Commenting at...Faith autopsy again

In response to Ben's letter to Jesus.

Dude You are whining. Stop it. Grow up. Man up. You made your bed, now you are laying in it. Sorry it sucks. You shouldn't be disappointed that your utopian view of the church didn't pan out. It's not the view in the Bible anyway. See James 3:1 

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Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ESV

Is James being prescriptive or descriptive? I think the greater judgment is to be expected regardless. You betrayed the trust of dozens of people who gave you their money as a gift unto God. You aren't a chief sheep. You were their under-shepherd and took advantage of one of the sheep. You aren't safe to the flock bro. You turned wolfy. Your hunger was more important than your flock. 

Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ESV

The ESV study note points out "Maintaining the earlier balance of not judging (vv. 1–5) yet not being naively accepting (v. 6), Jesus teaches his disciples that they must be wisely discerning when professed prophets come into their midst. The life of the prophet and the results of his influence on others are the fruits that will indicate whether or not his message is consistent with the kingdom life of righteousness. fire. The only thing bad trees are good for is firewood, a striking metaphor of the future judgment for false prophets"

But back to James 3:1 . John Gill writes loquaciously but it's all good regarding this verse.

My brethren, be not many masters The apostle having dispatched the subject of faith and good works, which constitute the pure and undefiled religion mentioned in ( James 1:27 ) which gave rise to this discourse, he proceeds to consider the evidence of a religious man, suggested in ( James 1:26 ) who is one that bridles the tongue; and enters into an account of the use and abuse of the tongue: and which is introduced by this exhortation; and which seems to be opposed to an affectation among the Jews, to whom James writes, of being called "Rabbi, Rabbi", or "Mori, Mori", master, master, condemned by Christ, ( Matthew 23:8, Matthew 23:10 ) . The words may be rendered, "be not many teachers"; or be not fond, and forward, and ambitious of being preachers of the word, but rather choose to be hearers of it, agreeably to the advice in ( James 1:19 ) , "be swift to hear, slow to speak"; not but that the office of a teacher is a good work, and a very desirable one; and spiritual gifts, qualifying for it, are to be coveted with a view to the glory of God, and the good of souls; and to have many teachers is a blessing to the churches of Christ and a large number of them is often not only proper, but absolutely necessary: but then this office should not be entered upon without suitable gifts, a divine mission, and a regular call by a church; and when entered into, should not be performed in a magisterial way, as lords over God's heritage, and as claiming a dominion over the faith of men, but as helpers of their joy, peace, and comfort; nor according to the commandments of men, but according to the oracles of God. Or it may be, this exhortation may have respect to censorious persons, rigid and severe reprovers of others, who take upon them, in a haughty manner, to charge and rebuke others for their faults; reproof for sin ought to be given; sin should not be suffered upon the brethren; to reprove is not blameworthy, but commendable, when it is done in a right manner, with a good spirit, and to a good end: in case of private offences, it should be privately given, and for public ones, men should be rebuked before all; but then this ought to be done in a gentle manner, and in a spirit of meekness; and when it is a clear case, and plain matter of fact, and which ought not to be exaggerated and aggravated; mole hills are not to be made mountains of, or a man be made an offender for a word, or a matter of human frailty; and reproof should be given by persons not guilty of the same, or worse crimes, themselves, and always with a good end; not to screen and cover their own vices, or to be thought more holy and religious than others, or to satisfy a 

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revengeful spirit, but for the glory of God, and the restoring of the person that has 

sinned. Knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation: should men enter into the office of teaching others without a call, or perform it negligently, or live not according to the doctrine they teach others, such would be judged out of their 

own mouths, and by their own words, and their condemnation would be aggravated; and should men judge rash judgment, they themselves will be judged at a higher tribunal; and should they be too censorious, and bear too hard on others, they will have judgment without mercy.

Can your gifts still be used by God? Certainly. Perhaps in a venue you never thought of, like the

end of Robert Duvall's movie, The Apostle, 1997. Your sin has closed one door, but God is very creative.

God is good (which is why he forgives you as do many in your offended spiritual family) 

jpu

Justice for American Indian nations

One thing I like about the Obama administration is his attempts to dealjustly with American Indian tribes. One example of this is a recent settlement with the nations to settle royalty payments for century old leases, see story at Buffalo Post. The AP story includes this important context and information, 

Under an agreement announced Tuesday, the Interior Department would distribute $1.4 billion to more than 300,000 Indian tribe members to compensate them for historical accounting claims, and to resolve future claims. The government also would spend $2 billion to buy back and consolidate tribal land broken up in previous generations. The program would allow individual tribe members to obtain cash payments for land interests divided among numerous family members and return the land to tribal control.
The settlement also would create a scholarship account of up to $60 million for tribal members to attend college or vocational school.
If cleared by Congress and a federal judge, the settlement would be the largest Indian claim ever approved against the U.S. government – exceeding the combined total of all previous settlements of Indian claims.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that the Indian plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million, a fraction of the $47 billion or more the tribes have said they are owed for leases that have been overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.

If you click on the "Native American" tag on the bottom of this post, you will find many stories about how the European invaders took advantage of the tribes. No one, including myself, believes the indigenous people were clueless dupes, but the Christian invaders rarely let their faith interfere with making money. That's still true today. I am glad my government is attempting to correct historic wrongs. I hope Congress and the judge approve this settlement.

How not to respond to homosexuals. Uganda's genocidal bill

If Ugandans consider their country "christian" but believe gays are enemies, than Christ tells them to love their enemies and pray for them. Instead, they are reading a bill in their parliament at this time to execute homosexuals. There are plenty of news links to be read at the gayugandan. I first learned about it from Warren Throckmorton. There is also a Facebook group to learn more about it. I agree with gayuganda, this is genocidal. This is nothing but demonic. Please pray.

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What's the big deal with "sexual morality" and the church?

1 Corinthians 6 sums up directly, what the entire Bible is pointing towards for the New covenant believer in Jesus, in regards to our sexual expression, and it's restrictive.

6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, 6:10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 6:11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 6:12 “All things are lawful for me” – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything. 6:13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.” The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 6:14 Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power. 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 6:16 Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 6:17 But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with him. 6:18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body” – but the immoral person sins against his own body. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 6:20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

I discussed some of these sins before in my series on church discipline. Here is the fornication post. I linked the words referring to homosexuality to the translaiton notes in the NET Bible. 

Christians are not perfect, just forgiven. So the unrighteous who won't inherit the kingdom of God are going to hell, vv.9-10. But what about those Christians who practice these things? Paul indicates that these things need should not be our present condition. They might be part of our past, but if we engage in these behaviors, then we need to turn away from them and make them our past. v. 11. Being washed, might refer to their baptisms, which symbolizes many concepts at once, resurrection, cleansing, washing, repenting. I'm not sure Paul is arguing for an order for sanctification and justification after baptism, but I do think they are related, in that the baptism demonstrates outwardly what has happened inwardly. To be sanctified is to be made holy. To be justified is to be delivered from the consequence of our sin. The delivered, holy Christian who has proclaimed his adoption into God's family by baptism has been set free from all these sins.  If we've been set free, why re-attach the chains? 

The chains feel good. They are familiar. We learned to live with the restrictions and sensations they gave us. It's hard to live in freedom. It's hard to live spiritually instead of carnally. So then some of us think we are too smart and declare our freedom let's us enjoy those sins. Paul replies, v. 12, that permissible and beneficial are not the same. We have the freedom to stick scissors in our eyes as well. We have the freedom to eat cupcakes for every meal.

But our bodies belong to God. He didn't just purchase our spirits, he bought our bodies, v. 13. He is for our bodies. He made our bodies. He knows what is best for our bodies, especially, Paul points out, regarding sexual expression. We know that our physical bodies matter to God because he will raise them up from the grave one day, v.14. 

Jesus affirms marriage in the gospels, Matthew 19:4-6, he frowned on co-habititation outside of marriage in the gospels, John 4:17-18, he expressed his disgust with easy divorce in the gospels, Mark 10:1-12, and he called adultery a sin that should stop in the gospels, John 8:11. Jesus is concerned with our sexual expressions and has laid out the boundaries of acceptable to Him, therefore "moral." Jesus will not do those things he condemns. Adultery and homosexuality are issues for the Corinthian church in particular and the church in general today. Paul says these immoral sexual expressions are wicked because they are equivalent to uniting Christ and wickedness, v. 15. Sex with another person is more than physical, it is spiritual as well. Science can not explain the spiritual oneness that happens in sexual union, but we see its effects. Physical abuse is bad. Sexual abuse is worse. Physical violence is bad. Rape is worse. Pornography is bad, affairs are worse. Sexual immorality damages the soul because sexual union has an ability, given by God, to entwine souls, v.16.

Sex is one of the few physical acts that can compare to the spiritual act of worship, v.17, because it involves the spirit. When sex is engaged with anyone other than your spouse, the image of worship is polluted. Marital sexual union is the uniting of different genders (hetero = other) made best by fidelity. Sexual immorality is something to flee, v. 18. It violates ourselves. And, as Chrisitians, we are indwelt by God's spirit, v. 19. To violate ourselves is to violate God. God paid an incredible price to free us. v.20 

The "Therefore" is important. In light of all this theological and spiritual underpinnings of sex, we are to honor God with our bodies. What we do with our "members" is what we do with God.

What if you are gay? That's where the next chapter 1 Corinthians 7 comes in. 7:8 To the unmarried and widows I say that it is best for them to remain as I am. This in agreement with what Jesus says in the gospels, Matthew 19:11-12. Paul is not ignorant of our God-given sexual desire. He continues, 7:9 But if they do not have self-control, let them get married. For it is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire. Does this allow for gay marriage? Not when you continue reading his discussion of marriage in vv.32-35. 

7:32 And I want you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 7:33 But a married man is concerned about the things of the world, how to please his wife, 7:34 and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the things of the world, how to please her husband. 7:35 I am saying this for your benefit, not to place a limitation on you, but so that without distraction you may give notable and constant service to the Lord.

He does not speak generically of a spouse but of husband and wife. If you are a gay follower of Jesus, your only option is to unite yourself with the Lord (6:17) and make the most of your freedom from concern for a spouse to concern with pleasing God. This is the same for straight belivers who are not married. It's not an impossible life. There are people who are disabled who will never have a sexual union and they are healthy adults, mentally and spiritually. There are believers in Christian minority nations who never find spouses to whom they can be equally yoked, 2 Cor. 6:14-18. There are Christians who choose to remain virgins their entire lives. It is possible to be healthy and not ever express yourself sexually. It's even more possible for the worshipper, who worships in spirit and truth (John 4:24), who understands that sex is a physical metaphor for worship, and knows he or she is only missing the shadow of the reality they already are partaking in.

John Granger on Twilight

I'm happy to report that John Granger, who opened my eyes to the Christian symbolism of Harry Potter, has written a review of the Twilight series at Touchstone. It's a long article, so I don't feel bad sharing a couple paragraphs towards the end of his essay. I disagre with him about the quality of the stories. He calls her "a wonderful storyteller, if no champion stylist." I agee she is no stylist and I'm not sure her storytelling is wonderful. But kudos to John for reading through all the books and starting his article with compliments. As he did with Potter and reading into Rowling's background to see her use of symbols, he does likewise with Meyer and her LDS background. I'd actually like to pull several paragraphs from this essay, but then you would have no incentive to read the entire thing. Please visit his essay at Touchstone. 

This brings us back to the Garden of Eden. As mentioned above, Twilight is a romantic retelling of the story of Man’s Fall presented in the engaging and exciting wrappers of a romance and an international thriller. This may sound like a stretch, but consider the first book’s cover—a woman’s arms holding out an apple—and its opening epigraph—“But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not taste of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17).

This isn’t, however, the story as Moses told it or as Christian saints and sages have understood it. As a Mormon, Mrs. Meyer departs from the traditional Christian understanding of that event, and the nature of her departure appeals to rather than repels her readers.

Christians understand Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God, their “original sin,” or Fall, as the beginning of man’s distance from God, a distance that man could not restore on his own, but that required the incarnation and sacrifice of a divine, sinless Savior to accomplish.

Mormons reject this interpretation. Not only do they hold the Pelagian view that human conscience and free will are sufficient for salvation, but they go a step further, asserting that, not only was the Fall not a bad thing, it was actually a good, even necessary thing for human salvation.

In some streams of Mormon tradition, Adam is, in fact, the finite God of earth (or the Archangel Michael), and Eve is his celestial wife from another planet. The Fall and expulsion from Paradise, according to this view, were necessary in order for Adam and Eve to marry and reproduce. “Celestial marriage” is a core ordinance for Mormon exaltation (salvation), and without the “Fall,” man could not take this important step in his progression from mortality to post-mortal life as a god in the Celestial Kingdom.

This is a remarkable departure from orthodox, creedal Christianity with respect to sexuality and understanding how human beings relate to God. In traditional Christianity, sexual continence is adopted by those who aspire to devote themselves more deeply to the things of God, while in Mormonism, sex within marriage is itself an edifying, even salvific, spiritual exercise. A “single Mormon” is something like a “square circle,” and monastic vocation a sacrilege.

Joseph Smith, Jr.’s doctrines of Eternal Progression and the sufficiency of human will and conscience also break with Christian tradition. Instead of man working in synergy with God to receive and be transformed by his grace, Mormonism advocates a can-do spirit of works, which, if performed in conformity with God’s teachings in the LDS church, will result in one’s drawing ever nearer to God in this life and in the next.

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Here is a representation of the mormon "plan of salvation." I've heard this from the boys on their bikes.

But orthodox theology is much simpler. We are sinful and deserve spiritual consequences four our sinfulness, hell, the 2nd death. But God let his Son, Jesus Christ pay our penalty. All we need to do is turn from our sin and turn to Christ, in effect, consent to be loved.

Lies to reject from Twilight

I have to thank Randy Alcorn for this link to a Wired article on the 20 lessons from Twilight. Here are some that resonate with me as a dad of two daughters.

1. If a boy is aloof, stand-offish, ignores you or is just plain rude, it is because he is secretly in love with you — and you are the point of his existence.
2. Secrets are good — especially life-threatening ones.
3. 1. If a boy tells you to stay away from him because he is dangerous and may even kill you, he must be the love of your life. You should stay with him since he will keep you safe forever.
   2. If a boy leaves you, especially suddenly (while telling you he will never see you again), it is because he

      Cover of Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)

       loves you so much he will suffer just to keep you safe.
   3. When a boy leaves you, going into shock, losing all your friends and enduring night terrors are completely acceptable occurrences — as long as you keep your grades up.
   4. It is extremely romantic to put yourself in dangerous situations in order to see your ex-boyfriend again. It’s even more romantic to remember the sound of his voice when he yelled at you.
   5. Boys who leave you always come back.
   6. Because they come back, you should hold out, waiting for them for months, even when completely acceptable and less-abusive alternative males present themselves.
   7. Even though you have no intention of dating an alternative male who expresses interest in you, it is fine to string the young man along for months. Also, you should use him to fix things for you. Maybe he’ll even buy you something. 
      1. Lying to your parents is fine. Lying to your parents while you run away to save your suicidal boyfriend is an extremely good idea that shows your strength and maturity. Also, it is what you must do.
      2. If the boy you are in love with causes you (even indirectly) to be so badly beaten you end up in the hospital, you should tell the doctors and your family that you “fell down the steps” because you are such a silly, clumsy girl. That false explanation always works well for abused women.
      3. Men can be changed for the better if you sacrifice everything you are and devote yourself to their need for change.
      4. Young women should make no effort to improve their social skills or emotional state. Instead, they should seek out potential mates that share their morose deficiencies and emotional illnesses.

Underground architecture proponent dies

From the top of Malcolm Wells's website.

Macolm Wells
1926-2009

With regret, we report the passing away of Malcolm Wells.

Malcolm passed on Friday, November 27, 2009. Mac wrote his own obituary in advance. You can read it here.

Below is a cartoon of his and his thoughts. I love underground housing.

Biblical heroes or biblical failures?

I've been thinking about the Bible. I tend to do that. 

I've been thinking about the heroes of the Bible. I define heroes as the ones who are mentioned repeatedly in the children's Sunday lessons. When my kids get to grown-up church, they will learn how much those heroes sucked. This is partly why we are reading through the Bible as a family. They need to know there is only one hero. 

God. 

God is the one who constantly has to swoop in and rescue these losers. That's the thing. He always does. What makes God the hero is his grace and mercy. 

Our best efforts to please him are no more than fingerpaintings he hangs on his fridge. We tend to run out of his house and jump in the mud and get covered in poison ivy and ticks and end up getting stuck in a thorn bush, and he is the one who is right there as soon as we cry for help. He brings us inside and cleans us up and washes us and heals us and puts band aids on us and kisses our boo-boos and puts new clothes on us. Most of us get new diapers as well because we are delayed in potty training. 

We don't tire of soiling ourselves. But the good news is that he doesn't tire of cleaning us. 

Compared to dying a death by torture so that he might adopt us, wiping dirty asses and washing dirty faces is his pleasure. It's something he's been doing for thousands of years and he's kept scrapbooks about it, 66 of them are in the Bible. The rest are waiting to be read in heaven.

Missional dime drop

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and

Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." 3 So he told them this parable: 4 "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15


I love this parable. But until yesterday, I didn't realize I was missing out on entire vistas of what Jesus wanted to communicate. I feel dumb. But I am so glad God spoke to me through Ben. Yesterday, I was commenting at Ben's blog, Faith Autopsy, and he said something to me in the comments that finally made the concept of "missional" click for me. In the post Becoming Church for Tyler he wrote in response to me in the comments

Tyler won't go to your church or to the church I was at or any other church -- because he already (thinks he) knows what they think of him... and at some level, he is right. But I don't think the onus is on Tyler... but on the church. If we learn anything from Luke 15, we learn that God is on a search-and-rescue mission and wants us to be also. Missing people matter to God and therefore must matter to the church.
While Tyler does not stay awake at night wondering where he can find a church that will accept him, the church SHOULD BE staying up at night trying to figure out how to reach, connect with, and love people like Tyler. One of the things that makes Christianity totally unique over all other world religions and philosophies is that in all other cases, religion is really about MANKIND IN SEARCH OF THE DIVINE (whatever that may look like in that tradition). But Christianity is explicitly the opposite... what Advent, Christmas and the incarnation tell us is that Christianity is about THE DIVINE IN SEARCH OF MANKIND. That is radical... and it is life-transforming when you get it!
God is searching for and waiting for and longing for Tyler to come home to his Heavenly Father. I believe that Jesus weeps (and maybe even stays up late) because Tyler is missing from the great party... the great banquet. And the banquet is not complete until all those invited are there --- "my house must be full" Jesus says... "compel them to come in!" Luke 14 is as instrumental to our understanding the heart and mission of God as Luke 15 is.
I also believe to the core of my being that Jesus is far more concerned with the fact that Tyler doesn't know how much he is loved unconditionally by his Heavenly Father... that He is missing out on abundant life now... than who he is sleeping with when. Does God care about Tyler's sex life? Yes --- God cares about every aspect of our lives, big and small. But does God care more about Tyler's sex life than Tyler's relationship with God? No way! Yet the church is more obsessed with Tyler's sex life than his relationship with God... more obsessed with it than God is. And I believe that this stuff matters... that not only does the promise of abundant life (John 10:10) hang in the balance, but for Tyler and millions of others, eternity hangs in the balance. And if this is true, how dare we take a "take it or leave it" approach to Tyler. No! The church is responsible and accountable to God for what it is doing to reach Tyler. We should lose sleep over this stuff... we should be dreaming of new ways to do church... we should be praying like we've never prayed and loving like we've never loved...

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A gay friend once brought me to a couple gay bars in New York City to show me his world. Ever since I've longed to somehow engage the mission field in the local gay bars. Ben's refresher for me in theology, that Jesus is in pursuit of the missing ones so should I, has re-awakened that longing.

Twilight and LDS communion

I think the case can be made that for LDS author Stephenie Meyer, Twilight is written within the milieu of Mormonism. Thus, much of its symbolism can be seen to have derived from LDS theology. I think there are many points of contact, too many for one blog post, so I will touch on them, bit by bit.

Let me assert that the vampire Cullen family are the good guys in the series. They may have weaknesses, but overall, they are the best. In fact, Bella Swan practically worships them as well

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as her boyfriend, Eddie [Munster] Cullen.

I think they represent an ideal family to Meyer. Their marble white skin has echoes of LDS theology as well, but that's for another time. One thing that sets the Cullen clan apart from most vampire clans is there "vegetarianism." They abstain from human blood. They derive their sustenance from the blood of predators like grizzlies and mountain lions.

In the first book, they encounter typical vampires who get thirsty when they meet Bella, the human. They proceed to hunt her and the Cullen clan tries to hide and defend her.

In the subsequent books there is trouble with the Vampire elite, the Volturi, in Italy.

Their seem to be three kinds of vampires in the books. The non-humna blood sucking Cullens, the regular human killing blood suckers, and the Italian elite. Humans are a sub-kind.

I learned something new about LDS theology today. The symbols used in LDS sacrament, the equivalent to orthodox communion/eucharist/Lord's supper are bread and water, not wine or grape juice, links 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

All this to say, I think the Cullens represent faithful Mormons, the unenlightened suckers of human blood are the Protestants, and the Volturi, who also suck human blood, are the Roman Catholics. The Eastern Orthodox get no respect. I think Bella represents a potential convert. She also has to make a choice regarding an Indian suitor, a Lamanite.

My Mormon friends do not believe I am going to hell. Which is why I ask the "elders" who come to my door to proselytize me "why bother"? I'm simply a less enlightened member of their race, I lack the new revelations of God through their prophets. In fact, in LDS theology, we all live eternally, just that the non-Mormons are stuck on earth. Hell is only for guys like Hitler.

I tell them, however, that Jesus is particular about the conditions for eternal life. He says in his Sermon on the Mount, 13 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7


I tell them that abstaining from alcohol and coffee do not get you into heaven, Jesus does. Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance in the heart, as attested too outwardly in baptism, is the means of entrance. Repent from our sins to our Savior. Simply consent to be loved by God. Our good works flow out of us as the indwelling Holy Spirit works in us and makes us holy. Our good works are a way of demonstrating our gratitude not as a means to reserve our spot in heaven.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Salvation is a gift to be received, not a wage to be earned.

Mormon temple marriages

The LDS church played a role in California's political fight last year against gay marriage. They have taken much heat for this. However, their alternative to gay marriage is a little different from what non-Mormons may assume. A marriage not sealed in their temple as faithful Mormons is temporary, but faithful Mormons can be sealed together for eternity in a temple marriage, from About.com

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Temple Marriage is Forever:

Being married in a temple means being together for all time and all eternity and having an eternal family. When a couple is sealed to each other on earth (with the proper authority) they are also sealed to each other in heaven. Through this sealing power families can be together, after death, in the next life. For a marriage to be eternal a couple must be sealed together in God's holy temple and by his holy priesthood power, if not their marriage will only be "until death do you part."

"The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally" (The Family paragraph 3).

(Also see D&C 132: 18.)

They do allow for divorce, though, through another church ceremony.

Orthodox Christians hold to "until death do you part" because of the teaching of Jesus. In a direct answer to a direct question about marriage in heaven Jesus responds, "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven." Mark 12:25 There are a few different LDS responses to this difficulty.

The stakes are much higher in Mormonism. A temple marriage is one of the necessary components to attaining the highest level of heaven, the celestial. Single Mormons can't have this aspiration, but can only hope to be angelic servants of eternally sealed Mormon families.

Those who choose to remain single or do not enter into the covenant of celestial marriage while on earth are no longer in obedience to God or to LDS authorities. They will not advance to Godhood, but will be given menial tasks as angels for all eternity. "Many who practice celibacy do so out of an excessive religious devotion and with the idea in mind that they are serving their Maker. In reality, they are forsaking some of the most important purposes of their creation…" (Mormon Doctrine pg. 119). "Therefore, when they are out of the world they… are appointed angels in heaven… to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. For these angels did not abide my law" (Doctrine and Covenants 132:16-17).

We have to wonder, then, about the Apostle Paul or even Jesus Himself. Are they nothing more than "ministering angels" because they remained single here on earth? This would seem to be the case. However, to avoid this difficulty, LDS leaders have taught that both of them were married. In fact, some even taught that Jesus was a polygamist. See Journal of Discourses 1:345, 2:82, 4:259; The Seer, p.172.

[From MRM.]

Again, evidence assumed as not needing explanation for orthodox Christians, needs post-New Testament counter claims provided by LDS apostles.

One of the difficulties this also creates is that only Mormons in good standing are allowed to attend a temple ceremony. Unlike an orthodox Christian wedding in which anyone can come and observe, LDS ceremonies are private. This can create family strife if the parents of a bride or groom are not LDS, as explained here by an orthodox dad married to an LDS woman with 2 daughters.

Of all the peculiar policies that represent orthodox LDS positions of faith and practice, this one is perhaps the least known about by those outside of the Mormon Church. Yet this practice, breaking up families on the one day they ought to be most united, is the most barbaric. And the worst part is that those who are not members of the LDS Church too often get blindsided by it; they don't understand until it is too late to do anything.

Another story here and here. In hindsight, some Mormon couples regret the exclusivity of the ceremony and have public re-commitment ceremonies. See stories here.

The Apostle Paul speaks of marriage as a mystery. In Ephesians 5:31-33 he writes, 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. While Mormonism seems to make marriage an end, orthodoxy sees it as a means to an end, a foreshadowing of Christ's relationship to his church, also called his bride. The importance in perspective is well written in a new book called Raising Purity.

Herein, then, lies the significance of sex and marriage—not what it accomplishes on an earthly plane but what it images forth on a divine plane. It is not an end in itself; it is a type of something higher, pointing to the deeper reality of the gospel. Just as sex establishes a new union between a man and a woman and explains the shared life that follows, so too the indwelling of the Holy Spirit marks a new union between Christ and the Christian and accounts for the life-change that follows. Just as a husband and wife “become one” physically, Christ and the Christian “become one” spiritually (1 Corinthians 6:17). The New Testament’s many references to the church as the “bride” of Christ and to Christ as the “bridegroom” further highlights this parallel between earthly and heavenly union. Additionally, many of Christ’s parables use the wedding motif as an illustration of his return and consummate union with the church. And Revelation explicitly refers to the wedding of the Lamb and the church as inaugurating the dawn of the eternal age (see also Matthew 25:1–13; Revelation 19:7; 21:2, 9; 22:17).

It’s important to remember which came first in God’s mind; God did not pattern the divine marriage after human marriage, but rather human marriage is a foreshadowing of the divine marriage. The fact that the oneness of sex images forth the oneness of our spiritual relationship with Christ is not merely a happy coincidence. Just as God ordained the Passover lamb of the Old Covenant to prophetically witness to the coming sacrifice of Christ, so too God ordained human marriage to testify to the coming wedding supper of the Lamb.

This inadequate theology of marriage from Mormonism is one of many nails in its coffin of theological inanity. Some in Mormonism recognize these inconsistencies and follow logic into orthodoxy, but some leave God altogether. I pray the seeds I sow with the Mormon elders who come to my house blossom into a correct and saving faith.

book report: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

What would drive me, strong, brave, intelligent, to read the superficial, thick, vapid teen novel, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer? Was it because I happen to enjoy romance novels? Is it because I

Cover of Twilight (Twilight, Book 1)

can't resist a loquacious, materialistic, vapid author who never met a noun with multiple adjectives she didn't like? Did I long to re-live the emotional quagmire of adolescence from a dysfunctional, emotionally unstable, female viewpoint?

No. No.

Rather, I happen to parent a young adolescent daughter who has a voracious appetite for novels after cutting her teeth on Rowling's Harry Potter series over and over again. She is perpetually in search of something equal to Rowling's opus in the adolescent market. A popular 500 page novel based on the occult life of a teen girl in high school has come onto her radar, mostly due to the cinema success and a few breathless recommendations by her fellow readers.

Therefore, I decided to preview the book to see what repercussions I might face after she reads it. I have been able to parlay this carrot into a couple prerequisites. Although she was too young to be forced to read Dickens before reading Rowling, now she is old enough to read proper romantic literature before getting her hands on this potboiler. Before I even opened this book, I had her read Shakespeare's famous play of impossible adolescent love, Romeo and Juliet. She actually had great fun with that by enlisting her younger sister to read out lines with her. Sadly, she finished R and J in an evening. Meanwhile, I was starting to swing my machete through the adjectival thicket blocking the thinness of storyline in Meyer's book. The main human character, Bella Swan, mentions losing herself in Austen and Bronte novels, a form of simultaneous homage and penance by the author. Since Meyer is trying to stand on their shoulders, I have also required my dear daughter to also read Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights. Not only did I have to bide time, but I realized I needed to inoculate her from a possible case of enthrallment with poor writing. I may be able to get her to read Count Dracula after the fact. She is commendable, because she will read these. For someone not so eager to read, I'd recommend Superman comic books. Maybe, if Twilight were a graphic novel, it would be more interesting as Clark Kent and Lois Lane recast with Kent in anger management classes. Or maybe if Lane started dating the Incredible Hulk, and the threat of domestic violence hangs by a thread over the story line.

In case you missed it, I'm concerned with Meyer's abuse of adjectives. I hold her editor as an accomplice, equally guilty. I sincerely believe, the book would be 150 pages shorter if every mention of vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen did not require a minimum of 3 adjectives ranging from gorgeous and Adonis-like to radiant and unnaturally strong. It is only by the ad nauseum

Image by Ezyan Y. via Flickr

repetition that I know for sure his breath is so good he should do ads for Tic-Tac and his pecs are so massive that no shirt can hide his hot-ness. I feel awful for the actor portraying Eddy in the films. What a disappointment he must be to all those who imagined the lithe and powerful stud in the book. For awhile, I could excuse this because a vampire's victim is supposed to be irresistibly attracted to the blood sucker, but this wasn't the case when she met a "bad" vampire. This leads me to conclude the author has a bad crush on a character of her own creation. That grosses me out. What concerns me as a father of a future reader of this book is the infatuation with the superficiality of the star struck. Unlike the classic romantic stories, the lust leads to love. In the classics, the lust-er learns, often the hard way, that a cover is never enough to judge the contents. Rarely do covers and contents align among humankind, neither in vampire-kind either. However, in Meyer's vampire world, the gorgeous creature is perfect. Everything he does, makes her heart flutter. She even faints when he kisses her. It was one of many times when I spoke out loud to the book, "STOP THAT." They have electricity. I know this because I'm told it several times.

But I don't want my daughters to fall in love with men who acknowledge they might kill them in a moment of weakness. That is a serious character flaw which no amount of physical perfection can compensate for. Bella is a fool for lust, not a fool for love. In fact, she wants him to poison her blood so she can be like him. I want a story about him laying down his immortality to be with her. Wait. I think that has been done before.

Let me slip in the gospel for a second.
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21
and"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit," 1 Peter 3:18
I want my daughters to marry men who live to die for them, like their Savior did.

To be honest, I hated Austen and the Bronte sisters as well. Romantic literature bores me. Nothing happens. At least Meyer does well in emulating this feature of the genre. Finally, by page 400, something interesting happened. Some bad vampires, gorgeous but bad, showed up. For 50 pages, I enjoyed turning the pages. My son wants to know if he can read the book as well. I told him there were 50 pages he might like. For the first time in my life, I would be content with my kids simply seeing the movie instead of reading the book. Usually, after seeing movies of books they have read, they complain that so much was left out in the silver screen version. I remind them that they needed more than two hours to read the book, they can only have two hours of movie. I suspect, Twilight, the movie, boils down Twilight, the novel, to what it should be. I can hope anyway.

I might have to read the rest of the books in the series, so I can discuss them with my dear children with informed opinions, but my hope is they will realize the dullness of the writing and instead long for well-written classics. However, if they don't realize it, then I will have to keep reading and groaning. Hopefully, they will think, "He sounds just like Mr. Rochester's first wife, going insane in the attic." If you don't understand that reference, then you better read Jane Eyre and inoculate yourself from the effluvium from adjectival thickets falsely praised as award winning writing titled Twilight.

Stem Cell Research Facts

Great new website on the successes of non-neonatal stem cell treatments.

Nearly everyone inside and outside of the medical and scientific community agrees that stem cell research represents one of the most exciting and promising frontiers for treating people with a myriad of diseases and conditions. Stem cell research and treatments represent perhaps mankind's greatest opportunity to fulfill that ancient call to "heal the sick," relieve suffering and improve the quality of life for untold millions of people.

This website provides scientific facts and concise information for those of us who are not scientists, researchers or medical professionals. You will learn answers to questions like ..."Who is benefitting from stem cell research and therapies today?" and "What types of stem cells are working?" In addition, basic questions such as "What is a stem cell?" "Why do we need stem cell research?" are answered.

Shed and Shelter

This site, Shed and Shelter, rocks! It puts to shame everything I've linked to on this blog in the "houses" category. My favorite part of his site, is the temporary shelters. My new favorite, from his page, is Intershelter.

At the bottom of his page, I saw he also had a beach cruiser bike page. I hang my head in defeat. I don't hold a candle to his sites. What an excellent resource.

book report: Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart; part 7

This is the last quote from Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart. I don't think his "prediction" is anymore than an observation of cultures that have already entered a post-Christian phase.

It may well be that, when Christianity passes away from a culture, nihilism is the

Cover via Amazon

inevitable consequence, precisely because of what Christianity itself is. Once, ages ago, the revolution that the gospel brought into the ancient world discredited the entire sacred order of the old religion. Christianity took the gods away, subdued them so utterly that, try though we might, we can never really believe in them again. The world was in one sense demystified, even as it was imbued with another kind of sacramental splendor. And so powerful was the new religion's embrace of reality, and so comprehensive and pervasive its effects, that even the highest achievements of antique pagan wisdom were easily assumed into its own new intellectual, aesthetic, and ethical synthesis. When, therefore, Christianity departs, what is left behind? It may be that Christianity is the midwife of nihilism precisely because , in rejecting it, a people necessarily rejects everything except the bare horizon of the undetermined will. No other god can now be found. The story of the crucified God took everything to itself, and do - in departing - takes everything with it: habits of reverence and restraint, awe, the command of the Good within us. Only the will persists, set before the abyss of limitless possibility, seeking its way - or forging its way - in the dark. pp.229-230

I believe that, since nihilism is so unsatisfying, the craving for the transcendent that religion provides is so undeniable that a cycle always ensues for a culture that goes from atheism to moralistic therapeutic deism to shamanism and animism back to Christ. But that does not mean each person in the culture goes through that cycle. Many people will be in the stage that many people are in. The outliers will be the ones who believe in the unpopular. I think Christ is always unpopular with the self-satisfied. It is those who recognize their weakness and brokenness without shame, in biblical terms, the "humble," who God heals. The proud, who shake their fists at a God they don't believe in, He leaves alone to their misery.

Christian rock industry conspiracies

A friend of mine likes to share on Facebook videos of the Christian hair metal we used to listen to 20 years ago. I think all hair metal videos are embarrassing these days but the more egregious part is how much they emulated/imitated/ripped off the sound of secular bands. He posted one video of Iron Maiden's and that of another Christian band that sounded just like them, showing the obvious rip-off.
I responded that I wanted the Maiden sound without the devil worshiping of the other guys. It turns out, they didn't do any devil worshiping. But I didn't find this out for years. I just believed the information fed to me by traveling church authorities who wrote books and gave lectures and played albums backwards to convince kids like me, and our parents, that the rock and roll industry was conspiring with Satan to bring us to hell. Certainly, many bands do sing mostly about the pleasures of the carnal life, but that's not the same as advocating devil worship. And I'm not saying that listening to songs that exult in sex, drugs, and rock and roll without ceasing won't have their effect.
However, I wonder if we weren't punked by the christian music industry. Those companies were making money by finding a market niche and hardening it by driving a wedge that might not have been truthful, nor Christ-like. In fact, did they become, and make us, as un-Christ-like as the music they,wrongly, condemned?

book report: 5 Cities that Shaped the World by Douglas Wilson

I received this complimentary copy from Thomas Nelson for my review. Douglas Wilson is a very smart guy, in fact, he and Christopher Hitchens took their atheism debate on the road and made a documentary about it called Collision. When I saw a new book of his out, 5 Cities that Ruled the World, I looked forward to reading it. But it wasn't what I expected. He enjoys sharing vignettes from the histories of Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York, and, with the exception of New York, how Christianity affected and was affected by the cultures of those cities. The New York outlier makes this book read more like a collection of essays than a coherent whole. None of the essays follow a common pattern, in regards to what makes each city a ruler of the world. None of the essays make an argument for the superiority of each city over it's contemporary pretenders. The assertions he includes offer a curious distraction to what he leaves out. I don't find it helpful for him to assume the American adventures of the ancient Phoenicians, nor his knowledge of the actual identity of William Shakespeare. If read as a collection of essays without expectation of a unified argument from Wilson, then the book is easier to appreciate.

Review: A Weekend to Remember by Family Life

"Love like you mean it" is the slogan for Family Life's weekend marriage seminar called A Weekend to Remember, WtR. Every year, couples from my church go to this conference. As a family with 3 children, finances and housesitters don't come easy. But this year we started supporting a friend of mine going on staff with Family Life, Brian Winkler, go to his website and support him here, and we received hugely discounted passes to a WtR conference. So we committed. We are glad we did. If nothing else, we were glad to get away, eat at a nice restaurant, and enjoy a beautiful and unusually warm Connecticut autumn weekend.

We don't consider our marriage in trouble or on the rocks, but, we reasoned, we aren't perfect and could always use encouragement and reminders on things we may have neglected. We did get good refreshers on communication, expectations, and spiritual communion with each other and our kids.

One of the spiritual disciplines I am weakest at is prayer. I go to prayer groups because I am so bad at it, not because I'm good at it. We were encouraged to be spiritually intimate by praying together. The seminar speakers talked about many dimensions of intimacy, emotional and physical, but the spiritual dimension is where I paid more attention. In the past, we have tried praying together before going to sleep at night, but I was usually guilty of going to sleep while my dear wife prayed. I'm not a prayer warrior, I'm a prayer sluggard. My best prayer posture is in motion. I pray through the Lord's prayer on my bike ride. So we decided we'd pray together on the evening dog walk.

The most stimulating part of the conference for me was the session for men. The speakers focused on our jobs as husbands and fathers. I was struck by the overwhelming disappointment in the room with our fathers. When the speaker, Raymond Causey, asked the room to call out the words they associate with their fathers, none I heard were good. Raymond admitted his own failings as a father, but pointed us to the goal of being like our perfect Father. One thing I came home with is to attempt to pray with my children, not just for them. I've succeeded this year in getting the kids to read through the New Testament this year, one chapter a day. We will try the Old Testament next, with 2 chapters a day. I'm satisfied that they now associate eating breakfast with getting their souls nourished as well. I have always prayed before dinner and I always pray for them when I kiss them good night. But I never pray with them. So since WtR, when I tuck them in, I pray for them and ask them to pray with me for something. I suggest people to pray for or events. They have done so, at my request.

At least for 3 days, the Weekend to Remember has resulted in positive spiritual change in our family. I hope people who come and comment here ask me, months and years from now if we are sustaining. Please ask.

We went to a couple great restaurants suggested by Chef Ben of The Inside Soup, that I hope to review this week, Tapas West Hartford and Shish Kabob Afghanistan of West Hartford.

who is this generation's Steve Taylor?

Periodically, like this morning on the bike ride, I sing Steve Taylor tunes. Who is Steve Taylor, a

Image by smallritual via Flickr

Christian musician from the 1980's with the ministry of a prophet. He wasn't the kind of prophet who predicted anything, other than 1990, but the kind who held a mirror up to the American evangelical church and asked, "What's wrong with this picture, we do not resemble Jesus at all."

This morning I was singing the song I Just Wanna Know from the album pictured here, On the Fritz, released in 1985! I love the end of the song

Search me, Father, and know my heart
Try me and know my mind
And if there be any wicked way in me
Pull me to the rock that is higher than I

I just wanna know
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to you
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

I want my kids to listen to orthodox, prophetic music. As a bonus, I'd like them to hear original music, that doesn't suffer from sounding "just like ...(insert secular band here)." I want them to have songs on their iPods that inspire them 24 years later.

In my middle school Sunday school class just this past week, I told the kids about another Taylor song that speaks volumes to me, Jesus is for Losers, 1993.

Just as you are
Just a wretch like me
Jesus is for losers
Grace from the blood of a tree

Just as we are
At a total loss
Jesus is for losers
Broken at the foot of the cross

Just as I am
Pass the compass, please
Jesus is for losers
I'm off about a hundred degrees

Just as I am
In a desert crawl
Lord, I'm so thirsty
Take me to the waterfall

Taylor creates through video now. God bless him. But the songs will remain so much longer than the images.

Can anyone recommend to me this Christian generation's Steve Taylor?

book report: Atheist Delusions by Hart, part 6

Here is my penultimate quote selection from Hart's Atheist Delusions. Hart does not try to hide the warts of the church. However, while acknowledging the rotten fruit he also notes the fruit of secularism.

In purely arithmetic terms, one cannot dispute the results. The old order [Christianity-jpu] could generally reckon its victims only in the thousands. But in the new age, the secular state, with all its hitherto unimagined capacities, could pursue its purely earthly ideals and ambitions only if it enjoyed the liberty to kill by the millions. How else could it spread its wings? p.223

As I've noted in previous book reports, atheist regimes in the last century made up for lost time with emphasis in the previous century. See my reports on Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, two big time communists, 20-70MM killed by each of the first two and a small player who still managed to wipe out a million of his own people. I've linked to the numbers a few times here and here, as well as talked about the concept of democide before as well. Hart's assertion of compariative body counts is not new. I linked to a previous assertion before.

Why does anyone think, a different atheist state will behave differently than these already have demonstrated? An imperfect church is never as bad as a totalitarian state, not even close. And that's true on so many levels, spiritual, political, freedoms, etc.