Author: kevingdrendel

I am sixtiesh, an English Literature major in college and an attorney by profession. Faith informs my life, and this blog is about my faith journey.

A City Set on a Hill in a Foreign World

Our end goal is not ultimately to rehabilitate an earthly city or country, but to enter into a heavenly City of which the designer and builder is God.

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One Sunday I recall the pastor deviating from the planned sermon to observe that Christians today sometimes act as if God is not in control. We do this by complaining about politics, our country, the world, etc. Sometimes when the Spirit leads, we need to stop from our planned way and consider what God is saying. If we don’t, we might miss God.

There is a segment of the church that believes and acts like the USA is God’s country, a Christian nation. I think this is where many Christians allow politics into their theology at a grave danger to pure religion, which James reminds us “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”. (James 1:27)

Yes, the founding fathers were “Christians”; and the country became a haven, a promised land, early on for people escaping religious persecution in England and other places. I love the fact that our country was founded on Biblical ideals, among other things, with honor for God. The freedom of religion and freedom of expression in the USA make this country great, the envy of much of the world, though not understood by much of the world as well.

Many hundreds of years before Jesus the Israelites were God’s chosen people. They were chosen out of all the people groups in the ancient Middle East on the basis of Abraham’s faith, and a promise was made to him that the whole world would be blessed by his progeny.

The promise of God to the people (Abraham and his descendants) to whom He chose to entrust that promise prepared the way for Jesus, the Messiah, except Jesus came with a plan and a message they did not expect. He came to his own, and his own knew him not. The Israelites were dug in, resting on the assumption that they alone were God’s chosen people. Many of them missed the boat. They rejected the Son of God because they had their own expectations and were not in tune with what God was doing.

We know the rest of the story, at least where the narrative continues today. God’s plan was to introduce the Christ for all people through the platform of the message entrusted to the Jewish people, who preserved that message and protected it. But many of them missed it. God does not always work as we expect Him to work.

We might say the Jews became nationalistic in their religion, and they missed the fact that God intended to bless the whole world. Yes, Jesus came to his own, but he also came to all who would believe on him. The new wine came, and the old wine skin could not contain it.

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Who Wrote the Gospels?

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Dr. Peter Williams 2
From a Lecture – Dr Peter Williams – New Evidences the Gospels were Based on Eyewitness Accounts

The Bible is ubiquitous in our society. More people have an opinion on the Bible than people who have read it, or at least much of it. The text was written over a period of 1500 years by about 40 some different people. As a literary text, I was struck when I first read it (for a class in college) by how complex, yet harmonious the Bible is. There was an internal authenticity that spoke to me.

While our society tends to view the Bible as just another book, a piece of our history and common culture, something that people tend to like (the most read book), but nothing to be taken terribly seriously, people of faith view it as the Word of God, sent from heaven, a revelation of God’s purpose and design for mankind. Few people really study the Bible in-depth and detail from an “objective” view. Maybe no one does. We come to it with our preconceived notions, and we look for support for what we already believe is true.

I have a great deal of doubt in the human ability to be objective. Scientists who live by the scientific method, in my opinion, can be as guilty of bias as the common man, and are all the more culpable for claiming it is science. But that is the subject of another discussion.

At the same time, there are stories of people who set out to disprove the Bible who come to believe it is true. Many of them in fact.

I did not approach the Bible initially like that; rather I approached it as I approached everything in my life during my search-for-truth-phase: I assumed there was truth in the Bible like there was truth in the Bhagavad gita, the Quran, Khalil Gibran, Aristotle, Plato and all of the philosophers, and Emerson, Shakespeare and all of the great writers. I still believe there is truth in that assumption. Truth is truth no matter where it is found. If truth is attainable and knowable, people from all over the world should have some grasp of it.

As a much older person, I have also come to believe firmly in the human capacity to ignore, overlook and dismiss the truth. There is so much at stake, chiefly our own pride and self-esteem. We commit to principles quickly sometimes, and we hold fast to them in the face of contrary evidence because we do not want to be wrong, especially once we have invested ourselves in developing those principles.

We have fears and insecurities that we try to cover, and we try to protect ourselves from being exposed. There are probably hundreds of reasons, big and small, that we miss the truth – big truths and little truths. It takes a lot of energy to be on the lookout for truth, and many of us do not have that energy or the time in our fast-paced, busy lives to be that vigilant.

Much has been made of the apparent inconsistencies and contradictions in the Bible and a seeming lack of archaeological and historical evidence. The inconsistencies and contradictions that I have checked out are largely due to lack of knowledge, misunderstanding, or purposeful attempts to miscast the text. Archaeological and historical criticisms are based more on lack of evidence than contradictory evidence. Modern discoveries do more to substantiate the Biblical text than to disprove it. Still, we will likely never have absolute proof of the veracity of the Biblical text this side of heaven.

As intelligent beings, or  at least beings capable of intelligence, we can not rationally claim to be all-knowing or all-understanding. We are finite creatures with no legitimate claims on ultimate truth – at least none of us can claim it with a straight face or a sound mind.

With that said, I have found no reasons to discount the Bible as the authentic revelation of God in the 40+ years since I came to be a believer. In that time, I have found even more reasons to trust it.

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Intellectuals May Enter

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There is a common perception among “intellectuals” that religion is for simpletons and faith requires abandoning the intellect. Nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion. I graduated 2nd in my class in law school. I am smarter than the average bear. I do not mean to boast. There are far smarter people than I in the world. One of those people was a good friend in college. She graduated #1 in our class with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She was a triple major, including Physics, Math and Russian studies. She has a PhD in Astrophysics. She was also a leader in a campus ministry in college.

You do not have to leave your brain at the door of faith, and you should not feel like a second class intellectual citizen to be a Christian. Intellect is not the sole province of the irreligious. Do not buy into that lie.

And for those thinking that Atheists are smarter than people who believe in God, think again:

 

Into the Light

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Psalm 139 is a favorite of mine. It can be very comforting knowing that God is intimately familiar with me. He knows my struggles, my good intentions, what I long for and what I need.

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.

On the other hand, God knows my demons, my sinful thoughts, my envious, hateful, spiteful and selfish thoughts. He not only sees the good things I do that I want others to know; he sees the bad things I do that I want no one to see. The idea that God knows me so well – even better than I know myself – is both a wonderful and a fearful thing!

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

King David’s question is rhetorical of course. The answer is surely nowhere. Nowhere can I go that God is not present. David takes comfort in that thought.

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

That knowledge is as unnerving as it is comforting. Nowhere can I go that God is not present and nothing can I do, or even think, that God does not know it.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden, their first reaction was to hide themselves from God. People have been hiding from God ever since. It is as futile an exercise as it is foolish. God’s knows every hair on our heads, and He knows every thought that runs through our heads. He surely knows every action that we take. There is nothing we can hide from God.

Jesus lamented, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” Matthew 23:26-28 He sees past the outside – what we do and say for others to see. God sees into our hearts – places that we dare not even look at times.

Jesus also upped the ante: He said, the law states “thou shall not commit murder” and “thou shall not commit adultery,” but one who harbors anger against another person is subject to judgment and one who harbors lustful thoughts for his neighbor’s wife has committed adultery in his heart. Matthew 5:20-28

What is the point? We fool only ourselves and maybe others (certainly not everyone) to think that we are in any way righteous. There is no hiding from God. If the law of do’s and don’t’s is not enough to convince us that we are imperfect, sinful beings, then consider that every thought is measured against perfection. There is nowhere to hide.

Consider also that everything will be exposed. “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.” 1 Corinthians 4:4-6 Imagine a video of all of the bad things you have done, all of the hateful, hurtful thoughts, played in front of God, you and all mankind when the curtain falls on your life.

The terrible truth is that every person has sinned; we have all missed the mark God set for us. Ephesians 2:23 If anyone claims he has not sinned, he is a liar. John 1:10

The devil is a liar and the father of all lies. John 8:44 Satan would have us bury those miserable thoughts and deeds and keep the skeletons in the closet, not admitting them even to those closest to us, not even to oursleves.

God is truth. John 4:24 There is no escaping God, but God desires mercy, not sacrifice and burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6 He is not looking for people who do everything right; he is looking for people who have a right heart.

If we step into the light, our condition is exposed. But, that is where we find truth; that is where we find God. Our natural inclination is to shrink back, but God calls us out of darkness into His wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:8-10 In that light, with our sinfulness exposed, we ask for forgiveness, and our sins are forgiven.

God is truth, and we draw near to God when we draw near to truth, even the ugly truth of the sin that lies in our own hearts. Only in the light God’s truth can we find the comfort that comes from communion with God in spirit and truth. “[A] time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24

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“Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Psalm 32:1-3

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6

We Are All Born That Way

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Modern science maintains that gays & lesbians are born that way. Biblical are pretty clear that homosexual acts are sin and not what God designed or intended. Indeed, the anatomy of men and women suggest, at least for the sexual act, that God and nature are in agreement on this.

In my own life, having observed two young women who were close to the family at one time, it seems to me that sexual orientation is something ingrained from an early age. It seems very plausible that people are “born that way.” I have a gay cousin. I have also known gay Christians. I had a gay Christian room-mate in college.

It appears quite empirically that people are born or become sexually oriented at a very early age. At the same time, the Bible is quite clear on homosexuality. It is sinful. It is not what God intended. These are difficult realities to reconcile.

I suppose it should not be a surprise that some people are born or develop a gay or lesbian inclination very early on. The Bible is equally clear that we are all born into sin. As Adam sinned, he spawned a legacy of sin that has been passed down in some genetic and most likely spiritual sense to the present time. It is our lot in life.

Some of us develop lying and deceitful ways from an early age. Some of us develop bullying, envious, angry, selfish, or gluttonous ways. Some of us develop lustful ways at a very, very early age. More likely, we are born that way or with those tendencies, and we all stray down those paths from very, very early on.

We are all sinners. We have all strayed from God. There is none righteous, not even one. Romans 3:10

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8

The good news is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us on the cross. Romans 5:8 God clearly loves all of us. He loves us so much that He was willing, and He did, die for us. He loves me, though I am inclined every day of my life to be selfish, gluttonous, lustful, unkind and sinful in a multitude of ways.
He clearly loves our gay and lesbian family members, friends and neighbors. We are all “born that way”.