Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Archives for April 2012

The Secret Spiritual Power of Helplessness: A Lesson from the Life of Gideon

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Battle of Gideon Against the Midianites - Nicolas Poussin
As part of my ongoing battle for physical fitness, I have been listening to a dramatized reading of the Bible as I walk, instead of reading the Bible while seated. There are gains and losses.

One gain: I am certainly going to listen to the entire Bible this year. Another: I am gripped by the spellbinding sweep of the stories.

I listened to Judges today, captivated by the story of Gideon.

* * *

 God sees potential in us which neither we ourselves, nor others see. He calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17). So the angel of the Lord greets the faintly ridiculous, terrified Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress, so as to be unobserved by the Midianites, with words, which sounded ironic, but are, in fact, his new destiny: “The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior.”

And then Gideon is commissioned to do a task, which humanly speaking, he cannot do. “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hands. Am I not sending you?”

But Gideon has no strength.

“But Lord” Gideon asked. “How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the weakest in my family.”

Just as we crave for love and significance, God desires our love—and our faith!  For us to know him. To believe in him. To believe in who he is. In his goodness and power.

And so he frequently gives us a task too big for us, precisely so that we will have to rely on his power to do it. And then give him the glory, so that his character might be known among the men and women he loves.

And God answers Gideon with an answer most reassuring, if we have faith, “I will be with you.”

Gideon understandably, wonders if he is hallucinating. And so God gives him signs, the famous Gideon’s fleece (Judges 7 36-40.)

* * *

Later, God says something very interesting, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.

In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her,” send back the fearful. The fearful volunteer to go home.

So Gideon’s army is reduced from 32,000 to 10,000.

The next test reduces the army from 10,000 to 300. The Midianites, on the other hand, were “thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”

And with this vastly reduced army of 300, God is prepared to act.

* * *

 Sometimes, we experience God’s provision most vividly when we are desperate. I received business ideas and guidance after I tried and failed to create a viable business with my own strength.

It exhausted me, so I had to cry out to the Lord in my distress for a sustainable idea which He gave.

We are so self-sufficient that we need to reach the point of desperation—of being confronted with tasks too great for us before we turn to God.

I am seeking God about this blog because my stats have been dropping. I don’t want to spend more than an hour a day on it. But I feel tempted to spend more time on my blog when my stats drop.

At the prophetic conference I went to recently, Patricia Bootsma pointed out that roots are invisible, but for a tree to be visible, and tower over the rest, it needs a deep, massive root structure for strength, stability and nourishment. Our roots lie in the secret hours we spend with God.

For a Christian blogger, the secret to growing an audience may not lie in working more, working harder, or even working smarter (though the latter helps).

It may well lie in hearing the voice and words of God, overhearing his whispers, knowing his heartbeat, so that what you write are words of life, comfort, encouragement, wisdom and strength. Shrewd marketing cannot give you this, or social media savvy, or hard work; it comes from hanging out with God.

* * *

So Gideon sends back 9700 men, asking them to leave behind their trumpets. Normally, there are just a few trumpeters in an army, but now each of the 300 men has a trumpet, giving the impression of a far larger army.

And God delivers them in one of his trademark ways: An idea so good, so unusual, so startling, so clever that men wouldn’t have thought of it themselves.

Gideon tells his three hundred men, “Get up. The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” Talk about positive, faith-filled thinking!!

So Gideon divides his men into three groups of a hundred, with torches in empty jars and trumpets. At a signal, they were to smash their jars, flash their torches, blow their trumpets and shout, “A sword for the Lord, and for Gideon.”

And because of the proliferation of trumpets, the racket of the broken jars, and the sudden shock of the torches and war cries in the darkness, they created the impression of a massive army.

Groggy and terrified by this middle of the night awakening, the darkness, trumpets and battle cries, the Midianites fled. And Gideon won, delivering his people through an outrageous, God-given strategy.

* * *

The story reminds me not to rely on my natural gifts, such as they are, or on free time or hard work to achieve my goals, but to continue asking God for his strategy, his ideas, and his blessing.

And to never forget that one of God’s blessings are good ideas and good strategy, which he gives to those who ask him.

At Play in the Fields of the Prophetic

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Okay, when I started playing, I was sceptical of people who suddenly ask you to give “a prophetic word” to the person next to you, as Rachel Hickson did at St. Aldate’s.I was sceptical as I wrote, but, in fact, a highly meaningful, writers’-block-breaking “word” was then shared with me.
So on Friday, I was at a conference led by Patricia Bootsma of the Toronto Airport Fellowship, with more playing with the prophetic. We were asked to give words and images to people, sometimes those next to us, and sometimes those who stood behind us, sight unseen.
There is something presumptuous about this putting on the spot. What if God does not give you a word—what should you do? Would the person be disappointed? I actually panic that I will not have something to say. But, in fact, God did give me words and images each time, and I hope they meant something to the people I shared them with.
The “prophetess,” Patricia Bootsma, was down-to-earth, and, interestingly, seemed to be leaning into the spirit, hearing what he was saying, as she spoke. She was tuning into the flow of words and images, as I do when the tap for a poem or blog post or essay is turned on, and it’s flowing, and I am writing fast as if to dictation—and then how annoying it is when a child or spouse walks into the room, and the flow is lost, forever. Similarly, Patricia got annoyed with people writing as she spoke, or chattering in the room in which she was tuning into the spirit and listening.
I had my first Charismatic experience when I was 17, three decades or so ago. And I have never had a prophetic word spoken over me which used information the speaker could not have got, except supernaturally.
So Patricia comes up to me, looks at me, and says, “You have a daughter.” “Yes,” I say, “two of them.” Then she says, “I have a word for your elder daughter. She is going to be a leader, a leader in the Church. Satan has brought many things against her, but she will overcome. And your prayers for your daughters will be answered.”
I was stunned—particularly as this was the destiny I had seen for my older daughter, Zoe, from a young age, and because she has been having a rough time recently. What a wonderful word of direction and encouragement, spoken from someone who did not know me, or know I had daughters.
The other prophetic words from conference attendees were “You shall run and not be weary; walk and not faint,” which was the word and image God gave me in response to my request last week. (And I went for a 40 minute run today, got my best time ever, and was not weary!!)
Then we had to share a character from Scripture with a person who stood behind us. The person shared Joseph on the throne, meeting his brothers who betrayed him, forgiving them. Joseph is a key figure for me, and I have blogged about the lessons from his life numerous times.
Interestingly, the room was full of friends and enemies from my old church, which had been a painful, toxic experience for me, in which I had been betrayed, lied about, and slandered, while leading a women’s group. And those two women were there.
I sat at lunch with a group of women from my old church, including an African immigrant, who, among other back-stabbing, fabricated an entire conversation I supposedly had with her, and went with it to my co-leader and the rector’s wife. It took me ages to get over the shock of those sheer lies, and to forgive.
And then, I saw her again on Friday, and it was Phooey. I no longer cared about what she had said. I no longer cared that she got what she wanted (I resigned the leadership in a fit of pique, and she led the group in my stead). I was no longer shocked at the slander and lies. I was like, “So what? Who cares?”
I suppose it was because like Joseph I had been fruitful in the land of my suffering. That the things they had meant for evil God turned to good. Phew, when you are divinely enabled to forgive, and it is all done and dusted, what a relief that is!
I looked around the room and saw friends from my old charismatic church, about 6 of whom I’d had many lunches and teas with in my house, and theirs. I was wondering if I belonged in that charismatic church, rather than my new regular evangelical church.
And so the last image shared with me, again by someone who didn’t see my face, was of a wall being built, and there is one space missing, one brick missing, and that was me. I was reassured that I do have a role to play, a ministry in my new church which will slowly be revealed to me. I am co-leading a group, and I will pray for wisdom to share, and love.
So, interestingly, the random prophecies where we shared words, images and verses with people we did not know (and sometimes whose faces we did not see) worked—not because of any prophetic ability on our parts, perhaps, but because of the goodness of God, who is always speaking, is never silent, and really desires to communicate with his children.

 

Work, Exercise, God: Panaceas, One better than the Others

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Annoyingly, I can’t find it online, but as a teenager, my father had given me a quote from Charles Kingsley saying something like, “If you are sad, work. If you are sleepless, work. If you are bored, work. If you are restless, work. If disappointed, work. If heartbroken, work.”

I have often said it to myself, and it is the cure for a lot of things: When sad, work. When bored, work. When restless, work. When bitterly disappointed, work.
But as somebody who tends to overwork until a burnout, it is not truly a panacea: a remedy for all disease or ills; an answer or solution for all problems or difficulties.
For one, the work I naturally tend to do, reading and writing, feeds just my mind, and some emotional needs. But I am a quadripartite being–a true panacea will need to satisfy spirit and bless the body too.
* * *
Interestingly, when we lived in Virginia, the then Governor, George Allen, distributed a piece, when said, in effect: Sad? Exercise. Bored? Exercise. Under-performing? Exercise. Stressed? Exercise. Unfit and unhealthy? Exercise. Trouble sleeping? Exercise. Burnt out? Exercise.
But that too is a partial solution because it ignores the spiritual—just as a purely spiritual solution which ignores our physical, intellectual and emotional dimensions is also weak and one-sided.
                                                                    * * *
But I honestly believe that the river of my needs, and problems and difficulties find their answer in the sea of God. That the answers and fulfilment I seek are in Christ  “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col 2.3.
Hidden is the operative word. I need to find the answer for how to be fitter and more healthy. I need to find the answer for how to write more. I need to find the answer for how to read more. And, by faith, I know the answers are hidden in Christ.

“Prophetic Decrees”

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WORLDWIDEGCF
 I went to a conference in Oxford today taught by Patricia Bootsma and encountered the idea of Prophetic Decrees.
She and her husband had received many prophecies about speaking, prophesying, pastoring, going to the nations, but he remained a bank manager in a tiny Canadian town, and she a home-maker. She was dissatisfied.
One day, she felt God say, “What are you doing about the prophecies?”
“Complaining that they aren’t fulfilled,” she said honestly.
“Start calling forth and proclaiming your prophecies,” God said. “Believe them, decree them.”
Revelation poured into her spirit. The prophecies over her life were conditional upon her response.
It was not right for her to sit idly by, merely hoping and waiting for them to happen. She had a role to play in the fulfilment of God’s words over her life.
·      * *
Two Essential Steps Towards Prophetic Fulfillment
1 Faith—Blessed is she who believed that there will be a fulfilment of the things which were told her from the Lord
We enter the door of fulfilled prophecy initially by believing what the Lord says is true, even when circumstances argue the opposite. Agreement of our mind, heart and beliefs with the words from the Lord creates a womb in which those dreams are nurtured until their birthing.
2 Additionally, our words are powerful catalysts or deterrent to prophecies being fulfilled.
Patricia writes “When the Lord spoke to my spirit to decree my prophecies, I did not realise the power of declaration until I witnessed its results.”
She began marching around her home, speaking forth those prophecies.
Within six months, they had entered full-time ministry at the Toronto Airport Fellowship. “I saw first-hand how to get prophetic words off the shelf, and into reality by partnering with the Lord through declarations.”
“Prophecy is intended to encourage you to build a life pleasing to the Lord, to prosper, and to fulfil your destiny.”
The Weight of Words
Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).
Our words can determine the course of our lives.
We have the power to build up or tear down our spouses by the words we say about them.
How do we overcome evil? “By the blood of the lamb, and the word of their testimony!” Rev 12:11.
Our words influence those around us to walk in greater victory or defeat. Constant belittling or pointing out faults causes discouragement, which weakens the spirit and only makes matters worse.
Our negative words not only affect the listener, but the one who speaks them. Jesus says, “It’s not what goes into the mouth which defiles but what comes out” (Matt. 15:11). James speaks of the ability of the tongue to defile and corrupt our whole being (James 3:6). We actually discourage ourselves when we speak negatively.
Prophetic decrees: Speaking in agreement with God. We do this by filling our minds with the truth of God’s word, both Scripture (logos) and the rhema words spoken to us prophetically.
“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua 1:8
The Hebrew word translated “meditate” is hagah, “to reflect, to ponder aloud to oneself.” Regular repetition of key Scriptures and prophetic words creates a womb for birthing those words in our lives and ministries.
How did God create the world? He spoke and the emptiness shone with light.
Similarly, when we begin to declare with faith the words of God, things shift, circumstances change, and obstacles come into alignment with his will. We are “to call those things which do not exist as though they did,” and to speak to the mountain (any obstacle) to be removed (Matt. 17:20).
Bill Johnson, “Nothing happens in the Kingdom unless there is first a declaration.”
Our Children and Prophetic Decrees
She prays the Prayer of Jabez over her children, “Oh that you would bless Zoe and Irene indeed and enlarge their territories, that you hand may be upon them, that they may be free from pain.”
She speaks words like “May you be the head and not the tail. May you grow in wisdom and stature, and in favour with man and God.”
She says her children have lived up to the life-giving proclamations.
Patricia’s directions for designing decrees
1 Regularly (preferably daily) declare words of life over yourself, your family members and loved ones.
2 Be consistent
3 Be brief—summarize it in a sentence or two.
4 Ensure the decrees are consistent with Scripture and according to the nature of God.
She prays, “I live in perpetual, intimate communion with the Lord, and have peace. His presence is always with me.” (Matt. 28:20 and Phil 4:7).

Augustine of Hippo: He being dead, yet speaketh. A Guest Post by Joshua Lake

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 Why should you care about St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, born in the 4th century and dead in the 5th? What can a dead white guy from ancient Africa have to teach you today?

After all, you and I live in the age of the Internet. The age of YouTube and The Office. You can Google John 3:16 in approximately 4.2 seconds, so why do you need to read Augustine’s reflections on that verse?
I’ll reveal my hand right here at the beginning: I treasure Augustine’s writings. I first picked them up when I was eighteen, and I later studied them in college. Last month I reread his famous Confessions, and I benefited anew from Augustine’s wisdom.
With that personal confession, I’ll give you at least two reasons I think you should know about Augustine.
Why Should You Care About Augustine?
First, it is wise to acquaint yourself with Christian writers from previous generations. Explaining the importance of knowing historic figures, G. K. Chesterton famously referred to tradition as the democracy of the dead. In Orthodoxy, Chesterton explained, “Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death.”
For that reason, I highly recommend that you read books written before your time. Recommend that you read old books. Books by dead authors. Reading old books, particularly books on Christianity, will safeguard you against falling into error. It will ground you in historic Christianity, and it will remind you of what the Church has always held to be true.
Second, I recommend Augustine in particular, because of how beautifully he combines brilliant, intellectual theology with deeply heartfelt, emotional love for Christ. Modern Christianity tends to slide off into one of those two extremes: seeking ever-fresh outpourings of the Holy Spirit, manifested in exuberant emotion, or pursuing pure, undefiled, brainy systematic theologies with no connection to life. Augustine stands as our proof that Christians can have both: they can love Christ passionately while knowing him rightly.
Augustine’s Background
You probably know Augustine’s name, but here’s what you may not know about him. Augustine was born to a believing mother and a pagan father. In Confessions, Augustine recalls that his mother spent every day in tearful prayer, begging that God would save her husband and her son.
Augustine deeply adored his mother, and he praises her for her faith and love. He writes that she endured abuse, drunkenness, and infidelity from her husband, all the while respectfully submitting to him and praying for his salvation. In the end, God did save her husband, and their marriage was redeemed.
For more than thirty years, Augustine lived as an unbeliever, scorning his mother’s faith. He lived life to the hilt, tasting pleasure and seeking wisdom. Augustine excelled at rhetoric and grammar, because he loved the attention he received from public speaking. In short, Augustine was a man of the world–he pursued pleasure wherever it could be found.
But God was not content to let him go. God heard the prayers of Augustine’s mother, and He would not let Augustine go. At some point, the world lost its luster, and he saw it for what it was. “I could not find relief,” he confessed, “in quiet forests, nor in loud games and music, nor in fragrant spots, nor in parties, nor in sexual pleasures, nor even in books and poetry.” As he put it later, “You [God] melt the defenses erected aginst You by a glance from Your will. … Nothing can escape Your heat.” God broke down Augustine’s defenses and swept in with new life.
Immediately, without looking back, Augustine gave up his sensuous pursuit of pleasure and turned to God. He sold everything he owned, gave the money to the poor, and opened a monastic community in northern Africa. Within four years of conversion, Augustine became a priest, and within four more years he was named bishop of Hippo, in what is today called Algeria. He held that position for more than thirty years, until his death.
Important Parts of Augustine’s Work
I’ve already mentioned Confessions, a memoir written as a series of prayers to God. In it, Augustine details the ways in which God moved in his life, both before and after salvation. Augustine’s language is stirring, and emotion drips off the pages in many passages like this one:
Happy is the one who loves You.
He looks to You for friendship.
He makes enemies only to protect Your honor.
The one fixed in You sees his earthly loves as beloved in You.
You alone cannot be lost; You only are certain.
Our God are You who made heaven and earth.
You fill them with works of Your creation.
– Confessions, page 59 (Modern English Version, Baker Book House: 2005).
In Confessions Augustine writes about his mother and his wild early years, and it is the most deeply personal of all his writings. There, he also presages C. S. Lewis’s idea that our desires are not too strong but too weak, saying, “Their human will does not have a strong enough desire to make them able to want real happiness.”
Augustine spent thirteen years writing City of God, where he creates the idea now known as “Two Kingdoms” theology. Augustine explains that Christ’s kingly rule places Him over all creation, but it is not fully manifest yet. While on this earth, we are all citizens of two kingdoms: one heavenly and the other earthly. So our attitude toward life should not be an anxious grasping, in the words of one historian. Instead, it should be an attitude of relaxed playfulness, knowing that our eternal fate is secure in Christ.
Our politics on earth should, as Christians, be free of messianic pretensions but also void of all hopelessness and despair. “If Augustine is a thorn in the side of those who would cure the universe once and for all,” Philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain wrote, “he similarly torments critics who disdain any project of human community, or justice, or possibility.”
In lesser known works, Augustine covers a wide range of topics. On the Trinity is arguably his deepest book, in which Augustine became the first theologian to attempt a comprehensive explanation of the Trinity. Many sermons have also survived, where we can read Augustine’s words as a preacher. Finally, Augustine wrote a number of apologetic works, in which he dismantles a variety of heretical views threatening the Church.
Where Should You Start?
I started by highly praising Augustine’s writing, and I want to echo that sentiment here. I encourage you to make a point of reading at least one of his books before this year ends. With that said, I will issue a word of caution: Augustine wrote in an age far different from ours, and his words can be difficult to understand. If you have experience reading philosophy or ancient texts, fear not; but for the rest of us, Augustine–even translated into modern English–can be a difficult author to understand.
For that reason, I recommend picking up a modern English version of Augustine’s Confessions. This particular translation makes Augustine much easier to understand while retaining his beautiful style. American readers can pick up a copy of Augustine’s Confessions at Amazon (as I’m writing this it’s selling for only $5.99). British readers can get it for Kindle or in paperback at Amazon (currently £3.11 for Kindle, and £9.99 for paperback).
With that final recommendation, I’ll leave you with the words of Augustine:
You awake in us a delight at praising You. You made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its place of rest in You. 

Josh, your guest writer

Josh is a twenty-something American, married to a wonderful wife and just finished with law school. This fall, Lord willing, he will begin work as an attorney.
When not working or studying, Josh enjoys spending time with his wife, reading, and writing. At his blog, Quieted Waters, Josh writes to help young Christians meditate on how to honor God in their faith, their jobs, and their marriages.
Tired of writing in third person, let me just say that I would love to hear from you! You can stop by Quieted Waters and say hello or find me on Twitter at @QuietedWaters or on Facebook.
Finally, thank you Anita for the privilege of writing this guest post. Best wishes!
   

A Dream-Crusher or Dream-Nurturer?

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                                                                                     Image Credit
I used to write letters home in rhyming verse when I was 9. My teacher was so charmed with one of them that she submitted it to the school magazine.
I told my father this, delighted. “Oh, it won’t get in.” He said.
I looked at the magazine with trembling fingers when it came out.
And here it was.
He’d look at magazines, and say doubtfully, “I think this writing is better than yours.” But I later got into the same magazines, and my writing was comparable–or better.
Each time I won something, he suggested another goal post. When The Washington Post published a little piece of mine in 1997, he suggested The New York Times. When I won the National Endowment for the Arts award of $20,000, he asked when I’d win a Pulitzer, or was it the Nobel Prize? He meant to encourage, but it caused stress in a time of rejoicing!!
When he heard of a friend of mine starting her Ph.D in her thirties, he said, “She’ll never finish it. She’s too old.”
Instant negativity.
    * * *
One of my daughters has inherited this trait. When a friend made a list of 50 things to do in a summer, she bet her £5 that she couldn’t do them. Admittedly, she also offered her £5 to read the Bible, so I guess the two bets cancelled out.
If she hears someone’s big dreams, she says, “Oh, you are full of yourself.”
She looks at my shelves and says, “Oh, you will never read all those books. You will never watch all those documentaries on DVD.”
    * * *
Whenever I see my parents’ or Roy’s parents weaknesses in our daughters, I get alarmed. How did they get them? Did recessive genes skip a generation, and emerge in them?
Or, shoot, is it environmental? Did they pick up these traits from us?
* * *
Oh, Lord, I do not want to be negative. I want to be positive, hope-filled, grace-filled, a conduit of your word to those in my world.
Show me when I am being negative, and stop me in my tracks.
Give me glimpses of the dreams and destiny you have for others, and help me impart these hope-filled dreams to people.  Help me plant seeds of hope, vision, possibility and destiny in other people.
Let me be a dream-waterer, a dream-nurturer, and never, never a dream-crusher!!

Never Believe the Pronouncements of Theologians if They Conflict with Your Intuitive Moral Sense

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johnpiper

  Never believe pronouncements of theologians if they conflict with your own moral sense.  

I am re-reading John Piper’s extraordinary, honest and remarkably self-analytical account of his racist past.

Jesse Jackson grew up 3 miles across the town from Piper, in Greenville, South Carolina.

Piper writes: Our worlds were so close and yet so far apart. His mother, Helen, loved the same Christian radio station my mother did—WMUU, the voice of Bob Jones University. But there was a big difference. The very school that broadcast all that Bible truth would not admit blacks. And the large, white Baptist church four miles from Jesse Jackson’s home wouldn’t either. Nor would mine.

This was my hometown. And there is no mystery in it as to why a young black man growing up there—or a Martin Luther King growing up in Atlanta a generation earlier—would get his theological education at a liberal institution (such as Chicago Theological Seminary or Crozer Theological Seminary). Our fundamental and evangelical schools—and almost every other institution, especially in the South—were committed to segregation.

Theologians, 50 years ago, were committed to segregation, with a pastiche of Biblical quotes as a theological underpinning!

Treat the pronouncements of theologians with a healthy scepticism.

Encounter Scripture, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit for yourself. 

* * *

Piper goes on, I was, in those years, manifestly racist. At Wheaton, “I was simply disengaged from the wider social and political world. Large things were happening intellectually and spiritually, but they were happening in the furnace of my soul, not in the fires burning in urban America.

His great awakening came at the Urbana Missions Conference in December 1967.

“Warren Webster, general director of the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society and former missionary to Pakistan, answered a student’s question: What if your daughter falls in love with a Pakistani while you’re on the mission field and wants to marry him?

The question was clearly asked from a standpoint of concern that this would be a racial or ethnic dilemma for Webster. (This was four months before Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.) With great forcefulness, Webster said something like: “Better a Christian Pakistani than a godless white American!”
From that moment, I knew I had a lot of homework to do.
The perceived wrongness of interracial marriage had been for me one of the unshakeable reasons why segregation was right.

* * *

Piper goes on to Fuller Seminary where he writes a paper on inter-racial marriage which he summarises, “The Bible does not oppose or forbid interracial marriages but sees them as a positive good for the glory of Christ” for “the imposing figure of Professor Lewis Smedes.

But Smedes (whose writing on forgiveness I love) “hesitates to give a wholehearted affirmation to the goodness of interracial marriage.” “This is a tough question, I think, especially at the present [1971]. It is extremely hard to see the positive effect of specific interracial marriages” was Smedes’ comment on the young Piper’s paper.

Piper concludes sadly, “I doubt that Smedes would talk this way today (he died December 19, 2002). I don’t know.”

* * *

Theology evolves, theologians evolve. Never assent to any theological formulation which contradicts your own intuitive moral sense, and your own intuitive understanding of God or Christ, as based in Scripture.

Learned theologians assented to the crusades, the persecution of the Galileo, the Inquisition, the demonization of the Jews, the witch trials, the enslavement of Africans, the enslavement of the native people in South America, to colonialism, to Jim Crow laws, to segregation.

* * *

And these are some of the theological questions and debates of our day. When does life begin? When a sperm, invisible to the eye, fertilizes an egg, as small as a grain of pepper? Does this barely visible fertilised egg have exactly the same rights as the mother, a college student, who “stooped to folly,” but knows she cannot bring up a baby well; or a rape victim; or a mother at the end of tether with 4 children? Or not?

Or: Can one be homosexual and a Christian?
Or: Are the world’s 1.62 million Muslims, 1 billion Hindus, and 350 million Buddhists automatically going to hell, because they have never been compellingly told of Jesus Christ (or John Calvin, who believed that that was their eternal destination.)

Or: Are women complementary to men (but, essentially unequal, a second-class gender.)

* * *

If we take a historical look at the pronouncements of theologians, probably half of what they say turns out to be just plain wrong, and is overturned in a matter of decades or centuries.

As our understanding of Jesus and the Christian faith and how it plays out in our world evolves, we discount the ideas which are dated, or gained currency because of the neurotic writings of a dominant, magnetic theologian.

And so today, it’s safest, it’s best, for us to engage with Scripture ourselves, to ask Christ to guide us, and to never accept any pronouncements of the theologians of our day which conflicts with our own moral sense and our serious passionate study of Scripture!