New Protestants for a New Reformation
Introduction
Throughout our lives we receive and process
mass quantities of information. Some of it is garbage that we recognize
immediately as garbage and some information we process as truth. We hold on to much
of the information we receive whether garbage or truth and sometimes through
our processing of information we determine that garbage is truth and certain
truths are garbage. This is an affliction that affects us all no matter how
well educated we may be. The causes may be many but it seems that only through
life experience do we gradually learn some of our mistakes. Yet most all of us
still feel the desire to search for and hold to truth.
Recently I listened to a group of people
discuss a certain topic of concern to their Christian lives. One well educated
man seeking to make a point mentioned that in the 1890’s the head of the United
States Patent Office resigned. His reason for resigning was that all the
inventions had already been invented. I have over the years heard this same
alleged incident several times as probably you have also. There is something
counter-intuitive about the myth that makes it seem intriguing to people. Most
people who use this alleged incident probably remember leaning the dates of the
important 19th century inventions, the Cotton Gin, the steam engines
etc. Likely they even remember, perhaps vaguely, the time frame that is given
to the Industrial Revolution mid 18th century to the 20th
century. But all those facts and dates drilled into our little heads in
elementary school fall away at the thought of an illustration of human
foolishness. The thought that a person could be so completely wrong as to think
that at the end of the 19th century the person in charge of Patents
would think that there would be nothing left to Patent.
The irony is that the incident about the head
of the Patent office, used to show man’s certainty and foolishness really does
show man’s certainty and foolishness. Those who use the story are certain it is
true yet because they have never investigated the story they do not realize the
foolishness of the story. In fact, though there are several books which report
this story it is not a true story.
The Skeptical Inquirer examined the Patent office story in an article by Samuel Sass in their Spring 1989 issue vol. 13 pp 310-313. The article pointed out that the myth had previously been exposed by a "project of the D.C. Historical Records Survey under the Works Projects Administration. The investigator, Dr. Eber Jeffery, published his findings in the July 1940 Journal of the Patent Office Society." Dr. Jeffery found no evidence to support the myth. The following web site provides the Skeptical Inquirer article: http://ipmall.info/hosted_resources/PatentHistory/posass.htm
The myth about the Patent officer is
indicative of how something by mere repetition becomes an accepted tradition.
When many people accept the idea even without any additional support, the fact
that people accept the idea becomes the power that causes others to accept the
idea. A person could spend quite a bit of time listing all the myths that can
be taken as truth, yet, have no support in fact. For many years there was a saying
that people only use 10% of their brains. This myth was propagated well before
there were brain scans which proved the myth false. But where did the idea come
from in the first place, who decided that they had sufficient knowledge of the
human brain to make such a statement? From that statement the myth grew to the
idea that most people use 10% of their brains but Albert Einstein used 14% of
his brain. Then even more recently I heard that Einstein had a larger brain
then the average man. Again that is a myth, Scientists who did examine his
brain sections did find that in one region he had more Glial cells then other
brains examined. The truth it seems is not as attractive as the myth so the
myth will march on while the truth remains ignored.
As with society in general the Christian
church is also filled with many myths that have become traditions, accepted
beliefs with little or no real support. The skeptics of the world should not be
the only ones who think critically about what Christians believe. We inside the
church must begin again to ask the questions of why we believe what we believe.
It is our desire as New Protestants to seek out the truth from the errors and
myths and fabrications that have crept into the church. The original
Protestants sought to present a clear and direct Biblical message to a world
that had become confused by the Roman Catholic traditions. However well the
Protestant reformation worked and it did a mighty work, it did not tackle all
the areas where traditions have obscured the Biblical messages. The New
Protestants goal is not to complete the cleaning of the church from whatever
problems it may have but to start the process of cleaning and reexamining the
church. We as Christians are a work in progress and we need to remember that on
our road we must progress. As C.S. Lewis says:
"We
all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you
want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get
you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an
about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who
turns back soonest is the most progressive man. . .There is nothing progressive
about being pigheaded and refusing to admit a mistake." C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan,
1952), Book I, Chap. 5, p. 22.
With the above in mind welcome to the
journey.
Insert chapter on Luther and Modernism here.
Cranberries,
The handing down of beliefs, customs, or ideas from
generation to generation is a powerful influence in all our lives, whether we
realize it or not. Tradition is that inherited pattern of thought or actions
actually shapes the people we are. Yet as we stand today as rational
intelligent people we must examine how our traditions influence us, upon what
basis do we honor certain traditions and when should they be rejected. In
To a large degree the rebellion against the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church was the impetuous which created the Reformation of the 1500’s. The Reformation was preceded by the Renaissance and then followed by the Age of Reason created by philosophers of the 1600-1700’s who’s search for truth was based more on reason and less on obedience and tradition to the Church. Revolutions breathing new life into philosophy and religion of the western world. Knowledge and reason were usurping the power of obedience to Church authority and traditions.
Even so reason unchecked with morality would appear in the French Revolution. Elements within the revolution raised reason to a form of religion. But the fanatics aside, reason did carry forward and never again would European Kings and privileged peoples take their powers for granted and ignore the ideals of liberty and equality. Change is hard and often bloody as recorded in the history of this world, but as sure as there is tradition there is also those who reject tradition.
During the Hundred Years' War between
As you read this book consider what you know to be true versus what you have accepted to be true. Consider how tradition in particular Christian traditions have influenced your understanding of God. Realize that traditions are a powerful force in our lives, but they do not need to dominate our lives. How we use tradition is still up to us, we still can reason things out, if tradition gets in our way we are free to remove it from our path. If you are one of the many people who believe that Christian tradition should not be questioned but rather obeyed, this book will probably be of no use to you. But if you would like to explore alternate views of how God is reaching out to mankind this book should be of help to you. I can not think of any views in this book, which are new. Rather they are views that have throughout Christian history been expounded by theologians and other Christians as they wrestled to understand an infinite God. “Come let us reason together” the prophet has said, and so we shall.
Chapter 1
A Distressing Tale
Autumn had come to the land, the air had the first bite of winter in it, and the leaves that remained were brown and brittle. Miles from town the roar of a storm was heard by the peasants as they brought the last of their harvest into the storage sheds. Inside the town, a hamlet really it was market day. Smallpox had once again ravaged the land just 50 years ago; the population was just starting to increase again. Life as was true for so much of the Middle Ages was hard. The king ruled the Nobles, and the Nobles ruled the peasants, and freedom for the average man was something unknown. Adele was the name of the king who fortune had smiled upon; this was his land.
Market day was the busiest day of the week in Bataw, the
hamlet swelled to three times its normal size. Two hundred people and maybe two
hundred animals also, chickens, goats, pigs, and their owners milled about in
the
The storm arrived about
Words do travel, sometimes moving fast as the wind on an April morning. In only a few days news of the massacre at Bataw had reached the lands king, Adele. Not only news of the murder, rape and robbery of the town and all in it, but of the Nobles who organized the adventure. Thirty Nobles from the Fiefs to the North had come down to Bataw for a bit of sport as they called it. They did not announce what they had done nor did they try very hard to hide it. Thus the news spread far and wide in only a short time.
The King was distressed, had not he himself signed into law not more than 10 years ago that murder was forbidden. The law had been handed down from his father and his father’s father. King Adele had really just updated the language a bit, and seen that the laws had been read throughout his kingdom. The pomp and the ceremony that he had enshrined around the law and it reading had been quite the news 10 years before. It had been more like a festival then a somber rendition of stale legal words. When he looked back at all his accomplishments as King it stood out to him as his most noble achievement. But now 30 of his trusted Vassals had violated him and his laws.
“Invite these men to my court, have them here in 5 days,” the king commanded his chief officer. “If they do not come voluntarily then put them in irons and bring them here. If they ask why tell them it is the King’s business, nothing else.” The king’s army and messengers left the next morning just as the first light of dawn was seen on the horizon. The King did not anticipate any problems, for it was always an honor to be invited to the King’s court. Since this was not the time of the quarterly judgments of criminal and civil litigation the King was sure they would not be suspicious. Even if they were concerned for their safety it was of no concern to the King, he knew his military forces would easily carry out their mission. It could be done the hard way or the easy way, but it would be done.
On the fifth day all were assembled in the great hall, majestic with tapestries and column, statues and art which only wealth could ever afford. The vassals stood in the center of the great hall, the group of thirty stood nearly 30 feet from the officiating throne of the King. Guards stood attentively on either side of the King as well as at every entrance to and from the hall. The architecture supplied a sound funnel, which directed sound from the Kings throne out toward the rest of the hall. For those in attendance the Kings words were easily heard. For those speaking to the King in his great hall, a loud and strong voice was required. The vassals had chosen a spokesman for their group, even though they did not know the nature of this meeting. As in most groups a leader is usually easily identified. Even more so when the group is made up of spoiled and cruel men of the Noble class.
The Kings Sergeant at Arms announced with a loud and clear voice, “this trial shall now commence”. He then read the list of names from the legal document that set out their crimes. All formality was afforded for the occasion, for each name the full title was given for each man. “Sir Charles Nareve, Baron of Telance, son of Matin of Telance.” The Sergeant at Arms read in his strong baritone voice, all with considerable pomp to be sure. The Nobles whispered to each other “trial, no it cannot be”, others cursed themselves for not seeing the truth sooner. But they knew that could not have refused the Kings quietly forceful invitation in any matter. The vassals knew that their spokesman who also happened to be the leader of the raiding party was a well-spoken man of considerable talent. They would have done nothing different had they known it was to their own trial that they were attending. Unless perhaps some of them would have fled to a well connected relative outside of King Adele’s influence. But then again they were the King’s vassals and of noble birth, surely the King would take these facts into his judgment.
It took 1 hour to read the names and titles of the men standing uncomfortably upon the stone floor of the great hall. Those words which for all their lives gave them pride, purpose and standing in this land. Now for the first time sounded familiar but yet somehow unfamiliar. Was it the timber of the Sergeant at Arms voice or maybe a voice inside their own heads, a more accusing voice? Again they heard the Sergeant at Arms voice, “You are hereby charged with murder, robbery, rape, and miscellaneous crimes against the property of his majesty King Adele. You may now speak your defense, you may claim innocence, or admit guilt at this moment, how say you?”
The noble Sir Alred of Laqard answered the king, “if they die working in our fields, they die. If they die under our whip for committing a crime against our estate, they die. If they die at our hands for our sport or our profit so what, they die. There is no difference, and there is no crime here.” He had stepped forward and delivered his words loud and with firmness of conviction. Indeed he was a Noble not an ordinary man, not a sniveling peasant with filthy rags and the smell of rotting flesh. Laws were for peasants, made to keep them in line, not for him and his fellow nobility. Rape, robbery, murder, really the accusation was absurd. No peasant woman would ever refuse them, 90 percent of what the peasants earned was delivered over to the vassals anyway, what does it matter if a little more is occasionally demanded. And who would possibly be accused of murder when a peasant is run over in the street by horse or wagon. It was difficult for Sir Alred to keep from sneering as he addressed the King. But his appearance did not show his contempt for this King, only the assured confidence of a leader.
“The Law requires death to those guilty of murder; the punishment is proscribed in the Law. I have made my Laws plain, even clearer than the regulations of my father and his father before him. These Laws have been read throughout my kingdom, and you all have been aware of these laws for years. You are hereby pronounced guilty of all charges set against you.” The Kings voice rose to a higher pitch as he pronounced their guilt. The stone floor felt even harder and colder to the vassal’s weary legs as the King declared “death to those guilty of murder”. Their faces flushed with anger thoughts of escape raced across their minds. But they had no weapons and even if they all pressed toward one door in complete unison their chances of escape were slim. Maybe they could talk him out of this penalty. But not now for as they watched the King rose and walked away, surrounded by his personal guards. “Sentencing to commence in 1 hour, the prisoners shall remain here in the great hall until sentence is handed down,” declared the Sergeant at Arms. His voice rolling off the walls of the now silent hall, yet the echo continued.
The King and his son the prince Abel gathered together to discuss this unfortunate situation. The King said; “I do not want to kill these men they are my Nobles, yet the law clearly says that the punishment for this crime is death.” “Yet”, the King continued, “I have a plan”. “With your help son I can save them from the punishment of death”. The prince was intrigued and asked for an explanation of this unorthodox solution. “And what is my part in this plan” the young prince asked. “Yes I understand and I shall do as you say”, the prince answered after hearing the Kings plan. “Good,” the King said to his son “you will be remembered for this ever after.
The sentencing began at exactly the 10th hour. The additional torches were lighted in the great hall as the dark of the evening was beginning to descend. The prisoners were instructed to remain silent until after the sentence was announced, at that time their final statements could be made and recorded. Resignation was present on every face of the accused men. Weary from the day’s events a quick end was about all that could be hoped for now. They would probably not be executed tonight since it takes time to prepare an execution. Still none of them looked forward to a night in the dungeon or the light of the execution day sun.
The King, Prince Abel, and the several executive members of
the King’s Counsel entered the great hall in their accustomed finery. The grand
displays of wealth and power no longer meant much to the accused men. Horses or
circus animals in the great hall would not have moved them from their lethargy.
The King once situated in his judgment chair began his speech. “The Law demands
death as the penalty for your crimes. However instead of your own deaths, my
son Prince Abel has agreed to receive your punishment upon himself. We have
agreed that he shall pay the penalty for your crimes. After his execution on
the gallows in the
Chapter 3
Justice
How does the story in chapter 2 affect you? Would you, like King Adele, walk away from such a scene and proclaim that Justice was done? Is there anyone at the scene or after that would think that justice had occurred for the murders or for the innocent prince? In all truth if we were to give the law human characteristics can we even say that the law was satisfied? What is law for, and what is justice? These are questions we must struggle with. And finally where does forgiveness fit into all of this. Law, justice, mercy, are words used in the Christian tradition frequently, it may finally be time to examine these concepts in some non-traditional ways.
By way of introduction here is a small section of a story from a book by Tony Hillerman called Sacred Clowns. Since we are interested in the concepts contained in this story, a short excerpt from the story is all that we shall deal with here. Like the story in chapter 2 this is a work of fiction, but it provides an opportunity to look at concepts of Justice which are central to Gospel. As we join the story Navajo police officer Jim Chee is investigating a case of hit and run driving which ended in the death of a man. The drunk driver who had hit the man had recently been on a local radio station where he acknowledged his crime and explained how he would be making restitution by monthly monetary help to the family who lost their loved one. Knowing well that there was nothing else he could do to help the family of the man he had killed. Jim Chee’s companion for the day is his friend Janet who is a lawyer and also a Navajo. Jim asks her what he should do when he finds this individual;
“For convenience, let’s call our hit-and-run driver
Gorman. Let’s say he’s a widower. Doesn’t drink much, usually. We’ll follow the
script in the radio tape but give him more of a personality. He’s a hard
worker. All the good things. Something comes along to be celebrated. His
birthday, maybe. His friends take him out to a bar off the reservation. Driving
home he hits this pedestrian. Like in the tape he hears something and backs up.
But he’s drunk. He doesn’t see anybody. So he drives away. Now I’m a member of
the Navajo Tribal Police, also deputized by a couple of the counties in
… Janet replies, “You just think about why you have laws. Society puts a penalty on driving drunk because it kills people. It puts a penalty for leaving the scene of an injury accident for pretty much the same reason. So what you do is arrest this guy who broke those laws and present the evidence in court, and the court finds he was guilty. And then the judge weighs the circumstances. First offense, solid citizen, special circumstances. It seems unlikely that the crime will be repeated. And so forth. So the judge sentences him to maybe a year, maybe two years, and then probation for another eight years or so.” She studied him. “You agree?”
“That was phase one,” Chee said. “I’m going to make it harder for you now. We’ll give this guy some social value. Let’s say he is taking care of a disabled kid maybe a grandchild whose parents have dropped him on our Gorman while they do their thing. Maybe a broken family. Father took off, mother a drunk. You make your own plot. Now what do you do?”
“Come on, Jim,” she said. “Why not make him a biologist? He’s about to unlock the secret of the AIDS virus. But he can’t leave his laboratory even for one minute to be arrested or his test tubes will all dry up and his cultures will die. It doesn’t change the basic principle. Society passes laws to ensure justice. The guy broke the society’s laws. Justice is required.”
“Okay,” Chee said. “Now we get to the next phase. More complicated . we’ll say this bird is a Navajo and the guy he killed was a Navajo.”
“What’s the difference?” Janet asked. “He violated the laws of the Navajo Nation, too. If you have justice, it spells out the punishment in advance. It tells you if you do this harm to society, then society does this harm to you. We’ll lock you up, for example. Or fine you, the idea is prevention.”
“Right,” Chee said. “Now we enter phase two of this problem.”
“We just finished phase two.” Janet said, “but it’s better than talking about culture.”
“Okay, now for phase three” Chee said. “We’re dealing with justice. Just retribution. That’s a religious concept, really. We’ll say the tribal cop is sort of religious. He honors his people’s traditional ways. He has been taught another notion of justice. He was a big boy before he heard about ‘make the punishment fit the crime’ or ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ Instead of that he was hearing of retribution in another way. If you damage somebody, you sit down with their family and figure out how much damage and make it good. That way you restore hozho. You’ve got harmony again between two families. Not too much difference from the standard American justice. But now it gets different. If sombody harms you out of meanness—say you get in a bar fight and he cuts you, or he keeps cutting your fences, or stealing your sheep—then he’s the one who’s out of hozho. You aren’t taught he should be punished. He should be cured. Gotten back in balance with what’s around him. Made beautiful again—“ He glanced at her. She was looking straight ahead. Apparently listening.
“Beautiful on the inside, of course. Back in harmony. So this hypothetical cop, that’s the way he’s been raised. Not to put any value on punishment, but to put a lot of value on curing. So now what are you going to do if you’re this cop?”
We now leave the story, if you want to know what happens in this little subplot you will have to read Tony Hillerman’s book. But the concept is set before us in the last two paragraphs above. Justice versus punishment. But we are not going to deal so much with our earthly legal systems; rather we need to look at how God deals with, us his rebellious children. So we will have to look more on the philosophical side of things to help us deal with the issue.
The idea that justice and harmony work together is nothing new, in fact Plato said much the same things. Plato felt that harmony is the basis of all justice. With justice, people will have other virtues as well. Incorporated into this harmony was the idea that for the person who commits an injustice it is better for them to be punished than to allow them to go unpunished since the punishment would help cure the problem which caused the injustice.
It is pretty clear that punishment in its highest sense should be used to cause an individual to realize whatever error, cruelty, or crime they committed is wrong. So punishment should lead a person to a better understanding of himself and others, to improve the harmony.
The Holman’s Bible Dictionary begins their article on justice this way;
“The order God seeks to reestablish in His creation where all people receive the benefits of life with Him. As love is for the New Testament, so justice is the central ethical idea of the Old Testament. The frequency of justice is sometimes missed by the reader due to a failure to realize that the wide range of the Hebrew word mishpat, particularly in passages that deal with the material and social necessities of life.”
What many of us have forgotten or maybe we never even knew is that justice in the bible is extremely closely related to charity. How much differently would we view the Old Testament if we read verses such as;
Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you Deut. 16:20
Seeing charity included in and helping our understanding of justice in such verses. For it is there throughout the entire Bible as the apostle Paul says;
And now these three
remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor
Note all Bible verses are from the New International Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.
That is charity, love toward ones fellow man, love toward God and God’s love toward mankind. So close is this relationship that the Hebrew word for charity is tzedeka, which is simply the feminine form of justice, tzedek. As the Holman Bible Dictionary later says;
“Justice then is very close to love and grace.
God "executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and ... loves the
strangers, providing them food and clothing" (Deut.
And finally the article ends with the following;
“The source of justice As the sovereign Creator of the
universe, God is just (Ps. 99:1-4; Gen. 18:25; Deut. 32:4; Jer.
God's justice is not a distant external standard. It is the source of all human justice (Prov. 29:26; 2 Chron. 19:6,9). Justice is grace received and grace shared (2 Cor. 9:8-10).
The most prominent human agent of justice
is the ruler. The king receives God's justice and is a channel for it (Ps.
72:1; compare
Justice is also a central demand on all
people who bear the name of God. Its claim is so basic that without it other
central demands and provisions of God are not acceptable to God. Justice is
required to be present with the sacrificial system (Amos
Justice in salvation
Apart from describing God's condemnation of sin, Paul used the language and
meaning of justice to speak of personal salvation. "The righteousness of
God" represents God in grace bringing into the community of God through
faith in Christ those who had been outside of the people of God (particularly
in Romans but compare also Eph.
See Law; Government; Poverty; Righteousness.
Before we condemn the idea of an eye for an eye, tooth for a
tooth idea found in Ex
The news report today told of justice administered in a
sports arena in
The idea of an eye for an eye limited vengeance, stopping
blood feuds which plagued
Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty. Exo 23:7
Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed. Deu 19:10
Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. Isa 59:7
In most cultures today it seems so obvious that the innocent should not be punished, but unfortunately the ancient world did not follow such a moral code. Certainly cultures have changed, and probably to some extent these Biblical instructions have aided in the process. Contrary to Hammurabi’s code the Bible makes it clear that a son is not to be punished for a father’s sin.
The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. Ezek 18:20
Remember this verse for we shall go back and revisit it and the other references just sited as we proceed to understand the very heart of the gospel.
We do ourselves and God a disservice if we live with a view
of justice that is predominated with that of punishment. Punishment is often
used in our systems of justice not to teach someone the error of their ways and
bring them back to harmony, but to hurt them in some way. And for the greater
good of society to remove them so they will not continue their destructive
behavior. But society and God are two completely different things. God can look
at a person’s heart and know if they are truly repentant or not. The best
society can do is to treat all that come before its courts as equally as
possible. God’s desire is to have his creation return to harmony with him. Thus
punishment without an instructive purpose serves no purpose. Examine the Old
Testament story of Hosea and his wife. The heart of the theology was the
relationship between God and
Return, O
Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him:
"Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the
fruit of our lips.
Those who have taken the time to read Hosea will undoubtedly
notice some rather harsh language heaped upon those outside of
There are certain theologians who look at the Old Testament
God and find several different Gods there. Such as the Creator God, the Warrior
God, and the Redeemer God, none however is as bothersome as the Warrior God. We
read about his exploits in driving out
Still we cannot ignore the elements in the Old Testament which have given mankind the idea of an angry wrath filled God. They are there, and at some points they are so prominent that to ignore them seems incredible. Yet for the most part the Christian church does ignore them. Take for instance the following verses.
"'Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. Exo 31:14-15
While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.
Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp." So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses. Num 15:32-36
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the
grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads
of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is
unlawful on the Sabbath?"… Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made
for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark
The death penalty for Sabbath breaking, for adultery, and witchcraft, is a step far removed from the idea of an eye for an eye justice. Yet we find all of these crimes committed in the New Testament but Jesus or the Apostles never condemned those who committed them to be put to death. Why the difference?
A Central tenant of Christianity is that God does not change. Which is the most logical concept of God, if there is a God who could speak and create a universe surely he has no need for further education. Still there are some theologians who would say that we see God progress through the Old Testament, hence the concept of Creator God, Warrior God, and Redeemer God. Some of these theologians may believe in a Supreme Being, and others may only view the Hebrew God as just another myth to study. To them the problem stated above is answered by a God who grows in his understanding, who moves from a demanding God to a more loving God as the Old Testament progresses. Yet for those of us who do really believe in a personal God who really does exist, then an explanation for these seeming inconsistencies is needed.
Mal 3:6 "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. (See also
He
How does a God who does not change present instructions that do change? The answer seems to be not with God but with mankind. We today tend to think that people are much the same now as they were in the past. But a thorough study of history and anthropology show a much different picture. Consider our ideas about God today, then try to imagine how you would think about God if you had never heard anything that is found in the New Testament. Then think about what your view of God would be if you had never heard the Old Testament Prophets, Wisdom literature, or Psalms. Can you imagine it? It is indeed hard to imagine, but we can even go back further, imagine you did not even have a history of your people. If you haven’t strained your imagination yet go back even farther to a time when you were a slave in a foreign land. Generations before you had been slaves and generations after you would be slaves. Most of your knowledge about God, or Gods would be from your surroundings; the religion of your oppressors would be your religion. Now what is your view of God, nearly everything that you believe about God today you would not have known. It is to a people in just this condition that God dealt with.
There is a saying today, “drastic times call for drastic
solutions”. The instructions given in Exodus and Deuteronomy were given to a
people who had been held in bondage and ignorance for 400 years. Captive by a
people whose religions viewed Gods as powerful, angry, willful, and spiteful
unless appeased. This would also have been the Hebrews idea of Gods, it is very
doubtful that much of the early dealings that God had with man, from
So God reintroduces himself to his chosen people, he introduces himself in a way that people are familiar with. His instructions deal with orderly conduct within a community, civil laws, health instructions, and reverence for God. A God that few if any would remember, many of the laws were designed to create respect for their unfamiliar God. God lay before them instructions to meet the people where they were. To deal with people and surrounding nations which dealt harshly with each other. Instructions designed to lead people into a more civilized world. But gradual steps were needed to lead the people out of their degraded position. Change takes time, the saying goes, as true today as in the past.
While justice strives to return people to harmony in a world where moral responsibility is little known justice may in fact be harsh. A slap to the face of the community calling them to think about what their actions are, and the consequences to all around them. Lessons to learn that would inevitably lead to increased moral understanding. It is much like the lesson a young child learns when being quickly yanked away from the path of an oncoming car. The child may feel hurt and betrayed from the way he was pulled away, but it is part of his learning process. He will probably not learn from one instance, scores of times may be needed before he learns to become aware of the many dangers around him. It is all part of his education. Today we look back over the education that men and women have learned over centuries and millennia before us. It is that way with the Bible; it takes us from ignorance to ever-greater understanding. But there is no need to live according to the rules that were laid down for the ignorant once you begin to understand the issues. This explains why Sabbath breaking, adultery and sorcery are not crimes worthy of death in the New Testament. The lessons had been learned; God was finally seen as a God of love, mercy and Justice. God did not change, but over time people had changed, they became aware of aspects of life just as important as food and shelter. Old traditions about Gods could finally be done away with. And with the advent of Jesus Christ God could actually be seen as he really is. It took a lot of groundwork to be laid to prepare for his arrival, the complete Old Testament for example. Greek Philosophy paved the way also, and certainly many ancient mystical ideas about Gods needed to wither on the vines. All to prepare the way for God in human flesh.
If a man is found sleeping with another
man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must
purge the evil from
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 8:3-11
God continually calls for mankind to move away from the rituals and rules, into the area of understanding. The rules which may have once been necessary to help a culture establish itself with moral attributes which it had before lacked, can move toward reason and forgiveness. Finally with a moral foundation justice can once again be seen as it restores those who err back into harmony with those around them and with God also.
The story is told of a young man who felt dissatisfied with his life. He and his brother worked on their father’s farm, but he wanted more from life. Surely there was more to life than what was happening to him on the farm. So one day he spoke to his father, “father, give me my share of the estate.” What a cut to the heart of a father, in essence his son was saying I wish you were dead, so I could divide your money with my brother and do as I please. To the father this would have to be an insult, and certainly the neighbors and the nearby town would certainly view it as such. To have such an openly rebellious son, with such disrespect for his father, well they would surely call it a curse. Yet the father did as his son requested, he divided his property and gave his youngest son the share that was requested.
The younger son soon prepared all he had, to move away to a distant land, and left. Had he ever thanked his father before he left, or did he even say thank you for receiving the property from his father, the story never revealed. But then why would he, the young man was not happy where he was, he had little respect for his father or the things that were important to his father.
The young man lived for a while in a style to which he was not accustomed. Things he had never tried before were now freely available and being a young carefree man he tried all that interested him. A life with no boundaries, but a bank account which did have boundaries. In a far land at last he realized he was without money, it was spent, gone. To make matters worse the land was in a depression due to poor agriculture returns. It didn’t really matter to him why so many people were hungry, but it was of deep concern to him that he was hungry. With his limited skills he was only able to get a job as a keeper of pigs. Though the job did not provide even enough revenue to feed himself properly. He longingly looked at the food the pigs were fed. Filthy disgusting animals were better off then he was, they were fed and happy, he was neither fed or happy.
Realizing that he was starving to death, in a land where no one even cared whether he lived or died, he remembered his father’s house. Maybe he could go back and work at his old home. He knew his father treated his workers well, they had enough plenty to eat. He knew he did not deserve to be called the son of his father anymore but just a worker in his fields would be enough. So once again he set out for a distant land, though this time he carried with him nothing.
To the young man’s surprise he saw his father running out to meet him, even though the young man was still a good distance from his father’s house. The father reached out with compassion in his eyes and embraced his son and kissed him. The son exclaimed “father, I have sinned against you I do not deserve to be called your son.” But the father stopped the son’s speech as he called to his servants, “Quickly bring my best clothes and shoes and dress him appropriately for a banquet and celebration, and place our family ring on his finger. For my son who was dead is alive again. My son who was lost is found.” Welcomed back with open arms and celebrated with all the family and the neighbors too.
The older brother questioned this acceptance and joyful occasion as probably many others around the event also did. Was not this the child who had disgraced his father, disgraced himself and shown some of the poorest judgment the town had ever seen? Still the father replied to his older son, “you have always been with me and everything I have is yours, but this your brother, was dead and is again alive, was lost and has been found.” The story as told never goes farther in explaining how the older brother reacted after that, or the neighbors or anyone else. But what is usually the reaction when love is so clearly exhibited. Perhaps those around could finally see just what love and forgiveness really mean. Whatever happened can be viewed as a powerful example to follow.
When looking through the several stories in a book of sermon illustrations, under the category of forgiveness, there truly was no story better than this one which Jesus told and is recorded in Luke Chapter 15. What is so powerful about the story is the complete acceptance offered by the father, all the son had to do was come back toward the father. The father ran to the son and embraced him before the son said a word. The story never even uses the word forgive or forgiveness yet everything about it shouts forgiveness.
The World Book Dictionary defines forgive as:
To give up the wish to punish or get even with; not have hard feelings at or toward; pardon; excuse.
To give up all claim to, not demand payment for. Ex. to forgive a debt.
The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible offers a good article on forgiveness, here are just a few summary points dealing with the Biblical term forgiveness.
Old Testament, Hebrew.
1. Of the several root words the meaning is mainly to forgive or pardon.
2. Some indicate to cover, or conceal.
3. Another frequent idea is that of sins being blotted out or wiped out
New Testament Greek.
1. Much the same as in the Old Testament, meaning such as: to loose from, release, pardon.
2. To give freely or graciously as a favor, from which developed the meaning “remit, and forgive.
3. To send away, from which derives the sense of cancel, remit, or pardon; correspondingly, pardon, forgiveness, as a cancellation.
There is a story told of a married couple who after noticing an increase in the number of arguments they were having decided to try and remedy their situation. They came upon the idea of placing a slip of paper containing one particular fault that they each noticed in a “Fault Box”. It was decided that at the end of one month each would read the faults, which the other had slipped into the “Fault box”. With regularity the wife placed her list of irritations in the box. The usual family problems, he left food out of the Refrigerator, he did not pick up his dirty clothes. And even the ever-harmful toilet seat left in the useless upright position. At the end of the month each exchanged their “Fault Box” with the other. As the husband read his many faults and sincerely considered each one, his wife began to read the messages in her “Fault Box”. To her amazement each slip contained the same message, one after another she read, “I love you”.
Forgiveness has been and always will be one of the most powerful ways of saying, “I love you”. To truly forgive means that someone cares enough about you that they hold no hard feelings toward you. That they would like to grant you the favor of pardoning, ignoring your bad behavior. Still many of us will say we forgive someone not because we love them, but because we feel it is the expected thing to do. Our words may say we forgive them but inside our emotions tell us that we never intend to forgive the hurt they caused us. We may be able to fool those around us with words of grace and forgiveness, but the hypocrisy still remains. But with God there is no hypocrisy all his forgiveness is given because of his love. His desire is to restore the harmony of our relationship with him, the reconciliation offered freely to each person. The forgiveness offered freely to each person. The Justice offered freely to each person.
Love, Justice, Forgiveness. Inseparable elements, each so closely related to the other that one cannot exist without the other. Love provides the desire to be reconciled with the ones who have become separated , Justice calls for a restoration, a return to harmony, and forgiveness takes no account of the hurts which one has done. Still even with all that God offers, a person who rejects God and has no desire to return to him gets none of these three. Love given, but that is not appreciated, becomes an annoyance. Justice without the desire to return to harmony cannot even occur. For if a person does not want the harmony that Justice produces they do not want Justice at all. Forgiveness is totally useless if a person doesn’t want to be forgiven. It actually causes bitterness as when someone offers to forgive you of something that you did not do. No joy of forgiveness in that, only a sense of being falsely accused. All God’s gifts come only to those that want them. Repentance is coming to the point in your life where you want God’s Love, Justice, and Forgiveness.
There is a joke told which illustrates another area of forgiveness.
David
received a parrot for his birthday. This
parrot was fully grown, with a bad attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other
word was an expletive. Those that weren't expletives were, to say the least
rude. David tried hard to change the
bird's attitude and was constantly saying polite words, playing soft music,
anything he could think of to try and set a good example... Nothing
worked. He yelled at the bird and the
bird got worse. He shook the bird and the bird got even more angry and rude.
Finally, in a moment of desperation, David put the parrot in the freezer. For a
few moments he heard the bird squawking, kicking, and screaming - then suddenly
there was quiet. David was frightened
that he might have hurt the bird and quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto David's
extended arm and said: "I'm sorry that I might have offended you with my
language and actions and I ask your forgiveness. I will endeavor to correct my
behavior." David was astonished at
the bird's change in attitude and was about to ask what had made such a
dramatic change when the parrot continued:
"May I ask what the turkey did?"
Forgiveness like love
and justice cannot be offered or extended based upon fear. If a person asks for
forgiveness because he or she is afraid of the actions of the one they have
offended, the forgiveness is rarely sincere. By the same token forgiveness
offered by a person for fear of what will happen if the forgiveness is not
offered is rarely sincere either. Forgiveness needs to be sincere or it is of
no value. There is no doubt that because of God’s love his forgiveness is
genuine. So the question we must ask is our desire for forgiveness genuine. I
have often heard Hank Haanagraff say, “repentance is a u-turn on the road of
life”. But something must cause you to realize you are going the wrong
direction. An understanding of the character of God is essential to this
realization. To understand that God really does love you and cares about you in
detail, provides the information one needs to check their progress and turn
around.
The Bible goes even
further however. To accept forgiveness is not enough you must be willing to
offer forgiveness yourself.
For
if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you.
But
if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matt 6:14-15
Jesus tells a story in
Matthew chapter 18 which illustrates the purpose behind this kind of
forgiveness. Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother, “up
to seven times?” He sounds like a lot of
Christians I have met, sure of their generosity yet not even doing a tenth of
what is needed. Jesus’ famous answer is seventy times seven and then he tells a
story. There was once a king who was owed a large some of money by a certain
man. When the king asked for his payment the man was unable to pay, so he was
ordered to debtors’ prison. But the man fell on his knees before the king and
begged him to be patient and he promised to repay the debt. The king took pity
on him and canceled his debt and let him go. As the man was on his way he ran
into another man who happened to owe him a very small amount of money. The man
seized his fellow servant by the neck choking him and demanded where is my money? His fellow servant fell on
his knees and begged the man to be patient with him and he would pay back all
that he owed. But the man who just moments before was forgiven a huge debt
refused the fellow servant and had the man thrown into debtors prison. Well
word got around the palace and the king was told of the incident. The king said
to the servant “I canceled your debt shouldn’t you have had mercy on your
fellow servant just as I had on you?” So Jesus gave Peter an answer far more than
forgive seventy times seven, the answer was to forgive from the heart.
Not only must you
realize God’s love for you but you must know that same love is offered to all
those around you. You must begin to be a Christian, a person who follows the
example of his teacher, Jesus Christ
The practical person would say that it sounds good to forgive others but it is not really possible. There are horrible cruel and downright evil people in the world, some people have done things so horrible to others it is nearly impossible to imagine. For some readers imagination may not be necessary, experience may have already shown them man’s cruelty. Consider the following story from Ernest Gordon’s Book Miracle on the River Kwai.
During World War II the Japanese forced their prisoners to work on one of the jungle railroad lines. One day it was determined that a shovel was missing. The officer in charge demanded return of the shovel immediately, when no one in the squad of prisoners moved he became so enraged that he pulled his gun and threatened to kill them all right then and there. Finally one man stepped forward, the officer put away his gun and then picked up a nearby shovel and proceeded to beat the man to death with it. His friends removed his body and carried it with them to the second tool check. But this time the tool count was correct, no shovel was missing, no shovel had ever been missing, the guards had miss-counted the first time. Word spread throughout the camp that an innocent man had stepped forward to save the rest of the men from the enraged commander. This profoundly affected the men they began to treat each other more like brothers. Finally when the Allies liberated what remained of the prison work squad, the emaciated prisoners lined up in front of their former captors but instead of attacking the cruel captors they declared, “no more hatred, no more killing, now what we need is forgiveness.”
It is doubtful that any of these men could have forgiven their tormentors if they continued to dwell upon all the cruel things that were done to them. And it may also be possible that if they had to continue to live near their captors and further be reminded of their cruelty that they never could forgive either. But if it is possible to move on, to let the things of the past remain in the past then forgiveness remains possible. Yet it is not up to anyone to forgive on their own, for God has offered to help you. We may never love like God does yet we do have access to that love. There is a message in the Bible, we are not alone!
Nobody, God included expects you to change your thoughts and feelings overnight. Just like everything in life it takes time and patience, we pursue after God and his ways, we don’t repent and then suddenly do everything right.
One of the truisms of Christianity is that when we focus on ourselves we will become discouraged with our behavior. That is why I use the phrase “pursue after God”, there is only one perfect and that is God. He sets out a road for people to follow, a plan to improve their lives but he doesn’t focus on our flaws, and we should not either. Paul expressed it so well when he said:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I
agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but
it is sin living in me. I know that
nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire
to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I
want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do
what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in
me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is
right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see
another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my
mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What
a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to
God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to
God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there
is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through
Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and
death. Romans 7:
As we close this chapter let us again look at God and his
forgiveness. Once a gentlemen said to
me, “There is a misconception going around
today called, "Forgive and forget." We think when one forgives us,
they should also forget what we did to them, but it doesn't work that way.”
Indeed for most people forgive and forget are just words. However the Bible
clearly says that is the way it works for God.
For
I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”. Heb 8:
12
"Their
sins and lawless acts I will remember no more”. Heb 10:17
While man cannot forgive and forget God can
and does. How this exactly works I do not think we can understand, but I will
take His word for it. His forgiveness is not a faulty memory like mine, if you
asked me to list the last 50 things I forgave my daughter for, or she forgave
me for I wouldn’t be able to list them. God forgets by not remembering what we
have done, by not holding our actions against us. Taking no offense at our
offensiveness, allowing nothing to separate us from communion with him. Just
think about it if God literally forgot after forgiving. As God meets Adam and
Eve again in heaven he would say “where have you two been last I knew you were
in my nice garden.” Or maybe David and Beth-Sheba talking at dinner, “so how
did you two meet”. No, he knows the story but the offenses are gone.
You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isa 1:18
A Shot in the Dark
When I was in elementary school I learned a bit about target archery. Of course as I began the sport I did not do very well at all. The string was hard to pull back and it often whacked against my forearm, even with protective material I would often feel the sting of the string. I began my practice standing quite close to the target of yellow, blue and red, surrounded by a field of white. Behind and to each side were bales of straw just in case I or others could not manage to hit the target. As I progressed with time and practice I began to move farther from the target, with the goal of hitting the target at competition distance. I was never very good but it was fun to try. It became clear that the closer a person was to the target the easier it was to hit the target, it was easy at 10 feet, much more difficult at 100 feet. To hit the target was always the goal, to hit the bull’s eye was the epitome of the game. To completely miss the target in a match was one of the most embarrassing moments a contestant could have during a match.
Sin and archery have a lot in common. “The Old Testament has a rich vocabulary for sin.
Chata means "to miss the mark," as does the Greek hamartia. The word could be used to describe a person shooting a bow and arrow and missing the target with the arrow. When it is used to describe sin, it means that the person has missed the mark that God has established for the person's life.”(Holman Bible Dictionary). The analogy of missing the mark or target is a nice concise meaning for sin but it really doesn’t answer the question of what sin is. You would have to know what the target is, when you know what or where the target is it is much easier to know when you hit or miss that target. As in archery if you don’t have a goal in sight it is hard to tell if you are doing well or not.
In the denomination in which I grew up if you asked some member of the congregation or minister what sin was they would usually say; “Sin is the transgression of the Law”. If you were to press them further by asking what Law they are referring to they would and still to this day generally say the Ten Commandments. Now of course there are far more commands then the “Ten Words” given in the Pentateuch and it was clear to me that these church members did not follow all the rules given by Moses at the Exodus from 430 years of slavery. The ten they choose to stress as God’s Law was probably a tradition which they had been handed down, like so much in Christianity. Not that there is anything wrong with the Ten Commandments for they are a very good set of guidelines, but is that really the Law, the target we are to hit.