Archive for the ‘Theology’ Category
The Sermon on the Plain — Part 2
Why are Christ’s teachings so meaningful? Because there is power in his words: power to change the world, power to change and transform lives. Lately, I’ve preached two sermons on the “Sermon on the Plain” –
Part 2, Aug. 15, 2010 — http://mountainbible.com/?page_id=162&sermon_id=109
Part 1, July 4, 2010 — http://mountainbible.com/?page_id=162&sermon_id=106
© 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved. For inquiries press here.
Bonhoeffer on faith and works
It is evident that the only appropriate conduct of men before God is the doing of His will. … The error of the Pharisees, therefore, did not lie in their extremely strict insistence on the necessity for action, but rather in their failure to act. ‘They say, and do not do it.’ — Ethics, p. 43
One of the fundamental problems in the study of faith and works is the inseparableness of the two. One cannot speak of faith without at the same time contemplating works, for faith in Christ does not draw one to inaction. Another of the problems is the idea that faith and works are antithetical, or at least incompatible. Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts forth this perspective in his seminal work, Ethics: “The irreconcilable opposite of action is judgement. ‘He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.’ (Jas. 4.11). There are two possible attitudes to the law: judgement and action” (p. 43-44). Bonhoeffer proposes in Ethics that the pursuit of knowledge — the knowledge of good and evil — is antithetical to the knowledge of God, or, more succinctly, knowing God. He writes that Adam and Eve exchanged knowing God for not-knowing, choosing instead to become judges. The Christian man or woman has turned away from not-knowing, to knowing only God. As such, the Christian cannot again become a judge, but rather becomes a doer by the grace and virtue of the Cross.
I highly recommend Bonhoeffer’s Ethics to everyone, but particularly the section entitled “Doing,” pp. 43-48.
© 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved. For inquiries press here.
Originally posted 2009-03-15 22:43:53.
The Sermon on the Plain
Jesus: Good teacher or did he just sound good?
Sermon: http://mountainbible.com/?page_id=162&sermon_id=106
© 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved. For inquiries press here.
Levels of theology: essentials and nonessentials
Contemplate this idea, that there are different levels of theology: essentials and non-essentials. Many fundamentalists, of whom I number myself, find themselves in an untenable situation by insisting that, as the Bible is wholly true, all statements about it must reflect absolute certainty, i.e. whatever I say about it must be the final word. This makes fellowship with other Christians difficult, and, frankly, impossible.
The attitude commonly is, “God said it, I believe it, that’s it.” The problem, of course, with such statements — often found on the back-ends of our cars — is that they inadequately handle the truth: they don’t tell the whole story. Certainly, anything God says is to be believed. But we must ask ourselves several things:
© 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved. For inquiries press here.
Originally posted 2008-09-13 13:47:08.
Why we work
Sometimes we find meaning in the mundane. In church one Sunday I observed the following exchange between Guy Denues, a long-time member of Mountain Bible Church, and Charlie, his 20-year-old son –
“Hey, Charlie, your mother and I will be cutting wood later today.”
“Cool,” he answered.
Then, Charlie went over to his friends, saying, “Hey, guys, my family is going to be cutting wood this afternoon, so I won’t be able to hang out with you until later.”
Notice that Guy did not tell Charlie to alter his plans for the afternoon; he simply noted what needed to be done. Charlie could have gone out with his friends if he wanted to, but he chose to cut wood. Why? If he wasn’t commanded to do so, why did he choose to alter his plans? Later, I asked Charlie. He replied, “They’re my family.”
I tell this story to illustrate a point: the work we do for the Lord is not motivated by the desire to gain something — salvation, reward, honor — but because we have gained so much. Love expects nothing, but gives all.
© 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved. For inquiries press here.
Originally posted 2008-12-04 16:45:33.
The “conservative” Jesus Seminar
I cringed some years ago when I read about the Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal scholars who voted on which of the words of Jesus were “authentic.” Not many of the New Testament quotations won their approval. I’m cringing now, hearing reports of a conservative “Jesus Seminar,” which aims to purge the New Testament of its “liberal” elements (see story).
Stop messing with the Bible!
Translation, no doubt, is a process of interpretation, but it is also a science. Changing or redacting the texts to suit your theological interests is vulgar and profane. It is frankly intolerable.
The Conservative Bible Project unabashedly explains, “[This] is a project to render God’s word into modern English while removing liberal distortions.” This includes redacting so-called disputed texts, giving preference to gender-specific terms, using “powerful conservative terms,” and preferring “conciseness over liberal wordiness (source). What is at issue here, however, is not their method (which is questionable), but their motives. First, these “scholars” must decide which passages are “liberal;” then they can “improve” the texts. This is not translation, but speculation.
Their approach is entirely misguided. For example, they say modern translations of Matthew 4:19 reflect a liberal bias. Instead of “I will make you fishers of people,” they argue the text should read, “I will make you fishers of men.” However, even their own notes point out that the disputed term is gender-neutral in the Greek. Yet, because the conversation is between men, they argue Jesus must have meant “men.” Are they not inserting a conservative bias into the text?
See image of translator’s notes for Matthew 4:19:
Ironically, “people” is derived from a masculine term! Thus, the English word should be entirely suitable. File under: Much ado about nothing.
People (men and women) might ask, “Why not just translate the Bible word-for-word? Wouldn’t that settle things?” Problematically, language does not lend itself to word-for-word translation. Not all languages employ the same rules of syntax (i.e. word order); vocabularies between languages vary (some are large; some are very small — finding terms that are exactly comparable can be difficult); also, words of common origin might actually very different meanings in the receptor language (“pharmacology” in Greek implies witchcraft, not medicine as in English).
This is to say nothing idiomatic expressions. How might one translate “this is cool” into Chinese or Arabic? If the meaning is “this is great,” do you really want to tell people the temperature of a given object is relatively cold? How would you convey the sense of the expression? In Bolivia, if someone says, “Bueno,” they don’t mean simply good; they mean “good morning.” Is a word-for-word translation tolerable in this instance?
Consider the Gospel of John. Jesus repeatedly addresses his mother as “woman” (cf. John 2:4, 19:26). If an American child, speaking in English, addressed his mother as “woman,” that would be regarded as the child being disrespectful. Such is not the case in Greek. In Greek, the meaning is neutral (note Mary’s response to her son in chapter 2); perhaps, as F.F. Bruce suggests, the term has the sense of “my lady.” Invariably, English translators stick with “woman,” as it is just too difficult to find another suitable term (“my lady” sounds very upper class).
All this is to say that translation is a difficult process, one that must be handled scientifically. Because one thinks there are biases in modern translations does not give one license to make wholesale changes to the scriptures. Such methods are intolerable.
© 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved. For inquiries press here.
Originally posted 2009-12-04 13:33:33.
Hidden sins, revealed holiness
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin. — Psalm 19:12-13
The psalmist speaks of “hidden faults,” acknowledging there are unknown sins lurking in his heart. These are not external faults, but his actual self. He is not a basically good person who occasionally does bad things, but an evil person who works evil continuously in his heart. To what extent he is sinful, he is unaware, but he is not ignorant. He knows his heart.
Thus, he confesses.
The purpose of confession is not self-deprecation. Man does not glorify God by admitting sin; in other words, he does not make God more holy by making himself less holy (he cannot elevate God). He confesses because God is holy. This knowledge, divinely revealed, empowers a man to confess, for he is no longer ignorant of God’s will.
He “to whom God counts righteousness apart from works” is he who seeks forgiveness from from Him who is gracious (Rom. 4:6). A man cannot confess without acknowledging God’s forgiveness, for then that man would be denying God’s will, which to forgive. That is the holiness of God. It is the acknowledgement that sin is so utterly sinful that no remedy exists except absolute pardon, pardon entirely apart from works.
Absent forgiveness, confession is meaningless.
John Newton, who wrote “Amazing Grace,” declared, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things; that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.” This is the sum of salvation. Man is sinful, God is forgiving. No part exists separately. Thus David writes: “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5).
This is the mystery that Paul touches upon in the fourth chapter of his letter to the Romans. “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). This is the word which is able to save souls, which is able to justify sinners. This is the word to which the world is called.
© 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved. For inquiries press here.
Originally posted 2010-01-27 19:32:21.
