Tim Keller Reasons with America, Christianity Today

C. S. Lewis says somewhere not to believe in Christianity because it’s relevant or exciting or personally satisfying. Believe it because it’s true. And if it’s true, it eventually will be relevant, exciting, and personally satisfying. But there will be many times when it’s not relevant, exciting, and personally satisfying. To be a Christian is going to be very, very hard. So unless you come to it simply because it’s really the truth, you really won’t live the Christian life, and you won’t get to the excitement and to the relevance and all that other stuff.

“A deep-seated confidence in the goodness of God despite circumstances.”

Matt Chandler, Freedom vs. Narcissism, 9/2/2007

I have a habit of forming opinions about books from reviews and never reading them, and of getting burnt up about the short quotes the reviewer offers. This actually kept me from reading NT Wright for a while, because I disagreed so much with the ways people used his writing that I didn’t want to read it for myself.

I have, however, read Doug Pagitt before, so I’m fairly confident that this quote is pretty representative, though I could be wrong. In any case, it’s a variation on a common argument about “modern” scriptural interpretation:

Today, he says, we’re still interpreting the story of Jesus through the lenses developed for a world dominated by Greek dualism and gods that needed to be appeased. Total depravity and substitutionary atonement are doctrinal byproducts of the combination of this ancient mentality mingled with the modern world of legal systems.

That was a paraphrase from a review at Progression of Faith, so I’ll say up front, that it may not be an exact quote from Pagitt. In any case, it’s all off in the wrong direction. (continue reading…)

I finally got a chance to listen to Wade’s sermon, “Antihomosexual”. I’m going to have to listen to it again before I can comment though, because he said so much.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking on a couple of questions which, I’ve felt like I’ve had answered for a while, but have popped up recently, so I’ve been giving them some more attention. You’ll probably be able to infer the answers I’ve reached in the past by the way each question is framed, which is ok.

1. How do we deal with sin in the body?  Greed, gossip, and sexual immorality bounce around the church like so many pinballs, and nothing seems to be interfering.  What do we do about it?

Are we only responsible for our own sin, or are we responsible for keeping one another accountable?

2. Is there any sin that isn’t hurting anyone? (continue reading…)

I missed Wade’s sermon today, but we had a pretty lively discussion about it this evening. There was so much for us to talk about, but we had to get out of there early to put the little one to bed. The sermon was on the church’s approach to and treatment of homosexuality. Tonight we talked about homosexuality, sin, accountability, and a little church polity.

I’ve been thinking about the conversation all evening and have decided to dig up everything I’ve written on the subjects, each with a link and an excerpt. So here it is!

You Call That Protection? August ‘06

The institution of marriage has been around a looooong time. It’s survived centuries of men treating women as property. It survived the dark ages, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. It survived the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two Great Wars, and Vietnam. And it has stood strong through our society’s turn towards cohabitation and parents who avoid marriage. But it’s suffering some staggering blows. The traditional family in the US has been on the decline for 40 years. It’s almost rare for a child to be raised by both biological parents. People are choosing to stay single (but not celibate), and those who do get married do it much later and with much less commitment than in past generations. Even when they’re married they have a bag packed in case they aren’t “satisfied”. The marriage bond is weakening and prenups and no-fault divorce are just making it worse. Thank God someone figured out how to protect this sacred institution from further damage; by focusing our energy on making sure gay people don’t get married.

On the Narrow, October ‘06

In Matthew 16, after Peter’s confession, Jesus rebukes him fiercely, calling him Satan. “You do not have in mind the things of God,” he says, “but the things of men.” Peter was working from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow his Son, the Messiah, to be killed. We, much the same way, work from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow someone to be born in a way that forces them to resist their natural desires.

Across the Board, November ‘06

I think that the church should take a more Biblical stance on sin. We tend to single out sexual sin as the only one that is bad enough to keep people out of the church: homosexuality, promiscuity, adultery. And adultery has to be really egregious to get real attention.

(continue reading…)

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