KNOWING THAT IDEAS TAKE CAPTIVES

"People don't have ideas, ideas have people."

Carl Jung's profound insight is the sort whose application spreads ever further the more you think on it. 

It strikes me that for the preacher, there's a two-sided application.

A preacher should:

1 - Seek to understand which foreign ideas already own a part of your congregation's heart and mind. What philosophical barnacles are already attached to the hull of their "gospel". (There's a real possibility in many congregations of more barnacle than hull.)

2 - Work towards the grand "idea" of Christ owning every member individually and the congregation as a whole. If Jesus is presented in His full glory and splendor, He is an "idea" worthy of taking captive every thought, word, and deed. 

Logically, it seems to me that #1 has to be explored thoroughly before #2 can hope to be a possibility.

SYNCRETISM

Syncretism - "the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion." (dictionary.com)

It's such a cool word - but such a terrible reality within the Body of Christ.

"Syncretism" is when someone decides that Jesus Christ is not enough and turns Christianity into a formula: "Jesus plus something else = salvation". 

For example, I had a couple of Mormons wanting to convince me that Jesus is the Way to salvation as long as I was baptized by the proper authorities. 

I think, too, of Haiti. I once heard someone describe Haiti's spiritual makeup as "90% Christian and 100% voodoo". When Christianity was introduced to Haiti, it didn't replace the old pagan African beliefs - too often the two belief systems simply intermixed. 

This is syncretism on a large scale, but I think many present-day American believers have a syncretistic faith on an individual level. They have accumulated unnecessary baggage on top of their core biblical belief system. 

And sometimes, like in the case of Haitian spirituality, the non-biblical beliefs have deeper roots. [And, yes, I would classify Calvinism as a type of syncretism. Thanks, St. Augustine.]

False teachers always seem to locate plenty of fertile ground for syncretistic beliefs. 

This is what Paul is warning the church of Colossae about in the second chapter of his letter to the believers there. 

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

Ideas have amazing power to take people captive. 

If the internet is to be trusted, it was Carl Jung who said, “People don't have ideas. Ideas have people.”

Ideas are sticky things. 

Along with teaching truth, a good teacher/preacher needs to be aware of what falsities have taken up residence in the minds of the congregation.

Syncretistic beliefs must be brought to light and pried loose. 

KINGDOM TALK

I skipped writing last night because I wanted to get to bed "early" - 10:15 pm. 

In general, I am starting to recall that I would feel a lot better if I had a more regular bedtime routine at an earlier hour.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 2:45 am, so it didn't necessarily help. I will try again tonight!

Anyway - Now it is 5 am and I am still ruminating on Dallas Willard's words in The Divine Conspiracy. I am resonating with his observations about the lack of a proper preaching focus in the American church. 

What important topic is lacking, according to Willard?

The very thing that Jesus Himself focused on: the Kingdom of God.

Speaking of the sort of vibrant life which disciples of Christ ought to be living, Willard writes:

"This cannot come about unless what Jesus himself believed practiced, and taught makes sense to us." (Emphasis in original, p. 59)

(THERE is the need for proper teaching. The gospel has to be explained in a way as to make sense to believers. You can't "live out" something which is muddled in your own head.)

"And [Jesus'] message must come to us free of the deadening legalisms, political sloganeering, and dogmatic traditionalisms long proven by history to be soul-crushing dead ends."

(Amen! All three of these continue to be issues within the church today.)

"Obviously it does not so come to us now, and this is a fact widely recognized." 

"At the 1974 Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization, Michael Green asked rhetorically, 'How much have you heard here about the Kingdom of God?' His answer was, 'Not much. It is not our language. But it was Jesus' prime concern.'"

(Yes! Why have we latched on to a phrase used once in one gospel (John) - "born again" - and completely skimmed over "Kingdom of God" and "Kingdom of Heaven", which are used repeatedly throughout the gospels?)

"Dr. I. Howard Marshall of the University of Aberdeen has commented, 'During the past sixteen years I can recollect only two occasions on which I have heard sermons specifically devoted to the theme of the Kingdom of God. ... I find this silence rather surprising because it is universally agreed by New Testament scholars that the central theme of the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.'" (p.59)

How has this happened? 

How does it get reversed?

JESUS THE TEACHER

Just a relevant quote from Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy tonight - one which echoes much of my thinking about current American church trends and where the disconnect lies:

The situation we have just described - the disconnection of life from faith, the absence from our churches of Jesus the teacher - is not caused by the wicked world, by social oppression, or by the stubborn meanness of the people who come to our church services and carry on the work of our congregations. It is largely caused and sustained by the basic message that we constantly hear from Christian pulpits. We are flooded with what I have called "gospels of sin management," in one form or another, while Jesus' invitation to eternal life now - right in the midst of work, business, and profession - remains for the most part ignored and unspoken. (p.57)

He continues:

We who profess Christianity will believe what is constantly presented to us as gospel. If gospels of sin management are preached, they are what Christians will believe. And those in the wider world who reject those gospels will believe that what they have rejected is the gospel of Jesus Christ himself - when, in fact, they haven't yet heard it.

And so we have the result noted: the resources of God's kingdom remain detached from human life. There is no gospel for human life and Christian discipleship, just one for death or one for social action. The souls of human beings are left to shrivel and die on the plains of life because they are not introduced into the environment for which they were made, the living kingdom of eternal life. (p.58)

3 MEN MAKE A TIGER

Tonight, I just want to share an old Chinese parable as retold by author Sahil Bloom:

A minister approached the king and asked, "If one person came to you and claimed there was a tiger in the marketplace, would you believe it?"

​The king replied, "No, of course not."

​The minister continued, "What if two people claimed there was a tiger in the marketplace?"

​The king paused and said, "I might begin to have some doubt."

​Finally, the minister asked, "And what if three people all insisted there was a tiger in the marketplace?"

​The king responded, "If three people claimed it, I would believe there’s a tiger."

​The minister concluded, "Your Majesty, there is no tiger in the marketplace, yet with enough voices, even the most absurd claim can seem true."

This is a good lesson to keep in mind whenever you hear a preacher repeat illustrations, analogies, and even theological propositions that they have heard from other preachers or seminary professors. 

This is on my mind because I watched a few clips from a documentary made about 5 years ago, American Gospel: Christ Alone. 

Nowhere does it identify itself as Calvinist propaganda, but that is what the movie is. 

As a whole, apparently, it takes aim at the "prosperity gospel" and I'm all for that. But what is held up as the proper gospel in its stead? 

None other than Penal Substitutionary Atonement: 

Propelled by an unwavering devotion to "justice", the Father has to "pour out His wrath" and inflict punishment on His own Son as our substitute in order to forgive us.

Having 50 men repeat that lie on camera for 2 hours straight just might convince some people there's a tiger in the marketplace.

Hopefully not too many. 

I was pleasantly surprised - and a bit amused - to find that I could not watch the whole documentary because it is behind a paywall!

Apparently, sharing the gospel is out and selling the gospel is in. 

QUICK TRIP TO EL PASO

The original spring break plan was that Sarah was going to El Salvador for a week with a group from the church in Columbus and Melissa and I were going to spend time sorting through all the things that still need attention at her mom's house.

But then Caleb called and said he would be off work the first weekend of our break along with the following Monday and Tuesday and wondered if we might come down to visit El Paso.

We didn't need to think about that one too long - we have been eager to see his new home territory and meet some of his current friends. So we got some airline tickets - leaving Louisville around 8 pm Friday night after Melissa finished her week at school, spending 5 days in Texas, and then returning this past Wednesday evening. 

We thoroughly enjoyed seeing Caleb's house, the Army base, attending church with him, making a roadtrip to New Mexico, and meeting his friends. I believe we made the most of the few days the Lord gave us together.

To begin with, here's Caleb's house and "yard". (I don't think I would enjoy living in the desert myself.)

The El Paso Museum of "Art". (At least it was free.)

Artsy benches outside.

Caleb grilled some hamburgers for us and some of his friends on Saturday night in his backyard.

Interestingly, Caleb has made the local Anglican church his current spiritual home. It was a great service filled with liturgy and tradition. 

Sunday after church we found a cute little farmers' market, making for a very pleasant afternoon. 

On Monday morning, Caleb and I hiked up a local mountain to explore some abandoned tin mines, guided by a friend of his from church, Tim. It was a bit of a workout - about 6 miles round trip - but the scenery was beautiful and the mines were interesting. 

Even though he had the day off, Caleb still had to report to a meeting on Monday afternoon. It gave Melissa and me the opportunity to see the base, Fort Bliss.

After Caleb's meeting got postponed an hour - and then canceled altogether! - the three of us drove up to Cloud Croft, a quaint little mountain town in New Mexico about 2 hours north.

We stayed overnight and did a bit of shopping the next morning, but the wind kept increasing. By the time we headed back down the mountain, the sky was filled with dust. 

There wasn't a cloud in the sky all day. At first everything looked kind of hazy...

But soon the sky turned yellow and the dust and sand were blowing across the highway like snow up north. I was glad Caleb did the driving. The 2-hour trip turned into 4.

On Wednesday, Caleb had to go to base for the morning, I did a little work, and Melissa cooked up enough food to keep Caleb in lunches for the next several weeks. 

By the time we flew out of the El Paso airport, just ten minutes from Caleb's house, the windstorms had moved on to Dallas and our flights ended up getting delayed. I don't think we got to sleep back home until around 4 am.

But we wouldn't trade those five days for anything. 

They left Melissa and me all that much prouder of Caleb, his service to this country, and the man he is becoming. 

LOGIC'S FAILURE

In “A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Enter’d Into Holy Orders by a Person of Quality” (1721) Jonathan Swift wrote: 

"Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired."

Maybe you've heard the simplified version which emerged over time:

“You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.”

Certainly rings true, right?

Its only shortcoming as a truism is that it fails to acknowledge how often we run into people who hold positions they didn't reason themselves into. 

Swift's observation is even more salient when, like me, you agree with Scott Adams that we humans don't reason ourselves into the positions we hold but maybe 10% of the time. 

And that 10% reached by logic is the 10% of subjects which don't touch our emotions directly. 

Politics, theology and social issues are all inherently emotional. 

When was the last time you were able to persuade someone to change their political, theological, or social position on a hot topic?

When was the last time someone persuaded you to change one of your positions?

IF persuasion actually occurs, it's more than likely the result of an emotional appeal rather than a logical one. 

EXCUSES!

It's a little shocking how quickly you can fall out of a habit. When I slackened my daily writing routine at the beginning of this year, I knew it would become a little easier to make an excuse each evening I just didn't feel like sitting down to write.

But It's a part of me now and I miss it when I don't write. No matter what else I did during the day, it feels like I am not making the most of my time if I don't pause to process my thoughts before bed. 

But I did have a good excuse over the past week or so - Melissa and I flew down to El Paso to visit Caleb. And between the 2-hour time difference, flights so delayed as to put us into the wee hours of the morning both going and returning, and a full-size bed for Melissa and me in Caleb's guest room, I felt like I was only half awake the five days we spent in Texas.

Not at all conducive to writing. 

Tomorrow I will take some time to drop some photos here and record the highlights of the trip, but tonight I am still catching up on sleep. 

SANCTUARY AS CLASSROOM

As I continue thinking about my dissertation work, one conviction is gaining some clarity: To be effective for the Kingdom, a pastor needs to function as a teacher. 

This doesn't need to be complicated. The basics of good teaching practice are pretty straightforward. I'm talking about things like:

• Probing for prior knowledge 
• Rooting out false assumptions
• Repeating main points
• Fostering curiosity and interest
• Drawing out an inward motivation for self-directed study
• Checking comprehension in meaningful ways
• Et cetera

I have started to look for resources which address these matters within the local church, but I'm not seeing much so far.

If you google "teaching and Christian faith", you will not get results outlining ways principles of good teaching practice can be applied to the teaching the Bible.

Instead, you get core doctrines that must be taught in order to consider the teaching to be "Christian". 

I looked for books on teaching and the church and ordered one off Amazon that looked promising: Everyday Christian Teaching by David Smith.

But the subtitle reveals its focus: A Guide to Practicing Faith in the Classroom. 

So ... this book is for the Christian classroom, not the sanctuary. 

And it's as dry as dust to boot. 

(Written by a Calvinist! 😉)

FAILED EXPERIMENT?

Is the earth and all its inhabitants God's great failed experiment?

If you are among those who believe that the essence of the gospel is 

•     Adam and Eve sinned and
•     Therefore, YOU are a sinner, too, and
•     You need to repent and believe in Jesus 
•     So that God will impute His righteousness to you and dismiss all your sins
•     So that when you die, He can whisk you away to your forever home in Heaven while the earth is wiped out of existence ...

Then what do you make of God's original plan - the one where He creates a material existence in which He would share space with material/spiritual beings fashioned in His image?

Did God's wondrous work - so celebrated in Genesis chapter 1 - turn out to be the mother of all failed experiments? 

I guess it just didn't work out the way God had hoped.

"DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH"

The internet has largely obliterated intelligent discussion of opposing viewpoints - even as it intentionally drives wedges to further divide opinions. 

People involved in online arguments are always urging each other to "do your own research". 

This cracks me up every time for at least three reasons.

First, are we really going to pretend that you can trust the information you read on the internet? Seems obvious to me that it's impossible for the layman to know which sources are credible and which are not. 

Second, every "fact" posted online has also been "debunked" somewhere online. The question then becomes "But has the debunk also been debunked?" 

Third, even if you found reliable sources, there's no guarantee that you know how to interpret the data. Two people can look at the same data set and come to very different conclusions.

(As a succinct example, there's the clever quip you might have seen online before: "99% of the things I worry about never come to pass. Undeniable proof that worrying works!") 

When I see someone urging others to "do their own research", I know that person exists in an intellectual bubble, smugly secure in the knowledge that he has it all figured out. 

In the age of the internet, how do we bring back critical thinking skills and a bit of epistemic humility? 

SICK DAYS

By the time I arrived home last Wednesday night after teaching English, my stomach had grown sour. 

It was the beginning of several days battling one of the ugliest stomach bugs I have ever encountered. I have spent my nights in the guest bedroom, hoping to spare Melissa and Sarah. (But I'm afraid I was not successful.) 

Thursday and Friday passed without a single accomplishment beyond binge-watching a critically acclaimed Apple TV show called Severance.  (Samuel was home sick on Thursday, too, and shared the recommendation along with his trial subscription to the platform. It's an engaging dystopian sci-fi tale of a corporation which severs its workers' memories between home life and work life.) 

By Saturday morning, I was feeling good enough to do some yard work - the fresh air helped revive me a bit after my 48 hours in the basement. 

Even today my appetite is not completely back on line and just about everything I have eaten has induced regret within 20 minutes, but the worst of my other symptoms have all passed. 

It wasn't the best weekend to "spring forward" and tonight I am exhausted, but hopeful for a better week ahead.

And it's going to be a busy one. Sarah's final show choir performance will be Tuesday night, concluding with special recognition of her and the other seniors. (Keeping tissues handy!) 

Beyond that special event, there will be plenty of work to get done in advance of taking a few days away - especially in light of my sick days this past week. On Friday night, God willing, Melissa and I will be flying to El Paso to spend an extended weekend with Caleb and check out his Texas living arrangements. 

I'm glad to have had the sickness last week rather than this week or the next!

TEACHER SATISFACTION

As a former high school teacher and a present ESL teacher, I was reflecting on what makes teaching such a rewarding experience. Here's what I have come up with so far:

Levels of Teacher Satisfaction

• Attention Captured - This is the first step. If the student is distracted or resistant, the entire enterprise of education is sidelined. As a teacher, it feels great to see a student's eyes focused on the subject at hand.

• Misconceptions Cleared - Finding misunderstandings and clearing them away can be an incredibly satisfying feeling for a teacher. But it's important to remember that old ideas do not die easily. 

• Lightbulb Moment - Teachers live for the moment that the light comes on and the student sees something clearly for the first time. This is an important milestone because ground has been gained which can never be lost again.

• Internal Motivation to Learn Beyond Class - How incredibly satisfying it is for a teacher to hear the student has taken up study of the subject outside of the classroom. And inward curiosity is now driving the student forward.

• Able to Teach Others - When a student returns a decade later to tell the teacher, "You inspired me to become a teacher myself", it is enough to carry that teacher through even the toughest school year.

• Life Dedicated to the Subject - Just as good or better than inspiring future teachers is the experience of seeing a student fall so in love with the subject that it ends up consuming his or her lifetime. This is the ultimate.

What all these have in common is the teacher's love for the subject and great desire to see others know, understand, and love the subject as well.

I think the local pastor should be striving to reach each of these levels of satisfaction with the congregation seated before the pulpit. 

GOOD NEWS: WE ARE NOT REPAID

As I suspected, when I googled "The Shack" and "heresy", I found the sharpest criticism of the movie reserved for its rejection of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. 

PSA is the gospel as far as most believers are concerned.

So many are convinced that God simply cannot forgive sins without inflicting punishment on someone. They make a case for Jesus taking our punishment at the hand of the Father while on the cross, but they never consider this simple truth: sin which is punished has not been, by definition, forgiven. 

Any particular wrongdoing is either punished or forgiven. 

It's one or the other. 

The atonement sacrifices of the Old Testament involved the death of a lamb, yes, but the focus was on the blood of that lamb, not its death. And it was slaughtered as humanely as possible. Pain was minimized. 

The blood of that innocent lamb was used to cleanse the temple from sin (temporarily). 

Sin was washed away. Not punished. 

How is it that God was able to forgive in Old Testament times and then can't in the New Testament?

Take a moment to meditate on the beauty of Psalm 103:

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.

9 He will not always accuse us,

nor harbor His anger forever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins

or repaid us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west,

so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

14 For He knows our frame;

He is mindful that we are dust.

REACTION TO THE SHACK

I watched The Shack on Netflix tonight, based on the recommendation of a young friend. It was not what I was expecting.

When the movie came out in 2017, I only recall hearing largely negative reviews from various Christians critical of its theology.

The word "heresy" was thrown at the movie from every direction. 

I never saw it. I never even investigated the story line or the theological positions of the movie's producers.

This was before I understood that cries of "heresy!" in theological circles are the equivalent of "racism!" in politics. 

In other words, sometimes based in reality but most often imagined or exaggerated. 

So when I sat down to watch it today, I braced myself to be "shocked!!" and "offended!!" on God's behalf.

I was neither.

It did make me cry, though. 

If you're not familiar with The Shack, the basic storyline involves a grieving father who finds healing over a weekend spent with God in a cabin in the woods. I thought the storyline was engaging, the acting was good, and the movie was relatively uncheesy (for a "religious" movie). 

I look forward to reading up on the criticisms of the movie - to find out if I missed some horrifying theological misstep or if I'm just heretically inclined myself! ;-)  

I look forward to sharing The Shack with Melissa and my kids and seeing what they think. 

BIBLICAL ADMONISHMENT

Colossians 1:28 - Him [Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 

This word translated as "warning" or "admonishing" in most English versions is νουθετέω (noutheteō) in the Greek.   

According to Dr. David Pao, a professor of New Testament, this word "may imply that an error needs to be corrected" (p.132 in his commentary on Colossians).

N.T. Wright confirms: noutheteo, "though sometimes understood as meaning simply 'putting into the mind', most likely includes the idea of the setting of someone's mind into proper order, with the implication that it has been in some way out of joint." 

He continues: "Positive teaching may not be enough: there is no telling what muddles Christian minds will get into from time to time, and part of the task of one who proclaims Christ is to straighten out confusions, to search for and tie together correctly the loose ends of half-grasped ideas, so that the positive teaching may not be instantly distorted upon reception, but may be properly understood, appreciated and lived out" (p.97-98 in his commentary on Colossians).

This is one of the most basic principles of effective teaching: first, find out what your students know that isn't so. Misunderstandings must be brought to light and named. 

If your goal is maturity in Christ, you cannot skip this step!