Christian Unity

In a comment on my article about the Dave Bercot seminar, Robin suggested that I offer a discussion of separatist groups such as the Amish, Mennonites, and others who similarly reject the modern culture in favor of a simple private lifestyle. While I am not an expert on these groups, I have done some reading on the history of these groups, descended from the Anabaptists in Europe. What I know of them I respect very much. Their lifestyle is a challenge to all of us who would claim to follow Jesus.

There are historical as well as biblical reasons for their choice of lifestyle.

During the Swiss Reformation in the 1500’s, Huldrich Zwingli went beyond Luther and Calvin in insisting on the scriptures only as the source of divine authority. He called for the eradication of every practice in the church that was not expressly authorized in the scriptures — including statues, musical instruments, and for a time even banning vocal singing in the church (based on his hyper-literal interpretation of “making melody in your heart.”) However, he did not challenge the appropriateness of the state-sponsored church, and that led to an unwillingness to address the biblically unauthorized practice of infant baptism. When national citizenship is by definition the same as church membership, it becomes problematic if infants are not baptized members of the church.

But a group arose in Zurich that was willing to go even farther, demanding a separation between the church and the state, rejecting infant baptism, and demanding that the church consists only of those who are born again and baptized as adults. They became known derisively as Anabaptists (re-baptizers) by their opponents. Other distinctive beliefs included: church discipline through excommunication (in contrast to the force of the sword of government, which enforced discipline in the state church) ; limiting the partaking of communion to baptized adult believers; keeping separate from worldly fellowship and influences; congregations led by a pastor selected by the members and financially supported by the congregation; pacifism, non-resistance, and non-participation in government; and refusal to take oaths. These distinctives were spelled out in the Schleitheim Confession of 1527.

Zwingli strongly opposed their positions. Conflict escalated between Zwingli and the Anabaptists, leading him to have the Anabaptists banned from the church. He declared re-baptism a capital offense, and began putting Anabaptists to death by drowning. Other Protestant groups as well as the Catholic church joined in the persecution, and thousands of Anabaptists were tortured and executed for their beliefs between 1525 and 1660.

It has been said that “Any 16th century man who did not drink to excess, curse, or abuse his workmen or family could be suspected of being an Anabaptist and thus persecuted.”

It is not difficult to understand why these people eventually fled from Europe to America, where they hoped to practice their religious beliefs in peace. Their descendents include the Amish, the Mennonites, the Brethren, and a few other groups. In addition, their strong influence can be observed in the Restoration Movement, particularly in the more conservative wing.

A biblical basis for their nonconformity is not difficult to imagine. They choose the narrow road and reject the wide road. They refuse to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. They avoid anything (drugs, alcohol, tobacco…) that would contaminate the temple of the Holy Spirit. They avoid adornment with gold and jewelry in favor of the quiet spirit. An assortment of scriptures supporting their nonconformist views can be found in Article 16 of the 1963 Mennonite Confession of Faith.

I think churches of Christ could learn some important lessons from the modern Anabaptists. It is not comforting to admit that we are more like the world than they are. I’m sure that we like the things of the world too much. We undoubtedly enjoy some things in the world that God does not like. And we are undoubtedly influenced by our closeness to the world, often to our own peril.

2Co 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
2Co 6:15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
2Co 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
2Co 6:17 “Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”
2Co 6:18 “I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

This month marks the third anniversary of this blog. I am now typing my 276th Christian Unity blog post — somewhere between one and two articles a week. Thanks to all who stop by, and especially to those who have offered a few comments along the way!

Blogs tend to attract like-minded people. That can be observed in the world of political blogs, sports blogs, and religious blogs. I appreciate the support of those who choose to spend a few minutes reading what I write. I hope it is an encouragement toward Christian Unity.

Having touched on the topic of inerrancy, I want to explain more specifically what I mean by that.

A belief in the inerrancy of scriptures is reasonable based on evidence. God has given us several kinds of evidence, including:

• Creation. The very existence of ourselves and everything around us teaches us that there must have been a creator
• Design. The intricate design of nature tells us there must have been a designer.
• Prophecy.Verifiable historical events were predicted long before they came to pass.
• The resurrection of Christ. Witnesses to the resurrection refused to deny it even to the point of martyrdom. Note that the very word martyr comes from the Greek word for witness. The words Paul wrote to the Corinthian church could be confirmed by the members of that church, since many of the witnesses were still alive at the time. Their testimony is emphatically confirmed by their willingness to give up their lives rather than recant their testimony.

Many books have been written laying out the reasons to accept those astonishing pieces of evidence. I won’t attempt to provide in-depth proof here. That evidence provides a basis for believing there is a God, and that God is the source of the Bible.

The resurrection of Christ is pivotal for the rest of the argument. Because God affirmed Christ in this dramatic way, we should pay careful attention to what Jesus said, and particularly to how he used the scriptures. Consider the following examples:

Jesus used the scriptures as the authority on what is right and what is wrong:

Mat_4:4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

Mat_21:13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Jesus affirmed that what is prophesied in scripture will always be fulfilled:

Mat_26:24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

Mat_26:31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

Mar_7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

Luk_24:46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

Mat_26:54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

Mat_26:56 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”

Mar_14:49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.”

Jesus rebuked those who had not learned from the scriptures:

Mat_21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Mat_22:29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Matt 22: 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:

Matt 22:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

Matt 22:43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

Matt 22:44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’?

Jesus clearly was referring to Old Testament scripture in the above examples. But Jesus also told the apostles that he would send the Holy Spirit to give them the message of truth:

John 14:25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The apostle Peter (affirmed above by Jesus as one whom the Spirit would guide into all truth) confirms that Paul’s writings are to be treated as equal to the rest of scripture:

2 Peter 3:15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,

2 Peter 3:16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Peter also taught how we should regard scripture:

2 Pet 1:19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,

2 Pet 1:20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.

2 Pet 1:21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Peter, as well as Jesus, treated the scriptures as the final word on a given subject. He warned in the passages above against distorting the scripture, deviating from the true meaning of what was originally written. God said what he meant, and meant what he said.

Based on the evidences previously cited, we know that God created the world, that he sent Jesus with a crucial message for mankind, and that he proved it by raising Jesus from the dead. Knowing that, we also know that God has both the power and the will to preserve that message for future generations. We have the message, preserved exactly as God intended for us to have it. To believe otherwise is to doubt God himself.

So the authority of scripture is firmly established. We are therefore expected to obey the scriptures we possess today as the very words of God.

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

The October issue of the Christian Chronicle includes a book review discussing the upcoming release by the ACU Press of a new commentary titled “The Transforming Word One-Volume Bible Commentary”. Jay Guin has just blogged his concern about the wisdom of publishing a commentary that raises more questions than it answers about the inerrancy of scriptures. Jay summarizes:

The Transforming Word has several sections discussing the documentary hypothesis, the synoptic “problem,” challenges to the authorship of Isaiah, and archaeological dating issues in the Old Testament, creating doubts about the inerrancy of the scriptures without providing a full discussion or resolution of the questions posed.

Jay questions the wisdom of raising those questions without providing the full discussion necessary to put the questions in context.

You see, it’s about being strategically smart. It’s taking the time and trouble to figure out what’s really important — to Jesus and to the God’s will for the Churches of Christ. And I’m pretty sure that lessons that question Biblical inerrancy are not very high on God’s list of priorities for the Churches of Christ today.

Strategical smartness might be a worthy principle, but it is merely a pragmatic concern. My concern is more fundamental. The inerrancy of scripture is the very foundation of Christianity. Without a final authority for our faith, we can never be quite sure of what we believe. At best we would only be able to point to what the scriptures say, which might or might not be accurate. We would be left to guess what God would have us to know.

The question “Did God really say that?” has been a primary tool of Satan from the beginning. In the garden of Eden, Satan persuaded Eve to doubt whether God had really commanded them not to eat the fruit of a particular tree. Once Eve entertained that doubt, she became vulnerable to temptation. The fruit looked good, and reportedly brought some pretty heady benefits. Once Satan had her doubting the command, her resistance to temptation was weakened. So she ate. The fall of man began with questioning the reliability of the message from God.

In the wilderness, the fasting Jesus fought temptation with “It is written…”. The scriptures settled the matter, and put an end to discussion. That should be how we use the scriptures too.

I know you all were dying to see the granddaughter!

This blogger is a Grandparent!

The blessed event happened early this morning. Mother and daughter are fine (and father, and grandparents!) Evelyn is a beautiful little girl with a great singing voice! Well, actually, I won’t get to see her for a few days… but I did hear her “singing” in the background on the phone. You know the song!

Her Grandmother and I are looking forward to spoiling her. Road trip coming up soon!

Open hostility toward Christianity continues to grow in America and elsewhere. Continuing the trend, this past weekend marked the opening of the movie Religulous, in which Bill Maher heaps scorn upon religion in general, and Christianity in particular. The intent of this film is pretty obvious from the title, a synthesis of “religious” and “ridiculous”. A survey of reviews and commentary will confirm:

USA Today:

Religulous (which rhymes with “ridiculous”) is not for the devout. But those with a taste for irreverent humor and clear-eyed analysis will find it funny, enlightening and disturbing.

LA Times:

Reviews have been quite good from top media. Variety hails “Religulous” as “brilliant, incendiary,” while Entertainment Weekly adds, “It’s a film that’s destined to make a lot of people mad, but Maher, for all his showy atheistic ‘doubt,’ isn’t just trying to crucify religion — he truly wants to know what makes it tick. He leaves no stone tablet unturned.”

More from the LA Times

The documentary on religion sets out not after answers but cheap laughs
…
The humor he creates at their expense proves nothing except that dealing from a stacked deck benefits no one but the dealer.

Roger Ebert:

It’s more that he lines them up and shoots them down. He interrupts, talks over, slaps on subtitles, edits in movie and TV clips, and doesn’t play fair.

Washington Post:

But one of the rules of satire is that you can’t mock things you don’t understand, and “Religulous” starts developing fault lines when it becomes clear that Maher’s view of religious faith is based on a sophomoric reading of the Scriptures and that he doesn’t understand that some thoughtful people actually do believe in some sort of spiritual life.

I’m not surprised by the entertainment industry using its muscle to attack Christian values, something it does not begin to understand. Instead, I’m reminded that we are in a spiritual war. I will agree with the USA Today quote above, that this movie is not something that devout believers will want to see.

Whenever bad things happen, it is a good idea to see what lessons we can learn from them. After all, if God is trying to teach us something, and we don’t get the point, he may “turn up the volume” next time. As serious as the current crisis is, I don’t even want to imagine what an amplified version of the lesson might be. So let’s see what we can learn from this.

Moth and rust destroy

Home prices were rising. They had always risen, and everyone thought they always would rise. In fact, we bet the farm on it. But we were wrong. When economic conditions changed, housing prices fell and adjustable mortgage rates rose. People could not afford the higher mortgage payments, but they could not afford to sell because the house was now worth less than they owed. Foreclosures followed, dumping more and more discounted houses on the market, further suppressing prices. Moth and rust destroyed the phantom equity. Some would say that thieves stole it.

The core of the American Dream is home ownership. But the dream is misplaced. Rather than dreaming of a home in this world, we should be dreaming of a home in the next.

The slavery of debt

America is addicted and enslaved to debt, both on the individual level and on the national level. Debt is relentless and merciless. In pursuit of the American Dream, many people took on more debt than they could repay.

A family that requires two incomes to pay the bills faces more than twice the risk of bankruptcy of a one-income family. If either income is lost, the bills cannot be paid. A couple living on a single income might lose that income, but there are two people who can go out and seek employment to replace the lost income. So the two-income family has twice the risk of losing income, and fewer options if the risk is realized. Yet, too often they commit both incomes to buy “the house of their dreams” which eventually turns into a nightmare.

Peace or wealth?

Congress and the financial system have encouraged people to buy houses they could not afford. Good intentions aside, many of those people have been made miserable by the unintended consequences of excessive debt. Ask someone who has faced foreclosure whether they are better off today than they were before they bought that home. Whoever encouraged them in that was not doing them a favor.

Profiting from the poor

Profiting from the misfortune of the poor is evil. Tempting people to spend more than they can afford is not compassionate. Far from it. Woe to those who profited by strapping low income families with debt they could not pay.

Pay what you owe

The root of the financial crisis is undisciplined borrowing. Americans need to get out of debt. That is easier said than done. Many people need outside help to get their finances under control. The most effective program I know to help people eliminate their debt comes from Dave Ramsey. If you are having trouble paying your bills, please consider going through his program. It really can change your life!

The inside of the cup

During the 1990’s, Congress began to force banks to make risky loans through the Community Reinvestment Act, in order to promote home ownership among lower income households. At first, the banks strongly resisted the idea of lending money to borrowers who could not meet traditional standards. But then they found a way to make a lot of money at it. By bundling the risky mortgages into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), they put a prettier face on the risky debt. Those MBS could then be sold under the pretense of being a sound investment. The MBS looked pretty on the outside. But on the inside, they were full of mortgages that were at risk of default at the first sign of financial turbulence. For awhile the MBS seemed fine when housing prices were consistently increasing. But when the housing prices started to fall, the risks in those MBS became intolerable. Suddenly, many borrowers owed more than their houses were worth, and so the lenders were not adequately protected. Now nobody wanted to own those MBS, and the value plummeted. Now, nobody except the taxpayers is willing to buy the MBS. I wonder how many taxpayers are willing.

No matter how you remix a bundle of bad debt, it is still bad debt. Money loaned that will not be paid back is still a loss.

Confessing and denying guilt

Nobody wants to admit responsibility for the financial crisis. But acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step toward recovery. Once the politics fade away, I think historians will assign significant responsibility to Congress for causing this crisis, and for neglecting the warning signs. We have them on tape. They need to face their mistake so they do not make it again… or else we need to replace them.

Conclusions

Over the past 13 years, the politics of “affordable housing” have created an American Nightmare, first for the borrowers, then for the lenders… then for everyone who might need to borrow… and finally for everyone in an economy addicted to borrowing. When nobody is willing to lend, such an economy comes to a halt. This economic crisis is fundamentally a spiritual problem. It is a natural consequence of envy, greed, and materialism — the addiction to consuming today what we won’t pay for until tomorrow. Christians should know better than to live on borrowed money. I hope we are learning our lesson!

This past weekend, I attended a seminar at the North River Church of Christ with keynote speaker David Bercot, author of Will The Real Heretics Please Stand up? The seminar was titled “Early Church History / AIM Weekend” and was organized by the Athens Institute of Ministry (AIM). In addition to Bercot, three others spoke on aspects of early church history: Douglas Jacoby, Joey Harris, and Steve Staten. These three speakers primarily addressed three early church writers, respectively: Clement, Ignatius, and Irenaeus.

The main events of the seminar were three messages delivered by David Bercot. Bercot’s messages focused more on the core beliefs and lifestyle of the early Christians, and the contrast to modern Christendom. I was able to attend only the first two of the three, since I needed to be back at my home congregation for Sunday morning service.

Bercot demonstrated that the core beliefs of the early Christians focused directly on the person Jesus Christ: his life, death, burial, and resurrection — and on his teachings about life (rather than on things like forms of worship and theology.) In particular, the sermon on the mount was a definitive basis for their beliefs and their lives. According to Bercot, the early Christians looked first to the teachings of Jesus, and used those to guide understanding of the Pauline letters and other subsequent writings. In contrast, he said that modern ecumenicals tend to go first to Paul’s writings (particularly to Romans) and then interpret the teachings of Jesus from that framework.

In his Saturday message, Bercot challenged the sectarian spirit of the churches of Christ. He told us that this is the weakness that everyone else sees in the churches of Christ, which we traditionally have not seen in ourselves. To prove his point, he directed our attention to the two greatest commandments:

Matt 22:35-40 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

We all know those verses. But Bercot suggested that churches of Christ generally don’t act like they believe them. When presented with a person like Francis of Assisi who had an evident and surpassing love for God and his fellow man, even the most open-minded members of churches of Christ are likely to say that just maybe there is a chance that God might forgive such a man despite his (presumably) erroneous understanding and practice of water baptism. But ask the same question in reference to the spiritual condition of the average member of the church of Christ, who has been (presumably) baptized correctly but who, relatively speaking, lives his life primarily for self interests, the nearly unanimous verdict would be, “Of course God will forgive such a person.” So it is demonstrably true that those who hold such views consider the accurate understanding and practice of water baptism as a more important matter than loving God and loving your neighbor. Bercot pointed out that Thomas and Alexander Campbell would have answered that question much differently from how the typical church of Christ member today would answer.

Bercot showed that the early Christians did not see salvation as a one-time event in a person’s life, but as a process that is only completed when God says “Well done!” How we live and how we serve is part of the story. Jesus taught about acts of service — giving cups of water, visiting the sick and those in prison, providing clothing — as decisive factors in salvation. Salvation is not primarily about having correct doctrinal understandings, but about a relationship with the Savior and a life of obedient faithful service.

After his Saturday afternoon message, the room was buzzing with conversations about baptism, love, and service. We all had a lot to think about.

America is increasingly becoming intolerant of Christian viewpoints. This is nowhere more evident than in the entertainment and news media, who react with disdain to any public official who hints that their governing decisions will be influenced by what they believe about God. But it has not always been so. Following is a sampling of some quotes by great American leaders of the past:

George Washington

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”

“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right”

“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong.”
— September 1862 – Meditation on the Divine Will

“If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.”— April 4, 1864 – Letter to Albert Hodges

“We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein.” — September 4, 1864 – Letter to Eliza Gurney

Franklin D. Roosevelt

“As Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God.”

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.” — D-Day prayer

“Thy will be done, Almighty God.” — Closing to D-Day prayer

John F. Kennedy

“I believe that God has a plan.”

“The world is a very different now…and yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe–the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” — Inaugural address

“And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.” — Inaugural address

“Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right-not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.” — July 4, 1962

America has changed dramatically since the days of those leaders. A politician saying such things in today’s world can expect to be held up to ridicule by the media and the modern pop culture. Our culture has become ashamed of Christ and Christian values. That should not come as a surprise to Christians:

1Jo 3:13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

2Ti 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
2Ti 3:13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Neither should Christians yield to anti-Christian pressure from the surrounding culture. That kind of reaction should not knock Christians off our stride. We are citizens of a different country:

Heb 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
Heb 11:14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.

Occasionally a leader will buck the trend, and not back down from displaying his or her convictions publicly. It is a good thing when government officials seek to follow the will of God. But when the media ridicules them for doing so, Christians should not be surprised.