Spirituality Column #789

December 28, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘The God of Spinoza’    By Bob Walters

“I am the Lord thy God …” – Exodus 20:2

What I really want to talk about today is the Christian satire website The Babylon Bee, and Elon Musk, the current “richest man in the world.”

We’ll get to God and Spinoza in a minute.

For my philosophically inclined friends, sorry, this is not a treatise on the 17^th century Dutch, Jewish voice of the Enlightenment, Baruch Spinoza.  And for my Christian friends like me who are plenty happy with the simple love of Jesus and less inclined to ruin our day with endless philosophical postulates, propositions, and definitions, relax. 

The Bee will make you laugh, and Musk will make you think.

The Bee will also make you think, and Musk will also make my deepest Christian friends sit up and say, “Wait, what?  How can a guy as smart as Musk know so little about Jesus?”  Musk sat with the Bee in a 100-minute interview last week.  Fascinating.  I watched the whole thing.

The Babylon Bee (The Babylon Bee | Fake News You Can Trust) is a – forgive the ironic descriptive – wicked-smart Christian website that makes daily fun of everybody: religions, politics, culture, you name it.  It’s a quick and rewarding “read.”  Subscriptions are free, or you can pay.

Truth and surprise being critical components of humor, uncomfortable truth wrapped in wry observation is the Bee’s mission, fodder, and glory.  It was founded in 2016 and I’ve been a “Bee” premium subscriber for a couple years.  It is a daily Christian, cultural voice that, I think anyway, must not be silenced by woke, politically correct, or doctrinal sourpusses.

So that’s my pitch for the Bee – try it, you’ll like it – and we’ll move on to Musk.  If you quit reading right now because you already don’t like Elon Musk for whatever reason, at least give the Bee a look.  It’s my New Year’s gift to you.

Now on to Musk, Spinoza, and God: The Babylon Bee interview.

I was as blown away by Musk’s real-world transparency, talents, comportment, history, and observations – what an interesting guy – as I was startled by his comments late in the interview responding to specific questions about faith.  We all know dozens of people just like him, faith wise or non-faith wise. Musk is a person who can’t imagine anyone actually reading the whole Bible.

In the Bee interview, Musk first grills his hosts on who they are and what the Bee is.  Then he recounts his South African roots, late teens in Canada, developing his coding talent at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of his early ventures netting him $20 million.  We know it today as PayPal.

Named Time Magazine’s “2021 Man of the Year,” Musk recounts and opines on the media, humor, politics, his $240 Billion wealth and $11 billion income tax, Tesla, sustainable energy, SpaceX, colonizing Mars, Neuralink, artificial intelligence, and paralysis research.  Fascinating.

It was the Bee editors asking their “Ten Questions” (the same ten they ask all podcast guests) at the end the interview – two in particular – that triggered this column.

Bee: “What book would you add to the Bible?” Musk: “Has anyone actually read the Bible?”  Having grown up Anglican/Episcopalian like Musk, I know what he’s saying.

Then, question #10 from the Bee editors who reminded him they were Christians and the Bee was a Christian site, was this dandy: “Will you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?”  Musk flailed a bit, brought up the “God of Spinoza” (channeling Einstein: all things are God, God is merely the sum total of human experience), and having thus defined God, didn’t say yes or no.

Here is a guy with a handle on seemingly everything in the world, more or less flummoxed by the world’s single most important question.  I pitied Musk’s lack of Bible understanding, but also remembered when I was in the exact same pitching, uncomfortable boat of faith-around-the-edges.

Thanks to the Bee, and prayers for Mr. Musk. “I AM the Lord thy God” (Exodus 20:2) is the truth of God, and “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) is the sure promise of Jesus.

Join me in prayer to reinforce that message with Musk.  He would make a great Christian.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes the link: Elon Musk Sits Down With The Babylon Bee

 Spirituality Column #788

December 21, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Mary Knew, But …

By Bob Walters

“…the angel [Gabriel] said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High … the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’ … And Mary said to Gabriel, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. – Luke 1:30-32, 35, 38

The popular Christmas song title asks, “Mary, Did You Know?” 

Well, according to this Bible passage from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, I think the answer is most definitely, “Yep, Mary knew.”  Jesus was on the way.

Mary at that time certainly didn’t know the answers to all the questions and tender images the song poses about the eventual life and work and miracles of Christ; nobody at that time did.  Despite the scriptural roadmap laid out in the Old Testament for God’s plan of salvation of humanity, this frightened but faithful and obedient teenage girl received this world-altering news from what I imagine would have been a glowing angel sent by God almighty.  Mary’s response went from fear to confusion to rejoicing.

Mary knew in her heart this wasn’t fake news. While the person, methods, and fullness of Christ couldn’t have been known then – by Mary or by anybody – humanity would come to know Jesus as the Good News of its salvation from a fallen world: the restoration of mankind’s eternal shared life in the glorious presence of our Creator God.

But in remote Judea, the Son of God to be born as a baby was on the way.  And at that moment of Gabriel’s visit, Mary was the only one who did know, along with, shortly thereafter, her similarly startled husband-to-be, Joseph, who received the news – separately – from an apparently different angel in a dream (Matthew 1:18-25). 

Where the “Mary Did You Know?” song gets it right is not so much in whether the virgin Mary knew the identity of the baby she would carry and birth – she did – but how absolutely no one in the world had any idea what God was truly up to and all that Jesus would mean during his short life on earth and for the remainder of human history. 

So yes, Mary knew.  However, her only question was how it would happen. Then … no more questions.  Her response from then on was trust, faith, and obedience to God … and love for the child growing inside her.  That was Mary’s first Christmas.

Mary was “the mother of God,” what theologians call the “Theotokos,” or “God bearer.”  Mary’s soul “glorified the Lord” and her spirit “rejoiced in God my Savior.” She knew “all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:46-48). That’s quite a Christmas gift.

We share Mary’s joy when we obediently accept the savior Jesus into our lives, and Christmas is the time of year to remember that.  Joy multiplies when we remember it every day … every moment … but Christmas is when we share the story to an unsaved world that needs to hear the Good News of the birth of Jesus and salvation.

Too many of us think celebrating Christmas is about earthly gifts, when Jesus is the cosmic, divine, ultimate gift: new life in Christ.  With faith in Jesus, acknowledging Him as the Son of God, the Truth of God, the Word of God, and accepting our sins as forgiven, we are restored to the paradise of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Merry Christmas.

Mary, blessed for all time, welcomed Jesus into the world.  She knew then that the best celebration of Christmas, always, is when we welcome Jesus into our hearts.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) sees no verse mentioning Joseph and Mary talking to each other about the angels’ separate visits to them. Imagine that conversation…

 Spirituality Column #787

December 14 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Life of the Party

By Bob Walters

“I am the way and the truth and the life.” – Jesus to the disciples, responding to Thomas at the Last Supper. John 14:6

At his birth, the one we celebrate at Christmas – the baby Jesus – brought into the world the promise of restored, revived, renewed, and hope-filled life for all humanity.

Of course, almost nobody at the time knew about it: about Jesus and salvation, I mean.  For the few who did, there was only the faintest understanding of who Jesus was in God’s kingdom and no comprehension at all of whom He would become in human history.  Jesus arrived with the cry of a baby, not the trumpet of a conqueror.

Those who knew Hebrew scripture hoped, someday, for a marauding but wise and holy Messiah warrior fixing the world’s ills and establishing Israel as the ascendant kingdom of the world.  What they got instead was a humble, helpless, entirely unknown peasant baby boy born among shepherds at the far ends of the Roman empire in a poor, rural, backwater peasant town who as a man would be killed as a Jewish heretic.

Oh … if the world truly had been paying attention to the gift Jesus presented.

Jesus was life itself; He restored to humanity – on offer to all through faith in Him as the Son of God – mankind’s originally created life made in the image of God Himself.

We lost that image in man’s Fall in the garden.  The First Adam’s disobedience led to us desiring to be gods without the authority of God.  So, we created idols and worshiped ourselves and the things we ourselves made and thought.

Despite all that was given to us in the Second Adam, Jesus, we still do that today.

In ancient scripture God promised Israel He would use its obscure nation – His chosen nation – to restore and return all humanity to His love, image, and relationship.

Jewish prophecy about this restorative Messiah Christ abounded, but the coming of Jesus wasn’t what anyone expected.  Perhaps it’s a minor misnomer to say the world wasn’t paying attention, because the resurrection and the ensuing growth of “The Way” which became the Christian church, and the name Jesus itself, have influenced all life and history ever since.  Yes, the world noticed Jesus, but continued to idolize itself.

Science and philosophy are tireless in their academic efforts to explain, define, and “own” all aspects of our existence: life, thought, sense of self, consciousness, and all manner of physical and rational propositions.  Humanity, for the most part, still hasn’t figured out what this “life” is, exactly, or where it came from or what it’s for. 

Over the weekend I read a review of a new book, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.  It was in Friday’s Wall Street Journal under the headline, “Why We Have A Sense of Self.”  I had this immediate, simple answer: “We have a sense of self because God gave us one and wants us to use it to find him, love him, and love others.”

Then, I tensed up and read the review.  As expected, there was no mention of, nor faintest allusion to, God, faith, truth, life, Jesus, sacrifice, Spirit, hope, love – i.e., reality – from these supposedly “smart,” sentient, deep, praiseworthy people. Sigh.    

They laud impotent idols of knowledge and ignore life’s true answer: Jesus.

Christmas is a party, Jesus is life, and people never understand it without faith.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows life comes from God, new life comes from Jesus, and the knowledge of truth comes from the Holy Spirit. Duh. It’s in the Bible.

Spirituality Column #786

December 7, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Story Time

By Bob Walters

“Jesus did many other things as well.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” – John 21:25

The Gospel of John is the last Gospel presented in the Bible, there exists little doubt it was the last Gospel written – probably late in the first century – and John 21:25 is the last verse of John’s last chapter.

And what John is saying in this closing verse of the Gospels is, “There is so much more.”

The story of Jesus is the Greatest Story Ever Told, and it is a story we will never fully grasp in this lifetime.  The Bible is the guiding light of the Holy Spirit’s largesse, sharing the magnificent story of God, creation, humanity, sin, salvation, love, and grace.

Stories are how humans communicate, and it may be God’s most under-rated gift that our narratives and languages spark creative relationships among individuals, families, neighbors, and nations.  We rarely think of stories as “a thing.”  Yet it is our unique and varied stories that bind humans together, tear us apart, define life as we know it, and make us curious to answer the greatest of all questions: “Why?”

I think it’s an easy answer: Q. “Why?”  A. “For God’s glory.”  If one pursues the plainest truth and purest proof of purpose, reason, logic, and the unmistakable presence of human instincts that go far beyond elemental survival, God gave humans the great gift of stories and language to investigate, discover, describe, expound, discern, and most importantly share all that we come to know, think, feel, hope, and believe.

In that sense, “stories,” I believe, have a divine organizational kinship with “time.”  Both are God’s gifts to humanity that we tend to neither notice nor appreciate.  God is outside of time in eternity, which remains a mostly-opaque notion to my human mind.  Christ, as Jesus, stepped into time and into humanity to communicate the love, glory, truth – the story – of God’s salvation for a fallen world: Jesus beats Satan’s hate with God’s love.  

Science, you ask?  Note that math and science don’t provide stories; they provide facts.  Where the Bible is all about “why” and stories; science is God’s gift to humans about how things work.  Science replaces God’s purpose?  No, science reveals God’s “How.”  Equations and elements and physics, discovered and defined by humans, are God’s universal language: they are the same everywhere for everybody.

New science discoveries alter man’s understanding, but they don’t alter God.

Stories, everywhere for every person, are unique and changing and gloriously promote or monstrously destroy human understanding and relationships.  Stories we errantly construct can also destroy our understanding of, and our relationship with, God.

But they can’t destroy God; He is so much more than we can fully comprehend.

Humans have God’s special spark because we think in stories.  Animals are unencumbered with such existential awareness.  If you want to assign “emotions” on pets, fine, but it is we who imprint “stories” on them.  They possess instincts, notice patterns, can be trained, etc., but who imagines an animal asking, “Why am I here?”

I say all this because I read the Bible as the Truth of God and Creation, and I’m thankful humans have the great power of experiencing and sharing God’s endless story. 

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) often tells stories to his dog Kramer, who listens.