Here & Now: Americans – Disassociated from Religion

Greetings All,

     This week's thought is about the growing number of "nones" in American society.  According to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News Survey, younger Americans don’t value patriotism, having children, or organized religion as much as young people two decades ago. These are the so-called “Nones” whose religious affiliation “none.”  And since the early 1990s the number of them have tripled.

     Below is an interview involving Derek Thompson, senior editor at “The Atlantic” about why this has happened, taken from NPR's - Here & Now:  Americans – Disassociated from Religion. It really is very thought provoking and worth the read - especially if you know young adults who have left the church, or distanced themselves from all forms of organized religion (some sections condensed and clarified due to discussion format). Enjoy.

     Host: You write that more than 9 out of 10 Americans belonged to an organized religion throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s, but then came the 1990s. You spoke to a sociology and religion professor at Notre Dame. What did he tell you about what happened in the 1990s?

     Derek: The rise of the religiously non-affiliated, otherwise called the “Nones,” is an incredibly modern phenomenon in the US… that took off in the early 1990s.  So I asked him.  What happened in the early 1990s?  He said, “Historically speaking there's sort of 3 events we have to key in on.”  The first, is the association between the Republican Party and the Christian right.  That did not necessarily exist in the 1960s and earlier.  It was instead, a reaction to a series of things that happened in the late 60s early 70s.  The sexual revolution, the Roe versus Wade decision, the nationalization of no-fault divorce laws, and the Bob Jones University case where it lost their tax-exempt status over its ban on interracial dating.  Because of all those things the Christian right sort of jumped into politics and merged with the Republican Party in a way that, I think, offended a lot of moderates and liberals, who then began to detach from both organized religion and Republicans.  That's number one.  Second, is the end of the Cold War. For the previous, say, 40 years, there had been an association between those who didn’t believe in God (the communists) and “the evil empire.” Once the Cold War was over, being godless wasn't necessarily considered as evil [as it had been].  And third, I think after 911, during the Bush years, a new association – not between godlessness and the evil empire, but rather, between religion and zealotry (at the national level with the USA, or at the international level with al Qaeda) fed into the rise of religious non-affiliation.

     Host: This is so fascinating.  I mean, take the end of the Cold War reasoning.  You know people (as you remind us) could suddenly say: “Well I don't I don't belong to a church” and not be thought to be communists, which previously they might have been. And then after the al Qaeda attacks, there were people wanting to distance from organized religion, and there was also the scandal in the Catholic Church.

     Derek: Absolutely!

     Host: So, who is doing this non-affiliation?  Is it one specific demographic?

     Derek: Yes. The group that is most pulling away from organized religion over the last 20 to 30 years are young white liberals.  Young white liberals are the ones that are leading the rise in the “Nones.” You don't see a similar dramatic increase from the Blacks and Hispanics.  It is being led by young white liberals who see that the Republican Party has become more and more entrenched with the evangelical movement. Distancing themselves is their way of saying: “I’m not a Republican.”   By proxy, by rejecting the Republican Party, a lot of young whites (I think) feel like they have to reject organized religion as well.  And so, what's ironic to me is that there was this thesis from the late 19^th century that said that religion was going to lose its halo effect because of science. Science was going to drive God from the public square.  But, in fact, in the last 30 years, there's been no grand scientific revolution to make people lose their faith in God.  Science hasn't driven God from the public square, politics has!  And it’s particularly driven religion from the public square for young white millennial's.

     Host: Well, we should clarify that there are many young white millennial's who are very active in churches, or temples, or mosque.  We know that.

     Derek: Absolutely.  But also there is another factor.  Which is that when young people nowadays are delaying having their families, and having their own individual lives for longer, by the time they settle down they may not have time for activities on Sunday morning, or Saturday morning, because they have gyms to go to, and they’ve got this other kind of schedule that's interesting.

     Host: Yeah.  But then you also write about what may be one of the paradoxical downsides.  I mean obviously very religious people might worry about this from a different perspective, but you know, it becomes harder to have a social life without an institution to attend.

     Derek: Yeah, I think that’s a good point. I should add that Christian Smith listed a lot of non-political reasons why religious non-affiliation might be growing, including as you mention, maybe rising divorce, delayed adulthood, etc.  You know, it seems to me that religion isn't just theism. It's not just a belief in God.  It's a bundle. It's a community. It's a theory of how the world works. It's a way of finding individual peace. And I find that a lot of people who have rejected the organized religion bundle shop for individual pieces of that bundle à la carte.  So, you know, maybe their work is a religion, or their politics is a religion, and spin class is a church, and not looking at your phone for a few hours is akin to a digital Sabbath. So, it's interesting to me that although so many millions of Americans have abandoned organized religion, they have only sought to recreate it everywhere they look. They've given up God to a certain extent, only to seek him out everywhere else.” 

     We could surely add other things -- like the Jimmy Swaggert and James Baker scandal in evangelicalism, the misuse of funds and gifts given to ministries, and many other things -- that may have soured people against organized religion.  Yet, regardless of what led to it (and I do believe they are right in suggesting that the end of the cold war, a far too close an association with one political party, and religious zealotry involving violence are to blame) we are left with what we are to do about it?  And the fact that people have come up with all sorts of religious substitutes for organized religion suggests that if we could learn from our mistakes as we move forward, some may be drawn back -- since it the desires for religious expression seems hidden in human nature, even when we try to repress it.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

How an Atheist Journalist became a Christian Believer

Greetings All,

     This weeks "thought" is the story of one many's journey from atheism to faith in Jesus. It is the story of Peter Hitchen's - a British journalist whose well-known brother Christopher was sometimes called the "arch-atheist."  I found it well-written, helpful, and intriguing, and thought I would pass it on to you as well.  So, without any further introduction I offer it to you. Enjoy.

How an Atheist Journalist became a Christian Believer

     "The story of Peter Hitchens' adult conversion to Christianity traced a very different path to that of his arch-atheist brother Christopher.  Christopher Hitchens, along with Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins was one of the so-called “four horsemen of the New Atheism” that led the charge against religion around the turn of the century. As a professional journalist, Christopher Hitchens was possibly the most eloquent of the four, and his wit and humor accomplished more for the cause than the bluster of the other three combined.

     Christopher Hitchens' popularity was so great that atheists and Christian apologists alike mourned his passing in 2011, as did his brother, Peter. Peter, also a journalist, was an outspoken atheist like his brother. Despite their similar professions, views, and upbringing, the two brothers were always at odds, practically since childhood Though both were raised in a nominal faith, they began their slide into atheism in early adulthood.

     Peter’s journey toward atheism began when he was still in boarding school at the age of 15. He chose to make his rebellion against religion and all of the conventions of his upbringing official by the ceremonial burning of his Bible – a gift from his parents - in the school yard.  After burning the book, he intentionally began to do the things he had always been instructed were wrong: using foul language, mocking the weak, lying, stealing, using drugs and betraying friends and family members. Peter describes the cultural mindset that he believes led him and his brother away from organized religion:

     “I have passed through the same atheist revelation that most self-confident British members of my generation - I was born in 1951 – have experienced. We were sure that we, and our civilization, had grown out of the nursery myths of God, angels and Heaven. We had modern medicine, penicillin, jet engines, the Welfare State, the United Nations and  'science', which explained everything that needed to be explained.”

     It was not, however, a tragedy or desperate turn of events that caused Peter Hitchens to turn back to his childhood faith. As he grew out of his young rebellion and into his established trade of journalism, he became modestly successful. He enjoyed a pleasant relationship with his girlfriend, and was able to pursue his interests and distractions such as holidays on the continent.  His youthful Marxist convictions had been overturned by his experience as a journalist in Soviet Russia and seeing the tragedy brought on by the atheistic state. As he settled into his adult routine, he fell back into attendance of Anglican church from time to time. This was not out of a sense of religious conviction, but rather out of respect for British tradition. But as he did so, he began to recognize that the faithful men of history who had preceded him were no more foolish for their faith. In fact, their convictions had added to their brilliance as statesmen, artists, scientists and so on.

     Staring at the picture Hitchens felt sudden and true conviction.  It was staring at the picture of one such artist – Rogier van der Weyden’s Last Judgment – that Hitchens felt sudden and true conviction. Seeing the naked figures as they fled the fires of hell, all of his intentional rebellion and misdeeds came back to his mind, and with them, the realization that his life was a testament to the truth found in the painting before him: that misdeeds required justice, and that if anyone required saving from this justice, it was he.  It was on the heels of this sobering incident that Christmas came, and with it, a much more uplifting experience. For many years, Hitchens had feigned disdain for the Christmas season, however now he began to truly enjoy the caroling and joy that came along with the seasonal celebration.

     Following this, Hitchens held his wedding in a church, became baptized, and generally began to participate in church affairs, even as his confidence in political solutions to world problems began to dwindle and fade.  Becoming a Christian in the world of journalism has no small amount of stigma attached to it, and given his formerly radical stances, Hitchens tried to conceal his growing faith from his friends and colleagues.  However, as the years passed, Hitchens began to make his Christian faith part of his identity as a journalist, and especially as his brother achieved fame for his atheist stance, to distance himself from his now-famed sibling. This has ultimately had the effect of carving out a unique niche for Hitchens who now uses his position as a journalist to campaign for the various causes his worldview leads him to embrace."

     (Hitchens’ story may be found in his book: The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith.)

     It's a testimony to ponder, for he challenges us to think through the ultimate issues of life.  I often say atheists are not people who have asked all the questions, or have all the answers, but people who haven't asked enough questions. That is, enough, "where, or how, did this come to be?" questions.  Why is there so much order and beauty in the world?  What purpose does it have?  Where does that inner sense of justice come from? How is it that our DNA (biological matter) has information imprinted upon it?  Where did this information come from? How does order come out of chaos? How does design come about apart from a Designer?  How does one explain that something came from nothing, or that "being" came from "non-being"?  How does one explain miracles or paranormal activity in a world that is supposedly came about from little more than chemical reactions over time?  And on and on the list could go ...  To me atheism requires a far greater leap of faith than belief in a Creator.  That's why so few people (given the world population) jump onto a bandwagon so poorly constructed.

     As many scientists are now acknowledging, the scientific evidence strongly and ultimately points in the direction of intelligent design, and thus ultimately to the reality of a Creator.  But for the atheist there's a downside to acknowledging a Creator -- a downside which has lead many to adopt atheism instead.  It's not any profound "no-God" or "anti-God" evidence. It's not the supposed "God-particle."  It's the fact that people intuitively know that if there is a Creator (who has placed the fingerprint of his beauty, wisdom, orderliness, design, power, justice and the like, on all he has made) it suggests there had to have been a purpose in creating, and a specific plan for those that were created to inhabit what he made. A plan that includes how we should  live and interact with him and each other, and treat what has been created and given to us as a gift.

     Which means that faith in a Creator ultimately leads one to believe there must be some sort of ethical expectations; righteousness and sin issues (do and don't issues); morality and justice issues.  In atheism anything goes, for if life simply evolved from nothing (an impossibility by the way), then it has no meaning. There is no true basis for law, justice, right or wrong, or morality issues. Without a Creator there is no intelligent basis for absolutes.  In creationism, however, life becomes infused with meaning and purpose and divine expectations cannot be avoided.

     What joy, meaning, and value is infused into life simply by acknowledging a Creator, Pastor Jeff

The Mystery of Prayer

Greetings All,

     After two weeks away I am back from a relaxing vacation! Time spent in nature, in the woods and mountains of New England, has its benefits in refreshing the soul!
     This morning a friend asked a question about prayer.  It was a question many ask, since prayer is something that takes time to understand, even though we will never fully comprehend the mystery of it. After all, there are so  many different views and opinions and approaches people have toward praying.  Therefore, I decided I would send out this "thought" on prayer by Gary Thomas, entitled: "The Mystery of Prayer."  It is found in his book, "Sacred Pathways."  It does not address the question asked this morning, but given the fact that most all people struggle at one time or another in their prayer life, I thought some might find it helpful and encouraging -- especially those who have encountered the often confusing dilemma called "unanswered prayer."  Enjoy.

The Mystery of Prayer

     "Is there anything more mysterious than prayer? Prayer moves us to call on a Being we cannot see and ask him to altar that which we can see.  Formulas do not work; rituals cannot guarantee success. Neither the length nor the form of prayer makes the prayer potent. This is why we need to create pockets of prayer in our lives, learning to trust God to come through in unexpected ways. There is an element of mystery, however, against which we sometimes rebel -- the mystery of unanswered prayer, or, perhaps more appropriately stated, prayers that receive the answer "no." 

     Because God sometimes answers our prayers with a yes, it can become intoxicating, and this intoxication can become so addicting that we begin to demand that God answer every prayer with a yes When a prayer doesn't get answered in the way we want it to be, we may mistakenly assume there must be hidden sin, lack of faith, or some other buried obstruction, which then sends us into hours of fruitless introspection.  But to demand that God answer all our prayers with a yes is to ask for his omnipotence (power) without having the benefit of his omniscience (knowledge).

     Looking back, I'm thankful that God said no to some of my prayers. The mystery of faith calls us to love and serve a God whom we can't always understand. We love this when the result satisfies us and God answers in ways that make our knees weak. It is much less exciting, however, when the mystery leads us to believe that God is silent, indifferent, or even cruel. Mystery is mystery. It has its exhilarating elements as well as frustrating ones, and we can't expect one without the other.

     The pursuit if maturity will lead virtually every one of us through this canyon of unanswered prayer, where expectancy runs dry and the only mystery seems to be where God is hiding. Understand that this is a necessary avenue on the destination to holiness and that it usually has an end -- in God's timing however."

     Some thoroughly enjoy prayer.  Some struggle with snags and disappointments in prayer.  And some have dispensed with prayer -- at least in the more formal sense -- though I do not believe it's possible for the true believer to dispense completely with conversational interaction with God. Few will go an entire lifetime without the "why's" of both answered and unanswered prayer, yet there is blessing in persevering. Just as a child passes through phases of equilibrium and disequilibrium in their trek to maturity, so also the person maturing in prayer goes through such phases. The key, in the famous words of Winston Churchill, is to, "Never, never, never give up." 

     With you in what is often the struggle to find God, and the pathway to the throne of His grace, in prayer, Pastor Jeff

What comes to mind when you think about God?

Greetings!

     Let me start with a question: What comes to mind when you think about God?
     One particular man has said that your answer to that question, "is the most important thing about [you]."   So think about it again: "What comes into your mind when you think about God?"   This week's "thought" explains why he makes the above assertion.  It is taken from the book, "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A. W. Tozer, and I pass it along to you because I want to challenge you to think more deeply about what you believe about God.

     As with most of the "thoughts" I pass along, I believe Tozer is right in the things he says.  What we believe about God does have a tremendous effect upon who we are, what we do, and who we will become.  I pray that his words might cause you to earnestly consider, and if necessary make some adjustments, in relation to your view of God. In fact, if you desire a very thoughtful and readable consideration of what Scripture tells us God is like, this book is well-worth the cost and time it takes to read it (or listen to it) The following entry tells you why he wrote the book.  Enjoy.

     "What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is either pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.  We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but the company of Christians that composes the Church.  Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.

     Were we able to extract from any person a complete answer to the question, "What comes to mind when you think about God?" we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that person.  Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow. Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God.  Thought and speech are God's gifts to creatures made in His image; these are intimately associated with Him and impossible apart from Him...  We may speak because God spoke.  In Him word and idea are indivisible.

That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us.  Compared with our actual thoughts of Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.  A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well.  It is to worship what the foundation is to the Temple. Where it is inadequate or out of plumb, the whole structure must sooner or later collapse.  I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God...

     The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping people. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.  This low view of God... is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.  With our loss of the sense of [God's] majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, "Be still and know that I am God," mean next to nothing to the self-confident bustling worshiper [of our day]...  The decline of the knowledge of the Holy has brought on our troubles...  A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing those troubles. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate.  If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is." 

     I have seen the truth of what he says play itself out in my own life, as well as in society.  You too (if you are the introspective type) may be able to see traces of that progression (in a positive or negative direction) in your own life.  We inevitably (subconsciously) take on the characteristics of the God that we worship.  In fact, speaking of idols and those who make them the psalmist says: "Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them" (Psalm 115:8).  This is why it makes such a difference what we believe about God.  "We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God," as Tozer put it.

     Do you believe God is permissive? You believe God is a heartless taskmaster?  You believe God is gracious and kind?  You believe God is a heartless rule-enforcer?  You believe God is Santa Claus in the sky?  Do you believe ______________?   The answer to these questions is extremely important, for you will gravitate toward exhibiting the characteristics of the God you envision.  As many have realized (and used for both good and bad purposes -- like the empathetic counselor who wants to free from guilt with the Gospel, or the terrorist who wants to enlist people to do unspeakable acts of cruelty): All you need to do to bring about change in a person is to change their view of God. 

     Which leads me to ask you one last time: "What comes to mind when you think about God?"   And to close, let me ask you to imagine how different you, and this world could be, if the answer to that question was, "Jesus." (Hebrews 1:3).

Just some food for thought, Pastor Jeff

Two Thoughts to Ponder

Greetings All!

     Today I send to two short and totally unrelated "thoughts" for you to ponder.  The first is "Doubt as the Doorway to Truth" by Madeleine L'Engle.  I have found this to be true in my own experience.  In fact, about three years after I came to Christ, I prayed for greater faith. The result (quite to my surprise) was to be assaulted by many doubts that seemed to come out of nowhere!  It confused me entirely. I asked for faith and I received doubts It wasn't until later that I realized that it was in seeking answers to those doubts that faith came.  God's ways are not our own! 

     
     The second "thought" is a true story passed on to me by a friend who leads short term mission trips overseas -- Paul Hatmacher of "Churches in Missions.'  It's a story that displays the providential intervention of God in the life of one very unsuspecting man.  Enjoy!

Doubt as the Doorway to Truth 

     "We are often taught that it is unfaithful to question traditional beliefs, but I believe that we must question them continually -- not God, not Christ, who are at the center of our lives... but what human beings say about God and about Christ. Otherwise, like the church establishment of Galileo's day, we truly become frozen people. Galileo's discoveries did nothing whatsoever to change the nature of God; they threatened only man's rigid ideas of the nature of God....

     The great metaphysical poet, John Donne, writes: 'To come to a doubt, and a debatement of any religious duty, is the voice of God in our conscience: Would you know the truth? Doubt, and then you will inquire." If my religion is true, it will stand up to all my questioning. There is no need to fear. But if it is not true, if it is man imposing strictures on God (as men of the religious establishment did in the days of Galileo) then I want to be open to God, not what men say about God. I want to be open to revelation, to new life, to new birth, to new light. Revelation. Listening. Humility. Remember -- the root word of humble and human is the same: Humus. Earth.  We are dust. We are created. It is God who made us and not we ourselves."

An Incredible Story 

     "Joseph Stalin ordered the purge of all Bible's and believers in Russia.  Millions of Bibles were confiscated and multitudes of believers were sent to die in prison camps.  Recently, COMission Ministry, sent a team to Stravopol (east of the Black Sea in Russia) and had literally thousands trust in Christ. They needed Bibles and heard from a local that there was a warehouse outside of town where Stalin had the Bibles stored.  Wondrously, the officials gave them permission to check it out and they found thousands of Bibles that had been taken from believers.  So the team hired students from a local college to clean out the warehouse. 

     One young man they hired was a skeptic, but he accepted the job for the money.  As the day wore on they noticed the young man had disappeared. They eventually found him in the corner of the warehouse weeping. He had slipped away having taken a Bible.  What he found shook him to the core.  Out of the thousands of Bibles, he had found one belonging to his grandmother... a woman persecuted all her life, who had died in prison.  No wonder he was weeping.  God had just dramatically revealed Himself to this young man.  His grandmother had no doubt prayed for him and for that city. Her prayers had followed him. And now this young man's life has been transformed by the very Bible that his grandmother found so dear." 

     God's ways truly are mysterious - beyond searching out (Romans 11:33).  He moves and guides in ways we least expect. "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" (Prov. 16:9). Little did that skeptic know at the beginning of the day (following his hearts desire for a little extra money) that his life would be blessed in an infinitely greater way by the time he headed home that evening.  God's ways are so much higher than ours -- and always better!

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Heresy / Apostasy

Greetings All,

     Today's "thought" comes from a lady who grew up in the church as a child, and then (in her own words) "set it aside as folly" as she entered her 20's. It wasn't until she reached her mid-thirties the she felt the need to "reclaim it."  It was process that was not always easy, and made her feel (at times) like she was being moved in a direction contrary to that which she would have willed to go -- though always for her good. 

     
     Her name is Kathleen Norris and her book is entitled "Amazing Grace, A Vocabulary of Faith."  This selection I share comes from her chapter on Heresy/Apostasy -- things she herself had ventured into.  And having been there, she addresses the topic from the informed place of personal experience.  I found her take on it interesting, and as one who also wandered far from the church for a time, before being drawn back, true to my experience as well. I offer it to others who may have strayed as well. Enjoy.

     "The Christian church has always co-existed with heresy, and with any luck it always will.  Contending with heresy is what helps keep orthodoxy alive.  But good will and sanity are essential, as Christian history is full of evidence that the vigorous rooting out of heretics is a cure worse than the disease.  The times, blessedly few of them considering the church’s two-thousand-year span, when the inquisitorial types have gotten the upper hand have proved irredeemably shameful and sometime horrific.

     If heresy might be seen as slipping toward one extreme or another on a Christian continuum, apostasy is another matter altogether.  The word comes from the Greek for “to revolt,” “to defect,” and signifies a break with the family.  The American Heritage Dictionary defines apostasy as the “abandonment of one’s religious faith, a political party, one’s principles, or a cause.” There is a certain pride inherent in apostasy, which often manifests itself as a remarkable faith in oneself, as in “I alone know what is right for me.”  Teachers, traditions, the family stories, and the beliefs of the common herd are all suspect; suspicion rather than trust is what defines the apostate.  And it defines our age.  The individual stands alone, a church of one, convinced that he or she is free of the tyranny of any creed or dogma.

     But the use of one’s own experience as the measure of the world contains the seed of another kind of tyranny.  The accomplished gadfly Wendy Kaminer, in a perceptive essay entitled “The Latest Fashion in Irrationality,” examines the way in which much contemporary spirituality (which from a Christian frame of reference is apostasy) offers a closed belief system in which “the possibility of error is never considered,” as one’s feelings are always right.  But as Kaminer points out, these trendy belief systems – she is examining some recent best-sellers that address alien abductions, personal angels, and the ability to will oneself into a supernaturally evolved state – usually fail to deal adequately with the evil in this world.  And they encourage a disastrous self-absorption, allowing people to believe that they are part of a spiritual elite.  “Like extremist political movements,” she writes, “they shine with moral vanity.”  If I had to come up with a synonym for apostasy, that would be it:  it is simple vanity.

     But it is my own vanity that I am condemning, my own arrogance, my own apostasy, which surfaces whenever I break away from my community of faith.  It comes when I am so angry, or despairing, or simply exhausted, that I forget that I don’t go to church for myself.  Church is the Christian community, and it exists in order to worship God and to live out the commandment given by Jesus Christ, to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.  The part of this equation that the apostate in me tends to scorn, is that worshipping God means loving my neighbor.  Mark 6:30-34 describes Jesus and his disciples trying to get away from people for a rest, but finding that people follow them, needing a word of encouragement; needing to be tended, fed, and cared for.  A Presbyterian pastor one reminded me, in an inventive take on this gospel passage, that we “go to church for other people.  Because,” he added, “someone may need you there.”  I stopped doodling on my bulletin and began to pay attention, apostate no longer but fully present  “Someone may need you there.”  And I may also need to admit that I need them. 

     Wretched as I am, it may do someone good just to see my face, or share a conversation over coffee before the worship service; wretched as we all are, in the private hells we dwell in, all too often inflicting on those who are closest to us the bitter residue of their flames  Church is a place we can go to stop the madness, because every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are petitioning for forgiveness not only from God but from each other.  Forgive me, Lord, as I forgive.  These are words that a true apostate cannot pray."

     Kathleen is right. In terms of the years of my own "apostasy" I can say, "Yes, it was bred in vanity."  For vanity often produces the need to be novel, and as she says, think that we alone see things as they really are and we alone know what is right for us.  Likewise, apostasy (at least in my case) was the result of a rebellion against what I knew deep down inside to be true; it was not driven by a compulsion to pursue truth. Also, it was fueled by a tendency to embrace one small part of what was true, focus on that one small part as the whole truth, and thereby create a system of thought that was unbalanced or not counterbalanced by other necessary truths, and thus ended up being untrue (heretical).

     J. I. Packer was right when he suggested that: "A half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth."  Heresy usually exists in the unbalanced extremes of limited thinking. It is not the result of seeing more than others see, but refusing to see all there is to see. Truth is comprehensive, but heresy latches on to one small aspect of the truth without considering the complexity and completeness of the full truth that would balance it off.  So, my coming to the faith, after a time of straying (apostasy) was simply coming to see in full (and acknowledge) truths I had selectively chosen to reject. Those who have (like she and I) wandered into the two states of heresy and apostasy will understand what she and I mean -- which is probably more than a few of those who have read this post!

With Prayers for You on the Journey, Pastor Jeff

Shut in by God

Greetings All, 

     This week's "thought" is called "Shut in by God"  It comes from a book of daily devotions complied from the writings of James Montgomery Boice, who served at 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia for over 30 years before his relatively early death in 2000 at the age of 61.  Boice was a  gifted and well-known Bible teacher who held degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Basel in Switzerland, and whose "Bible Study Hour" radio program can still be heard on air and online. This is the devotional entry for - January 8th (today!) -- and offers three lessons we can learn from the biblical narrative regarding Noah and his family. Enjoy.

Shut in by God

"And the Lord shut him in..." 

Genesis 7:16

     

     "Consider these three lessons.

     FIRST, when the Lord shut Noah and his family up in the ark, they were totally secure and thereby become an illustration for us of the believer's perfect security in Jesus Christ. The rains    would come. The floods would rage. But nothing would touch these who had been sealed in the ark by Jehovah.  The Lord does not place the safety of his people in the hands of others. He himself throws the bolt-lock. It is said of him, "What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open" (Rev. 3:7 NIV) The shutting in of Noah was the equivalent of our being sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).  Like him we are not only saved; we are secure as well.

     SECOND, there is a lesson of God's great grace. The last thing we are told in this story before the waters actually begin to come is that, 'the Lord shut him in" (v. 16).  Presumably this was done at the last possible moment.  Noah had been preaching God's righteousness, man's sin, and warning of the great flood for years and years, but no one had believed him. They were still refusing to believe. Yet the door to the ark remained open, and any who wanted to could have gone inside. What great grace!  What magnificent forbearance on the part of God!  Since Noah had believed and had gone in, no one still outside could say that the possibility of belief was closed to him. "Whoever willed" could come. So it is today. All who will may come. Many do not, but none of these can say that the possibility of repentance from sin and turning to Christ are beyond them. 

     FINALLY, there is a lesson in that there is an end to grace. Grace is great, but it is not unending. If it is spurned, the day of reckoning eventually comes. For one final week the door stood open. But the week ended, the door was closed, and the flood came. The same God who opens doors is himself the door (John 10:7 & 9).  He also closes doors and refuses to open them when the time of grace is gone.  For you it is not yet past, whoever you may be.  This is still the day of grace, and though it will end, it has not ended yet.  Won't you come while there is still time?  God said to Noah, "Come... into the ark" (Gen. 7:1). At the end of the Bible we read, "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Rev. 22:17)." 

     Grace is the most wonderful thing! Nothing in all the earth compares with it!  And though it is God's nature to be gracious, and the riches and glory of His grace will be (and should already be) the source of endless praise among the recipients of it, the Bible makes clear (as Boice rightly notes), that God's offer of grace will one day end.

     Isaiah 61:2, in speaking of the ministry of Jesus, states that He was to: "proclaim the year (or time) of the LORD's favor (grace), and the day of the vengeance of our God."  And Jesus did just that. He fulfilled this prophecy about Himself by proclaiming the "year" (the time, season, or epoch) of God's grace in light of the coming day of judgment. He did not preach that grace did away with God's justice and judgment forever, but that God in His great mercy was offering grace to all now in light of the impending Day of Judgment which is to come.

     The Gospel declaration (like Noah's message to the people of his day) was, "Come for safety and salvation now!  Hurry! For the day is coming when the door of God's grace and mercy will close, and the time of judgment will begin for all who have not entered in."   Peter proclaimed that  message in Acts 2:38-41 on the Day of Pentecost.  And Paul proclaims it as well in II Cor. 5:20 - 6:2.

     It assures us that the call of the Gospel must always have a sense of urgency to it.  For it's message is not, "Grace to everyone now and forevermore," it is, "Now is the time of God's favor! Today is the day of salvation! Come to Christ for mercy now, for the day of wrath and divine judgment is coming" (II Cor. 6:2, I Thess. 1:9-10, II Thess. 1:3-10).  Yes, Scripture assures us that there will come a day when the door of God's grace -- like the door on the ark -- will one day be shut and all left outside (all who spurned His offer of grace in Jesus) will experience God's great wrath.

     So come now, says Scripture!  Whosoever will, come!  Be sure you come to Christ before the door of God's free offer of grace is closed to you forever.

     If any of you have not yet come, I pray that by God's grace you would, and without delay.

In the Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff