Doctrine
Judging Others Is Smart, Biblical and [Absolutely] Vital
One of the most common objections I get to my critique of Jason Westerfield is this: Do not judge.
The preferred text to back up their objection is Luke 6:37:
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
True, this text forbids hypocrisy and a condemning spirit rising from self-righteousness…
And I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of self-righteousness. Wicked self-absorption. Fierce condemnation.
But not so in this case.
In my critique of Jason Westerfield [or any book or doctrine or ministry for that matter] I’m not condemning him…
I’m simply evaluating his book and ministry the same way I’d evaluate any book or ministry: how it measures up to the Bible.
There’s nothing bizarre or unbiblical about that. It’s plain, garden-variety discernment. This is how John MacArthur puts it:
“There is a righteous kind of judgment we are supposed to exercise with careful discernment [John 7:24]. Censorious, hypocritical, self-righteous or other kinds of unfair judgements are forbidden.
MacArthur goes on to explain “in order to fulfill the commandments that follow it is necessary to discern dogs and swine [Matthew 7:6] from one’s own brethren.”
In other words, how are we supposed to tell the true believers from the false if we don’t discern and evaluate their deeds and doctrine?
The deal is, we can’t.
And if we can’t we are in opposition to God and his church because the Bible makes it abundantly clear that mature Christians must discern truth from error…
Even if that puts the unity of the church at risk. Which brings me to my next point.
The Mis-Guided Emphasis on Unity over Purity
Another accusation that usually gets thrown out their [and relevant to our discussion] is this:
“Unity needs to happen in the body.”
The implication is that I’m causing dissension when I critique Jason’s book.
Funny thing is, isn’t it just as reasonable to suggest that Jason is actually the one who’s causing dissension? Couldn’t his doctrine be cause of confusion and contention in the church?
But using the unity card concerns me for another reason. It suggests people are willing to look over sin for the sake of church unity.
Yes, having a unified church is important. But I don’t get that impression from reading my Bible that we strive for unity at the expense of purity.
Judging Others in the Old Testament
In fact, span the nearly 2,000 pages of Holy Scripture and it’s clear that God places a high-premium on purity–and it’s when purity is protected that unity prevails. Let’s look at some examples. First in the Old Testament.
1. The Holiness Code found in Leviticus 17-26 levels devastating sentences [capital punishment by stoning] on those who strayed from doctrinal purity.
2. God disintegrated priests who put unholy fire on the altar.
3. He executed a man for the hubris of believing that his hand was more clean than dirt.
4. He destroyed an entire generation of Israelites for their repeated disobedience–banning them from entering the promised land.
5. God finally drove the Israelite’s into exile and slavery for their chronic unfaithfulness, which usually took the form of wholesale worship of idols and pagan ideas.
And that’s just the Old Testament. In the New, we see the same intense concern for purity.
Judging Others in the New Testament
Paul scolded the Corinthians for harboring a sexual misfit in their church. He ramrodded the Galatians for deserting the gospel for a “different gospel, which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
Peter even condemned a husband and wife for lying about their assets–and ordained their deaths by the hand of God.
And Jude changed the direction of his little letter from one of exhortation to one of correction:
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God int licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
In every single one of these cases someone could argue “Did Uzziah have to die for his hubris? Nadab and Abihu for their deviation from God’s sacrifice prescription? Annias and Sappharia for tucking away a little cash for a rainy day? Do we have to chastise a few brothers because they snuck in a little gospel corruption?”
Obviously God answers “Yes, it’s absolutely necessary” because the purity of the church is important. In fact, when we get the purity down, unity naturally emerges.
Mature Christians Can Judge–and Handle Judgment
In John’s first letter he writes, “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
In other words, a mature Christian with a mature mind established by the word of God can spot spiritual truth and error.
So a call for “more unity and less purity” is actually an unbiblical suggestion that spiritual error is not important.
That should concern us.
We want brothers and sisters in Christ to discern truth and error–using the Bible as template. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
But what does being judgmental look like? Here’s First John again: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
That is a clear example of being hypocritical. And exactly the sense that Jesus was talking about in Luke 6:41 when he said, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
And this reproof would apply to me if I ducked away at night to indulge in the rituals of New Mystics like Jason.
But I’m not.
Final Thoughts
In the end, we all need to be acutely aware of the state of our spiritual condition–especially me.
And that I’ve got a disposition to hypocrisy and self-righteousness…trust me when I say that working out my salvation is an activity loaded with fear and trembling.
The same feeling extends to brothers and sisters in Christ.
Yes, I have deep concerns that Jason is being led away by his stomach–and in the long run is leading others away. Thus this is not a witch hunt. Rather it’s one Christian brother telling another to be careful–you could be out of line.
I know I was glad when someone pointed out error in my life. When someone corrected me. Rebuked me. It’s healthy. Smart for proper Christian growth. And vital for the church.
John goes on to say, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This is true for every single one of us. Not just for Jason. Or his fans. Or me. But for you. All of us. The church body proper.
So if I got this judging thing all wrong, let me know. Evaluate. Criticize. Reprove me. It’s biblical. And healthy.
How to Teach Your Children about Hell
Implied in my headline is this: we SHOULD teach our children about hell.
As I mentioned yesterday in my post on the justice of eternal punishment, the doctrine of hell is there in the Bible…
And we, as Christians, are liars if we neglect it and cold-hearted if we refuse to warn the unregenerate.
John 3:36 states the wrath of God abides over the unbeliever. Mind you, this is the same unbeliever God loves and does not want to see perish.
Yet his fate rests in his decision on who Jesus Christ is.
And you may not like this, but before their conversion, our children are unregenerate. Like it or not, God’s wrath abides over unregenerate children.
Thus, it’s our pre-eminent duty as parents to guide them in the ways of salvation. This includes teaching them about the doctrine of hell.
Objections to Teaching Children about Hell
Some Christians may resist this on the grounds that teaching children about hell may give them nasty nightmares…
Keep them awake for days on end. As a parent the last thing I want to do is upset my children.
But let me ask you a question: Is it justified in the prospect of a fatal eternity for them that I withhold a biblical doctrine that has its greatest defender in Jesus Christ to save my children a little grief?
The answer would be “no” since the doctrine of hell is part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What We Can Learn about Hell
We ourselves could lose a few nights of sleep over the doctrine of hell. Our culture doesn’t fear the Lord enough. Doesn’t respect his majesty, strength and wrath…
The neglect of hell by the church is partly to blame.
By neglecting hell we’ve drained the gospel of it’s potency, God’s mercy of it’s power and our sense of dependency on God has become a carnival devoted to amusing ourselves.
If there are no consequences clearly articulated [whether God's wrath in this life or the life to come], there is no good news.
There is only a hollow, somewhat baffling sense of why Jesus died on the cross. Without God’s wrath and Jesus is just another man executed on a cross.
Abandon God’s wrath over sin and we do not have a god of justice. Nor a god of holiness.
Instead, we have one of complacency and promiscuity. In other words, we have an unbiblical god. One Jesus did not affirm.
Our Teacher on the Subject of Hell
I don’t know about you, but I want to be on the side of Jesus. I want to affirm what he affirmed. I want to teach my children what he taught his children.
Did you see that? I’ve given you a clue on how to teach your children about hell.
Look to Jesus and what he said in the Bible. In other words, crack open the Bible with your children and systematically walk them through the New Testament.
Eventually you will cross paths with the doctrine of hell. That would be a perfect time to tell them what hell means. [Keep it age appropriate.]
But please, don’t wallow in the doctrine. Let curiosity guide them, answer their questions, but at some point you must direct them to Jesus Christ, the cross and God’s grace.
A Way to Teach Children about Hell
You must tell your children it’s not hell, demons or Satan they should fear. It is God they should fear: ”And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’”
Tell them hell is real because sin is real. Tell them that the wrath of God will abide over them as long as they remain unrepentant sinners.
They must know “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” And then show them the reward of repentance:
And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.
Tell them the glorious end of repentance is fellowship with God. It is joy unimaginable. Peace unsurpassed. Love sublime.
Bathe the whole procedure in public and private prayer. And push the beautiful grace of God from there.
The Healthy Tension Hell Creates
Yes, in the back of their minds a fear of hell will persist. Therefore it’s our duty to smother that fear with the grace of God.
Sing with your children Psalm 34:8: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”
Yes, a tension survives in the Christian’s walk [whether a child or an adult] when we allow space for the doctrine of hell. But that’s a healthy tension. One that reminds us that God’s grace does not come freely.
This tension is a small price to pay for the never-ending riches a comprehensive, genuine relationship with God brings.
And that, in my humble opinion, is how we teach our children about hell. What do you think?
Is Eternal Punishment Fair?
The argument goes like this: “Eternal punishment for seventy years of sin is excessive.”
But is that the way justice works? Do we actually determine the sentence based upon the duration of the crime?
No, we don’t.
If it takes 13 minutes to rob a bank, we don’t sentence the criminal to 13 minutes in prison, do we?
If it takes 10 seconds to drown a baby, do we sentence the murderer to 10 seconds in prison?
No. So there must be something else to justice.
How We Determine Punishment
Let me ask you a question: How much time would you get if you assaulted me with a knife? In Illinois you might get five years in prison.
But what if you assaulted the President with a knife? Would you get the same sentence as if you assaulted me?
Of course not.
We don’t determine justice strictly by the duration of the crime–but by the heinousness of the crime. That’s not all though.
We also determine justice by the dignity of the person you’ve violated. As the case with assaulting me versus assaulting the President, by virtue of his office, the President is endowed with more dignity than I am, thus a crime against him is considered more heinous than a crime against me.
And it’s the same way with God.
The Most Important Question about Eternal Punishment
An infinite and holy God is endowed with infinite dignity. A crime against a being endowed with infinite dignity is not excessive punishment…especially if we are talking about deliberate rebellion and hard-hardheartedness.
However, you might be surprised to learn that you can reach hell without deliberate rebellion. Indeed, we can drift comfortably into hell.
That means the most important question about hell, as about heaven, is the practical one: What roads lead there?
For when we understand the nature of sin and how one commits sin [whether deliberately or not], we see what must be done to avoid it.
The Value of a Fear of Eternal Punishment
Fear of hell is not an inadequate means to salvation. God doesn’t sweep it aside because it’s the best we can muster. No, even though a motive such as fear of hell may be considered a base motive, God’s graciousness will nonetheless accept it.
In the end, we need to hear about and teach the doctrine of hell for two reasons: honesty and compassion.
The doctrine of hell is in the Bible, most notably in Jesus’ sermons. So we are dishonest if we shy away from it.
We must teach it out of compassion, too. Peter Kreeft says, “When an abyss looms ahead, the least compassionate thing to tell the traveler is ‘peace, peace, when there is no peace.’”
In other words, out of a love for God and a compassion toward man, we should tell the truth about hell.
And forget that we’ll be labeled vindictive fundamentalists. That, my friends, is a small price to pay for an infinitely precious soul.
Does God Care About Art?
**Guest post by copywriter and painter Richard DeVeau.**
Our introduction to God at the opening of Genesis places us in the midst of His work as creator of the universe.
We get to look over His shoulder, if you will, and watch as He creates everything from nothing.
Beauty for it’s Own Sake
Not only do we see God create things that serve a purpose and function, but we also see He creates some things simply to be “pleasing to the eye.”
While beauty is the sole reason for some of God’s creation, it is also apparent in all of His handiwork.
Created in His image, we too have the ability and desire to appreciate and create beauty.
The imagination, creativity and beauty are clearly important to God, making them important to us as well.
What About Now?
But what role does imagination, creativity and art play in our lives as Christians today? Is being an artist a legitimate vocation for Christians? Why do some churches have such a negative view of the arts?
First, by “art” I mean every creative discipline: music, dance, painting, sculpture, performance, film, writing, and those endeavors that combine and straddle these disciplines.
So let’s look at these three questions in order.
Cultivate Culture
In his book, Simply Christian
Creativity and the arts are central to our response to the Genesis 2:15 mandate to “cultivate the earth.”
This is a culture-shaping directive.
We are told to influence and impact our culture (which by definition includes art, music, literature and other endeavors) to reflect God’s glory.
In his book, Art for God’s Sake
Christian painter and writer Makoto Fujimura, in his book, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture
And John Calvin said, “All arts come from God and are to be respected as divine inventions.”
Art of the Bible
And if we look at the content of the Bible itself, we see that 75% of it is narrative,15% is poetic, and 10% is instructional.
This means that 90% of the Bible is story and poetry, which engages and appeals to our imaginations in order to communicate God’s truth.
The imagination, creativity and the arts are intrinsic to our understanding of God, the world around us, and ourselves.
Artists Are Called
As the Bible has the answers to all of life’s questions, this is where we will look to determine whether or not being an artist is a legitimate vocation for Christians.
In Exodus 31, God has just given Moses explicit, detailed instructions for building the tabernacle, the structure where God will manifest His presence on earth and communicate with His people.
God then tells Moses that He has chosen Bezalel to build it, with the help of Oholiab. God says:
…and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts, to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.
Not only does God call these artists by name and bless them with the very gifts they’ll need for the task, but it is also worth noting that this is the very first time in Scripture where God fills someone with His Spirit.
Ryken states, “Taken together, skill, ability, and knowledge refer to what the artist is thinking in his mind, feeling in his heart, as well as making with his hands. The artistic work that Bezalel and Oholiab did came from their whole persons.”
But God could have built the tabernacle himself.
On this issue Ryken adds, “Instead, God called artists to make the tabernacle, and to make sure that they did it well, He equipped them with every kind of artistic talent. By doing this, God was putting the blessing of His divine approval on both the arts and the artist.”
In addition to calling Bezalel and Oholiab by name, we see in Genesis 4:21 that Jabal is called “the father of all who play the harp and flute.”
God clearly chooses some men and women to be artists.
I could go into more depth than this post will allow to cover how we can know if we are being called to be an artist, but suffice it to say that the short answer is passion, gifting, commitment to developing and honing our skills, and submitting our work to be judged by others.
Artists and the Church: a Rocky History
But why does the church tend to hold a negative view of the arts and artists?
At one time in history, the church was the world’s largest and most influential patron of the arts.
Then came the Reformation, where the arts, particularly the visual arts, were deemed secular endeavors that encouraged idol worship and were essentially banished from the church.
In its defense, the church has a right to be suspicious of an endeavor that is so susceptible to becoming idol worship. The commandment not to create graven images is still debated in some circles today.
Suffice it to say it is not the image itself that is sinful…it is what is done with the image and the image maker.
But the answer isn’t to simply reject all art and all artists.
Doing so has caused great harm and has resulted in many lost opportunities to glorify God through the arts once they were rejected by the church and relegated to the world.
As Ryken stated earlier, we need to regain a full biblical understanding of the arts, and that goes for both the church and the artist.
Reclaiming The Arts and Imagination for Christ
While the church has made tremendous strides to embrace the arts and its artists over the last two or three decades, there is still more that both can do to reclaim the arts and imagination for God’s glory.
I’m greatly encouraged to see more churches embrace and support its artists, not only by making them part of the worship service, but also providing encouragement and support outside of the church’s walls.
There are many churches that now have pastors and affinity groups for artists.
And there are more Christian colleges offering degrees in nearly every artistic discipline today than there were even a decade ago.
A Call to Christian Artists
My appeal to Christian artists today, who by nature tend to be isolated because of their work and temperament, is to become part of the body of Christ and submit their lives to the oversight of a pastor, preferably one who understands the blessings of their gift and the temptations and potential pitfalls artists face every day as they pursue their calling and hone their craft.
If God puts such a high value on the arts, so should we. But not, as Ryken states, only for arts’ sake, but for God’s.
I’d love to know what your experience with the arts has been, either as a pastor, an artist, or an observer.
Demons: Can We Still Believe in Them?
In 1998, four psychologists interviewed twenty hospitalized psychiatric patients from the Hebei province in China.
Chinese physicians diagnosed these patients as hysterical.
The patients, however, believed their bodies were invaded by alien spirits.
In other words, possessed.
Samples of Spirit Possession
One woman spoke of her dead aunt walking through her house as “a white person, but without a head.”
At times she actually believed the spirit occupied her body.
Another women–a 40-year old peasant women with five children and a Buddhist background–complained of chronic possession (some one suggested by a turtle) in which she blacked out and couldn’t remember the episode.
Here’s the million dollar question: Are these patients really possessed? Or severely psychologically disturbed? Let’s explore.
Dismissing the Doctrine of Demons
In today’s world, belief in demons is usually brushed aside as primitive–in company with elves and a flat earth.
In fact, one of the conclusions from the study above was that individuals who lacked education were more susceptible to folk beliefs.
They also raised the question of “whether the possession experience is a socially sanctioned mechanism that allows individuals in an oppressed social role to act out intolerable socio-psychological conflict.”
Both interesting points. Then this shouldn’t come as a surprise: While possession is a common experience in many cultures, in Western industrialized cultures such experiences are not the norm.
As Christians, then, what are we to do when skepticism about angels and demons is contrary to biblical testimony? Let’s see.
Biblical Testimony to Demons
Satan appears in the first book of the Bible and his activity doesn’t let up until Revelation.
And while demonic activity is somewhat subdued in the Old, the frequency of demonic appearances increases during Jesus’ ministry.
We even have a demonic proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah.
But outside the biblical assumption of demons, we have other reasons to affirm their existence.
Science ultimately can’t answer this question.
Science seeks to observe and describe natural phenomena. Like it’s inadequacy in answering questions of morality, science isn’t fit to answer the spiritual.
Purely natural explanations of evil in this world are not adequate.
The horrors of the Lord’s Resistance Army or a mother roasting her child in an oven imply a powerful force at work–not a mere chemical imbalance.
Learn from the broader sweep of history and culture.
When you explore the cultures in Asia, Africa, Haiti and the Pacific Islands, you see a belief in evil spirits is a deep part of their culture. We need to respect that native soft knowledge. They may be on to something our science can’t reach.
In the end, this topic deserves a LOT of sensitivity. We certainly don’t want it to lead to uncritical views on demons. Nor do we want to open the door to bizarre practices of extreme individuals or groups.
Instead, we need to carefully craft a complete view of reality–one that balances both the natural and spiritual.
C. S. Lewis warned in the Screwtape Letters that we can give the topic too little attention–and too much attention. Both are mistakes.
The goal is to seek balance. Let me know what you think.
By the way, got a question you’d like me to answer in a post? Email me.
Search
Recent Posts
Get Updates | Subscribe
Somewhat Essential
Categories
Archives
