The New Bereans

I would like to do something a little bit different here.  If you read our blog on any sort of a regular basis, I want to propose a question.  But before I ask it, I want you to commit to praying for a while before you respond.  And make sure that your response is biblical, and is not taken out of context.  If you have time to do this, I think there could be great fruit from the discussion.  Please keep the discussion civil, do not use ad hominem or straw-man reasoning either please.  Wikipedia is a great resource if you are not sure what those words mean.  Also keep in mind that I am fairly confident, at this point, only believers frequent this site.  So there is peace in knowing that this is an in-house discussion, but please do not use that as license to get frustrated.

O.K. here is the question:  What is legalism? As it pertains to Christianity!

Please remember to keep your responses based on scripture as much as possible.  If a side-topic comes up as a result, I will determine if it is worth pursuing in another thread, but please keep it as focused on the topic as possible.  And Austin, you cannot reply first .

The person who responds with the best biblical definition, and I have one in mind, I will send a book of my choosing.  I will wait a few weeks before deciding, based on when the discussion fizzles out.  And Austin can’t win…sorry bro.  If noone defines it as well as I am hoping then the book will go to the individual who contributes the best overall to the structure of the discussion.

One last thought, we are all on equal ground, for “God accepts no mans person.”  Galatians 2:6

“Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”  -Revelation 2:16

In high school and even long after, I was a ridiculously sold out fan of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga.  I would not say this is something I recommend to Christian readers as it is not glorifying to God, but I must mention it because I am going to use part of it for an illustration.  He had a part in one of his books that I have been thinking about a lot for the last few weeks and I have to thank my Pastor Dave for reminding me of it.   He (my pastor) was teaching about the church at Pergamum and about how Jesus warned them that he would fight against the Nicolaitans with the sword of his mouth (Revelation 2:16).  The topic of discussion was centered on how the church needs to be people of the word.  I could not agree more…

I must admit though that my thoughts during his sermon kept drifting back to this idea of Jesus fighting against the Nicolaitans with the sword of his mouth, and the memory of Robert Jordan’s book came to mind with a powerful illustration as it concerns the working of the word of God in the life of His saints.   The main Character Rand was being educated in the use of a sword and his trainer, Lan, was instructing him for months about all the sword forms he knew and understood.  Rand had become a far quicker study than Lan had expected so he was having to show him more and more battle configurations.   During the course of Rand’s education Lan had told him of a form called “Sheathing the Sword.”  The author never explains to the readers what exactly this was even though he had explained the form of the rest of the moves.  This was somewhat disconcerting but as the reader you quickly forget it.  At the end of one of the books however Rand is in a sword fight with an adversary who is in every way, his equal.  Parry after parry and blow for blow, the hero Rand was not able to gain any ground.  After a period of heated and protracted battle Rand does the only thing that could possibly help him to win…he sheathes the sword.  The reader finally gets to see what this means.  Rand turns his back to his opponent and plunges his sword into his own stomach, which then protrudes out his back and punctures the chest of his enemy.

What a morbid picture, what in the world does this have to do with anything?   It has everything to do with all of sharing Christ with a dead world and even to those who are alive in Christ.  Isaiah 66:2 is becoming one of the most powerful instructors to me of this concept, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” There is a vast difference between grabbing a sword in hand and attacking anything that moves, verses looking to see what that sword can do to us.  There is a type of swordsman that handles his blade only to prove that he can handle it, but there is another type of swordsman who uses his blade altogether differently…he pierces himself through and through with it.  He uses it with a terrifying sense of what it is capable of, and what can happen if it is not handled with the respect it deserves.   You see, Rand had a much bigger picture in mind, he knew that the weight of the entire world was on his shoulders, and in a similar fashion, as Christians, we must take seriously what we believe.  I hope that I can honestly say I am more responsible for truth and how that sword pierces others because I have let it spill my filthy guts all over the place so Christ can replace them with bowels of mercy, and a heart that weeps rather than rages.

You see, if Jesus has brought his sword to bear against me, as a member of his body, and I deflect it with the shield of pride, the sword of truth that I hold in my hand will become flimsy and pointless.  My speaking with the sword will not pierce anyone with the truth and I will only make God’s word into an aimless bludgeon.   See this is why Jesus tells those at Pergamum to repent lest he come to them quickly to fight against his foes.   There is no Christian to whom this concept does not apply, as our every word, and every action is a representation of Christ in this world…

In II Kings chapters 6-7 we read about a terrifying famine, one induced by fear of a marauding army of Syrians, who by attrition were attempting to starve out Samaria, a city of the Israelites.   The king of Israel, the one who is supposed to have it “all together,” is leaning on the hand of a captain who speaks on behalf of the king, and questions the words of God’s prophet.   He expresses doubt that God will do what the prophet Elisha claimed . . . words he would inevitably regret.  The king and the captain are fretting for good reason however; there are women in the city who are fighting over equal share to one another’s children for cannibalistic consumption.   This is certainly a situation not a single reader of this article could likely relate to.   Elisha, familiar with the workings of a prophet, is having just another crazy day on the job so to speak, another day, another catastrophic apocalyptic uttering, you know…pretty run-of-the-mill stuff.  Which sets the unlikely heroes of the story, in a crazy contradistinction from all the rest of this cast; they are four pathetic lepers who leave the “comfort” of their famine prison, with nothing to lose.

These are the weakest of the weak, the rejects of rejects, no-one would be haggling or fighting over their flesh . . . as it was abominable, flagging, and falling off of their wasted bones.   As they give up hope in their leaders, having not heard the prophecy of Elisha, they leave the gate of Samaria, which seems to mean certain death by starvation, and place their hands in fate where at least they have a fifty-fifty chance of living.   As they leave the city behind them, the distance between this pathetic gaggle and a king who had no clue what to do but moan in sackcloth, grew great.

The distance that grew was more than a linear one; it was a spiritual distance, for these fools saw the awesome hand of God’s power to deliver.  They witnessed, first-hand, the salvation of the Lord.   For God reveals himself to the foolish things of the world, he does not do so to the proud or arrogant, neither does he to those who exalt themselves above God.  We are never further from salvation than when we think we somehow are entitled to it. Sure the whole city had been saved as Elisha portended, however these men, these poor wracked jagged heaps of life saw the mighty hand of God, and they had the fortune to be bearers of the greatest news these denizens of Samaria had probably ever heard.

How did the captain fair?  Well as most stories go, the bad guy was trampled by a mob of crazy hungry people in a gate.  Why?  He doubted the salvation of Yahweh.

God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, all the carnal earthly wisdom of our current day amounts to nothing (I Corinthians 1:26-28).  While we in America are not currently enduring such radical travail, our leaders politically are not much different.  They always seem to think they can solve the problems of the world by relying on the council of the worldly wise.  And the worldly wisdom is always doubting God.  Is it not apparent that one of the crowning virtues of our post modern views is doubt?

I pray that God grants his church today, the resolve and determination to become weak that He might be strong, that we may see the salvation of His hand.  And that we would not fret because of evil doers and bad leaders, as Psalm 37:1 commands us.

“The wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” –James 3:17

“…And I will beautify my beautiful house.”  -Isaiah 60:7b

We are weak, we are hurting, and we need revival like a sea-fairer needs vitamin C.  Straight paths seem jagged, Christians are disheartened, demystified, and becoming disassociated.  We are all able to see the problems around us, and the winds of change in our own nation daunt us at the prospect of having to face them.  Do we plant our feet and set our shoulder against this torrent with a stern set of face?  Or do we raise a sail, and ride those winds where the Lord decides to move them?

I have had numerable conversations this past year or two with many believers who share a concern about our state as Christians.  One needs not to look very far on the “Christian” blogosphere to find this same sense of dissatisfaction.  There are entire websites set up to make us more aware of the Idolatry occurring in American/European churches.  I am beginning to fear that my heart is being hardened by these truths, more than it is being broken.

Isaiah 60:7 began to cut through the caul (Hosea 13:8 k.j.v.) around my heart this morning however.  The house is the Lord’s and His house is beautiful to Him, so it is up to Him to make it more beautiful still.  For His house is not in any lasting disrepair.  Like Don Quixote’ he sees the beautiful woman of his heart, and he dares to dream the impossible dream. To us this house seems a shambles, but to Don Quixote’ it was a castle, resplendent with glory and hope, a place of queens and knights vigils.  This house may have many in it who are only there physically, or in name, but He sees His true church, His beautiful house and within it the bride of His heart.  And he will make it more beautiful still.

Satan intends all the current days evil for bad, but God intends it all for good, the state of our nations are in His hands, He alone is sovereign over all these things, he has allowed it, and not a single one of us can make better what he would stretch His arm out to construct.  He alone is the master architect; we are but pallbearers when we attempt to build for God what he has not sanctioned, carrying our coffins of hope, where inside rests only death.

So we ought to set a sail, and not our feet, for if He has allowed it, should we rail against it?  He may be trying to show us something on the wind, and I have suspicions as to what those things are, but suffice it to say that we need to move within the shelter of His sovereign design rather than out in the acid rain of Satan’s Hegelian Dialectic.

Oh Lord, make your house more beautiful, we long for your construction, your designs, your handiwork.  Make us a people on a hill once again.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:1-5

Why do we always look outward? When God calls us to repent and believe, we cry out “but what about (fill in the blank)” as we avoid doing what Christ has called us to do. We spend more time prating than praying; more time watching television than witnessing; and far more energy avoiding than obeying. This ought not to be. We are masters at avoiding God; and one of the main ways to avoid obedience is pointing at something, and saying “but what about . . .” to God, as if trying to change the subject is going to make God forget. Or end the need for us to obey.

Jesus did not take the bait and leave his calling, in order to get involved in politics. Instead he challenges them by referring to another tragedy, and telling them “. . .unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Our duty is not to inform God of things we think are in his blind spot, our duty is to obey his commands. Standing at the Judgment Seat no excuse will suffice. He calls all to repent and believe.

“When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:8

As believers we are called to give our best to God, but do we? Or like the priests in Malachi’s day, do we give God only what we don’t want. They were sacrificing blind and lame animals to God and taking the best for themselves. We no longer offer animal sacrifices but we are told to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God.1 Do we give God our best, or do we give him the rest? How do we spend our time? Everyone knows about tithing our money, do we tithe our time?  Do we spend 10% of our day (2.4 hours) Seeking God, studying the scriptures, or evangelizing? If not we should consider our ways.

We are told to love God with all our mind2, how much of our mind is occupied in studying theology, wrestling through scriptural truth, and memorizing scriptures?  Men, if you can remember all the stats of your favorite athletes, but can’t clearly explain the gospel, you should be ashamed.  Women, if you know all about Oprah, but don’t have a clue about Orpha, you are investing your time foolishly.  I will set no wicked thing before my eyes 3 declares the psalmist, do we watch wicked things?  If so Christ warns that our whole body will be full of darkness.4 Paul the apostle declares you are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.5

If we are his disciples we must put him first, give him our best, and seek first his kingdom.

1. Romans 12:1

2. Matthew 22:37

3. Psalm 101:3

4. Matthew 6:23

5. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

When Jesus taught us to pray that His Kingdom would come and His Fathers will be done in earth as it is in heaven, Jesus was not making a pious, pseudo religious statement.  He was actually dramatically flipping common prayer on its head.  This is an upside down, backwards from human, mentality.  It is far more natural for me to pray that God would submit to the wants and needs of my kingdoms.   One of the only hopes I have of being an overcomer in deed is to have this pilgrim mindset.  All my efforts need to be the result of a heart that cries, weeps, pleads, and yearns for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ and this is not a yearning for my benefit by the way, the yearning is for His sake, rather than mine.  I want this kingdom in two ways…I want the kingdom to come into the hearts of the dead, that they may be raised into the life which is Christ, and I want the physical reign of my Lord more than any other thing.  I am posting this video because, once again, Pastor Piper says so well what ought to be said to those of us who have maintained that materialism is somehow Christian.  We do this through very many incorrect associations.  Associations which I hope to write about some day.

Grant us Lord, as your children the desire to pray this along with the saints of old, and may our praying for it change our hearts that we may live like we believe it, not wasting our lives on those things which perish…but hastening the day of your return, but living as if eternity were NOW!

Read Acts 16:22-33 For Inspiration Reference

I am vividly aware this book has been reviewed probably thousands upon thousands of times, I am writing about it nonetheless, probably for the same reason so many other people have written about it…it is worth doing.

As an avid reader, I must state that this book is not for everyone.  I have read reviews by Christians who suggest that it is a, “Must read.”  While I generally agree with the sentiment, I also recognize that this is a difficult book.  Many of the things said require a lot of thought.   Not only do they require a lot of thought, but you have to be able to maintain a large mental log of points, because Chesterton takes about seventy pages to develop his thesis.  Not only that, but understanding some of his metaphors require some heavy mental boulder rolling, but it is calorie burning work, so it is certainly worth the effort.

The first seventy pages will cause many to wonder, “Where is he going with all these odd fractured points?”  I did this exact thing numerous times during my read, but he kept me going with many worthwhile quotable quotes, and barn-burning statements.   On occasions he rev’s his thesis’ engine with unique and entertaining humor.  All the while his observations made me feel as if I was seeing the world through the eyes of a six year old philosophical savant who also happened to be writing probably one of the greater apologetics penned.

When at first you try to wrap your mind around his thesis you will probably feel like a car does when it gets its front end wrapped around a tree.  I hope you have a lot of bondo and carnauba wax.  The scope of this book reminded me of project “Deep Impact,” where NASA hit a comet with a satellite, due to the difficulty of Chesterton’s thesis which was almost as complex to resolve as hitting a philosophical comet 83 million miles away.   Somehow he does it though, with striking clarity, if you are able to not jump off his train of thought.

Chesterton literally mows the forest of humanist philosophy with the fortitude and efficiency of Paul Bunyan.  His axe takes two or three trees at a blow, and does not relent from cover to cover.  I was stunned to realize that he had cut down trees which have found root and re-growth in the some of the institutional church today.  And herein lies the reason I want to recommend this book.  There are many things we believe with nonchalance, because we have been told to believe them.  We need to get our truth from truth, and Chesterton expends all his effort like a blacksmith in the foundries of war by reminding us that Christ is the truth.

There has never been a book of theology, or apologetics, that made me cheer or cry…but this one did.  At one point I jumped out of my chair and pumped my fist and wished to high heaven there was someone to share the moment with me.   The last two chapters actually had my eyes leaking a bit, and my heart threatened to beat itself out of my ribcage.   It is far from often, dare I say never, that apologetics does this.  Either I am twisted weird, or this book was actually that good.

The one thing I observed is that Chesterton keeps his quotes from the bible to a bare minimum, but I think he does this for a reason.  I almost can picture that the thesis and conclusion are like the great pyramid of Egypt that he is slaving to build, and once built he places at its top, a great golden pinnacle which is the scripture he references.  I think that it actually makes the passages he quotes beautiful in a unique way.   Almost as if he is endeavoring to give the bible its right place at the top, by building his analysis underneath the power of the word.  Another way of looking at it is like he is a man holding a torch aloft in a dark cave for many to find their way back to the light.

This is definitely a great book to read, Orthodoxy is one of the most adventurous and daring books on Christian Apologetics ever written, hands down.

Since this book is largely Chesterton’s personal testimony, it is worth being reminded that, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lived unto the death.” -Revelation 12:11

This book is posted online for free at this catholic website, I however never recommend reading books online, it is bad for the future employment of wood chips, and I am an equal opportunity wood chip employment advocate, unless of course you cannot afford it, or plan to buy it later anyhow.  If you are also a revolutionary like I am you can buy the real deal here, from the American Chesterton Society.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mark 10:17-31

In the story of the “Rich Young Ruler” it is easy to miss the main point, I did for years. The young man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow him. He did not do this, and we can draw the false conclusion that, because he wouldn’t sell his stuff he couldn’t go to heaven, but if he could have done this he would have been able to get in.

This conclusion is wrong. Jesus never told him that selling his stuff would reserve a spot in heaven, he told him to sell his stuff and follow. Jesus did not give a direct answer to his question because there is no good deed one can do to earn a place in heaven. His issue was not materialism, the issue is unbelief. He was told to leave behind his stuff, and believe that God had rewards for him which far exceeded what he was called to leave behind. The young ruler wanted to add one more good work to his life, and Jesus told him to loose his life. He wanted spirituality not suffering, position not persecution, honor not humility.

We mistakenly focus on his sin of materialism but this is peripheral, the core sin for him was unbelief.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6