Which is better? Simple compliance or wanting to do something based on your character?
Christianity is believed to be just a bunch of rules. I think Jesus takes it deeper, to the level of virtue ethics.
The prophets foretold a new covenant where instead of following an outside law, that law is internalized inside you by God. He turns our bent towards evil to a tendency towards good. (1)
Jesus gives examples of this in the Sermon on the Mount.
An easy one, don’t murder anyone—one of the big ten. However, Jesus says don’t even be mad enough to want someone dead. It’s not so easy now. By this standard, I’m a murderer.
Tim Keller’s Gospel in Life podcast is going through the passage and he says if you even dismiss someone, it’s the same as killing them. You have to listen to it for context.
Our actions have to line up with our underlying intent. Begrudging obedience isn’t obedience. It’s compliance to keep the rules and/or peace.
James, whose book in the Bible draws heavily from the Sermon on the Mount, says, “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (2)
Like the commandment to not commit adultery. Even the desire to have sex with someone other than your spouse is a sin. Intent is once again as bad as action. Fantasizing is in view here, not our natural interest in the other sex.
Is God a buzzkill?
No, what God forbids is destructive outside his boundaries. We should do everything we can to remove the temptation or our triggers.
Keeping in line with virtue ethics, people swear oaths or vows on something other than their own honesty. I’m immediately skeptical if someone says “I swear” or “I promise.”
There’s a movie called Open Range, where one character said if you pay attention, a person will tell you their bad intentions. Why are they promising not to do that?
They just revealed their evil intentions.
Jesus says our “yes” and “no” are enough. If we’re people of integrity, who are always honest and follow through, then people will know when we say something, it will happen.
Like a meme my Uncle Mike posted that said, “I don’t trust words. I even question actions. But I never doubt patterns.”
Do your patterns say you can be trusted?
Theologically, in the passage, our word is all we have. We control nothing else but our actions.
Intent and motives are two sides of the same coin. Later in the Sermon, Jesus spoke about how the Pharisees made a show of how religious they were. It became a lesson in motives. were they trying to please and impress men or God? (3)
Doing good for appearances’ sake gains no reward from God. An Instagram post of you taking a selfie with the homeless man you gave a sandwich to so you can virtue signal and get likes is a good thing on the surface.
The motive of “look at me being a good person” isn’t the right one. What should our reasons be?
Pure, for the pleasure of it and as a response to God’s love. In fact, try to do your good deeds in secret, with no thought of reward.
Christ-followers aren’t supposed to say look at me; we’re to say look at our King, our God. Do things to make God look good; take no credit. “This is from God, He told me to do this.”
Ask yourself, would I still do this if no one was watching?
I heard about this book on a podcast. With my curiosity about the supernatural aspects of Christianity, I had to get it. It even talks about ghosts, something I’ve wondered about. Written by former investigative reporter Billy Hallowell, the book is…
“What is our fascination with the other side?
Join investigative reporter Billy Hallowell as he delves into the strange phenomena of supernatural activity. Themes of demonic possession have overtaken Hollywood, with countless films and TV shows delving into the age-old struggle against evil. Why?
Yet, with so much focus on the topic, there seems to be very little public knowledge and discussion about the real-life nature and reality of demons.
In many foreign countries, however, supernatural activity is often recorded and discussed.
Government officials watch a nine-year-old boy walk up a wall
A sheriff hears a demonic voice over his radio
Doctors witness a child exhibit extra-human strength
It’s no surprise international media took note. Quite often, though, many people remain silent about their experiences or resort to quietly whispering about what they’ve seen, heard, or felt for fear of being labeled insane or crazy.
The truth is, even pastors, priests, and clergy who have observed firsthand accounts of possession and deliverance can succumb to the strange and terrifying effects of intense spiritual warfare.
For people of faith, Playing with Firewill address these core questions:
Are demons active today?
If they do, indeed, exist, what are they? Are they fallen angels? Nephilim?
Can demons inhabit human beings?
If they exist, what can be done to stop them?
Playing with Firewill explore the theological underpinnings surrounding demonic forces. Relying on firsthand accounts, newspaper reports, and Christian experts, Billy Hallowell will take readers through the various views and perspectives surrounding supernatural activity.”
I highlighted a lot in this book. It triggered blog posts. So what did I find so fascinating?
One quote, right off the bat, reminded me of the premise behind CharlesTaylor’s A Secular Age.
“Whether our militant atheist friends, or the village atheist, wants to admit it, most people—even in the West, even in the cultured post-enlightenment technological society West—most people find a materialistic,” the only thing that’s real is what my five senses can detect” worldview, completely unsatisfying.” he said.”
He is Dr. Michael Heiser in an interview with Hallowell.
The book focuses heavily on exorcisms. Like where do demons tend to be?
“Regardless of the debate surrounding claims like Cranmer’s purported infestation, some experts like Pastor Chad Norris do report encountering these issues where locations—not just people—are deeply impacted by the demonic realm.” “What happens is, people cooperate with the demonic on the Earth [and] that draws them into specific locations,” Norris said. When asked if cases similar to Cranmer’s, where people have committed a concentration of evil activity, can cause demons to remain in place, Norris answered affirmatively. Others like the Reverend Benjamin McEntire also spoke about the prevalence of infestation, something that he said is “”extraordinarily common”” and more prevalent than full possession.” I’ve spoken to several exorcists who had very long careers . . . who all said that they dealt with the infestation of places, as a pretty much routine matter” he said,” “but then would only see a handful of cases that would meet the standard of possession over the course of their career as an exorcist.”
Interesting, isn’t it?
“A site that’s been used for pagan worship is another one,” he said. At the same time, if you’re dealing with a location that, let’s say is commonly used for drug deals, I would fully expect there to be something lingering around in that place.” He added that it’s a good idea to “pray through” locations such as hotel rooms, as the activities that unfold there could open doors for spiritual issues to linger.”
“Many pastors and theologians agree that one of the common mistakes people make when they suspect spiritual issues in their homes is to turn to ghost hunters, psychics, and other perceived spiritual experts. McEntire openly warned against this approach. “Many of the people who get involved in that actually do have a background in the occult, and it can actually strengthen the spirit’s hold in the place, he said.”
Don’t call any of the TV shows.
“As we explore these biblical accounts and the ramifications of playing with spiritual fire, Dr. Michael Heiser makes an essential and thought-provoking point worth keeping in mind: the Bible doesn’t necessarily give specific reasons why people become possessed. “We don’t have enough information in the New Testament to know why a person . . . was possessed,” he said. “We’re not really told their story. We’re just sort of confronted with, well, here’s where we wound up.” With that in mind, let’s explore how Jesus repeatedly confronted evil and delivered afflicted people of the demons that were actively impacting and destroying their lives.”
This is getting long, so I have to choose my quotes carefully.
“Spiritually speaking, most theologians and pastors agree that there are many ways in which playing with fire can usher in spiritual darkness. While most agree that full-on demonic possession is a rare phenomenon, it seems the deeper, more prevalent issue is oppression, which can arrive and manifest in a plethora of ways. There are those who are oppressed by darkness, and then there are those who have to fight off darkness because darkness is emerging to distract,” Rodriguez explained. “Darkness may not penetrate, it may not invade, but will attempt to distract.”
Now for my ghost questions. Like what are they? Is the underworld a different vibrational plane we can’t see but share with them?
“Author Ron Rhodes tackled this in his book, The Truth Behind Ghosts, Mediums, and Psychic Phenomena, when he said some mistakenly believe they have encountered ghosts when, in reality, they have communed with something far more sinister. People sometimes genuinely encounter a spirit entity—though not a dead human, Rhodes wrote. “Some people encounter demonic spirits who may mimic dead people in order to deceive the living (see 1 John 4:1; 1 Timothy 4:1–3). Many who claim to have encountered such spirit entities have some prior involvement in the occult.” If we back up a bit, it’s clear that one’s beliefs about what happens after death will have a direct and implicit impact on what he or she thinks about the potential existence of ghosts.”
“Regardless of speculation and debate over the idea or reality of real-life ghosts and hauntings, Wood made a related argument about the demonic realm that he and other experts believe is essential to this discussion. It’s a key tactic of demons to pretend to be someone that has died in order to gain more permission,” he said. “If it is . . . an entity that’s claiming to be a person that’s haunting, you need to treat it as the worst-case scenario. You need to treat it as a demon.” The key takeaway from this discussion is that the Bible definitively tells us there is a spiritual war unfolding and that Satan and his minions exist; the Bible does not, however, speak to the notion that people die and remain behind to haunt. Even in the case of Samuel, he needed to be summoned, and considering the events surrounding Saul and his decision to turn from God, the argument that the Lord simply allowed this contact—an incredibly narrow and rare act—is logically appealing.”
A warning on how culture influences us and the power influencing culture as we start to wrap up.
“Right now, nearly every arena of culture has been touched by spiritual disarray—and that includes the church. Christianity’s once-dominant place in society previously cultivated a scenario in which certain biblical values and perspectives were widely embraced or at least respected, even among atheists, agnostics, or the spiritually apathetic. But with the rapid secularization of culture has come an erosion of those values, as evidenced by the shocking statistics presented earlier in this chapter. Unfortunately, these negative changes are not simply limited to the general culture, as many Christians, too, have become deeply confused when it comes to the gospel, with strange and unbiblical beliefs seeping into the Christian conscience. On a theological level, this confusion is deeply troubling, with many believers shockingly taking their cues from the world around them rather than from Scripture—a world that the Bible tells us has become “blinded.”
“Here’s one startling statistic that should leave us nothing short of gasping for air: according to the Barna Group: “Only 17 percent of Christians who consider their faith important and attend church regularly actually have a biblical worldview” Yes, you read that correctly. Fewer than one in five devout Christians see the world through a clear spiritual lens—one that aligns with the Bible they claim to hold dear.”
The last quote, I promise.
“In addition to potentially causing us to miss some essential parts of the biblical narrative, ignoring the role and power of evil in our world also has other pitfalls, especially when it comes to processing God’s love. Having proper “category” for evil and good is essential to crafting human understanding, as Driscoll noted. “As a church, we need to be willing to have those categories of evil and holiness, because oftentimes God can get blamed for evil that happens if we don’t have those categories,” she said. So, the danger in that is, “Oh, God did this to me or God did that to me,” Driscoll continued, “No, we live in a fallen world with a very real enemy that loves to tempt and steal and kill and destroy, and so to have those categories is very helpful because then we also can have tools, the armor of God in Ephesians 6, to fight against the enemy’s tactics. But if we don’t have those categories, it kind of gets lumped into God, and it’s not him.”
It’s a good book. I only scratched the surface. It’s heavily footnoted, including a story about a woman who was demon-possessed that a local news station in my state covered.
I’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount and reading a lot of Superman comics. Superman is a symbol. Christians are to be examples, salt, and light.
What is a Christian supposed to be and look like?
What am I supposed to look like?
The Beatitudes reflect what we’re supposed to be internally.
We’re supposed to be aware of our spiritual bankruptcy, which causes us to mourn. However, we’ll get to see the Kingdom of God and be comforted.
Our strength is supposed to be controlled. That’s what meek means. We are to hunger and thirst for righteousness and right-standing with God.
We are to be merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers. Not peacekeepers, but makers. Which is hard. It’s active, not passive.
The Fruit of the Spirit is what the world should see. What would you think if you saw someone concerned for you, joyful, at peace, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and has self-control? (Galatians 5:22-23)
I would like to tell you I can check all those boxes. The boxes I can check are only due to the Holy Spirit indwelling me. He gives me my superpowers.
That’s why these are called the fruit of the Spirit. We can’t pull it off on our own for very long.
We could be the ultimate eagle scout, but then it’s nothing if we do good without love. It’s the motivator. It’s a special kind of love.
What if you met someone patient and kind. They were never jealous, boastful, or prideful, or rude. In fact, they put others first and aren’t easily provoked. They didn’t keep track of the times they were wronged.
They rejoiced when right and truth won out over injustice. This person never gave up, never loses faith, was always hopeful, and endured through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
Jesus commands us to love and unselfishly seek the best for one another. (John 15:12)
When we do this, we become a light in the world.
We hide our light by:
Being quiet when we should speak (after getting all sides).
Going along with the crowd.
Denying Jesus.
Letting sin dim our light.
Not explaining our light to others (it’s Jesus in me).
Ignoring the needs of others.
Like Superman is a beacon of hope and light in the comics, every one of us Christ-followers should be light in the real world.
After walking through the evidence, theology, and philosophy of the Bible, I began to look more at the supernatural aspects. A journey I’m still on. I’ve often said we’ve taken the magic out of the world.
Former atheist and investigative reporter, Lee Strobel, investigates to see if it’s gone or if it never left.
“Lee Strobel trains his investigative sights on whether it’s credible to believe God intervenes supernaturally in people’s lives today.
This book starts with an unlikely interview in which America’s foremost skeptic builds a seemingly persuasive case against the miraculous. But then Strobel travels the country to quiz scholars to see whether they can offer solid answers to atheist objections. Along the way, he encounters accounts of healings and other phenomena that simply cannot be explained away by naturalistic causes. The book features the results of exclusive new scientific polling that shows miracle accounts are much more common than people think.
What’s more, Strobel delves into the most controversial question of all: what about miracles that don’t happen? If God can intervene in the world, why doesn’t he do it more often to relieve suffering?”
I have the hard copy, so instead of quotes, I’ll go over the table of contents.
Strobel first interviews Dr. Michael Shermer of Skeptic magazine for the case against miracles. For thirty-four pages, the case is built against them.
Following that is an interview with Dr. Craig S. Keener. Keener wrote a heavily-footnoted two-volume set titled Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. That’s a total of 1,172 pages and 620,000 words.
To say he knows his stuff is an understatement. He makes a case for miracles.
In Part 3, Lee interviews Dr. Candy Gunther Brown and Missionary Tom Doyle on Miracles’ Science and Dreams and Visions.
Part 4 is about the most spectacular miracles. Strobel interviews Dr. Michael G. Strauss about the miracle of creation, the universe, and the planet. Then he interviews my favorite detective, J. Warner Wallace, on the Resurrection.
Then he addresses the difficulties of miracles. The Embarrassed by the Supernatural chapter where he interviews Dr. Roger E. Olson is a good one. In fact, I’ll type this passage on pages 221-222.
“I asked Olson if there’s one word that could summarize why a lot of evangelical Christians seem embarassed by the supernatural.
He gave it some thought and then said, “Respectability.”
“Why that word?” I asked.
“Evangelicals in general are trying to live down our past,” he replied. “We’re very aware of Hollywood’s version of us-the oddball preacher, the phony faith healer, the hypermotivational revivalist, the money-grubbing hypocrite. We want to run from those depictions. We want our neighbors to see us as normal people who aren’t very different from them. We are desperate to fit in.”
“So,” I said, “we divorce ourselves from the supernatural, since it seems odd to the world.”
“That’s right. We want to show that we’re cultured and refined, that we’re not gullible or superstitious, that we’re not like the over-the-top fanatics that our neighbors see on television. In fact,” he added, “my experience is that the richer and more educated evangelicals become, the less likely they are to really expect miracles to happen.”
I’ll say again, it’s an excellent chapter. The next chapter is an interview with Dr. Douglas R. Groothuis on when miracles don’t happen.
He doesn’t speak from a podium but from the trenches. His wife is dying, and her mind is slipping from fibromyalgia. They’re seeking a miracle that hasn’t happened. It’s personal.
That’s the closing interview of the book. I give it 5 stars and wrote this on Goodreads. “Easy to read and very clear. Lee starts by interviewing skeptic Michael Shermer to build a case against miracles. Then he interviews people to build the case for miracles, even touching on when prayers aren’t answered.
I don’t know why I’m ever surprised when people intentionally or unintentionally blow it. We are human, after all. Even a world-famous evangelist can turn out to be a sexual predator.
I’m less concerned with that right now than I am with human nature. The heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it? The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, said that while he watched his country spiral into self-destruction.
Jesus said you will know people by their actions. Some people are really good at hiding the rotten ones. No one is perfectly good.
Let’s time travel and talk to C.S Lewis about human nature. I’ll be quoting from Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters.
Vance: Mr. Lewis, tell me about Christian morality.
C.S Lewis: “People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, ‘If you keep a lot of rules, I’ll reward you, and if you don’t, I’ll do the other thing.’ I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice, you are turning a central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.
And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life, you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature.”
V: Any hope for us?
C.S: “Each has done something to himself which, unless he repents, will make it harder for him to keep out of the rage the next time he is tempted and will make the rage worse when he does fall into it. Each of them, if he seriously turns to God, can have that twist in the central man straightened out again: each is, in the long run, doomed if he will not.
When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less.”
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is to capture a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”
V: Even the little decisions?
C.S: “Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
Even the slightest compromise opens you up to negotiations—a boundary that is unenforced, and as such, not a boundary.
It is fitting, I would say, to pray this dangerous prayer that King David did:
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
What is the number one bestseller in Christian Literature and Art? Is it from a hot new author? Nope.
It’s a book written by an Englishman who gave a series of radio broadcasts during WWII that became a book. A book that has influenced countless people and the go-to recommended reading for Christians.
“Mere Christianity is C.S. Lewis’s forceful and accessible doctrine of Christian belief. First heard as informal radio broadcasts and then published as three separate books – The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality – Mere Christianity brings together what Lewis saw as the fundamental truths of the religion. Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity’s many denominations, C.S. Lewis finds a common ground on which all those who have Christian faith can stand together, proving that “at the center of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks the same voice.”
In the chapter called the Invasion, where Lewis contrasts Christianity with Dualism, he says this:
“The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.
Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.”
Makes going to church feel more dangerous and adventurous, doesn’t it? In other countries, it is dangerous.
In the Perfect Penitent chapter, he writes about repentance in the best way I’ve heard it.
“In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying your sorry, realizing that you’ve been on the wrong track and getting ready to start your life again from the ground floor-that is the only way out of our ‘hole’. This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is what Christians call repentance.”
In the section on morality, Lewis explains why we have moral rules.
“In reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction in the runnong of that machine.”
I’m struggling to find quotes that won’t become articles in themselves. Here’s one on “loving in the Christian sense.”
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.”
In his theology section, I highlighted this quote.
“Once a man is united with God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?”
Later he borrows a parable from George MacDonald that I really enjoy about being a Christian.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of-throwing out a new wing here, putting an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
I’ll end with that quote. This book is vibrant and in-depth. I just barely scratched the surface of its pages. It can be read time and again, and you’ll find something new.
It’s a mere Christianity that all denominations agree with. The hall that connects all the rooms that they stay in. If I were to recommend only one book other than the Bible to a person, it would be Mere Christianity.
I was thinking about credibility and how having it is like having money in a bank account. You add and subtract from it by what you do, say, or post.
Facebook is a great example. If you spam my feed or Messenger with fake news, extremist views, and conspiracy theories, your credibility account is negative.
An occasional one doesn’t put you in the negative. Neither does having a different opinion than me—a lack of fact-checking will.
I get spammed by videos and articles that I ignore. Why? I don’t have the bandwidth to fact-check, work, study, and take care of my family.
Life is more peaceful because of it. Especially after I stopped watching 24/7 news many years ago. I scan Reuters and get email digests from the local paper and Disrn, so I am aware, but I’m not consumed by the information.
Then there are those on my Facebook like Dr. Knott. When she posts, and not that often, it’s long and well thought out. Brian posts quotes from what he is reading (and adds to my to-read pile). Pastor Rod rarely posts, but when he does, it’s either about family or church.
Their credibility accounts are full.
Why is this important?
Suppose you use all your credibility in one area and bankrupt it. In that case, it won’t be taken as seriously when you post something else.
It’s wrapped up in the power of reputation.
You can get canceled for something you said years ago when you were younger and dumber. Employers are looking at social media before they hire people.
I don’t know how well it works for me since a person’s credibility account is based on an individual’s perception. You will still see lots of family pictures, funny memories, memes, and missing person alerts. Occasionally I post a status update.
Once a week, I get serious on Mondays with a blog post. Then on Friday, a book review from the vast well of books I’ve read.
I do have opinions. That’s what my journal is for. If you really want to know, I may have written about it or you can ask me. I’ll probably tell you it’s complicated.
What does your social media feed look like? Is it biased, emotional, full of buzz words, or is it balanced? Full of cats, coffee, and commas like my editor’s?
Would anyone take you seriously? Why should anyone take you seriously?
Consider that before you post, because one post affects the others. It lets people know how well you think things through.
