Posts tagged ‘Religion’
They Need Someone To Tell Them – How About You?
This past weekend, we finished our series at Concordia titled “Heaven.” For the final Sunday of this series, Pastor Tucker and I answered some of the most common questions people have about heaven, hell, and eternity. One of the questions I tackled was, “What about people who have never heard about Jesus? What happens to them?” This question is not a new one. Indeed, questions about how God can consign certain people in certain circumstances to hell or judge them in His wrath are as old as Scripture itself. Already in Paul’s day, people were asking, “Why does God still blame us” (Romans 9:19)? Some people cannot fathom a God who will call to account every sin in every situation. Surely there are instances, these people clamor, where God will just let sin slide. Surely God will not blame us for our sins – at least not all of them.
As I explained this past Sunday, the truth of God’s judgment is this: God will hold someone accountable for every sin in every situation – either you or Jesus. Those are the only two options. There are no others. Thus, one cannot be saved apart from Jesus even if one has never heard of Jesus. For apart from Christ, you will be held accountable for your own sin in hell.
This being said, we also learn that God does not want to hold us accountable for our own sin in hell. He does not want us to perish (cf. 2 Peter 3:9). This is why the task of evangelism is of inestimable importance. For it is through people preaching the Word to other people that God normally reaches out with His love in Christ. As the apostle Paul says, “‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them” (Romans 10:13-14)? People need someone to tell them about Jesus so they have the opportunity to believe in Jesus! This is where you come in.
The other day, I stumbled across an article by the president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, Thom Rainer, titled, “Seven Common Comments Non-Christians Make about Christians.”[1] The last of the seven comments jumped off my computer screen at me: “I really would like to visit a church, but I’m not particularly comfortable going by myself. What is weird is that I am 32-years old, and I’ve never had a Christian invite me to church in my entire life.” Here is a comment from a person who wants to learn more about Jesus – who wants to hear from His Word. All he needs is an invitation to a place where that Word is preached…maybe your invitation.
Thom Rainer concludes:
Non-Christians want to interact with Christians…It’s time to stop believing the lies we have been told. Jesus said it clearly: “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Luke10:2).
Satan is the author of excuses. There is no reason to wait to reach those who don’t know Jesus Christ. We must go now. The harvest is waiting. And the Lord of the harvest has prepared the way.
I couldn’t agree more.
[1] Thom Rainer, “Seven Common Comments Non-Christians Make about Christians,” www.thomrainer.com (9.15.2012).
Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter To Jesus
Last week, I stumbled across a blog post by Matt Chambers that struck me:
Could you imagine what Jesus’ ministry would have looked like if after giving “The Sermon on the Mount” He immediately checked social media to see how many retweets He got, or if #beatitudes was trending?
Or, before riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, He sat down with His creative team to map out exactly how to create a moment people would remember for thousands of years. (#TriumphalEntry, anyone?)
I wonder what opinion polls would have looked like after the crucifixion…or a big throw down with Pharisees…or a mass healing session. What if He healed certain people more than others because data showed healing someone with leprosy went viral (heh, viral) faster than healing the blind?[1]
As we enter into the home stretch of yet another presidential election, it’s important to value and pray for our leaders, for they are given to us by God as Romans 13:1 so aptly reminds us. But it also doesn’t hurt to chuckle a little at the human avenues and inroads that our politicians regularly leverage to try to garner and sustain power – opinion polls being one of them.
I especially appreciate Matt’s reference to Jesus’ Triumphal Entry (cf. John 12:12-15) and trying “to create a moment people would remember for thousands of years.” This year, both political parties tried – using plenty of opinion polls about their presidential candidates’ relative strengths and weaknesses – to do exactly that at their conventions. Though only time will tell, I doubt memories from these conventions will last thousands of days, much less thousands of years. Jesus, as Matt so wryly notes, took no opinion polls, yet Christians across the world still celebrate Palm Sunday to this day. Apparently, Jesus can create a long-lasting moment without consulting polls on what people think of Him.
Currently, I am teaching a Bible study to a couple of different groups on the Old Testament book of Daniel. In chapter two, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has a dream where he sees a statue made of gold, silver, bronze, and iron mixed with clay. Nebuchadnezzar knows his dream is of consequence, but his astrologers and soothsayers are not able to offer any interpretation of his dream. But Daniel, a Hebrew exile to Babylon, can. Daniel explains that the different materials in the statue represent different kingdoms – the gold being the Babylonian Kingdom, the silver being the Persian Kingdom, the bronze being the Kingdom of Alexander the Great, with the bronze and clay finally signifying the Roman Empire. Most important to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, however, is what happens to all of these kingdoms: “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (Daniel 2:44).
Human kingdoms, no matter how many opinion polls their leaders may consult, never manage to endure. The Kingdom of God, ushered in by Jesus, crushes them all, itself enduring forever – even without the benefit of opinion polls. In fact, it endures in spite of really bad opinion polls – opinion polls so poor, in fact, that they got Jesus nailed to a cross.
As Election Day draws near, we’ll watch kingdoms be built and coalitions of constituents be congealed. But in the midst of all the political intrigue, let’s not forget to which Kingdom we pledge our ultimate allegiance. For that Kingdom has staying power that will last far beyond November 6. That Kingdom will last forever.
[1] Matt Chambers, “First Church of Public Opinion,” www.outofur.com (9.25.12).
The Real Relationship Between Closed Doors and Opened Windows
Last week, Melody and I were startled awake to the sound of our shih tzu, Bandit, growling and barking frenziedly. My hackles – and nerves – were immediately raised. “What is he barking at?” I thought to myself. “Is something wrong in the house? Is something on fire? Is there an invader?” After I wiped the sleep out of my eyes, I sat up to see Bandit sitting on our bedroom floor, tail wagging back and forth, barking ferociously…at our cat. There was no fire or invader. Just a feline, as frustrated as we were at Bandit’s barking.
Melody was not at all amused by this nocturnal rowdiness, nor was she amused at the fact that, rather than putting an end to Bandit’s snarling, I just sat in bed, taking it all in. “Get those animals out of here!” she exclaimed. The dog and cat did eventually settle down. But a few hours later, they were at it again. And Melody was awoken again. After kicking the animals out of the bedroom, I did what I should have done earlier that night: I closed the door. And peace ensued.
In our text for this past Sunday from Revelation 21, we catch a glimpse into the new Jerusalem, that is, the new creation which God will usher in on the Last Day. In John’s description of this heavenly hub, I find this to be especially notable: “On no day will Jerusalem’s gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there” (verse 25). Like I shut our bedroom door at night to keep out the pets, ancient cities would often shut their gates at night to keep out nefarious invaders. For example, when the city of Jericho learns that the Israelites are drawing near to attack, the book of Joshua notes, “Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in” (Joshua 6:1). Ancient cities closed their gates. The new Jerusalem will not.
Why will the new Jerusalem’s gates always be open? Because unlike the municipalities of antiquity, the this cosmic metropolis will have no foes of which to be afraid. For all of the city’s enemies will have been conquered, even as John says: “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur” (verse 8). Thus, Jesus opens the city’s doors.
Jesus is in the business of opening doors. As Jesus Himself says, “Knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Paul, after a mission tour through Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe rejoices that God “had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27). He later prays “that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains” (Colossians 4:3). Christ’s desire is to open doors for His followers. Even at the beginning of Revelation, Jesus exclaims to the church at Philadelphia, “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut (Revelation 3:8).
There’s an old, oft-repeated, and tired Christian cliché: “Whenever God closes one door, He always opens a window.” The premise of this statement is that God will make a way, even when things don’t turn out how you might expect or want them to. As much as I appreciate the general sentiment, I’m not so sure that the specific imagery is accurate. For when it comes to this specific image of a door, Scripture portrays God as one who opens doors rather than closing them. If we run up against a roadblock, before we blame God for slamming a door in our face, perhaps we should wonder if the door was ever open in the first place. Or perhaps we should consider whether it was our own sinfulness that closed a door rather than God. In fact, the only time that God is portrayed as closing a door is in Luke 13:23-28 when someone asks Jesus:
“Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ But He will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with You, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from Me, all you evildoers!’ There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth.”
The door out of hell, it seems, will be locked up tight by Christ so that the gates of the new Jerusalem can be left open, free from the fear of God’s enemies.
So today, rather than bemoaning the “closed doors” in your life, why don’t you thank God for the ones He has opened for you? For they are many. He has opened the door to his knowledge through the pages of Scripture. He has opened the door to forgiveness through His Son, Jesus Christ. And He has opened the gates of His new Jerusalem so that we may come in. I can’t wait to walk through.
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
From CBS News: “An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, Sept. 11, 2012.”
Libya. Yemen. Egypt. Last week was a rough one on the other side of the world. First, in an attack deliberately timed to correspond to the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, Libyan Islamists staged a military-style assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, along with three other Americans. On Thursday, Islamist protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. Riots also erupted in Egypt, with people climbing into the embassy compound in central Cairo and ripping down the American flag.
One of the inciting factors of these protests is an obscure movie with a less than positive portrayal of the Muslim prophet Muhammad titled, “The Innocence of Muslims.” Clips from the low-budget film have been making their rounds in cyberspace for weeks. In the movie, Muhammad is portrayed a womanizing, homosexual, child-abuser. For many Muslims, any depiction of Muhammad is blasphemous – hence, the reason for these violent protests.
As I have watched these protests unfold, two things have struck me. First, I have been struck by the fact that our Constitutional right to free speech does not carry with it a guarantee that such speech will be charitable or even accurate. As Christians, we are called speak charitably and accurately to and about others not because our Constitution legislates it, but because Holy Scripture commands it. As the apostle Peter reminds us, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Patently offensive and inflammatory caricatures of other religions, though not civically illegal, are certainly theologically sinful. After all, we, as Christians, do not appreciate having our faith lambasted by flimsy straw-men half-truths. So we ought never do the same thing to other faiths nor should we encourage others who do.
Second, I have been struck by the intolerance – in fact, the violent intolerance – of these Islamist protesters. These protestors breach embassies and kill ambassadors who have no relation whatsoever to those who made this outlandish film except that they all happen to be citizens of the same country. This makes no sense to me. And yet, for a few too many people, it seems to make all too much sense. The headlines tell the story.
In the face of such intolerance, it is important to remember that Christians uphold the value of tolerance and its significance in public life. Granted, the Christian conception of tolerance is not that same as its secular counter-conception. Christians consistently do and have accepted the existence of different points of view. We know that not everyone believes as we do. Moreover, in general, we do not support the suppression – especially the violent suppression – of different points of view. In this sense, then, we believe in “free speech.” What is troublesome for Christians is not tolerance in this sense, but the secular conception of tolerance which not only advocates for acceptance of the existence of different views, but demands the acceptance of the truthfulness of these different views. D.A. Carson explains this tolerance well:
The new [secular] tolerance suggests that actually accepting another’s position means believing that position to be true, or at least as true as your own. We move from allowing the free expression of contrary opinions to the acceptance of all opinions; we leap from permitting the articulation of beliefs and claims with which we do not agree to asserting that all beliefs and claims are equally valid.[1]
Of course, the great irony of this tolerance is that if one refuses to accept this definition of tolerance or play by its rules, that person will not be tolerated! As Leslie Armour, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Ottawa, wryly noted, “Our idea is that to be a virtuous citizen is to be one who tolerates everything except intolerance.”[2]
One of the most striking lessons in true tolerance comes from Jesus in His Parable of the Weeds. Jesus tells of a master who plants some wheat. But while everyone is sleeping, the master’s enemy sneaks in and sows weeds with the wheat. When the master’s servants see what has happened, they ask, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” But the master replies, “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13:28, 30). The master in this parable, of course, is Jesus. The wheat are those who trust in Him while the weeds are those who reject Him. But rather than immediately destroying those who reject Him, Jesus is tolerant: He allows the weeds to grow with the wheat. Martin Luther comments on this parable:
Observe what raging and furious people we have been these many years, in that we desired to force others to believe; the Turks with the sword, heretics with fire, the Jews with death, and thus outroot the tares by our own power, as if we were the ones who could reign over hearts and spirits, and make them pious and right, which God’s Word alone must do.[3]
Violent oppression of those with whom we disagree is not an option for the Christian, Luther asserts. He goes on to state that if we violently deal with someone who is not a Christian and kill him or her, we take away that person’s chance to trust Christ and be saved by Him. We thus work against the gospel rather than for it. This echoes Paul’s sentiment in Romans where he speaks of God’s tolerance as kindness which leads to repentance (cf. Romans 2:4).
Finally, Christianity teaches an even higher virtue than just tolerance – it teaches love. And after a week that has seen so much hatred, perhaps that is what we need to share with our world.
Cherry Picking Scripture
I had to chuckle as I was watching coverage of the Democratic National Convention last week. I tuned in to see San Antonio’s mayor, Julian Castro, deliver the Convention’s keynote speech, which is quite an honor no matter what your political persuasion. But what made me chuckle were not the speeches at the Convention, but the political pundits pontificating on the state of our nation between speeches. I began watching the coverage that evening by tuning into a liberal-leaning news channel. They asked a question that has become ubiquitous in political circles every time a presidential election rolls around: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” One of their correspondents trotted out a chart that included numbers for jobs created and the state of the Standard & Poor’s index and confidently concluded, “Yes. We are better off than we were four years ago.” I then flipped over to a conservative-leaning news channel. Interestingly, the pundits on this channel were debating this same question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” But my mouth dropped open when they too trotted out a chart with numbers on unemployment and the national debt and confidently concluded, “No. We are not better off than we were four years ago.” Apparently, whether you believe we are better off than we were four years ago depends on which numbers you look at – or which numbers you want to look at.
I am not surprised when politicians and the politically minded cherry pick the facts and figures which bolster their particular partisan position. But it disturbs me when Christians do the same thing – especially with the Word of God.
In Acts 20, Paul is leaving the church in Ephesus which he had planted and subsequently served for three years as its pastor in order to journey to Jerusalem at the Holy Spirit’s behest. One of the things that Paul touts about his ministry to the Ephesians is that he “did not shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). In other words, when Paul served the Ephesians, he didn’t cherry pick his favorite Bible verses or stories, nor did he selectively or subversively read the Scriptures in an effort to bolster a particular partisan theological platform. Instead, he courageously declared the Word of God – all of the Word of God.
Part of the reason Paul prided himself on proclaiming all of the Word of God has to do with Paul’s belief concerning the nature and character of Scripture. For Paul believed that all of Scripture comes from God and therefore all of Scripture is worthy of our attention, study, and application. As Paul writes to the young pastor Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). All Scripture is useful, Paul declares. There is not a book, a verse, a word, or, to use Jesus’ description, even “a jot or a tittle” (cf. Matthew 5:18, KJV), which is not useful for us to know and take to heart.
The other day, I came across a blog titled, “5 Reasons Why We Should Still Read The Book Of Leviticus Today.”[1] In this post, the author recounts a conversation he had with a PhD scientist who, though he was a Christian, saw no need to for believers to concern themselves with Leviticus, or with any other part of the Pentateuch for that matter. After all, what could modern-day people possibly learn from a book that covers the eating of shellfish, the wearing of polyester, and the donning of tattoos? Not much, in this guy’s mind. But this blogger went on to do a terrific job arguing for the relevance – and, more importantly, for the divine inspiration – of this book. He notes that the credo of Leviticus, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2), is still the preeminent model for Christian sanctification. In our acting, speaking, and thinking, we are to reflect the God in whom we trust. Indeed, Jesus Himself affirms this holiness credo when He declares, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). More vitally, this blogger notes that the sacrificial system of Leviticus is a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Without Leviticus, our understanding of Christ’s sacrifice would be significantly diminished, for the whole point of the Old Testament sacrificial system was to lead to and find its telos in Christ’s supreme and final sacrifice (cf. Hebrews 10:1-12). In other words, the whole point of Leviticus, though it was written some 1400 years before Jesus, was to point people to Jesus. And anything that points people to Jesus is something a Christian should want to know about.
Leviticus is just one example of the theological richness that Scripture has to offer – if we will only take the time to look. If you choose cherry pick from Scripture, however, you will miss so much of what Scripture is and what Scripture gives. So devote yourself to Scripture – all Scripture. You never know what you will find, how you will be changed, and how your faith will grow.
[1] Scott Fillmer, “5 Reasons Why We Should Still Read The Book Of Leviticus Today,” scottfillmer.com (8.21.2012).
Decisions, Decisions
It’s almost become a Keystone Cops routine. Every Sunday following worship, my wife Melody and I try to decide where to go out to eat. “Where do you want to go?” I ask my wife affectionately. “I don’t know,” she responds. “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” I fire back. “That’s why I was asking you.” After fifteen to minutes of pondering all the different places at which we could eat, we usually decide that neither of us are really in the mood for any of it and so we head home to eat leftovers. When it comes to eating out, we have a hard time making decisions.
Perhaps we’re not alone. Perhaps you have a hard time making decisions too. Maybe it’s when you make it to a restaurant and you have to decide what dish to order off a menu that is twelve pages long. Maybe it’s when you’re out clothes shopping and you have to decide: the blue outfit or the gray one? Maybe it’s when you’re car shopping: the sedan or the SUV? Life’s choices are endless. And even seemingly simple choices can sometimes feel overwhelming.
One of the glories of the gospel is that it relieves us of the responsibility of choosing that which is most important. From the Bible’s beginnings, we read of a God who makes and clear and decisive choices when it matters most so that we don’t have to. Consider the following:
- “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him” (Genesis 20:18-19).
- “You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6).
- “Rejoice before the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name” (Deuteronomy 16:11).
Time and time again, God chooses. In fact, the gospel assures us that God has chosen us to be saved through faith by His Son. As Jesus Himself says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last” (John 15:16). And as the apostle Paul writes, “For God chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Ephesians 1:4). God chooses us.
Sometimes, people take umbrage with God’s choice of people for salvation. They want to be able to choose God for themselves. They want to be masters of their own eternities. But were our eternities left up to our own choices, we would most certainly make the wrong choices. We read example after example in the Scriptures of people who choose the wrong way of sin rather than the right road of salvation. The ancient Israelites choose apostasy through idolatry. The first century Pharisees choose arrogance through self-righteousness. And we choose our own desires over God’s command. When it comes to choosing God, left to our own devices, we will always and only say, “No.”
Blessedly, God does not allow our choices against Him and for damnation to stand. Instead, He rescues many people from their bad choices through His righteous choice! And if I can’t even decide where to go to lunch, I sure am glad that I don’t have to decide on my salvation. Aren’t you glad too?
Sex That Shouldn’t Sell…But It Does
It may be a cliché, but it is most certainly true: sex sells. Just ask Barnes and Noble. Jeffrey Trachtenberg of The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the quarterly sales of the last remaining brick and mortar chain bookstore giant and noted that the numbers of its retail stores were up – 2% to $1.1 billion. Trachtenberg cites two reasons for this impressive growth. First, Barnes and Noble is reaping the benefits of the recent bankruptcy and closure of Borders. Apparently, many Borders’ customers have found their way to Barnes and Noble. But the second cause has nothing to do with corporate competition. Instead, it has everything to do with sexual infatuation. E.L. James’ bestselling hotly erotic trilogy with its flagship novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, is cited by the company in a public report as “a key revenue driver at its retail stores.”[1] A racy trilogy is singlehandedly driving sales at a major book retailer…way up. And that book retailer explains in an official ccorporate report that a racy trilogy is driving its sales way up…gladly.
This report from Barnes and Noble is sadly indicative of the spirit of our society. It is not just that we are fascinated by sex, it is that we are fascinated by that which has been traditionally sexually forbidden. The racier and the raunchier something is, the more piqued our collective cultural curiosity becomes.
What is especially notable about Fifty Shades is that it is erotica aimed at women. Traditionally, pornography has been marketed to men, with stunningly and sadly successful results. Indeed, pornography addiction has been generally considered to be a male problem rather than a female one. With the Fifty Shades trilogy, however, we learn that women seem to be just as vulnerable to the pornography industry, though instead of featuring lewd pictures, this pornography finds its hook in spicy storylines.
Now more than ever, Christian believers must stand up for a biblical sexual ethic – and not because we can self-righteously claim to be free from sexual sin, for Jesus makes it clear in His Sermon on the Mount that none of us are innocent of sexual immorality (cf. Matthew 5:27-28), but because the Christian sexual ethic tells the truth about human sexuality. Contrary to the vulgar verbal voyeurism encouraged by explicit bestselling novels, sex is more than biological arousal and satisfaction. Instead, it is meant to be an expression of fidelity and unity, blessing husbands and wives with the gift of not only pleasure, but children. Sex is meant to be a valuable gift rather than a cheap thrill. And it is supposed to honor human dignity rather than degrade it (cf. Romans 1:24).
Perhaps the heart and soul of the Bible’s sexual ethic is best summed up in a single verb: “know.” Time and time again, the Bible uses this verb as a euphemistic way to refer to sexual intimacy:
- “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” (Genesis 4:1).
- “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch” (Genesis 4:17).
- “Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her” (1 Samuel 1:19).
This verb reminds us that sex is meant for husbands and wives to know each other more deeply and connect to each other more intimately. It is not meant for near strangers to grope each other in quest of some cut-rate erotic fantasy. Sex is far more valuable than that. And so are the people who engage in it. Will you stand up for the value of sex and for the dignity of the people whom God has created as sexual beings?
[1] Jeffrey Trachtenberg, “‘Fifty Shades’ of Books” (The Wall Street Journal, 8.21.12).
Is Cremation Okay?
From time to time, I receive questions concerning the practice of cremation. After all, cremation certainly has its benefits: it is less costly than a traditional burial and, if someone desires, he can keep a loved one’s ashes in his home rather than shipping them off to a cemetery. But some people are reticent about the practice though, oddly enough, they often do not know why they have reservations. When asked about cremation, I have heard more than one person say things like, “I heard the church doesn’t like cremation,” or, “Doesn’t the Bible teach against cremation?” The responses to these statements are “no” and “no,” though these responses do come with some qualifications.
Cremation became increasingly popular in the nineteenth century because of a growing fear that one could be accidentally buried alive. Stephen Prothero, a religion professor at Boston University, writes about this phobia:
Newspapers regularly featured stories of individuals, given up for dead, waking up from trances just before being lowered underground. And witnesses to exhumations testified repeatedly about finding corpses that had turned on their sides, gouged out their eyes, and even fractured their bones in what one medical encyclopedia termed “desperate struggle for escape.”[1]
The thinking went that it was better, if one was accidentally pronounced dead, to be quickly burned to death in a crematorium than to be slowly suffocated to death in a coffin. Nevertheless, cremation, though widely touted in the secular society of the nineteenth century, was not universally embraced – especially by those in the church.
The Christian emperor Charlemagne elevated cremation to the level of a capital crime in 789 because it parroted the practices of ancient pagans.[2] The Roman Catholic Church prohibited the practice in the 1917 Code of Canon Law which read, in part, “The bodies of the faithful must be buried, and cremation is reprobated. If anyone has in any manner ordered his body to be cremated, it shall be unlawful to execute his wish.”[3] In 1963, however, Pope Paul VI lifted this ban, noting:
There has been a change for the better in attitudes and in recent years more frequent and clearer situations impeding the practice of burial have developed. Consequently, the Holy See is receiving repeated requests for a relaxation of church disciplines relative to cremation. The procedure is clearly being advocated today, not out of hatred of the Church or Christian customs, but rather for reasons of health, economics, or other reasons involving private or public order.[4]
The prior ban on cremation by the Roman Catholic Church seemed to stem from a rationalistic rejection of the resurrection of the body on the Last Day by some heady antagonists and not from a theological objection to the practice per se. There were some who used cremation as a way to defy Jesus, saying He could not raise a body from death upon His return if that body had been incinerated. This is why even today, The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.”[5]
Silly protestations against the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day aside, there is no demonstrable theological reason to reject cremation. Scripture never explicitly addresses the practice and, for those who would be foolish enough to believe that Jesus could not raise a body burned to ash, they would do well remember God’s curse on Adam: “Dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). If God can raise Adam from death on the Last Day long after he has decomposed into dust, God can raise a cremated person from death on the Last Day long after he has been incinerated into dust. And the Christian church has known this – and taught this – from her earliest days. Felix, a Latin apologist from the second century, writes, “Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved into moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is withdrawn from us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the elements.”[6] Even when our bodies return to the elements from which they were formed, Felix says, our God nevertheless retains custody over these elements and will reconstitute these elements into perfected and glorified bodies on the Last Day.
What is the upshot of all of this, then? Each family must make their own decisions as to how to best honor a loved one after his or her passing. Cremation is an option, as is a traditional burial. There is no need to fret over either option theologically, for both are acceptable in God’s sight. What God concerns Himself with is not how a person is buried, but how that person who believes will be ultimately raised to a life of eternal bliss with the Lord and with other believers. And God’s concern should be our hope!
[1] Stephen Prothero, Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 72.
[2] Cf. Lucy Bregman, Religion, Death, and Dying (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010), 13.
[3] 1917 Code of Canon Law, Canon 1203.
[4] Pope Paul VI, Piam et constantem, 3366.
[5] The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2301.
[6] ANF 4:34.
A Theological Look At Suicide
It’s never easy to lose a loved one. Whether it’s an illness when someone is middle aged, a tragedy when someone is young, or even a so-called “natural” passing when someone is old, death brings tears and mourning. People may sometimes quaintly call a funeral a “celebration,” but if it is, what a strange way to celebrate – with lowered heads and furrowed brows and muffled sobs. Truth be told, death is sad. And death is heartbreaking.
Death becomes especially heartbreaking when it is the result of suicide. We will often speak of “preventable deaths” – those that could have been avoided if only he wouldn’t have gotten behind the wheel when he was drunk, or if only she would have gone to the doctor sooner after feeling a lump. But suicide seems to be the ultimate example of a “preventable death.” After all, the person who lost his life is the same person who took his life…voluntarily. He held in his own hands the power to choose life or the power to choose death. And he chose the unthinkable.
When suicide strikes, many questions inevitably arise. People ask everything from, “How could he be so selfish?” to “Is killing oneself the unforgivable sin?” Because of the many questions connected to suicide, I thought it would be worth it to take a look at suicide broadly from a theological perspective and seek to clear up some of the persistent misperceptions that surround this heartbreaking act.
In order to understand the Bible’s estimation suicide, we must begin a fundamental observation: suicide is tragic. Though this may seem self-evident to many, the reason this observation is necessary is because not everyone has believed this, nor does everyone now believe this.
The most famous suicide of the ancient world is that of Socrates. After being convicted of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens by criticizing the city’s democratic government, the town’s officials sentenced Socrates to death by poisonous hemlock. Plato, his close friend and pupil, recounts Socrates drinking the lethal cocktail:
[Socrates] took it, and very gently…without trembling or changing color or expression…Said Socrates, “But I may and must pray to the gods that my departure hence be a fortunate one; so I offer this prayer, and may it be granted.” With these words he raised the cup to his lips and very cheerfully and quietly drained it.[1]
Notice how nobly, stoically, and even, as Plato says, “cheerfully,” Socrates drinks his poison, more in control of his life – and death – than those who handed down his capital sentence. It is this stately picture of Socrates’ suicide that gave rise to the opinion of the ancients that it is perfectly acceptable to take one’s own life. Seneca, a well-known Stoic philosopher, says of suicide, “The best thing which eternal law ever ordained was that it allowed to us one entrance in life, but many exits…This is one reason why we cannot complain of life; it keeps no one against his will….Live, if you so desire; if not, you may return to the place from whence you came.”[2] More recently, suicide has made headlines because of those who support “Death with Dignity,” a movement which maintains that doctor assisted suicide, in cases of grave and terminal illness, is justified and, yes, even dignified.[3] For some, suicide is moral and noble. The Bible, however, paints a starkly different picture of suicide. Suicide, according to the Bible, is unambiguously proscribed. Consider the reasons why below.
The Bible prohibits suicide because it results in death. Death is deeply evil. Indeed, the apostle Paul calls death “the last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26), ultimately to be defeated at Christ’s Second Coming. Death is so evil because it is utterly incompatible with God’s original creative intent. As we confess in the Nicene Creed, our God is “the Lord and giver of life.” God is in the business of life, not death! However, sin introduced what God never intended. Therefore, we are to hate death rather than embracing it as suicide does.
The Bible prohibits suicide because it results in murder. Most famously, murder is prohibited by the Fifth Commandment: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). But long before Moses delivered the Ten Commandments to Israel, murder was outlawed as a heinous ill. Immediately following the great flood of Noah’s day, God commands, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Genesis 9:6). Notice the general nature of both of these prohibitions. Moses’ prohibition against murder is a blanket one without so much as a direct object to specify who should not be murdered. God’s prohibition to Noah does contain a direct object – “man” – but this direct object is a general one, referring to mankind. The killing of humans by other humans, then, is clearly and consistently forbidden in the Scriptures. Thus, even the killing of oneself breaks the command of God.
The Bible prohibits suicide because it results in abuse. It is difficult to think of a more dire abuse of one’s body than the taking of one’s life. Because God created our bodies, redeems our bodies through His Son Jesus Christ, and will raise our bodies on the Last Day, our bodies – and what we do with them – matter to God! As Paul writes, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Killing one’s body can hardly be considered an honorable way to treat one’s body.
It is important to note that honoring God with one’s body precludes not only suicide, but anything that damages the body. There are many people who refuse to honor God with their bodies in countless ways and for countless reasons. Some do not eat well. Some do not exercise. Some do not visit their physicians. When these people sometimes die prematurely, they do so to everyone’s sorrow, but not necessarily to everyone’s shock. After all, we know that abuse can eventually result in death. So often, we confine our definition of “suicide” to a one-time act that ends in the loss of life. But far too many people are willing to commit what I call “slow-motion suicide” by abusing their bodies over months, years, and decades. This too is prohibited by Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 6.
Though the Bible flatly condemns suicide, even something as seemingly final as the taking of one’s life is not unsalvageable for the Christian. People will sometimes refer to suicide as “the unforgivable sin.” The thinking goes like this: because a person who commits suicide cannot repent of his sin, he cannot be forgiven and will therefore be eternally damned. This thinking, however, is flawed on two counts. First, this thinking does not take into account the extenuating circumstances that often accompany suicide, for a person who takes his own life often does so during a moment of deep despair, depression, or even insanity. This can hardly be considered to be a belligerent and unrepentant sin against God. Rather, the person who takes his life in this kind of an instance may not even understand what he is doing. Second, the thinking that calls suicide “unforgivable” assumes repentance is a cognitive act of sorrow that feels remorse over a specific sin and that this remorse is necessary to offset a sin’s damnable effect. This, however, is not a true picture of biblical repentance. For if a person had to feel cognitive remorse for every sin specifically, none could be saved, for we all commit sins that we either do not remember or do not even notice in the first place. This is why the Psalmist pleads with God, “Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression” (Psalm 19:12-13). Notice that the Psalmist makes a distinction between “hidden faults” and “willful sins.” The “hidden faults” are those sins unknown to the Psalmist whereas the “willful sins” are those sins which the Psalmist has intentionally and knowingly committed. The Psalmist believes that God will forgive both types of sins – both his known and unknown sins.
Martin Luther says of repentance, “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Repent, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”[4] Like the Psalmist, Luther believes that repentance is more than just specific remorse over a specific sin; rather, repentance is part and parcel of the posture of a Christian’s heart, for a repentant Christian continually believes that he is a person who continually sins and is thereby continually in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. Thus, just because a person does not express remorse for committing suicide specifically does not mean that he is not living a life of repentance generally.
Some people may still ask, “But what about Judas? Didn’t Judas commit suicide and didn’t he go to hell?” Though it is true that Scripture implies Judas’ ultimate eternal damnation (cf. Acts 1:25), we must understand that Judas did not go to hell because he committed suicide, but because he refused to trust in Jesus to forgive his sin. Matthew tells us, “When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse” (Matthew 27:3). The Greek word for “remorse” is metamelomai. Though there is some semantic overlap, this word is nevertheless distinct from the Greek word for “repentance,” which is metanoia. Thus, even though Judas seems to experience some level of remorse over his terrible wickedness, he does not seem to repent of his sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness. Tragically, Judas’ remorse leads only to despair which leads only to his eventual suicide. The stain of human sin cannot be absolved by feeling bad about oneself through remorse. It can only be absolved by turning to Jesus in repentance.
Finally, it is important that we support and encourage those who have lost loved ones to suicide and seek immediate help for those who may be considering suicide. As Christians, we are called to remind everyone that, through faith in Christ, despair and death do not need to have the final say. God’s plan of eternal, joyous life for us can ultimately prevail. As the apostle Paul exclaims:
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:51-57)
Despair and death are no match for the victory and life that Jesus brings. Of this we can be sure! And in this we can take comfort.
“For Thine Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory” – Where Did That Come From?
“Sermon on the Mount” by Carl Heinrich Bloch
This past weekend in worship, we studied the most famous prayer of all time: the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus offers this model prayer as part of His Sermon on the Mount:
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-13)
Whenever I teach on the Lord’s Prayer, someone inevitably notices that, in Matthew’s account, the doxology often included in traditional versions of this prayer – “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and glory, forever and ever. Amen” – is missing. Where did it go?
Interestingly, the old King James Version includes the doxology because the Greek manuscripts from which the translators of that day were working incoporated it. As biblical textual criticism has advanced over the past four hundred years, however, we have learned that the doxology is absent from the most ancient and significant manuscripts of the Bible, including Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, both from the fourth century, and is also omitted in early patristic commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer including those of Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian.[1] Thus, these words are not included in more modern translations with the understanding that they were probably not a part of the original biblical text.
It is important to understand that the exclusion of the doxology as part of the biblical text does not mean that it is errant or inappropriate to the prayer. Quite the contrary. It reflects the spirit of 1 Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.” Moreover, the doxology has been included as a liturgical strophe from the earliest days of the Christian Church. The Didache, a manual of church practice from the turn of the second century, includes a truncated version of the doxology: “For Yours is the power and the glory for ever.” The Didache goes on to encourage the faithful to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.[2] Christians, then, were speaking these words from the earliest days of the church…a lot!
More than likely, this doxology began as a response of the people, gathered for worship, to the words of the Lord in this prayer. It is much like, at the end of a Scripture lesson in worship today, the reader will sometimes conclude, “This is the Word of the Lord” and the people will sometimes respond, “Thanks be to God.” The doxology, then, was a way for those assembled to praise God for the prayer His Son had given them. With time, however, the liturgical function of this doxology was forgotten and people began to assume that the words were part of the prayer itself.
We, along with many others, continue to pray these words because, finally, they are a statement of faith in the heavenly Father to whom we are praying. We believe that the reason He can bring His kingdom to pass, give us our daily bread, forgive our trespasses, and deliver us from the evil one is because the Kingdom, power, and glory are at His disposal to do with as He wishes. And His wish, as we delightedly learn from the Lord’s Prayer, is to bless and save us. And so, we continue to praise God with this doxology and pray as Christ has taught us.
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