The Coolest Thing I've Found In a While

Heard of the Human Genome Project? Well, there's a Music Genome Project to. And it rocks way harder. Everyone should go to Pandora Radio and set up a free account. You create your own radio stations (up to 100) based on artists you like, and it plays others in a similar vein. Right now, I'm listening to my own Iron & Wine station. It's awesome, but don't take my word for it. Go experience it yourself.

I'm Always Up For Some Star Wars Humor

Darth Vader won't just blow up your planet or magically strangle you from across the room, he'll humiliate you too.

This Film's Intense Like Sewing Your Own Stitches and Admitting Your Wounds Are Self-Inflicted

The work of two of my favorite living artists, Cormac McCarthy and the Coen Brothers, (yup, counting the Coens as one artist, because the work would not be the same without the collaboration) comes together beautifully (in a strange sense) in No Country for Old Men. There is not one moment in this film, about the tide of wickedness flooding the world, where the tension is diminished. The Coen's dry, witty humor does appear. But there is no comic relief. These instants only wind you tighter as you begin to care more about this character only to worry about what will become of them now that they've made you smile. And as you worry about these characters, you worry about this world, and this feeling is further intensified by Tommy Lee Jones' amazing performance, which puts your concern on the screen for you to see.

While I do not ultimately share the worldview of the Coens' or McCarthy, there is much truthfulness in their work. Especially this one. Our God is one who causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, and while this is the case, the world will never be easily divided into us and them, good and evil. The good will suffer at the hands of the evil and the evil will benefit from the work of the good - which is portrayed masterfully in the next to last scene in which a ruthless murderer is helped by a boy on a bike. The lines between good and evil cut right through each and every one of us, and the only thing that puts on on one side or the other is not chance, but the choices we make. Lets just hope that because of the love of Christ more people will be compelled to go on ahead "and make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold" than these artists think will.

The Church and It's Self-Subversion

There is much discussion, and arguing, and outright yelling going on right now about the church and her formation of doctrine. It is not a new criticism that says the church and her doctrine as we know it is simply the result of Constantine and his political co-optation of the church. That Christianity is what it is because it has been power-hungry from its formal inception. But, thanks to a terribly written novel, an even worse movie and some grumpy atheists, these arguments are finding a larger audience.

Today, I revisited Alan Lewis' "Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday," and found something I wanted to share. He does not deny the role that Constantine and his politics played in the formation of the church's doctrine. However, because of the incarnational nature of Christian theology - basically because God uses people, even the ones who suck royally - truth could (did) still win out, and Constantine ended up, on an eternal scale, shooting himself in his very foot that pressed on the necks of the lowly. But Lewis says it better:

(Forming doctrine is an) uncertain struggle to speak as truthfully as possible, though always fallibly and with penultimacy, (that) happens not in a vacuum of intellectual and spiritual purity, but in the midst of and affected by webs of ecclesiastical, political, and social circumstance. How extraordinary, then, in this case, that it was the doctrine of the Trinity and thus a God of vulnerability and lowliness to which the church's authorities gave clear endorsement in the years and decades following its triumph - however disastrous that establishment of Christendom may have been for the followers of Jesus, crucified by Pontius Pilate. The church did not stop thinking now about the nature of the gospel, theologically anaesthetized by the elixir of political power. RATHER, AN UNDERSTANDING OF GOD WAS SEALED WHICH POSITIVELY CHALLENGED THE VERY NOTIONS OF EARTHLY POWER AND IMPERIAL AUTHORITY WHICH THE CHURCH IN PRACTICE WAS ENJOYING.If ever there was a moment to preserve for its political effect belief in God as monad it might have been when Constantine brought church and state together under a single dominion: "one God, one emperor, one church." In the face of such a claim upon divine monarchy, the ultimate sanctification of earthly sovereignty, the church chose to reject monistic unitarianism for plurality and community within God, the sharing of rule among interdependents rather than its imposition by a single, superior, self-sufficient governor upon inferior subjects. Whatever might be true of the church, of pope and patriarch, of God the church's doctrine said that majesty and glory are revealed in the lowliness of mortal being; that almightiness and power are exercised not ultimately from on high but in the powerlessness of a crucified and buried one; that transcendence and distance do not negate but find expression in vulnerability and intimacy, and in the depths of flesh and loss and death. In such contradictions of the external context, AND SUBVERTING ITS OWN BRIGHT MOMENT OF POWER AND GLORY, the church of Jesus Christ gave birth to a new doctrine which, in spite of everything, bore witness to the scandalous story of the cross by which foolishness, weakness, and nothingness bring to shame all that has existence, might, and wisdom. (emphasis mine)

Here, doctrine seems to provide its own nice critique of those who attack it, as well as those who form it.

May we always be open to the critique of the truth, and remember that it is not ours to own, but rather that by which we are to be owned.

I Really Wanted To Put A Curse Word In This Title

I was fooling around on the net and came across the George W. Bush fansite on myspace and found this little treasure:



I know my blog is extremely insignificant and as much as Charlie, Scott, Pastor John and other like minded bloggers carry out our little cyberspace war, civil religion will persist. But I simply cannot let this go. My conscience would harass me and I'd go home and be curt with my wife and neighbors and dog and would be too distracted to work on my paper that is due before Friday and none of this would be any good for anybody. So let's take a little look at this shall we? This will at least let me think I've done something.

"The thing that separates the American Christian..."

- Wow. In seven words George Washington has succeeded in rending the Body of Christ that Jesus gave his life to establish. It is fitting that he does this in seven words (seven being the biblical number of completion) because he has completely set American Christians above and against every other Christian in the world (remember, England was a Christian nation too). This is a classic (in both senses of the word) example of the powers that be using peoples' faith to subsume them into a nationalistic identity and agenda. If people can be made to believe that their government is the only one that truly sides with God then they will do anything for that government. Even kill other Christians. Because they are no longer seen as true Christians. Because the are not American Christians.

- What really separates the American Christian from every other person on earth is those who understand themselves as AMERICAN Christians have bought into exactly this type of rhetoric. It is no longer our identity as a part of the redeemed, as one of those from every nation and tribe who have been washed by the blood of the lamb and bought with a price (Revelation 5:9; 14:6), that allows us to see others who are radically (culturally, ideologically) different than us as brothers and sisters in Christ (Romans 10:12-13; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11), but our being born into or submitting ideologically to a specific, divisive, nationalistic agenda that estranges us from our Christian brothers and sisters. (FYI: most Christians is the Holy Land are Palestinians. How close are we to them?) This is supposed to be a good thing? That American Christians are better than all other Christians?

Whatever happened to the catholic Body of Christ? Precisely this type of evil. The sheep no longer recognize the voice of the Shepherd, so we answer the insatiate calls of the wolves.

"...from every other person on earth is the fact that he would rather die on his feet than live on his knees."

- Now, forget restricting this to being an issue between Christians. This gorgeous little bit elevates the issue to a whole new level of ethnocentrism. It separates us "FROM EVERY OTHER PERSON ON EARTH?" Seriously? What about the slaves who initiated rebellions (The Stono Rebellion, The New York Slave Insurrection of 1741, Nat Turner's Rebellion, etc. etc. etc.) against the white American Christians that forced them to live on their knees? What about the 1851 Indian Tax Rebellion in San Diego? Or the Texas-Indian Wars, et al?

Well...sorry. My emotion got the best of my pragmatism and I got off track there. Obviously they were inferior to the American Christian's who rebelled against England because they lost to said American Christians. Butt-kicking = verification of truthfulness. Job was soooo wrong. I can't wait to tell him in paradise.

- And I said we'd forget this being an issue between Christians, but I cannot help but ask, "What about the Christians in the colonies who were against rebellion? Some who formed their stance on their Christian beliefs?"

Oh, sorry, I made the same mistake twice. They lost.

It's not like Christianity was founded on losing or anything. I think I'm starting to come around and see how much of a good thing it is that we no longer follow a gospel that is foolishness to the world, that confounds the wise, and uses the weak to shame the strong (I Corinthians 1:23-31). Who wants a gospel that doesn't guarantee us bloody victory over our enemies of flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12)?

Read What Words Cannot Express

"God of all grace, whose thoughts toward us are ever thoughts of peace and not of evil, give us hearts to believe that we are accepted in the Beloved; and give us minds to admire that perfection of moral wisdom which found a way to preserve the integrity of heaven and yet receive us there. We are astonished and marvel that one so holy and dread should invite us into Thy banqueting house and cause love to be the banner over us. We cannot express the gratitude we feel, but look Thou on our hearts and read it there. Amen." - A.W. Tozer

This prayer comes from a little book I've been reading entitled, "The Knowledge of the Holy." Sometimes Tozer's modern Calvinism throws me a bit (e.g. what exactly he means by us being accepted "in" the Beloved - that little preposition bears huge interpretive options and theological consequences). However, Tozer usually escapes many of the pitfalls of modernity by immersing himself in the writings of the Saints. In this small book (124 pgs.) he quotes and interprets through "The Cloud of Unknowing," Miguel de Molinos, Julian of Norwich, The Athanasian Creed, St. Anselm, Novation, and Nicholas of Cusa. We are all, to a great extent, products of our environments, and it's refreshing to see someone, especially someone who had recieved no formal education, intentionally choose to expand their formative context to include the faithful who worked from a completely different set of (often more truthful) assumptions. One would be hard pressed to assemble a group of influences any less modern than the above. (Especially Nicholas of Cusa: Attaining a knowledge of God through the divine human mind that was unattainable through the senses? Calling the knowledge gained through the senses "learned ignorance?" Come on now! Enlightenment be damned!)

Regardless of these little bits here and there that cause me to raise a post-modern eyebrow, Tozer's work indeed "breathes a spirit of devotion." Hold Warren or Olsteen's work up next to Tozer's and they look like a corpse next to an Olympic athlete.

Maybe that was a little to harsh...No. It's about right. Just look at the last two lines from the above prayer, unpack them, then let them rip apart your modern assumptions that reduce faith and worship to linguistic systems and propositions. Oh, and while you're at it, let it draw you into deeper communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I believe one of the signs of a truly faithful Christian thinker and writer is that their own work in one line or paragraph will criticize itself in another section. If this is true, though Tozer is definitely no Augustine or Anselm, he is indeed in line with the writers at whose feet he intentionally sat.

This Is Just Crass

The past two weeks of my life have been spent in intense study of the book of Revelation with Dr. Andy Johnson and a handful of great students (including Scott) at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. I do not pretend to now understand everything about the book. Far from it. In fact, I probably have more questions now than I did going in to the class. But I feel like I can now say, with absolute certainty, that this is not the way to do interpretation on chapter 21. Though I'm happy to see that there will be a place for midgets.

p.s. I also managed to watch three seasons of Scrubs with Scott in between all the studying. And though I'm convinced that, thank God, heaven will be nothing like the above, I'm sure Turk will be there. Because it just wouldn't be heaven without him.

Random Facts/Habits

I've been tagged by Charlie (a long time ago).
The rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My Eight Random Facts/Habits
1. Fact: I was out of town on a Youth Ministry trip on my 1 year anniversary.
2. Habit: I read on the toilet. Therefore I spend much more time, on average, on the toilet than should be necessary.
3. Fact: I bite my fingernails, but I'm so good at it that most people think I obsessively clip them.
4. Habit: I am terrified of public restrooms. Therefore, if my business necessitates actual flesh on porcelain contact, I make a toilet paper butt gasket no fewer than three layers thick.
5. Fact: I love my wife and feel terrible about missing our first anniversary. However, I feel that our impending trip to Hawaii (on which we will hit each island, and for which we will pay NOTHING) kinda begins to make things better.
6. Fact: I recently caught a glimpse of heaven when some students from my youth group fed a homeless man in St. Louis named Carlos, then I prayed with him, then he sang us a song he wrote (which was surprisingly quite good and the performance of which was actually very moving.)
7. Habit: My wife and I routinely blame everything on our dog, Marley, then threaten to do horrible bad parent type things to him. It's all in good fun though.
8. Fact: I am not going to tag anyone because I don't know enough people who blog well enough. So I'll just re-post the people Charlie tagged in case you are interested enough to follow the train back up the tracks.
Wilson Ryland, Eric Lee, Kaz Trypuc, Brian Postlewait, Mike Murrow, Rusty Brian, Matt Martinson and Mike King

A Fourth of July Prayer from Isaiah 42

O Creator God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who establishes and destroys the nations.

Thank you for sending your Son, who shows us how to best know you by leading us down a road we had not known, faithfully bringing forth justice in all the ways that we had failed to do so before, and making our hopes a reality on earth.

But help us, your people now, who again fail to trust and acknowledge your justice, even though you have laid it out before us. How much worse are we who still hope in that which you have shown to be dust? Who return to our dark prison of violence and who bow before foreign flags?

Bring us to repentance. Restore our breath that comes not from the world's miasmatic air, but from your teaching and Spirit.

May we not fail you again, but may we be the beacon of righteousness that you created and called us to be so that the world, when confronted by you in your fullness, will be unable to say that it has never seen you.

In the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who alone is Lord, and through the power of your Holy Spirit - May It Be So.

This Changed My Life

This was the result of a dare I recieved Wednesday at our district high school camp last week.

Yes, I did both sides.

Yes, I can use deodorant, but only since last Saturday. Though, thanks to Tony Johnson, I'm going to try switching to women's deodorant for a while. It's designed for females who are hairless precisely because of these types of sado-masochistic practices and may be gentler. Plus, as he reminded me, it has a nice floral smell.

Yes, it burns when I sweat. So I try to stay out of situations where I would.

No, I don't regret it, though I probably won't ever do it again. Kinda like when I stuck my finger up my butt when I was three. It wasn't pleasant. But I learned a lot and am a different man now.

We're Talking About More Than Prayer Here

'Have You Prayed for bin Laden Today?'

Brother Andrew urges Christians not to "black list" radical Muslims.

Deann Alford

Brother Andrew, founder of the persecuted-church ministry Open Doors and author of the forthcoming book Secret Believers, has been traveling to the Middle East for more than 30 years. During that time, he has met with Israelis, Christians of all kinds, and Muslim leaders from Fatah, Hamas, and other radical or militant groups. Ever since his Cold War days taking Bibles behind the Iron Curtain (made famous in his 1967 autobiography, God's Smuggler), American Christians have often responded to Brother Andrew's reports with some degree of skepticism, but always with awe. Christianity Today senior writer Deann Alford recently interviewed Brother Andrew on the current Gaza crisis and Christian relations with fundamentalist Muslims.

What have you heard about the current situation inside Gaza?

The situation is quiet at the moment. [The conflict] will continue, and one party will have full control. Gaza will not only be a prison camp, but also will become a concentration camp. It will become much worse, not because of the Islamist influence, but because of the repression from outside. The boycott and all the feelings that come from outside. That includes you and me, our nations, our governments.

What will a Hamas-controlled Gaza mean for Christians and everybody else?

It looks confusing. And yet, it is not. I talked to the Hamas leaders years ago about what they wanted. This is exactly what I see happening today. They follow a plan, and there's nothing wrong with having a plan. We also have a plan. We read the Bible. We have sort of a mental concept of what it's going to be, and Hamas has that, too. They have a very strong belief, and they act upon it, that in the end times in which we now live, they believe that Islam is going to conquer and rule the world. And what they see—in very concrete terms in Gaza and West Bank and the surrounding countries, across Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan—is a pan-Arabic republic. No borders. No Jews. They say that literally. That's not antagonism. That's their faith dictating them to say so.

So I said to them, "There's no room for Christians. You're going to persecute us." They said, "No, Andrew, there will always be a place for Christians like you." So far, my own contact, and that of the Baptist leaders and that of the Bible shop leaders in Gaza has been very positive with Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Their worldview is in relation to end times. That's why they're willing to die. It's more than statehood. They're not interested in a Palestinian state. They're thinking so much bigger. That's why they have such amazing support among the grassroots level of the people, because of their reputation for not being corrupt, which is absolutely true.

Why have there been so many suicide bombers in recent years?

I challenge the Hamas leaders about the suicide bombers, which I'm terribly, terribly opposed to. I've preached against it. I contended in the strongest terms when speaking with the Hamas leaders, and they said, "Brother Andrew, we agree with you. The Qur'an forbids suicide." I said, "What is it that I see all around me?" They said, "But that is religious." I said, "Of course, you make it a million times worse because now you have a million volunteers."

There's no way we can cope with or challenge that level of dedication. They believe in something, and they're going to die for it. We fight [Islamic ideology] with bombs and armies. We're doomed to lose that battle. We have to go back to the root causes. We have to listen, we have to understand, we have to talk, and then I think we can still make progress.

Speaking as a Christian, they are not our enemies. God loves the world. And in my new book, Secret Believers, we propose the question, "Have you prayed for bin Laden today?" That question should shock a lot of Christians. Of course we haven't! That is why he is what he is. We have an evangelical black list of people we don't want to see in heaven and put bin Laden on top. Saddam Hussein is probably second.

Do you see the Middle East becoming peaceful in the short term?

We are fighting a losing battle, we are sacrificing our young people, we ruin our economy, we spoil our reputation, and we make life impossible for the American dream of Western influence. I love America and Americans. I love our culture. But if God does not see anything in our culture that he wants to protect, we face this self-chosen conflict in which we will definitely go under. And that will be a great shock to us. It's not too late. I passionately plea for understanding of this kind of Islamism. It's the basic root of the problem.

Do you think policymakers in Washington understand Islam very well?

When the chief of staff in the White House a few years ago [Andrew Card] read our book Light Force, he said these guys are the only ones who really understand what is going on in the Middle East. And he said, "Andrew has to preach in the White House." Which I did last year. I spoke about the God of forgiveness as opposed to the God of revenge.

We in the West are following or believing in the God of revenge as much as every Muslim does. So there's no need for us to sit on a pedestal. We have to come down to the foot of the Cross and learn from Jesus. He came to forgive, and he came to die. I have seen this attitude in many Christians in Gaza. It gives me hope for the future.

In my 50 years of ministry, my biggest meetings have been always in the Muslim world, teaching at a university in Gaza, speaking to the medical association there. My biggest meetings with Hamas were with 400 men. Why are we so timid? Why are we so afraid? They barely let me speak at my own evangelical church in Holland! I'm being sarcastic, but it is the truth. I find it easier to get speaking engagements with the Taliban than with my own evangelical church.

Why should evangelicals stay the course and be engaged with the Arabic church in the Middle East?

What Muslims see when we talk about the church is a completely different picture, and it is not the first important point. The most important point is what they perceive of what we say and do. This is what they think of the West: They think every white person is a Christian, every soldier in uniform is a Christian, every bomb is a Christian bomb. Nobody ridicules that idea. When we read about nuclear plans, we always talk about the Muslim bomb. Why shouldn't they talk about the Christian bomb? You see my point?

It's terrific if individuals or local churches or small, effective evangelical missions (I know many and Open Doors is only one) are really engaged with the Arabic-speaking church.

Soon I will be back in Iran. I do that with fear and trembling. I represent Jesus. I represent the body of Christ, and that is not what they perceive of the church. That's not what [Muslims] hear the church say. They see a very one-sided support of Israel. This is foremost on their mind [and] the church that drops bombs on them from F-16s and Apache helicopters. That's what they see the church is doing. It's their mindset. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. This is what it is.

How can we now make an impact, first of all, to say I only represent Jesus Christ? Here is the message. This is his book. Then they listen. They have been taught to listen to and even study the Bible.

They have a holy reverence for the Bible as a book. Whenever I pull out the New Testament or the whole Bible, I can preach whatever I want. I preach very evangelistic sermons there. So here's the tricky part: If Brother Andrew can do it, I think everybody can do it. Because everybody is better than me, and everybody is more able and gifted and supported. I'm just one little Dutchman walking on wooden shoes. Let us do it as a church.

We should be flocking to Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and seek the Christians and help them. And then, please, for God's sake, listen to what they say. They have something to say. This should be the driving force in our lives. It's not solving political or economic problems. It's being Christian.

My plea always has been that the church must be the Church, with capital letters.

In our new book, we have a whole chapter on a town in Pakistan that was destroyed by Muslims. We went over there and preached forgiveness openly to the people, to the government, to the military and the police. We had a tremendous time. Open Doors had a big community center, literacy school, training for Sunday school teachers and leaders. And the violence ceased because we officially said, "We forgive you Muslims because Jesus forgave us. And that's the reason of our existence. Jesus has forgiven us—not because we begged for it, but because he offered it."

That should be our attitude. That should permeate the politics of our nation.

What should Christians be doing right now?

Get up and get going for God. It's still not too late. I can still reach them. And I'm not the only one. We can reach the Taliban. We can reach Hezbollah. And I do, actually. I'm not a man with any authority or a mandate, just an individual Christian. I'm not altogether pessimistic. I'm saying at the moment as a church we're not on the right track and we ought to do something about it.

Look at the problem there with very different eyes. It's a religious problem, but it's not their fault that they have not heard who Jesus is. When we look at the history of Islam and other religions, it's always been where we've not done what we should have done, where we have not brought the gospel when we should have. We have not reached out in love and compassion. These things can still be done.

Get to know more facts. What is really happening? Is being radically right the answer? We're not sent to kill people. Nobody is, but certainly not Christians and missionaries.

If we can make the Muslims or al Qaeda our friends by political decision, then we've been killing them in vain. It's murder. So let's stop that. Let's find out the facts. Let's go with an open mind. Let's respect their religion. We've always been taught that way as Protestants.

You can still go to any place in the Muslim world and preach Christ. Any place. I want to challenge the whole world with that statement. And if that is true, then why are we resorting to other weapons that, according to the Bible, are not weapons of our warfare? When are we going to be people of the Book? They claim to be people of the book. I challenge them at the Hamas university on dialogue—and I hate the word dialogue—I'm a proclaimer, a Calvinist at heart. I believe that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I told them openly, "I'm not interested in dialogue with you guys. But I'm always willing any place, any time, with any group of you, to have a dialogue on this one question: What kind of person does the book produce—your book, my Book?"

You come back to Jesus' words: You must be born again. And they appreciate that. Because I want to challenge them on that issue.

I'm an evangelist. I'm a missionary. If I'm saying things that are politically not correct, I know the Lord will forgive me.

What keeps you hopeful about this desperate situation?

We have a message that God changes people. We still have to go [to the Middle East]. Our philosophy is going. Going takes away your fear. We are fearful because we stay home and prepare for the worst to come, because we think that's what they are planning. That may be true, but it's because of our inactivity. The moment we take the offensive and plan to go there, we lose our fear. That's very Scriptural. I'm not a bit afraid of them. I feel completely at home. I hope to be back there very soon. If I knew I could do something constructive, I'd be there tomorrow.

Deann Alford is based in Austin, Texas, and reported for CT from Gaza in 2005.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The Jason Borne of Christianity

It is pretty well agreed upon within our denomination that The Church of the Nazarene has lost its sense of identity.

As evidenced by Articles of Faith and the testimony of the founding fathers of our denomination, we are first and foremost a Christian Church, with the SECONDARY distinctive of offering a unique emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in entirely sanctifying believers.(1) Yet, as evidenced by the practices and theology (or lack of) of most local congregations we are simply, in the words of Rob Staples, "a generic evangelical" Church.

Many would argue that our identity crisis stems from our loss of the American Holiness understanding of entire sanctification as an instantaneous work wrought by the Holy Spirit subsequent to justification. Richard Taylor would be one of these. Others would say that our identity crisis comes from our lax ethical interpretations of what the life of an entirely sanctified believer should look like. My mother would be one of these.

However, I feel that our identity crisis comes from a deeper place, as evidenced by the fact that we cannot even agree on what is causing said crisis.

Mark Quanstrom does a great job of tracing the growth of divergent views on our "distinctive doctrine" in "A Century of Holiness Theology." I highly recommend this book, but I do not feel, as he seems to, that our biggest problem is our inability to agree unilaterally on how to understand and communicate the doctrine of entire sanctification. Neither do I think that what we need is an agreed upon set of rules that will form us into a unified body. I feel our greatest problem, that feeds our inability to agree on sanctification, is that we have gradually, as we tried to carve our place within the denominational marketplace, separated ourselves from the trunk (the catholic church) that gives life to our individual, distinctive branch (the Nazarene denomination).

To reclaim an identity that is not best described as a bland, generic, fundamentalist evangelicalism, we must first rediscover the depth of our Christian heritage. This goes back much further than Phineas F. Bresee, Phoebe Palmer, John Wesley and, yes, even Martin Luther. To truly see who we are in Christ as members of his Body, we have to see that who we are is bigger than a misguided response to theological and ethical liberalism, bigger than our pet economic theory, bigger than the Nation-State in which we live, bigger than a reaction to the abuses of power that the Roman Catholic Church was guilty of(2). We need to see that we are not the end, the climax of God's work on earth. We are instead the product of the faith of our fathers and mothers, and instead of jettisoning them to achieve our own short sighted goals we need to see our place as contributing to the long-term life of the church.

Yet, even this is not enough, is not an end in itself. Doing this will only be beneficial if it takes us from the trunk to our true root: love as understood by the life and actions of God. It is the love of God that led God to work in history through his Son to restore mankind to himself. It is this love that gave the Holy Spirit to continue this work in and through the lives of the disciples. This love is the same love that caused each generation of believers to shape new believers, and therefore to pass the Gospel on to us. It is this love that allowed us to become members of the church today. It is this love that sanctifies us as we participate in it, making it our own as we love God and neighbor.

And it is this same love that must be at the very core of our identity. Not a time line of sanctification. Not a list unacceptable entertainment and adornment. Without this love we are left to our own devices, which will lead us to nothing but nihilistic amnesia.

(1) Yes, this is a particular interpretation of the Articles of Faith, but it is also the way of interpreting that I later argue for as being critical to recovering a unified sense of identity.

(2) Yes, I said "was," not "is." No, I am not referring simply to the sales of indulgences and the carrying out of the crusades, I am aware of what has recently been exposed about the way that the Church covered up sexual abuse (see Amy Berg's documentary "Deliver Us From Evil" for a heartrending treatment of this misuse of power). I used the past-tense because 1. Though the crisis is far from over and much is left to be done for the victims, I believe the Church is repentant, and 2. I believe God forgives. Therefore she was guilty.

Fundi History

Thanks to Jamie Smith there is an interesting lecture that has been made available here about the history and theology of the American Fundamentalist movement from the perspective of journalist Jeff Sharlet called "Fundamentalist History, Secular Myth, and the Media's God Problem." Good stuff. Let this "outsider" disturb us and help offer us a corrective...please God...

A word of caution though, I am not advocating buying completely into Sharlet's worldview and secularist theology...just listen, because I believe he can help us come to a more honest assessment of where Christianity is (and isn't) in America.

Sharing (Isis) is Good

I just thought I'd share one of the best heavy experimental bands out there with you. They're called Isis (pronounced eye-sis, as in the Egyptian goddess and archetypal wife and mother) and will be well worth the eight minutes you put into the song.

This is definitely not a cheap quick trip like a 3:30 pop song with an intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro structure. Their songs fade in and out and wind all over, taking you somewhere you've probably never been before. Enjoy the journey. Bang your head.

Salvation Crisis?

It's no secret to any of you (pl?) out there who care enough to regularly check my blog that I have been quite lazy recently. This post does not change that. I ripped it off from Charlie, a truly faithful blogger. Nonetheless, it is good, and important for you to read (if you havn't already on Charlie's behest). It comes from David P. Gushee on the Christianity Today website.

Jesus and the Sinner’s Prayer

What Jesus says doesn’t match what we usually say.

David P. Gushee

Is it permissible to reopen the question of salvation? If we do, how will Jesus' teachings stand up to our inherited traditions?

These questions came to me acutely not long ago. I was getting ready to preach. As the worship leader was finishing the music set, he offered some unscripted theological reflections. He said something like: "The only thing required of us is to believe that Jesus' blood saves us. Nothing more. It's nothing but the blood of Jesus."

In my Baptist context, we've heard these thoughts a thousand times. The problem was that I had in my pocket a message in which Jesus himself had a very different answer to the question of salvation.

The Big Question

In reading through Luke, I had discovered that twice (10:25, 18:18) Jesus is asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

In the first passage, Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer who asks it. The lawyer replies with the Old Testament commands to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself (cf. Mt. 22:34-40). Jesus affirms his answer: "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." The lawyer then tries to narrow the meaning of neighbor. So Jesus tells the unforgettable parable of the compassionate Samaritan, who proved to be a neighbor to a bleeding roadside victim.

In Luke 18, Jesus responds to the same question, this time from the man we know as the rich young ruler, by quoting the second table of the Decalogue, forbidding adultery, murder, theft, and false witness, and mandating honor towards parents. His questioner says that he has kept these commandments, and Jesus proceeds to call on him to "sell all … and distribute to the poor." Jesus assures him, "You will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." The "extremely rich" ruler won't do this, and Jesus goes on to teach his disciples about how hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.

Trying to be an honest expositor of the texts in front of me, I told the chapel students that morning that on the two occasions in Luke when Jesus was asked about the criteria for admission to eternity, he offered a fourfold answer: love God with all that you are, love your neighbor (like the Samaritan loved his neighbor), do God's will by obeying his moral commands, and be willing, if he asks, to drop everything and leave it behind in order to follow him.

I concluded by suggesting that the contrast between how Jesus answers this question and how we usually do is stark and awfully inconvenient.

Getting Radical

In my Baptist tradition, especially, we direct people to "invite Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior," an act undertaken using a formula called the "sinner's prayer." Or we simply say, "Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved."

But Jesus never taught easy believism. Whether he was telling the rich young ruler to sell all and follow him or telling a miracle-hungry crowd near Capernaum that to do the work of God was, yes, to believe on him (John 6:28-29), he called people to abandon their own agenda and trust him radically. Radical trust calls for both belief and action.

I suggest that we tend to confuse the beginning of the faith journey with its entirety. Yes, believe in Jesus—that's the first step. Yes, invite Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior. Then, empowered by God's grace, embark on the journey of discipleship, in which you seek to love God with every fiber of your being, to love your neighbor as yourself, to live out God's moral will, and to follow Jesus where he leads you, whatever the cost.

If Jesus is to be believed, inheriting eternal life involves a comprehensive divine assessment at every step along our journey, not just at its inception.

Mediocrity and hypocrisy characterize the lives of many avowed Christians, at least in part because of our default answer to the salvation question. Anyone can, and most Americans do, "believe" in Jesus rather than some alternative savior. Anyone can, and many Americans sometimes do, say a prayer asking Jesus to save them. But not many embark on a life fully devoted to the love of God, the love of neighbor, the moral practice of God's will, and radical, costly discipleship.

If it comes down to a choice between our habitual, ingrained ways of talking about salvation and what Jesus himself said when asked the question, I know what I must choose.

"This article was first posted 3/06/2007 on ChristianityToday.com. Used by permission of Christianity Today International, Carol Stream, IL 60188."

These are "Important," not "Best," Because "Best" is not a Theological Category

Charlie Pardue tagged me to put up my list of most important books of theology published in the past 25 years.

This is the criteria:

Name three (or more) theological works from the last 25 years (1981-2006) that you consider important and worthy to be included on a list of the most important works of theology of that last 25 years (in no particular order).


1. Paul Among the Postliberals by Douglas Harink 2003














2. Torture and Eucharist by William T. Cavanaugh 1998














3. Between Cross & Resurrection by Alan E. Lewis 2001