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

It Is Well With My Soul

Greetings All,

     My daughter Bekah sent me the link to this devotional by Tori Kelly the other day, because she knows Horatio Spafford's hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" is one of my favorites. I opened it, read it, felt there was much honest transparency and biblical truth in it, and therefore thought I would pass it along to you. I trust it will encourage and speak to you as well.  Enjoy.

SOUL’S ANTHEM (IT IS WELL)

     Suffering is guaranteed in this life. The devil is always throwing fiery darts at us. Right now in this moment he’s trying to attack my family, my health, my relationships, and my peace. He’ll do anything to take my eyes off of Jesus.  He wants to take everything away from me, and most importantly, he wants to take my faith.

     Our faith is not grounded in our circumstances.  Neither can our joy in Christ be.  Recently, my grandfather passed away in the time I felt I needed him most.  I felt like I had lost my best friend. It was so painful to go through and I cried so much -- until my eyes had nothing left.  But through every tear, God was with me in those hard moments. I could still be in a dark and lonely place, and even be mourning, but my joy could not be stolen because it is secured in Jesus.  No matter what happens, no matter what arrows are thrown my way, no matter how dark it gets, I know I will be okay.  It’s not always easy to believe, but I know that when I remind myself that God is in control I find rest and am able to sing, “it is well with my soul.”

     Most importantly, I can always sing “it is well” because God spoiled the movie for us and we get to know how this story ends. “It is well with my soul” because there is a place called heaven where death will be no more, every tear will be wiped away, and any tears shed in this life will be redeemed (he has bottled each one).

     Maybe your suffering is different than losing a grandfather. Maybe it’s worse. Maybe it’s as bad as the writer of “It is Well” who lost his entire family in the days prior to when he penned this hymn.  Even still, God says all of it is not even worthy to be compared to the glory to come to us.  Like an adult reflecting on his experience in kindergarten, so believers in heaven will remember their suffering in this life, saying, “Oh yeah... I think I vaguely remember...”

     Suffering comes to each of us in a different way - broken relationships, physical illness, economic hardships, loss, crime, slander, betrayal, depression, humiliation, you name it. Scripture assures us of this. Jesus assures his disciples of this. "In this world you WILL have trouble (tribulations). But take heart!  I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).  Jesus never promises us a trouble-free life in this world. His promised overcoming of the world means, as Tori Kelly rightly points out, we already know how the story ends!  Jesus is the Victor!  It's already a done deal!  God has won!  The world loses!  And we get to be over-comers with him in the victory he's already won!

     John 16:33 was spoken prior to the cross and resurrection.  Yet it is spoken in the past tense - "I have overcome..."  It is spoken before the cross an resurrection, but with as much confidence and assurance in the promise as if those those things had already taken place!  (If only they had truly "heard" him!)  In fact, in a very real sense the cross had already taken place, as John assures us in Revelation 13:8, where it speaks of Jesus as, "the Lamb slain from the creation of the world."   Jesus' ultimate victory of overcoming the world had already been decreed and determined and worked out in the providence of God before God ever created the world!  And we get to rejoice and participate in many of the benefits of that victory in this life (not all of them just yet), remembering as Paul assures us,  "Our light and momentary trials are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (I Corinthians 4:17).

     Resting in the victory of God until the promise becomes our experienced reality in eternity, Pastor Jeff

When I Don't Desire God

Greetings!

For over a year I've been engaging numerous young people in conversations about God, church, and simply life in general.  In the process one major theme has repeatedly come up: Many young people are struggling to experience joy in God.  As a result some gave given up on God.  Many say their friends are depressed and struggle to find meaning and motivation in life.  I know there are various reasons for this, but I send out this week's "thought" because it offers at least one possible remedy for the problem.  It's found in John Piper's book, "When I Don't Desire God," the sequel to his best-selling book "Desiring God - The Confessions of a Christian Hedonist."  Both books are well-worth reading if you have not yet done so.  Enjoy.

     "One of the greatest witnesses I know of to the power of regular disciplined reading of the Bible for the sake of love-producing joy is George Mueller (1805-1898), who is famous for founding orphanages in Bristol, England, and for depending on God for meeting all his needs.  He asked the very question this book is asking: "In what way shall we attain to this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to enjoy God? How shall we obtain such an all-sufficient soul-satisfying portion in him as shall enable us to let go of the things of this world as vain and worthless in comparison? I answer: This happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has therein revealed Himself unto us in the face of Jesus Christ."  

     That's what we have seen so far in this book: Happiness in God comes from seeing God revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ through the Scriptures.  Mueller says, "In them...we become acquainted with the character of God. Our eyes are divinely opened to see what a lovely Being God is!  And this good, gracious, loving, heavenly Father is ours -- our portion for time and for eternity."  Knowing God is the key to being happy in God.  "The more we know God," says Mueller, "the happier we are... When we became a little acquainted with God... our true happiness... commenced; and the more we become acquainted with him, the more happy we become.  What will make us exceedingly happy in heaven?  It will be the fuller knowledge of God."  Therefore the most crucial means of fighting for joy in God is to immerse oneself in the Scriptures where we see God in Christ most clearly.

     When Mueller was seventy-one years old, he spoke to younger believers: "Now...I would give a few hints to my younger fellow-believers as to the way in which to keep up spiritual enjoyment. It is absolutely needful... we should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively, and not just pick out here and there a chapter.  If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole Bible with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. The my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more.

     He would live and read his Bible for another twenty-one years. But he never changed his strategy for satisfaction in God. When he was seventy-six, he wrote the same thing he had learned for over fifty years: "I saw more clearly than ever, that the first and primary business to attend to every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord."  And the means stayed the same: "I saw that the most important hing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God, and to meditation upon it... What is the food of the inner man?  Not prayer, but the word of God; and... not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds like water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.""

     In a society that tries to get us to question the uniqueness, validity, authority and divine origin of the Scriptures as being "God-breathed" revelation (II Timothy 3:16-17), it is not unusual to see people laying aside the priority of Bible reading, Scriptural meditation and Bible memorization.  Yet they do it to their own peril and the impoverishment of their own soul. They rob themselves of the possibility of the peace and joy that come from knowing God.  For as both Mueller and Piper note: "This happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures...." "Happiness in God comes from seeing God revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ through the Scriptures...."  "Knowing God is the key to being happy in God."  "The more we know God the happier we are."

     Did not Jesus essentially tell us the same thing regarding the soul-feeding and soul-satisfying function of God's Word in the Scriptures?  Is He not looking out for our greatest good -- our spiritual happiness, contentment and satisfaction in God -- when He says:  "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."  And as we know, by the word "live" he is not simply speaking of physical life as opposed to death, He's speaking of being alive inwardly, or thriving spiritually, of finding our soul-sustaining nourishment in the Scriptures.

     With prayers that you may seek to feast more earnestly and consistently upon the Word that was given to sustain your happiness in God, Pastor Jeff

The Practice of the Presence of God

Greetings!

This past weekend the men at my church got away on a "Men's Recon"  to a couple cabins in the Pocono Mountains to spend time in quiet contemplation with God.  In doing so we read Brother Lawrence's classic work, "The Practice of the Presence of God."  It was revitalizing time.   I had my own copy of the book which I bought many years ago, so I brought it with me - fragile as it is from being loaned out and read so many times. Over the years I have copied quotes into the many blank pages and spaces in it.  So today I wanted to share some of those quotes with you.  And if you have just a moment, let me know which one(s) hit home the most. Enjoy.

"Whatever we are doing, even if we are reading the Word or praying, we should stop for a few minutes -- as often as possible -- to praise God from the depths of our hearts, to enjoy Him there in secret. Since you believe that God is always with you no matter what you may be doing, why shouldn't you stop for a while to adore Him, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him your heart, and to thank Him?"

Brother Lawrence

"There is nothing but God's grace. We walk upon it. We breathe it. We live by it and we die in it."

Robert Louis Stevenson

"You have no strength but what God gives you, and you can have all the strength that God can give." 

Andrew Murray

"Wonder is the basis of worship."

Thomas Carlyle

"Faith is not an effort, a striving, a ceaseless seeking, as so many earnest souls suppose, but rather, a letting go, an abandonment, an abiding rest in God that nothing, not even the soul's shortcomings can disturb." 

Unknown

"God never asks us to give up anything unless He intends to replace it with something better."

George Mueller

"He who would not die for Jesus will never truly live for Jesus; for to earnestly live for Him requires dying daily to the self-will that we may do His will."

"God insists that we ask, not because He needs to know our situation, but because we need the spiritual discipline of asking."

Catherine Marshall

"When God wants to do His great works, He trains somebody to be quiet enough and little enough, then uses that person."

Hudson Taylor

"Enter into the inner chamber of your mind, shut out all things except God and whatever might aid you in seeking God, and having barred the door of your inner chamber, seek Him." 

St. Anselm of Canterbury

"God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him." 

Martin Luther

"Joy is not happiness as much as it is gladness; it is the ecstasy of eternity in a soul that has made peace with God and is ready to do His will."

Unknown

"Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation."

Elton Trueblood

"Be patient with each other, there are no shortcuts to spirituality. The growing of fruit takes time."

Unknown

"The greatness of a man is not measured by his power or ability, but by the measure of his surrender to God."

Unknown

"The person who insists on seeing with perfect clarity before he follows Christ in the way, will never obey God's call to walk by faith. To Abraham God said, 'Leave your country and your people and your father's household, and go to the place I will (that is, in the future, far down the road) show you." 

"When, as a husband or wife, you are confronted with a very difficult choice, do what is best for your spouse and your children and God will honor it." 

"If you'd ever really gotten inside the mind of Jesus, ever had a single taste of His burning love, considerations of your own loss or gain would mean nothing."

Thomas A'Kempis

"It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving."

Richard Braumstein

"Though we do not have our Lord Jesus with us in bodily presence, we have our neighbor, who, for the ends of love and loving service, is as good as our Lord Himself."

Teresa of Avila

"To do so no more is the best repentance."

Martin Luther

"No one gives himself freely and willingly to God's service unless, having tasted His Fatherly love, he is drawn to love and worship Him in return." 

John Calvin

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Who Is This That Cures The Sick?

Greetings All,

     Today I offer you a true story of healing found in the book, "He Touched Me" by John Powell (a professor of psychology and theology who also had his own counseling practice). The healing of a patient he had diagnosed as "neurotic" (always complaining, always indecisive, very egocentric, and forever absorbed in the memories of her painful past). Yet, much to his surprise she was delivered from that ailment through an encounter with Jesus -- an encounter with Jesus that not only changed her, but him. Much of the small book (95 pages) focuses on learning how to be completely open, honest and transparent with God in prayer. It was a point he learned from the Reformer, Martin Luther, whose first law of successful praying was: "Don't lie to God!"   He also notes that honest "self-disclosure" is imperative to any true praying and is the essence of true love. This story follows the heading in his book entitled: "Who Is This That Cures The Sick?"   Enjoy.

     "At the end of the summer just before our university classes were to begin, I answered the phone to hear the voice of a [woman I had counseled numerous times without any success]. I knew she would want another appointment and would want another to agonize along with her while she resurrected the same old problems...  But how the Spirit loves to surprise us!  The voice I heard on the phone was somehow the same, yet somehow different. My "keen diagnostic ear" said that there was a new peace in her. I had to ask several times, "Who is this?" She quietly and peacefully said that she did NOT want an appointment, that she knew I was busy and did not want to take any more of my time. The only purpose for the call, she said, was to thank me for my time and patience and the help I had given her over the last three years.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

     There was all the resonance of sincerity, but such abrupt personality changes just do not happen in real life. So I said: "You're different, aren't you?" And she replied, "Oh yes!" "What happened? I asked.  "I met Jesus Christ." 'You what?" I queried.  "I met Jesus Christ. Before this I knew about Him, but now I know Him."  "If you tell me you had a vision...," I started to say. "No, no vision. But I did meet Jesus Christ."  Then I told her, "I don't know whether you want to see me, but I want to see you."

     When she came to my office my eye confirmed what my ear had led me to suspect This was a "healed" person. I do not mean to detract one iota from the contribution they make to the lives of wounded human beings, but clinical psychology and psychiatry must not be allowed to pose as saviors or redeemers. Therapy can never be a substitute for a life of faith. I knew, from my training in psychology, that no reputable therapist could ever promise this kind of "cure," this new "wholeness." There is no plastic surgery to remove the psychological scars that all of us bear to some extent. By supportive psychotherapy we can be comforted, and by reconstructive psychotherapy we can be somewhat readjusted and develop new coping mechanisms, but... we cannot be healed or cured. This woman, seated before me, expressing gratitude and claiming to have met Jesus Christ, was "healed." She knew it and I knew it.

     Without overtones of pride or egotism, she told me of her experience. She was invited to a prayer meeting. She told me how she decided to go, not really to pray, but to be able to say later that she had, "tried everything, even prayer meetings."  However she was not prepared for the opening announcement of the leader of the prayer meeting.  He began: "We have come here tonight to pray. And if you can find it in your heart to join us, please stay.  We both need and want you.  But I have a feeling that some of you may have come out of curiosity, like spiritual Peeping Toms to see what goes on at prayer meetings. If this is why you came, and if you cannot find it in your heart to join us in reaching out to God, then I would like to ask you respectfully to leave."  O my God, she thought, decision number one!  She did decide to stay, trying to pry her mind away from the "exit" sign, to turn it to the Lord. Then she heard one of the leaders of the group urge the others to "open" themselves to the Lord. "Open all the doors and windows of your soul to the Lord. Don't keep any rooms locked or closed off to Him. Let Jesus take over. The depth of the faith that releases the power of God is measured by your willingness to let God direct your life... Surrender your life and your heart to Him." 

     She felt helpless to direct her own life successfully, and so, at the exhortation of one of the other people in the prayer group, she sincerely and almost desperately invited Jesus to come into her soul, her life, her world.  She offered God her unconditional surrender and He took her at her word, accepted her gift, became her Lord.  "For so many years," she told me, "there had been a high, hard, impenetrable wall between God and myself. I used to throw my little gifts over the wall and hope that someone was on the other side receiving them. It was impersonal, unsatisfying. But I thought it was the best I could do or even hope for. Somehow, in that moment -- perhaps it was due to all the other people in the room praying for each other -- the wall came down. Somehow Jesus was standing there with arms held out to embrace me. I knew Jesus as real for the first time."  While my friend continued to describe her moment of grace, God was somehow, strangely, having another moment with and in me. I was remembering hungrily all the things that had somehow slipped out of my hands, out of my life.  I was remembering the night He "touched" me...

     In the days that followed, I began to pray with a new intensity. From the early morning shower till the darkened moments while waiting for sleep, I kept inviting Jesus into my house of many rooms. I kept reassuring Him that I was ready to admit my own bankruptcy, my own helplessness to direct my life, to find peace and joy. I constantly invited the Holy Spirit to take down my walls, to destroy the barricades that were so many years in the building. I asked the Spirit to free me from the ingrained habit of competition, from the insatiable hunger for success, from the need for recognition and adulation.  What began to happen in me almost immediately can be compared only to springtime. It seemed as though I had been through a long, hard-frozen wintertime. My heart and soul had suffered all the barrenness, the nakedness of nature in winter. Now in the springtime of the Spirit, it seemed as though the veins of my soul were thawing, as though blood was beginning to course through my soul again, and new beauty began to appear in me and around me." 

     There is something about a person who has truly encountered Jesus, and been changed by the Holy Spirit, that makes us yearn to experience what they have.  In fact, this "thought" is dedicated to such an individual -- a good friend and true man of God from my church who passed away unexpectedly on Saturday -- Steve Reall.  His relationship with God (whom he always referred to as "Abba") was passionate, very real, honest, and transparent. Thank you Steve for your friendship, and prayers, and for being to me an example of a true committed soldier of Christ and lover of Jesus looks like.  Your example will not be forgotten. 

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

C. S. Lewis - A Collection of Thoughts

Greetings All!

     Today you get another post of many different "thoughts" rather than one longer continuous thought.  Yet, unlike my last mailing sent out two weeks ago, these all come from one author - C. S. Lewis.  I've been going through three of his books lately and found them all very rewarding. This is just a sampling of short thoughts from him.  I trust you might find a few of these to be helpful as you mull them over, and that one or two might be used of God to encourage, challenge, or comfort you.

     At our men's group this morning we discussed our favorites from my previous mailing two weeks ago, and why each person found particular ones the most helpful. If you get a chance today, and would want to share with me what your particular favorites are from the list below, I'd be interested in receiving your feedback!  Enjoy.

"If everything comes simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment dependent upon God." 

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but God will make us good because He loves us."

"It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they will see God, for only the pure in heart want to."

"I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I knew that a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity." 

"We are not necessarily doubting God will do the best for us, we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." 

"Don't shine so that others can see you. Shine, so that through you, others can see Him."

"Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did."

"If God had granted all the silly prayers I've asked in my life, where would I be now?" 

"If you're thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something that will take the whole of you."

"Everyone thinks forgiveness is a wonderful idea until he has something to forgive."  

"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... No one knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.  That is why bad people know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in." 

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

"God cannot give us happiness apart from Himself, because there is no such thing."

"It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God." 

"Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties."

"We must lay before God what is in us, not what ought to be in us."

With prayers for your continued growth in godliness, and your service in Jesus name, Pastor Jeff

Extravagant Grace

Greetings All!

     Today's 'thought' could have been written by me (the first part at least)!  For it sounds very similar to conversations I've had with people who see the God of the Old Testament as somehow being different from the God of the New Testament -- as if God's nature changed between the Testaments!  The extreme example of this was Marcion (85-160 A.D.) who not only deleted the Old Testament from his Bible, but all the verses from the Old Testament that were quoted by the authors of the New Testament! (By the way 25.5% of the material in the New Testament is quotations of the Old Testament.)  He had a very small Bible!   This particular entry is found in the book, "Extravagant Grace" edited by Traci Mullins. It was written by Marilyn Meberg.  I offer it for your consideration.  Enjoy.

     "Not long ago a woman named Betty corralled me after a conference and confided: 'You know what I just love about the God of the New Testament?  He's just so much more pleasant than that one in the Old Testament.  What I mean is, the modern God is so much more liberal...  I mean liberal about the sin stuff and everything. You know that woman at the well that Jesus was chatting with? You know, the one who moved through husbands like cheesecake?  Well, Jesus was so nice about all that.  And then of course there's that woman doing you know what right in the middle of the day.  And Jesus didn't even have a fit about it!  I love that about him!'

     I wonder if Betty's sentiments are more common than we might think. Quite frankly, I understand right where she's coming from. Sunday school, church, and vacation Bible school were all a part of my life as I grew up, and I can vividly remember thinking that the stories I heard about how God wiped out whole cities, including women and children, was scary. I was convinced he was powerful, but never in a million years would I believe he was pleasant.  As I grew older I decided not to read the Old Testament at all.  If I were to be perfectly honest, I thought God was arrogant, narrow-minded, and barbaric. Of course, I never admitted that to a living soul, and I certainly didn't tell God!  I didn't want to risk being struck by a plague!

     During my junior year at Seattle Pacific University I had one of those 'aha' moments in the middle of Dr. Demaray's class on evangelism. He pointed out that in the Old Testament God was graphically illustrating his utter intolerance of sin. That's why those people who lived in total disobedience were wiped out. The law was: You sin, you're warned, you don't heed the warning, you die!  Dr. Demaray went on to explain that when Jesus became the embodiment of the world's sin, God, who cannot tolerate sin, turned momentarily away, thus provoking the anguished cry, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' It wasn't that God's heart was indifferent to the death of his Son; he simply cannot compromise his holiness by even looking upon sin.

     It began to make more sense to me why God seemed so inflexible about sinful people, but it still made him a bit scary. It took a few more years for me to finally fit the Old Testament God and the New Testament God into one integrated, harmonious whole. That all happened when I joined a Bible study on the book of Romans and finally learned the meaning of justification...  Romans 5:1 states, 'Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.'   Chuck Swindoll clearly defines this extravagant gift of justification through God's grace.  'It is the sovereign act of God whereby he declares righteous the believing sinner while still in his sinning state. It doesn't mean that the believing sinner stops sinning. It doesn't even mean the believing sinner is made righteous in the sense of suddenly becoming perpetually perfect. The sinner is declared righteous. God sovereignly bestows the gift of eternal life on the sinner at the moment he believes and thereby declares him righteous while the sinner still lives a life marked by periodic sinfulness.  God takes the guilty, believing sinner who says, 'I am lost, unworthy, guilty as charged, and undeserving of forgiveness' and extends the gift of eternal life because Christ's death on the cross satisfied His demands against sin, namely death. And God sees the guilty sinner (who comes by faith alone) as righteous as He sees His own Son."

     Do you realize what that means?  Even though we still sin and often can''t seem to stop, God declared us righteous when we believed and received Jesus. And because the sin thing stays with us like onions after lunch, we desperately need God's grace. We deserve to be overtaken by locusts, but instead we're embraced by forgiveness and miraculously accepted as righteous by the very God who will not tolerate wrongdoing of any kind!  I realize now that without knowing God's utter intolerance of sin, I could never begin to appreciate how incredible is the grace with which he embraces me.  The God of the Old Testament is the same God who ordained the Cross of forgiveness and grace. Someone needs to explain that to Betty."

     As a pastor I too have wrestled with some of the things God commanded in the Old Testament. They do seem harsh. And I have struggled seeing Jesus ("who is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of God's being" - Hebrews 1:3) carrying them out.  Yet I have never embraced the Marcion heresy of thinking there were "two different God's"  -- the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New.  Few truths stand out with more clarity than the declaration of God in Malachi 3:6, where He says, "I am the LORD, I do not change."  In fact, given the biblical understanding of God as Triune (one God indivisibly manifest in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) the same truth is stated by the author of Hebrews when he states that, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever"  (13:8).  The issue is not whether God in His essential nature changes (an impossibility according to God's own declaration in Scripture). But whether the God who is consistently and unchangeably the same changes His approach to sinners in light of the Cross.

     We live now in the Church age, or the epoch of grace, where mercy is being offered to the nations through the proclamation of the Gospel.  But we must remember that it's mercy offered in light of the wrath to come. For the Bible makes it clear that after the Gospel has been preached to all nations the end will come, and then God's wrath against sin will be exercised upon all who have not sought the shelter from it that He offers in Christ (Isaiah 61:2, I Thessalonians 1:10, I Thessalonians 5:1-3, II Thessalonians 1:5-10).  After all, if there is no coming day of wrath, there is no reason to seek shelter in Christ, and nothing that anyone really needs to be saved from. Such a belief would make the Gospel completely irrelevant.

     The Bible makes it clear that all sin will be punished. For believers it was punished in Jesus on the cross, but for those who reject Christ, it will be punished in them.  For the Gospel offer is not simply, "grace from now on, for all, forever."  It is, "grace for all who will come to Christ now, for the day of wrath (or judgment) is coming"  (Isaiah 61:2, II Corinthians 5:16-6:2).  People sometimes forget that the book of Revelation, which brings the New Testament to a close (and speaks of what will happen when the time of God's favor is finished), looks very "Old-Testament-like."

     So, it is true: God has not changed.  As a Holy God He always has, and always will, oppose and punish sin. And as a loving God He offers Christ to rescue from the coming wrath all who will trust in Him.  For those who are in Christ by faith their sin has already been punished. They are saved from the wrath to come (I Thess. 1:10). But for those who persist in their unbelief and refuse God's loving offer of grace in Christ, each day that passes draws them closer to the day (when if they continue to persist in that unbelief) they will experience His wrath in themselves. That's why we pray, and preach, and share the Gospel. As Marilyn Meberg writes: "The God of the Old Testament is the same God who ordained the Cross of forgiveness and grace.  Someone needs to explain that to Betty."

In the Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff