Tag: Gospel

This is the third and final blog in which I discuss a Christian attitude to differences in race (ethnicity), culture and religion.  When it comes to race – embrace!  When it comes to culture – embrace the good!  What about the various religions?  What should our attitude be towards people of differing belief?

Over the centuries the attitudes and actions of people of various faiths have been nothing short of atrocious towards each other – and nothing much has changed.  Today Christians are the most persecuted people in the world predominantly by communism (North Korea is the worst) and radical Islam.  According to Open Doors, “Overwhelmingly, the main engine driving persecution of Christians in 36 of the top 50 countries is Islamic extremism.”  In today’s world we see all manner of persecution enacted upon people of faith by people of faith.  Once again Acts 17 gives us some good insight into what a proper attitude should be.

In these verses Paul the apostle affirms that God is everywhere, that we are all His offspring or children (28-29) and that “he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”  The apostle quotes two famous Greek philosophers (Aratus and Epimenides) in order to point them to Jesus, the one true God.

Aratus in his work entitled Phaenomena 1-5 stated: “Let us begin with Zeus whom we mortals never leave unspoken. For every street, every market place is filled with Zeus. Even the sea and the harbors are full of his deity. Everywhere, everyone is indebted to Zeus. For we are indeed his offspring.”

Epimenides, in his work Cretica, wrote, “They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one. The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!  But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever, for in thee we live and move and have our being.”  Paul uses the poet’s words to introduce the Greeks to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In the 6th century B.C., when the poet Epimenides lived, there was a plague which went throughout all Greece. The Greeks thought that they must have offended one of their gods, so they began offering sacrifices on altars to all their various gods. When nothing worked they figured there must be a God who they didn’t know about whom they must somehow appease.

So Epimenides came up with a plan. He released hungry sheep into the countryside and instructed men to follow the sheep to see where they would lie down. He believed that since hungry sheep would not naturally lie down but continue to graze, if the sheep were to lie down it would be a sign from God that this place was sacred. At each spot where the sheep tired and laid down the Athenians built an altar and sacrificed the sheep on it. Afterward it is believed the plague stopped which they attributed to this unknown God accepting the sacrifice.

Paul tried to convey to them that the unknown God was the true God, Jesus Christ: the God who created all things and every person.  He then goes on to give a gentle but firm rebuke of man-made religion. It is of “man’s design” and Paul refers to it as “ignorance” that God once overlooked – but no longer!  God is not looking at our religion – He’s interested in relationship.  His desire is that we would “seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”  More importantly God has already reached out to us in the tangible person of Jesus Christ.

Christians are called to a life of love and tolerance towards others.  Jesus told the story of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10) to demonstrate that his people should love, respect, and help people regardless of their race, culture or religion.  But that doesn’t mean that we agree with what others believe or do.  Christianity is not just tolerant it is also exclusive.  Jesus made it clear when he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  Acts 4:12 also states this truth plainly, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”  Paul makes it clear as well: “God … commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man [Jesus] he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30b-31).

The Romans thought, “All roads might lead to Rome,” but all religions don’t lead to God.  As a Christian I strongly believe that Jesus is the one and only way.  But that doesn’t stop me from being respectful, kind, helpful and loving towards those who believe differently.  So …

When it comes to race – embrace!

When it comes to culture – embrace the good!

When it comes to religion – embrace the person!

That’s what Paul did on Mars Hill in Athens as he found some common ground with these highly religious people and shared the good news with them.  It would do us well to do the same!

In my last blog I outlined what I believe is a Christian response towards people of different races.  I summarised my thoughts in the statement, “When it comes to race – embrace!”  In this blog I want to answer the question, “What is a Christian attitude toward people of other cultures?”

Acts 17 affirms not just the unity of the human race but also the diversity of ethnic cultures: “From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.”  This refers to God’s original command to the first people to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth!”  As groups of people settled in different parts of the earth, not only did different races develop but also distinctive cultures.

“Culture” is defined as “The collection of beliefs, values and customs developed by each society and transmitted to the next generation.”  As we examine the varieties of cultures we find two things:

They’re not all bad. All people are made in the image of God and thus all people reflect that image to some extent through their culture.  Some culture is rich in beauty and goodness.  Of the many things I love about our multicultural society in Australia are all the varieties of food we enjoy from different nations.

In the book of Revelation chapter 21 the apostle John sees visions of the world to come: “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.”  The splendor and glory of the nations refers to the good things that emanate from each of them.  If culture will enrich human life and community in eternity then surely it can do the same now!  We can enhance our lives by experiencing the good in things – the tastes, the sounds, the colour – in various cultures.

The second thing we find when examining other cultures is they’re not all good.  All people are made in the image of God but that image has been marred by disobedience to God.  Because of this some aspects of various cultures are tainted and some of it is just plain evil.  An example of this is female circumcision.  The World Health Organization estimates that three million girls and women a year are at risk of mutilation (approximately 8000 girls per day). This occurs mainly in Africa and in a few countries in the Middle East, Asia and among certain ethnic groups in Central and South America.  Any aspects of a culture that lead to discrimination, alienation, poverty or a denial of basic human rights should be actively opposed.

The answer to determining whether culture is good or bad is to test it.  The Bible encourages us to “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).  So, when it comes to race – embrace!  When it comes to culture – embrace the good!

What about the various religions?  I’ll discuss that next week!

I recently read with interest about a British Street evangelist, Mike Overd, who is being prosecuted for an alleged religious aggravation public order offence.

According to CharismaNews, the charges follow a complaint to police in Taunton that Overd made a comparison between the perfect life of Jesus and the life of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad. A Taunton police sergeant recently gave an interview to BBC television and a newspaper locally, urging residents to film the evangelist’s preaching as it was alleged that Overd’s preaching was “causing offense.” The officer has also asked local traders to film Overd if they believed he was preaching “offensively.”

Overd insists that when he made a comparison between the perfect life of Jesus and the life led by Muhammad, he did not speak in a hateful way. “It was a simple comparison and it was factual. Muhammad did marry a 9-year-old girl. I have no hatred of Muslims in me at all and only preach the truth of the gospel. Recently a Muslim man came to my defense when I was preaching and a local shopkeeper started to shout at me. The Muslim gentleman didn’t take offense because he said he knew I was simply preaching what I believed and agreed there was no hatred in me. I’ve got this incident on video, and I also have video evidence of the incidents which have led to this forthcoming prosecution.” Overd has been told his case will come to court before the end of this year.

Now in no way do I stand in judgment of Mike Overd (Romans 14:4) but I am intrigued as to why a Christian preacher would use an obviously inflammatory example in his message. He says, “I only preach the truth of the gospel.”  But is that correct? Is a comparison between Jesus and Muhammad actually preaching the truth of the gospel? I think not. It’s also a mistake to judge all history through 21st Century Western eyes.

It’s true that Muhammad married Aisha when she was six or seven years old.  She was nine or ten when the marriage was consummated (according to Sunni scriptural Hadith sources). Muhammad had 19 wives and concubines. Child marriage was not uncommon in many places at the time, Arabia included. It often served political purposes. These days we view this as wrong (and rightly so) but those who lived in other cultures in times past didn’t see it that way.

Muhammad was not unlike some of the great people of faith in the Hebrew Scriptures: Moses, Gideon and Jacob for example. David had at least eight wives (probably many more). Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (this was long before credit cards). When Jesus came along He refocused people back on God’s original plan for marriage:“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19:4-5).

Mary was probably pledged to marry Joseph before she turned 13 (the age a child became an adult) and since she hadn’t married him before she became pregnant, she probably wasn’t much older than 14 when Jesus was born.

So, is a comparison between Jesus and Muhammad necessary – or helpful – to preaching the Good News? The simple answer is “no.” The Good News of Jesus is simply that – Good News. That’s what “Gospel” means. It’s good news because Jesus died on a cross to pay the price for all that we have done wrong. He rose from the dead to defeat death and fully pardon all people who place their trust in Him for salvation. The Christian message is a simple message of God forgiving people. It’s a life changing truth and it shouldn’t be complicated with unnecessary illustrations that serve to cloud the good news and repel people who God loves and for whom Jesus died.

I would count well-known British atheist Richard Dawkins amongst the least likely of all people to be a promoter of real Christianity.  After all, he was the man who, earlier this year, described religion as a “cop-out.”  He went on to say, “It is a betrayal of the intellect, a betrayal of all that’s best about what makes us human.  It’s a phony substitute for an explanation, which seems to answer the question until you examine it and realise that it does no such thing … It peddles false explanations where real explanations could have been offered, false explanations that get in the way of the enterprise of discovering real explanations.”

In the light of this I find it interesting that, while speaking at a literature festival in Wales this week, professor Dawkins admitted that while he surely doesn’t believe in the supernatural elements of Christianity, he wouldn’t mind being called “a secular Christian.”

Dawkins was responding to an American Christian minister, who was part of the audience and told the 73-year-old evolutionary biologist that he doesn’t believe in miracles any longer but still sees himself as a Christian.  I am fascinated by Richard Dawkin’s response: “But if you don’t have the supernatural, it’s not clear to me why you would call yourself a minister.”

I find it fascinating because, of all the voices God could have used to bring correction to this “Christian Minister,” He used one of the world’s most well known atheists.  Richard Dawkins, who doesn’t believe in God or the supernatural world, recognises enough about real Christianity to know that, by its very nature, if it were true, it would have to be supernatural.  Let’s face it, the entire Christian faith hangs on the belief that God raised Jesus from the dead after he had been dead for three days.

And further to that the Bible is absolutely jam-packed with miracles from start to finish – from the creation of the world through to the parting of the Red Sea through to all the miracles of the prophets and Jesus and the first century church.  In fact the apostle Paul didn’t consider that he had fully preached the gospel unless miracles were present: “… in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:19).

And miracles are still active in churches and in the lives of Christians today.  Even last Sunday morning, as we were praying for people at Bayside Church, I went and laid hands on one of the guys who had come forward for prayer.  I felt God’s power flow through me into him.  The next day he sent me this note of Facebook:

Hi Ps Rob, thank you for standing with me yesterday, I was standing for my mother who is in hospital with congestive heart failure and some internal bleeding.   I was waiting word from the doctor regarding my return home to see her and felt the need to stand and pray for her.  
I received word today that her heart is strong, the bleeding has all but stopped and the swelling in her legs is gone (it has been years since we have seen her ankles).  She should be released from the hospital later this week. 
  Praise God!  Thank you for standing in agreement with me yesterday, I told my mum about it when we spoke yesterday and she asked me this morning to send her thanks to you for your prayers.  She is a big believer in the power of prayer.

And this is just one example of the many miracles that we see and hear about in our church community on a regular basis.

I thank God for His miracle-working power that is still at work in people’s lives today, and one of the miracles I’ve experienced this week is that, for once, I actually find myself agreeing with Richard Dawkins: “But if you don’t have the supernatural, it’s not clear to me why you would call yourself a minister.”  Spot on professor!

I love the perspective that children have on things.  Check out these comments from some kids when they were asked what happened on Good Friday?  And why did Jesus have to die?

“Jesus had to die because the Prime Minister didn’t like him. He didn’t like him because everybody liked Jesus and nobody liked the Prime Minister. At Easter, we have eggs because chickens are born at Easter time” (Bella, 7).

“We have chocolate eggs to celebrate Easter because the tomb was empty and most eggs are hollow, except when they have chocolate buttons in them” (Piers, 8).

“Jesus died because of God’s love and at Easter time we have eggs because they are a sign of new life. They’re made of chocolate because chocolate is really nice and Jesus was a really kind person” (Molly, 8).

What did happen on Good Friday?  And why did Jesus have to die? If Jesus died on this day then why is it called GOOD?

It’s important to know that it was, in fact, religion that killed Jesus.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were jealous of the support and following that Jesus had and so they plotted a way to get rid of him – and they succeeded (for three days!)  Not much has changed; religion is still trying to kill Jesus today.  In fact, some religious institutions kill Jesus every week – some kill him every year.

This is highlighted in a response to a blog I wrote over a year ago.  Speaking of Good Friday the person wrote:“This is the day of the year that I wish would end quickly for it is a day of mourning and grief. Every minute of this day I am constantly thinking about His suffering. We call this day good only because of ourselves. We are to die with Him on this day … on this day of remembrance, mourning, and grief, are we not going to remember, mourn, and grieve? Sadly, for most people they will not remember, they will not mourn, and they will not grieve … on this day of sadness, I hope the Lord keeps me a little more subdued and a little more humble. For Christ died on this day of darkness and I am grieving a bit now…”

But what does the Bible say about Jesus sacrifice?
Hebrews 7:27, “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”

Hebrews 9:26, “Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

Hebrews 9:28, “so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Hebrews 10:10, “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Get the message?

Jesus doesn’t need to die again every week or every year.  His death on the cross two thousand years ago was enough.  On the cross, Jesus took the punishment that belonged to us.  We are the ones who have broken God’s Law.  We deserved to be punished.  But in his love and mercy, Jesus bore our punishment for us. The sacrifice he made was enough and to prove that is was, three days later God raised Jesus from the dead – and he didn’t die again.  That’s why Good Friday is GOOD!

My prayer for you this Easter is that you will come to know, appreciate and experience the power and value of the sacrifice Jesus has made for you on the cross.

Some years ago, a 14-foot bronze crucifix was stolen from Calvary Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. It had stood at the entrance to that cemetery for more than 50 years. The cross was put there in 1930 by a Catholic bishop and had been valued at the time at $10,000. The thieves apparently cut it off at its base and hauled it off in a pick-up. Police speculate that they cut it into small pieces and sold it for scrap for about $450.  They obviously didn’t realize the value of that cross.  May we not be so blind!

 

With growth come many benefits.  With the benefits come countless responsibilities and complexities.  And it is these things that sometimes make us look back with longing for the simpler, less complex days.  And here lies the challenge as we grow to Christian adulthood – what was once simple and uncluttered becomes complex and chaotic.

It was this dilemma that the apostle Paul addressed when he wrote these words to the Corinthian Christians who had complicated their faith: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).  I love those words: “the simplicity that is in Christ.”  The simple message that even a child can understand.

That’s why, when Jesus was asked by His disciples, “who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  Jesus called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus’ disciples were jostling for position – grown men acting in a childish way.  Jesus reminds them that even as they grow into maturity they are never lose their childlike qualities.

I have been studying the Bible for over 30 years.  It’s an amazing and life-changing book but it’s not all easy to understand. One of Jesus’ disciples acknowledged this in his second epistle referring to the writings of Paul, “His letters contain some things that are hard to understand…” (2 Peter 3:16)

I love the story of Karl Barth who is often regarded as the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century.  His prolific theological studies and writings shaped a century and were instrumental in combating liberal theology.  His commentary, “The epistle to the Romans” is considered by many to be one of the most important theological treatises of all time.  Barth’s theology found its most sustained and compelling expression through his thirteen-volume magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics that is widely regarded as one of the most important theological works of the century. The Church Dogmatics runs to over six million words and 8,000 pages and is one of the longest works of systematic theology ever written.

And yet when Karl Barth was at Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago during his lecture tour of the U.S. in 1962, after his lecture, during the Q & A time, a student asked him if he could summarize his whole life’s work in theology in a sentence. Barth responded, “Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Karl Barth, a man of great learning, understanding and maturity had not lost touch with the simple gospel – a message so simple that even a child can understand it.

I’ve heard that possums are smart animals. You wouldn’t think so because you hardly ever see one except when it’s dead on the road. There’s a joke that goes, “why did the chicken cross the road? To prove to the possum that it could be done!” 

But possums, it turns out, are smart. They won’t enter a hole if there’s just one set of tracks going into it. They know there’s something in there. But if there are two sets of tracks – the other set coming out – the possum will enter and not be afraid.

And that’s the message of Easter. It’s because of Jesus we can enter the grave – we don’t have to fear death because there are tracks leading out of the tomb.

The apostle Paul preached the proclamation of Easter: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?”Everywhere God has hidden the message of His Gospel in creation.  From the humble possum we can learn this message.  Jesus entered the tomb on the first Good Friday – and three days later he walked out. Jesus has risen.  And because of Him we shall rise too!

Many people have completely the wrong idea about Christianity and what it means to be a Christian. The sad fact is often they get this wrong idea from Christians!  Let me explain…

Many people I speak with think that being a Christian is about being a “good” person and living a “good” life.  This message is communicated when the church takes on the role of moral policeman for society – thinking that its main role is to say what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour for everyone – even those who don’t consider themselves to be Christian.

The problem is that this moral message gets in the way of the church’s real message – the gospel, which is good news.  Some Christians are so busy trying to clean up others’ lives by Christianising them that they miss their real mission – that of evangelizing by sharing the true gospel.  The message of the moral police actually drives a wedge between Christians and the world that God loves.

Jesus didn’t behave this way so why has so much of the church bought into the lie that we are here to moralise and Christianise rather than evangelise?  It’s like trying to clean a fish before you’ve caught it.  Jesus hung around with all sorts of people who had been regularly rejected by the religious crowd of his day (see Mark 2:13-17).  The religious right, who did not understand such love and acceptance, scorned him.

God gave the same message to the Hebrews who had been taken into captivity to Babylon in 597 BC (see Jeremiah 29:4-14).  Jeremiah 29 is a letter to the exiles giving instructions on how God’s people are to live when they are foreigners in a strange land.  And what a strange place Babylon was! It was the place where astrology, and other occult practices, was developed. In their worship system, they had 37 supreme gods, and one of these, the god associated with the sun, was supreme over all the other gods. These people believed that numbers in some way had power over the gods they worshiped. They counted their gods and assigned a count number to each of the 36 lesser supreme gods, and then added up all of these numbers (from one to 36) and assigned the sum to the sun god – 666. They also practiced Knot Magic: The belief that tying and untying knots could cure all manner of illnesses.

In light of these and other strange and immoral practices you’d think that God would instruct his people to make banners and hold protest marches down the streets of Babylon – “Down with Knot Magic!” “God hates 666.”  “Astrologers will go to hell!”

But the message from God was very different.  God instructed his people to “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  “Peace and prosperity” is the Hebrew word “shalom” which includes things like safety, happiness, friendliness, welfare, health, prosperity, peace, contentment, completeness, soundness and restoration.  This was the impact God’s people were to have on Babylon – this is the impact the church is meant to have on the world today!

Christians are not called to live as conspirators banded together against the world that is for the time their home.  Rather Jesus calls his people to live as salt and light “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Recently, a well-known Australian passed away.  He was a good man most of the time – a man who grew an amazing business to become one of Australia’s wealthiest people.  A man who gave generously to many worthy causes and made an incredible difference as a result.

But this good man, like the rest of us, also did some bad things – he cheated on his wife and was embroiled in some dodgy business practices.

After his death there were the usual tributes. One family friend’s comments particularly interested me. The comments were along the line of, “He did some bad things but the good he did canceled out the bad.”

Many people I’ve spoken to over the years have this viewpoint of the justice of God. We all do “bad stuff” but we’re basically good people and as long as you do more good stuff than bad, then God will let you into heaven. I find it fascinating that our fuzzy view of a loving God distorts our view of justice.

Imagine the public outcry if our judicial system worked that way. Picture this: someone is convicted of a serious crime. In sentencing the judge says, “I’ve looked at your life and you’ve done a lot of good so I’m letting you go without punishment. Try and be better from now on, there’s a good chap!” There would be media frenzy. The victim’s family and friends would be sobbing, angry, bitter – “why this lack of justice?”

If on a human level we expect justice then why not on a divine level? If good deeds don’t cancel out bad in society why would God operate any differently? God is love and He is also just – and you can’t have one without the other.

Every human being has goodness because we are made in God’s image; but every human being is also imperfect – we have all broken God’s laws and deserve to be punished. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Jesus came and took our punishment for us – the judgment of God placed on Jesus so that all those who accept His sacrifice can go free. That’s the heart of the Christian message – not a message of fuzzy love but a message of love and justice – and an offer that’s really too good to refuse. So why would you?

One of last year’s biggest selling books was The God Delusion by prominent British atheist Richard Dawkins. In the preface Professor Dawkins states his purpose – to convert religious people to atheism.

Well, he’s now promoting his atheist gospel again by endorsing an advertising campaign on London Buses declaring the slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The slogan started as an aside comment from a comedian in response to a church campaign that pointed people to a website that indicated they’d be going to hell if they didn’t believe in God. The comedian suggested a response to “assure people”, which was picked up by Richard Dawkins and has ultimately generated funding from the general public for about $50,000 in donations.

Professor Dawkins says: “Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride – automatic tax breaks, unearned ‘respect’ and the right not to be ‘offended’ … even on the buses, nobody thinks twice when they see a religious slogan plastered across the side. This campaign – to put alternative slogans on London buses – will make people think; and thinking is anathema to religion.”

I agree with some of Professor Dawkins’ statements especially about the importance of making people think. Being a Christian doesn’t mean a compulsory lobotomy. I also like the honesty of the slogan: “There’s probably no God …” – even atheists aren’t sure if there is one!

The biggest issue is the mistake certain churches have made to run religious ads that “threaten eternal damnation”. When are they going to wake up to the message Jesus came to proclaim? The message (the gospel) is GOOD news. A person being damned is not. The first message Jesus taught was that He had come to proclaim the time of God’s favor; the season when God would accept all people just the way they are (see Luke 4:19). Jesus made it clear that salvation is for the whole world. He also stated that His purpose was not to judge or condemn people (John 3:16-17; 12:47), but to save them.

Why does the church feel it has the freedom to preach another gospel, which is not a gospel at all? If they had been smart the church would now be running a campaign on London buses with the slogan: “There’s probably a God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” But we’re not that smart yet are we?