Bonhoeffer

http://www.amazon.com/Bonhoeffer-Pastor-Martyr-Prophet-Spy/dp/1595551387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293819438&sr=8-1#_

I recently finished the definitive, new biography of Bonhoeffer's life. When I got the book, I was a bit leary due to the length (about 550 pages), but within the first 30 pages I was hooked. The author does a great job intertwining the social and political climate of the time with Bonhoeffer's life. Therefore, it's not just a book about Bonhoeffer, nor is it simply a history of Hitler and WWII.

If you are only vaguely familiar with Bonhoeffer's life, like I was, then you probably won't understand how much this book will inpsire you. What strikes me about his life is not simply that he died the heroic death of a martyr, although I think any Christian can be challenged by Bonhoeffer's death. Yet, for me, I was fascinated with how this pastor and theologian wrestled with the very meaning of the Gospel. Jesus told us to pray for our enemies, to turn the other cheeck, and to give to people whateve they ask from us (Sermon on the Mt., beginning in Matthew 5). Those who try to rationalize these teachings away is like the foolish man who builds his house upon the sand (the final teaching in the Sermon on the Mount). The point is, we cannot simply say, "Jesus didn't really mean it," or try to find some historical/culture feature that would negate this commandment for modern Christians. Sometimes, the Bible just means what it means.

On the other hand, doesn't the very nature of the Gospel demand that Christians would stand in the way of a madman who is executing literally MILLIONS... let me say that again, MILLIONS of legally innocent people? Bonhoeffer wrestled for years trying to decide of it was Biblical (not merely logical, reasonable, or popular) to involve himself in a plan to kill another human being. As a pastor and theologian, someone with an intimate relationship with God and passionate reverance for Scripture, could he lie, manipulate, and plan to take a way life? These are the questions Bonhoeffer debates in his journal, books, and letters to friends, and they give a great deal of substance to an already intriguing tale.

Anyway, I would highly recommend this book. For those of you who don't have the time or desire to read a 550 page book, there are at least two documentaries on Netflix. One contains footage from the time period and comes highly recommended by Matt Hartman, though I haven't had time to watch either yet. Enjoy!

-Matt

Old Testament Ethics

I've been reading through the OT Historical Books (namely Joshua, Judges, and the Kings'), and have been studying the implicit ethical expectations within those books. So, here is a somewhat homogenized and distilled summary of my conclusions thus far.

The way in which all people, whether Hebrew or pagan, are expected to conduct their lives is super-glued to the identity, character, and actions of God. He is unique, universal (not just a national god), incomparable, sovereign, owner, ruler, and Creator; consequently, He has the right to demand ethical conduct. He also knows the thoughts, actions, and motives of all people and situations, giving God the ability to hold all people morally accountable. 2 Chronicles 16:9a, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (I'd love to put that verse to the tune of the Walker Texas Ranger intro song) So, for those who lack ethical/moral commitment, judgment is guaranteed. In the OT, that judgment often occurs in present times enacted through the violence of nations (whether Hebrew or pagan). Still, Yahweh is the ultimate Judge.

For Israel, expectations of ethical/moral obedience are exponentially greater 1) because of their status as the covenant people of God. This status is not rooted in individual commitment, but in a national covenant. Thus, a single sinner affects the entire covenant status. Israel must also excel morally 2) because of its election via Abraham. Just as someone who is chosen to receive a full-tuition scholarship is expected to act in-line with his school’s standards, so also Israel’s election comes with regulations (Gen 18:18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.) . Third, Israel must enact God’s ethics 3) because His benevolent actions, particularly in the Exodus, demands faithful submission to his principles. Judges 2, “1 The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?” God created a covenant with Israel by means of His sovereign election demonstrated through His deliverance of Israel from harm. Therefore, the greatest error God’s people could commit was to turn away from Him in idolatry, the primary sin with which Israel struggles throughout the OT. Furthermore, following other gods instinctively leads to adopting the ideals and ethics of those gods including cruelty, injustice, and oppression.

So, there are universal, worldwide ethical expectations for all people as creations of God as well as more specific regulations for God’s covenant people. Still, a further expectation for ethical behavior falls on a specific group within Israel: leadership, whether kings or judges. Israel’s governmental structure is blatantly theocratic. God shares power with no one. Yet, kings and judges, when demanded by the people in one way or another, are expected to represent the very qualities of the ultimate King and Judge by maintaining justice and righteousness in society. In fact, the Queen of Sheba accurately sums up Solomon’s role as king, saying, “Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.” Jehoshaphat is famous for actively pursuing a second ethical obligation of Israel’s leaders in that he restored the integrity of Israel’s judicial system. Previous Kings were notorious for their corruption and oppression, thus Jehoshaphat begins restoring ethical judgment by warning the judges in 2 Chronicles 19:4ff, “Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for mere mortals but for the LORD.” Third, Israel’s leaders are expected to create economic justice and equality. Samuel warns Israel of the economic consequences of placing a king in authority and by 1 Kings 12, economic issues have split God’s people into two nations. Yahweh’s desire for Israel was always equality. Lev 19: 9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.” Also, notice Nehemiah’s outrage over economic mistreatment in Neh 5. To ignore the need of the poor breaks the ethical code of Yahweh, and Israel’s leaders are charged to maintain that code. The ideal leader, then, would be someone who promotes justice, righteousness, and economic equality within Israel.

The modern applications of God’s ethical demands on Israel are not as simple to draw out as they may seem. The problem is that God’s covenant people today are not a nation but a hodgepodge of people with individual commitments to God known as the church. The church does not have control of the economy or justice system. It does not have a singular history of God’s deliverance beyond its initial centuries of existence. And yet, there are several principles that still hold true. First, as members of the human race, we have an expectation to follow the principles of the Creator and sustainer of life. Colossians 1 details this truth quite well, describing Christ as the agent of creation as well as the very reason for it. In light of that truth, we should not presume that God will restrain His judgment when we ignore the principles that He expects His creatures to live by.

Second, in light of the new covenant brought about in the lives of elected Believers and demonstrated by God’s active leading in our lives, we should long to live holy lives. Right living is not a prerequisite for salvation. And yet, living by God’s ethical standards is the obligation of every person who has received the benefits of covenant, election, and deliverance (ie, salvation by grace through faith). Our (rightfully) grace-obsessed Christian culture would do well to remember the moral expectations intertwined with the benefits of the Gospel (read Jesus, Paul… pretty much the entire New Testament).

Third, the church should constantly examine ways to bring about God's ethical standards within our government. In saying this, I do not believe any singular man can represent God’s revelation to a country. Instead, each of us has the very revelation of God embodied in the Bible, specifically within the ethical expectations upon Israel’s leadership. We should strive for a nation where justice is promoted. Powerful men and women should not be allowed to act sinfully simply because of their position. Corruption is completely unacceptable. And, we must recognize that economic equality is important to God and should be to His people. It is not tolerable for the rich to continue getting richer while the poor are ignored and neglected. Micah 6 tells us that God does not desire greater acts of worship but rather to do justice, love showing mercy, and live in humility before God. We must vote and speak out based upon these issues, and when government fails to enact them, the church must be willing to act upon what it preaches. We do this not by boycotting, nor by publically bashing leaders (see Romans 13) but by picking up the slack. WE take care of those who are hurt but corruption. WE "leave the edge of our field" for those in need. WE inject the Gospel into those situations. And, we lovingly proclaim the truth even when it is unpopular.

Finally, within the Christian community, leaders are responsible to uphold God's ethical standards. The church must be a place where sinners pursue righteousness; where selfishness and evil are not ignored but confronted; where people of all levels of status are treated as equals before God (neither slave nor free… Col 3); and where an all-encompassing lifestyle of worshiping God is the norm among His people. We cannot claim to be God’s people and yet live by the idolatrous standards of a world opposed to God. Each of us individually and the entirety of the universal church must renew our dedication to the ethical standards spelled out for us in the Old Testament and elaborated upon in the New Testament in response to the person, character, and actions of God (especially those demonstrated in the life-purchasing death of Jesus).

-Matt

Hell

Hell: This is a topic I have avoided for some time, but one that I am finally coming to grips with. As a compassionate, somewhat intelligent Christian, I find myself feeling the need to defend Hell. But, in a lot of ways, Hell is becoming either more defensible or less needing of defense so that I can think more clearly about it. Those who reject God their whole lives consequently do several things. First, they mock the God who created them, who sustained their lives, who gave them every good thing they ever knew, who created love and every attribute or emotion that makes life worth living. They mock him by ignoring Him completely or by admitting that He exists but refusing to trust in Him. They ruin their own chance to be a part of a perfect relationship and to experience true emotional and spiritual joy. If it is sick and wrong to hurt or attack a human being – an imperfect, often un-loyal, selfish being who may even be in error in the situation – how much more sick and wrong is it to ignore or belittle the only One who gives you everything that you care about and who loves you unconditionally?

So rejecting God is an act of mocking him as well. Second, though, by rejecting God, they exalt themselves to deity. Obviously, anyone who really walked around calling himself a god would be considered a nut-job. Yet, those who refuse to acknowledge the only one who deserves the title God imply their self-sufficiency from Him. Independence and self-sufficiency can be good or bad depending on your relationship to the person from whom you’re becoming independent and self-sufficient. For a newly married man, it is perfectly good to become independent and self-sufficient from his parents. On the other hand, no one would deny the ridiculousness of an eight year old declaring himself independent and self-sufficient from his parents, much less if the child was two. We all like to think we can fix our own problems, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, and steer the course of our own lives. Thinking of ourselves in this manner is little more than ascribing omniscience (being all-knowing) and omnipotence (being all-powerful) to our own lives. In short, we make ourselves deity. But, when we do so, we act like that toddler declaring himself independent and self-sufficient.

A third important consequence of living out of relationship with God is that all of God’s commands are broken. People like to suggest the idea that God might be punishing the wrong people with Hell, in effect sending innocent people to eternal damnation. However, scripture teaches us that none are righteous and that even the best person’s good deeds are worthless to God. Some might say, “Ya, but what if someone kept all of the commandments in the Bible and missed just one, is it fair to send that person to Hell?” The appropriate response to that person is this, “James says that once you become a transgressor, you’re a transgressor. It’s sort of like virginity. Once it is gone you cannot get it back. So, even if someone could live to the age of 20 without ever sinning, once he sinned, he became a sinner.” Also, Jesus said that all of the OT law could be summed up in the commands to love God and love others. Maybe a very moral, charitable unbeliever accomplishes the act of loving others quite well. But, if he refuses to acknowledge and trust in God, he misses the number one command in all of scripture: to love God. Therefore, even his humanitarian efforts become worthless because those actions did not point people to a relationship with the one that would offer them the utmost good.

In light of these three things – mocking God, setting yourself up as deity, and breaking all of God’s commands – Hell seems to be a bit more acceptable as a punishment. However, there is another way to look at it. Those who have no desire for a relationship with God experience his passive judgment their entire lives. In other words, he judges them by giving them exactly what they want. They want none of God, so they get none of God. Only those of us who have a relationship with God can really realize what they are missing. So, if a person lived like that, wanting nothing to do with God, does it not almost make sense that when they die, they go to a realm that is God-less? In a sense, then, Hell is God’s ultimate act of passive wrath/judgment in that he gives people exactly what they want for all of eternity. Unfortunately, they don’t really understand the implications of what they want because the moment they lose God, they lose the chance of joy, love, peace, security, and any good thing they could imagine. How could you describe the terror of such a place? Well, Jesus and Biblical writers chose to portray it as a place of fire, darkness, hungry worms, weeping and gnashing teeth, and so on. These images try to make a single point: Hell is really bad! It is a place that allows the Holy God to maintain His Holiness by punishing those who mock him, make themselves out to be deity, and break His commands. His wrath leads to active punishment for those who refuse and reject Him. But, Hell is also the natural result of choosing to live out of relationship with God. It is the passive punishment of ultimately allowing the lost what they have sought their entire lives. The great thing about the story is that God did something about Hell. He did not sit back and expect man to do something to justify himself. Instead, He took on flesh and died to provide the opportunity to experience all that is good in Him, including Heaven (which is simply the unfiltered presence of God). What a joy in the midst of darkness.

-Matt