withallyourmind.net

Two days ago, I related to you an account of how a religious beat editor for the L.A. Times lost his faith. There is much to say regarding this sad story. Most importantly, perhaps, as a commenter on that previous post reminded us, we are all challenged to live a life consistent with the profession of our faith. To do otherwise does great damage to the cause of Christ.

In this post, I would simply ask the question, “Why should anyone become a Christian?”. I think there are many reasons why people do in actuality become Christians. Some have been raised in Christian families and consider themselves Christian by a sort of osmosis. It is a cultural issue. Some convert to Christianity because their lives are in shambles and they are looking for a way out. This seems to be the case for Mr. Lobdell, the religious reporter. Some become Christian because it makes them feel good inside. I think men and women convert to Christianity for a lot of different reasons. Here is how Mr. Lobdell described his conversion:

With my eyes closed in prayer, I saw my heart slowly opening in two and then being infused with a warm, glowing light. A tingle spread across my chest. This, I thought, was what it was to be born again… My new friends, in Christ, many of whom I had first met Friday, gave me hugs and slaps on the back.

I don’t think ultimately that any of the above reasons are sufficient to steady one’s faith in the face of opposition. One thing that I noticed was missing in Mr. Lobdell’s account of his experience with God was an examination of the truth claims of Christianity. Based on his article, I conclude that he never really asked whether the claims of Christianity were true based on their own merits. At the end of the article, he concludes that Christianity is not the true religion, but this decision was not made on the propositions of Christianity, but rather on the actions of some individuals who called themselves “Christian”. While in no way excusing the despicable acts of those “Christians” he describes in his story, I think Mr. Lobdell was mistaken. Just as he became convinced of the Christian truth based on a good feeling at conversion, he became unconvinced based on the bad feeling he experienced as a result of the sins of those he respected.

I believe Mr. Lobdell erred, and seriously so, by basing his Christianity on his own feelings and the actions of others rather than by examining the Christian truth-claims and worldview to see if they make more sense of the world than any other religious system (including atheism). I am a Christian, not because those I go to church with are spotless exemplars of morality, but because I think that the Christian claims about the world are true. If that is the case, I must attempt to reconcile the actions of “believers” with the claims of Scripture.

This brings me to an important question that I hope to address in the next post… Do the immoral actions of “believers” negate the “truth” of Christianity? If Christianity is true, should Christians be more moral than other religious believers or non-believers? Philosopher John Hick, makes the argument that because Christians are not morally superior to other folks Christianity cannot be the only true religion. I’ll take a look at these claims.

Sorry to make my first official post in awhile something so non-substantive and frivolous, but I came across these at Evangelical Outpost and had to post them. I try not to go out of my way to look at videos online, but I guess youtube is good for something. Go here to watch some funny babies (Kung Fu Baby is my favorite).

I was saddened and disturbed by an article I read in the L.A. Times called “Religion beat became a test of faith”. This story, written by the religious beat editor, William Lobdell, chronicles his loss of his Christian faith. I think that a look at his story might be helpful and instructive.

My first response is to express the deep sadness I feel over both Mr. Lobdell’s loss of faith and the failings of those who profess to be Christians which led to his downfall. I think that the appropriate response by all is to sincerely pray over these matters… to pray for those whose faith has been damaged and for those by whom offense has come. By clicking on the above link you can read Mr. Lobdell’s story for yourself, but I will briefly recount his story.

In 1989, he describes his own situation as “profoundly lost” with a nearly ruined second marriage when a friend introduced him to Mariners Church (now in Irvine, Ca) where he had an experience of God. His heart’s desire was to be a religion reporter so that he could counteract media portrayals of Christians as “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command” people. He eventually attained a position with the L.A. Times and set about to correct the caricatures of Christians in the media. He eventually moved toward Roman Catholicism, attracted by their “low-key evangelism and deep ritual” as well as their “long history and loving embrace of liberals and conservatives.”

In 2001, he began coverage of the sex scandals of the Catholic Church. He renounces the handling of the affairs by the Catholic Church as well as by the members of those churches:

At the time, I never imagined Catholic leaders would engage in a widespread practice that protected alleged child molesters and belittled the victims… I sought solace in another belief: that a church’s heart is in the pews, not the pulpits. Certainly the people who were reading my stories would recoil and, in the end, recapture God’s house. Instead, I saw parishioners reflexively support priests who had molested children by writing glowing letters to bishops and judges, offering them jobs or even raising their bail while cursing the victims, often to their faces.

After Lobdell lamentingly recounts the broken and destroyed lives of those who suffered sexual abuse from the clergy, he tells the story of a conference of ex-Mormons which he attended later in 2001. These people found themselves to be outcasts among their former families and communities:

The people at the conference were an eclectic bunch: novelists and stay-at-home moms, entrepeneurs and cartoonists, sex addicts and alcoholics. Some were depressed, others angry, and a few had successfully moved on. But they shared a common thread: They wanted to be honest about their lack of faith and still be loved. In most pockets of Mormon culture, that wasn’t going to happen.

Lastly, he points to the world of tele-evangelism and finds much to fault there. Lobdell mentions Trinity Broadcasting Network and their reliance on the “prosperity gospel” to fuel their growth:

“If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed… you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven,” Paul Crouch, co-founder of the Orange County-based network, once told viewers. Meanwhile, Crouch and his wife, Jan live like tycoons.

Lobdell criticizes the extravagant lifestyles of the tele-evangelists while people deeply in debt were encouraged to put donations on their credit cards. He questions the activities of such faith healers as Benny Hinn.

Lobdell struggled to reconcile all that he saw around him with what he felt Christianity should be. He found this increasingly difficult. He emailed a former pastor who himself had lost a daughter to cancer, asking some very important questions:

1. Why do bad things happen to good people?
2. Why does God get credit for answered prayers but no blame for unanswered ones?
3. Why do we believe in the miraculous healing power of God when He’s never been able to regenerate a limb or heal a severed spinal cord?

The pastor gave a reply based on God’s sovereignty and omniscience. Lobdell found this inadequate:

John is an excellent pastor, but he couldn’t reach me. For some time, I had tried to push away doubts and reconcile an all-powerful and infinitely loving God with what I saw, but I was losing ground. I wondered if my born-again experience at the mountain retreat was more about fatigue, spiritual longing and emotional vulnerability than being touched by Jesus.

And I considered another possibility: Maybe, God didn’t exist.

I have taken considerable effort to provide many details of his story because it is poignant and deserves to be heard. I would like to address some of the issues raised in Mr. Lobdell’s loss of faith in future blogs. I will close this blog with Lobdell’s own conclusion:

Clearly, I saw now that belief in God, no matter how grounded, requires at some point a leap of faith. Either you have the gift of faith or you don’t. It’s not a choice. It can’t be willed into existence. And there’s no faking it if you’re honest about the state of your soul.

It’s been a loooong time since I’ve posted anything here, and it has been at least partly due to the fact that I have spent a lot of time over the last couple months preparing for and then moving myself and my wife and all of our stuff 2,600+ miles across the country. At any rate, I have arrived safely in the bay area and settled into our new place in Berkeley well enough to get back to blogging. Although this blog has obviously become primarily the domain of my father, I do want to continue posting some of my thoughts on it and my goal at this point is to be disciplined about posting twice a week (I’m thinking of every Monday and Friday now, but this may change once my schedule changes when classes begin).

I also want to introduce my new personal website at http://jeremy.withallyourmind.net. Not much is there yet, but it is a work in progress.

I recently listened to a lecture by John Mark Reynolds (who always has interesting blogs at Scriptorium) in which he claimed that the United States would be a lot better off today if it were not dominated by an irrational spirituality. I agree with both his assessment and his recommended treatment. It is not that America is not a “spiritual” country. It is not that America is not a “rational” country. The crux of the problem is that spirituality and rationality have each been divorced from the other. Since at least the 1800’s (certainly earlier as well, but not quite so pronounced), reason has been separated from religion. The result of such a separation is all the craziness that transpires today in the name of spirituality. Repeatedly, popular polls tout how “spiritual” the country is. A remarkably high percentage of people would classify themselves as Christian. Howe ver, many have obviously succumbed to the dichotomy of the age and hold to a religious beliefs in which they do not see a tension between their spirituality and the truth of their religion. Reynolds thinks that irrational spirituality is the dominant view of our culture. Science and scientists are held high as the ultimate bearers of truth and truth claims while religious folk go on believing and doing whatever they wish as long as society does not have to take them seriously.

The cure is a call to biblical, rational spirituality. Christians are challenged to be balancers of “head” and “heart.” Being rational does not entail being unspiritual. Being spiritual does not entail being irrational, as many would have one believe. The biblical view is one in which the Christian is transformed, body, soul, mind, and spirit.

The pace of blogging will hopefully pick back up in a few days. My days at Biola are quickly coming to an end. Today, I thought I’d post a moving hymn which was brought to my attention by Fred Sanders, who blogs at Scriptorium. It was written by Charles Wesley in 1742.

Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away the presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father, cry.

A friend and former classmate of mine, Kevin Moore, has recently started a blog called Worshipful Thoughts. Kevin is pursuing a graduate degree in philosophy of religion and ethics at Biola. His site looks great and I would encourage you to check it out.

P.S. My time at Biola has been great so far. I was hoping to blog before now, but time has not allowed.

Blogging will be a bit slow for the next couple of weeks as I’ll be spending two weeks at Biola University in California doing some class work. I’m also working at the hospital a great deal more than usual to make up for the time I’ll be away. I’ll still try to post an occasional blog.

Jeremy is also in the midst of his move to Berkeley, California, where he’ll be beginning his studies for his Ph.D. in philosophy. This will limit his ability to pick up the slack.

God is good to us. Thanks to all those who are interested in what we have to say here.

Rabbi Marc Gellman does a good job clarifying the issue of Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Sometimes the argument becomes clouded by peripheral issues which removes the focus from the main question. The issue concerns the moral standing of the embryo:

The only reason I have ever heard which, if true, clearly and convincingly supports embryonic stem- cell research is this one:

A human embryo is not a bearer of moral rights until much later in its development.

I have never heard a convincing argument to support the claim that the human embryo does not have human moral standing.

HT: Stand To Reason

Hell is a subject from which many Christians shy away. Some have even given up on the biblical teaching on Hell and have adopted a universalist stance, teaching that everyone will be saved and no human being will go to hell. Hell is sometimes offered by non-believers as the reason why they do not believe in the God of the Bible. Now, there is a part of me that wishes that Hell were not real, that everyone will all live happily ever after in a state of bliss. However, wishing for such a thing does not make it the case. The scripture clearly teaches that some people will end up in Hell for eternity.

It seems exceedingly unjust to some that “good” people will go to Hell just because they have never heard of Jesus. There is a misconception embedded in the preceding sentence. The reason people will go to Hell is not because they have never heard of Jesus. The reason people will go to hell is not even because they do not believe in Jesus. The reason a person will go to Hell is because they are guilty and deserve punishment.

Revelation 20:12 - And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

A person is judged on the basis of his deeds. On that basis, we are all guilty and deserve punishment. I am keenly aware of my moral failings and shortcomings and there is no doubt in my mind that I deserve Hell. If I end up in Hell, it will be because I deserve it. God owes no one a pardon. We all have violated God’s moral law and deserve Hell. So, to claim that someone will go to Hell because they don’t believe in Jesus is not completely accurate. There is some truth buried in that statement, but it does not accurately convey the reason a person will go to Hell.

The good news of the Gospel is only adequately understood from within the context of the guilt of all of humanity. God’s grace has been displayed to all in Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection, providing pardon for those who accept it. It is important to understand that those who go to heaven are not going because they deserve to be there. If I spend eternity in Heaven, it will not be because I deserve it more than others or that I am better than others. There are many who are not Christians who are probably better persons than I am. But they, like me, are still guilty and deserve punishment. The good news of God’s grace is manifest in the pardon which He gives to those who believe in Jesus of Nazareth.