Eternal Perspectives

Thanks, but no. I appreciate the offer, but for what it’s worth, I don’t think I’ll jump on the bandwagon of the Emergent Church Movement just yet. I’m holding out.

No, what I’m waiting for instead of the Emergent Church Movement is the Detergent Church Movement, one that will emphasize cleaning up the sin in believers’ lives (like mine) and in our doctrine (again, like mine). This, I think, is a lot more important right now than another “latest thing” movement.

Take Tide, for example. A “Tide Church Movement” could remove that nasty stain of sin, including gluttony (”fresh food”) and drunkenness (”drink”). That’s a movement worth getting behind, don’t you think?

So join me in my hold out, eh?

Be a member of the Detergent Church Movement.

Adrian Warnock, a Christian in Britain, finds himself trying to make sense of the death of Terri Schiavo. He writes:

I have to ask, is there something wrong with a system that seems to allow one judge to condemn this woman to death? Can anyone explain to me how it is possible that the government could do nothing about this?

You will go crazy trying to make sense of sin. It is not sensible; sin is ungodly and nonsensical. I posted a comment on his site and my response is reproduced here:

There is most certainly something wrong with the U.S. system: Sin. You are aware of this, as most Christians are when they stop to think about it.

We in the States began sowing the wind decades ago and now we are begin to reap the smallest of horrific harvests yet to come. It was inevitable that a culture that, thirty-plus years ago, pronounced when life began would soon determine when life should end.

There is no just government but one. When He returns - and only when He returns - will wrongs be made right and the poor and helpless be cared for as they should be.

As an American, I am guilty of the sins of my government; as members of the human race, we all are guilty and share the responsibility of such heinous and unconscionable crimes against God.

Truly, the death of Terri Schiavo diminishes us all.

For additional posts on Terri, go to Wittenberg Gate.

In a previous post, I reviewed the various positions of four theologgers who have written about the constitution of the person and what happens immediately following death. In this post, I will present my own positions on these two issues that are determinative in plotting a course of action in such difficult situations as Terri Schiavo’s.

Nonreductive Physicalism

I have written in depth - and length! - elsewhere my understanding of the nature of the human constitution. Rather than send you to another site (you can do that later, if you like, or now: I don’t want to tell you how to live your life), I’ll quote some of it here:

The position taken in the present work concerning the nature of the mind-brain connection is nonreductive physicalism. It is physicalism in that all of human nature and experience is understood to be dependent upon human physical existence: apart from the temporary state after death (wherein existence depends upon the special, sustaining activity of God), there is no sense of personhood apart from connection with the physical body.

The position is nonreductive in that the immaterial aspect of human nature cannot be explained by or reduced to physical properties of the body: the activity and properties of the neurons firing in the brain do not explain the existence of such experiences such as faith, hope, or love. In this view, there is more to being a person than can be explained by physical attributes or activities.

What constitutes the human brain is easy to describe: the neurological section above identified what the brain is, how it operates, and how it contributes to human existence. It is not so evident, however, what the mind is.

Negatively speaking, the mind or [spirit] is that dimension of human existence which cannot be explained by the physiology of the brain . . . Nobel laureate Roger Sperry has stated, “The meaning of the message will not be found in the chemistry of the ink;” in the same way, what it means to be a person cannot be explained simply by looking at neurology . . .

That there is a connection between the mind and the brain is well-established. The previously described tragedy of Alzheimer’s Disease illustrates the link, as does the remarkable story of an accident in 1848 involving a young man named Phineas Gage:

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Spurred by the ongoing tragedy that presently wears the face of Terri Schiavo, several theologgers have reflected upon and discussed the nature of human existence following death. Four in particular have examined the biblical presentation of what constitutes the soul and what transpires after death:

All these posts are well-written and reflect serious, theological considerations of a few of the issues undergirding the discussion about Terri’s situation. Hers is a situation that cannot be handled with a knee-jerk, one-size-fits-all approach to the ethical difficulties posed in such dilemmas, although sadly it frequently is. The church in general and every Christian in particular needs to think through such complicated and emotionally-charged matters.

What follows is my attempt to do just that. I do this because my own mother has been neurologically hijacked for the past few years and a stranger now seems to inhabit her body. As her best friend of 60-plus years said after leaving her hospital room,

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Like many of you, I was welcomed this morning by the news that a federal judge has refused to intervene on behalf of Terri Schiavo, thereby passively sentencing an innocent and helpless individual to a lingering death. A few thoughts crossed my mind:

- Without a doubt, I have read and blogged more about Terri than I have prayed for her. I’ve spent hours doing the former and less than an hour on the latter, but my total time of praying specifically for Terri is a very small percentage of the total. What does that say about me and my belief in the power of prayer? More importantly, what does it say about how I view God?

- Some “experts” have stated that starving Terri to death will be peaceful. Really? OK, then how ’bout this: instead of wasting money on drugs or electrical current, let’s just starve condemned criminals as a way of executing them. It would be so peaceful for them, you know? And, apparently, very humane.

- The percentages of people feeling that the government should not “meddle” in such matters is sadly high. Around 60 percent say so, while 63 percent say Terri needs to die. Two-thirds believe that Congress and President Bush were motivated by political, not humanitarian, reasons in trying to stop the murder. But 83 percent believe that Jesus rose from the dead! This is a sorry commentary on the state of Christianity in the United States: the disconnect between faith and life is tragic.

- Speaking only for myself, I wonder if my faith has been more in the government and “good” elected officials or in God. If my faith is in God, why did I feel so defeated when I read that the judge had been so lacking in mercy?

From the current “Preaching Now” newsletter:

1. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.
2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
3. You call your son’s beeper to let him know it’s time to eat. He e-mails you back from his bedroom, “What’s for dinner?”
4. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her website.
5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa, but you haven’t spoken with your next door neighbor yet this year.
6. You check the ingredients on a can of chicken noodle soup to see if it is low-carb.
7. Your grandmother asks you to send her a JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screen saver.
8. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
9. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 years of your life, is cause for panic and turning around to go get it.
10. Cleaning up the dining room means getting the fast food bags out of the back seat of your car.
11. Your reason for not staying in touch with family is that they do not have e-mail addresses.
12. You consider second-day air delivery painfully slow.
13. Your dining room table is now your flat filing cabinet.
14. Your idea of being organized is multiple-coloured Post-it notes.
15. You hear most of your jokes via e-mail instead of in person.
16. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls.
17. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.
18. You wake up at 2 am to go to the bathroom and check your e-mail on your way back to bed.

It is a recurring nightmare:

Months or years from now, long after we have won the battle to keep Terri alive, her painful and agonizingly slow therapy reaches the point where she is finally able to think clearly and speak for herself. It is a great day: all who have prayed for her and followed her dramatic, near-tragic saga eagerly await her first words. And then they come:

“Why didn’t you let me die? Why have you made me endure this pain and suffering? I wanted to die! I still want to die!”

Then I wake up.

Until today, you would have searched this blog in vain to find any mention of Terri Schiavo and the nightmare that she and her parents are actually living. It’s not that I haven’t followed her real-life - and possibly real-death - story, it’s just that I didn’t have anything to add that hadn’t already been stated. Maybe that is still true: maybe others have expressed what I’m trying to convey here. But I haven’t seen it.

What follows is not an indictment or accusation of anyone who is fighting and praying for Terri. By comparison, I have done little for her. And, as far as I know, no one has lost perspective in the battle. What I am saying is meant only as a reminder, not as a rebuke; a caution, not a correction.

I hope Terri has the chance someday to speak for herself. The idea that her bottom-feeding husband has the right to murder her is comprehensible only in a godless society such as ours. What was the sin of Sodom? Oh, yes: “she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy” (Ezek 16.49). Our job is to care for those who are unable to care for themselves and to protect them from the predators of the world, not kill them off because they’re inconvenient, in the way, or “non-productive” members of society.

But then there’s my nightmare ending. If that were to happen, then Terri would suddenly go from being a cause in the eyes of Christians to being an enemy and someone to be resisted. From darling to damned in a matter of minutes.

I have no reason to expect anything like this to happen. Even her alleged comments to her husband don’t mean anything. Life looks very different when you’re clinging to it rather than experiencing it vicariously on television. In all likelihood, if Terri is allowed to live (what a strange predicament!), she will be thrilled and thankful.

But the Christian community must see past Terri and remain focused on the bigger issue, which is that life is valuable and not to be dismissed casually. Right now that principle has a face - a lovely, endearing face - but the principle has been around long before Terri and will be around after her, too. We are not fighting for a life but for life itself. Terri is important because she has life; life is not important simply because it happens to belong to her and is threatened at the present time. Terri’s life is no more - or no less - important than the lives of the thousands of children dying in the Sudan. Life is the issue.

All life is valuable and important. We must fight for Terri because her life is in immediate danger. We would do well to remember, however, that the issue is life in general, not “just” Terri’s in particular. We have to stay focused on life: Terri’s and everybody else’s life, too.

My post below recounted the miraculous survival of 400 worshiping Christians during the Christmas Day tsunami that devastated their city. Urban Legends, in the quote that follows, says it is a myth, although they have not yet contacted Bill Hekman - who can certainly affirm or debunk the story. Hekman’s church, however, has put a disclaimer on its website (CALVARY LIFE FELLOWSHIP) stating that the story is fictional.

“It is a wonderful story, a parable for our times. Unfortunately, the facts do not support it.

“After the tsunamis, disaster teams moved into the city of Meulaboh as quickly as they could get there, both to bring relief to the surviving inhabitants and to establish one of the two major aid distribution points for Aceh province (Banda Aceh is the other). Even amid all the chaos, the return of 400 people would not have gone unnoticed, nor would their story of having been away worshipping on a mountaintop when the waves came in have gone unrepeated.

“Yet despite the immediate presence of aid workers from around the world who came to help distribute supplies, a great many of whom were Christian and who would have been happy to trumpet any good news from the site of the disaster, the story did not surface. The press failed to pick it up too — not so much as one of those 400 supposedly spared told his tale of salvation to any of the reporters there to cover the devastation. Some might be tempted to attribute this dearth of news coverage to a lack of interest on the part of a secular press far more fascinated by other aspects of the disaster. Yet that would not explain how the Catholic News Service could on 24 January 2005 manage to produce this article on conditions in Meulaboh yet fail to mention the miraculous survival of the city’s Christians.

“The account of the 400 Christians who left Meulaboh to celebrate Christmas on a nearby mountain often lists Pastor Willem (Bill) Hekman of the Calvary Life Fellowship in Indonesia as its author. While we can confirm that a person of such name is a pastor with that organization and that the e-mail address often provided with the chronicle is associated with him, we cannot as yet establish that he is indeed the author of the piece. Our e-mailed query to him about his possible involvement with the tale has so far gone unanswered. (Which, given the state of things in Indonesia at the moment, is hardly surprising.)”

UL says it is a myth, and so it would appear. But as I said in my earlier post, whether it is a true story or not, Christians do need to display far more humility and far less entitlement and demandingness in life. We are seeking another city, whose builder and architect is God (HEB 11.10), and are but ambassadors for our King in this present life. We have no genuine rights or responsibilities other than those that He has given to us; we have work to do, not rights to claim for ourselves (LK 17.7-10).

My wife forwarded me the following email, which is currently making the rounds. As to its veracity, I cannot attest; I do know, however, that Willem (”Bill”) Hekman is the pastor of the church.

We know that 80% of the town of Meulaboh in Aceh was destroyed by the Tsunami waves and 80% of the people also died. This is one of the towns that was hit the hardest.

But there is a fantastic testimony from Meulaboh.

In that town are about 400 Christians. They wanted to celebrate Christmas on December 25th but were not allowed to do so by the Muslims of Meulaboh. They were told if they wanted to celebrate Christmas they needed to go outside the city of Meulaboh on a high hill and there celebrate Christmas.

Because the Christians desired to celebrate Christmas, the 400 believers left the city on December 25th and after they celebrated Christmas they stayed overnight on the hill.

As we all know, the morning of December 26 there was the earthquake followed by the Tsunami waves destroying most of the city of Meulaboh and thousands were killed. The 400 believers were on the mountain and were all saved from destruction.

Now the Muslims of Meulaboh are saying that the God of the Christians punished us for forbidding the Christians from celebrating Christmas in the city. Others are questioning why so many Muslims died while not even one of the Christians died there.

Had the Christians insisted on their rights to celebrate Christmas in the city, they would have all died. But because they humbled themselves and followed the advice of the Muslims they all were spared destruction and can now testify of God’s marvelous protection.

This is a testimony of the grace of God and the fact that as believers we have no rights in the world. Our right is to come before God and commit our lives to Him. Our right is kneeling down before the Lord almighty and commiting our ways to Him. He is our Father and is very capable to care for His children. Praise the Name of the Lord.

Bill Hekman
Pastor, Calvary Life Fellowship in Indonesia

Again, whether the story is true or not I do not know with certainty. But true or not, the point is absolutely on target: if we truly believe that God is in control, then we will be humble and accept whatever life offers or gives to us.

Christianity Today’s WEBLOG from Friday has a number of links to excellent articles and essays online, such as Pastor James L. Evans’ balanced call to reconsider the value of a taboo subject (”CONSIDER TRACK RECORD OF SOCIAL GOSPEL“). Evans writes,

“Clearly there is a personal side to religious devotion. Spiritual truth and discipline begin as individual decisions, but they survive and thrive because of the support of a believing community. We may see ourselves as lonely pilgrims on a journey of faith, but if we look around, the traffic is pretty heavy on the road we travel.

“Frightening powers of hate and greed and prejudice thrive in our society and have an impact on us greater than our individual efforts to resist them. Only a force of equal or greater strength will be able to stare these demons down. I believe that force is found in a believing community committed to both personal piety and social justice.”

There’s also a link to an article from the Detroit Free Press that asks, “WHAT IS AN EVANGELICAL?” The author provides some good insight into the history and development of the term:

“The way ‘evangelical’ is used today was shaped in part by a coalition of Protestants — including the Rev. Billy Graham — who began calling themselves evangelicals to separate themselves from the Christian fundamentalist movement of the 1920s and ’30s. Christian fundamentalism began in the late 19th century among American Protestants reacting against all things modern. That movement was — and largely is — characterized by an anti-intellectual, separatist mentality that attempts to keep the church apart from culture. Graham and other post-World War II ‘evangelicals’ wanted to engage culture to spread the gospel.

“Today, ‘evangelical’ has as many intended meanings as there are evangelical congregations, which is why it’s so difficult to accurately count how many evangelicals there are. Different pollsters find different counts — between 7 percent and 47 percent — depending on how they define ‘evangelical.’ Most scholars say the evangelical population of the United States is about 25 percent.”

There’s a link to a quite interesting story about Rabbi Irving Greenberg (”YOUR MESSIAH OR MINE?).

“Noting the world’s 1.7 billion Christians and 14 million Jews, he said Jews must ask if ‘all of these people are stupid and so spiritually and intellectually unsophisticated that they can be sold a bill of goods.’

“In turn, Christians, he said, must inquire of Judaism, ‘If this religion was meant to be replaced, to go on and pass on, then how can one account for the fact that a religion that is 3,500 years old is not only alive but going through a great renaissance and rebirth with all its crises?’”

In a related but quite different vein, THE JERUSALEM POST calls attention to a soon-to-be-released by Knesset member and Rabbi MK Elon. The Post provides some insight into the rabbi’s view of evangelicals:

“‘The state hasn’t done enough to reach out to our strategic partners, the Christian lovers of Israel,’ Elon said. ‘Whoever knows the Bible is aware that our role is to be a light unto the nations, so it is our responsibility to reach out to the Christians as part of our redemption process.’

“Elon blamed the lack of outreach to Christians on a combination of the troubled history of Christian anti-Semitism, an exaggerated fear of missionaries and what he called ‘the cynical political reasons of people not on the Right.’ He said that as a rabbi, he had no problem talking to evangelicals, because ‘I am secure with my Judaism and I know who my messiah is.’”

One needs to be careful about confusing security and certainty with reality. (I have written HERE and HERE on the love affair of evangelicals with political Israel.)

Finally, THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER reports on a survey that studied the effect of religious beliefs on behavior.

“A new study of more than 3,000 teenagers and their parents, the most comprehensive research ever done on faith and adolescence, finds a teen nation where more than four in five youths say religion is important in their lives. But the survey also indicated that many teens know little about their religion and many activities compete for their time.

“Among religiously active teens like Mike Laheta — those who attend services weekly and belong to a youth group — their faith appears to be making a significant difference in their behavior.”

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” - Pr 27.6
“Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.” - Pr 25.18
“Like a trampled spring and a polluted well Is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.” - Pr 25.26
“Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, ‘Was I not joking?’” - Pr 26.18-19

It’s always difficult to know which one applies, isn’t it? And to whom it applies.

Well, it appears that I have certainly stuck my thumb in more than a few eyes with my post “The Vast Godblog Wasteland.” This was not my intent, although in retrospect I see that it was inevitable.

What follows is a response I made to the charge of being an elitist (and, elsewhere, un-American for supposedly calling for “censorship”). The accused-tried-convicted post is entitled, “VIEW FROM THE PEW Breaking News: A blogsphere [sic] for the elite?” It appears on “A site dedicated to the thoughtful criticism and understanding of contemporary wisdom and folly without judging the motives or intentions of any specific individual. As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another. Please feel free to understand and then criticize back.” I have encouraged the author to establish a trackback so anyone can read it firsthand.

(I will admit from the beginning that some of the criticisms in the aforementioned post were valid. I also admit that it pushed a few of my many buttons. Self-serving, self-analysis follows: as a counselor, I all-too-often am left to pick up the pieces after someone’s faith is shattered by false teaching. I feel like the guy who sweeps up after the Circus-of-Poor-Theology Parade passes by. So I know I am overreacting. Maybe. But, as one of my profs once said, “God can use your pathology. Well, He’s got plenty to use with me!)

I am posting this to help clarify my intent because I may have offended some who did not understand what I was trying to say. As will become apparent, I take responsibility for that. (I have corrected some typos and changed a word here and there. The essence of my reply, though, I think remains the same.)

David:

Yours is the first negative feedback I’ve gotten, but it is instructive: the positive feedback has been from those who (a) have read my blog frequently, (b) have interacted with me via emails or comments I left on their posts, or (c) both.

After reading your somewhat-scathing review of my post, I realized that I had written with a particular audience in mind: those who “know” me. I completely failed to read my post through the eyes of those who don’t know me. That was a serious oversight on my part.

I obviously should have emphasized some points that (in retrospect) were made only in passing. For example, I wrote regarding the people on my “A” list that “they have either paid their dues and sharpened their skills through seminary, intense personal study, or both.” Paying dues and intense personal study are sufficient - and sometimes superior - substitutes for seminary. Most on my “approved list” have never been to seminary. But they do have good bible study skills and it is evident in their writing, which reflects some scholarship and serious thought.

I’ve been to seminary - twice - and taught as a graduate assistant at Denver Seminary. Trust me: just because someone’s been to seminary does not mean they have something to say or that they are diligent about “rightly dividing the word of truth.” A lot of my own theological study was done before I went to Denver at the age of 33 - oh, so many (20+) years ago.

I regret that I was not more careful in how I said what I said. All but a handful of my friends have never been to seminary or Bible college, but I have learned immensely from them - from their insights into Scripture, but even more through the Christ-like lives they live.

I think your charge of me being an “elitist” is mistaken; I also think your editing of my post accomplished how you wanted to make me appear, not necessarily what I was saying. Clarifying remarks or obvious satire were left out, thus giving quite a different tone to my remarks. Again, I take some responsibility for the mis-reading: if you’re not familiar with me, then you’re going to miss my attempts at dry humor aimed at my own issues. I am sorry that I did not take that into account.

But I am not at all apologetic for trying to raise the bar: many of the embarrassing talking heads for Christendom make ludicrous statements because they have not done their homework. Issues are proof-texted and all Christians wind up getting painted with a wide, dirty brush. I’ll not apologize for wanting to curtail that.

What you call “elitism,” I call scholarship or expertise. Who preaches in your church? Someone trained in bible study methods, or someone who thinks they have found something “new and exciting” based on their own imaginations? The Old Testament and New are pretty clear about being careful what you listen to, testing any messenger who claims to speak for God, and searching the Scriptures to see if these things be so.

If calling for the Blogdom of God to do likewise - and to have a way to identify the more careful scholars out there - if that sort of call is wrong in the eyes of some, then I’m happy to be wrong. I think I have some biblical support for being “wrong” in the eyes and personal opinions of others. Around the world, it has been said, America is known for exporting two things: Coca-Cola and Cults. Think about it: where have most Christian cults originated? The blogosphere only makes the exportation of distortions of our faith that much easier.

Is freedom of speech really a higher value than accurately presenting the nature of God? I, for one, don’t think so. Given the harsh consequences in the Bible for misrepresenting God, it would seem that He is not so big on irresponsible speech, either.

In closing, my purpose in my post was this: to protect young and undiscerning Christians from bad theology and misunderstanding about who God is. If I’m an elitist in your eyes (or anybody else’s), then so be it: “Here I write. I can do no other. God help me” (with apologies to Martin Luther).

Reading it now, there are a couple of points I would add. The first is this: if you needed to have brain surgery, would you go to someone trained and qualified to do the surgery, or just to someone who had a scalpel and a copy of Grey’s Anatomy? Which is more important to you: your physical health or your spiritual health?

I would also include a story about John Wesley that I will try to reconstruct. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I hope it is. Here goes:

John Wesley was once approached by a man who said, “God told me to tell you that He don’t need none of your fancy knowledge and book learning.” “I’m sure that is true,” replied Wesley, “but neither does He need your ignorance.”

We are ambassadors for Christ, entrusted with a gospel of salvation. Is it not worth getting it as correct and accurate as possible? I know we will disagree; I enjoy reading the considered positions of others. I do not have an inspired theology. Because of that, I study and am as careful as possible to represent Jesus Christ as He truly, not how I imagine Him or might want Hiim to be.