I ran through a possible scenario in my head tonight that ended up with me yelling at a bunch of people. Yeah, I do that. The daydreaming thing from childhood hasn't gone away, but now I'm loud and angry in my daydreaming, and what I'm angry at is religion.
I hate religion. I am so prone to religion.
Here's an example. In watching a non happy Disneyland world TV show tonight with the family, that wickedness came out in the way I thought about one character's immoral actions who professed to be a Christian. It also came out in thought in something I almost said to Novalee after joking that Jamie was going to kill me and I'd see her in heaven later -- "be a good girl and I'll see you there." Yuck, vomit. Filth. Judgmental and performance based nonsense that divides people into "good and bad" instead of "bad and Jesus."
Think I just went off the deep end and said Christians have license to sin willy nilly? No. Those born again of the Spirit of God don't want to sin; however, when we do -- and we all do -- God doesn't love us any less.
Don't believe that we all still sin and think you're "good" now? You're prideful. Pride is the worst sin and the one that got Satan kicked out of heaven. Pride and religion go together a lot. If you think you're "good" like I have and sometimes do, maybe you should think about that and examine the motives behind your actions and examine the how you think.
Don't believe that God still loves us the same when we sin? He loved us so much that he died on a cross while we were sinners and hated him. If he loved us less after he bought us with his blood and our hearts were turned to him, that would be insane. Last time I checked to the best of my ability, God isn't insane.
Now I'm off on a tangent, so back to the ranting in my head. It made me think of one thing religious people do, and that is make bars. Not places you serve drinks, but lines that divide -- on one side is the good people who get a pat on the head and on the other side is the bad people who get a pat somewhere lower than their head and a lot harder.
Consider a vocational or lay leader in a religion. If you can tolerate disagreement and discussion easily and you're trapped in religion, then I'm talking about yours. If you spin up easily and I might piss you off if I disagree with you, then I'm talking about someone else's. Whatever you like to keep reading, I don't care. For the record, this equally applies to mainline protestant denominations, evangelical Christians, and whatever other labels are out there. Just get a picture in your head and pay attention to the point.
Okay, this leader, he's good at what he does. He checks off all the do this boxes and the don't do that boxes. He's respectable and the church looks up to him. He reads his Bible every day. He goes to the Wednesday night service regularly. He gives ten percent. He doesn't smoke, drink, cuss, or waste his time on frivolous pursuits. He's the one to imitate in behavior -- except in thought, he's all screwed up. He's better than the others in the church. Some poor soul comes in off the street who's a broken mess and he wants to help this pathetic person become an upstanding gentleman just like him. He thinks God blesses him more than the rank and file members because he dots all his i's and crosses all his t's.
How about that rank and file member of the church? Maybe he works a tough job that's really demanding on his time, and he doesn't get paid that well. He has a hard time reading his Bible as much and giving as much as the first guy. He smokes and drinks, but he kind of hides it and feels a little guilty about it because those uppity people at his church give him funny looks when they smell something on him. But he thinks to himself that he's trying, and that at least he's not as bad as his neighbors who don't even go to church and are fighting all the time.
How about those neighbors? They work hard. They pay their taxes. Their kids don't cause trouble in the neighborhood. They don't really invite the previous family over a lot though; they feel a little ashamed about that shouting match and don't want to risk it coming up in conversation. They declined the same neighbor's invitation to church in the past, saying that they were glad Jesus worked for them, but that they didn't really need him. After all, they were decent people, not like those scumbags in prison who murdered and stole and set buildings on fire.
How about those scumbags? Bottom of the barrel right? Not much more to say? You know what they think? "At least we're not as bad as that child molester and that rapist over there."
All these people are the same. Yes, that's right, the same. They're all blinded by some form of religious pride. There's concern for image and obligating God and not needing God and all of that as we go through the list, but there's also one thing that all of them have in common. That stupid bar. That piece of crap that they use as a measuring stick to say "I'm above the line and you're below the line, so let me pat myself on the head and give myself a gold star." It is so easy for us to compare ourselves with other people and make ourselves look good, and it's so wicked.
That's not the gospel.
You know what the gospel is? The real bar is so high we can't reach it. Our religious effort and moral behavior won't get us there. God's not grading on a curve here. The standard is perfection and to be with God we have to be perfect. How the heck are we going to do that? In comes our intercessor Jesus, God in the flesh. He took the punishment for our sins on himself and when we put our trust in him, he gives us his righteousness. When we are in Christ, we look perfect before God. Now that's good news!
In short, those in Christ are not better people -- just sinners who are loved and forgiven, and who God is working on to make more like his Son Jesus Christ -- so if you've got a bar forged by religious pride, destroy it.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Jude 1 (Verses 9-25)
Verse 9
This is an interesting verse because of the lost extra-biblical source that Jude quotes, "The Assumption Of Moses" according to Origen. Some texts have been found that are either from this book or from a different one called the "Testament Of Moses". What has been found doesn't contain anything related to this dispute however. The whole thing seems a little sketchy.
I also think that's a totally wrong focus on the verse.
Let's look at what Jude says and the point he is making. The first immediate thing that comes to mind is "Don't !@#$ with the devil!" If Michael, one of the princes of God's angels, left it to God himself to rebuke Satan, who are we? Don't mess with him and don't talk to him -- go to God and ask him to deal with it.
Verse 10
The bigger point here is that, while super-powerful Michael didn't dare rebuke Satan to his face, the merely human false teachers Jude is dealing with blaspheme all kinds of stuff they don't get. I'm not sure if that means with their words, or with their immoral lives, or what.
The latter part of the verse brings Romans to mind -- "although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves".
In short, God gives people what they want. If they want to make themselves or something else their god, he will let them and give them over completely to their false and godless ways. Jude puts the false teachers in this category -- these are people who have become like "unreasoning animals" living life worshiping the gods of pleasure and self instead of God himself.
Verse 11
Jude gives some examples of others who went their own way instead of God's way. Cain out of anger, Balaam out of greed, and Korah out of pride and a rejection of authority.
Verses 12 through 15
Jude calls the false teachers a bunch of names and says they're going to hell.
He doesn't cater to the wolves. He shoots them. Lord, give me the same kind of boldness.
Verse 16
"Loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage" sounds so much like slick TV preachers (Joel Olsteen, cough cough) that are always upbeat and don't have anything bad to say about anyone -- wolves who through out a "God wants you to be rich and healthy" message to the world.
Ever see the camera pan out across the audience, I mean congregation, for these liars? There's a ton of people there. Like I said, God gives people what they want. You want God, you get God. You want some godless bull!@#$ message that makes you feel happy, you get a steaming pile.
Verse 17 and 18
False teachers are not anything new.
Verse 19
"It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit."
This punch hits hard.
In the past when I heard "false teacher" my mind would go to other religions outside the mainstream Christian denominations -- Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses for example.
Next my mind would go to the liberal views in the main denominations that promote all kinds of nonsense -- gay is okay, the Bible isn't God's authoritative word, Jesus wasn't necessarily divine, the resurrection doesn't really matter, there is no hell, everyone's going to heaven, and so on.
My mind is starting to shift from that a little bit -- closer to home. And rightly so -- it's not the obviously erroneous stuff that kills people, it's the subtle stuff. It's the religious people who check the boxes, speak Christianese really well, and have no heart for God and live like the rest of the world, seeking only the pleasures of the world in self-deification and living for today instead of eternity.
God help me to not be a Spirit-less religious guy, because I am so easily sucked into religion. Show us all where were are stuck in religion and KILL IT.
Verses 20 through 23
Hang on Christian, and help your brothers and sisters hang on too! It's a bumpy ride, but Jesus has our back.
Verses 24 and 25
That's right, Jesus rocks!
This is an interesting verse because of the lost extra-biblical source that Jude quotes, "The Assumption Of Moses" according to Origen. Some texts have been found that are either from this book or from a different one called the "Testament Of Moses". What has been found doesn't contain anything related to this dispute however. The whole thing seems a little sketchy.
I also think that's a totally wrong focus on the verse.
Let's look at what Jude says and the point he is making. The first immediate thing that comes to mind is "Don't !@#$ with the devil!" If Michael, one of the princes of God's angels, left it to God himself to rebuke Satan, who are we? Don't mess with him and don't talk to him -- go to God and ask him to deal with it.
Verse 10
The bigger point here is that, while super-powerful Michael didn't dare rebuke Satan to his face, the merely human false teachers Jude is dealing with blaspheme all kinds of stuff they don't get. I'm not sure if that means with their words, or with their immoral lives, or what.
The latter part of the verse brings Romans to mind -- "although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves".
In short, God gives people what they want. If they want to make themselves or something else their god, he will let them and give them over completely to their false and godless ways. Jude puts the false teachers in this category -- these are people who have become like "unreasoning animals" living life worshiping the gods of pleasure and self instead of God himself.
Verse 11
Jude gives some examples of others who went their own way instead of God's way. Cain out of anger, Balaam out of greed, and Korah out of pride and a rejection of authority.
Verses 12 through 15
Jude calls the false teachers a bunch of names and says they're going to hell.
He doesn't cater to the wolves. He shoots them. Lord, give me the same kind of boldness.
Verse 16
"Loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage" sounds so much like slick TV preachers (Joel Olsteen, cough cough) that are always upbeat and don't have anything bad to say about anyone -- wolves who through out a "God wants you to be rich and healthy" message to the world.
Ever see the camera pan out across the audience, I mean congregation, for these liars? There's a ton of people there. Like I said, God gives people what they want. You want God, you get God. You want some godless bull!@#$ message that makes you feel happy, you get a steaming pile.
Verse 17 and 18
False teachers are not anything new.
Verse 19
"It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit."
This punch hits hard.
In the past when I heard "false teacher" my mind would go to other religions outside the mainstream Christian denominations -- Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses for example.
Next my mind would go to the liberal views in the main denominations that promote all kinds of nonsense -- gay is okay, the Bible isn't God's authoritative word, Jesus wasn't necessarily divine, the resurrection doesn't really matter, there is no hell, everyone's going to heaven, and so on.
My mind is starting to shift from that a little bit -- closer to home. And rightly so -- it's not the obviously erroneous stuff that kills people, it's the subtle stuff. It's the religious people who check the boxes, speak Christianese really well, and have no heart for God and live like the rest of the world, seeking only the pleasures of the world in self-deification and living for today instead of eternity.
God help me to not be a Spirit-less religious guy, because I am so easily sucked into religion. Show us all where were are stuck in religion and KILL IT.
Verses 20 through 23
Hang on Christian, and help your brothers and sisters hang on too! It's a bumpy ride, but Jesus has our back.
Verses 24 and 25
That's right, Jesus rocks!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Perfect Hater
One of my cousins posted a link the other day that had that wonderful bunch of chaps from the Westboro Baptist Church in it. If the name doesn't ring a bell, that's the "God hates fags" group. If that still doesn't ring a bell, excellent. Your head will probably hurt less and your dinner has a better chance of staying down. Let's keep it that way.
That's enough about that group itself. I could go on a long rant that includes in it points about jacked up theology, wrong motives, and causing God's name to be blasphemed and dishonored. That wasn't my original intent, so I'll leave it at that. I wanted to see what the Bible said about hate -- in particular hate coming from God, as I've heard and read mixed things that warrant clarification.
The cliche phrase always comes to my mind -- "hate the sin and love the sinner" which sounds good to me. Interestingly, the phrase came from Ghandi, not the Bible. Even so, is it sound advice for the Christian? We'll see.
I wanted to get some other thoughts, so I went to a website that generally has very solid answers and read this:
"Even as Christians, we remain imperfect in our humanity and cannot love perfectly, nor can we hate perfectly (in other words, without malice). But God can do both of these perfectly, because He is God. God can hate without any sinful intent. Therefore, He can hate the sin and the sinner in a perfectly holy way and still be willing to lovingly forgive at the moment of that sinner's repentance and faith."
That sounds pretty harsh to me. I guess it's because I am human and don't get what "perfect hate" is and how God can love perfectly and hate perfectly at the same time. To me, God hating someone sounds more like "I want to squash you like a bug." That is obviously not the truth, otherwise we would have all be squashed long ago.
Next I did a search in the Bible for words with "hate" and found a lot of people hating people, people hating God, God hating people's actions, people being told not to hate and so on. I found the following three verses that deal with God hating people directly:
- "The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers." (Psalm 5:5)
- "The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence." (Psalm 11:5)
- "but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." (Malachi 1:3)
So based on that, I must conclude that the website is correct, and God does in fact hate the wicked. Ouch! Remember that "the wicked" includes me and everyone else on the planet. We have all sinned against a perfect God and are deserving of nothing but his wrath.
Even so, God loved the whole world so much that he sent Jesus to take the sins of the world upon himself and be the payment we cannot pay. This love is expressed well in Romans 5:8, which says "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." In other words, while we hated God and were his enemies, and while he hated us for it, he still loved us and died on a cross for us. I don't really GET that kind of love, deep down. I don't think I will on this side of eternity.
I think the explanation of how God's love and hate play together is explained well in this: "Mysterious but true is the fact that God can perfectly love and hate a person at the same time. This means He can love him as someone He created and can redeem, as well as hate him for his unbelief and sinful lifestyle."
Does that mean we should do the same? Absolutely not. We're flawed humans and told many times in scripture not to hate. We can't love perfectly like God, nor can we hate perfectly like God. The advice "Love the sinner and hate the sin" is absolutely appropriate for us mere mortals!
That's enough about that group itself. I could go on a long rant that includes in it points about jacked up theology, wrong motives, and causing God's name to be blasphemed and dishonored. That wasn't my original intent, so I'll leave it at that. I wanted to see what the Bible said about hate -- in particular hate coming from God, as I've heard and read mixed things that warrant clarification.
The cliche phrase always comes to my mind -- "hate the sin and love the sinner" which sounds good to me. Interestingly, the phrase came from Ghandi, not the Bible. Even so, is it sound advice for the Christian? We'll see.
I wanted to get some other thoughts, so I went to a website that generally has very solid answers and read this:
"Even as Christians, we remain imperfect in our humanity and cannot love perfectly, nor can we hate perfectly (in other words, without malice). But God can do both of these perfectly, because He is God. God can hate without any sinful intent. Therefore, He can hate the sin and the sinner in a perfectly holy way and still be willing to lovingly forgive at the moment of that sinner's repentance and faith."
That sounds pretty harsh to me. I guess it's because I am human and don't get what "perfect hate" is and how God can love perfectly and hate perfectly at the same time. To me, God hating someone sounds more like "I want to squash you like a bug." That is obviously not the truth, otherwise we would have all be squashed long ago.
Next I did a search in the Bible for words with "hate" and found a lot of people hating people, people hating God, God hating people's actions, people being told not to hate and so on. I found the following three verses that deal with God hating people directly:
- "The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers." (Psalm 5:5)
- "The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence." (Psalm 11:5)
- "but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." (Malachi 1:3)
So based on that, I must conclude that the website is correct, and God does in fact hate the wicked. Ouch! Remember that "the wicked" includes me and everyone else on the planet. We have all sinned against a perfect God and are deserving of nothing but his wrath.
Even so, God loved the whole world so much that he sent Jesus to take the sins of the world upon himself and be the payment we cannot pay. This love is expressed well in Romans 5:8, which says "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." In other words, while we hated God and were his enemies, and while he hated us for it, he still loved us and died on a cross for us. I don't really GET that kind of love, deep down. I don't think I will on this side of eternity.
I think the explanation of how God's love and hate play together is explained well in this: "Mysterious but true is the fact that God can perfectly love and hate a person at the same time. This means He can love him as someone He created and can redeem, as well as hate him for his unbelief and sinful lifestyle."
Does that mean we should do the same? Absolutely not. We're flawed humans and told many times in scripture not to hate. We can't love perfectly like God, nor can we hate perfectly like God. The advice "Love the sinner and hate the sin" is absolutely appropriate for us mere mortals!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Jude 1 (Verses 5-8)
Verses 5-7
Jude gives some examples of those destined for hell. First are those who saw God's awesome power as Moses led them out of Egypt yet did not believe. Second are angels who would have even been in the presence of God, yet rejected him. I think it is implied by the text that these demons are those angels that pridefully rebelled against God with Satan. Third are those people from Sodom and Gomorrah completely given over to wickedness and their own pleasures.
I don't know why Jude picked these particular groups of creatures, but there is definitely a lesson to be learned from each of them.
When we see God's might and power and still reject him, that's evil. Each of us has a time in our life when the push from his Spirit to turn away from sin to him is the strongest it will ever be, yet sadly many reject that push and turn away from God forever, condemning themselves to hell. I can't imagine being one of those delivered from slavery in Egypt, crossing through the Red Sea, seeing God lead as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, and still not believe in him. Yet, I am also reminded of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus told -- where at the end he says that the rich man's brothers will not believe, even if someone were to rise from the dead.
When we desire a higher position than God has given us, that's evil. Especially evil is pride. Satan had this to such an extent that he wanted to be God. I would say thank God we're different, but that's not necessarily true. How often in our lives have we wanted to be God instead of God? Maybe we wouldn't say it or think it like that, but how often have we behaved that way and then found ourselves in deep water? As people we have a fine way of allowing Jesus to sit on the throne of our lives until things get a little too good or a little to bad and then we kick him off the throne and try to do things our own way. It never works out well, and it never will.
When we make ourselves our own gods and decide our main purpose in life is not to glorify God, but to seek fulfillment from carnal pleasures, that's evil. For many the sins of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah are obviously wicked -- "well, thank God we're not like that!" Yet how often do we seek our own different pleasures first in this world? Maybe it's television or games. Maybe it's sports or hobbies. Maybe it's food and drink. Maybe it's home and family time. There are many things in this world we are free to enjoy in Christ, but, as Paul wrote, not everything builds up. When we let something other than God enslave us and take over, we're in trouble.
And now that I've written about all three examples a little bit, I see how they could follow each other in succession from disbelief to pride to self-appointed godhood, but I don't think that's the intent here, especially given verse 8 below.
Verse 8
Jude brings out the commonality in the examples by comparing them to the problematic people that prompted his letter in the first place. The commonality in all of them is rejecting God's authority in favor of some other authority -- trying to make something else God in the place of God. For the Israelites in Egypt, it started with the golden calf. For the angels, it was themselves -- they wanted to be God, or at least the ringleader did. For the wicked men of those cities, they wanted to rule their own lives, thus making themselves their own gods as well.
All of the above trusted in something other than God, and Jude says the same thing about certain false teachers that appear to rely on the authority of their own dreams rather than scripture, or Jesus, or something a little more compelling than the product of a bad meal and background head noise. They ground themselves in experience, which is no ground at all. Based on their experience, they go on living like the devil, which reveals that they do not know God at all.
Really, to me, it just seems like an excuse to sin -- with a God sticker slapped on it. There's nothing new under the sun. As an example from the past, there were temples to fake gods with temple prostitutes. What was the thought process there? "Hmmm, we like to have sex with whoever, let's do that and call it worship." As an example from today, we like the "good life" here in the first world, so what do you see? Name It And Claim It, God's your magic genie. The Prosperity Gospel, God just wants you to be rich and healthy. Or how about even those who get the real gospel being bad stewards in the name of "enjoying God's blessings"? I know that one. It's devious, and it's dangerous.
I am not saying that experience is bad, but it better not be the sole basis for your faith. I had an incredibly transformational experience when my heart was turned toward Jesus, but that experience also lines up very well with the Bible as well. The two complement each other well. If I were to just have some very moving experience, but it didn't line up with the Bible at all, that would be a big problem.
There are people with very moving conversion stories to various religious systems that are similar to mine. There are people who have claimed to have special new revelation from God. There are people who have claimed to talk to angels and demons and the dead. There are people who claim to have dreams and visions that came from God. It is far too easy to just go after experience these days, but such experiences are worthless or outright harmful if they don't line up with God's Word. All of scripture points to Jesus, so if you've got some "new thing" that points away from Jesus or goes against what he said, you're deceived or just full of crap.
I'll stop here for now and go through additional parts of Jude next post. I never thought a one chapter book in the Bible would yield so much from my brain.
Jude gives some examples of those destined for hell. First are those who saw God's awesome power as Moses led them out of Egypt yet did not believe. Second are angels who would have even been in the presence of God, yet rejected him. I think it is implied by the text that these demons are those angels that pridefully rebelled against God with Satan. Third are those people from Sodom and Gomorrah completely given over to wickedness and their own pleasures.
I don't know why Jude picked these particular groups of creatures, but there is definitely a lesson to be learned from each of them.
When we see God's might and power and still reject him, that's evil. Each of us has a time in our life when the push from his Spirit to turn away from sin to him is the strongest it will ever be, yet sadly many reject that push and turn away from God forever, condemning themselves to hell. I can't imagine being one of those delivered from slavery in Egypt, crossing through the Red Sea, seeing God lead as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, and still not believe in him. Yet, I am also reminded of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus told -- where at the end he says that the rich man's brothers will not believe, even if someone were to rise from the dead.
When we desire a higher position than God has given us, that's evil. Especially evil is pride. Satan had this to such an extent that he wanted to be God. I would say thank God we're different, but that's not necessarily true. How often in our lives have we wanted to be God instead of God? Maybe we wouldn't say it or think it like that, but how often have we behaved that way and then found ourselves in deep water? As people we have a fine way of allowing Jesus to sit on the throne of our lives until things get a little too good or a little to bad and then we kick him off the throne and try to do things our own way. It never works out well, and it never will.
When we make ourselves our own gods and decide our main purpose in life is not to glorify God, but to seek fulfillment from carnal pleasures, that's evil. For many the sins of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah are obviously wicked -- "well, thank God we're not like that!" Yet how often do we seek our own different pleasures first in this world? Maybe it's television or games. Maybe it's sports or hobbies. Maybe it's food and drink. Maybe it's home and family time. There are many things in this world we are free to enjoy in Christ, but, as Paul wrote, not everything builds up. When we let something other than God enslave us and take over, we're in trouble.
And now that I've written about all three examples a little bit, I see how they could follow each other in succession from disbelief to pride to self-appointed godhood, but I don't think that's the intent here, especially given verse 8 below.
Verse 8
Jude brings out the commonality in the examples by comparing them to the problematic people that prompted his letter in the first place. The commonality in all of them is rejecting God's authority in favor of some other authority -- trying to make something else God in the place of God. For the Israelites in Egypt, it started with the golden calf. For the angels, it was themselves -- they wanted to be God, or at least the ringleader did. For the wicked men of those cities, they wanted to rule their own lives, thus making themselves their own gods as well.
All of the above trusted in something other than God, and Jude says the same thing about certain false teachers that appear to rely on the authority of their own dreams rather than scripture, or Jesus, or something a little more compelling than the product of a bad meal and background head noise. They ground themselves in experience, which is no ground at all. Based on their experience, they go on living like the devil, which reveals that they do not know God at all.
Really, to me, it just seems like an excuse to sin -- with a God sticker slapped on it. There's nothing new under the sun. As an example from the past, there were temples to fake gods with temple prostitutes. What was the thought process there? "Hmmm, we like to have sex with whoever, let's do that and call it worship." As an example from today, we like the "good life" here in the first world, so what do you see? Name It And Claim It, God's your magic genie. The Prosperity Gospel, God just wants you to be rich and healthy. Or how about even those who get the real gospel being bad stewards in the name of "enjoying God's blessings"? I know that one. It's devious, and it's dangerous.
I am not saying that experience is bad, but it better not be the sole basis for your faith. I had an incredibly transformational experience when my heart was turned toward Jesus, but that experience also lines up very well with the Bible as well. The two complement each other well. If I were to just have some very moving experience, but it didn't line up with the Bible at all, that would be a big problem.
There are people with very moving conversion stories to various religious systems that are similar to mine. There are people who have claimed to have special new revelation from God. There are people who have claimed to talk to angels and demons and the dead. There are people who claim to have dreams and visions that came from God. It is far too easy to just go after experience these days, but such experiences are worthless or outright harmful if they don't line up with God's Word. All of scripture points to Jesus, so if you've got some "new thing" that points away from Jesus or goes against what he said, you're deceived or just full of crap.
I'll stop here for now and go through additional parts of Jude next post. I never thought a one chapter book in the Bible would yield so much from my brain.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Jude 1 (Verses 1-4)
I thought I'd jump around. Here we have the start of the shortest book in the Bible, written by Jude, the brother of James, both half-brothers of Jesus.
Verse 1
Jude also seems to be tracking with the idea of the elect -- those predestined by God to be saved -- when he says "to those who have been called".
The phrase "who are loved by God" could be a bit confusing, as it could imply that God doesn't love everyone. God does love everyone, demonstrated by the fact that he doesn't destroy us all immediately because of sin and demonstrated by Jesus coming into the world to save all who will receive him. However, God does not ignore sin, and only God's covenant love is extended to his adopted children -- those who put their faith in his son Jesus.
Verse 3
Jude wanted to write about the salvation and faith shared with other Christian brothers, but changed his mind to deal with more pressing issues of false teachings that were surfacing.
However, before he switches gears, he says something that appears to be of significance -- "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." That's an interesting way to put it, and I know I have until now overlooked it.
In Romans and Hebrews the same phrase is in there talking about Christ being our sacrifice for sins -- he died once for all. His death on the cross is what pays the penalty for sin, nothing more, and nothing less. In the same way, the final revelation about our faith came through Christ, in his teachings passed on to the apostles. Nothing more was or is to come -- we have all we need to know regarding our salvation, proper Christian thought and action, and so on.
Verse 4
It looks like Jude is concerned about false teachers creeping into the body of Christ -- "godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."
This reminds me immediately of Paul in Romans 6 -- "What shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (verse 1) and "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (verse 15). He says the same types of things elsewhere as well, and the point is clear -- just because we have freedom in Christ does not mean we have freedom to sin.
A person who thinks that their freedom in Christ gives them free reign to sin freely and be good with God is not in Christ. The person who is in Christ has a new heart for God that desires to know him and love him and flee from sin like Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife.
Verse 1
Jude also seems to be tracking with the idea of the elect -- those predestined by God to be saved -- when he says "to those who have been called".
The phrase "who are loved by God" could be a bit confusing, as it could imply that God doesn't love everyone. God does love everyone, demonstrated by the fact that he doesn't destroy us all immediately because of sin and demonstrated by Jesus coming into the world to save all who will receive him. However, God does not ignore sin, and only God's covenant love is extended to his adopted children -- those who put their faith in his son Jesus.
Verse 3
Jude wanted to write about the salvation and faith shared with other Christian brothers, but changed his mind to deal with more pressing issues of false teachings that were surfacing.
However, before he switches gears, he says something that appears to be of significance -- "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." That's an interesting way to put it, and I know I have until now overlooked it.
In Romans and Hebrews the same phrase is in there talking about Christ being our sacrifice for sins -- he died once for all. His death on the cross is what pays the penalty for sin, nothing more, and nothing less. In the same way, the final revelation about our faith came through Christ, in his teachings passed on to the apostles. Nothing more was or is to come -- we have all we need to know regarding our salvation, proper Christian thought and action, and so on.
Verse 4
It looks like Jude is concerned about false teachers creeping into the body of Christ -- "godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."
This reminds me immediately of Paul in Romans 6 -- "What shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (verse 1) and "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (verse 15). He says the same types of things elsewhere as well, and the point is clear -- just because we have freedom in Christ does not mean we have freedom to sin.
A person who thinks that their freedom in Christ gives them free reign to sin freely and be good with God is not in Christ. The person who is in Christ has a new heart for God that desires to know him and love him and flee from sin like Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Obedience
God threw this one to me today so I thought I'd share
Jesus said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)
If we're believers, what do we think when we hear that? A typical response I think is something like "Okay God, I love you, I'll keep your commandments." We better get the gospel when we say that, because if we don't get the gospel, one of two things will happen.
- Thing 1. Pride. We'll do well, in some areas, and say "Look how good I'm keeping A, B, and C compared to those other people. Man, I rock!" Never mind D through Z.
- Thing 2. Despair. We'll recognize our miserable failure to do what we said and give up. "I can't do this, it's hopeless for me!"
We need to get the gospel.
Jesus didn't say "To be saved, keep my commandments." He said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." If you just read that as "Obedience doesn't matter" that is NOT what I said. Hold your thought and keep reading. Let's focus on the first part -- "If you love me..."
Well how do you get to the point of loving God?
"We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." (1 John 4:19-21)
How did God first love us?
"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:16-17)
"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
So God first loved us through the cross. When we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus for our salvation, we get a new heart, a new nature -- one that desires God above all things. It is from this new nature that we can truly love God, and demonstrate it through obedience, which includes loving others.
But let me try to be very clear -- this obedience from the new nature is not a "try really hard to show my love" thing. It's a "by my new nature I will obey, because I love God" thing.
Or to put it another way getting rid of that pesky and confusing "you will" and clarifying the meaning:
"If you love me, you better keep my commandments to show it." No.
"If you love me, you're going to keep my commandments." Yes.
Not getting this right leads to works based self-righteousness that focuses on ourselves and what we do. It makes our perception of God's love for us, and possibly our state of salvation, dependent on our performance. That's evil.
Getting this right leads to to grace based Christ-righteousness that focuses on God and what he did. It makes our perception of God's love for us, and our state of salvation, dependent on the cross. That's good. That's God.
Jesus said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)
If we're believers, what do we think when we hear that? A typical response I think is something like "Okay God, I love you, I'll keep your commandments." We better get the gospel when we say that, because if we don't get the gospel, one of two things will happen.
- Thing 1. Pride. We'll do well, in some areas, and say "Look how good I'm keeping A, B, and C compared to those other people. Man, I rock!" Never mind D through Z.
- Thing 2. Despair. We'll recognize our miserable failure to do what we said and give up. "I can't do this, it's hopeless for me!"
We need to get the gospel.
Jesus didn't say "To be saved, keep my commandments." He said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." If you just read that as "Obedience doesn't matter" that is NOT what I said. Hold your thought and keep reading. Let's focus on the first part -- "If you love me..."
Well how do you get to the point of loving God?
"We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." (1 John 4:19-21)
How did God first love us?
"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:16-17)
"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
So God first loved us through the cross. When we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus for our salvation, we get a new heart, a new nature -- one that desires God above all things. It is from this new nature that we can truly love God, and demonstrate it through obedience, which includes loving others.
But let me try to be very clear -- this obedience from the new nature is not a "try really hard to show my love" thing. It's a "by my new nature I will obey, because I love God" thing.
Or to put it another way getting rid of that pesky and confusing "you will" and clarifying the meaning:
"If you love me, you better keep my commandments to show it." No.
"If you love me, you're going to keep my commandments." Yes.
Not getting this right leads to works based self-righteousness that focuses on ourselves and what we do. It makes our perception of God's love for us, and possibly our state of salvation, dependent on our performance. That's evil.
Getting this right leads to to grace based Christ-righteousness that focuses on God and what he did. It makes our perception of God's love for us, and our state of salvation, dependent on the cross. That's good. That's God.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Sola Scriptura
It's been a while, but I did say I was going to write a post about "sola scriptura" or "scripture alone". If you're not grokking what that means, it basically means the the Bible is THE authority for doctrine. To be very clear, that means we should hold to the doctrines clearly found in the Bible (directly or through valid logical reasoning of what the text says) and that we should NOT hold to doctrines that are not clearly found in the Bible (again, directly or through valid logical reasoning of what the text says).
I'm writing this to think more about this statement, which was a response to a man questioning whether or not the Bible was the only authority for truth -- "You can't really demonstrate sola scriptura from Scripture. The Bible doesn't expressly declare that it is the Christian's only authority. In other words, sola scriptura is essentially the historic confession of the Reformers, over and against the Catholic claim that it is Scripture plus the Church and Tradition. For us, then, it is a theological presupposition, our starting point rather than a proven conclusion."
It's a well said answer, but I'm not sure I agree with it. I think I can demonstrate the Bible is our only authority from Scripture, and I'm not going to do it with a verse, but with bigger ideas that surround a lot of verses. For some context, look up the following:
- The first parts of Matthew 15 and Mark 7, where Jesus is ripping the religious dudes for putting their traditions over the word of God.
- Colossians 2 where Paul argues against listening to reasonable human arguments for things that are really only self-made religion, which takes away from Christ.
So how does that tie into scripture alone? It's all in the DANGER.
When we go outside scripture for something, we're depending on men, fallible and sinful. Even the most well meaning men who love the LORD are bound to screw things up. That's kind of our whole problem in the first place. So let's go into the way back machine to when Moses was walking and talking and leading a bunch of grumblers and complainers through the desert.
God delivers the law. God's people want to follow the law. Leadership looks at something like "don't work on the sabbath" and tries to figure out how they should obey that. That's a good thing. Unfortunately over time you end up with a mess of rules that is put forth and accepted by many as what God wants, rather than looking at what God's Word is going for. For fun, go read some of the things rabbis way back wrote about proper washing of hands. It's absolutely insane, and it *started* with men trying to faithfully obey God -- but it went way off in the weeds. Jesus wanted, among other things, to get people out of the weeds and on the road.
So what about groups that claim Christ but don't have the Bible as the sole and ultimate authority? Off the top of my head I can think of Mormonism, Catholicism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses, who have more than the Bible -- as well as many, we'll call them "liberal" -- Christians who don't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
In Mormonism you have other stuff (the Book of Mormon for example) and a claim to be the true church, but that the other stuff doesn't conflict with the Bible or is supported outright by it. In Catholicism you have other stuff (church tradition for example) and a claim to be the true church, but that the other stuff either doesn't conflict with the Bible or is supported outright by it. On top of that you have the idea that the extra stuff the Mormons say doesn't conflict really does. Then you have the Jehovah's Witnesses who claim our translations are jacked up so they have their own version of it, the New World Translation -- along with the claim that the Watchtower Society is the only group with the authority to interpret scripture.
Then you have Bible-only Christians who say this is all nonsense.
What we've ended up with in many cases are extra-biblical beliefs invented by men and taught as truth. Sound familiar in a way? There's nothing new under the sun.
Now before I continue, know that I'm not writing this to pound on and argue individual doctrines in different groups, but rather to point out that you need to start out with the Bible as your authority and go from there -- not start with extra junk you've been taught and shove it into what you read into the Bible. You can find some verses to support any fool thing you want to. Satan did tempting Jesus. The prosperity gospel people do. The "homosexuality and abortion are not sins" people do. We do, but we shouldn't -- we need to catch ourselves and read things in context and look for the plain simple meaning of the text!
With that said, I'll fairly pick on one thing from each of the groups I mentioned to make my point very clear.
- You don't START with the Bible and get different levels of heaven. Yes, I see in 1 and 2 Corinthians where people try to back that up with. If you didn't start with the Mormon doctrine you were taught about the celestial, terrestrial, telestial (what?), and so on, you wouldn't come up with that in reading the Bible. You know what you get when you read phrases like "third heaven" -- well, the atmosphere, space, and what is actually heaven, which is what Paul saw but had no words for. "The LORD will open the heavens to give rain / Anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat / rain from heaven. Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens / stars of heaven. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven." Hundreds more uses of heaven to mean three different and obvious things!
- You don't START with the Bible and get that Mary led a sinless life, was taken up into heaven like Jesus was, and is an intercessor for us now that we can ask to pray for us. That's not even a logical conclusion based on the biblical text. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed / Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." Plus, where the Bible mentions talking to dead people, it's always in the context of sorcery, witchcraft, and so on, not asking them to pray for us!
- You don't START with the Bible and get that Jesus was Michael the archangel. Yes, I see in Hebrews where people try to back that up with, and I get the New World Translation of the Bible is different -- despite the fact that people who actually know Greek and look at it will tell you the translation doesn't match any source documents we have correctly! I've done the "Jesus Is God" post before, so go look that up if you really want to understand this; I'm getting a bit tired of writing, and this is a BIG one.
Now that I've probably pissed some people off, including friends and family, PLEASE take this advice: read the Bible for YOURSELF, ALONE, PRAYERFULLY, without drawing from what's been drilled into your head as much as you can -- and see what the plain meaning of the text is. God gave us a book that is simple enough to read and understand without us crapping it up and shoving our own ideas into it. It's a very dangerous thing that didn't end so well the first time.
I'm writing this to think more about this statement, which was a response to a man questioning whether or not the Bible was the only authority for truth -- "You can't really demonstrate sola scriptura from Scripture. The Bible doesn't expressly declare that it is the Christian's only authority. In other words, sola scriptura is essentially the historic confession of the Reformers, over and against the Catholic claim that it is Scripture plus the Church and Tradition. For us, then, it is a theological presupposition, our starting point rather than a proven conclusion."
It's a well said answer, but I'm not sure I agree with it. I think I can demonstrate the Bible is our only authority from Scripture, and I'm not going to do it with a verse, but with bigger ideas that surround a lot of verses. For some context, look up the following:
- The first parts of Matthew 15 and Mark 7, where Jesus is ripping the religious dudes for putting their traditions over the word of God.
- Colossians 2 where Paul argues against listening to reasonable human arguments for things that are really only self-made religion, which takes away from Christ.
So how does that tie into scripture alone? It's all in the DANGER.
When we go outside scripture for something, we're depending on men, fallible and sinful. Even the most well meaning men who love the LORD are bound to screw things up. That's kind of our whole problem in the first place. So let's go into the way back machine to when Moses was walking and talking and leading a bunch of grumblers and complainers through the desert.
God delivers the law. God's people want to follow the law. Leadership looks at something like "don't work on the sabbath" and tries to figure out how they should obey that. That's a good thing. Unfortunately over time you end up with a mess of rules that is put forth and accepted by many as what God wants, rather than looking at what God's Word is going for. For fun, go read some of the things rabbis way back wrote about proper washing of hands. It's absolutely insane, and it *started* with men trying to faithfully obey God -- but it went way off in the weeds. Jesus wanted, among other things, to get people out of the weeds and on the road.
So what about groups that claim Christ but don't have the Bible as the sole and ultimate authority? Off the top of my head I can think of Mormonism, Catholicism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses, who have more than the Bible -- as well as many, we'll call them "liberal" -- Christians who don't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
In Mormonism you have other stuff (the Book of Mormon for example) and a claim to be the true church, but that the other stuff doesn't conflict with the Bible or is supported outright by it. In Catholicism you have other stuff (church tradition for example) and a claim to be the true church, but that the other stuff either doesn't conflict with the Bible or is supported outright by it. On top of that you have the idea that the extra stuff the Mormons say doesn't conflict really does. Then you have the Jehovah's Witnesses who claim our translations are jacked up so they have their own version of it, the New World Translation -- along with the claim that the Watchtower Society is the only group with the authority to interpret scripture.
Then you have Bible-only Christians who say this is all nonsense.
What we've ended up with in many cases are extra-biblical beliefs invented by men and taught as truth. Sound familiar in a way? There's nothing new under the sun.
Now before I continue, know that I'm not writing this to pound on and argue individual doctrines in different groups, but rather to point out that you need to start out with the Bible as your authority and go from there -- not start with extra junk you've been taught and shove it into what you read into the Bible. You can find some verses to support any fool thing you want to. Satan did tempting Jesus. The prosperity gospel people do. The "homosexuality and abortion are not sins" people do. We do, but we shouldn't -- we need to catch ourselves and read things in context and look for the plain simple meaning of the text!
With that said, I'll fairly pick on one thing from each of the groups I mentioned to make my point very clear.
- You don't START with the Bible and get different levels of heaven. Yes, I see in 1 and 2 Corinthians where people try to back that up with. If you didn't start with the Mormon doctrine you were taught about the celestial, terrestrial, telestial (what?), and so on, you wouldn't come up with that in reading the Bible. You know what you get when you read phrases like "third heaven" -- well, the atmosphere, space, and what is actually heaven, which is what Paul saw but had no words for. "The LORD will open the heavens to give rain / Anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat / rain from heaven. Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens / stars of heaven. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven." Hundreds more uses of heaven to mean three different and obvious things!
- You don't START with the Bible and get that Mary led a sinless life, was taken up into heaven like Jesus was, and is an intercessor for us now that we can ask to pray for us. That's not even a logical conclusion based on the biblical text. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed / Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." Plus, where the Bible mentions talking to dead people, it's always in the context of sorcery, witchcraft, and so on, not asking them to pray for us!
- You don't START with the Bible and get that Jesus was Michael the archangel. Yes, I see in Hebrews where people try to back that up with, and I get the New World Translation of the Bible is different -- despite the fact that people who actually know Greek and look at it will tell you the translation doesn't match any source documents we have correctly! I've done the "Jesus Is God" post before, so go look that up if you really want to understand this; I'm getting a bit tired of writing, and this is a BIG one.
Now that I've probably pissed some people off, including friends and family, PLEASE take this advice: read the Bible for YOURSELF, ALONE, PRAYERFULLY, without drawing from what's been drilled into your head as much as you can -- and see what the plain meaning of the text is. God gave us a book that is simple enough to read and understand without us crapping it up and shoving our own ideas into it. It's a very dangerous thing that didn't end so well the first time.
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