Tag Culture

Separating Good and Evil

Todd R Leave a comment

I like to collect quotes, and I have many favorites, but (outside of the Bible) the most influential quote to me is this one from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:

“The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, not between political parties either, but right through all human hearts.”

Much of the conflict in history, and in modern times, comes from a human tendency to group people into separate groups, where one is “evil”, and the other is “good.”  There are probably thousands of examples throughout history, but some that come to mind are religious categories like Catholic versus Protestant, political categories like Republican versus Democrat, or Marxist categories like “oppressed” versus “oppressor.”  Humanity follows a pattern over and over again, where we lump people into categories, then attack our enemies accordingly.  If someone belongs to the “other” group, they are evil, and if someone belongs to our own group, they are good.

In opposition to this, the Solzhenitsyn quote calls to attention Romans 3:23, which declares: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  This verse, and the quote, tear down the idea that people can be easily separated into “good” and “evil.”  That nations can be divided into good and evil.  That political parties can be categorized as good and evil.  Because every single person included in every single one of these categories is themselves a mix of good and evil, each of the groups themselves is a mix of good and evil.

Therefore, the quote calls us to treat people as individuals, dealing with them according to their specific situation and needs.  Without accepting that each person is imperfect (at best), societies may pretend to treat people as individuals, but they’re really stereotyping people according to their groups and pitting them in battle against each other.

For the Christian church, the quote doesn’t demand that we withdraw from politics altogether, but it does demand that we act with more compassion toward those we disagree with.  All too often, and especially on social media, we see category-based name calling and condemnation coming from Christians who categorize people and work hard to defeat those enemies that belong to other groups.

However, Jesus said in Matthew 5:43:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Imagine if we followed Jesus’ words.  Imagine if everyone could be humble based on the evil that lives within them, and therefore treat the people who we view as evil as equals before God, and just as in need of grace as we are.  The church, and the world, would be much better off if Christians were as good at loving their enemies as they are at identifying them.

“The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, not between political parties either, but right through all human hearts.”

Christianity is Not in Decline. Ever.

Todd R 1 Comment
The tomb is still empty!

Too much of what we hear and read in this world is filled with phrases like “post-Christian world,” or “Christianity’s decline.”  Or we could read that we’re “living in the ruins of Christendom.”  However, because Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” our hope is not based on any ruin or decline we see in the communities and world around us.  While other things may end up in ruins or in decline, Christianity does not.  It was not in decline on Good Friday when Jesus died on the cross and it is not in decline now.

The best of the kingdom of God is always in the future, never in the past.  His kingdom is advancing daily.

Today, many will hear the good news of the kingdom of Jesus, and some may hear and be saved!  Also today, none will be snatched out of His hand! (See John 10:28)

Faith is Not a Democracy

Todd R 3 Comments

In our lives, there are many “voices” that try to influence us, from the people we know, to the things we read, to all the messages in our culture, and beyond.  These may not be literal voices in our heads, but all of these influences affect our inner dialogue and compete to make us act in certain ways.  Often, we don’t know why we do what we do or feel the way we feel, but chances are we got the idea from somewhere.

For Christians, one of those voices in our minds is God, guiding us in the perfect way to go by His Spirit, but we often let the other voices overrule Him.  This can be especially easy to do when He’s telling us to do something that seems strange to us.  One example is from ancient Israel, when the sins of the nation resulted in God passing sentence on the people, in the form of conquest by, and exile to, Babylon.

Once God had made up His mind, the result was inevitable and God, through His prophets, told His people to submit to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.  Israel was not to follow all the customs of Babylon, or commands from its king[1], but Israel was supposed to submit to Babylon as long as it didn’t make them disobey God.  In this message, His prophets were often lonely voices among many speaking to Israel.  Jeremiah was one of these, and he had to remind the people about whose voice mattered, in Jeremiah 27:8-9.

“if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the LORD, until I have consumed it by his hand. 9 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’”

I bolded all the different groups of people who were competing to influence Israel.  These were the many voices Jeremiah had to compete with for the people’s attention, and there were perhaps dozens or even hundreds of them.  If people took opinion polls in those days, God’s word would have barely registered in the results.[2]

Also note that these people were “your” (Israel’s) messengers, not God’s.  These people were telling Israel what they wanted to say and to hear, not what God wanted them to hear.  In modern times, this might be like news networks and celebrities saying only what is popular to say or to believe.  Sadly, this also includes many Christians, even preachers, acting as messengers of our own culture’s values rather than as messengers carrying God’s word.

However, the lesson from the Jeremiah passage above is that God does not care about polling data, and He doesn’t want us to care about it either.  Even if many, or even all other, voices contradict God, He is still right.  Christians need to discern between the many influences inside and outside of us and find the ones that are coming from our Lord.  Even if He is telling us to do something strange, like submit to His judgement under a foreign king.

Paul warned his protégé Timothy and he warns us as well: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”[3]  These teachers are our modern “prophets, … diviners, … dreamers, … fortune-tellers, or … sorcerers” who seek influence over us.  They may be pastors and teachers, but they can also be the news channels we choose to watch, the politicians we support, the celebrities we emulate, subtle messages in our culture like advertising, things we learn in school or at work, or simply what’s popular at the time.  But only one voice matters and there is only one that deserves our absolute faith – God – no matter how many others vote against Him.

Our actions should not be ruled by a democracy, but by our King.  Be careful who you listen to.

[1] See the book of Daniel for some examples.
[2] Read the story of the prophet Micaiah in 1 Kings 22 for more about how outnumbered God’s true prophets were.
[3] 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Church is Not a Shopping Mall

Todd R 1 Comment

I recently had a very strange dream, which occurred (kind of) in the church I went to as a kid.  This church, in Washington, D.C., has been around for over 130 years and meets in a stone building and has an amazing pipe organ in the main sanctuary.  The appearance and structure of the church communicates permanence and tradition.

In this dream, I was roughly a teenager on one end of the church building but had to meet up with my family at the other end of the building.  I started out in a place that seemed like the church I knew, but as I travelled to the other end, things got really bizarre.  First, the size of the building seemed to keep expanding and the number of people in it kept multiplying.  Soon I noticed that there was a gift shop selling all sorts of kitsch that had nothing to do with religion.  I kept going in the same direction, trying to find my family, but the building just kept growing as I went, eventually having many levels, with huge moving walkways and escalators.  The dream ended with me still in the church, but this end of it had become a very upscale, very massive, shopping mall.  I remember wondering “how did the church turn into this?”

What to make of this?  Consider what a shopping mall is.  Yes, it’s a large collection of stores in one place, but not a random collection.  Those stores were chosen to be as diverse as possible.  The more of our desires and wants the mall can meet by having different types of stores, the more economically successful the mall will be, and that’s what matters to the mall operator.  People want fancy clothes, jewelry, entertainment, snacks and candy, toys, and many other things.  So, a mall can represent our “do whatever you want” culture.

I wonder if the seed of the dream was something I saw on Twitter a few days before: “There are infinite ways to be non-binary.”  What they were saying is that not only are there not just two genders, but that we can endlessly create new ones with no limit at all.  It’s like a sexual version of the shopping mall, and also a denial that there’s any real right or wrong or that there’s any such thing as an inappropriate desire.  But can we really make ourselves into anything we want to be without consequences?

Consider this: no competent computer engineer would tell us that we can just arrange a diverse group of components any way we want and end up with a working computer.  The engineer isn’t being intolerant or mean, they just know what it takes to make a computer do what it’s supposed to.

Likewise, when Jesus says “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few,”[1] He is not being intolerant or mean by saying we can’t do whatever we want to, He just knows that we were designed, what we were designed to do, and also what will ultimately satisfy us.

Christian churches are supposed to teach us how to follow Christ, not tell us to do whatever we want to, but now many churches, just like in my dream, have turned into proverbial shopping malls.  In many cases, we’ve forgotten that people are not accidents of random circumstances in nature, and we’ve forgotten that our Creator knows what’s best for us.  We’ve decided to pursue “the way that is easy” forgetting that it “leads to destruction.”  Too many churches, now including the one I went to in DC, say that Jesus will meet whatever needs we think we have, rather than saying that Jesus knows what we need better than we do; that it’s our idea of need that must be changed.

It’s our idea of need
that must be changed

When Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” the “world” He loves is the one where we’ve come up with infinite ways to reject Him.  Where we’ve come up with infinite ways to deny that He made us and knows better than us what’s right and wrong, what “leads to life” and what “leads to destruction.”

When God gave His Son, His sacrifice was sufficient for all sin and can cover all the infinite ways we decide to ignore what’s good for us.  Because God loved this world, it’s also true that His people should communicate His love and grace at all times to all people, by word and action.  Yet it’s also true that church is not a shopping mall regardless of what people can imagine in their dreams that it should be.  The church is called to a higher standard of living, a holy standard informed by our Creator’s knowledge of what works.

So, in these troubling times, pray that people will continue to find Jesus, both within and outside the church and what much of it has become.  That God’s people will love holiness, but also love sinners.  Pray that we find the way that is hard but leads to life and that God’s church is a beacon calling people to it.

Amen.

[1] Matthew 7:13-14

Christianity is Not in Decline. Ever.

Todd R 1 Comment
The tomb is still empty!

Too much of what we hear and read in this world is filled with phrases like “post-Christian world,” or “Christianity’s decline.”  Or we could read that we’re “living in the ruins of Christendom.”  However, because Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” our hope is not based on any ruin or decline we see in the communities and world around us.  While other things may end up in ruins or in decline, Christianity does not.  It was not in decline on Good Friday when Jesus died on the cross and it is not in decline now.

The best of the kingdom of God is always in the future, never in the past.  His kingdom is advancing daily.

Today, many will hear the good news of the kingdom of Jesus, and some may hear and be saved!  Also today, none will be snatched out of His hand! (See John 10:28)