NowTHINK!AboutIt

Avoiding Hackneyed...Making Sense

10 Thoughts On Doing Good Works

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Actions are living arguments that intrigue.

Acting Like A Good Person
Is Better Than Claiming To Be One

The idea of doing good works – things that are honorable, useful, dignified, helpful, kind, etc. – often takes a beating and, strangely, the beating comes from the people you’d expect to be doing the most good, Christians. Christians can some times sound anti good works.

There is a reason for that but the reason doesn’t justify the negativity.

Let me explain.

Christians are those claiming born-again status, and the salvation associated with born-again happens completely apart from any good works we can do. In other words, salvation is by faith through grace. It’s made free by the death of Jesus on the cross and is offered purely by God’s grace and kindness. That means you can’t good-works your way into heaven.

I agree with that. If Jesus didn’t pay the price for our sins, there aren’t enough good works in the world to cover that sin but some go a little too far with that idea and suggest that before salvation humans are incapable of doing any good at all. The idea is so senseless it doesn’t deserve a mention much less an argument.

But, for the record, there are too many non-believing individuals in the world doing good things to suggest that a sin nature puts good works beyond reach until after salvation.

Is it a good work for soldiers to defend their country against all enemies foreign and domestic? Are Christians the only ones who defend their country?

Even if you believe that only Christians are capable of doing good works, there’s too little of that happening and too few who encourage it. Some Christians become quite defensive, almost insecure, when anyone suggests we should do good works. They immediately begin chanting grace through faith – all of which is good – but it doesn’t apply. It also doesn’t mirror what the Bible says.

Jesus had some positive things to say about good works. You could take His comments as commands but before we get to that, what exactly qualifies as a good work? [Read more…] about 10 Thoughts On Doing Good Works

Proselytes, Sycophants And Political Extremism

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Sycophantic Tendencies: Make something of nothing, make nothing of something.

Not Every Proselyte
Becomes A Child Of Hell

According to several dictionaries, a proselyte is a newcomer to some version of faith. Since no one is born a believer of any kind, everyone is a proselyte at some point.

Even if one is born into a religious family, becoming an adherent to the family altar, be it Catholic, Baptist, Hindu or whatever, is still a choice and when you make it, you are a proselyte.

Each person’s level of commitment to their chosen belief, however, is not the same. It could be very intense or quite casual. It could also be non existent.

Ronald Reagan Jr. is a good example. His father, President Reagan, was quite religious but Ron Jr. rejected his father’s religion entirely. Instead, he became an atheist and today represents the Freedom From Religion Foundation regularly in TV commercials.

If you’re religious and of the Christian variety, you probably find his commercials offensive.

Obviously, in his case, his dad’s religion didn’t stick but he still qualified as a proselyte. Instead of Christianity, he became a proselyte to atheism. Whenever he came to that conclusion, he was a newcomer to the belief that God doesn’t exist.

But the point to this post is not that you are a proselyte but where has that journey taken you? [Read more…] about Proselytes, Sycophants And Political Extremism

What Are The Implications Of Inspiration

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Interpretation Is The Process
That Renders The Actions
Of An Inspired Text
Into Meaning

Those who believe the Bible will often justify their belief by pointing out the fact that the text of the Bible is inspired. The argument is you can’t or shouldn’t easily dismiss an inspired text, and I would agree entirely.

Because it’s an inspired text, we should take every passage of scripture seriously but we also must be cautious. Accepting it as inspired and applying it literally, at face value, are two very different things.

For the purposes of this post, Inspiration is understood to mean the text is God breathed or arranged. In other words, the text reads the way God intended. It says what He wanted it to say.

And we have statements in the Bible that reinforce that idea.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction is righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:16 & 17)

Another passage lending force to the idea is 2 Peter 1:21.

The prophecy (Old Testament scriptures) came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost

The Timothy passage refers more to the outcome of inspiration, the benefits that can be derived from studying it carefully, while the Peter passage focuses on the process, how it actually came to be.

But what does that really mean? How far do we take the idea of inspiration? I don’t question inspiration but I do question how people use the idea when attempting to apply the Bible to life.

If you want to get the right perspective on inspiration, there are several implications to consider. [Read more…] about What Are The Implications Of Inspiration

16 Reasons Leviticus 18 Doesn’t Deny Same-Sex Marriage

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What the Bible says is not what the Bible teaches.

Old Testament Sacrifices
Taught Us To Expect A Sacrifice
Not Make One

Introduction: Leviticus 18 is a rather daunting passage of Scripture. It actually imposes the death penalty on same-sex relations between males. It is significant that it doesn’t mention women but we’ll talk about that later. For now, my intent is to use interpretive principles to determine why this command was given and see if there isn’t a softer, more generous way to understand this directive.

The Bible is a book that must be interpreted and everyone agrees but they don’t all agree on what that actually means or how it is done. As soon as you use interpretive principles to step on the toes of some prized belief, you’ve got a fight on your hands.

What It Means To Interpret The Bible

Bible believers often say they take the Bible literally. I’ve said that often and I still say it today but “literal” needs qualification.

Even if you take the Bible literally, you still must interpret the text before you can apply it.

Interpretation is at the heart of the discussion and it, more than anything else, shapes our understanding of literal. It literally changes what we mean by literal.

Simply put, interpretation is a process. To admit to the process means we aren’t taking the Bible at face value. We don’t take biblical statements and simply overlay them on human society expecting everyone to comply.

The very few who take that approach do so only selectively. They apply some passages literally and others not. The selection process between which are treated literally and which are not is done with little explanation as to how the line is drawn between the ones we obey exactly and the ones we don’t.

Why is one accepted without an interpretive exercise and another not? That question is never even explored.

The people who take a so called literal approach to the entire Bible are also thought to be weird and are viewed as outside the mainstream. As an example, neither Jews nor Muslims will eat pork. The rest of the world is enjoying a piece of bacon and wondering what’s the problem. And that’s only one issue. There are many more.

Generally, no one takes a word for word approach to the entire Bible. No one!! Some, as I’ve mentioned, claim to do so and will often try to but when they come to the Old Testament requirement for men to grow and braid their sideburns, obedience takes a turn, unless you happen to be a Hasidic Jew.

Among Christians, not even the hard core, heavy handed, fist pounding believers will go that far.

Taking the interpretive approach, we ask questions, all of us, about each idea before applying it to life. Or that’s what we should do. Asking questions is an important part of the process.

The point is no one really offers unqualified, exacting obedience to the Bible.

What The Bible Says Is Not What The Bible Teaches

More to the point, what that really means is what the Bible says is not what the Bible is actually teaching. The Bible may mean exactly what it says, but there is a huge difference between what the Bible is saying and what it is actually teaching.

Interpretation is the work we do after reading what the Bible says so we can come to an understanding of what the Bible teaches.

Most people understand this on a subconscious level but it needs to be highlighted as central to the discussion.

Taking that thought a little further, what the Bible says, the letter of the text, and what it teaches, the spirit of the text, are sometimes so different the ideas are counterintuitive which means we have to do some work to figure it out.

The connection between the meaning of the words and the teaching of the text is not always immediately clear and the only thing we can do to bring clarity is to engage the interpretive process.

That’s what it means to interpret the Bible.

Holes In The Ground vs Indoor Plumbing

Following is a good example. [Read more…] about 16 Reasons Leviticus 18 Doesn’t Deny Same-Sex Marriage

Calvinism Misunderstands Motive

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Circular reasoning engages no discussion, offers no arguments.

Motive Is Determined By Character
Not Condition

The following was a comment on a blog post at Allkirk Network.

The comment made two interesting points which I wanted to explore a bit. One involves what the commenter referred to as a misunderstanding about a sinner’s motive for doing good works. The other involves his use of the word “Holy” which is a bit misleading.

Lutherans believe in Man’s freedom of will. As I understand it, as a Lutheran, man has freedom of will and can choose to do good works; but in our sinful condition our choices to do good are based on selfish reasons, not godly reasons. In this, humans always choose selfishly (sinfully), even though the work may outwardly appear good, they are not pleasing to God. Herein the Work of the Holy Spirit is paramount in changing our nature from sinful to holy. When the Holy Spirit works through us and guides our decisions, only then can we make good choices for God pleasing reasons, and do truly good and holy works. How does Cavlinism/Reformed view this?

To be clear, the post was aimed at settling the record regarding four myths about Lutheranism, apparently perpetrated by Calvinists. The four myths centered on free will, the Lord’s Supper, the use of the law and engaging the surrounding culture.

Those issues are not the focus in my response.

The post was on a Presbyterian website so it is was offered from a Calvinistic perspective. The topics being discussed were interesting but, again, that’s not the focus here.

I’m assuming the commenters understanding of Lutheran theology is correct. If it isn’t, the same idea is floated by other theological systems so addressing it has purpose.

The important thing is, even if he was wrong about Lutheran theology, he made a judgment call on the motives of sinners which can’t be justified. He was wrong and his comment serves as another example of Calvinist’s tendency to argue from the presumed rightness of their position. It’s circular. Calvinism is right so you must be wrong because what you say disagrees with Calvinism. No discussion engaged. No arguments offered. [Read more…] about Calvinism Misunderstands Motive