Lessons About the Usefulness of Christianity

Recently my wife and I were privileged to attend the Dedication Ceremony for the donation ceremony of Dr. Virgil Trout’s 16,000 volume library.  Dr. Trout has lectured in over one-third of our nations major universities on Christianity, ethics, and Science. (See http://devotionalsforeverydayliving.blogspot.com/2012/10/dr.html for a short bio).   His topic at the dedication was:  The Usefulness of the Impossible.  The impossible was defined as “the Word became flesh” and dwelling among men and impossibility of the resurrection.  The impossible was God becoming man and the Christ after crucifixion being raised from the death.  Both are impossible acts in any natural world sense.  Yet, we have ample evidence of Christ’s existence on earth and testimonies and circumstantial evidence of His resurrection.

What then is “useful” about these impossibilities?  Do they have any practical applications?  Virgil gives five areas that are impacted:  1) History 2) Ethics 3) Science 4) Politics and 5) Religion.  For History they give purpose and direction. For Ethics they provide the basis of respect and conduct of man to man. For Science, a human enterprise, they provide a God created universe to explore and protect.  For Politics, they provide the imperative for man to give to the state what the state needs as good citizens. They provide ethics for the state, and for Religion they are the guide to the relationship with God.  These are the categories Dr. Trout delineated.  What follows are my thoughts.

Some, even Christians, would eliminate the interaction of the Christian with some of these categories.  But Christian are part of creating history.  They cannot escape doing so.  Certainly the purpose of Christians is to use their talents to serve others (Eph 4).   Few would argue that these impossibilities have no effect on the development of ethical principles.  Ethics are just the moral principles that guide our lives.  Without the guidance of God, man develops some crazy rules for right conduct.  In Science it is the very God created “laws” that enable to understand how our world works.  Our understanding of God’s world changes as we grow and develop.  It is good that science that tells to let the land “rest”.  Politics is the “sticky” category for most modern day Christians.  In earlier times, the pulpit and political advocacies were joined.  But like history, Christians live in a political world.  Their actions or inaction contribute positively or negatively.  As Dr. Trout said, it is not an accident we enjoy the liberties we have in the U.S.  It is impossible to separate your personal decisions from what happens politically.  Inaction or indifference is both a decision and an action.  So your Christianity should inform your actions not only morally but politically as well.   Religiously we must love God and love our neighbor as ourselves.  There is absolute truth.  Truth is not relative.

The above just serves to introduce how these “impossibilities” inform every aspect of our Christian lives.  Contrary to the enterprise of  “taking religion out of the public square” Christianity is the very fabric that inform especially our public as well as our private lives.

Reflections on the Movie "Heaven is for Real"

Reflections on the Movie

“Heaven is for Real”

This afternoon my wife and I went to the movie “Heaven is for Real.”  In this movie and the book on which it is based, Colton, a four year old, relates his experiences in “heaven.”  These experiences occurred during an appendix operation in which Colton almost died, but in fact did not die.  Some of these experiences included: 1) seeing his father in one room praying (and mad at God) and his mother in another room.  The parents had not talked about this 2) Seeing his “unborn” little sister that was the result of a miscarriage (the parents had not told him of this) 3) Seeing his grandfather and identifying his picture having never seen either 4) Seeing Jesus and identifying a picture painted by another girl (also 4 when she had her experience) as Jesus and 5) Seeing other things in heaven and seeing angels.  This is a sampling.

What the movie does is raise the vital question: “Is heaven real?”   Of course as Christians, one might be quick to say, of course.  But is that really our true belief?   What is the real basis of that belief?  If true, how does that change the way we view life and its troubles?  How does that change how we live?

I would submit that the gospel of John provides both challenges and answers.  A most profound statement is ^“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  After the crucifixion, we were told “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”  John gives us six miracles that Jesus  performed: 1) Changing of water to wine (Jn. 2:1)  2) Healing of the nobleman’s son (Jn. 4:46)  3) Healing of the impotent man (Jn. 5:1)  4) Feeding of the five thousand ( Jn. 6:1) 5) Walking on water (Jn. 6:16)  6) Healing of the man born blind (Jn. 9:1) and 7) the raising of Lazarus from the dead (11:1).   John further tells us “these are written that you may believe ^x that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (Jn. 20:31).

So….if we believe in this we must believe that the son of God became fully human (Flesh), lived with humans in the first century, was killed, and then was resurrected.  We must believe there is a Creator God (John 1) and he had a Son who became human.  While he was here on earth He did some unearthly things that can’t be explained by any physical processes.  This culminated by his raising a person from the death who was already decaying (he had been there four days and had a bad odor).  Not only was this true but He Himself was resurrected, not as some “ghost” but as a person who could eat a breakfast of fish (John 21).   This is all “out of this world” narration. 

What are the implications for the questions I first posed?  First, the basis of our belief in heaven is belief in Jesus as the resurrected Son of God and the Creator of everything.  Belief in this implies belief in what he said and what he did.  What did he do?  He performed what we call miracles.  John records seven of these as delineated above.  All of these events cannot be explained “rationally.” By this I mean there are no known physical processes that could explain these events.  They are what we call “miracles.” Miracles are “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.”  It follows if we believe in Christ we must believe in miracles.

But do we, really?   Those of our fellowship in the churches of Christ were taught that miracles ceased after the apostles and those they “laid their hands on” died.  We were taught that these “miracles” were only necessary during the initial spreading of the gospel.  But, can one find in the scriptures where this is written explicitly?  Let’s say that the type of miracles done by the apostles can’t be replicated today i.e. we have no apostle or those that they laid hands on.  Does this mean miracles do not exist today?   I would submit, this is an unwarranted conclusion. 

Note that to believe in Christ one MUST believe in miracles.  If we not believe in miracles why do we pray?   What does it mean when we are told the prayer of a righteous man “avails much”?    Aren’t we praying for divine intervention?  Or is our faith only that the human skill and reasoning of a care giver is successful?  In other words, do we rely only on what man can do?  If so, that is not really a prayer of faith.  Those that have no faith in Christ also hope that the skill of the care giver is successful.  Do we do the same or does our belief that “God can do anything (Luke 2) only hold for what happened in the first century?   The real implication of the fundamental basis of our belief is that God can accomplish miracles.  If so, the consequence should be a fundamental change in attitude in how we view life.  God can take care of all troubles.  Does this mean we will not have trouble or that they will not be painful?  I think not.  Calvary was painful for Christ.  But, we can look beyond the pain to the other side.  At the same time, we can petition God for a miracle with the faith that he can, if it is his will, grant that miracle.

We should then be able to live life without fear- as our understanding lets us know “perfect –or mature- love casts out fear.”  We are human so sudden tragedies can cause us to be afraid—momentarily.  We can get angry, sad, troubled, trembling, but ultimately our belief in the very fact of miracles—in the final analysis in the miracle of the Word becoming Flesh, dwelling among us, and being resurrected – gives us hope.

Did Colton see Jesus, his grandfather, and see heaven?  Did two four year olds, one in the U.S. and one in Lithuania, see the same Jesus? Colton identified Jesus from the portrait the girl drew.  We can try to rationalize his story by random firing of neurons or hallucinations.   But, if we believe in Jesus, we must believe in miracles.  If we believe Christ answers prayers, we must believe in supernatural intervention by God in the affairs of men.  And, we must believe heaven is real.

The Three Great Gifts of God

What would you consider the three greatest gifts of God?   Of course Christians would commonly go immedidately to the gift of Christ -- the Word becoming flesh. That is true, but perhaps some reflection would reveal a deeper understanding of just what this means.  I would propose three very specifc gifts.

The first gift is found in Genesis.  God saw fit to create the universe and all that is in it.  The Word participated in that creation:

        "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with          God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been           made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind."  John 1:1–4 (NIV) 

What happened during the creation event is truly remarkable.  

      " So God created mankind in his own image, 
         in the image of God he created them; 
         male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27)

The first great gift of God to Man was life itself.  And, this was not just any life, but life that was created in His own image.  What exactly it means to be created in the image of God has been much debated.  Some elements seem obvious. Man can talk to God and have a relationship to him.  Man seems to be God's representative on earth and has dominion over it at God's command.  Man has intellect and can reason. Man has  the capacity to have godly attributes: love, purity, compassion, etc.   

This brings me to what I propose is the second greatest gift bestowed upon man.  Man has the ability to make choices.  Man has free will.   This is  also an attribute that has been endlessly disbuted.  Some in the scientific world would postulated all actions, even those that appear to be freelly  made, are determined by only cause and effect.  Others would ask how can we have free will if God already knows what is going to happen in advance?  There are other endless arguments whether free will exists with varying defintions.  ( examining each would take several books, not a short essay) What seems clear is God gave man the ability to choose one's course of action over another whether one defines this as "free will" or not.  We are not robots. 

Alas, this freedom to choose a particular course of action lets man make unwise choices.  Coupled with this abiltiy to choose is one's responsibility for one's actions.  Since Man through Adam and Eve made a choice forbidden to them, they sinned against God.  In short they wished to be completely like God.  This, then. leads to the third greatest gift of God.  

" for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,  through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.' (Ro 3:23–25).

This  gift truly is the grace of God towards Man.   What a gift?  The gift of justification by grace through Christ and received by faith.  So, we return to the first gift--life itself.  God gave Man life, the ability to chose, and even when their choice would lead to death, and then gift of life again if we choose to believe in Christ to be justified by Him.  What a glorious God!

Reflections on Cooperation and Religious Divisions

Attendance at a recent Missions Resource Network benefit dinner, sparked thoughts of the religious divisions and lack of coorperation that long characterised congregtions of the churches of Christ.  I was born and raised in the 40's, 50's, and 60's--more than 50 years distance from our present culture.  During those times,  many good practices were prevalent, chief among them a study and knowledge of scripture.  Alas, knowledge does not in itself mean understanding and practice.

Congregational autonomy was taken to a fault. Other than area "Sunday singings," little real cooperative efforts were the norm.   Sometimes a local city campaign with a prominent speaker in the church induced a "Billy Graham" effort of cooperation.   The 60's in particular were marked by the "anti" movement.  When my wife and I moved to Phoenix right out of the university, we sought the nearest congregation to our little one bedroom furnished apartment.  It was an "anti" congregation where the entire sermon was condemning other Christians who "cooperated" in any way with Christian based groups--Christian universities, orphan homes, other congregations and Christians who supported them, and those who did not conduct their services in the right way.  It was so bad we did not feel comfortable taking communion there.  Fortunately, we found a loving and accepting congregation nearby.  Though the "anti" movement within the churches of Christ has almost dissipated over the last half century,  in my view it damaged the message of Christ for decades.

The Restoration heritage of "back to the bible" unfortunately evolved in some circles into an insistence on "doctrinal purity" before one congregation could "be in fellowship" with another congregation.  This usually focused on insisting on using some "accepted" form of worship for being "in fellowship."   However, what was "doctrine" for one group was "liberty" for another group.  The emphasis was on  what what perceived to be the accepted "pattern" and not on relationships--whether relationship with God, with one another, or with other Christians.  The admonition in Ephesians 4 to use our God given spiritual gifts for service to others was little heard.  "Home Bible Studies"  consisted primarily of how the church was established in Act 2,  on baptism, and on the organization of the church.  Christ was not at the center of these lessons.  We know,  as my wife and I created a separate chart on the life of Christ.  The charts we were using had little about Christ. This insistence  on "pattern" or particular "forms" of worship lead to multiple  splits or divisions within the church.

Concurrent with the divisions within the church itself was an insistence that a congregation could not cooperate in any overt way with others in the community.   Those who  were providing a service to others--other faith based groups or  community service groups-- could not be associated with.   The thinking was "the church" would not get the credit for the service provided.  Doing so would lend tacit consent to the doctrine of denominations that we did not agree with.  Note here the insistence that the church of Christ was not a "denomination" but was "The Church"--never mind that the churches of Christ fit precisely the normal English language dictionary definition of a denomination.  ( Of course, Christ's church universal is one and not a denomination.  The forms it takes certainaly are different even within the churches of Christ).

The above attitudes contributed to the common perception that the members of the Churches of Christ believed they were the only ones going to heaven.  When pressed most members would deny this, but then insist only those believed or practiced as they did would would be acceptable to God.  The presupposition not stated was the Churches of Christ had completely restored the New Testament church found in the bible.    Never mind the fact there were significant differences in the understanding of the workings of the Holy Spirit,  and continual squabbles on forms of worship and other doctrinal matters.   The "worship wars" that came to other faith based groups came to the churches of Christ also--just later in time.

We are thankful that many of these attitudes are fading in our fellowship.  Para-church groups like MIssion Resource Network, Let's Start Talking, Eastern European Missions, Great Cities Missions, Kairos, Mission Alive, etc. are doing much for the Lord and are supported by both members  and congreagations alike.  Christian universities and colleges are supported as well.   Local congregations support groups such as Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan Inn, Local Food Banks, and Children's Relief Fund.  Members are emphasizing real relationships with God, each other, and developing relationships with their neighbors and the unchurched.   All of this does not mean we have abandoned baptism for the remission of sins, or even a cappella music.  But, it does mean the restoration of doctrine is balanced with the restoration of relationships.  It also recogizes that using the bible as a "rule book", "constitution", or a using "pattern" hermenutic may not be the best way or even a good way of determining  what God wishes us to do as individual Christians or congregations.