Saturday Video: What is Election?

 

 

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Saturday Video: God's Children

 

 

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Video: Framing the Question of Hell

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The Case for Free Will

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Video: The Bible and Personal Experience

Video: How do we know which Old Testament rules still apply?

Video: Why Does Satan Have So Much Power?

Daily Thought: God Will Accomplish His Plans

"Because God has chosen to create a cosmos populated with free agents, God's sovereignty is established as much by his wisdom as it is by his power.  He gives humans and angels the power to say no to him so they also might have the power to say yes to him.  But though these agents are able to thwart his will to some extent, God is nevertheless able to wisely accomplish his overall purposes in spite of, and sometimes by means of, their rebellion."

Gregory Boyd, Satan and the Problem of Evil, IVP Academic (2001), p. 112

Daily Thought: The Simple but Challenging Call of Christ

"Our central job is not to solve the world's problems.  Our job is to draw our entire life from Christ and manifest that life to others.  Nothing could be simpler—and nothing could be more challenging.  Perhaps this partly explains why we have allowed ourselves to be so thoroughly co-opted by the world.  It's hard to communicate to a prostitute her unsurpassable worth by taking up a cross for her, serving her for years, gradually changing her on the inside, and slowly winning the trust to speak into her life (and letting her speak into our life, for we too are sinners).  Indeed, this sort of Calvary-like love requires one to die to self. It is much easier, and more gratifying, to assume a morally superior stance and feel good about doing our Christian duty to vote against 'the sin of prostitution.'" ~ Gregory Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation, pp. 64-65

Linkage: Following Jesus Doesn't Work For Us

If we are honest there are times when following Jesus isn't all that wonderful.  We came to Jesus hoping that He would make our lives better, and in certain ways He has, but now there also seems to be a whole new layer of problems that we never had to deal with before.  We were hoping for our best life now, and Jesus tells us that we have to wait.

Hebrews 11 illustrates this reality.  All those people mentioned did not experience the fullness of God's promise while they lived.  In fact, for the anonymous majority they were persecuted and killed for their faith.  So they might have been able to enjoy miracles here and there, their lives were also filled with heartache and pain.

In this essay, Following Jesus Doesn't Work,  Gregory Boyd deals with the this issue of discipleship.  The bottom line is the Jesus doesn't work for us, but we are to work for Him.

I met a middle aged woman one day who told me she had given up on Christianity. “It just didn’t work for me,” she said. My response was: “What on earth made you think Jesus was supposed to work for you? The truth is that you were supposed to work for him.” 

The sentiment is widespread. I seems that many assume Jesus is supposed to be our personal magical genie who grants our wishes, at least some of the time. Such a magical view of faith is catastrophic, for people abandon what they thought was the Christian faith when it doesn’t work. And worse, people think they’re embracing the Christian faith when it does.

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Video: A Pagan Influence of Christianity

Video: Can I Lose My Salvation?

I shared this on my Facebook page last week.  I think they handle the question very well and worth sharing with my blog readers.

Daily Thought: God Must Fight Evil

"Evil is not simply something that happens within the (otherwise pristine) cosmos; it is rather is a force that corrupts the cosmos itself!  There is something hostile to God that has affected creation to the core, and God must fight it” ~ Gregory Boyd, Satan and the Problem of Evil, p. 48

We Are On The Same Level

Don't Suck Jesus Into Your Politics

Daily Thought: Kingdom-of-God Activity

"To promote law, order, and justice is good, and we certainly should do all we can to support this.  But to love enemies, forgive transgressors, bless persecutors, server sinners, accept social rejects, abolish racist walls, share resources with the poor, bear the burden of neighbors, suffer with the oppressed—all the while making no claims to promote oneself—this is beautiful; this is Christlike.  Only this, therefore, is distinct kingdom-of-God activity." ~ Gregory Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation, p. 103

Daily Thought: The Price of Love

"If love is the goal, it could not be otherwise.  God chose to create a world in which evil was possible only in the sense that he chose to create a world in which love was possible.  The possibility of evil is not a second decision God makes; it is implied in the single decision to have a world in which love is possible.  It is, in effect, the metaphysical price God must pay if he wants to arrive at a bride who says yes to his triune love." ~ Gregory Boyd, Satan and the Problem of Evil, p. 55

Christus Victor

The last few days I have been reading different essays.  There is no doubt that I like essays because of their length compared to the length of a book.  I also like essays because they help simplify the point being made so I am in a better position to get my mind around it.  The essay I finished this morning was by Gregory Boyd on the Christus Victor view of atonement.

I know that in many circles Boyd is viewed as a heretic because of his position as an Open Theist (more accurately the open view of the future).  Having read some of his thoughts on this position I don't think he is a heretic, even though I am not in agreement with what he says. There I two reasons why I think it is wrong to label Boyd as a heretic.  The first reason is because he is attempting to reconcile the Biblical data with human experience.  This is a noble task and just because he arrives at some different conclusions than have traditionally been given doesn't mean that he is intentionally leading people astray.  Feel free to disagree with his position, explain why he is wrong, but don't call him a heretic.

The second reason I don't think he is a heretic is because of his teaching about Jesus.  Ultimately this is what the Christian faith is about.  Boyd writes in the opening paragraph:

God accomplished many things by having his Son become incarnate and die on Calvary. Through Christ God revealed the definitive truth about himself (Rom 5:8, cf. Jn 14:7-10); reconciled all things, including humans, to himself (2 Cor 5:18-19; Col 1:20-22), forgave us our sins (Ac 13:38; Eph 1:7); healed us from our sin-diseased nature (1 Pet 2:24); poured his Spirit upon us and empowered us to live in relation to himself (Rom 8:2-16 ); and gave us an example of what it looks like when we live in the kingdom (Eph 5:1-2; 1 Pet 2:21). Yet, I believe all these facets of Christ’s work can be understand as aspects of the most fundamental thing Christ came to accomplish: namely, to defeat the devil and his minions (Heb 2:14; 1 Jn 3:8). He came to overcome evil with love.

That definitely falls within accepted orthodoxy of Jesus.  Is Boyd wrong about Open Theism? Maybe.  Is he a heretic? No.  In fact I think he can help us better understand what Christ's atonement really accomplished.

It is no secret that I have had trouble with the substitutionary view of atonement.  I get the view if it is a one on one substitution, like Aslan dying for the traitor Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe.  My problem is that I  don't understand how Jesus' death is a substitute for my death as well as the death of all God's people. It is just something I haven't been able to get my mind around.  So for most of my adult life I have held it as a matter of faith, even though I didn't fully understand it.

The Christus Victor view of atonement is appealing because it has deeper historical roots.  It is the view that many of the early church fathers had, and that carries a lot of weight with me.  It is also the logical extension to the early message of Jesus, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand."  This theme of the Kingdom of God has become a vital part of my theology, and thus why the Christ the Victor view makes a great deal of sense to me.

As Christ established the kingdom of God by the ways his life, ministry, teachings and death contrasted with the power-dominated kingdom of the world, so his followers are called to advance the kingdom of God by living lives that sharply contrast with the kingdom of the world. Instead of trusting the power of worldly force, we are to trust the “foolish” power of the cross and thereby proclaim its wisdom to the gods of this age (Eph 3:10). Following the example of our captain, we are to always overcome evil with good, trusting that when Easter morning comes it is goodness that will have won the day – and the entire cosmos.

I would encourage you to take some time to read through Boyd's essay.  You might not agree with his position, but think through why you don't agree.  Part of living a life of faith means to wrestle with what we believe and to actively pursue the truth, that is what made the Bereans so noble (Acts 17:11).

The “Christus Victor” View of the Atonement | Christus Victor Ministries 

The Process of Becoming

I think our culture has over looked just how powerful our choices are.  You see our choices form us into the people that we are.  This is why it is so important for us as a culture to have high expectations for the younger generation.  We can’t expect young people to  spend their lives watching TV, playing video games, gossiping, and frivolously spending money to one day in their mid-twenties to all of sudden become mature responsible adults.  When we allow our children to make the easy to choice and to constantly choose what is fun or brings instant gratification then they will mature into people who are selfish, petty, shallow, and irresponsible. 

I want you to think about something Gregory Boyd wrote:

“Moral culpability is not just about people acting certain ways when they could have and should have acted differently.  It’s more about people becoming certain kinds of people when they could have and should have become different kinds of people” (Satan and the Problem of Evil; p. 122).

Here is the thought that I have been thinking about this afternoon as I prepare for leadership camp next week: The Church needs to encourage people to become a different kind people.  People who have their minds set on heavenly things rather than earthly things (Colossians 3:1-4), people who walk by the Spirit rather than by the flesh (Galatians 5:16-26), and people live humbly putting others ahead of themselves (Philippians 2:1-11).

How can we do this?  First, we emphasis the fact that God in His great love for us has opened up for us the way of redemption, and that way is Jesus (Romans 5:6-11).  We need to always remember that without God’s love and initiative we would have no hope.  Our ability to become new people, Kingdom people, depends on God’s intervention in our lives.  If we miss this truth then we miss the foundation of the Gospel.

Second, we need to pray for our children, students, and others that we have influence with.  This is the example that the apostle gives in Colossians 1:9-12.  The reason Paul prays for the Colossians is so that they will be the type of people who will honor Christ Jesus.  We need to pray for people to be filled with a knowledge of God’s will and with spiritual wisdom and knowledge so they can become people who honor Jesus with the way they live.

Lastly, we need to give people tools, methods, and disciplines to help them train in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7). If we were honest we would have to admit that our process of discipleship isn’t working.  Our church families are not filled with people becoming more and more like Christ Jesus.  In fact, I would wager, many of us having given up on true transformation taking place, and we are content with a little behavior modification.  We need to help people understand that they are responsible for their spiritual growth and that the spiritual disciplines such as meditation, prayer, worship, service, fasting, solitude, and celebration are ways in which we can train our bodies to ignore the pull of the flesh and to follow the Spirit.

Each one of us is in the process of becoming.  We are either becoming a more human and thus fit for God’s Kingdom or we are becoming less human and thus fit for the kingdom of darkness.  Are choices play an essential part in this process.  We are called to do all that we can to help people make the right choices.