The Hidden Power of Doctrinal Differences

I was thinking recently about something that John Piper said, Faith is the true measure of the value of self (Romans 12:3) because the essence of faith is that it looks away from self to Christ and treasures Him as infinitely valuable. God assigns faith in different proportions to his people because it produces humble interdependence with all of us serving and being served, which leads to a unity in diversity that is more difficult and more beautiful and more God-glorifying than if we all had the same degree of faith.”

As I thought about this I thought about the doctrinal diversity within Christianity (all those denominations) and even more, about the diversity within my own sphere of influence, and I realized that the same principle that Piper has applied to faith applies to the doctrinal diversity within the Christian community. Divergent doctrinal perspectives (within a biblical framework) are not only acceptable, they are healthy and beneficial.

They stretch us; they teach us humility and patience; they call for us to love those who love our Lord and yet with whom we disagree. Now don’t misunderstand me. There is only one Jesus, one Gospel, and one “spirit” characterizing and defining Christianity (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6-8) and these elemental truths must be affirmed and upheld with great fervor (Jude 3).

But beyond that there is room to disagree, perhaps even a need to disagree, and I doubt we are wise if we seek to stamp out conflicting perspectives in an supposed “spiritual” attempt to bring about some kind of “enforced” conformity or unanimity. Being a member of a Christian community where everyone agrees, or is excepted to agree, might seem like a blessing, or even a necessity. But upon reflection I suspect it isn’t.

It doesn’t allow for the development of that special kind of Christ-like acceptance and love which grows uniquely within a family of people with divergent doctrinal understandings and yet who have a common love for Christ. In a sense, doctrinal diversity reminds us of the necessity to keep focusing on the centrality of Jesus. HE is our life. HE is our righteousness, holiness and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).

It is IN HIM that are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We are "complete" in Him (Colossians 2:3; 2:10). Possessing “a unity in diversity...is more difficult and more beautiful and more God-glorifying” than if we all had identical doctrinal perspectives.

This is just a thought, but one which I think is worth reflecting upon, and if appropriate, applying in our relationships with others in God’s family with whom we might disagree. 

I Love This Poem!

My Season 

by Carol Lynn Pearson

Seeing the tree

Beneath a baptism of snow,

You may call her barren.

But is it so?

And for all your watchings

On a March night

When the twigs seem dark

And the bark

Feels cold to your hand --

Can you call her fruitless

And so leave?

She smiles,

Calm in the station

Of seasons

And in the ordination

Of sun, and sap, and spring.

As for me?

You turn away,

Impatient with the promises you've seen.

But -- inside I fill

And pulse and flow

With the urgency of green.

I've a season

Like the tree.

And all your

Faithless doubts

Will not destroy

The rising spring

In me.

FORMATION in the information age

I realized this afternoon that in a significant way most of
my life’s interactions with the Scripture have revolved
around gaining information. I have read the Bible to gain
the facts about doctrine or history or one thing or another.
I was reading Acts 25:15 tonight and my eyes kind of played
a trick on me and for some reason I saw inFORMATION and I
remembered we are not supposed to read the Bible for
information, we are to read it for FORMATION. It is a tool
to be used to shape our soul. I wonder if this reading for
information instead of reading for formation is why it is so
easy to be “ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge
of the truth?” (2 Tim 3:7)

A surprising discovery with interesting implications.

I preached a sermon series on love back when I was a pastor. It was one of the more difficult sermon series to deliver, not because of the difficulty of preparing and preaching it, but rather because its content was not well demonstrated in my own personal life. It's hard to preach to yourself in public.

One of the things I stumbled upon as I put the first sermon together was that the idea of the critical nature of love is not unique to Christianity. It is a core thought in every one of the world's major religions. I remember researching 21 different religions and finding that to be true. Here are expressions of what we call the Golden Rule in a few of the world's major religions. Many of these religions predate Christianity.

CHRISTIANITY:
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:1)

BUDDHISM:
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5,1)

CONFUCIANISM:
Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. (Analects 12:2)

HINDUISM:
This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Mahabharata 5,1517)

ISLAM:
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. (Sunnah)

JUDAISM:
What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. (Talmud, Shabbat 3id)

TAOISM:
Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.
(Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien)

ZOROASTRIANISM:
That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself. (Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5)

One of the startling things this discovery reveals is that any follower of one of these non-Christian religions who sincerely seeks to keep this tenant of their faith is at the same time sincerely seeking to follow the core expression of the Christian religion! Gal. 5:14 For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others 


What are the implications here??

Good advice from the Presbyterians to the Baptists

I am reading the history of the Presbyterians in the United States and came across a great quote that I wish I had been taught in my Baptist schooling.

The Presbyterians were split into two groups (north/south) sort of like the Baptists and were working to reunite, but they were divided over several issues which they needed to come to some kind of agreement upon. As they worked together to resolve their differences (1982-1983) they established "guidelines" for interpreting the Scripture as they sought guidance from it. These guidelines were published by the reunited PC (USA) in 1992. There were eight guidelines. Here is the one that especially caught my attention:

"While a particular text may name a subject with which we are also concerned in the present, the assumption should not be immediately made that the contemporary subject is the same as that addressed in the biblical text or that the circumstances and conditions of the biblical writer and modern interpreter are similar."

Would to God more people realized how critical that guideline is! Well meaning people have ignored or neglected it and caused such terrible errors and misunderstandings!

A Hell of a Problem

God loves diversity (i.e., snowflakes; flora, fauna, etc.) therefore it should not surprise us that Christianity is also a religion of great diversity encompassing many differing beliefs and convictions. Wikipedia says there are approximately 38,000 different Christian denominations!

I have come to believe divergent doctrinal perspectives (within a biblical framework) are not only acceptable—they are healthy and beneficial. They enable us to learn from each other and to develop richer love and stronger patience. Nevertheless, as I have grown older I have come to have serious philosophical difficulties with certain fundamental doctrines of traditional Christianity because I believe that reason is often in profound conflict with them. 

One of the most serious examples of this conflict is the doctrine of hell. As Gordon MacDonald says, Hell is “a hell of a problem.” It seems to me that most Christians have misunderstood (or ignored) the implications of a loving God sending billions of people (most of mankind?) to a place of conscious never ending torment. Reconciling the horrors of an eternal hell with the doctrine of a benevolent God is not just difficult, in my opinion, it is impossible.

The majority of Christians believe hell is a place of eternal divine retribution. As I have thought about this idea and looked at the pertinent Scripture I have come to believe a reasonable and biblically sound case can be made that hell is a temporary place designed for human (and angelic?) rehabilitation. Hell exits! It would be very wise to avoid it! But it well may not exist for the commonly accepted purpose or the usually assumed duration.

The Bible has many verses that seem to indicate that the saving work of Christ will result in the redemption of the entire cosmos. Here are just a few of them:

Rom. 5:18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.

1Cor. 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Col. 1:19-20 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus Christ) and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Phil. 2:9-11 Therefore God exalted him (Jesus Christ) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Eph. 1:9 And he (God) made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

If these verses (and many others like them) mean what they seem to say then hell can not be a place of eternal retribution.

Now there ARE other verses which (seem) to say that hell is both retributive and eternal and most theologians interpret “my” verses in the light of “their” verses. My suggestion is that “their” verses be interpreted in the light of mine!

When it comes down to an eternal retributive or a temporary rehabilitative position on hell which position do you think…

has the strongest view of God’s love?

portrays the greatest victory over evil?

lifts the atoning work of Jesus Christ to the highest level?

makes grace the most amazing?

inspires the greatest worship and love of God?

presents the less confusing picture of God’s wrath?

inspires the most hope in the human heart?

I think the answer is obvious.

Loving as He Loved

Are you ever saddened by the shallowness of your love for some people? I am.

It seems to me that many Christians fail to love well.  Instead we judge (or even hate) because we have never made an effort to know and understand.  This is especially true when it comes to loving people who disagree with us or who live in ways we feel are unbecoming or unacceptable.  Too much Christian love is a “selective love” and an inadequate reflection of Christ's love.

In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis says, 

 If you are a poor creature--poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels--saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion--nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends--He (God) knows all about it.  You are one of the poor whom He blessed.  He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive.  Keep on.  Do what you can.  One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps sooner than that) He will fling it on the scrap heap and give you a new one.  And then you may astonish us all--not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a hard school. 

It is far too easy for us to assign people to hell who have spent their lives trying to climb out of it because our judgments are not based on knowledge, but on ignorance and prejudice.  I have found that the more I know someone, the more difficult it is for me to judge them, and the easier it is for me to extend to them the same love and grace that God has extended to me.

Everyone fights hidden demons and needs just as much (or more) love and grace as we do. Understanding that should make it easier to keep the Lord's command.  My command is this:  love each other as I have loved you (John 13:34).

A Reasoned Faith

It is amazing to me to discover, after almost forty years in the ministry, that I’ve accepted and believed some things for no other reason than that they were the accepted points of view within the Christian circles in which I moved at the time.

It’s a bit disconcerting to think about how many Christians never take time to “check things out” on their own when it comes to Christian doctrine, especially in areas that are controversial. Some of the most difficult people to convince of truth are the folks who have held an unreasoned faith for decades and find it impossible to even consider that they might be wrong.

Each of us has been called to study the Word and come to a reasoned faith based on that study.

2 Timothy 2:15  Be diligent to present yourself to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

Acts 17:11  These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Why do you believe what you believe? Have you just accepted perspectives because that is what everyone in your spiritual community seems to be saying or thinking? Judaism did that in Jesus’ day, and it was in serious trouble. The tradition of the elders had taken the place of the truth of God.

Jonathan Swift said, “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a belief he was never reasoned into.” I have been on both sides of that statement. 

Tough Questions That Deserve Better Answers

Sometimes we need to be challenged to think "outside the box" in order to understand how others view the "good news" of the Gospel. The world does not view the Gospel the way we do, and if we want to reach the world with the Gospel, we need to make sure we truly understand it and then formulate better answers to the questions the world is asking about it.

We Tell The World That The Scripture Says:

The essence of who God is, and what He is like, is love.  
This one word defines His character and nature better than any other word in any language.  

1 John 4:8  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  4:16  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.  God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

The goal of all the instruction Paul gave to the Church was the outworking of love in the lives of those who heard it.  

1 Timothy 1:5  But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.  If we are the children of God, then who we are, and what we are like, should be characterized by the same love that characterizes Him.

All of the commands of God can be summarized in the one word that summarizes God Himself:  love. 

Romans 13:9,10  For this, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

God says, as an expression of this love, that we are to continue to forgive those who sin against us.  

Matthew 18:21,22  Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?’  Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’

The Jews taught that a man was to forgive another up to three times, but not a fourth time.  Jesus says we are not to limit our forgiveness to any fixed number of times.  As often as someone injures us, we are to forgive that person.

God also says that we are to love our enemies and do good to them, without expecting anything in return.  

Luke 6:35  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

In Response, The World Asks:

· How can a God who defines Himself as love, and also says He is all-powerful and all-knowing, create billions of people and then torment the majority of them forever in hell? How is that an expression of love?  How is that good news?

· If God commands us to continually forgive our enemies, why does He not continually forgive his?

· If God commands us to love our enemies, expecting nothing in return, why does He not love us and expect nothing in return?

· Why is our free will to damn ourselves absolute, and greater than God's free will to save us? Or put another way, How can Adam's power to condemn us be greater than Christ's power to save us?

· If God is love, and the Gospel is "good news,” then how, in the final analysis, can God's wrath trump His love?

These are thoughtful questions. Most Christian people seldom answer them thoughtfully. I suspect they make many Christians squirm a bit.

Be Prepared With Answers:

I have had to deal with these questions as I am now interacting more often with non-Christian people. There are thoughtful answers to them. How would you answer them? To understand them and to answer them, you must think outside the box. 

Finding God in all the Wrong Places

I hear the phrase “politically incorrect” used a lot these days. In our culture there are things you are just not supposed to say or do, and if you cross the line, you become “politically incorrect.” Most of us have been classified that way from time to time. I know I have.

There is a parallel, more subtle practice, within the Christian community. Here we are expected to adhere to certain acceptable doctrines and behaviors, and when we cross over the line, we are looked down upon by some believers and considered to be “spiritually incorrect.”

The older I get the more I seem to be finding God in all the wrong places - in supposedly spiritually incorrect places among spiritually incorrect people.

I remember the first time this happened. I said “Wow, Lord, I didn’t expect to find You here!" And somehow I seemed to picture Him looking at me with sad and yet loving eyes, and saying, “Why not, you're here?” My Lord, who is always spiritually correct, was with a group of people whom many in the church today consider spiritually incorrect and look down upon. Christians sometimes say, or infer by what they do not say, that someone “really needs to get himself together!” as if they believe their own lives are “together” and that Christianity is composed of folks who have gotten their act together and “arrived” spiritually.

Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic priest, authored forty books on the spiritual life with titles like “The Wounded Healer,” and "The Way of the Beloved." I love his books and have been richly blessed by his life. After nearly twenty years of teaching, he left the academic world to spend the rest of his life taking care of mentally handicapped people at the L’Arche community in Toronto, Canada.

Once, when he was still teaching, a young man came up and asked him if there was any chance that he could ever become like Nouwen, since he had doubts about his faith, dry times in prayer, and struggled with certain sins in his life. Nouwen responded, “...Christianity is not for ‘getting yourself together...'”

That young man thought about what Nouwen said and later wrote a book in which he referred to that incident and said he had learned that “Christianity offered a journey that was not just sweetness and light but thundering darkness and doubt, thorns as well as roses, nails as well as doves...and that when, in spite of all my efforts I still hadn’t 'gotten my life together’. I realized that it didn’t necessarily mean I wasn’t a Christian.”

I am 67 years old. I was a pastor for over 36 years, and I still have not “gotten my life together” and arrived at some advanced (or even somewhat acceptable) level of spirituality. At times I still stumble home at night with mud on my face, thorn scratches on my legs and arms, filled with doubts about many things, and wondering what life is all about anyway. But, as you know, it is not spiritually correct to admit that, especially if you’re a ex-pastor!

But it’s okay because I have met God “out there” -- out where the muddy, scratched, confused and rejected and spiritually incorrect doubters live.  And when I venture out there, I am no longer surprised when I see the Lord there too.

A couple years ago I was reading Psalm 18, and when I came to verse 19, my heart was filled with a strange and urgent desire. The verse says, He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.  I prayed, “Lord bring me into this broad place! I want to live only within the boundaries of Your love and Your will. Free me from my self-made conservative fences and help me to love and accept all whom you love and accept."

I never dreamed what that prayer would mean and where it would lead. It has lead to more joy and more pain than I can ever remember experiencing, and to a loneliness and sense of isolation that, to be honest, even the Lord himself can not diminish. I feel a bit like Abraham must have felt when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went (Hebrews 11:8). 

May God bless YOU today as you walk with Him as a pilgrim in a lost and darkening world. 

  

Are You Afraid of the Light?

Note...  I have lost all of my blogs on Facebook.  Not sure how it happened but it did.  So, I am reposting them here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am corresponding with a new friend in Italy. In a recent e-mail he mentioned something that Plato said: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

You would think that Christians would cherish the light, welcoming it with open arms. After all, our Lord is the Lord of Light and we are called children of light (Ephesians 5:8). But sadly that is not always true. The light can blind us. It may even cause us to stumble a bit until we get used to its brilliance. And if we are not careful, out of fear we might not just hesitate to give our eyes a chance to adjust -- we might turn away, call the light we saw darkness, and return to the dimmer but more comfortable illumination of the past.

As I grow in the Lord, I find that some of the things I believed in the childhood of my faith were incomplete, or at times, even untrue. I see something in a new way and am overcome with its size and the implications of what it means. The new light threatens the security of my old dimmer understanding and it seems risky to let go of the old for the richer glory of the new. I was re-reading Jay Adam's book The Grand Demonstration not too long ago. I do not agree with the premise of his book but there are some interesting thoughts in it.  One sentence jumped out at me -- "...follow the Scriptures, even when they lead into new and lonely paths."

Sounds challenging doesn't it? Even exciting? But it isn't. It can be lonely and frightening, especially when other people don't see what you see, when your light is their darkness. When that happens, we are faced with a choice:  to embrace the light, or to deny it and return to the old light that is now a new darkness.  Sooner or later, if you are growing in your faith, this kind of thing will happen to you, and when it does, I encourage you to remember what Plato said and take Dr. Adam's advice -- "...follow the Scriptures, even when they lead into new and lonely paths."