Sunday, May 31, 2009

Part II Can You Know You're Among the Elect?

The previous step, Part I, established that your desire to explore the things of God is a sign that you may be one of God’s elect, that you have “ears to hear and eyes to see” (Matthew 13:10-17. Note: I Peter 1:10-12; I Corinthians 1:18-2:16). That desire to understand is a gift from God, and everyone has the seeds of that desire (Matthew 13:18-19 Note: Romans 2:12-16; II Corinthians 3:3:1-18 key verse 3).

That appears to be part of what it means to have been made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). Just as God has a Creation, the entire universe, so each man and woman has a creation, their entire lives. Just as God has complete authority and responsibility over the entire Creation, so God has given each man and woman complete authority over their entire lives.

Listen to how Christ explains the Parable of the Sower: The man’s understanding is the operative force concerning his or her salvation (Matthew 13:19). God has given each man and woman the ability to understand the message of the kingdom of God, but when a person chooses not to understand it, that decision enables the evil one to snatch away the seed of their desire to understand. Not only does this passage suggest that each person plays a pivotal role in his or her own salvation, accepting or rejecting the message of the kingdom, but it also confirms the objective existence of our enemy, the evil one.

We first see him (Satan, the devil) in Genesis 3:1-5 along with God’s prophesy concerning Christ and the devil’s ultimate disposition (Genesis 3:14-15).

Ephesians 6:10-18 more directly explains our present circumstances: Our struggle in this life is not against physical forces. It is against “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Spiritual forces not only concern the marketplace of ideas, which ideas we accept and which ones we don’t, the moral battles now going on in our culture; but it also concerns the power of spiritual beings (angels and demons) whom the Bible says exist in those realms and can exert an influence over us.

It is difficult for those of us whose only experience is living in this physical world to have a good understanding of the spiritual realms because our experience doesn’t easily embrace them.

Think of spirit as thoughts. Like spirit, our thoughts are without physical substance. While they require the existence and operation of our brains, the minute electrical impulses that carry our thoughts are not the thoughts themselves. Those charges are driven by the thoughts that originate in our minds, at the center of our very being.

This life appears to be the battlefield for a war to capture your thoughts because everything you do proceeds first from them. The devil wants you to think like him, like the world teaches, because for the time being God allows Satan an influence here (II Corinthians 2:4; Hebrews 2:8-9; James 4:4-7). But Christ wants you to think like him (I Corinthians 2:10a-16 Note: Romans 12:1-2). He offers us the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6; John 3:16-21).

Notice how Christ combated the devil (Matthew 4:1-11). He quoted the Word (“it is written”) in response to the devil’s suggestions. This is an example of the role of the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). Notice that the devil is also familiar with God’s Word. One of his favorite ploys is to distort what it says (Genesis 3:3-5) and counterfeit what it produces.

So, here we are, living in a world of ideas, God’s ideas (truth) competing against the devil’s ideas (falsehoods) with our salvations hanging in the balance. God has endowed us with sovereignty over our day-to-day lives. He has given each of us the ability to understand and choose his ideas along with the freedom to reject them (Note: Romans 1:18-32). I suspect that that’s what this life is all about, The Choice, understanding God’s call to us and our reaction to it.

Consider the rest of Christ’s explanation of the Parable of the Sower. Notice how the results play out in the future events of the person’s life. Next time we’ll expand on the parable and discuss the nature of salvation and the womb of this life.

NOTE: Genesis 2:4-3:24 is an interesting story, but is that what actually happened? Do those two chapters actually reflect real events as historical as, say, World War II or the deaths of your great, great grandparents? I think the best way to answer that is to see how the later biblical characters saw those events. Paul refers to Christ as the first Adam and Christ deals with the devil. While the Bible roots itself in the literal events of human history, the first events in Genesis sure sound like fairytales. Whatever happened then in fact, the Bible clearly wants us to receive as literal events. Wrapped within those trappings are the fundamental truths God wants us to embrace to better comprehend what’s now going on in the world and in our lives.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Pastor Mike's response to the Elect post

PASTOR MIKE'S RESPONSE:
Good to see you...thanks for the DM on Twitter. This is probably the venue of theology I have wrestled with the most only because it demands an answer. Included in your thought process...have you considered that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Better yet when the time of Christ's return draws near that the very elect will be deceived. Now, we could be dealing with a backlash on eternal security.
Free will, predestination, the elect...How I have struggled and tried to contextualize these thougts for nearly two decades. I know I am of His elect...He chose me...I did not choose Him...and now I must bear fruit.
Keep it up this is the first I have checked in on your blog.

MY REACTION:
Good to hear from you, birds of a feather. I believe the Holy Spirit rewards honest struggle. Yeah, this is a toughie, well worth the wrestle.

If God's Word is Truth, I've concluded that a proper understanding of any issue will not be inconsistent with all the assertions of Scripture concerning it. The truth is found in how everything fits. To find the Truth, look for the fit, the consistency. And you're right; that often takes years.

God can be unwilling to let anyone perish, but I'm not sure one can necessarily conclude from that that everyone will, in fact, be saved. That flies in the face of lots of face-value assertions in Scripture. The logic for that is similar to that required in dealing with "[God] wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:4). God clearly wants all men to be saved -- he wouldn't be a loving God (or have sent Christ) if he didn't -- but the kingdom parables clearly suggest that all men (and women) will not be saved. Look up Matthew 7:21-23, 13:18-23 and consider where the phrase "gnashing of teeth" takes you. The whole concept of Hell mediates against the notion that everyone will be saved in the end.

The deception of the elect: That's an interesting issue, and nothing comes immediately to mind except that God seems to have given us our heads (Note: Romans 1:18-32). That passage talks about God "giving over" people to their evil desires. Clearly God is not giving them over to stuff he endorses. Thus, I conclude, God allows believers to follow their own desires; and in that state, an unwary elect easily could be deceived. God gave us smarts (and the Spirit). He wants us to benefit from them.

Eternal Security: There's no question that from God's perspective, the believers he knows (the elect) are eternally secure (Ephesians 1:4-14); but from our perspectives, living as we are, trapped in time and lacking his eternal perspective, the issue is less clear. That's where faith and trust come in. However, we do know that if we persevere, that perseverance will pay off (Hebrews 10:19-39). That's a promise.

I guess that's why I'm a TheologyFreak. I find biblical investigation fascinating beyond all else because one is always going on the greatest adventure there is, discovering the Mind of God. When you persevere in study and begin thinking beyond theological tradition (WARNING: II John 9; I Corinthians 4:6), one can find reasonable answers to even the toughest questions. That doesn't necessarily make my answers right; but the more I study, the more the good ones seem to fit. When I find my conjectures inconsistent with the face-value assertions of Scripture, I change my conjectures. I never reinterpret Scripture to make things fit. I'm always in submission to Scripture rather than to my own conclusions. My own conclusions and questions like you pose are simply springboards for further study and in our case, perhaps, further fellowship.

Peace^

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Part I - Can You Know You're Among the Elect?

Keep in mind that no one verse of Scripture necessarily carries the total truth about any issue. The truth is found in how all the information asserted by the pertinent passages come together to produce a complete, non conflicting picture. You’ll find the truth there.

When I cite a passage, look it up and read it. Then consider my remarks.

Ephesians 1:3-14 key verses 4-5 say that before the creation of the world, God chose those who would be saved and he predestined them to be adopted as sons (saved).

As a result, some theologians conclude that God, by his authority as Creator, has chosen some of us to be saved and some of us not to be saved. The Big Question is this: who among us are included among the saved (the elect) and who are left to be among the others? More pointedly, did God overtly choose you (or me) to go to hell?

That’s a serious question for any thinking person, and that passage from Ephesians clearly seems to support that one’s salvation is entirely up to God; but here’s another passage to consider, Romans 8:28-30.

Except for one element, the same event before the beginning of time appears to be in view. The exception is the phrase, ”FOR THOSE GOD FOREKNEW he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (v29a).

That passage suggests that God’s sovereign choice was tempered by his foreknowledge of who would respond to his salvation message and who would not. It was not God overtly choosing without regard to other input, which he clearly had the power to do, but he was responding to the choices he knew would be made by men and women throughout the ages. In other words, the operative force in any individual’s salvation is not God alone but the mix of God’s offer and the person’s response.

God freely extends his offer of salvation, made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, through various means (the church, Christian radio and TV, believing friends, etc.); and he has blessed each person with the right to accept or refuse it (Matthew 13:19 Note: Romans 1:18-32). That opportunity for choice, I suspect, is the reason why God made this world rather than some other.

So, what does that mean for people today who are seeking God or trying to find out what’s going on in this world? We find the answer in Matthew 13:10-23. It explains why Christ taught in parables and Christ’s explanation of the Parable of the Sower.

Christ explains that he spoke in parables so that those with “ears to hear and eyes to see” would understand the secrets of the kingdom and those without “ears to hear” would not. The operative force is a person’s “ears to hear and eyes to see.” In other words, if the things of God interest you, and you’re willing to entertain that interest, God promises to respond (Matthew 7:7-12; James 4:7-8a).

Your genuine desire to explore the things of God is a sign that you have ears to hear and eyes to see. That is also a sign that suggests you might be one of God’s elect, God’s chosen.

More to come in Part II - Can You Know You’re Among the Elect?

Our goal at The Internet Church is to help you entertain your interest in godly things in an even-handed, intellectually honest way.

A response to "How are we to understand Scripture?"

The following is a response to my “How are we to understand Scripture?” post:

THE VISITOR'S POST:
“Truth in itself defies essential definition. There is no way give it a formula of itself except as an aspect of an idea it appears to relates to. Truth is absolute emptiness. It sends in its vehicle only as the warior to oppose falsehood.

“What is seen as a fact is a dead event. it connects to the trickery of the devil. It is an isolated wanna-be completed creation of something wanting to seem like a permanent piece of genuine reality... actually dying flesh decaying in the fallen world.

"To be of God, we give our minds back. What we know is everything that's wrong. The content of my thought is part of the outside world... unique in its being known only to me and to God.”

MY RESPONSE:
If “truth in itself defies essential definition,” and definition is essential to discussion, then truth doesn’t exist, at least it can’t be defined and thus we can’t discuss it. But the assertion that it can’t be defined doesn’t prove Truth doesn’t exist. It just makes it a challenge to discuss.

The concept of Truth is fundamental to life. If truth doesn’t exist then the laws of nature don’t exist. (Call me when you can float a rock in midair.) If Truth doesn’t exist, God doesn’t exist either. Worse yet, none of us exist. But the last time I got out of my bathtub the water level went down, so something was taking a bath. When I pinch myself, that’s me with the pain. So, here we are, functioning in whatever this place is (“A rose by any other name. . .”). One of our challenges is to make sense of it. The other is to survive in it. (The Bible calls that survival “salvation.”)

Consider the sentence, “It [truth] sends out its vehicle only as the warior to oppose falsehood.” If falsehood exists then Truth has to exist because falsehood can't exist unless a standard of truth exists against which we can measure it.

“What we know is everything that’s wrong.” That’s accurate in the sense that world is under the influence of the devil, and he’s a prevaricator and a counterfeiter. According to the Bible, the worldly approach to things is not the best. The best way to get a handle on the world is to see it through the “eyes of God” or Scripture. Only then do things make sense; and, believe me, they do make sense. (That’s what this blog is about.) Since the Bible claims to be Truth—and the Bible exists—Truth must also exist, at least it exists objectively enough for believers to comprehend what God wants. That is, how he wants us to operate his plan for our survival.

Truth is the fulcrum on which all of life balances. If Truth doesn't actually exist, nothing else makes sense.

Doctrinal Discussion

In reviewing what I've posted so far, the time has come to begin. This doctrinal discussion doubles as a doctrinal statement; but, as you will see, it's not like the traditional ones. (I wrote it for my coming website ChristianBasicTraining.com.) In the days to come on this blog, I'll be wrestling with developing what I've found in my studies into "bite-sized" presentations. For the time being, they will be the "sermons." However, TheInternetChurch to come will emerge through the interactions and reactions of those visiting the site. For now, the guide is pretty much just me. Sound doctrine is vital. Here's my take and the springboard from which I'm jumping:

Doctrinal Discussion
The New Testament stresses the need for sound doctrine. It plays an important role in our lives. Sound doctrine lights the way to God, and it lights the path he wants those seeking him to take through this life. That path is itself an expression of God’s love for us because it guides us away from those things he knows will harm us and towards those things he knows will build us up.

Most Christian organizations provide statements of belief that summarize their conclusions concerning the biblical message. But not everyone agrees on the details, so much so, that there are now over 200 different Christian sects and denominations in the United States alone. That division exists even in spite of Christ’s prayer for unity in John 17:20-26. He prays there for a visible unity, one that the world will see, showing that God loves all the people in the world with the same fervor with which he loves Christ.

Years ago when I began my serious investigations into the New Testament, this was the first passage that hit home with me, and it launched the first of my Big Questions: If God’s Son prayed for Christian unity, why hasn’t his Father answered that prayer?

So, where’s the unity?

In spite of Christ’s desire for unity, serious believers have divided themselves, mostly over what they think the Bible says, or doctrine. From a human perspective, that division is reasonable because like-minded believers want to worship with others just like them. Who wants to continually argue? What kind of a firm foundation is that? But the results have produced bad public relations for God and a picture of Christianity that ministers to division rather than unity. The unsaved aren’t stupid. They know what truth looks like. They look at the church’s witness and say, “Well, if the experts can’t figure it out — if they can’t live in agreement — what the hell. I’ll go my own way.”

So, Christian division has become an unfortunate fact of life.

What can believers do?

What should we do?

The Common Denominator
The common denominators that underscore orthodox Christianity are Christ and Scripture. Therefore as far as I’m concerned, if Christ is your Lord and the Bible is your book, we’re on the same page. We are children of God and heirs with Christ. Our lack of agreement, to the extent that it exists, is one for us to work through together—and in love. That’s one of the roles for this website:

I have a lot to learn from you, and maybe you have something to learn from me. But we will never come together in a productive spirit if we refuse to listen to each other.

Let’s be clear about my goal.

My goal is not that we all finally agree on doctrine, although that would be lovely because the Truth is One, which suggests Scripture has a single overall meaning. My goal is (1) to discover God’s Truth, (2) to accurately understand and apply it, and then (3) to convey it to others. Since no one person knows it all, this can only take place when believers reason together and learn from each other.

This is a worthy quest because it is one of the tasks God has placed before us. After all, the Bible says each of us will stand a personal judgment before God (Romans 14:9-12; Hebrews 9:27). Wouldn’t it be nice if we passed the test?

Based on the Bible and the conditions I’ve found in this world, I have concluded that God wants us to dialog and seek his truth in the light of each others scholarship, experience, and insights, realizing that the closer we all come to Christ, the closer we will all come to each other. Therein, I believe, lies the answer to Christ’s prayer and the practical witness God wants his children to offer to the world.

Approaches to Interpretation
For centuries well-meaning theologians have impressed their conclusions on Scripture. For the most part, their goals have been to better understand the Scriptures themselves and to make the truths of Scripture more accessible to the average reader. Those are worthy goals, indeed, but by the extent to which each theologian is inaccurate — and none of us know it all — their students, who see Scripture through their theologian’s conclusions, will be inaccurate as well.
By the same token, it’s important to recognize that the Christian teacher is mandated to teach what he believes to be true. To willfully teach anything else is unconscionable (Note: I Corinthians 3:10-15).

I suspect that much of the division among Christians stems from the disagreement that arises from the different interpretations that orbit the popular theological views. Such views embrace the Doctrine of the Trinity, Dispensationalism, the Calvinist/Arminean controversy, Covenant Theology, Legalism, Charismatic Theology, the Prosperity Gospel, the Social Gospel, and the like. Scripture doesn’t directly teach any of those by name. They are the names theologians have given them, and they are all conclusions reasonable investigators can draw from the assertions of Scripture. So, which view enjoys God’s blessing?

As always, our goal as Christians is to understand the Scriptures as God wants us to and to apply them in that same manner. But so far those results have led to the aforementioned division.

How can we soften this outcome without softening the doctrines from which it comes?

Truth, the Key that Unlocks Scripture
I believe the answer is to see Scripture as God seems to want us to see it, that is, through the lens of truth. God claims to be Truth itself. He claims his Word is Truth, so it seems to me that truth is the key God wants us to use to unlock Scripture.

The truth is what is.
Truth is consistent with itself and fits the known facts. In my opinion, searching the Scriptures for that consistency is the most promising way to discover God’s truth and his plan for our lives.

From our normal reading experience, we’ve learned that no one sentence contains all the information we need to know about any given subject — often no one book contains it all. The same is true for Scripture. Every doctrinal assertion in Scripture is true, but no one passage says everything we need to know about the topic. That means our first step to clear comprehension is to gather together all the New Testament assertions that appear to relate to the topic we’re investigating.
Interestingly, a concordance search of a specific word that identifies a topic does not give us all the passages pertinent to it. Many passages exist that refer to the topic’s concept and yet do not contain the word itself. So, our search needs to be for the concepts as well as for the words.

The next step is to examine the assertions. Compare and contrast. Ask the reporter’s questions: Who? What? When? Where? and Why? Since the nature of truth is not to contradict itself, like in good science or in any good crime investigation, the truth emerges when all the facts fit together into a single, harmonious big picture.

Having done that in Scripture to the best of my ability, here are some of my conclusions to date:

Scripture
God claims that his Word is without error. That was no doubt true for the original manuscripts, but modern scholarship tells us that the copies we have today are filled with small errors and inconsistencies. While that may be true, the goal of orthodox Christian scholarship has been to recover the originals using the reliable tools of rhetoric. While that is an interpretive process that has its own problems, its application over the centuries has made a remarkable case for the efficacy of the Scriptures we have today and their complete authority and authenticity. Any serious student of the Word will soon — even on his own — find what they found: The Holy Bible is totally unique among all the books ever written, and its message changes lives in ways nothing else does.

The Bible claims to be the Word of God; and reasonable people, faced with all the evidence we have, accept that notion on faith. The One True God intended the Bible to be the Christian’s primary guide for faith and practice. Its underlying truths are without error, and our understanding of them will be accurate by the degree to which the information we understand behaves like truth, easily fitting together into a single, non conflicting story.

God guided the production of the Scriptures to provide us with information he wants us to have. He is not hiding himself from anyone seeking him (Matthew 7:7-12). He is revealing himself through Scripture (John 20:30-31). That’s its purpose! Therefore it is possible for anyone to understand it, certainly to the extent God wants them to. If you can read and understand this presentation, you can read and understand Scripture. The same rhetorical rules apply.

Keep in mind that God is on our side.

He’s rooting for us.

He wants us to understand.

If you’re a seeker, go to the blog (meaning the blog on the coming website). We’ll dialog together. The mere fact that you have an interest in God could be a sign that you are among God’s elect. If you are a believer, we have a lot of work to do together. Welcome aboard.

The Divisions in Scripture
Scripture teaches specific divisions: Good and evil, truth and falsehood, Jew and Gentile, saved and unsaved, and the Old and New Covenants, the New Covenant being the body of spiritual laws under which we now live. While one can argue for other divisions and draw different doctrinal interpretations from them, they are subsets of these five, and the Bible does not teach any other divisions by name.

Paul advises Timothy to “rightly divide the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:18, KJV). We are safe adopting the divisions the Bible teaches. We are less safe adopting the divisions that others’ conclusions have impressed upon it, especially when they lead to opposing conclusions about what the Bible teaches. Not that other conclusions are necessarily wrong. We just need to be good Bereans (Acts 17:11), and test any such conclusions against the face-value assertions of Scripture. Scripture means what it says.

Salvation
God is God, and he can — and will — save anyone he wants (Note: Romans 2:12-16); but he has only staked his reputation on saving those who do what he says (Note: Matthew 7:21-23), those who SEEK (Matthew 7:7-12), TRUST (Ephesians 2:8-10), and OBEY (I John 5:3-5). In the event God fails to save any one of them (John 6:37-40), he makes himself out to be a liar (Note: Titus 1:2), and that will destroy his reputation and, indeed, his very Being.

However, following this reasoning to its extreme opens the door to liberality which, I believe, is one reason God extends his grace to us. God knows the heart of each believer, and he honors the truth of that knowledge (Galatians 6:7-8). It is not our perfect understanding of doctrine that saves us, it is God’s perfect knowledge of our hearts. Concerning salvation, the ball is always in his court (Note: Matthew 20:1-16).

A person can know he or she is saved (1) by what Christ did for them, (2) by what they did in response to God’s offer of salvation, and (3) by what they are doing now in response to Christ’s lordship.

The Believer
We can see the believer in terms of his or her Position, Process, and Purpose.
Note: I am now doing in this section what I warned you about. The New Testament teaches what follows but it does not do so under these headings. What follows is a conclusion I’ve drawn from study, organized in a way that makes sense to me and is consistent with Scripture. This is what every theologian tends to do and why you need to check our work.

Consider the Trinity. It came from the same approach to Scripture. The Bible does not specifically teach the Trinity in any one unquestioned passage nor does it even use the word, but a diligent search of the New Testament clearly supports the fact that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are One. So be cautious. Be a Berean. Check the Scriptures to see if they actually support the assertions anyone makes.

Position – This concerns the believer’s legal position before God. It takes place through faith as a result of the believers accepting God’s offer of salvation and their legally bringing themselves under God’s New Covenant. By so doing, they become a brother of Christ and an heir with him to the kingdom (Galatians 4:1-7). They also become a temple of God (I Corinthians 3:16-17), as the Holy Spirit moves from being an outside influence to becoming an indwelling presence.

The steps to salvation concern (1) understanding the gospel message (ears to hear and eyes to see), (2) public confession (the believer confirming his or her desire as witnessed by others), (3) repentance (turning away from worldly desires towards godly desires), (4) baptism (As Christ established the New Covenant through his death, burial, and resurrection — “it is finished” — so each believer ratifies that Covenant through his or her own figurative death, burial, and resurrection in baptism), and finally (5) perseverance in the faith (the believer playing his or her part maintaining Christ’s lordship for the rest of life).

Process – The New Testament calls this growth process “sanctification,” the process of growing from what a person has been into the person God wants the believer to become. It is a life-long process underscored by the believer’s perseverance in it.
As a Christian, the believer becomes a steward of his own life (Note: Matthew 7:24-27, 21-23, 25:14-30, 1-13). At the moment of belief, the believer gives his or her life to the Lord, turning it over to him, all the good stuff and all the bad; but then, just as quickly, Christ gives it back; but something has changed. The believer is no longer legally in charge of his life, Christ is; and thereafter God appears to see the believer’s life through the blood of Christ, that is, Christ’s personal sacrifice for the believer. God promises to extend unlimited grace to the believer (Note: Matthew 18:21-22) so long as the believer remains faithful (Galatians 6:7-8; Colossians 1:15-23 key verse 23). Thus, salvation appears to be a mutual agreement between God and each believer. God makes the offer; the believer accepts it.

That transaction makes Christ the Lord over the believer’s life and the believer becomes its steward under that lordship. In obedience to the Lord, the believer then becomes a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1-2). This sacrifice has two components:

1. The first concerns the believer’s sacrifice of his secular thinking on the altar of God’s truth, moving from thinking like the world to thinking like Christ. You are what you think, and God wants us to think like Christ (Philippians 4:8).

2. The second component concerns the believer’s sacrifice of his desires for himself on the altar of that which will benefit those within his sphere of influence. Christian love seeks the best for the other person (Note: Romans 13:10, 14:19; Galatians 6:9-10). Christians are in fellowship to serve one another, following Christ’s model of service to us (Note: Matthew 23:8-11). This does not mean to do harm to one’s self in the process. It does mean to build yourself up so that you may be increasingly effective in service to others (Galatians 6:10).

Purpose – Christians also have a purpose in life, and God has gifted each believer with an assortment of spiritual gifts and talents that he wants them to use in service to others in the church and also in service to themselves and their families.

In that regard, here’s my most current “heresy:”

For a long time I’ve suspected that we are living in the 6th day of Creation not the 7th. I suspect that for a variety of reasons. One of them is that most serious Christians report that God is far from at rest in their lives. Indeed, the Bible itself says that God was still at work in the first century (John 5:17), and I see him still at work today.

Here's another reason: The 6th day story that begins in Genesis 2:4 never ends. The biblical writers never draw that 6th day to a close. It’s reasonable to conclude that the 6th day comes to an end as a part of the consummation of the ages in Revelation, but not before then. There is no other place in Scripture where the biblical writers conclude the 6th day, at least I haven’t found it.

If that’s so, we are still in the 6th day. That means that, like Adam naming the animals, modern believers are playing an active role in God’s Creation. I find that exciting! We are working with God in his Creation! Our work is summarized in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Like Adam, God has blessed us with a role to play and carrying the gospel of Christ is at its core.

Peter calls Christians a “priesthood of believers” (I Peter 2:9-10, 3:15). As such, they carry the message of Christ as ambassadors (II Corinthians 5:17-21) and fragrance (II Corinthians 2:14-16). That means each believer needs to be comfortable in their faith. They need to understand it, certainly the basics; and then they need to actively apply it in their own lives. In addition, they need to be able to share it with others. They share two things, (1) the facts of Christianity which are the same for everyone and (2) what Christ’s lordship has done in their lives, their witness, which is unique to each individual.

By the way, sharing Christ is not like making a secular sales call. The believer initiates the discussion or the prospect asks a question. The believer explains and answers questions, but God makes the sale. We are not here to attempt to change minds. We are here to share what we know to the best of our abilities, and the Holy Spirit does the rest (Note: I Corinthians 1:18-2:16).

By operating in service to others, God promises that a person’s life will, in fact, get better, that is, more productive, rewarding, and satisfying (God’s plan for your success). By doing God’s will, believers enjoy more happiness at home, more success at work, and more purpose in life.

The Church
We can see the first gathering of believers in Acts 2:42-47. That first church is important to us because we see it in its purest form.

The twelve apostles were the “paid staff.” They had just gotten their training from Christ himself (Luke 24:45; John 20:30-31; Acts 1:3b). This is the only time in the New Testament in which all twelve ministered together.

Peter was presumably their leader (John 21:15-19; Acts 2:14 ). We can sense his view of the church from I Peter 2:4-10 in which he speaks of a “priesthood of believers” and a church comprised of “living stones.” The living stones remark is consistent with Romans 12:1-8, Ephesians 4:1-16, I Corinthians 12 and 13 where Paul speaks of the grace (gifts and talents) with which God blesses each believer for service in both the church body and in the individual’s personal life.

Acts 2:42 describes the church’s primary focus on teaching, fellowship, and prayer.

Teaching - I surmise that the teaching was designed to create a priesthood of believers. The foundation on which they built was the Old Testament, showing that it was the prophetic preparation for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This is exactly the information on which Peter called when he explained the pentecostal uproar to the crowd. The Old Testament was the foundation. It established the law and prophesied that a Messiah was to come. Jesus Christ, the man many in the crowd had seen or certainly knew about, was that Messiah. His resurrection proved it! The twelve then taught how God wants believers to respond to that event, what God wants us all to do in living out God’s truth in our lives today.

Fellowship - The second emphasis in that first church was fellowship, fellowship with God and fellowship with each other.

Acts 2:43-46 describes that fellowship which looks strangely like Christian Communism. The difference is that the control was not centralized. The ministries came into being from each new believer as each saw fit (or as they were being led by the Lord). The apostle Paul elaborates on the guiding principles in Romans 12:1-15:33. (They are Christian love and personal transformation.)

The “breaking of bread” remark concerns, I believe, the Lord’s Supper as Paul will later come to explain it in I Corinthians 11:23-32: The Lord’s Supper is a time in which believers remember Christ’s personal sacrifice for them that enabled their salvation. It is also a time in which believers measure how well they are doing in response to Christ’s lordship.

If the first church was anything, it was pertinent in the lives of its participants.

Prayer - The third emphasis in that first church was prayer. Effective prayer requires that believers sort out in their own minds what’s going on in their lives. They compare their desires with what the Bible says about God’s desires for them (God’s will). They meditate on Scripture. They prioritize. By their requests, they establish where in their lives they will be looking for God to act. Through prayer, an active attentiveness to God’s will, the believer continues to honor and respond to Christ’s lordship in their lives.

Christian fellowships do this same thing with respect to the life of the church and what they are coming to recognize as Christ’s vision for it. It begins in Acts 2:42-47 and blossoms throughout the rest of the New Testament, especially Romans 12:1-15:33.

Like the early churches, the modern church engages in many ministries, but at its core are teaching, fellowship, and prayer with the goal of nurturing the priesthood of believers and encouraging them to recognize and act in the gifts with which God has blessed them, gifted people serving in the areas of their giftedness.

Conclusion
Most doctrinal statements are short. They employ technical terms that are obscure to many and generally black and white in nature. As a result, they often draw battle lines between believers.

This discussion focuses on what I believe the Bible teaches about the results that come from engaging in sound doctrine. Christians will never agree on the underlying details because Scripture leaves ample room for debate. The Bible leaves much of Christian doctrine — exactly how it works — in God’s hands, where it belongs. After all, it’s his doctrine, his Master Plan for the Creation; but the Bible is considerably more clear on what God wants us to do as a result (Note: Romans 12:1-15:33; Ephesians 4:17-6:20; Colossians 3:1-4:1; Titus 2:1-3:11; Hebrews 10:19-12:29; James 1:2-5:20; I Peter 2:1-5:11; I John 1:1-5:21). Practically speaking and while I have opinions on doctrine, I choose to focus on God’s will for us. God promises to do his stuff, and he has left us plenty of room in which to do ours. This life is about that: The Great Commission. Reach ‘em and teach ‘em, doing God’s will for the Day is near.

Peace^

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Believers, What do they look like?

The first church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:42-47) concentrated on three issues: Teaching, Fellowship, and Prayer. That appears to be the biblical place to start for anyone establishing a Christian church. One question that comes to mind is what did that first church teach? The answer comes in looking at what they were trying to accomplish.

Their first assignment is the Great Commission first given to the apostles: “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me [Christ]. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That instruction endowed each apostle, individually, into Christian ministry. Each had a role to play. I’ve concluded that, by the same token, the Great Commission also endows each believer with the same responsibility for carrying the gospel message and teaching believers “to obey everything” Christ commanded.

With that individual perspective in mind, consider this promise from Christ: “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them” (Matthew 18:20). That confirms that Christ himself is committed to even the smallest of relationships between people, intimate person-to-person ministries.

And then consider this remark from Peter: “But you [all Christians] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (I Peter 2:9). Together with the Great Commission, this “royal priesthood” remark suggests that God has endowed each believer with priestly responsibilities. Again, we’re seeing a one-on-one, person-to-person calling.

And then consider this from Paul: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (II Corinthians 5:20a) and “For we are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life” (II Corinthians 2:15-16). Again, believers as individuals are in view.

From this it’s reasonable to conclude that one-on-one ministry lies at the core of Christ’s Great Commission. Christ intends each individual believer to minister to others, as an ambassador for him Christ and as fragrance, an example to be followed (Note: Philippians 3:17-4:1; II Thessalonians 3:6-10 key verse 7a; I Timothy 1:15-17; Titus 2:7-8; I Peter 2:21). I see all this as meaning the task of carrying the gospel is not the solely for those specially called to it. It is fundamental to every believer and the central part of their personal ministry.

Paul also advises new believers to remain in their present place in life (I Corinthians 7:17-24). This suggests that a new believer’s personal ministry is to those within the immediate sphere of influence within which he finds himself as a new Christian.

Thus, a fundamental goal in the educational program of the first church was to teach people to teach people, to teach people to duplicate their Christian faith. That suggests that all believers (1) need to understand the basics of their faith, (2) They need to be applying that faith to their own lives, and (3) they need to be comfortable sharing their faith with others.

Christ had already established the pattern. He taught the apostles and sent them out to teach others (Matthew 10:5-20). Following the ascension and Pentecost, the apostles presumably taught others, a group of some 120 (Acts 1:15b); and we can, in Paul’s ministry, see how that pattern spread to the extent that ultimately Christianity “overturned” the Roman world—one believer at a time.

So, what does this ministering believer look like?

I see him as operating in Position, Process, and Purpose.

Position (Justification)
Position concerns one’s legal rights before God. Initially, he’s saved or unsaved.

When a believer is saved, he has acknowledged the New Covenant and played his part in aligning himself with it. God promised to do things for the believer and the believer promised to do things for God.

One’s formal Christian walk begins with salvation which itself begins at the moment of belief (Note: Ephesians 1:13-14; II Corinthians 1:21-22).

Prior to salvation, it’s as if the individual was wearing a sweatshirt with the inscription “Property of Satan.” Following the moment of belief, God changed the inscription to “Property of God.” The biblical term for this is justification. A believer is an heir with Christ (Galatians 4:1-7) and a temple of God, a place in which God lives through his Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 3:16-17).

Process (Sanctification)
The New Testament also treats salvation as the process of “being saved” (I Corinthians 1:18; II Corinthians 2:15-16; I Peter 1:9; II Peter 1:10-11; Philippians 2:12-13). It marks the journey from thinking and behaving like the world to thinking and behaving like Christ.

Paul describes the process as a transformation. “Therefore, I urge you brothers, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship. 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 12:1-2).

This process is a partnership between the believer and God’s Holy Spirit (Note: I Corinthians 1:18-2:16). The believer devotes himself to Scripture and the Holy Spirit reveals God’s will through the sense of it. As the believer acts under Christ’s lordship, he or she sees the difference that living in Christ makes in their life. Through that experience, the believer “tests and approves” that God’s way of doing things produces better results than man’s way of doing things (God’s plan for our success).

Purpose
Purpose concerns one reason for our existence. Believers are ambassadors and fragrance. As ambassadors they carry God’s message to the folks within their spheres of influence. As fragrance they illustrate the truths of God through how they live. (One’s fragrance is often more potent than the facts they carry as ambassadors.)

As ambassadors and fragrance they are among the priesthood of believers.

Believers are also living stones (I Peter 2:4-5). I believe this relates to the special callings and gifts God has placed on his kids (Note: Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 4:1-16; I Corinthians 12 & 13). As a believer becomes attentive to his callings and gifts, he or she also begins to understand their purpose in life. Something is a calling or gift when (1) you love doing it, (2) you do it well, and (3) when others recognize that you do it well.

Every good church is filled with priests but God has also blessed each priest with unique burdens, callings, and gifts. Each church is different because of the nature of these callings and gifts, and yet each church is the same concerning its priestly message.

Thus, I have concluded that the key teaching role of the church is to duplicate believers, to encourage each participant (1) to understand the message, (2) to apply it to their lives, and (3) to comfortably share it with others. Based on the New Testament message, that appears to have been the focus of the first church and I believe that’s what Christ wants for our focus today.

Friday, May 22, 2009

How To Find A Good Church

While I suspect it could be valid, I don’t suggest The Internet Church replace any brick-and-mortar church.

I see The Internet Church as an adjunct resource, a 24/7 source to build individuals and encourage their personal ministry and outreach. It will also minister to those seekers and believers who have been screwed over by the traditional church. Lots of believers have been soured by their church experience. Hopefully, The Internet Church can be a safe place for them to heal, reset, and launch again.

I think these are the qualities to look for in a church:

A church is not good because of its denomination, location (although closer is better than farther), size, the music it plays, the time of services, the garb of its clergy, or the character of its Sunday presentation. A church is good when...

When the Bible is its book and Christ is its Lord. When the Bible trumps every other document, the church is likely to be good.

When the church is transparent about the money. A good church will be openly accountable about where the money goes.

When the church is growing numerically. Numerical growth growth alone is not a determinant, but numerical growth along with the other qualities indicates that the church is actively connecting with people. By the way, that growth should be coming as much from new believers (maybe more) than it is from incorporating Christians from existing churches.

When you find a friendly, open atmosphere. Love is a sign of Christianity. Christian love seeks the best for others. You begin seeing it in the tone of the Sunday morning atmosphere.

When its leaders are accessible.

When the church offers you clear opportunities for spiritual growth beyond the Sunday services.

If you’re looking for the perfect church, you will never find it because while Christ is the head of good churches (the Holy Spirit speaking through Scripture to humble and gifted leaders), the people who carry out his wishes are human beings. They are called to the work but, like all of us, they are prone to failures of one kind or another. The leaders in good churches are doing their best. They correct themselves. They grow spiritually. They study. They listen to those around them. They are open to righteous change. They are concerned about your spiritual well-being, and they are actively reaching out to the lost.

Litmus Tests for Biblical Interpretation

NOTE: When you see (MMM) as a biblical reference, it means I know there are passages supporting or illustrating the point, but I haven’t stopped to find them. Please blog any passages you might cite. Thanks.


The idea of biblical “interpretation” is wrong by its very nature.

Our first task is not to determine what a passage “means to us,” which is how so many approach Scripture. Our initial goal is to understand what the original author had in his mind when he wrote. Once we understand that, then our task is to determine how that information impacts us in our circumstances and in this culture. Interpretation takes place then.

Our goal is to do what God wants. We can’t know what that is until we have in our minds when we’re thorough investigating what the inspired writers had in theirs when they wrote.

Understand.

Then interpret and apply.

With that in mind, let’s consider some quick litmus tests to help readers better understand and interpret Scripture.

Scripture’s Main Theme
Jesus Christ, and through him God’s offer of salvation, is Scripture’s central theme, beginning with God’s curse in Genesis (Genesis 3:13-15) and ending with Revelation’s end-times events.

The Bible presents the sin problem which mankind brought on itself and God’s plan to save mankind from its death-dealing consequences (Note: John 17:20-26). God could not offer mankind the hope of salvation unless Jesus Christ was both fully man, the Second Adam (MMM, Note: I John 4:1-3), and fully God (MMM). Interpretations inconsistent with this are likely incorrect.

Three other recurring themes dominate the New Testament. They are truth, love, and transformation. Interpretations inconsistent with them are also likely to be incorrect.

Truth
Since God is truth and the Holy Bible claims to be the Word of Truth (MMM), God’s Word, the nature of truth itself becomes the key that unlocks Scripture.

Truth is always consistent with itself. As a result, any understanding of Scripture has to be entirely consistent with all the face-value (obvious) assertions made elsewhere in Scripture, especially in the New Testament since it deals with the God’s New Covenant under which was all mankind lives today.

Any interpretation of Scripture that is at odds with the plain assertions of the New Testament is likely to be wrong.

Love
Christian love seeks the best for the other person. You can see that in action when you read about Christ’s ministry and Paul’s reasoning behind his priorities in ministry. You also can see it in God’s instructions to believers. He seeks their best long-term interests.

When a believer obeys God’s instructions, that obedience will guide the believer away from behaviors that will harm him and toward behaviors that will help him be safe. That’s true love, looking out for another’s safety. That illustrates God’s love for us. What first looks like oppressive, fun-killing demands are actually God’s loving guidelines to help us enjoy more satisfying and peaceful lives.

The earlier in life a person begins following God’s lead, the less garbage they have to deal with later on, the greater their life potential. That’s why working with kids is so important. The earlier we can help them on the safe path the better.

This love is also reciprocal because Scripture identifies man’s obedience to God as his love for Him (II John 6; I John 5:2-21 key verse 3-4). By the same token, the New Testament teaches that our love for others seeks the best for them (Acts 2:43-46; I John3:16-20. Note: I John 4:7-21). Love among Christians implies an attitude of humble servanthood among them (MMM).

Any application of a Bible interpretation that results in harm to another is likely wrong.

Transformation
The biblical term for this transformation is sanctification. It is the process of moving from thinking like the world to thinking like God.

Paul talks about it in Romans 12:1-2. It’s a lifelong process, and the direction in which one moves (toward or away from Christ, Note: James 4:7-8) is a test. Any interpretation that does not support the importance of growing in Christ is likely to be wrong.

Many New Testament passages talk about “being saved.” Salvation has a specific beginning, a point in time from our perspective before which one is not saved and after which they are. But the New Testament also treats salvation as a process (MMM).

The trials and troubles we face play a role in that, testing for us the validity of our salvation, our ongoing relationship with Christ. Our salvation becomes sure at the judgment when it actually takes place. Up until then, our ultimate salvation is only a hope and a goal.

NOTE: A person can know they are saved because of (1) what Christ did on the cross, (2) what they did in response to Christ’s sacrifice, and (3) what they are doing now, doing their level best to obey God’s instructions and persevering in the process.

NOTE: Salvation and the issues surrounding it are controversial among Christians because it is, after all, the point of this life, why God made the Creation this way. Before salvation we belonged to Satan. By accepting God’s salvation offer, we reject Satan and all he stands for, overtly becoming his enemy. That’s why I suspect Satan gets involved in salvation. Satan muddies the water and raises the emotional level, not wanting folks to be legally correct before the Lord. Salvation is on my list of things for us to discuss. Stay tuned.

Chucky Baby’s First Law
This was the first litmus test I offered years ago when I was doing Bible study workshops: “Any interpretation of Scripture that flies in the face of the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40), the New Commandment (John 13:34), or the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is likely to be wrong.”

WARNING: All of the tests above are questionable by the extent to which their application invites investigators to arrive at conclusions inconsistent with the plain assertions of Scripture. I offer them here as useful guidelines, especially for folks just getting serious about Bible study. Except for the role of Christ, none of these tests are directly taught in Scripture. They are conclusions to which I have come based upon what is directly taught in Scripture. As you study, be a Berean (Acts 17:11), check them out for yourself.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Safe Harbor accountability groups

The challenge is to discover how to use the Internet for worthwhile fellowship activities. I created Safe Harbor years ago as a means of doing this in brick-and-mortar (B&M) churches. If the sermons and Bible classes are the lectures, Safe Harbor is the lab class where participants "do the stuff." "Wherever two or more are gathered" etc.

Safe Harbors are three- to four-person accountability groups--men with men; women with women--who contract to minister to each other according to the terms of the contract. You can't be in the group unless you agree to ALL the terms.

I think this strategy could work on the Internet providing each group had access to a secure chat room. Emails could handle it, too, though it wouldn't be live. I don't have enough skills concerning the Internet options available. Here's the contract:

Safe Harbor Contract

Item #1 – Security
I realize that sensitive information is shared in Safe Harbor. I also know that Satan uses rumors, criticism, and contentiousness as weapons against God’s people. Therefore, I agree never to divulge the personal information shared in Safe Harbor.

Item #2 – Confession & Forgiveness
I realize that unresolved issues between me and others hinder my prayers and thus their effectiveness in Safe Harbor. Therefore, if I have anything against anyone, I will do my part to resolve it.

Item #3 – Responsibility
I realize that my Safe Harbor is my responsibility. I also realize that my Safe Harbor is a key ingredient in my personal ministry to others. Therefore, I will do my part to show up on time and keep my Safe Harbor going; and I will take the lead, when necessary, in order to preserve it.

Item #4 – Building Brothers & Sisters
I realize that one of my jobs in Christ is to build my brothers and sisters. I also know that Satan uses negativism and unhealthy criticism in his attempts to destroy us. Therefore, I pledge to always look to the positive and minimize the negative. I pledge to speak the truth in love but never as an excuse to harm another. I will keep rumors to myself. I will make suggestions or carry my concerns only to the person charged by God to act on them.

Item #5 – Personal Goals
God wants me to leave my past and future in his hands. That means he wants me to focus my creation where he has given me dominion, in this present moment. Therefore, I plan to take control over God’s gift of this moment and become a good steward of it. Mindful of my spiritual gifts and talents, I will set my goals to become all God wants me to be. I will set goals that will help me develop my skills and talents, and help me realize my dreams. I agree to share some of these goals with my companions in Safe Harbor and to enlist their prayer support for them. I agree to be accountable to them, and I also agree to encourage them in achieving their goals.

Item #6 – Prayer
I realize that by bathing my life in prayer, I invite God to play an intimate role in everything I do. Therefore, I agree to pray daily for my companions in Safe Harbor.

Item #7 – Bible Study
I realize that God promises faith, peace, wisdom, victory, prosperity, and success to those who dwell in his word and apply what it says. I also realize that my Bible reading and study facilitates the Holy Spirit’s personal ministry to me. Therefore, I agree to read and study my Bible regularly.

Item #8 – When I Fail or Succeed
I realize that all of us in Safe Harbor will never fail if we never do anything. That means if we do something, we risk failure. Therefore, I give my companions in Safe Harbor permission to fail. I also give them permission to succeed as well as to change their goals as experience proves necessary.


Name:
Phone:
Best times to call:

Name:
Phone:
Best times to call:

What do you think? Will this translate to an Internet setting? In a B&M church, each group lasts for 13 weeks and then new groups are formed. This helps to build cohesive care in the church body among those participating. The Internet ground rules would probably be different.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Big Questions

Here are some of the Big Questions for which I have found reasonable answers. By the way, if God is truth then no question is off the table. We can ask anything. We may not get direct answers, but he’s God and we’re not. Some of my answers are straight out of Scripture. Others are my conclusions drawn from what Scripture does say. In every case, the answer I suggest is fully consistent with all the face-value assertions in Scripture.

If God is all-knowing and wants us to have sound doctrine, why did he reveal himself in a book that he knew so many people would misconstrue?

If God only does perfect things, why did he create this world so filled with evil and destruction?

If all believers have the Holy Spirit and one of the Spirit’s roles is to guide men into all truth, why don’t all Christians agree about doctrine?

If God exists and really loves us, why doesn’t he come out from behind that cloud and make himself undeniably known?

If this world is the best way for God to achieve what he wants, what does he want?

In his last recorded prayer, Christ prayed for a unity among believers that would show the world that God loves it just as much as he loves Christ (John 17:20-26). Why hasn’t God answered his own Son’s prayer?

If there are almost as many interpretations of Scripture as there are people reading it, how can we know which interpretation is accurate?

If God wants believers to have sound doctrine, will only the A-students be saved?

There you have it, some of the Big Questions that have driven my studies. Blog any of the questions you have. The Bible has good answers.

Bias Misleads

It’s important for you to understand about bias because it’s one reason why the stuff I write on this blog and in God’s Plan for Your Success (GPS) Basic Training is different from much of what is seen in the Christian universe. I explained in the “How are we to understand Scripture?” that I believe truth is the key that opens the Scriptures to us. The truth is consistent with itself. Therefore one’s understanding is accurate by the extent to which that understanding is consistent with the face-value assertions of Scripture.

For example, Calvinists tell us that the “all” in Paul’s remark, “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:3-4) doesn’t mean all mankind, just all of God’s elect, the people God chose to be saved before the beginning of time (Ephesians 1:3-14). They say this because of their doctrinal conclusions. But many other equally well-educated theologians have concluded that the “all” does embrace all mankind. They do that because that interpretation is consistent with their doctrine. My question: Who’s right? Could both be wrong? Could both be right?

My goal is accurate understanding, and I’m still working to achieve it. My focus has been on practical Christianity, “What’s going on here, and what do you want me to do next, Lord?” I’m not out to protect my turf. I’m out to accurately understand God’s turf, but for lots of scholars I suspect something else is going on. I’ve termed it “academic shift” and believe me when I admit that I’ve felt it personally.

Once a person thinks he has a handle on what the Bible says and means, their goal shifts from discovering the truth to defending their conclusions about it. The shift is subtle but extremely important because their goal has changed. No longer are they in submission to Scripture, but they are in submission to their interpretation of Scripture. Thereafter their time is spent defending their conclusion, not more completely understanding the Scriptures. They begin to see the Scriptures as colored by their bias. Depending on their attitudes, the net result is serious division among Christians more concerned with defending their positions than entertaining the Big Questions and more completely understanding their faith.

For this reason my GPS Basic Training materials are different. They are open, clear, and non judgmental. When I find my conclusions biblically questionable or incorrect, I change them and reflect it in my writing. So, while I know enough now to know that I’m not misleading my students, I also know I’ve got lots more to learn; and that means changing my mind when I’m wrong. Admittedly, life is easier when you know it all like most doctors and preachers, but it’s wiser when you’re in full submission to Scripture and open to the changes maturing in it may bring.

Bible Study - Seeking the Truth

With every question I had, my second mentor, Robert A. Lillie (Cincinnati Bible Seminary), began with, “Let’s see what the Word says.” For him, the Bible was the final authority. It was the measure against which one could measure anything. As I began my first serious pass through the New Testament, I found the same themes recurring. It made sense to capture those themes and compare what the various passages said about them.

After several attempts at a card file to contain the information, I finally chose a three-ring loose-leaf notebook with alphabetical dividers. Since I wanted to know it all, I followed every theme and idea I found. Not knowing any of the fancy Christian words for things, I identified each idea with the word or phrase that best described it for me.

As I worked on, I realized that Christ and the apostles were teaching from the same body of truth. That defined my goal, to discover the body of truth from which Christ and the apostles taught. I called it “The Apostles’ Truth.” After more than twenty passes through the New Testament and amassing seven three-inch binders of results, I figured I was ready for Bible college.

One other thing: Because my goal was accuracy, I spent all that time working hard NOT to draw conclusions, even the obvious ones. I wanted all the facts before me before I began figuring out what they meant. My allegiance was to the Word, not to any mentor, denomination, or books about the Word. I was then, and remain today, in full submission to the Word. I go where it leads (after I deal with my characteristic stubbornness).

After Bible college (where I discovered how much I didn’t know) I went to work trying to reduce the biblical message to its basics so it could easily be shared with others. My goal was to transplant the Bible college experience into the churches. I knew it was a daunting task, but I figured I could do it in a couple of years. (It’s taken 40, but that’s me. I’m a slow worker.) More than that, my goal remained accuracy in both understanding the message and then in its practical application. On the Day of Judgment I wanted God to at least be able to say, “Nice try, Chuck.”

My first task was to get the Christian message right. With over 200 different sects and denominations roaming the American landscape, lots of opinions demanded attention. Which were accurate? Which were not? So, in the midst of the muddy Christian waters, the doctrinal jungle, where was the safe place to start? I believe my answer to that question makes my results at least worth your consideration.

Realizing that one’s rules of biblical interpretation colored the interpretation, I wanted to find the best rules, God’s rules, if you will. Supported mostly by my friend, Gary Cleaveland, I spend a year and a half studying about Bible study. I went back three generations of Bible scholars trying to discover the safe ground on which to make my stand. Finally I found a book called How To Read A Book. It was written by Mortimer Adler (general editor of Encyclopedia Britannica) and Mark VanDoren (the guy who cheated on that TV quiz show). (I think it was Mark. I've since misplaced the book.) Both were well-known secular scholars and neither had a Christian bias to defend. That was important because many of the Christian books on Bible study championed rules that lead readers to draw a specific doctrinal conclusion, not necessarily God’s.

My favorite bad rule is this one: “The book of Acts is a transitional book and therefore one is unwise to base doctrine on it.”

Acts is transitional in that it documents the transition from the Old Testament to the New, from Jehovah to Christ, from the Law to Grace.

While it seems reasonable to hold that view, the Bible itself makes no such claim. Every book in the Bible, even Philemon, carries the same weight. They are all equally authoritative.

The only doctrinal distinction Scripture makes is the fact that we are now living under the New Covenant. That means the New Testament governs but it does not thereby lessen the authority of the Old Testament. The universal truths that underscore the Old Testament are the same as those that underscore the New. Weakening the authority of the Acts influences at least two controversial Christian doctrines, the role of baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit.

In any event, the How-To-Read-A-Book rules are free of Christian denominational influences. Here are some of the rules that book champions:

The goal of interpretation is to have in your mind when you’re through reading what the original writer had in his when he wrote.

The author can never mean what he never intended to mean. (Although we need to keep in mind that the Bible has two authors, God via the Holy Spirit and the individual human writers.)

One is wiser to understand a piece of writing in the context in which it was written.

One is wiser to understand a piece of writing in terms of the genre in which its author chose to present it.

When you boil down all their rules you get this: “If you can read and understand the newspaper, you can read and understand the Bible.” In Christian terms, the Bible is accessible to anyone wanting to understand it, and that appears consistent with God’s desire for it.

God didn’t give us the Bible so we couldn’t understand it. He gave it to us so we could know the truth, knowing that the truth would set us free. While the Bible is intellectually challenging at many levels—and does in fact contain and allude to various mysteries—its basic message is easily comprehended by those wanting to comprehend it. (Although for some it may take 40 years.)

Monday, May 18, 2009

My Credentials

It’s important to know who’s the founder here. What are the TheologyFreak’s credentials? Is he worth listening to? How can you measure the value of what he says?

I have a BA in marketing and advertising from Northeastern University in Boston (secular). I have a Masters in communication from Regis University (a Catholic university here in Denver). I have a Bachelors Degree in Christian ministry from Colorado Christian University (Lakewood, Colorado), a Calvinist institution. I have been ordained in the Christian church (Restoration churches and churches of Christ, your friendly neighborhood freewill folks). But those are all pieces of paper, plaques on a wall, authentication from various human institutions, not necessarily authentication from the Lord.

What about the real TheologyFreak? Who is he?

More important than any formal degrees is my calling from Christ, my burdens in him.

My first calling was at age four when I first heard about God in the 1938 hurricane that devastated coastal New England. My mom said it was an act of God. If God was about that kind of devastation, I wanted him on my side. Ever since then I’ve been searching for the truth about him. Finally, at age 40 (1974), I asked Christ into my life. I’ve been studying Scripture ever since

I have the gift of skepticism. I don’t believe something just because some authority figure says it’s so. I believe it when the generally acknowledged facts appear to make the case.

A good part of my life has been about seeking the truth. Truth is my God, and wherever the truth leads, I will follow, often with protests and stubbornness, but eventually in humility and submission.

The first passage that tore me up was John 17:20-26 in which Christ prays for a visible unity among believers. My first Big Question then was “where’s the unity?” Why would God not answer his own son’s prayer for unity, especially when a visible unity played such an important role in the evangelical message?

1. My first burden was for Christian education. Sitting in my systematic theology class at Colorado Christian College, I asked myself why all this wonderful information wasn’t easily available at my church. Someone was screwing up. That gave birth to what eventually became God’s Plan for Your Success (GPS) Basic Training.

2. Nearly 15 years later, my next burden grew to include struggling churches. Why do churches struggle? What are they missing? What are they doing wrong? Why is Christ not blessing them? Up until then, my only experience had been with small, struggling churches. I searched the Scriptures and came up which what I believe is Christ’s answer. Churches struggle because they have lost their first love, their focus on Christ and his mission. Do the job and you will grow. The role of Christ’s church is to teach people to teach people. Build believers in the Lord and then encourage those believers to duplicate and build others. Pass it on like Christ did to the apostles and as the apostles did to others.

3. Then my burdens grew to include the folks who had been screwed over by the organized church. In my case, they were folks I knew and who had been instrumental in my coming to the Lord. They were good folks who, with the church under a new preacher, suddenly realized they were at odds with what the church was becoming. The new preacher felt relieved as the last of the "old guard" left the church, not that some of them didn't have their problems. But good people in pain and tears leaving the church is never a good thing. Too often Christians forget what Christians are supposed to be.

4. Finally, my burden grew to the lost at large, and that’s where I am now as I compose these words: Christian education, struggling churches, folks the church has hurt, and the lost at large, people who don’t understand that the God they know may not be the God that is.

My original goal for this post was to explain my method of biblical interpretation but this is what came of it. What method of biblical interpretation does God want us to use? Stay tuned.

The Biblical Church Part III

I see Acts 2:42-47 defining the biblical church.

Acts 2:42 explains its focus. Verses 43-46 offer an example of the fellowship. And verse 47 shows the results, “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

I think Acts 2:42-47 is Christ’s instruction for all churches, but let’s consider it in terms of the Internet. My first insight of the day is the word “daily” in verse 47. Christ’s church is not just a Sunday thing. It’s a take up your cross “daily” thing.

Waking up each morning is a kind of resurrection, a fresh start. Believers enjoy God’s grace and forgiveness. That’s all part of the “fresh start.” The Internet is ideal for that, a great place for encouragement, fresh starts, and a daily check in.

Acts 2:42 focuses the church’s activities. The focus is teaching, fellowship, and prayer, all tempered by the Lord’s Supper. (Because “they broke bread in their homes and ate together” is mentioned later, I think this verse 42 reference concerns the Lord’s Supper. When you consider Paul’s explanation in I Corinthians 11:23-32, the Lord’s Supper plays an important role in a believer’s relationship with Christ, remembering Christ’s sacrifice and measuring the state of one’s walk.)

All three activities are clearly Internet friendly. So, while the Internet is not a physically face-to-face environment, it’s clearly a mind-to-mind environment; and that’s a spiritual thing. Thoughts are spirit. While having a “church supper” would be tough to do on the Internet (I’ll bring the chocolate cake), fellowshipping together is a snap. I’ll bet that’s why the Lord invented chat rooms. (I wonder how you do that on a blog?)

The challenge of the Internet church, to me, is exciting. It’s also sobering. I’m just one guy fortified by my biases and suffering from my weaknesses. As I present myself as a teacher, I’m also accepting the awesome responsibility of getting it right, not just the facts alone but the loving balance of guiding folks in applying those facts. (And I know so little and struggle so much.)

In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) I originally related to the man who hid his talents. That way, I reasoned, I would not risk loosing the Lord’s currency; but, of course, in reading the parable more closely, burying the talents is the worse thing one can do. So, after 40 years of trying to figure out why God made the world this way and not some other and trying to understand my silly little place in it, I’m getting after it with this blog and the website to come.

But you’re part of it, too, because Christianity is not a spectator sport. The biblical church is a team ministering together, each participant buttressing the other (Ephesians 4:1-16; Romans 12:1-8; I Corinthians 12 & 13; I Peter 2:4-12). I’m trying to find a church in Denver willing to let me run with this ball. The biblical church looks good to me on paper, but the proof is in the pudding. Maybe the pudding for me is the Internet. After all, the fields there are ripe for harvest, too.

Questions to come: What did they teach in that first church? What kind of a person were they trying to urge into being? What are we to learn from Acts 2:43-46? Isn’t that Christian Communism? (That’s what I thought for years.) And why did God choose to reveal himself in a book that he knew so many people would misconstrue? (If God wants sound doctrine, will only the A-students be saved?)

There’s lots of engaging stuff to come, some challenging stuff, too. (Lots of learning for me, as well.) Your reactions and insights are critical because we’re all in this together.

The Biblical Church, Part II

Acts 2:42-47 presents the model church. It is unique among Christian churches. Indeed, it was one of a kind.

First of all, the Acts 2:42-47 church is the first church ever. But its “firstness” is less important for us than the acts of the folks who guided it.

This was the only time in the New Testament in which all 12 apostles ministered as a team. That team was important because Christ had just taught them what he wanted for his church (Luke 24:45-49. Note: Acts 1:1-11). That suggests that what they did in Jerusalem is Christ’s model for us today, in our case, The Internet Church. In addition, Christ ordained Peter to be the apostles’ leader (John 21:15-20). That suggests that Peter’s philosophy for the church is important for us to consider as we organize our church. What was his philosophy?

We find it in I Peter 2:4-12. He focuses there on two issues: the “living stones” and the “priesthood of believers.” Both are essential building blocks for Christ’s church and our Internet Church as well.

Judging from the rest of the New Testament, I have concluded that the “living stones” remark concerns gifted people serving in the areas of their giftedness. Paul fleshes this out in Ephesians 4:1-16, Romans 12:1-8, and I Corinthians 12 & 13. In other words, God has graced each believer with a variety of spiritual gifts (graces) that he wants them to use in improving their own lives and in ministering to the Christian body to which they belong (the church). That is one way in which Christ shapes each church. He shapes it through the gifts he has given its people. That means no two churches will necessarily be the same.

But each church will be similar because of the doctrine it proclaims. The “priesthood of believers” remark concerns the fact that each believer has a personal ministry, not one that comes from God’s unique grace to each believer, but one that comes from sharing the gospel of Christ. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) applies not just to the church but to each believer individually. Each believer has a mandate from God to spread the gospel message and to minister to those within his or her spheres of influence (Note: I Corinthians 7:24). Each believer is an ambassador from God (II Corinthians 5:16-21) and a living illustration of God’s plan for man (II Corinthians 2:14-17).

So that becomes our initial model. That’s what I bring to this endeavor. But your contribution is vital. Your insights need to be examined and considered. I only know what I know, and I don’t know it all. But together we can build a great church.

The Biblical Church, Part I

Every Christian church is supposed to be a biblical church, founded on Christ and Scripture; but while most modern churches aim for biblical accuracy, they are also profoundly influenced by (1) their denominational heritages, (2) the men and women who govern each local congregation, (3) the needs of their people, and (4) the culture in which they find themselves. If every modern church suffers from this, where can we find the pure church, the church that Christ himself endorses, the biblical church, the model church?

Not surprisingly we find it in the New Testament. But wait! The New Testament epistles are generally written to churches with problems. We can interpolate Christ’s model by examining their problems, but does the New Testament anywhere depict the perfect church, the fresh church, the model for any church, and in our case, The Internet Church?

We see that church, in two places:

Its first occurrence is in Acts 2:42-47, the first church. More on that in my next post. Its second occurrence is in Christ’s letters to the churches in Revelation.

Of the seven churches Christ addresses there, only Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11) escapes his criticism. His criticism of the other six concern either false doctrine or accurate doctrine inaccurately applied. This is not the only place in which the New Testament stresses the need for sound doctrine. I conclude from this that the church Christ wants teaches sound doctrine and urges its people to understand what it is and apply it in their lives.

All we can construe from the church at Smyrna is that it was about to experience a world of hurt. Christ urges its congregants to be faithful. If they are, they will overcome their trials and prove themselves in the process. This faithfulness to God (Christ) is a common theme in Scripture, faithfulness to Christ in spite of what you see going on around you. Peter tells us that this perseverance is a test of faith (I Peter 1:3-9 key verse 7. Note: James 5:7-11; Hebrews 10:19-39; James 1:13-18), not for God’s benefit because he already knows the truth about each of our benefit, but for us so we can know our faith is pure.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Biblical versus the Traditional Church

Over some 2,000 years of denominational turmoil and cultural stress, the modern institutional (traditional) church has evolved into some 200 different Christian sects and denominations in the United States alone. The state of the modern church has little to do with answering Christ’s first-century prayer for a witnessing unity in John 17:20-26. The unity for which Christ prayed then is one that shows the world that God loves it with the save fervor with which he loves Christ. But that witnessing unity is clearly not what’s going on, and it prompts my Big Question: After 2,000 years, why hasn’t God answered his own Son’s prayer?

I believe the answer lies in the fact that God allows even the best of his people to “do their own thing” even when their “own thing” mediates against God’s will (Note: Romans 1:18-32). In other words, for some reason (to be developed in later posts), God allows us to fail at even the things he wants.

Too many modern churches have obviously missed the mark. Studies show that most pew Christians are biblically illiterate. In his book, "Boiling Point", Christian statistician George Barna talks about the current state of Christian education: “Our studies show that few churches use their teaching times to intentionally and relentlessly communicate a coherent and cohesive world view in a systematic fashion. [The teaching] tends to be random in its context and delivery.”

Thus, I conclude, the traditional church, the cultural church most believers have experienced today, is not necessarily the church Christ had in mind in the beginning. Christ wants the biblical church to be consistent with the New Testament model.

My goal with The Internet Church is to found such a church, a biblical church; and judging from Scripture (Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 4:1-16; I Corinthians 12 & 13; I Peter 2:4-12) you—yes, you—have an important role to play in that establishment. You’re not here now reading these words without reason. You’re here because you have an important role to play in the unfolding of this Internet-wide ministry. As a skeptic or a believer, you have a card to play and many joys to receive as a result.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

How are We Supposed to Understand Scripture?

There are nearly as many interpretations of Scripture as there are people reading it. Since Scripture instructs believers to have “sound doctrine,” how can serious seekers discover what sound doctrine is?

I have concluded that the answer is found in the nature of truth. God claims to be Truth. The Bible claims to be His Word. It also claims to be Truth. If that is true, then it is reasonable to conclude that the nature of truth itself is the key that unlocks Scripture. So, what is Truth?

Philosophers tell us that Truth has two qualities: The first is that the Truth is totally consistent with itself. The second quality is that Truth is consistent with all the known facts. That means that when what we understand Scripture to say—its underlying and guiding principles—does not contradict any face-value (obvious) assertion of Scripture, our understanding is likely to be accurate.

That is the hermeneutic (method of understanding) I use to understand Scripture.

Thus, our task here is not to interpret Scripture. It is first to understand it. Then it is to see how that understanding applies to our lives in this postmodern culture. Concerning The Internet Church, it is to see how Christ’s model church can operate in today’s Internet culture. In that I seek your input. I want to hear anything you feel important to say.

Where the Money Goes

Isn’t it interesting? The first thing that came to mind when considering The Internet Church was the money. Hmmm. Well, it’s pretty superfluous now because there is no money. Well, there’s mine. That is, I’m footing whatever bills there are. So, I guess there’s my money.

Everything at The Internet Church is up for grabs now because what actually happens will be up to Christ and the gifted people he gathers here (For an explanation, read the last four passages I cite in the “Hello” post.) Right now our business structure is like a kid on a street corner with a Bible and pocket change. On Twitter he’s TheologyFreak. One way of seeking funds is to affiliate with folks like Amazon and urge people to make their purchases there through the TIC website. Income would come from the commissions on sales. For a while, that will be it. There are other ways on the Internet, but that’s not my strength.

Our use of the funds policy comes from I Timothy 5:18b drawing from Deuteronomy 25:4, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” This storefront is one thing, but to do The Internet Church right will take sharp skills on the Internet, webmasters and strategists. That will take funds, but all that’s in the future. And it’s biblically appropriate to pay the bills. As for donations, that’s for a Finance Team to consider, and that’s way in the future.

For now our task is to set the stage and gather the organizing folks. More importantly, it’s to be clear on what the N.T. says about the church Christ wants and then to translate that into The Internet Church.

Hello

Welcome to the storefront of The Internet Church. The name is a bit imposing because after a Twitter search I see lots of Internet church things going on. (I've never been first at anything.) This certainly isn't the first Internet church, nor is it the most important. It's just one of many. It's only official to the extent that what we do together is entirely consistent with Christian Scripture, especially the New Testament.

Just like the first century Roman culture was the environment in which Christ's apostles established the first church, so the Internet is the culture in which we establish The Internet Church. You can read about Christ's vision for it in Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:1-47 key verses 42-47; Ephesians 4:1-16; Romans 12:1-8; I Corinthians 12 & 13; I Peter 2:4-12.