Who Do You Think You Are?

As a young man he painted pictures in Vienna, Europe’s cultural capital, and made a meager living selling postcard paintings to small shops. He saw himself as a man of sensitivity and aesthetic appreciation. People supposedly hired him to hang wallpaper to decorate their homes. Throughout his life he identified as an artist, even when his career took another turn and he eventually consigned millions of his fellow human beings to unspeakable horror and death.

I refer, of course, to Adolf Hitler, a man who didn’t understand who he really was. His false idea of himself as an artist — representative of the most refined form of humanity — blinded him to his own cruelty. It allowed him to regard whole classes of his fellow human beings as sub-human, worthy only of concentration camps and gas chambers.

Hitler’s example reveals the harm we inflict when we fail to grapple honestly with the question: “Who do you think you are?” Ignoring that question can result in misery, for others and for us.

Perhaps we regard ourselves as gifted with the right solutions to all the problems of life. People should take our advice, we feel, because we’re endowed with superior knowledge. Other people are ignorant, and we wonder why they avoid us since we could explain to them exactly where they’ve gone wrong, what they should believe, and what they need to do. (Interesting, isn’t it, how people with such all-encompassing wisdom often gain political office? Why are we not thrilled about that?)

Or, we may view ourselves as unemotional people who never yield to anger, or to tears. Since that’s who we are, we can never “fly off the handle” or rip into someone.  When things happen that we don’t like, we never express our disappointment or disgust. We give ourselves credit because we’re not hurting others. But because we won’t cry or complain, we won’t laugh either. Someone in our life is starving for a sign of real emotion — good or not so good — on our part, but we’re not showing it because we’re “not that kind of person.”

Finally, maybe we see ourselves as victims of life circumstances, or the nasty behavior of other people. As someone who’s been mistreated or ignored, we’re entitled to clamor for attention and for our “rights.” We act selfishly because, if we don’t, somebody will take advantage of us. Or we may be only too aware of our shortcomings, and think so little of ourselves that we believe nothing we do could ever hurt anyone. As a result we hurt many people, especially those closest to us.

“Who do you think you are?” The truth is that we’re not the perfect example of humanity. As St. Paul said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” On the other hand, we’re not miserable victims either. Scripture teaches that we’re made in the image of God, responsible agents in managing our lives for good. Balancing these two truths, in the light of the guidance God gives through Christ and the Scriptures, can clarify who we really are.

Which Church Is the “Right Church?”

In a discussion forum I belong to, a member introduced this topic and it provoked, of course, a spirited response from other participants. I decided to put my own oar into the water, with the following comments.

In one sense, there is no "right church" as an institution, because all human institutions are flawed. Even the New Testament church had its flaws (read Paul's letters!), so the attempt to identify one "right church" or denomination is futile. The question needs to be rephrased to something like, "What are the characteristics of a church (or other identifiable body) that would mark it as faithful to the intent of Jesus and the apostles?" Then ask, further, "Where can we find those characteristics operative today?"

The answer will not lead us to any specific denomination or, perhaps, any specific local congregation. Recall that denominations are not based on belief or practice, but on historic association and tradition. Therefore one finds a spectrum of belief and practice within any denomination, so that individual members of any church may very well find people of like faith in another church. It is a misconception to think that official doctrinal statements normally divide one denomination from another in actual practice, because the membership and leadership of those groups may in fact have beliefs that differ from the official statements.

However, there is a core of Scriptural criteria that would identify a grouping of Christians (across denominational lines) as being faithful to the apostolic intent for the church. These criteria would include (1) adherence to the Bible as the authority of faith and practice; (2) the conviction that Jesus Christ is the only way to the genuine understanding of God and to communion with Him, and all other supposed ways are partial or false; (3) the understanding that being a Christian has implications for the pattern of personal attitude and conduct, in relationship to other believers and to people and the culture in general.

Once such core criteria are identified — and some other traditional criteria that have historically divided denominations are seen as peripheral or irrelevant — then the way is open to search for the "right church" among people who might officially (or habitually) identify with any specific Christian church or denomination. This allows Christians to cooperate in significant ways across denominational lines, recognizing the common "core" while granting each other the freedom to pursue distinctive traits of their particular tradition without controversy. Such an attitude permits the existence of movements like "Evangelicals and Catholics Together," united in common cause because of common core beliefs. Evangelicals do not have to endorse all Catholic practices, nor do Catholics have to endorse all evangelical tenets, in order for this to occur. In this way the "right church" can begin to emerge not only as an ideal, but as a specific thrust in the world.

The Agony of Truth

They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness . . . (Psalm 82:5)

Knowing the truth about things can bring a certain satisfaction, but it can also be agonizing.

I am confident that I know the absolute truth about many things through exposure to evidence and the application of common sense and rational reflection to that evidence. Further, by these means I am capable of perceiving the truth in other areas that have not yet come within my field of concern. Indeed, I have no doubt about my ability to understand the truth despite the claims of postmodernists that truth is relative and each person has his own “truth.” (In fact, if you claim we can’t know the absolute truth, my question to you is, “Is that true?”)

But knowing the truth can result in severe discomfort. It’s annoying to have to deal with Facebook posters, for example, who are wilfully ignorant of the truth about certain political, economic, theological or scientific questions. People who actually know the truth are pilloried for their opinions that don’t fit into the politically correct falsehoods that make up today’s cultural paradigm.

Take the question of evolution. There is no way that “natural selection” could result in the rise of a new species, since the genetic reproductive information built into the DNA code is already present in every reproduced organism. Dogs can be bred for size or other traits because the genetic information for largeness, smallness, etc. is already present in every dog’s DNA. Breeding can produce a small dog by minimizing the genetic information for largeness, but the offspring will still be a dog. It will never become an octopus, and any mutation that would make a dog more octopus-like would kill it. But just try to persuade the willfully ignorant that evolution is a myth, and that belief in evolution isn’t science but a philosophical commitment. Because of their brainwashing they won’t understand you, and that’s frustrating.

The same applies to many other areas. In the field of the economy, the truth is that the more the wealthy are demonized and taxed the fewer people will be wealthy and able to pay the taxes that support people receiving government benefits. Eventually everyone will be poor, and there will be no tax money available to provide benefits for anyone. But the willfully ignorant, who support the policies of the current Administration, can’t grasp this truth because they have an ingrained prejudice against allowing some people to be wealthier than others — except people like them, of course, who are allowed to be wealthy because they’re the elite. Knowing the truth about the economy is discouraging, because there’s such mindless resistance to the truth.

When you know that Christianity is the only true religion, because the teachings of Scripture correlate with the design of the universe (see Romans 1:18-25), it’s disheartening to hear public figures apologizing for the accidental destruction of “sacred” texts of a false religion. Every religious movement that isn’t based on the Bible — and the Bible alone — is a false ideology. It is not the truth, and there’s nothing sacred about it. It’s painful to have to deal with people who refuse to recognize the Christian Scriptures as presenting the only true world view.

And, along those lines, when you know the truth about what a passage of Scripture really means it’s disconcerting to hear false interpretations from the pulpit, or from television or radio preachers. The meaning of a Bible passage is what it meant to those who first uttered it and heard it, in their historical and cultural setting. Twisting it to mean something else, because “that’s what we’ve always believed,” grates on the sensibility of those who know the truth.

It would be more comfortable to accommodate prevalent falsehoods and simply coast along in blissful ignorance of the truth. But I find I can’t sacrifice my understanding of the truth to my personal comfort. Like Jeremiah, I find the truth is “a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9) that I can’t put out.

Some will accuse me of arrogance for claiming that I know the truth, while so many others are ignorant. It is not arrogant, my friends; it is agonizing.

The Gospel in Proverbs

Unlike other biblical books, Proverbs does not often present a connected sequence of thought. Instead, it offers a string of maxims or sayings about life, often scattered in subject matter. These proverbs were collected by the scribes of Solomon’s court, or complied by scribes under King Hezekiah (see 25:1).

Proverbs is a book that highlights contrasts:
· Discretion and restraint are contrasted with thoughtlessness and impulsiveness.
· Industry is contrasted with laziness.
· Honesty is contrasted with devious behavior
· Justice is contrasted with injustice
· Generosity is contrasted with stinginess.

Proverbs covers down-to-earth topics like family life, sex, relations with neighbors, responsibilities of rulers and people in authority, or how to live prosperously and successfully. The basic premise of the book appears in 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” However, Proverbs doesn’t have much to say specifically about the Lord. Out of 915 verses only 85 explicitly refer the Lord, or about 9 percent.

This reticence in speaking about the Lord should teach us something: Serving the Lord, living the righteous life, doesn’t mean just always talking about God. It involves a deliberate attempt to live by the principles set forth in the Word of God: to “walk the walk,” not just “talk the talk.” But is Proverbs just a book of “dos and don’ts”? Or is there a gospel here — good news for people struggling with life issues, a proclamation of God’s presence and His involvement in that struggle?

The underlying contrast of Proverbs is that between wisdom and folly. What is folly, or foolishness, and who is the fool? Essentially, as Psalm 14:1-4 declares, the fool is the person who says, in effect, “God doesn’t care what I do, I don’t have to pay attention to Him.” So, for the fool, there is no power higher than himself. Proverbs describes the fool in 18:2: “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” (We all know people who can’t stop telling you what they think long enough to listen to what you have to say.) The fool never learns from his mistakes: “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool that repeats his folly” (26:11). Einstein famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. (Do we see this insane foolishness in our government policies today?)

Wisdom is, of course, the opposite attitude: the wise person takes God and His ways into account in the conduct of life. Proverbs proclaims the blessing that comes to the person who acts wisely: “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life” (22:4). Put another way, “He who despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who respects the commandment will be rewarded:” (13:13).

Thus we see that Proverbs is based on the relationship of actions to their consequences, just as the apostle Paul states: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). And that relationship between act and consequence is built into the structure of the biblical covenant, the agreement between God and His chosen people. Without going into detail, that agreement involves sanctions. If the people remain faithful to the Lord and obey Him, they will prosper and be victorious. If they become unfaithful to the Lord, however, they will be cursed — they will suffer defeat, impoverishment and all manner of calamity. Deuteronomy 27-28 lays out this contrast in detail. The sanctions of the curse appear elsewhere in Scripture, notably in the judgments of the Revelation to John against the unfaithful city.

So Proverbs’ focus on the connection between act and consequence is part of the structure of God’s covenant with us, His gracious granting of a relationship: “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:12, repeated in various forms throughout Scripture and found even at the very end, Revelation 22:3). It is a family relationship of Father to beloved children. It is the very relationship Jesus Christ came to fulfill, and make available to all who enter into His life.

That is the gospel in Proverbs: There is a right way to live, a way that pleases God. And, following His commandments as His covenant people, we can live that successful and prosperous life as members of His family. Does Proverbs understand, as the New Testament makes clear, that we can live this good life only through Christ?

Listen as Wisdom speaks in Proverbs 8: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. . . . When he established the heavens, I was there. . . . When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman . . .” Does this not remind us of “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:1-3, 14)? The Son of God, the Word of God, the Wisdom the Book of Proverbs celebrates, are one and the same: Jesus Christ.

The Forgotten Gospel

A men’s study group I belong to recently wanted to discuss the issue they saw posed in Hebrews 6, where the writer states, “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:4-6).

The question that intrigued my fellow group members was whether a person can “lose his salvation.” A lively discussion produced no consensus, as is so often the case with problematic Bible passages — but that is not the matter I want to discuss here. What intrigued me was that phrase “those who have once been enlightened.” The author of Hebrews seems to link “enlightenment” with the receiving of the benefits of what we commonly call salvation. The person who comes to Christ comes, first of all, because he has been enlightened. He has absorbed certain information; a certain knowledge has been imparted to him.

I was reminded that the early Christian church, in celebrating the Lord’s Supper, made a point of thanking the Lord for the knowledge that has come through Christ. In a passage in the Didache, the earliest (second century) account of a Christian worship gathering, the leader prays over the bread in this way:

We thank You, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory for ever.

In the same vein, after the worshipers have received the bread and the cup the leader prays as follows:

We thank You, holy Father, for Your holy name which You caused to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory for ever.

The stress on the enlightenment that comes through Jesus is unmistakable here. The eucharistic (thanksgiving) prayer does not focus upon the shed blood and broken body of Jesus, but rather on the abiding presence of the Father (His “holy name”) and the knowledge the worshiper now enjoys as a result of Christ’s coming. Normally, when evangelicals of today partake of the Lord’s Supper they focus on the sacrifice of the cross that atones for our sin. That note is absent in this earliest ordered account of a Christian worship service centered around the Lord’s Table.

What do we make of this? Had the second-century church already lost the significance of the Lord’s Supper as the remembrance of Christ’s death, and instead turned the Supper into a celebration of the sort of “head knowledge” that preachers often deride as a substitute for true commitment to the Lord?

I hardly think so, for the New Testament itself often mentions the knowledge, or enlightenment, that Christ brings into the world. In addition to the passage from Hebrews cited above we have the powerful image with which John begins his Gospel: “The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not” (John 1:9-10). The apostle Paul might be driving toward this same thought when he prays for the Ephesians “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you" (Ephesians 1:17-18). Paul tells the Colossians that he has been praying for them also, “that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9). And to Timothy he writes of “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). True knowledge, understanding, or enlightenment is a key to being saved.

This raises the question of what it means to be “saved.” Biblically, salvation is deliverance or rescue. In the Scriptures, salvation is not usually related to sin — other words, such as “cleansed,” are used — or to heaven, which is the abode of the God who delivers. Most often, in Scripture, salvation is deliverance from some threatening external situation such as enemy oppression or attack. (See our study What Is Salvation? on the Laudemont Ministries web site.)

In the first recorded Christian preaching, Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost, salvation is deliverance from “this crooked generation” — that is, from a culture whose twisted thinking blinds it to the ways of God (Acts 2:40). To be rescued from this faulty paradigm a person must first come to a new understanding of reality, or to repentance (the New Testament term, metanoia, literally means a “change of mind”). This intellectual enlightenment is what initiates the process by which a person is rescued from his oppressing environment.

It was enlightenment concerning Jesus’s resurrection, as evidenced by the gift of the Holy Spirit and the explanation Peter offered, that persuaded the earliest Christian converts to change their minds about Jesus and acknowledge Him as Messiah. Those who had taken part in His crucifixion came to a new understanding that caused them to seek membership in Jesus, through baptism (Acts 2:21). They had to lay aside a false paradigm, or world view, that prevented them from recognizing the work of God in their midst. The same enlightenment came to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road through the appearance of the risen Jesus; he was forced to change his mind about Jesus, in a radical turn-around of his entire way of life.

This enlightenment, or knowledge, that God imparts through Jesus Christ is often the forgotten Gospel in evangelical preaching today. Sometimes worshipers are told to accept Christian truths “on faith,” without engaging in a deep intellectual grappling with them. People are not encouraged to explore the coherence of the Bible’s world view, or to understand how it synchronizes with knowledge arrived at through other avenues such as science — particularly cosmology, the study of the origin and nature of the universe. Forgotten is Paul’s assertion that “ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). The result is ineffective congregations of Christians who are simply flitting around the edges of churchiness, mouthing standardized formulas of doctrine and devotion without being penetrated by the knowledge that exposes the false values of their surrounding culture.

The second-century Christians whose worship gathering is recorded in the Didache, in giving thanks to God, celebrated “the life and knowledge which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant.” Their insight was biblically based. Without the knowledge that comes from Christ his followers would be unable to do what Paul says we do, to “destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Without an intellectual grasp of a coherent biblical world view Christians are liable to be “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles” (Ephesians 4:14). We need to recover, and be informed by, the forgotten Gospel: “The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him . . .”

The Heavenly City

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant . . . (Hebrews 12:22-24).

Here the author of Hebrews states, in no uncertain terms, that his readers have already come to “the heavenly Jerusalem.” The heavenly city isn’t something awaiting us after death, or in the far-off future; it’s a present reality. The writer’s emphasis is similar to John’s vision at the end of the Revelation: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God . . .” (Revelation 21:2). As John sees it, the heavenly city isn’t someplace we’ll go off to where, one day, we’ll meet God. The city comes to us “out of heaven from God,” and we live in it here on earth.

How can this be? Our life in this world often seems anything but “heavenly,” so it appears ludicrous to claim that the heavenly city is already here. Of course, we can apply the concept to entering the Lord’s presence in Christian worship. Hebrews refers to a festal, or joyful, gathering and speaks of the assembly of those who, through membership in Christ, are among the “firstborn” of God’s new creation (see Colossians 1:15). And John describes the city as the place where “the dwelling of God is with men” (Revelation 21:3), and states that its temple or central focus is “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (22:22). Paul makes it clear that our entire renewed life, as followers of Christ, is our “spiritual worship,” so there is a sense in which every faithful Christian is experiencing the life of the city that comes from God.

But there is more to this “heavenly city” than the overtly spiritual dimension we typically recognize. Is there a way to understand the city of God as encompassing all healthy and constructive aspects of our present life, as well as the life to come? God has created all features of our physical environment and called them “good” (Genesis 1). Therefore, we see His providential activity and wise governance across the wide spectrum of our daily experience.

Turn the ignition key of your car, and realize that God made the raw materials out of which your vehicle was fashioned. He ordered the elements of the universe so that fuel and oxygen would combine to produce the energy to propel it. He created the human mind with the intelligence and skill to design and build your car and the roads on which you drive. You live in the heavenly city.

Slip into the voting booth and exercise your ability to discern what is right for your community and nation, and what is wrong. God gave His Word to guide us, so we can differentiate between them. He gave the vision to our nation’s founders, who believed that our Creator endowed us with certain unalienable rights including the liberties we enjoy. Be thankful you live in the heavenly city.

Contemplate your children, share tender moments with your spouse, enjoy the excitement of a youthful romance. God made us male and female in His image, establishing that intimate relationship that is the basis for the family and all human community, and the means of perpetuating the human race. The exercise of our distinctive role as a man or woman is evidence that we live in the heavenly city.

Boot up your computer, or use your digital camera. When God said, “Let there be light,” and divided light from darkness, He established the principle of information: the difference between one thing and another, between off and on. He created that digital difference upon which so much of our technology depends in this heavenly city.

In every facet of our lives we detect the work of God’s governing hand, ruling over His new Jerusalem. As Paul says, doubters have no excuse because His power and authority are “clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). The heavenly city is here because God is here, working out His purpose for us in all these things and calling us into His living presence to worship Him through Jesus His Son.

The Law of the Vacuum

"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." (Luke 11:24-26)

“Nature abhors a vacuum.” The origin of the saying is ascribed to Aristotle, who explained the operation of a water pump by suggesting that the vacuum draws up the water. He wasn’t quite correct, since a vacuum is nothing, and nothing can’t do anything. In 1643 Evangelista Torricelli showed that it was atmospheric pressure that forced the liquid up in a vacuum tube; this was the invention of the barometer.

But the “vacuum principle” is still useful, whether or not we understand the physics of it. We sweep our carpets, seal jars of canned tomatoes, or sip lemonade through a straw knowing that if a vacuum is “created” something will try to flow in to take its place. And the principle extends to realms other than the behavior of physical substances. A vacant building draws vandals and arsonists; the plain side of a car in the railroad yards attracts “taggers” and their bold graffiti. And, as Jesus pointed out, a mind cleansed of demonic influence is soon invaded by influences even more demonic than the original, if nothing positive fills the void.

It’s not enough to simply try to rid ourselves of negative thoughts, dysfunctional patterns, harmful habits or addictions, and other “demons” that have a detrimental effect on our quality of life — not to mention the influence of genuinely demonic spiritual forces. The law of the vacuum suggests that these destructive factors will resurface with greater power unless a resisting force has replaced them.

It’s important, then, to exchange hurtful attitudes, warped beliefs and destructive behavior patterns with new thoughts and actions that tend toward what is healthy and good. The apostle Paul illustrates the “vacuum principle” this way:

Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:25-32).

In other words, we don’t just give up devious ways, but make the intentional effort to be truthful. We don’t just stop avoiding work or trying to get by at the expense of others; we apply ourselves to earning what we need to assist others who need help. We don’t just quit malicious or vulgar talk; instead, we learn to steer our conversation toward that which encourages and builds up other people. The “pressure” from the healthy replacement behavior helps to keep the old ways from returning. Ultimately, as Paul’s words suggest, it’s the Holy Spirit who must replace our self-seeking tendencies, or those “demons” will only come back to grieve Him, and us.