A Proverb for Today — Proverbs 30:4

Posted on 30 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

“Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” (Proverbs 30:4).

In the preceding verses, the writer, Agur, has asserted his inability to understand wisdom, to know God, to understand spiritual things:

1 The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal, 2 Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. 3 I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.

In verse four, it is as if he says, “It is not just me, actually.”  No one can know God, no one can ascend into Heaven.  No one can apprehend or understand God’s power and all of His greatness.

Proverbs 30:4 gives us the problem of the ages.  How can we have knowledge of God?  How can we understand One who is so much greater than us, who created all things by the word of His power?

In verses five and six, Agur answers the problem:

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

God has revealed Himself to us through His Word, the Scriptures.  His Word is pure, genuine, true.  Because He is good, shielding those who trust in Him, He does not leave us without knowledge of Him.  We could not go up to Heaven to reach Him, but He reached down to us by revealing Himself to us through His Word.  The purpose of His Word is to reveal Himself to us, and if you add to His Word by saying things about Him that He has not said, you stand convicted and condemned as a liar.  Convicted as a liar?  Yes, but not just any kind of liar, you will be a liar about God.

Proverbs 30:4 asks the question of the ages, and Proverbs 30:5-6 gives us the answer, but there was another answer yet to come.  For this, we turn to John 3:13.  Let’s look at Proverbs 30:4 again, with certain parts emphasised:

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?

Now, John 3:12-13:

12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

The Lord here gives us the final answer to man’s earth-bound problem, described in Proverbs 30:4.  Who has ascended up to or descended down from Heaven?  The Son of Man, the Son of the Creator.

Enoch was taken up into Heaven.  So also was Elijah.  But Jesus Christ did not have to be taken up — He ascended, as He had descended.  John 3:13 clearly refers to Proverbs 30:4, and provides the answers.  We may struggle with earthly things, and heavenly things are far beyond us.  But there is One who has both ascended and descended from Heaven, One who bridged the gulf between God and man.

This is the message of Hebrews 1:1-2.  “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.”  Proverbs 30:5-6 answered the questions of verse four with the Scriptures, the work of the prophets.  The greatest way in which we know God, though, the way He has spoken to us “in these last days,” is by knowing His Son.

If you don’t know Jesus Christ, then it doesn’t matter how well you know the Scriptures, you don’t know God.  The whole point of the Scriptures is to testify of Christ:  “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39).

Proverbs 30:4 is probably the most directly Christological of the Proverbs, as the citation in John 3:13 shows.  Did Agur and his readers understand that?  We can’t really know.  They may have thought the reference to “His Son’s name” was just showing how high above us God is, a statement of His transcendence, that He is beyond our normal human relationships.  I Peter 1:10-12 tells us the prophets at times prophesied things they didn’t fully understand, things that have now been revealed to us.  Maybe Agur didn’t really understand the questions he asked, or God’s answer.

John 3:13 ensures that we can understand Proverbs 30:4 more fully.  Agur asked, “What is His Son’s name?”  It is the Son of Almighty God who has ascended and descended.  He is our Lord and Saviour, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  The only One who has ascended to Heaven, who came down to us from Heaven, is the only way to the Father.  His Son’s name is Jesus.

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Transformation, How and Why

Posted on 29 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

This is the second of two posts on my sermon on Sunday, on Romans 12:2, part two of a series on Living Sacrifices.  Part one (Conformed or Transformed?) discussed the two commands of Romans 12:2.  This post deals deals with Paul’s further teaching about transformation — how it happens, and why it is needed.  Romans 12:1-2:

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

How are We Transformed?

This isn’t hard to see, really.  Paul lays it out for us:  by the renewing of your mind.  This is perhaps broader than we tend to think of “mind”, encompassing what we think, the way we make decisions, etc.

It is not just what we think, but the way we think about it.  It is possible to be “right” about a situation and be all wrong at the same time.  You can look at the problems of the world, the problems in Christianity, the problems in families, and become very discouraged.  You might be diagnosing the problems accurately, but it is always a mistake to leave God out of your calculations.  He is building His church and is working His plan in the affairs of men.  All the bad things in the world are, indeed, very bad, and it is right thinking to recognise them, but it isn’t thinking about them rightly to forget what God is doing and has been doing throughout all of human history, and to miss the fact that He is still doing it.

Perhaps the example of Anders Breivik (the Norwegian terrorist) will help here.  If you read his manifesto (which I don’t recommend), there’s a decent chance that you will find something that he got “right”.  But his thinking was so twisted about those things that he was all wrong even where he got it “right”.

Now, if you are reading this, you are probably a Christian, and you are going to get a lot of things right, because you have been influenced by the Bible and the work of God in your heart.  But we can very easily forget or downplay God’s grace, holiness, or sovereignty in our thinking, and so our “right” thinking isn’t quite right after all.  We need mind renewal even when we get it “right”, to enable us not only to know the truth, but also to think rightly about the truth, and to respond rightly to it.

The Scriptures tell us, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).  When we trust Christ, a new creative work of God happens in us, and we become new creatures (or creations).  It tells us all things are become new — but verses like Romans 12:2 (and others) tell us that this renewing is an ongoing process.  While God’s work in us began at salvation, it is not yet finished (see Philippians 1:6).

Five Agents of Mind Renewal

  1. The Work of the Father.  “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).  David here, in repentance after his great sin, asks God to renew a right spirit in him.  The wording is somewhat different, but the general concept of renewing, of being brought into line with God’s mind and will, is the same.  Although some commentators might differ, I would see the reference in the following verse to “Thy Holy Spirit” as indicative that David is here addressing God the Father, and thus I conclude that the Father has an active part in renewing His people.
  2. The Work of the Spirit.  “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).  This verse tells us that the beginning of renewal, at salvation, is the work of the Holy Spirit, and in conjunction with Philippians 1:6, as well as other passages which describe the work of the Spirit, I think we can safely conclude that the Spirit continues to be very actively involved in renewing our minds.
  3. The Work of Christ.  “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26).  This describes the renewal of sanctifying and cleansing as  the work of Christ.
  4. The Work of God’s Word.  That same passage in Ephesians tells us that the Word of God is an agent in our sanctification.  John 17:17 tells us the same:  “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

Preaching point:  This mind renewal thing is something we can win.  No matter how badly you have fouled up your thinking, no matter how strongly sin has taken hold, God has begun this work in you, and He is going to finish it.  The entire Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has an interest in seeing you renewed, and the Word of God is a powerful weapon in the hands of the Almighty.  You may never get as far in this life as you might like, but there’s enough power to begin the work, to progress it along the way, and ultimately, to complete it.  This may be a hard battle, but it is a winning one.  Never get discouraged, and never give up, no matter how often you fall back into wrong thought patterns.

Now, if you were paying attention, you are saying, “Hey, Jon, you said five agents, but there are only four.  Can’t you count?”  (My kids are really good at picking up this kind of thing in my preaching :).  I do it often enough that they expect it.)

Sometimes I can count.  The fifth agent is us — we have a role to play in this renewing task.  I’ll give four Scriptures.

Four Mind Renewing Responsibilities for Us

Ephesians 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Here, being renewed is passive, because it is the work of God in us, but we have an active part in verses 22 & 24 — to put off the old and put on the new.  The passive (be renewed) falls right between two things God calls us to do — we’re agents in this process, too.

Psalm 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

If “renewal” and “transformation” involves “cleansing our way”, this verse also tells us we have a part.  When we “take heed thereto”, pay attention to our way according to God’s Word, we will cleanse it.  In other words, if we give thought to whether our way (actions, thoughts, words, attitudes) matches God’s Word, with a desire to be consistent with the Bible, we’ll “clean up our act.”  Do we clean it up, or does God’s Spirit, using His Word?  Well, I understand it to be the latter, but the point here is that we have something we are supposed to do (take heed according to Scripture) that triggers that clean-up job.

II Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

We are to control our thoughts.  One thought leads to another, leads to another.  Don’t let your thoughts wander in paths that are not obedient to Christ.  Take them captive, make them your servants rather than your masters.  If you don’t control your thoughts and keep them obedient to Christ, your mind, instead of continuing to be renewed, is going to get fouled up faster than a diesel engine trying to run on petrol.  This is a “negative” command — don’t let your thoughts go in bad patterns.  We CAN MUST control our thoughts.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Not only must we control our thoughts to keep them obedient to Christ, we can and must direct our thoughts.  This is the positive command which corresponds to the negative one above — train your thoughts in good patterns.  If you want your mind to be renewed, spend your time thinking about the things God tells us to think about.  If you are spending a lot of time thinking about your neighbours, your boss, the news, or your financial situation, and your thoughts don’t fit the description of this verse, then you either need to change what you are thinking about, or change the way you are thinking about those things.  Direct your thoughts.

That gives us four things that we are to do, trusting the Lord that as we do them, He will do His work of renewal in our mind, and we will be transformed.

Interesting Side Note

There is a shift in number here.  Paul said, “Be ye transformed” (plural, all of you), and then changes to the single (“your mind” rather than “minds”).  Perhaps he wanted to stress the individual responsibility of each believer, or perhaps he is stressing that there is only one kind of renewing, and that we are to seek unity of mind, and so he used mind collectively.  The reason for the shift isn’t clear, and lots of commentators a lot smarter than me seem to have jumped right over the question.  So, having scratched my head and said, “Interesting.  I don’t know why he did that,” I’ll follow their lead and move on. 🙂

Why do We Need to be Transformed?

Again, we don’t have to look far for the answer.  The purpose of this transformation is in order that we may “prove” the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Paul is writing to believers, and he has just exhorted them to make themselves living sacrifices unto God.  Here, he gets to the essence of being a living sacrifice — doing that which is God’s good, acceptable (or pleasing), and perfect will.  This goes beyond mere obedience, as we seek to have the heart of love that desires to please the One who loved us.

The word “prove” here has the sense of testing out and approving that which is genuine.  This also is a continuous process.  The idea is that, by having a renewed mind and being transformed, we will be able to keep on accurately discerning the genuine will of God, that which truly pleases and is acceptable to Him, and thus live it out in our lives.

Entire books (more than I want to think about) have been written about knowing God’s will for your life.  It’s not hard to grasp, really.  All you need to do is be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and these things fall into place.  Wasn’t that easy? 🙂 Of course, it isn’t easy at all.  It is a lifetime task that won’t be finished in this life.

A person who has been transformed, whose mind has been tuned to God’s wavelength, knows what God wants.  The Scriptures tell us how to please Him, and when we get our mind in line with that, then we know.

Have you ever met an older believer who has immersed himself in God’s Word all his life, studying it and living it?  That’s a person who knows God’s will.  When faced with a moral or ethical question, he may not have the memory to recall the Scriptures that deal with the situation.  But he is tuned in to the right channel, and he knows what to do.  He’s been in this transforming process for a long time, and God has him on the right track going the right direction.  Such a person may stray, but probably not because he didn’t know what God wanted.  He’s walked with God long enough to know that pretty well by now.

Making good spiritual decisions is not an intellectual exercise based on good Scripture memory.  God doesn’t care if you aren’t mentally quick enough on your feet to pull out the right Bible verse every time.  That kind of recall can be greatly used by God.  It can also be very self-gratifying and simply a tool with which we impress others.  Some Christians seem to equate Bible knowledge with spirituality.

Please get this!  Spiritual maturity isn’t measured by our ability to recall applicable Scriptures!  It is measured rather by how well our mind is renewed by the Scriptures, how well our thinking is in line with God’s thinking, and how actively we are seeking to please Him.

So, it’s time to get going.  Stop conforming to the world.  Work on your mind-renewing responsibilities, trusting God that He certainly will do His part.  As you seek to please Him, He will transform you, and you’ll know and do His perfect will, that which pleases Him.

Navigation note:   First in the series:  “Service” in Romans 12:1;  Previous article: Conformed or Transformed?  Next article: Hyper-Thinking is Insane!

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Conformed or Transformed?

Posted on 28 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

Sunday, I preached on Romans 12:2, part two of my series on Living Sacrifices.  This is the first of two posts giving some of the thoughts from my sermon (and a few other thoughts I’ve had since I preached it).  I’ll do it in two parts because, well, I’m long-winded. 🙂  Romans 12:1-2:

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Last week, I posted on “service”, at the end of verse one.  The word means service in the sense of worship, and is used of worship in the temple.  Paul is telling the Romans that, as believers who have been “grafted into the tree”, where unbelieving Israel had been broken off, they still have a sacrifice to make.  For Israel, there had been temple worship and sacrifices (Romans 9:4).  For the church, there is also a logical/reasonable temple worship and sacrifice — the living sacrifice of their bodies, the worship that they give to God as themselves being His temples.

In verse two, Paul develops this worship further, with two parallel commands, a negative one and a positive one.  Don’t be conformed.  Do be transformed.

Be Not Conformed

Paul is telling us to be non-conformists.  Did you ever hear someone say, “I’m a non-conformist”?  Usually, the person saying it means that he is a rebel, not conforming to normal and appropriate societal standards, and he is proud of his rebellion.  That’s not what Paul has in mind when he tells us, “Be not conformed.”

Our English translation gives the impression that these two words, conformed and transformed, are related, but in the original Greek they are not.  “Conformed” is the Greek word suschematizo.  Etymologically, it comes from the Greek sun (meaning “with”) and schema (meaning external condition or fashion).  We might say “get with the scheme”.

My American readers may not be familiar with the term “housing scheme”, so I’ll explain it.  In Britain, when builders are putting together a housing scheme, it is an area where all the houses are laid out according to a plan, and they generally have similarities in architecture, materials, landscaping, etc.  In Glenrothes, for instance, the Balfarg area looks different from Woodside, which looks different from South Parks, which looks different from Forester’s Lodge.  Not every house looks exactly the same, but if you showed me pictures in isolation of 100 houses from these areas, I’d be able to properly identify the general location of at least 80 of them.  They are part of the scheme, and they look like it.

The first command we are given in this verse is not to be with the scheme of the world.  You are already a believer, so your internal values are different from the world’s — so quit looking like the world, being conformed to it.  This is focused on outward appearance — not necessarily what people would see if they look at a picture of us, but everything people see in us.

We shouldn’t look like the world’s values.  That will impact how we dress, but that is hardly the main focus here.  The biggest factor is purity in what we do and say, but it goes far beyond that.  Paul has in view here our attitudes, everything that we outwardly convey.  Even our facial expressions, the way we smile at people, our tone of voice, these are all things that are seen outwardly.

Does the world see a kind person when they see us, or a tough nut to crack?  Do we carry a haughty or self-absorbed expression on our face, or a welcoming smile?  Do they see us groomed in a way that shows respect to others, or in a way that says, “I’m my own individual and I don’t really care if it bothers other people”?  Do they hear humility in our tone of voice, or arrogance?  Do they see someone who wastes his time and money, or do they see someone who is a faithful steward of God’s resources?  Does our attitude give the impression that we are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God?  If we are going to stop conforming to the world’s values, it goes far beyond stopping sinful actions.  It demands kindness, respect, and humility in our attitudes and forms of communication, rather than selfishness and pride.

From a grammatical perspective, this is a present tense (continuous action) and a negated imperative.  The general sense is, “Stop being conformed to the world,” stop going with the world’s scheme.  The Greek would allow for either the passive voice (“stop letting yourself be conformed”) or the middle voice (“stop conforming yourself”).

The translators settled on a rendering that nicely brings that middle/passive ambiguity into the English.  The middle voice seems to fit best, but it makes little difference to the overall meaning.  Very simply, conforming to the world needs to stop.  It’s the wrong “scheme” for a believer.  You are supposed to be a living sacrifice now — being conformed to the world is not consistent with that.  To fit with the world doesn’t fit.

Be Ye Transformed

This command is also present tense in the Greek, indicating a continuous ongoing process.  We might say, “Be being transformed.”

The Greek word for “transformed” is metamorphoo, from which we get our word metamorphose.  The root morphe, “form” (essence), is the same word used in Philippians 2, where it talks of Christ being in the “form of God”, and taking on “the form of a servant”.  The meaning of those passages is that Jesus was the very essence or nature of God, and He became the essence of a servant.  (The word translated “form” in II Timothy 3:5 is also derived from morphe, but is not the same word, and means “appearance”).

If our morphe is to be changed, then this is not just talking about external change, but internal, a change in our very essence.  This second command in this verse is not telling us to conform to God’s external scheme, but to be changed internally.  The reason is obvious — the external changes will follow.  Without the internal change, external changes are of no more value than “lipstick on a pig”.  It might create an interesting spectacle, but it wouldn’t be something you’d want to kiss.

That is not to say that externals don’t matter — remember, they were mentioned in the first command.  We need to get rid of the world’s external scheme, but that which takes its place should flow out of the transformation which is Paul’s second command in this verse.

This command is in the passive voice.  We are commanded to be metamorphosed, transformed internally, but it isn’t our doing.  Clearly, we have a role here or we wouldn’t be the ones given a command.  You wouldn’t command someone, “Be killed by a terrorist attack.”  There’s not really a way to obey that — either it happens to you, or it doesn’t.

This is something we are to obey, so it isn’t in the “it just happens to you” category.  Either we are to permit it, or do something that triggers it happening, but the grammar tells us the actual action of changing us is not ours.  This is not simply self-reform.  Self-reform may be effective in changing behaviour, but it won’t change the essence of who we are.  That is a spiritual task that needs to be accomplished by spiritual resources beyond our own power.

How this spiritual task is to be accomplished is left unspecified in the command itself — we have the rest of the verse (and the rest of Scripture) to clarify that.  But before rushing on to the “how”, we would do well to pause long enough to reflect on the fact that we can’t do this ourselves, and God doesn’t expect us to.  He expects it to happen, He expects (commands) us to undergo it, but He doesn’t actually expect us to do it ourselves.

We are thrown back into dependence on God.  As we were saved by God’s grace through faith, so also we must be transformed by His grace through faith.  Even though we are receiving commands here, we are not in the realm of human endeavour, but rather in the realm of God’s gracious work in our lives.  We live by faith, trusting God’s grace to transform us.

So these are the two commands, the two imperatives:

  • Stop conforming yourself to the world’s scheme.  You’ve been saved, and given new life.  That which you value, that which you love and which motivates you, is different from the things that produce the world’s externals.  You are a living sacrifice.  It is time to stop conforming to the world’s scheme.
  • Embark on the journey of transformation.  Yes, you’ve been saved, but not everything in you matches that yet.  If you are going to be a living sacrifice, then you need to be yielding yourself to this ongoing transformation of your nature, your essence.  God is concerned about what you show externally, but He is also concerned with much, much more than that.  You are a living sacrifice.  It is time for transformation.

Up next:  Transformation, how and why.

Navigation note:   First in the series:  “Service” in Romans 12:1;  Next article: Transformation, How and Why

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A Proverb for Today — Proverbs 27:9

Posted on 27 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

“Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel” (Proverbs 27:9).

This is another proverb in which the original Hebrew is a little difficult.  The scholarly commentator Friedrich Delitzsch spends several paragraphs laying out the alternative approaches to the Hebrew, but as in most cases, the general sense is pretty clear.  A comparison is made between that which is physically pleasant (ointment or oil and perfume) and that which is mentally and spiritually refreshing.  Wisdom is telling us the great value of a good friend.

A friend’s counsel is “hearty”, carrying the sense of “earnest”, “robust”, or perhaps “lively” would be another way to view it.  The Hebrew word is nephesh, which is often translated “soul” or “life”.  This is not dispassionate counsel, but that into which a friend pours himself, counsel from his very soul.

Lesson #1 — Value Such a Friend

If God gives you a friend like this, one who is willing to invest himself in your life, value that friendship highly.  When he gives “hearty counsel”, receive it with gratitude.  Take his counsel into serious consideration, with the recognition that it cost him something to give it.  He has invested time and thought into your life and your situation.  Even if his from-his-soul counsel “steps on your toes”, ESPECIALLY if his hearty counsel steps on your toes, be appreciative for what he has done.  He probably didn’t like stepping on your toes, so it really has cost him something.  Place a high value on that friend — his love for you is a pleasant thing of great value.

Lesson #2 — Be Such a Friend

Be the kind of friend who is valued for hearty counsel.  This is going to take some hard work, if you want to give valued counsel.

  • Immerse yourself in the Word of God.  If you want to give valued counsel, you need to be a person of the Word.  Your life needs to be so ordered by the Word of God that, even if memory fails and you can’t give the Scriptures that apply, your decisions, your attitudes, and your counsel are so driven by Scriptural principles that the wisdom of your counsel will be self-evident to anyone who is truly desiring wisdom.
  • Invest in the life of your friend.  If you don’t know someone, there’s a chance you aren’t giving hearty counsel, but just shooting from the hip.  You may hit the target more often than not, but you might also hit a few other things.  The better you know someone, the more likely it is that your counsel is going to address the real facts.
  • Investigate the problem.  Ask questions, and listen to the answers, and ask questions about the answers.  Be aware that one person’s perspective on a situation is often flawed.  Just because you know your friend is honest doesn’t mean his understanding of the situation is complete or accurate.  All the world is quick to give advice, especially in the Internet age.  People write about their problems on a blog or discussion site, and the whole world chimes in.  If our advice is going to be hearty and robust, we need to actually take the time to really know what we are talking about.

Hearty counsel is sweet.  We should be people who value a friend’s counsel, and give valued counsel.

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Our Responsibility in the Face of “Cultural Christianity”

Posted on 26 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

I’m not a prophet.  I don’t have a crystal ball.  I had no way of knowing that the Norwegian terrorist would call himself a “cultural Christian”.  The fact that I used the word “cultural” doesn’t prove any great perception on my part.  This isn’t an “I told you so” post, well, at least not much of one.

This is a “reiterating and building on a point” post.  On Saturday, when I first posted about the terrorist attack in Norway, I said this:

Christian, you may face criticism because of this attack. Don’t be defensive. Just say, along with the police, “The assailant has no relation to us.” It is an opportunity to tell people that not everyone who claims to be a Christian, not everyone who was born in a “Christian” country, is really a Christian. It is an opportunity to talk about real Christianity, not the fake ”cultural” kind that has nothing to do with the righteousness and grace of God.

I didn’t know Anders Breivik would call himself a “cultural Christian” — I just knew his “Christianity” wasn’t anything to do with God and truth.  Now, we know.  The bloggers at Verum Serum have undertaken the (no doubt) unpleasant and laborious task of reading his “manifesto”.

One excerpt of his writing:

A majority of so called agnostics and atheists in Europe are cultural conservative Christians without even knowing it. So what is the difference between cultural Christians and religious Christians?

If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian.

Christianity without Christ?  Other statements say that he hasn’t yet prayed to God but he probably will during the massacre.  “Logic and reason will always take precedence over biblical texts,” and there is no opposition to Odinism.  He explicitly denies that he is religious.  So there you have it, a Christianity without Christ, without the Bible, without prayer, and compatible with atheism, agnosticism, and paganism.

We live among many “cultural Christians”, who would call themselves Christians, but know nothing of Christ.  Perhaps one good thing to come out of this horrible tragedy will be that people begin to recognise that there is a difference, that so-called “cultural Christianity” is not only inconsistent with Biblical Christianity, but is often diametrically opposed to what we believe.

Jesus Christ said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:3, 7).  He made it clear that this comes by belief in Him.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).   There is no true Christianity, no eternal life, without personal faith in Jesus Christ.

If we do not tell people what Jesus said and what He did for them, then we let the Anders Breiveks of this world define Christianity their way.  It is our responsibility to proclaim Christ, His love, His truth, His compassion, His death and resurrection.  If anyone who knows us doesn’t know the difference between our Christianity and that of this terrorist, the failure and the responsibility has been ours.  I’ll repeat what I said Saturday, but add four words:

It is an opportunity and responsibility to talk about and live real Christianity, not the fake ”cultural” kind that has nothing to do with the righteousness and grace of God.

 

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Before the Sun Sets

Posted on 25 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

This gallery contains 6 photos.

An amazing thing happened in Glenrothes — we had beautiful weather.  Yesterday evening, we decided to go for a walk in the countryside (for those who know the area, we walked from Craigmead to John Knox’s Pulpit near West Lomond, about … Continue reading →

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Police — “No Relation to Us”

Posted on 23 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

All right-thinking people were horrified to hear what happened in Norway yesterday.  As I read the account today, and learned that the terrorist was supposedly a “Christian”, I was struck by the fact that he was wearing a police uniform.  Part of the police statement was as follows (from the 3:36 pm Friday update on this story):

The assailant has NEVER been part of the police force, and has no relation to us.

We’re being told the shooter was a conservative or fundamentalist Christian.  He may have tried to put on a “Christian” uniform to try to look like a Christian, just like he put on a police uniform, but his actions have no relation to Christianity.

People like this are rarely part of a church, unless it’s a “church” like the Westboro idiots (Fred Phelps) or cultists like the People’s Temple (Jonestown).  Rather than what someone says, I’m much more interested in his actions to assess whether he is a “Christian”.

Is this man a Christian?  The Bible is full of warnings about people who will claim to be followers of Christ, but are false.  In Matthew 7, Jesus talked about those who would claim to be His followers.  In verse 20, He is primarily talking about false teachers, but gives a principle which applies to others as well:  “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Christians don’t do what this man did.  Christians are horrified and grieved at such actions, and pray for the injured and the bereaved.  When Christians are able to, we help those in need.  We serve the God of all comfort, and we want people to know His comfort.

Jesus goes on in the next three verses to say that there will be many who will have done many religious things, but will face eternal judgment in Hell.  I do not know if the suspect in Norway has done any religious things at all, or just put the word “Christian” on a website, but his kind of “Christianity” is not going to help him on the Judgment Day.

The police are undoubtedly angry, and rightly so, that someone who had evil intent masqueraded as a police officer.  For the police, that makes the events of yesterday even worse.  It means that people will trust them less even when they are doing right.

Christians are angry, too.  How dare someone falsely take the name of our Lord on himself as a cloak for his evil?  It may mean people trust our message less.

Christian, you may face criticism because of this attack.  Don’t be defensive.  Just say, along with the police, “The assailant has no relation to us.”  It is an opportunity to tell people that not everyone who claims to be a Christian, not everyone who was born in a “Christian” country, is really a Christian.  It is an opportunity to talk about real Christianity, not the fake “cultural” kind that has nothing to do with the righteousness and grace of God.

Also, we can take comfort in this thought.  No one makes counterfeit pennies.  It’s not worth it.  Fake versions of faith in God only show that someone thinks true faith is valuable enough to be worth counterfeiting.  If being a Christian weren’t valuable, people like this terrorist wouldn’t claim it.

(note: edited at 20:20 BDT).

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