, getting their hopes up by blessing them, when all along he has planned to damn them when they step through eternity’s gates?

God’s Progressive Dealing with the Gentiles

We have already seen that God dealt progressively with the Jewish people.  Now let’s consider this principle with regard to the Gentiles. In Acts 10we encounter the story of the Gentile Cornelius.  In verse 2 we are told that he was God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. In vs. 4 we see that God accepted this as a ‘memorial offering’.  Peter states as clearly as possible that “God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (vs. 34-35). Though all our works may be as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6), God, in his mercy, accepts our bumbling efforts to serve him.  His response to Cornelius’ prayers and gifts was to bring him into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. One may wish to argue that this is always the pattern – that where any faith in God is expressed, God will lead that person to Christ. This is true; the only question is again how they come to that faith.  For now though, the point of the Cornelius episode is to demonstrate that God brings Gentiles also along the path of progressive revelation.

In Acts 17 we see this principle illustrated again when Paul preaches to the Athenians.  He tells them in vs. 30 that in the past God overlooked such things as their idolatry but now he commands all men everywhere to repent.  Clearly, Paul is saying that there are at least two distinct stages in God’s dealings with mankind. Prior to Christ, God did not have the same expectation of people as he did afterward.  Now the question arises, “Does he mean after Jesus’ coming he commands all people, regardless if they have heard of him or not to repent?” or, “Does he mean, that after an individual has heard of Christ through the proclamation of the gospel he or she is responsible to repent?”

Gentiles Saved in the Old Testament

Before we attempt to answer that question, it should be pointed out that there are numerous instances of Old Testament Gentiles who are saved. Right in the list of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 we find the Gentile Rahab mentioned.  She escaped judgment because she exercised faith in hiding the spies. If it is argued that she then joined the nation of Israel, this changes nothing. It does not say she was saved because she became a Jew, but because, as a Gentile, she exercised faith.

Rahab is not alone.  Of course, before Abraham, there were no covenant people of God.  Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah etc. were not part of the Abrahamic covenant.  They were saved by faith (as also were those of the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant and the New Covenant.)

Job is seen as righteous before God even though he clearly was not a Jew.  In Gen. 20 God shows himself to be evidently in relationship to Abimelech. God displays His care for the Ninevites by sending Jonah to preach repentance to them.  Jeremiah tells us that any nation that repents will be delivered from destruction (Jer. 18: 7-8).

Was Salvation More Plentiful Before Christ?

So it is clear that, as Paul says God ‘winked at” religious error before Christ and therefore both Jews, who had the Law, and Gentiles who had the law of conscience, could be saved according to the faith that they exercised.  If we now say that after Christ, only those who explicitly accept him through the preaching of the gospel in this life will be saved, we have a serious problem. We are saying that it would be better for most people who have lived after Christ’s coming to have been born before he came because most people never heard of him.  If they had only lived before Christ, they might have had a chance, but now there is none.  This means his coming into the world cut off the possibility of salvation for millions of people.  But this directly contradicts the scriptures which read, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (Jn. 3:18).  The angel’s declaration to the shepherds is anything but “good news of great joy to all people” (Luke 2:10). Rather, it is the most horrifying message imaginable, since now most of them will be cut off without ever hearing about this one who was born in a manger to save them.

Does Predestination Solve the Problem?

People who hold this view must defend it on the basis of predestination, that is, God predetermines everything. Some are in; some are out. If you heard the gospel and became a Christian, it’s because you were predestined to. If you never heard about Jesus, it’s because you were predestined for damnation. However, this position makes a mockery of all the scriptures that suggest we really do have an opportunity to accept Jesus. When the Bible says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16) it really means it. I can’t mean, “If you’re a chosen one, you’re OK and if you’re not, you’re damned.” 

God doesn’t play games and secondly, God loves everyone and wants as many people as possible in his kingdom. To maintain that God damns everyone to hell regardless of whether they have heard the Gospel or not is to bring the character of God into serious disrepute.  As one theologian put it, this kind of thinking “manages to make bad news out of good news. It casts a deep shadow over the character of God. At its worst, it can lead to awful consequences in terms of pride, arrogance, superiority, and intolerance as the ideology of election takes hold.  It causes the church to become, not a sign of the unity of humanity in the love of God, but the sign of favourites in the midst of the enemies of God.” Is God’s mercy great enough to save a child-molester-murderer if he repents, but not great enough to save a person who exercises faith and tries to live for God the best he can but never heard the gospel?

It must be admitted that there are scriptures that appear to back up the idea that God predestines some and not others. However, one essential principle for interpreting the Bible is the rule that we interpret what we don’t know in light of what we do know. In this case, I do know that God offers salvation freely to all and I know that we have free will to accept it. Furthermore, we all act like we do have free will. If someone hits you in the face, you hold them to account that they could have chosen to do otherwise. I don’t know or understand predestination. Whatever predestination means, it is entirely within God’s view and no one else’s. Maybe God has some way beyond our human intelligence to predestine us even though we also have free will, but there’s no way for us to understand that. What we do know is that we have the opportunity to accept or reject Jesus now.

Is There Any Motivation to Preach then?

Allow me to deal with one common objection that is often raised to the sort of position I am taking.  “If people in other religions have the possibility of being saved, then there is no motivation to evangelize them.”  We should note that this is also a problem if you take the position of predestination. Why should we preach if everyone is predestined anyway?

There are three points I would like to raise in response.  Firstly, when the first Christians came into being, they preached with exceeding zeal to a people who already had the possibility of salvation, namely, the Jews. Secondly, the motivation for the first Christians to preach was the glorious revelation of Christ.  The love of God given to them was so glorious that the Old Covenant had no glory at all by comparison (2 Cor. 3: 7-11). They were motivated by the wonderful freedom that the love of God brought them into. Thirdly, consider the lot of those outside of Christ. They have no assurance of salvation and the favour of God. Living in uncertainty with regard to absolute questions of life and death means one can never be totally free. As Hebrews say, all our lifetime we were held in slavery by our fear of death (2:15). It was only the gospel that gave us the possibility of being liberated from it. The eternal destiny of those outside Christ is up to God; our responsibility is to love them and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them.

Conclusion

In conclusion then, I wish to affirm three principles concerning God’s love.  Firstly His love causes him to reach out to all human beings with the offer of mercy and salvation.  “All flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6). Rom. 5:18 tells us that Christ brings the possibility of justification to all men.  God wills all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3- 4). “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men…” (Tit. 2:11). God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).  To say that only those fortunate enough to have come in contact with a Christian who preaches the gospel to them can be saved is to deny that God is offering salvation to everyone. This is not saying that all will be saved, but that all have the possibility of salvation.

Secondly, God brings everyone along the path that leads to “the Lamb upon the throne.”  Our light grows until we behold the glorious vision of the Son of God, until we see him face to face.  If there is something that characterizes those who have never heard the gospel but will yet be saved, it is the willingness to accept Christ once they do hear of him.  Whether this happens just before death, or at the moment of death, I do not know. Somehow though, God, in His merciful kindness will bring all who trust in him to that marvelous day.

Lastly, the one thing God requires from a person in order for him or her to be saved is faith, not knowledge.  Because a person never has the knowledge of Christ, this does not disqualify him from heaven. To say that salvation is based on knowledge is akin to Gnosticism.  In my opinion, every person will be saved by the faith in God that they exercise, according to the knowledge of him that they have. That faith will ultimately lead them to Jesus Christ to be forgiven, cleansed and born anew of the Spirit of glory!

 

Jesus in the Dark

A number of years ago a friend asked me to visit a woman dying of cancer in the hospital. Her sickness had begun as breast cancer, and now an ugly, tell-tale purple blotch crept from the top of her night gown to her shoulder. Chemotherapy had robbed her of all her hair. As I approached her room I wondered if she really wanted a pastor to see her. Or was my visit just the result of a desperate measure taken by an over-eager friend? I did not have to wait long to find out. Almost immediately, she asked me deep questions about finding peace with God. My friend and another woman had spent hours with her reading from the Bible and sharing the good news of Jesus, yet she felt no assurance in facing death and whatever came next. 

“Is there some special prayer I must say?” she asked with a bewildered look. At that moment I saw so clearly the stark reality of our human predicament—the need for something more than this world can give, and yet seemingly facing a silent universe.  

I used an illustration with her that I got from the great preacher, Spurgeon. He talks about the difference between the words, look and see. In a dark, windowless room you can look for the door, but you cannot see it–until someone turns on the light. 

I told this dying woman that her part was to look. If she kept seeking Jesus, he would cause her to see. I came back often to visit her, but week after week she felt no abiding peace. Finally, the doctors sent her home from the hospital as they could do nothing more for her. 

One day her husband called me and said he wanted me to come to their home as he believed she would die shortly. When I got there I found her incoherent at times, lapsing in and out of reality. She would reach out to pick and try to eat imaginary fruit from a tree. At one time she started speaking to me in her native Lithuanian language, unaware that I could not understand her. She clutched a six-inch wooden cross like a drowning woman grabbing a tiny piece of driftwood with no land in sight. Her husband told me she sometimes shook so badly at night he had to take the cross away for fear she would injure herself with it. Her violent shaking compelled him to sleep in another bed.

I prayed with her that morning and read scripture to her as did my friend later that day. No one knows exactly how or when, but sometime that day she finally saw. God came into her life in a wonderful way and gave her the peace she so desperately craved. The dramatic change stunned her unbelieving husband. “Whatever you people are doing,” he enthused, “keep it up!” As it turned out, she still had a number of weeks to live and from that day onward she never shook violently again. She no longer needed to clutch the cross. She was coherent and never lapsed in and out of an imaginary world. Once she turned her eyes to Jesus and fixed her gaze on him, she was no longer worried about herself. She desired only that her family would find Christ the way she had. Shortly before she died, she gathered as many family and friends as could be squeezed into her bedroom. We sang, read from the Bible, and prayed. I then had the privilege of baptizing her in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Today, perhaps you find yourself unsure, bewildered, afraid and seemingly facing a silent universe. If so, remember something else Spurgeon said, “Jesus in the dark is just as good as Jesus in the light.” Your job is simply to look for him. If you keep doing so, you have his promise that sooner or later, you will see.