21st Century Problem

In my theology class today my professor talked about some of the issues facing the church (meaning the body of believers). In his opinion, the biggest obstacle in the 20th century was answering how God could allow such grievous suffering. With tragedies such as the Holocaust, and dictators such as Fidel Castro this was certainly not an easy question to answer.

He feels that now the biggest challenge to the church is the idea that there are many ways to get to heaven. Not only is this something held by several religions already but many Christians would even say that Jesus isn't the only way. This could be called a form of universalism and it is very dangerous.

Pat Robertson's 2008 Predictions

This guy is a piece of work. I'm sure a lot of you younger readers might not even know who this guy is and that isn't entirely a bad thing. But check this out because he is an important figure within the Christian faith whether you like him or not.

Here is a CNN article on his comments and a great blog on some of his past "prophesies" if they are even worth being called that (doubtful). I guess he has been making these predictions almost every year since before I was born. Wow.

I could easily rip into him with all my might, but I'll try not to.
Some thoughts on Pat...

-Why even make these predictions? I mean he is wrong a lot more than he is right. In my book he is cheapening what it means to be spoken to by God. In my theology class we talked a little bit about what makes a prophet and the first criteria was being able to predict things correctly. I wonder what a non Christian would say about him...my best guess is that he is a joke.

-Pat isn't his given first name. I wonder why he would allow that to become his nickname and used as his first name. I mean I understand Tiger going away from Eldrick. But going from Marion to Pat doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Most people I know picture this when the name Pat is said.
-I think it is awesome that he is a more charismatic person within the Southern Baptist Convention. I know he isn't a pastor anymore, but when he was he led in that way.
-His comment about Hugo Chavez is up there as one of the worst statements by a Christian leader in the past century.
-His ability to start a tv program from scratch in 1960 was innovative and bordering on genius.

I think I'll end on a positive note with this. It would have been all too easy to rip him a part, so I'll take the high road...kind of.

What do you all think about this controversial guy?

In God's Name

Last night on CBS there was a 2 hour special named "In God's Name". 12 worldwide leaders of various beliefs and religions are interviewed. The 2 men who made the documentary were in the Twin Towers on 9/11 and they had a desire to seek out answers to some of the tough questions about God from these people. Here is another blog on the documentary.


Anglican Church leader: Rowan Williams
Chief Rabbi of Israel: Yona Metzger
The 14th Dalai Lama: Tenzin Gyatso
Southern Baptist Convention President: Frank Page
Grand Shiekh Sunni Muslim: Muhammad Tantawi
Grand Ayatollah Shia Muslim: Mohammed Fadlallah
Hindu Leader: Sri Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma)
Supreme Sikh Authority: Sri Akal Takht
Russian Orthodox leader: Alexy II
Shinto High Priest: Michihisa Kitashirakawa
Roman Catholic Pope: Pope Benedict XVI
President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church: Mark Hanson

Key points:
The Dalai Lama wakes up at 3am every morning for prayer for 2 hours.
Amma spends her entire day, every day, hugging and praying with the sick in India.
Rowan talked about the importance of doing family and marriage well...if he can't do that well, he doubts he can lead well.
Rowan looks exactly like Gandalf.
Alexy II believes thousands were killed for their faith in Jesus during the height of Communism.
There are 1 billion Catholics worldwide.
Buddhism believes that the Dalai Lama is Buddha incarnate and is therefore, God.
Frank Page believes there is a misconception that baptists are narrow-minded and unforgiving.
Page believes that the common link between all religions is human desire to touch the divine.
Metzger believes that a Rabbi must be knowledgeable in the law.
Grank Shiekh Imam Muhammad believes it is his job to show his followers what is right and what is wrong.
Metzger believes God does not permit killing to be done in god's name.
Mark Hanson believes that the terrorism that has occurred in the name of religion is not a reflection of religious faith but of the wickedness of man.
Both Islamic leaders believe terrorists have misunderstood the premise of religion.
Metzger fought with the army of Israel.
Islam is based on compassion and only involves violence when self defense is needed according to Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah.
Hanson believes fundamentalism is attractive today because we are drawn towards structure in a world full of chaos.
Hanson believes that our focus on terrorism is deterring us from the millions that die of curable diseases.
There are 900 million Hindu believers worldwide.
During Sikh meals, everyone in the church eats together (rich and poor, young and old).
The Shinto religion has no scripture or doctrine.
Before he was High Priest of the Shinto religion, Kitashirakawa was an executive at Toshiba.
Amma beliefs death is not an ending, but a new beginning.
The Dalai Lama believes that if we have spent a good life there will be nothing to repent of at death.
Alexy II believes the meaning of life is to be a Christian, not just in name but in life.
Amma believes she has hugged 26 million people in her lifetime.
The Pope believes that religion cannot become a vehicle to hatred.

The producers came away from their journey around the world knowing that there is much more that unites us than divides us. "The search for truth is in itself a religious act."

Hanson said, "I don't think the way we are living today is how God designed it...and the greatest challenge today is the relationship between unity and diversity."
According to Hanson we need a sense of what holds us together, or what divides us will conquer us. If we live through what unites us, then our diversity enriches life.

Jonestown

Tonight on SportsCenter they had a showcase on Jim Jones, one of the most infamous men in US History. I have to admit that I had never heard of him. It isn't common for history classes to teach modern religion history is my only excuse. I consider myself a person who knows a fair amount for my age but this I did not know. Here is a video about Jim Jones and Jonestown, Africa.


SportsCenter was showing this because Jim Jones' grandson is now a freshman on the basketball team at the University of San Diego. Jones' son was in the capital of Guyana at the time of the mass murder-suicide. He and some of his brothers had formed a basketball team and they were playing in a tournament in Georgetown, Guyana. That is how only a few descendants of Jim Jones survived. Really...an amazing story despite how shocked I was that I had never heard of this event specifically.

I know this isn't news to most people who read this. It just amazes me how much the Gospel can be skewed.

In but Not Of .1

I think a big dilemma Christians face is the principle of being in the world but not of the world. Every Christian seems to deal with this differently. Although I'm sure none of us think about it all the time, it effects so many decisions we make on a daily basis. I won't be the one to draw the line because its obviously something I struggle with all the time. But I do like to think about reaching other people for Christ like this: Church is our element, it tends to be comfortable for us but it is not that way for a non Christian. All of us tend to just invite our non Christian friends to church and let the church do the job of sharing who Jesus is. It also allows us to stay out of this person's world. I'm not saying church isn't a valuable place for you to bring people, but just like you don't want to go to a bar on a weekend, they don't want to go to church. So how can we be IN the world of the non Christian yet stay away from being OF the world...

1. Many of us Christians only listen to Christian music. On the radio this is Klove or the Fish or Air1. No this isn't bad and I think the quality and quantity of Christian music has expanded greatly in the past 5 to 10 years. But what do we have in common with a non Christian by only listening to this.........NOTHING. Can Christian music be used to reach a non Christian? well of course, but it certainly won't work for everyone. Give secular music a try without overdoing it and listening to Britney's new album (how is that crap #1 on iTunes?). There are tons of a great artists out there, use them to create a relationship with someone.

When it rains....

I wrote a paper last week for my theology class on suffering. The question given: why does God allow suffering?

The events of Hurricane Katrina were focal point for me. How can I tell someone devastated from that event that God had their best in mind? Would that even register with them. And also how could a non Christian be comfortable with a Christian view of suffering?



There are many systems set up to answer this question in a myriad of ways. It was my goal to create an answer. Easy right? ha.

I guess you could say I followed the "greater good" system for answering this question. A common approach for why suffering exists is that God is either not almighty and powerful or God is not loving. I did my best to refute those opinions. A quote from CS Lewis really summed up why we can't just put God in our human box.
"The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word ‘love,’ and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not even exist for his own sake...To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God."

I came to the conclusion that God is both almighty and loving, so suffering must have a purpose in our world. From the story of Job I think that suffering is partly what we make of it. We can choose to let it knock us down or we can use it to make us stronger. Of course that is easier said than done. I also think we see in Romans 5:3-5 and Hebrews 5:8 that suffering is used by God to help become more Christlike and to experience some of the agony Jesus went through. Does any of this resonate with a non Christian? Not yet but Romans 5:3-5 talks about hope, hope that doesn't disappoint. The Bible also talks about how they will know us by our love. I think these two verses work together with something that a non believer can come to grips with. Suffering can in some weird way produce hope and that hope is shown in our love for God and people. I certainly haven't figured this one out because there is no perfect way to answer this. I ended with this quote from CS Lewis:
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Response

I've spent some time studying the implications of postmodernity on theology and on church ministry. This won't be a discussion on my opinion on those, but one emphasis that I think is valuable is the mysteriousness of God. Modernity always looked for the rational to base beliefs on. However, as we see in my previous post on revelation, there must be a mystery to who God is to us. There are parts of God that we cannot explain through rational or experiential approaches, and the postmodern individual seems to enjoy this aspect of God rather than run away from it.
God tells us that "your thoughts are not my thoughts..." So clearly we do not think the same way that God does, or maybe God does not even need to think. Can we truly know?

How does this relate to my last post you might say? Well it completely relates. I said there are parts of God which remain a mystery. And why God would allow nature and general revelation to be enough revelation of Himself for all people to be accountable, is one of those mysteries for me. As with anything in Christianity, without faith the decrees of the Lord are pointless. All the arguments in the world for or against something can't make you believe that God would condemn the 18 year old kid from India, but you must have faith that God had revealed Himself to the boy in His own way, probably a way outside of conventional thinking. As I've mulled through all this I've come to a place of peace knowing I come no where close to how God "thinks." This is the God who provided me grace despite my continuing sinful nature, what a selfish thought to think I might know better than God on how someone might come to know Him.


Just as Slaton said, I just hope that my life is providing more opportunities for those who do not know the GREAT NEWS.


*Have a great weekend. Should be a good game (Oregon/Cal). Look for the start of "Sunday Night Thoughts," my summary of the weekend in sports.

Where do we draw the line?

I have a test this Friday. My first test in seminary, in my Christian Theology course. I can't remember the last time I studied this hard for a test, but don't tell my undergrad profs that. We are mostly covering some basic theological concepts and areas of study. I'm going to focus in on general and specific revelation. For those who don't know what these are I'll give a basic intro.

General revelation: God is shown in ways available to all people, i.e. nature
Specific revelation: God is shown to some people in various ways, i.e. The Bible

I don't immediately have a problem with either. God created earth and it was good, it says in The Bible, so therefore we must be able to "see" Him through nature. God has also given us The Bible in written (and audible in the 21st century) form which is not available to everywhere.

There are still people groups with which the Bible has not been translated to.

It does get more confusing to me when people say that all people must be held accountable where they have heard the good news of Jesus Christ or read the Bible. This is because God has shown himself through nature and people should be able to come to believe the one true God. But let me draw this example up for us. There is a kid born in a remote village in India, who is immediately introduced into Islamic culture and this is all he ever knows. No missionary ever visits his village and he never travels outside his village. At age 18 he dies somehow, having never read the Bible or had the good news of Jesus Christ proclaimed to him. However, he has seen the wheat fields and trees and the mountains in the distance. He goes to his death believing in Muhammad and the god of Islam, but he is held accountable for not accepting the God of Jacob and Abraham. If forced...how could I tell his family that he will is certainly not be in heaven?

How can we be sure that he experienced the one true God in nature?

I believe whole heartily that everyone is accountable and everyone is given a chance to accept God. No one questions whether Moses and Abraham will make it to heaven, yet they never had a chance to meet Jesus or read of his works and resurrection. But I really become confused as to where to draw the line and how on earth I condemn this 18 year old Indian that he denied the one true God.

There is no easy answer, even intellectually. I would rather say argue that everyone is accountable than to say God cannot show himself through nature. Clearly the creation is a glimpse of the Almighty. But it feels hard for me to know that the God I praise might deny someone who has not heard the good news outside of the trees of the forest.
I see myself as appreciating nature because of my relationship with Christ. I find it hard to believe that I could have found the one true God without prior knowledge of who this God is.

The obvious statement is that I struggle balancing all this.