Your Outlook on the Future, and Why it Matters.

This article appeared in the May 2011 edition of my column, Fresh Brewed Theology, that I write for The Choteau Acantha. 

You may recall all the hype surrounding Harold Camping and his failed prediction of the end of the world.  What is funny about this particular article is that because of the way my deadline works, I had to have it submitted before May 22 (the day Harold predicted the end) for publication on the 25th. It wasn't a big risk though. If a prophesied event has already been fulfilled, whoever tries to predict it happening in the future will be wrong!

I think you will see that this article definitely pushed the boundaries.

Enjoy!

Fresh Brewed Theology: Future Outlook

Popular Christian Radio host, Harold Camping has been proven wrong... again.  Last Saturday was his latest failed prediction of the beginning of the end of the world.  

In this column, I want to address a very fundamental question to which many Christians have not given any thought. That is, how does your outlook on the future affect your impact on society? 

Many modern Christians have a very short sighted, pessimistic view of the future. Popular sayings like, “don’t polish brass on a sinking ship” or “Satan rules this evil age” dominate pulpits and radio waves.  The expectation is that the world is under a Divine curse and will only get worse before Jesus comes to rescue us and destroy the physical planet. 

This pessimistic outlook starts a vicious cycle that ends up dividing communities in the long run. Let me give you just one example.

If the physical creation is destined to be burned up sooner than later, than why take care of it? With such a short sighted and negative view of the future there is no incentive to take responsibility for our actions when it comes to things like the environment. 

The responsibility needed to maintain true liberty in regards to property rights is ignored. This causes others who recognize real problems to lobby bureaucrats thousands of miles away in an effort to enforce new regulations to protect the environment. The loss of liberty causes citizens to resent those in office. They get behind other politicians who will use the power of the state to protect un-responsible behavior and the cycle escalates.

(Imagine how negativity towards the future influences foreign policy.)

However, with an optimistic and long view of the future individuals are motivated to look for ways to maintain sustainable environmental conditions voluntarily.  Wild places will be kept wild, not because of laws handed down from Washington but because people want their posterity hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years from now to enjoy them. Sustainable farming becomes very attractive instead of a short term burden.

Choteau is dominated by agriculture and tourism. Whichever outlook of the future dominates the minds and hearts of our citizens will have an enormous impact for generations to come, whether good or bad. 

So, is there a Christian theology with a long view of the future? You probably haven’t heard of it, but there is, and it’s growing. Covenant Eschatology is a movement within Christianity that takes Jesus at his word when he said that he would return before all of his disciples died. (Matthew 24) It argues a Spiritual fulfillment to Jesus’ prophetic teachings, and that the destruction of the Jewish Temple in AD 70 was the sign that a New Creation had been consummated. 

If the “end of the world” that the Bible talks about is actually in our past would that affect our outlook on the future? 

The "Ya'll" of being Born Again.

This is an article that I wrote for my Fresh Brewed Theology column in The Choteau Acantha. It was published in January of this year.  I am posting it here because it pertains to a comment by Tabatha in a recent post, Biblically Defining Eternal Life.  

There is a great debate within Christianity about how an individual "get's saved."  (Calvinism vs. Arminianism) I have come to the conclusion that both were working from faulty a pre-supossition. They both ignored the Covenantal context of the Bible, and rather imposed their westernized framework upon the text. Hopefully, this article will stimulate fresh thinking in these areas. 

Fresh Brewed Theology, January 2012.

"Alter calls," "the sinners prayer," and "inviting Jesus into my heart" are all phrases that dominate modern Christianity.  It is not uncommon for Christianity to be summed up as a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  In other words, it’s He and I. This is amplified by the influence of the westernized rugged individualism of our culture. 

However, Biblically speaking this may be putting the cart before the horse.  Throughout the Bible, God always deals first and foremost with corporate bodies of individuals, and then with the individuals within that corporate body.  

Imagine the Hebrews of the Old Testament as a student body.  God brought them into His University when He brought them out of Egypt.  Over time though, that student body failed to graduate because they could not collectively pass the test of the law.  There were some individuals who followed God, but they could not bring the whole student body to graduation, because all sinned.   In fact, there are many places in the Old Testament that refer to this corporate body as “dead” even though it was made up of living and breathing human beings. 

Now let’s take a closer look at one of the more well known phrases found in the New Testament.  

John chapter 3 records Nicodemus as a ruler of this Old Testament student body when Jesus comes on the scene.  During this now famous interview, conducted under the cover of darkness, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”  

The original King James version gets the “you” of this passage correct when it renders it “ye.” This very small, yet foundational variance should be recognized.  The “you” is plural and is speaking about a collection of individuals.  The greek language makes this variance clear, but modern english does not differentiate unless you grew up in the south where “you all” is squished together to make “ya’ll.”

Jesus is telling Nicodemus that ya’ll, the failing Hebrew student body, must be born again.  In order to graduate from God’s University there needed to be a new student body. 

Jesus was the first to perfectly pass the final exam.  Yet, the law, still put him to death unjustly.  Through that sacrifice, and vindicated by his resurrection, He became a new spiritually reborn student body that the law could no longer condemn.  Those who were trapped in the fleshly body of Adam that only brought death could now be released to join the reborn spiritual body of Christ wherein eternal life was found.  

Abandoning our own test score and putting our faith in Jesus’ test score is all that’s required to become a member of the class of Jesus.  However, it is not a one person class.  When one joins the body of Christ one is joining a corporate body that transcends time, race, tradition, denomination, culture and creed.  Together, the ya’ll is a New Creation. 

God's Love Story

I wrote this article about a year ago for my local paper, The Choteau Acantha.

Enjoy.

God’s Love Story

       What is the Bible?  If someone were to come up to you on the street and ask you this question how would you respond?  The answer to this question fundamentally affects the way people practically apply their religion.  

       Is the Bible a system of theology?  Is it a list of rules to live by for those trying to avoid hell? Is it a 7 step system to health and wealth? Or is it something more than what these systems can offer?

       Many modern scholars are beginning to realize that the western, “systematized,” framework is inadequate when trying to answer this most basic and simple question.  They are understanding the importance of approaching the Bible as a complete story because that is what the Bible is as a whole. 

       The Bible is God’s love story to his children.  It tells us not only about who we are, but more importantly, who God is, about His love, and how He restored a broken relationship.  When we are familiar with the story we will gain wisdom in how to grow and live in God’s family.

       This “narrative” approach to the Bible starts to unlock the power of the story in a way that transcends any systematic approach.  We simply cannot fully understand the New Testament without knowing the background and foundation laid out in the Old.  Conversely, we can’t see the types and shadows of the Old Testament if we don’t understand the fulfillment achieved in the New.  It’s the difference between a man standing in the paint aisle at Ace Hardware examining each individual color and their potential and a man standing in a museum enjoying a true masterpiece.  He doesn’t notice any one color because he is in awe of the painting. 

       There are many resources available that provide tools for seeing the “bigger picture.”  Dr. Peter Enns has published a very short book titled Telling God’s Story, A Parents Guide to Teaching the Bible that is a great primer on reading the Bible as a complete story even if you don’t have children.  Another author, N.T. Wright,  has written a phenomenal “For Everyone” series of commentaries on the New Testament. All of these books are easy to read, inexpensive, and do a great job of putting the reader into the context of the overall narrative of the Bible. 

       The Bible certainly has rules and principles to live by, but it is so much more just that.  Rules will never be an appropriate foundation for a true relationship.  This is why God chose love.  The Bible is God’s love story, and perhaps we should approach it as such. If there is any doubt, just ask yourself these questions:  What would you rather have your parents write for you, a list of rules or a love story? What would you rather write for your own children?

Sacred Cows

 I have decided to do an introductory blog later on.  Maybe next week.

In the meantime, here is the first article that I wrote, about a year ago, for my local newspaper, The Choteau Acantha.  The name of my column is "Fresh Brewed Theology" (think coffee or beer, it's your choice!) and it runs once a month.

Enjoy.

Fresh Brewed Theology: Sacred Cows

Traditions are strong. There are family traditions, cultural traditions, and even national traditions. Traditions bind us together on many different levels. In other ways traditions divide us. Drive around any town and you will see a variety of different church buildings. Many hold to the same core traditions yet are divided over a plethora of other traditions. 

Questioning our own traditions is not something that comes naturally. It puts us outside of our comfort zone. We want to believe that our tradition is the right one. We want our sacred cow fat, happy and roaming free in the pasture of our mind, yet Jesus led the way in questioning the traditions of his day. He reserved his harshest words for the religious and political leaders who used tradition to wield enormous power over the masses. 

In our modern internet era a new reformation is happening among religious circles. People are stepping out and re-examining the traditions they were taught and are willing to engage in conversations in order to gain insight and understanding of different perspectives. 

When Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type in 1440 it gave way to an explosion of communication. Books became easy and cheap to print. The average person could finally afford to read for recreation or engage in the study of a topic of their choice. Even the Bible emerged from the prison of “dead languages” and was given new life in the everyday language of the common man.

We are privileged to live in a similar age of information explosion. Thanks to the internet, the average person has many powerful tools at their finger tips. Anyone can go on blueletterbible.com and compare English translations with the original Greek and Hebrew text and learn the definitions of such words. Even these “dead languages” are coming back to life and are accessible to the common man thanks to the internet. Never before has it been easier to search out commentaries and writings from any period in history.

This is the type of atmosphere where traditions are tested. Some will ultimately pass the test and become stronger while others will be discarded on the ash heap of history. Some sacred cows will flourish while others will become a juicy steak on the dinner table. 

This column aims to bring the readers of the Acantha a fresh look at the religious traditions, trends, questions and issues of the day while maintaining a local perspective. I hope to inspire people to look deeper into their motivations and beliefs and to become confident in not only what they believe but why they believe.