Friends,  How dare God presume to be in charge of our really awesome human government structures on this planet? We do so well when He’s not involved …  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #876

August 29, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

You Talkin’ to Me?

By Bob Walters

“Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities…” Romans 13:1

If First Corinthians 13 is the Bible’s “Love Chapter,” Romans 13 is its “Government Chapter.”  The Apostle Paul covered these bases well.

“Love is patient, love is kind; it does not envy, it does not boast …Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:4-8) are instructive words often spoken in wedding ceremonies.

“… For there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1) are Lordly, commanding words virtually never heard in modern political discourse. Not in America, nor – I daresay – to my knowledge anywhere else.

While matrimony still clings – though often threadbare – to scripture, government has gone rogue.  We will “love, honor, and cherish” the prospect of a spouse, allowing God to squeeze into the ceremony if only for the day and only for lip service.  God has no such gracious invitation to, nor promotable authority in, the modern public square.

Does God actually have that authority? Yes, He does, and we’ll get to that.  Like its constant focus on God’s love, the Bible’s plenary emphasis on God’s authority colors every verse.  But where we may be willing to bargain with a spouse on mutual terms to “love, honor, and cherish” – traditional words that are civil, by the way, not biblical – assigning all authority to God just because the Bible says so is widely seen as irrational, unseemly, and unworkable.  As in, “I’m not going to let God tell me what to do!”

That is our general culture’s self-crippling, modern, behavioral posture relating to God and revealing humanity’s evil streak that brings death, not love.  And with our secularly errant, prideful, and dismissive misunderstanding of “the separation of Church and State,” no way will we accept subjection to government just because God said so.

“God has no business in government!” shrieks backwards modern Liberalism, the bureaucracy, the media, the progressives, the Woke, my atheist neighbor and, I’m sorry to say, more than a few practicing Christians who accept salvation but fight Lordship.

It is a dumb fight we cannot win.  We can resist God and ignore scripture – heck, that is Satan’s central game plan for us – but joy and order come only in submission.

Huh? Submission? We are indignant like Robert DeNiro, “Are you talkin’ to me?”

Romans 13:1-7 makes the most sense when we look at what God’s installation of civil government does for us, not against us. We may think the current U.S. government/ leadership is yucky, but it is no yuckier than the pagan Roman Empire or cruel Emperor Nero. Paul’s teaching makes perfect sense when you look at God’s perspective.

Paul is promoting a distinction between Godly obedience by Christians and the chaotic rebelliousness of the Israelites. Israel prayed for a Messiah who would kill the Romans; Jesus the true Messiah commanded us to pray for the Romans, i.e., enemies.

Paul – a Pharisee, a Roman citizen, and a Roman prisoner – understood God’s institution of human government to provide order for and protection of humans.  Chaos and anarchy are antithetical to God’s plan for humanity but natural to a sinful, fallen world.  Roman rule could be harsh but it did provide order and safety if it was obeyed. 

Our citizenship on earth, such as it is, is temporary; our eternal home is Heaven.

I imagine God sees our no-God politics and muses, “You should be talkin’ to me.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cites DeNiro in the 1976 film, “Taxi Driver.”

Friends, Verily I tell you, it is a joy to include the truth of Christ in daily high school education. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #875

August 22, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Christ in the Classroom

By Bob Walters

“… bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4, NIV

“How’s teaching going, Bob?”

I heard that question from friends a dozen or more times in church this morning as school started last week.  My general response was, “You wouldn’t believe it.”

In world history the book talks about the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages, theories of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon humans, and then gives full weight to the reality of God’s Creation.  The Bible, the text clearly notes, is far different from secular stories.

In government, the first issue is to wade through God’s expectations for human development owing to His righteousness and the reason we need government: our sin.

U.S. history opens with Marco Polo in an Italian prison in 1298 AD telling stories of fabulous wealth, products, and civilizations in the Far East.  Next, the Crusades to retake the Holy Land first exposed Europeans to the fabulous Muslim bounties from China.  Not long after that, Europeans began exploring other routes to the Far East that did not involve fighting Muslims along the way.  Hence, exploration by ocean routes.

After the obligatory rundown of world explorers Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot, and Ferdinand Magellan, by pages seven and eight we were discussing Luther’s Reformation in Germany, Calvin’s teaching in Geneva, and the impact of Protestant freedom, government, and education on the allure of a New World far from the Pope of the Church and the Kings and Queens of Europe.

I was talking to highly-educated, former-elder-chairman church buddy Don on the phone Saturday night, sharing among other things that it was Calvin whose teaching reformed and renewed Geneva with the ideas that sinners simply needed to trust Christ, all levels of society should experience the spiritual renewal of the Reformation, enhanced education was the best way to produce effective leaders for church and society, and that better than any monarchy would be a government by assemblies elected by citizens. Britain’s Magna Carta aside, Calvin promoted modern government.

Don is enough of a like-minded trivialist to appreciate that in our educational histories, neither of us had ever heard that.  And all this was in just my first three days teaching high school at Mission Christian Academy (MCA) in Fishers.  It is astounding what you can learn in a social studies classroom when the Bible is inbounds and in play.

I don’t remember high school U.S. History class 50 years ago mentioning Calvin.

So, to my caring friends, yes, school is going great; full-time teaching is a joyous new adventure.  Teaching history while sharing a Christian worldview – our worldview – with open-minded teenaged students is a joy for me … and, I sense, a comfort for them. 

Did I say “open-minded”? Isn’t this a building full of close-minded Christians?  I’m afraid the world pitches that hay off the wrong end of the wagon.  It is the God-intolerant world whose minds are closed to reality and objective truth.  Every human being has a unique opinion about God – I believe that – but denial of God only exposes foolishness.  

Sadly, that’s our world. See Psalms 14:1 and 53:1 for scriptural back-up.

MCA promises parents – this isn’t a sales pitch, it’s also what I was promised as a teacher – that its mission is truth, salvation, and Christian worldview.  As I survey culture, politics, and most modern “education,” I see narratives rife with lies meant to diminish humanity, shackle freedom, and contort responsibility. I say, choose wisdom.

The training and instruction of the Lord, in the Lord, is a gift that gives forever.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) now realizes how “full time” a job teaching really is.

We work hard at being Christians.  Maybe too hard. See the column below ... Blessings, Bob

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Labels: 2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV, concepts, dispensationalism, Dwight Moody, Genesis 1, John 1, popular theology, simplicity

Spirituality Column #874

August 15, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Excess Baggage

By Bob Walters

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV

Our Christian vocation is to believe, share, promote, trust, and I daresay, defend, the Word of God: The Logos, Son of God, our Creator, Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ.

If for a moment you thought “Word” meant the Bible … well, yeah, that too.  Living a life immersed in biblical truth, knowing the peace and truth of scripture, relying on its wonderful text as our North Star and key truth navigational aid hearkens life’s intellectual richness and divine perspective available only with faith in Christ.

Following the purpose and plan of the One who created us to begin with should be life’s most simple, natural, inarguable track and secure way forward.  Many of us err and instead follow the ways of man, dismissing a God we don’t understand. 

But man didn’t create humanity – or life, or Creation, or cosmically much of anything else – God did. Perhaps you have noticed that science never says “where life came from.” Theories abound – complex theories, fantastic theories – but nothing as direct as Genesis 1, or even John 1 – “In the beginning was the Word … the Word was God … without Him was nothing made.” Simple: It’s Jesus.

Our focus today is on “simplicity,” which is why we took the rare translational path (here) of a King James Version citation from the New Testament, where Second Corinthians 11:3, reads “simplicity,” not the “sincere and pure devotion” phrase of the NIV, ESV, and NASB. The Greek word, in fact, is “simplicity” (haplotetos).

I like “simplicity” better, though “sincere and pure” aren’t bad.  But throughout Christian history, especially in the last 200 years, haven’t we made a life in Christ, the study of the Bible, and “going to church” a far more burdensome exercise than necessary?  You may not realize it, but we have.  The excess baggage is crushing.

Rather than holding a personal, laser focus on the freeing, joyous, God-affirming, and life-affirming relationship with the King of Glory, humans, scholars, preachers, and prophets add endless academic baggage or church practice attendant to endlessly defining, dividing, and delineating the Bible’s every phrase, nuance, and idea.  We must remind ourselves to love with the person of Jesus Christ, not prattle over concepts.

What concepts?  Millennialism. The Kingdom of Heaven / rewards. Spiritual Gifts. Prophesy. Zionism. End Times. Imminent Rapture (Up we go!). The now mostly-defunct craziness of “Dispensationalism,” which presumes God in the Bible divides up “ages” of judgement.  If you’ve ever read a “Left Behind” book you have been exposed, unawares probably, to this idea.  Dispensationalism, fyi, was the theology of Dwight Moody.

It’s the most popular and commercially successful theology of the last 150 years (think radio, TV, books, movies, many megachurches), overly defining scripture in a packaged transaction of definitive systems, i.e., “Do this, and God will give you this.”   Man continually introduces another “program” to find/define Jesus. Whither love?

I often wonder if this spiritual merchandising template is more about control (Behave!), or funding (God wants me to be rich!), or Satan (distract me from Jesus).

The simplest thing for a Christian is to focus on Jesus. ‘Works every time.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) read Dan Hummel’s book on Dispensationalism.

I think God in his love and righteousness gave humans curious and creative minds to learn joy, not fear. That should affect how we teach young humans. Here's the column ... 

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Spirituality Column #873

August 8, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Teaching Joy

By Bob Walters

“I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go … be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy all you upright in heart!” Psalm 32:8 and 11

As the season presents another school year’s beginning, it seemed appropriate to talk about teaching and joy and … righteousness.  Righteousness?

Wait … I thought “no one is righteous, no not one.” Two different psalmists say it, (Psalm 14:3, Psalm 53:10), Paul quotes the line in Romans 3:10, and don’t we all recall God “raining down burning sulfur” after the failed search for “one righteous man” in Sodom (Genesis 19:24)?  The wickedness of Sodom would make today’s most ardent, progressive modern Wokesters blush.  For sure … they were not – are not – righteous.

Christians all know who the righteous one is: Jesus Christ. And though we are often reluctant to say it, in our hearts we know we can claim the righteousness of Christ through our faith in Him (Romans 3:22); it just seems wrong since we know we are sinners.  But justification by faith and our righteousness in Christ are among God’s miraculous, loving, gracious, free gifts to us through Jesus on the cross.

That fact makes many people think they should feel guilt, shame, and fear: to suffer punishment and that God exacts some kind of payment.  What a mistake!  We should “shout for joy all you upright in heart!”  Let’s learn about Jesus with joy, not guilt.

This is on my mind as school starts and our children will be taught … something.  I say let it be joy.  Here are some thoughts I picked up from an inspiring article by First Things writer Mark Bauerlein.  The magazine article link is HERE comparing Catholic school priorities with public school dynamics. I mentally swapped the word “Christian” for “Catholic” in this delightful piece. It works. Bauerlein writes:

“Catholic (Christian) liberal education has a positive vision of the past and present, inquiry and tradition, man and God. The 1619 Project, which has spread widely in the public schools, trades in accusation; it doesn’t like patriotism and it suspects the churches; nothing about it is entertaining or witty (identity politicians don’t like jokes).”

Bauerlein recently attended a Catholic educators conference, noting the joy of attendees in comparison with more sour, secular, humanities confabs he has witnessed. I teach high school history and government at Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Ind., and our faculty is a bunch of joyous education warriors, not lefty complainers endeavoring to re-write truth, ignore God, and denigrate moral authority.

“Liberal” education should communicate not the freedom-robbing political “liberal” leftism of our age, but the classical notions of joy in the mental acuities God gave us for learning, investigating, seeking Him, building fellowship, and growing faithful confidence in Jesus.

If you have a minute, read Bauerlein’s piece at the link provided above.  I’m personally a little new to the Christian education orbit but immediately understood his message.

With joy, with beloved students and fellow staff, there’s no way I’d rather go.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), at his blog CommonChristianity, last spring wrote about his new life teaching (see columns IS857 and IS858) and has read Bauerlein’s articles in First Things for many years.