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Tough Questions on the Old Testament

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Walter Kaiser has written a new book on the tough questions about God and His Actions in the Old Testament.

The questions Kaiser addresses in this book are all excellent questions. The answers he provides, however, are not.

Below is a list of the questions Walter Kaiser raises in his book, with a brief summary of his answers and a short statement about why I think his answers are wrong. The primary problem with all of Kaiser’s answers, however, is that he poses false dichotomies. I will try to point some of these out.

1. The God of Mercy or the God of Wrath?

Kaiser’s answer is “both” We cannot go to one extreme or the other. Kaiser understands God’s wrath as an act of love against sin which hurts those He loves. He also says that wrath is always preceded by love, grace, and mercy (p. 25).

Kaiser’s big mistake is his flat-out rejection of the revelation about God in Jesus Christ. He does not agree with those who seek to understand the nature and character of God by looking primarily to Jesus. In the introduction to the book, he called this “Christo-exclusivism” (p. 11).

But again, if Jesus claims to reveal God to us (John 1:14, 18; 14:9-11; 2 Cor 4:4; Php 2:6; Col 1:15; Heb 1:2-3), then why would we ever reject the perfect revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the lens by which we understand the actions of God in the Old Testament? Kaiser’s rejection of the revelation of Jesus as an interpretive grid for the Old Testament almost caused me to stop reading the rest of his book.

2. The God of Peace or the God of Ethnic Cleansing

Kaiser’s answer is that God did command the Israelites to practice genocide against the Canaanites, but this is only because the Canaanites were so evil (p. 29-30). Really, God was doing the whole world a favor by wiping such evil people off the face of the earth.

This is such a tired old answer, I had trouble believing Kaiser was still using it. Any student of history or literature knows that all the arguments used to defend the genocidal slaughter of one’s enemies are the exact same arguments we find in the Bible about why the Israelites went to war with the Canaanites. And we cannot say that “It was okay for the Israelites … because it’s in the Bible.” That won’t fly for anybody except the most close-minded of Christians.

Oh, and Kaiser says that this is WAY different than Jihad, or Holy War, of the Muslims. Why? Because God commanded His wars, whereas Jihad is only commanded in the Qur’an (p. 44). All I can say to that is … What?

tough questions on the old testament

3. The God of Truth or the God of Deception

Kaiser looks at some passages in the Bible where it appears that God deceives others (e.g., 1 Kings 22). Kaiser gets around these passages by providing the definition of a “lie” as intentionally speaking an untruth to people who deserve to know the truth with the intent of hiding the truth from them (p. 52).

Based on this, Kaiser says that God’s deceptions in the Bible are not really “lies” because the people who are deceived didn’t deserve to know the truth, and God didn’t really intend to lie to them anyway.

Again … what? If you are a parent, would you allow this sort of an explanation from your child about why they lied to you? I sure hope not.

4. The God of Evolution or the God of Creation?

Since I am currently doing a Podcast on Genesis 1, I was eager to read what Kaiser wrote.

But his explanation was quite confusing. As far as I could tell, he thinks that Genesis 1 should be understood scientifically, but not too scientifically. It didn’t happen millions of billions of years ago, but at the same time, a “day” isn’t really a 24-hour day (p. 65) and the only real point of the creation account is to tell us that God made mankind in His image (p. 70).

tough questions KaiserI also got somewhat upset when he rejected out of hand the idea that Moses was writing a polemic against the religions of his day. He said that this sort of idea has been “thoroughly discredited” (p. 63). I find this funny, because most of the scholars I have read in my own research and study do not share Kaiser’s opinion.

Overall, I found this chapter highly confusing and unconvincing. After reading it twice, I still was not sure what Kaiser was saying.

5. The God of Grace or the God of Law?

Kaiser’s answer is “God is both!” He uses the “Threefold division of the law” argument to make his case (p. 80) that while Christians should still follow the moral law, while rejecting the others.

But Kaiser knows that this arbitrary divisions of the law is not found within the Bible itself, but is forced upon the text by some scholars who want to keep some portions of the law, but not others.

6. The God of Monogamy or the God of Polygamy?

Kaiser’s answer is that while there are numerous examples of polygamy being practiced in the Bible, the clear New Testament teaching is that polygamy was a sin (p. 102).

I find this approach highly interesting, since earlier, Kaiser said that scholars should not allow the New Testament to guide or direct their understanding of Old Testament texts. I happen to agree with Kaiser, but I find it interesting that he appeals to the New Testament when it suits him.

7. The God Who Rules Satan or the God Who Battles Satan?

Kaiser argues that God created Satan to be good, but Satan rebelled and so God expelled Satan from heaven (p. 116). God allows Satan to continue to exist, just as God allows all of us rebellious sinners to exist.

I really don’t disagree too much with what Kaiser writes in this chapter, though I would have nuanced everything quite differently.

8. The God Who is Omniscient or the God who Doesn’t Know the Future?

Kaiser’s opinion is that God obviously knows everything, and that all the verses in the Bible which seem to indicate otherwise are nothing but anthropomorphisms (speaking about God in human terms).

Kaiser’s problem here is that he has created a false dichotomy. From a philosophical perspective, there are numerous other options, including middle knowledge, and knowledge of counterfactuals, and even the omniscient knowledge of all possible future events without knowledge of which future event will actually occur. In that last case, is it omniscience or is it not? I say yes.

9. The God who Elevates Women or the God Who Devalues Women?

This may be the best chapter in the book. Kaiser believes that all ministries and gifts are for all people in the family of God, both men and women included (p. 154).

I agree with Kaiser on this, so there is no objection from me.

10. The God of Freedom with Food or the God of Forbidden Food?

Apparently, Kaiser believes we still cannot eat pork or shellfish. According to Kaiser, all the Old Testament food laws are still to be followed today. Why? Because the prescribed foods are healthier, and the forbidden foods are unhealthy (p. 169).

Tough Questions KaiserAgain, as with much of the rest of the book, I was shocked to read Kaiser’s answers and the logic he used to arrive at those answers. He completely negated everything taught by Jesus, Peter, and Paul about all foods being clean, permitted, and allowed.

Conclusion

I cannot recommend this book to anyone. Though the chapter on how God values women was worthwhile reading, the damage done by every other chapter in the book to the Gospel, to the character of God, and to the witness of the church in this world makes this book not worth reading.

The saddest thing of all is in the introduction to the book, Kaiser recognizes that the vast majority of those in their 20s and 30s are “the non-attenders at church and the non-religious” (p. 10). Kaiser thinks this is a bad thing (I think it is good), but what Kaiser fails to understand is that it is exactly the kind of theology he presents in this book which has caused most of those people to leave the church and give up on God.

Until our understanding of Scripture and our explanation of theology (and how we live out both in the world) are brought into conformity to Jesus Christ, people of all ages will continue to reject (and rightfully so) the teachings and theology of the church.

[FTC Disclosure: I was given a review copy of this book by Kregel Publications in exchange for an honest review. I hope they don’t regret it!]

Salvation is Like a Seven-Foot Invisible Rabbit

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This is a guest post by Peter Rouzaud. Peter recently started reading this blog, and then later discovered that he and I live in the same town! So we met for coffee and he shared with me some of his articles he has written. Below is one of these articles.Peter has also written a book called Finding Perfect Peace which can be found on Amazon.

Have you ever seen the movie “Harvey“?

It’s a great old movie, staring Jimmy Stewart. Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, an eccentric whose good friend is a seven-foot rabbit that talks. The only problem is that Dowd is the only one that can see or hear his friend Harvey. Understandably, this creates lots of problems for Dowd.

Harvey DowdNow just imagine if this were possible: Imagine that you had a friend that no one could see, no one else could hear, yet whom you could see and hear perfectly. How would this make you feel? Among other feelings, I think it would make you feel special. But you would certainly have trouble communicating to others who and what your friend was.

This, I think, is a great example of ‘faith in Christ.’ No matter what I say about Him. No matter how passionate I am in my explanations, it is impossible for me to adequately describe who Jesus is to me. I may say to you, “Jesus told me something today’. Or, “Jesus is helping me in this way today.” Or, “Jesus did something very great in my life today.”

If you grew up in the church, you might understand what I mean. On the other hand, you might look at me as if I said that Harvey the seven-foot rabbit did and said all these things.

relationship with GodEach of us have experiences with Jesus that make sense to us, but which are difficult, if not impossible, to explain to other people. But this does not mean our experience with Jesus is a figment of our imagination.

Spiritual Experiences and the Christian

Before I go on, let me say that I am not advocating or promoting purely unsubstantiated, subjective experiences. Every religion has it’s esoteric experiences. Voodoo has its emotional trances. Mormonism has its ‘burning in the bosom.’ Pentecostalism has its tongues and prophetic utterances. All these use such experiences to claim legitimacy and to validate the “faithful.” But this is not what I am talking about.

Neither am I saying that ‘all personal experiences are somehow OK and right for the individual and we should not judge others experiences; because they are just as legitimate as our own.’

No, what I am saying is that God can give you an experience that is unique to you, and He can give me an experience that is unique to me. And just as I have to trust my experience, you have to trust your own! And just as neither one of us can fully understand or share the experience of the other, so also, neither one of us can directly challenge or invalidate the experience of the other.

A Validation of Your Experience with God

Here are some thoughts which validate your unique experience with God:

  • It’s is impossible for God to lie (Num 23:19)
  • God said that if you seek Him with your ‘whole’ heart you would find Him (Prov. 2:1-10)
  • Jesus said that God wants us to worship Him is Spirit and in truth (John 4:24)
  • The apostle John said that the Spirit of God would lead us into all truth (1 John 2:27 )
  • Jesus said that , ‘all that came to Him, he would not cast us out (John 6:37)
  • Jesus said that he would actually live inside us by his Spirit (John 14:16-17)

Essentially, all religion is subjective; none of it can be scientifically proven to be genuine.

relationship with GodThis is not to say that all religion is valid; only that God is the one that judges its validity. But aside from its subjective nature, pure religion must have its source from God. And if the source is from God, I don’t have any control over your experience. I may have an opinion about it, but ultimately, your experience is between you and God.

Experience is a part of Relationship

God wants a relationship with his children (us humans). But just as with any relationship, there are conditions for how that relationship begins and continues.

But a problem arises among Christians when I begin to think that the conditions and experiences of my relationship with God are normative for all other children of God. We get into trouble if I think that my relationship with God is what every other relationship with God should look like.

But this expectation does not match any other relationship in life. While there are similarities in all marriages, no marriage relationship began or continued to develop like any other marriage relationship. Every marriage is unique. In the same way, While there may be some similarities in all parent-child relationships, no parent-child relationship progressed or grew like any other parent-child relationship.

So if my marriage looks nothing like your marriage, do I have any right to say that you are not, in fact, married? No!

But this is what we sometimes to as Christians.

I look at how I became a child of God and if your story of how you became a child of God does not match up with mine, I might be tempted to think that you are not, in fact, a child of God at all! Or if I have certain experiences in my relationship with Jesus, but you don’t share those experiences at all, I might be tempted to think you don’t have a relationship with Jesus. In both cases, you might think the same thing about me. And if we get to arguing about this, it’s going to cause divisions and problems.

Thankfully, God has it all figured out

One thing we can be sure of, and this is what we must hold to, is that God knows every man intimately, and He promised to reveal Himself to any man who wants to know Him.

So it matters little what I think of your experience with God. Nor does it matter what you think of my experience. What matters is what God sees deep down in our heart.

following JesusThe tricky part, however, is what we see from Elwood P. Dowd. Though his belief in Harvey made him different, I am certain that it is not God’s intent just to make us different from the world. His intent is more complicated than that.

I have found that my relationship with God does make me different, but there is the huge distinction. Harvey made Dowd different according to Dowd’s own propensities, but Jesus makes each of us different according to God’s propensities and His character. This is never easy, and there is a strong part of me that continually fights this change. But change I do, not just outwardly, but deep inside.

And, by the way, this is how I know that my relationship with my “invisible friend” is genuine: my propensities change into something I never wanted or imagined.

To try to convince anyone of this subjective experience is futile, and a waste of time. The fact is, God does a better job, we only need to ask Him to reveal Himself to us, and if our heart is honest, He will.

Are you uncomfortable with comparing your relationship with Jesus to Dowd’s relationship with an invisible, talking rabbit? Explain why in the comment section below.

Or maybe it gives you comfort to know that your relationship with Jesus has been tailor-made to fit you and your personality, and to bring you into a deeper relationship with God, so that what you experience with God will not ever be duplicated or matched by any other person you encounter? Maybe this gives you the freedom to stop trying to “measure up” to the experiences of others.

[#13] Genesis 1:14-19 (Part 3) – 7 Theological Insights from the Sun, Moon, and Stars

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One Verse PodcastToday we conclude our 3 Part discussion of Genesis 1:14-19.

Previously, we learned that Moses did not intend to write a scientific explanation of how the sun, moon, and stars came into existence, but instead wanted the Hebrew people to understand how Yahweh was different and better than the gods of Canaan, Egypt, and Babylon, with which the Hebrew people were familiar.

In the previous episode, we really only saw that Moses was in fact writing a polemic against the gods of these other religions and cultures.

This episode concludes this study of Genesis 1:14-19 by showing the seven ways that Moses differentiates Yahweh from the deities of these surrounding nations and cultures.

Genesis 1:14-19 Sun moon and stars

The Text of Genesis 1:14-19

Genesis 1:14-19. Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light to the earth”; and it was so.

Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

In this discussion of Genesis 1:14-19 we look at:

  • Why the sunrise is not the pinnacle of creation.
  • Why Moses waited until Day 4 to introduce the sun, moon, and stars.
  • Why time existed prior to the sun, moon, and stars.
  • The significance of Moses not even naming the sun and moon.
  • The theological truth about the stars being nearly ignored on Day 4.
  • The reason Moses repeats the phrase, “and it was evening, and it was morning.”
  • The truth that God faces no battles for our continued, daily existence.

Resources:

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Where’s My Comment?

1 Comment

Ever wonder what happened to your comment?

If it’s the first time you commented, it automatically went into pending. Otherwise, our spam checker probably tossed it into the spam folder.

We get hundreds of spam comments most days.

comment spam

Do you want to buy athletic shoes, jerseys, fairy dolls, power tools, short pink prom dresses, Viagra, Cialis or other questionable drugs? Are you interested in live sex, video sex. polygamy, group sex, sex cams, sex toys and every imaginable kind of pornography and some you probably haven’t imagined?

Would you like to hear what Satan, Santa, demons, or angels have to say and sell? Are you interested in ads in Japanese, Chinese, German, French, and more?

If your comment disappears, be patient. We try to check the pending comments and the spam folder several times every day, looking for legitimate comments. If it looks like a legitimate comment, it will probably be approved. Refer to our Comment Policy for more.

Some comment spam is nonsensical.

It is probably left by “spam bots” which are computer programs that leave spam comments in the attempt to create links back to other websites. These spam comments usually contains links to sites that are selling something.

spam commentsWe’ve been collecting a few short excerpts from some G rated spams (minus the sales links) that have come in recently and thought you might find them amusing. I have added my own “reply” to these spam comments:

Woh I am lucky to find this website. I do not even know how I ended up here. I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out. Yes, this has now happened to me 3 times.

Woh! I am reading your comment while wearing glasses, and now I think I need a prescription. Do you recommend anything good?

This may not be the best place to ask this, but I’d like to buy a limo in Orlando. My relatives all the time say that I am killing my time here at net.

No, this was not the best place to ask that question. In fact, it may have been the worst place. You should definitely listen to your relatives.

I want to start a blog for some adult oriented, romantic fantasy literature. I’m going to watch out for brussels. Don him with a vasovagal syncope. You should deplete the remedy barely after talking to the doctor, who “provides” artificial light during the shorter winter days so your chickens will continue to lay, therefor accelerating the process of healing.

I think you meant brussel sprouts. The chicken captain says the shoe goo won’t work in his radio any more and if you could put more cream in the coffee, the notebook will no longer lose all the pages. grass.

This my friend is what a real Bavarian Illuminati controller looks like on paper and you will never see him on TV flashing mason gang signs. They pray to Tortilla Jesus. They give thanks and praise to the Holy Virgin Grilled Cheese Sammitch. He their first draft pick. The doctrine raises serotonin within the head.

If the Holy Virgin Grilled Cheese Sammitch was the first draft pick of the Bavarian Illuminati, I doubt Tortilla Jesus is going to help them win many games.

Yesterday, while I was at work, my cousin stole my iPad and tested to see if it can survive a 40 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. I need a spet in this house to resolve my problem.

Hmmm. Maybe you should see if your cousin can survive a 40 foot drop. That will make both of you a YouTube sensation.

where is my comment

This post is very unearthly. I enjoy your writing type, do maintain on writing! What a information of un-ambiguity and preserveness of precious experience regarding unpredicted emotions. Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account. Sketches are in fact pleasant source of teaching instead of content.

Your comment is unearthly as well, and is full of ambiguity and amusement. It also appears that some comments are written by brain-dead individuals.

I am waiting for my visa. Can you tell me when it will approve? Trained of to them of money of you road done. I’m looking for clothing and style ideas at a reasonable prices for a woman over 25.

I sort of hope your visa is never approved…

At this moment I am going away to do my breakfast, afterward having my breakfast coming yet again to read more news. Let me take a nap.

I think you may need more than a nap.

Spam Comments

After considering such wisdom, shall we all give praise to the Holy Virgin Grilled Cheese Sammitch? If that interests you, you may want to check out the movie “Henry Poole Is Here”, a great family movie.

As for your normal comments, if you leave one, and it doesn’t appear right away, be patient. I, or my moderator, will get to it soon.

How would you respond to some of the spam comments above? Leave you own comment below. Feel free to be snarky!

The New Reformation has Begun (Are you part of it?)

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October 31 is not just Halloween. It is also “Reformation Day,” which commemorates the day on which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church door in Wittenburg and sparked off the Reformation in 1517.

I have often thought that I would have liked to live back then. They were amazing times. There was not only great upheaval and changes within the church and theology, but these changes also took place along with the Renaissance, the scientific revolution, and eventually, the Enlightenment.

These were times of great advances in science, medicine, engineering, art, music, and theology. Imagine living during the time of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, and Calvin!

Well, guess what?

You are!

You and I are currently living in the middle of a new Renaissance! A new Enlightenment! A new Reformation!

Martin Luther Reformation

The New Reformation is Here

Imagine how exciting it would have been to live in the days when the “New World” had been discovered and Spain, Portugal, France, and England were racing each other to place colonies on this new land to the West.

Well, in case you missed it, there is a race right now to put human colonies on the moon and on Mars. China, Russia, and Europe are racing to put a colony on the moon, while MarsOne, NASA, and SpaceX are racing each other to put human colonies on Mars by 2030. That’s fifteen years away.

colony on Mars

Then there are the advances in Quantum Physics. The discoveries of Quantum Physics are unraveling much of what we think we know about time, matter, energy, and space. For example, it appears that reality does not exist unless you are actually looking at it. Furthermore, it appears that quantum particles can communicate with themselves in their past, so that events in the present can ripple back in time. Recent studies from just last week have proved quantum entanglement, that two entangled electrons can communicate with each other instantaneously, no matter how far apart from each other they are. Believe it or not, these sorts of discoveries will eventually trickle down into theology, requiring us to rethink much about creation, prayer, the afterlife, the flow of time, and numerous related subjects.

But that’s not all…

The advances toward Artificial Intelligence and discovering life on other planets threaten to undo and change everything we think we know about ourselves and about how we came to exist. For example, if life is found on another planet (and scientists are certain they will find it), what will this mean for our understanding of Genesis 1:16 that God “made the stars also”? If we are able to develop Artificial Intelligence that rapidly becomes smarter than humans, what will this do to our understanding of Genesis 1:26-27 about humans being made in the image of God?

The changes in theology are not all just potential future changes, however.

The Christian theological world is already full of upheaval. There is an earthquake going on right now in theology surrounding the issues of justification, the violence of God, the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, and what it means to be the church–the people of God in this world.

We are living in exciting times. Times that future people will look back upon and say, “Wow! Can you imagine living in the early 21st century? There was so much going on! So many changes! Because of what happened then, the world has never been the same!”

A few things to expect in the next few decades

If history is any guide (and it usually is) the current Renaissance, Revolution, Reformation, Enlightenment will be accompanied by several factors.

Below, I have listed some factors that will contribute to the New Reformation along with some changes that we will see as a result.

1. Disaster

black deathFirst, on the negative side, it is quite likely that there will be some sort of rampant disease, catastrophe, or war which will serve as the final catalyst for the future changes.

This will be some sort of humanitarian crisis or a tipping point among world governments. It might be a financial collapse. It might be a medical disaster (the Black Plague helped kindle the Renaissance). It might be a war. It might be a drought and famine. It might be all of these combined.

I don’t say any of this to scare you. There is not much that can be done about it. I am just saying that usually, these sorts of disasters and catastrophes help spur the human race on toward a new level of understanding and unity, which make further advances easier.

2. Voices from Below

Second, however, as I look around at what the World Wide Web is ushering in, I think that this new Reformation will not come from the leaders and those in power, but will come from below. The internet has given everyone a voice. The gatekeepers no longer have the power to silence the masses.

Now with blogs, podcasts, YouTube, etc., anybody can make their voice heard. So the new Reformation will be led, not by a few key voices at the top of the hierarchy, but by a large number of voices near the bottom. This Reformation will be launched from the “uneducated.” From the “unschooled.” From the blogs and podcasts of the non-professionals.

So if you are starting a blog or a podcast right now, you are well situated to be one of these voices. (If you need help on these, let me know!)

3. Leadership from Women

Third, I believe that this new Reformation will contain a piece of the theological puzzle which has LONG been missing from the church. What piece is that? It is the voices of women. I firmly believe that one of the major problems with historical/traditional Christian theology is that it has primarily been written by men. As a result, theology has often shifted away from the one thing it is supposed to do, which is to engender love and relationships among people.

Voices of women will play a larger role than ever before, which will allow the church to adopt a stance toward people that has always been missing in traditionally male hierarchy.

reformation
Where are the women?

The voices of women will bring theology and the church back to the way they were always meant to be. So if you are a woman, and want to contribute, please, start a blog, start a podcast, start a YouTube channel, write a book.

4. Direction from the Poor and the Minorities

Fourth, I believe that the new Reformation will include a new focus on minorities and the poor. I believe that new thinking and revolutionary ideas will not come from the rich and the powerful, but from those who have traditionally been ignored and silenced. Voices of the poor and the minorities will have a larger role in the changes that will occur in culture and the church.

5. Church will become less centralized

Fifth, just as the first Reformation resulted in church becoming less focused on a hierarchy of priests to lead and teach it, I believe this trend will continue in the second Reformation.

The Reformers, as wonderful as they were, still retained the Magisterial, hierarchical, building-centered approach to doing church which began after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.

Millions of people are now seeing how empty that structure is, and are leaving the Sunday-morning, leadership-led, entertainment-focused style of church to enter into a daily, Spirit-led, relationship-focused style of church. As I reported last week, this trend will soon become the majority trend within the church.

The church will become less and less centralized, which makes it more universal than ever.

6. Church will become a servant to the world

Sixth, as a result of church becoming less centralized, those who focus on being the church in this way will stop thinking that the job of the church is to attract the world, and will begin recognizing that the job of the church is to serve the world.

Church will become less power-centered, and thus, more powerful. This will not be the power of money and position, but will be the power that was present in Jesus – the power of truth, and light, and love.

The church will become less group focused, and more individual focused. This does not mean the church will become individualistic, but that the church will realize that our mission and our task is not to “groups” of people “over there” but to “individual people” who are next to us right now. The newfound power of the church will be the power of individuals loving individuals, rather than groups focusing on groups.

7. Scriptural Understanding Will Change

Seventh, due to all the preceding factors, there will be a radical shift in how people read, understand, teach, and apply Scripture.

new ReformationWords like “inerrancy” and “authority” and “inspiration” will drop out of use, and we will instead begin to hear more about “redemption” and “reconciliation.” That first set of words are “book-focused” which is what theology and the church have been focused on since the cry of sola Scriptura of the first Reformation.

But now, with the focus on relationships, and love, and following Jesus into the world, the church and theology will become more relationship-focused, which is why terms like redemption and reconciliation will become more prominent.

No longer will doctrinal statements be focused on “truths to believe” as a litmus test for orthodoxy. Instead, churches will adopt “Practical statements” which will be focused on truths to practice. We will stop arguing about whether a person believes in inerrancy or not, and start debating about whether anybody is beyond redemption or not.

Ultimately, of course, all these changes in Scriptural understanding will have Jesus as their goal and focus. It is His life and teaching which will serve as the model and framework for how the church progresses into the dawn of the new Reformation and the new age that will follow.

So are you excited to be alive?

You are currently living in a new period of Enlightenment, a new scientific Revolution, and new Renaissance, a new Reformation. Does this excite you?

What do you think about the things I have written above? Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have anything to add?

What are you doing to contribute to or participate in this new Reformation? Share your ideas and suggestions below!

3 Reasons You Should NOT Listen to my Podcast

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I recently launched the One Verse Podcast, and hundreds of people have subscribed so far.

And while most of the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, I have also received a bit of negative feedback from people who subscribed and didn’t like what they heard.

So here are three reasons you should NOT subscribe to my Podcast:

1. Don’t Listen to My Podcast if you are a pastor or professor and want to keep your job.

If you are a pastor, and you are listening to these podcasts, or if you lead a Bible study in your church, let me provide a brief warning. Do yourself a favor and don’t teach any of what I am teaching you to the people in your church. In most cases, if you teach these things about Genesis 1, it will not go well for you.

Pastoral payI think churches are beginning to lighten up a bit on some of this stuff, and consider ideas that maybe they wouldn’t have considered ten years ago, but I have heard so many horror stories of pastors being fired and Bible study leaders getting booted out of the church simply because they taught some of the views I have been sharing in these podcasts.

In fact, when I first started learning about some of the things I am sharing on these podcasts about ten years ago, I was working for a non-profit Christian organization, and I made the mistake of writing a blog post about how I was studying and researching these things. Do you know what happened? I got fired from my job. There were seven things I was studying at the time, and one of them was the issue we have been discussing in this podcast, about whether or not Moses was writing a scientific treatise on how the earth came to be. My boss didn’t like that I was researching these things, and he fired me.

So be careful!

2. Don’t listen to my podcast if you get uncomfortable when your understanding of Scripture is challenged.

In my theological writing and Scriptural research, I have always sought (like Captain Kirk) to “Boldly go where no man has gone before.” But that doesn’t mean that what I write is science fiction! (Though some might think so! Ha!)

Read the BibleNo, what I mean is that I have always sought to investigate a matter from every possible angle. While lots of Christians only read books and listen to teachers with whom they agree, I always do my best to listen to Bible teachers and read Christian books with whom I know I will disagree.

I figure that if what I believe is true, then it can stand up to any and every challenge thrown at it. If, however, what I believe is not true, then the only way to learn the truth is to be taught by those who believe something different than what I believe.

What this means, however, is that what I write and what I teach on my Podcast, is often a strange mixture of ideas gleaned from Dispensational, Reformed, Catholic, Pentecostal, Orthodox, and Jewish sources. Believe it or not, there are even some ideas from Atheistic sources thrown in.

Does that last part shock you? I listen to what Atheists say because the critics of Christianity often speak truths we ourselves are blind to.

Here’s the point: If you don’t like your theology and your views of Scripture to be challenged, you probably don’t want to listen to my Podcast. It will be too upsetting for you.

I am not saying I am right in everything I teach. I am learning right along with you. All I am saying is that the people who will most enjoy the podcast are those who also know that they are not right in everything they believe. This is the third reason you might not want to listen to my podcast.

3. Don’t listen to my podcast if you are a Bible expert and there is nothing else you can learn about Scripture.

I am not a Bible expert. I am a fellow traveler with you on this road of following Jesus.

My blog and podcast are places where I share with you my life-long hobby of reading theology and studying Scripture.

But if you have all your theology figured out and you know what every verse in the Bible means, then you have no need to listen to my podcast and you won’t enjoy it. You will probably just end up thinking I’m some sort of heretic.

On the other hand, if you know that you have much to learn about Scripture and theology, then you are exactly the type of person who should listen to my podcast, because you are the type of person I want to learn from.

Why You Should Listen to My Podcast

One Verse PodcastWhile my podcast is a place for me to teach what I have come to believe about various verses in the Bible, it is much more than that. More than anything, my podcast is a way for me to invite feedback from you, so that I might learn from you as you learn from me.

My podcast, just like this blog, is about inviting you into the conversation. I am not at all interested in telling you what to believe about Scripture and theology. I am very interested, however, in having a cordial conversation with you about Scripture and theology, and how to live it out in our lives so that you and I end up looking and acting more like Jesus.

That is what I hope my podcast accomplishes, and if that interests you, then I look forward to hearing from you about the content in my Podcast. See you there!

[#12] Genesis 1:14-19 (Part 2) – The Sun, Moon, and Stars are not Gods

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One Verse PodcastMany ancient religions were focused around the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. Annual religious holidays and festivals were often guided by the length of the days and the movements of the sun. The twelve months of the year are based upon the waxing and waning of the moon. Even the names of our weekdays are named after certain celestial bodies.

So it is no surprise that when Moses sets out to differentiate the worship of Yahweh from the various religions of his day, he specifically targeted the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. This is what we see today in our second look at Genesis 1:14-19.

This is Part 2 of our 3 Part look at Genesis 1:14-19. Previously, we saw on the fourth day of creation, Moses was not writing a scientific account of how the sun, moon, and stars came into existence.

Today, we see what Moses was writing, which was a polemic against the religious beliefs and practices of his day. Specifically, Moses wanted the Israelites to see that Yahweh was different and better than the gods of Egypt, the gods of Babylon, and the gods of Canaan. This truth was important for the Hebrew people to understand for they were coming from Egypt, were headed toward Canaan, and had been influenced by the beliefs and practices from Babylon. In fact, that region is where their forefather Abraham came from!

So they needed to know who Yahweh was, whether or not He could be trusted, and why they should serve and worship Him alone. You and I have similar questions, which is why today’s study is so important.

Genesis 1:14-19 Sun moon stars

The Text of Genesis 1:14-19

Genesis 1:14-19. Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light to the earth”; and it was so.

Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

In this discussion of Genesis 1:14-19 we look at:

  • How Genesis 1:14-19 is a polemic against the religions of Moses’ day.
  • How Yahweh is superior to the Canaanite chief deity, El.
  • Why “Elohim” is not a reference to the Trinity.
  • How Moses sets Yahweh above the Babylonian god Marduk.
  • How Moses shows that Yahweh is superior to the Egyptian sun god.

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

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Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

Take Online Courses from the Leading New Testament scholar, NT Wright

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In the last episode of Theology.fm, I mentioned that N.T. Wright is one of the scholars and authors who has influenced my thinking the most.

I emailed N.T. Wright about two years ago to inquire about doing Ph.D. work with him, and he gave me some valuable advice. My ultimate decision was that I didn’t have the time or the money right now to get my doctorate. Nevertheless, I would have LOVED to study under him.

So I was thrilled to see this past week that he has three courses available on Udemy. If you were going to take these courses from him at the seminary where he teaches in the UK, they would probably cost around $900 each.

But you and I can now take these courses from N.T. Wright online, at our own pace, in our own time, while saving a bunch of money in the process.

Online Courses with N.T. Wright

NT Wright CoursesChoose from Three Courses:

  1.  N. T. Wright on Galatians – $149
  2. N. T. Wright on the Gospel – $99
  3. N. T. Wright on Worldviews – $199

The great thing about these courses is that they never expire for life, you can take them at your own pace, AND there is a 30-day money back guarantee.

I will probably start with Galatians. Let me know if you take one, and which one you take.

65 Million American Adults Have Left the Church?

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According to recent research, of the 210 million adults in the United States, 65 million of them used to attend church regularly but no longer do, and 2.7 million more leave every year.

Church as we know it is dying.

[Want to read some of the research for yourself? Find numerous church statistics here (much of which seems contradictory) or get Josh Packard’s book which contains the latest research on this subject.]

leaving the church

But, in my opinion, this does not mean at all the church itself is dying.

How could it? Jesus said, “I will build my church …” Do we honestly think He will fail in this?

No, I believe the church of the future looks absolutely nothing like the church most people are familiar with.

In fact, for many people already, the church of the present looks nothing like the church of the past.

But that is not the point of this post…

I want to talk briefly about those 65 million adults who no longer attend church.

65 Million Adults No Longer Attend Church

A recent study on these 65 million adults discovered that while they no longer attend church, 30 million of them still identify themselves as Christian, and are still actively engaged in various practices and relationships that closely mirror some of the activities and relationships a person might practice in a church building except that they are no longer in a church building.

empty pewsThey firmly believe they are followers of Jesus and are still part of the Church, even though they no longer sit in a pew on Sunday morning.

Do you have a problem with that?

I don’t. I say, “May their tribe increase!”

But I don’t really even want to talk about them.

I want to talk about the other 35 million.

35 Million Have Completely Abandoned Jesus?

I want to talk about the 35 million who used to attend church, and who no longer do, and who no longer self-identify as Christians or claim to follow Jesus or worship God in any meaningful way.

For myself, I find that number highly suspect.

I certainly have not done any sort of scientific research into this segment of the population, but I work in an environment where I get to interact with a lot of religious and non-religious people, and I have had countless conversations with people who probably count as one of the 35 million people who used to attend church and identify as Christian, but no longer do.

And it’s true …

… They don’t attend church. They don’t read their Bibles. They don’t pray. They don’t call themselves “Christian.” They don’t claim to follow Jesus. They use coarse language. They live what appears to be completely “secular” lives.

But do you want to know what I have found?

I have yet to talk to a single person who truly has abandoned God or rejected Jesus.

I am not saying these people don’t exist. I know they do. I just think the number is much, much smaller than 35 million. I would be surprised if it was even 10% of that number.

i quit church

Here is why I say this …

When I talk to individuals who used to attend church but now want nothing to do with God, Jesus, church, the Bible, or anything of the sort, one of the initial questions I always ask is, “So why did you leave it all behind? What happened? What changed?”

Without fail, I get an answer that falls somewhere into one of the following sorts of explanations:

The church told me I had to believe in 6 24-hour days of creation 6000 years ago. I couldn’t believe that, so I figured that if this is what it meant to be a Christian, I couldn’t be one.

OR

The church was all about hate. They hated gay people. They hated democrats. They hated Muslims. I have some gay friends. I have some Muslim friends. I am a democrat. So I left Christianity.

OR

Have you read the Old Testament? God is drowning everybody who lives and telling the Israelites to slaughter people. I once told my Bible study leader that I was uncomfortable with a God who does these sorts of things, and he told me that I had to love and worship this God or I couldn’t be a Christian. So I’m not a Christian.

OR

Have you read all those silly laws in the Bible? Laws about what I can and cannot wear? What I can and cannot eat? Who I can and cannot hang out with? I like cheeseburgers. I like bacon. And I like hanging out with people who also like to eat these things. I couldn’t follow a God who made a bunch of dumb laws like that.

OR

My pastor was a pedophile and the church board tried to cover it up so the church wouldn’t split. I wonder how many children he molested which we will never know about? I couldn’t have anything to do with people who cover up things like that. So I left and never looked back.

There are a few other similar explanations I have heard, but those are the sorts of explanations I typically hear.

And do you know how I always respond?

Here is what I say:

Guess what?

God agrees with you.

When you reject a religious group because they are closed off about science, or teach you to hate people because they’re different, or tell you that genocide is good and holy, or cover up child molestation to protect a pastor, God cheers you on.

When you turned your back on these things, you did not turn your back on God.

No, you rejected the things God Himself rejects. You did not turn from God; you turned to God.

The truth is that you know what God is like, apparently better than many church people do.

God is like Jesus, and Jesus accepts everybody, loves everybody, forgives everybody. If you want to live like this toward others, then you have not abandoned God, but have been following Him (even if you didn’t know it).

Jesus condemned genocidal behavior. He condemned all portraits of a violent God. If you condemn genocide and violence, then you have not abandoned God, but have been following Him.

The only people Jesus ever condemned are the religious leaders who had a bunch of silly rules to keep people away from God and who covered over their own hypocritical sins and perversions for the sake of power, manipulation, and control. If you condemn these sorts of behaviors in religious people, then you are condemning the things that God also condemns, and you have not abandoned God, but have been following Him.

A lot of people, when they hear this, look at me sort of skeptically, because they have heard the exact opposite from most churches and church leaders. They often say,

Well, if you’re right, I could maybe follow a God like that. But I’ve never heard this before from anybody.

So if I get the chance, I approach the topic from another direction. I might say,

I don’t know if you believe in God or not. You say you don’t. Fine. But hypothetically, IF God did exist, IF there was a God, what would you like Him to be? How would you like Him to behave? What would you like Him to do?

I am not asking you what you think God is like, or what you think the church says God is like. I am asking you what you would like God to be like … if He exists.

what is god likeThey sit back, and they usually joke around a bit about how they want God to give them a million dollars and a mansion on the beach and let them live forever in perfect health.

But eventually, if I press a bit, they get around to describing a God who is not that worked up about sin, but who loves everybody and teaches people to love everybody.

They describe a God who understands how painful and difficult life is, and who knows that a bunch of religious rules and regulations don’t help.

They dream about a God they can talk to and who is with them in their pain, and fear, and sorrow.

They hope that God accepts people regardless of their sexual or political orientation, who sides with the poor and the outcast, who doesn’t have favorites, and who wants equality, justice, freedom, and fairness for all.

And as they dream dreams out loud about God, I get to smile and, when they are done, say,

Guess what? I’ve got some really good news for you.

The God you have described is the God who exists. THAT is what God IS like. THAT is the God revealed by Jesus.

The God you rejected, the God of popular Christianity, is not God.

You rejected a god who kills, steals, and destroys. But God doesn’t do that. You rejected a satanic version of God, which means that by rejecting that false god, you were actually worshipping the true God!

In your heart, you know God. You know what He is truly like. And so when you rejected the god of religion, you actually turned toward the God who truly is.

In fact, in turning away from that god, you were actually following the true God, and you just didn’t know it.

Most people cannot believe this right away, because they have never heard such a thing before.

But sometimes, this idea leads to further conversations, and further questions.

leaving church

Do you know someone who is angry at God, the Bible, or the church?

If you know someone who is angry at God, the Bible, or the church, praise them for it. Most likely, their anger is Godly anger. Most likely, their disgust is righteous. Most likely, they are representing God’s true heart.

The next time you encounter someone who has “left the church” or “rejected God” rather than tell them that they need to come back, instead, strike up a conversation by asking them what happened, or why they made the decision they did.

And whatever you do, never ever ever EVER have this conversation with the goal of inviting such a person to come to your church. Never.

no churchIf you have this sort of conversation with someone, and then you end it with, “So come to our church on Sunday! This is what our pastor teaches! His sermons are great!” you will probably never have a conversation with that person again. They will think that the only reason you said what you said was to get them into a pew at your church. They will see it as manipulative (and they would be right).

In fact, even if the person offers on their own to attend your church, please, tell them not to. Obviously, you cannot forbid them to visit your church, but gently tell them that since they know God so well, they don’t really need to “attend a church” on Sunday morning.

Invite them instead to just be open on a daily basis to what God wants to show them about Himself. Tell them that apparently, God has led them out of the institutional church for a reason, and so He might not want them to go back in. They are still part of His Church, but there might be something else He has in store for them that does not involve singing songs and listening to a sermon on Sunday morning.

Tell them that apparently, they have been doing a fine job of following Jesus, and they should simply be open to seeing where He leads them next.

This will be such a relief to them, that it might be just the thing they need to hear to encourage them to seek God and follow Him intentionally for the first time in their lives. For you have just told them that God is with them, that God wants to lead them, that they can hear from God and know Him within the community of friends they already have. They don’t need to add something “spiritual” to their life; they only need to recognize that God is already there with them, that their entire life is already spiritual.

So those are my thoughts about the so-called “35 million who have turned away from God.” I don’t think they need someone to invite them to “return.” No, what they need is for someone to praise them for their choice, and tell them that in rejecting a manipulative, fear/guilt/shame-based, violent religion, they have not abandoned God, but have actually followed Him into a place that look, sounds, and acts more like Jesus.

Maybe you will be that someone…

If this were my only blog post, I would invite you to do one thing…

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I have participated in the Synchroblog for quite a while. But just as all good things must come to an end, the Synchroblog is closing shop. For this last synchroblog, participants were asked to write a blog post as if it were their only blog post ever.

In other words, if I had just one blog post to write, what would it be?

I have spent the last several weeks thinking about what I would write if I could write only one post.

I knew that it had to have something to do with Scripture and theology, since that is what I enjoy writing about. I wanted to write about some of the central biblical and theological truths that had rocked my world over the past decade, such as mimetic rivalry and scapegoating, or my growing conviction that God is not violent.

I also knew that it had to have something to do with the radical, free grace of God in Jesus Christ. Since so many people are caught up today in some form of works-based, guilt-based, performance-based religion, the outrageous, shocking, scandalous grace of God is a nuclear bomb that demolished everything you think you know about God and following Jesus, but at the same time, rebuilds and regrows everything into a new relationship with God built on love, joy, and freedom.

follow JesusBut I also knew that knowing Scripture, and knowing theology, and knowing about grace is not really the point of it all. The point of it all is to actually live this stuff out in real-world relationships by loving other people.

In the end, I finally realized that all these themes were centered on one common thing. Or I should say, they were centered on one common person: Jesus.

Jesus truly is all

If you want to understand the character and nature of God, just look at Jesus. Since God looks like Jesus, all proper thinking about God begins and ends with Jesus. Once you view God through Jesus, you begin to understand God so much more.

It is Jesus who revealed the mimetic rivalry and the scapegoating sacrifices that both threaten and bind all human cultures, civilizations, religions, and relationships. Once you view humanity through Jesus, you begin to understand humanity so much more.

It is Jesus who reveals that God is not violent; that there is no violence in God at all. And because of this, if you want to understand the violence of God in the Bible, you need to begin by looking at Jesus, and especially what Jesus did on the cross and how He appeared on the cross. “Christ, and Him crucified” is the key to understanding divine violence.

It is in the life of Jesus where you see most clearly what shocking, scandalous, outrageous grace looks like. While religion keeps sinners at a distance, Jesus parties with them like there’s no tomorrow. He makes friends with the worst of the worst (from a religious perspective) and tells stories which make heroes out of all the wrong people. He loves those the world says are unlovely. He touches the untouchable. He forgives those who think they cannot be forgiven.

All of this, of course, was no mere “theology” for Jesus. Jesus didn’t have a “theology” so much as He had a life focused on love. Everything that He said and did was to show people that He liked them, that He loved them, that He wanted to be with them.

The example of Jesus is so strong, that even people who do not believe in God, or who think that Jesus is a figment of historical imagination, are still inspired by the example of Jesus to live with more love toward others. The pull of Jesus is so strong, that in one sense, all the world is following Jesus.

following Jesus

So if I only had one message, one article, one blog post, or one thing to say to you, it would be this:

Follow Jesus.

I don’t care what you think about Jesus. I don’t care what you think about God. I don’t care what you think about Christians, or the Bible, or church, or politics, or religion, or anything else that people get so wrapped up in. My invitation to you is still the same:

Just follow Jesus.

follow JesusAnd trust me … if you follow Jesus, you will never get bored.

Jesus will lead you to the craziest of places and teach you the most amazing things. He will help you become truly “you.”

If you want to learn about God, Jesus will show you what God is like.

If you want to understand the Bible, Jesus will be happy to explain it to you.

If you want to get along with your neighbor, your boss, your spouse, or even your enemy, Jesus specializes in helping us learn to love.

I have written over 2000 blog posts on this blog, and while it may not be obvious on all the posts, every single one of them has been focused on one thing: I want to follow Jesus wherever He leads and I invite you to do the same.

But how can you follow Jesus?

I always try to be somewhat practical on this blog. I know that the invitation to “follow Jesus” is a little vague. We hear it so often in sermons and books, it has come to be almost meaningless.

So you might be asking these sorts of questions:

What does it mean to follow Jesus? How can someone do it? What are the steps? How can you follow someone you cannot see or hear?

My answer will probably not be very helpful, but it’s the best one I’ve got. My answer this:

You follow Jesus by believing that He’s leading you.

That’s it.

I know this is still terribly impractical, but it’s the only way I know to describe it.

There are no 10 steps for you to learn.

There are no doctrinal statements to sign.

There are no meetings to attend.

There are no Bible studies to take.

You simply trust that as you go about your day, Jesus is leading you. Following Jesus begins with a mental conviction, a mindset, or a frame of reference that Jesus is leading you.

And He will.

You won’t see much change immediately.

It might take a couple months, years, or even decades. But eventually, you look around in wonder and think, “How in the world did I get here?”

Jesus will wink and smile, and say, “Just wait until you see where I take you next. You ready?”

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