What Kind of “Faith” Do You Have? (part one)

How would you define faith, particularly as it relates to God or Jesus? 

For some time we have equated “faith” with “belief.”  I have faith in God=I believe God.  This preoccupation with “believing” and “beliefs” has a crucially important effect: it turns Christian faith into simply a “head matter.”  Faith becomes primarily a matter of the beliefs in your head–of whether you believe the right set of claims to be true.  This virtual identification of faith with believing a set of statements is thus a serious impoverishment of the word “faith.”

Faith is at the heart of Christianity.  All but 2 of the 27 New Testament books uses the noun “faith” or the verb “believe.”  Moreover, the New Testament gives it crucial significance.  Jesus said things like, “Your faith has made you well.”  From Paul we are “justified (made right by God) by grace through faith.”  The author of Hebrews extols its heroes has having lived by faith.  And of course, the most widely known verse in the Bible, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

In this history of Christianity, it has 4 primary meanings.  Let me explain each using the 4 words from Latin that we could translate “Faith.”  I owe the origins of these thoughts to Marcus Borg’s “The Heart of Christianity” chapter 2.

 1. Faith as Assensus: The closest English equivalent is “assent.”  This is faith as belief, as giving one’s mental assent to a proposition, as believing that a claim or statement is true.  This notion that Christian faith is primarily about assensus, about belief, about a “head” matter is recent. 

2 developments account for its dominance in modern Western Christianity. 

The first is the Protestant Reformation, which not only emphasized faith, but also produced a myriad of new denominations, each defined by its distinctive “beliefs” or doctrines.  So faith began to mean “believing the right things.” 

The second development was the Enlightenment and the birth of modern science.  The Enlightenment identified truth with factuality.  Truth is that which can be verified.  The Enlightenment called into question the factuality of parts of traditional Christian teaching.  So “belief became about believing a notion contrary to evidence, contrary to what reasonable people know.”  For instance, when do you use the word “believe?”  Probably when you’re not sure, or when you don’t know.  There are some things you know, and other things you’re not sure about, and so you can only believe.  Believing and knowing are contrasted.  Faith is what you turn to when knowledge runs out.  Even more strongly, faith is what you need when beliefs and knowledge conflict.

The opposite of faith as assensus is doubt, or even stronger, disbelief.  Faith as belief is relatively impotent, relatively powerless.  You can believe all the right things and still be in bondage.  You can still believe all the right things and still be miserable.  You can believe all the right things and still be relatively unchanged. 

Tomorrow I’ll talk about other ways to understand “faith” that bring power and change to the Christian’s life.

Watch What You Say

This is a passage that I don’t like.  What do you think of it?  Here it is (Matthew 12:36-37): Jesus said, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

How often have I spoken carelessly, hurting someone?  More often than I probably realize.  It’s like a tube of toothpaste.  Once it’s out it won’t go back in.  So watch what you say.

My Life Mission

“Making Real Followers of Jesus”

My life mission is to lead others to begin or deepen their relationship with Jesus and His church.

 

June 1, 2010…

1.     I can honestly look at myself and say that I am growing in my relationship with Jesus through Daily Quiet Times and the habits necessary to accomplish this vision.

2.     I can honestly look at my wife and say I love her more than ever and she feels that love too.

3.     My children are growing up in the Lord and see their parents living out their faith authentically, with real sacrifices.

4.     I am spending time weekly with unchurched people through athletics, theater, community service or other means.

5.     I am leading a growing church, which is willing to do whatever it takes to reach the lost.

6.   I am developing paid and unpaid servant-leaders for ministry.

 

Values:

1. People will only follow me as far as I’ve gone. “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” I Cor. 11:1
2. I must use the SHAPE God has given me. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”  I Cor. 12:7  “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” Rom. 12:6

3.     People grow through relationships. “But encourage one another daily….” Heb. 3:13  “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together.” Heb. 10:24-25  “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Prov. 27:17

4. Any vision worth reaching exacts a cost. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

5.      The journey can never be accomplished alone. “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Rom. 12:4-5  “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!  Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.  But how can one keep warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”  Eccl. 4:9-12

6. A healthy person is physically and spiritually healthy. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” Rom. 12:1  “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” I Cor. 6:19

After my sabbatical I realized that my Life Mission is still on course.  Do you have a Life Mission or personal mission statement?

Morning Leadership Thought

A leader must be so committed to a project that he is willing to do it with or without someone else.  David did not become king until after he took on Goliath alone.  Don’t ask someone else to do something you’re not willing to do.

Saturday Morning Prayer

Lord, I pray you would give me a heart…

for those on the roadside of life,

for those who, for whatever reason, are not in the mainstream of life,

for those who lie crumpled and cast aside,

for those who are forgotten and ignored,

for those who are in some way blinded to the fullness of life.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Why the “Creationist Vs. Evolutionist” Battle is not necessarily Christians Vs. Scientists

Some Christians, in the name of defending Christianity and God, have attacked evolution.  Some rightly so.  But how you defend your view is as important as what your view is.  So, while trashing evolutionists as people who believe that humans evolved from random sludge, some Christians have actually hurt the cause of Christ.

The reality is that many Christians are evolutionists.  They just believe that God was part of the process.  And even more Christians while disagreeing with evolution, do not hold to a literal “6 days of creation.” 

There are basically 5 views of the origin of humans:

1. Naturalistic evolution: This is an attempt to account for all forms of life including humans by means of the processes of nature.  Supernaturalism is expressly excluded according to naturalistic evolution.
2. Fiat creationism: This is the idea that God, by a direct act, brought into being virtually instantaneously everything that is.  Both the direct action of God and the shortness of the time (literal 6 days) span of creation are stressed in this view.
3. Deistic evolution: This is the view that God planned the creative process and that He used evolution to accomplish His ends.  After God created the first form He removed Himself from the evolutionary process.
4. Theistic evolution: This view is similar to #3 above and yet there are important differences.  According to theistic evolution God is involved not only with the very beginning of the creative process, but also at key points thereafter.  God was directly and supernaturally responsible for creation (including that of humans).  God used a previously existing creature when He made a human being.  God created a human soul and infused it into a higher primate.
5. Progressive creationism: This sees the creative work of God as a combination of a series of creative acts (from the beginning) and a processive operation.  At various points in time God created new creatures without using previously existing life.  Between these special acts of creation evolutionary development took place.  Progressive creationists hold that God in a special act created man from the dust of the earth; He did not use a previously existing primate when He made the first man.  This view rejects macroevolution but accepts microevolution.

So where do you fall?  It seems to me that views 1 and 3 are incompatible with Scripture.  Sincere Bible-believing Christians have held views 2, 4, and 5.  I cautiously favor view 5.

At the same time, there are some great scientists and thinkers that are evolutionists and are claiming that “faith and science both lead to truth about God and creation.”  Rachel Held Evans’ blog from yesterday speaks to this very topic.  So CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT.

Come On Joel Osteen! Don’t be Silly!

I have always believed that it is unnecessary and counter-productive to attack or even point out the errors of other Christians and theologians.  Ultimately if we are proclaiming Christ as Lord, then we’re on the same team even if we do things differently.  But when I saw this video I laughed.  Then I almost cried.  Here is the pastor of the largest church in the United States who is preaching something that is false.  Sure, pork may not be good for you.  But is it a sin to eat pork?  Watch the video first so you can hear for yourself what he said.  What do you think?

Wouldn’t Hebrews 13:9 apply to the church today?  It says, “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.”

Or what about Acts 11?

The purpose of those Old Testament dietary laws for Israel was to make them a peculiar people and to separate them from the world.

In Joel’s defense, this is over a year old and maybe he’s recanted…but somehow I doubt it.  And don’t get me wrong.  I’m not calling him a heretic or anything like that.  But when you have a public ministry that large, you are accountable to a larger audience.

Do they make a Microwave for “Change”?

There are so many things I want to improve about myself, about how FCC does church, about our community and world.  Of course, I need to start with myself.  That’s the one I have the most control over but it still seems slow.  Don’t they make a microwave or drive-through where I can just “CHANGE” over night?

I have to remember to take a day at a time.  It’s through “winning” each day that I can witness real LIFE-change.  And I have to remember that it ultimately comes through only by being plugged into God.  He’s the vine…I’m just the branches.  What else needs to be pruned? 

Always remember the long view of things like Jesus did, not the short view like Judas.

End Times

Recently I got this question from a friend: “My wife and I were discussing End Times and when the rapture would occur in reference to the coming of the anti-christ. I am nowhere’s close to having the bible memorized. Is there any scripture that tells us this. And what is your thinking on this issue?”

Here was my answer:

“There are 4 basic positions that theologians have taken on this issue. The American church starting in the 1800s really created the 4th camp in what’s commonly called “dispensationalism.” Don’t mean to bore you with the lingo. But I don’t fall into that camp. The idea of a “rapture” (from the Greek word “rapturo” can only be found in one verse (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). So I don’t believe in the Left Behind theology that believers get raptured and THEN there is a tribulation and then Jesus returns.”

“However, I do believe Jesus is returning. The difference is that we ARE LIVING in the tribulation and have been for some time. Jesus teaches on this in Mt. 24 and you’ll see that all the signs he gives of the end have been happening for a long time. he’s also clear that NO ONE knows when he will return. So we should stop guessing and live like it will be today. “

“Now the anti-Christ presents more dilemmas. Because that is only really discussed in Revelation. Again, the “4 theological views” all look at it differently. I try not to really worry about who the anti-Christ is because there’s not much I’ll be able to do about it. Step 1: Make sure it’s not me! Historically, just about every major world figure has thought to have been the anti-Christ including my hero, Ronald Reagan. (OK, not many people believed that but there was someone carrying a sign at the 76 convention). Of course Gorbachev was thought to be that figure too…and now I hear Obama’s name thrown out there. My only thought on that is that if Obama is the anti-Christ…why can’t he get his own party to pass health care legislation? I digress.”

Then I mentioned that if he wanted my  notes on Revelation I would be glad to email them to him.  The same goes for you.  Let me know and I’ll email you my “Introduction to Revelation.” 

So again…no rapture…just Jesus returning and ushering in the new heaven and new earth…after a tribulation that will get worse and probably have some kind of “Anti-Christ” that masquerades as God or a Messiah and fools lots of people (but not genuine Christians) in false worship. That’s my opinion…but I’ve been wrong before!

“What Must I Do To Be Saved?”

Q: What must I do to be “saved”?

A: There is nothing we do that saves us.  God saves us by grace through faith.  So the only thing we do is believe, trust, have faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10).  This is born out in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), in the story of Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10), in the Parables of the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost Son (Matthew 25), and the Thief on the Cross (Luke 23:40-43).  We certainly can’t be saved through obedience to the Law (Galatians 3:1-14).  Romans 1:16 says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

Q: So “salvation” is free? 

A: No.  It cost Jesus the pain and suffering of torture and crucifixion.  He was totally forsaken on the cross by the Father as He took on ALL the sin of the world (past, present, and future) and became that sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Q: No, I mean “salvation” is free for US? 

A: Yes, there is nothing that we can DO to earn it.  God did all the work.  We just have to accept that for our lives.

Q: So there’s no cost to following Jesus?

A: I didn’t say that!  Salvation is free.  But the journey of faith is difficult.  We don’t have to DO anything to “stay saved.”  But we should be want to follow this incredible Leader who loves us and blesses us.  Check out Luke 9:57-62, 14:25-34 to see the cost.  2 Corinthians 11:23-28 describes some of the costs Paul endured for the church (for us!).  There is a huge cost to follow Jesus.

Q: I’m confused.

A: What’s your question?

Q: I’m supposed to be asking the questions.
A: Then why aren’t you?

Q: OK, I will!  So salvation is free…I can’t earn it through works or obeying the law.  I just have to believe that Jesus is who He says He is and trust Him with my life and seek to follow Him?

A: Yes!

Q: That’s it? 

A: Of course not.  A good question to ask would be “What is the evidence of salvation in a person’s life?”

Q: Yeah, good question.  So what’s the answer?

A: Remember Ephesians 2 from the first question?  Read verse 10 in the context.  And also Eph. 4:11-13.  Remember Galatians 3:1-14?  Now read 5:16-26.  Remember Romans 1:16?  Now read Romans 12.  Remember Jesus’ parables on grace?  Now read Matthew 25, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats and the Parable of the Talents.  If salvation doesn’t change us at all then there’s a problem!  Look at James 2:14-26.

Q: A-Ha!  James 2:24 contradicts what you’ve been saying!  We are justified by faith AND works it says.

A: No, it doesn’t say that.  It says that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone…that’s different.  Vs. 22 talks about how our faith is made complete (or mature) by what we do.  In other words, faith is not a MENTAL agreement with God and Jesus.  It’s a day by day dependence on Him and His plan for our lives.  We demonstrate our faith through our actions.  So if we have NO actions to back it up we must not have faith.  It does not say that we have to be perfect and do all the right things, just that we are compelled by our faith to do right.  Good deeds are the fruit of a life lived by trusting Jesus Christ.  Jesus didn’t say to the thief on the cross, “Uh…well…you can be in paradise today but you’ve got to do some feeding of the hungry.”  Of course not!  We don’t tell the newly repentant Christian, “Uh…you’re not in YET.  You’ve got to do some good first.”  Never! 

Any other questions or passages that seem to refute this line of reasoning?