faith for faith

Repost: A brother asked this question of me, and I think it is an excellent question: “What did Christ mean when he cried out upon his death, ‘My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?’ (Mt. 27:46).” It is an excellent question biblically, and it is also an excellent question because of modern interpretations of it–some of them helpful and true, and others just plain strange. And the question boils down to two interpretive questions: Was Christ making some sort of commentary upon his crucifixion by crying out those words, or was he crying out a reality that was true of the time when he was crying it out, namely that God the Father had in reality forsaken him?

Before we seek to interpret what Christ was meaning when he spoke his famous last line before his death, it is important that we understand the words themselves and how a witness to the crucifixion (either at time of Christ’s crucifixion or through the lens of Scripture) who knew his Bible well would understand the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Read more…

It has been several years, but I do vaguely recall going to see Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. I personally had no desire to go, but some zealously thoughtful person had assumed that his friends would naturally want to go see the film shortly after its release and presumptively bought tickets to the show for me and some other of my close compadres. We went (since we were then financially obligated), and we experienced what was likely a common experience for those who went to see the movie, namely the gasps, the turning away of heads, the silent sobbing, the wails, and the somber departure from the theater. We had all witnessed the same things–a man flogged in excruciatingly gory detail, and we left as all did–utterly speechless.

If I recall that night correctly, it was quite a while before any of us dared to offer any commentary on the movie. It were as though we felt that we were obligated to keep silent after the film though the man in the movie was certainly not Jesus, and the movie was created and directed by a man who is unabashedly Catholic. Yet after the obligatory silence was lifted, a common thought about the message behind the story presented in the movie was, “So what?” Sure, the movie did what I believed it aimed to do, namely present the sufferings of a man in such a vivid and unapologetic way so as to drive its onlookers to deep pity and sorrow, but for what reason? The movie gave no explanation for the man’s sufferings, save it came through the betrayal one Judas Iscariot, yet in the context of the movie his suffering was terrible and pointless.

Read more…

Repost: As I told a friend when speaking to him concerning the subject of images and their place in Christian life and worship, I told him that I am a man of strong convictions. Upon things that I believe to be certain in life, I believe on them strongly and fight opposition to them strongly, and, upon things that are not so certain, I tend to let those things slide as matters of opinion until it is demonstrated to me otherwise. For living in such a manner, I have been called by some to a legalist, by some to be divisive, and by some to be nitpicky and overbearing. Despite this, I pray that in this particular matter at least you will see in my discourse the same love that you see in yourself when you in tears tell a beloved person of their future judgment and desserts in hell. For of the Ten Commandments, there is but one that carries with it a particular judgment, and it is a weighty judgment indeed. Therefore, for the sake of your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren, I pray that you take heed to what I write in this post, because whether or not you affirm it, your failings with regard to this commandment will surely as the Lord lives affect all of them.

By and large the subject at hand, expressly images that are supposed depictions of Jesus Christ, is relegated to the realm of opinion rather than to the realm of certainty. I am not sure why there is such lack of questioning with regards to this subject, but I suppose is greatly based upon the Catholic influence on the church, to whom images are not merely decorations but aids for worship and have been so for centuries. Also, visual depictions of Jesus Christ might very well fall into the same realm as notions such as regarding the church as a building, tithing, and taking the communion elements off a silver platter—such things have been practiced so long that no one knows differently and therefore assume that they are proper notions. I therefore challenge you in this matter, as I would in all matters, to allow a bit of doubt to creep into your religious practices and to test them with the declarations of Scripture. Do not merely say to yourself, “I do not see in the Ten Commandments a command that specifically says, ‘Do not draw pictures of Jesus Christ,’” but ask yourself, “How can I glorify God more with my practices?” “How can demonstrate the glory of God in face of Christ better to world that spits on images of him?” (cf. 2Cor. 4).

Read more…

In Joshua 10, it is hard come down from the incredible manner by which God fights for his people and destroys his enemies. On that day when God prolonged Israel’s advantage at Gibeon by causing daylight to be extended for an entire day, we learn that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is able to do anything for the sake of his people and for the execution of his justice. Why did it happen? We may never know on this side of the grave, but we do know that God did it for his good pleasure, and that its record in the book of Joshua was not intended to be a figurative statement, for the author appeals to an outside work called The Book of Jashar that records this same Anomaly.

And it is from this mountain that we come to Makeddah–literally, the Place of Shepherds. Little is known of this place except that after Joshua and Israel had fought the armies of the five united cities, their five kings fled to Makeddah and hid themselves in a cave there. Their place of hiding was not long kept from Joshua, and he commanded that large stones and guards be placed in front of the entrance of the cave to hold the kings until the pursuit against the armies of their cities was completed. After Israel had struck the majority of the armies in battle, they returned to Makeddah to meet the camp of Israel there.

Read more…

As I told a friend when speaking to him concerning the subject of images and their place in Christian life and worship, I told him that I am a man of strong convictions. Upon things that I believe to be certain in life, I believe on them strongly and fight opposition to them strongly, and, upon things that are not so certain, I tend to let those things slide as matters of opinion until it is demonstrated to me otherwise. For living in such a manner, I have been called by some to a legalist, by some to be divisive, and by some to be nitpicky and overbearing. Despite this, I pray that in this particular matter at least you will see in my discourse the same love that you see in yourself when you in tears tell a beloved person of their future judgment and desserts in hell. For of the Ten Commandments, there is but one that carries with it a particular judgment, and it is a weighty judgment indeed. Therefore, for the sake of your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren, I pray that you take heed to what I write in this post, because whether or not you affirm it, your failings with regard to this commandment will surely as the Lord lives affect all of them.

By and large the subject at hand, expressly images that are supposed depictions of Jesus Christ, is relegated to the realm of opinion rather than to the realm of certainty. I am not sure why there is such lack of questioning with regards to this subject, but I suppose is greatly based upon the Catholic influence on the church, to whom images are not merely decorations but aids for worship and have been so for centuries. Also, visual depictions of Jesus Christ might very well fall into the same realm as notions such as regarding the church as a building, tithing, and taking the communion elements off a silver platter—such things have been practiced so long that no one knows differently and therefore assume that they are proper notions. I therefore challenge you in this matter, as I would in all matters, to allow a bit of doubt to creep into your religious practices and to test them with the declarations of Scripture. Do not merely say to yourself, “I do not see in the Ten Commandments a command that specifically says, ‘Do not draw pictures of Jesus Christ,’” but ask yourself, “How can I glorify God more with my practices?” “How can demonstrate the glory of God in face of Christ better to world that spits on images of him?” (cf. 2Cor. 4).

Read more…