Liberating you from bad ideas about God
How are y’all doing this morning? Are we ready to worship the Lord in music today? Can I hear an “Amen”? God is Good? All the Time!
Let’s lift our voices in praise to God, and put our hands together for Eric Carpenter at Pilgrim’s Progress who posted this hilarious video on his blog:
This guy is right on! Though I noticed in this sample song at the end there that he forgot to sing about fire…
Have you ever wondered what Paul meant when he said that “sin is not imputed where there is no law”? (Rom 5:13). You are not alone. A reader recently emailed in this Bible and theology question:
What’s your interpretation of Romans 5:13?”
The question is short and sweet and to the point! People occasionally send me Bible questions or Theology questions, and I usually try to respond via email, and post my answer here on the blog for anybody else who might have a similar question.
Here is how I responded to this question about Romans 5:13.
By way of disclaimer, I have not done an in-depth study of Romans or of this verse in particular. Eventually (10 or 20 years from now), I will write a commentary on Romans, but there are numerous commentaries I need to write first, before I have the courage to tackle Romans.
Until then, here is my current view.
In the surrounding context (Rom 3:23; 6:23) Paul is explaining to his readers that the reason death reigns over all people is because all people have sinned. In other words, the consequence of breaking God’s law is death.
But there is a minor problem with Paul’s argument. Everybody knows that Adam broke God’s command to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, so that explains why Adam died. And everybody knows that after God gave His Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, every single person on earth has broken the Law of God in one way or another (Rom 3:9-23).
But what about the time between Adam and Moses? God had not given any commands to those people. There was no written or spoken Law of God for them to break. Therefore, they couldn’t have broken any of God’s Laws because for them, there was no law.
And yet they still died. Why?
Door to door evangelism may be one of the most ineffective ways of evangelism. I have written about this before.
So I laughed when I saw this picture online:
I want one of these! Of course, in some instances, I don’t mind when people knock on doors.
Yes, I know that God can use all sorts of methods to bring people into the Kingdom, but as this sign shows, door to door evangelists are lumped together in most people’s minds with door to door salesmen and door-knocking politicians. Nobody likes these last two categories of people knocking on our doors, so why do we want to present Jesus to people in a way that is inherently negative?
The Barna Group recently ran a survey on the cities that had the highest percentage of churchgoers who attended mega churches.
The national average was 10%. So in cities that have mega churches, 10% of the people who attend church go to a mega church.
Now I have reported before that Dallas, Texas is the mega church capital of the world, which means that there are more mega churches per capita than anywhere else in the world, but interestingly, Dallas only came in fourth place for mega church attendance by percentage of people who attend church.
What city got the #1 Spot?
Las Vegas, Nevada . Yes, Sin City.
In Las Vegas, 29% of church attenders attend a mega church.
I am not sure why this is, though it would be interesting for someone to do a follow-up study and see.
But I have a sneaking suspicion that is a connection between the things that Las Vegas is known for, and the things that mega churches do so well.
What things?
No, not gambling and prostitution!
Chuck McKnight has written some fantastic articles recently on his blog, and I wanted to invite my readers to head on over there and check it out.
One of his recent posts was on what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain. I have written briefly about this before, but I really like the direction Chuck took in his post, since it provides a little more historical-cultural research and background information than I provided in my post.
Here is some of what he says:
The Israelites were a special people—set apart by Yahweh and called by his name. They bore God’s name before all the nations.
This command then becomes an all-encompassing one. Since God’s chosen people bore his name, they had better not take that responsibility lightly. They were supposed to be a shining beacon, bearing the name of Yahweh with obedience and distinctive holy living.
Unfortunately, for the most part, the Israelites failed. They did bear God’s name in vain.
But that responsibility has now passed to us. We, the followers of Christ Jesus, bear his glorious name before all the nations.
Head on over to his blog and read the rest of his post, and while you are at it, check out his intriguing post on Jesus being Yahweh and his post on whether or not Jonah died in the belly of the fish. This post was highly intriguing for me right now, as I came to a somewhat similar conclusion in my research as I continue to write my Commentary on Jonah.
While I was searching for images for this post, I found these two pictures, and figured I would include them here, just for fun. Enjoy!
The image above represents what has been my view for a while, that to use the Lord’s name in vain is to speak for God when He never spoke, or ascribe something to God (our actions and behaviors) in ways He never approved. It would be like saying, “God told me to tell you…” when God did not actually tell you this, or “God told me to…” when God did not actually tell you to do any such thing. My view (before incorporating Chuck’s post into my thinking) was that we take God’s name in vain when we add God’s name to our beliefs and behaviors so that we can appear more holy and authoritative to others. The comic above seems to take a similar view.
Here is the next humorous image about taking the Lord’s name in vain.
This guy is making fun of religious rules, but he makes a good point. “Christ” is not part of God’s name. It’s a title for “Messiah.” And “Jesus” comes from the Greek Iesus, which comes from the Hebrew Yeshua, or Joshua. So his point is valid, but I disagree with his implied conclusion. I don’t think it is wise to say “Jesus Christ!” or “Oh my God!” in an off-handed way. Of course, even if you do, it is still not blasphemy.
And last but not least, here is a guy making fun of how we Christians use “the God card.”
What do you think about the sin of taking the Lord’s name in vain? What is it, and how do we avoid committing it?
The request “Can you prepare lunch for the homeless one day next week?” resulted in the opportunity to meet sixty homeless people, which at the time I assumed were the first homeless people I had ever met. Gradually, however, I realized that I had previously met and known other homeless people, but just didn’t know they were homeless.
Most of our communities are home to poor people and to homeless people. Somehow I had overlooked both groups of people in the communities in which I had lived. How could that possibly have happened?
Perhaps I had overlooked the poor because my family by today’s standards would have been considered poor. We had a house, food to eat and a car to drive, but not many extras. I never heard anyone call us poor. Our family laughed when we discovered that we were barely above the “federal poverty level” line.
My parents referred to people who were better off than us financially as “rich”. I knew who those people were. They lived in the part of town with the expensive houses.
However, I did not think I knew homeless people.
Sure, I knew about hobos. We lived near the railroad tracks. Hobos appeared at our door and asked for food and sometimes clothing. My mother always gave them something, as her mother always had. They knew the way to our house. However, I never knew where they lived.
I knew about bums and winos. I saw them in the street, usually dressed in ragged clothes. Occasionally they asked for spare change. I also didn’t know where they lived.
I knew about people who temporarily lived with friends or relatives “until they could get back on their feet”, and afford to rent a room, apartment or house. Some of those people were my relatives. But they did have a roof over their heads. I never heard anyone call them homeless.
After that day in the park eating lunch with the homeless, however, I started seeing poor and homeless people everywhere. I assumed there must be an influx of poor and homeless people into my community. As I would eventually realize that what had changed was not who was moving into my community. I had changed. My eyes were slowly adjusting to the reality that is our world.
Soon I knew the volunteers in the homeless programs in our town. I met the woman who ran a local shelter for abused women and children, most of them from poor homes. Within a year or two I knew the people in our community who worked with the poor, the homeless, the abused, the battered, and the overlooked.
My wife and I began meeting not only the people who worked with the poor and homeless, but also, and most importantly, we began meeting the poor and homeless. We began building friendships and relationships with them.
We discovered that we like people who live under bridges, under bushes, in canyons, in tents, and on sidewalks, as well as the poor, lonely, and needy who have roofs over their heads. We are friends with the homeless, and friends help friends. So we help our homeless friends.
How can we best help our friends? Future posts about our journey with the poor and homeless will look at some of the ways in which we are answering that question, and how you can too.
Until then, how are you finding ways to help your friends among the poor and the homeless? If you do not yet have any homeless friends, what are you doing to begin seeing them around you?
And YOU can help.
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I usually don’t post on Sundays, and with today being the Super Bowl, probably fewer people than normal will be reading blogs today. But I decided to put up a short post anyway.
Some churches believe God will be mad at anyone who watches the Super Bowl instead of attending the evening church service. I couldn’t disagree more. I think that if you love to watch football, you should enjoy the Super Bowl with your friends and family, knowing that Jesus is right there with you, cheering on His favorite team. I won’t tell you which one that is…
Then of course, there are those churches that try to compete with the Super Bowl:
When churches try to compete with the Super Bowl, the church always loses.
But this is only true when we think of the church as a building that people enter and sit in a pew to sing and listen to a sermon.
If we think of the church as the people of God who follow Jesus into the world (see my book Skeleton Church), then we realize that part of being the church is enjoying a good game with friends, family, and neighbors around us.
So, I hope you enjoy the game!
The main goal of many churches is not to follow Jesus, make disciples, spread the Gospel, or whatever else they might claim in their mission statement.
The main goal of many churches is simply to go on existing.
They will never say this, but their actions and decisions prove it. No matter what they say in their “mission statement” their true mission is to do whatever is necessary to go on existing. Churches and organizations may start with lofty ideals, biblical values, and Gospel-related goals, but as soon as the organization or church files its 501(c)3, the primary goal of the organization changes to securing and maintaining its existence.
In my book, Skeleton Church (which you can get for free by signing up for email newsletter), I tell the story of a time when I interviewed for a Senior Pastor position of a certain church. Here is what I wrote:
The elders told me they wanted their church to start reaching the lost, and were looking for a pastor who could lead them in that direction. “It’s possible some drastic changes will be necessary,” I told them. “Are you ready and willing to do whatever it takes to reach others with the Gospel?” They assured me that they were.
So I continued. “Let’s say that after much prayer and careful discussion, the elders decided that to reach the community with the Gospel, God wanted us to sell the church building.”
Silence. Crickets chirped in the background.
Finally, one elder spoke up. “Well, that would never happen. The building is an essential part of our ministry.”
So I tried again. “But you said you were willing to do anything to reach your community with the Gospel. So what if the elders unanimously agreed, after much prayer and discussion, that one of the things God wanted you to do was sell your building? Is that something you’d be willing to do?”
The same elder spoke up again. “We would never come to that agreement. We need our building to reach our community with the Gospel. How could we reach the community if we didn’t have a building? We’re willing to do anything to reach the community, but the things we want to do in the community require a building.”
The interview moved on, and needless to say, they didn’t call me back.
It is popular among the elite Bible scholars and academy-trained theologians to sneer at the uneducated lay person who seeks to teach Scripture and theology to others as being “untrained” and therefore, unable to accurately teach others what God is like, what He says in Scripture, and how to live life in light of what we learn.
It is often taught to know the Bible, to teach others, and to truly understand theology, you need a Ph.D. from a leading seminary and expert knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.
The argument from these professional theologians and scholars most often goes like this:
If I had a brain tumor, I would not go to my neighbor to fix it. I wouldn’t even go to a neurosurgeon who had just received his MD. If someone is going to be operating on my brain, I want the best neurosurgeon there is. I will research the available doctors in my area, and find the one with the most experience. And if I cannot find one that is suitable, I might fly across the country to get help from someone who is suitable.
So also with theology. We cannot get help on Scripture and theology from just anyone. We need to find the best and most knowledgeable — the ones with the most training and experience.
It’s true. We need a doctor when we have a brain tumor. But thank goodness we don’t all get brain tumors!
To the contrary, most of our day-to-day health issues do not require a professionally-trained doctor at all!
From a very early age, we learn that when we are sick, the first thing to do is “go to mom” who may not have a single hour of professional medical training, but can nevertheless help us better and more quickly than any doctor. As we grow up, we learn to help ourselves, and get input and advice on medical issues from friends and family members. We learn to read the labels on medicines at the pharmacy, and follow the commonly-known health advice of society and culture.
When we sin willfully and rebel against God, He continues to love and forgive us. But there are natural consequences to our disobedience, one of which is broken fellowship and communion with God, which may reveal itself in our inability to pray.
In many situations, of course, God may choose to discipline us. But discipline is a reminder that God loves us, for God disciplines those He loves (Heb 12:6).
Discipline is never pleasant, but we must remember that discipline is another form of God’s love, and furthermore, God’s discipline often serves as a means of deliverance.
Discipline is often one of the ways God delivers us from committing even greater sins that will mess up and destroy our lives in even greater ways. So deliverance and discipline often come from the same source.
Take Jonah as an example.
In Jonah 1:17, Jonah finds himself in the belly of a great fish. It could not have been fun. Jonah had sinned terribly against God, and certainly saw his presence in the fish as a form of discipline. But it was also a form of deliverance. God rescued Jonah from death, which is what Jonah thanks God for in chapter 2. Jonah does not learn as much as he could have or should have while he was in the belly of the fish, but at least he learned that God was not going to let him escape his responsibility to preach to Nineveh. So when God called Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh, Jonah went (3:1-2).
This is similar to what happens when we face the discipline of God. We may get placed in a holding pattern until we choose to follow God. We may get sidelines from the major events in the Kingdom of God until we decide to play by God’s rules.
