Archives - Redeeming God

Christian unity is one of the highest Christian goals, which is why we are always encouraging one another to grow in unity.

Toward that end, we have all heard (or said) things like this:

“We need to all grow together in unity!”

“We all must come together in unity on this subject!”

“We invite you to join us as we grow in unity with one another!”

But sometimes I wonder…. is it really unity we are after, or just keeping the peace?

Is Unity the Same as Keeping the Peace?

Often times (in my experience anyway), what is called “unity” really just boils down to a mutually agreed upon list of beliefs and behaviors that are considered “safe” by everyone within the group. The controversial activities and hot-button topics are considered “off limits” so that everyone can be “unified.” But again, is this really unity?

I have trouble thinking that “agreeing to not discuss certain topics” is what Jesus meant by “unity” when He prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one (John 17:21). It seems that this is not true unity, but is a forced unity… a fake unity. a unity that is based not on love for other people no matter what, but is based instead on a mutual agreement to not discuss certain subjects or do certain things when we are together.

I do, of course, remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians about giving up some of his freedoms for the sake of other Christians, and while I understand that this is an essential part of growing in unity, I wonder if this is all that unity is…. you know… a list of rules about what not to talk about around Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, a set of behaviors to not do when in the presence of Pastor Jim, a personal interest to keep hidden from Elder Bob, and my political leanings to stay silent about around Miss Morrell.

Is this real unity? Hiding who we really are from other people just so we can get along?

Is True Unity Possible?

I have a real hard time believe it is, but at the same time, this seems to be the most unified we Christians can get. There are so many differences of opinion on nearly ever subject under the sun and every behavior imaginable, how in the world can we ever be unified? It is impossible to think that we will all become clones of each other, thinking and behaving in exactly the same way, so how can we grow in unity if there will never be unity of thought and unity of behavior this side of heaven? (And maybe not even then???)

I have been thinking on this for a long time, and while I don’t have the answers, I think I am beginning to see a speck of light on how to grow in unity with one another, while still allowing for great disunity on a vast array of theological beliefs and Christian behaviors.

[Read more…]

Happy Dadd Day

By Jeremy Myers

2 Comments

Happy Father’s Day!

I want to thank my own dad for being a great father to 10 kids (yes, there were ten of us!), and always being calm, cool, and (for the most part) collected. I always remember my friends saying to me, “Nothing fazes your dad, does it?” I guess you had to be this way with 10 kids in the house….

Since I am now a father, I have tried to practice some of that cool-headedness. Of course, I don’t have ten children… only three. I am the proud father of three girls. And based on how beautiful they are, I know I am headed for trouble.

So I laughed when I saw these pictures.

[Read more…]

Is God Lying about His Involvement in Violence?

By Jeremy Myers

24 Comments

One common objection to the proposal I am making in my series on how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament (see the link list below) is that this view seems to make God out to be a liar.

The objection is this: If God inspired the biblical authors to record that He is doing and commanding things that He is actually not doing or commanding, doesn’t this mean that God is lying? But Scripture says that God does not lie (Num 23:19). So how can God inspire biblical authors to write that He commanded Israel to do things that He did not actually command them to do? As with the previous objection, there are a few things that can be said in response.

If God Did Commit Violence, Then Jesus is a Liar

First, we can turn the question around. It seems that if God truly is violent, then the real lie is in Jesus claiming to fully reveal God to us, but not showing or revealing any of the murderous and bloody violence that so characterized God in the Old Testament. Take for example, John 14:9-11. Philip says to Jesus, “Show us the Father,” and in response Jesus says, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

But if God truly does have a violent and bloody side then Jesus was being deceptive, for nowhere in His life or ministry did He reveal God as someone who goes to war against His enemies or commands the genocide of people who do not love or obey Him.

If there is a dark side to God, it was certainly hidden in Jesus during His ministry, which means that when Jesus tells Philip, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” what He really meant was “You haven’t fully seen the Father; only the loving side.” If God really is violent, but Jesus revealed none of this violence, then the real lie is Jesus hiding this side of God from us so that He appeared more loving and gracious than He truly is.

If someone believes that God truly is violent, the burden of proof lies on them to explain how Jesus fully reveals God to us but fails to reveal the violent and bloody side of God’s nature. If Jesus is the exact representation of God and is the image of the invisible God (John 1:14, 18; 14:9-11; 2 Cor 4:4; Php 2:6; Col 1:15; Heb 1:2-3), but during His life and ministry never revealed the aspect of God as a warrior, then there are only two options: either God is not a warrior and Jesus did truly reveal the Father to us, or Jesus was being deceptive.

[Read more…]

It’s Right for God to Slaughter Women and Children Anytime He Pleases

By Jeremy Myers

16 Comments

Did you hear what John Piper said online a few years back? Check out this quote:

It’s right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases. God gives life and he takes life. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die.

That is not the God I know.

Yuri Wijting on Facebook directed me to an article by Peter Enns which talked about this statement by John Piper.

Here are a couple things Peter Enns said in response to John Piper:

1. It is unguarded to make a general principle of God’s character on the basis of the treatment of the Canaanites in the Old Testament. Of course, Piper would likely retort that all of Scripture is God-breathed, does not mislead us, and reveals the character of God. But then he would need to address squarely Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that “death to our enemies” is no longer valid.

The insider-outsider premise that undergirds Canaanite slaughter (and the killing of many of Israel’s enemies in the Old Testament–see #3) is the very thing Jesus squashed: “My kingdom is not of this world.” That alone should give Piper pause from venturing forward with his assessment of God’s character on the basis of how Canaanites are dealt with.

2. Following on #1, “the Bible said it, that settles it” answer to God’s violence in the Old Testament not only runs into problems with respect to the New Testament but the Old Testament as well. There is a fair amount of theological diversity in the Old Testament regarding the nature of God’s judgment on the nations that would need to be taken into account. (For example, compare Jonah and Nahum on the fate of Assyria; the glorious fate of Egypt in Isaiah 19:23-25.) To make one view on such a thorny issue the model for how God acts throughout time runs the danger of privileging certain texts that support one’s theology.

If you get a chance, go read the rest of the article by Peter Enns. It is excellent.

I thought about adding a few choice words of my own directed at John Piper, but then I realized I was not angry. Instead, I was extremely, extremely sad.

[Read more…]

Help the Lost Get Found

By Jeremy Myers

Does Jesus Condemn People? NO!

By Jeremy Myers

24 Comments

Okay, okay, the title might be a little too strong. I do believe that Jesus is the righteous judge of the world and that we will all stand before Him to give an accounting, and that based on the judgment of Jesus, some will be eternally separated from God… So don’t rake me over the coals too much for that title….

I am only wrote that title in connection to Romans 8:34 due to a comment that was left on someone else’s blog about my recent series on God, violence, and evil. Here is what happened:

Peter Kirk recently posted a quote from one of my blog posts (if you do this, let me know so I can come interact with your readers!), and one of the people who left comments strongly disagreed with my ideas, and quoted Romans 8:34 this way: “Who is it that condemns? Christ Jesus…”

Whoa!

Is that a verse which says that Jesus Christ does actually condemn people? When I saw that verse, I blinked and shook my head and thought, “Really? How could I have missed that all these years?”

So I went and looked it up.

And guess what? The devil is in the dots. The problem is with the ellipses (…).

I know we all use them, but always be wary of Scripture quotations that include ellipses.

In Romans 8:34, Paul is not answering his question and saying that Jesus Christ condemns. No! Exactly the opposite. Paul is saying Jesus Christ is the only one who could condemn, but far from condemning anyone, Jesus died for us and intercedes for us! This is the only way to make Roman 8:34 fit with Romans 8:1.

Romans 8:34 should be understood this way: “Who is he who condemns? Jesus Christ is the only one who could, but He doesn’t! Instead, he died for us, and rose again from the dead, and now intercedes for us at the right hand of God the Father in heaven!”

Beautiful! Far from condemning humanity, Jesus loves us, died for us, and now intercedes for us!

Look, I know that not everybody will agree with the theory I am proposing about how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament (see the link list at the bottom of this post).

[Read more…]

The Greatest Act of Courage

By Jeremy Myers

20 Comments

Nelson Mandela once said “Courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

This is a great insight.

Although maybe John Wayne said it slightly better: “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.”

People sometimes think that the courageous person does not feel fear in the midst of great danger and potential personal harm. But this is not true. If someone is facing great danger and they feel no fear, they are not courageous, but ignorant and foolish. Fear is natural and normal in dangerous situations. The courageous person is not someone who feels no fear, but who runs headlong into danger despite the fear.

Yet while I like this understanding of courage, it is usually only applied to acts of valor that we might see on a battlefield or in a daring rescue operation. We think of the soldier who charges forward against a spray of enemy bullets to rescue a wounded comrade. We think of a policeman who stands alone against criminals intent on doing harm, holding them back until reinforcements arrive. We think of firemen who enter burning buildings to pull terrified children from the flames.

These are all, undoubtedly, great acts of courage. But I do not think they are the greatest possible act of courage. No, the greatest possible act of courage is the courage it takes to forgive.

The Courage to Forgive

When we are wronged, slandered, hurt, or abused, our entire body, soul, and spirit screams against the idea of forgiveness. We want revenge! We want retaliation! We want the person who did us wrong to suffer as we have suffered.

But more than that, we do not want to be hurt in the same way again. We fear that if we forgive someone for what they have done, they will continue to abuse and hurt us in similar ways.

[Read more…]

6 Ways to Explain Bible Contradictions

By Jeremy Myers

3 Comments

This is a guest post by Vince Latorre. As a young boy, Vince always had an inquisitive nature. He immediately wanted the answers to questions such as “Is there a God?” “How did I get here?” “How was the world and universe created?” His search for answers to these questions led him to a personal encounter with Christ at age nine or ten. As his faith grew, his desire to analytically research and validate the Word of God intensified.

Latorre spent many hours in libraries and bookstores sifting through more than 200 books and hundreds of articles on science, Bible textual criticism, and theology. As he researched these, the author began to see the powerful scientific evidence for creation as well as the evidence for the historical reliability of the Bible. . In his latest book, The Bible Can Be Proven, Vince Latorre shares the results of his research to strengthen believers and inform honest seekers.

Latorre is presently an accountant in a government agency, has taught Sunday School and Bible Studies for twenty four years, and is a Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church, speaking to students at high school and adult levels in many churches, including his own. You may contact Vince through one of the following:

Web site and Blog: The Bible Can Be Proven
Facebook: The Bible Can Be Proven
Twitter: Vince Latorre

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

We hear a lot about Bible “contradictions” from people these days. Many say that because of these discrepancies the reliability of the Bible cannot be trusted. Especially brought up are the four gospels, since they have many parallel accounts that have surface disagreements with one another. But these supposed contradictions in the Bible need not destroy your faith. Quite to the contrary, if approached properly, supposed contradictions in Scripture can actually help strengthen our faith.

Let me give you six different ways you can explain these supposedly fatal contradictions.

1. Biblical Authors Sometimes “Paraphrase”

In first century culture, it was permissible to vary the exact wording when you quoted someone, as long as the meaning of the quote remained intact. They could vary the amount of detail given for a specific account also.

For example, “Two cars collided in the intersection” might be said also as “The first car crashed into the second car as they both were moving through the intersection of First and Second Street.” Each describes the same event. One gives more detail, but the basic meaning is not changed. If the second quote said: “There was only one car in the accident, and it hit a pole,” then that would be a contradiction. But we find nothing like this in the gospels.

2. Biblical Authors Use Different Witnesses to the Same Event

The fact that there are differences in the biblical text is actually evidence of its historical accuracy. The seeming disagreements in Scripture show the absence of collusion.

Some of the Bible’s verses, when carefully studied in the proper context, exhibit superficial discrepancies and conflicts which resolve themselves on closer examination. This kind of evidence is exactly what is looked for in a court of law to establish credibility and independence of witnesses. If things agree too well they look artificial and contrived.

3. Biblical Authors Didn’t Always Put Things in Order by Time

Some of the Bible writers record historical events out of chronological order to fit whatever theme they are trying to emphasize, but this does not detract from the historicity of the events themselves.
[Read more…]

The Violence of God and Evil

By Jeremy Myers

4 Comments

I was thinking a bit more about the violence of God and the source of evil today (as these topics are consuming my thoughts recently), and I remembered a paper I wrote back in 1999 while at Denver Seminary for a class I had with Douglas Groothuis. It was on the nature and source of evil.

I was curious what I thought about this topic nearly fifteen years ago, so I waded through the files in a file cabinet I have lugged with me through fifteen moves, and miraculously, found the paper!

I remember thinking that my paper was “groundbreaking.” (What seminary student doesn’t think this about his every research paper?) When Dr. Groothuis gave my paper back to me, he gave me a good grade, but not because he agreed with me (he strongly disagreed). Instead, he graded me based on my research and thought process. (This, by the way, is one sign of a good professor… to grade based on research and thought, not based on whether or not the student agrees with the professor.)

Here is what Dr. Groothuis wrote on the last page of my paper:

Guess what I concluded in my paper?

I concluded much the same thing that I am writing about in my recent series on the violence of God in the Old Testament (see the link list at the bottom of this post). In my paper from 1999 I argued that although God did not cause evil, He is nevertheless somewhat morally responsible for it because He created a world where such evil is possible. The actual source of evil is within the free will of God’s creatures (humans and angels), and since these were gifts of God to His good creation, when these gifts were misused and abused to do things contrary to God’s will, evil resulted.

[Read more…]

Storms are Not from God

By Jeremy Myers

20 Comments

As we seek to learn why bad things happen in this world, we are looking at several principles of a theological chaos theory. We are currently discussing the point that due to the fall of humanity, nature has spun out of control. In yesterday’s post we saw that Scripture and theology seems to indicate that in some way humans were enabled by God to guide and control natural forces, but when we sinned, we lost this ability, and nature spun out of control.

Due to sin, we lost control of the powers that control nature, and having spun out of control, they now wreak havoc on the world. There is now disarray and chaos in creation.

From this, we can know several things.

Storms are Not Sent “From God”

First, when storms and disasters occur, they do not “come from God.” Storms are not sent by God. (I know that some will object and point to the Flood or to the storm that God sent to bring back a fleeing Jonah. We will look at these texts at a later time.)

Storms occur because the forces of nature are out of control. Much of the work of God on earth is focused on protecting humanity from complete destruction at the hand of these destroying powers. Sometimes God “withdraws” His hand of protection and allows storms to rage, but we must be careful with saying that this is why all storms occur. We do not know why God allows some storms. When it comes to storms, there is much we do not know.

For example, we will never know all of the boundaries that God has placed upon the destructive powers so that they do not overwhelm and annihilate mankind forever. We can never know how many disasters have been averted, how many floods have been avoided, how many meteorites have been nudged off course by God. And when storms and disasters do occur, we can never know what string of events and decisions by God, angels, and human beings led to that storm occurring.

[Read more…]

Do Not Seek Christian Unity

Is Unity the Same as Keeping the Peace?

Is True Unity Possible?

Happy Dadd Day

Is God Lying about His Involvement in Violence?

If God Did Commit Violence, Then Jesus is a Liar

It’s Right for God to Slaughter Women and Children Anytime He Pleases

Help the Lost Get Found

Does Jesus Condemn People? NO!

The Greatest Act of Courage

The Courage to Forgive

6 Ways to Explain Bible Contradictions

1. Biblical Authors Sometimes “Paraphrase”

2. Biblical Authors Use Different Witnesses to the Same Event

3. Biblical Authors Didn’t Always Put Things in Order by Time

The Violence of God and Evil

Storms are Not from God

Storms are Not Sent “From God”

Theological Study Archives

Bible Study Archives

Advertise or Donate

Search (and you Shall Find)

Get Books by Jeremy Myers

Schedule Jeremy for an interview

Click here to Contact Me!