EXPLORATION #1 Politics

Lately I have been pondering the Christians role in politics. To know exactly what Jesus would have us do concerning politics. I have seen two extremes and a ton of grey area in between. You can be hyper political in your Christianity and try to set bills in congress that make it a law that you must love your neighbor (or else). Or the other extreme is complete passivity not taking note or care of the political arena.

I always hear the argument that you shouldn't be able to write laws that are moral because you can't force your morals on other people. That's a load of hog wash though. Every law that has ever been written is a moral law in some way or another. Even traffic lights are moral (though also practical). The fact that I don't want you to run over my son when he is crossing the street is moral in nature; the traffic light that helps prevent that is the practical solution. To the point though, let a murderer tell you not to impose your morals on him. Murder is a moral decision.

Even though laws are moral, does that mean Christians should try to intervene their moral set into society? If so, to what extent? For a long time (and even now) I have been under the conviction that strictly moral laws should be legislated (i.e. don't murder), but that socially moral laws should not be legislated (i.e. helping the poor and widows). Social convictions of Christians are actually evils if not coupled to the good news message.

Suppose you were a brain surgeon and somebody comes to you with a headache. Upon investigation you discover that this man is in early stages of brain cancer and it is completely treatable if you act now. Rather than telling the man his problem, you give him anesthetics for his pain. You hand the man a Tylenol (or morphine etc) and send him on his way. Now, you've done a most grievous evil. If the man were still in pain he would seek to find the problem and get a cure. But you have inoculated his pain and in thus, inoculated his knowledge that he needs to be cured. It is like this with social laws. I hate to see people in pain or in need of housing, food, and healthcare, but to the extent that such suffering causes people to seek the root of the problem, I am grateful.

I would like to solve all the social ills in the world, but would not choose to do so if the explanation of the root of those ills were not also shared with the world.

This is just one of many things to explore in Christians meeting politics. Even in this instance, would it be right for me to protest something like Healthcare legislation and to be active politically? There are about a hundred reasons why I'm against the current healthcare legislation, but does that mean I should be active in trying to sway my congressional leaders? I'm an American, but I'm a member of God's kingdom first. I'm only an American to the extent that I'm Heaven's ambassador.
Heaven has only one primary message: "Repent and Believe the Good News".

Paul desired to share this Good News in every major political city of his day. He even shared with two kings and Ceasar.

This isn't a theological statement, but rather an inquiry or exploration. I would love for everyone to comment.

The Importance of Theology (Part 3)

God hates it when we don't know him properly.

God is a jealous God.  And he has the right to be.  God is the only being that is intrinsically worthy and valuable.  All other things that are valuable depend on God for that Value.  So, nothing is valuable by itself and everything is vain without God. I could prove this point from a myriad of passages, but I think the best is straight from the Ten Commandments.  The first two commandments read as follows:

"And God spoke all these words sying, 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  You shll have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."

There are two ways you can make a graven image (or carved image). 1. With your hands. 2. With your mind.  

You can say things like "My God isn't a jealous God" though the Bible very clearly says that the one true God is jealous and he is jealous that people know him for who he is.  Or I often hear people say, "My God doesn't send people to hell".  I simply tell them. "You're right. Your God won't send anyone to hell because he can't.  He's a figment of your imagination.  You've created a god in your mind to suite your sins.  And that is what the Bible calls 'Idolatry'." In Jeremiah 4:22, God calls his people who do not know him "Foolish". 

One of the strongest warnings to do your best to know God comes from Romans 1:28; "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done."
Unless you want to be given up to a debased mind, it is wise that you seek out God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.  Learn to love God with your mind and then when you know who he truly is, learn to appreciate him with your heart. Then run after him with all of your strength and commit every aspect of your person to him.

To not seek to know God for who he is must be called IDOLATRY and you must repent of it and seek to know your God.  Whether you do that in a systematic way is up to you. But you must do it.

Questions for further meditation:

1. Is it possible that you have some thoughts about God that are not true? Does that scare you a little?

2. What can you do to rid your mind of thoughts and ideas about God that are not true? 

3. Jonathan Edwards lamented one time that people loved the gifts of God, but they did not love God.  Do you think that looking at God as a divine gift giver is idolatry?

4. How will that thought affect your prayer life?

Memory Verse:

Matthew 22:37
"And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

The Importance of Theology (Part 2)

Is it important to know God? (Part 2)

(What evidence and motivation is there for studying theology?

Knowing God Changes our Lives

The second reason that knowing God (ie. doing good theology) is important is because knowing God for who he truly is will change our lives. The Bible lays this out by stating that God created us in his image.  After the fall into sin, that image was tarnished, battered, twisted, and demented into something strange and unrecognizable.  However, the image of God was not totally lost.  God's work in us throughout salvation and glorification is to restore that image into us.  And the main thrust is that the image of God is restored in his people only by his people seeking to know him more through reading his word and by walking with him through prayer and meditation on those words.

A. Created in God's Image

Genesis 1:26:

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness..."

The word for image was tselem; the word rendered "likeness" is demuth.  In the original hebrew there is no conjuction between the two. The vulgate renders it "Let us make man in Our image, and after Our likeness...", but that conjuction was not in the original and this is important to know when trying to understand what it means to be made in God's image.  In other words, the two phrases are not describing two different things, but it is rather a parralellism that describes the same thing in two different ways.  People often times try to say things like, "The image of God means one thing and the likness of God means something else", but I'll argue that this isn't the case at all.

1st, The words image and likeness are used interchangebly throughout the book of Genesis (See 1:26, 1:27; 5:1; 5:3; 9:6) 
2nd, Tselem (image) comes from the root word that means "To carve out". 

Tselem means something that is similar, but not identicle to what it represents. The word is used of statues or replicas of tumors of mice (1 Sam. 6:5,11), of paintings on the wall (Ezek. 23:14), and of pagan idols or statues (Num. 33:42; 2 Kings 11:18; Ezek 7:27; 16:17, et al).

The word Demuth (Likeness) is typically used where similiarity is emphasized rather than representation or substitute.  It seems as if God were to say, "Let us make an image which is like us", which is exactly how Luther translates the passage, as well as others such as Anthony Hoekema (et al).

Demuth was used as King Ahaz's model or drawing of the alter he saw in Damascus (2 Kings 16:10), as the figure of bulls  beneath the bronze altar (2 Chron 4:3-4), and the wall paintings of Babylonian chariot officers (Ezek. 23:15).  

To summarize, Man was made by God to perfectly be his image bearer or representative on this Earth and in the universe. The way Adam bore God's image was in his perfect unbreakable bodies, as well as in his perfect righteousness.  Never committing an evil act and being perfectly adoring of God.  God considers his own glory as the highest goal of all things and So, Adam, as he was made perfectly adored God's glory as the highest goal as well

B. The image of God has become damaged and unrecognizable through the fall.

What does the image have to do with Theology?

The reason I've laid this ground work is to explain that the image of God has been crushed, tainted, and marred beyond all recognition.  The image of God was not completely lost. We still have physical strength (God is omnipotent) and we still have intellectual ability (God is omniscient), but it was marred beyond almost all reconition. And the goal of sanctification is to become "Like" God... or to say, our goal in sanctification is to regain the fullness of the image of God.  NOW, how do we do that?

Here I will try to show that the Image of God is not what it once was and then I'll try to prove at the same time that it is not completely lost.

1. The image of God is tainted and marred is evident from Genesis 5:1-3

"This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and Female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and named him Seth."

You'll notice that Seth was not made in the image of God, but rather in the image of Adam.  You'll also notice here that the words image and likeness are used interchangebly since they are in the reverse position as what we saw in 1:26. So, we know they are used interchangebly to mean that in several aspects, though Seth wasn't the exact same as Adam, he represented and imaged Adam.  And it was Adam rather than God who was being imaged.

We can also conclude that this image is marred from commands of Scripture to "Be Like God".  These commands come accross as to remind us that we are not Like God and not Like Jesus and do not perfectly manifest the fruit of the spirit, and therefore we are commanded to "Be immitators of God" (Eph. 5:1).  I'll just list some verses here that command us to be like God:

Immitate the Father:

Lev. 11:44; Matt 5:44-45, 48; Eph 4:32, 5:1; Col 3:10; 1 Pet 1:15-16

Immitate Jesus:

Heb 12:13; 1 Peter 4:13; 2 Cor 3:18; Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:49; 1John 3:2; 1 Cor 16:1; 1 John 2:6; Rom 15:7; Eph 5:25; Col 3:13; 1John 3:16; Heb 13:2; Eph 5:2; Phil 12:5-11; 1 Thess 1:6; 1 John 3:7; 2 John 4:17; 1 Peter 2:21; Phil 3:10; 2 Cor 1:5, 4:8-11

Immitate the Holy Spirit:

John 16:13; Rom 8:4-6; Gal 5:22-23

We can even say that one of the reasons why Jesus came to Earth was to live that life that Adam was supposed to live - the life that perfectly images God.

Jesus is called the image of God in 2 Corinthians 4:4. 

Colosians 1:5 says that Jesus is the "Image" of the invisible God.

John 14:8-9 Jesus actually makes the same point. "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father"

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of God's being. And for this Jesus is actually more than what Adam was even before Adam sinned.  Because Adam was only an image and likeness. Jesus is the exact representation! Jesus is God in flesh.

If we were still in the image of God, then he would not have to conform us back into his image as he does. The Bible says that God has "Predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of his son." (Romans 8:29). Also see the command to the Colossians to "take off" the old self and "put on" the new self which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of it's creator (Collossians 3:9-10). And finally see 1Corinthians 15:49 and compare it with Genesis 5:1-3. It says here that we (like Seth) bear the image of Adam (the man of dust), but we will also bear the image of Jesus (the man of heaven).

C. The image of God was not completely lost

Genesis 9:6
"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

God is here saying that to attack another man is quintessential to attacking God because God made man in his image.  To hate the image of God is to hate an aspect of God.  

This same point is made about cursing at others in James 3:9, but this time instead of using the word "Image" the word "Likeness" is used, which further shows how they are used interchangebly (albeit from Hebrew to Greek). 

"With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God."  

In other words, James is pointing out an utter inconsistancy.  We act as if we speak nice things to God, but by cursing other people we are in essence throwing curses at God because we are made in God's likeness. 

A point of caution here; we are not "Little 'g' god"  We are nothing like God in the sense that he is holy, uncreated, and infinite.  We are finite, wicked, and unholy.  But the point is that we obtain all of our value and all of our worth from God.  There is nothing inside of us that is essentially valuable.  Infact, we are evil people who do nothing good whatsoever.  There is no inherent value in man.  We gain all of our worth from God making us in his likeness/image. It has been wisely stated that "The cross is not a symbol of how valuable we are. The cross shows us how depraved and wicked we really are; that it took the death of God's own son to save such a wicked and perverse people as us."

D. The Restoration of the Image

Now, the goal of our glorification is to return to the full image of God, and my argument from here on is that Theology is what causes us to be molded into that image.

Seeing God Changes us into his likeness!

There are several texts which proclaim this truth, but there are four that are so explicit that they must be addressed: 2 Corinthians 3;18 (cf 4:1-6); Colossians 3:9-10; 1John 3:2; Romans 12:2

2 Corithians 3:18 says, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

What he is saying here, is that when we Look at God it will cause us to be transformed.  This looking at God is done two ways in the Bible (Prayer and Reading his word - ie. Theology). As we come to know more and more about God, he will transform us from one degree of glory to another. Some translations say "reflecting" rather than "beholding" and that's because the greek verb katoptrizomenoi comes from the root word meaning "mirror" and can accurately be translated as either "Beholding (as in a mirror)" or "Reflecting (as a mirror)".  The context shows clearly though that the best translation is "Beholding".  This is seen because the israelites in verse 13 were not able to gaze (behold) the glory of moses face because he veiled his face.  And verse 15 there is a veil over the israelite's hearts keeping them from seeing what is truly there. And then in verse 4:6 we see that God shines light into our hearts. And that light is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".  To summarize this passage I would say that Looking at God for who he truly is will cause you to be transformed.

Colossians 3:9-10
"Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."

Here we have Paul telling us that the new self is being made more and more like God (ie.to better and better image God). And the way that the new self is becoming more like God is through Knowledge of it's creators image.  In other words.  Whatever Jesus is like, I will be like that too by coming to know him.

1 John 3:2 "...but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is."  

Allow me to give a paraphrase.  When Jesus gets back here the reason we are going to be utterly transformed is because we will see him as he truly is.  

I think it could be argued that in order for us to see him as he truly is we would have to be transformed or else we would melt in his shear holiness, but perhaps this verse speaks to both truths and does not specify the exact workings behind it, but only affirms both truths.

Romans 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Again, being tranformed is directly related to our knowledge. And more specifically, our knowledge of God.  BUT a word of warning must  be alarmed at this point.  Knowledge is more than just knowing facts.  There are two aspects of knowing God. We have to know facts about God through reading and studying his word, but we must also appreciate those facts about God by having a relationship with him.  A relationship with God could rightly be defined as the proper appreciation of the truths about God.  The truths about God will cause you to pray and to walk with him if you truly appreciate those truths. And it is wise to remember that even Jesus used the word "Knolwedge" in this since - speaking of reltionships.  
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness" (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus is not saying, "hmm, I didn't know you existed"  He is using the word "Knowledge" to speak of a relationship.  In other words, those pharisees do not properly appreciate the truths about Jesus the way they should. 

And in summary, Knowing God - knowing the facts about who God is and appreciating those facts properly - changes your life and makes your more like God.

Questions for further meditation:

1. Would you describe your Christian walk as one that is more of Knowing Facts about God or knowing God in a relational way?

2. Which passage of scripture (or scriptures) inspires you to know more facts about God.

3. What passage of scripture inspires you to appreciate those facts about God more?

4. In recent years the word "Theology" has taken on a bad taste in the mouths of many people  because of how it has been used.  Based on this teaching, what word would you use to replace the word "Theology" if you were trying to get men to know God better? (Use only one or two words that you could coin in popular culture that does not sacrifice the meaning of the word Theology).

Memory verse:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
(Romans 12:2)

or

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."

(Psalm 119:11)

Importance of Theology (Why should Christians seek to know God more)

I absolutely love Theology.  Theology is more than just a five dollar word. It's more than a word that gets used by folks in an ivory tower.  The word has a meaning that should be made plain to anyone interested.

Theology comes from two greek words (Theos - Logos).  But I want to take the cookies and put them on the bottom shelf - I want everyone to see how simple this can be.  Theos is the greek word for "God".  Logos is the greek word for "Word/Statement"  So theology is a word about God.  

Now, you should realize that you probably do theology a lot more than you might have thought. When you say, "God is like..." or "God does...", at that point you are doing theology.  The question that "Theologians" are burdened by though, must be, "Is that statement about God accurate?" But before we can ask if it is accurate, we must first ask a few very important questions:

1. Is it important to know God?

2. If it is important, does it matter how well or how much I know God?

3. Does it matter if I'm completely accurate about those things I know about God?

4. Would God care if I was innacurate or wrong about any of the details that I attribute to him?

Is it important to know God? (Part 1)

(What evidence and motivation is there for studying theology?)

God wants us to know him

Let's start by answering the first question.  Why should we learn who God is?  God cares that we know who he is.  To argue this point I only need to point to the existence of the Bible.  The philosophical problem of knowledge that the Bible answers is a key evidence that we should study theology.

Coming to know something has been a problem of philosophy throughout the ages. Philosophers have pondered, "How can you come to know something for sure?" And "how can I know anything at all?"  There have been two main answers put forth.  We can know something Empircally - that is, we can know it by testing it with our five senses.  We smell things, taste things, touch things, hear things, and see things.  By doing this we come to learn about those things.  Namely we learn, "What it looks like, smells like, sounds like etc". 

What about the accuracy of your senses; have your senses ever been deceived? If you're sense of sight has ever been deceived (say by a magician or a mirage), then how can you be sure that it isn't always being deceived? You must say, you honestly cannot know 100% for sure that your sense of sight isn't always being deceived unless something other than your sight gives you that confirmation.  And so was birthed the age of skepticism.  Skeptics held to this kind of reasoning.  In fact, one of the fathers of graphing algebra, René Des Cartes (the Cartesian coordinate plane), was so radical that he said, "I can doubt everything. I can even doubt my own existence"... Then he stopped writing and thought to himself, 'I cannot doubt my own existence because if I didn't exist, I wouldn't be around to doubt my existence." And he coined the phrase, "I think therefore I am" Since he is able to think and to doubt then he must therefore exist.

We have the second kind of knowledge.  Which is called tautology. basically it states that we know things that we define.  Such as, "How do you know the 5280 feet are in 1 mile?"

Well, the answer is that we know it because we defined it that way.  There is nothing intrinsic about 5280 feet that somehow makes it a special number and therefore must be called 1 mile.  We just define it.  We say that there are 12 inches in one foot and therefore in one foot we can count out twelve inches.  All we do in tautology is define things in our minds.  It becomes impiracle knowledge when we say things like, "This stretch of road is 5280 feet".  Then we are taking our mental definitions and applying them to things we must experience through out senses.  So, we cannot be sure about those things.

Now, there is a third  way to come to know something.  And this third way is the most often overlooked because it is the least common.  To understand we must ask ourselves two questions:

1. Is there knowledge that is not inside my head such as tautology?

2. Is that same knowledge outside of the realm of experience such as touch, smell, taste...?

       a. such as outside of the known universe

If we answer yes to these questions, then a third question comes along:

3. How can we come to know such a knowledge?

The answer to question number three is "Revelation"

If something exists outside our realm of investigation, then the only way we could come to know about it is if someone or something that carries that knowledge reveals it to us. And we can trust in that revelation only to the extent that we can trust the revealer.

If the revealer is perfectly trusworthy and has never deceived us, then we can perfectly trust what is being revealed!

The very fact that God revealed himself in his word is ample proof that he wants us to know about him.  God cannot be investigated with our senses or defined with our minds (in a tautological sense). He can only be revealed to us. And he is the only one that can reveal himself.  So, sense he is revealed, he must want to be known.

I typically like to prove things with specific verses in the Bible.  However, the best proof of this particular point is the entire Bible as a whole. However, there are some key scriptures as well that indicate God's desire to be known.

Deuteronomy 29:29

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong tous and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."

Daniel 2:22 

"[God] reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him."

Matthew 11:27 (cf. Luke 10:22)

"All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Galatians 1:16 (very striking is that God takes pleasure in revelation to individuals)

"[God] was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles..."

Questions for further meditation:

1.Have you ever thought that God has given you the ability to know something through revelation that you would not be able to investigate with your five senses? How does that affect you?

2. What does God's revelation of himself tell you about the importance of knowing God?

3. Do you think that God would reveal himself if he didn't want to be known accurately?

4. Do you think God would reveal more detail than he wants us to know and appreciate?

Memory Verse:

Deuteronomy 29:29

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever; that we may do all the words of this law."