Army of Priests

A few years ago a user of an internet forum was struggling to believe in God, so they wrote the following post, which I answered. My answer is not as complete as I would write today, but it was personal and adapted to match the personality to the questioner. I hope that it helps you any way it can.

I’ve been bored lately, and have probably written too much…but ahh well…

God is a mysterious creature that is either an all-everything super-force or an illusion created in the minds of men. I would love to believe the former. I would love to believe that God, the Christian God, created the universe and came in human form to earth and sacrificed himself to save all of our sins. I would love to believe the miracles in the bible, the stories and doings of Christ, and that Christ rose from the dead three days later. I don’t, and it’s not from lack of searching.

Many of my closest friends believe in God and Jesus Christ. I belong to a religious organization, CRU, and to a bible study. I enjoy worship at CRU and I love the things I learn at bible study. I want to believe. I pray and I hope, but in my heart and soul, there’s nothing. There’s no confidence and no assurance. In my heart, there is no Christ.

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There is one thing in my religion that is hard to believe…

It’s easy to believe that the teachings of Jesus lead to a better life. It’s easy to see how enemy love and abandoning greed can lead to a utopia. It’s not always obvious at first but even a short time spent pondering the sermon of the mount can see its advantages. Few people dispute the brilliance of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

It’s also easy to believe that Jesus’ way of life in unachievable for us. Sure, there are “nice” people. But genuine sacrifice in the pursuit of loving our enemies is simply beyond our reach. A lot of people underestimate just how high a standard the golden rule is. Even with the awesome work people do (like the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation) they still fall far short of the standard Jesus set for us.

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The other day I was contemplating the degree of our smallness compared to the size of our problems. Global Poverty is a huge problem, and despite all the aid organisations it is a long way from being fixed. Greed is too strong.

No matter how many resolutions are ratified by governments or how strongly worded we write the acts of the Geneva convention torture will remain common in our world.

No matter how much love we pour on people they often just don’t seem to change. Drug addictions seem too strong, and biter thoughts to common, to defeat. There doesn’t seem like much we can do.

Heck, I struggle even to have enough discipline in my own life to maintain the time with God that I would like to, or exercise enough, or stop some repeated sin. If I don’t even have power over myself how can I help fight the problems in our world?

But that’s why we pray. Because we can’t save ourselves. Only God can.

I can give someone food, only God can solve their hunger. I can show someone love but only God can heal their pain.

Anything I do is invariably futile. Yet I do it anyway. Why? Because I believe God can make a difference.

My actions are statements of faith. They are futile in themselves but they represent my daring belief (or lack thereof) in God.

So when I give someone bread it is my act of prayer for God to solve their hunger. When I love someone it’s because I believe God can heal their pain.

I’m learning to live my life as a prayer.

With the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings death a number of news media printed reports and opinions on his work during the 60′s and 70′s. One such article, published by CNN on Monday, was a particularly interesting read as it contrasted the Prophetic Gospel of King with the Prosperity gospel of the modern church. Here is some of what the article had to say:

Forty years after his death, King remains a prophet without honor in the institution that nurtured him, some black preachers and scholars say.

They also say King’s “prophetic” model of ministry — one that confronted political and economic institutions of power — has been sidelined by the prosperity gospel.

“It’s dangerous to be prophetic,” said Wheeler, who is also president of the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“I don’t know many prophetic preachers who are driving big cars and living very comfortably. You don’t generally build huge churches by making folks uncomfortable on Sunday morning,” he said.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached, says that prosperity preaching is not just a distortion of Jesus’ message but a betrayal of the black church’s heritage. The black church was formed by slaves who saw Jesus’ message as a tool for social justice.

You can read the full article here or (if it is deleted) download a PDF version here.

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I haven’t posted here for a while. Usually I write a lot because that’s how I process the insane amounts of information I absorb every week. I then figure I might as well post it here. But over the last two weeks I have had more questions then answers and thus haven’t thought anything I have written worthy of posting.

But I do have questions. Perhaps you can answer them for me.

Once upon a time I thought I had faith. I was well versed in evangelical doctrine (even matching my pastor in tests) and felt like I could look up any answer in any book and feel satisfied. I don’t trust those old answers anymore. I’m not sure any of us can really know the whole truth. Why do people with opposing view points each think they know the truth? Are we so proud as to think we have a monopoly on correct doctrine?

And why is it that although I am less certain of my hold on truth I feel like I have more faith in God? If faith is not tied to certainty in belief then what is it? Perhaps trust despite not knowing? And how much faith do you need? I am realising that every time I think I have faith I latter come to realise that I did not. Fortunately, this is usually because God has grown my faith. I’m starting to wonder if I even know what faith or love or peace really is. And how much faith is required to be saved? I thought I had faith figured out a long time ago – I was wrong.

Why do so many things work in theory and not in practise? Healing is a classic example. It works every time when preached from the pulpit but it doesn’t seem to happen in practise much. Also, in theory non-Christians should convert instantly when they hear a good argument for God. They don’t. And supposedly God should be willing to help me do His moral will, yet despite how much I pray for help that often doesn’t work out.

Why do many Christians seem more hateful than anyone in the world?

Why is it that I can know what is right and want to do right, and then not do right when the opportunity comes?

How much does God direct my life? He forced Jonah to do His will. He hardened pharaoh’s heart. How much of what I do is completely my choice? How much of what I do is directed by God?

Why are we told to pray for our needs? God already knows them. And why do we think that more persistent prayer or more energetic prayer is more likely to be answered?

Why is life so unfair? Why is it that some people get life so good (especially in western society) whilst the rest of the world lives in poverty or pain? And why do western, democratic cultures think they are better than other cultures when they have the highest suicide rates? If the virtues of democracy and the Anglo-Saxon world are so good why are thousands of teenagers so desperate to leave it that they would leave their lives?

 Why are Christians more interested in how I spend my Sunday mornings than what I do during the other six days of my week?

Why does having questions humble me so much? Why does it make me feel unable to offer any advice on other topics? Why don’t we all ask more questions and expose our doubts?

I know the simple answers to all of these. I don’t want simple answers.

I think God is more satisfying than answers anyway.

One of the great challenges I that has been raging on my mind is how to spend myself showing love to people. On Monday night I got an idea for a social experiment that I did yesterday. The details of it follow:

The following idea came to me. Write the message “I love you more that this money. You can keep it or pass it on.” On 5 pieces of paper which I would wrap around $20 bills and give to random people. Yes, I am insane.

This is what I like about the experiment: Firstly, in a world where everyone is looking after themselves, seeking to increase their own wealth, this makes a statement that at least one person exists that loves them more than money. It may be hard to believe. It also states that you don’t need to know me, for me to love you.

Secondly, it is a note that challenges human greed. If you’re handed some money, would you keep it or pass it on? This is money that has cost you nothing, not money you have earned; it should be much easier to give away. And if they do, then they learn about love both as a receiver and a giver. One of the hardest things getting people to understand is God’s love. It is contrary to everything that seems natural. The only way to understand it is to experience it in some small way; that small way can bring someone one step closer to God.

But there is an almost prophetic dimension to it. I live in Australia. Australians are amongst the richest people in the world. Because I was born in this place at this time I have naturally been given blessings and wealth. I didn’t earn it. God gave it to me. In fact, God has given everything to us. And it goes to show that even though we haven’t always known God, he has loved us. The words I think he has for us are, “See, I’ve given you this gift. Will you keep it or pass it on?”

And so, the experiment proceeded like this:

Firstly, I have been sick the last few days. On Monday I took a day of work (I am a uni student and only work on Mondays) from a bug. Thus, I will earn no money this week. As night approached it was looking like I would still be to sick to go into the city on Tuesday. After cutting up the notes I prayed two things: a) that they would find whoever needed to know they were worth more than a twenty dollar bill, and b) that I would be well enough to do it. My stomach got better pretty much as soon as I prayed that and I had a great night sleep and was able to go into the city yesterday. I am still battling the remnants of a head cold though.

Secondly, after I reached the city I went up to an ATM and withdrew a hundred dollars in $20 bills. I then sat down at a park bench and wrapped the first bill around the first note. I put it in my pocket and started heading towards my campus (conveniently located in the inner city). I stopped at a book store and stealthily slipped the first one behind the front cover of a book at the front of the store. I felt so clever. It was a popular book, so someone is sure to find it.

When I had arrived at my campus I had the second note all ready in my pocket. It was fairly quiet at this time of morning and an Asian student was alone, reviewing his notes before a class. I walked up to him, said “hey”, and pretty much dropped the note on his books. He called after me as I headed up the stairs. Real smooth (not), and, suffice to say, a bit outside my comfort zone (and I’m a budding evangelist). I started wondering what the heck I was doing; if I had truly gone insane and what people would think.

I didn’t get to distribute any more of them until night (I have classes all day). After deciding that I wasn’t really brave enough to hand them to people I decided to hide the last three. I hid them at bus stops and in newspaper stands. After hiding my last one in the groves of a seat at a bus stop a woman with pizza walked past me and sat there. I drew some satisfaction from at least seeing the face of one person who was sure to find it.

So this is the story of my daring foray into losing my mind. But as I planted these notes I started to realise this was not a social experiment to see what would happen. It was an experiment on me. The question was would I through away $100 on a week when I earned nothing? Would I have enough faith to believe that maybe God could use the foolishness of a mad man? It was about stretching my comfort zone and seeing if I was really ready to place just the possibility of helping other people over my income.

Yesterday I won a battle against the greed in my own heart. I may be a fool, but I am a fool for God and not my own good. If God can somehow use what I have done, that is awesome. But if he can’t, then I will still be more faithful to some crazy hope than a wallet full of cash.

Thick paper to write on: $1

5 $20 bills: $100

One small victory against my own greed: Priceless

Stanley Hauerwas, professor at Duke University and America’s “best theologian” (TIME Magazine, 2001), makes the following profound statement: “The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principals for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self sacrificing love in its rituals and disciple. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message; but to be the message.”

As a religion, I believe we focus too much on life after death. The comfortable knowledge that we are “saved” keeps us chained to the pews until eventually this life ends and the next one begins. However, I believe God is just as interested in revolutionising life before death as he is in providing life after it. I’m not talking about prosperity; I am talking about a life that is in stark contrast to the culture surrounding it. A life filled with love, a life lived in humility, a life where pain is healed and treasure is built up in heaven – and sacrificed on earth. This revolution requires us to forcefully abandon the ideology of this world and embrace another.

The “Me” Complex

Self Centeredness, or pride, is at the core of every Sin. Adam and Eve were deceived by possibility of becoming “like God” – an entirely self focused motivation. Ever since humans have forgotten just how infinitely incomparable we are with God and have continued to place ourselves first. We wouldn’t sin if we truly placed God above our own desire to do wrong. We could never hurt others if we cared for them more than what ever we would gain my doing so. This self centeredness is having a debilitating effect on Western Culture – and the Church.

Many Christians claim to place God as a priority (a minority actually – 15%) yet when you challenge them to express that through their actions – to volunteer for the poor, reach the hurting people, or even spend more time with God – it rapidly becomes apparent that other priorities get in the way. The reality is this: they place their salvation first (which is placing themselves first), then they place there other priorities second, then they get to the work of actually serving God in the community if it is convenient.

Christians in Western Societies are never required to make a sacrifice for our faith. We aren’t persecuted. But in order to solve the deep pride (sin) problem we need to learn to place others and God first in our lives. Because Christianity is easy in the west Christians never have to make this move, thus they never deal with the ‘me’ complex.

There comes a point where a Christian has to decide: how much is God worth? How much will they hold back? Will they drop everything – everything – and follow Christ? No more “buts”; no more compromise. No more convenience. God wants to fix the greatest problem you will ever have, but it will not be easy.

Cheap and Dear Grace

We’ve often heard the definition “Mercy is not getting what you deserve (i.e. punishment), Grace is getting what you don’t deserve (i.e. eternal life etc)”. But only recently did I realise there is another element to grace – grace costs. Think about how much God’s grace cost him. It cost him the life of his son. If you really want to make a difference for God in this world you need to learn to show that type of grace.

Plenty of Christians are willing to show “cheap grace”. This is grace that costs nothing. We’ll spread the good news if someone brings it up; we will provide a shoulder if someone needs one; we’ll give some money for a cause if we have change. What the world really needs though is “dear grace”. We need more people who are willing to purposefully go out of their way to show God’s love to someone. We need people who are willing to give away more than they can afford for someone. We need more people who will sleep with the homeless. This type of grace changes the world – and it changes you. This is sacrifice and it will cure you. The world sees this and they say, “There is something different about that man/woman.”

Crucify Yourself

Similarly we must learn to be ruthless in our pursuit to place God first in our lives. Christ died for us and it is time to us to “take up our cross” and follow him. As we crucified Christ, so we must let him crucify ourselves. That picture above isn’t just Jesus – it is our old flesh and way of life. Some of the “nails” are as follows:

• Obedience – do what ever God tells you to do (no “buts”, no hesitation)
• Dedication – pre-commit to sticking with this journey even when it is hard. Follow God all the time.
• Discipline – Make your time with God a habit. Say “no” to temptation.
• Sacrifice – Be prepared to give up everything. Hold nothing back.
• Authenticity – place following God and being “real” above being accepted by others
• Accountability – be honest with others. Have them keep you on track.
• Service – Place others and God first. Go out of you way to serve them.
• Evangelism – Be proactive in spreading God’s grace right where you are.
• Contagiousness –Replicate yourself by showing and sharing your life with others.
• Righteousness – Hunt down and destroy sin in your life.
• Ruthlessness – You’re at war with the ways of this world.
• Courageousness – Take risks, have faith.
• Humility – Give the glory to God.
• Teaching – Share with others what you have learned.
• Learning – Commit yourself to learning more from God and others.
• Compassion – Judge sin, but don’t condemn a sinner. Love is the solution to sin.
• Change – Commit yourself to continual change.

To be honest, I’m not there yet. But I am on the way. It’s a much more vigorous form of Christianity than you may be used to. God is worth it.

The Radical Christian: An Overview

The Radical Christian: Revolutionising Society

The Radical Christian: Place in Ecclesiology

The Radical Christian: How they got there

I wrote this email to a friend of mine:

Subject: Been thinking about faith versus action

I have some more thoughts if you are interested. When you’ve looked through all this stuff in the bible you’ll have to let me know what you’ve found as it is one of the bigger mysteries of the gospel.

Faith is like belief except it goes beyond in that as it is an initiator for action. Basically you have an action, and there is a risk involved in taking that action. Faith is a strong belief that enables you to take that risk and do the action. It is closer to trust really. The action itself does not save us, which is good because we might not do the action right, but the trust required to do the action is what saves us. Think of giving your life to God. The action here is surrendering all your counterfeit efforts to make a purpose out of your life, to make yourself “like God” (from Genesis). This is a risk as you’ll be trusting someone else to give you purpose other than yourself. The trust required to do that action (surrender) is faith.

It is also possible to have faith without belief, and belief without faith. There are plenty of bits in the bible that my academic nature can’t quite bring myself to believe. But I have faith in it regardless because I trust it even thought part of me doubts it. In fact any faith in the bible must be like this because we cannot prove that the bible is inerrant and there are some wacky things in there. As such there will always be some room for doubt, but we trust it anyway. That is a risk (trusting a book over our mind) and faith is required to take that risk.

Alternatively, today one woman went up [at Church] and prayed about her family situation with young twins and an autistic child causing trouble. The church prayed for her an believed that God would intervene. However, I doubt anyone will get their hands dirty and actually help her. Helping her would be a risk (the effort might not help but could be wasted when it could have been used on something else (a sacrifice is always risky)) and as such that risk would require faith. Faith that God would not let that effort be in vain. Now when the church prayer for her they had belief, but none of us were taking a risk, and thus none of us were really required to have faith.

What really makes me wonder though is what is required for salvation. As I said to you a lot of people “place God first” to the extent that they are saved. This is really placing themselves and their eternity first. Placing God first is about taking risks, and making sacrifices for his glory and not our own. My question is can you get into heaven if you fall into the first category of placing yourself first. Surrender suggests placing God first. Placing God first suggests works. It suggests ruthlessly eliminating sin, spreading the word, giving up your money and time. Now those actions will never be responsible for salvation, but perhaps those actions are the side-effects of a saved life. If that is the case then a lot of people with belief, but without risk (putting themselves first), are going to find themselves in trouble. On the other end of the spectrum I must remember the proverb where people were casting out demons and healing the sick and Jesus said he never knew them. This is the single greatest remaining question I have: Is calling yourself a Christian enough to be one? Can belief without action save you? I wish James had answered that rhetorical question of his in Chapter 2.

These are really just musings, I imagine the theology of it can get quite meaty. It lends itself naturally into a discussion on the new creation. Can someone get into heaven without being a “new creation” and what is a “new creation” anyway (the second part of that is one I have thought over in depth during the last few weeks)? Most Christians I know are indistinguishable from non-Christians. Are they saved? Do I even have the right to ask that question?

All I know is that for me, God comes first and I will take the risks he wants me to take. I can’t possibly give an answer to these questions by which I can measure other people. But I can glorify him with my own life. As far as I am concerned he is worth it, even if it is not necessary for me to be saved. It’s not about me anyway. I imagine God desires my salvation even more than I do. So I’ll just get to work on fulfilling his will.

Let me know what God shows you.

The bible’s picture of a New Creation seems far removed from what exists in Church’s today. The primary mission of this blog is to inspire people to turn from “born again lazy” into “samurai”. It is time western Christianity got itself into gear and started going all out for God. This is difficult, for we have taught ourselves a gospel that isn’t as good as the Good News should be. In light of all that we have studied so far, let us examine in this final post where we go wrong.

Saved by Works

In the past people feared that if they sinned after they were baptised they were doomed. Sin was condemnation. Consider: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), “He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves” (Job 34:11), “The dead were judged according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:12), “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (Romans 2:6-8), “Those who obey the law who will be declared righteous” (Romans 2:13).

The bible makes one thing clear: actions are important. As such the majority of Christianity over the last two millenniums has focused on us eliminating our sin. There is one problem – it doesn’t work! I cannot go a day reaching God’s standard. This is old covenant ideology. Yet we see much condemnation being poured onto sinners by so called Christians. Perhaps they have the wrong idea of what saves them – or worse, maybe their frauds interested only in appearance!

The idea here is that we make ourselves as righteous as possible to get into heaven.

Saved by Faith

There is another idea that faith in God is what it takes to save us. We can’t do it on our own, but if we believe in God he’ll get us into heaven. Consider: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8), “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9), “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Thank God! We can’t save ourselves so he helps us out. We need only believe in him. Unfortunately, James gives us a wake up call: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? … You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?” (James 2:14, 20-21). And then there are the verses in the section above.

The bible suddenly appears contradictory. What saves us – faith or works? In the mean time millions of Christians blissfully go through life confident that they are “saved by faith”. This ideology produces a dead Christianity.

The idea here is that we have faith and God removes our sins to get us into heaven.

Saved by God

Fortunately for us there is a much grander gospel which most Christians miss. According to Kenny Luck, mercy is when we don’t get what we do deserve and grace is when we get what we don’t deserve (Risk, pg 45). Consider this verse: “To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). God justifies the wicked (mercy) and credits us with righteousness (grace). He saves us from hell (mercy), but then does more (grace). What is this more?

Let us return to the beginning. We were made perfect. We stuffed up. Consider part 4, that God makes us New Creations. God doesn’t just plan to get rid of our sin. He doesn’t even just plan to get us into heaven. He plans to return us to intimacy with him. This is the good news! It’s not about heaven, it is about restoration. We can be perfect again!

Because we cannot defeat sin on our own, God places part of Himself in us. He begins the process of restoring us to intimacy with Him simply by being intimate with us. In this way he changes us from the inside out. Rather then enforce external rules we find that through faith God begins to change us. He makes us a new creation. Rather then fight that sinful nature God wants to slowly get rid of it all together!

He does this by walking with us. When we stumble, and we will, we are not condemned to hell. God would never condemn us for our sins. He’ll discipline us for them, but only in his loving pursuit of making us perfect again. Our part is not passive rather our salvation is a partnership. God works with us to remove our sin. Not just the record of them, but our actual doing of them.

This is the New Creation – a person who walks with God; a person who passionately seeks Him as He seeks us. The more we go after God, the more we find that we don’t want to sin. The more we become a new person.

It is an awesome privilege, and great news. I don’t need to struggle constantly against sin in my life only to fail again and again and again. Nor do I live as some born again lazy Christian relying on my belief in some 2000 year old dead guy. God is making me good and I want a part of that. My job is to follow him, and give him permission, as he does his work in my life. He is the potter and I am the clay.

Salvation comes neither by works, nor by faith. It comes from faith, expressed only by action, that a living God can change you. This is the resurrection. We haven’t just died to sin; we have been raised in new life! This is good news. We are New Creations. This is better than can be imagined. It’s not just about heaven; it is about becoming whole again. It is about redemption, not survival.

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This concludes this series. I have barely brushed on this topic and missed much. But I challenge you to seek God as he changes you. Don’t try to change yourself. Don’t sit back and keep living your sinful life. Seek God. Let him credit righteousness to you. Become a New Creation.