Discussions

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All my life I have been involved in a debate about the nature and scope of salvation.  Early on in my days at Bible Study I was fiercely warned against gospels messages which were works orientated.  I was also warned rather profusely that Roman Catholics were the main culprits of a works-based mentality.  My sources sited the Protestant reformation (ie: Martin Luther rebelling because of the selling of indulgences), the Roman Catholic view of the Eucharist which insures salvation to those who partake(Roman Catholics, please be patient with me as I broad brushed over a much more intricate and complex doctrine), and the Roman Catholic sacraments as a means of grace(ie baptism, eucharist, marriage, ect).  I was taught that the Roman Catholics believed that they could earn there salvation and that Protestants believed you you saved ONLY by grace(Eph. 2:8-9).

It all made sense too.  Of course no one could earn their salvation right?  The problem with the Roman Catholic view which I was taught was that it created a fickle God.  A God whose mood changed about me based on my actions.  Right?  If I can lose my salvation because I did not partake in a certain work which insures my salvation then what hope is there in this world?  The Protestant view obviously seemed much more favorable because its God was ALWAYS full of grace and love even if I happened to sin.  Now both schools of thought obviously have underlying inherrant flaws.  The question that was always posed to me as a Protestant by some Catholics was “If God is full of grace and love then why not sin, he’ll obviously always forgive you?”  To which I usually had a shallow response such as “if you really loved God then you wouldn’t sin.”  Which if I am being honest has a works based mentality built into it, the very thing I was taught to disregard.  To make matters worse I was taught that I did not earn my salvation yet it was MANDATORY that I ACCEPT Christ.  Somehow my Protestant mentors didn’t believe there was any sort of work involved in ACCEPTING.  Is it me or does this all sound like a complex web to which most of us want simple answers?

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on which way you look at it, there is no easy answer.  And I am glad that there is no easy answer in untangling this complex web.  However, there are very good and solid answers that spring forth life and hope.  I hope to bring some of those resolutions out in the rest of this blog post.

One of the main stumbling blocks for both groups is the nature and scope of Salvation.  Let’s be honest, for most Protestants………. Salvation = Heaven.  Right?  How can I get into heaven when I die is the basis of most gospel presentations of our day.  But is heaven what salvation is all about?  This I believe is a deathly lie which has robbed most young adults who pursued hard after Christ at a young age of our ability to enjoy the world God has created.  If the gospel presentation you heard was all about where you go AFTER you die then of course why be happy about LIVING?  If the end goal is where you go then who cares about what happens here.  Protestants have run circles around how it is our duty to treat the world good and glorify God but the methodology is flawed if there isn’t a direct connection between the gospel that is preached and the actions produced.  In other words, how can the gospel of going to heaven be good news for this earth if it is all about exiting this earth and floating on clouds in the afterlife?  Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, there is more to salvation then going to heaven?  One of my favorite Protestant thinkers likes to say “heaven is important but it isn’t the end of the world.”

A question to help guide the discussion.  In the New Testament what does it mean to be saved?  What I have done is surveyed the passages of Scripture which talk about salvation and I have created a chart which shows the percentages for the benefits of salvation as mentioned in the New Testament.  I must admit to you that this chart isn’t perfect but it certainly isn’t fatally flawed.

Sorry fellow blog followers. I have been working on quite a few posts but have not posted any. I will be posting a bunch of stuff sometime next week. stay tuned…..

I don’t have many in depth thoughts on virtue but I do have a few and I am only a novice in philosophical ethics. Therefore, please note that my thoughts are scattered, often times disconnected and rarely fluid. However, they are my thoughts and I will share them.

How does one become righteous? What is good and who is truly good? There are many ways of approaching these questions. Many different presuppositions for unraveling the possible answers. I would like to offer a few. I would also like to set the table for a discussion about the righteousness of Christ and our part in that.

I was always taught that God no longer sees my sins and instead he sees the blood of Jesus. The heart and soul of my ministry is and hopefully will be an outflow of how our theology is connected with our actions. When studying theology, I am constantly asking “how will this shape the decisions I make?” It is important, therefore, at this juncture to take a step back and ask how this view of my sin affects my outlook on life. One area which I believe needs re-evaluating is the over simplistic idea that I am now considered righteous because of the faithfulness of Messiah.

Virtue is something that is gained overtime. I attain virtue by following a course of action which will lead me toward an end goal. I can become virtuous either by learning from someone who is more virtuous than me or I can practice disciplines. Virtue is gained over time.

Now, can someone please explain to me whether or not I am virtuous when I accept the faithfulness of Messiah? See what I mean? Yes I’m forgiven but am I virtuous?

The popular thing to say in our culture today is “I’m not religious, I”m spiritual. I was even taught, “It’s not about religion, it’s about relationship.” Well which one is it? What is wrong with religion?

What is religion?

My definition of religion is a rote set of practices which are based in specific signs, symbols, and events.

Week after week, and day after day, we all attend religious events. We may not call them religious but they certainly all.

Some people say they are not religious and yet they get together at the sports bar every week to watch football or basketball games. These gatherings are organized around certain consistent rules and traditions. For example, Tailgating before a football game could be considered a religious event.

Others say they aren’t religious but they go to the mall with the same group of friends and shop at the same stores every week. Still, other, high class individuals are not religious and yet they go and eat sushi on a regular basis. They have quaint little movements they take part in as they are eating sushi. They eat green peas a certain way and they create a certain type of sauce to dip their dead fish in. These people claim they are not religious and yet they partake in a set of rote practices week after week and day after day.

I believe that everyone is religious. Everyone has rote practices that they partake in. The problem isn’t that we are religious. The problem is that the rote practices we partake in are often times meaningless and disconnected from any valuable signs, symbols or events. The beautiful thing about being a Christian is that you are able to be weekly and daily reminded of a God who loves through rote practices. The problem is that many of us attend church week after week and day after day but hardly ever do we understand the meaning behind the rote practices. Hardly ever do the pastors or priests even understand the religion they are participating in it. In fact, even if they do understand, they rarely really take the time to explain it to their congregation.

It isn’t wrong to be religious. It’s wrong to be involved in empty religion. Another subtly which empty religious people try to push is that religion is for God. That somehow God needs us to be religious and to be involved in religion. Again, I don’t think religion is wrong. I think empty religion is wrong. See what God says to Israel about some of their religious practices. Notice that he doesn’t say their practices are bad.

Psalm 50: 7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.

8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices
or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

9 I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,

10 for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.

11 I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine.

12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?

14 Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,

15 and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

I pray that all of our attendance at church this week will be infused with deep theological meaning and passion. I pray that church officials will triumphantly proclaim the the meanings behind the actions. I pray that we can mysteriously enjoy a great big God through small rote religious practices. Something to hang out hats on.

I found an excellent resource for Old Testament Theology. Listen to these mp3′s in conjunction with your Old Testament readings and it should really impact your experience with the text and hopefully the author of the text.

http://fpcknox.org/daily-readings/walter-brueggemann/

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

We know Rambo had enemies,  Macgyver had Murdock, Rocky had Drago, Hulk had Andre, Assyrian parents had non-speaking Assyrian kids, Saul hated Christians, Herod hated Jesus,  and the list goes on and on…Enemies.  We all have enemies but I find it hard to pinpoint who my enemies actually are.  Perhaps I could think of people who have hurt me or let me down and consider them an enemy but can I really say they are my enemy?  Websters defines enemy as: one that is antagonistic to another; especially : one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent.  I don’ t know of many people, if any, who seek to intentionally hurt me.  This command to love ones enemies falls on deaf ears when most of us don’t think we have any clear enemies.  If someone disappoints us, they are not our enemy.  If someone is out to hurt us then they become our enemy.  So, this raises up an interesting question:  How can we love our enemy if we don’t know who our enemy is?

Who are our enemies?  Who is seeking to hurt us?  Who is our biggest critic?  Who doubts us the most?  Certainly it isn’t loved ones is it? I don’t know about you but for me, the old saying, “I’m my own worst enemy” is true.  Could it be us?  Maybe we are our own worst enemy?  It isn’t a popular thing in our culture to have enemies or to admit hating anyone else, but lets be honest.  Don’t we all get angry at ourselves sometimes?  Don’t we even hate ourselves at times?

Why is God insisting that we love our enemy?  What if our enemy is a con-artist or a murderer?  Apparently we are to have the same attitude toward those who help us as those who hurt us.  In so doing we will be being consistent with the way God works.  God doesn’t give grace to one and hold out on another.  God loves everyone.  He has no favorites.  In the passage above, it is as if God is saying, be like me and love everyone.  If you do this you will truly be his son.  For God, being his son isn’t only about having the right beliefs, instead it is being like him.

Granted, loving doesn’t mean being in close relationship or even greeting.  You can totally love someone by staying away from them and sometimes that is what one should do.  Sometimes we have to be intentional about setting boundaries that help us not get destroyed by our enemies.

So what are your thoughts?  How can we love our enemies?  What did Jesus mean when he said “Love your enemies”?

The other day someone said to me “oh man there is nothing like getting married, your life won’t be complete until your married.” Could it be that before getting married the person felt totally happy and content with their life but after meeting a specific person they then became discontent until they married that person. That is retro-active truth. It is a truth that becomes true retro-actively. That is, if someone would have walked up to him before he met that special someone and said “dude your life is not complete because your not married” that he could have responded and said your wrong I totally love my life.  And then all the sudden he met that special someone felt discontent about his life due to not having her in it.  Before meeting that person he looked back at his life rather gleafully, but after meeting that person he then knew that his life would be a waste if he did not hook it up.  Ahh, it is a tough phenomenon.   So when that person says to you “There is nothing like marriage and you got to get married to really enjoy life.” Perhaps you can say back to them, well what you are saying is true and false.

I haven’t really gotten to study retro-active truth but I did want to have a blog title named retro-active truth and so I was able to accomplish that with this post.

Today I came to the realization that the one discipline that has changed my life for the good more then anything else I have done has been gathering together with brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus one a weekly basis. For about the last 7 years I have been going to church mainly on a week to week basis and it has been the best thing I could have ever done with my time. Why? Well because every week my small ideas get erupted by bigger and beautiful ones. Every week I get to see how the Lord is working in other brothers and sisters and they impart to me the love He has shared with them. Every week when I get into a rut about the world, I get to go to a place where we sing different songs about the way things are. Every week I hear songs on the radio that promote dirty, backwards, and error-filled world views. The media in our country is built off building discontent in our hearts about what we wish we had. It is so nice to go to a gathering where men and women talk about the one who gives generously. The one who Loves and cares for us when we do not care for ourselves. The one who paid the price. The one who’s reward we should not try to profit from. Wow, church. I am so thankful for the local body of believers which we call the church. They have been faithful to me in California and Texas. The same Spirit of the Lord has blessed me with kind people week in and week out. What more could a guy ask for? Well plenty but in the mean time I am so thankful for the church. I am so thankful for her and the fact that she cares, reproofs, encourages and loves. I am so thankful for the visions which are bigger then the big ideas I have. Have I said enough about the church? I think not.

I love St. Augustine’s quote. “The church is a whore but she’s my mother.”

Isn’t that the truth? I am the biggest critic of churches that I know but at the end of the day they love me and I love them. PS, the church is not a building is a people on a journey. People have done things to hurt me within the church but more then anything they have consistently loved me deeply. Praise God for the church.