“Our aim is to call the church to a radical and very old vision of the man, Jesus Christ–fully God, fully sovereign, fully redeeming by his substitutionary, wrath-absorbing death, fully alive and reigning, fully revealed for our salvation in the inerrant holy Bible, and fully committed to being preached with human words and beautifully described with doctrinal propositions based on biblical paragraphs.”
What country do you live in? What are two things you love and two things you hate about the country where you live?
Pluralism that excludes certain view-points (such as belief in God) isn’t very pluralistic–its actually quite intolerant. Many, many atrocities have been committed in the name of God. Evil deeds are never to be defended, and the Christian church has much to admit, to repent of, to reform, and to change. However, lots of good has been done through the centuries by all sorts of people, including many followers of Jesus.
Who was it that started hospitals and orphanages as diseases ravaged the cities of the Roman Empire? Who adopted and raised the infants Romans would abandon on their streets? Christians, many of whom died from contagious disease as they showed mercy to other dying people. They understood that Jesus had died and rose from the dead to give them life, and this enabled them to give their lives away for others.
Who led the fight to outlaw slavery throughout the British empire at a time when much of the economy depended on slavery? Evangelical Christians led by William Wilberforce. Who established modern universities in the waning days of the late medieval period? Believers in Jesus, convinced that the person of Jesus is the center of history and the integrating point of a classical liberal arts education. Christian believers, convinced of the unique value of every person because all people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26,27), were essential to the early 20th century womens’ suffrage movements, the struggle against American racism and South African apartheid, the Solidarity movement in Poland, and many other reform movements toward liberty and freedom in the former eastern bloc countries.
Where were followers of Jesus first called “Christians”? In multi-racial Antioch, a Roman city of about a million people. The Greeks had built walled quarters for the various ethnicities to retreat to for safety from race-riots in the market places. When Jewish followers of Jesus moved to Antioch and non-Jews began believing in Jesus, they crossed racial barriers to worship together and became friends. The astonished watching world saw only one thing those people had in common: they all confessed Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Son of God, crucified, died, and raised to life on the third day. So they were called Christians in Antioch, and the name stuck. (See Acts 11:19-26 for the history, and Acts 13:1 for the names of the multi-racial leadership in Antioch’s Christian community)
Followers of Jesus have done much evil through the centuries, as have proponents of all other religions and many irreligious and non-religious people. However, Christians have made massive contributions toward the general well-being of humanity. Perhaps, rather than simply asserting theism doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously, proponents of methodological atheism should provide serious answers to these questions:
Why are the countries that always respond with immediate and generous aid in the face of disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, wars) those same countries where Christianity has had long and significant impact on the culture?
Why did modern liberal democracy, human rights, and individual freedoms primarily arise out of countries with Judao-Christian heritage?
In two weeks I’ll be travelling to Kiev and Odessa, where money, the Ukrainian Hryvnia, is a bit more colorful than our greenbacks (click the image for a larger-resolution).
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Is there room for any presupposition of God or deity in public philosophical discourse? Or is God the one thing we’re allowed to be intolerant of in our modern, western liberal democratic societies? The prominent German philosopher Jürgen Habermas states, “In my view, a philosophy that oversteps the limits of methodological atheism forfeits its philosophical seriousness.” (Time of Transitions, p. 162)
So pluralism allows all viewpoints as long any non-atheistic beliefs are kept out of public discourse?
I recently read “Time of Transitions” by Jürgen Habermas, a secular German philosopher who has adopted much of Richard Rorty’s American pragmatic tradition. While I enjoyed and was challenged by the book’s essays, I was looking to find the following quote in it’s context on page 150:
“Egalitarian universalism, from which sprang the ideas of freedom and social solidarity, of an autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, of the individual morality of conscience, human rights, and democracy, is the direct heir to the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of continual critical appropriation and reinterpretation. To this day, there is no alternative to it. And in the light of the current challenges of a postnational constellation, we continue to draw on the substance of this heritage. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk.”
I jotted down a few other Habermas quotes I will post soon. Does anybody know more about his concept of “a postnational constellation”?
David Nelson wrote in his January 8, 2009 Between the Times post, On Going Home at the End of the Day: a theology of leaving:
In fact, our theological reflection (in the sense of reflection upon God) should lead us to recognize that God himself has not chosen to accomplish everything in one day, one week, month, or year. Not only does God’s creative work occur over time, but His providential work of bringing all things to His good end occurs over millennia. Since God himself does not accomplish all his purposes in one day, it seems odd that His people might fret, forsake rest, and live disordered lives to do what God himself has chosen not to do. What God could do, He does not, and what we cannot do, we attempt to do, to our own detriment.
My work is not done, but it’s night, I hear crickets and cicaidas through the open window. The Giver of all good offers rest and sleep as an opportunity for me to trust him and receive that gift with thanksgiving. Goodnight!
Religious views have real world consequences and without a solid foundation our cultures will drift far from freedom. Read this article from truthXchange to learn some of what’s happened because Bolivia’s President, Evo Morales, is listening to the advice of shaman/witch doctors. Pray for followers of Jesus in Bolivia to remain faithful to the Bible, stay close to Jesus under persecution, and trust God’s loving power.
Only the truth can set us free, and truth is ultimately found in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected. Christos Kurios – Christ is Lord!
According to this article, Glasgow is UK’s laziest city. Funny, one of my favorite parts of my semester at Glasgow Uni was that I could walk to just about anywhere I needed to go. Maclay Hall through Kelvingrove park to campus, to Byers Road, or to St. George’s Tron Church…. I miss walking those streets.
What causes a person to have a particular sexual orientation? The American Psychological Association (APA) notes that there is no consensus among scientists regarding the causes of sexual orientation, stating on their website:
“Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors.” (APA, http://www.apa.org/topics/sorientation.html)
Why isn’t the APA’s conclusion being broadcast in the mass media? Instead of reporting the fact that no biological causes for sexual orientation have been found, homosexually inclined people are often told that there is no hope for changing their lifestyle.
The church has not done a good job extending community and grace to followers of Jesus who struggle with homosexual inclinations. Wesley Hill’s article on Ransom Fellowship’s website, ““A Few Like You”: Will the Church be the Church for Homosexual Christians?”, highlights the deep struggles with loneliness that homosexuallly inclined Christians can struggle with. His article is a good call for people in the church to walk with homosexually inclined Christians, supporting them in their struggles for celibate holiness and providing friendship for their loneliness, rather than rejecting them for their very real struggles.
The APA quote above reminds us we are people, not deterministic machines. As people, there is grace and forgiveness in Christ, and power to change as we pray for each other and carry each other’s burdens. James 5:16 challenges us, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” We may never find total healing in this broken world, but substantial healing is possible when we live the life together we are called to as Jesus’ church.
Mark
Joel