Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow

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The Culture

Over the last week or so, I’ve tweeted about several stories regarding proposed or approved concessions that the “main line” denominations would make to the prevailing culture. For example is this one:

As Rev. Emily Heath writes in that article:

For Christians in the mainline Protestant denominations, this has been an interesting summer. First, the Presbyterian Church (USA) rejected an amendment that would have opened the church up to blessing same-sex marriages. Then, less than a week later, the Episcopal Church approved a new liturgy to bless same-sex unions and also affirmed the ministry of transgender clergy.

The PCUSA rejection of that amendment was a narrow victory for those who desire to stay true to Scripture.

The Truth

While Rev. Heath and others are euphoric over these monumental changes. I am reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13–14, NASB)

Truth is Narrow
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Truth, is by its very nature narrow. The description of an object is always narrow as compared to what it is not. I have on my wrist a watch, it is not a hammer or a motorcycle or a puppy or a yacht. It is one thing and there are an infinite number of things it is not.

When the New Testament uses the word homosexual, the Greek word from which it is translated is a very graphic term which describes a sex act between men. You can work around this all that you want, but it is the homosexual act that is condemned. The word means one thing and no amount of wrangling of words can make it mean something different. The definition is narrow and specific.

Furthermore, Jesus himself tells us that marriage is between a man and a woman. According to Jesus, it is for the purpose of being married to a woman that a man will leave his father and mother.

Some would see support for homosexual union in an argument from silence because Jesus does not specifically speak against same sex pairing. Yet I would argue that the silence cuts the other way because Jesus specifically identifies a union between a man and a woman as the relationship that God ordains and God blesses. Nowhere can you find any such blessing for a homosexual union. So the argument that Jesus was silent on homosexuality is a sham.

The definition of marriage is narrow. I understand that for those with same sex attraction, this is very difficult. Yet, the difficulty does not relieve us of the burden of proclaiming the truth.

All sin is condemned in Scripture. For example, the Bible condemns religious pride. Those of us who have grown up in the church can look down on others who have less knowledge of Scripture and Christian principles. Scripture condemns this pride and I am wrong when I practice it. When I am proud, no excuse or explanation will make that pride less wrong.

We cannot lightly set aside the clear teaching of Scripture just because we have a desire and a  proclivity toward a certain behavior. Whether it be pride or homosexuality, we cannot aquiesce into acceptance no matter how much pressure there is from inside and outside the church.

The Gate

As Bob Dylan so eloquently tells us, “Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow that it passes through.”

The Truth hurts all of us, but the wound is ultimately for our benefit if we are willing to yield.

What you build and how you build it matters to God

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Build Stone Wall
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Perhaps it due to the nature of the blogs I follow, or perhaps it is because of my own discontent, but I sense a growing dissatisfaction with the organized church. As evidence I would point to the Barna statistics that show that 6 out of 10 young people walk away from the church; many of them never return. I read some verses that seem to speak to this issue. In 1 Corinthians 3:10-13, Paul is writing about the foundation on which he builds and the quality of the work and the materials used to build upon that foundation. He writes:

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. (NASB)

The first thing to notice is the foundation on which Paul builds. That foundation is Jesus Christ. Anything that does not point to or is built upon the relationship with Jesus Christ is not built on a solid foundation.

The question for church leaders is whether or not the activities of the church deepen the relationship with Jesus. Any activitiy that does not is not built upon a solid foundation.

The second point is that what is built upon the foundation needs to be made of material that will stand the test. Wood, hay and straw will be consumed, while gold silver and precious stones will last. Are we building into the lives of our members such that their relationship with Christ is strengthened and deepened or are we merely treading water?

Do we have a structure in place that allows for training members in the foundational truths of Scripture? Are we teaching men and women how to read Scripture in context and understand how to apply it? Are we providing a forum where doubts and questions can be addressed? Do we have a safe environment for doubters to seek answers? In short, are we making disciples (root meaning learner) or are we making conformists? There is a large difference.

In addition to this type of training, do we as parents and church leaders model the life of a disciple? Can we be found studying Scripture? Do we honestly wrestle with how Scripture should be applied in our lives? Do we respond in obedience when Scripture brings conviction on an issue? Does the next generation look at us and see something that they want to emulate?

With 60% of young people leaving the church, it would appear that the church as a whole can use a lot of improvement in these areas. The good news is that there are individuals and  churches that are doing well with these issues and there are organizations who seek to train people to be excellent disciple makers.

I thank God that when I left for college, He brought men into my life that could point me toward the answers I sought. It is my hope that my generation can begin to do better at living out the gospel and training the next generation to do so.

We cannot sit back and rest thinking that we are on a good path. A 60% failure rate is unacceptable in any endeavor, especially when an eternal destiny is on the line.

Here is a question for my readers: What have you seen that has worked well in reaching out to the next generation?

What I look for in a church

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Church

I recently had an article published at Till He Comes, the blog of Jeremy Myers. In hindsight, I could have worded the introductory portion of the post better than I did.  Here is how I would like to have written the introduction:

I find myself at a time in life where I am looking for a new church fellowship.

During the time when I was considering leaving my previous church, I began to reflect on what is important in a fellowship. The result of my contemplation of what the church should be and how I should function within it, I came up with the following things that I will consider as I look for a new place of worship.

I had good reasons to leave my former fellowship and I did not make the decision to leave without counsel from mature Christian men that I trust. But, in no way should this be construed as a list of things I found deficient in that church.

No church does all of these perfectly. But if there is not the acknowledged desire to do them well, it is likely that the fellowship will suffer.

The full original article can be found here.

A lesson learned from angry atheists

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AngryRecently I had a chance to interact with some atheists in response to a post I had written for Bravefaith.org. While I did not intend it this way, some of what I had written came off as “insulting and hate inducing” according to one of the commenters. I did not do a good job of understanding their point of view before writing the post. The comments helped me better understand why they are angry.

In response to angry atheists we are tempted to sit back and smugly quote what the Apostle Paul says (1 Corinthians 2:14) about the natural man not understanding the things of God. Yet, the truth of this verse does not relieve us of the responsibility to reach out to those who are angry with us and with God to seek to understand the anger and engage it in a loving manner. We must resist the temptation to lob truth missiles over the wall hoping that they hit the target.

One lesson I learned from my interaction at Bravefaith is that the organized church has much to answer for and some of the anger of the atheist is justified. If we are going to reach out to those who have been alienated from religion, we need to own up to the failings of ourselves and our churches. While we cannot resolve all of the anger, we can resolve the part that is caused by our inappropriate behavior. We can confess and ask forgiveness where we have given offense.

In Matthew 5:23, Jesus tells us that if we are on the way to worship and remember that our brother has something against us, that we should make it right before attempting to worship. It may be that the way we interact (or don’t interact) with our community is affecting the way we worship. Our offering of worship may be neglected by God because we have not sought to be reconciled to our neighbor.

AngryPerhaps if we have more of a spirit of repentance and mourning and less of an attitude of moral rectitude we might be in a better position to speak into the lives of those with whom we disagree. I believe that a better awareness of, and honesty about, our own failings, doubts and stupidity would put us in a better position to speak the truth in love.

This does not mean that we cannot offer correction when it is appropriate and needed. We need to engage faulty reasoning in a loving, reasonable manner. For example the claims of atheists that Hitler was a Christian are preposterous and need to be addressed.

No matter how lovingly we present truth, some will be offended by the Gospel. Some will reject the gospel because they refuse to submit to God. Some will refuse to give up their sinful lifestyle. Some will seek to stand firm in their own perceived goodness. But let us be sure that it is the Gospel that is the offense and not the manner in which we present it.

One of the complaints that I’ve heard is that too often Christians try to jam the gospel down someone’s throat. Yes, we have the responsibility to present the gospel, but I cannot find any instance where Jesus forced truth on someone who was not prepared to hear it. A wise lady once told me that Jesus is a gentleman; he does not force himself on anyone.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that those angry atheists are people for whom Christ died. We are no better; they are no worse. Before we respond to the anger, we should listen to understand its source. It is my hope that by listening and understanding we can then speak truth into the situation in a loving way.

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