Monday, April 21, 2014
388 - Easter Headlines, Holy Headaches
Spirituality Column #388
April 22, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
For better or worse, this year’s Easter season seemed overflowing with church, Bible, and Jesus-related news and entertainment.
The weeks leading up to Easter saw the release of several religious-themed movies. “Son of God” and “God’s Not Dead” were specifically Christ-honoring Christian films. “Noah,” evidently an egregiously non-biblical environmental purpose pitch (I believe the reviews and am staying away), nonetheless elevated a “Bible” story – no matter how twisted – to the top of the box office ratings.
Barna, the Christian survey folks, announced a poll saying 19 percent of Americans “use” the Bible – read it regularly and believe it – exactly matching the 19 percent of Americans who think the Bible is just a book of stories and occasionally helpful life teaching. I’m glad the first number is so high and surprised the second number is so low. News reports, silly and shallow, treated it is a new and shocking testament to unprecedented evenness of believers vs. unbelievers.
In the first place, God’s truth does not depend on any “poll,” not even a Christian one. Reporters can stand behind their facts, but life has taught me to stand behind my faith. Christ came for all (John 3:16), not for a percentage. And even with all that divine, life-giving, love-promising, eternal grace that is available, the Bible clearly tells us few people make it to the narrow gate. Redemption is about faith, not the odds.
Then there was the headline that screamed “Harvard Scientists Authenticate ‘Wife of Jesus’ Scripture,” or some such nonsense. The headline and lead paragraph were obviously calculated to cast doubt on both the Bible and the traditions of the Church, which teach us that Jesus was not married.
It turns out scientists had “dated” a piece of Egyptian writing to the 4th-6th centuries AD. Probably gnostic or otherwise heretical in origin, the writing is evidently “real” enough – like a “real” copy of the satirical “Onion” publication – but came after the canon of the Bible was generally settled in the third century. Something can be “real” in the world without being Truth in the heavens. Our culture frequently forgets that.
Easter, and the preceding Christian season of Lent, is undoubtedly the most broadly “Holy” time of the year. If ever the divine message of love, forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life embodied in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is going to popularly resonate beyond the church walls, that’s when it will.
It’s not a bad thing to have culture pay a little more attention to Christianity, but it’s important to be able to discern truth from fiction. Our eternal lives depend on it.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) observes that Christmas is fun, but Easter is Holy.
April 22, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
Easter Headlines,
Holy Headaches
By Bob WaltersFor better or worse, this year’s Easter season seemed overflowing with church, Bible, and Jesus-related news and entertainment.
The weeks leading up to Easter saw the release of several religious-themed movies. “Son of God” and “God’s Not Dead” were specifically Christ-honoring Christian films. “Noah,” evidently an egregiously non-biblical environmental purpose pitch (I believe the reviews and am staying away), nonetheless elevated a “Bible” story – no matter how twisted – to the top of the box office ratings.
Barna, the Christian survey folks, announced a poll saying 19 percent of Americans “use” the Bible – read it regularly and believe it – exactly matching the 19 percent of Americans who think the Bible is just a book of stories and occasionally helpful life teaching. I’m glad the first number is so high and surprised the second number is so low. News reports, silly and shallow, treated it is a new and shocking testament to unprecedented evenness of believers vs. unbelievers.
In the first place, God’s truth does not depend on any “poll,” not even a Christian one. Reporters can stand behind their facts, but life has taught me to stand behind my faith. Christ came for all (John 3:16), not for a percentage. And even with all that divine, life-giving, love-promising, eternal grace that is available, the Bible clearly tells us few people make it to the narrow gate. Redemption is about faith, not the odds.
Then there was the headline that screamed “Harvard Scientists Authenticate ‘Wife of Jesus’ Scripture,” or some such nonsense. The headline and lead paragraph were obviously calculated to cast doubt on both the Bible and the traditions of the Church, which teach us that Jesus was not married.
It turns out scientists had “dated” a piece of Egyptian writing to the 4th-6th centuries AD. Probably gnostic or otherwise heretical in origin, the writing is evidently “real” enough – like a “real” copy of the satirical “Onion” publication – but came after the canon of the Bible was generally settled in the third century. Something can be “real” in the world without being Truth in the heavens. Our culture frequently forgets that.
Easter, and the preceding Christian season of Lent, is undoubtedly the most broadly “Holy” time of the year. If ever the divine message of love, forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life embodied in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is going to popularly resonate beyond the church walls, that’s when it will.
It’s not a bad thing to have culture pay a little more attention to Christianity, but it’s important to be able to discern truth from fiction. Our eternal lives depend on it.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) observes that Christmas is fun, but Easter is Holy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment