The term "born again" comes from a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. This theme has become incredibly important in the contemporary church. However, Jesus also once had a conversation with a rich man, who asked what he must do to achieve salvation. Jesus first asks about his personal life, if he had kept the commandments and such, if he was "born again." After the man gave an affirmative response, he then asked, "What do I still lack?" Jesus then responds with, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." The man walked away, unwilling to part with what he had. At this point, Christ turned to his disciples and proclaimed "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:16-24)
In the Church today, I hear a lot of talk about being born again, but not a whole lot about selling off everything. Consider for a moment the growth of the "Christian" sectors of Music, books, clothing, and other industries. Billions of dollars annually is pumped into the market under the name of Christian Living. How many people out there go to church and wonder how much it cost to build the place you are worshiping in? Then think about property taxes, utility bills, maintenance costs, and all of the other expenses involved which stretch on ad nauseum. Take a look around next time you go to church. How many people are throwing their last pennies into the offering plate? How many people present are homeless? How many are in ratty clothes because they can't afford new ones?
When Jesus said, "The poor you will always have with you," (Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7) I think he meant something more along the lines of "You will always be with the poor." Why will we always be among the poor? Because we will be poor ourselves. In the early Church, "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had." (Acts 4:32) It seems that the USSR was about 2000 years after the first and only real Communist revolution.
Yet with all of this at our fingertips, we so often fall into the snares of the world and find ways to live a 'socially acceptable' life. We continue to live as consumer automatons, materialistic machines in a material world. But we do it the moral way, right? We buy organic food and shirts with Christian slogans made from materials sustainably produced, carry CD collections of the latest contemporary praise music and put "Jesus Saves" bumper stickers on our cars. We look at all that we've created and say, "it is good." At no point do we seem to consider if we're just doing the same sins with prettier names. We decry consumerism up to the point that it seriously impacts our ability to live the same way our neighbors do. We condemn corporatism unless the corporation slaps Jesus' name on their products.
If we are to be imitators of Christ, how many square feet should our homes be? How much should we pay for our cars? How many shoes should we own? What about ties? How much should we keep in our bank account?
Jesus was homeless, travel by foot, owned probably one pair of sandals at a time and one set of clothes, and lived on God's providence alone.
"I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well--the delights of the heart of a man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:4-11)
Be careful brothers and sisters. We live in a material world. Before you purchase your next praise CD or "Jesus is my Homeboy" shirt, consider what you're doing. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
In the Image of God
While making prayer beads with an interfaith group recently, someone suddenly asked what we all thought about fate. This seems to be a fairly common concern with a number of friends of mine in the past, so I decided it would probably be a good time to post it here. This is perhaps one of my most internally well developed theological ideas, and as such I tend to skip details, so let me apologize beforehand if I neglect to elaborate on something.
The first statement which must be made is that I believe there is neither a future nor a past, but one single dynamic moment in which we participate, along with God, in creating the next expression of that same moment. The only settled future is that which God has already decided will happen at that time (prophecy). It is not that it has happened, or even must happen, but that when time reaches that point, God will enact measures to ensure such an even or events occur.
The first statement which must be made is that I believe there is neither a future nor a past, but one single dynamic moment in which we participate, along with God, in creating the next expression of that same moment. The only settled future is that which God has already decided will happen at that time (prophecy). It is not that it has happened, or even must happen, but that when time reaches that point, God will enact measures to ensure such an even or events occur.
To be made in the image of God does not mean that God is a bipedal mammal with opposable thumbs. The statement itself indicates the nature of God: maker. God is the creator of things, and likewise, we share the quality of creativity. Not in the ordinary, mundane sense of the word, but in a spiritual way with implications throughout the cosmos. As God created the Universe and us, we participate in the creation of the future, the development towards union with God, and the eventual conclusion of existence. To attempt to link any form of physiological similarity with God – male or female, black or white or yellow or red, old or young, etc. – is so far beyond a moot point it becomes ludicrous. God is creative with ultimate reality, and so are we.
Why would a loving God create people who He knew were going to be condemned? Why would He plan out a world which He would later need to destroy for its corruption? Why would He change his mind about ending the life of a king when the king’s heart changed? Why develop such a complex drama when the entirety of the work could have been refined from the start. Where is evil if God controls all?
The primary concern at hand is the understanding of God as omniscient. After all, if God doesn’t know the future, then there is something that God doesn’t know. Unfortunately, this argument makes one tragic assumption: that there is a future to know. Simply because we have a word for it does not mean it necessarily exists, nor does the ability to imagine the future mean there is a future, particularly since the imagining is done in the present. If there is no future to know, it is not a limitation of God that He doesn’t know it. If anything, this version of time empowers God, allowing Him to interact with creation at all times, freeing Him of the same restraints it frees humanity of. More than that, it frees God of direct responsibility for evil, which is generally accepted throughout scriptures as being something God isn’t a huge fan of. Free Will frees God from being the creator of evil and instead merely the creator of the potential for evil. Freedom is a gift, meant to be used for the benefit of all; its misuse is the aberration and thus the source of evil. Furthermore, it is Free Will which provides for a meaningful basis of salvation. Our sinful nature condemns us all, leaving every individual in need of salvation. Christ died to provide everyone with a means, if they so choose, to acquire that salvation and return to a right relationship with God. Without freedom of the will, it would simply be God’s decision to save who He wished, which would be all according to scripture. If He couldn’t save all, then He would certainly not be omnipotent. If all are saved, then it is not true that few find the hidden gate. If we are condemned without free will, we are condemned for the actions God chose for us to do before we were created, as God could have chosen not to create, or to modify the parameters around one’s life to ensure that one did not remain condemned. Scripture gives directives towards humanity to seek, believe and act, not simply to sit back. Seek ye first the
If we have Free Will, then there cannot truly be a future. If there was a future, our wills would not have the freedom to create a future. Thus, not only must there be free will, but there must also not be a future. We, like God, have a say in what happens next. It is in that very quality of helping to create the future that we are in the image of God. We are allowed to choose, just as God is allowed to choose.
The only thing about the future which is set is the things which God has already decided He will do. Prophecy is not a lie; when the time comes, God will make happen what He says He will make happen. If God says “I will flood the world in a few months,” then in a few months God can make a flood happen. At no point does prophecy mean that these things will happen without God’s input.
I apologize for the lack of scriptural citations in this, but if people wish, I can edit this to include the dozens of citations I vaguely reference. As I said at the beginning, I have wrestled with this more than perhaps any other single topic, and so I simply wrote it out of memory. May it properly portray the word of God in the spirit in which it was written.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Soteriology 101
Soteriology comes from the Greek words soter, which means savior, and logos, which doesn't translate well into english, but is generally used by ancient Greeks to mean purpose or reason (usually in the context of rational understanding). Essentially, soteriology is the understanding of salvation: What does it mean, and how does it work?
"Salvation belongs to our God, and to Christ the lamb, forever and ever." Does this sound familiar? Growing up in a Lutheran church, this was part of the standard congregational-response service. I want to prefix what follows, in light of this song, with a crucial caveat: Salvation is a gift of God, to bestow as He chooses. While I have some fairly well-informed and cogent ideas of how it works, I do not mean by this that I alone have the answers, or that if you disagree with me that you are automatically condemned. In other words, I take no responsibility for the fate of your soul.
In the basic Christian model of the Universe, humanity rebelled against God and therefore faces the consequences of sin (that which separates us from God). Sin is an unfortunately nebulous term, and I should at some point blog purely on sin, but I'll save that for later. Essentially, the point I'm making is that salvation is the attainment of a proper relationship to God, which we lose through sin. Through Christ, God entered the world in order to provide two pieces: first, a perfect example to follow (the prophets are great, but people are better at mimicking what they see than simply learning through what they hear), and more importantly, to provide the fallen with an ideal avatar in order to attain salvation. The first I'll leave for now since it's relatively self explanatory. The second is both the topic at hand and the more controversial subject in general.
In order to be fully reconciled to God, someone had to be fully reconciled to God as an individual. The only way this was able to be accomplished was through God Himself taking on human form. This way, purely by definition, the man must be in a relationship to God since Jesus was an extension of God. With one person in this direct relationship, the next step is to make everyone else into a metaphor. The key here is the difference between a metahpor and a simile: a simile is to say that "X is like Y." However, this leaves both X and Y as separate entities, and therefore there is no necessary inclusion. However, if I am baptized in the name of Christ, and I seek to be an "imitator of God" (Ephesians 5:1, 1 Thessalonians 1:6), I become one with Christ, and therefore am also reconciled to God. Christianity involves a lot of complex usages of the properties of equality, and this is the most critical one.
"There is one body and one spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:4-6) Therefore, to be a Christian is to become one with Christ, in spirit and action. To be a Christian is to be as indistinguishable as possible from Christ. In this way, we are granted the same relationship to God, and therefore, ipso facto, salvation.
Contrary to popular protestant belief, we are not saved by faith alone. In fact, "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:17) "I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds." (Acts 26:20b) "Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:38). It is true that it is not the deeds themselves that save us, but a person cannot have one without the other.
Most unfortunate of all, we must acknowledge that by Christ's own admission, the majority of people will not be saved. "For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)
In conclusion, the basics of salvation, as indicated in scripture, are as follows: We are saved by becoming one with Christ, this involves action as well as faith, and the majority of people will not be saved. I could go into great detail on any portion of this, but I thought I should toss out a few parameters before going into any of that.
"Salvation belongs to our God, and to Christ the lamb, forever and ever." Does this sound familiar? Growing up in a Lutheran church, this was part of the standard congregational-response service. I want to prefix what follows, in light of this song, with a crucial caveat: Salvation is a gift of God, to bestow as He chooses. While I have some fairly well-informed and cogent ideas of how it works, I do not mean by this that I alone have the answers, or that if you disagree with me that you are automatically condemned. In other words, I take no responsibility for the fate of your soul.
In the basic Christian model of the Universe, humanity rebelled against God and therefore faces the consequences of sin (that which separates us from God). Sin is an unfortunately nebulous term, and I should at some point blog purely on sin, but I'll save that for later. Essentially, the point I'm making is that salvation is the attainment of a proper relationship to God, which we lose through sin. Through Christ, God entered the world in order to provide two pieces: first, a perfect example to follow (the prophets are great, but people are better at mimicking what they see than simply learning through what they hear), and more importantly, to provide the fallen with an ideal avatar in order to attain salvation. The first I'll leave for now since it's relatively self explanatory. The second is both the topic at hand and the more controversial subject in general.
In order to be fully reconciled to God, someone had to be fully reconciled to God as an individual. The only way this was able to be accomplished was through God Himself taking on human form. This way, purely by definition, the man must be in a relationship to God since Jesus was an extension of God. With one person in this direct relationship, the next step is to make everyone else into a metaphor. The key here is the difference between a metahpor and a simile: a simile is to say that "X is like Y." However, this leaves both X and Y as separate entities, and therefore there is no necessary inclusion. However, if I am baptized in the name of Christ, and I seek to be an "imitator of God" (Ephesians 5:1, 1 Thessalonians 1:6), I become one with Christ, and therefore am also reconciled to God. Christianity involves a lot of complex usages of the properties of equality, and this is the most critical one.
"There is one body and one spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:4-6) Therefore, to be a Christian is to become one with Christ, in spirit and action. To be a Christian is to be as indistinguishable as possible from Christ. In this way, we are granted the same relationship to God, and therefore, ipso facto, salvation.
Contrary to popular protestant belief, we are not saved by faith alone. In fact, "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:17) "I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds." (Acts 26:20b) "Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:38). It is true that it is not the deeds themselves that save us, but a person cannot have one without the other.
Most unfortunate of all, we must acknowledge that by Christ's own admission, the majority of people will not be saved. "For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)
In conclusion, the basics of salvation, as indicated in scripture, are as follows: We are saved by becoming one with Christ, this involves action as well as faith, and the majority of people will not be saved. I could go into great detail on any portion of this, but I thought I should toss out a few parameters before going into any of that.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)