Cool video

This video is just beautiful. Almost had me in tears, and it's a shame how our troops are thought of these days.





Peace

What is the Bible?

What is the Bible really for? What does it say about itself? How important is it? What can we learn from it? Who is it for? What religion is it about?

These are some questions I will attempt to address, though I am no theologian, you’ll have to take my words with a grain of salt. This is by no means completely exhaustive or comprehensive or even that "deep". I just hope to share some scripture and piece together just what the Bible is.

The best way to figure something out is to just let that something tell us all about itself. You best learn about dogs by studying dogs, not cats and birds. And so I basically plan to give an outline consisting of scriptures which explain as directly as possible what the Bible is all about. More importantly what it says it is all about.

The “Bible” that I speak of is your standard 66 book Old Testament plus New Testament Bible you find in most stores. What version of English it is doesn’t matter at this point, I'm not really covering that issue. Though I will say it is better to use as literal a translation as possible, and not paraphrase bibles translated via a method called “dynamic equivalence”, such as the NIV for example. “Meaning” comes from the Holy Spirit, and is not the job of committees.

All scripture quotations in this document come from the ESV version, which says about itself:

“The ESV is an “essentially literal” translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. As such, its emphasis is on “word-for-word” correspondence, at the same time taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. Thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original.”

That being said, we’ll turn to our first question. Who wrote it? Is it just men’s words, or God’s words? The answer is yes! We now turn to scripture to clarify:

Jeremiah 1:9 says: ‘Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, 'Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.’ “

Notice the all-caps “LORD”, this is God’s name, like saying 'Nancy' or 'Donald'. When you read the name with a single cap like “Lord”, it is actually speaking of God positionally, like “Mr. President” or “my wife”. You could substitute “Lord” for “king” or “ruler”. But “LORD” is His actual name, thus Jeremiah is saying that God himself, the person, is doing this. Not just as king or ruler, as if it was a decree of some kind.

We see in 1 Thess 2:13: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

In fact, we find the word “Word” used 671 times in ESV. We find the phrase “Word of the Lord” 256 times in ESV. Most of them are in the OT, only 13 occurrences are in the NT. Of those in the NT, they speak of the Word of the Lord as a written, or verbal communication, and even direct from the HS. In the OT, we often find the Word of the Lord (now WotL), as coming directly to a person. Such as Gen 15:4: “And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’” Notice the internal quotes ‘ ‘, referring to actual words spoken, though they don’t say exactly how. Likely direct audible communication, since there wasn’t written scripture yet, or any writings, obviously. Perhaps even a dream, since those were common at the time for communications from God.

This happens a lot, but another random example is 1Kings 21:17: “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying…”

Also a direct quote of precise words spoken to him. Notice the odd paradox, we see that ALL scripture is inspired by God, but when we read this, we seem to see two different kinds, one is just the author speaking, the he directly quotes the WotL using quotation marks. As if what the author was saying was NOT the WotL already. So we are already distinguishing between man’s words and God’s words by these authors quoting out God’s exact words from their “own” words. And yet at the same time their “own” words are also the WotL. This is sort of an example of how God tells them what to say, or is “lead by the Holy Spirit”, and yet they put it in their own words, their own style. Notice that I mean their own “style”, not their own interpretation or meaning. I could say to you, repeat after me, “I am going to the store at half past one pm”. You could easily repeat it in your own words, “At 1:30pm I’m going to the store.” Neither the interpretation nor the meaning were changed, but it is just a different style and flow.

I’m not suggesting that God told them exact words, and they reworded them, but rather that they were lead to write just as they did, directly, and it was approved. When an author has an experience and records it down, it is not necessary to be told the exact words to say. They are quite capable of talking about their own experience. But by the leadership and guiding of the HS, the author knows how it all works together, who is to credit, where the theology comes in, and it all works in together to point to God and teach us something.

Other times when the WotL is spoken of, it is not a direct quote, but rather some external source, likely written document which was already being treated as scripture, or the very words of a prophet. We see this when you have themes of people obeying the WotL, but not giving direct quotations, as if it wasn’t coming to THEM, but they were receiving it from another source. Such as when obeying the law, “it is written” sort of thing, or they obeyed “the word” in some action they took. In 2Kings 9:26 it says: “Now therefore take him up and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord”. This is obviously not a direct communication given at the time, but they are acting as if the Word was recorded already and had authority. Most scripture of these types deal with obeying laws, as written. It may have even been verbal, and was likely everything to do with Moses’ law. 1Ch 15:15 alludes to this when it says: “And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.”

This is 2^nd hand data at this point, not direct communication. BOTH types referred to as the WotL and have equal weight and authority.

Sometimes the WotL “came upon me” as in the first person, came upon the author himself. Other times from the 3^rd person when they say the WotL “came upon him”, speaking of another from a narrator position.

By the time we reach the Psalms, the WotL is spoken about in terms of being armor and truth, a “shield”, etc.. Describing it with various terms like “upright” and “faithful”. The WotL is spoken of as having all power, such as Ps 33:6: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” Here referring to the WotL as “his”. I think it’s clear that the WotL and Jesus are one and the same. This is clear based on the timing and power and seeming direction and will of the WotL. Coming and going and speaking to whom it will for various situations. In fact, replace WotL with Jesus or God and it doesn't change really. The WotL seems to be almost its own character, interacting with people at just the right time, coming and going when it needs to, having power and authority and giving strength and courage. It is clear that the WotL is the LORD’s words, and even indeed is the LORD himself. John 1:1 makes this all to clear when it says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The WotL did not exist apart from God or need to be created by God, it IS God, He does not change, He didn’t have to make up these words, they are always his words. He doesn’t change his mind. Creation was by speaking, so to us, one of God’s greatest power is via “words”, His creative power.
So basically nowhere does the WotL seem to be a creation of man. It is clear that the WotL is God.

There is now something to be said about how the WotL works. Hebrews 4:12 says the word of God is “living and active”. But who does it “act” on? And why?

In 1Sam 3:1-15:10, the WotL was “rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” This WotL, this “active” person, seems to have left for a while. But then, once again in all-caps, the “LORD called Samuel” but Samuel thought it was Eli calling him. Samuel was confused because he “did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.”

So not only is the WotL God, but it is also God who reveals that it is God, and gives the words meaning. With ONLY the words, and no revealing from the LORD, we cannot know the WotL or recognize it.

Eli told Samuel to ask the LORD to speak to him. So the first thing needed was a willingness to let God speak. If you harden your heart against God, you are not willing to let him speak, God isn’t going to force you to listen and obey.

When Samuel obeyed and asked God to speak, God just simply started speaking!

It says later in verse 21 that the “LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.”

That is interesting, that the LORD revealed himself by the word of the LORD. But it is alluding again to the idea that the WotL IS the LORD himself, and he reveals himself using his word. This is like me coming up to you and telling you something, yet you don’t know the words are really mine, I could be repeating somebody else’s words. So I tell you my own words are my own, they are not anybody else’s. And so God also speaks, and reveals his own words to us so that we not only KNOW they are his, but understand what they mean.

OK, so by the time we reach the NT, the WotL is a thing of itself, which is spoken and taught and read, and “spreading through the land”. In Acts 15:35 and elsewhere, the WotL is no longer coming upon people, but seems to already be there and is taught, “But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the LORD, with many others also.”

And Acts 13:49 “And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.”

The point is, and I wasn’t careful enough to note it specifically, but there seems to be a natural flow about the WotL, starting almost entirely by “coming upon” people personally, and moving to something that is in reference to or 3rd person, then to something written and published and spoken, to being taught and preached. There is a point when the WotL went from being a “law” thing, to be a “God’s inspired words” thing. The WotL isn’t coming upon people when Jesus is walking and talking with them. There is a natural flow in the Word, part of its unity. How the OT has a lot of WotL from people, and not so much in reference, and the NT, where there is a lot of reference, or is left out because Jesus himself is there, who IS the “Word”.

So we see that the WotL came to people who would be considered prophets. When they spoke the WotL, the people just seem to “know” that it really was the WotL and not just the prophet’s own ramblings. As in Samuel, “And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the LORD.”

How can they know this? Not because Samuel told them so, or just said his words were from God, but that BY the WotL, the LORD revealed himself. It seems to me that it should be plain as day if somebody is speaking the words of the LORD. Such words will be revealed by same, and we’ll know it. Otherwise, we can reject it. As they did in the days of the prophets, when true prophets were all to clearly singled out from false prophets whose words were not revealed to be the LORD’s. Amos 3:7 says: “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.”

2 Peter 1:20-21 says: “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

So that, I think, covers not just what the WotL is, but actually WHO it is, it is God. This also covers where it comes from, from direct communique, vocal from prophets, and later written and accepted scripture.

Next we turn to other scriptures to see what else the Bible considers itself to be.

It considers itself to be preserved, in Isaiah 40:8: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” This doesn’t say specifically that some words are meant for all people at all times, but simply that his words last forever. They will not be forgot, they don’t get destroyed or die out. Sometimes God had very specific words that applied even only to one person in one event. And yet those words are still around for us to read and learn from.

The Bible says it is reality. In 2 Peter 1:16 we read: “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” 1 John 1:1 says: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life”

They are obviously claiming that this stuff isn’t made-up; they name 3 of their senses being used to validate it! They talk of personal experience and first-hand knowledge. One of the most popular attacks against scripture now is that it is all “myth”. But clearly the authors of scripture KNEW what myths were, knew they were “cleverly devised”, and instead based their writings on experience of the senses and eye-witness testimony. Luke declares right away he is writing history.

We find that the Bible is needed. It claims to be a “lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105). Without it we will go astray, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.” (Psalm 119:67). Also Psalm 119:107, “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word!”

The word brings clarity and direction when followed, it seems necessary to have a decent life. The well known 2 Tim 3:16 is clear enough: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”.

In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”. In Him we find the right “way”, the “path” to follow, and if obeyed, the “life” he speaks of.

On a sort of side note, the Bible is also in unity. When we look at the fact that we’ve got 66 books written over 1500 years by at least 35 different authors, we find harmony and flow and direction and unity of thoughts and ideas. We consider it was written through educated people and non-educated, kings, fishermen, public officials, farmers, teachers, physicians, and even with each personal literary styling, the truths they speak of are not in disarray. I personally find this rather convincing. Now I’m sure some authors read what others have wrote, some may have been influenced, but 1500 years and 35 people, a lot of whom never met each other, and I suppose many who did NOT read each other’s writings, produced a pretty darn unified piece of text!

If we were to take, say, one American, one Chinese, one German, one Australian, and one Irishman, and ask them to write a book about God based on their experience; and then slap all those books in a row and call it the Bible, would we find unity? Would the picture of God be clear and not confused or contradictory? Would it flow logically? Would it have a unified message of salvation? I think not. And that is only 5 people who all live in the same age. Consider the bible, one and a half thousand years apart and 35 authors, and yet it does have a unified message and seeming purposeful flow from beginning to climax, touching past, present and future from front to back. And that is something to think about!

Next we see that the Bible claims to actually have special power! Hebrews 4:12 again, “living and active”. It has power to separate man from sin, Ps 119:11: “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” It will bless you in your “doing” of acts. James 1:22-25 says: “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…..” If you are a hearer AND a doer, you will be blessed in your doing.

It sanctifies us, Eph 5:26: “That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word”.

And of course saving power, 1Pet 1:23: “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”

It has power to “grow us up to salvation” (1Pet 2:2).

Of course the power is only because the "word" and God are one and the same. It is not some words that have power, but the authority of the one who spoke them.

Let’s note also where scripture is endorsed. Jesus endorsed the OT in Luke 24:44. The NT was anticipated to be in John 16:13-14, showing that new revelations were coming, and new truths. Peter also endorsed Paul in 2 Pet 3:14-16. There are more which I’ll touch on later.

We also come across the problem of interpreting scripture after the fact. Because at the time these truths were given, they had 100% understanding of their meaning. But now, thousands of years later, we have to figure out how they apply to us today. God’s words are eternal and always useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2Tim 3:16).

We find out that the unsaved cannot find this meaning, in 1Cor 2:14: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Like before, God reveals his own words to us if he chooses. And the meaning of them to our lives is “spiritually discerned”. We don’t just say, “oh, these words were for Joshua, has nothing to do with me!” But that is wrong, ALL scripture is good for something, and even from Joshua’s situation, God’s words can be applied to us in some way.

Also do not come to the bible with ideas first and search for support, let the bible speak to you. Do not be blown about by “every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14-15).

So far we’ve spoke mostly about the “word”, and the WotL. Note also that there are 43 occurrences of the slightly different phrase, “the word of God”, only 4 of which are in the OT, in 1^st and 2^nd Samuel, 1Kings, and Proverbs. In the NT, we see it used in the same ways as WotL, such as coming upon, in Lu 3:2 when the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. The two types don’t appear to have special different meanings.

We can also search for where “scripture” is mentioned, some 53 times. And interestingly enough, ONLY in the NT! The first occurrence being Matthew 21:42, “Have you never read in the scriptures…” And this is Jesus talking, saying a little later in Mat 22:29: “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” I also notice that “Scripture(s)” is always capitalized. At least by this time we can assume the whole of the OT canon was published. Or most of it anyway. Spoken of as unit with a capitol ‘S’.

Jesus speaks of himself fulfilling the Scriptures of the prophets, meaning he obviously endorsed the writings of the prophets. In Luke 24:27 Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” This is another endorsement, but also alludes to the fact that “some” scripture does not directly talk about Him, which is an endorsement for some non-prophetic or Mosaic writing.

Jesus also wanted to make clear that even though He is the WotL, it is not THAT which saves. The purpose of the WotL is to point to Jesus. We don’t read scripture to be saved, we read scripture to find Jesus. In John 5:39 Jesus says: “you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me”.

We are not advised to trust in the devices of mankind, but in the Lord.

Psalm 40:4: “Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!”

Psalm 52:7: “See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

Psalm 118:8 “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.”

Psalm 146:3: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”

Proverbs 29:25: “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.”

Jeremiah 17:5: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.’”

Jeremiah 17:7: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.”

Proverbs 14:6: “A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.”

Jeremiah 8:9: “The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?”

1Cor 2:5: “that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

There is much to be said about what good comes out of man without God. These scriptures speak for themselves.

We must be careful how we argue the faith, lest we depend more on our clever devices and less on the word of God. If the best wisdom of men leads us away from God, what good is it? Our walk with God and our eternal destiny is far more important then any clever doctrine of man.

I think that pretty much covers most issues. Coming back to my original questions:

What is the Bible really for? Correction, reproof, etc… To be pointed to Jesus, to guide our lives, to bring wisdom and understanding.

What does it say about itself? That it is the words of the LORD, trustworthy, based on reality, “profitable”, salvific (faith comes by hearing, Rom10:17). And many others.

How important is it? Uh, VERY! Without the words of God, we fall into wickedness and folly.

What can we learn from it? Who Jesus is, who God is, what the plan of salvation is. The history of our predicament, how to live our lives, what to expect, and what is coming.

Who is it for? All of mankind! It’s message is for all humans, faith comes by hearing it, Christ is found through it, and our lives can be guided by it. The LORD is revealed through it.

What religion is it about? Taking all 66 books as God-inspired, God-breathed, it is no religion, but the faith of Christianity. It is a message, it is an invitation. The Bible contains guidelines and laws for life, not in order to be saved, but in order to live a righteous life. What is necessary to be saved is not rules of religion, but rather a faith decision to put your trust in Christ as savior. That his death paid the price for your sin, that his perfection is credited to “your account”, that his blood washed you clean, that you were born again with “new life” of the spirit (Rom 7:6). It is not about laws, in fact, speaking of Rom 7:6, it says “we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.”

It is a faith position. Not a “sign the dotted line” religious creed of “do this and do that”. The invitation is open to everybody from child to old man on his death bed. There are no requirements save your whole-hearted faith decision. You cannot flippantly put faith in somebody and love them. You cannot just accept Christ before you die as insurance “just in case”. You cannot grasp for the grace of God so you can continue to live in sin (Rom6:1). To put your faith in Christ is to obey him, to love him, to strive to be like him. James 2:14 says: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” And verse 17: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” And verse 24: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

Faith and works are like peas and carrots. You cannot join the ranks at Wal-Mart, but sit in a corner and never do anything. Nobody would count you as a Wal-Mart employee, no matter how vehemently you declare you are an employee. Likewise you cannot put your faith in Christ, and never do a thing. Jesus says in John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Not, “keep my commandments to become saved,” but rather, after placing faith and trust in Christ, basically falling in love, THEN if that love is real, you will naturally keep his commandments. Notice the big “IF” you love me. If there is not keeping commandments, there is likely not love.

Notice that, for a true convert, indwelled with the Holy Spirit, these works will be a natural outpouring, it won’t always be like a forced act of the will, as if by duty. But instead the works will flow FROM love, with love. And when it DOES become a forced act of the will, you are still acting in love to do what is right even when you don’t feel like it.

How can you tell if a person is truly saved? Well for one thing, it is not up to us to judge hearts, so we aught not be doing this exercise anyway. However, it does say in Mat 7:16 and 7:20 that you “will recognize them by their fruits.”

“Fruits”, of course, are the products and end result of something growing. The “something” of a Christian is the presence of the Holy Spirit within and the growth of his spiritual life, which flows into his earthly life. The fruits of the Spirit are listed in Galatians, as are the fruits of the flesh. It says those led by the Spirit are not under the law. Here is Galatians 5:16-24 in full:

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

I suggest you spend some time meditating on this. It is a lot to swallow!

Let us note that by gaining the Spirit, we are not suddenly loosing will. By having the Spirit, we don’t automatically loose all fleshly desires, and gain all fruits of the Spirit. But what has happened is the bonds of sin have left us, and we are free to choose good, and to choose evil. We are still working out our life, we can still make bad choices, we still fall into sin and temptation. We will spend the rest of our lives fighting the temptations of the flesh and all our old passions. But now with the help of the Spirit, and those fruits growing in us, we can try to see, as Philippians says, to “live is Christ”. With the Spirit, God promises in 1Cor 10:13 that with every temptation, it will not be beyond our ability, but he will always provide escape. With new life, we have “died to sin” and no longer “live in it”. But that doesn’t mean it is not all around us still. We are simply not controlled by it, at its mercy.

Unbelievers may cry out that they don’t feel they are in bondage to sin, and they’ll be quick to point out that they do good things. The bible has a couple things to say on this. One is the idea of “common grace” that theologians talk about, based on passages such as Romans 2:4: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

It speaks of God acting in such a “kind” way as to help lead people to himself. He is always “knocking at the door”. Mankind cannot escape that still-small voice, that tiny bit of God they shut out, but which leads them to do good in response. Donald Grey Barnhouse says, "You are not a believer in Christ and yet you are still out of hell. That is the grace of God. You are not in hell, but you are on earth in good health and prosperity. That is the common grace of God.”

He is giving you chance after chance after chance after chance to harken to his voice and accept him. Every time you take a breath, see a child’s smile, laugh, stand in the rain, stair at the beauty of the heavens, you are receiving common grace, and not the damnation of your soul for your sins against God. By the good things God has granted around you, it rubs off into your own good works in response. And let’s not forget that most everybody in America is influenced by some form of Biblical morals and ideas. You may not be a Christian, but that doesn’t mean you weren’t brought up with a strong sense of right and wrong as per the good old 10 Cs or most popular Christian moral teachings. You obey the Bible yet despise it. You follow some biblical morals yet claim they are your own. And actually, crediting somebody else for God’s work is a definition of blasphemy!

Luther drew a distinction by pointing out a lower earthly sphere and a higher spiritual sphere, and maintained that fallen man is by nature capable of doing much that is good and praiseworthy in the lower or earthly sphere, though he is utterly incapable of doing any spiritual good.

This makes sense to me, unregenerate man can do nothing spiritually good. But certainly is able to do some good things in a earthly sense. But those things save no one, and have no Spiritual purpose. And we aught be careful lest such works be called “like a polluted garment.” Or my favorite translation, “dirty rags”. It is like the Wal-Mart employee going around tapping on the walls. Maybe it’s good that he checks the structural soundness of the walls, but it is really helping nobody, and is not what a Wal-Mart employee is all about.

As far as being a slave to sin, that is obvious. You are free to do anything you want, outside your own morals you force on yourself. If you want to do X, there is no reason not to do it, unless you feel strongly to follow your morals, or are scared of some other social consequence. But other than that, there is nothing stopping you. You do it if you want to, no fear, no care, you are a slave to your passions because there is no reason not to be!

When you are saved, and die to sin, you are freed from that bondage; you have something so much better to do, to look forward to, to work for. Being a slave to sin doesn’t mean being “forced” to do things, since we do have a will. But they are like chains, weighing you down and trying, always trying, to get you to do evil. It slowly teaches you that one little thing is OK, and next a little more, and a little more, and a little more. Pretty soon you’ve got unrestrained passion for your pet sin. But it doesn’t stop there, it grows until it becomes perversion, and then pandemonium, and finally promotion. You are so into this sin, you are promoting it to others as if it was good! Our society has reached the promotion stage with things like free sex, abortion, and homosexual behavior.

Passion – Rom 1:24: “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.”

Perversion – Rom 1:26-27: “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Pandemonium – Rom 1:28-31: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.”

Promotion – Rom 1:32: “Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

It is no hard exercise to see where society has gone this far, or how it might be heading here again. That is slavery to sin. Not stopping before it’s to late, giving in to your own lusts and passions, promoting your sins and getting others to join. A person in such a state has no idea of how much a slave to their sin they really are.

To a Christian, especially one who started deep in sin, or later in life, has many hard sins to give up, many sins to fight, many addictions to loose, and it is hard. But now he is not a slave to them, and can beat them out. He is not “give up” to them, and there is additional power to help get free. But what does the unregenerate have? Will he ever see how far into sin he is, when he thinks it is good and is promoting it to others and encouraging it? He doesn’t even classify it as sin, since sin is defined as “against God”, but he doesn’t believe in God. Sin is meaningless to him, and thus it means nothing that he is a slave to it. He says he is not, not because he REALLY is not, but because he believes nothing of the sort exists. And thus, why we say he is a slave to it.

This is why most evangelists start with the law. You cannot just tell a person they are a slave to sin, they know nothing of it. You tell them God’s laws have been broken, and you need to repent, turn, and ask forgiveness. Such will be the biggest hit to their pride they will ever face. Only when they see the law, can they be convicted of sin. And only when they are convicted of sin, can they repent of it and turn. And only when they know what they are turning to, and why, can it be done. And only by hearing the word of the Lord, and the Lord of the word revealing it to them, can they be saved from it all.

Hopefully this has revealed something of the nature of the word, or has at least turned up some cool scriptures to think about! Thanks for reading all the way through!

Peace

Mere Christianity and Screwtape Letters

Just a quick review of the two books.

I recently bought Signature Classics of Lewis and finished the first two, Mere, and Screwtape. (Well, almost done with ST)

Note that I did not read them with the intent of writing any comprehensive review. This review is simply my after-thoughts, my impression, as it were.

To be Frank, I think Mere is overrated. I did not walk away from it with some awe-inspiring new love for Christ or my faith, I did not get some new, deep, theological truth.
The book has its place, to be sure. Lewis is an excellent and very clever writer, his philosophy and analogies are top notch. However, I find a problem with the book when I finish reading and it seems to me I could count the number of scripture verses he quoted on one hand. Perhaps he used more, I wasn't counting, but that is the impression I was left with. I'm sitting here thinking, did I ever here him say anything like "Matthew 5 says..." Not really, but I know he said things like "the Bible says" or "scripture says". But with no direct quotes that I remember off hand.

The book is mostly philosophical, building the case for Christianity from THAT perspective, instead of directly from the bible.
And I've got nothing wrong with that, save this: If you are going to write a book that is supposed to teach the basic, or "mere" simplicity, foundation of what Christianity is all about, I would think it needs to be rooted in scripture, in Christ, since those are the foundation for the faith. And not rooted in strange comparisons of evolution, and clever analogies. You do not teach a faith on analogies, you just expound on scripture.
Now I grant that Lewis IS expounding on scripture, but without telling us. I'm left with the question, "hey that was a great analogy or thought process, but what scripture was it based on? Where did the idea come from directly?"

Regardless, Lewis is highly quotable, and leaves us with many excellent analogies and quotes and trinkets to reuse. I think the book is recommended reading not even because it supposes to teach the basic tenants of the faith, the "mere" of Christianity, but because it is so popular and clever and from a philosophical point of view, makes you go "ahhhhh" when certain truths are brought home and made real through his cleverness of thought.

Lewis is a humble writer, often saying when he doesn't fully understand things himself, but tries. He tells people to skip whole chapters IF the question he is raising is NOT currently a question on the readers mind. He makes you feel like he is learning this stuff WITH you as you go along.
At the same time, he can sometimes start running down a rabbit hole with some of his analogies that just go on and on, and you start to wonder, this is "basic"? In other words, THIS is what people need to know, to know the "basics" of Christianity? No, I think the basics are even more basic then Lewis tries to explain. Christianity can be explained in a sentence: "We sin against God and deserve punishment, but Christ lived a sinless life and died as a sacrifice to take our punishment for us, and if we accept His gift and turn to him in faith and obedience, we can share in eternal life with God in heaven." There is "Mere Christianity". There are verses which say just that, such as John 3:16.
I give Lewis props though :)


Next I read Lewis' Screwtape Letters. Nothing special here as far as learning anything about the Bible, about God, theology, Christianity, etc... This book is just a clever sort of allegory from the point of view of demons. Basically, each human has a demon "assigned" to them, to try to get them away from God and holiness. The book takes the form of a demon named "Screwtape" who is writting letters back and forth with a pupil named "Wormwood". We don't read Wormwood's letters, but only Screwtape's letters in response. Where this book really shines is that it gives you a perspective that Satan really is trying his best to distract you from holiness and Godliness. I find a lot of it clever, but boring, up until the point where Screwtape is explaining some strategy to Wormwood, in which I have found myself falling victim in my own life. And it brings a kind of shock to think that demons, or "the enemy" could be at the very root of this stumbling. To hear Screwtape tell Wormwood, try this, so your client goes this way or that. And then I think about a time in my life when that exact sort of thing happened. It makes the wiles of the Devil more real to me. To remember that spiritual warfare IS taking place right now for our souls, in that, if Satan can't have us, at least he'll try to make us the worst Christians we can be. It makes you more aware that he really DOES have "tactics" to try and tear you away from Christ, to mess up your relationships, your study, your meditation, your prayers, your perspective, your knowledge, your ideologies, and so forth.

What Screwtape does is make you aware of what the enemy's strategies might be. And if you know the enemy's strategies, you can be better prepared to fight them. I also recommend this book, if not just for its clever perspective on spiritual warfare.

I'll be giving my thoughts on each book I finish reading, but not with a mind on a super-concise review, but just my after-thoughts.


In Christ,

Vig