Faith for Faith

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.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 2 Comments »

As long as there have been men on the earth, there have been fools who have believed in a simple god who acts more like a vending machine than he does a Great and Benevolent Judge. We find these scattered throughout the Scriptures in those like the friends of the afflicted, yet righteous Job who sought to discover Job’s sin so that they could validate his plight by their theology, and likewise in the question of the foolish disciples concerning the blind man at Siloam, asking, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (Jn. 9:2). And these men with simple theologies have not ceased since that time, seen more recently in the “elucidating” commentaries of the Jerry Falwells and the Pat Robertsons concerning 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and, most recently, the great earthquake in Haiti. These view God as a cosmic vending machine who dispenses wrath when evil is put in and dispenses blessing when righteousness is put in.

Yet despite such claims, these fools have no answers as to why the righteous must suffer in this age (cf. Rm. 8:17-39) and why the wicked prosper. They have no answers for the affliction of the martyrs (chief of whom being Jesus Christ), and they have no answers for the prosperity of the Las Vegases and the San Franciscos. Nevertheless, these idiots come out like clockwork after every great disaster giving “inspired” commentary upon those disasters.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 3 Comments »

I had the pleasure of listening to John Piper sermon this past weekend, and in it he made the statement that spiritual gifts are stewarded grace. Though I cannot exactly remember the context in which it was spoken, the statement stuck with me, and it has since caused me to think upon the gifts of God in a deeper way than I had before.

What immediately comes to mind from the declaration, “Spiritual gifts are stewarded grace,” is the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. There Christ gives a parable concerning his Return and the ensuing Judgment (sounds Amillennial to me;)), and he likens it to three men who were all entrusted with a sum of money by their master. One man was given five measures of currency, another two, and a third one. The master went on a journey, and the first two men took their five and two measures of currency and immediately went and traded that currency so as to double that which their master had entrusted them. The third, however, did nothing with the one measure he was given, burying it in the ground and hiding it.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 4 Comments »

When it comes to fate of those who die apart from hearing the Gospel, according to some theologues, there is some ambiguity in the Scriptures that arises from a philosophical problem. That supposed problem essentially is this: “If men are saved only through the preaching of the Gospel, and some men have died apart from hearing the Gospel, their fate then is uncertain for they cannot be held accountable for that which they have not heard.” And such a statement is not found merely among those who would call themselves liberal in the faith, but I have personally heard it from the mouths of those who call themselves conservative, Bible-believing evangelicals.

The problem with such a belief is clear when seen in light of the salvific exclusivity claimed of faith in Christ by the Scriptures, but its root is a much deeper issue, namely a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel itself.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 2 Comments »

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rm. 12:19).

The heart of vengeance is the feeling of a debt being owed that was unjustly taken. The debt might be wounded pride, a great loss incited by evil, or any number of things. The natural man, when a loss is exacted upon him by unjust and evil means, seeks in his heart to right that wrong by exacting an equal blow to his debtor thinking that he can, by his own hand, balance the scale of justice. It is a flawed method of justice, for sin can never be righted by the acts or suffering of men, therefore an avenger will never be satisfied in his heart that his debt has been repaid while he lives, and his desire for vengeance will consume him the rest of his days.

For this reason, the Christian is admonished by the apostle not to seek retribution for himself, but to let God be the righter of all wrongs. For God alone can settle the record of sins, and he will do so swiftly and justly. For no act of sin will be hidden from Lord’s eyes on that Day when he judges the deeds and secrets of men by Christ Jesus (cf. Rm. 2:16). He will render to each according to his works (cf. Rm. 2:6) and will inflict eternal tribulation and distress upon those who oppose him and his people (cf. Rm. 2:9).

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Fridy Night Bible Study | No Comments »

What is hypocrisy? If you were to ask any person, the answer that you would likely get is, “Hypocrisy is practicing the opposite of what you preach.” While this is indeed true–that the one who is a hypocrite does not live in the same manner that he preaches, this contradictory living is merely a fruit of hypocrisy rather than the essence of hypocrisy. For if this were hypocrisy in its essence, all men would be hypocrites at some times, for all men are sinners.

To understand what hypocrisy is, we must understand its roots. The word “hypocrisy” comes directly from the Greek language, and it was a term used of actors who wore masks that covered their true identities. When Christ employs to term to speak of the Pharisees, he is condemning them for their mask-wearing–for their desire to appear holy and righteous before men not before God.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 2 Comments »

Since what most modern American Christians call faith is actually not faith but a work of acceptance, faith is no longer the unmeritorious means by which one is justified by the work of Christ, but it is righteousness itself. In other words, in the end we say that we are saved exclusively by our acceptance and not exclusively by the work of God since God has supposedly granted to everyone the ability to accept him and the Christ whom he has sent, no matter who they are, where they live, or when they lived. Therefore, the buck stops with us. We are saved in the end not because God did something, but because we did something. We charge that everyone is given the opportunity, and some, like us, have accepted Christ, and the rest have not.

Our justification by acceptance therefore is not justification by faith, but it is justification by works lite. For our justification by acceptance is no different than any other justification by works religion on the planet save the fact that we have only one rule, “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.” If you obey this rule you will be considered righteous, but disobey it you will be judged for not accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

But what of those who have not heard the Gospel? What will be their fate?

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »