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Noted journalist and atheist Christopher Hitchens passed away on December 15 at the age of 62 from complications of esophageal cancer. Through his writing, lectures, and debates, Hitchens was neither timid nor tempered in expressing his views about God. Believing that the term “atheist” might erroneously suggest some room for ambivalence about the notion of Deity, he preferred a stronger and more definitive description of himself as an “antitheist.” Hitchens, who identified the monotheistic faiths of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as being ”the real axis of evil,” offered a thorough presentation of his thoughts about religion in his 2007 book, God is Not Great.
As odd and counter-intuitive as it might seem, the fervor of Christopher Hitchens’ belief system and the tenacity with which he held to it offer a commendable model that Christians would do well to imitate in regard to their faith in Jesus Christ.
There was no mushy middle ground for Hitchens when it came to the existence of God and the deity of Jesus Christ. “Hoping so” or “wishing so” was completely irrelevant to the discussion, and there was no room for sappy sentimentalism. Either God is, or He isn’t. Either Jesus is the divine Son of God and the world’s only hope for salvation, or He was a complete fraud. Of course, for Hitchens, it was a certainty that God isn’t; he staked his life, his reputation, and his intellect on it. He was sold-out, all-in, and unyielding in his convictions. He would challenge anyone on the subject, no matter who it made uncomfortable, angry, or indignant.
Am I as committed in my Christian faith as Hitchens was in his antagonism against it?
As his cancer worsened and death grew more imminent, Hitchens preemptively ruled out any possibility of a death-bed conversion. He warned friends not to believe him if, under the influence of palliative pain medication, he seemed to waffle about his disbelief in God. It would just be the drugs talking, he insisted. A terminal disease would not be allowed to undermine the foundation of his belief system.
Would I allow it to alter mine?
One of the qualities that made Christopher Hitchens so fascinating and frustrating to people was his deftness at being an equal-opportunity offender. His opinions about issues and personalities were truly his own, defying established conventions and simplistic labels. He was both vilified as a socialist liberal and ostracized for neo-conservatism and support for the Iraq war. He not only offered scathing critiques of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, but also Bill and Hillary Clinton and Michael Moore. Even Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama could not escape his pointed pen and tongue.
It would have been far easier (and would have cost him fewer friends) if he had completely cast his lot with one “camp” or the other by clearly pledging his singular allegiance in partisan, “them” and “us” ideological conflicts. He would have known where the safe ground was and which targets were strictly off-limits. However, Hitchens would not allow himself to be confined within parameters and expectations that were determined by others.
Christians, also, should resist allowing their faith to be determined and their spiritual thinking limited by the imposition of the artificial boundaries of sectarian partyism, regardless of whether it is traditional or progressive, right or left, conservative or liberal. One should seek to be Biblical, no matter how untidily it may fit into the prefabricated theological boxes of others.
Though the basis and object of our belief could not be more different, Christians should seek a “Hitchens kind of faith”: bold, courageous, unwavering, unapologetic, and uncompromising.
What are the chances that a member of the British royal family would show up at your front door, just for the purpose of sharing some conversation and afternoon tea? What are the chances that your favorite rock group (or country band, for some of you) would park their tour bus in front of your house, set up in your backyard, and cater a barbecue dinner for you, your family, and a group of friends while you enjoyed an impromptu concert. Slim? None? Would never happen?
Multiply those remote odds by several billion exponents and you would arrive at a fraction of the chance that the Creator of the cosmos would come to earth in the form of human flesh. And yet, He did; not to gain anything, but to give everything.
Following are a couple of excerpts from an excellent article by Michael Horton, ”The Good God Who Came Down,” which appears in the current issue of Christianity Today.
“We prefer to climb up to God through argument, experience, and activity. But God has climbed down to us, meeting us not in the “high places” we erect, but in the lowest places; in a barn, in suffering our scorn, fellowshipping with sinners, and hanging on a cross. We don’t ascend from particulars to universals. Rather, the source of all universal truth has descended to us in the concrete particulars of human history.”
“There is no passable route from us to God. We cannot climb the ladder of mysticism, speculation, or merit. In pride, we try to rise to heaven through reason, but God descends to us in humility and self-sacrificial generosity. We seek the truth within ourselves or in universal laws derived from our moral intuition, but God surprises us – and his name is Jesus.”
“When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4).
“The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
“Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:22-23).
“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people: for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in a cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12).
“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).
“Although He existed in form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (II Corinthians 9:15).
Merry Christmas, everyone!!!
On Christmas Day, the NBA is kicking off a shortened, 66-game regular season for 2011-12. With the expiration of the league’s collective bargaining agreement on June 30 and the ensuing lockout that lasted until December 8, this was almost “the season that wasn’t.” The work stoppage saw the cancellation of the original schedule of training camps, preseason games, and regular season match-ups through December 24.
I did not closely follow the labor dispute. I occasionally heard news coverage with quotes from NBA Commissioner David Stern, National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter, and Lakers guard Derek Fisher who serves as the president of the NBPA. While I was not well-versed on the specifics, I knew that the bottom line disagreement between the team owners and the players was about money. It’s always about money: “Who gets what number of slices of the multi-billion dollar NBA pie?”
The thought hit me during the lockout that I should organize a fan boycott that would keep fans away from the arenas for the same number of games that were lost during the labor dispute. Don’t attend any games. Don’t buy any jerseys, caps, sweatshirts, or other team merchandise. Where did the fans figure into the negotiations? Who represented the season ticket holders, the “family night” attenders, and those who never miss a game on TV. As the owners and players arm-wrestled over percentages of Basketball Related Income, did they stop to consider where BRI comes from? I thought it would be a good idea to remind them.
But, alas, I am no activist. I don’t even have a Twitter account, an absolute necessity these days if one is going to lead any kind of successful social revolution.
In reality, a fan boycott would have had a negligible impact on the “bigs” of the league. Only the little guys would have just continued to suffer, the vendors, concession workers, security personnel, and area restaurants that depend heavily on game day customers.
A boycott would have been an epic failure, primarily because of fans like me. Despite my disgust with the corporate greed of NBA executives and the incessant whining of obsenely compensated athletes, when the whistle blows on December 25, I’ll be sitting there like some Pavlovian dog in front of the television. My family and I will be faithfully tuned in at 1:30 CST on Christmas Day, watching the Mavericks raise their first championship banner and urging Nowitzki to “Dirk the Halls” on the Miami Heat.
If only I were an activist…
I am a Christian.
Many who read this blog would be willing to unapologetically and confidently make the same statement. The basic meaning of the name “Christian” is simply “a follower or partisan of Christ,” that is, someone who willingly identifies himself or herself with Jesus. Given our familiarity with the term and our frequent usage of it, many are surprised to learn that the name only appears three times in the New Testament (Acts 11:27; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16).
In our modern language and culture, the name “Christian” is used in a multitude of ways and has been infused with a wide spectrum of meanings. These range from “anyone who acknowledges any level of faith in Jesus Christ as opposed to following the tenets of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.” to “only those believers who precisely agree with every aspect of my own understanding and practice of faith in Christ.”
In re-examining the first occurrence of the name “Christian” in the book of Acts, I found it very instructive to note the timing and context of its inaugural use. It was not a name that was immediately claimed on Pentecost, when the Spirit-enabled apostles first proclaimed the message of the crucified and resurrected Christ and thousands were baptized (Acts 2). It wasn’t when the number of disciples grew to 5,000 men (not including women and children) in the Jerusalem church (Acts 4:4). It wasn’t when the Gospel spread beyond Judea and gained an overwhelming reception among the Samaritans (Acts 8:1-12). Nor was it when Peter first proclaimed the message of salvation to Cornelius and the rest of his Gentile household in Caesarea (Acts 9).
“Christian” was not used as a synonym for disciples of Jesus until after the conversion of many Gentiles in Antioch of Syria (Acts 11:19-26). It was not a distinctive name for Jewish believers or a separate name for Gentile believers. The name Christian was a “shared” name and an “inclusive” name that transcended all man-made barriers between Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles, men and women, young and old, slave and free, rich and poor, educated and uneducated (Galatians 3:27-28). It was a name that celebrated the oneness of all baptized believers in Jesus Christ.
I am a Christian.
A friend told me a joke several years ago, the punch line of which included the question, “Is that your final answer?” I didn’t laugh. My failure to respond prompted him to say, “You haven’t seen the show, have you?” I had not. The show that I hadn’t seen was Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? My friend was incredulous. Everyone had seen that show! How could I live in such a state of cultural depravity, and how dare I ruin his perfectly funny joke?
I eventually did see the show a time or two, but never became a regularl viewer. However, Regis Philbin’s question “Is that your final answer?” became deeply ingrained in our cultural consciousness. The question is reminiscent of a parable of Jesus in which a father asked something of his two sons. Each of the sons answered their father differently; and, in each case, it was not their final answer.
The parable is recorded in Matthew 21:28-32. The chief priests and elders in Jerusalem had just attempted to entrap Jesus with a trick question. As usual, Jesus quickly turned the rhetorical tables on them and silenced them with a question of his own. He then told them this parable which contrasted their rejection of the good news of God’s kingdom with the joyful reception that it was gaining among tax collectors and prostitutes whose hearts were being touched and led to repentance.
In Jesus’ story, a man approached the first of his two sons and directed him to go and work in the family’s vineyard. The son flatly refused. “No,” the insolent little cuss replied to his father; rude, brash, disrespectful, and disobedient. However, the young man later rethought his answer, regretted the shameful way in which he had spoken to his father, and went to work. “No” was not his final answer.
The father approached his second son with the same instruction to work in the vineyard. “Yes, sir!,” he replied. “Right away; I’m on it; no need to ask me twice; I’m always happy to do my part and carry my share of the load; it’s never a burden or a bother; I count it a real joy to do what you ask of me. Love ya, Dad!” Nice words; but only words. He didn’t go to the vineyard. “Yes” was not his final answer.
Jesus asked his critics which one of the two sons did the will of his father: the one who said he that wouldn’t and then did, or the one who said that he would and then didn’t. They answered His question correctly.
By outward appearances, the scribes and Pharisees were talking a good game by their ability to quote long sections of the Law and the Prophets and by sporting broad phylacteries and long tassels. But, by their traditions, double-standards, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy, they were ultimately saying “no” to God. On the other hand, the tax collectors and prostitutes who had been saying “no” through their dishonesty and sexual immorality were sincerely and penitently saying “yes” to Jesus, just as they had positively responded to the message of John the Baptist.
No matter how deeply we have fallen in sin or how far we have wandered away from God, “no” does not have to be our final answer. God graciously allows us time to rethink our response to His grace and mercy.
If you have said ”yes” to Jesus Christ, let that be your final answer!
An amazing story was reported last week by the Associated Press. A good Samaritan stopped along a Wisconsin roadside to assist a couple of ladies in changing a flat tire. A short time later, and a few miles down the road, one of those ladies returned the kindness by performing CPR which saved the stranger’s life.
Victor Giesbrecht and his wife were driving their pickup on Interstate 94 near Eau Claire on November 5 when they spotted Sara Berg and her cousin, Lisa Meier, stranded on the side of the highway with a flat. Giesbrecht, a 61 year-old from Winnipeg, Manitoba, told his wife that it looked like the ladies could use some help, and they pulled over to assist.
After changing the tire and getting back on the road, Giesbrecht suffered a heart attack. From the passenger side of the pickup, his wife adeptly applied the brake, safely steered the truck to a halt on the shoulder, and called 911. Within moments, Berg and Meier reached the scene, recognized the truck, sensed that something was wrong, and stopped. Giesbrecht was unconscious and was not breathing. Berg immediately started CPR and continued until paramedics and state troopers arrived with a defibrillator which was used to return his heart to normal function and rhythm.
This week in an Eau Claire hospital, Giesbrecht and Berg shared a tearful and joyful reunion, along with the first responders.
A state trooper was quoted as commenting, ”It’s an interesting turn of fate.” I know that many of us would readily reject the role of “fate” in remarkable incidents of this kind. Nor would we want to simply chalk it up to coincidence or luck. But, exactly to what would we attribute it?
Was it divine Providence? Was it prompting or intuition provided by some outside source? For many believers, the Holy Spirit would be identified as the Prompter in such situations. Or, was it just a circumstance in which a person chose to do good in response to a need and then immediately reaped vital blessings from the seeds of kindness that had just been sown?
I am open to all three suggestions, or that it was a combination of all of them. I am just grateful that Giesbrecht and his wife chose to be compassionate and helpful to strangers, and that Berg possessed the proper training and had the opportunity to repay them with a life-saving act of kindness. Any number of “what ifs” would have resulted in a much different outcome to the story.
“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers,” (Galatians 6:10).
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it,” (Hebrews 13:2).
Regardless of whether Providence, prompting, or prerogative provides the opportunity, our calling and responsibility remain the same.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
I know, I know… Every year it seems like the Super-Mega-Stuff-Marts, the home improvement centers, and the specialty shops keep trotting out their Christmas wares and decor earlier and earlier. It makes you wonder if the post-Christmas and pre-Christmas sales will ever overlap on the calendar. There is a strong case to be made for not having to see an image of Santa Claus in public if you are still having to mow your lawn and are able to watch professional baseball on television.
I completely understand and share those sentiments. However…
I have an autistic son who loves Christmas and everything about it. Though Coleman doesn’t speak, he signs Frosty (pats his hand on top of his head – for Frosty’s hat), Rudolph (taps his finger on the end of his nose), and Christmas tree (right hand up, fingers spread, wrist turning quickly back and forth) pretty much all year round. He watches A Charlie Brown Christmas repeatedly on VHS, his portable DVD player, and YouTube, sometimes simultaneously. It was fascinating to watch him when he was younger, standing in front of the brightly lit Christmas tree and alternately raising and lowering his glasses, just for the variation in visual effect: fuzzy…clear…fuzzy…clear.
On a trip to Lowe’s with Kim over a month ago, he had a field day in their already expansive Christmas decoration section. Although he wanted to put anything and everything into the cart, they compromised on a small tree for his bedroom and a string of big, multi-colored lights that we draped over his curtain rod. However, that only seemed to whet his appetite, and he kept making forays into the walk-in attic storage space where we keep all of our Christmas stuff.
So…. the Christmas tree is now up at the Pyles house; it has been since Saturday, November 5. It is fully decorated, complete with Kim’s authentic Larry Bird Hallmark Keepsake Ornament. The nutcrackers are out in force. The stockings are hung. The blue and white Dallas Mavericks Santa Hat is draped on the antique chair.
And up it will stay, through Thanksgiving, through Christmas, past New Year’s, perhaps until Valentine’s Day (been there, done that), but more than likely everything will be boxed back up by St. Patrick’s Day. Easter is just out of the question. Even we have our limits.
Don’t judge. At least it’s not in your house. What matters is that it makes a very special young man extremely happy (and literally skippy) in our house!
On Saturday, October 29, I paid 27 cents for a cup of coffee.
Now for the backstory…
About two and half months ago, I mentioned in a blog post that I have started taking graduate classes again. It has been 11 years since I finished an M.A., and I have really missed the challenge, structure, and discipline of being in the classroom. So I am just getting my feet wet in an M.Div. program at Oklahoma Christian University. It has been every bit as challenging and enriching as I had hoped it would be.
Two weeks ago, I had to be on campus for a class that only meets periodically throughout the semester. I had been there for the marathon session on Friday (1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.) and had planned on spending the night in Edmond since class would resume at 8:00 on Saturday morning. However, my first bad experience with booking a hotel room through Hotwire (another story) caused me to change my plans and drive back to Tulsa for the night. When Hannah found out that I was leaving town, she threw in with me for a quick road trip home. It was great to catch up on some Daddy-daughter time during the drive. We got home in time to watch the last three innings of Game 7 of the World Series.
I was up again at 5:00 on Saturday morning, and Hannah and I were sitting in the drive-thru at Chik-fil-A at 6:00 waiting for them to open. Having secured our “road food” breakfast, we drove back down the turnpike to OKC. I dropped Hannah off at her apartment at 7:40 and determined that I had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee before class.
Having opted out of the drive-thru in order to avail myself of their facilities, I walked up to the counter at McDonald’s and said, “I need a small cup of coffee to go, please.” The young lady hit a key or two on her register and said, “That will be 27 cents.” “Really?” I said in amazement. “That’s awesome!” I told her that I had always thought a cup of coffee shouldn’t cost more than 35 cents; a quarter and a dime ought to get you a cup of coffee anywhere in America.
However, my euphoria was quickly shattered by the server’s response. ”Well, 27 cents is the regular price for our senior coffee,” she explained.
“Senior” coffee? Seriously? I was momentarily stunned! I never saw it coming; it totally caught me off guard. As one who has spent most of my adult life being told that I looked younger than my actual age, I had suddenly time-warped a couple of decades into the future. Was it the lighting? Was it the time of the morning? Was it the fact the young lady was likely 16 or 17 years old and everyone over 30 looked like they qualified for senior coffee? Did she know that the next day was my 49th birthday?
In reality, most of the hair on my chinny chin chin is gray. What started as “accents of gray” around my temples just a few years ago has begun spreading like a virus across the rest of my head. I can accept that I don’t look as young as I used to, I just thought there would be a longer transition period between being called “our little preacher” and the offer of discounts for the elderly. I heard Howard Norton say recently that there is an amazingly brief span of time between people saying, “You’re going to be fine preacher one of these days,” and, “You can still preach!” You nailed that one, brother!
So, I smiled, swiped my card for the massive 27 cent purchase (25 cents for the coffee and 2 for tax), thanked the young lady, took my cup of joe, and left. The coffee tasted exceptionally good. I decided to keep the receipt. I felt that it was worthy of framing. I might as well try to do this gracefully.
(please see the previous two posts for the context of this discussion)
When asked, “Are you saved? Are you going to heaven?,” many believers hesitate to offer a confident, affirmative answer. When challenged as to the reason for their doubt, a typical response is “I just don’t feel like I’m good enough!”
Let’s lay this one to rest once and for all, shall we? You’re not good enough. You’re not! I’m not good enough. We’re not good enough. No one has ever been good enough to be saved from their sins. Never has been; isn’t now; never will be. No one will be heaven because they deserve to be there.
That’s the whole point! That’s why we needed a Savior (Matt. 1:21; Luke 2:11). That’s why we still need an Advocate with the Father and the power of His atoning sacrifice (I John 2:1-2). ”Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good” (Matthew 19:17). “There is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).
This Biblical truth cannot be minimized or ignored just because some people would twist it into an excuse for immorality, use it as a moral copout, or buy into a concept of cheap grace. There is more than ample Scripture to combat those notions. But, our efforts to answer these misunderstandings of Scripture cannot be allowed to cause us to arrive at an even bigger one, i.e., the mistaken belief that faithfulness equates flawlessness and that enough obedience makes us good enough!
So, our confidence in our salvation is not because of us, but because of Him. We do not trust in our goodness but in Him who is good. “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake” (I John 2:12). Forgiven for His name’s sake; because of who He is; by the power and authority of His name; by the power of His sacrifice.
Salvation in Jesus Christ is not a revolving door through which we repeatedly move in and out of a right relationship with God on a daily basis. Our assurance of heaven cannot be based on the thin hope and chance that we happen to catch the door in the proper position at the moment of our death or at the Lord’s return. What a horrible way to live!
We seem to have no problem accepting and owning our salvation when we first receive it, nor do we hesitate in the least to confidently speak of a faithful Christian’s reception into divine glory when they depart this life. It would be a shame to forfeit the joy and confidence of that salvation during the years in between!
In the previous post, we examined the question, “If God has testified that His children can know that they have received eternal life in Jesus Christ (I John 5:11-13), why do so many Christians still have doubts about their salvation?” If, at the time our sins were washed away by the blood of the Lamb, we believed that we had been saved and were headed to heaven, at what point between then and now did we lose that confidence? When did we stop “knowing” that we were saved and start “thinking so” or “hoping so?”
For me, it took less than 24 hours to move from confidence to doubt.
I confessed my faith in Jesus and was united with Him through baptism in His name on a cold, January night in 1973. My faith was very simple at that point: I believed that I was a sinner and that Jesus was my only hope of salvation. That was faith enough. My family and I were staying with my grandparents on their farm in Middle Tennessee at the time as we awaited our visas to move to Monrovia, Liberia. During those few months, I attended the rural, K-12 school from which my father had graduated years before.
On the bus ride to school the next morning, I made a comment that drew a quick response from a friend. I have absolutely no recollection of what I said, whether it was grossly inappropriate or just mildly off-color. But, I can never forget the reply of this young lady who was aware of my baptism the night before. She said, “Well, it’s obvious that last night didn’t do you a bit of good!”
Her comment stung me and stunned me; and nearly 40 years later I can still remember the tone of her voice and the expression on her face. It was contemptuous.
Was she right? Was I really any different? Had anything changed? Had my sins really been washed away? Was I really a Christian? Was God mad at me? Was I still going to heaven? I didn’t know. And just that quickly, doubt and anxiety replaced the joy and excitement that I had felt only 12 hours earlier.
My problem was that I had not yet worked out the difference between faithfulness and flawlessness.
The God who saved us through Jesus Christ expects, even demands, faithfulness and obedience as a demonstration of our faith and love for Him (I John 2:3; 5:1-3; John 14:15; et al.). John Stott writes that throughout the letter of I John, the author repeatedly identifies three marks (or tests) of the new birth: belief, love, and obedience.
However, we know that the obedience demanded by I John 2:3 cannot mean sinlessness or perfection because of what precedes it in 1:6 – 2:2, an affirmation of our ongoing struggle with sin.
Revelation 2:10 instructs us to be faithful until death; faithful, not flawless!
My imperfection is an inherent and understood part of my faithfulness, not a denial of it.
For 23 years I have been a faithful husband to Kim. A perfect husband? Are you kidding? I’ll gladly let you call me a “work in progress” as a husband, but I will get in your face (metaphorically and rhetorically, of course) if you accuse me of unfaithfulness in my marriage.
I can know if I’m faithful. I can know if I’m not. Does that make sense?
This is getting long. Part Three to follow…
