Deeper Waters

I’m getting ready to write a letter to the editor in the local newspaper where the writer said she didn’t support creation being taught in schools as religion has no place in the public schools. Instead, religion is for the home and for the religious school. Interestingly, to show this, the Jewish writer gives a story on how a Christian teacher treated her as if this illustrates religion in the public schools is a bad thing.

To begin with, the tale of using a story is a more postmodern one. Stories can be used of course, but the point of these stories is to get a purely emotional reaction. This is exactly what the story I read does and I will confess, it does it well. I’m sure the writer got several readers drawn into it.

However, I could make up a story that could be just as likely. Imagine I as a young man go into my High School science class and the teacher sees my necklace and says, “Oh. A cross? Are you a Christian?” I answer that I am and she says “Well, I prefer that you sit in the back then and have the students that really care about science sit in the front.”

No. This didn’t happen. However, if it had, what would it have proven? Only one thing. It would have proven that my teacher was a jerk. Evolution could still be entirely true and my teacher could be entirely a jerk. On the other hand, a Christian teacher could be entirely a saint, and Christianity false.

Secondly though, she seems to assume that religious private life can be separated from religious public life. I contend that it cannot. Instead, my Christianity teaches me how I am to live in public. Want me to have no traces of my religion in public? Sure. That just means I have no reason to love my fellow man in public then.

In fact, at this point, the writer surrendered religious neutrality. As soon as she tells me to leave my religion at home, she is making a claim about my religion. While she says she doesn’t want to endorse any religion, she is. She’s endorsing the idea of humanism that says that religion is not for public discussion.

This is my problem. Please note I have no problem with her stating her argument and putting it in the local paper. That’s the way the system works and that’s the way ideas are exchanged. I have a problem with her assuming that she’s religiously neutral while telling everyone how they should live their religion.

Such religious neutrality is a myth. Christ said it best, as he has a tendency to do. “You are either for me or against me.”

Philosophers make for very dangerous friends.

A lot of my friends would probably agree with that. They know that as soon as I start asking them questions, they need to prepare themselves. Tonight was no different. I had a couple stop by tonight and one of them started talking about this book I have called “For Men Only” while the other watched YouTube.

The one who was talking to me told me that he just couldn’t find that interesting. I asked him what he did find interesting and I got the answer of Star Wars. I asked him why and he had to think about it some and then he started describing some things interesting he found in there. Fair enough. Why?

Before the evening was done, we had discussed masculinity, beauty, sexuality, and the Trinity.

All of this was through what is called the Socratic Method and I find it quite amazing to undergo. This is something I’d recommend doing with people if you want to learn something from them or help them learn something. Generally, it just involves asking simple questions and the person does their thinking on their own until they reach a conclusion.

You can really learn a lot from people this way in that they open up into themselves. They start talking about what matters to them and really thinking about deep issues. That’s one of our problems today. We don’t really think. We don’t know how to engage a topic. If anything, our thinking is shallow.

What’s amazing is how far you can go on this. When I started talking tonight, I had no idea that this would eventually lead to a discussion of masculinity and how far that would go. Of course, you don’t always have a goal. You just go where the road of thinking leads you. Isn’t this how it goes when we use it on the one that we can engage in it the most with? Ourselves?

Here’s something else. He enjoyed it. He wished he could have stayed more, but he had told his folks he’d be home at a decent hour. Understandable. So I let him go and he wants to come back again. People like thinking. They really do. We don’t do it enough but when the common person gets engaged in a conversation of this sort, they readily enjoy it.

So indeed we philosophers make dangerous friends, but we’re agents of truth. We will either destroy your ideas or build them up to a better level. Rest assured though, if I ask you a question, you might want to go into defensive mode immediately.

I recall recently having someone challenge me on my reasons for why I believe God exists. I was told to give some and one that I gave is the origin of the universe. I see no way in which the universe could have arisen aside from God. In reply to this, I was told that I was begging the question.

There’s only one way you can be told that you are begging the question in this case. That is if God didn’t do it. If anyone is begging the question, it is the naturalist who is assuming naturalism can explain everything, something that science has never shown or can ever show. We hear much about God of the gaps, but never naturalism of the gaps.

Why is this? It’s almost as if the mention of God doing anything is anathema, which of course it is. We have reached an age where men want to expel the old beliefs of the past and claim their right to deity. Rest assured, if someone wants to knock God off of his throne, something will have to be in his place, and it will most likely be a mirror.

The naturalist has several gaps to explain. Why should we accept it when they say “Just give us time!” I don’t. I accept the Bible has been shown to be accurate and based on the resurrection of Christ, it’s safe for me to think that God could have had something to do with the origin of the universe and that this God has revealed himself in the person of Christ.

I will say that I am against though us suddenly assuming that everything is “God did it!” However, when naturalistic explanations have been thoroughly tried and all evidence even points to something non-naturalistic, let’s go with it. Why would some people not like this idea?

My belief? It could be because of America’s #1 god. That would be sex. God interferes with our current sexual mores. If there is no God though, you can do as you wish sexually. You can watch all the porn you want and sleep around with whoever you want. It’s okay. You’re your own god.

If there is a God though, he has power over you. That is something so horrendous to many that they will gladly choose any other idea to avoid that one.

Let’s not let them. They need to have just as many reasons for believing there is no God as we do for believing there is one.

I’ll go on and say something. I am quite bored with my job. I get depressed because I’m so often there and I believe I’m doing nothing and I look around and wonder “Where did I go wrong that I am stuck here?” If there is one thing in my life that can really bring me down, it’s being there. When I’m on the computer, I at least feel like I’m doing something.

I want more.

My guess is, I’m not the only one. I look around often and think about how so many people go to their jobs and that’s it. It is almost like we live only to live to the next day and then only to the next day. I wonder how many people get on their deathbeds in the end and wonder what they really accomplished.

My generation grew up as the gaming generation. I sometimes wonder if those created a need or filled a need. What do I mean? I mean adventure games sell through the roof. Everyone wants to be the hero of the game. My belief is that they create a temporary filling of a need.

At this point in our lives, many of us couldn’t get out and face the world. We wanted to pretend though. I find growing up there are still many of us who like to pretend. In my own imagination, I’m the apologist out on a mission to combat evil. Each new heresy starts for me the Smallville theme song of “Somebody Save Me.” I picture every non-Christian saying that. Each one is a soul worth fighting for.

I don’t think this desire is anything new. Look at the old stories in Greek and Roman mythology of great heroes and battles and adventures. Look at Christian literature even such as the tales of Beowulf. Something in us greatly longs for this adventure. We don’t mind the danger even! In fact, we want it to be dangerous!

Go to your movies sometimes and watch the movies guys go to see. Now think about this. When a guy goes to see James Bond, is he not screaming in some ways that he’d like to be James Bond? Wouldn’t he like to be the spy out there saving the world and winning the girl? (While I can’t condone Bond’s sex outside of marriage, we can all understand the desire to win the lady.)

Yes. We want it. I wonder how many of us look at the world with that longing for adventure. Recently visiting my grandmother at her new assisted living place, I was in her room with her and my Dad and heard some man outside speaking loudly and angrily. I stepped out to see some big guy walking down the hall away. Nothing came of it, but I kind of wanted it to. I would have loved some adventure to happen.

It hasn’t really yet, but I keep hoping it does. I keep trying to remember that in some ways, all of life is an adventure. It’s just hard to see the adventure in many places. I sometimes wonder what it will be like in the end when I look back through the revelation of God and I can say “Now I understand, and it was right that you allowed me to go through that.”

Of course, on some level, we all know it is. We just have a hard time believing it. It’s easy to talk the talk of faithfulness. (Another rant of mine with church language for another day.) It’s harder to walk it. We all can easily say we’d die for Christ, but considering how hard we find it to put up with some things. I wonder if we mean it. On another level though, I think dying for Christ is the easy part. Living for him is the hard one.

Have I strayed some? Yeah. But then, maybe this is the way of the adventurer. Maybe this is just going where the road takes me. I shall simply have to wake up tomorrow and see. What will the day hold? Danger? Debate? Love? A new challenge? Who knows? I shall simply have to trust what I will know to be true in the end. It is working together for my good as Romans 8 tells me.

I do hope tomorrow is adventurous though, or rather, that I can see the adventure in whatever happens.

I’ve been thinking about the concept of the Imago Dei, the image of God, and how it relates to beauty. I think of the beauty of the female in particular and how she is more beautiful than all others because she particularly reflects the unique beauty of God in a way nothing else can. She is the the reflection of his beauty personified.

Yet my fellow men, I have come to realize that if a lady is beautiful in that regards, then how she expresses herself if it is really herself is beautiful. Her smiles that come from her are beautiful. If they are reflecting pure joy and love in her heart, then we should embrace them as beautiful.

However, we cannot say that only the expressions that are happy are beautiful. A lady is just as beautiful when she’s sad and she’s genuinely expressing that. Why? Because it’s just as much her. I think of the Psalmist who says that our tears are precious and that they are kept in a bottle by God.

Some might say, “Is all a lady does beautiful then?” By no means. If a lady sins, then that action is not beautiful. It is ugly. I think we can realize this in thinking about a beautiful female who uses her body to seduce someone she shouldn’t be seducing in a way she wouldn’t be. The physical aspect is still there, but there is something about it that is not beautiful.

What is it? It is not really her. It is a side that does not belong in the Imago Dei. Oh the part of sexual desire belongs. The part of her smile and body belongs. However, the aspect of her using herself as just a body and wanting to do an act saved for the confines of marriage does not belong.

A true lady though lives out her life as God would have her live it and as she does so, she is beautiful. Isn’t this the kind of beauty Peter spoke about in 1 Peter 3? Outward adornment has its place of course, but that is not where our true beauty should come from. It should come from a beautiful heart.

The question now falls to us men. Are we going to be godly men? Are we going to accept all of the lady as beautiful? Are we even going to accept the aspects that sometimes pain us? Do we not want ladies to be honest in their expressions? That which flows from true beauty is beautiful and that includes emotions.

We men are the ones challenged then. Do we realize how far the beauty goes, or do we avoid it? The answer is up to us.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

I taught Sunday School on this topic today, so I shall give the basic facts. These are the facts that are agreed to by those who are scholars of the field in the study of the NT.

#1-Jesus was crucified and died

#2-Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea

#3-The tomb was found empty

#4-The disciples claimed to see the risen Lord

#5-The early church rose in Jerusalem.

Each of these can be readily defended. I will instead look briefly at the counter-responses.

#1-The Romans/Jews stole the body.

Why would any of them do this though? What motive could they have? Neither one of them was too crazy about the early Christian movement and would have gladly done all that they could to end it early. They never did. The earliest polemic even (Matt. 28:11-15) assumes that the tomb was found empty.

#2-The Disciples stole the body.

Why would they do this though? They were in a state of panic and fear. Stealing the body would not be to their advantage. Also, why would the ones who handed down to us the greatest system of morality ever be the most immoral of all in deceiving us. Furthermore, 11 out of 12 died hideous deaths that could have been prevented by recanting. (John died in exile.) There’s no basis for them stealing the body.

#3-Hallucinations

This is probably the weakest of all. First off, the disciples had to be in the proper frame of mind for a hallucination. If they were even in that, they would have had visions of Jesus in Abraham’s bosom and not walking around with them. SEcondly, the visions were shared but hallucinations are not. Thirdly, even if there were hallucinations, that does not explain the empty tomb so this has to work with another theory which is just as improbable.

#4-Wrong Tomb

This one makes me laugh. The disciples would have made sure that they’d visited the right tomb and the Jews and Romans would have gladly pointed them to it.

#5-Twin theory

This theory states that Jesus had an identical twin separated from him at birth who came into Jerusalem, saw his twin being crucified, came up with the idea to steal the body and then appear to his disciples as the resurrected Lord.

Friends. When people come up with theories like this to avoid the resurrection, it actually convinces me further.

#6-Swoon Theory

This one says that Jesus never died. Strauss killed this one though centuries ago. If Jesus had somehow survived the horrors of Crucifixion, which the American Medical Association says he didn’t, and survived the tomb and came to and somehow pushed away a huge stone and overcame Roman guards and made it to his disciples, they would not have seen him as a victorious conquerer over death. They would have got him a doctor.

Note in all of this that the Gospel accounts do not have to be seen as inerrant or infallable. Just documents stating the beliefs of what happened. There’s also the 1 Cor. 15 creed found in 1 Cor. 15:3-7 and I urge looking up this one and reading about it and how even some of the liberal scholars date it to within one year of the events, far too early for legends to creep in.

So what difference does it make?

Because I live, you will live also. (John 14:19) Because Jesus rose, we will live like he lives some day. Not physical life, though it will be, but the quality of life is what is spoken of. We will live as Jesus lives. We will be spotless and pure in a community of love. Jesus bids us to come and live. We die so we can live.

Death itself works backwards because of Christ as Aslan said in the Chronicles of Narnia. What is to come then? A concept that I have written about before. The resurrection of the cosmos to a place of perfection beyond what it ever was before. Romans 8 is quite explicit on this.

I also told my class about how we are made in the imago dei, the image of God. That image is being refined in us. We are slowly becoming like the one we were meant to be. We are becoming the reflection of the nature of God so that when he looks at us, he sees nothing that does not reflect him.

Our general leader’s comment at that sums it up well.

“I have a long way to go.”

Don’t we all? We can rejoice today though because Christ died so that we might reach that point and spend eternity with him. Because he lives, we will live also.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Have you ever wondered how this Saturday was for the disciples?

Their Lord had been crucified. No doubt, they were tired from a restless evening, but did they get any that night? Were that all together in order to have a fighting chance should the leaders of the community knock on their door? Were they sitting up late at night reviewing the facts wondering where things had gone wrong?

What indeed? All of their hopes and dreams had been planted on this man. This man had said that he was the source of life. He had made the strongest claims that anyone had ever made, and yet, they did not doubt his sanity. Maybe they did then though. They’d seen him die and he hadn’t resisted. Maybe there was a lot of insanity.

As I ponder it, I wonder if the disciples counted those the darkest 24 hours of their lives.

Maybe we’re not that different though.

Maybe it’s Saturday for you. Maybe the world seems out of kilter and nothing seems right. I often think about times when I am in that place and I say “I just want to wake up one day and have 2 + 2 = 4 again.”  This is a crazy and mixed up world and sometimes, it does seem like the good guys are losing.

For us, it can seem like God is absent at time. Be sure of this. We say it feels like he is. Where do we ever get such a notion? I know of no concept in Scripture where it talks about feeling God or even “Feeling the Spirit.” So much of what we claim as truth about God today can often be traced to our feelings.

Yet, those feelings don’t just go away. However, in the midst of our trials, we can remember the disciples. There was a Saturday when Jesus was dead. That day went and that day seemed to be a hopeless day. However, the disciples did not realize the joy they would have the very next day.

We all know what day that was.

So I say in closing, remember today, that there are dark passages in life, but the day of the Lord is coming.

Picture yourself as a first century Jew. You’ve been mesmerized by this man named Jesus who is going around teaching and working so many great wonders. This man has a moral code that you know you can’t reach, but yet, you believe you are accepted by him anyway. No one has ever spoken like this man. He is the best man you have ever known.

Then, the leaders of your people strip him and crucify him on a cross in shame for all the world to see.

Imagine if someone came to you then and said “Did you know that 2,000 years from now, this day will be looked on as Good Friday?” Imagine how you would react! This is the greatest man I ever knew that is being humiliated in the worst death of all! What could possibly be good about this?! What kind of sick people live 2,000 years from now?!

Yet today, we seem to call it Good Friday quite easily. It is doubtful the disciples saw it as such. They were more than likely watching in horror. I see no reason for us to think that the disciples were watching and one of them said “Oh! I get it! Jesus Christ is dying for our sins!” No. Their world had been thrown into confusion provided it even lasted. They were followers of a man who had been condemned as a criminal. They could be next.

Today though, we know the truth. It is Good Friday. We celebrate it not because the story ended on the cross, but because the story began on the cross. The darkest moment led to the brightest moment. The greatest evil led to the greatest good. The God who reversed things then though, is still around for us in the 21st century.

Today, remember what happened on Good Friday. It is still the same God. He sent his Son for your sins. How much more will he give you all things?

Whew! I’ve had a full day. After a lot of internet debating, I did go to see my grandmother in her new assisted living place, went to see my mother back home, went to the library, went to get my cell phone upgraded, went to the new Ninja Turtles movie, and finally I went to Border’s with some friends. As I told a friend tonight after all this, I’m feeling tired.

Which is appropo since I’m talking about feelings.

I’ve had a lot going on in my life today and I tend to think that when I get a lot going on, my feelings just go all chaotic. It’s one of those situations where you look back on a happier time and miss it and you just want to wake up the next day and have 2 + 2 = 4 again. Being happy takes a lot of energy really and my personality is quite melancholy.

I would also say I’m one to give too much credence to feelings, and we all do that today. A man might go home one evening and he just doesn’t feel love for his wife. You know what he’s supposed to do? Love her. If we all acted on our feelings, we would all be in trouble. In fact, most of us would either be in jail or dead.

Yet I thought about what I was asking. I was praying that God would restore some joy and happiness that I believe past and current events have sapped from me. As I thought about that, I remembered then what I have so often told people before. It’s amazing that we’re so terrible at following our own advice.

Christianity is not about a chasing after feelings. Feelings are things that move up and down. Christianity is about chasing after Christ. I fear too often in Christianity that we make feelings the goal. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to feel happy and joyous. That’s not the goal though. The goal is to be like Christ, and frankly, we might have to suffer for that. Christ himself was not exempt from suffering. Why should we be?

If we chase after feelings though, are we not missing him? Is not he our goal? How would that work in a marriage? Do you chase after your spouse just so they’ll make you feel good or for who they are? Of course, this gets in line with C.S. Lewis’s first and second things. If we chase after second things, we lose second things and first things. If we chase after first things, we get both. If we chase after the person be it God a spouse, we get the good feelings eventually. If we chase after the feelings, we don’t get either.

So what am I to do? Follow what Lewis said about the Law of Undulation in the Screwtape Letters. I keep fighting. Heaven may seem absent and the world may be a mess, but that’s no excuse to keep fighting. Pray for this writer always though. He most certainly needs it.

I’d like you all to think about a day that you were really down. One day where you had the Monk theme song part going through your head of “No one seems to care.” Then, you go to your internet and check your email and there’s a message just out of the blue from a friend telling you what a blessing you are.

It might not be that. It might be a letter in the mailbox. It might be a friend dropping by out of the blue. It might be a phone call. Either way, someone has sent you a message when everything was wrong just to let you know they think you’re special. How did that make you feel?

Now, I’ve had those days. What does that kind of thing change about the external world? Absolutely nothing. However, it does change me greatly. I suddenly seem to have the strength to press on. It just wows me that someone thought so much about me that they decided to take the time to let me know.

What got me thinking this? You all might be surprised, but I am my own worst critic and I think I have an inferiority complex the size of Texas. I thought today though about some skeptics I address. Maybe my arguments might not seem the best to me at times, but I thought about judgment day.

What if a skeptic makes his defense before the throne and God says something like “Well, someone already answered you on that years ago and you rejected it.” After all, if God affirms what you say, then it doesn’t really matter what anyone else says. I then thought though about the community in Heaven.

Remember the song Ray Boltz did? “Thank You.”? It was about a man who had a dream that he went to Heaven with a friend and this friend meets countless people who are there because of so many little things he’d done on Earth that are described in the song even as “unnoticed.”

Won’t Heaven be a place of encouragers also. Our life will not be spent just loving God. We will be loving one another and building one another up. We will be exuberantly glad in the joy we experience in one another as well. Whatever relationships you have here, I do not believe Heaven destroys those for they are good. I believe Heaven amplifies those.

Then I take that further. If we are going to be having love and joy and celebrating each other in Heaven, why are we not doing that now? When was the last time we did that? I took some time out recently to publicly recognize a dear mother-figure type in my life as a wonderful and awesome person. So many people chimed in also. That took only a few minutes, but I bet it will leave a lasting impression for a long time.

Dear friend. Love your neighbor. Chances are, they really need it. I know I have several days and there are probably many days when you need it as well and you just don’t want to ask for it. Be there today. Surprise someone. Of course, don’t do this to where it is just habit with no real meaning behind it. Love them because you think they are worth loving.

You’re going to do that for all eternity. You might as well start now.