Slavery and Bondage:Pt3

So I have been away for a while, like over a year while...but seeing as I am the sole contributor, and probably reader, of this blog I guess its not a big deal. The reason I started this blog is two fold; I needed an outlet and secondly a certain life event led me here to start this blog, and similarly a life event has brought me back. As to the first life event you can learn about that here and here, and the second life event is much more simple. I told my wife about the blog, read a couple entries to her, and she said it was good, so if she thinks its good then I will try my best to be a more faithful poster.

This entry requires a brief, or as brief as I am capable of being, explanation. Its actually part 3 of a series (if you cant tell by the title), its not that I didn't have a conclusion previously, its just that my life shifted drastically and my attention was required elsewhere, and with good reason. Now I will briefly sum up the previous two post and their main points, or you can just go back to the archive and read them for yourself. In the first post I question the idea of freedom, freedom nowadays is usually summed up on the ground level as "People should be allowed to do what they want!" which if we really think about it is utterly ridiculous. So to fix this we normally add to it by saying something like "as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else." Sounds nice, but this does not fix the problem, you cannot give people the leeway to be completely selfish and permit them to do everything and expect it not to affect anyone else negatively. We could go into endless examples I am sure.

In the second post we dived into the lies that dominate this way of thinking, and how they are kept hidden from us. Things like the illusion that we are in control, that we are basically good and we would never do anything destructive or hurtful with our freedom; in-spite of all human history as evidence to the contrary. Then we talked about the false identity your  "freedom" wants to put on you. Let me give one example of this.

I have now three daughters (prayers are appreciated), I consider it an honor to protect their purity, I hope that all three hold back from sex until they are married. This is not idealism, or some vain hope, but in conversations, even with well meaning people, they always say "well, wait until they are teenagers." They assume that teenagers have to experiment with sex or that they are most likely going to, and here is the thing...That may very well be my daughters story one day, but just because it happens, and even if it happens to the majority, it does not mean it has to be my girls story. I hope that this is something that I make clear to them all of their lives. That the truth is that whatever is considered normal in their culture "does NOT have to be their story." The identity being forced on them is this goofy overly sexualized idea of adolescence, and by telling them that this doesn't have to be their story, I am actually giving them more freedom in how they choose to shape their lives

In a nutshell, our westernish concept of freedom is hacked up in such a way that it actually binds us up. 

So here is the kicker, this is where I attempt to bring it all home. We are all bound, a "slave" if you will, to something. Its just obvious if we ever take a time out to look at ourselves and the world around us. Everyone is living for something, but this false "freedom" wants you to think that you are totally in control, the master of your destiny, which is also a silly notion if we really think about it. The follow through lie then offered to us is that you, unlike everyone else, are serving something positive, that your motives are pure. I want to offer myself up as an example to hopefully disprove this to you.

I previously mentioned my daughters, and I think through very specific and intentional things to hopefully teach, love and serve my daughters well. No one would fault me for this, but I am constantly drawn back to my motives for doing so. The Christian answer is that I do these thing for the Glory of God, because he loves my daughters more than I do, and he gave them to me to learn how to steward hearts and sacrifice and consider others better than myself, and sometimes, by God's grace and not my strength, this is absolutely where my heart and my motives are. However, I would be lying if I said this was the reality all of the time, or even most of the time. Normally its because I want my daughters to comply, to serve my kingdom, I want them to behave to spare myself some embarrassment  or I want others to see how good of a parent I am or I just want them to be well behaved.

So I want you to do two things for me. Examine yourself for a moment and figure out what your master is, and the what are your motives for chasing it down, are they really pure? Go ahead, I'll wait...

Usually people tend to think that the bible is about morality, and although it does contain morals, and does have something to say about morality, this view of the bible is simply lacking and untrue, it is not merely about morality, not even barely about morality. So with confidence, and evidence to show this that can be saved for a different post, I want to share a scripture that proves my point. Maybe you don't believe in all this stuff, then please just humor me and go on this journey in a hypothetical sense. If the bible is the word of God then we should probably pay very close attention when Jesus is speaking. I think this is a fare assumption, so Jesus tells us, recorded in two gospels that we all serve a master, and in fact it is impossible to serve two masters at once, you will hate one and love the other.

How does this tie in? Well Jesus is telling us that there really is no freedom, at least not in the American since. There are masters and slaves, and for those of us that think we are truly free we are really only fooling ourselves. I am sure it wouldn't take too long in conversation to find out what you truly value and how it controls you. You may for instance be a slave to money, so you spend endless amounts of time at work and ignore your family (I know there are variables to this, but this is a pretty straightforward and easy example.) You may get to be closer to your master, and may convince yourself that you did all of this for your family, but the sacrifice you pay is that your kids may not have a relationship with their father. You chased the happiness you thought the money would bring at the cost of the joy you would of had spending time with your family. However, you can go the opposite way and live for and idolize and worship your family, specifically your children. If we want to see this in action go watch toddlers & tiaras, there are just too many problems to name with that show.

So Jesus identifies that we all serve a master, and in his statement he suggest that its either him or someone or something else. Fundamentalist would say the "devil" which may be true in part, but the whole answer is actually much broader. It is that we either serve Jesus or anything else. Whatever we place our ultimate hope in trust in, even if that is ourselves, is our master. So Jesus draws a pretty solid line, and later the apostle Paul clings to this identity that Jesus offers, in his letter to the Romans he even introduces himself as a slave to Christ. The reason you and I dont, is because we dont really understand what is being offered two us, and in our foolish little hearts we think that we can find the goodness that Christ offers in things other than him. It really is that simple.

We want the benefits of serving Christ without actually serving Christ. It's very common, and very appealing. Maybe my hiatus didn't help to tie all three post together neatly, but at the very least, maybe there is some food for thought.

Why Evil Happens (an explanation of the Chistian perspective)

In light of the recent and devastating school shooting in Connecticut, a flurry of chatter has erupted across social media platforms expressing feelings of grief, shock and contempt. As always a specific question arises among these feelings, expressed in different ways, the question is simply "Why?", and in our ever increasingly divided country, the different ways we answer this question inevitably cause even more strife in a moment when we need to be even more unified.

We all speculate over this question pointing to, among other things, the corruptness of society, the availability of guns and proper gun training vs more gun regulation, to mental health issues and whether you are a believer or an unbeliever we always wonder "Why, if God exist  would he let this happen?" I cannot answer all these questions and the endless loop of questions they birth. I also cannot speak for God because as much as I like to act like it, I am not him. However, I will attempt to answer, or at least give some perspective on a root question for all of this turmoil that surrounds us now. I do not think this will necessarily give us all comfort after this tragedy, I do think it may help establish a foundation on which we can begin to ask deeper questions, and to hopefully find answers and meaning in a world that at times like this seems to lack both.

The question is this. "Why does evil happen?" Not where does it come from, but "why". I plan to do so from a Christian perspective for two reasons. 1. Non-Christians get frustrated at Christians (this is due to the second reason) 2. because most Christians lack the ability or understanding themselves to accurately articulate their point of view. This means for me, that I will most likely make enemies on both sides, but you will always have enemies if you are trying to be a friend to the truth. If you are an unbeliever I ask you to suspend your disbelief for a moment and follow the train of thought I lay out, I admit that it may be hard to accept, the truth normally is, but it is not as unreasonable as some would want you to think. If you are a Christian, please try your best to let this sink in, if you disagree fine, but make sure your disagreement is biblical. In both cases please don't ignore the very powerful emotions you have after this event, but allow reason and civil discourse to guide them into their proper place. Here we go...

According to the Christian world view evil comes from sinners who sin. The problem is not society, if society is wrong/evil, then it is only because society is made up of people who are evil, or at least, mostly evil. If this is true then it follows that no societal change will fix the problem. Better education, better laws, better regulation, better awareness, more prayer in schools will not fix the problem, to be fair they may be beneficial to understanding or finding a solution to the problem, but they, in and of themselves, are completely unable to fix the problem because the problem is us. So how does this help us answer the question that this entry is named for? Well...evil is the result of sin, and evil happens because we sin. Sin, according to Christian tradition, became a companion to humanity when our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned. We are now, all of us, implicated by their treason and it doesn't take long before we actively partake in their rebellion by sinning on our own.

This leaves us in a rapid state of decay. Once sin entered the world evil walked right on through the door as well, it only took until the next generation, Adam and Eve's sons, before we see the first murder...again according to Christian tradition. So if this is true I know two things for sure. I am a sinner, and when I sin evil rules, Adam Lanza is a sinner, and when he sins evil rules. Here normally starts the debate on who sin worse, "yes I've sinned, but my sins haven't killed anyone!" We all try to prove our innocence, and since we ignore our guilt we push it onto others.

Here is where we are at. We are all guilty sinners, and our sins make a world were evil can reign. However, God, once evil and sin entered the picture has provided us with grace. God warned our first parents that the punishment for their sin was death, yet when they sinned, God held back his wrath and instead issues a sacrifice, killing an animal in their place, and taking that animal's fur and covering their nakedness with it. Now if you are picking up on the symbolic nature of this, you would be correct. So, for those still reading... Evil enters the world with our sin, God counteracts this by giving us grace and he does this in two ways.

The first is what we call providence, through this God restrains evil throughout the world. The question for Christians is then reversed. I for one, am not surprised that evil happens, although I can be surprised by specific acts of evil, the question is no longer "Why does evil happen?", but "Why doesn't more evil happen?" Why are we not completely evil yet? Well God, if he exists, has every right to abandon us and punish us, yet he doesn't. He holds back evil through his providence, showing kindness and long-suffering to us, instead of his wrath, that hopefully we may repent and turn back to him. Allowing evil to still exist does not mean that he is unable to remove it, but it shows that we will never truly serve God unless we see that we truly need him. So evil exists because of sinners, we are sinners, and evil still exists because we refuse to turn from our sin and to God, and God holds back a great measure of evil through his providence.

The second way God gives grace is also the final way. This is the cross, that first sacrifice we mentioned for Adam and Eve is a shadow of the greater sacrifice of Jesus, who lived a perfect life that we could not, and died a horrible evil death that we deserved, so that we may put on his "fur" (read life) that would cover all of our sins and evil. The cross is the solution for all the sin and evil in the world. Which begs the question, "Then why does evil still exist if the cross already happened?" The best characterization I have heard to answer this is that Jesus Christ, on the cross established the spiritual fulfillment of the Kingdom, but the physical Kingdom has not yet come to pass, and will not come to pass until he returns. This is because when the physical kingdom is established there will no longer be a chance for anyone to turn to Christ, his return waits so that more will come to know him, he is patiently waiting for us to see our need for him and repent.

In all of this bad news the good news is that through the cross Jesus has made a way that we may pass from God's providential grace, that currently rules over all creation, and into God's saving grace. That no matter how evil we or the world around us becomes, we are all under the common grace that is God's providence, but we are not all under God's saving grace, but we all can be. God, through his son on the cross not longer has to either hold back evil, or destroy it, but he can redeem those who cause it, he can renew us. So imagine, if you are still suspending your belief, a society and a world were we stop living in God's providence, ignoring God and think that it is some product of our own effort, and instead we bend a knee to his saving grace. My favorite way the scriptures portray this is God removing our heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh.

Societal woes, abortion, gun control, wars, illness both mental and physical simply cannot exist in this world, a world full of people that have hearts of flesh instead of stone, hearts made alive by Christ. I am deeply grieved and dismayed like all of you, but I also cannot help to realize that Adam Lanza was a man who denied God's saving grace, and resisted God's restraining providence. That this did not have to happen, and with all the issues that we try to blame, I cannot help but to feel some responsibility. I am not directly responsible for this tragedy in any real way, but I am as guilty as the rest of humanity in my rebellion against the one who gives, sustains and takes away life. I started this explanation saying that I dont think it will solve all of our problems and make us feel better. I do know, however, that I, like you and the rest of humanity are never going to receive the help we so desperately need until we hate all sin including our own.

If you need a church to help you find some answers and council I suggest this one ... www.myvillagechurch.com

So where does this leave us in our question? Why does Evil exists? Evil exist because sin exist, sin does not come from things but from the hearts of men, so evil exist because we exist. God has restrained this evil by his providence and he will remove this evil completely by his justice for those who rebel and his redeeming grace for those who repent. Lastly this saving grace is available for everyone, even the worst of us. We see our own guilt in a guy like Adam Lanza, we see what we fear and know we could be if we let our evil rule us. I have come to the conclusion that I am not sufficient to rid myself of evil, but Jesus is. I will summarize it this way...

God is holy, we are sinful, but Christ is sufficient.

Grace&Peace to all of us, even the worst of us.