Category: Hear From the President

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Advent-Christmas season is a time of joy, hope and promise as we reflect on Jesus and the Incarnation. People all over the world are telling the story about his birth. The airwaves are filled with songs of the season. Churches are celebrating with pageants, cantatas and choirs. It’s the time of the year when you’d think the whole world has a chance to learn the truth about Jesus, the Messiah.

Sadly, many don’t get the full meaning of the season and simply celebrate Christmas because of the holiday spirit. They miss out on so much because either they don’t know Jesus or have fallen for the lie that Jesus is merely a myth—a contention that has been around since Christianity began.

This time of year it’s common for articles to declare that “Jesus is a myth,” typically noting that the Bible is unreliable as a source of history. But these claims overlook the fact that the Bible has been around far longer than many “credible” sources. Historians often cite as reliable the writings of historian Herodotus. Yet there are only eight known copies of his writings, with the earliest dated 900 A.D.—some 1,300 years after Herodotus’ time.

Contrast that with the “discounted” New Testament, which was written shortly following Jesus’ death and resurrection. The earliest New Testament manuscript (a fragment from the Gospel of John) is dated A.D. 125-130 A.D. There are more than 5,800 complete or fragmented copies of the New Testament in Greek, about 10,000 in Latin and 9,300 in other languages. Let me share with you three notable quotes that point to the authenticity of the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life.

The first quote is from first century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus:

Now there arose at this time a source of further trouble in one Jesus, a wise man who performed surprising works, a teacher of men who gladly welcomed strange things. He led away many Jews, and also many of the Gentiles. He was the so-called Christ. When Pilate, acting on information supplied by the chief men around us, condemned him to the cross, those who had attached themselves to him at first did not cease to cause trouble, and the tribe of Christians, which has taken this name from him is not extinct even today. (Antiquities, 18.3.3)

F.F. Bruce, who translated this quote, noted that, “The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar.”

The second quote is from Roman historian Carius Cornelius Tacitus who also wrote in the first century. Referring to accusations that Nero burned Rome and then blamed Christians, he wrote this:

Nero procured others to be accused, and inflicted exquisite punishment upon those people, who were in abhorrence for their crimes, and were commonly known by the name of Christians. They had their denomination from Christus, who in the reign of Tiberius was put to death as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate… At first they were only apprehended who confessed themselves of that sect; afterwards a vast multitude discovered by them, all of which were condemned, not so much for the crime of burning the city, as for their enmity to mankind. (Annals, 15, 44)

The third quote is from Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, official historian of Rome during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. In a book written in A.D. 125 concerning the lives of the first twelve Caesars, Suetonius wrote this about Claudius (who reigned from A.D. 41 to 54):

He banished the Jews from Rome, who were continually making disturbances, Chrestus being their leader. (Life of Claudius 25.4, and note his spelling of Christ as “Chrestus”)

Suetonius’s statement points to the growth of Christianity in Rome prior to A.D. 54, only two decades after Jesus’ death. Reflecting on this and other evidence, British New Testament scholar I. Howard Marshall concluded: “It is not possible to explain the rise of the Christian church or the writing of the Gospels and the stream of tradition that lies behind them without accepting the fact that the Founder of Christianity actually existed.”

Though other scholars doubt the authenticity of the first two quotes and a few even claim them to be forgeries by Christians, the criterion for validating these references is solid. I enjoy a comment made by historian Michael Grant in his book, Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels: “If we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus’ existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned.”

Though skeptics are quick to dismiss what they don’t want to believe, there are exceptions. Noted skeptic and liberal theologian John Shelby Spong wrote in Jesus for the Non-Religious, that “Jesus was, first of all, a human being who actually lived at a particular time in a particular place. The man Jesus was not a myth, but a figure of history from whom enormous energy flowed—energy that still in our day cries out to be adequately explained.”

In his days as an atheist, C.S. Lewis believed that the New Testament accounts about Jesus were mere legends. But when he read them for himself and compared them with what he knew of actual ancient legends and myths, he saw clearly that these writings were nothing of the sort. They had the form and quality of recollections concerning the daily life of a real person. With that recognition, a barrier to faith fell away. From that point forward, Lewis had no problem believing in the historical reality of Jesus.

Many skeptics assert that Albert Einstein, as an atheist, did not believe in Jesus. Though Einstein did not believe in a “personal God,” he refused to combat those who did, because “Such a belief seems to me preferable to the lack of any transcendental outlook” (Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology, by Max Jammer). Einstein, who grew up a Jew, admitted to being “enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.” When asked by an interviewer if he accepted the historical existence of Jesus, Einstein gave this reply: “Unquestionably. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. How different, for instance, is the impression which we receive from an account of legendary heroes of antiquity like Theseus. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus” (“What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview,” by George Sylvester Viereck, The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929).

I could go on, but as Roman Catholic scholar Raymond Brown has rightly noted, concentrating on the question of Jesus being a myth causes many to miss the real point of the Gospels. In The Birth of the Messiah, Brown mentions that he is often approached around Christmas by those wanting to write an article about the historicity of Jesus’ birth. “With little success I try to convince them that they could promote understanding of the birth stories by concentrating on the message of those stories instead of an issue that was very far from primary [for] the evangelists.”

When we keep our focus on sharing the story of Christmas, instead of on trying to convince people that Jesus was not a myth, we are giving living proof of Jesus’ reality. That living proof is the life he now lives in us and among us. The Bible’s focus and purpose is not to prove the historical validity of Jesus’ incarnation, but to share why he came and what his coming means to us. The Holy Spirit uses Scripture to put us in actual contact with the incarnate and risen Lord who draws us to himself that we might believe in him and worship the Father through him. Jesus came into the world as a demonstration of God’s love for each and every one of us (1 John 4:10). Here are a few other reasons why he came:

• To seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
• To save sinners and call them to repentance (1 Timothy 1:15, Mark 2:17).
• To make himself a ransom for humanity (Matthew 20:28).
• To bear witness to the truth (John 18:37).
• To do the will of the Father, which is to bring many children to glory (John 5:30, Hebrews 2:10).
• To be the light of the world, the way, the truth and the life (John 8:12; 14:6).
• To preach the good news about the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43).
• To fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17)
• Because the Father sent him: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

This month we celebrate the truth of God entering our world in Jesus. It is good for us to remember that not everyone knows this truth, and we have been invited (commissioned) to share it with others. Jesus is more than a historical figure—he is the Son of God who came to reconcile all to the Father in the Holy Spirit. That is what makes this season one of joy, hope and promise.

Enjoying the season,
Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Recently, three couples who are our dear friends shared that they are expecting grandchildren. For two couples, it’s their first grandchild and they gave me a delightful rundown of their plans to be present at the birth. For the third couple, it’s their second grandchild and they too plan to be present for the wonderful event.

Tammy and I still remember the glorious emotions we experienced awaiting the arrival of both of our children. We still talk about it as if it were yesterday. I imagine most of you share similar memories and some of you are anticipating the wondrous time of new life in the weeks or months ahead. So it’s fairly easy for most of us to identify with the joy felt by two pregnant women in Luke’s account known as The Visitation.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!… As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy (Luke 1:39-42, 44).

In response, Mary offered a song known as The Magnificat.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever” (Luke 1:46-55, RSV).

The phrase “my soul magnifies the Lord” can mean to praise, glorify, celebrate, adore, enlarge, exalt or extol. The words convey an experience of being enlarged, lifted up and out of one’s self by power from another realm. This is a quality of joy and hope that transcends human emotion—it comes only from God.

Mary’s song, which weaves together the language of several of the Psalms, is patterned closely on the song of Hannah, who could not bear children until the Lord visited her (1 Samuel 2:1–10). While Mary’s song is focused on humility and calmness, Hannah’s song focuses on her sense of indignation, followed by personal triumph. An unusual feature of both songs is that God is portrayed in terms of what he has done as well as what he will yet do. This is a literary technique where the past tense is used to express hope for the future. Both songs remind us that what God has done in the past is what God will do in the future. As we continue to celebrate Advent, we celebrate this fact—noting God’s involvement in our past and relying on his involvement in our future. We rejoice in knowing that all God’s acts are the fruit of his consistent character—his faithfulness demonstrated in Jesus Christ.

Another noteworthy feature in Mary’s and Hannah’s songs is that God’s justice and mercy are presented in terms of the reversal of fortunes for the proud and the humble, the mighty and the lowly, the rich and the poor. The God of our past and future will make everything right, straighten everything that is crooked and heal all that is broken. We read of this in Isaiah 40:1-5, a passage often sung during Advent in performances of Handel’s sacred oratorio, Messiah.

The biblical accounts of Hannah and Mary (with Elizabeth) are chock-full of symbolism and prototypes from the past. Both Hannah and Elizabeth were barren until, in their later years, God intervened miraculously as he had for Sarah, Abraham’s wife. In the Old Testament, barrenness was much worse than an inability to bear children—it was a symbol of the end of human potential, the choking off of life. It pointed to the impotence of the human race in the face of sin and death. It’s no wonder that God would use a barren woman, Elizabeth, to point to his Son Jesus, who announced and accomplished the astounding reversal that Isaiah and other prophets proclaimed.

At Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, said “the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” Both Elizabeth and Mary experienced great joy in receiving and proclaiming God’s sure promise concerning the future. They knew that God’s promises always come with the power to see them fulfilled. The overlapping pregnancies of these women were beautiful signs that what was promised was about to happen. In God’s economy, it already had! Mary’s song—The Magnificat—celebrates the divine events as though they already had occurred. She knew that God is as good as his Word!

Mary and Elizabeth symbolically represent the poor and oppressed, those of “low estate,” who can be filled with joy knowing their hope is in God who is faithful to fulfill what he has promised. The two miraculous pregnancies are living examples of what Jesus later proclaimed: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). In his almighty love, God entered this world in human flesh. All who positively, willingly respond to that love by embracing their new lives in Christ, will experience magnificent joy for all eternity.

In joy,
Joseph Tkach

PS: It was a treat for me to join Pastor Frank and Leslie Howard in Newark, New Jersey to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the 24/7 Community Church. This is the first church plant after our doctrinal transformation. They began with 14 members and now have 125. Here are four pictures of the event, bearing in mind that I make no claim to being a photographer.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In his first letter to his young protégé Timothy, the apostle Paul shared this profound truth: “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Though the Christian church is blessed with many inspiring and skillful worship leaders, only Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, leads us into the presence of God. He is our true worship leader.

Regardless of the particular form or style, behind all true worship is the mediating ministry of our high priest, Jesus Christ. According to the author of Hebrews, Jesus is “a great priest over the house of God” (Hebrews 10:21), “a minister [leitourgos] in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man (Hebrews 8:2 NASB).

When we hear the word “worship,” we typically think of worship practices like praying, singing and receiving an offering. But worship is much larger than that. Properly defined, worship is a lifestyle that expresses grateful response to God for all he has done for us in Christ. Included is the way we treat others, based on the truth that we have been reconciled to God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Paul reminds us that this life of worship is one of self-sacrifice: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). “Proper worship” translates logikos latreia hymeis, which is translated as “reasonable service” in the NKJV, “spiritual worship” in the NRSV, and “intelligent service” in the YLT. True worship includes all of these.

In the Old Testament, Israel’s worship was led by the high priest who served as the representative of all Israel, standing in solidarity with the people. In his full humanity, Jesus stands in solidarity not only with Israel, but with all humanity. And in his full divinity, Jesus reconciles humanity to God. Jesus’ once-for-all, self-offering sacrifice brought complete redemption and forgiveness. In referring to Jesus as the one and only God-man priest “in the order of Melchizedek,” the author of Hebrews was explaining a special aspect of Jesus’ role as our high priest in representing us to the Father and the Father to us. Unlike Melchizedek, however, Jesus’ priesthood is eternal.

The God-man Jesus, who has rightly been referred to as “the perfect fusion of undiminished deity and complete humanity,” is both the recipient and the giver of worship. By always being in communion with the Father in prayer and worship, Jesus modeled for us throughout his earthly ministry what it means to be in relationship with the Father and the Spirit. Whereas Israel’s high priest temporarily carried the names of Israel’s 12 tribes on his breastplate, Jesus, our high priest, forever bears the names of all humans within his own representative humanity. Our Lord affirms this through the prophet Isaiah in declaring that, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:16 NRSV).

As our high priest, Jesus reveals the Father to us. In his high priestly prayer to the Father, he declared, “I made your name known to them, and I will make it known” (John 17:26 NRSV). As the one mediator of a new covenant, Jesus shows God to be a Father who desires his children’s presence (Hebrews 9:15; 12:24). This gives us cause for worship, reminding us that Jesus is both the center and mediator of that worship. In Jesus, humanity meets God in person!

In Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, James B. Torrance notes that our worship is Unitarian when it’s about techniques of experiencing God on our own. But our worship is Trinitarian when it’s about Jesus, our elder brother and great high priest who draws us into the eternal communion of love that characterizes God’s life as loving Father, beloved Son and Holy Spirit. As our true worship leader, Jesus goes to the Father in our name and simultaneously comes to us in the Father’s name.

The author of Hebrews makes the same point in this way: “Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises’” (Hebrews 2:11-12). As we worship in spirit and in truth, we join our voices with that of Jesus in praise to God. Jesus stands in our midst as one of us, taking us into God’s presence. And he stands with the Father, bringing God into our presence in perfect unity and holy love for all eternity.

Worshiping with Jesus,
Joseph Tkach

PS: I was pleased to read in the October 2 issue of The Behemoth, an article entitled “Already Friends of God.” The article, by Christianity Today editor Mark Galli, quotes T.F. Torrance in showing how the gospel is not about a transactional God but about the God of love and grace revealed in Jesus. You can read the article at www.christianitytoday.com/behemoth/2014/issue-6/already-friends-of-god.html.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This week most of us in the U.S. will celebrate Thanksgiving. This annual holiday isn’t unique to us here—many other countries have Thanksgiving celebrations. Though rituals and customs differ, the reason is pretty much the same—to give thanks to God. In the U.S., Thanksgiving Day rituals include a turkey dinner with all the trimmings—according to the National Turkey Federation, 95% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

Before or after the Thanksgiving meal, many gather around the TV to watch football. Football on Thanksgiving is a tradition that dates back to 1876 when the first intercollegiate football championship was held on Thanksgiving Day. One reporter called Thanksgiving “a holiday granted by the State and the Nation to see a game of football.” Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. is also known for parades. Many communities hold parades and more than 46 million people watch the most famous of them all—Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City, which began in 1924.

The true purpose of Thanksgiving, of course, is to give thanks to God. These days, we don’t praise him for the fall harvest as much as people did in times past and as much as many do in other parts of the world today. But we do praise God for our families, friends and the many other blessings we’ve received over the past year. From pre-meal prayers to laughing with family, to providing meals to the homeless, Thanksgiving is truly a celebration of praise and thanks.

Each year during Thanksgiving I’m reminded of Paul’s exhortation to the church at Philippi: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). Thanksgiving reminds us that we have many reasons to rejoice. When families gather at the Thanksgiving table, the question is often asked, “What are you thankful for?” Then each person shares their answer. When it’s my turn, I look around the table to see the many reasons for which I am thankful. And it’s all because of the One who loves us, as T.F. Torrance notes so eloquently in The Mediation of Christ:

God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualized his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself. Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior (p. 94).

Amen and Happy Thanksgiving!
Joseph Tkach

PS: Tammy and I recently participated in the 40th anniversary of our congregation in Bermuda. It was a joy to be with this delightful church family pastored by Cecil Pulley and his wife Senior. The celebration was held at their church building (pictured below). During the week they rent part of the building to a day care operation and the parking lot to a neighboring grocery store. Please join me in extending congratulations to the Bermuda church for 40 years of faithful service.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Sometimes we are so excited about celebrating the Incarnation of the Son of God at Christmas that we neglect Advent, the season that begins the annual Christian worship calendar. Spanning the four Sundays preceding Christmas, Advent this year begins November 30. The word “advent” is from adventus (Latin), meaning “coming” or “arrival.” Advent celebrates Jesus’ three “comings” (typically in reverse order): future (Jesus’ return), present (in the Spirit) and past (Jesus’ incarnation/birth).

Our understanding of Advent is enriched when we note how these three comings interrelate. The author of Hebrews used this phrase: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus came in the Incarnation (yesterday), he lives in us now through the Spirit (today) and will return as King of kings and Lord of lords (forever). Another way to look at this is in terms of the kingdom of God. Jesus’ incarnation brought the kingdom to humanity (yesterday), he invites believers to enter in and participate in that kingdom (today) and when he returns, he will reveal the already-existing kingdom to all humanity (forever).

Jesus used several parables to explain the kingdom that he was establishing: the parable of the seed, which grows invisibly and quietly (Mark 4:26-29); the parable of the mustard seed, which grows from a small seed to a large bush (Mark 4:30-32); and the parable of the yeast, which leavened all the flour (Matthew 13:33). These parables show that the kingdom was brought to earth at the Incarnation and still exists as a reality today. Jesus also said, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God [which he did], then the kingdom of heaven has come to you” (Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20). The kingdom is here, he said, and the proof is in the exorcisms and other good works of the church.

The power of God is continually manifest through believers who live in the reality of the kingdom. Jesus Christ is the head of the church yesterday, today and forever. Just as the kingdom was present in the ministry of Jesus, it is present now (though not yet fully) in the ministry of his church. The King is among us; his spiritual power is in us, even though his kingdom is not yet operating in full power. Martin Luther analogized that Jesus has bound Satan but with a long chain: “He [Satan] can do no more than a bad dog on a chain, which may bark, run here and there, and tear at the chain.”

The fullness of the kingdom will come—that is the “forever” we hope for. We know no matter how much we try to live in a way that reflects God, we cannot transform the entire world into God’s kingdom today. Only Jesus can do that, and he will at his glorious return. So while the kingdom has a present reality, its fullness is in the future. Though largely hidden today, the kingdom will be completely manifested at Jesus’ final advent.

Paul spoke often of the kingdom in its future sense. He warned against the things that prevent people from “inheriting the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 15:50; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:5). As his language often reflected, Paul predominantly thought of the kingdom as realized at the end of the age (1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; Colossians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:1, 18). However, he also understood that wherever Jesus is, his kingdom is now present, even in what he called “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). Since Jesus lives in us now, the kingdom is now present and, as Paul taught, we are now citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Philippians 3:20).

Advent is also spoken of in terms of our salvation, which the New Testament refers to in three tenses: past, present and future. The past tense is our finished salvation. It is what Jesus accomplished in his first coming—through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. The present tense is what we have now—Jesus living in us and inviting us to participate in his kingdom work. The future tense is the fullness of salvation, which we will experience when Jesus visibly returns and God is all in all.

It’s interesting to note that the Bible emphasizes the visibility of Jesus’ first coming and final coming. In between the “yesterday” and “forever,” Jesus’ present coming is invisible in that we do not see him walking around as they did in the first century. However, because we are now ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), we are called to represent the reality of Christ and his kingdom. So while Jesus may not be visible, we know he is with us and will never leave or forsake us, and others can see Jesus through us. We are called to make visible some of the glories of the kingdom—doing so by allowing the fruit of the Spirit to flow through us and by keeping Jesus’ new commandment to love one another (John 13:34-35).

When we understand that Advent focuses on Jesus yesterday, today and forever, we are better able to understand the four traditional Advent themes (represented in the wreath pictured above): hope, peace, joy and love. As the Messiah the prophets spoke of, Jesus is the reality of the hope that sustained God’s people. He did not come as a warrior or conquering king but as the Prince of peace, showing that God’s plan was to bring peace. The theme of joy focuses on the joyous anticipation of the birth and return of our Savior. And love is what God is all about. God, who is love, loved us yesterday (before the foundation of the world) and continues to love us (individually and intimately) both today and forever.

I pray your Advent season is filled with Jesus’ hope, peace and joy along with daily reminders through the Spirit of just how much he loves you.

Trusting Jesus yesterday, today and forever, Joseph Tkach

PS: For more on the present and future reality of the kingdom of God, see the article “The Present and Future Kingdom of God” at www.gci.org/gospel/kingdom and the series of articles in GCI Weekly Update on the kingdom of God by Gary Deddo that begins at update.gci.org/2014/02/the-kingdom-of-god-part-1/.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Unless Tammy is travelling with me, I never know whom I’ll be sitting next to when I fly. Most seatmates don’t seem to want much conversation, especially after they ask me, “What do you do?” If I reply, “I’m a pastor,” there is often a polite comment made as they put on their headphones and/or open a book to read. If I say “I supervise missionary work,” a bit more conversation ensues. On a recent flight, after the initial courteous exchanges, my seatmate paused, then asked, “How big do you think hell is?”

As we talked, it became clear that he was wondering how many people are now in hell and will go there. Will hell be larger than we imagine and heaven smaller? It’s interesting he didn’t ask about my definition of hell, or what the Bible says about hell. He just wanted to know how big it is.

I joked with him and asked if he was familiar with the pictures of Dante’s Inferno. He said no, and I said, “Well, he makes it look as though hell is already full.” I went on to explain that this topic seems to suffer from more misinformation circulating about hell than is realized.

Most are surprised to learn that the early church did not dogmatize the topic of hell, nor was there a singular view of the subject. In fact, hell is not mentioned in either the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed. Perhaps this was because the early church fathers realized humans aren’t qualified to judge such matters of eternal consequence—only Jesus Christ is (a good realization, indeed!) .

If we take Jesus seriously when he teaches about mercy, we should also take him seriously when he teaches about punishment. After all, mercy only has meaning if we are escaping a real punishment. Jesus used a variety of word-pictures for the punishment of those who refuse the loving mercy of God: fire, darkness, pain and destruction. Jesus is describing the result of a life of perpetual resistance to God’s love. Whatever hell is, it is a state of alienation from God for those who refuse his unconditional love, grace and mercy. However, this does not mean that God is the one who dispenses the pain and anguish. It is not the equivalent of parents who spank or abuse their children.

Tragically, the all-too-common misperception of God dispensing pain arises from a faulty view of God’s nature. It ignores the eternal relationship between the Father, Son and Spirit, which is lived out in the life of Jesus. It misses the point of God’s kind of humility, which is expressed in mutual self-deference to the other. We should always bear in mind that Jesus said he came to reveal the Father (Matthew 11:27; John 17:25-26). And the Holy Spirit was sent to reveal Jesus’ mission (Hebrews 10:15-16). Jesus taught that when the Spirit comes, he’ll not bear witness to himself but to Jesus (John 15:26). We see that mutual, reciprocal love in Jesus’ teaching about his purpose for coming to earth, saying he did not come to condemn the world but to save or rescue it (John 3:17).

Even more tragically, many people view God as if he suffers from manic depression or a multiple personality disorder. They struggle with the idea that on the one side, God is a being of wrath and then on the other he is a God of love. Some go so far as saying the Father has wrath, but Jesus came to bring love. But if Jesus is the “exact representation” of the Father (Hebrews 1:3) we cannot separate the Father’s nature from the Son’s nature or the Son’s nature from the Father’s. The same is true of the Spirit. Rather than seeing God in such an inconsistent and dissected manner, it is vital to realize that wrath and love are two aspects of a single attribute that is the fundamental character of God. Our talk about God is only accurate when based on the reality of Jesus Christ. He came from the Father to reveal the Father. And what we see in his life and ministry, including at the cross, is that God’s love and God’s wrath are not finally separate.

At the cross, God’s love in Christ is patently real, but so is God’s hatred toward sin. It isn’t that God loves the elect and hates the reprobate—rather, he loves us all, but hates the sin in our lives. Therefore we should think of hell in the same framework as we think of heaven by relating both to the love of God in Christ. God tells us to love our enemies and does no less himself. Because he loves us, he must be against whatever is against us—whatever damages us, harms us and ruins our relationships with God and with others. Anything less would not be loving. The sin in us is the object of God’s wrath because we are objects of his love.

At the cross, we see that the wrath of God has been meted out against human sin, guilt and alienation. Sin was literally put to death there. And it is of paramount importance to see that Christ assumed our broken, diseased humanity, turned it back to God and took on himself the judgment against our sin and guilt. As a result, we have been rescued from our sin, while our sin is condemned and sent away. The punishment due sin was (note the past tense) endured on the cross and does not take place in hell.

Systematic theologian Colin Gunton uses an interesting analogy to understand the love of God on the cross. He equates it to the cosmos suffering from cancer and Jesus taking all of that cancer into his being to heal it. His point is this: at the cross we see both God’s judgment against evil and God’s love for sinners. Since God loves sinners, our understanding of hell must account for both the judgment and the love of God that takes place at the cross.

A person who rejects God’s love is not going to enjoy heaven, and God is not going to force them to be part of the heavenly celebration. Even if he did, they would not enjoy it or experience its benefits. Instead, he permits those who repudiate his mercy to follow their own direction—one decisively shaped by their rejection of God’s love and their perpetual choosing of evil. They cannot see love and mercy as a good choice since they insist on having their own way, saving their pride, no matter what the consequences. Hell is therefore created by those who eternally resist God’s love—it is for those who will not and thus cannot be in the presence of God’s holy love. C.S. Lewis describes this understanding well in his novella, The Great Divorce:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in hell, choose to be there. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.

When we talk about the glories of heaven compared to the agonies of hell, we should bear in mind that we really cannot conceive the reality of either. It is, to paraphrase the apostle Paul, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard and what no mind has conceived. The best way to contrast heaven and hell is the way C.S. Lewis described it:

And yet all loneliness, angers, hatreds, envies, and itchings that it [hell] contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt by the least in heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed even in being bad as truly as good is good.

We’ve all experienced loneliness in feeling separate from God and we’ve all experienced joy in understand that we are loved, forgiven, adopted and included by God in the love and life shared by the Father, Son and Spirit. One simply cannot compare one experience with the other.

Here is a final thought to bear in mind when we think of hell as the culmination of judgment: Not only should we see that hell is related to the love of God, but that heaven is also part of the judgment of God. Those who turn to Christ are overjoyed and overwhelmed in realizing that Jesus is the real Judge, a judge who died for the people he judges. “The Father judges no one,” said Jesus, “but has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). Jesus, our Judge, has paid the penalty for the sin of all. Being in heaven means being in fellowship and communion with the Judge who saves by means of his judgment.

The one who judges the righteous, the unevangelized and the wicked, is the one who gave his life so that others might live eternally. Jesus Christ already has taken the judgment of sin and sinfulness upon himself. Therefore judgment should signal a time of joy for everyone, as it will usher in the glory of the everlasting kingdom of God where evil is banished forever and nothing but goodness will exist throughout eternity. Those who want to live with Christ in that goodness will be able to; those who do not want to will not be forced to.

Our hope is in God who sent his Son who ministered to the cosmos through the Spirit to make hell a smaller, rather than a larger place. The real answer to my seatmate’s question is this: Only God knows how big hell will be. And he has done everything he can to make it as small as possible. Given who God is in Jesus Christ, there is no good reason for anyone to go to hell—only the foolish “reason” of repudiating God’s love and forgiveness in order to keep one’s pride.

Trusting Jesus,
Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

For several decades, the prevailing view in cosmology was called the “steady state” theory, the idea that the universe has always existed and retains its uniform density through continuous creation of matter. But by the 1980s, that theory was largely abandoned in favor of what is known as the “big bang” theory, the idea (shown in the diagram below) that the universe began with a single massive explosion (“big bang”) followed immediately by inflation—expansion bursting from point zero to near the current size of the universe in a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth (10 to the minus 32) of a second.

In the 1960s, the big bang theory found support in the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation, a discovery Stephen Hawking called “the final nail in the coffin of steady state theory.” Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted this radiation, relating it to waves of gravity that leave ripples in the fabric of an expanding universe like the ripples left in the sand by waves pounding the seashore. Earlier this year, the scientists pictured at right (along with others) discovered what seems to be new evidence for this radiation. One report said that the scientific community is “cautiously exultant,” hailing this discovery as “one of the biggest…of the past two decades.”

Viewing early evidence for the big bang, atheist-turned-agnostic astronomer Fred Hoyle famously stated, “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics.” We know that “super-intellect” to be none other than our Creator God. I’m delighted that scientific exploration continues—discoveries about the fabric of our universe provide us with a detailed view of God’s awesome handiwork.

The reason such discoveries are being made is that the beautiful and elegant laws of physics created by God make the universe intelligible. Cosmologists are like detectives in a quest to answer the question that God posed long ago to Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world?” I find it exhilarating to study the discoveries being made by scientists. As I was reading about the recent ones, I found myself humming a worship song most of you know (here are the lyrics—give thanks that you can’t hear me humming!):

Blessing and honor, glory and power, be unto the Ancient of Days
From every nation, all of creation, bow before the Ancient of Days

I hope the scientific discoveries being made will help people see that God never intended Genesis to be read as though it is a science textbook presenting details of the processes by which the universe began and now operates. Genesis makes no mention of the big bang and cosmic inflation. What it does tell us is that the universe was created by God out of what was “formless”—like a ball of energy and light appearing suddenly out of nothing. Genesis gives, in brief, the story line of an amazing creation event. The big bang theory, which resonates with that story line, fills in the details, addressing what developed once there was something brought into existence by the Word of God from no preexisting matter.

Let me share with you what some world-famous physicists have said of the recent discoveries related to the big bang and inflation:

• “I would say it’s very likely to be correct that we are seeing a signal from inflation,” said Adrian Lee, a University of California at Berkeley cosmologist who is a leader of PolarBear, an experiment based on a mountaintop in Chile that is also searching for evidence of inflation. “But it’s such a hard measurement that we really would like to see it measured with different experiments, with different techniques, looking at different parts of the sky, to have confidence that this is really a signal from the beginning of the universe.”
• “If real, it’s magnificent,” said Harvard astrophysicist Lisa Randall.
• “Inflation—the idea of a very big burst of inflation very early on—is the most important idea in cosmology since the big bang itself,” said Michael Turner, a University of Chicago cosmologist. “If correct, this burst is the dynamite behind our big bang.”
• Princeton University astrophysicist David Spergel said after Monday’s announcement, “If true, this has revolutionary impacts for our understanding of the physics of the early universe and gives us insight into physics on really small scales.”
• Lawrence Krauss, an Arizona State University theoretical physicist, said of the new result, “It gives us a new window on the universe that takes us back to almost the very beginning of time, allowing us to turn previously metaphysical questions about our origins into scientific ones.”
• Cambridge University cosmologist professor Steven Hawking wrote, “The actual point of creation lies outside the scope of presently known laws of physics.”
• According to Professor Joseph Silk of the University of California, author of a recent book on modern cosmology, “The big bang is the modern version of the creation of the universe.”
• Professor Paul Dirac, a Nobel laureate from Cambridge University and a leading physicist of the 20th century, also an avowed atheist, said: “It is certain that the universe began at a definite time through an act of creation.” In reply, Jewish cosmologist professor Nathan Aviezer of Bar-Ilan University said: “It’s an example of Divine irony that it took atheistic scientists like Dirac…to point out the truth of the Torah. At this point I think we can say that creation is a scientific fact.”

Though most scientists do not attribute creation to the transcendent, personal agency of God as do the Bible and Christian theology, I believe that what science is discovering is compatible with the biblical account of creation. Recent discoveries in cosmology affirm that the universe had a point of beginning, which raises the question: Who or what initiated the big bang and the inflation that followed? By its very nature, science cannot answer that question, but the Bible can, and does. And so I’m smiling as I continue to hum…

Every tongue in heaven and earth, shall declare your glory
Every knee shall bow at your throne, in worship
You will be exalted oh God, and your kingdom shall not pass away
Oh Ancient of Days!

Continually humming his praises,
Joseph Tkach

PS: For comments on this topic from evangelical Christian leaders, see a recent NAE post at http://nae.net/resources/news/1205-are-science-and-faith-compatible.

Several of our pastors and ministry leaders met recently in Dallas to discuss our progress as a church planting movement. While there, the group toured the Dallas Cowboy football stadium. Here’s a picture of the group on the field, where they later knelt in prayer. Based on the Cowboy’s recent struggles, they apparently forgot to pray for the football team! (Apologies to Cowboys fans ☺)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As Gary Deddo points out, when it comes to searching out answers to life’s big questions, it’s vital to begin with the most important question of all: “Who is God?” Doing so reflects the apostle Paul’s teaching that God determines reality, “for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

God’s continuing mission is to help all people live according to that reality—to come into right relationship (communion) with him. This mission begins with God’s own perichoresis, meaning “mutual indwelling.” The word was coined by early church teachers to represent the unique oneness of the triune God. Jesus described it this way: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:10-11; 17:21). The Father’s life is with and in the Son and the Son’s life is with and in the Father. The Father, Son and Spirit are with, in and for each other. The three Divine Persons are so united in being that they act as one, pursuing together a mission to draw humanity (and all the cosmos) into their triune communion.

God calls the church to participate with him in that mission. In Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, James B. Torrance put it this way: “Through our union with Christ we share in his communion with the Father and in his mission from the Father to bring others into that communion… The mission of the church is the gift of participating through the Holy Spirit in the Son’s mission from the Father to the world.” In Atonement: the Person and Work of Christ, Thomas F. Torrance put it this way: “Because the church is filled with the one universal Spirit of divine love, it is caught up in the universal movement of that love that ceaselessly flows from God through Jesus Christ out into all the world.”

The problems we see in the world stem from living and thinking in ways not oriented toward God. God, who is love (1 John 4:8) is who we need. If we lived into that reality, most problems would quickly diminish. God, in love, reaches out to draw humanity into communion with himself. Toward that end, he has formed the church to be his representatives in leading creation to worship him as Creator, Reconciler and Redeemer. God calls the church together to receive from him his life with praise, prayer and thanksgiving and then sends them out to the world to pass on what they have received. In that way, the church serves as a living sign that points to the great reconciling and redemptive work that the Father has accomplished in Christ.

The church participates with God in this mission as it leads people to faith in God—a faith that leads them to share in a worshiping community that gathers together then reaches out to the world. In GCI, we describe our participation in that mission as Living and sharing the gospel, which brings forth All kinds of churches for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. Though we are small, God has given us a wide reach. We have churches in jungles, prisons, refugee camps and even a garbage dump. God has made us a church that lives and shares the gospel in all kinds of places!

As churches, our ministries are true participation in the mission of God as they communicate in word and deed the reality of who God is and what he is doing. That reality is good news (gospel) from beginning to end. Sadly, some churches stray from the gospel by falling into one of two ditches. The first is legalism—thinking that the gospel is about a transaction in which we earn something from God. The second ditch is approaching the gospel as an esoteric, mystical system that is inaccessible to outsiders. Those in the first ditch tend to speak of mission in business terms. An example is the health and wealth gospel, which often manipulates people using false hope and guilt. Those in the second ditch often speak of mission using esoteric terms. I’m not referring here to the appropriate use of theological terms, but to the use of strange-sounding, in-speak phrases such as, “The Lord spoke to me.” Though such phrases might make sense to us, they are easily misunderstood by non-Christians and thus tend to obscure the nature of God (see Gary Deddo’s article on the Holy Spirit linked under the Church Development category at left) and unhelpfully complicate (and even obscure) the simplicity of the gospel message that we are called to proclaim.

In times past, many of us spent time in one or the other (and sometimes both) ditches. We erroneously tried to build our fellowship using a transactional, business model. We referred to our ministries as “programs” and our pastors as “college representatives.” Also, we often used esoteric phrases unintelligible outside our fellowship. I recall when one of my neighbors accompanied Tammy and me to church. On the drive home he asked, “Joe, I know what a tithe is, but what is second tithe?” He also asked, “What is the Feast of Tabernacles? and “What kind of restaurant could stay in business serving unclean meat?”

I thank God we’re no longer in those ditches. Today our mission is to live and share the gospel in ways that lead to all kinds of churches for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. I pray we all grow in our participation in that mission. That all our churches have opportunity to do so became clearer to me in a recent conversation with Greg Williams, who in January will become director of GCI-USA Church Administration and Development (CAD). Greg noted that we’ve tended to look at church planting as the responsibility of our Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM) group led by Randy Bloom. CMM has laid for us a solid foundation for church planting. However, rather than looking at one ministry and a small group of people as the focus of our church planting, we need to see that church planting is a fundamental focus of the mission that we all are called to share in. In short, we need to see ourselves as church planters—partners in a church planting movement.

Every congregation, no matter its size, age distribution, financial resources, or other limiting circumstances, can be a partner in this movement. Each can make a valuable contribution. Notice here my emphasis on what we do together on mission—participating as one church family with Jesus as he engages humanity, drawing them to himself. Note also that mission precedes and leads to ministry (but ministry doesn’t always lead to mission). That’s why I want us to emphasize mission. Let’s examine everything we do at the congregational and denominational levels from the viewpoint of mission. Let’s ask: How does this ministry (program, publication, etc.) contribute to sharing in God’s mission to the world?

At times we’ve referred affectionately to our very small, often aging congregations as “legacy churches.” We’ve stopped doing so because it implies that they don’t have a meaningful, ongoing part in the mission of God. But that’s not what we believe. We value every congregation, no matter how small and no matter the age of its members. We value every member, no matter their age or other limiting circumstances. We believe that each congregation and every member can play a meaningful, important part in what God is doing to make of us a church planting movement. In fact, he already has! Note what Greg wrote recently:

Our U.S. congregations already are partners in this church planting movement through the income they provide to the denomination through our apportionment system. A growing number also partner through participation in a church planting network and donations to our GCnext domestic mission fund. Others are providing a home base for one of our interns. Some are directly starting new churches (serving as a “mother church” in the movement). Others help staff our Generations Ministries camps and mission trips where emerging leaders are helped to hear God’s call into mission. All are included. All have a part. All are important.

Greg and his team recently came up with a guiding motto for CAD: We are a team of churches and ministries partnered together in a church-planting movement. This excites me, because it speaks to our union and communion with the triune God, and our participation in what Jesus is doing in the power of the Spirit to fulfill the Father’s mission to the world. I’m confident this church planting focus will excite you too, as together we participate in the mission of God.

Living in his reality,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. This issue focuses on our calling to participate in God’s mission to the world. Gary Deddo addresses this topic as he concludes his series on the Holy Spirit, and note Dan Rogers’ comments on the topic in a video at http://youtu.be/oXF4uMNZb0k. Concerning our progress toward being a church planting movement, I recently participated in the first anniversary celebration at Grace Communion Fellowship. This GCI congregation was planted in Southern California a year ago by Angie and Saddie Tabin, with active participation from CMM and multiple GCI congregations partnered in one of our church planting networks. About 100 people attended the anniversary celebration—here are some pictures:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

While it is with a heavy heart that I share with you that our brother John Halford lost his battle with cancer, I rejoice that the battle is over and John has won the race. Click here for related information, including an announcement from John’s daughter, Becki Halford Brown. In this letter, I’ll share several tributes to our dear friend and colleague.

I first met John when I was 14, living in Pasadena, California. John and his wife Pat were our neighbors. One day I was doing gardening chores and John stopped to talk with me. I was a bit amazed that he took notice. Most adults seemed to believe that children are to be seen, not heard. John made a comment about the good work I was doing, shared a few thoughts, then went on. Who would have guessed that I’d be working with John many years later, first learning from him and then serving as his boss (though I’ve never felt anyone could truly be John’s boss!). It’s been a blessing beyond words to know John since my youth, and to worked so closely with him the past several years.

John’s impact on our denomination was vast. He is perhaps best known for the many insightful, thought-provoking articles he wrote for our publications, often finding stories in places no one else would even look. John served as editor and/or adviser for many of our international publications and his expertise will be greatly missed. John’s service to the church also included serving as head of campaigns in Australia and regional director in the UK. He also taught at Ambassador University and Imperial Schools and worked for The World Tomorrow program for a number of years.

I visited John a couple of weeks ago while he was still in the hospital. We shared stories and prayed together. Though he couldn’t communicate much, he still tried to get me and others in the room to laugh. Humor was one of his greatest gifts. What struck me most during the visit was hearing the many stories that came in from around the world from people in whose lives John made a personal investment. John encouraged many Ambassador students to participate in one of our international projects (in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Jordan and China). Many of these former students shared how his encouragement made the difference. They now feel they can never repay John for the support he so freely gave them. As an example, John recently encouraged two young women, Carrie Smith and Kayla (Shallenberger) Elliott, to travel to Africa where they taught school for six months. Both benefited greatly, crediting John for making a big difference in their lives.

Chugait Garmolgomut, a former Ambassador student who lives in Thailand, shared how John’s investment in him inspired Chugait to start a school. Over the years one school became many, and John participated in the dedication of several (see picture below). Chugait says that he owes it all to John and his investment in him. Chugait is working on a new project that will honor John and his investment (it’s too early to share the details).

Rick Shallenberger, John’s pastor for the past 12 years, has compiled testimonies from people around the world who have been deeply impacted by John. Rick recently shared some of them with me and his congregation, showing how one person can make a big difference in the lives of many. Rick read many of them to John while he was bedridden. As John listened to one, he looked at Rick and said, “Amazing.” Rick replied, “John, you are amazed because you didn’t see yourself as doing anything out of the ordinary and you weren’t trying to impress anyone. You were simply being the person God created you to be.” John smiled and nodded. Here are several of those tributes:

– From Mike Feazell (recently retired as GCI vice-president):

John has, I expect, simply by being himself, generated more goodwill and had more positive impact on the widest range of people than any other single person in the annals of WCG/GCI. He is much loved and will be sorely missed. A mentor, a colleague and a friend.

– From Jeff Broadnax (GCI pastor in Columbus, Ohio):

John richly invested in me, empowered me, believed in me and has spent my entire adult life blessing me and challenging me to see with the fresh eyes that God provides. There are few people on the planet who have touched my life as much as John Halford. He means so much to my family and me. He not only officiated at our wedding 27 years ago, he never stopped supporting us.

– From Rod Matthews (GCI mission developer for Asia and the South Pacific):

I have known John for 47 years. He was one of God’s exceptional gifts to our fellowship, and his legacy resides in thousands of lives around the world, mine especially. I owe him much as a very personal and loyal friend, mentor, encourager and guide. He would have no idea how much he taught me, or how he helped me learn to see through masks, and to develop discernment. And I so much enjoyed his capacity to bring down the high, and lift up the poor. Our senses of humor were very compatible.

John had a brilliant, unshackled and exploring mind, coupled with unmatched skills in communicating with common men and women, a remarkable capacity to utilize repartee and humor to highlight truth and reality in the midst of swirling mists of ideas, facts and personal agendas. He excelled at cross-cultural relationships, always upholding those in need of support, seeing potential and opportunities with uncanny accuracy. His perceptive wisdom and experience helped build and enhance our mission activities—especially in the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia where he had lived and served. Many of us are staring down a very big hole in our lives right now. May God’s comfort and blessings, including the ‘hugs’ of our worldwide family be with Pat, Becki, Judy and their families.

– From James Henderson (GCI mission developer for Europe and the UK):

John, one day you’ll read this and I think you’ll laugh because it sounds over the top and perhaps too sentimental. You’ll no doubt want to edit it, and you’d do so seamlessly and beautifully. You’ll probably say: “What was all the fuss about?’ Tears are streaming down our faces as we compose this message. Who would have thought that all over the world people are crying over you right now? You touched so many lives.

C.S. Lewis said that grief is part of the joy of having known someone, and it’s been such a joy to know you. Thanks for being who you are. Thanks for being a friend in good times and in bad. I remember our early morning walks together at conferences when we’d have coffee and share each other’s views about what was going on. You’d keep me grounded and help me see things more clearly. We’d laugh a lot. Your incisive mind saw the funny side of life, and you had a knack of bringing this out in your speaking and writing. You drew us in through your wit and held us captive while you made your point. You’d challenge the way we think. You wrote your words on our hearts and minds, and they are still there.

So many people have personal stories about you. They have anecdotes to tell of what you did for them or of what you said to them. You were kind. You’d help others behind the scenes, away from public view. You were gentle and comforting to those in distress. You reached out to the underdogs when others abandoned them. Your compassion was tangible. Of course, like most of us, you could be argumentative, and infuriatingly so at times, but that was the fun of knowing you. Always your Christianity and humanity shone through. Shirley and I love you and we miss you already.

– From Charles Fleming (GCI mission developer for the Caribbean):

Truly a loss to many of us. John was a larger than life presence among us. I cherish many memories of our times together over the years as we negotiated our renewal period and moved into this wonderful season of peace. May the Lord’s peace be with Pat and the family.

One person shared how a single encounter with John changed him. He and John were walking in a park when they came upon a clearly drunk man. John’ companion referred to the man as “scum,” to which John replied, “And a child of God!” John was like that—he looked on each person as valuable and worthy of respect and investment. We praise God that John invested in so many.

Many other tributes can be read on John’s Facebook page. Many of us could add our own, telling how John invested in our lives, or made us laugh. One of John’s great gifts was his ability to find humor in almost any situation, then make people laugh about it. On one occasion he said he couldn’t understand why the greatest spiritual gift was not listed in Scripture—the gift of wit and sarcasm. Perhaps God saved that gift for John. Through his infectious humor and in many other ways, John had a great impact in our lives. As Rick noted, he did so simply being the person God created him to be. I pray that we will do so as well.

John’s daughters shared with me that their father always taught them to be genuine and to pay attention to others. I think that’s good advice for us all. We need to use the gifts and talents God has given us to invest in the lives of others. Even when those investments are relatively small, they can make big differences in the lives of many. Most of us will be as surprised as John was when we start to see the fruit of those investments.

John’s memory will live long in our lives, and may his example live even longer.

Always praising God for relationships,
Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I’ve often heard worship leaders begin a service by declaring, “God is good,” to which the congregation replies, “all the time.” “And all the time,” the leader continues, to which the audience replies, “God is good.” This statement about God is, of course, true. Most Christians believe it fervently. But many, in the privacy of their own thoughts, wonder, “If God truly is good, why is there so much pain in the world?” It’s difficult to reconcile belief in God’s goodness with the presence of pain in the world, even if we believe that, in the end, our good Creator gives the kingdom of heaven as the ultimate solution to pain.

Though I can’t address all aspects of this challenging topic in one letter, here is some food for thought.

First, we note that evil, the opposite of God’s goodness and source of much of the pain in the world, originates with Satan, “the father of lies” (John 8:44). As the deceiver and destroyer, Satan is vehemently opposed to God and likes to get others to join with him—we see his tactics at work in the Garden of Eden where Satan led humankind into sin, resulting in the fall. Today, Satan continues to sow the seeds of deceit and distrust toward God because he knows the only way for us to escape evil is to respond to God’s love toward us in Jesus through the Spirit. The good news is that Satan is a defeated foe. Jesus, the Victor, conquered Satan and thus the evil he brings (Colossians 2:15). But in accordance with God’s good plan for humankind, Satan’s influence continues for a time.

Not understanding this reality, people often frame the problem of pain with questions that lead to false conclusions. For example, an agnostic might ask, “What was God doing during the Holocaust of World War II—was he taking a coffee break?” Or, “If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, why does he allow suffering to continue—and at seemingly higher levels of repetition?” In his book The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis frames the agnostic objection this way:

If God were good, he would wish to make his creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty he would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.

In addressing this objection, Lewis shines the light of Christ on the problem of pain. He does so out of his own personal encounter with Christ during times of suffering in which he came to understand that there is much more to the story than often realized. He learned that God is not finished with us—he has a good plan for humankind, one that makes place for pain in ways that ultimately bring forth good, not evil. Lewis addressed that plan in one of the most-often quoted passages in the book:

Lewis knew that making things right in the world requires far more than magic or fairy dust; far more than making people into mindless puppets. Instead, it requires transformation of our very natures and our relationship with God. God needs to get our attention to accomplish in us the deep and lasting good that he desires for all his creation.

Sadly, some misunderstand God’s love to be nothing more than a cosmic kindness that would never allow pain. But we face pain because of God’s love, because of his ultimate plan for us—to live in relationship with him, sharing in the communion of the Father, Son and Spirit. The truth is that God is conforming us to the image of Jesus—a transformation that involves pain as we let go of ourselves, of making ourselves the center of everything, and of insisting on having things our way, and so coming to see his way is good and leads to life. So first we need to see that the love and goodness of God are more than an escape from suffering any pain.

We must also recognize that pain is not totally evil. Pain is helpful in that it is a built-in warning system that something is wrong. If living things did not have pain, they would have a difficult time surviving. Pain teaches us that we are not self-sufficient, and that we cannot always do things our way. Pain stops us from hurting ourselves further. We learn through experience that pain can be positive as well as negative.

When I go to the dentist and he numbs my mouth to do a root canal, I feel the pain of the numbing shot. But I am grateful because the minor pain I feel from the shot is not comparable to the pain I would feel if he did the root canal without the shot. The minor pain saves me from far greater pain. Moreover, I am then reminded (warned) if I eat anything shortly after the root canal, I need to chew carefully, because with all that numbness, I could chew my tongue up in the process.

Pain is real, but to think of all pain as evil completely misses the point of pain. Pain gets our attention. It opens our eyes to a reality we may be missing. It can motivate us to look at our relationship with God and ask if we are moving closer to him or farther away. Pain often helps prevent further pain. It can get us to look beyond the present and see what we need to do to stop the pain from becoming worse. Knowing that God is good, we can surmise that God’s definition of goodness includes human pain. Recognizing this helps us to see that the existence of pain in the world is not a credible argument for the non-existence or non-beneficence of God.

Pain often occurs because of wrong choices and wrong behavior. Sometimes (perhaps often) those choices are made by others and are beyond our control. But the purpose is still the same: pain opens our minds to see a new reality we might be missing. Our way does not work. Life without God is not the answer. Life without love is not the answer. God is continually getting us to focus on the answer—Jesus and his way. Jesus suffered and went through pain for us in order to help us look past the pain and toward him. The author of Hebrews put it like this; “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

Of course, Satan tries to keep people from responding to God’s love. One of his tactics is to lead people into believing that pain in the world is caused by the only one who can remove it. When we are tempted to ask, “Where is God?” we do well to remember that God, being omnipresent, is always with us when we are in pain. Note these words from the apostle Peter: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:12-13). And note these words from the apostle Paul: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

Jesus said his sacrifice would set us free—free from guilt and shame; free from fear and anxiety; and ultimately free from tears and pain. Our faith and prayer has an impact on our quality of life. In the midst of our most difficult times, we can be assured that our pain is not pointless. We can trust that God has a great purpose for our suffering. Pain isn’t pleasant, but its purpose is always to get us to look to God. He promises a time when there will be no more pain and suffering (Revelation 21:4), when evil is entirely eradicated and all things are made new.

Trusting God’s greater purpose,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. October is clergy appreciation month in the U.S. Though all of us at the GCI office in Glendora are grateful for our pastors every month and day of the year, we extend special thanks this month (click on the link under “announcements,” above left).