Parchment & Pen Blog

What is the most confusing passage of Scripture? I know, I know, it’s hard to choose. There are a lot of passages that make us scratch our heads. For example, who were the “sons of God” who married the daughters of men in Genesis 6:4? And who were the “men of renown” that were their offspring? Why did God enlist a deceiving spirit in 1 Kings 22:19-23 at his own instigation? Or what does it mean to be “baptized for the dead” in 1 Corinthians 15:29? However, one that has to make the top ten list of almost every Evangelical is when Christ said that he did not know the time of his second coming. We read about it in Matthew 24:36: ”No one knows about that day or hour [of my coming], not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matt. 24:36). I mean, come on . . . I can understand the angels not knowing, but Christ? Christ not knowing anything at all is confusing. How could Christ, being the eternal, transcendent, and omniscient (i.e. he knows everything) not know something? Yet we find these odd times, here and there, where Christ seems to lack information which his omniscience should have provided. Another possible example is when Christ did not seem to know who touched him and was healed (Mark 5:31). Or when he prayed for the cup of suffering, if possible, to pass from him (Matt. 26:39). Or when Luke says that Christ “grew in wisdom” (Luke 2:52). The question is this: how can God be ignorant of something?

Those who deny the deity of of Christ often use this passage in Matthew 24 (and others like it) to say that Christ must not have truly been God. After all, if Christ was God, they would argue, he would have known everything. However, I think that this represents a very common and fundamental misunderstanding of the mission of God in Christ and the relationship between Christ’s divine nature and his human nature.

Now, lets start with a chart!

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Many of you know my love for music. I am not a musician (in any sense of the word!), but music is such a big part of my life. As one poet put it, “You can have the army, you can have the government, give me the music, and I have the people” (if anyone knows the source of that, please let me know).

I have also been somewhat of an outspoken critic of the Christian music industry, believing that it, for the most part is shallow and lacks true representation of three-dimensional humanity (which all music should have). However, Tim Kimberley has been winning me over to some real depth in Christian music. He shares the same concerns as me with mainstream Christian music, but slowly he continues to introduce me to artists who not only do things right, but are incredibly talented.

Josh Garrels is one of those artists. I doubt he would call his music “Christian music,” but I think he may say that he is a “Christian who makes music.” I like that.

The following song is incredible. It is called Ulysses. Creative, emotional, and completely addictive. It is the story of Ulysses’ encounter with the Sirens. It is a timeless story accounting Ulysses’ sea voyage home. The Sirens are half birds half women (often mistakenly seens as Mermaids like in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie) who seduce sailors by their beautiful voice, causing them to crash into the rocks and die. Ulysses desires to hear the Sirens but instructs his men to tie him to the mast of his ship and, no matter what he say, to not let him out of his binds. His men were to plug their ears with wax so that they would be safe. It is a great illustration of temptation and determination to overcome. Listen to it with that in mind and enjoy. (The words are below the player.)

I’m holding on to the hope that one day this could be made right
I’ve been shipwrecked, and left for dead, and I have seen the darkest sights
Everyone I’ve loved seems like a stranger in the night
But oh my heart still burns, tells me to return, and search the fading light

I’m sailing home to you I won’t be long
By the light of moon I will press on
Until, I find, my love

Trouble has beset my ways, and wicked winds have blown
Sirens call my name, they say they’ll ease my pain, then break me on the stones
But true love is the burden that will carry me back home
Carry me with the, memories of the, beauty I have known

I’m sailing home to you I won’t be long
By the light of moon I will press on

So tie me to the mast of this old ship and point me home
Before I lose the one I love, before my chance is gone
I want to hold, her in, my arms

Considering how the issues of prophecy continue to be one of the most popular and interest gaining subjects in theology (not to mention this being the year 2012!), I thought it well worth my time to write a short primer on how to look at eschatological schemes. Eschatology refers to the “doctrine of the end times.” To be sure, there is no one “Christian” eschatology. In fact, there is not even one “Evangelical” eschatology. The history of the church has seen and allowed for much diversity concerning these issues due, in my opinion, to the relative obscurity of the Scripture on the subject. The central issue that is agreed upon by all orthodox Christians over the last 2000 years is that in the last days, Christ will come, there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a judgment to follow. Please keep that in mind.

The doctrine of Trinity is a foundational cardinal truth in Christianity. All three major Christian traditions, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, throughout the history of the Church have been united on this doctrine. A denial of it constitutes a serious departure from the Christian faith and a rejection of the biblical witness to God as he has introduced himself to us. Sadly, many go  astray from the faith due to their refusal to accept these truths. It is my purpose to give a brief “nutshell” overview of the doctrine.

Basic Definition: Christians worship one God who eternally exists in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all of whom are fully God, all of whom are equal.

Now lets break each of these down.

One God:

Christians are monotheists. This doesn’t merely mean we worship only one God, but that we believe that there exists only one God. This is a basic teaching throughout the Bible (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 44:6; Isa. 45:5; Mark 12:29; 1Tim. 2:5; 1Cor. 8:4).

While this finds support in the Bible, the very definition of God demands that there only be one. In other words, “God” is not just who you pray to or to whom you ascribe great worth or value, but the transcendent creator of all things (Heb. 11:3). Romans 1:18-20 informs us that natural theology and rational thinking necessarily demand that their be a singular source for all things. Polytheism (which is the belief in many gods) must redefine the term “god” to mean simply “really powerful beings” since there cannot be many ultimate creators of all things. There can only be one Uncaused Cause, only one Unmoved Mover, and only one Uncreated Creator. God is the only non-contengent (not dependent) being in the universe. Therefore, his essence is necessarily one.

Eternally exists as three persons:

Christians do not believe in contradictions or logical fallacies. Rational thinking and harmony of truth are found in the essence of God’s being, therefore, God cannot exist as a contradiction. Christians do not believe in three God’s for reasons spoken of above. However, we do believe that Scripture has revealed that God, who is one in essence, is three in person. We often talk about this as “one what, three whos.” While this is a great mystery in the Christian faith, there are many mysteries that we are compelled to believe due to necessity and what has been revealed in Scripture. For example, we believe that God created all things out of nothing (Heb. 11:3; doctrine of creation ex nihilo). We believe that God is the sovereign first cause of all things, yet man is morally responsible for his actions. We believe that while Christ was complete in his humanity, he also remained complete in his deity (often called the “hypostatic union”). We believe that the Bible is the product of humans and the product of God. None of these, including the doctrine of the Trinity, are contradictions, but they are great mysteries.

While the Bible does not use the word “Trinity”, we believe that it is an accurate description of what the Bible teaches concerning God. After all, the Bible does not use the word “Bible” but we understand that we can legitimately use the word to describe a collection of books we believe to be inspired. The Bible does not use the word “Aseity” yet we believe that it accurately represents a Biblical attribute of God. God is “of himself” or in no way dependent upon humans for his livelihood (Ps. 50:7-12).

While there are many passages in the Bible which necessitate a Trinitarian understanding of God, there are a few that stand out more than others:

John 1:1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.” (NET) Continue Reading »

My friend Trevin Wax is helping us out as he “Live Blogs” through the Elephant Room. Beyond controversy (at least in the small circles I run in) is how I would describe the invitation of T.D. Jakes to the Elephant Room to discuss spirituality, truth, and theology. He has traditionally been defined as a Modalist theologically. Essentially what this means is that he denies the traditional definition of the Trinity by describing God as one God who shows himself in three different ways. The orthodox definition of the Trinity is that there is one God who eternally exists in three different persons: One what, three whos. Modalism, sometimes described as ”Jesus Only” and sometimes Oneness, to say the least, undermines our understanding of God as he has revealed himself and rapes the Trinity of the eternal relationship upon which so much of our theology is built, understood, and practically lived out.

So, is T.D. Jakes a Modalist? I don’t know. Maybe not (or at least not anymore). Here is some of the stuff that he said that caught my ear:

Jakes: I believe the latter one is where I stand today. One God – Three Persons. I am not crazy about the word persons though. You describe “manifestations” as modalist, but I describe it as Pauline. For God was manifest in the flesh. Paul is not a modalist, but he doesn’t think it’s robbery to say manifest in the flesh. Maybe it’s semantics, but Paul says this. Now, when we start talking about that sort of thing, I think it’s important to realize there are distinctives between the work of the Father and the work of the Son. I’m with you. I have been with you. There are many people within and outside denominations labeled Oneness that would be okay with this. We are taught in society that when we disagree with someone in a movement, we leave. But I still have associations with people in Onenness movements. We need to humble both sides and say, “We are trying to describe a God we love.” Why should I fall out and hate and throw names at you when it’s through a glass darkly? None of our books on the Godhead will be on sale in heaven.

Disclaimer: I have never read any of Jakes’ books. I barely even know his voice as I have not heard him speak much (I think he screams a lot?). I think he sweats almost as much as I do. And I think he wrote a book about losing weight. Oh, and I have heard that he is a modalist. I have even told others this. For this, I am saddened as I might have been spreading misinformation. (Theology teaching 101: if you don’t know for sure, keep your mouth shut.)

If this paragraph were put together by someone else that I have a tradition of following and know is orthodox, it is not too bad. It even has a ”tweetable moment” or two in it! Let me deal with a few things though.

“I am not crazy about the word person”: You know what? Neither am I. It is sufficient, yet in no way exhausting. Anyone who has studied the history of this word “person” in a trinitarian context understands that it never, even in the Latin or Greek (persona, hypostasis, prosopa), conveyed everything it could. It often creates misunderstandings since the English “person” carries some connotations that we would not apply to God. Nevertheless, we work with what we got. Barth did not like the word “person”. I agree with Calvin who said this about our articulations with respect to the Trinity: Continue Reading »

Tim Kimberley, the executive director of Credo House Ministries (@pastortimk), went to Kenya on a mission trip with Compassion International. He had the opportunity to tell many pastors about the Credo House. Here is what he said to one.

The Credo House from Scott Rodgers on Vimeo.

Here is a list of seventeen questions that either qualify as pure speculation (i.e. there is no way to know) or fringe (i.e. questions that are odd and hardly ever asked). I came up with 17 of them. Please add to the list in the comments. I may start a blog series dealing with each on in the near future.

1. Had Christ not been killed would he have died?

2. How long were Adam and Eve in Eden until they fell?

3. How did Peter recognize Elijah and Moses on the mount of transfiguration?

4. Why did God put the Tree of Good and Evil in the Eden?

5. Did Adam and Eve have a belly button?

6. What was God doing before creation?

7. Could Christ have died another way and secured redemption (i.e. stoning)?

8. Why did Christ say “It is finished” before he died? Was his physical death not required for the atonement or was he meaning “It is just about finished”?

9. Did Christ ever get sick?

10. Had Adam and Eve not been booted out of Eden would they have lived forever even after the Fall?

11. Why did God put an angel to guard the tree of life? Why not just destroy it?

12. Is there a hierarchy in demons like in the animal world and do they experience the noetic effects of sin?  Does the left hand in the demon world always know what the right hand is doing?

13. Can a believer be demon possessed?

14. Will there be sex in heaven?

15. How did Peter recognize Elijah and Moses? (I just like that one so I put it twice)

16. How did Satan show Christ all the nations of the world from the top of a mountain? (Luke 4:5)

17. Does Satan actually think he might win?

There have been so many times in my life when God has not shown up. So many times when I am at my wits end, when it is forth and long, ninth inning, I put up a last hope three pointer and the ball hits the tape and falls gently on my side of the court. My mixing of sports metaphors is not an accident. It represents the confusion I often experience as I mêlée through the options of rescue God could use. After all, he must win the game in one of the metaphors. But not only do I lose the tennis match, but the football, baseball, and basketball game as well. I just can’t seem to sync up my game with his. You know . . . the ones where victory is claimed (not just proclaimed).

Half the time is seems that things simply function just the way one would expect if God was in heaven playing darts. Our lives are filled with so many things that go from bad to worse. The hardest part about it for me is that the things we request are very often good things. On our best days, we seek God’s renovation. We long for it. We lay down at night and dream about it. Our eyes sting due to tearful begging for it. Who could argue that someone praying for a better marriage, obedient children, a quenched addiction, a calm spirit, an obedient heart, or a bill responsibly paid are outside of God’s will? Who could argue that praying for the ability to gird up our will and make serious changes in overcoming sin in our lives is wrong? I know that there are “those” stories out there. You know, the one’s where a person becomes a Christian, then all of the sudden everything has changed (for good!). I have a love-hate relationship with those stories. I love them as I love an epic movie where the hero has saved the world. I love to know it is out there. But those are just stories. I have very few (if any) of those stories. Most of mine involve a seemingly never-ending pattern: stumble, fall, dirt in mouth, think about staying down, renewing hope, getting back up, trying again, stumble, fall, dirt in mouth . . . ad infinitum. In fact, I am still in many of these stories. 

At this point a mob forms in my subconscious rallying to find a way to express my anger and frustration with God. Yet no form of this finds a definite incarnation either in my words or deeds. “Why do you put up with this guy?” the mob yells. “Yeah, let’s take him to court. We can win!” Win what? A settlement with God? What would that look like anyway? I don’t have any grounds. There were no guarantees that he has failed to accomplish. The hope that I grope for was never here. Continue Reading »

David Hegg, Pastor of and Grace Baptist Church in  blogger at HeggThought encourages other churches to use The Theology Program in their church.

Find out more about starting TTP in your church: http://vimeo.com/34670369

Charles L. Quarles of Louisiana College has a lengthy review of Michael R. Licona’s book The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010) in the newest issue, which I just received in yesterday’s mail, of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 54, 4 (Dec. 2011): 839-44. Although the book represents a major advance in evangelical scholarship on the historicity of the Resurrection, discussions about the book have focused largely on Licona’s controversial  suggestion that the pericope of the saints raised from the dead (Matt. 27:52-53) may be viewed as apocalyptic imagery rather than as a literal historical occurrence. In 2011 evangelical philosopher Norman Geisler publicly denounced Licona’s interpretation as a denial of biblical inerrancy, leading to Licona’s departure from the Southern Baptists’ North American Mission Board (NAMB) at the end of the year and to his being ostracized at several other evangelical institutions. (Full disclosure: Licona and I worked together in the same department at NAMB for two years, 2006-2008, and we are good friends.)

Not surprisingly, Quarles devotes about half of his review to a discussion of Licona’s handling of this one passage. Quarles offers what appears to me to be a very thoughtful and well considered critique of the apocalyptic interpretation of the pericope, which I will only summarize briefly here. He objects that the text of Matthew gives no clear indication of a shift in genre from historical narrative to apocalyptic. He posits that Licona’s arguments for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection would also support the historicity of Matthew 27:52-53 (a point Quarles unfortunately does not develop, no doubt due to space constraints). He critiques the claim that the pericope is non-historical because it may be poetic. Quarles emphasizes that it is especially difficult to exclude historical and even evidential intent from Matthew’s statement “they appeared to many.” Finally, Quarles takes exception to Licona’s appeals to pagan parallels. His arguments here are worthy of reading and careful reflection.

Quarles mentions the controversy itself only very briefly at the end of the review:

“Recently, Licona’s position on these two verses has stirred considerable controversy, necessitating a more extensive treatment of his discussion of Matt 27:52-53 than a typical review would warrant. My hope, however, is that a treatment of two verses that amounts to only 6 pages out of the 641 pages of text in the book will not prevent conservative evangelicals from carefully reading and digesting the author’s many fine arguments for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection” (843-44).

Amen to that.

Quarles offers no further comment on the Licona controversy, not even mentioning Norman Geisler, and says nothing about the claim that Licona’s view of the Matthean pericope is a denial of biblical inerrancy. This is rather ironic, given that JETS is the journal of a society founded on the issue of biblical inerrancy. To his credit, though, and as is appropriate in a book review, Quarles keeps the attention focused where it should be, on the relevant exegetical and hermeneutical issues and not on personalities or red-flag accusations.

The last few days have been so interesting in my quest to investigate and report on the efforts of one organization seeking to disciple 1.3 million people. This organization does not simply seek to reach any random 1.3 million people, but reaches the absolute “least of these.” I’ve been spending time this week with the 81,000 least of these in Kenya.

I’ve seen more in the last few days than I can quickly process. For this post I’ve decided to throw up on you. Sounds nice doesn’t it? Ok, what I mean by that inappropriate imagery is I’m not going to try to put everything into a nice flowing narrative. Hopefully that will come later as I can spend more time digesting many extreme experiences. I’m simply going to bring out a bunch of random pros and cons I’ve been chewing on from the last few days:

Overall

• Encouraged: Compassion International uses 83% of all donations to go directly to the children. Only 17% of funds are used for staff members, fund-raising, trips like the one I’m on, etc… This ratio is absolutely amazing. Most of the other prominent children-based organizations are nowhere close to this ratio.
• Encouraged: Compassion International is completely church-based. Everything they do happens through a local church. Children are selected by the pastor and elders of a local church. They best know what’s happening on the ground and can best team up with Compassion to make a lasting difference.
• Encouraged: Compassion International is a one-to-one organization. Every child is sponsored by one specific person in a developing country. I asked many kids who their sponsor was and received names like, “Carl, Mr. and Mrs. Wendt, Judith, etc…” Kids are not a number to this ministry, neither are sponsors just a wallet. Compassion processes more than 10,000 letters per month between children and sponsors in just their Kenya efforts. While we were talking to the director of letters in Kenya, a man named Ken who was once in absolute poverty and is now a college graduate all thanks to Compassion, we oversaw a letter written from a young lady in America showing her sponsored child her wedding pictures. It was very emotional for all of us. This is a real ministry, reaching real children by real people.
• Encouraged:Compassion International uses only local people for all staff members in a country. It takes a very good local organization to help 81,000 children and families. All in-country staff must be from Kenya. The same is true for the other 24 countries in which Compassion ministers to 1.3 million people.
• Discouraged I’ve sponsored a child for more than 10 years and I had never heard of their groundbreaking Child Survival Program and their unbelievable Leadership Development Program. I fear most people are the same.

Child Survival Program

• Encouraged: This program is unbelievable. There are currently 50 places in Kenya where the life of 35 women, and their husbands and children, are being radically changed. I met so many women who weren’t naming their children until they were 2 years old because so many had died. These women had no emotional, spiritual and physical hope. They now have hope. So many had found hope in Christ and hope in their future. Many were now: playing with their children for the first time, learning new skills with their husbands, creating products and services to earn a living.

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It’s interesting to be in Kenya. Sometimes I wonder if this is really a developing country. We were driving through one neighborhood earlier today when Peter (more on him in just a bit) asked me how much I thought the houses in the area cost. I couldn’t imagine offering a guess so I gave up quickly. His answer: Close to 3 million U.S. dollars! I couldn’t believe it.

My doubts about the “developing country” status of Kenya only last for a moment. Yes, there are some very rich people who have made their fortunes through Tea, Coffee, Construction and Government Corruption. 80% of the country, however, earns $60 or less per month.

Many of the people I see have almost a battle-hardened look about them. At first glance they seem so innocent and so joyful, but I know they are well familiar with acts of evil. Take a neighboring country to the Southwest, Rwanda. In 1994 one of the worst genocides in human history took place. For virtually no reason other than racism (black tribes against other black tribes), more than 1 million people were murdered in only 8 weeks. Then take Uganda, the neighboring country to the West, in the 1970’s Idi Amin was responsible for killing around 500,000 of his people. More recently the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda would regularly kidnap kids, forcing them to kill at least one of their family members before spending their lives terrorizing others.

The neighboring country to the Northwest is Sudan. In the Darfur region of Sudan it is believed around 3 million innocent people have been killed since 2003. The neighboring country to the East is Somalia. Since 1991, Somalia has had no government. Every person does what is right (or wrong) in their own eyes. Many Americans will remember the 19 American troops killed in Mogadishu in 1993. Somalia is one of the most violent, godless nations on the planet. Being in Kenya feels like being surrounded by some of the worst evil committed on earth over the past 30 years.

Many Kenyans living close to the borders of these countries experience a tough life. For this reason many come to Nairobi looking for hope. Much like poor Europeans immigrating to America 200 years ago looking for a better life, people come to Nairobi hoping to start a life where they can support their family for generations.

There are limited opportunities in this city. Many of these families end up living in places where most Americans wouldn’t even store their lawn mowers. A fresh start in Nairobi begins to morph into a hopeless life of poverty. Can the hope and reality of Jesus make a lasting difference in East Africa? Can the worldwide church do what has never been done, to fix what has never been fixed? I’m here full of questions, eager to see some groundbreaking work happening in Kenya, hoping that the solutions don’t cause more problems. You can imagine I was excited for our first full day.

Breakfast with Peter

I thought my day would start very slowly. God had different plans. A man named Peter has been with our group since we were at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. I heard Peter lived in Denver and didn’t think his life would end up having a big impact on mine. As we sat down for breakfast I started asking him questions. I did not expect the answers that followed.

Peter grew up in Uganda. His father is from Rwanda. His father was one of the worst fathers you could imagine. Fearing for his life Peter went to the streets. He lived on the streets of Uganda, fending for himself, from age 11-15. Peter told me on average he would eat one meal every two days. At age 15 one man reached down into the gutter of life and pulled out Peter. This man loved Jesus and out of the love God had shown him, he had compassion on Peter.

Peter first heard about Compassion International at this time. The man who helped Peter was in charge of all Compassion’s efforts in Uganda. Peter was officially too old to enter the children development program, so the director personally took Peter under his wing. As Peter grew, his love to help children who find themselves in similar situations grew as well.

In 1994 Peter was in Rwanda. Why? He was rescuing children from the genocide. Peter told me some stories about what he saw during those terrible 8 weeks. The story that I will never forget came when I asked him about the church in Rwanda during this time. He told me about some heroic things but then turned to tragic stories. The worst came from a Roman Catholic Church which had become corrupted by the madness. More than 5,000 people had fled with their families to this church for safety. Peter went to help them. The church leadership, unfortunately, had tipped off others about the church being full of hiding families. When Peter arrived the church was full of 5,000 dead bodies. Some had survived, miraculously, by hiding under the bodies and pretending to be dead.

I couldn’t believe it. Peter and I talked on the plane about the Broncos and Tim Tebow. He told me about being in the stadium as Tebow threw the overtime pass to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yes, he was there. He said the stadium felt like it might collapse!
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