Christian Unity and Boundaries in Christian Fellowship, Part 3

This next part seems like it is resisting being written! It's tempting to blame spiritual opposition, but owning up to my own limitations is simpler and more realistic. After “sleeping on it", I realized that there is some foundational material I was going to mix into discussion of particulars that would more simple and more clear if I wrote about it up front.

One thing is to recognize that there is a lot of ground between full acceptance and clear rejection of an idea. Sometimes people simply haven't heard that idea. A new believer or one who hasn't received a lot of Christian teaching might be in such a position. Or a person might be in the position of having heard of an idea, but not enough to have a satisfactory understanding, and therefore not have committed for or against the idea and the implications thereof.

Then there's boundaries? Boundaries of/to what? To salvation? Ultimately, I cannot have the knowledge to say with certainty, “No, ______ is not saved.” God has that knowledge of the human heart, I do not. On the other hand, there are some real things, ideas rejected or ideas embraced that a Christian believer can see in another person that point toward a person probably being lost or probably being saved. How about fellowship? Again, a simple, “Yes,” or, “No,” doesn't work. One may not know or understand a certain Christian teaching – even a fundamental teaching – and still be a believer with whom I might or should share fellowship or minister in some areas. “Fellowship” means to share things in common; “ministry” means service. Two Christian believers of very different background – e.g. a Catholic and a Pentecostal – have their faith in Jesus and the Great Commission (to bring others to faith in Christ) in common. There's a lot of room for fellowship and service together with “just” those things in common! That fellowship and ministry will, however, very likely lead to areas of difference being discussed. Having recognized each other as fellow believers, having shared fellowship, having served side by side, such discussions will very likely be of a different tone than a similar discussion between two strangers who know little of each other. And such discussions between two believers who have shared fellowship and have served side by side are more likely to improve both believers' understanding of the Christian faith. On the other hand, there are practical boundaries or limitations in such fellowship or service that can result from differences in understanding of Christian teaching. Recognizing and respecting those limitations should not mean avoiding certain other believers entirely, however!

In Part 2, I suggested that I might recall further Scripture passages that point to essential or boundary teachings. One such Scripture occurred to me last night:

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4, ESV)

Christian Unity and Boundaries in Christian Fellowship, Part 2

“Fundamentalist” is a much abused word these days. It doesn't really have any fixed or certain meaning, except to identify some religious group or belief system of which some one disapproves. However, unlike “Christian”, the term Fundamentalist did not start as an outsiders' mocking term or epithet. “Fundamentalist” was coined a little over a century ago by persons of that persuasion to describe what they stood. The term came from a series of 12 booklets titled “The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth”. “Fundamentalist” referred to the fact that they viewed certain Christian teachings as non-negotiable fundamentals. While Wikipedia's article on “Fundamentalism”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalism, embraces the equivocation of the meaning of the term, it identifies the fundamentals as:

• The inspiration of the Bible by the Holy Spirit and the inerrancy of Scripture as a result of this.

• The virgin birth of Christ.

• The belief that Christ's death was the atonement for sin.

• The bodily resurrection of Christ.

• The historical reality of Christ's miracles.

Answers.com, http://www.answers.com/topic/fundamentalism, identifies the fundamentals as:

• The virgin birth of Christ

• Jesus' deity and substitutionary atonement for sin

• Christ's bodily resurrection

• His literal second coming

• The authority and inerrancy of the Bible

One fundamental both lists have in common points to scripture as the authority for Christians. So it's reasonable to ask, does scripture speak of things that are fundamental or essential to the Christian faith? In a previous post about this topic, http://soapypetesbox.blogspot.com/2011/06/some-thoughts-on-christian-unity-from.html, I pointed to two scriptures as identifying certain essentials.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6, ESV)

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6, ESV)

The latter verse is probably quite familiar to most Christian believers. Two others come to mind, which are relevant to this consideration.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV)

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1-2, ESV)

Those verses from 2 Timothy are also probably quite familiar to most Christian believers, but the Hebrews 6 passage possibly much less so. And in answer to the question I asked above, these verses do point to certain essentials or foundational (fundamental) Christian teachings. These passages will be the starting points for further posts on this topic (though I may add other passages that might come to mind, of course).

Christian Unity and Boundaries in Christian Fellowship, Part 1

I haven't written anything for nearly a week, and part of it is that something has been on my mind, but I've been trying to wrap my head around how to express and organize my thoughts. There are two polar extremes among Christians - believers and the nominal - that I think are problematic.

The first is a broad category of excessive exclusion. Some are hard and fast - they really think they're the only ones going to heaven. This isn't just groups like Jehovah's witnesses (who I believe really are not Christians, despite believing that they are). There are folks who I think really are Christian believers, but who think people outside of their group are not. A little softer are folks who think they are somehow elite among believers. These can range from those among Pentecostals and charismatics who think they have some kind of corner on the gifts of the Holy Spirit (been there, heard that, did not buy the T-shirt) to Catholics who believe the Catholic Church is THE church. Then there's what I call heresy hunters, who nominally accept there are believers outside of their particular persuasion, but in practice will nitpick any pretext to preclude fellowship or ministry with outside folk.

On the opposite extreme are those who are willing to accept anyone as a Christian - or every religion as equally valid - regardless of what they believe. Unless god is something every person creates in their chosen image - and what kind of god is that? - there are fundamental contradictions among Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and others. Reasonably, one could be true or none could be true, but the contradictions among them are too fundamental for all to be true. How can god be, simultaneously, one, many, and non-existent?

There are details of Christian teaching over which Christian believers disagree. There's no denying that obvious fact. But, what are the foundational things which unite Christian believers, but are boundaries that differentiate Christian believers from others (named or unnamed)? Well that's coming in further posts.

You Can Pay Me Now, or ...

Nearly 5 decades into the "Sexual Revolution", and nearly 4 decades post Roe vs. Wade, those glorious events have had pretty much every horrible effect on society that nay-saying, repressed, reactionary, theologically conservative Christians predicted, and a bit more. So, is this blog post going to be an, "I told you so," rant? Nah! What's the point of that?

It is time, in my opinion, for church and Christians in the US to recognize where society is at and where it is heading. Reversing that horrific decline is a worthwhile goal, but success in that is uncertain at best. Meanwhile, it is high time for the church and Christians to learn to deal with people as they are, bruised and battered by the marvels of modern society's victimless whatchamacallits. Jesus, Paul and the other New Testament writers spent little time lamenting the state of Roman society, and that truly was awful! They devoted their energies to reaching out to, bringing to redemption and the transforming of the people around them.

Modern Christians in the US have input and influence into how American society develops or devolves, something the early church did not have. Speaking to American society is worthwhile, but the redemption and transformation of individual people in society is paramount. We need to be prepared to work with those who chose "Later" in the, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later," equation. Jesus came to fix broken people who know they are broken, not people who imagine themselves unbroken. They will come for repair, but are the church and Christian people ready to help society's broken people?

Some Thoughts on Christian Unity from Pete's Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 1:11-13, NAS: For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

 1 Corinthians 1:11-13, Pete's Paraphrase:  Brothers and sisters in Christ, I hear some of you bicker among yourselves! For example, some of you say, "I am of Rome," and "I of Luther," and "I of Calvin," and "I of Wesley," and "I of Pentecost," and "I have the Spirit's Gifts," and "I of THE Church of Christ."  Has Christ's Body been been dismembered into independent pieces? Luther was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Calvin? Do you pray to the Spirit's Gifts?

There are  boundaries - e.g. Hebrews 11:6, John 14:6 - but why can't Christian believers of different backgrounds work and fellowship with each other? We're all going to be spending eternity with each other, so why wait till then to learn to get along? Why not take away one of the excuses non-believers use for avoiding Christianity?

Human Professions, God's Character

A friend's blog, http://heartfullofhappy.blogspot.com/2011/06/days-of-thunder-lightning-061511.html, got me to thinking about how human professions can give us insight into God's character. She was commenting how farming is teaching her about how little she (we all!) controls. Yep, that's farming ... depending on the biological processes God pre-programmed into seeds and plants ... depending on the weather to water the seeds and plants ... depending on the sun to do its part in the process of photosynthesis ... depending on the weather to be right for growing and ripening plants.

Think about your professions, how they mirror aspects of God's character (or should) ...

An engineer designs things, and knows how those things should operate, how they should be used; God designed us, and knows what behaviors are healthy for us and for us to function in human society.

An artist lovingly creates, putting his or her personality into what is created.

A lawyer seeks and works toward truth and justice. As does a police officer.

A parent loves, nurtures and instructs their child as the child grows toward maturity.

Give some thought today about your profession, God's character and how you can better reflect that aspect of God's character that He wants to express through you.

A Weird Thought Moment

Driving home this evening from the store I saw something that got one of those weird thought processes going. It was a work truck for a company that specializes in graffiti removal. A very reasonable service, except it occurred to me ... this business exists solely and entirely because of human sin. No sin, no graffiti vandalism. And I started wondering ... how many other businesses are "out there" that exist solely and entirely because of human sin? Think for a moment ... lock manufacturers and lock smiths ... alarm systems ... safes ... security companies ... I'm sure there's many more. All because of sin! Welcome to Adam's Brave New World!

God's Scandalous Grace

Did that title get your mind going? Well, consider with me for a few moments ...

God accepted horrible people like the thief on the cross, the murderous persecutor of Christians, Paul of Tarsus, and the self-confessed sex addict, Augustine of Hippo, but will in eternity turn away untold numbers of non-believing "nice" "humanitarian" people. It's as if being a "good" person among fellow human beings isn't the criterion for God's acceptance ... scandalous!

Then there's my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ of a more legalistic bent. In their eyes, these worldly people coming into the church with their lurid pasts, worldly manner of dress and personal habits ... and their church is expected to accept these kinds of people? God did and does ... scandalous!

It occurred to me recently, there's a significant difference (not the only one, sadly) between the church culture in which I was raised and for the most part have lived for the past nearly 6 decades and that of the early church. Many of the Christians I've been around most of my life have been 2nd-, 3rd- and beyond-generation Christians, or denizens of a christianized culture who, while not Christians, still lived within the mores of that culture and finally had become (1st-generation) Christian believers. By way of contrast, in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul gave a laundry list of debauched sins, and then told the church at Corinth, "And such were some of you"! While the christianization of much of US culture up into the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s may have made for US culture to be, as a whole, pleasant, I think it had unfortunate consequences - dare I say it, scandalous consequences - in the church. For many US churches, and the people in them, the memories of fellowshipping with and helping people with a, "And such were some of you," background, are so dim or so far in the past that it has stunted such churches', such peoples', ability to reach out to and minister to and with people with "complicated" personal histories. I'm including me among those who have this problem!

As I occasionally say, our pasts may have different junk, but each of us does have our junk. And while some junk has greater human and temporal consequences than does other junk, in God's eyes, junk (sin) is junk (sin). Is it a coincidence that those churches - denominations and individual congregations - in the US that have been the most dynamic, across many decades, have been those that have been best at reaching out to and discipling people with a, "And such were some of you," background? One of the things about Christianity that has scandalized non-believers, across 2 millennia, has been the church's willingness to reach out to lower class, socially "marginal" people. It's as if the church has drawn and renewed its strength through those millennia from the change that Jesus, through God's grace, brings into such people's lives. If some Christians (me included!) have lost their ability to bring God's grace to people who need it (as if we all aren't in constant need of God's grace!), that is truly and eternally scandalous!

Lessons from Harold Camping, Part 2 of ??

Well, technically, I wrote this a month or two before Camping's false prophecy became national news, but it speaks to a broad issue that arises from how Camping arrived at his false prophecy, Biblical interpretation (see http://www.christianpost.com/news/exclusive-harold-camping-ex-follower-speaks-out-50708/ and my previous blog post, http://soapypetesbox.blogspot.com/2011/06/lessons-from-harold-camping-part-1-of.html). The following was written for our church home group:

Basics of Bible Interpretation

Without neglecting or diminishing the Holy Spirit's role in teaching us truth, the Bible should be approached as one would just about any literary document. Understanding should begin by following several fairly common sense principles.

Words - What does each word mean?

Grammar & Syntax - What meaning is coded into the grammar and structure of the
    sentences?

Figures of speech - Look for the point of similes, metaphors and hyperbole rather
    than trying to interpret such figures of speech literally (e.g. Deuteronomy 4:24
    and Hebrews 12:29 or Matthew 23:37).

Compositional Context - What does a statement mean and how does it function
    within the line of narrative or thought?

Literary Form - Is what one is reading historical narrative? A parable? Legal code?
    Corrective or encouraging exhortation? Prophetic vision?

Key questions to ask while reading:

Who is speaking?
Who is being addressed?
What is the speaker's purpose?
What is the historic context?
What is the Cultural context?

Of Sheep, Coins and Prodigals

Something occurred to me this past week while reading the parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin. These two parables are in the same context as the famous parable of the Prodigal Son, and together were Jesus' response to people who questioned His habit of associating with "sinners". Together, they told His hearers (and readers) Jesus' (God's) perspective of why He cared and what God did in sinners coming to salvation and repentance. In the first two parables, God does the searching and finding. Yet, in the parable of the Prodigal, the Prodigal "came to his senses". While different, it's not an either-or situation. It's both-and, looking at what God does and what happens in the sinner's heart, which God, being omniscient, can do.

One thing bugged me, though. There's "some one" missing in these scenarios, the human agent who calls the sinner to repentance. These parables present what happens from God's perspective: God seeks; God enables the sinner to repent. But God does work through human agents, Romans 10:14-15: How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" 

The one preaching (sharing, etc.) the Gospel is responsible for the sharing, for being faithful to do it. God does the seeking and convicting, and the sinner's heart is changed.

Lessons from Harold Camping, Part 1 of ??

I came across an excellent article yesterday on Christian Post (http://www.christianpost.com/) about an interview with a former follower of Harold Camping, http://www.christianpost.com/news/exclusive-harold-camping-ex-follower-speaks-out-50708/. I recommend it highly. Evidently the one interviewed, Trevor Hammack, a Baptist pastor in Texas, has been away from following Camping for several years, and does an online audio "program" in which he examines the news from a Biblical perspective, including Camping's prediction antics.

Two things in the article stood out for me:

"But everything began to change in subtle ways and gradually when Camping began to develop a hermeneutic or a principle of Bible interpretation based on Mark 4, where it says that Jesus spoke in parables. 'He took that to mean that everything in your Bible is a parable. Everything.'"

To be sure, there is much of the Bible that uses symbolic language and visions (Books of Daniel or Revelation, anyone?), and of course, Jesus did use parables. But everything has symbolic meaning? "Judas went and hanged himself," is a parable? Well, maybe it's a parable about how idiosyncratic interpreters of the Bible twist spindle and mutilate the Bible to their own destruction, but that's my sarcastic joke, not a serious interpretation of the Bible. By applying a comment about a teaching method Jesus used, out of context, to the whole Bible, Camping threw the barn door of Biblical interpretation wide open, shooed out the horses, cows and rats, and set the barn alight for a conflagration of destructive nonsense! Now that's symbolic language, folks!

I appreciate it when people pointing out problems also point to solutions:

"The whole situation can only be used as a great opportunity for the church to take responsibility and equip people to handle scriptures correctly,' he highlighted.

'Biblical illiteracy is the womb in which deception is conceived. The church today is very illiterate when it comes to church history, when it comes to the Bible. Most Christians don’t really know how to handle it.'

He continued, 'Hopefully people will stop and say 'man, if all those followers of Camping got so confused, maybe we should relook how a) As a pastor, am I equipping my people? and b) As a church member, how well do I know the Bible and how well do I know how to study and interpret it?'"

Good heavens! Yes! Please! "Making disciples" (Matthew 28:19) is far more - and better! - than evangelizing people and then spiritually warehousing them till the rapture or death take them to heaven! Every Christian has a life in which they should learn to know and serve God! Every Christian has some ministry to do/be that is essential to the Body of Christ. Those things aren't going to happen if all Christians are taught is the very basics of salvation! Further, believers who aren't taught more of the Christian life and aren't taught how to learn from the Bible directly will be easy pickings for whichever Harold Camping they chance to meet! Those last 3 sentences are not parables; they are the sad, sober, truth!