It has the ring of truth . . .

Posted on July 18, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 3 Comments

One of the things I enjoy about reading the Bible is how real the characters are. With the exception of Daniel and Jesus, we read stories of men and women who were seriously flawed but were used by God to bring about his will for humanity.

Moses had anger issues. Jacob was a conniver and a dad who played favorites among his children. Joseph flaunted his favored position over his brothers. David was an adulterer and tried to hide his sin by committing murder. Elijah won a great victory on Mount Carmel and then experienced depression and withdrawal from society. Peter, oh how I really appreciate Peter, would open his mouth and say the dumbest things. Saul, who became Paul, persecuted the church before he was converted. These are some of the better known stories, look at any Bible character and you will see greatness and folly juxtaposed.

Several responses come to mind when I consider the presentation of these flawed characters.

The flaws support the veracity of these stories. They seem to be true accounts with no varnish or cleanup, they have the ring of truth. Why do I suppose that the flaws point to the truth? It is because when I look at myself and the people around me, we are all a similar mixture of greatness and folly in differing proportions. These characters seem real because we can point to episodes in our own lives or those of the people we know where the same flaws have been displayed (OK, so I don’t personally know any murderers, but I have known some adulterers). Like Peter, I can be praising God in one breath and then saying something incredibly stupid in the next. I can catch the wave of elation as I see God work in someone’s life and then be overwhelmed by the ever presence of evil in the world.
I am encouraged by the admission that my forebears in the faith were all flawed. The fact that they were flawed did not nullify their usefulness to God, nor did it diminish God’s reciprocation of their love. Certainly, their final standing with God is dependent upon repentance and response in faith to God, just as it is with all believers through the ages. But I am comforted by the fact that moral failure was not the means of disqualifying them from receiving grace. In fact, in some cases, failure was the means God used to move the one who failed into deeper relationship. Think how Peter must have felt while having breakfast with Jesus on the shore after the resurrection. Bitterly aware of his failure, Peter discovers forgiveness and purpose for his life moving forward.
Like all good stories, the struggles of the characters force me to take a hard look at my own failures. The fact that these stories are true makes them even more poignant. These stories act as a mirror when we read them and they reflect back to us the areas in which we struggle to live in love and truth. Who can read the story of Jacob and not feel ashamed of his own attempts at inappropriate manipulation of his circumstances?

We are at the same time deeply flawed and deeply loved. Sometimes these are hard to reconcile, but both remain true. The good news is that we can make progress toward being less flawed, even in this life as Jesus brings cleansing and growth.

It may be slow progress, but any progress is a win.

Book Review: From God to Us by Geisler and Nix

Posted on August 2, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 6 Comments

Disclaimer

I was given a promotional copy of From God To Us Revised and Expanded: How We Got Our Bible with the proviso that I would write a review of the book. No stipulations were made as to how I would review the book or what I would write about it. This review is my own reaction to interacting with the material in the book.

Overview

From God to Us is broken down into four major sections with multiple chapters in each to deal with various aspects of the topic in that section. The four major sections are:

Inspiration – How do we know the Bible has authority?
Canonization – How did the Bible come to be accepted?
Transmission – How did the manuscripts get to us and can they be trusted?
Translation – A history of the translation of the Bible.

There is a wealth of information in each section. Anyone who is interested in understanding how the Bible as we know it came to be should take a look at this book. It answers many questions and provides evidence that the Bible can be trusted as a guide for belief and practice.

My Reaction

For me, this book’s primary value is as a reference book, one that I will refer to when I have occasion to respond to questions regarding the transmission of the Bible. For this purpose the book is invaluable with helpful charts and tables with information that speaks in support of the reliability of our Bible text.

Because of the wealth of information, I found it a bit overwhelming to sit and read the book. My difficulty is not because it is not well written (it is) nor because it is hard to understand (it isn’t). For me, reading this book is like drinking from a fire hose, there is too much to take in to do a cover to cover reading. I have to work through the material slowly to take it all in. This was especially true for me in the section on canonicity. But I must acknowledge that for those of a more scholarly nature or with more background in the subject material, this may not be an issue.

One of the things that will be helpful to the reader of this book is the indices in the back of the book. In addition to a subject index, there is also a person index and a Scripture index. The Scripture index I find to be particularly helpful in preparing for teaching on a particular passage of Scriputre, it makes it easy to find the place where that passage is mentioned in the book.

The bottom line

I would recommend that anyone who is interested in apologetics or in understanding the underpinnings of our faith should take a look at this book. It might also be helpful to those who are involved with youth who are questioning their faith or encountering teachers or professors who challenge the accuracy and authority of the Bible. Anyone who must prepare a presentation or teaching on the reliability of our Bible would also find this book invaluable.

I recommend that every student of the Bible should have a copy of this book in her or her library. You won’t regret having it there when questions come up about the reliability of the Bible.

You have heard . . . but I say – It is all about the heart

Posted on September 13, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

#17 in the Sermon on the Mount Series

Jesus the Radical

For those of us who have grown up on the church, it may be difficult to grasp how radical Jesus was in his day. One definition of the adjective radical is:

thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms: a radical change in the policy of a company. (dictionary.com)

Jesus sought to bring a change to the way that his hearers understood Scripture and put it into practice.

Six times in the fifth chapter of Matthew Jesus identifies where his hearers have a deficient understanding of Scripture (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44). He uses the contrasting language of “you have heard . . . but I say to you” to introduce specific points of where the religious leaders of the day missed the intent of Scripture.

Jesus sets himself up as a higher authority

The first way that Jesus is radical is that he sets himself up as an authority higher than any the hearers have known. Here is a man that is putting himself above all the teachers of the day and above all that had gone before.

If Jesus is just a man like every other man, this would be an act of supreme hubris. Yet, as God in the flesh, he has the authority and the right to stand in judgment of the teachers of the law.

Jesus indicates we need a change of perspective

The second way Jesus is radical is the extent to which he applies Scripture. When you look at these six contrasts, the error is not that the teachers misunderstood the texts. The error lies in their not going deep enough in their understanding. The teachers focused on behavior and Jesus focuses on the heart.

There is something in man that wants to have rules so that he can judge his performance. People typically feel as though they are pretty good and generally live up to the standard they have set for themselves. Even the most strident nonconformist displays this. The nonconformist judges himself by his nonconformity to others’ rules. We judge ourselves by our behavior, our outward acts.

Jesus tells us that we are correct in controlling the outward acts, but this type of self mastery is not sufficient to claim obedience to Scripture. To really obey requires that we peel back the skin and get below the surface to motivations and attitudes. In these six contrasts, Jesus tells us:

It is not enough to keep from murder, we must also keep from hatred
It is not enough to keep from adultery, we must control lust
It is not enough to follow the correct procedure for divorce, we must understand that divorce is only to happen when a partner has been unfaithful
It is not enough to keep vows, we must live our lives so that our word can be trusted
It is not enough that we limit our revenge to an eye for an eye, we must live lives of sacrifice for others
It is not enough to love those who love us, we must also love our enemies

Jesus shows us that from God’s perspective, rule keeping is not enough. We must get behind the behavior to the motivation for the behavior. Jesus indicates that it is our hearts that God is after, not unwilling obedience.

It is all about the heart

Two observations:

If we make rules for ourselves or others, they need to be in keeping with a correct understanding of Scripture. There is nothing wrong with correctly condemning behavior that Scripture condemns or promoting behavior that Scripture promotes.
The rules should be used as barometers to show us how well tuned our hearts are to God. If we are giving grudging obedience then we have work to be done to identify the source of the grudge and deal with it.

But in the end, it is all about the heart.

Where preaching goes awry

Posted on August 28, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

This morning as I was reading through Ezekiel this phrase struck me, “. . . then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders.” (Ezekiel 7:26, NASB) The priests had turned away from the Law of God and could no longer bring any advice that was helpful to the people as they sought a word from God.

It’s all about relationship

Inside a religious system, there is a danger that we can miss the intent of Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is about the beginning, breaking and restoration of our relationship with God. It is about relationship first. Jesus supports this understanding in Matthew 22:36-40 when he identifies love of God and love of neighbor as the two great commands.

If the intent of Scripture is to restore and deepen relationship with God, then it seems obvious to me that the intent of preaching should be to restore and deepen relationship with God. The preaching should be geared toward encouraging transformation, but too often we settle for information.

In Matthew 15:8, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 29:13 when he says: “‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.” (NASB) The point is that we can be heavily involved in the teaching and reading of Scripture and not have our hearts changed. We can say and do all the right things but have hearts that are far away from God.

A means to an end

Ravi Zacharias has properly said, “Jesus did not come to make bad men good, he came to make dead men live.” Preaching which imparts knowledge may be helpful, but the impartation of knowledge is a means to an end (relationship) not the end in itself. Proper preaching must present Christ as the means of making dead people live.

I have been in many church services where the sermon gave me a lot of information and did not spur me on to a deeper relationship with God. Proper preaching should challenge me to see the parts of my life that have yet to be yielded in submission to God. Part of proclaiming the good news is to help me to see the need for that good news and my inability to provide it for myself.

It is only through relationship with Jesus Christ that we can become spiritually alive. This truth is at the heart of the gospel and if preaching is not calling dead men to live in Jesus, it is doing nothing of eternal value. Even if the teaching causes men to do good works or religious practice but does not cause men to come into relationship with Jesus, it is of no eternal value.

The final exam

We need to keep in mind that there is no theology test to get into Heaven. Jesus reminds us that the test has only two questions (See Matthew 7:21-23). The two questions are: am I in relationship with Jesus and on the basis of that relationship have I been obedient?

To prepare people for that test is the only proper goal of preaching.