After The Election: 2 Questions To Ask Ourselves

The election has come and gone.
How are you doing?

For some, this is a time of great hope and expectation.  As a man said to me the other day, "This is a great time for America."  It was one of those 'I'm sure you agree with me so I'm just walking by, smiling, and saying it' kind-of comments, but needless to say, he was excited to see Trump win.

For others, this is a time of great trepidation.  What will become of the America they knew, or at least that they thought they knew?  Will there be radical impacts on either their lives or the lives of people they know and love.

Let me skip out on digging into those questions for now and take the discussion to a different place.  Let me ask us all 2 questions that dig into the heart and soul of the presidential election for us as individuals.  I think these questions take us to a place where Jesus might go (see Luke 6:45 for one of many glimpses from Jesus into how central the heart is).

Question 1: How happy or upset were you about the election results?

When I ask this question, I am not asking it in the 'what is the right answer' kind-of way.  I am asking us to consider what our response was when we heard the Donald J. Trump was going to become the 45th President of the United States of America.  Was it joy? Was it deep joy?  Was it fear?  Deep grief?  Our visceral response to this question tells us something about where we place our trust.

Proverbs 21:1 tells us that, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it where ever He will."  This verses speaks to the sovereignty of God.  You don't have to be a hardcore Calvinist to believe and trust in the power of God, and this verse tells us that God is not going to be overpowered by the next president, or the next dictator from the other side of the globe for that matter.  This verse doesn't give a picture of a battle between the heart of the person in power and God.  It instead gives a picture of God moving history where He pleases.  For a biblical image of God's reign over the world, just consider that famous verse Jeremiah 29:11.  God doesn't say, "I have good plans and we will see if I can work it out."  He tells His covenant people He has plans, and we see that God's efficacious plans are always successful.

Now I've got to press pause here for the churchy-folk (I'm a pastor so I can be one of those as well), and point out that in my first question here I am not asking if we have a knowledge of the facts about the power of God in all things.  That is good to know, but the Bible says that the demons believe that God is one (James 2:19).  Knowing the facts isn't the question.  The question is about our gut-level response.  This should give us pause to ask if any of us are trusting in leaders to be our savior.  Again, most people would say no, but I lovingly again press us to look deep inside ourselves and see if - while we know that we should say no - there is part of us that is trusting in the power of man instead of the grace and power of God.

At this point, one can be dismissive of the real fears some people have about the president elect.  It is worth noting that there were some of these same fears on the political right after Obama won both his first and second elections.  All that to say that we should listen, care, and engage with those who are feeling scared now.  At the same time we have to examine our place of deepest trust.  Psalm 9:10 reads, "And those who know Your Name put their trust in You, for You, Oh LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You."

Question 2: Are you loving people?

My second question is about both words and actions.  Are you loving people - in what you say and what you do - now that the election is done?  Were you loving people before the election was over?  Were you and are you loving people who don't see the world in the same way that you do politically?  Will you love them now?  I've said this so many times but I often wonder if people would LIKE, SHARE, and POST some of the things they do if Jesus was one of their friends on various social media outlets.

It has been a hard campaign, and while I am happy that many politicians on both sides of the aisle are asking people to 'come together', that should not be something new for the follower of Christ.  In a world that is so often built on identity politics and loving my group while demonizing the other group, the follower of Christ is called to love all people - people who are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26).  We love because the call of Christ is to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:36-40).

Now that the election is over, some things are truly different.
But some things are not different and should never be different regardless of who is in the White House.

- tC

Achan's Sin, All Are Killed: Why Did God Do This?

On a recent Sunday morning, Bethany Church heard a passage preached that was - to be candid - shocking.  In Joshua 7, we read about the sin of Achan.  The background is that the nation of Israel was freed from 400 years of slavery in Egypt.  After their miraculous delivery, disobedience leads them to wander for a generation (~40 years) in the wilderness.  Finally, they are ready to enter The Promised Land and after crossing the Jordan River, they conquer Jericho in a very strange way (see Joshua 6).  After this victory over the most fortified city they have ever seen, they are told to do 1 of 2 things with the spoils: they are either to destroy them or they are to take certain items (as directed by God) and to save them for Him.  These saved spoils would fund the future construction of the Temple, built under the reign of King Solomon, the son of King David).

In this process, a man named Achan - an Israelite and a member of the tribe of Judah - decided to take a robe, some gold, and some silver - and to hide it under his tent.  The result: God was angered and the nation of Israel was routed at the battle of Ai.  After being directed from God as to the cause of their loss, Achan was discovered, and he and his family were brought to the Valley of Achor. Achan, the robe, the silver, the gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his sheep were then stoned and burned.

I suppose it might be the response of some to say, "Well, God is holy, and He demands holiness", and this is very true.  But my sense is that if we leave it here, we also leave many people with many questions.  Here are some additional thoughts as to the 'why would God..." of this situation.

1. How do you feel about any divine judgment?  I ask this question as a starting ground for us.  It is challenging to think about Achan and all his family and animals being killed, but let's step back and ask ourselves "What if just Achan was killed?"  How does that strike you?  I read one writer who immediately jumped to the notion that Achan was not a literal person, but that this passage was all symbolic.  This is serious mishandling of the text and the genre of the book.  This modern-day writer was clearly uncomfortable with any image of God as one who would demand punishment.  So how about you and how about me?  Is our issue with the stoning of the family, or with any punishment of sin and disobedience at all?  If we are not comfortable with sin being treated seriously and punishment for sin, we will have a hard time reconciling our thinking with the core of the Christian faith - that Christ was crucified as an atonement for sin.

2. Sin is never individualized.  When preaching from this passage, Pastor Bruce Boria mentioned that in our western, individualized society people tend to think they as individual persons get the blessings and the punishment they deserve in life.  He then noted how untrue this is.  The sins of one person impact the people around them - just ask any family of an addict and they will confirm this reality.

I will take this even further by saying that there is no such thing as a victimless crime or the sin of the individual.  The reknowned sociologist Emile Durkeim's book Suicide addressed this powerfully from a sociological perspective. When studying suicide - an action considered to be supremely individualistic - he found that there were a myraid of social dynamics that lead to and influenced a person's decision to take his or her life.  Along those lines, let's consider a man, alone in his house, with his wife and children asleep, looking at pornography.  Is this just 'his sin'?  Of course not.  He is impacting his view of sex which will impact his physical, emotional, and spiritual relationship with his wife.  This shaping of his mind and heart by pornography will also impact how he acts toward his son and daughter, and even how he acts toward people in public as he is being influenced to see women as a commodity and not as a person made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26).  Additionally, he is harming the men and women of the pornography industry as it feels on the most base instincts of humanity.  There truly no sin that is committed on a proverbial island.

3. What we don't know from the passage.  There are a few things we don't know from the passage.  These would be considered Arguments from Silence which - logically speaking - is a weak form of argumentation.  None the less, we should note what we don't know and we should be careful and thoughtful when we make any assumptions about what isn't said.
- We don't know the age of the children.  They may have been old enough to actively support and/or be involved in the sin of Achan
- We don't know about his wife.  In the list of people put to death, his wife is left out.  I think it is likely to assume she was also executed with the others (the passage says "all he (Achan) had" was brought to Achor.  While his wife was not a possession, that phrase likely means all that was connected to his household and thus his wife would be there as well.
- We also don't know what happened between when Joshua told the people about being consecrated and the following morning when Achan admitted to the sin.  The passage shows that the people were told (v. 14) that in the morning they would present themselves.  We don't know what Achan said to his wife or family between when the community was told about presenting themselves (the next day) and when it actually occurred.  Did his wife conspire with him?  Again, we don't know.
- Lastly, we don't know how God would have responded if Achan came and admitted to his sin before the next morning.  Could he have been forgiven?  It's unclear, but with the story of Ahab's repentance (1 Kings 21), we see that sometimes a slight move toward God might be met with mercy.

But what do we know - about the passage, about people, and about God?

1. We know that God is just.  Many well-respected theologians believe that children who die before they reach the age where they can understand sin and God - these children are received into Heaven.  This is often concluded from some teachings on sin and responsibility from Romans 1, but for the sake of argument, let's say this idea is correct.  If it is, Achan's young children were - that day - received in to Heaven and into the presence of God.  Yes, the death was terrible, but the eternal life so quickly overshadowed the death that it was certainly seen as light and momentary (as Paul say sin 2 Corinthians 4:17).  We also know because of God's justice that He will never, ever eternally punish an innocent person, be it a wife, a child, or anyone.

2. We know that God was very serious about the sin of Achan, and that the people had fair warning because they had seen Jericho.  The people were warned about the devoted things and how they were to handle them.  They had seen the total devastation of Jericho, and so one has to wonder - did they think He was serious about Jericho but not serious about the fate of those who would reject His commands about the devoted things?

3. We know that we are Achan.  Can any of us - after an honest assessment - really ever say that we have always known the right thing to do...and then we always did it?  Of course not.  We have all actively rejected righteousness at some point and gone our own way.  As I thought of Achan and the sin he committed, and then the impact it had on his family and community, I was taken aback to think about how my sin can do the same thing.  Perhaps not to the same degree, but I know that my sin has impacted others that I love.  That is the nature of sin.

We are free to wrestle with God about the 'how could You' questions that this passage brings up.
But let's not miss the 'how could I' reality as well.
We are Achan.
We have rejected God's direction, truth, and love over and over and yet in His sovereign grace and patience, He has not destroyed us.
In fact, He has done the opposite in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

God, help us to praise You for our surpassing justice, and help us to rejoice that in Christ, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1).

- tC

Living In A Sound Bite Culture

                   

(Photo by cooldesign - FreeDigitialPhotos.net)

We live in a sound bite culture.

By this I mean that we live in a culture that wants answers given in usually under two minutes.  Think about how this plays out even when you are using your smart phone to watch or download something.  It doesn't really matter that the download could be coming from the other side of the planet - if it takes more than 15 seconds, we are usually feeling like it's taking (as we often say) "forever".

We can discuss and philosophize about why our culture is this way (changes from the Age of Industrialization and growing specialization, massive shifts and advances in technology), but I'd rather focus on the impacts.  Here are 3 ways our sound bite culture influences us, particularly around issues of faith.

1. People don't have time to discuss the tough questions about God, faith, the Bible, and more.  People want answers now and oftentimes the assumption is that if you can't give a short and convincing reply in a minute or two, then it's probably not true, or at least probably not worth taking the time to listen.

This is dangerous because if we are honest not, much in life comes quickly.  Completing a degree, gaining physical strength, improving one's health or marriage - these don't happen overnight.  These kinds of life-altering changes take time, and so to assume that answering questions about the Creator and Sustainer of all things will happen quickly - it's just not reasonable.

2.  Reading has often become skimming.  While Barnes and Noble isn't going out of business, it is clear that the kind of reading most people do is in short snippets, reading from social media, light-weight papers, and the like.  Again, in wrestling through deeper issues of life, most authors take time to build an argument after laying a solid foundation.  But with deep and pensive reading becoming more and more rare, deep thinking is also becoming rare.

3. Christians are settling for merely a 'devotional time' and are not studying the Bible.  Reading any Scripture is helpful and life-giving (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17), but the fact that many Christians don't have time or interest in the study of Scripture has massive implications.  Training for battle by doing 10 push-ups and then speed-walking for 20 minutes a day will not cut it, and nor will a brief reading of 2-3 verses and then moving on with your next 23 hours and 56 minutes.  We need to steep in the Scriptures but the culture tells us that if it means sitting and thinking and praying, you're wasting too much time.

Pressing back against a sound bite culture is hard work, but it is vital - especially for the Christ-follower.  God has ordained the world to work in such a way that significant changes rarely come quickly, but instead through extended time and effort.  God could have written the Redemption Story in a few years but instead we are a part of the story thousands of years later.  I'm glad God didn't rush it, aren't you?

- tC

20 Things That Don't Make You A Christian

(Photo from Tiramisustudio - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

The last 2 posts were about things that don't make you a Christian.

But to be honest, as I've been thinking about it, that list could go on and on.
I mean - being a baker doesn't make you a Christian.
Going to France doesn't make you a Christian.
Being a Yankees fan doesn't make you a Christian (but you are getting closer at least).

Anyhow, let me - instead of putting together 10,000 more posts - summarize the idea with a list of some of the common things people think make them Christians.

It's important to note here that there is a difference between causality and correlation.  There are many things that are correlated to being a Christian i.e. there are many things that Christians do, say, or live out...but those things don't MAKE a person a Christian, they are just associated with being a Christian.

When it comes to causality, it is by grace through faith, period.  Paul makes that clear in Ephesians 2:8-9 (click the reference to read that passage).

But here's a list 20 things that many people think equals being a Christian:

1. Going to church
2. Giving to church
3. Reading your Bible
4. Praying
5. Being involved in youth group
6. Serving or caring for the poor
7. Liking Christian movies, preachers, t.v, or other media sources
8. Pointing your finger at the sky after a touchdown
9. Saying you are a Christian
10. Raising your hand at a conference, retreat, rally, or event
11. Praying the "Sinner's Prayer"
12. Being involved in church leadership
13. Going on a mission trip
14. Not swearing and/or drinking and/or/ sleeping around
15. Singing on a musical worship team
16. Serving in church
17. Saving grace before meals
18. Living in the south
19. Working for a church
20. Being a pastor

What's the point?  Being a Christian isn't caused by anything on this list.  Being a Christian isn't the same as doing any or all of the things on this list.

In our next post we will look at what makes a person a Christian and the fruit we can measure to test if someone is a Christian.

- tC

Believing In Jesus Doesn't Make You A Christian

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Over the next few blog posts, we are going to talk about things that don't make a person a Christian.

To some people these will be painfully obvious.  To others - I'm sad to say - there will be a sense of, "Yeah, that's true...glad I'm not one of 'those people' who think that" when in reality that person is exactly who I am speaking about.  But there will also be - I hope - people who read the posts and think deeply.  I have faith that the Holy Spirit can work even through the blogosphere and lovingly challenge people to think about if they are truly in a relationship with Jesus.

So why make these kinds of posts?
Because the Bible tells us to examine ourselves.

Here are two quick examples. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says it in a pretty straight-forward way: "Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves."  Paul wanted people to think and know if they were truly Christian.  Here's another one and perhaps the scariest passage in all the Bible.  In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus tells us that there will be people who thought, on the basis of the religious things they did (like prophesying, casting out demons, and performing miracles) that they were in.  But to some of these people Jesus will say, "Depart from Me.  I never knew you."  It goes without saying - no one wants to be on that side of the conversation with Jesus.

Testing ourselves.  Examining ourselves to see if we are truly followers of Christ is a good and vital thing to do.  Now let's get to the title of this blog.

Believing in Jesus does not make you a Christian.  It might be ONE of the signs that you are a Christian, but belief in Jesus alone doesn't make a person - to use the biblical language - "born again" (John 3).  And how do I know this?  James 2:19  tells it to us clearly when he says this:

You believe that there is one God?  Good.

Even the demons believe that - and shudder.  

So believing in God doesn't mean you are a Christian.
And I love the way James describes the response of the demons - they shudder.  It's as if he is saying, "At least they respond and act out in SOME WAY.  At least they SHOW that their belief in God makes some difference in how they live - even if it's shuddering at their future destruction." 

And we know this to be true just by looking at the stats from Barna (click HERE for some of their research).  Even though atheism has risen significantly in the past few decades, still the vast majority of people in America say they believe in God.

But self-identification doesn't equal 'therefore it is true.'

As much as people might want to press at the notion of truth to mold it into whatever seems right to the individual, me simply stating something about how I view myself doesn't make it true.  I can tell you until I am blue in the face that I am an astronaut, but I am not, no matter how much I say it.
So saying I believe in God doesn't make me a Christian just like saying I'm an astronaut means my life story is the basis for the movie Interstellar.  

Photo by siraphat - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"But Tim" some might protest "It's one thing to say, 'I believe in God' and it's totally different when I a person says he believes in Jesus."  I agree that it MAY be different, but it doesn't mean that person is a Christian.  Consider what Jesus says in Luke 9:59-62.  Jesus gives two examples of people who don't just SAY they believe but they are even willing to GO with Him, to truly follow Him...just after they take care of a few things.  I mean come on, Jesus - they just have to tie up a few loose ends - they MUST be a great picture of what it means to believe in You and follow You.

Jesus response is plain:  You must be all in.  Our belief in Him must change how we live.  If I say I believe in Him but it doesn't change me, then I believe in the concept of Him, but I don't trust Him to lead me as my Great Shepherd.  I can believe that a bridge can hold my car, but if I am unwilling to drive across it my belief is not impacting my actions, and so one can fairly ask me, "Do you really even believe that the bridge will work?"

What does saving faith look like?
That's coming down the line.
If you believe in Jesus you MAY be a Christian.  But maybe not.
For now let's be clear - believing in Jesus doesn't make you a Christian.  

-tC