October 7, 2014

“Dear Lord, thank you for school, because I love school. Thank you for the wonderful day. Thank you for the food that you helped Mommy make. And please give Baby Bennett full health. And thank you for baby Hannah.” (Lydia)

Amen, Lydia.

In order to get B, I first need to do A. I can’t do A. But that’s OK, that is why B is offered to me. (Repeat ad infinitum)

In order to receive the atonement, I need to conquer all my sin. I can’t conquer all my sin. But that’s OK, that’s why the atonement is offered to me. (Repeat ad infinitum)

In order to receive grace, I need to do all I can do. I can’t do all I can do. But that’s OK, that’s why grace is offered to me. (Repeat ad infinitum)

This is madness. This is not gospel.

“In order to eat my dessert, I need to first eat dinner. I can’t eat all my dinner, but that’s OK, that’s why we have dessert.”

If a child spoke this way at the dinner table, we would say, “You’re not thinking clearly.”

God created the world good, but humanity plunged into sin. We deserve everlasting abandonment and punishment.

But the “Word became flesh and dwelled among us”, experienced suffering with humanity, and paid the price on the cross for humanity’s sin. Showing he was the true Son of God, and showing that his work was finished and his words were true, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He even ate fish with his disciples.

Now, anyone who stops trusting in themselves or false gods, and instead trusts in Christ alone, is given the free and immediately-starting gift of eternal life, forgiveness, justification, rebirth, the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Their life begins anew and God transforms them to love their enemies and to forgive as they have been forgiven. Now they are to go throughout all the world declaring the authority and work of Jesus Christ, awaiting his return.

“I want to live in a world of a marketplace of ideas where everybody is busted on their [crap] all the time because I think that’s the way we get to truth. That is also what respect is. What we call tolerance nowadays, maybe always—I’m always skeptical about the “nowadays” thing. I don’t think things get that much different. What we call “tolerance” is often just condescending. It’s often just saying, “Okay, you believe what you want to believe that’s fine with me.” I think true respect… it’s one of the reasons I get along so much better with fundamentalist Christians than I do with liberal Christians because fundamentalist Christians I can look them in the eye and say, “You are wrong.” They also know that I will always fight for their right to say that. And I will celebrate their right to say that but I will look them in the eye and say, “You’re wrong.” And fundamentalists will look me in the eye and say, “You’re wrong.” And that to me is respect. The more liberal religious people who go “There are many paths to truth you just go on and maybe you’ll find your way”… is the way you talk to a child. And I bristle at that, so I do very well with proselytizing hardcore fundamentalists and in a very deep level I respect them and at a very deep level I think I share a big part of their heart. I think in a certain sense I’m a preacher. My heart is there. (Penn Jillette, “Why Tolerance is Condescending”)

The Gospel of Matthew does not support the ethos and zeitgeist of modern liberalism. Jesus:

• Amplified Old Testament ethics on divorce and lust — contrary to modern culture’s mockery of Biblical ethics on sexuality, marriage, divorce.
• Reinforced the marriage ethic of God joining together a male and a female into a one-flesh union not to be separated.
• Extolled celibate singlehood for the sake of the kingdom — instead of treating celibate singlehood as a curse.
• Told a man to skip his father’s funeral because the kingdom was more important.
• Repeatedly emphasized the coming dichotomous judgment of eternal torment/punishment and eternal life for the wicked and repentant — instead of demanding that God’s goodness implies universalism.
• Endorsed the ministry of the abrasive John the Baptist, who found himself in jail over publicly preaching repentance over the sexual ethics of a public leader (Herod).
• Prioritized the spread of the word/message as the primary way of growing the kingdom — instead of seeing the kingdom as chiefly spread through silent acts of charity. Miracles and works complemented, demonstrated, and supported the more fundamental message.
• Over time (strategically not too early), increasingly provoked the Jewish leaders to escalation and offense — something modern culture would decry as divisive and combative.
• Spoke of self-denial as the life of true discipleship — instead of changing your personal identity to suit your desires.
• Promoted direct confrontation of professing believers when sin occurs in the body of Christ, and even excommunication — instead of unqualified “acceptance” or “tolerance.”
• Harangued the Pharisees in a way that today is considered “unchristlike.”

• Asking a question because you don’t have the courage to make a statement.
• Calling an issue complex or complicated when it is sufficiently simple.
• Feigning a mere “conversation” when you’re really trying to promote a position.
• Appealing to matters of “emphasis” to avoid affirmation and denial of contradictory ideas.
• Giving a disclaimer to avoid taking responsibility.
• Using obscure and pedantic language to sound smart so that people won’t realize how dumb and thin your line of thinking really is.
• Preferring the stimulation of “clever” over the pleasure of knowing simple truth.