“Questioning everything is foolish,” say others.  “All you do with your questioning is cause people to doubt and give a foothold to the devil.  Better to believe without wavering, and to communicate the truth of God in power.  Raising questions only distracts us from having faith in what we know to be true.”

So who is right?  Neither one.  Listen to John, who gives us a better way in 1 John 4:1:  “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  The Biblical way is not to resist questioning, nor is it to question everything; the Biblical way is to test everything.

This truth has been important for me to reflect on recently.  I am someone who is content with mystery, not afraid to raise things for questioning, and not afraid to critically examine things of this world or things of God.  I have found that while some question out of a skeptical nature, I am probably more likely to question out of a fear of coming down with one interpretation, or out of a reluctance to commit myself to finding the answer.  While I am thankful for my fearlessness when it comes to raising questions and trying to understand the complicated parts of the faith, I know that I always need to check myself to make sure that I am not just questioning for the sake of questioning, but doing what John teaches:  “testing the spirits.” 

What is the difference between questioning and testing?  Testing something starts with questioning it, critiquing it, and not just accepting that it’s true because someone who claims to be speaking for God said it.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Ultimately, testing the spirits is taking what is said and measuring it against the Bible.  In 1 John 4, John is writing to a church that is being influenced by Gnostic teachers who, because of their belief that all matter is evil, are teaching that Jesus did not really have a human body.  So, John continues in 1 John 4:2-4 to say, “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”  For John’s church, a false prophet was one who did not acknowledge that Jesus had come in the flesh from God.  In our day, there can also be many false prophets and teachers who claim to be speaking for God but whose words do not line up with what the Bible has to say.

Of course, for every person who is not afraid of questions but sometimes neglects to actually test that question against Scripture, there is someone who is leery of questions altogether.  There are plenty of Christians who like to keep God inside their theological boxes, and are afraid that questions will only complicate things and cause people to lose faith in God.  This is a valid concern, of course, for some can not handle a complicated God.  But unfortunately, a quick tour through any part of the Bible reveals a God that is more complicated than our Sunday School teachers ever told us.  The story of Noah’s ark is more than a cute story about animals and God’s protection; just ask the man whose family is drowning in the flood.  Furthermore, an honest look at our lives often reveals a life of faith that is harder to understand than we wish it sometimes were.  The truth is that it takes a brave person to let go of his or her Sunday School faith and delve into the mysteries of God, but it is only such a journey that will lead one to give God the awe and wonder He deserves.   

Dear friends, let us test the spirits to see whether they are from God.  Remember the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who “were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  Do not be afraid of questions, but do not just question for the sake of questioning.  Test everything, so that you might come to a true knowledge of God and give Him the worship He deserves.

Let me answer with one word – No.

Honestly, I would love to see a group of people actually try this experiment, just out of pure voyeuristic fascination, but I have serious doubts that such a movement would ever even get off the ground, let alone succeed in bringing heaven to earth.  Why am I so cynical?  For three reasons:

(1) It’s been tried before – really, this is nothing new.  As the writer of Ecclesiastes put it, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:8-9).  The whole Open Source name may be new, but the idea of Open Source religion or philosophy sounds a lot like a rehashing of the so-called modern experiment – if we get rid of superstition and blind faith in some pretend God and embrace reason, then humanity can evolve, achieve enlightenment, and create a better world.  I think the past two centuries have shown conclusively that often when people have an idea apart from God of what utopia should be, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with the Holocaust or Communist China and Russia.  The “progress” of humanity has shown that although we have evolved to the point where we can build an atomic bomb that can destroy a nation, we don’t quite have the wisdom to know what to do with it.  Humankind has been trying to create a perfect society apart from God for a long time, and I for one am still waiting to see the progress.

(2) Humans have a huge tendency towards selfishness, fearfulness, laziness, addiction to the things of this world… need I go on? – in a word, we are sinful.  Like that word or not, it’s an accurate description of human reality.  The Hebrew language, which the Old Testament was written in, has a few different words for sin (kind of like how the Eskimos have lots of words for snow).  For example, peshah, traditionally translated as transgression, is rebellion against God – you know what is right but you do the wrong thing anyways.  Chattach, translated as sin, is falling short of a mark.  It’s not necessarily willful rebellion, just not measuring up to a standard like “Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.”  And thirdly, hawon, translated as iniquity, means that we are corrupt, twisted, and crooked in our very nature, at the core of who we are.  Even if you reject the Bible and disagree with the first two definitions of sin, the reality of hawon is hard to argue.  As the Apostle Paul classically put it in Romans 7:15:  “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”  If we’re honest, as long as we have real ideals and values, we can relate to that statement - the reality is that we often act hypocritically, contradicting our values with our actions every day.  As John put it, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10).

All of that is to say two things – first of all, good luck in getting any group of people to put aside their selfishness, fearfulness, laziness, and addictions to work together towards the betterment of the world without the help of God.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  After all, it’s one thing to have values; it’s another thing to live them out.  It’s hard enough to get a group of Christians working together for the betterment of the world, even with the help of God, because of our tendency towards sinfulness. 

Secondly, as Donald Miller put it so well in Blue Like Jazz:  “I am the problem… this is the hardest principle within Christian spirituality for me to deal with.  The problem is not out there; the problem is the needy beast of a thing that lives in my chest…”  This is huge – as long as humans work together believing that the issues are all external ones like war, poverty, and injustice, without recognizing that the bigger problems, like self-centeredness, greed, laziness, fear, and imprisonment to things of the world, lie on the inside, there will be no real progress.

(3) It is very easy to criticize and find fault with the way others do things; it is significantly harder to actually do something positive - one of the most disappointing things about the Yoism website, for example, is that it is mostly a combination of lofty theory and videos and articles that can be summed up as “let’s laugh at Christianity and other religions.”  Now, as I have mentioned before, I do not take offense easily and am open to reading criticisms of my faith in order that I might better understand why people reject Jesus.  I believe in the importance of listening for the truth in any critique.  However, as an observer, I have a hard time seeing how bashing and laughing at a religion or philosophy will help bring heaven to earth.  It seems more likely that Open Source religion will turn into a “let’s put down other beliefs so that ours looks more enlightened” website than an actual movement making any progress towards their lofty goals.

As Teddy Roosevelt famously put it, “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”  Our attempts at bringing heaven to earth may be imperfect, but at least we are striving in the arena.

For these three reasons, I do not see much hope for Open Source religion or any other God-less attempt to “bring heaven to earth.”  I do believe that those who reject belief in God can do good and meaningful things in this world, but that in the end the only true hope for bringing heaven to earth lies in the way of Jesus.  I believe that Open Source religion is right in reminding us that in the end, true Christianity is just as much about “bringing heaven to earth” as it is about where you go when you die.  Jesus taught us to pray “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), and Jesus’ message and ministry were largely about the kingdom of heaven – teaching and showing what it looks like when people are living under the reign of God.  We would be wise to remember this emphasis of Jesus. 

Lastly, if you consider Open Source religion to be the answer, or any human attempt at solving the problems of the world, I commend you for your desire to see heaven established on earth, and challenge you to listen carefully one more time to the way of Jesus.  I think you may be surprised at how right He is.

Last week, I wrote about how much the pursuit of truth matters, especially in an age that values tolerance and letting people believe whatever they want to believe.  After all, if you don’t wrestle with what is true, how will you know whether it’s right or wrong to abort children, eat meat, or free Indians from the caste system?  Are you willing to say “live and let live” even if it means allowing other countries to allow forced slavery and child labor, or millions to be trapped in poverty without access to clean drinking water or basic health care?  Or do you believe that there are some things that are worth declaring “wrong,” even if those who are practicing those things disagree?

Truth matters.  It matters whether we are reincarnated when we die or whether we will giving an account to a God when our life ends.  It matters whether we need to give our money and possessions to those who have not or whether we can just accumulate to our heart’s content.  Personally, I may live my life with faith that God is real, that Jesus is divine, and that the Bible contains the words of God, but that doesn’t mean that I have checked my brain at the door.  I want to know the truth, and if I what I am following a lie, then let me know so that I can sleep in on Sunday mornings.

A month ago I was privileged to take part in a panel at Manchester High School on world religions.  One student asked an excellent question after we were done:  “How important is history and archaeology to what you believe?  Does it matter whether what you believe is actually true, or is it more about having faith?”  What a profound question!  I only wish I had been quicker on my feet to actually respond instead of just allowing others to answer.  After giving it more thought, I know that my answer would have been, “If I find out tomorrow that Jesus did not really rise from the dead, I will be heading back to school to become an English teacher.”  I’m not a pastor because it makes me happy or because I like doing nice things for people, and I’m definitely not a pastor for the money or the hours!  I am a pastor because I am convinced that Jesus is the truth, that He is who He claimed to be in the Bible, and that the smartest thing I can do is to follow Him wherever He leads me.  And, at this point in my life He has led me to being the pastor of NewLife, and by faith I believe that there is nowhere else I would rather be.

Do you see why the Jehovah’s Witnesses frustrated me so much?  At the world religions panel, a similar thing happened when a student asked the Mormon representative another excellent question – “What do you do with all of the contradictions between the Bible and the Book of Mormon?” [there are lots of books and websites detailing these contradictions (such as the Bible teaching that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the Book of Mormon saying he was born in Jerusalem), among them www.mormonchallenge.com/ref_biblecontra.htm].  With blissful (or chosen) ignorance, the Mormon gentleman replied, “I have read both of these books through, and I can’t find one contradiction.” 

I don’t want to be an unthinking devotee who won’t question what he believes out of fear of overwhelming complexity or eternal punishment.  I want to know the truth!  I’ve found that whenever a book or movie comes out that attacks or makes fun of Christianity, I find myself wanting to read it or see it (and there have been a lot of them lately, from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, to Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation, to Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great)!  Rather than dismiss it as blasphemous, I want to hear from people who don’t believe Jesus is divine, or who question the existence of God and the beauty of living life His way.  If they are right and I am wrong, then let me know so that I can stop following the lie!

I will say it one more time – Truth matters.  I love to hear of people questioning what they believe, if it is done as an honest pursuit of truth and not simply a rebellious decision to find something else to follow.  And there is a big difference between the two – it is possible to question without really wanting to hear the answer.  The Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, in his book Jesus Among other Gods, quotes Thomas Nagel, professor of philosophy from New York University, as saying “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers.”  As Nagel was candid enough to admit, some people already know what they want to believe and refuse to be convinced otherwise.  But for those who are honestly searching for the truth, I am excited to see them taking God seriously enough to question Him.

Faith is not blind, and it is not a crutch for weak people who can’t face reality.  When I married my wife, I took the leap of faith because the evidence had convinced me that she was someone with whom I would love spending my life.  If I had waited until I had absolute proof that marrying her was a good idea, I would still be waiting.  Likewise, when I decided at age 18 to trust Jesus with my life, it was because the evidence was pointing to the reality that there was nothing more worthy of my love and devotion than a good, perfect God who had created me and loved me enough to sacrifice His life for me.  Both my mind and my heart were in agreement that this was someone I could trust with my future.  And thirteen years later, I still believe with all of my mind and heart that that “leap of faith” was the wisest decision I could have ever made.

Ravi Zacharias defined faith this way in his aforementioned book:  “Faith is based on knowledge, confidence in the person of Jesus and his power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in him remains because of who He is.    It’s a commitment of love to Him based on who He claimed to be.”  Faith in God is not the opposite of reason; it’s the most reasonable decision possible given the reality of who Jesus is.

If you find yourself searching, questioning, wondering about God and truth and whether or not Jesus is who He said He is, I commend you.  Do not believe something simply because your parents, your pastor, or your teachers told you it was true.  And if, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses who came to my door, you are so certain of your truth that you dare not open the door to questions or honest exploration of other viewpoints, then I would encourage you to make room for doubt and honest questioning.  Don’t be afraid to pursue the truth, even if you are afraid of where it might lead you.

Remember Jesus, who said “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”  (Matthew 7:7-8)

“I am absolutely against any religion that says that one faith is superior to another. I don ‘t see how that is anything different than spiritual racism. It ’s a way of saying that we are closer to God than you, and that ’s what leads to hatred.”

According to Rabbi Boteach and many others, it is okay to believe whatever you want, as long as you don ‘t claim that it ’s true or better than any other belief system. If you do that, it is on par with racism, a prejudiced, superior view that will inevitably lead to hatred and violence. These are definitely strong assertions. Last week I dealt with his last line, that believing your religion is true necessarily leads to hatred. I disagreed, because Jesus and the Bible teach that his followers are his followers completely by grace, not because they are wiser, superior, more moral, or anything else of their own doing. And since faith in Jesus is a gift freely given, like finding a winning lottery ticket on your front doorstep, it would be wrong and stupid to look down on someone else who has not been given such a gift. The true follower of Jesus will never look down on anyone else. It is possible to believe Jesus is the truth and not hate others.

What about the first part of the Rabbi ’s assertion? Is it wrong for one faith or belief system to declare itself superior to another? The problem with the Rabbi ’s assertion as I see it is that he is guilty of the very thing he is railing against. Listen closely to what he is saying:

“I am absolutely against any religion that says that one faith is superior to another. ��

In other words, the Rabbi is saying that to believe that all religions are of equal value and equal truth is superior to holding to any belief system that declares itself to be true. Again �the Rabbi is saying that you can believe anything you want �as long as you don ‘t believe it to be true. By making this value statement, of course, Rabbi Boteach is declaring that there is a belief system that is better than another; namely, the belief that all religions are of equal value and truth is superior to the belief system that there is one true way and that the others, while they may have elements of truth and beauty, are ultimately wrong.

As you can see, it may be impossible to be completely tolerant. At some level, even the most tolerant person has to draw a line somewhere of what they will not tolerate. For Rabbi Boteach, he is intolerant of religions that believe themselves to be superior to other religions. I would argue that most people in the world are intolerant at some point, no matter how loudly they declare themselves to be tolerant. Take Hitler, for example. As I listened to the other world religion panelists at Manchester High, one test by which I judged their belief systems was what I would call “the Hitler test.” Would the speaker ’s belief system say that Hitler was wrong for the mass genocide he visited on the world? And if so, on what ground are they making that moral claim? Who are they to say that his belief system �Aryan supremacy �is inferior to theirs? If they truly want to be tolerant, how can they say Hitler was wrong? If someone ’s belief system teaches them that it is right to kill those who are holding back your race from reaching its pinnacle, then what moral authority do you have to tell him he ’s wrong?

Who are you, O tolerant one,
to say that Hitler was wrong?

Obviously, most Americans would say unequivocally that Hitler was wrong. Furthermore, most would declare that just about any religion or belief system is superior to that of Hitler. The point is that as tolerant as people claim to be, most people have a limit to tolerance. It ’s not “tolerant vs. intolerant, �� but a question of degree of tolerance �at what point are you willing to say “this is right and this is wrong. �� While it may be culturally offensive to suggest that some religions and belief systems, even with all their rich history, important contributions to the world, and millions of adherents, are ultimately wrong, I would suggest that to declare all religions as being of equal value and truth is naïve and a product of careless thinking. Reincarnation and heaven and hell can ‘t both be right; monotheism and pantheism can ‘t both be right. Someone (if not both parties) has to be wrong. Either all religions are ultimately wrong �misguided human attempts to explain the unknown �or one is right and the rest are wrong. Although truth has become in many ways a dirty word in our postmodern world, I would say that the pursuit of truth matters. The ability to declare some things “right �� and other things “wrong �� is crucial, because lives are depending on it. Read the following examples and decide whether you would rather be tolerant (let people believe whatever they wish to believe without making value judgments on their belief) or intolerant (declaring some things right and other things wrong):

So said Rabbi Schmuley Boteach on Larry King Live a few years back.  And so believe many others today, as I learned from the Manchester High panel on world religions that I was privileged to participate in a couple of weeks ago.  As I listened to each panelist present about his or her religion and answer questions that the students raised, I couldn’t help but detect the value placed on pluralism and tolerance.  It seemed that speakers who promoted the concept of the equality of all religions, or the right of anyone to find their own path to God – be it Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, or otherwise – came across as enlightened, while anyone who dared to speak of conversion to his or her own faith as a value was seen as a contributor to the violence and hatred of the world.  For example, the representative of Baha’ism spoke of recognizing the founders or prophets of each of the world’s religions as equal voices in the pursuit of God, with none superior to any other.  The woman representing Hinduism spoke of her faith’s openness to all religions and the ways that they interpret the divine.  Even the Jewish man spoke of all religions being equally valid, with Jews being held to a higher standard by God.  While I recognize that these representatives do not necessarily speak for all adherents of those religions, nor were the panelists necessarily experts on their faith, I think it’s instructive to note the high value placed on tolerance and equality among world religions.

Enter Jesus.

“Jesus, do you believe that all religions are equally valid?”

Now, I’m not a fan of putting words into Jesus’ mouth, and he was never asked that question, so I’m not going to dare answer it as if it were his words.  But, as I mentioned last week, it would have made for a deeper discussion at Manchester High to point out that with all of the commonalities, there are some significant differences among the world religions that were represented.  For example, some believe in one God, others believe in a divine energy that can be interpreted as many different gods, and some believe in no god at all.  Some religions teach reincarnation, others believe that we live once and then go to heaven or hell, while others believe that there is nothing after death.  Since we can’t all be right, what are the options?

Option 1 – we’re all wrong.  There is no meaning in this world, and all religions are an attempt by different cultures to explain our origin, destination, the meaning of life, and to give a basis for moral behavior. 
Option 2 – there is something out there, but no one has a corner on the truth.  Each religion is man’s attempt to explain whatever “it” is, and each has some portion of the truth
Option 3 – one religion is the truth, and the others, while perhaps possessing some of the truth, are ultimately wrong at their core

Given today’s culture of tolerance, option 2 probably sounds the most enlightened and preferable to many people.  We can picture some benign being or cosmic energy that is out there but ultimately unknowable, and all religious people try to get in touch with that energy/being through their beliefs and rituals.  Option 1, while a bit scary, would also allow our culture to hold onto its valued tolerance.  Option 3 is of course the scariest in our culture, since it leaves you with the potential for a lot of people who think that their faith is superior to the others. 

So, Jesus, do you believe that all religions are equally valid?

When I read Jesus’ words, I find that his teaching comes closest to Option 3.  Certainly Jesus taught that there is meaning in this world, that God is real and knowable, and that heaven and hell are realities, so I can rule out Option 1.  Similarly, I find nothing in his teaching that treats truth as something unknowable, beyond our comprehension.  Instead, Jesus tends to hold especially the religious leaders of his day accountable for not correctly understanding what was written in the Hebrew Scriptures (see Matthew 22:29, among other).

However, Option 3 is not technically correct either, if you want to be faithful to the teaching of Jesus.  Jesus didn’t come to start a religion known as Christianity that would be “the truth.”  Instead, he pointed people to himself, saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father (God) except through me” (John 14:6).  Therefore, it’s not really about which religion is right or true (because let’s face it, Christianity comes in many shapes and sizes).  Jesus taught that truth was found in Him, that if we want to understand what is true and right, we need to look at Him and follow Him.  Only then would we find God.  If Jesus really is the truth (and not Christianity), and all that he taught is truth, this certainly contradicts the tolerance (all faiths are equally valid) that our culture teaches.  However, I also think it means three things for the follower of Jesus:

1) Contrary to Rabbi Schmuley’s assertion, a follower of Jesus should never consider himself superior to someone who does not follow Jesus.  This is because Jesus and the rest of the Bible are clear that no one has come to be called his follower by their own righteousness, morality, or wisdom.  It is all grace; Jesus has chosen his followers (John 15:16), and has given us the grace to say yes to him.  None of us deserve to be called his followers, but by his undeserved grace some of us are.
2) Those who follow Jesus are not necessarily more moral than anyone else.  Rabbi Schmuley may be a kinder, more loving man than I am.  Again, following Jesus does not mean that I see myself as morally superior to anyone else.
3) Just because someone is not called a “Christian” does not mean that Jesus can not call them his follower.  I am not trying to convert people to “Christianity.”  I want people to follow Jesus.  I would not dare to speak on the eternal fate of anyone who calls themselves Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim, except to say that my understanding of Jesus is that no one becomes his follower by being a good person.  Instead, it is by recognizing one can never be good enough for God and is in need of His forgiveness and grace, which is offered through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

If I am going to be faithful to the words of Jesus, then I must say that not all religions are equally valid.  Jesus is the truth, and there is some truth in all faiths insofar as they reflect that truth.  But to answer Rabbi Schmuley, just because Jesus is the truth does not mean that I see myself as superior or hate those who do not agree.  To act in such a way would also be contrary to the truth, contrary to Jesus.

Next week I’ll continue to discuss Jesus among other gods and how to reconcile the exclusive claims of Jesus with the age of tolerance in which we live.  If you have any questions, thoughts or comments to add, please post your comments so that we might correctly speak of Jesus in our tolerant culture.

Case in point – perhaps you read the Hartford Courant story last week about Jose de Luis Jesus Miranda, the Florida pastor, who has deceived thousands into believing that he is the second coming of Jesus Christ.  Miranda interprets the Biblical teaching on the antichrist in a new way, claiming that not only is he the antichrist, but that this is a good thing, because “Jesus was not a Christian” and that most Christian churches today don’t teach the truth (his followers even tattoo 666 on their arms).  This would be comical if there weren’t thousands who believe him.  Miranda is just another in a long line of examples of people who can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say.

As I prepare to teach through a series on what the Bible really says about men and women, the most crucial question that needs to be addressed is “how do we know which Biblical passages apply exactly as they were written to today’s world?”  It’s difficult enough to study the Greek or Hebrew text, learn the cultural and historical context, and examine the book in which a passage appears in order to understand the “true meaning” of a Biblical passage.  But it’s a whole other thing to take that “true meaning” and decide whether or not it still applies in America in 2007.  In theology-speak, it’s the difference between exegesis (understanding the text) and hermeneutics (applying the text).  And it’s why so many untrained (and some trained) people can pretty much make the Bible say whatever they want it to say.

Just think about the “disaster” unleashed by people like Martin Luther and John Wycliffe by their insistence that the Bible should be translated into the language of the common people so that they could read it for themselves!  Instead of the power of Biblical interpretation being held tightly by the few Catholic church leaders and out of the hands of the common man, suddenly everyone and their crazy uncle could read the Bible and decide what it meant!  And before you can say “heretic!”, you’ve got 34,000 separate Christian groups in the world today (according to David Barrett et al, editors of the World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions), dividing over everything from style of church government to whether or not you can have drums in church.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to try to deal with the issue of hermeneutics, to help us discover some answers to the question of how to know whether or not a certain Biblical text is meant to be applied literally today.  For today, I have a pop quiz I’d like you to take.  In order to help you gain a greater appreciation of the complexity of hermeneutics, look at the list of twenty Bible verses below and put a check next to those you feel should be followed literally today (this idea comes courtesy of the excellent but oddly titled book Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals by William J. Webb).  Then, try to explain why those should be taken literally and the others should not be taken at face value.  Good luck!
______Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5-6) 
______Greet one another with a holy kiss. (1 Corinthians 16:20)
______Women should remain silent in the churches. (1 Corinthians 14:34) 
______Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.  (Leviticus 18:22) 
______Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. (Leviticus 19:19) 
______If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives. (Deuteronomy 22:28-29) 
______Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. (Genesis 9:6) 
______Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. (John 13:14) 
______Sell your possessions and give to the poor. (Luke 12:33) 
______Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work (Exodus 20:9-10) 
______If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.  A man ought not to cover his head (1 Corinthians 11:6-7) 
______If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him (1 Corinthians 11:14) 
______Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. (1 Corinthians 7:27) 
______Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:42)  
______Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. (Proverbs 31:6-7) 
______Do not… put tattoo marks on yourselves. (Leviticus 19:28) 
______A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this. (Deuteronomy 22:4-5)   
______I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.  I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold  or pearls or expensive clothes (1 Timothy 2:8-9)
______Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh (1 Peter 2:18)
______Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:24)
 

Can you see how, without a proper understanding of Biblical hermeneutics, people can make the Bible say pretty much anything they want to say?  Can you see how a literal reading can lead to slavery, spousal abuse, drunkenness, silent women wearing head coverings, and rape victims being forced to marry their rapists?  Over the next few weeks, we will try to sort out all of this to the best of our ability.  In the meantime, if there are Bible commands that you have wondered whether or not we are meant to interpret literally, post a comment on our blog so that we can do our best to deal with your specific questions.

As the youth pastor finished his prayer, he put out the challenge to hundred or so young men and women gathered around the campfire.  “The time has come to get rid of all that is distracting you from going after God with all of your heart.  No more fooling around with secular math books and math teachers.  It’s time to take a stand for Jesus.  I want everyone to gather your secular math books and meet me down by the lake.”

The crowd dispersed to their cabins, reappearing ten minutes later to form a mob by the camp lake.  After the youth pastor had regained their attention, he spoke up.  “This may not be easy for many of you, but for most of you there are secular mathematicians and math books that have been pulling you away from God.  So I want you to be bold, and get rid of all your secular math books tonight.  On your way back to your cabins, your cabin leaders will give you a piece of paper that will give you Christian alternatives to any secular mathematicians that you may be interested in.  There are really some amazing Christian mathematicians out there today.  We just really encourage you to take a stand, and to live holy lives tonight.”

And with that, the guitarist began strumming, and through the darkness a female voice began to sing, “Change my heart, O God… make it ever true… change my heart O God… may I be like you…”  And one by one, the campers threw their secular math books into the lake, walking back to the shore in the light of their newfound devotion to God.

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If you were ever a part of a youth ministry, the above fictional scene sounds vaguely familiar.  It is not uncommon at Christian youth camps or youth rallies to have a time where the teens are encouraged to rid themselves of the secular music that is pulling them away from true devotion to God.  And so, you get a scene like the one above, where Christian teens pitch their Christina Aguilera and Black Eyed Peas CD’s into the lake or garbage can while a timid twelve year-old stands nearby clutching his They Might Be Giants CD that he got from his mom for Christmas, not really wanting to part with it but beginning to believe that this must be what true devotion to Jesus looks like.

Certainly it is silly to think that there is such a thing as secular math and Christian math.  We do not differentiate like that in the realm of mathematics because truth is truth – 2+2=4 and the three angles of a triangle add up to 180 º – whether or not the teacher is a Christian or a Buddhist.  If a mathematician is a Christian, there is no guarantee that his book will teach us more about the truths of this world than a book by someone who does not follow Jesus.  That’s why the idea of secular mathematicians and Christian alternatives is so ridiculous.

And surely I can apply this same thinking to many professions and arenas of life.  Does anyone believe there is Christian engineering and secular engineering?  Christian vs. secular auto repair?  What about being a linebacker in football?  Is there a Christian way of smashing someone to the ground vs. a secular way of doing it?  It is clear to people in many arenas of life that truth is truth, that being a Christian doesn’t necessarily make you a more skilled engineer or mechanic or linebacker. 

But what about music and art?  Can we say the same thing about those realms?  I have argued for the past two weeks that Christian music must die; not that Christians should stop making music, but that the belief that there is such a concept as “Christian music” vs. “Secular music” needs to be destroyed. And today I am wondering whether a supposed sacred/secular divide in music is really as absurd as a sacred/secular divide in mathematics is.

I think the main similarity between the two arenas is that truth is truth, and as I argued a couple weeks ago, much of God’s truth is available to all through what theologians call natural revelation.  A mathematician may be able to testify to the truths of the mathematical laws of nature without acknowledging that God is the one responsible for them.  Likewise, a singer may testify to how beautiful it is to be known completely and loved despite your faults without realizing that this is the truth of the gospel.  In this way, a singer who is not a Christian may be able to produce “Christian” music without even knowing it by testifying to God’s truth.

However, it is also worth noting that it is easier to pass off a lie as the truth in music than it is in math.  Certainly a math teacher who attempted to convince his students that 2+2 is really equal to 5 would be laughed at and not believed.  However, a musician who tries to convince his listeners that leaving one’s wife for another woman is actually a good thing to do may be successful if he can do it with a catchy beat and intriguing lyrics.  And this potential for ambiguity and deception is why it is easier and safer for many parents and youth pastors to simply declare that all “secular music” needs to be thrown in a lake and only Christian music should be consumed.  This way, they hope, there is assurance that the impressionable children will only be told the truth.  And perhaps there is some validity in such an approach for kids at an impressionable age who are not able to discern truth from lies when it is delivered by beautiful people over a Neptunes beat.  But for those of us out of our teen years, we misrepresent God and the way He works in the world if we stubbornly believe in an artificial sacred/secular divide.  God is bigger than that, and is communicating through nature and conscience to everyone in this world, revealing some of the truth of who He is and how this world is meant to be.

So, I conclude this series on Christian vs. secular music by celebrating the majesty of God, that He has revealed His truth and beauty to this world, and that we can celebrate His truth wherever we find it.  I encourage you to tear down the sacred/secular divide, and instead heed the words of Paul as you engage this world:  “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable– if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

I’m struggling to put into words just how normal yet abnormal last night’s scene is to me.  Every night it happens – a well-groomed man and woman stare at me through my television and tell me 15-20 random events that happened in our world today. Typically, they are tragic events such as murders, earthquakes, bombings, and the like.  They tell me all that I need to know, and 30 minutes later they are gone. 

Has this become so normal to us that we miss how odd it all is???

I say that this scene is abnormal and odd because it is completely devoid of any expectation that I’m supposed to make sense of or take action in response to the news of a mother who stabbed her children, or a high school student who has been murdered, or soldiers who lost their lives.  I’m given an update on random events happening around my world, with the goal apparently being to inform me, to let me know that there are some seriously grieving people in Hartford right now, and that there is a family in East Hartford who just lost a son or brother, and that the war in Iraq has claimed five more lives.  And I sit there with my son, more informed, a little more numb to the violence in our world, and not in any way a better person for it.

How am I supposed to respond to this thing called the evening news?  Am I supposed to get sad?  Shrug my shoulders at the chaos of our world?  Get involved?  What if I decided to do something about every story I heard – to counsel women in Hartford experiencing post-partum depression, to send flowers to the East Hartford family, to protest the war in Iraq?  Would I ever be able to remotely keep up with the staggering needs presented on a nightly basis?

And how am I supposed to prioritize the 15-20 stories I hear on the news every night?  Who is to say that a woman in Hartford stabbing her children is the most important story of the day?  What about the soldiers dying in Iraq?  Is that more important?  What about the numerous things going on around the globe that didn’t make the evening news?  Is the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, not an issue today?  Is homelessness in American not a problem today?  Is the AIDS epidemic in Africa not important today?

The question I would like to explore briefly today is: What messages are we being given by the medium known as the nightly news (or Internet news, or the morning newspaper)?  Not just the stories – what are the underlying messages?  What are we being taught by watching two well-groomed people enlighten us about 15-20 random events in our world? 

Some of you may remember a communications theorist named Marshall McLuhan, who became famous for his quote, “the medium is the message.”  Essentially, McLuhan argued that a medium like television, or radio, or a book, sends a message just by being a television, radio, or book, regardless of what the content may be.  A recent book, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture by Shane Hipps, has helped me to think about the impact that media such as books, television, and the Internet have had on the very message of Christianity, and has helped me as I consider some of the messages we receive through something like the nightly news.

 As we are told 15-20 unrelated stories full of joy and despair, tragedy and celebration, I believe that one subliminal message is being communicated to us that has a profound impact on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is a message that cuts across Christian thinking and Biblical teaching and is easily recognizable in the lives of most Americans (especially younger Americans) today.  That message is that there is no metanarrative, no overarching story or truth that organizes and makes sense of these many different events.  Basically, stuff happens – good stuff, bad stuff, but there’s no connection between Britney and K-Fed’s divorce and the falling gas prices, or between Kramer’s racist tirade at a comedy club and the death of a Lebanese Christian cabinet member.  Robert Altman may have died, and a raid in Baghdad killed five people, but these two things have nothing in common and there is no meaning behind them.  Usually referred to as relativism, this message of no overarching truth making sense of the events of daily life is subscribed to by many in our world.

To help us make sense of this message, think about life before the telegraph, which was the forerunner of electronic media such as the television and Internet.  Before the telegraph, information traveled at a speed of about 35 miles per hour, or the speed of a train.  If a mother stabbed her three children in another town, it might take a day to learn that information.  If five soldiers died in a war halfway around the globe, it might take months to notify their family, and the rest of us might never hear about it.  With the invention of the telegraph, suddenly information could be sent from Washington to Baltimore (as it was by Samuel Morse in 1844) in an instant.  Information that was once local and rooted in a local context and history that provided it with meaning now could be displaced and presented with no apparent connection, cause, or meaning.  In 1830, any woman that I heard of who stabbed her children probably lived in my town, and I knew her family and her history.  Today, all we know is that a woman stabbed her children.  We don’t really know who she is or what her story is, except for what the television and newspapers tell us. 

Again – I believe that the subliminal message being sent through the evening news is this:  there is no metanarrative, no overarching story or truth that organizes and makes sense of these many different events.  Stuff just happens, so at least you can be informed.

This past Sunday, I had preached a big picture sermon about salvation history and how it finds its consummation in Jesus.  If you believed me, I was claiming that there is a metanarrative, an overarching story that organizes and makes sense of many different events.  I claimed that the metanarrative is that God has chosen and blessed his followers so that they might bring His blessing to the world, transforming a fallen world of injustice, chaos, and hatred into a place of justice, peace, and love.  I also claimed that the second theme of this metanarrative is that God’s people continually act out the theme of falling away and returning, slavery and exodus, exile and restoration, but that the pattern was answered by Jesus’ death and resurrection, through which is offered forgiveness of sins once for all, an escape from the cycle into a life of freedom from the slavery of sin and perfection in the sight of God. 

If the metanarrative is true, then we can see the tragedies depicted on the evening news as more proof of the injustice, chaos, and hatred that mark our fallen world, and can realize that God has called us to bring justice, peace, and love into the world wherever we go.  We will certainly never be able to address each issue presented in the news on our own, but we can recognize that as chaotic as things may seem, there is a grand story that encompasses everything from a mother stabbing her children to an elderly woman serving at a soup kitchen, from a war in Iraq to forgiveness offered between friends.  This world is fallen, but God is redeeming the world through Jesus Christ and His followers.  As we join God’s mission to bring His transforming love, peace, and justice to this world, we proclaim to everyone who is watching that there is meaning in the chaos.