The Hard Questions

An online acquaintance of mine (who shall remain nameless to those of you who can't do simple Brian Ross style internet research) posed to me the following questions. Questions that came up out of the supposed Chic-fil-A controversy:

Scott, can you explain to me the method for picking/choosing which parts of the bible are legitimate?

Serious question.

I'd like to know how someone makes life choices based on a book that contains God's instructions if only bits and pieces are acceptable.

Christians seem confused by their own book.

Is it "love thy neighbor", and "judge not" or is it "use the bible to justify hate while ignoring injunctions in the very same chapter"?

 ALL anti-gay bible quotes are old testament. if some of it applies, all of it applies.

 otherwise, strap on the hypocrite helmet, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

My answer was as follows, please feel free to comment/correct my theology or apologetics:

There's a lot here, I'll try to answer your questions sincerely:

The first one, "picking/choosing," boils down to reading comprehension, really. There is a lot of ceremonial/cultural law that's sole purpose was to create for God a chosen and unique people, set aside from the "world" for His expressed purpose. A great example of this, which is often misused by haters, is that Torah observant Jews cannot wear cloth with mixed fabrics or have tattoos (apparently because God is that concerned with purity). This was, and never has been, intended to be observed by the NT church (in large part because we aren't born into the church, like the Jew is "born" into Judaism, so if I already have a tattoo or a nice cotton/polyester blend button-up when we become a Christian, then we're screwed straight away).

That being said, the OT as a whole still gives us great insight into the character of God, like the example I used - His concern for His people to be pure, even if some of the specific laws don't "apply" anymore.

Generally speaking, people that use "doesn't the Bible say don't judge" (et al) are just as wrong as the people that use the Bible to hate on other people. Personally, I believe that there is absolutely no justification for Christians to expect non-believers to adhere to dictates they don't believe are truly from God, that makes no sense, and is why I never speak against SSM equity and the likes. It makes no hill-of-beans difference to me if two dudes that couldn't care less about the Bible, or the God who wrote it, want to violate its statues. (But I also don't want the Gov't telling my church it has to marry dudes, which is in contradiction to its beliefs (I'm speaking generally here))

"Judge not" and others like, are often (I'd almost say always actually) taken out of context by non-believers to justify their sin in the face of a critical Christian populace. In my reading of it, Jesus was instructing His followers to be gentle when dealing with others' sin because of the very fact that we ourselves are sinners (otherwise, why did Jesus die?). He wasn't saying, "Hey, it's open season on sinning, and those of you that makes uncomfortable, too bad, you'll have to deal!" He was saying, "Hey, yeah, your bother is a sinner, and that's bad, but so are you, so take care of yourself before you go trying to correct him, and either way, I got it covered"

It's a misconception that all "anti-gay" quotes are from the OT. The ones you see used most often are from the OT probably because of their familiarity, but as Paul said in his letter to the church in Rome:

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

That states pretty clearly that homosexuality is both unnatural (for humans) and sinful.

And ultimately Christians are hypocrites, and for that I am genuinely sorry. Followers of Jesus should never claim to be perfect, because we aren't, we are, however, perfectly forgiven, through the Blood of Jesus Christ, thanks be to God!

People are people, that's plain to the both of us. We never do anything perfectly. To expect Christians to "do" Christianity "perfectly" (whatever that would look like) seems as misguided and hypocritical as me expecting you to come to church with me every Sunday, because the Bible says so, and me getting angry with you when you don't show.

(this obviously only scratches the surfaces of a bunch intensely complex subjects, but as always, I appreciate your candor and willingness to have the discussion)

And as always, thank you for taking the time to read!

Holiness: Defining Sin, Part Two: Origin and Scope

I won't spend too much time on this one, but I wanted to briefly point out these two very important points concerning sin.

Origin

That sin has it's origins within us, not, as some would choose to believe from external forces. Ryle speaks plainly and directly to our own generation when he writes I am afraid that the views of many professing Christians on this point are sadly defective and unsound. ... Let us, then, have it fixed down in our minds that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years. It is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples, as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No! It is a family disease, which we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born.  And he reminds us that the fairest child, who has entered life this year and become the sunbeam of a family, is not, as his mother perhaps fondly calls him, a little "angel" or a little "innocent," but a little "sinner." Alas! As that infant boy or girl lies smiling and crowing in its cradle, that little creature carries in its heart the seeds of every kind of wickedness! The neglect of this orthodox doctrine has many far reaching implications which has lead us right into the state of affairs that we see ourselves in today as a nation. "Everyone is basically good" is something that we have all heard many times, and it is even more often used to excuse misbehavior, but the Bible never teaches it.

Scope


But how deep does this sin penetrate in to us as individuals? If we are all born with this wicked condition, this moral disease, how bad is the diagnosis? ...let us beware that we make no mistake. The only safe ground is that which is laid for us in Scripture. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart" is by nature "evil," and that "continually." "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9). Sin is a disease which pervades and runs through every part of our moral constitution and every faculty of our minds. The understanding, the affections, the reasoning powers, the will, are all more or less infected. Even the conscience is so blinded that it cannot be depended on as a sure guide, and is as likely to lead men wrong as right, unless it is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. In short, "from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness" about us (Isa. 1:6). The disease may be veiled under a thin covering of courtesy, politeness, good manners and outward decorum, but it lies deep down in the constitution. And that ...man has many grand and noble faculties left about him, and that in arts and sciences and literature he shows immense capacity. But the fact still remains that in spiritual things he is utterly "dead" and has no natural knowledge, or love, or fear of God.


I quoted Ryle a lot today to keep it short, I have a tendency to ramble if left to my own devices.

Understanding these two points about sin, along with the first, is the initial step we must take in righting our relationship to God. It is only as a sinner that we realize we need a savior. It can also go along way in helping us understand the world around us. We have no need to question "why" if we hold firmly to these truths about sin. No need to ask "why" when there are atrocities all around the world, or terrorist attacks, or broken marriages or abused children. The "why" is plain, because we're sinners. The solution is also just as plain, His name is Jesus.

Holiness: Defining Sin

To determine what Holiness is, you have to start with what it isn't. What ever Holiness may be, we all know for sure that sin isn't it. But what is sin? Can we give a clear definitive answer? The Scripture, in 1 John 3:4, simply says "sin is lawlessness" (ESV).

"...a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity."

Without clearly understanding sin, Christ's sacrifice will mean nothing to us."Why would anyone need to die for my sins, I'm a relatively good person, I make a mistake now and again, but nothing too big, I never hurt anyone else, plus I do a lot of good." This is a very logical position, if we do not understand the nature of sin.

The COE, in part, defines sin, in the Ninth Article of Religion:

"[Sin] is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world..."

As Ryle points out, in short, "the entire human race" regardless of their life position or social class, where they were born or decide to reside, or even what language they speak, everyone is infected with this "vast moral disease." A disease that "from which there never was but one born of woman who was free."


So right off the bat we must understand that we are by our very nature sinners, and that sin nature has pushed us far from any lingering righteousness of our own. But what is "a sin"? "If you call me a sinner tell me what a sin is, so I know what not to do, if I can."

"A sin...consists of doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God." That is quite a list. One that is insurmountable, to say the least. Too often we neglect those sins that are internal. We simply gloss over them, assuming, perhaps, that because no one else knows that you hate that guy that cut you off, or that you sneaked a peak at some internet pornography, or muttered under your breath something too vile for anyone to hear, that these do not count. As if God did not hear them or see them or feel them on the cross. External sins are ofttimes easy to pass off as "bad habits" that we don't often take part in, because of the embarrassment that comes along with them. But even those, just as with the internal, when they do come separate us from God.

More on this soon.
Thank you for reading!
Scott

SBE #1: The Forgiveness of Sins

(originally published THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2005)

As for me, I am not one to think to highly of my own opinion... well, not too highly anyway. You might disagree if you know me, but I have been through a lot lately. Not anything I will go into presently, but I assure you, real change is taking place.

Not long ago, forget about how long exactly, it does not matter, I realized that forgiving people, of wrongs they have done to us, is about the hardest thing we might ever have to do. For some, admittedly, it does seem come easier than for others. But for those whom it does come easy, we might tend to question the depth of that forgiveness. It is not enough that we tell someone that we forgive them while still harboring resentment, all the while playing well the part of a friend. Nor is it enough that we are just "okay" with them, tolerating them, so to speak; we must forgive as our Father forgives.

When our Heavenly Father forgives us of our unquenchable debt against Him, He does not simply say "Well, I'm okay with you, but I can't lose that wisdom of what you did!" No, He is willing to separate our transgressions as far from us as the east is from the west. "Wait," we reply, "you mean, that when we forgive others, that's it?" Yes, when God forgives His children, it is as if they have never sinned at all. He keeps no record of past wrongs. And that, for us, is where the real challenge lies. Can we forgive someone as if they never trespassed against us? Just try to imagine, God the Father, Knower of All, Omni-everything, Perfect beyond Perfection, without even the smallest trace of blemish, whose very being defines Purity, and exemplifies Truth, the One who has numbered the hairs on our heads! yet HE is willing to quite literally forget that we sinned against Him. How?! Why?! Is it the only way He could stand to be around us, if He must (eternally speaking). Or is it just one more great example of how huge the pool of His Grace and Mercy really is. If God held on to that past wisdom, what would it be like. I have ran it over and over again in my mind, a scenario:

"Hello my child. Welcome to my throne room"
"Thank you, Mighty One."
"Well, I see that you have trusted in my Sons sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins..."
"Yes, Your Worship."
"Well, that's all well and good, however..."
"...However?"
"Yes well, you see, I just can let go of the wisdom that I acquired through out your life time, how horrible of a person you were to me and how untrustworthy you were, I mean, I do forgive you, I'm okay with you and all, I just I don't really want you around me or my Family. Talk to y..." And there he cuts Himself off, because, He was about to say, "talk to you later," but He does not intend to. And with that He bids you good-bye.

Could you imagine the horror. "But I was forgiven!" Our cry falls on deaf ears, because: He forgave us as we forgave those.

This is not to say that by any means I have perfected forgiveness, in of myself. I think myself to fall into that "easy forgiver" category. But I have tasted it. It's just a very subtle taste, but do not miss my meaning here, one that is small, yet very powerful. Like when you have just the smallest fragment of peppercorn in your mouth, no bigger than a grain of sand, and then when you bite it, this little thing sets your whole mouth afire! I know that God has forgiven me, of that I have no doubts, but I do not think we ('we,' here, being those of us whom have accepted His forgiveness) can completely, and truly understand what that means, not until, at least, the Glory.

Here we must realize that our debt to Him is beyond self reconciliation, there in nothing we can do to pay it off. But what is this? He pays the debt for us! How absurd! from a human point of view. Only when we realize this is that seed of Forgiveness planted. And this is where we must make a choice, to nurture that seed, and see it grow into full maturity, like a mighty redwood, or just to let it sit there within us, never germinating, never sprouting, never peaking it's first little leaves above the top of the soil. Our choice, really, is no choice. How much more is our debt to God than another's could be to us. The concept of not forgiving others, when weighed against that, is utter foolishness. We must pay the debt of others ourselves, or at the very least absolve it completely.

Forgiveness is not easy, not for people anyway. I do not know, nor will I make any assumption as to the degree of difficultly God has with it. All things are possible with Abba, but does that mean all things are easy? Who knows?! But for us, as we live on Earth, forgiving is a challenge, and one we must face, and conquer. Our only hope lies in the empowering of His Spirit dwelling inside of us. We must learn to rely on God to be our strength to truly forgive others. We cannot do it on our own. Praise the LORD! that he has sent His mighty Helper.

"For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." Luke 7:38(b) NASB

Thank you for reading!
Scott.