Category: Hear From the President

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Black History Month reminds us of the important people and events of the African Diaspora. It is celebrated annually in the US and Canada in February and in the UK in October. Carter G. Woodson and The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be Negro History Week. In 1970, this was expanded to Black History Month and President Gerald Ford formally acknowledged it in 1976.

 

During Black History Month in the US, we acknowledge the contribution that African-Americans have made to our nation. They have held some of the highest offices in our government (including president) and have made their mark in the sports world. Thousands of less recognizable African-Americans have and are making significant contributions to our national life in academia, science and the arts (see the P.S. below).

Black History Month also reminds us of the tragic record of misunderstanding, prejudice and cruelty that has been a part of our history. Thankfully, things have improved. However, I shudder when I think that only a generation or so ago much of this country was still mired in outright segregation and blatant prejudice.

Of course, this is not just an issue in the US—and here it is not just a white and black issue and not just a matter of race. The genocide in Rwanda at the end of the last century was a clash of two tribes of the same race. The deadly Bosnian conflict was between peoples who share a common language, much common history and possibly ancient ancestry. The cruelties of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia were perpetrated mainly by Europeans on Europeans. Imperialist Japan and Communist China committed atrocities against fellow Asians. In the long and sordid history of racial/nationalistic conflict, no people can plead “not guilty” to prejudice and discrimination.

Sadly, these atrocities are often committed in the name of God. It is sobering to remember that those who do these things have often used the Bible to justify their actions. Surely, this is one of the greatest perversions of Scripture. Regrettably, such teaching continues and still affects the way some think about others and even about themselves. I have friends who grew up with segregation who tell me that the scars take a long time to heal. And I wonder if, perhaps, the greatest damage is done by those who, considering themselves superior, look down on fellow human beings.

There is nothing in the Scriptures to indicate that any people are inferior or are excluded from God’s saving grace on the basis of ethnic origin or skin color. God is “not wanting anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9). The book of Revelation explicitly expresses great joy that heavenly worship involves those “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 13:7; 14:6). Jesus paid the same price for everyone. No race, nation, tribe or people group are outside the embrace of his love. As the old song goes, “red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight.”

The Bible is clear that God created humanity in his image, with one common ancestor. There is, in actuality, only one race—the human race. Within this human race, by God’s design, there is great diversity in culture, language, skin color and other physical characteristics. It is interesting that the Human Genome project has discovered that every human being on the planet is 99.9% genetically identical. There is only one-tenth of one percent of DNA that differentiates us from one another, no matter our race.

Furthermore, Jesus has done everything to forgive and redeem us all. When the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus, they said it was good news for all peoples (Luke 2:10). Jesus taught that he would “draw all people” to himself (John 12:32) and from east and west, north and south (Luke 13:29). The apostle Paul declared that Jesus was the new Adam, the new head of all humanity (Romans 5:14; 1Corinthians 15:45) and that, in Christ, there is one new humanity (Ephesians 2:15). We celebrate this truth and there is no one who should be appreciated any less than another.

When Carter Woodson created Black History Week, he hoped that racial prejudice would eventually be eliminated when black history became fundamental to American history. We have made progress, but we are not quite there yet. There are still many tragic examples of hatred and oppression in the world today. So we still need Black History Month. It reminds us of where we have been and where we need yet to go. The more we learn about the accomplishments of our brothers and sisters, the more we learn to appreciate the variety God has given his children.

GCI is multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-national. We may be a small denomination, but we are a rich tapestry of many peoples from many different backgrounds and nationalities, working together with the same purpose. Let’s thank God for that.

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. Can you name the notable African-Americans pictured here? See the answers below.

Upper left corner: George Washington Carver was an American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor. Carver’s reputation is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts. He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline and nitroglycerin.

Upper right corner: Finishing his master’s degree, Lonnie G. Johnson joined the Air Force and was assigned to the Strategic Air Command, where he helped develop the stealth bomber program. His other assignments included working as a systems engineer for the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn. Johnson also created the Super Soaker squirt gun, which became one of the most popular toys in the world.

Lower left corner: Author of more than 30 books, economist, social theorist and political philosopher Dr. Thomas Sowell served on the faculties of several universities, including Cornell and the University of California, Los Angeles. Also, he worked for think tanks such as the Urban Institute. Since 1980 he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Lower right corner: Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, playwright, folklorist and anthropologist. She was born in 1891 in the tiny town of Notasulga, Alabama and raised in Eatonville, Florida. While earning her bachelor’s degree at Barnard College in New York, she studied under pioneering anthropologist Franz Boaz, whose work inspired her to collect the African-American folklore that would inform her most famous literary works, such as Their Eyes Were Watching God, Mules and Men, Jonah’s Gourd Vine and Tell My Horse.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Some claim that Trinitarian theology teaches universalism, the belief that everyone will be saved, regardless of whether they are good or bad, repentant or unrepentant, accepting or rejecting of Jesus, and that, consequently, there is no such thing as hell. I have two problems with this claim, which is a “straw man” argument (a logical fallacy). First, accepting Trinitarian theology does not necessitate belief in universalism. Noted Swiss theologian Karl Barth did not teach universalism. Neither did theologians Thomas F. Torrance and James B. Torrance. In GCI, we teach Trinitarian theology, but not universalism. Our website clearly states our position:

Universalism is a biblically unsound doctrine, which says that in the end all souls, whether human, angelic or demonic, will be saved by God’s grace. Some Universalists argue that repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ are irrelevant. Universalists typically deny the doctrine of the Trinity, and many Universalists are Unitarians. Contrary to universalism, the Bible teaches that there is salvation only in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). In Jesus Christ, who is God’s elect for our sakes, all humanity is elect, but that does not necessarily mean that all humans will ultimately accept God’s free gift. God desires that all come to repentance, and he has created and redeemed humanity for true fellowship with him, but true fellowship can never constitute a forced relationship. We believe that in Christ, God makes gracious and just provision for all, even for those who at death appear not to have yet believed the gospel, but all who remain hostile to God remain unsaved by their own choice.

Careful students of the Bible recognize that though we need not rule out the possibility that everyone will in the end repent and receive God’s gift of salvation, the scriptures are not conclusive. Therefore we are not dogmatic about this issue.

My second problem is this: Why should the possibility that all would be saved arouse hostility and accusations of “heresy”?

The creeds of the early church were not dogmatic on the nature of hell. The biblical metaphors are of flames, outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth. They are meant to convey what it is like for a person to be lost forever in a self-enclosed “world,” with their own selfish heart and desires, adamantly rejecting the source of all love, goodness and truth. If taken literally, these metaphors are conflicting. But metaphors are not intended to be taken literally—they illustrate various aspects of the topic. What we gain from them is that hell, whatever it is, is not where we want to be. To have an ardent desire that all humanity be saved and that no one suffer in hell, does not necessarily make a person a heretic. What Christian would not want every person who ever lived to repent, receive forgiveness and experience reconciliation with God?

The idea of all humanity, transformed by the Spirit of Christ and in heaven together, surely is to be desired. That is, in fact, exactly what God desires. He wants all people to come to repentance and not suffer the consequences of rejecting his gracious provision for them. God wants this because he loves the world (cosmos), just as we read in John 3:16. God tells us to love our enemies, just as Jesus loved and served even his betrayer Judas Iscariot at the Last Supper (John 13:1, 26) and on the Cross (Luke 23:34).

However, the Bible does not guarantee that all will necessarily accept God’s love—it warns that there very well may be people who will refuse God’s forgiveness, rejecting the redemption and the adoption he has for them. Still, it is difficult to believe that anyone would make such a choice. And it is even more difficult to imagine that any would persist in rebellion against having a loving relationship with God. As C.S. Lewis described in The Great Divorce, “I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.”

Universalism should not be confused with the universal or cosmic scope of the effectiveness of Christ’s saving work. In Jesus Christ, who is God’s elect for our sakes, all humanity is elect.

That does not mean we can say for certain that all humans will ultimately accept God’s gift. But surely we can hope that they do. According to the apostle Peter, God does not want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Furthermore, God has done everything possible to save us from the terrible and horrific situation that is hell.

Yet, in the end, God will not violate the deliberate and persistent choice of those who willfully and deliberately reject his love and turn away from him. In fact, for God to absolutely override their minds, wills and hearts he would have to undo their humanity—he would have to uncreate them. Of course, were he to do that, there would be no human being there to freely receive God’s costly gift of grace, which is life in Jesus Christ. God has created and redeemed humanity for true fellowship—a relationship with him that cannot be forced.

The Bible does not blur the difference between believer and unbeliever, and neither should we. When we say that all people are forgiven, saved and reconciled in Christ, we mean that while we all belong to Christ, not all are in communion with him. While God has reconciled all to himself, not all are yet trusting and living in that reconciliation. Therefore the apostle Paul says, “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world (cosmos) to himself…” So, “be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:19, 20, NASB). And that is why ours is a ministry, not of condemnation, but of the announcement of Christ’s finished work of reconciliation.

Our focus is to bear witness to the biblical revelation and orthodox teaching concerning God’s own character, mind, heart, purpose and attitude towards all people, manifested in Jesus Christ. We preach the universal or cosmic Lordship of Jesus Christ and so hope in the cosmic reconciliation of all those created according to his image. Since the Bible tells us that it is God’s desire for all to come to him in repentance to receive his gracious and costly forgiveness, that is our desire as well.

With love, in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

When she was younger, my daughter Stephanie would ask me to tell her a story. Now she is a young adult, but we still enjoy sharing stories. Sometimes one of us will ask a question or make a comment and the other will reply with a quote from a famous movie. I’ll caution, “Don’t take that route because it’s a dangerous area,” and she will reply, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” recalling the line from The Wizard of Oz. Or, it may be a quote from A Few Good Men. She will say, “I want the truth” and I will reply, “You cannot handle the truth.” Or, at an appropriate moment, she will toss out a quote from The Princess Bride like, “I do not think that word means what you think it means.” And I’ll have to think again about the meaning of a word I just used.

These exchanges are entertaining and sometimes hilarious. Though they may seem trivial, they enhance our father-daughter bond.

It is the same when I am with friends. We swap stories. Sometimes it’s the same stories, over and over again. We never tire of them because they are a part of our shared experience and the cement that binds us together.

It has made me realize that our lives are remembered more as dramatic scenes than carefully planned sequences of events. In The Sacred Romance, Brent Curtis and John Eldredge put it this way:

The deepest convictions of our heart are formed by stories and reside there in the images and emotions of [a] story…. Life is not a list of propositions, it is a series of dramatic scenes. As Eugene Peterson said, ‘We live in a narrative, we live in a story. We have a beginning and an end, we have a plot, we have character.’ Story is the language of the heart. Our souls speak not in the naked facts of mathematics or the abstract propositions of systematic theology; they speak the images and emotions of story (p. 39).

How true—and that is why the gospel itself is presented not as an index of theological propositions, but as an interpreted story. The same story, told and explained from four different points of view, brings together the plot of every human being’s life story. And don’t be surprised by this—it is a love story. It is the story of God’s love for us, individually and collectively.

God is seeking us—he has and is sharing his love with us. When we read in John 3:16 that, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” we see that the gospel is not just about Jesus. It is about you and me and every human being who has ever lived. His story weaves all our stories together. Only by listening to God’s story can we make sense of our lives.

While Jesus engaged in direct teaching, sometimes even explaining himself to his disciples, he understood the value of a good story as a teaching tool. Some of his most important lessons were taught through his parables. These parables are nearly always about something that happened to somebody. Who Jesus is and what he wants us to understand is about life—life lived out through a history of relationships between God and his people and among his people.

Stories that convey life lived out in relationships are what attract our attention. Journalists call this “human interest.” That is why they will so often report the news from the point of view of someone who is directly affected by a situation or interaction with others.

Have you noticed how, in his State of the Union address, the US President has real, live people present and tells their story amid the routine facts and figures? A recent article on public speaking made a point that would benefit us all in giving sermons: a well-told story inserted in your speech “gives you permission to talk for another 10 minutes.”

This is why, for the last couple of years I have seen the value of telling stories about our church fellowship collected from around the world. I have noticed how much our members love to hear about each other. I could pass on this news by relaying statistics from reports that come across my desk, which are needed for planning purposes. But what you and I find most inspiring and memorable are the stories of what is happening to people and what is being done by people.

I want to continue sharing such stories, and I am asking for your help. I tend to receive more stories from our International areas than I do from the US. I realize that some of our overseas areas lend themselves to colorful incidents in exotic places. Perhaps you feel that nothing exciting happens in your more “ordinary” location. Don’t you believe it! Don’t assume no one is interested in what is happening in your neck of the woods. Remember—your congregation is ministering with Jesus 24/7. That means there are many things happening—some inspiring and exciting, perhaps some that seem “ordinary.” But if you find them interesting, there is a good chance that the rest of us will too.

So, pastors and ministry leaders, I am asking you to send me some of your stories (with pictures, please!). And let me say, once again, thanks for all you do as you co-minister with Jesus!

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. You may email articles and pictures for use in GCI Weekly Update to Ted.Johnston@gci.org.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

For most of us, there is nothing more intimidating than a chalkboard covered with math equations. But what looks to most of us like an unfathomable jumble of signs and symbols can be to a mathematician a thing of great beauty. For those who understand, a well-crafted equation has the elegance and symmetry of a classic poem or a great work of music.

Numbers can indeed be fascinating. Let me show you what I mean by looking at the one mathematical symbol that we probably all recognize—the Greek letter ∏. We learned in elementary school to call this symbol Pi.

Pi is used to represent the relationship between the circumference and diameter of a circle. It’s the answer to the question: What is the size/ratio of the circumference of a circle to the length of its diameter? Pi is an irrational number, which means that it cannot be expressed exactly as a simple fraction. In fact, it can’t be expressed exactly at all—it is what is known as a non-repeating decimal.

For centuries, mathematicians have tried to calculate a more precise value of Pi. Here it is to 100 decimal places: 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679. Though mathematicians have calculated Pi to 10 trillion places, they have found no discernible, repeating patterns. Because of this anomaly, contained in Pi are all of the number series sequences found in all of life. In Pi you will find your telephone number, your social security number, your birth-date, your marriage date and the date of your death and more! However, this anomaly does not make Pi unusable—expressing it as the imprecise fraction 22/7 is still good enough for most practical purposes.

Even if the field of higher mathematics is alien territory for most of us, I think we can see why those who have studied it find a beauty, and even spiritual inspiration there. Astronomer Johannes Kepler said, “Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God. That share in it accorded to men is one of the reasons that man is the image of God.” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz said, “The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic.”

Sir Isaac Newton said, “God created everything by number, weight and measure.” Euclid observed how, “the laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God.” Galileo Galilei noted that, “mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe.” And Einstein said, “God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.” Like particle physicists working on the cutting edges of discovery, mathematicians are finding it necessary to express their conclusions in language sounding more metaphysical than strictly scientific. The distinguished mathematician Paul Albert Gordan (1837–1912) anticipated this when he wrote, “This [axiomatic math] is no longer mathematics, it is theology.”

Of course, God is the greatest mathematician. He can count the birds that fall from the sky, the number of hairs on our heads and even remember the number of tears we have shed. Paul reminds us how we can understand something about God from looking at his creation. And of course, the best look that we have at what God is like is in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to be one of us and revealed the Father and the Holy Spirit. From this, the church formulated the doctrine of God’s Trinitarian nature. Understanding God as a Trinity does not exhaustively explain everything, but it does encapsulate essentially what we need to know and possibly can know. You could say that the doctrine of the Trinity “explains” God like 22/7 expresses Pi as a fraction. We can’t get to the last decimal of Pi and we can’t explain everything about the truth, reality and being of God. But knowing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is complete and accurate enough to allow us to grasp the true nature of God in our everyday lives and to join in a full relationship with him. A real relationship with God, when lived through Jesus Christ, does not require, first, a comprehensive understanding. Our understanding follows our being in a reconciled relationship to God through Jesus Christ—who does have a comprehensive understanding of God and shares with us all of what we can fathom.

It would be foolish and arrogant for mere mortals to claim we can ever thoroughly explain everything there is to know about God. He is so much greater than we are, having thoughts that are not our thoughts and ways that are so much higher than ours (see Isaiah 55:8). His unreserved compassion, endless mercy and unconditional love make no sense to our human ways of reasoning. As Paul wrote in his epistle to the Romans, “Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out” (Romans 11:33, The Message).

Moses summed it up well in Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Because of Jesus, we know so much more than ancient Israel could have known. But let’s always remember that in our understanding we still “see through a glass darkly,” even while we are in fact enjoying a real and right relationship with God through Christ and by the Spirit.

One day, it will all become clear. Until then, I find it fascinating to look over the shoulders of mathematicians and scientists as they probe ever deeper into the mysteries of the cosmos—especially those who have the humility at the end of the day to say, “How great thou art.”

With love in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Author and evangelist Ravi Zacharias tells of being a graduate student when a new edition of Encyclopædia Britannica was released. It was a massive work that had taken 14 years to produce and he remembers being fascinated by the statistics: 200 advisors, 300 editors, 4,000 contributors, over 100,000 entries, 34 million dollars and 43 million words. In the last pages of that work, one of the editors had the audacity to conclude: “Herein contains the entirety of human knowledge.”

It didn’t, of course. It has been estimated that human knowledge doubles at least every five years. So in the 14 years it took to produce the encyclopedia, knowledge would have doubled and redoubled itself several times. So where is the “entirety of human knowledge” contained—Google perhaps? No, even with its amazing knowledge-mining capacity, Google can’t keep up.

The Bible makes no such boast, though it says this about God: “Great is our Lord…his understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:5).

The Bible contains many stories of people, who in encountering God discovered the depth of their lack of knowledge and understanding. For example, when Jacob dreamed of meeting God at the top of a great ladder, his first words upon waking were: “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Genesis 28:16).

Then there was Sarah’s maidservant Hagar who having fled Sarah’s abuse was amazed when God spoke to her, telling her to return home. Genesis 16:13 gives her reaction: “She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the one who sees me.’”

We used to say, “the camera doesn’t lie”—but that was before Photoshop. And we used to say, “seeing is believing”—but that was before sophisticated scientific instruments revealed a world beyond the limits of our human senses. No matter how far we probe into the atom or out to the edge of the universe, there is always more. As a result, much of what we now understand to be the nature of physical reality seems so unreal. Therefore, it is pompous to boast that anything we produce contains the entirety of human knowledge. And it is even more ridiculous to claim that we fully understand God, particularly if our knowledge leads in the direction of atheism.

The Christian faith acknowledges and even takes joy in deep mysteries beyond our powers of comprehension. Jesus tells us that “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son…” (Matthew 11:27a). But mystery does not rule out a true knowing of God—an apprehension, if not a comprehension, of who God is. Jesus goes on to say why: “…and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (verse 27b).

The fact that human beings cannot know God on their own power does not mean that God cannot make himself known to his human creatures. The early church had a saying: “Only God knows God, only God reveals God.” The transcendent God of the universe has done just that, personally revealing himself in his incarnate Son. The witness of the Christian church is not that we have found God, but that God has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ.

Karl Barth once wrote: “In our hands even terms suggested to us by Holy Scripture will prove to be incapable of grasping what they are supposed to grasp.” However, as Cyril of Alexandria once said, “when things concerning God are expressed in language used of men, we ought not to think of anything base, but to remember that the wealth of divine Glory is being mirrored in the poverty of human expression.” So we must remember that even the words of the Bible, borrowed from human understanding and experience, refer beyond themselves to divine realities that far exceed the words themselves and the creaturely realities they come from.

Holy Scripture preserves for us a record of God’s acts of revelation, beginning with the prophets of ancient Israel and culminating with the apostles whom Jesus appointed. Those narratives and teachings introduce us to a God who makes known God’s invisible presence, even if now we “see through a glass darkly,” as the apostle Paul described it.

Such revelation does not tell us all that can be known about everything, but it is always profound in what it does proclaim. It is only because of the working of the Holy Spirit in and through Holy Scripture that we are put in actual contact with the living God and can hear this God speak again to our spirits. So, although the Holy Spirit does not speak directly of himself, he nevertheless goes where God wills, to surprise, to comfort and to reveal. Whether in Jacob’s dream or Hagar’s distress, God makes himself known and gathers people who respond to his outgoing love. God told Jeremiah, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).

As we mature spiritually, we realize that there is much we do not know. While this makes us want to know more, we also realize that it is a relief to accept that there is much that we do not and cannot know. Our lack of knowledge and understanding keeps us looking to the One who knows it all, who wills to be known and has made himself known in Jesus Christ.

In this coming year, there will be many unknowns. The world economy will continue to cough and sputter along. Wars and rumors of wars remain a fact of 21st-century life. There will be catastrophes and technological advancements. Scientists will make discoveries, some of which will overturn previous understanding.

I pray that Grace Communion International will grow ever more sensitive to God’s leading in our lives. I pray that we respond as he shows us how he wants us to co-minister with Jesus in new and exciting ways that will shine light into the darkness as signs of the promise that God will make all things new.

With love in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we begin a new year, I want to focus on the calling that is shared by pastors. As shown below, many people have no idea what pastors do. And it’s not unusual for pastors to feel inadequate in their role. I’ve felt that way too, as apparently did Paul in asking, “who is equal to such a task?” He then noted (speaking of himself as a vessel) that, “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 2:16, 4:7). Despite the times of doubt that pastors sometimes face, they find reassurance in remembering that God has called them and that they have his anointing to serve him in this way—an anointing confirmed by their ordination.

I am pleased that our elders approach their calling to pastoral ministry with humility and faith—an attitude refreshingly different than the one displayed by the guy in the cartoon at right. Sadly, some people become pastors to “do their own thing.” But Paul tells us that pastors, along with other ordained ministers are called “to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13, TNIV).

All Christians are called to share in the ministry of Jesus, through what Paul refers to here as “works of service.” Ordained ministers, including pastors, are called to serve by equipping and then leading God’s people in these works.

To be called by God to serve as a pastor is a privilege, blessing and responsibility. It’s a calling that comes to different people in different ways—sometimes quietly, over a long period of time; at other times dramatically and suddenly—like Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:12-14).

I have been asked, “How do I know ‘for sure’ that I am called to be a pastor?” The hard answer is that you will know “for sure” only in your spirit and through the confirmation of those you serve. We walk by faith, not by sight and the opportunity to serve God is unlike any other life endeavor. The center of that service involves feeding others through sharing with them the Living and Written Word of God. The aim of that service flows out of a desire that others come to know God through Jesus Christ and put their trust in him alone for life now and eternally.

Signs that point to such a calling are love for studying and communicating the Word of God, desire to pray with and for people, desire to enable people to come to God in worship, and desire to help people become a fellowship of those gathered in the Holy Spirit around the Word of God both Written and Living.

Pastoral service brings with it the power of God moving through us in humility. And though that brings us joy, it can also bring disappointment. None of us are perfect and neither are the ones we interact with in ministry. And sometimes God’s leading is simply mysterious, beyond our comprehension.

Whether we are rich or poor, learned or uneducated, or anywhere in between, God has a job for us and he calls us to it. We must not confuse the form of that call with the substance of it. Since God is invisible, it is his nature to call us by dropping hints. Many have told me that they eventually realized that God was dropping such hints in their life for years, though they did not notice them right away. We humans can be rather dense at times. But when we look back on our lives and pray about God’s will, the little hints he has placed in our lives are recognized as our call to pastoral ministry.

There are numerous ways we experience such affirmation. You might feel that you have fallen into this role because no one else was stepping up. But this may be a sign that God wants you to join others in his service. Some of us have been serving in pastoral ministry for a number of years without perhaps even recognizing it ourselves. But others have seen the fruits of your service, and this could be God’s affirmation. If you have been asked by others to serve in a pastoral leadership role then this leadership activity may also be a call on your heart to serve.

Pastoral ministry, regardless of the specific area of service, is extremely challenging. The stress level can be significant, rated by some to be second only to medical doctors. To function properly as a pastor requires that we resist the pull of our fallen human nature and maintain humility before God. We are all called to be his servant, using the gifts he has given us to direct others to him. As we let our Lord serve us, we must then grow in our ability to shepherd and serve others. For that reason, GCI in the United States requires that its senior pastors participate in the Pastoral Continuing Education Program.

Some pastors fulfill the continuing education requirement by pursuing a master’s degree at Grace Communion Seminary. Because it is accredited, not all pastors are eligible to enter GCS.

Accreditation is vital for the future of our denomination, as we seek to help more and more of our pastors meet high professional standards, including advanced education. Also, earning a GCS degree takes considerable time, finances and other resources. If you are able to pursue a degree at GCS, or simply want to take a few classes there, I urge you to do so. Registration for the upcoming spring semester is now open—see details in the “GCS registration now open” article linked at left.

Because many of our pastors cannot pursue a GCS degree, we offer other continuing education options, including classes at Ambassador College of Christian Ministry (http://www.ambascol.org/). Also, I’m pleased to announce that GCS now offers several non-credit classes that are available online to anyone at no cost. You’ll find them at http://www.gcs.edu/course/view.php?id=32.

Let me once again say thank you for the good work that you do. It is a wonderful encouragement to me to know you, fellowship with you, hear your stories and see what God is doing through us together.

Sincerely, in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. The first edition of the new online Christian Odyssey magazine in now posted at christianodyssey.org. Electronic publishing is the next step for magazines, as the cost of printing and mailing continues to increase. However, we understand that transitioning from a printed magazine to an online format presents challenges. Therefore, we would appreciate your feedback. For example:

• Is the new site easy to navigate?
• Is it clear how those who prefer a printed copy can obtain one?
• Has anyone from your congregation asked you to provide them a printed copy?

We continue to make updates and changes to the Christian Odyssey site on a regular basis and look forward to adding new features soon. Please email john.halford@gci.org with any ideas, thoughts or comments that will help us make this transition as positive and effective as possible.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Though we are in the Christmas season when we celebrate the joy of Jesus’ birth, we are in shock following two horrific events. In the Philippines, Typhoon Pablo killed over 1000 people with 900 more still missing and 80,000 left homeless. In Newtown, Connecticut, 20 children and six teachers and administrators were brutally murdered by a 20-year-old gunman who also murdered his own mother. We grieve these terrible losses and struggle to make sense of them.

For my thoughts about the Newtown shootings, click on the picture at left to watch the new Speaking of Life program. In this program, I point out that, while there are no easy answers, it helps to have an eternal perspective.

That perspective is offered by the Christmas story itself. It’s the story of the Son of God coming to be with us in the midst of our sin and sorrow, in order to bring us his salvation—the ultimate healing. As we thank God for sending his Son, born in a manger about 2,000 years ago, let us pray for those who are suffering and grieving in the wake of these tragedies and let us also pray for our Lord’s return in glory when all tears of sorrow will be wiped away and all this world’s wrongs will be made right.

The word Christmas

Our appreciation of the Christian meaning of Christmas is enhanced by understanding the origin of the word Christmas. It is the contraction of the words Christ’s mass, which is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and the Old English Cristes mæsse. The suffix –mas is from maesse, which means “festival,” “feast day” or “mass.” Maesse is derived from the common Latin word messa, which means “dismissal” and is taken from the formal Latin word missa, the feminine past participle of mittere, meaning “to let go” or “to send.”

Over time, missa came to signify the Eucharistic service—a practice that continues in Catholic churches, probably because the concluding words of the service are “ite, missa est” meaning, “go, the mass is over,” or “the prayer has been sent.” You will find this sort of information in an etymological dictionary, like the one online at www.etymonline.com/.

Celebrating and proclaiming the Messiah’s coming

As the etymology of the word Christmas indicates, the Christian celebration of this day has its roots in the idea that Jesus has been sent to us. The church gathers on Christmas to worship and take communion in recognition of his coming through his birth to Mary in Bethlehem. From this gathering, the church is sent out (dismissed) to proclaim this good news in all the world.

When Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist regained his voice, he proclaimed a rich prophecy concerning the coming Messiah (from the Hebrew word Māšîaḥ, meaning “anointed one,” which in Greek is Christós and in English is Christ). In Luke 1:78, Zechariah refers to the long-promised Messiah as “the dayspring” (KJV) or “the rising sun” (NIV), sent “to us from heaven.” The Greek word translated “dayspring” or “rising sun” is anatole—a word used by Greek speakers in two ways. First it is used to refer to the light of the sun and the stars rising—also meaning, “from the east,” since the sun rises in the east and sunrise is another way of saying daybreak or dawn. Second, anatole is used to refer to a “shoot” or “branch.” It was used this way in the Septuagint (the Old Testament in Greek) to convey the meaning “branch” found in Jeremiah 23:5 and Zechariah 3:8 and 6:12.

Thus, in Luke 1:78, anatole could be translated “the branch from on high,” a reference similar to Isaiah 4:2, “the Branch of the Lord.” However, the translators chose “dayspring” (KJV) and “rising sun” (NIV) because verse 79 contains the imagery of light coming into darkness, just as the dawn chases away the darkness of night. The translators were likely correct in this choice, though the idea of “the branch” is lurking in there too. It appears that Luke uses anatole as a play on both meanings of the word—celebrating the Messiah as both humankind’s new branch and new day.

Christmas proclaims that God is the light of his people from all eternity. And when, in the fullness of time, Jesus came, it was to fulfill all the ordinances and messianic prophecies concerning him. These were shadows, cast by the real light, for Jesus alone is “the dayspring” (Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:78) and “the morning star” (2 Peter 1:19; Revelation 2:28 and 22:16) of the promised everlasting day in which the sun never sets. With Jesus’ first coming, the eternal morning dawned. In this we find great hope for it carries with it the promise that all wrongs will ultimately be righted and all tears wiped away. Thus Jesus’ first coming carries with it the promise of his second coming in glory, when the fullness of this hope will be realized in the new heavens and new earth, proclaimed in the book of Revelation.

Our celebration at Christmas of Jesus’ first Advent (coming) is a joyous celebration of his love, his faithfulness and the promise of the fullness of his kingdom at his second Advent. Because of his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension, the love of God dwells not just among us but also, by his Spirit, in us so that we will love one another with his love in the same Spirit.

Christmas is about the light and the love of God being sent to us in a most personal way—in the incarnate person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. I pray that as you and yours celebrate Christmas with this fullness of meaning, you will find the joy, hope and comfort that come through our Lord’s presence.

Sincerely in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. Due to the upcoming holidays, the GCI home office in Glendora will close on December 22 and reopen on January 2. There will be no GCI Weekly Update next week—the next one will be published on January 2. And so I wish you and yours both Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus, I thought you might find it interesting to look again at the two different genealogies of Jesus as recorded in the Bible. Genealogies fulfilled several purposes in the ancient world. Rulers used such lists to justify their power and authority. They were also used when planning marriages to determine the compatibility of the intended couple. A family tree established the social pedigree of the family.

Two of the Gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, give genealogical lists for Jesus. When Matthew’s and Luke’s lists are compared we see several differences. Matthew’s genealogical list for Jesus is an ascending list that goes from Abraham to Jesus. Luke has a descending list that goes from Jesus back to Adam. The lists are almost identical from Abraham to David, yet they greatly diverge from David to Jesus. Luke’s list is complete in that it is from Jesus to Adam. In comparison, Matthew’s list is incomplete. Why is this?

Those who would like to discredit the Bible are quick to see this as further evidence that it is unreliable and filled with mythology. But this is a rush to judgment – false judgment in my opinion. There are other answers that are more accurate, although they too have an element of speculation about them.

For example, Martin Luther explained Matthew’s list to be giving us Joseph’s line, while Luke’s list is giving us Mary’s line. Many years before, Tertullian offered a similar explanation, only he reversed it as Matthew giving us Mary’s line and Luke giving us Joseph’s line. I find a serious problem with these two explanations. Matthew 1:16 tells us that he is giving us Joseph’s line and Luke 3:23 also says he is giving us Joseph’s line.

Another explanation was offered by Julius Africanus. He suggested that Matthew is giving us Jesus’ natural descent while Luke is giving us his legal descent. Even though neither of the Gospels makes this assertion, it is a possibility.

Grant Osborne, a New Testament professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, gives what I believe is a better and fuller explanation. He agrees with the ancients that a careful examination of the two genealogical lists reveals the authors’ differing purposes.

The list given by Matthew is presented in a style rulers used to justify their status and authority. The genealogy is arranged in three groups, with 14 names in each group. There is a Hebrew linguistic device known as gematria. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet was assigned a numerical value: aleph was 1, beth was 2, gimel was 3, daleth was 4, he was 5, vav was 6, and so forth. The three consonants for David (daleth – vav – daleth) add up to 14. Matthew is highlighting the kingly ancestry of Jesus by working in groups of 14. Matthew omits a few names in order to achieve this structure.

The major difference between the two lists is the names between David and Jesus. Matthew traces the line through Solomon; Luke through his brother Nathan. Matthew may be giving the “official” line of royal inheritance (which could include adoptions); whereas Luke may be presenting a biological line. We do not have enough information to be sure.

Luke does not work with groupings and numbers like Matthew. Luke has a different purpose. In his Gospel, Luke places his genealogy between Jesus’ baptism and the temptation of the devil. At his baptism God declares Jesus is his Son. Then Luke goes on and gives us a simple list of the succession of his human ancestors, using their common names. It begins by indicating that Jesus is “the son of Joseph” and concludes by tracing his ancestry all the way back to Adam, who is finally “of God.” This Jesus, who is the Son of God, is also joined to the very root of all humanity. After linking Jesus to Adam, Luke then proceeds to the story of Jesus triumphing over Satan’s temptation. Jesus rises above temptation where Adam failed. The message is clear that all humanity, from its very root, finds its sins and the power of evil overcome in Jesus.

While there may remain questions about why certain names are in the lists or whether names of uncles and brothers are used instead of literal fathers, the message of the two genealogies is similar. Jesus is both son of man and Son of God. As son of man, of Adam and Joseph, he represented all humanity. As God’s Messiah in the line of kings and as Son of God (which was also used as a royal title) Jesus is uniquely from God and set over all humanity as its divine ruler and deliverer. Matthew and Luke together proclaim that on the basis of the human and divine ancestry of Jesus, we are saved from sin and its power in, by and through him.

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

P.S. For a special Christmas season treat, go to http://www.gci.org/_lib/snowglobe/snowglobe.html. There you can look up any address (including your own!) to see the location displayed in a snow globe.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I marvel at the way God created humanity in his own image, giving us rich and vivid imaginations and creativity. We can use this power of imagination and creativity to the praise and honor of God. Unfortunately, some use their God-given abilities to imagine God does not exist and they try to find ever more creative ways to prove it.

There have always been people who do not believe in God. However, in recent years, a small group who refer to themselves as the “New Atheists,” have been growing in influence. Writers like Daniel Dennet, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have become household names. They are vociferous in insisting that God does not exist and they ridicule anyone who believes otherwise. Some of the New Atheists are highly educated and advance what seem to be persuasive arguments. This can be disconcerting to believers, but it should not be. In fact, there is nothing new about their “new” arguments.

I have read many of the New Atheists’ books. They are usually well written, and some are quite entertaining, although others cannot disguise their anger. However, they share a common fault.

These atheists attack theism (belief in God) on the grounds that you cannot prove scientifically, beyond any doubt, that God exists. While that may be true, it does not mean the atheists have won the argument. Their job is to prove that God does not exist. If they are to be successful, they must offer a convincing and scientifically viable alternative to “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

That does not give us an excuse to hide behind the simplistic arguments of Christian fundamentalism. Our astounding advances in understanding the natural world certainly take the question of where it all came from to new levels of sophistication. However, we still cannot explain how “something” came out of “nothing.” There have been some imaginative and creative ideas, but that is all they are. There is not a shred of genuine evidence to support them.

Richard Dawkins is perhaps the best known of the New Atheists. He is a distinguished professor and scientist at Oxford University and has written several books arguing for atheism. According to Dawkins, belief in God is silly. In interviews, he says on a scale of one to seven, with one being 100% certainty in the existence of God and seven being 100% certainty that he does not exist, he places himself at six. Hmm—that actually makes him an agnostic rather than an atheist.

Before we say, “I told you so!” Dawkins explains: “I am agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden.” However, that sidesteps the question. His task is not to prove there are no fairies at the bottom of his garden. It is to prove conclusively that God does not exist.

Dawkins does not even interact with the arguments for God’s existence. It appears that his most formidable retort is “if God designed the universe, then who designed God?” While that might be, for an agnostic, a reasonable question, it is not a knockout blow to belief in God. In fact, it’s the wrong question (a category mistake) because such a question assumes that God is a creation, a creature—and the Christian God is not. His question is like asking, “What color is the number five?” Dawkins’ anger against religion often seems to cloud his judgment and his work is faulted scientifically by his own peers—both Christian and non-Christian.

Another New Atheist, Daniel Dennett tries to explain religion in terms of evolutionary theory. He fits into the broad tradition of naturalist explanations of religion, a tradition that includes Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Dennett believes that the benefits of religion originate entirely inside human minds. He asserts that there are no spiritual realities existing inside or outside of us. He advances naturalist explanations for the origins of the belief in God and gods. It is the same old circular argument, which presupposes its conclusions. Since only natural things exist then any explanation for a supposed supernatural God must be the product of purely natural causes. Dennett builds upon a suggestion of his angry fellow, Richard Dawkins, that something they call “memes” exist. These are ideas or concepts or beliefs that arise and then are passed on to others. Like genes, memes are assumed to act like a sort of cultural genetic replicator that keeps us believing in God.

Most scientists say that there is no evidence for these things. As pointed out by Simon Conway Morris, professor of evolutionary paleobiology at Cambridge, memes seem to have no place in serious scientific reflection. “Memes are trivial, to be banished by simple mental exercises. In any wider context, they are hopelessly, if not hilariously, simplistic.”

The New Atheists have convinced themselves that all Christians are trapped in false belief. They don’t like it when the flaws in their own reasoning are pointed out. They like it even less when that criticism comes from their own ranks. The late philosophy professor, Anthony Flew, had been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century. But in one of his last books, he came to a scientific conclusion that atheism is not logically sustainable. He held on to a kind of deism and did not go all the way and embrace the God of the Bible, but I imagine he does now.

The existence (or not) of the God of the Bible does not stand or fall on scientific proof that begins and ends with nature or creation. God is not interested in having his existence demonstrated as the result of a successful experiment. He wants a successful relationship with us as our Creator and Reconciler, and he proved himself to us through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Our eternal relationship is secure in him. And—however much the New Atheists might deny it—so is theirs.

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

You probably know about the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, in which the Americans resoundingly defeated the British. But do you know that this battle was fought two weeks after the signing of a peace treaty ending the War of 1812?

News traveled slowly 200 years ago—but not today! We are kept on constant alert about everything and anything. Competing news channels are desperate to attract and keep our attention. They try to convince us that we have a right—even a duty—to be informed, and they feed us a steady stream of “breaking news.”

In this hyped-up media environment, an international crisis or major natural disaster must compete for attention with “news” that Lady Gaga has gained 15 pounds. Accuracy and objectivity are often casualties. Reality TV confronts us with the bizarre and offbeat. Entire channels are devoted to fringe diets and fads. You don’t know what to believe!

This barrage of media keeps many in a state of tension and anxiety. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), anxiety disorders have increased 1,200 percent since 1980. That year it was estimated that 2 to 4% of Americans were suffering from an anxiety disorder. A 2009 study put the figure at 49.5% (about 117 million adults)!

I suspect that one reason for this increase is the increase in the number of 24/7 news programs on radio and TV. In the 40-minute drive from my home to the office, I can hear several news stories repeated, each time with slightly more “information” than before. It is as if I am being force fed the news, like a goose being prepared for pâté de foie gras. So I often find peace by turning off the news. It is not that I want to stick my head in the sand. On the contrary, I find I need to get my mind above all the trivia and conflicting details so that I can see the big picture.

And whenever we talk about the big picture, our focus returns to Jesus. Focusing on him isn’t religious escapism–he was and is a real person in time and space. Jesus pitched his tent with humanity when he became human. And now, following his death, resurrection and ascension, he lives in us. Unlike the shifting priorities of the media, Jesus is “the same, yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

It is certainly appropriate to call Jesus the Lord of history. He is a source of information that we can rely on, as we struggle to make sense of our frustrating and uncertain times. He promised us peace, but not as the world gives it (John 14:27).

In view of Jesus’ Lordship, the apostle Paul confidently gave this advice: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7). Peter gave similar advice: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

My comfort and peace comes in knowing the good news, and by this, I mean the genuine, cosmic good news of what Jesus has already done. The Gospel confronts us with that reality—not the contrived hype of so-called Reality TV.

I pray daily for the peace that transcends understanding to be upon you all, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

In Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach