Things I Think
1. The Christians who believe that there is a political solution to the moral state of the country are slightly less rational than the ones who thought we’d just get raptured out and leave this mess behind…
2. A lot of the rapture folks got discouraged when Jesus didn’t show up in “this generation” and moved on to the political solution…they will be discouraged again…
3. One of the reasons people feel distant from God is because their doctrine tells them that the faith is mainly about personal salvation….once you’ve attained that, there is nothing left to do. The truth is that “getting saved” is just one step in a long process of transformation and fellowship with God is found in working out that salvation ….you need His help to love your enemy and be happy about it…
4. A “biblical worldview” has nothing to do with temporal politics, and everything to do with setting your attention and affections on the hope of “thy kingdom come, thy will be done’…
5. We are training ourselves to be constantly angry and discontent and then we wonder why the other angry and discontent people don’t enjoy our company…
6. Salvation is by grace…judgment will be according to works. We’re so afraid of “legalism” that we don’t know how to live biblically anymore…
7. As a pastor, I spend no time correcting “them’…I only worry about “us”…
8. “Obedience” is not heretical or onerous…it can be difficult…
9. I get contacted every time there is some sort of church scandal afoot…and I have to tell folks every time that no amount of exposure will change anything…because we love our idols…
10. My newest project is to try to give others the grace I expect from them…having realized my expectations are high…
Michael,
In the church where I came to faith, everyone had a “Perhaps today” sticker or lapel pin-maybe a bumper sticker on the car. In the meantime, they were not very plugged in to what was going on around them as they would be leaving “soon.” I do believe in the Rapture (that’s where my eschatology goes), but I think it’s more like taking care of things while waiting for unexpected dinner guest. You need to be ready, but there might be some laundry to do in the meantime. There are several parables with that idea.
I heard a guest speaker at my church this weekend that, if you say ‘evangelical” in our current culture, most people will see a MAGA hat and Jan 6 on a calendar. It’s so true, and so sad.
#5 – I have noticed this in my life…anger driving others away. It would show up on my face and I didn’t even know I was carrying an angry look.
#3 – I had a college roommate who grew up Catholic, became an evangelical (small *e* because not sure what branch), and then returned to Catholicism. One thing that amazed me is that he and many of his fellow Catholics ended up living in the same neighborhood by choice. Seems to be a good example of “community”. His salvation wasn’t just an isolated event and living in isolated from others…his need for and pursuit of community was treasured.
Linn,
I’m at the point where I think the only safe place is in liturgical churches…true worship is baked in and the homilies are too short to do much damage…
Dan,
I spend time every day having to talk friends and relatives off some new ledge from the news.
I’m tired of it.
There is still so much good and wondrous in the world…
Community is at the core of the NT…and so hard to build these days.
Michael,
I’ve never been very liturgical. My current church seems fairly “safe”-people have their opinions and we are asked to be kind to each other (all the “one anothers” in the NT). Because of where we are geographically, you can get a bunch of different opinions on any given topic from the same person, not just something canned from a web site. I think we’re healthier than a lot of congregations. I also know the balance could be tipped easily and I always have my antenna out.
“A “biblical worldview” has nothing to do with temporal politics, and everything to do with setting your attention and affections on the hope of “thy kingdom come, thy will be done’…”
Until we abandon the former, we will be unable to approach the latter. It is also time for us to give up our grandiose schemes of how we will change society. The truth of the matter is the kingdom of God will be seen in small communities attempting to live out the gospel.
Michael,
I have heard from a few that only good comes about when one ignores the news programs/media outlets.
“The truth of the matter is the kingdom of God will be seen in small communities attempting to live out the gospel.”
Yes…
Dan,
I don’t watch or listen to any news…I stay somewhat informed following reports on Twitter.
I can’t seem to get people to understand that the media only makes money when they can engage you emotionally…and they are only there to make money.
I want to know who coined the term..biblical world view. I think I may have seen it in post-war Neo-Evangelical books, but not sure. Henry? Okenga maybe? I hate the term.
I wonder if it was Francis Schaeffer. I remember him bandying it around quite a bit…
I think that IF you are grounded in Scripture, you will have a Biblical worldview….
Dunno, tho, do i?
I hope that I have a reasonably ‘biblical’ worldview. But I’m very aware that it probably isn’t entirely correct. The trouble is that these days the term generally means ‘a worldview the same as mine.’ For example, we might agree that Jesus died to defeat sin and death, but we will argue forever over how exactly the atonement worked, and who exactly (a very few or just about everyone) benefitted from it…..
If the “Biblical Worldview” is heavy on Old Testament, that’s actually terrifying.
# 6 – ” we don’t know how to live biblically anymore…”
Yeah, I have no clue what that means. Is living biblically the goal?
” Is living biblically the goal?”
Living biblically means following the tenets of the NT…for me, that starts with the Sermon on the Mount, because living biblically is following Jesus.
Beyond that, we have the Gospels and the epistles that tell us what character traits we should be developing personally and corporately.
I just finished teaching the book of James and every chapter brought conviction about my thoughts, words, and actions…
I’m grateful for being discipled under Chuck Smith. I learned a balanced approach to be salt and light in dealing with the moral issues that became political issues, to occupy until He comes.
“The truth of the matter is the kingdom of God will be seen in small communities attempting to live out the gospel.”
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I agree, but it’s ironic. I wish we could have these small communities flourish. But the cradle to the grave nanny state has sucked the life blood out of so many communities. Parents that just want what is best for their kids, are now called domestic terrorists by our DOJ. What happens when even the possibility of home schooling is taken away? This is the kind of scenario that drives me to my knees in prayer first and to the voting booth second.
“But the cradle to the grave nanny state has sucked the life blood out of so many communities. ”
Take this stuff elsewhere…
I feel that in the course of one lifetime my experience of Christianity has become partly unrecognizable. Like a transition from the era of buggy whips, to smartphones.
As a child I was taught righteousness was a matter of rules. Granular rules under Fundamentalism. Latter came the Bill Gothard segment of Evangelicalism. Righteousness came through submission to God’s chain of command.
But then came increasing references to world views. Righteousness used to be participatory. You did something to earn or prove to others your rightness before God. But a world view infers rightness derived from right thought, right opinion and public statements.
Now comes the Trump years and Evangelicalism morphs into a synthetic civic religion. Rightness is undergoing rapid change. Increasingly, religious thought is giving way to civic thought.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
This is what I’ve always thought God wants of those of us who claim Christ as Lord and Savior. It’s served me well for 49 years of faith.
While I consider a position of there being a rapture a perfectly rational position, and I would tweak a few of the other points, a lot of truth here.