1826- JAMES
This past week I have been
reading the letter of James found in the New Testament.
James has always been a favorite-
it was written [more than likely] by the brother of Jesus and it is the same
James we read about in Acts chapter 15- one of the 3 main church leaders at the
Jerusalem church.
Note- to my Catholic friends-
when I say ‘brother’ Protestants believe that Mary had other children after
giving birth to Jesus.
We both believe in the Virgin
birth- conceived by the Holy Spirit- but Protestants believe Mary had other
children by Joseph.
Okay- not a big deal in my mind.
To defend the Catholic position
somewhat- even though James is called the brother of the Lord in scripture-
brother can refer to close cousins and also ‘Christian’ brothers- so that’s how
our Catholic friends interpret it.
Okay- Just this morning I read
the last chapter- and thru the week I tried to meditate on one chapter each
day.
Key themes- defend the poor,
praise the humble- and rebuke [warn] the rich.
Beware of the tongue- what you
say ‘it is a world of sin’ and can start a great fire- just like a match starts
a forest fire.
Works- was not ‘Abraham our
father JUSTIFIED BY WORKS’ ‘Rahab the harlot was JUSTIFED BY WORKS’.
To my scholarly friends- I
believe a right understanding of these verses can bridge a 500 year old split
between Protestants and Catholics.
I have tried my best to explain
this in the past- and it takes time.
Suffice it to say that the normal
Protestant interpretation does not do justice to the text.
Most Protestants try their best
to say that James WAS ONLY saying ‘the faith that saves is working faith’.
While this is true- if you simply
re-read the portions I quoted above- you can see there is more to it than this.
In a nutshell- Justification,
Salvation, Righteousness [all words that speak about ‘being saved’] are not
only static terms [one time events] but also fluent.
James uses the example from
Genesis 22- when Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar.
The apostle Paul uses Genesis 15-
when Abraham ‘believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness’.
I believe if we see that James is
speaking about the ongoing relationship that God has with his kids- and when
these kids do right- obey God- it pleases God.
And God can continue to say ‘well
done son- did well’ and in the mind of James- you can say ‘Abraham was
justified by works’ God said ‘good job- you’re just’.
There is more to it than this-
but I think this explanation is more in keeping with the text than simply seeing
James thru the lens of Paul- James does not contradict Paul- but is simply
coming at it from a different angle.
Okay- James deals with the
'rights of the worker’ yes- this is a biblical issue- workers rights!
That’s why historically the
church has sided with labor movements.
Many of my conservative brothers
seem to equate all union movements with ‘the left’ but to be honest to the
text- James [and in this case- Jesus] can be called liberal!
James is chock full of good
stuff- try and read it this week if you haven’t all ready.
One of the key themes that I
always see ‘jump out’ at me is the theme of defending and honoring the poor-
and rebuking the rich.
Now- to my friends who are ‘rich’
its okay- the warnings are along the lines of what the apostle Paul told
Timothy [1st Timothy 6] to simply keep wealth in its proper context.
Honor God with it [by helping the
poor- not by making TV preachers rich!] and be humble.
This theme is important for our
day- because there are many well meaning Christians- and movements- who have
gone off track with the wealth issue and have made it a goal of faith.
James- Paul- and Jesus all had
strong warnings for the rich- and had great praise for the poor [they inherit
the kingdom- James and Jesus said it].
For more on this subject-
referred to as the Prosperity gospel- I will post a few posts from the blog
right below.
These are from the February posts
of each year.
During the year when I write
individual posts- I put them in categories and stick them in the February posts
at the start of the New Year.
So these are from the Prosperity
gospel section.
Also- if you go to the blog [or
are on it now] look to the left and you will find my first little book- called
House of Prayer or Den of Thieves- I talk about this issue there as well.
Okay- that’s it for now- might do
another politics post in a few days- not sure what’s next.
Don’t forget to try and lift each
other up in prayer- help someone who’s down on their luck- share with the less
fortunate in some way this week- give- but give for the purpose of helping the
poor- don’t always see it as ‘an investment with a return’ but give out of
love- God will reward you for it.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John
1825- PHILOSOPHY [conclusion]
Today let’s wrap up the last
philosophy post for now.
Over the last 6 months or so I
have posted around 25 posts- covering the pre Socratic thinkers [800 B.C.] and
we made it all the way up to the 19th century.
The main philosophical thought of
the 20th century was called Logical Positivism.
This idea said there were 3
stages to Western thought/culture;
First- Infancy [religious/myth]
Second- adolescence [philosophy]
Third- adult [science/empirical]
This idea said that man in the 20th
century has finally advanced beyond the silly stages of religion and has now
moved into a stage where the only true things are empirical in nature.
That is- for something to be
true- you must be able to show it scientifically [or mathematically].
It did not take too long before
the critics figured out the major flaw with this idea.
This philosophy states ‘the only
truth is empirical’ this statement in itself [as well as all the books written
on it] is not an empirically proven statement.
Therefore- according to its own
criterion- it is false.
This particular aspect of the
philosophy was called The Verification Principle [had to be proven/verified
scientifically to be valid].
Pragmatism- this is the only home
grown philosophy that had its roots in the U.S.
Founded by Dewey and Peirce- this
thought denied objective reality and states that ‘whatever works- use it’.
Of course being ‘pragmatic’ in a
practical way is fine- we do want things to work.
But at its core Pragmatism says
there are no real ethics- no right or wrong- just things people do.
In the beginning of the 20th
century you had the British thinker/mathematician Bertrand Russell.
Russell was a good man- raised as
a Christian.
But as a young man he read a book
by John Stuart Mill [19th century] that questioned one of the
classic arguments for the existence of God [the argument from first cause].
Mill said ‘if everything has to
have a cause- then why not God- who caused him’.
Russell accepted Mills claim- and
became an influential atheist/agnostic.
The main flaw with this argument-
that everything ‘has a cause’ is that it’s false.
The law of Cause and Effect
[Causality] does not state that everything has a cause- it says that ‘every
effect has a cause’.
That is- there is nothing in existence-
an effect- that came from nothing.
Some argued that there was no
initial cause- but an infinite series of ‘little’ cause and effects that go on
forever.
This too is wrong- it leads to
another problem called the Infinite Regress.
If there is no First cause- then logically you
can never arrive at ‘Now’
There had to have been a starting
point somewhere [Einstein has since proved this] and the starting point [Big
Bang] could not have come from nothing.
This too is a very common belief
among many well meaning people- that somehow science has taught us that all
things came from nothing.
This could not be further from
the truth- this is referred to as Creation Ex Nihilo- which too is
scientifically false.
The only other option- beside the
Infinite Regress- and the creation out of nothing- is there had to have been
some type of first cause- who is not limited to the material realm.
By nature this being would have
to be Metaphysical [outside the physical realm] and would have to be self
existent- having no beginning.
To have a First cause- who
himself is infinite- is indeed consistent with the principals of logic- and at
the end of the day is the only reasonable explanation for the existence of all
other things.
Okay- as we end our posts on philosophy
for now- why did I cover this?
Thru out the history of the
church Christians have grappled and challenged the other world views- and have
done a good job at it.
The Christian perspective is not
some silly religious way of life that has no real proof.
To the contrary- the church has
had the upper hand in all these debates down thru the centuries.
But in today’s ‘media market’
Christianity- the proliferation of self help books [everyday day a Friday?]
The nonstop talk about becoming
rich- or sending your money to ‘my ministry’ as a ‘seed faith’ to become rich.
In this environment- many
outsiders see the church as an irrelevant- never ending drum beat that they
can’t wait to switch to another channel.
This is not the history of the
church- and the church has historically won the debate on the reality of God.
It’s just the average person does
not know it.
So- for the Christian to be
learned in these fields- to have a working knowledge of the opposing world
views- is a good thing.
Why do so many believers avoid a
field like philosophy?
The apostle Paul warned the
Colossians ‘beware of the philosophies of men’.
He also wrote to his protégé
Timothy ‘beware of the oppositions of science- falsely so called’.
The word for science in this text
is Gnosis- the Greek work for knowledge.
In the early days of the church
there was a Christian cult that rose up- called Gnosticism.
More than likely- Paul was not
saying that all science- as we use the term today- is bad- but he was warning
against a particular from of science- called Gnosticism.
The same with the warning on
philosophy- while you could apply it to all philosophy- that is to say that we
should be careful when people try to give us opposing ways of thought- yet in
context it seems like the apostle is dealing with the philosophies that oppose
Christian thought.
For the first 1500 years of the
Christian church the study of Theology and Philosophy went hand and hand.
After the Protestant Reformation
[15th century] many Protestants avoided the field- which I think was
a mistake.
So- as we close up this subject
for now- maybe review a few of the posts on the blog that I did these last few
months- become more familiar with the apologetic arguments for the existence of
God.
Christians do not have to argue-
or oppose atheists- or other religions that hold a different view than we do.
But we should be able to give a
defense for the faith- to explain to society around us why we believe the
things we do.
At the end of the day- we really
do have the winning argument.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John
1800- THE CHURCH LADY
I caught the debate last night
[number 20!] and was surprised that King only asked one question on ‘social
issues’ [I think?].
He did bring up the ‘controversy’
over birth control.
Now- up until a few weeks back-
starting with the question by Stephanopoulos [a Dem insider- worked for
Clinton- admitted- on air- that he cried while sitting at home during the Obama
win. You say ‘so what John- Boehner
cries too!’ Yeah- but he’s smart enough not to admit it when he weeps in
private].
Yeah- when Stephanopoulos brought
up the silly question on whether states had the right to ban birth control-
right after that the media jumped on the band wagon and have been saying how
the Repubs want a war on women’s right to health.
The media keep parading women
across the screen- decrying the attack on their health- after all- birth
control cures cancer! [The truth be told- there are many more health risks to
abortion and birth control then there are health benefits].
Yes- they want the country to see
the Repubs as right wing ‘satan hatin’ preachers!
I just read an article the other
day- 2 ‘women’s health clinics’ were fined in Texas- their disposal company was
dumping the bodies of aborted babies in the city dump.
A woman’s right? I wonder how
many of these little bodies belonged to future women.
So the debate goes on- and the
populace drinks it in.
They have been showing the clips
of a speech by Santorum- he talked about evil as a reality and satan as an
enemy.
Okay- he was speaking at a
Catholic university forum- it was about 4 years ago- what’s the big deal?
‘Well- you never know- say if he
starts talking like this in office’
You mean like Obama?
Yes- 2 weeks ago the Pres was
speaking- at a political/religious forum- in Washington- and he defended his
tax policies by saying they are based on Jesus’ teachings in the gospel of
Luke.
He quoted Jesus ‘to whom much is
given- much is required’.
Okay- I see the point he’s trying
to make- asking the rich to pay more.
But for a sitting U.S. president
to say that his tax policy- as opposed to the other side- is the ‘Jesus one’
well- that would have been world news for days if it were Bush.
So the satan speech- given at a
catholic school- geez- give it a break.
The media would have you think
that Santorum is the church lady from SNL [Saturday night live].
Dana Carvey did the Church Lady-
he would often come up with some circumstance- and then reply ‘hmmm- could it
be satan’.
Yeah- that’s Santorum!
This week I have been reading
Ezekiel chapter 34.
It talks about the leaders-
shepherds of the people. They are being rebuked because they are like
‘shepherds who feed themselves- they kill the sheep- eat the meat and wear the
wool as clothes’.
In the New Testament Jesus
alludes to this when he says ‘beware of false prophets- they are like wolves in
sheep’s clothing’.
Yes- that’s where the term comes
from.
The term means more than meets
the eye.
It’s speaking about a mindset-
one that sees people- church people- citizens- any group of people being
‘ruled’ by others.
And the mindset is ‘I can benefit
in some way from my position over them’.
This usually means financially.
I have written much about this
over the years- and I’m convinced that many good men in modern ministry do not
see the violation of scripture they engage in when they enter ‘ministry’ and
constantly appeal for money- even to the point of thinking that their becoming
rich off of the giving of people is ‘Gods way’.
But also in the broader sense-
God is rebuking the leaders because they really don’t have the true concerns of
the people at the fore front.
Good leaders- politicians-
presidents- congressman. They should be willing to make the right decisions-
even if those decisions seem less popular at the time- they should do it
because it’s right.
The Pres put out a policy
yesterday that said he wanted to lower corporate tax rates and eliminate tax
loopholes.
Now- I haven’t read the thing-
and I know some say it’s really a scam- I don’t know.
But if it has some truth in it-
then it would be a good thing.
Why?
Because most analysts say that’s
really a major step in the right direction.
Dems and Repubs- responsible
ones- have already said this needs to be done.
So if the thing is accurate- then
we should support the pres.
The other major thing that the
next pres must deal with is the entitlement programs- but whoever gets in-
whether it be Romney- Obama- or the Church Lady- they will need to govern for
the people- not pander to them for personal gain [popularity that will help
them win again].
Don’t get me wrong- as a
Christian I’m glad the Pres talked about Jesus- and that Santorum talked about
satan.
But the reality is- the ‘wolves
in sheep’s clothing’ looked/talked just like sheep- that’s how they kept
getting into the sheepfold- but all they really wanted was personal gain- they
saw the sheep [people] as a means to an end- and that’s what gets us in
trouble- every time.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John
1775- WHAT DID HE SAY?
Let’s do a little review today. I know the history posts go
a little long sometimes- and many Christians do not see the value in studying
church history.
But I have found over the years that a lot of independent
type churches- good men- good people- but cut off from the broader church- well
these churches have a tendency to get off in a rut- a particular doctrine or
style of teaching- and after a while it becomes impossible to get these good
church folk back on the balanced course.
A few examples. Many years ago- as a young Pastor- I had
lots of good Pastor friends who too were doing their best to do what they felt
God wanted.
At the time- I began having difficulty with many of the most
popular interpretations of the bible that these good men were using.
After a while I realized that some of the stuff was so off
course- that if they didn’t make some major course corrections at the time-
that they were going to end up spending
their entire Pastorate teaching stuff that is out right false.
I have talked a lot about this over the years- and the
examples are too numerous to cover them all- but a good example is the ‘Camel
going thru the eye of a Needle’ verse.
One time Jesus and his men were going thru town and a
young rich guy asks Jesus what he must
do to be saved.
A pretty straight forward question- right to the point.
Jesus tells the guy to keep the law- the guy asks which
ones.
Ah- now you’re digging yourself in brother.
So Jesus says to love God and his neighbor- these are the
top ones.
He asks ‘and who is my neighbor’?
Jesus goes on and gives an explanation- and he also tells
the guy to go and sell all he has and give it to the poor- and follow him.
The guy goes away sad
because he was rich.
Then Jesus says ‘it’s harder for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven than for a Camel to go thru the Eye of a Needle’.
What?
The disciples [I think Peter?] say ‘then who can be saved’?
Jesus says with men it is impossible- but not with God- with
God all things are possible.
[just a quick side note- I haven’t read all these stories in
a while- trust me- they are all in the bible- but I might have mixed a few
together- but the main point stays the same]
Okay- in context- what could Jesus be saying about the camel
and the needle?
It sure seems like he’s using a figure of speech that would mean ‘look- the guy is too
attached to his money to fully give himself over to being a follower of me-
maybe down the road he will change- but he’s not ready yet’.
Seems reasonable to me- don’t you think?
But wait- in the group of pastors/teachers that were popular
at the time- one of the main teachings was how to get rich- and they saw
financial increase as the main thing- I mean that’s what they focused on all the time.
So what do you do with verses like these?
You simply change them- you make them say what you want.
So the ‘true’ explanation for the Camel and the Needle
became ‘the Eye of the Needle is the name of a low passage way thru the wall
into the city- and the merchants- if they have lots of stuff- well the Camel
has to stoop low to get thru’.
Aha- so what seems to mean ‘rich folk will have a hard time
making the kingdom’ really means something else- as a matter of fact- it means
the opposite- because the Camels that have to ‘scooch’ belong to the owners who
have a lot of goods- thus the Camel has to get low.
Okay- maybe as rank amateurs this stuff was not the
unpardonable sin- but many of these men are still teaching this type of stuff-
and this one example is the tip of the iceberg- I could go on for a long time
quoting all them but that’s not the point for now.
The main point is- if Christians separate themselves from
the broader church- not just talking about ‘going to church’ but talking about
the broad understanding that the people of God have- the books and teachings of
those who have gone before us- not just one small group- but the whole
community- then we will avoid these kinds of pitfalls.
As we do a few more posts in the coming weeks on church
history- we will see this was one of the things restored by the Protestants
Reformers during the 16th century.
Luther restored what’s referred to as the Literal Sense-
that when you read the bible- you should be able to take it at face value- as
much as possible.
Sure- you also want to ‘hear God’ speak in a personal way-
but if what your hearing is the exact opposite of what the text is saying- well
then we do have a problem.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John
[1769] Happy new years eve to all. Let’s do a brief Year in Review.
We did have quite a busy news year- last night I caught a
CSPAN clip of Newt- yeah- he was crying like a baby!
Okay- not that bad- but he did break down for a few seconds
on screen. Some of the pundits debated if it were ‘planned’ or real.
I think E.J. Dionne [a liberal news guy] got it right- he
said he thought it was sincere- but how much it will help a man in a Repub
primary fight- well that’s another story.
Boehner said he didn’t see anything wrong with it [lol for
you non savvy political folk- who knows- maybe they will both run for office in
North Korea? The crying capitol of the world].
The big story of the year? Well- there were a few [Tsunami-
Arab Spring- E.U. crisis] but as a geopolitical event that was big- I guess I
would say the shakeup we saw in the Arab world was pretty major.
It started with a street vender in Tunisia- he refused to
pay ‘the tax’ to the cops for his street profit- it’s really a form of
extortion like the mob uses. So in frustration he ‘self immolated’ [lit himself
on fire!] and he died a few days later from his injuries.
This led to the overthrow of the long time leader in Tunisia
[Ben Ammi]- and then the Egyptians followed suit by protesting in the historic
Tahrir square.
Mubarak got toppled and then Libya gave it a shot. Of course
we [the U.S. and NATO] basically bombed the hell out of the place and then let
the rebel’s claim they won.
Last week in Nigeria- on Christmas day- Muslim radicals
bombed a Christian church and killed many worshippers. Nigeria is much like the
Sudan- the country is divided North and South by Muslims and Christians
[Sudan’s south also has lots of Animists].
What do all these countries have in common? They are all in
Africa. Yes- the African continent probably saw the most ‘action’ though the
last part of the year we have focused on Europe.
Yes- Europe had her own Western style debt crisis. It can
get a little confusing- I mean I was watching one news show- the title was the
Euro Zone debt crisis- and they said there were 27 nations in the Euro Zone.
That’s a common mistake some have made. The Euro Zone is
made up of 17 European nations- that have entered into a treaty that allows
them to all use one common currency- the Euro.
But there are a total of 27 nations that make up the European
Union- the biggest Economy out of all of them is Britain- they are not part of
the Euro Zone- though they are part of the E.U. - got it?
By the way- Brazil just passed Britain as the world’s 6th
[or 7th?] largest economy.
And Japan faced her devastating earthquake/Tsunami [I think
it was this year?] anyway there economy has been in the doldrums for around 20
years. Japan had her own recession/depression many years ago- and they have
still never fully recovered.
Which brings us to the end of the year in the U.S.
We end the year with some better than expected economic
numbers- but don’t be fooled- the numbers are not great- they are actually not
good- they are just better than expected.
Some now predict that the last quarter will see around 3 % growth
[it takes a few weeks for the data to come out] and some are predicting that
2012 we’ll see around 3 % growth.
3 % is not good- it’s actually bad- but it’s not as bad as a
recession.
What we need to keep in mind is our economy has gone through
some major hits- and like Japan- you don’t just pop out of it in a few years.
Many of the companies are in better shape- because they
scaled back- they cut people and downsized- some for good.
So- the DOW might look good because of stuff like this- but
we have now had a few years of college grads who have been unable to find work-
and they missed the ‘boost’ of getting a good job- buying a car- getting a
place to stay- and this group of young unemployed kids- well they might never
get the jump they need to do ‘better than their parents’.
So by no means have we as a country recovered from our
debt/economic problems- and the E.U. still has a lot of risk in the coming
year.
In the last few weeks the Federal Reserve and a few other
central banks made money available to the E.U. banks at a cheap rate.
The theory is if you pour money into the banks- that might
loosen up lending- and you avoid a real problem. Just like our own TARP thing
we did in 2008.
But lo and behold- some of the E.U. nations sold [tried] to sell
some bonds- and the banks did not buy as many as people expected. The banks
took the cash [like the U.S. banks did in 2008] and basically sat on the money.
So all this means we still have a tough year ahead-
globally- and just because some numbers are looking better at the end of the
year for the U.S.- this does not mean all is well.
The scripture reading for this week is Isaiah 52. The
prophet speaks about Gods people- he says ‘Wake up- rise up- shake the dust
from your feet and move on’.
He also says that blessed are those who preach the Good
News- the good news of salvation. Those who publish peace- those who declare
Gods rule.
I have a habit- every week [just about] I watch the Catholic
Mass on the tube- those are the bible chapters I cover during the week.
Of course this past week I watched the Popes Mass from Rome-
the Pope spoke against the commercializing of Christmas- and he reminded us
that the true message of Christmas is Emmanuel- God with Us.
As we end the year- I want to encourage all my
readers/friends- the reality of God being with us is what’s important. Yes- I
do think many are not seeing the ‘story behind the story’ in the above news
events- many want to believe there is no way they might have lost money [401
k’s] and they might never see that money again.
But that’s okay- even if you didn’t lose it this past year-
you were going to ‘lose it’ someday- we all have to leave some day- and we have
a tendency to put that reality off.
One year I had a friend- another firefighter- who just
started investing in Real Estate. And all the guys knew I was doing that for
years. I used to have renters come by and drop off the rent checks and stuff
like that.
So when one of the other guys got into it- they would ask me
for advice. One day I had a friend- around 50 years old- and he bought a few
homes.
As he was talking- he was telling me that he would pay off
these 2- sell this one- rent the other- I mean he had all the plans first time
buyers/investors get into. I simply tried to give him some sound advice- and I
also had to stop him at one point.
He was telling me the plans he had for the 3 homes that were
on a 30 year mortgage- and I had to say ‘Mike- I know your excited about the
houses- but you’re talking about paying off these homes- you do realize you
might be dead before the mortgage is paid off’.
I wasn’t being funny- I actually was telling him something
that many investors do not calculate in when they do the numbers- they very
rarely calculate in their own mortality.
So yes- we will all do our best- we will watch the numbers
this year- and well will try and publish the good news- the good news of God
being with men- that God became a man- was crucified- died- and buried. He rose
again the 3rd day- according to the scriptures- he will come again
to judge the living and the dead. Amen and Amen.
Happy New Year to all.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John
[1763] JESUS FOR PRESIDENT?