A serious matter

This was sent to my pastor this week:

I sent this letter to my pastors today. I feel like an idiot.

-Warren

Dear Pastor's,

I am most disturbed and challenged by what I have heard this evening and in
Sunday School about the state of our youth. I have many young people in the
grade school through young adult age among my friends because I have spent
the bulk of my adult life in youth work and because my disability has
prevented the upward mobility typical of men my age.

I have conducted a few surveys on my own since last Sunday and found the
condition of the next generation to be far from restricted to our
congrigation. A general alarm to other congregations may be called for.
Having attended Bible College and made most of my Christian friends in
discipleship situations I tended to gravitate toward, I had assumed that
most children from Christian families were as I observed.

I had as I mentioned noticed a troubling tendency of other teachers over the
past twenty five years to use canned fluffy devotional material for Sunday
School lessons. I also noticed some ignorance on their part of Biblical
issues I had always considered a given.

so as I taught, I tended to assume that the kids from that "Christian"
background had the basics of the Christian faith down. I will not rest well
tonight feeling I was gravely mistaken and that I may have betrayed some
people I love very much. No wonder my life is filled with people ranging
from high school age to my age who have simply stopped going to Church. I
am meeting with a young person from a former church I have known since age
13. He reports having stopped attending Church because there is nothing
worth hearing and though a gifted academician, can not defend the Deity of
Jesus Christ. He was never taught. Had I ever been his Sunday School
teacher, I would have assumed he could have at least defended all the points
of the Apostle's Creed. I did lead a couple of young ones to Christ during
that experience because God located me in a situation where my role was
obvious and in His Sovereignty saw to the matter. But it never occurred to
me that the Churched kids needed the same.

HERE IS A FACT for you. When I was a teen, my church singled out two high
school students for discipleship one on one with a youth worker. Both of us
walk with Christ now. I am what I am and Colonel Todd is a chaplain in the
air force. Most of the Bible majors I can think of in my graduating class
at Nyack had similar opportunities. The rest are largely unchurched and a
few are nominal attendance only Christians who do not have devotions at home
any more than they check on their blind friend in illness or poor weather.
How in the world could I have been so blind, no pun intended. God has
trimmed the three churches I attended since 1988 from the tree and I didn't
even notice!

Remember all the postings on my blog about the dangers of the seeker
sensitive movement? Today's kids were raised by parents discipled in seeker
friendly churches. I am such a moron! My generation came of age during the
seeker friendly era with only a few of us holding true to the Bible. The
rest? Gone with the wind.

I wonder if there is a curriculum available from a good source designed to
disciple the new believer beyond answering the question "how does this
passage make you feel?" You know what I said the last time I was asked that
question. Christianity is not based on feeling, but on historical fact.
Our denomination must have something, or do we just jump from "how does this
passage.." to seminary in one jump. The last generation was raised on
catechisms and I thought that was an error because there were a few fruit
cakes on the shelf. The catechism's certainly did not save my parent's or
grandparent's souls. But again, walking away from the Bible was not the
solution. How many people in our congrigation are older than us and how
many are younger? And which age group is proportionally larger in the
population?

I am minded to search high and low for good curriculum and know of several
from my formal education and prior to that date. Failing that, I am minded
to humanize the Heidelberg Catechism and Berkhoff. My Bible degree was
largely taught from lecture notes which were distributed by the professor or
purchased at the seminary book store for a nominal price. I have those
notes, the ability to replicate and adjust them. They have printed waivers
on their front cover. I have the ability to throw together one excellent
curriculum appropriate to the Junior High level and up fairly quickly.
Tailored lessons would take a little more time.

I think discipleship classes should be offered to all ages but produced with
future Church leaders in mind. The fact that these classes are more
advanced in nature should be made plainly evident. Come planning to be
serious. Leaders should be ready to answer hard questions. The books
available from the various publishers are not inexpensive, but they are far
more valuable than new building projects. And since revisionist "theology"
took hold about the time the seeker sensitive movement started, the older
texts are far less expensive and many are available for free under public
domain. Look at what we can simply download.

Though the Church should always have a open door, the Biblical pattern is
for the Church to equip the believer and the believer is to reach the world.
I made four solid attempts at sharing the Gospel last week and I am just a
second hand used Sunday school teacher purchased in the tacky section of the
Good Will store. How many people at our Church or in the Churches of this
town can claim that?

I hope our congrigation might burry me some day. But. I don't want that
Church to consist of fifty people sitting in a building which can seat a
thousand while listening to sermons that make them feel good and thinking
about how pretty daisies are. AGAIN the secret to Church growth,
evangelism, personal growth and the survival of Christendom as a meaningful
movement is not to draw closer to sin, be more sensitive to the differing
beliefs of others and to become more like the world. The secret is to draw
closer and closer to Biblical teaching and send thoroughly equipped
believers out into a lost world. The Church is open to all, but charged
with growing believers who are in turn to reach the world with the Gospel
and minister to the world in the Lordship of Christ. Just a few thoughts.

Don't expect a big crowd when the discipleship class is announced. But my
home is available.. As am I. Let's not conflict with the excellent
programs we do have. Serious discipleship takes more than one or two hours
per week. How many empty class rooms do we have on Friday evenings? Let's
give a try at filling them.

Your brother in Christ,

Warren McClendon

Against Hypocrisy

Against Hypocrisy

"Any time you point your finger at another human being to condemn, any time
you expect another to hold you in high esteem and any time you assert
yourself as the superior of another, that is the Pharisee in you" -A
Methodist

Matthew Chapter 23

13 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut
the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not
enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. 14]
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour
widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Therefore you will be
punished more severely.>}
15 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have
succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple,
it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound
by that oath.' 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple
that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar,
it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by
that oath.' 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that
makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears
by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears
by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven
swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the
more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You
should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You
blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and
self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and
dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the
inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the
same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside
you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30
And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not
have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31 So you
testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who
murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors
started!

The Pharisees- (Latin: pharisæ|us, -i; from Hebrew - ?????? perushim/????
parush, meaning "set apart"[1]) were at various times a political party, a
social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple
period under the Hasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE) in the wake of the Maccabean
Revolt.
Conflicts between the Pharisees and the Sadducees took place in the context
of much broader and longstanding social and religious conflicts among Jews
dating back to the Babylonian captivity and exacerbated by the Roman
conquest. One conflict was class, between the wealthy and the poor, as the
Sadducees included mainly the priestly and aristocratic families[2][3]
Another conflict was cultural, between those who favored hellenization and
those who resisted it. A third was juridico-religious, between those who
emphasized the importance of the Temple against others who emphasized
Mosaic law and Jewish traditions among other teachings. fourth conflict,
specifically religious, involved different interpretations of the Bible (or
Tanakh), and how to apply the Torah to Jewish life, with the Sadducees
recognizing only the written letter of the Tanakh or Torah and rejecting
life after death, while the Pharisees held to Rabbinic interpretations
additional to the written texts. The contemporary historian Josephus in
"The Jewish struggle" indicates that the Pharisees received the backing and
goodwill of the common people, apparently in contrast to the more elite
Sadducees. Pharisees claimed prophetic or Mosaic authority for their
interpretation[4] of Jewish laws, while the Sadducees represented the
authority of the priestly privileges and prerogatives established since the
days of Solomon.

The problem of hypocrisy is one of those fundamental human traits which has
existed since the dawn of civelization Hypocrisy is the state of pretending
to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, standards or
practices that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception
of others and is thus a kind of lie. Though only one of many sins,
hypocrisy is particularly offensive when found in the caricter of spiritual
leaders, parents, and those perceived as being professional because society
tends to hold such individuals to a higher standard.

In His ministry, Jesus Christ returned repeatedly to the woe begotten state
of the hypocrite. The offenses he enumerated in our passage are stated
plainly enough. There were those who portrayed righteousness while
indulging in all varieties of sin. There were those who prescribed work and
failed to live by that standard. There were those who liked to make a show
of themselves at the expense of those less privileged. And thusly, they
asserted spiritual authority they lacked. To be a hypocrite is therefore in
the eyes of Christ and the rest of us to be slightly below a common liar.

But backing up just a little, a minister once observed that hypocrisy is a
sin common to one extent in each and every one of us. Psychologically
speaking, there is the difference between the projected self and the actual
self, which is a generally accepted paradigm. And it can not be said to be
hypocritical to teach against a flaw one has overcome. In one popular
commercial, an individual portraying a father confessed he was a hypocrite.
He said "No, I am not a vegetarian who wears leather shoes". He said he was
in fact a recovered drug addict who was advising his wayward son to avoid
precisely that flaw. He later said that to "help your child with his
problem, you first have to get over yours." One can envision a son
accusing his father of hypocrisy in that situation and effectively shaming
that father in the process. But the father in that situation actually
needed to deal with the fact he was not a hypocrite, but an elder who had
learned wisdom from mistakes of the past.

In the past, I have argued that the "seeker sensitive" movement contemporary
to the Churches of today was proving to have been a mistake. If the Church
can not be distinguished from the rest of the world, why go to Church? And
furthermore, how can a Christian grow if they do not have the opportunity to
receive uniquely Christian teaching while in Church? I have also argued
against political involvement. The Bible teaches that human beings lack the
ability to follow the Law of Grace in Christ without knowing Christ Himself,
so why try to force Christian law on those who lack even the ability to
follow that law?
It would be better to promote the Gospel of Christ and thereby enable the
society to obey the Law of Grace and to stand ground only in those
circumstances which inhibit that Gospel or endanger the innocent, the poor,
the widows and the sick, about whom Christ was quite concerned. But
regardless of the position one takes, one's credibility is thoroughly
neutralized if one is perceived as a hypocrite. And I am afraid that the
tendency of the Church toward that particular sin will eventually be it's
undoing.

The contemporary Christian vocalist called "Carmen" once stated that "The
chief cause of atheism today is Christians, who claim Christ with their
words, but deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world
simply finds unbelievable." I fear that this entertainer and minister was
right on the target. Christians today have fallen so far into this sin that
they have made themselves the laughing stock of not only the world, but
themselves as well.

During my early days as a follower of Christ, an elder of some public
notoriety was delivering a otherwise effectual speech on proper invitations
to Church. He recommended various remedies to the objections the unchurched
tend to raise. A buffet was prescribed for those who would rather eat
breakfast, a excuse from the pastor was given for those who would otherwise
work, a cot was suggested as a sleeping accommodation for those who liked to
sleep in. At that point the congrigation was snickering. But when the idea
of issuing a pen and paper to those who objected to the hypocrisy of the
Church, thusly enabling the guest to "count all the hypocrites", the
congrigation broke into hysterical laughter. The proposed solution to "not
allow the hypocrisy of others to inhibit one's own spirituality" met with
hearty approval. While that might have been a solid piece of advice, The
arrogant disregard for the teaching of the Bible bordered on blasphemy. As
a very young Christian, it took me years to figure out why I was so
scandalized. This man was actually teaching that Christians are hypocrites
and the rest of you need to deal with it.

And nothing, absolutely nothing could be further from the intent of Jesus
Christ. From Matthew 23: 13-29, Christians are taught to avoid the
accusation of hypocrisy by not being hypocritical. And this is not to
suggest that a Christian aught not to sin, though that is also a very good
idea, it is to say that a Christian aught not to assert themselves as
something they are not. The Bible teaches that not even Christians, not one
single human soul on this earth other than Christ Himself has been without
sin. So if we come across as having a "messiahnic" self assessment, a
"holier than thou" attitude, or think of ourselves as spiritual giants, who
in the world do we think we are kidding? Such individuals are failing to
impress the world, if demographics hold true. That attitude certainly does
not impress God, who sees the attitude of the heart. It is frankly hard to
understand how such an attitude could even deceive the perpetrator
themselves.

The solution is also so very simple. All Christians need do is simply be
honest. Let the Christian be the first to confess sin. Christians are no
different than others except in one very special way. A Christian is a
sinner who has been forgiven and has accepted that free gift of forgiveness
and decided they would rather follow Christ than sin. So let us confront
the accusation of hypocrisy as Christ intended, with honesty and repentance.
Do we have a problem with lying? Admit it as a serious failing. Are we
drunken? Seek help from others with meekness and humility. Are we a
preacher who is known for stinginess? Then apologize and start giving a
little. Are we adulterous? Then walk away from it and advise against the
destructive behavior based on experience. And finally, do we wish to be
thought of as spiritual, a leader, a first class Christian? Then humble
ourselves as though we were the lowest of servants, as though we were
helpless children, as though we were not learned, as though we were owed
absolutely nothing and were concerned only for the cause of Christ. And we
aught not to simply appear as humble, we rightly ought to actually be
humble. It is humility and repentance that Christ and the world expect of
the Christian, so give it to them. God is Sovereign and He alone will
reward as reward is due. It is simply time for Christians to start being
honest and looking at themselves with sober judgment (Romans 12:3) while
openly demonstrating that this is their stance. And my friends, THAT kind
of openness and honesty is impressive both to God and man. That kind of
honesty will change our lives. And that kind of honesty will win souls. So
this trait of open honesty is that for which we must strive.

Moral suspension of the ethical

Moral suspension of the ethical
Thoughts on faith in the context of the moral and the ethical

"Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" -Philippians
2:12
Read: Genesis 22: 1-18

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855) was a profound
and prolific writer in the Danish "golden age" of intellectual and artistic
activity. His work crosses the boundaries of philosophy, theology,
psychology, literary criticism, devotional literature and fiction.
Kierkegaard brought this potent mixture of discourses to bear as social
critique and for the purpose of renewing Christian faith within Christendom.
At the same time he made many original conceptual contributions to each of
the disciplines he employed. He is known as the "father of existentialism",
but at least as important are his critiques of Hegel and of the German
romantics, his contributions to the development of modernism, his literary
experimentation, his vivid re-presentation of biblical figures to bring out
their modern relevance, his invention of key concepts which have been
explored and redeployed by thinkers ever since, his interventions in
contemporary Danish church politics, and his fervent attempts to analyze and
revitalize Christian faith.

Kierkegaard wanted to understand the anxiety that must have been present in
Abraham when "God tempted [him] and said to him, take Isaac, your only son,
whom you love, and go to the land of Mariah and offer him as a burnt
offering on the mountain that I shall show you." Abraham had a choice to
complete the task or to forget it. He resigned himself to the three and a
half day journey and to the loss of his son. "He said nothing to Sarah,
nothing to Eliezer-who, after all, could understand him, for did not the
nature of temptation extract from him a pledge of silence? He split the
firewood, he bound Isaac, he lit the fire, he drew the knife Because he kept
everything to himself in hiddenness he "isolated himself as higher than the
universal."

Kierkegaard says, "Infinite resignation is the last stage before faith, so
anyone who has not made this movement does not have faith, for only in
infinite resignation does an individual become conscious of their eternal
validity, and only then can by this virtue become a knight of faith. He
spoke about this kind of consciousness in an earlier book. "There comes a
moment in a person's life when immediacy is ripe, so to speak, and when the
spirit requires a higher form, when it wants to lay hold of itself as
spirit. As immediate spirit, a person is bound up with all the earthly life,
and now spirit wants to gather itself together out of this dispersion, so to
speak, and to transfigure itself in itself; the personality wants to become
conscious in its eternal validity. If this does not happen, if the movement
is halted, if it is repressed, then depression sets in.

Hebrews 11: 1,2 Biblical faith -FAITH IS A CERTAIN HOPE OR EXPECTATION THAT
GOD WILL DELIVER WHAT He has promised. "what we hope for" stated in the
Greek word "elpizomenon" refers to a sure hope or expectation
Notice that faith infers a certain hope corroborated by the word "certain"
in the next phrase, in what an individual accepts as true: the promise that
God will deliver one to eternal life or from temporal difficulties as the
context indicates. More precisely, FAITH IS A CERTAIN ACCEPTANCE AS TRUE
THAT GOD WILL DELIVER WHAT HE HAS PROMISED

According to Kierkegaard, Once Abraham became conscious of his eternal
validity he arrived at the door of faith and acted according to his faith.
In this action he became a knight of faith. In other words, one must give
up all his or her earthly possessions in infinite resignation and must also
be willing to give up whatever it is that he or she loves more than God.

Question: Compare Kierkagaard's concept of faith with the Biblical faith
stated here. Is the difference the focus of the person with faith or the
individual in which faith is placed? Could both be valid?

Over the millennia since the dawn of recorded history, human beings by their
very nature have questioned the exact nature of right and wrong. There are
those who hold to situational ethics, believing that the right and wrong are
largely dictated by the present circumstances. There are also those who
hold to a higher morality. The problem with an absolute morality is that
the right and the wrong are defined by a higher authority and given in
documentary form.

In terms of civil law, there is always the tension between the law as
written and the law as intended. Judges spend hours scrutinizing
constitutions and other high laws of the land in an effort to determine the
validity of a newly proposed legislation or regulation. Judges and juries
compare various questions of behavior, contract and intention with the
standards set forth in writing and try to render a fair judgment.

Question: Given the simplicity of situational ethics and the complexity of
moral standards, is it possible that an ethical approach to life is superior
to a moral approach to life? Under what circumstances would either approach
to decision making and social guidance faille and under what circumstances
would such systems tend to serve well?

When the concept of a Divine revelation dictates the right and the wrong,
the stakes of one's judgments as to the nature of those rights and wrongs
become more crucial as they then carry at least the potential of Divine
judgment and reward. In realization of the consequences of the revelation
of a Holy and Just God, The Bible does not teach in any way that individuals
absolutely must pay for the morally wrong, as all would fail the test.
Rather, The Bible simply asks that the individual accept a substitutionary
sacrifice of the Holy in payment for the wrongdoings of the individual,
understanding a simple desire on the part of that individual to follow God
instead of the ways of the world. In other words, have faith in Christ and
repent. Jesus Christ paid the price for sin. By accepting the payment for
sin's penalty and turning one's back on sin in preference to following
Christ, the soul is saved.

Question: In what ways was God's request of Abraham to offer his only son
Isaac as a burnt offering reminiscent of the offering of Christ on the
Cross? In what ways did the two differ? Compare the surrendering of the
self to Christ in faith to the offering of Isaac to God in faith.

Søren Kierkegaard outlined in his signature work "fear and Trembling:
Repetition" his thoughts on the struggles and actions which must have
transpired in the minds of and between Abraham and his beloved son Isaac as
they approached the moment of absolute sacrifice to God. Abraham's faith
faced challenges far more complex than the loss of his only son. The
offering required of him was by The God he had served his entire life and in
whom he had every reason to place faith and trust.

Now this offering tested the love of Abraham's son verses his love for his
god. The faith in that God must have been shaken for multiple reasons.

Question: Throughout Holy writ God stated repeatedly his command that no
person kill another. There are those modern scholars who would point out
that this law does not include killing in defense of the innocent such as in
home defense or military service. But then again, there are those who can
argue quite effectively that the ban on killing is absolute. There are
Christian denominations that adopt pacifism. In fact, killing is so
abhorant, that there are non religious pacifists. Was god within His rights
to require the killing of Isaac?

And then there is the troubling matter of Abraham failing to tell Isaac the
truth about the offering when the question was raised. While the answer
Abraham gave was quite true; God had provided the offering, it is doubtful
Isaac knew that he himself was to be offered. After all, he did ask where
the offering would come from.

Question: Did Abraham sin by failing to tell Isaac the entire truth and
thereby allow him to believe a lie?
Are there circumstances in which a lie is justifiable? Is this true
Biblically?

In the end run, Kierkegaard did in fact conclude that there is a Moral
suspension of the ethical. Where we as human beings might think a specific
action or belief as unethical in our human context, God is the originator of
the moral, being the author of Scripture. So while a human perspective an
action or belief might seem wrong, the fact that the action or belief fits
into a Divine plan justifies it. God told us it is wrong to kill, yet
destroyed Jericho and caused the great flood.

ON a more personal level, common sense tells us that the individual should
bear the responsibility for one's own behavior. But god forwent this human
conception of justice when Jesus Christ was offered as a sacrifice for the
payment of human sin. He states rather plainly through the new and old
testament that this was necessary because God's justice demanded atonement
for sin and yet His love demanded that humans be saved for a relationship
with Him. So everything ties neatly in this concept. By in faith accepting
God's moral suspension of the ethical on the part of the individual, the
individual secures a relationship with God in the person of Jesus Christ.
The individual accepts that God in his moral perrogative suspended his
ethical right to protect His only Son and thereby secured the salvation of
those He loved so dearly.

Questions: Can you think of other examples where people are asked to suffer
injustice for a greater good as Abraham did?

Abraham's faith demanded obedience of him, though he must certainly have
been mystified by what God had demanded of him. If Abraham could make such
a sacrifice and God having thusly been foreshadowed could sacrifice his only
begotten son, Is it reasonable for us to surrender to the lordship of
Christ and accept the offer of salvation despite the consequences that might
occure?

What could be considered contemporarily unethical about following Christ,
and is that suspension of the ethical justified?

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaarhttp://plato.stanford.edu/entr
ies/kierkegaard/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling

http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Trembling-Repetition-Kierkegaards-Writings/dp/069
1020264

http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/believe.htm