WHAT IT MEANS TO TRULY BELIEVE

This is the second message in the series, "Living by the Commands of Jesus." Original date: January 13, 2008

Mark 1:15

Last week we began a series of messages asking the question, “What does Jesus call us as His people to do?” Remember that whatever He commands is for our joy, not a new rule or law to live by, something to make life harder. No—what He commands is always for our joy, and it makes life better and richer and fuller. Well, we saw that He gave us a very clear blueprint for life in the Great Commission passage, Matthew 28:18-20:

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Especially these words:

…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

I love doctrine, good sound teaching. We call sound teaching “orthodoxy” which means “straight teaching.” “Ortho” is the Greek word for “straight”, so an orthodontist works to give us straight teeth.

But there’s another “ortho” word: orthopraxis. It means “straight practice” or “straight living. Jesus wants us to have “straight teaching”, but even more so He wants us to enter into “straight living.” He wants us to obey everything He commanded us.

I told you last week the story of missionary George Patterson working in Honduras in the 1960s and 70s, and how they taught church leaders to focus on the seven basic commands of Jesus. They asked converts to memorize a list of seven of Christ’s basic commands:

1. Repent and believe: Mark 1:15
2. Be baptized (and continue in the new life it initiates): Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-11
3. Love God and neighbor in a practical way: Matthew 22:37-40
4. Celebrate the Lord’s Supper: Luke 22:17-20
5. Pray: Matthew 6:5-15
6. Give: Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 6:38
7. Disciple others: Matthew 28:18-20

That’s the outline we’re going to follow as we focus on obeying Jesus’ commands. The first one is
Repent and believe—Mark 1:15

Now let’s also try to memorize this list, one at a time each week. So let’s repeat that word for word:

Number One: Repent and believe—Mark 1:15

Very good! Let’s look at that passage, in context, starting in Mark 1:14-20:

14After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
16As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18At once they left their nets and followed him.
19When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

The first basic command of Jesus is “repent and believe.” This is the same as His command to Nicodemus in John 3:7: “You must be born again.” Conversion, salvation, new birth, “repent and believe”—they all refer to the same thing. It refers to when we realize that we are spiritually broken and we put our trust in Jesus and only Jesus as the one who can fix us.

When I was in college, I met my friend Jeff Taylor. Within a day or two of the beginning of school we’d met and discovered how much we had in common. We were both believers. We’d been raised less than thirty miles from other. We had the same taste in music, movies and books. We joked about having one brain between the two of us, the kind of connection where one of us could start a sentence and the other would finish it. We went through student teaching together, went to Europe together and he ended up being our best man at our wedding. In college, wherever Glenn was, Jeff was bound to show up as well.

Well, we have a pair that always seem to keep company in the Bible as well. It’s interesting how these terms “repent” and “believe” appear together. Where one is, the other is bound to show up. And even when the word isn’t there, the idea is.

That’s how “repent” and believe” is in the Bible: two inseparable friends. Let’s look at what “repent” and “believe” mean.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for repent is nacham, which means to feel deeply sorry for wrong deeds. In the New Testament, the word is metanoia. We get that word by putting together two words—the one for change (meta) and the one for thinking (noeo). So “repent” means to “change your thinking” about your life and the direction your life is going. In the Bible, the call to repent is the calling to change the way you look at life as well as to change what you’re doing with your life. It’s a call to change from NOT having God and His ways at the center to turn to Him and to make Him your chief joy and the center of your life.

That leads us right to “believe.” If I turn from something (that is, me living my life as I please) to something, what is it that I turn to? I turn to God, I put my trust in Him, and I live in such a way that He takes up the central, controlling place in my life.

Let’s look at it this way. You can compare the whole business of “repent and believe” to a heart transplant. I looked up some facts on heart transplants. The very first heart transplant was done by Dr. Christian Barnard in 1967 in South Africa. Today over 2,000 heart transplants are done in the US every heart, and about 3,000 elsewhere around the world. Over 80% of transplant recipients live longer than a year, and there are thousands of people who have lived for many years with a transplanted heart.

Every transplant starts with the realization that the old heart isn’t working the way it should. Irregular heartbeat, poor valve performance, shortness of breath, weakness and chronic fatigue are evidence that the heart isn’t working right.

There’s also evidence that there’s problems with our spiritual heart. The number one evidence that there’s something wrong with our spiritual problem is lack of love. How do we know that? Well, Jesus commanded us (it’s number three on our list) to love God with our whole selves and to love people as we love ourselves. If it’s His #1 command as far as living goes, it must be our #1 problem when we don’t know Him.

The old heart doesn’t love God and has an awfully hard time loving people. Dr. Jesus puts His holy stethoscope on our chest and says, “It’s too sick—it has to go! Living on this heart isn’t living at all. We need to replace it.”

The problem with our spiritual heart is huge, and it’s won’t change through minor treatments. Sometimes when we’re sick, we can try this medication or that treatment, but our spiritual heart is not just a little sick—it’s “desperately sick.”

Jeremiah 17:9 says

The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (NASB)

So this is Jesus’ strong medicine: “You must be born again… you must repent and believe…you need a new heart.”

Jesus never said, “You must join my church. You must adopt my customs. You must learn my traditions. You need a new religion.” He knows that that’s like giving an aspirin to someone with a dying heart. It’s just not enough. And it’s dangerous to think that that’s enough.

He says instead, “Repent and believe.” When a new heart has been transplanted, it takes over doing what the old heart should have been doing. Oxygen goes out through the blood vessels to bring strength to the whole body. Carbon dioxide is scrubbed from the blood. The power of that new heart changes everything.

That’s the promise found in Ezekiel 36:26, where God says:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

The “repent” part is when the heart of stone is taken out; the “believe” part is when God puts in a new living heart.

Let’s think more about the second half of this command: believe. It should be really clear by now that Jesus isn’t just calling on people to just believe that certain things are true. Remember that He first said these words to a Jewish audience who believed in God, who believed that God has spoken through the Scriptures, and who believed that God had a plan for Israel: the coming of the Messiah.

When Jesus uses the word “believe” here, it’s clear that He has in mind, “Trust with all of your being.” The Greek word for believe is pisteuo which means to be convinced, to put confidence in, to trust. It means both that we believe that certain things are true, and that we are convinced that we can trust the One who made the promises.

Go back to Mark 1:15. There He says,

"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

What’s the good news? That the Kingdom of God is near! That the time has come!
So—what’s the Kingdom of God—and what time has come?

In the New Testament, the Kingdom of God is God’s present and future rule through His Son, Jesus the Messiah. Jesus says, “The time has come” because Jesus was bringing God’s rule into the world in a new way in His life and mission.

The kingdom of God isn’t an earthly kingdom. Remember when Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king? It’s in John 18:36 Jesus says that He is a king, but He also says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” His kingdom is wherever He is loved and obeyed. So His kingdom is right here, right now.

And at the same time, His kingdom isn’t all here yet. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done…” (Matthew 6:10). So in another sense, the Kingdom isn’t here yet, and won’t all be here until Jesus returns to this world.

This is the Good News that Jesus commands us to believe: God’s presence and kingly reign was breaking into our world through the presence of Jesus. He is our King. He’s so wonderful, so powerful and so compelling that we drop everything and follow Him, just like those first disciples there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. We believe what He says and more important, we believe Him. And when we do, He gives us a new heart—the kind that loves God and loves people. Our sins are forgiven. He paid the price for our sins when He died on the cross.
Maybe you remember the story from last fall about a woman who went missing and the relentless faith her husband had that she hadn’t just run off.

Tanya Rider, 33 of Maple Valley, Washington, was found September 27, eight days after she went missing. Her car had gone off the road into a ravine, covered by brush. Her husband Tom reported her missing, but was told by police that they thought she’d run away. Tom wouldn’t take that for an answer. He pressed police to start a search.

Tanya's car had tumbled about 20 feet down the ravine and lay buried below heavy brush and blackberry bushes. Rescuers had to slice the roof off to get her out.

Tom Rider said he had been just sitting down to take a polygraph test at the King County sheriff's office so officers could exclude him as a suspect in his wife's disappearance, when officers told him the car had been found. They used her cell phone signal to track her to the ravine.

Tom Rider should get some kind of reward as the man who wouldn’t give up. He explained that he knew that Tanya wouldn’t just run away, and he was convinced that she was in some kind of trouble.

You might say, he had faith in her. He knew what she was like, and running away just wasn’t her. But maybe more important was the faith that she had faith in him. Tanya was certain that Tom wouldn’t give up.

In the same way, Jesus saw us in the ravine, and He wouldn’t give up on us. At great cost and misunderstanding, and at personal risk, He came for us. And now he says to us, “I know you’re broken, banged up and near dead. Just put your trust in Me and I’ll get you out of here.” That’s the simplicity of faith: He is our rescuer. That’s what Savior means: He rescues us.

And now He says to us, “Repent, and believe the Good News. I’ve come for you. It’s going to be all right. Let's get you ought of here.”God is good! That's Jesus alright--the one who goes into the ravine to find us. The one who will not give up.

A Holy Week Miracle: Say Hello to Brother Mikhail

Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Last Updated: 3:04am GMT 19/03/2008

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.

Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian
newspaper.

"St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added.

Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light. Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians. In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.
advertisement

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a "closet believer".

Mr Reagan held deep religious convictions himself. However, until now Mr Gorbachev has allowed himself to express only pantheistic views, saying in one interview "nature is my god".
After his prayers, Mr Gorbachev toured the Basilica of St Francis and asked in particular to be shown an icon of St Francis portraying his "dream at Spoleto".

St Francis, who lived in the 12th century, was a troubadour and a poet before the spiritual vision caused him to return to Assisi and contemplate a religious life.

Even in his early days, St Francis helped the poor, once giving all of his money to a beggar. As well as spending time in the wilderness, he also nursed lepers and eventually became a priest.
"It was through St Francis that I arrived at the Church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb," said Mr Gorbachev.

"I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity."

He also asked the monks for theological books to help him understand St Francis's life.

Father Miroslavo Anuskevic, who accompanied the former Soviet leader, said: "He was not recognised by any of the worshippers in the church, and silently meditated at the tomb for a while. He seemed a man deeply inspired by charity, and told me that he was involved in a project to help children with cancer.

"He talked a lot about Russia and said that even though the transition to democracy had been very important for the world, it was very painful for Russia. He said it was a country which has a great history, and also a great spirituality."

Immanuelization

This is my monthly column for Temple City Life, to be published in early April.

In his book, Missing in America, Tom Clegg tells of a transforming experience he had while a youth pastor in suburban Chicago. Each summer some suburban churches put on an evangelistic outreach to the inner city. They’d blitz the streets with tracts. It was a hot day, over 100. Tom went out with a teen from his church named Ryan. A man on the street said something about the heat and Tom shot back, “It will be hotter unless you repent!” Another guy was panhandling, so Tom gave him a tract and said, “You need this more than money!”

They turned a corner and about five tall, tough-looking black kids were sitting in the shade by a basketball court. Tom and the kid with them suddenly felt very small and very, very white. Tom began to hand out tracts when one guy said, “It’s too (blank) hot to listen to some honky preacher!” Then he pulled a knife, and Tom and the kid ran for their lives.

When they got back to their van, Tom confessed to the teen from his church that not only was he scared, but as he ran away, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the way they were trying to “spread the gospel” seemed shallow, fake and manipulative. Then he did something that will probably make you think he was crazy. He talked Ryan into going back to the playground where the guy with the knife was.

They drove the church van, stocked with cold sodas and ice. The tough-looking guys were still there and so was the guy with the knife.

Tom got out of the van and said to them, “Hey everything is cool, OK? Look, I just want to apologize for being a jerk. How about a soda instead of a sermon?” They dove for the cans and began to playfully throw the ice around. One of them challenged Ryan to some one-on-one b-ball. The guy with the knife talked with Tom. Tom ended up hiring the kid--his name was Franklin--to give him a tour of the neighborhood and to introduce him to people.

This was a huge turning point for Tom and for that outreach. It’s a long story, but here’s the bottom line—they resolved never to tell the gospel without actually demonstrating the gospel. Before, they’d been content to drive-by the Jesus message; now they began to live it. Tom calls it switching from sermon-based outreach to service-based outreach.

And guess what? It took a year, but Franklin, the kid with the knife, gave his life to Jesus. Today he’s a printer, married with kids and active in an urban church in Chicago.

You have to immanuelize before you can evangelize. Jesus came into this world as our Immanuel, “God with us.” He got in our neighborhood and lived among us. He didn’t do a drive-by. Only after he’d lived among us for 30 years did He even start to preach. He proved the love of God by His way of life, then and only then did He tell the story and then go to the cross. He “immanuelized” before He evangelized!

That’s why we at First Baptist do service evangelism things like wrapping Christmas presents rather than handing out tracts on a street corner. That’s why we’re there at the Camellia Festival. That’s why we host things like the Chamber of Commerce and the Blue Banner dinners. That’s also why we’re going to shut down morning worship on April 27 to do a Day of Service to the community—to immanuelize before we evangelize.

We want to invite anyone interested in the well-being of our community to join with us on April 27. Although at this time all of our projects have not yet been determined, they will include several ministries to the poor, needy and isolated of the area. They will include assembling AIDS caregiver kits to be shipped to Africa. If you want to be involved, if you want more information about a project, or if you have a great idea for a project, give me at call at (626) 286-3125 x 11.

This Rare Early Easter

The dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that the Hebrews used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. Here's some things you might be interested in.

Easter can actually be one day earlier than this year (March 22) but that is pretty rare. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of ourlives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or willever, see it a day earlier!

Here are the facts: the next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913. The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So no one alive today has, or ever will see Easter any earlier than this year!

For more, see here.

LIVING BY THE COMMANDS OF JESUS

As promised, the first installment of messages just finished on The Seven Basic Commands of Jesus.

Original date: January 6, 2008

Matthew 28:18-20

As we enter into a new year, I want to start a new series of messages that are designed to enable to clearly answer the question, “What does God want from us? How does he want us to live? What are the priorities of Jesus for His people?” The reality is that there’s an amazingly clear answer given to us by Jesus.

But first, let’s realize that there is a gap, a huge gap, between what the average church asks of its people and what Jesus asks—a better word would be requires—of His people.

For many churches, what they ask really is, “Come, give money, help out, and don’t cause trouble.” Others set the bar even lower: “Be baptized and send a check from time to time.”
This can’t be right! This is not the community of transformed that Jesus lived and died for. He saw His church as a mighty force of ordinary people in love with and following Himself as its Lord. Ordinary people following the extraordinary Jesus and doing extraordinary things—that’s always been the plan of Jesus.

Jesus saw His church as a body of believers who would not simple assert faith in certain doctrines, but who would be so gripped by what Jesus did and taught and commanded that even in their ordinariness and even in their weakness they, in their lives, deeds and character would be a dazzling display of the greatness and glory of God.

Sometimes we get kind of confused about this. We begin to think that Jesus is all about us. That He came so we could go to heaven and so we can have somewhere to turn when we have a hard time in the meanwhile. Nothing could be further from the New Testament truth. Jesus came to overturn the whole world, not by some kind of political revolution but by an inner revolution of the human heart, paid for by His blood. He’s come to set the world right, and we’ve been caught up in His work. We’re not bystanders; we’re part of His ongoing mission.

Now what does He want from His people? Is it possible that Jesus wants a people who just get baptized? Is it possible that He died on a cross for a people who live their lives on their own agenda but then have a place in heaven? Could it be possible that He died to create a people who are only called upon to make out a check on payday?

No way. He has a very clear blueprint, and it’s found in Matthew 28:18-20:

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Now you probably think I’m going to talk about missions or evangelism. You’ve heard, and I’ve given, many messages about missions and evangelism based on this passage. That’s valid. There’s a lot about missions and evangelism here. But that’s not that part I want to focus on. What I want to focus on is what He tells us to do here. A lot of people read this passage and say, “Well, Jesus tells us to tell everybody about the Good News.” That’s right, but there’s more. “Well, Jesus tells us to tell all nations.” That’s right too, but there’s still more.

So what does He tell us here? Someone might go further and say, “Jesus tells us to make disciples.” Right, great! We’re moving in the right direction. “Jesus tells us to tell them everything that He taught.” Yes, but look again. He’s very specific. On the screen is the command of Jesus isolated so you can see it:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

We know about “go”; we know about “make disciples”; we know about “baptizing.” But did you catch the last part?

…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

Jesus didn’t just tell us to teach them what He taught us. He says, “…teach them to obey/live by/observe everything I have taught you.”

In other words, what He is calling for us to do is to teach people to enter into a lifestyle based on the teachings of Jesus—a Jesus-soaked, Jesus-exalting way of living.

I noticed this several years ago and said, “Sometime I need to go through the gospels and see all the commands of Jesus so I know what it is He wants to do.” Well, somebody a lot smarter than me did that. He’s one of my favorite authors, John Piper. He wrote a book called What Jesus Demands of the World and he found 50 commands of Jesus. That’s kind of overwhelming! But let me tell you a story about somebody way back in the 1960s who took what Jesus said here seriously and the impact that had.

George Patterson was a missionary in Honduras. He went there to teach in a seminary, but traditional seminary education of pastors was failing miserably. What would happen is these young pastors would get a diploma and then didn’t want to go back to their village. They wanted to stay in the city or even get a nice paying job with the Dole Fruit Company.

So the mission George was with had to come up with a completely different way of training pastors. They pioneered what’s known as TEE: Theological Education by Extension. That’s a fancy way of saying that George got on the back of a mule and went from village to village to teach pastors and church elders what the Bible teaches and how to live the Jesus-following life. Instead of them leaving the village to get an education, the education came to them. They had to come up a way of teaching the faith, church life and sound Biblical teaching that would be simple, practical, memorable and impactful.

George had to figure how to do that. A whole new way of teaching had to be found. Do you where he found it? Right here in Matthew 28:18-20. Let me read his words.

Jesus, after affirming His deity and total authority on earth, commissioned His Church to make disciples who obey all His commands. So His commands take priority over all other institutional rules (even the hallowed Church Constitution and Bylaws). This obedience is always in love. If we obey God for any other reason, it becomes sheer legalism; God hates that.

…We asked our converts to memorize the following list of
Christ’s basic commands:

1. Repent and believe: Mark 1:15
2. Be baptized (and continue in the new life it initiates): Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-11
3. Love God and neighbor in a practical way: Matthew 22:37-40
4. Celebrate the Lord’s Supper: Luke 22:17-20
5. Pray: Matthew 6:5-15
6. Give: Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 6:38
7. Disciple others: Matthew 28:18-20

George had all the pastors then all the elders and then every member in these village churches memorize these seven basic commands. Everything that George and the others involved in this ministry related to those seven basic commands of Jesus. So what happened?

The results were nothing less than amazing. In just four years, the four little churches he started out with grew to 21 churches as they kept the training close, local and practical.

I was so taken by this I found myself saying, “If it’s good enough for Honduras, it’s good enough for the US!”

Now let’s be clear about some things. This is not a new Ten Commandments. This is not some legalistic thing. This is a simple way to sum up what Jesus taught us, especially what Jesus taught us to do. But if we give ourselves over to these things, if we really do, won’t we be living the way Jesus said we should live? Isn’t that the point of what He says in Matthew 28?

…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

Let me explain it this way. Over the last few years I have almost ceased using the term “Christian.” I talk constantly about following Jesus. The New Testament uses the term “Christian” only three times;[1] at the same time the idea of the disciple as a follower of Jesus is all over the New Testament. Jesus repeatedly tells people, “You come and follow Me!” There are about eighty places in the New Testament where either Jesus tells people to follow Him, or His people are described as following Him. Three vs. eighty.

Jesus-followers! That’s what we are. Sometimes “Christian” has come to mean “not Jewish, not Catholic, and not secular.” “Christian” sometimes has come to mean “People like us, who like the things we like.” As in “contemporary Christian music.” “Christian experience.” “Christian life.” “Christian Bed and Breakfast.” “Christian counselor.” It’s come to stand for a subculture that is only partly about following Jesus.

I’m going to show you a video that’s a kind of parody of those PC and Mac commercials, but let me warn you: while it may make you laugh, it may also bug you. Here’s the clip:

VIDEO: Christ-Follower 1

I told you it might irritate you. It kind of irritates me. I mean, I’m kind of like that guy on the left (all except for the King James part—I’m an NIV kind of guy). But in the last few years I have to tell you—I’ve been on a journey, and this really sums it up for me. I want to be a Jesus follower. I want to live like Him, obey Him, and let His name be known. In these next nine weeks, we’re going to go on a journey back to the roots of the faith we believe and just as important, that we pledged to live by when we put our trust in Jesus. The process will sometimes make you squirm (it made we squirm when I was planning it). You might have some of your assumptions challenged. You’ll probably find yourself questioning your faith—especially what it means to live your faith. And you’ll come face to face with Jesus Himself and you’ll be asking yourself, “Is what I’m doing what You want, or just I’ve always assumed you wanted?” So strap in tight, get prayed up, bring your Bible and let’s get ready: --to live by the commands of Jesus --and to not just come to church, but to BE the church that Jesus died for.

NPC Wrap-Up

OK, so I didn't jump right in and finish my posts from the National Pastors' Convention. When I got back to my office Friday afternoon, our office manager asked me, "So how was the conference?" And I had to admit some ambivalence.

First, NPC was not well themed. There seemed to be a haphazardness in the scheduling. It's not like there was much of a theme, either daily or for the conference in toto.

Second, it seemed that the main reason that speakers were there was that they'd just published a book. I suppose the fact that IVP and Zondervan sponsored the thing may have something to do with that.

Third, I was disturbed by some of the things I observed there. By that I don't mean politics (Colson balanced Jim Wallis), so much as the rise of the "soft" evangelicals I mentioned in the last post. I would guess that about a third of the presenters would fall into this mushy category. For example, in a session on theological trends there were zero Calvinists--zero!--and one "openness of God" theologian (Greg Boyd). A John Piper on that panel would have been a great addition.

I have to finish with two atta-boys. One was for the insights of J.P. Moreland, who was a delight everytime. I intend to read him more and will happily attend his sessions at other opportunities. The other is that while I am aware that Wright has some problems (see here) on the doctrine of justification, Tom Wright is an engaging exegete. I attended his morning Bible study on Acts and I was amazed to see what he could pull out of familiar texts.

By the way, I'm just finishing a series called The Seven Basic Commands of Jesus. I'll be posting the texts of these messages over the next few weeks as we lead up to Easter.

J.P. Moreland's Shot Across the Bow

Another post from the National Pastor's Convention in San Diego:

Morning Bible study was an insightful overview of the book of Acts by British scholar N.T. Wright. While I (and John Piper) think Wright is flakey on justification, this guy gets the Biblical message right in the macro arena.

J.P. Moreland, professor of philosophy at Biola/Talbot, did a great seminar this morning on sex and secularism. It's largely drawn from his book Kingdom Triangle. I love a guy who says things I'm thinking but can say it so much better than I can. He also issued a none to subtle shot across the bow of the infatuation large segments of the church have with post-modernism.

Just came from hearing John Ortburg speak about vision, drawing largely from Caleb.

I'll try to develop some thoughts on the divide I see here between the "hard" evangelicals (those who came of age in the 70s and 80s) and the newer "soft" evangelicals, who've come of age in the 90s and in the 00s (I pronounce that the oh-ies).

Stay tuned.

Chuck Colson and a Surprise from Ben Stein

As mentioned in the last post, Chuck Colson spoke at the National Pastor's Convention here in San Diego today about the call to doctrinal solidity in reforming the church and in transforming America. "Creeds before deeds," he quipped. "If I had not come to believe what I did, there would never have been a prison fellowship.

After afternoon seminars with Gordon Fee (on Bible translation) and with Scot McKnight (see his blog at http://www.jesuscreed.org/), I attended an advance showing of "Expelled", a new movie with of all people, Ben Stein. It's smart, funny, and moving at times, and a surprise: a smart enquiry into the banning of Intelligent Design from academia and from the public square via blackballing any scientist or journalist who dares to even mention ID without condemning it. I urge you to go see "Expelled" when it premieres in theaters in April.

Monring Update from NPC

Last night, Rwandan Anglican Bishop Rucyahana (left) spoke movingly about God's call and his experiences in Rwanda during the genocide there.

This morning I attended a Bible study (1 Thess. 5) with Gordon Fee, who was one of my NT profs at Gordon-Conwell. (He's currently writing a commentary on 1& 2 Thess.) As always, he was precise and insightful.

In a few minutes, a new general session will begin with speaker Chuck Colson.

More to come.

Erwin McManus Open National Pastor's Convention

I'm reporting from the National Pastor's Convention in San Diego the next few days...

The conference opened today with Erwin McManus of Mosaic Church of Los Angeles. I've met Erwin before, several years ago, and it's amazing how much he's starting to look like a 45 year old Robert DeNiro. But I digress.

First, a few observations on the NPC as compared to the National Outreach Convention which I attended in the same place (the Town and Country Conference Center) last November.

1. NOC was bigger than NPC--by a factor of about 1/3. NOC topped out at almost 3000; there are about 2000 here.

2. NOC was more theologically conservative than NPC. Not that NPC is a hotbed of liberalism. More controversial speakers (such as NT Wright) and writers (such as Brian McClaren) as on display here.

3. NOC was younger than NPC. The average age is probably about ten years older here.

4. Both NOC and NPC devotes a lot of programmatic space to The Emerging Church. I should add that NOC focused more on the missional church, which in my mind is a much more useful concept (i.e., when a church thinks and acts like a missionary in its community).

(By the way, I'd need an hour to give you my whole take on the emergent phenon. There are both positives and negatives. Personally, think the category will pass as it merges with missional and organic church concepts.)

Erwin explicated some of the concepts of his newest book (Soul Cravings), namely that all humans have the same cracving and questions, and that questions should be the heart of our apologetic, not answers first. BTW, I know from people inside Mosaic that the church rejects the moniker "emerging."

I'll try to update the PM session later or Wednesday AM.

A Good Sum-Up of the (Dysfunctional) Summit

I pretty much ignored the coverage of the New Baptist Covenant fiasco in Atlanta last month. I thought it was pretty much a peacock show devoid of substance, and I still do. This article from Associated Baptist Press sums up the attacks on the meeting quite well, so I thought I'd pass it on:

Post-Covenant criticism comes from left, right

By Hannah Elliott

Published: February 19, 2008

NEW YORK (ABP) -- Although organizers hailed a recent pan-Baptist gathering as a success, a handful of critics have leveled a wide array of charges against the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.

The critics of the event, held in Atlanta in late January and early February, include conservatives who continue to accuse it of having a thinly veiled liberal political agenda. But they also include moderates and liberals who say the gathering was not inclusive enough of ethnic and sexual minorities.

The Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant drew an estimated 15,000 Baptists to discuss working together despite denominational, ethnic, political and economic differences. Its headline organizers were the two living Baptists who have held the presidency: Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Many observers praised the event as a momentous occasion that generated new unity, energy and focus for Baptists across North America. It earned rave reviews from secular and religious media outlets alike as a crucial first step in the walk toward racial reconciliation in the Baptist faith.

Covenant leaders like Leo Thorne, associate general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, even said the diversity of political opinion actually adds quality to the discussion.

“It doesn’t make any difference what decision you make or action you take, there are always
people who use their freedoms to express disagreement,” Thorne said. “That’s rich. That’s energizing. That’s wonderful that we can have a diversity of opinions of issues.... If there are those who disagree, that is okay with me.”

But Carter and Clinton’s involvement in the event and the lack of official participation by the Southern Baptist Convention on a denominational level led many conservatives to criticize the celebration soon after it was announced in 2007. Although organizers made an effort to include prominent Baptist Republicans in the program, some conservatives have continued to criticize it.

Paul Proctor, in a Feb. 11 column for the Nashville Tennessean, said the celebration achieved only an “image of unity,” which validated conservatives’ critique that liberals tend to promote “symbolism over substance.”

“As far as I'm concerned, outgoing SBC president Frank Page, who incidentally declined the invitation to attend, was right on calling the meeting a ‘smoke-screen left-wing liberal agenda,’” Proctor wrote. “Carter can preach Christian unity all he wants, but he was the one who spurned the Southern Baptist Convention back in 2000. If anyone is guilty of promoting division among Baptists, it is the presidential peanut farmer from Georgia.”

More progressive Baptists also criticized the event for insufficiently displaying unity amid diversity.

Laura Cadena, a graduate of George W. Truett Theological Seminary and a member of Peachtree Baptist Church in Atlanta, said the meeting’s rhetoric of Baptist unity appealed to her, and she attended to observe it as well as see friends from her Texas seminary days. But, she added in a Feb. 7 opinion column for EthicsDaily.com, the meeting proved to be a letdown when it came to representing all Baptist groups.

“I think that we could have done better, but it’s a beginning,” Cadena, 33, said. “I think that if the planning committee could have been more diverse -- and by that I mean including more women, more young people, more Asian Baptists, maybe more Ghanaian Baptists -- that would have been good.”

On the other hand, in a Feb. 8 Wall Street Journal column, Naomi Schaefer Riley described the event as a “liberal answer to the Southern Baptist Convention.” She said it showed how difficult it is for progressive evangelicals “to unite, let alone get under the same tent with secular liberals and become a political force….

“The New Baptist Covenant is supposed to be more ‘inclusive’ than the SBC. It's OK to rail against abortion, as long as you mention the problem of uninsured children in the same breath,” she said. “The group also wanted to distinguish itself from the SBC on the issue of homosexuality. But to get all of these church groups to sign on, the language of the agreement had to be chosen very carefully.”

Todd Thomason, pastor of Baptist Temple Church in Alexandria, Va., wrote in a column to be published by Associated Baptist Press that he’s not convinced there is much new about the covenant celebrated at the meeting, especially when it comes to the issue of homosexuality.

Organizers decided not to allow the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists or the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America -- two pro-gay groups -- to participate in the event in an official manner. That decision, Thomason said, smacks of the “top-down exclusionary action” used by Southern Baptist leaders during the narrowing of the group’s policies in the last 20 years.

Champions of the New Baptist Covenant “cried foul when the leaders of the so-called ‘conservative resurgence’ seized the reins of power within the SBC and then circled the wagons, forcing out all who wouldn’t accept their narrow ideology or who dared to ask questions,” he wrote. “For these same Baptists to turn around now and disenfranchise other Baptists in much the same way (if not on the same scale) is the height of biblical hypocrisy.”

Covenant leaders “didn't think they could hold together the large coalition of Baptists needed to create a new Baptist voice in North America while addressing the issue of sexual orientation at the same time,” wrote Ken Pennings, director of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Event organizers have said homosexuality is to be “tolerated,” though not necessarily “affirmed.” While the pro-gay groups were not involved on an official level, many of their members attended, and they used exhibit-booth space provided by the Alliance of Baptists -- another pro-gay group -- to display materials at the meeting.

Cadena -- a fifth-generation Texan of Hispanic background – also wondered why participants from her ethnic group were not better represented at the meeting. She asked whether there is “room in the family photo for Latino Baptists?”

“Where do we fit? Here in the South, Latinos are relatively new … there are not enough people that speak Spanish, there are not enough doctors that speak Spanish, there are not enough teachers that speak Spanish,” she said. “So what does a Hispanic church look like? I don’t know.”

Cadena said the meeting should have included specified time for networking between people from the same region or affinity group. That way, Latinos could have seen more clearly whether they should wait to be included in leadership of the larger Baptist family or create their own group.

Schaefer Riley, for her part, pointed out that one thing attendees did have in common was their age, which skewed to the older end of the spectrum. And that doesn’t bode well for the movement, she said.

“The reason for the overrepresentation of seniors may be that young people have increasingly been moving to non-denominational churches or because they are often more conservative than their parents on issues like abortion,” she wrote. “Either way, it doesn't bode well for the Covenant. Or for the left.”

Thorne said Covenant leaders will continue to address such concerns, especially through the efforts of the North American Baptist Fellowship, which played a large role in organizing the meeting. The body is the umbrella group for all North American Baptist bodies that belong to the Baptist World Alliance.

Leaders at NABF “are serous about continuing to strengthen relationships and efforts in networking for missions,” Thorne said. “They are committed to that. So this event … is not going to be a program that is a be-all and end-all.”

Loving God, Serving People

The Bible is a BIG BOOK. Have you noticed what a BIG BOOK it is? Most copies are about a thousand pages long. That’s longer than a “Harry Potter” book…and frankly, it’s much harder reading.

In Jesus’ day, they didn’t have the New Testament yet, so the Bible was just the Old Testament—all 39 books, still a long book, written over more than 1000 years.

In the time of Jesus, Jewish scholars had carefully gone through the Old Testament looking for all the commands that God had given. They found a total of 613 laws. 365 were negative (“thou shalt not”) and 248 positive laws (“thou shalt”).

There were laws for everything, from how to make your clothes to how to prosecute people for murder to how to offer sacrifices to God. There’s even a law that says you’re not supposed to eat fruit from a tree during its first three seasons.

Imagine living in that society at that time, and imagine also that you really want to please God. Would having 613 laws to keep track of sound hard? A little confusing? You bet.

Along comes Jesus. The Bible says that when He taught, He taught like someone with real authority. The greatest compilation of His teaching is the Sermon on the Mount. He taught from hillsides to villages to the courtyards of the Temple in Jerusalem.

It’s not surprising that someone would ask Jesus about all those 613 laws. Both Matthew and Mark record the time; here is the way the story is told in Matthew 22:34-40:

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Jesus had sifted through all 613 laws and boiled it down to two laws to live by: Love God completely and love people as much as you love yourself. Jesus wants us to be clear that we aren’t to love God with just part of who we are. He gives four aspects: heart, soul, mind, and in Mark 12, He adds, love God with all your strength.

The heart is the center of our will and our emotions. The soul is the totality of our lives, life as a whole. The mind is our thinking capacity. And our strength refers to our ability to apply ourselves, to make efforts of both the body and the mind. Obviously, these four overlap, they don’t mean the same thing, and at the same time, they’re still distinct.

To love God this way is to treasure God above all else and to apply that love in our service of Him. God wants people who will love Him with a passion and will serve Him with devotion.
God wants a relational connection to us. He doesn’t just want us to say, “Oh, yes, you are my God” when we come into a temple or into a church building. That’s the so-called relationship that 2/3 of all so-called Christians worldwide have with God. He wants more; God wants a love connection with us where we respond to God with a purposeful passion.

And God really does want it. In John 4:23, Jesus says that the Father seeks true worshippers:
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

If you feel far from God, if you feel like He’s a million miles away, remember, what Jesus says: you can know God, you can experience His love, and this God is seeking you out to be a “true worshipper.” He already knows and loves you—now He wants you to know Him, and love Him. There’s nothing better in the whole wide world!

The Central Dilemma of 21st Century Evangelism in the USA

Unchurched Americans Turned Off by Church, Open to Christians, Lifeway Study Says

A newly released study from LifeWay Research reveals a majority of unchurched Americans don’t have a biblical understanding of God and Jesus and don’t care for the church, yet are open to discussing spiritual matters. Nashville, TN (Vocus/PRWeb) January 9, 2008 -- A majority of unchurched Americans are turned off by the institutional church and don’t have a biblical understanding about God and Jesus, yet they believe Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life and would enjoy an honest discussion with a friend about spiritual matters. Christians begin with a faith system that teaches who God is, but the people in our culture not only don’t believe that, but often consider us intolerant because we dare to believe it Those are just a few of the findings from a new study of unchurched Americans conducted by LifeWay Research in partnership with the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research. LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources, and the North American Mission Board are both entities of the Southern Baptist Convention. The results of the study, which polled 1,402 adults who had not attended a religious service at a church, synagogue or mosque in the previous six months, are available at www.LifeWayResearch.com. The findings have important implications for Christian churches and individuals who want to effectively reach unchurched people with the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ, said LifeWay Research director Ed Stetzer. “A full 72 percent of the people interviewed said they think the church ‘is full of hypocrites,’” Stetzer said. “At the same time, however, 71 percent of the respondents said they believe Jesus ‘makes a positive difference in a person’s life’ and 78 percent said they would ‘be willing to listen’ to someone who wanted to share what they believed about Christianity.” -Lack of Understanding Many unchurched people don’t have a biblical understanding about God and Jesus, the survey found. “While 72 percent of those surveyed said they believe God – a higher or supreme being – actually exists, only 48 percent agree there is only one God as described in the Bible, and 61 percent believe ‘the God of the Bible is no different from the gods or spiritual beings depicted by world religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.,’” said Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. “At the same time, 66 percent of adults ages 18-29 agree that Jesus died and came back to life, compared to 54 percent of adults 30 years and older.” It’s not surprising that people who don’t attend church don’t understand what the Bible teaches, McConnell added. “If you aren’t going to church, you don’t have an opportunity to be informed about what the Bible teaches or what other faiths teach,” he said. “It’s not surprising then that unchurched people lump world religions all together and consider the gods described in them as being the same.” The problem is compounded by a widespread notion of religious tolerance that says religious and spiritual truth is a matter of personal opinion, Stetzer said. “We found a real openness to hearing about matters of faith, but the study also clearly documents what I call the Oprah-ization of American Christianity,” he said. “It’s very much a generic ‘big guy in the sky’ view of God and a ‘you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe’ viewpoint on theology. People say, ‘Who am I to judge?’ “We have seen this in the current political campaigns, in regard to Mormonism,” Stetzer added. “Recently a Christian leader was asked whether Mormons are Christians, and he replied that no, Mormons are outside the standard definition of what an orthodox Christian is. The host was shocked somebody would say that. How dare we say someone else is or is not a Christian? “Christians begin with a faith system that teaches who God is, but the people in our culture not only don’t believe that, but often consider us intolerant because we dare to believe it,” he said. -'Tripping Over the Church' The negative perception for many people, however, seems to be the church, not Jesus himself, according to the study. While 64 percent of the respondents think “the Christian religion is a relevant and viable religion for today,” 79 percent think Christianity “is more about organized religion than about loving God and loving people.” Seventy-two percent said they think the church ‘is full of hypocrites, people who criticize others for doing the same things they do themselves,” and 86 percent believe they “can have a good relationship with God without being involved in church.” The belief that church attendance isn’t necessary for spiritual well-being is just as common among adults who grew up in church as it is among those who attended church less often as children, McConnell said. “Unchurched people do not understand the connection between having a relationship with God and being with other believers in church,” he said. “In the Christian faith, these are inseparable. Jesus’ last prayer before being arrested, as recorded in John 17, was that everyone who believes in Him would be unified and work together to let the world know that God loves them and sent Jesus. “People on the outside see the church as candles, pews and flowers, rather than people living out their love for God by loving others,” he added. “Such skepticism can only be overcome by churches and believers who demonstrate the unity and love for which Jesus prayed.” Stetzer explained, “There will always be the stumbling block of the cross. Yet our study shows that many are tripping over the church before they hear the message of the cross.” -Open to Friends Despite their negative opinions about the institutional church, most unchurched people are open to discussing spiritual matters with a friend. The research showed that: --78 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to talk about their Christian beliefs. The number rose to 89 percent among adults 18-29 years of age. --Only 28 percent of adults 30 years and older said they think Christians they know talk to them too much about their beliefs. --78 percent of adults 30 years and older said they would enjoy an honest conversation with a friend about religious and spiritual beliefs, even if they disagreed with the friend. “Even though the unchurched have a confused view of God and a negative view of the church, they are overwhelmingly open to someone sharing about their Christian faith,” Stetzer said. “We think religion is a topic that is off-limits in polite conversation, but unchurched people say they would enjoy conversations about spiritual matters.” -Rebuke and Challenge Stetzer added that, “Increasingly, the God Americans believe in looks less like the God described in the Bible. They are a long way from where people were 100 years ago, when there was more of a consensus about who God is. That is a rebuke to us as Christians and, at the same time, a challenge. What is it about the faith we live that causes our culture to like Jesus but reject the church?” One of the most important insights of the study is that the vast majority of unchurched people are not only open to spiritual conversations but already know someone who is a Christian, McConnell said. “Eighty-nine percent of these unchurched people say they have close friends who are Christians,” he said. “We don’t have to search for the unchurched folks around us; we actually know them. It’s really a matter of starting conversations about spiritual matters with the unchurched people we know. “Although we may not have the home field advantage we once did, people are open to spiritual conversations, open to hearing about a genuine faith, and God is still at work, using people and churches to share the Good News in an increasingly confused world,” McConnell said. “That should propel us to action and help us move beyond fear to share our faith.” For more details about the survey, visit LifeWayResearch.com. In addition, Ed Stetzer is commenting on the study on his blog at www.EdStetzer.com. Stetzer and McConnell also discussed the research on an Inside LifeWay podcast (www.lifeway.com/insidelifeway) the official news podcast of LifeWay Christian Resources. Methodology: This survey was conducted through two telephone surveys, one of 900 adults ages 18-29 in early 2007 and the other of 502 adults ages 30 and over during the summer of 2007. The samples were merged with statistical weighting to produce a combined sample of 1,402 adults with a margin of error not exceeding 2.5 percent. Respondents were qualified as unchurched by asking whether they had attended a religious service in a church, synagogue or mosque at any time in the past six months. The agree category is a combination of “somewhat agree” and “strongly agree.”

Happy New Year Thoughts

A few New Year's comments for DD readers across the country...

Trans Min is healthy, strong and growing. I could never have typed those things about the ABC/USA. I know that it's easy being here, as opposed to PA, NH, or OH (where I served other ABC churches). I empathize with reform minded ABC churches and pastors who could feel that the subtraction of the PSW region has weakened their hand, I really do. But it's exciting to be a part of a network of churches that is really with it, and to be unencumbered by the old ABC malarkey.

Are you listening--ABC of OH, WV Baptists, ABC of IN/KY? Wouldn't you like to be free to concentrate on ministry and meeting the unique challenges of the 21st century spiritual landscape of America?

One of the lessons of the PSW (now Trans Min) separation from ABC/USA) is that there is a whole other dynamic in play when regions take action as regions. If you can pry your region free from Valley Forge, I know that you'd have best friends in the Southwest. (Reminder: I speak for myself, not for Trans Min. I hold no post with Trans Min and speak only for myself and from my understanding of organizational dynamics.)

Also, for churches both ABC and like-minded: if you want to be part of a Biblical, baptistic, evangelical and missional movement, at least have a look at Trans Min. In 25 years of ministry (I observe the quarter century mark since my ordination this month), I have never been more pleased with the wider fellowship .

I suppose I could be accused of inciting a ecclesiastical riot. Like the umpire, I just calls 'em as I sees 'em. And I see good things in 2008 and beyond.

Sense and Nonsense on Population

A breathless report on Yahoo News this evening: US population will hit 303 million January 1, 2008.  

The sky is falling?  Hardly.

I remember being convinced as a child that human beings would reproduce like rats and fill the earth.  

Bosh.

Read America Alone by Mark Stein for a different view.  

Better yet (and a lot quicker), look at the future world population calculator on www.poodwaddle.com.  If you experiment with it, you'll find that human population will drop starting in about 80 years, and if it continued to drop, we'll be out of people in about 505 years!

C. S. Lewis on Christmas, Part Two

A different C.S. Perspective on Christmas is found in the Father Christmas scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

C. S. Lewis on Christmas

Merry Christmas, and now a few words from the great C.S. Lewis on Christmas, from his God in the Dock (or as we'd say in America, "God on Trial."). This was penned many years ago, and needless to say, ours is not the first generation to fret about keeping Christ in Christmas, etc.:

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn't go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a 'view' on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone's business.

I mean of course the commercial racket. The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.

1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to 'keep' it (in its third, or commercial, aspect) in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out -- physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.

2. Most of it is involuntary. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?

3. Things are given as presents which no mortal every bought for himself -- gaudy and useless gadgets, 'novelties' because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?

4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it.

We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don't know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I'd sooner give them money for nothing and write if off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.

---

Can We Trust the Nativity Accounts?

A scene from last year's The Nativity. They did a pretty good job on the Biblical and historical accuracy meter, maybe an 8 on a scale of 10.

An interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his waffling views on the historicity of the nativity accounts in Matthew and Luke brings to the fore the question: can we trust the historical veracity of the accounts of Jesus' birth as found in the New Testament?

Here are the basic objections critics have regarding the nativity story:

1. Matthew's account and Luke's account are contradictory and incompatible.
2. A virgin conception is impossible, and a creation of later generations of Christians to buttress their faith in the divinity of Jesus.
3. The accounts are not grounded in known history.

The second objection, strictly speaking, is not an historical objection. It's a philosophical objection. A Christopher Hitchens would reply, yes, just as we'd be safe to object to to a claim that talking pink elephants rule Canada.

Now, I was a skeptic. True I was a teenager at the time, but the virgin birth never bothered me. It seemed to me that if God were real, he could (to use a phrase Mr. Hitchens might) do whatever the jolly He may care. It's a silly objection. It really is.

The first objection is a literary objection. Again, this doesn't strike me as very muscular objection because while on the surface they don't mesh, it's rather easy to reconcile the two. In other words, even though they tell the story in very different ways, they don't tell the story in ways that can't be merged.

The only substantial objection is the last: can it be grounded in history? And here the story does quite well. For example, places (Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem) and names (Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Herod, Augustus) are correct for the time period. Herod is an especially telling figure; his assault on the toddler boys of Bethlehem are exactly the sort of behavior we would expect of him, based on his historical portrait (in Josephus' Antiquities).

For a much longer (and much better!) examination of these issues, see Mark D. Roberts' extended discussion from back in 2004.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Dennis' Dog Stops Barking Up ABC Tree; TransMin on Missional Track

I noted that Dennis MacFadden posted today his intent to cease commenting on American Baptist-related issues, which is exactly what I would do were I in his position. I'm glad I had a part in the inspiration for His Barking Dog (which Dennis notes, thank you). I'm about where Dennis is in ABC-related matters. It's just not on my radar screen anymore.

BTW, during the thick of the ABC v PSW crisis, when DD was a source of breaking news, someone asked me, "Would you be blogging this if you were on the [PSW] board?" The answer is, of course not. Board members have a different set of responsibilities.

I can report that TransMin ends the year having met and exceeded their goal of 100 covenanting churches. (The 'covenanting church' status far exceeds the on the books membership standards that the ABC most denominations require, while not crossing the connectional church line.)

I hope to blog up something about the historicity of the Christmas story either later today or Monday morning. Tomorrow our daughter flies in from Florida and Sunday is off the charts busy (two services, baptisms, and a three-hour gift-wrapping outreach).

Missional Outreach at Big Lots: "Absolutely Free, No Strings Attached Gift-Wrapping"

Over 20 FBC members wrapped presents and chatted up customers at the Big Lots store within sight of the church. Here are some pictures (courtesy Philip Pan):

We had the advantage of Mandarin-speaking Philip Pan (Mr. Personality!) as well as several Spanish-speakers.


We offered free gift-wrapping from 3-6 on Sunday afternoon. We had about thirty families take us up on it and had about 5-6 substantive conversations with people as to why we were there: to freely serve as God freely loves.

On Sunday morning, we had a great attendance and gave away five guest boxes to newcomers. Keep praying that Christmas time will be harvest time!