Here is an excerpt written by Marion L. Soards, professor of New Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary:
"The author of Hebrews describes the Bible as "living and active...sharper than any double-edged sword." We are called to move beyond reading it or even meditating upon it; we are to take the next step, employing its wisdom to critique life and determine courses of action. The question is how.
Subtle differences in the ways people appeal to and use the Bible in ethical reflection seem endless. But the great variety of uses- ranging from irresponsible to responsible- people make of Scripture in deliberations about morality fall into four basic categories: proof-texts, paralells, principles, and paradigms.
Proof-texts. People may point to a "proving" text in the Bible in an effort to establish or validate an argument, idea or action- even though the Biblical material referred to at times may have at best a questionable relevance to the matter at hand.
Parallels. Biblical material is used this way when people refer to a passage, usually a sentence or story, they see as in some way analogous to a context other than that of the original Biblical text.
Principles. A Biblical text is used to establish a principle when someone derives from it a directive or standard they can then cite to make an ethical decision, either in relation to a particular situation or to general practice. More than proof-texts and parallels, principles formed and articulated from Scriptural perspectives can provide insight and guidance for serious ethical reflection.
Paradigms. Biblical texts yielding examples or patterns that may offer ethical guidance for life situations are usually identified as paradigms. Paradigmatic passages typically present pictures, most often in the form of stories, that can serve as examples, models, or precedents for thinking about ethical issues.
Because the models communicated through paradigms are often complex, this kind of text may have a unique capacity to inspire, inform, and guide our decision-making efforts. As is always the case with Biblical materials, the best use of Scripture in reflection on matters of morality comes when we pay attention to two areas: (1) the plain sense of the texts (what do they say, period, in and of themselves, in isolation from the material before and after?) and (2) their place in their original Biblical contexts (what do they say in the framework of the time, place, and unique situation in which they were written?).
At various times and in various places the Bible speaks directly, indirectly, or not at all about matters of ethical significance. Scripturally based reflections about right and wrong engage Biblical statements that seem pertinent to the issues by using a range of approaches. Because there are diverse ways of reading and responding to the Bible, people attempting to make moral decisions on a Biblical basis are wise to (1) summarize their understanding of the Scriptural statement, (2) recognize that--and how--others might interpret the material differently, and (3) be able to articulate how and why they feel this particular passage impacts their process of ethical reflection.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Root of Peace
"In essence, there is only one thing God asks of us- that we be men and women of prayer, people who live close to God, people for whom God is everything and for whom God is enough- that is the root of peace. We have that peace when the gracious God is all we seek".
Stripped down, this is essentially what being a Christian is. Constantly seeking God with everything in your being for our nature is not of this world. Our nature is derived from Him who made everything and without Him, we are nothing. This is a truth a vast majority are not willing to accept because they want to go their own way to find what they think they want. What exists in this life outside of the will of God will surely perish and those who worship what dies.
I'm not trying to be negative in this post because the quote I supplied is for love. But I must be bold and proclaim that true happiness is not found unless a faithful relationship to Jesus Christ is established. Again, this may sound like religious fundamentalism bashing you in the cerebral cortex but I assure you, this is the truth that must be proclaimed to all nations until His return.
Prayer is just conversation with God. It's humbly approaching His throne with our requests which he always hears. I don't believe God turns His ear from us because he knows our needs. He knows what's best for us even before we ask it. But the Word says to bring our petitions to God. Blessings! He wishes to bestow blessings! Gifts! What is so hard to understand? Ask and it will be given to you! We should stop complicating Him so much when he makes himself so available to us. His grace is sufficient.
Just know that when you willfully and humbly submit yourself to Jesus, there's no looking back. There's no need to. There's no need to go back to the life you once lived. A better life is ahead of you. It won't be easy but you'll never be alone. You don't need religious fringes like legalism and what is the right denomination. All you need is Christ. Know Him above all. The religious established and the self-appointed theocracy in this world will try to oppress you and slave you with inferiority complexes and feelings of worthlessness. All you need to do is accept who you are in Christ. There is no bondage in knowing God, only peace and freedom.
Romans 5:1-2, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand".
Stripped down, this is essentially what being a Christian is. Constantly seeking God with everything in your being for our nature is not of this world. Our nature is derived from Him who made everything and without Him, we are nothing. This is a truth a vast majority are not willing to accept because they want to go their own way to find what they think they want. What exists in this life outside of the will of God will surely perish and those who worship what dies.
I'm not trying to be negative in this post because the quote I supplied is for love. But I must be bold and proclaim that true happiness is not found unless a faithful relationship to Jesus Christ is established. Again, this may sound like religious fundamentalism bashing you in the cerebral cortex but I assure you, this is the truth that must be proclaimed to all nations until His return.
Prayer is just conversation with God. It's humbly approaching His throne with our requests which he always hears. I don't believe God turns His ear from us because he knows our needs. He knows what's best for us even before we ask it. But the Word says to bring our petitions to God. Blessings! He wishes to bestow blessings! Gifts! What is so hard to understand? Ask and it will be given to you! We should stop complicating Him so much when he makes himself so available to us. His grace is sufficient.
Just know that when you willfully and humbly submit yourself to Jesus, there's no looking back. There's no need to. There's no need to go back to the life you once lived. A better life is ahead of you. It won't be easy but you'll never be alone. You don't need religious fringes like legalism and what is the right denomination. All you need is Christ. Know Him above all. The religious established and the self-appointed theocracy in this world will try to oppress you and slave you with inferiority complexes and feelings of worthlessness. All you need to do is accept who you are in Christ. There is no bondage in knowing God, only peace and freedom.
Romans 5:1-2, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand".
Monday, August 4, 2008
SCREAM For Understanding
Proverbs 2:3-5, "If you scream for insight and if you call loudly for understanding, if you pursue it like you would money and search it out as you would hidden treasure, then the Lord will be awesome to you and you will come into possession of the knowledge of God".
I think it's great that God would be like that to us. It's funny to think that God is so simple but even us Christians, who know God's love and grace, tend to complicate who God is. He says to come to Him like little children. What's complicated about that?
Gaining insight and understanding has always been my thing about being a Christian. I'm always trying to figure out what He wants for me, why He loves me, and what this life means. Don't we all? The intellectual assets gained in being a Christian is astronomical. For one, we have the best worldview of this world. We are living for the Kingdom, which means that what we do here, reflects in eternity. As Christians, we know what makes this world a better place and that is the love of Jesus. God, being as omnipotent as He is, knows just how much knowledge to give us. What we gain intellectually is a gift of God. This verse in Proverbs is a big boost for me because in all the the books I read and all the thinking I do, I never know enough. So if I scream and call loudly for what I need to know, then God will give me what I need.
Perfect.
I think it's great that God would be like that to us. It's funny to think that God is so simple but even us Christians, who know God's love and grace, tend to complicate who God is. He says to come to Him like little children. What's complicated about that?
Gaining insight and understanding has always been my thing about being a Christian. I'm always trying to figure out what He wants for me, why He loves me, and what this life means. Don't we all? The intellectual assets gained in being a Christian is astronomical. For one, we have the best worldview of this world. We are living for the Kingdom, which means that what we do here, reflects in eternity. As Christians, we know what makes this world a better place and that is the love of Jesus. God, being as omnipotent as He is, knows just how much knowledge to give us. What we gain intellectually is a gift of God. This verse in Proverbs is a big boost for me because in all the the books I read and all the thinking I do, I never know enough. So if I scream and call loudly for what I need to know, then God will give me what I need.
Perfect.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Moral Resistance
"A man rejects God neither because of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of a moral resistance that refuses to admit his need for God".
---Ravi Zacharias
What keeps people from coming to God? Zacharias hit the nail on the head. A lot of skeptics I know hide behind their intellectual prowess, claiming that God cannot exist because of some scientific explanation or some philosophical fallacy. No, the reason people refuse to come to God is because of pride. Pride was the downfall of the Adversary and pride was the downfall of man. Pride hardens the heart. Pride makes a man think there is nothing above himself. It makes him think that if he gives up his life to God, he is losing himself. Jesus said that whoever keeps his life will lose but if they give it freely, they gain life. Where is the slavery there? Where does it ever say that God wishes to enslave the human race? Jesus came to die to FREE the human race, not condemn it nor enslave it.
The secular world refuses to grasp onto Jesus because they don't want to lose themselves. They don't want Jesus to change them, which he changes us all after experiencing him. The cross is a symbol of divine justice, love and ultimately grace. Through the death of Jesus, we are able to live. There is no working to earn God's love or favor. We already have it. We already have God's grace and forgiveness. That, my friends, is a reason to live.
---Ravi Zacharias
What keeps people from coming to God? Zacharias hit the nail on the head. A lot of skeptics I know hide behind their intellectual prowess, claiming that God cannot exist because of some scientific explanation or some philosophical fallacy. No, the reason people refuse to come to God is because of pride. Pride was the downfall of the Adversary and pride was the downfall of man. Pride hardens the heart. Pride makes a man think there is nothing above himself. It makes him think that if he gives up his life to God, he is losing himself. Jesus said that whoever keeps his life will lose but if they give it freely, they gain life. Where is the slavery there? Where does it ever say that God wishes to enslave the human race? Jesus came to die to FREE the human race, not condemn it nor enslave it.
The secular world refuses to grasp onto Jesus because they don't want to lose themselves. They don't want Jesus to change them, which he changes us all after experiencing him. The cross is a symbol of divine justice, love and ultimately grace. Through the death of Jesus, we are able to live. There is no working to earn God's love or favor. We already have it. We already have God's grace and forgiveness. That, my friends, is a reason to live.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
A Divided Culture
These exerpts are from a book called The Reason For God by Timothy Keller.
"Because doubt and belief are each on the rise, our political and public discourse on matters of faith and morality has become deadlocked and deeply divided. The culture wars are taking a toll. Emotions and rhetoric are intense, even hysterical. Those who believe in God and Christianity are out to "impose their beliefs on the rest of us" and "turn back the clock" to a less enlightened time. Those who don't believe are "enemies of truth" and purveyors of relativism and permissiveness". We don't reason with the other side; we only denounce.
This part is striking to me because I feel like ALL debate and serious discussion on religion and politics are often heated with much discontent with the other side. It is our job as Christians to display the love of Jesus while assertively testifying to his divinity and humanity. Christians are no less intellectual because of belief and the ability to defend it.
"A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection".
Doubt is something I've been plagued with. I hate doubting because I desperately want to believe in Christ 100% but a lot of the time, the doubt is not with Him but with me. I doubt my ability to believe and I doubt my willingness to surrender to Him. I doubt my willingness to actually take up that cross and follow Him (thanks DV). I guess with Keller's words, it's ok to just accept that fact that as human beings, it is in our fallen nature to doubt truth even when the evidence for it is as close to us as our own skin.
"All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B. For example, if you doubt Christianity because "there can't be just one true religion", you must recognize that this statement is itself an act of faith. No one can prove it empirically and it is not a universal truth that everyone accepts. If you went to the Middle East and said, "There can't be just one true religion", nearly everyone would say, "Why not?" The reason you doubt Christianity's Belief A is because you hold unprovable Belief B. Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith".
FINALLY, my initial point on this is backed up. I've been saying for a couple years now that I believe Atheism to be a standpoint of faith, despite it's standard of disbelief in any theistic religion. It is a BELIEF that there are no religions that are true and that there is no God. Atheism cannot prove these beliefs while Christianity can just by the Resurrection of Christ and the words of the Bible. Keller expands a bit:
"Some people say, "I don't believe in Christianity because I can't accept the existence of moral absolutes. Everyone should determine moral truth for him or herself". Is that a statement they can prove to someone who doesn't share it? No, it is a leap of faith, a deep belief that individual rights operate not only in the political sphere but also in the moral. There is no empirical proof for such a position. So the doubt of moral absolutes is a leap.
Moral absolutes come from God's law because he alone determines what is holy and what is not. How can we in our finite knowledge judge what morals are uplifting to human spirits when we deny the very Creator of the capacity for these morals to stand on? Mankind is not spiritually inclined to determine what moral absolutes truly are until we achieve a relationship with God.
"Some with respond to all this, "My doubts are not based on a leap of faith. I have no beliefs about God one way or another. I simply feel no need for God and I am not interested in thinking about it". But hidden beneath this feeling is the very modern American belief that the existence of God is a matter of indifference unless it intersects with my emotional needs. The speaker is betting his or her life that no God exists who would hold you accountable for your beliefs and behavior if you didn't feel the need for him. That may be true or it may not be true, but, again, it is quite a leap of faith".
This pretty much speaks for itself.
"The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do you know your belief is true? It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is frequently what happens. In fairness you must doubts your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs- you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared".
Both sides of the spectrum should be able to be objective when it comes to belief and doubt. If you doubt, research the things that make you doubt. If you believe, make sure the things you believe are true. It's only fair that skeptics know what they're doubting before making assumptions.
I hope these words were encouraging. As a Christian, I am constantly plagued by the doubts and questions of others as well as my own. Sometimes it is difficult to remain faithful when you're at it alone but God is faithful and loving. I don't feel like I'm fighting a pointless battle. Our war is not against the flesh but of the principalities and powers of this world that seek to destroy the children of God. The words of skeptics will never break me of my faith.
"Because doubt and belief are each on the rise, our political and public discourse on matters of faith and morality has become deadlocked and deeply divided. The culture wars are taking a toll. Emotions and rhetoric are intense, even hysterical. Those who believe in God and Christianity are out to "impose their beliefs on the rest of us" and "turn back the clock" to a less enlightened time. Those who don't believe are "enemies of truth" and purveyors of relativism and permissiveness". We don't reason with the other side; we only denounce.
This part is striking to me because I feel like ALL debate and serious discussion on religion and politics are often heated with much discontent with the other side. It is our job as Christians to display the love of Jesus while assertively testifying to his divinity and humanity. Christians are no less intellectual because of belief and the ability to defend it.
"A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection".
Doubt is something I've been plagued with. I hate doubting because I desperately want to believe in Christ 100% but a lot of the time, the doubt is not with Him but with me. I doubt my ability to believe and I doubt my willingness to surrender to Him. I doubt my willingness to actually take up that cross and follow Him (thanks DV). I guess with Keller's words, it's ok to just accept that fact that as human beings, it is in our fallen nature to doubt truth even when the evidence for it is as close to us as our own skin.
"All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B. For example, if you doubt Christianity because "there can't be just one true religion", you must recognize that this statement is itself an act of faith. No one can prove it empirically and it is not a universal truth that everyone accepts. If you went to the Middle East and said, "There can't be just one true religion", nearly everyone would say, "Why not?" The reason you doubt Christianity's Belief A is because you hold unprovable Belief B. Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith".
FINALLY, my initial point on this is backed up. I've been saying for a couple years now that I believe Atheism to be a standpoint of faith, despite it's standard of disbelief in any theistic religion. It is a BELIEF that there are no religions that are true and that there is no God. Atheism cannot prove these beliefs while Christianity can just by the Resurrection of Christ and the words of the Bible. Keller expands a bit:
"Some people say, "I don't believe in Christianity because I can't accept the existence of moral absolutes. Everyone should determine moral truth for him or herself". Is that a statement they can prove to someone who doesn't share it? No, it is a leap of faith, a deep belief that individual rights operate not only in the political sphere but also in the moral. There is no empirical proof for such a position. So the doubt of moral absolutes is a leap.
Moral absolutes come from God's law because he alone determines what is holy and what is not. How can we in our finite knowledge judge what morals are uplifting to human spirits when we deny the very Creator of the capacity for these morals to stand on? Mankind is not spiritually inclined to determine what moral absolutes truly are until we achieve a relationship with God.
"Some with respond to all this, "My doubts are not based on a leap of faith. I have no beliefs about God one way or another. I simply feel no need for God and I am not interested in thinking about it". But hidden beneath this feeling is the very modern American belief that the existence of God is a matter of indifference unless it intersects with my emotional needs. The speaker is betting his or her life that no God exists who would hold you accountable for your beliefs and behavior if you didn't feel the need for him. That may be true or it may not be true, but, again, it is quite a leap of faith".
This pretty much speaks for itself.
"The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do you know your belief is true? It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is frequently what happens. In fairness you must doubts your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs- you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared".
Both sides of the spectrum should be able to be objective when it comes to belief and doubt. If you doubt, research the things that make you doubt. If you believe, make sure the things you believe are true. It's only fair that skeptics know what they're doubting before making assumptions.
I hope these words were encouraging. As a Christian, I am constantly plagued by the doubts and questions of others as well as my own. Sometimes it is difficult to remain faithful when you're at it alone but God is faithful and loving. I don't feel like I'm fighting a pointless battle. Our war is not against the flesh but of the principalities and powers of this world that seek to destroy the children of God. The words of skeptics will never break me of my faith.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Biblical Truth
Where in history has any researched story of the Bible been proven untrue? Archaeologists are finding more and more evidence for the truth of these stories every year. For example, the Hittites were an ancient people recorded in history and many skeptics believe the people never existed. On the contrary, archaeologists found historical documents indicating the existence of the Hittites and their livelihood.
In this day and age of Information and Enlightenment, we are seeing more and more people turning their backs on God and religion in favor of New Age ideals and Atheism. Why? The reasons are quite simple.
1. People refuse to believe in anything that corrupts their worldview.
2. People believe faith is a sign of immense intellectual dishonesty and therefore it cannot have any grounds for rational thought.
3. Many intellectual advocates for free thought, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hutchins, are persuading people to think the idea of God is ludicrous and that anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.
4. People believe the stories in the Bible cannot be true because of their "mythical content".
5. People don't believe in a merciful God because of pain and suffering that continues in this world.
The reasons are almost infinite. What this world needs to understand is that their intellectual prowess is nothing more than a facade. What they think is brilliant, God will turn to utter foolishness. The wisdom of this world is trite compared to the amazing mind of the Lord. His creation and the intricacy of it is overwhelming evidence of not only his brilliance but his sovereignty.
So, if God can create everything that we see with our own eyes then maybe the stories in the Bible are not mere legend or myth but actual truth. When we accept what is written and shown to us, TRUE enlightenment is bestowed upon us.
Reject the truth and you shall surely perish.
In this day and age of Information and Enlightenment, we are seeing more and more people turning their backs on God and religion in favor of New Age ideals and Atheism. Why? The reasons are quite simple.
1. People refuse to believe in anything that corrupts their worldview.
2. People believe faith is a sign of immense intellectual dishonesty and therefore it cannot have any grounds for rational thought.
3. Many intellectual advocates for free thought, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hutchins, are persuading people to think the idea of God is ludicrous and that anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.
4. People believe the stories in the Bible cannot be true because of their "mythical content".
5. People don't believe in a merciful God because of pain and suffering that continues in this world.
The reasons are almost infinite. What this world needs to understand is that their intellectual prowess is nothing more than a facade. What they think is brilliant, God will turn to utter foolishness. The wisdom of this world is trite compared to the amazing mind of the Lord. His creation and the intricacy of it is overwhelming evidence of not only his brilliance but his sovereignty.
So, if God can create everything that we see with our own eyes then maybe the stories in the Bible are not mere legend or myth but actual truth. When we accept what is written and shown to us, TRUE enlightenment is bestowed upon us.
Reject the truth and you shall surely perish.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Legalism In Christianity
Christianity is the most loved and hated religion on the planet. Why? Because we are the most loving and also judgmental people on the planet. If Christ indeed lives in our hearts, our words and our actions should showcase that transformation. Letting Jesus take the reins of our lives is the best thing we can do.
We don't trust Christ if we choose to worship the Law. The Law does not have the power to save. It is only by the grace of God that we are saved. Shedding his blood was the key to our salvation. What is not part of our salvation is involving ourselves in politics and trying to tell the rest of the nation and the world that they are going to Hell if they don't listen to the Christian Right. When we become the "Moral Majority" instead of the hands, the feet, and the voice of Jesus, we are missing the big picture.
Jesus preached love, humility and forgiveness. He did not tell us what denomination has it right and who has it wrong by their standard of Christian law. Legalism has no saving power, it is a poison. It makes people think they have to DO things to earn the love and approval of God. What they don't understand is that we are already loved and our salvation is secured when we just ask Jesus to save us. We are new creatures when we allow God to change us.
Moral standards are great if they are aligned with God's will. If we think we know what's best for us by placing ridiculous standards like how we should dress or what is the correct political siding, we are gravely mistaken. Don't let legalism ruin your faith and your perspective of God.
Freedom in Christ. Slave in legalism.
I wrote this for a Facebook group called, "Legalism In Christianity Is Wrong". For this blog, I was thinking about writing something different, a bit more personal but I think this already sums up how I feel about "Christian law" and how it is ruining faith. Faith, grace and love are more important ideals than what the Christian Right has to say or the Moral Majority. These people are missing the ultimate message of Christ and are instead choosing to mask their true affiliations with religion. It is the same course of thought that the Pharisees of old grasped on to. They were "broods of vipers" then and are still "white washed tombs" now.
We don't trust Christ if we choose to worship the Law. The Law does not have the power to save. It is only by the grace of God that we are saved. Shedding his blood was the key to our salvation. What is not part of our salvation is involving ourselves in politics and trying to tell the rest of the nation and the world that they are going to Hell if they don't listen to the Christian Right. When we become the "Moral Majority" instead of the hands, the feet, and the voice of Jesus, we are missing the big picture.
Jesus preached love, humility and forgiveness. He did not tell us what denomination has it right and who has it wrong by their standard of Christian law. Legalism has no saving power, it is a poison. It makes people think they have to DO things to earn the love and approval of God. What they don't understand is that we are already loved and our salvation is secured when we just ask Jesus to save us. We are new creatures when we allow God to change us.
Moral standards are great if they are aligned with God's will. If we think we know what's best for us by placing ridiculous standards like how we should dress or what is the correct political siding, we are gravely mistaken. Don't let legalism ruin your faith and your perspective of God.
Freedom in Christ. Slave in legalism.
I wrote this for a Facebook group called, "Legalism In Christianity Is Wrong". For this blog, I was thinking about writing something different, a bit more personal but I think this already sums up how I feel about "Christian law" and how it is ruining faith. Faith, grace and love are more important ideals than what the Christian Right has to say or the Moral Majority. These people are missing the ultimate message of Christ and are instead choosing to mask their true affiliations with religion. It is the same course of thought that the Pharisees of old grasped on to. They were "broods of vipers" then and are still "white washed tombs" now.
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