Eternal Perspectives

This week’s Christian Carnival is available at A Penitent Blogger. There is a wide range of thoughtful and thought-provoking posts to choose from. Be sure to check it out.

Adrian Warnock, the preaching shrink, has thrown down the gauntlet once again. Here’s his challenge:

No, I haven’t gone sadistic. I would like to issue a challenge to bloggers – read Acts 15:28-29 and explain, using the passage context and the rest of the New Testament to demonstrate whether you feel that all the “requirements” of the Jerusalem council applies to Christians today or not. This time I will be declaring a winner – answers on a blog and to be linked to in the comments section of this post.

Setting

The place to start in understanding this pair of verses is the cultural-historical setting. Space, familiarity, and attention span limit the depth required but a bit of background information is certainly necessary.

First is the matter of chronology. It is likely that the Council of Jerusalem took place in 49 C.E. Paul, who was probably converted c. 33 C.E., was present at the council because of his apostolic mission to the Gentiles and the charge given him and Barnabus by the church of Antioch. By this time he had already begun to establish churches in Cilicia, Syria, Cyprus, and Galatia; in fact, the Letter to the Galatians may have been written just prior to the council.

The council was called because of Judaizers: certain Jewish believers came to Antioch, Syria, and taught that Gentiles needed to become Jews before they became Christians. After conversion, they argued, the Gentile believers needed to keep certain aspects of the Law even as the Jews did. Paul and Barnabas did not tolerate this teaching and opposed them forcefully. To resolve the matter, the church at Antioch sent the two missionaries to Jerusalem for a decision from the apostles and leaders there (Acts 14:26-28; Acts 15:1-2).

Context

Those present at the meeting, in addition to Paul and Barnabas, included the apostles and also the elders of the Jerusalem church. Recorded by Luke as having spoken during the council are Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James; the words of James are those under consideration. Acts 15:19-21 is included in this discussion since it is a fuller description of the statement found in 15:29. James says:

19 Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,
20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.
21 “For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.

By the time of James’ summation, the others at the meeting had already had their say. Peter began by telling of the vision he received and the conversion of Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:9-48). If the dating of the Epistle to the Galatians is correct, then Peter would have been rebuked by Paul not long before he spoke to the council (Gal 2:1-10). (more…)

I failed to answer one of Candleman’s questions in my earlier post on Obsessive-Compulsive Spirituality, so I thought I’d do that now. Responding to him will entail another idea that came to mind as I re-read his comments and my response. Here’s the question he asked (after reading Hisstory and Mystory as well as my testimony):

Are you conforming to the world when you listen to Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendricks, and Led Zeppelin as you state in your blogger profile? (This is a serious question and I am not trying to be judgmental at all on your music tastes.)”

(I very much appreciate his spirit, i.e., seeking not to give offense or be misunderstood.)

Candleman, it would seem, is that most dreaded of all blog readers: he pays attention and catches me in apparent contradictions. Fortunately (for me), I can “wiggle” my way out of this one.

How does one reconcile walking in the Spirit with listening to Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, or – even – Eminem? How can we claim to abide in Christ, watch movies like Pulp Fiction, and laugh when Travolta accidentally performs brain-salad surgery in the backseat of a car? Or even when we’re engaged in apparently innocuous activities like giving your dog a bath or sorting the mail?

Well, if you’re OCS, you can’t. You can try to “see Christ in your dog” or ask “how would Jesus read the mail?” to maintain a semblance of being spiritual, but when it comes to my kind of music, movies, and other activities you’ve got a real problem. You have to conclude that you’re indulging your flesh and have supplanted the Holy Spirit in the throne room that has become your life.
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Candleman, upon reading my post Hisstory or Mystory? as well as my testimony, left the following comment. I’ll reproduce it in full because he raises an important and valuable point.

I appreciate the sincerity of your posts and your testimony. I once strived to live the way you mention in this post:

“I am either living the life that God desires and am being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ – which is His-story – or I am living for myself and conforming to the world – which is my-story.

So which will it be, Hisstory or mystory? It is a choice I make every minute of every day of my life.”

I can appreciate your desire to live like this, however, it almost drove me crazy. How do you do this every minute of everyday? I found that when I did this, I questioned everything I did through out the day. Did I loose my desire “to be confirmed to the image of Jesus Christ when I dwelled on a inappropriate thought for too long, watched TV, listened to the radio; read a magazine or book that was not about deepening my relationship with Christ? Did I become more spiritual by not watching certain TV shows, not listen to any secular music? How does one do this without becoming a legalistic, judgmental, hell fire and brimstone type?

Are you conforming to the world when you listen to Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendricks, and Led Zeppelin as you state in your blogger profile? (This is a serious question and I am not trying to be judgmental at all on your music tastes.)

This is my struggle. Such that for a great while I have given up on trying to indulge myself in some self absorbed, constant scrutiny of my walk with Christ. The problem with that is after a few years of that, a spiritual wasteland fog sets in.

I have settled for something a little simpler. I am a loving, faithful husband to my wife, a loving and caring father to my four children; that has been saved by my belief that Jesus shed His blood on a cross to save me from my sins..past..present and future. I love the new church we are attending that is helping to restore my faith and be used of God in ministries there.

Trying to conform to Jesus every single minute of every day and not conform to anything in this world is just something I can’t grasp right now.

As I said above, Candleman is on to something. I was referring to something quite different but he, nevertheless, is describing something that is quite prevalent for many, many Christians.

What I was referring to was the core of my being where the decision is made to follow Christ daily and die to whatever silly ambitions or desires I might think are more important. It’s not about choosing to do right every second; it’s about choosing to follow through with what I’ve already decided to do.

Candleman, however, is talking about a miserable way of living. I know because, like Candleman, I used to be there.
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This was originally a comment I made to a post at The Christian Mind. I thought it was worth reproducing here, but would encourage you to read Keith’s post first. You can find it here.

The alarm sounded by Sommers and Satel, among others, is nothing new: those of us in the field of Christian counseling and therapy have been aware of it for a long time. (Bruce Narramore wrote a book thirty years ago taking himself and others to task for unbiblical psychology.) The problem in the church has been the blind acceptance of psychologists who are clinically trained but theological novices.

Those who have training in both disciplines – such as John Trent, Henry Cloud, John Townsend, and many others – have worked hard to develop their psychology in keeping with their theology. Others, notably Larry Crabb, have done the opposite: they inform their theology with their psychology. All the God-talk, theobabble, and jargon are present, but the substance and exegetical, theological foundation is sadly lacking.

We all would do well to pay careful attention to whom we listen. A Ph.D. in psychology does not necessarily know more about theology than the person that hands you a cart a WalMart or Sam’s. This is not to demean the latter – it is honest work – but only to stress that a Ph.D. in one area does not make you an expert in another.

There are those of us who struggle to help clients accept reality. Rom 12.3 is foundational here, I believe, for it says (among other things) that God doesn’t want us to have high self-esteem or low self-esteem; he wants us to have accurate self-esteem. Part of my job is to help people understand that they are average, regardless of what their mother or Joel Osteen might have told them.

What many of us who are Christian counselors, with training in both psychology and theology,* do with Christian clients is clinical discipleship. There are people with special needs who need someone to lead them out of the dark. The Christian subculture, however, in addition to its dedication to image management instead of authentic living, has no stomach for suffering and runs from others who do suffer. Or, as the cliche declares, we shoot our wounded. Whatever happened to not breaking off bruised reeds or not quenching a smoldering wick?

Until the church gets back to doing what it is supposed to be doing and not just providing feel-good services with mindless, trance-inducing choruses written by modalists, Christian counselors will not only be necessary but busy.

*There most assuredly are those Christian counselors without theological training who provide biblical therapy. They are generally humble enough to learn from theological experts, however, and are far from common; may their tribe increase! But too many others who declare themselves to be “Christian counselors” read their Bibles through the lenses of psychology rather than carefully scrutinizing their psychology through the corrective visionware of theology and God’s truth.

The scene in Jerusalem in the days and weeks immediately following the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and the conversion of thousands must have been wild. People who had come from all over Europe, Asia, and Africa for the Feast of Pentecost were now staying longer than anticipated. There was likely a housing shortage and – without question – a financial crisis as the visitors stayed around to learn of the new faith in which they had trusted the eternal destinies.

To alleviate the monetary crunch, many of the new believers sold land and property and donated the proceeds to the apostles. This is first documented in Acts 4:32-37 when Joseph (aka Barnabas) sold some real estate and gave the profits to the church. His behavior was note-worthy enough to be recorded by Luke. Then follows the familiar story of the status-seeking couple Ananias and Sapphira:

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet.
But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.’
And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.
Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?’ And she said, ‘Yes, that was the price.’
Then Peter said to her, ‘Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.’
And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.

This is a curious thing: Peter asks the wife about the amount and she, perhaps fearful that she might betray or dishonor her husband – whom she still believed to be alive – stuck with the original story even though she knew it was a lie.

In short, she submitted to her husband.

What else could she be expected to do? It would be Peter, after all, who some years later would command wives:

In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. – 1 Pet 3:1-2

“Without a word,” Peter says. The word for “submit” in this passage (forgive me the word study) is hupotasso, the definition of which includes (among other things) “to submit to one’s control, to yield to one’s admonition or advice, to obey, be subject.” Clearly this is what Sapphira was doing. Why the harsh response to her?

Well, it would appear that there are at least two reasons. The first goes back to the sin of Achan in Josh 7:1-26. His sin defiled the entire nation at the beginning of their conquest of the promised land and he and his family paid dearly for it. Luke seems to be deliberately connecting Achan and Ananias in this regard, thus stressing the importance of purity and holiness in the church.

Second, and more to the point, Sapphira could not hide her sin behind the veil of obedience to her husband. Her offense was not merely against Peter, the now-recognized leader of the church. As the NIV Application Commentary says,

When we lie to the church, we lie to the Holy Spirit. We see the developing theology of the church here. In 5:11 we find the first of twenty-three times that the word ekklesia appears in Acts. Saul/Paul finds out later that when he persecuted the church, he was persecuting Jesus (9:4). Later he expresses the treasured teaching that the church is the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:12; 5:23). – emphases mine

To lie to the leaders of a church – including my own, local church – is to lie to the Holy Spirit; to persecute a church – a true church – is to persecute Christ. Sapphira had responsibilities that superceded her duties to her husband and her responsibility to obey the Scriptures regarding submitting to him. Her duty to God came first, not her less-important duty to her husband.

To me, this could have been parallel to Abigail’s disobedience to her husband in 1 Sam 25:1-42 rather than to Achan’s sin. Sapphira should have followed Abby’s example and “betrayed” her husband by telling the truth. She didn’t, however, and died because of it.

There are, then, limits to a wife’s submission to her husband. Sometimes exceptions to the rule are obvious; sometimes they are not as clear. As a husband, I would do well to ask myself why my wife is not submitting in such situations. As a wife, she would do well do ask herself to whom she owes greater allegiance.

For both of us, we must know the Scriptures well enough to understand the hierarchy of responsibilities and dutes we have. And we must pray for wisdom to know which to obey when there is a conflict between two of them.

The following are selections from Chapter Two of Love Your God With All Your Mind, Sketching a Biblical Portrait of the Life of the Mind, by J.P. Moreland (click link in sidebar to purchase):

Unfortunately, sincerity is not enough for powerful Christian ministry. We must also have an accurate biblical understanding of what we are to be about . . . According to the Bible, developing a Christian mind is part of the very essence of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.

Our Lord is a God of reason as well as of revelation . . . His very word is true (John 17:17) , and His church – not the university - is the pillar and support of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15) . . .

The God of the Bible requires teachers who diligently study His Word and handle it accurately (compare 2 Timothy 2:15) and 1 Timothy 4:15-16) . . . The Buddhist is to leave his mind behind, but the Christian God requires transformation by way of its renewal (Romans 12:1-2).

1. Revelation is truth . . . When we affirm that the Bible is a revelation from God, we do not simply assert that God as a person is known in and through it. We also mean that God has revealed understandable, objectively true propositions . . .

2. How does the Holy Spirit help us understand the Bible? … (more…)

No, I didn’t misspell either word.

It seems to me that everyone’s life – whether a Christian or not – can be categorized under one of two headings: Hisstory or mystory.

I am either living the life that God desires and am being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ – which is His-story – or I am living for myself and conforming to the world – which is my-story.

So which will it be, Hisstory or mystory? It is a choice I make every minute of every day of my life.

I am but a layman in matters of intelligent design v. Darwinian naturalism, but I will ask my question nonetheless (and perhaps so display my ignorance):

Doesn’t “natural selection” imply intelligence? If “natural selection” somehow knows that one mutation is superior to another, how does that knowledge originate?

As I warned, I may be demonstrating my ignorance and am perhaps involving “myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me,” but I’m curious.

Help?

As I found while working through a book for Mind & Media, reviewing a book takes a long time. This is especially true if the book is a bad one – as my recent undertaking certainly was. So, rather than try to analyze or review another book immediately, I thought I would glean a few books from time to time: hopefully this will provide you with enough information and incentive to buy the book for yourself (I’m only going to do this with good books!).

I am presently reading through J.P. Moreland’s 1997 book Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul. Here’s a sampling of the first chapter, “How We Lost the Christian Mind and Why We Must Recover It.”

The Loss of the Christian Mind
in American Christianity

Historical Overview

1. The emergence of anti-intellectualism. [F]rom the arrival of the Pilgrims to the middle of the nineteenth centruy, American believers prized the intellectual life for its contribution to the Christian journey . . . In the middle 1800s, however, things began to change dramatically, though the seeds for the change had already been planted in the popularized, rhetorically powerful, and emotionally directed preaching of George Whitefield in the First Great Awakening in the United States from the 1730s to the 1750s . . . [Marsden:] ‘anti-intellectualism was a feature of American revivalism’. . . (more…)

Escaping the Matrix:
Setting Your Mind Free to Experience Real Life in Christ
by Gregory A. Boyd and Al Larson

Publisher: Baker Books
Release: April 2005
Price: $11.19
ISBN: 0-8010-6533-X

Gregory A. Boyd is senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN. He is the founder and president of Christus Victor Ministries and former professor of theology at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul. He is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D.) and Yale Divinity School (M.Div.).

Al Larson is a nationally board certified counselor and president and founder of Dynamics of Growth, Inc., which provides counseling to families and individuals. He is also the founder and developer of Cooperating with God for a Change (c), a new concept in Christian counseling. He has M.A. in psychology from Liberty University and a Ph.D. in clinical pastoral counseling from the Minnesota Graduate School of Theology.

Disclaimer: This book was given to Eternal Perspectives by Mind & Media as a gift from Baker Books for the purpose of this review. Eternal Perspectives is not affiliated with Baker Books and is not paid for the review.

Overview of Escaping the Matrix

In some way or another most of us are “stuck”–in a secret sin we can’t control or maybe by an inability to stand up for ourselves. In this book, the authors use the vehicle of The Matrix film trilogy to argue that our struggles with habitual sin, thought patterns, damaged emotions, and phobias happen because we do not know how to take charge of the way we experience reality. The authors draw on biblical and psychological insights to provide practical resources for helping believers escape the matrix of the world system that ensnares them. While this book is aimed at the newest generation of Christian readers, all ages will be inspired by the book’s innovative strategies for experiencing a deeper life in Christ.”

Authors Gregory Boyd and Al Larson provide their solution for problematic sanctification in this blend of neuropsychology, experiential psychotherapy, and soteriology. The book uses the movie as a metaphor for sin, salvation, and sanctification and encourages readers to “take the red pill” in order to enter into a deeper and more joyful experience of the life of Christ.

The book is divided into two parts: What Is the Matrix? and Escaping the Matrix. Each chapter (there are nine in all) has an exercise at the end designed to empower the reader to implement the emphases of the chapter.

The authors stress that the world in which believers live is under the control of Satan – referred to as the “Architect” throughout the book – and is hostile to the purposes of God. Drawing tight parallels between the world as depicted in The Matrix and that revealed in the Bible, they ask a series of questions to strengthen the connection:

What if the real world not only mirrors the movie “The Matrix” in terms of the splinter we all have in our brains but also in its explanation of this splinter? What if it’s true that we allow the neurological activity in our brains to be significantly controlled by forces outside of ourselves? What if at least some of what we think is real is actually an illusion? And what if this is the explanation for why we don’t consistently experience ourselves as being what Scripture says we truly are?

“What if there really is a Matrix that holds us in bondage?”

This Matrix, the authors argue, exists in the neurological networks that exist in every person’s physical brain. Comparing the brain to a computer, the world system exists as a Matrix of “neurochips” that determine thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Life in the Matrix is a perpetual cycle of triggers and deterministically activated neural-nets that we did not choose to have installed . . . Under the right circumstances – the right trigger – the neurochip is activated. Once activated, it deterministically communicates a message and creates a feeling as part of its message, and it does so in a fraction of a second, beneath the level of consciousness. To the extent dictated by the neurochip, you are a slave, a neurochip- controlled robot that will experience reality according to whomever or whatever installed the neurochip in you.”

The Matrix of neurochips creates an illusion, the authors explain, leading us to experience the world inaccurately: it is a “holographic virtual reality we experience in our minds.” To the extent that Christians are not living according to their new, true identity in Christ, they are like the people in pods in the movie: enthralled and captivated by a fantasy.

The solution is multifaceted but essentially can be summarized as “living as a resurrected Neo” (the hero of the movie), since “Jesus is the true Neo.” It involves becoming a “detective” of our minds, “uninstalling” the Satan-installed neurochips that perpetuate the illusion, and learning to claim the truths about our new identity in Christ. To accomplish this, Boyd and Larson provide nine exercises to free the mind of the believer:

1. Assessing our bondage to the Matrix;
2. Becoming a detective of your mind;
3. Discovering the modalities of memory;
4. Learning to adjust your inner world;
5. Experiencing Jesus;
6. Exercising faith in your true identity;
7. Silencing the judger and releasing the lover;
8. The “Theater of Life in Christ,” and,
9. “Setting faith” for the true you.

Central to the exercises and critical for “escaping the Matrix” is the practice of imaginative prayer or “cataphatic spirituality,” which the authors describe as a

“traditional form of spirituality that involves praying with (not to) mental and physical images . . . It is most fundamentally rooted in Paul’s teaching that we are transformed by mentally beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 3:16-18; 2 Cor 4:1-6).”

Evaluation of Escaping the Matrix

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