World Events–and what has me worried.

 

I grew up in the 1970’s where the evangelical world was obsessed with the end times. Books like Hal Lindsay’s “The Late Great Planet Earth”, and films like “A Thief in the Night” caused many of us to grow up with that insecure feeling. As a reaction to my upbringing, I have not given much thought to End Time scenarios. I have never preached past the seventh chapter of Revelation. I have never read the “Left Behind” series. I have not preached a series of messages through the prophecies in Daniel. 

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I have studied post-millennialism and amillennialism and pre-millennialism, (and its offshoot dispensationalism) The result of my studies is “I don’t know.” I know that Jesus is going to come back again. I know that God has history in his control. I do know that things are going to get bad before the end. But the reality is, I don’t know what shape the end times will take. I know a lot of people who are sure of what they think is going to happen. I am not sure.

So as I look at the world, I am not trying to jam events into some preconceived end times scenario. But what I see as I look at events in the middle east are somewhat frightening. Last night I heard CIA agent, named Reza Kahlili (Not his real name), speak (over Skype).  He wrote a book “A Time to Betray”. As a CIA agent he infiltrated the Revolutionary Guard in Iran.

He said Hamas has about 60000 rockets. The events over the past weeks where they have shot over a thousand rockets into Israel has dominated the news. (It seems odd to me that much of News seems to be reported from the view – “How dare Israel shoot back.”) The question one should ask, according to Reza, is “where is Hamas getting these rockets.” The answer he says is Iran. 

It is the worst kept secret in the world that Iran has been working on building an atomic bomb. It has been slowed by the “Stuxnet” computer virus. There have also been “mysterious” explosions and key people in the program have “mysteriously” died. However, the program continues to advance. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September of this year, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,said that “Iran’s apocalyptic leaders were 70% of the way to building nuclear warheads.” He declared that they would be 90% of of the way by this coming spring. (Spring 2013)

Now all of this would be scary enough. Iran is supplying Hamas with rockets to drop into Israel, and they are close to getting the bomb. The Iranian President, in a speech to the U.N., declared that Israel should be eliminated. I find all of this scary, but this is not the worst of it.

The Iranian regime believes in a radical Shiite eschatology. (How the world will end) Reza and a book I read called “Israel at War” written by Joel Rosenberg basically say the same thing. They believe that there is a new world order coming where the “12th Imam” will arise and lead the world to follow Islam and Jesus Christ will be his deputy. The Iranian regime believes that it can create the context for this to happen. In fact Iran’s supreme leaders has said that he is the deputy of both Mohammad and this 12th Imam.

I don’t think our secular world gets the power of belief. Iran leaders have declared both that they do not believe that they can be hurt by western bombs, and that even if the whole of Iran was laid to waste, that those are acceptable losses if it ushers in the Muslim end times. What that means is that doctrine of “Mutually assured destruction” that held Russia and the U.S. in check in the cold war will not hold Iran in check. They will blow up Israel and the United States (who the Iranian leader refers to as the little Satan and the great Satan) even if they know they are going to get blown up in return.

I started this article by saying that I don’t know what to think about the various Christian views of the end times. I do know this though, Israel seems to be very central to whatever is going to happen. So I see all of this developing and I think, God may provide some sort of miracle to get the world out of this mess, or that Jesus may come back very soon. I don’t know what is going to happen – but I do see reasons to be alert.

The one thing that Jesus emphasises about the end times is that we should be prepared. It seems to me that being prepared to meet Jesus or to walk through difficult times would be a prudent course of action.

Information, the Church, and the Christian life

 

A little History

When the church was born 2000 years ago, information was in short supply. There is more information in the weekend edition of the New York Times than an apostle would have encountered in an entire life time. People tended to think deeply on relatively small bits of information, rather than process large quantities of information. The church would digest a letter from Paul. They would study the Old Testament. They would think deeply and profoundly through a few things. (If you read the thinking surrounding the church councils one sees that they tend to think more precisely than most Christians do today. This is also true of the early Puritans) 

I find it hard to imagine a world where there are no news papers, or radio interviews, or 6 o’clock news casts. But if the disciples wanted news of a church 100 miles away they would have to wait for a traveller from that town to arrive in their city. In our church, if we want news from the churches or missionaries we support, we Skype them into our church service.

When the church was first started, books were rare. Most people were illiterate. Only the very rich would own a lot of books.

Discipleship

When I think about that world, and when I think of current discipleship, I see a disconnect. Our discipleship is information driven. Sermons are good when they tell the people something new. Everyone owns a bible (or ten). To disciple someone means that we take them through this book study or that program – most of which is information driven. We have access to all kinds of pod casts, Christian books, Christian videos, Christian Radio, Christian C.D.’s Christian Websites, all of which are giving us information.

More Current History

When I became a pastor 27 years ago, before the time of the internet, I had access to information that no one else had. I pastored in a small town, and my personal library was best theological library in that small town. My theological library contained about 3000 books. When I went to school I made my library a priority.

This made me the theological expert in my small town. If people wanted information on theology they came to me. If people wanted resources to study the bible they came to me.

Current Reality

I now have a Samsung Tablet and Kindle account. There are very few weeks that go by where I don’t download a good book for free. Everybody has access to good information. This morning I downloaded Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts  by Jerry Bridges. The challenge now is not access to information, the challenge is the time assimilate the information.

However, even in saying that, you will notice how far our discipleship model has strayed from the first century. Discipleship in the first century was not about assimilating information. It was about something different.

Discipleship in the New Testament

It would seem that discipleship in the New Testament was primarily about the work of the Spirit in a person’s life. The work of the Spirit on the inside would then be translated into how one lived with others on the outside. Christian living was not about living out some philosophical system, it was about Christ in you, and the love of Christ through you. It was not so much about what you knew, but about what Christ had done in you. It was about your testimony.

There was some basic information that one had to master. At one point in early church history, one was required to memorize the book of Mark before one could be baptized. But discipleship had less to do with information, and more to do with the Spirit of God, and one’s own heart, and living out faith in community.

Discipleship was less about reading one’s bible every day. Few people could read and fewer people had access to a Bible. It was however, learning to follow Jesus by his Spirit.

Keeping the Main thing the Main thing.

We live in a world driven by information. Information doubles in our world every 10 years. The church has bought into discipleship by information. The reality is that we are going to have to deal with the information because of the world we live in. But information should never be mistaken for the core of the gospel. The person of Jesus, the power of the Spirit, and life in the community were at the historic core of the gospel. When we substitute secondary things (like information) for the main thing our faith gets warped, our churches malfunction, and our lives are impoverished.

Signature Sins–A book Review

 

Every so often a book comes along that I think I should read twice. Signature Sins;Taming Our Wayward Hearts by Michael Mangis in one of those books.

Mangis is a psychologist by training, but he seems also to be a gifted theologian. In this book he maps the human heart in ways that are both clear and helpful.

He starts by listing and defining what the Western Church has come to know as the seven deadly sins:lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy and pride. He says “Within these seven basic categories of sin the human heart has the astounding capacity to produce an infinite number of variations.”  What I found helpful is that he defines these sins in such a clear but nuanced way that it is easy to see what they are and how they reside in our own hearts.

For instance in talking about pride Mangis says, “Pride wants to put God on trial…the elemental struggle of pride(is): submitting to God’s definition of reality rather than our own.” Then he goes on to nuance it by talking about the outward manifestation of pride which shows up in “arrogant, haughty and snobbish manners” and ends up in inappropriate narcissism, and the inward manifestation of pride which “leads a person to be obsessed with other and how they feel about him or her. This person is self-focused.”

Mangis walks through all the deadly sins in this way. These definitions of sin are helpful to anyone looking to diagnosis their own heart, or those who have another’s permission to walk into their heart with the object of helping them live well.

Mangis then goes on to postulate that each person has a primary “signature sin.” Mangis says “the essence of a signature sin, the sin that clings so closely. We come to view it as part of ourselves.” It is hard to separate our signature sin from our identity. We may have a primary and a few secondary signature sins.

Now it would be very easy for someone to write a book like this that is guilt inducing. However, I found his writing liberally seasoned with grace. I also found some of the clearest thinking I have read on how our personalities affect our sinful tendencies. He also notes that culture and ethnicity and gender can move us toward particular sins. He even addresses the biology of sin and mental illness and sin.

Mangis is not content to point out sin. He wants to offer an antidote to our sinful patterns. He is perfectly orthodox when it comes to the cross or Christ. But while forgiveness is immediate changing our wayward hearts takes time. Often these patterns that have been engraved in our heart for a long time and they cause pain. He suggest that there is little we can do to change, but there are ways of cooperating with God for change.

He suggests that after confessing our sins, we need to pray into and take on the spiritual discipline that is in direct opposition to our sin. He acknowledges that this takes discernment. But he gives pointers to make this discernment easier. He talks about community and spiritual rhythms. He calls us to be who we were made to be in Christ.

I love the fact that he does not give easy answers. This is not a formulaic book, where is I do A + B I will get C. But he does give ways to approach our wayward hearts.

Mangis uses scripture and the tradition of the church while not ignoring the contributions of psychology to map the human heart. This book is one of the better books I have read on the nuts and bolts of spiritual formation.