St. John Studies

Today, we are involved to some extent in the political process of electing a Republican nominee and a Democrat nominee. Personally, at times I find this year’s process different and at times interesting.  At times I watch my wife and I would say that she is “concerned” about the process.

One of the very inflammatory topics of this process is tolerance for other faiths, or rather intolerance.

Unless you have been “off the grid” for the past year or so, you know about the extreme Muslim militant group called Isis or Isil [which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]. Their very negative activities have caught the attention of the world and have inflamed anti-Muslim sentiments in some Americans.  Many candidates have referred to the need to eliminate the threat of Isis from the world, some more extreme than others.

The effect of this is that our country, which has always prided itself on the ability to be diverse and accepting of others, is now faced with the fact that some are no longer able to tolerate Muslims.

What is going on? A very small minority of people are controlling too much of the feelings we have about a religion.  Estimates of the numbers of Isis fighters range from ten to twenty thousand [Mark Gollom, CBC News].

How many Muslims are in the world? The Pew Research Center estimates 1.6 billion, 23% of the world’s population.

How many Muslims are in America? Again the Pew Research Center estimates 3.3 million, 1% of the US population.

Ten to twenty thousand fighters are not the Muslim world.

We are confronted by our tolerance. We are confronted by our intolerance.

What does the word even mean?   According to Dictionary.com, it means the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behaviors that one does not necessarily agree with.  In the case of other faiths, tolerance means that we can let others practice their faith in our society and we don’t interfere.  We have to look at our past to see where we got the idea of tolerance.  If you ascribe to the history you read in the textbooks, the Puritans and Pilgrims came to America to find a place where they could practice their faith without interference from government.  On August 13, 2010 President Obama declared: “This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.”  America historically has been a place of religious tolerance. It was a sentiment George Washington voiced shortly after taking the oath of office just a few blocks from Ground Zero.

Yet as Christians we struggle to live in a world today that is increasingly intolerant.

How can we hold onto our truth and not deny others their own truth?

We appreciate “others” not telling us we have to shut our churches. We don’t want “others” to tell our pastors what to preach.  We want to be able to be Christian without being hated.

We know some things to be true and I believe them. That is not to say that everyone else has to think like me.  Jesus Christ is my Savior.  Why do I say that?  First of all, He is God incarnate.  He was sent to earth to show us all how to live.  He offered us the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us to a better life.  He shared with us the idea that we can be forgiven despite the times that we fall short of the glory of God.  He shared the idea that we can be cleansed of our wrongdoing and live a righteous life, in fact that is His ultimate goal for all of us.  He faced death for all of us.  He took the sins of the world on His own shoulders and persevered through the process of death, only to be resurrected to the life that we can all have after death.   He has prepared a place for us all in heaven.

Yes I believe that.

I also believe that other people have a right to believe what they want, even though they may not appreciate my belief. They don’t have to appreciate it.  They don’t have to practice it.

Why?

Because this is America.

“Let’s empty it of its potentially explosive emotional content” [Little, 119]

Does Christianity Differ from Other World Religions…

You know the scripture: Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Matthew 7: 13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  John 14: 6: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

What is the upshot of these scriptures, especially for the person of another faith?

Christ is the only way to God and apart from Him there is no salvation.

Again, let’s empty these scriptures of their explosive emotional content.

Paul Little says that many world religions think that people view Christians as having a bigot club. I have always saved a “Top Ten List of Reasons People Hate Christians” and I refer to it often because I want to be aware of our short comings as Christians.  On the list in several places is the idea that we are a judgmental people.  We are strict and we are quick to push others away with our message.  We don’t even attempt to tolerate others; we condemn them for the way they believe.

I have heard many times from young people the question “How can God send believers of other faiths to hell?” This question often comes from more “worldly” folks who have experienced other cultures and the beliefs of the people in other cultures.

Paul Little is very direct in his description of how others view us: “Some people erroneously view Christians as having formed a bigots club, like a fraternity with a racial segregation clause. If only the fraternity and the Christians were less bigoted, such people think, they would vote to change their membership rules and, in the case to the Christians, let in anyone who believes in God.”

As the scripture above states, it does sound rather exclusive.

For me, I think it is in how the subject is approached.

I can pick a fight rather easily by condemning other faiths but why would I do that? Why would I tell a Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim that they are wrong in their worldview?  The Christian worldview is the best, the only way to know God?

However, if someone asked me directly about how I believe in God, I would have to tell them my truth: I must be faithful to my Lord and not confirm other worldviews just so I can fit in.  Jesus is the Son of God and there is no other Savior.  We cannot change this; this truth is not up for a vote.

I have family members who have different ideas about Christianity and I don’t want to be too strong in my condemnation of their point of view. What good will that do except drive them further away from me?  Being superior over others as you proclaim your belief in Christ is not good either.  Paul Little states “A Christian does not assume a superior posture.  He speaks as a sinner saved by grace.”  To be truthful, no Christian is deserving of salvation.

Again from the “Top Ten List”, “Christians sin a lot. They live their lives by strict do and don’t guidelines and expect other people to do the same.  Christians say that people who do not live by this strict guideline will burn in hell.  Yet Christians sin just like anyone else and are hypocritical about it.”

D.T.Niles feels we have to have the attitude of the “beggar telling another beggar where to find food.”

Just because we know God, does not mean we live perfect lives. We must not forget that.  We are all striving to do better but we don’t have it all figured out.

From the point of view of a person from another faith, they are looking for the Christian to live up to that reputation, you know that “bigot club”.

Ask yourself what the effect of Jesus’ greatest commandment is; you know “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Note that last part “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, especially if your neighbor is from another faith.

What a powerful act that would be. What a powerful message that would send.

Why should we want God to leave things the way they are today?

Because we have a chance to do better if we try. God sent His word to us through the Old Testament prophets that He was a God who demanded our devotion, He wanted our obedience or He would punish us.  That did not get the job done so He had to use a different strategy.  Of course that is where Jesus came into the picture as God decided to use a different way to get us to choose a better life over the one we were leading.  Jesus showed people mercy and He showed that we could depend on that also.  When we fail He forgives.  When we slip, as we are bound to do, He figures that in our equation.  He does not expect us to be perfect but He does expect us to go through the learning process called the Christian life.

We can’t fit into God’s shoes. We can’t understand God’s ways.

Think about Job. God allowed him to go through trials and tribulations.  He was tested.  He suffered and yet he held onto his belief in God.  He did not understand what God was doing but God knew what Job would do and Job and God won in the end.

In our lives today, maybe God wants us to learn. The Bible speaks of being refined and shaped just as the blacksmith forges rough mental or the potter shapes a lump of clay.  Maybe that is the way to think of how we learn to deal with our own personal, private evil.

Perhaps it’s a learning process that God wants us to go through. The Bible speaks of God “refining” and “shaping” his creation, much as a blacksmith forges rough metal into a sharpened sword or a sculptor forms a beautiful vase from a lump of clay. Trying times often make us more than we were before—strengthening our characters, humbling our egos, and demonstrating the positives of perseverance. Coming through a tragedy can also be a faith-building experience that leads us to look beyond our narrow, self-centered view.

The bottom line is this: evil is in the world today and we participate in it daily.  Let’s not nitpick by saying well I don’t murder, I don’t have affairs, I don’t steal.  Let’s not feel good about ourselves because we don’t do the “big ones.”  We practice ungodliness, we are discontent, we are unthankful, we are prideful, we are selfish, we lack self-control, we get impatient and irritable, we get angry, we are judgmental, we have envy and jealously and we have various sins of the tongue.  Add to all of this the pull of the world.  What do we watch?  What do we read?  What do we listen to?  We have a long list of failings and I am not sure that God had a sliding scale for sin.  We think He does but I am not sure that He does.

Are you like me?

Do you want a little more time to get it right?

Do you want a little more time to learn how to be a better person?

Do you need a few more turns on the potter’s wheel?

Keep spinning that wheel God!   Keep hitting that hot metal with that hammer!

I believe I can do better. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” [2 Peter 3:9].

As you read Paul Little’s chapter on Scripture and Science, you see that the whole chapter is based on the following words at the end: “In everything we read and everything we hear, we must ask ‘What is this person’s presupposition?’, so that we may interpret conclusions in this light.  There is no such thing as total objectivity.”

I would agree.

In my experience I have been close enough to the study of science to know that even the most factual presentation of data allows for some subjective interpretation.

Over the years I have tried to “straddle the fence” when it comes to the origin of man. Being a person with some education I know of Darwin’s Origin of Species even though I have not read it.  I have heard discussions of the work and I know the book’s “presupposition”.  You might say I am a theistic evolutionist.

Being a theistic evolutionist means that I believe in God but I also have some positive regard for science.

When it comes to evolution, a theistic evolutionist believes that God created the first spark of life and then directed His creation through the process of evolution. God is the originator and God is the designer but science is part of the process too.

Some Christians reject the theistic evolutionary position. They argue that one cannot “straddle the fence.”

They argue that God would not use such an inefficient mechanism to design the world. Why would God want to interfere with the development of life on a constant and long-term basis?  Jacques Monod, writer of the book War Against God states that natural selection is the “blindest and most cruel way of evolving new species.”

What happens to the Garden of Eden for the theistic evolutionist?

The Garden becomes an allegory and if that is the case, what does the sin dynamic in the Garden mean? By sin dynamic, I mean the fact that Adam and Eve chose to eat of the apple and they chose to introduce sin and sinning into the life of man.

Jesus is analogous to Adam in the Garden of Eden and the sacrifice of Jesus brings us to see that justification and sanctification are possible due to the death on the cross.

Critics of theistic evolution therefore say that “If Adam was not a historical individual, and if his fall into sin is not historical, then the biblical doctrines of sin and of Christ’s atonement for it collapse.”

What does this view, this attack on theistic evolution rest upon? It rests upon the “entire message of the Bible” [David Noebel, Thinking Like a Christian].

What does the view of theistic evolution rest upon? The idea that God is so powerful that He is capable of using anything, even evolution to generate all species.

Noebel states that theistic evolution “is unacceptable for the Christian. That it is our contention that the proper Christian worldview requires a belief in the Creator as He is literally portrayed in Genesis.”

Why has theistic evolution come about? Because many Christians who respect science don’t want to throw it totally away when they read the Bible.  They seek to find a way to acknowledge science and also have God as their Savior.

Noebel says you can’t have it both ways: “Christians who wish to integrate faith and reason would do well to abandon evolution as a rational explanation for the origin of the species.”

Does David Noebel have a presupposition? Of course he does.

He takes the Bible literally.

Is this wrong?

No.

Are there other ways of looking at the Bible? Other ways of conceptualizing God?  Other ways of conceptualizing the origins of man?

Yes.

We go back to the beginning of the chapter “Do Science and Scripture Agree?” and see that Paul Little writes “Most of the apparent conflict stems from making the Bible say things it really does not say and from scientism, a philosophic interpretation of scientific facts.” Scientists make statements beyond the facts and Christians make the Bible say what it does not say.

Remember, objectivity does not exist; subjectivity always enters the picture.

Who is right? Who is wrong?

You decide.

Based on your presupposition.

To be honest, it is all about worldview.

Paul Little says this “The Christian can never forget that God can act in miraculous ways and in the past He often chose to. The Bible discloses that He was involved in His original creation and continues in a wise and purposeful relationship with it.  While there are no problems for which there is yet no explanation, there is no fundamental conflict between science and scripture.”

How can Mr. Little write that?

Don’t Christians have conflicts with science all the time? What about global warming?  What about the origin of man?  What about the age of the earth?

How Mr. Little can say what he says is because the conflicts we perceive are really only conflicts between interpretations of facts.

Let’s take the main idea we have discussed all week; the origin of man.

What point of view will the non-believer scientist bring to the information about the origin of man? That determines how he will interpret the facts.  What does his worldview do about the information about the origin of man?  1) There is no God.  2) Everything happened by chance.

What point of view will the believer bring to information about the origin of man? 1) There is a God.  2) God initiated creation and is still actively involved with His creation.

It is all about world view.

Worldview is the ideology, philosophy, theology, movement or religion that provides an overarching approach to understanding God, the world and man’s relationship to God and the world. Christianity provides a consistent explanation of all the facts of reality.  David Noebel in his book Thinking Like a Christian states that “Christianity is the embodiment of Christ’s claim that He is “the way, the truth and the life [John 14:6].  When we say “this is the Christian way,” we mean “this is the way Christ would have us act in such a situation.”

It is a big deal to try to think and act as Jesus instructed us to act.

The chapter this week is about science and that discipline has provided challenges for the Christian worldview for many, many years but challenges come from many parts of the culture today other than science [education—poor student behavior in school, sociology—the breakup of the traditional family etc.].

The vast majority of Christians today don’t concern themselves about worldview.

But worldview is your core. Worldview is your foundation.  Worldview is what you are rooted in.

Paul in his epistle to the Colossians [2] says that those who have received Christ “are to be rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as they were taught.” Continuing on in Colossians, the Christian must see to it that no one takes him “captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world and not based on Christ.”

The primary source for the Christian worldview is The Bible. We regard God’s Word as Divine Inspiration, God’s special revelation to man.  When you look at the world through the lens of the Bible, the world begins to take on a different hue.

However many today try to compartmentalize their lives. In certain situations, they behave in a secular fashion and in others they behave in a sacred fashion.  They see no problem with that.

But there is. God wants more of us than compartmentalization.  He wants us to be wholly devoted to Him all the time.

It is hard. I will be the first to admit that.

Jesus came to earth and presented an impossible goal for all of us. He asks a lot of us as we maneuver our way through this life.  Even as He distilled all the commandments down to  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”.   That is a very high bar.

I would like to propose that one of the basic things that will happen to a person as they become a sincere follower is they will begin to develop a Christian worldview, even if they are not sure what worldview means.

What will you say to the inquisitor who asks you about the origin of man? [if you have that Christian worldview]

1)There is a God. 2) God initiated creation and is still actively involved with His creation.