Dear Sisters and Brothers,
It is always easy to play Monday morning quarterback. That's my favorite
position in my favorite sport, because I always win, and the other team
always loses. Disasters like Hurricane Katrina beckon us to join in the
fray. I've heard New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin blamed, Louisiana Governor
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco blamed, and President George W. Bush blamed. Do
they have blame? Sure. Only the Lord Jesus was perfect; except for him, no
other human ever acts without the influence of sin, even when we truly
believe that we are acting completely selflessly, solely for the glory of
God and the good of others.
The rest of humankind is not only fallen, we are finite. We make stupid
judgment calls, especially under pressure. It took me almost one full
minute to remember the last four digits of my home telephone number this
past week when I was filling out a Red Cross volunteer form. On Friday, I
couldn't remember where I put my keys and searched our house for fifteen
minutes before giving up, only to find them sitting on my desk at work -- we
used my wife's keys to unlock the doors. Those little physiological things
illustrate that the brain is simply another organ of the body, subject to
sensory and emotional overload and fatigue, an organ that cannot operate
very long without renewal. In spite of the power of the will to choose to
act, there are limitations on our system, limitations that keep us from
functioning the way that we may choose. The President, Louisiana's governor
and New Orleans' mayor are not really any different from you or me. They,
too, need to eat regularly and go to the bathroom, and they need to get
enough sleep, or they will simply go nuts.
I am thankful for God's gift of civil government. The temporary loss of it
within a major urban area this past week demonstrates the truth that God has
ordained civil government for our good, and "there is no authority except
that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been
established by God." (Romans 13:2.) Civil government is "God's servant to
do you good." (Romans 13:4.) It has been "sent by him to punish those who do
wrong and to commend those who do right." (1 Peter 2:14.) Yet government
does not have the ability to solve all our problems.
First of all, the American system of government is inefficient, deliberately
so: our founders feared centralization of power and created a form of
Constitutionally limited, representative government with basic liberties
reserved to individuals and the states. Nowhere is power concentrated in
one political body. At the federal level, we have three branches of
government: legislative, executive and judicial, and they are often at odds
with each other. Furthermore, Federal authority is strictly limited and
balanced with state authority, while state authority is limited and balanced
with local authority. The American system wasn't designed to be a
dictatorship, so it isn't as efficient as some people might want it to be in
times of great crisis. I have heard it said that Benito Mussolini made
Italy's trains run on time, but he did that by shooting inefficient people.
Is this true? I don't know -- I wasn't there. But one thing I know: I
don't want to live under a President Mussolini, a Governor Mussolini or a
Mayor Mussolini. And the framers of the U.S. Constitution wrote the
document the way they did because they didn't want to live under a Mussolini
either.
Furthermore, government is limited in its ability and subject to the sinful
choices of fallen people. In the modern West, many people have the tendency
to view government in an almost God like way, as if government can keep us
from disaster and provide a safety net that is able to keep everybody from
dropping through. But government is limited. It doesn't have the ability
to spend money on and on without dire consequences. It doesn't have the
ability to correct every problem at home or abroad. If we put money and
people in one place, we won't have money and people to put in other places.
That is simply how it is.
As a citizen of Louisiana, I am grateful for all of the help, public and
private, that is flowing into our state. And I am grateful for the good
sense that our President used in putting an African-American, Louisiana
native in charge of the whole three state project: Lt. Gen. Russell Honore,
born and raised near Baton Rouge and a graduate of Southern University, a
great Black institution. I thank God for General Honore, because "The
Reverend" (I hate that damned title and never use it.) Jesse Jackson was
here in Alexandria, Louisiana, over the weekend, grandstanding and playing
the race card. The last thing we need is a racist demagogue, exploiting
this tragedy by further polarizing the races. From such may the good Lord
deliver us.
Amen,
Bob
"Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only? Not that I am
acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because only
the satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ is my righteousness
before God; and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other way
than by faith only." (The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 23, # 61.)
Robert Benn Vincent, Sr.
Grace Presbyterian Church
4900 Jackson Street
Alexandria, Louisiana 71303-2509
Tutissimum Refugium Sanguinis Christi
80 Hickory Hill Drive
Boyce, Louisiana 71409-8784
318.445.7271 church
318.443.1034 fax
318.793.5354 home
bob@rbvincent.com
http://www.rbvincent.com
http://www.grace-presbyterian.org
http://www.gcsla.org
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
This is a post from a man that I not only count as a friend, even though I have never met him, but a man that I have a great deal of respect for. Bob Vincent is a pastor in Alexandria, Louisiana and has helped some refugees from New Orleans as has even driven a bus to the city to pick up some directly. Here are some of his thoughts regarding Katrina's aftermath:
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
How should we respond to a harsh providence like Katrina? We focus on
Romans 8:28. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
1. Bad things really do happen.
When we ponder my favorite verse in the Bible, Romans 8:28, we need to keep
in mind that it does not teach that everything that happens is good.
This past week was full of the sights and sounds of suffering . . . and the
smells. After an earlier trip transporting elderly folk from Baton Rouge to
Lafayette, my wife and I went in a convoy to the Superdome to take people to
the New Orleans airport temporary triage unit. One of our people was a
woman who was completely out of her mind. A man on our van told us that she
had entered the Superdome with five children, and now she had none. What
happened? He had no idea. He only said that he had seen things he didn't
want to talk about, didn't want to think about. Yes, there were gang rapes.
Young men beat old people in wheelchairs to steal their meager belongings.
There were rotting corpses. The stench . . .
So much that happens to us is bad . . . really bad. There is nothing good
about death or the things that lead to death. I was with my father for the
last twelve hours of his life. I listened to him gasp for breath for two
hours, literally drowning in fluid, gurgling with the death rattle. That's
not good. That's terrible. I'll never forget the sights, sounds and smells
of his death, or that of my mother or mother-in-law -- of scores of other
people.
I've sat with literally hundreds of people who've had their lives torn apart
by some sexual sin, seen the response of dozens of folk as they discovered
for the first time that their spouse had been unfaithful to them. Adultery
is not good. It's vile and brings unbelievable pain to others. People have
horrible reactions when they hear a spouse confess to infidelity. I've had
to pull somebody off of a spouse, seen a man break his knuckles as he hit my
wall, felt the dent in the paneling from where a wedding band bounced off.
I've ministered to bleeding children, wounded by the sword-thrusts from two
fools who couldn't keep their mouths shut in front of their children,
especially in the wake of a divorce.
2. When we encounter these bad things, we must earnestly pray for divine
intervention.
Our Lord teaches us this by his example in the Garden: '"Abba, Father," he
said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I
will, but what you will." (Mark 14:36.)
At least four things stand out in that verse:
2.1. Jesus rests in the love of God. God is his Father and his stance toward
his child is one of affection and delight: "Abba, Father."
2.2. Jesus rests in the absolute sovereignty of God: "Everything is possible
for you."
2.3. Jesus really prays: "Take this cup from me."
2.4. Having prayed, Jesus rests in submission to God's good purpose: "Yet
not what I will, but what you will."
Over the years I've discovered that people tend to minimize either the third
or the fourth actions of our Lord. I've encountered many people who are so
ensnared by the false, materialistic "gospel" of "name it and claim it" that
they can never come to rest in the sovereign goodness of God who ordains
sometimes evil things to bless his own. I once had to ride in an automobile
with a man who was obviously suffering from a viral infection, but he had
become so superstitious about what he said that he wouldn't acknowledge the
reality of his plight, and so he confessed, "I am catching a healing." He
seemed to ignore the truth of Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the
righteous."
But there is a second half to that verse, the part that another group of
Christians tends to minimize: "But the LORD delivers him out of them all."
Fatalists, those who believe more in line with Islam than with biblical
Christianity, so focus on the sovereignty of God that they rush to rest in
the sovereignty of God without the struggle of persistent, prevailing
prayer. They forget the biblical truth, summed up so well:
"God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own
will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as
thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the
will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes
taken away, but rather established." *
I find the above paragraph thoroughly biblical; it asserts God's absolute
sovereignty, while affirming that certain seemingly incongruous doctrines
are also true: 1. God is not the author of sin; 2. God does not force his
will on his creatures; 3. God's foreordination includes not only the end
result, but also all of the means to that end. Biblical predestination is
never fatalistic.
In the light of that truth, we must really pray. Indeed, our Sovereign God
admonishes us to give him no rest: "You who call on the LORD, give
yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and
makes her the praise of the earth." (Isaiah 62:6, 7.)
Under the overarching, immutable decree of God, it is because Moses refused
to accept God's admonition as final that we have the people of God, as we
know them today:
'"Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may
destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." But Moses sought
the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger
burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and
a mighty hand? . . ." Then the LORD relented (niphal, waw-consecutive,
imperfect of _NACHAM_, "repented, changed his mind, came to regret," etc.)
and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.' (Exodus
32:10-14.)
The truth of the matter is that our sovereign God makes use of second causes
and sometimes sovereignly limits himself by people's lack of faith: 'JESUS
said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own
house is a prophet without honor." He COULD NOT DO ANY MIRACLES THERE,
except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed
at THEIR LACK OF FAITH.' (Mark 6:4-6.)
Saint James admonishes us: "You do not have, because you do not ask God,"
and goes on, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong
motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:2.)
God help the Christian who simply acquiesces to a severe providence without
earnestly and persistently pleading the promises of God. If my child is
caught in drug addiction or sexual sin, may God deliver me simply from
praying, "Lord, give me grace to endure this trial. Your will be done." No,
I need first to fight the circumstances, and I need to wrestle with the
Lord, as did Jacob at Peniel. (Genesis 32.) That's what Jesus did in the
Garden of Gethsemane.
3. We must come not simply to accept a severe providence fatalistically, but
to embrace it, in time, with cheerfulness.
There comes a point in prayer where we are brought to surrender. It may be
in a few moments, or it may be weeks or even months or years. But that is
what our Lord does when finally he comes to pray, "Yet not what I will, but
what you will." (Mark 14:36.) Saint Paul's response to his "thorn in the
flesh," his tormenting "angel of Satan," serves us well as another example:
'Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to
me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,
so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I
delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.' (2 Corinthians
12:8-10.)
3.1. We must remember that God has destined both the good and the bad things
that happen to us for his glory and for our good.
The reason that we can come eventually, cheerfully to embrace a severe
providence is because of what the Bible teaches us about our relationship
with our sovereign God. Because God chose us out of a sinful and fallen
humanity, chose us for no reason inherent in us, chose us not because he
foresaw our faith or good works, but unconditionally, we STAND under his
grace and will NEVER come under his condemnation. (Romans 9:6-18; Acts
13:48; Ephesians 1:3-2:10; John 6:37, 44; 10:28, 29; Romans 5:1ff; 8:1,
31-39**.) Even when we experience suffering in this life, it is never as a
condemning consequence for our sins, but part of God's benevolent plan for
our lives, including his Fatherly discipline, whereby he causes whatever
happens to us, even our own sins, failures and foolishness to work together,
not only for our own individual good, but for the good of all God's people
in all ages and places. (Romans 8:18-30***.)
Because our Lord was cursed and condemned, we NEVER will be (Galatians
3:13.) -- "in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come
to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith." (Galatians 3:14.) "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up
for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things?" (Romans 8:32.) When we read of those dreadful curses and
condemnations, we know that they will never be visited on us. Rather, all we
ever receive is the blessing of God. We are united with the one true Seed of
Abraham, and we are therefore the inheritors of all the good things and none
of the bad. (Romans 8:17.)
And all this is so because God did not "spare his own Son, but delivered him
up for us all." (Romans 8:32.) He did not spare him from one ounce of guilt
that is yours or mine; he did not spare him one piece of the defilement and
consequences of that guilt; he did not hold him back from experiencing the
full brunt of his just wrath due for our sins, but abandoned him to hell on
the cross. Who can bring any charge against us? (Romans 8:33.) Who can
condemn us? (Romans 8:34.) There is no longer condemnation (Romans 8:1.)
because there is no longer any guilt left.
"What is your only comfort in life and in death?" asks the _Heidelberger_
and answers:
"That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but
belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has
fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the
devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not
a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for
my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal
life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him."
3.2 We never thank God for evil in abstraction, but for his goodness in
every circumstance, because he has ordained whatsoever comes to pass for our
good -- full conformity to the restored image of God in Jesus Christ.
(Romans 8:29.)
"Thank you, God, for my spouse's adultery and for the financial destruction
it is going to bring. Thank you for the psychological torment that it is
going to bring on our little children as the hate daily grows between us."
Of course, we should never pray that way -- that is the prayer of a fool.
Rather, we give thanks to God that we are not alone in these trials and that
our faithful Savior was tempted in all the ways that we are and that he,
too, suffered injustice in this world, that we have a Friend in heaven who
is praying for us with a full awareness of what we are going through. We
give thanks that God is still in absolute control and that his loving hand
is orchestrating all these things for our ultimate welfare in Jesus Christ
that we may be like Jesus. (Romans 8:29.)
Resting in the biblical truth of God's absolute sovereignty, we approach
life differently than the rest of humankind.
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for
this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.)
There is tremendous power in our praising God in the middle of the Chaos of
our lives "under the sun," but this is only possible as we focus on our
Lord, his goodness and his good goal, not on ourselves and our sometimes
miserable circumstances. How poignantly this was brought home to us last
night. Our son and his wife came up from Baton Rouge with a fifteen year
old, single, pregnant African American woman. Several days back, Benn had
received a telephone call from one of his old Intervarsity Christian
Fellowship friends from Tulane days. Benn's friend had received a phone
call from this young woman, stranded in a shelter in Gonzales. Her family
had been transported away, but she had been left. Benn went that night to
the shelter and brought the young woman up to Baton Rouge to stay with them.
Then they came on to Alexandria, and Benn took her to catch a flight early
this morning. Benn's IVF friend's wife's family is going to take the young
woman into their home to live. The young woman's mother is a crack cocaine
addict from the poorest section of New Orleans, but this young woman and her
baby will live with an obstetrician and his family. She and her soon to be
born baby will live in a nurturing Christian environment with wonderful
opportunities in the future. As Sandy and I interacted with Neal last
night -- I once called her Katrina by accident -- we found her to be bright
and an avid reader. Romans 8:28 is still true.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet
inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary
troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is
seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18.)
To the degree that we are full of Jesus rather than full of ourselves,
colored and controlled, not by psychotropic drugs and other coping devices,
but by the Holy Spirit, we can maintain this response of gratitude:
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be being
filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, always
giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ."
(Ephesians 5:18-20.)
We don't do this with a Pollyanna-esque denial of reality, but with a
"cynical" realism that chooses cheerfully to be optimistic by faith and
chooses to express that cheerfulness in regular seasons of thanksgiving
before God and man, and especially in the sanctuary of our own hearts.
Under God's Grace in the Wake of a Storm,
Bob
bob@rbvincent.com
www.rbvincent.com
* _The Westminster Confession of Faith_, III, i
** 'It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended
from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all
Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your
offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is not the natural children
who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are
regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated:
"At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son." Not only
that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac.
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order
that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who
calls-she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is
written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What then shall we say? Is God
unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not,
therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the
Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I
might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all
the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he
hardens whom he wants to harden." (Romans 9:6-18.)
"When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the
Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed." (Acts 13:48.)
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he
chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in
his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus
Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his
glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance
with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and
understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to
his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when
the times will have reached their fulfillment-to bring all things in heaven
and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also
chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out
everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who
were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And
you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a
seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the
praise of his glory. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in
the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving
thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of
wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the
eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to
which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the
saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is
like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly
realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every
title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to
come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head
over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills everything in every way. As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the
ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit
who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among
them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace
you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him
in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he
might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness
to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so
that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians
1:3-2:10.)
"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I
will never drive away." (John 6:37.)
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will
raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44.)
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch
them out of my hand." (John 10:28.)
"My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch
them out of my Father's hand." (John 10:29.)
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by
faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance,
character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God
has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has
given us." (Romans 5:1-5.)
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,"
(Romans 8:1.)
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be
against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how
will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will
bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was
raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be
slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans
8:31-39.)
*** "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the
glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation
for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to
frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected
it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to
decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know
that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our
adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were
saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he
already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it
patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows
the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in
accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he
predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he
justified, he also glorified." (Romans 8:18-30.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
How should we respond to a harsh providence like Katrina? We focus on
Romans 8:28. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
1. Bad things really do happen.
When we ponder my favorite verse in the Bible, Romans 8:28, we need to keep
in mind that it does not teach that everything that happens is good.
This past week was full of the sights and sounds of suffering . . . and the
smells. After an earlier trip transporting elderly folk from Baton Rouge to
Lafayette, my wife and I went in a convoy to the Superdome to take people to
the New Orleans airport temporary triage unit. One of our people was a
woman who was completely out of her mind. A man on our van told us that she
had entered the Superdome with five children, and now she had none. What
happened? He had no idea. He only said that he had seen things he didn't
want to talk about, didn't want to think about. Yes, there were gang rapes.
Young men beat old people in wheelchairs to steal their meager belongings.
There were rotting corpses. The stench . . .
So much that happens to us is bad . . . really bad. There is nothing good
about death or the things that lead to death. I was with my father for the
last twelve hours of his life. I listened to him gasp for breath for two
hours, literally drowning in fluid, gurgling with the death rattle. That's
not good. That's terrible. I'll never forget the sights, sounds and smells
of his death, or that of my mother or mother-in-law -- of scores of other
people.
I've sat with literally hundreds of people who've had their lives torn apart
by some sexual sin, seen the response of dozens of folk as they discovered
for the first time that their spouse had been unfaithful to them. Adultery
is not good. It's vile and brings unbelievable pain to others. People have
horrible reactions when they hear a spouse confess to infidelity. I've had
to pull somebody off of a spouse, seen a man break his knuckles as he hit my
wall, felt the dent in the paneling from where a wedding band bounced off.
I've ministered to bleeding children, wounded by the sword-thrusts from two
fools who couldn't keep their mouths shut in front of their children,
especially in the wake of a divorce.
2. When we encounter these bad things, we must earnestly pray for divine
intervention.
Our Lord teaches us this by his example in the Garden: '"Abba, Father," he
said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I
will, but what you will." (Mark 14:36.)
At least four things stand out in that verse:
2.1. Jesus rests in the love of God. God is his Father and his stance toward
his child is one of affection and delight: "Abba, Father."
2.2. Jesus rests in the absolute sovereignty of God: "Everything is possible
for you."
2.3. Jesus really prays: "Take this cup from me."
2.4. Having prayed, Jesus rests in submission to God's good purpose: "Yet
not what I will, but what you will."
Over the years I've discovered that people tend to minimize either the third
or the fourth actions of our Lord. I've encountered many people who are so
ensnared by the false, materialistic "gospel" of "name it and claim it" that
they can never come to rest in the sovereign goodness of God who ordains
sometimes evil things to bless his own. I once had to ride in an automobile
with a man who was obviously suffering from a viral infection, but he had
become so superstitious about what he said that he wouldn't acknowledge the
reality of his plight, and so he confessed, "I am catching a healing." He
seemed to ignore the truth of Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the
righteous."
But there is a second half to that verse, the part that another group of
Christians tends to minimize: "But the LORD delivers him out of them all."
Fatalists, those who believe more in line with Islam than with biblical
Christianity, so focus on the sovereignty of God that they rush to rest in
the sovereignty of God without the struggle of persistent, prevailing
prayer. They forget the biblical truth, summed up so well:
"God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own
will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as
thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the
will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes
taken away, but rather established." *
I find the above paragraph thoroughly biblical; it asserts God's absolute
sovereignty, while affirming that certain seemingly incongruous doctrines
are also true: 1. God is not the author of sin; 2. God does not force his
will on his creatures; 3. God's foreordination includes not only the end
result, but also all of the means to that end. Biblical predestination is
never fatalistic.
In the light of that truth, we must really pray. Indeed, our Sovereign God
admonishes us to give him no rest: "You who call on the LORD, give
yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and
makes her the praise of the earth." (Isaiah 62:6, 7.)
Under the overarching, immutable decree of God, it is because Moses refused
to accept God's admonition as final that we have the people of God, as we
know them today:
'"Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may
destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." But Moses sought
the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger
burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and
a mighty hand? . . ." Then the LORD relented (niphal, waw-consecutive,
imperfect of _NACHAM_, "repented, changed his mind, came to regret," etc.)
and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.' (Exodus
32:10-14.)
The truth of the matter is that our sovereign God makes use of second causes
and sometimes sovereignly limits himself by people's lack of faith: 'JESUS
said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own
house is a prophet without honor." He COULD NOT DO ANY MIRACLES THERE,
except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed
at THEIR LACK OF FAITH.' (Mark 6:4-6.)
Saint James admonishes us: "You do not have, because you do not ask God,"
and goes on, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong
motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:2.)
God help the Christian who simply acquiesces to a severe providence without
earnestly and persistently pleading the promises of God. If my child is
caught in drug addiction or sexual sin, may God deliver me simply from
praying, "Lord, give me grace to endure this trial. Your will be done." No,
I need first to fight the circumstances, and I need to wrestle with the
Lord, as did Jacob at Peniel. (Genesis 32.) That's what Jesus did in the
Garden of Gethsemane.
3. We must come not simply to accept a severe providence fatalistically, but
to embrace it, in time, with cheerfulness.
There comes a point in prayer where we are brought to surrender. It may be
in a few moments, or it may be weeks or even months or years. But that is
what our Lord does when finally he comes to pray, "Yet not what I will, but
what you will." (Mark 14:36.) Saint Paul's response to his "thorn in the
flesh," his tormenting "angel of Satan," serves us well as another example:
'Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to
me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,
so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I
delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.' (2 Corinthians
12:8-10.)
3.1. We must remember that God has destined both the good and the bad things
that happen to us for his glory and for our good.
The reason that we can come eventually, cheerfully to embrace a severe
providence is because of what the Bible teaches us about our relationship
with our sovereign God. Because God chose us out of a sinful and fallen
humanity, chose us for no reason inherent in us, chose us not because he
foresaw our faith or good works, but unconditionally, we STAND under his
grace and will NEVER come under his condemnation. (Romans 9:6-18; Acts
13:48; Ephesians 1:3-2:10; John 6:37, 44; 10:28, 29; Romans 5:1ff; 8:1,
31-39**.) Even when we experience suffering in this life, it is never as a
condemning consequence for our sins, but part of God's benevolent plan for
our lives, including his Fatherly discipline, whereby he causes whatever
happens to us, even our own sins, failures and foolishness to work together,
not only for our own individual good, but for the good of all God's people
in all ages and places. (Romans 8:18-30***.)
Because our Lord was cursed and condemned, we NEVER will be (Galatians
3:13.) -- "in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come
to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith." (Galatians 3:14.) "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up
for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things?" (Romans 8:32.) When we read of those dreadful curses and
condemnations, we know that they will never be visited on us. Rather, all we
ever receive is the blessing of God. We are united with the one true Seed of
Abraham, and we are therefore the inheritors of all the good things and none
of the bad. (Romans 8:17.)
And all this is so because God did not "spare his own Son, but delivered him
up for us all." (Romans 8:32.) He did not spare him from one ounce of guilt
that is yours or mine; he did not spare him one piece of the defilement and
consequences of that guilt; he did not hold him back from experiencing the
full brunt of his just wrath due for our sins, but abandoned him to hell on
the cross. Who can bring any charge against us? (Romans 8:33.) Who can
condemn us? (Romans 8:34.) There is no longer condemnation (Romans 8:1.)
because there is no longer any guilt left.
"What is your only comfort in life and in death?" asks the _Heidelberger_
and answers:
"That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but
belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has
fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the
devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not
a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for
my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal
life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him."
3.2 We never thank God for evil in abstraction, but for his goodness in
every circumstance, because he has ordained whatsoever comes to pass for our
good -- full conformity to the restored image of God in Jesus Christ.
(Romans 8:29.)
"Thank you, God, for my spouse's adultery and for the financial destruction
it is going to bring. Thank you for the psychological torment that it is
going to bring on our little children as the hate daily grows between us."
Of course, we should never pray that way -- that is the prayer of a fool.
Rather, we give thanks to God that we are not alone in these trials and that
our faithful Savior was tempted in all the ways that we are and that he,
too, suffered injustice in this world, that we have a Friend in heaven who
is praying for us with a full awareness of what we are going through. We
give thanks that God is still in absolute control and that his loving hand
is orchestrating all these things for our ultimate welfare in Jesus Christ
that we may be like Jesus. (Romans 8:29.)
Resting in the biblical truth of God's absolute sovereignty, we approach
life differently than the rest of humankind.
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for
this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.)
There is tremendous power in our praising God in the middle of the Chaos of
our lives "under the sun," but this is only possible as we focus on our
Lord, his goodness and his good goal, not on ourselves and our sometimes
miserable circumstances. How poignantly this was brought home to us last
night. Our son and his wife came up from Baton Rouge with a fifteen year
old, single, pregnant African American woman. Several days back, Benn had
received a telephone call from one of his old Intervarsity Christian
Fellowship friends from Tulane days. Benn's friend had received a phone
call from this young woman, stranded in a shelter in Gonzales. Her family
had been transported away, but she had been left. Benn went that night to
the shelter and brought the young woman up to Baton Rouge to stay with them.
Then they came on to Alexandria, and Benn took her to catch a flight early
this morning. Benn's IVF friend's wife's family is going to take the young
woman into their home to live. The young woman's mother is a crack cocaine
addict from the poorest section of New Orleans, but this young woman and her
baby will live with an obstetrician and his family. She and her soon to be
born baby will live in a nurturing Christian environment with wonderful
opportunities in the future. As Sandy and I interacted with Neal last
night -- I once called her Katrina by accident -- we found her to be bright
and an avid reader. Romans 8:28 is still true.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet
inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary
troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is
seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18.)
To the degree that we are full of Jesus rather than full of ourselves,
colored and controlled, not by psychotropic drugs and other coping devices,
but by the Holy Spirit, we can maintain this response of gratitude:
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be being
filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, always
giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ."
(Ephesians 5:18-20.)
We don't do this with a Pollyanna-esque denial of reality, but with a
"cynical" realism that chooses cheerfully to be optimistic by faith and
chooses to express that cheerfulness in regular seasons of thanksgiving
before God and man, and especially in the sanctuary of our own hearts.
Under God's Grace in the Wake of a Storm,
Bob
bob@rbvincent.com
www.rbvincent.com
* _The Westminster Confession of Faith_, III, i
** 'It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended
from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all
Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your
offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is not the natural children
who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are
regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated:
"At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son." Not only
that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac.
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order
that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who
calls-she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is
written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What then shall we say? Is God
unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not,
therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the
Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I
might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all
the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he
hardens whom he wants to harden." (Romans 9:6-18.)
"When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the
Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed." (Acts 13:48.)
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he
chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in
his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus
Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his
glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance
with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and
understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to
his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when
the times will have reached their fulfillment-to bring all things in heaven
and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also
chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out
everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who
were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And
you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a
seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the
praise of his glory. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in
the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving
thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of
wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the
eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to
which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the
saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is
like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly
realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every
title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to
come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head
over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills everything in every way. As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the
ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit
who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among
them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace
you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him
in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he
might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness
to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so
that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians
1:3-2:10.)
"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I
will never drive away." (John 6:37.)
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will
raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44.)
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch
them out of my hand." (John 10:28.)
"My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch
them out of my Father's hand." (John 10:29.)
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by
faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance,
character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God
has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has
given us." (Romans 5:1-5.)
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,"
(Romans 8:1.)
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be
against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how
will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will
bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was
raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be
slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans
8:31-39.)
*** "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the
glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation
for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to
frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected
it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to
decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know
that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our
adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were
saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he
already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it
patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows
the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in
accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he
predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he
justified, he also glorified." (Romans 8:18-30.)
Six in one hand and half a dozen in the other...
That's how I've descibed to my friends and family how I feel about the situation in New Orleans. On one hand, you have an entitlement society built around the poor in inner-city New Orleans, a sub-section of people who believe the government owes them something and claim that they cannot do anything for themselves, including get out of the city in advance of a major hurricane. On the other hand, you have a government that was very slow to react after the hurrican hit. Who's wrong?
Both.
The city goverment of New Orleans is wrong for not planning for such an occurence in advance. Levies were not prepared properly and there was no contigency plan in case of a worse-case scenario. In the wake of September 11th, how could such a thing happen?
The federal goverment was also at fault. Again, in the wake of September 11th, shouldn't the government have a better contingency plan for such an occurrence? It took four days for the "cavalry" to arrive, for the President to even tour the area, for really anthing to be done. Now, as most of you know, I am a staunch conservative. I voted for Bush, but in this situation, I have no choice but to criticize his lack of speed in the wake of Katrina.
So what do we have now?
Hopefully, a valuable, but very hard lesson learned.
That's how I've descibed to my friends and family how I feel about the situation in New Orleans. On one hand, you have an entitlement society built around the poor in inner-city New Orleans, a sub-section of people who believe the government owes them something and claim that they cannot do anything for themselves, including get out of the city in advance of a major hurricane. On the other hand, you have a government that was very slow to react after the hurrican hit. Who's wrong?
Both.
The city goverment of New Orleans is wrong for not planning for such an occurence in advance. Levies were not prepared properly and there was no contigency plan in case of a worse-case scenario. In the wake of September 11th, how could such a thing happen?
The federal goverment was also at fault. Again, in the wake of September 11th, shouldn't the government have a better contingency plan for such an occurrence? It took four days for the "cavalry" to arrive, for the President to even tour the area, for really anthing to be done. Now, as most of you know, I am a staunch conservative. I voted for Bush, but in this situation, I have no choice but to criticize his lack of speed in the wake of Katrina.
So what do we have now?
Hopefully, a valuable, but very hard lesson learned.
Monday, August 29, 2005
God Behind Barbed Wire
How a Nazi-soldier-turned-theologian found hope.
by Philip Yancey | posted 08/29/2005 09:00 a.m.
On a recent visit to Virginia I met one of my heroes: Jürgen Moltmann. I have plowed through almost a dozen of his books, and to my surprise, the German theologian in person exuded a charm and sense of humor that belie his scholarly works.
Moltmann was planning on a career in quantum physics until he was drafted at age 18 at the height of the Second World War. Assigned to anti-aircraft batteries in Hamburg, he saw compatriots incinerated in the fire-bombings there. The question "Why did I survive?" haunted him.
After surrendering to the British, the young soldier spent the next three years in prison camps in Belgium, Scotland, and England. When Hitler's empire imploded, exposing the moral rot at the center of the Third Reich, Moltmann saw how other German prisoners "collapsed inwardly, how they gave up all hope, sickening for the lack of it, some of them dying." As he learned the truth about the Nazis, Moltmann felt an inconsolable grief about life, "weighed down by the somber burden of a guilt which could never be paid off."
Moltmann had no Christian background. He had brought two books with him into battle—Goethe's poems and the works of Nietzsche—neither of which nourished much hope. But an American chaplain gave him an Army-issue New Testament and Psalms, signed by President Roosevelt. "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there," the prisoner read. Could God be present in that dark place? As he read on, Moltmann found words that perfectly captured his feelings of desolation. He became convinced that God "was present even behind the barbed wire—no, most of all behind the barbed wire."
Moltmann also found something new in the Psalms: hope. Walking the perimeter of the barbed wire at night for exercise, he would circle a small hill in the center of the camp on which stood a hut that served as a chapel. That hut became for him a symbol of God's presence in the midst of suffering.
Later Moltmann was transferred to Norton Camp, an educational camp in England run by the YMCA. The local population welcomed the German prisoners, bringing them homemade food, teaching them Christian doctrine, and never adding to the burden of guilt the prisoners felt over Nazi atrocities. (Hearing Moltmann's fond recollection of those days—"they treated me better than the German army"—I could not help drawing the contrast to Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, where we are sowing seeds of hatred that will bear sour fruit for generations.)
Upon release, Moltmann began to articulate his theology of hope. We exist in a state of contradiction between the Cross and the Resurrection. Surrounded by decay, we nonetheless hope for restoration, a hope illuminated by the "foreglow" of Christ's resurrection. Faith in that glorious future can transform the present—just as Moltmann's own hope of eventual release from prison camp transformed his daily experience there.
Through all of Moltmann's dense theological works run two themes: God's presence with us in our suffering and God's promise of a perfected future. If Jesus had lived in Europe during the Third Reich, Moltmann noted, he likely would have been branded like other Jews and shipped to the gas chambers. In Jesus, we have definitive proof that God suffers with us, as Moltmann explains in The Crucified God. (During the war in El Salvador, someone sent Moltmann a picture of one of six Jesuits murdered by a death squad, and next to the body in a pool of blood lay the Spanish edition, El Dios Crucificado.)
At the same time, Jesus gives a foretaste of a future time when earth will be restored to God's original design. Easter is the beginning of the "laughter of the redeemed … God's protest against death." A person without faith may assume from the suffering on this planet that God is neither all-good nor all-powerful. Faith allows us to believe that God is not satisfied with this world either, and intends to make all things new.
Only at Christ's Second Coming will the kingdom of God take shape in all its fullness. In the meantime, we establish settlements of that kingdom, always glancing back to the Gospels for a template. Moltmann notes that the phrase "Day of the Lord" in the Old Testament inspired fear, but in the New Testament it inspires hope, because those authors have come to know and trust the Lord whose Day it is.
In a single sentence Jürgen Moltmann expresses the great span from Good Friday to Easter. It is, in fact, a summary of human history, past, present, and future: "God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him."
How a Nazi-soldier-turned-theologian found hope.
by Philip Yancey | posted 08/29/2005 09:00 a.m.
On a recent visit to Virginia I met one of my heroes: Jürgen Moltmann. I have plowed through almost a dozen of his books, and to my surprise, the German theologian in person exuded a charm and sense of humor that belie his scholarly works.
Moltmann was planning on a career in quantum physics until he was drafted at age 18 at the height of the Second World War. Assigned to anti-aircraft batteries in Hamburg, he saw compatriots incinerated in the fire-bombings there. The question "Why did I survive?" haunted him.
After surrendering to the British, the young soldier spent the next three years in prison camps in Belgium, Scotland, and England. When Hitler's empire imploded, exposing the moral rot at the center of the Third Reich, Moltmann saw how other German prisoners "collapsed inwardly, how they gave up all hope, sickening for the lack of it, some of them dying." As he learned the truth about the Nazis, Moltmann felt an inconsolable grief about life, "weighed down by the somber burden of a guilt which could never be paid off."
Moltmann had no Christian background. He had brought two books with him into battle—Goethe's poems and the works of Nietzsche—neither of which nourished much hope. But an American chaplain gave him an Army-issue New Testament and Psalms, signed by President Roosevelt. "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there," the prisoner read. Could God be present in that dark place? As he read on, Moltmann found words that perfectly captured his feelings of desolation. He became convinced that God "was present even behind the barbed wire—no, most of all behind the barbed wire."
Moltmann also found something new in the Psalms: hope. Walking the perimeter of the barbed wire at night for exercise, he would circle a small hill in the center of the camp on which stood a hut that served as a chapel. That hut became for him a symbol of God's presence in the midst of suffering.
Later Moltmann was transferred to Norton Camp, an educational camp in England run by the YMCA. The local population welcomed the German prisoners, bringing them homemade food, teaching them Christian doctrine, and never adding to the burden of guilt the prisoners felt over Nazi atrocities. (Hearing Moltmann's fond recollection of those days—"they treated me better than the German army"—I could not help drawing the contrast to Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, where we are sowing seeds of hatred that will bear sour fruit for generations.)
Upon release, Moltmann began to articulate his theology of hope. We exist in a state of contradiction between the Cross and the Resurrection. Surrounded by decay, we nonetheless hope for restoration, a hope illuminated by the "foreglow" of Christ's resurrection. Faith in that glorious future can transform the present—just as Moltmann's own hope of eventual release from prison camp transformed his daily experience there.
Through all of Moltmann's dense theological works run two themes: God's presence with us in our suffering and God's promise of a perfected future. If Jesus had lived in Europe during the Third Reich, Moltmann noted, he likely would have been branded like other Jews and shipped to the gas chambers. In Jesus, we have definitive proof that God suffers with us, as Moltmann explains in The Crucified God. (During the war in El Salvador, someone sent Moltmann a picture of one of six Jesuits murdered by a death squad, and next to the body in a pool of blood lay the Spanish edition, El Dios Crucificado.)
At the same time, Jesus gives a foretaste of a future time when earth will be restored to God's original design. Easter is the beginning of the "laughter of the redeemed … God's protest against death." A person without faith may assume from the suffering on this planet that God is neither all-good nor all-powerful. Faith allows us to believe that God is not satisfied with this world either, and intends to make all things new.
Only at Christ's Second Coming will the kingdom of God take shape in all its fullness. In the meantime, we establish settlements of that kingdom, always glancing back to the Gospels for a template. Moltmann notes that the phrase "Day of the Lord" in the Old Testament inspired fear, but in the New Testament it inspires hope, because those authors have come to know and trust the Lord whose Day it is.
In a single sentence Jürgen Moltmann expresses the great span from Good Friday to Easter. It is, in fact, a summary of human history, past, present, and future: "God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him."
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Jaci Velasquez Divorced
Married less than two years, Christian music superstar says "the painful truth is that our marriage didn't work out."
By Mark Moring | posted 08/22/05
Less than two years after her 2003 wedding made the news, Christian/Latin music superstar Jaci Velasquez's marriage has ended in divorce.
Velasquez and Indiana native Darren Potuck were married on August 16, 2003, in Franklin, Tennessee. But their marriage later "took a turn," Velasquez told Christian Music Today in an exclusive statement.
"When my husband and I started out as newlyweds, we were like all newlyweds, wanting that dream marriage," Velasquez said. "Somehow, things took a turn and we have ended up in divorce."
Velasquez did not elaborate on the reasons for the divorce.
A Word Records spokesman said Velasquez and Potuck had worked to save their marriage, and Velasquez alluded to that in her statement.
"I sought counseling," said the 25-year-old singer, "but the painful truth is that our marriage didn't work out. I've had such a difficult time with this. My heart hurt so badly that I felt like I wanted to crawl under a rock and just die. I can't say that I have ever felt such pain before. My heart literally felt like it was breaking in half."
Velasquez referenced "Lay It Down," the second radio single from her new album, Beauty Has Grace, to describe what she's now experiencing. The lyrics to that song include these lines: "All of my hopes and my dreams and my best laid plans / Are slowly slipping through my folded hands."
"I am learning how to live out the words of 'Lay It Down' daily and experiencing God's love, grace and mercy like never before," she said. "My God is so awesome, I can feel him lift me up every time I feel like it's all too much for me."
Velasquez further said she has not discussed the divorce "because it is clearly too painful. I am still in the healing process and ask for your prayers and consideration for my privacy."
In a 2004 interview with Christian Music Today, Velasquez had described her husband as "the greatest, the funniest, and the coolest guy you'll ever meet. … Any girl wants a guy that will be hers forever, and that's how I feel with him."
Velasquez, a Grammy nominee and multi-platinum selling artist in both the Christian and Latin markets, recently moved to London, but is still making appearances in the U.S. She will appear at the Soul2Soul Honors 2005 event August 26 in Louisville, and she will appear at a Nashville Hecht's department store August 27 in support of the M·A·C AIDS Fund.
She is currently working on her next CD, an all-Spanish for the Latin market. Velasquez is also the founder of her own Christian music label, Apostrophe Records.
Her divorce is the highest-profile divorce in Christian music since Amy Grant's 1999 divorce from Gary Chapman. Grant—like Velasquez a Word Records artist—later married country music superstar Vince Gill.
After Grant's divorce became public, many radio stations stopped playing her songs and many Christian retailers refused to stock her albums. But Grant has made a comeback in Christian music circles in recent years, especially with her two hymns albums, Legacy (2002) and Rock of Ages (2005).
Regarding Velasquez, a Word Records representative said the label is "not concentrating on radio or retail sales. We love Jaci, and we're concentrating on Jaci and helping her work through this."
Married less than two years, Christian music superstar says "the painful truth is that our marriage didn't work out."
By Mark Moring | posted 08/22/05
Less than two years after her 2003 wedding made the news, Christian/Latin music superstar Jaci Velasquez's marriage has ended in divorce.
Velasquez and Indiana native Darren Potuck were married on August 16, 2003, in Franklin, Tennessee. But their marriage later "took a turn," Velasquez told Christian Music Today in an exclusive statement.
"When my husband and I started out as newlyweds, we were like all newlyweds, wanting that dream marriage," Velasquez said. "Somehow, things took a turn and we have ended up in divorce."
Velasquez did not elaborate on the reasons for the divorce.
A Word Records spokesman said Velasquez and Potuck had worked to save their marriage, and Velasquez alluded to that in her statement.
"I sought counseling," said the 25-year-old singer, "but the painful truth is that our marriage didn't work out. I've had such a difficult time with this. My heart hurt so badly that I felt like I wanted to crawl under a rock and just die. I can't say that I have ever felt such pain before. My heart literally felt like it was breaking in half."
Velasquez referenced "Lay It Down," the second radio single from her new album, Beauty Has Grace, to describe what she's now experiencing. The lyrics to that song include these lines: "All of my hopes and my dreams and my best laid plans / Are slowly slipping through my folded hands."
"I am learning how to live out the words of 'Lay It Down' daily and experiencing God's love, grace and mercy like never before," she said. "My God is so awesome, I can feel him lift me up every time I feel like it's all too much for me."
Velasquez further said she has not discussed the divorce "because it is clearly too painful. I am still in the healing process and ask for your prayers and consideration for my privacy."
In a 2004 interview with Christian Music Today, Velasquez had described her husband as "the greatest, the funniest, and the coolest guy you'll ever meet. … Any girl wants a guy that will be hers forever, and that's how I feel with him."
Velasquez, a Grammy nominee and multi-platinum selling artist in both the Christian and Latin markets, recently moved to London, but is still making appearances in the U.S. She will appear at the Soul2Soul Honors 2005 event August 26 in Louisville, and she will appear at a Nashville Hecht's department store August 27 in support of the M·A·C AIDS Fund.
She is currently working on her next CD, an all-Spanish for the Latin market. Velasquez is also the founder of her own Christian music label, Apostrophe Records.
Her divorce is the highest-profile divorce in Christian music since Amy Grant's 1999 divorce from Gary Chapman. Grant—like Velasquez a Word Records artist—later married country music superstar Vince Gill.
After Grant's divorce became public, many radio stations stopped playing her songs and many Christian retailers refused to stock her albums. But Grant has made a comeback in Christian music circles in recent years, especially with her two hymns albums, Legacy (2002) and Rock of Ages (2005).
Regarding Velasquez, a Word Records representative said the label is "not concentrating on radio or retail sales. We love Jaci, and we're concentrating on Jaci and helping her work through this."
Sunday, August 14, 2005
This is a great article on the Eastern Orthodox denomination:
It's All About Jesus
A convert to Orthodoxy reconsiders evangelicalism.
by Sam Torode | posted 08/12/2005 09:00 a.m.
Twenty years ago, Thomas Howard, the brother of devotional writer Elisabeth Elliot, wrote a book titled Evangelical Is Not Enough. His basic argument was that rituals don't necessarily lead to dead religiosity. Instead, sacramental rites and liturgical rhythms can bring us closer to Christ. Howard was an Anglican at the time, and later became Roman Catholic.
I've been on a similar journey. I grew up Baptist, lost my fundamentalist faith, became interested in the ancient traditions of the church, attended a Lutheran parish for a time, and eventually wound up Eastern Orthodox.
Like Howard, I now stand on the opposite side of the liturgical fence from most evangelicals. But I've come to a different conclusion than "evangelical is not enough."
Evangelical Principles
What is evangelicalism, anyhow? Evangelical seems to be an adjective more than a noun. Evangelicals tend not to identify much with their particular churches, preferring to be known as "mere Christians." There are both evangelical Baptists and evangelical Episcopalians, though the Baptist and Episcopal churches are about as far apart as country music is from classical.
For all their diversity, evangelicals hold several principles in common. This list isn't exhaustive, but here are some key emphases of evangelicals:
(1) Salvation is by faith alone, not works.
(2) The Bible is the standard for Christian doctrine and practice.
(3) Everyone needs a personal relationship with Jesus.
(4) "The church" means all Christians everywhere, and there is no "true" or "perfect" church this side of heaven.
When I became disillusioned with the Baptist faith, I eagerly drank up the writings of Catholic and Orthodox apologists (often former Protestants themselves) who challenged these four principles. I took up their arguments and shot off combative e-mails to my evangelical friends. Among other things, I argued that:
• Salvation by faith alone is not biblical. The only time the words justified, faith, and alone appear together in the Bible, it's to say that "a man is justified by works, not by faith alone" (James 2:24).
• Sola scriptura (the idea that the Bible alone is our guide—not church tradition) isn't found in the Bible, either. Since Scripture doesn't interpret itself, we need an authoritative interpretive community to make sense of it.
• The evangelical focus on a "personal relationship" with Christ tends to obscure our corporate identity as members of the church. The New Testament writers don't say anything about "asking Jesus into our hearts." Instead, they tell us to repent and be baptized into the church.
• Jesus and the apostles founded a church, not a loose affiliation of freelance believers. The apostles laid hands on bishops to oversee this church, so as to keep the doctrine pure and prevent schism. This church must still be around today, because Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. I still believe this critique has merit. (So do many evangelicals, who realize that their core principles need some qualification.) But when I consider the four evangelical principles today, I see more to applaud than to disagree with. Why the change?
It's Not About Works
When I became Orthodox, I was tired of what I saw as evangelicalism's "cheap grace." I was ready for some discipline and hard work along the path of salvation.
If it's self-discipline you seek, Orthodoxy is definitely the tradition for you. The Orthodox Church has devised many ways to deny yourself and take up your cross—for example, by abstaining from meat and dairy products every Wednesday and Friday, as well as during long penitential seasons like Lent, Advent, and the Apostles' Fast. Married couples are encouraged to take it a step further, by abstaining from intercourse on these same fast days. (That's not something Orthodox apologists like to broadcast. When I first heard it, I announced to a friend that I could never become Orthodox; later, I learned that few Orthodox follow this custom strictly.)
Faced with all this fasting, it's easy to get obsessive. We joined a parish of mostly ex-Protestants who, like us, were eager to be good Orthodox. We looked down on those "ethnic Orthodox" who still eat their gyros and feta cheese during Lent. During church fellowship times, our conversations often centered on fasting (i.e., "What do I do if my parents offer me cheesecake on Friday?"). Fast-friendly recipes were eagerly exchanged, for everything from "Lenten pizza" (no cheese) to "Lenten chocolate cake" (tastes just like the real thing!).
One Sunday, a friend in the church confided to my wife, "Sometimes, I forget it's all about Jesus." That's when it hit us—we'd forgotten that it's all about Jesus, too. Most of the time, instead of overflowing with God's love, I was just ticked off about not being able to eat a burger. Meanwhile, my wife was feeling guilty about eating dairy products, despite being a nursing mother.
In the process of healing from this legalism, we ended up finding a new church home—a Greek one. Now, we're grateful for the relaxed attitude of our "cradle Orthodox" brothers and sisters. One of the first things our new priest said to us was, "Jesus looks at the heart—not the belly." That doesn't mean we should reject the spiritual disciplines of fasting and other "works," he added, but we need to view them as gifts from God. If you try to grasp a spiritual gift before it's given to you, you'll crash and burn.
The Bible, the Standard
My wife and I like to joke that we became Orthodox because we wanted to belong to a church where we were the "liberals." But for us, the core doctrines of the faith, such as the Virgin Birth or divinity of Christ, are not up for discussion.
Beyond the core doctrines, there is no definitive teaching on many issues of Christian life. When it comes to a disputed issue, you can find an Orthodox saint, monk, theologian, or priest to back up almost any argument. How do you know what's right?
In the front of the Orthodox Study Bible (yes, there is such a thing), there is a section of quotes about Scripture from saints throughout the centuries. Here's one from St. Nikon of Optina (20th century): "Read the Holy Gospel, be penetrated by its spirit, make it the rule of your life, your handbook; in every action and question of life, act according to the study of the Gospel. This is the only light of our life."
When evaluating any notion about the Christian life, we always have to refer to the source—the Bible. In the case of fasting, we Orthodox could avoid a lot of problems by listening to Jesus' words—"What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean'" (Matt. 15:11).
In the Orthodox Church, no individual saint, bishop, or theologian is considered infallible. Even the greatest have taught things that were later rejected. To give just one example, St. Gregory of Nyssa was a great defender of the doctrine of the Trinity, but his ideas about universal salvation conflicted with Scripture, so they failed to enter the mainstream.
Tradition is not a separate, or superior, source of light from Scripture. It is a commentary on the Light, helping us adjust our eyes to its brilliance.
Christ, Our One Mediator
Many Protestant converts to Orthodoxy and Catholicism are looking for a "final authority" on all matters of faith and life. To them, discerning the truth for yourself sounds like relativism. They are anxious to hand over their consciences to an infallible judge.
This is truer of converts to Rome, who often criticize the Orthodox for lack of a single teaching authority. But some Orthodox cling to a cult-like obedience to their priest or spiritual father. I know of one Orthodox monk who told a follower, "If I tell you to dig a hole today, and then I tell you to fill it in tomorrow, you must obey me without questioning."
In the right circumstances, obedience to authority can be an important discipline. In his letters, Paul certainly encourages us to obey our elders in the Lord. But Spirit-led obedience is joyful, not oppressive. God gifted us with free will for a reason. He doesn't force obedience. Jesus woos us with the beauty of truth and righteousness, and he desires our free response to his love.
I can't hand my free will over to a pope, priest, or spiritual father, even though these can be helpful guides. For example, I greatly admire Pope John Paul II's teachings on marriage and sexuality, but I admire them for the beauty and truth I find there, not because I take them to be divine or infallible. I am responsible for my decisions, and I alone will answer for them.
All Part of 'the Church'
Evangelicals, Catholics, and Orthodox disagree about the exact identity of "the church." But when the smoke clears, we all agree that everyone under the lordship of Christ, regardless of denominational affiliation, is somehow part of the church. That's the important thing. Beyond that, I'd rather avoid judgments about who's in and who's out of the church.
I'm not arguing for relativism, but humility. Objective truth exists, but our human ability to discern it is limited. In fact, Truth is not a set of ideas—it's a person. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." We only know Truth as much as we know Christ.
I'm a grateful member of the Orthodox Church, and I'm happy to talk about the glories of this path as well as the struggles. I believe that the "trappings" of Orthodoxy—icons, liturgies, rote prayers, and other things evangelicals often are suspicious of—can bring us closer to Christ. But when these things become ends in themselves—idols instead of icons—we need to step back and remember what, or who, it's all about.
Instead of "evangelizing" my evangelical friends, I now hope to learn from them. Discussing differences is worthwhile, but it's more important to encourage each other as we grow in Christ.
It took me a while, but I think I've finally learned what really matters. Liturgical is not enough, sacramental is not enough, Catholic is not enough, and Orthodox is not enough. Only Jesus is enough.
Sam Torode is the coauthor (with wife, Bethany) of Aflame: Ancient Wisdom on Marriage (Eerdmans, 2005).
It's All About Jesus
A convert to Orthodoxy reconsiders evangelicalism.
by Sam Torode | posted 08/12/2005 09:00 a.m.
Twenty years ago, Thomas Howard, the brother of devotional writer Elisabeth Elliot, wrote a book titled Evangelical Is Not Enough. His basic argument was that rituals don't necessarily lead to dead religiosity. Instead, sacramental rites and liturgical rhythms can bring us closer to Christ. Howard was an Anglican at the time, and later became Roman Catholic.
I've been on a similar journey. I grew up Baptist, lost my fundamentalist faith, became interested in the ancient traditions of the church, attended a Lutheran parish for a time, and eventually wound up Eastern Orthodox.
Like Howard, I now stand on the opposite side of the liturgical fence from most evangelicals. But I've come to a different conclusion than "evangelical is not enough."
Evangelical Principles
What is evangelicalism, anyhow? Evangelical seems to be an adjective more than a noun. Evangelicals tend not to identify much with their particular churches, preferring to be known as "mere Christians." There are both evangelical Baptists and evangelical Episcopalians, though the Baptist and Episcopal churches are about as far apart as country music is from classical.
For all their diversity, evangelicals hold several principles in common. This list isn't exhaustive, but here are some key emphases of evangelicals:
(1) Salvation is by faith alone, not works.
(2) The Bible is the standard for Christian doctrine and practice.
(3) Everyone needs a personal relationship with Jesus.
(4) "The church" means all Christians everywhere, and there is no "true" or "perfect" church this side of heaven.
When I became disillusioned with the Baptist faith, I eagerly drank up the writings of Catholic and Orthodox apologists (often former Protestants themselves) who challenged these four principles. I took up their arguments and shot off combative e-mails to my evangelical friends. Among other things, I argued that:
• Salvation by faith alone is not biblical. The only time the words justified, faith, and alone appear together in the Bible, it's to say that "a man is justified by works, not by faith alone" (James 2:24).
• Sola scriptura (the idea that the Bible alone is our guide—not church tradition) isn't found in the Bible, either. Since Scripture doesn't interpret itself, we need an authoritative interpretive community to make sense of it.
• The evangelical focus on a "personal relationship" with Christ tends to obscure our corporate identity as members of the church. The New Testament writers don't say anything about "asking Jesus into our hearts." Instead, they tell us to repent and be baptized into the church.
• Jesus and the apostles founded a church, not a loose affiliation of freelance believers. The apostles laid hands on bishops to oversee this church, so as to keep the doctrine pure and prevent schism. This church must still be around today, because Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. I still believe this critique has merit. (So do many evangelicals, who realize that their core principles need some qualification.) But when I consider the four evangelical principles today, I see more to applaud than to disagree with. Why the change?
It's Not About Works
When I became Orthodox, I was tired of what I saw as evangelicalism's "cheap grace." I was ready for some discipline and hard work along the path of salvation.
If it's self-discipline you seek, Orthodoxy is definitely the tradition for you. The Orthodox Church has devised many ways to deny yourself and take up your cross—for example, by abstaining from meat and dairy products every Wednesday and Friday, as well as during long penitential seasons like Lent, Advent, and the Apostles' Fast. Married couples are encouraged to take it a step further, by abstaining from intercourse on these same fast days. (That's not something Orthodox apologists like to broadcast. When I first heard it, I announced to a friend that I could never become Orthodox; later, I learned that few Orthodox follow this custom strictly.)
Faced with all this fasting, it's easy to get obsessive. We joined a parish of mostly ex-Protestants who, like us, were eager to be good Orthodox. We looked down on those "ethnic Orthodox" who still eat their gyros and feta cheese during Lent. During church fellowship times, our conversations often centered on fasting (i.e., "What do I do if my parents offer me cheesecake on Friday?"). Fast-friendly recipes were eagerly exchanged, for everything from "Lenten pizza" (no cheese) to "Lenten chocolate cake" (tastes just like the real thing!).
One Sunday, a friend in the church confided to my wife, "Sometimes, I forget it's all about Jesus." That's when it hit us—we'd forgotten that it's all about Jesus, too. Most of the time, instead of overflowing with God's love, I was just ticked off about not being able to eat a burger. Meanwhile, my wife was feeling guilty about eating dairy products, despite being a nursing mother.
In the process of healing from this legalism, we ended up finding a new church home—a Greek one. Now, we're grateful for the relaxed attitude of our "cradle Orthodox" brothers and sisters. One of the first things our new priest said to us was, "Jesus looks at the heart—not the belly." That doesn't mean we should reject the spiritual disciplines of fasting and other "works," he added, but we need to view them as gifts from God. If you try to grasp a spiritual gift before it's given to you, you'll crash and burn.
The Bible, the Standard
My wife and I like to joke that we became Orthodox because we wanted to belong to a church where we were the "liberals." But for us, the core doctrines of the faith, such as the Virgin Birth or divinity of Christ, are not up for discussion.
Beyond the core doctrines, there is no definitive teaching on many issues of Christian life. When it comes to a disputed issue, you can find an Orthodox saint, monk, theologian, or priest to back up almost any argument. How do you know what's right?
In the front of the Orthodox Study Bible (yes, there is such a thing), there is a section of quotes about Scripture from saints throughout the centuries. Here's one from St. Nikon of Optina (20th century): "Read the Holy Gospel, be penetrated by its spirit, make it the rule of your life, your handbook; in every action and question of life, act according to the study of the Gospel. This is the only light of our life."
When evaluating any notion about the Christian life, we always have to refer to the source—the Bible. In the case of fasting, we Orthodox could avoid a lot of problems by listening to Jesus' words—"What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean'" (Matt. 15:11).
In the Orthodox Church, no individual saint, bishop, or theologian is considered infallible. Even the greatest have taught things that were later rejected. To give just one example, St. Gregory of Nyssa was a great defender of the doctrine of the Trinity, but his ideas about universal salvation conflicted with Scripture, so they failed to enter the mainstream.
Tradition is not a separate, or superior, source of light from Scripture. It is a commentary on the Light, helping us adjust our eyes to its brilliance.
Christ, Our One Mediator
Many Protestant converts to Orthodoxy and Catholicism are looking for a "final authority" on all matters of faith and life. To them, discerning the truth for yourself sounds like relativism. They are anxious to hand over their consciences to an infallible judge.
This is truer of converts to Rome, who often criticize the Orthodox for lack of a single teaching authority. But some Orthodox cling to a cult-like obedience to their priest or spiritual father. I know of one Orthodox monk who told a follower, "If I tell you to dig a hole today, and then I tell you to fill it in tomorrow, you must obey me without questioning."
In the right circumstances, obedience to authority can be an important discipline. In his letters, Paul certainly encourages us to obey our elders in the Lord. But Spirit-led obedience is joyful, not oppressive. God gifted us with free will for a reason. He doesn't force obedience. Jesus woos us with the beauty of truth and righteousness, and he desires our free response to his love.
I can't hand my free will over to a pope, priest, or spiritual father, even though these can be helpful guides. For example, I greatly admire Pope John Paul II's teachings on marriage and sexuality, but I admire them for the beauty and truth I find there, not because I take them to be divine or infallible. I am responsible for my decisions, and I alone will answer for them.
All Part of 'the Church'
Evangelicals, Catholics, and Orthodox disagree about the exact identity of "the church." But when the smoke clears, we all agree that everyone under the lordship of Christ, regardless of denominational affiliation, is somehow part of the church. That's the important thing. Beyond that, I'd rather avoid judgments about who's in and who's out of the church.
I'm not arguing for relativism, but humility. Objective truth exists, but our human ability to discern it is limited. In fact, Truth is not a set of ideas—it's a person. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." We only know Truth as much as we know Christ.
I'm a grateful member of the Orthodox Church, and I'm happy to talk about the glories of this path as well as the struggles. I believe that the "trappings" of Orthodoxy—icons, liturgies, rote prayers, and other things evangelicals often are suspicious of—can bring us closer to Christ. But when these things become ends in themselves—idols instead of icons—we need to step back and remember what, or who, it's all about.
Instead of "evangelizing" my evangelical friends, I now hope to learn from them. Discussing differences is worthwhile, but it's more important to encourage each other as we grow in Christ.
It took me a while, but I think I've finally learned what really matters. Liturgical is not enough, sacramental is not enough, Catholic is not enough, and Orthodox is not enough. Only Jesus is enough.
Sam Torode is the coauthor (with wife, Bethany) of Aflame: Ancient Wisdom on Marriage (Eerdmans, 2005).
Friday, July 22, 2005
Here is another news article that I found regarding the Grand Theft Hypocrisy of the gaming industry. It turns out that Rockstar has decided to manufacture an M rating of the game after all and hopefully it will be in stores soon.
Take that Hillary!
'Explicit game' to be modified
22/07/2005 11:56 - (SA)
Related Articles
'Explicit game' for adults only
Hillary Clinton slams game
San Francisco - The maker of the cult video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas said on Thursday it had stopped production of the game after a ratings board ruled its sexy content meant it should be sold only to adults.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) slapped an adults-only label on the game because a software modification called Hot Coffee, available on the Internet, allowed players to view graphic levels of sex, violence and drug use, the board said.
Making a more suitable game
"Rockstar Games has ceased manufacturing of the current version of the title and will begin working on a version of the game with enhanced security to prevent the Hot Coffee modifications," the firm stated on the website of its subsidiary, Take-Two Interactive.
"Rockstar Games will be providing adults-only labels for retailers who wish to continue to sell the current version of the title," the New York City-based software maker added.
Grand Theft Auto features graphic designs that allow users to play the parts of street gang characters carrying out robberies, car hi-jackings, shootings and other nefarious deeds to earn points.
It sold a whopping 5.1 million units last year, making it the top selling video game in the $10bn a year United States games market.
Its new adults-only rating will significantly limit its sales to the lucrative youth market.
Controversial scenes to be deleted
Rockstar has told the board the controversial scenes were never intended for game users and it will delete the coding from the programming, said ESRB president Patricia Vance.
Rockstar said the modified game will be crafted to regain the "M", mature content, rating the board stripped it of this week.
"If they do intend to sell the product as an 'M' product, they must delete the content from the disk and assure us there is nothing left a hacker could access," said Vance.
The "mod", or modification, that unlocked sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto software showed the risk gamers take when writing around or encoding unwanted programming instead of deleting it, according to Vance.
"This is software, not like a film where your edits are left on the cutting room floor," Vance said. "Leaving things on a disk you don't intend for game play is risky."
The ESRB "has no reason to suspect" that Rockstar left the nasty secret scenes on the disks as a treat for savvy players, Vance said.
"There is no incentive for a publisher to hide content from the ESRB," Vance said. "Because, we will find it."
In the recent case, Vance pointed out, the scenes in Grand Theft Auto became a controversial issue after a hacker posted the access key on the Internet.
Rockstar will offer a free software patch for parents or others who want to block the unauthorised game scenes from being accessed.
The company predicted interrupting production of the Grand Theft Auto game and modifying the software will cost the company millions of dollars.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1741761,00.html
Take that Hillary!
'Explicit game' to be modified
22/07/2005 11:56 - (SA)
Related Articles
'Explicit game' for adults only
Hillary Clinton slams game
San Francisco - The maker of the cult video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas said on Thursday it had stopped production of the game after a ratings board ruled its sexy content meant it should be sold only to adults.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) slapped an adults-only label on the game because a software modification called Hot Coffee, available on the Internet, allowed players to view graphic levels of sex, violence and drug use, the board said.
Making a more suitable game
"Rockstar Games has ceased manufacturing of the current version of the title and will begin working on a version of the game with enhanced security to prevent the Hot Coffee modifications," the firm stated on the website of its subsidiary, Take-Two Interactive.
"Rockstar Games will be providing adults-only labels for retailers who wish to continue to sell the current version of the title," the New York City-based software maker added.
Grand Theft Auto features graphic designs that allow users to play the parts of street gang characters carrying out robberies, car hi-jackings, shootings and other nefarious deeds to earn points.
It sold a whopping 5.1 million units last year, making it the top selling video game in the $10bn a year United States games market.
Its new adults-only rating will significantly limit its sales to the lucrative youth market.
Controversial scenes to be deleted
Rockstar has told the board the controversial scenes were never intended for game users and it will delete the coding from the programming, said ESRB president Patricia Vance.
Rockstar said the modified game will be crafted to regain the "M", mature content, rating the board stripped it of this week.
"If they do intend to sell the product as an 'M' product, they must delete the content from the disk and assure us there is nothing left a hacker could access," said Vance.
The "mod", or modification, that unlocked sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto software showed the risk gamers take when writing around or encoding unwanted programming instead of deleting it, according to Vance.
"This is software, not like a film where your edits are left on the cutting room floor," Vance said. "Leaving things on a disk you don't intend for game play is risky."
The ESRB "has no reason to suspect" that Rockstar left the nasty secret scenes on the disks as a treat for savvy players, Vance said.
"There is no incentive for a publisher to hide content from the ESRB," Vance said. "Because, we will find it."
In the recent case, Vance pointed out, the scenes in Grand Theft Auto became a controversial issue after a hacker posted the access key on the Internet.
Rockstar will offer a free software patch for parents or others who want to block the unauthorised game scenes from being accessed.
The company predicted interrupting production of the Grand Theft Auto game and modifying the software will cost the company millions of dollars.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1741761,00.html
Thursday, July 21, 2005
GRAND THEFT HYPOCRISY
I remember the very first time I saw the game Grand Theft Auto. I was living in the dorm at Tyndale and a friend of mine had the PC version of it. I played it and the sequel. When Grand Theft Auto 3 came out not long after that, I bought a PS2 just for this game. GTA3 and GTA: Vice City were, by far, the best games on the market. GTA: San Andreas was, however, a step above, both in the ingenuity of the game and the raunchiness. I finally decided that this would be my last GTA game. I could not, as a Christian, play this game anymore, not to mention that I knew that if I ever had kids, I could never play it in front of them.
I was, however, surprised today when the rating was changed from M to AO. It effected me indirectly as I work in retail and we received urgent news from headquarters to pull the game. Despite the rumors, Target (the store I work for) did not voluntarily pull the game. The makers of the software asked each retailer to pull the game. Not only has the game been pulled, but it will no longer be made.
The hypocrisy of this really strikes me. The fine line between M and AO is indeed very fine. Check out his list of M and AO games I found online and you tell me if GTA crossed the line.
"The Guy Game," ($30, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox). This quiz-show format game involves scantily clad female spring breakers on the beaches of South Padre Island, Texas. The goal involves testing your brain power against a series of half-nude female partygoers, who'll strip down and flash their breasts if you can successfully predict if they'll correctly answer questions. The game is rated "M" for crude humor, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content and alcohol.
"Playboy: The Mansion," ($40, PC, PS2 and Xbox). A computerized Hugh Hefner strolls around in his red smoking jacket, half-naked women latched to his arms. As Hef, your goal is to schmooze, party, flirt - and then some - as you become a national icon. The ESRB gave it an "M" for nudity, strong sexual content and use of alcohol.
"Postal 2," ($20, PC). This game from the creative minds at Running With Scissors aims for shock value but earned an "M" rating for blood and gore, intense violence, mature humor, sexual themes, strong language and use of drugs and alcohol. You control a disgruntled postal worker and lead him on unabashedly ultraviolent killing sprees involving hapless civilians in an Arizona town.
"Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude Uncut and Uncensored," ($30, Vivendi Universal Games). You are Larry Lovage, controlled in a quest to score with the ladies at a local community college. As charmingly innocent as it may sounds, this special cut of the game earned an "AO" rating for mature humor, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content and use of alcohol."
http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2005/07/21/ap2151733.html
Did GTASA really cross the line here? Or was it hypocrites like Senator Hillary Clinton who blew this out of proportion so she can snag some headlines for her 2008 presidential run?
This is indeed Grand Theft Hypocrisy.
Dave M.
I remember the very first time I saw the game Grand Theft Auto. I was living in the dorm at Tyndale and a friend of mine had the PC version of it. I played it and the sequel. When Grand Theft Auto 3 came out not long after that, I bought a PS2 just for this game. GTA3 and GTA: Vice City were, by far, the best games on the market. GTA: San Andreas was, however, a step above, both in the ingenuity of the game and the raunchiness. I finally decided that this would be my last GTA game. I could not, as a Christian, play this game anymore, not to mention that I knew that if I ever had kids, I could never play it in front of them.
I was, however, surprised today when the rating was changed from M to AO. It effected me indirectly as I work in retail and we received urgent news from headquarters to pull the game. Despite the rumors, Target (the store I work for) did not voluntarily pull the game. The makers of the software asked each retailer to pull the game. Not only has the game been pulled, but it will no longer be made.
The hypocrisy of this really strikes me. The fine line between M and AO is indeed very fine. Check out his list of M and AO games I found online and you tell me if GTA crossed the line.
"The Guy Game," ($30, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox). This quiz-show format game involves scantily clad female spring breakers on the beaches of South Padre Island, Texas. The goal involves testing your brain power against a series of half-nude female partygoers, who'll strip down and flash their breasts if you can successfully predict if they'll correctly answer questions. The game is rated "M" for crude humor, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content and alcohol.
"Playboy: The Mansion," ($40, PC, PS2 and Xbox). A computerized Hugh Hefner strolls around in his red smoking jacket, half-naked women latched to his arms. As Hef, your goal is to schmooze, party, flirt - and then some - as you become a national icon. The ESRB gave it an "M" for nudity, strong sexual content and use of alcohol.
"Postal 2," ($20, PC). This game from the creative minds at Running With Scissors aims for shock value but earned an "M" rating for blood and gore, intense violence, mature humor, sexual themes, strong language and use of drugs and alcohol. You control a disgruntled postal worker and lead him on unabashedly ultraviolent killing sprees involving hapless civilians in an Arizona town.
"Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude Uncut and Uncensored," ($30, Vivendi Universal Games). You are Larry Lovage, controlled in a quest to score with the ladies at a local community college. As charmingly innocent as it may sounds, this special cut of the game earned an "AO" rating for mature humor, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content and use of alcohol."
http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2005/07/21/ap2151733.html
Did GTASA really cross the line here? Or was it hypocrites like Senator Hillary Clinton who blew this out of proportion so she can snag some headlines for her 2008 presidential run?
This is indeed Grand Theft Hypocrisy.
Dave M.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Most of you know that on March 12, 2005, my wife and I were involved in a very serious car accident. According to witnesses, I entered an intersection and our Honda Civic was side-swiped by a Dodge Durango doing no less than 50 mph. You can view the results on my blog at:
http://davemcdowell.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_davemcdowell_archive.html
(After clicking, scroll down for the pictures.)
I suffered a fractured ankle and some minor injuries to my knee. My wife suffered some deep bruising. Believe it or not, both of us, even four months after the accident, are still sore. The morning after the accident, once the shock wore off, I began to feel a great amount of guilt. I was waking up at night dreaming about the accident. After trying to return to work a week later, I decided (or should I say my body decided) that I did indeed need more time off than I thought. The doctor ordered me out of work for what was to be a total of six weeks. When all you have is a walking cast on your right foot and you do not have a vehicle, you spend a lot of time alone and at home. The initial guilt wore off. It took some time, but I came to the conclusion that I could not have really controlled what happened. I do not remember why I entered the intersection; I simply remembered the moment of impact. But there were still some nagging questions for me. And many of them were very basic and important questions. The biggest question was, “What if?” If I had died that day on Telegraph Road, what would I have to show for it? I was ashamed to say that my life’s accomplishments had been very small. Most of the first few months of 2005 were spent complaining about my job, complaining about the circumstances of life, and complaining that I felt like I could do nothing about it. I was feeling like I had nothing under my control and the accident only reaffirmed that. I was not enjoying life. I would go to work, come home, sleep, and go to work.
What happened in the next few weeks was that God slowly showed me the importance of life. It is something that I have believed for some time, but now really feel like I possess. Life really is short. God did not give it to us to be wasted and he most certainly did not give it to us to walk around like a curmudgeon and complain all the time. Life is here to be enjoyed. God grants it to us and it is indeed precious.
As God began to open up my heart, I responded by simply letting go of some fear and anxiety and literally and figuratively stepping back up to the mic. Although I immensely enjoyed it, I had given up singing karaoke a few months back for many reasons. I loved to go out and sing and I was told that I am quite good. I guess at the time I believed that other things were more important, so when I quit karaoke, I quit going out, stayed home, and sulked on my couch fretting about how bad my life is. My wife and I were actually on our way to sing karaoke when the accident occurred. I had sunk so low that I ran back to the only thing that I knew that I could control…my voice. What I learned after the accident is that I am never in control. Control is an illusion. God is sovereign…all the time.
After God worked on me for awhile, the time came when I wanted to go out again; I wanted to sing again. I had worked all the mental stuff out in my head and it was time to unleash some pent up emotion. But this time, when I stood up in front of that mic, I knew whose my voice was and let it scream. “I feel angry, I feel helpless,” I sang. “Wanna change the world. I feel violent, I feel alone. Don’t try to change my mind.” All these were emotions that I felt before and after the accident. But I was also quick to sing the chorus: “One, oh one. The only Way is one.” The truth is that I am still a bit angry. I admit it. Things have happened recently and I resist the urge to shout at the sky. I still feel helpless, but in that good way where my trust lies with my Creator rather than myself. I will always want to change the world, but the violence is gone and I know I’m not alone.
So where does this leave me four months later? My love for music has grown and I’ve discovered and rediscovered my love for it. I’ve always been quite eclectic in my taste, but I find myself a sucker for blues guitar. I am singing karaoke as much as I can lately and enjoying it immensely. I actually had someone approach me for studio time last time I sang. It probably will not happen, but it did make me feel quite good. Instead of life looking like an endless parade of challenges, life now looks like an endless parade of possibilities. The taste of optimism is indeed sweet on my tongue.
I received an incredible letter today. It read, “We are pleased to inform you that your file is now complete and that you are officially admitted to Ashland Theological Seminary to pursue the Master of Divinity degree…You will encounter many opportunities and challenges in your studies here at Ashland. We trust that you will grow in many ways—academically, professionally, and spiritually.” I must confess that I did a little jump in the post office (despite my sore ankle) when I read the letter. God has indeed been so good. I can’t wait! In the next few months, Kandice and I will be moving to Ohio.
One of my favorite movies is Dead Poets Society. At the beginning of the meetings, a Henry David Thoreau poem was read which has always inspired me. He says, “I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” To look back at my life and think that it may have been for waste and that it had not been lived would indeed be a travesty. I am pressing on to greater things.
Living Deliberately For Him,
Dave McDowell
http://davemcdowell.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_davemcdowell_archive.html
(After clicking, scroll down for the pictures.)
I suffered a fractured ankle and some minor injuries to my knee. My wife suffered some deep bruising. Believe it or not, both of us, even four months after the accident, are still sore. The morning after the accident, once the shock wore off, I began to feel a great amount of guilt. I was waking up at night dreaming about the accident. After trying to return to work a week later, I decided (or should I say my body decided) that I did indeed need more time off than I thought. The doctor ordered me out of work for what was to be a total of six weeks. When all you have is a walking cast on your right foot and you do not have a vehicle, you spend a lot of time alone and at home. The initial guilt wore off. It took some time, but I came to the conclusion that I could not have really controlled what happened. I do not remember why I entered the intersection; I simply remembered the moment of impact. But there were still some nagging questions for me. And many of them were very basic and important questions. The biggest question was, “What if?” If I had died that day on Telegraph Road, what would I have to show for it? I was ashamed to say that my life’s accomplishments had been very small. Most of the first few months of 2005 were spent complaining about my job, complaining about the circumstances of life, and complaining that I felt like I could do nothing about it. I was feeling like I had nothing under my control and the accident only reaffirmed that. I was not enjoying life. I would go to work, come home, sleep, and go to work.
What happened in the next few weeks was that God slowly showed me the importance of life. It is something that I have believed for some time, but now really feel like I possess. Life really is short. God did not give it to us to be wasted and he most certainly did not give it to us to walk around like a curmudgeon and complain all the time. Life is here to be enjoyed. God grants it to us and it is indeed precious.
As God began to open up my heart, I responded by simply letting go of some fear and anxiety and literally and figuratively stepping back up to the mic. Although I immensely enjoyed it, I had given up singing karaoke a few months back for many reasons. I loved to go out and sing and I was told that I am quite good. I guess at the time I believed that other things were more important, so when I quit karaoke, I quit going out, stayed home, and sulked on my couch fretting about how bad my life is. My wife and I were actually on our way to sing karaoke when the accident occurred. I had sunk so low that I ran back to the only thing that I knew that I could control…my voice. What I learned after the accident is that I am never in control. Control is an illusion. God is sovereign…all the time.
After God worked on me for awhile, the time came when I wanted to go out again; I wanted to sing again. I had worked all the mental stuff out in my head and it was time to unleash some pent up emotion. But this time, when I stood up in front of that mic, I knew whose my voice was and let it scream. “I feel angry, I feel helpless,” I sang. “Wanna change the world. I feel violent, I feel alone. Don’t try to change my mind.” All these were emotions that I felt before and after the accident. But I was also quick to sing the chorus: “One, oh one. The only Way is one.” The truth is that I am still a bit angry. I admit it. Things have happened recently and I resist the urge to shout at the sky. I still feel helpless, but in that good way where my trust lies with my Creator rather than myself. I will always want to change the world, but the violence is gone and I know I’m not alone.
So where does this leave me four months later? My love for music has grown and I’ve discovered and rediscovered my love for it. I’ve always been quite eclectic in my taste, but I find myself a sucker for blues guitar. I am singing karaoke as much as I can lately and enjoying it immensely. I actually had someone approach me for studio time last time I sang. It probably will not happen, but it did make me feel quite good. Instead of life looking like an endless parade of challenges, life now looks like an endless parade of possibilities. The taste of optimism is indeed sweet on my tongue.
I received an incredible letter today. It read, “We are pleased to inform you that your file is now complete and that you are officially admitted to Ashland Theological Seminary to pursue the Master of Divinity degree…You will encounter many opportunities and challenges in your studies here at Ashland. We trust that you will grow in many ways—academically, professionally, and spiritually.” I must confess that I did a little jump in the post office (despite my sore ankle) when I read the letter. God has indeed been so good. I can’t wait! In the next few months, Kandice and I will be moving to Ohio.
One of my favorite movies is Dead Poets Society. At the beginning of the meetings, a Henry David Thoreau poem was read which has always inspired me. He says, “I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” To look back at my life and think that it may have been for waste and that it had not been lived would indeed be a travesty. I am pressing on to greater things.
Living Deliberately For Him,
Dave McDowell
Tyndale founder Kenneth Taylor dies; created The Living Bible
By staff reporter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHEATON, ILL. — Kenneth Taylor, founder of Tyndale House Publishers, one of the nation’s largest Christian publishing companies, and creator of The Living Bible translation, died June 10 in his Wheaton home. He was 88.
A service was held June 15 at Edman Memorial Chapel on the campus of Wheaton College, where he earned his undergraduate degree.
Taylor was president of Tyndale House Publishers until 1984, when he turned over the reins to his son, Mark. He continued to serve as chairman of the board from 1984 until his death. Tyndale is one of the nation’s largest publishing companies, producing the best-selling “Left Behind” series. In addition to establishing the company, Taylor also wrote numerous children’s books.
His signature product was The Living Bible, a paraphrase of Scripture that was embraced by Billy Graham, and became the nation’s best-selling book for three years. More than 40 million copies have been sold worldwide with portions or entire Bibles available in more than 100 languages.
“Making Scripture accessible for all people was my father’s passion,” Mark Taylor said in a news release. “Many, many people have told him, ‘I became a Christian when I read The Living Bible,’ or ‘My first Bible was the green padded Living Bible.’ Even at 88 years old, his enthusiasm and fervor for his work never waned.”
Each year Tyndale’s 260 employees produce 250 new products. Its beginnings, however, were modest.
Determined to have his 10 children understand the Bible, Taylor created the paraphrased edition saying that the King James Version of the Bible—the most commonly used translation at the time—was too difficult for his young children to understand.
The project emerged when Taylor began rewording specific King James passages into simple, conversational language that children could comprehend. He finished his paraphrase of the New Testament epistles, which he called “Living Letters” in 1962, but no one was interested in publishing his work.
Taylor and his wife, Margaret, decided to self-publish 2,000 copies of “Living Letters.”
Taylor named his fledgling company Tyndale House Publishers after William Tyndale, the 16th century reformer who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. In its early days, Tyndale House was literally a kitchen-table operation. The older daughters typed Taylor’s manuscripts, Margaret typed invoices and mailing labels, and the younger children stuffed envelopes and packed books ordered by bookstores.
Graham sparks interest
As Taylor continued to paraphrase the rest of the Scriptures, orders for “Living Letters” trickled in. But when evangelist Billy Graham began to use Taylor’s work as a premium for his television broadcasts, demand for the books began in earnest.
In 1967, Tyndale published the Living New Testament, and in 1971 released the complete Living Bible. It became the best-selling book in the United States for the next three years, after which Publisher’s Weekly decided not to allow Bibles to compete with “regular books” for a spot on the best-seller list.
From the first published copy of The Living Bible, Taylor and his wife committed to deposit all profits from the Bible into a charitable trust, with all of its royalties donated to Tyndale House Foundation. The foundation, which continues to promote Taylor’s vision of making the Bible accessible and available to everyone, supports mission projects around the world.
Taylor was born on May 8, 1917, in Portland, Ore., to George and Charlotte Huff Taylor. Due in large part to his pastor father and godly mother, Taylor developed a solid faith in Christ and a deep respect for the Bible at a very young age. He graduated from Wheaton College in 1938, attended Dallas Theological Seminary for three years, and graduated from Northern Baptist Seminary in 1944.
Taylor, who spent 65 years in the publishing industry, began his career as editor of HIS magazine and later served as director of Moody Press in Chicago. He was the author of many children’s books, including “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” and “My First Bible in Pictures.”
In addition to his wife, Taylor is survived by 10 children, 28 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
By staff reporter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHEATON, ILL. — Kenneth Taylor, founder of Tyndale House Publishers, one of the nation’s largest Christian publishing companies, and creator of The Living Bible translation, died June 10 in his Wheaton home. He was 88.
A service was held June 15 at Edman Memorial Chapel on the campus of Wheaton College, where he earned his undergraduate degree.
Taylor was president of Tyndale House Publishers until 1984, when he turned over the reins to his son, Mark. He continued to serve as chairman of the board from 1984 until his death. Tyndale is one of the nation’s largest publishing companies, producing the best-selling “Left Behind” series. In addition to establishing the company, Taylor also wrote numerous children’s books.
His signature product was The Living Bible, a paraphrase of Scripture that was embraced by Billy Graham, and became the nation’s best-selling book for three years. More than 40 million copies have been sold worldwide with portions or entire Bibles available in more than 100 languages.
“Making Scripture accessible for all people was my father’s passion,” Mark Taylor said in a news release. “Many, many people have told him, ‘I became a Christian when I read The Living Bible,’ or ‘My first Bible was the green padded Living Bible.’ Even at 88 years old, his enthusiasm and fervor for his work never waned.”
Each year Tyndale’s 260 employees produce 250 new products. Its beginnings, however, were modest.
Determined to have his 10 children understand the Bible, Taylor created the paraphrased edition saying that the King James Version of the Bible—the most commonly used translation at the time—was too difficult for his young children to understand.
The project emerged when Taylor began rewording specific King James passages into simple, conversational language that children could comprehend. He finished his paraphrase of the New Testament epistles, which he called “Living Letters” in 1962, but no one was interested in publishing his work.
Taylor and his wife, Margaret, decided to self-publish 2,000 copies of “Living Letters.”
Taylor named his fledgling company Tyndale House Publishers after William Tyndale, the 16th century reformer who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. In its early days, Tyndale House was literally a kitchen-table operation. The older daughters typed Taylor’s manuscripts, Margaret typed invoices and mailing labels, and the younger children stuffed envelopes and packed books ordered by bookstores.
Graham sparks interest
As Taylor continued to paraphrase the rest of the Scriptures, orders for “Living Letters” trickled in. But when evangelist Billy Graham began to use Taylor’s work as a premium for his television broadcasts, demand for the books began in earnest.
In 1967, Tyndale published the Living New Testament, and in 1971 released the complete Living Bible. It became the best-selling book in the United States for the next three years, after which Publisher’s Weekly decided not to allow Bibles to compete with “regular books” for a spot on the best-seller list.
From the first published copy of The Living Bible, Taylor and his wife committed to deposit all profits from the Bible into a charitable trust, with all of its royalties donated to Tyndale House Foundation. The foundation, which continues to promote Taylor’s vision of making the Bible accessible and available to everyone, supports mission projects around the world.
Taylor was born on May 8, 1917, in Portland, Ore., to George and Charlotte Huff Taylor. Due in large part to his pastor father and godly mother, Taylor developed a solid faith in Christ and a deep respect for the Bible at a very young age. He graduated from Wheaton College in 1938, attended Dallas Theological Seminary for three years, and graduated from Northern Baptist Seminary in 1944.
Taylor, who spent 65 years in the publishing industry, began his career as editor of HIS magazine and later served as director of Moody Press in Chicago. He was the author of many children’s books, including “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” and “My First Bible in Pictures.”
In addition to his wife, Taylor is survived by 10 children, 28 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
Tyndale founder Kenneth Taylor dies; created The Living Bible
By staff reporter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHEATON, ILL. — Kenneth Taylor, founder of Tyndale House Publishers, one of the nation’s largest Christian publishing companies, and creator of The Living Bible translation, died June 10 in his Wheaton home. He was 88.
A service was held June 15 at Edman Memorial Chapel on the campus of Wheaton College, where he earned his undergraduate degree.
Taylor was president of Tyndale House Publishers until 1984, when he turned over the reins to his son, Mark. He continued to serve as chairman of the board from 1984 until his death. Tyndale is one of the nation’s largest publishing companies, producing the best-selling “Left Behind” series. In addition to establishing the company, Taylor also wrote numerous children’s books.
His signature product was The Living Bible, a paraphrase of Scripture that was embraced by Billy Graham, and became the nation’s best-selling book for three years. More than 40 million copies have been sold worldwide with portions or entire Bibles available in more than 100 languages.
“Making Scripture accessible for all people was my father’s passion,” Mark Taylor said in a news release. “Many, many people have told him, ‘I became a Christian when I read The Living Bible,’ or ‘My first Bible was the green padded Living Bible.’ Even at 88 years old, his enthusiasm and fervor for his work never waned.”
Each year Tyndale’s 260 employees produce 250 new products. Its beginnings, however, were modest.
Determined to have his 10 children understand the Bible, Taylor created the paraphrased edition saying that the King James Version of the Bible—the most commonly used translation at the time—was too difficult for his young children to understand.
The project emerged when Taylor began rewording specific King James passages into simple, conversational language that children could comprehend. He finished his paraphrase of the New Testament epistles, which he called “Living Letters” in 1962, but no one was interested in publishing his work.
Taylor and his wife, Margaret, decided to self-publish 2,000 copies of “Living Letters.”
Taylor named his fledgling company Tyndale House Publishers after William Tyndale, the 16th century reformer who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. In its early days, Tyndale House was literally a kitchen-table operation. The older daughters typed Taylor’s manuscripts, Margaret typed invoices and mailing labels, and the younger children stuffed envelopes and packed books ordered by bookstores.
Graham sparks interest
As Taylor continued to paraphrase the rest of the Scriptures, orders for “Living Letters” trickled in. But when evangelist Billy Graham began to use Taylor’s work as a premium for his television broadcasts, demand for the books began in earnest.
In 1967, Tyndale published the Living New Testament, and in 1971 released the complete Living Bible. It became the best-selling book in the United States for the next three years, after which Publisher’s Weekly decided not to allow Bibles to compete with “regular books” for a spot on the best-seller list.
From the first published copy of The Living Bible, Taylor and his wife committed to deposit all profits from the Bible into a charitable trust, with all of its royalties donated to Tyndale House Foundation. The foundation, which continues to promote Taylor’s vision of making the Bible accessible and available to everyone, supports mission projects around the world.
Taylor was born on May 8, 1917, in Portland, Ore., to George and Charlotte Huff Taylor. Due in large part to his pastor father and godly mother, Taylor developed a solid faith in Christ and a deep respect for the Bible at a very young age. He graduated from Wheaton College in 1938, attended Dallas Theological Seminary for three years, and graduated from Northern Baptist Seminary in 1944.
Taylor, who spent 65 years in the publishing industry, began his career as editor of HIS magazine and later served as director of Moody Press in Chicago. He was the author of many children’s books, including “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” and “My First Bible in Pictures.”
In addition to his wife, Taylor is survived by 10 children, 28 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
By staff reporter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHEATON, ILL. — Kenneth Taylor, founder of Tyndale House Publishers, one of the nation’s largest Christian publishing companies, and creator of The Living Bible translation, died June 10 in his Wheaton home. He was 88.
A service was held June 15 at Edman Memorial Chapel on the campus of Wheaton College, where he earned his undergraduate degree.
Taylor was president of Tyndale House Publishers until 1984, when he turned over the reins to his son, Mark. He continued to serve as chairman of the board from 1984 until his death. Tyndale is one of the nation’s largest publishing companies, producing the best-selling “Left Behind” series. In addition to establishing the company, Taylor also wrote numerous children’s books.
His signature product was The Living Bible, a paraphrase of Scripture that was embraced by Billy Graham, and became the nation’s best-selling book for three years. More than 40 million copies have been sold worldwide with portions or entire Bibles available in more than 100 languages.
“Making Scripture accessible for all people was my father’s passion,” Mark Taylor said in a news release. “Many, many people have told him, ‘I became a Christian when I read The Living Bible,’ or ‘My first Bible was the green padded Living Bible.’ Even at 88 years old, his enthusiasm and fervor for his work never waned.”
Each year Tyndale’s 260 employees produce 250 new products. Its beginnings, however, were modest.
Determined to have his 10 children understand the Bible, Taylor created the paraphrased edition saying that the King James Version of the Bible—the most commonly used translation at the time—was too difficult for his young children to understand.
The project emerged when Taylor began rewording specific King James passages into simple, conversational language that children could comprehend. He finished his paraphrase of the New Testament epistles, which he called “Living Letters” in 1962, but no one was interested in publishing his work.
Taylor and his wife, Margaret, decided to self-publish 2,000 copies of “Living Letters.”
Taylor named his fledgling company Tyndale House Publishers after William Tyndale, the 16th century reformer who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. In its early days, Tyndale House was literally a kitchen-table operation. The older daughters typed Taylor’s manuscripts, Margaret typed invoices and mailing labels, and the younger children stuffed envelopes and packed books ordered by bookstores.
Graham sparks interest
As Taylor continued to paraphrase the rest of the Scriptures, orders for “Living Letters” trickled in. But when evangelist Billy Graham began to use Taylor’s work as a premium for his television broadcasts, demand for the books began in earnest.
In 1967, Tyndale published the Living New Testament, and in 1971 released the complete Living Bible. It became the best-selling book in the United States for the next three years, after which Publisher’s Weekly decided not to allow Bibles to compete with “regular books” for a spot on the best-seller list.
From the first published copy of The Living Bible, Taylor and his wife committed to deposit all profits from the Bible into a charitable trust, with all of its royalties donated to Tyndale House Foundation. The foundation, which continues to promote Taylor’s vision of making the Bible accessible and available to everyone, supports mission projects around the world.
Taylor was born on May 8, 1917, in Portland, Ore., to George and Charlotte Huff Taylor. Due in large part to his pastor father and godly mother, Taylor developed a solid faith in Christ and a deep respect for the Bible at a very young age. He graduated from Wheaton College in 1938, attended Dallas Theological Seminary for three years, and graduated from Northern Baptist Seminary in 1944.
Taylor, who spent 65 years in the publishing industry, began his career as editor of HIS magazine and later served as director of Moody Press in Chicago. He was the author of many children’s books, including “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” and “My First Bible in Pictures.”
In addition to his wife, Taylor is survived by 10 children, 28 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Jesus at G8
Christian advocacy for Africa gains notice at top meetings.
by Tony Carnes in Edinburgh, Scotland | posted 07/06/2005 09:30 a.m.
Slogans, celebrities, politicians, and Christian activists are grabbing headlines globally this week in anticipation of the international Group of 8 meetings in Scotland.
The potent mix includes the heads of eight leading industrialized nations along with Live 8's Bob Geldof, U2's Bono, Jars of Clay, Kanye West, Rick Warren, Pat Robertson, and evangelical churchgoers.
Normally, the G8 summit elicits about as much evangelical interest as moss growing on trees. But this year evangelicals are joining the ranks of activists at the annual gathering, held this year in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Their shared goal is to change government policies that will save lives in Africa. A broad coalition of religious and political leaders has endorsed:
Doubling financial aid sent to the world's poorest countries.
Debt cancellation for the poorest nations.
Reform of trade laws so poor nations are not shut out of global markets.
Activists hope all these steps will result in new growth in African economies and that in turn will translate into fewer deaths from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and starvation.
ONE, the campaign "to make poverty history," has become the focal point of advocacy for the G8 meetings and includes leading evangelical groups, such as World Vision, Bread for the World, and World Concern.
ONE campaign leader Geldof helped organize the July 2 mega-rock concert series Live 8 to raise public awareness and sway the leaders of the G8 countries to make these policy reforms. Geldof in 1985 organized the historic Live Aid concert that raised funds to fight famine in Africa.
Geldof told CT that Africa's poverty and misery is "the great moral sorrow of our time." Many G8 leaders favor debt cancellation and significant increases in aid, but fewer leaders support reform of trade laws because it may result in job losses within their own nations.
In planning for the concerts this past weekend, Geldof realized something that many of his secular European colleagues fail to recognize: The solutions to Africa's needs will only come about if evangelicals are brought into the fray.
"In the U.S. evangelicals are a huge force for change," he told CT. He said in Africa the roles of evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, and Muslims have become the fundamental facts of life. "People fail to understand how important a role religion takes in Africa."
Geldof's partner in the Live 8 concerts is mega-rock star Bono, U2's charismatic leader who has acknowledged Christian beliefs. Bono has worked through his organization DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) to partner with Christian relief and development groups.
In Philadelphia, the Live 8 concert featured evangelical Christian artists like Jars of Clay—fresh from an appearance with evangelist Billy Graham in New York City, along with headliners Kanye West and Destiny's Child.
The Bono Effect
Shayne Moore, a member of the Wheaton Bible Church in Wheaton, Illinois, says she has come to Edinburgh because her heart was broken by Bono's descriptions of African suffering. (For example, every day, 6,300 Africans die of AIDS, more than 1,200 of them children.)
"Bono came to Wheaton College in December 2002," Moore said. "By the time I left the concert, I had changed."
At Wheaton, Bono issued his challenge, "If the church doesn't respond, who will?"
The change inside of Moore was a deep transformation. She moved from being the classic suburban mom who happily shops for family bargains at Target into a person with global concern. She now considers herself a faith-oriented activist and has come to Edinburgh with other evangelicals linked with the ONE Campaign. They will be networking, organizing, and strategizing how to change government policy and push for local church involvement.
Like many of the evangelicals here in Edinburgh, Moore came with a new compassion for Africans. She and her husband even helped sponsor an entire Zambian village through World Vision. Moore looks at her own children when she see pictures of African kids dying of malaria and AIDS. "I don't have to go miles to get clean water for my kids."
Bono, Geldof, and others working to end poverty in Africa have tapped into the vein of evangelical compassion, typically channeled through local churches and charities, but now also directed into reform of government policies on trade and aid.
For Moore, it is a long way from the foreign missions appeals at Wheaton Bible Church, which she joined in 2004.
G8 meetings in Scotland run July 6-8. Live 8 leaders are saying, "The whole world is watching." Moore and other evangelicals in Edinburgh hope the whole church is paying close attention too.
Tony Carnes is a senior writer for Christianity Today.
Christian advocacy for Africa gains notice at top meetings.
by Tony Carnes in Edinburgh, Scotland | posted 07/06/2005 09:30 a.m.
Slogans, celebrities, politicians, and Christian activists are grabbing headlines globally this week in anticipation of the international Group of 8 meetings in Scotland.
The potent mix includes the heads of eight leading industrialized nations along with Live 8's Bob Geldof, U2's Bono, Jars of Clay, Kanye West, Rick Warren, Pat Robertson, and evangelical churchgoers.
Normally, the G8 summit elicits about as much evangelical interest as moss growing on trees. But this year evangelicals are joining the ranks of activists at the annual gathering, held this year in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Their shared goal is to change government policies that will save lives in Africa. A broad coalition of religious and political leaders has endorsed:
Doubling financial aid sent to the world's poorest countries.
Debt cancellation for the poorest nations.
Reform of trade laws so poor nations are not shut out of global markets.
Activists hope all these steps will result in new growth in African economies and that in turn will translate into fewer deaths from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and starvation.
ONE, the campaign "to make poverty history," has become the focal point of advocacy for the G8 meetings and includes leading evangelical groups, such as World Vision, Bread for the World, and World Concern.
ONE campaign leader Geldof helped organize the July 2 mega-rock concert series Live 8 to raise public awareness and sway the leaders of the G8 countries to make these policy reforms. Geldof in 1985 organized the historic Live Aid concert that raised funds to fight famine in Africa.
Geldof told CT that Africa's poverty and misery is "the great moral sorrow of our time." Many G8 leaders favor debt cancellation and significant increases in aid, but fewer leaders support reform of trade laws because it may result in job losses within their own nations.
In planning for the concerts this past weekend, Geldof realized something that many of his secular European colleagues fail to recognize: The solutions to Africa's needs will only come about if evangelicals are brought into the fray.
"In the U.S. evangelicals are a huge force for change," he told CT. He said in Africa the roles of evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, and Muslims have become the fundamental facts of life. "People fail to understand how important a role religion takes in Africa."
Geldof's partner in the Live 8 concerts is mega-rock star Bono, U2's charismatic leader who has acknowledged Christian beliefs. Bono has worked through his organization DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) to partner with Christian relief and development groups.
In Philadelphia, the Live 8 concert featured evangelical Christian artists like Jars of Clay—fresh from an appearance with evangelist Billy Graham in New York City, along with headliners Kanye West and Destiny's Child.
The Bono Effect
Shayne Moore, a member of the Wheaton Bible Church in Wheaton, Illinois, says she has come to Edinburgh because her heart was broken by Bono's descriptions of African suffering. (For example, every day, 6,300 Africans die of AIDS, more than 1,200 of them children.)
"Bono came to Wheaton College in December 2002," Moore said. "By the time I left the concert, I had changed."
At Wheaton, Bono issued his challenge, "If the church doesn't respond, who will?"
The change inside of Moore was a deep transformation. She moved from being the classic suburban mom who happily shops for family bargains at Target into a person with global concern. She now considers herself a faith-oriented activist and has come to Edinburgh with other evangelicals linked with the ONE Campaign. They will be networking, organizing, and strategizing how to change government policy and push for local church involvement.
Like many of the evangelicals here in Edinburgh, Moore came with a new compassion for Africans. She and her husband even helped sponsor an entire Zambian village through World Vision. Moore looks at her own children when she see pictures of African kids dying of malaria and AIDS. "I don't have to go miles to get clean water for my kids."
Bono, Geldof, and others working to end poverty in Africa have tapped into the vein of evangelical compassion, typically channeled through local churches and charities, but now also directed into reform of government policies on trade and aid.
For Moore, it is a long way from the foreign missions appeals at Wheaton Bible Church, which she joined in 2004.
G8 meetings in Scotland run July 6-8. Live 8 leaders are saying, "The whole world is watching." Moore and other evangelicals in Edinburgh hope the whole church is paying close attention too.
Tony Carnes is a senior writer for Christianity Today.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
To Judge, or Not to Judge
Christ commanded us not to judge others, but aren't there times when common sense or prudence requires it? Asked by Stephen Hunt, St. Paul, Minnesota
Answered by Roger E. Olson | posted 06/29/2005 09:00 a.m.
Even people who know very little about the Bible are usually familiar with Jesus' saying "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1, KJV). This command is part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount; it is Jesus' most popular saying because our culture values tolerance so highly.
But it is usually ripped out of context and misinterpreted.
Matthew 7:1-5 includes Jesus' warning about trying to take a speck out of a neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in your own eye. In verse five, Jesus makes clear the audience he is addressing: "You hypocrite!" When Jesus says "Do not judge," he is warning people against heaping criticism and condemnation on others without being willing to examine one's own behavior. Clearly the context is one in which some religious leaders were harshly condemning other people while attempting to justify their own sinfulness.
Furthermore, many people are unaware of balancing texts about judging in the rest of the New Testament. These include Jesus' command "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:24, NRSV), and Paul's rhetorical question "Is it not those who are inside [the church] that you are to judge?" (1 Cor. 5:12). Clearly not all judging is forbidden. If that were the case, the church could have no boundaries; the body of Christ would not be a body but a gaseous vapor!
Paul urged the Corinthian church to exclude the man who was living with his father's wife; he ordered them not to associate with people who claim to be Christians but live blatantly sinful lives without repentance (1 Cor. 5). Did Paul simply forget Jesus' command not to judge? Was he unaware of it? That's doubtful. Rather, we should suppose that Jesus meant only to condemn hypocritical judging. When the church must discipline a member, it should always do so in full recognition of everyone's lack of perfection and need of the Savior.
Some churches and Christian organizations avoid church discipline because it is a form of judging, and judging is wrongly equated with intolerance. Judging is then (ironically) judged incompatible with the spirit of Jesus' teaching. Church discipline is surely the more biblical approach, even as it is fraught with danger.
The New Testament condemns every spirit that says Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh (1 John 4). Today the problem is more likely to arise around denials of Christ's deity. And yet Christ's deity is a nonnegotiable of Christian faith that is crucial to the gospel. Christians should not tolerate denials of such central truths within the church, and must discipline with love those who knowingly reject the truth of the Incarnation.
Similarly, the New Testament condemns immorality, including homosexual behavior (Rom. 1:26-27). Churches that condone such behavior among believers are abdicating their responsibility to shepherd God's flock.
Church discipline inexorably involves making judgments and even judging people's behaviors, but it can be done in a nonjudgmental and humble manner. One church I know stripped a man of membership, without shaming or humiliating him, because he refused to cease an adulterous relationship or repent of it. He was encouraged to continue attending worship services, and his involvement in the church eventually contributed to his repentance and restoration to full fellowship. The church acknowledged that everyone sins, but recognized the importance of a repentant spirit. Without such humble discipline, there is no real discipleship.
Finally, even though the context of Matthew 7 may not require it, one is justified in thinking that Jesus does not want us to take God's place in determining individual persons' ultimate spiritual fate. This would be another example of inappropriate judging. Which specific individuals of our acquaintance will end up in heaven and which will end up in hell is not for us to determine. That judgment belongs to God alone.
But who should be a member of a church, and how members should behave as such, must sometimes be decided by the church, based on beliefs and behaviors.
Roger E. Olson is professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University, and author of The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology.
Christ commanded us not to judge others, but aren't there times when common sense or prudence requires it? Asked by Stephen Hunt, St. Paul, Minnesota
Answered by Roger E. Olson | posted 06/29/2005 09:00 a.m.
Even people who know very little about the Bible are usually familiar with Jesus' saying "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1, KJV). This command is part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount; it is Jesus' most popular saying because our culture values tolerance so highly.
But it is usually ripped out of context and misinterpreted.
Matthew 7:1-5 includes Jesus' warning about trying to take a speck out of a neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in your own eye. In verse five, Jesus makes clear the audience he is addressing: "You hypocrite!" When Jesus says "Do not judge," he is warning people against heaping criticism and condemnation on others without being willing to examine one's own behavior. Clearly the context is one in which some religious leaders were harshly condemning other people while attempting to justify their own sinfulness.
Furthermore, many people are unaware of balancing texts about judging in the rest of the New Testament. These include Jesus' command "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:24, NRSV), and Paul's rhetorical question "Is it not those who are inside [the church] that you are to judge?" (1 Cor. 5:12). Clearly not all judging is forbidden. If that were the case, the church could have no boundaries; the body of Christ would not be a body but a gaseous vapor!
Paul urged the Corinthian church to exclude the man who was living with his father's wife; he ordered them not to associate with people who claim to be Christians but live blatantly sinful lives without repentance (1 Cor. 5). Did Paul simply forget Jesus' command not to judge? Was he unaware of it? That's doubtful. Rather, we should suppose that Jesus meant only to condemn hypocritical judging. When the church must discipline a member, it should always do so in full recognition of everyone's lack of perfection and need of the Savior.
Some churches and Christian organizations avoid church discipline because it is a form of judging, and judging is wrongly equated with intolerance. Judging is then (ironically) judged incompatible with the spirit of Jesus' teaching. Church discipline is surely the more biblical approach, even as it is fraught with danger.
The New Testament condemns every spirit that says Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh (1 John 4). Today the problem is more likely to arise around denials of Christ's deity. And yet Christ's deity is a nonnegotiable of Christian faith that is crucial to the gospel. Christians should not tolerate denials of such central truths within the church, and must discipline with love those who knowingly reject the truth of the Incarnation.
Similarly, the New Testament condemns immorality, including homosexual behavior (Rom. 1:26-27). Churches that condone such behavior among believers are abdicating their responsibility to shepherd God's flock.
Church discipline inexorably involves making judgments and even judging people's behaviors, but it can be done in a nonjudgmental and humble manner. One church I know stripped a man of membership, without shaming or humiliating him, because he refused to cease an adulterous relationship or repent of it. He was encouraged to continue attending worship services, and his involvement in the church eventually contributed to his repentance and restoration to full fellowship. The church acknowledged that everyone sins, but recognized the importance of a repentant spirit. Without such humble discipline, there is no real discipleship.
Finally, even though the context of Matthew 7 may not require it, one is justified in thinking that Jesus does not want us to take God's place in determining individual persons' ultimate spiritual fate. This would be another example of inappropriate judging. Which specific individuals of our acquaintance will end up in heaven and which will end up in hell is not for us to determine. That judgment belongs to God alone.
But who should be a member of a church, and how members should behave as such, must sometimes be decided by the church, based on beliefs and behaviors.
Roger E. Olson is professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University, and author of The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
A post from a friend of mine:
Dear Sisters and Brothers,You might find the following article of interest. It's found in _BusinessWeek_ and is entitled "Earthly Empires, How Evangelical Churches AreBorrowing from the Business Playbook."<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm>Last week I ate lunch with a man who used to work for Mr. Osteen's father,and I told him about the interview that I had seen young Joel give on CNN afew weeks ago, on June 7, 2005, on "Paula Zahn Now."Judy Woodruff: "But critics say it's all just cotton candy Christianity:tasty, but little substance. There's no fire and brimstone at Lakewood, notalk of sinners or Satan, no talk of politics, abortion, gay marriage."Joel Osteen: "I don't know if I want to go there, you know. I mean, Ijust -- you know, I'm for the -- I don't even know where to go. I haven'treally addressed it much."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/07/pzn.01.html>I won't quote what the man said to me, but he confirmed that Joel Osteenskirts issues that will make people feel bad about themselves.With the opening of his new church at Houston's old Compaq Center, Mr.Osteen is in the news a lot lately. On June 20, 2005, he was on "Larry KingLive."Larry King, CNN Host: 'Tonight, Joel Osteen, evangelism's hottest risingstar, pastor for the biggest congregation in the United States. He literallyfilled the shoes of his late father who founded the church, and wait untilyou hear what he had to overcome to do it. Pastor Joel Osteen is here forthe hour. We'll take your calls. It's next on LARRY KING LIVE.'Joel Osteen is the author of the number one "New York Times" best-seller,"Your Best Life Now." There you see its cover. "Seven Steps to Living atYour Full Potential." There is now a compendium been published called "YourBest Life Now Journal," a guide to reaching that full potential. Joel Osteenis pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His father before him. Hehas been called the smiling preacher. We met.'. . .King: "How many people come to your church?"Osteen: "We have about 30,000 each weekend.". . .King: "Is it hard to lead a Christian life?"Osteen: "I don't think it's that hard. To me it's fun. We have joy andhappiness. Our family -- I don't feel like that at all. I'm not trying tofollow a set of rules and stuff. I'm just living my life."King: "But you have rules, don't you?"Osteen: "We do have rules. But the main rule to me is to honor God with yourlife. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others.But that's really the essence of the Christian faith."King: "That we live in deeds?"Osteen: "I don't know. What do you mean by that?"King: "Because we've had ministers on who said, your record don't count. Youeither believe in Christ or you don't. If you believe in Christ, you are,you are going to heaven. And if you don't no matter what you've done in yourlife, you ain't."Osteen: "Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believeyou have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're abeliever in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's acop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ..."King: "What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?"Osteen: "You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't goto heaven. I don't know ..."King: "If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren'tthey?"Osteen: "Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here'swhat the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe.But I just think that only God with judge a person's heart. I spent a lot oftime in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But Iknow they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don'tknow. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have arelationship with Jesus."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/20/lkl.01.html>Last night I kept thinking about how much "fun" the Christian life is as mywife and I visited an eighteen year old woman who used to attend our church.She's facing ten years in prison for a series of arrests over the past sixmonths, all drug related. She was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and shecried a lot. At one point I left my wife in the interview room with her andwalked over to the sergeant at the desk to ask if I could leave my Biblewith the young woman. He was watching the television monitor and grippinghis Taser, waiting to see if the shouting match between some females downthe hall called for more back-up.After we left our parish jail, we drove over to one of our hospitals to praywith one of our members who had chunks of his large intestine removedbecause of cancer. We are waiting for the test results today to see if thecancer has spread to his lymph nodes. We got home a little after 8:00.What a "fun" evening!Now, don't get me wrong. We know the joy of the Lord -- it is our strength(Nehemiah 8:10.) -- but we also what it is to weep. (Romans 12:15.) Since Ipastor a medium sized church, my wife and I personally know the people whoattend, some quite well. And that means that we do a lot of weeping. As myfavorite atheist wrote: "To know people well is to know their tragedy: itis usually the central thing about which their lives are built." [BertrandRussell, _The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell_ (New York: Routledge,2000), p. 194.]Pro Rege,Bob"Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only? Not that I amacceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because onlythe satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ is my righteousnessbefore God; and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other waythan by faith only." (The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 23, # 61.)Robert Benn Vincent, Sr.Grace Presbyterian Church4900 Jackson StreetAlexandria, Louisiana 71303-2509Tutissimum Refugium Sanguinis Christi80 Hickory Hill DriveBoyce, Louisiana 71409-8784318.445.7271 church318.443.1034 fax318.793.5354 homebob@rbvincent.comhttp://www.rbvincent.comhttp://www.grace-presbyterian.orghttp://www.gcsla.org
Dear Sisters and Brothers,You might find the following article of interest. It's found in _BusinessWeek_ and is entitled "Earthly Empires, How Evangelical Churches AreBorrowing from the Business Playbook."<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm>Last week I ate lunch with a man who used to work for Mr. Osteen's father,and I told him about the interview that I had seen young Joel give on CNN afew weeks ago, on June 7, 2005, on "Paula Zahn Now."Judy Woodruff: "But critics say it's all just cotton candy Christianity:tasty, but little substance. There's no fire and brimstone at Lakewood, notalk of sinners or Satan, no talk of politics, abortion, gay marriage."Joel Osteen: "I don't know if I want to go there, you know. I mean, Ijust -- you know, I'm for the -- I don't even know where to go. I haven'treally addressed it much."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/07/pzn.01.html>I won't quote what the man said to me, but he confirmed that Joel Osteenskirts issues that will make people feel bad about themselves.With the opening of his new church at Houston's old Compaq Center, Mr.Osteen is in the news a lot lately. On June 20, 2005, he was on "Larry KingLive."Larry King, CNN Host: 'Tonight, Joel Osteen, evangelism's hottest risingstar, pastor for the biggest congregation in the United States. He literallyfilled the shoes of his late father who founded the church, and wait untilyou hear what he had to overcome to do it. Pastor Joel Osteen is here forthe hour. We'll take your calls. It's next on LARRY KING LIVE.'Joel Osteen is the author of the number one "New York Times" best-seller,"Your Best Life Now." There you see its cover. "Seven Steps to Living atYour Full Potential." There is now a compendium been published called "YourBest Life Now Journal," a guide to reaching that full potential. Joel Osteenis pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His father before him. Hehas been called the smiling preacher. We met.'. . .King: "How many people come to your church?"Osteen: "We have about 30,000 each weekend.". . .King: "Is it hard to lead a Christian life?"Osteen: "I don't think it's that hard. To me it's fun. We have joy andhappiness. Our family -- I don't feel like that at all. I'm not trying tofollow a set of rules and stuff. I'm just living my life."King: "But you have rules, don't you?"Osteen: "We do have rules. But the main rule to me is to honor God with yourlife. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others.But that's really the essence of the Christian faith."King: "That we live in deeds?"Osteen: "I don't know. What do you mean by that?"King: "Because we've had ministers on who said, your record don't count. Youeither believe in Christ or you don't. If you believe in Christ, you are,you are going to heaven. And if you don't no matter what you've done in yourlife, you ain't."Osteen: "Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believeyou have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're abeliever in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's acop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ..."King: "What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?"Osteen: "You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't goto heaven. I don't know ..."King: "If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren'tthey?"Osteen: "Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here'swhat the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe.But I just think that only God with judge a person's heart. I spent a lot oftime in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But Iknow they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don'tknow. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have arelationship with Jesus."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/20/lkl.01.html>Last night I kept thinking about how much "fun" the Christian life is as mywife and I visited an eighteen year old woman who used to attend our church.She's facing ten years in prison for a series of arrests over the past sixmonths, all drug related. She was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and shecried a lot. At one point I left my wife in the interview room with her andwalked over to the sergeant at the desk to ask if I could leave my Biblewith the young woman. He was watching the television monitor and grippinghis Taser, waiting to see if the shouting match between some females downthe hall called for more back-up.After we left our parish jail, we drove over to one of our hospitals to praywith one of our members who had chunks of his large intestine removedbecause of cancer. We are waiting for the test results today to see if thecancer has spread to his lymph nodes. We got home a little after 8:00.What a "fun" evening!Now, don't get me wrong. We know the joy of the Lord -- it is our strength(Nehemiah 8:10.) -- but we also what it is to weep. (Romans 12:15.) Since Ipastor a medium sized church, my wife and I personally know the people whoattend, some quite well. And that means that we do a lot of weeping. As myfavorite atheist wrote: "To know people well is to know their tragedy: itis usually the central thing about which their lives are built." [BertrandRussell, _The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell_ (New York: Routledge,2000), p. 194.]Pro Rege,Bob"Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only? Not that I amacceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because onlythe satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ is my righteousnessbefore God; and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other waythan by faith only." (The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 23, # 61.)Robert Benn Vincent, Sr.Grace Presbyterian Church4900 Jackson StreetAlexandria, Louisiana 71303-2509Tutissimum Refugium Sanguinis Christi80 Hickory Hill DriveBoyce, Louisiana 71409-8784318.445.7271 church318.443.1034 fax318.793.5354 homebob@rbvincent.comhttp://www.rbvincent.comhttp://www.grace-presbyterian.orghttp://www.gcsla.org
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
A response to "Yes To Yoga"
Take a Pass on Yoga
How can I support a practice that is targeting the young and the weak?
by Holly Vicente Robaina posted 06/07/2005 09:00 a.m.
This is a response to Agnieszka Tennant's "Yes to Yoga," which recently appeared on Christianity Today's website. Agnieszka wrote her article in response to my piece, "The Truth About Yoga," which appeared in Today's Christian Woman's March/April 2005 issue.
While I recognize Agnieszka's right to practice yoga, I've got to take a pass—and I feel compelled to encourage other Christians to pass on yoga, too.
I was deeply involved in the New Age before I became a Christian. Trances, channeling spirits, and past-life regression were normal practices for me back then. So was yoga.
Like Laurette Willis, whose story is featured in "The Truth About Yoga," I was raised in a Christian home. I accepted Jesus as a child, was baptized, attended a Christian school, and participated in Bible quizzing. When I headed off to college, I thought my faith was rock solid.
A Ouija board game in college started my journey into the New Age. It seemed so innocent at the time—a plastic pointer on top of a piece of cardboard printed with the alphabet. It seemed like Monopoly or Scrabble. Though I'd been warned about Ouija boards by church youth leaders, this didn't look like anything that could hurt me.
It took many years and many prayers for me to let go of my New Age practices and to be healed from the pain they caused me. Until last fall, when I met Laurette Willis, I'd never met another Christian who'd come out of the New Age. (To be fair, I've kept pretty quiet about my experience.) Laurette told me she hadn't met any before, either. (And she's been extremely vocal about her experience.)
Both Laurette and I have met quite a few New Agers who'd grown up in Christian households, attended church, or even been professing believers.
Just before I wrote "The Truth About Yoga," I was looking for a stretching routine that would offer an alternative to yoga. I'd practiced yoga for years and loved the feel of stretching and relaxing from a day's stresses. But after I became a Christian, I sensed something spiritual about yoga that made me uneasy. (I later discovered yoga's Hindu origins and understood why I'd felt uneasy—New Age beliefs and practices are largely derived from Hinduism.)
So when I heard about a new exercise program dubbed "Christian yoga," I thought I'd found my alternative. And I figured TCW readers would love to learn about it, too.
I interviewed two Christian yoga instructors along with Laurette and had contacted others when I began putting the story together. As I was working on it, I felt troubled by some of the statements made by Christian yoga instructors and characteristics of their programs. At first, I ignored it, thinking I was hypersensitive and being too nitpicky because of my own New Age past. I became deeply concerned again when I discovered one of my interviewees—a Christian yoga instructor who'd been featured prominently in articles by several Christian publications—had links to a New Age website on her Christian yoga site. I prayed about it, began deeply researching more than a dozen Christian yoga programs, and prayed some more. Finally, I contacted Today's Christian Woman editor Jane Johnson Struck. We agreed it was best to stick to a profile on Laurette Willis.
Laurette never contacted me about her PraiseMoves program, nor did she send promotional material to TCW. I didn't even know she was working on a book for Harvest House. I found her website through a search engine, and it was my decision (with support from the TCW editors) to focus on her story.
The big differenceI've found that yoga practitioners—both Christians and those who are not believers—are extremely defensive of yoga. I can understand why. Stretching feels fabulous, and there's a dearth of stretching programs out there. That was yet another reason it seemed helpful to highlight PraiseMoves, a stretching program created by a Christian, for Christians.
Agnieszka seems to believe PraiseMoves is yoga with Christian terminology thrown in. I'd correct that statement and say Laurette's program is a Christian stretching program that seeks to reflect the physical benefits of yoga while replacing Hindu spiritualism with Christian worship.
Is there really a difference? I've practiced yoga with many different instructors (who all said they taught purely "physical exercise" without any yogic spiritualism), and I've done the PraiseMoves program myself. So I'd offer a resounding "Yes, there's a big difference," along with an illustration.
I have a Buddhist friend who practices ancestor worship—she goes to a temple, lights a stick of incense, and leaves food for her deceased relatives. There are Christians who light candles in remembrance of deceased relatives, or set a place at their holiday table for someone who has passed. The actions are similar, but the intent and settings are different. The Christians aren't worshiping their deceased relatives (intent), or performing a symbolic gesture inside a Buddhist temple or in a uniquely Buddhist way (setting).
I believe Agnieszka's personal intent in practicing yoga is good and pure. She loves Jesus, sees yoga as exercise, and likely would never be seduced into the deeper spiritualism that is inherent in all yoga. But yoga has a history, a "setting" of postures and language that pays homage to Hindu deities. While American instructors may water down that language, I think it's safe to say most are still using it. The word namaste is still used in many yoga classes, including Agnieszka's, and it's a term Hindus use when paying respect to their deities. Even when used between friends, the term still really means, "I bow to the god within you." (Agnieszka offers a different translation in her article. While the word gets translated differently depending on the source, I believe my translation, which comes from a number of Hindu websites, is closer to its true intent. It is a Sanskrit/Hindu word, and Hindus believe all living things are part of god, i.e. we are all gods. Some explain this belief as "monotheistic polytheism.") And most instructors—including, it seems, Agnieszka's—use traditional Sanskrit terms that have been translated into English, such as downward facing dog, corpse pose, and sun salutation. The last one, by the way, directly pays homage to the Hindu sun god—it isn't called a "salute to the sun" for nothin'.
Minority reportEven if a Christian can get past the Hindu origins of yoga, what about those who are instructing the class? What's their intent? On the Internet, you'll find a jillion yoga instructors who offer definitions similar to this one found on yogabasics.com: "Yoga is … aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit, and achieving a state of enlightenment or oneness with the universe. What is normally thought of as 'yoga' in the West is really Hatha Yoga, one of the many paths of yoga. These different paths of yoga are simply different approaches and techniques that all lead to the same goal of unification and enlightenment." The definition was written by the website's founder, who has instructed yoga for 16 years.
As for American-style yoga being just exercise, the site goes on to say: "More than just stretching, asanas [yoga postures] open the energy channels, chakras and psychic centers of the body. Asanas purify and strengthen the body and control and focus the mind."
These are not fringe views shared only by hardcore Hindu yogis. Rather, Agnieszka's view—that the Hindu spiritualism within American yoga has largely been extracted, making it purely exercise—seems to be in the minority. Kaiser Permanente, a major healthcare provider, says this about yoga on its website: "Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in India and is based on the idea that the mind and body are one. It is thought that yoga improves health by improving how you see the world, which calms the spirit and decreases stress." Kaiser offers low-cost yoga classes to members, and regularly advertises this in its member newsletter.
Yoga is everywhere. Classes are taught in churches and nursing homes, through city recreation programs, and at elementary schools—both private and public. Meanwhile, numerous studies show prayer and faith have a healing effect, and that religion is good for your overall health. But you probably won't see your local city hall renting a room for prayer meetings at the senior center any time soon.
Perhaps it has become so common that it's now easy to overlook yoga's origins—and its inherent Hindu spirituality—even when the Hindu and yoga communities are loudly proclaiming, "Yes, all of yoga is Hinduism. Everyone should be aware of this fact" (from an e-mail written to Laurette Willis by a staff member of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy in New Jersey).
Agnieszka references 1 Corinthians 8 in her article to illustrate how yoga might not cause a strong Christian to stumble. But she doesn't mention the last part of the passage, where Paul goes on to say:
"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ" (verses 9-12).
And I'll admit it—I loved yoga. Perhaps I'm even a strong enough Christian now to begin a yoga class again. But my decision to say no to yoga isn't just about me. Children are being exposed to yoga's spiritualism at school and in after-school programs. (I remember being taken through a guided meditation as a teen at a youth recreation program, though I had no idea what it was at the time.) And I've read many stories about doctors who encourage the elderly, depressed patients, the mentally ill, and terminal patients to practice yoga for its mental and spiritual benefits—as if there is no better comfort available in the world than yoga.
So even if I'm strong enough, how can I support a practice that seems to be targeting the young and the weak? I take 1 Corinthians 8:13 most seriously: "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
For me, giving up yoga is even easier than it would be to give up meat because there are alternatives. (There aren't many alternatives to a good steak!) I can still stretch. I can meditate on Scripture. I can slow down, take deep breaths, relax, and thank God for the many gifts he's given me. And I can pray that more Christians like Laurette Willis will be moved to develop alternatives to yoga.
Lastly, I'd like to address the idea that some evangelicals are engaging in fear-mongering about yoga. It's easy to become afraid of things we don't understand, especially practices that use a different language and come from a different culture. But fear also can be a God-given response that keeps us out of danger. As someone who was deeply involved in New Age and metaphysical practices, I can tell you from experience: There is a spiritual realm in this world. There are spiritual battles being fought. And there are frightening things from which we need to run—even if, like that Ouija board, they look benign on the surface.
Take a Pass on Yoga
How can I support a practice that is targeting the young and the weak?
by Holly Vicente Robaina posted 06/07/2005 09:00 a.m.
This is a response to Agnieszka Tennant's "Yes to Yoga," which recently appeared on Christianity Today's website. Agnieszka wrote her article in response to my piece, "The Truth About Yoga," which appeared in Today's Christian Woman's March/April 2005 issue.
While I recognize Agnieszka's right to practice yoga, I've got to take a pass—and I feel compelled to encourage other Christians to pass on yoga, too.
I was deeply involved in the New Age before I became a Christian. Trances, channeling spirits, and past-life regression were normal practices for me back then. So was yoga.
Like Laurette Willis, whose story is featured in "The Truth About Yoga," I was raised in a Christian home. I accepted Jesus as a child, was baptized, attended a Christian school, and participated in Bible quizzing. When I headed off to college, I thought my faith was rock solid.
A Ouija board game in college started my journey into the New Age. It seemed so innocent at the time—a plastic pointer on top of a piece of cardboard printed with the alphabet. It seemed like Monopoly or Scrabble. Though I'd been warned about Ouija boards by church youth leaders, this didn't look like anything that could hurt me.
It took many years and many prayers for me to let go of my New Age practices and to be healed from the pain they caused me. Until last fall, when I met Laurette Willis, I'd never met another Christian who'd come out of the New Age. (To be fair, I've kept pretty quiet about my experience.) Laurette told me she hadn't met any before, either. (And she's been extremely vocal about her experience.)
Both Laurette and I have met quite a few New Agers who'd grown up in Christian households, attended church, or even been professing believers.
Just before I wrote "The Truth About Yoga," I was looking for a stretching routine that would offer an alternative to yoga. I'd practiced yoga for years and loved the feel of stretching and relaxing from a day's stresses. But after I became a Christian, I sensed something spiritual about yoga that made me uneasy. (I later discovered yoga's Hindu origins and understood why I'd felt uneasy—New Age beliefs and practices are largely derived from Hinduism.)
So when I heard about a new exercise program dubbed "Christian yoga," I thought I'd found my alternative. And I figured TCW readers would love to learn about it, too.
I interviewed two Christian yoga instructors along with Laurette and had contacted others when I began putting the story together. As I was working on it, I felt troubled by some of the statements made by Christian yoga instructors and characteristics of their programs. At first, I ignored it, thinking I was hypersensitive and being too nitpicky because of my own New Age past. I became deeply concerned again when I discovered one of my interviewees—a Christian yoga instructor who'd been featured prominently in articles by several Christian publications—had links to a New Age website on her Christian yoga site. I prayed about it, began deeply researching more than a dozen Christian yoga programs, and prayed some more. Finally, I contacted Today's Christian Woman editor Jane Johnson Struck. We agreed it was best to stick to a profile on Laurette Willis.
Laurette never contacted me about her PraiseMoves program, nor did she send promotional material to TCW. I didn't even know she was working on a book for Harvest House. I found her website through a search engine, and it was my decision (with support from the TCW editors) to focus on her story.
The big differenceI've found that yoga practitioners—both Christians and those who are not believers—are extremely defensive of yoga. I can understand why. Stretching feels fabulous, and there's a dearth of stretching programs out there. That was yet another reason it seemed helpful to highlight PraiseMoves, a stretching program created by a Christian, for Christians.
Agnieszka seems to believe PraiseMoves is yoga with Christian terminology thrown in. I'd correct that statement and say Laurette's program is a Christian stretching program that seeks to reflect the physical benefits of yoga while replacing Hindu spiritualism with Christian worship.
Is there really a difference? I've practiced yoga with many different instructors (who all said they taught purely "physical exercise" without any yogic spiritualism), and I've done the PraiseMoves program myself. So I'd offer a resounding "Yes, there's a big difference," along with an illustration.
I have a Buddhist friend who practices ancestor worship—she goes to a temple, lights a stick of incense, and leaves food for her deceased relatives. There are Christians who light candles in remembrance of deceased relatives, or set a place at their holiday table for someone who has passed. The actions are similar, but the intent and settings are different. The Christians aren't worshiping their deceased relatives (intent), or performing a symbolic gesture inside a Buddhist temple or in a uniquely Buddhist way (setting).
I believe Agnieszka's personal intent in practicing yoga is good and pure. She loves Jesus, sees yoga as exercise, and likely would never be seduced into the deeper spiritualism that is inherent in all yoga. But yoga has a history, a "setting" of postures and language that pays homage to Hindu deities. While American instructors may water down that language, I think it's safe to say most are still using it. The word namaste is still used in many yoga classes, including Agnieszka's, and it's a term Hindus use when paying respect to their deities. Even when used between friends, the term still really means, "I bow to the god within you." (Agnieszka offers a different translation in her article. While the word gets translated differently depending on the source, I believe my translation, which comes from a number of Hindu websites, is closer to its true intent. It is a Sanskrit/Hindu word, and Hindus believe all living things are part of god, i.e. we are all gods. Some explain this belief as "monotheistic polytheism.") And most instructors—including, it seems, Agnieszka's—use traditional Sanskrit terms that have been translated into English, such as downward facing dog, corpse pose, and sun salutation. The last one, by the way, directly pays homage to the Hindu sun god—it isn't called a "salute to the sun" for nothin'.
Minority reportEven if a Christian can get past the Hindu origins of yoga, what about those who are instructing the class? What's their intent? On the Internet, you'll find a jillion yoga instructors who offer definitions similar to this one found on yogabasics.com: "Yoga is … aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit, and achieving a state of enlightenment or oneness with the universe. What is normally thought of as 'yoga' in the West is really Hatha Yoga, one of the many paths of yoga. These different paths of yoga are simply different approaches and techniques that all lead to the same goal of unification and enlightenment." The definition was written by the website's founder, who has instructed yoga for 16 years.
As for American-style yoga being just exercise, the site goes on to say: "More than just stretching, asanas [yoga postures] open the energy channels, chakras and psychic centers of the body. Asanas purify and strengthen the body and control and focus the mind."
These are not fringe views shared only by hardcore Hindu yogis. Rather, Agnieszka's view—that the Hindu spiritualism within American yoga has largely been extracted, making it purely exercise—seems to be in the minority. Kaiser Permanente, a major healthcare provider, says this about yoga on its website: "Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in India and is based on the idea that the mind and body are one. It is thought that yoga improves health by improving how you see the world, which calms the spirit and decreases stress." Kaiser offers low-cost yoga classes to members, and regularly advertises this in its member newsletter.
Yoga is everywhere. Classes are taught in churches and nursing homes, through city recreation programs, and at elementary schools—both private and public. Meanwhile, numerous studies show prayer and faith have a healing effect, and that religion is good for your overall health. But you probably won't see your local city hall renting a room for prayer meetings at the senior center any time soon.
Perhaps it has become so common that it's now easy to overlook yoga's origins—and its inherent Hindu spirituality—even when the Hindu and yoga communities are loudly proclaiming, "Yes, all of yoga is Hinduism. Everyone should be aware of this fact" (from an e-mail written to Laurette Willis by a staff member of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy in New Jersey).
Agnieszka references 1 Corinthians 8 in her article to illustrate how yoga might not cause a strong Christian to stumble. But she doesn't mention the last part of the passage, where Paul goes on to say:
"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ" (verses 9-12).
And I'll admit it—I loved yoga. Perhaps I'm even a strong enough Christian now to begin a yoga class again. But my decision to say no to yoga isn't just about me. Children are being exposed to yoga's spiritualism at school and in after-school programs. (I remember being taken through a guided meditation as a teen at a youth recreation program, though I had no idea what it was at the time.) And I've read many stories about doctors who encourage the elderly, depressed patients, the mentally ill, and terminal patients to practice yoga for its mental and spiritual benefits—as if there is no better comfort available in the world than yoga.
So even if I'm strong enough, how can I support a practice that seems to be targeting the young and the weak? I take 1 Corinthians 8:13 most seriously: "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
For me, giving up yoga is even easier than it would be to give up meat because there are alternatives. (There aren't many alternatives to a good steak!) I can still stretch. I can meditate on Scripture. I can slow down, take deep breaths, relax, and thank God for the many gifts he's given me. And I can pray that more Christians like Laurette Willis will be moved to develop alternatives to yoga.
Lastly, I'd like to address the idea that some evangelicals are engaging in fear-mongering about yoga. It's easy to become afraid of things we don't understand, especially practices that use a different language and come from a different culture. But fear also can be a God-given response that keeps us out of danger. As someone who was deeply involved in New Age and metaphysical practices, I can tell you from experience: There is a spiritual realm in this world. There are spiritual battles being fought. And there are frightening things from which we need to run—even if, like that Ouija board, they look benign on the surface.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
