Running to Win!

This Garfield comic strip printed in the late 2000's and inspired the original idea for this post, nearly a decade ago.

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible" (1 Cor. 9:24-25).

Natural man tends to get lazy about spiritual things, and even seasoned Christians can become complacent and content in their walk with the Lord. But the Apostle Paul, in warning the young Corinthian church to remain steadfast in their faith, likens their relationship with the Lord not to a leisurely walk, but a competitive race. And as motivation, he presents them with the prospect of inheriting the "incorruptible crown", which is their eternal inheritance, should they persevere unto the end.

Not to be confused with a non-Biblical "salvation-by-works gospel' (see Paul's letter to the Galatians, for clarification), Paul nevertheless understands that a spiritually healthy and mature Christian is one who actively pursues Christ and the "mastery" of all things related to Him (faith, obedience, His Word, witnessing, etc....). Salvation is so much more than just having a day when you decided to repent of your sins and follow Jesus; He desires to have a relationship with you, much like a husband and wife. And that takes work..., but it is so very worth it!

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it" (Matt. 13:44-46).

By the way, in the strip, Garfield sarcastically questions whether there is sufficient motivation for him to join Jon in such a torturous activity. But that's a question Peter has already answered, in 1 Pet. 5:8: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

God's Not Dead

We just watched God's Not Dead last week, a well-made independent movie about a college student's efforts to convince his atheistic philosophy professor and the rest of the class that God is indeed real.

I knew almost nothing about the movie, coming in, and was pleasantly surprised, as I was watching the opening credits, that it featured not one, but two former superheroes that I used to watch regularly in the 1990's: Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) and Dean Cain (Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman). It was fun seeing them again, despite the fact that they portrayed the movie's two biggest jerks.

My purpose with this post is not to review the movie ((I highly recommend you go see it!) or to summarize the logical arguments for the existence of God (I covered that already in my previous posts), but rather to touch on something far more real: how do we, as Christians, react when disasters strike in our lives?

I hope I'm not revealing any major spoilers for you, if you haven't seen the movie yet, but in a tense moment, a major character reveals that it was a loved one's premature death that drove them to abandon their faith in God.

For some reason, despite scriptures to the contrary, mainstream churchgoers have the impression that if they serve Christ, their lives should be peaches and cream. No troubles should ever touch them, and they should be happy all the time. If God truly loves His children, should He not protect them from hardship, sorrow, and pain?

Despite my mother's and wife's health issues, I feel tremendously blessed to not have had people in my life dying prematurely, or touched by cancer, or worries about losing our home. And yet I know that there are brothers and sisters in Christ who have had to face these things. Think about this: if I do not abandon my faith when I hear about brothers and sisters who are going through tragedies right now, why should I doubt God when tragedy comes knocking at my own door?

Case in point: Many of you know about the tornado that struck Arkansas last week, killing 15 people. A news article described a mother who not only suffered two broken legs and a broken pelvis, but also lost her two young sons. Her husband is suffering from head trauma, and all that is left of their beautiful home is the concrete foundation. She has suffered all this loss, that to many of us is unphathomable, and yet her faith in Christ is unshaken. Her friend, who is a photographer and a blogger, came to visit her and took her picture, as she lay there in her hospital bed, bruised, bloodied, and broken. She asked her, if she could use the picture in a future post, after her friend recovered from her injuries. Instead, the woman in the hospital bed urged her friend to post the picture now, in order to "show them what my God can overcome." That's faith in action; a faith that not only does not abandon God when He allows tragedy to strike in our lives, but a faith that shouts from the housetops that victory over all adversity can be found only in Him. It's the faith that no matter what happens, God's wonderful plan for His children will not be derailed, and we can overcome it all, through Christ who has already overcome the world, through His death and resurrection.

Calvinism and Arminianism Reloaded

Several years ago, I wrote a trilogy of posts on the rudimentary difference between Calvinism and Arminianism, two significant schools of thought within Christian theology. In its purest sense, the former results in a "once saved, always saved" view of salvation, by grace alone, ignoring works altogether. The latter is often misinterpreted as salvation through works alone, ignoring grace altogether. These are, of course, exaggerations of the teachings of these two men, both of whom must have understood that the Bible, particularly the NT, tells us that salvation is a synergy of both grace and works. If you have not read those posts yet, I strongly recommend that you do that first, because whether you know it or not, if you claim to be a Christian, your worldview has been influenced by these two theologies.

Our church's bulletin this week contained this pithy saying: "Salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it's a gift for the guilty!"

This, of course, immediately brought to mind the grace vs. works debate. I get that they're trying to remind us that we cannot earn our way into Heaven, and that is true, but in the effort to sound clever, the writer ignores God's call to righteousness and holiness, "without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Or how does it stand against the claim that God "is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6b)?

And if salvation is solely a gift, requiring no effort on our part, why, then, did Paul feel pressed to write the following?

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (1 Cor. 9:24-27).

Salvation is indeed a gift, offered to us through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ crucified, not by the will of man, but that of God. But let us not rest easy, falsely believing that no heart-change and no "fruits of the Spirit" are necessary, lest we find ourselves before the Lord on that Last Day, counted among the goats, and we hear Jesus say to us, "I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity" (Luke 13:27).

Therefore, since we are indeed called to be holy, we all must stand with Paul and say, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).

Change We Can Believe In

Sorry that I haven't kept up with my blogs, recently. With my current job coming to a close in a month, I've been really busy wrapping up my work there and looking for new employment. And since my brain has a hard time staying focused on more than a couple things at a time, blogging has taken a back seat.

You probably recognize this blog's title as one of our current President's campaign slogans. While I'm not here to discuss the recent passing of the health care bill or the way Mr. Obama has been leading this country, I thought his old slogan was quite appropriate for the real subject of this post (and it's not French money, either!).

Mainstream Christianity often says that God loves us just as we are. We can be free to be ourselves and know that as long as we believe in Jesus, we are assured a home in Heaven. And no matter what we do, what mistakes we make, or what sins we commit, Jesus will greet us with open arms.

While there is some truth in those statements, it is not the whole truth.

God is not some giddy schoolgirl, infatuated with the hunky guy in the third row; He knows the corrupt hearts of men. When He created Adam, He was not a dreamy-eyed boy, receiving his very first puppy, and utterly unaware of the responsibilities and challenges of taking care of it. He knew full-well what He was in for. He knew all the heartache mankind would bring Him. He knew that one day soon, all too soon, He would have to hang on a blood-stained cross, for His creation. He knew all this, and yet went through with it, because He had a purpose and a plan for us.

The truth is that God is a god of change. He designed us in His image and wants us to be more like Him. He also provided us the catalyst and the power to change, by allowing His Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of His children.

Mainstream Christianity says that if we just believe in Christ, we will be saved. But there is so much more implied in that. Jesus said that unless we repent and become as little children, we cannot be saved. In fact, He told Nicodemus that we must be born again; we must be born of the Spirit, in order to gain eternal life. Paul says that if a man is in Christ, he is a new creation, that old things have passed away, and all things become new. I imagine a larva going into its cocoon and coming out a butterfly.

God is a god of change.

This is apparent even in human physiology. Are we born fully grown (as Adam and Eve were), able to walk, talk, and reason? No. We enter this world entirely weak and helpless, utterly dependent on others for our very survival. It then takes us a good couple decades to mature into fully functional members of society, able to bear the responsibilities and challenges of adulthood.

Likewise, Paul says that we must mature in Christ. The life of the saved is one of constant change. We grow not only in the knowledge of the Holy, but also in righteousness, as the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts. We must not remain in the sins of our youth (literal and figurative). We must believe that God has the power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and form us into His Holy image.

There is more, so much more, to all this. I will address it again, in my upcoming study of Paul's epistle to the Romans.

Is the Bible Worth Studying?

A visitor reading my comment on a blog, replied back with a very derogatory remark about the fruitlessness of studying the Bible. I couldn't help myself and wrote a pretty long reply. I think it was rather inspired, so here it is:

I appreciate you putting this discussion in context. It did not occur to me, when I wrote my previous comment, that you would be of the opinion that the Bible has NEGATIVE (or detrimental) value. We tend to judge a group or an idea by observing the behavior of a small sampling of those who belong to it. I can develop a very negative view of gays, simply from their reaction to the passing of Prop. 8, in California. Likewise, I can use similar techniques to pass judgement on blacks, Muslims, truck drivers, etc….

I freely admit that there are very many obnoxious, rude, and overzealous people, who call themselves Christian, who very sorely misrepresent the teachings of the Bible, especially the New Testament. You said that Christianity today is nothing like the one that your grandparents professed. Could it be that the parents who you say drove your friend to suicide did not follow the Bible as well as your grandparents? Is a speed limit sign bad, if there are people who don’t obey it?

If I call myself a boxer and put on the whole gear (so that I also look like one), does that MAKE me a boxer? If you didn’t know anything at all about boxing, you might actually believe me to be one. But as soon as you see the REAL thing, especially one that proceeds to pummel me to the consistency of oatmeal, you would know who’s the real boxer and who’s the impostor. So you need a reference, by which to judge.

I came to a crossroads, when I was in college, and decided to go to the source for the answer: the Bible. I did not know whether there was ANY truth to be found in it, but realized that the only way was to read it for myself. I didn’t read ALL of it, at the time; not by a longshot. I started in the Book of John (4th book of the New Testament), but by the time I was half-way through, I was convinced and surrendered to Jesus. It hasn’t been all peaches and cream, but I do have that peace that you were talking about.

I don’t know the exact situation with your friend (and even you may not know all the reasons that drove him to take his own life), but I’ll tell you this: nagging and harrassment are the provinces of men, not Jesus. My dad is NOT a Christian, and yet he nags me about everything under the sun (including my beliefs). I know he didn’t get that from the Bible. The Bible actually teaches that if you see your brother sin, you are to approach him about it, in a humble way, up to three times. If after the third time, he does not want to change, drop it. Nowhere is it even implied that you are to harrass, nag, or hurt him. Dropping it doesn’t mean that you’re now OK with his problem, but the wisdom here is that you can only make things worse with your nagging.

We (especially as parents) tend to take it upon ourselves to “fix” the people around us. This is not restricted to Christians. EVERYBODY does this. And everybody has a belief system that they want to impose on others. You said that Christian groups want to influence public opinion and won’t let people enjoy their lives in peace. This is true of ALL activist groups (it’s in their definition). I invite you to name ONE activist group that does NOT try to impose its views on the population. Groups like the ACLU, ACORN, and GLADD want to change laws that restrict my freedom, while promoting views that I strongly disagree with. We’re in the middle of a war of worldviews.

I should add here that there is a fairly large subset of Christians who believe that we should totally stay out of politics and public policy.

Your assertion that every human life is sacred is so very true and can lead us down all sorts of fascinating paths, but that’s beside the point.

I was trying to answer the fundamental question: Is there intrinsic value in the Bible? If we can say that there is even ONE work of fiction that is worth studying (and there are plenty that are analyzed to death in literature classes), then the world’s all-time number one bestseller should be counted, EVEN AS A PURE WORK OF FICTION. But archaeology has independently validated many of the historical and cultural references found in the Bible, so I conclude that those aspects also add to its value and merit.

As a source of moral guidance, its value rests on a slippery slope, unless we accept that its author is our creator: God. As a spiritual guide, it falls flat on its face, without God’s authority behind it.
So I conclude that while the Bible HAS value that make it worthy of in-depth study and analysis, its value in the context talked about here (spiritual and moral) is entire reliant on one assertion, which I would phrase as follows: The Bible is an accurate representation of God’s will for us. You can debunk this assertion in two major ways: (1) prove there is no God, or (2) prove that God’s will for us is significantly different from what the Bible portrays.

It's often hard to talk to unbelievers who are so against Christianity. This particular person was very angry at his friend's parents, who professed to be Christians, and whom he claimed drove his gay friend to suicide. He never responded, but I hope the Lord opens his heart.