Tag: theology

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21st Century Evangelicalism

Is Lent For Us?

This morning a friend sent a text asking if we should participate in Lent. At that moment, I realized that we had so understated so many Christian holidays in our church that it would be good to write a blog to refresh our knowledge of this Christian tradition.

This year the first day of Lent happens to be today, March 1, 2017, Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is a day for us to remind ourselves of our mortality, sinfulness, and ultimate demise without Christ ( . . . from ashes to ashes, dust to dust. . . ). Lent, then, is a season when Christians have historically focused on simple living: limiting excesses, paying more attention to prayer and the Scriptures, participating more in church, and fasting in one way or another. Lent lasts about one tenth of the year. It is a tithe of our time set aside to focus on God’s priorities in our lives instead of worldly pleasures and living. It’s a season of devotion to God that roughly spans the forty days before Easter, excluding Sundays, because Sundays are a weekly mini-Easter celebration. The final day of Lent this year will be April 15th, the day before our resurrection day celebration, which of course is Easter.

Many Christians see the Lent season as a time to give up some type of food or guilty pleasure, or to begin doing something to strengthen their walk with Christ, which is always a good thing. During this season I often think of the story of the rich man who came to see Jesus. When he asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus replied, “Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Luke 18: 18-23).

Three things stand out to me in this response: 1.Give something up, 2. Give it to someone who needs it, and 3. Follow Christ.

Gayle and I have decided to give up most of our television watching. It’s true our TV is currently broken–but that is what got us thinking about what we gain when we’re not watching it.

It gives us more time with our family and friends.

In Christ’s response, he wanted the rich man to give up his things for the benefit of others. When our TV broke, we spent more time at our table having meals together. We also discovered we had more time to read, write, go on walks, jog, and talk. And, much to my delight, we even started going to bed earlier which made us feel better in the morning.

Some of you might want to consider other forms of electronic media. Gaming, texting, Facebooking, surfing, etc. All of these consume mass amounts of time. Slow down. Read. Visit. Think. Rest. Regroup.

It keeps the news about current events from dominating my home-life.

With the 24-hour news programs, everything is micro-analyzed and scrutinized. I watched the President’s speech last night (on my son Jonathan’s TV in his bedroom), and this morning when I read the news on my news ap, many of the analyses were slanted very differently than the speech I watched last night. Everything is political right now, and I need time away from endless hype.

That’s what Gayle and I are doing for Lent. Now what about you? If you or your family would like to use the Lent season as an opportunity to go without something in order to be able to give to others, you might discover some unexpected blessings in your life. Some of you might choose to devote the Sunday mornings of Lent to attending church, or some of you might start attending Wednesday evening Bible studies for Lent. A staff member just came in my office and announced he and his friends are giving up eating out at restaurants for Lent.

It’s your decision, and Lent gives all of us a great opportunity to let go of what is not needed, and embrace more of Christ in our lives.

I love serving Him with you.

Categories
Q and A

Left Behind?

#3 in Q & A Series

Question: “Do you believe the Left Behind series is based on our western culture which is generally free from persecution toward Christians? The series implies God will shield Christians from trials and persecutions, whereas Christian history and modern history are filled with examples of horrible persecution, even unto death.”

The Left Behind series are novels, fictitious prose. Fictitious means it’s not real, it’s imaginary. Prose means it is written using ordinary language.

Obviously, the arts can communicate powerful messages, which is what this series of novels has done. Many who were uninterested in God or had no interest in the end times came to Christ or became interested in biblical eschatology (the study of the end times) by reading the Left Behind series. Others who had never read the Bible gained new interest and began reading it. Many began attending home Bible studies or churches.

Here is my view. When evaluating the work of other Christians, I use a chart of three concentric circles with four characteristics on the outside of the circles.

The center circle is labeled “absolutes”. Absolutes are the unchanging foundations of our faith. These are the truths specifically articulated in the Scriptures that have not changed throughout the centuries, will not change as time passes, and remain the same regardless of cultural or political trends.

The second circle surrounds the first and is labeled “interpretations”. An interpretation is an explanation and application of the Scripture. We usually are interpreting when we read a passage and say, “this means . . . ” Bible scholars have developed a thoughtful process for us to determine reasonable interpretations from Scripture. Every responsible Bible teacher, from a home group leader to the most influential Christian leader, has a responsibility to teach credible interpretations from Scripture.

The third concentric circle is labeled “deductions”. A deduction is a conclusion we create from a variety of sources. Our deductions may come from our experience combined with our personal study of Scripture. Or they may come from listening to or reading the work of another who takes a selection of Scriptures, compares them and puts them together, and comes to what seems to be a logical conclusion. That’s a deduction.

Deductions have a greater capacity of being incorrect than interpretations, and interpretations have a greater potential of being wrong than absolutes, because absolutes are never wrong.

But that’s not all. On the outer edges of these three circles, are subjective opinions, personal preferences, feelings, and cultural norms. If we are not consciously aware of these differences, we might make the grave error of forming judgments about someone who teaches their deductions, which might differ from ours, even though we both believe Jesus Christ is Lord and that the blood of Christ was shed for the remission of our sins, which are absolutes.

As teachers, if we are not aware of the absolutes we believe in contrast to our interpretations and deductions, we will confuse our listeners because they might not be able to differentiate between the absolutes, which are 100% correct, and our interpretations, which actually might change as we grow in understanding.

Most eschatology being promoted in the American church today is a combination of deductions and cultural norms. Sadly, we often teach deductions and cultural norms with the same authority that we teach the absolutes. This weakens our credibility. For example, if we take Scriptures from Daniel, add Scriptures from Ezekiel, put them together with material from Matthew and Revelation, and then change the meaning of the words by saying, “this stands for . . .” or “this is a symbol for . . . “, we could be teaching pure fantasy.

I have met both Tim LaHaye and Larry Jenkins. Both seem to be wonderful men of God. Both wrote the Left Behind series believing it would be beneficial to others. They both value the absolutes of Scripture, and include many of them in their novels about the end times. Thus, we should read the series as it was intended: entertainment with a biblical theme, based on deductions from the Bible, which include subjective opinions and cultural norms.

So what are some of the positive benefits of the Left Behind Series?

It teaches some powerful absolutes.

It teaches respected interpretations.

The deductions it draws are clearly deductions.

The cultural norms, feelings, subjective opinions and personal preferences are the creative license of the authors as in all novels.

Therefore, trust the absolutes, consider interpretations, and take deductions with a grain of salt. As for subjective opinions, personal preferences, feelings, and cultural norms, take them for what they are, but never confuse them with absolutes. Let’s keep the main thing the main thing.

I would be curious to hear your thoughts on this. You are welcome to comment below.