CommonChristianity: February 2019

Monday, February 25, 2019

641 - Cake Walk

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Spirituality Column #641

February 26, 2019

Common Christianity / Uncommon Christianity

Cake Walk

By Bob Walters

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus, John 8:32

The instructions on a box of Betty Crocker cake mix are there to tell you how to make a cake, not to tell you how not to.

Sure … you take that box into your own kitchen and are free to do anything with those instructions you want – you can add stuff, delete stuff, change stuff, ignore stuff, even try to outguess or improve what the instructions say. But if you want a cake as it is advertised on the packaging, those directions will tell you all you need to know; just pay attention and do what it says. You have reliable truth not only for baking success, but, without saying so, how to avoid having a bad cake.

This analogy – a parable almost – may lack Jesus’ brilliance but provides some understanding not just of what the Bible is but how to use it and how to pursue our human life and our Christian walk. Look at the Bible as a helpful list of things that are (a.) meant to be and (b.) we should do, not a draconian list of impossible demands and behavioral prohibitions. The Bible read properly leads to the right kind of cake, not an indigestible mess; to frosting, not fondant; to love, not heartburn; to Jesus, not Satan.

Generally I believe it is more vibrant to look at the Bible as God’s relationship book than His instruction manual, but this cake analogy popped into my head as a way to explain the presence of the many rules and instructions that the Bible contains.

For example, consider the Ten Commandments. Their purpose isn’t God telling Moses, or us, “These are the only 10 things in existence to do or not to do,” but are true guidelines for how to have things go well: for how to bake a cake. While they are great human rules for all time, they were specifically aimed at the Jewish nation in the wilderness. As for the other hundreds of Levitical laws, those were God’s code by which the Jews going forward were to honor and relate to the God who had chosen them as His people. All those laws and rites and festivals – the Old Covenant – weren’t for Greeks, Romans, Gentiles, or … ahem … Christians. They were for the Jews.

So along comes Jesus as the fulfillment of all Godly instruction and relationship. He presents to all humanity a New Covenant of faith and the “Two” commandments: to love God and love others. Simple? Yes. But humanity constantly burns the cake.

As surely as the truth of Jesus will set us free in joy and eternity, it is the lies of Satan that bind us – all humanity – in misery and death. Jesus speaks of truth and freedom in John 8:32 (cited above), but shortly thereafter (8:44), speaking to non-believing Jews who refuse to hear the truth, points to Satan: “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, and there is no truth in him … he is the father of lies.” Perhaps Satan’s greatest lie is that we needn’t honor God’s instructions, because if God made us in His own image, surely, we can make up our own rules.

Humanity buys it – always has – thereby ignoring God’s instructions, snubbing Jesus, and grieving the Holy Spirit. In our perpetual arrogance and in a specific fashion of our times, we invent, claim righteousness in, and pledge obeisance to “my own truth.”

That’s code for “bad cake, no frosting.” And truth is, it’s a recipe for destruction.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) looked at a cake mix box and saw just this one “Thou Shalt Not”-type instruction: “Do not eat raw cake batter.” That’s good advice.

Labels: Cake mix, Christian freedom, God’s truth, instruction manual, John 8:32, John 8:44, Levitical Laws, love others, my truth, relationship, Satan, Ten Commandments | 0 comments

Monday, February 18, 2019

640 - Cross Purposes

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Spirituality Column #640

February 19, 2019

Common Christianity / Uncommon Christianity

Cross Purposes

By Bob Walters

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.” – 2 Timothy 1:7

When I look at the cross of Jesus Christ I see righteousness, commitment, love, courage, God’s grace, sin’s ugliness, and fallen man’s meanness and helplessness.

What I don’t see, because it so diminishes Christ’s saving mission and accomplishment – and please hear me out on this – is punishment, payment, shame, or even humiliation. None of those are functions of love, of resolve, of resilience, or of righteousness. I look humbly at the cross with thanks and admiration, not guilt and fear.

The grace and purpose of Christ were, first and foremost, fulfillment of God’s plan for the divine restoration of mankind which had vacated its claim to God’s kingdom with the fall of Adam and Eve. Jesus on the cross is an awful scene, but sufficient to cover over the sins of the world, reveal God’s Kingdom, defeat death, provide eternal life, seat us forever in God’s heavenly glory, and endow us with the love and grace necessary to love each other and boldly love God while still mired amid this daily, earthly shadow of death. Because of the cross, we have knowledge of God, Christ in our lives, baptism by the Holy Spirit, and prayerful, divine relationship of faith, hope, and love. How often we boil-down the cross to a mere trade for forgiveness.

Christians sing endless hymns of payment and cost and price and purchase, though the Apostle Paul famously conflates “loss” and “gain” (Philippians 3:8) and Christ repeatedly muddles the worldly commerce of human compensation: “the first shall be last” (Mark 9:35), etc. The cross of Christ, truly, is not “all about the Benjamins.”

Whether due to logic, greed, or pride, humans vigorously compartmentalize God’s intentions and Christ’s work – profound mysteries of grace and forgiveness – into the “give and take,” “punish or reward,” “shame or pride” constructs of measurement and comparison. How severely they limit our view of God’s love at work in our lives.

That’s because none of these are functions of love, of resolve, of resilience, or of righteousness. They instead divert our attention from God's command to love Him and love others and re-interpret it as a demand for legalistic obedience and metrics. These “either-or” propositions are not indicative of God's higher thoughts and ways, but only our mistaken, fallen, and narrow human perception of quid pro quo transactions.

If the Old Covenant taught us anything, it is that mankind is terrible at following Godly rules. Hence the joy and the glory of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, which demands our love, faith, repentance, and forgiveness of others, not a scorecard.

The reason the cross of Jesus is so hard – whether the “washed clean” cross of the Protestants or the starkly graphic crucifix of the Catholics and Anglicans – is that when we contemplate the cross, encountering the suffering of Christ is unavoidable. It is a miserable truth, this suffering of Christ; and the world’s poorest possible sales pitch.

But our lesson is this: guilt and payment will never help us love others with grace and compassion. That is why love, not guilt or cost, defines the cross of Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows it is far harder to love than to accuse, which he sees as a simple lesson in the difference between Christ and Satan.

Labels: Cost, Cross of Christ, crucifix, guilt, legalism, love, Mark 9:35, measurement, Philippians 3:8, price, restoration, suffering | 0 comments

Monday, February 11, 2019

639 - What's in a Name?

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Spirituality Column #639

February 12, 2019

Common Christianity / Uncommon Christianity

What’s in a Name?

By Bob Walters

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name …” – Philippians 2:9

Paul here of course is talking about Jesus, the “name above every name” in Philippians 2:6-11. Paul is not only describing how we are to imitate Christ in humility, but this section is a hymn describing Christ’s attitude toward His own humility among humanity in the full knowledge that He is God.

Often when we encounter people who think they are God, their humility isn’t the first thing we notice. Jesus certainly offered an unusual and different image from what humanity expected in an all-powerful God, and gave rise to one of New Testament theology’s biggest questions: Jesus was human and alive, but was He really God?

Last week, referencing Josh McDowell’s updated opus of apologetics, Evidence that Demands a Verdict (2017), we talked about the increasing historical and archaeological proof that Jesus really was a man in history and the New Testament really is an accurate historical record of that era, as far as it goes. But we have to be OK with the fact that salvation arises from our faith and our love, not our knowledge of history.

Nonetheless and despite the nay-saying hysteria of agnostic and atheistic academics and cultural anti-religion types, Jesus was demonstrably real and the Bible is trustworthy; it verges on academic dishonesty or secular silliness to think otherwise. But that “as far as it goes” sentiment is the element that makes faith critical and makes our hearts and our love the linchpins of assuredness that Jesus was in fact God.

There are some blindingly ill-informed clichés people claim about religion in general, things like “Religions are all the same.” That is an automatic “tell” that the person expressing that opinion has never actually studied religion sincerely. Another oft-stated, enormously ill-informed proclamation more specifically regarding Christ and the New Testament is that “Jesus, in the Bible, never actually says He is God.”

Oh dear. Jesus is expressing almost everywhere in scripture – by His words, His actions, His love, His resurrection, His very presence – that He is JHWH, the Holy God of Israel incarnate among humanity to reveal the salvation of all mankind. You just have to know how to read it and pay attention to what the Bible is saying. McDowell’s book (Ch. 7) thoroughly logs the many self- and scriptural expressions of Jesus’s divinity.

I believe it is a great attribute of the Bible and of the mysteries of Christ, faith, love, God, purpose, humanity, Spirit, and all of existence that Jesus never reduced His mission on Earth to a PR or ad campaign of “Hey! Look Who I Am and What I Can Do For You!” Jesus wasn’t here on a sales call; it was God’s mission of mercy and faith.

This humble, loving, and righteous Jesus revealed the power of a humble, loving, and righteous God. Only in faith and love is our salvation in Jesus Christ possible; only in faith and love is an eternal seat next to Him in heaven possible.

It is humbling and true: there is infinite power in the name of Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) admits it is fair to question whether the claims of Jesus are true, but it is beyond question that the claims of Jesus were made. Btw, McDowell is speaking (free of charge) at Indy’s East 91^st St. Christian Church Wed., Feb. 13, at 7 p.m.

Labels: cliches, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, humility, Jesus is God, Josh McDowell, name above every name, Philippians 2:6-11 | 0 comments

Monday, February 4, 2019

638 - The Hardest Question

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Spirituality Column #638

February 5, 2019

Common Christianity / Uncommon Christianity

The Hardest Question

By Bob Walters

There is plenty of evidence, even for atheists, to support the claim that Jesus of Nazareth was a man who walked the earth some two thousand years ago.

It takes a Flat-Earther to say, “No; no one named Jesus called Christ ever existed.” It’s not even an interesting conversation. Most of the world operates on a calendar based on Jesus’s appearance “in time and space,” you know, history. He is the most dominant, influential, and famous figure in the western world for two millennia, and the basic chronical of His life – the Bible – has to-date defended and withstood every challenge of archeology and history.

Hence, “Jesus lived” is a statement without serious controversy. “Jesus lives,” on the other hand, along with determining who He was, what He meant, and what we’re supposed to do with Him, are the criteria that founded and have kept the Christian conversation going for two millennia. Anyone doubt they will last a while longer?

I’m guessing the conversation will last until the end when Christ returns, and I’m happy to rely on the Bible’s drumbeat assurance that nobody “knows the hour or day” (Mark 13:32, etc.) when that return will happen. But I do know that if that doesn’t happen by next Wednesday, Feb. 13, there will be several great conversations about these truths and doubts in multiple live appearances here in central Indiana with renowned apologist, evangelist, and author Josh McDowell.

In a five-day speaker’s tour organized by Tom Foltz and the annual “Room for Doubt” series at East 91^st St. Christian Church in the Castleton area of northeast Indianapolis, McDowell will speak to several groups at churches and college campuses.

His largest open-to-the-public gathering, free of charge, is 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, in the E91 church main sanctuary (6049 E. 91^st St., Indy). His topic is “Undaunted,” and the Room for Doubt organizers encourage folks with questions and doubts to attend. “It’s a great opportunity for Christians to bring non-believers or skeptical friends and family to hear honest, intelligent, and sincere Christian response to common questions,” commented organizer Foltz.

McDowell’s seminal book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, in print since 1972, was most recently updated with his son, Prof. Sean McDowell PhD, in 2017. I’m currently reading the updated version and have been astounded by the amount of archeological “clarification” and factual truth that has appeared in the last 45 years.

McDowell, 79, spent years doing thousands of Campus Crusade rallies worldwide, has aided global humanitarian causes, authored or co-authored more than 150 books, and grew his faith even after an agnostic, abusive upbringing.

The hardest question for a Christian to answer of course is not, “Why do I believe?” but “What will help someone else believe?” McDowell has spent more than five decades helping the world to discover that answer.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is roughly a quarter of the way through McDowell’s updated book … which is nearly 900 pages in all. Great read… but it’s 900 pages.

Labels: Apologist, archaeology, E91 Church, Evangelist, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Flat-Earthers, is Jesus real, Josh McDowell, Mark 13:32. Indy appearance | 0 comments

641 - Cake Walk

640 - Cross Purposes

639 - What's in a Name?

638 - The Hardest Question

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