With His Heart

Not long ago, I posted a few comments on Huffington Post Religion articles. One of them was an article in which the author railed against atheists for being too angry. In the reader discussion that followed, I made an assertion about atheists: That God does not exist is an unprovable truth claim. All unprovable truth claims about God are religious statements. Therefore, atheists are religious.

Whoa. The atheist readers buried me in criticism. Many were quite angry and vehemently denied my claim. Like the author of the article, I was puzzled by the high level of anger.

A few days later I was listening to a recorded lecture by Tim Keller. Keller’s topic: Christianity and culture. He said that as he attempts to engage atheists in religious discussions, they deny that they, themselves, are taking religious positions. Then Keller said:

They aren’t used to thinking that way. We see the culture moving in that direction, but it’s going to take about 50 years for them to adjust.

50 years! I guess I’d better get used to thinking their way…

Before any of my Christian brothers and sisters get upset and bid me, “Farewell!” let me say up front that this is not an endorsement of Rob Bell’s books or theology. I think Pastor Bell’s books are inconsistent and self-contradictory. His use of history and scripture is sloppy. He hides behind mystery (The Bible is for questions not answers, he says…) and incredible giftedness. He is a master of using visual and audio imagery to deliver a message. He knows how to draw an emotional response like few I’ve seen or heard. In a word, the guy is good. But he’s not right.

Bell’s recent book, Love Wins, has ignited a storm of controversy. The blogosphere is alive with thousands of posts and comments. By far, the most thorough review I’ve seen is this 20-pager from Pastor Kevin DeYoung, a contemporary of Bell:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/03/14/rob-bell-love-wins-review/

I’m not writing to criticize Bell’s work, however. I want to tell you why this glass-half-full guy (that would be me) likes Rob Bell: He’s gotten us thinking about eternity.

I’ve read hundreds of comments related to Bell’s latest book and the responses to it. I’ve written a few myself. There are thousands more–from atheists, liberal Christians, conservative Christians, and every spiritual demographic in between. Bell has created such a firestorm that he’s being interviewed on the television networks–and so are his critics. We’re hearing from Bell and we’re hearing the truth.

Let me be clear: I sincerely wish Bell hadn’t written the book. I hope and pray that he will someday see his errors. But in the news today there’s a buzz about eternity. We have Rob Bell to thank.

I’ve been studying a second language. One of the things that became obvious to me early on is that vocabulary is critically important. Without the instant recognition and understanding of many words verbal or written communication would be cumbersome if not impossible. Imagine running to the dictionary for every word!

Sometimes reading theology or listening to scholars talk about theology is like learning a second language. The vocabulary is of critical importance. I’m not a theologian. In fact, you might often find me chuckling when a I hear or read a new-to-me theological term. I know that theologians use specific terms for precision, but sometimes it seems like they make up words for a living. (Just kidding!)

Earlier this week I listened to a sermon on mp3 during my commute to work. The preacher used two theological words that I don’t often hear in a sermon: Eisegesis and Exegesis. Their meanings offer a contrast that the preacher used to differentiate two vastly-different ways of approaching the interpretation of scripture.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers the following definitions:

Eisegesis – the interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one’s own ideas

Exegesis – an explanation or critical interpretation of the text

In simple terms, eisegesis is the process of making the Bible agree with us, and exegesis is the process of teaching us to agree with what the Bible says. I was very pleased to hear the preacher say

We are an exegeting church.

He went on to say that their church seeks to understand the scriptures in their historical and grammatical contexts and apply them to their lives, not the other way around.

Letting God’s word speak to us seems like the right way to go!

Do you remember the movies, The Stepford Wives? They tell the story of how the wives of Stepford, MA become compliant robots, always acceding to the will of their husbands. The result is a set of horrible, cardboard relationships. Without the ability to contradict their husbands–to never challenge them on anything–there is no love, no intimacy, and no personal relationship. In other words, a disaster.

I’ve been talking to a couple of friends about Tim Keller’s book, The Reason for God. This morning I re-read chapter 7, “You Can’t Take the Bible Literally.” As part of his argument against this objection and for the reliability of scripture, Keller compares many of us to the Stepford husbands. When we read the Bible, we reject the parts that offend us or that we find undesirable. Keller wrote:

Now, what happens if you eliminate anything from the Bible that offends your sensibility and crosses you will? If you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest, how will you ever have a God who can contradict you? You won’t! You’ll have a Stepford God! A God, essentially, of your own making, and not a God with whom you can have a relationship and genuine interaction. Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination. So an authoritative Bible is not the enemy of a personal relationship with God. It is the precondition for it.

I think Christians and non-Christians alike struggle with the concept of a pick-and-choose Stepford God. Earlier in the same chapter, Keller wrote about the danger of thinking we are living in the ultimate cultural moment. That is, we think our view of the world corresponds to the most informed, the most culturally-relevant moment in history. Yet after us will come generations that will believe we were backward in our thinking and that they live in the most informed, most culturally-relevant moment in history. The one true God is the one who cuts across lines of culture and time to challenges the thinking of both in order to bring us into a real relationship with Him.

I recently completed my 2010 read through the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). For 2011, my goal is to read through the English Standard Version (ESV) using the ESV Study Bible. I chose the Study Bible for two reasons:

• It is available in the Kindle format
• It includes overviews of each book

The former reason reveals my new toy. The family pitched in and bought a Kindle for my birthday. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Kindle. It’s now officially loaded with more books than I can possibly read! There are hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of free titles available from authors such as Martin Luther and G. K. Chesterton. The cost of the Kindle editions of books that are not free is reasonable for most books–under $10 for the ESV Study Bible, for example.

The latter reason plays into the fact that I am a believer in reading books of the Bible all the way through. Not necessarily in one sitting, but at least reading them sequentially. I have used the One Year Bible and Navigators reading plans that mix OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs for each day. Chopping up the books like that makes it hard for me to get the overall theme of the book. This is where the overviews of each book fit in. By reading the overviews before each book I will be able to set myself up to get the most out of the reading.

I’m writing this post on 1/4/2011. Guess how many days behind I am already! Ha!

I have never been big on wearing jewelry. There was the gold chain I wore back in the Disco era (Yeah. I’m that old…) just to please my future bride. Then there was the shark’s tooth necklace I wore once (and only once) after my daughter gave it to me for my birthday. (It’s very cool as the rear-view mirror ornament in my truck, but around my neck? Nah…)

This morning I read Proverbs 3. Verse 3 (HCSB) reads as follows:

Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you.
Tie them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.

When we tie something around our neck, what happens? The thing is with us everywhere. We can’t get away from it. In fact, it becomes such a part of us that we don’t think about it being there. Haven’t we all worn a ring or other jewelry so long that we just forgot we had it on? And then, when we took it off, it felt like it was still there? That’s the picture: Make loyalty and faithfulness so much a part of our lives that they become part of us. Written on the heart, they become part of who we are.

Be loyal. Be faithful. Enjoy your day!

In this post we return to a discussion of the book, Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. We are on a journey through chapter 1, with my summary covering three themes:

• Road Map
• Reason
• Recipe

Today our subject is the second theme, Reasons, that is, the reasons we study God at all.

Packer asserts that today we don’t study God the way we used to. He writes:

We shall have to deal with the Godhead of God, the qualities of deity which set God apart from humans and mark the difference and distance between the Creator and his creatures: such qualities as his self-existence, his infinity, his unchangeableness. We shall have to deal with the powers of God; his almightiness, his omniscience, his omnipresence. We shall have to deal with the perfections of God, the aspects of his moral character which are manifested in his words and deeds–his holiness, his love and mercy, his truthfulness, his faithfulness, his goodness, his patience, his justice. We shall have to take note of what pleases him, what offends him, what awakens his wrath, and what affords him satisfaction and joy.

For many of us, these are comparatively unfamiliar themes.

Fast forward to 2010 and I think it’s fair to say that these themes are even less familiar than when Packer first penned these words. We just aren’t used to studying God in such a way. My opinion I that many of us–often myself included–are more interested in what pleases us. Packer is calling us to think in a new way, confronting fresh ideas about our infinite God.

There is temptation that must be avoided. Packer writes:

We need to ask ourselves: What is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have it? For the fact that we have to face is this: If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians…

I dare say that pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge also promotes an air of superiority over non-Christians. I’ve experienced the cold glances of those whose accumulated knowledge has made them puffed up.

When we study, therefore, the reason must be so that we can know God better. Period.

This time of year we often find ourselves at graduation ceremonies. My family and I visited a local church recently to be present for their “Graduate Sunday”–a time when they recognize the seniors who have been a part of the church family.

The text for the day was Philippians 1: 9-11:

1:9 And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight 1:10 so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ, 1:11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

(http://beta.net.bible.org/#!bible/Philippians+1)

The preacher highlighted three things that really stuck with me:

1. Of all the things Paul could have wanted for the Philippians–safety, wealth, health, etc.–his prayer for them was that they love more and more.  (Verse 9)
2. That they will be careful to know the difference between what’s “good” and what’s “best.” (Verse 10) Not settling just for what’s good. Not settling for what they can do to get by.
3. That they will bring God glory. (Verse 11)

The preacher urged the graduates–and the rest of us–to ask ourselves the following questions on an ongoing basis:

• Am I settling for good, or am I striving after what’s best?
• Am I making choices that please God, that bring glory to Him?

Our job is not done. As these graduates move on, they need us to pray and encourage them to strive for the best and to make God-pleasing choices.

I used to work as a grunt in a machine shop. Whatever dirty job the boss wanted done was assigned to me. The problem–besides the dirt and tedium–was that my boss usually only told me half of what I needed to know to complete the job. When I got half done, I’d ask for additional directions and get–you guessed it–half of what I needed to know to finish. This process would repeat itself. Purists in the audience will be quick to point out that the theoretical conclusion of always getting half meant I would never actually finish! Luckily the tasks were entirely practical and I was eventually able to get close enough to declare the jobs complete for all practical purposes.

I would have benefited tremendously from some kind of road map to my end goal, how a task fit into the larger scheme of things, and the step-by-step directions for how to get there. In chapter 1 of J. I. Packer’s Knowing God, the author provides all three. In fact, The Study of God delivers with three main thrusts:

• Road map
• Reasons
• Recipe

Road Map

Packer opens the chapter with a discussion of the universe. He asserts that God made the universe, that it operates according to principles He put in place, and that where we’re going in the book requires us to at least agree to think about it in this way. As such, Packer invites the skeptic to table their doubts for a time and join him on the journey. His request:

I ask you for the moment to stop your ears the those who tell you there is no road to knowledge about God, and come a little way with me and see. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and anyone who is actually following a recognised road will not be too worried if he hears nontravellers telling each other that no such road exists.

In the same way we trust MapQuest or our GPS to show us the way–until the directions tell us to take a left turn into a corn field–Packer is inviting us to trust him that there is, indeed, a road to God that can be followed. He says that if we give him a chance we’ll see the road and not the corn field.

More on Road map, Reasons, and Recipe in subsequent posts…