GOD IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN THE “WHY?” BUT IN THE “WHERE?”

In the midst of desolation and destruction, personal or widespread – I am in western NC where Hurricane Helene caused much devastation – God is not to be found in responses to our questions of “Why?”  It is poor theology to seek to provide the answer.  God is found when we ask God, "Where are you?"

Doctrines of the sovereignty of God frequently miss the biblical teaching behind the human images of God as King and Sovereign.  In the culture of the ancient Near East, a king was never responsible FOR everything that happened in his domain.  Rather, a king was responsible to respond TO what happened in his domain.  The ideal king would work for righteousness and justness within his domain.  That is what biblical authors would have had in mind when using kingship images for God.

Theological traditions that define “sovereignty” abstractly have missed the intention in the biblical texts.  They end up with a God who is responsible FOR everything that happens.  They fail to recognize the interplay between order and chaos that exists within all humans and within our natural world.*  Given that false assumption of abstract “sovereignty” wrongly puts Christians in the position of trying to answer “Why?”  The answers are always shallow and facile, even when they merely say, “It is for the greater good” or “It is part of God’s plan.”

Perhaps it would help to address a much-misunderstood text that people attempt to use to answer the why question, Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28 NET).  There, Paul is speaking of the call of all Israel – and for him, including all Gentiles in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham – who have actually responded by “loving God,” a statement of true seeking and relational dependence on God.  Such people now belong to the new era of life in the Spirit.  Paul can look teleologically on the scope of creation in bondage toward the eschatological (end-time) hope in the newness of all things, including the people of faith who are being conformed to the image of the Son (v. 29).  As such, Rom 8:28 never answers the “why?” of the moment.  It expresses confidence in God who is transforming lives and who will ultimately redeem all of creation.

            Moreover, when we ask the where question, we are not to ask our neighbors, “Where was God in this?”  That is really another form of the why question.  Rather, we are to ask God directly, “Where are you?”  That is when we begin to seek God.  Even when we are angry.  That is when we existentially, experientially begin to open ourselves to God.  That is when God begins to conform us to the image of the Son.  I firmly believe Jesus’ words:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8, NET)

Even in the midst of panic attacks, when I felt abandoned by God, God’s Presence was there.  I testify to that.  As part of this testimony, I share the following song as a prayer.

"In the Night Your Song is with Me"#
(Based on Psalm 42)

In the night your song is with me.
When the darkness engulfs my soul.
As the waves crash down upon me.
I will believe that I am not alone.

These are the things I will remember.
When it seems me you have forgotten.
When my soul knows not where you are.
I will believe that I am not alone.

When my heart is downcast in me.
And I want to meet with my God.
As my soul pants for the Water.
I will believe that I am not alone.

In the night your song is with me.
Faintly through roar of the waves.
I hear it dimly through the terror.
And I know that I am not alone.
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*Answers to theodicy (why there is human and physical “evil”) are complex.  Let it suffice to say that Genesis presents from the beginning a state of humanity and nature that exists within an interplay of order and chaos.  In this state, we are to learn to depend on our Creator.
#A friend recorded for this for me.  (My friend, Mike Rayson, a gifted musician, died recently.)  If interested, here is a link to the music on SoundCloud:  https://on.soundcloud.com/mpcRn1BNyePggiJz6

MINIMALISTIC THEOLOGY AND THE IMAGE OF GOD

 I said something a couple of days ago that would certainly get me shunned in some Christian circles.
Backdrop:
I had been thinking again about being made in the image of God.  (See “Created in the Image of God: Forgotten Aspects,” 2/1/2024.)  So, that was on my mind.  The main thought is that all people, male and female, are to be God’s representatives/regents, bringing order into chaos as God did in creation and continues to do.
Story:
I was working side-by-side with a wonderful, gnarly old guy with a braided gray beard named Tom at a rescue supply center.  (We have been hit hard by Helene in western NC.)  Tom works at the center regularly as a volunteer to help families who need food.  It quickly became clear that Tom had had too many bad experiences with religion in general and Christians in particular.  So, he had a “question” for me – more like throwing down the gauntlet.  Our conversation bobbed and weaved around the general issues of theodicy: Why would a good God make a world that has disasters as well as evil people, including Christians?  Why then believe there is a God?  I spoke about God being relational and the need to seek God, about God entering human suffering in Jesus, etc.  He was not ready for any of that.  At one point I mentioned that the commandments are summed up by, “Love God with your whole heart… and your neighbor as yourself.”  His reply was that he could not love a God he did not believe in, but he did love his neighbors.  I put my hand on his shoulder, looked him in the eyes, and said, “Whether or not you believe in God, when you love your neighbor, you are being God’s representative and that makes you my brother.”  He nodded.  There was peace.
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Lord, thank you for people like Tom who is serving as your representatives even when they do not know it.  Please forgive me and the Church for our failure to attract people like Tom to Jesus.  Please draw him and all estranged people, people made in your image, into your Presence.  Amen.

THE SUFFICIENCY OF JESUS

 Just a brief thought.  In my devotions today there was a quotation “He asks too much to whom God is not sufficient.”*  Yes.
      I have commented before on poor billboard theology, “Jesus is the answer to all your problems.”  No!  Jesus neither solves nor takes away the problems of life.  He walks with us through them – sometimes carries us through them.  That is the sufficiency of God.
     The composer of Psalm 73 gave his testimony at the temple about how threatening it was to his faith to see unrighteous people boast about their violence and prosperity while he practiced righteousness and suffered (2-14).  But when he encountered the Presence of God (17) his perspective changed.  To paraphrase him: “When I saw past my bitter ignorance, I realized you are always with me holding my hand!” (21-23).  Rather than having all problems solved, he states, “My flesh and my heart will fail.  God is the strength of my heart and my security forever” (26).  That is to say, “God is sufficient for me!”  When I am discontent, I am the one not clinging to the Presence of Jesus.
      Lord, when I face the problems of life, open my eyes to see that you have me by my hand.  Amen.
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*Taken from Baillie, A Dairy of Private Prayer, Day 25, who quotes an unnamed source.

Dogs, Evolution, and the Body of Christ(1)

I watched an animal show with one of my grand-daughters recently.  It stated that dogs evolved from wolves.  That is an outdated genetic distinction.²  However, the point was that domesticated dogs proliferate our world while wolves do not.  The reason is not due to survival of the fittest, but due to survival through cooperative relationships that happened as dogs became domesticated.  Interestingly, cooperation is actually found on many levels of biological organization down to single-cell organisms that join together for greater survival.  It is one explanation given for the emergence of the specialization of cells in multi-cell organisms.  In evolutionary biology, a cooperator is someone who pays a cost for another individual to benefit.³  

This biological notion of cooperative relationships at a cost to the individual got me thinking about this principle is true for the Body of Christ along two lines.  As is well known, Paul uses the body metaphor quite seriously.

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ….¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be….  God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  (excerpts from 1 Cor. 12:12-26 NIV).

The first point, then, is that we are called to pay a cost not to think of ourselves first, but to “have equal concern for each other” (12:25).  Our gifts, talents, time and effort are not first for ourselves, but first for the purpose of serving the Body of Christ.  The Church does not thrive by capitalistic principles or by operating on a business model.  It runs by cooperatively submitting oneself and one’s abilities to service in the Body.  What would that look like for me?  What would that look like in my local church?  

My second thought was that the growth of the Body of Christ through evangelism also should operate by cooperative relationships that come at a cost to the individual.  Is not that what Jesus was indicating when Jesus called his disciples together and said:

⁴²  “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45, NIV)

 When Christians become slaves to all people, they are creating cooperative relationships at a cost to themselves for the benefit of others.  That is when people are attracted to Jesus and the Body of Christ grows in number.  I wonder what that would look like for me?  I wonder what that would look like in my local church?

 Is it not interesting that the principle of cooperative relationship that promotes the thriving of life from the lowest biological level to the most complex, is also true spiritually?
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¹ In order to make a comment on evolution in a “devotion,” I will quality where I stand based on the history of the issue of science and the Bible.  When Darwin’s theory of evolution was presented, some of the best British Bible scholars and theologians, had no problem with it (e.g. B.B. Warfield, James Orr).  In their understanding of biblical inerrancy and reliability, which undergirded classical evangelicalism, the Bible was not to be read as a science text.  Some of them went on to write essays on returning to the fundamentals of the faith, essays that led to the start of Fundamentalism.  (So, too, the late Billy Graham said that if God used evolution as a mechanism in creation, it would not threaten the purposes of Scripture.)  Ironically, “creation science,” which seeks to read the Bible scientifically, was birthed in the 1920’s when Fundamentalists ignored their own founding essays and formed a strange alliance with Seventh Day Adventists who wanted to defend the visions and teaching of Ellen White on creation with “science.”  I agree with Warfield, Orr, Billy Graham, and a host of good Bible scholars that the Bible, specifically the introductory Genesis texts, should not be read as science.
² Dogs were once classified as Canis familiaris and wolves as Canis lupus, but now dogs are recognized as within the same species, Canis lupus familiaris.
³ Martin A. Nowak, “Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation,” Science, Vol. 314, Issue 5805 (Dec. 8, 2006): 1560-1563.  *https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279745/

THE KINGDOM OF GOD: PART 1, THE LOST GOSPEL*

 I wonder how many church people know the first words out of Jesus’ mouth in the Gospel of Mark?  Those words are a summary of what Jesus travelled around preaching:

And after John had been handed over [into custody], Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel [great proclamation] of God, and saying, "The appointed time is fulfilled [by God is implied] and the kingdom of God has approached!  Repent and believe in the gospel!" (Mk. 1:14-15)

Also, most Christians pray every Sunday the one prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray.  Still, I wonder how many church people know for what are we praying?

“Our Father in heaven [that is, sovereign, above all]:
    Your name [divine character] be venerated!
    Your kingdom [sovereign rule] come!
    Your will, as it is in heaven, be done on earth!”… (Matt. 6:9-10)

Development:
So, what is the Kingdom of God?  The Kingdom of God is a Jewish (Old Testament) concept.  This Jewish belief which Jesus and the NT taught, is an acknowledgement that our present age/creation is corrupt, but that God will bring about a new, incorruptible age/creation.  (See Isaiah 65:17-25 and Revelation 21:1-4.)  God’s kingdom/rule will be perfected in this future creation.  However, and most importantly, Jesus modified this understanding through his preaching and by his deeds, that is through the totality of his incarnation, life, death and resurrection.  Jesus taught that although God’s perfect rule will come to completion in the future at Jesus’ Second Coming, God’s Kingdom had irrupted into the present age/creation with Jesus’ Presence in the world.  For this reason, those who entrust themselves to Jesus become participants in God’s Kingdom now and have eternal life now.  (See devotional post of Oct. 11, 2023, “The When of Eternal Life: It Matters”).  Those who die in Christ before his Second Coming “wait” for the resurrection of the dead and this new age/creation.
    Pop-cultural Christianity overlooks this biblical teaching when it talks about dying and then “going to heaven” to get eternal life.  (See post of Oct. 14, 2023, “Where is Paradise?  Does the Criminal on the Cross Go to Heaven?”)  Ironically, many Christians every week unknowingly affirm the correct biblical teaching when they recite the Nicene Creed where it states in reference to the new age/creation:

He [Jesus] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end….
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Application:
Absorbing this teaching of the Kingdom of God transforms the Christian’s life away from the pop-cultural expectations to real life in Christ.  My life now is not about someday going to heaven to get eternal life.  I have eternal life now.  My life now is that I am called as a disciple of Jesus to participate in Jesus’ Kingdom now.  (Using another biblical analogy, this is what it means to live as a member of the Body of Christ.)  My ultimate purpose in life is to be available to Jesus now.  I am to open my eyes to see how Jesus is at work around me and to raise my hand every morning and say, “Here am I, send me!”  (Isaiah 6:8).  I am to recognize the abilities and spiritual gifts God has given me and ask Jesus to use them in my daily life, whatever my circumstances and vocation might be.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD: PART 2, THE PRESENT STRUGGLE

Having stated the glorious truth above, I was thinking this morning how I get disappointed with unrighteousness in the world and with life’s daily struggles.  Just as those with poor theology cannot wait “to get to heaven,” I get discouraged about not seeing God’s Kingdom growing fruitfully in the present.  But, Jesus anticipated this kind of discouragement, and Matthew’s Gospel structures his message to highlight Jesus’ response of encouragement.

Development:
Jesus’ disciples would have expected that when God’s Messiah came, he would proclaim the entry of the new age/creation and change would immediately happen.  Instead, as mentioned above, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God coming now with his Presence, but not being fully consummated until his Second Coming.  In Matthew, Jesus “Parable of the Weeds” presents this teaching.  Even though a farmer has sowed good seeds, an enemy has sowed weed in the same field.  We must wait until the harvest (the Second Coming) to separate the two and put an end to evil.  (See the telling of the parable in Matt 13:24-30, and Jesus’ explanation of it to his disciples in Matt 13:36-43.)  When the disciples heard this parable, they must have been confused and discouraged.  Waiting is hard.  They (and I) would want all chaos and evil eliminated now.  However, Matthew’s Gospel has placed two other parables of Jesus between Jesus’ telling and explanation of the disappointing “Parable of the Weeds.”  These two short parables make all the difference, the “Parable of the Mustard Seed” and the “Parable of the Yeast” (Matt 13:31-33).  Both parables address the role of the Kingdom of God in the present age.  The Kingdom now is like a tiny seed that seems insignificant but will grow into a pleasant shade tree in one’s garden.  The Kingdom now is like yeast, which one cannot see, but which transforms a lump of dough into the bread of life.

Application:
I was reminded of two things that addressed my discouragement this morning.  First, I do not and never will see as God sees.  I cannot see that tiny mustard seed growing underground.  I cannot see yeast working its way through the dough.  I do not see what God is doing in people’s hearts.  Yet, Jesus is presently at work in this world and transformation is taking place in people’s lives.  Second, I recalled the grace of God that I have experienced in the past:

This I recall to my heart; upon this I rest:
The acts of loving faithfulness of the LORD -- that they are never finished, that His tender mercies never end!  New [they are] every morning!  Abundant is Your steadfastness!
(Lam 3:22-23.  Note: I love the poetic exuberance in the Hebrew.)

Lord, grant that I might live today and everyday as a faithful member of your Kingdom.  May your rule, as it is in heaven, be manifest in my life today to your glory.  May the “yeast” of your Holy Spirit be at work in and through me and your Body.  Amen.
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*I started a devotional thought on one aspect of the Kingdom of God, but had to supply so much background, I divided it into two parts.  Part 1 is foundational background.  Part 2 is about my current struggle and application.

CONFESSION IS IMPERATIVE: WHY?

 I read the following statement in a devotion today, “Nothing new happens without apology and forgiveness.”#  The subject was confession.  (“Confession” both in the OT and NT has the basic sense of acknowledging something.)  I suppose most Christians are familiar with, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9).  Why is confession imperative?  It is necessary for cleansing/forgiveness.

I was reminded of a mystery of the OT atonement system, about which I wrote earlier.*  In that system, the symbolic pollution of non-high-handed” (inadvertent) sins that impedes relationship with God may be purified and the relationship restored through God’s forgiveness.  “High-handed” (deliberate) sins cannot be addressed.  Technically, a purification offering cannot be made for them, so there is no forgiveness.  However, once the people confess their sins, then a purification offering becomes acceptable!  (See Lev 5:5-6a).  The mechanism of confession is not discussed.  (Numbers and Leviticus often relate what is done in a ritual but not why, probably because the actions were grounded in a cultural symbolism system that was apparent to the Israelites.)  The amazing implication, though, is that confession “reduces” the level of sin so that it can be addressed through the atonement system.  The above observation lends itself to speculate on the theology of confession. 

From my experience, the psychological aspect of confession sheds light on the theological.  I recall an experience as a young Christian.  I was a passenger in a car trip with a friend whom I knew I had offended.  I knew I needed to apologize and ask for forgiveness, but I just could not get the words out.  The drive went on and on in silence.  Each time I was determined to speak, it was too hard.  It felt almost self-destructive.  Finally, when I did speak up, there was an immense sense of relief, and a healing of our relationship.  That effort actually was self-destructive – in a good sense.  I would propose this analogy.  My “heart” (the OT sense includes self-awareness, conscience, reflection, and volition) was “hardened” by layers of accreted callouses.  My act of confession, in which I acknowledge my sin and asked for forgiveness, was an act of tearing away a layer of the callouses of a hardened heart.  It hurt; but, this act opened my heart a little more to the Presence of God.

The theological implication to me is that the unrepentant heart of the person who commits deliberate sins is not in a state that allows for relationship with God.  God is full of grace and mercy and willing to restore relationship, but it takes two people in accord for a healthy relationship to take place.  The person who is truly repentant, a state present when confession is sincere, has the kind of heart that is necessary, one that submits itself in entrustment to God.  God always honors that "soft" heart and responds with forgiveness and restoration.  So, the statement that caught my attention today is correct, “Nothing new happens without apology and forgiveness.”  Confession results in something new, a new state of one’s heart and a new openness to restored relationships.

Lord, Jesus, I recognize that confession is imperative in my life to continue to walk with you.  It is hard for me to do.  I confess that I am daily prone to wander from you and at times deliberately do what is contrary to your will.  Expose all of those times by the light of the Holy Spirit.  Make me as uneasy as the time I spent in the car with my friend.  I want to see and acknowledge all of those transgressions before you.  I want to stay close to you. Amen.

TEMPTATION, THE MIND, AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE

 I wish all new Christians had a basic lesson on temptation.  The NT puts temptation in the realm of spiritual warfare.  That topic reminds me of an irony.  On the one hand, I have an atheistic-leaning philosophy colleague who once mentioned that he believed in the reality of an evil dimension and wondered if he should then believe in a dimension of good, of God.  On the other hand, many Christians reject the notion of a spiritual reality of darkness.  I worry that it is dangerous for the Church to neglect this issue when teaching about temptation.  (Below: I do not like to string “proof texts” together, but the following ones will make my main point and hopefully will encourage further study.)

The “Battlefield” of the Mind
Our movement into sinful behavior starts with our inner, thought-life.  That is where Christians are to confront their own sinful tendency.  James gives us the process by which sin is birthed.  It starts with our own "natural" human desires:

… but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15, NIV)

Moreover, Paul lets us know that the thought-life is the location of spiritual warfare:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor 10:3-5, NIV)

To be fair to the context of 2 Corinthians, Paul is initially speaking of the teachings and arguments of his opposition (strongholds and arguments); however, as he moves toward “we take captive every thought” (noama), his focus shifts to the inner thought-life of each person, because it is in the mind that we are led astray.  For example, in a few verses following, he mentions:

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Cor 11:3, NIV).

Or one might refer to:

They [Gentiles] are darkened in their understanding [dianoia – from same semantic range as noama] and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Eph 4:18 NIV)

Christians are to guard and renew their minds in Christ:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed* by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom 12:2 NIV)

The temptations we face are quite normal:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1Cor 10:13, NIV)

Yet, when we live in Christ (participatory theology), we are empowered to overcome temptations:

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Heb 2:18, NIV)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Heb 4:15-16, NIV)

Application
We live in a culture that blithely accepts that who we are is what we think and feel.  Moreover, in terms of neurology, it is true that the brain is “addictive.”  That is to say, our mental processes easily become thought patterns into which we become “locked.”  However, biblical teaching is consistent about holding us responsible for our inner thought-life ("heart" and "mind"), because that is where deception and sin are birthed.  An early lesson in Christian living should teach us that we are to engage and “battle” ungodly thoughts and desires so that our minds might be transformed in Christ.
    This inner life is also the realm of spiritual “warfare.”  I think the following statement I once heard is on the right track: “As an infection is to a cut, so is the spiritual realm of darkness to our normal pathologies.”  That is to say, just as we all get cuts and scrapes, we all have normal weaknesses and temptations; but, there is a spiritual dimension in life that can destructively exacerbate our weaknesses.  For example, “the Satan” in Hebrew means “the adversary” to God.  The notion is that there is some real adversarial activity that we experience.
    So, how do we “battle” for the mind?  We are to take our thoughts captive for Christ.  I will give a personal example.  It is not atypical for me as a male to see a woman and have a lustful thought.  Temptation is normal.  However, it is my responsibility to make sure that such temptation does not germinate.  The pattern I have tried to develop is to turn the temptation around into something good.  To myself, I pray, “Lord, bless this woman, and cleanse my thought-life.”  I find that blessing someone personalizes them and changes my thinking about them.  My main point is that who I am is not simply a matter of what thoughts and desires come to mind, but how I allow Christ to transform my heart and mind.
    Moreover, besides stopping thoughts that are contrary to God, we are also to nurture positive thoughts:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-- think about such things. (Phi 4:8, NIV)

 Lord, you know that I am frail and weak in myself.  Help me in Christ to guard my thoughts and nurture them that they might be pleasing to you.  Amen.
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*Re: "be transformed."  English cannot quite capture the sense here of what is called the “middle voice” in Greek.  The idea is that the subject “you” acts in cooperation with the agency of God to effect transformation.