Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 01, 2010
Wonderfully Made
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
New Series :: INDESCRIBABLE
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." ~Psalm 19The heavens are telling the glory of God, and their expanse declares the work of His hands. The Apostle Paul wrote, that “by taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.”
This series will take you on a rich journey through the cosmos, allowing you to peer into God's universe to discover the amazing magnitude of His greatness and grace.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Atheist Christopher Hitchens on Being Christian
A friend of mine, Todd, recently posted the following excerpt of an interview with Atheist Christopher Hitchens. In the interview, he states very clearly Who Christ is for the Christian. Interestingly, he articulates it better than many Christians:
During a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, noted atheist Christopher Hitchens laid down some seriously good theology. Most people recognize Hitchens as the author of the bestselling book God Is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything. Since the book's publication in 2007, Hitchens has toured the country debating a series of religious leaders, including some well-known evangelical thinkers. In Portland he was interviewed by Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell. The entire transcript of the interview has been posted online. The following exchange took place near the start of the interview:
Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from the Scripture literally. I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?
Hitchens: I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.
Sewell wanted no part of that discussion so her next words are, "Let me go someplace else."
This little snippet demonstrates an important point about religious "God-talk." You can call yourself anything you like, but if you don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and then rose from the dead, you are not "in any meaningful sense" a Christian.
Talk about nailing it.
In one of the delicious ironies of our time, an outspoken atheist grasps the central tenet of Christianity better than many Christians do. What you believe about Jesus Christ really does make a difference.
Excerpt from PreachingToday.com
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Faith & Doubt :: The Problem of Pain :: intro
Faith & Doubt :: The Problem of Pain :: intro from Jerrell Jobe on Vimeo.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Friday, February 05, 2010
How Christianity Transformed Civilization :: part 5
“"These who have turned
the world upside down
have come here too.”
(Acts 17:6)
“Everything that Jesus Christ touched,” writes Dr. Kennedy, “He utterly transformed. He touched time when He was born into this world; He had a birthday and that birthday utterly altered the way we measure time.[i]”[ii] Kennedy continues,
“Someone has said He has turned aside the river of ages out of its course and lifted the centuries off their hinges. Now, the whole world counts time as Before Christ (B.C.) and A.D. Unfortunately, in most cases, our generation today doesn’t even know that A.D. means Anno Domini, ‘In the year of the Lord.’”
Jesus utterly transformed everything He touched. “Not only countless individual lives,” writes Paul Maier, professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University “but civilization itself was transformed by Jesus Christ.”[iii] Professor Maier continues,
In the ancient world, his teachings elevated brutish standards of morality, halted infanticide, enhanced human life, emancipated women, abolished slavery, inspired charities and relief organizations, created hospitals, established orphanages, and founded schools.
In medieval times, Christianity almost single-handedly kept classical culture alive through recopying manuscripts, building libraries, moderating warfare through truce days, and providing dispute arbitration. It was Christians who invented colleges and universities, dignified labor as a divine vocation, and extended the light of civilization to barbarians on the frontiers.
In the modern era, Christian teaching, properly expressed, advanced science, instilled concepts of political and social and economic freedom, fostered justice, and provided the greatest single source of inspiration for magnificent achievements in art, architecture, music, and literature that we treasure to the present day.
Jesus says in Revelations 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new.” “Behold!” This is the Greek word idou, which means to “note well,” “look closely,” and “examine carefully.” As we do so, it isn’t long before we see that it was the cause of Christ and the mission that He sent His first disciples on that has truly turned the world upside down and made things new. Some of His last words were, “Go into all the world…” And as we look at the world almost 2,000 years later, we see time and time again the imprint of Christ and His followers around the globe.
Take a few moments and brainstorm how we as individuals and as the Church can make a mark in the midst of the world we live and practically fulfill the call of Christ to “go into all the world” whether that “world” be another country or in your back yard.
God help us to not focus on how big the world is and become overwhelmed
but to focus on the one in front of us. Whether that person be our spouse,
a parent, teacher, or a stranger; help us to be led by your spirit
to ‘See a need, Fill a need’.
[i] Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, created “the Christian era” in A.D. 525. He began time with the birth of Christ at A.D. 1. He was later proven to be off by 4 years, which means that Christ was born four years Before Christ! No matter, for the coming of the Son of God into our world demarcates the history of our world. It has never been the same since.
[ii] Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 1-2.
[iii] Schmidt, Under the Influence, 8.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
How Christianity Transformed Civilization :: part 4
“And great multitudes followed Him,
and He healed them all.”
(Matthew 12:15)
“Christ was concerned not only with humanity’s spiritual condition,” writes Schmidt “but also with its physical state. The healing acts of Jesus were never divorced from his concern for people’s souls, their spiritual well-being.”[i] “For him no healing was complete which did not affect the soul.”[ii] Christ was a holistic healer! He told his disciples, “I was sick and you looked after me” (Matthew 25:36). Schmidt continues,
“These words did not go unheeded. History shows that early Christians not only opposed abortion, infanticide, and abandoning infants, but they also nurtured and cared for the sick, regardless of who they were. Christian or pagan, it made no difference to them.”
The world the Christians entered during the Greco-Roman era had a colossal void with respect to caring for the sick and dying. Dionysius, a Christian bishop of the third century, described the existing behavior of the pagans toward their fellow sick human beings in an Alexandrian plague in about A.D. 250. The pagans, he said, “thrust aside anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, and treated them with utter contempt when they died.”[iii]
And we thought the after effects and response to Hurricane Katrina was under par!
The response of the early Christians was something different all together. They did not run out of fear or thrust aside the sick and dying. Rather they risked their very lives by tending to the contagiously sick and dying. Many of these faithful followers of Christ not only risked their lives, but lost them in helping others. One name that is known is,
Benignus of Kijon, a second-century Christian who was martyred in Epagny because he “nursed, supported, and protected a number of deformed and crippled children that had been saved from death after failed abortions and exposures.”[iv]
In the first century, there were no hospitals as we know them today. As already stated, those that were sick or diseased were often left to die by themselves. The only exception was those who were a part of the military. It was the Christians who would frequently take into their homes the sick and dying and care for them. It was the Christian church who began to develop centers for people to be taken care of.
The first ecumenical council of the Christian church at Nicaea in 325 directed bishops to establish a hospice in every city that had a cathedral.[v] Although, these early Christian hospitals or hospices were not what people understand by hospitals today. Their most important function was to nurse and heal the sick, they also provided shelter for the poor and lodging for Christian pilgrims.
The first hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea in Cappadocia about A.D. 369. It was one of “a large number of buildings, with houses for physicians and nurses, workshops, and industrial schools.”[vi] Some historians believe that this hospital focused exclusively on those with sickness and disease.[vii] The rehabilitation unit and workshops gave those with no occupational skills opportunity to learn a trade while recuperating.[viii]
It is important to note – and the evidence is quite decisive – that these Christian hospitals were the world’s first voluntary charitable institutions. There is “no certain evidence,” says one scholar, “of any medial institution supported by voluntary contributions… till we come to Christian days.”[ix] And it is these Christian hospitals that revolutionized the treatment of the poor, the sick, and the dying.
By the mid-1500s there were 37,000 Benedictine monasteries alone that cared for the sick.[x] Nearly four hundred years after the Christians began erecting hospitals, the practice drew the attention of the Arabs in the eight century. Impressed with the humanitarian work of Christian hospitals, the Arab Muslims began constructing hospitals in Arab countries. Thus, Christ’s influence which moved his followers to build and operate hospitals, spilled over into the Arab-Islamic world, demonstrating once more that Christianity was a major catalyst in changing the world, even beyond the boundaries of the West. In this instance, it changed a world in which the sick were once largely left to fend for themselves, to one in which they were now given humanitarian medial care, a practice not known previously. Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan had become more than merely an interesting story.
In the early church it was the bishops and monks who “took charge of lunatics at a very early period, and gathered them together in houses specially assigned for that purpose.”[xi] During the early Middle Ages, the mentally disturbed were primarily cared for in the monasteries. It was the Association of Friends (Quakers), who in 1709, erected a general hospital in Philadelphia that housed “lunatics.”[xii]
The physician and medial historian Fielding Farrison once remarked, “The chief glory of medieval medicine was undoubtedly in the organization of hospitals and sick nursing, which had its organization in the teachings of Christ.”[xiii] Thus, whether it was establishing hospitals, creating mental institutions, professionalizing medical nursing, or founding the Red Cross, the teachings of Christ lay behind all of these humanitarian achievements.
In the nineteenth century hospitals in the United States became more common, especially after the Civil War. As the growth of hospitals spread across the nation, it was predominantly local churches and Christian denominations that build them. This was evidenced by many of the hospital’s names. Most reflected their affiliation with a given Christian denomination or honored a Christian Saint. The Christian identity and background of many American hospitals is now being erased, however. In recent years, as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have been purchasing more and more private Christian hospitals, their Christian names are being replaced. Thus, people, at least in America, will soon have no more symbolic reminders that the hospital(s) in their town or city had Christian origins.
The American church historian Philip Schaff summed it up well when he said, “The old Roman world was a world without charity.”[xiv] It was the teachings of Christ that inspired Christians to demonstrate selfless charity and love, even to the point of risking their own lives, and utilizing their own resources to care for them.
- What places in our community (hospitals, collages etc.) were Christian founded establishments?
Read and meditate on Acts 3:1-6.
“Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us. "So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." Acts 3:1-6
- What are some ways you can “give what you have” to those in our community who are in need?
[i] Schmidt, Under the Influence, 151.
[ii] V. G. Dawe, The Attitude of Ancient Church Toward Sickness and Healing,” (Th.D. theosis, Boston University School of Theology, 1955), 3. Quoted in Under the Influence, 153.
[iii] Works of Dionysius, Epistle 12.5
[iv] George Grant, Third Time Around, 27. Quoted in Under the Influence, 153.
[v] Howard W. Haggard, The Doctor in History, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934), 108. Quoted in Under the Influence, 154.
[vi] Fielding H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, (Philiadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1914), 118. Quoted in Under the Influence, 156.
[vii] Grant, Third Time Around, 19. Quoted in Under the Influence, 156
[viii] George E. Gask and John Todd, “The Origin of Hospitals,” in Science, Medicine, and History, ed. E. Ashworth Underwood, Christian Charity in the Ancient Church, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1883), 323. Quoted in Under the Influence, 156
[ix] Garrison, Introduction to the History of Medicine, 118, Quoted in Under the Influence, 157.
[x] C. F. V. Smout, The Story of the Progress of Medicine, (Bristol: John Wright and Sons, 1964), 36. Quoted in Under the Influence, 157.
[xi] Burdett, Hospitals and Asylums, 1:16. Quoted in Under the Influence, 160.
[xii] Thomas G. Morton, The History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, (New York: Arno Press, 1973), 4-5. Quoted in Under the Influence, 161.
[xiii] Garrison, Introduction to the History of Medicine, 118. Quoted in Under the Influence, 166.
[xiv] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896), 2:373. Quoted in Under the Influence, 167.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
How Christianity Transformed Civilization :: part 3
“These commandments that I give you
today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home
and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up.”
(Deuteronomy 6:6-7 NIV)
“The fear of the LORD
is the beginning of knowledge.”
(Proverbs 1:7 NIV)
“Every school you see – public or private, religious or secular – is a visible reminder of the religion of Jesus Christ. So is every college and university,”[i] writes Dr. James Kennedy in his book What if Jesus had Never Been Born?. He continues,
“This is not to say that every school is Christian. Often the exact opposite is true. But the fact is that the phenomenon of education for the masses has its roots in Christianity. Nor is this to say that there wasn’t education before Christianity, but it was for the elite only. Christianity gave rise to the concept of education for everyone.
From the beginning of Christianity, there has been an emphasis on the Word of God. This grows out of its strong Jewish roots, since Christianity is derived from Judaism. Christians have often been called the “people of the Book,” which implies a literate people. Dr. J. D. Douglas, general editor of The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, writes: “From its beginning the religion of the Bible has gone hand in hand with teaching. . . Christianity is par excellence a teaching religion, and the story of it’s growth is largely an education one. . . as Christianity spread, patterns of more formal education developed.[ii]
Many of the world’s languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries in order for people to read the Bible for themselves. Similarly, a monumental development in the field of human learning was the printing press. Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468), was the first to develop a movable type printing press that made it possible to mass produce books. Gutenberg is reported to have said, “I know what I want to do: I wish to manifold [print] the Bible.” To achieve this, he “converted a wine press, so it pressed pages onto the type blocks.”[iii]”
“While Christians were not the first to engage in formal teaching activities in school-like settings,” writes historian Alvin Schmidt in Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization, “they appear to have been first to teach both sexes in the same setting.”[iv] Schmidt continues,
“Given that Christianity from its beginning accepted both men and women into its fold and required that both learn the rudiments of the Christian faith, both men and women were catechized before being baptized and received into church membership. Furthermore, catechetical instruction commonly continued after baptism.”
Instructing both men and women, as the early Christians did, was rather revolutionary. Although there is no unanimity among historians, many indicate that the Romans before the birth of Christ did not formally educate girls in literary skills. Their schools, says one educational historian, apparently only taught boys – and then only boys from the privileged class – in their gymnasia, while the girls were excluded.[v] In light of this ancient practice, Tatian, once a student in one of Justin Martyr’s catechetical schools, proclaimed that Christians taught everybody, including girls and women.[vi]
Formally educating both sexes was also largely a Christian innovation. W. M. Ramsay states that Christianity’s aim was “universal education, not education confined to the rich, as among the Greeks and Romans…and it [made] not distinction of sex.”[vii]
Christians taught individuals from all social classes and ethnic backgrounds, especially in preparation for church membership. There was no ethnic bias.
The most significant move in the direction of universal education occurred with the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Martin Luther and John Calvin both advocated for universal education. Calvin’s Geneva plan included “a system of elementary education in the vernacular for all, including reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and religion, and the establishment of secondary school for the purpose of training citizens for civil and ecclesiastical leadership.”[viii] Martin Luther, along with co-worker Philipp Melanchthon successfully persuaded the civic authorities to implement the first public school system in Germany, which was tax-supported.[ix]
Thus, the desire to have public tax-supported schools, whether wise or not, even in a society where Christian values predominate, has its roots in the thinking of prominent Christian reformers like Luther, Calvin, and Comenius. Although public schools have by now become totally secularized, especially in the United States, they originated with individuals who were motivated by the love of Jesus Christ, whom they wanted taught for people’s spiritual and material benefit.
In addition, it was Christian ministers who were responsible for bringing Sign Language to America and developing educational schools for the Deaf. It was also a Christian man by the name of Louis Braille, who by 1834, gave to the world of the blind six embossed dots, three high and two wide, for each letter of the alphabet. So that Braille’s accomplishments don’t seem divorced from any influence of Christianity, listen to what he said as he lay on his deathbed, “I am convinced that my mission is finished on earth; I tasted yesterday the supreme delight; God condescended to brighten my eyes with the splendor of eternal hope.”[x]”
Finally, let’s look at universities.
The best evidence indicates that universities grew out of the Christian monasteries. However, given the powerful influence that secularism now has on most Americans, they are probably not aware that “every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War – except the University of Pennsylvania – was established by some branch of the Christian church.”[xi] Nor are most Americans aware that in 1932, when Donald Tewksbury published The Founding of American Colleges and Universities Before the Civil War, 92 percent of the 182 colleges and universities were founded by Christian denominations.
Catechetical schools, cathedral schools, Episcopal schools, monasteries, and medieval universities, schools for the blind and deaf, Sunday schools, modern grade schools, secondary schools, modern colleges, universities, and universal education all have one thing in common: they are the products of Christianity. Individuals in Western societies spend many years in schools, colleges, or universities, but they have learned very little about the contributions Christianity has made to education, so highly treasured today. In the absence of this knowledge, it is not only Christianity that has been slighted, but Jesus Christ as well. Were it not for him and his teachings, who knows what stage of development education would be today?
Consider the following excerpt written by Dr. James Kennedy[xii]:
While more than 200 years of Christian education in this country produced a .04 percent illiteracy rate, what has public and increasingly secularized education succeeded in doing? In spite of the fact that more than a trillion dollars have been poured into the educational system, what has happened? The illiteracy rate has increased 32 times. Today, we have 40 million illiterates! In addition there are an estimated 30 million more functional illiterates in this country.
A report entitled A Nation at Risk, released by the U.S. Department of Education in the 1980’s, sums it up well: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. . . we have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.”[xiii]
Pray: Take a few moments and pray for our local school
system.
[i] Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 40.
[ii] Douglas, The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, 330-331. Quoted by James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 41.
[iii] Hyatt Moore, ed., The Alphabet Makers: A Presentation from the Museum of the alphabet, Waxhaw, North Carolina, (Huntington Beach, CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1990), 13. Quoted by James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 43.
[iv] Schmidt, Under the Influence, 172.
[v] Kenneth J. Freeman, Schools of Hellas, (London: Macmillan, 1922), 46. Quoted in Under the Influence, 172.
[vi] Titian, “Address of Tatian to the Greeks,” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 2:78. Quoted in Under the Influence, 172.
[vii] W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire Before A.D. 170, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), 345. Quoted in Under the Influence, 172.
[viii] Lars P. Qualben, A History of the Christian Church, (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1958), 270. Quoted in Under the Influence, 176.
[ix] Douglas H. Shantz, “Philipp Melanchthon: The Church’s Teacher, Luther’s Colleague,” Christian Info News, (February 1997). Quoted in Under the Influence, 179.
[x] Etta DeGering, Seeing Fingers: The Story of Louis Braille, (New York: Julian Messner, 1951), 11. Quoted in Under the Influence, 183.
[xi] Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, (Rockville, Md.: Assurance Publishers, 1984), 157. Quoted in Under the Influence, 190.
[xii] Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 55.
[xiii] A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, A Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education by The National Commission on Excellence in Education, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Eduation, 1983), 5
Monday, February 01, 2010
How Christianity Transformed Civilization :: part 2
View of Life :: Wonderfully & Fearfully Made
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:27 NIV)
Prior to the coming of Christ, human life on this planet was exceedingly cheap, especially in the Roman Empire, during the times of Jesus and the Early Church. In those days abortion was rampant. It was not uncommon for unwanted or inconvenient babies to be taken out into the forest, mountainside or valleys to starve to death or be consumed by wild animals, or to be picked up by some stranger passing by who would then use them for whatever perverted purpose they had in mind. Frederick Farrar has noted that “infanticide was infamously universal” among the Greeks and Romans during the early years of Christianity.[i] The Twelve Tables of Roman law states “we drown children who at birth are weakly and abnormal.” If the parents were poor, they would abandon the babies. Moreover, female babies were often abandoned because they were considered inferior.
Early Christian literature repeatedly condemned the killing of children, both born and unborn. And, infanticide (murdering of infants) was no small part of society during the times of Christ. “Infanticide,” said the highly regarded historian W. E. H. Lecky “was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilizations.”[ii] Greek poet of the fifth century B.C. mentions infants being thrown into rivers and manure piles, exposed on roadsides, and given for prey to birds and beasts.[iii] In Sparta, when a child was born, it was taken before the elders of the tribe, and they decided whether the child would be kept or abandoned.[iv]
In response to this, Christians leaders didn’t only speak out about the sanctity of human life, but they took action. Christians frequently combed through the forest and mountainsides looking for abandoned babies. They would then take them in, nurse them to health, care for them and raise them as their own. Another commonly practiced means of disposing of unwanted babies was to throw them over bridges to drown in the waters below. Christians would hide out underneath these bridges, catch the dumped babies and take them in. Infanticide, abandonment and abortion began to disappear in the early Church.
The low view of human life was repeatedly made manifest in these widespread practices of infanticide and abortion. But what was the root of such cruelty and low view of humanity? Some “historians and anthropologists tend to site poverty or food shortage as the primary reason for their prevalence. However, historical data indicates that poverty was not the primary cause for the high abortion rates among the Romans in the century preceding and during the early Christian era. At this time in history the Roman honor and respect for marriage had virtually become extinct.”[v] Roman “marriage, deprived of all moral character,” as one historian has noted, “was no longer a sacred bond, and alliance of souls.”[vi] Moreover, chastity was virtually nonexistent and adulterous relationships were par for the course within Roman marriages at this time. As a result, when an adulterous woman would become pregnant, she would destroy the evidence of her sexual indiscretions, thus adding to Rome’s widespread abortions. One does not have to have a doctorate in sociology to see the parallel between the culture of Rome and that of Post-Modern America. The sacred bond and alliance of marriage is quickly deteriorating. Adulterous promiscuity is so common that there is hardly a television mini-series, sitcom or mini-drama that doesn’t currently glamorize such activity. Could it be that these factors have also begun to erode at the American value of human life like that of the Romans? And, the response? Protest and picketing rarely produce the desired results of those involved. In fact, they are typically motivated out of a foul-spirit in the name of righteousness. Rather than constructing picket signs, the early Christians constructed baskets to catch babies being thrown over bridges and abandoned along the hillsides. Love was the operative verb of these first followers of Christ. Love for one another. Love for those who practiced injustice and deceit.
George Grant points out that in the seventh century, the Council of Vaison met to “reiterate and expand that pro-life mandate by encouraging the faithful to care for the unwanted and to give relief to the distressed.”[vii] At that time, the Church reaffirmed its commitment to adoption as the alternative to abortion.
Grant demonstrates how, in centuries past, the Church – through word and deed – gave rise to a pro-life view of human life. After reviewing much of the evidence for how the early Church and the early medieval Church impacted the value of human life, Grant sums up:
“Before the explosive and penetrating growth of medieval Christian influence, the primordial evils of abortion, infanticide, abandonment, and exposure were a normal part of everyday life in Europe. Afterward, they were regarded as the grotesque perversions that they actually are. That remarkable new pro-life in consensus was detonated by a cultural reformation of cosmic proportions. It was catalyzed by civil decrees, ecclesiastical canons, and merciful activity.”[viii]
- What parallels can you detect between the Roman view of human life and the views that are permeating our American society today?
- Take a few moments and pray for the abused and unborn on this nation.
- Action: Do you know a child, who could benefit from you investing into their life in some small way?
[i] Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, (New York: A. L. Burt Publishers, 1882), 71.
[ii] W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals: From Augustus to Charlemagne, (New York: Vanguard Press, 1927), 2:24.
[iii] Euripides, Ion, trans. Arthur S. Way, (New York: William Heinemann, 1919), 51. Quoted in Under the Influence, 52.
[iv] Kenneth J. Freeman, Schools of Hellas, (London: Macmillian, 1922), 13. Quoted in Under the Influence, 52.
[v] Alvin J. Schmidt, Under the Influence, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001), 55.
[vi] C. Schmidt, The Social Results of Early Christianity, trans. R. W. Dale, (London: Wm. Isbister, 1889), 48.
[vii] George Grant, Third Time Around: A History of the Pro-Life Movement from the First Century to the Present, (Franklin, TN: Legacy, 1991, 1994), 20. Quoted by James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 14.
[viii] Grant, Third Time Around, 46-47.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
How Christianity Transformed Civilization :: part 1
Many are familiar with the 1946 film classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, wherein the character played by Jimmy Stewart gets a chance to see what life would be like had he never been born. The main point of the film is that each person’s life has an impact on everybody else’s life. Had they never been born, there would be gaping holes left by their absence. This is certainly true of every human that has ever been created, most notably one – Jesus Christ. He has had an enormous impact – more than anybody else – on history. Had He never come, the hole would be a canyon about the size of a continent.[i]
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.
He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race.
All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as the one solitary life.[ii] This week we will look at a few of the affects that the cause of Christ has had on civilization.
Yet, we live in an age in which only one prejudice is tolerated – antichristian bigotry. Michael Novak, the eminent columnist, once said that today you can no longer hold up to public pillorying and ridicule groups such as African-Americans or Native Americans or women or homosexuals, and so on. Today the only group you can hold up to public mockery are Christians. Attacks on the Church and Christianity are common. As Pat Buchanan once put it, “Christian-bashing is a popular indoor sport.”
But the truth is this: Had Jesus never been born, this world would be far more miserable than it is. In fact, many of man’s noblest and kindest deeds find their motivation in love for Jesus Christ; and some of our greatest accomplishments also have their origin in service rendered to the humble Carpenter of Nazareth.[iii]
Napoleon, who was well accustomed to political power, said that it would be amazing if a Roman emperor could rule from the grave, and yet that is what Jesus has been doing. (We would disagree with him, though, in that Jesus is not dead; He’s alive.) Napoleon said: “I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel . . . nations pass away, thrones crumble, but the Church remains.”[iv]
Despite its humble origins, the Church has made more changes on earth for the good than any other movement or force in history. This week we will only highlight a few contributions Christianity has made to civilization, and we will only be able to scrap the surface of each of those touched on. There are volumes of historical accounts substantially validating each of the following. (If you would like to study any of the items discussed this week in further, it would be recommended that you read Under the Influence by Alvin J. Schmidt and What if Jesus had Never Been Born by James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe. Under the Influence would be recommended for grander research and thoroughness, though it may be harder to locate than the other.) That being the case, below is a bullet list of a few of the many positive contributions Christianity has made through the centuries.
“We must consider
that Christianity’s ‘initial thrust’
has hurled ‘acts and ideas’
not only ‘across centuries,’
but also around the world.’”[v]
(Thomas Cahill)
Read through the following. As you do, see if you are aware of how each of these was initiated and propelled by Christians.
A Brief Overview
- Hospitals, which essentially began during the Middle Ages.
- Universities, which also began during the Middle Ages. In addition,
- most of the world’s greatest universities were started by Christians for Christian purposes.
- Literacy and education for the masses.
- Capitalism and free-enterprise.
- Representative government, particularly as it has been seen in the
- American experiment.
- The separation of political powers.
- Civil liberties.
- The abolition of slavery, both in antiquity and in more modern times.
- Modern science.
- The discovery of the New World by Columbus.
- The elevation of women.
- Benevolence and charity; the ‘Good Samaritan’ ethic.
- Higher standards of justice.
- The elevation of the common man.
- High regard for human life.
- The codifying and setting to writing of many of the world’s languages.
- Greater development of art and music. The inspiration for the greatest works of art. [vi]
“No one is like you, O LORD;
you are great, and your name is mighty in power.”
(Jeremiah 10:6)
[i] James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 4.
[ii] Some have attributed this to Philips Brooks, the writer of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Quoted by Kennedy, 7-8).
[iii] James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, introduction to book.
[iv] Philip Schaff, Person of Christ: The Miracle of History, (Boston: The American Tract Society, undated), 323, 328.
[v] Thomas Cahill, Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus, (New York: Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, 1999), 311.
[vi] James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 3.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Is Christianity Bad...?
Jesus said, “Go into all the world…”
And, they (the disciples) went… But what was the result? Is the world a better place because of the influence of Christians throughout the centuries that have followed?
New Atheists, like Sam Harris, assert that Christianity is the “bane of history.” He states in his book The End of Faith that Christianity and religion actually pose the greatest threat to civilization and human survival. He calls it “the most potent source of human conflict, past and present.”[i]
The premise, many of the new atheist present, is that the would actually be better off without religion, specifically Christianity. What if this were the case?
Suppose we removed Christianity and its influences from history, as we know it, would it make any difference?
Would things really be better off?
In the next series of posts, we'll explore key influences followers of Christ and His teachings have had upon civilization as we know it...
[i] Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, 35.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Faith & Doubt :: Crusades, Conquests & Civilization :: week two
The solution submitted by atheists like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and others, is that the world would be a better place without the "toxic" influences of Christianity.
Could this be an intelligent solution? Would the world really be a better place if all the influences of Christianity throughout history were removed?
Faith & Doubt :: Crusades, Conquests & Civilization :: week two from Jerrell Jobe on Vimeo.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Trapeze Trust
For many years, Henri Nouwen worked as a professor Christian theology at Harvard and Yale, until one day, he felt God call him to leave these esteemed institutions to serve in ministry at a home for physically and mentally disabled adults. Throughout those years, Nouwen wrote some very insightful and beautiful things about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. During a period of personal sabbatical, Nouwen wrote about, of all things, paying a visit to the circus!
He was taken in especially by the trapeze act, a team of brothers who called themselves “The Flying Rodleighs.” He watched them perform, and then he got to know them, learning more about their craft.
There were 5 members in the act- 3 “flyers” and 2 “catchers.” The flyer climbs the steps, mounts the platform, and grasps the trapeze. He leaps off the platform, swinging through the air. He uses his body for momentum, swinging with increasing speed and height. The catcher hangs from his knees on another trapeze, with his hands free to reach out. Trapeze artists usually use a safety net nowadays, but even falling into one of those is dangerous and sometimes fatal.
The moment of truth comes when the flyer lets go. He sails into the air with no support, no connection to the earth. He does a somersault or two. Picture him in the middle of a somersault and freeze the frame. There is absolutely nothing, at the moment, to keep the flyer from plunging to his death. What do you think he feels like? Do you think he feels fully alive- every cell in his body screaming out? Thing he’s feeling any fear right then?
In the next moment the catcher swings into our view. He has been timing his arcs perfectly. He arrives just as the flyer loses momentum and is beginning to descend. His hands clasp the arms of the flyer. The flyer cannot see him; to the flyer, everything is a blur. But then, in an instant, the flyer feels himself snatched out of the air. The catcher takes the flyer home. And the flyer is very, very glad.
Nouwen spent some time getting to know the flyers. He learned that flyers are small, weighing 150 pounds or less, because if you’re a catcher, you don’t want a flyer with a sweet tooth. He learned about the equipment they used. They had socks filled with magnesium dry powder for their hands, because Joe was one of the catchers. They told Henri, “Joe sweats a lot.” and if you’re the flyer, you don’t want a catcher with sweaty hands.
Here’s where the trusting comes in. Letting go is always an act of trust. One of the flyers told Nouwen, “As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think I’m the star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split-second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump.”
Nouwen asked him, “How does it work?”
He answered, “The secret is that the flyer does nothing. The catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait.”
Henri asked him, “You do nothing?”
“A flyer must fly and a catcher must catch. The flyer must trust with outstretched arms that his catcher will be there waiting for him,”
To say, “I believe” involves intellectual assent, it’s true. Saying “I believe in God,” takes humility and honesty. But in the end, confessing your faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the words of this creed means letting go, taking a leap, and trusting that there will be someone there to catch you.
There is no way to God that bypasses the call to let go…. The truth is that we are all born holding onto a trapeze- a little trapeze we call our “life”. We hold on to it tightly: our security, our “okay-ness”, our success, our importance, our worth, our stuff, our bodies, our heath, our influence. [1]
[1] Henri Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey, 40, 70-75.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Faith & Doubt :: The Tension between Faith & Doubt :: week one
…Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always be prepared to give an answer
to everyone who asks you to give the reason
for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and respect.
1 Peter 3:15
As we launch into a new series, we do so with the prayer that God will help us to live our lives is such a way that we actually become compelling to the world around us. Not merely because of the clothes that we wear, the bumper-stickers we sport or the declarations we proclaim, rather by the expressions of "hope" and authentic love that simply permeate our very being.
It seems, that Peter assumed that there would be such compelling life expressions as hope and love were simply the natural byproduct of someone "sanctifying Christ" in their "hearts". As this community of followers of Christ withstood persecution and suffering with steadfast-consistency, others looking on would be stuck by the essence and quality of their "hope" and be moved to inquire the "reason" and source of such strength.
The word Peter used here for “reason” is the Greek word apologia. We get the English word “apologetics” from it. Not to be confused with giving an “apology” of “I’m sorry.” Apologetics is an intellectual response that gives reason or defense for what one believes.
In this series, Faith & Doubt, we are going to explore some of the questions that are being asked about Christianity and faith in God. In recent days, there has been a resurgence within academic settings, that has brought some of the age-old questions and challenges regarding God, faith and science to the forefront of the conversation. In this series, we’ll be exploring some of these questions.
To get started, there will be a lay-out of a few terms that are commonly used in such philosophical conversations. Secondly, before we begin to engage specific questions, it may be helpful to introduce several writers who have been instrumental in reframing specific questions in an attempt to discredit the claims of Christianity and such. There will be a few excerpts from their writings to help us get a sense of the types of things they are writing and the tone in which they are being written.
A Few Terms:
- Apologetics: apologia (1 Peter 3:15) – to give a reason, answer, instruction or defense. Apologetics is an intellectual response that gives reason or defense for what one believes.
- Theism: is the belief in the existence of a god (or gods); specifically : belief in the existence of one God viewed as the creative source of the human race and the world who transcends yet is immanent in the world.
- Deity created the universe and continues to actively participate in the world's activities and in human history.
- Polytheist (polytheism) – poly – many + Theos – God.
- Monotheist (Monotheism) – mono – one + Theos – God.
- Agnostic: a (without) gnosis (knowledge) –is one who does not know whether or not there is a God.
- The “soft” agnostic does not know whether or not there is a God.
- The “hard” agnostic says one cannot know about the existence of God.
- Atheist: a (not/negative) theos (god/deity) – Without God –an atheist is one who does not believe in God. Additionally, the atheist may or may not actually deny the existence of God.
"The atheists no longer want to be tolerated. They want to monopolize the public square and to expel Christians from it," writes Dinesh D'Souza. "They want political questions like abortion to be divorced from religious and moral claims. They want to control school curricula so they can promote a secular ideology and undermine Christianity. They want to discredit the factual claims of religion, and they want to convince the rest of society that Christianity is not only mistaken but also evil. They blame religion for the crimes of history and the ongoing conflicts in the world today. In short, they want to make religion - and especially the Christian religion - disappear from the face of the earth."[1]
In recent days, there’s been a resurgence, particularly in academic circles of what’s being called, as I mentioned earlier, “The New Atheism.” It’s more than a casual dismissal of the belief in God…
New Atheism: don’t simply – not believe in God, they are antitheist.
It’s more of an evangelistic crusade to remove the belief in God from the consciousness of humanity… Richad Dawkins calls it “militant atheism.”
As stated, New Atheist, don’t just not believe in God, they are opposed to God and the belief thereof. It’s not just a stance of, “I don’t believe God exists,” rather its one of “God does not exist and you’re ludicrous if you believe He does…”
They contend that since belief in God is so LUDICROUS, there must be some biological reason that causes them to do so. Especially, since no one in their right mind would do so.
As such, Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion supposes, “The proximate cause of religion might be hyperactivity in a particular node of the brain.”[2]
Or, as cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker suggests, there might be a “God module” in the brain that predisposes people to believe in the Almighty.[3]
The contend that such belief in God goes against all reason, not to mention, all the evidentiary facts of science.
Scholars like anthropologist Scott Atran presume that religious beliefs are nothing more than illusions.
Atran contends that religious belief requires taking:
“what is materially false to be true” and
“what is materially true to be false.”
Atran and others believe that religion requires a commitment to “factually impossible worlds.”[4]
The New Atheists refer to themselves as “brights.”
“I am bright,” writes Richard Dawkins, which he defines a bright as one who espouses "a worldview that is free of supernaturalism and mysticism."[5]
According to Daniel Dennett, "We brights don’t believe in ghosts or elves or the Easter Bunny – or God.”[6]
Christopher Hitchens, in his book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything says,
“All religions and all churches are equally demented in their belief in divine intervention, divine intercession, or even the existence of the divine in the first place.”[7]
Question:
- What are some of your initial reactions to some of these statements?
- How would you respond and answer such assertions?
[1] Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About Christianity, xv.
[2] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 168.
[3] Steven Pinker, "The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion," lecture at MIT conference, October 14, 1998.
[4] Dinesh D'Souza, 15, cited by Robin Henig, "Darwin's God," New York Times Magazine, March 4, 2007;
Scott Atran, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary landscape of Religion, 264.
[5] Richard Dawkins, "The Future Looks Bright," Guardian, June 21, 2003.
[6] Daniel Dennett, "The Bright Stuff," New York Times, July 12, 2003.
[7] Christopher Hitchens, "Bush's Secularist Triumph," Slate.com, November 9, 2004.