Month: February 2018

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Bible Challenge Week 25: The Kingdom – Wisdom

Job asked, “Where is wisdom to be found?”  It’s a good question, but an even better question might be, “What is ‘wisdom’?”  These days we hear the adjective more than the noun: wise woman, wise words, wise government officials–well, admittedly, we don’t hear those words in combination too much.  I wonder if that says something about our times: we understand the characteristics of wisdom (what it looks like) without understanding it.

The Bible doesn’t make that mistake.  A quick glance at my concordance shows many more references to wisdom than to wise, which only makes sense.  The main character of the Bible is the source of wisdom.

Still, what is it?  This week’s survey of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs is aimed at answering that question.  (We’ll look at Ecclesiastes next week, and as for the Song of Songs, I’m not wise enough to fit that one in!)  For this week’s scripture passages, discussion questions, and activities, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 25: The Kingdom – Wisdom

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 24: The Kingdom – Solomon and the Temple

Next: Week 26: The Kingdom – Failure!

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Did Billy Graham Make a Difference?

The many obits testify to the millions he preached to and the thousands who walked the aisle to “Just as I Am.”  Do you know anyone who was saved at a Billy Graham crusade?  Perhaps yourself?  He was a confidante of presidents and world leaders, he counted all races and nationalities among his friends, his name consistently appeared at the top of any “Most Admired” list.  But did he make a difference?

Because, as Ross Douthat shows in Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, the postwar surge of religiosity that made Billy Graham a household name in the fifties abruptly reversed in the sixties and seventies.  Sporadic revivals since then have flamed out.  The clear, basic gospel he preached has been cherry-picked, watered down, synthesized, and syncretized to an extent that GenXers and Millennials barely know what it is.  Atheism is cool, or cooler than it used to be.  On a popularity scale, Evangelicals rank somewhere between used car salesmen and the U. S. congress—the only constituency, besides Catholics and rednecks, it is safe to mock.

So, looking around the blasted cultural landscape, you have to wonder: what long-term effect did those massive assemblies and altar calls produce?

God’s pattern is no pattern: the Holy Spirit moves where He wills.

God’s pattern is no pattern: the Holy Spirit moves where He wills.  We can get some indications from the history of the early church as recorded by Luke.  No modern “crusade” was as effective as Peter’s sermon on Pentecost: 3000 souls cut to the heart and crying out for salvation.  Afterwards, a thousand here, a thousand there: a church of almost 10,000 in a matter of months, or even weeks.  Jesus Christ and his people as highly regarded by the public as they were in the 1950s.

And then Christians started getting killed.  Stephen, who showed such brilliance and promise; James, one of Jesus’ inner circle—cut off!  Hot times in Jerusalem for the Christians, who scattered under pressure.  But seeds were planted.  Everywhere they went, they preached, making unlikely converts.  And the unlikeliest convert was made by Jesus Himself.

Saul, later called Paul, went from threatening the church to planting churches—dozens of them.  But he never conducted large outdoor meetings with massive responses.  Arguably the most consequential preacher in history, he probably never spoke to more than a hundred people at a time (except for one occasion in Acts 22, that didn’t end well) and we have no contemporary record of when, where, and how he died.

Seeds were planted, and the rest is history–though God’s history is different from ours.

But seeds were planted.  The rest is history, though God’s history is different from ours.  Revivals and Awakenings sometimes leave tracks in the human record.  But the work of the Kingdom mostly goes on in secret: the yeast working through the dough, the sprouts uncurling just below the surface, the wanderer who sees a light in the darkness guiding him home, the innumerable cups of water given in Christ’s name.

The visible church has failed spectacularly over the years.  The invisible church has not, because Christ is continually building and reforming it.  At times the visible and invisible intersect as they did at Pentecost and the Great Awakening and the Billy Graham crusades.  What difference did they make?  In the wider culture, not much.

But seeds were planted: some scattered, some eaten, some strangled.  And if you look closely you can spot the ones that took root: green shoots that push above ground and grow and mature and drop more seeds: ten- or a hundred-fold.  The news from the culture front is discouraging, but be not dismayed: by God’s grace, Billy Graham made a difference.

By God’s grace, we all do.

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Bible Challenge Week 24: The Kingdom – Solomon’s Temple

David’s reign ended with an ugly scramble for a successor, but God already had someone in mind.  Once again, he passed over the older sons to settle on a younger one–a boy who may have been overlooked in the mad scramble of palace intrigue, but who, we are told, was loved from birth (II Sam. 12:24).  Solomon was known for wealth, wit, and wisdom–and later for women.  But his place in redemption history was secured by what he built.

After 500 years, the Lord would have his temple.  The Ark of the Covenant, after residing in tents and barns and (one one memorable occasion) side by side with a pagan idol, would come to its place of rest within walls lined with gold.  Finally there would be a focus for Israel’s worship: a central place for sacrifice, for service, for prayers and for preaching.  The festival of the Temple’s dedication, with a long prayer by Solomon himself, would be like nothing ever seen before or since.

But the people should know that even a building as magnificent at their new temple can’t contain the majesty of God–Solomon himself reminds them of that.  But the’re going to forget, and so will he.  And so do we, when we fool ourselves into thinking that our man-made constructions are sufficient to explain God.

For the printable download including scripture readings, discussion questions, and activities, click here:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 24: The Kingdom – Solomon’s Temple

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 23: The Kingdom – David’s Fall

Next: Week 35: The Kingdom – Wisdom

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What Is “Color”?

Close your eyes and count to three.   Then open them and focus on one stationary object.

Where’s the light coming from, and how does it reflect off the object?  Where are the shadows?  What is the object’s depth—could you calculate it in inches or feet?  How accurate do you think your calculation is?  How are you estimating it?  Would the object still be recognizable if you reduced it to two dimensions (in other words, if you drew it)?  Can you imagine how the object would appear if you are looking straight down at it from above?

Finally: What color is it?

Are you sure?

These appear to be questions about perception, but actually they are questions about philosophy.  In fact, one of the very first philosophy questions is, if we perceive the world around us through our senses, can our senses be trusted?

The “Problem of Color” has plagued both scientists and philosophers for centuries—or that’s what Mazviita Chirimuuta says, in a provocative piece called “The Reality of Color Is Perception.” At first the title proposition seems obvious: Why, sure.  Light reaches our eyes in wavelengths and the brain perceives those various frequencies as color.  But . . . does that mean there really is no such thing as “color”?  That color is not a real property of the things we see, but it’s all in our head?  Or does color consist of some objective quality of the light? What is color?

Scientific theories tend to lean in a subjective or objective angle.  Color is either a brain phenomenon or it’s a light phenomenon.  But there’s another theory, the “relationist” theory, that  sees it as both.  Janus, the Roman god of time, serves as a metaphor because he looks both forward and back—the two-faced god.  Likewise, color relates both to the objective world and to the individual mind.

Ms. Chirmuuta likes that idea: “This is a common thread in scientific writing on color vision and it has always struck me that the Janus-facedness of color is its most beguiling quality.”

She goes on: “Indeed, I argue, colors are not properties of minds (visual experiences), objects, or lights, but of perceptual processes—interactions that involve all three terms.”  In that way, color perception is the same kind of process as consciousness itself.  “[C]onsciousness is not confined to the brain but is somehow ‘in between’ the mind and our ordinary physical surroundings, and . . . must be understood in terms of activities.”

Let’s say then that color is mind, object, and light.  Three perspectives, one phenomenon that we associate with recognize lilacs, sunsets, oceans, autumn.

Consciousness is mind, world, communication.  Three perspectives, one process.  St. Augustine, without the benefit of an electroscope, defined vision as eye, brain, correlation.  Three perspectives, one capacity that most of us never think about.

Object, word, meaning.  Frequency, ear, music.  Father, Son, Spirit—is anyone seeing a pattern here?  Maybe I’m just being philosophical, but once you’ve adopted a Trinitarian Creator you see Him echoed everywhere.

In the comments section below the article, one snarky responder calls out “the arrogance of philosophers who don’t know their place as they are just pseudo scientists filling the valleys and cracks of ignorance until real knowledge makes them obsolete.”  As for that plaguey problem of consciousness: “all philosophy has to offer there is confusion as well which will try to persist after inquisitive scientists have solved that puzzle too.”

Might be a long wait.

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Bible Challenge Week 23: The Kingdom: David’s Fall

What’s your idea of a hero?  Is there anyone today, in the military or the sports world, who looks like a hero to you?  To a nation that had been longing for the ideal king to lead them and a “Mighty man” to look up to, David fit that description: the teenage boy holding up the head of a giant, the captain who had “slain his ten thousands,” the loyal subject who became a generous monarch, the chief shepherd of his people who made them feel like somebody.

But, as he made sadly apparent once he had reached middle age, David was not their ideal king.  If anyone still hoped, their hopes would have been dashed to see the mighty slayer of ten thousands sneaking out of his palace at night to escape of his own son.

How long would God’s people have to wait for their ideal king?

Click below for the .pdf of this week’s study, with Bible passages, questions, and activities for kids and grownups:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 23: The Kingdom – David’s Fall

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 21: The Kingdom – David’s Rise

Next: Week 23 – The Kingdom – Solomon and the Temple

 

 

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The Age of Smug

“Millions of evangelicals and other Christian fundamentalists believe that the Bible was dictated by God to men who acted essentially as human transcriptionists.”  Well guess what, you millions of simpletons: “If that were the case one would have to conclude that God is a terrible writer.” Psychologist and author Valerie Tarico is here to share some important insights on why this is so.  For instance, did you know

  • That an undetermined number of writers over approximately 900 years wrote the pastiche we now call the Bible?
  • That they drew on propaganda and myths that was floating around various oral cultures, like the many versions of the flood story?
  • That the result is not a “unified book of divine guidance,” but a mix of genres, including myths, laws, poetry, court records, and mysticism?
  • That the content represents the concerns of iron-age primitives, rather than “timeless and perfect” messaging direct to us from God?
  • That there are 2 conflicting creation stories, 3 conflicting Ten Commandments, and four conflicting Easter stories?

Did you know that, evvies and fundies?  Obviously not, or you wouldn’t keep on taking the whole outmoded book literally.  And you would understand that the Bible isn’t even a good example of sacred literature because it’s so badly written:*

Mixed messages, repetition, bad fact-checking, awkward constructions, inconsistent voice, weak character development, boring tangents, contradictions, passages where nobody can tell what the heck the writer meant to convey.  This doesn’t sound like a book that was dictated by a deity.

Dang!  Why didn’t I think of that before??

In his introduction to The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis longed for an earlier day when atheists argued like men.  Excuse the sexism; he meant rationally and substantively.  Ms. Tarico, who claims some understanding of evangelicals as she used to be one (or something) argues like a teenager: You say that because paternalism.  Your conclusions are stupid and so is your book.  The Bible contains no accurate scientific information or health tips and therefore it’s worthless.  Like other critics from the high-school debate club, she

  • mischaracterizes the other side, presenting the most simplistic view of people of faith imaginable;
  • pretends, or fails to acknowledge, a world of biblical scholarship that has addressed every one of her objections over and over;
  • litters the field with straw men, such as believers who insist on taking every verse literally (when she’s actually the one who insists on taking every verse literally);
  • assumes herself to be at the pinnacle of human understanding in which every new intellectual trend invalidates every old one;
  • wraps herself in a cocoon of smugness.

Am I being smug?  It’s a temptation.  It’s also a cliche: the rolled eyeballs, the sigh, the headshake.  I’m tempted, but a serious issue lurks under the shallow reasoning of the Spirit of this Age.  We’re in danger of kicking away the ladder that got us to this enlightened age of tolerance and sanitation.  The Bible is, primarily, a book about God, starting with two major premises:

1. He made this universe and it belongs to him.  2. Humans are special to him and every one of them without distinction is made in his image.  Every moral principle that could ever be flows from those two enduring principles.  That’s what the Bible makes clear, over the centuries of its composition and the variety of its genres, and no other sacred writing come close.  Kick that away, and all things are permitted.

*”Why is the Bible so badly written?” was published on the Salon website last week, but Salon received so many complaints about the poorly-written article they took it down.

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Bible Challenge Week 22: The Kingdom: David’s Rise

“The nation” is now a kingdom.  King Saul, as it happened, was a prelude.  Now the true king appears, the one God had in mind all along.  Every Sunday-school child knows about the boy who killed the nine-foot giant with a single stone, and the shepherd who killed predators with nothing but a stick and his bare hands.  David is also one of the few people in the Bible who receives a physical description.  From the minute he appears, it’s as if the Word is saying, “Watch this one: he’s special.”  But for all that, David’s purpose and place in salvation history outweighs his person.

Through David, the Lord wold accomplish two great milestones in the story of redemption.  What were they?  Click here to find out:

Bible Reading Challenge, Week 22: David’s Rise

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 21: Failure!

Next: Week 23: David’s Fall