Onlinedegrees.net has selected More Than Cake for their Top 100 blogs on Anthropology (the study of people). Out of the Top 100, they selected 4 blogs related to Religious Studies… MTC made the grade. You can see the full list here.
Archive for the ‘Anthropology’ category
MTC makes the top 100
March 9th, 2010
Be Something
February 5th, 2010“The world says ‘you can be anything’, but God does not want you to be ‘anything’, He created you to be ’something’.” — J. R. Miller
At the top right corner of my blog, readers will notice a new quote from me appears on every new page. Most of these quotes come from my posts and there is a context for understanding them. However, one of my readers recently asked about the above quote which had no further context on my blog. So for Melody, and everyone else who is interested, here is the short answer to what it means.
A Play On Words
First, the quote relies on an old speakers trick of creating play on words to grab attention. Years ago when I was a pastor to teenagers, I found this particular turn of phrase very helpful in getting kids to listen… apparently it still works.
Practically Speaking
When most people tell a kid, “you can be anything you want in life” I understand what they are driving at. They are attempting to encourage a kid to work hard and dream big. The goal is admirable, but impractical. The phrase is not helpful because no person is equipped to be “anything” they want in life. Take my own life as an example. I was born with a neurological condition that inhibits my eyesight. Consequently, I am nearsighted and my depth perception is not the best. One sport I was never good at was baseball. Standing in the outfield looking into the sky for that little white ball was an impossible task and if I did happen to see it, chances are the ball was close enough to hit me in the head before I could catch it. Now imagine I had a childhood dream of playing in the Big Leagues and some well meaning adult told me, “go for it Joe, you can be anything you want to be.” Would that have been true? No. Maybe it would make the adult feel good, but it would have only lead me down a path of discouragement and failure. I call it the “American Idol Syndrome” Watch the show sometime. The show is full of delusional people who were told by well meaning adults, “you can be a star.” Filled with dreams and no talent, people come and audition. They walk off the set rejected, humiliated and cursing the judges. Parents and friends keep feeding their “be anything” delusions—yet in truth no one person can be “anything”. Success in this life is realizing your options are limited, finding something you are good at and then becoming something that is suited with your natural abilities.
Spiritually Speaking
Beyond the practical aspects, I think the message of “you can be anything” leads to spiritual emptiness. The message itself assumes there is no plan or purpose in life beyond the meaning each person can give it through personal accomplishment. When a teenager struggles to fulfill their dreams, they begin to experience the emptiness of the “anything” life. On the other hand, the Bible gives an alternative picture of the “something” life. The Scriptures tell us that God created each one of us for a purpose. He has a plan for us. He created us with natural talents and gifts so that we could be something and do something with our lives. When we live in accordance with that “something”, we experience real joy and satisfaction in life.
In brief, this is why I discourage people from trying to be “anything” and challenge them to discover God and be the “something” He has created them to be.
God’s Justice is Based on Fairness
January 8th, 2010I live in a region of the United States unlike any other place where I have lived. I live in the State of Washington where the light of the Gospel is most dim. Only 10% of the population here in the Puget Sound region near Seattle call themselves “Christian”. The culture here is spiritual, maybe a little religious, but definitely not friendly to a vibrant faith in Jesus. It is from within the context of a culture that is antagonistic to my faith, that I interpret Romans 2. In direct contrast to the misperception that God is “mean” for judging the world “sinful,” I am convinced that the lost must hear that God’s justice is based on fairness to all people, all cultures, and all ages.
For there is no partiality with God. (Romans 2:11 NKJV)
God’s fairness is demonstrated in two ways.
First, God is fair because does not condemn anyone to eternal separation from His love (Hell) based on a rejection of Jesus. God’s justice has no regard for a person’s knowledge of Christian theology or how well they know the historical Jesus. Such knowledge would favor the educated or people born into Western Civilization and therefore unfairly punish those in non-Western civilizations, the illiterate, and the uneducated.
Second, God’s justice is fair because it is not based on wealth, education, parentage, cultural privilege, or skin color–it is only flawed human beings who make judgments based on such superficial observations. God, however, offers justice to everyone based on their personal choices.
To those who have specific knowledge of YHWH’s Law and do not follow it 100%–they will be judged and found guilty!
AND…
To those without the knowledge of His Law, God will ”grade” their life based on 100% conformity to their own personal moral code. God’s justice is fair because it is based on each person’s…
- actions which demonstrate a rejection of love and kindness toward others.
- actions which demonstrate a rejection of love for all creation.
- actions which demonstrate a rejection of self-love.
There is no partiality with God. His justice does not take into account a false perception of who we “think” or “feel” we are. God’s justice does not factor in Media image or PR campaigns. Instead of perception, God judges the reality of our being.
I am reminded of the recent incident with soccer player Elizabeth Lambert from the University of New Mexico. This young woman acted viciously on the field; pulling hair, kicking girls in the back, and punching other players in the face. At least a half-dozen times in one single game she attacked other players. After the game when the video spread across YouTube, the consensus from those who defended her was that, “that video does not show the real Elizabeth. She is really a kind and gentle person, and that video of her does not show who she is.” But the video in fact does show who Ms. Lambert is. Certainly not all of who she is, but it does show her choices, her anger, and her willingness to hurt other young women. So as much as Ms. Lambert does not think it is “fair” to show this video–it is fair. The comments from her defenders only make it worse because they prove that Ms. Lambert knows better. She is a nice person in other situations and knows how to be nice, yet during this game she chose to act in a way that violated her own moral code of conduct. Ironically then, in an effort to preserve her image, Ms. Lambert’s friends have actually revealed her hypocrisy.
Ms. Lambert is not alone in her hypocrisy. Every one of us who saw Ms. Lambert’s video and recognized “she was wrong” also shares in her guilt. I am equally guilty of the same anger. There is no video showing me yelling at my kids. There is no video of me speaking cruel words to my wife. Yet in these choices, and many others I care not to mention, I am no less a hypocrite than Ms. Lambert. No matter where a person draws the line of justice, every single one of us falls short and every single one of us is fairly judged by God as a hypocrite–we just don’t have our failures shown on YouTube.
…as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. (Romans 2:12b-13 NKJV)
Everyone is condemned based on their choices and the only way for God to be fair is to provide a solution that is the same for everyone. God cannot excuse the actions of one person and then condemn someone else for the same thing. That would make God a hypocrite. The Law that God revealed in the Old Testament teaches us that everyone needs Jesus. He is the only solution that makes God’s justice fair. We are condemned by our choices, but forgiven through the life of Jesus. Our choices condemn us, but Jesus’ choice to die on the cross frees us.
Gal. 3:24 – Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Matt. 5:17)
I hear the complaints now from my atheist friends.
“How can God possibly be called fair?”“
“How can God’s solution be fair when not everyone knows who Jesus is?”
“How can people be judged for not knowing Christ?”
“What about people who have never heard of Jesus?”
These are great questions and people are totally right for asking them. The sad part is, too many Christians don’t even understand how to answer them. Romans 2 addresses the very heart of this issue when Paul wrote to the non-believing Roman culture of the day.
For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law… for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. (Romans 2:12a, 14-16 NKJV)
As I mentioned at the start, the lost are not judged by God on the basis of ignorance about Jesus, they are judged because they are born into sin and chose to cooperate with that sin.
AND…
The basis of God’s judgment is not the degree of revelation received, but the choices each person makes in response to the revelation they do possess. In other words, it is not how much you know, but what you do with it that matters. At the risk of sounding like a Universalist, there will be people in heaven who have really bad theology. There will be people in heaven with YHWH who do not have a deep understanding of the historical Jesus. There will be people in heaven who cannot articulate the Gospel in clear and concise terms.
The best way I know to explain God’s fairness is to share with you two truths and a mystery.
Truth #1: Freedom from our own sin comes only through the person of Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection is the only power that can save us.
Truth #2: God has promised to reveal Himself to anyone and everyone who seeks Him. From the African tribalist, to the South American native, to the Chinese villager to the Seattle citizen… all who see God will find fair opportunity for salvation.
Mystery #1: God’s justice is fair. People ask, what about those who die and have never heard the good news of Jesus. All I can say is that anyone who genuinely wanted to hear, will hear, and somehow when it all shakes out; God is fair. The “how” of God’s self-revelation continues to be a mystery, but one that does not invalidate the truth of what I know–God’s justice is based on fairness.
Throwing in the Towel on Jesus
November 18th, 2009In my last post, I shared part of Lionel’s story and his frustrations with church. Today I want to share part of Robert’s story and why he has thrown in the towel on Jesus. Robert was once a professional Southern Baptist pastor and now he is a professed atheist. A friend wrote him a letter of concern, and following begins Robert’s “Letter to a Christian Friend.”
Dear Friend,
I thought that you might be surprised, as most of my old friends and my family have been. It is difficult for most Christians to believe that a former southern baptist minister could be an Atheist. You responded very much like a lot of them and did so with concern, love, an obvious bias that I understand, and some false assumptions. I have no problem explaining my journey to you or anyone who has a sincere desire to know, but you really need to keep an open mind, because as you already have in your e-mail, you will be tempted to assume some things that simply are false. Nothing that you wrote that supports your faith is new to me and I think you know me well enough to know that. They are convictions I once held myself. I think you also know the answer to some of the questions you posed; especially the one about whether or not I ever was a Christian. You, of all people, know better than to ask such a question. As arrogant as this may sound, if I wasn’t a Christian, then no one is.
Let me answer some of your other direct questions. I do not believe in anything supernatural or spiritual, therefore I do not beleive in a god. Christianity at it’s core is a religion based on faith (believing without evidence). In fact there is no evidence that the God of the bible exists, there is only personal experience. This is how there can be so many different religions and so many different Christian denominations that can claim to have the truth. None of them have the truth, they have belief without evidence. So, to your question about death and an afterlife….when I die, I’m dead, gone, that’s it. No I will not see my wife and children somewhere in a “spiritual place.” No such place exists…
As you can imagine, Robert has received a lot of replies to his open letter defending his new found Atheism. I would like to make a few observations of my own that, for me, reflect the core of Robert’s dilemma.
1. Convictions are a poor substitute for Conversion: What I find most striking in Robert’s response is that nowhere does he discuss a historical relationship with Jesus. Instead, what Robert describes is giving up one set of philosophical convictions about “god” for another set of convictions about the “absence of god.” I think Robert reflects a great swath of Western Faith that relies heavily on adhereence to s set of convictions that have limited emphasis on a personal encounter with Jesus.
2. Evidence is meaningless without an Encounter: I am not surprised Robert rejects the existence of the supernatural because clearly he never had an encounter with YHWH. He became a professional pastor, bought into a system of religious beliefs, but nowhere did he ever experience a personal encounter with Jesus or the power of the Spirit. How do I know? Because Robert says so. His circular reasoning is based on a false syllogism, “God is supernatural, I have not experienced the supernatural, therefore God does not exist.” In the end, Robert’s atheistic faith is still based on a narcissistic worldview instead of a external relationship.
3. Conversion and Encounter are the key. The Aposlle Paul is an early example of how these two elements stand at the center of Faith in Christ. Paul was a Jew who killed Christians for a living. He killed Christians based on a very strong set of convictions, rooted in the Old Testament evidence about God. The evidence never changed and Paul’s convictions about God were right on target. What changed for Paul was his encounter with Jesus and his conversion through the Holy Spirit.
Robert’s story is a lesson for all those who preach the Gospel of Jesus. There are many “Roberts” in our churches. Many have been created by false pastors and leaders who have relied on convictions and evidence to the exclusion of conversion and encounter. But just as bad are those who fight endlessly to change the convictions of how we “do” church. How many blogs have you read that argue that the only real way to “do” communion is with a meal? How many websites have you read that rail against any who “do” church in a big building and insist that the “house” is the only place where God dwells? In reality, all of these trendy arguments are focused on changing people’s convictions and they will eventually lead to even more disillusioned “Roberts”.
If you are struggling with the inability to “worship” YHWH, the answer will not be found changing your location, changing the size of your congregation, or changing your style of worship. The answer is found in a personal encounter with Jesus and a conversion of the heart empowered by the Spirit.
Regarding 
Regarding 
Regarding 
Regarding 
Regarding 
