Friends: On that podcast last week, I should have been quicker listing the things George taught me, several noted here.  Next week in Part 3 we’ll review the actual “Finding Genius” podcast (see link below, all the way at the bottom). Your thoughts are welcome, but I already know I talk too fast. - Bob

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Spirituality Column #865

June 13, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Bread Upon the Waters, Part 2

By Bob Walters

“Bob … it’s a story!” – How Dr. George Bebawi once explained the Bible’s book of Genesis to me.

Whenever I’m asked about my Christian writing, as I was on a podcast last week, there are two names that come to mind immediately: friend and minister Russ Blowers, and mentor George Bebawi.

Russ encouraged my writing and shepherded my first six years of faith before he passed in 2007. George, from 2004-2017, taught a weekly Bible class at our E91 church and provided many “head-spinners,” blow-your-mind type observations and enough material for a lifetime of reflection and recitation.  George died in February 2021 and never is my writing not impacted by his teaching or Russ’s love.

Continuing last week’s thoughts about my guest slot on the podcast, “Finding Genius,” I woefully under-performed on a softball question about “other” memorable things I learned from George.  I neglected …

“Bob, it’s a story.” – This was George’s response when I once asked him why God allowed evil to enter the Garden of Eden.  Accompanied by his friendly laugh, it was George’s unique way of saying the question doesn’t matter.  In time I figured it out; “Jesus is what matters.” And God’s love is what matters.

Literal in what way? – Until the latter 1800s, nobody thought to try to prove the literal truth of the Bible.  The Bible was just accepted, faithfully, as the truth of God. Then as academia’s paradigm shifted away from theology to the more physically provable and applicable spheres of engineering and science, theologians attempted to follow suit.  Tough sell; faith can be seen and felt, but not calculated or proven.

We’re no angels. – When we die to this life, George vigorously reminded, we do not become angels; in Christ we become fully human.  We were/are created human in the image of God as heirs and friends, not as servants like the angels. Do angels, demons, and spirits exist? Unquestionably, but our goal must be to develop our humanity, as best we can, in humanity’s perfect example of Jesus.

Three’s a crowd? – No, three is the smallest number of a community, and that’s why there are three in the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, Spirit – for love. This is among the first surprising and stop-the-presses things I remember George teaching.  Humans want to assign the three persons of the Trinity unique functions and identities, and are disturbed by the three-as-one arithmetic.  Love can only exist in community, and “God is love” (1 John 4:8). In Jesus we are heirs of that community, God’s Kingdom.

“Forgiveness: Number 15 or 20 on the list.” – Perhaps the most common Christian error, or miscalculation, George asserted, is thinking the most important thing Jesus did on the cross was forgive our sins. Forgiveness is a big deal, no doubt, but Jesus died on the cross to defeat death and restore our relationship within God’s Kingdom; forgiveness is merely a precondition. Christ’s purpose was restoration, healing, hope, revelation (Yes, God is real!), love, obedience, grace, truth, and knowing God. Our joy is to focus on Jesus, love, and others going forward; not remain mired in the “me” of past success or suffering.

The New Testament explains the Old. – Jesus Christ completes the unfinished story of the Old Testament.  Do not jam the OT of the Law into the NT of grace and faith.  Same God, different covenants.

Whose covenant is it? – God’s Old Testament covenants were between God and men (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Israel, Moses); the new covenant is between God and Jesus, not man. George was clear on this: our only way to God is through Jesus (John 14:6). We want our own covenant to hold God responsible, but God’s deal is with Jesus. God demanded a perfect sacrifice? He trusts Jesus, not us.

Punishing truth. – Better sit down. Though we say it all the time, nothing in the Bible says Jesus was punished for our sins. (Go ahead, look for it; we’ll wait.) Jesus was punished by the Jews for saying He was God, and Pilate played along with the threat that Jesus was a king.  But, Jesus “punished for our sin”? No, the Bible doesn’t say that.  I found out later Anselm put forth the now-popular notion of “Penal Substitutionary Atonement” (i.e., Jesus punished for our sins to satisfy God) in the 11^th century.  This idea was unknown for the first thousand years of Christianity, and grossly popularized in the past 200.

Cost free. – Like punishment, the Bible does not say Jesus paid anybody for our sins.  His death on the cross was about love, grace, humility, and obedience.  Besides, who would Jesus, i.e., God, pay?

What do I get? – “An eternal seat with the living God” (Rev. 3:20). No other faith promises that.

Think like a Christian! (I did mention this on the podcast.) – George was quick to notice Christians clinging to Old Testament law, not love. You can’t be a Christian, he’d say, and think like a Jew. Shalom.

As I miss Russ, I miss George every day.  I always had questions; they always had answers.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) invites you to listen to his “Finding Genius” podcast interview, HERE (approx. 48 minutes). For more info on George, see GeorgeBebawi.com, with thanks to great friend Stan Naraine for continuing to maintain this wonderful written and audio repository of George’s work.  

 Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #827 (9-20-22), “Literally Challenged.” How do we explain to skeptics which parts of the Bible are literal and which are not?  Whew … great question.  See the column below.

Tip of the Week: We saw the “Running the Bases” movie, starring Gary Varvel’s son Brett.  Outstanding Christian fare.  Don would love it.  Larry needs to see it, but would not … love it, I think (see column).

Spirituality Column #827

September 20, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Literally Challenged

By Bob Walters

Last week we discussed my good neighbor Larry who is not a believer.  This week’s mental spark came from my close Christian friend Don (real name), who is.

Inviting a conversation regarding Larry, Don emailed, “[How do] you help a skeptic understand which parts of the Bible we take literally and which parts we don’t since it is clearly not all or none. Looking forward to a chat!”

I thought I’d go ahead and serve first since Don lives out of state and these types of conversations are clearly superior in person with the spirit, so to speak, than over phones, emails, or texts.  It’ll give both of us a launching pad next time we’re together.

First understand that Don is a longtime church elder including several terms as chairman.  He’s not really looking for advice, just sharing a common concern and question many believers – including me – ponder as we endeavor to explain our faith to non-believers.  Generally, that could be anybody, most especially to people we love.

The faithful reality of Christ in a thinking, human life is so simple – once you have it – that explaining it to someone else should be a walkover, i.e., something that is easy and presents no difficulties.  Here is what that might look like:

The Creator of everything sacrificially loves His Creation and gave His favorite creation, humanity, freedom to find its own love.  That love should be God, but instead humanity wanted to be equal with God and came to love itself on its own terms instead of God on God’s terms.  Humanity’s rejection of God’s supremacy created – and still creates – in humanity miserable sins, chaos, despair, vacant purpose … and death.

In other words, humanity, the problem, says the world is awful and there appears to be no reason to be here, or an escape.  That’s doubling down on hopelessness.

So God, the solution, to reveal and prove His love rather than merely punish humanity’s sin and denial – or destroy it – sent His creative, righteous, authoritative Word, His Son Jesus, into humanity to teach, to sacrifice, to die, and then defeat death.

So far so good, right?  I get it!  1 Peter 3:15 tells believers to live “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you.”  There it is.  God is love and Jesus proves it.  What’s the problem?  Just, behave.

Except … notice two things, one obvious, the other, not so much.  One, this is “believer language” from the Bible so it is authoritative and cites “reason” as God’s true north of human understanding.  Of course there is a God … etc. Just go with it.

But … not so fast.  “Reason” is the great, worldly (i.e., non-divine), academic, Satan-co-opted enemy of what, to a believer, is actually a very rational faith in God. 

“Rational faith,” a Christian intellectual reality, is a secular conundrum.

As for sorting out the Bible’s “literal” from “not literal”? The most importantly literal thing – the real, physical, death and resurrection of Jesus – is the truest and most important – yet most attacked – “literal” event in the Bible.  It’s why we worship Jesus.

But “proving it”?  A fool’s errand, I fear, and perhaps beside the point.  The point isn’t “literal,” the point is truth.  Trust the Holy Spirit to sort that out for the human mind willing to believe it.   The thing that saves us is faith, not facts.  Final answer.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows the Bible is true.  And that’s OK.

Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #826 (9-13-22), “Naturally at Odds.” Not everyone is a candidate for the Christian hard-sell, but sticking up for the truth is basic to Christian faith.  See the column below.  Blessings!  Bob

(P.S. – RE: Paragraph 4, I am now aware that the Colts tied at Houston, 20-20 in OT, and Will Power won the Indy Car title on Sunday at Laguna Seca. Cheers.)

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Spirituality Column #826

September 13, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Naturally at Odds

By Bob Walters

“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist.  But at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you.” – Werner Heisenberg, 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics, theory of quantum mechanics.

I often run into my engaging and friendly neighbor Jeff on my evening walks with our little dog Kramer. Jeff is a sports fan, knows a lot about auto racing, has two kids in budding journalism careers, and was a college lecturer in philosophy and writing.

Jeff’s obvious life interests closely mirror my previous (and I might add, long ago) career in sports writing and sports / auto racing media relations, so our conversations are lively.  I’ve worked with a lot of people he’s read about.

Truth be told, while I stay in touch with a handful of good friends from my sports days, for the most part I truly no longer “follow” sports.  For example, as I write this on Saturday, I know it is the opening weekend of the NFL but have no idea who the Colts are playing, or where.  I couldn’t tell you who is leading (or won?) the Indy Car points.

As I mentioned last week, in retirement I now drive a school bus.  I still write a lot, and virtually all of my writing is about faith life in Jesus Christ: this weekly column, our weekly Mustard Seed Bible study packets, a monthly sermon / service at a senior living center, an occasional church communion homily, and various correspondence.

Plus, I’m reading all the time – virtually all of it “religious stuff” or cultural / political commentary.  Like Dolly Parton once said, “I have opinions about everything and everybody,” but here, to preserve the focus, we stick to the central topic of life in Christ.

Which brings us back around to my evening walks with Kramer.

Jeff is a wise, erudite, chatty, and world-worn guy … with no use for God.

We encounter folks often, don’t we, who are not candidates for the Christian hard-sell?  Jeff is one of those guys.  He knows of my Christian writing, but I think the only thing of mine he’s ever read is a Dale Earnhart obituary I wrote in 2001.  Jeff knows I believe in Christ and for now that’s enough.  We intellectually spar and laugh.   

In a recent evening chat Jeff mused, “You should talk to my brother,” who I was surprised to learn is a Christian minister … though in a denomination not noted for its, um, biblical precision.  My knee jerk question to Jeff was, “Does your brother believe the Bible?”  And Jeff’s (not his real name) knee jerk answer was, “Yes … but not literally.”

“Good Lord,” I responded.  “You’re not supposed to believe it literally.  Does your brother believe the Bible is true?”   “I suppose he does,” was Jeff’s smiling response.

Sigh.  That’s about par for philosophers; they think it is their job to be the definers and purveyors of truth, when that job belongs to Jesus Christ.  The Bible is stories, poetry, parables, metaphors, symbolism, allegory, history, God’s word … and the truth. 

But, “Jesus lived, died, was buried, and resurrected?” That’s one “literal” part folks reject, but the fact of the resurrection – its literal occurrence – is the cornerstone of faith, forgiveness, and salvation. If that’s not literal and true, there is no Bible or Church.

It’s an unfortunate development of the past 150 years, as theology has tried to compete academically with science, that “proving the Bible literally” has become a thing.

Faith is lived, not proven. It’s what philosophers would call a “category mistake.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) invited Jeff to church; Jeff still prefers CBS News.