Category: Hear From the President

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Ask 20 ministers from multiple denominations to define grace and you’ll likely get many different definitions, along with some lively discussion! Ask several GCI ministers and you’ll likely get some variety, but there will be a common core of understanding. One thing is for sure, in GCI we’ve stopped trying to force-fit grace into a framework of legalism. Thank God!

Grace defies simplistic, one-size-fits-all definitions. It’s too profound for that, which is why the Bible reminds us that God’s grace is an inexhaustible topic—one worthy of a lifetime of study. That’s why Peter admonished Christians to “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). The more I read, study, think and write about grace, the more I find my understanding expanding.

Google grace on your computer and you’ll uncover multiple definitions. Probably the best-known is this one: “Grace is God’s unmerited favor or pardon.” A. W. Tozer defined it this way: “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving.” Dutch-Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof defined grace as, “The unmerited operation of God in the heart of man, effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit.” I find the following definition from Karl Barth to be particularly profound (though as often is the case with Barth, it must be carefully read to get the full impact):

Who really knows what grace is until he has seen it at work here: as the grace which is for man when, because man is wholly and utterly a sinner before God, it can only be against him, and when in fact, even while it is for him, it is also a plaintiff and judge against him, showing him to be incapable of satisfying either God or himself? ….What takes place in this work of inconceivable mercy is, therefore, the free over-ruling of God. It is not an arbitrary overlooking and ignoring, not an artificial bridging, covering-over or hiding. It is a real closing of the breach, gulf, and abyss between God and us, for which we are responsible. At the very point where we refuse and fail, offending and provoking God, making ourselves impossible before him and in that way missing our destiny, treading under foot our dignity, forfeiting our right, losing our salvation and hopelessly compromising our creaturely being—at that very point God himself intervenes as man (Church Dogmatics, Vol. 4.1: The Doctrine of Reconciliation).

I like Barth’s expression, “inconceivable mercy.” It refers to what God, in Christ, through the Spirit, has done and is doing to write within us a new law that emancipates us from sin as well as death. Paul put it this way: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2).

The Greek word charis, usually translated “grace” in the New Testament, has multiple shades of meaning, referring to something that affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, goodwill, loving-kindness, favor or gratitude. Scripture tells us that grace is ours by God’s initiative alone. In Christ, through the Spirit, the Father’s will for us is perfectly fulfilled. God’s grace takes us by surprise because nothing that we can do and nothing that we are earns grace. We are predestined and elected in Christ, the Lord and Savior of the whole world. The story of our lives begins and ends with God’s unfathomable, amazing grace.

When I hear or read world news, I wonder why God bothers with us at all. Our brutality, cruelty, bigotry, hypocrisy and greed boggles the mind. But God knows there is another way to live, and his purpose is to share that life with us. He loves us far too much to allow the final result of life—any life—to be determined by our own behavior. In the sovereignty of God’s grace, evil has no future. Christ is making all things new. The new heavens and earth will be established!

God’s plan is to remake us into the image of his Son as we receive his grace by our repentance and faith in him. God even enables that response—one that, by the Spirit, grows deeper throughout our lives, as Paul noted:

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified (Romans 8:29-30).

After observing what God is doing in our lives by grace, Paul proclaimed confidently that, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). God is not finished with any of us—he alone is the author and finisher of our salvation and he knows how to complete the story that he has begun writing in our lives. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul proclaimed that, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The Greek word here for “handiwork” is pōiema, from which we get the word “poem.” By his grace, God is writing the story of our lives—we’re a divinely written ballad, sonnet (or in some cases, a haiku!), full of ups and downs and twisting plot turns. Because of God’s grace, we look forward with hope and confidence to how the story will end.

With love in Jesus’ name,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. I recently participated in a GCI conference in Montegrotto, Italy, attended by about 110 of our Italian brothers and sisters. During the conference we ordained Francesco Bernard, pastor of the GCI congregation in the Puglia/Bari region named Acquaviva Dele Fonti (Living Water of the Well). Here is a picture, with James Henderson, GCI missions director for Europe, leading the ordination prayer.

During the conference we also re-commissioned several ministry leaders who serve GCI’s churches in Turin, Milan, Ferrara, Rome, Sardinia, Catania and Palermo, Italy (see the picture below). Our thanks and congratulations to all these servants of our God of grace.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In The Message, Eugene Peterson has a wonderful way of highlighting the nuances in Scripture that may be missed in other Bible translations. Here is his take on Psalm 8:1-2:

Can’t you just hear atheists sniggering at that? They consider the songs of preschoolers to be where belief in God belongs. For them, the only smart choice in a sophisticated, educated modern world, is a materialistic worldview where there is no room for belief in God or in the supernatural.

But not so fast! Recently I came across an article that presents research showing how humans may be “hardwired” to believe, and that even hard-core atheists can’t avoid an inbuilt bias towards metaphysical beliefs. According to journalist Nury Vittachi…

Cognitive scientists are becoming increasingly aware that a metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes that it cannot be expunged. While this idea may seem outlandish—after all, it seems easy to decide not to believe in God—evidence from several disciplines indicates that what you actually believe is not a decision you make for yourself. Your fundamental beliefs are decided by much deeper levels of consciousness, and some may well be more or less set in stone. [1]

Vittachi goes on to quote atheist Graham Lawton, who admitted that, “Atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think.” Vittachi continues:

These findings may go a long way to explaining a series of puzzles in recent social science studies. In the United States, 38% of people who identified themselves as atheist or agnostic went on to claim to believe in a God or a Higher Power (Pew Forum, “Religion and the Unaffiliated”, 2012). While the UK is often defined as an irreligious place, a recent survey by Theos, a think tank, found that very few people—only 13 per cent of adults—agreed with the statement “humans are purely material beings with no spiritual element”. For the vast majority of us, unseen realities are very present…. The implication is that we all believe in a not dissimilar range of tangible and intangible realities. Whether a particular brand of higher consciousness is included in that list (“I believe in God”, “I believe in some sort of higher force”, “I believe in no higher consciousness”) is little more than a detail. [1]

The more we learn about the cosmos, the more we realize that there is much more to it—and to us—than what meets the eye. Not all scientists are atheists by any means. Many on the cutting edge of scientific discovery know that a purely materialistic view of the cosmos does not fit the facts. According to a 2009 Pew Research Center poll, “Just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.”

Of course, some scientists are atheists and argue that metaphysical beliefs are just in our heads—the result of impersonal, unintelligent evolutionary processes and so not to be trusted. But new discoveries are giving us deeper insight into the reality of the creation as God actually made it, not as we might assume it to be. And though we must admit that scientific research can never prove that the God of the Bible exists, and that he has created and redeemed us in Christ, we should expect that whatever is discovered about creation will be compatible with the revelation of the creator God given to us in and through Jesus Christ.

There is nothing irrational or unscientific about trusting in the claims of revelation as given to us by prophets and apostles in Holy Scripture and as further confirmed through personal experience. Also, there is no threat to God in scientific discovery. After all, God is the one who made whatever is discovered. One leading physicist even suggested wryly that in the decades ahead, we may learn more about God from science than from theology. I don’t mean to imply that scientists will be “preaching the gospel.” That’s our job. The job of science is to study created reality, and God is not a created physical object. But scientists are discovering that what is “real” in creation leaves plenty of room for rationally affirming metaphysical claims such as the reality and existence of a transcendent and personal God who has the intelligence, power and motivation to make himself known.

As some of the ideas now shaping scientific thought become better known, and as the limits of science become more widely recognized, I suspect that an atheistic worldview will be seen more and more for what it is: a metaphysical assertion that cannot be justified on the basis of the growing scientific knowledge of the universe. I think that more and more people (including scientists) will find themselves in the same position as David who, having come to know God through the prophets and the history of Israel, looked up at the majesty of creation and proclaimed these words (Psalm 8:3-4, The Message):

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry,

Moon and stars mounted in their settings.

Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,

Why do you bother with us?

Why take a second look our way?

God created us in his image to know and to trust him. To that end Jesus dedicated his life and ministry: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). We may not believe him, but placing ourselves absolutely beyond the reach of Jesus’ ministry is not an option that God has given us. Some people are drawn to Christ willingly, while others put up fierce resistance. But whatever the case, it’s Jesus’ ongoing ministry (which was decided before creation and is now being carried out by the Spirit) to confront all people with the reality of his existence and the reality of God’s gracious gift of salvation. Sooner or later, all must come to terms with it.

Some may think that the arrogant claims of militant atheists are more rational and scientific than the claims of faith from those who have come to know God through the witness of historical revelation gathered up and passed down through the centuries. But the unbelief of atheists has made them hard of hearing—deaf to the evidence. They should listen more carefully when “nursing infants” sing their praises to God (Psalm 8:2).

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. Recently I participated in the last of the 2014 U.S. regional conferences in Orlando, Florida, and the annual Canadian national conference in Edmonton, Alberta. The presentations in both locations were well received and the fellowship was outstanding.

Following the Canadian conference, we held the annual general meeting of the GCI Canada board and the Edmonton congregation celebrated its 50th anniversary.

While in Canada I had the joy of sharing in ordaining Wendy Moore (wife of GCI-Canada director Gary Moore—see the picture at right) and Mark Kuberski (who serves the Edmonton congregation). Congratulations to both!

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[1] “Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke,” Science 2.0, http://tinyurl.com/lbljujh.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

David Letterman, who hosts the CBS Late Show, is known for his humorous Top Ten lists. I’m often asked for my top ten lists—of movies, books, songs, foods and beers. You probably have lists of your own. Over the last few years, some of my articles have sprung from my top ten list of Bible verses. Here are six of them:

• “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8, NASB).
• “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
• “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).
• “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
• “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
• “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

It’s motivational to me to read verses like these—I refer to them as “gold nugget verses.” Over the last several years, as I’ve continued learning about God’s amazing, never-ending love, my list of favorite verses has changed. Searching them out has been like mining for gold, a precious substance that occurs in nature in many forms and shapes—plates, scales, microscopic pieces, large spongy pieces and what is referred to as “hackly masses.” Like gold in all its amazing, unexpected variety, God’s unconditional love, which is all around us, is found in unlikely places and forms.

Theologian T.F. Torrance describes that love in this beautiful summary of the gospel:

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 (The Mediation of Christ, p. 94).

Our appreciation for God’s love grows as we read the Bible, for Jesus, who is God’s love, is the focus of all Scripture. Thus it saddens me to learn that recent surveys show a rapid decline in Bible reading among Christians. That’s ironic in light of the fact that 87% of those responding to a survey conducted by Bill Hybels’ group concerning spiritual growth listed “getting help from their church to understand the Bible in depth” as their number one spiritual need. It’s also ironic that respondents identified, as one of the top weaknesses of their church, a failure to help members understand the Bible.

The way we discover the gold nuggets in Scripture is by digging them out through repeated, thoughtful Bible study (see the cartoon above). Recently, I was studying the book of Micah (one of the Minor Prophets) where I came across this gold nugget:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy (Micah 7:18).

Micah declared this truth concerning God at the same time Isaiah was prophesying a coming exile. It was a time, seemingly, of doom and gloom. Yet, Micah was filled with hope because he knew that God delights to show mercy. The Hebrew word here translated “mercy” has its roots in the language of covenants made between persons. Such covenants involve promises of faithful loyalty that are binding, yet freely given. And so God’s mercy is to be understood here as promised, sure mercy. Micah mentions that God had promised this mercy to Israel’s forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, despite the fact that they were undeserving. It’s encouraging and motivating to realize that God, in his mercy, does the same for us.

The Hebrew word for mercy used in Micah and elsewhere can also be translated as “free and faithful love” or as “steadfast love.” We can rest assured that God’s mercy will never cease because it is his nature to be faithful and he has given his promise. God will never move from his position of love. He will never fail to be merciful to us. For that reason, we too can confidently cry out, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Now there’s a gold nugget verse!

Mining Scripture with you,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. Here are a couple of videos that Pastor Charles Young in Atlanta recommended. I think you’ll enjoy them. They bear a humorous, yet important message about extending God’s love by inviting people to church.

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umhs2a6KDI4
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkA_v13q7i0

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you are as excited as I am to read the reports from our youth camps (click on the link at left to read recent reports). At our camps, which are scattered around the world, thousands of young people are setting a course for life. This is vital, because so many young people today are growing up in a world of negativity, defeatism and failure. Our campers have lots of fun at camp, but it’s fun with a purpose. They learn first-hand about choosing to live life in relationship with God.

It’s sad that many young people don’t know about that choice. They grow up in an environment where knowledge of God is considered superfluous, even dangerous. Note Paul’s warning about that:

The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being…. (Romans 1:20, The Message).

We hold our youth camps in areas of natural beauty, so everyone can have a “long and thoughtful look” at the creation, and thus learn more about the Creator. Sadly, many today deny that there is a Creator, attributing everything in our world to only natural, material causes. Paul warned of that danger:

People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life (Romans 1:21-22, The Message).

I have followed with interest the research concerning human consciousness, including the topic of free will. As illustrated at right [1], some scientists believe that what we call “free will” may be little more than the “background noise” of neurons firing within our brains. One researcher put it this way:

Though purposeful intentions, desires and goals drive our decisions in a linear cause-and-effect kind of way, our finding shows that our decisions are also influenced by neural noise within any given moment. This random firing, or noise, may even be the carrier upon which our consciousness rides, in the same way that radio static is used to carry a radio station. [2]

Some neuroscientists have declared that, “Free will is an illusion.” They believe that our thoughts, decisions and behaviors are solely the products of impersonal biochemical processes operating within the brain and body. [3] But if they are correct, why accept as true what anyone’s brain comes up with? The problem with their declaration is that, rather than being scientific, it’s the outcome of philosophical assumptions that determine how relevant scientific data is selected and interpreted.

It’s interesting to note that a recent study concluded that when people are told that free will does not exist, their brains tend to follow suit. Subjects in the study reading passages discrediting the idea of free will experienced an immediate decrease in brain activity related to voluntary action. Other studies found that discrediting free will seems to trigger an increase in cheating and aggressiveness—encouraging people to be less helpful and generally sapping their motivation. It seems that embracing a purely materialistic understanding of free will causes people to become, as Paul wrote, “illiterate regarding life.” That’s why it’s so important that we give young people a solid biblical foundation.

The Bible tells us that God created us in his image and in his divine freedom, granted us freedom to discern the truth and the good and then act on it. God does not force his will on us—he does not absolutely prevent us from abusing our freedom and throwing it away. But as we surrender our wills to God and his will for us, a great work of renovation occurs—a process brilliantly described by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

Young people (and old) who understand this biblical truth will never be illiterate regarding life. I’m thankful that our youth camps are helping so many young people set a course for life that embraces the knowledge of God and his plan for humanity. My thanks to all who are making that possible!

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

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[1] Found at http://briankellysblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/stanford-physicist-vast-powerful-realm.html

[2] “Is Free Will an Illusion,” Pacific Standard, http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/free-will-illusion-83861/.

[3] “Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?”, New York Times, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/is-neuroscience-the-death-of-free-will/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0.

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters is Christ,

Have you noticed how it’s getting harder to determine if news reports in print, online, and via radio and TV are true? It seems that no matter how serious or sobering the topic, such reports are more about entertainment than accurate information. And with the way news is typically being reported, it’s increasingly difficult to determine what we actually need to know.

Let me illustrate with a pet peeve of mine—the conflicting information concerning global warming (often referred to as “climate change”). On the one hand, dramatic news reports tell of rapidly melting polar ice-caps that may result in whole countries being inundated. But other reports say that the amount of sea-ice in Antarctica has been increasing since satellite measurements began in 1979. [1] So it’s hard to know what to believe, given the complexity of this topic and the penchant the news media has for sensationalism.

Reporting news accurately is, of course, a great challenge. It requires facing the conflict between truth (accuracy) and trendiness (to achieve high ratings). We face a similar challenge in presenting the gospel. These days we hear a lot about the need to be relevant in order to connect with a younger demographic. Of course, we would be shortsighted not to use available media tools to communicate the gospel to younger audiences. But in doing so, we must not become bedazzled with gimmicks, sensationalism and special effects. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, we must not let “the medium become the message.”

Sadly this has happened in some Christian circles, where the focus has shifted from truth to trendiness. We guard against this shift when we remember that the ancient, biblical gospel is relevant in all places and times, within all cultures and generations. Certainly we need to communicate its timeless truths in ways that are clearly understood within different cultures, but let us not forget that the gospel’s fundamental, truthful relevance really cannot be improved upon.

Today, culturally-bound distortions of the gospel abound: the health & wealth gospel, prediction-addiction schemes and concepts that make God out to be a cosmic sheriff or an on-demand vending machine. Other distortions include equating the gospel with a political party, a social cause, an ethic group, or a particular style of music. Such ideas load the gospel with “cultural baggage,” resulting in little or no gospel at all. We should remember Jesus’ warning: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9, ESV).

Our challenge in presenting the gospel is to be both truthful and relevant. Martin Luther once said that if we are not preaching the gospel in ways that people understand, we are wasting our time. Theologian N.T. Wright emphasizes that “translating the New Testament is something every generation should be doing.” In the fourth Gospel, John writes that “The Word became human and made his home among us” (John 1:14, NLT). Here John used the Greek word logos, which we translate “Word,” but also can be translated “logic” or “reason.” The Greeks associated logos with divinity. William Barclay comments:

Jesus is the expression of the mind of God. It is as if John said to the Greeks: “For the last six centuries you have been speaking about the mind of God in the universe. If you want to see what the mind of God is, look at Jesus Christ. Here, full-displayed, is that mind of God about which you have always been thinking and talking. The logos has become flesh. The mind of God has become a person.”

Jesus, who is Truth personified, is always relevant. He spoke about and lived out the truth about a right relationship with God and the fruit produced by that relationship—right relationships with people. Such relationships are always relevant—important for all people everywhere in all times. In fact, “We live and move and have our being” within such relationships—first with God (including our right or wrong ideas about God) and then between people—parents and children, men and women, neighbor with neighbor.

As we strive to accurately present the gospel on the cluttered stage of today’s sensationalist media, let’s be careful not to let our efforts become “trendy” in ways that might distort the truth of the gospel. God, who in Christ reconciled the world to himself, calls us to live reconciled to him and to be his ambassadors of that reconciliation to the world. Let us be about that gospel mission.

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. I often receive from Weekly Update readers links to entertaining videos. I like sharing the fun! Here’s one that shows a good way to recycle beer bottles: http://youtu.be/NkbZlautuUc.

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[1] Cryosphere Today, Polar Research Group, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that most wars have been caused by religion. This statement has been repeated so often that few question its validity. But even cursory research shows that it is not true. For example, one researcher evaluated a list of wars published in Wikipedia and found that only 14 of the 126 wars listed were started for religious reasons. Another examined the horrific murders perpetrated by dictators during the 20th century and found that few if any of these despots were motivated by religion (for an illustrative chart go to https://update.gci.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/religious-wars.jpg). [1]

 

Of course, religion has been the root cause in some wars and a contributing factor in others. But claiming that religion is the cause of most wars is simply wrong. Making such a claim is often part of an effort to disparage religion in general and Christianity in particular. Thankfully, some authors are more careful with the facts. Note what anthropologist Scott Atran wrote in “God and the Ivory Tower” in FP magazine:

The chief complaint against religion—that it is history’s prime instigator of inter-group conflict—does not withstand scrutiny. Religious issues motivate only a small minority of recorded wars. The Encyclopedia of Wars surveyed 1,763 violent conflicts across history; only 123 (7 percent) were religious. A BBC-sponsored “God and War” audit, which evaluated major conflicts over 3,500 years and rated them on a 0-to-5 scale for religious motivation (Punic Wars = 0, Crusades = 5), found that more than 60 percent had no religious motivation. Less than 7 percent earned a rating greater than 3. There was little religious motivation for the internecine Russian and Chinese conflicts or the world wars responsible for history’s most lethal century of international bloodshed.

Note also what Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod wrote in the Encyclopedia of Wars:

Wars have always arisen, and arise today, from territorial disputes, military rivalries, conflicts of ethnicity and strivings for commercial and economic advantage, and they have always depended on, and depend on today, pride, prejudice, coercion, envy, cupidity, competitiveness, and a sense of injustice. But for much of the world before the 17th century, these “reasons” for war were explained and justified, at least for the participants, by religion.

Note that what Phillips and Axelrod conclude from their study of history lines up with what we find in the New Testament concerning the root cause of war:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (James 4:1-3, ESV).

These human tendencies war against the “great commandments” of the Law of Moses to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:36-40), and against the command of Jesus: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34, ESV). As Christians, we seek Jesus’ own love and his peace, not war. Jesus said this to his followers, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27, ESV). In his writings, Paul exhorted Christians to live Jesus’ way of love and peace: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21, ESV). “Always seek to do good to one another and to everyone” (1Thessalonians 5:15, ESV).

Sadly, love and peace have been rejected by many, and war has resulted. People (including Christians) are not perfect and they make mistakes and have fought in battles and wars that they should have avoided. But, it is far from the truth that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, has been the root cause of most wars. Christianity preaches and lives the message of love and peace, and whenever it fails, it knows it must seek forgiveness and turn back to seeking after justice and reconciliation and making peace. Let us be ambassadors of God’s love and peace in this war-torn world.

Sharing with you the life and ministry of the Prince of Peace,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. If you would like to read more about this topic, here are two helpful books:

• The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary Cause of Violent Conflict? by Meic Pearse.
• Holy War in the Bible: Christian Morality and an Old Testament Problem by Heath A. Thomas, Jeremy Evans and Paul Copan, editors.

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[1] Chart downloaded from imgur (http://i.imgur.com/eyUnc.jpg[/IMG]). The chart summarizes information posted at http://popten.net/2010/05/top-ten-most-evil-dictators-of-all-time-in-order-of-kill-count/.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

While watching the news as a young lad with my grandfather, he would often respond to reports of disturbing events with the complaint, “The world is going to hell in a handbasket!” When I was a teen and young adult, I would often hear my dad voice the same thing. What’s amusing is that when I encounter distressing news today, I often hear their words in my “mind’s ear.” But I try to remember that there is usually more to the news than what the media is reporting. Sadly, they often report partial information or in other ways distort reality.

A prime example of that distortion is the frequency with which the media give “front stage” to those referred to as “angry atheists.” We hear from them so often that you would think their viewpoints are held by the majority and their contentions are based on proven fact. The reality is there are relatively few of them and if pressed, some would admit that they are not sure of their positions. Their arguments are not airtight.

I think what often happens is that these atheists, angry about certain world events, wrongly conclude that what they perceive as a lack of intervention from God proves he does not exist. Some also reason that the presence of evil in the world proves that God, who is supposed to be a deity of love, cannot possibly exist. Others reason that if there is a God, he must be a judgmental despot and they refuse to believe in that sort of deity.

Though atheists and agnostics (those who believe we can’t know whether or not God exists) formerly dominated the field of philosophy, the situation has changed over the last 20 years. Our friend and theologian Alan Torrance commented that when he studied philosophy, “You could count the number of Christian philosophers on one mutilated hand.” But now, as noted by Quentin Smith, former chief editor of the journal Philo, philosophy has become de-secularized. Today, 25 to 33% of philosophers are theists, and the majority of those are evangelical Christians. There are now about 4,500 members in the Society of Christian Philosophers.

When watching the news, many of us, understandably, get those “The world is going to hell in a handbasket” feelings. But we must be mindful that such feelings may be the result of incomplete or otherwise faulty information, including bad reporting. We must be careful to align our feelings with the often hidden reality of the presence of God’s kingdom. Jesus told his disciples that the kingdom of God is present and those who trust him enter in, even now. In his kingdom parables in Mark 4:26-29 and Matthew 13:33, Jesus said that the kingdom starts small, but grows large. It’s here now, though its fullness is yet to come.

Our faith in the present and future reality of the kingdom is not about feelings based on what we see in the world and certainly not on what is reported in the media. Our faith is in Jesus and his kingdom rule. The stunning, though often hidden reality, is that Jesus saved, redeemed and reconciled the world through his death, resurrection, ascension and outpouring of the Spirit nearly 2000 years ago—events that inaugurated the kingdom. And now the presence of the kingdom in the person of Jesus is experienced as we trust and obey him.

Understanding the reality of Jesus and his kingdom comes only through the revelation that Jesus is and gives. He is the truth; his rule is the kingdom. And he, and thus his kingdom, is with us all the time. He never forsakes or leaves us. Present with us through the Holy Spirit, Jesus leads us, guides us and walks beside us—even when we are not aware of it. So the next time it feels like the world truly is going to hell in a handbasket, or like you are in that basket yourself (because you’ve messed up or because you face insurmountable obstacles), remember this:

Noah was a drunk, Abraham was too old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses had a stuttering problem, Gideon was afraid, Sampson had long hair and was a womanizer, Rahab was a prostitute, Jeremiah and Timothy were too young, David had an affair and was a murderer, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran from God, Naomi was a widow, Job went bankrupt, John the Baptist ate bugs, Peter denied Christ, the disciples fell asleep while praying, Martha worried about everything, the Samaritan woman was divorced (more than once), Zaccheus was too small, Paul was too religious, Timothy had an ulcer… and Lazarus was dead! (p. 15, Naked Before God: Out of Darkness Unto Light, A.B. See, Jr., Tate Publishing, 2011).

Despite such circumstances, God can use you to your full potential. Note what the apostle Paul wrote:

For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us (2 Corinthians 4:6-7, NRSV).

Whenever I get those “to hell in a handbasket” feelings, I remind myself that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17). If there is a handbasket, it’s the one we are in with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Enjoying kingdom life with Jesus,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. One of the blessings God showers on us is the joy of music. You might enjoy the music video at http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=FcLF5wopyjo with Andre Rieu directing a large ensemble of musicians and singers (including singing nuns) in a creative (sometimes humorous) performance of a song made popular many years ago by Petula Clark.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard the phrase, “I’m finding myself,” or “I’m searching for my true self.” This search for one’s identity seems to begin in the teen years and continues into retirement. I suppose this journey of self-discovery dates back to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden where humanity lost sight of who they are in relation to God.

The story, found in the third chapter of Genesis, is not always viewed from the most accurate perspective. The book of Genesis begins with God creating the universe and declaring it “very good.” Then in chapter three, Adam and Eve disobey and are expelled from the garden. While it’s not hard to understand that doing the opposite of what is good can be bad for you, there’s more to the story than the one that many tell of an angry God who doles out punishment commensurate with the crime.

The idea that Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the garden is about an angry God who cannot allow himself to be stained by being in the presence of sin is false. Were it true, we’d have to toss out the Bible, because it tells of a God who first dwelt in the midst of his sinful people Israel, then sent his Son to live among sinners as their friend. Biblical language that speaks of God as being “separate from sinners” is metaphorical, representing the fact that God does not approve of evil. Rather than separating himself from sinners, God sent his Son right into the vortex of our sinful condition.

It is fundamentally wrong to think of God as a cosmic sheriff who, in order to uphold his justice, waits for Adam and Eve to violate his law. But if that’s not the way God is, why did he command Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why did he then bar Adam and Eve from reentering the garden after they disobeyed? We understand only when we rid ourselves of faulty perspectives and read the story from a Christ-centered perspective, understanding that it is part of the larger story of God’s plan of redemption and reconciliation brought about by his Son.

From that viewpoint, we see that Adam and Eve were created with a distinct identity—belonging to God and bearing his image. Humanity was created to live in community with God, in daily communication with him. Adam and Eve were created to be God’s co-regents over the garden. To borrow a modern idiom, “They had it made in the shade.”

But Adam and Eve lost sight of that identity and were deceived into thinking they had to figure things out on their own. They believed the lie that if they did what God warned them not to do—eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—they would actually become like God, deciding what was good and what was evil. They began to wonder what else God was keeping from them. They began to distrust God and instead trust their own judgments. It seemed to them that if they were going to be truly free, like God, they couldn’t depend upon God. He only told them about good and how to experience it—not about evil. They reasoned that they could only be free by getting to know both good and evil through their own experience and by deciding for themselves how to conduct their lives.

The results were, of course, disastrous. As one author noted, Adam and Eve “dissed” themselves. Their thinking became filled with dis-honor, dis-turbance, dis-trust, dis-grace, dis-repute, dis-belief and dis-respect. Not being God, they did not have the capacity to discern the difference between all good and evil. Even worse, they cut themselves off from a trusting relationship with God. As a consequence, all humanity has suffered: “…Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12).

The story continues in Genesis: “And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22-24). In disobeying God, Adam and Eve gained some knowledge but lost far more. In particular, they lost the knowledge of who they were in relation to God. They lost their true identity. They now had the task of discerning right from wrong but were not prepared to handle that responsibility. As God had warned, their distrustful disobedience brought its own inherent consequence or penalty—the price for pursuing the knowledge of evil was death.

An important truth that we should not miss in this narrative is that God’s action to prevent Adam and Eve from returning to the garden of Eden was not punishment. Rather, it was protection. Had they returned and eaten from the tree of life, they would have lived forever in their fallen condition. God loved them too much to allow that to happen.

Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey did not surprise God. He foreknew what they would do. And, using a modern expression, he “already had it covered.” The ransom was paid, the lamb was slain “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20, ESV; Revelation 13:8, ESV). God’s plan already included restoration and redemption. There was a prophetic element in what God did to clothe Adam and Eve when they were expelled from the garden: “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). This was not the first time animals would be sacrificed to provide a covering for sin. Like Israel’s animal sacrifices, this act pointed to the second Adam who would cover the sins of the whole world.

Clothing Adam and Eve and banning them from the garden were acts of God’s love and grace. He was protecting them—showing them mercy—when they didn’t know they needed it. Sadly, in the darkness of their misunderstanding, they probably left Eden wrongly believing that God was angry with them, punishing them for wrongdoing. This misunderstanding was the result of them not knowing their true identity, not understanding that they were God’s beloved children. As a result, they went on a wrong-headed search for identity—attempting to find it through self-effort, thus putting themselves on a path of self-justification. Notice the blame-shame game that went on between Adam and Eve when God found them and attempted to give them an opportunity to confess. That fruitless search for self-identity continues today as people try to “find themselves.”

Losing all sense of their true identity was bad news for Adam and Eve and for all humanity after them. But there is good news—Jesus came to restore, redeem and reconcile us, by telling us who he is and who we are in him. We no longer have to search for our true identity. It is restored and given to us as a free gift. We are made in the image of God, we have been reconciled to him in his Son Jesus Christ, and we belong to him once again. We now are called to share in God’s own love and life—to live as his beloved children in the presence and power of his Spirit. “I once was lost but now am found,” and I am looking no further.

Living in my true identity,

 

 

P.S. I came across an excellent video from Volkswagen recently. I wish every teen and the many adults who text and drive would view it. You’ll find it at http://youtu.be/JHixeIr_6BM.

For another post on the topic of our true identity, see the post at https://update.gci.org/2014/10/our-true-identity-and-significance/.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Though in growing up in this denomination I developed a broad vocabulary (see my June 4 letter), I’m no language maven and certainly no expert in English language usage. However, I am fascinated by what some view as the decline of the English language—a decline that has been occurring for several hundred years. In the early 1700s, Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels and dean of St. Patrick’s cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, wrote this:

I do here in the Name of all the Learned and Polite Persons of the Nation, complain to your Lordship, as First Minister, that our Language is extremely imperfect; that its daily Improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily Corruptions; and the Pretenders to polish and refine it, have chiefly multiplied Abuses and Absurdities; and, that in many Instances, it offends against every Part of Grammar (A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue).

I wonder what Swift would write today! Word meanings slip-slide in various directions over time, often making a word’s modern usage quite different from its original. Though this “semantic shift” typically is not a problem, it’s fascinating to observe. Each year, the dictionary adds the new meanings that have developed. A recent example is the word literally. British journalist Martha Gill explains:

“Literally,” the most misused word in the language has officially changed definition. Now as well as meaning “in a literal manner or sense; exactly: ‘the driver took it literally when asked to go straight over the traffic circle,'” various dictionaries have added its other more recent usage. As Google puts it, “literally” can be used “to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.” ”…Literally,” you see, in its development from knock-kneed, single-purpose utterance, to swan-like dual-purpose term, has reached that awkward stage. It is neither one nor the other, and it can’t do anything right” (“Have We Literally Broken the English Language?”, The Guardian [UK], August 13, 2013).

Examples of semantic shift abound, especially as we look back to Old and Middle English:

• meticulous once meant “fearful or timid”
• sensitive once meant “capable of using one’s senses”
• thing once meant a “public assembly”
• silly once meant “blessed” or “innocent”
• officious once meant “hard working”
• aggravate once meant to “increase the weight” of something
• nice person once meant someone who was ignorant or unaware
• awful once meant wonderful, delightful and amazing (as in full of awe), now it means exactly the opposite!

Today’s media often help bring about semantic shifts as they seek to shape opinions and thus worldviews. The shift in the meaning of the term pro-choice is an example. The idea that everyone should have the right to choose sounds logical. But labeling one side in the ongoing debate as “pro-choice” misrepresents the other side and obscures the nature of the debate, which is about making moral choices and passing laws that promote right moral choices. All criminal laws restrict behavior in some way and become laws because they are believed to be morally right and thus a means to promote the common good. Those who are opposed to legalized abortion for any reason (often referred to as pro-life) advocate laws they feel are morally right and thus will be a means to promote the common good of mothers, the unborn and all society.

Freedom is another word that has been reloaded in our culture. For many, it now means the right of individuals to do whatever they want. It thus typically means freedom from, with little conception of freedom for. It’s perhaps most often used to refer to the “freedom” of having sex with anyone—typically without any relational ties or emotional strings, duties or obligations. The moral meaning and significance of sexual relations is thereby obliterated and the result is that sexual relations become little more than matters of personal preference—like preferring (or not) anchovies on one’s pizza!

Semantic shifts like these raise an important question for us to ponder: Who is discipling us—the culture or Jesus?

I lament the current shift in the meaning of the word Christian. The word, which once meant a follower of Jesus, is shifting to become something negative. Deliberately or not, the media now often uses the word to refer to someone who is intolerant, bigoted, extreme and even hateful. Though it’s true that a few zealous and uninformed Christians are intolerant, bigoted and hateful, the vast majority are not. I have wondered out loud if this change in meaning is fueled, in part, by Christians acting as though they are Old Testament prophets rather than those who join Jesus in his loving, transforming, redeeming ministry. To combat this negativity, many Christians now refer to themselves as Christ-followers or disciples of Jesus. I believe the more we join Jesus in sharing his love and his life with others, the quicker the word Christian will again evoke positive responses.

Regardless of the many semantic shifts occurring around us, the meaning of one word never changes: Jesus. He is the Word (John 1:1, Revelation 19:13) who having been made flesh…dwelt among us (John 1:14 KJV) to redeem the world he had spoken into existence. Jesus, the Word of God, is the life (John 6:48) and light (John 8:12) of all the universe. He is our hope, security and salvation.

Through Jesus, God speaks (Hebrews 1:1-2) and we as Christians must heed his words. He said that he came to give life…to the full (John 10:10)—not to condemn, but to save (John 3:17). Having received his word of life (Philippians 2:16) we are commissioned to share it with others—reaching out to our families, friends and communities—living and sharing the gospel (Mark 16:15). Congregations involved in that sort of outreach are active participants in the continuing ministry of the Word who is full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Word meanings will, no doubt, continue to change. But, praise God, we know the Living Word who does not change. May we continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

Being blessed by the Word,

 

 

P.S. In this issue of Weekly Update we give tribute to our dear brother and fellow-laborer Bernie Schnippert, who announced last week his retirement from GCI employment. As you know, Bernie is battling cancer and his declining health makes this retirement necessary. Be sure to read in this issue the announcement of Bernie’s retirement and also the “Up Close and Personal” article about Bernie’s life, including his many years of faithful, excellent service to our church. I know you’ll join me in continuing to pray for Bernie, his wife Arlene and their children and extended family.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article quoted a poll showing that 51% of Americans do not believe the universe began all by itself, from nothing, with a “big bang.” What surprised me most about the article was its honesty in explaining why so many disbelieve the big bang theory, which is the prevailing model in cosmology to explain the beginning of the universe. The WSJ article said this:

The culprits might be “scientific atheists,” a small but vocal group of thinkers who employ science to claim that there is no God. Some argue that the universe came into existence all on its own. In particular, physicist Lawrence M. Krauss’s 2012 book A Universe from Nothing insists that the big bang occurred within a complete emptiness, and thus there is no need for a “God.” But the key assumption of Mr. Krauss’s conjecture is flawed and at odds with modern cosmology. The big bang did not occur in “nothing.” It had to be spawned in some kind of pre-existent medium, known by physicists as “quantum foam,” though we don’t know exactly what it is. [1]

Though, as noted in the article, the theory assumes that something did pre-exist the big bang, Krauss and other scientific atheists don’t want to leave room for God in their thinking. That viewpoint reminds me of the old Billy Preston song, “Nothing from Nothing” [leaves nothing]—an idea far more consistent with current big bang theory than any atheistic interpretation!

The idea of the big bang was first conceived in 1927 by Roman Catholic priest Georges Lemaître, who also was an astronomer and physicist. Up to that time, the accepted theory was that the universe had always existed in a “steady state” and that matter was eternal. Lemaître theoretically deduced the expansion of the universe and proposed that it was launched from a “primeval atom.” He rejected the steady-state theory because he believed the story in the first chapter of Genesis of a beginning and searched for a way to prove it scientifically. He did so using a complex mathematical proof based on Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

What’s ironic is that Einstein did not accept the big bang theory when it was proposed in 1927. In 1916, in what he referred to later as “the biggest mistake of my life,” Einstein altered his equations to fit the accepted idea of a steady-state universe. But in 1929, Edwin Hubble’s astronomical observations proved Lemaître correct about an expanding universe and Einstein and many other scientists came to accept the big bang theory.

The big bang theory continued to gain scientific credibility as it was used to predict certain phenomena later proven to be actual. Though the theory is now widely accepted, it is unable to explain the origin of the “bang” itself and the origin of the laws of physics necessitated by it. Still, it’s not difficult to visualize the expansion (called “inflation”) of the universe from a single point. Physicist Alan Guth conjectured this explanation:

During the universe’s first 10^-35 of a second, a period of extremely rapid, exponential inflation occurred, expanding the universe by a factor of at least 10²⁶. It would be the equivalent of taking a pea and expanding it to the size of our solar system in a time less than a millionth of a blink of an eye.

The big bang accounts for the uniformity in the universe of microwave background radiation. This phenomenon was discovered in the mid 1960s by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at Bell Labs using ultra-sensitive cryogenic microwave receivers. P. J. E. Peebles of Princeton then identified this radiation as the residual energy of the big bang. These discoveries changed humanity’s understanding of our universe.

Though big bang theory does not specify what kicked off the big bang itself, the nature of the event points to a pre-existing, intelligent agent. According to Berkeley’s George Smoot, the big bang was a “finely orchestrated event,” not a chaotic explosion. Astronomer Eric Carlson describes it as “incredibly, highly ordered…just the opposite of a chaotic event.” Had the expansion rate at the beginning been faster or slower—by a mere 1 part in 10⁶⁰—life would not have been possible.

As you will recall, Albert Einstein discovered that energy does not disappear, but changes into matter. This means that everything comes from the energy/material of the big bang—the universe has a material/energy oneness. However, there is no hint of consciousness in that material—no reason to think that the big bang orchestrated and ordered itself. That leaves open the question, what (or who) did? Physicist and science writer Paul Davies comments:

What is the source of those ingenious laws that enable a universe to pop into being from nothing? …There is no compelling need for a supernatural being or prime mover to start the universe off. But when it comes to the laws that explain the big bang, we are in murkier waters.

Though Davies’ questions bring him close to the truth, he does not connect the dots as we do. Big bang theory seems to fit well with our faith in the God the Bible tells us created all that is, which would include the laws and conditions that led to the big bang. Though our faith in God does not rest on scientific theory, the big bang theory does seem to offer clues as to the ultimate source of all that has come into being. As Paul wrote, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

God has revealed himself to us in his actions in history. Those actions include creation as well as what God did to reveal himself to certain individuals and to the people of Israel. But, by far, the most complete revelation came when the God of all creation entered time and space in the person of Jesus Christ, thus providing for us his self-revelation. In that revelation we hear and see God as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of all history—from beginning to end. “For from him and through him and for him are all things” (Romans 11:36).

History had a beginning by the agency of the Triune God and it will culminate in the return of Jesus, the Creator, Savior, High Priest, Sage, King of kings, Judge and Elder Brother of the human race. The big bang was simply the beginning of an unfolding story (“his-story,” which through Jesus becomes ours) leading to the time when God creates “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1), in which his people will live eternally in a loving and joyful relationship with him through their eternal Mediator, Jesus Christ.

Always looking forward,

 

 

____________________

[1] “In the Beginning, There Was an Atom,” The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2014; online at http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304101504579545833041628804.