Don’t Play with Fire

Posted on 7 April 2013 by Seth Meyers

A respected evangelical scholar addresses the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Here is all he wrote on the nature of the torment that unbelievers will experience:

“This suffering, however, is probably more mental than physical, since otherwise the fire could be expected to consume him.” Bock, 1370

He has no other comments about the nature of the punishment except that it is “permanent.” 1363

There are several reasons this line frustrated me, but I’ll focus on the metaphoric fire issue. (“more mental than physical”)

Reasons the metaphoric fire position frustrates me:

1. Inerrancy is brought into question. Even if the words are metaphors, then the meaning of those metaphors is to communicate feelings in the category of terror. Have you ever read someone’s account of metaphoric fire where they clearly expressed the terror of such an experience? The closest I have ever come to such a treatment was by Randy Alcorn in the novel Dominion. (And no, I’m not totally sure that Alcorn holds to the metaphoric fire position. I did email him twice and his secretary responded with links to articles that did not clarify.)

If the meaning of the specific word is to communicate terror, and we interpret it in such a way as to remove that emotion, have we not tampered—to some degree—with inerrancy? We didn’t like the meaning of a word, so we interpreted the word as a picture which allows us enough wiggle room to not be pinned down.

If this is not what is happening, then someone who holds to this position should attempt to clarify things publicly. This may never happen because eternal torment is already viewed as too harsh by many people today.

Furthermore, if fire and torment in Luke 16 are metaphors then shouldn’t they be metaphors in Matthew 5:22, Mark 9:43, 2 Thess. 1:8-9, et. al.? What is to stop “and the evening and the morning were the sixth day” from being a metaphor for millions of years? Or “out of the belly of the fish” in Jonah 2 could be a metaphor for in the middle of hard times. Or “Jesus coming in the clouds of Heaven” could be a metaphor for Roman soldiers coming with the dust of the road behind them. At what point do we say, this is not a valid hermeneutical practice anymore, this is an invalid theological presupposition?

2. Perspicuity is brought into question. Obviously, there are hard statements in the Bible, but this doesn’t have to be one of them. The words in their most natural meaning do not contradict any other Scriptures. Maybe Luke 14:26 is not perspicuous because it appears to contradict other Scriptures. But Luke 16 does not. The only hard thing is that we don’t like it. Not that it creates some contradiction or hermeneutical difficulty. Therefore, the metaphoric fire position removes those portions of Scripture from the hands of laity.

3. Evangelism is potentially discouraged. Somewhere I read once that the mainline denominations could trace their lessening interest in foreign missions to their rejection of certain aspects of God’s judgment.

4. The metaphoric fire position implies an accommodation with cultural or scholarly sensibilities that are repulsed by some of the clear wordings of Scripture. Bock’s response hints at academic gamesmanship. He had 20 pages on the rich man and Lazarus (in a commentary well over 2,000 pages). This story is possibly the clearest and most extensive treatment that Christ gave to the destination of the lost, but he couldn’t find time or space to define clearly or defend the doctrine of Hell.

Certainly, he said many good things. The majority of which were not debated. And yes, he had good insights into a number of different aspects. I’m not bothered at the numerous good things in his treatment, but where there was controversy, he didn’t say much. Why? Because he was totally ignorant? Of course not. Because he didn’t want to start a fire? Possibly so. And if so, then that’s what bothers me.

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The Complete Package: Prosperity Theology Doesn’t Come by Itself

Posted on 25 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

Jesus came to save us from poverty not the wrath of God. That is probably the most succinct definition I can muster for the money message so common in the churches of the developing world. But this one doctrine–like any doctrine in all systems–can’t stand alone. Below is a brief catalog of the ingredients that prosperity stew needs to taste right to the contemporary connoisseur.

Redefined Faith

So to the aid of this New Testament distortion comes a renovated teaching about faith. Thomas Goodwin, leader in the Westminster Assembly, defined faith in these transporting terms:

As the soul sees the spiritual excellency and the glory that is in Jesus Christ, so the will doth set the highest value and esteem upon that excellency that is in him, a value and esteem far above what a man hath for all things whatsoever; and this is to believe.

A lesser son of greater sires wrote,

Saving faith is an ability given by God to agree with the historical facts of the Gospel and to commit to those facts and their implications.

However, the prosperity gospel requires faith to be a kind of force that actually creates reality. In this skewed universe, God has faith and He has to obey those who have this supreme, new age power. Faith is disconnected from believing the Bible and resting in Christ, and has mutated into mindless positive thinking.

I have even been told by business men when they failed to provide the services that I needed and they offered, that I must refrain from saying anything bad or disappointed because I will attract more business failure to myself. How’s that for a convenient way to avoid offering customer service?

By insisting that faith is a power that Christians must harness to get what they want, the leaders have a way to get off the hook when their people are poor. The prosperity gospel cannot handle a robust, Biblical treatment of faith. A faith that is Christ-centered, otherworldly, rejoices in tribulation, hates sin, and is content to be poor as long as God is glorified.

The Little Gods Doctrine

The prosperity gospel also needs an emphasis on the divine nature of humans. Men have to convince themselves that they are actually god. It actually amazes me that this can even be considered Christian doctrine. Yet, there it is on YouTube waiting for all self-professing Christians to walk out on this blasphemy.

As the shtick goes, men are gods because they were made in God’s image. They are gods because God makes us His children which supposedly infuses or releases divinity in humans. But mainly, men are gods because that’s the only way they can defend their unbiblical thinking about money and comfort. Because of our godlike status, we can demand Jehovah to do things for us, and He has to obey.

Charismaticism

At this point some Christians who had previously followed the point and agreed may be frustrated. Yet, agree or not, charismaticism plays a major role in the prosperity gospel. Not all charismatics love money, but all those who love money as it is embodied in the prosperity gospel (that I have ever met, read, or can imagine) also hold to the continuation of the sign gifts.

How do spiritual gifts like tongues, prophecy, and miracles support prosperity theology? Prosperity needs visible demonstrations to offer to their adherents. Rather than looking not at what is seen but what is unseen, they follow modern revivalism with a fixed addiction to tangible shows of power, excitement and interest. Very Wimber-esque, or more properly Finney-ish.

So, here is a brief delineation of the key cogs in the machinery of prosperity theology. Others could be added, but these three are essential. They cannot be eliminated from the system without losing something integral.

_____________________________

In case it is not widely known, Hank Hanegraaff and John MacArthur have done excellent jobs in serving the church by offering some highly readable book-length critiques of this movement. They both quote widely from original sources, and the quotes alone are worth the price of both books.

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Another Self-esteem Corrective

Posted on 25 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

Ah! If you had no devil to tempt you, no enemies to fight you, and no world to ensnare you, you would still find in yourself evil enough to be a sore trouble to you, for “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”

Charles Spurgeon

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Who Needs the Gospel the Most?

Posted on 22 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

Who Needs the Gospel the Most?Sometime ago, I made this chart in an attempt to rank the need among the least-reached people groups of the world. This chart was made to supplement the excellent work done by the Joshua Project which places a majority of their weight on the category of “percentage of evangelical.”

If you can offer improvements please do. There’s also a longer version available upon request–sethmeyers@odbm.org.

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Should a Pastor Cancel Church Services for a Funeral?

Posted on 21 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

Funerals are common in Africa with an average life expectancy under 50 in most countries. In South Africa, funerals are often held on Saturday or Sunday, and rarely in the middle of the week. Furthermore, it is culturally expected for funerals to have a large attendance. (Somewhere around 300-500) The service and burial are held in the mornings around 7-10 am.

If the service is on Sunday, should a pastor go? Should he go if it means he has to cancel church? Should he encourage the church service to be canceled so that all the members can support the bereaved? In Luke 9:60 when Jesus said, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the Kingdom of God.” is this the kind of thing He was talking about?

Experience in a village setting, a few years of pastoral care, and reflection on the nature of man suggest these observations and conclusion.

  1. Families can choose what day they want to bury the deceased. There is no cultural requirement to do it on the Lord’s Day morning. And this seems to fit other patterns I’ve noticed. Children are often scheduled to pick up their grade reports on Sunday morning from the schools (why not any other day of the week?). Civic meetings are often held on Sunday mornings. Sunday burials seem to be—for the most part—an expression of a cultural ambivalence toward a consistent prioritization of the Lord’s Day.
  2. Funerals are common. First, the services may be canceled several times a year or more. Secondly, because they are a sadly normal way of life, you will have the chance to support the community at other times. And since so many people attend each one, it is not as if the pastor will be shockingly conspicuous by his absence (unless the pastor is the only drop of milk in a bowl of chocolate).
  3. African funerals are multi-day events. Often the funeral will begin a week in advance with nightly meetings at the house. The attendance grows throughout the week culminating in the morning burial service. The weeknight meetings begin throughout the afternoon as people drop in to visit and talk. Some stay for hours, some for less time. On Wednesday-Friday, the grave is dug as well as cleaning and preparations at the house. After the service, those closest to the family have to break down the tent and clean up. If a pastor wants to communicate love and support, these times are more opportune than the burial service to be involved.
  4. Burial services come in stages. The first service is at the home for an hour or so. Then everyone shifts to the grave for another hour while the men shovel the dirt and place the bricks on top. Then everyone regathers at the house for a full meal. It is possible, though not common, to leave before the meal if the attendee is willing to forego a well-cooked, free meal and conversation.
  5. Our commitment to Jesus Christ should be of such intensity that others could mistake our natural affections as being a kind of hatred. “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”

From these observations, I’ve reached the conclusion that services should not be canceled.

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What is Man?

Posted on 19 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

“I was wishing that I came of a more honourable lineage,” said Caspian.

“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,” said Aslan. “And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth.”

C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

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An Orthopathic View of Christ

Posted on 16 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

Then the Prince commanded that a herald should be called, and that he should, in the midst and throughout the camp of Emmanuel proclaim, and that with sound of trumpet, that the Prince, the Son of Shaddai, had, in his Father’s name, and for his Father’s glory, gotten a perfect conquest and victory over Mansoul.

John Bunyan, The Holy War

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Vintage Miracle Crusade

Posted on 14 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

At 8:00 pm darkness quietly steals across the soccer field. But darkness isn’t the only thing stealing. A shouting woman from the raised platform blasts her voice via 10 four-foot-high speakers in English and Tsonga to a waiting crowd of several hundred. “Do you want a miracle?”

Crowd responds with roars and cheers.

“Then don’t give R10 ($1.50) and expect a R10,000 ($1,500) miracle!”

Crowd responds with mild, begrudging roar.

Holding up a stack of envelopes, she continues, “If you want me to pray for you, then come take an envelope. But these envelopes are only for people who will pay at least R100 ($15).” She then asked for translators to explain that to all the grandmothers who were there because they get a government pension of R700 every month. The “preaching” hasn’t even started yet. The offering went on for nearly an hour.

The platform has multi-colored lights and huge brightly painted signs saying, “Miracles!” and “Jesus”. I spotted at least 8 people I have witnessed to in the past who are not converted and know they are not. One of them was an usher at the crusade that week who lives with a woman he is not married to in a one-room shack. He gave money in the offering.

You might be tempted to think that some of my descriptions are exaggerated, but I think 9 out of 10 people would have called his platform motions and antics clown-like. He shouted for the entire time. His favorite pose was looking away from the people. He continually interrupted the translator. Several times he bent over to the ground shouting to his voice’s extremity.

For 10 days this white man openly lied (“I will not leave this city until no one has AIDS!” and “Everyone of you will get a job this week!”), twisted the Scripture (“Elijah killed the false prophet of poverty! He killed the false prophet of HIV!”), and perverted the Gospel (“You are all children of God!  I don’t want to talk about Hell, I just want everyone to be happy!”).

But his message wasn’t wholly lacking in intellectual content. I learned that poverty is a demon that he could cast out. During one particularly memorable segment, he also assured us that if we had faith, then money would fill our pockets. Of course, he was a man of faith, because his 2008 Mercedes wasn’t hidden from view. He also closed his sermon by asking people to raise their hands if they love him and his ministry. He never asked the same question about Jesus or the Bible.

He began his “miracles” each night about 10:00 pm, 90% of which included causing people to collapse and pretending to throw the Holy Spirit like a baseball to other people.  There wasn’t one word about the people’s sin, God’s anger, Hell, or faith alone in Christ alone. But they did have an “altar call.”  Every night the crowd increased.

The day before the crusade started I had visited with the “preacher” who styled himself as an apostle and a prophet. “Hi, my name is Seth and I am a pastor here in the area.  I was wondering if you could tell me what your goal is with this crusade?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, “Miracles, signs, and wonders,” he said with an edge in his voice.

He failed the first question. Let me make it easier. “I am a pastor who loves the Gospel.  It’s my burden to explain the way of salvation to people. What will you be hoping to do this week?” I asked him for the second time not really because I thought he would have the right answer, but to make my point even clearer.

“Miracles from the Holy Spirit.” He failed the second question even after I gave him a hint. But at least he was honest that time. He didn’t say he would preach the Gospel, and he didn’t.

Crusades like this are the heart and soul of African Christianity in this region, and I suspect other areas are the same. Here are some of my musings on this mess that will hopefully provoke you to prayer for us.

  1. Missionaries need to know the Gospel. The music was bad. The stage antics were man-centered. The offering was criminal. But the confusion that crusade made about the way of salvation was immoral. Again I was convinced that God’s plan for saving sinners must be the preeminent theme of study for a missionary who would evangelize so that his converts remain in 25 years.
  2. True logic doesn’t serve Satan. Fuzzy thinking helps the false teacher. For that reason, we’ve been catechizing our teens on principles of logic in youth group. A large-scale shortage of logic is not a good field to grow soldiers of the Cross.

[This was my report from March 2008, but it’s still entirely relevant.]

Posted in Accounts of African Religion, Prosperity gospel | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

A Self-esteem Corrective

Posted on 14 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

Salvation, then, does not come to sinners because they are inherently desirable, but because the Son is inherently worthy of the Father’s gift. After all, the purpose of redemption is that the Son might be eternally exalted by the redeemed—it is not for the honor of the sinner but the honor of the Son.

John MacArthur, forward to Foundations of Grace

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The Trouble with Illustrations

Posted on 13 March 2013 by Seth Meyers

Perhaps you can relate to an illustration gone awry.

Let me illustrate. Two conservatives are in a discussion, and one compares the other to a liberal. The friend who has been illustrated sees this as an unfitting epithet whereas the illustrator was merely trying to make a simple point.

Or a husband and wife are discussing some family matter, when one compares the other to another family friend whose name in that particular context may be a synonym for undue harshness and irrationality.

Much of my life’s calling is somehow bound up with communication, so I am constantly searching for the right illustration that can drive the point home more poignantly. But here’s the difficulty: Nearly every illustration can be interpreted such that the speaker would deny the conclusion derived from the illustration he personally chose.

One source of this potential confusion comes from the nature of language as an analogy. Illustrations are lengthened forms of language’s many analogies that good communicators often use. God is a fortress, a rock, and a mother hen. (Psalm 18:2; 91:4) He rides on the clouds. (Psalm 104:3) He holds the oceans in His hand. (Psalm 95:4) The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer with seeds; a man finding a treasure; and a fisherman. (Matt. 13)

These uses of language are brief illustrations drawing pictures and making connections in our minds between two or more ideas. But no one expects these figures of speech to match on every point. When Luther wrote a “Mighty Fortress” he wasn’t trying to say that God is composed of bricks and mortar, or worse yet, that He had a beginning and an inevitable end like every fortress we’ve ever known has.

Rather, the illustration has a key similarity—at least one if it’s a good illustration—between the picture and the reality. Pictures don’t need to be the same at all points to communicate well. God’s “rockness” paints a picture of unshakeable durability, the ultimate standard for that which is classic. But it would be a great sin to apply the rock’s lack of personality to Jehovah.

To properly fit, illustrations do not need to match at every point. Indeed, if they did, they would be too close to the object to be dissimilar from what they were illustrating. It would be like saying, “I can best illustrate that chair with another similar chair.” Their needs to be some lack of sameness for an illustration to work.

But there must be at least one obvious similarity for an illustration to be effective. The problem comes with that word “obvious” because discussions employing illustrations often involve parties who disagree. Therefore, one party can take the most flattering similarities in the illustration and the other party will see the most irrelevant dissimilarities as the most obvious meaning.

So, who gets to decide which meaning goes with any given illustration? In may be a bit of oversimplification (but just a bit) to say that God does. Metaphors that have been inscripturated are right because God chose them as pictures of His meaning in any given statement. Of course, most of our communication and tension does not come from debates over what is the right interpretation of the parable of the Wheat and Tares. Scripture still speaks even to illustrative use in day-to-day life.

  1. I must always choose illustrations that consider my hearers’ real needs before my own. (Phil. 2:3-4)
  2. I must always choose illustrations that are not sneaky ways to insult or get in a “dig” on my opponent. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)
  3. I must always choose illustrations that follow the normal use of language following the patterns in Scriptural literature.

There are other principles that can be drawn out of the Bible, but at the most basic level it should be remembered that illustrations in general do not need to match the reality at every point. Usually, one main similarity will do. Usually. Like the way a wrench doesn’t have to loosen every bolt for it still to be a valid addition to the toolbox.

Posted in Hermeneutics | Tagged , | 2 Comments