Taking some time off...

Esteemed reader,

I regret that I will be unable to post for a few weeks, but the end of the semester is looming, and as prudence dictates, I will be spending the majority of my time doing schoolwork in the coming weeks.  Because of this, I am taking a protracted vacation from my duties related to this blog.  I wish I could continue posting, but as the last two weeks have shown, I have other matters which must take precedence.  Thank you for continuing to read this blog, and I look forward to continuing our discussions in mid-December.

Your humble brother,
Addison

A New Hope

"To hear the phrase 'our only hope' always makes one anxious, because it means that if the only hope doesn't work, there is nothing left." -Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book

I am very excited about the blog post this week, for a couple of different reasons.  First of all, I am glad to be finished with the series on marriage, which took much more out of me than I expected.  Second, I am going to be writing this week about a topic I find very important: hope.

Hope is an somewhat common term in today's society.  People use it all the time in various and sundry contexts for various meanings.  Perhaps most famously, it was used as an integral part of the successful campaign which landed Barrack Obama in the office of president back in 2008 (I do not aim to make this in any way a political conversation, it just fits with the topic).

The problem I see is that Americans tend to have a very shallow or erroneous view of hope, especially in the religious sense.  So what I am discussing today is the idea of what hope signifies to a Christian.  My goal is that this article would help Christians better understand what the Bible means when it mentions hope and that more unnecessary miscommunication would be avoided between Christians and non-Christians.  I feel like many of the arguments between non-believers and us arise from semantic disparities.  As with any debate, it behooves us to properly define our terms.

What It Isn't

The best place for us to begin this discussion is by examining modern misconceptions of hope.  Hope is often diminished somewhat by modern Christians, and it is not entirely their fault.  To be honest, the distinction here is very narrow, and it might even appear to be splitting hairs.  But I promise, it makes all the difference in the world.

The point I wish to make is that hope as it appears in the Bible (i.e. a noun) is different from the verb hope which is the more common of the two in modern vernacular.  Hope as a verb is a very uncertain prospect.  It places a desired object or goal at the mercy or fortune or circumstances.  I might say, "I hope the cafeteria is not serving asparagus again today," or "I hope there is a parking spot open near the store."  In both of these examples, I am dependent upon factors completely outside my control, and there could be sizable probabilities that my "hopes" will not come to fruition.  I have placed quotation marks round thenoun hopes here because it is correct linguistically, but it means something altogether different from the hope of the Bible (which you rarely see in the plural).

Hope in the Christian sense is not an intellectual desire for a certain eventuality.  It is not a warm feeling telling you that everything will be all right.  It isn't positivism, escapism, or even optimism.  Hope is not ephemeral or weak, shallow or baseless, and it certainly is not blind or foolish.  What we are considering is something else entirely.

Certainty

The modern usage of the word hope seems to permit no discussion of certitude.  Nevertheless, examining its treatment in Scripture allows us to see this word in a different light.  The term appears explicitly one hundred eighty times in the current NIV translation of the Bible, with nearly twenty percent appearing in the book of Psalms.  By examining these instances of hope, we begin to see the disparities between the biblical and modern vernacular definitions.

To begin with, biblical hope is something that is placed.  People in the Bible are often described as "putting their hope in" something.  The contemporary connotation of hope is far too insubstantial to be illustrated in these terms; it is merely an object that we have - a possession of sorts.  Christian hope, on the other hand, is that which gives us surety even in the face of the bleakest circumstances.  It does far more than simply exist.  For that reason, we are able to affix our hope to a myriad of distinctive entities.  "But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love." (Psalm 33:18)  "Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption." (Psalm 130:7)  "That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe." (1 Tim. 4:10)  See also: Psalm 42, Psalm 119, Isaiah 42:1-9

As I mentioned above, biblical hope is much stronger and certain than modern cheap hope.  It is the pillar of certainty which keeps a person's life together when all else crumbles around him.  This is quite plainly a separate idea altogether than my earlier ineffectual wishing.  And this distinction is grounds for rejoicing, because what we have been regarding as a molehill is actually a mighty bulwark.

Endgame

Whether intentionally or not, each of us has placed our hope in something.  Many people I know have placed their hope in themselves, quite imprudently I might add.  Others have seen fit to hope in science and learning: whatever worries they have will be alleviated with more understanding.  It is frighteningly common in America for people to place their hope in money.  If their whole world comes crashing down, at least they will have a "rainy day" account to get their lives back.

The problem is that a great many of life's setbacks are much more severe than rainy days.  Deaths, disease, tragedy, and suffering are all too common in this broken and bruised world.  And none of the entities mentioned in the paragraph above have the ability to lend certainty in such times of unparalleled distress.  It is therefore foolish to put your hope in such things.  I have tried placing my hope in several different places, and only one have I found which is capable of guiding me through all the storms I have encountered.  The one being truly deserving of my hope is God, the almighty and eternal.  He has yet to let me down (unlike so many others), and if you have not yet tried placing your hope in Him, I highly recommend it.  In fact, I implore you to do so.

When Paul finishes his discourse on love in 1 Corinthians 13, he makes a very momentous statement that I feel is one of the more moving verses in the entire Bible.  "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love." (v.13)  Faith- the willingness to admit that I don't know everything;  Love- the willingness to admit that I don't overshadow everything; and Hope- the willingness to admit that I don't control everything.  These are all we have left.  It is interesting that Paul should use these words while writing to a church in Greece, where the ancient mythology told of a young girl named Pandora who inadvertently released all the evil in the world.  The only thing she was able to keep from escaping was mankind's most important gift: Hope.

There is a Hope which is not based on circumstances.  It is this sense of the word which I am discussing when I mention biblical hope.  And no matter what else it might mean to the world, it means everything to me.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." -Romans 5:1-5 (italics mine)

The Marriage Ref: Vicarious Intimacy

"Starving men may think much about food, but so do gluttons; the gorged, as well as the famished, like titillations." -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Today marks the end of my series on marriage.  I have put quite a bit of thought and passion into the past several weeks, and therefore next week's topic is likely to be somewhat less weighty.  Nevertheless, I have one more subject I wish to cover before moving on.

The matter at hand this week is pornography.  Modern Western culture, while not necessarily approving of this industry, at the very least seems resigned to its prevalence.  There are plenty of references to it on television and in the movies, and to say pornography exists on the internet would be a severe understatement.  In fact, it has been said that many modern technological innovations (such as the internet) were cultivated in their infancy primarily by this industry.  It seems as though most of the teenage male characters on television have a piles of magazines stashed under their mattresses, and whether or not this is treated as a bad thing tends to be a coin flip.  And their family members are always making weak remarks along the lines of "Well, I went through the same thing when I was his age." or "You have to be supportive of him even if you call him out."

Christians, likewise, have slowly begun slipping in our willingness to condemn lust and pornography to the degree they deserve.  One of the most common things I have heard in accountability discussions is, "I struggle with lust, but what guy doesn't?"  Maybe they're right, maybe it is only inevitable that we will all stumble eventually when it comes to these things.  Maybe they're wrong.

Lust is Bad

Let me get this out of the way first.  I hate pornography.  I believe it is one of the vilest and most harmful examples of human depravity ever concocted.  It hurts people physically, emotionally, relationally, psychologically, and spiritually.  And it gives nothing back but a shallow and fleeting feeling.  "...[T]he mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment." (Job 20:5)  There is literally no redeeming quality to it whatsoever, and it is just as addictive as it is evil.

But the "success" of pornography is only a symptom of a larger disease, known as lust.  While modern society understands at some level that pornography is bad, there is almost no resistance whatsoever against lust.  Just glance at the magazine rack the next time you are at a supermarket, or watch television for about half an hour.  Lust is not only accepted, it is even encouraged in many cases.  This should not be.

As Christians, we need to be consciously working to root out lust in our own lives.  We have been told unequivocally that lust is itself tantamount to adultery (Matt. 5:28), and for those who do not already know, adultery is one of the Big Ten which God calls out early on as being strictly sinful. (Exodus 20:14)  So let's start here: lust is sin.  All right, let's take a deep breath before we move on. ...

...

Ready?  So lust is sin.  That's fine to say, but it doesn't really hurt anyone, right?  Wrong.  Lust is just as potent as any other sin.  And people hurt.

Mind Games

Lust and pornography seem to be very personal, individual sins.  And in fact, the participant is normally the first person to be hurt by lust.  Lust warps your mind in many different ways.  What God created as people, you begin to see as nothing more than a collection of body parts, and the whole is not greater than the sum.  In fact, you are mentally reducing a someone's personhood to nothing more than a object to be used for your whims.  If you take out the context of happening in the mind, this begins to sound unnervingly like slavery.  Lust is, in its purest sense, a corruption of love.  Love bids us to appreciate the person for who they are, whereas lust suggests we appreciate the person for what they have.  Lust is one of the shallowest and most selfish states of mind imaginable, and it only survives due to its facade of only affecting the individual.

But even before it begins to show in obvious outward ways, lust has the potential to hurt others.  Despite what people might say to excuse it, lust is not simply recognizing beauty.  It is mentally taking possession of what was never meant to be yours in the first place.  It is trading years of joy for a moment of addictive happiness.  And like any addiction, each successive instance requires more to sate the appetite.  Eventually, lust leads to resentment toward the object of the lust for not fulfilling more of this desire, and without correction this will typically lead to one of two paths.

The first is to begin to show outwardly the abomination of what dwells within.  "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matt. 12:34)  Eventually, a person can become controlled by their thoughts, acting in ways they would never once have dreamed possible.  This is the exact opposite of the mindset Paul suggests in 2 Corinthians 10:5.  The second typical course of action is to turn to pornography, a world where unrestrained lust has been given full rein and people are treated externally like the objects the lusting man sees in his mind.  This is an exceedingly dark realm, where each loathsome desire is given the exhibition it never deserved.  And people hurt.

Acquiescence

Now we come to the most lachrymose section of this entire conversation.  I am actually having a difficult time typing these words due to the overwhelming sorrow and anger I feel when I consider these situations.  Pornography has permeated the lives of modern people even more than may be readily apparent.  It has ruined more marriages than I care to think of and been a contributing factor in many, many cases of abuse in this country.  I do not know exact figures, and I honestly do not think I can look them up at the moment, but please do so if you do not believe me.

The kinds of desires that give rise to pornography have also driven sex trafficking all throughout the world.  Women and men are being bought and sold as slaves to bate the cravings of others who do not even have the first conception of proper love.  For more information on this, check out Unearthed, a project which strives to expose these evils and drive them out through disseminating information.

And why do we continue to see healthy relationships ruined by this consumerist view of sex?  Because as a society, we have given into the hedonistic notion that the self is the highest authority.  Instead of sacrificing more for each other, men and women have begun demanding more than the other can give, so they turn to solutions outside their marriage, and then they are forced to cast their marriage aside like the hollow structure it has become.  And people hurt.

The Great Physician

As a solution to this problem, I have nothing more to offer than the Mercy and Grace of God.  Jesus died, not to take away your happiness, but to give you joy.  But joy sometimes demands sacrificing happiness, and until we as Christians and as humans figure this out, people will continue to hurt.  But God is faithful, and He will heal those who turn to Him.  I know this, because He is in the process of healing me.

As the Church, we should be serious about ridding ourselves of lust and we should be adamant about erasing pornography altogether.  I'll let Paul say the rest:

"It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.  For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.  Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit." -1 Thess. 4:3-8

Please think seriously about marriage, and do everything you can to support this institution.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to the families in our society and to the society as a whole.  I am so grieved by the marriages that I have seen end, but I am also encouraged by others I see which are still full of vitality.  Please fight for marriage.  Love is always worth fighting for.

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." -Hebrews 13:4

For further reading on this subject, please see the chapter from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and Porn-Again Christian by Mark Driscoll.

Site Construction

Readers,

I am once again very busy this week, so instead of trying to write a new blog post in an inadequate amount of time, I am going to be working on some changes to the layout of the site.  I appreciate your patience, and I look forward to resuming our discussions on the topic of marriage next week.

Sincerely,
Addison

The Marriage Ref: Born This Way

In the following post, I am about to delve into one of the most formidable topics I have yet entertained.  I have decided to include no witty quotes at the beginning of this post, no lighthearted banter to ease my way into this discussion.  Because this is a topic which I intend to treat with the utmost sincerity and sobriety.

I implore you, if you have not read my previous two posts in this series ("Foundation" and "The Great Divide"), please do so before reading this post.  I want anyone who reads this to know my heart for this subject.  All of these recent posts have been written primarily out of a love for marriage, and a fear of the attitude with which modern society looks upon it.  Please know that in writing these (sometimes controversial) words, I do not mean to condemn anyone or offend without cause.  I am simply trying to help my readers come to an understanding that marriage is a covenant, which is one of the strongest types of contracts, and therefore any mistreatment of this sacred institution is a grave matter.

Following this trend, the topic I have chosen to discuss this week is the matter of gay marriage and homosexuality.  These subjects are all but ubiquitous in the modern media, and no matter what you think about the subject of gay marriage, you cannot fail to have noticed the number of very prominent examples of homosexuality portrayed in modern publications.  The modern world has come to accept this lifestyle holistically, and even in some Christian circles it has been embraced to the degree of hiring ministers who have a homosexual partner.

Truth with Love

I am really struggling in writing this post, because I know that certain people will try to say that I am intolerantly calling down curses on the entire homosexual community.  They are wrong.  That being said, there is much I am compelled to write on this subject.

I am going to start with the most difficult statement in this whole matter- as a Christian, there are many things I cannot say for sure about homosexuality.  But what I can say with certainty is that acts of homosexuality are sin.  Let me say this again: The Bible does not say much about homosexuality, but what it does say is not pleasant.  It is these passages which I will be discussing further in the remainder of this post.

If you will recall from my post a couple of weeks ago, marriage is defined by God.  It is an institution established and maintained by Him, and no matter what society and the government has to say, He has the final word.  If you don't agree with this, there is not much point in you reading the rest of this article, because I am going to be drawing primarily from Scripture.  Also, as I have said before, if you don't believe that marriage comes from God, there is really no reason to get married in the first place, so attempting to defend your own personal view of marriage, unless you are drawing from elsewhere in the Bible, is futile as far as I am concerned.

As I attempted to explain last week, marriage is a big deal, and any deviation from its prescribed formulation is inherently wrong.  And I do mean any deviation.  When I approach the subject of homosexuality, I want you to understand that I approach it in the same way I approach any form of sexual immorality.  Adultery, lust, abuse, prostitution, pornography, and all other sins in this area cause me just as much grief as homosexuality.  I do not hate homosexuals, but at the same time I do not embrace homosexuality.  Similarly, I hate pornography, but that does not mean that I hate the man who is addicted to it.  There is no room for sin in the Kingdom of God, but all thanks be to Him and His Son that there is room for sinners.

The Bible Tells Me So

In the summer of 2008, I viewed a documentary entitled For the Bible Tells Me So, which strove to explain that the Bible more or less consented to homosexuality and that there are even a few places in Scripture where it is implied as a theme.  I honestly do not remember much about the documentary now, except that only a handful of verses were brought up as being opposed to homosexuality, and of those, only two or three were actually explicitly discussed and very meagerly rebutted.  At the time, I knew much less about the Bible, and the arguments in the film seemed reasonable.  But in hindsight, the directors of the documentary made most of their impact by painting Christians as bigoted troublemakers than by actually addressing the text of the Bible.  You are more than welcome to watch the documentary yourself and form your own opinions, but I think it would be more worth our while to actually crack open the Bible.

Let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start).  In Genesis 2, we get a very moving image of God's concern for man.  From among all the other creatures on the earth, no suitable companion can be found for Adam.  So what does God do?  He makes such a companion: woman.  The reason why men and women in love sometimes feel like they were "made for each other" is that they actually were!  Since virtually the beginning of humanity, woman has been the complement of man, and vice versa.  "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh." (Gen. 2:24)  The first marriage was obviously between a man and a woman, and it seems as though this was meant to last.

The first place in Scripture where homosexuality is treated in explicit terms is in the Levitical law.  The Old Testament Law has become somewhat contentious over the years, but I still find it to be one of the most important parts of the entire Bible.  Whether or not these laws are being enacted in a legal sense, they still paint a very clear picture of the heart of God.  Also, it isn't like this Law has been abolished.  In fact, as Jesus says, the Old Testament is still very active. "For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." (Matt. 5:18)  The good news (in fact, the Good News) is that Jesus Himself died to fulfill the Law, something animal sacrifices could never do.  But the Law was not annulled in being fulfilled, it was simply appeased for those who choose to believe on Jesus.  I'll treat this idea with more depth in a future post.

For the time being, suffice it to say that the Levitical law is still very important.  Now, many people have accused Christians of taking the following verses out of context, so I will quote them in their entire context, and provide links (as I always do) so that you can check out the source material for yourself, if you want.  We'll start with Leviticus 18:21-23:

"Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.  Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.  Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion." (italics mine)

This statement seems pretty unambiguous, right?  I have yet to hear of anyone advocating for child sacrifice or bestiality, yet for some reason people try to say that God actually does not mind homosexual practices.  Furthermore, note the adjective used to describe these homosexual acts here: detestable.  At the end of the chapter, all of the sins listed are described as detestable (verses 26, 29 and 30), but only one of them is singled out as being specifically detestable when it is first mentioned.

A couple chapters later, as a follow-up to the passage above, God then lists what punishments are to be exacted for various sins.  Again, quoting the context:

"If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, both of them are to be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads.  If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable.  They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.  If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked.  Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you." (Lev. 20:12-14, italics mine)

It is clear that God wants His people to understand just how serious these sins are.  Now, as I have said before, I am not advocating for a legal reinstatement of these laws.  But they do provide a good sense of the fact that homosexual acts are without a doubt sinful.  And in case you didn't notice, the word detestable is used here once again.

In with the New

Perhaps quoting the Old Testament does not convince you.  I mean, the Old Testament is, well, old.  All right then, Let's move onward to the New Testament to see what it has to say on the matter.  Paul has more quotes directly related to homosexuality than any other writer in the New Testament.  The first passage I know of which discusses the topic with any amount of frankness is in Romans.  Here, Paul is giving a list of sins being committed by a group of "wicked" people who turned away from God to pursue their sinful desires.  "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error." (Romans 1:26-27)  Note that Paul says these men abandoned "natural relations" in committing these "shameful acts."  There is no begging for apologies from Paul in case he hurt someone's feelings, no attempt to cushion this accusation in terms which were politically correct.  He intends to make it clear that these men and women had abandoned God altogether, and uses these descriptions and more to prove his point (see the rest of the passage by clicking on the link).

A similar passage occurs in 1 Corinthians 6.  Here Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, begging its members not to get into petty legal disputes with each other.  As a contrast to the love they should be showing each other, Paul reminds the church of what their lives used to look like before they turned to Christ.

"Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." -1 Cor. 6:9-11

Again, Paul is not indicating that homosexuality is a worse sin than others, but what he is saying is that homosexual acts are sins.

The only other place I know of in the New Testament where homosexuality is treated explicitly is in 1 Timothy 1.  After discussing the matter of false teachers with Timothy, Paul decided to talk briefly about the Law and its significance.

"We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.  We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me." -1 Tim. 1:8-11

While this passage is not written with the purpose of condemning homosexuality, it certainly does equate it with the other sins in this list, once again indicating that the practice of homosexuality is a sin.  It seems that wherever homosexuality is mentioned in the Bible, it is treated as a sin.

There is one more point I would like to make before moving on.  While the rest of the Bible might not mention homosexuality explicitly, I believe that there are other passages where it is examined.  This is because with all the examples listed above, it would not be inaccurate to describe homosexuality as a form of sexual immorality.  Indeed, if it is considered to be a sin associated with sexuality at all, it even seems proper to categorize it thus.  And there are several passages which deal with sexual immorality.  I do not think I need to quote any of these passages to prove further that homosexuality is a sin, but I will list a few in case you want to read on: Matt. 15:16-20, Acts 15:29, 1 Cor. 6:12-20, Ephesians 5:3, etc.

But

Let me recap this post so far:  God invented marriage (and sex for that matter), so He gets to define how it works.  He defined it as being between one man and one woman.  And just to make sure everything was clear, He then spent several passages in the Book He wrote explaining that any deviation from this prescribed framework is a sin.

But that still isn't good enough for lots of Americans, and even for some modern Christians.  Two of the main objections I have heard to this matter are: "Can it really be wrong to love someone?" and "How can people be born with this desire if it is evil?"  I shall answer these questions in that order.

First, I believe that loving people is not a sin.  There are certainly examples of things which it is sinful to love (in fact, the list is nearly endless), but loving people seems to me to always be proper.  That being said, I think the idea of love in this context needs to be defined.  I believe that having a deep, personal relationship with just about anyone is a good thing.  Just look at David and Jonathan or Paul and Silas.  But the kind of loving relationships like this that we see in the Bible have no sexual connotations.  Sex and the desires associated with it are the origin of the sin, in the case of homosexuality.  And this is not unique.  Again, there is really only one circumstance in which Christianity views sexuality as being proper: in the context of marriage.  Sexual desires are sinful in cases of adultery, lust, fornication, and even in other settings, so I do not feel the least bit of concern in saying that such desires for another person are could be sin.

As far as seemingly innate desires are concerned, there is no reason why they should not be evil.  Many people struggle with many different kinds of desires that they were "born" with.  There are people who are more inclined to murdering or lying than those around them.  Many times we have clinical names for these predispositions, like kleptomania and pyromania.  But for some reason when it comes to sexual desires, we claim that there is no way a person could develop an attraction for something which is morally wrong.  Furthermore, there are tons of other instances of sinful sexual desires which people possess "from the time they were born."  Many degrees of heterosexual desires are sinful, even though we often fail to see them as such.  Therefore, stating that innate desires can be evil seems reasonable to me.

You Can't be Serious

So what does all of this rambling mean?  What is the message I want to get across to you?  First, I want American culture to realize that supporting traditional marriage and opposing gay marriage is not denying someone their rights.  There is no right to gay marriage.  By definition, there really is no gay marriage at all!  And I'm not really sure if it is proper to say that anyone has the "right" to get married.  Marriage will always be a privilege, and we should cherish it as such.

Second, it is my sincere prayer that my thoughts have been articulated well enough that there is no misunderstanding about my intentions.  I do not hate homosexuals.  In fact, I love them quite as much as I love any other person I meet.  But it pains me to see people embracing a part of them which at its core is sinful and making that into their personal identity.  It genuinely frightens me that we have become a culture which has become so obsessed with tolerance we do not know when to stand up for righteousness.

One of my goals for this blog as a whole was to address several concerns which I have with modern Western culture.  That is why I do not care if this post strikes my readers as "archaic" thinking or prejudice.  It is neither of those things.  This is simply a plea for America to stop trusting only in itself and start recognizing that there is a higher power out there who is waiting for her to return to Him.

My challenge this week is for Christians everywhere to stand up for marriage and not buy into the prevalent message that each person gets to make his own morality.  Do not be afraid to oppose same-sex marriage.  It may not be a popular stand to make, but neither are many other biblical positions.  Thank you for your patience in reading this cumbersome article, and please keep the covenant of marriage in your prayers.

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." -Hebrews 13:4

Apologies, Once Again

Readers,

I am in the process of writing my next post for this blog, but several obligations have come up this week, and I am not going to be able to finish it until next week.  I do beg your indulgence as I attempt to get back on top of my substantial work load.  Thank you for reading my blog, and I look forward to continuing the discussion of marriage with you next week.

Have a great week and may God bless you,
Addison

Taking a Week Off

Hello readers,

I have decided to take this week off from posting on the blog for several different reasons.  The main two reasons are that I am currently recovering from an illness and that this week has been unusually busy with homework (I am a college student, in case you didn't know).  Anyway, I am looking forward to resuming the series on marriage next week, and I do beg your patience.  I simply did not feel like I could commit the time and energy necessary to properly treating such a weighty subject this week.  Thank you for reading my blog, and I am excited to see how God continues to use this tool in the future.

-Addison

P.S.- I am going to be making some upgrades to the blog in coming weeks, so stay tuned for that!

The Marriage Ref: The Great Divide

"Divorce is the second worst event in a person’s life. The worst event, of course, is marriage." -Jarod Kintz, This Book Has No Title

In my post last week, I strove to prove that it is worthwhile to talk about marriage, and that marriage is tied very closely to religion.  We discussed how its intrinsic value lay in its ties both to physicality and spirituality, and also concluded that while the government may be justified in creating a definition of "legal" marriage, it can never really define what marriage is in the first place.

This week, we are back to discussing the tricky yet important matter of marriage, and particularly the idea of marriage as it pertains to modern Western culture.  The overall picture I want us to end up with is a very clear image of what marriage should look like, through the eyes of the Person who created it; that is to say, God.

There are many different regions to be explored in the wilderness of marriage, but today I only want to focus on one.  That is the murky, dank territory of divorce.

Once More Unto the Breach

The most difficult aspect of this discussion is the fact that divorce is so prevalent in modern society.  We've all heard the statistics: something like half (or more, depending on the source) of the marriages in the United States have ended in divorce.  This is not necessarily surprising.  If you were part of our discussion last week, you know that I readily admit that marriage really has no real meaning for atheists or people without religious affiliation.

The real shocker is that Christian marriages do not seem to fare noticeably better than their non-Christian counterparts.  This is a real problem.  As Christians, our best advertisement to the world is our love- in fact, that is how we are supposed to be set apart from the rest of the world (John 13:35).  I cannot think of  an institution which more aptly represents love than marriage.  If Christian marriages are failing, how are we supposed to convince other people that marriage is worth saving?  Furthermore, how are we supposed to convince other people of anything that has to do with our faith?

Sadly, many modern people of faith have decided to not take marriage seriously, and as a result, many of their loved ones have gotten hurt.  I should not have to try and convince Christians that their marriage is worth losing all their material possessions for.  I should not have to spend paragraphs explaining to Christian men and women that divorce is wrong and what's more- it's evil.  But I do have to do these things, because we as Christians are failing at marriage.  So I will attempt here to explain, with the help of the Bible, that divorce should be essentially nonexistent in the Church.

Let Me Spell It Out for You

God does not mince words when discussing divorce in His Word.  In fact, passages on divorce are some of the more frighteningly unambiguous sections in all of Scripture.  Let's start with Malachi:

"Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears.  You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.  You ask, 'Why?'  It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

"Has not the Lord made them one?  In flesh and spirit they are his.  And why one?  Because he was seeking godly offspring.  So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

"'I hate divorce,' says the Lord God of Israel, 'and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,' says the Lord Almighty.

"So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith." -Malachi 2:13-16 (NIV 1984)

Now, I know that God is talking to a nation of people here, and not one person in particular, but the idea still holds true.  And it could not be put any more plainly: "I hate divorce...."  Just reading this passage sends chills down my spine.  This is a very powerful message.

But perhaps that doesn't do it for you.  Not to worry, there are plenty of other passages to cite as well.  How about some laws in Deuteronomy?  If a man tried to slander his wife in order to divorce her and it was found out that he was lying, he was not allowed to separate from her- for the rest of his life. (Deut. 22:13-19)  Also, there is no room for adultery among the people of God. (v. 22-24)  Only in cases where there is proof of indecency on the part of the wife was her husband entitled to divorce her, and once that happened there were even more rules about remarriage. (24:1-4)  In Levitical law, the priests were not allowed to marry divorcées, "because priests are holy to their God." (Leviticus 21:7)  It seems that God is making divorce out to be a pretty big deal.

But these laws do not even come close to what Jesus Himself has to say about divorce.  Right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has the audacity to make the following declaration.  "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.'  But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery." (Matt. 5:31-32)  Did you catch that?  Jesus places divorce, even the legal, seemingly innocuous version, on par with adultery, which even today is still viewed with disdain.  This is a big deal.  Essentially, Jesus is here making divorce its own kind of sexual immorality, a category which includes not a few other transgressions which we tend to think of as being more sinister.

The Hierarchy of Contract

I believe perhaps the most troublesome ailment contributing to the symptom of divorce is the general misunderstanding of contracts in our modern society.  I believe we all know intrinsically that not every agreement we make is of the same importance.  Reneging on a pinky-swear made in middle school is not likely to be punished to the same degree as divulging government secrets entrusted to you by the Pentagon.  There is an implied stratification of severity when it comes to different kinds of promises, although going back on your word may cause people to get hurt no matter the strength of the compact.  (For more on what I have to say about contracts check out my previous post here.)

The problem with contemporary society is that we have forgotten the amount of gravitas involved in the contract of marriage.  Marriage is not some sort of inebriated half-promise to be made in the throes of emotional attraction.  It is not a handshake with the other hand crossing fingers behind your back.  It is not an agreement between two corporate entities pledging to support each other as long as the partnership is beneficial.  Marriage is not strategic move to get the best of another person or avoid the cosmic penalty box reserved for adulterers (remember Matthew 5 above).  It isn't even an earnest arrangement between two parties with good intentions.  It is a covenant intertwining two lives for as long as they both last, a contact between two people who love and know each other so well that they long to get to love and know each other better for the rest of their lives.  Marriage is not "till I get bored," "till you quit pleasing me," "till my hormones die down," or "till we don't see eye-to-eye anymore."  It is "till death do us part!"

I pray that the words I have utilized to convince you that divorce is evil have not been spent in vain.  We Christians should be champions for marriage, because it is nothing to trifle with.  A covenant is one of the most fully binding and steadfast agreements imaginable, and the consequences of one being broken are always severe.  I believe too many people today view marriage as just a promise.  What's more, dating relationships have become all but marriages from the start, with boyfriends and girlfriends becoming increasingly possessive of each other.  Even in Christian relationships, there is a burgeoning disregard for the "archaic" practice of courtship, and a corollary increase in the amount of dating Christians who are crossing all sorts of lines.  Compared to the intensity of these dating relationships, marriage does not seem so prominent- it's just the "next step."  The problem is that, in fact, marriage is THE next step, and in all actuality it is the final step.

Luckily, our cultural heritage has left us with a nice in-between step wherein we can still leave the relationship without breaking the covenant.  It is called engagement, and nowadays it seems like little more than a waiting period which allows the couple to plan their big day.  But it is also their chance to really consider if they are willing to spend the rest of their lives together.  Dating is certainly not a covenant, and neither is engagement, and that is good news.  There is nothing wrong with ending a relationship in the engagement stage- it exists to give you that chance.  I feel like too many people feel like they have to stay in their relationship once they are  engaged (or even dating), since they have made a pledge to the other person.  And they have made a pledge.  But that pledge is worth annulling if it means avoiding a divorce down the road.  Divorce is by far the worse repudiation.

Grow Up

When Jesus told His disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children (Mark 10:14), there were many lessons that they could learn.  But one of the traits of children Jesus was not referring to is their selfishness.

We live in a society inundated by the idea that the self is the highest authority.  If something pleases me, it must be good for me, so I should consume it.  Inversely, if something displeases me, I should avoid it at all cost.  And many of us have been hoodwinked by the allure of this idea.  But in reality, these are nothing more than the musings of a self-obsessed child.  The world does not hesitate to remind me that I am not at its center, and I must find some way of coping with this revelation.

Unfortunately, too many people have chosen to cope by ignoring reality altogether.  And it shows in their broken marriages.  Far too many marriages have come about simply due to physical attraction (the most fleeting of attractions), and far too many have ended due to lack of the same.  Today's spouse often thinks more about how to get his partner to serve him than how he can serve his partner.  It is an attitude misalignment of tremendous proportions.

Our marriages will never be fixed until we begin to ask "How far can I go for my spouse?" instead of "How far can I push my spouse?"  Marriage is an investment in another person, and to get a return on the investment, there must be something invested.  In this case, I would suggest investing love.

If you are married, please take time to recognize just how important (and wonderful) your relationship to your partner is.  If you are divorced, please know that Grace abounds and that I am certainly not condemning or maligning you in any way.  But this is a topic that we Americans are far too nonchalant about, and it requires some indelicate discourse.  And if you are single (like me) or dating, take time to consider just how you want your married life to be, and treat those around you (especially those of the opposite sex) accordingly.  In all things, uphold the institution of marriage, and do everything you can to reflect the Love of God to those around you.  I challenge you all to read 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 some time this week, and I will do my best to bring another weighty marriage topic to bear next week.

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." -Hebrews 13:4

EDIT (9/30/12):

It has come to my attention that certain of my ideas in this post can be misconstrued somewhat, so I wish to write for a minute on a few points.  Firstly, I am not saying that divorce should be avoided in every single situation (see comments below).  There are very legitimate reasons for leaving an abusive or otherwise unhealthy marriage (as Jesus alludes to in the passage from Matthew 5).  Also, I am not saying that there is no Hope for people who have been divorced.  I know as much as anyone that Grace is available for all sinners.  As a Christian, I am called to "love the sinner and hate the sin."  The post this week was much more about hating the sin than loving the sinner.  My main wish in writing this post was to attempt to counteract the unconcerned attitude many modern Western Christians have toward the subject.  My heart aches for people who have been affected by divorce, both out of love for the people and hate for divorce.  But I do not for an instant harbor any resentment toward the people themselves.  I sincerely hope my combative attitude above has not unduly offended anyone.

The Marriage Ref: Foundation

"Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage..." -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

I have been holding off on this topic for quite some time, because the things I have to say go against much modern conventional "wisdom," and I am certain to step on a few toes if I convey my thoughts well.  That being said, I have felt very convicted this week to begin a series on the subject of marriage, and specifically marriage in the modern Western world.

Therefore, I am embarking into this volatile landscape harboring only the hope that the words I say will be a proper representation of the Truth which comes from God.  In my life, I am surrounded by marriages which are failing or have failed, and it seems to me that in general the marriage which lasts longer than a decade is the exception to the rule.  This simply should not be.  Broken marriages grieve me more than just about anything else in the world, and I have a not insignificant amount of frustration with the modern view of marriage, both outside of the church and in it.

First, however, let me make a very marked disclaimer.  I am not married, nor have I ever been married, so for me to talk about marriage at all may seem to some to be at once pretentious and somewhat crass.  I, however, would disagree with them wholeheartedly.  It is my experience that the people who are most jaded about marriage are those who are or have been married.  That is not to say that all married couples are sullen and cynical.  But I believe there is a tendency for married people to lose sight of just how significant their relationship is in the first place.  Familiarity, while not necessarily breeding contempt, at the very least often brings disillusionment.  And thus I believe perhaps my perspective on the subject is worth presenting.  You should not discount my thoughts simply because of my youth.

"I am young in years,/ and you are old;/ that is why I was fearful,/ not daring to tell you what I know./  I thought, ‘Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.’/  But it is the Spirit in a person,/ the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding./  It is not only the old who are wise,/ not only the aged who understand what is right." -Job 32:6b-9

How Important is Marriage?

So, with the boldness of a pioneer, we begin our venture into the wilderness that is the defense of marriage.  Like any journey, we must begin with a purpose.  We must have a reason for setting out, or else why risk the dangers of the wild?  So I will bring you up to speed on my thoughts thus far.

Why defend marriage in the first place?  At first glance, it seems to be nothing more than a funny little convention created by cultures over the years.  But I believe there are two aspects of marriage which even now should indicate to us its importance.

First, I believe that marriage is the second most important natural relationship in a person's life.  Of course, the most important relationship is that of the nuclear family.  There is a physical, very real connection between a human and the human who gave birth to him or her, and this connection even branches out to other humans related by this process of birth.  This is a fairly self-explanatory idea, so I will not expound on it further.  Marriage, like the nuclear family unit, represents a connection made by a physical and physiological process- in this case sex.  Many psychological studies have been done into the connections the brain makes during sex, and from what I understand, they are very strong.  Indeed, based on the behaviors I have encountered, they might be stronger even than the filial connection mentioned before.  "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Gen. 2:24, NKJV)  We cannot escape the pull of marriage; it is built into our DNA.

Secondly, I believe that marriage is the second most important spiritual relationship in a person's life.  Again, it is obviously overshadowed by that person's relationship to God.  But if you believe in a higher power at all, it is all but corollary that your faith has something to say about the institution of marriage.  If you have been married in the United States, perhaps you were married in a church, buy a priest, using some version of the Roman Catholic marriage vows.  This alone should tell you that marriage has a lot to do with religion.  Other cultures have variations on this formula, but they are almost always tied in some way to the local religion.  This is because we understand that marriage is a covenant, which is not just a contract between two people, but a contract between two people made before God.

Marriage, it would seem, is important.

Moral Compass

Before we make the first step on our journey, we must make all necessary preparations.  And in our case, that includes bringing along a compass.  And indeed we have such a guide for directing our paths on this voyage.  Sadly, however, many people have chosen to ignore the compass altogether and have wound up failing to defend not only the sanctity of marriage as a whole but also their individual marriages.

To avoid continuing the metaphor at the cost of semantic precision, I am going to write more plainly now.  There has been much debate recently, especially in the political realm, over the definition of marriage and the constituents thereof.  Passionate outcries resound from all sides, each person appealing to the government to characterize marriage in one fashion or another.  Much ill will exists between opposing parties, as well as a fair amount of miscommunication.  The men and women involved in these debates recognize that marriage is important, for one reason or another.  But they fail to realize a more fundamental aspect of marriage.

The institution of marriage never has been, and never will be, defined by the government.  The idea is actually somewhat comical.  It would be similar to it attempting to change the definition of "entropy," or "syllogism," or "red-orange."  Like all of these examples, marriage as an institution exists apart from the realm of government, and while there is something to be said for defining what is meant by "legally married," this phrase in itself is little more than a formality.  The government can no more assign meaning to marriage than it can ascribe the term "pasta" to the planet Saturn.  Because when Saturn becomes "pasta," then "pasta" takes on an entirely new meaning (and it probably ceases to sound as appetizing for a main course at dinner).

The same is true of marriage.  Say the government declares that men have the right to marry horses.  Very well, the legal definition of marriage has changed.  But it is no longer in any real sense marriage.  In fact, we may be pressed into adding descriptors to the original idea to preserve its meaning (traditional marriage), or perhaps a new term would need to be coined to replace the former concept of marriage.  The government can pass as many laws as it wants telling me the grass is purple, but this will not make it look any more like a violet.  Therefore, while I do care somewhat about how our policy makers choose to define matrimony, their decision will have little effect on what I say about marriage or what marriage actually is.

I hope I have adequately proven that marriage is not defined by government.  The question remains, then: By whom is it defined?  Again, the answer is rather simple.  The institution of marriage was created by, and to this day is still defined by, God Himself.  Just read Genesis 2 if you want proof of this.  I will forgo quoting this passage at present, because I am sure that I will reference it quite a lot in the next few weeks.  For people who have faith in another deity besides the Christian God, perhaps your concept of marriage comes from your religion as well.  And for the scope of this discussion, that is fine.  But it baffles me to think that atheists would even care the slightest bit about holy matrimony.  If you take away the sacred nature of this covenant, it becomes little more than a pinky-swear.

And perhaps this is why so many marriages today are failing.  It is because we fail to realize that marriage in itself is a monument erected and maintained by the Creator of the universe.  We buy into the lie that a vow this weighty is actually nothing more than a contract letting us sleep with another individual with some sense of moral impunity.  We have succeeded in undermining one of the institutions God established even before the fall of man.  And as a society we are paying for it dearly.

I have sermonized long enough for this week.  Please know that my intentions in all of this are solely based out of love for the institution of marriage and my concern for my fellow man.  I only wish to see things set aright, and I hope that you share my passion. I leave you this week with one sentence from Hebrews.

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." -Hebrews 13:4

The Normal, Radical Life

Throughout its history, Christianity has been full of amazing stories of men and women who have seen tremendous changes in their lives.  Tyrants have become meek, respectful figures, murderers have become life-savers, and cynical men have become passionate advocates for good.  Just look at Paul- the murderous Jewish zealot turned feverish proponent of the Christianity, and author of several books of the New Testament.  There have been countless examples since then of people who have come from the depths of depravity to the heights of sainthood.

There have also been plenty of people who haven't.  In fact, I would say that the majority of people in the history of Christianity have been relatively nice people for most of their lives.  They don't  have bone-chilling stories about their shadowy past or legions scars from terrible decisions.  And they don't have awe-inspiring stories of miraculous deeds they have performed or thousands of people who have converted to Christianity primarily because of them.  And that's okay.

Or is it?  Something I have noticed about modern Christians (myself included) is that we tend to romanticize the stories of people who were saved from a horrific past and glorify stories of people who do outlandish, crazy things for the sake of the Gospel.  This tendency bothers me.

Consumerist Christianity

Let me start by saying this: there is nothing wrong with celebrating these stories of triumph.  Christians are right to rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15) and to celebrate the lost son finding his way home (Luke 15:10).  However, this attitude is like many components of our lives- it is a matter of intensity.

What we do when we over-emphasize stories of this "glamorous" Christianity is we make the faith of others seem less real.  We start using platitudes like "God wants to use you to change the world," and "Why can't more people's faith look like [insert name here]?"  Sure, God may want me to change the world, but maybe for now He just wants me to help out my neighbor.  And certainly, lots of people could use to have a faith that is more like the individual in question.  But their faith really needs to be more like that of Jesus, and in that case it might be substantially different than the person in our example.

Modern Christians have inadvertently succeeded in commercializing certain aspects of the church experience.  We want to change lives, and this is a just and noble cause, but we are naturally drawn to those stories that represent a "larger" life change.  Therefore, without even thinking, we begin to make church more about telling inspiring stories than about the worship of God and the edification of men.  We regale applauding audiences with touching anecdotes which have two effects on the listeners: (1) giving them the (sometimes false) notion that the church is succeeding in its mission and (2) reinforcing the idea that a faith which is not doing earth-shattering things is not working at all.  We need to be more careful in how we present stories of modern people.

Profound Simplicity

Sometimes faith is much less adventurous than we like to think.  Sure, it can be about the big changes, the sweeping conversions, and the prominent miracles.  But it isn't always so electrifying.

Allow me to give an example from the Old Testament.  The Israelites had gone into the land of Canaan, and they were busy doing God's work there, which mainly consisted of ridding the land of the sinful people who had inhabited it previously (see: Joshua 8, 10, 11, Judges 1, etc.).  It would seem that the Will of God was being done in a very spectacular manner.  And of course, the Israelite kings continued to battle the peoples around them.  Then along came a king named Ahab.  Ahab has developed a legacy as one of the more troublesome kings of Israel, and for good reason.  On one particular occasion, Ahab decided he decided to try to do the Will of God by wiping out the Arameans. So he teamed up with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and got his army ready.  After getting the blessing of about four hundred guys who claimed to be prophets, the tag team was on the verge of marching off to battle when a true prophet of God named Micaiah arrived, saying that God's real message was to sit this one out.

What?  God's Will wasn't to display His power and might in an awe-inspiring way?  No, it wasn't.  But what about Ramoth Gilead, the city that used to belong to the Levites as an Israelite city of refuge?  It was to be left alone for the time being.  And the precedent which had been set in so many battles before?  Well, God's Will is often unprecedented, but that doesn't mean that it is always showy.  His Will in this instance was very different from what it had been in the past.  Ahab learned this the hard way, too, since he died in battle, after ignoring Micaiah's warning.  The Israelites, God's chosen people, were routed, and much harm was done.  (Check out the whole story for yourself in 1 Kings 22.)

Be Where You Are

I cite this story simply to make this point: God's Will is not always about being showy and outwardly impressive.  It often involves simply serving Him where you are right now.  The church needs more Christian missionaries, it's true, but we also need more Christian doctors, more Christian pizza delivery guys, and more Christian high schoolers.  In short, we just need more Christians.  Not Christians only in name, but Christians in character, willing to step out of their comfort zone for God (and willing to step into it).  As Christians, we should strive to look as much like our Savior as possible, whether that means being crazy and outlandish or humble and quiet.

This is the great thing about my faith.  Not only do I get to be more like Jesus; in being more like Him, I find I'm more like me!  And I have a whole different skill set than many of my friends.  It wouldn't make sense for us to all be picking up our livelihoods to move to Africa, because we're not all equipped for (or called to) do that.  The best we can do is to listen as closely as possible to the Holy Spirit and to do what He tells us to do.  This is true obedience: not working to convert hundreds of people to gratify yourself, but loving everyone around you the way God wire you and willed you to do.

Finally, I have a challenge for the church.  On top of celebrating the person who went from total depravity to Christian Love, let's also rejoice for those among us who have pretty much been in church their whole life and still have a passionate love for Christ.  Instead of only touting stories of mission work in Haiti and miraculous healing in Africa, let's also honor the family here at home who simply share the Fruit of the Spirit with those around them.  Sure, I'm amazed by riveting stories of flashy workings of the Holy Spirit, but I'm also completely floored by the couple whose marriage has lasted 50 years and the farmer who helps his neighbor with yard work.

There are so many ways God can work in this world.  Let's not limit Him to only doing big things.

I leave you this week with some of the instructions Paul put at the end of 1 Thessalonians:

"Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.  Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.  Live in peace with each other.  And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else." -1 Thess. 5:12-15

What About Love?

It has been a while since my last post, and while I have enjoyed my few weeks' reprieve from these deep intellectual pursuits, I must say I am very glad to be able to type another post.  This week, I am going to consider one of the more common objections to Christianity.  I am not going to try to answer every facet of this objection, but rather to present a proposal which may annul much of the argument in the first place.

This objection to Christianity goes as follows:  How can a good and loving God allow for the torture of souls which are not loyal to Him?  That is, can hell really be consistent with the concept of a benevolent God?

Of Course Not

At face value, it seems as though this cannot be.  Certainly, a God who professes to love His creation and who allegedly sent His Son down to die in order to save it would never want to cause pain to any part of this creation.  Benevolence, it would seem, is inconsistent with punishment.  But the problem with this consideration (much like many of the modern atheist arguments) is that this is not a question to be taken at face value.  One of the things that irks me most about many atheist claims is that they look into certain questions in a manner which is far too in-depth (such as fairly simple biblical passages), while treating other, more cumbersome subjects with an undue sense of levity.  The present subject is an example of the latter.

Love, despite what the modern world may suggest, is not a topic to be taken lightly, and it most certainly is not easily to understand.  It does not fall into black and white boxes of "always right" and "always wrong" behaviors.  Actions are influenced by love, but they are not easily judged by it.  Love dictates different responses depending heavily on circumstances.  Take, for instance, a son asking his father for a gift.  Out of love for this son, the father will likely be inclined to buy him the gift.  But say that the family does not have much money.  In this instance, the same love which compelled him to spend the money in the previous example might now be the very reason he does not buy the present.  Does the father love his son any less for withholding the gift?  By no means!

You Give Love a Bad Name

There is yet another aspect of Christian theology which the skeptic in this instance neglects to mention.  That is, the concept that God is Love.  We as humans have a hard time understanding this (and I certainly do not profess to fully comprehend it).  For us, love is a verb- it's something we do.  And to be honest, its something we do very imperfectly.  Sure, we have the concept of love as a noun, but for the Christian God this concept is totally different.  Love is part of who He is, and this makes all the difference in the world.  This means that everything God does is influenced by and guided by love.  This idea, however, also means that God is loving, no matter what He does.  It is a little awkward to put into words, but the main idea I am trying to convey is: God is defined by Love, and Love is defined by God.

Do not take my word for it.  Just ask John- "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)  What does David say about God's love?  "Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,/ your faithfulness to the skies."  Or read Psalm 136: "His love endures forever."  Even Paul comments on the power of God's love: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39).

Who are we to tell God what love dictates of Him?  He is the very standard by which all love is measured!  To the atheist this might seem like deflecting the question, but it is simply the truth.  At times, this facet of theology confounds even the most astute Christian, but that does not make it any less true.  And from everything I have read in the Bible and from my real-life experience, this concept is very consistent with what I know about love and about God.

Love and Wrath

The final concept I wished to express this week is that God's wrath is not inconsistent with His love.  The world over the past several decades has accomplished the extraordinary- it has managed to totally dilute and adulterate the concept of love.  The love pictured in the Bible is a powerful and momentous entity which heals the sick and alters the course of history.  What I believe many people picture when they think of love today is little more than kindness and warm feelings.  This image of love is not only weak, it is in many ways misleading.

True love (the love found in the Bible) is not always happy, and it is certainly not always gentle.  And while God certainly is Love, this is definitely not His only trait.  God is also perfect (Psalm 18:30), jealous (Exodus 20:5), just (Ezekiel 18:25), and righteous (Ezra 9:15), among other things.  I particularly want to focus here on the perfection of God.  God is perfect, and He demands perfection from His creation (after all, that is the way He created it, see Genesis 1:31).  If God is in control, and He demands this perfection, then He is certainly justified in punishing those parts of His creation which are not perfect.  But could a loving God really do this?  Yes, He could! There are several instances in the Old Testament, and even some in the New Testament, where He displays such punishment.

But the surprising thing about God is that He chose to give His creation a way out.  This is the exciting thing about Christianity.  God, being perfect, still found a way to allow imperfection into His Kingdom!  This Grace is quite monumental, and no Christian would have hope without it.  This salvation came with a price, however.  A man (who was actually God, but still totally a man) had to die to sanctify those who believed in Him.  But this sacrifice did not totally erase all punishment, however.  God bent the rules to allow for imperfect people to be perfected, but their perfection hinges on belief in the perfect Jesus.  And for those who still refuse to believe, their impurities cannot be reconciled with His perfection.  It is not that God chooses to torture them; these people select their own fate.

So there you have it, as well as I can put in words for right now.  God is loving, in fact He is Love.  But that Love does not preclude His Wrath.  God is perfectly justified and perfectly loving in whatever He does, simply by being God, but He chooses not to punish His creation to the full measure they deserve.  As long as they can believe on Him, God's Love truly can be a positive and helpful force.  But for those who refuse this Grace, the more vicious attributes of His love are still very much in play.

I will leave you with a passage I referenced earlier regarding God's justice:

"Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear, you Israelites: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?  If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sin, they will die for it; because of the sin they have committed they will die.  But if a wicked person turns away from the wickedness they have committed and does what is just and right, they will save their life.  Because they consider all the offenses they have committed and turn away from them, that person will surely live; they will not die.  Yet the Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are my ways unjust, people of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

"Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.  Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel?  For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!" -Ezekiel 18:25-32

Apologies

For anyone who has been following this blog, I just wanted to clarify a few reasons why it has been a few weeks since my last post.  Right now, my primary identity in life is as a student.  The semester is back in full swing, and the past two weeks have been spent preparing and running around like an over-caffeinated chihuahua.  That being said, I should have posted again this week, but unfortunately I am sick and I have been resting as much as possible to try and get over this illness.  Therefore, I have been unable to post again this week.

I am very sorry for those of you who expected to see some new material in the past few weeks.  I have been extremely blessed by my readership thus far, and I will do everything in my power to put up a new post next week.  Thank you for your patience!

-Addison

Chick-fil-A and Hypocrisy

I don't have a lot to say this week, but this past week has given me more than a few things to write about.

As many of you likely know, the restaurant chain Chick-fil-A recently garnered some national media attention when its president, Dan Cathy, made a number of statements supporting the traditional view of marriage.  His comments were met predictably with both praise and condemnation from various sources.  The situation quickly gained prominence, resulting in a "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" and a subsequent day championed by the opposition (I don't think this second date ever received a proper title), both of which occurred last week.

Neither of the days in question bother me for any reason.  In a capitalist nation, when a business makes a move which a person agrees with (or not), it is the right of that person to support that business with money and any other means they so choose (or not).  Both the proponents and the adversaries of Chick-fil-A were justified in participating in their various activities.

Not as I Do

What I do take issue with, however, is the way in which some members of the pro-gay marriage community responded to the statements by Cathy.  Certainly, the majority of the populace in both camps remained reasonable and respectful throughout this episode.  But there is a very vocal sect of the socially liberal crowd whose behavior confounds me to no end.

In certain circles, Cathy was painted as an ignorant, conservative bigot, opposed to all kinds of liberties.  This sort of defamation should not be entertained by any reasoning society.  Nevertheless, liberal commentators in the media, academia, and even in the government could be heard leveling accusations of varying intensity at Cathy, whose only "crime" was stating his personal beliefs.  Now, I readily admit that some conservatives acted out of line as well during this saga, but I believe that the liberal pundits are guilty of much worse and much more prolific transgressions of this nature.

The liberals who decried Cathy's statements claim to be working toward a system wherein each person's values are respected and given consideration, but their recent statements betray a different attitude altogether.  When faced with someone who actually states his beliefs and holds to a creed with some moral authority, it is all these men and women can do to keep from demanding that he be thrown in the stockade.  Their everyday language hearkens to mutual respect and tolerance, but their actions show me only their deep capacity for disrespect and intolerance.  What they truly intend to say is that all views should be respected as long as those views agree with their own.  This is bigotry couched in a very shallow platform of universal acceptance.

All the World's a Stage

Many people know that the term "hypocrite" comes from the Greek word hypokritḗs which meant simply an actor.  A hypocrite is simply a person whose actions do not agree with who he "truly" is (i.e. who he says he is).  The social liberals who have condemned Chick-fil-A are excellent examples of this term, which has a deservedly negative connotation.

I do my best not to tolerate hypocrisy- not in myself, not in those around me.  I feel that Christians ought to be especially careful of this contradiction of character, because a hypocrite undermines his words by his actions, and the message of Christianity is so easily spoiled by the actions of Christians.  That being said, hypocrisy should be no more acceptable in any other group of people.  Just because a person supports the right of a minority to state its beliefs does not mean that he supports this right for all people, even if he says he does.  His actions must bear this concept out for it to have any real basis.

You do not have to look far to come up with examples of such duplicity in this recent chain of events.  One of the most striking which I have found is in the video below, which I found reading through an article on the website of the Los Angeles Times. (retrieved 6 Aug. 2012)

This video was removed by the man who originally posted it, but some intrepid young YouTube users managed to put it back up.  Certainly this man thinks he's doing the world a great service by making fun of some college students and spewing out hatred for Chick-fil-A.  But I highly doubt many people agree with him.

Keep Your Head

I think we would all be better off if everyone in this situation would just keep cool, but clearly that's not how things are going to work out.  I will say this once more: I know that the majority of people in both camps are reasonable and respectful individuals.  But Christianity is attacked so often for its alleged hypocrisy that I felt it worthwhile to point out that other philosophies have their fair share of duplicity.  And it should not be tolerated anywhere.

I am also going to say this to make it clear.  Supporting the traditional view of the family is not hatred toward homosexuals.  If a person's religious creed supports one ideal or another, and that person chooses to support that ideal as well, there is generally no malicious intent behind it.  And furthermore, to be clear, the Bible definitively supports a traditional model of marriage (one man, one woman, for life).  This will be a subject for a later blog post.

I have belabored the subject long enough.  I will let Peter's words suffice for my closing this week. "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." (1 Peter 15b-16, italics mine)

Reason

This week's topic is broad and very far-reaching, but without it, any argument I make (or have made) is open  to an attack which has become all too common in the past few centuries.  The basic structure of this attack is as follows:

"My brain works through a series of chemical reactions.  These reactions are responsible for the thoughts which I perceive, as well as emotions, instincts, and any other event which occurs primarily in my mind.  Chemical reactions, by nature, occur in a very rigid way, which usually has very little to do with the external world, given the requisite conditions for the reaction to occur.  Therefore, if my thoughts arise solely from a series of chemical interactions, there is nothing to say that they are trustworthy or even pertinent.  Thus, human logic cannot be trusted."

This is, as best I understand it, one of the main arguments which gives rise to the philosophy of nihilism.  It is the atheistic evolutionary biologist's favorite platitude and the ultimate end of the exercise in futility known as post-modernism.  In an attempt to demonstrate that their philosophical outlook on the world is the best, the nihilist has done away with human logic altogether, and we have arrived at the blissfully ignorant conclusion to our sense of humanity.  But does this argument make sense?

Concentrate

Of course this thinking makes sense, as long as you just accept it at face value.  In fact, one wonders why it has taken this long to arrive at this conclusion in the first place.  But let's take the place of the skeptic for a minute.  What if this argument doesn't hold water?

I claim that the nihilistic view of the world is one of the most brazenly futile intellectual pursuits ever fabricated by man.  To prove this, let us begin by assuming that nihilism is true.  All right, good.  We've thrown out the idea of logic altogether and embraced the fact that we're unreasoning beasts driven by Lavoisier's rules.  Now, surely if this is true their must be some shred of evidence for its being true.  But wait....  We've just finished ruling out the idea that we, as humans, are capable of utilizing evidence to construct a meaningful model of the world!  What we are stuck with is a self-defeating argument- in fact, it is the self defeating argument: "I argue that it is impossible to make an argument."  This is tantamount to the old jest, "Everything I say is a lie."

What the nihilists see as their "Get Out of Jail Free" card is in fact their red card, their ejection from the game of logic itself.  The fact that men like Friedrich Nietzsche have tried to back this stance with volumes of reasoning is proof enough for me that human logic is not inherently flawed.  But perhaps it is not enough for you.

What if?

This is a subject in which both sides are equally difficult to prove, because this sort of meta-cognition is necessarily inaccurate.   Still, there are trends in this area that can be examined.  If human logic is not trustworthy, then it follows that many things humans do will not follow sound logic.  But if humans are capable of sound reasoning, then there is likely evidence to support this, as well.

By making it this far in this week's blog post, you must needs be at least somewhat pensive and studious- the reason I type these thoughts down instead of making a large discourse out of them is that many people I know would be asleep by this point in the oration.  The only thing which would keep you reading (aside from feeling sorry for me) is if you enjoy thinking about the reason behind why we as humans do what we do.  And I posit that you would only still be participating in this mental activity if it has yielded results in the past.  Put more simply, we all know that there are reasons behind some of the things we do.  And this is enough to form at least a small basis for the possibility of extant human logic.

There are other hints of the worth of rationality.  The study of mathematics (one of my favorite pastimes) is a human pursuit solely based on faith in human logic.  If one and one did not always equal two, then mathematics would fail as a tool.  As it is, we humans have been able to utilize mathematics to help us achieve many of our most important discoveries.  Furthermore, I feel as though my reasoning is worthwhile, and this in itself is meaningful.  Feelings are not always misdirection, and if they are consistent with other sources of information, they can be more or less reliable.

Therefore, I suggest that the idea of sound human logic is at the very least possible.  And since there is yet to be a convincing argument to the contrary, I feel fairly safe in claiming that in many cases, human reasoning is, in fact, reliable.

For those of my readers who were hoping to get more Scripture this week, I do apologize.  The topic this week, in my opinion, was geared more toward people who would not consider the Bible to be inspired, so I was reduced to other means.  Nevertheless, here are a few passages I find pertinent to the issue.  First, I would start with the whole book of Ecclesiastes.  It is one of my personal favorite books of the Bible.  On this topic, it contains great lines like, "'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Everything is meaningless!'" (1:2, 12:8)  If anyone is qualified to think about thinking, it's Solomon.  Also, check out 1 John.  It is full of appeals to the reason of men, such as when John attests to the reliability of his Gospel account. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life." (1 John 1:1)  In general, God expects His followers to look around, examine the facts, and follow where they lead (hint: they always lead to Him).

The challenge I want to lay before you this week is to think about why you do what you do.  I suspect that you will find many reasons, both good and evil.  And when you figure out your motivations, spend time refining those that are good and repenting of those that are evil.  Sound simple?  It shouldn't.  Anyway, thanks for coming with me on this rather didactic ride through the murky waters of nihilism.