Category: Theology

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Books Theology

The Christmas Box

The Christmas Box

I read this book because my teenage son and his friends had read it, liked it, and wanted me to tell them what I thought of it. The story is touching (almost too touching), and delivers a moral lesson about the importance of fathers spending time with their children.  But there are some problems in the book, as we shall see.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the story: An elderly lady, Mary, takes in a young family of three to live with her. By the end of the book, the young family has grown to love Mary and discovers just before she dies, that as a young woman herself, Mary’s only child, a little girl, had died. Before Mary passes away, she succeeds in communicating to the young father the importance of spending time with his own daughter.

Richard Paul Evans, the author, is a mormon. However, I do not think that the book was written with the intention of “pushing” mormon theology on the reader. Any influence of his mormon theology is more accidental than anything else. You can see it in a couple of places in the book.

First of all, mormons have quite a fascination with angels and believe that humans can actually become angels. This might be the reason that Mary refers to her little girl as “her angel”. When Mary is about to die, her daughter Andrea “comes for her” and is spoken of as if she were in the room. There is nothing in the Bible about our departed loved ones coming to take us to heaven, and certainly nothing about them becoming angels!

At another point in the book, the young father has “angel dreams” in which an angel descends from the sky and becomes a stone angel. This is just foreshadowing of the stone angel that is at Mary’s daughter’s grave, but Mormon doctrine is based on information that was supposedly revealed to Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni. So I suppose that all the talk of angels might make the reader more sympathetic with the mormon story of Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith.

As far as the things that are mentioned about Christ, there are about three brief references that I found. None of these push any particular mormon doctrine, but since Mormons have an unorthodox view of the nature and person of Christ, we need to take a closer look at them:

1) On p. 18 it says that Jesus “ransomed our sins with his blood.” This doesn’t really make any sense. Sins aren’t ransomed, people are ransomed.

2) Like many evangelical Christian books these days, the implication of the “cross” statements in the book is that Christ’s suffering on the cross was for every human being, whether they repent of their sins or not. Again, this isn’t really mormon, but when Christ’s work of atoning for sins is made to sound like it is done for everyone, it changes the message of the gospel.

While this book doesn’t really have any mormon doctrine in it, I don’t know what mormon teachings are finding their way into Evans’ other books. I would not recommend the book to people simply for this reason.

If you are a mormon reading this review, I encourage you to take a fresh look at the doctrines of the Mormon church. I am not pushing any other church on you, just encouraging you to look to the Bible where you will discover Jesus Christ, eternal God in human flesh, who died for the sins of all those who will repent of their rebellion and follow him in faith.

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Theology

A Christian View of Academic Freedom

Christian colleges and universities face the challenge of being, at the same time, both academic institutions and Christian communities.  Due to this duality, the necessity arises for a distinctively Christian view of the concept of academic freedom.

Academic freedom, as commonly understood in secular institutions can be expressed by the following statement of two primary principles from the AFAF (Academics for Academic Freedom)

“We, the undersigned, believe the following two principles to be the foundation of academic freedom: 

  1. that academics, both inside and outside the classroom, have unrestricted liberty to question and test received wisdom and to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions, whether or not these are deemed offensive, and
  2. that academic institutions have no right to curb the exercise of this freedom by members of their staff, or to use it as grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal.”

Notice that the stated foundation of academic freedom isn’t really a foundation at all.  A careful reading of the two items shows that there is no real basis given for academic freedom, simply a bare assertion of its existence.

That freedom is understood as a right that the individual academic retains to be the ultimate authority to evaluate (“question and test”) the “received wisdom,” passing judgement on whether this wisdom is truly “wise” or not.  Should he choose to reject that wisdom, he is free to do so, in favor of any other “wisdom claim” that he should choose to adopt.

It is instructive that the statement does not explicitly mention “truth”, and here is where the Christian institution diverges from the secular academic institution.  Within the Christian faith, we believe in absolute truth that is knowable through the revelation that we have received from the Creator.  Furthermore, we believe that this truth is embodied in the One who declared himself to be “The Truth,” our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)

The ultimate authority within the Christian community is not the individual, no matter what his academic qualifications or role, but rather the revealed truth that we have from God in the Bible.  Thus we have a firm foundation for freedom, but not the freedom that is described by the AFAF above.

Christian freedom is not the freedom to believe and teach whatever we want, rather it is the freedom to know Jesus Christ as he is revealed in inspired Scripture.  Jesus himself said in John 8:32,

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

For Christian academics, academic freedom is the freedom that we find in our communal submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and his Word.  Together we commit ourselves to bringing every opinion and every “wisdom claim” or “truth claim” to the bar of Scripture.  We are thus free from the limitations that arise from making each individual an arbiter of absolute truth.  We are free from the tyranny of conventional wisdom or understanding of truth that goes against the authority of God’s Word.  

It was such freedom that allowed, even required, Martin Luther to take his famous stand:  “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen,” even when he was alone in his conviction and labeled a heretic.

But how do we reconcile the apparent contradiction between denying the autonomy that the secular academic takes for himself, and the autonomy that Luther appears to take for himself when taking his stand against the established church?  How do we allow ourselves as Christian academics Luther’s freedom while denying the “unrestricted liberty” that the AFAF proposes?

The answer is that we mutually commit ourselves to submit our ideas and opinions, our instruction and our teaching, to the Word of God.  Luther was forced to take his stand because the community of which he was a part did not grant him the liberty of submission to the Word of God.

To experience this liberty within the Christian institution, there must be a mutual commitment to the Bible’s authority by every individual within the community.  This is a mutual commitment to foundational scriptural truths that are stated in the institution’s statement of faith.  The statement of faith represents the common agreement of the essentials upon which we base our unity.  Hopefully, the statement of faith reflects not only the agreement of those within the institution, but also an agreement with our spiritual fathers, who have gone before us, clarifying for us the  content of the orthodox Christian faith.

When an individual joins the Christian academic community operating under this view of academic freedom, he agrees not to violate the freedom of the community by teaching or espousing any truth claim that violates the common understanding of what is the orthodox Christian faith.  Notice that in this view of academic freedom, any divergence from the statement of faith is a violation of the freedom that the community has found together in mutual submission to the Word of God.

When an individual member of the community finds himself with a view of truth that falls outside the statement of faith, the community grants that individual the freedom to leave his position with the institution in order to pursue a community with like convictions.

Summarizing, the Christian view of academic freedom may be stated like this,

We, the undersigned, believe the following two principles to be the foundation of Christian academic freedom: 

  1. that Christian academics find true freedom in a mutual submission to the absolute truth given to us in God’s self-revelation in the Bible.
  2. that Christian academic institutions, as Christian communities, have no right to curb the exercise of this freedom by allowing individual members of their faculty to teach in such a manner that mutually agreed upon foundational Christian truths are denied.

Practical steps

Should a Christian academic institution wish to implement fully the preceding understanding of academic freedom, I would suggest the following.

Establishing and maintaining a statement of faith that expresses the community’s understanding of orthodox Christian faith.  This statement of faith should, of course, be open to challenge and revision as individual members bring to the community clear Biblical rationale for such changes.

Defining spiritual authority structures within the institution.  Christian colleges and universities should have not only an academic structure, but also a spiritual structure that is based on the Bible’s clear teachings on elder authority that is given to the church to protect it from error.  There should be a clear definition of where the “elder authority” lies within the Christian institution.  Such authority should meet the Biblical qualifications for spiritual authorities as mutually understood within the community.  This may be defined in various ways, but it is essential that it be defined, so that there are those within the institution with the responsibility to guard and defend the community’s freedom found in its mutual submission to foundational Christian truths.

Clear, community-wide understanding of the differences between a secular view of academic freedom and the Christian view.  Such understanding is the goal of this post, and should be pursued by the institution’s leadership through constant reminder to existing members of the community and clear presentation to new members of the community.

In closing, it should be stated that the freedom I have been describing springs from a mutual commitment to foundational Scriptural truths about Jesus Christ and his Word.  The above is not a warrant to try to bring about uniformity of thought in all areas on the Christian college campus.  In the words of an unknown Christian academic, “in essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.”

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Bible Study Cross-Centered Life Sermons Theology

Luke 7:36-50 Forgiveness and worship (part 2)

In an earlier post, I made some observations on Luke 7:36-50, which tells the story of a sinful woman who worshiped Jesus by anointing his feet while he was eating at the home of Simon the pharisee.  In that post, I focused on the fact that an experience of forgiveness is key to having a right heart in worship.  

Now you may be thinking, If I need to have an experience of forgiveness in order to worship with a right heart, how does that happen?  Do I need to go out and do something wrong so that I can come to Jesus for forgiveness in order to be a true worshiper?  Or do I just keep looking back to that day when I became a Christian and received the forgiveness of my sins?  

Well, lets examine the case of this sinful woman.  How did she experience the forgiveness of Jesus that filled her with such love and enabled her to be a true worshiper.

I think the answer is in v. 48.  After speaking to Simon, Jesus turns to the woman and simply says, “Your sins are forgiven.” The woman experienced forgiveness as she came into Jesus’ presence and worshiped him.  If she had not been there at his feet worshiping, she would not have heard him turn to her and say:  Your sins are forgiven.

Now think about this:  Jesus has just explained to Simon that the reason this woman has honored him so beautifully is because she has had a deep experience of his forgiveness.  And then he turns to her and says, “your sins are forgiven.”  

Doesn’t that seem strange and out of place to you?  Aren’t we caught in some circular reasoning here?  If she had already been forgiven and this was the source of her worshipful heart, why does Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven.”

It may sound convoluted, but not only is an experience of forgiveness the  SOURCE of a right heart in worship, it is also the RESULT of a right heart in worship.  We can only worship the Lord with a right heart as we experience his forgiveness, causing us to overflow with gratitude and worship.  And it is when we worship the Lord and focus on the forgiveness that he has objectively given us that we experience subjectively that forgiveness.

Here is what I believe is happening:  The woman had come to Jesus to worship him, to honor him and to show her love to him.  She came because she knew who he was.  She knew he was the friend of sinners.  We don’t have any details of how she knew who Jesus was, but she knew that she was forgiven.

Her actions go beyond just repentance and seeking forgiveness.  They are the actions (as Jesus himself pointed out) of someone who had been forgiven much.  And yet it is as she worships him that she experiences that forgiveness. 

You and I as Christians have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus.  We know what it is to be forgiven.  I’m sure that if I were to ask any solid christian he or she would say, “I know that my sins are forgiven”  We know that Jesus died as our substitute.  He was punished for our sins.  He paid the price for our sins out of his great love for us.  

But what a difference between having your sins forgiven, and being in Jesus’ presence, worshiping him, and hearing him say (and say often), “I paid for your sins because I love you.  Your sins are forgiven, Bryan!” If we are never in his presence in worship, we’ll never hear those words.  If this woman had not come to Jesus in worship, her heart filled with love because of his forgiveness, she would have never heard, “Your sins are forgiven!” 

When we experience Jesus and his forgiveness for the first time, that should cause us to want to get back in his presence again.  And when we are back in his presence again, we will be in the presence of the Holy Son of God.  As we meditate on him and who he is and his holiness, we will experience all over again that forgiveness that he is constantly pouring out on us because of his cross.

It is when you are in his presence in true worship that you experience his forgiveness.  You are already forgiven, but to be a true worshiper, you must experience that forgiveness in his presence.

Why do we struggle with being true worshipers?  It isn’t because we haven’t been forgiven. And it isn’t because we haven’t been forgiven a great enough debt.  Our sin debt is every bit as great as this woman’s.

I believe we struggle with being true worshipers of Jesus because unlike this woman, we do not come often enough into the presence of the friend of sinners.  We are so busy with other things, we have no time for worship.  Or we come as Simon did, trying to impress him with who we are or what we’ve done.  We try to come across as such great worshipers.  Instead of just waiting in his presence, meditating on the tremendous privilege that is ours to even be there at all.