Even the demons believe?

I would guess that most kids dread parent-teacher conferences. During my middle school years (4th - 6th grade) there were some occasional differences between what I told my parents and what I told my teachers. My troubles started in 4th grade when I decided that I didn't want to do my math homework any more. Don't get me wrong; I wasn't a trouble-maker. I was more of an underachiever. Still it made the prospect of my parents meeting with my teachers nearly unbearable. Of all the things that came out of those conferences there is one thing that I still remember. One of my teachers remarked to my parents that I like to argue.

I am guessing that the shoe still fits.

To this day I enjoy lively conversations. I love those conversations where ideas are freely debated. The topic that I enjoy most is theology. And while I enjoy most theological discussions I really enjoy discussions around doctrine. Theology is defined as:

"The field of study and analysis that treats of God and of God's attributes and relations to the universe; study of divine things or religious truth; divinity."

And doctrine is defined as:

"A particular principle, position, or policy taught or advocated, as of a religion or government."

It is a subtle difference but an important one. Theology is the overarching study while doctrine is how the church applies that study. You can have theology without doctrine but you can't have doctrine without theology. For example we can have a theology that holds that God is a graceful God. Which means that God gives out grace, or unmerited favor. That theology becomes doctrine when the church takes that theology and makes it an official position which needs to be taught. In essence doctrine is where the theological rubber hits the road.

Yet even when we talk about doctrine we can still fall into the trap of speaking in theoretical terms rather than in practical terms. James 2:19 says:

"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe–and shudder!"

James is pointing out that just believing something is not the same thing as allowing those beliefs to affect how you live your life. So just believing the right things isn't enough. He goes on to say in James 2:26:

"For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."

It is interesting the comparison that James is making. He is equating the body with faith and the spirit with works. The point that he is making is that you cannot separate faith from works–or the things that we do–just as you cannot separate the body from the spirit. The spirit is what gives the body life and our actions is what brings our faith alive. James 2:14-26 is not saying that we have to do good things to earn our salvation. What it is saying is that having all of those theological and doctrinal discussions that I enjoy don't mean anything if I don't allow them to affect how I live my life. My belief in Christ must have a very real affect on my day-to-day life otherwise my belief is not just useless; it is dead.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Saul and the Witch of En-dor

Our church in the middle of a sermon series that is going through the Old Testament. We have been at it for almost 11 months and are currently dealing with the reign of King David. The series really started serendipitously when our Senior Pastor taught on the almost sacrifice of Isaac found in Genesis 22:1-19. He continued to follow the major points of the story of Israel until someone asked him if he was going to preach through the whole Bible. And that was the birth of our current series. In 11 months we have moved from the story of Isaac to King David–or in terms of books of the Bible–we have gone from the middle of Genesis to the beginning of 2 Samuel. That is a lot of ground and while a survey style series allows us to see how God has been working throughout history, it also means that we cannot cover every single story. We would probably still be in Genesis if we did cover every story in depth.

King Saul and the Witch of En-dor is one that I find fascinating and was one that didn't make it into the series. I think that it is an interesting insight of the Bible's view of the spiritual world. With verses like Ephesians 6:12 it might seem obvious that the Bible teaches about demons and other supernatural forces. But like any other doctrine there are those that have both valid and incorrect critiques of the spiritual warfare theology found Frank Peretti's novels like This Present Darkness. The range of theology pertaining to the spiritual world is vast. As a teen I remember hearing about Bob Larson as one proponent of a vast spiritual battle that was raging behind everything from rock music to political corruptness. While he might be right it seems that his theology went a bit too far at times. But the story of King Saul and the Witch of En-dor found in 1 Samuel 28:3-25 gives us a glimpse into the spiritual realm:

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him, "Behold, there is a medium at En-dor."

So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, "Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you." The woman said to him, "Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?" But Saul swore to her by the LORD, "As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" He said, "Bring up Samuel for me." When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul." The king said to her, "Do not be afraid. What do you see?" And the woman said to Saul, "I see a god coming up out of the earth." He said to her, "What is his appearance?" And she said, "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe." And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.

Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" Saul answered, "I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do." And Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has turned from you and become your enemy? The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me, for the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines."

Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, "Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way." He refused and said, "I will not eat." But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed.24 Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.

I find this passage enlightening for a couple of reasons. The first is that it makes it clear that there is a spiritual realm behind our physical realm and we don't always know or see what is happening. Beyond that we also might like to think that we have some amount of control of what happens in the spiritual realm but we don't. The woman's response to calling up Samuel is unexpected. She is a medium that is supposed to be an expert in conjuring up and consulting spirits. Yet when she actually gets Samuel she is shocked. She thought that she had control but she didn't. The same is true for us. We cannot control the spiritual world and there is a reason that God has commanded us in Deuteronomy 18:10-12 to avoid using mediums, fortune tellers and other such things.

Finally this passage makes it clear that it is God that is in ultimate control. While Saul used a forbidden method of trying to see into the future, God ended up using that method. My understanding is that the Witch of En-dor was going through her normal process and figured that she would tell Saul what he wanted to hear. But then God asserted his control and allowed Samuel to appear to give the bad news to Saul. As Christians we should not dabble in the occult for two reasons. The first is that it directly disobeys God. The second is that it shows a serious lack of faith in God. We don't know the future but God does and he assures us that he is in control.

 

(Edited for speling...spealling...spelling.)

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Do Globes prove the Earth is round?

Yesterday I came across something that caused me to think about my position on Spiritual Gifts. Spiritual Gifts are the abilities that God has given to every Christian in order to instruct or improve the church. There are several lists of these gifts in the Bible and the major ones can be found in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11. Within those lists are what we term as "miraculous gifts." These gifts include: prophecy, healing, miracles, speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. When it comes to these gifts there are two basic schools of thought. The first position is that of Cessationism which means that these gifts were only around while the Apostles were alive. After the Apostles died the gifts ceased to exist. The second position is that of Continuationsim which means that these gifts continue to exist in the same way that they did in the days of the Apostles.

In my blog post yesterday I shared how 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 has mistakenly been used to support the view of Cessationism. The reason that I brought up the 1 Corinthians 13 passage is that my earliest memories of discussing the validity of the miraculous gifts had centered around this passage. I have personally heard it used as an argument against the present day existence of the miraculous gifts. And–truth be told–I have used it myself. But if the passage is a bad argument for Cessationism does that mean that Continuationism is correct? No; just because a particular supporting argument is proven to be wrong doesn't mean the premise is wrong. For example just consider the "globe argument."

The globe argument starts with the initial premise is that the earth is a sphere. In order to support the premise the globe argument cites the fact that globes–which depict the earth–are spheres. Therefore–the argument goes–because globes are spheres and they depict the earth then the existence of spherical globes prove that the earth must also be a sphere. Of course we can easily see that just because globes are spheres doesn't mean that the earth must be a sphere. Would cubical globes prove that the earth is a cube? The supporting argument is wrong but that doesn't mean that the earth is not a sphere.

One of the key differences between Cessationism and Continuationism is whether or not the miraculous gifts continue exist in the same way that they existed in the day of the Apostles.

Basing theology only on experience or observation can be both tricky and dangerous. Experiences and observations can easily be misleading or misinterpreted. Experiences can also be a very rare or even a singular in occurrence–sort of like the Cubs winning a World Series–and cannot be interpreted as a pattern of any sort. But in the case of the miraculous gifts we must rely on what we observe and experience to be our guide. Do we see these gifts being practiced today in the same way that they were practiced in the early church?

It is my assertion that we do not.

In Acts 2 we read of the Apostles being able to speak in foreign languages that they had not learned through the power of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 3 we read how Peter and John healed a lame man that was instantaneously able to walk again. In Acts 5 we read how Peter was able to give a true prophecy regarding Ananias and Sapphira. Also in Acts 5 we read how Peter was able to heal multitudes of sick people. In Acts 20 we read how Paul was able to raise Eutychus from the dead (after he had bored him to death with his preaching...but I digress).

We don't see these gifts being practiced in these ways today which means–at least from our experience and observations–that they have ceased to exist in the same way as they did for the Apostles. This doesn't mean that God doesn't still use miracles. What it does mean is that no one can truly claim to have one of these miraculous gifts unless they are practicing these gifts in the same way that we see them existing in the Bible.

I might not be a firm Cessationist but I am very skeptical of Continuationism.

What does (or doesn't) Paul say about miraculous gifts?

"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."

Something that I came across this morning caused me to think about my position on Spiritual Gifts. Paul tells us that the Spiritual Gifts were given "for the common good" of the church. They are the abilities that God has given to every Christian in order to instruct or improve the church. Paul also gives us several lists of gifts in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11. Within those lists are what we term as "miraculous gifts." These gifts include: prophecy, healing, miracles, speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. When it comes to these gifts there are two basic schools of thought. The first position is that of Cessationism which means that these gifts were only around while the Apostles were alive. After the Apostles died the gifts ceased to exist. The second position is that of Continuationsim which means that these gifts continue to exist in the same way that they did in the days of the Apostles.

The passage–1 Corinthians 13:8-12–that is quoted above is sometimes used as a proof-text by those that say the miraculous gifts are no longer in use. The claim is that Paul is talking about the time when the Canon of Scripture is closed. This claim is based on the phrase "but when the perfect comes, the partial with pass away" and is referring to the doctrine of the Inerrancy of the Bible. In other words these miraculous gifts were being used by the Apostles to authenticate and spread the Gospel message in an imperfect verbal form but once the Gospel was being circulated in the perfect written format the need for these miraculous gifts was no longer necessary.

While it might be true that the need for miraculous gifts is greatly reduced by the existence of the Bible, I don't think that this is what the passage is saying. And to be perfectly fair, I don't know that there are many Cessationists who believe that this is what the passage is saying.

The passage does give us the impression that miraculous gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues will cease. But the reason that the passage gives for them passing away is that one day we will see "face to face" and "know fully." And that creates problems for those that want to claim that this passage is referring to the coming of Scripture. Even with written Scripture it is easy to understand that we do not yet see face to face nor do we fully know.

On top of that, it does not make any sense that this written passage of Scripture is referring to written Scripture. It might be argued that Paul did not view his writing as one day being considered Scripture. This argument would not account for the fact that Paul would then need to view the written Gospel message as superior to the spoken Gospel message. However in his instructions to the Thessalonians Paul gives equal weight to both:

"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter."

Finally, it just doesn't make sense that this is what Paul is saying when we view the passage in the larger context of 1 Corinthians. In chapter 12 Paul brings up the topic of Spiritual Gifts and how the giving of these gifts should not be looked at as a popularity contest. Paul's point is that having a certain gift does not make someone superior or more important to the church than someone with a different gift. In chapter 14 Paul speaks about the use of these gifts in an orderly worship. Nestled in between these two chapters is what may be the most well known chapter in the Bible on love. Paul takes time between these two chapters to tell us how love is greater than anything else. His point is not to teach about the details of the cessation of particular gifts. Rather his point is to teach us that when these gifts do cease that we will still have love. Paul is telling us that when Christ returns and we finally see him face to face we won't have any need for Spiritual Gifts but we will still have love.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

What is our only comfort in life and in death?

I have never considered myself to be very credal. At least I haven't held to any of the major creeds or confessions; at least in terms of how a "confessional" church would define it. I think that some of the creeds do a fine job of summarizing the Christian faith like the Nicene Creed or the Apostles Creed. And it is also true that the creeds and confessions can serve as a useful educational piece within the church. One of the confessions that my current church–the Reformed Church of America (RCA)–holds to is the Heidelberg Catechism. The RCA says the following about creeds and confessions:

"The RCA is confessional, which means that together we have statements of belief, called creeds and confessions. These statements guide our understanding of faith and shape its practice."

The idea is to have a standard statement of faith across the whole denomination. It is not that different than other denominations or churches having a statement of faith that one needs to accept before becoming a member. In a certain sense these creeds and confessions are just really old statements of faith. And as long as a church does not elevate the confession above or contradict scripture–and I do not believe that this is what the RCA is doing–then I don't see any real problem with them. In fact if they are used properly, they can play an important teaching role in the life of the church. To that end our Wednesday night adult Bible study has just started to look at the Heidelberg Catechism. Last night we looked at Question 1:

"What is your only comfort in life and in death?"

Instead of simply reading the Heidelberg answer, we split into smaller groups and read the scripture passages that the original writers used to come up with their answer. And then we wrote our own answer based on those scripture passages. In my group we didn't end up getting to all of the scripture passages so our answer doesn't touch on all aspects of the Heidelberg answer. But we still ended up with our own answer. This is what we came up with:

"Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and is not our own. We were bought by God and need to honor God with our bodies. We belong to the Lord in both life and death. He purifies us through his sacrifice; Christ's blood washes away all of our sins. Because we are children of God we are ultimately free from sin. Those who put their hope in Christ–because the Father has given this authority to Christ–are in the Father's hands. God will protect us. And in the last day, God will bring us home to heaven. Fear not! God values us. We are important to him and he will protect us."

Not a bad answer if you ask me.

Our answer was based on the following scripture passages:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 14:7-9; 1 Corinthians 3:23; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7-9; 1 John 2:2; John 8:34-36; Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 John 3:1-11; John 6:39-40; John 10:27-30; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Peter 1:5; Matthew 10:29-31; and Luke 21:16-18.

 

Yahoo and the solution for itching ears

If you are reading this then I suspect that you already know that the Internet is a wonderful and terrible place all at once. It is simultaneously a resource for both good and evil. However one of the more insidious things about the Internet is how it is shaped and moulded behind the scenes. The content that you see can be very different than the content that I see...even if we go to the same page. Consider the story of Sarah Kendzior:

"On February 8, 2012, I was on Yahoo's homepage when a headline caught my eye: "Mo. teen gets life with possible parole in killing." Curious, I clicked to see what atrocity had transpired in the state where I live. Alyssa Bustamante, a teenager from Jefferson City, had strangled and stabbed her nine-year-old neighbor for the sheer thrill of it, later describing the event in her diary as an "ahmazing" experience. Horrified, I closed the page. Like many whose homepage defaults to Yahoo, this quick scan of a story was a rote action, information via procrastination, almost subconsciously performed every morning before I move on to other things. In this case, the story was so awful that I wanted to get away. Except, it turned out, I couldn't.

"For the next month, I woke up to a barrage of horrifying stories that seemed to signal an epidemic of child torture in America...I rarely clicked on any of these headlines, and at first, I didn't notice the way they had crept into my Yahoo homepage -- and into my mind -- until their pervasiveness became impossible to ignore.

"That's when I realized: Yahoo had decided I liked child murder."

Ms. Kendzior is someone that understands how the Internet works and is well aware of the fact that sites such as Yahoo and Google filter what you see based upon what they perceive to be your interests:

"Unlike tabloid television, algorithmic personalization does not announce that it's pandering to base interests. When sensationalized reports about violence against children are on TV, I can change the channel -- an act that is harder to do on the Internet when seemingly "neutral" spaces, like Yahoo's homepage, leave no tell-tale trace of manipulation. You can't change the channel when you don't know you're watching the program.

"Yahoo personalizes headlines for its audience of over 700 million people through its Content Optimization and Relevance Engine, an algorithmic system based on demographic data and reading behavior. As a researcher who studies digital media, I was aware that my news was filtered, but I had never noticed the filtering process in action, probably because, until now, Yahoo had guessed me right. (Or at least not so gruesomely wrong.) When the headlines first appeared, I thought they were an anomaly, but as the weeks went on, I noticed a pattern. Going through my search history, I could trace the emergence of stories to the day I read about the Bustamante murder."

There is a very real problem with this type of filtering:

"Few perusing Yahoo headlines would suspect that children murdering children is a reader category chosen by robots. While disturbing on an epistemological level, it may also have practical consequences. As we rely on internet media to give us a taste of what's going on, we don't realize we're consuming a particular flavor. A sudden uptick in stories on violence -- particularly by or against a specific demographic category -- can spur paranoia, prejudice and vigilante behavior. What a machine thinks we need to know can become what we fear. But because the algorithmic process is both secret and subjective, we have no way of tracking the ramifications."

We start to see and hear the things that we want to see and hear...even when they are things that we think that don't want to see and hear. In this case Ms. Kendzior was given something that shocked her system but how much targeted information had Yahoo fed her before she realized what was going on? She admits that she had never questioned how the news that was being given to her via Yahoo was being shaped as long as it was sublte and agreed with her.

The Apostle Paul warned Timothy that a day like this was coming to the church:

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

Very rarely will a person willingly take in teaching that is jarringly false. The problem comes when a pastor or teacher feeds a subtle and agreeable diet of false doctrine to a congregation. It is one of the reasons that we always need to be searching and studying the Bible and not just taking someone else's word as to what it says.

 

Source: The Atlantic via Tim Challies

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


 

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 3

Over the past two days I have been looking at whether or not God has a specific plan for our lives. I started by examining how Jeremiah 29:11 does not teach that God has specific plans to prosper us and then moved on to how Romans 8:18-30 teaches us that God does have specific plans that have an eternal scope. But that still leaves us with the question of whether or not God has a specific plan for us in regards to our making everyday choices. Does God have a specific plan that we need to figure out when it comes to marrying the right person, going to the right college, choosing the right job or our church choosing the right direction to go? So far my answer to that has been:

"At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I don't think that God really cares what we do in these situations unless there is a Biblical or moral reason involved."

Now that I have laid the foundation that God has specific plans for us that are eternal in scope I need to start to nuance what I mean by my statement.

First and foremost I need to start with what may seem like a contradictory statement. God does care about what we do in every situation. He cares intimately about us and what happens to us. Matthew 10:26-31 tells us that Jesus said this about God's concern for us:

"So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."

God cannot care that much for us without caring about the decisions that we make. Whenever we are faced with decisions we should always look to make the best possible choice. Sometimes we are faced with decisions that contain good, bad and better choices. Sometimes we are faced with decisions that only seem to contain bad ones. So how do we know what to do?

Do we need to listen to God's voice in order to make the right choices?

It is absolutely essential that we listen to God in order to make right choices. But what does that look like? Should we expect God to speak to us through an audible voice like he did with Moses at the Burning Bush or Samuel in the middle of the night? Is he going to speak to us in the still, small voice like he did with Elijah?

It is essential that we do not confuse examples of how God has worked in the Bible with the Bible teaching us how to expect God to usually work. We understand this almost reflexively because most of us would be appalled by a church teaching that we should expect God to speak to us through witches or donkeys. So in order to gain a better understanding we turn to the Bible which, incidentally, is the Word of God. What better place to turn to hear God speak than the place where God's speech has been recorded?

Jesus tells us all that we really need to know about hearing God's voice in John 14 & 15. It would be too long to quote both chapters here so I would encourage you to read them before continuing with what I am going to say next.

Done?

Really?

Ok. Both Thomas and Phillip ask Jesus some very good questions in John 14 that are very similar to what I am looking at here. Thomas asks:

"Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"

To which Jesus replies:

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Phillip follows up by asking Jesus to reveal the Father. Jesus goes on to state that his words are the words of the Father and that the Holy Spirit will come to remind them of all that Jesus said and taught. We have the words of God in written form and we have the Holy Spirit to remind us of those words. If we want to know the will of the Father we need to be obedient to God's Word. Jesus then says in John 15:

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

This isn't a magic formula verse rather it means that if we are consistently within God's will as spelled out in the Bible then our prayer requests will be answered. The hard part is consistently abiding in God and allowing God's words to abide in us. So when we are listening to God's words as found in the Bible we will make right decisions. We don't need God to speak to us through burning bushes, donkeys, or even in a whisper when we have God speaking to us through his written Word.

This doesn't mean that God does not speak to people in these ways today but it does mean that we shouldn't expect God to speak to us in these ways. We don't need to sit down and try and figure out God's specific (and hidden) plan for our lives. He has already spelled his plan out for us. He wants us to acknowledge the salvation provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, trust in him and to be obedient to his Word. This doesn't mean that we won't face very difficult decisions that we might need to wrestle with for a long time. But when we are abiding in God and his Words are abiding in us, we can rest assured that we will be making solid decisions that have good eternal consequences.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 2

Yesterday I started to give a further explanation of a comment that I made in my sermon on Sunday. The crux of the matter lies with a statement that I made in regards to our making decisions and trying to discern the right path for our lives. Does God care about which person we marry, which college we attend, what job we take and so on? On Sunday I essentially said:

"At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I don't think that God really cares what we do in these situations unless there is a Biblical or moral reason involved."

Yesterday I looked at what I think is a poor understanding of Jeremiah 29:11. It is my contention that to use this verse to justify that God has good plans for us today is a false way to understand the verse. However that does not really get at the question of whether or not God has plans for us. It is my understanding that he does have a plan for us and for the whole world. But to say that is different than saying that God has a specific plan for our lives and that we need to listen to him in order to figure the plan out.

Let me start off today's discussion with explaining what I mean when I say that God has a plan for us.

The first thing that needs to be said is that God is sovereign–or in other words–God is ultimately in control of everything. There is nothing that happens in this world that is outside of his permissive will. He has either caused everything to happen or he has allowed it to happen. Paul tackles this notion of God's sovereignty in the book of Romans. Paul states in Romans 8:28-30:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

Paul is saying that God has chosen those that would become followers of Christ and that all things would work towards his future purposes. There is no way that this could happen without God having a plan–and a specific one at that–for us and the world. Paul is also saying that God's plan is that we will be glorified. But these verses come in a section where Paul starts off by clarifying when we will see the end result of this plan:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

Notice that the "all things work together for good" are working together for a good that will come in a time that Paul considers to follow "this present time." Paul is referring to the glory that we will see in heaven. So God does have a specific plan for us that will come to completion in the future. God also uses all of the things that happen to further that future plan.

There is also no way that those specific plans or the future cannot happen without specific plans in this present time. God does have specific plans for us today. Plans that are working towards our future good. Paul goes on to tell us that these plans bring us hope:

"For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

These are the specific plans that God has for us. These are the plans that bring us to a saving knowledge of Christ. He has these plans so that we can have the hope that they bring. These plans don't require us to do any special work to try and figure them out. We just need to trust that God is working them out. I find a great freedom in the fact that I don't have to rely on my own smarts or abilities to work these plans out.

So God does have specific plans for us but what does that say about our making choices in regards to our lives? Does this mean that we need to listen to his voice in order to make the right choices? Yes we do need to listen to God in order to make right choices and I will tackle that topic tomorrow.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 1

I wanted to take a few moments and give a fuller explanation of something that I mentioned in passing on Sunday. Here is what I wrote in my manuscript but it will be slightly different on the video because I don't preach directly from the manuscript:

"We are faced with decisions that we frame in terms of right and wrong. Is she the right girl to marry? Which college is the right college to attend? Should I take this job or should I quit my job? Should the church do this or do that? Should I have Wheaties or a donut for breakfast? (You laugh at that last one and I put it in there as a somewhat extreme example. But let's be honest, we do ask God these types of questions.) At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I don't think that God really cares what we do in these situations unless there is a Biblical or moral reason involved. That is not to say that some of these decisions may or may not contain good and poor choices. When you are trying to lose weight consistently choosing to eat donuts for breakfast might not be your best option."

What I was getting at is that we may have this expectation that God has a specific plan for our lives that is planned out to the very last detail. It is what we could call the Jeremiah 29:11 doctrine:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

From that I have heard a number of people go in this direction: "This passage is telling us that God has a good plan for your life. This means that you need to pray and ask for guidance so you can determine what that plan is." The idea is that God has a specific plan for your life and we just need to figure it all out. Then we start to pray and ask God to lead us to the right girl to marry. We ask God to tell us which is the right college to go to. Then we ask God to show us the perfect job for us. And so on and so on and taken to the extreme we are asking God if we should have Wheaties or a donut for breakfast. This Jeremiah 29:11 plan might sound familiar if you have worked through Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God book.

But is this the way that God actually works?

There are a number of things that I would like to cover in answering this question and it will need to happen over a number of postings. This means that my view of this topic will not be completely revealed until the end. The first thing that needs to be examined is whether or not Jeremiah 29:11 actually teaches us that God has a plan for us. No, it does not. "But it says so right there. Didn't you just read the verse you posted in your own blog?" you protest. Yes I did just read the verse but I read much more than just the verse. I read the whole passage. In fact I have read the chapter and the whole book of Jeremiah. The book of Jeremiah was not written to us. God was not speaking through Jeremiah to us. This does not mean that we cannot learn certain truths about God from this book but it does mean that we need to be very careful about how we are applying this book to our lives. This verse is part of a letter that God had Jeremiah send to the captives in Babylon. The whole letter runs from Jeremiah 29:10-23. So why is it that we pick just verse 11 and apply that to our lives? Why not verse 10:

"For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place."

If we did then we must also say that God is planning on having us sent to Babylon for seventy years before bringing us back to this place. But which place is this place? We start to get that from verse 14:

"...I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile."

So if we are going to claim this passage as speaking directly to us we must also say that God will send us into exile in Babylon for seventy years and then bring us back to the place from which he sent us. And as we read further into the letter we see that God will send the "sword, famine and pestilence" on the king who sits on David's throne and all our fellow kinsmen that did not go with us into exile (vv. 16-17).

Then we get to verse 20 which says:

"Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon..."

Obviously this passage is not speaking directly to us. It is speaking to a particular group of Israelites at a particular point in time. There are promises and curses in the book of Jeremiah that are not made directly to us and to claim them as ours is not the right way to interpret the Bible.

This doesn't mean that we cannot learn something from this. We can learn that while it might seem like it at times, God does not forget his people. We can learn that God will fulfill all of his promises but in his own time. We can also learn that God does have an ultimate plan and that plan is meant for the good of his people. But this particular verse does not teach us that God has a particular plan to prosper us in this lifetime. This verse does not teach us that God has a plan that we need to figure out.

But just because this verse does not teach us that God has a plan for us does that mean that God doesn't have a plan for us? I will cover that in the next installment.

 

Scripture quotations (unless otherwise noted) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

 

Is your pastor preaching sound doctrine?

The importance of having a sound understanding of Christian doctrine–our particular set beliefs–is one of my great burning passions. And I bet that most Christians, if asked, would agree that properly understanding and conveying what the Bible teaches on a particular topic is important. I am sure that most Christians would also affirm that solid Biblical preaching is an essential part of a pastor's job. That leads to a couple of closely related questions.

• What process does your pastor use to prepare his Sunday morning sermon?
  
• What process does your pastor use to maintain proper Christian doctrine?
  

I bring this up because a couple of the blogs that I follow wrote about a controversy involving James MacDonald and T.D. Jakes. To be honest I don't want to dwell on it too much because I really haven't been following all of the "Elephant Room" chatter. But the headline of one article caught my eye: How the Elephant Room is Redefining the Pastoral Office.

Tim Raymond's main point in the article is that the inclusion of T.D. Jakes–who is considered by some to fall outside of what has historically been accepted as proper Christian teaching–weakens the perception that sound and proper doctrine is an important part of pastoral ministry. Raymond says:

"And for the pastor, thinking that sound doctrine is insignificant is simply not an option...One of the prerequisites to the pastoral office is that a man be able to teach sound doctrine (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:5-9). Part of the basic job description of the pastor is to proclaim sound doctrine and refute error (Titus 1:9). Pastors are charged to train up their entire congregation in sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13-16; Titus 2:1). Pastors are to preach the Word in season and out since the time is coming when those who do not tolerate sound doctrine will infiltrate the church (2 Timothy 4:1-4 [parallelism indicates that preaching the Word is preaching sound doctrine]; cf. Acts 20:28ff.). And the Lord’s stamp of approval on a man’s ministry is partially measured by his commitment to sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6)."

So how do we know whether or not our pastors are teaching sound doctrine?

Through a lot of hard work. Acts 17:10-11 says:

"The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."

We cannot simply be content to listen to a sermon–that is the easy way which can lead us down the dangerous path of false teaching. We must be like those in Berea and take the time to carefully search the scriptures to make sure that what is being taught is true. I think that it is also important for us to have an understanding of our pastor's process of developing a sermon and how they actively work to stay doctrinally sound. It is important for two reasons. The first is so that we can be sure that our pastor has a way of remaining true to the Word of God. 

I understand that there will be some pastors that find this suggestion to be a bit too intrusive. They may feel like they are being unfairly watched or critiqued. They may feel like it is an added burden to an already heavy work load. They may feel like their process is a bit to lax to really share with anyone. But it is my contention that if someone is truly dedicated to sound doctrine that they should be willing to share and teach their method to others. Which leads me to the second and most important reason that we should take the time to learn our pastor's ways. We should do this so that we have a way of being doctrinally sound. Even if you are someone that already has a good method we should never stop learning. Being able to incorporate parts of someone's process will only make our own process better. And the results will be of a great benefit to the church.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.