As I have mentioned before, my wife and I are preparing to have our first baby. As we became pregnant at least a year before we expected, this has involved a lot of reorientation for both of us, and we are spending a lot of time doing the kind of things we need to do as expectant parents: securing baby apparatus, planning our delivery, and any one of a thousand other responsibilities we are accepting as the caretakers of a new life. Every minute is precious to us, and we need to focus our attention on the baby and on my wife's prenatal care.
As a result, I will have to put this blog on hiatus for the next several months until we are back on a firmer schedule. I will post updates on our pregnancy and childbirth from time to time, and I hope that my readers will forgive what in the blogosphere generally amounts to an unconscionable time lapse (yes, I read blogs myself).
Until I am able to post on the Bible again, I want to leave you with a message that I have been attempting, sometimes successfully and other times unsuccessfully, to convey: The Christianity that is practiced in the majority of America's churches and households today is a dim shadow of the Christianity practiced by the apostles, by generations of martyrs, and by Jesus Himself. If you want the Christ of the Bible, you have to accept the Bible of the Christ--the Torah, the Nevim, and the Ketuvim, which comprise the Hebrew "Old Testament" Bible that Jesus and the apostles considered "the scriptures." It is not a matter of arrogant pietism--the Bible is abundantly clear that the Lord is concerned with far deeper issues than our appearance in front of others--but it is a matter of obedience, and respect.
To love the Lord is to obey His commandments. This is something Jesus Himself said, as recorded in John 14. If you love the Lord, if you really want to be a Christian, then you will have to jettison every bit of the materialistic selfishness that our society cherishes so deeply. To be Christlike is to be opposed, at the core of one's being, to the common pursuits and desires of this world, and anyone who is in Christ will face suffering and persecution as a result.
Those who have suffered and died for Christ knew that their blood and tears were shed in testimony of the Lord whose blood and tears bought their souls from damnation. They are not the "ideal" saints, the "perfect ones." They are, in the Lord's eyes, the norm for Christianity.
It is time for us to shake off the social acceptability of church attendance and choose, once and for all, where we stand in relationship to Christ.
It is time for us to declare, openly, where our hearts really lie.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Commandment #6: A Standing Order for the Church
In the last 5 posts, we have discovered that the bulk of what we have come to call the Ten Commandments are declarations of God's sovereignty:
The next 4 commandments are what our culture knows as the Ten Commandments, and it is here where the body of Christ has utterly failed the United States over the past 40-50 years. You see, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot get to the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th commandments until you have obeyed the first 5. If you cannot, or will not, obey the Lord in the matter of refusing to worship another in your heart, then you certainly will not obey the Lord in any other matter--and if you claim the name of Christ, yet have no honor or love for Christ in your heart, then you will certainly not exhibit any of His attributes, either in this world or the next.
The 6th commandment is very simple, and I will present it to you in the King James version of the Bible so that you can understand exactly what the Lord means here:
The King James version of the Bible was constructed largely through the work of William Tyndale, a 16th century English priest who was so consumed with the desire to set the souls of his countrymen free that he vowed to translate the Bible into a language that even the English plowman (who was generally illiterate) could understand. Tyndale was fluent in Greek and Hebrew, and he translated all of the books of the Torah into English, as well as 90% of the New Testament and most of the Hebrew Bible's chronicles and histories. Biographers of Tyndale have remarked that the simplicity of his translation, the ease with which it could be understood and received by even the lowest members of 16th century English society, has contributed more than anything else to the fact that the King James version of the Bible outranks Shakespeare in terms of shaping the development of our language.
Ladies and gentlemen, if a simple English plowman of 500 years ago could understand, in the words of this verse, the terrible gravity the Lord attaches to the taking of a human life, then we who have seen three world wars over the last hundred years must certainly do likewise. It is not acceptable for us, or anyone who takes the name of Christ, to invent exceptions to this commandment--it is absolute, and for the people called and chosen by God, for ancient Israel and for the body of Christ, it is a standing order. There are no allowances, no excuses, and the one who violates this commandment without appropriate fear and trembling--and who encourages others to do the same--may well find him- or herself burning in the fires of Hell.
Christ Jesus said as much:
It is a dangerous thing, ladies and gentlemen, to invoke the name of Christ when you are supporting war, assassination, domestic abuse, or abortion, and yet we have seen Christ's name attached to all of these things in the past 50 or 60 years. Indeed, it is our nation's oldest sin, dating back to the destruction of America's original inhabitants and the institution of chattel slavery, and as war follows war, and murder follows murder, and hatred follows hatred, the lesson of this sin is lost, over and over again, to the hearts of a people who have shown themselves to be interested more in material gain than in true spirituality.
Even as Americans lecture other nations about nuclear proliferation, we ourselves are the ones who first unleashed the terrible prospect of global annihilation on the human race. Weapons of mass destruction, home invasion, serial killing--the list of violent acts we have invented outstrips anything that other nations of the world have done, with the possible exception of ancient Rome (a people who invented the crucifix and the coliseum). Yet we continue to see open support in our nation's churches for military enterprises, for the death penalty, and for violence as a means of self-defense.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to wake up.
To be Christlike is to exhibit Christ's attributes. Do you see the Christ of the Gospels slaying His enemies, asserting political or military power, or even defending Himself? Is this what you believe that Christianity--that adopting the Christ who said "turn the other cheek" as your Lord--represents?
We hear so much in the news today about militant Islam and about the threat that it poses to the civility of the 21st century world, but the fact is that Christianity has been no less destructive. During the past thousand years, when Christians have not been killing or enslaving foreigners (including the very descendants of the people who wrote the Old Testament), they have turned their attention to killing and enslaving each other. The reality of 10,000 denominations within the realm of Christendom gives mute but forceful testimony to the sad results of our factionalism, and yet, as more and more Christians are confronted with the darker side of Christianity's past, the church seems incapable of answering the blood of its victims with humility.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to be what the apostles were, what the ancient believers were, and what Christ was--and to begin to love our neighbors (be they friends or enemies) as ourselves. To take up a weapon in anger, or to encourage those who do so, is to mock--openly--Christ's sacrifice for each and every one of us on the Cross 2000 years ago. I understand that some of you believe nations and governments have a right to pursue order by any means necessary, including the sword, but it is the body of Christ I am concerned about here, not the actions of pagan or atheistic governments.
For the first 300 years of their history, Christians understood that to be part of the body of Christ was to exhibit the same attributes that Christ exhibited. Under the threat of summary execution, torture, and the lethal games of the Coliseum, Christians submitted, by the thousands, to the vicious whims of generals and kings. They sang, they prayed for their family members (many of whom turned them in to the authorities), and they entreated their judges and rulers to surrender themselves to the Lord, but they did not resist.
Isn't this the kind of Christianity that breaks the hearts of nations and kingdoms for the Lord?
I would like to end this post by quoting a passage from the book of Luke. It is one with which some of you may be familiar, but I think it illustrates what I have been saying in this post far better than my own words can:
Christ said that believers would be persecuted, that the world would hate us for what He has placed inside of us (see John 14-15 and Matthew 24). At best, believers in Christ are tolerated by others--and at worst, as we have seen in Communist and Third World countries over the past 60 years, they are hunted down and killed. We have a hope, however, of a resurrection--the same resurrection that brought Christ out of the tomb 2000 years ago--and that hope is more precious than anything we can experience in this life.
Before I gave my heart to the Lord, I was terribly afraid of death. I knew that one day, as suddenly as my life had begun, it would end, and everything that was me would vanish.
I don't have that fear anymore.
The power of Christ is not the miracles, the exhibitions of divine power that we see in the Gospels and the book fo Acts. It is the simple power of truth undaunted, a holiness that cannot be quenched by threat of fire or sword. It is the power of one who knows that to be crucified is simply to go home . . .
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
The next 4 commandments are what our culture knows as the Ten Commandments, and it is here where the body of Christ has utterly failed the United States over the past 40-50 years. You see, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot get to the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th commandments until you have obeyed the first 5. If you cannot, or will not, obey the Lord in the matter of refusing to worship another in your heart, then you certainly will not obey the Lord in any other matter--and if you claim the name of Christ, yet have no honor or love for Christ in your heart, then you will certainly not exhibit any of His attributes, either in this world or the next.
The 6th commandment is very simple, and I will present it to you in the King James version of the Bible so that you can understand exactly what the Lord means here:
Thou shalt not kill.
The King James version of the Bible was constructed largely through the work of William Tyndale, a 16th century English priest who was so consumed with the desire to set the souls of his countrymen free that he vowed to translate the Bible into a language that even the English plowman (who was generally illiterate) could understand. Tyndale was fluent in Greek and Hebrew, and he translated all of the books of the Torah into English, as well as 90% of the New Testament and most of the Hebrew Bible's chronicles and histories. Biographers of Tyndale have remarked that the simplicity of his translation, the ease with which it could be understood and received by even the lowest members of 16th century English society, has contributed more than anything else to the fact that the King James version of the Bible outranks Shakespeare in terms of shaping the development of our language.
Ladies and gentlemen, if a simple English plowman of 500 years ago could understand, in the words of this verse, the terrible gravity the Lord attaches to the taking of a human life, then we who have seen three world wars over the last hundred years must certainly do likewise. It is not acceptable for us, or anyone who takes the name of Christ, to invent exceptions to this commandment--it is absolute, and for the people called and chosen by God, for ancient Israel and for the body of Christ, it is a standing order. There are no allowances, no excuses, and the one who violates this commandment without appropriate fear and trembling--and who encourages others to do the same--may well find him- or herself burning in the fires of Hell.
Christ Jesus said as much:
Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, "Thou shalt not kill," and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment, but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, "Raca," shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say, "Thou fool," shall be in danger of hell fire.
Matthew 5:21-22
It is a dangerous thing, ladies and gentlemen, to invoke the name of Christ when you are supporting war, assassination, domestic abuse, or abortion, and yet we have seen Christ's name attached to all of these things in the past 50 or 60 years. Indeed, it is our nation's oldest sin, dating back to the destruction of America's original inhabitants and the institution of chattel slavery, and as war follows war, and murder follows murder, and hatred follows hatred, the lesson of this sin is lost, over and over again, to the hearts of a people who have shown themselves to be interested more in material gain than in true spirituality.
Even as Americans lecture other nations about nuclear proliferation, we ourselves are the ones who first unleashed the terrible prospect of global annihilation on the human race. Weapons of mass destruction, home invasion, serial killing--the list of violent acts we have invented outstrips anything that other nations of the world have done, with the possible exception of ancient Rome (a people who invented the crucifix and the coliseum). Yet we continue to see open support in our nation's churches for military enterprises, for the death penalty, and for violence as a means of self-defense.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to wake up.
To be Christlike is to exhibit Christ's attributes. Do you see the Christ of the Gospels slaying His enemies, asserting political or military power, or even defending Himself? Is this what you believe that Christianity--that adopting the Christ who said "turn the other cheek" as your Lord--represents?
We hear so much in the news today about militant Islam and about the threat that it poses to the civility of the 21st century world, but the fact is that Christianity has been no less destructive. During the past thousand years, when Christians have not been killing or enslaving foreigners (including the very descendants of the people who wrote the Old Testament), they have turned their attention to killing and enslaving each other. The reality of 10,000 denominations within the realm of Christendom gives mute but forceful testimony to the sad results of our factionalism, and yet, as more and more Christians are confronted with the darker side of Christianity's past, the church seems incapable of answering the blood of its victims with humility.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to be what the apostles were, what the ancient believers were, and what Christ was--and to begin to love our neighbors (be they friends or enemies) as ourselves. To take up a weapon in anger, or to encourage those who do so, is to mock--openly--Christ's sacrifice for each and every one of us on the Cross 2000 years ago. I understand that some of you believe nations and governments have a right to pursue order by any means necessary, including the sword, but it is the body of Christ I am concerned about here, not the actions of pagan or atheistic governments.
For the first 300 years of their history, Christians understood that to be part of the body of Christ was to exhibit the same attributes that Christ exhibited. Under the threat of summary execution, torture, and the lethal games of the Coliseum, Christians submitted, by the thousands, to the vicious whims of generals and kings. They sang, they prayed for their family members (many of whom turned them in to the authorities), and they entreated their judges and rulers to surrender themselves to the Lord, but they did not resist.
Isn't this the kind of Christianity that breaks the hearts of nations and kingdoms for the Lord?
I would like to end this post by quoting a passage from the book of Luke. It is one with which some of you may be familiar, but I think it illustrates what I have been saying in this post far better than my own words can:
Then the whole body of them got up and brought Him before Pilate. And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King."
So Pilate asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?"
And He answered him and said, "It is as you say."
Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, "I find no guilt in this man."
But they kept on insisting, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee even as far as this place."
When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time.
Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus, for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length, but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate.
Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day, for before they had been enemies with each other.
Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, "You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined Him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against Him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent Him back to us, and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him. Therefore I will punish Him and release Him."
Now he was obliged to release to them at the feast one prisoner. But they cried out all together, saying, "Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas!"
(He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city, and for murder.)
Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept on calling out, saying, "Crucify, crucify Him!"
And he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in Him no guilt demanding death. Therefore I will punish Him and release Him."
But they were insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail. And Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand be granted. And he released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Jesus to their will.
When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him.
But Jesus turning to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, 'FALL ON US,' AND TO THE HILLS, 'COVER US.' For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.
When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing " And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, "He saved others! let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One."
The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, "If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!"
Now there was also an inscription above Him, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS."
One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!"
But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong."
And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!"
And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." Having said this, He breathed His last.
Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, "Certainly this man was innocent."
And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts. And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things.
Luke 23, New American Standard Bible
Christ said that believers would be persecuted, that the world would hate us for what He has placed inside of us (see John 14-15 and Matthew 24). At best, believers in Christ are tolerated by others--and at worst, as we have seen in Communist and Third World countries over the past 60 years, they are hunted down and killed. We have a hope, however, of a resurrection--the same resurrection that brought Christ out of the tomb 2000 years ago--and that hope is more precious than anything we can experience in this life.
Before I gave my heart to the Lord, I was terribly afraid of death. I knew that one day, as suddenly as my life had begun, it would end, and everything that was me would vanish.
I don't have that fear anymore.
The power of Christ is not the miracles, the exhibitions of divine power that we see in the Gospels and the book fo Acts. It is the simple power of truth undaunted, a holiness that cannot be quenched by threat of fire or sword. It is the power of one who knows that to be crucified is simply to go home . . .
Monday, October 22, 2007
Commandment 5: The Sad Diagnosis of a Wasted Society
Thus far, I have been attempting to highlight, in this blog, all of the "laws" that are written in the first five books of the Bible--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy--and as we have seen, the corpus so far extends to (1) the Passover and (2) what we in the West know as the Ten Commandments. Whereas the Passover sacrifice was fulfilled in the Person of the Lord, Christ Jesus, and whereas the Passover seder was transformed in the Last Supper into a beautiful act which is celebrated today as one of the church's two single greatest sacraments, the Ten Commandments stand throughout history as unchangeable, words which were true in the time of Jesus, in the time of Adam, and in the time of postmodern man.
I have heard a lot of people--both on and off the 'net--argue that the Ten Commandments are universal, that they do not reflect the values of a particular community, belief system, or religion. To be honest, I think that many conservative Christians--and pseudo-Christians--are more interested in reducing the effect of Darwinistic teaching in the public school system than they are in acknowledging a very inconvenient truth: that the Ten Commandments were, and are, testimony to the character and purity of the God who uttered them on Mount Sinai 3000 years ago.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that those of you out there who, as upstanding citizens, want to use any legal means available to return America's public educational institutions to a pristine era when we did not hear the words "Darwin," "evolution," or "Big Bang Theory" will be disappointed at the above paragraph, but the fact is that according to the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, the Ten Commandments were delivered from the mouth of the God of the Bible. It was with this understanding that they were written down in the first place, and the ancient Hebrew culture which recited these words generation after generation had no concept of their being divorced from the primacy of the Hebrew God. Their relevance to a secular culture which is interested only in indoctrinating its children in the principles of material acquisition is of little importance (after all, as I have stated several times in this blog, the commandments were given to the "chosen people," not to all the nations of the Earth). However, if one calls oneself a Christian, and claims the name of Christ, one should be aware that the same Christ who said "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28) was--and is--part of the Godhead that spoke to Moses from the burning bush one thousand years earlier and said, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5).
It is with this in mind that I begin my post on the Fifth Commandment, one which breaks my heart personally more than any other commandment the Christian culture in the United States has seen fit to throw aside. As a new husband, as a new father, I understand more keenly than I ever could have understood as a single man the weight of responsibility that is on my shoulders . . . a responsibility that, it seems, too many practicing Christians are willing to encourage their brethren to forsake.
Without further ado, let us look at the text of the Fifth Commandment itself:
There are three portions of this verse that are crucial to our understanding of what it says:
1. "Honor . . . "
I took the opportunity to look this word up in Strong's concordance, and among other things, the Hebrew word translated "honor" in Exodus 20:12 also means "to reward." Ladies and gentlemen, our ancestors--and more importantly, the generations of Israelites who recited these words--knew well what it was to "reward" a parent for raising and taking care of his/her children. Multiple generations lived in the same house for thousands of years in ancient Israel, and among the Jews scattered around the world in the wake of the Diaspora, and it was normal not only for parents to house, clothe, feed, and train their children but for them also to feed and care for their own parents in turn. A man or woman who had grown too old for manual or intellectual labor in the nation of Israel had a place in society as a grandparent cared for in his/her children's home.
Sadly, we do not have the same values today.
The United States has become a land where the elderly are shut up in institutions that resemble insane assylums--and here again, the Christian community is to blame. A hundred years ago, men like Andrew Murray and women like Lilias Trotter would have been horrified at the very idea that a family would not take care of its elderly and invalid parents, siblings, and relatives, but their descendants seem to have uttered little more than polite chirps when an increasingly mechanized society decided that the time for America's aged and infirm to live in families had come to an end. Today, it is common practice for pastors, radio evangelists, and Christian counselors to recommend the institutionalization of elderly family members when they become, in conventional financial terms, a burden too great to bear.
2. " . . . your father and your mother . . . "
Ladies and gentlemen, it is very important that you understand one thing: This commandment was not written to children who were raised in pagan households, to children whose parents were selfish or abusive, or to children of dysfunctional homes. This commandment was written to a people that the Lord had selected, ransomed out of a nation that had held them captive, and nurtured through their travels on the way to the land of Canaan. It was written to a people whose families--unlike many in our culture today--consisted of a father, a mother, and children (along with servants and animals). More to the point, it was written to a people who had been "redeemed" (as believers in Christ have been redeemed) and set apart by the Lord (as believers in Christ have been set apart by the Lord) for His special purposes.
Some of you out there are reading this blog, and your experience of family and parenting is a far cry from praiseworthy--beatings, verbal abuse, molestation, and the list goes on and on. To you, I would say that it is more important to forgive your parents than to honor them. After all, if they did nothing to aid in preparing you for a life in Christ Jesus, then it really is more of a matter of forgiveness than honor, isn't it?
However . . .
If, as was the case for me, your family was a Christian family, and they nurtured and encouraged you and taught you, even if badly, the nature and character of Christ, then you are not exempt from honoring them--either with your words or with your actions. For believers in Christ who grew up in families that honored Christ, this is a standing order, and it brooks no exceptions.
I will go on record at this point and say that my parents made a great many serious mistakes in raising me. For one thing, they trusted in the capability of social institutions--public education, church, and entertainment corporations--to instill righteous values in the heart of a child. For another, they were extremely negligent in training me to approach the practical aspects of life with care and energy. These oversights were serious, and devastating, to the point that I have had to go through a veritable deprogramming regime in order to understand them for what they are and (with prayer and patience) overcome them.
I cannot say, however, that my parents did not love me, that they did not provide a secure home for me, and that I was not encouraged to be the best that I could be when I was growing up. My mom and dad were not pagans or atheists or anti-Christians, they were never dependent on drugs or alcohol, and they have never, ever been separated (let alone divorced). I may not have had the perfect home as a boy--far from it--but I did not grow up in a bad or dysfunctional home, and I can thank my parents for that, in word and deed.
3. " . . . so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you"
There are 2 principles here in this last section: one is physical/social, and the other is spiritual.
1. the physical/social
Let's be honest here: The reason your parents get to tell you what to do is because (1) they have lived longer than you have, (2) they have faced more struggles than you have, and (3) they know better than you what to do when life throws you one of its curves. Parental discipline is not a bludgeon intended to destroy the spirit and liveliness of a child--it is instead a surgical instrument designed to train a child to approach the world in a practical, logical, and resourceful manner. The end product that any decent parent--regardless of his/her beliefs about God--aims for is to see a child raising a family of his/her own.
I would say that approximately 75% of the families in this world prioritize the physical/social needs of their children--they want their children to be effective leaders in their societies, to raise decent families of their own, and to live rich and full lives. It may even surprise you to learn that both churchgoing Christians and mosque-attending Muslims understand keenly the concept of the man as the spiritual leader of the family, and this concept is shared by many of the other religions of the world as well.
2. the spiritual
What I am talking about in regards to the spiritual development of a child is this: Has that child been prepared to receive, intelligently, Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior?
Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people have taken the idea of raising one's children to receive Christ as Lord and Savior as a process of indoctrination, but I am talking about something different here. Instead, I am talking about the character of a man or woman's parenting--discipline, nurture, and inspiration, not just Bible education. Does your mother and father's parenting style reflect the gentleness and purity of Christ? If so, how have you responded?
We live in a society that destroys, in its mechanistic zeal, every notion of what our ancestors of generations ago would have called "family." We put our children in public school for 8 hours a day, eating substandard food and listening to substandard instruction, then chase it down with a healthy dose of television at night and on the weekends, simply because we're too busy with our two incomes and two car garages and white picket fences . . . or is it because we simply don't want the bother of having to spend so much time with our children?
I mourned, along with my wife, the days when she and I were a couple and the Lord had not yet blessed us with a child because I know, having helped raise my nephews, that parenthood is a set of responsibilities more overwhelming than I could fathom. My wife and I will no longer be able to use profanity, to indulge ourselves with morally questionable forms of entertainment, to spend our time and energy as we wish. Instead, we will walk into parenting with the full knowledge that children--and the correct raising of children--will require more sacrifice in terms of money, time, energy, and personal resources than we can possibly imagine.
We are walking into the journey of parenthood with the fear of the Lord guiding us at every step . . . but it is there that our responsibility ends. If we have raised our child in the way the Lord wants us to raise it, if we have listened to the leading of the Lord and have obeyed His will for us as a family, then it will be up to our children whether or not they accept the example of Christ set before them.
In the end, speaking as an expectant father, I know no better way for my child--or any child--to honor his/her father and mother than to become a true believer in Christ, and to live as Christ lived, pure and free, obedient to God even unto death.
I have heard a lot of people--both on and off the 'net--argue that the Ten Commandments are universal, that they do not reflect the values of a particular community, belief system, or religion. To be honest, I think that many conservative Christians--and pseudo-Christians--are more interested in reducing the effect of Darwinistic teaching in the public school system than they are in acknowledging a very inconvenient truth: that the Ten Commandments were, and are, testimony to the character and purity of the God who uttered them on Mount Sinai 3000 years ago.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that those of you out there who, as upstanding citizens, want to use any legal means available to return America's public educational institutions to a pristine era when we did not hear the words "Darwin," "evolution," or "Big Bang Theory" will be disappointed at the above paragraph, but the fact is that according to the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, the Ten Commandments were delivered from the mouth of the God of the Bible. It was with this understanding that they were written down in the first place, and the ancient Hebrew culture which recited these words generation after generation had no concept of their being divorced from the primacy of the Hebrew God. Their relevance to a secular culture which is interested only in indoctrinating its children in the principles of material acquisition is of little importance (after all, as I have stated several times in this blog, the commandments were given to the "chosen people," not to all the nations of the Earth). However, if one calls oneself a Christian, and claims the name of Christ, one should be aware that the same Christ who said "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28) was--and is--part of the Godhead that spoke to Moses from the burning bush one thousand years earlier and said, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5).
It is with this in mind that I begin my post on the Fifth Commandment, one which breaks my heart personally more than any other commandment the Christian culture in the United States has seen fit to throw aside. As a new husband, as a new father, I understand more keenly than I ever could have understood as a single man the weight of responsibility that is on my shoulders . . . a responsibility that, it seems, too many practicing Christians are willing to encourage their brethren to forsake.
Without further ado, let us look at the text of the Fifth Commandment itself:
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
Exodus 20:12
There are three portions of this verse that are crucial to our understanding of what it says:
1. "Honor . . . "
I took the opportunity to look this word up in Strong's concordance, and among other things, the Hebrew word translated "honor" in Exodus 20:12 also means "to reward." Ladies and gentlemen, our ancestors--and more importantly, the generations of Israelites who recited these words--knew well what it was to "reward" a parent for raising and taking care of his/her children. Multiple generations lived in the same house for thousands of years in ancient Israel, and among the Jews scattered around the world in the wake of the Diaspora, and it was normal not only for parents to house, clothe, feed, and train their children but for them also to feed and care for their own parents in turn. A man or woman who had grown too old for manual or intellectual labor in the nation of Israel had a place in society as a grandparent cared for in his/her children's home.
Sadly, we do not have the same values today.
The United States has become a land where the elderly are shut up in institutions that resemble insane assylums--and here again, the Christian community is to blame. A hundred years ago, men like Andrew Murray and women like Lilias Trotter would have been horrified at the very idea that a family would not take care of its elderly and invalid parents, siblings, and relatives, but their descendants seem to have uttered little more than polite chirps when an increasingly mechanized society decided that the time for America's aged and infirm to live in families had come to an end. Today, it is common practice for pastors, radio evangelists, and Christian counselors to recommend the institutionalization of elderly family members when they become, in conventional financial terms, a burden too great to bear.
2. " . . . your father and your mother . . . "
Ladies and gentlemen, it is very important that you understand one thing: This commandment was not written to children who were raised in pagan households, to children whose parents were selfish or abusive, or to children of dysfunctional homes. This commandment was written to a people that the Lord had selected, ransomed out of a nation that had held them captive, and nurtured through their travels on the way to the land of Canaan. It was written to a people whose families--unlike many in our culture today--consisted of a father, a mother, and children (along with servants and animals). More to the point, it was written to a people who had been "redeemed" (as believers in Christ have been redeemed) and set apart by the Lord (as believers in Christ have been set apart by the Lord) for His special purposes.
Some of you out there are reading this blog, and your experience of family and parenting is a far cry from praiseworthy--beatings, verbal abuse, molestation, and the list goes on and on. To you, I would say that it is more important to forgive your parents than to honor them. After all, if they did nothing to aid in preparing you for a life in Christ Jesus, then it really is more of a matter of forgiveness than honor, isn't it?
However . . .
If, as was the case for me, your family was a Christian family, and they nurtured and encouraged you and taught you, even if badly, the nature and character of Christ, then you are not exempt from honoring them--either with your words or with your actions. For believers in Christ who grew up in families that honored Christ, this is a standing order, and it brooks no exceptions.
I will go on record at this point and say that my parents made a great many serious mistakes in raising me. For one thing, they trusted in the capability of social institutions--public education, church, and entertainment corporations--to instill righteous values in the heart of a child. For another, they were extremely negligent in training me to approach the practical aspects of life with care and energy. These oversights were serious, and devastating, to the point that I have had to go through a veritable deprogramming regime in order to understand them for what they are and (with prayer and patience) overcome them.
I cannot say, however, that my parents did not love me, that they did not provide a secure home for me, and that I was not encouraged to be the best that I could be when I was growing up. My mom and dad were not pagans or atheists or anti-Christians, they were never dependent on drugs or alcohol, and they have never, ever been separated (let alone divorced). I may not have had the perfect home as a boy--far from it--but I did not grow up in a bad or dysfunctional home, and I can thank my parents for that, in word and deed.
3. " . . . so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you"
There are 2 principles here in this last section: one is physical/social, and the other is spiritual.
1. the physical/social
Let's be honest here: The reason your parents get to tell you what to do is because (1) they have lived longer than you have, (2) they have faced more struggles than you have, and (3) they know better than you what to do when life throws you one of its curves. Parental discipline is not a bludgeon intended to destroy the spirit and liveliness of a child--it is instead a surgical instrument designed to train a child to approach the world in a practical, logical, and resourceful manner. The end product that any decent parent--regardless of his/her beliefs about God--aims for is to see a child raising a family of his/her own.
I would say that approximately 75% of the families in this world prioritize the physical/social needs of their children--they want their children to be effective leaders in their societies, to raise decent families of their own, and to live rich and full lives. It may even surprise you to learn that both churchgoing Christians and mosque-attending Muslims understand keenly the concept of the man as the spiritual leader of the family, and this concept is shared by many of the other religions of the world as well.
2. the spiritual
What I am talking about in regards to the spiritual development of a child is this: Has that child been prepared to receive, intelligently, Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior?
Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people have taken the idea of raising one's children to receive Christ as Lord and Savior as a process of indoctrination, but I am talking about something different here. Instead, I am talking about the character of a man or woman's parenting--discipline, nurture, and inspiration, not just Bible education. Does your mother and father's parenting style reflect the gentleness and purity of Christ? If so, how have you responded?
We live in a society that destroys, in its mechanistic zeal, every notion of what our ancestors of generations ago would have called "family." We put our children in public school for 8 hours a day, eating substandard food and listening to substandard instruction, then chase it down with a healthy dose of television at night and on the weekends, simply because we're too busy with our two incomes and two car garages and white picket fences . . . or is it because we simply don't want the bother of having to spend so much time with our children?
I mourned, along with my wife, the days when she and I were a couple and the Lord had not yet blessed us with a child because I know, having helped raise my nephews, that parenthood is a set of responsibilities more overwhelming than I could fathom. My wife and I will no longer be able to use profanity, to indulge ourselves with morally questionable forms of entertainment, to spend our time and energy as we wish. Instead, we will walk into parenting with the full knowledge that children--and the correct raising of children--will require more sacrifice in terms of money, time, energy, and personal resources than we can possibly imagine.
We are walking into the journey of parenthood with the fear of the Lord guiding us at every step . . . but it is there that our responsibility ends. If we have raised our child in the way the Lord wants us to raise it, if we have listened to the leading of the Lord and have obeyed His will for us as a family, then it will be up to our children whether or not they accept the example of Christ set before them.
In the end, speaking as an expectant father, I know no better way for my child--or any child--to honor his/her father and mother than to become a true believer in Christ, and to live as Christ lived, pure and free, obedient to God even unto death.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Commandment 4: A Sad Testimony of the Church's Misinterpretation of Scripture
I want everyone to know that at this point, my wife and I have talked fully about what was going on with me last week, and everything is okay between us (though I must say it was one of the most embarassing conversations I have ever had with her). I must also say that I am not sure I should have published what I said in my previous post because, in retrospect, the whole thing turned out to be a lot less serious than I thought it would be. However, I will say this: men, just because you are married does not mean that passing thoughts will not come your way, and if you want to preserve some measure of sanity (and to foster a healthy marriage), I would advise you to share all of those passing thoughts with your wife as soon as possible. I know this would have saved me a week of inner turmoil (and annoyance from my wife, who was wondering why I was acting so strangely).
I know it may be frightening to open yourselves up in this way, and even (believe me) a little embarassing, but gentlemen, if you married her in a relationship of love and mutual respect, and if both of you truly love each other (and the Lord), she will want you to tell her if there is something going on. Nine times out of ten, you won't get a reaction more serious than laughter and a "I wondered why you were acting so oddly" (after all, you are in a mature sexual relationship, not at the high school prom). There are, however, cases when your wife will react more strongly to what you share with her, and gentlemen, if the two of you really love each other, that is a cue for you, as good husbands and fathers, to sacrifice your own desires and inclinations at the altar of your marriage, your children, and the Lord.
Today, our text will be Exodus 20:8-11, otherwise known as the "fourth commandment," and it is with the home in mind that I share this message with you. Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a church culture in the United States that has abused the verses quoted below to the extent that their original meaning has been virtually lost, and to me, this is one of the greatest sins that postmodern Christendom has ever committed.
The Lord's commandment regarding the Sabbath is very specific and straightforward:
I want to address two teachings common in the postmodern American church which, I believe, have done more to harm Christian faith and service in these days than any attack against Christianity from unbelieving governments and rulers ever can:
1. That Jesus abolished the Sabbath
Ladies and gentlemen, I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but whenever you read accounts in the Gospels of the Pharisees and Sadducees criticizing Jesus for "breaking the Sabbath," the argument in fact has nothing at all to do with the Fourth Commandment. I'll give you an example, one I recently came across in Luke:
Note that the argument arose not out of a genuine concern over a legitimate breach of the Sabbath (the disciples, after all, were not sowing crops, feeding livestock, or even harvesting grain in any real sense) but out of a very sharp, almost tangible jealousy on the part of the Pharisees over the authority Jesus and his disciples had to teach and to spread the Gospel about the Lord. The disciples were desperately hungry--after all, you have to be on the verge of starvation to eat raw heads of grain--and the priests' reaction was a clear exercise in stupidity and arrogance.
Let us look at another example that the Gospel of Luke provides, immediately following the passage quoted above:
Before commenting on this passage as a whole, I want you to look at verse 7 again:
The whole thing was a trap created by the Pharisees to prompt Jesus to say something contrary to the Torah and/or blaspheme the Father, and as we can see in the passage, it was a very ill-conceived one. After all, Jesus did not engage in some kind of physical application of bandages, poultices, and home remedies to cure the man (which would have constituted "work" under the Sabbath regulation). He merely asked a member of the crowd to stretch out his hand.
The Pharisees were well acquainted with miracles, ladies and gentlemen--after all, they had read the Hebrew Bible and studied the Torah with great alacrity--and they knew very well that a miracle of the Lord did not constitute a breach of the Sabbath regulations. Their reaction had nothing to do with a zeal for upholding religious laws--it was merely an attempt by pompous aristocrats to puff up their own priestly powers at the expense of the Lord. Jesus represented a threat to them--to their livelihoods, their standing in the Judean community, and ultimately to their lack of spiritual depth--and their unrepentant hearts were as hostile to the Lord as anyone has ever been in our time.
2. That the Sabbath constitutes the breaking of bread at church
I want us to look at the Lord's regulations regarding the Sabbath again, this time focusing on the portion of scripture that prohibits the Israelites from doing any work on the Sabbath:
Note that the passage does not say "neither you, nor your pastor, nor your pastor's wife, nor your elder, nor your elder's wife." All of the positions mentioned--son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, animals, strangers--are unique to the Hebrew household.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, the Sabbath--and every other holy day in Israel--was to be celebrated by families, either gathering together in the home or traveling as a family to a specified place (sometimes Shiloh, sometimes Shechem, and sometimes Jerusalem). If you did not celebrate the Sabbath with your family, then in the ancient Hebrew context, you did not celebrate the Sabbath at all.
I am afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that we have allowed our culture's anti-family attitudes to dictate the way we approach church activities. Many conservative churches in America meet together on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday or Thursday evening, and Saturday evening, and parishioners are often led to believe that they are not very spiritual if they do not attend these activities regularly and often. As a result, family time suffers, and children often wonder why their parents are so consumed with "doing the Lord's work" that they have less and less time to play with them, to read with them, and to talk to them.
Ladies and gentlemen, as an expectant father, I am well aware of the fact that my child is going to be an adult someday, and it is very important to me that my child's formative years be perfect in the Lord's sight and that as an adult, he or she cannot say, as so many of America's children can, that Mom and Dad were neglectful. I will not go to my deathbed knowing, as I am afraid so many men will, that I have not been a very good husband or father.
If you are not a good wife and mother, and if you are not a good husband and father, then in the judgment of the Bible--and of the culture which produced the Bible--you have failed in your spiritual responsibilities. I am not saying that if you pursue celibacy for the rest of your life, you have sinned against the Lord--if that is true, then St. Paul was guilty of sinning against the Lord as well--but I am saying that if you have chosen to have a family and you abandon the responsibilites of being a good spouse and parent, you need to ask the Lord, and your family, for forgiveness.
My wife and I want to do some very specific things in order to raise our children in the right way, according to the conviction that the Lord has given us. We want to homeschool, we want to pursue some home businesses, and she and I want to work together as a couple so that our children can see a model for how they can pursue marriage someday (if they want). These things involve sacrifice, and they are not accepted in a lot of circles--we live in a culture that depends on corporate institutions for its physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, and it is virtually impossible for many Americans, even some of you who are reading this post, to fathom a lifestyle that does not follow the typical lines of public education-corporate job-retirement that so many families are pursuing today.
It is, however, a sacrifice we are willing to make for our children--and for the sanctity of our marriage.
Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a society where men and women are expected to pursue separate lives, even after marriage, and we dare to wonder why so many American couples divorce as a result of the pressures those separate lives bring to bear on their homes. It is time for Christian men and women to pursue something different, and to prioritize their children and their spouses over their institutional obligations. Without this effort, ladies and gentlemen, I am afraid that we are going to see the eventual demise of Christlikeness within our culture, a culture which has already seen the destruction of 40 million children at the altar of financial greed and institutional slavery.
Let me ask you this: Are you a married man or woman--and if so, did you promise to cherish your spouse forever?
Then why would you want your relationship with your spouse--and your children--to suffer?
Spiritual leadership does not occur in church boards and committees--it occurs in the home. And if you are not willing to engage in the spiritual responsibility of husband and father/wife and mother, then you are not eligible, in the Lord's sight, for anything else.
Paul said it very clearly in his first letter to Timothy:
And here:
Spiritual education does not happen in Sunday School, church, or prayer meeting, ladies and gentlemen--it happens in the home. It is time that we who are in Christ acknowledge the wonderful and terrible responsibility the Lord has given us in raising our children and caring for our spouses. I am amazed at the incredible depth displayed by men and women like St. Paul, Lilias Trotter, and Mother Theresa of Calcutta who were called by the Lord to lead celibate lives of service, but most of us are called to be husbands/wives and fathers/mothers. If we want our parenthood to mean anything beyond the actions and attitudes of the hundreds of millions of families around the world which do not a firm foundation in Christ, then we need to step up to our responsibilites and face them as men and women of God.
I know it may be frightening to open yourselves up in this way, and even (believe me) a little embarassing, but gentlemen, if you married her in a relationship of love and mutual respect, and if both of you truly love each other (and the Lord), she will want you to tell her if there is something going on. Nine times out of ten, you won't get a reaction more serious than laughter and a "I wondered why you were acting so oddly" (after all, you are in a mature sexual relationship, not at the high school prom). There are, however, cases when your wife will react more strongly to what you share with her, and gentlemen, if the two of you really love each other, that is a cue for you, as good husbands and fathers, to sacrifice your own desires and inclinations at the altar of your marriage, your children, and the Lord.
Today, our text will be Exodus 20:8-11, otherwise known as the "fourth commandment," and it is with the home in mind that I share this message with you. Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a church culture in the United States that has abused the verses quoted below to the extent that their original meaning has been virtually lost, and to me, this is one of the greatest sins that postmodern Christendom has ever committed.
The Lord's commandment regarding the Sabbath is very specific and straightforward:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
I want to address two teachings common in the postmodern American church which, I believe, have done more to harm Christian faith and service in these days than any attack against Christianity from unbelieving governments and rulers ever can:
1. That Jesus abolished the Sabbath
Ladies and gentlemen, I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but whenever you read accounts in the Gospels of the Pharisees and Sadducees criticizing Jesus for "breaking the Sabbath," the argument in fact has nothing at all to do with the Fourth Commandment. I'll give you an example, one I recently came across in Luke:
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.
Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
Luke 6:1-5
Note that the argument arose not out of a genuine concern over a legitimate breach of the Sabbath (the disciples, after all, were not sowing crops, feeding livestock, or even harvesting grain in any real sense) but out of a very sharp, almost tangible jealousy on the part of the Pharisees over the authority Jesus and his disciples had to teach and to spread the Gospel about the Lord. The disciples were desperately hungry--after all, you have to be on the verge of starvation to eat raw heads of grain--and the priests' reaction was a clear exercise in stupidity and arrogance.
Let us look at another example that the Gospel of Luke provides, immediately following the passage quoted above:
On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"
He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Luke 6:6-11
Before commenting on this passage as a whole, I want you to look at verse 7 again:
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus
The whole thing was a trap created by the Pharisees to prompt Jesus to say something contrary to the Torah and/or blaspheme the Father, and as we can see in the passage, it was a very ill-conceived one. After all, Jesus did not engage in some kind of physical application of bandages, poultices, and home remedies to cure the man (which would have constituted "work" under the Sabbath regulation). He merely asked a member of the crowd to stretch out his hand.
The Pharisees were well acquainted with miracles, ladies and gentlemen--after all, they had read the Hebrew Bible and studied the Torah with great alacrity--and they knew very well that a miracle of the Lord did not constitute a breach of the Sabbath regulations. Their reaction had nothing to do with a zeal for upholding religious laws--it was merely an attempt by pompous aristocrats to puff up their own priestly powers at the expense of the Lord. Jesus represented a threat to them--to their livelihoods, their standing in the Judean community, and ultimately to their lack of spiritual depth--and their unrepentant hearts were as hostile to the Lord as anyone has ever been in our time.
2. That the Sabbath constitutes the breaking of bread at church
I want us to look at the Lord's regulations regarding the Sabbath again, this time focusing on the portion of scripture that prohibits the Israelites from doing any work on the Sabbath:
On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
Note that the passage does not say "neither you, nor your pastor, nor your pastor's wife, nor your elder, nor your elder's wife." All of the positions mentioned--son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, animals, strangers--are unique to the Hebrew household.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, the Sabbath--and every other holy day in Israel--was to be celebrated by families, either gathering together in the home or traveling as a family to a specified place (sometimes Shiloh, sometimes Shechem, and sometimes Jerusalem). If you did not celebrate the Sabbath with your family, then in the ancient Hebrew context, you did not celebrate the Sabbath at all.
I am afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that we have allowed our culture's anti-family attitudes to dictate the way we approach church activities. Many conservative churches in America meet together on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday or Thursday evening, and Saturday evening, and parishioners are often led to believe that they are not very spiritual if they do not attend these activities regularly and often. As a result, family time suffers, and children often wonder why their parents are so consumed with "doing the Lord's work" that they have less and less time to play with them, to read with them, and to talk to them.
Ladies and gentlemen, as an expectant father, I am well aware of the fact that my child is going to be an adult someday, and it is very important to me that my child's formative years be perfect in the Lord's sight and that as an adult, he or she cannot say, as so many of America's children can, that Mom and Dad were neglectful. I will not go to my deathbed knowing, as I am afraid so many men will, that I have not been a very good husband or father.
If you are not a good wife and mother, and if you are not a good husband and father, then in the judgment of the Bible--and of the culture which produced the Bible--you have failed in your spiritual responsibilities. I am not saying that if you pursue celibacy for the rest of your life, you have sinned against the Lord--if that is true, then St. Paul was guilty of sinning against the Lord as well--but I am saying that if you have chosen to have a family and you abandon the responsibilites of being a good spouse and parent, you need to ask the Lord, and your family, for forgiveness.
My wife and I want to do some very specific things in order to raise our children in the right way, according to the conviction that the Lord has given us. We want to homeschool, we want to pursue some home businesses, and she and I want to work together as a couple so that our children can see a model for how they can pursue marriage someday (if they want). These things involve sacrifice, and they are not accepted in a lot of circles--we live in a culture that depends on corporate institutions for its physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, and it is virtually impossible for many Americans, even some of you who are reading this post, to fathom a lifestyle that does not follow the typical lines of public education-corporate job-retirement that so many families are pursuing today.
It is, however, a sacrifice we are willing to make for our children--and for the sanctity of our marriage.
Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a society where men and women are expected to pursue separate lives, even after marriage, and we dare to wonder why so many American couples divorce as a result of the pressures those separate lives bring to bear on their homes. It is time for Christian men and women to pursue something different, and to prioritize their children and their spouses over their institutional obligations. Without this effort, ladies and gentlemen, I am afraid that we are going to see the eventual demise of Christlikeness within our culture, a culture which has already seen the destruction of 40 million children at the altar of financial greed and institutional slavery.
Let me ask you this: Are you a married man or woman--and if so, did you promise to cherish your spouse forever?
Then why would you want your relationship with your spouse--and your children--to suffer?
Spiritual leadership does not occur in church boards and committees--it occurs in the home. And if you are not willing to engage in the spiritual responsibility of husband and father/wife and mother, then you are not eligible, in the Lord's sight, for anything else.
Paul said it very clearly in his first letter to Timothy:
He [the bishop/overseer] must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)
1 Timothy 3:4-5
And here:
A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 3:12-13
Spiritual education does not happen in Sunday School, church, or prayer meeting, ladies and gentlemen--it happens in the home. It is time that we who are in Christ acknowledge the wonderful and terrible responsibility the Lord has given us in raising our children and caring for our spouses. I am amazed at the incredible depth displayed by men and women like St. Paul, Lilias Trotter, and Mother Theresa of Calcutta who were called by the Lord to lead celibate lives of service, but most of us are called to be husbands/wives and fathers/mothers. If we want our parenthood to mean anything beyond the actions and attitudes of the hundreds of millions of families around the world which do not a firm foundation in Christ, then we need to step up to our responsibilites and face them as men and women of God.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Apology to My Readers
I try to get these posts out on a fairly regular basis (weekly), and at times it is difficult because I am also doing whatever I can to help prepare for the birth of my first child. My wife is in good health and good spirits, though she does seem to be one of the minority of women who apparently experience morning sickness throughout their pregnancies, so she is not quite as positive as she could be. (She once said to me, "How would you feel if your penis were constantly growing in size over 9 months so that you could pass a baby through it?" and I have never since had a problem understanding how uncomfortable and frightening pregnancy has been for her.)
However, the two week interval between my previous post and this one stems from something more serious: namely, a spiritual struggle I have had during the past week or so. I have never been secretive about the fact that my sexual mores before marriage were questionable at best--I was emotionally promiscuous, I dabbled in pornography (soft- and hardcore), and I even had transexual fantasies--and my wife and I have worked hard to establish a very safe, open, and honest mode of communication between us, knowing that we both came into the marriage with these issues. I still have the temptation to "protect" her by keeping things quiet--she said a couple of days ago that I have, in her words, a "real secretive streak"--just because it's the way I chose to deal with the turmoil inside of me for so many years.
Last weekend, I had some fantasies that, while pretty conservative, did not involve my wife. They were unexpected, they did not result from exposure to pornography, and they revolved around a real person (female) toward whom, until last weekend, I had no inkling of desire. I was so overwhelmed (I felt like I was being spiritually assaulted) that I had no idea how to respond, and I did not, unfortunately, refrain from masturbating.
I know that some of you reading this blog are probably shocked at the extent to which I describe the above situation so graphically--perhaps others of you are rolling your eyes, as I would have a few years ago, thinking "come on, you didn't do anything serious"--but I want all of you out there who are husbands and fathers to know that sin, even if it appears to be light sin, will be destructive to your family. I have said before that the sharing of bodies between two people also involves a sharing of spirits, and if you are masturbating about a woman who is not your wife, you are inviting spiritual turmoil into your family, and yes, you are cheating on your wife, even if only in your imagination. By allowing myself to fall, even when the spiritual assault was so great, I allowed the temptation--and the evil spiritual energy behind it--to gain a foothold inside of me, and it has taken far more effort on my part to quench it than I would have had to expend if I had refrained from giving in to it 6 days ago.
My wife knows about everything I am revealing in this post (with the exception of the identity of the person--and if I haven't yet had the heart to say it to her, I am sure not going to say it on the internet), and we have talked about how she and I can communicate better so that she can help me in times of temptation. It is, I will say, difficult to have a very strong desire for your wife and not be able to fulfill it (to the extent you want) because she is pregnant. To me, it is not a matter of "getting my leg over" as some would crassly phrase it--I love my wife, and my sexuality is truly motivated by a desire to please her, especially now when she is going through so much discomfort in her pregnancy. I take solace (most of the time) in the thought that (1) the suffering we are both going through will only last 9 or 10 months and (2) that a little personal agony is worth going through for my wife as she embarks on what is, for women, the most difficult period of their lives.
Some of you may think I am taking too much liberty in revealing so many details about my personal life and the sexual dynamics I have encountered in marriage, but the Christian community in the United States seems completely insensitive to the need for young men and women to learn from their spiritual and physical elders about sexuality and about raising a family. So few "mentoring couples" talk about their experiences in a personal way that, I fear, an entire generation of men and women will be doomed to spend their lives over the next 20 years learning lessons the hard way, lessons that could have been learned through the counsel, wisdom, and inspiration of their elders.
As a result, it falls to me and others like myself to write from a personal perspective about matters that our culture has said are best left private--even though we are not elders, even though we have, at least in our own eyes, so little to give.
However, the two week interval between my previous post and this one stems from something more serious: namely, a spiritual struggle I have had during the past week or so. I have never been secretive about the fact that my sexual mores before marriage were questionable at best--I was emotionally promiscuous, I dabbled in pornography (soft- and hardcore), and I even had transexual fantasies--and my wife and I have worked hard to establish a very safe, open, and honest mode of communication between us, knowing that we both came into the marriage with these issues. I still have the temptation to "protect" her by keeping things quiet--she said a couple of days ago that I have, in her words, a "real secretive streak"--just because it's the way I chose to deal with the turmoil inside of me for so many years.
Last weekend, I had some fantasies that, while pretty conservative, did not involve my wife. They were unexpected, they did not result from exposure to pornography, and they revolved around a real person (female) toward whom, until last weekend, I had no inkling of desire. I was so overwhelmed (I felt like I was being spiritually assaulted) that I had no idea how to respond, and I did not, unfortunately, refrain from masturbating.
I know that some of you reading this blog are probably shocked at the extent to which I describe the above situation so graphically--perhaps others of you are rolling your eyes, as I would have a few years ago, thinking "come on, you didn't do anything serious"--but I want all of you out there who are husbands and fathers to know that sin, even if it appears to be light sin, will be destructive to your family. I have said before that the sharing of bodies between two people also involves a sharing of spirits, and if you are masturbating about a woman who is not your wife, you are inviting spiritual turmoil into your family, and yes, you are cheating on your wife, even if only in your imagination. By allowing myself to fall, even when the spiritual assault was so great, I allowed the temptation--and the evil spiritual energy behind it--to gain a foothold inside of me, and it has taken far more effort on my part to quench it than I would have had to expend if I had refrained from giving in to it 6 days ago.
My wife knows about everything I am revealing in this post (with the exception of the identity of the person--and if I haven't yet had the heart to say it to her, I am sure not going to say it on the internet), and we have talked about how she and I can communicate better so that she can help me in times of temptation. It is, I will say, difficult to have a very strong desire for your wife and not be able to fulfill it (to the extent you want) because she is pregnant. To me, it is not a matter of "getting my leg over" as some would crassly phrase it--I love my wife, and my sexuality is truly motivated by a desire to please her, especially now when she is going through so much discomfort in her pregnancy. I take solace (most of the time) in the thought that (1) the suffering we are both going through will only last 9 or 10 months and (2) that a little personal agony is worth going through for my wife as she embarks on what is, for women, the most difficult period of their lives.
Some of you may think I am taking too much liberty in revealing so many details about my personal life and the sexual dynamics I have encountered in marriage, but the Christian community in the United States seems completely insensitive to the need for young men and women to learn from their spiritual and physical elders about sexuality and about raising a family. So few "mentoring couples" talk about their experiences in a personal way that, I fear, an entire generation of men and women will be doomed to spend their lives over the next 20 years learning lessons the hard way, lessons that could have been learned through the counsel, wisdom, and inspiration of their elders.
As a result, it falls to me and others like myself to write from a personal perspective about matters that our culture has said are best left private--even though we are not elders, even though we have, at least in our own eyes, so little to give.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Commandment 3: A Distressing Sign of the Times We Live In
Jessica and I are still working hard, and I am very happy to report that I now have access to some income for us, which will be very important as we move closer to our time of delivery. Ladies and gentlemen, I must confess that it is very humiliating to see the fruits, wrought upon my dear wife, of my negligence with money. I spent many hundreds of dollars when I was living alone in Texas on my own entertainment and selfish pleasure when I could have been storing it away so that my new family could have something to live on, and that fact haunts me every day as my wife and I struggle to make ends meet.
Our post will center on Exodus 20:7, and I think that more than anything else in the Ten Commandments, this verse is an overwhelming indictment of our time. Every age has seen its share of liars, thieves, adulterers, and murderers--the street gangs in London during the thirteenth century were just as vicious as the street gangs in New York are in the twenty-first--but no age has ever seen such a universal display of open disrespect toward God in everyday speech as we currently see in Western countries. And once again, at the forefront of this utter departure from the love and fear of the Lord . . . is the church.
I'll be honest, ladies and gentlemen--I struggle with the use of profanity and even with taking the Lord's name in vain. I learned to do both of these things when I was only 11-14 years old, and I became quite skillful at it, to the point that one of my fellow grad students at JMU (who herself was no angel in this regard) actually said to me, "Hey, you watch your language!" It has only been during the past 8 months that I have really been convicted about the effect that my words have on others--and more importantly, the effect that my words have on myself.
The Lord, however, makes his view on our use of language quite clear:
I know that some of you, having read this blog, were expecting a metaphorical sermon pinpointing the extent to which people claim to be Christian in our culture when their words and actions testify that their heart lies somewhere else, and yes, I think that to claim the name of Christ without accepting Him into your heart is a grievous sin (on the order of Ananias and Sapphira--see Acts 5). However, I believe that it is in the use of profanity--often among faithful church attenders--that we most frequently display our lack of love for the Lord, and for others.
Let us take a look at another passage, Leviticus 24:10-23, which illustrates the extent to which the Lord takes the use of His name (and by extension, the use of our words) very seriously:
I understand that some of you are doubtless shocked at the extent to which the Lord was willing to go in order to cultivate an attitude of respect for His name, but I'd like to go back to the beginning of the passage for a moment:
We live in a society that encourages its people to swear, to curse, to use profanity, and yes, to use the name of the Lord as an epithet whenever they are angry, frustrated, or (in the vernacular of our culture) "just need to blow off some steam." In the process, an entire generation has been taught to use their words as weapons, stabbing each other with the viciousness of their curses with the same energy that ancient men would have used in stabbing their enemies with swords, daggers, and axes.
I am very concerned at the extent to which we are training the future leaders of this nation to use their words to hurt others--and I am also concerned at the extent to which churchgoers are, whether they realize it or not, training their children to disrespect God. It seems that all we hear in churches these days is a mixture of political correctness, psychobabble, and (to me) mindless recitations of what one can only assume to have been the pastor's favorite reading while in seminary. In this environment, no one is taught to respect (and revere) the name of the Lord as it should be respected (and revered) because no one even understands the name of the Lord.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you may not believe that blaspheming the name of the Lord is a serious matter--after all, I felt that way myself for 15 years--but perhaps if you understood the nature of the Lord, you would think differently. After all, the Bible says that Christ Jesus is "the Word," that He "was with God," and that "He was God" (John 1:1). The Bible also says that through Christ Jesus, "all things were made" and that without Him, "nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3). The apostle Paul, speaking under the revelation of Christ through the Holy Spirit, wrote to the Colossians that Christ Jesus "is before all things" and that "in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). And of course, it is the name of Christ Jesus which is the only means of salvation for the human race.
It is the same Christ Jesus--the same "only begotten Son" of God (John 3:16), the same Christ who was with God in the beginning and who was God (John 1:1-2)--who was part of the Godhead speaking to Moses and to the ancient Israelites at Mount Sinai.
Let that sink in for a moment.
I understand that Christ Jesus was not "begotten" in a sense that we would recognize until the first century A.D., but if He is part of the Godhead, and if He was with God (and was God) at the dawn of creation, then the children of Israel heard His voice as surely as the first century apostles did. And if that is the case, do you think that He looks upon our callous use of His name as something less serious now than it was approximately three thousand years ago?
Ladies and gentlemen, if you feel shame as you are reading this post, it is because the Holy Spirit is convicting you about the importance of choosing your words carefully. Believers in Christ are called to speak the truth, to be kind and gracious to others, and to revere the holy name of the Lord in their speech as well as their actions. I know that some of you out there may have believed that it was okay to use profanity because it enabled you to "relate" to people who were not Christians, but the fact is, people who are not Christians need to see that those who claim the name of Christ also cherish the name of Christ in their hearts--and they need to see that when you adopt Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it means more than simply buying a Bible and going to church every Sunday.
If you revere the Lord, if you really revere the Lord in your heart, then wouldn't you naturally want your speech to reflect that? I know that when I was a nonbeliever, in every case when I knew I was in the presence of a believer in Christ, that person was someone whom I could not imagine swearing, tearing others down with their words, or spitting out the name of the Lord as a curse. There was a holy reverence for the Lord that was exhibited in their every word and action--as if it were part of their very being.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the kind of reverence that convicts the lost and dying of their sins, and it is the kind of reverence that turns unrepentant liars, thieves, adulterers, and murderers into holy men and women of Christ.
So many of us have fallen from a life of true purity in Christ--our words, our actions, our thoughts are so unrepresentative of the character, gentleness, and integrity of the Lord--and when I consider the extent to which my heart, soul, and (yes) mouth betray the committment my wife and I have made to Him, I cannot help but grieve for the abominable lack of heartfelt devotion inside of me. If there is anything, any sin in this world for which believers in Christ need to repent, it is our almost universal disobedience of the Lord's third commandment, and I fear that many of us, when we reach the throne of Christ, will find that we have spiritual blood on our hands.
Our post will center on Exodus 20:7, and I think that more than anything else in the Ten Commandments, this verse is an overwhelming indictment of our time. Every age has seen its share of liars, thieves, adulterers, and murderers--the street gangs in London during the thirteenth century were just as vicious as the street gangs in New York are in the twenty-first--but no age has ever seen such a universal display of open disrespect toward God in everyday speech as we currently see in Western countries. And once again, at the forefront of this utter departure from the love and fear of the Lord . . . is the church.
I'll be honest, ladies and gentlemen--I struggle with the use of profanity and even with taking the Lord's name in vain. I learned to do both of these things when I was only 11-14 years old, and I became quite skillful at it, to the point that one of my fellow grad students at JMU (who herself was no angel in this regard) actually said to me, "Hey, you watch your language!" It has only been during the past 8 months that I have really been convicted about the effect that my words have on others--and more importantly, the effect that my words have on myself.
The Lord, however, makes his view on our use of language quite clear:
You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
I know that some of you, having read this blog, were expecting a metaphorical sermon pinpointing the extent to which people claim to be Christian in our culture when their words and actions testify that their heart lies somewhere else, and yes, I think that to claim the name of Christ without accepting Him into your heart is a grievous sin (on the order of Ananias and Sapphira--see Acts 5). However, I believe that it is in the use of profanity--often among faithful church attenders--that we most frequently display our lack of love for the Lord, and for others.
Let us take a look at another passage, Leviticus 24:10-23, which illustrates the extent to which the Lord takes the use of His name (and by extension, the use of our words) very seriously:
Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse, so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.
Then the LORD said to Moses: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible--anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.
" 'If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution—life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.' "
Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.
I understand that some of you are doubtless shocked at the extent to which the Lord was willing to go in order to cultivate an attitude of respect for His name, but I'd like to go back to the beginning of the passage for a moment:
Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.
We live in a society that encourages its people to swear, to curse, to use profanity, and yes, to use the name of the Lord as an epithet whenever they are angry, frustrated, or (in the vernacular of our culture) "just need to blow off some steam." In the process, an entire generation has been taught to use their words as weapons, stabbing each other with the viciousness of their curses with the same energy that ancient men would have used in stabbing their enemies with swords, daggers, and axes.
I am very concerned at the extent to which we are training the future leaders of this nation to use their words to hurt others--and I am also concerned at the extent to which churchgoers are, whether they realize it or not, training their children to disrespect God. It seems that all we hear in churches these days is a mixture of political correctness, psychobabble, and (to me) mindless recitations of what one can only assume to have been the pastor's favorite reading while in seminary. In this environment, no one is taught to respect (and revere) the name of the Lord as it should be respected (and revered) because no one even understands the name of the Lord.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you may not believe that blaspheming the name of the Lord is a serious matter--after all, I felt that way myself for 15 years--but perhaps if you understood the nature of the Lord, you would think differently. After all, the Bible says that Christ Jesus is "the Word," that He "was with God," and that "He was God" (John 1:1). The Bible also says that through Christ Jesus, "all things were made" and that without Him, "nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3). The apostle Paul, speaking under the revelation of Christ through the Holy Spirit, wrote to the Colossians that Christ Jesus "is before all things" and that "in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). And of course, it is the name of Christ Jesus which is the only means of salvation for the human race.
It is the same Christ Jesus--the same "only begotten Son" of God (John 3:16), the same Christ who was with God in the beginning and who was God (John 1:1-2)--who was part of the Godhead speaking to Moses and to the ancient Israelites at Mount Sinai.
Let that sink in for a moment.
I understand that Christ Jesus was not "begotten" in a sense that we would recognize until the first century A.D., but if He is part of the Godhead, and if He was with God (and was God) at the dawn of creation, then the children of Israel heard His voice as surely as the first century apostles did. And if that is the case, do you think that He looks upon our callous use of His name as something less serious now than it was approximately three thousand years ago?
Ladies and gentlemen, if you feel shame as you are reading this post, it is because the Holy Spirit is convicting you about the importance of choosing your words carefully. Believers in Christ are called to speak the truth, to be kind and gracious to others, and to revere the holy name of the Lord in their speech as well as their actions. I know that some of you out there may have believed that it was okay to use profanity because it enabled you to "relate" to people who were not Christians, but the fact is, people who are not Christians need to see that those who claim the name of Christ also cherish the name of Christ in their hearts--and they need to see that when you adopt Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it means more than simply buying a Bible and going to church every Sunday.
If you revere the Lord, if you really revere the Lord in your heart, then wouldn't you naturally want your speech to reflect that? I know that when I was a nonbeliever, in every case when I knew I was in the presence of a believer in Christ, that person was someone whom I could not imagine swearing, tearing others down with their words, or spitting out the name of the Lord as a curse. There was a holy reverence for the Lord that was exhibited in their every word and action--as if it were part of their very being.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the kind of reverence that convicts the lost and dying of their sins, and it is the kind of reverence that turns unrepentant liars, thieves, adulterers, and murderers into holy men and women of Christ.
So many of us have fallen from a life of true purity in Christ--our words, our actions, our thoughts are so unrepresentative of the character, gentleness, and integrity of the Lord--and when I consider the extent to which my heart, soul, and (yes) mouth betray the committment my wife and I have made to Him, I cannot help but grieve for the abominable lack of heartfelt devotion inside of me. If there is anything, any sin in this world for which believers in Christ need to repent, it is our almost universal disobedience of the Lord's third commandment, and I fear that many of us, when we reach the throne of Christ, will find that we have spiritual blood on our hands.
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