Calling the Carnal

In John 2:1-12 we see Jesus first miracle. He turned water into wine. Specifically, he was at a party and they ran out of booze. Jesus took the water in the tubs for purification, a Jewish religious custom, at turned it into wine; literally from holy water to party water. Alcohol at a party is one of the most carnal things I can think of, much more if you took something churchy - say water for a religious custom- and used it to get that alcohol. Yet, that is what God did.

My father was an alcoholic; in fact, he spend months drunk without ever sobering up. He worked on a farm and literally kept himself drunk for unbelievable amounts of time.  He first attended church because of a Thanksgiving day feast being held. Basically, he showed up for free food, as most people who don't have money due to addiction will do. From this starting point, he eventually came to be the man I know, respect, and love. He is now a deacon in the same church that once fed him and his family free of charge.

Carnal things, like turning water into wine or feeding drunkards, may not seem to be the way that we like or would think would draw people, but it is a method Jesus used. He fed crowds, he gave out booze, he was even accused of being a winebibber and a glutton. There is no reason to condemn a method of evangelism that Jesus Himself used; in fact, the method Jesus started His ministry with.

However, the problem with Paul Washer's statement isn't just in ignoring Scripture. It is in assuming that some people are Carnal and some are Spiritual. Everyone one is Carnal. Everyone. God is who makes people Spiritual people. It is only His regenerative work that creates Spiritual people in His image.

The flaw is that Paul Washer believes God made some people Spiritual and some Carnal from birth. He believes if God made you Spiritual, you will be spiritual; and if He made you Carnal, you will be carnal. All Reformed preachers believe this, and that means they believe if a person is Carnal, there is nothing they can do to come to God. This is again not a Scriptural concept. The Apostle Paul (not Washer) clearly states that the Corinthian Church is Carnal, yet he also states that they are Saints. We are to deny our carnality and grow into Spiritually minded Christians, but none, not one, starts out that way.

Basically, this view advocates shoving spiritual "steak" down the throat of every Christian. If they can't handle it, Washer tells us they must not even be Christians. That is the opposite of the truth. Just because a person is a 'newborn' Christian and needs spiritual "milk" doesn't disqualify them from being part of the church or being saved.

There was a group in Jesus time that believed very similar things: the Pharisees. They believed that you had to have complex theories, advanced knowledge, and an exact statement of belief to be saved. Jesus condemned this outright. Ironically, they are the only people Jesus condemned to their faces. Jesus had much less of a problem with Carnal people then he did with people who condemned the Carnal people.

We need to remember that we are not Spiritual in ourselves. God gives us what we have. We have NO RIGHT to condemn people who are at a different place then we are. We can instead do what Jesus actually did: Love them. That's what Jesus did for the Carnal. He loved them. He drank with them. He even provided them with booze.

Is Our God a Violent God?

How do we reconcile Jesus' commands of love and non-violence with the image we have in the Old Testament of war and death? We see that God commands people to commit murder, 1 enact genocide, 2 and He even personally killed thousands of people Himself. 3 He send angels to destroy armies 4 and generally obliterates those who defy Him. 5  Is this a do as I say, not as I do type of situation?

Actually, it is.

God is literally doing something that He tells us not to. He is indeed destroying those who defy Him in the Old Testament. There is a massive death toll in the Old Testament that can be directly attributed to God's divine command, or even His direct action. Yet, Jesus tells us we are not to do so. Jesus, the very God that smote people for thousands of years came down from Heaven to tell us we were not to fight back, we are to love our enemies, and to lay down our lives instead of taking lives.

How can God justify that? How can he tell us not to do something then do it Himself? Well, simple really. Jesus, as God in the flesh, came to show us how to live as submissive servants of God. He showed us what God's desire for man is; that is, how a perfect man should live. A perfect man, a man of God, is a man like Jesus. 6 We are directly commanded to not resist evil or to hate or kill our enemies, ever for any reason. (see this post for details on that subject) 

But back to God's violence. Is it hypocritical for God to command us not to take revenge, yet He avenges Himself? Is it wrong for him to command us to do good to those who seek to kill us, yet He kills those who defy Him? Not at all. We are not God. We are not in God's position. Just as a judge has the right to pronounce sentencing upon criminals and a police officer may exceed the speed limit as needed, God is the ultimate Judge and Law Enforcer. We, his citizens and children, are not. Parents may do things, a great many things, that they forbid their little children from doing. It would be foolish to allow a three year old child to drive, set bedtimes, or operate any machinery. It's not hypocrisy for them to forbid it, it is love and wisdom. 

In the same way, God forbidding us from enacting violence, and instead commanding us to love at all times and at all costs is not hypocrisy. It is instead wisdom. He sees the heart; He knows the situation. We do not. He is the Father and we are His children. He has the full right to enact His Judgement while commanding us to not do so.

So do Jesus' commands of love and non-resistance ignore the Old Testament? No. We see that Jesus Himself will come to judge the world in the end. He will bear His sword eventually. However, we are commanded not to do that ourselves. We are commanded instead to be salt and light; to give life, not to take it.

In the end, some people would claim that the Anabaptist view of complete non-resistance is ignoring part of God's nature. However, the Anabaptist view of nonresistance is what we know God commanded us to follow; not inherently meaning God cannot do otherwise. We know God has the right to judge and to take life; after all, He is the very Author of it. He can take away because He both gave it and can also give back. We are commanded explicitly to love our enemies, personal and political, all the same. Jesus told us explicitly that His Kingdom was not of this world, which is why His people did not fight, and that holds true today. We are called to be loving examples of God. He will take care of the rest.

Sovereignty and Choices

A friend of mine asked me today if Anabaptists really believe that God didn't 'approve' of the brutal or messy parts of the Old Testament. It's a fair question. I personally believe, as many before me as did as well, that these brutal occurrences were not God's first choice for humanity, even in the kingdom of Israel. We have plenty of examples.

Abel's murder. 

Tamar's rape. 

Israel's entire kingship. 

Prophet's murdered. 

Idol worship in His very own temple.

But doesn't this diminish God's sovereignty? Are we not saying God is then not in control? 

A fair question and a good one. First, what does God have to say?

In the case of Abel, God was clearly displeased that Cain murdered his brother. God punished Cain for this sin. It is clear that God did not approve of this, yet it happened.

In Israel, we see that God did not intend for them to ever have a king other then God Himself. However, Israel rebelled and God consented to give them a king and even bless the line of David. David was never supposed to be king; God had intended for them to keep only Himself as their king, but God still allowed it to happen. Even in this entire existence that was not in accordance with God's original will - this second best option, if you will - God still worked with and through King David.

Why? Isn't God all powerful? Isn't he able to force His will? Of course He is. There is no question as to wether or not God can. The fact of the matter is that He won't. He will not force His will upon us. Because of this, things will happen - like the kingdom of Israel becoming a kingdom, and the various acts of violence that would be entangled therein- that are not God's original plan for the nation. A whole chain of causality happens that affects thousands of years and millions of lives because God allowed human choice. God is not limited by human choices because He cannot act against them; rather because He chooses to truly let us have freewill and all that that entails. 

But does Jesus ever talk about this? Indeed He does. He mentions it specifically in two places in Scripture.  (Luke 13:34 & Matt 23:37 ) Jesus, as Almighty God, tells us plainly that Jerusalem was disobedient to God's Will of its own freewill and that this was allowed. Not only that, but this affected all of history. Jesus makes it clear that this grieves His heart, but that He allows Jerusalem to kill prophets and deny Him because He gave them choice and they chose to do so. 

Frankly, that we can choose to defy God's will and that doing so will cause things to change. These decisions are irreversible, not because God is limited by nature, but because He chooses to limit Himself by choice. This chain of disobedience can cause things to happen that God does not condone or even want to have happen, but He allows them because He has the ultimate Sovereign Power: the ability to grant us, mere humans made of dirt, the awesome power of true choice - Freewill.

Some may protest, saying that God might allow these things, but in the context of the kingdom of Israel God's Will was still His primary Will; meaning that God truly approved of all that Israel was and did, so far as commands, laws, and wars. However, we find again that Jesus disapproved of some of Israel's legal system that He, as God, had given them. When they ask Him about divorce, He makes it abundantly clear that it was not His Will that they even consider divorce, but He allowed it in their law anyway. He directly and clearly states that this was not His original intent and goes so far as to say that divorce in virtually all cases is sin, but it was allowed only due to the fallen nature of Israel.

So if Israel is so full of flaws and failures, where can we turn for an accurate look at what God wants?

Jesus

He is our perfect example. He commands us to be like Himself, and like His Father. We are called to be merciful, to love our enemies, to do good and not evil, and to be holy as He is holy. Jesus was the perfect example that we are commanded to follow; and He didn't leave any of His commands of love and self-denial in vague terms. He clearly states that His Kingdom is not of this world, that His people do not fight, and that we are to carry our crosses and follow Him. He lived in a time that being a political revolutionary would have been approved by the clergy, but He told us to be subservient to our enemies, making no distinction between political enemies or personal ones. He said this in the most literal, simple terms possible, and we believe He meant them literally.

Remembering Robin

Recently, Robin Williams, a famous actor, committed suicide. Suicide is always a tragedy, but what doesn't help is people who want to claim that suicide is an unpardonable sin. I would not ever, ever encourage suicide, but I also do not believe it to be unpardonable. We read in Scripture that the Lord looks at the heart. (I Sam. 16:7) This applies to both good and bad. Suicide can be driven by emotion in a short period of time. Even though it has permanent consequences, it can be something that can happen suddenly. No where in scripture do we find that God says all suicide, or even any suicide is unpardonable. It is a tragedy, and I do not support it at all, but to assume that people go to Hell just for suicide is wrong.

The prophet Elijah, after his great victory over the prophets of Baal, became suicidal. He ran into the woods to hide and asked God to kill him (First Kings 19:1-14) God didn't condemn him for his emotions, but He also didn't honor his request. Feeling out of control is something that happens to everyone, its not wrong or sinful, its just part of life.

Our Salvation is not based on what we do anyways. We are saved, not by our works, but by God's grace. We are saved by coming to God and asking Him to save us, to fix us, because we cannot. We are not perfect, nor can we be. God knows this, thats why Jesus came to save us and to make us perfect again. That is part of what Heaven is all about. It is about being with God in His wonderful Holiness.

So did Robin Williams go to hell for committing suicide? Absolutely not. I don't know if Robin knew God, or how his relationship with God was. But let me tell you this, God isn't some upset old dude in heaven trying to figure out how to send us all to Hell. He isn't making up weird rules to confuse us into making a mistake and being condemned. Instead, God loves us, He loves you. He DIED for you, thats how much he loves you. God wants you in Heaven, but you have to come to Him and admit that you can't be good enough for heaven without His help. We need to repent and turn to God. He will take care of you. God is a loving God, who wants to help His children. However, we need to come to Him, He will not force Himself upon anyone.

Debating and Defending

This week Bill Nye and Ken Hamm had a very public debate over the issue of Evolution vs Creation. Although I would personally have an opinion and feel strongly on the subject, I do not agree with the concept of debating the issue in front of people like this. Neither side came to listen to the other, nor did anyone expect to hear anything that would really make people reconsider. No, the point was to try and destroy or humiliate the other side.

Can there be a correct answer to the argument? Is there really a way to convince people through this type of showmanship? Honestly, I don't know. There was once a time I would have supported and defended this type of public debate. However, the longer I look into it, the more I realize that these debates are rarely about convincing people so much as they are about proving that one is the superior intellectual, the smarter or wittier orator. While skilled oration is all well and good, we as Christians are not supposed try to stroke our own egos by humiliating our opponents. We are called to love them, not destroy them. We are to be examples of love, not wit. As much as I value reasoning myself, that is not our main calling; instead we are to lead by example, like Christ Himself did.

We are called to defend our faith, not assault everyone in earshot. We are to love, not only in word or concept, but in deed and interaction. Our calling to make disciples of all people does not mean we need to meet their intellectual needs first. In fact, though it may be ancillary, it is not a primary concern. We are to come to God, not because we think that He created the world in 7 days, but because we realize our fallen and sinful state before God. That is our concern. God's Holiness and our rebellion. We are called to lead people to repentance, not to some scientific epiphany. Even if everyone was convinced that Ken Hamm was correct and they became Creationists, that would not make them inherently saved. We come to God because He is worthy, and we need Him. We are fallen before Him and we need His Grace. That is our calling, our mission. Our scientific beliefs fall in a distant second at best to this primary goal. That is why I would not support Ken Hamm's debate; not because I disagree with his Creationist view, but because that has become so very important to him. Our first concern should always be the condition of men's souls, not their intellectual bias.

The Power of Choice

We all have choice. This awesome gift from God we call freewill is a mind boggling conundrum form many Theologists. The question many of them ask is this, "Since God choose to give us choice, then aren't all of our decisions really just the ones He allows us to make?" While at first this may make some sense, it is like saying if your parents hadn't chosen to have you, you would not have the choice to disobey them, therefore you aren't to blame, your parents are. This is complete hokum. We all know that a child can choose to obey or disobey a parent of their own freewill. Similarly, we try to blame God at times as well. We want Him to take the blame for our shortfalls and our laziness when really we are just trying to find an excuse to do what we desire.

So is God at fault for giving us freewill? Not at all. The fact that God is truly omnipotent means that He can indeed create beings with the power to reason and choose for themselves. This is what he elected to do with us. He choose to allow us to choose. Without His choice we couldn't make ours, but that does not mean He takes away our choice. It really is quite the opposite. With that choice that some see as limiting we have the power to make true choices. God makes specific references to these choices in the Bible and even mourns for the poor choices of His people.

In closing, these are the words spoken to God's people. Joshua24:14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Clean Slate

“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth.” -Ecclesiastes 12:1a

Clean Slate?

 We often hear the new year referred to as a clean slate. Nothing has happened yet and we could, apparently, do or become anything we want if we just work hard enough. People make New Years’ Resolutions and talk about all the changes they are going to make. As pretty and nice as this sounds, is it really true? Is the New Year a clean slate? I don’t know about you, but even after New Years’ Day my life was pretty much the same. I had the same family, same job, same friends, and even the same name. So it seems like things don’t really all reset on January 1st every year, but it is a good time to look at the choices we made last year and see where they will lead us in the upcoming year.

Choices and Consequences 

When I was a kid, I remember the year that we switched from 1999 to 2000. Everyone was sure are the computers would shut down since they kept dates in a MM/DD/YY setup and some computers would erase their data or it would be rendered unreadable because the computers didn’t register 99 as after 00. They we sure the world would end and we would be thrown into apocalypse. Some people made some very foolish decisions in December of 1999 because they thought that the end was near. As it turned out, a couple of computers did have some glitches, but with programmers working around the clock, all in all things worked out fine. 

The choices we make, both those that we made last year and those that we will make this year, have permanent consequences. The choices we don’t make have consequences as well. Every year, every day, has choices that cannot be undone, and we need to realize that we don’t have a ‘clean slate’ to reset things when we mess up. There is forgiveness, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t deal with consequences. Samson repented of his drinking and womanizing, and God did forgive him, but Samson remained blind. David was forgiven for his sin with Bathsheba, but their first son still died. 

The teen years are very important times for making choices. The habits that you pick up now will be carried throughout your entire life. The years from 13-20 are some of the most habit forming years of your entire life. 45% of teenagers who start drinking alcohol at 13-14 years of age will become alcoholics. FORTY FIVE PERCENT! Think about that. No one looks at an alcoholic and says, “thats who I want to be.” Instead, the choices people make at your age lead them there. 

This doesn’t just apply to alcoholism, it is just one of the easy things to measure. This applies to all sin in our lives. If you choose to do it today, it will be harder to choose differently tomorrow. Thankfully though, this doesn’t just apply to sin, but also to the good habits you form now as well. Do you memorize Scripture? Good, that will stay with you a long time. Do you read and meditate on God’s Word? That habit is one that will stay with you. Do you spend time alone with God in prayer? If you make it a priority now, it will stay with you. The choices you make this week, today, and even tonight can stay with you for a lifetime.

Make Decisions Ahead of Time 

The Supreme Court's leading case on the use of deadly force is Tennessee v. Garner. In that 1985 opinion, the court invalidated a state force statute in a civil suit where a burglar was fatally shot in the head while trying to escape over a backyard fence. The Supreme Court said the use of deadly force in these circumstances constituted an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. The court gave guidelines for evaluating the constitutionality of the use of deadly force in any given case, which would include situations in which "reflex fire" is directed at the suspect.*

The court first defined the circumstances under which the use of deadly force would be considered unconstitutional:

"Not withstanding probable cause to seize a suspect, an officer may not always do so by killing him. Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. A police officer may not seize an unarmed, non-dangerous suspect by shooting him dead."

Then, Garner set forth examples of circumstances in which deadly force could constitutionally be used: "Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. Thus, if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, where feasible, some warning has been given."*

People do terribly under pressure. In that case in 1985 the police officers had only a split second to decide what to do with the escaping criminal. In that short timeframe, they shot and killed him. Pulling a trigger is easy, knowing when is not. This is why we train police officers and military. DRILL, DRILL, DRILL. Under pressure people may freeze, panic, or attack. Practice and study help soldiers and officers to handle the unexpected. As Christians, we need to drill as well. Temptation rarely comes when we want it to or when we have time for it. Instead, it comes when we aren’t ready, when we don’t have a plan. We need to prepare for these situations.

It's not uncommon to hear or read about officer-involved shootings where multiple officers emptied their loads into the suspect and anything within 10 feet of him. Asked about why they opened fire, bystander officers may reply, "When another officer started shooting, I just reflexively started shooting, too."

Sometimes referred to as "sympathetic fire" or "contagious shooting," this phenomenon can have implications not only for officer and public safety, but also for public relations, internal discipline, civil liability, and even potential criminal prosecution.*

Sometimes we do this with sin as well. We see someone else is sinning and we don’t know what to do. Instead of stopping and thinking, we join in. The choices we make in moments like that can be just as permanent and just as deadly to our souls and policemen all opening fire on an unarmed suspect. If the policemen were ready to make a choice, if they had made a choice before they were in the situation, then maybe they would not have all opened fire. 

How to Make Positive Change

King David tells us, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.” PSALM 119:11

This is an important key to making right choices. We must prepare ahead of time. David choose to study God’s Word so that he knew what choices he was going to make. 

Another thing we can do, no matter what age you are, is choose a person you respect and copy their behavior and choices. When I was about 16 a preacher came to our hometown in Kansas and gave us that advice. I respected the speaker greatly and choose to try to copy his speech patterns, behavior, his patience, and even the way he walked. The speaker I choose to copy was a really quiet fellow so I guess I failed in that part, but I do firmly believe that choosing someone we respect and trying to be like them in some ways is a good way to form good habits. Paul told the Corinthian church, “Do as I do, for I am doing as Christ did.” I COR. 11:1

Choosing a Godly role model is an excellent way of forming good habits and making Godly choices. We need to be more like Christ, and sometimes the best way to do that is to follow someone who is doing that already.

Conclussion

A New Year is not a totally clean slate. However, it is a good time to review our choices and change some of them. We will always have places we can improve, the important thing it to remember to do so. In closing, I would like leave you with a few verses out of Galatians chapter 5.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

* from http://www.policemag.com/channel/careers-training/articles/2008/05/reflex-fire.aspx