Category Archives: Theology

The virtue of faith

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in Apologetics, Theology

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The word “faith” is used in many ways today. It is important to understand correctly what faith is, because the Bible is very clear that faith is a requirement for salvation (Eph 2:8; Heb 11:6). The faith which is necessary for salvation is, specifically, faith in God, in His Son, and in the Christian gospel. But the New Testament also uses the term “faith” in a broader sense, such as when Jesus admonished Peter for having little faith (Matt 14:31). Faith has two components: belief (intellectual) and trust (volitional). Faith is never a leap in the dark. It is rational trust.

It is common for people today to speak of misguided or false faith—that is, a belief/trust in the wrong thing. But the Bible presents faith as a virtue. Faith is listed among the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Faith is listed among the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:9 (cf. 1 Cor 13:2). Faith is everywhere spoken of positively in the New Testament.

The classical virtues are often defined as a mean between two extremes, and faith may be defined as a mean between gullibility and skepticism. Faith, like love and joy, is always a virtue if exercised according to the proper sense of the term. There is therefore no such thing as misguided or false faith, properly speaking. One may have misplaced trust or false beliefs, but the English word “faith” traditionally was used solely to describe a virtue. Faith is always right, if it is true faith (cf. 2 Thess 3:2). Today, non-Christian religions are commonly called other “faiths,” but properly speaking they are other religions or cults. Their truth-claims are lies, and their followers are gullible, deceived, and depraved. They have no claim to the virtue of faith.

How does one avoid both gullibility and skepticism, and only place his faith in what is true and right? How does one know whether to be trusting or skeptical? The answer has to do with character and holiness. Every truth-claim that one is presented with is made by some person or group of people. If the person is honest, moral, upright, and holy in every respect, we ought to be inclined to believe the claims he makes. However, if the person has some character flaw, we ought to be skeptical or disbelieving, no matter how convincing he may sound. In the end, there is only One whom we may trust absolutely, and that is the One who is absolutely holy—namely, the triune God. What God says is to be believed without question, because it is impossible for God to lie or deceive or to be mistaken (Num 23:19; Tit 1:2; Heb 6:18). The Bible presents a moral standard that is higher, holier, truer, more pure, and more just than any human standard ever devised. The character of God’s people is qualitatively different than the character of unbelievers. This shows that the Bible is God’s Word, and that God is absolutely holy and trustworthy. What godly men say, we are to be inclined to believe, though we must compare what they say to what God has said as the ultimate standard. This is an important principle, which therefore bears repeating: faith is to be exercised in proportion to the character of the one making the claim, with all claims to be measured against the claims made by the triune God, who is the only perfectly trustworthy One. So how do you know whether to believe someone? You know on the basis of his character.

An illustration: in a court of law, if two witnesses tell different stories, the court examines the character of the witnesses. If one witness has a bad reputation and poor character, and the other witness has a good reputation and high character, the witness with the better character is trusted. When it comes to spiritual matters, the contrast could not be any clearer. God is holy, and the fruit of the Spirit is entirely good. Satan is evil, and he and his followers are entirely bad. So when Satan contradicts what God says, what should you do? Should you say, “Well, that sounds plausible—now I’m confused”? No way! Believe the Witness whose character is perfect, for He can be trusted to tell the truth.

In my next post, I will look more specifically at the rationality of faith—that is, the relationship between faith and reason.

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A critique of Amish theology and practice

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Theology

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This is the last of a series of three posts on the Amish. In this post, I will examine some of the theological problems with the Amish form of Christianity, while also recognizing commendable aspects of the Amish.

First, let me recognize that there is some variation among different groups of Amish, and what is said of some may not be true of others. But many ex-Amish will affirm unequivocally that the Amish are not genuine Christians. That is, they will say that the Amish are Christian in name and outward form only, and not in reality. Although I do not have personal experience in an Amish church, I assume this is because salvation in the Amish church is equated with baptism and church membership, with no teaching about the need to be converted at a specific point in time. Surely there is a point in time when every genuine Christian went from not having a relationship with God to having a relationship with God, from being lost to being saved, from not having the Holy Spirit to having the Holy Spirit, from not having his sins forgiven to having his sins forgiven, and so forth. In churches where there is no teaching regarding the need for a conversion experience, in fact most people in those churches have never had a conversion experience, i.e., a time in which they have prayed to ask God to save them, confessing their sins and their faith in Christ. But one cannot be saved by works, even if those works are baptism and church membership. If, as it seems, the Amish indeed do hold to a form of salvation by works, this would be their largest and most consequential error.

The requirement to take oaths in order to be baptized and join the Amish church is certainly unbiblical. The only biblical requirement for baptism is that one has been saved (by confessing one’s faith in Jesus as the crucified and risen Son of God, and asking God to forgive one’s sins through the blood of Jesus). Likewise, the only biblical requirement for joining a local church is to be saved and baptized. The Amish practice of swearing oaths to join the Amish community evidently originated in Jakob Ammann’s belief that the Amish were the only group of true Christians, and that therefore one could not be saved without accepting the Amish form of Christianity; however, this belief could only be correct if salvation were by works, and salvation is not by works (cf. Eph 2:8-9). Admittedly, there are numerous other Christian churches and denominations that maintain unbiblical requirements for baptism, and that require subscription to a church covenant in order to become a member of the church, but the oaths required by the Amish are particularly burdensome, and the Amish practice of shunning is severe.

The Amish belief in pacifism is certainly unbiblical. The pacifism of the Amish and Mennonites was a natural reaction to the savage persecution they endured at the hands of their “Christian” neighbors—whether those neighbors were Reformed, Lutheran, or Catholic. Those persecutions engendered a very passionate opposition among Anabaptists to any and all forms of physical violence. But Exodus 22:1-4, for example, affirms that it is no sin for someone to kill a man who breaks into his house at night. Warfare was frequently commanded by God during the Old Testament era, and in the New Testament the right of the state to wield the sword is affirmed in Romans 13:4 (cf. Luke 22:36).

An extreme aspect to the Amish pacifism is their opposition to proselytizing. This aspect of Amish theology is certainly unbiblical, given all the New Testament exhortations to preach the gospel, and all the New Testament examples of the apostles and their coworkers proselytizing unbelievers. One can see by this Amish practice the extent to which they follow tradition over Scripture. One also wonders how a Christian who truly cares about the lost people around him could refuse to share the gospel with them.

The Amish also seem not to care enough about the spiritual condition of their children. They take a “hands-off” approach to their children in their teenage years, not restraining them from participating in sinful activities. On the positive side, this ensures that their decision to join the church, if they do make that decision, is made of their own free will. But loving parents discipline their children, even as teenagers, and continually exhort and admonish them to do what is right.

The Amish insistence on a radical separation between church and state is another sour aftertaste from the persecutions they endured at the hands of state-sponsored churches. But there is nothing in the Bible which prohibits a government from adopting Christianity as its official religion, nor is there anything in the Bible which prohibits a Christian from participation in government.

The Amish opposition to higher education is probably necessary to preserve their identity. Education gives people the ability to think independently, which inevitably results in individuals contesting certain ideas held by the community. It is true that there have been many instances of young people departing from the teachings of Scripture after encountering anti-Christian ideas in academia, but it is also true that a church without education is a church which lacks depth and maturity. Christians have always promoted education as a means of understanding the Bible more fully and accurately, among other things.

On the positive side, the Amish could be compared to the Rechabites who are described in Jeremiah 35. The Rechabites were the descendants of Jonadab the son of Rechab, who was prominent at the beginning of Jehu’s reign, in 841 B.C. (2 Kgs 10:15-16). The events of Jeremiah 35 occurred about 240 years later. Jonadab had made his sons and their descendants swear to live as a separated people according to strict rules: they could not drink alcoholic beverages, they could not own property or valuable possessions, and they had to maintain a nomadic lifestyle. More than 200 years after Jonadab’s death, his descendants were still living according to the rules that he had set for them (Jer 35:6-10). Rather than ridicule the Rechabites as “legalists” or “weirdos” for making and keeping these peculiar vows, the prophet Jeremiah commended them, and blessed them in the name of the Lord. While the situation of the Amish is not identical to that of the Rechabites, the idea of living as a separated people who follow unique rules is not necessarily bad or unbiblical.

Certainly one must respect the courage and determination of a people who refuse so steadfastly to conform to the dictums of modern society and culture. Their rejection of modernity entails enduring considerable ridicule, and also enduring the hard work of performing all their labor by hand, without modern conveniences. It is true that there is a dark side to modern technology, and the Amish have avoided this dark side by refusing to accept technology. There is a sense in which one feels more authentically human on a quiet farm surrounded by crops and animals than in the artificial world of a modern city, full of streets and skyscrapers. Also, in a world filled with violence one finds something refreshing in the peaceableness of the Amish, even if their extreme of pacifism is not right. The Amish are a group of people who have clearly defined beliefs and strong values, which they practice with remarkable consistency.

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America’s sacred animal

01 Friday May 2015

Posted by in Current events, Theology

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It is well known that cattle are sacred to the Hindus of India. Recently there have been news stories about a law passed in the west Indian state of Maharashtra which prohibits the killing of cattle and the sale, possession, or consumption of beef. Even tigers and other carnivores at the Mumbai zoo are being made to eat white meat instead of red meat.

While the sacredness of cattle to the Hindus seems ridiculous to many people, and rightly so, I would like to suggest that the United States is in the process of making dogs (and their biggest wild relative, the wolf) a sacred animal. It seems that at least once a week I see a story on the local news in which someone is being prosecuted for killing a dog or for failing to properly care for a dog. Recently an overwhelming majority of voters in Michigan voted against allowing wolf hunting, even though biologists say that the wolf population is as high as or higher than it should be. Most people in Michigan and other states view the shooting of a wolf as something qualitatively different than the shooting of a deer, even though deer are docile animals and wolves are predators. (The wolves are eating so many deer that the DNR may cancel this year’s deer hunt in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the first time ever.) This is not just an American phenomenon, either—recently a group of Chinese animal rights activists laid down on the road in front of a truck that was carrying Tibetan mastiffs to a slaughterhouse, and proceeded to provide medical care for the dogs after “rescuing” them. (The popularity of Tibetan mastiffs in China declined sharply after numerous instances where they attacked and killed people.) Animal rights groups also objected several years ago when Baghdad police began to shoot some of the 1.25 million stray dogs in the city after they had developed a taste for human flesh and had begun attacking humans.

In the United States, it is illegal to sell dog or cat meat. In some states, it is illegal to eat dog meat for any reason. This is not too much different than laws in India which prohibit the butchering of cattle. Although I have never personally tasted dog meat, some of my Korean friends say that it is their favorite kind of meat, that it tastes like beef but is more tender. They can’t understand why it is illegal to sell and eat dog meat in the United States.

Since I don’t have pets, I am not exactly sure what the law requires of dog owners. But I wonder if someone could go to jail for not paying for surgery and chemotherapy if his dog has cancer. It seems that dog hospitals and clinics with 24-hour emergency rooms and advanced medical equipment keep proliferating, and health insurance for dogs is becoming commonplace. I would not be surprised to see the next version of Obamacare make health insurance for dogs mandatory. Nor would I be surprised to see hate speech laws expanded to criminalize derogatory remarks about dogs. Already in Michigan there are frequent rallies in defense of the pit bull, which is the most dangerous of all dog breeds.

I do not advocate unnecessary cruelty to animals, but at the same time it should be recognized that there is considerable confusion today about the difference between man and animals, due largely to the teaching of Darwinian evolution. I do not understand why people think that stray dogs and cats should be captured, then neutered and spayed or put in cages in the Humane Society, rather than shot and buried. I do not understand why a man who accidentally leaves a dog in a hot car, resulting in its death, should go to jail. That is an unfortunate accident, but from a biblical point of view killing a dog is not morally different than killing a rat.

The Bible teaches that man is qualitatively different than a dog or any other animal, because man alone was created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27; 9:5-6). People who talk about their pet dogs as their “children,” as many now do, are seriously mistaken. The word “murder” is used less and less today where it should be. Where news headlines used to read “Police investigating murder” they now read, e.g., “Police investigating shooting death” or “Police investigate fatal stabbing.” A murderer is now called a “homicide suspect” or a “man convicted of killing.” Perhaps this is because the word “murder” implies moral guilt, whereas problems today are said to be the result of environmental or psychological factors and not willful sin. But where I do hear the word “murder” used with greater frequency is with respect to people killing dogs. From a biblical point of view, animals can be killed, but they can never be murdered. Only man can be murdered, since only man is created in the image of God.

In the Bible, dogs are portrayed as among the basest of all animals (cf. 1 Sam 17:43; 24:14; 2 Sam 3:8; 9:8; 16:9; 2 Kgs 8:13; Job 30:1; Ps 22:16; Isa 66:3). Male prostitutes are called “dogs” in Deuteronomy 23:18. Paul calls false teachers “dogs” in Philippians 3:2. Jesus warned more than once against giving good things to “dogs” (Matt 7:6; 15:26; Mark 7:27). The book of Revelation uses the term “dogs” to represent people who are loathsome and unclean (Rev 22:15).

While as an unclean animal dogs could not be eaten under the Mosaic Law, the New Testament affirms that all types of animal meat—including dogs—are now permissible to eat, since the Law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Mark 7:19; Acts 10:9-16). Before the Mosaic Law, as well, it was perfectly permissible to eat dog meat (Gen 9:2-4). Dogs can make fun pets and can be useful for such tasks as protection and hunting, but they are animals—they are not human. Even in comparison to other animals, dogs do not have superior status; they are, in fact, singled out in the Bible as among the most despicable of all animals. The veneration of dogs in the United States would seem, then, to be a mark of a society that has departed from God and from a biblical way of thinking.

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A funeral, and some reflections on death

06 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by in Theology

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Yesterday was the funeral for my maternal grandmother, who was my last surviving grandparent. This has prompted a few thoughts on death and dying.

First, an outline theology of death and dying from the Bible.

  1. The Bible presents death as an enemy, both of man and of God (1 Cor 15:26). Death was never part of God’s original plan for the human race; it came into the world as a punishment for Adam’s sin (Rom 5:12-21). Death is emotionally and psychologically difficult for us to deal with because it is something that God did not originally intend for us to have to deal with.
  2. Jesus Christ has conquered death (Acts 2:24; Rev 1:18).
  3. Satan uses the fear of death to enslave (Heb 2:14-15).
  4. Believers in God have passed out of death into life (John 5:24).
  5. The one who keeps Christ’s Word does not see death (John 8:51, referring to eternal or ultimate death).
  6. The one who is “in Christ” has shared in His death and resurrection (Rom 6:3-4). Jesus tasted death for every man (Heb 2:9).
  7. God has written the last chapter to show how it all turns out. This brings us hope. One preacher said, “I read the back of the book, and we win.” No matter how much grief and suffering we may endure in this life, for those who have accepted God’s offer of salvation there will come a day when all grief, pain, and sorrow will be ended forever (Rev 21:4).

Another reflection: it is evident from the way most people treat death today that they do not believe in an afterlife. It used to be in America, that rich and prominent people sought to be remembered after they died by building great monuments at their planned gravesite—mausoleums, chapels, pillars, and so forth. They did this because they believed there is life after death, and they wanted to leave a continuing legacy and a remembrance of themselves. In fact, it was normal for people to visit cemeteries to remember the dead and pay their respects, with the understanding that the dead person’s soul was still in conscious existence, and that the dead body in the ground still belonged to that person and would someday be raised. (Side note: Bellefontaine Cemetery was the most-visited tourist attraction in St. Louis circa 1900.) Throughout the whole history of the world, it has been common for prominent men to build great grave markers for themselves, and for others to come and visit their gravesites. Today, however, the dominant attitude seems to be, “Death is eternal annihilation, so I’ll just live for the here and now, and I don’t care what they do with my corpse or how they will remember me after I’m dead.” There are few great tomb monuments these days, and many cemeteries and funeral parlors are struggling for business.

The great increase in cremation is another sign that most people no longer believe in an afterlife, resulting in a failure to view the body as sacred or spiritual. A dead body is viewed as nothing more than a clump of matter, to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective manner. But historically, and in the Bible, a proper burial was viewed as an honorable thing, while the burning or desecration of one’s corpse was a great dishonor (cf. 2 Kgs 9:35-37; Eccl 6:3; Jer 22:19; 36:30; Amos 2:1). While God is able to raise a cremated body back to life, Christians traditionally buried their dead, placing their bodies in the ground in hope of resurrection. The body was treated as a sacred thing, not as garbage, since it was recognized that it was made in the image of God, and that it will be used again in a new form.

Our society tries to sterilize death, and to avoid truly coming to grips with one’s eternal destiny. The death of a family member is a time when the subject cannot, and should not, be avoided.

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What does the Bible teach about hell and eternal punishment?

30 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by in Apologetics, Theology

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I have published a short $2.99 Kindle ebook entitled The Bible’s Teaching on Endless Punishment, and Objections to It—just in time for Halloween. (No, you don’t need to own a Kindle device to read it—there are free Kindle readers for computers, tablets, and phones.) A few thoughts excerpted from the book:

  • The Bible describes three compartments in the underworld: Hades, the abyss, and the lake of fire. Most modern writers use the term “hell” when referring to any or all compartments of the underworld.
  • People who say that a loving God would not send people to hell generally also struggle to explain the existence of evil and suffering in the world in which we live. How can a loving God permit so much pain and wickedness in the world? This is a real problem for people who deny a literal hell because if justice is not served in this life then it is not served at all, and it obviously is not served in this life. God’s tolerance of evil in the world can only be explained if it is recognized that every sin will someday receive the punishment that it deserves.
  • People would not get upset about the Bible’s teaching on hell and eternal torment if there were no such thing in reality. If hell really were a ridiculous, fairy-tale concept, unbelievers would not care if some people accept the idea. The reason it bothers them is because they have an inner sense that it is real (Heb 2:15; 10:27).
  • Pastors who believe in annihilationism or universalism lose the ability to preach with authority. They can only make recommendations regarding what people should be doing, but can never say they must do it, and cannot prove that the way we live life has any eternal significance. One formerly universalist pastor says, “My religion was reduced to a self-help methodology, a happy way to cope with life. I became a moralist, a counselor, a two-bit pop psychologist” (David Hanson, The Art of Pastoring [Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1994], 85).
  • Objection: The New Testament reveals the love of God in Christ in a way that is incompatible with a doctrine of hell and eternal punishment. This is the official position of the Church of England. The problem with it is, the New Testament contains many more references to hell and eternal punishment than the Old Testament (234 out of the 260 chapters in the New Testament say something about judgment), and the majority of these New Testament references are statements made by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Those who say that Jesus is too loving to send anybody to hell are selectively choosing to accept only those sayings of Jesus that they like, while rejecting or ignoring the ones they find offensive. The New Testament actually gives a much clearer and fuller revelation of the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment than the Old Testament, and it does so primarily through Jesus’ direct teaching. Also, the message of the gospel is that Jesus had to die for the sins of the world because sin demands punishment, and the only punishment that will satisfy the demands of justice is death. The cross is robbed of its purpose and significance if there is no such thing as a second death. If God does not give those who reject Christ’s atonement the same penalty for sin as was applied to His Son, then there never was any real need for a sacrificial death to atone for sin, and there is a real question as to the fairness of the cross itself.

This is objection #1 that I present in the book, but I believe the real objection is #7: The lake of fire is horrible and disturbing beyond comprehension, and I cannot accept a doctrine that is so appalling and awful. An even deeper objection lies behind this one—I like to sin, and I want to believe that I can get away with it. You can read my answer to these objections and more in the book.

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