Imposing Our Faith on Others

One of the great hot potatoes in the history of the Christian church has been the relationship of the church to the civil government. Yet it is interesting how little space is to it devoted in the New Testament. We are told to be in subjection to the government authorities and to render to them what is due them (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13,14; Matthew 22:15-22). We are also told there is a point where we must serve God rather than men (Acts 4:19; 5:29-32; Revelation 6:9-11). But we are told little else. Now I am convinced that the silences of Scripture are intentional. I would conclude from this that the chief way to promote Christianity and Christian principles is not political action. This does not mean that Christians should never engage in such action, but we should not put our trust in it as the way to produce a Christian society. The chief thing we are told to do is to proclaim God's truth (2 Timothy 4:1-5; 1 Peter 3:15; Romans 10:14). This includes speaking against wrong and injustice (James 5:1-6; Mark 12:38-40; Matthew 14:3,4). But nowhere are we directed to political action as the best way to deal with these.

Now one question we have to deal with is, what about the Old Testament? The Old Testament Law provided for severe penalties, even over issues of faith (Deuteronomy 13; Numbers 15:32-36; Leviticus 24:10-16). But the purpose of the Old Testament law was not to show us how civil government should work, but to show us God's perfect standard, which no one can keep (Romans 3:19,20; Galatians 3:10-12; Hebrews 8:7-10). Nonetheless, the Old Testament Law does show the general principles of God's justice. Therefore, it is a mistake either to try to institute it in its full vigor or to ignore it entirely in the present age. Even in the Old Testament God did not always enforce it with full vigor (2 Samuel 12:13). But asking today what kind of laws we should advocate in nations which generally consist largely of unbelievers can be a difficult question. We cannot simply lapse into total pragmatism, as God says a legal system should reflect true justice (Romans 13:3,4; Proverbs 14:34; Amos 1). But we also cannot expect unbelievers to bear the burden no one is able to bear (Acts 15:10; Galatians 2:14,15; Matthew 23:4). This is a hard balance to reach, and those who object to anything we advocate based on God's principles will claim we are imposing our beliefs on them. But we must not back down on this. Still we must ask whether at some point, if we expect an unbeliever to act like or even pretend to be a believer, we are not simply producing hypocrites. There are Christians whose calling is to be involved in civil government. In a democracy it is to some extent everyone's calling. We should carefully consider how to best carry out this calling. But we should be careful of expecting too much from it.

A Touch of Humor - Seeking a Scorecard

How should we feel about the current divisions in the Christian church? Is there something that should be done about this?

Old Erich Proverb - Scripture

Those who read between the lines of Scripture often miss the lines.

A Voice from the Past - Leo the Great

For to thee who wast a castaway, banished from the realms of paradise, dying of thy weary exile, reduced to dust and ashes, without further hope of living, by the Incarnation of the Word was given the power to return from afar to thy Maker, to recognize thy parentage, to become free after slavery, to be promoted from being an outcast to sonship: so that, thou who wast born of corruptible flesh, mayest be reborn by the Spirit of God, and obtain though grace what thou hadst not by nature, and, if thou acknowledge thyself the son of God by the spirit of adoption, dare to call God Father.

Leo the Great, 400- 460 AD, The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great, Sermon XXII, On the Feast of the Nativity II, V (The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XII, translated by Charles Lett Feltoe, Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. T & T Clark and Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1997, p. 131)

How might we lose the wonder of what Christ has done for us? How could we regain it?

Dating the Old Testament

It is difficult to come up with a completely unbiased basis for evaluating the dates for the composition of the books of the Old Testament. Those of us who hold that the Bible is the Word of God will, of course, give credence to who these books or the rest of Scripture claim they were written by.  But while it is normal to give the author the benefit of the doubt, we really cannot expect this of sceptics on an issue as controversial as the Old Testament. Now the sceptic will claim that fulfilled prophecy was written after the fact and that there must have been time for the stories of miracles to grow up. But this is simply circular reasoning. Further, we should dismiss, from any perspective, the concept of evolution of religion. New faiths can grow up quickly, often in the lives of the founders or their immediate successors. Also, even if Biblical theology grew up slowly, we would have no idea of when it began growing and at what pace.

Is there then an objective basis for evaluating the dating of the Old Testament books? The actual manuscript evidence does not take us back more then about a couple of hundred years B.C., though even this is a problem for some late dating theories. In later Biblical history the basic historical events have been confirmed by archeology. This suggests a date of writing, or at least a source, close to the date of the events. Though not surprisingly, the earlier you go the more controversial things become and the more arguments there are both ways. Another possible argument is from philology. This would be a good argument if we had a significant body of datable extra-Biblical material in the Hebrew language from the time. We do not. Philological arguments are made by finding words claimed to be of foreign origin and speculating on when these words might have made their way into the Hebrew language. This is at best an argument from silence (which is of virtually no value in ancient history), and there are cases where later discoveries have called conclusions on this basis into question. There is also the question of historical errors and anachronisms, but these are few and generally explicable. I am forced to conclude that it is difficult to dogmatically establish the dates of the Old Testament books from external historical evidence, and I would not expect someone to accept a conservative dating for these books unless they had accepted the Bible was the Word of God. But I also do not see anything like adequate proof for rejecting the traditional dating on purely historical grounds. We must look for other avenues to establish the truth of the Old Testament. But it should not be rejected out of hand because of the claim it was written long after the fact.

On or Off

Re-Posted from "Meditations of a Charismatic Calvinist Who Does Not Speak in Tongues"

Sometimes God's power is pictured like a light switch; it is either all there or totally absent. But Scripture pictures God giving new supplies to meet new situations. At the time of Pentecost the disciples were filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4). But later Peter was filled to stand firm against opposition (Acts 4:8). After this the disciples prayed for boldness and were filled with the Spirit in answer (Acts 4:31). Paul (then called Saul) was filled with the Spirit soon after his conversion (Acts 9:17). But later he was filled again to deal with a magician (Acts 13:9). There is no indication that any of these individuals became carnal and had to be restored to a condition where they were spiritual again. Rather, God filled them in a new and fresh way to meet new circumstances. God gives us what we need to accomplish His purpose (2 Corinthians 3:5,6; Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:28,29). Therefore, we should trust in Him to provide us with the power we need when we need it (Proverbs 3:5,6; Psalms 127:1,2; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9).

Does It Matter What God You Serve?

"God is love." This is one of the most popular Biblical statements (1 John 4:7-12), among believers and even among unbelievers. But what does it say about who God is? Now the old pagan gods were merely men and women writ large. They were considered neither perfectly loving nor perfectly upright. Their loves and judgments were seen as very like ours, only less restrained. Now another option is a kind of impersonal God. This type of God does not love or judge, but is simply there. Then we come to the lone, personal God. And this God generally goes one of two ways. He is either very indulgent or very harsh. Either He is an extreme stickler or he lets you get away with anything. This is not surprising, because a Biblical, committed love requires someone to love. But for the lone, personal God, there is no one intrinsically there to love. Therefore, He must be dependent on His creation, or love must not be a fundamental part of His character.

But there is another option. Scripture speaks of a God who is love, but also of a God who is three in one. This is the concept of the Trinity, that there is one God (Isaiah 43:10; 44:6-8; 1 Timothy 2:5), who exists at the same time (Matthew 3:16,17; 27:46; John 12:27-30) as three persons: Father (John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6), Son (Hebrews 1:8; John 1:1-18; Philippians 2:5-11), and Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17; Acts 5:3,4; 1 Corinthians 3:16). This is not just some abstract theological concept, but is integral to how we view God.  If God is three in one, it explains how God can be love, because it makes love a permanent part of God's nature (John 3:35; 10:17; 17:23-26). This love is pictured as a definite, committed love and not mere indulgence (Romans 5:6-8; Matthew 5:45; Jeremiah 31:3). But this is a principled love that does not conflict with holiness and justice (1 Peter 1:15-17; Romans 1:18; Isaiah 6:3). Nor are these contraries, for genuine, committed love must be concerned with the welfare of those it loves and must respond to those who try to do damage to those who are loved. It cannot just sit back and ignore evil and injustice. Therefore, it is a God who is three in one who is genuinely love and who, because of this, is properly just. Now that God is three in one at the same time is beyond human understanding, but we would expect God to be beyond human understanding (Romans 11:33,34; Isaiah 55:8,9; 1 Corinthians 3:18). But what we believe about God is important to how we live. And while it is possible to graft a foreign ethic onto our idea of God, the two will not really work together. Which it is why it is important to not just put our understanding of God on the shelf somewhere and ignore it. Rather, we should understand and apply it to how we live our lives.